Here we go again. The V8 Supercar wagon is pulling out of the station, and B-double transporters – with more than $100m infrastructure behind them – will start criss-crossing Australia again. But this year the landscape will be different for a number of reasons.

With Mark Larkham Motorsport’s demise in February, the starting field was reduced to less than the maximum number of starters at all circuits. That means all drivers have the chance to complete all 13 rounds, and the special race at the Australian Grand Prix. That race meeting in itself is different – this year it will not form a season shootout, coming after the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, thanks to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The Adelaide event will actually clash with the last weekend of the Games in a Melbourne, and that will set up an interesting battle for national media coverage that could define how far the sport has grown in recent years.

China is in doubt following its date rejection by the Chinese motorsport body, but the desert race in Bahrain is a definite goer in late November when the daytime temperature drops to the low 30s. The arrival of Bahrain pushes the season end into the middle of December, which will no doubt please few, but the journey will be interesting for all of us.

There is talk that either Winton or Eastern Creek will be given the Chinese date to prevent a six-week break in the middle of the year, potentially pushing the Series out to 14 rounds. Round two in New Zealand is now a fly-away event almost on ANZAC Day, meaning the turn-around time will be a lot less than the old slow-boat scenario, and the teams that end up with crash damage will not be very pleased about that.

All the teams this year will get onto the grid at all the races, and that means 31 drivers everywhere, including the three fly-away international events. And to top off a season of change, reverse-grid racing will re-enter the main game as the middle race at all the rounds with three races.

The changes run deep for this season, and March will hopefully bring some sanity and stability to the sport as the hopeful head off for combat. Finally, the racing will talk again and the contenders will quickly make a break from the pretenders.

As with most recent years, the silly season was long and staggering in its complexity. Some rumours resolved into fact, while others... well, others just dissolved. Paul Cruickshank Racing (with Marcus Marshall as its driver) emerged as expected, and other licences changed hands, which helped restructure the sport and earned some ex-owners a tidy profit.

Team Dynamik’s licences look to have finally settled – one with Paul Morris Motorsports and the other with Cruickshank. The Toll Racing franchise was bought by TEGA, as was the Larkham Motorsport Level One franchise and its rights to run two cars in the series. It cut the field from the awkward 34 cars that looked set to vie for 32 spots at many places, to 31 cars and an empty hole on the grid.

Larkham’s move was a bolt from the blue which took many by surprise. Especially driver Jason Bargwanna, who had been told he was a required driver and turned down overtures from Ford Performance Racing. It’s not all over for Bargs as we write; there is a chance he will line up for WPS in place of David Besnard, who has been under pressure to perform for quite some time now.

While these guys head the visible changes, much has gone on behind the scenes at most teams. By our reckoning, no team has remained untouched this summer, and that means there are variables of a kind we’ve never seen before.

Changes

The biggest change of all for 2006 is not with any of the teams or drivers, it is the structure of the three-race rounds and the arrival of reverse-grid racing to the main show. We saw it dabbled with in Canberra, and we’ve seen it in the Development Series, now we will see the best in the land fight from the back on a regular basis.

It’s all about the spectacle, and it will force drivers to pass others even if the points in the reverse-grid race are half that of the other two for the meeting. Not everyone is happy about the move. Some team owners think it will cost them more in repair bills, while some drivers are frightened of what will happen... our tip is these are the guys who will struggle.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of the change, it’s here and it will be spectacular. Does it move the V8 Supercar Championship Series away from being sport and more toward entertainment? Only history will give us the answer to that question, and personally, we’re looking forward to April 23 when we see it rolled out at Pukekohe.

Away from the teams, the other impact is the arrival of Bahrain to the series and the possible demise of China after one round. Bahrain will be an interesting exercise for a number of reasons, one being the timing of the races – prime time in Australia on a Friday night. Network Ten will most likely beam it in live, and it should be a ratings bonanza for the series.

It is a bit sad to potentially lose China from the calendar so quickly but at present all we really know is that the mid-year date has been rejected. One option widely mooted is to drop into China on the way to Bahrain, a move which would give us a weather-shock like we used to have with Canberra following Darwin in the middle of winter. The other option – and the one most likely at this stage – is that the round has gone for good.

