The Hamilton Street Circuit was a temporary

street circuit A street circuit is a motorsport racing circuit composed of temporarily closed-off public roads of a city, town or village, used in motor races. Airport runways and taxiways are also sometimes part of street circuits. Facilities such as the ...

in Hamilton,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. From 2008 to 2012 it hosted the

Hamilton 400 The Hamilton 400, also known as the ITM Hamilton 400 for sponsorship reasons, was a V8 Supercar motor racing event held on the Hamilton Street Circuit, Hamilton, New Zealand. The event was held from 2008 to 2012, and is one of only two New Zea ...

as part of the

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

championship. From 2010 to 2012, ITM, New Zealand's largest group of independent trade building supplies, sponsored the race and it became known as the ITM 400.

Demise

Some residents of the city wanted the V8s gone, as they took over city streets and blocked residents from entering and exiting their own homes. On 14 December 2010,

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspaper ...

reported that Julie Hardaker, the newly elected Mayor of Hamilton, and some councilors appointed an independent auditor to audit the cost of the race. The figures released on 14 December suggested that a NZ$3.5m cost to change the event to a different promoter (the original promoter, Caleta Streetrace Management, was collapsed in 2010), NZ$5.1m for operational costs and NZ$20.3m for set-up costs. The sum (NZ$27.4 million) did not include "commercially confidential" amounts such as event sponsorship payments. The cost to run the V8 Supercar event was eventually deemed too great and the final V8 Supercar race was held on 22 April 2012; it was won by

Mark Winterbottom Mark "Frosty" Winterbottom (born 20 May 1981) is an Australian professional racing driver. He currently competes in the Repco Supercars Championship, driving the No. 18 Holden ZB Commodore for Team 18. His career highlights include winning th ...

The circuit

Hamilton Street Circuit was long circuit ran in a clockwise direction around the Frankton business district with the pit lane and main straight located on Mill Street. The circuit also went alongside the

Seddon Park Seddon Park is a cricket ground in Hamilton, New Zealand. It is the fourth-largest cricket ground in the country, and is renowned for its "village green" setting, affording a picnic atmosphere for spectators. History Seddon Park was named aft ...

and the

Waikato Stadium FMG Stadium Waikato is a major sporting and cultural events venue in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a total capacity of 25,800. Four areas contribute to this capacity: The Brian Perry Stand holding 12,000, the WEL Networks Stand holding 8,000, t ...

. It was generally a narrow race track with armco and concrete lined sides but it could be fast and flowing. There were plenty of passing opportunities and those who quickly dial into the contained style of street racing had the most success. The circuit was not very forgiving if the driver got off the racing line because it was surrounded by the aforementioned fences and concrete barriers.

Lap records

The official race lap records at Hamilton Street Circuit are listed as:

References

External links

Official Website of V8 raceV8 Supercar's info of Hamilton Street CircuitHolden gets Hamilton 400 hat-trick
{{Toyota Racing Series tracks Motorsport venues in New Zealand Supercars Championship circuits Sports venues in Hamilton, New Zealand