How to get junior road racers noticed for MotoGP?

[Billy]

It's an absolute waste of time and effort unless we can start developing riders here first. At the moment there is no cohesion between clubs, between clubs and MNZ, no defined development path or even half decent competition for promising young racers. There is also very little outside investment/sponsorship as result of the low profile of our sport so Mum/Dad and/or Rider are soon outta money and outta the sport. Until these things change you are pissing in the wind.

Dreaming of a kiwi team or rider on the world stage is all very well, but there needs to be wholesale changes in the sport here, building blocks in place to develop the sport and develop riders to reach the goal. Without a plan and good execution of the plan you are just hoping for the best which isn't going to get you very far. Our national junior competition is barely comparable to club level in Spain/Europe so to pitch an underdeveloped club level racer against the international level racers over there and expect good results is just unrealistic.

Absolutely right Spud,

The good folks at MCC worked that out quite sometime ago and are starting too reap the benefits,Until the clubs from the pig island start following their lead and stop catering to post classic and 30+ year olds to fill the grids instead of promoting and coaching the juniors at an acceptable level,Until that changes and the experts stop interferring with the systems already in place the future isnt likely to get any brighter,Theres a good set up in place,It just needs everybody to use it instead of promoting their own interests.Once everybodys on the same page and working together it can then be extended to include the 125GP machines and so on!!!

The roadrace commission at MNZ will do everything it can too help implement a junior development program,But its up to the clubs to foster the sport by supporting such projects,Is your club doing this?If you dont think they are,Approach them and ask why,If that doesnt work,Then get yourself on the committee and do whatever it takes to change things,But be warned,Its not as easy as typing on a computer keyboard.

[CHOPPA]

Absolutely right Spud,

The good folks at MCC worked that out quite sometime ago and are starting too reap the benefits,Until the clubs from the pig island start following their lead and stop catering to post classic and 30+ year olds to fill the grids instead of promoting and coaching the juniors at an acceptable level,Until that changes and the experts stop interferring with the systems already in place the future isnt likely to get any brighter,Theres a good set up in place,It just needs everybody to use it instead of promoting their own interests.Once everybodys on the same page and working together it can then be extended to include the 125GP machines and so on!!!

The roadrace commission at MNZ will do everything it can too help implement a junior development program,But its up to the clubs to foster the sport by supporting such projects,Is your club doing this?If you dont think they are,Approach them and ask why,If that doesnt work,Then get yourself on the committee and do whatever it takes to change things,But be warned,Its not as easy as typing on a computer keyboard.

I have to agree regarding MCC, there events are always top notch as well. Im really looking forward to the national round

[slowpoke]

Come up with an intelligent plan then Slowpoke, you are very good at high lighing the so called problems within our sport, BUT where is your intelligent plan of how to fix the problem

It is to easy o just sit back and knock everything Mt

Sorry if I came across negative mate, but we have to be realistic, co-ordinated and focused, things we aren't at the moment. By focused I mean decide what we want to achieve. My opinion is that improving the local scene will benefit everyone and will help produce more and better young racers. Just plucking out one young talent and throwing lots of money at them doesn't help produce more young talent or help everyone else. Which is why I said we need to fix things at home before worrying too much about helping out one individual.

Want some ideas? Personally I don't think we can compete with the GP125/Moto3 racer production lines in Europe and should concentrate on fostering a path through the ranks of Supersport/Superbike. We've got Oz on our doorstep, with great levels of competition, world class tracks, and proven path's to WSBK/AMA/BSB/IDM/MotoGP etc, and the ability to live/work in NZ and not have to relocate.....yet it's virtually ignored. If you can win there you have proven you can be competitive almost anywhere.

I'd explore ways of rewarding our championship winners with an entry to an ASBK event, give people something tangible to race for. Maybe reward the winners with a fully paid trip and partially/proportionately subsidise the place getters?

I'd establish a clear direction and mentoring through the ranks, with the aim of concentrating the best riders into Supersport/Superbike rather spread across everything with 2 wheels as they are at the moment.

Yup, guys like Sketchy are freaks but success on a 600 doesn't carry half the weight of success on a Superbike when talking to overseas teams so they need to be encouraged/aided in making the transition ASAP to continue climbing the learning curve.

