2001 Shell Championship Series

The 2001 Shell Championship Series was a premier Australian touring car competition, which commenced on March 24, 2001 at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and concluded on December 2, 2001 at Sandown International Raceway, spanning 13 rounds. It was the third competition under the V8 Supercar name and the 42nd since the Australian Touring Car Championship's inception in 1960. It was also the first to feature an international round in New Zealand.

Calendar

The 2001 Shell Championship Series consisted of 13 rounds, which included 7 pit-stop rounds of two or three races, two sprint races, two 2-driver races, and 2 1-driver endurance races.

Rd.	Race title Circuit	City / State	Date
1	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	Phillip Island, Victoria	24–25 March
2	Clipsal 500, Adelaide Street Circuit	Adelaide, South Australia	6–8 April
3	Eastern Creek Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	28–29 April
4	Hidden Valley Raceway	Darwin, Northern Territory	12–13 May
5	GMC 400, Canberra Street Circuit	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory	9–10 June
6	Barbagallo Raceway	Perth, Western Australia	22–24 June
7	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	14–15 July
8	Oran Park Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	28–29 July
9	VIP Petfoods Queensland 500, Queensland Raceway	Willowbank, Queensland	24–26 August
10	Winton Motor Raceway	Benalla, Victoria	8–9 September
11	V8 Supercar 1000, Mount Panorama Circuit	Bathurst, New South Wales	4–7 October
12	Boost Mobile V8 International, Pukekohe Park Raceway	Pukekohe, New Zealand	9–11 November
13	Australian V8 Ultimate, Sandown International Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	1–2 December

Race formats

2 45-minute races will replace the 3 20-minute sprint races. There will also be a compulsory pit stop that has to be taken within a certain time of the race
There will be a Top 10 or Top 15 Shootout for all rounds during the season that will alternate from round to round. This involves a single lap around the circuit for the Top 10/15 qualifiers in qualifying. The winner of the shootout wins 18 bonus points
2 events will involve the 3 20-minute sprint races. This will happen at Round 6 and 7 at Barbagallo Raceway and Calder Park Raceway. There will be no compulsory pit stops
At 3 events, there will be 3 races over the weekend, this will happen at Hidden Valley, Pukekoke Park Raceway and Sandown
Special events

Round 2-Clipsal 500 at Adelaide: This involves two 250 km races over 78 laps of the Adelaide Street circuit. The winner of the event is the driver who wins the second race and not the driver who collects the most points. The second race involves double points over the first race. There are two compulsory pit stops in each race, one stop for tyres and one stop for fuel.
Round 5-GMC 400 at Canberra: This involves two 100 km races and one 200 km race over 25 and 50 laps of the Canberra Street Circuit. The winner of the event is the driver who collects the most points over the weekend. The 2nd race of the weekend will involve a reverse grid of the entire field. The 3rd race grid will be a culmination of the points of race one and race two put together. In the first two races there will be only one compulsory stop for tyres. In the 3rd race, there will be one stop for tyres and one stop for fuel.
Round 9-VIP Petfoods Queensland 500 at Queensland Raceway: This is the first of the double driver endurance events. This race is held over 161 laps over 500 km. The race will involve driver changes and fuel and tyre stops will have to happen at the same time.
Round 11-V8 Supercar 1000 at Bathurst : Bathurst is the event that all the drivers want to win. It is again a double driver event and will involve driver changes at pit stops. The race is held over 161 laps over 1000 km. This season is the first time that the event isn't the last round of the championship.

Television coverage

Channel 10 and Fox Sports broadcast the coverage for the 5th year since 1997 when they took over from Channel 7. Neil Crompton hosted the coverage for regular rounds with Barry Sheene. Bill Woods hosted the coverage at special events while Leigh Diffey hosted the coverage at the last 2 rounds. Matthew White hosted the coverage at Winton for the only time in the 2001 season. Neil Crompton, Barry Sheene and Mark Oastler commentated for most of the season with Leigh Diffey coming in from Queensland 500 onwards. Greg Rust and Grant Denyer were the pit lane reporters after Greg was commentator for the 2000 championship.

Teams and drivers

The following drivers and teams competed in the 2001 Shell Championship Series. The series consisted of 11 rounds of single driver racing and two rounds of endurance racing with each car driven by two drivers.

