All four races delivered big results, with Kai Allen surviving an attack from Brodie Kostecki on Friday before flipping that script on Saturday morning.
Matt Payne put on a show for his home fans on Saturday afternoon with a dominant display and backed that up on Sunday in the feature race.
Broc Feeney won the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy in a spectacular conclusion to the weekend when Ryan Wood’s Toyota Supra suddenly stopped before Kostecki’s bingle with Chaz Mostert.
There was plenty of bumper-to-bumper racing, which peaked on Sunday afternoon when Jobe Stewart, Jackson Walls, and Rylan Gray created a Supercars sandwich on the first lap.
Surprisingly, for all the off-track moments at Pothole and the door-banging action – there were only two Safety Cars across 172 laps for first lap melee on Sunday and Wood’s ill Supra.
Kiwi Supercars fans flocked to Ruapuna for the three-day event, with more than 60,000 lining the perimeter of the 3.3km circuit.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, who raced in the Historic Touring Cars, hailed the event a success.
Mauger thanked Supercars for having “faith” in Christchurch for putting the event on.
Christchurch fought off interest from Cromwell and its Tony Quinn-owned Highlands destination.
Quinn hosted Team 18 boss Charlie Schwerkolt at Highlands in the lead up to the Christchurch round, continuing their push for Supercars to race there in 2029.
“I’ve always said, we’ve got to roll out the red carpet for these guys because there are others who would like to see it,” Mauger said.
“We’ve got to make it so the teams, the drivers really want to come back. I think you’ve heard it from Broc, he loves it here, so keep it going.
“Everyone that you saw going around had a smile on their face. It was outstanding. Everyone was over the moon. It was good.”
A talking point over the weekend was the circuit’s facilities, which were bare-bones and make-shift in parts.
Erebus Motorsport had to set up its pit boom next to a portable building while Triple Eight Race Engineering ended up pitting outside of the Supercars scales.
Plans are in place to construct a permanent pit building in time for Supercars’ return in 2027 as part of a broader upgrade plan.
Mauger said Supercars and its drivers expect better facilities.
“These guys are professional race teams and they need to have similar what they should expect – what they see in other places, we get it here,” Mauger added.
“We’re working very hard. I understand the building consent is going in next week or the week after and then we’ll start to get things moving.”
In this week’s poll, we want to know what you thought of Ruapuna Raceway and the Christchurch Super440.
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