Instead we have the situation where Scott Moir/Jamie Rajek, a very promising team who could really go places, rock up to a club event with their new superbike and get half the track time of Joe Citizen going nowhere on his/her post-classic/BEAR's/600. Craig Shirriffs, Choppa, Sketchy, Rhys Holmes were at the same meeting and everyone could have benefited from the competition and time on track with high quality opposition....instead Craig and Scott are left pulling their pud's 'cos they are riding dirty jappa's. What screwed up priorities and what a way to reward the distributors backing our NZSBK series.

Easy to just sit back and knock everything? Here's a copy of a letter I sent out to AMCC, PMCC, Vic Club, MNZ, Kiwirider magazine back in June highlighting an issue with some suggestions to correct it. Lets just say the response has been fairly underwhelming (only Greg Percival from AMCC gave any substantial feedback)....with absolutely no repsonse at all from MNZ Road Racing Commission. They say choose you battles, and as an old slow late starter with no connections or hi profile or time to devote to it I can't win this one, so I've pretty much given up on club racing and just wait for summer.

Hello fellow motorcycle racing enthusiasts,

Below is an open letter addressing an issue that has long caused me frustration....and which will no doubt have many of you rolling your eyes, lol.

I apologise in advance if it causes any offence, for none was intended. I am more than happy to acknowledge that you guys are the life blood of our sport, with your actions speaking louder than any words, actually doing what others only talk about. What follows in no way takes away from what you are doing and what you have achieved, it is simply highlighting one area in which I think a step change can be made to eventually improve things for everyone. Admittedly it may take some time for the improvements to filter down but if there is an opportunity for improvement my feeling is we should take it.

Any consideration of the matter and feedback would be very much appreciated.


An open letter to New Zealand Motorcycle Road Racing Enthusiasts

Picture this: The All Blacks are gone…….consigned to history……extinct. We are reduced to a struggling national competition with barely a single young player capable of playing at international level. And nobody seems the least bit concerned.

That’s the situation we find ourselves in if you apply the analogy to the New Zealand road racing scene. Think of (in no particular order) Anderson, Molloy, Newcombe, Perry, Turner, Crosby, Hiscock, Woodley, Holden, Avant, Scott, Crafar, Slight, Stroud, Anstey and we could field a pretty handy First XV over the years.

So why has no new talent made the transition on to the World stage for the best part of a decade? More?

Consider that the recent Nationals resulted in the 3 premier classes of Superbike, Supersport and F3 being won by riders over the age of 40 or close to it, and all of whom were past champions, not new talent. Unfortunately this has become the norm not the exception and contrasts markedly with most if not all other countries intense competition forging new champions on a regular basis. Most concerning has been the Superbike class, the stepping stone to an international career, which has long been dominated by the same NZ veterans with no young (sorry Craig) challenger getting within a GSXR’s roar of the Stroud or Bugden juggernauts. Even more worrying is that very few young guns have even tried, thanks to the way nearly all grassroots clubs actively discourage entries into the F1/Superbike class.

Except no clubs seem the least bit worried. Thanks to the cross entry rules most classes except F1 have the luxury of being able to enter 1 and sometimes 2 extra classes, thereby doubling and tripling their track time. So at the recent Victoria M/C Club Winter series round F1 were given the grand total of 25 minutes race time over the course of a day’s racing, while most other classes had the opportunity to do twice and sometimes 3 times that for the cost of minimal cross entry fees. So a 25 year old grey import 400 for example gets twice the track time of the latest 1000cc "halo" bikes from the manufacturers supporting our National Championship. Who in their right mind would race a superbike under that sort of track time disadvantage? And we wonder why spectators and sponsors are so hard to come by?

So at one end of the spectrum we have guys like "Billy" Billington and Pete Jones putting in superhuman efforts to foster young competitors only for many clubs to remove any incentive to progress to the upper echelons once they show some promise. Why would a talented young 600 pilot want to step up to a superbike and effectively halve their track time? How do we expect them to excel under those conditions? Surely we should be enabling competition and progression through all levels of road racing to allow our young talent to compete against and learn from our few remaining local international quality riders? As it stands, the class in our superbike field is concentrated in veterans only an injury or bowls club invitation away from retirement. That the guard will inevitably change with so few riders exposed to the skill and experience of these guys (or the fast "imports" we’ve had over the last few years) is a huge opportunity gone begging.

