The Canberra 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 ...

located in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It hosted the Canberra 400 for the

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

series from 2000 to 2002.

Layout

The track, which ran through the

Parliamentary Triangle The National Triangle, also known as the Parliamentary Triangle, is the ceremonial precinct of Canberra, containing some of Australia's most significant buildings. The Triangle is formed by Commonwealth, Kings and Constitution Avenues. Buildin ...

area of Canberra, was designed by then Holden Racing Team driver Mark Skaife. The track's distance was and featured 15 turns. Pit straight was chosen on Langton Crescent, which runs alongside the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

Building, with the pits being set up in the parallel car park. Cars would head south towards turn 1. Turn 1 was particularly narrow and often caused problems on the first lap of a race. Turn 2 was a long sweeping left-hander onto Queen Victoria Terrace, past the West Block Government Offices, and featured a blind exit. The turn 3, 4, 5 and 6 complex was referred to by the drivers as the 'Bus Stop' in reference to a similar pattern of corners at the

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a Race track, motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa, Belgium, Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One ...

. It was also known as the 'flip-flop'. Cars would go through a quick right-left-straight-left-right, past the Old Parliament House, before heading towards turns 7 and 8 past the National Archives and the East Block Government Offices. Turn 9 was a right-hander turn onto Kings Avenue and the first real straight on the circuit. The cars would then turn right again at turn 10 onto State Circle running in front of the new Parliament House. As the name suggests, State Circle is a full circular road, with the cars continuously turning left, running under the overhead bridges at a top speed of 250 km/h. Turn 11 was another right-hander onto Flynn Drive. This corner was the only real possible overtaking spot on the track. Cars would then run past the Chinese Embassy towards a

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

at Turn 12. Cars then continued along Flynn Drive and past the Hyatt Hotel Canberra. Turn 13 was a right-left chicane, called the Canberra Complex, turning into Flynn Place. This corner was one of the few Australian corners taken in first gear. Cars then entered the turn 14 and 15 section, which is a continuous sweeping right-hander, past Lake Burley Griffin and under Commonwealth Avenue bridge before running past the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

and back onto Langton Crescent to finish the lap.

History

The circuit hosted three Canberra 400 events in its history. The event was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in early June, and saw three different round winners across the three years;

Steven Richards Steven James Richards (born 11 July 1972) is a New Zealand-Australian racing driver, currently competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship. Richards, the son of seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Jim Richards (race driver), Jim Ri ...

, Steven Johnson and Mark Skaife. By race wins, Skaife, the circuit's designer, was the most successful with four.

Lap records

The official race lap records at Canberra Street Circuit are listed as:Natsoft Race Results
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References

{{V8 Supercar tracks Former Supercars Championship circuits Sports venues in Canberra Motorsport venues in the Australian Capital Territory