Thanks for the welcome everyone,
As I said I only normally sign up to websites that I know I can be a contributing member of, and post on a regular basis otherwise I think it is unfair for the website, and the site management.
Yes the V8 Supercars is definitely a category to watch especially after getting international Class 1 racing clearance from the FIA meaning they are now able to take the competition internationally.
This is the final year that cars in the V8 Supercar Championship will be using production cars (cars you can go out and buy from the showroom floor) as they move to the Car of the Future next year (which makes it the car of the present doesn't it? lol) which is aimed at reducing the costs.
Their calendar is all over the place, most recently we have been having a race every couple of weeks however they are coming up to their mid season break where once they return things are more spread out just to use up as much time on the calendar as possible.
Each year there are three endurance races (for those who don't know), these endurance races a long LONG racers in which two drivers are allocated per car, and the teams need to make a number of pit stops for fuel, tyres.
Usually each car only has the one driver, and depending on how long the track is race about 50 laps per race with normally three races across the weekend.
My favourite part of the racing is the Top Ten Shootout, which unfortunately they have begun to faze out, which is where the top ten cars from qualifying have a 'one lap dash' - one flying lap to try and set the best time to try and earn pole position.
The racing over recent years however has become a little bit stagnant. As with many other motorsport categories the rich teams have the best performing cars, while the poorer teams tend to struggle, the did want to introduce a salary cap to make it fair for all but there was a huge out cry for it.
For our endurance races, which start after our six week mid-season break which is coming out, we have the Phillip Island 500 (which is 500kms) with two drivers (as mentioned above), followed by what I guess is the world famous race in the Bathurst 1000 (which is 1000kms, or 161laps around the Bathurst track) and then two weeks later they head to the Gold Coast (popular tourist destination) for what is the international round where international drivers from Indycar, Nascar, BTCC come and take part (depending on conflicts of calendar).
Dan Wheldon (R.I.P) was meant to fly out for the Gold Coast event immediately after his IndyCar race at Las Vegas in which he was tragically killed, and so the V8 Supercar Championship created the Dan Wheldon Trophy which is awarded to the best performance of an international driver (won in the inaugural year by Sebastian Bourdais) and in 2011 all cars ran a tribute for Dan.
Bathurst is our toughest track, with the turns, the circuit, the speed and the technicality and skill needed by the drivers so many times the best drivers in the world, and in the championship, have headed to the event and failed to finish due to lack in concentration seeing them make what could be described as a rookie mistake on any other track.
I would like to share with you a video from qualifying from the Bathurst 1000 which was done in 2003. While the track record has been broken since this occasion this driver, from New Zealand, Greg Murphy threw everything he had at the track, even made a mistake and still became the first man to fly around the track in under 2:07s
This video shows you how technical the track is, how special the lap was, and how much racing fans and all his competitors actually appreciated the lap. The lap can be seen at youtube it is known as the 'Lap of the Gods' due to how good it was, and is still regarded.
It took a further eight years, and changes to cars etc for anyone to come close to beating this.
... it's the cars! BTCC is a misnomer as they haven't had proper touring cars in it for years. They're little more than medium sized hatchbacks these days. British Saloon Car Championship would be more honest a title. I miss the days of the TWR Jag's, souped up Cavaliers, Sierra Cosworths, etc. Serious motors that took up space and went like beasts out of Hades (relatively speaking of course). The Aussie V8 Supercars really is more like it and I'd like to see more of it.
