Auto Action #1834

ALPINE BOSS OSCAR PIASTRI IS A FUTURE WORLD CHAMP

CHARLES IN CHARGE

FERRARI STORMS AGP!

MASSIVE F1 GP CROWD CONFIRMS RACING IS BACK ON TRACK

EXCLUSIVE: BARCLAY’S BIG SUPERCARS PLAN

MORE F1 RACES POSSIBLE ISSN 2204-9924

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Issue #1834 45 April 21 to May 4, 2022 $9.95 INC GST

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NEW PARTS PUSH TO GET GROVE GOING

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A GEN2 DEVELOPMENT DRIVE IS UNDERWAY FOR THE PENRITE MUSTANGS

By Paul Gover and Dan McCarthy THE TEAM at Grove Racing is not waiting for Gen3 to launch its technical attack on Supercars.

More power and new parts are flooding the pipeline as David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth confirm the improved pace of the team’s twin Mustangs at the AGP meeting.

A double podium on Day 2 at Albert Park was the highlight of the Melbourne meeting, but team owner Stephen Grove says Reynolds’ vastly improved qualifying efforts – including a pole position and a second front-row grid slot – show the extra speed in the Penrite racers.

“The team has really lifted, the guys have really lifted, and we’re getting some good results. It was a fantastic weekend for us,” Grove tells Auto Action.

The new push comes as a surprise in Supercars, with most outfits winding their spending back ahead of the giant investment in all-new Mustangs and Camaros for season 2023.

Team 18 is hoping for better results with a delayed front-end update to the ZB Commodores for Mark Winterbottom and

Scott Pye, but its improvement is tied to the delivery date on new parts from its Triple Eight technical partner.

“I’ve offered to race with the uprights out of SvG’s car while we’re waiting,” jokes Winterbottom.

But there is no waiting, or joking, at Grove Racing as it moves confidently away from its roots as Kelly Racing.

Following last year’s team takeover, Stephen Grove reports a big investment to upgrade the outfit from struggle street at the bottom end of the pitlane.

“The process for us started last year. The plan was to continually develop the Gen2 car,” he says.

“The most pleasing part for us is that the parts we’re developing for our Ford Mustangs are obviously making a difference and having an impact. We’ve got more new parts coming for Perth so we plan to regroup ahead of the next round and continue to push hard.”

He is not going into any detail about the parts or what he is paying for them, but says it is a major investment.

“Motorsport always costs a lot of money. But I knew it was something we had to do,” says Grove.

“We’ve got our engine program going and the rest is around making sure we have the parts we need to make us faster.

“It’s everything from driver ergonomics to the front end, to make sure the car is getting better.”

Reynolds highlighted the improvements with three podium results in Melbourne and was in contention for the Larry Perkins Trophy – that eventually went to van Gisbergen – before a disastrous final race.

His enthusiasm and humour has also returned after his miserable season in 2021, and Holdsworth is also smiling after the podium place at Albert Park.

One of the key ingredients for 2022 is David Cauchi, recruited from Triple Eight after winning championships with Jamie Whincup, as the engineering group at Grove has grown from two to seven people.

“Cauchi is doing a phenomenal job leading the team and that’s probably one of his biggest assets. He’s got everyone to buy into the culture that we wanted to set,” says Brenton Grove, the team principal.

“Last year, if something didn’t work, we nearly threw everything out and started again. It’s a refinement now, rather than a wholesale change.”

He also reports that the technical commitment comes right from the top.

“Everything is getting a shake-up and I think, even from an ownership perspective, as we start getting the results it encourages us

even more to keep investing in the team.

“Every round we find something we can make better and then we go make it and put it on the car the next round.

“It’s mainly componentry, but then infrastructure as well. We’re investing in everything from the garage to the truck, to the factory, to computer systems, hardware ...”

For Stephen Grove, the short-term goals are part of a longer-term strategy heading into season 2023.

“We’re looking for extra performance to get us up the pitlane before Gen3 arrives. When you’re down the lane, somewhere like the GP, with an eight-minute session there are times when you cannot run two sets of tyres.

You also get compromised on pitstops and double-stacking. Sometimes you cannot get out of your slot.

“It’s all strategic for next year. The process is to continually develop the Gen2 car. It’s all about making the cars faster this year, instead of waiting for Gen3.”

“We’ve been quick at two different tracks now, which is pleasing. But we’ve still got to work at it.

“It’s so competitive. We’ve still got a long way to go to get to the top teams. But we won’t be where we really want to be until we are challenging for the teams and drivers championships.”

UP COMING RACE EVENT CALENDAR Brought to you by www.speedflow.com.au • FORMULA 1 RD 4 EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX APRIL 22-24 • WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP RD 3 RALLY CROATIA APRIL 22-24 • BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RD 1 DONINGTON PARK APRIL 22-24 • MOTOGP RD 5 PORTUGAL APRIL 22-24 • NASCAR CUP SERIES RD 9 TALLADEGA APRIL 25 • INDYCAR SERIES RD 4 BIRMINGHAM APRIL 29 – MAY 1 • MOTOGP RD 6 SPAIN APRIL 29 – MAY 1 • IMSA LAGUNA SECA APRIL 29 – MAY 1 • FORMULA E RD 4 MONACO APRIL 29 – MAY 1 • SUPERCARS RD 4 PERTH APRIL 30 – MAY 1

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GRAND PRIX REVIVAL CHARLES LECLERC LED THE WINNERS AT ALBERT PARK

By Paul Gover, News Editor AUSTRALIAN MOTORSPORT blasted out from the Covid fog at Albert Park.

The return of Formula One cars was the highlight of the 2022 running of the Australian Grand Prix, but not the only one.

The Supercars races were tough and competitive, the biggest Carrera Cup field in history went hard at it and the S5000 races – packed with youngsters – were tough and entertaining.

There were smiles everywhere as veteran F1 followers were joined by a new generation of grand prix fans who flooded Albert Park in record numbers.

“People don’t know what they’ve got until it’s gone,” the CEO of the AGP, Andrew Westacott, tells Auto Action. “Now they know.”

“It’s good to be back. Buzzing. Super eager,” says Lewis Hamilton, ahead of the meeting.

For Yuki Tsunoda, starting the AGP for the first time with AlphaTauri, his visit was not actually his first.

“I came 10 years ago on a school trip here. I love Aussie beef,” the Japanese drivers says.

The attendance over the four-day event was the best since Melbourne scalped the AGP from Adelaide in 1996, although the South Australian capital still claims the overall record at 520,000.

Melbourne in 2022 drew a total of 419,114 and a race day crowd of 128,294, which is claimed as a record for a oneday Australian sporting event. The best previous effort was back in 2016, with a total of 401,000.

As yet the numbers are only ‘estimated’ because all facts and figures around the AGP must be verified by the state government.

But there is no doubting the dominant victory by Charles Leclerc and Ferrari in the main event, following pole position for this year’s early championship leader. It is a result that gave the rabid Melbourne fans their best chance to celebrate since the heady days when Michael Schumacher painted the Italian-centric city in racing red.

“What a race and what a pace. The car was incredible today, really,” says Leclerc.

Leclerc was followed, but never threatened, by Max Verstappen before a mechanical failure on his Red Bull racer and Lewis Hamilton was a desultory fourth with Mercedes.

So a smiling Sergio Perez ran home second and George Russell in the ‘other’ Mercedes was third, while Daniel Ricciardo held station in sixth as his McLaren team mate Lando Norris – who had the better of him again through the weekend – nursed his ailing car to the flag.

“As a whole, the weekend’s been smooth.

I’m happy to walk away with my first points of the year at home, which is also nice for the all the fans who came out here, so I’m feeling pretty content. We leave Melbourne in good spirits, which feels nice as it’s probably been four years since I left here in good spirits,” says Ricciardo.

There were plenty of others in good spirits, including Chaz Mostert, who bagged two wins for Walkinshaw Andretti United to show he’s serious championship contender.

Despite his twin wins and the Larry Perkins Trophy for the best performance

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Australian F1 Grand Prix 2022 is go (above), and so is Charles Leclerc (below).

Left: AGPC CEO Andrew Westacott reckons Melbourne, as well as Leclerc, is a big winner.

Images: Motorsport Images

across the four Supercars sprints, Shane van Gisbergen was not smiling.

“We obviously got the most points, which is great. But we should have smashed everyone,” says van Gisbergen.

But the fans were smiling and that’s the biggest take-out from the AGP, which banked the ’Netflix factor’ with a big new fan base that should drive the event forward into 2023 and beyond.

“I’ve just walked a lap of the track and everyone is so happy,” says Westacott.

“It’s also a different demographic. More than half the crowd is under 30. And it looks like 40 per cent of them are women.”

The F2/F3 champion is already in demand in his home city.

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PIASTRI IS A FUTURE CHAMPION ALPINE BOSS TIPS THE HOTSHOT AUSSIE FOR THE TITLE

By Paul Gover, News Editor Oscar Piastri didn’t turn a single lap at the Australian Grand Prix but that has not slowed his progress in Formula One. The baby-faced Aussie is even being touted as a future world champion.

The man making the bold prediction is Laurent Rossi, the same man who is guiding Piastri’s future as the boss of the Alpine Academy.

“Oscar is something else. He is one of the future champions of formula One,” tells Auto Action at the AGP. Rossi has no doubt about Piastri’s potential, but he also has the power to make things happen – and fast.

He is the overall boss of the Alpine F1 team and, crucially, also heads the whole Alpine car-making operation. That means he is the overall head of high-performance motoring for Renault.

Rossi cannot say enough good things about Piastri.

He complements his raw speed, his work ethic and his fitness, but his real focus is on Piastri’s intelligence.

“He is extremely smart and mature for his

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Alpine boss Laurent Rossi is adamant that Piastri is a long-term project – and future F1 champion.

age. Like extremely smart,” he says.

“I would love to have Oscar as my driver for the future with Alpine.”

Rossi confirms an accelerated development program for Piastri through the Alpine Academy in 2022, with everything from

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extensive F1 test laps to simulator time and a deep involvement in all briefing sessions at grands prix.

He confirms Piastri will drive in Free Practice sessions in season 2022, but mostly likely not until the second half of the year when

the tracks are familiar for the regular drivers – Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon – and the Alpine cars have proven reliability.

Rossi smiles when he talks about the potential for Piastri to turn laps at Albert Park.

But he quickly rebuts any suggestion it could have happened this year.

“It was too many premieres going against it. It’s one thing to be the regular driver and break the car, it’s another thing if you put that pressure on a rookie.

“We love the idea. I love the idea. It would be a great story. “(But) to be honest, the cars are extremely new. Very fragile. The drivers are still learning.

We are still learning. Every Free Practice is important.”

So, when will be Piastri become a Friday test driver? Could it be at the next Grand Prix, at Imola in Italy?

“Too early. Still too early,” Rossi says. ”We have a couple of grands prix that are earmarked as possible. At tracks where the drivers are very comfortable. And at grands prix where the stakes are not so high.

“To mitigate expectations, it is very unlikely this happens before the end of the first half (of the season).”

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COULD SUPERCARS BE HEADED

FOR MORE F1 SUPPORT PROGRAMS?

By Paul Gover, News Editor SUPERCARS COULD soon be graduating to the grand prix program on a regular basis.

Highly-popular appearances at Albert Park and a change of ownership to the RACE consortium have cleared the way for serious negotiations about an OS Formula One future for the home-grown touring cars.

Three F1 visits are being seriously discussed and it could happen as soon as 2023.

“We are absolutely interested to look at it, and to see how it could potentially work for us,” the new chairman of Supercars,

Barclay Nettlefold, reveals to Auto Action in an extensive and exclusive interview (Pages 24-27).

Supercars currently has a 13-race calendar but it would grow with the new deal to as many as 16 events.

“That’s F1 and Supercars. I think both with event calendars and on an activation level.”

Supercars has performed unsuccessfully on the F1 undercard in the past and has tried standalone overseas races outside its traditional overseas destination in New Zealand, but the new deal would be very different if it goes ahead.

“F1 is going through phenomenal growth at the moment, as we know, and there is a lot more global demand than they can cater for. And, with the money that’s being provided, there is no question they are lacking category content to support it,” Nettlefold says.

He has already investigated some of the detail in the plan, but is not making any commitment just yet.

“Discussion are being held, but it’s at a very early stage. Ideally, we believe we could run 15 races in a season. We have to look at what that means for the calendar.”

He’s being optimistic, but not bullish, about the potential timing.

“I’m not saying it won’t happen in 2023,” he says enigmatically.

At the same time, Nettlefold acknowledged the importance of the NZ flyaway market.

“I think also, with going to New Zealand, there is a lot of pent-up demand. I’ve been quite surprised at how important our sport, Supercars, is in the New Zealand market. And how well known it is and how it is followed.

“When they don’t have an America’s Cup, or a British Lions rugby tour, we’re a constant.”

FEENEY RUNNING AHEAD OF HIS ROOKIE TARGET

By Dan McCarthy HIGHLY-RATED ROOKIE Broc Feeney is ticking all the boxes in his first main game season in Supercars – including a major crash at the Australian Grand Prix.

A high-speed trip into the concrete barriers at Albert Park was not the way he wanted to start the weekend, but he still managed to salvage a pair of Top-10 finishes by the end of the weekend.

“Just a stupid mistake . . . don’t know what happened there,” Feeney says after the smash.

But he is more upbeat with nine races beneath his wheels, as he sits sixth in the standings with an average qualifying position of 5.5 and a finishing average of 6.6.

“It’s been a big learning curve coming into the series,” Feeney admits.

“I just need to minimise mistakes. I make a mistake like I did in practice and you’re on the back foot a little bit for the rest of the weekend, ” With 34 races across 13 events, and just three weekends completed, Feeney is happy

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with the way he has begun his career with the benchmark Triple Eight team.

“Overall, it’s been a great year. Sixth in the championship ... it’s been a pretty solid start,” he says.

“I think everyone thought at the start the year that they’d be no way I’d be in the top six at this part of the championship.

“It’s so long to go, and I don’t even want to think about that. But being consistently in that top five, top six realm over the first few rounds has been awesome.”

One of the biggest challenges for the Queensland teenager is the new circuits.

He had never raced at Albert Park or Symmons Plains, and also faces a new challenge at Symmons Plains in Perth.

Feeney reveals to Auto Action that he is aiming to sneak in some preview laps ahead of the next leg of the championship across the Nullarbor.

“I’m trying to get over to Perth to do some laps before the round, so hopefully we’ll get a bit of track knowledge. It’s a steep learning

curve for me at the first few rounds.

“In Tassie the cars were great and it was straight into it; for the GP I did a bit of sim work, but it’s a whole different ballgame to when you get to the tracks.

Benchmarking himself against title holder Shane van Gisbergen in an identical Red Bull Commodore is working for Feeney, particularly as he learns how to manage the Dunlop racing rubber.

“In Super2, I was probably one of the best at saving my tyres. I’d always be really strong at the end of the races,” he says.

“But in Supercars the race distances are so much Image: Motorsport Images longer, it’s a

matter of learning off my teammate. He’s so good at saving tyres and doing a fast time in the process.

“I think that’s where I find the biggest difference in myself from Round 1. I was pretty good at torching the tyres on the first few laps.

“From Round 1 to where I am today, my tyre saving over a stint is 1000 times better, but there’s still a long way to go.”

GEN3 AERO TESTING COMMENCES

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BRAKE DEFICIENCY TICKFORD RACING driver Cameron Waters believes that his main weakness compared with runaway Supercars Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen is under brakes.

After finishing as the season runner-up in 2020 and fifth last year, Waters was predicted to be a title contender in 2022 – however so far, the Victorian has scored just one podium and sits seventh in the championship, nearly a round’s worth of points behind the Triple Eight Racing driver.

“Shane’s car is very good under brakes compared to ours; we are always chasing the front or rear into the corner, but they’re very stable – that’s probably been the biggest thing,” he said to Auto Action.

“That was highlighted to me in Tassie when he was racing me ... everyone was saying I was braking early.

“I was braking my car at the threshold and he could pull up and turn under me so that was pretty clear – we’ve got to try and fix that.”

The former Sandown 500 winner highlighted that you can’t beat the guys ahead by staying still – something must change.

“I think we have probably lacked a little bit this year, but we’re trying lots of things to try and catch Shane and the other Holdens,” Waters explained.

“In Tassie we were up there with the DJR cars so it’s been a little bit up and down, probably from trying things to just close the gap to Shane.

“Sometimes you take a step forward and two back; you’re not always going to pick the right path, so it makes it tough.”

Historically the Albert Park Circuit has been very strong for Tickford Racing, but did the new track layout and harsher track surface affect the cars around the fast-flowing Albert Park Circuit?

“I don’t think the track resurfacing really affected us too much,” he said.

“We usually get a pretty good handle on our cars when that stuff happens.

“Our cars were as quick as the DJR

cars – last race, I was slightly quicker than them; they were probably slightly quicker than us in others.

“There’s not really much in it, but it’s meant to be a track where we’re meant to be on it and in race trim, we’re over a second off.”

A second is a big margin to find and Waters stressed it is not through lack of trying.

“Look, it’s been a tough run for the Fords; the Holdens have won the last 12 races – that’s pretty full on ...”

“It’s not from lack of trying from the Fords – we’ve got three really good teams now with Groves, and good drivers, so we should be up there and shouldn’t be letting a 12-race streak happen – I don’t know what else to say about it.

“We’ve ust got to keep chipping away at it. We can’t give up – there’s a test day after Perth, so we’re gonna try some stuff at that test and see what we can do.”

Dan McCarthy

NO NEED FOR PANIC AT EREBUS THERE IS no need for panic at Erebus Motorsport after a poor start to the Supercars Championship, according to team boss Barry Ryan and driver Will Brown.

Erebus may be fourth in the Teams’ Championship, but they have not yet shown the blazing form that saw Brown and his teammate Brodie Kostecki take several podiums and a race win at the back end of last season.

Brown sits eighth at this point of 2022 without having stood on the steps, while Kostecki is fifth with the squads’ sole podium at Sydney Motorsport Park, the venue which brought them success in 2021.

The Australian Grand Prix was a particularly grim round for Erebus, the team struggling to crack the top 10 throughout the weekend as Brown finished 23rd and 24th in successive races.

Ryan explained that the poor outing in Melbourne was down to the team lacking historical data in preparation.

“We didn’t have any historical data coming here so we guessed our starting strategy,” Ryan told Auto Action The boys haven’t driven here, and the team has gone in a different direction since we were last here.

“If we started with our Sunday setups we would have had good results.”

Jumped by the rest the field on Thursday and

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Friday, Erebus lacked pace in qualifying and it ultimately showed, Brown and Kostecki achieving their best results on Sunday.

“If you don’t qualify well here then you are screwed, that was the case,” Ryan said.

“I say results are down to a good car, good driving and strong pitstops, if all three go well you get good results and we didn’t always have that.”

Brown was less forthcoming about the setup issues that plagued his team, eager to move on from Melbourne and focus on the next round in Perth.

“It was just one of those weekends you want to forget about,” Brown told Auto Action.

“When you qualify down there, the best result is to get just inside the top 10.

“I’m not happy with the start of the season but I’m sure we’ll bounce back.

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Image: Motorsport Images “The first couple of rounds haven’t been our best tracks – we generally do very well at Townsville, Darwin and Bathurst but we’ve got to work on it.

We’re not a team who throws our toys out of the cot and says we’re doing badly after two rounds of poor running, we press on and look at the positives.

“We’ve had good race pace and I’m sure we’ll get back up the front.”

Erebus will roll out for redemption at Wanneroo Raceway for the Perth SuperNight from April 30 – May 1. Josh Nevett

TESTING AT the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit last week was the first real test for Gen3 machinery at a fast-flowing aero circuit.

A number of drivers completed tests in which they got close behind the car in front to see how the car reacted in the ‘dirty air.’

Team 18 driver Scott Pye had never driven the Gen3 machine prior to the test at Phillip Island.

“It was a great opportunity to try the Gen3 Camaro,” said Pye. “Not just at any track, but to do it at Phillip Island was very cool.

“It’s obviously low downforce, plenty of grunt ... it moves around a lot.

“It was good as well to get some close running in front and behind the Mustang to see how the cars handle in dirty air and first impressions are quite good.

“I think they are a car that will encourage some good, close and hard racing and fundamentally everything is there that we need right now.

“It’s in a good place and I can’t wait to see where the next few months in development take it.”

To date, the focus of Gen3 testing has been centred on putting mileage on the cars.

The cars have now been lapped at five different circuits, joining Mount Panorama, Queensland Raceway, Symmons Plains and Albert Park.

Prior to the two-day test at the Island, Gen3 testing has been all about reliability and comfort with drivers sent out to complete long stints.

Phillip Island was a step forward in the Gen3 testing program, with the circuit offering a key gauge of aero performance.

Aero balance was the key ticket item, with the cars tuned across the two days, Thomas Randle got his first steer in a Gen3 Mustang and outlined his program “Aero was a big part of the day,” Randle said.

“Apart from Turns 1 and 2 at Queensland Raceway, it was the first time the cars had been taken to a high-speed track.

“Everyone at Supercars was very receptive to my thoughts, as well as the other drivers.

“We haven’t touched set-up at all, so we were going off trying to pin aero balance from where we wanted.

“We were able to go from one end of the scale to the other, which is cool.

“Now it’s about finding a happy medium.”

Randle had never driven the Gen3 machine, his first lap coming with very little aero on the car; later adjustments helped the car settle down in the rear.

“At the start, it was very loose in the rear, and that was at max rear wing,” he explained.

“It had good front balance but was loose under braking; it was taily in the rear because there’s less rear downforce.

“Mechanical grip-wise, considering there was no set-up needed, it was quite good.

“We put more rear downforce on it later on and it gave it heaps of push.

“It sorted out the rear grip, but it gave us highspeed understeer. In that respect, like I said, we found one end to the other.

“Once we put more rear aero on the car, it was more stable under brakes.”

In total eight different drivers steered the Gen3 machines including Macauley Jones and Andre Heimgartner, six of whom had not driven the new car previously.

Dan McCarthy

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FERNANDO ALONSO and Sergio Perez thoroughly enjoyed their short time behind the wheel of a Supercars Ford Mustang and Holden Commodore at Albert Park. Alonso jumped behind the wheel of Randle’s Tickford Racing Mustang and loved the sound of the V8 engine, maybe a little too much as he had a minor off track excursion at Turn 1. “It’s between a GT3 and a NASCAR,” Alonso explained. “It’s heavier and softer on the corners, but then you feel the power, the V8… the noise is amazing.” DM

SUPERCAR DRIVERS are beginning to admit an uncomfortable truth – they can’t beat Shane van Gisbergen. Australian Grand Prix podium getters Will Davison and David Reynolds were asked whether they had any power to overcome the championship leader’s blistering pace. The answer was a tough one to take for the field. “No-one’s car performance is up to his,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think he can be beaten,” Shell V-Power Racing veteran Davison added. “Our car is not quick enough in race trim. He’s cruising in the straights.” JN

WILL DAVISON is remaining calm despite being frustrated with a lack of race pace that is preventing he and his team from challenging for wins. The Shell V-Power Racing driver finished second twice over the course of the four-race Australian Grand Prix weekend, however there is extra incentive for Davison to stand on the top step as he has not done so since 2016. “Of course, I’m frustrated,” Davison said. “All in all, there’s plenty of positives to take out of the weekend.” JN

CHAZ MOSTERT credits his pit crew for creating the gap that helped him to a Race 9 win at Albert Park.

Mostert’s stop was crucial as it released him ahead of race leaders Shane van Gisbergen, Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale. Mostert assumed the effective lead of the race, which he extended from then on. “Our team with the pitstop was just absolutely amazing. It gave me a bit of breathing room coming out,” Mostert said. JN SEVEN MEMBERS of the Erebus Academy were given the opportunity to test a Supercar at Winton Raceway last week.

National up and comers Jaylyn Robotham, Jay Hanson, Reef McCarthy, Jobe Stewart, and Bailey Sweeny were joined by reigning Queensland Formula Ford Champion Cameron McLeod and TCR New Zealand Touring Car Championship runner-up Jordan Michels for the occasion.

Each driver trialled the Mercedes-powered Erebus Holden Commodore, completing three sessions throughout the day with coaching from Erebus co-driver Jack Perkins. JN

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TEAM 18 MORE COMPETITIVE THAN LAST YEAR THIS YEAR Team 18 has not yet fired out of the blocks as it did in 2021 but, despite this, former Bathurst 1000 winner and Supercars Champion Mark Winterbottom believes that his ZB Commodore is actually more competitive than last year.

Team 18 and in particular Winterbottom started last year strongly, recording three top five finishes and six top 10s in the first three rounds, going on on to finish 10th in the championship.

The season has not started so well this year with four top 10s and no top fives in the first three rounds.

Nevertheless, Winterbottom is adamant his car is more competitive than it was this time last year.

“I think speed-wise we’re going better for me than last year,” he told Auto Action. “I had a sixth in qualifying at Sydney Motorsport Park, I had P3 at Tassie and would have gone front row when the red flag came out.

“It’s just little things ... pit stop at Tassie we lost a couple of spots and stuff like that.

“Our qualifying pace here wasn’t as strong but with our race pace we should have been top 10 all weekend if we didn’t have a few blunders.

“Car-wise we’re doing okay; a few other things are letting us down at the moment.

We’ll work on that, it’s easier to fix that side than it is to make your car faster.

“I think we’re going okay, but we’re still probably fifth to tenth, not top five.”

There was a lot of personnel changes at Team 18 in the off season and Winterbottom

Image: Motorsport Images believes that everyone in the team is settling into their new roles.

“People look at the sport as just equipment, but there’s people, and people change; there’s experience and there’s inexperience; there’s lots of factors. We didn’t get it right this weekend a couple of times,” he explained.

The next round of the Supercars Championship takes place at Wanneroo Raceway in Perth and Winterbottom feels that he and teammate Scott Pye should do well there.

“Perth should be good for us, as should

Darwin – we just have to get better at our weak tracks,” he expressed.

“We haven’t been to Perth for a couple of years – it’ll been a good test to see where we are at.

“Perth gets used a fair bit locally, the sand blows across the track and it degrades a lot.

It’ll good to go back – Perth is one of the most popular races on the calendar.

“Last time we were there, there was no tyre deg and blistering like here; when we go back it should have calmed down.”

Dan McCarthy

JACOBSON BELIEVES MORE TOP 10S ARE AROUND THE CORNER ONE OF the surprise performances of the Australian Grand Prix weekend in the Supercars paddock was Garry Jacobson who scored three top 10 finishes with the PremiAir Racing team – but why was he so quick and can it be replicated?

Jacobson explained that the team reset after a difficult round in Tasmania and that was the main contribution to the success in Melbourne.

“We missed a couple of mechanical things that weren’t necessarily car handling things at Symmons Plains,” Jacobson told Auto Action.

“It was obviously the thing to fix, which is good, and we had a pretty hard chat after the round.

“We had a new gearbox, we had a new steering rack, and all of a sudden, I could go out and actually drive the car properly.

“It shows that when everything’s good, we can be competitive and that just shows that the car setup was far from the issue for us. It was just making sure that everything was reset – we had another go at things and I was able to go out there and go quicker straightaway.”

After struggling for straight-line speed in Tasmania, at Albert Park, Jacobson set the

Image: Motorsport Images fastest speed of anyone throughout the weekend, and this was giving him tenths of a second straight away.

“We achieved more straight-line speed so, naturally, the pressure was off me a little bit – I wasn’t trying to play catch up all the time,” he explained.

“At Symmons Plains we were up to 10km/h an hour slower down the end of each straight.

The extra straight-line speed helps me save my tyres too.”

Jacobson believes that the Australian Grand Prix track is a bit of an outlier as a fast-flowing circuit and knows it will not be a given that the team will in the top 10 in Perth – however he is confident that the team can steadily move forward.

“All of those elements I mentioned before have probably given the category a bit of a surprise to see my results improve so quick,” he said.

“I’m more than aware that this is one track out of the year, the motivation from Symmons Plains was we can’t be at the back of the field ... we have to keep improving.

“We wanted to implement the same focus and processes that Triple Eight do in-house and bring it into our own facility, which we will eventually have.

“We’re excited to ruffle a few feathers on the grid to try and fight for those championship points against the Tickford and DJR cars – if we can keep pushing, I believe that we can do that too.

“We want to work closely with Broc and Shane this year, that’s our intention.

“We know that we wouldn’t be able to have a car that’s competitive without their support and the relationship is very strong and in a good position at the moment.”

Dan McCarthy

Image: Motorsport Images

RANDLE EXPECTS RESULTS TO IMPROVE TICKFORD RACING debutant Thomas Randle has not had the start to the season he would have wanted – however believes he has had pace to be in and around the top 10 in the last two rounds.

So far in his rookie season Randle has yet to convert a race into a top 10 finish – however he has been up the pointy end at times.

Twice at the Australian Grand Prix he started inside the top 10, including a second row start for the final race. However, through mechanical issues and strategy mistakes he’s been unable to convert it to solid top 10 race finish.

“To be honest, this is probably the unluckiest season I’ve ever had,” he said to Auto Action at the Australian Grand Prix.

“It’s obviously frustrating because we definitely I feel like every round we’re getting better and better and we’ve certainly showed this week that we had really good car speed.

“I feel like best case scenario, if everything went right, we’d probably be in the 10 to 12 bracket. But everyone’s got a story up and down pit lane, I’m not the only one who had dramas.”

The former Super2 Series winner is however delighted to see that round upon round he making steps with his race engineer.

“We are getting stronger and stronger – at Tassie we finished 12th in the last race and that was quite legitimate,” he expressed.

“Then our race pace at the Grand Prix has

been quite strong – in some races we’ve had top five pace.

“There’s just a lot of things that aren’t going our way at the moment. They’re things that you don’t want to happen, but it just makes you stronger, doesn’t it?

“Ray Lau and myself, are working really well together, we had Nathanial Osborne join us this weekend for the first three days of the AGP, which I thought was really good for Ray and him to bounce ideas off each other – it certainly felt like we were really competitive.

“It’s just a shame for the team that we just can’t catch a break. We did have our best result yesterday, which was 11th, but I thought today, we could have had a top five finish.”

6 HOUR A HIT AUSTRALIAN RACING Group (ARG) CEO Matt Braid has celebrated a recordbreaking weekend at the 2022 Bathurst 6 Hour.

The event promised much, with 70 entries for the 6 Hour gathered prior to the Easter weekend, and delivered in spades as crowds flocked to Mount Panorama for a packed three days of racing.

A total of 18,422 fans attended and saw a race that will be remembered for the herculean efforts of Cameron Hill and Tom Sargent, who climbed from last to win the 6 Hour in their BMW M2.

The support categories also played their part, headlined by the TCR Australia Series and Trans Am Series. All in all, Braid was

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Image: Kalisz-ARG thrilled with how the event panned out.

“I think we were really pleased with it,” Braid told Auto Action.

“The crowd was up on last year, the racing was good.

“In the 6 Hour race there was a great battle towards the end, and a couple of young kids in a fast car working their way

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from the back to the front.

“We were disappointed not to get the record field – we would have liked to get that.

“Last year was the first 6 Hour under ARG ownership and we thought we lifted the bar from the previous events. This year, we were able to even lift it up a little bit further.”

Randle sits a disappointing 23rd in the championship but is extremely confident that luck will come his way.

In Perth Randle targets a couple more solid qualifying results, a track where he has historically gone well at in Super2.

“I’d love to get some more top 10 qualifying results; that would be a really good step for us and anything better would be a bonus,” Randle said. “We’re showing that we can be quite strong, as long as I put the lap together.

“I’d rather that and having things go wrong preventing us from a good result than just having no idea why we’re slow. We’ve got speed and we’re having bad luck, but I’m sure the luck will turn.” Dan McCarthy

Fans have also reacted positively to the event so far, as the early verdict arrives.

“It’s mostly positive,” Braid summarised.

“They’ve said it was organised quite well, access to the event was good. I think in some cases we had food stalls in areas where they weren’t really required.

“We’ll continue to optimise how the event is presented and how the fans are catered for.”

Looking to the future, Braid does not believe that too much tinkering with the traditional Bathurst enduro formula is necessary.

“I think we’re the level of what we saw on the weekend is what we want to present going forward and we’ll look at making a few changes here and there but really nothing too dramatic,” Braid concluded.

