Australian promoters take over Hamilton street race

The cash-strapped promoters of the Hamilton 400 V8 series have quit the event, blaming the economic recession for their exit.

But Hamilton City Council is confident about the event's future, securing it for a further three years.

Mayor Bob Simcock said yesterday that promoters Steve Vuleta and Dean Calvert of Caleta Streetrace Management were no longer financially able to run the event.

The promotion and management role will now be filled by V8 Supercars Australia, which already runs eight of the 15 rounds of the V8 Supercars championship.

Mr Simcock said despite a consistent slide in crowd numbers since the inaugural race in 2008, his council had extended its contract until 2017.

This will help to recover debts understood to be $1.78 million, which grew over the past two years when the council agreed to help bail out the promoters.

Mr Vuleta would not divulge how much the event had cost him and Mr Calvert but yesterday said he was proud of their efforts.

He said it had become "very, very difficult" to run things in the recession.

"The recession hit us in our second year and spun into our third. One of them was palatable but having to do it twice was too much."

V8 Supercars managing director Geoff Jones said they believed they could add more value to the event and would be looking at a range of enhancements including more bands and a possible change to the track's layout and seating arrangements.

Asked how V8 Supercars would counter the falling attendance rates - crowd numbers slipped from more than 170,000 in 2008 to about 100,000 this year - Mr Jones said people needed to be realistic.

"I don't think you need to be Einstein to work out that it has been a tough market in New Zealand and it continues to be a little bit tough.

"If you look at the crowds in the dominant codes here they haven't set the world on fire either."

Mayor Simcock said this year's event had brought an estimated $20 million to Hamilton. Plans to have the racing shifted to November instead of March were up for discussion.

- additional reporting NZPA