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MUSTANG PROGRAM STILL FACING CHALLENGES ONGOING DEVELOPMENT A TOP PRIORITY FOR THE GEN3 RACER

By Paul Gover, News Editor, at Goodwood FORD IS chasing the clock, and the rule makers, as it readies its new Supercar for its first race at Newcastle next year.

A series of changes to the specification of the Gen3 platform have created more work for Ford and its homologation team, Dick Johnson Racing.

The global head of Ford Motorsport, Mark Rushbrook, confirmed the challenges in an exclusive interview with Auto Action at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, but says they are just part of a normal new-car plan.

“I would say, as with any development of a new car, there are elements where we are very happy and there are elements that need more work,” Rushbrook says.

“It’s the development of a new car. And decisions are made every day. But we don’t make all those decisions.

“It’s on the industry. All the stakeholders.

“I’m 100 per cent confident with everything that we can control. We love DJR, we love Ryan Story – they are a great homologation team for us at Ford.”

Rushbrook refuses to go into detail, although it’s an open secret that there have been recent structural revisions to the Gen3 platform and Ford will also be racing a new-look Mustang in 2023 after the complete revamp of the

road-going muscle car that has already been previewed in AA. “With any race-car, any time you do a new race-car, you have to do it right. And that means, sometimes, making small changes that have big impact,” he says.

“But you don’t get to do a new car every year.”

So, is he confident that the Gen3 Mustang will be right and ready for Newcastle?

“We’re good. By definition, we will be. That’s why we do development.”

On the wider Ford front, Rushbrook says there are no plans to increase the Ford Mustang car count in the Gen3 era.

“We’re happy with our existing teams and the addition of WAU. Any team can decide to run any brand, but we’re not actively chasing more.”

And further to Gen3, would it have been easier to run a piggy-back program for Australia using work on the all-new, Next Gen NASCAR in the USA? ““For anything like that, it always makes sense to consider what is available. It certainly would have been easier, because the car is already done,” Rushbrook.

“But there are global supply trails to that. So would you keep the North American or US supplier?”

So, was a NASCAR transplant considered?

“It doesn’t mean that it was or wasn’t, but that it should be. That is the due diligence of any series.”

Rushbrook (right) was at Goodwood for the first official run of Ford’s SuperVan 4, a fully-electric prototype racer that competed – strongly – in the timed shootout on the Goodwood hill.

The van-bodied prototype has 1490 kiloWatts (1000 horsepower) with all-wheel drive, a bespoke chassis and carbon fibre bodywork to mirror the road-going Transit electric van that will be sold in Australia from next year.

It is driven at Goodwood by Romain Dumas, the Frenchman who drove the electric Volkswagen ID R to the Goodwood record in 2019.

“You cannot compare (them). This has a lot of horsepower, but it is a lot more heavy. It is maybe 2.2 tonnes.”

Rushbrook says the time is right for a battery-powered SuperVan to wave the flag after earlier development of Ford’s Mach-E. “If you think about the history, of the original SuperVan, then SuperVan 2 and SuperVan 3.

The history is there,” he says.

“So it’s always been an idea to do a SuperVan 4. It was a matter of when would be the right time to do a SuperVan 4, and in what way?

“With the line-up of Transits we have, and with the shift to electrification, now was the right time.”

Although Ford says the SuperVan 4 is fully road-legal, Rushbrook believes its role is huge.

“It is a technological testbed for us, and it’s a marketing platform. It can tell the story about our commitment to electrification in

terms of powertrain technology, and also our commitment to the environment.

“We can take that asset anywhere in the world. We can do performance demonstrations, we can do technology workshops. We will take it around the world.

There is clear potential for SuperVan 4 to visit Australia, perhaps for a Bathurst 1000 cameo, but Rushbrook is not prepared to commit. Yet. “We were focussed on delivering for this event. We haven’t developed the rest of the plans yet,” he says.

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SUPERCARS 2022

CALENDAR LOCKED IN

Images: Motorsport Images THE REMAINING Supercars Championship rounds have been locked in place and will see the season take place over 13 rounds.

In the last fortnight both the flyaway round in New Zealand as well as the Sandown SuperSprint have been confirmed.

As well as this the South Australian Labor Government and Supercars put pen to paper officially which will see the Supercars Championship return to the streets of Adelaide at the end of the year.

At one stage it looked as though the event at Pukekohe Park in New Zealand would not go ahead due to freight costs – however a deal was reached.

Sandown would have been moved to fill the vacant spot left by New Zealand had that not gone ahead as planned.

As a result, Sandown Raceway will host its 52nd ATCC/Supercars round from August 19-21, with the Auckland Supersprint taking place from September 9-11, returning after a two-year hiatus.

Supercars CEO Shane Howard explained how much work has gone in to ensure racing returns to New Zealand this year and is delighted fans can now begin planning for the event.

“We understand there has obviously been a lot of rumours about these events, which

is why we are happy to put them to rest today and move forward with planning,” Howard said.

“I would like to thank Tātaki Auckland Unlimited for their ongoing and unwavering support for the Auckland SuperSprint.

“Getting to New Zealand in 2022 was one of our key objectives and even with international freight challenges, we have a plan in place that will ensure our passionate kiwi fans get to see the best touring car category in the world back at Pukekohe.

“We’d also like to thank the Melbourne Racing Club who host the Sandown event.

We can’t wait to write another chapter into

Sandown’s proud history of racing.”

The Adelaide 500 also makes a return after being axed by the states Liberal Government shortly after the pandemic broke out.

After missing out on an event in 2021 the traditional season opener has locked in a spot as the season finale, not just for 2022, but moving forward (see separate story).

The postponed round in Newcastle is increasingly unlikely to take in 2022, but has a spot secured for the season opener next year, affectively switching spots with the Adelaide 500.

Dan McCarthy

ADELAIDE 500 SECURES ONGOING FINALE SLOT THE SOUTH Australian Labor Government and Supercars have signed a three- plus two-year deal which will see the Adelaide 500 host the final round of the Supercars Championship going forward.

The agreement was signed by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, SA Motorsport Board chief executive Mark Warren and Supercars CEO Shane Howard.

The announcement cements the Adelaide 500’s place as the 2022 season finale which will go ahead as planned from December 1-4.

The following four events from 2023-2026 will also act as the Supercars Championship season finale and Premier Malinauskas was delighted to make the announcement.

“This is an historic moment for motorsport in South Australia – not only are we locking in the event’s return this year, but we are also securing the race for at least the next five years,” said a delighted Malinauskas.

“I have every confidence hosting the final race in the Supercars Championship will become an integral part of the sport’s calendar in the same way the season opener in Adelaide used to be.

“Coupled with hosting the end of season gala awards night, this promises to be a spectacular end of the year leading into the Christmas period.”

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The ‘500’ is back!

Below: Premier Malinauskas (right) and Motorsport Board CEO Mark Warren sign the paperwork.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race was historically the Supercars Championship season opener.

The Adelaide 500 did not take place in 2021 after it was axed by previous SA Premier, Liberal’s Steven Marshall, who blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for its sudden canning.

Supercars CEO Howard is thankful to the Malinauskas government for reviving the Supercars Championship Hall of Fame

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event and is looking forward to returning in December and beyond.

“The Adelaide 500 is a spectacular event that showcases South Australia to a huge national and international audience and will be a fitting finale to the Repco Supercars Championship for the next five years,” the Supercars CEO said.

“I want to thank Premier Malinauskas, the South Australian Government, Mark Warren and the SA Motorsport Board for their

unwavering support and reviving this event to recreate what will be five incredible years of racing in Adelaide.”

As well as confirmation that the Adelaide Street Circuit will hold the season finale, Supercars also committed to hosting its end of season gala awards night on the Monday following the Adelaide 500 for the next five years.

In 2019, the Adelaide 500 attracted more than 250,000 people, and generated more than $45 million in economic activity.

The event attracted 15,000 interstate and international visitors and supported 90,000 visitor bed-nights – this would be expected to rise with teams to stay on for the gala awards.

At this stage neither a title sponsor nor the end of event music act have been locked in – however Malinauskas teased that the announcements would be made very soon.

Dan McCarthy

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WILL HE STAY, OR WILL HE GO

PITLANE IS ABUZZ WITH A POTENTIAL CHANGE OF WILL DAVISON FOR WILL BROWN IN WHAT SITS AS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT POSSIBLE CHANGE FOR THE SUPERCAR FIELD IN 2023 … ALTHOUGH WE THINK HE WILL RETAIN HIS JOB

By Andrew Clarke DESPITE A patch of form that puts Will Davison in the lead of the Armor-All Pole Award and with two record-breaking poles in Darwin, speculation continues around his contract with Dick Johnson Racing for 2023. It seems more likely than not that Davison will stay, but talk about Will Brown will not go away.

Unsigned for 2023, Davison is the biggest name being trotted up and down pitlane for a change, with a few other possibilities being thrown around. Red Bull Ampol Racing, Blanchard Racing Team and Matt Stone Racing are the only teams currently immune from speculation.

The new Gen3 cars will encourage driver stability, and we expect little change to the grid in 2023. That said, 12 months ago, we would have said the same thing so stay tuned.

WILL – DAVISON OR BROWN It is believed Will Davison is the preferred option for 2023 at Shell V-Power Racing, aka DJR, and it would be hard to argue against stability with Davison’s age being the only factor worth considering in an argument for change. At 39, and with 502 races to his name, he may be in the twilight of his career, but he is driving as well as ever.

He has six poles and nine front-row starts this year, although he is yet to covert that speed into more than just the one race win, in Perth. He has seven other podium finishes for the season which is an equal return on race trophies to his younger teammate, Anton De Pasquale.

His speed in Darwin was a talking point for the weekend, and not just because of the two out of three pole positions, but how they were recorded. Both were set at lap

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record pace and with a significant gap to second. The 0.2918s margin on Saturday was huge in Supercar terms at Darwin, and was more than the gap from second to seventh on the grid for the same race.

Davison played the team game in the first race, which would not have gone unnoticed, effectively giving up a race win by not putting both Shell cars at risk.

Regardless, speculation continues around 24yo Will Brown who is enduring a tough run with Boost Mobile Racing. Team owner Betty Klimenko has hinted that some of the issues with the team’s single podium start to 2022 are because they decided in 2021 to run two rookies. She believes this will eventually reap the rewards for the team … so long as she doesn’t lose one or both of Brown and Brodie Kostecki.

The effervescent Brown is known to enjoy his time away from the track and that could prove a stumbling block when it comes to the hyper-serious DJR operation, but less so than when Team Penske was involved.

Brodie Kostecki is believed to be secure at Erebus as he plans a few NASCAR races in the States to increase his time behind the wheel.

Anton De Pasquale is going nowhere.

TEAM 18 Team 18 has indicated it has no desire to change its driver line-up for next year, but that hasn’t stopped speculation around possible changes, with most of the fingers pointing towards Mark Winterbottom.

Winterbottom has only changed teams once in his Supercar career and says he is not looking for a change, which means if it does happen, it is coming from the lack of ability to do a suitable deal with team owner Charlie Schwerkolt.

Winterbottom – no-one is expecting any change ...

Winterbottom is popular within the team and its sponsors, including Irwin Tools, and has a qualifying average of 11.3 this season compared to Pye on 14.2, with a similar gap in the races (11.9 to 15.1). Pye has been luckless this season, and his car has returned to the pits too often this season on the back of a tilt tray as a victim of other’s wrongdoing.

Given the funding model for #20, which is on a race-by-race basis, Schwerkolt would be hard-pressed to say no to a suitable pay driver, but that is not his intention as he chases stability for his switch to Gen 3, having already order his cars.

There is also the left-field option of Schwerkolt selling his team to Peter Adderton of Boost Mobile with the latter’s desire to own a team not waning. Shwerkolt remains adamant that this is not on the radar and that he has not even received a phone call from Adderton.

GROVE RACING – HOLDSWORTH v PAYNE Grove Racing has made no secret of its desire to get Super2 pilot Matt Payne into one of its cars, and 2022 was billed as a shootout between incumbent drivers David Reynold and reigning Bathurst Champion Lee Holdsworth. The team is almost certain to replace Holdsworth with Payne for 2023.

While there is a significant gap in qualifying averages with Reynolds a convincing winner, the race data is less definitive, with Holdsworth averaging an improvement of 1.6 spots from qualifying to the races, and Reynolds dropping 1.4.

Holdsworth is the third best on the current grid, while Reynolds is the third worst.

That said, Reynolds speed and star power will be more than enough to keep him in the #26 car, as will his strong connection with Penrite.

POSSIBLE GRID TRIPLE EIGHT 88

Broc Feeney

97 Shane Van Gisbergen

DICK JOHNSON RACING 11

Anton De Pasquale

17 Will Davison (Davison is favoured to retrain the the drive, but DJR is believed to be considering Will Brown)

TICKFORD 5 James Courtney (needs a locked-in sponsor which leaves him exposed to replacement by a pay driver)

Will Davison – hitting form at exactly the right time.

PREMIAIR The PremiAir guys kicked silly season into gear with the mid-season sacking of Garry Jacobson after a rough weekend in Darwin. Jacobson, who had a career-best round earlier in the season at the Grand Prix meeting, fell out of favour with the team and was given his marching orders without a replacement having been signed.

Drag racer Peter Xiberas bought the Tekno operation from the Webb family in January this year and has been working to return the team to the to pointy end of the field. Pither will most likely retain his drive next season given his attachment to the Coke funding, but even that isn’t guaranteed.

In the short term, Zane Goddard and Kurt Kostecki have rejected the 2022 drive, but remain possibilities for 2023 as Xiberas keeps hunting for his Jacobson replacement.

Whoever gets the drive for the rest of the season will be a contender for 2023, but a left-field option is to run Triple Eight-backed Declan Fraser in the car. PremiAir is a Triple Eight customer and they’ll be keen to keep Fraser in the seat of a Supercar after slotting him in for a Bathurst drive with Craig Lowndes.

BRAD JONES RACING Brad Jones Racing appears to have a stable four-car line-up, even if half of it is underperforming. Jack Smith’s car is fully funded to the point where it effectively underwrites the Macauley Jones car, which means the team is unlikely to offload Smith regardless of results.

That doesn’t mean Smith may not shop around for a more competitive team if he

Will Brown – any DJR rumours possibly delayed thanks to Will Davison’s form ...

Holdsworth doesn’t appear to have any worthwhile full-time options opening if he is swapped for Payne, which may turn him into a Bathurst gun for hire again.

TICKFORD Tickford has declared it is committed to running the same four drivers next year.

Still, like Team 18, the complex funding arrangements for James Courtney’s car expose it to exploring other opportunities if they arise. Cam Waters will remain with the team with support from Monster Energy.

Thomas Randle is well settled with Castrol and Jake Kostecki, likewise, with Tradie.

Courtney is under contract for next year, but so was Lee Holdsworth two years ago when financial issues and a lack of ability to access a fourth racing entitlements contract meant they had to shed a car from the stable.

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Cameron Waters

55

Thomas Randle

56

Jake Kostecki

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED 2 Nick Percat (needs to get some runs on the board) 25

Chaz Mostert

GROVE RACING 10 Matt Payne (likely replacement for Lee Holdsworth) 26

David Reynolds

EREBUS Matt Payne – expected to take over the Holdsworth spot at Grove. believes his equipment is not good enough.

The third and fourth BJR cars have always looked more off the pace than the lead two, but Jones says all his cars are the same.

Assuming Smith stays, don’t expect any changes at BJR after its two driver changes at the start of this season, with Heimgartner bringing the results and Fullwood having sponsors.

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED Nick Percat’s troubled return to Walkinshaw Andretti United has created speculation around his future with the team. While he is under contract, he will need to close the gap to Mostert more regularly to ensure he keeps hold of the #2 car.

The team recently changed engineers on the car with Grant McPherson stepping up to the plate to try to extract the performance out of Percat that many believe is there.

Mostert is secure as the team prepares for its switch to the blue oval.

9 Will Brown (will only leave if the DJR nod becomes serious) 99

Brodie Kostecki

BLANCHARD RACING TEAM 3

Tim Slade

TEAM 18 18 Mark Winterbottom (more likely to stay than be replaced) 20

Scott Pye (ditto)

BRAD JONES RACING 4 Jack Smith (the key to any changes at BJR) 8

Andre Heimgartner

14

Bryce Fullwood

96

Macauley Jones

MATT STONE RACING 34

Jack Le Brocq

35

Todd Hazelwood

PREMIAIR RACING 22

Chris Pither

76 Declan Fraser (may replace fill-in driver for 2022) There’s a vacancy at Premiair right now – could it become a 888 satellite team?

Courtney – Tickford has declared no change ... but sponsorship can change things ...

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PREMIAIR SPLITS WITH JACOBSON

JUST DAYS after the Darwin Triple Crown, Supercars squad PremiAir Racing announced Garry Jacobson would leave the team with immediate effect.

Garry Jacobson was involved in a couple of incidents in Darwin. He was the man who tapped James Courtney to start the frightening Race 2 opening lap incident with James Courtney. In Race 3 he collided with Wildcard Zak Best, the damage sustained sending the Tickford youngster into the wall.

PremiAir Racing confirmed that Jacobson’s contract was officially ended on the afternoon of June 21.

Jacobson joined the squad last year when it was known as Team Sydney and under the

ownership of Jonathon Webb.

In the off-season the team was bought by Peter Xiberras and the former Super2 Series winner was retained for the 2022 season.

The Queensland-based team is now exploring its options regarding a replacement driver for the #76 PremiAir Racing ZB Commodore.

Originally Zane Goddard and Kurt Kostecki were the favourites to take the seat – however both have committed to Bathurst 1000 codriving duties with Tickford.

PremiAir Racing stated it will make no further comment regarding Garry’s departure; Jacobson did not reply when contacted by AUTO ACTION. Dan McCarthy

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TICKFORD CO-DRIVER COMBOS CONFIRMED

GODDARD HONOURS TICKFORD CONTRACT ZANE GODDARD elected not to fill the seat left vacant by Garry Jacobson at PremiAir Racing, instead chosing to remain as a Tickford Racing co-driver for the Bathurst 1000.

In his stint as a full-time driver with Matt Stone Racing, Goddard collected a number of top 10 finishes and was a big surprise casualty of the 2022 Supercars silly season.

He has always made it clear he wants to return full-time, however the drive at PremiAir did not come at the right time for the Queenslander.

“There were talks there (with PremiAir), but at the end of the day it was quite a quick thing to happen with a two week turnaround before Townsville,” he told Auto Action.

“Honouring contracts is something that’s important to me is and I knew full well that I had a contract with Tickford.

“Bathurst with Tickford ... it’s something I’m really looking forward to.

I don’t see it (racing for them) as a compromise. I think it’s a great opportunity in a great car and its definitely flattering to have the attention and the possibility of getting back into the

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main game – it just wasn’t the right time.”

Goddard believes that racing with Tickford and former Supercars champion James Courtney at Bathurst is an amazing opportunity, and one he simply couldn’t walk away from despite the PremiAir offer.

“Obviously Tickford always run well around Bathurst,” he said. “It’s basically the only thing that James hasn’t won yet in Supercars – I’m sure he’s definitely motivated to try to get it off the bucket list to add that to the CV. “The team has high expectations as do I and James; it’s going to be a good day and to be back on the grid is something I’m really looking forward to. It’s going to be cool to see how I compete in a strong car.”

Prior to Darwin, Goddard was one of several people to test a PremiAir Racing car – which is why he was so heavily linked with the seat when Jacobson departed.

“That was a next year thing,” Goddard said. “They were evaluating everything from co-drivers, current drivers – it was basically just a day of seeing where they were at.

“New team and a lot of new people and getting an understanding of where the car was actually at and stuff ... I think that was the main effort of the day from Peter Xiberras and Matt Cook’s point of view.

“But as far as I knew, at that stage, and I think as everyone knew at that stage, it was more of a 2023 thing rather than a mid-year thing.”

The former British Formula 4 race winner explained he wants to be back on the grid in a competitive car next year and is certainly not ruling out a drive with PremiAir Racing for 2023.

“I feel like in the right car with the right people around me I can do a really solid job,” he stated.

“A full-time return is definitely the target and something that we’re pushing for in 2023, so fingers crossed it happens.

“But it’s a waiting game – it’s not quite silly season yet. Obviously, last year there was a lot of movement, so you probably wouldn’t expect as much this year. But weirder things have happened – we’ll wait and see.

Dan McCarthy

TICKFORD RACING had already announced its co-drivers, but now the Victorian Supercars squad has firmed up its driver and co-driver pairings.

Tickford Super2 driver Zak Best, former Supercars race winner James Moffat, former full-timer Zane Goddard and former Super2 Series runner-up Kurt Kostecki will join the regulars for the Great Race.

Former Supercars champion James Courtney will be joined by rising star Zane Goddard in the #5 Ford Mustang.

“Super pumped for Bathurst, it’s a strong car with James, someone that’s been a champion in the sport, always runs really well around Bathurst,” Goddard said to AA “It gives us a good opportunity to have a really stellar day, so I’m super pumped!”

The only Tickford pairing that remains the same is Cameron Waters and Bathurst 1000 veteran James Moffat (above), who together finished second in the Bathurst 1000 last year.

It will be Moffat’s fifth Bathurst 1000 with Tickford and is looking to go one better this time around.

Thomas Randle will be joined by Best who will be contesting his second Bathurst 1000 this year and will coming off the back of two main game Wildcard appearances with Tickford.

“It should be pretty good,” Best said to AA. “Hopefully we can start somewhere similar to where I did last year and have a good run, it is exciting to do it with someone like Tom, someone young – we’ll both be pushing hard to hopefully get a podium or something like that.”

Finally, Mustang #56 will be a family affair with Kurt Kostecki co-driving alongside his brother Jake for the second year straight.

The pair finished 13th together in a Matt Stone Racing ZB Commodore last year and will be looking to break into the top 10 this year. Dan McCarthy

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AUS GP UNTIL 2035 INCLUDING SEASON OPENERS THE AUSTRALIAN Grand Prix will remain in Melbourne until 2035 after a 10-year extension was signed beyond the existing deal, which concludes in 2025.

Not only that, Australia will get a minimum of five season openers in this time, including 2024 and 2025.

After a two-year absence due to COVID-19, the Australian Grand Prix returned in 2022 with a bang, and more than 419,000 fans flocked through the gates, the largest attendance since the event moved to Albert Park in 1996.

President and CEO of Formula 1 Stefano Domenicali was delighted to announce the news.

“I am delighted to confirm that Melbourne and the Albert Park circuit will continue to be on the Formula 1 calendar until 2035,” he said.

“The race has always been a favourite for the fans, drivers and the teams and Melbourne is an incredible and vibrant international city that is a perfect match for our sport.”

“This year we saw huge crowds and passionate fans at the Grand Prix, and we are very excited by the future in Australia as our sport continues to grow.

“I want to thank the Victorian Government, Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria and Martin Pakula, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events for their tireless support for the event in Melbourne, as well as Andrew Westacott and Paul Little from the AGPC for making this already long-term partnership secure for the future.

“We are all looking forward to being back in Melbourne next season with all our fans.”

The outgoing Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major events, Martin Pakula, announced that the AGP will be the season opener over five of the next 13 races until 2035.

“The agreement involves a minimum of five first races (F1 season openers) over the 13-year period between now and 2035, including the opening race of the season in 2024 and 2025,” Pakula said.

Pakula went on to explain that, should the Australian Grand Prix not host the season opener, it will be one of the early races every year until the 2035 contract expires.

“In the other years if we’re not the opening race, we will be one of the first three races of the year,” he continued.

“This is an incredibly important announcement for the State of Victoria.

“We are incredibly excited and proud to have been able to reach this agreement with Formula 1 management.”

For this year’s race, significant investments were made to improve the circuit, fan experience and facilities.

Australian Grand Prix CEO Andrew Westacott explained that further improvements, including to the paddock and pit lane, are planned in order to continue the circuit’s modernisation.

He felt that the announcement was great news for sport in Australia.

“Five races to headline the start of a season in Melbourne is a great result and that’s the guaranteed minimum,” Westacott said.

“We think that whether we’re Race 1, Race 2 or Race 3 in the season, as proven in 2022 is a really good outcome for Melbourne.”

Dan McCarthy

F2, F3 AND SUPERCARS FOR AGP IN ADDITION to the news that the Australian Grand Prix will remain in Melbourne until 2035, it was also announced that the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championships will race Downunder from next year.

This will mark the first time either of the second or third-tier categories will have ever raced in Australia – they will share the stage with the Aussie Supercars Championship.

“In an exciting development the move of Formula 2 and Formula 3 to the Australian Grand Prix calendar from next year, but importantly, the retention of Supercars as well,” said Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major events Martin Pakula.

Australian Grand Prix CEO Andrew Westacott explained the reason behind taking on Formula 2 and Formula 3 is to boost international tourism in the country.

“The global competition for this event is hot,” he said. “You can see the benefits of it for the first time in a few years we had over 90% hotel occupancy in Melbourne over the weekend of the F1.

“We had tens of thousands of visitors from interstate, a massive contribution to overall gross state product close to $200 million.

“We are incredibly excited and proud to have been able to reach this agreement with Formula 1 management.”

Despite a record attendance for the event in

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Victoria this year, international tourists were down significantly due to COVID. Westacott is confident that the introduction of F2 and F3 to the schedule will entice international tourists back to the Australian Grand Prix.

“We’re more than just four days of motorsport – we combine it with business, networking, sport and also music and entertainment for the fans ,and that’s what brings people to our event,” he said.

“We’re going to continue to do that with the emergence of new drivers, great exciting racing for Formula 2, Formula 3, and having homegrown talent with Supercars. It (the event) promises to grow and grow and grow over the 13 years from now to 2035.”

Traditionally F2 and F3 calendars predominantly take place in Europe, with F2 completing a couple of rounds in Asia.

FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championship CEO Bruno Michel is excited to see the categories travel to Australia for the first time.

“I am extremely happy to add Melbourne to both F2 and F3 calendars from 2023,” he said.

“It further enhances the international aspect of both our championships, having them race on a new continent.

“It also shows that more and more circuits believe that F2 and F3 are an added value to the Formula 1 Grand Prix experience, showcasing the next generation of drivers.”

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Currently two Australians compete in the Formula 2 Championship, Alpine Academy driver Jack Doohan, and former F3 driver Calan Williams, who competes for Trident.

Williams is excited to race in front of his home crowd for the first time in many years.

“I am so excited about F2’s announcement to race in Australia from 2023”, said Williams.

“Racing at home is something which is always special to a driver and it’s an opportunity I can’t wait for!”

“The circuit at Albert Park is where I first saw Formula 1 race so to be able to race there at a Formula 1 Grand Prix event will be simply unbelievable.”

What the introduction of F2 and F3 to the Australian Grand Prix support card means for

the national support categories remains to be seen.

While Supercars will remain a championship event at the AGP, the other categories may be affected.

Since Carrera Cup was revived in 2011 it has been a stalwart of the Australian Grand Prix program and would likely continue as almost every F1 event has a one-make Porsche Series whether that be Porsche Supercup or Carrera Cup Asia etc.

S5000 has also become a regular at the AGP, however with three open-wheel categories listed for the foreseeable future, its spot on the support card list may be in doubt.

Dan McCarthy

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NEW ERA FOR FORMULA FORD

MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA, AS CAMS, TRIED TO KILL FORMULA FORD A FEW YEARS BACK, BUT NOW IT HAS A PLAN TO RETURN IT TO THE FORE

By Andrew Clarke REJOICE AUSTRALIA, Formula Ford is not just back on the national agenda, it is set for a major revival with Motorsport Australia announcing the findings of its recent working party into the class.

Initially formed to determine if Formula Ford should become a national series again, and once that was confirmed, the working party morphed into the next phase and has now announced the future direction of the class’s technical regulations.

The changes will include a larger engine and improved safety, with work continuing on exactly how those rules will appear.

The working party was led by Michael Smith, Motorsport Australia’s director of motorsport and commercial operations.

In announcing the new rules, Smith said: “We’re excited to be announcing this new generation of Formula Ford car which will be developed and built by a number of motorsport manufacturers around Australia.

“We are announcing this new car now so we can give certainty to the market as well as helping the next generation of racers consider their careers and development opportunities in the years ahead. “Likewise, we want current car owners to know they have a place to race their cars and that they’ll be eligible to compete at a national level, alongside the new car.

With ongoing work on tying down the exact rules, Spectrum boss Mike Borland

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is hopeful of having clarity soon, so he can start work on a new car, which he said wouldn’t happen if the regulations did not suit his business. He has embraced the new safety features, including a halo device, front, rear and side-impact crash structures, an extractable seat, driver headrest, sidepods and wheel tethers, but says he needs to know more.

“There aren’t any regulations yet, but we have had a bit to do with the technical group on deciding what to include,” Borland told Auto Action.

“It is good that Motorsport Australia wants to work with Formula Ford again, and they’ve recognised how important it is, and at the same time trying to increase the safety requirements. That is always a positive.

“To end up with what they want to end up with is not a simple thing. Realistically, no one else has ever tried to do a halo device on a space frame chassis, and we have tried to work them on how to do that.”

He said safety is about where you decide to draw the line regarding the costs and benefits, but some things were now unavoidable.

“It is a balance of looking at how most of the accidents in Formula Ford have happened and what the result has been – then working through a priority list of what’s essential for driver safety and what is optional.

“That is what we have been trying to do, bearing in mind we have a lot of experience and given we have cars here

and everywhere, and we know historically what the damage has been over the years.”

While he said the new safety features will cost money, other savings by modernising components will save money in the build and running costs.

“The gearboxes for the current cars are just about impossible to buy new at the moment and likewise the engines. So, what they are trying to do will be cheaper in some ways. You can buy the next spec gearbox for 2/3rds the cost of the ones required now.”

Consultation remains ongoing with interested parties to ensure the new regulations work for the series, keeping in mind that stability is required so that old cars can be competitive with new vehicles, which has historically been as important as the running costs.

He said the average spend of one of his customers is $60,000 to $70,000 a season to race, which is a suitable ball-park moving forward.

He expects Mygale from France will build a new car, as will fellow Aussie Listec, and speculation continues around the potential involvement of Triple Eight given Jemory Moore’s involvement in the working party.

“Honestly, I would rather have 50% of a 40-car grid than 100% of a 20-car grid,” Borland says.

“I got into this for the competition and the competitive side of it, and certainly with the working group we have been trying to keep the other potential manufacturers involved so we can have

that competition. It comes down to each manufacturer to see if it is financially viable to be involved, and we hope that will be the case.”

As for the local Formula Ford association; like Borland, it remains positive pending the final regulations.

“The Formula Ford Association welcomes this initiative and is proud to be a part of ensuring Formula Ford continues to be the main development pathway for circuit racing in Australia,” Formula Ford Australia’s Phil Marrinon said.

“Safety and cost control has always been the guiding principles of our Formula Ford rulebook. With the advanced safety features becoming more affordable the time is right to introduce them into our regulations.

“We are one of the few Formula car categories that encourages diverse manufacturer involvement, and our local constructors will be some of the first in the world to build tube frame chassis with these advanced safety features.

We look forward to working with Motorsport Australia to continue to foster not only Australia’s next generation of driving talent, but helping train Australia’s upcoming Motorsport engineers and mechanics, just as we have done for 50 years.”

The working group for the new rules was headed by Smith. It included Andrew Jones, Ryan McLeod, Jamie Augustine, Mike Borland and Jeromy Moore, with oversight from Ryan Story as chair of the Australian Motor Sport Commission.

S5000 FUTURE SECURE

By Bruce Williams KEY STAKEHOLDERS Barry Rogers (GRM) and ARG CEO Matt Braid have moved to dismiss rumours that resurfaced at the Darwin Supercars round that the future of S5000 was shaky.

The negative chatter seems to have come from off-the-cuff comments made some time back, about the future of S5000, including potential for sale of the S5000 fleet to the US if the fledgling category doesn’t gain momentum.

Old news it seems, but nonetheless not helpful as the truncated season wound down – however, the people in charge of steering the premier open wheeler category have come out in total support and have confirmed a solid future for the category.

“No, not at all. We’re 100% committed to the long-term future of S5000, full stop,” Rogers told AA on Monday. “We’ve invested too much time, money, energy and passion into the project and we’re going to keep building on that.

“There is no doubt there is overseas interest in the cars and the concept – which is actually a positive – and we want to harness that to make that interest work in

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this part of the world and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Rogers met with S5000 teams at Darwin, aimed at gathering feedback and a joint approach to growth of the category.

“We’ve had good dialogue with the teams and competitors about what they would like to see, and we’ve taken that all on board.

“Let’s be honest – it’s had its challenges.

Everyone uses COVID as an excused for most things, and sure that didn’t help … but at the end of the day, you come back to the Grand Prix and watching 16 of these cars going through Turn 1 and you think ‘yes, it can work when it all comes together’. That’s what drives us to go forward and that is what we are doing.

“To be honest, I think we might have gone down the wrong track in focussing on a particular type of driver we initially wanted to attract to S5000.

“You know, the fringe Supercars/Super2 drivers, who came on over and had a crack; the young guys beat them, so they don’t hang around.

“I think our market is, in fact, the upcoming young drivers. Other than being a spectacular, prestige category in its own right, S5000 can really prove your credentials as a driver.

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Image: ARG/Kalisz “The cars are tough, reliable, and certainly spectacular, but there’s more we can do, including sharpening up the on-track product and improving things like driveability on cold tyres and so on. We’re working hard on that.

