2009: Matt recently signed on to race for RuSPORT Racing this season. Matt has not raced Champ Cars since back in 2007 while driving part of that season for Conquest Racing.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Born in Auckland in 1979 (age 26), Matt's racing career began in karting and during the mid 1990's, success came frequently and culminated in winning the NZ Junior Championship (Junior Light and National) in 1994. The following year he won the NZ City Of Sails Championship in Auckland and in 1996 the National Senior Karting Series.

During 1997 Matt purchased his first race car, a Formula Ford and contested some unofficial championships over the winter months then set out on an assault of the 1998 series. During the cut and thrust season he scored eight second places and 12 podium finishes for an overall 4th place in his first attempt at the series.

Rather than return for a second assault on the Formula Ford Championship, Matt surprised all when he negotiated a full season's drive in the Australian Formula Holden Championship with the Ralt Australia team. Despite not having previously seen an Australian circuit he adjusted well to score a series of podium finishes climaxed by a remarkable 2nd place in the high profile Adelaide 500 meeting. At the end of the year Ralt Australia brought Matt back across the Tasman to contest the New Zealand Grand Prix in which he finished 3rd.

Having finished 3rd outright in the 1999 Formula Holden championship, Halliday contested the 2000 series and again finished 3rd in the points but this time took the chequered flag at the Adelaide 500 feature race. He was then contracted to NRC Racing for the 2000 New Zealand Grand Prix and after a thrilling dice came home in 2nd place together with finishing Runner-up in the Tasman Cup Series.

Having come to the attention of some influential businessmen, Matt embarked on a campaign to break into the lucrative USA racing scene. Finances enabled him to compete in the 2001 USA Indy Lights Championship which was the second tier to the CART Champ Car World Series. At this point Halliday made the biggest impact of his career as he joined the series after missing the first three rounds and without any testing opportunities. Despite these disadvantages he finished every race in the points including two podium finishes (3rd place) to come 6th overall in the championship and 4th in the rookie standings for first year drivers. He also led over half his first oval superspeedway race at Kansas City despite predictions he would take several races to become competitive at this type of circuit.