Save this date: 19 November 2022

It’s a one-day off-road racing spectacular that will attract the fastest drivers in the sport, a defiant ‘salute’ to the Covid lockdowns that have held New Zealand in suspended animation for two years.

The 2022 New Zealand Offroad Grand Prix evokes a series of similar events held on the old Grand Prix course at Te Atatu, over the hill from the long defunct Footrot Flats theme park.

Organisers say the inspiration for the new event is drawn from the runaway success of the original 1990s version and also from the events organised last century in the USA by the originator of stadium short course racing, Mickey Thompson.

It will be held on the edge of the biggest population centre in New Zealand at Counties-Manukau club’s purpose-designed stadium track in Manukau.

Manukau racer-turned-promoter Tony McCall is working closely with the Counties club to deliver the event and says the track is the only venue that offers the combination of excellent viewing, top facilities and a challenging format for the drivers.

“We are expecting some serious grids of racers from all over New Zealand. It’ll be a heck of a day.”

The racing format will borrow from both off-road racing and Nascar, with two in-class heats of four laps enabling the classes to run against machinery of similar performance levels.

These will be followed by in-class ‘semi-main’ or quarter-final events over seven laps to decide class champions and 3-4 feature races over ten laps.

The timing, he said, will be ‘fast and slick’.

“We won’t be waiting around for people to get their hair done, we’re going racing!”
McCall says the November event will also be the only time off-road racing appears on free to air TV in New Zealand, with the racing being edited for a post-event programme.
“The TV audience for coverage we have scored there for past events has topped 250,000. But of course, there’s nothing quite like being there on the day.”