VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 13
it’s our best oil yet... www.castroledge.com.au
10th JULY 2013
Team EDGE Weekend Wrap: V8 Supercars - Townsville 400 Race 20 Castrol-backed Pepsi Max Crew FPR have finished one-two in Race 20 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Sucrogen Townsville 400. Will Davison flew off the start line to take the initial lead and it’s that position he finished by race-end, celebrating with some smokey burnouts to the delight of the
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North Queensland fans. His teammate Mark Winterbottom charged down Craig Lowndes during the final lap to complete the one-two, finishing ahead of Fabian Coulthard, Lowndes and Jason Bright who rounded out the top-5.
“We’ve been really determined this event and we have really felt the passion of the Ford fans here in Townsville. This ones for the team who have worked incredibly hard and a one-two is just a mega result for the guys.”
“This is a really special win for both myself and the entire team,” said Davison.
Rick Kelly was the best of the Castrolbacked Nissan Motorsport contingent bringing his Jack Daniel’s Altima home
V8 history. Ingall made his 226th event start, breaking John Bowe’s longstanding record of 225. Race 21 Castrol-backed Supercheap Auto Racing driver Russell Ingall has enjoyed a solid end to his record breaking weekend with a top-5 finish in Race 21 of the V8 Supercars from the Sucrogen Townsville 400. It was a solid Sunday for Castrolbacked crews with Pepsi Max Crew FPR driver Mark Winterbottom picking up fourth to compliment his second place result from Saturday.
in 12th overall. His teammates James Moffat and Todd Kelly finished 15th and 16th respectively with Michael Caruso steering the Norton Altima to 18th to secure a top-20 berth for all four Nissans. Castrol-backed Supercheap Auto Racing driver Russell Ingall was unfortunately on the retirements list, dropping out late in the race with a power steering failure. Race 21 saw Ingall make history at when he broke the all time record for most starts in Australian Touring Car/
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Winterbottom’s FPR teammate and Race 20 winner Will Davison battled through an eventful race to secure valuable championship points with a top-10 finish. The result sees Davison remain third in the V8 Supercars Championship standings with Winterbottom’s successful weekend moving him back into championship contention in fourth overall. Race 21 was won by Garth Tander, with James Courtney in second and Shane van Gisbergen rounding out the top-3. James Moffat was the best placed Castrol-backed Nissan driver finishing one place ahead of teammate Todd Kelly with the pair crossing the chequered flag 14th and 15th respectively.
2013 Championship Points Pos
Driver
Points
1
Jamie Whincup
1591
2
Craig Lowndes
1480
3
Will Davison
1376
4
Mark Winterbottom
1337
5
Shane Van Gisbergen
1310
6
Garth Tander
1302
7
Fabian Coulthard
1291
8
Jason Bright
1269
9
James Courtney
1243
10
Jonathon Webb
1104
11
Scott McLaughlin
966
12
Rick Kelly
905
13
David Reynolds
898
14
James Moffat
825
15
Alex Davison
814
16
Tony D’Alberto
753
17
Alexandre Premat
725
18
Russell Ingall
711
19
Michael Caruso
637
20
Dean Fiore
630
21
Tim Slade
597
22
David Wall
581
23
Tim Blanchard
533
24
Chaz Mostert
532
25
Todd Kelly
532
26
Lee Holdsworth
523
V8 PREDICTOR: Winterbottom’s weekend win There were two additional winners from the Sucrogen Townsville 400 with Mark Winterbottom collecting more points for the weekend than any V8 Supercar driver and ‘[JLR]’ with the most points in the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor. For the fourth week running, top honours in the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor currently sit with with Dark Knight Racing who holds a 1 point advantage over Kiwichik racing in the overall standings. Round 6 of the V8 Supercars Championship in Darwin saw [JLR] amass 74 points with a prediction accuracy of 64%. For that [JLR] wins an awesome merchandise pack including Castrol Racing and Speedcafe t-shirts, hoodies, retro caps, bar runners and plenty more goodies.
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Its never too late to sign-up for the V8 Predictor with great round-byround prizes on offer as well as the major prize. CLICK HERE to see how you fared in rounds two and three, or register and play for awesome event prizes. Castrol EDGE’s four experts for the inaugural Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor – Russell Ingall (V8 Supercars champion), Oliver Gavin (2012 American Le Mans Series GT Champion), James O’Connor (Wallabies rugby superstar) and the Speedcafe.com team – shuffled in the standings. The Speedcafe.com Team slipped back one spot to third on the Expert leaderboard after a tremendous round
by James O’Connor who finished sixth overall for the weekend’s predictions and now moves to second on the Expert leaderboard. Oliver Gavin maintains his lead in the Expert field while Russell Ingall gained some ground as he sits in fourth on 118 points. Using the same software as the popular ‘Grand Prix Predictor’ that international website Autosport.com uses for its Formula 1 tipping competition, V8 Supercars can now put their knowledge to the test with the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor in 2013. The major prize for the ultimate winner is a trip for two to the 2014 Clipsal 500 – including a hot lap of the track.
