There are several car racing themes in New Zealand and all of them have their own interesting angles. At Hampton Downs this sport will be celebrated between January 20th and January the 22nd at the annual New Zealand Festival of Motor racing. It will be visited with class by one of the world’s top racing car brands BMW. The F5000 monsters will be there to race too. The F5000 are still considered to be the best in the world from the 1960’s 70’s era. In addition to some contemporary racing machines, you will see cars that have decades of worldwide motor racing history behind them.
The variety of racing venues within New Zealand is eye opening. With the two very different car types in mind and the many different styles of racing available, let’s take a look at some of them and give you a quick insight.
NZ Six
This looks to be the area for the beginner hobbyist. There are rules and guidelines along with the firm belief that it is not what’s in the car that should win it’s your own driving skill that should take you over the finish line first. There are two race categories in NZ Six “Holden HQ” and “Super Six” The Holden HQ category uses heavier more sluggish cars, whereas the Super six uses lighter cars which are fine tuned to respond to steering better. It is said if you can master a car in the Holden HQ category you can drive anything.
Historic Muscle Car racing
The list of rules for this style of racing is complex and strict. Unlike the cars that are featured on the streets of Tokyo, portrayed in the movie, “Fast and Furious Tokyo drift”, the rules for this style of racing are disciplined. Modification specifications are defined in the guidelines along with what are and are not acceptable changes. This style of Motor racing looks to be for the more serious hobbyist, possibly mechanics themselves who enjoy modifying the car but getting someone else to drive it.
New Zealand rally racing
Cross country mayhem driving terrains at a speed most us would not dare too. Driving around the edges of a mountain with nothing to stop you going over, other that a wooden picket style fence. This is not, under any way, for the hobbyist in any way. This business is a serious one and in June of 2012 the FIA World Rally Championship will kick off for another intense challenge.
NZ Sports car Racing
Sports car racing is run on a circuit. If you watch Formula one, it is not that much different in rules and technique but New Zealand seem to love doing this in vintage style.
To sum up, car racing was just another fanboy sport in New Zealand until a crop of enthusiasts thought about setting up facilities to promote the sport. Naturally, when the interest grew to a point exceeding general expectations, more machines were imported to keep the racing environment alive, since then, New Zealand car racing has attracted great number of people.
