MTA backs graduation racing class

Motor Trade Association backs graduation racing class

Motor Trade Association (MTA) will be the naming sponsor for MotorSport New Zealand’s Formula Ford Championship which will run as part of the Summer MotorSport Series starting at Pukekohe in November.

Announcing the new sponsorship, MotorSport New Zealand president, Steven Kennedy, said Formula Ford was the longest running of the sport’s championships, having been established in 1972.

“It is the class through which almost all drivers pass on their way to either single seater racing in the Toyota Racing Series or into the popular NZV8s or other leading classes. Many leading drivers including Scott Dixon, Craig Baird Fabian Coulthard and Jonny Reid all have their names on the trophy.

“It’s great to have MTA on board because so many of the young competitors in the formula either work in the trade or have learned trade skills in MTA members’ businesses.”

MTA spokesman, Andy Cuming said that the opportunity provided a strong new element to the marketing of the MTA brand, and also a further boost to its programme of involvement for the staff of MTA member businesses throughout the motor industry.
“We are excited by the new opportunities provided us in the fast-growing spectator sport of motor-racing, and we have a legion of motorsport fans throughout the more than 4,000 member businesses,” said Andy Cuming.

“The MTA Formula Ford Championship has that nice mix of ‘start-up’ youthfulness, the very full fields are always fiercely competitive, and it is a truly national sporting event at the height of a summer sporting season,” he said.
“Add to this the demands of top-class car preparation and servicing excellence, and we have a ‘formula’ with which we feel a strong affinity, and from which MTA people will gain great enjoyment and new opportunities to meet with each other as part of a national team.”

The MTA Formula Ford Championship will have fields in excess of 25 cars this summer. Traditionally they have provided some of the closest racing seen on New Zealand circuits, the car body design allowing extremely close slip streaming or drafting, often at speeds close to 200 kph.

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