Every fighting chance

As far as championships go, Craig Lowndes has known happier times. It's been 10 long years since he's held the series trophy high, and the death of mentor and friend Peter Brock in 2006 shook him to his very core. Will 2009 see Lowndes make a long-awaited return to dominance? With an all-new car, and the backing and expertise of one of the most professional teams in pit lane, Lowndes has every fighting chance - and he knows it...

In a frank Q&A with Craig Lowndes answers:

Q. Are we going to see the real Craig Lowndes stand up and fight for the championship in 2009?

Q. There are critics out there who say you'll never win another championship as long
as you're driving a Ford. What do you say to that?

Q. You've been under the pump the last couple of seasons with Jamie putting you to the sword. You don't give away much on the outside, but how do you cope with that mentally?

Plus many more...

Devil in the detail

Five years after its British owners took charge of the small John Briggs operation in Brisbane, one of the true giants of Australian touring car racing his emerged. V8X investigates how Triple Eight Racing Engineering has become the colossus of the V8 Supercar grid.

In a modest new building in an industrial estate in the Brisbane suburb of Banyo, Roland Dane shifts purposefully behind his desk.

He extends his right hand in the direction of an A4-size document on the otherwise spartan table, where he conducts his business as the principal of TeamVodafone.

The leading page simply says “2008 Bathurst analysis” in bold type.

It's positioned to remind Dane of his mission to deliver a result never before accomplished in Australian touring car racing - four consecutive Bathurst 1000 victories.

Back from the brink

Paul Dumbrell should be the perfect V8 Supercar driver. At 27 he's still young, yet he has a decade of V8 experience. He's driven for top teams next to top drivers, while through his business experience he's amassed considerable insight into the commercial side of racing. But Dumbrell isn't a perfect V8 driver, because we don't live in a perfect world. If it was he'd have won a V8 race by now, possibly even a championship. And if it was a perfect world, his younger brother Lucas wouldn't have been paralysed in a motor racing accident last year...

On December 5, 2008, Paul Dumbrell's world changed. His little brother's crash, sustained in the Formula Ford category at Oran Park (NSW) last year, left him on the brink of walking away from the sport he'd devoted his whole life to.

Fast forward to March this year and Dumbrell is sitting inside the Walkinshaw Racing transporter at the Australian Grand Prix. It's an important day, because Lucas is making his first public appearance since the accident. And yet despite the obvious emotion of the situation, Dumbrell speaks candidly about the impact his brother's accident has had on him, and just how close he came to calling it quits.

No retirement plan

World Superbike champ Troy Bayliss is the latest motorsport star to have a crack in a V8 Supercar, and he won't be the last.

But just how well does a foray into Aussie's premier motorsport category go for these drivers?

World Rally Championship driver Chris Atkinson has considered it and World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss wants to have a crack.

They are just two of a number of drivers from other motorsport categories who have considered or are considering a future in V8 Supercars.

And Supercheap Auto Racing team owner Paul Morris courted former Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve in the off-season.

But the question that begs to be answered is: can these drivers cut the mustard in V8 Supercars?

Good as Gold

Paradise awaits the faithful at the XXXX Gold Retreat's exclusive ‘Gold Class' top deck. V8X sent their intrepid reporter in to find out what's all about.

Picture this: it's the hottest part of the day in Adelaide at the Clipsal 500, only weeks after the city has suffered a record heat wave.

The track is visibly radiating heat and any punter that has traipsed their way from their seats to the paddock can only wish for an icy cold beer.

A two-storey beacon of paradise stands tall over the dusty track; it could be mistaken as mirage, but any V8 fan worth his weight in ‘Gold' will rub the dust out of his eyes and realise this is no illusion, but an oasis for a weary traveller.

Four play

With Walkinshaw Racing now putting four cars on the grid, the era of the V8 Supercars Superteam has begun. V8X investigates the wide-ranging ramifications of four-car teams on the Series...

Imagine if someone told you TeamVodafone wouldn't exist by the time the 2011 V8 Supercar season was underway. That in two years time it will have lost its drivers, its major sponsor and its key technical players.

It sounds ludicrous, doesn't it?

The time, resources and effort that go into creating not just a winning team but a champion team is phenomenal. Once a team hits on that magic formula it tries to hold onto it for as long as possible.

But the scenario mentioned above is exactly what happened to V8 racing's benchmark team of 2006/07...

Under the Radar

With little in the way of fanfare, Lee Holdsworth is slowly but surely inching his way through the pack. V8X recently caught up with this quiet achiever of the V8 Supercar grid.

It was a crudely painted sign but it carried a big message. Strung up between two trees on the way into Bathurst was a large white sheet with the words “Holdsworth for HRT” scrawled across it.

This was in the lead-up to last year's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, and speculation had reached fever pitch over Mark Skaife's future with the Holden Racing Team.

It says a lot about Lee Holdsworth that his name was mentioned in connection with what was the silly season's plum seat. And it says a bit more that it was a fan-painted sign that tied him to the flagship Holden team. That's because Holdsworth is V8 Supercar racing's lowest profile superstar.