New track delays V8 race

The brakes have suddenly gone on Wellington's bid to host a 2006 V8 supercar race, and Pukekohe looks likely to be the winner.

Two hours before a month of public consultation was due to close yesterday, Wellington City Council announced it had pulled the plug on plans to stage the event next year, but was forging ahead with a proposal to host it from 2007.

The 2006 race is expected to be held in Pukekohe.

The news was met with delight in Pukekohe, which had been resigned to losing the race. Team Pukekohe spokesman Murray Wood, who organises many of the events surrounding the racing, said Pukekohe would be "more than happy" to welcome back the event next year.

However, nothing is certain and it could also open the door for other racetracks, such as Manfeild, in Feilding. Manfeild Park Trust chairman Ben Vanderkolk said a bid for the race to be held in the Manawatu was still "on the table".

The eleventh-hour U-turn by Wellington comes just days after Tony Cochrane, chairman of the race organisers and V8 governing body Avesco, met Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast and other council officials "with a view to moving forward" next year's event, and follows concerns over the commercial viability of the proposed racetrack.

Consultation documents show the original track running along Jervois and Customhouse quays and back down Featherston St, a route that would have allowed the race to go ahead without resource consent.

Street races in the central business district are a permitted activity in the district plan.

However, Ms Prendergast said development of the area, including plans to turn part of it into a southern hemisphere-style Champs-Elysees with a boulevard of pohutukawa trees, would have clashed with Avesco's requirements, and the council had been forced to come up with an alternative course.

But the proposed new course, or Stadium Circuit, through the industrial area to the north of the railway station past the Westpac Stadium and back along Thorndon Quay and Hutt Road to the Picton ferry terminal, is not without its own problems.

Though the western side of Thorndon Quay is within the permitted activity zone, the eastern side and about 400 metres of the track at the northern turnaround are not, meaning resource consent is required.

Councillors would be asked to suspend consultation on Thursday and a new proposal ? to hold the series in Wellington from 2007 subject to resource consent ? would be put to the council later this month and to Avesco at its board meeting on May 17.

Though any new proposal would be subject to another round of public consultation, submissions already received by the council had "overwhelmingly supported" a street race, and "we will take that support to Avesco with us", Ms Prendergast said.

The council had received an unprecedented 12,000-plus submissions on the original plan with 86 per cent in favour. Just over half were from Wellington city residents, and 73 per cent of those supported the race.

Chief executive Garry Poole said that, though final costings were not yet available, the new proposal was unlikely to add to the $27 million already budgeted.

Ms Prendergast has previously described the race as an "iconic" event that would bring unquantifiable international exposure to the Capital. She said that, though the new track was in a less picturesque part of the city than the original, it was still "stunning".

"Certainly I don't think the drivers will notice, but from a TV perspective they will still be able to pan the Tinakori Hills, the harbour, the cbd in the background.

"The other opportunity with this and the stadium is that we will be able to maximise events happening around there which will add colour and vibrancy."