Plaudits have been flowing in for a fantastically successful inaugural ITM Christchurch Super 440 Repco Supercars Championship round in Christchurch over the weekend. Over 65,000 people flocked through the gates over the three days to superb facilities, fabulous weather and some great V8 racing.
“The passion, devotion and knowledge of the fans here at Ruapuna has blown us away,” said Supercars CEO Barclay Nettlefold. “A South Island race has been a long time coming and we thank everyone who came here over these special three days for bringing it to life.”
“Absolutely delighted for Ruapuna and the Canterbury Car Club,” commented President of MotorSport New Zealand, Deb Day. “We know that the mainland fans are massive fans of motorsport and they have turned out in droves and paid back the investment in spades.
“I think Supercars will be pretty impressed with this. Friday had a massive crowd and for the weekend the biggest complaint is how long it took to get a cup of coffee and how long it took to get out of the car park, and those are easy things to fix.”
“Massively impressed with the crowds and the support over here in New Zealand,” said Broc Feeney, winner of the Jason Richards Tophy. “I mean, the fans over here are unreal, it makes it so enjoyable, you know, when you have a sold out stand and everyone’s just so stoked to have you here.
“It’s (Ruapuna) probably the tightest track along with Taupo we have been to without the (tyre) degradation,” said Broc Feeney. “Hopefully some of the battles have made great TV. It is so cool to see so many people in the stands, corporates and at the autograph sessions.”
“I am so grateful to everyone that has put their nose to the grindstone, so to speak, to make this happen” said Christchurch Mayor and Historic Touring Cars competitor, Phil Major. “The amount of work that has gone on for several years and especially in the last couple of weeks at least, it is a credit to everyone. The amount of people who have come out from Christchurch to support it I am very pride of.
“We have it for three years and I want to make sure that we roll out the red carpet for these Supercars guys as they had faith in us, and we have faith in them.”
“It’s such a cool track so to win in front of a home crowd and so cool to wave to the fans who have been sitting around all day,” said Penrite Racing’s Matt Payne.”
“This has been an amazing trip, the double header, the fans were amazing, the atmosphere was amazing,” said Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Will Brown. “Really enjoy coming to New Zealand, to be honest, a lovely place. I really enjoyed it.”
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