Castrol EDGE Australia Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 6

VOLUME 2 - ISSUE 6

it’s our best oil yet... www.castroledge.com.au

Ford WRC notch up 150

FPR Supreme in New Zealand

BMW’s dynamic DTM return

2nd MAY 2012

e c c u s e t s a t s Castrol te am n o t l i m a H f o s on the street Castrol-backed Ford Performance Racing (FPR) has stolen the show once again by winning both V8 Supercars races over the weekend as teams raced on the streets of Hamilton for the last time at the ITM400 – Round 3 of the Championship. Will Davison put in a sterling performance to win Saturday’s race from sixth on the grid while teammate Mark Winterbottom held out a hard-charging Jamie Whincup to win Sunday’s feature race in what was one of the greatest final lap duels in recent

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history. Sunday’s win for the Castrolbacked FPR driver was a special one as it also marked Frosty’s 250th race start in V8 Supercars. “This was an awesome result and it’s good to win anytime but to win my 250th start is pretty special,” commented an excited Frosty.

The third FPR car of David Reynolds put in a strong display on Sunday to finish seventh overall while Castrolsupported driver Tony D’Alberto in an FPR-built Ford showed tremendous

speed all weekend and was rewarded with an eighth place finish in the same race. Castrol-backed Kelly Racing had a mixed weekend of results with the standout being Rick Kelly taking his Jack Daniel’s Commodore to fifth in Saturday’s 200km race while brother and teammate Todd Kelly took his Commodore to ninth on Sunday.

“Our team really needed that result on Saturday,” said Rick Kelly. “We have had a tough start to the year compared

rounds. Round 4 of the V8 Supercars Championship takes crews to the west coast for the Trading Post Perth Challenge, May 4-6.

See below for the championship standings

es s n to what we would have liked. We are not on the pace of the guys in front, but we have the guys behind narrowly covered.

It was a great race and it was nice to pass cars on the track again.”

The Castrol-supported Supercheap Auto Racing entry of Russell Ingall had a solid weekend with a top-10 result on Saturday coupled with a 14th place finish on Sunday. The results see Ingall move four places up the series points table from 19th to 15th after three of 15

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1 Will Davison

846

2

Jamie Whincup

825

3 Mark Winterbottom

657

4 Craig Lowndes

557

5 Lee Holdsworth

555

6 Shane Van Gisbergen

549

7 Garth Tander

524

8

510

Fabian Coulthard

Jamie Whincup. Castrol-supported Kelly Racing will be in full flight as they look to impress on the newly renovated circuit as will Russell Ingall in the Supercheap Auto entry.

Once again V8 Supercars have have made this a sprint event putting on three races over the weekend as opposed to the traditional two longer races we experience most rounds. This format really brings out the fight in all 28 drivers from the word go. You don’t have time to make up in a short race. You have to be flat out from the word go or you can forget about the win.

Television Schedule

9 Tim Slade

489

Times subject to amendment, please check local guides:

10 Rick Kelly

453

11 Todd Kelly

429

Seven Network & 7Mate

12 Steven Johnson

378

13 Michael Caruso

354

14 Steve Owen

348

15 Russell Ingall

336

16 Tony D’Alberto

314

17 Dean Fiore

309

18 James Courtney

306

19 David Reynolds

296

20 Michael Patrizi

276

21 Jason Bright

261

22 Alexandre Premat

258

23 Taz Douglas

240

24 Jonathon Webb

234

25 James Moffat

222

26 David Wall

207

27 Karl Reindler

204

28 Greg Murphy

87

Castrol teams head west for Trading Post Perth Challenge This weekend sees the fourth round of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship take place on the west coast as teams gear-up for the Trading Post Perth Challenge. For the Castrol-contingent Ford Performance Racing leads the way with Will Davison leading the Championship and teammate Mark Winterbottom not too far behind in third.

The pair are split by 2011 Champion

Saturday, May 5: 12.30pm – 3.30pm Qualifying & Race 7 (Perth) 2.00pm – 5.00pm Qualifying & Race 7 (Adelaide) 2.30pm – 5.30pm Qualifying & Race 7 (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) Sunday, May 6: 11.00am – 3.30pm Qualifying & Race 8 & 9 (Perth) 12.30pm – 5.00pm Qualifying & Race 8 & 9 (Adelaide) 1.00pm – 5.30pm Qualifying & Race 8 & 9 (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane)

y r o t s i h e t a e s r t c n i d o p For WRC 0 5 1 with s e h s i fin

F

ord created history by becoming the first manufacturer to score 150 consecutive points finishes in the FIA World Rally Championship.

