Comunicats de Premsa - The History of the New Zealand GP

One of the lesser known Grands Prix in the world, The NZ Grand Prix was first run in 1950 at the Ohakea Circuit and was won by John McMillan in the Formula Libre class. The race was not held between 1951 and 1953 but made a return in 1954 at the Ardmore Circuit which served as the host circuit until 1962. Jack Brabham, who ties the record for most wins of this race, won 3 times. Stirling Moss also had 3 wins in this time period. In 1963, two changes happened. The first being the decision to now race at Pukekohe Park Raceway. The second was that the 1963 NZ Grand Prix would be the last raced under the Formula Libre class with next year's race including Tasman Formula cars. John Surtees won the 1963 race to give Pukekohe a good start. The next six years between 1964 and 1969 saw winners such as Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Chris Amon. For 1970, they decided to use Formula 5000 cars. These would run 7 installments of the historic race. All of these were won by Australians and one Kiwi (The 1974 race was held at Wigram Airfield Circuit). Fast forward to 1990, Ken Smith's win would be the start of an incredible streak. From that race all the way to the 2005 Grand Prix it was all Kiwi winners. Ken Smith, Craig Baird ×3, Greg Murphy, Brady Kennett, Not held ×2, Simon Wills ×2, Andy Booth, Not held, Fabian Coulthard, Johnny Reid and finally the man who started the streak finished it, Ken Smith. For the next year, the Toyota Racing Series would become the championship to host the New Zealand Grand Prix and the 2006 version was won by Hamad Al Fardan from Bahrain. Another NZ dominance streak started in 2007 and went until 2014 with winners such as Earl Bamber, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans. From here forward, a lot of familiar names would take the win. Stroll won in 2015 then it was F1 title contender Lando Norris for '16. Jehan Daruvala won in 2017 and Richard Verschoor the next year. 2019 was home hero Liam Lawson's day. In 2020, I attended the round at Hampton Downs so I could see these drivers first hand, 2 drivers stood out to me, Liam Lawson and Igor Fraga. Fraga would take the win at Hampton Downs and then at the New Zealand Grand Prix later in the month. 2021 saw NASCAR driver Shane Van Gisbergen win. 2022 was cancelled due to COVID. 2023 was Laurens van Hoepen. 2024 went the way of home boy Liam Sceats and this years race went the way of reigning Supercars champion Will Brown.