Motor racing circuit via Queenstown gateway

The Highlands Motorsport Park, an international-standard motor racing circuit is being built near Cromwell, and is expected to give petrolheads a big excuse to fly to Queenstown.

Mountain Scene reports that the $20m-plus facility will include a 4.8km circuit, a New Zealand Motorsport Hall of Fame Museum, go-kart track, skidpan and restaurant when it opens early next year. The track set to be sealed in November.

Highlands Motorsport Park marketing manager Marijke Dunselman told Mountain Scene : “Queenstown is the international gateway to the area and this will be an amazing facility which will benefit the whole area.

“A lot of people will stay in Queenstown at Pounamu Apartments and travel over, while other groups will stay in Cromwell. Over the next couple of years there will be a huge amount of product development to cater to different groups – from your standard race meetings, to track days, testing facilities and corporate days,” Dunselman says.

The MotorNews website says the project, which is expected to soft-launch in the New Year, has been financed by Australian pet food tycoon and part-time Queenstown resident Tony Quinn. Quinn is a long-time racing driver and owns the Australian GT hampionship as well as the Aussie Race Car series in Australia. He is also a triple Targa New Zealand winner and was made a director of Cromwell Motorsport Park Trust Ltd in JAN12. He told Speedcafe.co.nz: “This is my opportunity to give something back to New Zealand motor sport and something I really want to leave behind because the racing community deserves a special facility like this one.

“It (museum) will be a real tribute to the Kiwi efforts since the 1960's and we will have a theme that rotates so we intend to kick it off by paying homage to Bruce McLaren.”

The track, which will be the leading one of its type in either New Zealand or Australia, combines a mix of some of the world's most famous corners and elements of circuits from Europe, the United States and the Southern Hemisphere.

More snow at Treble Cone

Over one metre of new snow fell at Treble Cone last week, with more forecast for the next few days.

On Sunday and Monday (02/03SEP) Treble Cone received 65cm of new snow at the top of the Home Basin and in the Saddle Basin (pic), a further 50cm plus has fallen since Friday.

This snowfall provides fresh tracks for visitors to Treble Cone this week and top conditions for the last three weeks of the season.

Treble Cone's scheduled closing day is 30SEP. www.treblecone.com .