Also lost to the series is Larkham Motorsport, one of the founding teams of AVESCO (now V8 Supercars Australia). LMS has bailed out, and the licences have been sold to TEGA who then disabled them. Jason Bargwanna’s immediate future is up in the air, while Larkham has moved into a new ownership role with WPS Racing, and will run the team as its new managing director.

How it is structured, who its drivers will be, and whether Ford will be involved are all questions begging answers as we went to press. Orrcon has apparently moved with Larkham to the new team.

Toll Racing and Anthony Tratt are also lost to the series but that was flagged before last season was over. Along with Rod Nash Racing going its own way, Toll’s demise left a hole at Team Perkins Racing that has been filled with a Fujitsu Development Series team for Jack Perkins and Shane Price.

Many of the other teams have had some minor fiddling, while others featured some more substantive changes. A driver change is a significant thing in V8 Supercar racing, and the impact runs much deeper than a new name on the door and a seat fitting.

It comes down to how long it takes before a driver starts talking to his engineers in a way they can all understand; it’s like learning a new language and it can often take some fiddling with the extremes. How much is a little understeer versus "it just won’t turn in", and how will the newbie fit in and provide advice that works across both cars?

There is a reason everyone has pushed towards two-car teams, and it is for the sharing of data between two cars for the common good. So the second driver in any team will be part of a unit that may end up with one driver taking the glory.

Reigning champions Stone Brothers Racing heads the driver changes with James Courtney to replace Marcos Ambrose. Driver changes generally don’t come any more significant than this, and Courtney sure has some big shoes to fill.

His past record is awesome. You don’t sit on the verge of an F1 career if you don’t have talent or money, and we know it wasn’t the latter that got him on Jaguar’s testing team. You can read elsewhere in this issue about Courtney and what drives and motivates him, but don’t expect him to be a pussy behind the wheel – he is expected to visit the stewards a few times as he learns the boundaries. We also suspect there is at least one red car that wants to teach him a lesson, so this will be interesting to watch.

Not only have we lost Ambrose from the series, we’ve also lost the major sponsor of the #4 Falcon. Pirtek had a been a familiar sight on the Falcon even back when Jason Bright was doing the steering and winning Bathurst for SBR. Jeld-Wen Falcon sure is a funny name, and it is going to take some getting used to, and that’s their point.

In most other respects, it looks like SBR is the same outfit that has won the past three titles. Russell Ingall will, of course, wear the number one on the side of his car, and we think he’ll be a pretty good champion. We hope he has an arrogant swagger when he walks into the paddock area in Adelaide, we hope his personality is allowed to shine, and we hope he finds a way to return a little more of The Enforcer. Reverse grids will certainly give him an outlet for his aggression.

Also new to the class are Marcus Marshall, Jose Fernandez, Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison. The latter comes in to replace a sacked Glenn Seton at Dick Johnson Racing. Seton’s sacking was controversial, and many regarded it is as harsh treatment for the legend. The consequences are that it puts a lot of pressure onto the likeable Davison, who crashed out of Bathurst. By all reports, Davison has the ability to push Steve Johnson on a day-to-day basis, and the team needs that as much as he does.

Watching Junior a few times last year, you got the feeling that he did just enough and no more. For a bloke with his talent he’s underachieving and that needs to change if DJR is going to reclaim some of its former glory.

Marshall will take up the driving duties for the new Paul Cruickshank Racing team that is making the jump up from the Development Series. Marshall was sacked from Craig Gore’s Team Australia unit in Champ Car, and he is a pretty good steerer who will more than likely settle in faster than the team. It’s a big leap for PCR, and one hopes they don’t hold too high an ambition for that first season.

Fernandez has finally made the step up from the Development Series after a little bit of time in the feeder class. He will drive the second Fujitsu Britek Falcon after what amounts to an internal promotion after driving for the team in 2005. Likewise, Holdsworth has jumped from the DVS into the main game, taking up a regular slot at GRM after endurance duties and a fill-in drive at the end of 2005 .

