KEY POINTS:
Not long to go now, and over 162,000 people are gazing longingly at their pre-bought Hamilton 400 tickets. Roaring into action in less than a week, the third round of the Australian Supercar V8s is about to take the streets of Hamilton by storm.
If the racing matches up to the hype surrounding the construction of the track it should be a belter of a weekend, with cars getting up to speeds of 250km/h on some parts of the circuit.
The circuit looks fast with a number of corners having wide exits allowing the drivers to get on to the gas early.
Not all the drivers are happy campers with veteran racer Aussie Russell Ingall having a whinge that the race could be a crash fest. New Zealand favourite Supercar V8 driver Greg Murphy's riposte was Ingall was just being Ingall and wanted to get his name in the press.
Murphy, seventh in the championship after two rounds, has given the circuit the thumbs up. "The huge width of the front straight is amazing. There's plenty of room and anywhere there's really fast bits going into slow corners will have good passing opportunities."
After 70,000 man-hours, the track is almost complete and the finishing touches to the 2000 4.5 tonne blocks and tyre barriers will happen on Wednesday night.
"We're bang on schedule," said event organiser Steve Vuleta. "We've only had six weeks to erect all the fencing, put up the grandstands, place the pedestrian walkways and lay all the cabling and wiring."
Already 24,000 grandstand tickets have been sold and only the street race in Adelaide can claim more seating.
The 3.4km circuit is laid out in and around Hamilton's Frankton business district.
The businesses and residents, however, will have access throughout the event.
