Grand Finale (V8 Supercars)

Grand Finale

Race Information
Venue	Oran Park Raceway
Number of times held	8
First held	2001
Last held	2008
Race Format
Race 1
Laps	46
Distance	120 km
Race 2
Laps	46
Distance	120 km
Race 3
Laps	46
Distance	120 km
Last Event (2008)
Overall Winner
Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team
Race Winners
Jamie Whincup	Triple Eight Race Engineering
Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team
Rick Kelly	HSV Dealer Team

The Grand Finale, also known as the V8 Ultimate and as The Main Event, was the auto race held as the final round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series from 2001 to 2008. In those years, it was held at Sandown Raceway, Eastern Creek Raceway, the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and Oran Park Raceway.

The Grand Finale was staged over a weekend in either November or December each year. Free practice took place on Friday; qualifying sessions and the first of three races took place on Saturday; and the final two races took place on Sunday. The driver accumulating the most points over the weekend's races was deemed the winner of the event.

In 1999 and 2000, the Bathurst 1000 took place as the final round of the championship. Following Bathurst's move back to early October in 2001, and the decision to extend the championship calendar beyond the endurance events and into December, the final round of the season moved to Sandown Raceway. For the first time, the final round was given a designated name, and became known as the "V8 Ultimate". The inaugural 2001 event saw Todd Kelly score his first championship round win. In 2002, Marcos Ambrose gave the Ford AU Falcon a round win in the last event of its largely unsuccessful era. It was what would become the first of four consecutive round wins in the Grand Finale for Ambrose. In both 2001 and 2002, Mark Skaife had already secured the championship title before the final round of the series, and as such the V8 Ultimate was a dead rubber on each occasion. In 2003, the Sandown 500 was reinstated on the calendar as Sandown's round of the championship, and the final round moved to Eastern Creek in Sydney.

In the 2003 season, the final round was called "The Main Event". It was held at Eastern Creek Raceway and was won by Marcos Ambrose, who secured his first championship win in the process. The 2003 event is perhaps best remembered for an incident between Russell Ingall and Mark Skaife, which has since been dubbed the "race rage" incident or the "shriek at the creek". Ingall and Skaife made contact exiting Turn 9 which resulted in Skaife being spun into the wall. Having parked his damaged car on the other side of the track, Skaife remained next to his car, waiting for Ingall to return on the following lap. Skaife walked towards the edge of the circuit, shaking his fist at Ingall, and Ingall responded by swerving towards Skaife. Ingall was disqualified from the event and both drivers were fined. For 2004, the "Grand Finale" title was used for the first time, and Ambrose won the event for the third time in succession, again securing the championship on the same weekend. In both years, Eastern Creek also hosted a sprint round as well as the finale.

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