Well folks, the Supercars’ championship kicks off this weekend in Adelaide. It’s the 20th time the big bangers have visited the mean streets of Adelaide and 2018 is the 15th time the event has been the opening stanza of the series.
Adelaide is my favorite race weekend on the Supercars calendar. Sure, Bathurst is probably the most iconic, but Adelaide has a bit of everything, including history as it’s where the Australian Formula One Grand Prix was held for 10 years.
The place has pedigree, it’s set in a great local location close to the city centre, but with loads of parkland, wide open streets and one of best corners — Turn Eight — of any track. People flock to the track in such huge numbers that on occasion the gates are closed as the place is packed to the rafters.
The drivers reckon it’s one of the most physically demanding races in the championship and will push them to their limits especially in the heat of the South Australian capital. And if it’s not baking hot, it’s pouring with rain which makes the racing even more interesting,
Over the years there have been some standout and crazy moments that live on in most motorsport fans’ memories. For me, one of the earliest memories was back in 2000. Mark Skaife, who failed to finish Saturday’s race, had to start from P38 on the grid for Sunday. Appearing to have nothing to loose, and throwing everything at it including the kitchen sink with a bit of good fortune thrown in, Skaife won the race.
Turn Eight has always been the home of the brave and slightly mad. At around 220km/h with the outside of the car fully loaded (there’s a great picture of Scott McLaughlin fizzing through there on three wheels) it takes some cojones not to lift off.
However, you don’t want to get it wrong. Hence my next standout moment. In 2009’s race there was a battle royal between Paul Dumbrell, Greg Murphy, Russell Ingall and Mark Skaife. Murphy tried to go round the outside of Dumbrell with a little too much enthusiasm and smacked into the outside wall of Turn Eight. Skaife though he could sneak by Ingall as well and he promptly hit the wall as well and so ended both their races.
A personal favourite though, was in 2014 when then 20-year-old McLaughlin announced to the paddock he had arrived. The Kiwi was showing five-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup bugger all respect while battling him for second place. Whincup managed to muscle his way through with a few corners to go, only for McLaughlin to pressure him into a mistake at the last corner and that was that.
What immortalized the incident was McLaughlin’s unrestrained and from the heart response post race when he said, “I don’t know what happened there. I just plucked it in first, gave it some jandal and f*** yeah!”
And finally there’s 2016 when a home town boy made good. Heavy rain caused all sorts of grief, chaos and carnage for everyone up and down pit lane resulting in the race being stopped on lap 41. With five minutes to go the race re-started and Nick Percat jumped to the lead on the final lap after the other teams had to take their mandatory fuel stop, which he had taken just before the stoppage.
If anyone is in doubt just what an unknown this race is, in the past 20 years there has not been one race where 100 percent of the field has finished. And, just to throw in another curve ball, Turn Eight has been resurfaced for 2018 meaning more grip and higher speeds. Yeeha!
Source :nzherald.co.nz
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