Plans for new racing circuit

The first details have been revealed of new motorsport and driver training facility at the Bay of Plenty’s TECT Park.

Thunder Ridge Motorsport Park is the brainchild of Hampton Downs co-creator Tony Roberts, long-time racer Roger Williams, and Gary Stirling, former Pukekohe Park and Hampton Downs circuit manager. 

Plans for the facility just off SH36 between Tauranga and Rotorua are well-advanced with the objective of creating a flexible facility for the region, the New Zealand events and automotive industries, and wider motorsport community.

The 3.2km circuit will have eight corners and a 26-metre elevation variation with rising and falling features reflecting the landscape. 

It will also boast high-speed banked corners designed by racing drivers, as well as a club house, rest rooms, café and camping grounds. 

Motor homes will be welcome in the forest setting, which is set to be one of the most scenic automotive facilities in Australasia. 

The circuit will require no public funding and will be fully compliant to stringent high standards set by FIA, the world governing body of motorsport. 

“Our vision is for Thunder Ridge to be a place where young people and the average person in the street can participate in racing or just indulge their passion for cars or bikes, just like the old Bay Park experience at Mount Maunganui,” says Roberts. 

“The circuit, combined with the supporting facilities, will be a driver’s paradise. Planning permission has been granted and the project now just needs a finalised lease from Western Bay of Plenty Regional Council before work can commence.”

The 70-hectare facility will cater for a diverse range of interests. It will be available for grassroots motorsport events, car-club events, track days and will provide the Bay of Plenty and its surrounding regions – as well as wider New Zealand – with a world class and affordable facility for multiple activities.

Thunder Ridge will also offer on-site garaging for private owners who would like to base their vehicles where they can be used safely and cost effectively. But it’s the wide range of what will be on offer on-track that Roberts, Williams and Stirling believe will appeal.

“It’s going to be a place where everyone with an interest in cars, bikes or even cycling and running competition will be welcome to indulge their passion,” adds Roberts.

“Everyone will be welcome and made to feel welcome because it’s going to be a place that was conceived and designed with that philosophy at its core.

“This is the place where new drivers can learn under expert tuition at an affordable price, and where our younger car-mad generation can come along and play with their cars rather than creating a hazard on public roads. That alone will be of huge benefit to the wider region Thunder Ridge will serve.”

Club-level motorsport weekends that will include Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the price will be a mainstay. 

Practice days, fun-focussed play events when owners can take their road or track cars onto the circuit with or without an expert instructor alongside them, private test days, car-club meeting days, new-car launches, motor-industry customer events, motorcycle-rider training days, cycle racing, and charity and road-running events are all in the pipeline at a reasonable charge.

Williams says: “Western Bay of Plenty and Tauranga councils have had the foresight to purchase land and process consents for the utilisation of this land for ‘fringe activities’ of all kinds, including motorsport.

“We are three directors with a love of motorsport and considerable motorsport experience who want to build this facility and work with the other like-minded clubs at TECT Park.

“Lately, motor racing and circuit access in New Zealand – like just about everything – has become out of reach for many because of rising costs. The sad demise of Pukekohe Park only made that problem worse and heightened the need for something new.

“Some of our international super stars, such as Liam Lawson in F1, Scott Dixon in IndyCars and Mitch Evans in Formula E all started at grassroots level and relied on everything being affordable.

“When the vision becomes reality, we should be welcoming our first customers in 2026.”

Pictured below, from left, are Thunder Ridge Motorsport Park directors Tony Roberts, Roger Williams and Gary Stirling.