2003 V8 Supercar Challenge
2003 Supercar Championship event
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The 2003 V8 Supercar Challenge (known for naming rights reasons as the 2003 Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge) was the eleventh round of the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series. It was held on the weekend of 23 to 26 October at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Gold Coast, Queensland. The event ran as part of the support package for the 2003 Lexmark Indy 300 Champ Car World Series race.
| Event Information | ||||||||||||||
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| Round 11 of 13 in the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series | ||||||||||||||
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| Date | 23–26 October 2003 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Surfers Paradise, Queensland | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Surfers Paradise Street Circuit | |||||||||||||
| Weather | Fine | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
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Russell Ingall secured his second round victory of the year by winning both races of the weekend in assertive fashion. He was closely followed by Greg Murphy in both races, and a pitlane incident between the two in the first race came under scrutiny. Mark Skaife rounded out the podium in both races while championship leader Marcos Ambrose struggled to keep in touch with the Holden contingency owing to a lukewarm qualifying effort as well as engine trouble in the second race.[1][2][3]
Despite the engine dramas, Ambrose still led the championship at the conclusion of the event by virtue of securing sixth and fourth in both respective races.
Background
The event was held on the weekend of 23 to 26 October 2003. It was the second V8 Supercar championship event to be held on the streets of Surfers Paradise and consisted of two 100 km races with compulsory pitstops in both for tyres. The event ran as part of the support package for the 2003 Lexmark Indy 300 Champ Car World Series race.
Entry list
There were 33 drivers entered into the event. It featured mixture of vehicle models - four AU Ford Falcon's, thirteen BA Falcon's, six VY Commodore's, and nine VX Commodore's.
Form this round onwards, the Rod Nash Racing entry of David Besnard had switched from the number 19 to number 7 for the remainder of the championship.
Race report
Qualifying
Mark Skaife secured provisional pole position while Max Wilson secured his best session result of the season thus far. As had often been the case that season, David Thexton failed to qualify for the races after missing the 105% qualifying cut-off time.
Top ten shootout
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Vehicle | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |  Todd Kelly |
Holden Racing Team | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:51.3994 |
| 2 | 1 | Mark Skaife |
Holden Racing Team | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:51.5471 |
| 3 | 9 | Russell Ingall |
Stone Brothers Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:51.5645 |
| 4 | 50 | Jason Bright |
Paul Weel Racing | Holden Commodore (VX) | 1:51.7739 |
| 5 | 51 |  Greg Murphy |
John Kelly Racing | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:52.0433 |
| 6 | 45 | Jason Richards |
Team Dynamik | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:52.2852 |
| 7 | 31 | Steven Ellery |
Steven Ellery Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:52.2902 |
| 8 | 18 |  Max Wilson |
Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Falcon (BA) | 1:52.3005 |
| 9 | 11 | Steven Richards |
Perkins Engineering | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:52.5153 |
| 10 | 15 | Rick Kelly |
John Kelly Racing | Holden Commodore (VY) | 1:52.7294 |
| Source:[4] | |||||
Race 1
Race 2
Championship standings
| Pos. | No | Driver | Team | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 | 4 | Marcos Ambrose |
Stone Brothers Racing | 1867 |
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2 | 51 | Greg Murphy |
John Kelly Racing | 1795 |
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3 | 9 | Russell Ingall |
Stone Brothers Racing | 1703 |
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3 | 1 | Mark Skaife |
Holden Racing Team | 1681 |
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4 | 6 | Craig Lowndes |
Ford Performance Racing | 1540 |