The Bend Motorsport Park


The Bend Motorsport Park, currently known as Shell V-Power Motorsport Park for naming rights reasons, is a bitumen motor racing circuit at Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia, about south-east of the state capital, Adelaide.
The complex has a bitumen circuit, drag racing strip, and drift racing circuit.
The race circuits are of a high international standard and licensed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile for car racing and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme for motorcycle racing. Along with Sydney Motorsport Park, Surfers Paradise Street Circuit and the only Grade 1 track, the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, The Bend is one of only four race circuits in Australia with an FIA Grade 2 track licence or better, while it is also one of only two Australian race tracks along with the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, to carry an FIM Category A track licence.
The circuit name was changed to Shell V-Power Motorsport Park in August 2023.

History

In February 2015, Peregrine Corporation lodged plans with the Government of South Australia to redevelop the former Mitsubishi Motors Australia test track at Tailem Bend, South Australia which had lay dormant since Mitsubishi ceased their Australian production in 2008 with the closure of their Adelaide manufacturing plant at Tonsley and their engine plant at Lonsdale. Approval was granted in May 2015 with construction commencing in March 2016. Initially titled the South Australian Motorsport Park, by the time construction commenced, The Bend Motorsport Park name had been adopted.
The address of the site was originally in Elwomple. In September 2017, before the facility opened, the boundary between Tailem Bend and Elwomple was adjusted so that The Bend Motorsport Park is officially in Tailem Bend, not Elwomple.
The first major event was the Revolve24 Endurance Cycling Challenge on 13–14 January 2018, an ultra-distance cycling festival featuring 24-hour, 12-hour and 6-hour races. It hosted The Bend SuperSprint, a round of the Supercars Championship, in August 2018. It has a desire to hold a MotoGP Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix round.
On 4–14 January 2019, the circuit hosted the 25th Australian Scout Jamboree. From January 10–12, 2020 it hosted a round of the 2019–20 Asian Le Mans Series season as the 4 Hours of The Bend and the Supercars sprint round would be replaced by a new endurance event, The Bend 500. The Supercars race was later dropped from the calendar altogether, in a shortened calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with circuit managing director Sam Shahin openly critical of the cancellation. After multiple changes in the Supercars calendar, it was announced that the track would held a doubleheader in late September.
Sam Shahin also offered up the facility for Hotel Quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this was not taken up by the South Australian Government.

Facilities

International Circuit

Length:
  • Used for majority of events including Supercars, Superbikes and national series events, through to state racing, club racing and track hire

GT Circuit

Length:
At long, the 35 turn GT Circuit is the second longest permanent race track in the world behind only the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany which is long. It is also one of only 4 permanent race circuits in the world with an official length of at least, the others being the 154 turn Nürburgring, the, 23 turn Burt Brothers Motorpark in the USA, and the, 20 turn Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
The circuit hosted a four-hour Asian Le Mans Series event in January 2020 called the 4 Hours of The Bend. Unfortunately it has proven to be a one off race as the planned return of the ALMS did not eventuate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced that the ALMS would return in 2021–22 and 2022–23, but the global pandemic and a change in series focus to an annual series, plus cutting costs for the teams, has seen that to date, the ALMS has not returned to Australia or The Bend.

West Circuit

Length:
  • Used for the majority of short track events. Includes club racing, testing, sprint events, “cruising” events, driver/rider training
  • Used for 2020 OTR SuperSprint The Bend event in 2020 Supercars Championship
  • Can be used independently from the East Circuit
  • Will be used for The Bend 500 in 2026

East Circuit

Length:
  • Used for driver/rider training, drifting, testing, club days, private days
  • Can be used independently from the West Circuit

West PLUS Circuit

Length:

Sprint Circuit

Length:

Southwest Circuit

Length:

North Circuit

Length:

Karting Circuit

Length:

Drag Strip

Length:
The drag racing strip at The Bend opened to fanfare and a capacity 20,000 crowd in October 2023. The drag strip itself is approximately in total length by wide, built to international standards. The Bend's drag racing strip has taken over from the older Adelaide International Raceway as South Australia's main drag racing venue.

Pit building and hotel

Construction commenced in February 2017 for the long pit building which includes hotel accommodation in the upper levels of the four-storey building. There are 34 pit garages.
The 100 room Rydges Pit Lane Hotel opened in 2019.

Events

; Current
; Former

Lap records

As of September 2025, the fastest official lap for the GT Circuit was set in qualifying for the 4 Hours of The Bend by British driver Ben Barnicoat who took pole position in a Dallara P217 LMP2 with a time of 2:35.698. The circuit's official lap record, set during the 4 Hours of The Bend race, is 2:38.673 by New Zealand's Aidan Read driving a Ligier JS P217 LMP2.
As of November 2025, the fastest official race lap records at The Bend Motorsport Park are listed as: