Indy still attracts the basic core of motor racing fans in large numbers during race week taking in rounds of both the V8 Supercar and Champ car seasons. Many who trudged through the mud at Winton Raceway in round eight, battled gale force winds and rain at Phillip Island and slept in tents at Bathurst, find themselves in swank five star accommodation smack bang in the middle of Australia’s number one holiday playground.
The 2008 Nikon Indy 300 on the Gold Coast is expected to attract more than 300,000 spectators this weekend with the biggest names in Australian motorsport including Skaife, Lowndes, Whincup, Courtney, Kelly and co-sharing centre stage with International drivers including Tagliani, Wilson, Franchitti, Junqueira, Hunter-Reay Dixon, Power, Andretti and Australia’s own Will Power.
Millions will watch the live and on delay vision throughout the world, showcasing not only the best touring car championship on the planet and the Champ Car World Series, the audience watching the telecast will see the Gold Coast and Australia at its best.
Indy injects more than $50 million into Queensland, generates more than 159,000 visitor nights, and creates an equivalent of 503 jobs. The television coverage of the Champ Car race reaches close to 60 countries with a potential audience of 166 million households. The V8 Supercar races will also be telecast into 70 countries around the world.
Over the 17 years of Indy on the Gold Coast, the Champ Cars have lit up the track clocking speeds in excess of 300km per hour as the drivers chase the rich series prize money and acclaim. Champ Car racing features 800-horsepower open wheel vehicles in an international 14-round series held in the United States, Mexico, Japan and Canada, this year’s field includes 10 individual 2008 IndyCar Series race winners Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick, Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, Dan Wheldon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal, the field will also include high-profile female driver Danica Patrick, who became the first woman to win a major open-wheel event in Japan earlier this year.
A massive coup for Indy this year is the home grown talent of Will Power, currently running tenth in the series driving for Team Australia, Power will be aiming to better the seventh-place finish by fellow Aussie David Besnard in 2004 in a special one-off Champ car drive.
The Nikon Indy 300 winners honour roll features some of the World’s best known drivers including, John Andretti (1991), Emerson Fittipaldi (1992), Nigel Mansell (1993), Michael Andretti (1994), Paul Tracy (1995), Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1998), Dario Franchitti (1999), Cristiano da Matta (2001), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2003) and Bruno Junqueira (2004) Sebastian Bourdais (2005).
V8 Supercars
Joining the Champ Cars at the top of the bill will be the V8 Supercar Challenge – the 11th round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series. Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom have taken a firm grip in the battle for the Supercar crown this year after the crash and bash spectacle at the previous Bathurst round put paid to a few championship aspirations, although the Triple Eight Team and FPR will be aware while the Gold Coast is famous for its sunshine past title dreams have been dampened in paradise.
Garth Tander, Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes will be pushing hard on the tough street circuit, trying to put as much pressure on Winterbottom and Whincup to resurrect their own championship hopes in the three V8 Supercar championship races around the confines of the Surfers Paradise concrete canyon.
The 4.47km circuit consists of 2515 concrete blocks which all weigh four tonnes each. They are moved to and from the circuit six at a time on the back of a line of semi-trailers. In other interesting statistics, the circuit requires 10km of debris fencing, 16km of security fencing and 10 temporary bridges. It is all constructed in 96 days, down from the 199 days it took only ten years ago in 1997. Even now the inventory infrastructure is three times what it was in the first year in 1991.
More than 1500 people volunteer their services to deliver the event in roles such as track marshalls, media assistants, accreditation staff, corporate hosts, gate officials, fire marshalls, grandstand officials, flag marshalls, information booth attendants, grid marshalls and much more. In fact 43 of these 1500 have been volunteers every year since the event started in 1991.
