New Zealand, Cromwell
Highlands Motorsport Park - Highlands 'A' Course
A 1.133 km circuit in Cromwell. Timed layouts, lap times and what you need to know before a track day here.
Going to Highlands Motorsport Park?
See which corner costs you the most time.
Record the session on your phone. Vetkuro splits the laps, times every sector and shows where the gap to your best lap opens.
Filming your laps?
Put speed, delta and lap time on your onboard video.
Overlay the data from the same session on the footage, synced automatically. One file to watch back, or to share.
Driving with friends?
Find out who is faster, and in which corner.
Overlay two laps from the same day and see exactly where the gap opens, not only the final number.
Track layouts
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Highlands Full Course
4.1 km
No laps yet
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Highlands 'A-C Course'
2.633 km
No laps yet
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Highlands 'C' Course
1.496 km
No laps yet
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Highlands 'A' Course
1.133 km
No laps yet
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Highlands 'B' Course
1.09 km
No laps yet
Lap times only compare within one layout.
Going to Highlands Motorsport Park?
See which corner costs you the most time.
Record the session on your phone. Vetkuro splits the laps, times every sector and shows where the gap to your best lap opens.
Filming your laps?
Put speed, delta and lap time on your onboard video.
Overlay the data from the same session on the footage, synced automatically. One file to watch back, or to share.
Driving with friends?
Find out who is faster, and in which corner.
Overlay two laps from the same day and see exactly where the gap opens, not only the final number.
Recorded on Vetkuro · No sessions yet
Highlands Motorsport Park lap times
Timed from GPS on real track days, not typed in. Compare within one layout and one vehicle class, because a motorcycle lap and a car lap are not the same thing.
No recorded laps on Highlands 'A' Course yet.
Record a session on this layout and your lap becomes the time other drivers in your class compare against.
Track day guide
Track day at Highlands Motorsport Park
Weather by month, who runs the days and what to put in the car. Written for a first visit.
Who runs track days here
What to bring
- Helmet that meets the organiser's standard
- Long sleeves, long trousers, closed shoes
- Tyre pressure gauge, since pressures rise fast on track
- Removable towing eye fitted or in the car
- An empty boot: loose items out before the first session
- Your phone in a rigid mount, recording with Vetkuro
Weather by month
Now, in November: 15°C by day, 4°C at night, rain on 15 days. Warmest in January, 20°C by day on average. Coldest in July, −1°C at night. Fewest days with rain: February.
Rain: days with rain per month. Climate: NASA POWER, daily data 2016–2025. Monthly averages, not a forecast. Check the organiser's calendar for open dates. The data was obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center's Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project funded through the NASA Earth Science Division.
Elevation profile
Highlands Motorsport Park elevation
Elevation change 2 m. That is within the margin of the terrain model, so Highlands Motorsport Park counts as flat and there is no profile to draw.
From a terrain model, sampled every 10 m along the track line and smoothed over 100 m. Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved. The organisations in charge of the Copernicus programme by law or by delegation do not incur any liability for any use of the Copernicus WorldDEM-30.
Going to Highlands Motorsport Park?
More to do with the session than the lap time
About Highlands Motorsport Park
The Highlands 'A' Course configuration is one of 5 layouts available at Highlands Motorsport Park - 1.133 km across 5 corners. Lap times and sessions on this layout are tracked separately from other configurations.
Overview
Highlands Motorsport Park lies beside State Highway 6 on the edge of Cromwell in Central Otago, on New Zealand's South Island, about 45 minutes by road from Queenstown. Developed by Australian businessman Tony Quinn on a site of roughly 90 hectares, it pairs an FIA Grade 3 circuit with a motorsport museum and visitor attractions that open every day. The New Zealand Grand Prix came to the circuit in 2024, and it hosts rounds of the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy and the GR86 Championship New Zealand, as well as the Highlands Festival of Speed in mid-January. Between meetings it is used for driver training, corporate events, private track days and paid driving and passenger experiences.
Technical Specifications and Track Features
MotorSport New Zealand lists the main circuit at 4.1 km with 14 turns, graded FIA Grade 3 and National Grade 1, with room for up to 47 saloon or GT cars in a race of up to an hour. Tony Quinn and his son Klark designed the layout, and the complex was built with several configurations, three of which can be run at the same time; two shorter circuits carry a national grade. The 1.5 km C course is used for instructor-led drives in Radical and V8 muscle cars. The race lap record on the full circuit is 1:28.830, set by Liam Sceats in a Tatuus FT-60 Formula Regional car on 17 February 2024. Liam Lawson went faster in a Rodin FZED in January 2022, 1:23.753, which stands as an unofficial best, and Craig Baird holds the GT3 mark of 1:31.365 in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 from 2016.
Facilities and Specialized Areas
The National Motorsport Museum holds more than 50 historic race cars and motorcycles, among them a Benetton Formula One car driven by Michael Schumacher and an Aston Martin Vulcan bought in early 2016 for 4.2 million dollars, the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. Visitors can drive single or tandem karts on a 650-metre outdoor kart track, try a skid pan, ride in a taxi on the full circuit, or play an 18-hole themed mini golf course modelled on Bathurst's Mount Panorama. A sculpture park, a licensed cafe, a motorsport-themed playground and a roadside toilet with a view complete the site. Next door is Central Motor Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt oval that opened in December 1980.
History
The idea came from a group of Queenstown car enthusiasts in 2006. A supporters' trust bought land from the district council, and planning consent for a multi-use motorsport park followed a year later. In February 2012 Tony Quinn, who made his fortune with the VIP pet food brand, bought the trust's company; revised plans were consented at Easter 2012 and ground was broken that April. The park was largely complete by January 2013 and opened that year, and its grand opening in April drew 7,000 to 8,000 people, with Jim Richards cutting the ribbon and taking the first lap in Quinn's McLaren MP4-12C GT. From 2013 to 2016 the circuit ran the Highlands 101, a race of 101 laps lasting about three and a half hours with a Le Mans-style start, held with the final round of the Australian GT Championship. Quinn won the first edition with Fabian Coulthard in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The V8SuperTourer series raced there in 2014, and the Highlands Festival of Speed began in 2016.
Address
156 State Highway 6
9342 Cromwell
New Zealand
Contact
highlands.co.nz
