MOTORSPORT: New stars rise in racing

The year is only six weeks old, but already a couple of young stars have emerged on the racing scene.

A 16-year-old English lad, already the youngest world karting champion a couple of years ago, has won the now-renowned Toyota Racing Series (TRS) in New Zealand against a host of other international open-wheeler hopefuls.

And, in the United States, the son of one of NASCAR’s Cup champions who has taken the place of a retired multiple champion has pole position for next weekend’s Daytona 500.

That rookie is the youngest driver to have achieved that feat – at 20 years, two months and 17 days – and could become the youngest winner of the ‘Great American Race’, or what sometimes is called ‘NASCAR’s Super Bowl’.

The British wonderboy is Lando Norris, who won six races over five rounds on consecutive weekends on the way to the TRS title across the Tasman – including leading all the way in yesterday’s 35-lap NZ Grand Prix at the 3km Manfeild circuit near Palmerston North.

“It’s the longest race I’ve ever done,” said Norris, winner of Britain’s Formula 4 title last year.

“I’m surprised I did as well as I did (in the NZ series in which drivers race identical Italian-made Tatuus cars with 1.8-litre, four-cylinder, 215hp Toyota engines).

“It’s been a great five weeks.”

Norris had already clinched the title in the morning with fourth place in the second of the round’s three races.

His main rival for the title had been Pedro Piquet, 17-year-old son of Brazilian triple Formula 1 world champion Nelson Piquet and who was penalised half a minute in the GP for passing under waved yellow flags.

Runner-up in the series was Indian Jehan Daruvala, a member of the Force India F1 team’s junior academy, while another competitor was Ferrari’s Chinese protege Guanyu Zhou.

Australian Thomas Randle finished fifth in the NZ GP at his only round of this year’s TRS.

The wings-and-slicks NZ series is a modern incarnation of half of the old Tasman Series – without the Australian half (!!!) and with younger drivers and less powerful cars.

Russian Daniil Kyvat, Red Bull Racing F1 teammate of Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, drove in it in 2011, finishing fifth with one race win, while Canadian Lance Stroll dominated it last year and is now the Williams F1 test driver after having been in the Ferrari Academy.

Norris has a busy schedule for this year, mainly in the Formula Renault Eurocup with Germany’s Josef Kaufmann Racing.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old William Clyde Elliott II – son of NASCAR’S 1988 Winston Cup champion Bill Elliott and known as ‘Chase’ rather than Bill Junior – is the youngster on pole for the Daytona 500.

He gave the mighty Hendrick Motorsports its 10th pole for NASCAR’s biggest race in the same No.24 Chevrolet in which the driver he has replaced, now-retired four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, qualified fastest last year.

“This is a very, very cool day,” Elliott said. “This is very special and a great way to start the season.”

Elliott lapped the 2.5-mile (4km) Daytona International Speedway in 45.845 seconds – an average of 196.314 mph, or almost 316kmh – to edge the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Matt Kenseth (196.036 mph) by 0.065 seconds.

The youngest driver to have been on the pole for the Daytona 500 was Austin Dillon at 23 years, nine months and 27 days two years ago in a Richard Childress Racing Chevy.

The youngest winner of the race was Trevor Bayne the day after his 20th birthday in a Wood Brothers Ford in 2011.

Elliott won NASCAR’s second-tier championship two years ago, becoming the first rookie to triumph in a national series in American stock car racing, and last year was that championship’s most popular driver for the second year in a row.

He has completed the fourth father-son combination to win poles for the Daytona 500, joining Richard and Kyle Petty, Bobby and Davey Allison and Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Junior.

Although only the first two starters for next Sunday’s race are locked in, Earnhardt Junior was third fastest at the weekend in another Hendrick Chevrolet, while reigning Cup champion Kyle Busch was fourth in his Gibbs Toyota.

The field behind the front row will be determined by the results of two 150-mile (240km) races at the speedway on Thursday.

The weekend times of the Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolets driven by Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers were disallowed after NASCAR discovered track bar infractions during post-qualifying inspection.

Those cars will start from the rear of the field in their respective Thursday races.

Stewart-Haas is jointly-owned by triple Cup champion driver Tony Stewart, who is missing the start of this season with a back injury, and industrial tools tycoon Gene Haas, who has created the new F1 team to debut in Melbourne next month.