Sydney 500 Review

The first ever Sydney street race, the Sydney 500 at Homebush, attracted over 160 000 fans last weekend.

The track itself is quite exciting, unlike a lot of street circuits there are decent passing opportunities. Turn 8 in particular which Alex Davison found out and used to his advantage and our entertainment as he shot passed car after car. The funny thing was, whenever a driver was passed on that turn, they were forced wide and due to the lack of grip they struggled to pull the car up and went spearing into the fence or up the run off area. This happened every second or this pass.

Olympic Park is a great area for a street race. Simply because of the amount of space there is out there. While at a place like Surfers (Indy) you constantly feel crowded on the paths of the city, there are thousands of people everywhere. Out at Homebush there is plenty of room midfield, the wide expanse around the Olympic Stadium, and there is plenty of breathing space.

We were perched on the fence near the previously mentioned turn 8. We had a decent view of proceedings and a big screen to help us keep on top of what was happening in the race. We walked around pretty much the entire circuit before the V8 race, checking out possible spots to watch and decided to return to turn 8. It was a good decision. Another good spot would have been the final few turns before pit straight, where we watched qualifying. That was good as well. But I think to get the most out of it you really need to get into a grandstand. We had to move around a bit and stretch our necks to see up the road or to the screen, but having a grandstand pass would have made things much easier and more relaxed. However we never planned to that this year, it was more of an exploration day. Now we know for next time.

The race itself was quite good. James Courtney produced a brilliant drive, showing intent early in the race to get himself into the lead. Jason Bright did a brilliant job to grab the lead at one stage, I was quite excited for them as it would be a great way to see the team leave after all the troubles they have been through. However a drive through resulting from an unsafe release from the pits put an unfortunate end to that. Courtney was unfazed and took the Jim Beam car to victory. Hopefully a seen of things to come next year.

Idiots of the day include a guy fuming up pit straight whinging about the amount of people. “You cant see anything this is bull%#$@”. And also when we got off the bus some lady: “Look at that. Holy %#$@, it’s massive!”. Must be from out town, or never been to the races before.
Legend of the day was some guy and his mate on the bus home. They were absolutely hammered, apparently they managed to break into a corporate marquee. Free booze all day.