Motorsport: Hamilton a roaring success

Event promoter Dean Calvert was starting from a pretty good base for this year's Hamilton 400, the second time the event has been held. Last year's round of the Australian V8 Supercar championship was hailed as a great success, the one notable problem being seats in one of the stands with no view of the track.

So Calvert and his team knew what they had to fix and were determined
to put on an even better show.

"We reduced the amount of fans able to come to 50,000 a day so that they would have a better experience," said Calvert. "In the review we did last we discovered 60,000 a day were too many. The new stands have gone down really well and instead of three books of complaints we had last year, we only had one complaint on one page."

The Australian Supercar organisation gave a tick of approval.

"With the council, the promoters and the public behind it, the whole place is buzzing," said Cameron Levick, CEO of the V8 Supercars. "That means the show we brought to town is really appreciated by the whole community we're part of when we come to New Zealand. Learning how we do that in Australia is part of what we want to achieve to make sure the fans enjoy the event. We want to pick what we can out of here and show it to other promoters in Australia."

Hamilton's decision to take a gamble and host a round of the Supercars after Auckland and Wellington found it to be in the "too hard basket" was vindicated for the second time running. The 130,000-plus people who turned up spent a small fortune in and around the town.

"Everyone's told me the Frankton area has been very busy this year, unlike last when it was a bit of a desert," said Hamilton Mayor Bob Simcock. "It was so busy in Hood St we had to close the street to traffic.The external community is beginning to understand how to gain benefits from the event."

With a few more minor tweaks, the third running of the Hamilton 400 will be an even better event.