Sixth place for Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson of the Castrol-backed Ford World Rally Team at Rally Argentina brought up the landmark achievement.

Rally Argentina was the longest WRC round for almost a decade. Heavy rain before the start made the gravel roads in Cordoba province, 700km north-west of Buenos Aires, extremely slippery.

However, the 37-year-old Norwegian suffered heartbreak when his car’s sump guard hit some bedrock and bent the left steering arm. When the arm later broke, his car was pitched off the road into a rock and retirement. He restarted with

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a 15 minute time penalty in 11th place.

But a determined drive propelled him to sixth, winning nine of the last 10 special stages and claiming all six in the final leg. He also won the final Power Stage, claiming three bonus points to retain second in the drivers’ championship.

“After what happened on Friday, I have to be happy with sixth,” said Solberg.

“To win all six tests and the Power Stage was perfect. I’m proud of what we achieved. Friday was the toughest day I’ve had for a long time, but the result shows why you should never give up, no matter what the situation.”

Sebastien Loeb made it multiples of seven with victory at Rally Argentina.

The victory was the seventh-straight for the Citroen star in Argentina and the 70th of his remarkable career. It was smiles all-round for Citroen with teammate Mikko Hirvonen bringing home a 1-2. Stand-in Ford driver Dani Sordo was set for the final podium spot but hit trouble on the very last run, the Power Stage Amarok Copina, with a suspected broken alternator belt on his Fiesta.

The Spaniard’s misfortune handed third position to Mads Ostberg of the Castrolbacked Adapta World Rally Team.

Ford team director Malcolm Wilson said: “Petter produced a great recovery which culminated in him winning the Power Stage. After everything that happened, to leave Argentina with Petter still second

in the championship is good. Dani did a perfect job and it was desperately sad for him to retire so close to the finish.

The fact that the voltage in the car was so low indicates it was an alternator problem.”

Meanwhile Sebastien Ogier of the Castrol-backed Volkswagen Motorsports team drove yet another superb rally to finish seventh overall in his lesser powered S2000 Skoda Fabia.

Unfortunately it was not the same affair for teammate Andreas Mikkelsen who, after a flying start to the event, retired from the rally on Saturday.

Here are some of the key numbers behind Ford’s record: 1 The first rally in the scoring run was the 2002 Rallye Monte-Carlo 6 Victories at Rally Sweden, the most successful event.

8 Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Cars finished in the top 10 at the 2011 Rally GB. 12 Drivers who contributed to Ford’s record. They are Mikko Hirvonen (84 points finishes), Jari-Matti Latvala

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(48), Marcus Grönholm (29), Markko Märtin (28), François Duval (19), Toni Gardemeister (13), Roman Kresta (10), Carlos Sainz (9), Colin McRae (9), Petter Solberg (4), Janne Tuohino (2), Henning Solberg (1).

14 Consecutive podiums for the official Ford team between 2006 Rally d’Italia Sardegna and 2007 Rally Mexico, and again from 2007 Rally Argentina to 2008 Rally Mexico.

18 Countries in which Ford has won.

23 Countries in which Ford has scored points.

27 The percentage of rallies Ford has won during the 150 events.

40 Ford wins.

50 The 50th consecutive finish came at the 2005 Cyprus Rally when Toni Gardemeister and Jakke Honkanen finished fifth, 75 Rally New Zealand in 2006 marked not only the 75th consecutive finish, but it was also the rally in which Ford clinched the manufacturers’ world title.

96 Podiums achieved.

100 The centenary was reached at the 2008 Rally of Turkey when Ford claimed a 1-2 finish. Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen won and Jari-Matti Latvala and

Miikka Anttila were second.

1983 Points scored in the manufacturers’ championship.

WRC Drivers’ Standings Pos Driver 1. Sebastien Loeb 2.

Petter Solberg 3. Mikko Hirvonen 4. Mads Ostberg 5. Evgeny Novikov 6.

Jari-Matti Latvala

Points 91 73 70 68 43 28

WRC Manufacturers’ Standings Pos Team 1. Citroen Total WRT 2.

Ford WRT 3. M-Sport Ford WRT 4.

