Street circuit no place for wimps

By GREG ANSLEY

The Gold Coast street circuit is no place for the faint-hearted. Champ Cars and V8 Supercars rip around its counterclockwise 4.47km course at 250km/h or more, roaring in a pack separated physically by only centimetres and in time by just seconds between first and last.

Because it runs through city streets, the circuit undulates with bumps and dips that can throw cars travelling at high speeds. Before racing starts, metal reflectors are prised from the road and manhole covers welded in place. Any mistake can put a driver out of the race or strip him of victory. In a V8 race, a pit stop of more than seven seconds will see the driver lose position - two seconds longer will cost 120m.

The cars are fearsome. Champ Cars, similar in looks to Formula One racers, are powered by turbocharged eight-cylinder, methanol-fuelled 2.65-litre engines able to push cars to 380km/h. The fuel-injected 620 horsepower V8s can reach 298km/h.

Kiwi driver Greg Murphy holds the qualifying lap record, screaming through the run of straights, S-bends and 90-degree corners in a hair-raising 1 minute 50.703 seconds.

Down the front straight, which parallels the Gold Coast highway, the V8s reach up to 260km/h before pulling down to third gear for two snap bends - called chicanes - and up to 245-250km/h for the arc past King Tutts Putt Putt and Crown Towers.

The brakes scream on for the sharp left at the ANA Hotel, down to second gear and 80km/h, bounce off the kerb and up to third and 160km/h, then down to second and hard left for the fastest straight - up to 290km/h along the seafront.

A quick second-third gear sequence for the S-bend at Higman St, up to 255- 260km/h again, bounce off the kerbs through double S-bends and accelerate to 180km/h up to the hard left at Breaker St, the northern end. Heavy on the brakes, scream through the bends and drift up to the Lexmark hairpin, and back down the front straight. No wonder drivers can lose 3kg a race.