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2013: The Not-So-Obvious Stats

12 Aug 2013
We've just passed the halfway mark of the V8 Supercars Championship - but who has been creating good and bad numbers?
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We’ve just passed the halfway mark of the V8 Supercars Championship – but who has been creating good and bad numbers?

With 24 races, eight events and five months completed in the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship, there’s plenty of racing, results and drama to pick apart in the first season of the new generation car.

There has been a total of 10 different race winners representing seven teams and three of them – Fabian Coulthard, Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert – have broken through to take their first Championship wins.

But there are so many more interesting, quirky and telling numbers from this season – so let’s take a look at some of them.

**DRIVER WINNER VARIETY**

It's the first time since 2000 – and just the second time in Championship history – that 10 different drivers have won races in the first eight events.

In 2000 there were 22 races across the first eight events and we’ve had 24 so far this year, so it’s a very close comparison.

TEAM WINNER VARIETY

It’s the first time since 2001 that seven different teams have won races in the first eight events.

This year is just the third time in Championship history where this has occurred – 2000 (eight), 2001 (seven) and 2013 (seven).

YOUNG BLOKES DONE GOOD

This year is the first time in 17 years that two first year full-time drivers have won races in the Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship. 

The last time was 1996 with a couple of young bucks – Craig Lowndes and Russell Ingall!

With Fabian Coulthard also winning his first race in addition to McLaughlin and Mostert, this season is the first since 2006 (Jamie Whincup, Mark Winterbottom, Dean Canto, Jason Richards) where we’ve had so many full-time drivers claim their first V8SC race win.

FALCON MOVING UP

Chaz Mostert’s Queensland Raceway race win gave the FG Falcon its 46th V8SC win, moving it to past the Holden Commodore VX to become the fourth-most winning model in ATCC/V8SC history.

The FG is just five race wins short of matching the BA Falcon as the most winning Ford model (in terms of race wins) in Championship history.

JAMIE TAKES RECORD FROM … JAMIE?

Championship leader Jamie Whincup has 10 ARMOR ALL Pole Positions for the season and looks certain to add at least one more and break his own 2010 record for most pole positions in a season.

Naturally, the drivers in the modern era have more opportunities for poles with separate qualifying sessions for each race, so comparing percentages is a better way to analyse things over the eras.

Compared to 2010, when Whincup claimed 38.46 percent of the available poles, this year he’s claimed 41.66 percent.

But no one will top Peter Brock’s effort from 1980 – he claimed each and every pole (eight) in that season!

RECENT MIX

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Have you stopped to think that seven different drivers across six different teams have won the last seven races of the Championship?

Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes won in Darwin; Will Davison and Garth Tander in Townsville; and Jamie Whincup, Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert at Queensland Raceway.

THE 100 PERCENT MEN – AND THE FLIP SIDE 

There are just four drivers – Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Jonathon Webb and Rick Kelly – that have finished all 24 races in this year’s Championship.

On the flipside, Lee Holdsworth has been the heartbreak story of the year and failed to finish six times – five race DNFs and a failure to take the restart due to a damaged car in Darwin.

The IRWIN Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG has finished just one of the last six races.

NOT QUITE ABOUT THE AVERAGES

Believe it or not, but Will Davison has the best finishing average of any driver in the Championship, averaging a finish of 5.79 in races he finishes compared to Jamie Whincup’s 5.86.

The problem for Davison is his failure to finish one race in Texas and one in Darwin.

He’s finished in the top 10 on 20 occasions this year, one more than Whincup, however it’s the Red Bull pilot’s ‘quality’ of top 10 results – 18 top fives to Davison’s 11 and 15 podiums to Davison’s five – that see him the title leader.

QUALIFYING HEAD-TO-HEAD

The head-to-head qualifying stats make for interesting reading across all of the teams. Some drivers are dominating their teammate, others are closer.

The biggest ‘smashing’ is continuing to come at Red Bull Racing Australia, where Whincup has out-qualified Lowndes 18-6 this year.

Fabian Coulthard is on top 17-7-0 over Jason Bright and David Wall at Brad Jones Racing.

Mark Winterbottom leads Will Davison 16-8 at Pepsi Max Crew and leads 14-6-3-1 over the four FPR cars clear of Will, David Reynolds and Alex Davison.

Scott McLaughlin has smashed Alex Premat 17-7, while Shane van Gisbergen has dominated Jonathon Webb in similar fashion 16-8.

It’s a surprise at the Holden Racing Team, where James Courtney has turned the tables on Garth Tander 15-9. Just once all season – Race 2 at the Clipsal 500 – has Walkinshaw stablemate Russell Ingall out-qualified the two red cars.

Chaz Mostert has dominated Tim Blanchard 15-0 since arriving at Dick Johnson’s team at Barbagallo.

At Nissan Motorsport, Rick Kelly has topped Jack Daniel’s teammate, brother Todd 15-9, while in the Norton Hornets, James Moffat has got on top of Michael Caruso 15-9.

Overall across the four Nissan Altimas, Rick has an 11-7-5-1 advantage over Todd, Moffat and Caruso.

It’s pretty even at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, 11-9 between Dean Fiore and Scott Pye (over 20 races given Pye missed Pukekohe), while at Erebus Motorsport V8, Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade are tied 11-11 with Maro Engel topping the team in qualifying twice.

But Slade is the form man – he’s topped his Erebus teammates in qualifying for the last 10 races straight!

The next event on the V8 Supercars Championship calendar is the Winton 360, in Victoria; tickets are available now.

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