“We really want to preserve the amateur feeling of the event, it’s got its own soul.”

Josh Nevett

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THE TRADITIONAL grand prix ‘wake-up’ alarm of a Minardi Formula 1 car was silenced in 2022, but there was still the sound of V10 music playing first thing each morning at Albert Park this year. Six Melbourne Performance Centreprepared Audi R8 GT3 LMS Ultra machines took the track each day, giving fans and cashed-up visitors rides. The Audis of regular GT World Challenge Australia competitors Tony Bates and Fraser Rosser were in action, as well as the KFC cars and Launch Racing Australia’s R8. JN

RACING TOGETHER, the first ever indigenous motorsport team in Australia, will be tackling its second season of competition with peaking motivation after an access all areas experience at the Australian Grand Prix. Five members of the thriving squad were given tours of the Formula 1 and Supercars paddocks over the AGP weekend, taking in the sights and sounds of elite motorsport while meeting some of the biggest names in the business. JN

THE AUSTRALIAN Motor Racing Series (AMRS) has made a change to its 2022 calendar, moving the next round from South Australia to country Victoria. Winton Motor Raceway will now host the second round of the season from April 22-24, which was originally scheduled to be held at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Next weekend’s round becomes the “Thunder Sports Thunderdays” event, with Winton Motor Raceway member activities taking place at the circuit on the Sunday. No further changes have been made at this stage. JN

FORMER SUPERCAR driver and Bathurst 24 Hour winner Cameron McConville has been appointed as the Motorsport Commercial Manager at Porsche Centre Melbourne Motorsport. McConville made 330 appearances in Supercars and competed in Carrera Cup late in his career, finishing seventh in the championship in 2017 with Zagame Autosport. In Carrera Cup PCMM has a three-driver team including Nick McBride in the Pro class, Marc Cini in Pro-Am and Matt Belford who also competes in Pro-Am. JN MICHELIN HAS extended its support of the Ricciardo’s Racers and Australian FIA Girls on Track programs.

Girls on Track ambassadors will now act as mentors to program participants, providing support to young girls beginning their journey in motorsport. Michelin will also provide race suits and support for all program participants. For Ricciardo’s Racers, Michelin will provide tyres for the vehicles used by participants as a partner of the junior development program. JN

10 I www.autoaction.com.au

Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG

PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF

CAMERON HILL and Tom Sargent very nearly pulled the pin on their Bathurst 6 Hour program – however they persisted and, incredibly, won the race from 61st on the grid.

In the lead-up to the race Hill, Sargent and the whole CHE Racing operation put in over 100-hour weeks to get the brandnew BMW M2 Competition completed, but now they can say it was worth the effort.

“About a month and a half ago we were honestly thinking ‘do we just give up now?’” team coowner and driver Hill said.

“It was just so far from being done – it didn’t even have a fuel tank – and the race was getting closer, but we said ‘no, we’ll crack on with it’ and it turned its first laps last week.”

Sargent agreed, explaining the lengths the team went to get it on the Bathurst 6 Hour grid.

“I was very fortunate that I was able to be heavily involved in the build. A lot of us put in constant 100-hour weeks to get this

car here and at the time I was questioning whether it was worth it, but I can say right now that it was worth it!” Sargent explained.

“All those times getting home at 2am and living off pizza for a week made it a bit ‘how-yougoing’, but it’s all worth it now.

“The amount of people behind the scenes that have gotten this car here blows my mind.”

With such little testing on the car leading into the weekend, reliability was a potential issue but the car performed faultlessly.

The only issue the team had was failing the technical inspection following qualifying which forced them to start from the back of the grid.

In the final stint, Hill hunted down and overtook Tim Slade in a thrilling battle with a brave move at Brock’s Skyline.

“I just hunted him down ... I think we broke the lap record along the way. I was really struggling to find a way past him, I could see he was struggling, but he put the car in the right places and I couldn’t

do much,” Hill said.

“I realised he [Slade] was a bit weak at McPhillamy Park and I just thought if I could get a run through here, and send it up there, it’s on. We did it, it stuck, and the rest is history.”

Hill already signalled his intentions to try and go back-toback in 2023.

“I think we’ll have to come back next year and defend,” he said.

Dan McCarthy

CRESTING THE HILL DESPITE NOT having the results to show for it, Hill impressed in his maiden Super2 Series round.

In just his second race he started from third place but into Turn 2 was spun by Angelo Mouzouris. Hill recovered to finish 11th but it was a case of what might have been. The Carrera Cup Series winner says that he was not surprised how quickly he adjusted to a Supercar.

“To be honest, no it wasn’t a surprise,” he said to Auto Action. “As a driver, you always want to know that you’re not too far off.

“The quali lap I backed off to give myself some space to Declan Fraser was the lap he went to the top, so I said ‘ah bugger I could have been on pole.’

“It’s really funny how quickly your expectations can change. If I’d been third on Saturday, I probably would have been over the moon.

“But I came out on Sunday and wanted to make sure I put my best foot forward and I feel like I did, but some things are out of out of your control.”

Hill told AA that he joined Triple Eight to do one thing – and is not ruling himself out of doing that as a rookie.

“It might sound outlandish, but the reason I decided to go with Triple Eight was because I want to try and win the series,” he said. “They are the best team to give me that opportunity because ideally, I want to be putting myself in the frame for main game drives, be that co-drives or ultimately a full time seat.

“I may be a rookie to Super2, but I feel like having competed in Carrera Cup for the last few years, where we dominated the championship ahead of a pretty stacked field, for me, it’s about getting in and adjusting to the Supercar and driving fast.” Dan McCarthy

NEW TYRE KEY TO HYUNDAI’S BATHURST PACE THE BATHURST TCR Australia round was surprisingly strong for the Hyundai contingent at a track where, historically, they have been very weak.

Prior to the most recent round at Bathurst last weekend the Hyundai i30N’s have struggled to finish inside of the top 10 – this time around it was a very different story.

Rookie Bailey Sweeny earned his maiden race win in the inverted top 10 grid race, winning the race by over 10s, while Josh Buchan scored two top five finishes including a podium.

Buchan credits the performance to the new Michelin tyre which made its debut in the TCR Australia Series in the second round.

“I actually think the car was a top six, seven car on outright pace,” he said.

Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG “That’s down to the new Michelin tyre – it brings our car alive a bit. With how twitchy it normally is, the new tyres give us a little more rear grip to give us confidence across the top.

“It was bloody fast across the top I tell you!

“Obviously, the reverse top 10 in Race 2 helped us massively.

Without that, it would be a

struggle to get to the front.”

Three top 10 finishes over the weekend has propelled the HMO Customer Racing driver back into title contention after a difficult round at Phillip Island, a track which ironically has always been strong for the Korean hot hatchback.

“It’s the weekend we should have had at Phillip Island and it

goes to show in TCR the guys who are meant to win might not always,” he said.

“Then the guys who do the right thing, stay out of trouble to get a result.”

Looking ahead to the next round at Sydney Motorsport Park, Buchan recalled the strong pace he has their previously and is expecting to be right up the pointy end.

“Home track ... it’s probably my strongest circuit and I think the car’s strongest circuit,” Buchan expressed.

“We might qualify well and do well in Race 1, but the second reverse grid event really sets up your weekend.

“Let’s just see what happens because it’s as much guesswork for me as it is the people watching on Stan Sport.”

Dan McCarthy

EXPENSIVE DEBUT FOR NEW CARRERA CUP CARS THE DEBUT of the new generation 992 911 GT3 Cup Car at the Australian Grand Prix produced a damage bill comfortably surpassing six figures, according to Porsche Motorsport Manager Barry Hay. The newly redesigned and resurfaced Albert Park circuit brought several drivers undone over the four races, with many cars from both the Pro and Pro-Am classes involved in crashes.

A total of seven cars failed to finish the final race on Sunday, perhaps the most defining shunt involving Aaron Love and Luke Youlden, when the former ended up in the gravel while pursuing a fourth consecutive victory.

The carnage ranged from cosmetic scuffs to chassis damage and even the destruction of an engine, leaving an eye watering bill after Round 1 according to Hay. “You’d have to think a total of $250,000 or $300,000 for the weekend over all the competitors,” Hay told Auto Action.

“There would be a couple of hundred thousand in damage for the Porsche Centre Melbourne guys.

“We’ve certainly gone through a full truckload of spares. We bought in vans with another $100,000 worth of gear in them on Friday night and we’ve used all of that. We’ve used a

Max Vidau (72) and Michael Almond (25) in sync ... complete engine,– the engine out of Callum Hedge’s car was totally seized.

“Spares have been an issue for us and for Porsche in general because a lot of stuff is manufactured in Ukraine.”

Thankfully for the category, the cars were a picture of reliability at the Australian Grand Prix, giving Hay confidence that the upcoming round at Winton Raceway will be a less costly affair.

“As far as the car goes, we had some teething problems early on – gearbox recalls and a few fuel pressure problems,” Hay explained.

“But over the Australian Grand Prix weekend, we haven’t had one issue that we’ve had to get on top of, so

you couldn’t be happier with that for a new model.”

Furthermore, even a raft of collisions couldn’t prevent all 31 cars from starting the final race of the weekend.

“I haven’t gone back through the record books, but I think it would be probably 15 years ago that we last finished on the Sunday with the exact same number of cars that we started the weekend with,” Hay said with satisfaction.

“Normally, this is a shocking track for most categories, especially Porsche – we tear up a minimum of two body shells with massive damage. Not this time.”

Josh Nevett

CAMERON BACK IN CONTENTION TCR AUSTRALIA Series steerer Aaron Cameron believes that he is back in title contention after taking a round victory at Mount Panorama.

Cameron scored two race wins in his Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308 TCR at The Mountain, launching him to fifth in the standings are a disappointing start to the campaign.

With a huge points haul in the bag, the racer is confident that his season is back on track.

“It puts us back into some sort of title contention,” Cameron said.

“I think it’s our race car package that’s made big leaps.

“We were always decent in qualifying to get it up there, but I could never stay on for a race last year. So, this year we are good in quali and in the race it doesn’t go off anymore.

“We’re still a long way off and there is still a long way to go in the year. We’re just focused on making the car as fast as we can and doing the best job we can.”

With a wave of momentum behind him, Cameron will be keenly waiting for the next round to get underway at Sydney Motorsport Park from May 27-29, despite underperforming at the track last year.

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Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG “Last year we struggled at Sydney Motorsport Park big time, I think that was my worst round,” Cameron conceded.

“We’ve made some big gains and I think it can transfer over.”

It’s been a busy year so far for the 22-year-old Victorian, who has complemented his fulltime TCR commitments with an S5000 appearance at the Australian Grand Prix and a start in the Bathurst 6 Hour.

Asked if he would look to pursue further opportunities outside of TCR, Cameron expressed that he was open to anything that might come his way.

“Whatever comes up really, I always want to do as much as I can,” Cameron told Auto Action.

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“I’m just trying to do stuff that doesn’t clash too much with TCR because TCR is the main focus.

“I do love doing other categories as well like the 6 Hour, which clashed with TCR but I’ll let that one slide.”

Speaking a little more specifically, Cameron showed enthusiasm for a category where he could directly display his skills in a front-wheel-drive TCR machine.

“Obviously, like Luke King, I’d love to do something in WTCR but it’s not really an option at the moment,” Cameron said.

“So, it’s S5000 and TCR for now.

“We’ll see what happens.”

Josh Nevett

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AUSSIE JACK Doohan ended Formula 2 testing on a high, setting the third best time in Barcelona as championship leader Felipe Drugovich took bragging rights. Times were considerably faster on the final day thanks to warmer conditions, Drugovich managed a 1m 27.529s to best Liam Lawson by 0.291s and Virtuosi Racing’s Doohan by 0.309s. Six drivers broke the 1m 28s barrier, all on the final morning. The other Aussie in the field, Calan Williams, was 11th fastest with a 1m 28.222s. JN

THE BATHURST 12 Hour will be broadcast live on Fox Sports, Kayo Sports and the Seven Network with coverage on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s coverage is exclusive for Fox Sports and Kayo customers and will include support category action and qualifying, concluding with the Top 10 Shootout. Coverage on Sunday will commence at 5:00am AEST on Fox Sports, Kayo Sports and Seven, all three showing the duration of the race and concluding at 5:30pm AEST. DM

HONG KONG squad Craft-Bamboo Racing will return to Mount Panorama for the 2022 edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour, pursuing redemption after just missing a podium position in 2020. The team has made five starts at Bathurst and will bring its Mercedes-AMG GT3 to Australia with the hopes of bettering its best finish of P3 overall in the 2015 race. While a race entry has been confirmed, Craft-Bamboo Racing will reveal its new livery and driver line-up at a later date. JN

JAPANESE MANUFACTURER Nissan has taken over the operation of e.dams race team in the Formula E World Championship. The two companies have shared a partnership in Formula since 2018, competing as the Nissan e.dams Formula E Team, however now Nissan has acquired the Le-Mans based team as the new Gen3 era of Formula E approaches. As part of the ownership transfer, Tommaso Volpe, General Manager of Nissan Formula E, will also become managing director at e.dams. JN

THE HYBRID era is just about upon us in the British Touring Car Championship, with pre-season testing concluding at Thruxton. Reigning champion Ash Sutton topped the timesheets, setting a 1m 15.607s to outpace Jake Hill by just over one tenth. The winning time was comfortably quicker than the previous race lap record set by Tom Ingram in 2020, a 1m 16.206s. JN

12 I www.autoaction.com.au

THUMBS UP FOR 992 CUP CAR THE NEW generation Porsche 992 911 GT3 Cup Car has been given a glowing endorsement by both drivers and category manager Barry Hay after its Australian debut at the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The Albert Park round was the first competitive outing for the 992 down under after it was used in Carrera Cup competitions overseas in 2021.

While alterations to the Melbourne lakeside track made it difficult to directly compare the new generation to its predecessor in terms of speed and quality of racing, the cars made overtakes freely and are known to be quicker on all types of circuit.

TekworkX driver Luke Youlden was particularly fond of the new turbo-spec widebody Cup Car, after lapping fastest in practice at the AGP. “I think it suits my driving style a bit more,” Youlden told Auto Action.

“It’s more like a GT car – you have to hustle it little bit more.”

Comparisons to the experience of a GT car have been plentiful since the 992 Cup’s introduction, however series debutant Brad Shiels said the fresh metal had a character of its own.

“It’s really cool,” Shiels told Auto Action.

“I’ve driven a lot of Australian GT spec Porsches – it’s quite different to that. I thought it’d be similar to a GT car, but there’s still a lot of Cup Car traits to it.”

One box that the 992 definitely ticked in the season opener was reliability – teams across the paddock reported a clean bill of health and said that Porsche had been on hand to address any issues during testing.

“We’ve had no issues, even through testing it’s been quite good,” Youlden said.

“There’s been lots of updates over the last month from Porsche, just pointing out things overseas and making sure they don’t

happen to our car.

“I think all cars have had just minor things updated to try and make it more reliable.”

In summarising the weekend, Hay celebrated better quality racing, promising reliability and a spectacle that was worthy of the occasion.

“The weekend was great,” a smiling Hay said.

“We’ve had the biggest field we’ve ever had in Carrera Cup in Australia.

“The racing previously in Porsche used to be a bit exciting for the first lap and they’d follow each other in a bit of a procession but you’ve got to say this time around the racing was good, they’re four-wide into corners.

“The new tyre is fantastic, it doesn’t suffer any serious degradation.

“As far as the whole package goes and the racing this new car has produced, I couldn’t be happier.”

Josh Nevett

AGP A PERFECT SPRINGBOARD FOR LOVE PORSCHE RACER Aaron Love stood out with a hattrick of Carrera Cup Australia Championship wins at the Australian Grand Prix, an experience which he believed was perfect preparation for his Carrera Cup France debut one week later.

Love signed on with French squad Martinet by Almeras for the 2022 Carrera Cup France season after finishing fifth in the Australian competition, committing to a full season of overseas racing.

Last weekend, the youngster finished fifth in his first start at Nogaro, taking no time to adapt to his new surroundings.

The result vindicated Love’s decision to make a one-off Aussie appearance with Sonic Motor Racing Services, which gave him valuable experience in the otherwise unfamiliar 992 generation Cup Car. “It was definitely a big factor, to get a bit more experience in the

Image: Motorsport Images 992 because all the other drivers over in Europe have done a full year in the car,” Love told Auto Action at Albert Park.

“It’s quite a nice way to start off the year and sort of ease into it because it’s just quite a big step going over to Europe with a team, car and circuits that I don’t know very well.

“I did a few tests with the team in France – it was good to be able to do those tests with a team that has a fairly large amount of knowledge about the

car seeing they ran it last year.”

Despite his scintillating form at Albert Park, Love understands that it will not necessarily be an easy transition to the French series.

Acclimatising comes first, before race wins enter his agenda.

“Not having driven the car much makes it a bit tougher initially, but after one or two races then I’ve got to get into the mentality of ‘we’ve done a fair bit, we need to crack on with the

business here and get our heads down’,” Love said.

“I’ll never quite be fully satisfied until I’m walking away with race wins, but to begin with it’s about settling in and learning, forming a good relationship with the team.

“The goal is to be fighting with the rest of the rookies and a few of the other young drivers.”

Love is the latest in a long line of Aussies who have pursued the Porsche dream overseas, joining the likes of Matt Campbell, Jaxon Evans and his brother Jordan Love.

The career paths of those trailblazers are an inspiration to Love junior, who is in for the long haul.

“One of my goals is to get into endurance racing, whether it be with Porsche or a different manufacturer,” Love concluded.

“I think for us young drivers Porsche puts on a great platform to really show ourselves and our true talents. It’s just a great way to do it.” Josh Nevett

THE PUNTERS AND DIFFICULT PRE-SEASON FOR AUS MOTOGP MEN THE PUNTED

Gardner’s injury comes after he pipped AUSTRALIAN REMY Gardner, set to his as teammate Fernandez makeWERE his MotoGP justthe five THERE plenty ofdebut shuntsinover take he was denied a spotto onthe theMoto2 steps.

Championship in 2021. weeks, Championship has fractured round his right wrist. Park, Supercars at Albert “I’m frustrated, it’s disappointing, ... we race pretty His fellow MotoGP rider Gardner suffinvolved ered thehad injury in a ‘small’ and all the drivers something to hard.

I like racingAustralian hard but fair, ” Courtney said.Jack Miller haslike also not had the pre-season saymotocross about them.training accident on Saturday “But I felt that was a little outside the he was planning. the January 15 controversial and required surgery Perhaps the most incident wasby Dr boundaries.

When back Australia the pushing really Mir, MotoGP’s own between Chaz Mostert anddoctor.

James Courtney in “On the last lap,in when we’ve been Queenslander to Covid-19 procedure took together place inatBarcelona RaceThe 7, when the pair came the final hard, and to get thetested podiumpositive taken away, it’s pretty just days before returning to Italy, his on while the following corner fighting forTuesday, a podiumduring finish. which disappointing. ” Image: Motorsport Images mandatory self-isolation hascoming forcedfrom the Drcollision Mir placed screws Gardner’s The sent two Courtney intointhe wall and There was surprisingly less heat factory Ducati team postpone injured wristwhile to help him crossed recover.the line down the order, Mostert Will Davison after he wasto punted in Raceits7 by launch Waters, from January to February 7. reported operation waspenalty a fourthMir before he wasthe dealt a post-race Cameron souring 28 a weekend in which However, speaking more generally, Davison not shunt guys out of the way” Miller tested for Covid-19 success and that Gardner would be which saw him ranked 22nd.

Dick“Jack Johnson Racing hadpositive strong pace. made it clear that there were some unsavoury Erebus Motorsport driver Will Brown was after a molecular on able start recovery in” coming days “I’m nottohere to his mow the lawns, a defensive Watersundergoing was late on the brakes andtest ploughed tactics being employed across the field. someone willing to admit he had made a mistake Wednesday 19 January, ” a Ducati presshim ahead of after the first of theran MotoGP Mostert said he initially wide atprethe into the rear of Davison’ s Mustang, propelling “Driving standards are getting pretty in Melbourne, after receiving a penalty for contact release stated. season tests in Malaysia. penultimate corner. into the gravel. desperate,” Davison added. with Andre Heimgartner between Turns 13 and 14.

“Therefore, to leave foraway, Europe Although preparation heading “I race hard, butnot youideal get what you’re given.

“Cam came andunable apologised straight “Guys are getting away with more so they’re “The penalty was disappointing,” Brown told to take parta mistake in the off photo move, shoot into histomaiden MotoGP season, “I’m here race – there’ s a trophy on the line.”

I knew it was noticial a passing ” of taking more.

Auto Action. “But ihat was my own fault.” the Ducati Lenovo Gardnerunderstandably is positive he will fine for the Davison Courtney hadbe a different told Auto Action.Team 2022. For this “It’s not the way I roll to be honest, I’d rather Josh Nevett reason, the presentation of the team has rookie ‘Shakedown’ test at the Sepang been postponed to February 7.”

International Circuit which takes place Miller himself reported on social media from January 31-February 2.

Summers – youngest of three debutants, that he was fine, but disappointed not “Small motocross crash,” Gardner said along with Seb Amadio and Matt Chahda to be able to traveland when originally on AFacebook.

“Operation went well.

AFTER two-year wait to resume racing international visitors were surprised – impressed onlookers with a mature scheduled.

Shouldn’t mePrix, down though.” complimentary at the Australianslow F1 Grand S5000’s about the whole S5000 performance.

“Unfortunately, I’m still here at home and his fellow rookie, Tech debutGardner appearance at Albert Park was show.

“The GP is obviously the sort of event in Australia due toyoutesting positive for 3 aKTM teammate rated significant success.Raul Fernandez, will “In and around the F1 paddock, that motivates new competitors to get Corona, solike I’mMartin currently unable to travel,” in Malaysia before they take partinto visiting Aremain 16-car grid of the all-Australian bump people their program together, and of course he said in a types video.and the in the first offseaters icial 2022 MotoGP preV8-powered single contested Brundle and other F1 media we hope they will continue to run, in the “I just to ”let you all know that season the same venue lesscomments than were three races – test albeitatone in near dark reallywant positive, Lambden remainder of the series. Conor showed I’m doing fine, no symptoms, still able a week later. conditions after an over-run by F1 – with told Auto Action. that a solid karting and Formula Ford to continue TheJoey final pre-season at we’ve found, Sydney’s Mawson building test a solidwill occur“As when youon seewith – my training and background can be a good base for Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG whatnot onthe the farm but yeah, just Mandalika International Circuit leadthe in the S5000 Australian Drivers Street and hear – S5000 cars inhere real life, entering S5000.” toFair travel at above this point in time. ” Dan from February 11-13, just weeks before Championship. impression isunable magnified. to say, Davison (cousin of Will and Alex) returned Practice – a rare S5000 tech issue spoiled The S5000 Australian Drivers McCarthy hosting its the maiden MotoGP round.all the other good Fans crowded category’s things, the V8 ‘noise’ is to complete unfinished business after his race performance.

Championship continues at SMP late in paddock area and, according to S5000’s a hit …” being part of the cancelled 2020 event, At the other end of the scale, leading May, Darwin in June, and Sandown in development manager Chris Lambden, Experienced US-based Aussie James although after showing pace – second in Victorian Formula Ford racer Conor September. Dan McCarthy

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NEWS EXTRA

THE ALPINE CLIMBER OSCAR PIASTRI’S F1 TEAM BOSS IS ALSO HIS NUMBER ONE FAN. HE IS ADAMANT HIS YOUNG UP-AND-COMER IS CHAMPIONSHIP MATERIAL...

Images: Motorsport Images

By Paul Gover IF ANYONE holds the #1 membership to the Oscar Piastri fan club it is his new boss, Laurent Rossi.

He cannot stop saying good things about the young Aussie he is grooming for a race place with Alpine in 2023.

“You know that I value this guy very much. Otherwise I would not have chosen him as a Reserve Driver,” Rossi begins.

But there is more to Rossi than Piastri and Formula One. The 46-year-old Frenchman is one of the heavy hitters in the global automotive world and on the fast-track to bigger challenges, and successes, in the future.

He has been hand-picked by Renault boss Luca de Meo to lead Alpine, not just in grand prix racing but also as a car brand. It’s one of the famous names

14 I www.autoaction.com.au

in French motoring, although it’s never been more than just a tiddler in Australia despite the qualities of the lightweight sports car it brought down under in an unsuccessful attempt to challenge Porsche.

He is whip-crack smart, engaging and entertaining, and just as relaxed in the Alpine facility at Albert Park as he is at home in France with his two children.

Rossi was parachuted into the F1 world last year when the Alpine team was in relative disarray and since then there have been big changes.

Former F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul is as well known for his spats with Red Bull’s Christian Horner as the tattoo that Daniel Ricciardo inflicted on him with a podium place at Renault in 2020.

But Abiteboul was not the only one to exit, as former world champion Alain

Prost is now also missing from the French team’s garage.

Instead, Rossi has brought Otmar Szafnauer across from Aston Martin to inject the stability and drive he believes the team needs for 2022 and beyond.

Szafnauer, nicknamed ’The Schnauzer’, is highly respected throughout F1 and has done great things in the past with Aston as it wore names including Force India.

Sitting quietly at Albert Park, on a weekend that was tough despite the speed of Fernando Alonso, Rossi is keen to talk.

He is most keen to talk about Piastri as he hosts a round-table discussion with Australian journalists.

“Oscar is something else. we have seen him up close in the (Alpine) Academy.

A brilliant driver, breaking records,” he says.

And then, totally unprompted, the bombshell.

“He is one of the future champions of Formula One.” Just like that. Plain and simple. A statement of fact as much as an opinion.

“We are going to develop Oscar. And make sure.

It’s not even a question of ‘if’, only ‘when’.

“We want him to be the best-prepared rookie ever. There is going to be an intensive test program. A lot of test

days. A lot of simulator work.”

If Rossi was a politician, or a marketer, some of this talk could be dismissed as puffery and bla-bla.

But the man is a brilliant engineer whose education includes a Masters degree in mechanical engineering in automotive engines and petroleum products as well as a second Masters in fluid mechanics.

In F1, those are the sort of qualifications that would fast-track an engineer into the technical department and straight to the top of the sport.

“ ”

““We feel like Oscar can probably bring more than less-seasoned drivers from the simulator. Oscar has better input and better feedback... ”

So it would be very difficult to pull any wool over his eyes.

And then he has the management training and experience that comes from a major carmaker such as Renault.

Switching back to Piastri, Rossi believes he can extract better feedback from the youngster than his race drivers. Yes, really.

“We feel like Oscar can probably bring more than less-seasoned drivers from the simulator. Oscar has better input and better feedback.

“He is going to learn a lot and bring a lot to us as well.”

That’s one of the reasons why Piastri is deeply embedded in every technical session at grands prix, because he can give as well as taking.

“He is getting a lot of information. Lots of experience. It’s much more intense than a rookie or reserve program would usually get.”

So, is Rossi a fan of his rookie wins in the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships, or his raw speed?

Actually, it’s something else.

“You see it on track. So I’m not going to state the obvious. Wherever he is going he is breaking records.

“He is extremely smart and mature for his age. Like extremely smart.

“He was asking questions about how we operate. The business of Alpine. The questions are really impressive. And also he is smart enough to understand the answers.

“I’ve seen other drivers in the Alpine

Academy who are not as curious as him.”

If Piastri is so good, then, why was he not driving? And when will he join a Free Practice session in place of Ocon or Alonso?

“We love the idea. I love the idea. It would be a great story,” Rossi begin.

“But, to be honest, the cars are extremely new. Very fragile.

“The drivers are still learning. We are still learning. Every Free Practice is important.

“It’s one thing to be the regular driver and break the car; it’s another thing if you put that pressure on a roookie.”

So, then when?

“We have a couple of grands prix that are earmarked as possible. Where the regular drivers are very comfortable.

And at grands prix where the stakes are not so high.

“To mitigate expectations, it is very unlikely this happens before the end of the first half (of the season).”

Deeper into the future, something has to change – for Alonso or Ocon’s contract – to get Piastri into a car next year.

“It’s very early in the season for us to position any driver,” is all Rossi is saying.

But he has lots more on the longer future.

“I would love to have Oscar as my driver for the future of Alpine. When we get to the top of the podiums. For me, the ideal scenario is that he wins races, if not championships, with us.

“This is basically what we try to achieve.”

And he is also open to a loan, where Piastri races somewhere for experience before returning to Alpine.

“If it’s a solution that allows me to get him back at some point … I might think about that. I’m not opposed to solutions.

“I want to develop Oscar. I don’t want him sitting on the bench, wating forever.

He is very worthy of one of the top 20 positions in Formula One.” Then, again as a wrap, his final verdict.

“I’m sure he has potential to be world champion,” Rossi says with a smile.

Above: three into two doesn’t go ... Alpine currently has an embarrassment of riches – but long-term plans for Oscar Piastri.

Below and far left: Fernando Alonso’s contract does currently expire at the end of this year, but the former champ is on form and showing no great desire to call it quits ...

Below left: Esteban Ocon’s contract goes through ton the end of 2023.

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CLICKING INTO PLACE FOR MCCORKINDALE AFTER A tough first couple of rounds in the National Trans Am Series things clicked into place for Jon McCorkindale who is confident of continuing this momentum forward after Bathurst.

The former V8 Touring Car/Super3 Series race winner and Super2 competitor moved into the National Trans Am Series this year as it was a much more affordable way of going racing.

Round 1 at Symmons Plains did not go to plan, the team failing to finishing inside the top 10 after an early weekend collision with Nash Morris.

Phillip Island saw a step in the right direction with a couple of top 10 finishes, however at Bathurst last week he finished all three races inside the top five.

McCorkindale explained that he has not reinvented the wheel; things are just starting to come together.

“It’s great to just put it all together,” he said at the conclusion of the round. “All the ideas that we had we’ve needed to adjust and rethink, but we’re finally getting it all to click.

“It’s basic stuff that we’re doing, but it’s starting to add up.

“We’ve stayed at the front all weekend and we’re just making minor tweaks and we had one, which was a guesstimation this morning, but it worked.

“We’ve got ideas but never trusted ourselves, but now it’s just us and we roll with those ideas.”

He explained that in the third and final race in which he finished a season high fourth he saw a positive sign.

“It’s starting to get to a point where we are racing against some really good guys that race clean – the only scratch on the car was self-inflicted, so it’s becoming a really enjoyable weekend,” he continued.

“We’ve been able to get pace, but being able to sustain it is another thing and in that last race was the first time we’ve been getting stronger as the race went on where all the other times we’ve been weaker.”

Dan McCarthy

Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG

MAWSON SEES GOLDING AS CHALLENGER

ALTHOUGH JAMES Golding had a challenging AGP weekend in the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, series leader Joey Mawson still believes the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver is the man to beat.

It was a near perfect round for the reigning Gold Star Champion who took pole position and won Race 1 and the double points Feature Race at Albert Park and now leads the championship with a small margin.

In Race 1 Golding tried an overly-ambitious move around the outside of Mawson at Turn 3 on the opening lap, dribbling of the road before spinning a second time at Turn 9.

These excursions affected the remainder of his weekend and as a result dropped him to fourth in the standings behind Tim Macrow and Cooper Webster.

Despite that, Mawson still sees Golding

as his major threat with three rounds remaining and expects him to fight back at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“Honestly, I still see him as my main rival,” Mawson expressed to Auto Action.

“Timmy is always going to be a dark horse and you can never count him out because he’s always there at the end of the weekend.

“But I think from a pace point of view, GRM has been the benchmark. Jimmy on speed, you can never count him out, but obviously I’m going to try to keep that championship lead healthy.

“GRM is always very quick at Sydney Motorsport Park. We’ve always got a very strong car there, but we just never really had the best luck. Obviously hoping for a clean weekend at home and hopefully home rewards me with a good round.”

Golding’s challenging round was

Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG

compounded by the fact that there were many non-regular drivers including his teammates Nathan Herne and Aaron Cameron who were both pinching points from him.

“Going into the weekend my team boss, Mark Rundle said the AGP is going to be one of the most crucial weekends in the championship because there’s more people on the grid,” Mawson recalled.

“If you have a good weekend, it’s going to help extend the lead by more and if you have a bad weekend, you’re going to lose more ground.

“To be able to maximise that is absolutely fantastic, I had such a good weekend, the car’s been faultless, so it gave us a good swing in the championship and we’re hoping to carry this momentum forward.”

