Castrol EDGE Australia eNewsletter - Vol 4, Issue 3

VOLUME 4 - ISSUE 3

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

6th MARCH 2014

V8 SUPERCARS - ROUND 1 - CLIPSAL 500 Castrol-backed Winterbottom third in the standings after opening Clipsal 500 races With the opening two races of the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship complete Castrol-oiled cars occupy three spots in the top-10 championship standings at the Clipsal 500. A pair of fourth place finishes sees Castrol-backed Pepsi Max Crew FPR driver Mark Winterbottom third in the overall standings.

“It is not too bad to finish fourth in both races. We had a trouble-free run really although a broken anti-rollbar during that race caused me a few dramas,” said Winterbottom. “Fourth was probably where we should’ve been in both races so we will tune the car overnight and hopefully be stronger tomorrow.”

Rick Kelly’s impressive sixth place finish in Race 1 on Saturday sees his placed as the top Castrol-oiled Nissan Motorsport

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

driver. Kelly sits seventh overall in the series after two races with brother Todd just outside the top-10 in 11th.

two cars in the top-ten in the points,” said Rick Kelly. “It’s very early days, but the exciting thing is that we have potential.”

“I’m really excited to be where we are right now, the Jack Daniel’s Racing team have

A consistent drive by Michael Caruso sees the Norton Nissan driver 10th in

His teammate Chaz Mostert had a less than desirable start to his debut year with the Ford factory outfit after being caught up in an early race incident which saw five V8 Supercars garaged in Race 3.

The Castrol-backed Norton Nissan’s of James Moffat and Michael Caruso sit 10th and 11th respectively in the drivers’ standings after mixed results over the weekend. Moffat enjoyed a late charge finishing ninth in Sunday’s final 250km race.

Castrol-oiled Ford Performance Racing’s David Reynolds was seventh in Race 3 with teammate Jack Perkins in 11th. Round two of the championship takes crews to the Australian Grand Prix for three non-championship races March 14-16. the standings however teammate James Moffat sits back in 17th after being forced to serve a pitlane speeding penalty in Race 1 eventually finishing 20th. Castrol-backed Supercheap Auto Racing’s Tim Slade had mixed results after being table up with Russell Ingall in Race 1 on Saturday. The local driver currently sits 16th in the series standings after two races.

New kid on the block Chaz Mostert’s campaign with Ford’s factory outfit got off to a horror start after being helped into the wall at turn 6 in Race 1 where he eventually finished with a DNF. However the young up-and-comer regained composure for Race 2 and finished a well earned and race sixth overall. He currently lies 18th in the standings.

Race 3 of the V8 Supercars Championship kicks off at 3.15pm local time and will see a lengthy 250km splash across the streets of Adelaide.

Castrol-oiled cars occupy top-10 in Race 3 at Adelaide An eventful Sunday at the Clipsal 500 has resulted in four Castroloiled V8 Supercars securing top-10 finishes in Race 3 of the V8 Supercars

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

Championship. Rick Kelly finished fifth in his Castrol-backed Nissan Altima to compliment a fine weekend of results.

He now sits fifth in the V8 Supercars Championship standings after round one.

“What an amazing race!” said Rick Kelly. “There was so much going on out there, I must admit I was extremely surprised by a few things out there.

“It’s probably the most eventful race I can remember having, so I’m really excited about that, we’ve got good points to take away, and we flexed a bit of muscle from Jack Daniel’s Racing’s point of view to say that we are back.”

The Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore of Tim Slade drove a superb race after securing a top-10 shootout earlier in the day. Slade’s efforts saw him finish one spot behind Kelly in sixth and his weekend’s points haul means he sits eighth in the drivers’ standings.

After being fenced into the wall early in the race Castrol-backed Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom fought back to finish 12th for the race. The result sees Frosty sit seventh in the championship standings.

