The Rat attacks Hidden Valley.

Team Betta Electrical driver Paul Radisich is ready for the heat of Darwin's Hidden Valley race cicuit, and here the Kiwi, also known as the 'Rat', talks his way around a lap.

"Hidden Valley is a very good circuit to drive on as a flat track, we have experienced some very high temperatures in the cars under race conditions here, and I guess this year will be no exception, as the event is a little earlier on the calendar and the humidity will still be quite high.

"I recall last year my car registered an in cabin temperature of 66c, which is quite extreme to say the least.

"A driver looses around two litres of body fluid an hour under such race conditions, it is imperative to keep the fluids up during the course of the race and attempt to channel as much air as possible around the driver.

"We have cool vests that we often ware for this event, these circulate cool water through them in order to lower the body's core temperature to an acceptable level.

"From a drivers point of view, to get a good lap around here you must have the type of car that can put the power down well and is able to change direction without upsetting the handling too much.

"Turn 1 is one of the most important, by getting late on the brakes and lining yourself up for the apex, you find when negotiating halfway around the turn it tends to be off camber, inturn requiring you to hold a really tight line as it is an easy corner to run wide on and tends to tighten back on itself as you progress through the turn.

"Coming through the esses, between turns 2, 3 & 4 is pretty much flat out and again, hard onto the brakes for turn 5, this turn is a little tricky, particularly on the exit as there is a bump on the inside of the circuit which can unsettle the car when you need to get the power down nice and early, however if you do come in too fast or run a little wide it can interfere with getting the power to the ground on the exit.

"Turn 6, being the hairpin, is fairly straight forward, just a matter of keeping a nice tight line and getting the power down through to turn 7. Turn 7 is an off corner camber, that tends to come back on itself a little but quite fast in 4th gear.

"Turns 8 & 9 are pretty much a straight run up to turns 10 & 11, once again we arrive at an off corner camber and I find the car tends to oversteer through here, so I have to keep the car as straight as possible for the run down to turns 12 & 13 and prepare for the most important turn on the circuit, turn 14, which leads onto the long main straight and normally taken in 3rd gear.

"If you are slow out of this turn you have no chance of making it up along the main straight. I would rate this as the most important corner on the entire circuit for that reason.

"We look forward to Round 4 of the Championship this coming weekend, as will the Territorians no doubt when the 'V8 Circus' arrives in Darwin."