Motorsport events are fun for the whole family. Photo / Supplied
V8s or sprint cars, Ford or Holden, speed or crashes, the smell of gas or the roar of engines -- or all of the above. Whatever the reason you are into motorsport, there's plenty on this summer for the whole family.
Next weekend sees the return of the V8 supercars to Pukekohe Park Raceway for the ITM 500 Auckland. Three days of racing, by both the mighty V8s and other classes of race car, with plenty of other thrills and entertainment in between the action on the track.
As usual, it will be a battle between not only Holden and Ford but also Kiwi and Aussie drivers, including locals Shane Van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard, and Jamie Whincup, Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes from over the ditch. Ford fans will already know that the event has been won each time by a Holden, until last year Winterbottom took it out with a Ford FG Falcon.
The event is not just for folks with driver's licences. Kids under 12 are free with a paying adult, there's public transport to Pukekohe and trains from Britomart to Pukekohe are free for ticket-holders.
And this year there is the True Colours fan walk (Sunday, November 8) where spectators can walk onto the track and view the 25 cars and their drivers close-up.
The only New Zealand event in the Australasian V8 Supercars Championship, the event is big business for Auckland, generating around 50,000 visitor nights per year and putting an estimated $7.5 million into the Auckland regional economy.
Steve Armitage, from Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development says nearly a quarter of million people have attended the V8 Supercars ITM 500 since it returned to Auckland in 2013.
"Motorsport, perhaps more than any other sport, has its fanatical fan base and that brings large numbers of vehicle enthusiasts and the motorsport community to the event. And unlike any other motorsport event in New Zealand and Australia, the V8 Supercars have done a fantastic job in broadening the appeal of the event to reach a non-traditional motorsport community."
To give all Aucklanders the chance to connect with the excitement of the event, a special fan day will be held in central Auckland this Thursday starting with an American classic muscle cars parade up Queen St from Queens Wharf (starts at 11.40am) to Aotea Square. Fans can meet the drivers and enjoy other motorsport-themed entertainment.
To get you in the petrol mood tonight, Ateed hosts a special free drive-in showing of Fast & Furious 6 -- selected by an online poll -- at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane (gates open 7pm, movie 8.15pm). Registrations for car spots have sold out, but you can still watch from in the pavilion or on the grass.
If all that watching supercars makes you want to have a go yourself, you can get behind the wheel on the Pukekohe track through NZV8 Hot Laps. For $249 you can go for a 'quick fang': two 'flying laps' of the circuit as a front-seat passenger in a fully modified 400kw Holden V8 race car, or buy a three- or five-lap package.
You can also drive yourself, with the NZ V8 Race Drive Experience. You are taught the tricks of the trade before being let loose on the track (safely, and accompanied by an instructor).
And if a more James Bond-style of supercar is your thing, Drive Supercars offers the chance to get behind the wheel of one of its two Lamborghinis, two Ferraris, two Lotuses, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage or a Porsche 997 Turbo. Project manager Kelly Francis says packages available not only for adults, but also for 13-16-year-olds, to drive the cars in a safe yet thrilling environment.
Francis says while around 85 per cent of its customers are male, "the women we get actually do far, far better than the men -- mostly because they listen."
If you haven't been to Western Springs for a while, this summer might be the time to go back, with some new and different events hitting the track, says promoter Greg Mosen.
The season kicks off on November 14 with the Auckland championships and motorbike sidecar racing.
Legendary American sprint-car racer Steve Kinser, aka 'The King', will make his farewell tour. The second event, on November 28, will also feature Kinser and two other American drivers.
'From the feedback we've been getting, I'd say we'd be close to getting people up the grass bank, which we haven't seen since the 80s. It will be chocka,' Mosen says.
Kids under 14 are free, and Mosen says families are the speedway's stronghold: 'If you talk to any Aucklander they will tell you they used to go to speedway twenty years ago with their parents, and now they're coming back with their kids.'
Meanwhile, down in Onehunga the season is currently on hold at the Waikaraka Park Speedway, as Auckland Council has condemned its grandstand. President Frank Irvine is optimistic that alternative facilities will be organised, however, so keep an eye on the website for the resumption of a full calendar of racing over the summer.
Just south of the Bombays, the Hampton Downs motorsport park is getting an upgrade under its new owner, Tony Quinn.
Additional hospitality facilities are being built, as well as are a new control tower, a go-kart track, a second skid pan course and a new 1.2 km circuit, set for completion in May 2016.
The new hospitality area will be ready for action for the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing, celebrating Porsche, in January. More than 300 Porsches will be at Hampton Downs, ranging in age from the 1950s to the latest models.
The track also hosts the Waikato 400 V8 Festival, on November 28-29.
Just along the road at the Meremere Dragway, the first competition meeting of the summer season opens tomorrow. The dragway also hosts regular "drag wars" for all-comers wanting to test their mettle.
Stockcar, saloons, mini-sprints and other classes will get racing at the Huntly Speedway on November 7, including an opening night fireworks display. Whangarei Speedway (slogan: "our dirt tastes the best") also has its grand opening for the season on Saturday, November 7.
Baypark Family Speedway in Mt Maunganui has already opened its season, but has a race meeting and fireworks extravaganza on tonight, and its next meet -- a super stock cars and midget special -- on Saturday November 21.
Also in the Bay of Plenty, the Paradise Valley Raceway in Rotorua kicks off its season with a meet and fireworks on November 6.
• V8 Supercars ITM 500 Auckland, November 6-8, Pukekohe Park Raceway.
• Ateed events: Free drive-in movie: Fast & Furious 6; Saturday, October 31, gates open 7pm, movie starts 8.15pm, ASB Showgrounds, 217 Greenlane Rd West, Epsom; Auckland fan day: Thursday, November, from 10am. Drivers in Aotea Square from midday until 1.15pm.
• NZV8 Hot Laps/ NZV8 Race Drive Experience: at Pukekohe Park and other tracks around the country.
• Drive Supercars: luxury car driving experience at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato.
• Waikaraka Park: currently not operating, check website for details of when racing will resume.
• Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Hampton Downs Rd, Te Kauwhata.
• Meremere Dragway: Drag Way, Meremere.
• Huntly Speedway, McVie Rd, Huntly.
• Whangarei Speedway, Port Rd, Whangarei.
• Baypark Family Speedway, Truman Rd, Mt Maunganui.
• Paradise Valley Speedway, 105 Paradise Valley Rd, Ngongotaha, Rotorua.
Warriors star Kurt Capewell led the way for the Maroons.