Here’s a juicy little stat for V8X readers: Betta Electrical-sponsored cars have won eight of the 11 V8 Supercar rounds (both main-game and development series) in 2006.

Craig Lowndes has three overall victories (at the time of writing), Jamie Whincup took the Clipsal 500 and Adam Macrow has scored four from four in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.

Macrow has been unstoppable all year in his Triple 8 Falcon.

Macrow, in winning Oran Park’s Fujitsu round, set a new development series record – five overall wins on the trot. The streak started at Phillip Island’s 2005 series finale.

The Melbourne-born Gold Coaster is now just one win away from joining Dean Canto atop the most-round-victories list.

Therefore, it’s somewhat baffling that the 27-year-old won’t be suiting up for Team Betta in the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000s. Especially, as he was on the B1000 podium for T8 last year!

Mind you, after the unfounded hoo-ha surrounding Yvan Muller’s pairing with Lowndes last year, we won’t argue the point with V8X columnist and T8 boss Roland Dane.

Instead, Macrow will pair with Warren Luff at, appropriately, Fujitsu Racing for the biggies.

Matthew White snared a handy podium spot at Oran Park.

As to 2007, there’s talk Macrow’s team boss Mark Howard is keen to step his squad up to the main game. If that happens, Macrow – the 1998 Australian Formula Ford Champion – would finally get the full-time steer in the big league that he deserves.

Interestingly, his former Formula Ford team boss, Mike Borland, a 20-year veteran of FFord racing, rates Adam as one of the two best drivers to have driven for him. The other? Mark Winterbottom.

PARK PLAYERS

While Adam Macrow took the top prize at the fourth round at Oran Park – with a first, 15th and a third – two drivers scored breakthrough V8 victories.

Perkins Motorsport’s Shane Price won race three to secure second overall and David Clark (see Fujitsu Cool Customer) cleaned up in the reverse-gridder. Price’s runner-up role consolidated his second place on the ladder.

Development series stalwart Matthew White rounded out the Sydney round’s podium.

Shane Price lived up to his undoubted promise with a strong second.

Cool customer >> David CLARK You’re excused for asking: David who? But Clark’s pedigree is ultra impressive, despite him disappearing off the motorsport landscape for almost four years – an eternity in racing terms. The West Australian native captured four Aussie karting championships in the early 1990s before embarking on several world karting campaigns, including posting a top-10 finish at the World Junior titles in Belgium. He tackled the 2001 Australian Formula Ford Championship before trying his luck in British F3 the following year in the scholarship class. Then came a hiatus, until his long-time backer David Macdougall offered him a drive in his Optima Motorsport BA Falcon. The Queensland-based V8 newboys have contested each 2006 round, displaying plenty of pace, without putting a full weekend together. The undoubted highlight was Clark’s win in Oran Park’s reverse-grid sprint. The South Oz resident didn’t put a wheel wrong and led from go-to-whoa. This Ford mob is planning big things, so keep a close eye on them.

ORAN ODDITIES

Fujitsu Series races always dish up some weird and wonderful moments, and Oran Park was no different.

Round polesitter Michael Caruso found himself innocently punted off the road, landing on trackside tyres. One got dragged along under the Decina Falcon and unceremoniously spat out the back – some 200 metres down the road!

Above: Caruso nabbed the Oran Park pole but ended up an innocent victim in the tyre wall. Right: Shane Beikoff showed off his new +e fuel signage at Queensland.

Andrew Thompson, meanwhile, found his driver’s side mirror was bouncing around during a caution period. Fearing a black flag – consider the consequences of the mirror landing on a following car’s windscreen at 250km/h – he tried a novel way to ripping it off. Thompson ran his Dick Johnson Racing BA along the main straight’s wall at low speed attempting to tear it off – unsuccessfully we might add! Sure enough, out came the black ensign.

PAPERCLIP PERFORMERS

Thompson's novel attempt to remove a rogue rear-view mirror raised eyebrows.

