Pukekohe 500

The Pukekohe 500 is a endurance motor racing event held for various touring car racing series since the 1980s at Pukekohe Park Raceway, Pukekohe, New Zealand. The race rose to international prominence in 1985 when it was linked with the Wellington 500 street race. The two races attracted Group A racing teams from Australia, Europe and Asia though until the end of the Group A era in the early 1990s.

From 2001, the event was superseded by the Auckland 500, an event for the Australian V8 Supercars series. However, the Pukekohe 500 name was revived in 2012 as a V8SuperTourer endurance event. The meeting proved popular with large crowds attending. Greg Murphy rekindled his success from the V8 Supercars era at Pukekohe by winning two of the three races. THe event is currently known as the Fuchs 500 for sponsorship reasons.

Past winners

Pukekohe

Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, it is approximately 50 kilometres south of Auckland City, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. The hills of Pukekohe and nearby Bombay Hills form the natural southern limit of the Auckland region. Pukekohe is located within the political boundaries of the Auckland Council, following the abolition of the Franklin District Council on 1 November 2010.

With a population of 29,000 (June 2015 estimate), Pukekohe is the 18th largest urban area in New Zealand, and the second largest in the Auckland Region behind Auckland itself.

The Māori word puke-kohe means "hill of the kohekohe", New Zealand's native mahogany.

History

Pukekohe was part of the Auckland area attacked during the musket war period 1807-1843 by Northern tribes. From the 1820s as a result of these attacks the resident Maori population who survived mainly migrated south. When European settlers arrived the remnant Maori population initially provided them with food supplies. As the number of settlers grew, the Pukekohe area, which was largely bush covered, was opened up after 1843 and individual farmers purchased small blocks of land which they cleared by hand. By 1863 the land was still bush covered but with an increasing number of small isolated farms. When Kingitanga Maori refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the crown many Maori moved out of the area but some remained. A Maori from this area guided the first gunboats through the Waikato Heads and through the shoals of the Waikato River delta to help put down the rebel Kingitanga uprising.

2012 V8SuperTourer season

The 2012 V8SuperTourer season is a motor racing championship for touring cars held in New Zealand. It began on 17 February at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park and will end on 25 November at Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Ruapuna after seven rounds. All cars use a chassis built by Paul Ceprnich of Pace Innovations in Australia, and are powered a Mosler 7-litre engine.

While the chassis and engines are the same (to provide a level playing field and hopefully allow the best drivers to succeed due to talent, not equipment), the cars can 'wear' body panels from any suitable model. So far, cars have appeared as either the Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore, but the chassis are a generic enough shape that a manufacturer such as Toyota or BMW could likely fit their bodywork to a Supertourer chassis and race as Lexus or 5-series model.

16 cars were confirmed to run in the inaugural season. The V8SuperTourer also confirmed an exclusive broadcasting deal with TV3 to screen all of the races live on the Gillette Motorsport show.