V8 Supercar

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V8 Supercar is the most popular category of domestic motorsport in Australia, and one of the world's biggest and most professional racing championships. A V8 Supercar is a 650+ hp 5.0 litre V8 powered touring car. V8 Supercar events are held in all states of Australia as well as New Zealand, China, and Bahrain drawing crowds up to 170,000 spectators.

The cars competing in the series are based on either the Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore, historically the two most popular passenger cars in the Australian market. Rivalry between fans of different makes is a major aspect of the sport's appeal.

Contents

Teams Listing


Teams contesting the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series
Stone Brothers Racing Holden Racing Team Tasman Motorsport Ford Performance Racing Rod Nash & Paul Little Racing WPS Racing
1 Marcos Ambrose
9 Russell Ingall 		2 Mark Skaife
22 Todd Kelly 		3 Jason Richards
23 Jamie Whincup 		5 Greg Ritter
6 Jason Bright 		7 Alex Davison
75 Anthony Tratt 		8 Craig Baird
48 David Besnard
Mark Larkham Motorsport Larry Perkins Engineering Brad Jones Racing HSV Dealer Team Dick Johnson Racing Team Kiwi & Paul Morris Motorsport
10 Jason Bargwanna
20 Mark Winterbottom 		11 Steven Richards
24 Paul Dumbrell 		12 Brad Jones
21 John Bowe 		15 Rick Kelly
16 Garth Tander 		17 Steven Johnson
18 Glenn Seton 		021 Paul Radisich
67 Paul Morris
Britek Motorsport Garry Rogers Motorsport Tony Longhurst Racing PWR Racing Triple Eight Engineering
25 Matthew White
52 Steve Owen 		33 Andrew Jones
34 Cam McConville 		44 Simon Wills
45 Max Wilson 		50 Paul Weel
51 Greg Murphy 		88 Steve Ellery
888 Craig Lowndes

AVESCO

The Australian Touring Car Championship was transformed into V8 Touring Cars in the early 1990s. Commericial rights holder AVESCO was given the rights to the series in 1997, and led the championship on a rapid expansion.

AVESCO introduced carnivale street-race V8 Supercar events such as the Clipsal 500 and Canberra 400, and strived to turn Australian touring car racing into a world-class product. The name "V8 Supercar" was invented, and "Shell Australian Touring Car Championship" was replaced by "Shell Championship Series", now called the "V8 Supercar Championship Series presented by Bigpond & VB".

TEGA

The Touring Car Entrants Group Australia (TEGA) is owned by all of the teams, and owns half of AVESCO. TEGA has a board of 4 representatives and drafts the regulations.

To the disappointment of a majority of fans who had watched a long history of Ford-Holden battles in Australian touring car categories since the 1960s, international touring car regulations (which moved from Group A to Supertouring) seemed destined to preclude the Australian-built Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon in the early 90s. However V8 only regulations were drafted, in partnership with Ford and Holden, to avoid this and to showcase their large Australian made cars.

Nissan who had dominated in the early 90s had their Turbo AWD Skyline GT-R controversially excluded from the series, whilst BMW (with their non-turbo M3s) were allowed to continue. Nissan vowed never to return to touring car racing in Australia again, and a short time later ceased Australian production.

Eventually the BMW team of Paul Morris left to head a separate new Australian Super Touring Championship (ASTC), and in the mid 90s this ST series ran in opposition to the V8 category. Super Touring with its many makes had the backing of the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) and sensationally two Bathurst 1000s were held each year in 1997 and 1998, one for V8s and the other (backed by tradional custodian ARDC) for ST. The bulk of sponsorship, driver talent, and fan attention remained with the more popular V-8 category during this era leaving the ASTC to later collapse as an amateur category.

The V8 Supercar

The regulations are designed to balance the desire for technical competition and fast vehicles with the requirement that costs are kept reasonable. Racing is close, and the cars bear some resemblance to production models.

Power: A V8 supercar is powered by either a 5.0L Ford SVO or Chevrolet Aurora race engine (depending on the make) which produces approximately 650hp. Engines have pushrod actuated valves and electronic fuel injection. Both Ford and Holden engines are based on racing engines from their respective US parent companies. Engines are restricted to 7,500 rpm. The recent application of "Project Blueprint" (where both makes of car were examined to insure parity) the racing between Holden and Ford has become closer than ever (reducing the risk of a one make dominated series).