Darwin event result analysis
Darwin bonus points results
Weekend Result
Points
1
WINTERBOTTOM, Mark
258
2
TANDER, Garth
240
2
COURTNEY, James
240
3
DAVISON, Will
228
4
LOWNDES, Craig
216
5
VAN GISBERGEN, Shane
183
5
COULTHARD, Fabian
183
6
BRIGHT, Jason
168
6
WHINCUP, Jamie
168
7
MCLAUGHLIN, Scott
147
8
MOSTERT, Chaz
144
9
DAVISON, Alex
135
10
D’ALBERTO, Tony
132
11
MOFFAT, James
123
12
KELLY, Todd
117
13
KELLY, Rick
114
13
PREMAT, Alexandre
114
14
INGALL, Russell
111
15
WEBB, Jonathon
108
16
REYNOLDS, David
99
17
CARUSO, Michael
90
17
SLADE, Tim
90
18
FIORE, Dean
78
19
PYE, Scott
75
20
ENGEL, Maro
72
20
BLANCHARD, Tim
72
20
WALL, David
72
21
HOLDSWORTH, Lee
0
Weekend Result POLE POSITION
WINTERBOTTOM, Mark and VAN GISBERGEN, Shane
FASTEST LAP
VAN GISBERGEN, Shane
RACE WINNER
TANDER, Garth andDAVISON, Will
Global leaderboard Rank
Team Name
Points
1
Dark Knight Racing
273
2
Kiwichik racing
272
3
DaveTE50
263
4
Brauny
260
5
Squigz
260
6
TyTek Race Engineering
254
7
V8 TBC
253
8
Frosty the Ford man
252
9
Hispania Racing Team
252
10
RHFF46
252
11
TEAM RED BULL
252
12
JBM_22
252
13
Tafs’R’Us
251
14
Team Maverick
250
15
pommie v8s
250
16
The dazlers
249
17
charity
248
18
BlueOvalRulz
248
19
Knightmare
248
20
nickellen.24
248
Expert Leaderboard
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Rank
Team Name
Points
1
Oliver Gavin
230
2
James O’Connor
209
3
Speedcafe.com Team
192
4
Russell Ingall
118
Castrol-backed MotoGP riders strong in Assen Castrol-backed GO&FUN Honda Gresini riders fair well at the latest round of the MotoGP World Championship at Assen. The end result may not have been spectacular for Alvaro Bautista and Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini, but the main goal of completing the Dutch TT was achieved. After two DNFs at Mugello and Barcelona, the Spaniard was looking to take the chequered flag at Assen and did so with seventh place – despite a rear brake issue midway through the race. “We finished the race, and this was above all the main goal of this weekend. It’s a
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small consolation but after two setbacks this was very important,” said Bautista. In the race I didn’t have a perfect feeling with the bike, because it was unstable and moving around a lot. Unfortunately with the weather conditions being so variable we didn’t have the time required to find the best setup. “At first I tried to stay calm by getting heat into the tyres, trying not to take excessive risks. It was not really a good race, but it was important to finish in order to think about the future with greater serenity.”
A crowd of 90,000 fans made the journey to the north of The Netherlands to the classic Assen circuit, to be rewarded with yet another close and exciting race, won by popular former multi-champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), his first victory since 2010. Australian grand prix firsttimer Bryan Staring (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) was 21st on the Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT machine, crossing the line fourth in a close group of five battling riders. Eighteenth to 22nd places were covered by less than two seconds.
MotoGP Championship Points Pos
Rider
Points
1
Daniel Pedrosa
136
2
Jorge Lorenzo
127
3
Marc M谩rquez
113
4
Cal Crutchlow
87
5
Valentino Rossi
85
6
Andrea Dovizioso
65
7
Stefan Bradl
51
8
Nicky Hayden
50
9
Alvaro Bautista
47
10
Aleix Espargar贸
44
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Castrol Honda WTCC race report from Portugal It was a mixed event for the Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team who were in Portugal over the weekend for the latest round of the FIA WTCC series. Local man Tiago Monteiro, who started from P17 after his technical issues during practice, fought his way up into the points, finishing a creditable ninth in Race 1. Race 1 however spelt disaster for teammate Gabriele Tarquini when he suffered a blown turbo in a very similar incident to Monteiro’s problem in free practice two on Saturday. A turbo change meant Gabriele Tarquini started from the back of the grid for Race 2, and he was only able to come through to 20th. It was another difficult
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race for Castrol Honda, with Monteiro fighting his way up to eleventh, just missing out on a top ten place. Races 1 and 2 were won by Yvan Muller and James Nash, respectively.
