Just so we don’t spam up the chatbox anymore 
Will be interesting to see how HRT do adjust now that they’ve got 2 frontline drivers. It should be perfectly setup for either of them this year as well, with the ford teams changing chassis, they should be able to take advantage of it.
That said, I still think Frosty/Whincup are the favourites. If Winterbottom can get rid of his usual 2 horror rounds (as opposed to the 1 tander/whincup managed in the last 2 years) he’s the man to beat.
Yeah cant see other holden teams putting a good show on tbh this year … HRT should fire it up … a good testing period and getting the drivers meshing well will put them in to pointy end. Winterbottom … im not sure … 888 will be the benchmark of course … even with new chassis … the team is super smooth atm
this w/e ill do some catching up (same as nip … need to read the current status to know whats what for cars/crews/drivers)
i heard there a way to many changes this year, with drivers changes aliances and teams.
will definately have to find out who went where!!!
GO HOLDEN!!!
I see that whincup is gonna run the new FG but lowdes is sticking with the BF yeah … With lots of ford teams upgrading to the FG … Lowdes might get a early lead if the VE’s arent improving. I hope the FG is a donkey lol.
Also think the Kelly boys ( namely rick) will perform a bit better to this season.
The Enforcer needs to move on lol … cant stand him … in fact i enjoy watching him as much as when “maddog denyer” was going around ( yeah … not a denyer fan lol)
Cant wait for the clipsal to get underway to see those shiny fords kiss some concrete 
Off the top of my head, the driver changes and teams for 09 are as follows.
Team Vodafone:
Holden Racing Team:
2. Garth Tander
22. Will Davison (08 - Jim Beam Racing)
Sprint Gas Racing:
3. Jason Bargwana (08 - Mini Challenge Series)
51. Greg Murphy
Stone Brothers Racing:
4. Alex Davison (08 - GT2 Class Le Mans Series)
9. Shane Van Gisbergen
Ford Performance Racing:
5. Mark Winterbottom
6. Steven Richards
Kelly Racing:
7. Todd Kelly (08 - Jack Daniels Racing)
11. Jack Perkins (08 - Fujitsu Series)
15. Rick Kelly (08 - HSV Dealer Team)
Brad Jones Racing:
8. Jason Richards (08 - Spring Gas Racing)
14. Cameron McConville
Jim Beam Racing:
17. Steve Johnson
18. James Courtney (08 - Stone Brothers Racing)
Gary Rogers Motorsport:
33. Lee Holdsworth
34. Michael Caruson
Wilson Security Racing:
111. Fabian Coulthard
333. Michael Patrizi (08 - Speed FX Racing)
Walkinshaw Racing:
10. Paul Dumbrell (08 - HSV Dealer Team)
?? - Dave Reynolds (Not sure about this entry yet, there was rumour of another car but I’m not sure)
Britek Motorsport:
25. Jason Bright
Supercheap Auto Motorsport:
39. Russell Ingall
Rod Nash Racing:
55. Tony D’Alberto
Intra Racing:
77. Marcus Marshall (08 - Britek Motorsport)
Team Kiwi Racing:
021. Steve Owen (08 - Fujitsu Series)
So basically, the driver changes are:
Mark Skaife - Retired
Paul Morris - Retired (YESSSSSSSSS, hated him more than any other driver)
Will Davison - Jim Beam Racing to Holden Racing Team
James Courtney - Stone Brothers Racing to Jim Beam Racing
Todd Kelly - Jack Daniels Motorsport to Kelly Racing
Paul Dumbrell - HSV Dealer Team to Walkinshaw Racing
Jason Richards - Sprint Gas Racing to Brad Jones Racing
Micahel Patrizi - Speed FX Racing to Wilson Security Racing
Marcus Marshall - Britek Motorsport to Intra Racing
Jack Perkins - Fujitsu Series to Kelly Racing
Steve Owen - Fujitsu Series to Team Kiwi Racing
Alex Davison - Le Mans series to Stone Brothers Racing
Jason Bargwana - Mini Challenge Series to Sprint Gas Racing
As far as actually team ownership and alliances changes are concerned, there have been a few. Of the bigger teams, HSV Dealer Team and Jack Daniels Racing are no more, and have effectively been replaced by Kelly Racing. I think what basically happened, is that the Kellys bought the 2 Jack Daniels licenses, and one of the HSV Dealer Team licenses and made the 3 car team. Team Walkinshaw (Dumbrell) is now the sister team to HRT, and I think will be run from the same workshop. I’m not entirely sure Dumbrell will have a teammate for the season, as the swapping of licenses etc. that happened to make Kelly Racing is all a little confusing.
Jason Bright has also sort of re-joined SBR. He’ll still race under the name of Britek Motorsport, but the car is being run out of the SBR workshop in the Gold Coast. I think the other license that Britek had for last year (was a 2 car team) has gone to Paul Cruickshank (Wilson Security racing).
