MOTOR Track Guide: The Bend Motorsport Park’s International Circuit

When we first pitched up at Tailem Bend back in 2018, then-editor Dylan Campbell stated that Australia’s newest purpose-built race track was akin to stepping off a plane in Bahrain. However, he wasn’t. DC was an hour outside of Adelaide.

About three years and a few heavy downpours later, the grass has grown at The Bend – and so has its reputation as one of Australia’s best motorsport facilities.

That fact is hard to argue with when you arrive to a four-level, 308-metre pit building with 34 garages and a 100-room Rydges Hotel. Each of the rooms enjoys a world-class race track for balcony views and most of the 7.77km layout can be viewed from the fourth floor. Oh, and then there is the foyer-turned-car museum that contains some of the country’s coolest metal.

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It’s easy to see how the dream of brothers Sam, Yasser and Charlie Shahin came in at a rumoured $110m, most of which is privately funded apart from $18m in state and federal government money.

About 85 metres of elevation change has been built into the old Mitsubishi Australia proving ground and the shorter track has been built to FIA Grade 2 requirements, meaning everything short of F1 can race at the venue.

And who better to guide us through a lap than Warren Luff. After all, Luffy strapped in to a Porsche 911 GT2 RS for us to bank the then-production car lap record of the full GT layout in 2018, and he’s completed countless laps of the track for Porsche’s driver training course. Welcome to the MOTOR track guide to The Bend’s International Circuit.

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Section one: Fast approach

Turn One

Picking your brake point into Turn One is a little difficult with the track still being so new with no physical landmarks or surface changes, so the brake marker boards are your best bet. This is important as you’re arriving at the highest speed of the lap. The corner itself is an easy 90 degree right, but the key to being quick is to turn in early and use the flat concrete behind the kerb. The kerb should be under the car, you are aiming for the grass with the right side.

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Turn Two

Heading into Turn Two it’s a natural flow and progression from Turn One and you can also use the flat concrete behind the kerb here, too. Turn Two is all about trying to straighten the run between Turn One and Three to set your approach up for Turn Three and the subsequent run off it.

Arriving at Turn Three there’s more road on the exit than you initially think. It’s an early turn-in before chasing the car wide on exit. Again, it’s all about carrying corner speed and being smooth getting back on the throttle. As you’re picking up the throttle the car is still carrying a lot of lateral load so be careful on the initial crack and ramp up to 50 per cent.

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MOTOR tip

Despite kilowatts largely being king here, some of the tighter sections like Turns One to Three are really fun in a little front-wheel drive hot hatch. You can really manoeuvre and slide the car around. It’s the same into some of the hairpins where you can trail brake and move the rear axle around to get the car steering.

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Section Two: Keeping the flow

Turns Four and Five

Turn Four is an easily flat and more about getting the car positioned for the approach to Turn Five. Be careful in left-hand-drive cars to not drop the right-hand wheels off the track on the approach to Five. Turn Five is a corner that tyre quality/compound dictates how much speed you can carry.

In a powerful car, any lift needs to be done before you turn in so you can get back to the throttle and settle the rear of the car. Keep working on minimising the lift and accelerator applications to get back to full throttle sooner. Keep your eyes looking forward and have smooth hands.

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Turn Six

The downhill braking into Turn Six makes it a bit more difficult and caution needs to be taken – even with ABS. It’s a corner where there’s more road on the exit than you initially realise, so focus on rotating the car early and as quick as you can. Then use the throttle to run the car wide, with the uphill exit providing good drive.

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MOTOR tip

It’s a fast and flowing track where horsepower is important. Different cars are obviously going to have their strengths and weaknesses, but if you’ve got something with a bit more power (or can upgrade) it’ll all come together that little bit easier.

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Section Three: The long right

Turns Seven and Eight

Turns Seven and Eight are more one big corner than two separate ones. The exit of Turn Eight is what sets up the approach for Turn Nine, so the driving line through here is all about being positioned right for this. Sweep up high coming through Turn Seven and have a small lift before it starts heading downhill into Eight to keep the rear stable.

Turns Nine and 10

It’s easy to over commit and go too deep into Nine. If you do this, then 10 won’t happen. Lift off early for Nine and float the car through the corner, get out wide for the approach to 10. Its only once you turn in for 10 that you then start to pick up the throttle, so you are coasting for a long time.

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It’s very easy to run wide on the exit of 10, one of the few corners here where the track tightens on exit. This is probably the hardest part of the track to get right. It’s a commitment corner because you turn in a little bit blind. There’s a huge amount of time to be gained or lost here and it’s the biggest trap for inexperienced track-day drivers.

