Fast Facts: Castrol Gold Coast 600

1. The Castrol Gold Coast 600 will see Russell Ingall become the first man in the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship to start 250 rounds.

2. Ingall has made a shock switch from Holden to Ford, having raced with the factory Holden Racing Team less than a fortnight ago! The 2005 V8 Supercars Champion last raced a Falcon at Phillip Island in 2007 and won his sole championship crown in 2005 driving a Falcon for Stone Brothers Racing.

3. Other milestones include Team BOC's Jason Bright starting his 226th round and equalling John Bowe for fourth on the all-time championship starts list, and carsales' Todd Kelly start his 212th round and equal the late Peter Brock for seventh place in the record book.

4. Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 victor Craig Lowndes will make his 150th championship round start for Triple Eight Race Engineering after debuting with the Queensland-based team at Adelaide in 2005. BOC made its first appearance as sponsor for Brad Jones Racing on that same weekend and also racks up its 150th round on the Gold Coast.

5. The Saturday race at the Castrol Gold Coast 600 will mark a special milestone - the 900th race held in Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship history.

6. The race marks the 100th race for Erebus Motorsport since it joined V8 Supercars in 2013.

7. That means the first race on the Gold Coast will be the 100th V8 Supercars Championship race run to 'Car of the Future' specifications. Red Bull Racing Australia has won the lion's share of the races held in that time with 40 wins to Prodrive Racing Australia's 27 (including two to Rod Nash Racing) followed by Brad Jones Racing (eight), Holden Racing Team and TEKNO Autosports (seven), Garry Rogers Motorsport (six), Erebus Motorsport (two) and Dick Johnson Racing and Nissan Motorsport (one each).

8. Prodrive Racing Australia and Red Bull Racing Australia have dominated this year's V8 Supercars Championship; the cars it prepares and runs have won 21 of the last 22 races and 22 of the 25 races held this season.

9. No one has even won a race on the Gold Coast from outside the top six on the grid - the last 10 V8 Supercar races in a row have been won by cars that started in the top four positions.

10. The appearance of the Lexus Safety Car is almost a certainty given it has appeared in 26 of the 30 V8 Supercar races held in Surfers Paradise since 2002. On average, there have been 2.03 SC periods per race in that time, or 3.4 since the two-driver enduro format begun in 2010. Race 2 in 2007 was the last without SC intervention.

The Castrol Gold Coast 600 kicks off on Friday at the Surfers Paradise street circuit. Click here for tickets and more information on the event.