Auckland’s division from the rest of the country means Sky TV won’t televise Saturday’s South Island Endurance Series opener at Highlands, with SENZ filling the boots.
Sports Entertainment Network New Zealand will host a ‘pop-up’ channel on its app between 9 am and 4.30 pm.
Greg Rust and Greg Murphy will front the radio broadcast and provide live, up-to-date reports of the three races on the day.
Because the South Island is in Covid Alert Level 2, only 300 fans are allowed through the gates this weekend.
All of those tickets are reportedly sold out.
“Many people have been left very upset at not being able to attend the event due to Level 2 rules,” Highlands Chief Executive Officer Josie Spillane said.
“With Sky not being able to get their trucks out of Auckland, we’d hit a bit of a roadblock. So, we’ve found a detour.”
Sky Sport remains committed to broadcasting the remaining rounds of the South Island series on television.
However, Auckland must be at Alert Level 2 or lower for this to happen.
The earliest the province can move to level 2 is October 5.
Timaru hosts round two of the championship on October 16.
The SENZ app is available on Google Play and the Apple app store