Other driver changes include Cam McConville’s move from Garry Rogers Motorsport to PWR Racing, while Andrew Jones moves from Garry Rogers Motorsport to Tasman. Jamie Whincup, meanwhile goes from Tasman to Triple Eight, Mark Winterbottom moves to Ford Performance Racing from Larkham and Steve Owen goes from Britek to Rod Nash/Autobarn. All those moves look like fairly astute pick-ups by their new teams.

McConville is a talented driver who has rarely had the equipment in the main game to show his skills. His stability will be a good foil to Murphy’s rollercoaster, and the pair will match up well.

As will Winterbottom, although it would be hard to argue that Bright carries his emotions as openly as Murphy. Frosty came into the main series a couple of seasons back with some big raps, and his tutelage phase under Mark Larkham’s care is now over. The #5 FPR Falcon will provide a challenge, but if the performance of the team as indicated late-last year is any guide, he will certainly have the chance to move forward as a driver.

It is a higher profile drive. He gets to live in Melbourne and gets a much nicer company car.

Whincup was a revelation at Tasman, and you can be sure the new Holden darlings were not happy about losing him to Triple Eight. He took a few races to work into it, but then he was racing hard. Dual podiums at Sandown and Bathurst always look good on the CV, and T8’s Roland Dane jumped on him fast when he realised he wasn’t going to use Steve Ellery this year.

A few drivers have disappeared from the series into endurance roles, and we’re pretty sure Ross Stone would have been working the phone pretty hard over summer to secure Glenn Seton to join its regular pairing. Steve Ellery, Greg Ritter, Alex Davison, Max Wilson and Simon Wills are also all available. Dean Canto and Warren Luff have also moved back into the main game after year in the Development Series.

Sponsors have moved as well, some out of the series and some into the series, while others have just changed teams. The two most meaningful in terms of significance are Toll to the HSV Dealer Team, and Jack Daniels to Team Perkins Racing – both represent an improvement in the cash position of both teams.

What was different in the silly season was that Craig Lowndes, for the first time this millennium, was not at the centre of any rumours or activity. Finally the driver that many rate as the most talented in the field has found a Ford team to give him the equipment to win races and rounds, and score pole positions to boot.

He won more races than anyone else in 2005 – almost half of all the races contested – yet he still didn’t win the title. What proved more significant than the outright speed of the Lowndes-Betta Electrical Falcon combination was its foibles. At Pukekohe, Perth and Bathurst one side of the partnership let the other down, and that is why he didn’t win the championship.

In all our research, we’ve found it hard to find a modern-day point score that would have given him the title.

Russell Ingall and SBR unlocked the code to a series win, and it involved taming The Enforcer and turning out a consistent driver who qualified well and raced clear of trouble. It was one of two drawing points in the 2005 season, the other being HRT’s strategy at Bathurst, which made it the first team to understand Bathurst today. That said, the competition was so tough, the title fell to the clever, not just the fast.

As it stands, only two current-day teams have won championships in this era of the sport – nine years of AVESCO/V8 Supercars Australia – and that means there are a heap of other teams with unfulfilled potential. Stone Brothers Racing is now coming off the back of three series wins (two with Ambrose and one to Ingall), while HRT put together five in a row before that. Glenn Seton Racing, the other to win, has for all intents and purposes gone to wherever things go when they die.

But at the risk of upsetting the Holden fans by using a Henry Ford quote to give them hope, history is bunk. The slate is clean, and each of the main players can sit down for a VB in February – more often than not on a boat – with the belief that this is their year.

The final thought...

This season is as anticipated as any we can remember; the pressure is on Holden to come up with a series win, while Ford must be hankering for a win at Bathurst. There are four former, and one current, champions in the field, and we’ve already mentioned only two teams with titles to their names.

This means there is a lot of unfulfilled potential in this field, a lot of drivers and teams who can win races, rounds, or a title, but so far few have managed. Who will be the champion team of 2006? We think this fight is between four teams. Who will win the V8 Supercar Championship Series? One of seven in our opinion. Can Holden fight back for more wins than Ford? Toss a coin.

