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THE CALL TO BRING BACK THE SANDOWN 500 ISSN 2204-9924

Issue #1843 August 25 to September 7, 2022 $9.95 INC GST

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SHOCK WAKEFIELD PARK CLOSURE

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HORRIFIC DECISION FOR NSW MOTORSPORT

WAKEFIELD PARK WILL SHUT ITS GATES ON SEPTEMBER 1 Auto Action exclusive by Bruce Williams IN A shock announcement for the motorsport industry, the future of motorsport activity in NSW is about to undergo a dramatic change, with Wakefield Park Raceway management confirming that the gates to the much-used and needed facility will close, permanently, on September 1.

Following the on-going legal battle over Wakefield Park Raceway’s development application, which sought to make improvements to the venue, a process which was ultimately approved-but with new and more draconian operating restrictions applied, the situation has come to a head.

It has been decided that the venue’s operation is no longer tenable while only able to run for four days per month and it will close, with the venue effectively being mothballed until a workable solution is or isn’t reached.

This outcome has followed the NSW Land and Environmental Court ruling handed down on July 13 this year.

The court handed down its decision after an appeal to upgrade its Wakefield Park facilities – which was initially knocked back by the council but was then actually approved – had a series of strict operational stipulations placed upon it should it go ahead with the upgrade or not.

The shattering decision meant that the circuit – run by Benalla Auto Club who also own and

operate Winton Motor Raceway – could not operate more than 30 days a year, making it financially un-viable to keep its gates open.

In an exclusive story which was posted on the Auto Action web site last Friday evening, we spoke to BAC vice president Bruce Robertson about the situation that now faces the racetrack.

“At this point in time there is no immediate solution to the problems brought on us by the land and environmental court – there is nothing more we can do legally.

“We cannot operate. No-one can operate a business or recreational facility on four days a month. It can’t be done.” Robertson told Auto Action.

That the facility will be forced to close its doors has implications on many levels, not just on motorsports, with the facility employing 10 full time staff, four casual employees, with three contract hirers who run businesses dependent on the facilities.

“Closing the place has massive implications, not least for our full-time staff and their families, who will unfortunately face redundancy due to the stipulations that have been placed on us.

“This decision can’t be appealed, as there was no error in law, so the State government has to find a path forward with other legislative instruments.’ Robertson went on to say.

The Goulburn Mulwaree Council regional area and many of the business based around the city of Goulburn also face a significant loss of revenue, as Wakefield Park hosted not only motorsport events, but ran defensive driver training, NSW police and academy training, AFP and defence force training, and a large series of charitable and motorcycle

activities.

“We commissioned a document for the trial highlighting the fact that the park injected $17 million into the economy every year – and that was a conservative estimate.

Within government circles, it’s been stated as much as $35 million,” Robertson continued.

“It is a horrific decision in terms of NSW motorsports, and if the government wants to have viable motor racing facilities for their citizens, then they need to take notice of this court ruling.

“There needs to be a critical overview of the implications of the various environmental regulatory instruments regarding noise emanation on everyday activities and of the practical implications on the way such regulations harm everyday activities.

“And there needs to be urgent clarification and alterations if, indeed, NSW does not want to become a backwater in maintaining a 21st century way of life for its citizens.

“Our way of life is under attack on many fronts, from the very legislation and regulations allegedly protecting the ‘environment’ and ‘amenity’ that politicians thought has been wise to put into place over the years.” added Robertson.

When pressed by Auto Action to confirm if there was any possible way back for Wakefield Park,, Robertson’s response was dire-yet clear: “No, not without State government assistance. They have to intervene for this to get anywhere, and that’s the only avenue forward.” said an exacerbated Robertson.

Auto Action’s website story and social media published around the threat to

Wakfield Park has generated much concern and angst amongst the motorsport industry, competitors and motorsport enthusiasts and has generated hundreds of comments.

The potential loss of such an important motorsport venue is obvious, but since the story initially broke, the issue has raised great interest in the local Goulburn region, with local media and many local residents and business people expressing their concern at the threatened closure and the impact that it could have to businesses and workers in the area.

Clearly this story has many implications for motorsport and not just in NSW. Auto Action will follow this story closely and keep all motorsport enthusiast informed and up to-date with any developments via our web site www.autoaction.com.au

There needs to be urgent clarification and alterations if, indeed, NSW does not want to become a backwater in maintaining a 21st century way of life for its citizens...

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DJR’S FUTURE SECURED HOW THE SIGNIFICANT OWNERSHIP CHANGE CAME TO PASS DICK JOHNSON Racing has secured both its long and short-term futures by announcing a significant change in its ownership, along with its two drivers for 2023, with a pair of announcements last week.

Both moves end the speculation that has been swirling around Australian touring car’s oldest team for the past few months.

The first announcement concerned the Melbourne Aces Baseball Club taking the majority shareholding in the team from January 2023. The Aces is owned by brothers Brett and Shaun Ralph, who also run Jet Couriers. Brett is based in Melbourne and looks after the Australian arm of the business, while Shaun is in Texas and growing the company in the US. The Aces is the umbrella business for the family’s sporting interests, which also includes shares in the Melbourne Storm National Rugby League Club, Melbourne United (NBL) and the Sunshine Coast Lightning Super Netball Club. You can be sure there has been plenty of web searches for the Aces of late, growing interest in what may be a third-tier sport in the country.

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Regardless of legal structure, the change comfirms the Ralphs as the majority interest holders in DJR. Neither brother nor DJR expects any significant – or even insignificant – changes to the team’s operations, which will run as usual for the time being.

There has been plenty of paddock chatter this year around the ownership of DJR. It was widely known that DJR was looking for a new partner to replace Team Penske but not in the same way. Penske helped sort out some of the back room.

Now they wanted someone to help out front and provide stability and a future beyond Johnson and Story, not that either is planning on leaving soon.

“It’s great stability,” Croke says. “Ever since the Penske guys came in, we had stability, and even when they decided to leave, nothing changed inside the building.

It really was business as usual. To have the Ralph family come in as part of the ownership group now provides that extra layer of stability again.

“I think the most exciting part about it [the ownership change] is that it shows the

series is healthy. When you’ve got people from other sports looking at our series and wanting to be involved, that shows the series is still appealing.

“I think the opportunities that it’s going to open up between partners of the Storm and the other teams and our partners is exciting.”

The ownership speculation hit full speed at Townsville when Auto Action was told of the pending sale, and subsequent interviews in other publications confirming the reasons behind the need for a new partner in the post-Penske era were as we printed. The key word was partnership, and the stated aim was to bring someone to the table who brought something to the team.

In this case, it is sporting and business nous rather than the engineering skills and motorsport knowledge that Team Penske dropped into the team.

This deal was not much more than six months in the making, although the seeds were planted a year ago. Of the two brothers, Brett is the one we are likely to see at the track, given he is Melbournebased while Shaun is in Dallas, a five-hour

drive from the Circuit of the Americas where Supercars raced in 2013.

Until now, though, the brothers were just casual observers of the sport with a rising interest due to the Aces involvement with De Pasquale.

“It’s something that wasn’t on the table 12 months ago, but it came together pretty quickly, and we’re all really excited,” Shaun said of the deal.

“I’d say we’re casual motorsport fans.

Over the years, it’s increased a little bit after Glenn Greene, our national marketing manager, struck up a friendship with Anton three or four years ago. So getting to know Anton sparked the interest for a bit more involvement. We started doing a couple of corporate events at Supercar venues and were blown away with the reception we got from our customers, which we didn’t expect.”

In his ambassadorial role with Jet Couriers, De Pasquale is also a regular at Melbourne Storm and Melbourne Aces games, mingling with Jet’s customers.

The level of engagement

DAVO WAS TOP OF DJR’S LIST

Shaun Ralph (above) is US-based. Below left: the Ralphs intro to Supercars came via personal support for de Pasquale. Bottom: l to r – Dick Johnson, Brett Ralph, Ryan Story. between De Pasquale and the clients was obvious, so when De Pasquale spoke with them about getting involved with DJR as sponsors, they started scoping it out, which placed Brett in front of Story.

“When Brett was introduced to Ryan, they hit it off pretty well. It went from a possible sponsorship to some pretty serious interest from us in investing in the team.

“The process was maybe six months from when we first started talking to when we sat down and signed a contract. We wanted to look at the sustainability of what was there, and all those boxes were ticked.

Then the fact that we’re novices to the sport, it was imperative to us that Dick and Ryan would stay involved because they’ve got that expertise.

“Brett mentioned that once he got to know Ryan, he felt tremendous comfort.

I’m based here in the States, but in late May, I was in Brisbane, so I took the opportunity to look at the Stapleton setup and meet Ryan and Dick. I went into it with an open mind. It took about 10 minutes to think, this is something we want to do. These are people that we want to be involved with.”

He said the ball is in Dick’s court as to what path the ownership takes. It is Dick Johnson Racing after all, but he is keen to have Dick involved as long as possible. It will also never be moved out of Queensland because that is part of its DNA.

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“I had never met him before that visit, and because I’ve been overseas for 10 years, I’d forgotten what a funny bloke he is. They’ve got a similar outlook to us on how things should be done and how people should be treated, so the rest was a formality.

“When it comes to anything technical or how to run a successful race team and how to win races, that’s not what we bring to the table. We’re pretty aware of not trying to fix something that’s not broken.

So, we’ll be very much in the background on that. We think we can bring some value to the team more on the business side and make sure that we can resource the team as well as possible.”

The Bretts own two courier businesses.

Metrans began in Werribee in the mid90s running out of an old video shop in a strip shopping centre. They bought that business in 1996, which brought the aforementioned Greene into the business.

Jet Couriers came from the other side of Melbourne in Dandenong and was started from scratch with a truck, a phone and some radios.

The businesses today employ 200 staff in various locations and around 1,150 drivers on the road in Australia. After getting into every major city in Australia, Shaun then headed State-side to get Jet Couriers active over there. It operates in Dallas and Houston in Texas as its home base and now the East Coast, Chicago and St Louis in a few weeks’ time.

WILL DAVISON has emphatically endorsed Dick Johnson Racing’s decision to re-sign him for 2023 with a dominant lights-to-flag victory at Sandown.

According to the team, despite media speculation, Davison was always its first choice to continue in car #17, with Anton De Pasquale confirmed in car #11 at the same time.

The media release on the unchanged driver line-up for 2023 was the second of two big announcements last week, with the other concerning the ownership changes at the famous team.

De Pasquale’s new deal was never in doubt, and that position was affirmed by his prior involvement with the new majority owners of the team. It was, in fact, his relationship with Brett and Shaun Ralph that brought them to the table in the first place.

Davison, however, had been at the heart of plenty of speculation despite a run of form that has given him eight pole positions, two wins and 12 podiums in what should have been a given … had he not been turning 40 in two weeks. Will Brown was rumoured to be an option, but DJR Team Principle Ben Croke said that was never really in the frame.

“There was never any doubt. He did an amazing job last year and is doing an even better job this year,” Croke said. “He’s doing what he needs to do. He’s getting pole positions. He’s winning. He finished second when Anton won. Both drivers are doing a really great job for us.

“They are such a good pairing; they race each other respectfully. If it was a different team car in Darwin [beside Davison on the opening lap], you’re probably going to open up the corner a little bit, but it was our two cars, and they raced each other respectfully and cleanly. Both wanted to win, but a one-two for the team was more important.

“I think Will is driving better now than ever. His age is just a number – he’s fit, he’s fast, and he’s great with all our partners and commercially as well. We wanted him; everything else was just people talking when there was nothing else to talk about.”

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MOMENTUM GROWS FOR SANDOWN 500 RETURN PLENTY OF people were wandering the pits at Sandown with “Bring Back The Sandown 500” placards, and Garth Tander was standing up as the poster boy for the movement, even though it was not in his own best interests.

Industry sources, however, say it is unlikely the Sandown 500 – or any other 500 for that matter – will make a return until the final ever round at the famous Melbourne track. The issue apparently lies with the TV ratings, which drop when the co-drivers are in the car ...

This means there is either a dip in the ratings at the start of the race, which may not recover, or during the final third of the race when Supercars is ready for the money shots.

Speaking from the pitlane at Sandown, Tander said the 500 made sense on so many levels, and it was time for its return.

“It’s a shame that it’s not on,” he said.

“I made the point earlier in the weekend that I think it’s an excellent opportunity for some of the younger co-drivers that join the main game grid for Bathurst to have a chance to get their eye in.

“There’s a lot of experienced co-drivers like myself, Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup, Fabian Coulthard, Warren Luff, Tony D’Alberto, and there’s a few more that I’ve missed too, that have a huge amount of experience and can roll up to Bathhurst and pretty much get on with it straight away. We’re comfortable in the cars, and we’re comfortable in the environments that we’re in.

“It’s incredibly difficult for the more inexperienced co-drivers making their debut at Bathurst – they’re going straight there, and there’s no curtain-raiser for them.

“It makes no difference for me, and that’s where I feel it’s unfair for the younger or less experienced co-drivers.

I’ve been to Bathurst 22 times in a Supercar plus the 24-hour race, plus 12-hour races – I’ve done a lap or two around there. For me, it doesn’t make any difference if we start at Bathurst or Sandown but allowing the younger and less experienced drivers to feel comfortable in their new environment before going to Bathurst, I think the Sandown 500 is the correct answer for that.

“Plus, there’s the tradition of the Sandown 500. It is something that we should celebrate. And I think it’s a shame that we’re not doing that right now while we still can.”

The 500 was cancelled in 2020 as

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the COVID Pandemic wrecked its way through Australian sport, but while other Supercar racing has returned to normal, the 500 has not. Tander said he didn’t think the running costs for the 500 would be much more than the Supersprint round with 360km over three races as opposed to 500km over one race, so that was no longer an excuse.

“I’m very fortunate and thankful that I managed to win it in 2016 because it was one race that wasn’t on my CV, and it’s one that I wanted to make sure I had. I’m thankful I got the opportunity because there will not be too many more chances at Sandown.

“I think with the opportunities we have left, we should do a 500 K race.”

After winning the final race for the weekend, Shane van Gisbergen lamented the missing 500, stating the track was ideally suited to the longer format racing.

“This track suits a 500 kay race, you see the variable strategies, and with tyre life you see a lot more passing,” he said. “You just don’t see as much of that once it is stale in this format. [Davison] still had the fastest car, and he should have been able to pass me easily, and yesterday Anton was the same, so I would rather a longer race, and I think we’d get better racing.”

All the drivers we spoke with endorsed the return of the Sandown 500.

There have been 49 endurance events at Sandown, and it has been the 500 since 1984 although it has not run each year since then as Supercars has tried and failed with other venues for the traditional lead-in to Bathurst.

