V8s to Pukekohe (formerly No more V8 Supercars in NZ?!)

[NZSTfan]

Great news and good to see how the coin will be spent. Does make you wonder though if 10 mill is enough??

But either way i a stoked its all official, although most of us knew this was going to happen many months ago

[Goat Boy]

Originally Posted by smokin'joe

good too see some of the 'costs' from Hamilton are going to incorporated into bringing Pukekohe into line, safety-wise.
It makes no sense to spend money creating a street event , when there are many tracks that can benefit from the cash injection a race of this status can bring in.

a wise descision.

A wise decision excepting the one to put a chicane on the back straight! The thing that everyone loves about Pukekohe is the sheer speed that fast cars can reach down the back straight - to put a chicane in will ruin it completely! They should spend that money building some permanent pit facilities.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by NZSTfan

Great news and good to see how the coin will be spent. Does make you wonder though if 10 mill is enough??

But either way i a stoked its all official, although most of us knew this was going to happen many months ago

Its more than ten million though i believe, $10 mill is aucklands committment, there is a desire for more from the NZ government

[Scrut]

$7,818,000.00 IN REAL MONEY.

[smokin'joe]

Originally Posted by Goat Boy

They should spend that money building some permanent pit facilities.

and smoothing out the yumps over the hill................ unless they want to have a Rally NZ syage there in the future ??

[peckstar]

do the hamilton assets include pit building?

[Trev Campbell]

I was excited to here this and then massively dissapointed when I read they are putting a chicane in the back straight !!! WTF ???? The great thing about puke is the speed of the place. Plus a long straight into a hairpin is one of the few places to pass. Putting a chicane will just take away passing oportunities. Making that racing boring, just like a Hamilton !!!!

I fail to understand why motor racing organisers a afraid of speed, it is motor racing afterall, speed is the essence of the thing.

[Goat Boy]

Originally Posted by Trev Campbell

I was excited to here this and then massively dissapointed when I read they are putting a chicane in the back straight !!! WTF ???? The great thing about puke is the speed of the place. Plus a long straight into a hairpin is one of the few places to pass. Putting a chicane will just take away passing oportunities. Making that racing boring, just like a Hamilton !!!!

I fail to understand why motor racing organisers a afraid of speed, it is motor racing afterall, speed is the essence of the thing.

Damn straight!! Or no damn straight as it turn out...

[smokin'joe]

i guess it gives the drivers another corner to cut 3 times to earn a drive through ???

[peckstar]

just asking because its been along time

I was always under the impression that there was a lack of run off at the end of the back straight, is that right? and if so is that the likely reason that they have added a chicane?

[Southern Man]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

Nope....never saw a passing move at Puke the whole time they had chicanes.
.

So you never saw Keke Rosberg or Brian Redman then, pity, they were magic

[harcey]

Originally Posted by Southern Man

So you never saw Keke Rosberg or Brian Redman then, pity, they were magic

agreed CR.....i have already made the point....plus depending on the configuration of the chicane the hairpin will become a bigger opp for passing.....but a good number of posters here are wannabees... not racers...
rosberg on the back straight chicane........a memory to the grave....

[Goat Boy]

Originally Posted by harcey

agreed CR.....i have already made the point....plus depending on the configuration of the chicane the hairpin will become a bigger opp for passing

But slower too, which is just not as fun. How often do you get to see a car travelling at 280k+ in NZ? Well you won't here either if they do that.

Many posters here are not crinkly enough to remember Rosberg either...

[Armco Bender]

So you never saw Keke Rosberg or Brian Redman then, pity, they were magic

ha...Brian Redman cut the back chicane on the first lap of the 1976 GP...and Keke Rosberg won from the front and never passed anyone both years I saw him there.
I'd rather watch a drag race down the back straight and some demon braking and watch the cars drifting over the top of the hill on the front straight than watch a procession around the track.

[harcey]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

ha...Brian Redman cut the back chicane on the first lap of the 1976 GP...and Keke Rosberg won from the front and never passed anyone both years I saw him there.
I'd rather watch a drag race down the back straight and some demon braking and watch the cars drifting over the top of the hill on the front straight than watch a procession around the track.

i think you missed the point with rosberg from a purists point of view....and 'procession around the track'...did you watch when v8sc were last at puke??...thank god for the crashes back then....

[promax]

sounds like someone isn't so happy about this good news *shrugs*

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by peckstar

V8 Supercars To Return To Pukekohe

Infrastructure from the Hamilton event will be transported to Pukekohe as part of the improvements. This infrastructure will be re-engineered and fitted at the circuit permanently for other events throughout the year.

I like this bit.

I wonder how much of the Townsville Street circuit infrastructure could be used to build a permanent circuit in North Qld.......................

