As just about the only person on here who is a member of a car club that actually owns as well as operates a race circuit in NZ and one who was actually part of the team that built the place some 47 years ago I very much understand the concerns of the circuit owners for after much prudent fund raising we were able to purchase the block of land alongside of the back straight at Levels with a view future development only to a few years later being forced into the position of having to sell it off so as to gain sufficient funding so meet the legal costs in fighting the battle with the District Council, the RMA and the problems that started after the amalgamation of various councils that put us into the position of having to go through the whole consent process again. We were not assisted while this very long expensive process was undertaken by some users of the facility ignoring requirements. For many years of this on going legal process I was the Clerk of Course, hell we even had to totally relocate our public address system so as to reduce noise emissions off the property.

The Council do not need a complaint, they are bound by the act and the courts to measure our noise emissions whenever we conduct a race meeting and to issue an abatement notice should we be over the limits. We still get the account for this service after every race meeting held

For what it is worth, it was usually during testing or free practise that we had issues at National meetings and this was usually with V8 engined cars that were Auckland based for the other northern circuits such as Bay Park and Manfeild were policing the on track limits for they too had resource consents to comply with. Once the adjustments were made to the cars, usually a simple case of repacking the mufflers we never had issues and I have difficulty remembering having to black flag a car off the circuit during a race for excessive noise unless it had been damaged. During the past 15-20 years it has not really been an issue as all comply. There were 44 cars on the circuit last weekend during the Endurance race, no issues

The fight to keep Timaru Motor Raceway open took up the lives of a few of our group for the best part of 10 - 12 years and while they were doing that the other few kept all operations running. The personal cost of this commitment by the likes of Bill Brown and those assisting him cannot be measured but it was immense.

Now if those of you from Auckland actually owned Pukekohe, and it is a damn shame that no car club up there can make the commitment to own a circuit, I am sure that you too would be doing everything to protect it so as to ensure future generation could derive the pleasure from it that those of previous and current generations do.

We all need to forget about ourselves and think about our sport and as a final observation I sometimes get the feeling that Pukekohe is more important to those south of the Bombays and I include the South Island in that, than it is for those who live north of the place. For sure we enjoyed our many visits with the cars and the challenges presented by the white coats.

I am sure that if you, the members of Auckland motorsport actually owned the facility then these current issues you are facing up their be it noise, barriers or catch fencing would no longer exist.

We all need to realise where we sit in this world for there are users and then there are providers and without the later the former would have nowhere to exist.

You really should get a consortium together an purchase Pukekohe and then be both