With Sandown expected to become a housing estate in or around 2027, The Bend has been putting up its hand to run a 500km enduro. Until then, bring back the Sandown 500. Andrew Clarke

THE SANDOWN ENDURANCE RACE 1964-1965 – Sandown 6 Hour 1968-1970 – Sandown 3 Hour 1971-1975 – Sandown 250 (250 Miles) 1976-1983 – Sandown 400 (400km) 1984-1998 – Sandown 500 (500km) 2001-2007 – Sandown 500 2011-2019 – Sandown 500 SANDOWN 500 MULTIPLE WINNERS 9 - Peter Brock 6 - Allan Moffat, Craig Lowndes 5 - Jamie Whincup

LOWNDES DRIVES FOR BRAD JONES RACING! IN A one-off appearance for Brad Jones Racing, Craig Lowndes drove Jack Smith’s SCT Logistics Commodore in the codrivers’ session at Sandown. Rather than a bid to poach the superstar from Triple Eight, Lowndes was able to slot into the car with everyone’s approval because the Supercheap Commodore he will be running at Bathurst was not allowed to run laps at Sandown, and Smith has yet to announce a co-driver for the Great Race.

For Lowndes, it was the first time in nearly 20 years that he had driven a Supercar not out of a Triple Eight garage, and it was an interesting exercise for both parties.

After some initial settling in and adjusting to the new ergonomics – read finding the

start button – he said that car showed good balance, but he felt it didn’t turn in sharply enough, which was highlighted when he tried to follow Jamie Whincup through Turns 1 to 4.

“I tagged onto the back of Jamie for that bit of the track, and you could see how much turn he had compared with me,” Lowndes said. “It was well balanced and certainly has potential, but it just needs to be sharper, especially for qualifying.”

For BJR, that feedback was good and vindicates its chase for more front-end grip.

“I was a very interested observer,” Brad Jones said during the Sandown weekend.

“Craig’s a very experienced driver and clearly has a good feel for what’s going on in a race car. It was interesting to

listen to what he had to say.

“His feedback was good to have, he clearly knows this circuit, and we know it is somewhere the Triple Eight cars work really well. We’re on a path at the moment trying to make all our cars turn a little bit harder, so his feedback was good to have and to let us know we are heading in the right direction.

“He was never going to bag the car, he’s way too polite to do that, but it was good to get his actual views. He was saying the same things that our normal drivers are saying, so that is good. But any help you get is good help.”

Jones said he felt all four cars in the team are very similar and that his drivers were racing well, but qualifying was the issue.

“I don’t think anything is easy in this sport, you’ve got 20 to 25 of the best drivers in the country scraping and scrapping at each other, and a 10th or two of a second makes a huge difference in where you end up on the grid.

“If you qualify down the order, you have a tough race. It is that simple.”

For the record, Lowndes set a best time in his session of 1m09.1727s, which was 20th fastest and 0.9418s off the quickest time.

Earlier in the day, Smith’s best was 1m09.1547s which was 25th and 1.3460s off the pace.

Smith sits 24th in the series and is the last of the drivers to have competed at every round. His best qualifying effort is 16th, and he has a race best of 12th in the first race at the Grand Prix meeting. Andrew Clarke

PUSH FOR MASI TO JOIN THE SUPERCARS COMMISSION REGARDLESS OF what you read elsewhere, there is a push for Michael Masi to replace Neil Crompton as the Chair of the Supercars Commission. Crompton recently announced he would be standing down from his role after more than a decade heading the advisory group for the sport, and the push was on at Sandown for Masi’s appointment.

Masi has returned to Australia after a controversial end to his career as Formula One Race Director, and a return to Supercars where he cut his teeth has always seemed logical.

A document as part of the Teams Racing Charter was doing laps of pitlane for the teams to sign to endorse Masi’s appointment, but at least three teams we spoke with were not signing it yet. More than 50% of the

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teams are required, which means 7 TRC holders need to approve the appointment.

Masi has spent his entire career in motorsport after starting as a volunteer while still at school, rising through the ranks in Australia to be the deputy race director for Supercars before heading to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) in 2018, where he was deputy Formula One Race Director to Charlie Whiting.

Following Whiting’s death in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix lead-up, he became the Formula One Race Director until the controversial final Grand Prix of the 2021 season.

Masi was cleared of any wrongdoing in the race that allowed Max Verstappen an on-track advantage that sealed his first World Drivers’ Championship. However,

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the investigation into the race said he made an error. Heat from Toto Wolff, who heads the Mercedes team, left his position as untenable, and he was replaced in the position before the report was released.

Several other procedural changes were made to protect the race director from in-

race lobbying by the teams.

Masi is generally well respected in Supercars pitlane, and the teams objecting to the appointment are talking about the process and the reasons behind the change rather than the change itself.

Andrew Clarke

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PENRITE DRIVERS CONFIRMED: ONE BATHURST SEAT LEFT TO FILL WITH PENRITE Racing confirming its driver pairings for Bathurst, Brad Jones Racing remains the only team yet to confirm its driver pairings for Bathurst, with Jack Smith still partnerless for the race.

Grove Racing young gun Matt Payne was expected to be paired with David Reynolds, but in the days before the Sandown co-drivers’ session, Porsche ace Matt Campbell (above) was announced as the 2018 Bathurst champion’s co-driver for the race. Payne will now drive with Lee Holdsworth.

Campbell is an accomplished endurance driver with class wins at Le Mans and in the Bathurst 12-Hour and has a best Bathurst finish of fifth with Shane van Gisbergen.

Speaking at Sandown, Reynolds said he too was expecting

Payne as his co-driver, but he is happy with the final decision.

“At the start of the year everyone assumed things and there was nothing determined in terms of either one the Matts we would be paired with,” Reynolds said.

“I think they only got together recently to decide what was going to happen. I was happy with either one. I really rate Matt Campbell – he’s a world-class driver and he’s my height and my size.

“He’ll slot straight in and hopefully we won’t have to do much around pouring seats, which is one of the worst things to have to do during the year.

Brad Jones said at Sandown that he was still working on his final co-driver for Bathurst and he expects it to be finalised soon. Andrew Clarke

REPCO BATHURST 1000 DRIVER LINE-UP CAR 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 14 17 18 20 22 25 26 31 34 35 51 55 56 88 96 97 99 888 TBA TBA

PRIMARY DRIVER Nick Percat Tim Slade Jack Smith James Courtney Cameron Waters Andre Heimgartner Will Brown Lee Holdsworth Anton De Pasquale Bryce Fullwood Will Davison Mark Winterbottom Scott Pye Chris Pither Chaz Mostert David Reynolds James Golding Jack Le Brocq Todd Hazelwood Richie Stanaway Thomas Randle Jake Kostecki Broc Feeney Macauley Jones Shane van Gisbergen Brodie Kostecki Declan Fraser Matt Chahda TBA

CO-DRIVER Warren Luff Tim Blanchard TBA Zane Goddard James Moffat Dale Wood Jack Perkins Matt Payne Tony D’Alberto Dean Fiore Alex Davison Michael Caruso Tyler Everingham Cameron Hill Fabian Coulthard Matt Campbell Dylan O’Keeffe Aaron Seton Jayden Ojeda Greg Murphy Zak Best Kurt Kostecki Jamie Whincup Jordan Boys Garth Tander David Russell Craig Lowndes Jaylyn Robotham TBA

TEAM Mobil 1 NTI Racing Blanchard Racing Team SCT Logistics Racing Snowy River Racing Monster Energy Racing R&J Batteries Racing Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus Penrite Racing Shell V-Power Racing Team Middy’s Electrical Racing Shell V-Power Racing Team IRWIN Racing Nulon Racing PremiAir Coca-Cola Racing Mobil 1 Optus Racing Penrite Racing Subway PremiAir Racing Truck Assist Racing Truck Assist Racing Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus Castrol Racing Tradie Racing Red Bull Ampol Racing Brad Jones Racing Red Bull Ampol Racing Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus Supercheap Auto Racing Team Matt Chahda Motorsport Anderson Motorsport

SUPERCARS IN-CAR WARNING SYSTEM OVERHAULED SUPERCARS’ IN-CAR warning system has come in for an overhaul following the startline crash at The Bend that the system is designed to avoid. Supercars says the system worked fine, but teams had modified the system to suit their needs, leaving some drivers without the warnings they needed.

The teams will now need to run a standard configuration for the warning system, which will be subject to spot checks during scrutineering and across the course of a weekend.

The updated safety system will ensure all drivers receive a full in-car warning sent directly to the dashboard and shift light modules, taking precedence over other warning systems during the start procedure, to alert the grid of such incidents.

It is believed that some of the teams were running setups that included dimming the lights to 30% or having components turned off, as well as giving different priorities

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to other lights. In the case of a stalled car on the grid, the warning light system should indicate the hazard with a purple flag and ‘Stalled Car’ words on the dash, while the shift lights are used to advise which way to head to avoid the hazard.

“Following the incident at Tailem Bend involving Andre Heimgartner and Thomas Randle, the Supercars Commission has agreed to mandate a controlled configuration for the stalled car alarm as part of the in-car warning system for this weekend’s Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint,” the Supercars statement said.

“Representatives from Repco Supercars Championship teams discussed and agreed to mandate a dash configuration that ensures all drivers will receive a full in-car warning, which will be sent directly to the dashboard and shift light modules.

“This will ensure other warning alarms already programmed

for display on the dash do not receive priority during the start procedure.

“Previously, the display’s controls were left to the team’s discretion.” Andrew Clarke

Image: Ross Gibb Photography

LOWNDES DRIVES ‘OLD-SCHOOL’ GEN3 IN CRAIG Lowndes’ busiest driving weekend of the year so far, he added testing duties with the Gen3 Camaro to his cameo appearance for Brad Jones Racing. He walked away from his drives in the Camaro with his trademark smile spreading ear-to-ear.

“I’ve related it to almost like the old VS and VT days, but quicker in a straight line,” he said. “It feels quicker, but I’m not sure it is yet.

“Straight line braking distances are a little longer because of the reduced aero, but then you’ve got to hustle it through the corners to

get the lap times. You’ve actually got to drive it a lot. Over the bumps, it is pretty compliant, and you get a bit of push on corner entry.

“You clear the brake to get mid-corner flow, but when you pick up the throttle and as it transfers, you get a nice little drift slide at coming off the corner… which we had back in the VS days.”

Because of the dynamics and less grip with the downforce reduced by more than 30% over the current cars, he said the tyres were easy to burn, which he thinks will

make the racing interesting.

“We put on new tyres a couple of days ago, and within eight or 10 laps, you’re getting wheelspin out of the corners. You’re sliding out of a turn like it’s an old-school car, and because you’re sliding all the time, it’s hurting the tyres quicker. Within 10 laps, you realise you’re in a world of hurt, but that’s the whole purpose of it.

“It’s going to be faster in a straight line, slower around corners, but as a driver of my ilk and era, we’ll love it. It’s going to be a lot

of fun to race. We talk about aero wash and all that now; you’re not going to get any of that with these cars. I reckon the older guys like Shane Van Gisbergen and Frosty will get familiar with it quickly.

“Then the ones that like a loose car, like a Brody Kostecki, I think will also adapt well.”

Gen3 is on track for a debut at Newcastle when the season opens in late February or early March, with the first chassis delivered over the Sandown weekend to Brad Jones Racing. Andrew Clarke

TEAM 18 READY TO PUT PEN TO PAPER WITH FROSTY TEAM 18 is on the verge of re-signing Mark Winterbottom for 2023 and will take an unchanged driver line-up into the Gen3 era.

Team owner Charlie Schwerkolt said all the terms had virtually been agreed upon, and now it was just a matter of getting the last part done.

“Both of us want to do the deal,” he said. “We are nearly there, it’s that close. I expect in the next few weeks we’ll do a deal together. He’s a legend of the sport. He does a great job with the sponsors, but he can also drive. He’s fantastic.

“We’ll be doing something, we both agreed, so we’ll just get it done.”

Team 18 will take Winterbottom and Pye into a fourth season together, running an unchanged driver line-up since moving to a two-car operation for the 2020 season.

“It’s a really good platform for us to build on.

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We’ve got the new cars coming, we’ve rebranded the team with some great people coming in. Bruin and Dennis have come on board and there are others too – we’ve got a really good team now.

“It’s just step-by-step-by-step, just building and getting momentum going, and it is really exciting going into next year with a very stable team.”

Winterbottom joined the team in 2018 after more than a decade with Tickford in its various guises. He won the Sandown 500 in 2006, Bathurst in 2013 and the Championship in 2015.

He has 38 race wins and 36 poles from a little more than 550 races.

Team 18 enjoyed its best weekend of the year at Sandown, picking up 382 points in the Teams’ Championship to move into seventh. Scott Pye finished in the top 10 in all three races and Winterbottom did the same twice. Andrew Clarke

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WINTON TEST A

BIG BOOST FOR WILDCARD ENTRY ACURA LAUNCHES NEW IMSA RACER HONDA HAS officially released details and images of its new Acura LMDh challenger, the ARX-06, ahead of its 2023 debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Acura is joining BMW, Cadillac and Porsche in announcing cars for newly-hybridised series.

The heart of the new Acura racer is a new hybrid powertrain based around the AR24e. It is an all-new 2.4L twinturbocharged V6 engine designed, developed and manufactured by Honda Performance Development.

The hybrid power plant includes an IMSA-specified electric Bosch Motor Generator Unit (MGU) and Williams Advanced Engineering battery pack.

The Los Angeles-based Acura Design Studio has developed the chassis and bodywork for the car in partnership with Oreca, who is one of four approved manufacturers for the chassis in the series.

This is the second car developed by the two companies, with the previous effort the dual Championship-winning and current series-leading Acura ARX-05, which doesn’t meet the new hybrid rules for 2023.

The ARX-06 car was given a shakedown run at Paul Ricard only metres from ORECA’s head office and manufacturing facilities in late-July, and the full livery launch was held in California last week. A development program is planned before the official IMSA test session on 3-5 October at Road Atlanta and 6-7 December at Daytona International Speedway before debuting at the Rolex 24 at Daytona on 28-29 January next year.

The cars will be campaigned by the Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing organisations, with each running a single car in the North Americanbased series. There is no indication if the Acura will run in the World Endurance Championship or the Le Mans 24-Hour.

Acura is presently running first and second in the Weathertech Sportscar Championship IMSA with WTR drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque heading MSR’s Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist with two rounds remaining.

Andrew Clarke

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By Bruce Williams AFTER A first test in June, Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway have returned to Winton Motor Raceway with Erebus Motorsport for their second wildcard test ahead of this October’s Bathurst 1000.