“You’d probably describe the cars as being a bit ‘edgy’ to drive, especially on cold tyres, so we’re about to do some work from an engineering perspective, and in terms of a further tyre upgrade, to improve the driveability and to make it a little less daunting for good young guys out of Formula Ford, for example, to drive.

“We are also going to do some engineering upgrades on things such as shock absorbers etc; stuff that is really part of developing the race cars.

ARG CEO Braid backed Rogers’ sentiments: “We launched S5000 just as COVID hit and being able to build momentum with a stable race calendar and consistent grid sizes has been a significant challenge as a result. It also shut the door to attracting, to this point, any extensive participation from international drivers which was always part of the core of the S5000 concept.

“However, we have always hit the numbers we have needed to when

required, including the grids at the Grand Prix and Hidden Valley and that shows there’s demand at the right kind of events for these cars and competitors.

“No matter how many cars are on the grid, it remains great to see the continuing positive reaction to the category from race fans and motorsport media here in Australia and also in Europe and the US. “Our job is to keep building momentum, instilling confidence in the product moving forward, and the team at ARG as the Category Manager and GRM, as the manufacturer, have been working closely with the teams to do just that.”

The subject of the US isn’t completely null and void though as Rogers revealed potential plans to send a single ‘promotional’ car to the US to attract interest: “There’s a lot of motorsport people over there. We’re talking to a team about sending a car over, get some drivers doing laps, create interest in what we’re doing here …

“The bottom line is that the S5000 is a spectacular, fast car, the fans love them, and we’re investing a lot of time and money to attract a growing grid of good young drivers – for the Tasman Series later this year, then next year’s Gold Star.”

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SLEEP AND JET-LAG ISSUES FOR VAN GISBERGEN? WITH BRODIE Kostecki considering a NASCAR title in 2023, is all seat time good?

Shane Van Gisbergen opened the door to discussions around the impact of his gruelling schedule on his Supercar driving when he admitted to sleep issues and jet lag heading into the Darwin round of the Series.

The Championship leader made a clumsy mistake near the end of the final race on Sunday with an overtaking move he would have stuck 19 times out of 20, raising interest in whether running the Le Mans 24 Hour race the weekend before and jet lag afterwards assisted the error.

According to Dr Jo Lukins, who is a leading sports psychiatrist based in Townsville, Van Gisbergen’s gruelling schedule would have had an impact on his performance, but the level of impact was manageable.

“I consider sleep to be one of the greatest performance enhancers,” she explained.

“The first thing I look at for performance is fuel and nutrition and the second is sleep.

“Sleep is an absolute. I say to my athletes we can do all the psychological strategies and visualisations and the things you want to do, but let’s not waste our time if you haven’t had the sleep.

“Jet lag is typically a short-term issue, but if your racing schedule is short term that is where it can become problematic. We can develop programs around sleep and be mindful of the adjustments, like getting into the time zones we will be operating as quickly as possible, but it is harder when you are changing time zones and then quickly getting back into competition.

“The challenge for an elite performer is that they can go from one high-pressure situation to another without the rest required.

“The things that can get impaired include decision making. At the end of the three days [of a race meeting], he is probably fatigued already, so being sleep-deprived will make it harder and increase the likelihood of mistakes. Itß is a high-pressure sport with such critical decisions to be made in very short timeframes, they really have to be on top of it.”

For Brodie Kostecki, next year, she suggested he needs to manage his schedule carefully and stay on top of his self-awareness, which is harder when are sleep deprived.

“Sometimes what I find is that athletes that are involved in sports like race car driving is the optimism bias is typically high, as is the confidence. It is important that your inner circle keeps a pretty close eye on you and how you are going.

“Any athlete that is doing repeat endurance events needs to factor in rest and recovery and that gets harder with time zones and when you are sleep deprived. ” Andrew Clarke

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PRESSURE RELIEF FOR DUNLOP INCREASED TYRE PRESSURE IN DARWIN SAVED THE TYRES – BUT DID IT HURT THE RACING?

DATA FROM last year’s Darwin round and the recent racing at Winton on the Super Soft forced Dunlop’s hand on tyre pressures for Hidden Valley, with a 3psi increase in the minimum pressure deemed necessary to prevent tyre failures at Supercars’ Indigenous Round.

According to Dunlop’s Kevin Fitzsimons, it was simply a matter of looking at the facts and dealing with Darwin as a unique case, saying it is unlikely the 20psi mandate will be used anywhere else. The next round in Townsville has been set at 19psi.

His concerns were around the high ambient and track temperatures and keeping enough air in the tyres to prevent the sidewalls from letting go.

In a statement before the round, Dunlop said: “Dunlop saw evidence of sidewall stress on several tyres following the recent Pizza Hut Winton SuperSprint event. This was reported to the Supercars Technical Department and the decision has been made to increase the minimum tyre

pressure to 20psi due to the high ambient temperatures in Darwin.”

After the round, Fitzsimons said the change worked from a safety point of view but rejected criticism it affected the racing.

“It was a critical safety measure; we had to make sure there was enough air to support the case,” he said. “The need to make the increase is unique to the Super Soft tyre and Darwin, and we may not need to run pressures like that anywhere else.

“Last year, we saw pressures as low as 13.8psi when we checked the tyres after being released from impound, and it was up to 17.1 this year, so we achieved what was needed. We had to increase the safety margins. We know the support for the tyre carcass is at its strongest in the high 20s, and we had to ensure we were getting that.

“We had to get enough air into them to support the case. That was the reason. We thought it might cause a little extra tyre wear, but that was not the intention.”

The tyres did seem to show more drop-off than in 2021, but that did nothing to stem the criticism from some drivers, especially Shane Van Gisbergen. The Championship leader said straight after the Race 16 of the Championship that the extra tyre pressure had curtailed his quest for victory before

stepping back from his criticism later for fear of ‘getting in trouble’.

Discussion at the Friday media conference included comments from Van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner that they felt the racing would be negatively impacted by the reduced grip and increased tyre wear.

Heimgartner was the most vocal: “They could have gone up not as high on the tyre pressures. I think it is a bit extreme, but they are trying, I guess, to get an extreme result. I think they are definitely going to get it, but no one really knows what is going to happen.

“We’ve seen some long runs, and the tyre deg is significant, so it’s going to impact the strategy and might even make the race more boring because you can only pit in a certain window to make the whole race without accidentally blowing your tyres up.”

Criticisms Fitzsimons rejected: “I’ve been around long enough to know the drivers are an emotional bunch, and sometimes they’ll look for any excuse, but it was the same for all of them.”

He added that the safety requirements always had to be the priority when setting pressures and the like with the tyres that Supercars can afford.

Andrew Clarke

FEENEY EXPECTS MORE FROM HIMSELF DESPITE FIGHTING for the podium in the third race of the Darwin Triple Crown, Triple Eight Race Engineering rookie Broc Feeney was very critical of his own performance.

The reigning Super2 Series winner continues to make steps forward in the championship as he visits tracks he has never previously driven a Supercar at, let alone raced on.

So far this season Feeney has finished every race within the top 15, and at Hidden Valley, finished two of the three races comfortably within the top 10.

Nevertheless, the 19-year-old was disappointed with his personal performance up north, targeting an elimination of errors and better race starts.

“Our qualifying sessions were really good this morning,” Feeney said at the end of the weekend.

“I didn’t fully maximise the first one (on Sunday) and made a little mistake, but we made a small tweak between sessions which made the car really strong.

“We managed to qualify P3 behind Anton (De Pasquale) and Will (Davison) which was

really encouraging because they were very fast in qualifying this weekend.

“The first race (on Sunday) was no good, whatsoever. I had a terrible start which has been my weakness lately, then I got caught up in the pack.

“After our pit stop, I made a mistake and ran off the track, but overall, it was a race full of rookie errors that I don’t think should be happening any more – I think I’m better than the way I drove in that race.”

Feeney was pleased to qualify well in Darwin but was frustrated with his own driving.

“We’ve been qualifying poorly and racing strong lately, but to qualify well and race poorly this weekend was really disappointing,” he explained.

The Queenslander was happier with how he performed in the final race of the weekend, however a late race safety car scuppered his strategy, like race winner Chaz Mostert he was forced to try and defend third on much older tyres.

“The second race (on Sunday) wasn’t too bad for us,” he said. “I had a similar pace to

Chaz (Mostert) at the start, but then the front guys started gapping me.

“Our strategy was going well, I managed to get into third but I couldn’t hold on because the guys behind me changed four tyres in the pit stop.

“They got through on the last laps which was pretty tough. Even though it was my first time in Darwin, I need to do better overall.”

Dan McCarthy

NO ROOM AT T8 INN

DECLAN FRASER has followed in the footsteps of his great mate Broc Feeney over the last couple of years – however unlike his fellow Queenslander it appears unlikely he will move up to Supercars after two years in Super2.

Like Feeney, Fraser moved to Triple Eight Race Engineering for his second season and will drive in the Supercheap Auto sponsored Tripe Eight Wildcard in the Bathurst 1000 alongside a legend of the sport.

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Feeney revealed to AA last year that he was aware of Jamie Whincup’s impending retirement and was aware a Supercars seat was on offer.

For Fraser and his fellow Super2 teammate Cameron Hill there is no carrot of a full-time seat with Triple Eight – so Fraser explained he’d snatch any good opportunity up.

“Obviously I don’t want to leave Triple Eight but there’s not really any spots left,” Fraser said to Auto Action.

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“We’ll just see what the year brings and if there’s anything that pops up, if something pops up, as long as it’s a decent thing, we’ll jump straight at it.

“But at this time, I’m not really looking too far into next year. I’ve got a couple of rounds left in Super2 that we’re going to need to focus on, because I need to make sure that we’re doing a really good job in Super2 before we look at it moving to the main game.”

In the second-tier series, Fraser has had a strong start to the season, however results of two thirds and two sixth place finishes mask the pace shown.

He feels that racing for Triple Eight in Super2 gives him an opportunity to put his best foot forward and showcase his true talent as well as being able to learn from the best in the business.

“The guys teach me as much as possible about the cars and obviously next year there’s going to be the Gen3 introduction,” he said.

“The stuff that I learned under Triple Eight already with the technical side of the cars has just opened my eyes up to a whole other world, and listening to people like Shane and how he operates and how he thinks in the car ... It’s definitely like I said, eye opening, and just gives me a whole new perspective on racing.”

Dan McCarthy

THE FIRST Wildcard test for Craig Lowndes and Declan Fraser has taken place and the two drivers are pleased to be reporting similar car feedback within the ZB Commodore.

The seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner and his rookie co-driver took to the track at Queensland Raceway, their first of three Wildcard tests in the SuperCheap Auto liveried Triple Eight Holden.

The day ran smoothly for the pair and they were pleased to report similar car feedback as well as in cockpit ergonomics.

“Today has been really good,” Lowdes remarked.

“We’ve obviously worked really closely with Declan outside of the car at race meetings, but to finally get an opportunity to share the car with him, to hear how he reads the car and how he feels the car is very similar to the way I do, so that’s a big positive.

“Knowing that when we go to Bathurst, we’ll be able to improve the car for each other is invaluable.

“Getting us both comfortable in the car has been our main objective today.

I think we’re 90 percent there, but we have to do a couple of little things back at the workshop once we leave this test day, because you can’t finalise it until you actually drive the car.

“All in all, it’s been very seamless.”

Dan McCarthy

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AUSSIE GETS PORSCHE GIG

AUSTRALIAN MATT Campbell has been announced as a factory Porsche Penske Motorsport driver and will compete in for the team in the brand-new Porsche 963 prototype.

The new machine was unveiled to the public at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with Campbell announced as a driver.

In 2023 Porsche re-joins the top-tier of the FIA World Endurance Championship, now titled Hypercar, as well as competing in the IMSA Sportscar Championship.

For Campbell it continues his rise through the Porsche ranks, –starting nationally in Class B of Porsche Sprint Challenge (then known as GT3 Cup Challenge), he rose through the ranks winning the Australian

Carrera Cup Series in 2016 before moving overseas.

Since then he has raced Porsche Supercup and competed for Porsche in WEC and IMSA lower categories. This will be his first step into prototype competition.

“Pinching myself,” he said. “Happy to announce that from next year I will be making the step with Porsche into LMDh with the Factory Porsche Team Penske Motorsport in our new 963.

“A dream come true reaching the top

Class of Endurance Racing in Prototypes!

“Thank you to my Family and everyone who was a part of this journey in the background, finally reaching the top of the Porsche pyramid and our ultimate goal together…

Team Porsche.”

The other drivers selected to compete in either WEC or IMSA are experienced works drivers Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen, Laurens Vanthoor, Mathieu Jaminet and accomplished sportscar drivers Dane Cameron and ex-

F1 driver Felipe Nasr.

In the initial development phase, Frederic Makowiecki played a key role: during the rollout at Weissach in January, the Frenchman drove the first metres in the Porsche 963 and also turned the first laps in the simulator.

Other driver announcements, including those for the endurance races at Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta (Petit Le Mans), will be made at a later date.

Porsche is yet to announce which drivers will take on the IMSA program and which will take on WEC. For more on the brand-new Porsche 963 and all the latest Hypercar news, turn to pages 30-31. Dan McCarthy

Image: Motorsport Images

SVG TO MAKE WRC DEBUT

LOLA SET FOR REVIVAL NEW OWNERS for the famous Lola brand have plans to recover the marque’s position at the top of the motorsport tree The famous Lola brand is on track for a revival following its takeover by businessman and IMSA driver Till Bechtolscheimer. Lola has formerly raced in many leading classes including Formula One, IndyCar and Sportscars but has not been racing since 2012.

A company announcement last week confirmed the deal, which covers the intellectual property for more than 400 racing cars from its previous racing projects while opening up the possibility of hitting the track again. The Lola Technology Centre is also going to get a fresh coat of paint and a tech upgrade.

“With the completion of the transaction, Lola Cars Ltd now controls all of the assets of the iconic British brand that has designed and produced nearly 5000 race cars spanning 400 different model types, gaining unparalleled success in motorsport championships around the world including IndyCar, Le Mans, Formula 1, Formula 3000, Formula 5000, A1GP and Touring Cars,” the company announcement said.

Bechtolsheimer was a bit more forthcoming, saying his goal is to go racing.

“Our plan is to re-establish Lola as a leading design and engineering force in modern motorsport. I have built a career investing in energy efficiency and see motorsport playing a significant role in the innovation and testing of new solutions.

Through Lola, we hope to develop and provide investment for some of these solutions.

“I have a huge amount of respect for the industry and understand that this will be a long process. We have immediate plans for substantial upgrades to the Lola Technical Centre, in particular the wind tunnel, and are actively working toward our first project to put new Lolas back on track.

I firmly believe that our biggest asset is the Lola name and what it means to so many in the motorsport industry; it will help us to attract great talent and form lasting partnerships.”

Prior to its bankruptcy in 2012, Lola had competed in a wide variety of motor racing classes, dominating at various times ChampCar Racing (IndyCar), Sportscar, Formula Two/3000, A1GP and Formula 5000. Its run in Formula One was a little more troubled, including the Haas Lola car for Alan Jones return to F1 in the mid1980s. Andrew Clarke

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SHANE VAN Gisbergen has confirmed he will make his FIA World Rally Championship debut in his home rally of New Zealand later this year. The reigning Supercars champion will drive a Skoda Fabia-R5.

The Kiwi has delved into a bit of rallying in recent years, contesting events in New Zealand and also Australia.

Most notably, van Gisbergen finished second on debut in the opening round of the Australian Rally Championship in Canberra (pictured, right).

“I’ve been around it a long time and going to all the rallies when I was young, watching Rally New Zealand. It has always been a dream to do it but I’ve never really had the chance,” he explained.

“My favourite memories were as a young kid. Before the Manukau Super Stage was built, they had it up the road at Totara Park, which was not far from where I grew up.

“It was in the early 90s and it was at night. I remember being on dad’s shoulders watching the cars go through there.”

Van Gisbergen is expected to run a Race Torque prepared Skoda Fabia R5 and will be joined by former Australian champion Glen Weston. Both the car and Weston are familiar to van Gisbergen as they teamed up in Canberra.

Van Gisbergen intends to compete in Rally Hawke’s Bay on July as a warm up for the WRC event in September.

“I need to get used to pace notes, how to read the New Zealand roads and just get better. Pace notes are where most of the speed is for me,” Van Gisbergen said.

“I do not have any expectations for results. For me just competing in the event is going to be epic; to see the stages packed with fans, and having the service park on the Auckland waterfront, it is just going to be an awesome event.

“I am looking forward to being part of it. I just want to do a good job and keep it straight, be there at the end and be part of this incredible event.”

SVG’s father, Robert, competed in the 1996 Rally New Zealand in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 1 but retired.

Skoda has also revealed its brand-new Fabia RS Rally2 car, the successor to the incredibly successful Fabia Rally2, which has been driven to WRC 2 titles

by Andreas Mikkelsen and Kalle Rovanpera in recent years.

The new Fabia RS Rally2 is based on Skoda’s fourth-generation Fabia road car and benefits from a raft of upgrades.

The new car’s 1.6-litre turbocharged engine produces 216kw (289bhp) and 430Nm torque through a five-speed sequential gearbox with drive to all four wheels.

For more on the new Skoda, purchase the next edition of AUTO ACTION. Dan McCarthy

MAWSON UNSURE OF S5000 RETURN TWO-TIME Gold Star Champion Joey Mawson is unsure if he will return to defend his crown and go for a third straight title with Team BRM. The New South Wales driver has made his ambitions of competing in the Supercars Championship abundantly clear – he wants to compete in Super2 in 2023 but explained he is not ruling out an S5000 return.

“I’m not going to rule that (a return) out,” he explained to Auto Action. It may be a possibility. Alan Galloway (Alabar) is keen for me to come back for a third season.

“But for myself, my goal is obviously to make it to Supercars, so naturally I just want to progress towards that route at this stage.

I’m pushing forward to move into Super2, but I definitely won’t rule S5000 out.”

Mawson already has a sniff of a co-drive for the Bathurst 1000 this year, although he would not reveal which team this could be with.

“Ideally, I would I would like to just end up straight in a co-drive. I’m working on something at the moment as we speak, unfortunately nothing locked in,” he said.

“If I was able to do that, it’d obviously help the goal to get to Supercars and particularly, to get a full-time gig.

“But obviously as a plan of structure the natural progression is to move into Super2 and get more Supercars experience. That’s what Supercars teams keep giving me feedback on.”

The former GP3 and Porsche Supercup podium finisher explained how this second S5000 title means even more to him than the first.

“Obviously once you come back as a defending champion, to go back-to-back there is a lot more pressure, and having started on the back foot the pressure was building even more, so I would say the second one meant a lot more.

“To put your name in the list of drivers that have won it back-to-back in the 60 year history of the Gold Star was very, very special.

“I felt this season from a competitor point

of view it was harder than the first season.

“If you’re not stepping your level up, you’re going backwards. I knew I had to step up and bring my speed to another level.

“I think from a championship point of view, I probably did a bit better job being a bit more consistent this season.

Mawson credits his team for the work they did in the opening round in Tasmania, repairing his car between races 2 and 3 and getting him out for the Feature Race.

“We started off very much on the back foot. I was obviously very grateful that Team BRM got me out on the grid on for the main race, because, just mentally if I’d have been further behind on points, it’s a lot harder to have the belief.

“We ended up leaving Tassie fifth in the points but still with a possibility to be able to catch up. Phillip Island, just like the year before really, was a turning point in the championship for me.” Dan McCarthy

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www.autoaction.com.au I 15

LATEST NEWS

SLADE AIMING FOR A RECORD RUN BRABHAM BLITZ PROMISED FOR CIRCUIT RECORDS ACROSS AUSTRALIA

By Paul Gover, News Editor No track record is safe from Tim Slade as the Supercars ace undertakes an unprecedented time attack across the country.

Slade has already driven a Brabham BT62 to a new record mark at Phillip Island and now he has his sights on a similar success at other tracks – including Bathurst.

He reveals the purpose-built supercar is a cut above his Supercars Mustang, even though he has been a Top 10 regular this year in the CoolDrive car and will partner with team boss Tim Blanchard for The Great Race.

Biggest difference?

“It’s like a GT3 car on steroids. A GT3 has less grunt than a Supercar, where this has more. Then there is the aero on this car, which is way more,” Slade tells Auto Action.

“To sum it up, it’s got more grunt and more grip. It does everything better than a GT3 car and a Supercar.

“It’s a very stable and forgiving balance.

You get into it and you have quite good confidence, straight away.

But it’s not scary to drive.”

Slade began his record attempt at Phillip Island, where his target time was the 1 minute 24.221 set by Simon Wills, driving a Reynard 94D Formula Holden way back in the year 2000.

He needed special help to make the attempt, as official records must be set in races and not just a time-attack run, but eventually got help to compete in a Victorian State Race Series event.

He eventually clocked a 1:24.060 and admits there was probably more speed with more time and more tuning of the Brabham.

“There is a fair bit left in the car. You don’t want to go out and risk the car. But you have to be committed as well, because you don’t have seconds up your sleeve,” he says.

“Phillip Island was hard because we originally wanted to run with the sports cars.

The MG club were good enough to let us run in their category. So the next fastest car was about 40 seconds slower than the Brabham.

“So I literally only did two fast laps over the

course of the weekend. If we would have another run at PI there is a half second in the driving, and some other time in other parts of the car as well.”

The time attack program came from a suggestion by the Brabham’s owner, a Slade mate from Adelaide, but has quickly developed from there.

“The crux of it is that we’ll look at doing two or three other events sometime between now and the end of the year.

“We might do a state round at Tailem Bend in South Australia in September. I’m not sure what class or category. We’ll potentially do some laps at a test day beforehand.

“I’m not saying anything specifically about lap records. We just want to have some fun and see what the car will do.

“And we’ll look at doing Challenge Bathurst as well. That would be a cool thing to do in that car.”

Slade is not prepared to name the car’s owner, but gives thanks and kudos to the crew from AMS Motorsport, Matt and Scott,

Image: Revved Photography

who look after the Brabham.

“I’ve driven a few other cars over the years for the owners. There are a couple of Adelaide guys that look after it. I have a good relationship with them and the weekends are fun.

“We have a laugh. And I have faith in the guys that look after the car.”

Regardless of the results, Slade says he’s happy just to jump into the Brabham.

“I’ve driven the car at some track days in the past, and we’ll do some more of those. It’s really, really cool. It’s good fun,” he says.

“You put any racing driver in a racecar that has a decent amount of grunt, sounds good, and has a good amount of grip both from the tyre and the aero, and you get out with a pretty big smile.

“It is super fun. Any pro could get in and be pretty close to getting the most out of it without a huge amount of laps.

And then there is Bathurst . . .

“I’m not too sure yet on the plan. But I’m keen. It’s obviously a really cool car to drive.

And I really enjoy it.”

BOSCH TO PURCHASE MOTEC GROUP BOSCH HAS announced it is in the process of acquiring Australian motorsport technology company MoTeC Group as Bosch Motorsport continues to expand.

Contracts for the planned handover were signed by Bosch and the MoTeC Group earlier in the month with the transaction subject to approval by merger control authorities, both parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

MoTeC supplies Supercars (and other categories) with the electronic control unit as well as the well-know MoTeC dash display.

MoTeC Group will remain as a separate legal entity, retaining its own brand name in the purchase.

16 I www.autoaction.com.au

Affectively MoTeC will become a part of Bosch Motorsport, a business unit of Bosch Engineering a Bosch subsidiary based in Germany.

Bosch hopes the purchase

of MoTeC will further expand Bosch Motorsport and its market presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Bosch intends to acquire the Melbourne based business as it offers a wide range of technology

for the motorsport market. It hopes that Bosch Motorsport can benefit from its comprehensive motorsport technology.

“With the acquisition of the MoTeC Group, Bosch Motorsport is extending its product portfolio and distribution to serve additional racing series as well as grassroots motorsport participants,” the Bosch release stated.

Currently the MoTeC Group employs 54 people worldwide between its headquarters and a sales and technical customer service office in Banbury, England.

Vice President of Bosch Motorsport Dr. Klaus Boettcher is excited to expand its identity within the motorsport world.

“With the MoTeC Group’s many years of experience and comprehensive expertise, as well as its worldwide dealer network, we are strengthening our position in motorsports and ideally complementing our product portfolio,” said Dr Boettcher.

The MoTeC portfolio includes vehicle and engine control units, displays, data loggers and onboard power supply control units for both conventional and electric motorsport vehicles.

The company serves its customers in Australia, AsiaPacific, Europe, the U.S. and Japan through a global network of around 250 dealers.

Dan McCarthy

AUSSIE REFLECTS ON LE MANS CLASS WIN AUSTRALIAN JAMES Allen soared in the Le Mans 24 Hours, marching from the back of the field, with co-drivers Rene Binder and Steven Thomas to not only win, but dominate the LMP2 Pro-Am class.

It was a phenomenal performance from the trio and the Algarve Racing organisation. Not only did they have to work their way from the back, but they’d had limited running due to the extent of track time missed during the week.

Allen (pictured right with his team– taking the selfie) scored an outright LMP2 class podium with third last year, however does the LMP2 Pro-Am win means ever so much more?

“That’s a good question,” he pondered. “I’d have to really think about that.”

“Obviously, a class win is something huge, but at the same time LMP2 last year and this year is extremely competitive, but there’s still a big field of Pro-Am cars with a lot of professional drivers in it – AF Corse have two Ferrari factory drivers.

“Pro-Am is definitely an extremely competitive class in itself; it’s still very competitive. I guess a Pro-Am win would probably have to take over a podium ... That’s a really tough one – it’s very close, but I’d say the Pro-Am win would take it.”

Despite the practice crash and being forced to miss quali, Allen never felt the race was out of his team’s grasp.

“Obviously it’s a very long race, and it wasn’t going to take a huge amount of time to get past all the GTs,” he recalled.

“We did have some very, very tough competition as well. I knew we were on the back foot, but I knew we still were in with something of a chance.

Image: Motorsport Images “Pitstops were perfect, everyone in the team just did their job and it was really a fantastic effort from the team for the race.”

After taking the victory and tasting the champagne, Allen laughed, saying all he wanted to do was wind down after what had been a stressful day.

“My first emotion to be honest was I wanted to go to sleep,” Allen said. “I was obviously extremely happy after winning the race, it was definitely very tense four hours at the end – we were up by up by two laps, but anything

could have gone wrong.

“I was just sitting there praying that everything held together and we didn’t have any issues. It did and it was really fantastic.”

After the Le Mans race class win, the #45 Algarve crew are well and truly in the fight for the Pro-Am title. With three rounds remaining, the Aussie believes they can take a lot of confidence into these rounds after controlling the race.

“It’s put us right back in the fight after AF Corse won the first two races,” he told AA.

“They did finish second in the WEC in class, which is not ideal, but we’re definitely right back in it and definitely have momentum going into Monza.”

The margin has been slashed to just eight points in the standings.

“The most important thing going forward is knowing that we have done it and we can continue to do it, which is very important for the last three races of the championship. I really think confidence is the big thing we took from Le Mans.” Dan McCarthy

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NEWS EXTRA

GMANZ’s motorsport man, Chris Payne with Holden

(now Chevy) hero Craig Lowndes

THE NEW RED TEAM IN SUPERCARS HOW CHEVROLET RACING IS PICKING UP THE BATON FROM HOLDEN

By Paul Gover, News Editor WHEN THE Chevrolet Camaro rolls into the Supercars championship ring at Newcastle in 2023 it will mark a new beginning for the red side of racing.

Holden heroes have carried the flag for more than 40 years, from the original Monaro of Norm Beechey and the Torana XU-1 that made Peter Brock a star through to the ZB Commodore.

But now it’s the turn of Chevrolet to take on the heavy lifting.

It’s a big change for everyone in and around Supercars, but General Motors is not new to touring car racing Downunder.

The original Camaro muscle car from the 1970s was a mainstay of motorsport once the original ‘humpy’ Holdens were superseded, something that the new crew at Chevrolet Racing is keen to emphasise from the start of the Gen3 era.

“This is the start of a new era and an exciting new chapter in Supercars racing. Our history in motorsport is important to us and will always remain so,” the general manager of Chevrolet Racing and a key executive at GM Specialty Vehicles, Chris Payne, tells Auto Action.

“Chevrolet Racing builds on the 50-year heritage of Holden and we’re inviting those fans along for the next stage of our journey.”

So, what’s the difference between the Red Lion history and the (re) emergence of the Bowtie brand, as part of the ongoing presence of GMSV in Australia and New Zealand.

“It will never replace Holden, it will build on the legacy of the brand and introduce a new generation of enthusiasts to our motorsport endeavours,” Payne answers.

But, and it’s a big one, will the Chevy brand resonate in Australia?

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And in New Zealand, for that matter?

“Absolutely,” says Payne, emphatically.

“Many fans will recall the epic battles between Bob Jane in his ZL1 Camaro and Allan Moffat in his Mustang. Jane’s emphatic victories in the ’70 and ’71 ATCC stamped the authority of Chevrolet in competition in this country.”

And it’s not just about racetrack success.

“Don’t forget that Holdens were proudly exported to many countries over the years wearing the Chevrolet badge and now, through GMSV we’re seeing enormous popularity for the Chevrolet Silverado,” Payne says.

He believes that Chevrolet Racing, now recognised as part of GM’s global motorsport efforts, is a contemporary excitement brand that will come to life with the debut of the Gen3 Camaro in 2023.

So, how will it operate?

“Chevrolet Racing is a new business unit for General Motors Australia and New Zealand.

It will sit alongside and support our other business units and brands such as ACDelco, GM Speciality Vehicles, GM Trade Parts and Holden Certified Service.”

In the past, Holden Motorsport has provided big bundles of cash to its competing teams, as well as funding the operations of the Holden Racing Team, but things are changing with Gen3.

Ampol Red Bull Racing continues as GM’s official homologation team, and is handling development of the Chevrolet Camaro for Supercars, but Payne is not doing into much detail about support for other Chevy teams.

“It’s not appropriate to disclose our commercial arrangements with teams. We work in numerous ways with all of the teams to provide support, and collectively they are all part of the Chevrolet Racing ‘family’.

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“That’s something that I hope the fans will notice when they attend or tune in to watch the Supercars competition from next year,” says Payne.

As for the crewing of Chevrolet Racing, it’s a small band for the brand but with plenty of experience.

“It’s a small core team, and we draw upon specialist resources within our GMANZ team as required.

“Tim Price is Director of Planning which includes motorsport responsibilities, I am the general manager of Chevrolet Racing, and Steve Byrne is program manager for the Gen3 Camaro Supercar.”

The car itself is a Supercars spin-off from the road-going Camaro. Even though it’s not longer sold in Australia, after a short program with Walkinshaw Automotive including righthand drive conversion, Payne believes the car will resonate with Supercars fans.

“Camaro is the vehicle which represents GM and the Chevrolet Racing brand across a variety of series around the world including NASCAR, drag car racing and now Supercars. It is our link to these series and a global motorsport program and is the future of racing in Australia and New Zealand.

“With the launch of Chevrolet Racing and the Gen3 Camaro, there is a new way for race fans to feel connected and involved with Australasia’s premier motorsport series.”

So, is Payne prepared to discuss the multi-million-dollar spending that it will take to get the Gen3 Camaro on the track?

“That is understandably commercially sensitive information, which is not something we’re prepared to divulge.”

But what about the backing for the teams?

“GMANZ provides support to teams racing the Camaro from 2023. I’m not prepared to go into specifics, but as – with any manufacturer involvement – there are various agreements relating to support and considerations such as parts availability, loan vehicles and so on.

“In some cases, that support involves broader business-to-business solutions working with teams sponsor companies – and may leverage our other brands including GM Trade Parts or ACDelco for example.”

The current Supercars grid is dominated by the ZB Commodore, but Payne says Chevrolet Racing is aiming higher for the Gen3 era.

“We want a high win ratio, not just grid numbers. Every fan has their favourite team and drivers that they follow. And with the impending changes to the Gen3 rule set we expect the racing and action to be amped-up a few notches.”

So the bottom line, for Chevrolet Racing, is simple.

“The entertainment factor will increase, and the traditional GM-versus-Ford battle will take us all into a whole new era where I’m sure that the Chevrolet Racing and Ford team owners, crews and drivers will thrive on the opportunity for closer racing.”

What would Bob think? Jane’s famous Australian Touring Car Championship winning Camaro livery applied to Gen-3 (Nick Moss Design).

www.autoaction.com.au I 18

WHAT CHEESES ME OFF

AA’S COLUMNIST HAS A RETRO-INSPIRED RANT THERE’S A mind-boggling array of streaming services on offer these days, I’m sure you’ve noticed. The West household recently added a new one.

It was early Saturday evening and the missus and I couldn’t find anything to watch. Well, anything both were happy with. This happens quite a lot...

“Back in the day Hey Hey It’s Saturday would have been on now,” Mrs W, frustrated: “How good would it be if it was still?” A light bulb lit up above my head, recalling an ad I’d seen on social media for HeyHey.T V For the princely sum of $6.95 the good wife and I were transported back to the 1990s with a choice of 800-odd full episodes and many more segments – Molly’s Melodrama, Plucka Duck, Celebrity Head, Red Faces, et al. And, from Hey Hey’s earlier days, What Cheeses Me Off. “Dear Daryl and Ossie, what cheeses me off is… adults served in shops before us kids … my sister broke a window and I got in trouble for it … not having front teeth …”

Like most good comedy, it was enjoyed by kids on one level and by adults on another. All wonderfully politically incorrect, especially

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with Luke West

REVVED UP announcer John Blackman’s regular interjections to the rants from socalled ‘senderinnerers’.

