Big motor racing formula for NZ in 2012

29 July 2011
immediate release

Big motor racing formula for NZ in 2012

High-powered international race cars from the Superleague Formula are set for New Zealand, although their debut has been delayed a year.

Taupo’s international circuit has an option to stage a round of the glamorous world series in December 2012.

“The New Zealand round will be the final in the championship,” said the CEO of Taupo Motorsport Park, Geoff Langham, who has returned from Europe after negotiations with the worldwide organisers.

“They were still keen for us to stage a round at the end of this year, but after discussions with our potential financial backers we believe the timing is not quite right,” said Mr Langham.

“The cost of staging a round of a series of this magnitude is quite high, and we sense the New Zealand economy is not yet at the right level given the impact of cost increases, GST, the earthquakes and so on.”

Mr Langham says other negotiations make it likely another high-profile world series will also come to Taupo in the next two years.

“We are well advanced with plans to host a championship which is even more widely recognised,” he said. “Again it’s a European series which has not come to this part of the world before, and the organisers are keen to expand their horizons.”

In all discussions the attractions of Taupo and New Zealand are a strong element.

The Superleague bosses have visited Taupo and given the circuit and town a big tick.

“The final round of the series makes sense because teams and spectators stay on for a holiday break,” Mr Langham explained.

The Superleague Formula is extraordinary in motorsport terms, with single-seaters that perform like Formula One cars, using 750bhp V12 engines producing extremely close and exciting racing.

It visits some of the world’s most famous circuits including Monza, Nurburgring and Donington Park.

Football club involvement, where cars carry the colours of clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur and AC Milan, attracts worldwide fans from outside motorsport.
The series is televised around the world reaching using cutting-edge broadcast technology. It has never been raced further south than China.
ends

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