I am really struggling to think of another sport where NZ is so drastically under represented on the world stage. Even sports outside the main stream such as kayaking, triathlon, rowing, motocross, yachting, cycling, surfing, various car racing disiplines etc etc all manage some international participation and often produce outstanding results. One can imagine the soul searching within any of those camps if this representation and/or success disappeared…….yet no alarm bells seem to be ringing within the road racing community.

So I am writing this open letter in an attempt to highlight what is an extremely distorted NZ racing landscape. I love seeing fast young overseas riders like Chris Seaton, Gareth Jones, Dave Johnson, Damian Cudlin, Chris Peris etc coming to NZ but watching their international careers take off is bittersweet when it highlights our own lack of rider development. Not to mention the opportunities grasped by others that seem outside the realms of possibility for our local talent.

So what to do? Well, considering our nearest neighbour Australia sends an endless stream of young champions on to the World stage we could do a lot worse than to look at the simple systems they have in place. They are obviously doing something very right, as last weekend: Stoner won MotoGP, several riders competed in WSB, Parkes won WSS, Staring competed in World Superstock1000 and Metcher came second in World Superstock600. I could go on about their BSB, AMA, IDM, IOM champions/competitors in various categories but I think we all know their success far outweighs their size.

Alternatively, Motorcycling Canterbury seems to be alone in bucking the general trend and doing good things with their race program (senior and junior capacity based classes that give an equitable amount of track time for all) and has solid competition across the board. It’s not rocket science, doesn’t have to cost a cent, and doesn’t need to be overcomplicated, but something needs to be done to restore the balance. But, as things stand right now, most of our grassroots clubs are exacerbating the problem and unintentionally making a mockery of MNZ’s dictum of "keeping motorcycling safe, fun, and fair."

Thank you in advance for any consideration you give to the matter.

Forwarded to:

Victoria Motorcycle Club

Auckland Motorcycle Club

Pacific Motorcycle Club

MNZ Road Race Comission

Kiwirider magazine

[Billy]

Well Spud,

Its the clubs you need to be pestering not the roadrace commission at MNZ,Their job as volunteers doing up to 20 hours of unpaid work per week,Is to oversee the running of the discipline and TRY and keep everybody happy and on the same page.

Its the clubs you should be approaching,As its their job to foster the sport as shown by the South Islanders and dare I say it,One letter is hardly a huge effort and you have to admit,It was a bit long and drawn out,Put yourself in their position,Again volunteers and with a huge workload.Best attack would be at the coalface or on a committee.

[gav]

Some interesting thoughts raised here, good to see.
Are the days of a privateer team driving to GP loaded up in van really gone? Pretty sure the Moto3 is a single bike rule, one bike, spare motor, parts etc, racing as many European GP's the team could get a start at. Catching the odd Spanish national race, some more in Italy, maybe the odd BSB wildcard?
Anyone remember Brent Jones and Richard Scott doing the privateer thing?
Maybe the kiwi team could pick up some experience doing testing duties for some of the other teams? Just like Scotty did with Lucky Strike Yamaha, helping out with tyre testing and picking up the odd race as a fill in for Mike Baldwin.
Even if it meant a different rider going over every month or so, and getting a chance to ride at another level.

[SWERVE]

Some interesting thoughts raised here, good to see.
Are the days of a privateer team driving to GP loaded up in van really gone? Pretty sure the Moto3 is a single bike rule, one bike, spare motor, parts etc, racing as many European GP's the team could get a start at. Catching the odd Spanish national race, some more in Italy, maybe the odd BSB wildcard?
Anyone remember Brent Jones and Richard Scott doing the privateer thing?
Maybe the kiwi team could pick up some experience doing testing duties for some of the other teams? Just like Scotty did with Lucky Strike Yamaha, helping out with tyre testing and picking up the odd race as a fill in for Mike Baldwin.
Even if it meant a different rider going over every month or so, and getting a chance to ride at another level.

Gav, as much as i would love to see a return to the underdogs turning up to a GP and raising a few eyebrows (just like it used to be) I doubt that such a team would even be allowed in the pits at a modern GP event (even moto 3) I wouldnt be surprised if there wasnt mimimum vehicle & hospitality regulations these days. In a bid by the oranisers to get the desired professional image they require.
Still think it might be possible for a rider to tout themselves around europe doing duties as testers etc.... but could be a very long road to a full ride in todays scene.

