THE NEW season is underway and once again the Adelaide 500 delivered a weekend filled with plenty to keep us occupied in the coming weeks.

Here’s how TheRaceTorque.com saw the good and not-so-good bits from a milestone weekend in sunny Radelaide.

HITS

The Event itself:

It’s hard to pinpoint if it was the amazing concert line-up, the ever-growing war between Red Bull HRT and DJR Team Penske, the milestone anniversary or other factors – we suspect a combination of everything – but in its 20th anniversary the Adelaide 500 had a great vibe this year.

The event copped criticism for ‘only’ attracting 240,000 punters in 2017 but 76,000 on Saturday and 85,100 on Sunday made for a very healthy looking precinct indeed this time out.

In fact, Sunday’s crowd was the sixth largest Sunday attendance in event history and the 13th time the event had drawn more than 80K to the venue in a single day.

Good stats..

We were never on the “Adelaide has lost its mojo” bandwagon that went around the press last year.. but if it did, it was back this year. Good luck to the organisers in finding a way to top Robbie Williams next year, too..

23 Red Racing:

If only for making their predecessors look like a professional race team that can compete week in, week out, Will Davison’s new ride came out of the blocks strongly in Adelaide.

They looked professional, performed well and not once looked like the perennial back-markers from whence they came. Making the shootout was a bonus and their recovery from a challenging qualifying effort on Sunday was big-boy team stuff. A well earned first tick in the box for Supercars’ newest squad.

ZB Commodore Supercar:

The introduction of the ZB has aged the Falcon FGX and Altima in a heartbeat and Supercars’ number one priority must be sourcing replacements for them. Holden may not sell a V8 Commodore any more, but they still race one and it looks like a Supercar of the Future should.

Improved Production:

It lacked the Jordan Cox-inspired theatrics of last year but IP was another solid addition to the program and proof that a well-selected state level category deserves every chance to be on a major event like the ‘500.

Tom Randle’s Super2 series livery:

Black, Gold Skye Sands scheme is everything a modern-day interpretation of a JPS-style livery should be. Sensational, or it was right up to the point where it ended in the Turn 8 fence on Friday evening after the steering died.

Larko:

The return of the whiteboard-wielding guru to the full-time Supercars broadcast was almost completely well-received by fans on social media as the former racer and team owner brought his usual mixture of wit, banter and incredible knowledge back to the Supercars TV product.

New Carrera Cup Cars:

They’re louder, faster and there’s 26 of them. The Porsche Carrera Cup put on a hell of a show in Adelaide and look set for a classic season. The mix of talent at the front of the field – Supercar refugees and young talent making their mark – is compelling and the full field makes for a great sight. Positive stuff for a longstanding Supercars support act.**

Andre Heimgartner:

Superb performance from the young Kiwi on his full-time debut with Nissan this weekend, making the Shootout on Sunday and effortlessly matching Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso throughout the event, even if Sunday fell apart. Some questioned his signing pre-season but his performances in Adelaide more than helped validate it at the ‘500.

MISSES

The Friday program:

With some tickets nudging $100, Friday should provide plenty of action but we can’t help but feel that two, 40-minute practices and one 20-minute qualifying dash just isn’t enough bang for the bulk of the nearly 60,000 who rocked up on a hot Friday.

The day needs some form of hallmark event or session to give it more meaning and give punters more for their coin, be it a shootout or something more impressive from support category land.

Here’s a thought: what about we shorten Saturday’s Supercar race to 200km and stage a 50-km, Grid-setting dash in the Friday night twilight?

Audi Sport R8 Cup:

With 15 or so cars, the R8 Cup fell flat at Adelaide and it came right when the program needed something exciting. Too much qualifying, not enough racing and not enough competition. Audi’s cross-German rivals from Porsche put on a much better show and while it might’ve been commercially beneficial for the organisers, a full field of Hyundai Excels would’ve unquestionably been more thrilling for the punters.

In fact, we’re going to start campaigning for that now.

Their undoubted highlight of the weekend was Yasser Shahin’s amazing 720-spin at turn nine; but as cool as Audi’s GT3 contender is, it’s unlikely they will be missed should they fail to return next year.

SuperUtes:

It remains too early to pass judgement on the category itself, especially while the field builds and the teething issues are sorted, but the brave new world for Ute racing missed an opportunity in Adelaide because their racing was far from exciting.

10 Utes wouldn’t have been a problem had the racing been thrilling (by design or otherwise, it matters not) but it otherwise fell flat with only race three providing anything like a properly entertaining show – at least for the first half.

We understand drivers were nudged to put on a show on several occasions, but racers will be racers and as a result 40 seconds covering the top six in race two was not a good look.

Race three was better but a weekend full of great racing would have better eased the introduction of this already controversial category into the landscape.

Dunlop Super2:

Is it just us, or does the DVS feel a bit flat this year? Adelaide’s races were the Dumbrell-v-Jacobson show and they’re both former champions of the series; not the young up-and-comers that we’d like to see.

Will Brown has obvious potential as does Macauley Jones and Tom Randle – and the Kostecki brothers are starting to fire – but overall it felt a bit flat this weekend: certainly not the level of last year’s intense title battle between some serious talent that have made it to the main game. Lets see what happens next time out.

Nissan Motorsport:

A lot has been talked about Nissan’s need to perform this year and it seems redundant for us to add to the same line of conversation – though we will anyway.

Though the cars were quick over one lap the race pace of the Altima quartet remains unconvincing. One race does not a season make but this team simply must win races this year – and did not look like doing so in Adelaide, even for a moment.

New Adelaide 500 Trophy

The ‘500 is one of the few events on the calendar that actually had a somewhat ‘traditional’ cup for the winner – it was used in the first ‘Sensational Adelaide 500’ in 1999 and right through the ‘Clipsal’ era since. Adeladians, in particular, came to know it via the traditional Monday-morning shot of the winner holding it aloft on the front cover of local daily, The Advertiser.

So why the change, especially in the 20th anniversary event? The replacement items were clearly purchased from either an online store or a corner trophy shop and while that’s OK; surely they could have come up with something unique, rather than an off-the shelf tin cup that probably cost someone in China $2.50 to make.

The old trophy had history and it’s baffling that in such an important year that so brilliantly charted the great history the Adelaide 500 has, they made the call to ditch a significant part of it for a much lesser item..

** The author is the Porsche Carrera Cup Series commentator.