{"id":373867,"date":"2026-04-11T02:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/373867\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T02:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:07:11","slug":"supercars-cancels-final-race-of-taupo-round-as-cyclone-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/373867\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars cancels final race of Taup\u014d round as cyclone approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supercars has cancelled the final race of the Taup\u014d round due to the looming cyclone on the North Island.<\/p>\n

Follow 1News’ live updates as Cyclone Vaianu approaches<\/a><\/p>\n

The third race of the weekend had been moved forward on Sunday in a bid to beat the deteriorating weather conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But with Cyclone Vaianu expected to make landfall earlier than expected<\/a>, Supercars have cancelled all racing on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The third race at Taup\u014d, and 10th of the season, will now go ahead next weekend in the historic round in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

“This is an unprecedented situation that has never occurred in the history of the Supercars Championship,” interim Supercars boss Barclay Nettlefold said.<\/p>\n

“It’s very disappointing to see a weather event of this scale disrupt what we had hoped would be an exciting final day of racing. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The location of Cycline Vaianu on Saturday Morning. (Source: Windy.com)<\/p>\n

“We deeply regret the impact this cancellation has on our fans who have travelled to Taup\u014d to be part of this event. <\/p>\n

“But a cyclone of this intensity<\/a> leaves no other option, and the safety of everyone at the circuit has to come first.<\/p>\n

“We’re delighted to be in a position to make it up to fans and all our partners by adding a race to the Christchurch event.”<\/p>\n

Conditions were close to perfect on Friday as local hero Ryan Wood topped practice two, but the weather is set to dramatically change later on Saturday.<\/p>\n

To deal with extreme winds and rain, Supercars officials dramatically altered the schedule.<\/p>\n

The two races on Saturday have been brought forward by 30 minutes, with the top-10 shootout axed from the program.<\/p>\n

The main race of the weekend – 60 laps and 200kms – has been shifted from Sunday to take place on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Resurgent championship leader Brodie Kostecki will start on pole for the first race on Saturday, while Wood secured the fastest qualifying time for the second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supercars has cancelled the final race of the Taup\u014d round due to the looming cyclone on the North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31044,111,43,139,69,6563,3393],"class_list":{"0":"post-373867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-manawatu-wanganui","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-storms","14":"tag-weather-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}