Three million fans can't be wrong and it's easy to see why so many have passed through the turnstiles in the 13 years the V8 Supercars have been coming to Adelaide for the Clipsal 500.
This year the excitement was no different, with Garth Tander keeping a hard-charging Jamie Whincup at bay in the dying moments of the race. Things really came alive after a safety car was employed towards the end of the 76-lap race, leaving just a five-lap blast to the end.
Tander said: "Three wins in a row here at Clipsal really means a lot. I knew Jamie was going to throw everything at me. You had to have everything in the race. You needed car speed, fuel economy, a good strategy, to stay out of trouble and not fall asleep following the safety car."
Just before the safety car was used for eight laps, Tander had dived under Whincup to regain the lead.
With such a lengthy safety car period, fuel economy wasn't a problem for those on two-stop strategy. The eight laps were reduced to a five-lap sprint after Russell Ingall out-braked himself after the original re-start.
While Tander and Whincup were going hammer and tongs, up front, Craig Lowndes held off the chasing pack of Jason Bright, Fabian Coulthard - the best of the Kiwis - and Mark Winterbottom.
"What better way to start the weekend than coming from P20 and finishing fifth," said Coulthard (see column this page). "We weren't worried about where we qualified because we knew we have a good race car - so we concentrated on our race and not qualifying set up."
Whincup was fast straight out of the box and, in the top 10 shoot-out, was just kept off pole by Tander. Top Kiwi was Shane van Gisbergen on row three.
When the lights went out, Whincup was left behind in fifth. It wasn't long before he muscled his way to the front behind Tander and Rick Kelly.
By lap 14, Whincup was in clean air and pulled away while defending champion James Courtney's race was run on lap 21 when he ran into the wall.
Steve Owen went into the wall, wrecking one side of his car and James Moffat's over-exuberance on the exit of Turn Nine brought out the safety car.
Kiwis fared better in the Fujitsu Development Series, the feeder for the main game, with a one-two for Jason Richards and 17-year-old Scott McLaughlin in race two. Richards recovered from a mediocre day on Friday to win race two.
"I was in hospital [getting treatment for his cancer] earlier in the week when I was offered the gig and thought why not. I was racing the Ferrari anyway."
McLaughlin is now third in the tier two series.
"This is a great start for me and I want to keep getting consistent results now that I'm in the championship."
Race two of the V8 Supercars is this afternoon.
Garth Tander. Photo / Supplied
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