Teams preparing to ship Supercars to New Zealand

Teams preparing to ship Supercars to New Zealand for Round 3
Teams began stripping cars immediately after Sunday's Melbourne race
The 24-car field will be sea freighted to New Zealand

The full Supercars field is being readied for departure ahead of the upcoming ITM Taupō Super 440

The full 24-car Repco Supercars Championship field is being readied for departure to New Zealand ahead of the upcoming ITM Taupō Super 440.

As soon as cars returned to the paddock after the Melbourne finale on Sunday, which was abandoned due to heavy rain, teams quickly began servicing cars and equipment for departure.

The April 11-13 round is the only flyaway event of the 2025 season, with Supercars teams travelling to Australian rounds with their transporters.

This year, the field will be sea freighted to New Zealand, with the voyage taking place across the Tasman Sea.

Last year, cars were air freighted to New Zealand after being transported to Avalon Airport, where they were placed in specially-designed double stack car racks.

A car racking system was provided by Supercars along with installation details and detailed specifications. It’s a similar system used by Porsche Carrera Cup Australia teams last year, as well as GT teams travelling to Australia for the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Per Supercars sea freight rules, teams are limited in the quantity of freight that they are permitted to take to the event. Each team is permitted one 40ft shipping container to freight a maximum of two cars and equipment.

It includes, but isn’t limited to, the following items:

Two cars including four wheels and four usable wet tyres
One engine (in addition to the one mounted in the car)
One gearbox (in addition to the one mounted in the car)
24 wheels (in addition to the four mounted on the car)
Two front bumper bars (in addition to the car mounted bumper bar)
Two rear bumper bars (in addition to the car mounted bumper bar)
One pit boom only

Additionally, no external modifications can be made to shipping containers, and any exterior modifications will deem the container not IICL standard and must be fully re-certified for export.

Where cars went home to their respective bases last year, they have remained in Melbourne, and were quickly turned around and packed into shipping containers.

After returning from New Zealand, teams will receive their cars and have only a few days to get ready for the trip to Tasmania for the Tasmania Super 440 on May 9-11.

All told, the Taupō paddock will look slightly different to Australian rounds, where transporters are parked behind pit lane.

Tickets are available now for the ITM Taupō Super 440 through Supercars.com and Ticketek.