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SKYCITY TRIPLE CROWN DARWIN SUPER SPRINT JUNE 19 - 21, 2015

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EDITOR IN CHIEF: Gordon Lomas

JOURNALIST: Tom Howard

DESIGN: Kirstie Fuentes

SALES/MARKETING: Leisa Emberson

PARTNERS: Armor All Castrol Edge Pirtek Coates Hire Crimsafe Dunlop Tata Motors Apex Jobstop GearWrench SUpercheap Auto

he V8 Supercars Championship heads to Hidden Valley with the pressure rapidly increasing on the chasing pack as Prodrive Racing Australia continues to strengthen its grip on the series.

The Melbourne-based squad has turned heads this year following a highly impressive start to the campaign, which has seen drivers Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert win five of the last six races.

Prodrive Racing Australia’s title aspirations were given a further boost having now proved themselves at fast flowing circuits and slower technical tracks, which has left the rest of the pack with plenty to do behind the scenes.

While teams will be hopeful hard work over the month long break will help reel in the blue oval this weekend, there is plenty of intrigue as to how the new tyre regulations will play out at Darwin.

V8 Supercars has made an extra set of soft compound tyres available to teams for use only in qualifying for Saturday’s second sprint race and the race itself.

The move has arrived following a series of mundane sprint races on the harder rubber.

New tyre rules coupled with a fresh track surface

at Hidden Valley could provide the catalyst for an upset.

There will be plenty of headlines made in the support categories this weekend with Touring Car Masters set to field the mouth watering prospect of John Bowe and Steven Johnson going head-to-head in a classic Ford v Holden battle.

Now equipped with a Holden Torana, reigning series champion Bowe will face up against his all conquering Ford Mustang, which will be driven by Johnson.

The title race is set to intensify in the V8 Utes, while Freddie Hunt, the son of F1 legend James Hunt, will make his debut in the Aussie Racing Cars.

Pressure mounting on chasing pack in Darwin

3 WELCOME/CONTENTS 7 CIRCUIT GUIDE 9 V8 SUPERCARS ENTRY LIST 11 PREVIOUS WINNERS 13 TV TIMES 14 2015 V8 SUPERCARS CALENDAR 15 WHINCUP/LOWNDES 16 TANDER/COURTNEY 18 SLADE/HOLDSWORTH 20 BLANCHARD/PERCAT 21 WALSH/DAVISON 22 WINTERBOTTOM/MOSTERT 24 REYNOLDS/HEIMGARTNER

26 T KELLY/ R KELLY 27 CARUSO/MOFFAT 28 BRIGHT/COULTHARD 29 WOOD/ HALF PAGE PIC 30 MCLAUGHLIN/WALL 31 AMBROSE/ VAN GISBERGEN 33 V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONS 36 TCM ENTRY LIST 37 V8 UTES ENTRY LIST 38 ARC ENTRY LIST 41 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Contents IN EVERY ISSUE!

Tom Howard Multimedia Journalist, Speedcafe.com

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CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS35

DID YOU KNOW

Pepsi Max Crew Ford pilot Chaz Mostert has the chance to create some history in Darwin...4

T

Tom Howard

3V8 Supercars SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin Super Sprint I Welcome/Contents

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1Since 2006 the annual Hidden Valley round of the V8 Supercars Championship has been known as the SKYCITY Triple Crown. However, no driver has yet been able to claim the Triple Crown by winning all three

races held over the weekend. Jamie Whincup came close last year by winning both Saturday sprint races but was

unable to go on and win the longer 200-kilometre Sunday race. His current Red Bull team-mate Craig Lowndes won two from three in 2007 but still

the Triple Crown remains elusive.

2The Sunday race at this year’s SKYCITY Triple Crown will be the 50th V8 Supercars Championship race held at Hidden Valley since the Championship’s first visit to the Northern Territory back in 1998. Only two drivers – Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander – have competed in every V8 Supercar round in Darwin. However, Tander is the only one to have competed in all 47 individual races given Lowndes missed one in 1998 (engine

problems with his Holden Racing Team Commodore) and one in 2001 (accident damage to his Gibson Motorsport Falcon).

3Pepsi Max Crew Ford pilot Chaz Mostert has the chance to create some history in Darwin. The 2014 Bathurst winner has taken the last four pole positions in a row and is aiming

to become the first man since Dick Johnson in 1988 to take five consecutive poles in the championship.

4Mostert’s Pepsi Max Crew/Prodrive Racing Australia team is also aiming at some impressive history of its own in Darwin.

The Ford team has taken the last six championship pole positions in a row between Mostert and his teammate Mark Winterbottom.

No team has done this since Dick Johnson Racing managed the feat in 1988.

PRA could claim seven poles in a row by taking the first one on the Saturday in Darwin, a streak that has not been seen in the Championship in 35 years since Peter Brock’s Holden Dealer Team did it in 1980.

5Team BOC’s Jason Bright will make his 220th Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship round start at Hidden Valley in Darwin.

It will tie him for fifth on the all-time championship round starts list with his former Holden Racing Team teammate Mark Skaife.

Bright holds both the qualifying and race lap records for V8 Supercars at Hidden Valley that have stood since 2002 and 1999 respectively. Both are expected to fall this year given the track has been resurfaced.

??KNOWYOUDID 4 V8 Supercars SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin Super Sprint I Did You Know

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6Could the second race on Saturday at Hidden Valley be the one in which Craig Lowndes becomes the first man to win 100 races in the history of the ATCC/V8SC? It could be if you believe in the power of numbers as it’s the 888th race in championship history – the same number as

Lowndes’ Red Bull Racing Australia Commodore! Lowndes would also have extra reason to celebrate a victory on Sunday given it’s his 41st birthday.

8The Holden Racing Team remains the most successful team in the history of the Hidden Valley event with 14 race wins claimed by the HRT.

However, the factory Holden squad has not had much success there in the recent past given it has not won a race in Darwin since Race 2 in 2008 with Garth Tander – a drought of six years and 15 races.

HRT does also hold the record for most pole positions in V8 Supercars in Darwin – eight.

7Close margins are common at Hidden Valley in Darwin with the closest pole-winning margin in V8 Supercars at the circuit being just 0.0002-seconds (two 10-thousands of a second!) on the Sunday in 2010 when Alex Davison took his maiden championship pole over Jamie Whincup.

Craig Lowndes led home Mark Winterbottom in the final Sunday race in 2013 in the closest V8 Supercar race finish seen in Darwin – just 0.1165-seconds separated the two drivers at the chequered flag.

9Five different drivers have led the V8 Supercars Championship point score this year, despite only 12 races being completed. Current leader Mark Winterbottom, Jamie Whincup, Fabian Coulthard, James Courtney

and Craig Lowndes have all taken turns in the points lead this season. The biggest margin so far this year was 52 points from Lowndes to Courtney after Race 9

in Perth while the smallest margin was a single point from Winterbottom to Whincup after Race 8, also in Perth.

10Two drivers are making their very first V8 Supercar start at Hidden Valley in year’s SKYCITY Triple Crown.

Erebus Motorsport V8’s Ash Walsh and Super Black Racing’s Andre Heimgartner have both never competed in the championship in the ‘Top End’ until this year.

5V8 Supercars SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin Super Sprint I Did You Know

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