What is clear is that Russell Ingall will roll out with number one on the door, and he is now square in the sights of 30 other drivers.

2006 V8 Supercar Calendar Rd 01 Clipsal 500, Adelaide Mar 23 - 26 Special Event, Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne Mar 30 - Apr 2 Rd 02 Pukekohe Raceway, New Zealand Apr 21 - 23 Rd 03 Barbagallo Raceway, Perth May 12 14 Rd 04 Shanghai International Circuit, China Jun 9 - 11 (TBC) Rd 05 Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin Jun 30 - Jul 2 Rd 06 Queensland Raceway, Brisbane Jul 21 - 23 Rd 07 Oran Park Raceway, Sydney Aug 11 - 13 Rd 08 Betta Electrical 500, Sandown, Melbourne Sep 8 - 9 Rd 09 Super Cheap Auto 1000, Bathurst Oct 5 - 7 Rd 10 V8 Supercar Challenge, Gold Coast Oct 19 - 22 Rd 11 Symmons Plains Raceway, Tasmania Nov 10 - 12 Rd 12 Bahrain International Circuit , Bahrain Nov 22 - 24 Rd 13 Grand Finale, Phillip Island Dec 8 - 10

wp:breakout box>

Testing Team BOC runs engines from Stone Brothers Racing this year, and should be competitive. The testing scenario is interesting, with the new rookie rule coming into play and extra test days allowed for rookies. SBR has gained on its main rivals by running Courtney in his rookie year, and the extra days on the test-track are bound to help in more ways than just allowing Courtney to acclimatise. Many of the Melbourne teams are shifting their testing venue from Phillip Island to Winton. This is not a portent of the re-emergence of the Winton round, just a shift to allow the teams a different testing program and a real bonus for the southern teams. The Queenslanders can only use Queensland Raceway, which means year-in year-out they have essentially one development program open to them. A switch from the high-speed Phillip Island to the tight and twisty Winton shifts the emphasis quite dramatically.

Clumping The Falcon BF and Commodore VZ are virtually identical to the cars from the previous years, although there are some component supply problems which will allow a minor change to the Falcon engine as the year progresses. What will play an even bigger part this year is the way teams buy technology. Stone Brothers Racing’s technically independent engine operation will now supply three teams with the latest spec engines, with Brad Jones Racing joining Triple 8 and SBR in a deal that amortises development costs and should keep them line-ball with the two top Holden operations. BJR is reportedly putting in half a million, which makes the total engine budget for this operation about $2 million for the year. These are the best Ford engines in the field, and they must be in line with the best from the red side, the engines from Tom Walkinshaw Group, and Perkins Engineering Perkins will now supply just two main-game teams - his own and PWR Racing – while TWG will do HRT and the Kelly Racing Team at the front of the field. For those not in one of these clumps it is hard to see them having the grunt needed to run at the front at every race meeting. Of our eight top-rated teams, these two engine groupings cover seven of them, with only FPR doing its own thing. But the clumps go deeper than just engines in some cases. Will Britek be unfairly clumped again with FPR because of the Jason Bright link? And will TEGA finally take a serious look at the workings of the HRT and the HSV Dealer Team?

Making the point Again we start a new season with a new pointscore system, and for those who really want to know the variations are quite simple. With the reverse-grid race getting a lower pointscore than the other races on a weekend, there’ll be a full shuffling of the value of a position in all race formats. A perfect score on any weekend would give 320 points, and that is the reward for winning a single race round, such as Bathurst. Each position is worth 10 points in those races. In three-race rounds, the first and last races are worth 128 points for the win, while the reverse-grid race carries half that (64). Each spot in the two straight races is worth four points, while the reverse-grid spots are two points. A two-race round, such as the season opening Clipsal 500, is weighted at 160 for the winner of each race, with each spot costing or gaining five points. The controversial retention of the drop your worst from the first ten rounds remains, even though it would have made little difference to the championship. Todd Kelly was the only driver to gain spots last year, climbing from sixth to fourth courtesy a slender 33 points haul from Oran Park.