Surprisingly, the much-loved variety show was often flavoured by motorsport-themed shenanigans: Dick Johnson was a regular judge on Red Faces and a Plucka Duck contestant won a trip to the Macau Grand Prix. This bemused winner had never heard of Macau, much less its annual street race! And skits on Red Symons, Plucka and Trevor Marmalade contesting various Grand Prix celebrity races were hilarious.

Speaking of the AGP and what cheeses me off, Dear Daryl and Ossie, can we give the corners at Albert Park names please?

Numbering corners should be banned. Trying to identify sections of track numerically does my head in. It was bad enough before the revamp, but now commentators

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give us such gems as “he’s gone off at turn 11, which is the old turn 13”.

Where the bloody hell are you, Lara Bingle? Corner numbers means anything to anyone, other than race engineers, who seem to be the target audience for most television commentary these days. I’ll present my ideas for corner names for the Albert Park circuit in the near future.

It’s time to get creative.

Staying with Formula 1, does anyone else hate the seemingly growing number of F1 snobs? I’ve noted a groundswell of folk who call themselves racing fans yet turn up their noses at other categories, particularly Indycar. I suspect they are new Drive To Survive recruits.

Turning our attention elsewhere in Melbourne, give me a reason why Sandown does not host a 500km two-driver enduro immediately prior to Bathurst? Foregoing tradition and history is a big mistake. The

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Image: Motorsport Images 500 provides an influx of fresh faces and returning stars – household names like Lowndes and Whincup, that the category lacks today.

If nothing else, having multiple enduros brings a welcome break from the tedium of Supercars’ mid-season. Seriously, the barrage of tyre pressure and strategy talk grated big time during the Hidden Valley weekend. If Supercars and its commentators think this is what interests its audience then the category is in serious trouble.

Barclay Nettlefold, where are you?

Supercars needs to get serious about its racing product. It’s not all about tyres, guys. Let me spell it out: fans don’t care about tyres. Nor do punters want to see endless vision of race engineers staring at screens. Televised sport is about competition, action, drama and human interest. Supercars producing its own coverage doesn’t work, as no one wants to offend the competitors. It’s all too matey. I’ll scream the next time a pit reporter apologetically approaches a driver with, “sorry to have to ask you this…” There’s no need to apologise for doing your job.

Supercars’ best commentator is Garth Tander. He provides fantastic

insight, keeps it simple and is not afraid to ask the tough questions.

The problem with modern motorsport is that it’s become an exercise in mistake minimisation rather than wheel-to-wheel combat. This has stripped much of the drama, entertainment and personality from the sport.

Another thing that is cheesing me off is the inference – if not downright deception pedalled by some – that Gen3 is backed by two major manufacturers. True, Ford is still a major player, with 5.5 percent of the market, or over 5000 sales in May, according to industry statistician VFACTS. Yet in the same month Chevrolet sold just 233 units in Australia – Silverado and Corvette – for a tiny 0.2 percent of the 94,000-strong automotive market. Chev is not a like-for-like replacement for Holden and it’s wrong to position it as such.

GM’s market is unlikely to grow Downunder as it builds very few right-hand drive models, far fewer than Ford.

Thus, Supercars still needs to find a way for new marques to join. It’s been awfully quiet for a long time on this front.

That’s what cheeses me off!

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LATEST NEWS Images: Motorsport Images

RED BULL RACING ANNOUNCE BUILD OF ROAD CAR RED BULL RACING HAS ANNOUNCED THAT IT WILL BUILD ITS FIRST EVER IN-HOUSE HYPERCAR TITLED THE RB17.

THE MACHINE will be created under the leadership of Chief Technical Officer and legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey with a limited run of 50 cars to be built at the Red Bull Advanced Technologies’ campus.

The RB17 follows the naming convention of the team’s F1 cars.

Although no computer-generated

images have been released, Red Bull Racing has announced that the car will be powered by a V8 hybrid engine quoted to produce over 1,100bhp (820kW).

The car will be designed around a carbon-composite tub, utilising groundeffects like the current generation F1 car and will be able to seat two people, the driver and a passenger.

The price is certainly on the more expensive side, prices will start at over five million pounds ($8.828 million Aussie dollars).

“The RB17 marks an important milestone in the evolution of Red Bull Advanced

Technologies, now fully capable of creating and manufacturing a series production car at our Red Bull Technology Campus,” said Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner.

“Further, the RB17 marks the first time that a car wearing the Red Bull brand has been available to collectors.

Newey who has designed championship winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull Racing added that this car will carry a lot of DNA from Formula 1 cars.

“The RB17 distills everything we know about creating championship-winning Formula 1 cars into a package that delivers

VIPS DROPPED BY RED BULL RACING AFTER A two-week investigation, the Red Bull Racing team has confirmed it has terminated its contract with test and reserve driver Juri Vips.

The Estonian was playing online and streaming on Twitch when he was caught yelling a racist slur in the heat of battle.

Red Bull Racing stated at the time it would thoroughly investigate what occurred before deciding on the future of its driver.

Vips has come up through the Red Bull Junior Program to become the teams test and reserve driver, he was one of the favourites to secure an AlphaTauri seat in Formula 1 for 2023 or more likely 2024.

However, his comments online have ended these hopes of racing for the junior Red Bull team.

“Following its investigation into an online incident involving Juri Vips, Oracle Red Bull Racing has terminated Juri’s contract as its test and reserve driver,” a statement from Red Bull Racing read.

“The team does not condone any form of racism” Vips has been dropped by Red Bull effective immediately, whether this affects his FIA Formula 2 Championship campaign remains to be seen.

Vips is a regular contender at the front of the F2 field and currently sits seventh

in the standings.

In his near two years in F2, he has recorded two race wins and countless podiums and finished sixth in the standings last year.

Red Bull’s decision came just hours after vision surfaced of three-time Formula 1 World Champion Nelson Piquet made the same racist slur when describing Lewis Hamilton.

Piquet has come under massive scrutiny for the comments with everyone in F1 stating there is no place for racism.

Vips has not commented on his axing from Red Bull Racing at this stage.

Dan McCarthy

extreme levels of performance in a twoseat track car,” he said.

“Driven by our passion for performance at every level, the RB17 pushes design and technical boundaries far beyond what has been previously available to enthusiasts and collectors.”

Just 50 RB17s will be created, with production not set to commence until the start of 2025.

Notably all owners will have access to the team’s simulators, vehicle programme development and on-track training while the factory team will service and maintain each car personally. Dan McCarthy

ROSBERG BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL FORMER FORMULA 1 World Championship Nico Rosberg has stepped back behind the wheel of a racing car.

After winning the F1 World Championship in 2016, Rosberg announced his immediate retirement from motorsport.

He has only driven a handful of laps since then, most notably at Monaco when he shared the track with his Formula 1 championship winning father.

Since retiring, Rosberg became the CEO of Extreme E outfit Rosberg X Racing (RXR), and last week jumped back into the race seat for an exclusive test drive in Germany.

Rosberg cut many laps of the one-kilometre Nurburgring Park off-road course, his firstever laps in an off-road car.

It was the first time Rosberg had ever driven one of his own Extreme E machines also and loved every second.

“This was simply a phenomenal experience,” he said. “I cannot believe the power of this car.

Off-road driving is so much fun.

“Even though I have not been behind the wheel for a long time, I immediately was in my element. The muscle memory came back instantly and I simply enjoyed myself.

“Rally driving is an entirely different beast from circuit racing, though, and I have a newfound respect for Mikaela and Johan.”

During the test Rosberg was closely viewed

by Team Principal Kimmo Liimatainen, as well as RXR drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky.

While the test was a bit of fun for Rosberg, the serious business is about to get back underway with just two weeks until the Italian double-header in Sardinia.

After being crowned inaugural Extreme E champions in 2021 with Aussie Molly Taylor and Kristoffersson, the team started Season 2 in triumphant style with victory in Saudi Arabia. Dan McCarthy

GASLY CONFIRMS ALPHATAURI STAY ALPHATAURI HAS has locked in Pierre Gasly for another season, the Frenchman signing to race for the second Red Bull team and extinguishing rumours that he would move elsewhere.

When Sergio Perez re-signed with Red Bull Racing until 2024 it blocked Gasly’s path back to the main team for which he competed for in 12 races back in 2019.

Gasly felt he was ready for a drive back at Red Bull Racing and was open about this with Red Bull’s motorsports advisor Dr Helmut Marko.

However, Marko and Red Bull Racing elected to stick with known quantity Perez.

In Canada last weekend AlphaTauri

team boss Franz Tost stated Gasly “100% confirmed” that Gasly would stay with AlphaTauri for 2023.

This has now been officially announced.

“We are really pleased to confirm that Pierre stays with us in 2023,” Tost said overnight. “He is definitely in the group of the best and most competitive drivers in F1 and has proven his abilities during all the time he has spent with us.

“Undoubtedly, Pierre can play a major role in the team having a successful season next year and it will be down to us to provide him with a competitive car, so that he can continue to deliver excellent results.”

Gasly made his F1 debut with the

team, then known as Toro Rosso, at the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix, and has subsequently taken three podiums with the squad, including his win at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

“I have been with this team for five years now and I am proud of the journey we’ve been through together and the progress we have made,” Gasly said.

“I’m happy to remain with my Scuderia AlphaTauri team.

“This year’s new regulations have created new challenges for us and being able to plan our development with the team for the next 18 months is a good working basis for the future.”

Dan McCarthy

F1 COMMUNITY SUPPORTS HAMILTON AFTER PIQUET COMMENTS THE FORMULA 1 community has thrown its support behind former Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton after racially abusive language was used to describe him by three-time champion Nelson Piquet.

Piquet won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1981, 1983 and 1987 and is the father of Max Verstappen’s long-time girlfriend Kelly Piquet.

A video has surfaced on social media of Nelson Piquet discussing the first lap accident between Verstappen and Hamilton at the British Grand Prix last year, in which the now 69—year-old calls him a racist slur not once, but twice.

“The [racist term] put his car there to hit him on purpose,” Piquet stated.

And later, when asked if he felt Hamilton would not make the corner at Copse, Piquet said.

“Him? Never!

“He wanted to take him out no matter the cost. The [racist term] left the car there to

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hit him.

“It’s because you don’t know that bend.

It’s a very fast one, and two cars can’t get through. There’s no way two cars can go side by side there. It was a dirty trick!

“He’s just lucky that the only other guy got screwed.”

Hamilton immediately took to social media, voicing his frustration and disgust at the language that had surfaced.

“It’s more than language,” he wrote.

“These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport.

“I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life. There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.”

Already the Formula 1 world has rushed to support Hamilton and to stop racist remarks in Formula 1.

“Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society,” Formula 1 posted.

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“Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect.

“His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.”

Mercedes F1 driver George Russell took to social media to speak up for his teammate.

“Huge respect to LH. He has done more for the sport than any driver in history, not just on the track but off it,” Russell wrote.

The fact that he and so many others are STILL having to deal with this behaviour is unacceptable. We all need to stand together against discrimination of any kind.”

Even some of his closest rivals wrote on social media.

“Knowing Lewis since I arrived in Formula 1, he has always been extremely respectful to me and everyone that he meets,” wrote Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

“Those values should be the standard towards anybody around the world. The comments made towards Lewis should not

be tolerated, and we should continue to push for a more diverse and inclusive sport.

“We need to remove discriminatory behaviour and racist language in any form from not just our sport, but our society as well.” Dan McCarthy

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CAMPBELL GETTING TO GRIPS WITH NEW PORSCHE AUSSIE MATT Campbell revealed he has had a couple of tests in the brand-new Porsche 963 LMDh car and has explained the sensation of driving the protype and some of the challenges compared to the GT3 machine that he is so familiar with.

Over the weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Porsche officially unveiled its LMDh machine which it will field in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA Sportscar Championship.

The 19-time Le Mans winning brand also confirmed its driver line-up announcing former Australian Carrera Cup winner as a driver in one of the two championships.

Although it has not been confirmed whether Campbell with race in IMSA or WEC, he has had a couple of tests in the new machine at the Porsche test track and more recently a three-day test at Aragon in Spain about six weeks ago.

“Big things coming up obviously next year and the future, a big step for me moving into prototypes now and into LMDh with Porsche Penske Motorsport, so big step,

but looking forward to it and really enjoyed the time so far,” Campbell said in a press conference including Auto Action.

“Been in the car and been testing. It’s still pretty raw and everything like that, so a lot of work to do.

“But have been in the car a couple of times now, still need a lot more miles that’s for sure, but feeling comfortable already.

“Now the testing will start to switch over to US as well, only got a couple more tests to go in Europe before the majority of testing moves over to the US so much more miles to come in the car, which is really important.

“Obviously, for us, there’s a lot of us drivers that don’t have much prototype experience, so the next six months, will be really critical for finalising car development, and also just getting comfortable in the car and getting used to all systems.”

Campbell came through the Porsche ranks starting in Class B of Porsche Sprint Challenge (formerly known as GT3 Cup Challenge).

The then moved into Carrera Cup

Australia winning that series and has since gone on to win may races overseas as a Porsche driver.

Throughout his time he has only driven Cup cars or GT3 cars, prototype is going to be a new challenge but one he is quickly coming to terms with.

“Not at first,” he said when he was asked if a prototype felt natural. “Because the systems and everything, being so complex and so different, they’re having such a big influence on the car feeling.

“This is still something we’re working towards and trying to improve and get better at each test because, the hybrid system is so different and obviously so advanced from what I’m used to.

“This is a big step and big challenge, but nevertheless, feeling comfortable in car and slowly learning it more and more, that’s the most important thing.

“I’m lucky I’m progressing in this direction (to prototypes), the steps are going to be a lot smaller than going the opposite direction (to GTs). Just getting used to the prototype now and the racing and

everything like that.

Campbell elaborated on the systems and why the car is such a beast to drive.

“The systems are so complex now with the hybrid system and for sure Porsche is also learning at the same time, because in LMDh, the MGU and also gearboxes all are homologated parts, so that’s something quite unique,” he stated.

“Obviously, at the moment, we’re the only (LMDh) car running, some other cars are starting to run shortly, but this is very, very new and something that takes a lot of time to be able to adapt to and learn all the systems and strategies involved.

“I think at the moment, we’re getting a lot of influence from engineers who are just helping, but for sure, at times, this is having a big influence on car and feeling and each drive is also going to be different when it comes to this.

“It’s very, very interesting, but for sure, but that’s been the biggest step, luckily, I have a lot more time in the car coming up later in the year before next year, because it’s a big step for sure.” Dan McCarthy

YAMAHA WANTED TO PROTEST QUARTARARO PENALTY Yamaha has spoken out about the penalty against Fabio Quartararo which he will carry into the British Grand Prix in five weeks’ time.

Quartararo attempted a move on title rival Aleix Espargaro and fell from his bike, the bike forced Espargaro to take evasive action and take a tour of the gravel trap.

Espargaro dropped from second to fifteenth, and as a result, the MotoGP Stewards panel deemed Quartararo was overly ambitious in his attempt to overtake the Aprilia rider.

They felt Quartararo was not in a position to successfully complete the move and subsequently crashed, causing contact with #41 and forcing him to run wide.

The avoiding action undertaken by Espargaro allowed him to avoid crashing and re-join. Nevertheless, his race was severely impacted.

Quartararo has been handed a long-lap penalty which he must serve at the British Grand Prix.

The Frenchman voiced his frustration on social media.

“Well… a long lap for the next race,” Quartararo wrote on Instagram.

“Now you cannot try and overtake because they think you are too ambitious.

“From the beginning of the year some riders made a ‘racing incident’ but apparently mine was too dangerous.”

A sarcastic Quartararo then took a dig at the stewards.

“Congratulations to the stewards for the amazing job you are doing,” he said.

“Next time I will not try any overtake to think about not taking a penalty.”

Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis has followed suit in press release from the factory Yamaha team, in which he explains how he would have liked to have appealed the penalty.

“Fabio Quartararo, the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team, and Yamaha have always striven for fairness and sportsmanship in MotoGP,” he said.

“We are disappointed to see the inequality with which penalties are applied by the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel.”

“We wanted to appeal the decision of the Image: Motorsport Stewards on Sunday at the Assen track, but Images this type of penalty is not open to discussion or appeal.

“We then wanted to raise the issue, as a matter of principle, with CAS (Court of Arbitration of Sport), but equally such a matter is not open to appeal.

“It is precisely for these reasons that correct, balanced, and consistent decisions should be taken by the Stewards in the affected, but the severeness of the impact is a first place and executed within the correct, matter of conjecture. Monster Energy Yamaha reasonable time frame.”

MotoGP feel the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel The factory Yamaha team listed further is measuring the severity of race incidents points that it disagrees with. with inconsistent, subjective standards.

- Whilst Quartararo has admitted to making - The inconsistency with which penalties are a mistake in Turn 5 at the TT Circuit Assen applied by the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel on lap 5, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP during the 2022 season damages the fairness view this as a race incident. Quartararo has of MotoGP and the faith in the Stewards‘ the reputation of being a clean rider, without jurisdiction. There have been at least three a track record of prior incidents. It was an more serious race incidents in the MotoGP honest mistake without malicious intent.

Class (resulting in riders retiring from the - Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP race and/or causing injuries) that were left acknowledges that Aleix Espargaró‘s race was unpunished. Dan McCarthy

DAVISON DISAPPOINTED NOT TO WIN IN DARWIN Imag: Motorsport Images

DICK JOHNSON Racing driver Will Davison was disappointed to come away from the Darwin Triple Crown without a race victory.

With two pole positions, Davison was arguably the fastest driver in all three races, however came away with two second place finishes and a fourth.

The two races from pole position Davison was beaten by his teammate Anton De Pasquale on the opening lap.

In the final race Davison was running third with eight laps remaining on a safety car restart when he tangled with Shane van Gisbergen.

Davison believes this cost him a shot at the victory, however was disappointed he was back there to begin with.

“I haven’t seen what happened,” he said shortly after the race concluded.

“Clearly once the contact was made and we interlocked with me it killed my opportunity and his (to win), I then fired

back through again, and got back to the leaders, I think without that we were still a really good shot to win.

“So, it was obviously a double whammy, but I look more at what I can control and there’s a few things I should have done better at the start.”

In the Turn 1 contact van Gisbergen suffered steering damage and was forced to limp to the finish line in 21st position.

Davison said he was angered by the contact, just gutted not to capitalise on the pole position.

“Disappointed to have such a fast car and not be able to convert it to a race win,” he said.

“It’s disappointing but really my fault all in all, didn’t get off the line well enough and should have been long gone up the road.

“The car was sensational, big thanks to the team and really my fault for not getting the job done today.”

Nevertheless, Davison feels that on the #17 side of the garage he made considerable race pace gains in Darwin.

“Car is very fast, it’s been a good weekend for the team and for me personally, just to unlock some really good things in the car race pace wise,” Davison explained.

“Just annoying not to win, really the team deserved the win today. It’s a fickle sport, the car was amazing, what can I say? We just didn’t get the result, that’s what it’s like out there at the moment.

“We were coming home strong, the safety car couldn’t have actually come at a worse time for me, I had four tyres on the car, really steaming back up to Anton and Chaz and the safety car was quite bad timing.

“But anyway, we got another shot on the restart and then and that was obviously then undone very quickly after that touch was Shane.” Dan McCarthy

FISHER TO RACE TCM TORANA IN TOWNSVILLE FORMER V8 ute driver Andrew Fisher will make the switch from Ford to Holden for the next round of Touring Car Masters.

His well-known Ford Falcon GTHO nicknamed ‘Abigail’ has been sidelined for the foreseeable future, forcing Fisher to quickly find a different machine for Round 3 in Townsville next week.

Fisher has found one, he will lease a Holden Torana A9X for the North Queensland event.

The decision to sideline the GTHO stems from a big accident at Bathurst last year. The crash was caused when a right-hand upright failed and sent him heavily into the concrete.

The car was fixed, however has had subsequent dramas at both rounds in this year’s series.

“It is not a power issue, rather it has to do with the car’s handling,” Fisher said.

“We recently fitted a three-link rear end and at this stage we can’t get the front and the rear to work together.

“So rather than try and sort it all out on a race weekend, we would rather do private testing and get it right. I just want to go to a meeting and enjoy the racing without having to fix problems.”

While Fisher is a self-confessed Ford man, he will jump into Pollicina’s Torana and explained the reasoning.

“There was simply no Fords available, and Jim (Pollicina) is a good mate and we have leased off him before.”

In Townsville, Fisher will race Jim’s remaining four-door Torana, originally raced

by Jason Gomersall and is the sister car to Hatchback A9X that Jim currently races.

“The four door is a race winner, Dean Lillie won one of the races at Bathurst last year and I know what a good operation Jim and Dean have.

“I am really looking forward to Townsville, I like the track and the last time TCM was there, in 2018, I qualified third,” he added.

Dan McCarthy

MINEEFF REFLECTS ON FIRST SUPERCARS TEST TCR AUSTRALIA driver Lachlan Mineeff completed his maiden Supercars test with Matt Stone Racing and was incredibly impressed by the V8 powered machine.

Mineeff took to Queensland Raceway with MSR where the 19-year-old completed a total of 30 laps of the Ipswich-based venue.

On the day he drove one of the team’s Super3 specification Ford FG Falcons, in what was his first taste of Supercars machinery.

It continues a relationship with Matt Stone Racing which began at the Winton Supercars round where Mineeff worked with the team throughout the weekend.

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Lachlan Mineeff talking to team owner Matt Stone Mineeff was thankful for the opportunity given to him by Matt Stone Racing and explained how different it was to his Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR car.

“Wow, that was just an awesome experience driving a Supercar for the first time,” Mineeff exclaimed post-test.

“Huge thanks to Matt Stone Racing for the opportunity to drive its car for a number of laps. It was really cool to get an experience of what the type level of motorsport is like in these cars.

“There were a huge amount of differences plus some similarities between the Matt Stone Racing Falcon

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and the Purple Sector Volkswagen Golf GTI race throughout the season in TCR Australia, which was really cool to experience.

“Rear-wheel-drive and a V8 means it is a lot quicker down the straights, but you’ve really got to wrestle the car

through the corners.”

Mineeff is hopeful another opportunity may arise in the future.

“It’s a huge thanks to the team and I’m looking forward to what the future may provide,” he said.

Dan McCarthy

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OFF-TRACK AGGRO Image: ARG Kalisz

BATES CASTS DOUBT OVER TRANS AM FUTURE THERE IS no guarantee that rising star Zach Bates will contest any further Trans Am Series rounds despite his promising debut at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Bates scored a trio of top five finishes including a podium in his maiden round, impressing in a Ford Mustang owned by his uncle, Nicholas Bates, who steers the car in the regional TA2 Muscle Car Series.

However, budget constraints and schooling commitments dictate that 18-year-old Zach may have to shelve his adventure into Trans Am for now.

“I’m not sure if I’ll do more Trans Am rounds yet,” Bates told Auto Action.

“It was quite tight on budget for that round and because it’s Nicholas’ car, he’s doing the rest of the TA2 rounds. While TA2 and Trans Am don’t clash some rounds are on consecutive weekends so it’s quite difficult to get the car back to the workshop and then go again.

“It would be awesome to do some more.

Money is quite a big thing as well as time.

I’m looking for some more partners to come on board.”

Bates has starred in the Toyota Gazoo Racing 86 Series since making his debut in 2021, taking out the title that year and running at the front so far in 2022.

At this stage it appears likely that the Canberra-based racer will stick to a full-time entry in the Supercars support series in 2022, rather than completing a dual campaign with Trans Am. “We will do the rest of the 86 series this year and we’ll see what pops up.

I’m trying to focus on the 86s,” Bates confirms.

Bates is on a mission to become a Supercars driver and as such, he believes that his future budget may be better spent climbing the Supercar ladder rather than committing to Trans Am. “To progress up to Supercars, Super3 and Super2 is where you would go. So ideally, that’s where we want to be,” Bates concludes.

“Trans Am is great, it’s a good platform for fast cars on a budget, but you haven’t seen a lot of drivers transition from that to Supercars yet.

“I think you will see people do that but I think Super3 and Super2 are the stepping stones and it’s been that way for a long time. It’s a proven way of getting into Supercars.”

Bates will be back on track from July 8-10 in Townsville as the Toyota 86s support the Supercars Townsville 500.

Josh Nevett

A COUPLE of ongoing Formula 1 stories have emerged in the last fortnight. Former Russian driver Nakita Mazepin (above) has claimed he will sue Haas for unpaid wages, while Red Bull reserve driver Juri Vips has been temporarily suspended by the team for making a racial slur.

Mazepin was set to race for Haas in 2022 – he completed pre-season testing with the American squad before Russia invaded the Ukraine.

Immediately Haas F1 ended its contract with Russian title sponsor Uralkali and a few days after pre-season testing was completed Mazepin was replaced by Kevin Magnussen.

At the time, Mazepin wrote his axing was not the end of the saga, and so it appears to be as he prepares to take legal action.

In a recent interview with Russian media outlet RBC, Mazepin stated that his legal action was independent of the team’s former title sponsor Uralkali.

“When the contract was terminated, Haas had a salary arrears to me for 2022,” he said.

“And they still haven’t paid it.

“I’m only talking about the fact that contractual obligations were not fulfilled.

“You also need to understand that we had two independent contracts. And breaking the agreement with the title sponsor [Uralkali] did not have a direct impact on my future in the team.

“So, they [Haas] made two separate decisions. I didn’t see my money, so we’re going to court.”

Mazepin claims the court documents have already been filed.

The 21-year-old Russian driver is blaming ‘cancel culture’ for his axing within the team.

The often-outspoken driver Mazepin also suggested the Russian Grand Prix promoter was paid by F1 for the cancellation of its race and the championship, and he should have been paid out of his contract.

Elsewhere, popular Red Bull Junior driver Juri Vips (pictured above right) is fighting to save his racing career following a racial slur.

Vips was playing a video game, live streaming on Twitch when he used the ‘N’ word in the heat of battle.

Within moments Red Bull Racing made a statement online confirming that the Estonian had been suspended and would not return until a full investigation had taken place.

“Red Bull Racing has suspended junior driver Juri Vips from all team duties with immediate effect, pending a full investigation into the incident,” it read.

“As an organisation we condemn abuse of any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy to racist language or behaviour within our organisation.”

Vips, one of the Red Bull Racing’s reserve drivers made his F1 practice debut in Spain and is one of the drivers in contention to step up to AlphaTauri either next year or in 2024, however this suspension comes as a major blow to those chances.

The 21-year-old was incredibly apologetic for what had happened and said he would assist in the investigation process.

“I wish to unreservedly apologise for the offensive language used during a live gaming stream earlier today,” he wrote on social media.

“The language is entirely unacceptable and does not portray the values and principles that I hold.

“I deeply regret my actions and this is not the example I wish to set. I will cooperate with the investigation fully.”

What this means for Vips’ FIA Formula 2 Championship campaign with Hitech Grand Prix remains to be seen – he currently sits seventh in the standings.

He is not the first driver to do this – during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the now reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson did the same thing.

He was fired by Chip Ganassi Racing and forced to sit out the remainder of the season.

Larson returned to NASCAR in 2021 with Hendrick Motorsport and won the title.

Dan McCarthy

BRABHAM WINS IN TRANS AM AMERICA AUSTRALIAN MATTHEW Brabham has scored his second Trans Am race win, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, in which he held off teammate Chris Dyson in a thrilling final lap.

For Brabham (right) it was his first Trans Am victory of the season, and second in just three career starts.

This win was hard fought, as the third-generation racer battled the highly-competitive Kaz Grala and the always-fast Dyson to take the chequered flag first.

At the start of the 100-lap race, Grala battled side-by-side with Brabham in the #21 Ford Mustang.

Brabham moved into the lead for one lap, but Grala regrouped and responded on lap two to retake the lead.

Once he was back out front, Grala pulled away slightly, however the CD Racing cars of Brabham and Dyson were never far behind.

Grala finally relinquished the lead to Brabham on lap 25, he remained in second for nine laps before his engine expired. He

20 I www.autoaction.com.au

Image: Motorsport Images was forced to pull off the track with a differential issue, ending his Trans Am debut and bringing out a full-course caution.

When racing resumed Brabham still had to fight. He held Dyson off until a car in the sand trap brought out the second double yellow of the race two laps later, leaving only one lap of green-flag racing remaining once clean-up was complete.

During the final lap, Dyson challenged Brabham until the final turn, but it wasn’t enough, and it was Brabham who took the lead, staying cool under pressure in scorching temperatures.

“These cars are some of the most fun cars I’ve ever driven in my life,” said Brabham in Victory Lane.

“When you have a team like Chris’ and the boys do such a good job prepping the car, it’s just a dream for me to come here and drive.

“Today was hard racing; I was pushing the whole race, and that was kind of our game plan. I told Chris ‘I’ll push the whole race, and if you want to save tyres you can save tyres.’

“I think if there weren’t those yellows at the end, Chris probably would have gotten me. I had nothing left, I had no tyres left and I was pushing hard the whole race.

“Thank you to Chris, to everyone at Allgram, and everyone at CD Racing for making me feel at home.” Dan McCarthy

SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED TO THE KID

AND SUPERCARS NEEDS HIM BACK NO-ONE in Supercars can pull a crowd like Craig Lowndes.

He has more star power than anyone who has a full-time ride in season 2022 and that’s not likely to change in 2023 or beyond.

You only have to watch the way crowds react to Lowndes to see that he has a unique appeal.

He is the Peter Brock of his generation.

Yet Lowndes is about to race at Bathurst as a Wildcard (above), not as a serious contender with a front-line squad pushing his efforts, and he has also slipped down the batting order on Supercars Television.

He is often relegated to calling races as the expert commentator on a minor category, like SuperUtes.

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE On the racing front, his hope of completing another full season in Carrera Cup floundered early in the year and his presence at the Bathurst 12-Hour was very low-key for a driver – any driver – with his record at Mount Panorama.

He is not racing at the Finke in a desert truck, or wheeling something sideways for fun in the Touring Car Masters, or even scooting about in a V8 ute.

It’s not good enough.

Lowndes is not The Kid these days, as he was when he exploded into action with the Holden Racing Team, but his

transition to Old Mate could become a win-win for everyone in motorsport.

He should be front-and-centre on race weekends, and worked into the new marketing and social media push that’s been promised by the RACE team that now controls Supercars.

There should be a special run of Lowndes’ merchandise and a book, or books.

Remember when Brock was the front man and chief spruiker for Holden and a wide spread of other A-grade brands, including Bridgestone?

But can you remember the last

time that Lowndes was used to front a major advertising push?

Exactly . . .

What makes Lowndes special is his ‘everyman (every person)’ appeal.

He can talk to anyone, anywhere, as if he was just a mate at the pub.

People say he is the new Brock, but Lowndes has his own knockabout appeal. It’s similar to Brock, but definitely not the same.

Where Brock would be fully briefed and groomed to perfection, starting from the days when was shaped so well by the late (and great) Tim Pemberton through to the times when he became a true motorsport statesman, Lowndes can just wing-it with anyone.

He’s happy to have a chat, and a crack, with anyone who asks.

And he has that crazy, infectious laugh and the crinkly smile.

These days, the fans are still asking but no-one is answering.

It’s hard to know what has gone wrong, or why, but it should be an easy fix.

Find a crowd, add Lowndes, mix and leave to rise.

As it is, the incandescent flame that once burned around Lowndes is dimming. And it’s sad.

He could still be the most valuable player in Supercars, starting with a big push around Bathurst in October and sliding through to an elder statesman role in the Gen3 era and beyond.

No-one is expecting him to win at Mount Panorama this year, but he will still be a solid Top 10 co-driver in The Great Race and a driver who could easily spring a surprise in the dying laps.

And that would be something to cheer. Again. As always.

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INTERNATIONAL AUSSIES

MANSELL CONCOLIDATES

POINTS AFTER 4 ROUNDS 1 Goethe 251 2 Mansell 183 3 Lomko 159 4 Ogaard 114 5 Lubin 96

Mansell (at left) on the podium after a strong second outright.

Images: Motorsport Images IT WAS another great round, at SpaFrancorchamps, for Australian open-wheel rising star Christian Mansell (above), with two podium finishes in the fourth round of the Euroformula Open Championship.

Despite sitting second in the standings and taking two second place finishes and a fourth, Mansell lost ground to championship leader Oliver Goethe who dominated the weekend.

The Danish driver won all three races and has now won seven of the first 11.

At the start of Race 1 it was Mansell who led; the Aussie made a great start and under brakes snatched the lead, but couldn’t keep the advantage for more than a hundred metres.

Goethe got back by on the opening lap and then took off into the distance. He pulled a three second margin in the first five laps.

Josh Mason, from the back of the grid, had made his way up to third and set about overtaking Mansell.

At the mid-race mark, Mason started to

attack but with no success.

In the final laps, Mason was forced to defend his position from Vladislav Lomko rather than attack – the two made slight contact but positions did not change.

The top six were inverted for Race 2, this meant that Mansell and Goethe were fifth and sixth on the grid respectively.

Once again Mansell made a great start off the line and sat in second position exiting the La Source hairpin.

Up through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, Mansell got a great run and got in the slipstream of reversed grid poleman Sebastian Ogaard down the Kemmel Straight.

Ogaard squeezed Mansell onto the grass but the Aussie was not fazed, taking the lead with an incredibly brave move.

At the end of the opening lap, Mansell led Ogaard, Mason and Goethe; however, on lap two, the championship leader continued to march forward.

