2003 Adelaide 500
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| Round 1 of 13 in the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series | ||||||||||||||
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| Date | 21–23 March 2003 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Adelaide, South Australia | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Adelaide Street Circuit | |||||||||||||
| Weather | Fine | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
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The 2003 Adelaide 500 (known for naming rights reasons as the 2003 Clipsal 500 Adelaide) was the fifth running of the Adelaide 500 race. The event served as the opening round of the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series and was held from March 21 to 23, 2003.
The weekend was won by Mark Skaife after claiming second in the first race of the event and winning the second race on Sunday. Marcos Ambrose won the first race and proved Skaife's strongest opponent of the weekend. However, suspension failure in the second race led him to retire and allowed Skaife to comfortably claim round honours.[1][2][3]
The weekend presented a new dawn by way of a set of regulation changes known as Project Blueprint, designed to standardise the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon platforms and ensure strict competitive parity.
Background
[edit]The format, unique to V8 Supercars, and loosely similar to the Pukekohe 500 format, splits the 500 kilometre event into two separate 250 kilometre-races, each held on a different day. Points were assigned separately to the races, with Race 2 paying double points over Race 1 (180 points for a win in Race 1 and 360 points for a win in Race 2), and they combined to award a round result. The defending event winner from 2002 was Mark Skaife of the Holden Racing Team.
Entry list
[edit]There were 34 drivers entered into the event. It featured mixture of vehicle models - eight AU Ford Falcon's, eleven BA Falcon's, five VY Commodore's, and ten VX Commodore's.
This event marked the last V8 Supercar entry for Paul Romano, who entered with his privateer outfit. This was also the debut V8 Supercar event for New Zealander David Thexton. Thexton would enter his privateer team having purchased the assets from the recently-defunct Paragon Motorsport. Mark Noske would make his solo V8 Supercar debut with his family team, Noske Motorsport.
Official results
[edit]Qualifying
[edit]Jason Bright claimed provisional pole position by five hundredths of a second over nearest competitor, Mark Skaife.
Top ten shootout
[edit]Bright successfully converted his provisional pole position pace into the shootout, setting a time nearly one tenth of a second faster than Skaife. This marked the first V8 Supercar pole position for Paul Weel Racing.[4]
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Vehicle | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 |  Jason Bright |
Paul Weel Racing | Holden Commodore (VX) | 1:23.3729 |
| 2 | 1 | Mark Skaife |
Holden Racing Team | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:23.4608 |
| 3 | 4 | Marcos Ambrose |
Stone Brothers Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:23.7897 |
| 4 | 51 |  Greg Murphy |
Tom Walkinshaw Racing Australia | Holden Commodore (VX) | 1:24.0266 |
| 5 | 11 | Steven Richards |
Perkins Engineering | Holden Commodore (VX) | 1:24.1633 |
| 6 | 17 | Steven Johnson |
Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:24.2497 |
| 7 | 888 | John Bowe |
Brad Jones Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:24.3838 |
| 8 | 2 | Todd Kelly |
Holden Racing Team | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:24.7252 |
| 9 | 9 | Russell Ingall |
Stone Brothers Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:25.0673 |
| 10 | 34 | Garth Tander |
Garry Rogers Motorsport | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:26.6227 |
Leg 1
[edit]Leg 2
[edit]- Notes
Round results
[edit]| Pos | No | Driver | Leg 1 Points |
Leg 2 Points |
Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Mark Skaife |
93 | 96 | 189 |
| 2 | 11 | Steven Richards |
87 | 93 | 180 |
| 3 | 50 | Jason Bright |
90 | 81 | 171 |
| 4 | 2 | Todd Kelly |
84 | 84 | 168 |
| 5 | 65 | Paul Radisich |
63 | 87 | 150 |
| 6 | 16 | Paul Weel |
57 | 90 | 147 |
| 7 | 8 | Paul Dumbrell |
66 | 75 | 141 |
| 8 | 9 | Russell Ingall |
78 | 63 | 141 |
| 9 | 51 | Greg Murphy |
69 | 66 | 135 |
| 10 | 44 | Simon Wills |
51 | 72 | 123 |
| 11 | 4 | Marcos Ambrose |
96 | 21 | 117 |
| 12 | 5 | Glenn Seton |
45 | 69 | 114 |
| 13 | 34 | Garth Tander |
60 | 54 | 114 |
| 14 | 17 | Steven Johnson |
81 | 24 | 105 |
| 15 | 15 | Rick Kelly |
72 | 27 | 99 |
| 16 | 20 | Jason Bargwanna |
54 | 42 | 96 |
| 17 | 00 | Greg Ritter |
33 | 60 | 93 |
| 18 | 021 | Craig Baird |
36 | 57 | 93 |
| 19 | 3 | Cameron McConville |
75 | 12 | 87 |
| 20 | 10 | Mark Larkham |
30 | 51 | 81 |
| 21 | 33 | Jamie Whincup |
48 | 33 | 81 |
| 22 | 6 | Craig Lowndes |
78 | 78 | |
| 23 | 21 | Brad Jones |
27 | 45 | 72 |
| 24 | 7 | Rodney Forbes |
24 | 36 | 60 |
| 25 | 23 | Mark Noske |
9 | 48 | 57 |
| 26 | 29 | Paul Morris |
18 | 39 | 57 |
| 27 | 66 | Dean Canto |
39 | 15 | 54 |
| 28 | 75 | Anthony Tratt |
42 | 42 | |
| 29 | 888 | John Bowe |
3 | 30 | 33 |
| 30 | 18 |  Max Wilson |
21 | 9 | 30 |
| 31 | 19 | David Besnard |
6 | 18 | 24 |
| 32 | 45 | Jason Richards |
15 | 15 | |
| 33 | 31 | Steve Ellery |
12 | 12 | |
| DNF | 24 | Paul Romano |
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| DNQ | 99 | David Thexton |
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Statistics
[edit]- Provisional Position - #50 Jason Bright - 1:22.2745
- Pole Position - #50 Jason Bright - 1:23.3729
- Fastest Lap - #1 Mark Skaife - 1:23.2731 (new lap record)
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "Skaife takes out V8 opening round". ABC News Australia. 23 March 2003. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "Heat on after Skaife's flyer". The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 March 2003. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "Ambrose grabs Adelaide win". The Age. 23 March 2003. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ "Team Brock captures pole after Bright start". The Age. 22 March 2003. Retrieved 10 September 2026.