The V8 Supercar season starts at the amazing Clipsal 500 in Adelaide this weekend. The new era of V8 Supercar racing features Holden, Ford, Nissan and Mercedes and for the first time in history 28 brand new cars will line up on the starting grid.
The mighty Clipsal 500 with the start of the new look V8 Supercar season and incredible off-track offerings is looking to touch the 300,000 spectator mark across the four days. To start this historic week please find below Ten Fast Facts about the season opener, with two extras for good measure.
1. With the debut of all-new 'Car of the Future'-specification machines in the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship, a total of 28 brand new race cars will all be making their racing debut at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide. This is the first time in Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship history that an entire field of new cars will be making their racing debut on the one weekend.
The breakdown for this season sees 15 of Holden's Commodore VF take on six Ford Falcon FGs, four Nissan Altimas and three Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs. Of the 15 Commodores, six have been produced by Triple Eight Race Engineering (for themselves, Tekno Autosports and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport), four by Walkinshaw Racing (for themselves and Tony D'Alberto Racing), three by Brad Jones Racing and two by Garry Rogers Motorsport.
2. The 2013 Clipsal 500 is a history-making event in many ways for Dick Johnson Racing and the Johnson family, although it's not quite the kind of history that would have been hoping for. With Steven Johnson stepping down from full-time driving duties with Dick Johnson Racing and focusing on his role as General Manager, this year's Clipsal 500 will be the first time since the final round of the 1980 ATCC at Oran Park that there has not been a member of the Johnson family competing in an ATCC/V8SC event.
Since the beginning of the 1981 season there has been a Johnson - whether it be Dick, Steven or both - on the grid for 351 consecutive ATCC/V8SC events, spanning 33 seasons. From the 1999 Queensland 500 onwards, Johnson Jnr has competed in 178 ATCC/V8SC consecutive events. This year will be the first time that a Johnson has not competed in the Clipsal 500 given Dick raced in the inaugural event in 1999 and Steven has driven the team's #17 entry since 2000.
3. The arrival of Nissan Motorsport and its Altima into the V8 Supercars Championship marks the first time a Nissan has competed in an ATCC/V8SC event since the final round of 1992 at Oran Park in Sydney.
On that day - Sunday June 21, 1992 - a young Mark Skaife drove his GT-R to two race wins, the round win and his first of five ATCC/V8SC crowns. Outside of Ford and Holden, Nissan have the most race wins by a manufacturer in the ATCC/V8SC - 28.
4. In a similar vein, the debut of Erebus Motorsport V8 and its three Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs marks the first time a Mercedes-Benz has competed in an ATCC/V8SC event since 1990. The date was July 16, 1990 at the final round of the Australian Touring Car Championship at Oran Park in Sydney and Phil Ward (who later founded the Aussie Racing Cars category) drove his Mercedes-Benz 190E to 13th overall after qualifying 23rd.
5. Four-time Clipsal 500 winner and reigning V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup has made the streets of Adelaide his second home. He has led laps in the last 11 races straight in Adelaide. The last time he didn't lead a lap in a Clipsal race was way back in the Sunday race in 2007! All up he's led 375 laps of the Clipsal 500 since joining Triple Eight in 2006. That's a total of 1207.5-kilometres at the front of the pack - or the equivalent of nearly five Clipsal races from start to finish! Whincup sits above all other drivers with four Clipsal 500 wins, four Clipsal pole positions and seven individual race wins at the event.
6. While he may not have won a race at the Clipsal 500 since 2006 and not won the event overall since the first in 1999, Craig Lowndes could create history in Adelaide this weekend. With 89 ATCC/V8SC race wins, he sits one short of record-holder Mark Skaife. One more win will tie Skaife; while two more will give Lowndes the all-time ATCC/V8SC race wins record.
7. Just three drivers have competed in every Clipsal 500 since it was first held in 1999. Russell Ingall, Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander are the 'marathon' three, with Greg Murphy's absence from a full-time drive in 2013 meaning he will miss the event for the very first time.
8. Five drivers are making their Clipsal 500 debuts this weekend. They are:
* Maro Engel (SP Tools Racing)
* Jonny Reid (Dick Johnson Racing)
* Tim Blanchard (Dick Johnson Racing)
* Scott McLaughlin (Fujitsu Racing/GRM)
* Scott Pye (Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport)
Of the five, Engel is the only one making his V8 Supercars Championship debut.
Blanchard, McLaughlin and Pye have all competed on the Adelaide circuit in the Dunlop Series in previous years.
9. Russell Ingall embarks on his final full-time season in V8 Supercars at the Clipsal 500. In Adelaide he will start his 220th ATCC/V8SC event, moving him to equal second on the all-time list with Mark Skaife.
He is due to surpass John Bowe's all-time record at the Townsville event in July. Ingall's recent Adelaide record hasn't been strong though. He hasn't qualified in the top 10 there since 2007 and last finished in the top 10 on Saturday in 2010.
10. The closest race-winning margin at the Clipsal 500 is 0.5420s - on Saturday in 2011 when Garth Tander led home Jamie Whincup. The biggest race-winning margin is 14.0273s - on Saturday in 2009 when Jamie Whincup led home Lee Holdsworth. The most cars on the lead lap at the end of a race is 20 - on Saturday in both 2010 and 2011. The lowest grid position of a race winner in the Clipsal 500 remains a record that won't be broken for a very long time, considering the current grid size of 28 cars for the V8 Supercars Championship. Mark Skaife started 38th and won the Sunday race back in 2000.
11. Mark Winterbottom is still hunting for his first Clipsal 500 win - but what is about Frosty and qualifying third in Adelaide? Amazingly, he's qualified third in Adelaide five times since 2008 - and never managed to push himself onto the front row of the grid.He was runner-up to teammate Will Davison in last year's Clipsal 500 but has been winless since Phillip Island last May.
12. The Dunlop Series will also kick off in Adelaide and will be the 14th time the development category has been run. A total of 30 cars have entered with much of the attention on two-time MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner, who makes his V8 Supercar debut for Red Bull Racing Australia. He will drive the car Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife used to win the 2010 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The favourite for the Dunlop Series this year is Chaz Mostert, who will drive an FPR-built Falcon for Matthew White's team. The Adelaide entry of 30 cars is the biggest field for the season opener since 2007.
ABOUT V8 SUPERCARS:
The V8 Supercar Championship is the premier motorsport category in Australasia. In 2013 there are 14 Championship events and the non-Championship event at the F1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Two events will be held overseas - in Auckland, New Zealand and in the USA at Circuit of the Americas in Texas. Seven V8 Supercar events feature the Dunlop Series, a separate Championship which supports the development of up-and-coming V8 Supercar drivers. In 2013, V8 Supercars produces its own television content for Australia's Seven Network. Through a network of international telecast partners V8 Supercars was broadcast into 137 countries, a reach approaching 500 million households. 2013 is the first year for the Car of the Future (CO TF). These new cars are lighter, more economical, have increased agility and are highly competitive. The Ford vs Holden battleground of the last 20 years has been supplemented by new manufacturers and investors in Nissan Motorsport racing four Nissan Altimas and Erebus Motorsport running three Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG V8 Supercars.
For further information please contact:
Cole Hitchcock
General Manager Communications
V8 Supercars
+61 412 743 097