Fordtopia: June 2014

The Sydney Telstra 500 was launched on 16 May 2009 in Sydney. It has an identical format to the clipsal 500 with two 250 km races, one on Saturday, and one on Sunday.

The previous champion Jamie Whincup (and favourite) secured a record-equalling 5th championship title in style coming first in Race 1 and then 3rd in the second race. It was the final race of the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship, adding to the excitement of a great weekend of thrilling V8 racing was the first ever twilight finish at Sydney Olympic stadium making the circuit’s close concrete walls even more of a threat as the drivers had to compete with a lack of light as the sun set and extreme glare at some points of the track

On Sunday the 8th December I was lucky enough to tag along with a mate to the second day of racing. Its was on from Friday with practising and qualifying through to Sunday, we only went on Sunday though. The event is located at Sydney Olympic Park in West Sydney. Its the same complex that hosted the 2000 Olympic Games

We were given free corporate tickets to the 'Norton 360' Suites, which were located directly over the pits on the main straight. They have food all day long, buffet style, lunch was pretty big and a large selection of hot meats. And unlimited beers / Spirits all day. Because they share with the Kelly Brothers they had Jack Daniels there as well.

The venue is very large and very flat almost a rectangular shape track. I would highly recommend spending the extra cash on getting grandstand tickets to be elevated for a better viewing point.

Getting there by train is very easy and free if you show your tickets, we got dropped off nearby and walked up and found it a bit of a maze to find the grandstand

The corporate stand was 3 levels up formed on temporary scalfolding and shipping containers. The stand was directly above the pits. And opposite from accross us was another grandstand as well without the corporate catering which would have been a good vantage point to look directly at the pits.

The corpoarate stands have a balcony along the full width and large fans / fridges bar staff and large screen displays they also have a direct screen feed to the V8 supercar time data and also our particular stand because it was sponsored by Norton / Jack Daniels had ipads with a direct camera feed to the pits.

Below is a view from ground level of the stands.

Being part of the Olympic Park stadium there is roofed pavilions that the V8 supercars have utilised they had a few V8 supercars being worked on between races in direct public view which was nice to get up and close. Any other time of the year the track is a public road.

Outside the pavillions heading away from the pit area they are had various other promotions such as this ford ranger and kuga stand. You line up and choose either to be a passenger in the ford kuga's which the ford driver will show you the automated park assist, or the ford ranger which as you can see shoots over a small course incorporating a 10m high ramp with good views across the venue

Down the main throughfare there is a long road called Olympic boulvevard with various car club displays branching off from it and also trade stands and merchandise.

This 4wd display was amazing the rock hopper had fully articulated hydraulic suspension and did all sorts of tricks and crazy moves to dazzle the crowd throughout the day.

This was the Austin Healey car club display they had a car for each driver and escorted the drivers around the track before the start of the race on the parade lap.

View looking down over the pit entry from the corporate stand.

This is the display screens from the corporate stands with gives a live feed of track data positioning etc

We were exceptionally lucky to have a Norton rep come and give me and my mate a private tour of the Norton Hornets pit, we got to go down and were fitted with a headset that was the same communication line that the drivers and engineers use to listen in while we walked around the pit.

We stood with the engineers and watched the screen data change and also kept an eye on the pit crew and what they were up to.

Pit crew waiting around for some action

On the particular day that we went James Moffat the Norton Hornet V8 driver had his gearbox blowup mid race and we had the oppurtunity to stand with him in the pits, understanably he was aggravated having to pull out with mechanical problems and wasn't approachable.