KEY POINTS:
It'll be hard to say if the V8 Supercars are the support race for the IndyCars, or the IndyCars are the support race for the V8s this weekend on the Gold Coast.
The Australians will no doubt lean towards the big taxis being the number one game in
town as the V8 Supercar championship is still up for grabs. However, there are plenty of race fans who'll be travelling from near and far to watch the best open-wheel race drivers from America take to the streets for the Nikon Indy 300.
The man who's hot-to-trot at the moment is the Indianapolis 500 and IRL champion Scott Dixon. And he's a Kiwi to boot, despite the desperate attempts of our neighbours across the ditch to claim him as one of their own. It's not as if they don't have a couple of their own drivers who are more than capable of a winning in Will Power and Ryan Briscoe.
"It'll be awesome, just awesome to be able to race in front of all the Kiwis making the trip to the Gold Coast," said Dixon. "We've had a month and a half off racing and I can't wait to get back into the car. We did an Indy Firestone test recently and we were fast. There were six other cars doing the test and we were monster quick."
Although a non-points scoring round of the IRL championship, there's still a lot of pride at stake and the "mine is bigger than yours" thing is going to translate into to some close, hard racing.
"It's like a pre-season race for next year. A lot of guys have already moved around [teams] like my ex-teammate [Dan Wheldon] and Helio [Castroneves] who's racing for freedom. And obviously I want to carry on winning in front of my home crowd. Then you've got the two Aussies, and Briscoe has already come out with fighting words."
The sight of bellowing V8s followed by the roar of Formula One look-alikes bumping and sliding around the streets of Surfers Paradise will truly be a sight to behold. The circuit has all the visual and aural stimulation of any circuit in the world and there's another couple of Kiwis who are on a roll at the moment. At the recent V8 endurance at Bathurst, Jason Richards and Greg Murphy drove a sterling race to overcome steering dramas to finish a creditable second.
"The car's getting better and better. We seem to have found the key to unlocking the way to move forward with its handling and speed," said Richards.
Surfers is another street circuit and since the Sprint Gas team has got Richards' car working well now there's no reason that he can't do better this year than his over-all third place at the round in 2007.
"I like the place and now that we've fixed the Bathurst damage we'll really be flying," said Richards.
Veteran campaigner Russell Ingall has his tail feathers up after a bit of a renaissance this year and as this is his home race, he'll be out to rattle a few of the cages of the leading drivers.
"The circuit is really, really tough, both the V8 guys and the IndyCar drivers will tell you how tough it is," said Ingall.
Bathurst winner Jamie Whincup leads the V8 series on 2316 points from Mark Winterbottom, 2283 points and Garth Tander, who slipped off the top spot after a forgettable race at Mount Panorama, on 2234 points.
