A wet and wild beginning to the 2025 MEGA Pro New Zealand Endurance Championship

The first round of the 2025 MEGA Pro Series Endurance Championship took place at Hampton Downs this month, with a race for every driver there’s plenty to get excited about!

New Zealand are the first to license the event from MEGA Motorsport Global, with an exciting vision to see these events spread across the world. Promoters from any country can license the MEGA event structure and take advantage of a tested event format, championship structure and rule set as well as all of the administrative infrastructure including the brand identity, website, registration portal, EDM database and marketing material. What MEGA have created, in short, is a drag and drop grass roots motorsport series capable of being deployed anywhere where there are cars to race and people to race them!

Round 1 of the NZ Championship was hosted at Hampton Downs with a one hour firecracker mini-enduro kicking off the day before the Pro Series 3 and 6 hour endurance races began simultaneously.

So how does the event work? Well, after practice and qualifying in the morning, the Firecracker offers those who wish to dip their toes into the world of motorsport a chance for a quick hour dash to test themselves and their cars in a competitive environment. The firecracker is also a chance for the 3 and 6 hour entrants to compete, or use as a warm up to test components, bed in new parts or allow new drivers a chance to familiarise themselves with the circuit.

With the 3 and 6 hour events kicking off simultaneously, teams have the option to register for either event individually, or both, seeing as the 6 hour drivers will inevitably cross the line at the three hour mark, making them eligible for a trophy and 3 hour championship points had they registered themselves prior. In essence, what MEGA have created is multiple levels of grassroots motorsport, split into lap time derived classes to give everyone a fair go. Different offerings for every team, budget or appetite for racing all in the same day on the same circuit.

It was near cyclonic weather which would greet the drivers to kick off Round 1 of the 2025 championships, providing a challenging drive for competitors both inside and out of the car as various tyre and setup changes would be tested in the pursuit to combat the ever-changing conditions.

Of the two eligible classes for the Firecracker 40 it would be Team 89 Grant Stone who would take the outright and Missile Class Victory. Team 548 Racing would cross the line next to take Rocket Class Victory.

11am passed as the Pro Series endurance races began with teams and tyres flying left right and centre in preparation for the rolling start in less than ideal conditions. With no set tyre regulations teams were free to change it up, with teams rolling the dice experimenting on the more hardcore semi-slick tyres with mixed results. Worth noting at this point is a unique characteristic of the MEGA event structure which allows for teams to “relay” multiple cars in a single team entry while abiding by minimum pit stop times to allow for vehicle changeover.

As 2pm passed the chequered flag would fly for the end of the 3 hour with the all familiar Team 00 Ghost Dog Racing taking the win in Super Class. Team 43 Checkered Past would take the flag in the GT Class and Team 288 2 Broke Boys would cross the line first in Sport Class.

Another 105 laps later it would again be Ghost Dog Racing who would wrap things up on top, ending the 6 Hour race leading both the 3 and 6 Hour championships in the fastest class. GT Class however would be shaken up as 3 Hour victors Checkered Past would run into trouble only making it 141 laps into the race. Victory then, would be enjoyed by Team 608 appropriately named Get In Behind. Sport Class was won by Team 295 Assassin 2.0.

The MEGA Pro Endurance Championship will head to Taupo for Round 2 before returning to Hampton Downs again for Round 3. The final round of the year will be a special one, once again at Hampton Downs the team have secured the full international layout of the track, a rare opportunity for a grassroots event to experience this exclusive track layout and an event which will only be available to previous competitors.