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V8 Supercar

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Greg Murphy in a Holden Commodore leads 3 other cars at Bathurst
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Greg Murphy in a Holden Commodore leads 3 other cars at Bathurst

V8 Supercar is a touring car racing category, the most popular category of domestic motorsport in Australia and one of the world's biggest and most professional racing championships. V8 Supercars are 650+ hp 5.0 litre V8 powered touring cars. V8 Supercar events are held in all states of Australia as well as New Zealand 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 2006 V8 Supercar Championship Series
Stone Brothers Racing Holden Racing Team Tasman Motorsport Ford Performance Racing Jack Daniels Racing WPS Racing
1 Russell Ingall
4 James Courtney 		2 Mark Skaife
22 Todd Kelly 		3 Jason Richards
23 Andrew Jones 		5 Mark Winterbottom
6 Jason Bright 		7 Steven Richards
11 Paul Dumbrell 		8 Max Wilson
10 Jason Bargwanna
Team BOC Toll HSV Dealer Team Dick Johnson Racing Paul Cruickshank Racing Fujitsu Racing Garry Rogers Motorsport
John Bowe
14 Brad Jones 		15 Rick Kelly
16 Garth Tander 		Steven Johnson
18 Will Davison 		20 Marcus Marshall 25 Warren Luff
26 Jose Fernandez 		33 Lee Holdsworth
34 Dean Canto
Team Sirromet Wines Supercheap Auto Racing Autobarn Racing Team Betta Electrical Team Kiwi Racing
39 Fabian Coulthard
67 Paul Morris (motorsport)>Paul Morris 		50 Cameron McConville
51 Greg Murphy 		Steve Owen 88 Jamie Whincup
888 Craig Lowndes 		021 Paul Radisich

V8 Supercars Australia

The Australian Touring Car Championship was transformed into V8 Touring Cars in 1993 (when there was only 13 cars in the championship), when Holden and Ford became the two competitors in the series. Event management company IMG was given the rights to the series in 1997 after a bitter battle against CAMS and the ARDC, and led the championship on a rapid expansion. Network Ten began televising the series in the same year, taking over from Channel Seven. The Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company (AVESCO) was later formed to run the series directly and later became an independent organisation from its IMG origins. In 2005 the name was changed to V8 Supercars Australia.

V8 Supercar Australia introduced carnivale street-race V8 Supercar events such as the Clipsal 500, 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".

As of 2007, The V8 Supercars will be again Broadcast by Channel Seven. They secured the rights, taking over from Channel Ten, who had successfully broadcast the events since taking over from Seven in 1997. It's rumoured the deal is between $65-70 million, and that 7 will show increased live coverage, as well as a 25-minute show specific to the series on weekends there is no racing.

TEGA

The Touring Car Entrants Group Australia (TEGA) is owned by all of the teams, and owns half of V8 Supercars Australia. 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 1990's, had their Turbo AWD Skyline GT-R controversially excluded from the series, whilst BMW (with their non-turbo M3s) were allowed to continue for a brief period. Nissan vowed never to return to touring car racing in Australia again, and a short time later ceased Australian production.

Eventually the works BMW team left to head a separate new Australian Super Touring Championship (ASTC), and in the mid 90s this Super Touring 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 traditional custodian ARDC) for Super Touring. Ultimately, the bulk of sponsorship, driver talent, and fan attention remained with the more popular V8 category during this era, leaving the ASTC to later collapse in 2002 as an amateur category.

TEGA are now looking to instigate control floor pans and cylinder heads for both Commodores and Falcons so they are cheaper and easier to build and fix, potentially meaning that more rounds can be raced in a season and teams can afford to run multiple cars and have spares in case a car is severely damaged.

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 600+BHP. 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 electronically restricted to 7,500 rpm. The recent application of "Project Blueprint" - introduced at the beginning of the 2003 season (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 (not including driver).

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. The category uses 6 speed Holinger gearboxes (Australian made), in the familiar 'H' pattern. Differential ratios used throughout the season are 3.75, 3.5, 3.25 and 3.15 (3.15 introduced in 2005 to be used at Bathurst - cars now (hypothetically, this has yet to be proven, but Castrol Perkins Racing claims to have exceeded this speed multiple times in the 2005 event) reach over 300km/h down Conrod straight). All cars have a 120L fuel tank.

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 (6 a year), 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 separate 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. The only way to compete in the "main game" is to purchase a licence from an existing team (TEGA are no longer involved in creating new licences for V8 teams).

