In a recent interview, Liam Lawson accused New Zealand of having a negativity problem when it comes to supporting the sporting dreams of young Kiwis.
Toyota Racing Series founder Barrie Tomlinson joined the Afternoons team to discuss.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're talking about some comments from Liam Lawson in a
recent podcast. He opened up about a whole bunch of things,
but one part in particular we've been talking about is
where he said New Zealand and Australia to a lesser extent,
but we've got a negativity when it comes to boosting
up young children when it comes to sport and the
dreams that they have. He says, he goes to a
lot of go kart circuits where young seven year olds
(00:37):
talk to him. They say they want to be an
F one superstar like he is, but they're being told
by people around them that it's unrealistic and it's not
going to happen. So are we a bunch of dream
crushes in New Zealand?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Barry?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
How are you this afternoon?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Very well? Thanks guys. Interesting subjects.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So you've you've had a bit to do with motor racing.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, a little bit, yes, guys. They have been involved
with the sport for many, many years and we're involved
initially started the Twitter racing series. My wife and I've
been along with Sweden back in two thousand and three,
and so we've had, yeah, a lot of most of
the New Zealand's racing talent through that series in my
(01:19):
time there and travel the world and travel the world
and work with a lot of international drivers as well,
you know, younger, younger boys, So yeah, guys from pretty
much the age of six and girls actually sorry, but
also go from sixteen through till generally sixteen through to
nineteen years of age.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
You're a big You're a big reason why Liam Lawson,
you know, had the path to move through right from
go karting to you know being in the kind of
cars that you're going to end up driving and Formula
one you know, within the ballpark, so you had a
huge part of this. And Lando Norris was was down
here racing and Toyota wasn't he ye series.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
At one point?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, Like so Lando was our champion in two thousand
and sixteen and then Glance Scroll was our champion in
twenty seventeen. But as well as all of that, we've had,
you know, all of our KYI talents, so you know,
you know, Brendon Hartley, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Shane van Giesbergen. Yeah,
(02:23):
the list goes on and I will have missed guys out,
guys and girls, but yeah, see it looks I guess
the reason that you know, ours, along with Towyoda, the
massive investment from Toyoda set the series up, was really
to push these younger people into a space that you know,
they could show their talent and you know, from an
(02:46):
earlier age than probably they sort of had the opportunity
in previously. So yeah, we're very successful.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
For people that don't know, can you can you describe
the kind of cars that they're racing in the in
the Toyota Racing Series.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, yeah, we started off way back in and four
with a Chessis, so yeah, full cup and five the
Chessis built and built in Italy, and then we took
a towyter road car engine from actually the Towy to
Silika in New Zealand here and we developed that engine
into a racing engine and put which was no means
(03:24):
into a single seater Chessis. So we ran that car
for actually over probably ten years, and then then we
built a new car in two thousand, introduced that in
twenty fifteen, again just a newer derivative went to Paddleship Gearbox,
which I heard you talking on my drive back to
(03:44):
Auckland actually about the technology that Formula one gives to
or motor racing in general gives to the average road
car you know we see on our streets, which is
you know, which is huge actually and people if people
really stopped and thought about it and understood it more,
they sort of kept get the picture of it. Anyway,
(04:05):
when you see the subject, guys, and you know, we
haven't probably got a lot the time to talk about
it unfortunately, and i'd love to, Well we've.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Got a little bit, We've got a little bit more time.
So I've got a couple of questions for you. When
you see someone like Liam Lawson, is it immediate the
talent the difference and talent, you know, can you can
spot it straight away that you know, someone like Lando
Norris and Liam Wilson and people like Lance Strohl and
Liam and Lando they come down to get some of
(04:34):
their points right, they're part of the accreditation progress, is
that right?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Initially no, yeah, So in my time right through to seventeen,
we actually didn't have we didn't have what they call
super points for or super licensed points. So these guys
would come to and girls, you know, some of the
national girls an Cumis would come to New Zealand for
the racing mileage that we provided, you know, a very
(04:59):
short space of time when they would be you know
and and ice or whatever. So yeah, so in terms
of talent, yeah, look, you know, as I say, you
know drivers right from you know, Brendan Hartley who was
actually our first ever race went back in two thousand
and four, who is now you know, went to Formula one.
