The Kuala Lumpur 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
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
. The track hosted the 2015
Kuala Lumpur City Grand Prix for several categories and was contracted to host
Supercars from 2017 to 2019.
Ongoing legal issues have cancelled subsequent events at the circuit.
Layout
The winded through central Kuala Lumpur and was designed to showcase the city to the world via television broadcasts of the event.
It passed several major landmarks including the
Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers (), also known as the Petronas Twin Towers and colloquially the KLCC Twin Towers, are an interlinked pair of 88-storey supertall skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, standing at . From 1996 to 2004, they were the tall ...
,
Menara KL and
Suria KLCC
Suria KLCC is a 6-story shopping mall located at the foot of the Petronas Twin Towers. Suria KLCC is a premier shopping destination with over 300 flagship stores. The shopping mall is situated in Kuala Lumpur City Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malays ...
. One of the major overtaking spots was on
Jalan Ampang
Jalan Ampang or Ampang Road (Selangor state route B31) is a major road in the Klang Valley region, Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Built in the 1880s, it is one of the oldest roads in the Klang Valley. It is a main r ...
, one of the main roads in Kuala Lumpur.
The initial reaction to the circuit was positive, however the drivers visiting from the
V8 Supercars series noted the track's difficulty.
Chaz Mostert
Chaz Michael Mostert (born 10 April 1992) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 25 Ford Mustang GT for Walkinshaw Andretti United. Mostert ...
described the circuit as like one from a
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
, while
Todd Kelly described the track as the "craziest" street circuit he had ever been to.
Meanwhile, other drivers cited the circuit's bumps, narrow width and camber changes as providing a unique challenge.
The
FIA Grade 3 circuit was designed by Apex Circuit Designs, who have previously designed and redeveloped a range of circuits including
Dubai Autodrome,
Hampton Downs and a street circuit in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...
,
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
.
History
The Kuala Lumpur Street Circuit was opened in August 2015 to host the Kuala Lumpur City Grand Prix. The inaugural event included a variety of action, ranging from
GT3 cars in the form of a flagship GT race, the KL GT City Cup, and the
Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, to
open wheelers in the form of
Formula Masters China and a
touring car
Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The ...
demonstration in the form of five cars from the
International V8 Supercars Championship.
Starting in 2016, the event was due to host a full championship round of V8 Supercars.
The 2016 event was later cancelled due to legal issues, which remained unresolved as of 2017.
Lap records
References
External links
Official Website
{{V8 Supercar tracks
Sport in Kuala Lumpur
Motorsport venues in Malaysia
2015 establishments in Malaysia
2015 disestablishments in Malaysia