THE latest push for a Supercars double-header in New Zealand is being led by none other than RACE chairman Barclay Nettlefold.
Speaking on The Rock’s Not For Radio podcast, Nettlefold expressed his excitement at the championship’s return to New Zealand, with an all-new Taupō event debuting this weekend.
There have often been calls over the years for the nation to host multiple annual rounds given its passion for motorsport and variety of venues (also including Hampton Downs and Highlands among others, even after Pukekohe’s demise).
Nettlefold admitted it’s an expensive exercise to visit New Zealand, but well worthwhile.
“It’s more about having actually a successful race meeting, seeing the fans really embrace what we’re doing,” he said.
“The government is excited, they have been fully supportive both commercially and financially, and the way it’s being activated. And that’s the beauty of it: it brings so much money and relevance to the region, and the region is just jumping.”
Nettlefold continued: “What’s the investment to get us here? We might spend $5 million to get us here, so on that basis, why don’t we do a back-to-back?
“Why don’t we work with government to find a suitable back-up weekend? These are discussions that we need to have, and creating a little bit of a sub-championship inside our championship.
“Make it the New Zealand championship and have a different type of racing: let’s have some sprints and stuff and make it really cool and have an enduro race. But I’m not the head of motorsport, I’m just yarning!”
Supercars’ international expansion mission beyond Australasia remains on the cards, too.
“The new Gen3 cars are now so competitive and the door-on-door, it’s bringing the sexy back of car racing,” he added.
“It’s fun and crowds love it. F1 has seen the value of us being part of the category support.”
Supercars will hit the track at Taupō tomorrow for the first time for practice from 10:55am AEST (12:55pm NZST).
