TIMELINE: The Growth of V8 Supercars

1960 – first Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) event held at Gnoo Blas in Orange, New South Wales

1960 – first ‘Armstrong 500’ endurance race held at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

1963 – Armstrong 500 moves to Mount Panorama, Bathurst

1969 – ATCC run as a series of events, rather than a one-off race, for the first time

1973 – after many years of Touring Car racing being conducted under Series Production rules, Group C regulations are introduced

1985 – international FIA Group A regulations introduced

1993 – foundations of current-day V8 Supercars regulations introduced for V8-powered Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore models

1996 – In May former Gold Coast Indy CEO Tony Cochrane meets with team owners at Holden Special Vehicles offices in Melbourne with a view to ‘professionalise’ the sport

1997 – Sports and Entertainment Ltd (SEL) formed by David Coe, James Erskine, Cochrane and Basil Scaffidi

1997 – AVESCO (Australian Vee Eight Supercars Company) is created to manage the sport with shareholding evolving to 25 percent (SEL) / 75 percent (TEGA – Touring Car Entrants Group of Australia) ownership share once the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) divests interest after brief ownership of an initial minority share. Category renamed V8 Supercars but ATCC title remains for series

1997 – Network Ten signs television broadcast rights deal with AVESCO and telecasts races from 1997 to 2006

1999 – ATCC renamed the V8 Supercars Championship Series

1999 – first Clipsal 500 street race held at the Adelaide Parklands street circuit, former site of the Australian Grand Prix

1999 – Bathurst 1000 included as points race in V8 Supercars Championship for the first time

2001 – first V8 Supercars race held outside of Australia, staged at Pukekhoe, New Zealand

2005 – first V8 Supercars race held outside of Australia and NZ, staged in Shanghai, China

2005 – AVESCO name scrapped and company re-named V8 Supercars Australia

2006 – first V8 Supercars race held in the Middle East in Bahrain

2006 – Seven Network signs multi-million dollar television broadcast rights deal for V8 Supercars for 2007-2012 seasons

May 2011 – SEL divests its stake in the sport and team owners sell down their holding, with Australian Motor Racing Partners Pty Ltd (AMRP), backed by Sydney-based private equity firm Archer Capital, purchasing 60 percent of V8 Supercars Holdings Pty Ltd, leaving the teams with 40 percent via 28 Racing Entitlement Contracts. Cochrane remains Chairman with a stake in the new business and exits SEL