New Zealand’s annual motorsport and automotive expo CRC Speedshow has taken on a new role as the new naming rights’ sponsor for the 2013 Top Half Series, a long-established four-round kart racing series run in the Auckland and Bay of Plenty regions between April and July.

With the premier kart race series to be known as the CRC Speedshow Top Half Series, the aim of CRC Speedshow director Ross Prevette is to link the popular car and motorsport show with one of the country’s – and the world’s – most widely-contested motorsport categories.

“Karts are raced by thousands of people of all ages across New Zealand,” says Prevette, formerly a professional jet ski racer who now regularly challenges his 16-year-old son at their local eastern Bay Of Plenty kart track near Whakatane.

“Given my own links with the sport and its position as one of the best avenues for young racers to develop their skills, the Top Half Series offers a great opportunity to profile CRC Speedshow to Kiwi karting’s massive parent-and-children audience.”

The Top Half Series is run annually by eight kartsport clubs in the ‘top half’ of the North Island: Auckland, Hamilton, Mt Wellington, Tokoroa, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Whangarei and eastern Bay of Plenty.

Chairman of the CRC Speedshow Top Half Series organising committee Tim Ganley says: “The Top Half Series has been run for more than 20 years and is regarded as being an iconic series by competitors. It’s featured in the early stages of the motorsport careers of a number of well-known and internationally-successful competitors such as Aucklander Mitch Evans, who just last year became the first New Zealander to win the Formula 1-stepping stone GP3 Series.”

CRC Speedshow takes place at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland over the weekend of 20 and 21 July and Prevette is working on further plans to showcase karting at this year’s event.

“Our Ezybuy Motor Warehouse live action arena will feature a kart track where Kartsport New Zealand will run demonstrations in a number of categories. They’ll also have personnel available to speak with CRC Speedshow visitors interested in finding out more about this fun, super challenging form of motorsport. Aspiring competitors from six to sixty-plus years of age will find a class of kart racing to suit.”

A celebrity kart challenge is also scheduled with regular CRC Speedshow guests like V8 race stars Greg Murphy and Angus Fogg, speedway champion Brad Mosen and rally driver Emma Gilmour all keen to demonstrate their skills behind the wheel of a race kart in front of CRC Speedshow’s 35,000 visitors.

July’s seventh edition of CRC Speedshow also features a special celebration of Bruce McLaren, the hugely successful New Zealand-born designer, engineer, Grand Prix winner, race car builder and race team owner who established Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd 50 years ago this year. A multiple award-winning, gold-plated custom-built chopper called Nehme-sis visits this year’s event on its first overseas display outside the US. A new show-within-the-show, the Castrol EDGE Custom and Classic Show, is also being organised to showcase around 60 of New Zealand’s best American, Australian, European and Japanese custom and classic vehicles.

News and information about the 2013 CRC Speedshow are regularly updated on the event website, www.speedshow.co.nz, or follow CRC Speedshow on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Speedshow), Facebook (www.Facebook.com/speedshownz) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/speedshow/).