2013 WTCC Standings Pos
Driver
Points
1
Yvan Muller
282
2
Michel Nykjaer
160
3
James Nash
138
4
Robert Huff
135
5
Gabriele Tarquini
134
6
Tom Chilton
111
7
Tom Coronel
98
8
Norbert Michelisz
92
9
Pepe Oriola
91
10
Alex MacDowall
73
11
Tiago Monteiro
62
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Castrol-backed John Force second at NHRA Nationals John Force raced to his 219th final but came up just a few hundredths of a second short of picking up his 136th NHRA Funny Car win at the 16th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway. Up against Matt Hagan in the final, Force’s Castrol GTX Ford Mustang ran 4.113, his slowest run of the weekend, beside Hagan’s winning 4.065 second run. Force’s Mustang began chucking spark plugs at half-track, bleeding off power as the 10,000 hp Funny Car tried to accelerate down the race track. Prior to the final Force was 2-1 in final rounds against Hagan who he outdistanced for the 2010 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series title, his unprecedented 15th NHRA Mello Yello world championship, on the last day of the season. Force was masterful en route to his third consecutive final round defeating
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Tony Pedregon, Del Worsham and Ron Capps to reach the final. Force came through an odd moment in the semi-final when his parachute was caught up in top qualifier Ron Capps’ NAPA machine. Both cars survived the incident without damage (see video below). Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang team held onto their Top Ten position but Bob Tasca III closed the gap to three points as he sits in 11th place heading to the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, next weekend. Hight defeated rookie Chad Head in the first round with a 4.059 second run. Over the course of the weekend Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang posted runs of 4.055, 4.052, and 4.059 and in a losing effort to Capps, 4.096. Courtney Force made a brief appearance in eliminations before she was dismissed in an upset against No. 10 qualifier and
Ford racer Tim Wilkerson. Force posted a 4.123 ET to Wilkerson’s 4.090. “It was a little bit of a rough start this weekend. The rain didn’t help either,” said Courtney. “We only got one run on Friday because of it and we smoked the tires later in the evening. I mean, right as I hit the throttle it just went up in smoke. We probably should have put some newer tires on.The track was a lot better than we thought it was going to be.” After three tough runs in qualifying with engine failures a plenty, Top Fuel rookie Brittany Force laid down a solid run in round one of eliminations Sunday at Route 66 Raceway. Facing fellow competitor Bob Vandergriff Jr., Force ran a 3.846 second pass at 322.11 mph, but fell short to his 3.843 pass. Amidst an early round loss, Force and her Castrol EDGE team are proud of the work they had accomplished in overcoming those engine issues.
2013 FUNNY CAR STANDINGS Pos
Driver
Points
1.
Matt Hagan
904
2.
Cruz Pedregon
798
3.
John Force
762
4.
Johnny Gray
743
5.
Jack Beckman
717
6.
Ron Capps
735
7.
Courtney Force
710
8.
Tim Wilkerson
676
9.
Del Worsham
664
10.
Robert Hight
603
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Castrol-backed Pata Honda rider on the podium in Imola Castrol-backed Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea has finished on the podium for race two of the seventhround World Superbike championship at Imola in Italy. After setting the second fastest time in Superpole Rea finished on the podium for the second time in three races finishing as runner-up in the second of Sundays’ two. British rider, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) won both races at Italy’s Imola circuit. Second place for the 26-year-old Rea made up for the disappointment of crashing out of the morning’s 21-lap opener.
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“Really mixed emotions. We had really good pace all weekend, but not enough for Tom [Sykes], who seemed like he had something in reserve, especially when it got hot this afternoon,” said Rea. “In race two I just rode my ass off and made zero mistakes. In the first five laps I couldn’t go with the two guys ahead, so they gapped me and by half distance, Tom had eked out a lead tenth by tenth. We can leave Imola with ou r heads held high because we’ve addressed some of the issues we had earlier in the season and we look forward now to Moscow.”
