The New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing starts today and is running all weekend at the Hampton Downs Racetrack. More than 120 of the world’s most iconic and valuable historic race cars have travelled to NZ to take part in the festival.

The event is the first major international race meeting at the brand new Hampton Downs facility this Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th before shifting to Pukekohe for the following weekend (29th-31st), will mark the 40th anniversary of the passing of Kiwi racing and engineering legend Bruce McLaren.

There are almost 400 entries – with cars valuing tens of millions of dollars – confirmed. A total of 123 are international entries and organisers believe this is easily the largest amount of cars to travel to the country for a motor sports event.

Cars from Ferrari, Chevrolet, Lotus, Aston Martin, MG, Lola, March, Cooper and Brabham are all confirmed, as are cars from home constructors McRae, Begg and of course, McLaren. Many have been rebuilt or restored specifically for the meetings.

The cars date from the fifties through to the mid seventies and the racing will include ten classes for single seaters, sports cars and saloons and the highlights will be one of the biggest ever fields assembled of Formula 5000 cars and a field of spectacular CanAm cars, including McLaren’s that raced in the hands of Kiwi legends Denny Hulme and Bruce Mclaren himself.

In keeping with the period cars, all spectators to the event are being encouraged to wear period clothing from the fifties and sixties. “We really do want everyone to get into the spirit of the event,” commented event organiser Jim Barclay.  “This will be like a trip back in time and it would be great to see some of the many superbly restored and well-cared for classic cars in New Zealand come out for those weekends.”

“If the event is a success it has a great chance of becoming one of just a handful of globally recognised international historic motoring events, alongside the likes of the Goodwood Revival, Pebble Beach in the USA and the Philip Island meeting in Australia.”

Entries have come from Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Denmark, Belgium and even Dubai with around 1,000 international motorsport visitors expected to descend on New Zealand.

The racing starts at 9am on all three days and concludes at 4pm.

Tickets are available at the gate and vary in price from $30 – $90

To find out more head to www.nzfmr.co.nz

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