2014 V8 Supercars Championship standings (after Race 3) POS

DRIVER

POINTS

1

Craig Lowndes

282

2

Fabian Coulthard

230

3

Shane Van Gisbergen

221

4

Jamie Whincup

199

5

Rick Kelly

198

6

James Courtney

192

7

Mark Winterbottom

189

8

Tim Slade

163

9

Garth Tander

150

10

James Moffat

140

11

Michael Caruso

133

12

Russell Ingall

121

13

David Wall

121

14

David Reynolds

120

15

Scott McLaughlin

117

16

Jack Perkins

115

17

Dale Wood

112

18

Lee Holdsworth

111

19

Will Davison

72

20

Todd Kelly

70

21

Jason Bright

66

22

Scott Pye

61

23

Chaz Mostert

51

24

Robert Dahlgren

39

25

Nick Percat

24

SPLATT RACING WINS V8 PREDICTOR OPENER Splatt Racing has taken overall honours in the opening round of the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor scoring themselves a $100 BP fuel card. The Splatt Racing team’s impressive 117 points haul with a prediction accuracy of 50% and sees them sit first in the Global League standings by just two points ahead of Phanton.

The overall points win for the round went to Red Bull Racing’s Craig Lowndes who leads the V8 Supercars Championship standings and will be a favourite among predictors heading

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

the six new bonus points system it’s anyone’s game to play quick catch up in future rounds. Signing up for the V8 Predictor is easy and players have the chance of winning the ultimate V8 Supercars holiday in 2015 including flights, accommodation, spending money and behind the scenes access to the V8 Supercars world.

There are also $100 BP Fuel vouchers up for grabs for each of the 14 rounds contested this year plus bonus prizes on top. With the Australian Grand Prix a non-championship round for V8 Supercars the next round for the Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor is the Tasmania 400, March 28-30.

2014 Castrol EDGE V8 Predictor - Global Leaderboard RANK

TEAM NAME

POINTS

1

Splatt Racing

117

2

Phanton

115

3

Shake + bake

114

4

Flash Motorsport

112

5

Hispania Racing Team

112

6

Mickey Darbs Racing

112

7

Mikan Racing

110

8

team81

110

9

team ford

110

10

Kooli Racing

109

11

Ation Racing

109

12

blues-tuf

107

13

NBFPR

107

14

SLM racing

107

15

Mighty Machines

107

16

A Rumor of Skin

106

17

Littlestupid Racing

105

18

SZaucy

105

19

S&H Motorsport

105

20

ONE EYED JACKS

105

2014 Expert Leaderboard

into the next Championship round in Tasmania.

In the Experts league Speedcafe has leaped well clear of Andy Priaulx and Greg Rust thanks to 50 bonus points for correctly predicting a driver on pole

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

position and a race winner and then predicting pole, race winner and the driver with the fastest race lap time.

Speedcafe has 77 points to it’s name with Priaulx second on 29 and Rust third with 22 points, however with

RANK

TEAM NAME

POINTS

1

Speedcafe

77

2

Andy Priaulx

29

3

Greg Rust

22

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

CASTROL-BACKED MORGAN PERFORMS IN PERTH Darren Morgan has shaken up the ANDRA Top Fuel Championship rankings with a stunning weekend at the Perth Motorplex, winning round four and ending the domination of Phil Lamattina.

Morgan – enjoying his first outing of the season – steadily improved the American Truck Works dragster – eventually running his best time, a 4.695 second pass, in the strong final alongside local veteran, Allan Dobson.

Morgan got to the final after defeating Damien Harris, whilst Dobson got by Martin Stamatis.

A rejuvenated Morgan was ecstatic with the new car he debuted in Perth.

“We’re really happy with the changes (to the car), it’s perfect,” Morgan said.

“Everything is just mint, it goes faster and faster every time we tell it to. The

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

next time we have a good track we’ll run low 60s or high 50s.”

Massive crowds were the order of the weekend for the 43rd Westernationals, with the Perth Motorplex recording one of its best drag racing crowds in many a year.

The next round of the Australian Top Fuel Championship will be at Willowbank April 18-19 while Doorslammer’s next Championship hitout will be at Calder Park on April 4-5.

HISTORIC DAY FOR CASTROL-BACKED JOHN FORCE RACING AT NHRA NATIONALS It was a historic day for Castrol-backed John Force Racing at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park during 30th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.

For the first time ever JFR landed race cars in both the final round of the Funny Car and Top Fuel categories. In only 26 starts Brittany Force raced to her Castrol EDGE dragster to a first career final round, losing a close race to 2012 Top Fuel champion Antron Brown.

Robert Hight raced to his first final of 2014 and just missed his 30th career win racing against Alexis DeJoria. In the

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

second round Force defeated 7-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher posting a winning elapsed time of 3.805 to his 5.017 seconds. It was Force’s first win over Schumacher and it was a bucket list moment for the young driver.

