2002 Queensland 500
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2002 VIP Petfoods Queensland 500 was an endurance race for V8 Supercars staged at Queensland Raceway, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia on 15 September 2002. Race distance was 161 laps of the 3.121 km circuit, totalling 502 km. The event was round nine of the 2002 V8 Supercar Championship Series. It was the fourth and last Queensland 500 to be held for V8 Supercars, although the race name was revived in 2006 for a club level endurance race for Sports and Touring Cars.
_track_map_--_National_Circuit.svg)
| Event Information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 9 of 13 in the 2002 V8 Supercar Championship Series | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Date | 13–15 September 2002 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Ipswich, Queensland | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Queensland Raceway | |||||||||||||
| Weather | Mixed | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
The race was won by David Besnard and Simon Wills aboard a Stone Brothers Racing Ford Falcon after late-race leaders, Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly, ran out of fuel with two laps remaining.[1][2]
Background
The Queensland 500 event was first held in 1999 and would host its foruth iteration in 2002. The racing program would play host to four support categories - Formula Ford, Porsche Cup, Sports Sedans and Improved Production.[3]
Heading into the event, Mark Skaife led the championship by 679 points over nearest competitor and Holden Racing Team teammate, Jason Bright. For this race, both Skaife and Bright would be paired together while the second car would be occupied by veterans Jim Richards and Tomas Mezera.
Unlike most top teams, Stone Brothers Racing elected to keep their full-time drivers separate for the endurance events. Marcos Ambrose would be joined by Paul Weel who vacated his own team for the endurance season. Said team would be occupied by Mark Porter and Geoff Full. David Besnard meanwhile would be joined by Simon Wills who had been recently displaced as a full-time driver from Briggs Motorsport.
Defending event champions, Steven Johnson and Paul Radisich, struggled throughout the course of the year as Dick Johnson Racing encountered persistent performance issues with their cars.
Multiple drivers would make their V8 Supercar debuts this weekend, including motorcycling ace Daryl Beattie, future Indycar champion Will Power and future V8 Supercar champion, Jamie Whincup. Whincup would also win the Australian Formula Ford Championship that same weekend.
Qualifying
Provisional
Top 15 Shootout
Race
Statistics
- Provisional Pole Position – #4 Marcos Ambrose – 1:10.7937
- Pole Position – #4 Marcos Ambrose – 1:10.8726
- Fastest Lap – #51 Greg Murphy – 1:11.7057 – 157 km/h
- Race time of winning car – 03:38:04.2825 – 138 km/h