Exciting sedan addition

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 13

Exciting sedan addition

An IMSA GTO Chevrolet Corvette, to be driven by an expatriate New Zealander, Steve Dymand, is an exciting addition to the Hanseils Sun Valley Sports Sedan championship. The championship will be contested during the Benson and Hedges international meetings next month and in February.

Dymand, a former Christchurch businessman, will bring the Corvette to New Zealand to gain some racing experience with it in preparation for an assault on the American Trans-Am championship. Dymand, aged 44, contested drag and circuit races with a Camaro and Monaros in the late sixties and during the seventies, before moving to California in 1979.

After a careful study of business possibilities there, Dymand launched Koala Springs fruit-flav-oured mineral water on to the American market. Such has been the success of the project that sales of the product are expected to exceed $lOO million by 1990. Dymand’s financial success has paved the way for a return by him to motor racing. “I’ve always loved motor racing,” he says, “and now that I can afford to do it properly, I’m keen to come back to New Zealand to have some fun, meet up with my old friends and do some shake-down testing and racing in preparation for racing a two-car team in American TransAm events in 1989. “This Corvette is a very sophisticated race car, which I am sure all New Zealand motor-sport enthusiasts will enjoy studying and seeing perform.” The Corvette is a 5.5litre VB-engined tube frame, manufactured by Protofab Engineering. It is fuel-injected and produces around 600 bhp. The car runs a five-speed Weismann gearbox and weighs in at around 1157 kg. Although negotiations to ensure the car’s participation are continuing, a late shadow of doubt has been cast on its eligibility by the ruling of the M.A.N.Z. technical manager, lan Snellgrove, that as a two-seater the Corvette does not comply with the series regulations.