MOTORSPORT: Winterbottom aims for winning start in V8SC

V8 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom is hoping he can tick another box in his burgeoning CV by winning the Clipsal 500 this weekend.

But the Prodrive Ford Falcon FG X driver may need to be careful what he wishes for as only once since 2010 has the winner of the opening event on the V8 Supercars calendar gone on to win the drivers’ championship – Jamie Whincup in 2011.

Indeed, if history is anything to go by, Winterbottom’s also driving the wrong brand of car – only Holden Commodores have won at the concrete-lined Adelaide parklands circuit since the NewGen racer was introduced in 2013.

Winterbottom, who trades in Pepsi for The Bottle-O as the primary sponsor on his Ford in 2016, has been steadily ticking off the milestones in recent years, claiming his first Bathurst 1000 in 2013 and his first drivers’ championship last year. Clearly, the 34-year old sees the Clipsal as the next target to achieve.

"I'm really keen to get to Clipsal and get back into racing. To go there in our new colours and with the number one makes it even more exciting,” ‘Frosty’ told motoring.com.au on the eve of hostilities in the City of Churches.

“I'm really looking forward to Clipsal. It's a round that I've never won. I've come close, I think I finished second two or three times but it's the one big event that I'd love to tick off and actually say I've won. Hopefully this is the year and hopefully we can defend this championship. It all starts now and round one is important.

“If we have a good round it's a good way of starting our title defence," Winterbottom stated.

Well, in theory it is. But he might want to check in with James Courtney on that.

The Holden Racing Team star has won on Sunday here the last two years but hasn’t been able to carry on the momentum of victory. Courtney even missed a series of races (including Bathurst) last year after being injured by debris stirred up by a low flying helicopter at the Sydney Motorsport Park round.

Courtney and the rest of the Holden factory team would happily trade a win at Clipsal for year-long competitiveness. As we reported here Holden’s motorsport future is yet to be defined beyond 2016 and there is no confirmation as yet whether HRT and its owner Walkinshaw Group will be part of it.

The other factory Holden operation is Roland Dane’s Triple Eight operation, which has expanded to three cars for 2016; two Red Bull Commodores for six-time champion Jamie Whincup and his new team-mate Shane van Gisbergen, and Caltex backing for Craig Lowndes in the new TeamVortex entry.

While there’s much interest in whether Whincup and van Gisbergen will cope as teammates racing for the championship, the preamble to Clipsal has been all about Lowndes, who will contest a record 251st championship round. Russell Ingall previously held the record.

While the performance of the ageless Lowndes will be much scrutinized this weekend, there are plenty of other stories to follow.

Winterbottom’s team-mate Chaz Mostert makes his return to racing after his horrific Bathurst crash last October, while young gun Cam Waters was officially confirmed only days ago to join them in the Prodrive line-up.

The driver ejected to make way for Waters, David Reynolds, will debut with a restructured Erebus Motorsport, which has moved to Melbourne from the Gold Coast and parked its Mercedes-AMG E63s for ex-Walkinshaw Commodores.

There have been numerous other moves: James Moffat from Nissan to Volvo; Will Davison from Erebus to Tekno Autosports to replace van Gisbergen; Fabian Coulthard from Brad Jones Racing to DJR Team Penske; Tim Slade from Walkinshaw to BJR; and, Dale Wood from BJR to Nissan.

And those are just the more significant changes. In total 12 of the 26 drivers are in new seats or are new to the championship.

Guaranteed by Sunday night a few of those 26 will be smiling and a bunch of them will be putting the best spin on the tough weekend the heat and concrete walls typically dish up.

Meanwhile here's what to look out for on the streets of Adelaide this weekend...

>> The Clipsal 500 comprises the opening three races of the championship. Two 10-minute qualifying sessions today (Friday) determine the grid for Saturday two 125km races. Then there’s a 20-minute qualifying session and a top 10 shoot-out prior to Sunday’s 250km mini-marathon.

>>The first qualifying race will be on soft Dunlop control tyres; the rest of the qualifying and racing is on the Dunlop hard tyre.

>>All cars will have to make at least one stop in the 125km races and change at least two tyres. They will have to make two stops on Sunday.

>>HRT’s James Courtney has won the Sunday race and therefore title of Clipsal 500 overall winner the last two years. Before that in 2013 it was Shane van Gisbergen in his very first outing for the Tekno Autosports team.

>> Since the new generation (Car of the Future) V8 Supercars were introduced in 2013, Holden has been undefeated at the Adelaide street track. Holden drivers have won 12 of the last 13 Clipsal races since 2010, and secured the last 10 Clipsal pole positions.

>>The qualifying lap record is 1:20.0084, set by Shane van Gisbergen in 2015. The race lap record is a 1:21.0507 set by Jamie Whincup in 2012.

>> Most of the 3.22km track uses the former Australian Formula One Grand Prix street circuit designed in conjunction with former F1 World Champion, Keke Rosberg. The fast layout leaves absolutely no room for errors and its concrete barriers have often provided a stark reminder to V8 Supercar drivers of just how hard street circuits can bite if mistakes are made.

>>Both Fox Sports and Channel 10 will telecast the round.