The enquires started even before the news was made public that all motor racing activity at Pukekohe’s Pukekohe Park Raceway would cease from early 2023.
“That’s right,” says Dr Jacob Simonsen, the Auckland-based motorsport entrepreneur who has had the storied, Franklin, South Auckland venue booked out on Saturday August 20 to host the third and final round of his new 3 & 6 Hr Pro Series.
“Typical of how good ‘the grapevine’ is here in NZ, I had people ringing me up and/or txting me at least a fortnight before the official announcement was made asking me questions about our event, and whether or not they and/or their car might or might not be eligible to compete at the final round of our Pro Series.
“Initially I was really chuffed, thinking how good it would be to have another 10-15 cars in the grid for the final round of our Pro Series.
Eventually though the sheer number and similarity of the calls he was fielding prompted Dr Simonsen to ‘smell a rat’ and he was just about to place a call of his own to Gary Stirling, the manager of all motorsport activities at the ‘Park to ask if there was ‘anything he would like to tell me about plans for the venue going forward….’when the official announcement that all motorsport activity would cease by Apil 2023, was made.
Which definitely came as ‘a bit of a surprise’ to Dr Simonsen.
“I was actually more dumbfounded than anything else when I first heard the news…..”he admitted.” Though in saying that I also experienced a real ‘penny dropping’ moment when I realized that this was the reason I had been approached re our Pro Series final later this month.
“Obviously the people who got in touch with me before the announcement was made official were acting on a rumour and they got in touch to see if there was any ‘room at the inn’ on the grid at the 2022 NaZCAR Pro Series at Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday August 20, thinking that the combined 3 & 6 Hr race would provide the last opportunity for amateur drivers in club-type cars to enjoy lapping the famed circuit.
Though the majority of the drivers who ‘stepped up’ to the new Pro Series got their start in one of Dr Simonsen’s novelty LeMons events, several others have told Dr Simonsen that they were attracted back to the track, and to competition (often after years of being away) by 1) ‘the refreshing lack of ‘B/S’ both from yourself and all the officials working with you’ and 2) the fact that it no longer seems to be costing me an arm and a leg just to enter an event (which) is also helping me to keep my motivation high!’
One of the reasons is that all NaZCAR events are permitted, licensed, and insured not by the incumbent, organization, MotorSport New Zealand (MSNZ) but by a new player in the market, the Australasian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA).
A 100% Kiwi-owned and operated agency (of Australia’s AASA), the Australasian Autosport Alliance was set up to offer event promoters, competitors, crews, and volunteers involved across the motorsport spectrum here in NZ an alternative event sanctioning and competitor licencing authority.
“Not only that, either,” says Dr Simonsen, “because at the conclusion of this year’s Pro Series (at Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday August 20) we’ll be officially crowning 8 new NZ Champion teams….the first time this has ever been done without MSNZ involvement – and it won’t be the last!”
AASA New Zealand aims to be cost efficient for the wider motor sport community – boasting streamlined processes, simple online systems, reduced costs and friendly common-sense practices, with a focus on maximum safety throughout all aspects of motorsport.
To that end Dr Simonsen reckons there could be at least ‘another 3 or 4 definitely and perhaps as many as 8 or 9’ newcomers on the grid at the final round of the 2022 Pro Series at Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday August 20.
“What it will come down to,” says Dr Simonsen, “is who wants to join us not just at Pukekohe but also at our other AASA-sanctioned and Permitted events going forward.”
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