Castrol EDGE Australia Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 8

VOLUME 2 - ISSUE 8

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

FPR make it 7

straight

International motorsport

Kev and his Castrol EDGE Golden Suit

30th MAY 2012

s PR F d e k c a b l o r Cast Is ip l il h P t a t h ig stra

Castrol-sponsored Ford Performance Racing (FPR) have dominated another weekend of V8 Supercars action with Will Davison winning Sunday’s 200km race at Phillip Island to add to Mark Winterbottom’s win on Saturday. The victories see FPR now sitting on a seven-straight winning streak in the 2012 season. The FPR team won Race 11 of the Championship on strategic intelligence to hand Davison the win and the Championship lead back, over Jamie Whincup.

“The weekend was a real test of character and after Saturday’s craziness I am so happy to win today,” commented Davison. “It is good to be back at the top

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of the points table and after learning some good lessons in the last couple of events we are really looking forward to going to the next block of races up north.”

Jack Daniel’s Racing’s Todd Kelly finished 11th in the 200km Sunday race of the Phillip Island 300 however Rick Kelly had a tough day with a ruptured radiator water hose ending his hopes after just nine of the 45 lap race. Rick faired much better on Saturday finish sixth with Todd keeping up a consistent weekend with a 12th place finish. “I was hanging on for dear life just trying to maintain position and keep the guys behind me that had better pace at the finish,” said Todd Kelly. “It is good points

and certainly gives us somewhere to aim for at the next race.”

Castrol-backed Kelly Racing teammate Greg Murphy and Karl Reindler had a mixed weekend with Reindler in his Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore leaping up the order in Saturday’s race at Phillip Island finishing 16th after qualifying earlier in 26th position. For Sunday’s race it was Greg Murphy’s turn to shine in the Pepsi Commodore as he finished a well-earned 14th after qualifying 20h on the grid.

Supercheap Auto Racing’s Russell Ingall finished 11th in the first race at Phillip Island and then used a pit lane start and good race strategy to finish Sunday’s race 15th after qualifying down in 24th.

secure se ven sland V8 Supercars Championship standings after 11 races 1

Will Davison

1216

15 Steven Johnson

596

2

Jamie Whincup

1206

16 James Courtney

587

3

Mark Winterbottom

1187

17 David Reynolds

546

4

Craig Lowndes

977

18 Michael Patrizi

540

5

Shane Van Gisbergen 953

6

Lee Holdsworth

7 8 9

19 Jonathon Webb

526

932

20 Steve Owen

522

Tim Slade

879

21 Dean Fiore

498

Garth Tander

816

22 Tony D’Alberto

425

Fabian Coulthard

766

23 Taz Douglas

396

10 Rick Kelly

673

24 Karl Reindler

381

11 Jason Bright

672

25 Alexandre Premat

369

12 Todd Kelly

648

26 David Wall

316

13 Michael Caruso

597

27 Greg Murphy

315

14 Russell Ingall

596

28 James Moffat

302

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l a R l a n o i t a n r Inte Castrol-backed crews finish onetwo in Corsica Rally

competitive and is at a high level. And my MINI is also a very, very good car.”

Dani Sordo has claimed victory on Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse, round four of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, following a faultless performance in his Castrolbacked MINI John Cooper Works S2000 on his debut in the all-action series.

Castrol-backed Skoda Motorsport driver Jan Kopecký scored a valuable second place as four Skoda Fabia Super 2000s finished in the Top- 10.

Kopecký’s performance was gradually getting better as the event progressed – he was fifth after Day 1 but climbed up the standings to second place on Day 2 and then put in his best performance in Corsica on Saturday when he won five stages to reduce the gap behind Sordo who, however, showed enough experience to defend his position until the end. Kopecký has thus repeated his last year’s second place in Corsica, reviewing his own performance and the entire event.

Sordo’s success was aided when rivals Giandomenico Basso and Andreas Mikkelsen both hit trouble earlier in the rally, the Spaniard admitted maintaining his advantage on the tricky Corsican stages was by no means a foregone conclusion.

“I’m really happy to win this rally but it was really hard,” said Sordo. “The competition was very strong and even though I was leading I had to keep pushing to keep the concentration up and not make any mistakes. I really like this IRC series; it’s

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“This rally was one of the most difficult events in my career so far, Kopecký said.

“We did not make the best of starts but then we had some good luck, too. We did very well on both Friday and Saturday, and we only made a mistake in one of the stages. Coming second behind a top-class driver who has vast World Championship experience and beating a number of excellent drivers is a reason

to be satisfied. We did our best to win here, putting in all we could.”