Qatar WRT 5. Citroen Junior WRT 6. Adapta WRT

Points 151 106 81 37 30 27

Successful DTM comeback for Castrol EDGE-backed BMW

BMW is back in the DTM – and was immediately in the thick of things in a turbulent opening race of the 2012 season at the Hockenheimring. Augusto Farfus driving the Castrol EDGE BMW M3 DTM finished 15th, with Andy Priaulx of BMW Team RBM the only one of the six BMW drivers to complete the 40 laps without any notable incidents to finish a solid sixth. Under the watchful eyes of Members of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Dr.-Ing. Herbert Diess

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(Development), Dr.-Ing. Klaus Draeger (Purchasing and Supplier Network) and Ian Robertson (Sales and Marketing and Future Retail), Priaulx crossed the line in sixth place in his Crowne Plaza Hotels BMW M3 DTM to score eight points. The three-time World Touring Car Champion finished 28.4 seconds behind Gary Paffett, who won the race for Mercedes.

Starting the race from third place on the grid, Dirk Werner (E-POSTBRIEF BMW

M3 DTM) was hit by Mercedes driver Ralf Schumacher very early in the race, and dropped to the back of the field. Bruno Spengler (BMW Bank M3 DTM), who was directly behind Schumacher at the time, could do nothing to avoid colliding with the former Formula One driver, and subsequently had to retire from the race. In all the turmoil, reigning DTM champion Martin Tomczyk was forced off the track and suffered damage to his BMW M Performance Parts M3 DTM.

As a result, Tomczyk’s first race of the new DTM era also came to a premature end just a few laps into the action. Joey Hand (SAMSUNG BMW M3 DTM) was hit by another competitor and spun in the hairpin, losing time and dropping positions. He eventually crossed the line in 13th. Farfus (Castrol EDGE BMW M3 DTM) finished 15th, while Werner brought his car home in 17th.

Former BMW DTM drivers Roberto

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Ravaglia, Eric van de Poele, Harald Grohs and Steve Soper were in Hockenheim to watch BMW’s first DTM race for 20 years and, despite the results not going its way, BMW will take a lot of positives from the event. Over the course of the race weekend, 142,000 fans watched the first meeting of the three German premium automobile manufacturers in the DTM. In Saturday’s qualifying, four of the six BMW drivers made it into the top-ten.

Augusto Farfus (car number 16, BMW Team RBM, 15th place) said: “Considering all the problems we had in qualifying, I think we managed to recover in a big way for the race.

Unfortunately a miscommunication ahead of the pit stop affected the result and so circumstances meant I could not do any better. It is now time to move forward. I think we have found the road we should follow and I am very happy with the car I had in the race.”

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Neff wins 25th annual NHRA Spring Nationals with Castrol GTX Ford Mike Neff and his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang won the 25th annual NHRA O’Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals and ultimately checked Houston off their list for the 2012 season. Neff posted a 4.23 ET in the Texas heat defeating Ron Capps who ran a 4.476 ET. “I don’t know what Capps ran in the final but we were running real close together. I was running all I wanted to run in the second and third rounds.

I wasn’t pressing. My Castrol GTX Mustang looked great. I was doing what I needed to do to win the rounds. I tried to pick it up a little bit in the semis. He

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was running good but it wasn’t like he was way ahead of everybody else. I did try and pick it up. I don’t get intimidated by anybody that I race. We have a good race car and a good race team. We do our own thing,” said Neff who further extended his lead on the No. 3 driver in points, Jack Beckman.

“The whole weekend has been one of a kind. Not getting qualified until the last session was definitely a nail biter. The track was hot, but in the final I caught another break there against Capps,” said Neff. “He was out in front of me and I could see him out there. He was on a

good run. Something happened to him.

I don’t feel that good about winning like that. I like to be able to run quick in all the sessions.”

“I think anyone will tell you there is a lot of luck involved in winning these races. Sometimes it is just your day and sometimes it is not. Sometimes little things can derail you from winning.

Anything can happen and that is racing.

That is what is exciting about NHRA. You can’t make it up in the next turn. You get one shot at it. You either get it right or catch a break or it is over with. You have to do it four times in one day.”

Two-wheel racing with Castrol MotoGP: Bautista a solid sixth in Jerez with Castrol-backed Gresini Honda Alvaro Bautista improved on his result from Qatar by one place in the latest round of the MotoGP season as he took sixth place in his home Grand Prix at Jerez at the end of a difficult weekend to move to sixth in the MotoGP standings.

The Spaniard had an early battle before establishing a comfort level that allowed him to move swiftly forward, after which he found himself alone for most of the race.