“That round win will definitely be a highlight of my season until we get that first win. Tony Schumacher is awesome he is the champ,” said Force. “He has beaten my butt many times so I was happy to go out there and get the win.

That is a round win I always wanted to get. To win against him was awesome. I am still so excited. I wanted to get that

win in the first final but I know that first win is coming. We are getting closer.

“We did great today and we made our best run in the final with that 3.79. I am stoked and I am so proud of my guys.

This Castrol EDGE team is really coming along. We are getting better. It is the second race of the season and to go to our first final. I couldn’t be happier.”

It was almost a JFR versus JFR final round but John Force was upended by DeJoria in the semi-finals. The Mello Yello points leader was trying to reach his seventh consecutive final round but

fell a few hundredths of a second short.

Earlier John Force and the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang held onto their No. 1 qualifying position on the strength of his run of 3.99 seconds on Friday night.

This saw Force start from the top of the order a record 148th time in his career and for the fifth race in a row dating back to Reading, Pennsylvania last season.

MELLO YELLO POINT STANDINGS FUNNY CAR – POS

DRIVER

POINTS

1

John Force

225

2

Robert Hight

159

3

Alexis Dejoria

156

4

Tommy Johnson Jr.

136

5

Del Worsham

132

6

Matt Hagan

129

7

Bob Tasca III

124

8

Jack Beckman

92

9

Ron Capps

88

10

Tim Wilkerson

84

11

Cruz Pedregon

69

12

Courtney Force

67

TOP FUEL –

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

POS

DRIVER

POINTS

1

Doug Kalitta

191

2

Khalid alBalooshi

165

3

Antron Brown

156

4

Steve Torrence

155

5

Spencer Massey

127

5

Brittany Force

127

7

Shawn Langdon

124

8

Tony Schumacher

92

9

Richie Crampton

84

9

David Grubnic

84

STRONG START TO WORLD SUPERBIKE CAMPAIGN FOR CASTROL-BACKED PATA HONDA Jonathan Rea took sixth and fifth place finishes in the opening two races of the 2014 FIM eni World Superbike championship at Phillip Island in Australia. His Castrol-backed Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam bounced back from a first race crash to take sixth place in race two.

“I guess we have to be reasonably satisfied with the result here because we’ve made a big improvement over last year here at Phillip Island,” said Rea. “It’s clear which areas we need to work on and it’s mostly mechanical grip.

“They’re not results to jump up and down about but it’s a good way to

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

start the season. I’m looking forward to getting back to some more conventional circuits in Europe and to aiming a lot higher than we did here.

The two 22-lap encounters at the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit, which lies two hours drive south of Melbourne, were won by Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli, although race two was cut to 14 laps when red flags were waved following a technical problem for Laverty. Starting from the second row of the grid, 28-year-old Rea got a good start to race one and became involved in a race-long battle with Tom Sykes and Loris Baz.

His start to race two was even better and he was fighting for a podium place in the early stages before getting pushed wide and losing touch with the leading group. In contrast, Haslam did not get a good start to race one and crashed out at the fast turn 12 on the fifth lap.

The 30-year-old was unhurt but his crew had to work hard to completely re-build his CBR1000RR Fireblade SP in readiness for race two. The Pata Honda team will re-group for further testing in Spain at the end of March before round two of the championship takes place at Motorland Aragon on 11-13 April.

Championship Standings - Round 1

STRENGTH TO PERFORM

1

Sylvain Guintoli

41 pts

FRA

APRILIA

Aprilia Racing Team

2

Loris Baz

31 pts

FRA

KAWASAKI

Kawasaki Racing Team

4

Davide Guigliano

26 pts

ITA

DUCATI

Ducati Superbike Team

5

Eugene Laverty

25 pts

IRL

SUZUKI

Voltcom Crescent Suzuki

6

Tom Sykes

25 pts

GBR

KAWASAKI

Kawasaki Racing Team

7

Jonathan Rea

21 pts

GBR

HONDA

Pata Honda

8

Chaz Davies

17 pts

GBR

DUCATI

Ducati Superbike Team

9

David Salom

13 pts

ESP

KAWASAKI

Kawasaki Racing Team

10

Niccolo Canepa

11 pts

ITA

DUCATI

Althea Racing

11

Leon Haslam

10 pts

GBR

HONDA

Pata Honda

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