Adelaide, Australia—The sun came out for the Clipsal 500, the first race of the 2014 V8 Supercar Racing Series. Last year's champ Jamie Whincup was back to defend his title, but V8 Supercar fans know that in this race, anything can and will happen.

Going into Sunday's race 3, Whincup looked like he was set to claim an unprecedented sixth series win. Trouble started in lap 51 when Whincup was penalized for a pit-lane violation. Desperate to battle his way back to the front, Whincup bumped Michael Caruso and veered off the track. Bad luck for Whincup who ended up finishing in 15th place. In the end of race 3, it was Holden's James Courtney who got the checkered flag. Craig Lowndes finished 2nd and Shane van Gisbergen came in 3rd.
 

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Whincup suffered a disappointment but faired better than many of the other competitors who were taken out of the race. Eight of the original 25 entered into the race failed to finish. Holden driver Jason Bright  spectacularly hit with the wall in an incident that also caught Ford's Scott Pye and Mercedes' Lee Holdsworth.

New restart rules proved to be controversial. The new rules force the race leader, post-safety car, to stay under 60kmh before hitting top speed in an allocated "acceleration zone". Bright claimed the new rules caused the field to become too congested. This congestion led to his crash. Van Gisbergen and Nissan's Ricky Kelly also suffered from the new rules as they were penalized for speeding in the acceleration zone.

After the season opener, Craig Lowndes leads the V8 Supercar Series with 282 points ahead of Holden's Fabian Coulthard (230), van Gisbergen (221) and Whincup (199).

Read the Volvo V8 Supercars profile in the April issue of Race Car Engineering Magazine here.