The Boost-backed #51 Commodore rolled out at Winton in the new-look livery unveiled at the Erebus Open Day. It was the second of three official test days for the Bathurst wildcard pairing, with the third and final test scheduled for Winton on September 28.

With the first June test focused on getting the drivers re acquainted with a Supercar, this program saw the Kiwi duo practising driver changes and continuing to increase their comfort behind the wheel.

Four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy returns to the field after an eightyear hiatus from racing and three years since stepping into a Supercar, while Richie Stanaway makes his Supercar comeback after retiring from full-time competition at the end of 2019.

Murphy was pleased and a little more relaxed after the second test day for the team.

“It was just actually a bit of a relief in some respects, because after the first day we ran, I left with the track with more questions and not enough answers.

“We came here for today’s test and it was a much better feeling, it was definitely good having that break in between the tests and letting the brain tick over a little bit and having the time to think about what was good about the first test, and think about what I needed to improve on.” Murphy explained.

“Straight away getting back in the car was a very familiar and I got back to a good sort of feeling very quickly and we made some real progress, so it was good to get that first day out of the way.

“I felt really comfortable in the car, and I really enjoyed the day; we improved and any day you make real progress is a good day.

“Just getting that first day out of the way was important and then it all became a reality, and it confirmed that it was actually happening.

“Now all the anxiousness about being in a Supercar again and being efficient and not struggling is going away. All of those things got ticked off during the day.

“So, coming here was more of a focus on just trying to fine tune where we were on the first day. I know I’ve really got to try and change a lot of technique stuff and I have just started to understand where these cars are and how they like to be driven which is so different to what I was used to in the past.

“I’m understanding that more, but still a way to go, but I have enjoyed it. Richie and I have done a heap of laps, the car has been great with no problems.”

Murphy says he will feel more confident when he gets back to Bathurst, saying that the tight twisity Winton track is not his most favourite place to run a Supercar.

“Of course, Winton is no real reference for Bathurst, so we have to be carful not to get caught up as Bathurst is a whole new ballgame. But I think I will feel better when we get to Bathurst.

“I have plenty of reference and the cars work well there so it should come together for us there.” Murphy said.

Having raced more recently in the current specification cars Richie Stanaway was a little quicker to settle into the Erebus ZB. “The second day was good. We had no issues. Tried a couple setup, changes, both feeling comfortable in the car, did a few driver-change practices and everything went smoothly.

“So it’s about as much as we can expect from the second day. We wanted to do another new tyre run as we only got one in earlier in the day, but the way the track was, it’s just been a bit patchy.

“But ultimately there’s only so much you can get out of driving around Winton when we’re racing at Bathurst. So, there’s not too much correlation, but you know, as long as we’re both comfortable in the car, then I’m sure it’ll be fun.

“Yes it will be a challenge, but I’m really looking forward to the race, being up against all the full-time drivers after some time off and in a different car with a different team.

“With a clean slate, I don’t really know what to expect. So, I guess I feel invigorated, and I’m pumped to see how we go against the regular full-time drivers.

“Having Greg in the car obviously brings a lot of fan support and after all these COVID restrictions being lifted, maybe a lot of new Zealanders might want to fly over for the race – it should create quite a good atmosphere”.

Stanaway confirmed.

The Boost backed ‘Wildcard’ entry of Murphy and Stanaway was to have run in the 2021 Bathurst 1000, but New Zealand’s strict COVID 19 border controls stopped the pair from competing last year.

Murphy and Stanaway will join three other ‘Wildcard’ entries including the Supercheap Auto backed 888 Racing entry of Craig Lowndes and Declan Fraser, as well as Wildcard’s entered

by Anderson Motorsport and the Matt Chahda Motorsport entry of Matt Chahda and 19-year-old Super2 driver Jaylyn Robotham who will drive a WAU prepared Commodore.

The 2022 Bathurst 1000 will run at Mount Panorama from October 6 - 9.

500 UP FOR HOLDSWORTH LEE HOLDSWORTH has become the latest driver to rack up 500 starts in the Australian Touring Car Championship (now known as the Supercar Championship Series). As part of the celebration, Holdsworth was reunited with the Smith’s Trucks Commodore he co-drove in the Sandown 2004 on debut with Phillip Scifleet.

“I remember starting out and being

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among the big names like Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall, Craig Lowndes and Marcos Ambrose and thinking ‘far out, these guys are my heroes; how am I going to race against them?’ ” Holdsworth said while eying off the 2004 Commodore.

“Earlier this week, I was looking at the list of guys who’ve made it to 500 and to see my name around them is a bit

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surreal. I never would’ve thought I would make it this far.

“It was very cool to be reunited with my first car and see the #001 on it.

They’re so old school and were fun to drive, then to have #500 on my car this weekend means a lot to me. I have to thank the Groves for that. Now I want to get my head down and repay them with a good result.” Andrew Clarke

DRIVERS WITH 500 STARTS (AFTERTHE PENRITE SANDOWN SUPERSPRINT) Craig Lowndes 674 1996 Garth Tander 641 1998 Russell Ingall 588 1996 Rick Kelly 580 2001 Mark Winterbottom 584 2003 Jason Bright 578 1997 Jamie Whincup 554 2002 Todd Kelly 541 1999 James Courtney 519 2005 Will Davison 509 2004 Lee Holdsworth 501 2004

www.autoaction.com.au I 11

LATEST NEWS Image: Dirk Klynsmith /LAT

Nissans have filtered down from Supercars, when they competed against the current Mustang and ZB Commodore (above), to Super 2 and now, it seems, Super 3.

NISSANS MISSING: WHITE ROCKED

BY NISSAN CALL SUPERCARS’ RECENT BACKFLIP ON RUNNING NISSAN ALTIMAS IN SUPER2 HAS CREATED A MINOR STIR IN THE RANKS SUPERCARS’ DECISION to backflip on its recent ruling on Super2 eligibility next year to just the ZB Commodore and the sixth generation Ford Mustang GT has created some ripples in the ranks. All current Super2 cars will move to Super3 only which, in most cases ,would not be a significant issue since they run in the same races, but the issues run deeper for some teams.

The final decision to rule the Nissans out – the third change of mind – was done to create technical alignment in Super2 with the Nissan not currently running the same spec as the Car of the Future Mustang and ZB Commodore.

The issues will mainly affect the Super2 teams not aligned with a main game team, including Matt White’s MW Motorsport, which runs Nissan Altimas in the development series. White says he had started updating his Nissans for 2023 after Supercars said they would be allowed in Super2, and now has been rocked by the recent change ruling the Nissan out.

White’s team has blooded plenty of Supercar drivers in its 20 years, including current main game drivers Tim Slade, Chaz Mostert, Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq, Chris Pither, Bryce Fullwood and Thomas Randle, with Bathurst co-drivers and Zak Best, Declan Fraser, Jayden Ojeda, Tyler Everingham, Zane Goddard, Dale Wood, Kurt Kostecki and Tim Blanchard also on its alumni.

It is that legacy, as well as his business, that White feels is threatened by the latest decision on Super2 eligibility for 2023 and beyond.

White argues the L33 Nissan Altima raced against both the ZB and Mustang cars in the main game and was updated to match them on the track, which is why he believes they should be allowed to keep running. A later homologation in which Nissan didn’t participate is at the heart of the issue,

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meaning it runs different aero numbers to the current cars and would most likely be superior.

“The about faces are what’s been troubling for us,” White says. “We’ve always been under the assumption, and that’s been from Supercars and all the parties involved, that the Nissan would be eligible because they competed against the ZB and the Mustang.

“From our point of view, we were all systems go. We’ve refreshed everything with that in mind – including six fresh engines. I’m not sure whether we’d be competitive, but we would’ve been there for a bit of a crack. To get such an about turn with no consultation is troubling.

“None of the Super2 competitors, apart from the main series competitors, had any input into this, and that to me is just absolutely wrong. Since its inception, we’ve been a cornerstone in this category, and it’s disrespectful. We won’t be stepping up to the Mustangs or ZB, and it just drives costs up higher in what is meant to be a training ground, an affordable training ground.

“When you’ve got cars with $5,000 doors, you can’t race them. Our doors are 500 bucks, and I couldn’t look one of our drivers in the face and say this is what it’s now going to cost to fix your damage. The running costs are about the same, so that’s okay, but this is just expense for expense sake, and I’m not going to be a part of it.”

White acknowledges that part of the reason for the development series’ existence is to have a place for the Supercar teams to sell their old equipment.

He understands why they need a home for the current Mustangs and Commodores, but he doesn’t believe it should be at the expense of the Nissan.

“Moving the goal post so late in the piece and the lack of consultation is what I’m troubled with. The teams always wanted to shift the cars, but moving cars at the

moment isn’t a problem. The investors are grabbing them, so they could’ve done nothing and it wouldn’t have been an issue.

You could have left it status quo for a year and gone straight to Gen3. To me, that would’ve made far more sense.

“I think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity, and the development series will suffer from it.”

White doubts there will be enough sponsorship to cover the extra costs, so he most likely will concentrate on Super3 and hope he can convince sponsors to stay around for a lesser series at the same rate.

He says his team’s future is up in the air, and he doesn’t understand why.

“It seems to be a captain’s call now, perhaps they’ve been hanging out with ScoMo a bit too much.”

Not everyone shares White’s view, though, and Tickford’s Tim Edwards, who also sits on the Supercars Commission, says the sport needs to do what is right for the sport, not Matt White.

“We don’t need to go changing the rules for Mattie White,” Edwards said. “He’s had six years to amortise the cost of those cars when everybody else banks on three, so as a business he should be fine.

“The fact is, those cars are a different homologation spec to the current cars, so there’d need to be updates to them and who is going to pay for that? He can run the cars in Super3 in the same races, so what is the difference?”

Edwards agreed the doors cost more than the old cars (he said $4000) but also said they had only lost one door since running the Mustang, and the skins were all composite and would cost the same as on White’s Nissans.

White’s rivals in Super2, like Edwards, seem to have little sympathy for him, too, saying he has been running a car with an advantage since the 2018 homologation changes to the Nissan that weren’t

reflected on the other Car of the Future models in Super2.

Other teams are weighing up what to do, including Matt Chahda Motorsport and Terry Wyhoon’s Image Racing. Wyhoon, who currently runs cars in both Super2 and Super3, said it’s a good decision for the long-term future.

“While it doesn’t really work for me right now, I think they have made the right choice,” Wyhoon said. “The ZB and Mustang are a fair way down the road as far as the aero package they run, so running against the current cars was always going to present problems.

“While I can’t afford to upgrade to a current Supercar, I will look to just run cars in Super3; however I am talking to Barry Ryan at Erebus with a view to trying to run a ZB next year.” Wyhoon told Auto Action.

Matt Chahda Racing’s Amin Chahda was a bit more circumspect but shared Wyhoon’s view.

“We do have a Mustang we can use if we want to,” he said at Sandown.

“At first, I wanted a mix of cars, and I thought it would’ve been a lot better for a year or two so everyone gets a bit of value from their cars. But now you look at it and think you can get a young guy into one of these cars (ZB or Mustang) and have an opportunity to win a championship, and that is a good prospect.

“It sort of plays both ways. I think it’d be okay either way. But for us, we’re not sure what we’re doing yet. Maybe we’ll just look at a couple of ‘Wildcards’ for Matt. That’s where he wants to be.”

Echoing White’s earlier thoughts on collector cars, he said the team’s current Falcon has been sold to a collector and will be returned to its Bathurst 2013 spec and Greens-Tuf retro livery.

It will then sit alongside the original Dick Johnson Greens-Tuff Falcon in a collector’s garage. Andrew Clarke

V8 TOURING CARS RETURN TO STAND-ALONE SERIES FOLLOWING THE recent announcement

by Supercars that the ZB Commodore and Car of the Future Ford Mustang will be the only models eligible to compete for the 2023 Dunlop Super2 Series, V8 Touring Cars management has in turn announced it will compete as a standalone series in 2023.

The Supercars announcement around the change of models for Super2, will also see current Super2 cars filtering down to Super3 with an expectation of bigger fields across both combined categories.

The changes will see the ‘Car of the Future’ models from Holden, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo become eligible for Dunlop Super3 competition for the first time, alongside the existing Project Blueprint-specification VE II Holden Commodore and FG Ford Falcon.

Super3 will continue to race on a combined grid with Dunlop Super2 in 2023.

With this confirmation, management of the V8 Touring Cars National Series have announced that the ‘older spec Supercars’ will return in 2023 as a separate stand-alone category.

The reborn V8 Touring Cars Series will remain exclusively for pre-COTF Supercars up to and including the FG Falcon and VE II Commodore.

The series will run its own calendar and will retain its Motorsport Australia Series status, as well as continuing to award Superlicense points for drivers wanting to move up to Supercars or international competition.

The Australian Racing Group (ARG) will continue to work with Supercars to manage the Super3 Series, while also managing the V8 Touring Cars Series in 2023, with news regarding the series calendar, tyre regulations and supplier, as well as race formats to be announced in due course.

Speaking about the changes to the series for 2023, Liam Curkpatrick, the category Manager of Super3/V8 Touring Cars talked about the changes and the return to stand alone competition for the older spec Supercars.

“We have been well into the planning to re-establish the V8 Touring Cars Series as a stand-alone entity for some time,‘’ said Curkpatrick. “ This announcement offers competitors with pre-Car of the Future Supercars the best of both worlds: They can compete in Super3

competition alongside the Super2 cars, and they can also race among cars of a similar specification in a stand-alone category.

“This is essentially the return of the series that grew and evolved into what became Super3 in 2019.

“V8 Touring Cars will have its own calendar, race formats and broadcast package, offering a great place for both young drivers progressing up the ladder or those who just enjoy racing these sensational cars.” Curkpatrick confirmed. Bruce Williams

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30 YEARS ON, BOWE TO REUNITE WITH DJR SIERRA FOR PUKEKOHE SUPERCARS IN WHAT will be an historic twist of fate, John Bowe is to be reunited with an old friend in the form of a Dick Johnson Racing, Ford Sierra RS500, 30 years after he last raced a Group A Sierra.

With Supercars announcing that the Historic Touring Cars will run at Pukekohe as a support category, Bathurst legends Bowe, Greg Murphy, Steven Richards and Paul Radisich, will all compete in the 33 car HTC field Between the four of them, they share an impressive 11 Bathurst titles, including 26 podiums.

The ex-Dick Johnson Racing Sierra was the last of its kind built, with Bowe and Johnson racing it at Bathurst in ’91 and ’92.

