Jamie Whincup of the Red Bull Racing Australia Holden team in the pit lane at the V8 Supercar Championship Series at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Photo: Robert Cianflone The sculptured tower looms like a giant rearing snake through the heat haze shimmering over the plains, providing the first glimpse of the Circuit of the Americas from several kilometres away. A massive piece of industrial art, the mast rises like an apparition from the flat expanses that surround the US's newest and most expensive motor racing track, which this weekend hosts the almost-as-unlikely appearance of V8 Supercars on the other side of the Pacific. The tower is a landmark of the $US400 million ($410 million) Circuit of the Americas, built on the prairie outside Austin in central Texas for last November's return of Formula 1 to the United States. While F1 may fit the image of a city that bills itself as America's cultural and live music capital, an unknown Australian series renowned for rough and tumble racing among largely unfamiliar cars seems a much less likely attraction. But in the lead-up to V8 Supercars' latest and most ambitious foreign foray, interest in the Aussie invasion is surprisingly widespread and building to something akin to excitement. Amid much debate about the drawing power of racing series from a faraway land, the COTA organisers are reporting strong pre-event ticket sales and V8 officials are quietly confident that the spectator count over three days will be around 60,000. While dwarfed by the six-figure three-day attendances at the USA Grand Prix and the recent Grand Prix of the Americas MotoGP race, that sort of turnout would be a stunning success compared with the embarrassingly small crowds at V8's previous out-of-region races in China, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. They all fell by the wayside due to lack of support, but early indications suggest Austin might embrace the "Thunder from Down Under" and that the event will be V8's first overseas excursion to see out its five-year contract. A modestly successful crowd attendance this weekend will establish a base on which to build for next year and beyond, securing the foothold in a major foreign market that V8 Supercars has craved since the series' pioneering one-off visit to the Shanghai F1 track in 2005. Whether or not the crowds come to the Austin 400, which will be contested over four 100 kilometre pit-stop races (two each early Sunday and Monday mornings AEST), V8's travelling troupe will never forget their first engagement at the state-of-the-art Circuit of the Americas. Upon arrival earlier in the week, the V8 fraternity were agog at the scale of the track's facilities and excited by the unexpectedly undulating layout of the circuit, which promises to be challenging and produce eventful racing. The complex is even impressive from afar, thanks to the soaring snake-like structure visible long before you reach the track. It appears in the distance like a rattlesnake poised to strike, rising above the pocket of rolling land on which the circuit is built. The 76.2-metre tower's striking shape is the result of a bright red swooping "head-to-tail" exoskeleton that fans out at its base to cover the track's outdoor concert stage. A viewing platform at the top of the tower, complete with a vertigo-inducing glass section of floor, provides commanding vistas of the 350-acre complex and the track's rising, diving and twisting turns, as well as the Austin city skyline 22 kilometres away. It symbolises the track's signature section, a steep climb from the pit straight to the hilltop first turn. Elevation is a feature of the 5.5 kilometre track, of which a 3.7 kilometre "stadium" section is being used by the V8s, and the imposing incline that confronts drivers as they roar past the pits is the "party piece" of the roller-coaster course. Television doesn't do justice to the 39.6 metre elevation change. Screaming down the front straight between the main grandstand and the pit buildings, the cars brake heavily up a sharp rise leading to a tight left-hand turn that disappears over a crest. The corner opens into a downhill plunge that leads into a climbing fast righthand sweeper. Fairfax Media had exclusive access to the track during the set-up for the event, taking a handful of slow laps in a Ford Mustang rental car. The tame tour emphasised the steepness of the uphill run into the first turn, which is wide enough to encourage drivers to take different lines through the corner and attempt daring passing moves. The rest of the shortened course is a mixture of fast turns and twisting S-bend sequences, with the low kerbs and expansive paved run-off areas causing V8 officials concerns that drivers will be tempted to straight-line some of the tighter corners. The truncated track has a stadium-style atmosphere, curling its way through raised spectator viewing mounds and large grandstands. On top of forecast temperatures in the low 30s, the expected low-grip, high-load nature of the smooth-but-course-surfaced tarmac will make tyre management critical in the four 100 kilometre races, each of which will include a compulsory pit-stop for new rubber. Although officials are loathe to make crowd predictions, it is understood that three-day ticket sales have already exceeded the 28,000 total for a recent two-day national championship sports car event. It is estimated that around 2000 Australians have travelled to Austin to support the V8s, with many staying on to attend next week's Indianapolis 500 or the Charlotte 600 stock car classic. The Austin 400 will be shown live on Sunday in the US on Fox Sport's Speed channel, with the two races preceded by highlights of Saturday's twin legs.