Taupo A1GP Future Looks Doubtful.....

[nic.v814]

Hampton Downs looks like it will produce some good racing especially in that hairpin/dipper corner

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=nvu2NC...eature=related

[fredd1]

TR7V8's right on the money.
Always find accommodation in Taupo a problem even when there's 'nothing' on. Plus the place is plain expensive.
Can't even begin to imagine fighting the traffic in and out again to attend something like a major event there.

Roll on Hampton.

[Armco Bender]

You ever seen the traffic snarl up when they have the drags at Meremere?.
Traffic in and out of Taupo was a breeze for the first A1,if you only want to go race day,stay at Rotovegas or Tauranga and drive down,its only 1 1/2hrs from Tauranga.

[nic.v814]

Yea i know traffic should be interesting if they get big events there. But im sure they can plan around it and the main problem with meremere is just you have to give way to tonnes of cars coming the other way and its a 1 lane road at that point i think but the turnoff to hampton downs its 2 or 3 lanes their and you get an off ramp

[TR7V8]

Well the Taupo race has been confirmed so look for me gridding the cars on the start/finish straight.

The support race line up will be interesting. Gone are the championship races of the NZV8s, NZ Production & Formula Fords. Instead there will be trophy races for Porsches, Toyota TRS & I think the Minis. The Porsche teams will be doing a 50 minute lap apparently - a few more than the 12 lappers they normally do. I wonder how many times Baird will lap the 2nd place car?

[TwoSheds]

Originally Posted by TR7V8

Well the Taupo race has been confirmed so look for me gridding the cars on the start/finish straight.

The support race line up will be interesting. Gone are the championship races of the NZV8s, NZ Production & Formula Fords. Instead there will be trophy races for Porsches, Toyota TRS & I think the Minis. The Porsche teams will be doing a 50 minute lap apparently - a few more than the 12 lappers they normally do. I wonder how many times Baird will lap the 2nd place car?

Even my clapped out old road car could do a quicker lap....

[nic.v814]

Originally Posted by TR7V8

Well the Taupo race has been confirmed so look for me gridding the cars on the start/finish straight.

The support race line up will be interesting. Gone are the championship races of the NZV8s, NZ Production & Formula Fords. Instead there will be trophy races for Porsches, Toyota TRS & I think the Minis. The Porsche teams will be doing a 50 minute lap apparently - a few more than the 12 lappers they normally do. I wonder how many times Baird will lap the 2nd place car?

I reckon baird will get bored after hes lapped the 2nd placed car 4 times then he will probably go for a drive down the road have a cold one and then come back to win.

[TR7V8]

I hope everybody realises I meant to say "a 50 minute race."

Sometimes my proof reading is rubbish.

Looking at the Motorsport NZ web site, the only classes scheduled for the A1GP are the GT3s & the Toyotas. I won't have much to do all weekend except look at the grid girls.

[nic.v814]

Originally Posted by TR7V8

I hope everybody realises I meant to say "a 50 minute race."

Sometimes my proof reading is rubbish.

Looking at the Motorsport NZ web site, the only classes scheduled for the A1GP are the GT3s & the Toyotas. I won't have much to do all weekend except look at the grid girls.

Sounds like a good weekend to me

[TwoSheds]

Originally Posted by TR7V8

I hope everybody realises I meant to say "a 50 minute race."

Sometimes my proof reading is rubbish.

I did realize what you meant but I just couldn't resist!

[Kiwi3]

Originally Posted by TR7V8

I hope everybody realises I meant to say "a 50 minute race."

Sometimes my proof reading is rubbish.

Looking at the Motorsport NZ web site, the only classes scheduled for the A1GP are the GT3s & the Toyotas. I won't have much to do all weekend except look at the grid girls.

Chengdu only had a single support category. All I did was look at the grid girls...

[RichardRenes]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Chengdu only had a single support category. All I did was look at the grid girls...

As we can see on Racexpress.com

[brown dog]

Originally Posted by TR7V8

I hope everybody realises I meant to say "a 50 minute race."

Sometimes my proof reading is rubbish.

Looking at the Motorsport NZ web site, the only classes scheduled for the A1GP are the GT3s & the Toyotas. I won't have much to do all weekend except look at the grid girls.

Central Muscle Cars, (who would normally run at the HRC meeting In Puke on the same weekend) will be running there too. Sounds like some of the drivers were not too impressed about the $700 entry fee per car compared to the $200 per car to run at HRC/Puke! Most of these guys are self funding so an extra $500 certainly makes a difference.

