Heather Spurle - Bathurst 12 Hour

H E A T H E R S P U R L EHeather was awarded the Member of the Order of theBritish Empire Medal (M.B.E.) by Her Majesty the Queen andthe New Zealand Commemoration Medal for her outstandingmotorsport achievements and services to sport, on and off thecircuits.A break was taken fromactive competition to furtherher business career returningto the circuits in 1994 tocompete in the newlyestablished Peugeot TouringCar Series. After achievingregular podium finishes throughout the ten race seriesHeather was employed by Peugeot Concessionaires NewZealand (Peugeot importers) to head up their factorysupported driving team for the following two years.Through Peugeot Concessionaires New Zealand Heatherdrove a Peugeot 306 XRdt to break the New Zealand outrightdiesel land speed record. This project, managed by husbandand motorsport promoter Brian Lawrence, culminated insecuring both the flying mile (118.894mph) and flyingkilometre (191.448kph) records in very adverse weatherconditions. She also claimed a new flying mile sprint record(116.354mph) for the Peugeot 106 Club Sport on the same day.O P E L A S T R AHeather was invited to contest the 1995 Nurburgring24 hour driving an Opel Astra Group N touring car. The teamqualified 3rd in class against factory backed teams and racedas high as 47th out of 156, leading their class, before gearboxproblems caused a lengthy pit stop. Their final placing was10th in class and 67th overall.T R A N S A M C H E V R O L E T C A M A R OThe same year an invitation wasreceived from the American basedteam of Bruce Jenner Racing forHeather to drive the team's Camarofor the final two rounds of the NewZealand Transam Championship.Their regular driver, American ChrisKneifel, had to return to the USAearly and could only compete in 3of the 5 rounds. Despite havingnever driven a Transam car and withminimal time to acclimatise herself,her debut exceeded everyone'sexpectations netting a 4th, 5th and4 x 6th placings from 6 races.>>