(05:21):
It was lucky enough to be on that journey with
Brendan as you know, on his management side through along
with them a couple of others of PJ Is, a
very well known identity involved with Scott Dixon back in
the day and all that sort of stuff. So but yeah,
these these kids showed the talent and go karting and
they come through into the junior formula and then make
(05:43):
their way now into into the Trail to Racing series.
You know, I guess the biggest thing that I've noted
over many years of being involved, as these kids actually
drag their parents into along with them. Really successful ones
drag their parents along, you know, they are the ones
(06:05):
on the journey and the parents are the ones that
are following, and then from there. We've been very fortunate
in New Zealand to have a lot of people around
our sport that are involved in the you know, the funding,
the financing, the mentoring of these young people and also
the mentoring of these parents of the parents, because it's
very you know, you need to understand how the sport
(06:26):
works internationally, develop a break into the sport internationally. So yeah,
so really these these kids drag their pearance and their
mentals and funders along on that Jenny and probably that's
the biggest difference between the ones that are really successful
like Limb and all of the other names we've talked about,
and the people that are very good drivers but don't
(06:47):
probably make the top Ischelan.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, so you know, we're talking about people following their dreams.
It's not just the likes of Liam Lawson though, you
know with tweet racing, that's that's yours and your wife's
dream as well. So you know, talk us through that,
talk us about coming up with that idea and then
pushing through because there must have been so many challenges
to get that up and running and for it to
(07:10):
be so significant must must feel amazing now. But I
imagine there were times when you were putting an unmovable
object upper hill.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah. Look, so I've I've been very fortunate to be
I was a going back as a racing driver that
came through well actually I worked in America in in
a professional sport and then became a driver back in
New Zealand. And then so then you know, I had
up a relationship with towyda way back in nineteen ninety
as a sponsor and then that sort of stepped through
to the point where you know, I was involved with
(07:41):
to it as a driver and there and then you know,
you know, they wanted to do something in a bigger
way peripheraling around the sport and and sort of said, well,
you know what he asked us what to make a recommendation,
you know what we could do, and that's how we
came up with a concept of the Toroida Racing Series.
And yet it was a it was a huge undertaking
(08:03):
from all of us, you know, Toyota in the funding
side and the commitment side, and you know ourselves and
our staff that we had to you know, employ, and
we we got a series up and running within months.
Actually it was. It wasn't a full year from the
start to the first race, and you know we had
a huge amount of work to do from for everybody involved.
(08:26):
So it was a pretty amazing feat. And yeah it's
turned out very very well and continues today very successfully.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Well, good on your mate, what a fantastic thing to do.
And you know, being a big part of Liam's success,
So good on your mate.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Appreciare and and just on Liam. You know, somebody I
noted made a comment that, you know, he's not a
world class driver. Whatever else. Listen, Liam Lawson has won
all the way through his career. He won in the
Toy to Race, Go Karts, Tota Racing Series, he's won
in DTM touring cars, he's won in Former three and
(09:05):
Formula two. So he's a winner and he's there on
merit and he's done an amazing job. The resilience of
him to be able to step away from Red Bull
or you know, to be released, which we could go
into that whole thing, but anyway, but when you come back, yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
No, no, no, you go, you go. You finished so
well just to.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Come back, you know, from that from that disappointment to
be able to turn himself around so quickly and to
achieve what he's achieving. Now he's showing his true talent
and his true class. And you know, I mean he
he has finished ninth. He scored a lot of points
this year, you know, in the racing balls car and
(09:45):
he's done an outstanding job. And you know, I know
at the moment he's traveling with a young fellow who
I must mention his name, Caleb Nartowa, who I've worked
with in his career. He's a racing driver also in
New Zealand, trying to make it. But Caleb's Lamb's best mate.
