Motorsport: Overseas drivers add spice to V8s

Jamie Whincup is currently in second as he endeavours to defend his title. Photo / Alan Gibson

The Australian V8 Supercar championship is in summer recess at the moment before the teams and drivers roar back into action for the endurance rounds beginning in September.

The last race was way back in July up in Townsville and going into the break James Courtney has the jump on the rest of the field. Defending champion Jamie Whincup is hot on his heels with Mark Winterbottom, and the best of the Kiwis, Shane van Gisbergen, still in with a good chance at the halfway point of the series.

When the championships hits the track again in September it'll be the first of the endurance races at Phillip Island followed in October by the iconic Bathurst 1000. These two races have been on the calendar for a while now and fans know what to expect. However, it's the third endurance race, the Gold Coast 600, that's the talking point.

For the first time in the V8 Supercar's history, every team will have an overseas driver as part of the driver parings.

Set to join the existing V8 Supercar pilots on the streets of the Gold Coast are Switzerland's Alain Menu (Brad Jones Racing), Italy's Fabrizio Giovanardi (Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing) and Gianni Morbidelli (Triple F Racing), New Zealand's Scott Dixon (Jack Daniel's Racing), France's Yvan Muller (Paul Morris Motorsport) and Sebastien Bourdais (Dick Johnson Racing), Canada's Alex Tagliani (Kelly Racing) and Jacques Villeneuve (Rod Nash Racing), Australia's Will Power (Ford Performance Racing) and Ryan Briscoe (Toll Holden Racing Team) as well as David Brabham (IRWIN Racing), the United Kingdom's Andy Priaulx (Team Vodafone), Scotland's Dario Franchitti (Jim Beam Racing), Finland's Mika Salo (Bundaberg Red Racing), Germany's Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Wilson Security Racing), Portugal's Tiago Monteiro (Centaur Racing) and the USA's Scott Pruett (Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport) and Patrick Long (Fujitsu Racing).

Now, if the thought of seeing these super stars of open wheel and tin-top racing from around the globe doesn't get your blood racing you don't deserve to be a motor racing fan.

This year's Gold Coast 600 sees a revamp for the Queensland event which has been held on the streets of the Gold Coast annually since 1991. This year, the event returns to a three-day format, October 22-24.

Racing for championship points, the weekend will see two 300km races complete with driver, fuel and tyre stops held over the Saturday and Sunday, while the rest of the Gold Coast comes alive with entertainment on and off the track.

The circuit has been revamped this year and the footprint of the circuit has been reduced from the previous 4.49km to 2.96km, freeing up around 40 per cent of the site for residents, business and other users.

The redesign also sees the introduction of new corners and passing opportunities that have been formulated with closer and more exciting racing in mind. As mentioned earlier, each of the V8 Supercar teams will field an international co-driver during the Gold Coast event. In the case of two-car teams, one international will be fielded, while their regular co-driver or another driver of their choice will fill the second co-driver availability. This means that 18 of the co-drivers of the 29-car V8 Supercar grid will be filled with star drivers from other racing categories from around the world.

The 29 cars on the grid will clock speeds of more than 260km/h on the tight Surfers Paradise street circuit.

Garth Tander re-wrote the qualifying and race lap records on the Gold Coast on his way to his 2007 championship - re-setting them at 1 minute 48.6322s in qualifying and 1 min 49.8352 in the race, which still stand.

In 2009's V8 Supercar Challenge, Garth Tander and Mark Winterbottom shared the victory honours (race 19 and 20 respectively), while Jamie Whincup (2008), Garth Tander (2007), Todd Kelly (2006), Craig Lowndes (2005), Greg Murphy (2004), Russell Ingall (2003) and Jason Bargwanna (2002) have also been winners on the Gold Coast since the event has been an official points-scoring round of the V8 Supercar championship series.

The popular Australian Legends program will return after its 2009 introduction, bigger and better with a large list of legends and cars to be announced closer to the event.

READY FOR ACTION

* The circuit is constructed of 1692 concrete barriers weighing a total of 7275 tonnes. They are moved to the circuit on the back of semi-trailers and are then positioned by construction staff.
* The 2.96km circuit uses more than 6km of demarcation fencing and over 10km of security fencing.
* In excess of 11,000 grandstand seats are constructed around the circuit.