Dan McCarthy

DAVISON 6 HOUR ENTRY WILL DAVISON intends to return to the growing Bathurst 6 Hour event in the future as part of a family driver line-up.

This year Davison made his debut in the Bathurst 6 Hour racing with former winners Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey in a BMW M3.

Sadly, the trio stuck electronic componentry issues in the opening lap when running fourth; they went many laps down and as a result were never in contention.

Leading into the event, Davison expressed his interest in the family teams with the likes of former Supercars full-timer Steven Ellery racing with his sons Tristan and Dalton, and the Russell

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family from Newcastle containing former Supercar driver Aaron, Drew and Wayne.

Other families in the race included Bathurst 1000 winning surnames Bargwanna and McLeod, with 1987 ‘Great Race’ winner Peter McLeod making his racing return.

“It’s good to see family cars – the Russell family and the Ellery family – I think that’s really cool,” Davison told Auto Action.

“It’s something that, one day my dad, my brother, and I would love to do.”

The only hiccup currently is that both Will and Alex are classed as Pro drivers and under the rules only one Pro driver can compete in each entry. However one could be involved in another way, or wait

until either Alex or Will is no longer classed as a pro-driver.

It was planned leading into the 2022 race that Will and Alex’s father Richard Davison, a former winner of the 1980 Australian Formula 2 Championship, was going to compete in the 6 Hour in an older model BMW, however plans fell through late on.

“Hopefully we can put something together down the road for the three of us to tackle the race, certainly one thing we’d love to tick off the list as a family to do

Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG together,” Will concluded.

Even if all three are not drivers it would certainly be great to see a couple of Davison’s share a race contending car.

Dan McCarthy

MULTIPLE FORMULA FORD MANUFACTURERS NOW LIKELY FORMULA FORD is now likely to remain as a multiple manufacturer category after Motorsport Australia took note of competitor feedback.

Motorsport Australia Director of Motorsport and Commercial Operations Michael Smith opened up to Auto Action about the current state of play in the incredibly popular Australian Formula Ford category.

Smith explained that the original idea Formula Ford now appears to be substantially less likely after listening to competitors views.

“We’re really wanting the DNA to stay the same,” he said to AA. “I know one of our preliminary recommendations was to look at a single manufacturer path,” he said.

“Whilst the (Formula Ford) working group hasn’t formed a view, one way or another on that, I think we’re coming around to the view that, potentially a multi-manufacturer format would be a better path to go, because that’s consistent with what Formula Ford has always LONG-TIME been in this country.

AA’S “We had the stakeholder forum, we COLUMNIST then had the survey, and then we REFLECTS ON AN invited people to make submissions.

“We’ve taken the time to speak to every single one of those people or email every single one of those people.

“I guess as a consequence of that we’ve come around to the view that perhaps a multi-manufacturer concept is the way to go.”

Smith feels that if they can get the rules right, then a multi-manufacturer series will continue to work successfully.

“In order to do that (a multi-brand category) you have to get the rules right, we know that, it’s a lot simpler to craft a set of rules when you’re only have one homologated manufacturer.

evolution of Formula Ford Racing, as distinct from trying to introduce something that’s entirely new that we know with our Formula 4 experience hasn’t worked.”

Smith also admitted that the plan for a 2023 introduction along with the reintroduction of championship status is looking ambitious.

“If I’m being really honest, I think 2023 introduction might be a bit ambitious at this point,” Smith felt.

“But we haven’t formed a fixed view on that, the Formula Ford Association “But ultimately, if we’re, wanting to of course, will be key to all of this as achieve or carry on the philosophy of well.

Formula Ford Racing we need to be “What I will say is our current thinking able to do it in a multi-manufacturer is to run Formula Ford, the current Image: environment.” cars as a national series next year, and Smith believes the reason that then at a point in time, whether that’s Formula 4 did not work in Australia 2023 or 2024, we will introduce a new was because it did not appeal to the car as a championship.

Australian motor sport scene, this is “We’d run existing cars in parallel why it is essential that Formula Ford with the new ones as sort of a mixed remains as close as possible to its grid and that would happen for a roots. period, broadly speaking, I’d be “Formula 4 didn’t work here,” he anticipating that it’d be three to five BMW-fest at the pointy-end. Variety Meantime, Stan’s commercial-free admitted. “It’s clear, people are very years, something like that. in outright competition must come coverage was fantastic. Anyone passionate about Formula Ford Racing “I guess ultimately, it depends on the of marques it was not live on free-to-air “Our thinking isthrough have itanasassortment an take up moaning of any new car. DM

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE 6-HOUR with Luke West

EASTER TREAT

rather than multiple propellormust love spending their precious FORGIVE ME if this column seems badged Bavarian models.

Sundays watching commercials. like a collection of random reflections The M3s and M4s fell like flies in Yes, Stan is behind a paywall, but it about last weekend’s Hi-Tec Oils the first hour, mostly due to electronic seems smokes, grog, gambling, junk Bathurst 6-Hour. That’s because maladies, but rose from the dead food and other vices are really more of the illustrious names that won in the ONE OF the country’s longest serving many disparate thoughts ran through Canberran to ‘announce’ his arrival.

Lexus RC F V8, which made its to march up the field again. As I’ve important to the whingers than racing. category administrators Margaret Hardy category. my head as I watched Stan Sport’s Yes, I know the 2015 Australian debut this year, was in the mix for an written before, not knowing if the These are much the same people Hardy assisted all of these drivers on passed away from cancer on Thursday uninterrupted coverage of Easter Formula Ford title winner has been outright win… leaders are going to last the distance who bemoan, “I wish they’d go back their route to Australia’s top-level.

August 19.

Sunday’s production car enduro. on the scene for a while, but there’s Of course, old-timers like me recall makes for a compelling race. This to racing production cars.” The fact She was liked by all who knew her Hardy was involved in motor racing It was truly a thought-provoking just so many emerging drivers trying the halcyon days of the national is a very under-rated aspect of remains that production car racing is in the industry which is why the motor for decades and was known for her and entertaining affair, especially the to stand out from the crowd and championship – and Amaroo Park’s motorsport magnetism. alive and well. It’s not exactly an oldsport community is sad to hear of her dedication to Formula Ford. battle for the lead with 30 minutes Hill’s amazing move achieved exactly parallel Stallion Stables series – The 6-Hour mirrors the old-style fashion ‘showroom showdown’, but passing.

Hardy joined the Light Car Club as remaining as Tim Slade used every that. when the Group E car to have Great Races in so many ways, it’s the closest thing possible in this During her time in the category, the office manager and began working trick in the Wily Race Driver’s In recent years a variety of changed from season to season. quite apart from the 2022 winners day and age. For it to flourish, it has she was named a Life Member of the with the Australian Formula Ford Handbook in his attempt to keep M BMWs could win the Easter Mitsubishi Starion one year, second covering 130 laps, just like the preto be viable for commercial investors Formula Ford Association. championship 1978, doing paperwork eventual winner Cameron Hill behind classic, but now it seems like M2 generation Mazda RX-7 the next; 1973 Bathurst classics. There was a like Stan.

Formula Ford Association for the category throughout the ‘80s. him. Slade’s BMW M3 (co-driven by Competitions will dominate over Toyota Supra and Commodore Turbo small number of professionally run This year’s race was more Early in the following year she became representative Phil Marinon said Brad Carr) didn’t have the outright coming years, such was the speed also dominated fields for a season cars and name drivers, yet the bulk enjoyable than 2021’s as there were she remained very connected to the the administrator of the category and pace of the Triple Eight Super2 advantage of Hill and Tom Sargent’s or two before being usurped by new of the field were weekend warriors just six Safety Car periods compared category. was tasked with organising national driver’s M2 Competition, but the well-driven and built machine. must-have weaponry. having their annual big day out. to 11. They came thick and fast in the and was always focused on the result and present took to social media to “Margaret was a tireless Administrator series events, a role she held until 2013. long-time Supercars ace positioned Sladey has raised the spectre of I don’t know what the answer is, Many of the entries were family first hour or two, but then the race rather than looking for accolades. send their condolences. for Formula Ford Association and also She has dealt with many of Australia’s his Beamer beautifully from corner to ‘balance of performance’ to ward but I applaud Slade for initiating affairs, with both renowned and down and could play out the AFFM including category manager “Margaret was very dedicated to Outsidesettled of Formula Ford, Margaret motor sport stars over the years and corner to keep Hill at bay for several off an arms race – and a flux of new the debate. It’s worth considering. semi-famous fathers/grandfathers naturally giving us the sensational also took on roles such as the race for the national competition,” he told all things Formula Ford and has was well-known as a hardworking and laps. Slade pulled out all stops to M2s next year – but BoP is surely Or maybe even trialling in a one-off in the opportunity to race fight. secretarylate-race for Sandown Raceway.

Auto Action. recently assisted revelling the association in passionate worker. force an error from the young gun, against production car racing’s invitational class at this year’s 12with their sons/grandsons.

Finally, how must the organisers (ie Hardy was diagnosed with “Her attention to detail and ability to the production of a book on 50 years In her time as category manager but Hill held his nerve. Sort of. religion. Imagine the nightmare of Hour, an event which is looking for the event’s Easter timing Supercars) of May 15’s 12 Hour be Inflammatory Breast Cancer in 2019 support the competitors has been very of Formula Ford inWhile Australia and seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Craig It took a banzai, but fair and trying to equalise cars when there’s entries given that the international works for competitors, the flipside is given fog delayed proceeding and wentfeeling, into Stage 4 in May. strongly acknowledged on social media disappointingly will not get to see the Lowndes, reigning 1000 victor, Will spectacular, move on the inside just one banner event each year. But contingent is smaller than usual. that attracting a sizeable trackside on Easter Sunday. May is traditionally Auto Action sends its condolences to final result.”

Davison, David Reynolds, Chaz Mostert and is undisputed. going over Skyline to take the lead. then, how good would it be if unique I just know that for the 6-Hour to on a traditional family getthe foggiest month of the year, in her friends and family. DM “Margaret was a very private person Many Australiancrowd racing legends past and Anton de Pasquale are just some It was a great way for the young cars like the Steve Owen-driven grow it needs to be more than a together day will remain a challenge.

Sydney at least. Yikes!

REVVED UP – FORMULA FORD’S GUIDING HAND VALE: MARGARET HARDY

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REINDLER MAKES IT TO FORMULA ONE DANIEL RICCIARDO WAS NOT THE ONLY AUSSIE ON THE STARTING GRID FOR THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX.

By Paul Gover, Motorsport Editor KARL REINDLER was there too, even if he was not actually racing.

Instead, the 37-year-old motorsport veteran was using his experience in everything from Supercars and Formula 3, combined with risk management, as the driver of the FIA Medical Car. Reindler took on the high-profile and high-pressure job at the Australian Grand Prix and is working on other rounds throughout the 2022 Formula 1 season.

“It’s a dream for me to be involved in Formula One,” Reindler tells Auto Action.

His surprise appointment to the crucial role means he is effectively the ’team mate’ to Safety Car pilot Bernd Maylander.

But it’s no surprise to the FIA, which has been considering him for the ‘drive’ for more than a year after the previous Medical Car driver stepped back from the role.

“I’ve been talking to the FIA for a couple of years now about sharing the responsibilities. Especially around the pandemic, it was important to have a backup solution or plan,” says Reindler.

“The pandemic really messed things around. Then there was a change of the guard around F1 and I was connected with Niels Wittich, the new Race Director.

The result is that Reindler will share the role with Bruno Correia, a former Portuguese racer who is now the Safety Car driver for the Formula E championship.

The Melbourne family man, who has huge experience across all areas of racing, driver training and safety management, says the Medical Car job is not what many people would think.

“It’s more than driving fast. There are

STEWART’S AGP DEMENTIA FUND RAISER

thousands of guys around the world who can get from A to B quickly, but this is different,” he says.

“It’s a commonsense job. And having an understanding of how things work in Race Control.

“You need to have good communications and stay cool under pressure. I’ve done a lot of risk management and attended critical incidents before in other roles.”

Reindler jumped into the Aston Martin DBX being used for the Medical Car role at Albert Park without even doing a track test.

He is more focussed on the equipment in the car – from different types of fire extinguishers to extraction equipment and the two doctors who ride with him – than anything about the speedy SUV. But he admits he enjoys the driving.

“We had the high-speed track test at Albert Park on the Wednesday of race week but that’s the same at every race.

Trying to keep up with Bernd is not easy.

He’s one of the best road car drivers on the planet,” he says.

“I had competed before at the AGP in Supercars, Carrera Cup and Formula 3.

And done the speed comparison in an Alfa Romeo Stelvio.

“But, in some respects, this was a test weekend. I believe I’ve done a good job. I was deployed a couple of times over the weekend.”

Reindler knows if he is stopping at a crash, his first job is safety for everyone – from the drivers to the doctor – and that means understanding F1.

“When Bernd goes out in the Safety Car, no-one is allow to pass him. There will be times when I’m deployed on a live track with the cars passing me. So safety comes first.”

He also knows that the driver of the Medical Car can be right in the thick of things, as van der Merwe was when Romain Grosjean was involved in a lifethreatening crash and fire.

“I’ve said, jokingly, that I’m the second driver on the F1 grid with Daniel Ricciardo.

But for me there is something very meaningful about this role.

“This the sport I’ve grown up with, the sport I love. And I can make a positive impact.”

GEELONG FESTIVAL TWICE REVIVED

AFTER A successful return in March this year, the Geelong Revival Motoring Festival will have a second running in 2022 on its traditional weekend, from November 25-27.

The 2020 and 2021 editions of the festival were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however the event returned with a bang in March as part of Geelong’s ‘biggest ever weekend’ of events including live shows from the Foo Fighters and Midnight Oil. Image: MTR Images

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Such was the raging success of the return event that Geelong will host a second motoring festival later this year.

“The overwhelming support for the March event marked a resounding success for us” Event Director Nicholas Heath said.

“With lockdowns and last-minute cancellations (hopefully) in the rear-view mirror, people are hungrier than ever to get out and do things on their weekends.

“The Geelong Revival Motoring Festival offers the perfect day out for everyone, regardless of whether you’re a car nut down in the pits or just enjoying the sun on the Eastern Beach hill.”

The last weekend of November is a slot that the Geelong Revival Motoring Festival has held for many years, serving as the last major event on the motorsport calendar annually.

Geelong has hosted the Geelong Revival Motoring Festival and its predecessor, the Geelong Speed Trials, over 66 years, both a staple of the region’s calendar.

New racers, exhibitions and attractions have been promised for the November edition.

Back in March, the fastest time was set by Sally-Anne Hains at 10.49s in her 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo, while the fastest motorcycle entry was Ian Ruby on his 2015 BMW S1000R with a 10.91s. Josh Nevett

TRIPLE F1 World Champion Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971, 1973) has more bounce to the ounce than most men half his age.

The 82-year-old former ace, pioneering race-safety campaigner, broadcaster and GP winning team owner is adding his considerable influence, intellectual and financial clout to Race Against Dementia, a global charity he founded to find a cure for dementia.

Melbourne’s Centrepoint was filled with 750 of the city’s great-and-good for a dinner to raise funds for research on the Friday of Grand Prix weekend.

Stewart was joined on-stage by Mark Webber, David Coulthard and Martin Brundle in some amusing, informative badinage stimulated by MC, Network 7’s Mark Beretta. Then Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner stole the show.

He appeared from back-stage and did a 15-minute cameo with the other guests including an anecdote about sleeping alongside his Mercedes rival Toto Wolff on a long-haul flight. The quip “It wasn’t a big deal ‘coz he has been trying to &*^% me for years!” brought the house down…

When calm returned, Webber spoke to Stewart about the impact Lady Helen Stewart’s dementia had on their family.

Jackie and Helen Stewart, and Jochen and Nina Rindt, were the star-couples of the late-sixties, early seventies GP era.

Sir Jackie spoke passionately about a syndrome/disease for which there is no cure and impacts 55 million globally (about 472,000 in Australia). We can all relate to Dementia, given the number of folks close to us afflicted by it.

The funds raised on the night – the most ever raised in an event of this type, Stewart said, in his end-of-evening speech of thanks – go directly to fund researchers. The emphasis is on hiring young Phd’s who are embedded with Red Bull or McLaren Formula 1 teams for a period to learn F1 problem solving methodologies. This is aimed at making research progress more quickly than is usually the case in this necessarily conservative field.

Stewart wants a cure within his lifetime and has made this cause a major focus in his life.

Auto Action supports this worthy cause. If you would like to find out more about Race Against Dementia and future events or make to a donation, go to www. raceagainstdementia.com.au

A GRAND CELEBRATION PRIX

Image: Motorsport Images

THE NUMBERS tell the story of the 2022 Australian Grand Prix. But they only tell one story, and not the whole story.

When 55,107 people arrive at Albert Park on GP Thursday, before the Formula One cars had even rolled out of the garage, it puts down a giant marker.

The fans are back. In a big way. A very big way.

At this point, Saturday and Sunday are already a sell-out off the back of the main event.

But there is something else.

“I think it proves the following for Supercars. We were the main drawcard,” I hear from the new chief of the Supercars squad, Barclay Nettlefold.

He could be right. He probably is right. But the holy of holies – the no-access F1 paddock area behind the pits – is the focus for hundreds of fans who are hoping to see someone, anyone, from the grand prix world.

It shows the appetite for Formula One and the ’Netflix Factor’.

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE If I heard those two words less than 500 times over the four days of the AGP weekend I would be surprised. Everyone was happy to hear them too, apart from some of the petulant and protective F1 drivers in their private rooms in the depths of the F1 paddock.

Max Verstappen doesn’t like Netflix and neither does Lewis Hamilton. They both say it creates artificial rivalries and takes a negative view of grand prix racing.

Is that true? Does it make good television? Does anyone care?

When a group of Aussie reporters sit down with the CEO of Alpine, Laurent Rossi, there are cameras all around us.

“We’re from Netflix. Would you mind if we film your interview?”

they ask, as we attempt to talk to Rossi.

For a chance to be in the next season, even for a fleeting second, what would you have said? Yup. The head of Motorsport Australia, Eugene Arocca, is also talking about what he calls the Netflix Effect.

“We’ve got women in the 25-30 age bracket signing up to be officials for the first time. They want to have the best seat in the house,” he tells me.

“We’ve got to grab the tail of this dragon and ride it hard.”

He’s right and the AGP people do it well.

After the 55,000 on Thursday, the numbers build to 112,466 on Friday.

For context, the previous best was 84,500 in 2019.

And then the crowds really got rocking on the weekend, with 123,247 on Saturday previous benchmark, 112,500, in 2002 - before race day draws 128,294.

The race-day crowd is smaller than the best, likely because of limits placed by the organisers. The last thing they want is a ’superspreader’ event, even if plenty of people – including Shane van Gisbergen – post a Covid positive after the weekend.

So the bottom line, right at the top, is a four-day result of 419,114. A new record, as Tony Cochrane said many times in the early days of his reign at Supercars.

For context, stalwarts in Adelaide remind people their attendance once went all the way to 520,000, but what else happens in the city of churches …

For someone who has been to every Melbourne GP, and plenty in Adelaide including the first, two things stand out.

The first is the weather. It is fine

and mild and sunny for all four days. Hooray.

The second is the atmosphere.

Everyone is happy and smiling.

Melbourne people are happy that their race is back and everyone else is happy to be back in Melbourne.

There is some great racing across the supporting categories, Formula One delivers a new winner for Albert Park, the circuit changes manage to change the rhythm of the circuit, and the new F1 cars look different and interesting.

There is even some proper passing in the grand prix, with Sergio Perez doing a double number on Hamilton on his way to second place.

But its Westacott who waves the final flag on the AGP of 2022.

“I’ve just walked a lap of the track and everyone is so happy.

“It’s also a different demographic.

More than half the crowd is under 30. And it looks like 40 per cent of them are women,” he says, with a giant smile.

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LATEST NEWS

RUSSIAN KARTER STRIPPED OF RACING LICENCE RUSSIAN KARTER Artem Severiukhin has lost his Italian Automobile Club (ACI) racing licence and is facing an FIA investigation after appearing to give a Nazi salute on the podium at the European Karting Championships.

Severiukhin became the subject of criticism after footage circulated the web from the Kartodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal.

The footage shows the young racer beating his chest twice before giving the salute in question, laughing atop the steps.

The FIA quickly stepped in and announced an investigation into the incident.

“The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile confirms that it has launched an immediate investigation into the unacceptable conduct of Mr Artem Severiukhin that occurred during the podium ceremony for the OK category at Round 1 of the 2022 FIA Karting European Championship at the Kartodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal,” an FIA statement read.

“The FIA will communicate shortly on the further steps that will be taken in this case.”

His team, Swedish squad Ward Racing, quickly terminated the 15-year-olds contract and now the youngster has lost his racing licence after an extraordinary meeting of the ACI. Severiukhin had been competing under

an Italian licence due to the Russian athlete ban imposed after the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The Board itself has decided the immediate withdrawal of Severiukhin’s sports license and has, at the same time, referred him to the Sports Justice so that it can evaluate the definition of further sanctions that fall within its own sphere of competence,” the ACI said in a statement.

“Severiukhin has shown a lack of respect not only for the universal values that have always inspired every sport, but also for humanity, dignity and civil coexistence.”

The steerer himself has apologised and denied any wrongdoing, explaining that he was celebrating with loved ones and his gesture had no meaning behind it.

“Standing on the podium, I depicted a gesture that many perceived as a Nazi greeting.

But that’s not true, I have never supported Nazism and consider it one of the most terrible crimes against humanity,” Severiukhin said.

The FIA investigation into the incident is still ongoing.

Josh Nevett

LOEB LOCKED IN FOR PORTUGAL RALLY NINE-TIME World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb will take on his second round for the season with M-Sport Ford in Portugal next month.

Loeb won the season opening rally at Monte-Carlo, becoming the oldest person to win a WRC round at 47, but wasn’t among the entrants in Sweden and Croatia.

However, M-Sport has confirmed that the Frenchman and co-driver Isabelle Galmiche will return for the first gravel rally of the season in a Ford Puma Rally1 from May 19-22.

Galmiche, a 50-year-old schoolteacher, will be on top tier WRC debut.

Loeb has won in Portugal twice, in 2007 and 2009, however he has not competed there in three years.

“Portugal was an empty space in my calendar and it’s a gravel rally, I have competed on this version of the rally in 2019 so I have a base of pace notes from some of the stages,” Loeb said.

“That was one of the reasons for choosing Portugal. The other was I wanted to do a gravel rally. I like driving on gravel so it was a very straightforward choice.

“Driving the Puma is one of my favourite rally memories – winning Monte Carlo after such a long time was incredible.

The team worked really well, with a quick fix to the

difficulties we faced at shakedown, allowing us to claim our 80th rally win.

“From my first test with this car, I immediately had a very good feeling and I enjoy driving with so much power with the hybrid system. It’s a great car, a great team and we celebrated an incredible moment together.”

M-Sport Ford will field five cars in Portugal with Loeb joining Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux, Gus Greensmith and PierreLouis Loubet.

Team principal Richard Millener was looking forward to having Loeb as part of his line up again in the fourth round.

“Personally, to have another chance to work with Seb and Isabelle is

a dream come true,” Millener said.

“The fact that they want to come and drive with us again is something incredibly special for the team and reflects all of the hard work being put in by everybody back home.”

Josh Nevett

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86S TO SUPPORT BATHURST 12 HOUR

THE ONE-make Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series has been added to the Bathurst 12 Hour support card.

The event is less than a month away, set to take place from May 13-15 and will be the first of two rounds that the Toyotas will race at The Mountain this year, the second to come at the Bathurst 1000 in October.

Round 2 will take place over the Bathurst

12 Hour weekend containing races 4, 5 and 6 of the 2022 series.

It has also been announced that the inaugural Australia Toyota 86 Racing Series winner Will Brown will race as a guest-driver during the Bathurst 12 Hour weekend.

The TGRA 86 Series will feature on the Friday and Saturday of the 12-hour event, with practice, qualifying and Race 1 taking

place on Friday, before the final two affairs on Saturday.

The Toyota’s join the pocket-rocket Aussie Racing Cars and Combined Sedans on the Bathurst 12 Hour support program.

Organisers have confirmed that the full event schedule will be released this week.

The 86s’ first appearance at the Bathurst 12 Hour next months is followed by the Townsville 500, the Sandown SuperSprint

before making its second trek to Mount Panorama.

The opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park in March was dominated by Lachlan Gibbons, scoring pole position and going on to win all three races.

He leads Zach Bates and Jobe Stewart in the standings with Bailey Sweeny and Jarrod Hughes completing the top five in the standings. Dan McCarthy

PARETTA AND DE SILVESTRO TEAM UP FOR INDYCAR RETURN PARETTA AUTOSPORT has announced that it will run a partial IndyCar Series campaign this year, putting Simona De Silvestro behind the wheel of a Chevrolet provided by Ed Carpenter Racing.

The #16 Kiwi Co.-backed Paretta Autosport machine will enter a minimum of three rounds at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Nashville, with Team Owner Beth Paretta eyeing off further rounds later in 2022.

Paretta Autosport made its IndyCar debut in the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with De Silvestro in the drivers seat, classified 31st after running as high as 22nd during the race.

The team partnered with Team Penske on that occasion but will now receive technical support from Ed Carpenter Racing which has a car available for use at road and street races.

Ed Carpenter Racing is running two full-time entries in 2022, driven by Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly.

The majority of Paretta’s mostly female crew will return to the squad for the partial 2022 campaign.

“I’m proud to announce that we are going to be back with Simona De Silvestro, in a #16 Paretta Autosport Chevrolet,” Paretta said.

“For 2022, we are announcing that we will be racing at Road America on June 12, Mid-Ohio on July 3, and the streets of Nashville on August 7, and possible added events as our schedules allow.

“We had a great first year working with Roger Penske and Team Penske in 2021 as part of the Race for Equality

and Change initiative and since then I have been working on building the right structure and opportunity to continue to grow our team.

“This new technical alliance with Ed Carpenter Racing is exciting for us and will allow us to continue to grow and compete in multiple races this season.

“We cannot wait to get back on track, and to see fans at each of these new venues.”

De Silvestro, who has 69 IndyCar appearances including a podium to her name, was excited to progress the Paretta Autosport project after helping to launch the team last year.

“I’m incredibly grateful to Beth that she keeps having the trust in me and to be able to get one step more into our journey that we’ve started together last year at the Indy 500,” De Silvestro said.

“I’m excited to get this opportunity and am really looking forward to going to the places we’re going to.

“Associating with Ed Carpenter Racing is going to be great. I think in them we have a great team as well and it’s an association that is really important for us to grow into the future and hopefully a lot more things will happen together.

“I’ve been training hard again to get back behind the wheel of an IndyCar, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Josh Nevett

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LATEST NEWS

QUARTARARO TALKING TO OTHER FACTORIES

Image: Motorsport Images REIGNING MOTOGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo’s manager Eric Mahe has confirmed that the French rider is in conversation with other manufacturers, including Honda, following a lacklustre start to 2022.

Last year Quartararo rarely finished off the podium; however, even before the season started, he voiced the view that the Yamaha YZR-M1 had not moved forward for the 2022 season – and has proved to be left behind as the Japanese brand has scored just one podium in the first four races.

That podium came in Argentina, with his manager subsequently confirming the rumours, in America, that Quartararo is in

conversations with other brands.

“Yes, for sure,” Mahe said. “We have great respect for Yamaha but due to certain reasons I cannot say, we have to think about it. “[There is] no rush, and I can imagine there is no rush for Yamaha so we are investigating everything and then we’ll see what happens.

[It’s] not a question of offers; we are in talks.

We are trying to best understand what the best for Fabio could be.

“No update. We are checking all the parameters let’s say. We just need to know where Fabio can achieve the best results possible is where we are at, at this stage.

“We are a bit lucky because a few years ago

a decision like this would have been taken 18 months in advance so at this stage there is no rush, so it’s a good situation.”

Yamaha has stated on multiple occasions that re-signing Quartararo is its top priority for 2023 and beyond – however Quartararo failed to extinguish the speculation about a rumoured switch to Honda.

“Honda’s interest in me? I have to think about it,” Quartararo said to Sky Sports over the American GP weekend.

“I have to think about it carefully; my future is still not clear. It’s a decision that takes time, but it’s something to think about.”

Quartararo finished a disappointing eighth in America, again struggling with any rear-

end confidence, pointing out that you can’t win a championship with those kinds of results.

“In the end you don’t win a championship making P8s; you win a championship fighting for podiums and top fives, and actually right now we are not ready for that and this is really frustrating,” he admitted post-race.

“If every time we make strong pace and in the race we have this kind of problem it is difficult to fight for the championship.

“We need to find a solution and try to know why we have this struggle in the beginning of the race (with rear tyre temp).”

Dan McCarthy

TOYOTA AND FIAT TCR CARS START HOMOLOGATION PROCESS

FERRARI 296 GT3 COMPLETES LAPS FERRARI’S FUTURE GT3 machine, the Ferrari 296 has made its on-track debut at the legendary Italian test track, Fiorano.

The 296 GT3 is set to replace the 488 in many GT3 competition around the globe from next year.

During the day, two-time Le Mans 24 Hours GTE-Pro class winner Alessandro Pier Guidi and Ferrari GT World Challenge Europe driver Andrea Bertolini jumped behind the wheel.

Pier Guidi carried out the first shakedown in the morning and alternated driving duties with the driver from Sassuolo later in the day.

Throughout the day’s testing program, the machine spent many laps on the track, but also periods where it was checked over by the technicians.

“Today marks the occasion of GT racing becoming part of our future,” commented Head of Ferrari Attivita Sportive GT Antonello Coletta. “It’s a special moment.

20 I www.autoaction.com.au

“We chose to carry out the first tests in Fiorano because it’s our home and to allow the people who worked on the project to share a very special emotion.”

Coletta confirmed that the 296 will now go through an extensive testing program, but the early signs are very positive.

“The car has an intense testing program ahead of it, but we’ve already had some good feedback from this first session,” he explained.

The car ran a Ferrari scarlet and black camo livery and in less than 12 months will roll out to compete competitively for the first time.

The 296 GT3 will race in both the GTEPro and GTE-Am classes of the World Endurance Championship next year as the brand also returns to the top top-tier Le Mans Hypercar class also.

The 296 GT3 car is powered by a six-cylinder engine but, unlike the road going version, it has no electrical hybrid system. Dan McCarthy

TWO NEW TCR models – the Toyota Corolla and Fiat Tipoare – are currently being homologated to be eligible to race in any of the TCR Series’ globally.

Both the Corolla and Tipo must achieve certification by the WSC Group’s Technical Department to allow entry in hot hatch touring car competition.

It was announced in December last year that Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina intended to run a Corolla GRS TCR machine, while the Fiat Tipo TCR has been developed by Italian team Tecnodom Sport.

The Tipo made its racing debut in 2020 under temporary homologation, driver Luca Rangoni finishing 13th in the highly competitive TCR Europe Series.

Both cars are undergoing a thorough series of tests conducted by the global governing organisation of TCR racing, the WSC Group, undertaken by its Technical Department and set to be completed soon before Balance of Performance (BoP) testing is undertaken.

Both of the models recently undertook downforce and drag testing at the Pininfarina’s wind tunnel in Grugliasco, Italy.

The process included setting of the rear wing inclination in different configurations to calculate the downforce produced.

This was followed by a centre of gravity test using a revolving platform at JS-PE GmbH in Germany.

While this was going on engine testing

took place at ORAL Engineering in Modena together with the unit being used in LADA’s new Vesta Sport TCR. Each engine will be subjected to a dynamometer test as the unit is placed inside a ‘test cell’ with the engine maps checked in different power configurations; power and torque curves are also measured.

BoP testing is completed using one driver at a designated circuit, with former Formula 1 driver and leading touring car contender Nicola Larini holding the duties previously.

Once all this is completed the Corolla will be eligible to compete in TCR competition and the Tipo will also be able to race with official homologation.

In other TCR news, it has been announced that the WSC Group has raised the price cap for a TCR model from €137.500 ($197,700) to €139.000, the first rise in the history of the regulations first created in 2014.

