The 2010 Armor All Gold Coast 600 was the eleventh event of the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series. It was held on the weekend of 22 to 24 October at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Queensland. V8 Supercars became the naming right category of the event for the first time in 2010 after racing as a support category for international open wheel racing for many of the previous Surfers Paradise events. In 2009 V8 Supercar were the leading category but not the naming rights category as that had been previously marketed as a double header with A1 Grand Prix who failed to arrive.

In an altered format for 2010 the races would take place over two races with a driver change in the first time a third co-driver event was held in an Australian touring car season since 1990. In an effort to keep the events former international flavour each V8 Supercar team has employed a driver with an 'international reputation' with many drivers coming from the IndyCar Series and the World Touring Car Championship.

Race 21

Chaos erupted at the start. Cameron McConville launched away from Garth Tander's pole position, but crept on the line and would be assigned a ten-second pit penalty for a jumped start. Jacques Villeneuve, also to be penalised for a too quick start, and Luke Youlden collided at the first corner, with Villeneuve then spinning in front of the pack at the second corner after contact with Greg Ritter, causing damage to several cars. Will Davison stopped on the first lap after contact with the spinning Villeneuve. Dean Fiore also pulled in on the opening lap with Will Power an early stopper after losing all of his cars oil.

McConville led the early laps with Michael Caruso climbing through the field into second place. Steve Owen also climbed through the field into third ahead of Warren Luff. Repeated spoiler damage by Tiago Monteiro caused his retirement.

On lap 70 Garth Tander was assigned a mechanical black flag, it was assumed for a fuel leak, but as it transpired to be a leak from Tander's drink bottle the flag was withdrawn. Subsequently, Tander's car shed a headlight cluster into the path of pursuing cars to no penalty, causing controversy amongst team principals and officials in the pits.

Courtney took the lead from Tander just prior to a safety car being called for Andrew Thompson, parked in the first chicane. Immediately at the lap 84 restart, Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly stopped in the second corner after Kelly spun.

Teammates Jason Bright and Jason Richards tangled on another safety car restart on lap 97, shortly after race leader James Courtney was penalised a drive-through for slowing down after the safety car pulled away from the queue.

Garth Tander pulled out to win from Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen. Michael Caruso finished fourth from Alex Davison, Jamie Whincup and Jason Bright.

Drivers Team Car Laps Time/Retired 1 2 Cameron McConville 102 2:20:00.6981 1 2 888 Andy Priaulx 102 + 1.855 6 3 9 John McIntyre 102 + 3.930 13 4 34 Patrick Long 102 + 5.232 9 5 4 David Brabham 102 + 25.043 21 6 1 Steve Owen 102 + 25.441 8 7 14 Alain Menu 102 + 26.621 28 8 19 Sébastien Bourdais 102 + 26.732 22 9 21 Fabrizio Giovanardi 102 + 39.562 23 10 18 Warren Luff 102 + 39.750 2 11 11 Alex Tagliani 102 + 44.146 20 12 39 Jack Perkins 102 + 45.997 15 13 51 Yvan Muller 102 + 48.219 19 14 15 Owen Kelly 102 + 1:11.057 11 15 8 Andrew Jones 101 + 1 lap 14 16 17 Dario Franchitti 101 + 1 lap 12 17 24 David Reynolds 101 + 1 lap 16 18 47 Hélio Castroneves 101 + 1 lap 18 19 33 Greg Ritter 101 + 1 lap 5 20 7 Scott Dixon 101 + 1 lap 17 21 5 Luke Youlden 94 + 1 lap 4 22 55 Jacques Villeneuve 91 + 1 lap 3 Ret 16 Dale Wood 93 Retired 27 Ret 10 Mika Salo 78 Retired 26 Ret 3 Tiago Monteiro 50 Retired 24 Ret 30 Scott Pruett 24 Retired 29 Ret 12 Gianni Morbidelli 1 Retired 25 Ret 22 Ryan Briscoe 0 Accident 10 Ret 6 Will Power 0 Accident 7 Fastest lap set by Craig Lowndes – 1:13.1879 on Lap 69 Source:

Race 22 Steven Richards outlaunched teammate polesitter Luke Youlden to lead at the start as Greg Ritter crawled away all but stalling. Alain Menu was also slow away and stopped on the track, bringing out the safety car.

