The site was formerly the Mitsubishi Motors Australia test track, which had been dormant since 2008 following the closure of Mitsubishi's Adelaide manufacturing plant at Tonsley and their engine plant at Lonsdale. In February 2015, Peregrine Corporation lodged plans with the Government of South Australia to redevelop the site; approval was granted in May 2015 and construction commenced in March 2016. The facility was initially titled the South Australian Motorsport Park before adopting the name The Bend Motorsport Park during construction. A boundary adjustment in September 2017 confirmed the site's official address as Tailem Bend rather than the neighbouring locality of Elwomple.
The first major event was the Revolve24 Endurance Cycling Challenge on 13–14 January 2018. The inaugural motorsport event was The Bend SuperSprint, a round of the 2018 Supercars Championship, held in August 2018. In January 2020 the circuit hosted the 4 Hours of The Bend as part of the 2019–20 Asian Le Mans Series season; the planned return of the series to Australia did not proceed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as of 2025 the series had not returned.
The facility offers multiple independent and combinable layouts:
GT Circuit: 7.770 km, 35 turns. The longest motor racing circuit in Australia, surpassing the Longford Circuit in Tasmania (7.242 km, closed 1968). Globally it is the second-longest permanent race track behind the Nürburgring Nordschleife (20.832 km), and one of only four permanent circuits worldwide exceeding 7.000 km alongside the Nürburgring, the Burt Brothers Motorpark (7.220 km) in the United States, and the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (7.004 km).
International Circuit: 4.950 km. Used for the majority of major national events including Supercars Championship rounds and the Australian Superbike Championship.
West Circuit: 3.410 km. Can operate independently; used for the 2020 OTR SuperSprint and designated for The Bend 500 in 2026.
East Circuit: 3.930 km. Used for training, drifting, testing, and club days; can operate independently.
West PLUS Circuit: 3.660 km.
Sprint Circuit: 2.784 km.
Southwest Circuit: 1.811 km.
North Circuit: 1.341 km.
Karting Circuit: 1.101 km.
Drag Strip: 0.402 km racing surface; total facility length approximately 1.250 km, 18.5 m wide. Opened in October 2023 to a crowd of approximately 20,000. Replaced Adelaide International Raceway as South Australia's primary drag racing venue.
A 300-metre pit building was constructed from February 2017, housing 34 pit garages. The upper levels of the four-storey building contain the 100-room Rydges Pit Lane Hotel, which opened in 2019.
The circuit has hosted rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series, Asia Road Racing Championship, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, TCR World Tour, and Supercars Championship, among other series. Current regular events include the GT World Challenge Australia, Supercars Championship The Bend 500, Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, and Australian Superbike Championship.
The fastest qualifying time on the GT Circuit is 2:35.698, set by Ben Barnicoat in a Dallara P217 LMP2 during qualifying for the 4 Hours of The Bend. The official race lap record on the GT Circuit is 2:38.673, set by Aidan Read of New Zealand in a Ligier JS P217 LMP2 during the 4 Hours of The Bend race.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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