With less than 24 hours to place their tips for Round 9 of the V8 Supercars Championship players of the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor are tipping current championship leader Jamie Whincup to shine at Sydney Motorsport Park.
A recent run of form has seen the Red Bull Racing Australia driver take hold of the 2014 championship lead heading into the business end of the season.
This year is the first time the new generation V8 Supercars have raced at the circuit with the last round held there in 2012.
The 2014 field features eight former race winners at the circuit, though only one, Craig Lowndes, has won multiple races (five).
Lowndes also scored the most championship points of any driver at the last round at Queensland Raceway and, in doing so, jumped from sixth to third in the pointscore.
Chaz Mostert, Scott Pye, Dale Wood, Scott McLaughlin, Robert Dahlgren and Nick Percat are all competing for the first time at Sydney Motorsport Park behind the wheel of a V8 Supercar.
The event format is compact and busy, with a pair of 30 minute practice sessions and 10 minute qualifying sessions ahead of twin 100km races on Saturday. Sunday’s schedule features a 20 minute qualifying session and a 200km race.
The V8 Supercars Sydney Motorsport Park 400 will see all 25 competitors run on a combination of hard and soft compound Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tyres making it a strategic round for engineers.
There are also $100 BP Fuel vouchers up for grabs for each of the 14 rounds contested this year plus bonus prizes on top.
The 2013 Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor champion enjoyed the ride of a lifetime in Adelaide when Tony Q from Melbourne headed for a hotlap of the circuit with Mark Winterbottom as a part of his prize for winning last year.
Click here to sign up for the 2014 Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor.
Need a hand predicting this weekend’s round? Check out what our three experts reckon for the action ahead.
The Experts
2014 Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor – Global Leaderboard
RANK | TEAM NAME | POINTS |
1 | Arne’s Mob | 492 |
2 | Murph | 449 |
3 | SCATTERS | 441 |
4 | bad betty | 431 |
5 | Team Obsolete | 429 |
6 | red bull 01 | 429 |
7 | The Flying Bulls!!! | 425 |
8 | Bryce’s V8 Tipping | 423 |
9 | Cakeevans | 423 |
10 | monty | 420 |
11 | Tarmac | 420 |
12 | Bloopy Enterprises | 419 |
13 | #1V8SCFAN | 418 |
14 | Low and Slow | 417 |
15 | Give it some jandal | 416 |
16 | woko | 416 |
17 | boats n hoes | 416 |
18 | JWS-888- | 415 |
19 | eightor | 415 |
20 | The NASCAR Offseason | 413 |
2014 Expert Leaderboard
RANK |
TEAM NAME |
POINTS |
1 |
Speedcafe |
235 |
2 |
Greg Rust |
184 |
3 |
Andy Priaulx |
171 |
Weekend Results –Â Coates Hire Ipswich 400
RACE RESULT | TIME | |
1 | LOWNDES, Craig | 276 |
2 | WHINCUP, Jamie | 252 |
3 | COURTNEY, James | 244 |
4 | MOSTERT, Chaz | 224 |
5 | PYE, Scott | 182 |
6 | PERCAT, Nick | 178 |
7 | VAN GISBERGEN, Shane | 177 |
8 | COULTHARD, Fabian | 174 |
8 | TANDER, Garth | 174 |
9 | KELLY, Rick | 151 |
10 | MOFFAT, James | 144 |
11 | WINTERBOTTOM, Mark | 141 |
12 | CARUSO, Michael | 139 |
13 | MCLAUGHLIN, Scott | 136 |
14 | DAVISON, Will | 130 |
15 | SLADE, Tim | 120 |
16 | BRIGHT, Jason | 115 |
16 | WALL, David | 115 |
17 | INGALL, Russell | 109 |
18 | REYNOLDS, David | 102 |
Additional Points – QR
POLE POSITION | LOWNDES, Craig and MOFFAT, James and MCLAUGHLIN, Scott |
FASTEST LAP | CARUSO, Michael and HOLDSWORTH, Lee |
RACE WINNER | WHINCUP, Jamie and COURTNEY, James |
Championship Points
1 | Jamie Whincup | 1790 |
2 | Mark Winterbottom | 1775 |
3 | Craig Lowndes | 1628 |
4 | James Courtney | 1598 |
5 | Fabian Coulthard | 1535 |
6 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 1532 |
7 | Scott McLaughlin | 1347 |
8 | Chaz Mostert | 1322 |
9 | Garth Tander | 1309 |
10 | David Reynolds | 1201 |
11 | Jason Bright | 1125 |
12 | Michael Caruso | 1059 |
13 | Scott Pye | 1058 |
14 | Will Davison | 1043 |
15 | James Moffat | 1017 |
16 | Rick Kelly | 1005 |
17 | Lee Holdsworth | 982 |
18 | Nick Percat | 968 |
19 | Russell Ingall | 963 |
20 | Tim Slade | 936 |
21 | David Wall | 855 |
22 | Dale Wood | 731 |
23 | Jack Perkins | 679 |
24 | Todd Kelly | 662 |
25 | Robert Dahlgren | 531 |