THE fleet of Carrera Cup Australia Porsches are currently making their way across the Tasman Sea ahead of Round 2 of the season at Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand.
Carrera Cup’s position as a support to the Repco Supercars Championship’s ITM Taupo Super400 marks just the second time the Australia class has raced outside its homeland.
Unlike the 24 Gen3 Supercars that will be air-freighted to NZ, the German thoroughbreds and associated equipment are travelling by boat.
It was a process that began as soon as racing finished at Albert Park’s opening round late last month, where the third and final race took place on Saturday evening.
A majority of teams remained within the Porsche precinct in Albert Park on Sunday to prepare cars before returning to workshops or loading directly on Monday and Tuesday following the event.
Eleven shipping containers have been used to freight the entire field to NZ, two having departed from Queensland and the remainder from Gibson’s Melbourne base in Tullamarine, where they were loaded following the Grand Prix event while teams were in town.
Six containers carry the vehicles themselves, while the remainder have been allocated to take spare parts, team pit equipment and other necessities required for racing away from home.
The total freight weighs more than 35,000 kilograms, with 19 Australian cars making the journey – to be joined by four Kiwi wildcards during the April 19-21 Taupo event.
As well as the enormous support from Gibson Freight, logistical support at the New Zealand end has been provided by the Giltrap Group and Porsche Motorsport New Zealand.
Porsche Cars Australia motorsport manager Barry Hay paid tribute to the combined effort required to get the show to NZ.
“This has been one of the largest logistical efforts we’ve ever had to manage and it’s taken an enormous amount of effort from the entire team, and the teams coming to New Zealand, to make it happen,” he said.
“There are so many little details to consider, from making sure all the cars are completely clean and debris free when they are loaded so Customs in New Zealand are happy when they land.
“There were racking systems to be welded to carry spare parts for Porsche Motorsport and the teams, and that’s before you even loaded the cars.
“Fortunately, Gibson Freight are the best in the world at this and their effort has been outstanding.
“All our teams have pitched in with the same effort they apply to making their cars go fast and as a result we’ve got the field on the Sea and they’ll land in New Zealand next week, get inspected, and then travel down to Taupo.
“Everyone is fired up to get on track and race internationally and there are going to be plenty of bragging rights to see who can become the first winners of a Carrera Cup Australia race on New Zealand soil.”
In total, more than 100 people will travel from Australia purely to support the second round of Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia, in addition to the large number working on Supercars teams and series management.
Harri Jones leads the standings by 35-points over Dale Wood following a fiery Albert Park event, after which Jones was fined $10,000 for breaking the category’s Code of Conduct rules in a post-race altercation with his rival.
