Nathan Thomas' Bio

Nathan is 28 years old and lives in Wellington. Nathan is committed to motorsport and to the automotive industry working as the Service Foreman at Tory Continental’s Wellington service centre.

Outside of motor sport Nathan’s time off is spent around anything with four wheels and an engine; including his ATV and rally car. Nathan also enjoys assisting and encouraging newcomers to motorsport by passing on his car preparation skills.

A Subaru Leone was purchased in 2000 and prepared by Nathan as a rally car on a very limited budget. Over the next four years Nathan campaigned the Leone a wide range of rally sprints and various other motor sport events to gain valuable experience before competing in his first rally, the 2004 Wairarapa event.

The bug well and truly bit Nathan and his first rally was quickly followed by the Hawkes Bay rally later that year. Following that challenging event, the Leone was replaced by a more modern Subaru WRX Impreza (pictured below), again prepared by Nathan.

The WRX was built from two damaged cars, one providing a shell the other supplying the engine and gear box. Thanks to Nathan’s contacts in the motor industry and many hours of hard work, a competitive car was prepared for $8,000 with many of the parts coming straight from the scrap yard.

In 2005 Nathan in the scrap yard WRX joined the Central region Championship finishing 4th behind current NZ Rally Champion Richard Mason in his current model Impreza and Brett Martin in a very modern Mitsubishi Evo 8. This was a great display of Kiwi can-do against big budget racers.

In 2006 Nathan continued to compete in the Impreza outside of the Kiwi 2 Rally New Zealand Championship.

In 2006 Nathan was able to campaign Brian Rowe’s Suzuki Ignis rally car. This car was built by Nathan on behalf of the owner. In return for the preparation the Ignis was made available to Nathan for three rounds of the Kiwi 2 Rally New Zealand Championship. The ignis has been a proven finisher, bringing Nathan his best rally result to date; third in Kiwi 2 at the 2006 Rally Whangarei round of the NZRC.

A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII four wheel drive turbo has been purchased by Nathan to challenge for the National championship in 2007.

Nathan has finished every rally he has started, an essential requirement for the endurance sport that he has chosen to pursue; and has never been outside the top 20.

Nathan’s goal for 2007 is to win the four wheel drive National championship. Nathan’s long term goal is to turn his hobby into his job and become a professional rally driver.

Nathan’s skills in car preparation combined with his determination to compete and a support package behind him make these goals very achievable.

Nathan’s favourite rally is his home event, the Rally of Wairarapa. The rally he most wants to compete in is our local round of the World Rally Championship; Rally New Zealand.