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2005 V8 SUPERCAR     

2005 V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

• Round 1 of 13: Mar 17-20, 2005, Clipsal 500 Adelaide
• 7th year of V8 Supercar round in Adelaide
• Two 250km races, Sat 2pm; Sun 2pm, March 20, 2005

SCHEDULE:

• FRI, practice, qualifying, top 10 shoot-out
  9.45am-10.20am Practice 1 ; 12.15pm-12.50pm Practice 2
  2.20pm-2.40pm Qualifying (Lower 50%); 2.45pm-3.05pm Qualifying (Upper 50%)
  4pm-4.30pm Top 10 Shootout
• SAT: 250 kilometre race (78 lap), 2 pm
• SUN: 250 kilometre race (78 lap), 2 pm

LAST YEARS RESULT: 2004

• 1 Ambrose/Falcon 2 Steve Richards/Commodore 3 Weel Commodore

RACE RESULT:

RACE 2, SUN, MAR 20, 2005, 34 cars

• 1 Marcos Ambrose, Ford, Stone Brothers Racing, 78 laps
• 2 Craig Lowndes +6.3s
• 3 Mark Skaife
• 4 Steven Richards
• 5 T Kelly
• 6 Dumbrell
• 7 Wilson
• 8 Weel
• 9 R Kelly
• 10 Radisich

RACE 1, SAT, MAR 19, 2005, 34 cars

AMBROSE (WINNER): "What a great car. What a great day. That was one of the hardest races I have ever had. I think we did our fastest lap with seven races to go and Russell (Ingall) pushed me all the way. I have said since my announcement about leaving the series at the end of the year for NASCAR, that I am totally focused on trying to win a third title for SBR, Ford, Pirtek and the fans this season.Hopefully this gives a pretty good idea of how focused I am"

• 1 Marcos Ambrose, Ford, Stone Brothers Racing, 78 laps
• 2 Russell Ingall +0.83
  "Let's face it, I am racing the best driver in the category and it was great to push him all the way. We got held up a little with our fuel stop because we came in behind Marcos, but at the end of the day that did not matter because of the amount of safety car periods through the race. It was spooky how similar mine and Marcos' cars were. I would see him have a slide at one corner and then my car would do the same thing. "
• 3 Craig Lowndes +3
• 4 Steven Johnson +11
• 5 Steven Richards +11.7
• 6 Greg Murphy
• 7 Garth Tander
• 8 Seton
• 9 T Kelly
• 10 McConville
• 11 Weel 12 Bowe 13 Jones
• DNF: Ellery - crash, Bargwanna - crash, Bright - crash, McConville - crash, Skaife

QUALIFYING:

GRID, TOP 10 SHOOT-OUT, FRI, MAR 18, 2005

• 1 Rick Kelly, Holden, HSV Dealer Team, 1m 22.94s
  "I’ve started alongside Marcos on one occasion and he got me, so I’m hoping we’ll be all right tomorrow. Marcos gets really good starts, so if we can be in the top three in the opening laps we’ll be going well, because who knows what is going to happen with the pitstops."
• 2 Marcos Ambrose, Ford +0.1s
  "We didn’t get pole, but we did have a good day ... It is a long, long race, and to be honest pole here is not that important. There are a lot of things that can happen tomorrow.”
• 3 Steve Ellery, Ford +0.24s
  "This is my best every qualifying, and it shows the move to Triple 8 in the off-season has been good. But, to be honest, it wasn’t that easy for me today, the car is a lot different to what I am used to, so I needed to build some confidence."
• 4 Russell Ingall
• 5 Jason Bright
• 6 Greg Murphy
• 7 Steven Richards
• 8 Craig Lowndes
• 9 Paul Radisich
• 10 Mark Skaife

QUALIFYING

• 1 Marcos Ambrose, Ford 1m 22.17
• 2 Paul Radisich
• 3 Steve Ellery
• 4 Craig Lowndes
• 5 Jason Bright
• 6 Rick Kelly
• 7 Steven Richards
• 8 Greg Murphy
• 9 Russell Ingall
• 10 Mark Skaife

RACE PREVIEW:

• MARCOS AMBROSE: "This place has a huge atmosphere, but the race itself is bloody tough, especially when it is hot. It is one of the best street tracks to drive on. The walls trap all the heat and smoke and make the temperatures even hotter inside the car. We combat this with specially designed cool suits and it is imperative that your helmet ventilation system is working well."
• GREG MURPHY: "It's hard to say who will pop up there ... There will definitely be the 'regulars' in Ambrose, Skaife and the like, but there's been so many changes in the off-season that there might be the odd curve ball. The Grand Prix was a little that way where there were some others who showed good form that surprised a few people."
• CRAIG LOWNDES: "This has been the best off season I have had in a long, long time - if not ever. I am supremely confident that this will be a great year and I've got to say my car is the best Falcon I've ever driven since I've been in Ford land ... History shows that anyone who does well in Adelaide generally has a good year ... The top three guys from Adelaide are always in the mix at the end of the year."
• MARK SKAIFE: "It's a tough race to win, certainly one of the toughest we race ... Many teams have made significant changes to their cars, driver line-up and to key personnel over the past few months. It's going to be an intriguing weekend in a lot of ways"