Bowe also contested the Australian Touring Car Championships in a DJR Sierra from 1988-92, when the varied nature of the tyres avaiolabale made it one of the great times in Australian motorsport; when ATCC competitors ran against each other on a mix of Dunlop, Bridgestone, Toyo and Yokohamas.

The car is currently owned by New Zealander Lance Coupland and will be prepared for racing by Formula Ford stalwart Nigel Barclay, who worked with Bowe preparing a Ferrari 458 he drove in the Australian GT Championships in 2013-14.

“It’s really something you know, It’s been 30 years,” Bowe told Auto Action

“The Sierra’s finished racing in Group A in 1992, so to be reunited with a car that I have such fond memories of is something that I really can’t wait to do. Dick and I were, and still are, great friends – and it was just such a good era of competitive racing, so it’s going to be great fun… and let’s face it, any day at the track is a good day.”

For what will be the last ever Supercars race at Pukekohe due to its 2023 closure, Bowe also has fond memories of racing there for what will most likely be his last time around the NZ circuit.

“I haven’t raced Pukekohe since they put the new bit in down the back straight, but it’s likely to be my last time around it. I’ve had some great times there… and some not-so-great times I might add, but that’s racing when you’ve spent as much time driving about as I have.”

Auto Action also spoke with the owner of the car, Lance Coupland, who’s elated to own such a great piece of racing history.

“It’s coming-up on three years of owning this car now, and its special as these kinds of cars just don’t come about so regularly,” said Coupland.

“It’s pretty great thing to own, and now to be doing this with it! I absolutely love Sierra’s, and although I’ve driven it myself, I don’t do it justice.

“I also had Greg Murphy have a go in it a year ago to show what it could do, which was really something special to see.

“Although I’ve never met John directly, Nigel Barclay recommended that I put him in the car at Pukekohe, so I rang him and he said ‘I’m as keen as a green bean,’ to quote him directly.

“I just hope he brings it back in one piece is all… you know, gets it out front and stays there,” Coupland quipped.

Murphy will also be in something of a familiar machine – the Peanut Slab Sierra Group A car which he raced at Pukekohe in 1992 and is now owned by Peter Sturgeon.

Murphy’s HTC running also comes ahead of him racing as wildcard for Erebus Motorsport in the upcoming Bathurst 1000 with Richie Stanaway.

Radisich, who won eight races between 2000-01 for DJR, will be driving in a Wolf Ford Mondeo, and five-time Bathurst winner, Richards, will be in a Murray Sinclair-owned Nissan Primera Super Tourer, a car he last raced in the 1997 Australian Super Touring championship.

The Supercars Pukekohe farewell will be held on 9-11 of September.

TW Neal

COFFS HARBOUR TO HOST MONTH LONG FESTIVAL OF MOTORSPORT THE INAUGURAL Coffs Coast Festival of Motorsport has been announced and is set to run from November 5-27.

The new motorsport and motoring focused program is planned to be an annual event and should deliver a major injection of fanfare for motoring enthusiasts and motorsport fans across the area and regions beyond.

In conjunction with the NSW government and the local council, the Coffs City Rotary Club has seen to the vacancy left by the World Rally Championship (WRC) that was lost to the region in 2019.

The Coffs Coast Festival of Motorsport has been created to be a mammoth month long festival of motorsport to offset some of the social and economic loss that resulted in the WRC program ending.

The Coffs Motorsport festival will run in conjunction with the Coffs Coast Rally, which is the final round of the FIA Asian Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), along with the final of the RESA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC), and

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the NSW Rally Championship. All happening over November 25-26, this will cap off an enormous month of racing.

Whilst the APRC and ARC will back-end the festival, November 5 will kick it off with the Massive Motor Show, which will display over 350 vehicles, followed by a burnout competition on November 6.

Auto Action spoke with the event’s coorganiser and Rotary Club member, Bob Carle, who shed some light on how this event has come about.

“Well, it started over a conversation between myself and the chamber president, and we were trying to come up with an idea that we could put on in the lead up to the Asian Pacific Rally,” Carle said.

“What started as an idea for a single weekend just kept growing and attracting interest, and all of a sudden it grew to the extreme where we had every code of motorsport between Kempsey and Grafton wanting to get involved.

“So every weekend in November there will be motorsport across the area, and it’s

become a pretty major thing that will now be a standalone annual event.”

For participants and supporters of Hill Climbing, there will be three separate races over three different hills, one in Kempsey (6th), one in Raleigh (9th), and the final round in Grafton on November 13.

For motorbike enthusiasts and riders there will be the standalone Massive Motor Bike Show, in conjunction with the first round of Champions of Dirt on November 12.

The Champions of Dirt will test riders over a flat track and motor-cross circuit, with the victor to be judged over both disciplines, and will have its finale on November 13.

The Sultans of Slide dirt track speedway bikes will compete over the weekend of November 19, with two rounds of racing in Kempsey, concluding November 20.

The Grafton Speedway will host a sterling night of Speedway events on November 26, and there will be two back-to-back days of off-road racing in Kempsey on November 26 and 27, with great viewing for spectators on a short course style track.

The Coffs Kart Racing Club track – one of the best circuits in Australia – will host two days straight of competition from November 19-20, and the NSW Rally-cross Championship will run over two days at the Raleigh Raceway on November 12-13.

“This event will bring a huge influx of people into the Coffs Harbour area which can’t be understated; the Rotary Club has worked hand in hand with the State Government, the community and local councils, who’ve thrown everything behind making this work.

“Throwing in the TV coverage on top of that, it’s just gonna be a big big thing.

“The fact that it covers so many codes of Motorsport makes this event such an attractive proposition for fans and participants, the likes of which this town hasn’t seen.”

Any participants or spectators keen on taking part in the event, can contact the local clubs involved for entry information, or visit the event’s website www. coffscoastmotorsport.com TW Neal

TOYOTA CHAMPION SWITCHES TO SKODA

THE “TOUGHEST DECISION OF MY LIFE” ALLOWS BATES TO CONTEST WRC NZ

By Paul Gover TOYOTA FACTORY driver and Australian rally championship leader Harry Bates will drive a Skoda Fabia when he tackles the World Rally Championship for the first time.

There is no Toyota model suitable for the WRC2 category at Rally New Zealand from September 29 to October 2 and so he has been forced to switch brands for the one-off start.

Ironically, his Fabia Evo 2 is the same model as the car that Shane van Gisbergen — who Bates beat in the first round of this year’s ARC in Canberra —will be driving, as they line up against NZ rally ace Hayden Paddon in a Hyundai.

Bates has been working on his WRC debut for more than two years and credits

Toyota Australia with giving him the goahead for the brand switch across the ditch.

“It was the toughest decision of my life in motorsport. I must thank Toyota Australia for allowing me this opportunity,” Bates told Auto Action.

He also credits Pedders Suspension, a long-term backer of rallying in Australia, as the major financial supporter for the New Zealand attack.

“I hope to do them proud,” Bates said.

It will be his first overseas event as well as his first WRC start, but he will have a familiar team with his regular co-driver John McCarthy on the pace-notes and his father Neal in control of the team.

Bates has not been beaten in Australia since November 2018 and would have been a three-time national champion without the Covid-19 pandemic.

His regular ride is a Toyota Yaris and he has continued his winning romp though this year’s ARC, apart from the

cancellation of Rally Queensland because of wet weather.

He admits the Skoda switch is a big move but said it was unavoidable.

“If Toyota had a WRC2 car then I would be doing New Zealand in a Toyota.

“For my career, I had to look at the next step in rallying and that’s WRC2. So this is the way for me to put myself on the world stage and put myself up against the best drivers in the world.

“That’s something I always want to do.

I don’t think you’re learning or improving yourself unless you’re going up against the best.

“It’s been months of hard work for our small team to get to this point, and I am so fortunate and humbled to have the help and support from people in Australia as well as overseas.”

Bates knows Rally NZ will be tough, and the WRC2 is even tougher, but he is primed for the challenge.

“I always have been looking at the world championship. I think it’s extremely tough to get there.

“At the moment this is a oneoff, but I’ll look for any and every opportunity possible to get myself into the WRC on a regular basis. We’re putting all our focus into this.”

Scott Pedder, the managing director of Pedders and himself a WRC2 runner in the past in a Skoda, said his company is happy to be backing Bates.

“We’re thrilled to support Harry as he represents Australia on the international stage at Repco Rally New Zealand and we can’t wait to see him go to battle in Pedders colours,” he said.

Before he heads to New Zealand next month, Bates will contest the next round of the ARC, the Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally, at the end of August in the hopes of extending his unbeaten national run to 12 consecutive round wins.

ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL CONFIRMS FOUR YEAR DEAL THE ADELAIDE Motorsport Festival organisers have announced that it has recently signed a four-year agreement with the State Government to deliver the iconic motorsport festival, to be held on the streets of Adelaide.

The returning event will be run over the period of 24 to 26 March 2023 and the annual event will then run one week prior to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Bringing the Adelaide

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Motorsport Festival back was a key election promise as part of the Peter Malinauskas Labour Government’s Motorsport policy, including the return of the Adelaide 500.

The event shares some key track infrastructure with the Adelaide 500, but it will operate on the shortened version of the Adelaide 500 circuit which only requires a single road closure of Wakefield Road over the three event days.

The dates fit with the unofficial

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announcement of the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix dates some seven days later over 30 March to 2 April 2023.

Event director Tim Possingham said: “We are pleased to announce our dates for the return of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

“These dates are absolutely perfect for us as we will be the week after the Adelaide Fringe festival concludes, but yet a week prior to the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix.

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“Our team has been working on the content for the event and all I can say is that the timing of our event has drawn significant international interest whilst individuals who will be travelling from the Formula One events in the Middle East to Melbourne are compelled to

arrive in Australia some four or five days earlier.”

“We are ever grateful of the support that we have received from the Malinauskas State Government, which has allowed this incredibly successful event to return and grow to new heights.”

Possingham confirmed.

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LATEST NEWS

JONES CROWNED PORSCHE JUNIOR CHAMPION ASPIRING AUSTRALIAN Porsche racer Harri Jones has earned the chance to show off his talents on the world stage after being crowned the 2022 Porsche Michelin Junior Champion.

Jones, who currently leads the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship standings, was presented with his prize at Round 6 of the season at Sandown Raceway.

The main reward is an opportunity to represent Carrera Cup Australia in the global Porsche Motorsport Junior Shootout in Europe later this year. There he will race against other young guns for a shot at a Porsche Supercup Championship scholarship.

Jones also receives a trip to Germany to attend the Porsche Motorsport Night of Champions Dinner in December 2022.

The 23-year-old starting his journey up the Porsche Motorsport ranks in 2019, winning the second-tier Sprint Challenge Australia title in that year.

Since then, he has developed into a consistent frontrunner in Carrera Cup and is a strong chance to become outright champion this year.

“The Porsche Michelin Junior Championship is what we’ve been working for since we joined Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge in 2019, to have won the Junior title is a big tick for this year and obviously we still have the outright Carrera Cup Championship to win as well,” Jones said.

“So that’s our full focus at the moment, but to potentially get the opportunity to go to

Harri Jones is flanked by Michelin Australia MD Oliver Biggart (left) and Daniel Schmollinger, Porsche Cars Australia CEO. the Global Shootout against the best junior Carrera Cup drivers from around the world, is a dream come true.

“I want to say a big thanks to my family, Sandra my manger and my fiancée Emily.

Together they’re an amazing support group that make it possible for me to get on the track and excel at what I do.”

Jones joins a long list of talented drivers

who have moved up the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid via the Michelin Junior Program, headlined by the likes of two-time Carrera Cup Champion Jaxon Evans, Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell, Nick Foster, Andre Heimgartner, Jordan Love, Cooper Murray, Cameron Hill and Dylan O’Keeffe, who have all made their mark on local and international motorsport since.

Porsche Cars Australia’s (PCA) Motorsport Manager, Barry Hay is adamant that Jones has a big future in the Porsche system.

“It’s fantastic to recognise Harri’s achievements in the Michelin Junior Championship this year and we have every confidence he will continue to impress on his ascent up the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid,” he said. JN

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LATEST NEWS

MATT CAMPBELL ON THE CUSP OF IMSA TITLE HEADING INTO VIRGINIA AUSSIE PORSCHE star Matt Campbell and his co-driver, Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet, are close to claiming the IMSA GTD Pro class title, and can wrap it up with a strong points finish at the Virginia International Raceway (VIR).

The pair sit on top of the class table with two rounds remaining, holding a 227 point lead over the British pairing of Ben Barnicoat, and Jack Hawks-worth in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus, who pipped the Pfaff pairing in a tight finish at Road America last round.

The British pair collected 385 points at the Road America race in their RC F GT3, claiming the qualifying and victory to keep their chances alive heading to VIR. The Pfaff pairing have won four GTD

Pro class races this year, including three out the past five, with two podium P2’s, and with the reliability of their 911 GT3 R this season, it’s hard to imagine not seeing them on the podium again this weekend.

Although they are still mathematically capable of claiming the GTD Pro title, with the way the points system works in IMSA, Barnicoat has almost conceded his team chances of overtaking the Porsche pairing, focusing on their tight battle with the Corvette pairing of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor – also still a mathematical chance.

“The Pfaff car would have to have two stinkers to put us back into the title hunt, or not even start one of the races, which

is highly unlikely,” said the Brit Lexus star.

“All of the focus is on second place for myself as well as the manufacturers’ and teams’ championships.”

The points system in IMSA awards up to 200 points all the way down to P11, with 350 for P1, 320 for P2, 300 for P3, and then 10 point increments all the way down the field from P4. Qualifying for the top three also rewards 35,32 and 30 points respectively.

It would basically take a disastrous race and perhaps a DNF for the pairing to lose the title.

Campbell has featured in the local news of late, with his Bathurst 1000 pairing with Penrite Grove Racing driver David Reynolds, announced late last week.

“I really rate Matt Campbell, he’s a world class driver and he’s my height and size,” Said Reynolds last week.

Campbell has a Bathurst 12 hour title to his name, but his best 1000 finish was a fifth with a younger Shane van Gisbergen in 2017 with Team Triple Eight.

The penultimate 3.27mile (5.2km) VIR race is this weekend August 26-28, with the final round of the season at the Atlanta Road Raceway for the Le Petit Le Mans on September 28 – October 1.

GTD PRO STANDINGS 1.

2.

3.

4.

Campbell/Jaminet Barnicoat Garcia/Taylor Gunn/Riberas

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SPA TRACK ALTERATIONS LIMIT F1 DRIVER ERROR TARGA WEST RETURNS

WITH NEW RALLY FORMAT THE POPULAR Targa West returns to Perth on September 9-18 with some new Rally formatting and additions to its huge program.

