This Weekend: The New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing!
Where would be this weekend? For once it is a simple decision, the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing at the Hampton Downs circuit, Auckland, being the place to be with a two-day meeting a wide variety of racing and in particular honouring Kiwi legend Ken Smith, the 75-year-old out in five different cars over the weekend.
Practice and the first qualifying sessions started today, then across the weekend an impressive 43-races are scheduled across Saturday and Sunday. Categories range from the Formula 5000s where Smith has for many years been a lead name, Formula One - with the Lyons family having made the journey from the UK, along with a number of historic F1 regulars such as Greg Thornton - to Touring Cars, Formula Junior and historic Formula Ford.
If the lure of Antipodean summer temperatures are not enough to tempt chilly Europeans down under for the Festival, the meeting is just the first of three on consecutive weekends. Next weekend sees the Race of Champions Revival at the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Par in Taupo, while the historic triad finishes with the Skope Classic Mike Pero Motorsport Park meeting at Ruapuna, Christchurch.
A fitting reminder of some of the names and heritage that New Zealand has bequeathed to the sport over the years, if you have the urge to travel, then these are three weekends guaranteed to reward.
