V8 Supercars is a touring car racing category based in Australia and some statistics say that it only ranks in popularity behind cricket and Australian Rules. It is the most popular motorsport category in the country and has a steady following also in New Zealand due to a race event being held in the town of Hamilton each year.
Apart from racing in every state in Australia it also travels to Bahrain to race on the Formula 1 circuit there. There are 2 manufacturers involved in the series (Ford and Holden) and are loosely based on the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore road cars which have been the 2 most purchased cars in the country. This has thought to have resulted in the motor racing term “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”.
There are many famous names associated with the v8 Supercars history (the category itself was originally known as Group A Touring Cars) with the likes of Peter Brock, Larry Perkins, Dick Johnson, Jim Richards just to name a few with the present day names Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup and Garth Tander more recognisable in the present day racing.
One of the pinnacles of the legendary category is the endurance race of the year, “The Bathurst 1000” held each October in the town of Bathurst, NSW(obviously). The race is run over the length of 1000 kms around a 6.2 km circuit which to this day still remains a public access road & the only one of its kind in Australia. The circuit itself is known as Mount Panorama and entices drivers from all over the world to test their skills amongst its rural setting.
V8 Supercars only seems to be getting more popular and this has resulted in the sport running 9 months of the year and in 2009 2 new venues have been added to the category. Townville in North Qld will see it’s first race on a purpose built street circuit and the other race will be in Sydney itself at Homebush which is the former sight of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.