YOU KNOW, you Kiwi’s are lucky.
Within the last decade you’ve had two, brand-new motorsport facilities constructed from scratch.
In the South, Tony Quinn’s Highlands Motorsport Park has quickly become a leading example of its type while up north, Hampton Downs has quickly established itself as a venue of a very high standard – especially after the circuit extension and new pit lane building was completed last year.
Beyond that there has been continual improvement at Pukekohe and even the major upgrade of Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park at Taupo back in the mid-2000s.
On this side of the ditch, Sydney Motorsport Park recently got a new paint job and twenty years ago we got Queensland Raceway.
So it’s easy to understand why we have every right to be a bit jealous of your Motorsport success of late – and that’s before we talk about the continual influx of New Zealander’s coming here and winning all our trophies.
In that context, then, it’s easy to understand why the introduction of The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia holds such significance.
Not only is it our first brand-new purpose-built facility – of a national or international standard – in two decades it represents a renewed confidence in the industry.
Governments have always been happy to spend money on temporary circuits in popular areas because they really do work as promotional tools – anyone who watches the Gold Coast 600 will be captivated by the beaches, the surf and the skyline as much as they are the racing.
So private enterprise spending more than $100m on a circuit some distance from a major population area represented a risk yet also served as a massive tick for where the sport is at.
There were always questions on whether The Bend would actually work – based on both its ability to draw a crowd and whether the circuit would actually be any good.
It answered both firmly in the positive during the inaugural OTR SuperSprint last weekend.
Friday was something akin to a ‘Field of Dreams’ moment: Kevin Costner could have been standing in the paddock, watching thousands pour in to a venue he had dreamed of.
Replace Kevin Costner for the Shahin family, who built the circuit, and the ‘If you build it, they will come’ mantra seems even more appropriate.
More than 8,000 turned up on Friday, 16,000 on Saturday and nearly 18,000 on Sunday.
In the context of the Adelaide 500, the three-day crowd of 41,250 is the same number of people who go to the street race on a Thursday. And yet the street race isn’t 100km from the city with limited public transport opportunities to make access simple.
More importantly the 41,000 figure was about 11,000 than what the circuit had publicly hoped for, which indicates the business case for an annual Supercars round will stack up, too. Another tick in the box.
So yes, people went and though there is work to be done in traffic management – jams on Sunday night took more than 90-minute to clear and some facilities require improvement within the circuit itself – there’s no doubt many enjoyed it and will return.
On track proved to be even better, because the 4.95km International Circuit has quickly established itself as one of the best in Australia.
Sure it lacks Bathurst’s elevation change and the flowing, breakneck-speed nature of Phillip Island, but it offers challenge and opportunity in spades.
The entry to turn one is 15-meters wide and promotes people sending speculative moves down the inside, promoting passing.
The uphill run into turn five is sensational, the corner itself an ‘almost flat’ challenge that has about a five per cent margin of error. Get it wrong and you’ll either have an off, or get gobbled up at the turn six hairpin a few hundred meters down the road.
The turn seven-eight-nine and ten complex of ever tightening right-handers had cars on the limit and the uphill, blind turn thirteen continually caught people out.
In Carrera Cup, Formula Ford and the Toyota 86s there was sensational racing: The circuit’s combination of long, medium to high-speed corners was loved by cars with grip.
The Supercars struggled. Saturday’s race was no better or worse than any other this year while Sunday’s was not particularly special at all. I suspect shifting to the Dunlop Soft tyre next year will cure the ills: Giving the big, heavy Supercars more turn through the bends and more degradation to open up the strategic opportunities throughout the races.
Issues, traffic aside? Pit exit raised some comments because it feeds directly into the racing line on a 270km/hr straight. It was made very clear in drivers briefing that drivers needed to allow room for those merging into traffic, while officials added another 15 meters to the blend line between Friday and Saturday to allow more time for cars to get up to speed.
Perhaps a warning light system – a flashing blue light indicating a blue flag on the pit wall – could be implemented: but in the end the onus is on the drivers to be sensible and, as noted earlier, the circuit is as wide as any in the world at that point so its not as if they are crowded for room.
Dust was a persistent issue, however with time that will diminish – In essence the circuit surface is still only six months old, so will only get better and better. A full season will allow for the grass around the track to bed down and the dust issue will deal with itself.
The bottom line is that last weekend was a significant milestone for the sport in Australia and proved that, for all the issues, arguments and challenges it faces, the ‘Field of Dreams’ mantra holds strong.
If you build it – and build it well – they will come.
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