The Power of Pukekohe
28/4/2004 10:35 (Mark Jones) -
This weekend is V8Supercars annual visit to New Zealand. But Pukekohe isn't something you do in a bin behind the pub is it?
V8Supercar, or Group A as it was largely still known back then, (the V8Supercar moniker had yet to be attached, indeed the simpler Supercar was being touted at the time) first visited New Zealand for a two event, six race series at the end of the 1996 season. Greg Murphy had just taken over a Formula 3000 bound Craig Lowndes Commodore, won four of the six race to walk away with the series, setting up a familiar story for when the big bangers returned in the next decade.
Australian touring cars though had been coming to Pukekohe for sometime prior to that, and the circuit holds a special place in the history of Australian racing dating back to the 60s.
Pukekohe was opened in 1963 and as a circuit shares most with Warwick Farm, and particularly Sandown. The racing circuit was built around another circuit - one grassed, one built for vehicles of one horsepower. The start finish line sits on a gentle right sweeper which feeds into a three corner left-right-right sequence feeding onto a long right sweeping back straight which a big stop right hairpin and braking zone before a fast left and right to return to the grid. Simple but fast and very exciting with some interesting changing of elevation and those high speed corners drivers love so much.
The circuit is a similar age to Lakeside, the two Tasmanian circuits, Symmons Plains and Baskerville, Amaroo Park, Mallala, Calder Park, Sandown and Oran Park, of which only the latter two still run as a front line circuits. Facilities are correspondingly behind the times, but enthusiasm for New Zealands premier circuit is still high.
The circuit was a state of the art facility when the Tasman boom began just two years after the circuit openned. Chris Amon and Graham Hill each twice won the New Zealand Grand Prix, which quickly found a home at Pukekohe with Bruce McLaren and Jackie Stewart winning the other Tasman Cup era races when the Formula One teams of Europe flew half way around the around the world for a fun two months in the sun spent racing eight races in New Zealand and Australia, allowing young drivers from both countries to race against the likes of Tony Maggs, Piers Courage, Pedro Rodriguez, Derek Bell, Richard Attwood and World Champions, Graham and Phil Hill, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, John Surtees and of course home grown heroes, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.
The 500 series endurance race for Touring Car was a big draw for Australian teams when Australia adopted the international Group A regulations in 1985, with Peter Brock's Holden Dealer Team visiting as early as 1985. John Harvey shared a victory with Neal Lowe in 1986 for Brock. The hot Group A teams of Europe were regular visitors to this and its sister race at the Wellington Street Race. Interest faded into the 90's with Australian teams stopping their trips after the new 1993 regulations left their cars out in the cold, although the European BMW teams continuing for another couple of years. The series did allow first looks at emerging New Zealand Touring Car talent like Paul Radisich and Greg Murphy.
Since then Pukekohe has been the home of the New Zealand Formula Atlantic racing, although later, although when Formula Holden made some sporadic forays into New Zealand they missed Pukekohe, the speed a little high and the bumps a little fierce.
V8Supercar made its return in 2001 and before a packed house Greg Murphy again took an emotional victory and secured the events short term future. The circuit however is ageing and there is continuing speculation over the future of the New Zealand round, particularly centring over a street circuit in Auckland. One thing for sure though, this weekend will be a well attended race with the squadron of New Zealand born drivers like Steven Richards, Jason Richards, Simon Wills and Craig Baird each jostling each other to wrest the title away from Murphy.
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