Winton SuperSprint
 | |
_track_map_--_with_extension.svg.png) | |
| Race Information | |
| Venue | Winton Motor Raceway |
| Number of times held | 28 |
| First held | 1985 |
| Race Format | |
| Race 1 | |
| Laps | 20 |
| Distance | 60 km |
| Race 2 | |
| Laps | 20 |
| Distance | 60 km |
| Race 3 | |
| Laps | 67 |
| Distance | 200 km |
| Last Event (2015) | |
| Overall Winner | |
 Mark Winterbottom | Prodrive Racing Australia |
| Race Winners | |
| Chaz Mostert | Prodrive Racing Australia |
| Mark Winterbottom | Prodrive Racing Australia |
| Mark Winterbottom | Prodrive Racing Australia |
.svg.png){kind=small}
The Winton SuperSprint is an annual motor racing event for V8 Supercars, held at Winton Motor Raceway in Winton, Victoria. The event has been a regular part of the V8 Supercars Championship—and its previous incarnations, the Australian Touring Car Championship and Shell Championship Series—since 1985.
Format
The event is staged over a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday. Two one-hour practice sessions are held on Friday while a fifteen-minute practice session is held on each of Saturday and Sunday. Saturday features a pair of ten-minute qualifying sessions which decide the grid positions for the following two 60 kilometre sprint races. A single twenty-minute qualifying session is held on Sunday to decide the grid for the following 200 km race.[1]
History
Jim Richards won the first two Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) events at Winton in 1985 and 1986. The 1985 event marked the only time in the history of the ATCC that a Holden did not compete in the race. Richards won the race by a lap over his teammate Neville Crichton, both in BMW 635CSis, while Kevin Bartlett finished third in a Mitsubishi Starion. Richards' 1986 win came only after the Nissan Skyline of Gary Scott was excluded for using oversized front brake caliper pistons.[2]
Nissan would go on to dominate the event, winning every year from 1989 to 1992. George Fury's win in 1989 ended a fifteen-race winning streak by the Ford Sierra RS500, which had won every ATCC race in 1988 and the first six races of 1989.[2] The race was run in wet conditions and featured various leaders, including Peter Brock in a Sierra, Fury and Mark Skaife in Skylines and Allan Grice in a Holden Commodore. Brock finished in second despite a spin while Skaife took his first ATCC podium finish.[3]
The circuit was extended in 1997 and Larry Perkins took his first and only ATCC pole position that that year's event. His teammate Russell Ingall won all three races during the weekend to take overall victory ahead of Perkins and Glenn Seton.[2] In the 2003 event, Greg Murphy was given a controversial drive-through penalty. Craig Lowndes lost the rear of his car going through the fast turn five and, as he applied the brakes to try and regain control, was hit by Murphy. The penalty was criticised by television commentator Neil Crompton and Lowndes said that Murphy "had been treated harshly".[4] There was more controversy in 2004, when Cameron McConville passed Rick Kelly for the lead at the penultimate corner on the final lap. Brad Jones' car was stopped on the straight before the corner, with yellow flags being displayed and passing being disallowed as a result. Kelly was animated after the race, claiming that McConville had passed him in the yellow flag zone, but it was found that the pass had been made just as the two cars left the yellow flag zone and McConville kept the victory.[5]
The 2009 event saw the introduction of the Dunlop soft tyre, the first time that the tyre company had provided two different slick tyre compounds since becoming the control tyre supplier in 2002.[6] The 2013 and 2014 events saw some success for Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Volvo, the manufacturers which had entered the series under the New Generation V8 Supercar rules in those two seasons. James Moffat, driving for Nissan Motorsport, took his first career victory in the first race of the 2013 event,[7] while Lee Holdsworth gave Mercedes-Benz its first V8 Supercar win in the second race of the 2014 event.[8] Scott McLaughin took his first career pole position driving a Volvo S60 in 2014.[9]
Winners
_track_map_--_original_track.svg.png)
Multiple winners
By driver
| Wins | Driver | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 4 |  Jim Richards |
1985, 1986, 1990, 1991 |
| 3 | John Bowe |
1988, 1995, 1998 |
| Craig Lowndes |
2006, 2009, 2012 | |
| 2 | Glenn Seton |
1993, 1994 |
| Jason Bargwanna |
1999, 2000 | |
| Russell Ingall |
1997, 2001 | |
| Jamie Whincup |
2007, 2011 | |
| James Courtney |
2010, 2013 | |
| Mark Winterbottom |
2014, 2015 | |
By team
By manufacturer
| Wins | Manufacturer |
|---|---|
| 12 | Ford |
| 10 | Holden |
| 4 | Nissan |
| 2 | BMW |
- Notes
- ^1 – Prodrive Racing Australia was known as Ford Performance Racing from 2003 to 2014, hence their statistics are combined.
Event sponsors
- 1986: Lusty-Allison
- 2015: NP300 Navara
References
- ↑ "V8 Supercars Operations Manual 2015 - Divison A - Administration Rules" (PDF). V8 Supercars. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 Greenhalgh, David; Howard, Graham; Wilson, Stewart (2011). The official history: Australian Touring Car Championship - 50 Years. St Leonards, New South Wales: Chevron Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-9805912-2-4.
- ↑ "The Top 10 Aussie Touring Car races of all time – Part two". Auto Action. 31 May 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
- ↑ "The Devil racer does it again, this time at Winton". Motorsport.com. 27 May 2003. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ "Race Flashback: Cam's Last Corner Pass". V8Supercars.com.au. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ "Dunlop to introduce its new V8 Sport Maxx "Sprint" tyre at Winton". Jax Quickfit Tyres. April 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ "Moffat leads Nissan one-two at Winton". Speedcafe. 24 August 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ "Holdsworth hands Erebus maiden V8 Supercars win". Speedcafe. 5 April 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ Bartholomaeus, Stefan (6 April 2014). "McLaughlin scores first V8 Supercars pole". Speedcafe. Retrieved 9 July 2015.