New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing (2014)

[Howard Wood]

Hi Habu.
As one of the directors of the Festival, I can tell you that we think long and hard about the upcoming Festival and try to make each year a bigger and better 'circus'. The competitor entry was down, noticeably the BMW's, but the new class of Sports Sedans added many interesting cars. Next week there will be three new classes, including Formula Libre. The Taupo round the weekend before does impact on the Festival, but HRC has many competitors asking for that event, so what do we do? There were more trade stands than last year, positioned down the wall where the spectators come in. Ray mentioned that some classic and historic events are free for spectators, but these are the low profile events that cater solely for the competitors. All HRC events are marketed and advertised to try to build up classic and historic racing and a gate charge is made to cover these costs. We are trying to build up motorsport overall, firstly by building a circuit and then promoting race meetings to the public. I know the $40 entry charge is at the upper level, but early bird and online purchasing is cheaper. (V8 Supercars are considerably more expensive). My wife and I went to the movies the other night the other night and paid $17 each for a two hour film - 8 hours of motorsport is much better value! I think we have learnt that both competitors and spectators are fickle and we definitely cannot please them all, but I guess we will keep trying!

Hi Tony,

As you know there is so much competition for the entertainment dollar today and despite the predictions there seems less leisure time available so most attractions have to reinvent themselves every so often to stay fresh and relevant.

As a competitor with very strong views on the need to maintain historical accuracy in "Historic" classes I fully support the direction and ethos of the festival and would love to see it develop to become the equal of any of the major festivals word wide. I also realise that you need to offer more than one weekend's racing to attract overseas entries and this is particularly true for the F/ Juniors next year. On the other hand, for local entrants particularly those running in other concurrent series the two weekend format can be a challenge. In my case, the Taupo BMW series round Jan 11/12 folllowed by two weekends of the Festival requires other family members sacrificing too much of their available holiday time year after year than is reasonable.

In addition, the date clash with the Scope races in the South Island means that many potential competitors (and I know several FFers in this category) have to make a choice between the two. Is it practical to split the festival format over two weekends between HD and Scope (or some other venue such as Queenstown) with the option of a either a one weekend or two weekend entry fee? It seems to me that this might offer something to attract more overseas entrants, show other parts of the country what you are trying to do here while catering for time poor local competitors such as myself.