Dan McCarthy

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FORMULA 1 Luis Vasconelos US CORRESPONDENT Mike Brudenell

BACK WHERE IT BELONGS I’VE GOT to admit I had conflicting feelings heading back to Melbourne, two years after going all the way around the world only to come back home in a hurry, on Saturday night, without seeing one F1 car in action and, most importantly, having no idea what laid ahead of me – and the rest of the world – for the next few months.

For someone who has spent 35 years knowing exactly where I’m going to be, every single day, a good 12 months in advance, it was troubling to find the first flight available out of Melbourne back in March of 2020 and not knowing if and when I would be back on the road.

So, being a stickler for continuity, (ED: And not a little bit superstitious!), after landing at Tullamarine Airport, I hopped on the Skybus, checked into my hotel, took a hot shower and a much needed nap, I headed back to the very same coffee shop where I had my last brunch 25 months earlier and ordered exactly the same thing I had back in 2020!

It was my best attempt at pretending the world hadn’t actually stopped for two years and the long months in between had been just a very, very weird dream.

Back to the circuit ... where there

with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER was a sense of unease, for this wasn’t the track we had abruptly left two years ago. Some corners I had enjoyed watching, like Turn 9, had gone; Turns 11/12 now featured serious braking rather than just a quick lift, so the nature of the circuit had changed. Was this new world better, I thought, heading back to my hotel on Thursday night?

And then, on Friday, the Formula One cars took to the track and the world started to make sense again.

There was a decent number of fans in the stands, the track looked proper, mistakes were costly, drivers were finding the limit by building up their speed rather than starting by going way over that limit and then dialing it down, using massive run off areas to adjust, and that feeling of being involved in a great event started to come back.

By Sunday morning, there were no more doubts, no more feelings, of unease, nothing. This is what Formula One should be all

about – great, unforgiving but not dangerous tracks, great, capacity crowds in the stands, enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans all around the circuit and a vibe you can only get in great cities like Melbourne, that know how to put an event together. Clearly, this is the kind of event Formula One should promote, either with great traditional tracks where the atmosphere is just magical – like Silverstone, Spa, Monza, Suzuka, Mexico City or Interlagos, to name just a few – or in particularly well-designed city circuits, in places that embrace the sport, like Melbourne, Monaco, Montreal or Singapore.

These are the cities and countries Formula One should value and encourage, even if the local promotors cannot pay the same amount of money as those in insipid places like Jeddah, Baku, Sochi or Losail can and are willing to.

In Melbourne I finally got the feeling Formula One was back

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE?

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PHOTOGRAPHERS AUSTRALIA Daniel Kalsz, Mark Horsburgh, Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde, Richard Hathaway, MTR Images, Bruce Moxon, Ray Ritter, autopics.com.au INTERNATIONAL Motorsport Images Image: Motorsport Images where it belongs – a feeling that started creeping in last year at Silverstone, Zandvoort, Monza, Austin, Mexico and Brazil, when restrictions started to be lifted.

But there was also a clear indication that it’s in this city that the World Championship must hold its inaugural round, rather than in a bland event like the Bahrain Grand Prix. Don’t get me wrong, the Bahraini promoters do a sterling job to make their event nearly perfect, make everyone feel so welcome and valued that it’s actually uncomfortable to question if Formula One should even be in that country – but they will never be able to provide the sort of atmosphere Melbourne delivers year after year.

That’s what Formula One should be all about: great, knowledgeable crowds, amazing atmosphere, a proper four-day event with a lot more than Formula One cars going around, and a party atmosphere all around town that attracts people to the event who are not proper ‘motorheads’. I don’t know how much more Melbourne would have to pay to get back the opening slot of the calendar, but I know the investment will be worth it, because the Australian Grand Prix simply HAS to be the first race of the season!

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FORMULA 1 NEWS

– LUIS VASCONCELOS

STOP / GO

‘Red Bull’ (nee Honda), along with Ferrari and Mercedes, are adamant that Audi and Porsche should not be able to share resources, including IP, when and if they join the F1 engine manufacturer group.

GEORGE RUSSELL believes that Mercedes is no closer to Ferrari or even Red Bull Racing despite finishing the AGP in a podium position only 5s behind Sergio Perez. “I’d love to say we made a lot of progress, but we’ve got to look at the lap times and we haven’t closed the gap at all to these guys to the right of me [Perez and Leclerc] and we know we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Russell admitted. DM

FERRARI TEAM Principal Mattia Binotto has revealed that no significant upgrades will be made to the Ferrari F1-75 for the Formula 1 round at Imola from April 22-24. “If we look at ourselves, there will not be [many upgrades] in Imola because it will not be the right place,” Binotto said.

“We’ve tried to mitigate, shall I say, the issue we’ve got still so far – the porpoising and the bouncing. The more significant upgrades will be later in the season.” JN

DESPITE SCORING his first points of the season at home in the Australian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo admitted postrace that more was possible as his teammate Lando Norris had a problem late on. “It looked like a bit of a photo finish,” Ricciardo said. “I was told Lando had a few issues towards the end. Obviously, he slowed down quite a lot, so the team said… be sensible. So, I had to control myself a little bit.” DM

AN ANGRY Max Verstappen retired from the Australian Grand Prix after suffering his second engine failure in the first three races, describing the mechanical issue as ‘unacceptable.’

After just two races Verstappen sits 46 points behind Charles Leclerc. “We’re already miles behind,” Verstappen said. “I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment. I think it’s more important to finish races.” As well as the retirement Verstappen was also infuriated that Leclerc was so much faster in his championship-leading Ferrari. DM

GIAN CARLO Minardi, founder of AlphaTauri Formula 1 team, has been elected into the role of President of the FIA’s SingleSeater Commission. Minardi was voted in by members of the World Motor Sport Council, after becoming the President of Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (Imola), in 2020. Minardi takes the position from Bob Fernley, who assumed the role from current F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali. JN

22 I www.autoaction.com.au

Images: Motorsport Images

VW GROUP PUTS F1 DECISION ON HOLD, PRESSURE IS ON THE FIA

NEWS THAT the Volkswagen Group has already rubber stamped a decision that will see Audi and Porsche enter Formula One from 2026 seems to have been a bit premature, as a statement from the German manufacturer has made it clear that the sport needs to have the 2026 Power Unit regulations firmly set in place before the two manufacturers will be given the green light to join Formula One. The Volkswagen Group issued a statement indicating that, “the management and supervisory boards of Volkswagen AG, Porsche AG and AUDI AG have confirmed plans for a possible entry into Formula 1 by the two brands. The Audi and Porsche brands will provide details later.”

While the initial plan of the group was to design and build one Power Unit and use the two different brands to join forces with two different teams, pressure from Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine forced a change of plan. The three manufacturers already competing in Formula One believe the Germans would get an unfair advantage if they used just one Power Unit but competing as independent manufacturers, as that would double the

amount of hours and money they would be able to put into the development of only one Power Unit.

Now, Porsche and Audi are looking at designing and building two completely separate Power Units, in what an Audi statement explained it was seen as “an opportunity to demonstrate the motto ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ in the pinnacle of motorsport from 2026. We have not yet made a formal decision, as we are currently in the final evaluation phase. At the moment, the new regulations for 2026 and beyond are not yet available.”

Putting pressure on the FIA to accept their demands to join the sport, Audi stated that the new rules, “will bring about profound changes to make the sport more sustainable, which is a prerequisite for Audi’s possible entry. Audi Sport is in direct discussion with the International Automobile Federation on this matter. Our decision will be announced as soon as it is made.”

Commenting on the possible entry of the two German manufacturers into Formula One, Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto admitted he’s “very happy Porsche and Audi seem ready to join F1 – it is great for

the sport.” But the Italian made a point of highlighting that there’s no agreement, yet on how the new rules will pan out, especially in regard to how much IP information Audi and Porsche will be allowed to share: “The objective is try to finalise and vote them by June, and is not something new.

There are open points, as in the matter of considering what’s a newcomer. So, what is a newcomer? How we define newcomer?

What are the benefits of a newcomer? All that needs to be clarified and defined.

“On top of that, is the matter of IP transfer, because the IP transfer should not be possible. That was agreed on, but how we translate that into wording is difficult to know. There are many things that need to be moved forward and finalised and, from now to June, time is certainly very short – which means that we need to work on it as a high priority.”

This means we’ll have to wait another two and a half months before the 2026 Power Unit regulations are set in stone and only after that we’ll know if Audi and Porsche will really join the sport from the start of 2026.

HAAS AND URALKALI HEADED FOR COURT BATTLE THE COMPLICATED relationship between the Haas F1 Team and former title sponsor Uralkali was never to going to end in an amiable settlement after the American team unilaterally terminated the contract between the two parties.

The decision was forced upon Gene Haas by the United States government placing Uralkali on the blacklist of companies and people American companies were no longer allowed to trade with, due to their links to Russian president Vladimir Putin, days after he ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Soon after, Nikita Mazepin was dismissed by Haas as well, a couple of days before he too was placed on the same blacklist, together with his father Dmitry, both in the USA and in the European Union.

Now, the Russians are demanding Haas return the 12 million Euros they had already paid for this year’s deal, but the American team has denied that request and is also demanding another payment of eight million Euros, “for loss of profits due to the termination of the contract.”

With such different views on what would be the correct way for the contract to be terminated, it’s clear Haas and Uralkali are headed to court soon. The American team has circulated the letter it sent to the Russian company, in which it states that, “according to unanimous legal scholars and case law, the party which terminates the agreement for breach of the other party is under no obligation to return to such party what it has already received under the agreement. The claim of Uralkali to obtain the re-payment of the down paid amount of EUR 12,000,000 is therefore ungrounded and rejected.”

After insisting the Russian petrochemical company must pay the remaining eight million euros as compensation for “loss of profit”, the Haas legal team goes on to explain that, “unless and until the aforesaid amount will have been paid to Haas no obligation exists on Haas’ side to deliver and no delivery of the F1 car will occur”, referring to a clause of the contract that stipulated the Russian driver was entitled to one of the chassis he drove in 2021, the VF21-Ferrari.

While Haas is not commenting on the situation, one British source very close to the team indicated the Mazepin family is surprised by Gene Haas’ stance, explaining that, “everyone understands the world is in a difficult situation, but it is patently ridiculous to argue that Haas is entitled to keep money paid from a contract it exited unilaterally, without rendering any of the agreed upon services.

“They seem to be fine with spending Russian money – and even are asking for more – but don’t want to have any Russians around.”

The same source, believed to have worked closely with the Mazepin family for the last few years, then added that, “it’s a truly shocking treatment toward a title sponsor who stepped up last season, when the team badly needed resources, and who had offered to go above and beyond the contracted amounts to provide additional bonuses to team staff to achieve better results for all involved.”

SINGAPORE, BAHRAIN IN TALKS TO GET RUSSIAN GP SLOT THE QATARI government’s sudden change of heart regarding hosting a Grand Prix at the end of September, in the slot originally reserved for Russia, has forced Formula One to reopen discussions with other countries, inn order to be in a position to keep the season going for 23 races, as was originally planned – Singapore and Bahrain looking the most likely alternatives.

Qatar had originally opted against staying in the calendar this year because the only slot Stefano Domenicali could offer for the Losail race was in the middle of November, too close to the start of the FIFA World Cup that will be A Singapore double-header is held in that country. With a 10-year contract favoured by the teams. in their pocket, Qatariaccepted a stay of the World Championship this year, to return from night race for the Singaporean Grand Prix. In principal, Singapore is 2023 when the race will be held in the northern part of the city willing to accept this, because the country desperately needs to attract streets, in Doha. tourism after more than two years shut to the rest of the world.

However, when Russia dropped out of the calendar, Qatar showed But, unlike Qatar, Singapore is not known for throwing money interest in getting the September 25th slot and negotiations advanced away and knowing that it is Formula One that needs the extra race quickly – as money is no object for the Qatari government. But more thatn they do, the small Southeast Asian country is not willing when analysis was done in Doha, two issues came out: first, the to pay nearly as much as Russia was contracted to do, positing a temperatures at the end of September will still be close to 40º Celsius, problem to Domenicali, who seems to have profit as his only goal making it unlikely spectators will flock to the circuit in such scorching this year. conditions; second, the bigger hotels won’t have rooms for the That’s why the former Ferrari Team Principal has contacted Bahrain Formula One community as a lot of football national teams will have with the view of getting a race in the smaller, outer circuit, on reserved them in advance for their staff to get everything ready for the September 25. The Bahraini government doesn’t seem too fussed World Cup. about the high temperatures expected for that time of the year, as With Qatar now showing serious reservations about the race, the race never attracts big numbers of spectators, but the logistics, Singapore is now Domenicali’s main target and historic Grand Prix while better than from Sochi to Singapore, could never match hosting organizer Colin Syn was in Melbourne to discuss the possibility consecutive races in the small island-country, which seems to be the with the Italian. The plan offered by Formula One is to have a race in solution favored by most teams, as it would give some much needed daylight on September 25th followed a week later by the traditional rest to their staff in the middle of a couple of triple headers.

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FIA DEFENDS SAFETY CAR FROM VERSTAPPEN’S JIBE THE FIA has reacted quickly and strongly to the accusations made by Max Verstappen and other drivers at the end of the Australian Grand Prix, when the Dutchman quipped that “the Aston Martin Safety Car runs like a turtle” after he became frustrated by the speed at which Safety Car veteran Bernd Maylander was heading the field in the period after Sebastian Vettel’s crash out of Turn 4, on lap 24 of the Melbourne race.

“With that car, to drive 140km/h on the back straight where there was not a damaged car anymore, I don’t understand why we have to drive so slowly,” Verstappen said.

“It was like a turtle. Unbelievable. We have to investigate. For sure the Mercedes Safety Car is faster because of the extra aero ...”

In a strong worded statement, the FIA wrote that, “in light of recent comments regarding the pace of the FlA Formula 1 Safety Car, the FIA would like to reiterate that the primary function of the FIA Formula 1 Safety Car is, of course, not outright speed, but the safety of the drivers, marshals and officials.”

The statement goes on to clarify that, “the Safety Car procedures take into account multiple objectives, depending upon the incident in question, including the requirement to ‘bunch up’ the field, negotiate an incident recovery or debris on track in a safe manner and adjust the pace depending on recovery activities that may be ongoing in a different part of the track. The speed of the Safety Car is therefore generally dictated

by Race Control, and not limited by the capabilities of the Safety Cars, which are bespoke high-performance vehicles prepared by two of the world’s top manufacturers, equipped to deal with changeable track conditions at all times and driven by a hugely experienced and capable driver and codriver.”

And to make its point completely clear, the Federation’s statement concluded that, “the impact of the speed of the Safety Car on the performance of the cars following is a secondary consideration, as the impact is equal amongst all competitors who, as is always the case, are responsible for driving in a safe manner at all times, according to the conditions of their car and the circuit.”

However, race winner Charles Leclerc was a lot more sympathetic towards Maylander, explaining that, “it always feels too slow in the car, because with those Formula 1 cars, we have so much grip and it’s very, very difficult, especially on the compound we were all on, which was the hards. I was struggling massively to put some temperature in them, so I also struggled.

“Then, to be honest, I wanted to complain, but then I checked how much the Safety Car was sliding in the corners and I don’t think there was anything more that he could give, so I didn’t want to push too much pressure.

But, for sure, with the cars that we have now Image: Motorsport it’s very difficult to keepImages the temperatures in the tyres behind the Safety Car.”

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BARCLAY IN CHARGE MEET BARCLAY NETTLEFOLD – THE MAN WITH THE DISTINCTIVE NAME WHO NOW GUIDES SUPERCARS AS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Powerhouse ... from left: Barclay Nettlefold, Supercars CEO Shane Howard, CEO of Formula One Group Stefano Domenicali, Supercars Tech Chief Adrian Burgess, and Motorsport Australia Chairman Andrew Fraser.

By Paul Gover IT’S EASY to spot Barclay Nettlefold in the Supercars Paddock at the Australian Grand Prix.

He is far better dressed than any of the spectators or team members, in snappy chinos and a sports jacket with not a single corporate logo in sight.

He is obviously in a big hurry as he strides confidently across the biggest stage in Australia motorsport. It’s only 8.30am on race-day, but Nettlefold already looks like he is 15 minutes late for his first appointment.

Life is like that when you’re the new chairman of Supercars and working to drive the category to new highs.

“There is a real passion in motorsport.

It’s visceral,” Nettlefold tells Auto Action in his first major interview since the RACE consortium took control of Supercars last year.

“It’s one of the only sports that you can get real adrenalin from. Especially when you’re participating.

“It’s everything. It’s the sounds, the smell, the speed. The crowd.”

Nettlefold has never been a racer but he talks like someone who ‘gets’ motorsport in a way that’s been missing in the past. And he works the same way.

He is looking to position Supercars with the right people, the right events, the right connections and a new foresight and commitment.

The first step was winning the bid for an ownership change at the head of a consortium that paid an estimated $90 million for the crown jewel in Australian motorsport.

Now comes the hard work of tuning and tweaking Supercars into a 21st century entertainment product, leading from the front but also operating as part of a team.

“I think I’m more of a cultural leader and networker. I lead through example,” he begins.

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“I’ll create opportunities. I’ll open doors. I’ll be thinking of things two years into the future and where we want to get the sport to.

“Where do I want to get it? I want it to be known as one of the premium sports.

“I think you’ve got AFL and NRL, I’d like to say rugby union has a fairly niche base and I think we do too. I think the other sports have more of a mass following.

“Supercars has an enormous following and an enormous fan base that’s been around for a long time. That’s a lot to work with, because it gives more immediate sets of eyeballs.

“But I think we’ve ignored the new fans, and there are a lot of old fans who have moved on. I don’t think they necessarily wanted to move, but they didn’t have the right engagement to be more committed.”

It sounds good in theory, but what does it really mean?

Nettlefold says it means winning new fans, as Formula One has been doing with all sorts of new activities from the Drive To Survive series on Netflix to greater online connections, and bringing the old fans back.

“Bringing the old fans back is probably easier than winning the new ones. That’s a proven fact. Certainly, if we get the right entertainment factor and a bit more consistency in the product, and get the product more relevant to motorsport fans, it will work,” he says.

One example, he says, is Supercars own digital product.

“We’ve got zero engagement. Our broadcast connection is fantastic, but the infrastructure to leverage data and boost entertainment is way too low.

“You cannot even buy a ticket to a Supercars race on our own portal. You have to go to Ticketek.”

None of this is new to Nettlefold, who heads a giant media empire with around 2000 employees.

How big?

“ ”

“It’s one of the only sports that you can get real adrenalin from. Especially when you’re participating... ”

The Mustang is half of the Gen3 Supercars package.

“We’ve got three core businesses. One is the outdoor media business in Australia called QMS. It’s the leading digital business for out-of-home advertising. It’s billboards, basically.

“The second piece is Media Works in New Zealand, which is largely radio and digital.

We’ve got 60 per cent of the radio business in New Zealand.

“The third part is TGI Sport, which is the global sports media business.”

The companies’ turnover is obviously in the hundreds of millions and Nettlefold is also doing nicely.

He lives in one of Melbourne’s swankier bayside suburbs, is married with three sons, has some exotic road cars and could be described as a solid member of the ‘Club Melbourne’ group that gets things done in the city.

Crucially, he has invested his own money in Supercars.

“I have my own cash involved. Absolutely,” he says.

It’s cash that came from a lifetime of success in business, but there is also a deep involvement in top-level sports.

“I was born in Battery Point in Hobart.

We came over from Tasmania when I was very young, like two-years-old,” Nettlefold begins.

“So I was born in Tasmania but spent all my life in Melbourne – although I spent 12 years in Asia, developing our media company.

“At that time it was called Eye Corp. We sold it to Channel 10 in 2000. A long time back.

“My hobby is boating, both sailing and motor. I used to sail competitively.

Nettlefold has never been a racer but he talks like someone who ‘gets’ motorsport, he is looking to position Supercars with the right people and the right events,.

Images: Motorsport Images/Mark Horsburgh-Supercars I was Australian champion when I was a kid, in the Soling, Etchell and Star classes.

“I went to the pre-Olympics in 1987. But Colin Beashel made the Olympics in 1988 and ended up staying for five games. It’s pretty cut-throat. He ended up carrying the flag for Australia at the game.

“So sport is in my blood. My mother was vice-captain of Australia in hockey and my father was three-times Australian high diving champion.”

But sport does not pay the bills, which is why Nettlefold worked hard on his education.

“I studied accounting and marketing at Monash University. I started in a media company with my father, straight out of university. He sold that and retired when he was in his sixties. He is in the hall of fame in the advertising sector.”

If this all sounds like a family of overachievers, in all areas of life, it is.

And Supercars is not the first time in the driving seat for Nettlefold.

“My father was also a swimming coach when I was young and my sons were Australian champion swimmers. I followed them to swimming pools and got involved in the administration of sport. I had three years on the board of Swimming Victoria and two years at Swimming Australia.

After a successful F1 GP weekend, could there be more F1 on the horizon for Supercars?

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www.autoaction.com.au I 25

Supercars Tech Chief Adrian Burgess (right) reports to new Supercars CEO Shane Howard.

“ ”

“I think it is the most important thing. We need to be on the grid for 2023. It was supposed to happen for 2022... ”

“Post the London Olympics in 2012 I became the president of Swimming Australia. I did that for an 18-month period.

“At the time we went to London we were expecting to win 10 gold medals and we only won one. The Brits got a lot of funding through their lottery and a had a lot of their coaches from Australia. They got the jump on us and we weren’t prepared.

“We had a lot of cultural issues and basically we needed to re-set the management team. We did that and also employed a new CEO, a new highperformance coach, a new Paralympics coach ...”

“That was seismic in its own right, because it led to getting more sponsors involved. We created the Gina Rinehart (Australia’s richest woman) Foundation and she came in to sponsor the athletes.

“We had 65 per cent of the swim team living in Queensland, with young kids doing almost full-time jobs to make ends meet and yet demanding of them to deliver at the highest level.

“One kid was ranked at number one in the 400 individual medley, one of the toughest events, and working as a full-time roofer.”

Does that sound familiar? A sport in need of a shake-up and a new outlook?

It does to Nettlefold, who says it’s one of the key reasons for the RACE takeover at Supercars.

“We were looking at other sports. But the perpetual nature of Supercars stood out. You can own the category forever.

“I don’t see owning it forever, but I do see there will be more interest in it as we improve it. A the end of the day, it’s a commercial investment and as a shareholder group we’ll do what’s right for the sport. Always.”

That’s a big personal commitment, but Nettlefold is already delivering with a hands-on approach. It’s not always winning him friends, and there are plenty of people

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asking questions about his leadership and the direction at RACE, but he knows what he’s doing.

“At the moment, short-term, I’m more hands-on. To give support to the new management team,” he says.

“I don’t like to do that for more than 12 months. Then the management teams should be structured enough. But I’m here as required.”

That means lots of meetings, a strategic plan, new hirings and more spending.

“There is a lot to do. There is a lot to learn.

There is no question,” Nettlefold says.

“We acknowledge the team has been very good in running events, but needs more depth and support in the commercial and operational areas.

“We’re committed to further investment.

We need to invest better, in the sense that it’s not just the bricks-and-motor but also the interactive stuff like we’ve seen in Formula One. It’s amazing hospitality and engagement zones for the fans.”

One of the obvious objectives is to drive successfully into the Mustang-versusCamaro era from 2023.

“The Gen3 project is extremely important.

We’ve got to capitalise on that and turn it into great racing.

“I think it is the most important thing.

We need to be on the grid for 2023. It was supposed to happen for 2022 . . .”

But there is, and will be, much more including extra spending.

“We’ve got a very committed shareholder group. It’s an affluent group. On top of that, we have interest from other groups that didn’t get a chance to participate.

“There is really strong interest in motorsport at the moment. I think F1 has helped to create that. We’ve got to capitalise on that.”

The key to the coming change is the Supercars blueprint currently being developed by the existing management structure.

It’s led by Supercars veteran Shane Howard, who had originally contemplated leaving the organisation in the wake of the ownership change. He had been offered a chance to get involved with the FIM World Supercross Championship with his former boss – and Supercars firebrand – Tony Cochrane.

“I think he was toying with another opportunity. That was very early,” Nettlefold admits, as he talks about the structure of Supercars under the previous bare-bones ownership of Archer Capital.

“I think there was a lot of fatigue in the management team. They had 11 years in their structure and that had taken a toll.

“Private equity ownership is normally three-to-five years, so 11 was too long.

Having a structure with the teams, like it did, also doesn’t enable you to adopt your own strategic pathways and investments.

“Shane was probably sitting there and wondering ‘Have I got enough in my tank to have one more go?’. But he always wanted the CEO role – his father was a racing driver in the 1590s and 1960s, so it’s in his blood.

“He’s got all the intellectual property, and the experience, and the relationships. He’s very capable. A very strong and structured pair of hands.

“From a motorsport perspective, we need to help him with the work to build up the commercial team so he can focus on what’s important.”

Howard is now leading the review of Supercars and will report to Nettlefold and the board in the near future.

“The sport has had non-motorsport people leading it, and that’s why we needed Shane Howard. The sport needed people with fresh eyes. They can articulate what they haven’t been able to do.

“There are a number of items that need to be addressed. That’s coming though.

The management team has had a strategy session.

“They’ll be presenting a new-look business plan to the board in May,” says Nettlefold.

So, will there be a local version of Drive To Survive?

“We’ll wait and see

Chevrolet Camaro – the other half of the Gen3 equation.

what the executive present to us. I think it’s more about how we get the right platform and the right documentary structure to make it relevant and give the right entertainment factor.”

It would be easy to rattle off a laundry list of questions, with Nettlefold providing honest answers but – as yet – no solid plan.

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But how is he getting along with the ARG side of the new management group, after rumours of tension between the two sides of the eventual RACE bid?

“It’s fine. In the past there has been ARG versus Supercars, but we’re slowly breaking that down. We see a real future with the categories working together more “I was with

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Barry and Garry Rogers last week. I went down to see them at their factory. I think it’s better for motorsport if there is a more concerted effort to work together.”

And what about Mark Skaife, who was one of the key advisors to the new owners through the sale process?

“Mark Skaife was a fantastic supporter and provided enormous experience, up-skilling us in knowledge through the acquisition process. Mark is wholeheartedly devoted to the success of Supercars, as a product and a sport.

“Where he is working, and has taken the lead, is on Gen3. It was floundering and it needed ownership, and he’s done a fantastic job with Shane Howard and Adrian Burgess.

We are cutting through there.

“With Government sanctions, and lobbying on the government side, he’s going to be used extensively. He’s got a great name and a great feel for it.

“Television is a job for him and that’s his livelihood. He’s getting better and better. And the commentating group all get on very well.”

What about dragging Supercars out of the morass of Covid 19?

“I think what we’ve got on-track is world class. We need to have the entertainment to go with it.

“You always get your core support. But it’s about more hospitality, better engagement, more entertainment, making it more accessible.

“I think the Supercars racing at the grand prix was brilliant.”

How about a change in the location for the Supercars office, which is currently split between Sydney and the Gold Coast?

“I don’t think having just one office is the answer. The irony is that 50 per cent of the teams and 50 per cent of the clients are in Melbourne, and yet we’ve never had an office or representation in Melbourne.

“We see that having an office structure in Melbourne is important, but that could be more on the commercial and client servicing side. You can certainly have three offices for the type of business it is. In our media business we have 12 offices around Australia.

And, finally, what about talk that Supercars is again aiming for overseas expansion, this time in partnership with Formula One? “F1 is going through phenomenal growth at the moment, as we know, and there is a lot more global demand than they can cater for.

And, with the money that’s being provided, there is no question they are lacking category content to support it.

“We are absolutely interested to look at it, and to see how it could potentially work for us. That’s F1 and Supercars.

I think both with event calendars and on an activation level.

“Ideally, we believe we could run 15 races in a season. We have to look at what that means for the calendar.

“I’m not saying it won’t happen in 2023.

Discussion are being held, but it’s at a very early stage.

“I think also, with going to New Zealand, there is a lot of pent-up demand. I’ve been quite surprised at how important our sport, Supercars, is in the New Zealand market.

And how well known it is and how it is followed.

“When they don’t have an America’s Cup, or a British Lions rugby tour, we’re a constant.”

The other constant for Barclay Nettlefield, is hard work. Supercars is taking up a huge amount of his time and he’s already looking forward to the time he can move to a helicopter view instead of chipping at the coal face.

“There is so much going on in regard to restructuring of Supercars. It needed me to assist that process in the interim. And to understand how things work.

“I certainly understand things more and more. I’ve taken it on myself to do that.”

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THE CLUB WITH A LIFE OF ITS OWN

BOB JENNINGS TAKES A LOOK AT WHAT MAKES ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST MOTORSPORT CLUBS TICK IT ALL started as a conservation plan.

Nearly 90 years ago, a bunch of Adelaide car enthusiasts was concerned that South Australia’s pioneering history was being lost.

Many of the first cars on the state’s roads were being left to rot and these blokes figured there should be some effort made to preserve them.

How to do it? Put on something like the UK’s London to Brighton Run which celebrated the passing into law on November 14 1896 of the Light Locomotives on the Highways Act. The Act raised the speed limit for vehicles not exceeding three tons from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the requirement for cars to be preceded by a man on foot bearing a red flag.

Adelaide motorcycle and car enthusiast Dr Cliff Downing, inspired by a veteran car and motorcycle rally organised in Victoria in 1931 to raise funds for the Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Hospital Fund, saw the possibility of a London to Brighton-style event.

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At the time he was vice-president of the Motorcycle Club of SA and with the assistance of Adelaide garage owner Percy Wien-Smith began a search for the 105 cars

and motorcycles that existed in SA in 1905.

By the latter part of 1933 the quest had generated some enthusiasm, aided by articles in Adelaide’s morning newspaper, The

The ‘London-to-Brighton’ run of 1935 by SA SCC members

Advertiser, by Motorcycle Club secretary Wal Murphy, who contributed a regular column.

A remarkable collection of cars came to light; a De Dion Bouton V8 and a Gobron Brillie from France, a Speedwell from the UK, a couple of single-cylinder Rovers, a curved-dash Oldsmobile, a single-cylinder Pope Tribune from the US, a hinged steering column two-cylinder Buick, a single cylinder Darracq and a British three-wheeled Phoenix.

A committee was formed to convene the event which duly took place in 1934; there were 18 pre-1914 cars and 10 motorcycles and a crowd estimated at “tens of thousands” along the 18km route from Adelaide to the beach-side suburb of Glenelg.

A veteran car club had been formed by the convening committee to run the event and afterwards it was considered that this was too restrictive; many of the young blokes involved were also interested in contemporary motor sport.

Left: Competitors give children a ride up ‘The Hill’.

Right and above: The SCC’s stately rooms in Adelaide contain perhaps the most comprehensive motorsport library in the Southern Hemisphere ...

Below right: Greg McEwin’s Morris Cooper S looking lonely in 1966 - take in that period vista! The timing box was an original building chopped in half, then carried onto concrete blocks by 60 SCCSA club-members during ‘Operation Uplift’ Images: SCCSA/John Lemm

On May 22, 1934, less than three weeks after the Glenelg run, a new club was formed.

Names proposed included the Light Car Club of SA and the Sporting and Veteran Car Club.

But the consensus was for the Sporting Car Club of SA with the objective “to promote and hold competitions, meetings, tournaments and to offer, give and contribute towards prizes, medals and awards for drivers of cars of any capacity.”

Sports car enthusiast Dr Geoffrey Howard was elected the first president.

The fledgling club didn’t let the grass grow under its feet. A run to Mannum on the River Murray was held a week after the club was formed and the following weekend there was a hillclimb at Snake Gully, in the Adelaide Hills. A second veteran cars run was also held as well as trials and picnics.

A “speed meeting” was conducted on the broad sands of Sellicks Beach, south of Adelaide which attracted a crowd so large it surprised the organisers.

Again, events over the border in Victoria provided the genesis of another idea.

Victoria’s centenary in 1934 had inspired a London to Melbourne air race.

South Australia’s centenary was in 1936 and the new club put a proposal to the SA

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Government for a Centenary Grand Prix and TT for Racing Cars and Motorcycles. Roads to the east of Victor Harbor, 90 kilometres south of Adelaide, were deemed a suitable site and with the co-operation of the local councils, the event was a goer.

