V8 Superfarce Sydney 500 - Olympic Park

b_S

b_S

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They've turned the whole place upside down, as I commute through there it's been interesting to see the track being built from ground up.
Tree removals, road diversions, building semi-permanent structures... All the way through to lining the track with concrete barriers and tall fencing.
It's all a bit surreal, here's the track map. Not very interesting, and quite narrow in sections.
It's being hyped a fair bit, but will it be as successful as Canberra's street race?
 
nick_dales

nick_dales

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All those trees for a race that is going to lose Sydney so much money. Street Races just never make money. Once again top work by the NSW government
 
7point3

7point3

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you never know, there has been a lot of money thrown around for this event to happen, look at the band line up that they have planned.

main downfall i can see is that the only viewing places are at track level.
so unless you walk around you cant see much of the track at once.(apart from the massive screens)

whereas the surfers paradise race there are thousands of apartments with veiws of a couple of different parts of the track.

im personally looking forward to it and if it turns out ok ill consider going to check it out next year.
 
Tomas

Tomas

my mum says im cool
What a disgustingly boring track. I could draw a better one around my suburb, let alone Olympic Park.
 
cam-o

cam-o

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Tomas said:
What a disgustingly boring track. I could draw a better one around my suburb, let alone Olympic Park.
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Your suburb probably has more curves and interesting shapes to start with. Let's face it, olympic park precinct is pretty much a square road around the stadiums so I doubt they could have done much more.

How about we let them race it and then declare it boring or not? I can see a combo of high speed corners and chicanes - if they are wide enough they might be good for some hero braking moves. Canberra's big problem was it was too narrow for much passing, not so much the shape itself.
 
Hopper

Hopper

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nick_dales said:
All those trees for a race that is going to lose Sydney so much money. Street Races just never make money. Once again top work by the NSW government
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Clipsal 500 makes money.

You get used to the construction and deconstruction of the race venue on street tracks. Once it's been done a couple of times they get really good at it. In Adelaide now, roads are only closed affected 4 days before the event and 3 days after. Some of the roads are cut down to two lanes each way to one lane each way about 1.5 weeks before the event. The setting up of the actual stand structures still takes a couple months and can be annoying because we walk our dog in Victoria Park (where the big stands and pits at Clipsal are).

It does look like apretty dull track but when I was watching a V8 extra episode earlier in the year they had a walkthrough of the track and some of it looks like it could be quite interesting at race pace.
 
MasterOfReality

MasterOfReality

After forever
The whole V8Bogancars thing is boring as.

Was much more entertaining in the days before Holden and Ford spat the dummy at Nissan.
 
Hopper

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MasterOfReality said:
The whole V8Bogancars thing is boring as.

Was much more entertaining in the days before Holden and Ford spat the dummy at Nissan.
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I'm really annoyed that I am too young to have been able to watch the old ATCC. The videos I've seen of it looked amazing. I've been watching some of the BTCC on 1HD and loving it. So good to see different cars with different driving characteristics going at it. Even the BTCC was apparently way better 5-10 years ago.

I say to make racing better they should make a formula with cars like the Lotus type 38 (non aero based grip) and give them massive grippy tyres. Will give high speed racing with overtaking because the cars won't be undriveable in the wake of other cars.
 
b_S

b_S

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Rolled around there this arvo, still a frantic amount of work going on.

Corner 1, looking back up the hill of the main straight.


Exit of corner one, it's fairly narrow along here.


Chicane at 2/3/4, hopefully they keep this bit wide.


Looking back down to corner 7, again it's narrow - 6/7 will be very tight. This section drops lower than the road beside it, and has a slight gradient. Will look good on camera.


Exit of 8, widens up here.


The circus has come to town.


Between 9 and 10. It'll be slow through this area, many narrow right angle turns.


Corner 11


Main straight stadium, standing in what will be the pit lane.


"Temporary" pit complex, from the track.


Looking down the main straight. That big black strip in the centre used to be full of trees.



Whilst I'm all for the spectacle of the race, and wouldn't mind checking it out for curiosity's sake - it's a mammoth effort to make it happen and I do question the justification. This is the home of the "green games", and there used to be a lot of fuss about endangered frogs living in the brick pit.
Oh well, we'll see how the weekend unfolds.
 
WolfCreekPsycho

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Awesome... I have a 3 day pass and really looking forward to this...

As for the complaints about layout, Adelaide and Surfers dont look overly inspiring on a map but they both produce great racing...

Were you able to drive around ? Were you tempted to get the red mist on.. just a little bit ??
 
b_S

b_S

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On the bike, can almost complete a whole lap in car but there's so much going on it'd be a very bad idea. Even at 6pm when those photos were taken there were quite a lot of workers around the track.
 
Pete J

Pete J

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Passing moves don't see to be of major importance there it seems, some of those pics show an overly narrow track not particularly inclined to produce good racing. However maybe they wanted a nice procession of cars to roll past all the kiddies so that they could take nice pictures and videos suitable for youtube... :p
 
scblack

scblack

Leucocholic
It does look VERY narrow. If you watch the Adelaide track, it is mostly quite wide, which makes sense seeing it was originally an F1 track.

Oh well, I guess the NSW government has underwritten a profit for V8 Supercars on the weekend. And Rees gets to stand next to a race driver, pretending he has done something useful for NSW.:rolleyes:
 
Daneel

Daneel

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MasterOfReality said:
The whole V8Bogancars thing is boring as.

Was much more entertaining in the days before Holden and Ford spat the dummy at Nissan.
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I couldn't agree with you more.. The V8 supercars are just super boring. I'd much rather watch the WRC, where there's good drivers in VARIED cars actually having to drive with skill and precision to win.

shame on you holden and ford for not stepping up to compete with the skylines back in 91/92. that should have been the start of a fantastic racing series.

just watch this video from bathurst '91 if you're not convinced on the skylines' superiority:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liymTYuNs2A&feature=related

and this is jim richard's famous speech afterwards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBusULuWCoY
 
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Dene Dweller

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Who was the thinker behind the track? It looks like a glorified NASCAR track, I'd say it will translate into boring viewing on the television and for spectators on the track. Fail.
 
willsy01

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Daneel said:
The V8 supercars are just super boring. I'd much rather watch the WRC, where there's good drivers in VARIED cars actually having to drive with skill and precision to win.

shame on you holden and ford for not stepping up to compete with the skylines back in 91/92. that should have been the start of a fantastic racing series.
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Explain how they're boring.

Have you watched WRC lately? You're aware that like the V8SCs, there are only 2 manufacturers running aren't you?

You should probably direct your wrath at CAMS, not Ford and/or Holden. They're the ones that scrapped the formula.

The bottom line is that the current V8SC formula is booming. It's well marketed and the country is full of bogans and non-bogans alike that enjoy watching them. The only problem with them is the dropkick running the series....he'll be responsible for the death of club level motor racing if he gets his way.
 
Daneel

Daneel

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I certainly have been following the current WRC season. Sad for Mikko to miss out by just one point..

I know it's mainly citroen and ford running at the moment, but people like mads ostberg are in there in subarus, and last year there was a factory team from subaru too.. plus one offs like raikonnen joining in make it more fun. it's more technical and the drivers need to have a good knowledge of the car and how it works.

I find standard track racing, especially the V8s, very boring - all the falcodores out there are all the same and it's a matter of luck, weather and grid position that determines the winner, not how the car was put together, not a fantastic battle between drivers, it's just round and round and round with maybe three or four exciting passes a race..

don't get me wrong, i respect the people who watch it, but i would rather watch the home shopping channel for the first 65 of the 70 laps then watch the last five just for fun.

- Dan
 
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