Clipsal 500 Adelaide | 1- 4 March 2012 *Spoilers*

The 2012 Clipsal 500 Adelaide, will be the 14th epic event, staged on Adelaide's world renowned 3.2km street circuit in the heart of the Adelaide. The Clipsal 500 Adelaide is the anticipated opening Australian round of the V8 Supercar Championship.

The four days of rocking action will include two 250km V8 Supercar races with support race categories, delivering South Australia's largest annual sporting event. This feast of motorsport action is coupled with on-circuit entertainment and over 90 individual on and off the track events. This vibrant mix of motorsport and top level entertainment has resulted in international icon Murray Walker describing it as "the best touring car event in the world."

For more information visit www.clipsal500.com.au



Day Session/Race Format R/Grid Times & Results
Friday Practice 30 mins N 09:05 - 09:35
Friday Practice 30 mins N 11:00 - 11:30
Friday Practice 30 mins N 12:10 - 12:40
Friday Practice 30 mins N 13:30 - 14:00
Friday Qualifying 20 mins N 14:50 - 15:10
Friday Top 10 Shootout 1 laps N 16:05 - 16:35
Saturday Warm Up 20 mins N 09:05 - 09:25
Saturday Race 78 laps N 14:35 - 17:00
Sunday Qualifying 20 mins N 11:15 - 11:35
Sunday Race 78 laps N 14:35 - 17:00

Fighting Mark wants Ford to reign

by: Reece Homfray
From: AdelaideNow
March 01, 2012 6:05PM



FORD pin-up boy Mark Winterbottom has pleaded with his teammates to stand up and fight to end Holden's two-year dominance of the Clipsal 500.

A blue-badged car has not won a race in Adelaide since Jamie Whincup did the double in 2009 before switching manufacturers.

Now on the eve of the 2012 V8 Supercar season, Ford Performance Racing's leading driver has implored his team to roll Holden on home soil.

"It's Holden territory, you're in the manufacturing hub of Holden and it's been a dry patch for Ford," Winterbottom said.

"As a factory team we feel some pressure for that but this year we feel we've got our best chance for a very long time.

"Even though it's a Holden town, there's a lot of blue around here and people don't want to keep coming back and seeing red cars win.

"We've given them wins at other places, but there's 300,000 people who come through this place so we want to make them happy and ourselves happy as well.


"They (fans) deserve it, they wear their gear proudly every year and we think we can win a race here."

Winterbottom has been a loyal Ford servant his entire career and said if his teammates Will Davison or Dave Reynolds couldn't win, he hoped someone from the Ford brotherhood would.

"We're all racing each other regardless of what colour their badge is," he said.

"We want it to ourselves (Ford Performance Racing) but if we can't win it we'll cheer on a blue car."

The 30-year-old finished third in last year's championship behind Team Vodafone's Whincup and Craig Lowndes.

His best Clipsal 500 result was a second in 2008 and third placings in 2010 and 2011. Now he's desperate to go one better.

"You have your bucket list and I've done a few but Bathurst and Adelaide are definitely still on that list," he said.

"I'm hungry, motivated, got good equipment and confident so I've got everything there.

"But this place you can't predict the unpredictable, the weather or one mistake and you're in the wall."

He also said drivers sometimes had to gamble between a conservative approach to guarantee championship points, or risk it all for Clipsal 500 glory.

Winterbottom finished last season with victory at Homebush and said the team had addressed its weaknesses in the off-season.

"When you leave Adelaide you have a debrief and brake locking was a big issue for us in the past," he said.

"When you have that on one lap you could qualify pole because you can deal with it, but for 78 laps we'd lose rear tyre life, braking life, confidence and it would escalate.

"Every weakness we've had in the past we've fixed, you can't control the one percenters, but nothing has changed since Homebush last year and we won that race."

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/...-1226286532011

End of P1 and fastest man was David in the bottle o FPR Falcon, with Tony 3rd quickest. Both FPR falcons riding the curbs very well. Dave's car looks sensational as do the djr cars.

That's good to hear, hope they keep it up.


Below are pics taken by Ian (HSE2).

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...286330_n-1.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...00203658_n.jpg

There is something about that Bottle O car that see's new driver's do so well straight out,
Come on Frosty, bring home the win this weekend, it's your's.

Love Mark's fighting words there. Go team BLUE.

chaz just got pole in another fpr falcon, dev series

There is a little bit of talk about Ford and if they will committ to the series as Holden has done and what the likely grid will look like in a few years.

P2 finished and the fpr boys change places. Tony first david second. On track commentary spent much of the session talking about the prospect of a night race that was mentioned in the local paper here this morning. Next session has all drivers out.

Oh Damn I really hope we get up and take it this weekend - go fellas.
Thanks Ian keep the updates going.