Dave McLeod
Motoring Writer
Call it what you like, the end of an era, a near-sighted miscalculation or even a travesty of monolithic proportions, but high-octane horsepower racing is to end at NZ’s home of motorsport next year, and it will undoubtedly break many hearts when it goes.
Located in a small town 40 km south of Auckland, Pukekohe Park is a much-loved horse racing, motor racing, and events hub that is, (or maybe more appropriately, was) for many years, New Zealand’s premier racing venue. It’s played host to some of the best names in motorsport, both local and worldwide and spawned no end of epic tales and dramas.
The Raceway itself was opened in 1963 as a permanent track, replacing Ardmore aerodrome as THE circuit of the New Zealand Grand Prix, with global racing legends such as Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart, heading there to compete against homegrown heroes including Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.
Having Pukekohe as a racing destination originally came as a suggestion in 1961 from saloon car champion Ross Jenson, and just over a year later, at the end of 1962, construction of Pukekohe Park Raceway began. Construction of the track was finished in just 41 days with the project being overseen by Bill Stevenson of W A Stevenson and Sons and completed just in time for the 10th New Zealand Grand Prix, held on January 5, 1963.
“It took a while to get the all clear [from the Franklin Racing Club] and that’s why we were left with little time to build the track.” Mr Stevenson said.
The original 3.540 km track cost more £50,000 to build, which may sound a rather paltry sum now but back then, the New Zealand Grand Prix still came up short of £15,000, which they paid back over several years.
UK’s John Surtees won the first Grand Prix race held in Pukekohe in front of 50,000 spectators, beating race meet draw cards including Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren, however, McLaren won the event the following year and was the first New Zealander to do so – with Denny Hulme placing second.
In all, the New Zealand Grand Prix was held at Pukekohe on 29 occasions, with winners including McLaren, Amon, Baird, and Radisich, plus high-profile internationals such as John Surtees, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Keke Rosberg.
The Grand Prix weren’t the only races to be held at the historic motorsport venue either, over five decades V8 Supercars, NZ Super Tourers, Tasman Series open-wheel racing, production cars, superbikes and even truck racing have all been held at Pukekohe.
Unfortunately, the unforgiving track has also seen a fair share of tragedy over the years with the notable death of Bryan Faloon in 1972, when Graeme Lawrence accidentally ran into the back of Faloon travelling at 245kmh. This crash ultimately resulted in the track being upgraded and chicanes put in to slow the vehicles down, however, one year later, Cal Rayborn was also killed when his motorcycle collided with a guardrail.
For many years Pukekohe was the venue for New Zealand’s premier production car race, the Benson and Hedges 500-mile race (later 1000 km) too, featuring household names the likes of Peter Brock, Dick Johnson and Jim Richards.
The Raceway also held an annual round of the popular Australian V8 Supercar race from 2001 to 2007 (won four times by Kiwi great Greg Murphy). The V8’s then returned to the circuit in 2013 as part of a 5-year facility-upgrade deal.
The $6.8M upgrade deal saw the inclusion of three new corners along the back straight, creating more passing opportunities and lowering the track’s top speed. The track was almost completely lined with concrete barriers to give it a ‘street circuit’ feel and the new section added around 8-10 seconds per lap.
Pukekohe Park Raceway is in fact owned by the Counties Racing Club Inc, so when not being ‘interrupted’ with motorsport, it plays host to multiple horse race meetings throughout the year. Added to this, in the middle of the circuit there is a thoroughbred training centre and is used six days a week as a stables and
training facility.
On 20 July 2022, Pukekohe Park announced that it would cease hosting motorsport events on 3 April 2023, citing a desire to focus on its horse racing events and club facilities, and it was an announcement that immediately broke thousands of motorsport enthusiasts’ hearts throughout NZ.
Sure, Pukekohe Raceway will continue to offer ‘horsepower’ racing of a sort, but for those that have attended the venue for the sole thrill of motor racing, the lack of squealing tyres, roaring engines and the sweet scent of high-octane fuel, as a motorsport venue, Pukekohe will undoubtedly be sadly missed.
