Liam Sceats: Kiwi Grand Prix Champion on his wildcard entry into the 70th NZ Grand Prix

The most coveted crown in New Zealand motorsport is on the line this weekend.  

Highlands is hosting the 70th edition of the NZ Grand Prix, which is running under the new NextGen NZ Championship banner 

And the 2024 winner, 20-year-old Liam Sceats, has been handed a last-minute wildcard into the field.  

The championship has been running for the last three weekends, but he told Mike Hosking he’s only jumping in for this one.  

Sceats says it’s not going to be easy jumping in at this stage, but he’s spent two years in these cars and won in 2024 on this exact track, so he’s feeling confident. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The big motorsport prize for this country is race for

(00:02):
this weekend at Highlands at the seventieth running of the
New Zealand Grand Prix, part of the new Next Gen
New Zealand Championship competition. If you've been following that over
the past couple of weekends, it's been at Tea Tonga
and Hampton Town's and Taupo the twenty twenty four when
a Liam's skeets has been handled the last minute wildcard,
so he I'm Assumer's excited and as well as Liam. Morning,
Good morning Mike, Happy New Year to you. Are you

(00:25):
at Highlands as we speak?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yes, I am on down Cromwell. It's a beautiful morning
here this morning. Read it's roup into the weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Good Is the forecast good for the weekend? Given what
happened to in Vericago last weekend?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, luckily it is. There looks no chance to rain.
I'm actually pretty happy. I wasn't even able to track
with a load of the car It's cheris on the
last weekend and then Vericago. So yeah, it's looking good
for this weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
How does that mess with you? Because I watched quite
a bit of I've watched all of it over the
last couple of weekends. But I watched quite a bit
last weekend and the race that you're in, or the
races or the cars you're in, was the feature race
of the day at the end on Saturday. It got
red flagged. It wasn't race. How does that stuff mess
with your head?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, it's very tricky. I mean, of course, first of all,
as a driver, you potentially might think of a safety
kind of element where you know, there's the water detracts
basically flooding the spray from the car. The heavy you
means there's little to no visibility, So so that part
messes with head and at the same time and miss
all that, you're still trying to go as fast as
you can and win the race. So it's yeah, it's tricky,

(01:31):
but I guess in those kind of conditions, whoever's got,
you know, the most confident and can adapt the best
as normally the man that comes out on top.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Work for non officionados of racing. Why are you in
a wild card and how does that work?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
So yeah, I'm jumping in for this weekend, just just
this race. I mean, this championship has been going on
for three weekends prior to this coming weekend. How it
came about was twelned in New Zealand's kind of been
in my ear occasually saying hey, we want you to
jump in for the Grand Prix again, being the twenty
twenty four winner and a Kiwi driver, And yeah, it
was just late last week, super last minute. They managed

(02:11):
to raise the majority of the money the funding required
for me to jump in, and an opportunity presented itself
and of course I'm not not going to hesitate to
take it. So yeah, I'm jumping in thanks to my
partner's cash roll and tour in New Zealand for this weekend.
It's not going to be easy, as I said, jumping
in right at the end of the championship. And you

(02:32):
know this is my first race weekend, but you know
this is everyone else's fourth, so but anyway, it doesn't matter.
I mean, I've spent two years in these cars, in
twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four, and of course
I won here in twenty twenty four in this exact track,
so I'm feeling.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Confident, fantastic. How's the muscle memory on that sort of thing?
So yes, you haven't got the experience of the last
couple of weekends. But how instant is it?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I guess we'll find out more today. But to be
honest with the yesterday was day one of being out
on track for practice, and the first session I did
feel a little bit out of it in some sense.
Everything was happening a lot faster than I would have liked,
and I was just having to kind of settle back
into things. I mean, the last time I drove around
Hireland's motorspat Park was when I won the race. And
this track is very high risk kaikermitmon, It's a high

(03:20):
speed circuit, so yeah, it's not the easiest places to
try and find you fit in and get comfortable in.
But by the end of yesterday I felt kind of
back at home again. And today's a really important day,
big day. It's the final day of practice before qualifying
tomorrow morning, so this will be where it really matters
to really step up my game and start driving fast.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Very interesting Phil Ryan Woods in there, and I mean
what sort of skills required? You know, so he comes
out of a supercurrent into a single seat. I mean,
can everybody basically do that? Or you know, very individual
skills required?

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, what, he's done a great job this season. I mean,
look last year wool Brown and brock feed Need, two
supercar drivers as well, jumped in and they were right
at the front and fast. So these cars, yeah, they're
difficult to drive, probably definitely not as difficult as a
supercar although, but no, Rhyme's done. Ryan's done a great job.

(04:15):
So yeah, he's going really well and it will be
interesting to see how I stack up against him and
the other key he's this weekend.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, have you got an observation of the quality of
the field. Have you been impressed with what you've seen
these last few weekends?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I have to be honest, I've been very impressed. I've
been driver coaching three international drivers myself, but yeah, to
watch the races, the level was high. I mean, I
don't know if there's a handful of of Formula one
junior drivers and then there's what is the supercars driver
and Kelly Robin Pira the two tumb w r c
m in So yeah, the field is pretty stacked. To

(04:51):
be honest, it looks tough. So I'm just so hungry
to get amongst it and riff into it.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Super exciting. Have you got stuff lined up for the
year beyond this weekend on Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Not yet, not yet this weekend. I'm really grateful to
have this opportunity because this could open some doors for me.
If in the event I can, I can perform and
execute and do a really good job. So yeah, we'll see.
But at the back end of last year, did a
supercar test, jumped over into a tim top with a
roof over my head so for a very for the

(05:21):
very first time, so that that was an experience and
that went really well. So looking more towards that direction,
away from the single seat of direction, because that career
path looks more to be more achievable requires this money.
So yeah, I'm always looking out there for opportunities on
the world stage, and hopefully being able to go two
straight wins this coming weekend that will really help me

(05:44):
and put me in a good position for an opportunity
for the risk that.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, all I can do is wish you the best,
might go well. Liam skeets this weekend well well worth
watching at Highlands. So previous winners of this Cup, just
to give you an indication of the prestige of winning
the Grand Prix. He obviously won it in twenty twenty four,
somebody called Liam Lawson won it, Jack Brabham, Brendan Hartley,
Will Brown as he mentioned, Denny Holme, Lance Stroll, Mitchevan

(06:11):
Zell Bamba locals of course, and somebody called Lando Norris
not that long ago won the New Zealand Grand Prix,
and then Zach ring him up and the rest, as
they say, is history. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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