SCS Stats After Winton Round

[RaceTime]

With 10 rounds now complete and 3 to go - the stats on this years Shell Championship Series are looking more and more interesting.

Pole has been taken evenly by Ford and Holden with 5 poles apiece - Mark Skaife (3 poles), Greg Murphy (1) and Russell Ingall (1) taking the Holden poles and Marcos Ambrose (2), Paul Radisich (2) and Craig Lowndes (1) taking the honours for Ford.

The number of people who actually posted fastest time during the qualifying session also increased markedly at Winton because of the weather conditions. Adelaide had previously had the highest number of individual fastest laps with 9 people setting fastest time before the session finished. Winton more than doubled that figure to 20!

Pole time at 5 rounds have so far been under the existing lap record - Phillip Island, Adelaide, Eastern Creek, Hidden Valley and Barbagallo.

However, converting these pole positions into wins and fastest laps has been a little more lop sided.

Over 10 rounds, and 23 individual races, a scheduled distance of 871 laps have so far been run - however, because of red flags in two consecutive races (Queensland 500 and Race 1 at Winton) only 862 laps have been raced - 99% of the scheduled distance - this is equivalent to 2,739 km of racing.

An average of 32 cars have started each race - the lowest being 29 at both Hidden Valley (Race 4) and Oran park (Race 2) however, an average of only 27 has finished each race - the Queensland 500 only having 20 finishers still running at the flag.

20 hours 26 min 2 seconds of racing has taken place with the largest winning margin being 12.7205 at Barbagallo (Race 1) and 0.1465 being the smallest margin first to second at Calder Park (Race 3).

Position 1 starts - that is starting from pole either due to setting fastest qualifying time or winning a race - has been shared equally (as equally as it can be in 23 races) - 12 to Holden and 11 to Ford. However, Holden have managed to convert 15 of these into a win whereas Ford have so far only managed 8 wins.

BUT when it comes to race fastest laps - Ford have managed this 14 times compared to Holden's 9 times - with 5 lap records being broken so far - Adelaide (Ford - Craig Lowndes), Canberra (in each race by Ford - Lowndes, Ambrose, Lowndes) and Winton (Ford - Ambrose).

Of the race fastest laps, Skaife has set 5 race fastest laps so far followed by both Radisich and Lowndes each with 4, then Ambrose with 3.

Race wins are so far led by Skaife with 7 wins, Radisich with 3, Johnson, Murphy and Morris with 2 and Bright, Ingall, Richards and Lowndes all with one win apiece.

Of the 862 laps raced so far, only two drivers have completed 100% - Ingall and Bright. Johnson is next on 859, Ellery on 858 and Skaife 856.

Skaife has managed to lead 209 of laps raced so far, radisich 162, Ingall 109, Johnson 108 and Lowndes 99.

Safety car periods have accounted for 18 separate safety periods so far covering 83 laps (10%) or 2 hours 30 min 53 secs (12%). Adelaide race 2 had the most with 4 separate safety car periods covering 17 laps and 29 min 43 secs. Of the 'sprint' races, Winton lost the most time with 12 min 10 sec in race 1 and 10 min 40 sec in race 2 for a total of 13 laps (7 in race 1 and 6 in race 2).

Due to Compulsory Pit Stops, the races this year have seen a total of 29 different drivers lead a Shell Championship Race at one stage or another. Amongst these have been Tratt (1 lap) Ashby (2), Weel (4) and Reed (5).

In all 76 drivers have so far scored points in the 2001 Shell Championship Series - although many have only competed in one event (as a c0-driver) they have still been awarded points. In addition, numerous Konica Series drivers have also earned points in this years series due to their inclusion in the Enduro events.

Full details on these stats are available fro RaceTime or at http://www.racetime.com.au/stats/v8stats.htm