Homebush Street Circuit
| Olympic Park | |
|---|---|
_track_map.svg) | |
| Location | Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales |
| Time zone | Greenwich Mean Time +10 |
| Coordinates | 33°50′41″S 151°3′58″E / 33.84472°S 151.06611°E |
| Opened | 4 December 2009 |
| Major events | V8 Supercars |
| Length | 3.5 km (2.2 miles) |
| Turns | 10 |
| Race lap record | 1:28.3839 (Craig Lowndes, Triple Eight Holden VE Commodore, 2011, V8 Supercars) |
The Homebush Street Circuit is a temporary street circuit around the former Olympic precinct at Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales. The track was used for the first time at the final round of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series, the inaugural Sydney 500.[1]
The circuit
The circuit was designed by Mark Skaife. He focused on creating a difficult track with a variety of bumps, camber changes and fast and slow corners making it difficult to complete the perfect lap.[2] It was constructed on Australia Avenue, Kevin Coombs Avenue, Edwin Flack Avenue and Dawn Fraser Avenue. 140 mature trees needed to be removed and kilometres of tarmac needed to be torn up to accommodate the race.[3] Overall the track has a mixture of track surfaces.[2]
V8 Supercar driver Jason Richards suggested that there are many braking areas, difficult corners and passing spots.[4] The main straight is the single widest section of race track in Australia, while the straight along Edwin Flack Avenue is one of the narrowest. The outside of turn eight has an unusual negative camber that caught many drivers out in the inaugural race, resulting in several cars crashing into the outer barriers. The first race was won by Toll Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander from pole position while, the second 250 km race was won by Dick Johnson Racing's James Courtney (who started from second position on the grid). Jamie Whincup secured winning the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series after finishing fifth in race 1 and fourteenth in race 2.
The circuit has been described as the most unpredictable on the calendar as nine different drivers have won the ten races held since 2009, with Craig Lowndes being the only multiple winner. It also has had the lowest percentage of finishers out of cars started in the four year running of the event with 68% of cars making it through to the finish, as compared to 77% at the Gold Coast (run since 1994), 88% at Adelaide (run since 1999) and 90% at Townsville (run since 2009).[5]
Lap records
As of 8 December 2013.[6]
| Class | Driver | Vehicle | Time | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outright |  Craig Lowndes
|
Holden VE Commodore | 1:28.3839 | 4 December 2011 |
| Sports Cars | ||||
| Australian GT |  Bernd Schneider
|
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 | 1:28.6368 | 2 December 2012 |
| Carrera Cup |  Jonny Reid
|
Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | 1:30.2244 | 4 December 2011 |
| Aussie Racing Cars | Paul Kemal
|
Falcon-Yamaha | 1:43.4054 | 4 December 2011 |
| Touring Cars | ||||
| V8 Supercar | Craig Lowndes
|
Holden VE Commodore | 1:28.3839 | 4 December 2011 |
| Dunlop V8 Supercar Series | Nick Percat
|
Holden VE Commodore | 1:29.2159 | 2 December 2012 |
| V8 Utes | Cameron McConville
|
Holden VE Ute SS | 1:45.5326 | 2 December 2012 |
| Australian Mini Challenge | Chris Alajajian
|
Mini JCW R56 | 1:46.2661 | 5 December 2010 |
| Historic Touring Cars | ||||
| Touring Car Masters | Glenn Seton
|
Ford XB Falcon | 1:38.3154 | 4 December 2011 |
| Racing Cars | ||||
| Formula Ford | Anton De Pasquale
|
Mygale SJ13a-Ford | 1:34.1651 | 8 December 2013 |
References
- ^ Allan Edwards (29 September 2008). "Homebush to host V8 Supercar race". Official site of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
- ^ a b "Sydney Telstra 500, Sydney Olympic Park". v8supercars.com.au. n.d. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ Allan Edwards (30 September 2008). "2009 V8 Supercar calendar released". Official site of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
- ^ "Minister impressed by Sydney track". v8supercars.com.au. 12 November 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ http://www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/analysis-v8-supercars-most-unpredictable-weekend/tabid/70/newsid/11962/default.aspx
- ^ http://www.natsoft.com.au/results/