Motorsport stars are descending on Central Otago with the New Zealand Championship taking off at Highlands Park this weekend.
Marcus Armstrong will be there ahead of his switch to IndyCar later this year although he’s got some serious competition to deal with at home first. The new Chip Ganassi driver has signed on to coach his dad, Rick, for the GT Championship and knows he has his work cut out for himself.
“He has been a competitor since I was a year old so, I mean, I just love driving race cars – especially with him,” Armstrong told 1News.
“He’s ferociously aggressive and just very competitive.” Armstrong senior is enjoying the partnership as well – mostly.
“[Marcus] sat me down last night and he said to me, ‘what are you doing? You’re out there going around doing nothing’,” Armstrong’s father said.
“But it’s fun doing it with your son…it’s not every day you get that opportunity to do that.”
It’ll be the last chance for a while with the younger Armstrong jetting off to the US to team up with fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon. Armstrong said his new teammate is already making him feel at home. “He’s one of those guys who just tells you anything you want to know,” Armstrong said.
“They’ve basically been giving me as much information as I like which is, it’s quite unusual – in Europe, they like to keep things to themselves whereas it seems as though in America they tell you everything you want to know so it’s awesome.”
The IndyCar series will be a different challenge for Armstrong who has spent the past three years in Formula 2.
“I was chasing that dream [F1] for my entire life basically, but honestly, to make the step to IndyCar, it’s a dream come true and I wouldn’t change anything.”
Armstrong isn’t giving up on that childhood dream though.
“Obviously you can never say never. F1 is the pinnacle of the sport but at the moment I’m just going to focus on what I can and drive every lap as fast as I can.”
Words that’ll be instructed this weekend when it’s his dad taking the wheel instead.
[Source: 1 News New Zealand]