The Centenary Grand Prix, on Boxing Day, was a handicap event and attracted a classy field of 30 cars competing over 32 laps of the 7.8 miles (12.6km) part-sealed, part-unsealed circuit. Before a huge crowd, the car race was won by Victorian Les Murphy in a P-Type MG. “Grand Prix” racing became a backbone of the club’s calendar over many years. The roads through and around Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills were the scene of the South Australian GP in 1938 and the Australian Grand Prix in 1939. Lobethal saw more action after World War II as did a road circuit at nearby Woodside.

But after deaths on these tracks the SA Government banned road racing (the ban was lifted eventually for the 1985 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide), forcing the club to look for private land. Once again in co-operation with the motorcycle fraternity, a company called Brooklyn Speedway Ltd was formed to build a circuit near Port Wakefield (100km north of Adelaide) in 1952.

A bare 2km long and set in featureless countryside the circuit nevertheless hosted the 1955 Australian Grand Prix and a series of heats was run to determine the 22 starters.

Winner was a 29-years-old NSW driver, Jack Brabham, in a rear-engine Cooper-Bristol …

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The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport later deemed the circuit too short to host the 1961 AGP scheduled for SA and Brooklyn Speedway switched its attention to the RAAF’s wartime training airfield at Mallala, significantly closer to Adelaide at a distance of about 60km.

In 1961 the site was bought from the Commonwealth Department of the Interior by the Mallala Pastoral Company, part-owned

by Club member and racer David Harvey. He subdivided the land with the section including the airstrip, hangars, control tower and other buildings being bought by another club member and racer, Steve Tillett, on behalf of Brooklyn Speedway. Brooklyn then changed its name to Mallala Motor Racing Co. Ltd and shares were offered and bought mainly by club members.

With an incredible amount of effort the area was converted to a racing circuit in time for a trial meeting in August 1961 before the AGP in October. A crowd of 15,000 watched the

Mallala Trophy feature race was won by Bib Stillwell’s Cooper T51 Climax.

CAMS were happy with the conduct of the meeting, so was the SCCSA. “The Mallala circuit is a realisation even beyond our dreams. We might even thank the State Government for banning racing on public roads because otherwise we would probably never have had a place where we could race at any time we wished,” club-secretary Brooks said at the AGM a week after the meeting.

In the GP David McKay crossed the line first in a 2.5 litre Coventry-Climax but was deemed to have jumped the start – a decision he always disputed – and the race was awarded to Lex Davison in a 2.2 Coventry-Climax.

Mallala served the Sporting Car Club well for 10 years until Surfers Paradise entrepreneur Keith Williams, whose company owned the Surfers Paradise Raceway, announced in 1970 that he planned to build a multi-purpose race track – incorporating a drag strip, banked oval and road-racing circuit

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The Mallala circuit is still very active these days – the start of the Radelaide Enduro event.

Below: The SCCSA is still very active today ... here promoting its ‘Old Crocks Run’ ...

Bottom: The Collingrove Hillclimb is very much part of SCCSA’s competition activities today.

- near Virginia, much closer to Adelaide than Mallala.

Williams bought out Mallala Motor Racing Ltd, sold the land with a covenant that the circuit not be used for racing and the new Adelaide International Raceway opened with a drag race meeting in 1972.

Seven years later, club member, racer and car dealer Clem Smith successfully challenged the covenant and re-opened the Mallala site with a motocross meeting and “mud-plugger” event for cars.

The circuit re-opened as a full-blown racing facility – albeit with a shortened length – in 1982 as Mallala Motor Sports Park with the Sporting Car Club as promotor of open circuit races. Smith ran the circuit successfully until his death in 2017. Subsequently ownership passed to the operators of The Bend circuit at Tailem Bend although Mallala continues to be used with the Sporting Car Club’s involvement.

The long-standing success of the Sporting Car Club lies in the fact that it is not a onetrick pony; according to Club president Keith Williamson it owes its success to its diversity.

From the outset the Club fostered racing and veteran and vintage runs, quickly diversifying into hillclimbs, English-type trials, road trials (now known as rallies), motoring festivals and social events.

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In the early days hillclimbs were held on closed public roads but in 1950 R.F. Angas and his son Bob, both Club members and owners of the historic Collingrove grazing property near Angaston, in the Barossa Valley, offered a site known as Angaston Hill to the Club.

The offer was accepted and the Club still owns and operates the Collingrove Hillclimb.

According to Mr Williamson, a further key to the success of the Club, which has around 1800 members, is that it is not brand specific and caters for wide interests through

its various sections – Classic and modern, veteran and vintage, competition, hillclimb, historic racing, and HQ racing.

With its own freehold premises – Mawson House, a large, elegant 1909 building on King William Road, Unley – the Sporting Car Club

Right: a pair of Mercedes ‘Gullwings’ uses the SA SCC’s clubrooms as a perfect backdrop ...

Middle: Modern action from Collingrove hillclimb, as the Hayward hillclimb car ascends Bottom: The 1955 Australian Grand Prix was run at the Port Wakefield circuit by the SCCSA. This images shows one of the qualifying races, 20 lap, third qualifying heat underway, Reg Hunt, Maserati A6GCM and Stan Jones, Maybach 3 on the front row. On the second row is Brabham’s streamlined, central-single seater Cooper T40 Bristol and multiple AGP winner Doug Whiteford’s Talbot-Lago T26C. Rather a neat contrast of post and pre-War technology? has a solid base for its activities. With three paid staff it also houses an extraordinary library.

Yet another generous club member, former president and collector the late Eric Rainsford provided funds for the Bookmark computer library program which brought order to the Club’s impressive collection of books and magazines.

With further support from his sons, club members Ral, Dean and Gary, the Rainsford Library collection now houses about 7000 catalogued books and 10,000 bound magazines, including all copies of the English Motorsport magazine since its inception in the 1920s.

“We believe it is the largest motoring library in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest motoring lending libraries in the world,” said librarian Dean Hosking, another former race driver.

He’s been at the library for about eight years, one of about a dozen volunteers who work there. He says simply it’s his way of returning something to the sport at the end of his motorsport career while catering for his love of reading and enthusiasm for motoring history.

Former president, former racer, restorer and collector Ken Messenger points out that club members own a large number of South Australia’s famous and unique historic vehicles and that the club’s membership includes a diversity of professions, trades and activities which collectively help foster its diverse activities.

Trades? Let’s include racing and sports car makers Garrie Cooper, founder, builder and racer of Elfin Sports Cars; Malcom Ramsay, champion racer and founder of Birrana cars; Ian Richards, national champion and builder of his title-winning Richards F2 cars; Bronte Rundle, 1996 Australian F2 champion who now runs the successful BRM Formula

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3 operation, and Ray Lewis and Rory Thompson responsible for the ASP Formula 2, 3 and Clubman cars. Then there’s Harry Aust, the “A” part of K&A Engineering (the “K” is Dale Koennecke), the outfit responsible for the awesome VESKANDA sports car with which John Bowe won every round of the 1986 Australian GT/Sports Car championship.

The Sporting Car Club of SA has a long and rich history and there’s no sign of the enthusiasm which has carried it through the best part of a century yet abating.

You can find out more about the club and membership by visiting www. sportingcarclub.com.au FOOTNOTE: Much of this article is based on information from the exceptionally wellresearched book “With Casual Efficiency”, a history of the Sporting Car Club of SA from 1934-1994 by Dennis Harrison. The book is available in the SCC’s library!

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NATIONALS WRAP

2022 CLASSIC OUTBACK TRIAL

Image: Ian Smith

THE BATHURST-BASED son and father team of Andrew and David Travis (pictured) won the 2022 Classic Outback Trial after a commanding performance of aggressive and fast driving over the seven day Special Stage Rally. The win was the Travis’ fifth in this 1700 kilometre-long gruelling, dusty and sometimes muddy event and, astonishingly, their fourth win in a row.

After 31 special stages which started in Parkes on Sunday 26 March, only a handful of other drivers were able to better Travis individual stage times. His winning margin was more than 15 minutes.

The pair’s win has proved beyond any doubt that the Bathurst team are the Australian long distance rally masters – with no peer!

Second in the Classic Outback Trial, having shadowed the flying Travis’ and their Nissan Gazelle for most of the event was Michael Valantine and his son Timothy in a Datsun Stanza. After running off the

NATIONALS WRAP with Garry O’Brien road into a shallow dam on the second day, Valantine drove his heart out to make up the lost time, only to suffer a brake problem on the penultimate day that saw most of his hard work to recoup any time fade away.

Valantine’s only chance of victory on the last day on Saturday was for the Travis pair to suffer a mechanical breakdown. That was not to be.

Third place went to the South Australian crew of Darkie Barr-Smith and Rob Hunt in a Ford Capri Perana. Barr-Smith showed his form in a relatively new car and was spectacular all week, but in the end, simply not quick enough.

David Hills from New South Wales was fourth, with his co-driver Ben Richards.

Their trusty and powerful Ford Escort RS1800 was a delight to hear all event.

Hills worked his way up the leader board throughout the event as the competition fell by the wayside, with mechanical or driver maladies.

In one of the drives of the event, Victorian property developer Joel Wald and co-driver Cathy Elliot beavered away all week in a fine display of car control and spirited driving to bring their Datsun Stanza home in fifth position, 11 minutes behind Hills.

The closest fought battle of the 31 special stages of the rally was for seventh and eighth

places, between Shane Attwell/David Moir of Western Australia and Michael Ward/Pete Hellwig. Ironically, Attwell’s car, a Ford Falcon GT was the biggest car of the 40 starters and Ward’s diminutive Toyota Corolla the smallest!

After seven long and hard days of car rallying between the Central West New South Wales towns of Parkes, Condobolin, Orange and Bathurst only 3 seconds separated this pair when the cars crossed the finish line.

Organisers of the event conducted 3 separate competitions for three very different types of cars.

Queensland’s Tony Quinn, in a South African constructed Nissan Navarra, built for the Dakar rally took honours in the Allcomers competition, with the Regularity competition being won by David and Stephen Gainer in a left hand drive Datsun 240Z, with Paul and Mariella Kirkham in their Datsun 1600 second. Bruce Keys

Muireanne Hayes (Ford Escort Mk2).

Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith (Hyundai i20) took the opening stage and then had a slow Stage 2. Gill won that stage before Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt

(Toyota Yaris) won Stage 3. The three stages made up Heat 1 with Dalton in front from Gill and Sullens.

One of crowd favourites, Mal Keogh and Jacci Sharkey, went out on Stage 4, their Audi S1E2 caught out by the slippery conditions and hitting a tree. Quinn was back on the leader board, fastest on Stage 4. Then, alternator failure stopped Dalton on Stage 5 which Gill won – he also took the overall lead, with Sullens next from Chris Higgs and Steve Fisher (EVO 6).

The next two stages which completed Heat 2, went to Quinn. Gill won the heat from Sullens and Jamie and Brad Luff (WRX).

Heat 3 was over five stages where Dalton took the first, Quinn the next two and Dalton the last two. The latter won the last heat and finished fourth overall ahead of Riley Walters and Andrew Crowley and Michael Harding/ James Thornburn, both crews in WRXs. Garry O’Brien

STATE WINNERS IN THE CAPITAL TEENAGE DRIVER Taylor Gill along with Kim Bessell (pictured) won the opening round of the NSW Rally Championship on April 2 at the Netier National Capital Rally.

The state event was run in conjunction with the Australian Rally Championship opener and contested over two days (for the first time) and 12 stages. Constant light rain made road conditions slippery, which hampered crews as they started behind the ARC field.

In a Subaru Impreza WRX, Gill ran out the

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Image: Bruce Moxon winner by 23.1s from Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell (WRX), with Tim Wilkins and Jim Gleeson (Mitsubishi EVO 9) third. First in both 2WD and The East Coast Classic Series were seventh outright Sean McAloon and

BREAKTHROUGH AT RAINBOW THE ARB Big Desert 480 had a high attrition rate but not so for Brent Martin and Andre De Simone (pictured) in their Class 1 Jimco/Nissan V6. They took their first ever victory in the opening round of the ARB Australian Off Road Racing Championship at Rainbow on April 1-2.

Just 22 of the 44 starters went the distance where the winners were triumphant by 57.3s after six stages of the 80km course. Second went to Danny Brown and George Apted (Unlimited Class Alumi Craft/Nissan twin turbo) with over 4mins to third place father and daughter, Jason and Charlotte Richards (Class 1 Alumi Craft/Nissan V6).

Martin’s weekend kicked off with the lead at the end of the first day after wins in both stages. With a third, then a stage second, Dale Martin and Adrian Rowe (Tatum/ Nissan V6) were second overall with Brown third. Richards was next in front of Brad Chasemore and Jay Hare (Unlimited Jimco/Chev L98).

Notables that were early casualties were Aaron James (Alumi Craft/Ford Ecoboost V6, turbo), and Aaron and Liz Haby (Element/Toyota V6 twin turbo, power steering). Also out were Andy Brown/Danny McConville (Alumi Craft/Nissan V8, engine), Glenn Spizzo/Doug Cupitt (MikcleFab HRT/Toyota) and Tanner James (Superlite Alumi Craft/GM Ecotec) hit a tree.

The first stage of Sunday morning went to Chasemore over Richards, and Steven and Daryl Graham (Alumi Craft/Honda K24) while Brent Martin had a fuel-related misfire that had him fourth. It appeared rectified for the next stage where he was fastest before a pair of seconds behind Danny Brown.

Chasemore finished fourth outright ahead of Craig and Doug Barnett (Southern Cross/Chev LS2) from starting 15th. Behind sixth placed David and Alice Middlemiss

Image: Show ‘n’ Go (Class 1 Cougar/Nissan) were the Class 4 winners Peter and Dee Sibson with Greg Barker (Richard Bennett Trophy Truck/ Chev LS2). Dale Martin retired with fuel problems and Graham went out with a driveshaft failure.

Class 10 went to eighth outright David Vallance (Performance Hurricane A-Arm/ Honda) while Glenn Pike and Aidan Campagnolo (Can-Am Maverick X3) was first in Class 6, and tenth behind Marty and Alison Scott (Scott Avenger/

Chev LS2). Brock and Nigel Pendlebury (Hornet/Toyota) won Class 2, Darren Vanderwoude with Millie and Izaak Vanderwoude took Class 5, and Brett and Chris Tillson (Nissan Patrol) topped Class 7. Garry O’Brien

RIVER RALLY TO STRATFORD/MANNING A LOCKED centre and rear diff on their Subaru Impreza WRX failed to stop Adrian Stratford and Karin Manning (pictured) from victory in the European Affair Ada River Rally, the second round of the Till Hino Victorian Rally Championship.

They won the eight-stage 152km event by just over a minute. Second place went to Richard Galley in his first 4WD drive in 22 years as John Andreatidis pointed the way in their Mitsubishi EVO 7. Warren Lee celebrated his 63rd birthday with third place 24s away, teamed up with David Lethlean in an EVO 9.

Stephen Raymond and Brett Williams (WRX) won the first stage ahead of Stratford, but suffered a driveshaft failure after that. Stage 2 went to Galley with Danny Traverso and Jason Page (EVO 7) second before Stratford took out the next three over Peter and Chris Schey (Ford Escort RS1600), Traverso, and

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Image: B Team Media Luke Sytema and Tracey Dewhurst (Escort RS1800) respectively.

On Stage 6 Traverso was struck with fuel dramas and joined first

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round winners Jamie and Brad Luff (WRX) and Schey as retirees. The stage was won by Lee with Galley second. The latter was also second

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on Stage 7, behind Sytema.

Galley was best over the final stage, just ahead of Stratford.

Sytema was next and that enable

him to leapfrog Wayne Stewart and Lucas Zinsstag (WRX Spec C) for fourth. Sixth went to Tony Moore and Troby Hutchins (Ford Focus ST) ahead of Kevin Millard/ Andrew Daniell (Datsun 1600), Alan Friend/Michelle Canning (Nissan Silvia) and the Nick Seymour/Gordon Grant and Andrew Murdoch/Kelvin North crewed Ford Fiestas.

Coinciding with the VCR was round two of the LDV Geelong Vic Club Rally Series. It was held over six stages and was won by James and Mark Leoncini (Toyota Corolla) ahead of Ben and Cathy Hayes (Datsun 1600) and Russell and Cary Seabrook (Subaru Impreza RS).

Leoncini won three stages with the other three going to Steven Porter and Tony Robinson (Mazda RX7).

The latter were 19th after stage one before recovering to fourth.

Garry O’Brien

www.autoaction.com.au I 35

NATIONALS WRAP

RAIN ‘N’ SHINE AT SMP A MIX of weather at Sydney Motorsport Park on April 9-10 brought some diverse results in the NSW Motor Racing Championships second round. A saturated track was fed by intermittent heavy showers on Saturday before fine conditions prevailed on Sunday.

RX8 CUP THE HARRIS twins Brad and Will looked set for one-two overall result until the last lap of Race 4 when leader Brad stopped after Turn 8 ,out of fuel. Will won the race and the round with Justin Barnes second overall ahead of Jack Pennacchia.

The latter was a big winner of the wet first race as his nearest rival Tom Duncan was bogged off Turn 2 on the first lap. Jake Lougher was second well ahead of Aidan Riley, Brad and Will Harris, Shannon Noakes, Barnes and series leader Tom Shaw. Brad Harris took an almost immediate lead and went on to victory in race two. Barnes was second in front of Lougher, Will Harris, McLaine, Shaw and Pennacchia who faded from third early.

Winner Harris followed up with another runaway win in Race 3 with Barnes next ahead of Will Harris, Shaw, McLaine and Pennacchia. Riley and Noakes had contact a Turn 2 where the former cut a tyre and latter was left stranded. Lougher was also problems with the engine cutting out.

Brad Harris had another impressive margin in the last until his misfortune and behind his brother, it was Shaw, Barnes, Pennacchia, McLaine, Terry Lewis and Elliot Malouf. In fightback drives, Duncan was eight ahead of Riley, Noakes was 11th and Lougher 13th of the 27.

SUPERSPORTS Saturday-only races took place, with Peter White (Radical SR8) winning overall with a pair of seconds and the trophy race victory.

In each, he finished ahead of Mark Braeme (Radical SR3). Hard luck of the day was Alex Kenny (Juno) who was dominant in the three races until the last was curtailed by a dead alternator that put him out.

Steve Roberts (SR8) placed ninth, fourth and third in the last. Mark Laucke (Wolf Tornado) started with a first race fourth before an oil leak slowed him in the second. JohnPaul Drake (Wolf Mistral F1) suffered water in the electrics while the points-leading Darren Barlow Stohr WR1 couldn’t come to grips with the conditions.

FORMULA VEES INTERSPERSED WITH Safety Cars in the three races, Simon Pace (Checkmate) won the first ahead of Curtis Porter and Mathew Pearce in Jacers. Craig Sparke (Jacer) spun and fell to 17th before a fightback to tenth.

The race finished under caution as the John and Angus McDonald Jacers were stranded separately.

In the second outing, Sparke was second to Pace after a pass on Porter on the final lap.

There were two Safety Cars, the first for Stuart Vaughan (Stealth) and the second for Geoff Bassingthwaigh (Thomsen) and Andrew McKinnon (Aurora).

In a dogged three-way scrap for victory in the trophy race Darren Williams (Sabre)

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Above: Lacey, Cetin, Cameron, Nolan, and Ryan head the Sports Sedan field. Below Left: Jimmy Piszcyk dominated in Formula Ford. Below Right: Spiteri, Bucton and Hennessy lead a damp field in Over 2-Litre Improved Production. Images: Riccardo Benvenuti

edged out Sparke and Pace. His son Aaron Pace (Jacer) was fourth after fifth and fourth earlier and beat John McDonald and Porter to the line. There was an early safety car when Mark Thompson spun after Turn 4 and was hit

by William Pym (Jacer) with nowhere to go.

Pradel had a start penalty and was ninth. He also had dramas in the third race, forced to make a pitstop when the car went into limp mode. Gotch won the race ahead of Toparis, Holmes, Barry and Malcolm Oastler (Formula Pacific Ralt RT1).

FORMULA FORDS THE FIRST round was a dominant one for Jimmy Piszcyk who took his CHE Racing Mygale to three all-the-way outright and Duratec victories. Adrian Sarkis (Mygale) headed home Jordyn Sinni (Spectrum) in the first before the latter reversed the result twice.

Patrick Heuzenroader (Spirit) and Kyle Evans (Spectrum) diced for fourth in each outing with a two-one result for the former.

In the Kent class, Will Lowing (Listec) had two wins before he went off and bogged whilst leading the third. Speed and consistency earned Dan Holihan (Spectrum) the overall victory while reigning title holder Scott Tidyman (Mygale) only managed one finish.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION UNDER 2.0 LITRE THE THREE races all went to Kurt Macready.

The Nissan Silvia driver was comfortably the winner of the first two, but was second to Justin McClintock (Honda Civic) in the third until the penultimate lap.

Ian Price (Ford Escort) was second in Race 1 until a spin at Turn 5 allowed the challenging Bob Jowett (Civic) through. It finished under Safety Car conditions, resulting from Matt Dwyer (Toyota Corolla) who touched a wall at Turn 2 and David Haines (Toyota) and Henri Price (Civic) off in avoidance.

McClintock was second in Race 2 from Jowett, Price and Charlie Viola (Honda Integra). McClintock resisted all Macready’s challenges in the last until fuel starvation allowed Macready the win with Mathew Harris (Civic) also able to get by. Jowett and Price were next ahead of Viola.

FORMULA RACE CARS AGI SPORT dominated with a one-two result is every race. Young karters and rookies Giamarco Pradel and Costa Toparis revelled in the wet aboard the team’s F4 Mygales.

They finish in front team leader Nathan Gotch (F3 Dallara F307) and fellow Dallara drivers Graeme Holmes and Greg Muddle.

In the dry Race 2, Gotch led home Toparis, Holmes, Doug Barry (Formula Holden Reynard 92D) and Lawrence Katsidis (F304).

IMPROVED PRODUCTION OVER 2.0 LITRE THREE EXPLOSIVE starts and seeing off the immediate challengers enabled Trevan Spiteri (Mitsubishi EVO 6) to win each race. His nearest rival were Lachlan McBrien (MBW E46) and Scott Bucton (Holden Commodore VX) until the first race was red flagged.

Bucton had a shutdown at Turn 2 and Scott

Tutton (EVO 2) was stranded at Turn 10.

In Race 2 McBrien was second as Charlie Khoury (Honda Civic) picked up at least four places for third ahead of Peter Hennessy (BMW E36), Nigel Williams (Commodore) and Andrew McMaster (E30). McBrien and Hennessy filled the minor placings in the last ahead of Stig Richards (Mazda RX7) and Tutton.

SPORTS SEDANS SCOTT CAMERON was a late replacement for an injured Willem Fercher in his Toyota 86/Chev and won ahead of Stephen Lacey and points leader Birol Cetin in their Chev Camaros.

Lacey won the wet opener as Cameron had to overcome Dan Nolan (Mazda RX7/Toyota turbo for second. Rod Moynahan (Holden Commodore) looked set for fourth when Cetin spun. But the latter came back to pip an out-of-fuel Moynahan at the line.

In the next race, there was a Safety Car when Paul Boschert spun and couldn’t refire the Chev Corvette/Dodge. Nolan was the leader but lost out to Cameron and Lacey at the restart for third ahead of Cetin, Phil Ryan (Nissan 280ZX/Chev) and Tony Saint (RX7/ Chev).

Lacey and Cetin diced through the first half of the third race. The former was leading when he had a fuel pressure issue and dropped down the order to eventually finish sixth while Cetin won ahead of Nolan, Boschert and Ryan.

Garry O’Brien

COLLIE FOR ROUND TWO THE SECOND round of the West Australian State Championships and the first race meeting of the year at the Collie Motorplex on March 26-27. A heavy shower between the second and third races on day one resulted in several incidents with substantial damage to some cars.

FORMULA FORDS TWO OUT of three was enough for Craig Jorgensen to take the most overall points in his Van Diemen RF93. The first race was red flagged when Arthur Abrahams pulled off the track on lap three. After the restart, Jorgensen went on to win from Tomas Chapmen (RF92) and Thomas Brown (RF92).

The second race was a repeat of the first before the last race, in which Abrahams was back. In changing conditions, Chapman jumped Jorgensen at the start and led throughout with Brown third ahead of Abrahams.

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

MRA’S SECOND QUICK ONE Daniel Gate dominated in Free Formula, while Stuart Young (below) also took three-from-three in Historic Touring Cars. Images: Mick Oliver

FREE FORMULA IT WAS three from three for Daniel Gate (Ralt RT4). He led from start to finish in Race 1 with William Norman (RT4) second throughout ahead of Marc Redman (Van Diemen RF92).

The second race was a repeat of the first until Norman pulled off the track on lap seven. Gate won from Redman with Lance Carwardine (Jane Brabham BT23) third. The third race was run on a very wet track where Gate won again as Redman took second with Ricky Virago (Ralt RT5) placed third.

EXCEL CUP WINS IN the first two races set Brett Sherriff up to take the top points. He made the break from the start in race one and was never challenged. Jack Clohessy won the tussle for the minor placings over Jake Passaris and Jackson Callo.

The second race was closer as Clohessy stuck with Sherriff for the duration. The battle for third was between Callo and Passaris where their position changed a few times before Callo took third place honours.

As the same four continued at the head into Race 3, Wesley Leher came unstuck near Turn 2 and ended up in the tyre barrier.

Remarkably he was able move the damaged car to safety behind a barrier without disrupting the race. But on lap six Salvatore Russo left the track and hit the tyre barrier near flag point two. The car ended up on his roof and brought out the red flag.

At the rolling restart Callo outpointed Sherriff for the lead and subsequently won.

Sherriff who was second over the line but copped a 5.0s penalty which dropped him to seventh. Passaris was elevated to second over Clohessy.

SALOON CARS PRO EVEN WITH a change of vehicle after qualifying, Grant Johnson (Holden Commodore VT) was the outright victor.

Rick Gill (Ford Falcon AU) got a dream start to lead until an incident with Mason Harvey (AU) and didn’t finish. Harvey went on to win, in front of Matt Martin (VT) and Gregory Dyson (AU). Harvey was given a 30s penalty and was relegated to ninth which elevated Grant Johnson to third.

Martin was the best away in Race 2 until Johnson passed him on lap two. From down

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the order, Harvey climbed to second by lap four. In the end it was Johnson first, Harvey second and Martin third, followed by a similar result in the third outing.

SALOON CARS PRO-AM THE FIRST two races resulted in Ford Falcon EA driver Mark Watkins’ wins from Michael Koberstein and Craig James in Holden Commodore VNs. There was a downpour before the third race started and on the first lap between Turns 1 and 2 James spun. With nowhere to go, Neil Streetfield (EA) hit head-on, then was hit

by Andrew Martin (VN) and the race was red flagged. After the restart, the lead was between Koberstein and Watkins who faded towards the end and Shane Eather (EA) passed him on the last lap for second.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS IN HIS Holden Torana XU-1, Stuart Young had three wins from three starts. Cono Onofaro (Morris Cooper S) filled all three second places with Scott Mackie (XU-1) third in the first two before he lost out to Dan Forster (Cooper S) in the last.

FORMULA VEE THE RESPECTIVE 1600 and 1200 classes were won by Austin Pearson and Brett Scarey. Pearson led Race 1 from fellow Jacer steerers David Caisley and McKenzie Matthews who had front cowling flip into the cockpit on the second lap. He slowed and retired which left Rod Lisson (Sabre) third.

Caisley got the better of Pearson early in

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Race 2, but mid-race Pearson moved to the lead. Lisson was holding third until he ran out of fuel on the last lap which elevated Matthews to third. Race 3 was a repeat of the finishing places.

Scarey (CD-Vee) led the 1200s’ first race from David Campbell (Gerbert) and Callum Lamont (Polar). The second race saw Campbell wide out of Turn 1 and drop several places. He recovered but could not catch Lamont. Scarey won from Lamont and Campbell. The third ended with the same three in front.

SPORTS CARS/SPORTS SEDANS THE RACES lost some of their spectacle as Arthur Abrahams packed up his Audi R8 and left before the first outing. Ryan Humfrey (Ford Falcon/Chev) led the first race, closely followed by Daniel Gonzales (Audi) until lap nine when Humfrey retired. Gonzales won from Tim Wolfe (Porsche GT3 Cup) and Clint Harvey (MARC Focus V8) Before the start of Race 2 Gonzales returned to the pits and did not start. Wolfe made the best start to head Brett Niall (Trans Am Camaro) while, on a charge, Humfrey wasted little time to hit the front and won.

TIME CHALLENGE BEST OF the Historics was Troy Michelson (Ford Mustang) from Jamie Scott (Ford Escort) and Gary Cutler (Porsche 911S) while Modern was taken out by Adam Ewing (Toyota 86) over Jack Michelson (Subaru Impreza WRX) and Les Eather (Ford Falcon).

Mick Oliver

AGAIN IT was a quick-fire four-hour for the Motor Racing Australia Series second event, from late afternoon into the night at Sydney Motorsport Park on March 26.

HYUNDAI EXCELS APART FROM the mandatory three-minute pitstop, Tim Colombrita led throughout the one-hour enduro and finished 4.5s ahead of Lewis Buhagiar after a late Safety Car. However, after Buhagiar had a racelong tussle with Dylan De Bono, he incurred a 30s penalty for a pit infringement which relegated him to eighth.

They were 0.6s apart after 27 laps with De Bono elevated to second place as a result. Third place wen to Monique Sciberras who hovered in the top five throughout. Sam Christison improved from eighth early to finish fourth in front of Matt Woodward, Tony Gardiner, and the shared Excel of Chris Fealy/Stephen Roffe.

There were two Safety Cars, with the first on lap 10 when Shannon Williams who was the first to take his mandatory pit visit, stopped on track with no spark. The second was under similar circumstances when Caleb Hefren had the fire go out and stopped on track.

The event featured a first with two brothers sharing with their respective grandsons. Alf Bargwanna teamed with Jude while Harry and Ben were also together, and the two cars managed by Scott and Jason. They finished 12th and 19th.

In the earlier sprint, Colombrita led throughout ahead of De Bono, Ben Bargwanna, Buhagiar, Gary Hodges, Christison, Woodward, Sciberras, Hayden Auld, Williams and Jude Bargwanna.

PRODUCTION/E36/INVITED THROUGHOUT THE three races Matt Holt (pictured above) dominated in his Production Touring HSV Clubsport VF and led each from start to finish. Second overall went to Ben Connell (PT Honda Integra) ahead of Myles Jones (Super TT Honda Civic).

Brian Callaghan (PT Clubsport VZ) held a clear second in Race 1 until the fuel pressure dropped and forced him to pit. From sixth early, John Boston (IP Subaru BRZ) came through for second ahead of Connell, Jones, Tom Petrovich (Nissan Pulsar) and Charlie Viola (Integra).

In the second outing, Callaghan started last and charged to third before second-placed Boston had an ABS fail and speared off at Turn 2 which brought out the Safety Car to the finish. Jones took third ahead of Connell, Viola and Petrovich. After a seventh in Race 1, Paul Nudd (Mazda MX5) retired with overheating.

Several missed the last, including Callaghan who had an engine shutdown on the pre-grid. Connell finished second with Boston third from the back and ahead of Jones, Viola and Matt Shylan (Integra).

David Bailey had three E36 successors while Adam Hughes was second twice ahead of Marcus Rummler who turned the tables on Hughes in the last. Garry O’Brien

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NATIONALS WRAP COTTON SEASON UNDERWAY WITH LESS than half the runs available Dean Tighe (pictured) posted the fastest outright time in the second round of the Queensland Hillclimb Series at Mt Cotton on April 2-3. It was the first outing for the year after the first round was postponed due to floods.

Brett Bull (supercharged Kawasakipowered Van Diemen RF03K) was the pacesetter from the outset ahead of Warwick Hutchinson (OMS 28 RPV03/ Rotary turbo), and set his best time on his eighth attempt.

Tighe (Wrath Empire/supercharged Hayabusa) had not been out the first four runs and only managed to better Bull’s time with a 37.29s FTD on sixth and final effort to be 0.26s ahead. With Hutchinson the next best, 0.91s away, the top three spots were filled by 1.3 litre and over Formula Libre cars.

Fourth place went Jim Millner (OMS 2000M) and the winner of the up to 1.3lt Formula Libres which filled six positions. David Quelch (Homebuilt DPQ03) was next in front of Doug Daniels (NuTec), Mitchel Allwood (Energy Firecat), Jeff Daniels (Nu Tec) and Stephen Edwards (GS Yamaha R6FL).