And Caleb's been with traveling with Lamb class a few
Grand Prix. He was in Austria and he's going to
(10:07):
silver star them and you know they work very closely
together as a team. And he's mentioned in that end
of view but not named. So I must call him
out because he's a great young kid from Martin, from
very you know, just the Kiwi family. And yeah, he's
done an amazing job as supporting is best mate, brilliant.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Well, just one last question, Barry, what do you think
the mentality is of someone and those people in New
Zealand instead of being incredibly proud of Limb and proud
of the achievement, want to run it down. Is that
a uniquely New Zealand thing? Or is there just some
people that become better because there's a shiny object in
(10:50):
front of them And now I want to I want
to cut that down to site.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Well. My message to New Zealand five million people in
this country just you know, look out into the world
and look at all of our amazing people that are
achieving amazing things, and just think if we didn't have
those amazing people, we wouldn't be the country we are today.
And I think you know, there is a tall Proppery
syndrome in this country because of the island nation that
(11:14):
we are. But you know, I mean I look at
all whites than what they achieved, you know, you know,
all of our amazing sports people. You know, you know
it goes on and on. I mean, it's not just
about motor racing, but you know, we we should be
damn proud of this country and damn proud of the
people and the kids that turned out into the world
(11:34):
and are making amazing successes of their lives. Next year,
I just wanted to say Peter Beck Rocket Lab. Just quickly.
Two thousand and four, we had a young engineer at
work for one of our teams, Steven Giles Motorsport. He'd
come out of university and I cannot think of his name,
but I should. He was working. He ended up. He
was working in that year with Peter Beck. They were
(11:57):
launching basically skyrockets into the atmosphere, learning about rockets and
that company has turned into an amazing thing since two
thousand and four. Order it is today? Is it agreable? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Well, thank you so much. Yes, as everyone's texting in.
That is Barrie Tomlinson.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, more Bowries and news healings. What a great man.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Nice to chat for more from News Talks at b
Listen live on air or online, and keep our shows
with you wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're talking about some comments from Liam Lawson in a
recent podcast. He opened up about a whole bunch of things,
but one part in particular we've been talking about is
where he said New Zealand and Australia to a lesser extent,
but we've got a negativity when it comes to boosting
up young children when it comes to sport and the
dreams that they have. He says, he goes to a
lot of go kart circuits where young seven year olds
(00:37):
talk to him. They say they want to be an
F one superstar like he is, but they're being told
by people around them that it's unrealistic and it's not
going to happen. So are we a bunch of dream
crushes in New Zealand?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Barry?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
How are you this afternoon?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Very well? Thanks guys. Interesting subjects.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So you've you've had a bit to do with motor racing.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, a little bit, yes, guys. They have been involved
with the sport for many, many years and we're involved
initially started the Twitter racing series. My wife and I've
been along with Sweden back in two thousand and three,
and so we've had, yeah, a lot of most of
the New Zealand's racing talent through that series in my
(01:19):
time there and travel the world and travel the world
and work with a lot of international drivers as well,
you know, younger, younger boys, So yeah, guys from pretty
much the age of six and girls actually sorry, but
also go from sixteen through till generally sixteen through to
nineteen years of age.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
You're a big You're a big reason why Liam Lawson,
you know, had the path to move through right from
go karting to you know being in the kind of
cars that you're going to end up driving and Formula
one you know, within the ballpark, so you had a
huge part of this. And Lando Norris was was down
here racing and Toyota wasn't he ye series.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
At one point?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, Like so Lando was our champion in two thousand
and sixteen and then Glance Scroll was our champion in
twenty seventeen. But as well as all of that, we've had,
you know, all of our KYI talents, so you know,
you know, Brendon Hartley, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Shane van Giesbergen. Yeah,
(02:23):
the list goes on and I will have missed guys out,
guys and girls, but yeah, see it looks I guess
the reason that you know, ours, along with Towyoda, the
massive investment from Toyoda set the series up, was really
to push these younger people into a space that you know,