Weight: The minimum category weight is 1,355 kg.

Cost: Reported to be approximately $AU 500,000 per car and $AU 100,000 per engine.

Bodyshell: Each V8 Supercar is based on either Commodore or Falcon production bodyshells, with an elaborate roll cage constructed into the shell from aircraft grade materials. Other modifications include wider wheel arches.

Some common components: differentials and gearboxes are identical in all cars in the category.

Suspension: Basic front suspension configuration is double wishbone (made compulsory for both makes through Project Blueprint), whilst rear suspension is a "live axle" design. Spring and damper design is unrestricted.

Tyres: A Dunlop "control tyre" is supplied to all teams. During the year, there are large restrictions on the number of testing days, along with the number of tyres used during those days. During race meetings, teams are allocated a set number of tyres for the entire weekend.

Aerodynamics: A standard "aerodynamic package" of spoilers and wings is supplied to the teams of each make. Testing is conducted so the two makes have as similar aerodynamic characteristics as possible.

The V8 Supercar Championships

Two seperate V8 Supercar Championships are held. The first is the main "Level One" championship called the 'V8 Supercar Championship Series'. A Level Two championship called the 'HPDC Supercar Series', for privateers who formerly raced in the same races as the former before bulging grids forced a split.

Level One

The Level One Australian Touring Car Championship now known as the V8 Supercar Championship Series caters for the 34 fully professional cars run by the 17 well-sponsored two-car V8 Supercar teams. The series is commercially successful and highly competitive, with races all over Australia, one in New Zealand, and in 2005, the first race in China. Tracks range from street circuits in Adelaide to more permanent road courses at Phillip Island. The largest single event is the Bathurst 1000.

The racing is very close and aggressive between all the V8 Championship Series teams, with usually less than a second separating the top 25 cars. Teams design and construct their own cars and engines, leading to significant engineering differences among different cars despite the cars being the same make.

Both Ford and Holden provide significant, though varying, levels of sponsorship to all teams that run their cars. From 1996 to 2002, V8 Supercars Holden Racing Team, managed by Mark Skaife, had a decisive competitive edge over most of the opposition. More recently, the sport has seen the return to prominence of Ford through Marcos Ambrose and Stone Brothers Racing, winning in 2003 and 2004.

V8 racing is Australia's third largest sport behind AFL Football and Cricket.

The first Australian Touring Car Championship under the V8 Supercar rules was won by Glenn Seton with his team-mate former Formula 1 world champion Alan Jones taking second in the championship.

In 2005, A team competion has been created to dertermine the best Ford/Holden and Overall team

Level Two

The privateers were split from the main series in the year 2000.

Their Level Two category is known as the HPDC Development series and runs identical specification V8 Supercars. (Except for an additional 100kg added on the minimum weight in 2005, intended to both help the overweight older cars run by some privateers, and to stop main series teams gaining advantage from their secondary series satellite cars.)

The Development series has been such a success that it itself has also fielded full grids up to 34 cars on many occasions.

Both young up-and-coming drivers hoping to break into a Level One drive, and privateers, race in the Level Two category.

The cars used are always the previous versions of this year's models, so for 2005, it's the Ford AU and the Holden VX

Marque Events

The Bathurst 1000, Clipsal 500, Sandown 500 and V8 Shanghai Round are the marque events of the V8 Supercar calendar.

Bathurst 1000

Known as the "Great Race", the Bathurst 1000 is a traditional 1000 km test of team, driver and machine held at the Mount Panorama Circuit near Bathurst in New South Wales. It has been the preeminent domestic motor racing event in Australia for decades, well before the development of the V8 Supercar category. It is conducted over 161 laps, on a track that features two long straights, that contrast with a twisty section of fast blind corners across the top of the mountain. In past eras, the race was open to almost anybody with a car that met (considerably more relaxed) regulations and held an Australian motorsport license. The resulting wide variety of cars, driver talent, and budgets ensured that large margins split the placings. In the modern V8 era, the field consists of professional teams only, and the introduction of the "safety car" bringing the field together when an accident makes the track unsafe, has radically changed the nature of the race, now a flat out, and closely fought, sprint all the way.

