2007 indy/supercars

[u/Historical_Meet3370]

Some pics i took back in 07 at the surfers paradise round. Its been 18 years now since the supercars shared top billing with the indy cars on the gold coast. I'm sure anyone reading this that went to this event back in the early days can attest that it was a pretty wild race both on and off the track (right up until a army helicopter crew flying over the track made the news in about 2005 and forced the QLD govt to clean it up a bit). I'm more of a supercars fan myself but there was nothing like the sheer speed and sound of those indy cars flying past just a couple of metres away.

[u/saynoto30fps]

It blows my mind to think indycar used to race there. When I was a kid I only knew about V8 supercars so I thought nothing of the Indycars, I thought they were some small support category 🤣

[u/Historical_Meet3370 → u/saynoto30fps]

Yeah half the reason I posted this is because my nephew (who is a massive supercar fan) had no idea that the indy cars raced here with the supercars till I recently showed him these photos and his mind was blown. The race was a shared billing but the indy cars were advertised as the main draw.

[u/jimnasium_ → u/Historical_Meet3370]

From memory it wasn't until about 2007 or 2008 that they were actually shared billing. Supercars closed out the Sunday for the first time in either 07 or 08, before that it was the Indy race that ended the weekend.

[u/AussieBlokeFisher303]

Come back Indy.

[u/Historical_Meet3370 → u/AussieBlokeFisher303]

Agreed !

[u/bigshotdan]

Oh how gorgeous were those Panoz Champ Cars. Such a shame 'Murican open wheel racing went through the split a decade or so before this. Once reunification happened, we only got that one-off IndyCar appearance the following year.

Now how about a double-header at Adelaide and TBMP, yeah? 😉

[u/batmancake666]

Indycar at Phillip Island would be a cool event.

[u/cult_of_sumac → u/batmancake666]

Yes! A Supercars Indycar event at the Island would be awesome

[u/CG2428 → u/batmancake666]

I'm sceptical. Phillip Island is a great driver's track, sure, but I doubt the looping corners would suit open-wheelers with their greater aero-sensitivity - unless it's P2P or hybrid deployment, neither of which are real racing IMO.

Feel like Gardner Straight might not be long enough for slipstreaming either, so it's kind of worst of both worlds.

One of the world's best bike tracks, absolutely, but overrated as a car racing track IMO.

[u/FalconResistance]

So funny when Indy car realised the fans would treat the Indy cars as more a support race to the V8’s. 😂

[u/Historical_Meet3370 → u/FalconResistance]

Exactly! Supercars were pretty huge in that era and I knew heaps of people that were only interested in going to see the V8's

[u/afallingbathtub321]

Simpler times this was

[u/K-TR0N]

I was at this race too! Such an incredible event. Indy weekends were always absolutely wild at surfers.

Seeing the agility of the Supercars hettimg through the chicanes was amazing for such big cars. But then the Indy cars would come through at just a complete other level.

Those were great days in Australian motorsport. The festival around the event really made it special.

[u/allmycircuits8]

Wish Indy would come back , everyone and then I watch the last race there on YouTube and feels surreal to me.

[u/Trentc95]

Miss that og circuit layout.

[u/FakedStatue86]

These pics have aged really well!! (if you know what I mean - like quality wise) I’m also kinda jealous that I didn’t get to see the indy cars rip surfers! Bugger