[Razor]

Personally I would like to see the new chicane to be named after Jason Richards. Does The Jason Richards Complex sound any good?

[TrueBlueFlyer]

I wonder where the chicane will go?

to the left of the billboards in race direction is a rail line, to the right is the horse track... I guess it'll be a small one?

[RogerH]

Hopefully they can configure the chicane so that the back straight has two operable configurations - with the chicane and without the chicane. This would allow the old straight to still be used as this is part of the character of Pukekohe.

[Goat Boy]

Agree with Roger there, and he isn't a "wannabe" either Harcey so I think your point is not valid.

This from the TV3 article:


As part of agreement Pukekohe Park will get a $6.6 million upgrade.

The rival New Zealand owned Supertourers franchise says for only $250,000 it could bring big names like Scott Dixon to its race at Pukekohe..

“I think they should be looking after the interests of ratepayers and that's to pay as little as they can,” says Supertourers’ Mark Petch.

But the council says that event wouldn’t bring the returns it wants.

“At the moment that event isn't generating enough visitor nights and economic benefit to make it into our major portfolio,” says Ms Wooten.

So Auckland petrol heads will have to rely on the Aussie supercars instead to get their V8 fix.


I'm sorry, I don't quite get that last paragraph. Don't we actually get both of them anyway? ST will benefit from the upgrade as much as any other users of the track, I guess it will depend on how the actual construction interrupts Pukekohe's normal race season, which really begins about September.

If they are going to upgrade the circuit I suspect it won't be able to be major works outside of the footprint, because once you get to a certain size it triggers an earthworks consent, which means another 6 month delay...

So the question is, when do the upgrades happen and what will happen to events (like the ST's and the NZV8's) that are already programmed to race there this year?

[peckstar]

wondring if this thread needs a title update/adjustment as the topic has moved on to the new round in NZ

[Club racer]

Any work to improve the track - regardless of what that is - will be welcomed by actual racing drivers and bike racers who use the circuit in New Zealand. Every driver and every series using the facility will benefit from that - and that wasn't the case with Hamilton of course.

So in that regards, rejoice and share the love for God's sake.

The financials and the predicted 'bed days' just don't make sense to me and believe me I have seen these 'guestimates' before. In every single case they fall way short.

When it was last at Puke in 2007, we could easily find hotel rooms (so they were not full, or anywhere near). In the end, we just decided to drive over and drive back that night. Cheaper, full stop. Suspect many people in Tron, Auckland, North Shore, BoP will all do that, and that is largely the catchment area. Another regular factor in this process are the 'special rates' the hotels come up with for these big weekends. Add 45% per room and you'll be about there.

So will there really be a $7 million benefit for Auckland? Well, you and I will never know because they just CANNOT calculate it realistically. The reality is that the ONLY Aussies coming will be the teams and their sponsors etc, and most of the crowd will be within driving distance of the circuit, fact of life I'm afraid. And no different to Hamilton in that regard. What is great is that the Puke community will definitely get a huge boost from it, if also the headache of the traffic, which will surely be absolute bedlam.

As far as competitors go for support classes, doubtless it will be the 'open rip off' seen at Hamilton these past couple of years. Rung what ya brung and pay $1000 for the privelage. Er, no thanks.

For me at least

- BRILLIANT as a fan that the Supercars ars are coming

- BRILLIANT as a driver that Pukekohe will be improved

- BRILLIANT for NZ focussed series like V8ST, F5000, CMC, BMW, Historic MC, Trofeo, F Junior, Honda, Historic FF etc who have all worked bloody hard to maintain and build grids in current times that they will have a better circuit to race on.

- LAUGHABLE that I hear that the promoter will likely be one 'M Fine'.

- QUITE OBVIOUS that Hampton Downs and V8ST in their own ways have been shafted by MSNZ in this process. No surprises there, but dispicable nonetheless.

May be far fetched but imagine if Hampton Downs now got the money in place it needed to complete its track and pits and turn it into a truly world class facility, does a long term deal with V8ST as the premier series running there, which in turn secures deals with all of the healthy classes in NZ in a roster format of what runs at its meetings, mops up all of the old generation V8s for its Challenge Cup and effectively takes control of the only top line motorsport worth watching - or indeed worth competing in - in New Zealand.

That'll send shivers down the spines of the Auckland council, ratepayers, MSNZ and V8SC.

[RogerH]

Originally Posted by Goat Boy

If they are going to upgrade the circuit I suspect it won't be able to be major works outside of the footprint, because once you get to a certain size it triggers an earthworks consent, which means another 6 month delay...

From memory, any earthworks exceeding 500m2 requires a consent. I would think that the construction of the new chicane would exceed this. However, I bet the consent delays that you and I would face won't happen as Auckland City will bend the rules for the Counties Racing Club.

[NZSTfan]

Thats well put Club racer