Castrol EDGE Australia eNewsletter – Vol 4, Issue 19

VOLUME 4 - ISSUE 19

IT’S OUR BEST OIL YET... WWW.CASTROLEDGE.COM.AU

16th OCTOBER 2014

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CASTROL CLAIMS 20TH BATHURST 1000 VICTORY Castrol has won its twentieth Bathurst 1000 with Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris claiming their maiden victory at Mount Panorama today.

Starting from the extreme rear of the grid the pair played the perfect strategy game to claim victory in a nail-biting finish with current V8 Supercars Championship leader Jamie Whincup.

which sees Ford go back-to-back in the Great Race.

“I just kept screaming in the cockpit I don’t know if anyone heard me on the radio!” Mostert said.

“It was the best feeling ever crossing that finish line and doing it for all the Ford fans, words can’t describe the feeling I have right now.

Joining the pair on the podium through a fantastic display of determination and strength was James Moffatt and Taz Douglas who finished second in their Castrol-oiled Nissan to claim a special one-two for Castrol oils.

“Big congratulations to the Ford Performance Racing guys, victory for the second year in a row and hopefully we can come back next year and make it a hatrick.”

The young talent of Mostert coupled with the experienced hands of Morris cooked up the perfect partnership

A true demonstration of strength and performance was on display as the pair fought through an incredible 13

pitstops, including one to fix damage from a crash at Castrol EDGE bend (Turn 2), throughout the tumultuous race.

195,261 roaring spectators were treated to one of the greatest races in recent history as the Castrol logo powered over the finish line before any other.

Castrol has a rich history in Australian Motorsport, one which is no stronger than at Mount Panorama. Castrol oil first tasted Bathurst success back in 1966 with the works BMC Cooper S team of Bob Holden and Rauno Aaltonen.

There’s no time to rest for V8 Supercar Championship competitors as the tour heads to Queensland for the Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600, October 22-25.

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2014 V8 Supercars Championship Championship Points 1

Jamie Whincup

2547

2

Mark Winterbottom

2250

3

Craig Lowndes

2208

4

Shane Van Gisbergen

2096

5

James Courtney

2096

6

Fabian Coulthard

2024

7

Chaz Mostert

1994

8

Scott McLaughlin

1785

9

Garth Tander

1662

10

Will Davison

1542

11

Nick Percat

1494

12

James Moffat

1463

13

Jason Bright

1455

14

Michael Caruso

1448

15

Rick Kelly

1448

16

David Reynolds

1402

17

Scott Pye

1323

18

Russell Ingall

1188

19

Lee Holdsworth

1117

20

David Wall

1094

21

Tim Slade

1074

22

Jack Perkins

1043

23

Todd Kelly

1031

24

Dale Wood

936

25

Robert Dahlgren

663

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CASTROL-BACKED VW CLAIMS HISTORIC FRENCH VICTORY

Castrol EDGE-oiled VW Motorsport driver Jari-Matti Latvala has won the Rallye de France to score what was his first career win on asphalt in the World Rally Championship. Despite the WRC being dominated by Finnish drivers it was the first victory for a driver from that country since Tommi Makinen in 1999 in San Remo (Italy).

The 12th WRC win for Latvala was a dominant affair after World Champion and team-mate Sebastien Ogier suffered issues on the opening day. It ensured the fight for the drivers’ title continues to the penultimate round in Spain later this month. After leading on the tarmac in Germany and crashing on the final morning, Latvala made no mistakes in France to lead for all but one of the 18 special stages in a Polo R to win by 44.8sec. “I was pretty nervous this morning after my mistake in Germany. I had to take that lesson and without that experience

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I wouldn’t have been able to be as strong today and have belief in myself,” said Latvala. “I’ve been waiting a long time to win on asphalt and done a lot of work for that and now it has finally come. I’ve been able to take some big steps this year and this is one of the most important.”

Team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen matched Latvala during the first day and led briefly, but settled for second for the third time this year. Kris Meeke was 20.5sec behind in third, taking his fourth podium of the season in a Citroen DS3.

Robert Kubica was on course for a career-best fourth after demoting Dani Sordo on the final morning, but spun his Ford Fiesta RS into a ditch in the final test.

Sordo secured the place, his Hyundai i20 12.0sec ahead of Castrol-backed Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen in fifth.

Ogier took maximum bonus points by winning the live TV Power Stage, some consolation after his troubled run. The mixed surface Rally de Espana is based in Salou on 23 - 26 October.

