The 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series was an FIA sanctioned international motor racing series for V8 Supercars.^[1] It was the twelfth V8 Supercar Championship Series and the fourteenth series in which V8 Supercars have contested the premier Australian touring car title. The championship began on 19 February in the Middle East at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit and concluded on 5 December at the Homebush Street Circuit. These events were held in all states of Australia and in the Northern Territory as well as in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and New Zealand. The 51st Australian Touring Car Championship title was awarded to the winner of the Drivers Championship by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport.

James Courtney won the Drivers Championship for Dick Johnson Racing by 65 points from Jamie Whincup in the final race of the season at the 2010 Sydney Telstra 500. Championship Team of the Year was awarded to Triple Eight Race Engineering and Champion Manufacturer of the Year to Holden.^[2]

The following teams and drivers contested the 2010 championship.

More information Manufacturer, Team ...

Manufacturer	Team	Vehicle	No.	Drivers	Rounds		Phillip Island/Bathurst	Gold Coast
Ford	Falcon FG	Stone Brothers Racing	4	Alex Davison	All		David Brabham[3]
			9	Shane van Gisbergen	All		John McIntyre[4]
		Ford Performance Racing	5	Mark Winterbottom	All		Luke Youlden[5]
			6	Steven Richards	All		James Moffat[5]	Will Power[3]
		Triple F Racing	12	Dean Fiore	All		Michael Patrizi[6]	Gianni Morbidelli[3]
		Dick Johnson Racing	17	Steven Johnson	All		Marcus Marshall[7]	Dario Franchitti[3]
			18	James Courtney	All		Warren Luff[7]
		Tekno Autosports (DJR)	19	Jonathon Webb	All		David Russell[8]	Sébastien Bourdais[3]
		James Rosenberg Racing (SBR)	47	Tim Slade	All		Jack Perkins[9]	Hélio Castroneves[10]
		Rod Nash Racing (FPR)	55	Paul Dumbrell	All		Dean Canto[11]	Jacques Villeneuve[3]
Holden	Commodore VE	Triple Eight Race Engineering	1	Jamie Whincup	All		Steve Owen[12]
			888	Craig Lowndes	All		Mark Skaife[12]	Andy Priaulx[3]
		Holden Racing Team	2	Garth Tander	All		Cameron McConville[13]
			22	Will Davison	All		David Reynolds	Ryan Briscoe
		Tony D'Alberto Racing	3	Tony D'Alberto	All		Shane Price[14]	Tiago Monteiro[3]
		Kelly Racing	7	Todd Kelly	All		Dale Wood[15]	Scott Dixon
			11	Jason Bargwanna	All		Glenn Seton[16]	Alex Tagliani[3]
			15	Rick Kelly	All		Owen Kelly[17]
			16	Tony Ricciardello	All		Taz Douglas[18]	Dale Wood
		Brad Jones Racing	8	Jason Richards	1–12		Andrew Jones[19]
				Andrew Jones[20]	13–14
			14	Jason Bright	All		Matthew Halliday[21]	Alain Menu[3]
		Walkinshaw Racing (HRT)	10	Andrew Thompson	All		Nick Percat Ryan Briscoe	Mika Salo[3]
			24	Fabian Coulthard	All		Craig Baird	David Reynolds
		Britek Motorsport (BJR)	21	Karl Reindler	All		David Wall[22]	Fabrizio Giovanardi[3]
		Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	30	Daniel Gaunt	1–7		Mark Noske[23]	Scott Pruett[3]
				Cameron McConville	8
				Nathan Pretty[23]	9–11
				Warren Luff	12–14
		Garry Rogers Motorsport	33	Lee Holdsworth	All		David Besnard[24]	Greg Ritter
			34	Michael Caruso	All		Greg Ritter[24]	Patrick Long[3]
		Paul Morris Motorsport	39	Russell Ingall	All		Paul Morris[25]	Jack Perkins
			51	Paul Morris	1		Tim Blanchard[25] Allan Simonsen[25]	Yvan Muller[25]
				Greg Murphy	2–14
Wildcard entries
Ford	Falcon BF	MW Motorsport[26]	27	—	9–10	Ant Pedersen[18] Damien Assaillit[27]	—
Holden	Commodore VE	Greg Murphy Racing[26]	44	—	9–10	Geoff Emery[28] Marcus Zukanovic Rod Salmon	—

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Italics indicate driver did not take part in a race.

Team changes

• On 29 July 2009, it was officially announced that Triple Eight Race Engineering would switch from Ford to Holden following Ford's withdrawal of funding from all of their teams except for Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing.^[29]
• Rod Nash Racing, owners of the #55 Racing Entitlement Contract which was operated by Tony D'Alberto Racing in 2008 and 2009, became a customer of Ford Performance Racing and as such moved from Holden to Ford.^[30] Paul Dumbrell has been confirmed as driver.
• James Rosenberg Racing was revived using the Racing Entitlement Contract of Paul Cruickshank Racing. The team used a customer Stone Brothers Racing Ford.
• Tasman Motorsport was officially disbanded on 20 November 2009, with the team selling its Racing Entitlement Contracts to Tony D'Alberto Racing and the newly formed Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.^[31]
• Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport was formed by Paul Dumbrell's brother, Lucas Dumbrell. The team acquired a VE Commodore and employed Daniel Gaunt as their driver.^[32]

Full-time drivers were no longer allowed to partner one another for the endurance races at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama in an effort to make both the championship and the endurance races more competitive.^[45]

For the Armor All Gold Coast 600, each team had to include a driver who races in an overseas series. The majority of nominated drivers were sourced from the IndyCar Series.