2009 Season Calender:
Round 1. 19 - 22 March Clipsal 500 Clipsal 500 Adelaide Street Circuit
Grand Prix Round. 26 - 29 March ING Australian Grand Prix Albert Park (non-championship round)
Round 2. 17 - 19 April Hamilton 400 Hamilton City Street Race
Round 3. 1 - 3 May Winton Motor Raceway Winton Motor Raceway
Round 4. 29 - 31 May Falken Tasmania Challenge Symmons Plains Raceway
Round 5. 19 - 21 June SKYCITY Triple Crown Hidden Valley Raceway
Round 6. 10 - 12 July Townsville 400 Townsville 400
Round 7. 31 - 2 August Sandown 400 Sandown
Round 8. 21 - 23 August [Queensland Raceway](http://www.v8supercars.com.au/calendars/clndrevent.asp?eid=276&ind=M) Queensland Raceway
Round 9. 11 - 13 September L&H 500 Phillip Island Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
Round 10. 8 - 11 October Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Mount Panorama, Bathurst
Round 11. 22 - 25 October V8 Supercar Challenge Gold Coast 300
Round 12. 5 - 7 November Gulf Air Desert 400 Bahrain International Circuit
Round 13. 20 - 22 November Barbagallo Raceway Barbagallo Raceway Wanneroo
Round 14. 4 - 6 December Sydney 400 Grand Finale Sydney 400, Homebush
My Predictions for the season:
Champion Driver: Mark Winterbottom
Runner Up: Jamie Whincup
Champion Team: Ford Performance Racing
Runner Up: Holden Racing Team
Most Improved Driver: Shane Van Gisbergen/ Tony D’Alberto
Biggest Let Down: James Courtney
Bathurst Champions: Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards
Other Predictions:
Brighty would have to use SBR … he smashed his car that much last year he proly cant aford a tyre now lol
My Predictions :
wooden spoon - tie between Jason Richards and Jason Bright … they will smash into each other every meet
HRT for the Team Champions
Bathurst - Lowndes will snare another ( will he team up with Whincup again … ?) … he owns that mountain now.
Miss V8 - another tie … they all win lol
My predicitons
Team Vodafone will wrap up the Team championship, I think they were dominant last season with great performances from lowndes and whincup.
Whincup will take the drivers championship
Tander will follow
Winterbottom will snatch third
Davidson will grab fourth
Lowndes will finish fifth overall.
Would it freaking kill channel 7 to broadcast the V8’s in HD???
First round of the season, Clipsal 500, I thought to myself
“this is 2009, surely they we be broadcasting in HD considering HD tv’s have been around for years now.” How wrong could I be.
Ah well, back to the broadcast.
Great opening round for '09. The fight for 3rd between Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes in the last 20 laps was top notch. Whincup looked good from the start to take the race. I think I may have to mix up my prediction a bit as I think Lowndes has a bit more left in him to end up higher then 5th overall.
Thanks nip … was just perusing the forums during the first safety car period … last time i do that !!
ahwell… back to a known result 
lol
Didn’t get to see today’s race as I was travelling home, but it’s good to see Whincup pick up where he left off last season.
On a less happy note though… I hate the new qualifying rules with a passion. Deadset, shoot the bloke who thought that idea up. Qualifying should indeed play an important start at the beginning of the weekend, but to have a system in place that actually punishes the better racers (well, the guys who move up positions anyway) is ****ing ridiculous. Can just see some bloke winning a race from 8th/9th because he made 1 stuff-up in qualifying, then in the next race get taken out by some **** when really he should be starting at the front of the field.
The other gripe, Ch7 is the worst network for sports coverage. In the first race alone, i counted about 3 important incidents in the race that they missed because of ads, and then they go straight back to the ads without giving us a proper replay, whilst the safety car is out. When the 2nd safety car came out in yesterdays race, there was a stage where we’d seen more ads than v8s…
All that said, how good is it to see them back racing 
lol Patty … was gonna post the same thing regarding the f****** useless qualifying rules… hope the drivers/pit bosses use their voices to their full extent regarding this shimozzle. Yeah … qualifying for position works excellent for 1 race evets … but multiple race events get determined by how well you race ( and cleanly) over the races and where you finish should be where you start next race…
Wonder how much yelling there would be if the top 20 were separated by.5sec in qualifying … and poor ole/ #20 had that to contend with 3 times … piss weak.
Could be very good signs for the year ahead with hrt/888 starting in fine form going head to head.
Coverage issues aside… im just glad its on tele during the day … as afl fires up next w/e so thats my coverage gone till Bathurst … looks like tis back to recording again… f*** country fta tele.
Agree with the bullshit qualifing, I think everyone who watches motorsport thinks it is a stupid concept. Makes me wonder about how it got in to begin with.
It almost reminds me of the FIA GT where they add weight to your car if you win a race to slow you down. I’m not a great fan of that either but then we don’t have the FIA GT series broadcasted here in Australia.
At least they realised the error of their ways and canned the qualifying regime after 1 trial… someone hada dumb day thinking that would work lol.
Now for GT and Will D to catch the 888 boys
That’s good news.
Did anyone see the Malaysian GP last week? It got cancelled half way through due to torrential down pour. Bernie Ecclestone is an absolute knob for having a late race in Malaysia, the locals said it was going to happen, apparantly the rain is pretty predictable over there. If the race started an hour earlier then they would of been able to finish it snd it wouldn’t of been so dark for the drivers.
In any case Jensen Button picked up his 2nd win this season for the debuting “Brawn” F1 team. He is doing bloody well with a new car. Webber raced like a champ in the wet also, he made Alonso and Hamilton look like they were standing still. He finished 6th overall but he could of gone higher. Ferrari sent kimi out on the wet tyres to early and farked his chances of winning.
Have any of you guys herd of the new “KERS” system that some F1 cars are starting to use. It use kinetic energy of the engine breaking, or something similar, to give the car an extra 80bhp for a time period of 6.67 seconds. This is a massive boost and it is evident when seeing the likes of Lewis Hamilton (who’s car has it) line up beside Webber (who doesn’t yet) and watch the Mclaren Mercedes absolutely fly past.
I think the point of all this is to reintroduce overtaking into the sport, that and they have also reduced downforce again to try and tighten the pack. I for one think they need to get rid of all the electronic crap like the KERS, let the drivers win based on their skill and the performance of their car. They have already taken away TC and LC, as nobody who is into motorsport wants to see the worlds best drivers using aids that are designed for retards who can’t drive. This is not what F1 is about in my opinion.