Locations
Landspeed events require long, straight and flat locations to be run safely and to be eligible to set records. Here are some of the locations in New Zealand and around the World that have been used to host events and set records.
New Zealand locations
Goudies Road – This ex-private forestry road near Reporoa, halfway between Rotorua and Taupo in the Bay of Plenty has 7km of straight, flat tarseal. The road was constructed to a very high standard to handle logging trucks trains (3 trailers) up to 120 tonne each. With 1 meter deep of compacted rock and pumice, a logging truck motorway but has seen little of the traffic it was designed for. Being a “B” class road at 7m wide, it’s around a meter wider than most roads in New Zealand, and unusually for New Zealand it’s constructed with hot mix (asphalt) up to 150mm depth rather than chip seal. It has no cats eyes, it isn’t a through road as from 2009 the gates were closed and access is via two side public side roads and has very few residents on it, making it New Zealand’s best road for landspeed trials.
It is where Ray Williams in March 1996 did 316 kph and Owen Evans in June 1996 did 348 kph each set the outright landspeed record for New Zealand. Also in July 2006 Maurice O’Reilly broke a diesel class record in a driving a Volkswagen Jetta TDi at 232 kph. Goudies Road, has been surveyed and was recognised by the FIA for Landspeed records and is now used by Landspeed New Zealand Association for their landspeed events, whom had it re-surveyed for levelness/inclination and it is in the center 2.7 klms absolutely flat, with a total inclinations of less than 0.10% FIA rules say less than 1%. To date LSNZ record’s fastest speed is Scott Wilkins on a highly modified Kawasaki H2R motorcycle with a one way run of 364kph/227mph a MNZ Landspeed record also.
Eastwest Access Road, Western Lake, South Wairapa 3.4klms long with a big sweeping bend in first 800 meters, used by the Cliffhanger Promotions Inc. for Motorcycle only landspeed trials once per year.
Chertsey Rd, Ashburton, Canterbury, South Island, was used by the Ashburton Car and Motorcycle clubs for a combined Landspeed trials, under MSNZ rules they are called Sprints, once per year. But MSNZ has apparently not issued a permit for a Landspeed trial since 2019 one of the reasons was the road was not 10 meters wide ! This rule has apparently been changed now so the car club only needs to apply for a MSNZ permit to run sprints again.
Canal West Road – A rural road near Waitakaruru in the Waikato region. This road was used by Dr Rodger Freeth to successfully set New Zealand’s outright landspeed record in 1993 of 313 kph. Heather Spurle in a diesel car 191 kph Ray Williams considered this road for his 1996 record attempt, but ruled it out due to bumps. Ray Williams also considered Canal East Road (which runs parallel to it, with the two separated by a canal) before settling on Goudies Road for his attempts.
Ohakea Air Base – A RNZAF air base near Bulls in the Manawatu, it hosts New Zealand’s third longest runway at 2.4klm (after international airports at Auckland and Christchurch). March 2020 Dean Hart, a Royal NZ Air Force (RNZAF) broke the MSNZ New Zealand land speed record in a jet-powered dragster to a top one way speed of 458.2 kmh. The record-breaking vehicle reached an average speed of 363.436 kmh over a mile beating the previous record of 355 kmh by Eddie Freeman 2012 in a Lamborghini Superleggera
Oreti Beach – Oreti Beach near Invercargill in Southland has long been used for racing, and Burt Munro set several 1/2 mile records there in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. It is still used for racing today, and is part of the annual Burt Munro challenge. Sadly this event does not do any Landspeed events only short sprint racing.
Ninety Mile Beach, Northland once used in 1932 by Norman ‘Wizard’ Smith’s attempt at a land speed record in the Fred H Stewart Enterprise racecar the ‘Anzac’, using a Rolls-Royce aero engine and a Cadillac chassis he set an unofficial Australasian ten-mile record at an average speed of over 148 miles per hour.(238 kph)
International locations
Many venues are used around the World for landspeed racing, most being either airport runways or dried up lake beds. The runways tend to be military ones (often disused) while the lake beds are a mix of dirt or salt flats. The most famous salt flats are the Bonneville Salt flats in America but Lake Gairdner in Australia also hosts annual events and has been recognised as a world event, as sadly the salt at Bonneville is deteriorating badly from Phosphate harvesting over past 70 years.
El Mirage (also in America) is a dirt lake bed which is used several times a year for speed events. Black Rock desert is another dirt venue used for record attempts but it’s surface isn’t suited to multiple runs so this tends to only be used occasionally by big-budget teams chasing the outright world record.
Airports are also popular venues for landspeed racing, with many in the United States, the UK and Europe being used to hold events with a long run up (normally between 1 and 1.5miles) and a short timed section. These may be disused ex-military air strips or active airports.