Entry list (11th February, 2006) * Stone Brothers Racing (New Sponsor Car #4) Russell Ingall Car 1 - Falcon BA > James Courtney Car 4 - Falcon BA * Holden Racing Team (New Management Structure/renewed Tom Walkinshaw involvement) Mark Skaife Car 2 - Commodore VZ Todd Kelly Car 22 - Commodore VZ * Tasman Motorsport (New Sponsor) Jason Richards Car 3 - Commodore VY > Andrew Jones Car 23 - Commodore VZ Ford Performance Racing > Mark Winterbottom Car 5 - Falcon BA Jason Bright Car 6 - Falcon BA * Rod Nash Racing (No longer maintained by Perkins Engineering) > Steve Owen Car 24 - Commodore VY * WPS Racing (Mark Larkham in as Managing Direcor) Jason Bargwanna Car 8 - Falcon BA ? Max Wilson Car 48 - Falcon BA * Brad Jones Racing (Engine supply deal with SBRE) John Bowe Car 12 - Falcon BA Brad Jones Car 14 - Falcon BA * Kelly Racing Team (New Sponsors) Rick Kelly Car 15 - Commodore VZ Garth Tander Car 16 - Commodore VZ * Dick Johnson Racing (New Sponsors/High Staff Turnover) Steven Johnson Car 17 - Falcon BA > Will Davison Car 18 - Falcon BA * Jack Daniels Perkins Motorsport (New Sponsor) Paul Dumbrell Car 7 - Commodore VY Steven Richards Car 11 - Commodore VY * Britek Motorsport (Maybe Testing Allowed) > Warren Luff Car 25 - Falcon BA > Jose Fernandez Car 52 - Falcon BA Garry Rogers Motorsport > Dean Canto Car 33 - Commodore VZ > Lee Holdsworth Car 34 - Commodore VY Super Cheap Auto Racing > Cam McConville Car 50 - Commodore VZ Greg Murphy Car 51 - Commodore VZ * Paul Morris Motorsports (Now two cars) Paul Morris Car 67 - Commodore VZ > Fabian Coulthard / Allan Gurr Car 45 - Commodore VY Team Betta Electrical > Jamie Whincup Car 88 - Falcon BA Craig Lowndes Car 888 - Falcon BA Team Kiwi Racing Paul Radisich Car 021 - Commodore VZ > New Driver ? To Be Confirmed * Team Change

Alpha males Jason Bright Struggled for much of 2005 but showed plenty of driving class in a clearly troubled car. Finished with speed, FPR having finally got on top of some ‘special’ shock absorbers, and looked a chance for pole in the final round. Will rely on his team improving dramatically.   James Courtney A series rookie who comes with a pedigree that just can’t be ignored. Has pretty much been a front-runner in everything he has driven, and there is no doubt the SBR Falcon is a good toy to play with. Whether he can string together enough good results in his first year remains to be seen, but we do think he’ll have a round win.. Russell Ingall Finally cracked it for the big one in 2005, improving his qualifying, taming his aggression and winning the championship. Will be an awesome champion but a few others have cracked the consistency code that makes up the series pointscore. Will also be the target for the Holden drivers, much the same way as Ambrose was last year. Expect a return of The Enforcer for the reverse-grid races. Jason Richards Really stepped up to the plate last season and almost won Bathurst. Still improving as a driver and working with his team to remove some of the inconsistencies that are proving costly. Good bloke with a good team and real chance to finish deep inside the top 10. Craig Lowndes Proved all the doubters wrong in 2005 with a stellar year that saw him with the most wins and the most poles. Will need a little more from Triple 8 in terms of reliability and preparation. If he is going to win the title, he can’t afford some of the basic boo-boos that took the past season away from him. Todd Kelly Three round wins in 2005 had the younger HRT pilot in championship contention for most of the season until mechanical failure at Indy shut it down. Will be looking to keep moving forward and is a real pre-season contender. The open question is his role at HRT and whether that will give him a serious shot. Mark Skaife Broke a two-year win duck in 2005 but was for most of the year overshadowed by his younger teammate, Todd Kelly. Still as quick as ever and nabbed a couple of poles just to prove it but, again, small mistakes and pig-headedness got in the way of some valuable results. Will figure again, but we think that’s it. Greg Murphy A rough year for Murphy finished well in 2005. Although consistent, mechanical failure dropped him outside of the championship top 10, in a year many expected him to be a contender. Will need his team to step up to the plate if he is to have any chance. We know he can win, but can the team? Steve Richards Consistent again, Richards has the wherewithal to go the whole way, but the seasons seem to keep going pear shaped from Sandown onwards. Few changes with the team, except for a new sponsor of some team shuffling, should keep Richards right up there from the opening day of the Clipsal 500. Garth Tander Moved into a new team last season and looked the better for it with each race meeting. Will give this title a real push, more than likely leading the Holden charge against Lowndes on the blue side. Motivated, keen and talented, and now with a team that can put it together, week in week out.

