V8 race bid approved as Transit cries 'Stop'

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The Auckland City Council has given the green light to a series of V8 supercar races despite Transit New Zealand's opposition to the proposed inner-city race track.

Transit acting chief executive Rick van Barneveld says the risks associated with the supercar races round Victoria Park and other city streets "are so great for the region's transport network that the event should not proceed in the location proposed".

Council chief executive Bryan Taylor says his staff are working with Transit officials on the issue. If the council cannot come up with a traffic plan to satisfy Transit, the event will not gain resource consent.

The race track would close the southbound Fanshawe St exit from the harbour bridge for three days, and cause other traffic restrictions for three weeks.

Mr van Barneveld, in a March 15 letter to Mr Taylor, said that, unlike other cities where street racing was held, Auckland suffered from a series of narrow corridors through which all movements for people and services were concentrated.

"The harbour bridge corridor is probably the extreme example of this in Auckland as there are no reasonable alternatives for north-south movements across the Waitemata Harbour," he wrote.

Mr van Barneveld asked Mr Taylor to ensure that the committee considering the proposal was made aware of these "serious concerns".

Mr Taylor said he did not inform councillors of the concerns before last night's vote because Mr van Barneveld asked for it to go to the next recreation and events committee meeting, which is on April 1.

Last night was the first opportunity for councillors to publicly debate the race after news of it leaked from two closed-door committee meetings.

The council voted 12-8 to put in a bid against Wellington and Palmerston North to host seven races of V8 Supercar Championships for seven years from April 2006.

The bid, which includes an interest-free loan of $3.5 million at a cost of $888,763 to ratepayers, has to be in by Monday.

The Avesco race organisation will announce on April 29 which city will have hosting rights when it quits the Pukekohe racetrack next year.

Recreation and events committee chairman Scott Milne said that if Auckland won, the project would still be conditional on resource consents and traffic management.

"I am more and more convinced that this race will not cause anything like the congestion already considered," he said.

The event would generate eight million bed nights of accommodation and attract 14 million television viewers in Australia and New Zealand.

The council has been keen to secure a big event for Auckland to replace last year's loss of the America's Cup.

Bids for the Volvo and Global Challenge round-the-world yacht races have been lost to Melbourne and Wellington respectively.

A motion by councillors Victoria Carter, Richard Northey, Vern Walsh and Glenda Fryer to "pause" for a thorough analysis of the economic, social and environmental effects of the V8 race was defeated.

Councillor Bruce Hucker said the event was a madcap scheme by a group of "ageing boy racers in this council".