The Festival of Speed held at the Cromwell park on Saturday and Sunday celebrated 100 years of motorsport in New Zealand and also marked the first anniversary of Highlands' opening.
Quinn, a multimillionaire based in Queensland, is a racing car driver as well as an entrepreneur and is delighted with the progress made in the the first year of operation. ''Everything has exceeded my expectations, and that covers physically, financially and staff-wise, '' he said.
''Financially, I never backed this expecting to make lots of money from it, but then I didn't set it up to be a drain on the finances either, so let's just say I'm happy with how it's going.''
The feedback from the public had been positive, ''so that's a good result, too''.
Plans for the future included building on the three distinct sets of race days.
''Each of them has a different feel about them and we'll work on improving them and on making the events more family-friendly, '' Quinn said.
The only ''bugbear'' from the first year in operation was dealing with Motorsport New Zealand.
''It seems any time we want to do stuff differently, like running the Highlands Fling event, they get a bit scared and put obstacles in our way,'' Mr Quinn said.
''I'm just trying to vary things so we're not just running meetings where every race involves cars going around and around a track.''
Drivers have been quick to praise the facility and Quinn's initiative.
Inky Tulloch, who lives near Gore and raced trucks in Australia and New Zealand, dominating the truck racing scene from 2001-2003, drove his first lap around the Cromwell circuit on Saturday.
He recalled the first time he heard about Quinn's plans.
''About 18 months ago, he sketched it for me on a blank piece of paper and said 'I'm going to build this in a year'. I said `you'd be dreaming', but that's exactly what he's done.
''Tony's a no-nonsense character, very astute and yet convivial and who can help but be impressed at what he's achieved here,'' Mr Tulloch said.
Arrowtown driver Chris Read, competing in the vintage and historic races at the weekend in his 1950s BCM Special, said Highlands was a credit to Quinn and his team.
''To have something like this on our doorstep is just amazing and from a Cromwell point of view, it must bring money and visitors into the district.''
Read said the facility was gaining ''a good reputation around the world'' which would benefit the wider Central Otago region.
