Mark Wederall: Canterbury Car Club general manager ahead of the ITM Christchurch Super 440 next week

There was plenty of Supercars action in Taupo over the weekend, and now racing fans in Christchurch will get their turn.

The competition will debut in the South Island, with the the ITM Christchurch Super 440 starting on Friday.

Canterbury Car Club general manager Mark Wederall says this is big news for fans in the South Island, and it's one of the biggest events to hit the region.

"It's massive, it's probably going to be one of the bigger events that come to Christchurch...it'll be the biggest that we've ever had." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks ab Right.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
While all the eyes were on the supercars in Topaul
this weekend, christ Church is busy preparing for the competition
South Island debut with the ITM christ Church Super four
forty starting on Friday. The double header is the first
time back to back legs of the Supercars Championship will
be held in New Zealand. The Canterbury Car Club has
been instrumental in securing the christ Church League and general

(00:34):
manager Mark Wederall joins me.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Now, good morning, Mark, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Tell me how significant is this double header for car
racing in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's the biggest thing I think that's probably ever happened.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
It's absolutely massive, and especially for such a big fan
base in New Zealand that love supercars, it's going to
be awesome.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
And so then how big is this for the South
and christ Church?

Speaker 4 (00:59):
It's massive. It's probably going to be one of the
bigger events that come to chrost Church. Obviously we have
a couple of big concerts and that, but as far
as this sort of motorsport thing, it'll be the biggest
that we've ever had at Ripon.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's been a long recovery for christ Church. But the
city is really emerging as a destination for big events,
isn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, super exciting. It's all just sort of.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
You know, opening up now. You know we've got the
stadium opening and events like this. We really have become
an event center and it's just super exciting for the region.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's all, go, how long have you been trying to
make this happen.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
I've been in the role for thirteen years and it's
always been a dream. I have seen communications going back
to two thousand and one when one of our presidents
reached out to Supercars back then and then nothing happened.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
And then yeah, a couple of years ago we reached out.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Again and again radio silence for a wee bit, and
then christ Church's end got hold of us probably a
year and a half two years ago, and then we
sort of started to realize that maybe it was a
bit more real, and the Supercars came and had a
visit and they like what they've seen, and then it
became absolutely real.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
So Mark, what went into securing this event for christ Church?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
For us?

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Obviously a lot of support from from christ tutions and
local government to you know financially to get supercars here.
But for us, I think location is definitely the key.
You know, we've got a good accommodation, we've got an airport,
we've got a port. And then for us, we are
a club circuit, so you know, we're not we're not

(02:42):
big and flash, so our facilities are you know a
little old, little tied. So we just had to work
through with Supercars what what was important for year one
and you know, we've probably spent close to a million
dollars this year just upgrading some of the safety things, tirewolls,
gravel traps, things like that, and so we've you know,

(03:02):
we've made our target and goals for year one. So
we're pretty wrapped with this.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
The biggest event, howld it Roy Poona.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Oh absolutely am. Our biggest event at the moment is
the Scope Classic. We have that every year and we
probably attract seven to eight thousand people across the weekend.
Supercar is looking to get twenty thousand plus a day.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
So yeah, awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
So then Mark, going from a dream to being less
than a week out from the event, how are you feeling,
how's everything shaping up.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
I'm just trying to starting now to slow down and
then take it all in because it is it's been
absolutely hectic. I even Friday we were still digging some
earth to put in another gravel trap and stuff. So
I'm hoping this week I can sort of just maybe
just take away, step back now and start to enjoy
the enjoy the event. Obviously supercars have a lot of

(03:55):
contractors on site putting in you know, grand stands, marquees
for hospitality and all of that.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
So the are the.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Ones that are really busy now, and we'll just hopefully
just yes back a little and enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
And look how important a volunteer is important to something
like this.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
For you, For our club, the most important.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
So we have a small team of staff and we're
grateful that we do get paid to do what we do.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
There's about eight.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Of us, but we have a team of one hundred
volunteers that help us run our events, and most of
them are tuning up to help with supercars.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
And then obviously supercars have a lot more roles.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
You know, if they think they use volunteers for parking
and you know, grandstand seating in that. But yeah, our
team of one hundred are certainly excited to be there,
and without them we wouldn't be able to run the
events we run.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
So what can people expect if they've never been to
a supercar championship.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
I think with a supercar championship it's just a lot
more excitement around around the place, so you're going to
see some amazing racing.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
One of the features of.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Ripooner is obviously you can see the whole track from
just about where if you sit, but you know, if
you're lucky enough to have a pit pass, you know
you're able to get over and get up close to
the cars and there's just always a lot of a
lot of excitement. One of the support classes that are
raising historic touring cars. Most of those cars should be
in museums. You know, they're worth a whole lot of money,

(05:22):
but these guys and girls have got them out racing.
So it's really cool to see things like that.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
This deal for christ Church entipwards for three years. How
vital is having that length of contract to really be
able to make a good cracket, you know, this becoming
a permanent fixture in christ Church.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, super important for us.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
It's giving us the confidence to tackle the biggest project
that we really need to do, and that's build new
pit lane garages. So that's progressing nicely. We're hoping that
after Supercars leave this year, we're able to move the
old ones back to other parts of the pits and
start on that. We're confident that if we can build

(06:02):
those garages, then we're in a really good position to
have it longer than three years.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Mark Witterll thank you so much for your time this morning,
and have it a great weekend, have a good time,
enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I promise I will thank you excellent cheers.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
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