The Hamilton 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 ...

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. From 2008 to 2012 it hosted the Hamilton 400 as part of 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 ...

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,

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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 James "Frosty" Winterbottom (born 20 May 1981) is an Australian former professional racing driver. He last competed in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Team 18. His career ...

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 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, th ...

. 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 Former Supercars Championship circuits Sports venues in Hamilton, New Zealand