[SWERVE]

Well Spud,

Its the clubs you need to be pestering not the roadrace commission at MNZ,Their job as volunteers doing up to 20 hours of unpaid work per week,Is to oversee the running of the discipline and TRY and keep everybody happy and on the same page.

Its the clubs you should be approaching,As its their job to foster the sport as shown by the South Islanders and dare I say it,One letter is hardly a huge effort and you have to admit,It was a bit long and drawn out,Put yourself in their position,Again volunteers and with a huge workload.Best attack would be at the coalface or on a committee.

Agree with not pestering the road race comission as they really only look after our domestic needs............ and that would keep them busy..... with all sorts.
However MNZ as a whole could do something im sure!
Correct me if im wrong but do we not have a IDSE team representing NZ
And a junior motox team also.......... who i believe have there own training camp in NZ
Im sure MZ contributes to this by the way its always headline news on the website.

your thoughts.....

[SWERVE]

[QUOTE=CHOPPA;1130175189]I could be wrong but im not sure if I was a parent spending big $$$ that id pay for my kid to do the EJC. You have been there so you will tell me different. I know its putting there names out there in a big way that is good but if I were a team owner I dont think id recruit from that series. IMO the ninja is a great start out class because its easy to ride them at there maximum potential so the riders are not really challenging there limits. Once they start getting onto proper race bikes like Moto 2, 3 Supersport and Superbike then show they can ride those bikes to the limit thats when I see the offers to come in.

I hope im wrong because it would be fantastic if Daniel and Jake got some good rides! I would think that the money would be better spent getting them on a 600 in NZ at 16 then buying a ride?

I have to disagree mate. How many moto3 / moto 2 and soon moto gp riders came through Red Bll rookies..... a few.
EJC is just a WSBK replica class....but you dont have to be a "pedrosa clone"
Many of the WSBK teams run development or Junior teams in World 600 superstock & 1000 suprstock.... these are the people taking an interest in EJC.
Im sure if you asked Jake or Rob if they would rather do 600,s in NZ or EJC for a season they would give you a pretty definate answer.
Im not going to go on & on about EJC, but it will provide a path for youngsters into WSBK who through other channels would not get that opprtunity.
Even a few wildcard rides or testing as poss a 3rd rider in such teams in europe would give them more skills than a season here.
Doing the years in NZ to become 600 or superbike champ by lets say 20yrs old and then offering that title as a reason to get a ride in europe................. well done son..... have you got a younger brother...... get my point.

There is never a right way or a wrong way though, just get on to it asap!! 15 to 18 year olds is where its at. Thats why I keep bleating on about MX kids is because they already have advanced bike skills way before there old enough to even start racing streetstock. Bucket racing and MX is where I would be training my young fella if he wants to ride

[slowpoke]

Well Spud,

Its the clubs you need to be pestering not the roadrace commission at MNZ,Their job as volunteers doing up to 20 hours of unpaid work per week,Is to oversee the running of the discipline and TRY and keep everybody happy and on the same page.

It's the "same page" part that I struggle with, but I acknowledge they do their best with the time and resources available.

Its the clubs you should be approaching,As its their job to foster the sport as shown by the South Islanders and dare I say it,One letter is hardly a huge effort and you have to admit,It was a bit long and drawn out,Put yourself in their position,Again volunteers and with a huge workload.Best attack would be at the coalface or on a committee.

You may well be right mate. I had my lil' 2 year old's tanty a while back but I'm just going with the flow these days. Only time I get to follow things up or bash the keyboard is the time away at work with the 6 months/year I'm home flat out doing the "have to do" stuff rather than the "nice to do" stuff. That's just the choice I make with my job: money to race but bugger all time or opportunity to do so vs get a real job and have more time and opportunity but bugger all money. Such is life.

I really admire your effort and persistence (in lots of areas within the sport) but it shouldn't be that hard to make changes that are obviously positive. Life is too short, the bucket list is too long, to waste time being the water wearing down the rock.

[Billy]

Agree with not pestering the road race comission as they really only look after our domestic needs............ and that would keep them busy..... with all sorts.
However MNZ as a whole could do something im sure!
Correct me if im wrong but do we not have a IDSE team representing NZ
And a junior motox team also.......... who i believe have there own training camp in NZ
Im sure MZ contributes to this by the way its always headline news on the website.

your thoughts.....

