It sounds more like a Shakespearean drama – nimble young talent plucks the crown out of the hands of the ruling monarch and immediately abdicates, taking his new trappings with him.
Now, the fight for the crown is on anew…and it will take place not on horseback, but with horsepower, Ford versus Holden in a ‘Rock N Race’ format that starts 12,000 kilometres away in the Middle East this weekend and ends around the precincts of Sydney Olympic Park in the first weekend of December.
Fourteen events, including the iconic Bathurst 1000, as Australia’s most popular passenger cars are, according to defending champ James Courtney, “grabbed by the scruff of the neck and wrestled around the circuit.”
It is quite a sight. And sound.
Even then, the roaring beasts will only just block out the barbs and arrows directed Courtney’s way for defecting to Holden upon winning the 2010 championship in a Ford.
“The rivalry will be big,” says Mark “Frosty” Winterbottom, now into his sixth successive year with the Ford Performance Racing team.
“Ford fans are disappointed that they bought the No 1 to his car, but the people know, they’re not silly, where it was won – in a Ford. There is pressure on us to make sure it comes back to its rightful place. We’ll be doing our best to achieve that.”
So will 28 others. All with legitimate credentials to be chasing line honours on any given day.
“Our sport is at a level now that no-one can be written off,” Winterbottom says.
“The usual suspects are good at every round and that’s what wins them a championship, but picking a round winner these days is nearly impossible. You’re seeing high odds because it’s more open than a Melbourne Cup.”
Three-time series champion and current Bathurst champ Craig Lowndes believes having drivers like Courtney and 2009 runner-up Will Davison changing teams adds another dynamic to the 2011 title hunt.
“There’s a lot of very good drivers in completely different teams this year,” Lowndes said.
“It’ll be interesting to see how they’ve been able to adapt to their new surroundings and whether they hit the ground running.
“We’ve had the best Christmas break in three years because we haven’t had to build race cars. We’ve had an opportunity to finesse, smooth and do some fine-tuning. As a team we’re ready, fit and looking forward to Abu Dhabi and seeing where the championship goes.”
He may not have far to look.
His teammate, Jamie Whincup, is regarded as the sport’s benchmark.
The 2008 and 2009 champion celebrates his 100th V8 Supercars Championship event in Abu Dhabi this weekend, returning to the scene of last year’s double triumph at the same $1.2 billion, 4.7 km Yas Marina Circuit.
The Gold Coast driver has been untouchable abroad in recent times. He has an offshore winning streak that stands at 11 races since 2008, encompassing two meets in Bahrain, one in Abu Dhabi and a couple in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Whincup isn’t too bad at home either with a stellar career stat sheet boasting 42 race wins from 211 individual races, 22 pole positions and 50 podium results.
He has had a “fantastic” summer – “I knew it was a good break because I put on about four kilos” – but he’s still smarting at losing last year’s championship and missing a three-peat.
“We won more races, had more poles, the most quickest laps. You look at it on paper and we should’ve won, but we were inconsistent,” Whincup said.
And consistency is the key, according to Lowndes.
“It’s a long season,” said the driver with the second-highest number of V8 Supercar wins in the sport’s history, behind only his Bathurst buddy Mark Scaife.
“You need consistency and reliability. If you look at what James Courtenay did last season you’ve got to score and finish every race of the season. Everyone’s going to have a bad weekend, you just need to make sure you limit those bad ones.”
With a short off-season and constraints on technology and power there is no chance of a team quantum leaping. It’s a relatively level playing field.
“Most of the cars now are very similar,” Whincup said.
“There’s still a little bit of room for engineers to get more out of the car, but basically it comes down to the drivers. Whoever does the best on the day gets the silverware to prove it.”
Winterbottom says they might have a little bit of panel-beating to add to the proof.
“If you don’t come back with a few scatches and dents on your panels you haven’t been going hard enough.”
And that’s why the V8s are as entertaining as Shakespeare: no holden back, surging ford at speed. Characters. Fierce competition. Disney Pixar. Great rock bands.
It shapes as a drama-filled year.
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