[TR7V8]

The Porsches are being paid to turn up so the muscle cars will be right to feel hard done by. There must be good prize money though. NZ's tradition of having several support classes & a full race schedule over 3 days is not one I'd like to see diminished. Last year we had Porsches, NZV8s, TRS, FF & NZ Prod at least that was all I took pics of. I'm sure we had Minis as well.

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/n...008/?start=100

[socram]

According to a report in today's paper, Taupo are still trying to negotiate a future for A1GP. My guess is that it is a tad too early for Hampton Downs this year, and the rulings of the environment court were that no large meetings could be held until the traffic management at smaller meetings was deemed successful, so it would make sense to delay A1GP at HD for a season.

The owners of HD were prepared to extend their 'back road' towards Meremere drag venue, and that could then be linked to the state highway to form a one way traffic system of immense value to both venues.

Unfortunately, Transit NZ (the government's traffic authority) was one of just two objectors (the other was also a government department) energetically and expensively trying to thwart the circuit, and the money wasted could have resolved any and all roading issues with cash to spare.

Sorry that Muscle Cars have been stung with a $700 entry fee, but the Classic meeting at Pukekohe has 250 plus entries and the entry fee is at normal rates, so that is where I'll be!

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by socram

The owners of HD were prepared to extend their 'back road' towards Meremere drag venue, and that could then be linked to the state highway to form a one way traffic system of immense value to both venues.

Unfortunately, Transit NZ (the government's traffic authority) was one of just two objectors (the other was also a government department) energetically and expensively trying to thwart the circuit, and the money wasted could have resolved any and all roading issues with cash to spare.

Typical of the crap dished out by jumped up "little hitlers" controlling the world we live in...makes you want to go out and buy a decent over and under and go postal

[Armco Bender]

More bleakess news http://www.stuff.co.nz/4822498a13275.html

[Marcel ten Caat]

And to make it even more doubtful...

Dutch website Autosport.nl is reporting that the cars are still in Malaysia because the A1GP organisers apparently did not pay for the transportation of the cars yet.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Stranger

And to make it even more doubtful...

Dutch website Autosport.nl is reporting that the cars are still in Malaysia because the A1GP organisers apparently did not pay for the transportation of the cars yet.

The story that Armco Bender linked to just before your post said that the cars were now on their way from Asia to New Zealand, although it gave the reason for the delay as outstanding money owed to FIAT (i.e. Ferrari), which has now been paid.

The official website is putting out news stories, such as Salvador Duran returning for Mexico and Marco Andretti staying in the USA car, but is strangely quiet in other areas. There has been no word as to who will drive for GBR, with Danny Watts otherwise engaged with the arrival of his and his partner's first child.

Oddly enough Facebook is a guide as to what's happening, because a lot of my friends on there are involved in A1GP and I would expect to have seen a lot more posts than I have about people being on their way to NZ. I think Taupo will happen, but it's not quite going according to plan at the moment.

[Mak]

Nothing has changed then! The cars were impounded after Zandvoort by transport company for non payment. Hence the lack of testing for several teams which had been planned to help them catch up with the rests testing programme. Also teams are still waiting for last years prize monies??

[mountainstar]

A1 has had their back to the wall before, so hopefully it works out.

[Kiwi3]

I've done a wee tidy up, splitting the GBR stuff and also this thread. Can we please have posts about this coming weekend in here and longer term speculation about the future of the NZ round in the other thread. Thanks.

[Armco Bender]

I would think there is little chance of A1 coming back to Taupo,the crowd numbers are plummeting,2 years ago there were twice as many grandstands and they were totally full,this weekend they were half full at best.
The crazy thing is there was a huge historic meeting at Pukekohe,a lot of people must have gone there.

[nic.v814]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

I would think there is little chance of A1 coming back to Taupo,the crowd numbers are plummeting,2 years ago there were twice as many grandstands and they were totally full,this weekend they were half full at best.
The crazy thing is there was a huge historic meeting at Pukekohe,a lot of people must have gone there.

Im not surprised crowd numbers were down they need to put more support races and other attractions in. Also the fact that crowd number has dropped off a bit is to be expected because when you first host an event everyone turns up just to check it out ,then the next year you only get the people back who actually enjoyed it (This is whats gonna happen at the hamilton 400 this year-way less spectators)

[Kiwi3]

The reason I have not gone back is the dust. Not fun having a wall of dust flying into you every time a car has run wide was not fun.