The Pukekohe 500 was an endurance

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event first held in 1963 at Pukekohe Park Raceway,

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. The town is located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. The hills of Puke ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

History

The Pukekohe 500 had its origins in the Wills Six-Hour race that was first held in 1963 as a production car race, soon after the circuit opened. From 1967, the event mandated that New Zealand-built production cars can only be entered into the race. Through the first decades of the race, the event became recognised as the second most significant race on the New Zealand motorsport calendar behind the

New Zealand Grand Prix The New Zealand Grand Prix, sometimes known as the New Zealand International Grand Prix, is an annual motor racing event held in New Zealand. First held in 1950 New Zealand Grand Prix, 1950, it is best known for hosting rounds of the Tasman Seri ...

. In the early 1980s, a three race endurance series was held with races also at Bay Park Raceway and Manfeild. In the mid 1980s, the race rose to international prominence when it adopted

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles wer ...

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The ...

regulations and was linked with the

Wellington 500 The Wellington 500 was a street circuit, street race for touring car racing, touring cars which took place at Wellington City in Wellington, New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1987 event was a round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship ...

street race. The two races attracted Group A racing teams from Australia, Europe and Asia though until the end of the Group A era in the early 1990s. The 1988 round was part of the Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship with Wellington, the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...

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and the Fuji 500. The 1993 and 1994 events were held to

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a auto racing, motor racing touring car category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Form ...

regulations before dropping off the calendar altogether with the demise of the Wellington 500. From 2001, the predominant touring car event at Pukekohe was superseded by the Auckland SuperSprint, a round of the Australian

Supercars Championship The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

series held at the circuit. However, the Pukekohe 500 name was revived in 2012 as a V8SuperTourer endurance event, albeit held over three races. The meeting proved popular with large crowds attending. Greg Murphy rekindled his success from the V8 Supercars era at Pukekohe by winning two of the three races. The V8SuperTourer series folded in 2015 and with it the running of the Pukekohe 500. The event was revived in 2019 as a production event. In 2020, Mark Leonard and Peter Sprague, descendants of Leo Leonard and Ernie and Gary Sprague who won the race a combined 14 times, entered the race. After the 2021 race was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the event was held for a final time in 2022 prior to the circuit's closure in 2023.

Winners

;Notes: * – Two separate events were held in 1987.

Multiple winners

By driver

By manufacturer

Event sponsors

* 1963–67: Wills * 1968–84, 1987:

Benson & Hedges Benson & Hedges is a British brand of cigarettes owned by American conglomerate Altria. Cigarettes under the ''Benson & Hedges'' name are manufactured worldwide by different companies such as Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris USA, British ...

* 1988:

ProMo PROMO (Promoting Missouri) is a Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territ ...

* 1989–93:

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

* 2012: Woodstock * 2013: Mike Pero * 2014: Fuchs

References

{{reflist Auto races in New Zealand Recurring sporting events established in 1984 Touring car races