The Homebush Street Circuit, also known as the Sydney Olympic Park Street Circuit, was a temporary

street circuit A street circuit is a motorsport race track, racing circuit composed of temporarily closed-off public roads of a city, town or village, used in motor racing, motor races. Airport Runway, runways and Taxiway, taxiways are also sometimes part of ...

around the former

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

precinct at

Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Parramatta, City of Parramatta Council. It i ...

Homebush Bay Homebush Bay is a bay on the south bank of the Parramatta River, in the west of Sydney, Australia. The name is also sometimes used to refer to an area to the west and south of the bay itself, which was formerly an official suburb of Sydney, a ...

, Australia. The track hosted the

Sydney 500 The Sydney 500 was an annual motor racing event for Supercars Championship, Supercars, held at the Homebush Street Circuit in Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales, Australia. The event was a regular part of the Supercars Championship from 2009 ...

and was used for the first time at the

final round A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the

2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series The 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series was the eleventh V8 Supercar Championship Series and the thirteenth series in which V8 Supercars have contested the premier Australian touring car title. It began on 19 March at the Clipsal 500 on the st ...

. The circuit was used for the final time in December 2016 due to a relocation to a Newcastle after it was announced the ANZ stadium precinct would be upgraded and block the track location.

Layout

The circuit was designed by

Mark Skaife Mark Stephen Skaife (born 3 April 1967) is an Australian former racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the Supercars Championship, V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, a ...

, who focused on creating a track with a variety of bumps, camber changes and fast and slow corners making it difficult to complete the perfect lap. 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. Overall the track had a mixture of track surfaces. V8 Supercar driver

Jason Richards Jason John Richards (10 April 1976 – 15 December 2011) was a New Zealand motor racing driver. A multiple championship winning driver in his homeland in the New Zealand Touring Car Championship, he moved to Australia to pursue a career in the ...

suggested that there were many difficult braking areas, interesting corners and good passing spots. The main straight was the single widest section of race track in Australia, while the straight along Edwin Flack Avenue was one of the narrowest. The outside of turn eight had 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 the Holden Racing Team's

Garth Tander Garth Dirk Tander (born 31 March 1977) is a multiple-championship winning Australian motor racing driver competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship's Enduro Cup, co-driving for Grove Racing. He was the 2007 series champion for th ...

from pole position while, the second 250 km race was won by

Dick Johnson Racing Dick Johnson Racing (formerly DJR Team Penske) is Australia's oldest motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. Founded by Dick Johnson, the team's drivers have won ten Australian Touring Car Championship titles (five of the ...

James Courtney James Anthony Courtney (born 29 June 1980) is an Australian racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 7 Ford Mustang (sixth generation), Ford Mustang GT for Blanchard Racin ...

(who started from second position on the grid).

Jamie Whincup Jamie David Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden Commodore (ZB), Ho ...

secured winning the

after finishing fifth in race 1 and fourteenth in race 2.

Environmental concerns

The conversion of part of the

precinct into a V8 street-car race circuit was widely criticised. The Total Environment Centre said that the New South Wales Government overrode the threatened species law, as well as the Homebush Bay Authority's planning principals, and would cause social, environmental and economic disruption at Sydney Olympic Park. Tony McCormick, who led the team that designed Sydney Olympic Park, said "I find it truly a travesty... The site was supposed to be a legacy for generations and we can’t even make it last a decade."

Closure

In 2015, V8 Supercars proposed to shorten the circuit to reduce the event's costs. This proposal failed, and in March 2016 it was announced that the ongoing costs of running the event would result in 2016 being the final running of the Sydney 500.

Lap records

As of 4 December 2016, the official race lap records at Homebush Street Circuit are listed as:

References

External links