Supercars will sizzle on the streets of Adelaide

I can’t believe the 2017 Supersars season has rolled around so quickly. There is no better way to kick things off than with the Clipsal 500 on the streets of Adelaide.

Everyone loves the track because it is part street circuit, part parklands. It is an exciting race track and the crowd gets in behind it.

It is fantastic to be part of it — there is always plenty of action going on. Just outside the precinct you are straight into an awesome Adelaide cafe, restaurant and bar scene and a lot of it is in walking distance.

The drivers love it because they feel like superstars at this race meeting. It is also the first race meeting of the year and everyone wants to see the new colours and the new drivers in different teams.

You have to have a certain amount of aggression on a street circuit and you’ve got to take the right amount of risk. We have seen drivers get it wrong plenty of times.

The infamous turn eight, one of the best corners you’ll see anywhere, tests man and machine and tests how much you are prepared to put it on the line.

No one has a better record in Adelaide than Jamie Whincup.

Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen goes well at in South Australia and is always strong. The Penske boys — Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin — will be under the microscope at this event. There are a bunch of other guys that will be in good cars too.

Murph’s tip

I am struggling to go past Whincup — his form in Adelaide is phenomenal. I think he is going to come out of the blocks firing. He did not enjoy last year getting beaten by his teammate. We saw him make some uncharacteristic mistakes and I think he has thought about that a lot in the off-season. That will only fire van Gisbergen up even more so that battle in itself is going to be scintillating.

Dark horse

Chaz Mostert didn’t fire last year. He is now back with his engineer from 2015 Adam de Borre and I think they will be a powerful combination. Mark Winterbottom will come back fighting to make amends for an ordinary 2016.

Surprise contender

Nick Percat. He is at Brad Jones Racing now. That is a stronger team than he has been at for the past couple of years. He is going to thrive there alongside Tim Slade and Tim Blanchard. They will work well together and I think that will give them a big boost in terms of maintaining consistency.

Tough start — Simona di Silvestro

It is not going to come quickly and that is no disrespect to her ability it is just that the series is so tough. There are lots of new race tracks for her to learn and that might not sound like a big deal being a professional race driver but you are competing against guys who have spent hundreds of laps on all of these tracks, know them intimately and they know what they need to be at the top of the game.

She will have to work really hard to understand that stuff. If she can get through Adelaide and start to feel comfortable there she will be a long way towards starting to show some competitiveness. It is a big challenge for her or for anyone in her position.