To coincide with World EV day on September 9, there will be a large display of electric vehicles alongside the Targa West rally cars, street machines and hot rods, that will run from 10am to 8pm in Forest Place, spilling out onto Murray St. The Midland Toyota Targa Ellenbrook Sprint, a favourite among spectators, will run on September 10 with an extended 2.3km course with the drivers up against the clock on four laps.

Langley Park will host a large display of motorsport and motor vehicles on September 11 for the Shannons Classic on the Swan, making the City of Perth Celebration of Motorsport bigger than ever before.

In addition, there will be plenty of activities for the whole family including the BMX high flying display, the Viper Wheelie motorbikes rides, remote control cars, hill trolley rides, and scenic helicopter flights and a plethora of food trucks Another new addition is the Celebration of Street Machines and Hot Rods, also at Langley Park, with over 100 growling machines on show for what is a free event.

That will make it over 500 vehicles along the river, making for a brilliant sight.

September 11 see’s the Engine Shop Targa Sprint City Sprint, followed by the City of Perth Targa Rallysprint in the afternoon, which will be the last round of much vaunted Targa Cup. The course for the event is a 2.1km City of Perth layout which will witness 80 rally drivers tearing along the Riverside Drive having to dodge the tyre killer kerbs at some serious speed.

On September 18, the Targa Malaga Rallysprint will have a total of 70 drivers taking it up to a 6km course; and with its natural disposition of being a very speedy track, it makes it a drivers and a spectators favourite.

The event alterations for this years Targa West have been as a result of Motorsport Australia’s investigation into the tragic deaths at the Targa Tasmania, which forced the legislating body to suspend permits for all Targa tarmac style rally events this year whilst its safety procedures are overworked and re-invented.

The Targa West has not seen a serious or fatal accident for the last 16 years, meaning sponsors were more than happy to get on board to make this event even bigger than it has been.

“We’ve adapted to run an event for drivers and motoring enthusiasts this year in short rally sprint formats, rather than the endurance of a traditional tarmac rally,” said Ross Tapper, the Targa West event director.

“We’re putting more emphasis on the offtrack entertainment with the Celebration of Motorsport, Classics on the Swan and the new Hot Rod and Street Machine displays, giving something different for every car lover.”

To be kept up to date with Targa West events, please see www.targawest.com.au and like www.facebook.com/targawest

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IMAGE: Spa-Francorchamps AHEAD OF this week’s Belgium Formula 1 Grand Prix, a different strategic experience awaits the drivers, with the changes made to the track over the European winter bringing new challenges to the Ardennes Forest circuit.

In a bid to enhance driver safety, a series of large gravel traps have been introduced where there used to be large Asphalt runoffs.

Some fence barriers have also been pushed back on some previously dangerous corners, and while that affords drivers more space in those instances, the widened areas will push drivers to test its limits with the added risk of penalties.

Many of these runoffs afforded drivers an out when they’d made an error in the past, but that option has now been cut off, especially in the case of the first braking corner.

La Source is the hairpin corner that starts the lap, and on the left exit there has been a large gravel trap installed where drivers used to have an asphalt runoff, and as seen in the recent SPA 24 hour, it was the source of much carnage with the tightened limits.

Following on from La Source, is the L’Eau Rouge alterations, where the left-side runoff has been significantly widened where the track swoops uphill, and has been an area of many accidents in the past. The original layout has been maintained, but the Asphalt run offs have been moved all the way to the top of the hill, which includes the removal of the famous chalet further towards Raidillon in favour of upgraded grandstands.

Immediately after L’Eau Rouge, the Raidillon corner fence has been extended on the left coming out of a fast right to left uphill swing where many drivers have gone

into the fence pushing the limits of the track.

With the fence being pushed back, drivers can push even harder going into it now, but risk penalties exceeding the left hand kerb.

This was where the chalet was situated.

The gravel trap at Les Combes has been extended right up to the kerb, where there used to be some space for the drivers to go slightly off track. With it already being a difficult corner coming off a fast section, the room error is now nothing, with the risk of tyre punctures a strong reality.

The Speakers Corner bend has also been widened, with the exit on the right side fence having an added gravel trap, making it risky for drivers pushing hard on the outside, limiting the chance for any adventurously wide overtaking. There are also new and widened gravel traps at the Malady, and the slow downhill Bruxelles bend before heading into Speakers corner.

Another major change is before the pre-entry into the famous Blanchimont corner, the Stavelot, seeing a significant 100m widening of its fences with a huge gravel trap Where drivers used to take wide trajectory too sling-shot into the straight, this avenue has been cut off, with them now forced to stay on the track tarmac.

The Blanchimont corner itself has also been widened with the guard rails removed and a new gravel trap created.

The SPA Grand Prix begins this weekend, August 26-28. Timothy Neal

LAWSON TO DRIVE ALPHA TAURI IN F1 PRACTICE DEBUT YOUNG KIWI speedster Liam Lawson has been given the green light to drive in the free practice session at SPA this weekend, in Pierre Gasly’s AT03 Alpha Tauri F1 car.

The Red Bull reserve driver who currently competes in Formula 2, tested for Alpha Tauri at the end of last year’s season in Abu Dhabi.

This season teams are required to field two practice drivers in FP1 over the course of the season for the 60 minute session.

Lawson has had two victories in F2 this year, including three podiums, to improve on 1 victory and two podiums from the year before.

He crossed into F2 from F3 under the guidance of Red bull, after netting three victories and two podiums in 2020’s F3 season after showing great promise in his first season as a 17 year old, grabbing two podiums.

“I can’t wait to experience my first Free Practice at Spa,” said Lawson, “I honestly couldn’t think of a better place to do it.

“It’s going to be an incredible feeling to start on a circuit that I’ve always loved, so in Formula 1 it’s going to be incredible. I’ve done a lot of simulators over the past few years, I’ve prepared for

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that so I think the pace will be good,” “I had my first outing last year in December and since then, honestly, I’ve been dying to get back in the car.”

Lawson has been at Alpha Tauri’s Faenza base in Italy for seat fitting, something which the youngster takes very seriously.

“Did my seat fitting, nailed it on the first try, which is not normal for me.

Just excited to get going, the last time I did the seat fits, at the end of last year, I messed up the first one but it wasn’t quite perfect and we had to change a few things.”

“Normally I’m quite a perfectionist

when it comes to seats, I have a bit of OCD on how symmetrical it needs to be, and today for the first time ever that was perfectly symmetrical.”

With the possibility that Pierre Gasly could cross to Alpine to fill the now vacant seat, Lawson will have the chance to impress in a similar machine after showing excellent form in this year’s F2, and Red Bull’s faith to promote him to the main reserve driver position after Juri Vips was expelled from the position.

The SPA grand prix is on this weekend, August 26-28, with Lawson’s FP1 coming on the Friday at 10pm Australian time.

Timothy Neal

INTERNATIONAL AUSSIES

WEEL AND PRICE POSITIVE AHEAD OF BAJA RACES GARDNER: DOUBTFUL MOTOGP FUTURE AUSSIE MOTOGP World Championship rookie Remy Gardner has admitted that it is likely he will be squeezed out of a seat for the 2023 season.

The Tech3 KTM Factory Racing rider has had an indifferent first season, sitting 23rd in the MotoGP standings with a best finish of 11th.

KTM’s satellite team will be rebranded as GasGas Factory Racing next year and it appears that multiple candidates are lining up to replace Gardner, who is the reigning Moto2 champion and son of former 500cc star Wayne Gardner.

Miguel Oliveira is one of those – KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer confirmed in a recent interview that the team is unsure of who will pair with Pol Espargaro next year and said he will look to keep Portuguese rider Oliveira at KTM, perhaps acquiring him from the Red Bull factory team.

“We cannot confirm the second rider yet, there is also still a chance to keep our friend Miguel inside the family,” he said.

Second on the list of possible replacement is Augusto Fernandez, who is making a name for himself in the second tier Moto2 Championship.

The Spaniard sits second in the standings racing with KTM and could be promoted if he continues to perform strongly.

Responding to the speculation, Gardner conceded that his spot on the grid is in jeopardy.

“No, it’s not [looking great for next year],” Gardner said after the Red Bull Ring race.

“In MotoGP, it doesn’t look like there’s anything…

KTM’s done it again!”

Gardner was 20th in Austria, recovering from a fall to be classified.

While it was a tough weekend for the 24-yearold, the other Australian on the MotoGP grid, Jack Miller, put in a strong showing at the Red Bull Ring with a podium finish.

The factory Ducati rider is fifth in the standings, with three podiums in his last four races. JN

TOBY PRICE and Paul Weel have started their international three-race 2WD trophy truck tour for Team Australia with an unfortunate DNF in the first leg of the campaign in a very wet and dusty Vegas to Reno, ahead of the Baja 400 and 1000 in Ensenada Mexico.

Paul Weel raced in Supercars between 1998 and 2008 before coming out of racing retirement into the Super Trucks, where he captured two major victories at the Reid Park Circuit in Townsville during the 2021 season.

Toby Price, a legendary figure in endurance racing, has Two Dakar Rally motorbike victories to his name, and eight Finke Desert race titles (six on a motorbike and two in a car), as well as a host of other endurance motorbike world titles.

The first event pitted the Aussie pair up against the worlds best American Super truck drivers, but Vegas to Reno didn’t go as planned for the Aussie pair, with their Baja warm-up derailed following several major issues.

Price took the truck through a stellar qualifying run, which put the pair fourth (three seconds off P2) overall in a mammoth

field, and first in their 2WD class.

Price took the first leg, but electrical issues on the starting line forced him down the order, before the two time Dakar winner pushed his way through the field with some searing pace until a broken rear axle forced the team to cut their losses with a DNF. “Friday night, Vegas decided to have a monsoon, and we unfortunately got water into the computer system of the truck,” said Weel.

“Fortunately we got it going, and organisers were kind enough to give us a spot at the rear of the field which had its challenges on a very dusty track.

“We were running between second and fourth, time wise, so race wise we were doing a pretty good job with all the challenges.”

Price was disappointed, but was positive about what the future holds at the Baja races.

“We definitely have the pace, but other than that the race just didn’t go as planned for us,” Price commented. “it was a bummer that Paul didn’t get to drive his truck, but we were happy knowing we have the pace and that everything will work out if we have all the stars line up.

We’re looking forward to the Baja races, and confident of putting the truck in a good starting position again.”

The DNF unfortunately meant that Weel didn’t get any time in the truck in the lead up to the Baja 400 on September 13-14, ahead of the esteemed Baja 1000 on November 15-20.

“With 150 miles to go, 30 miles short of me hopping in, we broke down with that rear axle and unfortunately it had to go back on the trailer,” Weel continued.

“Now we re-group and go to the 400, and we’re going to California to do some prerunning. I’ve never raced in Mexico before so it’ll be a very interesting experience and I hope we get a ride.

“Im very proud of what we’ve achieved, we’ve had some good recognition after the Vegas run and got some new sponsors on board, and the other competitors know that we are here to compete and that we’ve shown that we’re the real deal.”

The Baja 1000 is considered the height of world off-road racing competitions, in which co-drivers and navigators tackle a 1000 mile single loop race through Ensenada, Mexico.

BRABHAM TAKES INDY LIGHTS VICTORY AT WWTR RACEWAY MATT BRABHAM has put the frustration of the last two races behind him to claim victory in the Indy Lights at World Wide Technology Raceway at the weekend, putting him second in the standings.

Australian-American Brabham drove his Andretti Autosports #83 to victory by .6770 of a second over close rival Linus Lundqvist.

It was Brabham’s second victory of the season, with his first coming in late February at the season opener at St. Petersburg, Florida.

“I wanted to win so badly today, especially after the frustrating finish in Iowa. I just had that hunger and grit, and wanted it so much,” said Brabham.

“It was a similar situation to what I had in Iowa but I just showed a little bit more patience and knew that I had a stronger car in the closing stages.”

The 28-year-old showed grit and determination, as well as patience throughout the race, pulling off a pass on

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championship leader Lundqvist with four laps remaining, before controlling his car to the finish line in first place.

“Once in the lead I was just so hungry to get the job done. I was so focused on getting to the finish line first and was so happy when I saw the chequered flag.

“We had the car to beat after qualifying.

We were a little uncertain after testing last week but the team worked incredibly hard on the set-up and ultimately we got the result we were after today. I can’t thank them enough for their efforts, not just today but all year.

“As I’ve said before, I’m really focused on finishing the season strong and getting as many race wins as I can. In regards to my future, that’s all I can do.

I just need to keep putting in strong performances and we’ll worry about that after the year is done.”

Brabham’s victory was set up on lap 71 after he passed the Swedish polegetter, with the grandson of three time

Image: Motorsport Images F1 champion, Jack Brabham, earning his third career win.

The 75 lap race went through without a caution and, after passing Benjamin Pedersen early in the race, Brabham looked after his tyres well to bide his time in pressing up on Lundqvist.

The victory lifts Brabham into second position in the championship standings

(372 points), behind Lundqvist on 480 points with three races remaining, one point ahead of Auusie/Kiwi Hunter McElrea, who finished fifth.

The next Indy Lights will be September 4 in Portland, Oregon, before a double-header in Monterey at the Laguna Seca raceway on September 10-11. TWImage: Neal Motorsport Images

MARKET RELEVANCE

Image: The Sandown 500 used to be the iconic pre-Bathurst endurance shakedown ... the fans (who West says Supercars should listen to) want it back! Image: LAT-Dirk Klynsmith

AA’S LONG-TIME COLUMNIST DISCUSSES MARKET RELEVANCE AND LAMENTS THE LACK OF AN ENDURO SEASON MARKET RELEVANCE. Market relevant. Market relevancy. Utter these phrases often enough and the motorsporting public might just start to believe the Gen3 Chev Camaro has relevance to the Australian new car market.

That appears to be Supercars’ communications strategy ahead of Gen3’s introduction.

I keep hearing those on the category’s payroll sprouting this line in relation to GM’s ponycar.

Take RACE head honcho, Supercars board member and TV commentator/host Mark Skaife extolling the virtues of the Camaro on the Parked Up Plus podcast last week. Tell ’em Skaifey…

“As soon as I saw [the] cars, and Roland Dane said it to me, and subsequently I’ve thought about it a lot. And I’ve spoken to GM about it.

The Camaro, for instance … use the Camaro, and I’m not being GM or Ford biased … use the Camaro; it’s probably the most market relevant racecar they’ve got on the planet.

