Tickets sales have just gone on sale for next year’s Leadfoot motorsport festival in Hahei and already new competitors have been named – but organiser Shelly Campbell Millen says stand-by, some exciting drivers are soon to be announced.
The annual Leadfoot Festival was established in 2011 by Kiwi motorsport great Rod Millen (below) and his American wife Campbell Millen with drivers invited to race up the famous driveway at their Hahei farm, aka the Leadfoot ranch.
In the past eight years have seen such famous names as Kiwi Scott Dixon, Rod Millen’s son Rhys, Tanner Foust and Alister McRae compete alongside up-and-coming motorsport drivers and competitors in an assortment of vehicles.
The competitors take on the 1.6km (1mile) drive at the start of the Millens’ property, winding up through a pine forest to the finish.
Rod Millen first envisioned it whilst competing in 2002 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Leadfoot takes place 8-9 February next year and international drivers so far announced include Ivan “Ironman” Stewart, the American off-road racing driver, and NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham, competing in his famous car, The Ghost (below)
The Ghost is a custom-built race car designed to look like a modified that would have been raced in the 1960s but features state-of-the-art mechanics and electronics.
Campbell Millen says, “ticket sales already are fantastic”.
“Some really exciting drivers are yet to be announced, depending on their schedules,” she said.
Campbell Millen expects to name the new star drivers in October.
This year, McRae (above) won for the third year in the row in his ex-WRC 1998 Subaru Impreza, with a 47.99 second run, the fastest time in the event’s history.