This year is the 11th time that Porsche Carrera Cup Australia has competed at Albert Park and the sixth time it’s counted towards the championship.

Race 2 at Albert Park will be the 250th PCCA race since the first championship race at Phillip Island was held 12 years ago in 2003. At present a total of 248 PCCA races and 18 non-championship races at Albert Park (2003- 2007) have been held across the category’s lifetime in this country.

24 cars are entered for Albert Park – the biggest field at the Grand Prix since the round became part of the championship in 2008.

Steve Richards arrives in Melbourne as the points leader after the first clean sweep of his PCCA career in Adelaide. He claimed all three race wins and now is searching for his first Albert Park round win. Richards has finished on the podium in three of the last four Albert Park PCCA rounds and won the opening race on the Grand Prix layout the last two years running.

Richards is in fact the fifth consecutive different round winner in PCCA from mid 2014 to now. Craig Baird (SMP), Michael Patrizi (Sandown), Shae Davies (Bathurst) and Nick Foster (Gold Coast) won the previous four rounds last year. His three Adelaide wins have launched Richards to within one of equaling Jonny Reid and two from equalling David Reynolds in championship record books. Richards is seventh on the all-time PCCA race wins list with 11. He is also now tied for fourth on the list of podium results with Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds (14).

Finance-Ezi driver David Russell finished third in the opening round at Adelaide and holds a PCCA record he’d like to shed quickly – the most podium finishes in PCCA history without a round win. Russell has seven career podiums without a round win.

Three-time TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge champion (and four-time round winner in the category at the AGP), Max Twigg returns at Albert Park and will make his first solo PCCA round start since the final round of 2013 on the Gold Coast. His Albert Park appearance is his 44th PCCA round and moves him past Tony Quinn for fifth on the all-time list. He will compete as a Professional driver this weekend for the first time.

TAG Heuer Carrera Challenger points leader Tony Bates is aiming to become the first driver in the class to win three straight rounds since Twigg did it back in 2013. Bates won the last round last year on the Gold Coast and round one this year in Adelaide. He also took pole for the last two rounds – the last time a driver scored three Challenge Class poles in a row was Shane Smollen across 2013 (Gold Coast) and 2014 (Adelaide, Albert Park).

Only two drivers have clean-swept a weekend at Albert Park with pole position and victory in every race – Alex Davison in 2003 and Jim Richards in 2005. No driver has managed the feat since the round became a part of the championship in 2008.

The smallest pole position margin for a Porsche Carrera Cup Australia round at Albert Park is 0.0102s between pole man Aaron Caratti and Craig Baird in 2008. It’s the fifth closest pole-winning margin in PCCA history.

The largest pole position margin in Porsche Carrera Cup at Albert Park came in the very first non-championship event in 2003 when Alex Davison bested Jim Richards by 0.692s to claim pole for the VIP Petfoods team.

The biggest race win in PCCA at Albert Park came in 2011 in Race 2 when Craig Baird led home Daniel Gaunt by 9.6411s. It’s the fifth biggest win in PCCA history.

The smallest race-winning margin in Porsche Carrera Cup at Albert Park came in Race 3 in 2007 when David Reynolds beat Craig Baird by just 0.0805s.

ALBERT PARK LAP RECORDS
Qual Lap Record: Warren Luff, 2014, 1m57.7313s,
Race Lap Record: Ben Barker, 2011, 1m58.3646s

ALBERT PARK ROUND WINNERS
2008 Craig Baird
2011 Craig Baird
2012 Craig Baird
2013 Craig Baird
2014 Warren Luff
Note: Non-championship rounds held at Albert Park between 2003 and 2007.
4 – Craig Baird
1 – Warren Luff

ALBERT PARK POLE POSITIONS
2003 Alex Davison
2004 Alex Davison
2005 Jim Richards
2006 Alex Davison
2007 Alex Davison
2008 Aaron Caratti
2011 Jonny Reid
2012 Jonny Reid
2013 Nick Percat
2014 Warren Luff
4 – Alex Davison
2 – Jonny Reid
1 – Jim Richards, Aaron Caratti, Nick Percat, Warren Luff

ALBERT PARK RACE WINS
2003 Alex Davison, Alex Davison, Alex Davison
2004 Matt Halliday, Alex Davison, Matt Halliday, Alex Davison
2005 Jim Richards, Jim Richards, Jim Richards
2006 Alex Davison, Craig Baird, Craig Baird, Craig Baird
2007 Alex Davison, Alex Davison, David Reynolds, David Reynolds
2008 Aaron Caratti ,Craig Baird, Craig Baird, Craig Baird
2011 Jonny Reid, Craig Baird, Craig Baird
2012 Craig Baird, Craig Baird, Craig Baird
2013 Steve Richards, Craig Baird, Craig Baird
2014 Steve Richards, Warren Luff, Warren Luff
13 – Craig Baird
8 – Alex Davison
3 – Jim Richards
2 – Matt Halliday, David Reynolds, Steve Richards, Warren Luff
1 – Aaron Caratti, Jonny Reid

ADELAIDE ROUND PODIUMS
2008 Craig Baird, Dean Fiore, David Russell
2011 Craig Baird, Daniel Gaunt, Steve Richards
2012 Craig Baird, Jonny Reid, Alex Davison
2013 Craig Baird, Warren Luff, Steve Richards
2014 Warren Luff, Steve Richards, Nick Foster
Note: Non-championship rounds held at Albert Park between 2003 and 2007.
4 – Craig Baird
3 – Steve Richards
2 – Warren Luff
1 – Dean Fiore, David Russell, Daniel Gaunt, Jonny Reid, Alex Davison, Nick Foster

ALBERT PARK TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE ROUND WINNERS
2008 Max Twigg
2011 Max Twigg
2012 Max Twigg
2013 Max Twigg
2014 Roger Lago
4 – Max Twigg
1 – Roger Lago

ALBERT PARK TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE POLE POSITIONS
2008 Peter Hill
2011 Max Twigg
2012 Max Twigg
2013 James Koundouris
2014 Shane Smollen
2 – Max Twigg
1 – Peter Hill, James Koundouris, Shane Smollen

ALBERT PARK TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE RACE WINS
2008 Peter Hill, Max Twigg, Max Twigg, Max Twigg
2011 Max Twigg, Max Twigg, Max Twigg
2012 Max Twigg, Max Twigg, Max Twigg
2013 Max Twigg, Max Twigg, Max Twigg
2014 James Bergmuller, Roger Lago, Roger Lago
12 – Max Twigg
2 – Roger Lago
1 – Peter Hill, James Bergmuller

ALBERT PARK TAG HEUER CARRERA CHALLENGE PODIUMS
2008 Max Twigg, Shaun Juniper, James Koundouris
2011 Max Twigg, Peter Hill, Theo Koundouris
2012 Max Twigg, James Koundouris, Peter Hill
2013 Max Twigg, James Koundouris, Damien Flack
2014 Roger Lago, Stephen Grove, James Bergmuller
4 – Max Twigg
3 – James Koundouris
2 – Peter Hill
1 – Theo Koundouris, Shaun Juniper, Damien Flack, Roger Lago, Stephen Grove, James
Bergmuller