Fast Facts: Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven by TAFE Queensland

1. For the first time in its six-year history, the annual Townsville V8 Supercar round will now be contested over three races - two 125-kilometre races on Saturday and a 250-kilometre race on Sunday.

Previously the event featured a pair of 200-kilometre races, one each day, hence the title change to the Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven By TAFE Queensland.

The Top 10 Shootout makes its return in Townsville to determine ARMOR ALL Pole Position for the Sunday race. There has only been one Shootout held this year (claimed by Shane van Gisbergen in Adelaide).

2. There is no doubting that Jamie Whincup is the 'King of Townsville'.

The Red Bull Racing Australia driver won the inaugural race in 2009 and has claimed a total of five race wins from the 10 races held in North Queensland (Read about his race winning Falcon here).

Whincup - and Garth Tander - have both racked up seven podium finishes in Townsville. The duo are also the only multiple race winners in the five-year history of the event.

Whincup now sits third in the V8 Supercars Championship, 186 points behind leader Mark Winterbottom.

Despite winning more races than the Ford driver this season, Whincup hasn't won on Sundays when the big points are on the line - Winterbottom has claimed 500 points from his four race wins this year compared to Whincup's 375 points for his five wins.

3. While Whincup is the 'King of Townsville', Winterbottom is the 'King of Consistency' at the Reid Park street circuit.

The points leader has finished all 10 races held in Townsville in the top eight with an average finishing position of 3.9.

He has more ARMOR ALL Pole Positions than any other driver at the circuit - three - but has never been able to convert any of them into a win. His sole Townsville race win - on Sunday in 2010 - came from sixth on the grid.

'Frosty' has qualified on the front row for five of the last six Townsville races.

4. The Reid Park circuit remains a bogey venue for Craig Lowndes, who is yet to claim a race win there. Townsville and Pukekohe remain the only tracks on the 2014 calendar where he is yet to take a V8 Supercar race win.

Lowndes has only claimed two podium results in Townsville from 10 races and has only qualified on the front row there twice (2010 Sunday and 2011 Sunday).

5. Tekno Autosports will celebrate its 50th V8 Supercars Championship round start in Townsville.

The Queensland-based team runs a single Holden Commodore VF entry for Shane van Gisbergen and made its debut as a stand-alone team in the opening round of the 2011 Championship in Abu Dhabi.

Van Gisbergen currently sits sixth in the Championship and has claimed all three of Tekno's V8SC race wins (Adelaide and Sydney in 2013 and Pukekohe in 2014).

Note: Tekno Autosports engaged Dick Johnson Racing to run a car under its Racing Entitlements Contract in the 2010 V8 Supercars Championship, however the car was entered as a third DJR car and thus Jonathon Webb's race win at that year's Sydney 500 is counted in Championship statistics as a race win for DJR. Tekno's statistics begin from 2011 onwards.

6. Scott McLaughlin is the only driver in the 2014 field to have out-qualified his teammate (Swede Robert Dahlgren), for all 19 V8 Supercars Championship races held so far this year.

The head-to-head qualifying numbers within other teams make for interesting reading:

Red Bull Racing Australia - Jamie Whincup 12, Craig Lowndes 7Brad Jones Racing - Fabian Coulthard 13, Jason Bright 6, Dale Wood 0Pepsi Max Crew Ford - Mark Winterbottom 16, Chaz Mostert 3Ford Performance Racing (4 cars) - Mark Winterbottom 14, David Reynolds 3, Chaz Mostert 2, Jack Perkins 0Holden Racing Team - James Courtney 12, Garth Tander 7Walkinshaw Racing (4 cars) - James Courtney 10, Garth Tander 6, Tim Slade 2, Nick Percat 1Wilson Security Racing - Scott Pye 10, David Wall 6 (Wall missed three sessions at Pukekohe)Jack Daniel's Racing - Rick Kelly 10, Todd Kelly 9Norton Hornets - Michael Caruso 11, James Moffat 8Nissan Motorsport (4 cars) - Rick Kelly 5, Todd Kelly 5, James Moffat 5, Michael Caruso 4Erebus Motorsport V8 - Lee Holdsworth 11, Will Davison 8.

7. Twelve drivers - just under half of the 2014 field - have scored a podium finish so far in this year's Championship, which shows just how competitive and varied this season has been so far.

Two very notable drivers not among those 12 are David Reynolds and Garth Tander.

Reynolds has gone 24 consecutive Championship races since his last podium on the Gold Coast in October 2013, while Tander has now gone 23 straight races without a podium since his victory at Phillip Island last November.

8. Jack Daniel's Racing will celebrate its 300th V8 Supercar race in the first race of the Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven By TAFE Queensland.

The familiar black cars first appeared at the 2006 Clipsal 500 with Perkins Motorsport and Jack Daniel's spent another two years backing Larry Perkins' team before a move to Kelly Racing (now Nissan Motorsport) from 2009 onwards.

This tally covers both V8 Supercars Championship races and non-championship races at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

9. Three drivers are making their first V8 Supercars Championship starts in Townsville - Dale Wood, Robert Dahlgren and Nick Percat.

Wood and Percat both have prior experience of the circuit competing in the Dunlop Series and have both completed laps in Townsville during the endurance co-driver practice sessions in recent years. These enduro sessions have been discontinued this year.

10. Former V8 Supercars Championship regular Steven Johnson will make his Dunlop Series debut at the Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven by TAFE Queensland.

The Wilson Security/DJR endurance driver will drive a Stone Brothers Racing-built Falcon FG run by Matt Stone Racing in round four of the DVS. He has not raced a V8 Supercar since last October's Gold Coast 600 and is one of seven confirmed Pirtek Enduro Cup drivers competing in the Townsville round of the Dunlop Series.

Ash Walsh leads Paul Dumbrell by 104 points with three rounds of seven completed.

Tickets are still available for this weekend's Castrol Townsville 500 - Driven by TAFE Queensland. Purchase yours now and remember the best views are from the grandstands.