Kiwi motorsport legend Ken Smith is aiming to enter a team in the next BNT V8 SuperTourers championship, starting at Taupo on September 27-28.
The Aucklander, who is preparing for his 57th consecutive season of motor racing, says the BNT V8 SuperTourers are the pinnacle of New Zealand motorsport, the place where the top drivers are competing.
He is working with fellow racer Andrew Higgins to complete sponsorship deals to set up a one-car team under the banner of Ken Smith Motorsport, probably based on the North Shore. While Smith will not race the car himself, he is looking forward to having a crack in it at a test day.
Young Kiwi drivers aspiring to a career in motor racing now need to focus on touring cars rather than single-seaters, Smith says.
“That’s especially if you’re looking to get into the Aussie V8 Supercars,” he says. “If you can drive a V8 SuperTourer you can drive an Aussie V8, there’s not much difference really.”
Smith himself has always concentrated on racing single-seaters rather than “tin-tops” and has won the New Zealand Grand Prix three times, but he says times have changed. For example, the BNT V8 SuperTourers and the V8 Supercars both have proper racing chassis, rather than being modified road cars.
“People like the V8s, they’re good to drive, they’re good value and they’ve got a lot better over the years,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with driving a tintop now.”
Trying to race single-seaters overseas is now just too expensive for Kiwis as the professional teams demand huge amounts of money to take on a driver.
“Picking drivers on talent, like Scott Dixon, it doesn’t work now — money beats talent,” Smith says.
At this stage Smith and Higgins have not decided whether to race a Holden Commodore or a Ford Falcon, but Smith says that for their first season they would probably bring in a name Australian driver.
“From a publicity stance you probably need an Aussie driver,” he says. “They’re happy to do it because it’s milage for them. They think the cars are good.”
Smith and fellow Aucklander Higgins both race in Formula 5000 – fast historic cars with five-litre V8s – where Higgins is the current champion and Smith a former one.
Higgins, who earlier raced in Formula Ford and the Toyota Racing Series, says he is keen to get involved in modern racing again.
“We’ve looked at V8 SuperTourers on and off since it’s been going,” he says. “We were talking about it at the Pukekohe V8 Supercar meeting, and talking to a few other people, and we had a chat and said let’s put it together.
“We’ve been working pretty hard on it for the last two months.”
The pair hope to announce soon that the project is definitely going ahead.
