KEY POINTS:
Back in late 2005 when Hamilton announced that it had secured the rights to stage the local leg of the Australian V8 Supercar championships, the howls of Aucklanders' outrage could be heard beyond the Bombay Hills. A year earlier civic leaders had nixed a plan to hold the racing at a circuit near Victoria Park. Auckland's loss was mourned as Hamilton's gain.
Yet even before the exhaust fumes cleared from the Frankton circuit on Sunday, it was looking like a win-win for both cities. The event was plainly a spectacular success and a credit to the organisers. The restricted view from a Mill St grandstand - insufficiently raked, or sited too close to the track, or both - probably didn't seem like a minor blemish to those who had paid big money for seats there, but it has to be accounted a small matter in the overall scheme of things. Feedback from race fans and racers was almost universally very enthusiastic and V8 Supercar bosses across the ditch were reportedly impressed at the management of the event.
In Auckland, by contrast, traffic moved smoothly - well, it crawled no more cloggedly than normal - in the week before the race. Anyone who shares mayor John Banks' view that the Queen City lost a "golden opportunity" probably doesn't drive much.
And it would be useful to know exactly how golden the opportunity has been that Hamilton seized. The city will host the event for another seven years and possibly beyond. That's good for its profile but perhaps someone could specifically quantify the economic benefit - and tell us who got it. Bars did good business, but restaurants were empty. The residents of any city staging such events deserve to know what is in it for them.
