V8 Supercar Supercarnivale Driver Pairings 10 Hours, 14 Minutes ago Karma: -1
List of driver pairings as of 31 March
FPR
Winterbottom or Richards - Will Power
SBR
Tim Slade - Heinz-Harold Frentzen
Van Gisbergen or Alex Davison - David Brabham (also doing enduros with SBR)
DJR
Courtney - Dario Franchitti
Webb - Sebastian Bourdais (TBC)
HRT
Will Davison or Tander - Ryan Briscoe
Jack Daniels Racing
Todd Kelly or Rick Kelly - Scott Dixon
Paul Morris Racing/ Castrol Racing
Greg Murphy - Yvan Muller (TBC)
*TBC - To Be Confirmed*
Source - Auto Action Magazine #1384 Dylan Campbell
10 FAST FACTS
1. The Manufacturers Challenge format for the V8 Supercar event at the Formula 1 QANTAS Australian Grand Prix of the last two years is no more for 2010.
After Holden comfortably won in 2008, Ford responded to win in 2009, but this year it will be every driver and team for themselves in the three sprint races that make up the BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar GP Challenge.
There will be a podium presentation at the end of Sunday's final race for the top three point scoring drivers across the three races, with 100 points for a race win, 92 for second, 86 for third and so on in each race.
2. Toll Holden Racing Team ace Will Davison and Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney are the only men among the V8 Supercar field of 29 drivers to have driven a Formula 1 car.
While his rival Jamie Whincup is due to drive a McLaren-Mercedes as part of a swap with reigning Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button in a promotional event during Tuesday of race week, Davison tested ‘for real' in a Minardi-Cosworth PS04B at the Misano circuit in Italy in 2004. It was during the period when Davison raced in the British Formula Renault and Formula 3 Championships.
Courtney, meanwhile, held the official test driver role for Jaguar Racing in 2001 and 2002, luckily escaping serious injuries after a nasty 350km/h testing accident at Monza in Italy in 2002.
Both Davison and his brother Alex have special links with the Australian Grand Prix and Formula 1 in general. Their late grandfather Lex won the event four times before it became a round of the F1 World Championship (1954, 1957, 1958 and 1961), and their step-grandfather Tony Gaze (who married Diana Davison following Lex's death at Sandown in 1965), was the first Australian to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Gaze, an ex-RAF pilot who served in World War II, turned 90 on March 3 and competed in three Grands Prix in 1952. He finished 15th in the Belgian GP at Spa and retired from the British GP at Silverstone and the German GP at the Nurburgring.
3. Ford Performance Racing's Steve Richards and Supercheap Auto Racing's Russell Ingall are the only two drivers to have competed on all 13 occasions when V8 Supercars have supported Formula 1 at Albert Park.
Both were on the grid from 1996 to 2006 and in 2008 to 2009, with Richards taking two race wins in 2006 and Ingall holding the record of most V8 Supercar race wins at Albert Park - eight across 1997, 1998 and 2003.
TeamVodafone's Craig Lowndes, who won the V8 Supercar Challenge last year with two race wins and a third place, has competed in 12 of the events but missed 1997 when he was focused on his assault on the International Formula 3000 championship that year - although he was present at Albert Park at the event.
4. Holden holds the upper hand in all of the important statistical categories at Albert Park. Commodores have won 30 of the 39 individual races run for V8 Supercars and taken 10 of the 13 pole positions on offer in that time. Of those 30 race wins, the Holden Racing Team has taken 16 and they have taken eight of those 10 pole positions.
5. Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney can't add to his third-place position in the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Albert Park given it's a non-points scoring weekend, but he's just happy to be driving his own car.
In three previous events at Albert Park, Courtney has been forced to drive a back-up car on each occasion.
In 2006 and 2008 with Stone Brothers Racing he had to drive a spare car after respective crashes in Adelaide, while last year another dramatic weekend in Adelaide forced him into Jim Beam Racing's spare car - an older BF Falcon that was being used by Grant Denyer in the Fujitsu Series that had to be re-liveried in time for Albert Park.
Those facts explain Courtney's poor record at the Grand Prix meeting, where he hasn't qualified better than 11th and has only one top 10 race finish (seventh in Race 3 of 2008).
6. Bundaberg Red Racing's Fabian Coulthard is another V8 Supercar driver with a link to Formula 1. The New Zealander was team-mates with 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton in the British Formula Renault Championship in 2003 and his father Rikki is a second-cousin of two-time Australian Grand Prix winner David Coulthard.
The two also have an added link given Coulthard now drives for Bundaberg Red (a Diageo brand), with another Diageo brand, Johnnie Walker, supporting Hamilton and his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.
Coulthard enjoyed his best-ever run in a V8 Supercar at Albert Park last year, finishing sixth, ninth and ninth in the three races. He actually made his Australian racing debut at the circuit in a Formula Ford in 2002, beating Jamie Whincup before scoring three podium finishes at Albert Park in Porsche Carrera Cup in 2005.
7. A range of guest drivers have helped spice up the V8 Supercar races at the Australian Grand Prix over the years. Perhaps the most notable was Melbourne ‘The Footy Show' favourite Sam Newman, who competed in a Hot Wheels-backed Commodore in 2000.
Newman, who will race in the MINI Challenge at this year's Grand Prix, qualified last (15 seconds off pole man Mark Skaife), but applied himself well and got down to within eight seconds of the leader's pace. Perhaps most importantly, he finished all three races - the same couldn't be said for a few of the V8 Supercar regulars!
Former 500cc World Motorcycle Champion Kevin Schwantz guest drove a Falcon in 1997 while his former two wheel rival Wayne Gardner was a regular part of the grid in the late 1990s in his Coke Commodores.
1980 Formula 1 World Champion Alan Jones was a V8 Supercar racing regular, competing in the category at Albert Park in 1996 and 1997 in his last few years as a full-time driver.
8. All V8 Supercar teams have been placed on notice for the BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar Challenge. After previous years where some teams have been suspected of not performing to their 100 percent capability given the non-championship status of the event, all teams have been reminded that under their Racing Entitlements Contract (REC), "all teams are to use best endeavours to Race in the Meeting to the best of their ability and level of competitiveness." Teams found in breach of the rule may incur a fine of up to $20,000.
9. Jack Daniel's Racing's Rick Kelly may have scored three top-four finishes at Albert Park in 2008, but his record on the parklands circuit is one of the worst in the current V8 Supercar field.
In the five previous visits of V8 Supercars (2004-2006 and 2008-2009), there have been a total of 15 races conducted. Kelly has been a non-starter for three, a retirement from six and a classified finisher in just six of them. Of those six finishes, just three of them - the previously mentioned results from 2008 - have been anywhere near the front of the field!
10. Four drivers will be making their first appearance in a V8 Supercar at Albert Park. Tony Ricciardello (Supermax Racing), Jonathon Webb (Dick Johnson Racing), Karl Reindler (Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing) and Daniel Gaunt (Gulf Western Oils Racing) are all making their debuts; however Webb has competed at the circuit before in Porsche Carrera Cup (2003-2006) and Reindler in Formula 3 (2007).
