category	Touring cars
inaugural	2001
folded	2003
tyres	Goodyear
engines	Roush 5.7l V8
country/region	Germany
champion driver	Pedro Lamy
champion team	Zakspeed Racing
website	}}

The V8Star Series was a touring car racing series based in Germany. It ran from 2001 to 2003 and can be compared to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Series.

Cars

V8Star used a mono type tubular chrome-molybdenum steel chassis equipped with 5.7-litre V8 engine. The engine, tuned by Jack Roush, was a lightweight aluminium block unit weighting about 200 kg. Originally the engines produced 445 hp of power, but they were tuned up to 495 hp at 6,500 rpm and 600 Nm at 4,850 rpm for the second season.

The cars weighted 1,295 kg, of which 90 kg was a fibreglass-reinforced plastic silhouette. The silhouettes represented seven different saloon cars. All of them were 1.92 m wide and 1.36 m high. Rear wings, rear diffusers and front spoilers were adjusted in wind tunnel in order to make each body style equal. The silhouettes resembled Audi, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, Lexus Opel and Volkswagen models but were unbranded, as none of the manufacturers were involved in the series.

The cars had independent, double wishbone suspension in front and rear. Wheels were 18 inches in diameter. Slick Goodyear control tyres were 12 inches wide in front and 14 inches in rear.

Race venues

Over the three years, races were held at eight different European circuits. The circuits of Nürburgring, Hockenheimring, Sachsenring, Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany were regular hosts, and the series also went to nearby track venues Circuit Park Zandvoort (Netherlands), Salzburgring (Austria) and Zolder (Belgium).

Scoring system

Below is the scoring system used in the inaugural 2001 season:

1st 26

Position	|	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th
Points	|	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2

For 2002 and 2003, points were awarded for the top thirty race finishers with no bonus points for pole position or the fastest race lap.

1st 32

Position	|	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th
Points	|	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2

Champions

{|class="wikitable" !Season !Champion !Team Champion |- ! 2001 | Johnny Cecotto (Irmscher Motorsport) | PoleVision Racing |- ! 2002 | Johnny Cecotto (Irmscher Motorsport) | Zakspeed Motorsport |- ! 2003 | Pedro Lamy (Zakspeed Racing) | Zakspeed Racing |}

See also

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

ADAC Procar Series

References

External links

driverdb.com V8Star

speedsport-magazine.com V8Star

German Wikipedia V8Star

Category:V8Star Series Category:Defunct auto racing series Category:Touring car racing series Category:Auto racing series in Germany

de:V8-Star nl:V8 STAR ru:V8Star

Jason Richards (born 10 April 1976 in Nelson, New Zealand) is a motor racing driver, currently competing for Brad Jones Racing in the Australian touring car series, V8 Supercar.

Early career

Richards started his motor racing career at the age of eight in 1985, driving in karting events in his home country of New Zealand. He made his move out of karting in 1993 after 35 championship titles, entering the Mini 7s.

After much success again, Richards was offered the Canterbury Racing School Formula Ford drive for the Nissan Mobil 500 meetings at Wellington and Pukekohe.

After a short stint in the English Formula Ford Championship, Richards returned to New Zealand to sign with BMW Motorsport NZ as junior driver, winning the 1995/96 Class 1 Touring Car Championships for the team, along with nine out of 12 series races.

Teams

Team Kiwi Racing

Promoted to lead driver, Richards won the next three NZ Touring Car Championships prior to joining Team Kiwi for the V8 Supercar series in Australia in 2001. Battling testing restrictions and the tyranny of distance, Richards finished an extremely creditable 19th in the 2002 V8 Supercar Series.

Team Dynamik

Richards moved to the new South Australian Team Dynamik in 2003, putting in some strong results, including a narrow failure to snatch victory in the Sandown 500 from Mark Skaife in the race's dying stages.

Tasman Motorsport

He then made the decision to move to the newly-formed Tasman Motorsport outfit in 2004 and has developed into a driver who believes he is capable of standing on the top step of a V8 Supercar podium.

Coming back from a major rollover in the 2005 round at Queensland Raceway, Richards quickly returned to stride and promptly placed the repaired Commodore into the top 10 in the following round at Oran Park Raceway.

His podium results in the Sandown and Bathurst endurance events in 2005 helped cement his place as a ‘coming man’ of the V8 Supercar category.

In the 2005 Supercheap Auto 1000, Richards produced a strong performance and came very close to winning the race.

At the 2007 Bathurst 1000 Richards and Murphy were the best placed Holden team, finishing fourth overall. Surfers Paradise was his best round in 2007 where he finished third overall, and finished 14th in the Championship, with 235 points 15 points behind teammate Greg Murphy.

