The Season Starts at Ashburton, and It Starts Quietly
New Zealand speedway comes back on Saturday 5 September, at Ashburton Speedway, and if you turn up expecting a championship you will be disappointed. It is a Test and Tune with greensheeting — cars on track, scrutineers working, nobody racing for anything.
That is how a season actually begins. The first eleven days of it look like this:
| Date | Track | Meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday 5 September | Ashburton | Test & Tune + Greensheeting |
| Sunday 13 September | Ashburton | Double Points All Grades + Invitation Speedway Karts |
| Saturday 19 September | Central Motor, Cromwell | Practice / Greensheeting |
| Saturday 26 September | Central Motor, Cromwell | Annual Burnouts |
| Saturday 26 September | Eastern States, Blenheim | Practice One |
| Saturday 26 September | Top of the South, Richmond | First Practice |
| Saturday 26 September | Max Motors, Upper Hutt | Practice 1 (Wellington cars only) |
| Saturday 26 September | Woodford Glen, Christchurch | Practice 1 |
Eight meetings before October, across six tracks, and every one of them is a practice or a test session bar Ashburton's second night. The South Island opens first, which it usually does, and the North Island waits until Rosebank, Waikaraka, Whangārei and Baypark come in from mid-October.
The first real race night
If you want a meeting worth planning around rather than a shakedown, Sunday 13 September at Ashburton is the first: Double Points All Grades, with Invitation Speedway Karts as the support. Ashburton runs ten nights this season, through to a CTRA NZ Adult Ministock Title and the Ashburton Ladies and Youth Saloon Champs on Saturday 1 May.
What the whole season looks like
267 race nights still to come, across 19 tracks, running from 5 September through to Saturday 8 May at Whangārei.
Nineteen of our twenty-nine listed tracks have published a calendar. The other ten have not put dates out yet, and we would rather show that gap honestly than pad it. If your club has its dates and they are not here, send them through and they go up.
Before you drive out there
Every one of these is on open clay. The most common question in New Zealand speedway is whether it is still on, and in September the answer is often no.
Put your email against your track on any track page and you will hear the moment a meeting is called off, moved, or new dates go up. No account and no password.
If something here is wrong
These dates came off club calendars, posters and Facebook pages, and every one has been checked against the weekday it falls on. That does not make them right forever. Clubs move nights, and the first month of a season is when they move most.
If you know a date here is wrong, tell us. It takes a sentence and no account, and it is the fastest this gets fixed.
Dates from each club's own published calendar as at 25 August 2026. See the full calendar.