New Zealand needs this show.

The thousands of happy punters who pass through the gates of the Greenlane expo complex will hardly spare a thought for the importance of what they are experiencing. Most of the suits in the nearby CBD will hardly be aware it’s happening unless their marketing or sales department has bought space there.

But for this country’s motorsport community, the CRC Speedshow performs a critical function.

It is the biggest touchpoint we have, the one event that links customers with suppliers and clubs and auto brands.

Forget other similar shows where lycra clad females wander around spruiking razors and shaving consumables or handing out bumpf to kids whose parents will drop it in the rubbish bins on the way out the door.

There’s space for the weird and wonderful at Speedshow, for sure, but where else would you launch the new touring car race category, or unveil the new GR Supra? Where else could motorsport safety brand Chicane mount a massive display of FIA-approved race gear?

Drifting, rallying, circuit racing, oddball and classic cars of all kinds, hot rods and modifieds; all packed wheel to wheel in the display halls. Special mention, too, to the stands that had racing simulators running for kids of all ages to try their skills on. From a casual walk-past I’d say the stands where there was some kind of activity for the punters were among the most popular.

Where else would the cognoscenti and the movers and shakers gather, shoulder to shoulder, known yet semi-anonymous, to take the pulse of the sport?

Hayden Paddon, Neil Allport, Andrew McKenzie, Lyall Williamson racers including Toyota 86 Championship regular Conor Adam and rival Jacob Smith were among those floating through the halls along with Motorsport New Zealand President Wayne Christie, who was there to see the birth of TCR New Zealand.

Outside in the arena a bewildering range of demo sprints took place. Justin Davies had New Zealand’s most powerful Cougar offroad race single-seater out there doing runs – a chrome-moly frame, carbon-fibre body, Honda four cylinder re-engineered to run ‘right way round’ (Hondas run backward compared to other in-line four cylinder engines) and fitted with a decent-sized turbo and intercooler.

This isn’t the massive SEMA show in the US, which takes days to walk around, but it is critically important to New Zealand’s many small-medium businesses that offer high quality goods and services to the motorsport community. It’s also a fantastic way for families to entertain their children during the school holidays without having to take out a mortgage to do so.

A tip of the hat to previous owner Keith Sharp, who built the show from nothing; and kudos to current owner Ross Prevette and his crew.