Carrera Cup coming to NZ

The Porsche Carrera Cup Australia championship will head across the Tasman and conduct a category-first in New Zealand in 2024.

The one-make series will follow the Supercars Championship to Taupo Motorsport Park on April 19-21.

Whilst Supercars has been racing in New Zealand since 2001, it will be the first time Carrera Cup heads across the Tasman to go racing and just the second time overseas following the trip to Malaysia in 2017.

The New Zealand round has been promised to be the second stop on the 2024 Carrera Cup calendar which is “to be released in due course”.

Carrera Cup Australia has a proud New Zealand heritage dating back to the inaugural champion of 2003, Jim Richards, and the most successful driver, Craig Baird, who scored five titles.

Jaxon Evans is the most recent Kiwi to win the crown, in 2018, but this year young gun Callum Hedge is in the running to join the club at the upcoming season closer in Adelaide.

All up 10 different Kiwis have won a combined total of 152 Carrera Cup Australia races over the two decades of racing.

Multiple championship winning operation McElrea Racing is owned by noted NZ racer Andy McElrea, while Earl Bamber Motorsport/Team Porsche New Zealand are chasing title glory this year.

Porsche Cars Australia Motorsport Manager Barry Hay said this weight of history makes an NZ race perfect sense.

“Returning to an overseas venue has been on the agenda for the championship for some time, but it needed to be the right venue, the right time and the right place,” he said. 

“This ticks all of those boxes and so much more and we’re proud to be taking one-make Porsche racing back to New Zealand in 2024. 

“Following the Supercars to Taupo for the first ITM Taupo Super400 event made all the sense in the world, and we have worked closely with the Supercars Championship, Porsche Motorsport New Zealand and our teams and competitors to make the trip achievable. 

“Carrera Cup has such incredible Kiwi heritage and DNA and while we are Carrera Cup Australia, we are fiercely proud to represent New Zealand as well – as witnessed with the teams and drivers who come from across the Tasman to race with us. 

“It’s going to be an incredible trip for our teams and drivers and a great experience to take the show on the road to another country. 

“The Kiwi fans will have plenty of local to cheer for in our field next year and I am sire they are relishing the chance to watch another Kiwi sporting star beat up on the Aussies in New Zealand.”

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