The Auckland SuperSprint was an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Pukekohe, New Zealand. The event was a regular part of the Supercars Championship—and its previous incarnations, the Shell Championship Series and V8 Supercars Championship—since 2001.
The event was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][2][3] Supercars returned to New Zealand and the Pukekoke Park Raceway circuit on September 10–11 for Round 10 of the 2022 season.
History
Background
Pukehohe Park was one of New Zealand's most historic race tracks, and has long seen links with Australian motor racing. This dates back to the famed Pukekohe 500, which originally ran from 1984 to 1993 for touring cars and dates back to 1963 for production cars. Several Australian teams, along with local and international teams, competed in the endurance Group A event with Australian-based teams winning the event several times. The event was often twinned with the Wellington 500, on a street circuit in Wellington City. In 1996, twelve cars from the Australian Touring Car Championship raced in the Mobil 1 Sprints, a two event series at Pukekohe and Wellington. In a precursor to his later Supercars success at the track, all three races were won by local driver Greg Murphy for the Holden Racing Team.[5]
Championship era
The first championship round at Pukekohe Park for what was then known as V8 Supercars was held in 2001, entitled the Boost Mobile V8 International.[6] It was the first round in the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship and Supercars not to be contested in Australia. Mark Skaife sealed the 2001 Shell Championship Series in the first race, while Greg Murphy won the event, taking pole position and winning all three races for the Kmart Racing Team.[7] Murphy maintained strong form at Pukekohe, winning again in 2002, 2003 and 2005.[5] The 2002 event contained the 500th race in championship history, which was won by Skaife.[8] Jason Bright was the only other driver to win the event in the first five years, doing so in 2004, while Murphy finished third.[9] In 2005 there was a major accident involving Craig Baird and Paul Dumbrell during the third race. Jamie Whincup slid off the track at the final corner and Baird and Dumbrell squeezed together as Whincup returned to the circuit. However, Baird and Dumbrell came together and spun, both hitting the wall before coming to rest on opposite sides of the track with severely damaged cars. The race was red flagged as a result.[10]
Hiatus
The New Zealand event moved to the Hamilton Street Circuit for 2008 and remained there until 2012.[11]
Return
Supercars returned to a slightly modified Pukekohe layout in 2013 and the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy was introduced.[12] Jason Bright and Brad Jones Racing, Richards' last teammate and team respectively, were the first winners of the trophy.[12] In 2014, Ford's Mark Winterbottom was the event winner, marking the first win at the event for Ford in its ninth running. The event was run over the Anzac Day long weekend, including a race on a Friday for the first time in championship history. In 2015 and 2017, Jamie Whincup, who was a teammate of Jason Richards in 2005 at Tasman Motorsport and co-drove with him to a second-place finish at the 2005 Bathurst 1000, won the trophy.[13][14] In 2016, Shane van Gisbergen became the first New Zealand driver to win the trophy.[15] In 2018, championship combatants van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin each took a first and second in the two races, with McLaughlin winning the event on a countback due to his higher Sunday result.[16] The same two drivers won races in the 2019 event, which moved to a September date, with van Gisbergen this time winning the trophy. In winning the Sunday race, which included a controversial safety car that shuffled the field, McLaughlin surpassed Craig Lowndes' 1996 record of 16 wins in a season.[17][18]
2020 move and cancellation
As in 2013, the 2020 Pukekohe event was scheduled on the Anzac Day weekend. It was later discovered that an amendment to Auckland Council's Unitary Plan in the intermediary period prohibited racing on the public holiday. As such the event was to be moved to the nearby Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, and was to continue to be known as the Auckland Super400 despite being located in the neighbouring Waikato region.[19] The event was later postponed, rescheduled to January 2021 (within the prolonged 2020 championship) and then cancelled altogether - all due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[20][21] The 2021 event was similarly cancelled due to the border issues arising from the pandemic.[3]
Venue Change
On 20 July 2022 it was confirmed that Pukekohe Park Raceway will cease motorsport activities from 2 April 2023.[22]
Multiple winners
By driver
Wins which did not count towards the championship season are indicated by a pink background.
By team
By manufacturer
- Notes
- ^1 – The HSV Dealer Team was known as Kmart Racing Team from 2001 to 2004, hence their statistics are combined.
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Shane van Gisbergen
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