The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship kicks off tomorrow in Adelaide with the annual curtain-raising Adelaide 500. You might know it as the Clipsal 500 – or simply The Clipsal – and the two-race event sets the tone for the season to come. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the event and if you’re looking to follow the race, we’ve rounded up all the ways to watch, live, online and free in Australia.
Where Is The Adelaide 500?
The Adelaide 500 is, unsurprisingly, held on a street circuit in the heart of Adelaide, South Australia. The circuit uses parts of the Australian Grand Prix track that Adelaide is still very salty about losing to Melbourne. The two 78 lap, 250 kilometre races take place on the Saturday and the Sunday, but the event itself brings the city of Adelaide alive with the sound of engines and the smell of rubber.
When Is The Adelaide 500?
The Supercars Championship Race 2 kicks off at 3:50pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT).
Here’s the times in all Australian capital cities:
- Perth, WA: 12:50pm
- Darwin, NT: 2:20pm
- Brisbane, QLD: 2:50pm
- Adelaide, SA: 3:20pm
- Sydney, NSW: 3:50pm
- Canberra, ACT: 3:50pm
- Melbourne, VIC: 3:50pm
- Hobart, TAS: 3:50pm
Round One Qualifying takes place from 4:20pm AEDT, Friday, March 2. Race One takes place on Saturday, March 3, from 3:50pm AEDT before it all wraps up with Race Two Qualifying Sunday morning at 10:10am AEDT and Race Two at 3:50pm AEDT.
The full schedule is available here.
Where Can I Watch The Adelaide 500?
If you’re in Australia, you’ve got a couple of options – the most obvious would be to catch it on free to air TV, with Channel Ten broadcasting all the action from Thursday to Sunday. Unfortunately, if you were looking to stream it online, via the tenplay app, this will likely not be possible for any of the Supercars coverage in 2018 (as was the case last year). However, Channel Ten will not have the broadcast on Thursday.
Fox Sports channel 506, on Foxtel, will be covering all the days events from March 1 to March 4, starting as early as 10:30am AEDT on March 1 and from 9am AEDT March 2 to March 4.
If you’re without a TV and want to stream the race, your next best bet is to use Foxtel Now.
If you haven’t signed up for Foxtel Now, you can activate a two week trial for free. To get access to the Adelaide 500, you will need to buy one of the base packages for $10 and then add the $29 sports package on top. Just remember to cancel your subscription before the two weeks is up or you’ll be slugged $39. If you’re a lapsed subscriber, you may also have two weeks free to trial the service.
New Zealanders can use the Sky Go platform to stream the race, but you will need to sign up for Sky and download the Sky Go app or go to the live desktop site.
If you live outside of Australia or New Zealand, you may need to invest in Superview, which is the streaming subscription offered by the Supercar championship. This gives you livestreaming access to every race of the Supercar season, not just the Adelaide 500, but it will set you back approximately $59.95AUD.
This is not available to Australian or New Zealand subscribers and even using a VPN, this is a more attractive option for those looking to watch every race in the season, as opposed to just the Adelaide 500.
If you’re an Australian abroad, have access to a VPN and own an Australian credit card, you should be able to sign up to the Foxtel Now for free elsewhere in the world – meaning you get your two week trial and don’t have to pay anything (as long as you unsubscribe from the trial before the two weeks ends). If you need help finding a VPN, just head here.
You can also sign up for Motor Trend On Demand, a live streaming and on demand content service specifically for automotive events. Currently, they offer a 14 day free trial period. As with Foxtel Now, if you unsubscribe from the service before the 14 days is up, then you won’t have to pay a cent, otherwise you are looking at a charge of $5.99USD (~$7.71AUD). You can use PayPal or a Credit Card. If you are in Australia, you can still use this service, but you will have to access it through a VPN.
In my opinion, it’s always a good idea to keep one eye firmly planted on the Reddit group for the V8 Supercars. They will also direct you to broadcast feeds of race control and potentially other streams that become available on free streaming sites, in addition to having an IRC that discusses the race.
Where Can I Get Tickets To The Adelaide 500?
If you are looking to go to the event and trek down to the Adelaide street circuit, then you will need to click here to purchase.
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