Bizzarre weather had thrown a spanner in the works of the teams and riders ever since first practice on Friday but for Bautista this result is an important platform to build from as the series heads on to the next round at Estoril in just a week’s time

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and a positive way to celebrate his 150th Grand Prix appearance.

Alvaro Bautista (6th) “It has been a difficult weekend because of the weather, but finally we got dry conditions for the race even though there were a few spots around. It was really important to be patient over the opening laps, but maybe I was too careful over the opening laps and I wasn’t able to get involved in the battle at the very front. Once I got comfortable with the track conditions I was able to pass Bradl and Hayden, but Dovizioso, Pedrosa and Crutchlow were too far ahead by then and I just had to defend the position I was in. We have gone one better than Qatar and improved our confidence with this bike, which are the main things we take away from the weekend. I want to thank the team for the great job they have done especially in such challenging conditions this weekend.”

MotoGP Riders’ Standings Pos Driver 1.

Jorge Lorenzo 2. Casey Stoner 3. Dani Pedrosa 4. Cal Crutchlow 5. Andrea Dovizioso 6. Alvaro Bautista

Points 45 41 36 26 22 19

Rea and Castrol Honda WSBK win again in Assen Castrol-backed Honda WSBK rider Jonathan Rea took his fourth win in the last six races at Assen in the Netherlands in the second of the two, third round World Superbike championship races at the Dutch circuit. The first outing was won by Sylvain Guintoli after it was red flagged when rain began to fall on the 4.542km circuit. Rea had been wellplaced in the dry, first part, opting to run

with a harder compound rear tyre. In the restart, however, despite a strong start in the wet conditions, Rea crashed out of second place, injuring the ring-finger on his right hand. The tough 25-year-old from Northern Ireland opted to start the second race, but was forced to sprint to the medical centre for a pain-killing injection after his sighting lap to the grid.

Although the race had been declared wet, Rea’s crew opted to run with slick tyres on the drying track, again with the harder rear compound. After dropping a few places in the early stages, Rea fought his way back to the front, taking a three-second victory over race one winner Guintoli. Rea’s Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, took points in both outings, despite starting from 21st on the grid. A lack of rear grip in race one prevented him finishing higher than 12th, and the option of intermediate tyres took him to 13th in race two.

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WSBK Riders’ Standings Pos Driver 1. Max Biaggi 2. Carlos Checa 3. Tom Sykes 4. Sylvain Guintoli 5. Marco Melandri 6.

Jonathan Rea

Points 92 91 79 66 66 65

Aussie Parkes takes a solid fourth at Assen Castrol-backed Ten Kate Racing Products Honda rider, Broc Parkes, took his CBR600RR to a safe, fourth place finish at Assen in the Netherlands in the third round of the World Supersport championship race at Assen. With changeable weather conditions affecting practice and qualifying, Parkes started the race from second place on the grid. However, the wet weather

made racing precarious, resulting in several riders crashing out. After a no score last time out in Imola following his rear tyre failure and with two championship rivals out of the running at Assen, Parkes opted for a safe fourth place finish to secure 13 valuable championship points.

Broc Parkes – 4th “I got a pretty good start in the race but it was so wet that I had quite a few slides and scary moments in the early stages and that sort of knocked my confidence a little bit. I tried to stay in a podium position but couldn’t stay with the two guys in front of me. Then I saw the gap was 22 seconds and I thought ‘I can’t go with them, I just have to stay on’. So I took good points for the championship and now we are back there in the battle.

Of course, it would have been great to take a podium at the team’s home race, but sometimes you have to think that 13 points is better than the gravel trap.”

Castrol drivers dominate latest round of NZ V8 SuperTourers STRENGTH TO PERFORM

Castrol-backed V8 SuperTourers Series driver Greg Murphy has fought off fellow Castrol driver John McIntyre to win the third and final race for the round at Manfeild in New Zealand. With two wins in the opening two races of the weekend, fellow Castrol-backed driver Jonny Reid took the overall round victory. The International Motorsport driver leads the points’ standings from fellow Castrol-backed driver McIntyre after three rounds.

Starting on the outside of the frontrow following third place finishes in the opening two races of the weekend,

Murphy was able to hang on around the outside of pole-sitter Reid at the first corner, before eventually taking the lead at Turn 3. The race was one of tyre conservation thereafter, with the entire field having started on wet tyres following a shower between races McIntyre passed Reid and early fastman Andy Knight in the opening seven laps, but found himself in excess of 6s adrift of Murphy by the race’s halfway point. The JMR Falcon came alive in the closing however, with the final margin standing at 0.2s after McIntyre closed by a second a lap over the last four tours.

