New Zealand's premier race series.

[Murray Maunder]

"Premiere" racing classes will never again live up to the description due to the increasingly professional and expensive nature of world motorsport IMHO. Toyota Racing Series is as good as it's likely to get even if I wouldn't bother flicking on the TV to watch it due to the lack of local involvement - it's a business model the organisers have taken and good luck to them. I think it's a class that despite TV is so inward looking - it's not spectator friendly having downforce projectiles that inevitably smash expensive composite panels most times a pass is attempted. I gave up on this stuff years ago.

Didn't the F5000s actually get to compete for the NZGP a few seasons ago - or was that just Lady Wigram Trophy? The F5000s do have a following but the reluctance of these predominantly enthusiast racers to chase a national series of say 6 or more rounds means it will probably just be a great bash every year at the Festival for a full field and elsewhere have embarrassingly thin fields. The same could be said for Historic Musclecars (with their Australian TransAm mates) - it's about enthusiasts and a degree of "rivalry", not out and out racer territory.

For "premiere" we could maybe consider these top of the classic tree classes up there if HRC can put together the sort of promo package that brings even more young converts than is currently the case. The efforts are presently admirable but largely singing to the same crowd each year IMO. The muscle car guys do a great job bringing back the legends for signing sessions and the overall standard of prep of these two classes is superb and much more exciting than any wings and slicks silhouette class running.

Every time an all new class gets started another load of money gets tipped into another venture which inevitably fails. Let's hope F5000 and HMC continues to be viable, editing, loud, brash racing just like back in the 60s and 70s. When I tell youngsters that those cars can run with almost anything from a down under race class 40+ years on and they hold the outright record at HD, they want to check them out, and they're never disappointed.