Hello to all from here in little New Zealand. 
This is our first post on here and one which we hope will inspire a few more to get involved. We hope you will take the time to read it and sorry it is long for a first post. For the past four years we have held an annual event over two weekends at Hampton Downs circuit in the North Waikato (North Island) and we have welcomed many hundreds of international visitors both to watch and to compete. We have been inspired by many of the great classic racing events around the world and have tried our best to do what we can on the other side of the world to create a quality event.
Formula 5000 has always been our 'big banger' event and we have seen grids of up to 30 cars since we began the Festivals. In addition we have celebrated New Zealand drivers Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Denny Hulme with some fantastic themed displays and on-track demonstrations by cars from home and abroad.
Last year we celebrated Ferrari and had an outstanding event, with a genuine 23,000 spectators over the two weekends (huge for NZ), three Ferrari F1 cars, a grid display of 150 plus Ferraris and TV coverage. In 2015 the Festival will run for its traditional two weekends in January, with the first weekend January 16, 17 and 18 and the second weekend January 23, 24 and 25.
This time around we are running a 'dual' theme at the event for the first time - with the Festival celebrating both the career of Howden Ganley (race driver and co-founder of TIGA) and the Formula 5000 class of race car.
We are very keen to hear from anyone who may wish to race, demonstrate or display a relevant car. We plan to have a large display of cars driven by Howden and produced by TIGA - so if you own anything from a Formula Ford Tiga right up to a Group C we'd love to hear from you. And if you have a Formula 5000 and want to come and race we will be having a six race mini-series over the two weekends with hopefully two grids - one fast, one slower.
We know of plans to bring containers from both the USA and UK as well as Australia, so we can help any interested party integrate into one of those transport plans. We can also provide safe, secure and free storage for vehicles at Hampton Downs before or after the event.
In 2016 we are celebrating Porsche and once again, we would love to welcome international Porsche racers, or oweners wishing to demonstrate or exhibit their cars. It would be spectacular to see proper Porsche racing machinery on display - 935s? 917s? 956s? 962s? If there are enough we will, of course, put on an extra Porsche race or six! We do not believe any 917, 956 or 962 has ever run on New Zealand shores, so that would be a great achievement for us to secure one or more.
Here is our event press release for your information and a few pics after that from recent events - we would love to hear from you if anything in this post strikes a chord. You can email us via myself, Richard Gee, at richard@nzfmr.co.nz or join the 6,000 plus who follow our facebook updates (search for New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing and it is the site with the Gulf branding).
Howden will be at the event of course, and you might just get meet Chris Amon who always comes along. And whether you race or just come along you can get up close and personal with the cars - something we believe very important. We have heaps more pictures we can post on here if people are interested!
ORGANISERS EYE F5000 RECORD WITH NEW ‘F5000 WORLD SERIES’ PREMIERE AT 2015 FESTIVAL
The organisers of the annual New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing at Hampton Downs are eyeing a record line-up of cars as they firm up plans for the Gulf Oil-backed 2015 event which celebrates the career of Formula 1 driver Howden Ganley and the category - Formula 5000 - which helped springboard his career.
"What we'd like to see is the biggest gathering of Formula 5000s ever competing under the banner of the F5000 World Series," says the chairman of the New Zealand F5000 Association (and co-founder of the Hampton Downs circuit), Tony Roberts.
Close to 200 cars were built to contest the various Formula 5000 (Formula A in the United States and Canada) series around the world between 1968 and 1982 and Roberts believes that as many as 60 can be found for the two-round 'Formula 5000 World Series' which will be part of the Festival next year.
"There are least 40 here, a similar number in Australia plus at least 20 each in regular use in the UK and the US. The regular series guys will obviously be the starting point, but what we would really like is enough cars to create two separate grids (Hampton Downs has a limit of 32 cars per grid), one for those who want to compete for MSC series points, the other for those who just want the opportunity to be part of the meeting and drive the car round the track at their own pace."
Feature driver Howden Ganley, now 71, was born and raised in Hamilton and after resolving to become a professional racing driver after a brief start to his career here, travelled to the UK where he worked for compatriot Bruce McLaren.
McLaren took him under his wing and after finishing second to fellow McLaren M10B driver Peter Gethin in the 1970 European Formula 5000 Championship Ganley was offered a Formula 1 drive with the BRM team.
In his first year in Formula 1 in 1971 Ganley was named best newcomer with a best finish of fifth, and in 1972 - again with BRM - his best finish was fourth. In 1973 he moved to Frank Williams' new Iso-Marlboro team but the car was uncompetitive and after a short stay at March in 1974 his career in Formula 1 ended with a serious accident in the Japanese-built Maki in practice for the German Grand Prix. After his racing career he was one half of the TIGA company - a venture that produced cars from Formula Ford right up to Group C.
Formula 5000 was New Zealand's premier motor racing category from 1970 to 1975 and interest in it was revived around 12 years ago. Key to their attraction - for both drivers and category fans alike - is the practical if rather brutal combination of their tubular steel spaceframe (early cars) or aluminium monocoque (later ones) chassis and stock-block 5-litre V8 engines.
In period they were as quick as if not quicker at some tracks than pukka Formula 1 cars yet could be built at a fraction of the cost. The McLaren M10B Ganley drove to second place in the 1970 European Formula 5000 Championship has been restored and is now owned by a Swiss enthusiast and Roberts says he hopes to reunite Ganley with it at the first Festival meeting, as well as gathering for the first time in New Zealand a significantly sized display of Tiga race cars.
The Festival itself will run for its traditional two weekends in January 2015, with the first weekend January 16, 17 and 18 and the second weekend January 23, 24 and 25. Organisers are already working on a number of 'guest cars' that will help provide the flavour on and off track that has helped establish the Festival as the premier historic motorsports event in New Zealand which attracted a genuine 23,000 spectators over both weekends of its Ferrari-themed event earlier this year.
Support classes already confirmed for 2015 include the Historic Muscle Cars, Historic Formula Ford, Saloons and Formula Junior with several exciting announcements to come during the next few months on support categories for the event.
2015 will be the sixth edition of the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing with the event having celebrated Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, BMW, Denny Hulme and Ferrari since the Hampton Downs circuit was opened.
