The Pukekohe 500 was an endurance

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

event first held in 1963 at

Pukekohe Park Raceway Pukekohe Park is a horse racing, motor racing, and community events facility located in Pukekohe, New Zealand, approximately south of the Auckland CBD, in the Auckland Region of the North Island. The venue, owned by Counties Racing Club Inc. ...

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, it is in South Auckland, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. Th ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

History

The Pukekohe 500 had its origins in the

Wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...

Six-Hour race that was first held in 1963 as a production car race, soon after the circuit opened. From 1967, the event mandated that New Zealand-built production cars can only be entered into the race. Through the first decades of the race, the event became recognised as the second most significant race on the New Zealand motorsport calendar behind the

New Zealand Grand Prix The New Zealand Grand Prix, sometimes known as the New Zealand International Grand Prix, is an annual motor racing event held in New Zealand. First held in 1950, it is best known for hosting rounds of the Tasman Series in the 1960s and 1970s. It ...

. In the early 1980s, a three race endurance series was held with races also at Bay Park Raceway and

Manfeild Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon (formerly Manfeild Autocourse) is a motor sport circuit located in Feilding, New Zealand. It was built by thManawatu Car Clubin 1973 as a purpose-built course. In 1990 extra land was acquired and the circuit extensio ...

. In the mid 1980s, the race rose to international prominence when it adopted

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles w ...

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

regulations and was linked with the

Wellington 500 The Wellington 500 was a street race for touring cars which took place at Wellington City in Wellington, New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1987 event was a round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship. The final running of the race w ...

street race. The two races attracted Group A racing teams from Australia, Europe and Asia though until the end of the Group A era in the early 1990s. The 1988 round was part of the

Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship The FIA Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship was a motorsport championship staged in 1988 and in 1994. The 1988 championship was won by New Zealand's Trevor Crowe and the 1994 champion was Joachim Winkelhock from Germany. Crowe drove a BMW M3 for ...

with Wellington, the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recen ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and the Fuji 500. The 1993 and 1994 events were held to

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

regulations before dropping off the calendar altogether with the demise of the Wellington 500. From 2001, the predominant touring car event at Pukekohe was superseded by the

Auckland SuperSprint The Auckland SuperSprint was an annual motor racing event for Supercars, held at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Pukekohe, New Zealand. The event was a regular part of the Supercars Championship—and its previous incarnations, the Shell Championship Ser ...

, an round of the Australian

Supercars Championship The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

series held at the circuit. However, the Pukekohe 500 name was revived in 2012 as a

V8SuperTourer The V8SuperTourers Championship was a motor racing series in New Zealand which started in 2012 and folded in 2015. The cars were then absorbed into the NZ Touring Cars championship. The car was based on a "Car-of-the-Future" prototype built by ...

endurance event, albeit held over three races. The meeting proved popular with large crowds attending.

Greg Murphy Gregory Murphy (born 23 August 1972) is a New Zealand professional racing driver, best known as a four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. Greg Murphy joined Jeremy Clarkson and James May presenting Top Gear Live, when it had its first internati ...

rekindled his success from the V8 Supercars era at Pukekohe by winning two of the three races. The V8SuperTourer series folded in 2015 and with it the running of the Pukekohe 500. The event was revived in 2019 as a production event. In 2020, Mark Leonard and Peter Sprague, descendants of Leo Leonard and Ernie and Gary Sprague who won the race a combined 14 times, entered the race. After the 2021 race was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the event was held for a final time in 2022 prior to the circuit's closure in 2023.

Winners

;Notes: * – Two separate events were held in 1987.

Multiple winners

By driver

By manufacturer

Event sponsors

* 1963–67:

* 1968–84, 1987:

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* 1988:

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* 1989–93:

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

* 2012:

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

* 2013:

Mike Pero Michael Pero (born 26 February 1960) is a New Zealand businessman and entrepreneur. Professional history Pero founded his mortgage broking business in 1991. In 2011, Pero established a real estate company under the same brand name. In recen ...

* 2014: Fuchs

References

{{reflist Auto races in New Zealand Recurring sporting events established in 1984 Touring car races