RUSSELL Ingall’s 17-year-old reign as the Supercars race wins record holder at Albert Park in Melbourne looks set to finally end this weekend.
Ingall won eight races in Melbourne across the course of his career, seven in a row with Perkins Engineering covering 1997 and 1998 and one with Stone Brothers Racing in his debut weekend with the Queensland Ford team in 2003.
Three drivers – Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom – have each won seven Albert Park Supercars races, with the former set to give Ingall’s record a big shake this weekend in Melbourne.
The next best active driver on the wins list is Fabian Coulthard, who has scored five victories on the public road course.
McLaughlin won three out of the four races at last year’s Melbourne 400, but his non-start in the third race of the weekend (after a clash with Cameron Waters on the roll-around lap) prevented him from achieving a rare feat.
Only three drivers have swept every race of the weekend at Albert Park: Ingall (1997 and 1998), Garth Tander (2008) and Winterbottom (2015).
All up, 76 Supercars races have been held at Albert Park since 1996, though there were no races in 2007 when Supercars were not part of the support bill at the event.