The first of the tin tops was Gavin Taylor in his Volkswagen Golf Sports Sedan up to 2.0lt, 0.04s ahead of class rival Tyson Cowie

Image: Ian Colley

Image: Ian Colley (Ford Escort), and Glenn Anable (BMW 2002 Turbo) in over 2.0lt Sports Sedans.

Then followed James Heymer (Supersports/

Sports 1300 Farrell), and Ken Graham (Improved Production Datsun 1600 SSS).

While the times did not count to the overall

result, the end-of-day Top Six runoff was won by Tighe ahead of Bull, Milliner, Quelch, Daniels and Edwards. Garry O’Brien

HOT END TO HILLCLIMB

Image: SCCSA

FOSTER UNBEATEN AT COLLINGROVE THE OPENING round of the Challenge Trophy hillclimb at Collingrove on March 27 was won by Derek Foster in his up to 2.0 litre Formula Libre class Suzukipowered White.

The Sporting Car Club of South Australia’s event followed a Come and Try meeting on the day before, and had 78 entries for the one-day event where nine runs were available on the 750m course.

Foster was the only one to go sub-30s and he did it on four of the six runs he undertook with the best a 29.58s effort.

Second went to David Whiteside in Roy Mitchie’s Mazda V6 twin turbo Cheap BOSS, 2.3s behind while 0.7s up on the car owner in third spot. They finished one-two in F/L 3.5-5.0lt.

In fourth place was the first of the tin tops,

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David Coombe and his Road Registered 4WD up to 3.5lt Mitsubishi EVO 7. Nathan Green (RR 4WD over 3.5lt Nissan Skyline GTR) ahead of Luke Bosman (EVO X) who was second in class to Coombe.

In his Sports Sedan Datsun 1200 Coupe, Geoff Vardon was seventh, just 0.01s ahead of Joe Chaptini (RR 4WD up to 3.5lt Audi S3), Alex Wilson (Improved Production Audi A4) and Tania Langcake (Subaru Impreza WRX 4WD Rally Car).

The Road Registered 2WD Sedans and Sports Cars had the biggest numbers and also the closest results. In up to 2.0lt, Graham Smith (Lotus Elise) edged out John Taylor (Alfa Romeo 47) by 0.16s while the up to 3.5lt class there was 0.29s between Paul Kloppers (Hyundai i30N) and Damien Hirst (Toyota Yaris GR). Garry O’Brien

THERE WAS an early finish to the first round of the Ray Pank Winter Cup Hillclimb Series at Collingrove on April 10 due to a grass fire.

Most of the 49 competitors did manage five runs before they were evacuated from the complex.

The fire was contained in the Collingrove facility, and burnt out some old dying gum trees and damaged tyre barriers.

While there is damage, at this stage it looks like the Sporting Car Club of South Australia will be able to continue with its schedule of events.

In five runs undertaken, David Mahon (pictured) continued his domination of recent events at Collingrove. In his Dallara Hayabusa F394 he was never

headed. In four attempts he was under the 30s mark and had FTD at 28.36s.

Driving Roy Michie’s Cheap BOSS, David Whiteside was second quickest overall on 32.74s. Michie was next best four tents slower and fractionally quicker than the fastest tin top which was Paul Healey in a Mitsubishi EVO 8.

In fifth place was Nathan Green (Nissan Skyline GTR), a tenth ahead of David Coombe (EVO 7) while Brenton Byfield (Subaru WRX Sports Wagon) was seventh. A last run best effort for Mark Dixon (WRX) elevated him ahead Wayne Fitzpatrick (Nissan 180SX), Alex Wilson (Audi A4) and Sean Hayter (Chev Corvette) who was the first in the 35s bracket.

Garry O’Brien

Image: Bob Taylor

Images: Riccardo Benvenuti

Images: Riccardo Bienvenuti

MAGILTON BEST OF HUMONGOUS HQS A MAMMOTH field of 53 HQ Holdens converged on Mt Panorama over Easter as a support to the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour, vying for the Dale Youd Perpetual Trophy that Victorian Andrew Magilton (pictured above) took home after a second and a win.

Throughout qualifying Magilton and Brett Osborn swapped fastest times as they circulated together before the NSW driver claimed pole

for the first race.

Osborn doggedly held off Andrew Magilton all the way through Race 1 while Brandon Madden passed Joel Heinrich on the fifth and final lap to take third. Then followed Brock Mitchell after he passed Ben Simpson on the second lap.

Behind Simpson came Jason Molle who gave the Murray Corner tyre wall a nudge and brought out the Safety Car for two laps.

Phil Ashlin finished sixth, ahead of Darryl Crouch, James Flett, Andrew McLeod and Andrew Toth. Just out the top 10 were Darren Jenkins, Chris Molle, Ray Jardine, Dion Cidoni and Dave Allan.

Osborn took the lead at the outset of Race 2 until a brake lock-up at Forrest Elbow and a brush with the tyre wall dropped him to eighth by the end of the first lap. Magilton went through to the front, just

ONE RESULT FOR HISTORICS

A RED flagged race and fog conspired to only allow one race result for the Historic Cars at Bathurst over the Easter weekend.

That lone contest was won by West Australian Aldo De Paoli (above) in his Chev Camaro.

The Bathurst 6 Hour support category comprised of mainly Group Nb and Nc Historic Touring Cars together with a small participation of Production Sports Groups Sb and Sc. Fastest qualifier Brad Tilley (Nc Ford Mustang) took charge from the outset ahead of his son Jamie (Nb Mustang), Peter O’Brien (Ford Falcon XY GT), De Paoli, Darren Collins (Camaro), Keith Kassulke (Mustang) and Wayne Seabrook (Sc Porsche 911 Carrera).

Jamie Tilley did not complete

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the second lap, retiring with a broken gear linkage. Tilley Snr led comfortably until the final circuit where lapped traffic and a brake drama conspired allowed De Paoli to close.

He was within striking distance at The Chase and mounted a successful lead challenge into the final corner. Collins was third after he passed O’Brien midway through. Kassulke was next as Seabrook topped Adam Walton (Nc Mustang) in their dice. Then followed John Harrison (Sb Shelby GT350), Doug Barbour (911) and Graeme Woolhouse (Nb Mustang).

Just 0.3s behind the latter was Dale Parry (Nc Mustang) with 12th to Stephen Scales (Camaro) next in front of the Mustangs driven

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by Jack Harrison, Andrew Lane and Michael Rose. Michael Miceli (Mustang) stopped with low oil pressure, Luke Harrison’s Holden Monaro HT was stuck in gear, as Les Walmsley (Ford Cortina) and Wayne Potts (Datsun 280Z) retired with electrical gremlins.

Brad Tilley pulled out of Race 2 before the rolling start when the brakes locked on. De Paoli led from the start until the race was red flagged on lap four. Stephen Scales (Camaro) was parked on the run to Forrest Elbow and there was contact between Steve Shepard (Mazda RX2) and Bryan Taylor (911) at Hell Corner.

The scheduled third race consisted of laps behind the Safety Car because of dense fog.

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ahead of Heinrich, Ashlin, Madden, Simpson, Crouch and Toth.

Magilton led the first two laps before Heinrich slipped past into the lead that he held for the next two circuits. Magilton wasn’t done and regathered the front running on the final lap for the win. Osborn fought back to third ahead of Ashlin, Crouch and Simpson.

Toth was seventh ahead of Chris Molle, Jenkins and Cidoni. In 11th

was Shaun Boland from Allan, Glenn Deering, Matt Barker, Jardine, Steve Banks and Ken Wright who continued to progress after starting Race 1 rear of grid.

The third race was scheduled for Sunday morning but became a 15min cruise behind the Safety Car due to fog that covered Conrod Straight from Forrest Elbow to Murrays Corner. Garry O’Brien

INWOOD AT HOME ON THE MOUNT

BATHURST LOCAL Harry Inwood was the overall winner of the MRF Tyres Australian Pulsar Racing Association’s support races on Easter Saturday at Mt Panorama.

A fleet of 37 Nissan Pulsars took on the mountain for the first time. Inwood (pictured) headed the two practice sessions and qualifying. It appeared he would be hard to toss in the three races that followed. But he was beaten to the line in the first two races before he scored victory in the final race and claimed the one make category’s major honour.

In a great opening encounter, Josh Craig was the initial leader but was third on the road as they started the fourth of five laps when Inwood led, and Jamie Craig was second. Josh Craig passed his brother on Mountain Straight, stalked Inwood across the top, and slipped past him on Conrod.

Almost instantly the yellow flags were out for Damon Schofield off in the Chase, and the chequered flag came out a lap early.

Jamie Craig took third in front of Dan Smith, 2021 state series winner Tim Colombrita, Dimitri Agathos, Shane Tate, Ben Sheedy, Mark Crutcher

and 10th placed Gavan Reynolds.

In Race 2 Josh Craig held off Inwood throughout for a second win. But he was penalised postrace for weaving and relegated to fifth for the final. Thus, second went to Jamie Craig ahead of Smith, Colombrita. Sixth was Tate in front of Reynolds, Sheedy, Scott Tidyman and Chris Manning.

Inwood managed a break from the rest at the start and despite a Safety Car period, had enough in hand to take out the feature.

Josh Craig came out on top in the scrap for second as Smith and Jamie Craig relegated Colombrita.

The full course yellows were out when Matt Early, Damon Schofield and Ben Hanrahan came together in the run to the Cutting. Reynolds edged out Tate for sixth and they were chased to the line by Manning, Sheedy and Tidyman. Garry O’Brien

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TRIPLE TREAT FOR HERNE

Images: Daniel Kalisz-ARG

REPORT: Josh Nevett NATHAN HERNE extended his lead in the Trans Am Series standings with a clean sweep of wins at Mount Panorama.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport Ford Mustang driver was made to work hard by title rival Tim Brook though, who was runner-up in every race and limited the margin in each in a Wall Racing Mustang.

Owen Kelly also raced his way onto the round podium with three finishes inside the top four, as a trio of Ford’s earned round honours.

Herne won the opening race of Round 3 by just under 2s, taking the lead from Brook at Griffin’s Bend on the opening lap before beating him to the line.

Brook started from pole and was under immediate attack from Herne, who pulled alongside him up Mountain Straight and could not be denied.

Ben Grice rounded out the podium, a strong start to his weekend.

The GRM Mustang of Kelly was fourth, ahead of Jon McCorkindale who was fifth in the Dial Before You Dig Mustang.

Behind the frontrunners, a battle for sixth raged between Nic Carroll, Brett Holdsworth and Nash Morris.

The former came up trumps in his Dodge Challenger, while the latter pair were forced to settle for seventh and eighth.

Young guns Lochie Dalton and Jett Johnson rounded out the top 10.

Two entries were unclassified, Cody Burcher and Mark Crutcher forced to retire.

Race 2 was a slightly easier outing for Herne, who led from lights-to-flag to make it two from two at Bathurst.

The defending champion kept Brook

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and Kelly in his rear-view mirror, who completed the podium.

Kelly dropped back to eighth at one point but recovered to maximise his points haul.

Holdsworth and Morris resumed their hostilities from Race 1, the more experienced Holdsworth coming out on top to finish fourth ahead of McCorkindale.

Morris was sixth, while Dalton climbed his way to seventh.

Edan Thornburrow, Dream Racing Australia’s Elliot Barbour and title contender Kyle Gurton rounded out the top 10.

Chaos ensued at the rear of the field as Shaun Richardson, Brock Boley and Jackson Rice collided, forcing the latter into the pits with front end damage to his Dodge.

Johnson also had dramas, dealing with a mechanical issue triggering a Safety Car before going off at The Chase.

Teammates Grice and Carroll suffered gearbox faults, taking them out of contention.

Herne completed his hattrick in Race 3, leaving Mount Panorama with some breathing room at the top of the standings.

Brook and Kelly completed the podium again, the three falling into order quickly after the start of the final race of the weekend.

Grice and Morris had an entertaining back and forth which began at Forrest’s Elbow.

The pair pulled alongside each other at The Chase but Grice showed the form that earned him a podium at the start of the round to emerge ahead.

The thrilling battles were halted briefly

Top: Iconic Bathurst image ... Nahan Herne. Above: A packed grid of thundering V8s heads for the rolling start green. Below: Tim Brook topped Qualifying and. although giving best to Herne, still racked up a pile of points to be the defending champion’s closest challenger.

STANDINGS 1 2 3 4 5 by a Safety Car period, initiated when Gurton’s Dream Racing Ford Mustang came to a halt at The Esses.

Gurton’s machine was able to race on, but the failure capped off a tough weekend for the title hungry driver.

Meanwhile, Burcher ended up off at Forrest’s Elbow after tangling with Chris Pappas at Hell Corner.

With those two issues resolved, racing resumed on lap 4 and Herne immediately gapped his rivals.

A flat-out finish was ruled out when a second Safety Car period neutralised

Herne Brook Kelly Holdsworth Gurton

576 557 522 503 484

the race, occurring after rookie John Hollinger was involved in a huge smash with Richardson on Conrod Straight.

Contact with Holinger’s right rear saw him spin out of control into the wall at high speed, damage the front end of his machine beyond recognition.

As a result, the race finished behind the Safety Car with McCorkindale, Holdsworth and Grice finishing behind the podium getters.

Morris, Thornburrow, Elliot Barbour and Hugh McAlister rounded out the top 10.

PUG POWER

STANDINGS

Aaron Cameron (above and bottom of page) dominated the weekend – in particular impressively driving away from the field in Sunday’s race; while (below) Bailey Sweeny raced away with the partial-reverse grid Race 2. Images: Daniel Kalisz-TCR Hub

REPORT: Josh Nevett AARON CAMERON shot up the TCR Australia Series standings with a comprehensive round win at Mount Panorama.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver won two of the three encounters at Bathurst in his Peugeot 308 TCR, propelling himself to fifth in the points after a difficult start to season 2022.

Series rookie Bailey Sweeny was the other good news story of the weekend, breaking through for a maiden win in Race 2 to cement himself as a youngster to watch this campaign. The win helped Sweeny to achieve round runner-up honours in his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR, finishing ahead of Cameron’s GRM teammate Dylan O’Keeffe.

O’Keeffe seemingly wrapped up the round with two third place finishes – however he was given a 10s penalty post-Race 3 which dropped him to ninth in that race.

Nevertheless, he sits third in the points standings heading into the next round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Cameron produced a dominant performance in the opening race of the round at Mount Panorama, winning from pole in a lights-to-flag effort.

As had been the case in practice and

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qualifying, Peugeot’s dominated proceedings taking all the podium positions – Ben Bargwanna was second in his Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308 TCR, while O’Keeffe took the last spot on the steps.

Cameron was only challenged at the very beginning of the race, Bargwanna nearly stealing the lead on the brakes into Turn 1 before Cameron regained the lead down the inside.

Jordan Cox was looking likely to follow them to the flag before his Peugeot overheated, forcing him to pull to the side of the road and retire from the race.

Will Brown surged through the field to take fourth in his Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, ahead of James Moffat.

Series newcomer Tim Slade and Tony D’Alberto made it two Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R cars in sixth and seventh.

HMO Customer Racing Hyundai teammates Josh Buchan and Sweeny clinched eighth and ninth, the latter charging hard throughout the race.

Michael Caruso rounded out the top 10, taking reverse grid pole following repairs to his Alfa after qualifying.

Sweeny scored his first win in Race 2, romping to a comfortable victory in the reverse grid encounter.

The teenager started off the front row in

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his Hyundai, moving into the lead on lap 2 before surging off into the distance.

The final margin was over 11s to GRM’s James Moffat, who scored a podium alongside Josh Buchan in another Hyundai.

It was a thrilling encounter to end Saturday at Bathurst, as the frontrunners looked to make up positions from their reversed grid spots.

In a change-up to Race 1, no Peugeot was in the top four with Michael Caruso fourth in his Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa after starting on the front row.

O’Keeffe was the first Peugeot driver across the line in fifth, while D’Alberto and Bargwanna backed up strong performances in Race 1 with sixth and seventh.

Shiels came in eighth, as Race 1 winner Cameron could not make many inroads from 10th on the grid, finishing ninth ahead of Brown.

After retiring with a mechanical failure in the first encounter, Cox charged through the field to earn an 11th place finish.

There was heartbreak from category rookie Tim Slade in the Stan Sport backed Wall Racing entry – he slowed heading up the hill on lap 1 and was forced into an early retirement.

Cameron claimed his second victory of the weekend on Sunday, leading from start to finish. He left the field for dead from the start and

1 2 3 4 5

D’Alberto Brown O’Keeffe Bargwanna Cameron

322 285 280 267 266

accumulated a healthy lead which he managed to the line, finishing 6.612s clear of second placed Sweeny.

Sweeny backed up his maiden victory yesterday by charging through the field in Race 3, slotting into second ahead of Moffat at the end of lap 5 before running out a comfortable second.

Dylan O’Keeffe completed the podium, 7.941s off Cameron.

Brown crossed the line fourth but dropped to seventh after the application of a 5s penalty, received for contact with Buchan at Murray’s Corner. As a result, Buchan himself was promoted to fourth.

Moffat ended up fifth despite running in second mid race, losing positions despite catching a slide on the dusty tarmac on the way up the mountain.

Bargwanna was sixth after some nervous moments on lap 7, the driver battling against understeer which put him into the dirt.

Following Brown was Shiels in eighth, while D’Alberto was the best placed Honda Civic Type R driver in ninth.

Jordan Cox climbed through the field again to round out the top 10 joining his GRM teammates.

Kody Garland hit the wall on lap 2 and was forced into the pits, re-emerging to finish last.

D’Alberto leads the standings at the conclusion of the Bathurst round by 28 points from O’Keeffe.

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61ST TO 1ST

IN WHAT WAS AN INCREDIBLY, DRAMATIC, EXCITING AND ATTRITIONAL 2022 EDITION OF THE BATHURST 6 HOUR, CAMERON HILL AND TOM SARGENT PREVAILED AFTER STARTING THE RACE FROM 61ST POSITION ON THE GRID.

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Daniel Kalisz IN WHAT was the highest calibre grid the Bathurst 6 Hour has seen to date, Cameron Hill and Tom Sargent made their way through the field after being stripped of pole position for a ride height infringement, and emphatically took victory.

It was a dramatic race in which there was a twist and turn on almost every lap. Something was always going on up and down the field, however Hill and Sargent stayed out of trouble and won the 6 Hour by 7.465s after a thrilling late race battle.

Coming into the race with very limited kilometres behind the wheel of the brandnew BMW M2 Competition, CHE Racing team, co-owned by Cameron Hill, was concerned about the reliability of the car.

While many of the other BMWs fell out of contention, the M2 Competition ran faultlessly allowing Hill and Sargent to take the win.

Coming into the 2022 edition of the Bathurst 6 Hour, BMW had never been beaten and after locking out the top eight spots on the grid it looked likely that the trend would continue.

However, in 2022 many outright Class X BMWs struck problems within the opening hour of the race.

Pole sitter Karl Begg sharing the #40 BMW M4 with David Russell and Nash Morris led the field to green alongside Tim Slade at the wheel of his BMW M3.

Into Turn 1 the Supercars driver braked later and ran around the outside of Begg – the pair

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ran side by side up Mountain Straight with Slade prevailing at Turn 2.

Just behind, 2019 race winner Beric Lynton paired with Tim Leahey and Will Davison, moved up one spot into fourth but out of McPhillamy Park the car began to slow and he was forced into the garage at the end of lap one.

He was not the only Class X BMW to hit lap one problems – 2018 winners Iain and Grant Sherrin’s car went into limp home mode, a problem they would have to deal with intermittently throughout the race.

At the end of lap 1 Slade led Begg, Steven Ellery, Anthony Soole, Jayden Ojeda, defending race winner Shane Smolen and the Russell family of Aaron, Drew and Wayne.

The drama kept coming in the opening laps, with the Class A2 leading car of Aaron Cameron, Nicholas and Cameron McLeod pitted due to a severe vibration.

Former Bathurst 1000 starter Jayden Ojeda was making headway early on and moved by both Soole and Ellery before inheriting second.

That was because, at the start of lap five, yet

another BMW fell out of contention.

Just 20 minutes in, the pole-sitting M4 came to a halt on pit straight – the car had no fuel pressure and Begg could not get it refired.

It had to be towed back to the pits on the back of a truck, which required the deployment of the first Safety Car, diminishing Slade’s 6.2s lead.

During the race all X class BMWs were required to take six, two-minute mandatory pitstops – however the window for these lengthy stops did not open until 30 minutes into the race.

Delayed by fog, the packed start was impressive.

Cop that!. After being disqualified from its qualifying pole, the M2 and its two young drivers (above) drove through the field to win.

While the fast X class cars had to perform six stops, all other classes only had to perform four.

As the cars ran slowly behind the Safety Car, more drama unfolded. Yet another BMW came to a halt with a fuel pressure issue – this time it was the Soole machine from fifth place, although he was able to get the car refired, but lost multiple places.

Slade now led Ojeda, S Ellery, Smollen and A1 class leader and Super2 driver Tyler Everingham in fifth.

In less than 20 minutes of green flag

running Sargent had climbed from 61st place to sit in 15th, up a staggering 46 places – and the early Safety Car was certainly no hinderance.

The race went back to green with 5h and 30m to go, but it was not long before the second Safety Car was deployed.

Into Turn 1 Soole’s BMW shut down again and saw him fire wide into the gravel; the M4 he shared with Adam Burgess and Anton De Pasquale was now out of contention.

Now, over half an hour into the race, all of the remaining Class X runners pitted.

Slade put up a tremendous fight before having to settle for a superb second outright.

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The Class A1 Merc split a number of BMWs on its way to a superb fourth outright.

Brad Carr jumped in for Slade, Rob Rubis replaced Smollen, while Sargent, who had made his way up to eighth, let Hill take the wheel.

Notably Rubis’ M4 bogged down and saw the defending race winner hinder Hill who was already in the fast lane.

As a result, the #1 machine was slapped with a 5s penalty, one that would be added to his time at the end of the race.

Many of the A1 and A2 class cars stayed out and as a result Tyler Mecklam in the #9 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo led the restart with all

Class X cars outside the top 15.

Just seconds after the restart, Hill overtook defending race winner Rubis and, just four minutes after the restart, he overtook theoretical race leader Carr around outside of the kink at The Chase.

Further forward, Class A2 driver, Mach 1 Mustang driver Grant Denyer had overtaken both Cameron Crick and Mecklam to lead the race at the one-hour mark – however the BMWs were catching quickly.

Just after the hour mark, the Class B and Class C leaders collided at the Chase. The #73 Holden SSV of Matthew Forbes-Wilson continued unscathed, while Jake Camilleri in his C Class Mazda 3 MPS spun and lost the class lead, but also escaped undamaged.

After just 1h and 18 minutes Hill had worked the #147 BMW back to where they qualified in first position, but just moments later pitted once more when the Safety Car was deployed.

This time it was for the #155 Class E Suzuki Swift which hit the wall on the exit of The Chase after contact with a sister car.

Just before the Safety Car was deployed Nick McLeod clipped the wall under The Tree, while Everingham suffered a front right puncture.

Under Safety Car all the X class contenders pitted again, except for the Ellery machine with Tristan at the wheel – he led the Mercedes of Dylan O’Keeffe and the Audi TT of Jude and Ben Bargwanna.

The Drew, Aaron and Wayne Russell BMW now led Class X from Carr, Hill and Nick Percat who replaced Rob Rubis.

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During the stops Mecklam had a power steering line blow which forced him into the garage.

On the restart, Drew Russell quickly caught Ellery, but was unable to overtake – as a result Sargent quickly passed them both.

In an attempt to keep up, Ellery made a mistake and nudged the wall at The Dipper, damaging his car and resulting in some lengthy repairs.

The #21 Ojeda and Simon Hodges BMW was the latest to hit mechanical issues in what was quickly becoming an attritional affair.

With four hours to go, Percat handed the car back over to Smollen, while out front Hill led Drew Russell by 6.8s, O’Keeffe was third, Carr fourth, and fifth was Tony Quinn who swapped in for Denyer.

For the first time the race settled into a rhythm with over an hour of green flag running.

The A class leaders, including Quinn and Bargwanna, pitted with 3 hours and 45 minutes to go, while the X class cars began to filter in with 3h 30m on the clock.

Carr and Hill were the first ones in the lane, before Russell stopped a lap later.

Once the latest batch of pitstops had shaken out, Sargent was back in the seat and led from Carr, Russell and Smolen.

In fifth was the class A1 leader Mike Sheargold, taking over the running of the #45 Merc from O’Keeffe; the Ford Mustang of Tony and Kyle Alford was sixth and leading A2 – however they had only performed one stop, therefore Denyer was the effective leader.

The #58 Russell machine came in for an unscheduled stop with just over three hours remaining, which looked like it would knock them out of contention. However, just moments later, the Safety Car was called as Holden HSV driver Adam Lowndes came to

Eighth outright and the Class A2 win – not a bad day for Messrs Quinn and Denyer ... a halt on the run to The Cutting.

Once again Carr pitted as did Smollen who made way for Rubis. On track, Sargent had passed the pitlane entry and was forced to go around once more.

He was held up by slower traffic and when he pitted a lap later lost track position, re-joining behind Carr and Sheargold who elected not to stop.

When the race restarted drivers once again settled into a rhythm with another long green flag period.

With two and a half hours remaining Rubis sat over a minute behind Sargent, however he handed the car over to Percat who would now finish the race.

Ten minutes later Carr came in and handed over to Slade who also could

The Camilleri/Nicholas Mazda 3 MPS just missed out on a stunning top 10 finish – 11th outright and clear Class 3 winners.

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now stay behind the wheel until the race concluded.

Slade was quickly handed a drive-through as the crew performed a quick service to the car while the fuel was being pumped, (according to the rules no other work can be done while re-fuelling is being completed).

The #15 Class B Holden started to drop fluid around the circuit which saw multiple drivers take a tour of the gravel trap at McPhillamy, including the contending Russell family BMW. The Safety Car was called once again as marshals cleaned up the circuit.

Under these conditions, Slade came in again, just a handful of laps after jumping in the car. Russell and Sargent also pitted.

Slade had now performed all the

mandatory two minute stops required, and would only need one quick fill-up to make it to the finish, while his Class X rivals still had one additional two-minute stop to make.

With a quarter of the race remaining, Percat had a lucky escape – the #84 Scirocco was turning around under The Tree after it had spun due to contact with the #255 Suzuki Swift.

Around the blind corner, Percat came upon a sideways Scirocco and somehow managed to thread the needle between the Volkswagen and the wall.

With 1h and 15m to go Slade was only 10s behind and was very much in the box seat with a much shorter stop required. Sargent was giving his all and in five minutes extended the gap to 13.5s.

The Smollen/Rubis/Percat M4 was there or thereabouts all day, finishing a strong third.

With 68 minutes remaining to go, Percat was in for his final stop and was followed in a lap later by Slade.

Slade’s refueler was visibly having an issue with the refuelling hose in what was meant to be a splash and dash.

It meant that, while the South Australian re-joined the race, he did not have enough fuel to make it to the finish – he would have to conserve to make it home.

On track, Aaron Russell was flying. He set fastest lap after fastest lap and was playing himself back in contention for the victory.

However, disaster struck with less than an hour to go as he came to a halt at pit lane entry.

He had run out of fuel; the team were caught out, expecting to get three laps more laps from the tank. Their garage was at the far end of the pitlane and, although many people assisted the crew in pushing the car up the lane, the #58 BMW went down a lap. They were now out of the running.

While this was going on, leader Sargent came into the lane for his final pitstop, handing the car over to Hill for the final stint.

The CHE Racing team knew they would re-

Class E winners, McMaster/Worrell, Mazda 3 SP25.

Above: Heartbreak for the Russells – out of fuel. join a fair way behind Slade and, as a result, took the time to fit two new right-side tyres and prayed for a Safety Car. Slade now had a substantial 51s lead over Hill and 58s advantage over Percat with less than an hour to go – however he would have to conserve fuel to make it to the finish.

But just minutes later, in typical Bathurst fashion, the race turned on its head once again when a Commodore came to a halt on Mountain Straight and required the deployment of a Safety Car. For Slade this was both a relief and a hinderance – he no longer had to conserve fuel but the massive lead had been all but wiped out, with just a few back markers between he, Hill and Percat.

With 42 minutes to go the race restarted.

Slade held a 9s lead and further extended it to nearly 11s before Hill broke free of the traffic.

Slade was setting his fastest laps of the race lap after lap; however Hill was setting a lap record pace, taking 2s chucks out of his lead each and every lap.

With 30 minutes remaining the gap had been slashed to just one second – the fight for the victory was on.

Slade fought gallantly, using his knowledge, experience and the lapped traffic to his advantage to hold the hard charging Hill at bay for many laps.

Hill was looking left and right, inside and outside but was unable to make his way by.

He looked at Turn 1, 2, The Chase, the final turn, even into The Cutting and the Elbow – all to no avail.

When there was no traffic around Slade was being forced to defend his position, but it appeared to be a case of when not if Hill would get by and so it proved to be.

After 10 minutes behind Slade, Hill eventually made the pass with a historic and memorable move up the inside into Brock’s Skyline, a fantastic and wellexecuted pass that will be replayed for years to come.

He made it stick and immediately pulled a margin over Slade in the next lap.

From there, Hill cruised to the finish, taking the victory by 7.465s and giving the M2 Competition a win on debut.

Slade and Carr could do little to stop the nippy little M2 and came home in second, ahead of reigning 6 Hour race winners Smollen, Rubis and super-sub Percat, 22.998s behind the winning duo.

One of the best performances came from O’Keeffe, Sheargold and Ollie Shannon – the trio won class A1 class in their Mercedes A45. What makes it more impressive is they

finished fourth outright, on the lead lap, and won their class by over a lap.

After the fuel, heartbreak the Russell family came home in fifth position ahead of the Ellery family and brothers Ben and Michael Kavich in seventh.

Denyer and Quinn won the A2 class by several laps and scored an impressive eighthplace finish overall.

The Bargwannas clawed back a ninth-place finish and more importantly second in Class A1 after a late race trip through the pit lane.

They pipped the #11 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo of Paul Loiacono, Dieter Holzl and Alex Holzl who finished third in class and 10th overall.

Impressively in an underpowered Class C machine, Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicholas drove their Mazda 3 MPS to an outright finish position of 11th, only four laps off the lead, and took the class win by three laps.

The #73 Holden driven by Forbes-Wilson and Mallard with whom the Mazda duo collided with they early in the race won Class B. Class D was hard fought all day long. In the end it was the Toyota 86 in the hands of Super2 Series driver Jaylyn Robotham, Brett Parish and Mitchell Wooller that took the honours.

Class E was won by the Mazda 3 SP25 machine of Andrew McMaster and Dave Worrell, beating the nearest Suzuki Swift by five laps.

THE HI–TECH OILS BATHURST 6 HOUR RESULTS 2022 Pos Class Drivers 1 X* T.Sargent/C.Hill 2 X B.Carr/T.Slade 3 X S.Smollen/R.Rubis/N.Percat 4 A1* M.Sheargold/D.O’Keeffe 5 X W.Russell/D.Russell/A.Russell 6 X S.Ellery/T.Ellery/D.Ellery 7 X B.Kavich/M.Kavich 8 A2* T.Quinn/G.Denyer 9 A1 B.Bargwanna/J.Bargwanna 10 A1 P.Loiacono/D.Holzl/A.Holzl 11 C* J.Camilleri/S.Nicholas 15 B* M.Forbes-Wilson/M.Mallard 18 D* B.Parrish/M.Wooller/J.Robotham 34 E* A.McMaster/D.Worrell * Denotes class winners

Class B went to the Forbes-Wilson/ Mallard Holden SSV.

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Make BMW M2 Competition BMW M3 BMW M4 Mercedes A45 AMG BMW M3 BMW M3 BMW M2 Competition Ford Mustang Mach 1 Audi TTRS Mitsubishi Lancer EVO Mazda 3 MPS Holden SSV 6.0 Toyota 86 GTS Mazda 3 SP25

Margin 130 laps +7.465s +22.998s +1m 53.671s +1 lap +2 laps +2 laps +2 laps +3 laps +3 laps +4 laps +6 laps +8 laps +14 laps

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INTERNATIONAL

PENSKE PAIR SWITCH PLACES REPORT: Josh Nevett JOSEF NEWGARDEN shot to the top of the IndyCar Series standings with a win in the Long Beach Grand Prix, his first at the Southern California street circuit.

