VOLUME 3 - ISSUE 5
it’s our best oil yet... www.castroledge.com.au
20th MARCH 2013
V8 Supercars wrap from the Aus Grand Prix in Melbourne Race 1 Will Davison flew the flag for the Castrol-backed teams in Race 1 of the Australian Grand Prix round of the V8 Supercars Championship finishing on the podium in third. James Moffat and Rick Kelly put in strong performances for Castrol-supported Nissan Motorsport in eighth and 10th respectively, split by Garth Tander’s Holden Racing Team Commodore. The second Pepsi Max Crew FPR Falcon of Mark Winterbottom was dropped to 25th in the result due to an unsafe pit release after initially finishing in seventh. Brad Jones Racing carried on its
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strong form at Albert Park, with Fabian Coulthard leading home team-mate Jason Bright for a one-two finish in Race 1 of the weekend. The weekend’s event was a non-championship round meaning no points were awarded to the overall championship series table. Race 2 Will Davison played the long game on his way to fourth in Race 2 at Albert Park, waiting until the end of Lap 8 before taking his pit stop to once again finish as the best placed Castrol-backed team driver. James Moffat took an impressive fifth for Nissan, the Castrol-supported
Nissan Motorsport’s first ever top-5 result. Mark Winterbottom came from deep in the field to finish 12th. The FPR Falcon driver had finished seventh in Race 1, but received a post-race penalty for an unsafe pit release, dropping him to 25th in the final result and 26th on the grid for Race 2. Castrol-backed Supercheap Auto Racing driver Russell Ingall finished 17th to mirror his Race 1 result. Race 3 Shane van Gisbergen again showed his affinity with wet track conditions by winning the third race of the MSS Security V8 Supercars Challenge at
stralian Albert Park with Castrol-backed FPR driver Will Davison topping the Castrolbacked contingent in 8th. Starting ninth on the grid, Van Gisbergen cut his way to the lead by the start of the second lap. Lowndes was second ahead of Jonathon Webb, Fabian Coulthard, David Reynolds, Jason Bright, James Courtney and Davison. Michael Caruso and Todd Kelly rounded out the top10 as the Castrol-supported Nissan Altimas continue to improve on the V8 Supercars stage. Rain in the hour leading up to the race ensured all cars started on wet tyres. Drizzle continued to fall for the most part before another heavy downpour on the final lap. The use of wet
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tyres meant there were no compulsory pitstops in the 12 lap journey. Race 4 Castrol-backed FPR team drivers David Reynolds and Alex Davison took fourth and fifth respectively in Race 4 of the Australian Grand Prix V8 Supercars round ahead of Jamie Whincup and Castrolbacked Nissan Motorsport driver Todd Kelly. Fujitsu Racing GRM’s teenage rookie Scott McLaughlin took his maiden race win in V8 Supercars’ main game at Albert Park. Castrol-backed Pepsi Max Crew FPR driver Will Davison finished Race 4 in eighth with the Nissan
Altima of James Moffatt in 10th. Fabian Coulthard’s third place was enough to seal the weekend trophy following his three victories accumulated across Friday and Saturday. Michael Caruso led a large portion of Race 4 before electing to complete his compulsory pitstop on the penultimate lap, from which he emerged 12th. Mechanical problems accounted for James Courtney, Garth Tander, and Jonathon Webb while Castrolbacked drivers Russell Ingall and Mark Winterbottom were on the sidelines after an opening lap melee. The grid required a major reshuffle less than half an hour prior to the start following the disqualification of eight cars from the Race 3 result.
Castrol-backed VW Motorsport win two in a row on World Rally tour Castrol EDGE-backed Volkswagen Motorsport driver Sebastien Ogier took a commanding victory at Rally Mexico, including the bonus points power stage. Even with a scare prior to the day’s opening stage when he had to spend 20 minutes fixing a sensor issue on his Volkswagen, Ogier was in a class of his own. The VW Polo R driver won the event by over three minutes from the Citroen of Mikko Hirvonen. Ogier’s
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record in 2013 already reads two wins and a second place to hold a 44-point lead over Hirvonen, although the semiretired Sebastien Loeb is 31 down on Ogier. “The start of the season is just amazing for us,” said Ogier. “We want to thank the team because the car was perfect again all weekend. Okay, just a small alarm this morning with a sensor but it
was not a drama, and here we are again at the end with a perfect amount of points. Now we have quite a good lead for the championship after just three rallies. For sure the season will be long, but already it’s not bad.” Hirvonen started Sunday under pressure from Castrol-backed Qatar M-Sport driver Thierry Neuville. The Belgian went flat-out to try and snatch second
place, but a trip off the road on the first stage convinced him to back off and let Hirvonen take the position. Third was still Neuville’s first podium in the World Rally Championship. Australia’s Chris Atkinson finished sixth overall after overhauling Ken Block’s Ford on the final day. On what is currently a one-off in Khalid Al Qassimi’s regular Citroen, Chris Atkinson recovered from Leg 1 steering damage when he slipped outside the top-10.