So, when you think about what

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with Luke West

REVVED UP we actually need to do in terms of market relevance and what we’ve got in terms of great nameplates – Mustang and Camaro – clearly not only do they have the heritage of the early days of touring car racing in this country, they are world renowned brands.”

True, Camaro and Mustang did populate ATCC grids from the mid 1960s to 1972. True, they are world renowned brands.

True, Mustang continues to sell in good numbers down under – about 200 per month, one per Ford dealer.

Camaro? Spare me. It’s only slightly more relevant to the local new car market than a Russian-built Lada XRAY compact SUV. According to industry statistician VFACTs, a total of 84,461 new cars were delivered in Australia in July 2022. Toyota continues to dominate with a 23.16% share, from Mazda (9.32%), Hyundai (8.04%), KIA (7.94%), Mitsubishi (6.64%) and Ford (5.25%).

The Blue Oval sold 4439 cars, predominantly Rangers, in July,

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while it’s soon-to-be Supercars racetrack rival Chevrolet sold a grand total of 167 cars nationwide, mostly Silverados and the odd Corvette. That means the bowtie brand captured just 0.19% of the Aussie market in July. In other words, less than one-fifth of one percent of new cars registered last month in Australia were Chevrolets.

Market irrelevance. Market irrelevant. Market irrelevancy.

Don’t fall for the Supercars spin.

Chevrolet barely exists in this country.

HSV ‘remanufactured’ the last of 1500-odd right-hand drive Camaros for Aussie buyers in April 2020 – well over two years ago. You cannot buy a new Camaro from a GM dealership in Australia now. And the model is reaching the end of its life in the United States.

I’m convinced most of the category’s chiefs live in a Supercars bubble, far removed from the real world. The category has dodged a bullet for now, mainly thanks to Ford’s renewed

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enthusiasm, but the foundations remain unstable. Either Ford or minnow GM could bail and it’s hard to see who would replace them. As Tomas Mezera succinctly put it on the V8 Sleuth podcast last year: “motorsport without manufacturer support is just club racing.” Gen3 has failed to deliver the stated aims of a third manufacturer and cheaper build costs. God help Supercars if the racing doesn’t improve next year.

I get that Skaife is incredibly invested in the product and category, so I understand him talking it up. But please spare us the bullshit. He should worry less about retiree Roland Dane’s opinion and more about what the fans think.

At least Skaife is prepared to talk publicly. In contrast, RACE chairman Barclay Nettlefold continues to be the invisible man. Where for art thou, Barclay? I reckon Nettlefold missed an opportunity at last weekend’s Sandown sprint round to generate some positivity for himself and the new regime by announcing the Sandown 500’s return in 2023 – something the fans and many in the industry are screaming for.

Surely Supercars, despite their blissfully ignorant existence overall, understands the importance of the Sandown classic’s return? Or in the very least a 500km two-driver endurance race at another venue

each September. A two-driver Bathurst-curtain raiser is one of the pillars upon which touring car racing in this country is built. Make it the ever-popular retro round while we’re at it. Witness the buzz created

by Super2 driver Jack Perkins’ tribute livery to his famous father’s 1982 Bathurst 1000 win.

At a time when many of the sport’s traditions are evaporating, one would think the Sandown 500’s return would provide Supercars with a shot-in-the-arm and a big PR win. The sport is poorer for lacking a proper enduro season.

A 500km Sandown enduro would inject some fresh faces into Supercars competition.

Plus, there are publicity benefits from the return of retired stars – household names like Lowndes and Whincup. The sport struggles to garner meaningful attention these days due to a lack of star power. A perfect example was how Whincup’s laps in Sandown’s Friday co-driver session made Channel Nine’s evening news in Sydney.

If nothing else, having multiple enduros brings a welcome break from the tedium of Supercars’ midseason.

It’s time Supercars stopped pandering to those within its bubble and made some meaningful strides in giving its fan base what it demands.

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Image: Daniel Kalisz-ARG

TRANS-AM TROUBLE BUT, FOR ONCE, IT’S TROUBLE IN A GOOD WAY

ROLAND DANE thinks that TransAm racing is a category for old porky blokes who just want to have some fun.

He’s right. And, then again, he’s also wrong.

Trans-Am is definitely loaded with older(er) drivers who want to enjoy their weekends in fast, noisy, slidey cars that can rock and rumble.

Many of them are like the midlife-crisis blokes you see blundering about on big shiny Harleys with their over-loud exhausts punching out their ‘potato-potato-potato’ tune.

Some have trouble hauling themselves out of their cars at the finish of a race and many are blowing hard with bright-red faces from the concentration and exertion.

But have you seen some of the wealthy amateurs having fun in Carrera Cup? And Mark Skaife used to sweat like

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE a Finn in a Sauna and he scored a few wins in his day.

Anyone old enough to remember the late Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan would also remember that one of the nicknames for the five-time touring car champion was ‘fatty’.

Ok, ok, so times have changed since a ‘plus-size’ racer was top of the tin-top heap.

And what’s this got to do with Trans-Am? Not a lot, really.’

Until you roll up to a racetrack and watch a full grid of the lumbering,

thundering monsters in action.

That’s when you see, and hear, and feel, some of the old-school passion and craziness that’s gone missing from the super-professional world of Supercars.

Roll them out under the lights at Sydney Motorsport Park and it’s a genuine spectacle.

Even the Touring Car Masters series, which began in much the same way as TransAm, has now become far too much like Supercars for people outside the category.

These days, if you want to run at

the front of TCM then you need to be spending quite a bit of money.

And the cars have lost their raw appeal.

Which brings us to Trans-Am, and their latest appearance on the ARG program at Queensland Raceway.

The show was big and noisy, and Brodie Kostecki was making a cameo to put the leading drivers into perspective.

Don’t get me started on the nonappearance of Shane van Gisbergen in a TransAm car, even though he was in the pits at QR to race the Mercedes-AMG GT3 hotrod …

SvG was keeping a close eye on the TransAm action and, so too, was Roland Dane.

Then again, he was keen to see how young Jett Johnson was going against Kosteki.

When the youngster threw his car down the inside at the end of

the back straight there was plenty of positive reaction around the track.

So, what about Johnson III, and Nathan Herne and Aaron Seton? Nash ‘Flash’ Morris?

And even Zach Bates, who bagged a podium on his first weekend in TransAm? There is nothing old, or porky, about this new generation of youngsters who have — and are — using some TransAm track time to teach them about driving cars that are fast and loud and slip and slide.

Relatively speaking, Trans-Am is cheap.

It’s never going to be a fast track to Supercars, but it’s one way for youngsters to get a taste of a serious V8 racing sedan without spending the whole of the family inheritance.

The bottom line?

The racing is good and the fans love it.

SVEN BURCHARTZ LIVES MOTORSPORTS LAWYER AND PARTNER

Know your position.

• Teams • Series owners • Manufacturers

sburchartz@kkilawyers.com.au

T +613 8825 4800 kkilawyers.com.au

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www.autoaction.com.au I 21

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PUBLISHER

Bruce Williams bruce@autoaction.com.au 0418 349 555

email: letters@autoaction.com.au Postal: Suite 4/156 Drummond Street.

Oakleigh Victoria 3166

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Bruce Williams STAFF JOURNALIST NEWS EDITOR

Timothy W. Neal

ART DIRECTOR

Paul Gover Neville Wilkinson

SENIOR DESIGNER

Caroline Garde

NATIONAL EDITOR

Garry O’Brien

HISTORICS EDITOR

Mark Bisset

SPEEDWAY REPORTER ONLINE EDITOR

Paris Charles

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AUSTRALIA Andrew Clarke, Josh Nevett, Dan McCarthy, 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 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

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ADVERTISING MANAGER Bruce Williams All Advertising inquiries bruce@autoaction.com.au 0418 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope.

Auto Action is published by Action Media Partners ABN number 62976094459 Suite 4/156 Drummond Street Oakleigh Victoria 3166 Phone: 03 9563 2107 The trademark Auto Action is the sole property of Action Media Partners The website www.autoaction.com.au and associated social media platforms are wholly owned by Action Media Partners.

All rights reserved No part of this magazine’s content may be reproduced, retransmitted or rebroadcast without the express written permission of the Publisher and Action Media Partners.

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For more of the latest motorsport news, reviews and features, PLUS additional breaking news Go to autoaction.com.au or scan below

OUR SUPER SPORT DESERVES MORE TRANSPARENCY FROM OWNERS

Supercars is my favourite sport, but I often wonder – even worry – where it is going.

Fortunately it seems that it pretty much pulls through whatever hiccups or hurdles it encounters.

A great Bathurst 1000 always makes the world seem right.

In the moment though, I was shocked to read in your issue 1841 that there had been a purchase offer for Supercars so soon after the last change of ownership just a few months ago. Particularly concerning was that the offer came from an overseas company.

While the offer may have provided a quick profit for those in the Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises (RACE) syndicate that is now the custodian of our sport, I don’t think it would be a good idea for our Supercars series to be owned by a foreign entity. Let’s keep it fair dinkum, even without Falcons and Commodores.

Anyway, I trust that the offer from the FanTech company has ground to a halt with no mention of it for a couple of weeks now.

I’ll keep my eye on Auto Action for any updates. You’ve certainly set the pace on this story.

Congratulations and thanks for bringing back Letters in your magazine to give us fans and readers a voice.

Much as I think that Supercars will always survive and overcome whatever odds are thrown its way, communication from those in charge of the sport could be a whole lot better.

Skaifey and Crompo always put a very positive spin on things on the TV coverage, but I’d like to hear more from RACE chairman Barclay Nettlefold and Supercars CEO Shane Howard on what’s happening and why.

The races will always be the main thing for us hard-core fans, but the FanTech purchase offer and the ownership structure of RACE are important to us in the context of where our sport is heading.

It was disappointing to read that Mr Nettlefold has avoided requests from AA to discuss things.

I get it that RACE is a private company, but aren’t we loyal fans owed explanations and

the laws of the land. And, Barry, Auto Action has vigorously supported the revival of the Adelaide 500 – as the new SA Premier very generously acknowledged at the recent launch in the city (pic left).

I’M CONFUSED

If I’m going to be honest, a lot of the news over Supercars ownership has got me confused. A lot of the updates from official Supercars sites (and some other online sites) seem to be talking about ownership changes, team ownership stakes in the category, etc, etc., and I’ve got to say I’m not a big fan.

While I’m a big fan of Supercars, so much of news about the series seems to be about the behind-thescenes stakes instead of the racing we’re all here to see.

To be honest, I’m not fussed who owns the sport, just as long as the racing is close and fair on track and the category has a strong long-term future.

Fletcher Kendall Publisher’s note: Thanks Kendall, we here at Auto Action also want to see a successful Supercars series, and we like and applaud honesty.

As the old adage goes, honesty is the best policy. Cheers, Bruce.

Image: Richard Craill transparency through our traditional source of information, AA? We don’t know much about Mr Nettlefold and what his plans are.

He did a couple of interviews when he moved into the big chair, but how about some ongoing updates?

Our sport needs a frontman out there like Peter V’Landys is for rugby league and horse racing.

I hope the guys around the RACE board table can do the very best for the benefit of our sport.

Although Supercars are my first love, apart from my family, I’ve admired what the guys in the Australian Racing Group have done.

They seem to have a genuine desire to improve all motorsport in Australia and that’s very important because there is a lot of competition for the hearts and wallets of sports fans.

I know there are issues to work through like what categories run on the programmes for particular events and the media rights attached to various categories.

But, guys, please pull on the same

rope for the greater good of our beloved motor racing – and tell us what’s happening.

Wayne Green, Katoomba, NSW

STICK AND STONES, WORDS WILL NEVER HURT So you want letters now.

Well, here’s one, and I’ll give you my opinion.

You sit there in some ivory tower Mr ‘Special Investigator’ trying to play god.

Get behind Supercars instead of trying to tear it apart. Actions talk a lot louder than words.

Wowwee, the Adelaide 500 is back!!!

Barry Hamilton, Seaton, Adelaide Publisher’s note: Thanks for your correspondence, Barry. You have a strange take on things, but – as we said in announcing that we were bringing back letters in the magazine – we welcome reader views provided they are expressed within

LET’S KEEP IT A HOME GAME Regarding your request for readers to offer their opinion on the issue about Supercars ownership, I think the important issue is to keep the V8 Supercars Championship unique to Australia and given priority over other categories as the cars are manufactured here and support local industries in doing so.

If the category is sold to an overseas entity, it won’t be long before imported race cars supersede the Australian built and designed race car. We as a nation import too many products which could be built here, and therefore we lose the designers and technicians to another country.

It is vital that the V8 Supercars remain Australian-owned and keep our clever engineers in this country.

Rob Harrison Sydney FOOTNOTE; While we can sometimes fall foul of the comma police, we won’t be subbing the letters pages, so they are published as supplied by our readers.

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE? All the news and fallout from TWO Formula 1 Grands Prix, including all the drama surrounding Oscar Piastri and Dan Riccciardo. ‘Young Guns’ feature on third-generation racer Jett Johnson, coverage of the Australian Rally Championship round in Victoria, an update on Scott McLaughlin’s IndyCar title tilt and much, much more.

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ON SALE SEP 8

THE GERMANS ARE COMING! WITH THE 2026 Technical Regulations for the Power Units agreed and rubber stamped by the FIA’s World Council for Motor Sport, it’s safe to say that from 2026 Formula One will have five engine manufacturers competing.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine will be joined by Audi and Porsche, the latter in a joint venture with Red Bull Powertrains. The fact that even Honda is not discounting another U-turn and remaining in Formula One until 2030, shows the new regulations are appealing to the car manufacturers, even for those, like the Japanese, who have vowed to go fully electrical in the next decade – and that’s great news for the sport.

One thing we know from their recent history in motor racing, particularly in the World Endurance Championship, is that both Audi and Porsche don’t have an Olympic attitude towards motor racing – by that, I mean their goal is not to participate but to win, as they’ve done so often in the last few decades. Yes, out of Porsche’s three forays into Formula One only the 80s one was a great success, when Mansour Ojjeh’s money gave Porsche’s Heinz Mezger and his team the possibility to design and built an engine that put Renault and Ferrari’s turbo attempts to shame. The company’s first effort, in the early 60s, produced just one Grand Prix win, as the silver cars were regularly trounced by Ferrari and the British ‘garagistes’. And let’s not talk about the 1991 V12 engine – that looked and weighed like two V6 put together (according to those working at Footwork at the time, some of them still with recurring flashbacks to the day the first unit was delivered at the Milton Keynes factory! ...).