Yip,Valid point,However you may need to speak too somebody a bit further up the food chain,My involvement is with the roadrace commission only.

Having said that,Its probably something they wouldnt consider unless there was some sort of plan put too them by ALL the clubs working as one unit.

[Billy]

You may well be right mate. I had my lil' 2 year old's tanty a while back but I'm just going with the flow these days. Only time I get to follow things up or bash the keyboard is the time away at work with the 6 months/year I'm home flat out doing the "have to do" stuff rather than the "nice to do" stuff. That's just the choice I make with my job: money to race but bugger all time or opportunity to do so vs get a real job and have more time and opportunity but bugger all money. Such is life.

I really admire your effort and persistence (in lots of areas within the sport) but it shouldn't be that hard to make changes that are obviously positive. Life is too short, the bucket list is too long, to waste time being the water wearing down the rock.

No mate,Your right,It shouldnt be that hard too make changes,But until we're all working towards the same end,It always will be.

[steveyb]

[ How many moto3 / moto 2 and soon moto gp riders came through Red Bll rookies..... a few.
EJC is just a WSBK replica class....but you dont have to be a "pedrosa clone"

Bucket racing and MX is where I would be training my young fella if he wants to ride

I think that they both have their place, Rookies Cup and EJC. The major difference between the two (other than the bikes and the venues) is that Rookies Cup is fully sponsored and EJC is a paying gig. Albeit a fairly good value one.

But the proof is in the pudding as to which one the market values the most, but one must acknowledge that EJC has run only one season, so seasons 2 and 3 will be the proof of whether the market values it. Over 100 people were invited to Rookies Cup selection this year from, who knows, 3 times that number of applicants maybe? I don't know.
But in any case, clearly there is room for them both and hopefully the WSBK/WSS teams really are looking there for fresh faces. But they would be foolish to not also be looking at Rookies Cup would they not?

It will be tough for a Kiwi rider to get into Rookies Cup. I don't buy the market/political thing too much as a South African rider gets in almost every year and their market/history is crap compared to ours. But we must understand that it might be there. But I just cannot help but thinking that we must just keep trying. There must be some value in just exposing our kids to the thing at all. I also can't buy into the 'but we are just setting them up for disappointment' arguement. Hell, life is one disappointment after another, but if you never try then you can never win. Protecting kids from disappointment is guaranteeing that they will continuously be disappointed. What do we do when they lose a race or they crash?

I think that the PureBlack racing model is the one we need to study. The model is there, the parallels are exact and the builders of it are here in NZ ready to tell all because they are entrepreneurs who want to grow the pie, not functionaries who want to carve up an ever decreasing one. Bicycle racing is no more popular in NZ than motorbike racing, not really. Sure, lots of people ride bicycles for pleasure and training etc, but very few race competitively or professionally. (Round Lake Taupo doesn't really count. The true racers there are a fraction of the entrants. Some of them are motorbike racers too).

So, yeah, I can see the future where "we" set up an NZ team that slots straight into the EJC with a group of kiwi riders, which is all set up ready to go, then graduates onto Moto3 or Superstock 600/1000 after learning the ropes and the circuits and in 10 years time maybe WSBK or whatever. What I am thinking though is that too many people miss in all of this, that it takes money, and most of that money comes from the riders, in one way or another. Be it in direct fees or in personal sponsorship (the same thing I guess), in the vast majority of cases, the rider pays, full stop. My mate Simone (Phonica Racing) is not racing at the moment (he did hurt his hand) mainly because he could not find the full budget for the full season. It is not easy. So, the NZ team would require that the riders pay, at least a major contribution. I think some people think that all riders in world champs get paid or something. The truth is far from that. From time to time even MotoGP riders don't get paid.

And just note of caution. There are any number of stories, as Shifty Shirrifs pointed out, of people with great expectations getting to Europe, paying big money and being shafted while they look you straight in the eye and do it. Europeans do not play by the same rules we do.

There are teams in the UK and USA who take paying riders. Maybe that would be a better place to get a grounding in the ways of international racing (at the higher levels I mean).


