V8 Supercars Betting Guide 2023

Qualification Betting

Most V8 Supercars rounds comprise two races – one on the Saturday and one on the Sunday – but before they can take place the drivers must whizz around the track in practice and qualifying sessions.

With places on the grid up for grabs, bookmakers frame betting markets on qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout that, ultimately, determines which 10 drivers occupy the prized front five rows on the track.

Race Betting

Whereas V8 Supercars qualification betting usually does not extend past betting on the pole sitter, V8 Supercars race betting is similar to what you would expect to see on a Formula One race, with markets on the race winner, winning manufacturer and the fastest lap to name just three.

The winning manufacturer market generates high attention during the Bathurst 1000 race because, for many sections of the Australian media, it is more about Ford versus Holden than it is about say, Will Davison versus Jamie Whincup.

V8 Supercars Futures Betting

Generally there is plenty of pre-season action on the V8 Supercars Championship Series market as punters try to identify which driver is best equipped to make a play for the title before the serious business of racing gets under way.

Bookmakers update their championship betting odds after each round and, because of the way that the scoring works, the series remains in doubt for long periods. There are so many points available in each race that it does not take long for someone with a run of outs to slide down the ladder. To be the champion requires consistency.

Exotics Betting

Other markets that tend to be available only before the V8 Supercars season starts are exotics such as over/under lines on race victories for the well known drivers such as Davison, Whincup, Craig Lowndes, James Courtney and Mark Winterbottom. Punters often get just the one stab at them.

Pole Position Doesn’t Equal Race Success

Overtaking is much more common in V8 Supercars than other forms of motor sport so pole position, while advantageous, is not the be-all and end-all. For example, only 11 of 26 pole sitters won in 2010. Eleven of 28 pole sitters won in 2011. And in the first 17 races of 2012, only two pole sitters won. Look for value further down the grid.

Bathurst Is a Specialist’s Race Track

It pays to stick with Mount Panorama specialists when you bet on the biggest race of the V8 Supercars season, the Bathurst 1000. The same drivers dominate the race every year, even if some of them come out of semi-retirement to compete. There is no finer example of that than Mark Skaife.

Bet With Your Head Not Your Keys

Just because you have a Holden on your driveway does not mean that you should blindly back the General Motors subsidiary’s factory teams in V8 Supercars races.