What will the Newcastle Supercars race be like | map, photos, video

Herald reporter Michael Parris was in Adelaide last week for the first Supercars round.

The announcement in September that Newcastle would host the Supercars finale for at least the next five years sparked celebrations in the Hunter motor sport community and outrage among many residents directly affected by the race.

I have spoken to unhappy residents and ecstatic fans, both in Newcastle and Adelaide, which has lived with a street circuit since the 1985 Australian Grand Prix.

Here’s what’s in store for Newcastle on the last weekend in November.    

WILL IT BE NOISY?

Yes. Very.

But not quite as noisy as the Newcastle East resident groups’ sound demonstration in Scott Street a few weeks ago, and not nearly as incessant. 

The residents played a five-minute recording of constant race-car noise. Regardless of arguments about decibel levels, in Adelaide the cars seemed slightly (only slightly) quieter than that when you’re standing next to the track.

The worst noise (or best, depending on your point of view) is enough to make conversation impossible and lasts as long as the cars roar past. For much of the time they are on a distant part of the track and the noise is less confronting. 

Ear protection for a youngster in Adelaide.

The cars often emit a loud explosive crack as they go up through the gears exiting corners. I saw ear muffs on a couple of children in Adelaide.

Cars in the Clipsal 500 and support categories were on track for about six hours between 8.45am and 5.20pm. The track is quiet for about three hours in that period.

A resident I spoke to who lives inside the Adelaide track, Amanda, bought a house in exclusive East Terrace two years ago.

The modern, three-storey townhouse overlooks a park and is about 30 metres from the circuit at a point where the cars accelerate hard as they enter a long straight.

Amanda, who is not a motor racing fan, was entertaining guests on the Saturday of the four-day Clipsal 500 weekend and had her sliding doors wide open.

“Last year was really hard, but this year I thought, ‘I’m just going to go with it. I’m going to be a lot more relaxed about it and not worry,’” she said. 

“It’s not going to make you deaf. It’s only a few days and in a couple of weeks you’ve forgotten about it.”

The Friday and Saturday concerts, free for Supercars ticket-holders, will be loud, and several residents in Adelaide complained to me about a 2.30am sound check on the main stage at the start of the weekend.

In Adelaide, the concerts started soon after the car racing finished and ended about 11pm, but organisers have not decided whether the Newcastle concerts will be inside the race precinct.

WILL IT TRASH THE PARK?

This, along with the length of time it takes to set up and dismantle the track, is the enduring concern of residents near the Adelaide venue.

The Clipsal 500 circuit and fenced-off race precinct enclose a huge expanse of park to the east of the CBD, and having hundreds of thousands of people, dozens of semi-trailers, utes, mopeds and cars moving over it undoubtedly leaves a mark.

Spectators move around a lot at Supercars races – they don’t just sit in a grandstand all day – so foot traffic is heavy.  

Organisers say Newcastle will be a “fly-away” round, meaning the race teams’ semi-trailers will not park behind the pits, as they do in Adelaide, but will drop off a container of gear then move to another site nearby, possibly at Honeysuckle.

This will cut down on vehicle traffic across the Foreshore Park, but it’s hard to imagine that 150,000 spectators, grandstands, concrete-and-wire barricades, food and merchandise outlets, a three-storey pit building, trade stalls and possibly a large concert stage won’t leave the park looking worse for wear, no matter how careful Supercars and their contractors are.

If it rains, it could get ugly.

On the plus side, that time of year is prime growing season for grass, so the park could spring back quickly.

WILL IT BE FUN?

One aspect of the race sometimes lost in the dollar figures and debate is that it is a very big deal for motor racing fans in the Hunter. 

For them, it’s the equivalent of bringing the next five State of Origin deciders to Hunter Stadium, or five Ashes Tests to No.1 Sportsground.

The Clipsal 500 in Adelaide had a total attendance of 244,000 this year, the lowest since 2004, although this does not equate to 244,000 individuals because many people will attend more than one day.

Organisers expect the Newcastle event will have total crowds of 150,000 over three days, about 30,000 on the Friday and 60,000 on Saturday and Sunday.