POSITIONS: Final Results Pos
Driver
Team
Car
1
Sebastien Ogier
Volkswagen Motorsport
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
2
Mikko Hirvonen
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroën DS3 WRC
3
Thierry Neuville
Qatar World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
4
Dani Sordo
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroën DS3 WRC
5
Nasser Al-Attiyah
Qatar World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
6
Chris Atkinson
Abu Dhabi Citroën Total WRT
Citroën DS3 WRC
7
Ken Block
Hoonigan Rally Division
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
8
Bruno Guerra
Benito Guerra
Citroën DS3 WRC
9
Martin Prokop
Jipocar Czech National Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
10
Evgeny Novikov
Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
2013 FIA Drivers’ Championship Standings
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Pos
Driver
Team
Car
Pts
1
Sebastien Ogier
Volkswagen Motorsport
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
74
2
Sebastien Loeb
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroën DS3 WRC
43
3
Mikko Hirvonen
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroën DS3 WRC
30
4
Dani Sordo
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroën DS3 WRC
27
5
Mads Ostberg
Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
26
6
Thierry Neuville
Qatar World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
25
7
Jari-Matti Latvala
Volkswagen Motorsport
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
15
8
Martin Prokop
Jipocar Czech National Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
14
9
Bryan Bouffier
Qatar World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
10
10
Nasser Al-Attiyah
Qatar World Rally Team
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
10
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Bailey third in ARC opener as Molly Taylor is set to compete at WRC Rally Australia The Castrol-backed BP team of Michael Bailey and co-driver Matthew Harriott kicked of their 2013 Australian Rally Championship (ARC) campaigns in style at the National Capital Rally in Canberra. Bailey drove his Mitsubishi EVO to third overall in the 4WD category of the new look ARC series for 2013. Australia’s top female rally driver Molly Taylor will contest her home FIA World Rally Championship event when the Coates Hire Rally Australia hits the Coffs Coast in September. Taking a break from her European campaign, Taylor, 24, will drive a Ford Fiesta R2 in the WRC3 category for Canberra team Innate Motorsport. “Competing on my home round of the WRC has always been a goal of mine. It’s like a local race car driver being offered a drive at Bathurst – you don’t say no. The team has proven they can prepare two reliable cars and they have the support structures in place to give us a serious chance to win the WRC 3 category.” Taylor’s entry will add a major attraction to the event which hits Aussie shores on 12-15 September.
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The Innate Motorsport team will also see Canberra’s Adrian Coppin contest the event in the M-Sport factory built Fiesta R2. “The idea has been under discussion since my visit to M-Sport (UK makers of the Ford rally car) last year and when I bought our second car for the ARC, we had the opportunity to make it happen,” Coppin said. “Molly is very talented and it will be great to learn from her as we prepare for Rally Australia and for her Australian fans and supporters to see her in action.
We’ll both be trying hard to win the WRC 3 category.” Coates Hire Rally Australia Event Manager David Catchpole said that although entries were not officially open yet, it was exciting to know Molly Taylor and Adrian Coppin would be competing. “It is great news for Rally Australia to have secured the first two Australian entries in our round of the WRC,” he said. “I hope more crews with eligible cars follow this team’s lead and come forward and show the world how strong our sport is.”
Castrol-backed JFR Force wins Rookie o Castrol-backed JFR drag racer Courtney Force, the youngest daughter of drag racing’s most prolific and popular driver, 15-time NHRA Funny Car Champion John Force, is RACER magazine’s runaway choice as Rookie of the Year, voted on by their global readership. The 24-year-old, a former national event champion in Alcohol Dragster, reached four Funny Car finals in her 2012 rookie season. In July she defeated reigning Funny Car Champion Matt Hagan in the Seattle final for one of the most
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well-received victories by any driver in any drag racing class all season. A runner-up finish to Cruz Pedregon in the Pomona finals showed she’ll be a Funny Car title contender in 2013 – and victory in the season-opening Winternationals confirmed it.
Automobile Club Road to the Future Award winner. “I have to thank all my fans and especially RACER magazine for this honor. I also want to thank my dad, John Force, Ford and my sponsor, Traxxas for being so supportive last season.”