Goethe dived down the inside of Mason at Bruxelles, snuck past Ogaard at

Blanchimont and had a look at Mansell into the Bus Stop chicane, but didn’t quite get the move done.

Goethe tried again at Les Combes but ran wide allowing the 17-year-old back past. Mansell started to establish a lead, but once he had got it to 1.1 seconds he then slowed at the Bus Stop chicane, and Goethe claimed the lead.

However, Mansell quickly got back up to speed and re-took the lead into Les Combes.

Goethe though had the stronger pace, overtook Mansell down the Kemmel Straight and cleared off into the distance to take the win by 5.448s. Lomko inherited third after Mason was handed a post-race penalty for exceeding track limits.

In Race 3 the championship leader started sixth, with Mansell in fourth.

Mansell didn’t make such a good start this time, but held position at the end of lap one.

On lap three, Goethe dived down the inside at La Source but ran wide and lost

the position – however he got a good run in the slipstream and the pair ran sideby-side on the Kemel Straight – and it all got messy at Les Combes..

Goethe went across the runoff while Mansell bounced over the kerbs and lost places.

Goethe was handed a five second penalty for gaining an advantage, cutting the track when re-joining.

The pacy Goethe continued his charge, and not only made it to the front of the field but pulled out a 5s margin to take his fourth straight victory.

Mansell also recovered but could only make his way up to fifth.

It was an incredibly dramatic last couple of laps – in one sense he was unlucky not to finish on the podium, only 0.045s off in a three-way photo finish – but on the other hand was lucky to avoid a penultimate lap crash.

Dan McCarthy

exclaimed. “It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a trophy and stood on a podium, so this is cool.

“We weren’t fast enough to take the fight to the Lamborghini today but the Haupt Racing Team did an awesome job on strategy and the pit stops.

“Massive thanks to my teammate for a fun weekend of car racing! Next up for me is the Spa 24 Hours.”

The Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours is next – the highlight of the GT World Challenge Europe season takes place from July 28-31.

Dan McCarthy

LOVE SECOND IN SPA

FORMER AUSTRALIAN Carrera Cup Series winner Jordan Love (right, above) secured a second-place finish on debut in International

GT Open at Spa-Francorchamps.

Love shared the #4 Haupt Racing Team (HRT) Mercedes-AMG GT3 machine (right) with English veteran Frank Bird.

With a combined qualifying process, Jordan and Bird lined up sixth on the grid ahead of the 2hour and 20-minute encounter.

Love started the race made progress early on and continued to march forward.

With solid work from HRT on strategy and the pitstops themselves, Love and Bird were able to finish in second place.

The result meant a lot to Love and is already looking ahead to next weekend.

“P2 in our first GT Open race,” Love

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AUSTRALIA Andrew Clarke, Bruce Newton, Mark Bisset, Garry O’Brien, Geoffrey Harris, Bob Watson, Bruce Moxon, Gary Hill, Craig O’Brien, Mick Oliver, Martin Agatyn.

FORMULA 1 Luis Vasconelos US CORRESPONDENT Mike Brudenell

LEADERS RISE UP IN DIFFICULT TIMES FERRARI WILL get to Silverstone next weekend knowing it has squandered four consecutive chances of returning to the winner’s circle, on circuits where it had the fastest car. In Barcelona, Monaco and Baku it was Charles Leclerc who clearly had the pace to win – with a good margin – while in Montreal we saw the first real chance Carlos Sainz had to win a Grand Prix this year.

Sadly for the Scuderia and the millions of tifosi around the world, two second places was all the Italians had to show for their efforts since the Spanish Grand Prix, putting Charles Leclerc down to third place in the Drivers’ Championship, 49 points behind Verstappen, with the team trailing Red Bull by a whooping 76 points.

Hard to take when you led both championships with a good margin after the first three races of the year; maddeningly frustrating if you just threw away four consecutive chances of winning races.

Given this is his first ever realistic possibility of winning the Formula One World Championship and that he’s only 24 years old, no one would have been surprised if Charles Leclerc had started

with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER throwing his toys out of the pram and chastised his team in public.

Venting frustrations on the spur of the moment is a normal human reaction when people around you let you down, but what has been remarkable is that the Monegasque hasn’t yet lost his composure or his focus.

Yes, of course he’s been heard to criticize the team on the radio – who wouldn’t, after that disastrous tyre strategy that robbed him of a home win in Monaco? But, as soon as he gets out of his car, Charles Leclerc has been calm, collected, articulate and constructive. Yes, he points to the mistakes that were made, admits he’s frustrated with the situation, but always leaves a Grand Prix already looking ahead to the next one.

The young driver from Monaco was on his way to an easy victory in

Spain, leading Verstappen by more than 13s at the end of lap 26, when his Power Unit failed, forcing him to retire. His response? He blitzed the field in Monaco, set pole position by a good margin – and was on his way to leave everyone more than 0.8s behind when his final lap was interrupted by a red flag. And in slippery conditions he was more than 6s ahead of Sainz after just 17 laps when a terrible strategic call put him out of a podium position.

After two disappointments in a row, Leclerc didn’t flinch and secured pole position in Baku by nearly 0.3s.

In the race, having lost the lead at the start, he was on an alternative strategy to the Red Bull drivers and was 13s ahead of Verstappen, on lap 19, with tyres nine laps older than the Dutchman, when another Power Unit failure delivered his second DNF in three races.

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE?

Supercars and all the supports from Townsville, coverage of the Formula 1 British and the Austrian Grands Prix, Tech Feature Skoda’s new Fabia RS Rally2 - WRC2 Rally car uncovered.

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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

Image: Motorsport Images That led to an inevitable grid penalty for Canada – so the strategy there was always going to be to maximise the top speed of the F1-75 to give him a better chance to overtake.

And overtake he did, methodically, without taking unnecessary risks, until lack of traction forced him to sit behind Ocon – on new tyres – for 17 frustrating laps. Not once did he consider dive bombing to get ahead of his rival and P4 at the end would have still been on the cards hadn’t the team completely fluffed his tyre change…

I’d put my money on Leclerc arriving in Silverstone and being, again, at the top of his game and leading Ferrari’s challenge, for the young man seems to have an unlimited reserve of resilience and motivation. Drivers like him can lift a whole team by example, without the need to raise their voices or thump the table. And that’s what you need from a leader – to lead by example.

Ferrari is lucky to have such a driver in Leclerc, so they’d better get their act together and start delivering the same way he’s been doing since the start of the season.

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FORMULA 1 NEWS LUIS VASCONCELOS

PIASTRI SET FOR FP1 DEBUT IN FRANCE

ALPINE CONTINUES to accelerate Oscar Piastri’s preparations for his full Grand Prix debut in 2023, when he’ll start a twoyear spell with Williams, on loan from the French team. In the coming days it will be announced what the young Australian will be doing between now and the end of the season – although an announcement of his deal with Williams is not expected until later in the season.

Speaking to us in Montreal, at the end of the Canadian Grand Prix, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was tempted to make the announcement there and then. Talking to the team’s press officer, the American said, “well, we’re going to make an announcement regarding Oscar fairly soon, so why don’t we do it right now?” When the press officer expressed his wish to keep things to the schedule, Szafnauer laughed and said, “I see, you want to make a big splash out of it, so I won’t be stealing your place in the spotlight!”

When we asked him if Piastri was going to drive for Alpine in the First Free Practice Session for the British Grand Prix, Szafnaeur explained that, “no, he won’t be

Images: Motorsport Images out in Silverstone but it will be very soon after that.” On the question of whether Piastri had already tested last year’s A521 at the Red Bull Ring, the American confirmed, “yes, that’s the case, Oscar has been driving on quite a few tracks, Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring included, and he’ll continue to gain mileage like that.”

With Alpine set to introduce an important aerodynamic upgrade on the A522 for the British Grand Prix, the team has opted to keep Alonso and Ocon in the cars for all practice sessions, to gather as much data as possible on Friday and make the

best set-up choices for both of them for qualifying and the race.

With the Austrian Grand Prix featuring a Sprint Race this year, the decision has apparently been made to have Piastri running in the French Grand Prix FP1 session, on a track he knows well – and where he’ll soon also test last year’s A521 in preparation for the moment in which he’ll finally get a feel of what’s it like to be driving alongside the top drivers in the world, when he’ll get out of the pits on Friday morning, at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix.

What Szafnauer didn’t confirm is the rumor that Piastri will also have a good number of FP1 outings with Williams, towards the end of the season, particularly on tracks he’s not familiar with – Singapore, Suzuka, Austin, Mexico and Brazil.

It’s all in order to prepare himself better for his first Formula One season, at Williams, alongside Alex Albon, who is set to stay another year with Williams, while waiting to see what Red Bull will decide for his future beyond the end of 2023.

HAMILTON, TEAM BOSSES HAPPY TO GO TO SOUTH AFRICA THE RETURN of South Africa to the Formula One World Championship has been met with general approval in the paddock, many feeling a true World Championship should feature at least one race in each of the five continents.

With Stefano Domenicali making a detour though South Africa on his way to Montreal, some even believe Kyalami could be back in the calendar next year, while the majority thinks there’s enough work required to get the circuit (pictured) up to Formula One’s standards that a slot in the 2024 calendar is a more realistic possibility.

One man who is very enthusiastic about racing in South Africa is seven-times World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver has been campaigning for years for Formula One to have a race in Africa and when asked where he’d like to see a new Grand Prix being held, he had no doubts: “The place that I really feel is dear to my heart and most important to get a race back is in South Africa.” When asked why he’s so keen to a Grand Prix in South Africa, he added: “There is a great following out there and I think it would be great to be able to highlight just how beautiful the motherland is.”

In Montreal the subject was discussed with several Team Principals and they were all extremely favorable to a return to a country that had its last Formula One Grand Prix back in 1993.

AlphaTauri’s Franz Tost, always happy when

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there are more races in the calendar and never opposed to the sport going to any country, was obviously delighted with the possibility of a race in Kyalami: “I’m really very much looking forward to go to South Africa, because we miss this race over there.

We miss this continent. And it’s really, really important to have a race over there.”

Frederic Vasseur, the Alfa Romeo Team Principal agreed with the Austrian, adding that, “I think that for the championship and the FIA, this Formula One competition is a World Championship and I think it would make absolutely sense to have a race in Africa and Kyalami would be, I think, a great event. Personally, I’d love to go there, and it would be good for the sport as well.”

Among the younger generation of drivers the idea was also met with enthusiasm, Pierre Gasly saying, “it would be cool to go to South Africa, I’ve never been there, so that would be another reason to look forward to it.”

Valtteri Bottas agreed, explaining that, “I always enjoy discovering new places and we are in a World Championship, so I think we should have at least one race in Africa.”

Pausing and smiling, he then added, “but we should also have a race in Finland, because we never had one and Finnish drivers have won several championships and dozens of Grands Prix!…”

ACCUSATIONS FLY AFTER FIA ACTS TO LIMIT BOUNCING EFFECT THE FIA’S quick reaction to the drivers’ requests for action regarding the excessive bouncing they suffer inside the 2022-spec cars led to a massive spat between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner during the Team Principal’s traditional Saturday morning meeting in Montreal, as both accused the other of playing political games with the drivers’ health for the benefit of their cars’ performances.

On arrival at the track, the teams were surprised by a new Technical Directive, issued, “to give guidance to the teams about the measures the FIA intends to take to tackle the problem.” The statement explained that, “following the eighth round of this year’s FIA Formula One World Championship, during which the phenomenon of aerodynamic oscillations (“porpoising”) of the new generation of Formula 1 cars, and the effect of this during and after the race on the physical condition of the drivers was once again visible, the FIA, as the governing body of the sport, has decided that, in the interests of the safety, it is necessary to intervene to require that the teams make the necessary adjustments to reduce or to eliminate this phenomenon.”

Two measures were implemented with immediate effect: “Closer scrutiny of the planks and skids, both in terms of their design and the observed wear; and the definition of a metric, based on the car’s vertical acceleration, that will give a quantitative limit for acceptable level of vertical oscillations. The exact mathematical formula for this metric is still being analysed by the FIA, and the Formula 1 teams have been invited to contribute to this process.”

On top of that, the sport’s regulator has indicated that, “in addition to these short-term measures, the FIA will convene a technical meeting with the Teams in

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order to define measures that will reduce the propensity of cars to exhibit such phenomena in the medium term.” Finally, explaining the reason behind this unusual mid-season change of the regulations, the statement explained that, “the FIA has decided to intervene following consultation with its doctors in the interests of safety of the drivers. In a sport where the competitors are routinely driving at speeds in excess of 300km/h, it is considered that all of a driver’s concentration needs to be focused on that task and that excessive fatigue or pain experienced by a driver could have significant consequences should it result in a loss of concentration. In addition, the FIA has concerns in relation to the immediate physical impact on the health of the drivers, a number of whom have reported back pain following recent events.”

With Mercedes running a second stay on the floor of its W13 on Friday, several teams believed the German squad had been made

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aware of this TD ahead of its publication, Mattia Binotto falling short of a direct accusation but making clear that: “what I can say is that Ferrari would not be capable of doing that. And what I can say is that I’m surprised that a team is so strong in doing that overnight...” Given Technical Directives don’t replace the Technical regulations, some teams were ready to protest Mercedes had the team run the second stay on the floor during qualifying and the race.

As it turned out, Hamilton and Russell ran Saturday and Sunday without it and had the team’s most competitive outing since the start of the season.

But even before the cars took to the track for FP3, tempers had flared in the team bosses meeting. According to a few Team Principals that attended the meeting, Toto Wolff took centre stage with a stinging attack on Red Bull’s Christian Horner, after the Brit insisted technical regulations couldn’t be changed mid-season and Mercedes was

only trying to force the issue because it had got its car wrong from the start of the design process.

The Austrian was very agitated and quickly became furious with his rival, the tone of the discussion rising fairly quickly, until Domenicali was forced to intervene to calm the waters, without much success.

A still furious Wolff later in the day said that, “this situation has clearly gone too far.

Team Principals trying to play political games is disingenuous. Mercedes is not the only team that is suffering in some way. But with these manipulations in the background, these Chinese whispers, it’s a bit difficult to get anything done.”

Old hand Otmar Szafnauer was able to laugh at it when asked if he thought Netflix should be encouraged to be in more of these private discussions – in Montreal the Drive to Survive crew was allowed into the meeting, for the first time ever: “Well, their presence encouraged me even more to keep my mouth shut – I can tell you that!”

Horner, for his side, wasn’t letting it go and openly accused the FIA of bias towards Mercedes: “There is a process of these things to be introduced, as Ferrari explained while presented its position regarding the TD. I think what was particularly disappointing was the second stay, because it has to be discussed in a technical forum. And that is overtly bias to sorting one team’s problems out, which were the only team that turned up here with it even in advance of the TD – so work that one out....”

Round two of this political match will be played at Silverstone next week and if Mercedes continues to make progress, expect Red Bull and Ferrari to continue their campaign against the resurgence of the Silver Arrows…

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THE RACE TO THE STARS WHAT STARTED AS A FUN WEEKEND FOR BRITISH ENTHUSIASTS IS NOW THE WORLD’S TOP MOTORING EVENT. AA’S PAUL GOVER WAS AT THE CLASSIC EVENT LAST WEEK TO SOAK UP THE ATMOSPHERE ...

Images: Motorsport Images GOODWOOD. It’s a name and a place, but it’s an experience unlike any other.

The Festival of Speed deserves to be at the top of any – and every – motoring bucket list.

Think of your favourite racing car and there is every chance it will be at Goodwood in June.

There is mine - a McLaren M8F, shining in signature papaya bodywork and bellowing from its 7.6-litre V8 engine.

But there are legendary cars everywhere, from the 1910 Fiat nicknamed the ‘Beast of Turin’ for its flame-thrower 28-litre twin-cylinder engine, to the Red 5 Williams that was raced by Nigel Mansell to his F1 world title.

And there is Mansell, as the late Murray Walker might have said, now sporting the signature moustache from his glory days in F1.

If you’re wondering how F1 ace and Bathurst winner Jacky Ickx is doing, take a look. There he is, driving a howling grand prix Ferrari from the sixties.

Over there is Stig Blomqvist. Yes, the ‘real’ Stig. Strapping into a wicked Audi Quattro S1, and then flogging it up the track.

Mick Doohan? He’s riding with a group of his mates. Except these mates include ‘King’ Kenny Roberts and Kevin Schwantz, who raced NASCAR on the Thunderdome when he got bored after his MotoGP career.

Wayne Rainey is with Doohan, riding his grand prix Yamaha for the very first time since he was paralysed from the chest down in a dreadful crash in 1993. He is strapped onto the bike and is tentative at first, but then pops a start-line wheelie to prove he still has the right stuff. It’s a brilliant moment.

Coincidentally, the Festival of Speed has been running at Goodwood since 1993.

It’s not to be confused with the Goodwood Revival, where old-timer cars race for real on the Motor Circuit that was originally laid out by the late Tony Gaze – an Australian hero in World War II who flew a Spitfire from the grass airstrip at Goodwood – and eventually revived for racing by the man who is now officially Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 11th

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Top: Le Mans Porsche 956 from Porsche’s dominant era.

Above: Ferrari 512 Le Mans car; Belgian legend Jacky Ickx.

Below: Classic Porsche 936.

Duke of Richmond, 11th Duke of Lennox, 11th Duke of Aubigny, 6th Duke of Gordon.

The Duke, then the Earl of March, also had the idea for the Festival. It was to be a celebration of all things motoring and motorsport, with an invitation-only line-up of brilliant cars and great drivers.

In recent years it has become the unofficial British Motor Show, with giant displays set

up in the fields of the Duke’s estate. There are many world previews, from BMW and Polestar and Porsche and others, as you’d expect at an old-school motor show.

But Goodwood is very different and much, much better.

The Festival track is normally the driveway that runs to Goodwood House and then up to the farm buildings at the top of a hill,

but for the FoS it becomes a demonstration course and the site of an epic hillclimb shootout.

“This is, quite simply, the world’s greatest motor show. There is nothing like it. And, best of all, everything moves,” the chief creative officer at Aston Martin, Marek Reichman, tells Auto Action. And then he dashes away to drive one of his creations up the hill.

Far right: The ‘Real Stig’ with an excited Eli Ward. Below: Sunoco Porsche+Audi.

George Russell smokes the rubber on a Mercedes W10; Okay, so it’s the UK ... star of the show was ‘Our Nigel’ – chatting with three-time champ Jackie Stewart, then taking his championship-winning Williams, and then the Ferrari 640 (bottom), in which Il Leone won his first ever race for the Scuderia ...

IT’S EPIC DAD

Reichman is talking about the production cars, and the concepts, that are spread across the Goodwood Estate like a creamy layer of automotive mayonnaise. Everywhere you look, every time you look, there is something special.

It could be the historic Ferrari Dino on the concours field, or the Polestar 5 that is an electric concept that will become a new production car, or a Pagani or a McLaren or a Rimac, Zenvo, Czinger or a Hispano Suiza.

Sometimes you need to google the names of the lesser brands, and especially the ones trying to ride the wave of electrification that has hit the world, but there is no mistaking

By Paul Gover EVEN KIDS are captivated by the Festival of Speed.

I know because I took my son, Eli, to Goodwood.

After a five-hour drive, as we were stuck in traffic just five kilometres from the event, he was done.

“Dad, can we just turn around and leave?,” he asks.

Then we arrive and everything changes within minutes, firstly in the supercar paddock where every dream car in his Grade 8 class is parked. It’s not a display, just the carpark.

“Wow, this is amazing,” he says.

Then, after watching the first of the historic F1 cars tackle the climb, he is a convert.

“We have to come back again. Tomorrow?

Can we?”

So we do, and he is buzzing all day.

It’s no surprise that his favourites are the slideways drift cars, but he is asking questions all day.

“What car is that? How much does that cost?

Who drove that? Is that really Nigel Mansell in his Ferrari?”

He is equally fascinated by the historic racers and the new-age supercars, and definitely the electric cars.

His personal favourite is a Senna MP4/5 with its screaming V10 engine.

But there is one surprise he doesn’t’ expect, as he gets to meet The Stig.

No, not the Top Gear tester, but the real and original Stig Blomqvist. At first he is doubtful, but then he sees Blomqvist driving an Audi Quattro S1 (below).

“He is amazing. And he’s old and fast. Respect,” says Eli. And his final verdict on the Festival of Speed?

“Epic. Totally worth it.”

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the Mercedes-AMG Project One, the roadgoing take on Lewis Hamilton’s world title winning F1 hybrid, as it’s running up the hill.

There are some classic names, too, which have taken on a new spin. There is a $2.5 million Delage D12 and a revival of the Alpine A110.

In total, there are 52 supercars on the FoS menu, and 14 are new. Wowza.

And then there are the historic cars. And the drivers.

Mark Webber? Tick.

Sir Jackie Stewart? Tick.

Derek Bell? Tick.

Dario and Marino Franchitti? Tick.

The list goes on and on, from world champions to local heroes in rally cars that tackle the special dirt course at the top of the hill.

There are also the crazies in the drift cars.

They are surprisingly available all weekend, smiling and laughing like they never did when they were rivals.

But Goodwood is still a very British garden party, with jazz bands, an opera singer, brilliant organic food, daytime fireworks and the signature sculpture in front of Goodwood House – this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the M division at BMW with five of its most famous race-cars.

There is so, so much to see at the Festival that it takes more than one day to soak it in. Four days, the full length of the FoS, is probably not enough.

Just when you think you’ve seen enough, there is the N25 hydrogen car that ran at Le Mans this year.

And then the incredible, unmuffled, full-onit howl of a gaggle of 70s-80s-90s grand prix cars firing up the hill.

And then comes the Top 10 shootout, for the very fastest cars up the driveway in 2022.

Which is why so many people, from stars to fans who sit on the grass to watch and enjoy, are repeat visitors.

“We’ve got kids, we’ve got grandad here; mum and dad,” says Mark Webber.

“It’s the best event in the world and I don’t know who’s second, but it’s a long, long way behind.”

He is right, of course.

From top, left to right: 28-litres of flamethrowing 1910 Fiat; Le Mans Porsche; Classic Stirling Moss Targa Florio winning Mercedes being driven by German veteran Jochan Mass; the incredible Wayne Rainey – paralysed from the chest down, wheelied his 500 Yamaha up the hill ...

Below: Group B Lancia Rally 037 – from the golden era of rallying ... last rear-wheel-drive car to win the WRC (1983).

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For more fabulous images from the Goodwood Festival Of Speed scan the link Nelson Piquet Jnr, pilots one his father’s race-winning Brabham-BMW BT52s up the climb.

THE CLIMB TIME TRAVIS PASTRANA cannot help himself as he waits for the Top 10 shootout at the Goodwood Hillclimb.

“We’ve got Darth Vader, a family SUV and a minivan,” he tells Auto Action, looking at the top three contenders in the staging area.

“How crazy is this?”

Vader is the McMurtry Speirling, otherwise known as the world’s fastest Dyson because it uses giant fans to suck it to the road. It’s a tiny little thing, fully battery electric, but with sucker power that tracks back to the Chaparral Can-Am racer of the 70s and the Brabham F1 ‘fan car’ designed by Gordon Murray in the 80s.

The SUV is very different, nicknamed ‘The Family Huckster’, and Pastrana’s ride for the climb.

It’s got more than 615 kiloWatts of turbo Subaru power, with signature all-wheel drive inside a franken-star body that’s boxy and brutal but even incorporates active aero.

And the minivan?

It’s the all-new and very special SuperVan 4 from Ford, making its world debut with 735 kiloWatts, four electric motors, and Goodwood record holder Romain Dumas moving across from the Volkswagen ID R for the climb.

The Top 10 field also includes an exSchumacher Benetton from F1 and a one-time CanAm racing McLaren with a bellowing V8 that sounds like a Top Fuel dragster as it leaves the line.

But it’s all irrelevant as Max Chilton, who was nothing special when he raced for Marussia in grands prix, does something very special in the McMurtry.

He obliterates the hill record with a time of 39.08 seconds and is met and congratulated by Dumas, and original record holder Nick Heidfeld, who clocked 41.6 seconds in 1999 in a McLaren MP4-13.

The Speirling’s win is special for all kinds of reasons.

It’s tiny. It packs 1000 horsepower (735kW) into less than 1000 kilograms. It’s fully battery electric.

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Crazy stuff ... (below) the McMurtry Speirling and its record-breaking driver Max Chilton (bottom).

Centre: That’s an SUV (left)? Yup, Subaru power; Family Huckster ... Right: The fourth iteration of Ford’s SuperVan ... electric of course ...

But the most amazing thing is the way it gets the job done.

Watching it in action, it is here and then gone. The only trace of its presence is a cloud of dust raised by its fans, and the faint whizz of its electric motors.

It runs close to 250km.h on the hill at Goodwood, after sprinting to 100km/h in just 1.5 seconds.

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For the record, Porsche claimed runnerup spot as Richard Lietz drove the new 718 GT4 ePerformance. His time? It was 45.502 seconds.

“I didn’t sleep last night. I got one hour’s sleep because I was so stressed,” says Chilton.

“Pressure makes diamonds, as they say.”

Check it out for yourself at: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=5JYp9eGC3Cc

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A TIME OF CHANGE THE FUTURE OF WORLD ENDURANCE AND SPORTS CAR RACING LOOKS STRONG, AS ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVEALS CONTINUE TO BE MADE FOR BOTH WEC AND IMSA. DAN MCCARTHY BRINGS US UP TO DATE WITH WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST MONTH AND WHAT THERE IS TO LOOK FORWARD TO.

THE 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours is behind us, and while many people will agree it was not a thriller this year with Toyota dominating the top-tier, many announcements were made in the lead up to the famous (WEC) round.

A new manufacturer announced entry into the LMDh (IMSAs top-tier) and LMh (or Hypercar WECs top class) fields.

Other machines made their public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the WEC also announced its new class structure … so a lot to get through.

PORSCHE ALTHOUGH THE Team Penske Porsche had previously been photographed at tracks (above), behind closed doors, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the team not only revealed the name of its machine and its official livery, but also its drivers for the 2023 WEC and IMSA seasons – including Aussie GT ace Matt Campbell.

The most successful manufacturer at Le Mans, Porsche will be returning to the French classic, but also branching out to the American market in IMSA. Last Friday, at Goodwood, the covers came off the aptly titled Porsche 963.

The German manufacturer has said that the 963 design hails from the incredibly successful 956 and 962 which dominated all endurance races globally throughout the 80s.

Porsche intends to run two hybrid LMDhspecification prototypes in both the WEC and IMSA SportsCar Championship from next year.

“After 7,889 test kilometres during the first half of 2022, we’re on a very good path but there is still work to be done before the start of next season,” said Vice President Motorsport, Porsche AG Thomas Laudenbach, “I’m positive that we’ll be well-positioned when it comes to technology and we’ve also

The distinctively grilled BMW will debut in IMSA at the Daytona 24 Hours.

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How cool is the Cadillac ... set toi debut at Daytona earkly next year ... created the relevant team structures to set us up for wins in the thrilling competition between many manufacturers and different concepts.”

The 963’s livery is also a nod to the past as it exhibits the typical Porsche motor racing colours of white, red and black.

The Porsche 963 is based on an LMP2category chassis supplied by the Canadian high-tech company Multimatic.

The car will be powered by a 4.6-litre V8 Biturbo, with Bosch, Williams Advanced Engineering and Xtrac contributing the standard hybrid components.

The official race debut of the Porsche 963 is expected at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January, although Porsche Penske Motorsport is aiming for a dress rehearsal at

the final round of the season in Bahrain this November.

“The Porsche 963 should be homologated this autumn. Until then, we want to make further progress with test drives and gain additional insights. We can hardly wait for our first outing,” said the Director of Factory Motorsport LMDh, Porsche AG, Urs Kuratle, Porsche Penske Motorsport has two bases, one in Mooresville (North Carolina) for the IMSA program and the other Mannheim (Germany).

Le Mans 24 Hours class winner, Bathurst 12 Hour victor and Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell has been awarded a seat.

“Pinching myself. Happy to announce that from next year I will be making the step with Porsche into LMDh with the Factory

Porsche Team Penske Motorsport in our new 963,” Campbell said on social media.

“A dream come true reaching the top Class of Endurance Racing in Prototypes!

“Thank you to my family and everyone who was a part of this journey in the background, finally reaching the top of the Porsche pyramid and our ultimate goal together…”

The other drivers selected to compete in either WEC or IMSA are experienced works drivers Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen, Laurens Vanthoor, Mathieu Jaminet and accomplished sportscar drivers Dane Cameron and ex-F1 driver Felipe Nasr.

Already, current front-running WEC LMP2 team JOTA has announced it will run a customer 963 from 2023 until at least 2025.

One of the more interesting new cars is the wingless Peugeot 9X8.

Aussie Matt Campbell will race for Porsche BMW EVEN WITHOUT the cameo M-inspired livery, the BMW is undoubtably a BMW thanks to its well-known grille shape.

At this stage BMW has only announced entry into America’s IMSA Sportscar Championship, but thanks to the alliance in rules between IMSA and WEC, BMW can enter Le Mans or any other WEC race should it wish to.

The BMWs will be run in the States by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing which competes successfully in IndyCar, notably winning the Indy 500 with Takuma Sato in 2020.

It has been confirmed that the BMW M Team RLL will run a pair of BMW M Hybrid V8s and will also field BMW M4 GT3s in the GTD-PRO class.

The BMW M Hybrid V8 will stand out in the crowd and even for people who don’t follow motorsport it distinctively looks like a BMW road car.

The car will make its race debut at the 2023 edition of the Daytona 24 Hours early next year.

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CADILLAC WITHOUT DOUBT one of the best looking machines is the Cadillac Project GTP Hypercar, the machine that will launch the brand back onto the world motorsport stage.

Cadillac has competed nationally in the IMSA Sportscar Championship since 2017 and will continue to do so, but after a 20-year hiatus, the American manufacturer will take on the world with the announcement the car will also race in WEC from 2023.

The race car will begin on-track testing in the next couple of months, with its first race at the Daytona 24 Hour in early 2023.

Co-developed by Cadillac Design, Cadillac Racing and Dallara, the Project GTP Hypercar incorporates key brand design characteristics like the BMW. Cadillac has kept the road car DNA with vertical lighting and floating blades present.

ACURA WHILE ACURA (the performance division of Honda, based primarily in North America) revealed its ARX-06 up against an identically chequered wall, AA etched the wall out so you can see points difference to other LMDh and Hypercars.

One notable difference is the huge slot towards the bottom of the front nose, very similar to that currently seen on its current prototype which it runs in the IMSA

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Sportscar Championship.

ARX-06 stands for “Acura Racing eXperimental, generation 6,” with the car built around an ORECA chassis.

Meyer Shank Racing will continue to run the cars for Acura into the new era with its debut also set for the Daytona 24 Hours as the brand and team look to go back-to-back.

At this stage Acura has only committed to IMSA. FERRARI FERRARI HAS teased an image of its Hypercar, but you can’t exactly see anything.

Shot in a dark room, all you can see are the headlights and Ferrari badge!

The ‘Prancing Horse’ is set to enter WEC, returning to the top-tier of endurance racing for the first time since 1973. Ferrari also confirmed testing of its Hypercar will begin in coming weeks.

LAMBORGHINI AS PREVIOUSLY reported by Auto Action, Lamborghini has also committed its entry into the Hyprcar era.

The legendary Italian manufacturer will enter a year later than most, committing to both WEC and IMSA in 2024.

The new is that Lambo has announced that it has joined forces with Ligier.

PEUGEOT IF YOU’RE excited for more manufacturers, you don’t have to wait long.

Next weekend, on July 10, Peugeot will enter WEC competing against existing teams Toyota, Glickenhaus and Alpine.

The wingless 9X8s will debut at Monza.

Ex-F1 drivers Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne will share car #93 with European Le Mans winner Mikkel Jensen.

Car #94 will contain former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Loic Duval, ex-LMP2 champion Gustavo Menezes and former ByKolles LMP1 driver James Rossiter.

WEC LOWER CLASS CHANGES WHILE WEC’S Hypercar class is set to explode, WEC has also announced major changes for its other categories.

LMP2, the second-tier prototype class, has been the strongest category since it was overhauled in 2017, with many drivers using it as a platform to secure a seat with a major manufacturer.

The rulebook is set to be updated in 2025 with the LMP2 chassis being supplied by the four constructors currently involved in the LMDh class: Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic and Oreca.

Further information on that will be revealed in due course.

As for the GT categories, GTE Pro will be discontinued at the end of the year.

GTE Am will become the sole GT class but for just one year, before a new class is born in 2024.

From 2024, there will be one GT category which will be based on the existing FIA GT3 technical platform.

WEC felt this was the best direction given the cost reduction as well as the number of homologated cars and the variety of brands already involved,.

This will likely see Audi R8s, Mercedes AMGs and even BMW M4s race for Le Mans class glory.

There will be no changes to the GT3 homologation, just some mandatory adaptations such as luminescent number panels and leader lights.

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T E G D BU EGORY T A C

E V I L A Y R L A V I R E I S S U A G N I P E E K

THE Y A S Y , M AN V E R , T H E A R E 3 S GEN VER. HOWE T I O T THE N O O T E I A R T I H A S T A T R AN R ALI SURE T O N S T E U S L A L E I REPAR N RACING IN ON CARS W RED P S R A ALO LD E ER C OVE AS SUP FORD VS HO KNOWN AS S NE VE T T DISC F Y DAYS O ST CATEGOR ON, AS JOSH S O LOW-C RIVALRY LIVE ICONIC BASED ON how the Saloon Car Racing Association promotes its series, this edition of ‘The Cost of Racing’ should be a relatively short read.