Watching two-tonne racing cars screaming around the streets at up to 250km/h may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for diehards and once-a-year fans it will make a thrilling spectacle. Project engineer Liam Howe says it will be “packed to the rafters”.

If the championship is still on the line, fans who follow the entire series will be in for a special treat. More so if a Ford and a Holden are battling it out.

The Adelaide crowd was relaxed and cheerful without signs of misbehaviour. The race precinct contained busy licensed bars, but the atmosphere was far from rowdy and felt akin to the vibe at Newcastle Show.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

This is a grey area, to say the least.

Destination NSW estimates 81,000 tourists – 16,000 per year – will travel to the Hunter over the next five years to watch the race, spending a total of $57 million, but the modelling behind such estimates is unclear.

The council and state government will tip millions – some estimates put the figure at more than $10 million – into the Newcastle track hoping the spin-offs more than compensate. In 2010, a NSW Auditor-General’s report found the government had overestimated the benefits of the Homebush race, which Newcastle is replacing.

The Newcastle race should be a boon for the hospitality industry in the CBD. Cafes and pubs will be encouraged to stay open inside the track, but businesses cannot claim compensation for loss of trade. Taxi drivers will be busy, as will the airport. 

The Adelaide race coincides with the Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Fringe and WOMADelaide in a period labelled “Mad March” by locals. I spoke to the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Martin Haese, and asked him if the city’s 18-year relationship with Supercars was still a happy marriage.

“I think we need to look at the sum total of what an event like this adds to the city, and it just brings in tens of thousands of tourists, and that’s very important to our city,” he said. “Still recognising that it’s not going to keep absolutely everyone happy – I respect that – but I think it adds more than it subtracts. Absolutely.”

Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese.

It will take plenty of men and women in hi-vis to build the Newcastle track. Some of these workers will come from outside the Hunter, and they will have to sleep and eat somewhere.

I also talked to staff working on the gates at the Adelaide track, and all were locals earning some extra money. Supercars’ caterering contractors will also have to hire dozens, if not hundreds, of local staff.

The promotional value of the race to Newcastle will be hard to discern. If Sydneysiders arrive in their thousands, which is reasonable to expect, they will see an often beautiful city they might otherwise have dismissed as an industrial wasteland. This outsider’s image of Newcastle persists.

TV viewers will see a spectacular coastline, Fort Scratchley, new beachside apartments and historic terraces, even if some of them are behind concrete and wire.

I have never been in advertising, but I am told it works.    

WHERE WILL THEY STAY?

Finding beds for all the visitors could be a significant problem.

The Novotel in King Street, inside the track and overlooking Newcastle Beach, is advertising rooms from $2697 (almost $900 a night) for a minimum of three nights on the Supercars weekend. The same three nights the following weekend cost $843.

The Crowne Plaza at Honeysuckle has rooms from just over $600 a night during the race. The rates drop to $262 a few days later.

Of course, this is nothing new. It’s the way supply-and-demand works, which suggests the hotels are expecting plenty of demand.

They are not the only ones. A quick look at airbnb suggests some inner-city residents are embracing the race with gusto.

Someone is offering their three-bedroom Honeysuckle apartment for $2000 a night. Another is offering a “luxury” four-berth Riviera boat, moored on the harbour, for the same price. Inside the track are three-day listings for three 1880s two-storey terraces, two priced at $5500 (one is in Parnell Place) and another for $4500.

The limited number of hotel rooms in the middle of Newcastle has left race organisers looking for alternatives, and they plan to talk to the council about setting up fenced campsites, possibly along parts of the old rail line or at Stockton.

WHAT ABOUT DEMOCRACY?

Newcastle City Council put its hand up last year to host the race when plans to stage it at Gosford fell over. 

This decision was effectively taken in secret with no community consultation, and getting information out of the council on what it has signed us all up for has been like pulling teeth.

The council and state government have sidestepped meaningful debate about an issue that affects their voting and paying customers. 

Consultation after the horse has bolted is not consultation. 

Would that consultation have caused no end of acrimony, hand-wringing and possibly paralysis?

Yes, but it should have happened anyway.

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