It's back! And it's bigger than ever. The 2011 Motul HondaCup is New Zealand's fastest growing motorsport series providing the perfect platform for both motorsport and Honda enthusiasts to make the leap from the garage or the track day to the race track.

Back is the exciting raceday format. A one day format with qualifying, a Scratch race featuring a grid made up of the fastest to the slowest, a Reverse Top Ten grid and a third race in Handicap format. In short, everyone has a chance of glory. It's down to you. It's a great community too - you will find plenty of people eager to share knowledge and experience to help YOU get the most out of yourself and your car. From tyres to sponsorship, there'll be someone to help with ideas and advice.

We firmly believe that for anyone racing in the Winter, or at any time for that matter, costs are key and we are aiming to keep those to an absolute minimum. We race on all of the North Island's tracks, the technical short circuit at Taupo, the fabulous Hampton Downs, the daunting Pukekohe, the challenging Manfeild and the awesome A1GP track at Taupo. It starts on May 28th with our series technical day and testing at Taupo's short track, with the first race day on May 29th. It's going to be big, and it's going to get bigger.

SO BE QUICK AND GET YOUR SERIES REGISTRATION DONE NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET!

May 28th - Series Tech day and unofficial testing / practice (Taupo Sprint)

Round 1 – May 29th – Taupo – short track

Round 2 – June19th – Hampton Downs

Round 3 – July 17th – Pukekohe

Round 4 – August 7th – Manfeild

Unofficial testing/practice – September 17th – Taupo sprint

Round 5 – September 18th – Taupo long track

Motul Oil NZ has confirmed as the series Principal Partner for 2011. Tim Pollard, MD of Motul Oil NZ and regular racer said that Motul will again be the major supporter and naming sponsor for the 2011 Honda Cup Winter Series. This is the third Honda Cup Series for Motul NZ.

Tim commented: Motul New Zealand is delighted to once again sponsor this growing series for 2011. We've seen a high level of support for Motul from both the series organisers, competitors and even the series followers, of which there are many who come to the races and talk about it afterwards on the series forum and on NZ Hondas.

Tim is aiming to campaign his superb ex-factory Motul Integra DC5 in the forthcoming series and also expects to be running in the recently announce team competition with a yet to be named 1600 class driver. Watch this space!

If you haven't already signed up for Round 1 at Taupo, then we suggest you get a move on! Series sponsor Motul is giving away one of its excellent motorsport caps and a Motul T–shirt to the first 25 drivers who get their entries in.

Someone famous in motorsport once said – 'If it looks right, it usually is right' and that certainly applies to the cap and t-shirt – a superb addition to the weekend wardrobe for any self respecting racer! You can confirm your entry by contacting series organiser Alan Stewart at racedir@hondacup.co.nz

Taupo is the venue for our first round.

There are four different layouts – a 3.5km, 3.4km, 2.2km and 1.3km option – a three–story pit lane complex with 32 ground floor pit garages and even an NHRA standard drag strip (830 metre long, 17 metres wide). The motor racing circuit has various licences ranging from National Grade 1 Motorsport License, FIA Grade 2 Motorsport License and International Motorcycling Safety Standards depending on which track configuration.

We'll be running Round 1 on the short circuit which is a highly technical circuit taking around 1 minute and 20 seconds to complete and includes the great infield section and the fast left hand Turn 8 before a tight right left combination that brings you back onto the latter portion of the back straight.

You'll need a good rhythm, the right lines are crucial to a fast and consistent lap time and there are a number of places to complete a pass. Exit understeer is going to slow you down, so set up should focus on eradicating that. If you don't know where to start with that, flick any of the series contacts an email and they'll give you the benefit of their advice, but remember, set up detail is very much a personal preference and there's nothing like a few laps first to gauge where you are at and what part of the car's handling you are comfortable with before tinkering, even though tinkering is one of the best parts of the racing weekend!

Class winners 2010

0-1600 – Brent Thompson (EG)

1601-2000 – Andrew Johnson (EF)

2001-2200 – Justin Herbert (DC2)

Best Prepared Vehicle – Strong for Honda Trophy – Rob Sutherland

Most Improved Driver – Wayne Chapman Award – Jason Weel

Sportsman of the Year – Endless Brakes Trophy – Brent Hay