Indeed, Saloon Cars appears to be one of the cheapest entry points to motorsport in the country.

The concept leans heavily on the ‘cheap motorsport’ line, while also satisfying motorsport lovers down under by reigniting the Ford vs Holden rivalry that has existed seemingly since the dawn of time.

In its 24 years of existence, Saloon Cars has achieved much with its humble grids of six-cylinder production-based Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, featuring on the bill at high profile events such as the Clipsal 500, Bathurst 12 Hour and Indy 300.

The best part? You can join in the action for less than the price of the cheapest new car in Australia.

“For a bang for buck category, there isn’t anything better,” two-time Victorian state champion Daniel Johnson tells Auto Action.

“I’ve looked around and driven other cars for mates, but I always just keep coming back here.”

Johnson, who claimed state Saloon Cars titles in 2014 and 2018, has been an active member of the category for a decade now, racing a 1999 AU Ford Falcon Forte which he built from scratch in 2011.

As someone without a bottomless pit of cash to spend on a recreational pursuit, it was the low cost of entry that drew Johnson into the series.

32 I www.autoaction.com.au

“I did a couple of Sprint days in my road car but went and bought a cheap track car when I heard about one of the guys blowing up the engine in his Subaru WRX,” Johnson remembers.

“I used that for a few years, but it didn’t fit into any category without spending serious money so that’s when I got put onto Saloon Cars.

“I went and watched a race at Sandown and talked to a guy from Warragul, where I grew up, and the series ticked all the boxes. It took nine months to build the car and I have been in Saloon Cars ever since.”

Not much has changed since Johnson signed up in 2012, in fact the evolution of Saloon Car racing has in ways made it a cheaper exercise, so the series remains as good a value proposition as ever.

The bargains start with the Saloon Car Racing Association membership fee which sits at $20, a paltry sum compared to

some other entry level categories.

On average, a race meeting will set back competitors $450 in entry fees with a state season consisting of approximately five rounds. Therefore, it’s safe to put around $2500 aside for entries alone in a calendar year.

For the best of the best in Saloon Cars competition, extra budget will be required to take part in a single National title round held at the end of the campaign. After COVID disruptions saw the 2021 Nationals abandoned, Australia’s best Saloon Car racer will be crowned at Sydney Motorsport Park from September 30 – October 2 this year.

The administration fees are certainly attractive and so is the cost of the metal required to race.

As previously mentioned, Saloon Cars will soon be the last true remaining Ford vs Holden category, the regulations stipulating that Ford Falcons (EA/EB AU) and Holden Commodores (VN/ VP, VT, VX, VY, VZ) are the only choice of vehicles available.

Saloon Cars has celebrated a stable formula for decades now, with a variety of Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores taking to the grid each year (above main).

Images: Revved Photography

At the bottom end of the scale, four figures can put you on the grid in an early model second-hand EA Falcon or VN Commodore, Johnson estimating that such examples generally change hands for between $7000 - $12,000.

A premium pre-loved AU Falcon or VT Commodore is more likely to fetch $20,000 - $35,000, with the average car sitting at around $25,000.

Johnson’s frontrunning Falcon build cost him roughly $25,000, however the donor car was a freebie provided by the Warragul wreckers where his father worked.

The finished product has more than proved its worth over the stretch, justifying a scrupulous construction process.

“I would probably say mine is probably in the top quarter of build quality, I pretty much stripped it back to nothing,” Johnson says.

“We painted all the suspension bits and made sure it was a clean car.

“I don’t have any formal mechanical background training,

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so I like to have the car spotless so that if there is something that isn’t clean, I know something’s not right.

“I take a lot of pride in the presentation of the car and the servicing of the car, just so that we’re not losing out on track time or results because of mechanical issues.”

Now is a great time to buy a Saloon Car according to Johnson, who has kept a keen eye on the second-hand market which has fluctuated more than usual in recent years.

“The category suffered a bit when Motorsport Australia restructured the national level and Saloon Cars were dropped as a national level category as part of the Shannons series,” Johnson explains.

“It went from being that level with coverage on Speedweek to effectively being grassroots racing that didn’t really have a lot of coverage.

“Car values dropped a bit at that point – a few people wanted to move cars on pretty quickly and it really reset

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the baseline for prices. It used to be $20,000 - $25,000 for your cheaper cars, they came down below $15,000.

“But they are starting to push back up. In Victoria particularly we’ve got complete live streaming at all the state race events that we participate in, so that’s helping to bring a bit more coverage and appeal back to the category.”

Building a car from scratch is a more expensive avenue – a $500 Falcon shell can quickly become a $65,000 proposition – however many competitors favour the reward of creating something from nothing rather than purchasing a ready-made racing machine.

Saloon Car Racing Association (SCRA) Secretary and long-time competitor Nash Harris is currently embarking on his first build, despite having three previously bought cars sitting in his garage.

“I’ve got a VT, an AU and a VN Commodore, which are all on different ends of the price scale,” Harris tells Auto Action.

“I’m building a VY myself at the moment and anticipate spending $20,000 - $25,000 on that.”

As well as the funds required to strip a road car and get its mechanicals up to scratch, a blank canvas build must factor in the cost of a weld-in roll cage ($2500), racing seat ($1000), harness ($400) and steering wheel ($300).

Regardless of the method a competitor chooses to acquire a certified Saloon Car, Johnson believes that the tightly controlled technical regulations of the category ensure that anyone can be competitive on track regardless of budget.

“There shouldn’t be much difference between cars because of the controlled nature of the series,” Johnson explains.

“The difference between a cheap build and a quality build is probably more in the mechanical worthiness of the car. A cheap car might be a bit rough around the edges and have a few more bits that might be more towards the end of their life where some of the better prepared cars will have newer versions of the bits on it.

“The only real thing that’s free to play with is the exhaust.

Some people will spend a bit of time and money on custom exhaust systems that can offer a little bit more performance.

“But really, there shouldn’t be that big a difference.”

That is music to the ears of newcomers looking run a car on the smell of an oily rag, as well as those who may not be

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mechanically inclined and don’t want to struggle through a laborious build process.

The list of controlled components is indeed long, covering most of the mechanicals.

All the engine configurations across the Ford and Holden models are six cylinders in layout and over 3.8-litres in capacity.

Engine components are strictly managed, the camshaft, pistons and air intake all controlled while the rest of the engine remains standard. There are two commonly used ECUs – EMS have previously supplied units for $1100 while a MoTeC option is now available for $2000.

Fuel injectors are an outlier, replaced by upgraded items to run the e85 blend that fuels Saloon Cars.

Given the current global climate, it is essential that fuel costs, which can total $200/round, are factored into the racing budget for Saloon Cars.

Outside of the powerplant, the suspension and braking systems are also controlled.

Pedders supplies a $1500 suspension kit which includes springs and shocks, while there is a bit more variation in brake packages.

Control front callipers were traditionally sourced from C4, but those items can no longer be found new, so Wilwood six piston items are most common at $1600 for a pair.

The regulations also allow OEM twin piston callipers to be used, which can be purchased considerably cheaper at $300 - $400. Factory callipers are also retained at the rear.

Brake pads from EBC, PFC, Bendix and Project Mu are all permitted, sets coming in at the $350 mark.

Tyres are another controlled consumable. Bridgestone RE11 semi-slick tyres must keep Saloon Cars planted on the tarmac regardless of weather conditions, removing the need for competitors to spend extra on wet weather rubber.

EA/VN cars run 16-inch shoes while AU/VT machines sit on 17-inch versions.

A set of four costs $1400 and $1716 for 16-inch and 17-inch tyres, respectively, and Johnson promises that six new hoops can do a full season if the car is driven well. Rims are free but must be sized 16x8 (EA/VN) or 17x8 (AU/VT).

Once a car is battle-ready and on the entry list for a round, meeting costs are relatively minimal.

“Most people transport their cars on open trailers themselves,” Johnson says.

Ford vs Holden battles are becoming a rarity on Australian circuits. The Gen3 era of Supercars will make the DNA of Saloon Cars even more attractive for traditionalists.

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Daniel Johnson built his AU Falcon back in 2011 and has campaigned it ever since, winning two state titles along the way (above, left). The car came at no cost but the build set him back around $25,000.

The interior prioritises function over form, while the engine is largely standard (above).

CO$T$ GUIDE

“Competitors also generally run the car on their own or with a couple of mates or family members.

“Accommodation varies as our races are spread across the state. In some instances, people can travel to and from home each day, when it is too far to do that accommodation for 1-2 nights will set you back $150 - $200 per night.

“Radios and judicial cameras aren’t mandatory, but the latter are highly recommended.”

Better yet, servicing between events is a mostly painless process, especially for an experienced individual like Johnson.

The engines in both the Ford and Holden models are remarkably robust and a gearbox check/service is advised just once per year, so consumables are the main outlay between events.

Brake pads last two to four rounds depending on type and driving style, while rotors can survive for two seasons. Spark plugs are swapped once per year.

“Servicing costs are pretty minimal,” Johnson confirmed.

“One of the appeals is that Saloon Cars are quite easy to maintain and prepare when in a mechanically sound state.

“Around $1000 in consumables spread over five rounds makes it only $200/round.

MEMBERSHIP $20 CAR New Build $25,000 - $65,000 Used Market $7,000 - $35,000 Entry Fees $450/round Suspension Pedders package: $1,500 Brakes Control set: $2,000 Tyres Bridgestone RE11 semi-slick tyres: $350 - $429 each ($1400 - $1700 per set) ECU EMS: $1,100 or MoTeC: $2,000 Fuel $200/round Average Round Cost $3,000 “A basic spanner check, inspection for leaks and wheel alignment should be all that is needed between most rounds.”

All components do ultimately have an expiry date, and a full engine rebuild costs between $8000 - $10,000 when required. Regular servicing goes a long way to delaying this though, ensuring that a motor can service its owner for several seasons.

When all goes to plan, Johnson spends an average of $3000 per race weekend in total. He says that figure combined with car prices represents fantastic value in the Australian motorsport landscape.

Saloon Cars racing is always tight and contested in a hard but fair manner (above).

“The cost to enter the category is unbelievable value.

“I would challenge someone to show me a category where you can achieve the speed that these cars do for the value that they are.

“I think it’s the perfect category for people to start out their racing journey. We’ve had a couple of people who haven’t raced before and started out with us this year who are really loving it.”

As an entry level category, Saloon Cars sits alongside the likes of Hyundai Excel, Porsche 944, Nissan Pulsar, HQ Holden, BMW E30, MG and British invited cars and Improved Production racing.

The popularity of Excels and growing collectability of classic Porsches has seen the affordability of those competitions diminished to some degree, to the point where Saloon Cars is right up there in terms of value for money.

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“From the categories that I know of I think you can get a Saloon Car going for less than a Hyundai Excel these days, those are supposed to be entry level,” Harris says.

“I see Hyundai’s up for $35,000 - $40,000 now. We’re probably in that bracket, and a steppingstone for anyone wanting to go from Hyundai’s into a rear-wheel-drive car.

“Our cars are quicker than a Hyundai and we’re not far off some of the V8s running in Improved Production or whatever else. One of our drivers did a 1m 23.8s at Sandown this year.

“It’s pretty good bang for buck racing considering the lap times they do, the amount of money you spend on them is bugger all.”

As Harris alludes to, some steerers have used the Saloon Cars category as a basis from which to progress their career in motorsport.

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Tony Auddino graduated into the Super3 Series which he has raced in since 2019, while Ben Grice is scoring podiums and recognition in the National Trans Am Series after spending time in a VT Commodore.

Indeed, there is a strong variety of competitors in Saloon Cars, a mix of competitive and casual, young and old.

“We’ve got a good spread of competitors in the field,” Johnson details.

“We’ve got some trying to be competitive outright and others in their 60s doing it because they love it.

“This year, we’ve created something called the Pensioners Cup – the over 60s have their own race within the race, which has really reinvigorated things for those guys.

“So, we try to make sure there is something for everyone.”

Enjoyment is paramount, so help is never too far away in the paddock and according to both Harris and Johnson, camaraderie has always been high amongst competitors.

“Saloon Cars is very welcoming – it’s not cutthroat, people have a smile on their face and if they see someone break down, they’ll ask ‘what do you need’,” Johnson says.

“We work pretty hard on keeping it clean on track, because we don’t want people spending any of the money that they might have for racing on fixing panels and stuff like that. We’d rather them enter an extra round.”

“I don’t even get a shed, I’m down in the paddock with the boys, there’s always a barbecue going on with there’s plenty of food and it’s a really good atmosphere,” Harris added.

While COVID slowed down the resurgence of Saloon Cars after its removal from the Shannons Nationals, entries and interest are on the rise with grids often tallying 15-25 cars in most states. It’s easy to see why.

The buy in is low, maintenance is just as affordable, the regulations are stable, and the category allows beginners to revel in the blue vs red rivalry like days of old.

As such, its reasonable to expect that Saloon Cars will continue to be a popular category across the country for plenty of years to come.

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NATIONALS WRAP HAY TO ANOTHER GOLDFINCH

LEYLAND MOKE driver Matthew Goldfinch (right) took his first win in the 54th running of the Australian Hay Mini Nationals on June 12 by over three seconds.

Cooper Ellis (Leyland Mini) edged out three-time winner (and Matthew’s father, who shared the same Moke) Kelvin Goldfinch for second. Positions three to six were Goldfinch senior, Matt Webb (Mini), Declan Dwyer (Moke) and Brock Heydon (Mini S), and covered by only 1.5s.

Seventh outright, 16-year-old Declan Webb (Mini), also picked up the JK Stoneham Future Champion Award.

Although it was the first time so far for a second generation outright win, there were quite a number of second, and even third generation competitors in the high positions, which bodes well for the event’s future.

Competition consisted of six lanes on dirt, each test contested twice, with only the fastest of each run counting.

The weekend began with a street parade of Minis and derivates through the western NSW town of Hay on the previous day.

Then followed the night-time Hays Heroes, won by Ellis for the fourth time. Fifteenyear-old Josh Dwyer (Moke) won the Junior Hays Heroes for the second time. This was

Image: Taryn Ruig followed by a spectacular fireworks display.

Hay was conceived as a competition between the NSW and SA Mini Clubs by John “Stonie” Stoneham. It followed a ban on rallying that caused the demise of the

Mini Monte Rally in 1967 and has been run near the NSW town ever since on the Queen’s birthday long weekend.

The Mini Club of NSW beat the Victorian Mini Club by two points to win the GB

Staunton Teams Award for the 27th time.

Tenth outright was NSW’s Corrine EastJohnston (BMW Cooper S) who won the Mary Hill Trophy for lady drivers for the 16th time. John Lemm

STRATFORD AND MANNING THE NIGHT MOVERS

Image: Raine O’Keeffe

SULLENS WINS BEGA BATTLE IT WAS a battle between two Subaru Impreza WRX teams at the third round of the NSW Rally Championship. With four stage and two heat wins, the outright victory in the Bega Valley Rally on June 11-12 went to Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell (pictured).

Following a Stage 5 win, points leader Riley Walters and Andrew Crowley made a final charge in the third heat with a stage win on 13th, but they could not gain the time needed, as Sullens took the final stage to win by 1min 7s.

First 2WD and third overall went to Brendan Reeves and Kate Catford (Datsun 1600) ahead of Chris Giddings and Tara McIlroy (EVO 9). Nathan Quinn with Ray WinwoodSmith had a multitude of major mechanical issues with their Mazda RX2. They dropped a rotor on the fast open shire roads during SS3 and limped to service.

Luck was on their side with the cancellation of the stage due a fire aboard the Connor Ferguson/Domhnall McCarthy Subaru, and Quinn was able to re-join for SS4. Dramas continued with the differential and gearbox

38 I www.autoaction.com.au

replaced on their Mazda RX2 during the night stages. Despite this they took out SS9 and finished fifth outright.

After they took the first stage of the event, Miles Sandy and Kimberley Bessell (WRX) finished sixth outright ahead of Chris Stilling and Tim Batten (EVO 7) who were first in the ACT series. The top ten of the 78 entries was completed by Alan Friend/ Michelle Canning (Nissan Silvia), Bryan and Zane van Eck (Toyota Altezza), and Clay Badenoch/Catriona Kelly (Toyota Celica).

Heat 1 went to Tim Wilkins and Jim Gleeson (Mitsubishi EVO 9) and were fighting back in the second with victory on Stage 10 before a fuel miscalculation put them out. Second in the points before the event, Sean McAloon and Muireann Hayes (Ford Escort) were third in Heat 2, before two broken bolts in the rear during the night stages put them out. Josh and Matt Redhead (Mitsubishi Lancer GSR) won two stages and were well placed when they crashed out on stage seven.

Raine O’Keeffe

IN THE hours of darkness on Saturday night and Sunday evening of the June 18-19 weekend, Adrian Stratford and Kain Manning (below) won the Fast Track Towing & Transport Nissan Nightmoves Rally in their Subaru Impreza WRX STi. They finished the seven-stage 160km event, 4mins 24s ahead of husband-and-wife team of Tim and Leonie Clark also in a WRX. Third place, and the winners of the fifth round of the Victorian Club Rally Series, were Brian Semmens and Dan Parry in their Nissan 200SX RV. The event was held on private and public roads in the Heatcote, Redcastle and Rushworth areas on a cold and clear night.

Despite a slipping clutch, Stratford won six stages with the only other drama the loss of rear brakes, due to master cylinder seal leaks, on stage six where he finished third.

Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith (Mazda RX2) were second on stage one before brake problems on stage two compromised their event. Darkie Barr-Smith

Image: B Team

and Jono Forrest (Ford Capri V8) were fourth initially but missed noting the Vias observation board on stage two which cost them 30mins.

James and Mark Leoncini (Toyota Corolla AE71) were prominent in stage one but hit a tree on stage two. Meanwhile Cody Richards and Matt Dillon (Ford Escort) placed ninth initially before a third and three seconds and then another stage third. However on Stage 6 the gearbox blew. They limped on until the engine lost spark.

Fourth at the end were Andrew and Ross Murdoch (Nissan Skyline), ahead of Ryan Poel and Patrick Hughes (WRX), and Russell and Cary Seabrook (Subaru RS) who were second of the VCRS competitors.

Daryl King and Darcy McClure-Wallace (Toyota Celica) were third in VCRS, placed ninth behind Braeden and Emma Kendrick (Holden Commodore). Quinn finished 10th with a stage third, two seconds and win on Stage 6 once the brakes issues were sorted.

Garry O’Brien

GARRY’S

NATIONAL

EVENT

CALENDAR BMW CAR CLUB VICTORIA, WINTON VIC – JUL 02 TIME ATTACK #3, LAKESIDE PARK QLD – JUL 02 INGLEWOOD CUP SHORT COURSE OFF ROAD, SWEEDMAN’S PROPERTY QLD – JUL 02-03 ARB SA OFF ROAD MULTI CLUB SERIES RD02, PT GERMEIN SA – JUL 02-03 CLUB MOTORI ITALIA HILLCLIMB, BASKERVILLE TAS – JUL 03 ALFA ROMEO OWNERS CLUB, PHILLIP ISLAND VIC – JUL 03 GEELONG MOTOR SPORTS CLUB MOTORKHANA RD04, AVALON – JUL 03 BEVERLEY OFF ROAD MOTORSPORTS ASSOCIATION, BEVERLEY WA – JUL 03 DRIVE EVENTS SUPERSPRINT – BROADFORD VIC – JUL 03 ALL ASIAN DAY SPRINTS, LAKESIDE PARK QLD – JUL 03 ALL HISTORIC TRACK DAY, WINTON VIC – JUL 06

Image: Smiley Kez

COLO BACK FOR OPENER JUST OVER two and a half years after bushfires ravaged the complex, the Sydney Off Road Racing Association returned to Colo Park for round one of the Hunter Rivmasta NSW Off Road Championships on June 4-5.

The club also had to deal with a rain deluge in the leadup, and even had to make changes on the run. That did not deter Glen Spizzo and Anthony Lia (Micklefab/supercharged Toyota V6 – pictured above) from wins in all six sections of the 6.9km course, culminating in an impressive 1min 4.7s overall victory.

The runners-up were Tom Dixon and Jesse McGrath (Jimco/Toyota turbo) who were second in each section. Third place went to David Chandler and Jonathan Ryan (Jimco/ Chev LS2 – below) for a Pro Buggy clean sweep of the outright places.

Colo Park debutants Brendan Turner and

NATIONALS WRAP with Garry O’Brien Guy Baumann (Mirage/Honda V6) were 1min 57s further adrift in fourth and first of the ProLites. They finished ahead of father and son, Michael and Eric Latimore (Towers Special/Chev Pro Buggy).

First in SXS Sport and sixth overall were Kevin Cant and Ethan Harris (Yamaha YXZ) and next were Jake and James Conomos

(Rivmasta/Suzuki) who were the Sportsman winners. Nicolas Seagrott and Philip Meyers (Can-Am) was best of the SXS Pro class in eighth outright, ahead of Ross Newman and Kyle Kilpinen Hughes (SXS Sport Yamaha).

Warren and Bradley Barron (Cobra 100/ Toyota 4AGE) were third in the prologue, had some dramas on Day 1 before they came home 10th and first in Super1650.

Michael Baxter and Ian Egdell (Nissan Patrol/Chev LS1) were 11th and dominated Extreme 4WD. Although not completing the final lap, Rory and Nathan Wills took a maiden Sportslite win.

Among those that didn’t finish were Justin Guy/Lachlan Davies (Jimco/Chev), Gerard with Cody and Emily Bawden (Southern Cross/Toyota turbo), and Warren and Rhinna Irons in the striking pink VW Baja.

Garry O’Brien

MIDWEEK SPRINTS RD04, QUEENSLAND RACEWAY QLD – JUL 06 MIDWEEK SPRINTS #3, LAKESIDE PARK QLD – JUL 07 HQ HOLDEN NATIONALS, HIDDEN VALLEY NT – JUL 08-10 NTI TOWNSVILLE 500, SUPERCARS, TOWNSVILLE QLD – JUL 08-10 SUPER 2/3 RD03, TOWNSVILLE QLD – JUL 08-10 TOURING CAR MASTERS RD03, TOWNSVILLE QLD – JUL 08-10 PORSCHE CARRERA CUP RD03, TOWNSVILLE QLD – JUL 08-10 HISTORIC QUEENSLAND, MORGAN PARK QLD – JUL 08-10 GRASS ROOTS RACING SERIES RD02, LAKESIDE PARK QLD – JUL 08-10 ARB AUSTRALIAN OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP RD02, HILLSTON NSW – JUL 08-10 SUPER TRUCK NATIONALS RD02, WINTON VIC – JUL 08-10 WA SPEED EVENT SERIES RD08, COLLIE MOTORPLEX – JUL 09 GOLD RUSH HILL SPRINT, MT MORGAN QLD – JUL 09 WASCC TARMAC SPORTZ SERIES POINT 2 POINT, WANNEROO RACEWAY – JUL 09 SA STATE MOTOR RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS RD03, MALLALA SA – JUL 09-10 PIARC JULY SUPERSPRINT, PHILLIP ISLAND VIC – JUL 09-10 NSW STATE HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP RD06, TAMWORTH NSW – JUL 09-10 TAS STATE CIRCUIT RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS RD03, BASKERVILLE TAS – JUL 10 WESTLAKES AUTOMOBILE CLUB KHANACROSS SERIES RD05, AWABA NSW – JUL 10 HOLDEN SPORTING CAR CLUB MOTOKHANA, WILLOWBANK DRAGSTRIP – JUL 10 SA MOTORKHANA CHAMPIONSHIP RD03, MALLALA MOTORSPORT PARK – JUL 10 SOUTHERN DISTRICTS CAR CLUB AUTOCROSS – 1, MID MURRAY MOTORPLEX SA – JUL 10 WA SPEED EVENT SERIES RD09, COLLIE MOTORPLEX WA – JUL 10 LIGHT CAR CLUB OF WA KHANACROSS RD07, BAYSWATER WA – JUL 10

Image: Chris Kenyon

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WPM TRACKSCHOOL TRACK DAY, WAKEFIELD PARK NSW – JUL 10

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NATIONALS WRAP MACKRELL TOPS TIN AT ARARAT THERE WERE no open wheelers at Ararat, so it was a tin-top party and Kevin Mackrell (right) took full advantage.

He was the outright fastest in Round 6 of the Eziup & Go Victorian Hillclimb Championship on June 11.

After four runs in his 6.0 litre Chev NASCAR-powered 4WD Time Attack Datsun 260Z, Mackrell was fastest with a best of 39.38s, which was 6.0s quicker than anyone else.

The One Tree Hill 1609m course is on the outskirts of Ararat and is a fast, unforgiving hillclimb and is deemed as unsuitable for open wheeler, clubman sports cars and anything with cycle-type guards. There were scheduled to be more than the four runs but, after the first on Day 2, weather conditions deteriorated to the point that the event was stopped for safety reasons.

Next best was Mick Argoon (Holden Commodore Sports Sedan) who had 0.9s on Hugh Feggens (Production Sports Porsche 996) while Brenton Byfield (Time Attack Subaru WRX Sports Wagon) and Glenn Latter (Mazda RX7 Sports Car) were also under the 46s mark.

Image: Otway Edge Seventy-nine cars, in 17 classes took part with Nathan Cann (Porsche 944 turbo SC) sixth fastest ahead of Drew Widgery (Improved Production Commodore). Eighth and ninth was a

close contest between Derrick White and David Harris in IP Subaru Impreza WRXs where they finished 0.03s apart, and 0.11s ahead of 10th placed Pun Hy in an IP Volkswagen Golf R Wagon.

It was even tighter in the determination of 11th place where Patrick Hitchcock and Ken Rowland Jr were split by just 0.01s in their Non Logged Booked WRXs. Garry O’Brien

AMOS BACK AND ON TOP AFTER HE missed the first two rounds, Dean Amos returned for round three of the NSW Hillclimb Championship. He then proceeded to put down the fastest time for the outright victory at the Mountain View Motor Sport Complex near Grafton on June 11-12.

The best effort Amos (pictured) put in aboard his Nicholson McLaren V8-powered Gould GR55B over the twisty 1057m course was 41.46s.

Second fastest was the winner of rounds one and two Dean Tighe and he was 0.66s off the best time by his nemesis.

Behind the two Over 2.0 litre Formula Libres was Dave Morrow in his Up to 1.3 F/L Krygger Suzuki on a quickest run of 45.78s. Next was Peter Brown (Over 2.0lt Clubman Pro Sport Mulsanne) who was fractionally ahead of Searle

Image: CH Images

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Courtright (Up to 1.3lt Talbot 184).

Sixth outright was Greg Jones (Over 1.6lt Sports Locost GSL Clubman) ahead of the best of the tin tops, Andrew Fraser at the wheel of the Road Registered Chev Corvette. Craig Klingbiel (Improved Production Honda Civic) was his nearest rival in the roofed stakes and ahead of Peter Akers (RR Subaru Impreza WRX) and Michael Fraser in the same Corvette.

One hundredth of a second behind was Wayne Bell (Time Attack Datsun Stanza) in front of Harry Doling (RR Toyota Celica), Steve Moxon (Talbot 184) and Wayne Penrose (VW Beetle Sports Sedan). Brian Cox made two runs before he rolled his Up to 750cc F/L Hyper Hugger X4 on the third, but he still managed the 15th fastest time of the 28 running. Garry O’Brien

Image: Wayne Hough

BEST TO LAST IT TOOK until the sixth and final run for David Coombe (above) to go quickest at Collingrove Hillclimb and head up the Ray Pank Winter Cup on June 5. Despite the wet, windy and wild weather for the Sporting Car Club of SA event, the second round of four, 46 made the most of the conditions.

The pacesetter Paul Healey (Mitsubishi EVO 8) with a 36.69s on his fourth run which had him 0.6s ahead of Coombe (EVO 8). Then Coombe plucked a 36.23s to be almost half a second faster. Just 0.16s away in third was Nathan Green (Nissan Skyline GTR) who pulled his best effort on the last attempt.

While not the fastest at Round 1, as there were several open wheelers

present, the tin-top result was in contrast then with Healey fourth and ahead of Green and Coombe.

The next five also put in their best efforts on their sixth runs. Matt Cowie (EVO 9) placed fourth ahead of Alex Wilson (Audi A4), Cruz Frost (Subaru Impreza WRX), Roger Patterson (Porsche Cayman S) and Jay Frost (WRX).

Susannah Brauer (WRX) had her best run on her fourth try to be ninth overall ahead of Nathan Crettenden (Subaru BRZ), Wayne Brauer (WRX), Michael Nielsen (Vlkswagen Golf R), Peter Mayer (Cayman), Norman Goodall (Porsche 911 SC) and Ben Wesley (Mazda 3 SP23).

Garry O’Brien

HISTORY ON SHOW AT CLASSIC OVER 200 cars featured at the Sydney Classic around Sydney Motorsport Park on June 11-12 and represented touring cars from the late 50s through to 2008, plus a host of Sports and Racing Cars over an even longer period.

GROUP C & A HERITAGE TOURING CARS AT THE wheel of his dad’s ex-Caltex Group A Ford Sierra RS500, Jonathan Webb was a comfortable winner of the three races. He ran mostly at a pace just in front of everyone, and then turned in a couple blinders to reset the HTC record – 1.0s off the John Bowe’s 1992 Group A record.

Second in the first race was Tony Alford (ex-GIO GpA Nissan Skyline GTR R32) with Adrian Allisey (GpA Walkinshaw Commodore) despite a broken panhard rod. Behind them was a three-way Group C scrap involving the Nissan Bluebirds driven

by Brian Henderson and Adam Workman, and split by Terry Lawlor (Ford Falcon XD).

Workman dropped to ninth behind Rick Allen (GpA BMW E30 M3), Glenn Gerstel (GpC Commodore) and Meon Nehrybecki (DTM Mercedes).

For Race 2, the Alford GTR had an oil leak that ruled it out and the Henderson Bluebird had brake issues. Lawlor passed Allisey for second while Allen was next in front of Nehrybecki, Gerstel and Workman. In the last, Allisey was second ahead of Allen, Lawlor, Nehrybecki and Gerstel.

Meon Nehrebecky ‘s Merc ran strongly in Group C. Image: Bruce Moxon the second while Normoyle was clear of Don Greiveson (Spectre). Cutts looked all set to win the last until he ran out of fuel on the last lap. Pearce picked up the win as Normoyle edged out Clark for second, and Greiveson pipped Johnstone for fourth.

MG & INVITED BRITISH A COUPLE of Triumphs made up the Invited list, but they were no match for the MGs. Simon Meyer showed the way at each outing ahead of fellow Midget steerer Michael Trathen. Third every time was Tony Vollebregt in his MGZR sedan while Ed Ferguson (TRZ V8) was next in two races and Phil Chester (MG F) was fourth in the other.

GROUP N HISTORIC TOURING CARS IT WAS Aldo De Paoli all the way in his Group Nc Chev Camaro as the West Aussie led each race throughout . . . but not by much.

He was shadowed throughout the first by Jamie Tilley (Nb Ford Mustang). Adam Walton (Nc Mustang) was third across the line but relegated to fifth with a 5.0s penalty.

Chris Tomas (Holden Torana XU-1) started 15th after the gear selector broke, and picked third ahead of Ian Mewett (Nc Mustang).

Fourth fastest qualifier Stan Adler was an early casualty when his Invited Porsche 911 suffered a damaged engine.

In the second race it was Thomas second ahead of the Mustangs driven by Tilley, Mewett, Walton and Dale Parry with Spencer Rice (Nc Alfa Romeo GTV) next. In the last Parry was fourth behind De Paoli, Thomas and Tilley. Walton, Mewett, Rice and Ashley Heffernan (Torana) followed.

5 LITRE TOURING CARS THE FORMER Supercars ran three Supersprints. Jacob Khouri (Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA) was fastest overall ahead of Chad Parrish who shared his FPR BA with Carey Mahon. Third was Andrew O’Connell (Prancing Horse Falcon AU) ahead of Peter Abood (Paul Morris Holden Commodore VE), Peter Xiberras (Perkins Engineering Commodore VX), Neil Schembri (PE Commodore VS) and Jamie McDonald (ProDuct Commodore VP).

GROUP S PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS SIZZLING STARTS paved the way for Wayne Seabrook (Porsche 911 Carrera) to dominate the races. As he led each from start to finish, Terry Lawlor (Shelby GT350) had to pass the faster-starting Doug

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The Henderson/Workman Nissans scrapped for second in Group C. Image: Bruce Moxon

Q & R SPORTS & RACING & INVITED VICTORY IN the final race gave Vivian King (Ralt RT4) the overall win. King was second in the first two races, just behind Ian Buddery (March 86C). The latter didn’t start the last which gave a clear run to King. Malcolm Oastler in his Mildren F5000 was close behind the duo in the first until it dumped its oil load after a high-pressure line blew. Andrew Carrig was third in each, behind second-placed Malcom Boyd (Elfin 792) in race three.

Wayne Wilson took three from three in L, M & O Sports/Racing. Image: Riccardo Benvenuti Barbour (911) to collect three seconds.

Wayne Potts (Datsun 280Z) was fourth in each encounter ahead of Greg Horwell (911) and the Meyer bothers, Simon and Damien in their MG Midgets. Ray Narkiewicz (Chev Corvette) came through for fifth in the next two races, ahead of Simon Meyer and Horwell in each respectively.

