Champions To Race Suzuki Swifts At Hamilton Race

The return of motor sport champions old and new is boosting the Suzuki Swift Sport entry to record levels at the Hamilton street race meeting this weekend.

Long time saloon car racer and former champion Angus Fogg will join fellow LG Motorsport team mate William Bamber from Wanganui in a second Suzuki Swift (run by Winger Suzuki with support from Dunlop).

Auckland teenager Simon Evans, who is usually seen behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 in the GT3 Cup Championship and has Formula Ford experience, is taking the wheel of a Swift Sport for the one-make events being held in conjunction with the Australian V8 sedans in Hamilton.

At 42, Auckland-based Angus is something of a veteran alongside fellow LG Motorsport team mate (16-year-old Bamber who clinched the Swift Sport Cup title in the final round at Taupo last month).

Fogg has almost two decades of motor racing experience and was a huge force in New Zealand Mini racing before switching to larger saloons and BNT V8 machines.

He last won the Mini 7 Championship in 1997 and was instrumental in setting up and testing the Swifts for the popular new series back in 2007.

Despite his long background in racing and his expertise with front wheel drive cars, Angus is an unknown quantity in Swift competition.

He will not only have Bamber to contend with, but two times Swift Cup champion Cody McMaster from Christchurch who is returning to the highly competitive class. (The current New Zealand formula ford champion Martin Short will run the new Castrol Scholarship car as well).

“With the addition of Fogg and Evans, we now have a confirmed 18-car grid for the televised Swift races, the biggest-ever grid in the three year history of the class,” said Darren Stevens, motorsport manager for Suzuki New Zealand.

“The calibre of the drivers competing in Hamilton is indicative of the growing stature of the production car-based category,” said Stevens. “Not only is the racing close and furious, but people can relate well to the Swift because it is the top selling supermini in New Zealand.”

Three Swift Sport races will be held over the April 17-18 weekend which is expected to draw a large crowd, plus a significant television audience.