Adelaide Street Circuit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Location | Adelaide, Australia |
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| Major events | Formula One; V8 Supercar; ALMS |
| Circuit length | 3.78 kilometres (2.35 miles) |
| Turns | 14 |
| Lap record | 1'15.381 / 180.523 km/h (Damon Hill, Williams Renault, 1993) |
The Adelaide Street Circuit () is a temporary race track in the East Parklands adjacent to the central business district of the city of Adelaide in South Australia.
The track has hosted eleven Formula One Australian Grand Prix events from 1985 to 1995 and an American Le Mans sports car race on New Year's Eve in 2000 (The Race of a Thousand Years) on the long form (3.78 km) of the track. It has hosted an annual V8 Supercar race called the Adelaide 500 since 1999 on a shorter variant of the track. Cars race clockwise around the circuit.
The pit straight is inside the Victoria Park horse racing track. The buildings and grandstands are temporary and removed so that spectators can see the whole horse racetrack during the rest of the year. At the end of the straight, drivers negotiate the Senna Chicane and a left turn to go uphill on a short straight on Wakefield Road to East Terrace. They then have a series of rightangle turns along East Terrace. The short form of the track has three of these, followed by another right turn onto Bartels Road back across the parklands. The long form continues with another left-right-left-right-right to Jones Straight (known as Rundle Road for the rest of the year). Then there is a fast right-hand sweeper onto the longest straight, Brabham Straight, on Dequetteville Terrace. The short form of the track rejoins halfway down this straight, so the Bartels Road straight is longest on that layout. At the end of Brabham Straight is a righthand hairpin turn (at the Britannia Roundabout) onto Wakefield Road, then a left turn and long sweeping righthand curve back into Victoria Park behind the pit area. The lap concludes with another right-hand hairpin onto the pit straight.
When the idea of holding a Grand Prix in the parklands was first raised, there was some opposition from people concerned about environmental damage, as the parks have a number of mature trees with birds and possums living in them. There is no larger wildlife in the parklands, as they are heavily developed. These concerns seem to have been proven unfounded, as spectators often watch magpies and rosellas when there is nothing happening on the track. Indeed, the total road traffic during race weekend is significantly less than there is any other day of the year.
The race meetings have the feature race, but also a number of races for "lesser" categories, making three or four days of entertainment for the crowds of spectators, without long periods of boredom that could occur if only practice and qualifying for the main event preceded it. Many of the events also have after-race concerts on a stage erected for the purpose on a playing field in the middle of the track.
