By Matthew Agius
The 2006 V8 Supercar Championship Series heads to the north of the Great South Land for its first ‘territorial’ round of the championship – the Skycity Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.
The Northern Territory is the first domestic non-state round of the series, and is a firm favourite amongst teams, drivers and fans. Hidden Valley is a ripper of a track which throws every challenge possible at a driver – perhaps the biggest of which is the scorching Darwin heat and humidity – a factor that puts increased pressure on driver fitness. Hidden Valley features fourteen turns over 2.9 kilometres of racing tarmac. Several tight hairpins – notably the tricky first corner after the front straight and the exit out of the valley have proved tough turns for inexperienced and even veteran drivers over the years, whilst plenty of action has been seen at the entry onto the straight and through the esses. Traditionally a good circuit for a fast car, Hidden Valley’s usual chemistry will be altered this year with a reverse grid race on Sunday morning – possibly compounding the risks of collisions at the first corner and at other exit points throughout the event.
Despite many varied winners over the years, no one driver has ever taken a clean-sweep of races at Hidden Valley. Most recently, successful teams at the Darwin circuit have featured the common factor of speed and consistency. Todd Kelly stayed out of trouble when racing to the previous two round victories at this circuit, whilst Marcos Ambrose was all-class when he dominated in 2003, and avoided incident in 2001 when the frontrunners ahead of him floundered in accidents.
