Growing up with a dad who is a self-confessed petrol head with a penchant for anything fast, Winiata Reid was always going to end up with some cool rides. At just 23-years-old his roll call of previously owned cars reads like a wish list for many of us, yet we get the feeling this is just the beginning.

With dad encouraging him all along, not to mention setting the benchmark with his nine-second street car among others in his collection, Winiata’s rides have been getting better and better, and when the opportunity to purchase this HQ came up he jumped at it. Although he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty himself, the HQ was already up and running, and couldn’t be built for the price the seller was asking.

Like Winiata, the previous owner of the HQ has had a bunch of very cool cars over the years, and seems to pump out another stunner around once every 12 months or so. With full-on business commitments, he hired HQ guru Carl Johnson to build the majority of the vehicle and manage all other aspects, and what a job Carl’s done.

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The annual NAC Insurance sponsored Drag Combat took place yesterday at Fram Autolite Dragway, and we’re happy to say it was a huge success. While competitor numbers were down, the quality of the cars competing more than made up for it.

The race format of categorising vehicles based solely on tyre size worked well and saw many very close match-ups.

We’ve already put the full article on the event to print, and it will be with subscribers at the end of this week, and in stores on Monday. If you can’t wait that long, check out this gallery of pics from the day.

Monday 6th February (Waitangi Day) will see Fram Autolite Dragway come alive to the sound of Supercharged V8′s, turbocharged imports and door to door racing.

The first event of its kind, Drag Combat sees competing vehicles catagorised by tyre size rather than traditional race class. This will see Top Doorslammers head to head with Top Alcohop Funny Cars, sedans verus rails and turbos versus nitrous oxide.

Another New Zealand first is the Champion Oils wheelstand competition, which will see the wheels in the air for as long as possible as drivers push to win the $2000 cash prize.

Make sure you’re at Fram Autolite Dragway this Monday to catch the action.

This year’s NZ Festival of Motor Racing, held at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, celebrated the 40th anniversary of BMW motorsport in New Zealand. Spectators were treated to a visual extravaganza, with cars – many worth more than your house – racing around the track, vying for the top spot.

The F5000′s were a drawcard, as were the Group A and Historic Touring Cars of the late ’80s and ’90s (bring back memories of the Wellington Street Race, anyone?). Couple that with the first round of the Historic Muscle Cars, combined with pre-’78 saloons and GTs, and you couldn’t ask for more.

As with previous years, even patchy weather couldn’t put a damper on this two-weekend event (held 21-22 Jan and 28-29 Jan). This is one awesome event at a great venue, so make sure you get along to it next year!

Over the last few days we’ve popped into a couple of workshops that are flat out preparing V8 SuperTourers for the first test day on 10th Feb.
Although the cars are essentially a giant kit set, there’s still plenty of work to be done to assemble them.

The pics below are from AV8, which is where Andy Booth’s car along with young up and coming driver André Heimgartner’s.

Announcements about the sponsors for these vehicles will be coming shortly. In the mean time, the cars are a blank canvas.

Birkenhead V8 race driver Angus Fogg achieved multiple goals at the BNT V8s series fourth round held near Timaru, winning two of the three races in the Radio Sport Ford Falcon, winning the round and bettering his previous lap record.

Relieved after surviving a chequered weather weekend at the Timaru International Motor Raceway, 44-year-old Fogg has also extended his lead in the six round series to 76 points over second placed Jason Bargwanna.

“We pretty much achieved it all didn’t we,” said Fogg after collecting an extensive collection of weekend trophies.

“Didn’t quite get the race two perfect but it was pretty close to being the perfect weekend with two wins and a second. The car in the last race was just unbelievable – like it was on rails. It was just so consistent it made everything look easy but it obviously wasn’t as there were 22 laps of hard sweat, guts and work behind the scenes. But it’s good to now have a lead that means we can now drop a race and still be in contention.

“With six races to go anything can happen and we’re just hoping we can pull it off with a title win.”

Setting fastest time in Saturday’s qualifying around the 2.4km circuit; Fogg then collected a further 75 championship points in the afternoon race after winning by a margin of 5.118 seconds.

His fastest lap time of 1min06.331 put him under his previous best of 1min06.57, a lap record that he set in January 2009.

The weekend’s second race, held early Sunday afternoon, followed heavy rain through the area, leaving the track ‘like ice’ in places. Starting from the rear of the field in the reverse-grid 12-lapper, Fogg cautiously lay in wait as he paused for passing opportunities. Taking the chequered flag in second place, the unscathed car left the team with minimal preparation for the afternoon finale.

From pole position for the 22-lap race, Fogg held the advantage through the tricky right-left essess off the start straight, streaking off in to the distance. Even with a compulsory pit-stop wheel-change during the race, Fogg’s team maintained his advantage, allowing him to press on and achieve a 22 second winning margin.

Fogg’s impressive results also made him the benefactor for the annually awarded Ernie Sprague Memorial Trophy for the highest placed Ford V8 for the weekend.

Following the back-to-back V8 race weekends, the team now return to Auckland in preparation for the series penultimate round mid-February at Manfeild in the Manawatu.

Fogg acknowledges his family of sponsors in his quest to win the Gold Star Saloon car title: Radio Sport, Mountshop, Hydraulink Hose & Fittings, Supercharge Batteries, Segedins Auto Spares of Dominion Road, Strapping Systems (NZ) Ltd, Moselle Panel & Paint, Tom Ryan Cartage, PPG, Affordable PartsWorld, HIAB Services, Delo, Brenics Transport Ltd, iSign it, Fromm Packaging Systems, Mason Tool & Engineering, Stainless Welding and Invercargill Oil Shop.