Work underway to dismantle GC500 track and Dave Reynolds on his GC500 win
Supercars bosses say work is at full throttle to dismantle the track and spectator spots in a bid to get Gold Coast Highway flowing.See the details
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Supercars bosses say work is at full throttle to dismantle the track and spectator spots in a bid to get Gold Coast Highway flowing.
Commuters will have full access to the Gold Coast Hwy between Hill Pde and Main Beach Pde on Tuesday after the GC500 at the weekend.
Supercars event manager Matthew Ramsden said “a few thousands” contractors will take three weeks to “return the streets of Surfers Paradise back to normal.”
“We’ve got traffic controllers and crane crews removing blocks and barriers along with a lot of other contractors removing marquees and furniture,” he said.
“It becomes a mini city in itself to remove what we’ve created.”.
Mr Ramsden said organisers “couldn’t be happier” with this year’s GC500 after a new crowd record of 201,971, surpassing last year’s figure of 200,232.
“We’ve had nothing but great feedback from all our food vendors, our bars did a record trade, all of our punters and crowd seemed happy with the success of the weekend,” he said.
“Hopefully it will set us up for another record year in 2024.”
Planning is underway for next year’s event as organisers look into “refining” the event.
“We’re always looking at making improvements, (any changes) will come out in debriefs,” Mr Ramsden said.
Potential “refinements” to the 18 and over Boost Mobile Club 500 DJ, entertainment and bar area could be expected.
“Just improvements we can get across the board and reinvent every year,” Mr Ramsden said when asked what might change.
GC500 race 26 winner Dave Reynolds said Surfers Paradise delivered with “the best weekend” for him and his team.
He hailed the big race as a career highlight.
“Sunday’s race was awesome for us – I had problems balancing, brakes going wayward and was struggling really bad,” he said.
“Ideally I’d like to win by a bit more of a comfortable margin, but my car wasn’t very good in the last stint – I had to hold on for dear life.
“It’s all down to my team, regardless of where we come we all put in the same amount of effort – I just feel like im another coloured Smartie in the box. Our team performance is not just down to myself, it’s down to every individual person in our team and that’s what it’s all about – no body really gets to see that.”
As for his celebratory ‘shoey’ and spray with the fire extinguisher on the GC500 podium on Sunday: “I thought it was going to be a CO2 canister and I was going to spray a big cloud of mist around everyone and walk out with a bit of showmanship,” he said.
“I pressed it and it was a water one – I was so disappointed,” he laughed.
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