Adelaide 500 - History

History

The Adelaide Street Circuit was used for Formula One races from 1985 to 1995. On 1 September 1998, the Government of South Australia announced the conclusion of successful negotiations with the Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company (AVESCO) for the staging of a V8 Supercar race to be known as the Sensational Adelaide 500 on a shortened version of the Grand Prix track. The initial contract was for a period of five years with an option for a further five years.

The 1999 event saw Craig Lowndes win the Saturday race, only to be disqualified due to his involvement in an accident and made to start from the back of the grid for race two on the Sunday. Craig Lowndes passed every car in the field to also win race two and become the first winner of the Adelaide 500. Lowndes' disqualification from race one was later overturned.

After the conclusion of the 1999 race, Clipsal were announced as the event's major sponsor and it became known as the Clipsal 500 Adelaide.

From 2000 to 2003 the Adelaide 500 was dominated by Holden teams, with three wins to Mark Skaife and one to Jason Bright. It wasn't until 2004 that a Ford driver won the event, with Marcos Ambrose successful that year. Marcos Ambrose won again in 2005 and Jamie Whincup was the winner in 2006. In 2007, Rick Kelly won the Adelaide 500. And in 2008 the winner was Jamie Whincup again.

Read more about this topic:  Adelaide 500

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
    —Karl Marx (1818–1883)

    “It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    “It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
    —Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)