Opinion
Another season of the Supercars championship is done and dusted, with the 13 round schedule all culminating in the emphatic return of the Adelaide 500 – after its scrapping in 2020.
Despite the championships having already been decided heading into the weekend, the Adelaide Parklands delivered arguably the best pair of races all year for Supercars. With the added emotion too of it being the last event for the Holden nameplate.
From a tear-jerking one-two finish, to a debut winner and lapping up the spoils of being at the event itself, here are the talking points from the Adelaide 500.
Fitting that a driver with Broc in his name won the final ever race for Holden isn’t it? That was the feat achieved by rookie Broc Feeney who claimed his maiden Supercars victory in the season ending Race 34.
Driving for the Holden homologation team with Red Bull, 20-year old Feeney took the reigns of the famous #88 car that was taken to seven championships by Jamie Whincup in 2022. His efforts impressive across the season, as well as consistent to see the youngster take sixth in the standings.
Feeney held off the charge of Chaz Mostert to take his first win, with less than a second separating the pair at the finish line. Starting from the second row, the Red Bull Commodore was the first of the leaders to pit on Lap 11 and benefitted when on Lap 22 there was a Safety Car.
Turn 8 had claimed Jake Kostecki’s Tradie Mustang and much of the field dived into the pits, while the likes of Will Davison and Feeney vaulted to the front having already pitted. The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner was brushed aside on the restart at Turn 9, as the rookie took the lead.
There were further errors for Davison who ended up in the wall at Turn 11, while his teammate Anton De Pasquale also struggled through the race – despite starting on pole position and ending up third on the podium.
Another crash at Turn 8, this time for Bryce Fullwood triggered another Safety Car which saw Feeney take his final stop – but also Red Bull be forced to double stack their drivers, which hurt van Gisbergen. Things were made worse for the Kiwi when he was found to have breached the Safety Car restart procedure, having overlapped the retiring Lee Holdsworth before the apex of the final corner.
Drive-through penalty was van Gisbergen’s punishment, though it didn’t perturb his emphatic post-race burnout on the main straight. Mostert again was up from fifth in qualifying in contention for the win, though a staunch and mature defence from young Feeney kept Mostert at bay.
Much like his predecessor, Feeney took his maiden win on the streets of Adelaide. Whincup back in 2006 in Race 2 took his first – while Triple Eight were still piloting Ford Falcons.
With emotions already high ahead of the opening 250km stanza of the Adelaide 500 with the impending farewell to Holden, it was none other than the former factory Holden Racing Team that delivered a special one-two finish in Race 33.
Mostert led teammate Nick Percat for Walkinshaw Andretti United’s first ever one-two on the streets of Adelaide, amongst a chaotic 78-lap race on Saturday afternoon. The fifth win for Mostert this year, also boosted the 30-year old to second in the standings overall.
Starting seventh, Mostert kept his nose clean while the likes of van Gisbergen and polesitter Waters endured torrid affairs. The three-time champion was in the barriers twice at Turn 11, before limping home to 20th with his Red Bull Ampol Racing Team having used an electric saw to shave off wrecked bodywork. Van Gisbergen also was punted off by Mostert at Turn 6 after a Safety Car restart.
Waters meanwhile enjoyed a healthy battle with South Australian podium hopeful Scott Pye, before Pye ended up going wide at Turn 13 after getting a run on the Monster Energy Mustang following its first brush with the Turn 11 barrier.
The Tickford racer was then penalised for putting another South Aussie in Todd Hazelwood into a spin at Turn 5, with the Truck Assist Commodore then finding itself in the path of Will Brown. This was all triggered a bold move by Waters on Macauley Jones at Turn 4, for which he was penalised with a drive-through.
Mostert found himself at the front of the field, having had the chance to take extra fuel in his second stop to reach the chequered flag. Percat who started from a lowly 20th was running behind his teammate, though was pressured by two-time Adelaide 500 winner for HRT in James Courtney.
Percat outlasted the 2010-Supercars champion for the famous one-two finish, with the 34-year old alongside teammate Mostert in an eye-watering formation on the in-lap.