Level One

The Level One Australian Touring Car Championship now known as the V8 Supercar Championship Series caters for the 31 fully professional cars run by the 14 two-car and 3 one-car well-sponsored V8 Supercar teams. The series is commercially successful and highly competitive, with races all over Australia, one in New Zealand, and in 2006, the first race in Bahrain. 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 (Some teams opt to buy engines from stronger teams, eg SBR, 888, BJR, WPS & PCR use SBRE developed Ford V8's, while HRT, HSVDT and Perkins Engineering use HMS developed Holden V8's and GRM and SCAR/PWR use GRM developed Holden V8's) leading to minor/major (depending on teams) engineering differences among teams 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, 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, as well as teammate Russell Ingall who kept the title at SBR, winning a tight series in 2005

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 competition has been created to determine 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 now known as the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Championship Series (known as the development series) and runs identical specification V8 Supercars, apart from differences with engine management systems and older chassis'.

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 privateer hobby racers, race in the Level Two category.

Marquee events

The Bathurst 1000, Clipsal 500, Sandown 500 are the marquee events of the V8 Supercar calendar. In 2005 there was also a marque round in Shanghai, however the promoter discontinued with this race in 2006.

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 tight 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 licence. 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, has become an intensely tactical race, hinging on pit stop strategy, with 2005 winners Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly claiming victory after running at a comparatively conservative pace.

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 successful format.

Sandown 500

The Sandown 500 is the 1st of the 2 endurance races on the race schedule. Always a host to thrilling races. Since its inception it has been referred to as Bathurst's "Little Brother" as it serves as an amazing entre to the 'Great Race'. Contrary to popular belief, the weather is statistically more pradictable and favourable than its 'big brother' as well as many other courses.

Grand Finale

With the change to the 'Blueprint' formula in 2003, AVESCO created a special season ending round. Initially this round was held as the thirteenth championship event in late November at Eastern Creek Raceway near Sydney. It was sponsored by VIP Petfoods and was branded 'The Main Event'. The round was won by Marcos Ambrose in a fitting conclusion to his 2003 championship win, but made headlines when Ambrose's teammate Russell Ingall and Holden Racing Team rival Mark Skaife spectaculary brought the sport into disrepute with an on track/off track stoush. In 2004 the event became known as the 'Bigpond Grand Finale', and was again held at Eastern Creek - won again by Marcos Ambrose. In 2005 the venue moved to Phillip Island as the final round of the championship and the base for Russell Ingall's series win.

V8 Shanghai Round

The V8 Shanghai Round was 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. The winner of the inaugural Shanghai round was Todd Kelly (HRT)(188pt/192pt), 2nd place was Steven Richards (Castrol Perkins) (186pt/186pt) and 3rd was Paul Radisich (TKR) (170pt/180pt).

After difficulties in securing a date for the 2006 fixture, the V8 Supercar organising body announced that it had terminated its contract with the Shanghai Round promoter in March 2006. Although not ruling out a return to the Shanghai circuit one day, any further races at the circuit have been placed on an indefinite hold.

Bahrain Round

In 2005 a contract was confirmed to hold V8 Supercar races at the Bahrain International Circuit from 2006 onwards, the same track that hosts the Formula 1.

The V8 Supercar teams

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 team Gibson Motorsport had hurriedly 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 became known as the HSV Dealer Team. In 2006 they acquired the Toll Express sponsorship package which used to fund the Paul Little Racing team, renaming the team to Toll HSV Dealer Team and giving the team a new livelry. In 2006 Garth Tander and Rick Kelly will drive the cars

Championships: 6, Bathurst Wins: 4

Founded by Holden in the late 1980s in partnership with Tom Walkinshaw (TWR) 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 and is to be managed once again by Tom Walkinshaw, this is likely to help the team owner perform better on the track.

Championships: 6, Bathurst Wins: 3

The oldest team in V8 supercar Racing was formed by Dick Johnson, evolving from the Bryan Byrt Ford dealer entered team in 1980 after spending half a season in hiatus searching for a new direction. 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 had been known for their consistent results but have struggled for form in the past few years. Son Steven Johnson contunies the legacy by carrying historically the most famous Ford number in the series - the legendary #17.

