Record turnout of Kenworths at 100th global anniversary
Friday 16 Feb 2024
Kenworth enthusiasts in New Zealand gathered at Waikato’s Mystery Creek to
celebrate the brand’s 100th global anniversary with a record-breaking 756 mighty
rigs on display. The event, organised by local distributor Southpac Trucks,
took place over Waitangi weekend and saw hundreds of spectators arrive through the
gates.
The Kenworth-only event eclipsed any single brand truck show ever staged in the
Southern Hemisphere – including the 2014 event in Mt Maunganui which saw 300
Kenworths on show to mark 50 years of the truck brand being imported into New
Zealand. With a huge nine-hectare footprint set aside for the show, there was
plenty of room for the big rigs to shine.
Registrations opened in July last year and a large number of local Kenworth owners
and operators took part to make it a special day to remember. The scale of the
venue ensured a big turnout and saw half a kilometre of Kenworth grills in one
row alone.
Planning for the centenary show began in early 2020 but was put on hold due to the
disruption of Covid-19. It was originally meant to take place in 2023 to coincide
with the official global anniversary. Southpac Trucks general sales manager
Richard Smart says Kenworth owners are known to be passionate about the trucks they
run.
He says the event was about bringing them together in one place to celebrate the
best of the brand.
“For me it’s all about the customers. This is an event we put on for the owners,
the operators and the drivers and it was all about getting them together. You can
see them standing around yacking to people they haven’t seen for ages,” he says.