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Richard Moore stormed his way through from tenth on the grid to finish on the tail of the leading trio in third, while Reid, Steven Richards, Kayne Scott, Craig Baird, Ant Pedersen and Knight rounded out the top-ten. Andy Booth was the only driver to pit for slicks during the race, with the Woodstock Holden finishing 12th after losing a lap in the changeover process. Booth ended the race with the fastest lap for his troubles – a 1:09.75s effort 2.4s quicker than the Murphy’s best.

Series points after Round 3 Pos Driver 1.

Jonny Reid 2.

John McIntyre 3. Greg Murphy 4.

Kayne Scott 5. Ant Pedersen 6. Craig Baird 7. Andy Booth 8. Steven Richards 9. Eddie Bell 10. Andy Knight 11. Andre Heimgartner 12.

Fabian Coulthard 13. Richard Moore 14.

Paul Manuell 15. Scott McLaughlin

Pts 1626 1538 1264 1252 1240 1153 1038 1014 883 860 768 757 717 676 585

Hill and Hays take maiden Stars of

Karting win

Top Kart driver Cameron Hill and Energy Corse Australia’s Chris Hays claimed their maiden victories in the CIK Stars of Karting Series presented by Castrol EDGE at round two of the 2012 series in Newcastle. Hill has been somewhat of a revelation in the Pro Junior ranks over the past 18 months and it was his time to shine. The 15 year-old had only finished on the podium in the series on one occasion but with a pair of victories in the two 25-lap main events Hill confirmed his place as a serious contender for this year’s title chase.

“It’s unbelievable, it feels great to finally get this monkey off my back and finally win a round,” said Hill. He crossed the line ahead of round one winner Jake Coleman to move to within five points of

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the championship lead. For the second round in a row Kosmic Racing NSW driver Dimitri Agathos stood on the final step on the podium. In his return round to the series, Dalton Ellery showed tremendous potential and as a result received the Smart Device Powerful Award and a Blackberry Playbook.

For Hays, the victory was a breakthrough one. Competing in his 11th round of the elite series, the Vodafone-backed driver had always shown tremendous speed but never walked away with a Pro Gearbox round victory. After shadowing Kyle Ensbey for the majority of the weekend Hays found his way to the front when it mattered most – at the start of the final race of the weekend. Hays got the jump off the start line and after

opening a handy buffer in the early laps, was never challenged for the win.

“This has been a long time coming, I’ve been in a winning position a couple of rounds but have never been able to finish the job off for one reason or another. It’s really a huge relief,” said Hays.“A huge thanks must go to Adam Graham and the Energy Kart team, along with my mechanic Jon Targett and my Dad for all of their hard work inmaking this win possible. Until this weekend I wasn’t a real fan of the Newcastle track but after today, I love it.”

2010 champion Matthew Wall encountered a mechanical issue in the opening final, forcing him to the back for the second 25-lap main event. The

BRM driver charged his way through the field to finish within several kart lengths of Hays. Third place went to Ensbey, who now holds a 19-point buffer a top of the standings in the chase for the John Pizarro Trophy.

There was both heartache and joy in the Pro Light ranks with race leader Cian Fothergill coming to a halt with a mechanical issue two laps from the end of the race, handing the win the Joseph Mawson. The Fujitsu Cool driver was one of the pacesetters throughout the weekend with he and Fothergill holding a commanding buffer over the remainder of the field for the majority of the final race. Mawson inherited the lead before crossing the line four seconds clear of points leader Daniel Rochford. JAM Racing driver Adam Hughes rounded out the podium after holding out Tyler Greenbury in the second half of the race.

