Spectacular stadium offroad racing comes to town

 

Christchurch racer Bryan Chang is the first southern Thundertruck entry in his Giti Tyres Chev turbo. It was the first Thundertruck built in New Zealand to the popular ProLite design and is a multiple New Zealand champion.

It's on: New Zealand’s newest race circuit kicks off the coming year with a new national championship offroad race event held over two weekends: the 2021 Mickey Thompson New Zealand Stadium Offroad Racing Championship.

The new Manukau International Offroad Stadium on Prices Road near Auckland Airport is the venue for the two-round American-style stadium events, with racing to be held on 13 February and 6 March 2021.

This is New Zealand offroad racing’s newest title fight and it brings the fastest and most spectacular race drivers to Auckland’s doorstep.

The purpose-built racetrack features with tabletop jumps, berms, switchbacks and high speed straights, all set out to give spectators the best possible up-close view of the action.

Already, entries for the top race classes have hit maximum grid numbers, with more than 15 ThunderTrucks, the same number of unlimited ‘Pro1’ race cars and up to 30 UTV or ‘side by side’ race cars.

Competition will run from 1.00pm to 5.00 pm on both race days, with rapid-fire changes between races. The day’s format is modeled on successful Kiwi speedway events and is heat-based, with the opening heat gridded according to date of entry, the second in reverse order and the third a ‘semi-main’ heat.

The heats are followed by two 15-lap feature races to end each day’s racing. 

The Lucas Oil feature race groups together ProBuggy, Challenger, SuperBug, Ultra4, Ultra4Turbo and Ultra4Pro cars; the Mickey Thompson feature race pits the Pro1, ThunderTruck and ProLite trucks against each other.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BMW nears the end of a 20 year journey to alternative auto power

Image
German automaker BMW has confirmed it is close to launching a hydrogen fuel-cell version of its X5 SUV. Like most new technology developments, the iX5 Hydrogen is an ‘umbrella’ vehicle, aiming to spread the word about hydrogen as a fuel using the brand’s high end 4WD and starting with demonstrations and real-road testing. The project is another instance in a developing relationship between BMW and Toyota that started with the Japanese brand adopting the BMW Z4 as the basis for its new Supra, Toyota is building the fuel cell units for BMW to fit into the iX5. The announcement is also seen by some as redefining the current push toward plain EV vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles create their own electrical power using water in a complex but effective chemical process on board the host vehicle. Emissions are limited to water vapour. Exciting news for the motoring public, though not exactly the news politicians trying to push the public onto trains and buses were needing to read right no...
Read more

Graham McRae 5 March 1940 - 4 August 2021

Image
I met Graham McRae just the once, when Michael Clark brought him down to Palmerston North to the New Zealand Grand Prix. On that occasion, there was McRae, Damon Hill and Josh Hill, Chris Amon and - if memory serves - also Howden Ganley all perched in the house bar of our hotel supping ales and swapping yarns.  I was happy enough to shut up and listen to some epic tales. This remains the biggest gathering of F1 drivers I have ever sat amongst. Travel well, Graham. It was an honour and a privilege to meet you. The image here is by good bugger and ace lensman Terry Marshall. Graham McRae 5 March 1940 - 4 August 2021 New Zealand racing driver and constructor Graham McRae has passed away. He had been unwell for some time and was aged 81. McRae was one of New Zealand’s most successful drivers and race car builders, a three-time champion of the Tasman Series, champion in the 1972 SCCA Continental 5000 series and multiple Australian Grand Prix winner (1972, 1973, 1976, 1978). Fe...
Read more

BMW Race Driver Series adds new ‘spec’ class for E46 3 series

Image
     An E46 race build under way. RCIS photo   The biggest race series in New Zealand has announced a new single-specification class for the coming season, using the E46 coupe and four door versions of BMW’s ever popular 3 Series. Organisers say the aim is to give competitors a chance to compete in motorsport at reasonable cost by limiting permissible modifications In fact the class prohibits any modification not specifically tagged in the rules. The E46 class features ‘showroom’ 320i four or two door cars with the M54B22 24-valve, twin cam six cylinder engine. Gearboxes allowed are the Getrag and ZF manual five speed transmissions used in the road cars. There are upwards of 12 cars in-build for the current season. The BMW series started in 2006 with a single-class competition for BMW’s E30 3 Series. Inspired by a similar competition in the UK, it rapidly grew to be the most successful such series in the country. It soon expanded to include a class for 2.0-litr...
Read more