2002 Adelaide 500
The 2002 Adelaide 500 (known for naming rights reasons as the 2002 Clipsal 500 Adelaide) was the fourth running of the Adelaide 500 race. It was the opening round of the 2002 V8 Supercar Championship Series and was held from March 15 to 17, 2002.
The weekend was dominated by the Holden Racing Team outfit. In particular, defending champion Mark Skaife claimed pole position and won both races. Teammate Jason Bright also exhibited strong pace and had led the first race until a handful laps remaining when he made contact with the wall, damaged his rear suspension and forced him out of the race.
This year saw the introduction of the new 'sweeper' configuration at turn eight. The new addition would become of the most challenging and feared corners in Australian motorsport.
01Background
The format, unique to V8 Supercars, and loosely similar to the Pukekohe 500 format, splits the 500 kilometre event into two separate 250 kilometre-races, each held on a different day. Points were assigned separately to the races, with Race 2 paying double points over Race 1 (180 points for a win in Race 1 and 360 points for a win in Race 2), and they combined to award a round result. The defending event winner from 2001 was Jason Bright of the Holden Racing Team.
Following a spate of incidents over the previous two events, the turn eight chicane had been altered into a sweeper for the 2002 event. The corner would be taken in sixth gear with little in the way of lifting and would become a staple of the circuits characteristics for years to come.
Entry list
On the run-up to the event, the rising popularity of the category led to an influx of entries that the paddock could not accommodate. As a result, pre-qualifying would take place at the nearby Mallala Motor Sport Park with 41 drivers vying for 36 allocated spots on the grid. Those who failed to qualify included Tomas Mezera for Imrie Motorsport, Greg Crick and Ross Halliday for Halliday Motorsports, and Dugal McDougall for his privateer outfit.
Trevor Ashby took part in official practice for pre-qualifying but did not partake in qualifying itself. As a result, this gave Ashby his 60th and final V8 Supercar entry.
02Race report
Qualifying
Top fifteen shootout
Leg 1
Leg 2
Round results
| Pos | No | Driver | Leg 1 points |
Leg 2 points |
Total points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Mark Skaife | 200 | 200 | 400 |
| 2 | 51 | Greg Murphy | 128 | 160 | 288 |
| 3 | 34 | Garth Tander | 160 | 80 | 240 |
| 4 | 16 | Steven Richards | 80 | 128 | 208 |
| 5 | 00 | Craig Lowndes | 88 | 104 | 192 |
| 6 | 17 | Steven Johnson | 64 | 56 | 120 |
| 7 | 35 | Jason Bargwanna | 56 | 60 | 116 |
| 8 | 15 | Todd Kelly | 60 | 48 | 108 |
| 9 | 4 | Marcos Ambrose | 104 | 104 | |
| 10 | 66 | Tony Longhurst | 72 | 30 | 102 |
| 11 | 8 | Russell Ingall | 24 | 72 | 96 |
| 12 | 888 | John Bowe | 28 | 64 | 92 |
| 13 | 10 | Mark Larkham | 40 | 52 | 92 |
| 14 | 11 | Larry Perkins | 52 | 40 | 92 |
| 15 | 2 | Jason Bright | 88 | 88 | |
| 16 | 7 | Rodney Forbes | 44 | 26 | 70 |
| 17 | 021 | Jason Richards | 36 | 24 | 60 |
| 18 | 21 | Brad Jones | 26 | 28 | 54 |
| 19 | 75 | Anthony Tratt | 34 | 20 | 54 |
| 20 | 54 | Craig Baird | 48 | 48 | |
| 21 | 43 | Paul Weel | 44 | 44 | |
| 22 | 36 | Wayne Gardner | 36 | 36 | |
| 23 | 600 | Simon Wills | 34 | 34 | |
| 24 | 24 | Paul Romano | 32 | 32 | |
| 25 | 50 | Stephen White | 32 | 32 | |
| 26 | 5 | Glenn Seton | 30 | 30 | |
| 27 | 9 | David Besnard | 22 | 22 | |
| 28 | 40 | Cameron McLean | 18 | 18 | |
| 29 | 29 | Paul Morris | 16 | 16 | |
| DNF | 3 | Cameron McConville | |||
| DNF | 02 | Rick Kelly | |||
| DNF | 18 | Paul Radisich | |||
| DNF | 27 | Neil Crompton | |||
| DNF | 31 | Steve Ellery | |||
| DNF | 46 | John Faulkner | |||
| DNS | 65 | Max Wilson |
03Statistics
- Provisional Position - #1 Mark Skaife - 1:22.1273
- Pole Position - #1 Mark Skaife - 1:22.7698
- Fastest Lap - #1 Mark Skaife - 1:23.7200 (new lap record)
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “2002 Adelaide 500”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Adelaide (short route).svg by Will Pittenger, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Ford Falcon AU of Steven Johnson (2002).jpg by GTHO, CC BY-SA 4.0
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