In the Challenge categories, it was Pierce Lehane who was in a class

2012 CIK Stars of Karting Series presented by Castrol EDGE CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS Top Ten After Round 2 of 5 PRO LIGHT (KF1) 1. Daniel Rochford 2. Adam Hughes 3. Cian Fothergill 4. Jake Spencer 5. Joseph Mawson 6. Tyler Greenbury 7. Jake Parsons 8. George Geranis 9. Brooke Topp 10. Jake Klarich

265 243 236 226 212 209 184 174 168 166

PRO GEARBOX (KZ2) 1. Kyle Ensbey 2. Chris Hays 3. Jason Pringle 4. Tyler Greenbury 5. Matthew Wall 6. Lee Mitchener 7. Daniel Currey 8. Anthony Martin 9. Troy Bretherton 10. Troy Woolston

276 257 249 226 193 187 185 154 153 147

PRO JUNIOR (KF3) 1. Jake Coleman 2. Cameron Hill 3. Brock Plumb 4. Joseph Burton-Harris 5. Thomas Randle 6. Lachlan McHugh 7. Joshua Smith 8. Dimitri Agathos 9. Lachlan Gibbons 10. Callum Walker

260 255 234 225 211 205 195 181 179 172

of his own in the Australian Leopard Challenge. The CRG driver claimed a dominant 17-second victory ahead of Mitchell Hewitt and Jedd Stojakovic. In the Heavy category it was 1993 CIK Stars of Karting Series Junior Champion Mike Hazelton who claimed the win ahead of Travis Martin and Gaven Whitmore. Monaco driver James Greenwood once again proved too good for his opposition in the Clubman ranks during the Yamaha Challenge.

2011 Series winner Aaron Borg finished second ahead of CRG driver Bryce Davidson.

Sydneysider Jayden Ojeda claimed the Junior National Light victory ahead of Shamick Racing’s Justin Ford and Will Hawkes – who put in the drive of the race coming from the back of the grid due to not starting the pre-final.

James Duckworth proved too good in the Junior National Heavyrace to take

CLUBMAN 1. James Greenwood 2. Chris Farkas 3. Shay Mayes 4. Samantha Millar 5. Brenton Simonds 6. Daniel Nolan 7. Leon Mramor 8. Jordan Zammit 9. Aaron Borg 10. Bryce Davidson

170 130 115 110 106 103 102 100 75 71

the win ahead of Anthony Gamouf and Mitchell Kennedy. The next round of the five-round series will be contested at Ipswich in Queensland on June 15/16.

Knights stars go karting in Newcastle Newcastle Knights captain Kurt Gidley and team-mates Kyle O’Donnell and Korbin Sims got a taste of highspeed kart racing ahead of this weekend’s CIK Stars of Karting Series presented by Castrol EDGE round in Newcastle. Despite being his first time in a race-prepared 125cc kart, Gidley appeared comfortable with his unusual

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surroundings behind the wheel setting the fastest time of the trio around the undulating 1056-metre circuit.

“That was awesome, I think I’m going to go out and buy a go-kart,” smiled Gidley after his drive. “I can’t believe how quick they go and how close to the ground you are, there’s not much room for error

out there. At one stage out there I had a bit of a spin, my heart went in my mouth and I think something came out of my bottom. It was plenty of fun!

The trio was also treated to some demonstration laps by some of the series’ leading Pro Gearbox (KZ2) competitors during the morning, which they were suitably impressed by.

“These guys really get up and move, to reach the speeds they do around here is very impressive. I’m sure their body cops a hammering during the racing – it’s a lot more physical behind the wheel than what it looks,” said Gidley.

Fresh from a victory at the opening round of the elite karting Series in South Australia, Queenslander Kyle Ensbey was suitably impressed by the performance of the Knights players behind the wheel. “It’s always good to see athletes to the calibre of the Knights players come out and check out the top level karting series in the country, I think they left here with a new appreciation for kart racing,” said Ensbey. “Kurt appeared to slip straight into the seat and look pretty smooth behind the wheel. I think Kyle and Korbin probably have a bit of work to do to catch him on the kart track.”

Richo’s Road Safety Tips #3 Children and Cars There’s nothing more precious in life than our kids and if you’re like me,

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should anything happen to them around the drive way, you’d never forgive yourself.

Kids are active – we all know that. I have a policy at my place that the car doesn’t start unless I know exactly where the kids are. If they are coming with me, they have to be strapped into the car before it starts. If not, I have to be able to see them in front of me before I’ll turn the engine over. It’s a good idea to teach them that the car won’t switch on until they have their seatbelts fastened. Also to never, ever walk behind a car in car parks and when you are leaving home unless they are holding your hand.

You need to ensure that they are well strapped in to an approved safety capsule or booster seat and make the

journey fun and educational. When we’re on a family journey, we love to play games with our kids that will improve understanding of their external environment or educating them with numbers or colours. Motoring should be fun and if we can instil correct safety attitudes early into our kids, then it’s going to make our roads safer in the long term!

THE

POWER BEHIND THE

PACK BEHIND THE

PACK!