Following a failed attempt to get former champion Marcos Ambrose to make a one-off guest appearance at the 2009 Sydney Telstra 500, the V8 Supercars Executive Board approved plans to allow for one-off guest drives.^[46] The system would work in a similar fashion to the "Wildcard" entries that the series allows to drivers and teams from the Fujitsu Development Series to step up to the V8 Supercars during the endurance races. Ambrose had been earmarked as a target for such an appearance, with the series looking to allow international drivers to take part in the offshore races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi at the start of the season.

The following events made up the 2010 series.^[47] The proposed event for Queensland Raceway in early May was cancelled in January after V8 Supercar and circuit operators were unable to agree to terms.^[48] The Ipswich venue was later restored to the calendar.^[49] Barbagallo Raceway was later removed with V8 Supercar citing workplace health and safety regulations.^[50]

Calendar is as follows:^[51]

More information Event, Race ...

Event	Race	Event	Circuit	City / state	Date	Winner	Team	Report
1	1	Yas V8 400	Yas Marina Circuit	Yas Island, Abu Dhabi	18–20 Feb	Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
	2					Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering
2	3	Desert 400	Bahrain International Circuit	Sakhir, Manama	25–27 Feb	Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
	4					Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering
3	5	Clipsal 500	Adelaide Street Circuit	Adelaide, South Australia	11–14 Mar	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team	report
	6					Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team
4	7	ITM Hamilton 400	Hamilton Street Circuit	Hamilton, Waikato	16–18 Apr	Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
	8					Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering
5	9	City of Ipswich 300	Queensland Raceway	Ipswich, Queensland	30 Apr – 2 May	James Courtney	Dick Johnson Racing	report
	10					James Courtney	Dick Johnson Racing
6	11	Winton Motor Raceway	Winton Motor Raceway	Benalla, Victoria	14–16 May	James Courtney	Dick Johnson Racing	report
	12					James Courtney	Dick Johnson Racing
7	13	Skycity Triple Crown	Hidden Valley Raceway	Darwin, Northern Territory	18–20 Jun	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Performance Racing	report
	14					Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering
8	15	Sucrogen Townsville 400	Reid Park Street Circuit	Townsville, Queensland	9–11 Jul	Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
	16					Mark Winterbottom	Ford Performance Racing
9	17	L&H 500	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	Phillip Island, Victoria	10–12 Sep	Craig Lowndes Mark Skaife	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
10	18	Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000	Mount Panorama Circuit	Bathurst, New South Wales	7–10 Oct	Craig Lowndes Mark Skaife	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
11	19	Armor All Gold Coast 600	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Queensland	21–24 Oct	Garth Tander Cameron McConville	Holden Racing Team	report
	20					Jamie Whincup Steve Owen	Triple Eight Race Engineering
12	21	Falken Tasmania Challenge	Symmons Plains Raceway	Launceston, Tasmania	12–14 Nov	Craig Lowndes	Triple Eight Race Engineering	report
	22					Mark Winterbottom	Ford Performance Racing
13	23	Norton 360 Sandown Challenge	Sandown Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	19–21 Nov	Paul Dumbrell	Rod Nash Racing	report
	24					James Courtney	Dick Johnson Racing
14	25	Sydney Telstra 500	Homebush Street Circuit	Sydney, New South Wales	3–5 Dec	Jonathon Webb	Tekno Autosports	report
	26					Lee Holdsworth	Garry Rogers Motorsport
Maps of event locations
Abu Dhabi Sakhir Adelaide Ipswich Winton Darwin Townsville Phillip Island Bathurst Gold Coast Launceston Sandown Homebush Hamilton

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Immediately prior to the season start, V8 Supercar launched a new publicity campaign, centred around American singer Pink and her 2001 recording Get the Party Started. The advertising campaign is called "The Greatest Show on Wheels" and is the first of a three-year deal between V8 Supercar and Pink.^[52]

Points are awarded to the driver or drivers of a car that completes 75% of the race distance and is running at the completion of the final lap.

NOTES:

Std denotes all races except the L&H 500, Bathurst 1000, and Surfers Paradise. These three races have unique rules.

L&H 500: The Phillip Island event was split into two qualifying races and a 500 km feature race. The two drivers per team were grouped into separate qualifying races that counted towards drivers' individual point totals and towards the starting grid for the feature race. The two drivers then shared one car for the 500 km endurance race.

Bathurst: Two drivers shared one car for the race.

Armor All Gold Coast 600: Each V8 Supercar team was required to have an international driver included in its driver lineup for each 300 km race. The international driver was required to complete 30% of the race distance. The event was run under a National permit, allowing International licence holders to compete but not to score championship points.^[53] This differed from the Bathurst event which was run under an International permit.^[53]

2010 V8 Supercar season