“I want to thank the readers of RACER Magazine for voting for me as RACER Rookie of the Year. To be considered with top NASCAR, Indy Car and F1 rookies is an honor just in itself and to be voted as Rookie of the Year is unbelievable,” said Force, the 2012
RACER editor David Malsher commented, “If Courtney Force thought she had a tough battle on her hands in NHRA Funny Car last year, she had an even tougher battle in the RACER Rookie of the Year award. Or so you’d think, considering she was up against
FR racer Courtney of the Year award Simon Pagenaud in IndyCar and Daniel Ricciardo in Formula 1. But actually, Courtney wiped the floor with all of them, earning over 60 percent of the readers’ votes, and became the first NHRA driver ever to win this award. Scoring a win and fifth place in the championship standings in your first year of wrestling an 8,000hp, 300mph car is a heck of an achievement, and RACER readers clearly understand that.” The Spring 2013 issue of RACER includes full coverage of RACER of the Year presented by Hawk Performance,
a wide-ranging interview with Ryan Hunter-Reay and the man he replaced as IZOD IndyCar Series champion, Dario Franchitti. The issue also features previews to the 2013 IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, ALMS, Grand-Am, WEC and NHRA seasons. RACER is beginning its 21st year of publication and is offered in print and digital editions and also in iTunes, Kindle and Android apps. It is also available at national bookstore newsstands in the USA and Canada. Visit www.racer. com for all the latest racing news and subscription offers.
RACER Rookie Racer of the Year Hall of Fame: 2006
Colin Braun
2007
Lewis Hamilton
2008
Joey Logano
2009
Ben Spies
2010
Ryan Dungey
2011
James Hinchcliffe
Other 2012 winners voted for by RACER’s readers include: RACER of 2012 IndyCar Series champion the Year Ryan Hunter-Reay Road Racer of the Year
2012 IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay
Oval Racer of the Year
2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski
Drag Racer of the Year
2012 NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown
RACER’s editors also selected these 2012 winners:
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Car of the year
Toyota TS030 Hybrid WEC LMP1 Hybrid
Career Achievement
Sebastian Loeb, 9-time FIA World Rally Champion
Race of the Year
Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix
Team of the Year
BMW’s DTM squad
Wraps taken off Bryan Star Castrol-backed MotoGP Gre Bryan Staring, Australia’s newest MotoGP competitor, has had his Castrol-backed Team GO&FUN Gresini Honda unveiled in Europe alongside premier class team-mate, Alvaro Bautista and Moto3 racers, Niccolò Antonelli and Lorenzo Baldassarri. The unveil, which took place in Milan, introduced GO&FUN - a Green Energy Drink - as the replacement sponsor on the Fausto Gresini-owned Honda squad for this year, which includes extending its support to the two Italian youngsters in Gresini’s Moto3 team. Staring - the Perth-raised 24-year-old will line up in the CRT category on an FTR Honda combination in his MotoGP debut, whilst Bautista - the 2006 125cc World Champion - will have an outright Honda RC213V underneath him. An excited Staring expressed his delight at being part of the well-renowned team
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and the new challenges that lay ahead during season 2013. “Everything is new for me: a new bike, new team, new colours... it’s a fantastic feeling,” the 2010 Australian Superbike Champion said. “I am sure this will be a fantastic year for me and I hope to pay Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini back with my performances on track.” Gresini’s enthusiasm about the year ahead was also unbridled, however tempered expectations about what could be expected from Bautista and Staring in the Castrol-backed outfit. “We have some ambitious projects lined up for the present and future and we are taking them on with an approach that we are sure can reap positive rewards,” he said. “The challenge ahead of Alvaro
Bautista and Bryan Staring in MotoGP is huge and I am sure that our youngsters in Moto3, Niccolò Antonelli and Lorenzo Baldassarri, will give us plenty to get excited about as the season progresses.” Some MotoGP teams are having their first taste of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin this week, with the pair of Honda factory bikes of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa topping the time sheets in the opening testing session. In other MotoGP news, Ducati rider, Nicky Hayden has undergone surgery to repair damage to his wrist sustained in his wild Indianapolis crash last year and further exacerbated in his infamous tumble over the fence at Aragon in the back end of the 2012 season. The MotoGP World Championship will get underway on April 7 under lights at the Losail circuit in Qatar.
