- Yas vas v8 400 Abu Dhabi - V8 Supercars Australia
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What are V8 Supercars?
V8 Supercars is a touring car racing category based in Australia and run as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations. It is very popular in both Australia and New Zealand. It is also gaining international popularity in countries where it is shown on television such as China, Europe and Asia.
V8 Supercar events take place in all the states of Australia. Overseas rounds are also held in New Zealand and Abu Dhabi and, up until 2010, Bahrain. V8 Supercars events can draw large crowds of spectators. The 2010 season was held over 14 race weekends at purpose-built racetracks and street circuits. Race formats include sprint races, with either a 100 km or 200 km race on Saturday and one 200 km race on Sunday, two 250 km races over the weekend (Adelaide and Sydney), two 300 km races over the weekend (Gold Coast) or endurance races such as Bathurst, which runs over 1000 km race distance, and Phillip Island, which runs over 500 km.
The V8 Supercars themselves take as their basis either the Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore. They might look like the factory model on the outside but they are heavily modified to suit motor racing.. They are strictly governed in all aspects of performance in an effort to keep all the drivers on an even footing to create closer, more exciting racing. Because of this, entire fields of 29 drivers are separated by just one second over qualifying laps at some events.
Historically, Ford and Holden are the two most popular passenger cars in the Australian car market. Rivalry between the two makes is a key aspect of the sport's appeal. V8 supercars are kind of Australia's version of Nascar.
Abu Dhabi Race Format and Track
The Abu Dhabi race track is 4.7 kms long and runs in an anti clockwise direction. Two 43 laps races were held across the weekend.
Race 1 Summary
Race 1 was a pretty quiet start expect for pole sitter Craig Lowndes stalling his car off the start and dropping to 5th. Alex Davidson takes the lead, while his brother Will spun and was lucky not to get hit by the rest of the pack. Wincup then passes Davidson for the lead.
By lap 8 Whincup leads by 1.8 seconds to A. Davison, Winterbottom, Lowndes and Dumbrell. Garth Tander and Shane Van Gisbergen have both moved into the top ten. Will Davison and Jonathon Webb are the first cars to complete their compulsory pit stops.
The rest of the race was fairly quiet. Whincup won with Alex Davidson second and Mark Witterbottom third.
Race 2 Summary
Race two was full of Drama from the start. A crash on lap one saw two cars retire from the race and many others left with battle scars. The whole field pits under safety car conditions and many more laps are spent under these conditions. When the race finally restarted Whinncup passed Winterbottom before Johnson passed both of them for the lead. A few laps later, Johnson makes another pit stop and Whincup resumes the race lead. A second crash sees the safety car come out again and once again the majority of the field pit under safety car conditions. The eventual restart sees James Courtney lead from Jason Bright and Fabian Coulthard. Coulthard then pits for fuel leaving Jamie Whincup in third place. The final laps see the lead change between James Courtney and Jason Bright, a number of times, but in the end James Courtney wins with Jason Bright second and Jamie Whincup third.
Karen Peatt - Articles written by Karen Peatt
