2010 Gold Coast Events Calendar

GOLD Coast V8 Supercar driver James Courtney reckons these three contenders for the 2009 TW Steel Miss SuperGP are top rate - ranking them at 9.5 out of 10 - he reserves his perfect 10 rating for his wife.

FERRARIS, McLaren and Red Bull open-wheel racing cars could be roaring through Surfers Paradise as an international motorsport feud offers a gilded opportunity for the Gold Coast. See the galleries.

FORMER world Formula 1 world champion and A1 Team Australia seat holder Alan Jones is confident the team has the man that will get them across the line at the inaugural Nitro SuperGP on the Gold Coast in October.

THE Gold Coast Indy - the city's iconic four-day motoring festival, will be known as the SuperGP in a naming merge of the two stakeholders - V8 Supercars and the A1GP.

THE new name for the Gold Coast's annual motor racing carnival, formerly known as Indy, will be unveiled at the Brisbane Euromarque Ferrari showroom tomorrow.

RACE organisers for the inaugural A1GP event on the Gold Coast in October will unveil a new name for the event in two weeks, but are still searching for a naming rights sponsor.

QUEENSLAND motorsport ace Will Power has been thrown a career lifeline by one of the world's great racing organisations and will join fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe at Team Penske in the IndyCar Series this year.

HE'S young. He's handsome. He's single. He's wealthy. He's the great white hope of US open-wheel racing. And he wants to come to the Gold Coast next October and make it his own.

IT was during a tour of pit lane yesterday that one of the A1GP international bosses said bringing the event to the Gold Coast was a dream come true.

LEADING international A1 Grand Prix racing figures are ecstatic that the event has been locked in at Surfers Paradise for five years.

CONSIDERED public enemy No. 1 by Holden after escaping a points penalty, Ford's James Courtney further infuriated rivals by keeping top spot on a dramatic day.

ACCORDING to V8 Supercar champion, Jamie Whincup, there is no bad blood between him and Ford upstart James Courtney.

TEAM Vodafone drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes are gearing up for the Townsville 400 with confidence following lucrative preparation by the team.

GOLD Coast designer Karen Neilsen has drawn inspiration from the 1980s in creating the new-look grid girl and swimwear outfits for motorsport's Armor All Gold Coast 600.

DISMISSING fears he would bottom out in the Top End, two-time champion Jamie Whincup turned the tables on V8 Supercars leader James Courtney with a stunning victory in Darwin yesterday.

FOR the first time in two years, Jamie Whincup will not start a V8 Supercar round as series leader. But if the pressure from Ford upstart James Courtney is getting to him, the two-time touring car champion hid it well in Darwin yesterday.

NASCAR DEBUT: Tasmanian V8 Supercar driver Owen Kelly will make his NASCAR debut when he lines up this week in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

NEW V8 Supercar Championship leader James Courtney says today's Indy 500 victory by Dario Franchitti is a boost for both his Jim Beam Racing team and also the Gold Coast 600 event in October.

FORD driver James Courtney has dealt a major blow to Holden rival Jamie Whincup's V8 Supercars championship hopes by sealing back to back wins at Ipswich.

SEVERAL high-profile international drivers, including ex-Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, are expected to appear as guest drivers in this year's Gold Coast V8 Supercars event.

THE Magic Millions Carnival will remain on the Gold Coast until at least 2017 after the sales company and the Gold Coast Turf Club extended an original five-year agreement this morning.

MAGIC Millions Classic winner Military Rose will be floated to Sydney tomorrow after winning a 1000m trial at the Gold Coast this morning.

THE failure of international performer Dao Dao to make a six-figure sum could dent the overall success of the Magic Millions National sale that ended yesterday.

THE final day of the at Magic Millions national broodmare main sale ended in disappointment yesterday.

TWO Libyan brothers plan to buy enough horses at this year's Magic Millions sales to have their own north African auction.

THE Magic Millions carnival will remain on the Gold Coast for the next two years and is on the brink of being secured until 2017.

THE Gold Coast Turf Club board will this weekend offer to lease their racing and training tracks to Queensland Racing in an 11th-hour bid to save the long-term future of Magic Millions and secure an upgrade of facilities.

RACING Minister Peter Lawlor was jeered in State Parliament yesterday when he refused to guarantee the Gold Coast's Magic Millions race would go ahead, before tweeting 'MM and Turf Club need to work it out'.

THE Gold Coast Turf Club has not been allocated a race meeting on Magic Millions day, tentatively stripping the city of the lucrative million carnival.

UNFASHIONABLE horses unwanted by the racing glitterati will today push gross sales for the entire Magic Millions auction past the million mark eclipsing last year's total.

IT is not just Gold Coast Airport Marathon organisers cleaning up today, physiotherapists and sports massagers have their work cut out for them too.

STAGGERING uncontrollably as his jellylike legs all but folded, Gold Coast teenager Stephen Mahoney's dream of finishing a marathon seemingly crumbled just 50m short of its pinnacle.

THE tiny central Kenyan town of Limuru will be celebrating after James Mbugua Kariuki broke away to take his second marathon from as many starts yesterday.

THE Gold Coast Marathon is set to be transformed into a week long 'celebration of sport' and reignite the city's economy through winter.

<span>UPDATED: </span>KENYAN 23-year-old James Kariuki Mbugua has made it two wins from two marathon starts this morning, taking out the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in ideal conditions.

<span>UPDATED: </span>COMMONWEALTH Games representatives Jeff Hunt and Lisa Jane Weightman have this morning taken out the Gold Coast Airport half-marathon events on a perfect day at Southport.

RAINCLOUDS cleared at dawn above more than 5000 people who pounded the pavement as the inaugural two-day Gold Coast Marathon festival began at Southport yesterday morning.

<span>UPDATED: </span>COMMONWEALTH Games-bound Gold Coaster Michael Shelley has this morning smashed a 14-year mark in the 10km event at Southport.

<span>UPDATED: </span>RICHARD Nicholson has this morning taken out the first event of the Gold Coast marathon carnival, the wheelchair half marathon.

THE gloves will be off for two of Australia's top marathon runners when they reignite their rivalry today in the Southern Cross University 10km.

THE festival that will replace Wintersun in the Coolangatta-Tweed region next year has officially been named Cooly Rocks On.

THE curtains closed on the final Gold Coast Wintersun festival yesterday with mixed feelings among its rock 'n' rolling congregation.

THE curtains closed on the final Gold Coast Wintersun festival yesterday with mixed feelings among its rock 'n' rolling congregation.

A HOT-ROD driver drove over a police officers foot twice after the male Sergeant attempted to pull the car over during the Wintersun Festival.

<p><span>SPECIAL REPORT:</span> Today is the last day for the Gold Coast's final Wintersun festival. See our special report for a wrap-up, what the future is for Coolangatta's festival and a special comment from Michael Jacobson.</p>

WHILE loyal rock 'n' rollers farewelled a 23-year-old Gold Coast festival, others took joy in their first Wintersun experience.

WINTERSUN or Cooly Rocks On -- newlyweds Sue and Gerry Swift will be returning to their favourite spot on the Gold Coast next year despite the name change.

THERE's something strange and otherworldly about Wintersun, something destined to remain unexplained now the festival is leaving the Gold Coast.

THE name Wintersun may be leaving the Tweed, but not necessarily the concept, with plans to replace the event with another nostalgia festival.

YOUR guide to the music, dance and rock `n' roll nostalgia this weekend at the 2010 Wintersun Festival at Coolangatta and the Tweed.