The Castrol-backed BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team concluded its home round at Imola with both factory riders claiming their best results at the Italian track to date. Local hero, Marco Melandri (ITA) finished both races at the “Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari” in fourth on his BMW S 1000 RR. His teammate Chaz Davies (GBR) claimed sixth and fifth respectively. Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate, Leon Haslam, took two top ten finishes, completing his first race since breaking his leg badly at Assen in mid-April. The 30-year-old was tenth in
race one and followed it up with ninth place in the second outing, battling right to the end of 21 very tough laps. 2013 SBK Championship Pos
Rider
Points
1
Sykes
235
2
Guintoli
229
3
Laverty
190
4
Melandri
182
5
Davies
154
6
Baz
136
7
Rea
125
15
Haslam
42
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Castrol EDGE-backed Ben Bray wins penultimate Slamfest round Castrol EDGE-backed Ben ‘The Kid’ Bray has won penultimate round of the 2013 Slamfest Series at Benaraby Raceway after emerging victorious from an all-Bray semi-final. It is the second year running that the 29-year-old has faced off against his dad Victor in the semi-finals at the Gladstone facility. While in 2012 his father took the win, this time around it was Ben’s time to shine in front of more than 5,000 spectators after disposing of Russell Pavey in the first round, with the result seeing father and son now tied for third place as the Series heads to Mackay for its final round on 13 July. “What can I say, I love coming to this end of town!” said Ben Bray, who also
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struck the first blow during the tworound North Queensland leg of the 2012 Series with a victory in Townsville. “Any time that dad and I face-off is fantastic fun for both us and the guys watching from the sidelines, it always gets everyone really revved up and today was no different. “With dad taking the Gladstone win last year I was really inspired to give it everything I could, and so I was pretty stoked to find myself in the final against O’Connor and in undisputable ownership of the team bragging rights once more. To then take the event win and tie for third with dad in the points heading into the final round has really just topped off the weekend - this place has certainly
been kind to Team Bray Racing that is for sure, and I cannot wait to head on up to Mackay and see if we can keep these results going for the team.” While his son may have claimed the top accolades this weekend, for six-time ANDRA national (quarter-mile) champion Victor Bray it was still a successful day at the office. “What can I say, if it can’t be me claiming the winners’ trophy at the end of the night I want it to be Benny, and he really deserved it this weekend,” said Victor Bray. “Having said that, I know he will be very happy with himself and taking full advantage of his workshop bragging rights for the next couple of weeks, so
I am going to have to do everything I can to try and gain some back on him in Mackay! I really enjoyed getting out there in front of the Gladstone crowd again and putting on a show for them, the fans are what this series is all about, so I was
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really happy to see the looks on their faces as we lit up the track on Saturday and can’t wait to do it all over again in just two weeks.” With Gladstone’s round of the Slamfest
Series now complete, Team Bray Racing will head to Mackay’s Palymyra Raceway for the final round on 13 July, before shifting gears for the next round of the ANDRA championship chase in Adelaide across 20 and 21 September 2013.
Castrol-backed SKODA driver Freddy Loix wins Ypres Rally Belgium’s Freddy Loix has continued his master class at the Ypres Rally winning the event for the European Rally Championship event for the eighth time. Despite coming up against challenging weather conditions, the 42-year-old celebrated with co-driver Frederic Miclotte in the Fabia S2000 an impressive start-to-finish victory at the FIA European Rally Championship’s (ERC) sixth race of the season. Castrol EDGE-backed ŠKODA, spearheaded by the Czech duo of Jan Kopecký and Pavel Dresler, also leads the way in the ERC overall standings at the halfway point in the season. “The dream team is back. I’m absolutely delighted with my eighth victory in
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Begium and my third in the ŠKODA,” said Loix. “It was not easy keeping everything under control. But we found a good rhythm and stayed focused. The car was fantastic.” After successes in 2010 and 2011, this was Fast Freddy’s third victory in the ŠKODA in front of a home crowd. Loix laid the foundations for this most recent triumph on the first two days. After taking top spot in the first ever qualifying stage to be staged in Belgium, Loix went on to win five of the six stages on day one. Going into Saturday with a healthy lead of over a minute, the experienced pro avoided taking any unnecessary risks to secure an outstanding victory in slippery conditions.
“At times, it was quite tricky as it was wet out there. But I always felt good driving the ŠKODA and didn’t make any mistakes,” said Loix. In the end, the Belgian finished ahead of the Frenchman Bryan Bouffier by a clear margin. With covering 297.93 kilometres in total, Belgium’s historic rally is the longest in the ERC’s calendar. Loix and co-driver Miclotte’s place in the rally would not have been possible without the support of ŠKODA Belgium. “A big thank you to all the mechanics and everyone else at ŠKODA Motorsport for their great support. I’d also like to thank ŠKODA Belgium,” said Loix.
2013 ERC Standings Pos
Driver
Points
1
Jan Kopecky
146
2
Craig Breen
114
3
Bryan Bouffier
99
4
François Delecour
48
5
Jari Ketomaa
39
6
Freddy Loix
37
7
Andreas Aigner
28
8
Luís Monzón
24
8
Ricardo Moura
24
8
Stéphane Sarrazin
24
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