The Team Penske driver (pictured) withstood the attacks of fellow podium getters Romain Grosjean and Alex Palou, as the race finished under caution due to an 84th lap crash involving Takuma Sato.

Team Penske has now won three consecutive races to open the 2022 season, the first of which was won by Kiwi Scott McLaughlin who lost his series lead with a 14th place finish at Long Beach.

After starting from ninth on the grid, McLaughlin hit the inside wall at Turn 11 on lap 33, spinning and dropping to 20th. He recovered somewhat, but not enough to maintain his series ascendency.

Polesitter Colton Herta started strongly in his #26 Andretti Autosport Honda, leading 28 laps until he came undone at Turn 9 on lap 56, leaving Newgarden, Grosjean and Palou to fight it out.

Newgarden took the lead on lap 55 when leader Palou made his final pit stop for fuel and tyres, electing to make his final stop two laps later.

In a race defining moment, Newgarden emerged from the pits just ahead of Palou who attempted to win a drag race for the lead.

The reigning champion pulled alongside Newgarden, however the latter held his nerve and the lead.

Image: Motorsport Images Meanwhile, Grosjean ran with a unique strategy of his own, pitting on the lap between Palou and Newgarden’s final stops.

Using all of his experience to conserve the softer compound tyres, the former F1 driver was able to pass Palou around the outside of Turn 1 on lap 70 before pushing Newgarden after a final caution period on lap 76.

Unfortunately for the 35-year-old, the race ending caution scuppered his hopes of a last gasp pass for the win.

“Very close, but not close enough,” Grosjean said.

All in all, it was an entertaining battle between the three drivers, which featured strategy, drama and wheel-to-wheel racing.

“This was a fight today,” Newgarden said after the race.

“This was not an easy race to win. I was working my butt off with Grosjean at the end there on the used reds (Firestone alternate tires).

“This Hitachi car was on it. I’ve been trying to win a race here for 11 years, so I’m so happy to get it done.”

EVANS DOUBLE DELIGHT

Image: Motorsport Images

Report: Dan McCarthy

CADILLAC FROM THE BACK CADILLAC RACING had to work hard for its 1-2 finish in last week’s IMSA SportsCar Championship Grand Prix of Long Beach, the #1 machine going from first to last to first on the way to victory.

After starting from pole position in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class, Sebastien Bourdais contacted a wall while trying to lap a GTD Porsche just seven minutes in, dropping the #1 Cadillac to the rear of the field.

It mattered little though, as the 43-year-old Frenchman made up the deficit in just 22 laps, passing Alex Lynn for the lead at Turn 8 before the halfway mark of the race.

Bourdais’ co-driver Renger Van der Zande completed the job, maintaining a lead over Earl Bamber in the #2 Cadillac despite three cautions and subsequent restarts.

The final margin was 3.761s between the two Cadillacs.

Championship leaders Tristan Vautier and Richard Westbrook completed the podium in the #5 JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac.

In GTD Pro, Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas stayed out of the trouble to score a maiden win for Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing squad.

The #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was slower than some of its rivals, but smart driving

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Australian Will Power finished fourth, while Pato O’Ward was fifth in the #5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi, Helio Castroneves and Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Standings 1 Newgarden 118 2 McLaughlin 113 3 Palou 103 4 Power 102 5 Dixon 83

and efficient pitstops made all the difference.

Riberas crossed the line 1.4s to the good of Ben Barnicoat in the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 after the multitude of cautions kept the field tight.

Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth were similarly efficient in their performance, narrowly missing out on victory for Vasser Sullivan Racing.

Aside from the front two runners, there were plenty of issues across the field. Although the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R completed the podium, it did not escape trouble.

Jordan Taylor drove the car to an early lead from pole, before entering the pits on lap 29. In the process of a regulation tyre swap, one of the Corvette’s wheel nuts rolled into the path of Mathieu Jaminet and Aussie Matt Campbell’s #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche GT3 R. The nut punctured the #9 Porsche’s radiator, forcing the car into retirement from third in class. A drive through penalty to the #3 Corvette resulted – however the team was able to recover to third.

Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow secured the GTD class victory in a BMW M4 GT3, finishing ninth overall.

Aussie Aidan Read was eighth in class alongside Ryan Eversley in an Acura NSX GT3. Josh Nevett

KIWI MITCH Evans scored both Formula E race victories in Rome, jumping to fourth position in the championship standings.

Prior to the weekend, the New Zealander had scored just one point in the first three races and sat 17th in the title race.

The first race was not easy for the Kiwi; he started Race 1 in ninth position, but it was clear early on he was one of the fastest men on track.

Pole sitter Stoffel Vandoorne and Robin Frijns fought hard for the race lead, exchanging positions on multiple occasions but it wasn’t long before Evans caught them.

With the extra boost of ATTACK MODE, Evans breezed by both Vandoorne and Frijns to take the lead he would never relinquish, going on to take his second win on the streets of Rome by 5.7s from Frijns, Vandoorne, former champion Jean-Eric Vergne, and Sam Bird.

Once again, in Race 2, Evans (below) did not make life easy for himself – he had to march from fourth on the grid to take the win.

A mid-race Safety Car was deployed to

recover former F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi and saw the race come alive.

With 24 minutes remaining, pole man Vergne led Evans. However this did not last long – it was less than a lap before the opportunist Kiwi overtook into Turn 4.

Enjoying the benefit of the extra power gained through ATTACK MODE, Frijns made his way up the order, overtaking Evans up the hill at Turn 7.

Saving his ATTACK MODE until the end of the race, Evans took the boost with less than eight minutes of the race remaining. With extra power, Evans went after new leader Andre Lotterer, hunting the German driver before taking the lead on the hill up to Turn 7.

Evans held on to take the win; close behind, was Vergne and Frijns.

The next round of Formula E takes place on the streets of Monte Carlo on April 30, catch all the action live and exclusive on Stan Sport.

Standings: 1 Vergne 60 2 Frijns 58 3 Vandoorne 56 4 Evans 51 5 Mortara 49

Image: Motorsport Images

BUSCH CHANNELS BRADBURY Busch slips past the unlucky Reddick following the latter’s last lap fracas (opposite).

Image: Motorsport Images HE MAY not have won from the rear of the field but Kyle Busch’s NASCAR Cup Series victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track last weekend certainly had a Steven Bradbury feel to it.

Tyler Reddick appeared destined to triumph after leading for 99 laps, however his #8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was sent into a spin on the final lap when the chasing Ryan Briscoe #14, attempted a pass, but lost control on the wet dirt and collided with him.

Reddick was able to regain forward momentum, but it was too little too late as Busch surged through from nearly 3s behind to win in dramatic fashion.

Busch led only the final lap in his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the victory perhaps

the most unlikely of his 60 career wins so far.

A win on dirt brings his Bristol win tally to nine, with eight of those coming on the traditional concrete surface.

“We got one, doesn’t matter how you get them, it’s all about getting them,” Busch said post-race.

“Overall, just really pumped to be back.

“Real pumped to get a win. This one means a lot. I can win on any surface here at Bristol. Bring it on, baby.”

After righting his spinning machine, Reddick finished runner-up just 0.330s behind Busch.

“I shouldn’t have let him get that close,” Reddick said.

“He ran me back down, worked really hard to do that and, I mean, you’re racing on dirt,

going for the move on the final corner.

“I should have done a better job and pulled away, so he wasn’t in range to try and make that move.”

Joey Logano, the 2021 dirt race winner, completed the podium as Briscoe plummeted off the steps to finish 22nd after leading 59 laps in the #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

Briscoe was at the front of the field for the first 48 laps before a spin with a flat tyre on lap 49. He came back to lead again on lap 140 but it was not be his day.

Briscoe led the first 48 laps, but his No. 14 Ford spun early with a flat tire to prompt a caution flag on Lap 49. He rallied to take the lead on Lap 140 and held on to win Stage 2 with 150 laps complete.

Defending Cup Series champ Kyle Larson was fourth after winning Stage 1, and Ryan Blaney was fifth.

The weather had a significant impact on this year’s dirt event, as rain delayed the race twice - once during the Stage 2 break, and again with 28 laps remaining.

Josh Nevett STANDINGS 1 Bastianini 2 Rins 3 A Espargaro 4 Mir 5 Quartararo 6 Binder 7 Miller 8 Zarco 9 Oliveira 10 Martín

61 56 50 46 44 42 31 31 28 28

BASTIANINI TAKES 500TH RACE Report: Dan McCarthy THE 500TH MotoGP race was won by Enea Bastianini who in the process retakes the championship lead after a flawless display in Texas.

Australian Jack Miller led a large portion of the race but ended up coming home third, claiming his first podium of the season.

As the lights went out, Miller got the best start from second on the grid and led polesitter Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia into Turn 1.

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez had an apparent electrical issue off the line and fell to the back of the field.

Still on the opening lap, Bastianini got the better of Bagnaia for third, while Martin lunged for the lead at the penultimate corner. Miller instantly retaliated at the final corner and reclaimed the lead.

On lap 2 Ducatis held the top five spots ahead of reigning champion Fabio Quartararo and the Suzuki duo Alex Rins and Joan Mir.

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By lap 5 Rins and Marquez were marching up the field. Rins made light work of Bagnaia, before fighting his way by Johann Zarco. Incredibly, by lap 7, Marquez had made his way into the top 10.

As always as the race edged over the halfway distance Bastianini came alive.

The Italian sliced past Martin into the Turn 1 hairpin on lap 12 and was immediately followed by Rins.

Rins was not the only Suzuki making progress, Mir soon passed Zarco and on lap 13 made his way by Bagnaia also.

With five laps remaining, Bastianini had caught Miller and it looked as if time was running out for the Aussie’s reign at the front.

His time was indeed short lived as Bastianini slotted his machine up the inside of the Queenslander at Turn 12.

From there Bastianini steadily increased the margin and would go on to take his and Gresini’s second win of the season.

Rins caught Miller as the final lap

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commenced, at Turn 11 (where Rins had made so many of his moves throughout the race). He fired up the inside, however the factory Ducati man got a great exit and breezed Image: Motorsport Images back by on the straight.

Miller was defending well, but Rins got a great run out of Turn 18, and at Turn 19 fired up the inside.

He got it stopped and turned with a perfect block pass, the Spaniard therefore snatching second at the death.

Miller came home in third ahead of 2020 champion Mir and Bagnaia.

From last at Turn 1, returnee Marquez recovered to sixth ahead of Quartararo, the

Pramac Ducati riders Martin and Zarco, while the Aprilias of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro finished 10th and 11th respectively.

Brad Binder was the top KTM in 12th from a fatigued Pol Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami. Franco Morbidelli finished 15th but was demoted one place, handing Andrea Dovizioso the final point.

The other Aussie, Remy Gardner, finished exhausted in 20th place.

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AGP SUPPORTS

UNLUCKY IN LOVE REPORT: Josh Nevett

MAX VIDAU emerged from Albert Park as the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship points leader, taking out the opening round despite not winning a race.

Vidau, driving for Tekworkx Motorsport, finished on the podium in each of the four encounters to seal his spot at the top as the new generation of Porsche 992 Cup Car made its Australian debut.

Europe bound Aussie Aaron Love looked a shoo-in for round honours heading into Race 4 with three consecutive victories to his name, however a shunt from Vidau’s teammate Luke Youlden saw him knocked out of the running.

The Sonic Motor Racing Services driver was visibly aggrieved as he sat stranded in the gravel, however his attention quickly turned to a full campaign in Carrera Cup France which began last weekend.

Love still managed to clinch a spot on the round podium, joined by David Wall who sits second after a consistent run of results.

KEEN to make an impact in his one-off Australian appearance, Love swept the opening day of racing of the season.

Neither victory was easy, he was challenged

by Vidau and Wall in both races, the latter pair taking podium positions in each.

Vidau was runner-up in Race 1, while Wall capitalised on a last lap error to run second in Race 2.

Michael Almond’s round got off to a poor start, the drivers’ green machine running out of grip before backing into a wall in Race 1.

He was forced to retire.

The first Safety Car was called upon for Drew Hall, who beached his car in the gravel. Green flags were then produced for a one-lap sprint to the finish which Love completed successfully.

After battling with the frontrunners all race, Nick McBride looked on for a podium but ran wide over a kerb and into the wall, prematurely ending his time on track.

Vidau was second, Wall benefiting from McBride’s incident to come home third.

Series rookie Angelo Mouzouris was fourth ahead of Pancione. Geoff Emery won the Pro-Am class from Liam Talbot.

RACE 2 was heavily interrupted and Safety Car laden.

Starting from 16th, Wood slammed into the tyre wall at Turn 1, dropping to the back and activating the first Safety Car. Racing resumed on lap 4 but green flag action didn’t last long, as Matthew Belford found himself in the wall with heavy damage shortly after the restart.

Racing again on lap 6, Christian Pancione was escorted into the gravel by Callum Hedge who copped a 10s penalty.

Things did not get much better for Hedge, who sustained damage and ultimately pulled up short of the finish line.

While it appeared Love’s race to lose at the front, the last lap provided a thrilling climax.

Vidau took advantage of a mistake from his rival to surge into the lead before faltering himself, running wide into the gravel undoing his good work.

Love calmly reclaimed the lead while Wall also leapfrogged Vidau to shuffle the final order.

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Above: No way out of this! A sideways Angelo Mouzouris awaits his fate as the pack has nowhere to go. Below: Max Vidau’s consistency earned him the championship lead. Bottom: Aaron Love looked set to take the outright points but got taken out in Race 4 ...

Jones and Walls were fourth and fifth, while Talbot took a win back in Pro-Am over Emery.

LOVE continued his dominance on Saturday, taking a third win in succession.

He got a great start and went on with it despite a Safety Car interruption, beating Vidau to the line by just 0.46s. Jones completed the podium.

Wall was fourth, while Ryan Suhle was fifth.

Duvashen Padayachee and Jackson Walls failed to finish the race as a result of a three into one jam with Hedge, which produced a Safety Car. Geoff Emery won the Pro-Am class from Sam Shahin.

VIDAU stole the championship lead in a dramatic final race on grand prix Sunday, which was won by Jones.

Wall was second, while Vidau completed the podium on the way to top spot in the standings.

Jones got the best start of the field, surging into the lead as Love fell back, carnage ensuing behind him shortly after.

McBride went into the gravel on lap 2, while Hedge found himself in the fence on pit straight.

Jackson Walls had a spin into the tyre wall on lap 3 after rear contact from Mouzouris.

Not long after, Bayley Hall spun at Turn 4.

With cars off the road all around the circuit, the Safety Car was called to initiate a cleanup, racing eventually resuming on lap 5.

The next to bite the dust was Love, shunted off the track by Luke Youlden who had been one of the big movers. The regrettable incident ended Love’s race and any hopes of a round victory.

Jones held on in the final lap to claim victory. Behind the podium getters were O’Keeffe and Russell.

Shahin climbed from 24th to 12th outright to win the Pro-Am class.

STANDINGS 1 Vidau 154 2 Wall 150 3 Love 147 4 Jones 135 5 Suhle 83

MAWSON DOMINANT AT AGP Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Daniel Kalisz JOEY MAWSON was a step above the rest in the third round of the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship which took place in front of a record crowd at Albert Park.

The reigning S5000 Champion took pole position, won Race 1 and dominated the Feature Race to win the coveted Alan Jones Trophy and retake the championship lead.

Qualifying was intense, with a three-driver fight for pole. Mawson left it late but edged out Tasman Series winner Aaron Cameron by 0.12s, with James Golding only 0.03s behind his Garry Rogers Motorsport teammate.

Nathan Herne, Zane Goddard, Tim Macrow, Ben Bargwanna and Cooper Webster rounded out the top eight.

Race 1 on Saturday morning was one of the best S5000 Championship races to date, containing a last lap dog fight between Mawson and Cameron.

Mawson made a good start off the line and led into Turn 1, nwhile part-timer Cameron struggled to get away and dropped to third behind Golding.

Golding then tried to overtake Mawson around the outside at Turn 3 but ended up touring the gravel – later that lap he would spin at Turn 9 and as a result dropped well outside of the top 10.

Out front, Mawson had bolted – he pulled a 1.2s lead by the end of lap 2 and continued to edge away lap after lap.

He appeared to have victory in the bag, a 3s margin with two laps remaining. However, after running over one of the violent kerbs, a front winglet and end-plate were mssing.

On the penultimate lap Cameron eradicated the lead margin and throughout the final lap hounded Mawson.

Forced to defend at Turn 3, Mawson locked up the front-right, but managed to keep it on the tarmac.

He was struggling, forced to defend again at Turn 9, Turn 11 and Turn 13. Cameron had a look at Turn 13 and the final turn, but to no avail. Mawson held to win an enthralling race by 0.4s.

Goddard scored his first top three finish in S5000 after debuting at the previous round.

Herne dropped to fourth by the end.

Two-time Australian Gold Star winner Macrow finished in fifth ahead of fellow title contender Webster.

Kiwi Kaleb Ngatoa fought against Webster

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in the closing laps of the race but was unable to find a way past; he came home in seventh, while Golding recovered from his lap one excursions to finish in eighth.

As is customary in S5000, Race 2 sees the top 75% in qualifying inverted. This meant that Conor Somers, who qualified in 12th, started from pole position in the twilight of Saturday night.

Shae Davies started alongside him on the front row and jumped into the lead at Turn 1.

Notably, Webster overtook Ngatoa around the outside to take fourth at Turn 1 and then made a clean and decisive move up the inside of Somers at Turn 13 for third.

Just behind, Macrow also put his machine up the inside of Ngatoa. Ngatoa braked late to try and hold position but, in doing so, clipped Somers, spinning the pole sitter around – for which he was handed a 30s penalty postrace.

Further back there was a tight fight between Mawson, Goddard and James Davison.

On the lap 2 Davison overtook Goddard at Turn 11; however at the last corner Goddard unintentionally tapped Davison into a spin.

The Safety Car was called to recover the damaged Goddard machine, and unfortunately, due to the lengthy Safety Car period, the race was called.

Davies took his maiden S5000 win from Blake Purdie, Webster, Macrow, Herne, Golding, Cameron, Bargwanna and Mawson.

The Feature Race grid is set from combined points of qualifying and the first two races.

Throughout, Mawson was in a league of his own. He cruised to a dominant 5.48s victory and was the deserved winner of the Alan Jones Trophy.

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Mawson was dominant (top) and received the AJ Trophy from the man himself. Above: Race 3 start – Mawson, Herne, fast-starting Macrow and Cameron head out of Turn 1. Below: Nathan Herne was GRM’s top performer this time.

Herne made a great start from third on the grid overtaking his GRM teammate Cameron on the run into Turn 1.

Although he was unable to match Mawson ahead, Herne did not crack despite Macrow keeping him honest throughout the race.

Herne finished second, just 0.7s clear of Macrow, who also was able to leapfrog Cameron at the start of the race.

Cameron came home fourth ahead of Golding who salvaged some good points from a tough weekend. Purdie was next ahead of Webster, Goddard, Bargwanna and Ngatoa.

STANDINGS 1

Mawson

290

2

Macrow

263

3

Webster

240

4

Golding

239

5

Ngatoa

140

6

Purdie

116

7

Goddard

107

8

Garwood

91

9

Herne

91

10

Fife

80

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 3 Albert Park

DRAMA APLENTY AT AGP AS HE WAS IN TASMANIA, SHANE VAN GISBERGEN WAS THE DOMINANT FORCE AND HAD THE CAR PACE TO TAKE THE POINTS AT ALBERT PARK. Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images NOT EVEN a rear of grid start or a puncture could rob Shane van Gisbergen of the Larry Perkins Trophy. Van Gisbergen was in a league of his own as many of his title rivals suffered in at least one of the four races.

It was the first time that Supercars had been to Albert Park since the infamous race cancellation of 2020. Since then the track has been altered and resurfaced to make for better racing.

In each of the four races drivers, would have to make a compulsory pitstop and run on both the soft and hard compound tyres.

PRACTICE – SVG SHOWS PACE DUE TO the track being incredibly dirty on Thursday morning, everyone went faster in the more indicative Practice 2.

SVG led the way from James Courtney by a margin of just 0.08s. Chaz Mostert was next, 0.345s slower than SVG, with the Dick Johnson Racing Mustangs of Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison next in line.

The only notable incident was in P1 when Broc Feeney, the Triple Eight Race Engineering rookie, slid out wide and hit the Turn 5 wall heavily.

He made it out for P2 but was at the back of the pack, 3.28s slower than his teammate at the head of the field.

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QUALIFYING, RACES 6-9: FOUR FOR FORD ACROSS A couple of teams and drivers and over two days, Ford collected all four pole positions.

Qualifying for Race 6 and 7 took place on Thursday afternoon. It was a dramatic opener in which David Reynolds scored Grove Racing’s maiden pole position, pipping De Pasquale by just 0.025s.

Halfway through the eight-minute session it was red flagged – Jake Kostecki had crashed at Turn 5, like Feeney, but this was more significant as the session was not restarted after marshals removed the damaged Tecpro barrier.

Behind Reynolds and De Paquale were Mostert, Davison and Lee Holdsworth, who

made it two Grove Racing cars in the top five.

Nick Percat and Cameron Waters were next ahead of Macauley Jones, Thomas Randle and Courtney.

One notable absentee was championship leader van Gisbergen. The New Zealander made a mistake at Turn 1 and in a bid to make up for lost time used too much of the track at Turn 10 and was found to have exceeded track limits, so his lap was invalidated.

He came in to pit for new rubber but was unable to set a time before the red flag was thrown – he qualified in 25th.

The second session was uninterrupted, Davison taking his first ever pole at Albert Park. He edged out Race 1 pole-sitter Reynolds by 0.08s. Van Gisbergen recovered from his disastrous first session to start from

third and alongside Feeney. De Pasquale, Brodie Kostecki, Courtney, Mostert, Percat and Todd Hazelwood rounded out the top 10.

Friday’s two qualifying sessions were run on the Hards rather than Softs. The opening session was dominated by the DJR Mustangs, De Pasquale taking pole position from Davison by 0.129s.

Van Gisbergen was next in his Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodore, nearly 0.6s off pole position.

Reynolds backed up his Thursday showing by qualifying fourth from Tim Slade, Courtney, Mostert, Feeney, Hazelwood and Mark Winterbottom.

The DJR drivers did not have such a margin in the fourth and final session. Davison fought

Traffic congestion (left): Mark Winterbootom heads the mid-field out of Turn 1 as Macauley Jones and Scott Pye are elbowed wide.

Right: Will Brown is chased by Cam Waters.

Bottom left: Jake Kostecki was among those to find the wall ..

Bottom right: Garry Jacobson grabbed a top ten for Subway in the opoening race.

back to take pole by a tiny 0.007s from his teammate.

Mostert was next, only 0.015s from pole in what was an incredibly close session.

Rookie Randle was next, securing his first top five Supercars Championship start, ahead of his Tickford teammate Waters. Van Gisbergen, Percat, Slade, Brodie Kostecki and Courtney, who rounded out the 10.

RACE 6 – TYRE CHAOS RACE 1 at Albert Park was all about tyres as blistering became a major issue, much worse than any team had imagined. If the Soft tyre was not nurtured early it could not manage more than a handful of laps.

Many drivers and teams did not find this out until it was too late.

As the lights went out, Reynolds got off the line well and led into Turn 1. De Pasquale, starting on the Hards, made a slower start and as a result immediately lost out to Mostert.

In just a couple of laps Reynolds and Mostert had bolted away on the softer tyres as De Pasquale and Davison were quickly plummeting on Hards.

On lap 3, at the earliest opportunity, Davison pitted as did Brodie Kostecki, Hazelwood, Courtney (competing in his 500th Supercars race) and many more, all jumping onto the soft rubber with 17 laps to go.

De Pasquale came in soon after. For all of these drivers it turned out to be a disaster – some failed to make it to lap 10 before pitting again.

On the soft tyres, it appeared as though Reynolds had used too much rubber early on, dropping behind Percat, Slade and Jones in quick succession.

At the end of lap 7 the first of the soft tyre runners pitted, showing that only around one third of the 20 lap race could be completed on the soft compound.

Leader Mostert and Reynolds came in and re-joined miles behind the DJR cars – but with De Pasquale and Davison having to try and make the soft tyres last.

The following lap Percat, Jones, SVG and Garry Jacobson all pitted and were set to march to the finish.

When the compulsory stops had been completed, De Pasquale led from Davison, with Mostert already taking chunks out of their lead.

Van Gisbergen was flying on the hard tyres also, carving through the field like a knife through butter.

After just eight or nine laps, several of the drivers on softs had to pit again and go to the end on the hard compound – this included Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown, Winterbottom and Courtney.

Out front, it did not take long for Mostert to catch Davison and ADP, passing them both in quick succession.

Despite dropping back late in his soft tyre stint, Reynolds was now one of the fastest drivers on track, overtaking Davison on lap 16 out of the last turn.

Just moments later race leader De Pasquale’s front-left tyre let go into Turn 1, forcing him to limp around the whole track.

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Other than a fracas with James Courtney (below left, reaching his 500-race milestone), Mostert (here leading team-mate Percat) had a great weekend with two wins.

Below: Will Davison jagged a $2k bonus, with two poles.

Moments later Davison’s tyre went also, and he flew off the road at Turn 9.

Van Gisbergen could not have believed his luck – he soon overtook Percat and found himself inside the podium places.

Mostert went on to take the win by nearly 8s from Reynolds and van Gisbergen, who remarkably came from the back of the grid!

Percat lost another spot late on – he ran wide at Turn 12 and allowed Slade to finish fourth.

Jones scored a career best solo race result of sixth ahead of Winterbottom, Feeney, and Jacobson (who scored PremiAir Hire’s first top 10 in the championship), while Bryce Fullwood rounded out the top 10. Davison finished 16th and De Pasquale 23rd.

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RACE 7 – GROVE DELIGHT AFTER THE tyre dramas of Race 1, all but five drivers started on the soft tyres for the second 20 lap encounter.

Off the line, pole sitter Davison made the best start, while Reynolds got too much wheelspin and dropped to third behind van Gisbergen.

On lap 2 Davison came under attack – he defended at Turn 3, compromising his line around Turn 4 and 5 and allowing van Gisbergen to set up the move down into Turn 6.

SVG moved by and pulled away as Davison led a train of cars; Reynolds, Brodie Kostecki, Courtney and Feeney.

To undercut Davison, Reynolds pitted early, as did Kostecki and Waters.

Just moments later Andre Heimgartner was in the fence at the final turn after contact with Brown. Heimgartner was unable to move and a Safety Car was required. Brown was handed a drive-through later in the race.

Everyone who didn’t pit a lap prior came into the lane. Notably, ADP and Feeney had to double stack; the former was unable to get out of his bay and had to wait for Feeney to be serviced first.

On track, Reynolds nearly undercut SVG, but did manage to retake second from Davison. Behind Davison was Kostecki, Courtney, Mostert and Waters.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 3 Albert Park

The race restarted on lap 8 and Davison was forced to defend at Turn 3; however, at Turn 4 the aggressive Erebus Motorsport driver fired up the inside forcing both cars wide.

Both Kostecki and Davison dropped behind Courtney and Mostert.

Soon after, Davison found himself defending from Waters and at Turn 3 went defensive.

A surprised Waters hit Davison and sent the DJR car sliding sideways into the gravel trap.

Waters was handed a drive-through for the incident.

Under Safety Car, SVG led Reynolds, Courtney, Mostert, Waters (who was yet to serve his penalty) and Holdsworth.

The battle in the closing laps was between Courtney and Mostert with the reigning Bathurst 1000 winner applying the pressure. Mostert was unable to find a way by but turned up the intensity on the final lap.

Into the penultimate turn, Courtney defended, andMostert tried around the outside – however Courtney squeezed him to the edge of the road.

Unhappy with the manoeuvre, Mostert bumped Courtney at the final turn which spun the Tickford car around and into the wall.

Out front, Van Gisbergen took a dominant victory from Reynolds, while Holdsworth nipped by both Mostert and Courtney at the final turn to collect his first podium with Grove Racing and present the team with its first double podium.

Scott Pye was fourth ahead of Hazelwood, Jacobson, Kostecki and Slade. Courtney finished a frustrating ninth ahead of Fullwood.

Notable top 10 absentees included Feeney who was forced to make an extra stop, (he finished 14th), De Pasquale 20th, and Waters 21st after the penalty, Mostert was also handed a penalty post-race, finishing 22nd.

Davison finished a lap down in 24th place.

RACE 8 - SVG AGAIN SATURDAY AFTERNOON’S race was a lot calmer. After losing out to SVG at the start of the previous race, Reynolds returned the favour in Race 3, taking third.

The race quickly settled down into a rhythm until Turn 1 on lap four when race leader De Pasquale made an unforced error – he locked up and took a tour of the gravel.

He re-joined in the lead, but a lack of momentum saw him drop to third by Turn 3 behind Davison and Reynolds.

Davison pitted later that lap, before ADP, Reynolds and finally SVG pitted on successive laps.

ADP got by Reynolds at Turn 4, but was unable to pass around the outside of a vulnerable van Gisbergen a lap later. He was forced wide by the Kiwi and allowed Reynolds past.

At the end of lap 8, Davison led van Gisbergen by 3.5s, with Reynolds and De Pasquale just behind.

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Above left: Unbeatabe? The stats (and the Larry Perkins Trophy) would suggest that SVG has the rest of the field psyched ...

Above: Two seconds and a third – Dave Reynolds is baaaack, and Grove Racing couldn’t be happier.

Left: T8 rookie Feeney managed a pair of top 10s despite a character-building time in practice.

However, SVG was on a mission – on lap 9 he was 0.8s faster than Davison and by lap 12 was on his tail.

He forced the DJR driver to defend at Turn 3, but, as in Race 2 Davison was compromised around Turn 4 and 5 and with a bump on the way by, van Gisbergen made his way past.

Towards the end of the race, Reynolds closed in on Davison – however a couple of mistakes when he was right behind him prevented an overtake from being made.

Out front van Gisbergen took the win by 5.6s from Davison and Reynolds.

A disappointed De Pasquale was fourth ahead of Mostert, Feeney, Slade, Waters, Courtney and Jacobson.

Heimgartner showed promising pace in the BJR car, in among the stars in the dry.

QUALIFYING RACE 06

Pos Driver Time 1 David Reynolds 1m 45.6781s 2 Anton De Pasquale +0.0256s 3 Chaz Mostert +0.2157s 4 Will Davison +0.4529s 5 Lee Holdsworth +0.4719s 6 Nick Percat +0.6210s 7 Cameron Waters +0.6364s 8 Macauley Jones +0.7009s 9 Thomas Randle +0.7103 10 James Courtney +0.8452 11 Mark Winterbottom +0.8772 12 Tim Slade +0.9405 13 Brodie Kostecki +0.9554 14 Todd Hazelwood +0.9825 15 Garry Jacobson +0.9928 16 William Brown +0.9969 17 Broc Feeney +1.0406 18 Andre Heimgartner +1.1157 19 Bryce Fullwood +1.1516 20 Jack Smith +1.3344 21 Chris Pither +1.4068 22 Jack Le Brocq +1.9582 23 Scott Pye +12.2577 24 Shane van Gisbergen No time 25 Jake Kostecki No time

RACE 9 – MOSTERT’S BIRTHDAY WIN DESPITE A great start, Mostert was unable to overtake either Davison or second-place man De Pasquale on the run to Turn 1, while Randle settled into fourth from Waters and SVG. The Safety Car was called halfway around the lap as Jack Smith failed to move away from the line.

On lap 3 the race resumed, with Randle coming under fire from his teammate Waters.

He defended at Turn 11 and forced Waters to defend from SVG at Turn 13; nevertheless the championship leader made his way through.

