The 2011 ITM Hamilton 400 was a motor race for the Australian sedan-based

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

. It was the third event of the

2011 International V8 Supercars Championship The 2011 International V8 Supercar Championship (often simplified to the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship) was an Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA sanctioned international motor racing series for V8 Supercars. It was the thirteent ...

. It was held on the weekend of 15–17 April at the

Hamilton Street Circuit The Hamilton Street Circuit was a temporary street circuit in Hamilton, New Zealand. From 2008 to 2012 it hosted the Hamilton 400 as part of the V8 Supercars championship. From 2010 to 2012, ITM, New Zealand's largest group of independent tr ...

, in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It was the fourth running of the

Hamilton 400 The Hamilton 400 was a V8 Supercar motor racing event held on the Hamilton Street Circuit, Hamilton, New Zealand. The event was held from 2008 to 2012, and is one of only three New Zealand circuits to host a championship round of V8 Supercars. ...

. The weekend saw two first time winners:

Rick Kelly Rick Kelly (born 17 January 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver who previously competed in the Supercars Championship. He last drove the No. 15 Ford Mustang (sixth generation), Ford Mustang GT for Kelly Racing. Previously, he dro ...

took the first victory for

Kelly Racing Kelly Racing (formerly known as Kelly Grove Racing and Nissan Motorsport) is an Australian motor racing team which competes in the Dunlop Super2 Series. It formerly competed in the Supercars Championship from 2009 to 2021. The team made its de ...

and

Shane van Gisbergen Shane Robert van Gisbergen (born 9 May 1989), also known by his initials SVG, is a New Zealand professional auto racing, racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, C ...

won the first race of his career. The event hosted races 5 and 6 of the 2011 season.

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

V8 Supercar champion

won the Saturday race from third on the grid in a mixture of wet and dry weather conditions.

Paul Dumbrell Paul Lakeland Dumbrell (born 1 September 1982) is an Australian business executive and retired racing driver. Racing history Junior career Son of former racing driver Garry Dumbrell, Paul Dumbrell started racing in karts in 1996 and by the en ...

did not participate in the race after a heavy crash at turn 3 in qualifying. Polesitter

Jamie Whincup Jamie David Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden Commodore (ZB), Ho ...

was caught out by the damp conditions, hitting the wall while exiting the pits and damaging the steering on his car. There were many incidents in the pit lane with cars failing to stop on the slippery concrete surface, running into pit crews and cameramen. Whincup's teammate

Craig Lowndes Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing car driver in the Supercars Championship, Repco Supercars Championship racing for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator. Lowndes is a three-time V8 Superca ...

finished second while

Todd Kelly Todd Evan Kelly (born 9 October 1979) is a retired Australian professional racing driver who competed in the Supercars Championship, Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He is the older brother of fellow Supercars driver and former Bathurst ...

made it a double podium for

. The Kelly brothers maintained their form through to Sunday's race, with Rick taking pole and Todd starting next to him on the front row after a rain affected qualifying session which saw only one flying lap for most of the drivers.

won the first race of his career, holding off

Lee Holdsworth Lee Robert Holdsworth (born 2 February 1983) is an Australian semi-retired racing driver. He won the 2021 Bathurst 1000 alongside Chaz Mostert and finished his full-time career after the 2022 season, after nearly two decades of racing. Histor ...

in the closing stages of the race.

Garth Tander Garth Dirk Tander (born 31 March 1977) is a multiple-championship winning Australian motor racing driver competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship's Enduro Cup, co-driving for Grove Racing. He was the 2007 series champion for th ...

finished on the podium after starting the race in 19th. Steve Owen recovered from a disastrous weekend in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

by finishing in the top five. Whincup had another disappointing race and left the weekend with his championship lead almost halved, 81 points ahead of Rick Kelly.

Results

Results as follows:

Qualifying Race 5

Qualifying timesheet:

Race 5

Race timesheets:

Qualifying Race 6

Qualifying timesheet:

Race 6

Race timesheets:

Standings

* After 6 of 28 races.

References

{{ATCC rounds 2010–2019 ITM Hamilton Hamilton 400 ITM April 2011 sports events in New Zealand 2010s in Hamilton, New Zealand