Track Description
Seeing as how we don't have any photos online yet, I thought I'd describe the track layout for the meeting:
Main Straight
The Main Straight is 45 m long and ends in the sweeping left-hander called Bridge (because it's closest to the railway bridge). The timing loop is 2 m into the straight, with the pit entrance just a metre after that. The pit exit comes just before the entrance to bridge on the outside.
Woodville Chicane
Bridge sweeps right into a 160 degree left hander called Elphic, which is followed by a 170 degree right hander called Vernhurst. These two corners are separated by about 3 m. The individual corners are named after the club founders and together form the Woodville chicane, after the first location of the Maitland club in 1984. On the apex of Vernhurst is an anthill like structure designed by Dallas Gardiner that is becoming known as Dal's Nipple.
The Run Past Tree
At the exit of Vernhurst the track languidly curves around to the right taking it out to the fence line, on the outside of which is a tree that overhangs the track, just before it gets there, there is a gentle hill. The cars get very light over the hill, but shouldn't quite leave the ground. The downslope of the hill is a little more severe than the upslope and loads up the suspension. Immediately after the hill on the left is the EP10 cut-through, just 3 m wide and at almost 90 degrees this could prove a challenge for anyone needing to get back to the pits quickly before the race start. Usually you would go straight on though as the track straightens to the left to follow fence line. Just 3 m after the hill are a forest of moguls, through which there are a few different lines.
On the Banking
Having negotiated the mogul forest there's a 5 m straight run before the 90 degree up hill left hander that takes you onto the Monza Banking. The banking is wider than the rest of the track and banked at around 35 degrees to aid in visibility, as this section of banking is 7 m further back than that on our previous layouts. The banking extends for 20 m, before you exit via the left hander Edwards at 90 degrees into the King chicane.
The King Chicane
This tricky section at the centre back of the track is named after Maitland's most recent National Champion. You come off the banking via the 90 degree Edwards, and then almost immediately have to turn 135 degrees right. Right on the apex of the right hander though is the first of two low jumps that together make up a double. To clear both doubles it's necessary to take Edwards much sharper and square up the jumps. This is a prime passing opportunity, as someone not aiming to take the double can manoeuvre their way into the inside of the right hander and block your run at the double.
Horseshoe Bend
Making its return with this layout is the revised Horseshoe Bend, so named after the access road and nearby suburb. Horseshoe Bend is a flat banked left-hander with an inside radius of curvature, on the large side, about 2.5 m. The run to it is uphill after the King chicane, and about 7 m, making this a very fast turn. The large radius actually allows the corner to go past 180 degrees at the ned where the corner and the banking falls away, before the track curves back to the right on exit, and heads off to the centre of the track area. The left-right combination at the exit of Horseshoe Bend can be straight-lined if you drift to the outside in the centre of the corner before exit to get the approach right.
Across the Chasm
After clearing the curving right at the exit of Horseshoe bend there is a 5 m run to a 70 degree left-hander. The exit of this corner leaves you heading back toward the Monza Banking. Just as your eye-line takes you past the King Chicane is the up ramp to a very large jump. There's a 4 m chasm before a gentle down ramp situated about 0.5 m off the ground. The area in between the up and down ramps is to have a grass surface, punishing those who can't make the jump, and adding to the formidableness of the Chasm.
Dog Leg and then right over the Hill
At exit there is a quick sharp right and then left, that becomes a sort of a dog-leg. The EP10 cut through feeds back in here. There is then a 5 m run to a 90 degree right hander which has the beginning of a hill on its apex. It is possible to completely straigh-line this entire sequence of curves from the right hander off the Chasm to the right hander at the Hill, however this doesn't set you up to take the hill with a settled car, and a loosish rear-end enabling you to slide the rear a little whilst keeping the front of the car pointing in the right direction will help through here.
Into Champions' Run and over the Quads
The next seven corners on the track are known collectively as Champions' Run, as they are all named after National Champions produced by the club. To begin there is a 30 degree right called Hawkins that sets you on course toward a very nice series of quads. The run is a fairly long one, around 7 m, but the span of the quads is also quite long, and so far we've only had 4WD Mod and 4x4 SCT cars clear the whole set very occasionally – nitro cars are yet to have a go in race conditions though. The space in between the middle two jumps is a saddle higher than the ground around it. A standard way to jump the quads is double-double leaping into this saddle. There is a significant kick-up on the 1st and 3rd jumps, meaning the double-double combination has a lot of hang time. The down-slopes on 2 and 4 are also steep, so this jumping combination has a nice feel to it when got right but isn't too difficult (It's the standard way for 2WD Stock to take the Quads). The up-slope of 4 is not aggressive, it's quite flat, meaning there is an escape route for those who haven't quite generated the pace to clear the quads in the form of triple-single, this is only slightly less difficult than taking all four at once though. To complicate matters, the last jump is only a metre from the apex of the sharp left-hander Nicholson that continues Champions' Run.
Through Champions Run
As just mentioned the left-hander that comes after the quads is quite sharp, it comes back to about 135 degrees, and is immediately followed by a 90 degree right hander named Cotton and then a 270 degree, off-camber left called Pain. The middle corner can not really be straight-lined, you have to turn through all three (which are slightly down hill) and get in close to the apex of Pain to avoid sliding down the track and losing time. Just 4 m after Pain is an innocuous 70 degree right called Gardiner and then another 4 m to the 45 degree left-hander Laughton. The apex of Laughton has a low wedge shaped jump on it that is higher the closer you are to the inside of the corner. Taking this jump gives you a better line of attack to get into Primmer hair-pin. Primmer hair-pin has been reworked so that there is now a low little jump onto a table top that ends at the apex of the hair-pin mirroring the last corner at the Vaasa Worlds.
The Rhythm Section
After clearing Primmer hair-pin there is only the 180 degree left hander Brooks to go before the end of the lap. Between Brooks Primmer and Brooks though is a large table-top, 4 large jumps and another very low table-top on Brooks. These jumps are very close to how they were in the last iteration of the track, with the main difference being that the first two have been filled in to make a table-top. The run from Primmer hair-pin to the table-top is too short to clear the next jump as well, so the favoured combinations are either: table-top, double, double; or table-top, triple, single. The second of those options is slightly faster, but more difficult, as the second to last jump is quite high, and a lot of drive is required on take-off to clear it.
The Bogey Hole
There is just one more feature left on the track at this point, but it's a doozy. Inside the apex of Brooks at present there is a hole. The track is edged with black pipe, and if you are good you can put two wheels off onto the inside of the track and use the edging and the hole to pull the car around quicker. There is a catch though, and the catch is that the hole is exactly the right size to completely trap a car and require a marshal. This happened several times last weekend; I'm sure a certain driver would like us to fill the Bogey Hole in, we haven't decided yet.
And that's a lap of Maitland's almost complete new circuit!