Whitianga Festival of Speed

If it flies, floats or turns wheels and heads it is bound to be there.

If you love fast aircraft, fast boats, exotic cars and motorcycles, along with thrilling stunts the Whitianga Festival of speed will push all the right buttons as it combines the best of those activities in an adrenalin filled weekend of activity.

The inaugural Whitianga Festival of Speed was held in April 2009 and took many people by surprise. With limited media publicity and a small dedicated team led by the Hopper Development’s Whitianga Waterways’ team and a band of local business and community groups, they managed to stage an event which has tongues wagging all around the country.

People who had heard about it, and overlooked the opportunity to come, were very disappointed and have vowed not to miss the next one.

Most visitors could not get to see everything as there was a continual overlapping event schedule with three aerobatic teams performing constantly, helicopter flying skill demonstrations, offshore power boat races, car and motor cycle events and a number of novelty stunts.

Spectators were treated to races between a helicopter and a rally car, helicopter and off shore power boat, helicopters with bottle openers on their skids, hovering and opening rows of beer bottles and the “Whopper Chopper Race”which was a team relay event involving axemen, helicopter pilots and motorcycles. The skies were constantly busy with almost continuous aerobatics performed by the RNZAF’s Red Checkers, Warbirds and YAK pilots, not to mention fabulous flying displays by an immaculate WW2 Mustang and helicopters.

Big multi-million dollar Game fishing boats raced around the NZOPA circuit close to shore with a Le Mans Style finish where crew returned to shore in their inflatable dinghies and had to run up the beach in front of a 15,000+ cheering crowd to plant a flag on a sand hill.

There was never a dull moment. If you would like to see what you missed, visit www.whitiangafos.com