V8 Supercars: Challenging street circuit to test the best

Tyre marks on the streets of Hamilton. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The V8 Supercars championship hits New Zealand this weekend for the ITM400 in Hamilton.

Kiwi driver Jason Richards, in his second season with Team BOC and Brad Jones Racing, shows us the fast way around the demanding street circuit.

TURN 1: Speed 65km/h; gear 2nd. On the first lap of last year's race there was a massive amount of congestion going in to turn one. If you're a risk-taker, you can run an outside line at the risk of getting pushed into the wall. It's probably a 50-50 chance.

HOLDEN HAIRPIN: Speed: Reduce from 220km/h to 60; gear: 2nd. Like turn one, there's still going to be a lot of congestion here.

However, there is more room coming out of the turn, meaning if you get the inside line there are passing opportunities. There's a concrete patch at the apex with plenty of grip, which aids passing.

SWEEPER: Speed: Reduce from 150km/h to 70; gear: 2nd. In 2008, there was a nasty bump going in to this part of the track but it was smoothed out. Basically, the sweeper has us driving through a roundabout the wrong way and the cars are in single file. You don't want to be on the outside because you can run out of track pretty quickly.

CHICANE: Speed: Reduce from 210km/h to 120; gear: 3rd. I broke a shock absorber here in 2008 and it ruined my weekend. In a race situation when you are bumper to bumper, you just have to trust your intuition.

It's phenomenally difficult to drive through this chicane because you can't see the apexes during racing. Still regarded as a little contentious but you just have to get on with it.

LION RED CORNER: Speed: Reduce from 185km/h to 100; gear: 3rd. By the time you're through the chicane the field should have spread out as the guys at the front really put their feet down. This corner is a chance to get past someone if they've had a particularly bad run through the chicane. A few battles will be fought at this point on the circuit.

ITM CORNER: Speed: Reduce from 210km/h to 90; gear: 3rd. The fastest run will be on the left-hand side of the track. The entry to the corner is tight but the exit is extremely wide and you have plenty of road to play with. This is the perfect corner to pass on.

PORTER KINK: Speed: 140km/h; gear: 3rd. This is a tough little kink to get through because there's not much room for error. The best line is to get as close to the wall as possible without hitting it. The road's pretty bumpy here and it's a challenge to get it just right.

BIG POND CORNER: Speed: Reduce from 140km/h to 80; gear: 2nd. The exit from Big Pond corner is tight. You're literally racing between walls here and your ability to break correctly are crucial or you'll end up crashing. You have to get your entry speed bang on as there is no room to run wide.

FINAL TURN: Speed: Reduce from 150km/h to 90; gear: 3rd. This corner is tight at entry but has plenty of room to move on exit. A lot of strategy comes in to play here because the bumps on the road (caused by the crowning of the tarmac) can make life tough.

There's probably three or four different exit lines within the space of five or six metres. You can either get on the throttle early and run the risk of wheel-spinning or take a tighter exit line, avoiding the bigger bumps and putting the 650hp down cleanly on to the long front straight.

MAIN STRAIGHT: Speed: 240km/h; gear: 6th. The aim here is to get your gear changes perfect to generate maximum speed and power. To do that you must get as close to the controlled rev limit of 7500rpm before changing gears but if you hit it, valuable tenths will be lost.

With the ability to wheel-spin in most gears over the bumps, staying off the limiter isn't that easy.