IRC drivers after round four of 13 1 Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway) 71pts 2 Jan Kopecký (Czech Republic) 58pts 3 Juho Hänninen (Finland) 43pts 4 Sepp Wiegand (Germany) 34ps 5 Bryan Bouffier (France) 27pts 6 Dani Sordo (Spain) 25pts 7 Craig Breen (Ireland) 18pts 8 Pierre Campana (France) 15pts = Luis Monzón (Spain) 15pts 10 Mathieu Arzeno (France) 12pts = Hermann Gassner Jr (Germany) 12pts IRC manufacturers after round four of 13 1 ŠKODA 166pts 2 Peugeot 102pts 3 Renault 37pts 4 Subaru 28pts 5 M-Sport 24pts 6 Honda 18pts

s w e N g llyin Castrol team drivers firm finishers on Acropolis rally Castrol-backed Ford World Rally Team drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished third in the Acropolis Rally of Greece today on their comeback from injury. Latvala climbed onto the podium in a Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car after team-mates Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson crashed out of this sixth round of the FIA World Rally Championship this morning while chasing victory. Sebastien Loeb won the event and in doing so increased his lead in the World Rally Championship standings to 30 points.

“I need to be satisfied in one sense because I said before the rally that I wanted to finish on the podium and I did that,” said Latvala. “Of course, at the same time I’m disappointed because I could have won. It’s good to be back on the podium after a long time away but I need to push for wins now.

That’s the only thing I can do. It’s quite incredible that once again I was leading the rally and looking good, but couldn’t

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convert it into victory. I’ve had too many setbacks like that this year and it’s hugely frustrating for the team. I need to iron out the little mistakes and I hope I can turn things round at the next event in New Zealand,” added Latvala, who lies fifth in the championship standings.

Also putting in a strong performance was Castrol-backed Volkswagen driver Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia who finished seventh in the Acropolis Rally. Ogier scored six World Championship points and presented Volkswagen with its sixth consecutive class victories in the Super 2000 category. The 22 gravel stages provided everything that makes a genuine classic: coarse almost gravellike subsoil with melon-sized boulders as well as alternating fast and very dusty sections. Everything was made even more difficult by the changeable weather conditions in the mountains overlooking the Greek Mediterranean coast.

The final round of the first half of the year takes the team outside Europe

for the last time this season. Auckland hosts Rally New Zealand on 21 – 24 June, a gravel event on the country’s North Island.

Drivers’ Championship Pos Driver Points 1 Sebastien Loeb 119pts 2 Mikko Hirvonen 89pts 3 Mads Østberg 80pts 4 Petter Solberg 73pts 5 Jari-Matti Latvala 45pts 6 Evgeny Novikov 43pt Manufacturers’ Championship Pos Driver Points 1 Citroen Total WRT 194pts 2 Ford WRT 121pts 3 M-Sport Ford WRT 91pts 4 Citroen Junior WRT 42pts 5 Qatar WRT 37pts 6 Adapta WRT 27pts

Castrol Honda rider Rea goes fourand-two at Miller Castrol-backed Honda World Superbike rider Jonathan Rea took fourth and second place finishes in today’s two sixth round World Superbike championship races at Miller Motorsports Park in the USA. The races were won by Carlos Checa and Marco Melandri, but Rea showed strongly in both 21-lap outings, the second of which was curtailed followed a crash involving Rea’s Honda World Superbike team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama.

“We knew we had good pace for today but I had some front chatter in race one,” said Rea. “It was coming from the engine braking so we released that a bit for race two. We changed the front tyre as well, because the temperature had gone up.

That gave me the confidence to push because I knew the guys in front in race one had used the same one. It was good, and my guys gave me a little bit more power off the turn.”

Aoyama, who finished 17th in the first outing, was unhurt in the third lap crash at the 4.9km Miller circuit just outside Salt Lake City in Utah. However, the Japanese rider’s CBR1000RR struck a curb in the crash which holed the engine. Rea restarted the delayed race from sixth place on the grid and, after early leader Carlos Checa crashed out, the 25-year-old was

quickly embroiled in a thrilling four-way tussle for the lead with Marco Melandri, Chaz Davies and Max Biaggi.

Castrol-backed San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Bautista 10th at Le Mans MotoGP

Taking the lead on lap 11, Rea controlled the race until the final lap, with the superior handling of his CBR1000RR clearly visible in the twistier parts of the track. However, Melandri had the edge on speed down Miller’s 1.2km straight and Rea finally crossed the line just 0.2s behind the Italian.

Castrol-backed San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Álvaro Bautista has finished 10th in the latest round of the 2012 MotoGP Championship – The Monster Energy French GP at Le Mans.

Both Bautista and teammate Michele Pirro were unable to feel as comfortable on their bikes in the wet conditions as they had in the dry over previous days. They will analyse data from the race alongside the team engineers in order to improve upon this for the next round: The Catalan GP. As expected the MotoGP race got underway in fully wet conditions at Le Mans on Sunday, with quite a few puddles of water making the track very treacherous and causing a plethora of crashes in the Moto3 and Moto2 class.

“It’s clear to see how well the bike is working and how much traction I’ve got,” added Rea. “I’ve got real confidence now and don’t feel like I’m riding on the edge – it’s quite controlled, which is a good thing, so thanks to all the team for their continued hard work. Nobody’s giving up and, without thinking about the championship, it’s just n ice to come back here to the winner’s enclosure and be on the podium.

After the nightmare of last year at Miller, it’s really cool to be fighting for wins.”

Round 7 of the Superbike World WSBK Championship points after Championship takes riders to Misano, six of 14 rounds: Italy – 8-10 June.

