V8 Racing - Another Rugby World Cup Fiasco?

Don’t Let V8 Racing Become Another Rugby World Cup Fiasco

New Zealand blew the chance to co-host the Rugby World Cup and the same was on the cards for the New Zealand leg of the International Supercar series, says Klaus Sorensen from the Auckland V8 Street Race Supporters Club.

At a hearing in Auckland today, Mr Sorensen urged the commissioners to approve the resource consent application and let the proposed Auckland Street Race Festival proceed. He used the iconic Tour De France as an example of people managing traffic situations.

“They close major intersections throughout France and Europe so the race can go ahead and there are many other examples where public inconvenience is regarded as being secondary to the benefits achieved by major international sporting events.

“There is nothing actually wrong with inconvenience. We experience inconvenience every day of our lives, but narrow-minded people work on the assumption that the public aren’t prepared to put up with a degree of inconvenience.

Warren Stewart presented a petition of 4000 names to the commission as a “work in progress” on behalf of the street race supporters club. He said the petition would continue in both an electronic and paper based format.

Mr Stewart told the hearing that local businesses in the immediate vicinity of the track wanted the street race to go ahead.

“It is time we reinstalled pride back into Auckland City and started developing events to enhance our wonderful city and its features, as so many international cities do. They embrace and develop events to promote to the international market,” he said.

Mr Stewart presented a letter from a supermarket inside the street racetrack at Surfers Paradise, which was totally unprepared for the massive influx of fans generated by the race.

Now called the Pit Stop News and Supermarket, the letter said that in four days the event had generated nearly four times the average weekly turnover and the quiet period while the track was being installed was more than compensated by these sales.

ENDS

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