2006 Driver Movements Allan Gurr/Fabian Coulthard – Paul Morris Motorsports (Series Rookies) Andrew Jones – Tasman Motorsport (From Garry Rogers Motorsport) Cameron McConville – PWR Racing (From Garry Rogers Motorsport) Dean Canto – Garry Rogers Motorsport (From Development Series) James Courtney – Stone Brothers Racing (Series Rookie) Jamie Whincup – Tasman Motorsport (From Tasman Motorsport) Jason Bargwanna – WPS (From Larkham Motorsport) Max Wilson – (From Longhurst Racing) Lee Holdsworth – Garry Rogers Motorsport (From Development Series) Marcus Marshall – Paul Cruickshank Racing (Series Rookie) Mark Winterbottom – Ford Performance Racing (From Larkham Motorsport) Steve Owen – Rod Nash Racing (From Britek) Warren Luff – Britek (From Development Series) Will Davison – Dick Johnson Racing (Series Rookie) Gone to Endurance Duties Alex Davison (ex-Rod Nash Racing) David Besnard (ex-WPS Racing) Craig Baird (ex-WPS Racing) Glenn Seton (To SBR from full time Dick Johnson Racing seat) Greg Ritter (ex-Ford Performance Racing) Steve Ellery (ex-Triple Eight)

Significant Team Change Summary (other than driver change) Team Perkins Racing – New sponsor Dick Johnson Racing – Business restructure, new sponsor, driver and personnel changes Kelly Racing Team – New Sponsors Paul Morris Motorsports – Ramped up to formal 2-car team Stone Brothers Racing – New sponsor for car #4 WPS Racing – New management structure, Mark Larkham in as Managing Director Larkham Motorsport – Gone Team Dynamik – Gone Britek Motorsport – Testing allowed... maybe Holden Racing Team – New management structure, renewed Tom Walkinshaw involvement Tasman Motorsport – New sponsor Rod Nash Racing – No longer maintained by Perkins Engineering Brad Jones Racing – Engine supply deal with SBRE Dick Johnson Racing – New sponsors/high staff turnover

