Editorial: New track revs up region

OPINION: If you build it, they will come.

The phrase might well have been coined for the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, which this weekend hosts its first major outing since its October opening.

Up to 10,000 people a day watching 400 cars – more than a quarter of them international entrants – are expected for the New Zealand Festival of Motorsport in honour of Kiwi racing legend Bruce McLaren.

It's a big event for the Waikato that dovetails with the region's growing reputation as the country's premier motorsport destination and is all the more remarkable given that the country's first purpose-built motorsport park was only a few short years ago nothing more than the dream of determined fans.

Where once the more cynical among us saw a swampy site within pukeko call of a landfill, prison and disused power station, motor racing enthusiasts Tony Roberts and Chris Watson saw the makings of their dream track.

Their drive and vision, the support of the motor racing community and some serious financial backing has seen the original $20 million proposal grow into a $120 million reality.

It hasn't all been easy. Aside from weather delays in the final stages of track construction this winter, there were strict conditions on access to the site off the adjacent state highway which added a major set of hoops through which Hampton Downs management have had to jump, along with 99 conditions from the Waikato District Council.

But a willingness to meet them and the flexibility of Mr Roberts and company to expand their concept, with the addition of industrial land and other facilities to make it a self-sufficient venture rather than a petrolheads' indulgence, has proved key to the making the facility a flier.

The 80 two-bedroom apartments overlooking the course all sold within six weeks when they were put up for sale three years ago. This showed organisers were on the right path and with rave reviews so far about the 3.8-kilometre main track – resulting in it being 95 per cent booked by everyone from car clubs, corporates and would-be racers wanting to clock hot laps – those involved have reason to smile. Plans also exist for an equestrian centre, sports fields, a museum, and luring a hotel chain into the growing area.

World Rally Champs competitors using the facility as a base for this year's New Zealand event is also another boost for a region already basking in the red-hot exhaust glow of the successful Hamilton 400 V8 races.

But more is on the way, including a single round of the World Superbike Championship next year, attracting a television audience twice as large as that expected to watch the next Rugby World Cup final.

It all adds up to a facility its creators and the region can be proud of and promises much more in years to come.

Gentlemen, start your engines. You deserve to enjoy the weekend.

- © Fairfax NZ News