As for current and partime 2011 riders in MotoGP/Moto2/125 from Rookies Cup/Red Bull Academy/Rookies precursors (and these are only the ones I can spot from memory):

Zarco (first Rookies Cup champion 2008)
Folger
Fagerhaug
Kent
Salom
Kornfeil
Stafford
Binder
MacKenzie
Ajo
Calia
Hook
Oliviera
Savadori
Sebestyen
Not sure how many of the Spanish riders might have gone through the system.

Smith
Redding
Marquez
Pedrosa
Midge Smart!!!

A reasonable stable I would think.

[slowpoke]

Thanks Doc, interesting post.

My only concern regarding the Pure Black comparison is that we already have world class cyclists and a reasonable level of international competition and exposure for top NZ cyclists. The grassroots level of cycling is healthy and generating international calibre riders on a regular basis.

We aren't in a similar position with motorcycle road racing. There's absolutely no reason we can't get to a similar position but I'm thinking the task is slightly different and requires focus on building up the local scene to feed any international effort.

No reason it can't be done though, and I agree with your sentiment: EJC, Red Bull Rookies doesn't matter, any attempt and exposure overseas can only be a good thing for a youngster.

[Bender]

Taking a "Scott Dixon" approach makes the most sense - with a consortium each putting in money to get him rolling and using a stepping stone approach, perhaps through the US. But it was always apparent that Scott was a rock star driver, definitely something special. Do we have a motorcyclist with the same X-factor, and I don't mean just being a good rider?

Going to the US to race is not dumb - there are excellent professional teams there racing in series that may not be MotoGP, but are still worthwhile. (SD may not have made F1, but he seems to have done pretty well for himself in Indycars.)

MotoGP is in dire straits anyway. - I've cut a few parts of an opinion piece from David Emmet's Moto Matters website. He's well informed and his analysis has turned out to be on the money over the past couple of years.


"the most worrying development comes among the teams, with the 2012 MotoGP grid looking worryingly threadbare. There were complaints that this season's complement of just 17 riders was a bit of an embarrassment, but it could be much worse for next season. So far, there are only 12 confirmed entries for 2012 - three Ducatis, four Hondas, four Yamahas and Colin Edwards on the NGM Forward CRT machine - with 2 more - an LCR Honda and the Aspar team - certain to join them, though riders and, in the case of Aspar, bikes still have to be confirmed. That makes a field of just 14, growing to 16 if Pramac field a single-rider team (as hoped) and Suzuki remain in the series with their current (very low) level of involvement. Both those rides are looking increasingly unlikely, however,

The reason for the lack of bikes is two-fold, and both reasons have been debated at length in the past. The first is the astonishing inability of the teams to find sponsors, and the inability of the series as a whole to attract money into the championship.

The second is perhaps a more significant factor, and a sign that a major revolution is about to be unleashed in MotoGP. The costs of leasing a MotoGP bike have grown fast over the years, despite the factories' best efforts to keep the price down. For just the cost of leasing a satellite MotoGP machine with no hope of winning a race, teams could be running a top-level two-rider effort in Moto2, or a very serious World Superbike team. And that's without the cost of riders, staff, hospitality units, and a major expense, travel and accommodation for the 18 rounds that comprise the MotoGP season. Put all those together and it is easily double or even triple the lease price of the cheapest satellite machines.

The costs have already broken Aspar - one of the most efficient and well-funded teams in the paddock, running championship-level efforts in both 125 and Moto2, and coming in to MotoGP with big plans of expansion two years ago. After failing to reach a deal with Ducati, Aspar will now become a CRT entry, in all likelihood fielding a BMW-powered Suter for 2012.

The switch by Aspar could be crucial, encouraging other, less prominent teams to follow suit and enter as a Claiming Rule Team. After all, the difference between spending 6 million euros to fight for 10th or spend 3 million euros fighting for 12th is huge in cash terms, but relatively tiny in terms of results. The satellite bikes have never been truly competitive as the role of electronics has grown, making the CRT route a much more attractive prospect.

Honda will be reducing from 6 bikes to 4, or if Marc Marquez gets a separate team in MotoGP, a total of 5. Ducati has reduced from 6 bikes down to 3, with the possibility of a 4th being added if Pramac stays in. To be fair to Ducati, their reduction has come more of a result of poverty inside the teams rather than cutbacks from inside the factory, as is the case with HRC.

[Bender]

A CRT team using New Zealand's depth of knowledge of engineering, without the cost of prototype racing - that's a concept that says hello to me.