Undie 500 race canned after quake

The notorious Undie 500 student car race has been cancelled and funds will instead be channelled into helping with the clean-up in Christchurch in the wake of the earthquake, organisers say.

The student-run car race was due to run later this month, on September 24, as an overnight event heading north from Christchurch to a mystery destination in Canterbury.

But in a notice posted on Facebook, organisers, Canterbury University's Engineering Society (Ensoc) said it could not justify such an event -- now renamed the Roundie 500 Charity Drive -- when so many people in Christchurch were going through strife.

"There's been a state of emergency and there have obviously been a lot of people affected," president Michael Cook said. "Ensoc decided it's a lot more important to be out helping in the community."

Instead, "a significant amount" of money put aside for the event would be spent on providing food and drink for the student volunteers helping to clean up the region, he said.

The car rally has been blacklisted from Dunedin after last year's chaos, where police had to wear riot gear and use pepper spray to disperse hundreds of students as they pelted officers with bottles and bricks.