SIR COLIN
It was the grand opening of the impressive refurbishment of the HMD Motorsports building and on display was the squadron of Indy NXT cars that the team runs.
Resplendent in black with a large silver fern down the sides was the car of promising 20-year-old Kiwi Callum Hedge, and there, just ahead of the side pods, the distinctive ‘Giltrap Group’ logo.
My travelling companion, Peter Buckleigh, pointed to it, and we both nodded. No words were required; we were both thinking the same thing: yet another driver benefitting from the extraordinary support from and generosity of this incredible family.
Buckleigh and I were soon talking to the Tauranga-born pilot and reminiscing about memorable moments involving drivers who had also proudly carried that Giltrap Group logo on a car, helmet, or race suit.
I always think back to 2014 and a curtain-raising GP3 race on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix (GP). That day, another Tauranga lad was starring when Richie Stanaway won from pole and, as the camera panned once the rostrum winners had alighted, there was Sir Colin.
It would have been an early start for him, but he confirmed when I spoke to him by phone a few days later, that it had all been worthwhile. No chest beating; no trace of ‘we did it!’ Just the quiet satisfaction that here was another talented Kiwi on a pathway.
The dominant resident single-seater exponent
