CHROME EXPRESSION SESSION COMES TO CHRISTCHURCH

It’s been 9 years since the 4 and Rotary Southern Champs were held in Christchurch, after the devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 the event had to be moved, landing in Nelson and Timaru in subsequent years where it has found a new home. In 2019, almost a decade later, the Premier Events crew were welcomed back to Christchurch as they hosted the Chrome Expression Session event.

Like many, I remember what a car show weekend used to be like in Christchurch in the 2000s, It saw hundreds of cars flood into Christchurch from all over the South Island and beyond, thousands on the streets at night, “boy racers” all over the news, and an unusual mixture of either very happy or very unhappy cantabrians.

Times have changed in Christchurch, for many years the once packed 4 main avenues surrounding Christchurch’s central business district (“The Aves”) have been comparatively empty most weekend nights, many of those who used to fill them back in 2000s either have families now or have long since sold their cars. The introduction of local “boy racer” laws in 2009 had a big impact with anti-cruising laws being enforced around the aves and other hot spots, and hefty fines and demerit penalties for any activity considered anti-social or boy racer related. Another factor was import laws affecting the 90s Japanese vehicles so often sought after by enthusiasts now meaning they had become harder, and more expensive to obtain. As the years rolled on it seemed less and less people were becoming interested in cars in Christchurch, so I was interested to see how this new event would play out both during the day, and at night. Although “boy racer” activity has dropped significantly in Christchurch, it has seen somewhat of a sporadic resurgence in recent months with the introduction of the “Aves Invasion” events, which have been organised via facebook a couple of times over the past year and have seen a lot of police intervention and news coverage. Imports restrictions have also all but passed the 90s period, meaning once again many of the Japanese favourites can be imported under the 20 year rule in New Zealand after a near decade long halt on many models.

I decided to head out late to grab some dinner on Friday night and see what was happening on the aves as I knew pre-event scrutineering was being held just off Fitzgerald Ave at Spec Performance on Friday night. The combination of an event weekend and cars congregating for scrutineering, essentially on one the aves, surely would mean plenty happening. Although there were a few cars out and about, parked up at the usual parking lots or cruising the aves, it was fairly quiet out. On Saturday night I went out at about 11pm to pick up my flatmate from the airport, passed all of the usual hot spots on the way, and again, there was not a lot happening. Perhaps there really wasn’t much interest, perhaps it had just been too long since the big events and everyone had moved on.

However, on Saturday and Sunday mornings – at the track – it was a different story.

The Chrome Expression Session event, which has been run at Hamptons Downs near Hamilton previously, is a tracked based event which sets out to bring everything car enthusiasts love, such as racing, cruising with friends, drifting and burnouts, to the track in a controlled and safe environment. The gates were opened each day around 7.30am to lines of cars already waiting including street cars, exotics, muscle cars, spectator cars, and fully built race, drift and burnout cars. By 9am each day the first cruising sessions had begun on track where you can fill your car with your mates, no helmets, and have some limited but still energetic fun on track with a heap of other cars. By 9.01am the track was packed both days. I half expected the event sparsely populated after seeing minimal cars out the night before like it would be in the past, but I was pleasantly surprised. People had travelled from all over for Chrome, as far as Auckland in some cases. The great thing about Chrome was that other than the drifting sessions, there was minimal waiting around, there was so much track time that at any point there is bound to be enough cars in the pits having a break that if you want to roll out mid session, you just jump in your car and go. Once a session comes around that you are not participating in, you are ready to go chill out for an hour anyway. The whole event is like an active car show where you can wander the pits checking everything out, and 5 minutes later see the same car screaming down the front straight and a new batch in the pits.

Another great aspect of Chrome is the variety of vehicles due to the range of different sessions throughout the day, there was a high number of purpose built cars from different disciplines all out on track together having a laugh. Hopefully this is something which will expand even further in future years.

My only real criticisms around the event would be the waiting time for drifters, most only getting 5 or 6 laps per day, and the difficulty in viewing the drifting for spectators. This is a really understandable problem to have as the burnouts and drifting took place at the same time, which is wise as they both only require limited amounts of track space, but meant the drifting was far away and often obscured. The wait time for the drifters was also an understandable issue as there was a number of newcomers having a go, and a lot of cars for only a few sessions, but with the space available perhaps two drifting sections could be set up at the same time on the far side of the track to separate the newcomers from the pros and spread the action out for spectators, but overall that really was a minor issue.

The quality of cars which came out was excellent, I can’t count how many GTR’s there were, including an extremely valuable M Spec NUR R34 and a super rare Tommy Kaira R34. It showed that although many of these cars are spending their time lurking in garages there is still a big car community in Christchurch and that there is a need for events like this which brings them all out at once. You may see some of these cars at the occasional track, show, drift or drag day but there is not many events locally where you will find them all at once these days.

The combination of minimal night time activity and lots of track activity that Chrome provided suited 2019 Christchurch well. As the organisers intended, it keeps the fun to the track and lets residents sleep. When I google search “Christchurch Police boy racers” from the past week – there’s nothing, and that’s a good thing no matter which side of the fence you sit on. Overall the event was a huge success from a participant point of view, and the number of people around each day would suggest it was a success from the organisers view also. Premier events have already confirmed Chrome will be back in 2020, and is set to be in the warmer time of early March, with all of the positive talk about this year, I can see it being much bigger, which although might mean more time waiting in line, would be a great thing for the car community in Christchurch.

Aerial image from the Chrome Expression Session Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ChromeNZ/, 4 and Rotary image from 4 and Rotary website.