Supercars Challenge (event)

The Adelaide layout used for the event between 1985 and 1995.

Touring cars had often been a support category for Australian Grands Prix prior to 1985, but it was not until 1985 that the Australian Grand Prix joined the Formula One World Championship. In the 1980s, as well as racing in the ATCC, many teams and drivers entered in a range of non-championship exhibition races, as well as in other championships such as the Australian Manufacturers' Championship, which had all adopted the FIA's international Group A regulations for the 1985 season.

The first year supporting the Grand Prix in Adelaide, won by Dick Johnson in the only victory in his Ford Mustang GT, was notable for Gerhard Berger competing in both the Grand Prix, for Arrows-BMW, and in the Group A touring car support race in an ex-Schnitzer Motorsport BMW 635 CSi.[8][9] Berger had to obtain special permission to enter the Group A race, as it was outside regulations for drivers to compete in other races in the 24 hours before a Grand Prix. Eventually, he only lasted three laps in the Group A race before being spun off by local veteran John Harvey in the second Mobil Holden Dealer Team VK Commodore at Turn 1.[8] The 1986 and 1987 races were part of the short-lived South Pacific Touring Car Championship. In 1989, there were two touring car races on the Grand Prix weekend for the first time.

In 1991, Jim Richards became the first driver to win the Grand Prix support event and the ATCC in the same year. Richards was the only driver to achieve this in the Adelaide era, with several drivers able to do the double in the Melbourne era of the event. In 1994, John Bowe and Larry Perkins had a famous battle in wet conditions, with the two going side-by-side for much of the final lap.[8][9] In 1996, the Australian Grand Prix moved from Adelaide to Melbourne, and also from a November to a March date. Glenn Seton won the first race at the new venue, with Peter Brock winning the event.[10] From 1996 to 1998, there were two touring car categories on the support card for the Grand Prix, with cars from the Australian Super Touring Championship joining the ATCC as a support category. In 1997, 1993 Grand Prix motorcycle racing champion Kevin Schwantz competed in the event as a guest driver in a Ford EF Falcon. In 1997 and 1998, Russell Ingall was unbeaten, winning all seven of the races in the two years. He remains the most successful driver at the event with a record eight race wins, and an equal-record three event wins.[10]

With support from event sponsor Hot Wheels, the 2000 event saw media personality and former Australian Rules footballer Sam Newman make a guest appearance. Despite qualifying nearly sixteen seconds off Mark Skaife's pole time, Newman finished all three races in his Gibson Motorsport-prepared Holden VS Commodore.[11] In 2001, Marcos Ambrose qualified on pole at the Grand Prix on his series debut. In 2002, there was no official points scoring system, however, the winner of the final race of the weekend, Craig Lowndes, was considered the event winner. In 2003, the V8 Supercar Development Series joined the main series on the Grand Prix support card for the first and so far only time. In 2005, Brad Jones Racing's John Bowe and Brad Jones finished first and second in the second race after being the only cars to start the race, in drying conditions, on slick tyres (pitstops were not permitted).[8] It was the first win for Brad Jones Racing in the category. In 2007, Supercars didn't appear at the Grand Prix for the first, and so far only time, due to a scheduling and logistics conflict; the second round of the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series was scheduled approximately 3500 km from Melbourne at Barbagallo Raceway near Perth, Western Australia one week after the Grand Prix.[12]

DJR Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin leads team-mate Fabian Coulthard during the 2017 event.

In 2011 Jason Richards, who had stepped down from full-time driving due to a cancer diagnosis during 2010, made a one-off appearance in the Albert Park 400.[8] He finished second in the second race of the weekend. Richards died in December 2011. 2011 also saw the opening of a new dedicated pit building for the Supercars Championship, adjacent to the Formula One pits. This allowed the series to have races with full pitstops for the first time. Scott McLaughlin won his first Supercars race in 2013 in the final race of the weekend. In 2014, he won the event outright, providing Volvo with their first race win on their comeback to Australian motorsport. On the same weekend, Nissan scored the first pole position of their own comeback, with Michael Caruso at the wheel. Between 2012 and 2014, New Zealand drivers won nine races in a row at the event, thanks to McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen.[13] Mark Winterbottom broke that trend with four wins out of four races at the 2015 event. In 2016, Triple Eight Race Engineering had their own clean-sweep of the event, with the four race wins split between Jamie Whincup and Van Gisbergen, providing Van Gisbergen with his first race wins for the team. The 2017 event saw DJR Team Penske win their first races since Team Penske took a stake in the team in 2014.[14] In 2017, Chaz Mostert won what would become the final non-championship race at the circuit, but only after both Coulthard, who won the event, and Whincup had tyre failures during the fourth race of the weekend.[15]

Notes

• ^1 - Since 2015, Dick Johnson Racing are known as DJR Team Penske, hence their statistics are combined.
• ^2 – Prodrive Racing Australia was known as Ford Performance Racing from 2003 to 2014, hence their statistics are combined.