Craig Baird, seen here in the Australian GT Championship in 2008 started the new year in a very positive way

For our first news brief for the year, GT1 World news, Le Mans Intercontinental Challenge and an acknowledgement from the Queen is all here!

• It appears that Gigawave Motorsport is no longer - although Gigawave the media group still exists. It has been rumoured that the team has shut their operations and sold equipment. The team were to run the official Nissan in the FIA GT1 Championship in 2010. Swiss Racing Team is still slated to run one of the cars.

  Gigawave had previously run Aston Martins and employed disgraced F1 engineer Nigel Stephney. Although we have nothing but common sense to base this on, we expect Nissan to make an announcement regarding a replacement team for Gigawave for their 2010 World GT1 plans



• Despite Audi committing to the Le Mans Intercontinental Cup, Peugeot will not follow suit. When talking to Autosport, Team Boss Olivier Quesnel said the team will probably not compete after Le Mans while they get their new car in order. The official Peugeot announcement in February will outline their 2010 plans. If they don't compete, Audi will surely have a (virtually) unrivaled crack at the crown.
• New Zealand racer, Craig Baird was recogised by the Queen (UK) in her New Years address. Baird was recognised for his services to Motorsport. He has won eight titles in Australia and New Zealand and has competed in sportscars and touring cars in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. He has also competed at the Nurburgring and Spa 24 Hours. An interesting fact - Baird was the winningest driver in 2008 - winning 32 races during the year.

Sam Tickell