V8s go soft in QLD heat
At the upcoming Ipswich 300 the V8 Supercars will race entirely on the softer compound tyres for the first time ever. V8 Supercars introduced the softer Dunlop tyres, officially called Super Maxx Sprint tyres, last year for six events where drivers used one set over the course of the weekend. But this year the Queensland and Winton races, which are back to back, will be run solely on the soft tyres. The move will hopefully mix things up at Queensland Raceway, which is also known as the Paperclip and is the test track for the northern based V8 Supercar teams. One of those is TeamVodafone and based on recent form you would have to pick driver Jamie Whincup as the favourite to win. J-Dub already leads the Championship by 204 points only four events into the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship and last year he won the Saturday race at the 3.12 kilometre long Paperclip.
Toll Holden Racing Team might be Melbourne-based but it generally goes pretty well at Queensland Raceway and driver Garth Tander, who finished runner-up to Whincup in both races at New Zealand, will be keen to go one better. Another Melbourne team is Ford Performance Racing but it could really go either way up north as the team reels from its woeful showing in New Zealand. Driver Mark Winterbottom was a second off the pace and although he finished seventh in the first race, his result of 14th in the Sunday race was excluded because his car was one of three Falcons which were found to be in breach of the rules. Frosty said it was “a weekend I’d rather forget” (we don’t blame him) and that he would sit down with his engineer Campbell Little to get the car right again for Queensland.
Pic: Ford will be looking for some redemption at the City of Ipswich 300
Credit: Justin Deeley
The undercards at the Ipswich 300 are the Fujitsu Series, Aussie Racing Cars, Mini Series and Formula Ford and for the first time V8 Supercars Australia is running the event instead of an independent promoter. Following a bit of argy-bargy between the category and circuit management over the off-season about the conditions of the track’s amenities, V8 Supercars agreed to run the event for the first time this year in a one-off arrangement but wants some serious work done to make it better for spectators in the future or else it has vowed not to return. But at least this arrangement will keep the south east Queensland fans satisfied for another year.
