Mystery Creek Events Centre is a hive of activity with teams arriving for this week’s Propecia Rally New Zealand, the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship.
It is the first time that Rally New Zealand has used a central service park for the 37th annual Rally New Zealand in and around Hamilton from 16-19 November.
The Subaru World Rally Team were the first to set-up at Mystery Creek with the WRC teams housed under cover for the first time in New Zealand – inside the Main Pavilion.
There are 36 international teams from 16 different countries with drivers descending on Hamilton from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Russia, San Marino and Spain.
Each team brings a host of support staff and team members with approximately 1000 team members attending.
All of the cars are based at Mystery Creek and return there during the day for a 20 minute service before heading back out to contest further special stages around the region. At the end of each day there is a 45 minute window for teams to complete repairs or attend to any mechanical issues.
Mystery Creek will also host a specially designed Super Special Stage on Friday and Saturday nights at 6pm. The stage winds around the Mystery Creek property offering fantastic viewing opportunities including a jump and water splash.
And the event finishes back at Mystery Creek on Sunday November 19 at 3pm with the famous podium presentation.
There will be a range of merchandise and other related items for sale and on display as well as a screen providing live coverage of the special stages. For the general sports follower who wants to get a taste of rally, then there will be something for everyone by heading to Mystery Creek.
There will be an influx of international media following the event with approximately 300 expected in press, radio, television and photography – also based at Mystery Creek.
And the rally will draw huge support from the New Zealand motorsport fans in particular, with 50,000 spectators expected over the three days.
Pictures of Hamilton and the Waikato region will be beamed around the world. Propecia Rally New Zealand will be beamed to a potential worldwide audience of 500 million in more than 180 countries with the event gaining 80 hours of combined coverage worldwide.
The event also draws significant media coverage in New Zealand with more than 13 hours of radio coverage, daily broadcasts on Sky Television as well as live coverage on the world website www.wrc.com.
It does not happen by chance, nor by massive budgets but rather by the dedicated support from 2500 volunteers.
The rally action starts with a Shakedown Test at Mystery Creek on Thursday 16 November from 8am until midday. This is the opportunity for teams to check their rally cars. The Shakedown is free for the public.
Propecia Rally New Zealand starts on Thursday evening in Hamilton. There’s a free Rally Show and Ceremonial Start at Hood Street with rally cars on display from 4pm, and an autograph session from 5pm to 6.30pm.
The first car will cross the ramp at 7.30pm after a special sound and light spectacular with the final car an hour later, which will be the No 1 ranked car for the event.
The rally proper begins on Friday at 8.30am with special stages at Pirongia West and Te Koraha before returning for service at 1.15pm. They repeat the stages in the afternoon before returning for the Super Special Stage at Mystery Creek.
Leg two begins at 7am on Saturday with three stages in the northern Waikato and Franklin District (Port Waikato, Klondyke and Wairamarama), returning for service at 1.20pm, with two further stages in north Waikato (Te Akau South and North) ahead of another Super Special stage at Mystery Creek.
The final day on Sunday features special stages in the Raglan region from 6.15am returning for service from 10.20am and finish from 2.30pm and Ceremonial Finish at 3pm.
Tickets for Mystery Creek and the Special Stages with Spectator Maps are available from www.rallynz.org.nz from Winger Subaru Official Merchandise stand at Garden Place, Hamilton from 8.30am until 5pm from Monday 13 to Wednesday 15 November as well as the Ceremonial Start at Hood St on Thursday from 4pm.
On the day tickets are available at Mystery Creek at the special stages.
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