Clipsal 500

The Clipsal 500 is held in Adelaide on a shortened version of the former Grand Prix Circuit. The event in the heart of the city has a carnival atmosphere, and crowds of over 150,000 racing fans and socialites turn out each year. Two 250km races are held on each of Saturday and Sunday, and this has proven to be a very succesful format.

Sandown 500

The Sandown 500 is the 1st of the 2 enduros, it has a reputation as the "unpredictable track" as the weather there is hard to predict, Always a host to thrilling races, And Hail Desserts.

V8 Shanghai Round

The V8 Shanghai Round is held in China on a shortened version of the Shanghai Grand Prix circuit. In 2005 the entire V8 circus was air freighted overseas for the first time, and encouraging crowd figures of 70,000 were recorded before an enthusiastic Chinese audience.

Bahrain Round

In 2005 a contract was confirmed to hold V8 Supercar races at the Bahrain international circuit from 2006 onwards. Will be using the Bahrain GP track

The V8 Supercar Teams

  • Holden Racing Team (Holden)

Championships: 6, Bathurst Wins: 4

Founded by Holden in the lates 1980s in partnership with Tom Walkinshaw to promote Holden Special Vehicles, who produce highly tuned road V8 Commodores. The 'HRT' took over where Peter Brock's Holden Dealer Team (HDT) empire and vehicles left off, after the collapse of HDT with, among other things, a debacle over the fitment of crystal energy polarizers to HDT cars. Initially HRT struggled through a number of lean years, in one year only attending a handful of rounds, however later the team improved after the drafting back in of Brock, his sponsorship from Mobil and input from Harrop Engineering. In their hey-day from 1996-2002 this well-financed team collected 6 championship wins. After the collapse of TWR, the team is now owned by successful team driver Mark Skaife.

  • Dick Johnson Racing (Ford)

Championships: 6, Bathurst Wins: 3

The oldest team in V8 supercar Racing was formed by Dick Johnson, in the late 1970s. Dick Johnson Racing (DJR) provided formidable competition for the Holden Dealer Team of Peter Brock in the 1980s, and were a consistent force up to the year 2001 regularly winning races. They have struggled since then, although DJR retains a strong financial backing. Son Steven Johnson contunies the legacy by carrying the most famous Ford number, possibly the most famous. The legandry #17.

  • Stone Brothers Racing (Ford)

Championships: 2, Bathurst Wins: 1

Established in 1996, after Alan Jones left Glenn Seton Racing and joined forces with former Dick Johnson Racing engineers Ross and Jim Stone to form a new team. The team was originally known as Pack Leader racing and had underhanded cigarette backing from the former Glenn Seton Racing sponsor, however shortly afterwards Jones left. The team slumped somewhat into the midfield wildnerness in the year 2000 before the arrival of Marcos Ambrose sent to the team to a period of rapid expansion which culminated in wins of the 2003 and 2004 championships.

  • Ford Performance Racing (Prodrive)/Glenn Seton Racing (Ford)

Championships: 2

Glenn Seton formed his own team in the late 80s, using Sierras. He had been a protege of the works Nissan team, and took the cigarette sponsorship of that team with him. Former F1 champ Alan Jones was secured as his team-mate. The team was one of the first to debut the new V8 Touring Car regulation car in place of the Sierra. GSR were a top V8 Supercar team in the early V8 years and won championships in 1993 and 1997. Glenn Seton came famously close to winning the Bathurst 1000 in 1995, retiring due to a minor part breakage while in the lead with just 8 laps to go. The team became known by the new name "Ford Tickford Racing" in 1999, which was a pseudo works deal, and the team gradually slipped in performance as V8 Supercar became more competitive. Ford diverted their attention to 00 Motorsport in 2002, and GSR reverted to a small battling one car outfit for that year before being purchased by Prodrive and reinvented as "Ford Performance Racing" to promote the high performance road Falcons built by "Ford Performance Vehicles".

  • Larry Perkins Engineering (Holden)

Championships: 3, Bathurst Wins: 3

Former F1 driver Larry Perkins has long been an identity of the Australian Touring Car Championship. His team has collected three Bathurst wins, although championship wins have often slipped away in the V8 Supercar era and the team has had to settle for a number of runner-up positions in this era.

