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After the mid-season break in the championship, the V8 Supercars return this weekend at the Queensland Raceway for races 23, 24 and 25 of the 2014 season.
Join The Roar for a live blog of all the action from races 23 and 24 of the Championship today. Coverage will start when the qualifying for the V8 Supercars begins at 11:25am AEST.
Heading into the weekend at Queensland Raceway, Mark WInterbottom leads the championship by 96 points, as he looks to secure his first ever championship title.
He faces stiff competition from Red Bull Driver Jamie Whincup who reduced the margin in the championship – and moved to 2nd in the standings – after winning two of the three races in the last round at Townsville.
Whincup will look to reduce the margin further at the home track of the team and at a track they have had big success at over the last few years.
In the last eight races at the track known as the ‘Paperclip,’ Red Bull Racing has won six of them with Craig Lowndes winning five of those races.
Lowndes needs to bounce back after a horror round in Townsville which saw him slip to 6th in the championship.
Another poor weekend at Queensland would almost certainly end his chances of a championship win this year.
Winterbottom will be looking to break the trend of Red Bull Racing and repeat what he did in Queensland in 2008.
During that year he finished 2nd, 1st and 1st, in the three races at Ipswich.
It promises to be another big battle between the two teams for the championship.
That isn’t the only battle with plenty of other teams and drivers wanting to perform well over the weekend.
One of them is Walkinshaw Racing, who bounced back with a great performance in Townsville.
They won the second race of the weekend and also took home four podiums during the race event.
Continuing that form in Queensland will be vital as they try to become the strongest team in the field once again.
This is also important for James Courtney – from the Holden Racing Team – as he tries to keep his championship title fight alive.
Courtney needs to produce results to keep him close to the top.
Others to look out for include Fabian Coulthard and Shane Van Gisbergen who are also in championship contention in 3rd and 4th position in the standings respectively.
It is also a weekend where the young stars of the sport will look to shine once again.
Last year saw the emergence of Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert in the sport.
McLaughlin took race 2 over the weekend with Mostert taking race 3.
For McLaughlin it was his 2nd win in the sport with Mostert tasting victory for the first time in the V8 Supercars.
It was an emotional victory for Mostert and his team Dick Johnson Racing.
After enduring plenty of heartbreak over the last few years with finances and an uncompetitive team, Mostert gave the team their first win since Courtney in 2010.
Will he continue that form with his new team?
Well from Friday’s form it looks possible.
In the final practice of the day, which was the fastest session, Mostert was second behind McLaughlin in the standings.
Third was Nick Percat in a sign the youngsters could be quick again this weekend.
Winterbottom was 6th for FPR with Whincup (8th) and Lowndes (11th) not far behind.
Less than a second separated the top 25 in the field.
It promises to be a big weekend of racing as plenty of drivers try to win at the Paperclip.
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