As the V8 Supercar Championship Series got set to rumble at its first New Zealand street course, Stephen Orr and his team from Hyder Consulting - the consulting engineers for the Hamilton street course and the project managers for the Gold Coast Indy 300 – were breathing a sigh of relief after six weeks of construction to bring the event to life.

While thousands of kilometres apart, the two circuits have a lot in common, and this enabled Orr, Hyder’s Queensland Business Manager for Tourism Leisure and Events, to bring a lot of lessons learnt from the company’s 18 years of transforming the streets of Surfers Paradise to the Hamilton drawing board.

“There were many lessons learnt from the Gold Coast Indy 300 we were able to bring to the New Zealand planning table, including the methodology of the works and the design of the assets,” said Orr.

“Our client visited the Gold Coast Indy 300 last year with some of his construction team and took some ideas away which have benefited them.

“For instance, the concrete barriers, track access points, race kerbing and many other safety measures are similar to the Gold Coast Indy 300s, along with similar barrier lifting and debris fence installation methods. The debris fence sponsor sign design and installations are also identical, which has allowed us to plan things quite neatly.”

But while the two circuits have their similarities, they also have their differences, and with this being a first-time build for the promoter, council and Hyder, it is amazing that it has all come together in such a short period of time.

“The design and planning for the NZ circuit first started 18 months ago,” said Orr.

“Preparations for the track are well ahead of schedule, and all credit is largely due to the Promoter, the council and the track build contractor – they have done an exceptional job for a first event build.

“A large and noticeable difference between the NZ and the Gold Coast circuits is the close proximity of the storage yard to the venue, which has made quite a difference to the construction programme in New Zealand.

“Also, there are many wider track areas which shall make for very entertaining racing, while there is a portion of the circuit which is not accessible to event patrons, whereas Indy provides as much access as possible.

“Also there aren't quite as many turns in NZ as at the Gold Coast Indy, but this also correlates to Hamilton being a shorter circuit (3.4km in comparison to the Gold Coast’s 4.6km).”

So how long exactly does this sort of project take?

“Track construction, not including grandstands and pit buildings – they started in late January – has generally taken six weeks to put together, with the track length of 3.4km,” said Orr.

“This is about the same time as construction for the Gold Coast Indy 300, which is considerably longer, so I think we do a pretty good job on the GC programme, given the amount of truck movements we need to do the build and the Highway traffic and residential area constraints, and I guess this is due to the fact of how long we have been doing it.”

Hyder consulting are also responsible for other great Gold Coast landmarks along with the Gold Coast Indy 300, including the Circle of Cavill project, the internationally acclaimed Wave Building at Broadbeach and the Gold Coast Convention Centre amongst others.




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