FORD PERFROMANCE RACING

• FPR READY FOR V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP OPENING STREET FIGHT THIS WEEKEND
• The long wait in anticipation of the start of the 2005 Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series for racing fans is over, as the city of Adelaide hosts the bumper opening round and flagship event of the world's most competitive Touring Car series, the Clipsal 500 this weekend.
• Ford Performance Racing (FPR) 2005 season drivers Jason Bright and Greg Ritter are well prepared for this opening round, following the team's top ten performances at the season warm up event at the Melbourne Grand Prix a fortnight ago.
• Bright will be competing in the team's 2004 configuration CAT FPR Falcon, with Ritter once again taking to the track in the team's new 2005 Ford Credit FPV Falcon chassis which made a very promising and reliable debut at the Grand Prix.
• The Adelaide Parklands Street Circuit, the former home of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, has been a happy hunting ground for Bright, the Victorian driver has made three visits to the Clipsal 500 podium in five attempts. Team mate Ritter will be making his third appearance in this bumper event driving a V8 Supercar, and is looking forward to making the most of the potential displayed in his new FPR Falcon at the Grand Prix.
• This round is the most physically and mechanically demanding of the entire series, with usual high temperatures and the unforgiving concrete walled street circuit layout making the two 250 kilometre races on Saturday and Sunday the most challenging and exciting of the entire series.
• #6 Jason Bright - "I expect Adelaide to be a very different challenge for us compared to the Grand Prix. This year will be a large learning curve with both my car and the new car that Greg is running and we need to focus on learning about the cars which will make us a stronger team in the long run. Having said this, you can rest assured that I will be out there giving it my best to put the CAT FPR Falcon up as far as possible."
• #5 Greg Ritter - "I am anxious to get the Championship underway after the potential our new car displayed at the Grand Prix. We will take everything we have learned about the car to Adelaide and we plan to translate this into two good race results over the weekend. I have competed in this event twice before and these are two very long and hard races - there is no room for a breather on the Adelaide street circuit and very little margin for error, so driver fitness will come to the fore."
• FPR Chief Engineer, Phil Keed - "Both FPR Falcons displayed excellent potential at the Grand Prix and we are seeking to build on this in Adelaide. We are taking a step by step approach towards making both of our cars consistently quick and reliable."

STONE BROTHERS FORD

• This weekend marks the opening round of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship series with the Clipsal 500 on the streets of Adelaide, South Australia. There are plenty of expectations surrounding SBR this year after Pirtek Racing's Marcos Ambrose and Caltex Racing's Russell Ingall finished 1-2 in last year's title chase.
• Ambrose is chasing his third consecutive title, while Ingall believes he has a fantastic opportunity to record his first title after being runner-up four times. SBR has experienced few changes during the off-season with just one staff movement in the engineering department.
• MARCOS AMBROSE -- PIRTEK RACING 2004 FLASHBACK
  Ambrose was pretty quick straight out of the box and was actually fastest at the end of official qualifying. Unfortunately he lost a couple of spots in the shootout to Greg Murphy and Jason Bright, but was still the highest-placed Ford. Ambrose took the lead on lap 46 of the opening 78-race contest and was never headed as he raced away to a comfortable eight-second win as he slowed over the line to salute his team which had lined the pit wall. He completed the last 58 laps on one set of Dunlops. Ambrose became the first Ford driver to claim an outright victory at the Clipsal 500 when he won the second leg on the Sunday. Ambrose overcame an irregular throttle for the majority of the race to beat home Steve Richards and Jason Bright in the 78-lap battle in which just 17 of the 28-car field finished and just 12 of those on the lead lap. Ambrose held off Richards despite several re-starts in the closing stages of the race.
  MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
  "Sharing a hotel room with David Besnard four years ago after he had eaten a bad prawn the night before. The guy spent all night in the loo and shower. At one stage I think he had one end in the loo and the other in the shower. I have never seen a person so sick. Winning last year's event was also a terrific highlight of my time in Adelaide and my career as a whole.
  THOUGHTS ON CLIPSAL 500
  "This place has a huge atmosphere, but the race itself is bloody tough, especially when it is hot. It is one of the best street tracks to drive on. The walls trap all the heat and smoke and make the temperatures even hotter inside the car. We combat this with specially designed cool suits and it is imperative that your helmet ventilation system is working well."
• RUSSELL INGALL -- CALTEX RACING 2004 FLASHBACK
  Russell Ingall topped the time sheets in the opening practice session and was never out of the top five all day -- until the shootout. Ingall struggled to get enough temperature into his Dunlops and dropped from fifth to seventh on the grid. Ingall made a blinding start in race one and was fifth by the opening turn. He gradually picked this way through the field to finish an impressive third. Sunday he was not so fortunate with his engine braking a valve spring on lap 10 and leaving him 14th outright for the weekend.
  MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT
  "I have had a lot of strong results in Adelaide, but I am yet to crack it for a win. I have finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th in races over the past few years, maybe this weekend we can make the move to the top step.
  THOUGHTS ON CLIPSAL 500
  "This is my old home town. I have not won in Adelaide yet, but I have been on the podium a few times. This race always wins the best event of the year and after you have been there you can tell why. It is an outstanding event with a great crowd. It is one of the best technical circuits you can drive on. It all adds up to a pretty awesome weekend.