Championships: 3, 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. Jones left the team after two seasons, with the Stone Brothers buying out his share in the team. The following year result started to reverse and became occasional race winneres, starting with a tactical triumph at the 1998 Bathurst Classic. The team rapidly expanded and has dominated the series for the last three seasons with Marcos Ambrose winning the 2003 and 2004 championships and veteran team mate Russell Ingall keeping the championship within the team in 2005. With Marcos Ambrose driving Craftsman Truck Series in 2006, the team have signed James Courtney to drive the #4 car.

Championships: 2

Glenn Seton formed his own team in 1989, using Ford Sierras. Seton 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 late in 1992. 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, 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". The drivers racing in 2006 are Jason Bright in the #6 CAT sponsored car, and Mark Winterbottom, in his debut year for FPR, in the #5 FPV car.

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. The team faces 2006 re-invigorated with a new title sponsor, allowing Steven Richards to challenge the front running teams more regularly.

Formed by V8 driver Greg Murphy's father Kevin Murphy, in partnership with the long-time privateer touring car team Lansvale Racing Team. The team formed into a two car team in 2005 which has helped their performance. Tasman has enlisted the support of engineer Ron Harrop and his large engineering business in their attempt to establish themselves as a prominent force in V8 racing and have established a name for themselves after coming 3rd at the Sandown 500 and narrowly missing out on first at the Bathurst 1000. Former TKR driver, Jason Richards drives for the team, with new signing Andrew Jones driving the second car.

Bathurst Wins: 1

Garry Rogers started out as privateer in the late 70's running a Holden Torana. The team disbanded in the early 80s and re-emerged in the late 80's running a Commodore. Over the next ten years the organisation ran in several categories, NASCAR, AUSCAR and Production Cars, as well as supporting some Formula Ford teams. A Super Touring team was established in 1995 and ran for three years utilising Alfa Romeo, Honda and Nissan cars, before concentrating on their V8 Supercar Holden Commodore team, established in 1996, and eventually going on to challenge for the year 2000 championship with Garth Tander finishing runner up, and also to win the Bathurst 1000 in that year.

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. Initially 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, and has also recruited former GRM driver Cameron McConville for 2006, replacing Paul Weel who is focussing on the PWR Performance products business.

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. Subsequently Craig Lowndes narrowly lost the 2005 title. Jamie Whincup replaced Steve Ellery for 2006, proving he has extreme talent after winning the opening round.

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, and were multiple champions in Super Touring and Australian NASCAR based series. A feature of this team has been their tactical savvy through team manager Kim Jones, and vehicle set-up through veteran 1995 series champion John Bowe.

WPS Racing was formed in 2004 by businessman Craig Gore who also is actively involved in the funding and management of Champcar team Team Australia. In 2006 the team purchased Larkham Motor Sport and installed Mark Larkham and several senior members of his team, along with lead driver Jason Bargwanna to run the team. Max Wilson drives the second teams car.

Two single car Holden teams merged for the sake of expediency in 2005 but retaining separate identities. Paul Morris Motorsport was originally a Formula Ford team in 1990 and had a long invlvement with BMW's works supported operation in 90's, winning four Super Touring titles. Converted to V8Supercar in 2000. PMM expand to a second car for 2006, which will be shared by young prospects Fabian Coulthard and Alan Gurr of a rotational basis, and will also carry some branding for a revived Holden Young Lions identity.

Team Kiwi Racing was formed late in 2000, carrying a strong nationalist New Zealand identity and was centred around Jason Richards for several seasons. After Richards left Craig Baird drove with them for a single season before Paul Radisich joined.

Established in 2005 under the ownership of FPR/Prodrive driver Jason Bright, Britek struggled throught their debut season with regulation limited testing and their second car only running a partial season. The team showed strong signs of improvement at Bathurst and enter 2006 with a new driving line-up with Warren Luff and Development Series graduate Jose Fernandez.

Rod Nash was a privateer driver in the late 1990's, and received a Level 2 licence when the V8 Supercars began their licensing arrangement. Nash has run Tony Longhurst, Cameron McConville, and Alex Davison, to name a few, in his time as team owner and enters 2006 as a solo team again after spending several season running with Perkins Engineering support and with Steve Owen spending his first full season as a V8Supercar driver.

While new to the championship in 2006, Cruikshank has run several cars in the Development V8Supercar series and the Australian Carrera Cup since starting his own team in the early part of the decade. Former Champcar racer Marcus Marshall will lead the single car team in 2006.

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
2005 Russell Ingall 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

Series

Teams

*[Dick Johnson Racing]

 

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