User:Linkyblinky/2013 V8 Supercars Championship

The 2013 International V8 Supercars Championship will be an FIA-sanctioned international motor racing series for V8 Supercars. It will be the fifteenth running of the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the seventeenth series in which V8 Supercars have contested the premier Australian touring car title. The championship will start in Adelaide on 2 March 2012, with the running of the Clipsal 500. The 2013 season will see the introduction of the "Car of the Future", a revision to the regulations designed to cut costs to A$250,000 per car through the use of "control" parts. Nissan and Mercedes-Benz will enter the series, with four Nissan Altimas being prepared by Kelly Racing and three Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs being run by Stone Brothers Racing in association with Erebus Racing. The series' calendar will also expand, travelling to the United States for the first time for a race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Jamie Whincup will start the season as the defending drivers' champion.

Scheduled events
The 2013 calendar was released on 15 October 2012.

Calendar changes

 * The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas will host a round of the championship on May 17–19.
 * The Hamilton 400 held its final event in 2012. It will be replaced by a round at Pukekohe Park Raceway, which last hosted a round of the series in 2007.
 * After returning to the calendar in 2012, the Sydney Motorsport Park will not host a race in 2013.
 * The events at Symmons Plains, Barbagallo, Hidden Valley, Queensland Raceway, Winton and Phillip Island will all feature a new three-race format. Three 120-kilometre races will be held across each weekend, with the first on Saturday being split into two 60-kilometre halves with a fifteen minute break in between, and the remaining two races to be held on Sunday.

Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers have been confirmed for the 2013 series.


 * — For points-scoring purposes, Nissan Motorsport is recognised as two separate entities: "Jack Daniel's Racing", which is made up of car #7 and car #15; and "Nissan Motorsport", which consists of cars #11 and #16.

Team changes

 * After switching from Holden to Ford after Round 1 of the 2011 season, Tony D'Alberto Racing will move back to Holden in 2013, where the team will receive technical assistance from Walkinshaw Performance.
 * Ford Performance Racing will expand to a four-car operation with the acquisition of the #18 Racing Entitlement Contract held by Charlie Schwerkolt, which is currently being used by Dick Johnson Racing to run James Moffat's car. The fourth car will be run as a satellite of the team, in the same way as the #55 Rod Nash Racing car is run.
 * Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport will expand to a two-car operation after purchasing the #49 Racing Entitlement Contract from Paul Morris Motorsport.
 * As a result of the deals between Schwerkolt and Ford Performance Racing and Paul Morris and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, Dick Johnson Racing will lose the use of the #18 and #49 Racing Entitlement Contracts and thus be downgraded to a two-car operation.
 * Kelly Racing will switch from competing with Holden Commodores to the Nissan Altima, running a re-sleeved version of Nissan's quad-cam aluminium 5.6-litre VK56DE V8 reconfigured to a 5.0-litre capacity. The team will be renamed to Nissan Motorsport.
 * Triple Eight Race Engineering will lose title sponsor Vodafone at the end of the 2012 season. Energy drink company Red Bull will come onboard as the new sponsor.
 * Stone Brothers Racing and satellite team James Rosenberg Racing will end their association with Ford and merge with Australian GT Championship team Erebus Racing to enter three cars based on the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. The combined Stone Brothers—Erebus outfit will not receive any factory support from Mercedes-Benz, although the team will be entitled to use Mercedes signage and the name "Mercedes AMG Racing" if it chooses to do so.