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This weekend’s Adelaide 500 will be the 20th running of a Supercars event around the streets of the South Australian capital and Speedcafe.com wants to know what your favourite Adelaide moment is.
Read through our shortlist and let us know your answer in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
1999: Motorsport returns to the Parklands
The 1999 Sensational Adelaide 500 broke the drought for the area of Adelaide which last hosted the Australian Grand Prix in 1995, and was also a landmark for Supercars as its first big event of its own outside the Bathurst 1000.
Craig Lowndes won the Saturday leg but was made to start at the back on the Sunday as punishment for unloading privateer Danny Osborne into a wall (He was originally also disqualified from the race).
He won again anyway, on his way to a third V8 Supercars Championship title.
2000: Last to first again
For the second time in as many years, a Holden Racing Team Commodore won the Sunday race from last on the starting grid.
This time, however, it was Mark Skaife, who failed to finish on the Saturday but drove from 38th at the start to first at the chequered flag a day later.
2001: Lowndes wins for Ford, crashes on Sunday
The 2001 Clipsal 500 marked just Lowndes’ second championship round in a Ford after his controversial move from the Lion.
He and Gibson Motorsport, which had also defected in the off-season, won the Saturday race by a healthy 10 seconds, with Lowndes leading for the last 31 laps.
The following day didn’t go as well as the #00 AU Falcon went out with 20 laps remaining when Lowndes got tangled up with Skaife while trying to pass his recently ex-team-mate.
2002: The Sweeper arrives
Turn 8 would never be the same again when the Adelaide Parklands Circuit was re-profiled to introduce the ‘Sweeper’ in 2002 after a series of crashes at that location, most notably Brad Jones’ 2000 rollover.
It wasn’t long before the new Turn 8 became infamous, first when Paul Radisich hit the concrete hard in Friday practice.
The following day, Jason Bright threw away a race which he had dominated to that point when the rear of the #2 HRT Commodore stepped out at the bend between Bartels Road and Dequetteville Terrace just six laps from home.
2004: Ambrose doubles up
Holden had dominated for the first few years in its home town, with HRT alone winning eight of the first 10 races in the Adelaide 500’s first half-decade.
Marcos Ambrose, starting the year as the first defending champion for Ford in five years, put an end to the Blue Oval’s poor run in South Australia with a sweep of the 2004 round.
2005: A fine day four Ford
Ambrose repeated the feat with two race wins in 2005 as well.
Perhaps more notable, however, was Steven Johnson joining the Saturday podium celebrations after bringing his DJR Falcon home fourth behind an all-Ford top three (Ambrose, Russell Ingall, and Craig Lowndes).
Dick Johnson Racing was hit with a $30,000 fine which Ford paid for, having encouraged the stunt in the first place.
2006: Whincup’s first win
Triple Eight Race Engineering took victory in both races in 2006, with Lowndes getting the job done on the Saturday.
On Sunday, however, an attempt to pass then-leader Cameron McConville damaged the #888 Betta Electrical Falcon when the pair banged wheels at Turn 9.
Lowndes retreated to the pits before returning off the lead lap, only to be caught in a jarring six-car crash later in the afternoon as Jamie Whincup took his first of 108 Supercars race wins to date in the sister car.
2012: Whincup runs down Davison
Will Davison looked on for a win in the opening race of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship, but faced a nervous finish with the #6 Ford Performance Racing Falcon light on fuel after opting for a two-stop strategy.
Whincup, on the other hand, had filled up twice, and drove a series of ‘qualifying laps’, reeling in Davison by nearly six seconds in just the four laps before the last.
Davison’s Ford did cough halfway through the final lap and he was picked off by Whincup at Turn 9, barely managing to roll home in second position.
2014: Jason Bright rolls at Senna chicane
Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright escaped a frightening roll over which married the early stages of Race 3 in 2014.
A multiple car accident was triggered following a new Safety Car restart procedures that saw the leader travel between 50 and 60km/h before entering the Acceleration Zone, at which point he can accelerate away.
On the lap 14 restart Tim Slade (Walkinshaw Racing) made contact with Garth Tander (Holden Racng Team) at the Senna Chicane, which tipped Bright, occupying sixth position, into a series of rolls, destroying his Holden Commodore.
Bright emerged from the incident unscathed.
2014: Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup’s frantic duel for second
Volvo and Scott McLaughlin firmly announced their Supercars credentials after coming through an epic scrap for second place in a twilight spectacle on the Adelaide streets.
McLaughlin, who started second on debut for Volvo, became locked in an enthralling dice for second with champion Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight) which went right down to the last lap.
The pair ran side-by-side as they entered the Victoria Park section before Whincup moved ahead on the run to the final corner.
However, Whincup ran wide out of the corner handing McLaughlin second in front of a raucous crowd.
McLaughlin was overcome with emotion sparking a catch phrase during his post race interview.
“I don’t know what happened there. I just plucked it in first, gave it some jandal and f*** yeah,” said an emotional McLaughlin.
2016: Percat emerges from chaos to score unlikely win
Local driver Nick Percat claimed an emotional maiden Supercars victory for minnow squad Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport following a hectic race marred by torrential rain.
Heavy rain wreaked havoc from the outset, requiring a delayed start under Safety Car and eventually a race stoppage after 41 of the scheduled 78 laps.
It restarted with five minutes before a time certain finish that saw Percat jump to the front on the final lap as teams were forced to duck into the pits to complete the permitted 140 litre fuel drop.
Percat and LDM managed to compete its fuel drop earlier in the race handing them a deserved but unlikely win.
What is your favourite moment?
Cast your vote in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