Driver changes

After racing for the Holden Racing Team since 1994, Craig Lowndes moved to the newly created Ford team formed from the formerly Holden aligned Gibson Motorsport and acquired privateers front runner Rodney Forbes as a teammate. In between his Channel Ten commentary commitments, Neil Crompton joined the team for the enduros.
Jason Bright replaced Lowndes in the number 2 Holden Racing Team car.
Rookie Marcos Ambrose and V8 Lites series driver David Besnard joined the series with Stone Brothers Racing. Tony Longhurst found a drive with Rod Nash Racing and joined HRT for the long-distance races, while Craig Baird sat idle until the enduros.
Sacked Gibson Motorsport driver Greg Murphy joined the former Holden Young Lions squad with new sponsor Kmart, he joined Todd Kelly at the team.
Fellow superseded GMS driver Steven Richards, joined Ford Tickford Racing.
As part of a franchise deal arrangement the Holden Young Lions identity passed to privateer outfit Romano Racing who ran Paul Romano.
Cameron McConville joined the re-launched Lansvale Racing Team as a lead driver while owners Steve Reed and Trevor Ashby shared an older VS Commodore.
Team changes
After running Holden Since 1993.Gibson Motorsport switched to Ford
Romano Racing became Holden Young Lions and ran an ex-HRT VT Commodore
Season review

Phillip Island, Victoria

Mark Skaife got off to the best start possible, collecting the maximum points at Phillip Island, with Craig Lowndes finishing second on his debut for Ford, thanks to the fastest pit stops of the weekend by his crew. Jason Bright finished third in his comeback to the sport.

Adelaide, South Australia

At the next round in Adelaide, Bright wins the round and the double points race after coming from the back of the field following an accident on lap 1, leaving him at the top of the championship. Mark Skaife has a rough weekend, finishing fourth after being spun by Paul Radisich in Race 1, and suffering another spin in Race 2, leaving him in ninth place. Craig Lowndes won the Saturday race but tangled with Skaife in Race 2, disabling his car and causing him to fall behind in the championship. Paul Radisich had the fastest car of the weekend, but an axle failure in Race 1 and steering damage left him struggling in the championship. Russell Ingall had a solid weekend, finishing with a third and a second place. There was significant controversy over the race officials, as rule-breaking went unpunished, and they were under scrutiny at Eastern Creek.

Eastern Creek, New South Wales

Craig Lowndes and Marcos Ambrose came first and second in the first race but got penalised because of incidents. Craig passed under a Yellow Flag that he could not see and Marcos made an illegal pass on Greg Murphy. This left Greg Murphy 1st on the grid for Race 2 and Mark Skaife second who started tenth in race 1 after he spun in the shootout. Greg Murphy lost his lead to Skaife after he was given a stop-go penalty for jumping the start, but there was more controversy after he didn't come to a complete stop. He got away with it but the rules were changed for the next round. Mark Skaife duly took out the race and round with teammate Jason Bright second but still leading the championship. Greg Murphy came third for the round even with the penalty.

Hidden Valley, Northern Territory

The next round at Hidden Valley turned out to be the car breaker of the year, with Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall having mechanical problems while leading within sight of the flag in Race 3 and 2 respectively. Mark Skaife had a stop-go penalty for jumping the start in Race 1 which left him 12th but still recovered to win Race 3 and come third in the round. Jason Bright had another solid weekend coming second and extending his championship lead over his teammate. But it was Marcos Ambrose who kept his nose clean over the weekend to take the round win in only his fourth championship round.

Canberra, ACT

The GMC 400 was the turning point of the season for Mark Skaife as he came third on the weekend and overtook teammate Jason Bright, who had a difficult weekend. The DJR cars were the cars to have earlier in the weekend as Paul Radisich and Steven Johnson finished 1–2 in qualifying but Radisich spun out in his shootout lap, leaving him 15th and Steven Johnson claiming his first pole position in the series. New for the championship were the pit lane speed limiters restricted to 40 km/h and only one pit bay per team. Steven Johnson wins the first race from Craig Lowndes who was advantaged bt a clear pit lane. Mark Skaife finished 3rd after starting 5th. Marcos Ambrose retires from the race with a broken driveshaft and will start from the back of the grid. The 2nd race is a reverse grid with Steve Reed and Steven Richards starting on the front row. Steven Richards wins from Marcos Ambrose who has a brilliant race which he started from the back but in race 3 he will have to start from the back again. Mark Skaife has a difficult race when he ran into the back of Rodney Forbes in a concertina effect and finished 24th and will start 10th in race 3. The race 3 grid is decided by an aggregate of points accumulated in race 1 and 2 which means that the front row is Craig Lowndes and Paul Radisich. Mark Skaife wins the race with Garth Tander second and Steve Johnson 3rd. Craig Lowndes was leading until a safety car came out with a pit stop still to go. He eventually retired with fuel pressure problems. Steve Johnson won the round with Garth Tander second and Mark Skaife 3rd.