FORMULA FORDS NOBODY COULD touch Will Lowing (Van Diemen) in any of the three races. In the first outing Garry Watson (Mawer) briefly led Peter Lucas (Reynard) and Geoff Walters (Van Diemen) before Lucas went ahead and skipped clear. Behind them a three-way dice went the way of Travis Clark (Van Diemen) over Cameron Walters (Van Diemen) and William Liston (Listec).

Even a 5.0s penalty couldn’t stop Lowing

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from a win in Race 2. Lucas was second and Cameron Walters passed his father Geoff (Van Diemen) to finish third while Watson and Liston ensued.

There was no Lucas for the last where Cameron Walters was second. Geoff Walters had third until the last lap where he was passed by Watson. He was relegated another place to Liston with a start infringement.

FORMULA VEES COMPETITION WAS intense between Matt Pearce (Renmax) and David Cutts (Spectre) across the three races. In the first they finished almost side-by-side with Cutts ahead by 0.11s. Behind them Steve Normoyle (Spectre) emerged top of the three-way scrap for third ahead of David Clark (Avanti) and Norm Johnstone (Spectre).

The two front runners had a similar result in

L, M & O SPORTS & RACING HSRCA PRESIDENT Wayne Wilson won the three races in his Brabham BT21C, but he had his work cut out in the first two. Les Wright (Brabham Buick V8) and he had the straight line pace to scoot past Brad Morrin (Matich SR4B) each lap after the latter was quicker over the back of the course. In those outings Wright was pinged 5s and finished third behind Morrin. Wilson won the last ahead of Norm Falkiner (Elfin Monocoque) and John Macey (BT18) with Wright ninth and Morrin a DNF.

SUPERSPRINTS/REGULARITIES TWO OF Supersprints had Bruce Tresidder (Holden Torana LX) fastest while Bob Sanders (Triumph TR7) headed the last.

Over the three regularity runs there were three different winners in Bruce Melville (Lotus Elan), Brad Bassett (Ford Escort RS2000) and Greg Boyle (Nissan Skyline GTR). Garry O’Brien

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NATIONALS WRAP

SPRUCED UP QR FOR THIRD QRDC MEET

Above: Sharples leads Haak and Brown in a strong Qld Touring Cars catregory.

Below: Ryder Quinn and ‘grandad’ Tony paired to win the Qld Production Car 60-minute enduros.

Bottom: Anthony Tenkate and Geoff Fane head a tight Trans-Am field. Images: MTR Images SEVERAL CATEGORIES at the third round of the QR Drivers Championships used the three layouts at Queensland Raceway on May 28-29 while the seven fields sampled the new facilities.

TRACK ATTACK EXCELS FASTEST IN qualifying, Ryan O’Sullivan went on to win three of the four races and take out the round points. Brett Parrish led the first three laps of the first, before O’Sullivan passed him. They were 0.15s apart at the flag while Alex Haigh won his battle with Josh Dremel for third. Dremel lost out to Todd Wanless on the final lap to finish fifth.

It was a similar tale in the second race with Parrish in the lead early before he finished second. Haigh had third until relegated by Max Geoghegan while Wanless edged out Jack Dixon for fifth. Dremel went out with a broken gearbox.

It was the same top three in Race 3 and they were clear of Haigh. Parrish led the last race until the gearbox let go. That left O’Sullivan in front until Geoghegan slipped past on the last lap. Andrew Hamilton finished third just in front of Wanless.

AUSTRALIAN TRANS AM TWO WINS out of four gave Anthony Tenkate (Ford Mustang) the outright victory over Alwyn Bishop (Plymouth Duster) and Geoff Fane (Chev Camaro). The latter took a narrow victory in Race 1 over Tenkate while Bishop held off Ian Palmer (Plymouth AAR Cuda).

Tenkake turned the tables in the second while it was again close for third. Race 3, the reverse grid, was stopped after four laps due to a racing incident between Fane and leader Prefontaine in his 5.0 litre Mustang. It was close in the last with Tenkate just in front of Bishop and Palmer.

HOT HATCHES CHASING THE Utes, overall victory went to Trent Laves (Hyundai Getz) despite being slugged with weight not once, but twice and in the end, it took its toll. Jack Munro (Honda

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Jazz) led race one initially before Laves passed him. Dylan Cothill (Ford Fiesta) was third before Jamie Dixon (Getz) chased the leading two home in Race 2.

Slapped with 160kgs slowed Laves and he was pipped by Munro in Race 3 with Cothill a close third. Grant Preston (Fiesta) won the fourth encounter from Laves and Munro before Bruce Willmott (Mazda 2) won the last ahead of Cothill and Munro. Another 40kgs meant Laves couldn’t finish better than fifth, behind Preston.

PRODUCTION UTES IN HIS new Ford Falcon FG V8, Brendan Exner was the outright winner and left the sixes to duke it out for the minors. The meeting opened with Danny Ford (Falcon) half a car length on John Young (Holden Commodore VZ).

Third was Peter Clarke (Falcon AU) with Craig Kasper (Commodore VT) fourth in his first ever race. Young was able to beat Ford with Leyton Hatherley (Falcon) third from the back. Young had a drama at the start of the third which forced him to pit. Ford took the honours in this and the next before Young beat him in the last.

QLD PRODUCTION CARS TONY QUINN and his grandson Ryder teamed up to win the 60-minute enduros. The duo piloted the Ford Mustang to dominant victories in both. Second it the first race were Robert Gooley and Maika Ter Horst (Mitsubishi EVO X RS) while Tim McDonald/ Andrew Wilton (BMW M240i) and Greg Symes/Geoff Russell (EVO X) also finished on the lead lap.

Jake Camilleri had a loose hose clamp, the Mazda 3 MPS had no power and finished tenth. However in Race 2, he charged through to finish second ahead of Gooley/Horst and Richard Shinkfield (BMW M3 E92).

QLD TOURING CARS AFTER FIVE races Chris Brown, Nathan Marks and Sam Allen were doing the

celebrating as the winners of the three groups. In Race 1 Chris Sharples (Holden Monaro) beat Brown (Holden Commodore) who led in the middle stages, and Gary Lange (BMW E46) from sixth on the first lap.

In the next, Brown grabbed the lead on lap three and a 3.1s margin on Sharples by the end.

Lange was third from the Commodores piloted

by Stuart Walker, Pater Bray and Matt Haak.

Sharples led Race 3 before Brown again went ahead. Lange had third until passed by both Haak and Robert Bellinger (E46). Brown and Sharples each had wins over the last two races where Haak and Walker had thirds and fourths while Walker finished fifth twice.

Marks (E36) was unbeaten in Group B where Gary Anger (Commodore) and Darren Dakin (Commodore) were the weekend’s runners-up. Likewise Allen (E36) continually showed the way in Group C as Andrew Knight (E36) and Hudson James (Commodore) were the best of the others.

SUPERKARTS THE BIGGER 250cc karts were the winners of all four races with Brock Nicholas (International Anderson Maverick) winning the first two ahead of Tim Weier (National Anderson) who proceeded to win the last two.

Steve Murray (PVP) took third in the opener, just in front of Russell Jamieson (125cc Anderson).

Ewen Burg (PVP) joined the battle for the lead in Race 2 until he had a steering rack failure which gave Murray third from Doug Amiss (125cc Anderson). Burg had the lead

briefly in the third before Weier relegated him to second. Jamieson was next from Murray and Nicholas. After Kane Otway (250cc Anderson) lost coolant at Turn 1 in the fourth race which sent the ensuing traffic to take avoiding action, Weier won from Jamieson and Amiss.

REPLICA TOURERS/EXTREME THE EXTREME entries of Lachlan Gardner (MARC Mazda V8) and James Simpson (TA2 Challenger) were first and second as they dominated each race. Steve Marek (Nissan Skyline GTR) was third in the initial contest, had second for two laps of Race 2 before a slip up dopped him to last briefly.

In Races 2, 3, 4 and 5, Rex Scoles (Holden Commodore) was third and best of the Replica Tourers. Leo Meiers (Commodore) finished second in class on four occasions but his DNF in Race 3 meant Jordan Walker (Commodore) was second for the weekend.

Also in the mix was Ken Samway (Mazda MX5) with four top five results.

Garry O’Brien

MULTIPLE WINNERS CELEBRATE THERE WAS a strong 39-car field, covering four classes, in the Middy’s Electrical Combined Sedans at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown on June 18-19 with Justin Keys, David Ling, Josh Richards and Adam Butler the winners.

This year marked 25 years, that the North Australian Motor Sport Club has organised the Supercars local supports, and featured Improved Production, Commodore Cup, Hyundai Excels and HQ Holdens.

Keys (below) in his IP Holden Commodore VS was the outright winner of the three races. In the first he was a little slow away but won ahead of John Callegari (Commodore VN) who relegated Troy Marinelli (Nissan 200SC). Rob Braune (BMW E30) was fourth, followed Justin Wade (Ford Falcon EB), Matt Logan and

Rod Jessup in their Commodore VEs. First Cup car was Ling in ninth, with 1.1s on Shane Smith. Richards edged out Ben Gomersall for Excel honours, and Adam Butler was a clear HQ winner.

Keys lost out briefly to Callegari at the second race start before he was untroubled, while Callegari was overtaken

by Marinelli. Braune passed both and finished second, and later Callegari retook third from Marinelli.

Wade was next in front of Stephen Johnstone (IP Commodore), Ling, Gabriel Thorbjornsen (CC), Smith and Craig Wright (IP Ford Escort). It was close in Excels with Rylan Gray able to pip Gomersall, Richards and Braedon Cidoni. Butler again headed the HQs where Peter Anderson was second ahead of Stavros Mostris.

Keys led all the way in the last from Braune and Callegari who were third and second overall in IP. Callegari had been dicing with Marinelli until he had a blown diff. Wade held off Stephen Johnstone (Commodore VP) for fourth while Thorbjornsen appeared to have sixth and CC honours until the last lap when he slid to 14th and third for the weekend.

That elevated Ling who finished ahead of Wright and CC rivals Geoff Cowie and the weekend’s second Smith. In the Excel class Richards held off Gray who finished second overall ahead of Gomersall.

Butler completed an unbeaten run in HQs where Anderson and Dylan Bujnowski were the runners-up and also for the weekend.

Garry O’Brien

Image: Ross Gibb Photography

VICTORIAN AUTOCROSS CHAMPIONS CROWNED THE VICTORIAN Club Autocross Series has crowned its 2021 winners, Matthew Healy scoring outright honours after the compilation of results.

Healy finished first outright and second in class W driving a Subaru WRX, finishing three points clear of Patrick Malanaphy.

Malanaphy was also first in class S in buggy machinery.

Barry Nowell completed the podium both outright and in class S. Richard Gay won class W in his red and white Mitsubishi VR4.

The Maffra and District Car Club came out on top in the Club standings.

From all reports, the series was a successful one in 2021, running at tracks throughout the state over five rounds.

COVID produced obstacles as it did for nearly all motorsport competition across the country, resulting in the season being reduced from 10 rounds to the completed five.

A large field of 221 different drivers including 32 juniors took part over the year, with the 4WD class gathering the most entries at 42.

The winners of the remaining classes are as follows: Ian Matthews (P), Karli Vallence (L), Joel Scott (J), Glen Scott (E), Dean Richardson (D) and Ashley Smyth (C).

The 2022 series is already well underway – five of the 10 scheduled rounds have been completed.

All events are contested on a dirt surface of less than 2km in length and the regulations are relatively loose, anyone over 14 years of age can take part.

The next event will take place at Boisdale Hill Climb Track on July 16. Josh Nevett

AUSTIN 7’S CELEBRATION THE 45TH Historic Winton on May 28-29, organised by the Austin 7 Club, celebrated 100 years of the Austin 7. There were parade laps, displays, regularities and importantly, historic car and bike racing on the old short layout.

Whether they raced or not, cars at Winton were from the early days of the 1920s all the way through to 1981. Both days began with heavy fog and cold conditions before fining up.

GROUP N HISTORIC TOURING CARS TO THE end of 1964, Group Nb cars dominated the entry in HTC with just one of the later cars, Andrew Girvan’s Holden Torana XU-1 (pictured right). The latter was outpointed in qualifying by Jonathan French in his Morris Mini Cooper S. But in the three races, Girvan was a comfortable winner.

French was second in each, ahead of semi-regular TCM Camaro pilot Adam Bressington (Cooper S). Also in Minis, Richard Hill and Linda Devlin were next in Races 1 and 2 but were split by William Walker in the third.

GROUP S PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS THE THREE periods were represent with Sa, Sb and Sc along with Invited.

Michael Bryne in his Sc Lotus Seven S4 was fastest in qualifying, but not by much over Ray Narkiewicz (Sb Chev Corvette) and Hugh Harrison (Sc Alfa Romeo GTV).

The first race was for the Alan Jones Trophy which went to Byrne, outright first ahead of Harrison by a second with less than that to Bryce Rogers (Sb Austin Healey Sprite), Narkiewicz and John Geist (Sb Datsun 2000 Sport). David Orchard (Sa Triumph TR2) was the best in Sa. It was even closer in Race 2 with Byrne 0.5s in advance of Harrison. Narkiewicz edged out Rogers with Joe Di Bartolo

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(Corvette) next. The numbers were down for the last where Narkiewicz headed Harrison and Rogers. Greg Prunster (Sprite) took Sa honours in both.

GROUPS J & K THE OPENING race was won by Jim Russell (Gp K Ford) over Neill Murdoch (Gp K MG TB) and Rob Harcourt (Gp J Images: Phil Wisewould Lancia Meadows). Murdoch bounded back to win the Lou Molina Trophy race ahead of Harcourt and Q & R SPORTS & Gerard Miller (Gp K Plymouth Special), and also took out RACING the last race.

IT WAS the same top three in each race LB SPORTS & RACING with Gp R Racing’s THERE WERE two feature events with the first, the Mark David Hardman Dymond Trophy, won by Mal Reid (Lb Racing Prad Holden) (Hardman JH-1) ahead over Lb Sports’ Shane Bowden (Prad Sports) and Russell of Malcolm Oastler (Ralt RT1) and Blake Miller (Elfin 630B).

Budge (Zephsca Ausca) and they finished that way in the last Gp R Sports went to David Benda (Lola T590), Gp Q Sports to race too.

Kevin West (Grantinni 3B) with a fourth and two fifth outrights.

The Coad Memorial Trophy handicap went to Peter Fagan Robert Wilson (Peregrine F2) had two Gp Q Racing successes (Cooper Mk6) from Graeme Marks (MacHealey) and Graeme before beaten by Graham Boulter (Elfin 623) in the last.

Wright (Regan MG Special).

FORMULA FORDS M & O SPORTS & RACING/FORMULA VEES THE FIRST win was a relatively comfortable for Nick Bennett RACING CARS from Group O were dominant across the three (Elfin 600B) but the ones that came after that were far closer races with Laurie Bennett (Elfin 600B) and Paul Faulkner over Will Faulkner (Crossle 32F). Phil Oakes (Elfin 600) (Brabham BT29) one-two in each (pictured above). Scott was third in front of Lyndon Arnel (Lola) and Johnny Greig Whittaker (Gp O Sports Milano GT2) netted a trio of minor (Reynard). Greig placed third in the next two outings, firstly outright placings. Group rival Sean Turnbull (Turnham Ford) ahead of Oakes, Arnel and Grant Walker (Titan), and then was next in two races but only eighth in the second where Walker, Ian Edgar (Lola T642A) and Declan Foo (Lola T342).

Max Bonney (Elfin NG) was fourth and best of the Vees.

Garry O’Brien

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SPEEDWAY BEARE MAULS FIELD FOR SIXTH NATIONAL CROWN

Images: Declan Brownsey

SPEEDWAY NEWS with Paris Charles WITH 95 teams assembled for the 2022 Engage Ag SSA National Street Stock Title at Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway in Queensland, the scene was set for another blockbuster weekend of Holden v Ford action.

Leading into the event South Australia’s Anthony Beare went in as the odds-on favourite having collected a staggering five national crowns and the reigning, defending and undisputed champion. However it would be no easy feat as the stout field also consisted of every current state and territory champion: Matt Nelson (Qld and Vic), Justin

Anthony Beare battles with Jack Yates on his way to becoming 6x Australian Champion.

Brumfield (NT), Chris Marino (NSW), Damon Lyall (WA), Corey Bauld (Tas) and Bailey Heinrich (SA).

In addition, former national champions Jamie Oldfield and Robbie Faux would line up, as well as former Production Sedan champion Joel Berkley along with former state champions Robert Trapp, Peter Thompson, Steven Gartner, Jason Duell, John Riley, Mick Dann, John Lodge and Jack Yates. And finally there was an abundance of up-and-coming young dark horses ready to add their name to the list.

At the end of two solid nights of a staggering 36 heats, two B and two C mains the top 22 competitors rolled out for the 40lap final. Territorian Yates and Beare, who had gone through the heats races undefeated, shared the front row.

At the drop of the green the pair ran door to door for the opening two laps until Beare seized command and was not headed from that point forward in an incident-plagued final, the first stoppage being on lap three.

The field restarted in Indian File formation with Beare and Yates resuming the battle for the front until Yates’ run came to a premature end with suspension damage on lap five. Lodge inherited second and looked comfortable leading Gartner and Nelson while many battles for position raged throughout the field.

A stoppage at the halfway mark saw the field regrouped for the commencement.

Lodge soon found himself under pressure as Gartner challenged for position and with the duo running closely, the pair touched, sending Gartner bouncing off the wall as, further back, Jace Kempton hit the wall, ending his run while holding down fifth. Gartner would take some repairs on run as the cars rolled around under caution.

Beare led the field as former two-time champion Jamie Oldfield retired. Gartner threw out a challenge for the lead and the two Mount Gambier club-based warriors went wheel-to-wheel – however Nelson moved into second although Gartner would

contest over the course of the battle as the pair traded places in the run to the line.

While Beare went on to secure his sixth national crown, Nelson would get the better of Gartner, the duo finishing second and third respectively. Joining the trio on the podium was Justin Brumfield and Nathan Barbeler, both having made their way from the B Main. After holding down second for a great portion of the journey Lodge would come home in sixth, leading Morris Ahearn, Dylan Campton, Bradley Warren, Jye Irving, Damon Lyall, Ricky Cornwall and Bailey Heinrich of the bakers dozen to finish. Failing to travel the distance were Joel Berkley, Dale Morrison, Kempton, Oldfield, Ben Stead, Lenny Bates, Yates, James Russell and Shane Roycroft.

With a mammoth 36 qualifying heat races over the duration of the weekend, Beare claimed a clean sweep of four while Lodge collected three, doubles went to Yates, Barbeler, Lyall, Stead, Roycroft and Kempton.

Marino, Duell, Bates, Faux, Jye Irving, Chris Corbett, Ahearn, Dean Jenkins, Cornwall, Berkley and Corey Bauld picked up a single.

The C Mains 1 and 2 went to Darren Ciesiolka and Ken Carroll while Brumfield and Cornwall collected the B’s.

In the supporting classes, Geoff Phillips claimed the V8 Dirt Modifieds feature.

Joining him on the podium were Terry Leerentveld and Raymond Phillips. The Modified Sedans main event was won by Max Clarke over Shane MacDonald and Jason Beer. Jayden Hancock got the upper hand over Brodie Hollyman while Jaiden Santin remained third from go to woah in the Junior Sedan feature.

GANTZ GETS BUTCHER MEMORIAL WAIKERIE’S SUNLINE Speedway fired up for the final time of the South Australian Speedway season and headlining the marque was the annual running of the Steve Butcher Memorial for Street Stocks. Traditionally this event has attracted huge fields with competitors keen to end the season on a high note but sadly the numbers were down as the Australian Championship was also being staged on the same weekend.

Despite only a small turnout of nine competitors, the Street Stock racing proved to be a hard-fought affair at the pointy end of the field. Anthony Buchanan and Michael Brown shared the front row and at the drop of the green it would be Buchannan using the inside line to hold the advantage while Brown ran door-to-door over the opening laps and Tony Prideaux gained the upper hand as he moved into third over Jason Gantz. The top four opened a handy break over the field, until Gantz spun, sending him to the rear for an Indian File restart.

Buchannan would again lead the field away while Gantz quickly charged back into contention and before too long was challenging in a three-way dance for second. Brown would be the next to spin, bringing the field back together for the second stoppage of the race

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as he retired to the infield.

By half race distance Gantz had gained the lead and from that point forward he would charge on to claim his maiden Steve Butcher Memorial victory, while Anthony Buchannan held on for second, followed by his son Ryan for third. Taking the final step on the podium was Prideaux, with rookie driver Xanthe Fell the final car to travel the journey.

The day saw a wide variety of Speedway Sedans represented in the supporting classes; these events would also be the conclusions of the various class track championships. Super Sedans, Modified Sedans and Junior Sedans plus Modlites and Classics were also on the card.

Despite Neville Nitschke claiming all three heat race wins, Mitchell Rigney would turn the tables to snare the Super Sedans feature race over Nitschke and Sarah Pope rounding out the top three. The overall track championship would go to Nitschke, followed by Rigney, Pope, Kym Jury, Kym Leysen, Shane Lambe and Paul Blenkiron.

Mildura’s Peter McCarthy showed his experience to claim a flag-to-flag victory in the Modified Sedans final.

Second to the line was Trevor Logan, followed by the Demaine brothers, Justin and Jason, who produced a solid battle over the journey. Mark Janssan and Shelly

Jason Gantz celebrates his Steve Butcher Memorial victory.

Image: Paris Charles Crouch rounded out the finishers.

In the Junior Sedan finale, Lucas Warnett defeated Diesel Fallon and Lachlan Brown for the podium. Summer Gesell, Ollie Bartlett, Ryan Burns, Corey Richter and Evan McAllister were next to cross the line in the 15-lap journey. Brown secured the track championship over Fallon and Warnett third.

Dylan Richter completed his season the best way possible by claiming the Modlite feature event ahead of Jacob Carlier, Scott Webb, Brian Chadwick and Tristan Douglass making up the top five. A field of Classic Super Modifieds turned back the hands of time as they provided a series of spirited demonstration runs for the large crowd at hand.

CARRERA CUP DARWIN

Images: Porsche Australia

DROUGHT ENDS WITH TOP END TRIUMPH FOR WOOD

Top: 2-1-1 earned Dale Wood the outright win in tropical Darwin, while 1-2-2 was enough for Harri Jones (above) to stretch his lead in the championship. 1-2-1 in class allowed Liam Talbot (#27, right) to close in on Pro-Am points leader Sam Shahin.

Report: Garry O’Brien A THREE-YEAR drought in Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship was broken by Dale Wood when he won the third round at Hidden Valley on June 18-19.

After a second in Race 1, the Earl Bamber Motorsport driver won both the Sunday outings at the scene of his last success, in 2019. Wood took the round and Pro victories ahead of tearaway points leader Harri Jones, driving for McElrea Racing, and Garth Walden Racing’s Dylan O’Keeffe.

Meanwhile the race-in-a-race Morris Pro-Am was taken out by Wall Racing’s Liam Talbot in his first class victory. With

two firsts, he finished ahead of Dean Cook and Sam Shahin.

A better launch enabled tearaway points leader Jones to grab the lead of Race 1, and he headed off the challengers to win the 18-lapper by 1.0s. Pole sitter Wood was slower off the line, but was able to see off Dylan O’Keeffe for second place which he held throughout.

O’Keeffe maintained third spot until two laps from the end when constant pressure from David Wall enabled him to get by at Turn 1. Next was Christian Pancione who had to find a way around Jackson Walls and then he staved off his McElrea Racing teammate to the end, breaking the lap record in the process.

Wood heads Jones, O’Keeffe and the long Porsche queue through Hidden Valley’s esses.

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Seventh place went to Tekworkx’s Max Vidau as he placed ahead of Bayley Hall, Callum Hedge and David Russell (EMA Motorsport). Nick McBride was pinged for rolling at the start and compounded that with a spin later. Michael Almond was also a spinner, at Turn 1 when he attempted to pass Brad Shiels who finished 12th.

Seventeenth outright and first in Pro-Am was Talbot, just in front of Sam Shahin with Dean Cook third. Adrian Flack was second in class until lap 11 when he spun at Turn 1.

He ultimately finished seventh behind Tim Miles, Rodney Jane and Geoff Emery.

Off the line in Race 2, Jones was the better of the two before Wood attempted to pass at Turn 1 and there was some bump and grind before Wood was successful. From there he led all the way and won ahead of Jones.

O’Keeffe was quick off the line and slotted into third almost immediately and remained there for the duration.

Fourth spot went to Jackson Walls just ahead of David Wall in his 200th Porsche start, with Christian Pancione next. Then followed Tekworkx teammates Luke Youlden and Max Vidau, Callum Hedge (EBM) and Russell. Bayley Hall was an early casualty as a result of heavy contact with the concrete wall before Turn 5. The

incident resulted in a Safety Car before the race went green on lap five.

Shahin was at the front throughout Pro-Am and had eight-tenths on Talbot at the end. Emery was turned around on the opening lap and speared onto the Turn 1 infield which caused Flack to spin to avoid him. Rodney Jane had second before he was passed by Cook and dropped further as Tim Miles relegated Cook to fourth.

The last race produced the same top three, covered by 1.56s, while Wall harassed O’Keeffe throughout as Pancione chased in their wake. Then came Youlden and Wall, who was fifth when a brief off-road excursion lost him a few spots. Hedge was eighth ahead of Shiels and Simon Fallon.

In Pro-Am, Shahin came off second best in contact with Talbot at the first corner on lap two as they diced for the lead. Talbot went on to head the class for the remainder, placing ahead of Cook, Miles and Stephen Grove. Shahin finished behind Jane, Flack and Emery.

STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 3 PROFESSIONAL 1 Harri Jones 477 2 David Wall 363 3 Dylan O’Keeffe 350 4 Dale Wood 341 5 Max Vidau 304 PRO-AM 1 Sam Shahin 379 2 Stephen Grove 361 3 Liam Talbot 357

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S5000 DARWIN

Images: ARG/S5000 Images

MAWSON BLAZES TO SECOND GOLD STAR Report: Dan McCarthy WHILE AARON Cameron came away with his second successive S5000 round win, Joey Mawson claimed backto-back S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship titles.

In doing so Mawson became the first person to defend his Gold Star title since Simon Wills in 2000, back in the Formula Holden days.

Mawson stayed out of trouble in the first two races and it was – fortunately – enough to clinch the title with a race to spare.

Qualifying resulted in an incredibly mixed grid with crashes at either end of the 20-minute session meaning that drivers had only one or two-timed laps – at best.

Tim Berryman suffered a big crash on pit straight at the start of the session, spinning into the pit wall when warming up his tyres, while South Australian Sebastian Amadio hit the wall at Turn 10 in the dying moments.

Nathan Herne broke through to score his maiden S5000 pole position, by half a tenth, from Cooper Webster, the returning John Martin and Cameron. All of the major title contenders were caught out by the red flags – Mawson qualified in fifth, with his closest title rival Tim Macrow in sixth and James Golding, seventh. After showing strong top-5 pace in P2, Blake Purdie was badly baulked and it cost him plenty ...

At the start of Race 1 it was Webster who made the better start and led into Turn 1, Herne A second event win for Aaron Cameron reinforces his talent in S5000 single-seaters. tried to hang around the outside Below: Cooper Webster blew a class field away from lap one for a big Race 1 win. but to no avail. He came under pressure from Cameron on the opening lap but held firm, particularly at Turn 4.

At the end of lap 1 Webster led Herne, with both Cameron and Mawson moving ahead of Martin.

Golding remained in seventh while Macrow fell as far back as 11th – the two-time Gold Star winner had made a blinding start and was as high as fifth into Turn 1, but on the outside over the marbles he lost grip and fell back.

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Webster bolted. He had pulled out a 5s gap by lap 10 and was able to control the remainder of the race. Although Webster had won two S5000 races previously, this was his first ‘non-inverted’ grid race win.

And it was comperehnsive – he took the victory by nearly 4s from Herne who held off an onslaught from Cameron.

Mawson played it safe and brought the car home in fourth ahead of Martin. Blake Purdie held off Golding to finish sixth, Macrow was only able to recover to 10th.

After competing in the Tasman Series last year, Jordan Boys returned in Darwin. Another Qualifying ‘victim’, he started on pole for the partially inverted grid race alongside Kiwi Kaleb Ngatoa, with the title contenders Golding, Macrow and Mawson making up the top five.

From pole Boys made a slow start and was immediately swamped. Ngatoa led into Turn 1, Macrow made a great start and was hounding Golding who had moved into second. Mawson however went the other way, falling to as low as 10th.

Macrow attempting a move on Golding into the Turn 6 hairpin, tagged the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver and broke off a large portion of his front wing – instantly he went from attack to defending third.

On lap two, in a battle with the slow-starting Herne and Purdie, Amadio fired off the road at Turn 5 and, due to the moist grass, was unable to get back on the road.

Further ahead, Boys was all over Macrow and made a great move up the inside into Turn 5 to take third just seconds before the Safety Car was called to recover Amadio.

Under Safety Car Ngatoa led Golding, Boys, a wounded Macrow, Webster, Cameron, Martin and Mawson who had recovered to eighth.

The race returned to green on lap seven and Boys made a blinder – all over the tail of Golding he was forced to the outside at Turn 1, outbraked himself, and took a tour of the

FINAL GOLDSTAR STANDINGS 1 Joey Mawson 428 2 James Golding 375 3 Cooper Webster 372 4 Tim Macrow 366 5 Aaron Cameron 278 6 Nathan Herne 195 7 Blake Purdie 194 8 Kaleb Ngatoa 177 9 Shae Davies 119 10 Adam Garwood 91

Left: A healthy points margin insulated Joey Mawson’s championship win from the Race 3 dramas ...

Top: The Darwin rostrum – Boys (3rd), Cameron (winner), Webster (2nd).

Above: Caleb Ngatoa leads Boys into Turn 1 on route to a solid win for the Kiwi.

Below: Champ x 2. Joey Mawson has brought the international experience that won him the German F4 title back home and is now a double Gold Star Champion. For Team BRM (team boss Mark Rundle on right), it’s their eighth ... and a second for primary team backers Form700 and Alabar.

grass, dropping him to the back.

As the laps went on, Macrow was continually forced to defend third place. Race 1 winner Webster was right on his gearbox – until lap 12 when his right-rear upright let go and he was forced into retirement.

Out front, Golding applied sustained pressure to Ngatoa; however the young Kiwi did not crack and recorded his first S5000 win of the season.

Golding came home in second and Macrow held onto third from Cameron and Martin.

By the end, Mawson had moved up to sixth, which was just enough to clinch the championship with one race remaining.

The Feature Race grid is determined by accumulated points over the round to date.

Consistency thus earned Cameron pole, from Herne, Martin and Webster. The champion Mawson would start fifth ahead of Golding, Ngatoa, Macrow and Purdie, with Boys rounding out the top 10.

Once again, from the front row, Herne did not get off the line well, and Cameron led into Turn 1 from Webster who moved by Martin.

Around the back section at Turn 6 Mawson was inside Herne, and the pair made wheel-to-wheel contact, damaging their steering arms. Mawson propped coming out of the corner and was run into

by Macrow who broke his nose and front wing in the contact and was out on the spot.

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Mawson and Herne limped back to the pits, while Macrow was stuck in the Turn 10 gravel – which resulted in a Safety Car. With Macrow out, both Golding and Webster now had a chance to snatch second in the championship.

On the restart Cameron led Webster, Martin, Golding, Purdie and Boys. A fired-up Boys tried to pass his Versa Motorsport teammate around the outside of Turn 1 for the third time over the weekend – and this time it paid dividends as he moved into the top five.

Martin sat third but did not quite have the pace – he was overtaken by Golding at Turn 1 on lap 6 and Boys followed him through at Turn 5.

This battle with Martin allowed the top two to break clear and they retained this margin for the remainder of the race. Cameron scored his second Feature Race win in succession, ahead of Webster.

The drama wasn’t over: Golding was handed a fivesecond penalty for weaving after the Safety Car lights went out – Boys knew this and stayed on his tail until the finish. He thus inherited third despite firing off the track at Turn 1 on the opening lap – a great recovery.

Golding was classified in fourth, just enough to snatch second in the championship from Webster and the unlucky Macrow..

Martin was fifth ahead of Purdie who was dealt a 10s penalty post-race. A ‘rebuilt’ Berryman looked comfortable in seventh while Amadio rounded out the eight finishers.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 6 Hidden Valley, DARWIN

TRIPLE WINNERS IN TRIPLE CROWN

HIDDEN VALLEY RACEWAY IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY TURNED UP THE HEAT BOTH ON AND OFF THE TRACK WITH THREE EXCITING RACES PRODUCING A TRIO OF WINNERS Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images/supplied.

THE DARWIN Triple Crown may have seen a turning point in the championship as three drivers for three different teams won races.

Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen or indeen Triple Eight Race Engineering failed to take a win over the weekend– the outcome has seen SVG’s championship lead slashed.

Each of the three races saw differing strategies, controversy and action and was regarded as the best Supercars round of the season by many.

Yet again tyres were a major talking point

of the weekend..... Supercars upped the minimum tyres pressures from 17psi to 20psi.

The massive jump was done for safety reasons but also in an attempt to spice up the on track action, by forcing the Supersoft tyre to fall off ‘the cliff’ sooner into a stint.

Two Wildcards were on the grid in Darwin.

Jayden Ojeda returned with Walkinshaw Andretti United, while Zak Best made his solo Supercars debut with Tickford Racing.

