By Matthew Agius
The penultimate round of the 2006 V8 Supercar Championship Series will get underway this weekend with the inaugural middle eastern-based round of the championship being hosted at the Bahrain International Circuit.
This is the first time the V8 Supercar Championship will compete inside an Arabic nation, the second time it has travelled to a venue outside of Oceania, and the third time that the Holden vs. Ford series has competed at a venue out of Australian borders. Previously, the championship raced at the Shanghai International Circuit in China, before Chinese officials dumped the series as a part of their yearly fixture. However the championship has also been a popular feature in New Zealand as a championship round since 2001, especially with many Kiwi based drivers participating at the circuit. This second roll of the international marked die looks set to pay off for the series though, with the Bahrain International Circuit committing to hosting a yearly round of the V8s in future seasons.
The V8 Supercars will use a shortened version of the Formula One-standard Bahrain circuit, which is located just over twenty kilometres from Manama. The shortened V8 track cuts off and moves ninety degrees infield just after turn three, with it reconnecting with turn nine of the full circuit shortly after that. The high aero circuit will probably favour higher placed championship teams this weekend. With parity body packages, aerodynamic advantage is nullified. However horsepower will factor into this race greatly, and it is therefore likely that the top Holden teams – the Toll HSV Dealer Team and Holden Racing Team – will perform the best this weekend.
Indeed after a chaotic round in Symmons Plains for ex-championship leader Craig Lowndes relinquished his championship lead to Rick Kelly, and now trails the young Holden pilot by just under one hundred points – a seemingly small buffer, however one that will be very difficult for the three-time champion to recover – given Kelly’s ultra-conservative approach to 2006.