1. Biaggi 2. Melandri 3. Sykes 4. Rea 5. Checa

160.5pts 142.5 142.5 141 130.5

Starting from eighth position on the grid the Castrol-backed team rider had an average start, crossing the line also in eighth after the first lap and hanging on to the back of a large group which had formed fighting for second place after Jorge Lorenzo cleared off at the front early on. However, Bautista wasn’t able to stick with the group for long, losing a lot of time in each sector and after just a handful of laps already being more than a second off the pace, camera

Two-wheeled motorsport news STRENGTH TO PERFORM

footage showing his rear wheel sliding wildly into the corners. He continued to go considerably slower, especially losing out in the third and fourth sector, allowing Nicky Hayden to rapidly catch up with him and pass him just a few laps later.

Hector Barbera was also on the move, not going much faster than Bautista, but with the Gresini rider losing over a second in the third sector alone, Barbera was quickly on his rear wheel and passed him a couple of laps later.

Unlike Hayden however he wasn’t able to drop Álvaro as quickly as the American did and the Talaverano stuck with Barbera and took back ninth position with less than ten laps to go, but subsequently lost it again to Barbera. He was then seemingly just trying to hang on to the bike as he was losing big chunks of time in just a few laps and finishing over five seconds behind Barbera over the line and a massive 1 minute and 13 seconds behind winner Jorge Lorenzo.

Alvaro Bautista (10th) “I didn’t feel in tune with the bike and I couldn’t keep up with the group of riders ahead of me.

The only option was to try and finish the race as best I could, and that is what I managed to do. I’m rather disappointed with how things went today.”

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2012 Championship Standings 1.Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 2.Casey STONER Honda 3.Dani PEDROSA Honda 4.Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha 5.Andrea DOVIZIOSO Yamaha 6.Valentino ROSSI Ducati 7.Stefan BRADL Honda 8.Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda 9.Nicky HAYDEN Ducati 10.Hector BARBERA Ducati

90 82 65 45 44 42 35 35 33 26

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Force and Hight to honour Elvis at Bristol with special Funny Car liveries Legendary Funny Car driver John Force and teammate Robert Hight will honour the legacy of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll during the 12th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, June 15-17. In conjunction with Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. and Lionel NASCAR Collectables, John Force Racing will once again feature Elvis on their one-of-a-kind 8,000 horsepower Ford Mustang Funny Cars. Each driver will be competing in a speciallydesigned Elvis 35th Anniversary Ford Mustang Funny Car for this one-time special weekend. A number of fan promotions surrounding this event are also in the works.

“I love Elvis and I am honoured to be

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racing with him on the hood of my hound dog in Bristol. I always say I saw Elvis at 1,000 feet in Memphis and I really believe that. Elvis was such an amazing performer and an icon. I remember listening to his music growing up and heading to the race track. I still make sure my girls all know his songs,” said Force, one of the most recent inductees into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Lionel NASCAR Collectables will offer 1:24 and 1:64 scale die-cast cars of both John Force’s Castrol GTX High Mileage/Elvis 35th Ford Mustang Funny Car and Robert Hight’s Auto Club/ Elvis 35th Ford Mustang Funny Car. Each die-cast is currently available for

pre-order at www.nhradiecast.com – home of the officially licensed die-cast of the NHRA. This will be the first time Hight has driven an Elvis-themed Funny Car. The importance of representing a legendary figure is not lost on the 2009 NHRA Funny Car champion and current Full Throttle points leader.

“Elvis has fans all over the world and to be associated with a person of that stature is amazing. Music has always been an important part of my life and when you think of rock ‘n’ roll, the first name that pops into your head is Elvis. I won at Bristol last year and it would be amazing to get my Auto Club/Elvis 35th Ford Mustang back into the winner’s circle this year,” said Hight.

Australia’s Cricket Captain enjoys Rally QLD drive thanks to BP Ultimate/ Castrol EDGE Australia’s Cricket Captain Michael Clarke has tasted motorsport in its most demanding form by competing on selected stages of the Brakes Direct International Rally of Queensland. Just days after getting married and a few hours after jetting in from India, Clarke enjoyed his first blast behind the wheel of a gravel rally

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car driving the BP Ultimate Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Clarke took part in two stages of the rally, the third round of the Bosch Australian Championship declaring his interests in competing beyond life as a cricketer.

“It was a really enjoyable experience and it well and truly bowled me over,” said Clarke. “Cricket is easy compared to driving in this sport but I would certainly be interested in doing more of this after I finish in first class cricket, particularly if BP is kind enough to give me a car like this to do it in,” he laughed. “I took it

pretty easy and made sure I brought the car back in one piece, that was the most important thing,” the Aussie skipper said after reaching speeds of up to 160km/h on the tricky challenging forestry roads.

Clarke managed to stay out of trouble on the two stages he contested despite overnight rain making conditions extremely slippery. While Clarke will not be competing tomorrow, APRC and ARC crews will tackle eight demanding stages totalling 117.92km in competitive distance with the Leg also comprising of the event’s longest test – Big Derrier – at 34.46km in length.

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THE

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