PRACTICE – THE STORIES BEGIN PRACTICE 1 saw Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Chaz Mostert set the fastest time; however almost everyone went faster in the second session.

At the end of the day Shane van Gisbergen was fastest on the combined times from Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner and the two Dick Johnson Racing drivers, Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison.

Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom was fifth ahead of rookie Broc Feeney.

Mostert ended the day as the 16th fastest driver, having been disqualified from Practice 2 as the tyre pressures dropped below the minimum 20psi.

There were two notable incidents in practice. Local Territorian Bryce Fullwood tapped the tail of his car on the Turn 10 tyre barrier plucking his rear wing off.

In the next session, James Courtney went

Left: Now that’s an indigenous look – Cam Waters went to some trouble with his helmet ...

Dave Reynolds qualified well but had a torrid time in the races.

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into the same wall but forward, which meant his mechanics had a bit of work to do that evening.

QUALIFYING RACE 16 – DAVISON TAKES POLE FOR 500th DICK JOHNSON Racing locked out the front row for Race 16, with Davison taking pole position for his 500th Supercars race.

Qualifying saw two elimination segments concluded with a Top 10 Shootout.

In the shootout Davison broke his own lap record and became the first Supercars driver to lap the track in a Supercar in under 65s.

De Pasquale was second fastest, but 0.281s slower than his teammate.

Left: The DJR duo had a strong weekend, and retain second and fourth in the title chase, closer to leader Van Gisbergen.

Right: After his cross-country circuit exit and re-entry, Courtney’s car was a mess.

Centre: After a couple of tech team infringements earlier, Mostert pulled off a classic undercut win in Race 3.

Bottom: Anton’s (left) strong weekend moves him closer to championship leasder SVG. Heimgartner was the fastest man in Q2, but in the Shootout a slight mistake at the hairpin cost him a front row spot.

Van Gisbergen made an error at Turn 4 and again at Turn 10 – he qualified 0.338s off the pace in fourth.

Winterbottom set a great early benchmark and qualified in fifth ahead of his former teammate Mostert.

David Reynolds was only 0.012s slower than Mostert in seventh, ahead of Fullwood and Scott Pye. Jake Kostecki was the only Tickford Racing driver to make it into the top 10, but he locked up and fired off the road at Turn 1.

There were many surprise eliminations in the first and second segments of qualifying, most notably Winton round winner Cameron Waters.

He qualified 12th, behind PremiAir Racing driver Chris Pither who missed out on a top 10 spot by just 0.01s.

In the first segment, WAU driver Nick Percat was once again an early qualifying victim, ending up in 21st position.

RACE 16 – DJR DUEL THE OPENING race of the weekend was fought out between the DJR drivers Davison and De Pasquale.

At the start of the race, it was Heimgartner, from the second row, who made the best start but the BJR driver had nowhere to go, blocked by a pair of DJR Mustangs.

He nudged Davison giving him a hand into Turn 1. Form his parta, Davison on the inside was fairly circumspect, which allowed De Pasquale to run around the outside.

The pair ran side-by-side around turns 2, 3 and 4 before De Pasquale with the inside for Turn 5 took the lead, but not without a bit of contact between the pair.

Into the Turn 6 hairpin SVG had a look at overtaking Heimgartner but was unable to make his way by; but he continued to hound his fellow Kiwi over the next couple of laps.

Further back, out of the final corner on lap 2 Fullwood collided with Reynolds; the latter spun and suffered damage, putting him many laps down, while the local hero was given a 15s penalty.

Chris Pither and Will Brown also collided early, fighting for a top 10 spot. The damage sustained to Brown’s left front saw him retire, while Pither limped to the pits with a puncture.

With drivers uncertain about tyre life, they all quickly settled into a rhythm.

At the end of lap 8, De Pasquale led Davison by 1.8s, Heimgartner was third, but with SVG just 0.3s back as Feeney became the first front-runner to pit.

A couple of laps later, SVG’s patience paid off as he made his way by Heimgartner at the hairpin.

The BJR driver was struggling for tyre life and was soon also caught by Mostert – the WAU driver was unable to get by quickly, so elected to pit and undercut the Kiwi at the end of lap 16.

Heimgartner pitted a lap later in an attempt to hold position. When he exited the lane, he was forced to defend on cold tyres –

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undeterred, Mostert simply drove around the outside of the Kiwi to take position.

Up front, De Pasquale, Davison and SVG had all closed up – the reigning champion in third was now just 2.1s behind the leader.

As a result, at the end of lap 19, Davison pitted and was followed in a lap later by De Pasquale.

Van Gisbergen did not pit until the end of lap 23, when the team elected to fit three tyres, one more than any other car.

The stop should have taken around 7s – it didn’t ... 11.5 as the left-rear was slow to go on.

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SVG re-joined down in 10th and had it all to do.

With 10 laps remaining SVG had made his way up to fifth; next on his hit list was Heimgartner.

The Triple Eight driver made his way by at Turn 5; but while he was going forward, his early-stopping teammate Feeney was going the other way.

Van Gisbergen was taking out a second a lap from the race leader and still had a shot at victory.

He overtook Mostert at the hairpin on lap 33 and quickly caught up to Davison, but

by tnow had used the best of his tyres.He hounded Davison but to no avail – a rear brake lock-up into Turn 5 on the penultimate lap extinguished any chance.

Out front, De Pasquale broke through to take his first win of the season from Davison and SVG, all within 1.5s. Did the slow stop for SVG cost him the win? … we’ll never know.

Mostert crossed the line in fourth – however for the second day running he was disqualified, this time because a team member was seen blowing cool air into the car on the grid, something that is strictly forbidden in Supercars.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 6 Hidden Valley, DARWIN Right: Andre Heimgartner pushed the BJR car right into contention – finishing just off the podium in all three races.

Bottom: After just missing the set-up on Saturday, Cam Waters was on it for Sunday – with a pole, a win and a podium.

Far right: Will Davison was Mr Qualifying this week – two poles contributing to two seconds and a fourth.

Heimgartner therefore inherited fourth and Winterbottom scored his best result of the season in fifth ahead of his Team 18 teammate Scott Pye. Waters limited the damage, coming from 12th to finish 7th.

Feeney was a sitting duck late in the race, falling behind Winterbottom, Pye and Waters in the last 10 laps. He came home eighth ahead of Courtney and the Kostecki cousins, Brodie and Jake. Percat recovered from 21st to finish in 14th.

QUALIFYING, RACES 17 & 18 – MORE FORD POLES WATERS AND Davison split the Sunday pole positions at Hidden Valley Raceway.

After qualifying 12th the day before, Waters and Tickford rebounded emphatically to take pole.

Reynolds continued Grove Racing’s strong run of results, qualifying on the front-row of the grid.

Davison qualified in third alongside the fastest Holden driver, van Gisbergen. Then came De Pasquale, Heimgartner and Feeney.

Jack Le Brocq impressed, putting his #34 Matt Stone Racing car in eighth, within 0.3s of pole.

Mostert qualified ninth ahead of Winterbottom, Fullwood and Percat who would have been a little more satisfied with 12th place.

Best hit the wall at Turn 1 and sustained damage – he qualified 27th for both races.

With the Dunlop rubber laid down, Davison not only took pole for Race 18, but beat the lap record he had set 24 hours earlier.

Davison again beat De Pasquale.

Feeney qualified in third, only 0.044s slower than De Pasquale and ahead of Race 17 pole man Waters. Van Gisbergen would have been disappointed with fifth place, only 0.006s faster than Mostert.

Pye ended up in seventh, from Brown, Jake Kostecki and Heimgartner.

Winterbottom got bogged at Turn 1 and was lucky not to cause a red flag.

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RACE 17 – THREE IN FIVE FOR WATERS IT WAS an even start between Waters and Reynolds on the front row, and like ADP in the first race, Reynolds tried to go around the outside at Turn 1, but it didn’t pay off – indeed, Davison slid up the inside and snatched second.

The race however was very quickly redflagged following a frightening crash.

Out of Turn 5 the mid-pack propped; Courtney was in the middle and unsighted and PremiAir Racing driver Garry Jacobson clipped Courtney.

The impact spun the Ford Mustang sideways across the grass and out of control all the way across to the exit of the Turn 6 hairpin.

Randle and Pye couldn’t miss the stricken Ford. All three drivers escaped unhurt, but their cars battered, and in need of extensive repairs before the final race.

Todd Hazelwood was also involved, but he was able to continue, albeit with substantial damage.

When the race restarted Waters led Davison, Reynolds, SVG, ADP, Le Brocq,

Heimgartner, Fullwood and Mostert, with Feeney 11th.

Waters immediately defended from Davison into Turn 1 as Reynolds blocked SVG who himself came under attack from ADP. Once again, Feeney was first of the contenders to stop, on lap 10. However as he re-joined the track, he locked up and ran off the road at Turn 1. Young bloke, cold tyres ...

All the leaders did not react and remained on track until just before the halfway mark.

SVG had caught up to Reynolds and was losing precious time behind him. Triple Eight brought in the #97 machine and fitted two tyres.

The following lap, both Waters and Davison responded and also elected to take two tyres.

Mostert came in at the end of lap 20, while the other two contenders, De Pasquale and Reynolds, left it until lap 23 to pit – notably the latter took on four tyres in a bid to march through late on.

After the stops had been completed, Waters led Davison, SVG, the early stopping

Le Brocq and De Pasquale, while Reynolds sat in ninth, having lost track position after taking on four tyres.

De Pasquale made light work of Le Brocq and honed in on the back of the #97 machine.

The DJR cars were flying late on as, further forward, Davison closed onto the tail of leader Waters but he was never quite close enough to find a way by.

In the end Waters held onto the win by 0.6s, his third victory in five races. Davison was second once again, from SVG, De Pasquale and Reynolds, who did not ultimately get the benefit of four tyres as expected after losing to much track position early in the stint.

Le Brocq scored his best race result of the year in sixth ahead of Winterbottom, Mostert, Heimgartner and Percat who scored his first top 10 since the Australian Grand Prix.

RACE 18 – A TOP END CLASSIC A LATE race Safety Car threw a spanner in the works and created a thrilling finale to the Darwin Triple Crown.

Tickford Racing worked wonders to get not only Randle back on track for Race 3 but, incredibly, Courtney as well. Sadly for Team 18, Pye’s weekend had run its course.

As soon as the lights went out De Pasquale took the lead from Davison. Feeney from third made a poor start and lost multiple positions on the run to Turn 1.

At the end of the opener, ADP led Davison, Waters, SVG, Mostert and Feeney.

The top two pulled a gap early – by the end of lap 3 they were 2s up the road as the drivers settled into the groove.

Mostert was the first of the contenders to blink, pitting very early, on lap 9 ,and taking two tyres – this decision put him in clear air and he put the hammer down.

Next of the contenders in was Feeney on lap 15 who also took on two tyres.

As he had been all year, SVG was superior late in the stint, and on lap 17 made his way

by Waters.

At the end of lap 19, De Pasquale pitted, notably taking on three tyres, and re-joined the race 5s behind Mostert who had used the undercut to great effect.

The various strategies were playing out; Waters pitted on lap 21 and Davison on lap 23 with the pair taking on four fresh tyres.

SVG pitted in the middle and took on three.

QUALIFYING RACE 16 Pos Driver Time 1 Will Davison 1:04.9542RSS 2 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.2819 3 Andre Heimgartner 0:00.3130 4 Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.3381 5 Mark Winterbottom 0:00.3980 6 Chaz Mostert 0:00.5144 7 David Reynolds 0:00.5268 8 Bryce Fullwood 0:00.8160 9 Scott Pye 0:00.8401 10 Jake Kostecki – 11 Chris Pither 0:00.5846 12 Cameron Waters 0:00.6089 13 Brodie Kostecki 0:00.6115 14 Thomas Randle 0:00.6316 15 Broc Feeney 0:00.6398 16 William Brown 0:00.7737 17 Jack Le Brocq 0:00.8060 18 Macauley Jones 0:00.9182 19 James Courtney 0:00.9265 20 Garry Jacobson 0:01.2687 21 Nick Percat 0:01.0938 22 Todd Hazelwood 0:01.0960 23 Jack Smith 0:01.1071 24 Tim Slade 0:01.1321 25 Jayden Ojeda 0:01.1498 26 Lee Holdsworth 0:01.2679 27 Zak Best 0:01.4008

QUALIFYING RACE 17 Pos Driver Time 1 Cameron Waters 1:05.2552*SS 2 David Reynolds 0:00.0468 3 Will Davison 0:00.1085 4 Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.1462 5 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.1683 6 Andre Heimgartner 0:00.2483 7 Broc Feeney 0:00.2658 8 Jack Le Brocq 0:00.2998 9 Chaz Mostert 0:00.3049 10 Mark Winterbottom 0:00.3669 11 Bryce Fullwood 0:00.4495 12 Nick Percat 0:00.4563 13 Scott Pye 0:00.4689 14 Thomas Randle 0:00.4813 15 Jake Kostecki 0:00.5060 16 Jack Smith 0:00.5061 17 Todd Hazelwood 0:00.5286 18 Lee Holdsworth 0:00.6396 19 William Brown 0:00.6570 20 James Courtney 0:00.6880 21 Tim Slade 0:00.6924 22 Garry Jacobson 0:00.6947 23 Brodie Kostecki 0:00.7026 24 Chris Pither 0:00.7358 25 Macauley Jones 0:00.7492 26 Jayden Ojeda 0:00.8306 27 Zak Best

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By the end of lap 25 Mostert’s lead had been slashed from 5s to less than 2s in just six laps.

Just moments later the Safety Car was deployed after Garry Jacobson and Best collided on the run to the Turn 6 hairpin. The significant contact broke Best’s steering and sent him out of control into the wall.

Stewards deemed that Jacobson did not leave Best sufficient racing room and handed him a drive-through-penalty.

The Safety Car turned the race on its head – Mostert on ancient tyres now had ADP, Davison, SVG, Feeney and Waters on him like a pack of hungry sharks. Could he possibly hold out?

SVG made a ripper restart on lap 31 and forced Davison to defend into the first turn,;Davison ran slightly wide and SVG attempted to fill the gap.

This ended in wheel-to-wheel contact which saw Davison lose multiple positions,

but crucially damaged SVG’s steering forcing him to nurse the car around for the remaining eight laps. To make matters worse SVG was then handed a 15s penalty for causing an avoidable incident.

Mostert led De Pasquale and Feeney was now in third but, like the leader, was on older rubber, and trying to hold Waters, and Heimgartner at bay.

The race went up a notch in intensity over the closing laps,.Mostert was forced to defend throughout the final two laps and no matter how hard ADP tried he could not find a way by.

In the end it was De Pasquale who made the error at Turn 10 on the final lap, which allowed Mostert space to take a memorable race win, the last for Holden in Darwin.

De Pasquale held onto second by just 0.14s.

Waters overtook Feeney into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap and was followed through by pole-sitter Davison and Heimgartner.

Feeney came home disappointed with sixth ahead of Brown, Jake Kostecki, Winterbottom and Percat.

ADP came under investigation post-race for an alleged pitstop breach, running over his wheel gun when departing, but this was found to not be the case and his second place stood.

Developments at Hidden Valley have turned it into a top venue. Brown heads Winterbottom and Reynolds .

RESULTS RACE 16 38LAPS (110KMS) Pos Drivers Laps Race time 1 Anton De Pasquale 38 43:47.1156 2 Will Davison 38 43:48.2987 3 Shane van Gisbergen 38 43:48.5940 4 Andre Heimgartner 38 43:53.7924 5 Mark Winterbottom 38 44:01.5209 6 Scott Pye 38 44:05.4327 7 Cameron Waters 38 44:06.4942 8 Broc Feeney 38 44:11.0451 9 James Courtney 38 44:11.5209 10 Brodie Kostecki 38 44:12.0567 11 Jake Kostecki 38 44:12.5342 12 Tim Slade 38 44:16.6946 13 Jack Le Brocq 38 44:20.6666 14 Nick Percat 38 44:20.6899 15 Lee Holdsworth 38 44:21.1661 16 Todd Hazelwood 38 44:21.1930 17 Jayden Ojeda 38 44:22.2531 18 Bryce Fullwood 38 44:22.4212 19 Thomas Randle 38 44:26.2371 20 Macauley Jones 38 44:31.7588 21 Zak Best 38 44:45.8513 22 Garry Jacobson 38 44:49.1949 23 Chris Pither 37 44:40.4173 24 Jack Smith 35 44:23.1263 25 David Reynolds 31 44:02.6955 NC William Brown 2 2:26.6964 DSQ Chaz Mostert

s1 t-1 s1 -t 1 – s3 s5 s7 s10 s3 t-1 s12 s4 s7 s11 s6 s8 t-10 t-5 t-2 s6 t-2 t-12 – t-18 t-10 t-21

RESULTS RACE 17 38LAPS (110KMS) Pos Drivers Laps Race time 1 Cameron Waters 37 56:57.8420 2 Will Davison 37 56:58.4590 3 Shane van Gisbergen 37 56:59.6916 4 Anton De Pasquale 37 57:00.5896 5 David Reynolds 37 57:01.4947 6 Jack Le Brocq 37 57:08.3795 7 Mark Winterbottom 37 57:08.9081 8 Chaz Mostert 37 57:10.0768 9 Andre Heimgartner 37 57:10.4631 10 Nick Percat 37 57:15.2163 11 Jake Kostecki 37 57:20.8994 12 Lee Holdsworth 37 57:24.8097 13 Broc Feeney 37 57:25.3617 14 Tim Slade 37 57:25.9102 15 Bryce Fullwood 37 57:26.2503 16 Brodie Kostecki 37 57:27.0518 17 Macauley Jones 37 57:28.8922 18 Garry Jacobson 37 57:29.7607 19 Jack Smith 37 57:30.1651 20 William Brown 37 57:31.3057 21 Zak Best 37 57:33.1289 22 Chris Pither 37 57:37.2914 23 Jayden Ojeda 37 57:40.9850 24 Todd Hazelwood 29 57:42.5676 NC Thomas Randle 6 47:17.2888 NC James Courtney NC Scott Pye

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QUALIFYING RACE 18 – s1 s1 s1 t-3 s2 s3 s1 t-3 s2 s4 s6 t-6 s7 t-4 s7 s8 s4 t-3 t-1 s6 s2 s3 t-7 t-11 t-6 t-14

Pos Driver Time 1 Will Davison 1:04.8114RSS 2 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.1990 3 Broc Feeney 0:00.2434 4 Cameron Waters 0:00.3556 5 Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.4206 6 Chaz Mostert 0:00.4269 7 Scott Pye 0:00.6322 8 William Brown 0:00.6520 9 Jake Kostecki 0:00.6624 10 Andre Heimgartner 0:00.7177 11 Mark Winterbottom 0:00.7322 12 David Reynolds 0:00.7399 13 Jack Le Brocq 0:00.7495 14 Thomas Randle 0:00.7856 15 Lee Holdsworth 0:00.8007 16 Nick Percat 0:00.8146 17 Tim Slade 0:00.8336 18 Todd Hazelwood 0:00.8558 19 James Courtney 0:00.8630 20 Bryce Fullwood 0:00.8842 21 Chris Pither 0:00.9137 22 Macauley Jones 0:00.9538 23 Jayden Ojeda 0:00.9698 24 Brodie Kostecki 0:00.9972 25 Jack Smith 0:01.0317 26 Garry Jacobson 0:01.1248 27 Zak Best No Time

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RESULTS RACE 18 38LAPS (110KMS) Pos Drivers Laps Race time 1 Chaz Mostert 38 47:06.0030 2 Anton De Pasquale 38 47:06.9610 3 Cameron Waters 38 47:07.1065 4 Will Davison 38 47:07.4963 5 Andre Heimgartner 38 47:09.3086 6 Broc Feeney 38 47:09.3188 7 William Brown 38 47:14.8722 8 Jake Kostecki 38 47:15.0494 9 Mark Winterbottom 38 47:15.2544 10 Nick Percat 38 47:15.3909 11 Tim Slade 38 47:15.6205 12 David Reynolds 38 47:17.3079 13 Jack Le Brocq 38 47:17.5002 14 Bryce Fullwood 38 47:17.6765 15 Thomas Randle 38 47:18.1236 16 Lee Holdsworth 38 47:18.6108 17 Jack Smith 38 47:21.7508 18 Macauley Jones 38 47:21.9216 19 James Courtney 38 47:22.6241 20 Chris Pither 38 47:25.0507 21 Shane van Gisbergen 38 47:46.0390 22 Garry Jacobson 38 47:49.0435 23 Todd Hazelwood 37 47:25.4084 24 Brodie Kostecki 37 47:55.4957 NC Jayden Ojeda 25 47:25.6338 NC Zak Best 24 28:21.0660 DNS Scott Pye

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 06 s5 – s1 t-3 s5 t-3 s1 s1 s2 s6 s6 – – s6 t-1 t-1 s8 s4 – s1 t-16 s4 t-5 – t-2 1 t-20

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Driver Shane van Gisbergen Anton de Pasquale Cameron Waters Will Davison David Reynolds Chaz Mostert Broc Feeney Brodie Kostecki Andre Heimgartner Tim Slade Mark Winterbottom Lee Holdsworth James Courtney Todd Hazelwood Nick Percat Will Brown Macauley Jones Jack Le Brocq Scott Pye Bryce Fullwood Jake Kostecki Thomas Randle Chris Pither Garry Jacobson Jack Smith Jayden Ojeda Jordan Boys

Points 1581 1367 1293 1287 1111 1107 1059 977 954 903 887 876 852 796 789 784 627 624 589 580 575 562 526 513 502 150 62

– – – – – – – – s3 t-1 s3 t-1 t-3 t-1 s1 t-1 – s2 t-1 s1 s3 t-3 t-1 t-1 – – –

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MOTOGP

TEAM GRESINI LOCKS IN MARQUEZ AND DI GIANNANTONIO

Images: Motorsport Images

QUARTARARO MASTERCLASS IN GERMANY ...

Report: Dan McCarthy IT WAS yet another Fabio Quartararo masterclass as the reigning MotoGP World Champion dominated the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

The factory Yamaha rider took the race win by 4.9s from Johann Zarco, while Aussie Jack Miller came back from a longlap penalty to finish third, his third podium of the season.

Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro remains second in the title race after finishing fourth, but the Ducati Team’s Francesco Bagnaia inexplicably crashed out while chasing Quartararo on Lap 4.

Bagnaia’s crash let Quartararo off the leash and he romped to a dominant win.

Pramac Racing’s Johann Zarco finished in

a lonely second, in what he described postrace as the most physical of his MotoGP career.

Aussie Miller was handed a long lap penalty for dangerous riding when he crashed under yellow flag conditions in Practice 4.

The long lap dropped him towards the tail of the top 10 early in the race, but Miller was in fine form and stormed back through the field to finish third, a good bounce-back after scoring just three points in the previous two races.

It appeared at the halfway stage it would be a fight between the two Aprilias for third, with Maverick Vinales catching his championship contending teammate Espargaro.

However, the rear ride height device on Vinales’ Aprilia got stuck on and the bike became unrideable, forcing him to retire.

Espargaro’s pace dropped late on and he ran wide at Turn 1 – Miller didn’t need another invitation and he snatched third.

Espargaro came home in fourth ahead of VR46 Racing Team’s Luca Marini who matched his career-best MotoGP finish of fifth.

Marini prevailed in a race long battle with Jorge Martin, while KTM star Brad Binder demonstrated once again his long run pace on Sunday moving up from 15th to finish in seventh.

The top 10 was rounded out by Fabio Di Giannantonio, Miguel Oliveira and former championship contender Enea Bastianini.

TEAM GRESINI has locked in its MotoGP line-up for next season, confirming that Fabio Di Giannantonio will remain with the team and will be joined by Alex Marquez.

The Italian team selected former Moto2 and Moto3 champion and younger bother of Marc Marquez, Alex, to replace Enea Bastianini who is moving further up the Ducati tree.

Marquez has accumulated a total of 40 podiums and 12 race wins across the three classes, including two second place finishes in the premier class back in 2020. His fourth season in the series will be the first away from Honda.

The satellite Ducati squad will run 2022 spec Ducatis next year for both Di Giannantonio and Marquez.

“I’m really happy to announce that I’ll be joining Team Gresini MotoGP,” Marquez said. “I’m also very excited to be starting this new adventure: it was crucial for me to change in order to recover the same type of motivation I had when I first joined this class.

“This was the best option for me, with a team that helped writing the history of this championship.

“I would like to thank Nadia, Carlo and all the GR staff for believing in me. I still have half a season left to do my best before starting 2023 with top motivation.”

A rookie this year, Di Giannantonio has scored points in four of the last five races, and already has a pole position in the premier class and an eighth place as a best race result.

“I’m really happy to extend my partnership with this team, which is like a family to me,” Di Giannantonio said.

“It’s great because we’ll continue on this learning curve, and we’ll be doing so with a Ducati – and that makes me very happy.

“Continuity is key in MotoGP in order to be able to work on myself to be the best possible. We have been working on this contract extension for a little while, and now we can finally announce it.

“Obviously the goals will be higher: we’ll be using this second part of the season to improve our results and then next year I really want to make that step up.”

It is yet to be determined if Bastianini will step up to the factory Ducati squad to replace the seat vacated Jack Miller.

As the week go by it appears more likely that Bastianini will move to Pramac Ducati in place of Jorge Martin who is the favourite to take the factory position. Dan McCarthy

... BUT BAGNAIA AT ASSEN AFTER TWO consecutive retirements, Francesco Bagnaia rebounded in the best way possible, converting pole to victory in a drama filled Dutch TT, in which notably championship leader Fabio Quartararo crashed not once but twice.

It was an action-packed and highly unpredictable race in the Netherlands, and in taking the win Bagnaia may have just kept his championship hopes alive.

Despite tangling with Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro made an incredible recovery and as a result slashed the lead that Quartararo holds in the championship.

From pole. Bagnaia made the best start and led into Turn 1, while Quartararo made an ‘unforced error’ and fell from second to fourth behind Espargaro and Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin.

Within a couple of turns, Quartararo was back ahead of Martin then went down the inside of Espargaro at De Strubben, but could not keep the RS-GP behind him.

Immediately, Bagnaia started to edge away from the pair behind – and Quartararo was growing impatient.

The World Championship leader fired up

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the inside of his nearest title rival on lap five at Turn 5 and lost the front.

Quartararo fell and his bike slid into an innocent Espargaro nudging him into the gravel trap.

Espargaro was able tohe stay upright but could only re-join in 15th, while the Frenchman also remounted and attempted to continue, but well down.

It left Bagnaia out front, from Marco Bezzecchi, who overtook Martin on lap 3.

Aussie Jack Miller served his long lap penalty for holding up Maverick Vinales in qualifying and dropped to 10th.

KTM’s Brad Binder sat fourth until lap 10 when he was passed by Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.

Vinales was not the only Aprilia flying – Esparagaro was the fastest man on track and quickly marching forward.

Quartararo’s race had gone from bad to worse – he was flung from his damaged bike on the exit of Turn 5 this time and walked away from the crash very gingerly.

Out-front, Bagnaia had no such issues, and despite persistent light rain continued to hold around a 1.5s margin over Bezzecchi.

In these tricky conditions, Vinales passed Martin for third at the Geert Timmer Chicane on Lap 17, then both Binder and Miller overtook the Pramac rider, who was struggling for confidence, on the next lap.

For the second weekend in a row, Miller was fighting back strongly after a long lap penalty and made light work of overtaking Binder for fourth on lap 21.

He quickly caught Vinales and made his move at the Timmer Chicane on the penultimate lap but ran wide handing the place immediately back – Miller was now under pressure from Binder.

Bagnaia controlled the race and took the win by 0.444s from fellow VR46 Academy rider Bezzecchi. For both Bezzecchi and Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team it was their first MotoGP podium.

It was also a first podium for Maverick Vinales on an Aprilia, his first in 12 months.

At the final chicane Binder made a move on Miller as Espargaro made his way past the pair.

Espargaro crossed the line an incredible fourth – a case of what might have been

had the crash not occurred.

Binder crossed the line in fifth ahead of frustrated Australian Miller. Martin came home in seventh ahead of the lead Suzuki of Joan Mir, Miguel Oliveira and Alex Rins.

The other Aussie, Remy Gardner, came home in 19th position. Dan McCarthy STANDINGS AFTER 11 ROUNDS 1 Quartararo 172 2 Espargaro 151 3 Zarco 114 4 Bagnaia 106 5 Bastianini 105 6 Binder 93 7 Miller 91 8 Mir 77 9 Rins 75 10 Oliveira 71

WRC

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CHANGING OF THE GUARD REPORT: Josh Nevett KALLE ROVANPERA chalked up a fourth win in six World Rally Championship rounds at the 2022 Safari Rally, strengthening his position as the title favourite approaching the halfway point of the campaign.

Two WRC icons, Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier, returned for the event in Kenya, however the extra competition did little to slow Rovanpera’s momentum, the Toyota Gazoo Racing young gun finishing just under one minute clear of teammate Elfyn Evans.

Despite just needing a solid points haul to maintain his overall ascendency, Rovanpera surged into a lead on the opening day from Ogier, who was forced into a wheel change.

He extended his advantage on Saturday in testing wet conditions, staying out of trouble while battling illness.

With a lead of 40.3s heading into the final day, one would have forgiven Rovanpera for taking his foot off the gas, however he instead won two further stages and ended the rally 52.8 clear of Evans.

As a result, the 21-year-old Finn now leads the championship by 65 points with seven rounds remaining.

“It feels great,” Rovanpera said.

“I have to say, this was the hardest rally I have ever done and if I am honest we just have to thank the team.”

Rovanpera and Evans were part of a Toyota lockout of positions one to four.

“To have four cars like this with no issues

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means it is clearly the strongest and fastest car. The team did a fantastic job,” Rovanpera added.

Behind Rovanpera, Evans stayed on the straight and narrow after a drama-filled Rally Italy, overcoming a puncture and windscreen issues to finish a clear second.

Katsuta completed the podium 49.9s behind him, backing up his 2021 Safari Rally podium with a second in succession.

The Japanese driver and eight-time champion Ogier, who finished fourth, ensured that Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated the results, extending the squads manufacturers’ series lead by 62 points.

Ogier arrived in Kenya as the most recent Safari Rally winner, but he was out of the outright running on Friday after his tyre troubles and had further woes on the second day when his engine took on a load of African sand.

Nevertheless, the 38-year-old recovered to fourth and ensured he contributed to Toyota’s success. The last time the team swept first to fourth was in Kenya in 1993.

“To achieve a 1-2-3-4 here at the Safari Rally is an exceptional result,” Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala said.

“It’s nearly 30 years since Toyota managed the same feat here in Kenya with the Celica and I can only thank our team and our drivers for the superb job they have done.

“When we were developing the GR Yaris Rally1 we focused

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above all on making a really strong and reliable car. This was really the most important thing on this event and the car has worked really well in such difficult conditions.

“Our drivers have also driven this rally exactly the way it needs to be driven, which is in a very smart way, and it was great to see them all thinking about the result for the team rather than their own personal ambitions.”

Thierry Neuville made it into the top five in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, 10m back from Ogier.

The Belgian driver could have been much closer if not for a 10-minute penalty which he received after crashing into a tree on Saturday’s Sleeping Warrior final stage.

Craig Breen led M-Sport Ford, managing suspension problems to finish sixth after pulling up early on Friday.

Puma privateer Jourdan Serderidis manage to finish seventh as his more accomplished rivals struggled.

Loeb was one of those, the nine-time champion forced to retire with engine issues on Friday. He was classified eighth in his M-Sport Ford Puma.

Polish driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz scored top honours in WRC2 and earned a top 10 outright position as a result.

Swedish youngster Oliver Solberg rounded out the top 10, despite troubles on the final morning.

Solberg was brought to a halt by a clogged air filter, stopping the middle of the road and causing the cancellation of Sunday’s opener. He managed to re-join the field but could only crawl to the line with mechanical issues.

Likewise, Estonian Ott Tanak was plagued by mechanical failures in his Hyundai, sidelined by a broken propshaft and then broken power steering on Sunday. He finished way down the order.

As did M-Sport Ford teammates Gus Greensmith and Adrien Formaux.

Greensmith was eliminated on SS8, while Fourmaux’s run ended due to suspension issues.

The 2022 World Rally Championship resumes next month with Rally Estonia set for July 14-17.

STANDINGS AFTER 6 ROUNDS 1 Rovanpera 145 2 Neuville 80 3 Tanak 62 4 Katsuta 62 5 Breen 60

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INTERNATIONAL

TALE OF TWO IT WAS a tale of two in the fourth round of the GT World Challenge Europe series with championship rivals the Dries Vanthoor/ Charles Weerts and Raffaele Marciello/Timur Boguslavskiy combinations both taking wins at Zandvoort.

In the opening race of the weekend, Vanthoor and Weerts moved back to the head of the Sprint Challenge standings, scoring a comfortable win in the #32 Audi R8 Team WRT car.

Weerts made a clean getaway, maintaining the lead around Turn 1.

Behind, Ulysse De Pauw moved the #53 AF Corse Ferrari up from third to second, while Jules Gounon gained two places in the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG to run third.

Initially it seemed that De Pauw, just a few tenths behind, might be able to challenge Weerts for the lead of the race, however once Weerts settled into a rhythm the Audi was beyond reach.

In the compulsory stop, the #53 Ferrari was jumped by the #88 Mercedes-AMG, a change for second.

A late race Safety Car threw another spanner in the works, but Vanthoor and Weerts took the race win ahead of Gounon and Jim Pla. On the Safety Car restart Christopher Haase and Simon Gachot snatched third from De Pauw/ Pierre Alexandre Jean.

