Some of the fastest drivers in the world will race each other inside Wellington’s Hnry Stadium in January, after organisers confirmed the Race of Champions will be held in New Zealand for the first time. The two-day event, set for 9 and 10 January 2027, was announced on 15 September with four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, 10-time grand prix winner Valtteri Bottas, 2025 Supercars champion Chaz Mostert and New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon named as the first four drivers.
The stadium, known to most Wellingtonians as the Cake Tin, will have a temporary tarmac track built inside it. Drivers race side by side on parallel lanes in identical cars, so the result comes down to the driver rather than the machinery. According to Speedcafe, the Saturday will be given over to the Nations Cup, where drivers race in pairs for their country, and the Sunday will decide the individual Race of Champions title.
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston said the event would be a major drawcard for the capital. “Seeing some of the world’s best drivers battle it out at Hnry Stadium will be a thrilling spectacle. This one-off event will draw motorsport enthusiasts from across New Zealand and reinforce Wellington’s reputation for hosting unforgettable major events,” she said.
The event is backed by the Government’s one-off Events Attraction Package, and WellingtonNZ has partnered with the organisers and the stadium to deliver it. The announcement did not say how much public money is involved.
The Race of Champions was founded in 1988 by French rally driver Michèle Mouton and Fredrik Johnsson, and the first event was held in memory of Finnish rally driver Henri Toivonen. It has since grown into a contest between stars from Formula 1, world rallying, IndyCar, NASCAR, Le Mans and Supercars. Past competitors named by the organisers include Lando Norris, Valentino Rossi, Fernando Alonso, David Coulthard, Mika Häkkinen, Sébastien Loeb and both Michael and Mick Schumacher. Before Sydney, recent editions were staged in Mexico City and on snow and ice on the frozen Baltic Sea at Piteå in northern Sweden.
“We are very excited to bring the Race Of Champions to Wellington and New Zealand for the first time,” Johnsson, the event’s president and co-founder, said. “It will be fascinating to see the Kiwi stars compete against some of the international superstars from F1, World Rally and more in front of their home fans.”
Vettel has a long history with the event. The announcement lists him as the 2015 Champion of Champions and a seven-time Nations Cup winner, several of those titles won alongside Michael Schumacher for Germany. He said he was “blown away by the beauty of the country” on a short visit to New Zealand before the Sydney event last year, and had jokingly asked the organisers to bring the next one here.
That Sydney event, at Accor Stadium in March 2025, was the first Race of Champions held in the Southern Hemisphere. Mostert beat Vettel in the quarter-finals before losing the final to French rally great Sébastien Loeb, who won the first leg by 0.276 seconds and edged him again in the second, Speedcafe reported. It gave Loeb a record fifth individual title. New Zealand’s team in Sydney was Paddon and Formula 3 driver Louis Sharp. Paddon lost to Australian Toby Price in the group stage, while Vettel beat Sharp in his group.
Turning a stadium into a racetrack is a big job. According to the organisers, crews in Sydney converted the turf into a fully asphalted, side-by-side circuit in five days, with more than 200 staff and over 400 semi-trailer movements delivering about 4,500 tonnes of road base and asphalt. 1News reported that work on the Wellington circuit will begin straight after the Wellington Phoenix’s A-League match against the Newcastle Jets on 2 January, leaving about a week to have it ready.
The stadium opened in January 2000, holds about 34,500 people and took the Hnry Stadium name in March 2026, having previously been known as Westpac Stadium and Sky Stadium. It has hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Ed Sheeran, and the organisers call the race track “a spectacular first for Wellington”.
For Paddon, the announcement comes just over two weeks after his first World Rally Championship runner-up finish since 2018. The Geraldine driver became the first New Zealander to win a World Rally Championship round at Rally Argentina in 2016, and in 2023 became the first non-European to be crowned European rally champion, a title he kept in 2024. Back in a Hyundai Rally1 car this year, he finished third in Croatia and then second in Paraguay at the end of August, 25.8 seconds behind Toyota’s Sami Pajari. “We did our job this weekend and this second almost feels as good as a win particularly given the journey we’ve been on as well,” he said after that rally, RNZ reported on 31 August.
Paddon said the Wellington event was a chance to celebrate how well New Zealand drivers are doing. “New Zealand is really in a golden age of Motorsport at the moment across so many disciplines,” he said. “It’s really a historic event for so many reasons and I’m personally incredibly proud to be a part of it.”
More drivers are still to be named, including Paddon’s partner in the New Zealand Nations Cup team. 1News reported that Liam Lawson, NASCAR driver Shane van Gisbergen and IndyCar’s Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin are among the drivers it is hoped will race alongside Paddon. None of them has been confirmed. Lawson finished sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid last weekend, and RNZ reported that more drivers are expected to be announced in the coming months.
Tickets will be sold only through Ticketek New Zealand, with single-day general admission from $49 and weekend passes from $74. Pre-sale access opens on Monday 21 September through organiser TEG Sport, and general sales start on Tuesday 22 September. Hospitality packages go up to an all-access option with behind-the-scenes paddock access and driver question-and-answer sessions.
Would you head to the Cake Tin in January to watch Vettel and Paddon race wheel to wheel, and which New Zealand driver would you most like to see join them? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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