IndyCars arrive in Surfers

The IndyCar Series cars have arrived in pit lane ahead of this week's Nikon Indy 300

Just Dave Photography

While the Indy drivers will be flying first class to Australia for next weekend's Nikon Indy 300, spare a thought for their teams.

Hopping continents is relatively easy when you travel on your own, but when you are travelling with four tones of equipment, things get harder.

The Indy teams started packing equipment early last month for the October 23 to 26 event.

It started with about 500 tires, 90 barrels of 100 per cent fuel-grade ethanol and three safety vehicles loaded into four containers and shipped by sea to Sydney from Los Angeles.

The ship arrived on October 9 and the contents have been trucked up to the Gold Coast over several weeks.

The 13 teams loaded two 747 jets last Tuesday in Indianapolis. The cars are now on pit lane in Surfers.

The teams' four-ton equipment allowance is in addition to their cars.

With 36 cars included, about 180 tones of gear was jammed into two jets.

More starters on the grid, up from 18 to 24, has caused headaches for teams and local organizers.

"We sent a team over a few weeks ago so we could get our heads around it," said event director David Bennett.

"With the IndyCars this year there are different systems and things in place that we hadn't used before. We probably started planning this side of things in February."

Nine semi-trailers transported the equipment from Brisbane to the Gold Coast around the clock.