Yes, we all knew this moment was coming. From that fateful announcement back in February of 2020 – ironically ahead of the previous Adelaide 500, that General Motors would be putting an end to the Holden name at the end of that year.
Holden vs Ford, red vs blue. It has been the lifeblood of the Australian touring car championship for decades. The history, the heroes – it all sends chills down your spine just pondering it all.
And while yes, the rivalry will continue with Camaro and the Mustang and the familiar faces steering them in 2023, it is still nice to reflect on the success of the Holden nameplate which means a lot to many living in Australia and New Zealand.
Apt then that the final two races across the weekend were won by the current factory Holden squad and also the former Holden Racing Team. Both respectively bringing their wins tallies to 189 and 187 whilst under that moniker.
Poignant as well was the Holden Tribute Cruise on Saturday morning, where fans were presented the opportunity to register in joining seven-time Bathurst 1000 champion Craig Lowndes in driving their own Holdens from the site of the old manufacturing plant in Elizabeth, to the Parklands circuit.
Thanks for the memories, Holden. Now to look forward to a new era that’ll hopefully preserve the Supercars championship well into the future.
With this having been the final outing for Supercars before the all-new Gen3 Ford Mustang and the radical Chevrolet Camaro debut in 2023, it is apt to reflect on the highs and lows of the Gen2 formula which now gets handed down to the feeder series.
Gen2 was the upgrade to Car of the Future, introduced in 2017 as a means to attract fresh manufacturer attention with the addition of two-door coupé cars and even turbocharged six-cylinder engines. Yes, remember Holden were developing a V6-turbo?
There was no change in 2017 in terms of cars across the field, meaning that the start of Gen2 was a bit of a damp squib but in 2018 the Holden teams took on the sleek ZB Commodore chassis, after as well Triple Eight had become the factory and homologation squad for Holden.
It wasn’t until 2019 things really heated up when Ford announced its return to Supercars in a factory presence, having pulled the plug in 2014 on the then Ford Performance Racing now Tickford. The Blue Oval was the first to bring a two-door coupé into Supercars, in the form of their flagship Mustang.
Initially the Mustang was an eyesore, even the Gen2 chassis was higher than the Ford’s roadgoing counterpart – meaning that the Mustang skin was stretched over the control chassis. That wasn’t even the controversial part, as after the field was blitzed by Scott McLaughlin at the season opening Adelaide 500 – questions were raised about parity.
A few adjustments later and a bad taste left in the mouth, Gen2 fizzled out and with bold plans for Gen3 around a more cost effective formula and less dependent on aerodynamics, it was hard not to look forward to the future. That was until the pandemic hit and the development continued to be delayed and now finally Gen3 comes in 2023.
It was a travesty when during 2020 that the Adelaide 500 was scrapped altogether, having run that year prior to the pandemic taking off in front of a meagre crowd. Decades of history, dating back to the days of when Formula One ruled the famous parklands seemed lost.
All until the South Australian state election rolled around in 2022 and the then opposition leader Peter Malinauskas made the bold promise to resurrect the Adelaide 500, should his Labor party be elected into government.
Now after four exhilarating days of some of the best racing seen this year, with an estimated crowd of 258,200 – a big thank you is in order to the South Australian government and various stakeholders for making this event happen.
Not even the blistering heat and sunburnt skin could stop this writer from being lapped up in the adoration of such a famous event, as well as the emotion going into the pair of final races for the Holden nameplate in Supercars.
The view from the Hairpin grandstand at Turn 14 quite splendid, capturing the tricky run through Turn 13 before delicately stamping on the brakes into the final corner to blast onto the pit-straight – the scene of van Gisbergen’s epic burnout.
The concerts proceeding a day’s running as well turned the event into a proper festival. Names such as Lime Cordiale, Baker Boy, Icehouse, Jimmy Barnes, Amy Shark all entertained racegoers, culminating in an epic performance by The Killers on Sunday night.
Next to the Bathurst 1000, the Adelaide 500 is arguably the best event on the Supercars calendar and now that it has returned till at least 2026, any fan of motorsport best make the effort to go someday.
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