MOTOR tip

This section is all about confidence and being able to maintain momentum over the top of the hill. If you lift too early coming over the top of the hill you can’t catch that speed back up as you go down to the triple right hander. So, it’s all about commitment at the top of the hill to carry the speed all the way down.

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Section Four: The back section

Turn 11

Use every bit of kerb you can to improve your approach angle for turn 12 – you will end up with your right-hand wheels nearly on the white line. Because you use so much kerb you can carry more speed than what you first imagine. It’s really easy to over slow the car and lose valuable time.

Turn 12

Provided you get Turn 11 right to open this corner up, Turn 12 is pretty easy. Again, the track opens on exit because there is the extended part of the track with it joining here on exit. So, don’t get too greedy or you can easily drop a wheel off. This corner is all about the rotation and getting back to the throttle nice and early.

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MOTOR tip

It’s not about trying to put together a complete lap in the beginning. Piece the sectors together first and then once you start getting confident in those then you can start to put the overall lap together. People always try to do too much too soon [if they aren’t familiar with the layout] when they arrive at The Bend.

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Section Five: The hook

Turn 13

The entry to Turn 13 is a steep incline so the car has more front-end grip than you realise. Clear the brake and turn-in early. There’s room on exit, but it’s hard to pick where the outside of the track is going to be at the apex because of the gradient. If you have space on the exit to the track edge you’re either turning in too late, or not carrying enough speed. Or a bit of both.

Turn 14 and 15

Turn 14 is a pretty simple corner that’s also an uphill braking area with lots of grip. The important thing to remember on exit here and approaching Turn 15 is that they are two corners, not one big corner. It’s easy to come off 14 and turn too early for 15.

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Turn 15 is not so much a hard corner to get right, more an easy corner to get wrong. Because it tightens up on exit and goes straight in to Turn 16 it’s important to get the turn-in right, and then keep hustling the nose through. If you open the steering too early you will end up wide and make 16 more of a corner than it needs to be. It’s all about managing the understeer.

MOTOR tip

It’s a track that rewards bravery and it’s very technical. So you’ve also got to be pin-point accurate and be able to transfer the mid-corner speed into exit speed and carry it all the way down the next straight. It can be very daunting at first, but just focus on the bits and pieces you need to be fast in the crucial areas.

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Section Six: The run home

Turn 16

If you get Turn 15 right, Turn 16 becomes less of a corner, depending on power-down, consider a short shift rather than a full lift off. It’s easy to give away a lot of time through here.

Turn 17

Turn 17 is another one of the few corners that tightens on the exit. Like Turn One, try turning early and use the flat concrete behind the kerb, aiming for the grass with your right wheels. Make sure when you do get to the concrete that you keep turning and coaxing the nose so you don’t run wide on the exit.

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Turn 18

As for Turn 18, it leads onto the long, long front straight, so this clearly makes it an important corner. It’s another uphill corner so there’s more purchase than first thought and plenty of road on the exit. It’s very easy to turn too late here. Don’t over-slow the car, clear the brakes early, turn early and get back to the throttle early and flow the car wide on exit. Make sure to watch out for cars slowing on exit that are trying to enter the pit lane.

MOTOR tip

It’s easy to overcommit to 17 and underdo 18, imagining them to be a pair of 90-degree turns. They’re not and it doesn’t matter what you do on the rest of the lap, if you mess up coming onto the front straight out of Turn 18, not only are you going to lose time on that lap but the next one, too.

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Motoring nirvana, thy name is The Bend

Everyone needs to make the trip to South Australia at least once

If you aren’t taking to the track yourself, The Bend hosts everything from tractor pulling, to Supercars and the Asian Le Mans Series (borders permitting).

The best vantage point for watching racing is on the pit straight, but with more infrastructure being built, outside the turn one, two, three complex is a good place to witness overtakes and tangles. Due to The Bend’s rural location you’ll need to drive there for events, and we’d suggest having a tow back-up plan for track days.

If you’ve got the dosh staying at the Rydges Pit Lane Hotel is a fantastic experience for motoring fans, though the Big4 Holiday Park offers a more budget friendly alternative. The towns of Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge offer accommodation away from the track.

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For your sideways needs, there are regular events and driver training on the skid pan, while serious drifters can book time on the proper circuit throughout the year.

A number of track days use the West Circuit, a 3.41km course with 12 turns that uses much of the International layout. Where the International Circuit rakes left at turn six, the West Circuit hooks right, reconnecting at what would be turn 14 – cutting out the entire back section.

For a smaller scale driving experience, the international-grade 1.1km kart track has some of the fastest hire-karts in the country. A ten minute session will set you back $30.

If you want to have a crack at The Bend from the comfort of your house, it is available as an additional mod for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 on PC.

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Who runs track days at The Bend?

The Bend International Circuit key info

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