Fast Facts: Castrol Gold Coast 600

1. The Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander will bring up a major milestone at the Castrol Gold Coast 600, making his 250th championship round start.

He become the first driver in history to start 250 rounds exclusively driving Holdens, and joins Craig Lowndes and Russell Ingall in the ‘250 Club’ having made his championship debut back in 1998 at Phillip Island.

2. Another Supercars identity to bring up his 250th championship round is team owner Rod Nash with his Rod Nash Racing entry Chaz Mostert’s #55 Supercheap Auto Falcon races under.

Nash debuted as an owner/driver in the championship in 1998, stepped out of the cockpit in 2001 and since 2010 has had his RNR entry run by Prodrive Racing Australia, of which he is now part owner.

3. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Gold Coast street event, which debuted as an IndyCar race back in 1991. IndyCars continued to compete in Queensland through to 2008 and since then Supercars have headlined the event.

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship held its first points-paying event on the Gold Coast in 2002; all support races prior to then had been non-championship events.

4. James Courtney and Jack Perkins won last year’s Sunday race on the Gold Coast from 11th place on the grid – previously no driver/s had won a Supercars race on the circuit from beyond the third row of the starting grid.

5. Holden teams have won 11 of the last 12 races in the 2016 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship with seven to Triple Eight, two to Brad Jones Racing and singles to the Holden Racing Team and TEKNO Autosports.

6. DJR Team Penske endurance pilot Tony D’Alberto will start his 100th Virgin Australia Supercars Championship round when he pairs up with Scott Pye on the Gold Coast. The former full-time driver will become just the 42nd driver in championship history to bring up the century of starts.

7. The closest Gold Coast Supercars race finish on the Gold Coast came back in 2010 in the Sunday race. Jamie Whincup held off his now-Red Bull teammate Shane van Gisbergen by just 0.2053s in a thrilling conclusion to the debut weekend of the Gold Coast 600 race format.

8. Safety Cars are pretty much guaranteed in this year’s Supercars event on the Gold Coast. The last time a Supercars race ran without a caution period on the street circuit was back in Race 2 in 2007!

9. The closest pole position-winning margin in Gold Coast Supercars history came in 2011 when Jamie Whincup took pole over Garth Tander by just 0.0015s for the Saturday race.

10. The Bottle-O Racing Team’s Mark Winterbottom failed to finish at Bathurst, bringing to an end an impressive streak of 95 consecutive race finishes in the VASC that dates right back to the 2013 Sydney 500.