That man Macrow stole the show at Queensland Raceway in July, taking the round with race results of second, 11th and first.

Mark Porter won the first affair, but mechanical woes stopped him from converting his pace into an overall win. The reverse-gridder saw Kayne Scott emerge victorious.

Perkins youngsters Shane Price and Jack Perkins rounded out the podium.

In the picture >> PROTECNICA V8X reckons Protecnica Racing is a great name for a team. Tricky to spell, sure, but it certainly sounds the business. The good news for V8 Supercar racing is that there’s substance behind the swish moniker. Protecnica is the latest team to graduate to V8-land, having been a force in production cars and open-wheelers. Protecnica’s biggest success came when Sydney celebrity hotelier and fearless race driver Justin Hemmes clinched the 2004 Australian GT-Performance Car Championship. The Sydney squad, owned by Scott Anderson, also has a background in rallying. Last year, the team won races in four different motorsport series – F3, performance cars, production cars and drifting. Nothing if not versatile this mob. Then there’s the driver, 19-year-old Chris Alajajian, aka ‘The Chris’. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the Sydneysider after his exploits in production cars. Chris Alajajian has already made an impact in his short V8DS career. Alajajian became the youngest-ever winner of a CAMS national title in 2004 when, aged 17, he took the Australian Production Car Championship aboard a Subaru Liberty GT. He progressed to the Performance Car ranks last year with a Subaru Impreza WRX STi and F3 open-wheelers, continuing his success, although championships eluded him. His year ended with F3 victories in the A1GP support races. He even tried his hand at rallying with a Subaru drive at Rally Bathurst. Protecnica and Alajajian debuted its ex-Team Dynamik at Queensland Raceway and showed flashes of speed, most notably in finishing second in the reverse-gridder. On home soil at Oran Park, Alajajian was quicker again, narrowly missing out on a top-three finish in race three when he hit an oil slick. More at www.thechris.com.au

PAPERCLIP PECULIARS

Spare a thought for Sydneysider John Henderson. With 41 entries for QR’s 40 grid spots, Henderson became first reverse after qualifying, and seemingly destined for a start come race two. Not quite.

Porter's consistency has him third in the series points table.

By some miracle every one of the 40 cars backed up for races two and three. So poor Hendo headed back down the New England Highway without turning a wheel in anger. The lack of attrition was amazing when you consider that race two was a reverse-grid affair! With 40 cars, it was biggest inverted-grid field ever.

All up 72 V8 Supercars took part in the weekend!

AN ALTERNATIVE SPONSOR

Like the main-game races, there was plenty of action at Queensland raceway.

Given that race teams dream of gaining government sponsorship, Shane Beikoff Racing pulled off a coup by sporting +e fuel signage on Jono Beikoff’s Falcon at Queensland Raceway.

The deal was part of Queensland’s ethanol awareness campaign, which aims to promote greater use of ethanol-blended fuels in road cars. The tie-up came through Shane Beikoff’s gigs as a mechanical workshop proprietor, ethanol advocate and team owner.

brief Next Stop The series heads to Mallala in South Oz for the stand-alone round five from September 16-17. Three weeks later, October 5-7, the Fujitsu cars front up at Bathurst for the penultimate round. Stats Incredible Don’t underestimate the talent of Fujitsu Series drivers and crews. Take, for example, the qualifying speed of the development series’ top guns. At Oran Park, Michael Caruso’s Fujitsu Series pole-winning time would have placed him 22nd on the main-game grid. Almost as impressive was last-minute ring-in Luke Youlden’s time in an AU that has had more hits than Powder Finger. LY, who replaced Wayne Wakefield, set a time good enough for 24th in the top division. In fact, it was just 0.01 sec off his Bathurst partner Russell Ingall’s best. At Queensland Raceway, Macrow’s pole time would have been good enough for 19th in first grade – faster than both DJR, Tasman, Britek, Sirromet and BJR cars! And remember, car specifications are identical for the two series this year.