KEY POINTS:
As Hamilton gets into top gear for its inaugural hosting of the V8 supercar series, bar owners throughout the city are bracing themselves for the busiest weekend of their lives.
Many bars are charging $10 a head just to get a foot in the door as they cater for the thousands of motorsport enthusiasts expected to hit the town after the day's racing.
But for Ra Piripi, the general manager of Rodeorodeo on Hood St in the CBD, the admission fee is more a cost-covering exercise than a cash cow.
"Obviously we need additional staff, additional refrigeration for both food and liquor, we've got in extra fencing and a new bar out the front with canopies," he said. "She's a pretty major undertaking."
Mr Piripi said the bar was also bringing in new plasma television screens and a truck with a refrigeration unit to handle more than triple its usual weekend volume of stock.
"We've got about 50,000 people coming for the V8s every day and a fair few of them will come into town, so if you take our busiest night ever and triple it you'd probably be close to the kind of action we're expecting."
Mike Huitema, who runs the swanky Le Dome Belgian Beer Cafe on Victoria St, said five extra staff were hired for the weekend, security had been increased and an extra bar within the cafe had been built "to accommodate the flow of liquor".
"We've also tripled the amount of Stella we've got in kegs and have two-and-a-half weeks' worth of stock in our chillers ready for the onslaught," he said. "It's going to be great."
Josh White, who is the Waikato president of the Hospitality Association of New Zealand, agreed with the added costs for the biggest event in the city's history that will see an estimated 20,000 people in bars and restaurants throughout the CBD over the three-day event.
"It's not bar owners wanting to make a killing out of this. People are genuinely scared they're not going to cope," he said. "We've got restrictions over and above our normal operations and extra compliance costs so people are just being cautious and making sure these things are covered."
With every room in Hamilton's 40-odd motels booked out months ago by sponsors, racing teams, officials and fans, thousands of motorsport fans have been looking for places to stay.
And yesterday, with the practice rounds just beginning, several Hamilton homeowners were still trying to cash in on the shortage with signs saying, "Room available for V8s".
Lyndon Hemi, who featured in the Herald after putting his four-bedroom house up for rent at $6000 for V8 week, didn't get any takers.
FIREFIGHTERS TREATED TO V8 CORPORATE BOX
Hamilton firefighters have been treated to a corporate box at this weekend's V8 supercar event in their city.
The promoters of the Hamilton400 offered the box to the firefighters after the devastating Tamahere coolstore explosion, which killed senior station officer Derek Lovell and injured seven other firefighters.
The explosion happened two weeks ago today and four of the firefighters remain in hospital, one with serious burn injuries, in Middlemore Hospital.
The three others are stable and said to be improving.
Waikato fire commander Roy Breeze told the Weekend Herald yesterday that
"the V8 promoters have given it to the firefighters".
Firefighters Dennis Wells and Alvan Walker, who were released from hospital this week, and
Cameron Grylls, who received minor injuries in the explosion, would take up the offer, he said.
- Juliet Rowan
