Organisers celebrate successful Queenstown Auto Extravaganza event

Organisers of last weekend’s Queenstown Auto Extravaganza are finally drawing breath after celebrating a successful three days of full-on activities.

Hundreds of car enthusiasts and families basked in sunshine as they enjoyed the Rilean “What’s in your Garage?” outdoor public car show and the indoor Vincent Holdings Salon of Style NZ Motor racing exhibition at the Queenstown Events Centre on Saturday.

The previous night, a 200-strong evening car cruise took participants and their vehicles to their mystery destination of Peregrine Winery where they were treated to food, wine and music and an interview with NZ pro racer Jonny Reid.

Sunday’s QT Rides Eighth Mile Car Sprint in Dalefield saw around 30 vehicles of all ages and styles being honed down to the fastest ‘top six’ that raced against each other in a repecharge.

Reaching speeds of up to 160kmh, Daniel Kerby came first in the Nissan Skyline GTR Godzilla, second was Mark Bremmer in a T Bucket Hot Rod, and third was Steve Butter in his Valiant Charger. The winning time was close to seven seconds over the Eighth Mile.

Co-organiser Michael Sly said the Christchurch earthquake had “definitely” had an impact on the event in a number of ways, but believed it had been very successful in promoting awareness of prostate cancer.

“We did have vehicles registered for the show that were stuck in Lyttleton or in the Christchurch CBD, and some visitors who for very obvious reasons felt unable to come down for the weekend,” he said.

“But overall we were very happy with the numbers of visitors and how the whole event went, and we’re already looking forward to planning the next one.”