Team BOC

Richards will be racing the #8 Team BOC VE Commodore for 2009, a new race number for the team in V8 Supercars but was the racing number of team co-principal Brad Jones during the teams years racing in AUSCAR and NASCAR at the Calder Park Thunderdome. Richards secured his first V8 Supercar pole position at Hidden Valley Raceway in 2009. Richards finished third at the 2010 L&H; 500 with Andrew Jones.

Illness

In November 2010 it was revealed that Richards was admitted to hospital on 16 November and was later diagnosed with an adrenocortical carcinoma.

Career highlights

Winner, New Zealand Touring Cars Championship 1998/99, 2000/01

11th, Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Mount Panorama Circuit 2002

5th, Oran Park V8 Supercar round 2003

3rd, Betta Electrical Sandown 500 2005

2nd, Supercheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst 2005, 2008

Winner, Winton Motor Raceway, RD.5 Race 2, V8SA 2006

3rd, Surfers Paradise V8 Supercar Challenge, V8SCS 2007

Pole, Hidden Valley Darwin, Race 9, V8SCS 2009

Bathurst 1000 statistics

Debut: 1997 (BMW 320i with Brett Riley)

Starts: 8 (including 2 Super Touring)

Best Results: 2nd (2005, Holden Commodore VZ with Jamie Whincup, 2008, Holden Commodore VE with Greg Murphy, 2009, Holden Commodore VE with Cameron McConville) 4th (2007, Holden Commodore VE with Greg Murphy)

Career results

! Season	! Series	! Position	! Car	! Team
1996/97				International Motorsport
	Australian Super Touring Championship			CPW Motorsport
1997/98				International Motorsport
1998/99				International Motorsport
1999/2000				International Motorsport
			Holden VT Commodore	Team Kiwi Racing
2000/01			Nissan Primera	Team Kiwi Racing
			Holden VX Commodore	Team Kiwi Racing
			Holden VX Commodore	Team Kiwi Racing
			Holden VY Commodore	Team Dynamik
			Holden VX CommodoreHolden VY Commodore	Tasman Motorsport
			Holden VZ Commodore	Tasman Motorsport
			Holden VZ Commodore	Tasman Motorsport
			Holden VE Commodore	Tasman Motorsport
			Holden VE Commodore	Tasman Motorsport
			Holden VE Commodore	Brad Jones Racing
			Holden VE Commodore	Brad Jones Racing

References

Category:V8 Supercar drivers Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:New Zealand racecar drivers Category:People from Nelson, New Zealand

sv:Jason Richards

Dirk Adorf, (born July 10, 1969 in Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German race car driver.

Starting with small cars, he won the Nürburgring VLN German Endurance Trophy in 1992, 1996 and 1997. This earned him drives in the German Super Tourenwagen Cup (STW) during 1995.

He would return to the STW in 1999, this time with Opel. After three seasons in the 2000cc touring car series, he moved to V8Star Series in 2002. His last competition there was in 2003, when he drove two races in V8Star. After the series folded, his team took the big Jaguar-bodied V8Star to the Nürburgring VLN endurance series, and after successfully adopting the car, they won a race in 2003, together with Hermann Tilke.

For 2004, her moved to the team Raeder, winning some more races. Later, he decided to enter a Lamborghini Gallardo, but with little success as the car remained unreliable, such as at the 2009 24 Hours Nürburgring. The team then acquired a FIA GT3-spec Ford GT from Matech, with which Adorf surprisingly set pole for the 24h race, against strong competition.

References

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:People from Altenkirchen Category:German racecar drivers

de:Dirk Adorf

Craig Lowndes (born 21 June 1974 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian racing driver, three-time V8 Supercar champion and five-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

Racing career

Born in Melbourne, Lowndes began his racing career at age 9, driving go-karts at a track in the nearby town of Whittlesea.

Early career

He moved up to race cars in 1991, driving a Van Diemen in the Motorcraft Formula Ford "Driver to Europe" Series. Despite the car being several years old and receiving minimal sponsorship, Lowndes shot to almost immediate success. Lowndes won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 1993 which qualified him for the Formula Ford Festival in England that same year, where he finished third. Lowndes moved up to Australia's top rank of open wheel racing being Formula Brabham in 1994. His success in Formula Brabham driving an ageing Cheetah Mk9 against much more modern cars was rewarded with the Australian Silver Star. Craig Lowndes was clearly the best in this era.

