| V8 Supercars | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Category |
|
|
Country or region |
Australasia |
|
Inaugural season |
1997 |
|
Drivers |
28 |
|
Teams |
17 |
|
Constructors |
2 |
|
Tyre suppliers |
Dunlop |
|
Drivers' champion |
|
|
Teams' champion |
Triple Eight Race Engineering |
|
Makes' champion |
Holden |
- For the current V8 Supercars season, see 2012 International V8 Supercars Championship.
V8 Supercars is a touring car racing series based in Australian and run as an Internation Series under FIA regulations.
V8 Supercar events take place in all the states of Australia. Overseas rounds are held in New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates and previously in Bahrain and China. The V8 Supercars have drawn crowds of over 250,000 spectators. Race formats include sprint races, with either a 100 km or 200 km race on Saturday and one 200 km race on Sunday, two 250 km races over the weekend (Adelaide and Sydney), two 300 km races over the weekend (Gold Coast) or endurance races such as Bathurst, which runs over 1000 km race distance, and the Sandown, which runs over 500 km.
The V8 Supercars themselves take as their basis either the Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon. From 2013, Nissan will join the V8 Supercars, providing a V8 Altima sedan to the Kelly Racing team. Also joining the championship in 2013, Mercedes-Benz will supply an E-Class based sedan to Stone Brothers Racing. Although the cars bear some resemblance to the production models outwardly, they are built from the ground up to suit the motorsport application. They are strictly governed in most aspects of performance in an effort to keep all the drivers on an equal level to create closer, more exciting racing.