Social Saturday: V8's Top Tweeters

TWITTER. It’sthe big thing in Social Media right now and a majority of V8 SupercarsChampionship drivers are big fans of it – and regular users – keeping theirfollowers up to speed with what they’re up to both on and off the track.

We thought itwas high time we gave some notoriety to those amongst the V8 Supercar paddockwho love the Tweet – but we wanted to look a bit deeper than that.

Of the 28full season ‘regular’ drivers to race last year, 23 are on Twitter.. so who’sthe best to follow?

Theserankings aren’t just based entirely on the number of followers that any onedriver has – though it is taken into account and we've listed the number here. Instead, we’ve put together alist that balances popularity with good content that you actually want to read.

We’re not suggesting that V8 Supercar stars tweet rubbish, but we know thatyou want to follow someone who has something to say. We think the eight driverslisted here are the pick of the V8 driving bunch to click the big ‘follow’button on.

Do you agree with our rankings? Disagree? Tell us who is your favouriteV8 Supercar-driving Tweeter via @V8Supercars and don't forget to use the tag #V8SC.

1.    FabianCoulthard (@FabianCoulthard) – 11,262 (5,344 Tweets)

Our TwitterKing. Fabian Coulthard promotes himself as a ‘Social Media Guru’ in his ownTwitter profile (as well as ‘Award winning organiser’, interestingly), andfortunately he lives up to that. If Fabian ever finds himself out of a drive,perhaps he should pick up a camera lens instead because he’s is one of thekings of the Twitter Photo – be it raw or filtered via Instagram – and loves sharinga pictorial look at the life of a V8 Supercar driver. Plenty of followers andplenty of content – mixed in with some very amusing Kiwi humour - the LockwoodRacing driver is right up there in our 2013 twitter rankings. Well worth afollow!

2.    CraigLowndes (@CraigLowndes888) – 26,899 (5,149 Tweets)

After hisaccount started what looked like a PR-driven exercise from the driver’s management,Craig has certainly latched onto Twitter in a big way and is now one of theseries’ most prolific tweeters. Not only does he have the most followers (byabout 6,000 people) of all drivers, but CL is also now a veritable Twitter fan.The Bathurst champion and arguably the sport’s biggest name can be classed as a‘prolific’ Tweeter – and is keen for his 28,000-odd Twitter Followers to followhis progress as a budding Indoor Cricket superstar, too! It seems Lowndes isjust as great a representative for the sport online as he is on track.

Note: Also uses lots of smiley faces, too – just like in the real world!

3.    JasonBright (@iJasonBright) – 14,086 (6,169 Tweets)

Both BradJones Racing drivers rate well in the social media charts! Jason Bright matches his massive follower count (Fourth of all active V8Supercar drivers) with a positively prolific rate of Tweets keeping people upto speed. The Team BOC driver (and lover of photo sharing app Instagram) oftenshares plenty of behind the scenes snaps and info for his willing fans – and,of course, has recently become a Dad – so there’s plenty about the positivelyadorable Lennox Jay Bright on there too. And, Brighty follows almost 10,000 ofhis fans back for their trouble. Well Tweeted, Brighty.. Well Tweeted.

4.    WillDavison (@WillDavison) – 11,109 (5,620 Tweets)

Will Davisonis a man of the world. He’s raced just about everywhere and has friends onevery side of the pond - and his Twitter reflects this. There’s a lot of chatbetween old racing mates and the FPR #6 driver loves to keep up to speed witheverything else going on in the world of motorsport. His brother – and new teammate – Alex (@AlexDavison79) plus father and former racer Richard (@Wizardwash)are also regular tweeters and worth a follow.

5.    GarthTander (@GarthTander) – 12,285 (2,248 Tweets)

GT has neverbeen afraid to voice his opinion in the media and the same can be said for hisTweeting habits – and as such he is well worth the follow. GT Tweets about alot of things and if you want to know what the expanded Walkinshaw Racingfamily get up to on their regular bike rides, this – along with Fabian Coulthardand Dunlop Series ace Nick Percat – is the Twitter account to follow! Alsofollow @LeanneTander.

6.    MarkWinterbottom (@mwinterbottom) – 14,646 (3902 Tweets)

Frosty Tweetslike he races. Cool, calm and collected and seems to sneak up on you.. and his14,000+ followers seem to agree – and he deserves his spot on this list justbecause of the massive audience he commands. When he’s not talking about howquickly his #5 FPR Ford is going or his expanding family, Frosty keeps fans ofthe Cars movie franchise up to speed(He is a move star, after all) when (and where) he’s out and about signingautographs.  

7.    MichaelPatrizi (@MichaelPatrizi) – 3,116 (3,919 Tweets)

A surprise,perhaps, but the speedy West Australian makes up for his relative lack offollowers – at least in comparison to the other luminaries in our list – bycontinually producing some content gold. He’s always keen to say his two bob’sworth, travels the world, has plenty of high-level industry friends and runs aprofessional karting team that is trying to discover the next world champion.If you’re not already, follow the West Australian – and perhaps ask where he’sgoing to land on the 2013 V8 grid while you’re at it! 

8.    TonyD’Alberto (@TonyD’alberto) – 4,482 (4,634)

V8’s quietachiever in the world of Tweeting. Loves a cycle – like most drivers – and agood Coffee. He’s a regular tweeter and gives race fans an insight into life not in a factory team – despite hisrenewed alliance with Walkinshaw Racing, Tony D essentially remains a one-caroperation doing things their way and we thought it was worth to showcase that.

Honourable Mentions:

Jamie Whincup (@JamieWhincup) – 19,628(903 Tweets)

While J-Dubhas plenty of followers – he’s second only to his Triple Eight stable mateCraig Lowndes out of all regular drivers – we think he could probably afford towork the keyboard a little more and come up with some Twitter gold. He makesour list thanks to sheer weight of numbers, but perhaps with some Red Bull inthe fridge he’ll have the drive to tweet some more... he’s an interesting guy,our champion, and the fans want to know more!

Russell Ingall (@RussellIngall) –6,289 (379 Tweets)

It’s RussellIngall, for crying out loud, and on the rare occasion that he does tweet, itsgold. Worth a follow, just so you can say you do.

David Reynolds (@daffidreynolds) –4,854 (927 Tweets)

Do we need toexplain why you should follow David Reynolds? Did you see him throw a ChannelSeven microphone into the crowd when on the Bathurst podium? The king ofrandom, which we love, and his Twitter feed reflects that.

Rick Kelly (@RickKelly) – 9,193 (879Tweets)      

The recentbirthday boy doesn’t tweet a whole lot, but we’ll give him bonus points,however, for his sneaky photo of the Nissan Motorsport test at SydneyMotorsport Park last week – one the team was planning to keep behind thescenes!

James Courtney (@JCourtney01) – 12,870(1,999 Tweets)

Life on theGold Coast has never looked better. JC is the king of keeping his followers upto speed with what we reckon is a pretty nice way of life. Great family, GoldCoast pad, Factory Holden drive and plenty of bike rides with mate RussellIngall and the GC Crew.

*(Compiled as at 1:30pm, FridayJanuary 18.)