Porsche and Audi’s success in WEC, and in other categories, together with the care they’re putting into their 2026 Formula One entries, proves the two companies are coming into Grand Prix racing to win. For Porsche, the association with Red Bull guarantees them

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The legendary Dan Gurney was behind the wheel for Porsche’s only F1 win back in the 1960s – at Rouen, in 1962. The car featured a ‘flat-eight’ engine (below).

with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER

they’ll have a very competitive chassis, a well-oiled race team and Max Verstappen driving for them, at least in the first couple of seasons – three important ingredients to reach instant success. How the relationship between the two companies will develop when, for the first time in his business career,

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Dietrictn Mateschitz won’t have full control of his racing company, no one knows and, of course, it’s a mystery what will happen when the 78-years old will no longer be around to call the shots. Will Porsche acquire the remaining 50 per cent of Red Bull Technologies?

Or will control of the company

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remain with Red Bull? Or will it be sold to an investor? These, of course, are questions for the future, but whatever happens, Porsche has all the pieces in the puzzle put together to start 2026 fighting for race wins and the World Championship.

Audi’s situation is quite different.

The Ingolstadt-based company wants more than designing and building a Power Unit to sell or supply to Formula One teams – it plans to buy and run a current Formula One team. Right now, Audi doesn’t yet know which team(s) it will be working with from 2026 and in what format that association will take place.

With the value of Formula One teams going through the roof since profits have increased massively after the pandemic, McLaren, Sauber and Williams have, so far, told Audi they’re not for sale.

So, purchasing an existing team takes more than money– it takes a business strategy that will have to include the current owners of the team they’ll eventually control, as, respectively, the Bahraini Royal family, Finn Rausing and Dorilton Capital want to keep a share of the teams they currently own.

Maybe, just maybe, the day Lawrence Stroll realises his son Lance is not World Championship material he’ll lose interest in Formula One and will sell Aston Martin Racing.

But, as the French saying goes, “tomorrow is not the eve of the day that will happen…”

Finally, while I’ll happily join the choir rejoicing having five manufacturers in Formula One from 2026, I’m remaining cautious because I remember that back in 2008 there were six major manufacturers in Grand Prix racing and two years later we were down to three, as BMW, Toyota and Honda left the field due to the big financial crisis of the time. Yes, Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault remained but lacked the capacity to supply the entire field – it was good old Cosworth that saved the day, supplying engines to four of the 12 competing teams.

But the current and future generation of F1 Power Units are too complex and expensive for Cosworth or other independent manufacturers to design and build, so should another crisis hit the industry, the sport will be in deep trouble.

www.autoaction.com.au I 23

FORMULA 1 NEWS - LUIS VASCONCELOS

2026 PU RULES OPEN DOORS FOR AUDI AND PORSCHE F1 ENTRY

Porsche’s last involvement in F1 was in manufacturing the 1.5 litre TAG turbo engine for McLaren – in four years of use (1984-88) the engine powered McLaren to three Drivers Championships (Lauda 1, Prost 2) ... Images: Motorsport Images THE 2026 Power Unit regulations were finally published, after a special meeting of the World Council for Motor Sports rubber stamped the proposal that had come out of the last meetings between the FIA, Formula One and the six manufacturers likely to be in Grand Prix racing from the start of that year.

Porsche and Audi had already got their way when Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine agreed to drop the MGU-H systems from the future regulations, but the amount of dyno testing and expenditure available to all manufacturers remained a bone of contention until the final meeting.

Now, finally, all rules are agreed and the announcements from the two German manufacturers are expected soon, particularly from Porsche, who may have to wait until the company’s IPO in the Frankfurt stock exchange is completed before making public its deal to purchase 50 per cent of Red Bull Technologies and the PU suppliers of AlphaTauri and the Austrian team. Audi, on the other hand, is still looking for a team to buy and with the prices going up, reaching a deal won’t be an easy task.

With the target being to increase the efficiency of the hybrid parts of the Power Units, The V6 1.6-litre layout will

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be retained, limited to the same RPM as now, but with a reduced fuel flow rate to aim for a power output of approximately 400kW. The ICE will be broadly split in two parts: the lower part, involving the engine block, crankshaft, connecting rods, pumps, and ancillaries which will be more prescribed; while the upper part, mainly focused on the combustion area and the associated components will also feature prescription but there will be more freedom to develop the combustion system for the new fuel.

To reduce costs and try to get a bigger equality of the Power Units, several measures were agreed too: • The MGUH will be removed.

• Variable trumpets and their actuation and control systems will be removed.

• Limited ranges to key dimensions are defined (for example piston, crank, block, valves, injector position, turbocharger wheels).

• Overall PU element legality volumes are now more precisely defined.

• Material limitations have been extended to exclude many high-cost options.

• E xtension of standardisation of components or of their design features (injector, knock sensor, ignition coils, ‘powerbox’, torque/temperature/

pressure sensors).

• The supply perimeter has been extended to ensure parts such as exhaust systems and ancillaries must be designed for a complete PU life, resulting in a significant cost saving over a season. An upgrade and homologation schedule has been defined to control development and changes of specification between years.

The ERS will be increased in power to 350kW. This will remain a key area of competition between the PU Manufacturers, with an emphasis on energy flow management to achieve the key objectives of spectacle, increased hybridisation and similar overall performance to the current PU. • Regulations will aim to increase the road-relevance of the cells, power electronics and MGUK. • Cells will be an area of development, but their supply will have nonexclusivity provisions to contain a potential cost escalation.

• Design constraints to improve ERS safety and the ability to police have been mandated.

• Controls have been introduced that either limit or require recycling of critical materials.

As widely anticipated, the future Power Units will have to use 50% green fuel from 2026, with 100% green fuel being mandatory from 2030 while the final obstacles to Porsche and Audi’s commitment to Formula One were achieved with the following test bench limitations: • Single-Cylinder Dynamometers: 3 • Power Unit Dynamometers: 3 • Power Train Dynamometer: 1 • Full Car Dynamometer: 1 • ERS Test Benches: 2 And the number of operational hours that PU Manufacturers can use for their development is limited to control costs, will be as follows; In 2022: 300hrs for the ICE and 200hrs for the ERS (for the 2026 PU); For the 2023/2025 period: 5400hrs for the ICE and 3400hrs for the ERS; In 2026: 700hrs for the ICE and 500hrs for the ERS; And from 2027 to 2030: 400hrs for the ICE and another 400hrs for the ERS (per year).

Finally, the Cost Cap level (adjusted for Indexation) is set at US$95million (A$138m) for the Reporting Periods 2022-2025 and at US$130m (A$189m) from 2026 onwards.

AUSTRALIA SET FOR APRIL 2 RACE, NEXT SLOT PUTS 2023 CALENDAR ON HOLD THE CONFIRMATION Australian will hold its 2023 Grand Prix on April 2 came as no surprise to anyone – the Melbourne event keeps its place as the third race of the season, before returning to the opening slot of the year in 2024 and 2025.

The event’s CEO, Andrew Westacott explained that, “The dealings that Formula 1 are having is to lock away other dates in other jurisdictions around the world.

“The great thing is, we’ll be Round 3 as April 2 is the date for next year.”

With the junior categories finally making it to Melbourne, Westacott is excited to welcome more home grown talent into the Australian Grand Prix: “It’s exciting to have Formula 1 in Melbourne until 2035 but the thing that actually adds the icing on the cake is to have Aussies confirmed as race starters, and also highly likely to have Australians across F1, F2, and F3 with Callan Williams and Jack Doohan doing well and truly cemented in F2, and (Christian) Mansell in F3.”

With this announcement comes the certainty that, next year’s championship will start quite early, on March 5, in Bahrain, after the teams agreed one pre-season test session will be enough to prepare for the year, that test being held just one week before the inaugural race of the season, also in Bahrain. Then, at the team’s request, there will be a two-weeks gap to the second event, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, to give the engineering teams time to analyse all the data from the test and the first race of the year, before heading back to Jeddah.

Then, after another weekend off, Formula

one will be back in Australia for the 36th time since 1985.

It’s the following Grand Prix slot, April 16, that is giving Formula One’s CEO Stefano Domenicali the biggest headache regarding the calendar. Ideally Formula One would head back to South Africa, for the first Grand Prix in that country since 1993, but there are two issues stopping the deal from being completed: first, serious work needs to be done in Kyalami’s Turn 10, to make it safe for Formula One standards; second, while there is an agreement on the commercial deal the sport will sign with the South African promoters – no one has yet accepted to foot the bill for the work that needs to be done in Kyalami and that is estimated in close to US$10m.

Looking for an alternative, Domenicali is considering moving the Qatar Grand Prix to this slot on April 16, the Arabs being not too keen to have their race sandwiched between the first race in Las Vegas and the final race of the season, fearing that will take the spotlight away from the Losail event.

The final alternative is to move Azerbaijan to April 16, something the locals are not keen to accept, knowing it’s too cold in Baku at that time of the year to attract tourists. However, their negotiating position is not very strong, in spite of paying a US$60m fee per year, so they may have to do as they’re told if Domenicali is not able to solve the South African problem in the next three to four weeks, when the final calendar must be handed to the teams.

CAN A DRIVER HAVE TWO VALID CONTRACTS? THE OSCAR Piastri saga has dragged on through the Formula One summer lockdown and will have to go through a couple of legal proceedings before it’s 100 per cent clear what will happen to the young Australian from the end of this season.

Daniel Ricciardo’s own fate will be a consequence of the rulings the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board and, eventually, the London High Court, will make in the coming weeks.

Although McLaren has kept completely quiet on the matter, it’s public knowledge that Piastri has signed a contract with Zak Brown’s team to race for them in 2023 and following years, on the understanding that Alpine had not taken the option over his future services by the deadline set on their current contract.

But the fact McLaren has not made the announcement of that supposed deal indicates that Brown is aware there are some obstacles that need to be overcome. Of course, from McLaren’s own standpoint, the team would be in serious contractual breach if it would announce Piastri as Norris’ team mate for 2023 when Daniel Ricciardo still has a perfectly valid contract with the team for next year, but Brown’s unusual silence

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also shows he has learned something from the chaos that has been created by his announcement that Alex Palou will drive for McLaren in 2023, when the Spanish driver has a contract with Ganassi to remain with the IndyCar team for next year…

Alpine, for its part, has been tremendously vocal about what they believe is a perfectly valid contract to keep Piastri on their roster for 2023 and beyond, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, giving interviews left, right and cenre, while the company’s CEO, Laurent Rossi – the man who signs the contracts and makes the key decisions regarding the team – has also been remarkably quiet, like Brown.

Another unusual event was the public message FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem posted last week, stating that “the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board was set to deal with contract priority issues between drivers and F1 teams. That’s why we rely on their decision to resolve any conflict.”

The Emirati is using the chaos around Piastri’s future to remind everyone it’s an FIA institution that will resolve the matter and the way Ben Sulayem phrased his tweet, indicates both Alpine and McLaren have valid contracts with the young Australian driver, so the CRB’s job will be to determine

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which contract has priority over the other, depending on the terms and deadlines included in those contracts. This means that, like Jenson Button at the end of the 2004 and the 2005 seasons, it’s possible Piastri’s two contracts are valid, but one will have to have priority over the other and it will be the FIA’s CRB that will make that decision.

What happens after that depends on that decision, but it’s now difficult to see Piastri settling back in with Alpine, although stranger things have happened – Button did stay with BAR for 2005 against his will, as he was trying to join Williams, but one year later was back at the CRB to try and remain with BAR instead of finally moving to Williams, as the respective competitiveness of the two teams had radically changed from one year to the next.

COMPROMISE REACHED FOR 2023 TECHNICAL REGULATIONS FIA PRESIDENT Mohammed Ben Sulayem seems to have studied the strategy often used by his predecessor Max Mosley and is already applying it to great effect in his dealings with the Formula One teams.

The approval by the World Council for Motorsport of the changes made to the 2023 Technical Regulations in the chassis area has left absolutely no team fully satisfied with the outcome of this saga – six teams unhappy because they’ll be forced to change some of the basics of the design of their 2023 cars that is already under way, the other four because the changes made won’t go far enough.

With the declared goal of the rule changes being the elimination – or at least the vast reduction – of the bouncing effect all 2022-spec cars have suffered from, to a greater or smaller degree, since the start of the year, the FIA wanted to raise the floor edges by 25 mm, to get a bigger clearance between the cars’ floors and the ground – thus reducing the chances of porpoising and bouncin. But several teams argued that would force them to design and build completely new chassis, with mechanical component, like the radiators, being seriously moved from their intended position. Red Bull and Ferrari led a call for the height increase of the floor edges to be limited to 10 mm; the final compromise being a rise of 15 mm, that will still produce part of the effect intended by the FIA without forcing the teams to completely redesign the sidepods and their internals for their 2023 cars.

This will, of course, lead to an increase in the height of the wooden planks that form the central part of the floors, by the same 15 mm, as their thickness won’t be changed, so all cars will be running visibly higher than this year, with the bottoming effect being seriously reduced, with obvious benefits for the drivers’ health.

But wary that the teams would always be able to find ways to regain the downforce lost with those measures, the FIA has also raised the diffuser throat height – i.e. the central part of the diffuser exit – by the same 15 mm, so even with a clever design it won’t be possible to generate as much downforce from the rear of the cars as has been the case this year, especially as the diffuser edges’ stiffness will also have to be increased, making it unwise to have them touching the ground.

All that will have a double effect, of course – slowing down the teams that have been able to master the porpoising effect while not hindering as much those who have been forced to run their cars higher than, say, Red Bull or Ferrari. But here is no doubt the drivers won’t be taking as much of a beating every time they run on track, as the bottom of the chassis won’t be hitting the ground with the same frequency and intensity as this year’s cars.

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H S R A H AIR F T BU NO-ONE WILL DIE WONDERING WITH CRAIG BAIRD IN CHARGE OF THE SUPERCARS POLICE

By Paul Gover WHEN I was racing, if there was a gap I’d go for it. Sometimes if there was only half a gap …”

This is Craig Baird, talking about the way he went about his racing, and it explains everything about the transplanted New Zealander.

He is as tough as they come, still sharp and focussed at 52 despite putting a pin in his racing career a few years ago.

Plenty of Kiwi raiders have come across the Tasman in search of motorsport success, but few achieved as much as Baird.

He only won a single race in a V8 Supercar, at Phillip Island with the Stone Brothers, but there were hundreds of victories in everything from Formula Fords to more than a dozen championships in Super Touring and Carrera Cup. “I’ve been around a bit. There’s not doubting that,” Baird says.

He is now a permanent fixture on the Supercars scene, in a classic “poacher turned gamekeeper” story that has him serving as the Driving Standards Observer.