Waters immediately pitted following ADP and Randle into the lane. It was a disaster for

RESULTS RACE 06 20LAPS Pos Drivers 1 Chaz Mostert 2 David Reynolds 3 Shane van Gisbergen 4 Tim Slade 5 Nick Percat 6 Macauley Jones 7 Mark Winterbottom 8 Broc Feeney 9 Garry Jacobson 10 Bryce Fullwood 11 Scott Pye 12 Jack Smith 13 Brodie Kostecki 14 Andre Heimgartner 15 Jake Kostecki 16 Will Davison 17 William Brown 18 Cameron Waters 19 Todd Hazelwood 20 James Courtney 21 Thomas Randle 22 Lee Holdsworth 23 Anton De Pasquale 24 Chris Pither 25 Jack Le Brocq

QUALIFYING RACE 07 Laps 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 19 16 16

Race time 37:15.6301 37:23.3139 37:25.1032 37:26.7835 37:28.6586 37:33.5787 37:33.8735 37:40.3456 37:45.1065 37:47.1382 38:04.8297 38:11.1075 38:17.1266 38:20.2917 38:21.1602 38:21.5877 38:28.3720 38:30.2845 38:39.3623 38:40.3441 38:41.6820 38:54.4406 38:09.1642 37:38.5127 37:53.7767

s2 t-1 s21 s8 s1 s2 s4 s9 s6 s9 s12 s8 – s4 s10 t-12 t-1 t-11 t-5 t-10 t-12 t-17 t-21 t-3 t-3

Pos Driver Time 1 Will Davison 1:44.9418*S 2 David Reynolds 0:00.0814 3 Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.2333 4 Broc Feeney 0:00.3189 5 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.3375 6 Brodie Kostecki 0:00.3977 7 James Courtney 0:00.4007 8 Chaz Mostert 0:00.4185 9 Nick Percat 0:00.6871 10 Todd Hazelwood 0:00.7250 11 Cameron Waters 0:00.7272 12 Scott Pye 0:00.7906 13 Mark Winterbottom 0:00.8144 14 Jack Le Brocq 0:00.8195 15 Lee Holdsworth 0:00.8887 16 Jack Smith 0:00.9278 17 Bryce Fullwood 0:00.9571 18 Andre Heimgartner 0:00.9770 19 Macauley Jones 0:01.0927 20 Tim Slade 0:01.1113 21 Garry Jacobson 0:01.2349 22 William Brown 0:01.2540 23 Thomas Randle 0:01.5370 24 Chris Pither 0:01.6892 25 Jake Kostecki No time

Tickford – Waters was released into the path of Percat and as a result was handed a 5s time penalty, while Randle had a very slow wheel change.

On-track, Davison made a mistake and allowed SVG and Mostert to close on him. At the end of lap 5 he pitted, while Mostert ran wide at the final turn allowing SVG by on the straight.

When SVG emerged from the pits he was ahead of both DJR cars, while Mostert pitted at the end of lap 7 and re-joined in the lead.

On lap 10 SVG was hounding Mostert, trying to force him into a mistake, however it was the championship leader who made an error with a massive lock up into Turn 9.

RESULTS RACE 07 20LAPS Pos Drivers 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 David Reynolds 3 Lee Holdsworth 4 Scott Pye 5 Todd Hazelwood 6 Garry Jacobson 7 Brodie Kostecki 8 Tim Slade 9 James Courtney 10 Bryce Fullwood 11 Macauley Jones 12 Mark Winterbottom 13 Jake Kostecki 14 Broc Feeney 15 Jack Le Brocq 16 Chris Pither 17 Nick Percat 18 Thomas Randle 19 Jack Smith 20 Anton De Pasquale 21 Cameron Waters 22 Chaz Mostert 23 William Brown 24 Will Davison DNF Andre Heimgartner

Laps 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 18 3

Race time 41:54.8962 41:56.9337 42:01.9861 42:04.8710 42:07.8889 42:08.3933 42:09.3544 42:09.5908 42:10.0970 42:11.7600 42:11.8820 42:14.6526 42:14.6820 42:15.8629 42:17.7700 42:18.9682 42:19.6082 42:20.7110 42:20.7202 42:26.2610 42:42.4947 42:45.3366 42:47.8317 42:22.3672 5:40.5152

s2 – s12 s8 s5 s15 t-1 s12 t-2 s7 s8 s1 s12 t-10 t-1 s8 t-8 s5 t-3 t-15 t-10 t-14 t-1 t-23 t-7

Tim Slade and Cooldrive illustrated their pace with four top 10s, including a pair of fourths. Will Brown assists ...

Below: Fifth in the second race was the best Todd Hazelwood could reap from a challenging weekend.

From this point on SVG had to give up on the win and nursed his tyre to the finish.

As the race entered the closing stages, SVG fell into the clutches of Davison, De Pasquale, while Mostert sat 4.5s clear.

SVG upped his pace slightly to stay clear of the chasing pack but his damaged tyre couldn’t take it, letting go on lap 18. He was forced in to get it changed with just two laps remaining.

Out front, Mostert took a dominant win (on his birthday!) from Davison and De Pasquale.

Waters finished fourth but was ultimately classified in seventh behind Slade, Kostecki and Percat. Brown Winterbottom and Holdsworth rounded out the top 10.

After starting from fourth a disappointed Randle was forced to retire with steering issues, while Reynolds also failed to finish.

SVG came home in 20th and as his nearest challenger Reynolds failed to greet the chequered flag, he was handed the Larry Perkins Trophy for accumulating the most points over the four races.

QUALIFYING RACE 08

RESULTS RACE 08 20LAPS

Pos Driver Time 1 Anton De Pasquale 1:45.8031*H 2 Will Davison 0:00.1297 3 Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.5802 4 David Reynolds 0:00.8520 5 Tim Slade 0:00.8737 6 James Courtney 0:00.9794 7 Chaz Mostert 0:00.9995 8 Broc Feeney 0:01.0043 9 Todd Hazelwood 0:01.0273 10 Mark Winterbottom 0:01.0568 11 Cameron Waters 0:01.1240 12 William Brown 0:01.2040 13 Nick Percat 0:01.2337 14 Bryce Fullwood 0:01.2544 15 Lee Holdsworth 0:01.2653 16 Thomas Randle 0:01.2797 17 Brodie Kostecki 0:01.3032 18 Macauley Jones 0:01.4671 19 Scott Pye 0:01.5499 20 Jake Kostecki 0:01.6205 21 Andre Heimgartner 0:01.6619 22 Jack Le Brocq 0:01.6900 23 Chris Pither 0:01.7406 24 Garry Jacobson 0:02.0298 25 Jack Smith 0:02.3818

Pos Drivers 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Will Davison 3 David Reynolds 4 Anton De Pasquale 5 Chaz Mostert 6 Broc Feeney 7 Tim Slade 8 Cameron Waters 9 James Courtney 10 Garry Jacobson 11 Thomas Randle 12 Jack Le Brocq 13 Lee Holdsworth 14 Todd Hazelwood 15 Brodie Kostecki 16 Nick Percat 17 Mark Winterbottom 18 Andre Heimgartner 19 Chris Pither 20 Jake Kostecki 21 Jack Smith 22 Bryce Fullwood 23 Macauley Jones 24 William Brown 25 Scott Pye

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QUALIFYING RACE 09 Laps 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 19

Race time 36:51.5320 36:57.1794 36:58.0686 37:02.1992 37:04.8036 37:05.0815 37:07.3846 37:12.7791 37:14.6386 37:15.8917 37:16.8546 37:18.6902 37:18.7160 37:20.8725 37:22.5765 37:23.1059 37:24.9233 37:26.3531 37:28.8759 37:29.2366 37:29.9670 37:35.5074 37:37.1351 38:25.5302 37:55.9876

s2 – s1 t-3 s2 s2 t-2 s3 t-3 s14 s5 s10 s2 t-5 s2 t-3 t-7 s3 s4 – s4 t-6 t-5 t-12 t-6

Pos Driver Time 1 Will Davison 1:45.3792*H 2 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.0071 3 Chaz Mostert 0:00.0153 4 Thomas Randle 0:00.1580 5 Cameron Waters 0:00.1683 6 Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.2353 7 Nick Percat 0:00.2461 8 Tim Slade 0:00.2565 9 Brodie Kostecki 0:00.2658 10 James Courtney 0:00.3057 11 Broc Feeney 0:00.4690 12 David Reynolds 0:00.5623 13 Scott Pye 0:00.5998 14 Lee Holdsworth 0:00.6560 15 William Brown 0:00.7412 16 Andre Heimgartner 0:00.8205 17 Mark Winterbottom 0:00.9334 18 Macauley Jones 0:00.9511 19 Jake Kostecki 0:01.0096 20 Garry Jacobson 0:01.0844 21 Bryce Fullwood 0:01.2543 22 Chris Pither 0:01.2791 23 Jack Le Brocq 0:01.4038 24 Jack Smith 0:01.6446 25 Todd Hazelwood No time

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RESULTS RACE 09 20LAPS Pos Drivers 1 Chaz Mostert 2 Will Davison 3 Anton De Pasquale 4 Tim Slade 5 Brodie Kostecki 6 Nick Percat 7 Cameron Waters 8 William Brown 9 Mark Winterbottom 10 Lee Holdsworth 11 Scott Pye 12 Broc Feeney 13 Jake Kostecki 14 Todd Hazelwood 15 Garry Jacobson 16 Jack Le Brocq 17 Andre Heimgartner 18 Macauley Jones 19 Bryce Fullwood 20 Shane van Gisbergen 21 Chris Pither 22 James Courtney DNF Thomas Randle DNF David Reynolds DNF Jack Smith

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 03 Laps 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 11 6 0

Race time 39:09.2815 39:14.4983 39:16.1606 39:17.4111 39:18.0684 39:18.9812 39:21.8907 39:21.9574 39:23.2097 39:24.9488 39:25.3172 39:27.2455 39:28.7895 39:30.1609 39:31.1340 39:31.9019 39:31.9601 39:40.9311 39:42.0879 40:04.1400 40:15.3541 40:50.0294 24:41.8978 13:56.3744 –

s2 t-1 t-1 s4 s4 s1 t-2 s7 s8 s4 s2 t-1 s6 s11 s5 s7 t-1 – s2 t-14 s1 t-12 t-19 t-12 t-1

Pos Driver Points 1 Shane van Gisbergen 803 2 Anton De Pasquale 659 3 Chaz Mostert 641 4 Will Davison 622 5 Brodie Kostecki 553 6 Broc Feeney 543 7 Cameron Waters 521 8 Tim Slade 519 9 David Reynolds 513 10 Todd Hazelwood 450 11 Mark Winterbottom 443 12 William Brown 422 13 Nick Percat 421 14 James Courtney 419 15 Lee Holdsworth 408 16 Scott Pye 379 17 Bryce Fullwood 340 18 Andre Heimgartner 339 19 Macauley Jones 313 20 Jack Smith 286 21 Chris Pither 282 22 Garry Jacobson 281 23 Thomas Randle 262 24 Jake Kostecki 261 25 Jack Le Brocq 236

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Formula Round 03 Australian GP

LECLERC’S MASTERCLASS

IF THE MESSAGE WASN’T CLEAR AFTER THE TWO OPENING RACES, MELBOURNE CONFIRMED RED BULL AND MERCEDES’ WORST FEARS – THE 2022 FERRARI IS THE GOODS. POLE, WIN, FASTEST LAP ... WHAT ELSE IS THERE? Report: Luis Vasconcelos Images: Motorsport Images MELBOURNE’S RECORD-BREAKING crowd was in for a treat, after a three-years long wait to get the Australian Grand Prix back on track. It’s not often one gets to see a great driver, at the top of his game, steering a perfectly balanced car to a resounding victory, but that was the sight Charles Leclerc and Ferrari offered the Australian fans at the renovated and modified Albert Park track.

The Monegasque set a storming pace in qualifying, when he was the only driver to dip below the 78s mark, and led every single lap on Sunday to score his second win of the season, adding the fastest lap to his account. He left Australia with an amazing 36-points lead over surprisingly secondplaced in the championship, George Russell.

More importantly, the young Ferrari driver has a 43 points’ gap to Lewis Hamilton and has put World Champion Max Verstappen 46 points in arrears, an impressive feat considering we’ve only had three Grands Prix so far this year.

Charles Leclerc was so calm and collected

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at the end of the Australian Grand Prix that he sounded more like someone who’d just gone for a Sunday drive than a driver

who had completely dominated the entire weekend. His calmness at the end of the race, praising his team over the radio,

showed a man who knows he’s in control of the title battle for now and a quiet confidence there are more wins to come.

While he was never going to catch Leclerc, Perez worked his way into an eventual second place.

‘Get me to the airport ...” After looking so promising through Pracice, , Carlos Sainz’s race day fell apart.

Far left: In front of a huge crowd, Leclerc got the jump and was never headed.

Below: After his Q3 shunt, Alonso qualified 10th – but race and tyre strategy went well against him .

Leclerc was happy to acknowledge that the F1-75, “is a very strong car, for sure. I think until now it’s fitting my driving well. I understood the car very early in the season, and I think that is helping me for now.

“Qualifying yesterday, we did not expect to have another bit of performance coming in to today’s race. But we were even stronger than yesterday in qualifying, so this has been a good surprise. We need to keep pushing, obviously, but for now it’s going extremely well.”

A clean start made sure Leclerc kept the lead and on the Medium compound tyres he was able to quickly open a gap to Verstappen, the Dutchman seeing the left front tyre of his Red Bull RB18 start to grain early on.

By lap 17, with laps 3 to 6 being run behind the Safety Car, the Ferrari driver was already 8,3s ahead of Verstappen and was so comfortable with his tyres he waited another five laps to stop for the Hard tyres.

The Safety Car that came out on lap 24 after Vettel suffered his second shunt in two days, nullified his lead over the Dutchman and it was on the re-start Leclerc had his only close call of the weekend, as he explained: “I don’t think I went too hard on the throttle coming out of the last corner, but maybe I

Biggest upset? McLaren’s duo racing each other for 14th place ...

went too wide and got marbles on my tyres, so I suddenly had massive understeer, had to lift and I really thought Max was going to get me. Fortunately, though, I managed to keep him behind ... but that was close.”

The championship leader quickly pulled away but was expecting Verstappen to come back, “because they’ve been quicker than us on the harder tyre”. But in Melbourne, Ferrari was the faster team on all compounds, so Verstappen was more than 5s behind his rival, at the end of lap 36,

McLaren, despite no real updates, found themselves fighting it out with Mercedes for third ...

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when he was forced to retire with another fuel system related issue.

From then on Leclerc was able to manage his tyres even more, going for the fastest lap on the final one of the race – a move done against the team’s instructions, but that proved a wise one, for Alonso had pitted for Soft tyres a few laps earlier and would have snatched fastest lap from the Monegasque without that final lap push.

In total contrast, Carlos Sainz had a nightmare weekend where everything went

FRUSTRATION AT RED BULL SÉRGIO PÉREZ’S second place was not enough to hide the frustration felt in the Red Bull camp at the end of the Australian Grand Prix, the Austrian team seeing Max Verstappen retire from a comfortable second place with another fuel system related issue.

Out of the six Grands Prix the RB18 has started this year, only in three of them have the cars seen the chequered flag. So there’s clearly a lot of work to do in Milton Keynes to find the solutions to the issues that have already cost the World Champion 36 points, leaving Verstappen a whooping 46 points behind Charles Leclerc after just three races!

The Dutchman was so frustrated at the end of the race that he made it clear that, looking at the championship situation, “we’re already miles behind. So, I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment, I think it’s more important to finish races. But we didn’t even finish the race. It’s pretty frustrating and unacceptable.”

Verstappen’s car had already been subjected to some last-minute work on the grid, as he explained: “I knew there was a problem. So, it was always going to be a question mark of finishing the race. I mean, these kinds of things if you want to fight for the title, they cannot happen.”

Horner, who admitted that “I fully understand the frustration Max is feeling”, explained that, “it looks like a fuel system issue, external to the tank, that has caused the issue. So, now the parts will obviously return to Japan, and we’ll try and understand the problem as quickly as we can.”

Sources from the team pointed to a loose fuel line being responsible for the problem, leading to the team seeing a quick drop in fuel pressure and ordering Verstappen to stop the car, while the Dutchman could feel, “something is burning, there’s a weird smell” just before parking his car on the outside of Turn 2.

If lack of reliability wasn’t already enough of a concern for Red Bull, the fact Verstappen was unable to match Leclerc on both tyre compounds also frustrated the World Champion: “Today was, in general, just a bad day again.

I didn’t really have the pace, and I was just managing my tyres to try and just bring it to the end, because it looked like quite an easy P2, anyway. And I knew I could not fight Charles, so there was no point to try and put pressure on him.”

It is now clear Red Bull faces an uphill struggle to try and repeat last year’s success, because Ferrari has been quick in all three circuits we’ve been in so far this year, the F1-75 is gentler on the tyres and far more reliable than the RB18, so the Scuderia looks stronger than Red Bull in all accounts in this early part of the season. LV

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Formula 1 Round 03 Australian GP

ORANGE IS SHINNING BRIGHTER THERE WAS a big Orange Army in Melbourne but almost no Verstappen fans, as Daniel Ricciardo’s supporters donned McLaren’s bright orange colors and filled the grandstands with them.

With Lando Norris and the Aussie driver finishing fifth and sixth in the race, they didn’t go home disappointed and may even have got some extra encouragement from the fact that the local hero matched Norris throughout the race, rarely more than a few seconds behind the young Brit, showing much better pace than in the in the first two weekends of the season.

Team Principal Andreas Seidl was his usual cautious self, refusing to read too much into the much improved pace of the MCL36, despite the fact that Norris was fourth quickest in qualifying, ahead of the two Mercedes: ““That’s mainly down to three reasons: we bought some small upgrades here to the car which worked; the track layout suits our current package, a fluid layout; and we have simply learned more about the car in Jeddah and could apply the learnings here. That put us in a more competitive position, not just on one lap but also in the race.”

In fact McLaren has only now recovered from the lack of running in the last pre-season test in Bahrain, and Ricciardo is finally up to speed after completely sitting out that test and then battling the after-effects of Covid-19. Put it all together, and that’s the real pace of the MCL36.

Norris, however, was disappointed he couldn’t fight with Hamilton and Russell: “They both passed me at the start but I thought I could stay with them, so I wasn’t too concerned. But after a few laps they just pulled away from us and on the Hard tyre the gap was even bigger, so there was no way we could fight them.”

For Ricciardo, “it’s great to go home with a smile, because we made big progress compared to the first two races. We were competitive from the start of the weekend, on all tyre compounds and we had a good balance in qualifying and the race. For some reason my last lap in Q3 was all over the place, as I couldn’t get the tyres to work properly, but I kept my position at the start, stayed with the Mercedes while we could and then were never threatened from behind. Of course it’s not the result I wanted to give to the fans, but this is progress, good progress, and there will be more to come later in the season.” LV

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Not happy Jan ... Two DNFs out of three races, 36 points down the drain ... Max isn’t happy. against him: a lap that would have been good enough for provisional pole position in Q3 didn’t count, as the session was stopped two seconds before he passed the line; a starter motor problem didn’t allow him to do the run plan for the final attempt and on cold tyres he could only manage P9.

A steering wheel issue meant he needed a last minute replacement for the start, the spare one coming without the correct settings for the start, leading to the anti-stall kicking in, so the Spaniard was down to 14th place after the first few metres.

Then came his own mistake, as he admitted, going passing ssive!Que la et off quatwhile voluptiatus eosaes elliquia conecus, impel

Schumacher around the outside into Turn 9: “I need to be hard on myself for a driver mistake. Obviously, we’re still getting to know these tyres and clearly the Hard tyre this weekend was very tricky on the initial laps – when I shouldn’t have pushed, I started pushing. It’s an easy conclusion that I shouldn’t have pushed so much, that I should have stayed patient. But, at the same time, we were not perfect as a team. We had many issues; anti stall, the problems in quali all of which puts you under pressure.”

Sérgio Pérez saved the day for Red Bull with the 18 points he scored but the

Mexican was nowhere near as efficient in Australia as he had been in the first two races of the season.

Losing a position to Hamilton in the first corner, Pérez spent more time fighting the Mercedes than looking ahead at Leclerc and Verstappen. Twice he passed Hamilton, who got him back once using the overcut strategy and with Russell getting ahead of both of them by lucking in with the timing of his pit stop, he also had to get by the younger Brit.

Russell got his first podium of the season lucking in when the Safety Car went out on lap 24. He was the only front runner yet

Auto Action’s on-the-spot F1 reporter Luis Vasconcelos has never seen Leclerc so calm and relaxed, even after such a strong win.

to change to the Hard tyres and, by pitting under the SC rules, moved up from fifth to third place, ahead of Pérez and Hamilton.

The Mexican got past him on lap 36 but never pulled a big gap, while Hamilton closed on his team-mate and looked set to attack him until an overheating issue forced him to give up on his chasse for a podium finish.

Behind the two Mercedes, Norris and Ricciardo ran in tandem the whole race, unable to challenge the Silver Arrows but never threatened from behind, while Ocon benefited from the Safety Car to get past Alonso and Magnussen, who had started on the Hard tyre and couldn’t pit for Mediums on lap 24 as that was too early for the second set of tyres last the distance.

The Frenchman spent most his race behind the sensational Alex Albon, without ever threatening to pass the Williams. The Thai did the impossible, running in P7 the majority of the race as he ran non-stop with a set of Hard tyres, dropping to 10th on the

very last lap when he did the mandatory pit stop for Softs, scoring a very unlikely point thanks to great driving and tyre management, as well as good strategy from his team.

Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly got past Albon when he pitted to score important points for their teams, the Finn making up for being out of Q3 for the first time in 104 races (really!), in another demonstration Alfa Romeo has made big strides since the end of last year.

QUALIFYING RACE 03 Pos Driver 1 Charles Leclerc 2 Max Verstappen 3 Sergio Perez 4 Lando Norris 5 Lewis Hamilton 6 George Russell 7 Daniel Ricciardo 8 Esteban Ocon 9 Carlos Sainz 10 Fernando Alonso 11 Pierre Gasly 12 Valtteri Bottas 13 Yuki Tsunoda 14 Zhou Guanyu 15 Mick Schumacher 16 Kevin Magnussen 17 Sebastian Vettel 18 Nicholas Latifi 19 Lance Stroll 20 Alexander Albon

Time 1:17.868 1:18.154 1:18.240 1:18.703 1:18.825 1:18.933 1:19.032 1:19.061 1:19.408 No time 1:19.226 1:19.410 1:19.424 1:20.155 1:20.465 1:20.254 1:21.149 1:21.372 No time DSQ

RESULTS RACE 03 58 LAPS AUSTRALIA

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 03

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Dnf Dnf Dnf

Pos Driver 1 Charles Leclerc 2 George Russell 3 Carlos Sainz Jr. 4 Sergio Pérez 5 Lewis Hamilton 6 Max Verstappen 7 Esteban Ocon 8 Lando Norris 9 Kevin Magnussen 10 Valtteri Bottas 11 Daniel Ricciardo 12 Pierre Gasly 13 Yuki Tsunoda 14 Fernando Alonso 15 Zhou Guanyu 16 Alexander Albon 17 Mick Schumacher 18 Lance Stroll 19 Nicholas Latifi 20 Sebastian Vettel

Drivers Charles Leclerc Sergio Perez George Russell Lewis Hamilton Lando Norris Daniel Ricciardo Esteban Ocon Valtteri Bottas Pierre Gasly Alex Albon Zhou Guanyu Lance Stroll Mick Schumacher Kevin Magnussen Yuki Tsunoda Nicholas Latifi Fernando Alonso Max Verstappen Sebastian Vettel Carlos Sainz Jr.

Make Laps Time/Gap Ferrari 58 1:27’46.548 – Red Bull 58 20.524 s1 Mercedes 58 5.069 s3 Mercedes 58 2.950 s1 McLaren 58 24.760 t-1 McLaren 58 0.434 s1 Alpine 58 7.946 s1 Alfa Romeo 58 6.756 s4 AlphaTauri 58 7.782 s2 Williams 58 3.161 s10 Alfa Romeo 58 2.313 s3 Aston Martin 58 6.903 s7 Haas 57 1 Lap s2 Haas 57 1 Lap s2 AlphaTauri 57 1 Lap t-2 Williams 57 1 Lap s2 Alpine 57 1 Lap t-7 Red Bull 38 20 Laps t-16 Aston Martin 22 36 Laps t-2 Ferrari 1 57 Laps t-11

Points 71 37 33 30 28 25 20 16 12 12 8 6 4 2 1 1 0 0 0 0

Drive of the day? 57 laps on a set of Hards took Alex Albon’s Williams from the back row into the points. And (right) there was a record Melbourne GP crowd there to see it ...

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Name:

Images: Motorsport Images

International Family Crossword

INTERNATIONAL FAMILY CROSSWORD

Test your knowledge on some legendary Motorsport families 1

It’s in the blood! World motorpsort is full of brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and even grandparents ... Check out your knowledge of motorsport’s relatives.

Across 1. 2020 NASCAR Cup Series winner Chase Elliott is the son of another NASCAR champion, what is his name? (first name) 5. Petter Solberg won the 2003 World Rally Championship; his son Oliver competes now for which manufacturer?

6. Including all three tiers of MotoGP competition, how many World Championships have Marc and Alex Marquez won?

10. Kevin Magnussen has raced for how many different F1 teams?

11. Michael Schumacher’s son Mick has commenced his second Formula 1 season with what team?

15. While Oliver Solberg competes for Sweden, what country did his father represent?

16. Jackie Stewart is the younger brother of Jimmy Stewart who qualified for one grand prix, at what track, in 1953?

18. Kevin Magnussen’s father Jan still races today and is a four-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner with what brand?

20. Bruno Senna is what relation to Ayrton Senna?

21. Jacques and father Gilles Villeneuve both won multiple F1 races – Jacques won 11.

How many did they collectively take?

22. What was the relationship between Michael and Ralf Schumacher?

25. How many times did Dale Earnhardt Snr win the premier NASCAR Cup Series?

27. Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jnr finished fourth together in a legendary 24-hour endurance race in 2001, at what track?

28. David Schumacher moves to DTM in 2022 – what is Michael’s relation to David?

29. Combined, how many Indy 500s have Al Unser and Al Unser Jr won?

Down

1. There are three pairs of brothers in MotoGP – the Marquez boys, Espargaro brothers and which other family?

2. Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch have won multiple NASCAR titles, but how many times have they won the Daytona 500 collectively?

3. Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen is the son of former driver Jos. What was his father’s best F1 race finish?

4. Nico Rosberg followed in his father’s footsteps by winning the F1 title – with what team did Keke win the championship?

7. How many F1 race wins did Michael Schumacher take in his career?

8. Max Verstappen holds the record as the youngest ever F1 starter – how old was he in years?

9. Despite having a different surname, how are Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini related?

12. Pol and Aleix Espargaro are from what country?

2 3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10

11

12

13

14 15

13. Two father and son duos have won the F1 title – which family was the first?

14. Carlos Sainz Jnr competes for Ferrari in 16 F1, but what world championship did his father win twice? (abbreviation) 17. Gilles Villeneuve’s brother 18 19 Jacques Snr attempted to race in F1 but failed to qualify – on how 21 many occasions?

19. How many times did Nelson Piquet Jr finish on a Formula 1 22 podium?

23. Who are the only father and son pair to win the 500cc Motorcycle World 24 Championship? (surname) 24. Kalle Rovanpera has won more WRC rounds than his father Harri Rovanpera, but which rally have they both won?

26. This year Valentino 26 27 Rossi is competing in 28 GT World Challenge Europe racing for what brand?

17 20

23

25

29

Created using the Crossword Maker on TheTeachersCor

Down Across 1832 Crossword Answers: 1 down – zero, 2 across – Vettel, 3 down – Leclerc, 4 across – four, 5 down – three, 6 down – four, 7 down – Magnussen, 8 across – zero, 9 across – Victoria, 10 across – Russell, 1. There are three pairs of brothers in MotoGP, the Marquez boys, Espargar Series winner Chase Elliott is the17son of another 11 down – seventy, 12 down – seventeen, 13 down – Mercedes, 14 across1.– 2020 three,NASCAR 15 down –Cup McLaughlin, 16 down – twentythree, down – van Gisbergen, 18 – Ford, 19 down – two, 20 across – one hundred andacross which other family?

NASCAR champion, what is his name? (first name) and twenty, 21 across – Golding, 22 across – brothers, 23 across – Hill, 5.

24Petter acrossSolberg – Denyer, 25 across – Mostert, 26 down – sixteen, 27 down – five, 28 across – Damon Hill, 29 Busch acrosshave – Bottas, 30 across – Bowe 2. Kyle Busch and Kurt won multiple NASCAR titles, but how m won the 2003 World Rally Championship, his son Oliver competes now for which manufacturer?

6. Including all three tiers of MotoGP competition, how many World Championships have Marc and Alex Marquez won?

10. Kevin Magnussen has raced for how many different F1 teams?

11. Michael Schumacher’s son Mick has commenced his second Formula 1 season with what team?

15. While Oliver Solberg competes for Sweden, what country did his father represent?

16. Jackie Stewart is the younger brother of Jimmy Stewart who qualified for one grand prix at what track in 1953?

18. Kevin Magnussen’s father Jan still races today and is a four-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner with what brand?

20. Bruno Senna is of what relation to Ayrton Senna?

21. Jacques and father Gilles Villeneuve both won multiple F1 races, Jacques won 11, how many did they collectively take?

22. What was the relation between Michael and Ralf Schumacher?

25. How many times did Dale Earnhardt Snr win the premier NASCAR Cup Series?

27. Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt jnr finished fourth together in a legendary 24-hour endurance race in 2001, at what track?

28. David Schumacher moves to DTM in 2022, what is Michael’s relation to David?

29. Combined, how many Indy 500s have Al Unser and Al Unser Jr won?

times have they won the Daytona 500 collectively?

3. Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen is the son of former driver Jos, w his father’s best F1 race finish?

4. Nico Rosberg followed in his father’s footsteps by winning the F1 title, with team did Keke win the championship?

7. How many F1 race wins did Michael Schumacher take in his career?

8. Max Verstappen holds the record as the youngest ever F1 starter, how ol in years?

9. Despite having a different surname Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini are o relation?

12. Pol and Aleix Espargaro are from what country?

13. Two father and son duos have won the F1 title, which family was the firs 14. Carlos Sainz jnr competes for Ferrari in F1, but what world championshi father win twice? (abbreviation) 17. Gilles Villeneuve’s brother Jacques Snr attempted to race in F1 but faile qualify on how many occasions?

19. How many times did Nelson Piquet Jr finish on a Formula 1 podium?

23. Who are the only father and son pair to win the 500cc Motorcycle World Championship? (surname) 24. Kalle Rovanpera has won more WRC rounds than his father Harri Rovan but which rally have they both won?

26. This year Rossi is competing in GT World Challenge Europe racing for w brand?

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1972 – SINGAPORE DRIVER Sonny Rajah won the MSA Malaysian Grand Prix against the likes of Ken Smith and Vern Schuppan. In other news it was almost a certainty that Kevin Bartlett would debut his new Lola T300 Molloy Chevrolet in the opening round of the 1982 Gold Star Series. Meanwhile Colin Bond in his first drive with the Holden Dealer Team won a rallycross round at Catalina Park.

1982 – FORMULA 1 World Champion Alan Jones and Bob Morris were in the negotiation process to form a ‘two-car Super Team.’ The F1 star had just announced his retirement from Formula 1 at the end of 1981 and was looking to compete nationally in Australian Touring Car competition. Australian rally ace Greg Carr announced he would return to the national championship in a Fiat 131 Abarth.

58 I www.autoaction.com.au

1992 – NISSAN THREATENED to boycott the 1992 Bathurst 1000 when they were told

by CAMS that they would have to run with an additional 100kg of weight for the event.

This saw the Nissan’s jump from 1400kg to 1500kg, while the Ford Sierras were also dealt a 50kg hit, all in a bid to make the BMWs more competitive. In Brazil Nigel Mansell led home yet another Williams 1-2.

2002 – JASON BARGWANNA was livid after his spectacular crash at Phillip Island in which he felt that Greg Murphy tried to kill him. Murphy was disqualified from the race and put to the back of the grid for the second race, but was adamant he was not to blame for the accident, the Kiwi certain that Bargwanna moved over on him. Larry Perkins who saw the incident from behind agreed with Murphy.

2012 – VALENTINO ROSSI’S move to Ducati at the start of 2011 had not gone to plan – by April 2012 he had scored just one podium with the Italian manufacturer. Australian Motorcycle World Champion Wayne Gardner felt that Rossi’s career was all but over. Daryll Beattie believed that Rossi’s days of domination were over, but believed he was still capable of fighting for podiums.

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