The Race to the Sky is an annual automobile and motorcycle gravel hillclimb to the summit of a mountain in the

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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 ...

. The race was held every year from 1998 to 2007 for two days over the

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weekend as the Silverstone Race to the Sky, and returned in 2015 as the Repco Race to the Sky. The event has attracted major international drivers to compete to see who is the fastest to ascend the hill.

Location

The race was located at the Snow Farm ski area in the

, a 45 minute drive from

Queenstown, New Zealand Queenstown ( mi, Tāhuna) is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It has an urban population of The town is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long, thin, Z-shaped lake formed by ...

and 20 minutes from

Lake Wanaka A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

. The hillclimb was held over a gravel course, with an average

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of 1:11. The 135 turn course climbs from 450 meters (1500 feet)

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to 1500 meters (5000 feet). The qualifying session for the race was held on Saturday. The race itself was held on Sunday. The top 10 fastest qualifiers raced in the reverse order from tenth to first.

Future

2007 was the last year of the Race to the Sky. Event organizer Grant Aitken had given up the rights to the event to the Lee family in order to run the 2007 event. The Lee family were the former owners of the access road for Snow Farm resort, the route used for the event. Aitken noted several factors which led to his decision to surrender his right to run the event. They include marginal finances, changes to the tenure of the land used for the event, his team of helpers suffering burnout after a decade running the event, and the need to renew resource consents to continue with the event in the future. Aitken also had a troubled relationship with the Lee family who still own part of the access road. There was difficulty securing Silverstone as the title sponsor of the event, as Silverstone was signed for 2007 at the

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. Although it was hoped that the event would continue, the 2008 event was cancelled when new organisers could not be found. The event's official website was expired as of 14 October 2007. On August 13, 2014 it was announced that Race to the Sky would return in 2015 under the management of Highlands Motorsport Park and Tony Quinn. The 2015 race was known as the Repco Race to the Sky presented by Highlands, gaining a new claim to fame as the longest gravel hill climb in the world following the paving of

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Overall winners

Other notable competitors

Kenneth Eriksson Kenneth Eriksson (born 13 May 1956 in Äppelbo, in the kommun of Vansbro) is a now retired World Rally Championship rally driver. He drove for several manufacturer teams, including the Subaru World Rally Team, Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Škoda. He was ...

* Peggy BourneNZ Herald: Peggy Bourne enters Race to the Sky event; 6 Mar 2005
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Rhys Millen Rhys Millen (born 6 September 1972) is a New Zealand-born racing driver. Nephew of IMSA GTS driver Steve Millen, son of Rodney and older brother of Ryan, is one of the America's top competitors in drifting. Prior to that he was a top rall ...

Per Eklund Per Torsten Eklund (born 21 June 1946) is a Swedish Rally and Rallycross driver. His nickname is "Pekka". In rallying he never made it to the very top but he has been very successful in his later rallycross career. Biography Saab works dr ...

* Tony Quinn * Brett Hayward

Current classes

The competitors were loosely divided into five groups:

bikes A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

; quads;

cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

; buggies and 4WD’s.

References

{{coord, -44.8775, 169.091, display=title Hillclimbs Motorsport competitions in New Zealand