2014 FIA DRIVERS´ STANDINGS 1

Sébastien Ogier

217

2

Jari-Matti Latvala

190

3

Andreas Mikkelsen

143

4

Mikko Hirvonen

93

5

Thierry Neuville

83

6

Kris Meeke

82

7

Mads Østberg

80

8

Elfyn Evans

71

9

Martin Prokop

38

10

Daniel Sordo

30

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CASTROL EDGE RACER RUNNER-UP IN NHRA NATIONALS Castrol EDGE racer Brittany Force raced to her fourth final round of this season and her career at the NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania.[/ caption] Castrol EDGE racer Brittany Force raced to her fourth final round of this season and her career at the NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Force was attempting to become the eighth female to win a Top Fuel NHRA national event but her bid fell short against seven-time champion Tony Schumacher. Her Castrol EDGE Dragster was running strong and consistent in qualifying and during Sunday’s eliminations.

She put some tough competitors on the trailer and gave the loyal Castrol and John Force Racing fans something to cheer for.

Force and Schumacher left the line almost simultaneously then both drivers had to pedal their machines as the Goodyear slicks fought for traction and began to smoke.

Brittany did a great job controlling the throttle so her Castrol EDGE Dragster would settle down but unfortunately, Schumacher was able to maintain his slight lead and crossed the finish line first with 4.440 second run at 291.13 mph to Brittany’s trailing 4.652 pass at 269.13 mph.

“I was so ready to take Tony (Schumacher) down and thought we had it. It was such a bummer when my win light didn’t come on. My car went out there and shook and smoked the tires but I pedaled it and it did hook back up for a little while but he (Schumacher) was way ahead of me,” said Force.

“I’m so proud of my entire team, this Castrol EDGE Dragster ran great and we had an awesome weekend. The fact we made it to the finals shows we’ve turned our luck around as we’ve been struggling quite a bit but we’re ready to head to Vegas in few weeks and do it again.”

Brittany Force and the Castrol EDGE have now moved up the 9th place in the NHRA Mello Yello standings as they’ve

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raced each in eliminations 19 times before today’s match up. Force had recently defeated Tasca III at the NHRA Carolina Nationals back in September.

earned 2188 Countdown points for their hard work this weekend.

The winningest driver in NHRA history was hoping for claim his 142nd career win today at the NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania but unfortunately it was not to be.

In the opening round John Force and his Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang went up against fellow Ford Mustang racer Bob Tasca III and it wasn’t the result the 16-time NHRA Mello Yello champion was looking for.

Force’s hopes of getting his first Countdown win went up in smoke as his Funny Car lost traction right before the finish line allowing Tasca to sneak past Force for the first round win.

The scoreboards said it all as Force ran 4.210 second pass at 261.62 mph to Tasca’s 4.079 run at 313.15 mph. Force and Tasca III are no strangers as these two fiercely competitive drivers have

“I know this game real well, Tasca’s car didn’t run well all weekend and then he stepped it up and ran that 4.07 when he needed to and you can’t argue that. My Castrol Mustang was trying to run a low 4.03 of 4.04 and then it got loose down there on the other end but Tasca got in the ballgame. Things happen, crew chiefs work hard, I work hard and boy, we thought we could come out here and stretch out our points lead on these guys,” said John Force.

“It’s now (Matt) Hagan against us and there’s others behind him but with Courtney and Robert went out part that’s not we wanted, but it’s part of the game and that’s why I love it so much.

We have two more races so we’re not out of this Countdown. The fans her are awesome and with Brittany going to her fourth final, it wasn’t that bad of weekend for John Force Racing.”

John Force did pick six NHRA Mello Yello Bonus Points for his efforts during the qualifying and despite getting bumped out of first place in the Countdown, the reigning NHRA Funny Car is still in the hunt considering his on only two rounds behind Hagan.

Courtney Force had gone eight consecutive rounds since the start of the NHRA Fall Nationals at Dallas until

today when she made a first round exit with her Traxxas Ford Mustang team.

Force qualified No. 4 with a 4.008 ET and was paired up with Jeff Arend going into race day. The Traxxas Ford barely made it off the starting line before it went into tire smoke and Arend got the win with a 4.598 ET at 221.45 mph.

The Auto Club Ford Mustang suffered its second consecutive first round loss today at the hands of veteran driver Tim Wilkerson. It was just the second time this season that Robert Hight, a five-time winner this season, has not advanced to the second round in back to back races.

Both Mustang Funny Cars launched hard but at about 300 feet Hight’s Auto Club Mustang hazed the tires and then a second later Wilkerson’s tires broke loose.

Hight’s strong qualifying effort that had him No. 5 rolling into the first round was not enough to get the win. The 2009 Funny Car champion is not discouraged heading into the penultimate race at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

2014 FUNNY CAR STANDINGS 1.

Matt Hagan

2423

2.

John Force

2387

3.

Courtney Force

2351

4.

Tommy Johnson Jr.

2309

5.

