Canberra Street Circuit

The Canberra Street Circuit was a temporary

V8 Supercars

series from 2000 to 2002.

Layout

The track, which ran through the

Treasury

Building, with the pits being set up in the parallel car park. Cars would head south towards turn 1. Turn 1 was particularly narrow and often caused problems on the first lap of a race. Turn 2 was a long sweeping left-hander onto Queen Victoria Terrace, past the West Block Government Offices, and featured a blind exit.

The turn 3, 4, 5 and 6 complex was referred to by the drivers as the 'Bus Stop' in reference to a similar pattern of corners at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. It was also known as the 'flip-flop'. Cars would go through a quick right-left-straight-left-right, past the Old Parliament House, before heading towards turns 7 and 8 past the National Archives and the East Block Government Offices. Turn 9 was a right-hander turn onto Kings Avenue and the first real straight on the circuit. The cars would then turn right again at turn 10 onto State Circle running in front of the new Parliament House. As the name suggests, State Circle is a full circular road, with the cars continuously turning left, running under the overhead bridges at a top speed of 250 km/h.

Turn 11 was another right-hander onto Flynn Drive. This corner was the only real possible overtaking spot on the track. Cars would then run past the Chinese Embassy towards a

Commonwealth Avenue bridge before running past the National Library of Australia

and back onto Langton Crescent to finish the lap.

History

The circuit hosted three Canberra 400 events in its history. The event was held on the

Queen's Birthday long weekend in early June, and saw three different round winners across the three years; Steven Richards, Steven Johnson

and Mark Skaife. By race wins, Skaife, the circuit's designer, was the most successful with four.

Lap records

The official race lap records at Canberra Street Circuit are listed as:[1]

Class	Driver	Vehicle	Time	Date
Street Circuit: 3.990 km (2000–2002)
Formula Holden	Simon Wills	Reynard 94D	1:39.5409^[2]	10 June 2000
V8 Supercars	Craig Lowndes	Ford AU Falcon	1:43.8397^[3]	10 June 2001
Nations Cup	Paul Stokell	Lamborghini Diablo SVR	1:50.3321	10 June 2001
Formula Ford	Jamie Whincup	Van Diemen RF01	1:51.2531	9 June 2002

References

^ Natsoft Race Results
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 September 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ http://racing.natsoft.com.au/636264319/object_167890.85V/View?28^{[permanent dead link]}

[1] Natsoft Race Results

[2] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 September 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] ttp://racing.natsoft.com.au/636264319/object_167890.85V/View?28^{[permanent dead link]}

[2]

[3]