Holden Racing Team

thumb|right|1996 HRT CommodoreBy this time Lowndes had been added to the Holden Racing Teams testing crew. He looked sufficiently promising in testing that Lowndes was drafted into the #015 Commodore with Brad Jones for the 1994 Sandown 500. It was expected to be a one-off performance as Rickard Rydell from the BTCC Volvo sister team within TWR was to join the team for Bathurst. His performance at Sandown was enough to cancel Rydell's appointment and Lowndes went to Bathurst.

After a gruelling double-stint by Jones, Lowndes began the final stint of the race as the premier challenger to the DJR Falcon of John Bowe which had dominated the race. With eleven laps to go Lowndes stunned the touring car establishment overtaking Bowe on the outside of Griffins Bend in a move that made him a household name. Bowe retook a lap later and Lowndes was forced to back off in the closing laps but second was an impressive achievement for a rookie driver.

A year later Lowndes qualified on pole for the Bathurst 1000, only for his Holden Racing Team Commodore to DNF early on in the race when both HRT cars experienced oil pressure problems and engine failure during the race. HRT had seen enough however and for the 1996 season replaced Tomas Mezera full time in the team. At his first attempt, he won the championship and also won both the Sandown and Bathurst races with team-mate Greg Murphy.

His Bathurst 1000 victory in 1996 making Craig Lowndes the youngest winner of the Bathurst 1000, at the time. With Lowndes and Greg Murphy, the youngest ever driver pairing to win the Bathust 1000.

Formula 3000

Lowndes left Australia and went to Europe to further his open wheeler racing career, by competing with the RSM Marko Team in the International Formula 3000 Championship as team-mate to Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya. He enjoyed limited success but failed to find the budget to compete a second year.

Australian return

On his return to Australia, Lowndes again won the Sandown 500 for HRT, partnered by New Zealander Greg Murphy. Together with back to back race wins at Sandown in the enduros. He resumed his racing seat with the Holden Racing Team, alongside new team-mate Mark Skaife, shuffling Greg Murphy into a test-driving role. Lowndes again proved difficult to catch and went on to win the 1998 Championship, although the premature debut of the VT series Commodore would cruel his Bathurst campaign.

In the first full year of campaigning the VT Commodore, Lowndes had already amassed a large lead by the time the series arrived for Round 8 at Calder Park Raceway. Following a win in the first sprint race, a poor start by Lowndes saw him bogged down in the field and subsequently tapped by another car which resulted in a spectacular roll over, momentarily sending the car airborne, into an embankment. The car (which was only 4 races old) was declared a write-off and Lowndes was fortunate to only suffer a knee injury. Despite missing the following round at Symmons Plains Raceway due to the injury, Lowndes still went on to clinch the Championship at the Bathurst Classic finishing second in the final round of the season.

Ford

Dissatisfaction within HRT triggered Lowndes move to a new team, causing a stir among race fans when he jumped ship from Holden to arch-rival manufacturer Ford, signing with a team headed up by former driver Fred Gibson. This partnership lasted for two years which ultimately proved unsuccessful due to reliability issues with the Ford Falcon race car. Despite the setbacks, Lowndes garnered an admiration from fans for his positive attitude and demeanour. Gibson Motor Sport was renamed to 00 Motorsport (pronounced "double-zero", being Lowndes' racing number) after a change of management. Lowndes's black and silver Falcon was affectionately referred to as the "green-eyed monster" for the bright green covers over the headlights.

Ford Performance Racing

Lowndes signed with the factory-sponsored Ford Performance Racing team for the 2003 season. Lowndes won a round of the V8 Supercar championship at Philip Island and, with team-mate Glenn Seton, placed second at Bathurst. But the season was a relative disappointment for Lowndes as he was relatively inconsistent, mainly due to mechanical failures. Technical problems continued into 2004, especially constant engine failures, plagued the team for the whole of the year. Lowndes and Seton teamed up again to repeat their second placing at the Bathurst 1000.

Triple 8 Race Engineering

Lowndes joined Team Betta Electrical in 2005 and enjoyed his most successful season since switching to Ford. He had the most round victories and the most pole positions of any driver in the championship, and finished second in the final standings behind champion Russell Ingall. He suffered a luckless run at the Bathurst 1000 that year, where, despite qualifying on the pole, he spent much time in the pits after two separate incidents which severely damaged his Falcon including a wheel that smashed into his windscreen.

At the V8 Gala Awards, Lowndes was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal, an award akin to Most Valuable Player which is voted on by a team of panellists from the Australian media, motorsport magazines, television commentators and former drivers. This award was first introduced in 2003, in honour of the late Barry Sheene. Marcos Ambrose won it in 2003 and 2004, winning the championship in both years. Hence this made Lowndes the first non championship winner to take out the award.

