#V8 supercars racing room introduced driver
#V8 supercars racing room introduced series

In 2018, championship combatants van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin each took a first and second in the two races, with McLaughlin winning the event on a countback due to his higher Sunday result.

#V8 supercars racing room introduced driver

In 2016, Shane van Gisbergen became the first New Zealand driver to win the trophy. In 20, Jamie Whincup, who was a teammate of Jason Richards in 2005 at Tasman Motorsport and co-drove with him to a second-place finish at the 2005 Bathurst 1000, won the trophy. The event was run over the Anzac Day long weekend, including a race on a Friday for the first time in championship history. In 2014, Ford's Mark Winterbottom was the event winner, marking the first win at the event for Ford in its ninth running. Jason Bright and Brad Jones Racing, Richards' last teammate and team respectively, were the first winners of the trophy. Supercars returned to a slightly modified Pukekohe layout in 2013 and the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy was introduced. The New Zealand event moved to the Hamilton Street Circuit for 2008 and remained there until 2012. However, Baird and Dumbrell came together and spun, both hitting the wall before coming to rest on opposite sides of the track with severely damaged cars.

Jamie Whincup slid off the track at the final corner and Baird and Dumbrell squeezed together as Whincup returned to the circuit. In 2005 there was a major accident involving Craig Baird and Paul Dumbrell during the third race. Jason Bright was the only other driver to win the event in the first five years, doing so in 2004, while Murphy finished third. The 2002 event contained the 500th race in championship history, which was won by Skaife. Murphy maintained strong form at Pukekohe, winning again in 2002, 20.

#V8 supercars racing room introduced series

Mark Skaife sealed the 2001 Shell Championship Series in the first race, while Greg Murphy won the event, taking pole position and winning all three races for the Kmart Racing Team. It was the first round in the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship and Supercars not to be contested in Australia. The first championship round at Pukekohe Park for what was then known as V8 Supercars was held in 2001, entitled the Boost Mobile V8 International. In a precursor to his later Supercars success at the track, all three races were won by local driver Greg Murphy for the Holden Racing Team. In 1996, twelve cars from the Australian Touring Car Championship raced in the Mobil 1 Sprints, a two event series at Pukekohe and Wellington.

The event was often twinned with the Wellington 500, on a street circuit in Wellington City. Several Australian teams, along with local and international teams, competed in the endurance Group A event with Australian-based teams winning the event several times. This dates back to the famed Pukekohe 500, which originally ran from 1984 to 1993 for touring cars and dates back to 1963 for production cars. Pukehohe Park is one of New Zealand's most historic race tracks, and has long seen links with Australian motor racing. The trophy was introduced at the 2013 event in honour of Jason Richards, a one-time New Zealand Supercars race winner and Supercars Hall of Fame member who died of cancer in 2011. Since 2013, the driver who scores the most points across all races during the weekend has received the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

A twenty-minute qualifying session is held on Sunday, succeeded by a top ten shootout, the combined results of which decide the grid for the following 200 km race. Saturday features a twenty-minute qualifying session which decides the grid positions for the following 200 kilometre race. Three thirty-minute practice sessions are held, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The event is staged over a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday.