Supercars across the seas: The incredible logistics to get to NZ

The countdown to the inaugural ITM NZ Double Header is officially on, with the Supercars fleet heading to New Zealand.

For the second consecutive year, Supercars is heading to New Zealand via sea freight across the Tasman Sea. In the place of transporters are modified containers, which car more than 200 tonnes of equipment.

On Saturday, teams and Supercars waved farewell to millions of dollars worth of cars and equipment in the special containers, bound for New Zealand for two weekends of racing.

So, what does the mission entail, and what does it take?

How many shipping containers go to New Zealand?

All told, the entire travelling Supercars circus gets packed into 33 shipping containers. 22 containers carry either equipment and cars from teams, broadcast equipment for Supercars Media, or are used as communal containers.

DUNLOP requires seven containers for tyres and technical equipment, while fuel suppliers Race Fuels bring two containers, as do trackside signage suppliers SignEvent.

Dates of departure and arrival

Two boats will head to New Zealand, one leaving Brisbane for the Queensland-based teams, and one leaving Melbourne for Victorian teams and Brad Jones Racing. These ships leave on Saturday March 21, and head for Tauranga, roughly 230km south east of Auckland, and 150km north of Taupō.

Containers are scheduled to arrive in Taupō via truck over the Easter weekend on April 3-5, ahead of the ITM Taupō Super 440 from April 10-12.

What equipment is going?

Supercars shifted to using sea freight to take cars to New Zealand last year. This year marks the first time since 2010 that back-to-back events have been conducted outside of Australia.

This means that Race Fuels, SignEvent, and DUNLOP will all bring extra containers due to the extra demands of an additional race weekend, whilst communal storage (where teams share containers for spares) has also been increased due to the potential of requiring additional panels and wheels.

A Supercars container features two Safety Cars plus all technical equipment. All told, approximately $45 million worth of equipment is being shipped to New Zealand.

How do containers get from North to South Island?

Once in New Zealand, the containers will be ferried over the Cook Strait between Wellington and Picton, before arriving in Christchurch for the following weekend's event. On Monday April 20, cars are taken back to the North Island to begin their journey home.

Road transport provider PTS Logistics handles all road freight in New Zealand, as they did in 2025, in conjunction with SeaLab, who co-ordinate inter island bookings from Wellington to Picton.

The key challenges and benefits

One key benefit is sea freight reduces cost. This year, teams were able to pack for New Zealand from their respective home bases this year due to an extra week between the Albert Park and Taupō.

That doesn't mean it was any less stressful for some, with Triple Eight, Erebus Motorsport and Matt Stone Racing all racing the clock to repair cars damaged in the Melbourne finale.

A unique challenge has been the Middle East conflict, which has made a lot of larger shipping lines slow their vessels down to save fuel, thus adding to transit times. Fortunately, the 2026 journey will be undertaken on the most reliable on time performing vessel transiting within the Tasman. These options are also available for the transit back to Australia.