At the restart there was contact between Cameron McConville and David Brabham, sending Brabham into the wall hard.

At the second restart Richards started to build a gap over Youlden and Warren Luff. Steve Owen and Michael Caruso quickly pushed past Youlden and Luff.

Safety car emerged again for the stopped car of Andrew Thompson. The safety car emerged again on lap 33 for debris on the circuit as Jack Perkins scraped a door skin off his car at the top of the circuit.

Andrew Jones had an exhaust problem and slowed on the front straight to allow his pitcrew to examine the car as he passed. Three cars came past at differing speeds. Scott Dixon swung to the inside to get around the slowing cars in front as they checked their speed to begin their first safety car lap. Dixon struck the slow moving Jones, tearing the right rear corner from Jones' Commodore and damaging the front left corner of his own Commodore, putting both out of the race.

Steven Johnson was shortly afterward put into the wall after contact with Rick Kelly.

The final laps saw a close dice between Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen which became a physical clash on the final lap into the first chicane. Whincup held out the charging Van Gisbergen, with Mark Winterbottom crossing for third just behind.

Drivers Team Car Laps Time/Retired 1 1 Steve Owen 102 2:29:37.7468 4 2 9 John McIntyre 102 + 0.205 6 3 5 Luke Youlden 102 + 0.486 1 4 18 Warren Luff 102 + 1.636 3 5 55 Jacques Villeneuve 102 + 17.854 8 6 15 Owen Kelly 102 + 22.083 10 7 22 Ryan Briscoe 102 + 23.557 21 8 39 Jack Perkins 102 + 23.821 25 9 33 Greg Ritter 102 + 26.076 7 10 888 Andy Priaulx 102 + 30.827 11 11 34 Patrick Long 102 + 32.874 14 12 24 David Reynolds 102 + 35.649 24 13 6 Will Power 102 + 36.264 2 14 12 Gianni Morbidelli 102 + 1:08.613 27 15 51 Yvan Muller 102 + 1:09.992 13 16 19 Sébastien Bourdais 102 + 1:12.591 19 17 3 Tiago Monteiro 102 + 1:31.532 18 18 16 Dale Wood 101 + 1 lap 28 19 47 Hélio Castroneves 96 + 6 laps 23 20 11 Alex Tagliani 92 + 10 laps 22 Ret 2 Cameron McConville 57 Accident damage 15 Ret 17 Dario Franchitti 38 Retired 12 Ret 21 Fabrizio Giovanardi 37 Retired 26 Ret 8 Andrew Jones 34 Retired 9 Ret 7 Scott Dixon 34 Retired 16 Ret 30 Scott Pruett 28 Retired 29 Ret 10 Mika Salo 12 Retired 20 Ret 4 David Brabham 3 Retired 17 Ret 14 Alain Menu 0 Retired 5 Fastest lap set by James Courtney – 1:13.1332 on Lap 67 Source:

International driver trophy Points Pos No Name Team Points 1 888 Andy Priaulx Triple Eight Race Engineering 216 2 33 Patrick Long Garry Rogers Motorsport 192 3 55 Jacques Villeneuve Rod Nash Racing 150 4 19 Sébastien Bourdais Tekno Autosports 147 5 51 Yvan Muller Paul Morris Motorsport 126

Standings After 20 of 26 races. Pos No Name Team Points118James CourtneyDick Johnson Racing252121Jamie WhincupTriple Eight Race Engineering24503888Craig LowndesTriple Eight Race Engineering225545Mark WinterbottomFord Performance Racing220152Garth TanderHolden Racing Team2088 sourcehttp://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?24/10/2010.SPSC.V8S.S Armor All Gold Coast 600 - V8 Supercars Races 19 & 20 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit V8 Supercars - Race 20 Series Points Report

References

External links Official website Official timing and results Official series website