V8 Supercars: Round 1 Adelaide, Clipsal 500

[Revolution]

Apparantly he was suffering a bit of heat exhaustion towards the end there, no cool suit and no opening for air on the side of the car or something. Thats what the newspaper said anyway.
The race yesterday was great, fantastic weather, very different to the sweltering 40C of Friday.
I was most amazed at the fact that there were no safety car periods in the Supercars race, and no turn 8 shenanigans.
It was a very clean race, and fairly enjoyable too
I'll post my pics up probably tomorrow, Dad has my camera at the track today, along with all the pics I took yesterday

[Zytek_Fan]

The Fords are looking strong...

[2ndclasscitizen]

BAAAD start for Courtney, down to 10th now, 0.5 sec behind Murphy in 9th. Rick is on fire, just took Todd. Whincup has taken Winterbottom for 4th

[Revolution]

And the winner is Kelly! Rick, that is, Todd finished second.
James Courtney held off a hungry Russel Ingall to sit on the third step of the podium.

Quite an exciting race, with 3 (I think) safety car periods and a few big crashes.

Well done to the Kelly boys!

[2ndclasscitizen]

It was definately a great race, and very good coverage by Ch.7 (hopefully they can keep it up once the footy starts)

[Monty_Burns]

It was definately a great race, and very good coverage by Ch.7 (hopefully they can keep it up once the footy starts)

Commentary team's pretty average though.

Overall, a good weekend of racing. Good to see plenty of teams with speed...plenty of depth for both camps. The new K.O. qualifying was good, but even better, I'm happy to see SBR back on the pace after an average 2006.

[Zytek_Fan]

Who wants to start making bets on driver's championship?

[fpv_gtho]

Might be a bit early. Based on Clipsal, you'd say it'll be between both SBR drivers, the Kelly's, Winterbottom and Whincup. That leaves Lowndes, Skaife and possibly also both DJR drivers out, who had pace at some time during the weekend, and the first 2 of which are past multiple champions. The last 2 years infact Lowndes has mounted his challenge off the back of a shocking start to the year.

[adrenaline]

How bad was that start for Courtney! In the press conference he said it had something to do with the engine mapping.

[fpv_gtho]

Seems like an excuse, but if SBR have sacrificed off-idle power for more top end, might hold some merit.

[motorsportnerd]

Commentary team's pretty average though.

Neil Crompton is a great commentator - easily the best in Australia. The rest all seem a bit average and there were some rather stupid questions put to the drivers by some of the pit commentators. Overall, I have no complaints about the Channel 7 coverage.
The best commentary team would be Neil Crompton and Brad Jones. Once Brad hangs up his helmet (end of this year?), Channel 7 needs to offer him a contract to join the commentary team. He might have to bite his tongue where is own team is concerned, but otherwise, having heard Brad commentate on various races over the year, I can say he is almost as good as Crompton.

[motorsportnerd]

Might be a bit early. Based on Clipsal, you'd say it'll be between both SBR drivers, the Kelly's, Winterbottom and Whincup. That leaves Lowndes, Skaife and possibly also both DJR drivers out, who had pace at some time during the weekend, and the first 2 of which are past multiple champions. The last 2 years infact Lowndes has mounted his challenge off the back of a shocking start to the year.

Both championship favourites (Tander and Lowndes) had average weekends. However, they both scored points and will be able to mount a challenge in the rest of the year.
Todd Kelly is looking promising. And Rick actually managed to win a round - something he didn't do in his championship year.
I hate to admit it, but Rick Kelly is starting to mature into an excellent all-round driver. And Todd has always had the talent/speed/driving consistency, but has been plagued by continueed bad luch with mechanical reliability. Time for something to go right for Todd Kelly this year.

[2ndclasscitizen]

Neil Crompton is a great commentator - easily the best in Australia. The rest all seem a bit average and there were some rather stupid questions put to the drivers by some of the pit commentators. Overall, I have no complaints about the Channel 7 coverage.
The best commentary team would be Neil Crompton and Brad Jones. Once Brad hangs up his helmet (end of this year?), Channel 7 needs to offer him a contract to join the commentary team. He might have to bite his tongue where is own team is concerned, but otherwise, having heard Brad commentate on various races over the year, I can say he is almost as good as Crompton.

Definately agree about Jones, he's alwys very good. Cam McConville goes ok, his voice shits me though.

[Monty_Burns]

Neil Crompton is a great commentator - easily the best in Australia. The rest all seem a bit average and there were some rather stupid questions put to the drivers by some of the pit commentators. Overall, I have no complaints about the Channel 7 coverage.
The best commentary team would be Neil Crompton and Brad Jones. Once Brad hangs up his helmet (end of this year?), Channel 7 needs to offer him a contract to join the commentary team. He might have to bite his tongue where is own team is concerned, but otherwise, having heard Brad commentate on various races over the year, I can say he is almost as good as Crompton.

Apart from Crompton (who as you rightly point out is excellent), the rest of them dont have a clue. The pit commentators in particular are notably inferior to their predecessors.

Sport commentators in general annoy me...particularly unco NZ rugby commentators who make comments such as "he kicked it...with his foot"

[adrenaline]

Apart from Crompton (who as you rightly point out is excellent), the rest of them dont have a clue. The pit commentators in particular are notably inferior to their predecessors.

Exactly. Neil is the only one that knows what he's on about. Matt White hasn't got a clue either. Well after it was established that one of the Jack Daniel's cars lost power and pulled off to the side of the track, I remember one of the pit reporters said it was because of the exta weight of the fuel load