Building a rallycross track in 10 days: WRX’s 'last minute' Hong Kong dash

“Knowing what we know about the size of rallycross venues and what is required to accommodate its races, we found a location here – we knew it was a challenge, but who wouldn’t want to race in front of Victoria Harbour?!” says Broom.

The fact that the track is partly based around the Central Harbourfront event space in Hong Kong – also used for concerts and outdoor exhibitions – but then snakes onto one of its main roads was key in making this new rallycross showpiece possible on the peninsula in which spare room is a famously rare commodity.

“With an event space this, it offered the time needed to build an off-road section with the combination of a great street section opportunity as well,” adds Gardini.

“It’s always a challenge on the streets with traffic management, availability of those areas to build – we always look for the low impact areas first, until we start closing roads. And that was the plan here – an event is unsustainable if you start upsetting people by having things closed too long.

That time was still limited though: “Quite often in street circuits you get weeks to build, but with Hong Kong being the city that is busy, cosmopolitan, large, and where we’re running alongside some of the major thoroughfares, we had to work within a 10 day schedule.

Apex has previously designed more typical rallycross venues for WRX like Riga as well as adapted circuits at Spa, Barcelona and COTA, putting this knowledge to use at Hong Kong.

“We know the requirements of rallycross in terms of the straight lengths, the corner geometries, the track length, how much needs to be asphalt and how much needs to be an unsealed surface,” says Broom.

“I like to create rallycross circuits that are high speed with features which provide us with a spectacle.

“For example, one of the key aspects that we like to incorporate is ensuring that the joker loop [a long lap which each competitor has to take once each race] exits onto the start/finish straight – so the spectator’s trying to understand who’s winning, and they don’t see until the very last minute. That’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve.”

Unfortunately, that race against time didn’t come without a few glitches.

Key components for the circuit didn’t arrive until the early hours of Friday. With the action starting on Saturday, hard choices had to be made as to which parts of the circuit got priority – the difficult upshoot being that a pair of 200-metre straights, blasting down main waterside road on Hong Kong and connected by a hairpin, had to be sacrificed.

It simply couldn’t be built in time – an added shame in that the Hong Kong government had temporarily raised the speed limit to 300km/h on that stretch of road, to avoid any drivers getting arrested.

“We could see the rate at which things were happening, how things were playing out, that we weren’t going to make it,” says Gardini. “We had to make a decision.

“It’s such a tight and and fine line, when you start to have issues with things arriving on time, as with our ship which came two days late – with a world championship, you have to make that hard call rather than not deliver it at all.

“I’ve never been the situation where we’ve had to redesign a track in the last day and a half! But we managed to do it.”

The track was finished in time – just. An official told Motor Sport the circuit was given the final FIA stamp of approval a mere eight minutes before the first practice laps started.

After such a herculean effort, an appropriately triumphant day of racing followed, with Kevin Hansen – part of Hansen rallycross dynasty and the series’ new golden boy – winning out in a titanic battle with Johan Kristofferson, who nonetheless secured his sixth world title.

The watching crowd, whose last motor sport event was the Hong Kong Formula E race in 2019, seem suitably thrilled by proceedings. The success which appears to be unfolding is something which all involved want to build on, confident it can get the full circuit completed in 2024 – and for Apex this includes stimulating the local economic eco-system.

“Let’s be clear, this event is a prototype for how we want to grow the sport within this region utilising modern technology for street circuit environments,” says Broom.

“And that includes not only the barrier infrastructure, but it also includes the unsealed infrastructure,” adds Gardini.

“Having 2000 cubic metres of locally sourced product [gravel/dirt] utilised is essential.”

“Sustainability stretches to the cost of the event as well as the economic benefit to wherever you are, showcasing the city as well as there being 1000s of local jobs across the weekend.”

And it is very much just a weekend – Apex and co have to get to all the toys away over the next 48 hours before preparations for a concert by the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra start next weekend.

All in ten days work (and a couple more) for Apex and WRX.