Motorsport: Townsville V8 track will be unforgiving, say drivers

The new Townsville V8 Supercar circuit will be extremely challenging for drivers, says Jamie Whincup. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - Several V8 Supercar drivers say the street circuit for this weekend's inaugural Townsville event will be a tough challenge with no room for error.

Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom led the chorus of leading drivers who believe the first V8 Supercar event in north Queensland would ask some serious questions of those tackling the street circuit.

"The track looks different because last time we were here it was just bitumen laid on open land," Winterbottom said.

"Now, with the walls up, it's a race track. It's put a lot more fear into my mind because you now know, when you get it wrong, what you're going to hit.

"Before seeing the walls turn one looked like it was going to be an easy corner. Now it looks really tough and the end result of a mistake there is going to be massive."

Winterbottom's sentiments were echoed by Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander, who claimed victory when the championship ventured to a new track in Hamilton, New Zealand, last year.

The 2007 V8 Supercar champion said the main challenge when tackling any new course was finding the right set-up before your opponents.

"Although the surface is all-new all the way round, the street part - about 30 per cent - has been used for the last three or four months by every day road traffic, so that's going to offer different grip levels," Tander said.

"Getting around that and understanding what that does set-up-wise is going to be key. That'll create its own unique challenges."

Garry Rogers Motorsport's Lee Holdsworth was yet to drive the circuit but said he always enjoys the equalising factor a new track provides.

As a member of one of the smaller teams in the championship, Holdsworth said Townsville would give any driver the chance to claim a victory.

"When we went to Hamilton last year that was a new circuit and we hadn't had any new circuits for a long time in V8s," Holdsworth told AAP.

"It was good to get there and start on a level playing field, it made it a lot easier for us.

"Because you're up against teams that had been there for so many years and drivers that had been to these tracks for 15-20 years, that makes it really hard to catch up with those guys at most rounds.

"But Townsville's going to be another one where everyone starts from the same level and no-one's got any information to go off. It's a great leveller."

This year's surprise packet, Holdsworth stands fifth in the championship standings, only just trailing Tander and Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes and the Holden driver said he would be delighted to keep his top-three ambitions alive with success in Townsville.

"We're winning out of the non-factory teams ... not too far behind Lowndesy in fourth and Garth in third so third's not too far out of sight," he said.

"I've been knocking on the door for a while this year so I've just got to push a little bit harder and hopefully this weekend we can do it up in Townsville.

"Usually each street circuit requires a fair bit of guts and determination and putting your car on the line which I like doing.

"Street circuits also usually have a fairly high level of grip as well due to the hot asphalt mix that they put down, so our cars really work well there."

The Townsville event begins on Friday with practice before races on both Saturday and Sunday.

- AAP