they could show their talent and you know, from an
(02:46):
earlier age than probably they sort of had the opportunity
in previously. So yeah, we're very successful.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
For people that don't know, can you can you describe
the kind of cars that they're racing in the in
the Toyota Racing Series.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, yeah, we started off way back in and four
with a Chessis, so yeah, full cup and five the
Chessis built and built in Italy, and then we took
a towyter road car engine from actually the Towy to
Silika in New Zealand here and we developed that engine
into a racing engine and put which was no means
(03:24):
into a single seater Chessis. So we ran that car
for actually over probably ten years, and then then we
built a new car in two thousand, introduced that in
twenty fifteen, again just a newer derivative went to Paddleship Gearbox,
which I heard you talking on my drive back to
(03:44):
Auckland actually about the technology that Formula one gives to
or motor racing in general gives to the average road
car you know we see on our streets, which is
you know, which is huge actually and people if people
really stopped and thought about it and understood it more,
they sort of kept get the picture of it. Anyway,
(04:05):
when you see the subject, guys, and you know, we
haven't probably got a lot the time to talk about
it unfortunately, and i'd love to, Well we've.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Got a little bit, We've got a little bit more time.
So I've got a couple of questions for you. When
you see someone like Liam Lawson, is it immediate the
talent the difference and talent, you know, can you can
spot it straight away that you know, someone like Lando
Norris and Liam Wilson and people like Lance Strohl and
Liam and Lando they come down to get some of
(04:34):
their points right, they're part of the accreditation progress, is
that right?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Initially no, yeah, So in my time right through to seventeen,
we actually didn't have we didn't have what they call
super points for or super licensed points. So these guys
would come to and girls, you know, some of the
national girls an Cumis would come to New Zealand for
the racing mileage that we provided, you know, a very
(04:59):
short space of time when they would be you know
and and ice or whatever. So yeah, so in terms
of talent, yeah, look, you know, as I say, you
know drivers right from you know, Brendan Hartley who was
actually our first ever race went back in two thousand
and four, who is now you know, went to Formula one.
(05:21):
It was lucky enough to be on that journey with
Brendan as you know, on his management side through along
with them a couple of others of PJ Is, a
very well known identity involved with Scott Dixon back in
the day and all that sort of stuff. So but yeah,
these these kids showed the talent and go karting and
they come through into the junior formula and then make
(05:43):
their way now into into the Trail to Racing series.
You know, I guess the biggest thing that I've noted
over many years of being involved, as these kids actually
drag their parents into along with them. Really successful ones
drag their parents along, you know, they are the ones
(06:05):
on the journey and the parents are the ones that
are following, and then from there. We've been very fortunate
in New Zealand to have a lot of people around
our sport that are involved in the you know, the funding,
the financing, the mentoring of these young people and also
the mentoring of these parents of the parents, because it's
very you know, you need to understand how the sport
(06:26):
works internationally, develop a break into the sport internationally. So yeah,
so really these these kids drag their pearance and their
mentals and funders along on that Jenny and probably that's
the biggest difference between the ones that are really successful
like Limb and all of the other names we've talked about,
and the people that are very good drivers but don't
(06:47):
probably make the top Ischelan.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, so you know, we're talking about people following their dreams.
It's not just the likes of Liam Lawson though, you
know with tweet racing, that's that's yours and your wife's
dream as well. So you know, talk us through that,
talk us about coming up with that idea and then
pushing through because there must have been so many challenges
to get that up and running and for it to
(07:10):
be so significant must must feel amazing now. But I
imagine there were times when you were putting an unmovable
object upper hill.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah. Look, so I've I've been very fortunate to be
I was a going back as a racing driver that
came through well actually I worked in America in in
a professional sport and then became a driver back in
New Zealand. And then so then you know, I had
up a relationship with towyda way back in nineteen ninety
as a sponsor and then that sort of stepped through
to the point where you know, I was involved with
(07:41):
to it as a driver and there and then you know,
you know, they wanted to do something in a bigger
way peripheraling around the sport and and sort of said, well,
you know what he asked us what to make a recommendation,
you know what we could do, and that's how we
came up with a concept of the Toroida Racing Series.
