The 2012 New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing dates have been confirmed for January 20-22 and January 27-29 2012 at the superb Hampton Downs circuit and the third edition of the hugely popular event will celebrate a car maker for the first time.
The 2010 and 2011 New Zealand Festivals of Motor Racing celebrating Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon respectively caught the attention of the domestic New Zealand motoring and motor racing communities and proved to be the biggest motor sport events in the country in those years after the Hamilton V8 Supercar event. For 2012 the festival organisers have decided to focus the spotlight on German manufacturer BMW, one of the great motoring brands in New Zealand and the world.
The event – the NZFMR celebrating BMW Motorsport - will feature some amazing cars from BMW’s racing history, many of which have raced in New Zealand. Legendary BMW racers Jim Richards and Prince Leopold von Bayern of Bavaria are already confirmed and more big names are set to join in the action.
A feature class will be the ‘Group A and Invited Touring Car Challenge’ where classic BMW 635CSi and BMW M3s of the 1980s will once again battle other Touring cars including Ford Sierra Cosworth, Jaguar XJS, Holden Commodore, Rover SD1, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Corona cars. Many of these cars raced in the Nissan-Mobil 500 series at Wellington and Pukekohe in the 1980s and 1990s.
Festival enthusiasts will also be pleased to hear that the spectacular Formula 5000s, colourful grids of classic Saloons and GTs, Sports cars, Historic Formula Fords, Formula Juniors, Classic Trials and Pre-63 Classic Racing motorcycles are on the bill along with the domestic BMW historic racing series. The Formula 5000 series in New Zealand is the strongest in the world by some margin and cars and drivers are once again expected to travel to the event from the USA, UK, Europe and Australia. It’s not just the BMW and F5000 classes that will be big draw cards. In the past two years, around 150 drivers and classic racing cars from other countries have come to New Zealand and Hampton Downs to race and be part of the event.
With its stellar racing history in New Zealand, BMW was always the preferred theme for the third festival, as Festival Chairman Jim Barclay explained. “In common with other major motorsport festivals like the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival held in UK, we have an annual theme and as we want to celebrate cars and marques that have made an impact domestically and internationally as well as drivers, what better place to start than BMW – which has a rich history in motorsport.
“The brand also has a long and successful history in New Zealand not only as a car that many aspire to but as a highly effective racing machine that many of the greatest racing drivers have sampled. For us, choosing BMW as the subject for the third festival was an easy call and obviously it’s great to be able to confirm that we have the full support of BMW in New Zealand and Germany as we work to make this the best New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing to date. Those weekends in January at Hampton Downs will be unmissable.”