Former championship leaders Marciello and Boguslavskiy suffered a horrible day, –after lap one contact the pair were handed a penalty, though this became irrelevant when contact with the #12 Audi resulted in a puncture. They finished 23rd.

Sunday was a lot more positive for Marciello and Boguslavskiy, rebounding from Saturday to take their third race win of the season.

Marciello started from pole and was in a class of his own, maintaining his advantage into Turn 1 and immediately bolting from the pack.

Behind him the battle for P2 raged for the opening 30 minutes. Vincent Abril held second in the #112 McLaren, while Vanthoor sat third.

Vanthoor was marginally faster than Abril, but the McLaren’s superior acceleration off the final corner allowed him to stay ahead.

In the stops, Vanthoor and Weerts leapt ahead of Dennis Lind who took over from Abril, to take second.

When leader Marciello handed the car over to Boguslavskiy he held an eight second advantage.

This was quickly wiped out as the Safety Car was called for a stationary car.

Boguslavskiy made a good restart, but Weerts closed up and began to apply pressure to the leader.

Boguslavskiy did not have the pace of Weerts but if he drove faultlessly would hold on. He did just that, a faultless drive earning he and Marciello victory.

Weerts and Vanthoor (below) were second and in the championship the two teams are split by just 0.5 points.

Behind the leaders Pieter Schothorst and Dennis Marschall held onto third from Gounon and Pla, and Lind/Abril.

Dan McCarthy

Image: Motorsport Images

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PERFECT STORM REPORT: Josh Nevett FILIPE ALBUQUERQUE and Ricky Taylor overcame car damage and fuel challenges to claim a stirring victory in the IMSA Sportscar Championship Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Wild weather including lightning saw the endurance race halted and then restarted with Aussie Matt Campbell has increased his series lead in GTD Pro. just 21 minutes to go, the #10 Images: Motorsport Images Acura (above) sitting in second behind Tom Blomqvist in the #60 and Renger van der Zande who shared the Meyer Shank Racing Acura. #1 Cadillac.

Albuquerque made his move almost The weather delay wreaked havoc in the immediately, pulling alongside Blomqvist GTD Pro class, as Team RLL were eliminated after four corners before the pair made from the running despite crossing the line first contact. Running wheel to wheel, it was the because one of its drivers failed to meet the former who won the battle and surged into adjusted minimum drive time for each driver. a lead.

A revised requirement of 1hr 17min per There was more drama to come though, driver was determined and not met by #25 Albuquerque losing his left mirror in an BMW steerers Connor De Phillippi, Augusto incident with a GTD car. Nevertheless, he was Farfus, and John Edwards, leaving the #23 able to defend front spot for the rest of the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage race, despite having to conserve fuel.

GT3 driven by Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas to Blomqvist and his teammate Oliver Jarvis inherit the victory. were second, ahead of Sebastien Bourdais Aussie Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet

(#9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3) extended their lead in the standings by finishing runner-up.

The same situation unfolded in GTD, #27 Heart of Racing drivers Roman De Angelis, Maxime Martin and Ian James awarded victory post-race due to a minimum driver time infringement.

In LMP2, the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 of Scott Huffaker, Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating came out on top in a nail-biting finish.

After six hours it came down to the final turn, as Louis Deletraz made a lunge for the win in the #8 Tower Motorsport ORECA. The final margin was just 0.107s between the two cars, Deletraz left disappointed along with his teammate John Farano.

Watkins Glen specialists Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga dominated the LMP3 class, winning by a full lap alongside Kay van Berlo despite the late red flag.

The #74 Riley Motorsports crew beat the #54 CORE Autosport Ligier squad of Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and George Kurtz.

AZCONA CELEBRATES HOME WIN REPORT: Josh Nevett MIKEL AZCONA thrived in his home World Touring Car Cup event, splitting the wins with Gilles Magnus at Aragon to extend his advantage at the top of the standings.

The Spaniard (right) took his third victory of the season in Race 2 after Magnus claimed Race 1, leaving the two steerers as the men to beat in 2022.

Englishman Robert Huff was the quiet achiever of the weekend, scoring two podium finishes to be within reach of the series frontrunners.

Polesitter Magnus beat Huff by just 0.393s in the first encounter, after a riveting battle between the pair that lasted the duration of the race.

Nathanael Berthon crossed the line third for Team Audi Sport, however a 5s penalty for colliding with Yann Ehrlacher relegated him to fourth.

As a result, Azcona inherited the final podium position in his Hyundai Elantra N TCR.

Image: Motorsport Images Ehrlacher was the victim of not one but two separate incidents of prohibited contact, as Norbert Michelisz was also penalised for hitting the defending champion, who finished fifth.

Azcona improved to prevail in Race 2, his second WTCR win at the venue.

The win was not without challenge, as Ma Qing Hua and Huff’s team-mate Daniel Nagy

both led at different stages, however Azcona emerged out front 0.802s ahead of Huff.

“It was a crazy start, I have to say,” Azcona said.

“On the first lap there were a lot of cars in front of me and I tried to keep the car in one piece, I didn’t want to create any crashes.

“I’m very happy because we took so many points.

“It’s incredible to take a victory here in Spain with fans, family, friends and everybody. I must say thank you very much to my team, Hyundai Motorsport and BRC, they are giving me a fantastic car to fight for top positions.

“Third victory of the season and I’m very happy. We just keep working on this line for Vila Real.”

Barcelona-based Uruguayan Santiago Urrutia moved forward to complete the podium.

Nagy, Ehrlacher and Ma followed, the latter dropping from partially reversed grid pole.

THRILL OF THE CHASE REPORT: Josh Nevett A FIVE lap sprint to the finish decided the 300-lap NASCAR Cup Series Nashville 400, with 2020 champion Chase Elliott (pictured) coming out on top.

The #9 Chevrolet driver led each of the final 39 laps thanks to a unique pitting strategy, crossing the line 0.551s ahead of Kurt Busch for his second victory of the season.

Multiple weather delays disrupted the encounter at Nashville Superspeedway, as well as several crash-related caution periods.

The final caution came with nine laps remaining, after Josh Bilicki was brought to a halt by an engine failure.

The resulting yellow flag prompted Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. to pit from the front of the field, while Elliott elected to stay out on track.

The latter strategy ultimately paid off, as Elliott defending grimly from Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney to win for the 15th time in his career.

Busch and Blaney earned their spots on the podium in the #45 Toyota and #12 Ford, respectively.

Earlier, the first weather delay came at lap 42 when nearby lightning forced a stoppage.

Crews sat stationary for an hour before the action resumed, Alex Bowman’s day coming to an early end shortly after when his #48 Chevrolet hit the wall at Turn 2. Bowman attempted to get his car moving again but the machine lost critical bodywork in the process of returning to the pits.

Chase Briscoe also ran into trouble, getting sideways in the #14 Ford on lap 61 while battling with Ty Dillon, who also lost control into the outside wall. Fortunately, both remained in the contest.

Images: Motorsport Images Racing continued until lap 139, just 11 laps short of the halfway point, at which point lightning struck again, stopping the race for a further two hours.

It appeared that one of the Joe Gibbs trio would take a hold of the race once the weather cleared, however it was Elliott who rose from 25th mid race to take the chocolates.

“I’m so proud of our team,” Elliott said.

“We had a setback about halfway, but we were able to get the Chevy dialled back in and get back in the mix.

“It was a long day, a fun day… I’m so proud of our team. We’ve had a pretty rough month, month-and-a-half. It’s just nice to get back going in the right direction.

“Getting a win is always huge. To do it in a really cool city like Nashville is even better. I’m looking forward to that guitar (trophy).”

Elliot now leads the NASCAR Cup standings by 30 points from Ross Chastain who finished fifth behind Kyle Larson.

Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick ran sixth through 10th, respectively.

RAST ENTERS TITLE FRAME THE THIRD DTM round at Imola saw a veteran move into the title fight and a youngster breakthrough.

Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast (right), after a oneyear absence in the category, scored his first race victory since November 2020 in the weekend’s opening race.

The last time Rast won a DTM race was when it was a touring car championship and, after a couple of mediocre rounds on his return, he showed that he was back and means business.

The ABT Audi driver kept cool and secured a lights-to-flag victory, he controlled the race out front taking the victory from his fellow Audi R8 driver by 3.8s.

Second place went to Rast’s 2019 and 2020 DTM title rival Nico Muller.

Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti finished third, his third top three finish in the first five races. What made this podium impressive was that due to a grid penalty he had to march from 16th on the grid.

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Just before the end of the race, Bortolotti overtook Thomas Preining, preventing the maiden podium finish for Preining, Porsche and Kus Team Bernhard in DTM. Kelvin van der Linde rounded out the top five. His brother and championship leader finished eighth and continued his point scoring run.

Sunday’s race saw another Audi 1-2 finish – however this time it was two drivers who scored their maiden DTM podiums At the end of the race Swiss GT ace, 22-year-old Ricardo Feller claimed his race win.

Dev Gore finished second with the Rosberg Audi team and in doing so secured the first-ever podium result for an American driver in the long history of DTM. Former champion, BMW driver Marco Wittmann finished third, he snuck by Lucas Auer (AUT) in the final lap of the race.

Having secured his maiden pole position in qualifying, Feller was obviously delighted to convert it to victory.

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“This simply feels really nice,” he said post-race. “After the restart, I didn’t know whether it would be enough, but I just gave it all I had.”

“This is really cool! My team has done everything right during the Safety Car phase, I was just worried whether the tyres would last.

“I am the first American on the DTM podium, that is making me really proud.”

Behind Auer came championship leader Sheldon van der Linde.

The Saturday podium finishers did not fare well on Sunday, Race 1 winner Rast failed to make it to the end of the race after a puncture damaged his car, Muller was eighth and Bortolotti 10th.

Dan McCarthy STANDINGS after Round 3 1 Sheldon van der Linde 2 Mirko Bortolotti 3 Nico Muller 4 Lucas Auer 5 Rene Rast

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Formula 1 Round 09 Montreal, Canadian GP

MORE OF THE MAX FACTOR LECLERC PAYS AN ONGOING PRICE FOR RELIABLITY ISSUES; SAINZ STARS

By LUIS VASCONCELOS Images Motorsport Images MAX VERSTAPPEN won the Canadian Grand Prix, on the return of Formula One to Montreal after two years away, but the World Champion had to be inch-perfect in the last 15 laps to prevent an inspired Carlos Sainz from finally winning his first Formula One race.

The Spaniard had his most competitive weekend since the start of the season but two small, but crucial mistakes, took him out of the battle for pole position and then, on the last lap of the race, robbed him of his best chance to attack Verstappen on the run down to the chicane.

It’s now four races that Ferrari has had the quickest car but it’s a Red Bull that wins the races. After Leclerc retired from the lead in Spain and dropped to P4 in Monaco due to a strategic mistake, the Monegasque suffered his second DNF of the season in Baku, retiring again from the lead and, again, with another Power Unit-related issue. That also triggered the need for Ferrari to give Leclerc two almost complete new Power Units in Canada, dooming him to a start from the back of the grid.

As in Baku, it was Max Verstappen that capitalised on his rival’s misfortune and he has now won six races out of the nine we’ve had so far, so it’s no surprise the Red Bull driver has a 49-points gap over Leclerc and still has the buffer of team mate Sérgio Pérez – who retired with a gearbox problem in Canada – sitting three points ahead of the Ferrari driver.

With the Monegasque’s entire weekend geared up for race preparation and having the best possible top speed for overtaking, Ferrari even brought forward one new rear wing that had been prepared for the British Grand Prix, with a smaller main plane and a

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bigger DRS flap.

Verstappen’s only rivals, on paper, were team mate Sérgio Pérez and Ferrari’s second driver, Carlos Sainz. But with Red Bull finding a balance for the RB18 that made it perfect for Verstappen’s driving style – with a strong front end and a loose rear – the Mexican was never a factor in Canada. He didn’t even make it to Q3 in a wet qualifying after understeering into the barrier at Turn 3 and retired early in the race, while still laying in P10, with a gearbox issue.

That left Sainz as the only man with a car good enough to fight Verstappen but in the very wet qualifying it was another Spaniard that shone – none other than two-times World Champion Fernando Alonso, who returned to the front row of a Formula One grid after nearly 10 years!

But while the Alpine driver’s speed was phenomenal, it was a do-or-die attempt by Sainz into the last chicane that helped him get ahead of his fellow countryman. The

Ferrari driver explained: “I knew I was a bit behind Max after the second sector and he had better straight line speed, so he’d be gaining a bit on the last sector too, so I just sent it into the chicane, got sideways and that cost me a place on the front row ...”

Verstappen, on the other hand, was supreme in dry or wet conditions, got pole position by more than 0.6s and completely out of reach for his team mate.

The reason? “In these kind of corners the front end of the car is working well; It can also be a little bit more track dependent –on street circuits in general: you need more front end, or it would be nice to have a car which has a very strong front end, which I think was not the case for me in the last two races in qualifying. But then in the race, it was always quite OK. Because then you’re chasing a little bit of a different balance.”

With Leclerc fighting his way through the field to end the race in fifth place – missing the opportunity to beat Russell with a slow

Ocon finished sixth for Alpine – but only after the dynamic veterean Alonso suffered some engine issues in the race, after a front-row start!

pit stop that put him behind a train of cars after his only stop of the race – it was up to Carlos Sainz to pick up the mantle, and the least one can say is that the Spaniard did as good a job as it could have been asked from him.

At the start, Verstappen reacted much quicker than Alonso and quickly pulled away. By lap 3, as soon as DRS was available, Sainz got past Alonso for second but was already 2.4s behind the Dutchman – out of DRS range. The gap remained stable for the next six laps but, feeling his rear tyres were going, Verstappen used the VSC period deployed to remove Pérez’s car from a run-off area, to pit for the Hard tyre, resuming in third place, behind Alonso.

Max explained that, “we then moved into a two-stopper but we did our strategy and I think for us it worked. And I think at that second stop, of course, I had the fresher tyres. I was closing in on Carlos, but I was

Zho Granyu followed Bottas home for a strong 7th/8th team result.

IS MERCEDES’ RECOVERY FOR REAL?

Sainz had pace but couldn’t quite get close enough to Verstappen over the final laps.

Riccciardo beat his team-mate, but McLaren had a bad one – no points ...

Lewis Hamilton got the bettter of his team-mate for the first time – and a first podium for 2022. not sure if I actually would fully close that gap to the end of the race.”

A second VSC, on lap 19, to remove Schumacher’s stranded Haas – another Ferrari PU failure – gave Sainz the chance to also get a “free” pit stop. He resumed 9.5s behind his rival, with the advantage of having much fresher tyres and with the possibility of going all the way to the flag.

By lap 42 that gap was down to 6s and Red Bull pulled the trigger, calling Verstappen into the pits for a second time.

Resuming 9.8s behind the Ferrari driver, the Dutchman went on the attack, got the gap down to 7.7s in the next four laps but then the SC was sent out after Tsunoda crashed coming out of the pits.

So Ferrari pitted Sainz and sent him out

QUALIFYING RACE 09

right behind the Red Bull driver, who, at this stage of the race, was not a happy bunny: “When the Safety Car came out I was not very happy, because I knew that Carlos had fresh tyres behind me, and a little bit more pace compared to me and it’s difficult to defend.”

Defend he did, by not putting a wheel wrong, as the Red Bull’s top speed helped him in the last 15 laps, with Sainz always able to use DRS but never close enough coming out of the hairpin to be able to make a move. That’s why the young Spanish wasn’t too frustrated he’d missed out, again, on his first Grand Prix win: “I was pushing flat out, I wasn’t leaving any inch to the walls under braking. I was pushing everything with the battery. I tried

RESULTS RACE 09 70 LAPS MONTREAL

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 9

Pos Driver

Time

Pos Drivers

Make

Laps Margin

1

Max Verstappen

1:21.299

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing RBPT

70

2

Fernando Alonso

1:21.944

2

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

3

Carlos Sainz

1:22.096

3

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

4

Lewis Hamilton

1:22.891

4

George Russell

5

Kevin Magnussen

1:22.960

6

Mick Schumacher

7 8 9

Pos Driver

Points

–

1

Max Verstappen

175

–

70

+0.993s s1

2

70

+7.006s s1

3

Sergio Perez

129

–

Charles Leclerc

126

Mercedes

70

+12.313s s4

–

4

George Russell

111

5 Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

70

–

+15.168s s14

5

Carlos Sainz

102

1:23.356

6 Esteban Ocon

Alpine Renault

70

–

+23.890s s1

6

Lewis Hamilton

77

–

Esteban Ocon

1:23.529

7

Valtteri Bottas

Alfa Romeo Ferrari

George Russell

1:23.557

8 Zhou Guanyu

Alfa Romeo Ferrari

70

+25.247s s4

7

Lando Norris

50

–

70

+26.952s s2

8

Valtteri Bottas

46

Daniel Ricciardo

1:23.749

9

–

70

+29.945s t-7

9

Esteban Ocon

39

10 Zhou Guanyu

1:24.030

–

10 Lance Stroll

Aston Martin Mercedes 70

+38.222s s7

10 Fernando Alonso

18 s1

11

1:26.788

11 Daniel Ricciardo

Mclaren Mercedes

70

+43.047s t-2

11

16 t-1

12 Alexander Albon

1:26.858

12 Sebastian Vettel

Aston Martin Mercedes 70

+44.245s s4

12 Kevin Magnussen 15

–

13 Sergio Perez

1:33.127

13 Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

70

+44.893s t-1

13 Daniel Ricciardo

15

–

14 Lando Norris

No time

14 Pierre Gasly

Alphatauri RBPT

70

+45.183s s1

14 Sebastian Vettel

13

–

15 Pierre Gasly

1:34.492

15 Lando Norris

Mclaren Mercedes

70

+52.145s t-1

15 Yuki Tsunoda

11

–

16 Sebastian Vettel

1:34.512

16 Nicholas Latifi

Williams Mercedes

70

+59.978s s2

16 Zhou Guanyu

5 s2

17 Lance Stroll

1:35.532

17 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari

70

+68.180s t-12

17 Alexander Albon

3 t-1

18 Nicholas Latifi

1:35.660

NC Yuki Tsunoda

47

DNF s2

18 Lance Stroll

3 t-1

19 Charles Leclerc

No time

NC Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari

18

DNF t-13

19 Mick Schumacher

0

–

20 Yuki Tsunoda

1:36.575

NC Sergio Perez

7

DNF t-7

21 Nicholas Latifi

0

–

Valtteri Bottas

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Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault

Alphatauri RBPT Red Bull Racing RBPT

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1:36:21.757

Pierre Gasly

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everything to pass Max, but today we just didn’t have enough pace delta to get close enough in the hairpin to then get him a bit out of line into the chicane. The positive thing is that we were quicker, we were faster all race – it’s just that little bit more to overtake around here.”

Behind the two leaders, but not that far, Lewis Hamilton had his best weekend of the season and even held on to the leading duo after the SC period, sitting just 2s behind Sainz for the first seven laps, a clear sign of the progress Mercedes made this weekend. With Russell in P4, the German team scored strong points, to cut the gap to Ferrari to 40 points.

Charles Leclerc did what he could from 19th on the grid, patiently passing people without damaging his rear tyres too much before he got stuck behind Ocon, already on new tyres, after the second VSC period.

A dreadful pit stop – again – got him out behind a DRS train led by Stroll and he had to use a lot of his rear tyres to get past them and the two Alpines, so he had nothing left to attack Russell when he closed on the British driver with eight laps to go, having to settle for fifth place.

Fernando Alonso deserved a lot better after his qualifying and early laps heroics, but an air leak on the V6 cost him a lot of straight line speed, he couldn’t do anything about the Mercedes, Leclerc and team mate Ocon, getting the Frenchman’s help to keep him within DRS range to defend from the two Alfa Romeo drivers. But a last lap move to defend from Bottas cost the Spaniard a 5s penalty and a drop to P9, with Ocon being, again, the best of the Alpine drivers in 6th place.

Behind him Bottas led the much improved Zhou Guanyu for Alfa Romeo’s best team result of the season, with Lance Stroll collecting the final point in his home Grand Prix.

MERCEDES WAS at the centre of most of the controversy surrounding the FIA’s Technical Directive aimed at reducing porpoising and many, including Dr. Marko, believed the W13 was the car that lost out the most with the new technical guidelines. With all due respect, if that was the case, then I suppose that if the W13 had been the car that gained most with the new TD, then Hamilton and Russell would have scored an easy one-two in Montreal ...

Friday was a disaster for Hamilton, who tried a radical set-up that was so bad he parked the car midway through the long runs: “because the thing was undriveable.” With a more sensible set-up, the seven-times World Champion was fourth-quickest in a very wet qualifying, while a banzai attempt from Russell, who went for slicks when there was still a lot of standing water in the first two corners, put him briefly in the wall and down to P8 on the grid.

In the race, Hamilton ran mostly by himself, pitting during the first VSC period. Russell stopped on the second one, and they both easily got ahead of Alonso to settle in third and fourth place. But the veteran was keeping just 10s behind Sainz – a massive improvement from recent outings – and when the SC put them all together, even with tyres that were five laps older than the Spaniard’s, he stayed just 2s behind the red car from laps 55 to 62, before fading a bit in the closing stages.

Russell simply didn’t have the same pace as his team-mate, losing around 0.4s per lap in the last stint, but they both had reasons to leave Montreal with a smile on their faces.

The veteran was clearly delighted with the way things had started to turn: “It feels great to be in, amongst the battle. For a second I was just about keeping up there with these guys, but they pulled away at the end. But this race has given me and the team a lot of hope that there is more to come from this car. The potential is truly there if we can get the set-up right. I’ve not been on the podium for a long time!

“Especially, as I had my first win here 15 years ago, to be back up there and get to experience the energy from the crowd, it was very reminiscent of that first year here. I’m so, so happy with it.”

Silverstone will be the judge of that progress, as the team is bringing a big upgrade for the British Grand Prix and it will be the way the W13 will handle this historic track that will determine how the rest of the 2022 season will go for Mercedes.

Remember me? Hamilton scored his first 2022 podium.

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AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP RND 3

BATES AND TAYLOR REPORT: Josh Nevett IT WAS just like yesteryear as Harry Bates extended his lead in the Motorsport Australia Rally Championship with a comprehensive victory in Tasmania, which included the one-off return of multi-titled codriver Coral Taylor. Bates/Taylor are back!

Bates set up his Rally Launceston victory in Heat 1, surging to an early ascendency alongside his stand in co-driver before completing a clean sweep of Heat 2 to seal the win.

Taylor was called in to replace John McCarthy after the regular co-driver was struck down with COVID, and Bates was complimentary of her efforts in his postrally reactions.

“It was a very strong weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Bates said.

“I loved every second to be honest. It’s a really unique and special event and great to be back in Launceston this year after a three-year hiatus. I have had a ball.

“It was also great having Coral (Taylor) in the car. She did an absolutely perfect job.

I am stunned at how quickly she adapted to my notes and, dare I say it, how well she has gone for a grandmother!

“It’s really special to give her another ARC win after more than 10 years. Her last win was here in Tasmania in 2009, so it was awesome across that finish line. For all the preparation Coral put in, it was worth it.”

Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt (right) finished second outright, 5m 19.8s off the leaders after putting in a solid performance in Heat 1, consolidating second place in the championship standings.

Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin rounded out the podium after finishing level on points with Dalton/Moscatt. Time separated the two crews in the end, after the second Toyota Gazoo Racing car made its run on the final day.

Harry Bates picked up from where left off in Western Australia on the Saturday, winning the first Heat by three minutes.

The Toyota talent won every stage across the day, besting Irishman Dalton who was ultra-consistent in his Toyota Yaris AP4 machine despite suffering from illness.

Dalton was not unchallenged in second position though, as Tom Clarke kept him on

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his toes right up until the penultimate stage of Heat 1.

It was then that Clarke and co-driver Ryan Preston were involved in a rally-halting crash, which ended the hopes of the pair.

Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb rounded out the top three on Saturday, benefiting from Clarke’s misfortune. It was a personal best Heat finish for Dowel.

Heat 2 was a case of Déjà vu for Harry Bates, who won all six stages on the way to an outright triumph.

One minute back down the road was his brother and Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Lewis, who was second for the day ahead of Dowel and Webb.

“After our issues yesterday, we finished second in Heat 2 today and managed to score some good championship points in the E-Road power stage,” Lewis Bates said.

“Thank you to the whole team at Neal Bates Motorsport for all your hard work.

“Congratulations to Harry Bates and Coral Taylor on an amazing victory and also well done to Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt on a great drive!”

Lewis Bates nearly managed to disrupt Harry’s winning run during Stage 3, however fell 0.7s short.

As a result, the reigning champion secured maximum points for the weekend

and heads into the fourth round of the season with a sizeable lead.

Local driver Eddie Maguire was fifth in Heat 2 and took out ARC Production Cup and Motorsport Australia Tasmanian Rally Championship honours for the weekend, supported by Zak Brakey in his Mitsubishi Evo 9.

Bodie Reading and Mark Young closely followed, finishing runner-up in both the Cup and Tasmanian Rally Championship rankings.

In the ARC 2WD Cup, Ryan Williams and Brad Jones came out on top, prevailing over Dean Ridge and Phillip Bonser.

Williams and Jones were also victorious in the ARC Junior Cup class, earning top stop in their Ford Fiesta.

James Dimmock and Paul Bennett, who also competed in a Fiesta, were second in Junior Cup and third in 2WD Cup. The Motorsport Australia Rally Championship will now head north for Rally Queensland, which will take place in Gympie from July 22-24.

DRIVERS STANDINGS AFTER 3 ROUNDS

Harry Bates 311 Richie Dalton 205 Lewis Bates 182 Troy Dowel 158 Tom Clarke 115

A

B

C

TEST YOUR MOTORSPORT KNOWLEDGE 2

3

10

18 19

23 26

s

Across

2. Sebastien Loeb has the record number of WRC podiums, but who Name: sits second with 97? (surname) Complete the crossword puzzle below 5. What is the name of the 1 passenger in Image C; her husband is in the driver’s seat? (full name) 7. Who is behind the wheel in Image C alongside his wife? (surname) 4 10. An Australian won the Macau 5 6 Grand Prix in 1989 – who was it? (full name) 7 8 12. Pictured in Image B, Mark Skaife won the 2001 V8 Supercars 9 Championship – what number title 11 was this for Skaife?

12 14. For how many full-time seasons were Chaz Mostert and 13 14 Cameron Waters teammates at 15 16 Tickford Racing?

17. With what team did Oscar 17 Piastri win both the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championships?

20 21 (first word) 22 19. Which local hero took their first 24 25 Supercars Championship race win 27 at Pukekohe in 2013? (surname) 23. Dick Johnson won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1989 driving what 28 model Ford?

26. Alain Prost won the 1989 29 Formula 1 World Championship; Created using the Crossword Maker on TheTeachersCorner.net what number title was this for the Down

Frenchman?

27. What was the nickname given to the VX Commodore that Skaife clinched the 2001, 2002 championships and Bathurst 1000s?

28. How many 500cc Motorcycle World Championships did Wayne Gardner win?

29. For how many years did John Bowe race at Dick Johnson Racing?

Down 1. Which brand scored a 1-2 victory at Le Mans in 2003, the brand’s first win since 1930?

3. For which bike manufacturer does Toprak Razgatlioglu ride in the FIM World Superbike Championship?

4. Which legendary NASCAR driver won his sole Daytona 500 from pole position in 1989; first name Darrell? (surname) 6. For what team did Fabian Coulthard make his V8 Supercars debut at Oran Park back in 2004?

8. What was Wayne Gardner’s best Bathurst 1000 race result?

9. Who am I? I made eight F1 starts; won the BTCC title. In Australia I’m known for being manager of the JPS BMW team (full name

11. How many times did Wayne Gardner and Neil Crompton team up in the Bathurst 1000 pictured in Image A? 13. What was Macros Ambrose’s best Bathurst 1000 race finish?

15. Which two-time Formula 1 World Champion won the 1989 Indy 500? (surname) 16. The main straight of which circuit is named after Wayne Gardner?

18. Which ex-Formula 1 team won the Le Mans 24 Hours in association with Mercedes in 1989?

20. At what circuit did Mark Skaife clinch the 2001 V8 Supercars Championship pictured in Image B? 21. Damon Hill won F1 races for two teams – Williams and which other outfit?

22. Which Australian Formula 1 driver was born in 1989? (surname) 24. Who holds the record of seven IndyCar/USAC/CART championships (full name) 25. Which team did Ricardo Patrese end his Formula 1 career with in 1993?

26. How many times did Dick Johnson and John Bowe win the Bathurst 1000 together?

bastien Loeb has the record number of WRC podiums, but who 1. Which brand scored a 1-2 victory at Le Mans in 2003, the brands econd with 97? (surname) win since 1930?3 across – Vatanen, 4 across – fourth, 5 down – Tyrrell, 6 down – Mansell, 7 down – Hamilton, 8 down – Geoff Brabham, 9 down – Jack Brabham, #1838 Crossword Answers 1 down – Lotus, 2 down – Andretti,first 2 across – Allison, at is the name of the passenger in shot C, her husband is in the 3. For which bike manufacturer does Toprak Razgatlioglu ride in the 10 across – Mercedes, 11 across – Capirossi, 12 down – Senna, 13 down – Mezera, 14 across – Jaguar, 15 across – Lowndes, 16 across – Honda, 17 across – Schumacher, 18 across – Elfin, 19 down – Wayne Gardner, s seat? (full name) FIM World Superbike Championship? second, across –his Alan Hamilton, 22 down – Larry Perkins, 23 across – Courtney, across – Arnoux, 25500 down – Adelaide, 26 across – Perez, 27 across – MSR, 28 across – Alboreto, 29 across – Wale o is behind 20 thedown wheel– in shot C 21 alongside wife? (surname) 4. Which legendary NASCAR driver24 won his sole Daytona from n Australian won the Macau Grand Prix in 1989, who was it? (full pole position in 1989, first name of Darrell? (surname) ) 6. For what team did Fabian Coulthard make his V8 Supercars debut ctured in photo B, Mark Skaife won the 2001 V8 Supercars at Oran Park back in 2004? pionship, what number title was this for Skaife?

8. What was Wayne Gardner’s best Bathurst 1000 race result? or how many full-time seasons were Chaz Mostert and Cameron 9. Who am I? I made eight F1 starts, won the BTCC title, in Australia s teammates at Tickford Racing?

I'm known for being manager of the JPS BMW team (full name ith what team did Oscar Piastri win both the FIA Formula 2 and 11. How many times did Wayne Gardner and Neil Crompton team up ula 3 Championships? (first word) in the Bathurst 1000 pictured in Shot A? hich local hero took their first Supercars Championship race win 13. What was Macros Ambrose’s best Bathurst 1000 race finish? kekohe in 2013? (surname) 15. Which two-time Formula 1 World Champion won the 1989 Indy ck Johnson won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 500? (surname) 16. The main straight of which circuit is named after Wayne Gardner? driving what model Ford?

18. Which ex-Formula 1 team won the Le Mans 24 Hours in ain Prost won the 1989 Formula 1 World Championship, what association with Mercedes in 1989? er title was this for the Frenchman?

20. At what circuit did Mark Skaife clinch the 2001 V8 Supercars hat was the nickname given to the VX Commodore that Skaife Championship pictured in shot B? ed the 2001, 2002 championships and Bathurst 1000s?

21. Damon Hill won F1 races for two teams, Williams and which other ow many 500cc Motorcycle World Championships did Wayne outfit? er win?

22. Which Australian Formula 1 driver was born in 1989? (surname) or how many years did John Bowe race at Dick Johnson 24. Who holds the record of seven IndyCar/USAC/CART g? championships (full name) 25. Which team did Ricardo Patrese end his Formula 1 career with in 1993?

26. How many times did Dick Johnson and John Bowe win the Bathurst 1000 together?

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1972: A PRIZE money dispute resulted in the fourth round of the 1972 Australian Sportscar Championship being boycotted. Elsewhere, in the other categories, the fields were very thin including the ‘Series Production’ Touring Car race which had ‘modified tourers’ to bolster the field. The reigning Gold Star champion Max Stewart was racing to make it onto the grid at Oran Park.

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1982: AFTER TWO half-hearted attempts it was confirmed that the 1983 Tasman Series would be back with a bang, held over four rounds, two in New Zealand and two in Australia. After a 11-year break, Mallala, the historic circuit in South Australia, was re-opened. Australian Vern Schuppan finished second at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Jochen Mass. Allan Moffat was classified in 14th.

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1992: FINALLY, THE 1993 Australian Touring Car regulations were set in stone. With the championship electing to move away from the Group A regulations and go for a local flavoured touring car category. It took a long time to come up with the regulations, but in 1993 5.0L honours would be fought between Ford and Holden. Mark Skaife also became the then youngest ever champion.

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2002: HOLDEN RACING Team boss John Crennan exclaimed that the quality across the field in the V8 Supercars Championship grid could be a lot higher. He felt that other teams needed to lift their games rather than constantly maintaining that HRT had an advantage. After a brilliant start to his maiden F1 season with Minardi, Aussie Mark Webber was set for a Jaguar test.

2012: MARK SKAIFE was denying reports that the Car of the Future program was running behind schedule, with less than nine months until the new Supercars machines were to debut on track in Adelaide. After racing at the Gold Coast in 2010, ex-f1 champion Jacques Villeneuve was being linked to a drive with Kelly Racing for 2013 – he did race for them, but in 2012 replacing an injured Greg Murphy.

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