Robert Hight,

2288

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CASTROL HONDA WINS WTCC CHINA Castrol-oiled Honda Civic WTCC took its first victory of the World Touring Car Championship season with an emphatic win for Mehdi Bennani in Race 2 at Shanghai.

lane at the end of the race to the cheers of the entire WTCC fraternity who recognise the efforts made by this young driver to make his mark on the World Championship stage.

In taking his lights to flag victory, the young Moroccan scored his first ever WTCC race win, at the same time becoming the first Moroccan and first African and Arabic driver ever to win a FIA World Championship Touring Car race.

“This is a fantastic feeling – I think I may be dreaming,” said Mehdi.

“Winning is something so special that I have been thinking about for years now.

I want to thank His Majesty the King of Morocco for having made this possible, in putting me here amongst the best drivers in the World Championship.

“I want also to thank my family for the total support, Honda, J.A.S. Motorsport and of course my Proteam Racing of Valmiro Presenzini . I gave 100% from the start to the very end. It’s something wonderful.”

To underline this victory, the Castrol Honda Civic of Tiago Monteiro was second overall with Norbert Michelisz 5th (upgraded to 4th after a 30 second penalty was handed down to for Sebatien Loeb).

It took him several minutes to get his breath back before taking the Moroccan national flag to the top step of the podium to hear his national anthem played for the very first time in WTCC.

An emotional Bennani embraced his family and team members in victory

For Tiago Monteiro second place was some reward for a hard working

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weekend which saw him finish 7th in Race 1 close behind Castrol Honda team-mate Gabriele Tarquini whilst Norbert Michelisz in the Zengo Motorsport Civic was 5th overall with Bennani himself 10th whilst protecting his Civic for the challenge of Race 2.

2014 WTCC Standings Pos

Driver

Pts

1

José María López

384

2

Yvan Muller

291

3

Sébastien Loeb

251

4

Tiago Monteiro

170

5

Norbert Michelisz

142

6

Gabriele Tarquini

134

7

Tom Coronel

130

8

Tom Chilton

123

9

Gianni Morbidelli

103

10

Mehdi Bennani

85

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CASTROL-BACKED HONDA RIDERS SECURE FRENCH PODIUMS

Castrol-backed Pata Honder rider Leon Haslam has taken his first podium for team - his 29th in total - in the second of Sunday’s two wet eleventh round World Superbike championship races at Magny-Cours in France.

The 31-year-old British rider, who finished sixth in the first 19-lap race at the 4.411km French circuit, made some positive changes to his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade for race two, in which he engaged in a prolonged battle with reigning world champion Tom Sykes.

problems I’ve been having, so a big thanks to the team, to Pata and to Honda who’ve stood by me,” said Rea. “I’ve managed to repay them with a podium so I’m over the moon. We had our share of issues over the weekend, first in Superpole and in the second part of race one when I lost all straight line grip. We can go to Doha in a month’s time a little happier now.”

Having caught Sykes with seven laps to go, Haslam tried everything to get by, eventually riding around the outside of his rival at turn seven with two laps remaining to take a fantastic podium for him and his team.

It was the team’s second podium of the day after Jonathan Rea finished third in race one. Having taken an early lead, Rea found it difficult to apply his CBR’s power to the slippery Magny-Cours circuit and the 27-year-old dropped behind eventual race winner Sylvain Guintoli and second-placed Marco Melandri.

“It’s been a tough two seasons, with a leg break last year and a few other

Rea stormed into the lead again in the early laps of race two and had settled

into a comfortable rhythm before becoming one of no fewer than 13 riders caught out by the treacherous Magny-Cours surface and crashing out unhurt at turn seven.

Michael van der Mark finished second in the tenth round World Supersport championship race at Magny-Cours in France, in spite of crashing at the infamous Adelaide hairpin on lap seven.

The 21-year-old Dutch ace lost the front of his Honda CBR600RR on the seventh of the scheduled 17 laps. Van der Mark picked up his machine and rejoined the race in seventh place, fighting his way back to second after Sofuoglu himself crashed out of the lead.

The World Superbike championship now breaks for four weeks before the final round of the series at the Losail circuit in Qatar on 2 November.

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2014 WSBK Standings 1

Tom Sykes

378 pts

KAWASAKI

2

Sylvain Guintoli

366 pts

APRILIA

3

Marco Melandri

312 pts

APRILIA

4

Jonathan Rea

301 pts

HONDA

5

Loris Baz

282 pts

KAWASAKI

6

Chaz Davies

195 pts

DUCATI

7

Leon Haslam

176 pts

HONDA

8

Davide Guigliano

162 pts

DUCATI

9

Eugene Laverty

154 pts

SUZUKI

10

Toni Elias

151 pts

APRILIA

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