Crystal balling Neville Wilkinson V8X Publisher/Editor Who will be the champion in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? They were the form team for most of 2005 and have momentum going into this year. Best performing team in 2006? Tough! There are at least eight teams with a real chance. Toll Racing Team Why? Both drivers know how to win in V8 Supercars, plus more sponsorship, improved management and 2006 is about moving forward. Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Rick Kelly and Garth Tander – Toll Racing Why? Drivers and teams have been there and done that, plus they haven’t lost any of the hunger. Steve Nally V8X Journalist Who will be the champion in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? Lowndes is back to his best and Triple Eight is a tightly-run technical jugggernaut. Unless Lowndes gets screwed by reverse-grid races I reckon he’ll be hard to beat. Best performing team in 2006? HSVDT (TOLL) Why? Two very strong drivers (Rick and Tander) Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Kelly/Tander Why? Two strong drivers who have won Bathurst before. If the team is up to it they’ll be right up there. Bruce Newton Award-winning V8X Journalist Who will be the champion in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? Talented, hungry, strong team. Best performing team in 2006? HSV Dealer Team. Why? Garth wants it bad, as does the team. Equal drivers, equal machinery (we are told!) Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Greg Murphy/Cam McConville. Why? Murph is blessed at the mountain, Cam deserves it. Gordon Lomas V8X Journalist Who will be the champion in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? Unless there has been a major seismic shift in opposition garages in the off-season, T8 have demonstrated enough firepower to win with some authority. Best performing team in 2006? Stone Brothers Racing Why? SBR has been the benchmark for the last three seasons and James Courtney, although a raw pup in V8 Supercar terms, has the capacity to give champion Russell Ingall a nudge and if that happens, SBR will be the team to beat. Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Craig Lowndes/Yvan Muller Why? If that combination backs up for a second year, they would be hard to beat. Particularly after their stunning pace before Lowndes’ miscalculation and that flying tyre which nearly went within a breath of being a tragedy and snuffed any real winning hopes. Andrew Clarke V8X Senior Journalist Who will be the champion in 2006? Garth Tander Why? GT is hungry and enjoying his resurgence, and I think the team will be a little more consistent than Triple 8, and with the pointscore that will work for him. Open question is can they hunt down the quickest cars on the track? Best performing team in 2006? Stone Brothers Racing. Why? They make few mistakes, prepare well and have top notch drivers. Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Whoever drives with Glenn Seton – Ingall or Courtney Why? Bit hard to work this one out without knowing driver line-ups. Ask me in August. Cameron McGavin V8X Sub Editor Who will be the champion in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? 2005 was something of a missed opportunity for Craig, so he won’t want to let the title slip through his fingers this year. Best performing team in 2006? HRT Why? Other cars might be quicker on the day, but Skaife and Kelly will be there or thereabouts throughout the season. Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? After dropping the ball while leading at Bathurst last year, Craig will be on the front foot and highly motivated. Tomas Mezera V8X Teams Expert Who will be the champion in 2006? It is hard to choose the winner because of AVESCO’s screwed-up points system but Craig Lowndes should take it Why? He is the best driver and he is in a good team. Best performing team in 2006? HSV Racing team Why? Strong leadership of John Crennan. Who will win Bathurst in 2006? Lowndes/? Why? Lowndes is the best and Seton is overdue. Luke West V8X Journalist Who will be the champion in 2006? Craig Lowndes Why? The form driver of 2005 with four round wins and drives for a team that just gets better and better. Should that be Betta and Betta? Best performing team in 2006? Stone Brothers Racing. Why? Ingall is a proven points collector (has finished third or better in championship six times in 10 attempts) and Courtney will take to V8 racing like a duck to water. Who will win Bathurst in 2006? A Stone Brothers car. Why? SBR finally ironed out its Bathurst set-up problems last year, and were only let down by ‘no undy Sundy’ policy of drivers. .

Teams/Franchises 1. Stone Brothers Racing (2 existing SBR licences) 2. Holden Racing Team (2 Mark Skaife Racing licences) 3. Kelly Racing Team (2 existing KRT licences) 4. Garry Rogers Motorsport (2 existing GRM licences) 5. Dick Johnson Racing (2 existing DJR licences) 6. PWR Racing (2 existing PWR licences) 7. WPS Motorsport (2 existing WPS licences) 8. Brad Jones Racing (2 existing BJR licences) 9. Ford Performance Racing (2 existing FPR licences) 10. Triple 8 Race Engineering (2 existing T8 licences) 11. Tasman Motorsport (2 existing Tasman licences) 12. Paul Morris Motorsports (1 existing PMM licence / 1 new ex-Team Dynamik via Longhurst Racing via Rod Nash racing licence) 13. Team Kiwi (1 existing licence) 14. Rod Nash (1 existing licence) 15. Team Perkins Racing (1 Owned / 1 Leased from Paul Romano Racing) 16. Britek (2 existing licences) 17. Paul Cruickshank Racing (1 new ex-Team Dynamik via Longhurst Racing via Rod Nash racing licence) Disabled from 2005 1. Larkham Motorsport (2 licences) 2. Toll Racing (1 licence)