Liam Macdonald Returns to New Zealand's Biggest Motor Race

29 OCTOBER 2015

Liam Macdonald Returns to New Zealand's Biggest Motor Race Event

Young Southland motor racing star, eighteen-year-old Liam MacDonald, will be part of the NZ Touring Car field at the massive ITM 500 V8 Supercar meeting at Pukekohe Park, south of Auckland, over the weekend of 6-8 November. MacDonald will drive his GT Radial Ford Falcon at the event, the car he campaigned last season.

He returns to New Zealand's premier motor race meeting for the third season in his short career and in just his ninth national championship appearance. It will be an exciting round for the teenage star as for the first time in several seasons all classes of V8 racing have reunited. That will mean a grid in the vicinity of thirty cars featuring V8 SuperTourers, TLX and the TL cars that MacDonald campaigns.

MacDonald is a fan of the fast, daunting Pukekohe circuit. "It is fast and flowing and I am excited to be going back there", said Liam recently. "I will be trying for the podium in the TL Class."

MacDonald has built an amazing record over the past three seasons in his NZV8 Touring Car outings which have been severely limited by budget constraints. Since he made his debut at national level in a Ford Falcon in the 2012/2013 season, after just a handful of club level outings in a Nissan NX Coupe, he has continued to impress. The youngster did two rounds in that first season before heading to Pukekohe for his first appearance at the V8 Supercar support races. Liam excelled, belying the fact he was the youngest driver in the field. He overcame qualifying problems to produce stunning drives during the races in just his third race weekend at that level. The following season Liam's racing budget once again only allowed three outings but in the first he took a stunning round victory at his home circuit of Teretonga Park in the TL Class, winning his first race in the championship in the process. That victory came in just his fourth round of competition and just three days after he sat, and passed, his drivers licence test. Two more outings followed at Timaru and Pukekohe at that season's V8 Supercar round respectively with MacDonald taking round results of fourth and a sixth.

In the 2014/2015 season MacDonald, armed with an ex-Angus Fogg Falcon, contested just two rounds. The first, at Mike Pero Motorsport Park at Ruapuna in Christchurch, followed by Teretonga. Again he impressed, finishing on the podium at both rounds. In each of his three V8 seasons he has placed in the top ten of the championship despite only contesting a handful of rounds. Liam is also a 2014/15 NZ Motorsport Elite Academy graduate.

MacDonald's outing at Pukekohe is supported by GT Radial NZ, Auto Windscreen Replacement Ltd, BNT Invercargill, Southern Bolts & Fasteners, Auto Fab, NAC Insurance, DAL Photographics, Discount Tyres Invercargill and a Sport Scholarship with the Community Trust of Southland.

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