The Cromwell track is buzzing as it prepares to host some eye-catching cars and elite drivers from around the world at the opening round of the Super Sprint Motorsport New Zealand Championship.
It features four classes, each with multiple races, with practice sessions today before two intense days of qualifying and racing.
Operations manager Paul Fallon is eager for the action to start so Otago petrolheads can see what all the fuss has been about.
"It’s all looking really, really good," Fallon said from the track yesterday.
"There’s been so much disruption with Covid over the past couple of years, so things have been a little bit quiet on the motorsport front.
"We want to pull everything back together again and make it look good.
"And the guys involved are really happy to be at Highlands.
"The nice thing is that we’ve got so much variety and some really interesting racing."
The feature of the series is the Formula Regional Oceania Championship.
Fourteen local and international drivers will blast around the track in the single-seat FT-60 open-wheelers, considered one of the breeding grounds for drivers aiming to ascend to Formula 1.
Indeed, this year’s roster includes Charlie Wurz, son of former F1 driver Charlie Wurz, while current stars Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Nicolas Latifi, Lance Stroll and Guanyu Zhou have all raced in the series.
"I guess this series is the jewel in the crown," Fallon said.
"It’s like a small Formula 1 car, and they run within the FIA guidelines as a recognised global championship, so it’s a chance for these drivers to accumulate some international points.
"The series is really appealing to young international drivers."
The Highlands round is the first in the class’s five-round series in New Zealand.
Also opening its season in Cromwell is the GT New Zealand Championship.
An exotic 24-car field will represent six leading manufacturers in GT4 and open classes.
"It’s probably the category that appeals the most to people who haven’t traditionally been motorsport fans," Fallon said.
"I’m standing right now in a paddock with cars parked up in their bays, and people are working on McLarens, Aston Martins, Ferraris, Porsches ... there are some very sexy high-performance cars here."
In the GT4 class, no fewer than seven McLaren 570S cars are entered.
Defending champion Nigel Cromie starts as the favourite.
Twenty-eight drivers will line up on the grid for the Porsche Race Series, contesting their third of seven rounds for the season.
Fallon said it was a "pretty cool series" featuring Porsches of a range of models and ages.
Finally, Highlands will host a round of the Toyota GT86 series with a mix of local and Australian drivers.
"It’s sort of a development class.
"Rear-wheel drive Toyota coupes — a really fun little race car, and lots of younger drivers working their way up from karting," Fallon said.
Motorsport fans will get an opportunity to walk the entire Highlands track at 8am on Sunday before the day’s racing.
They might also catch a glimpse of two rising New Zealand stars, Liam Lawson and Marcus Armstrong, both expected to attend the event.
All the weekend’s action is live on Sky Sport and the Sunday afternoon race programme will screen on TV3.
The second round of the Super Sprint Championship is at Teretonga next weekend.