Lowndes was a contender for the championship right up until the last race, being level on points with Rick Kelly. The two fought one of the closest non-staged finishes in Bathurst 1000 history on 8 October, with Lowndes winning over Kelly by just half a second. It was his first Bathurst win since 1996 and Ford's first since 1998. The win was a very emotional one for Lowndes, being the first Bathurst 1000 held since the death of his long-time mentor Peter Brock at a road rally the month before. As winners of the Bathurst 1000, the inaugural Peter Brock Trophy was presented to Lowndes and his team-mate, Jamie Whincup.

Lowndes eventually finished second in the 2006 V8 Supercar season. After complaining of having been "unfairly" held up for up to six seconds a lap by Rick Kelly's team mates over the first two races, Lowndes was level on championship points with Kelly after race 2 (of 3) in the final round. In the deciding race Kelly crashed into Lowndes heading into the hairpin resulting in a lengthy pitstop to repair Lowndes' vehicle. Kelly received only a drive-through penalty and went on to finish the race in 18th position and seal the championship victory, while Lowndes finished the race 31st. Kelly was booed by Ford fans when he was on the podium to receive his trophy.

Lowndes and Triple Eight Racing lodged a protest and a hearing was set up. The protest was dismissed after a long hearing and Rick Kelly was confirmed as the 2006 champion. Lowndes and Triple Eight Racing decided not to appeal that decision and proclaim themselves the "Moral Champions" for the 2006 season. Lowndes won the Barry Sheene Medal for the second year in a row.

Lowndes had three victories in 2007, the sixth round at Hidden Valley Raceway, and both the endurance classics, the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000. He finished third place in the championship. His team mate, Jamie Whincup, came second in the V8 Supercar Championship. In 2008 Lowndes and Whincup won the Bathurst 1000 for a third time in a row becoming only the third pairing in the history of the Bathurst 1000 to achieve it after Peter Brock and Jim Richards (1978–80) and Peter Brock and Larry Perkins (1982–84).

In 2009, Lowndes started the year with a brand new Ford FG Falcon. Despite winning races in Winton, the Gold Coast and Barbagallo, he was unable to match his teammate and finished the year 4th in the standings. Being once again paired up with Whincup in the enduros but suffered the heartbreak of losing the race lead on the final lap of the L&H; Phillip Island 500 due to a delaminating tyre. Heading to Bathurst on the verge of making history, they failed in their bid to win a fourth consecutive Bathurst title, due to a drive-thru penalty, a clutch problem and bad luck.

In 2010, Team Vodafone switched to Holden Commodores as Ford cut sponsorship. Lowndes placed fourth in the championship with podiums in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Queensland Raceway and Winton following a very solid season. Partnering five-time champion Mark Skaife, Lowndes won the Bathurst 1000 for the fifth time, as well as the Phillip Island 500. His first solo victory for the season came during the Falken Tasmania Challenge at Symmons Plains. Lowndes also ventured off-road to compete in the Australasian Safari with a Holden Colorado at his disposal. He won the Rally Raid at his first attempt. Lowndes won with a margin of over one hour with former V8 Supercar team owner, Kees Weel as co-driver.

Career results

! Season	! Series	! Position	! Car	! Team
1991	"Champion of Winton" Formula Ford Series		Van Diemen RF85 Ford
1992
1993	Australian Formula Ford Championship		Van Diemen RF93 Ford
	Australian Drivers' Championship
1994
	Australian Touring Car Championship		Holden VR Commodore	Holden Racing Team
	Australian Touring Car Championship		Holden VS CommodoreHolden VT Commodore	Holden Racing Team
			Holden VT Commodore	Holden Racing Team
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Holden VT Commodore	Holden Racing Team
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford AU Falcon	Gibson Motor Sport
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford AU Falcon	Gibson Motor Sport
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford BA Falcon	Ford Performance Racing
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford BA Falcon	Ford Performance Racing
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford BA Falcon
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford BA Falcon
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford BF Falcon
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford BF Falcon
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Ford FG Falcon
	V8Supercar Championship Series		Holden VE Commodore

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

! Year

! Entrant

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! DC

! Points

! RSM Marko

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17th

3

Personal life

Lowndes announced in August 2011 that he had separated from his wife Natalie. They currently share custody of their two children: son, Levi, and daughter, Chilli.

References

External links

Craig Lowndes Official Web Site

Craig Lowndes Story (1999)

Category:Australian racecar drivers Category:V8 Supercar drivers Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:International Formula 3000 drivers Category:Bathurst 1000 winners Category:Formula Ford drivers Category:Formula Holden drivers Category:Australian Touring Car Championship drivers Category:Australian rally drivers

fr:Craig Lowndes pl:Craig Lowndes sv:Craig Lowndes