  • Tasman Motorsport (Holden)

Formed by V8 driver Greg Murphy's father Kevin Murphy with the aqusition of long-time touring car team Lansvale Smash Repair Racing. Tasman has enlisted the support of engineer Ron Harrop and his large engineering business in their attempt to establish themselves as a prominant force in V8 racing.

  • Holden Special Vehicles Dealer Team (Holden)

Bathurst Wins: 2

The HSV Dealer Team started as the Holden Racing Team junior team called the Holden Young Lions in the year 1998. The Holden Young Lions expanded to 2-cars in the year 2001 after a solution was desperately needed to accommodate Greg Murphy and his K-Mart sponsorship after Murphy's former Gibson Motorsport had hurridly switched to run a Ford for former Holden star Craig Lowndes. With Holden Racing Team machinery the team which was then known as K-Mart Racing were instant winners, and collected two Bathurst wins in 2003 and 2004. K-Mart quit the sponsorship after 2004, and the team is now known as the HSV Dealer Team.

  • Garry Rogers Motorsport (Holden)

Bathurst Wins: 1

Garry Rogers outfit started out as privateers running Nissan Primeras, before switching to Holden Commodores, and eventually going on to challenge for the year 2000 championship, and also to win the Bathurst 1000 in that year.

  • PWR Racing (Holden)

The current PWR Racing outfit was formed in 2003 as Kees Weel reinvented his Queensland based Ford team into a Victorian Holden team aligned with the powerful Holden Motorsport (Holden Racing Team) group. Intially a deal was done to call the team "Team Brock" after Peter Brock, but this deal fell through after one season and since then the team has been known as "PWR Racing". PWR Racing recruited Holden star Greg Murphy for the 2005 season.

  • Triple Eight Engineering (Ford)

Formed by UK group Triple Eight Racing with their purchase of Briggs Motorsport in 2003. Triple Eight owner Roland Dane attracted significant Ford funding for their team, and set about turning Briggs Motorsport into a winning operation. They have partially suceeded, so far winning a number of rounds of the 2005 championship.

  • Tony Longhurst Racing (Holden)

Formed in 2005 by Tony Longhurst's aqusition of the licenses owned by Team Dynamik. For 2005 the cars were contracted to be run by Team Dynamik, but Longhurst has relocated the team to Queensland for the 2006 season. Longhurst had formerly run a seperate team up to the year 1999, before joining Stone Brothers Racing for the 2000 season only.

  • Brad Jones Racing (Ford)

Brad Jones' Albury based team Brad Jones Racing (BJR), managed by his brother Kim Jones, joined the V8 Supercar Series in the year 2000 after buying Tony Longhurst's old licenses. BJR had formerly run the works Audi team in Australia for the Australian Super Touring Championship.

  • Rod Nash & Paul Little Racing (Holden)
  • WPS Racing (Ford)

WPS Racing was formed in 2004 by businessman Craig Core who also is a part-owner of Champcar team Team Australia.

  • Mark Larkham Motorsport (Ford)
  • Team Kiwi Racing & Paul Morris Motorsport (Holden)
  • Jason Bright Britek Motorsport (Ford)

History

The championship has run to Appendix J, Group C and Group A regulations before the V8 Touring Car rules.

List of V8 Supercar Champions

Year Driver Make Team
1993 Glenn Seton Ford Glenn Seton Racing
1994 Mark Skaife Holden Gibson Motorsport
1995 John Bowe Ford Dick Johnson Racing
1996 Craig Lowndes Holden Holden Racing Team
1997 Glenn Seton Ford Glenn Seton Racing
1998 Craig Lowndes Holden Holden Racing Team
1999 Craig Lowndes Holden Holden Racing Team
2000 Mark Skaife Holden Holden Racing Team
2001 Mark Skaife Holden Holden Racing Team
2002 Mark Skaife Holden Holden Racing Team
2003 Marcos Ambrose Ford Stone Brothers Racing
2004 Marcos Ambrose Ford Stone Brothers Racing

List of Australian Touring Car Champions

Level Two V8 Champions

Notable Figures

Notable figures involved in the category include:


External links


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