Things didn’t go to plan for three-time NZ V8 Touring Car champion, John McIntyre during his first shot at the North Island Endurance Series at Pukekohe Raceway on the weekend.

Partnered with endurance veteran Mike Eady, the V8-powered BMW M3 race car McIntyre was driving experienced a collapsed left-rear shock absorber. This meant the racing day unfortunately finished early for McIntyre and Eady. There are positives with the team qualifying well and running as high as fourth position in the 22-car field when the issue became too much of a hindrance to continue racing safely.

“We were reaching speeds of 265km/h and at that pace you need to have every confidence in your equipment.  Unfortunately the car was becoming too much of a handful and we had to make the disappointing call to retire,” said Mike Eady.

“It’s the first time in my career I’ve had a shock absorber fail and it’s the first time this car hasn’t finished a race.  It’s frustrating as we were well positioned and had an excellent fuel strategy in play which could have seen us finish on the podium.” (more…)

The New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing moves from Hampton Downs to Pukekohe Park Raceway this weekend. More than 120 of the world’s most iconic and valuable historic race cars have travelled to NZ to take part in the festival and racing will start from 9am tomorrow.

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.

There is a show and shine evening tonight (Jan 29th) with the racing starting tomorrow (Jan 30) at 9am.

Tickets are available at the gate and vary in price from $30 – $110

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

Few things in life are free these days so the Auckland Car Club is expecting a bumper crowd at its first 2009/10 season meeting at Pukekohe Park Raceway on this Sunday.

Traditionally there has always been a gate charge at Auckland Car Club meetings. But this weekend that has been waived.

The reasons, club Vice President Nigel Smith suggests, are many and varied. But at the end of the day, he says, it is about recognising that in much the same way there is competition for the club’s many racing members on the track, there is competition for spectators off it.

“The simple fact of the matter is that we’re all busy and come a weekend like this – particularly when you’ve got Fathers’ Day on the Sunday –  there are any number of things for people to do. What we’re saying, both to the people who have supported us for years, and to those who have always meant to come out and see what we’re about, is ‘come on out, this one’s on us. Make a day of it. Bring the family, bring a picnic if you like, but of course these days you can buy good food and even freshly brewed coffee at the circuit!’

The Auckland Car Club has been using Pukekohe Park Raceway since the early 1960s and over the years some of New Zealand’s best known drivers – including driver and constructor Bruce McLaren, World Touring Car champion Paul Radisich and Indycar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon – have cut their racing teeth on the fast, flowing 2.841km circuit.

Sunday’s meeting sees races for six different ‘tin-top’ classes with the added bonus of a One-Hour Endurance race late in the afternoon.

Always a crowd favourite are the Production and Northern Muscle Cars which include classic American models like Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros pitted against Australian models like Ford Falcons and Holden Monaros.

And joining the established categories for the second time this year is the new All Classic Japanese Series for early Japanese saloon and sports cars.

There are also classes for production cars – the staple of club competition – and racing saloons, with all competitors enjoying a mix of scratch (fastest to the front) and handicap races.

The action is on this Sunday September 6th with activity on the track starting at 10am with quick-fire races across all classes throughout the day before the one-hour enduro finale.

For more information on the meeting, click here to visit the Auckland Car Club website.

Pukekohe’s own BNT V8 Championship driver Dean Perkins is itching to get back on his home track for this weekend’s round of the series and is eager to improve on his fifth overall achieved when the big V8’s last raced at the circuit in November.

“Pukekohe is traditionally a happy hunting ground for me and the GT Racing team and we’d love to finish off the championship season with a podium finish,” said Dean Perkins. “I finished with two 3rd placings and a 14th when we were here in round two and was literally a handful of points away from spraying the champagne. Unfortunately there were a few too many competitors in front of us in the final reverse grid race and I couldn’t quite make up enough places. Fingers crossed a few things fall our way this time and we can wrap up the points scoring season in style.”

The #75 Falcon was in reasonable condition following a wet and wild round six at Manfeild, meaning the GT Racing crew can concentrate on fine-tuning some critical aspects of the car in an effort to extract some additional speed.

“Home advantage certainly plays a part in our success at Pukekohe, but I simply love the fast nature of the circuit,” said Mr Perkins. “It rewards drivers who are prepared to push things along and hang out a bit wider at critical parts of the track. I’m going to be driving as fast as I can and am hoping to finish on a winning note for GT Racing fans around the country.”

The round gets underway on Friday March 13 with two test sessions followed on Saturday March 14 by qualifying and the first race. The second and third V8 races are scheduled to run on Sunday March 15, with the final outing being a 20-lap reverse grid battle featuring a rolling start.

The team at the GT Racing pit will be giving away free posters all weekend and as an added bonus will also be running a hot-lap session at the Pukekohe track on March 16.

Each package costs $295 and includes three hot-laps with Dean in a race-ready Ford Falcon V8. This is the final GT Racing hot-laps day scheduled for the immediate future and bookings can be made by contacting the hot-laps manager on 0800 888 973.