The big winners from ATCC/Supercars' first 999
15 Mar 2019
This afternoon's second leg of the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 will be the 1,000th race of the Australian Touring Car Championship/Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
The very first was held at Gnoo Blas on February 1, 1960 with David McKay taking the honours and the maiden ATCC title aboard a Jaguar.
A move to multiple races per year came in 1969, with 78 drivers having greeted the chequered flag through the first 999 points races.
How do the record books look ahead of the milestone 1,000th start? Supercars.com runs through the key statistics.
Most race wins - drivers
Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup have all spent time as the Supercars driver with the most race wins in the last decade.
Skaife led the way until the Barbagallo Raceway event in 2013, when Lowndes claimed his 91st victory.
Lowndes duly became the first to reach 100 wins two years later, with Whincup then passing his long-time team-mate in 2017 en route to his seventh championship.
Just outside the top 10, three wins to start the 2019 season have taken Scott McLaughlin's tally to 28, drawing level with Greg Murphy and Marcos Ambrose in equal 12th.
His next target is team owner Dick Johnson on 30.
1. Jamie Whincup 1132. Craig Lowndes 1073. Mark Skaife 904. Garth Tander 545. Peter Brock 486. Glenn Seton 407. Mark Winterbottom 388. Allan Moffat 36=9. John Bowe and Shane van Gisbergen 31
Most race wins - teams
Including all of Whincup's victories, Triple Eight has built an imposing Supercars record since entering the championship in late-2003.
At Tailem Bend last August, it became the winningest team in the championship, passing the former Holden Racing Team, run by what's now Walkinshaw Andretti United.
DJR Team Penske sits third, claiming 81 under its original Dick Johnson Racing guise, before piling on a further 25 more since early-2017.
The top four are all active outfits, with the next best Garry Rogers Motorsport in 12th, on 23.
1. Triple Eight Race Engineering 1842. Holden Racing Team/Walkinshaw Andretti United 1803. Dick Johnson Racing/DJR Team Penske 1064. Tickford Racing (FPR/PRA) 715. Kmart Racing/HSV Dealer Team 506. Gibson/00 Motorsport 477. Glenn Seton Racing/Ford Tickford Racing 428. Stone Brothers Racing 41=9. Allan Moffat Racing and Holden Dealer Team 38
Most race wins - models
Holden's current ZB Commodore has big shoes to fill, with its predecessor the VF the most-successful model to have ever raced in Supercars.
Introduced with the Car of the Future platform in 2013 and replaced by the ZB last year, the VF claimed 108 race wins at an average of 18 per season.
The VE was raced between 2007 and '12, while the VT had a comparatively short life of only two full seasons – 1999, above in Adelaide with Lowndes, and 2000 – as Holden’s leading weapon.
1. Holden Commodore VF 1082. Holden Commodore VE/VEII 1033. Holden Commodore VT 634. Ford Falcon FG 555. Ford Falcon BA 51=6. Holden Commodore VX and Ford Falcon FG X 458. Ford Falcon BF 399. Holden Commodore VZ 3710. Holden Commodore VS 35
Wins by brand
Holden enjoys a comfortable advantage over Ford on victories by manufacturers in ATCC/Supercars history.
The traditional rivals are split by 184 wins, with daylight back to the rest led by Nissan.
Norm Beechey took Holden's first win in 1969 at Surfers Paradise with a Monaro, above.
1. Holden 5482. Ford 3643. Nissan 314. BMW 175. Volvo 116. Chevrolet 107. Mazda 88. Jaguar 4=9. Porsche and Mercedes-AMG 211. Alfa Romeo 1
Most podium finishes
As with race wins, Whincup and Lowndes lead the way here, with Mark Winterbottom in third place.
Shane van Gisbergen moved past Garth Tander in the order in Adelaide earlier this month, and looks set to surpass Peter Brock in the coming months.
McLaughlin, with his strong start to 2019, has edged ahead of Johnson on this tally.
1. Jamie Whincup 1982. Craig Lowndes 1663. Mark Winterbottom 1174. Peter Brock 1005. Shane van Gisbergen 966. Garth Tander 957. Mark Skaife 888. Scott McLaughlin 669. Dick Johnson 6510. James Courtney 58
Most race starts
The grid looks a little different in 2019 with the full-time retirements of veterans Lowndes and Tander.
That leaves Rick Kelly as the active driver with the most starts on 525, 52 ahead of Winterbottom.
1. Craig Lowndes 6502. Garth Tander 6173. Russell Ingall 5874. Jason Bright 5735. Todd Kelly 5416. Rick Kelly 5257. Mark Skaife 4798. Mark Winterbottom 4739. John Bowe 47010. Jamie Whincup 468
Youngest winnerScott McLaughlin, 19 years, 10 months, three days
McLaughlin made a mark early in his Supercars career, winning at Pukekohe in the sixth race of his 2013 rookie campaign with Garry Rogers Motorsport.
Oldest winnerJim Richards, 55 years, one month, 11 days
Supercars Hall of Famer Richards holds a record that is unlikely to be beaten, with a trend towards younger drivers.
His Bathurst 1000 victory in 2002 with Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team came after his 55th birthday.
It is one of his 23 championship race wins, with Richards' other six Bathurst wins coming before the Great Race took on points-paying status.
