23 January 2010

Festival captures the imagination of thousands

An army of motorsports enthusiasts old and new turned out today to honour Kiwi motor racing legend Bruce McLaren at the first ever New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing.

For many, it was their first motor racing event and for some, the first time they had been to a race meeting for many years – but come they did, and in their thousands.

With period dress the order of the day, old school racers provided the action on the track at the first major motorsports event at the new Hampton Downs race track in front of an estimated crowd of up to 7,000. Stars in the cars included the evergreen Kenny Smith, who blitzed one of the biggest ever fields of Formula 5000 cars to show that despite approaching 70, he remains one of the world’s top drivers of the big open single seater five litre racers.

A Legends Parade of old cars raced or built by Bruce McLaren, plus a few he raced against over the years reminded the large crowds of the Kiwi racing icon, who died 40 years ago this year testing one of his CanAm cars.

“Everyone knows the McLaren Formula One team of today and we wanted to remind a new generation as well as those older enthusiasts that the DNA of that team started here in New Zealand with an ingenious, creative and gifted racing driver and engineer called Bruce McLaren,” explained Festival Chairman Jim Barclay.

“We were expecting quite a bit of interest but we have been stunned by the response to the event. Thousands turned up, with large numbers in period dress, and many were new to motor racing. It was great to see so many younger people as well. They were obviously keen to see the cars and take a look.

“Someone said to me that it was the noisiest, fastest and coolest museum they had ever seen.”

The New Zealand Festival of motor Racing continues Sunday with all of the racing classes competing twice during the day. Racing commences at 9.00am.