Poll Gives Mandate For Cities To Work Together And Make The Street Race Successful
North Shore residents overwhelmingly support Auckland hosting the V8 International street race festival from 2006.
The poll of 303 people living within the boundaries of North Shore City was commissioned by the newly formed Street Race
Supporters Club to find out what North Shore people think about the street race.
“We wanted to remove guesswork and speculation about the popularity of the Street Race Festival series planned for 2006
and beyond,” says Mike Bitossi, the North Shore representative of the supporters club.
“The public is overwhelmingly in favour of the event with 55 percent giving their unconditional support and a massive 73
percent supporting the race if traffic can be adequately managed,” Mr Bitossi said.
When asked whether Auckland City and North Shore cities should work together to make the V8 International a success, 74
percent gave the councils the green light to get on a make it happen, Mr Bitossi said.
“This is a clear mandate for the leaders of both cities to put politics aside and for everyone to pitch in and help make
it this fantastic event happen,” Mr Bitossi said.
“It’s the way they do it in Australia where Supercar street events attract huge live audiences and the events have
become so popular everyone wants to share the success.
“The Australians say Auckland has the potential to be bigger than the Gold Coast or Adelaide where crowds in excess of
200,000 come to their street race festivals,” Mr Bitossi said
He said the Street Race Supporters Club was planning to launch a petition to further demonstrate public support for
the race and he was confident of a huge response.