And yet it was a it was a huge undertaking
(08:03):
from all of us, you know, Toyota in the funding
side and the commitment side, and you know ourselves and
our staff that we had to you know, employ, and
we we got a series up and running within months.
Actually it was. It wasn't a full year from the
start to the first race, and you know we had
a huge amount of work to do from for everybody involved.
(08:26):
So it was a pretty amazing feat. And yeah it's
turned out very very well and continues today very successfully.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Well, good on your mate, what a fantastic thing to do.
And you know, being a big part of Liam's success,
So good on your mate.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Appreciare and and just on Liam. You know, somebody I
noted made a comment that, you know, he's not a
world class driver. Whatever else. Listen, Liam Lawson has won
all the way through his career. He won in the
Toy to Race, Go Karts, Tota Racing Series, he's won
in DTM touring cars, he's won in Former three and
(09:05):
Formula two. So he's a winner and he's there on
merit and he's done an amazing job. The resilience of
him to be able to step away from Red Bull
or you know, to be released, which we could go
into that whole thing, but anyway, but when you come back, yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
No, no, no, you go, you go. You finished so
well just to.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Come back, you know, from that from that disappointment to
be able to turn himself around so quickly and to
achieve what he's achieving. Now he's showing his true talent
and his true class. And you know, I mean he
he has finished ninth. He scored a lot of points
this year, you know, in the racing balls car and
(09:45):
he's done an outstanding job. And you know, I know
at the moment he's traveling with a young fellow who
I must mention his name, Caleb Nartowa, who I've worked
with in his career. He's a racing driver also in
New Zealand, trying to make it. But Caleb's Lamb's best mate.
And Caleb's been with traveling with Lamb class a few
Grand Prix. He was in Austria and he's going to
(10:07):
silver star them and you know they work very closely
together as a team. And he's mentioned in that end
of view but not named. So I must call him
out because he's a great young kid from Martin, from
very you know, just the Kiwi family. And yeah, he's
done an amazing job as supporting is best mate, brilliant.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Well, just one last question, Barry, what do you think
the mentality is of someone and those people in New
Zealand instead of being incredibly proud of Limb and proud
of the achievement, want to run it down. Is that
a uniquely New Zealand thing? Or is there just some
people that become better because there's a shiny object in
(10:50):
front of them And now I want to I want
to cut that down to site.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Well. My message to New Zealand five million people in
this country just you know, look out into the world
and look at all of our amazing people that are
achieving amazing things, and just think if we didn't have
those amazing people, we wouldn't be the country we are today.
And I think you know, there is a tall Proppery
syndrome in this country because of the island nation that
(11:14):
we are. But you know, I mean I look at
all whites than what they achieved, you know, you know,
all of our amazing sports people. You know, you know
it goes on and on. I mean, it's not just
about motor racing, but you know, we we should be
damn proud of this country and damn proud of the
people and the kids that turned out into the world
(11:34):
and are making amazing successes of their lives. Next year,
I just wanted to say Peter Beck Rocket Lab. Just quickly.
Two thousand and four, we had a young engineer at
work for one of our teams, Steven Giles Motorsport. He'd
come out of university and I cannot think of his name,
but I should. He was working. He ended up. He
was working in that year with Peter Beck. They were
(11:57):
launching basically skyrockets into the atmosphere, learning about rockets and
that company has turned into an amazing thing since two
thousand and four. Order it is today? Is it agreable? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Well, thank you so much. Yes, as everyone's texting in.
That is Barrie Tomlinson.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, more Bowries and news healings. What a great man.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Nice to chat for more from News Talks at b
Listen live on air or online, and keep our shows
with you wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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