ZOOMING WITH BAIRDO AND MURF

A Zoom catch-up with Craig Baird and Greg Murphy during Level 3 revealed that the pair have much more in common than both being winners of the New Zealand Grand Prix (NZGP). Yes, they both started in Formula Ford and ended their careers as professionals racing tin-tops in Australia, but they’ve also remained involved in the sport — Craig as a driver standard advisor and Greg, recently, as a pit-lane reporter.

I begin by remarking how comparatively young they both were when they started in cars. They both raced karts as nippers, which they agree is almost obligatory for those with toplevel ambitions, but I hadn’t appreciated just how young Craig was when he first climbed into an actual racing car. He takes up the story.

“I was 14 and was coming back from a karting meeting in Hastings with my mum and dad,” he and that night we bought it. It was a 1971 Titan, and the following weekend we raced on the Pukekohe Club circuit, by which time I’d turned 15.”