ring’s esini Honda
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Castrol-baked John Force Racing driver Robert Hight takes it to Gatornationals semi-final Castrol-baked John Force Racing driver Robert Hight took his Auto Club Ford Mustang racing to the semi-finals at the 44th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Hight entered the race No. 10 in the Mello Yello points standings with only one round win in the first two races. His semi-final effort moved him up to the No. 7 position in the points. Hight, the No. 8 qualifier, took out Tony Pedregon in the first round to start his bid to win a second consecutive Gatornationals and third in
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a row for John Force Racing. In 2011 Mike Neff tuned and drove his way to the winner’s circle behind the wheel of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang. “This race was huge. It was night and day difference from the first two races. We definitely don’t need to be hanging our heads. We need to build from this weekend. It was a step in the right direction, the first and second rounds today that was a good race car. We are still learning. There are some little
things in there that tip this Auto Club Mustang over and make it shake,” said Hight. “We don’t have a handle on that yet. It is a minute deal. We have to have a bigger window for that. With all of us putting our heads together and working together we will. At least I can go back when I am talking to sponsors telling them this Funny Car is going to turn around; it did. We are showing progress. We are a better team right now. I am looking forward to making that call to the Auto Club and telling
them when they come to Las Vegas we are not going to embarrass them.”
MELLO YELLO POINT STANDINGS
In the second round the defending Gatornationals event winner had to race the No. 1 qualifier Cruz Pedregon. In one of the strangest races of the day Hight beat Pedregon to the finish line but the scoreboard flashed an impossible time of 2.76 seconds for Hight. NHRA official reviewed the film footage and confirmed that Hight had indeed reached the finish line first running quicker than Pedregon’s 4.07 second lap and he advanced to the semi-finals against his friendly rival Del Worsham. “Second round was one of the most confusing runs I have ever had. I am down the track, racing one of the best cars out here the No. 1 qualifier Cruz Pedregon. You notice the win light comes on right away when there is a red light,” said Hight. “On this run I am going down the track and I am not quite to the 1/8 mile and ‘blink’ my win light comes on. Trust me I am not looking at the scoreboard when I am racing. I am looking down the middle of the lane. It does catch the corner of your eye. Your mind just goes ‘Oh crap!” Did he red-light? I don’t think I heard that. Then you get out and no one knows who won. Thank God the camera guy wasn’t sleeping on that run.” In the semi-finals a mechanical decision in the staging lanes may have contributed to Hight’s unsuccessful bid to repeat as the Gatornationals champion. The Auto Club team looked at the improving conditions and decided to change rear tires before their run against Worsham. At the time of the change they were informed that the track was not going to be prepped with adhesive traction spray. At the last minute NHRA officials applied a short spray and there was no time for Hight’s Auto Club team to adjust to the change. Hight did not lay blame with anyone other than just bad timing. The 2012 NHRA Rookie sensation, Courtney Force, made a quarterfinal appearance after dispatching her father and legendary Funny Car driver John Force in the opening round of eliminations at the Amalie Oil NHRA
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Gatornationals. Force ran a 4.092 ET at 314.83 mph to her father’s tire-smoking effort of a 6.917 second run. Today was the fourth time they have met in eliminations. The 24-year-old is now 3-1 against the 15-time champion. “It’s always bittersweet when I have to run against my dad. We always play around and have fun with it and have a good time. We knew that one of us was going on to the second round, so there wasn’t much to be nervous about. Dad was messing with me a little bit before the run, telling me that we were the last pair when we were really the fifth pair, and pretending that he didn’t know we were running each other. We ended up going up there and we both sat on each other for a little bit on the lights. We both finally pulled in at about the same time. We both had good lights and I was able to get a good run down the race track. I was excited,” said the 2013 Winternationals winner. The Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster
Pos
Team
Points
1
Ron Capps
244
=
Johnny Gray
244
3
Courtney Force
216
4
Matt Hagan
209
5
Cruz Pedregon
181
6
Del Worsham
168
7
Robert Hight
156
8
Bob Tasca III
155
9
Jack Beckman
148
10
John Force
144
continued to make progress and its young driver Brittany Force continued to learn the ropes of professional racing. At the Gatornationals the 26 year-old driver had to handle the stress of racing into the show on Saturday. After the third qualifying session Force was the No. 16 qualifier, a precarious position with 23 solid Top Fuel teams vying for 16 spots. Her Dean Antonelli/Eric Lane tuned dragster moved up to the No. 13 spot and a first round match-up with veteran and eventual Gatornationals finalist Clay Millican. “It was stressful being number sixteen going into the last qualifying run. I had a feeling that time would get bumped out. Each run we have made improvements. We are moving in the right direction. To go up against Clay Millican was good because he is an awesome guy. Even though we went out in the first round we are getting our car together and we will be ready for Las Vegas,” said the contender for the Automobile Road to the Future Award.