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It’s a tough gig, but Baird is a tough bloke who is widely respected for his approach to the job.

“I don’t want to see the racing sanitised. I like a gloves-off approach,” he says simply.

He is as committed to the IPO job as he ever was as a racer and that’s won him plenty of respect.

When he made a mistake a Sandown he went straight to the Erebus pit and apologised to Brodie Kostecki.

“Everybody gets it wrong sometimes.

You have to be prepared to admit that, and apologise,” Baird tells Auto Action.

But there weren’t too many mistakes when Baird was a racer.

He went around the world and back — many times — and lived in Australia, the UK and South Africa for the job.

Now he is happy with his partner Amanda and his children Luca and Brianna, living at Nobby’s Beach on the Gold Coast while combining the IPO role with driver training at Porsche and plenty of time for good coffee and cycling. He drives an AMG Benz, although his dream car is an original Ford GT40.

Craig Baird’s racing ‘home’ was in Carrera Cup, where he won five titles in both Australia and NZ – as well as races in Asia (pictured) .... Image: Motorsport Images “I like the beach life, the local restaurants.

It’s just a good part of the (Gold) Coast,” he says.

“This is where I always want to live.

Originally I was up in Hope Island (a gated community favoured by lots of Supercars drivers) because I used to play a lot of golf and Charlie O’Brien (a retired racer) was living there.”

Wind the clock back to the early days in Hamilton and Baird can barely remember time when he was not racing.

“When I was four years old, my sister was old enough to race but I wasn’t, so my dad fudged the books and got me a start in a midget kart race in New Zealand. Then it was Formula Ford, a club event, at Pukekehoe.

“I had just turned 15 and in that era no-one was racing cars at 15. People looked at my dad and me and thought we were lunatics.

“I did a season at a club level and then raced at national level. I didn’t actually win a race – I had a third, but I was kind of in an outdated car

Driving Standards Officer is a tough gig in Supercars, where judgements have to be made about incidents ranging from seemingly minor collisions to major shunts, such as Todd Hazelwood’s big one, at Sandown, in 2017 ...

Image: Daniel Kalisz

go and “ I’d ” sort it out,

face-toface. You didn’t have a phone back then to text someone and tell them they’re a prick.

Baird contested the British Touring Car Championship in 1998, driving a moderately uncompetitive Ford Mondeo alongside Will Hoy, except for three races where a certain N Mansell stepped in as a guest driver ... Image: Motorsport Images “The following year, 1988, I raced a Van Diemen and won the championship.”

So he was on the way and only thinking about single-seaters as a start, because it was always a big deal in NZ and there were plenty of tough rivals and Formula Pacific and

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Atlantic were big at the time.

“I raced things like Formula Vauxhall in England, and Formula 3000, American Formula Atlantic ...

“I don’t think any one race stands out. You just keep trying to build blocks.

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“I had some amazing Atlantic races with Paul Radisich. Jos Verstappen was a standout; fast, aggressive, and a Marlborobacked driver — we all wanted those Marlboro stickers and the money — on his way to F1.

“Kenny (Smith) was always a tough competitor. And Paul Tracy.

“It was a little bit like the Toyota Racing season has become. They’re not racing overseas so they come to New Zealand and that’s better than testing.”

It was in those days that Baird got his tough-guy reputation.

“I’m black and white. I always have been.

There’s no use beating around the bush.

“If I ever had problem with someone on the track I’d go and sort it out, face-to-face. You didn’t have a phone back then to text someone and tell them they’re a prick. You would walk around and let your feelings be known.

“And I expected the same. And I got plenty of it.

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“ ”

In the Porsche, the harder you drove it the more you were rewarded. Whereas you can over-drive a Supercar pretty easily

“When I turned up racing Formula Atlantic, against guys like Kenny Smith, I was alway pretty aggressive. Kenny said he had raced for 35 years and I was the first one to put him on his head.

“He was happy to tell me he would happily stab me in the neck. There was no-one to cry to.”

As single-seaters became a dead-end for Baird, he returned to New Zealand and was quickly into touring cars.

“I sort of finished the 3000 in England and I went back to NZ and it was getting so expensive and hard to do. The opportunities and money to go back to Europe weren’t there.

“But BMW NZ was setting up a touring car team and I made a call. They were a bit surprised. But I won five New Zealand Touring Car Championships with them and I came to Bathurst in the early days under Frank Gardner.

He had been racing in South Africa and came to Australia in 1997, in a plan to replace Geoff Brabham in the Diet Coke car for BMW Australia.

“They signed me and I got paid, but Brabham still had a deal. So I did some races in a third car.”

He also took a hit when he and Paul Morris won with BMW at the ‘other’ Bathurst 1000 before being disqualified after a pitlane mistake on driving times.

“I got my my first opportunity in Supercars with Dick Johnson, when they had those two Bathurst 1000s in ’97. I co-drove with Steve Johnson.”

But he was still wanted in Britain as the BTCC was booming and Radisich had proven what a good Kiwi could do.

“In ‘98 I could’t do Bathurst because I was with the factory Ford team in the Mondeo.

Will Hoy was my team-mate, then Nigel Mansell came along.

“So I came back and did the Queensland 500 and Bathurst in ’99 with Jason Bright.

And then Brighty was making noises of taking off to America and Ross and Jimmy Stone offered me the drive in 2000. That’s really

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‘Bairdo’ has driven a range of Supercars along the way. Above: Team Kiwi (2003-4); Below: Team Brock cars in differing liveries (car #54).

Below right: Thumbs up during the Team Kiwi era.

where the Supercar thing started.”

And here’s a story that has not been told.

“I only had the one win with them, and in fairness, we completely re-engineered the car to the point that Jimmy thought I was mad, and that Paul Ceprnich was mad.

“Neither of us understood Supercars and we probably tried to turn them into a European-

style touring car. It didn’t work for him or me at the time.

“We both needed more time to develop what we needed to do and Ross and Jimmy couldn’t afford to muck around and we both went.”

So Baird crossed from Ford to Holden.

“Then I drove for Brock with Rod Nash in

2002. Then they merged with Kees Weel and I sort of got lost when they merged the two programs.

“So I jumped ship and drove for Team Kiwi for three years. I was quite comfortable with Team Kiwi in the end and started to get some results including a pole position, at Winton.

“Then I got offered the ‘glory deal’ by Craig

The WPS deal with Craig Gore turned out to be a dead-end ...

Gore at WPS. Money talks, and I could see the big picture, so I went with him.

“But then Larko (Mark Larkham) sold his business and he had two drivers under contract …”

But, as that door closed another was opening.

“That left me in the doldrums. But then Tony Quinn called and asked me to guide his son Klark and they ran a third car. That was the start of the Porsche thing.

“It was a very small team. Even our workshop was based out of the VIP Petfoods factory. But I went straight out and won the championship for them.”

He earned the title the hard way, as he had to beat his idol Jim Richards.

“Everyone says their hero is a Formula One driver, but in fairness I’ve always idolised JR. My dad used to race him, I’ve raced him, I grew up watching him,” Baird says.

“I just like the way he goes about his business. I suppose it does help, him being a Kiwi, but it’s between him and Stefan Bellof. I always had a picture of Bellof in the Porsche 956 sports cars on my wall. He was just mega-mega fast and I’m just sad he never got to be world champion like he would have been.”

So Carrera Cup cars were giving him plenty of wins but he was not quite done on the international scene.

KEEPING IT COOL ...

Baird cites the ‘Waters incident’ in Perth as the ugliest in terms of online abuse. It’s a tough gig.

“I was still going backwards and forwards, doing Daytona in sports cars and all sorts of things.

“The Porsche thing was always competitive.

The youngsters kept coming through. Fabian Coulthard was there, Matt Halliday would turn up, Daniel Gaunt was there.

“I won five championships here in Australia but I won six in NZ and it was even more competitive. In Australia we had three drivers at the top, but in New Zealand everyone wanted to race in the off-season.”

Baird is clear on why he liked the Cup cars and why he was so good in them.

Team Kiwi’s Finest Hour: One of Baird’s Supercar highlights was a sensational pole at Winton ...

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“I think a Porsche was very much like a single-seater. I was never that good in a Supercar because I wanted too much from it, and needed too much from it. If you look at (Mark) Skaife and (Marcos) Ambrose, they changed their driving style to stop it, turn it, and then utilise the drive from the tyre.

“They were too big. Almost cumbersome.

In the Porsche, the harder you drove it the more you were rewarded. Whereas you can over-drive a Supercar pretty easily.”

Around this time he was also moving into the IPO role, as well as receiving a Queen’s Honour — a big deal for any sports person —

WATCHING CRAIG Baird at work inside Race Control at Winton is a lesson in focus, patience and fairness.

There is no shouting, no-one shoots from the hip, and there is a process to be followed.

When it appears there has been a jump-start, Baird calls for an instant review of all available video before even thinking about a penalty.

It’s the same when a pitstop goes wrong.

So: no emotion, no panic, no-one jumps to a conclusion.

Baird is the pivot man, but he’s part of a tight crew that is led by race director James Taylor, with James Delzoppo as assistant race director and David Mori as investigation officer.

They are also on a radio link to the race Stewards, one level down the control tower.

There is plenty of chat through the race, mostly backand-forward as something is considered and judged.

Then there is discussion about the appropriate penalty, considering previous situations and the incident that has triggered the judicial crew.

What is surprisingly — and good to see — is how many inputs are fed to Race Control. It’s not just the television pictures that people see at home, as there are huge levels of rear-time data and judicial cameras in the cars and around the track.

But what Baird brings to the whole process is his experience as a top-level racer.

“I feel my strength is the feel for what happens on track.

I feel James Taylor is much more experienced as a race director and he does that very well.

“So my strength is reading the driver and James is very very good at reading the race. The best thing is we have an open channel between us.

“The main priority is safety, and then what’s best for Supercars and their fan base in the racing.”

Walking down from Race Control I have a new understanding — and a new respect — for Baird and the Motorsport Australia team.

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2008 – sharing the Toll HRT car with Glenn Seton.

Image: Motorsport Images

MAKING THE BIG CALLS AND COPPING THE FLAK TWO ON-TRACK incidents have defined the competitiveness at the sharp end of Supercars racing in 2022 and hauled Craig Baird into the spotlight.

The first was Cam Waters against Will Davison in Perth — the second was Anton De Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen in Townsville.

It was the WA encounter, and Baird’s subsequent penalty for the Monster Mustang driver, that sparked a firestorm among fans and social media warriors.

But Baird can sum things up in a couple of sentences.

“Everyone knows that going around the back of the kerb can be quicker,” Baird begins.

“It was a very clear-cut and decisive pass by Will Davison. But Cam Waters made a very conscious early decision to release the brake and regain his position — 11 metres outside track limits.

“That’s not the new OK, and the team and Cam had in their toolbox what they needed to do to redress it.

“He had 18 laps to go and still could have won the race. But they chose to continue and gained a

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lasting advantage from a breach of a rule.”

As for Townsville, Baird says it is simple.

“It’s not up to Shane van Gisbergen to be the policeman and impose the penalty he thinks someone else should have.

“He was offered up the redress very clearly by Anton De Pasquale, to give the position back, and he refused to take it. So I just swapped them back.

“To reward Cam Waters, who was out of the picture in third, was incorrect. So the results were the same positions as before the final corner.”

So he is calm, measured and direct.

But Baird was not remotely happy about the personal attacks from angry fans.

“I had private messages to me on social media, threatening me and my family. I don’t think that’s fair.

“The game does not go ahead without a referee, in any sport. Whether you like the referee or not, motorsport doesn’t happen without some sort of ref.

“Just because you don’t like the result is no excuse to attack the officials. It drags you down.

“It’s un-educated people, with blinkers on.”

in New Zealand for his service to motorsport.

“I started doing the Carrera Cup and GT3 Cup Challenge. I kinda changed how they went about things. I had respect from everyone in the pitlane and that helped. That made the transition pretty easy. And I was still racing in Asia with Carrera Cup and winning races at the Singapore Grand Prix.”

Then came the offer from Supercars, succeeding people like Thomas Mezera and Jason Bargwanna.

“I said absolutely not. You could see how difficult the position was. No matter who did it they would be wrong.

“But Michael Masi was part of the process and I was there to stop the uneducated penalties that sometimes got handed out. I’ve been in those boots.

“So we came up with a process where I treated the job like I was on the driver’s side.

I’m not there for a hanging.

“And I reckon I’ve got a pretty level playing field. The only way to have a good game of rugby is to have a referee that doesn’t blow the whistle all the time.”

But Baird also expects a lot from the drivers.

“The boys have to man-up on my watch.

Everyone loves to dish it out and say it’s racing, but on the other side they don’t.

“I’m lucky I’m not dealing with mums and

dads. I’m dealing with drivers who understand how I want the game played.

“I want it played between the posts, not in my office until midnight.”

He also wants to clarify the information he has when making a decision and the process.

“The first time you look at something you might get an opinion, but when you pull it apart — and I have all the judicial on-boards and the officials at the track — you’ve got to make a call.

“I’m comfortable in the skin I have and in the decisions I make. I’m the first one to go down to the pitlane if new information comes out.

“If I make a mistake, the boys will tell you, I go down and apologise. Sometimes we make mistakes and it’s better to admit them because then I get more respect from my 24 blokes. They all respect me and I can have a beer with anyone.”

Even so, it can be tough.

“The worst thing is the teams emailing me during a race. But they are learning. If someone knocks your wing mirror off, I don’t want to know about it.

“I’ve had one team, admittedly running multiple cars, send 18 emails to me in one race. That stopped. I don’t have the ability to deal wth that.

Another Carrera Cup win – in this case Asian Championship. Image: Motorsport Images

“They get spoken to pretty harshly. They need to stop trying to fuck someone over when it’s not really there. I know whether it’s real or not.”

Baird is still thanking Michael Masi for his help, even down to re-writing the regulations.

“They are supposed to be the best 24 drivers in the country. If two drivers both add to a disaster, then not everything has to be a penalty.

“Michael added the words ’not completely or wholly responsible’, so I take that as 70:30 if it it’s more like 50:50 then it’s a play-on event.

“It’s the way I operate; the way Michael Masi guided me into the job – how penalties work, and their effect.”

Looking back, then, how would Baird rate himself.

“I wasn’t an over-aggressive driver. I was hard but fair. I rarely went to the Stewards but, in saying that, there was nowhere to go at times. You raced on track, you sorted it out, and you moved on.”

Baird’s last sprint race was when he jumped in for Erebus Racing at Queensland Raceway and he knew he was done, but he could still teach things to others.

“I don’t want to sound like a smartarse, but SvG probably learned a lot from me. I was the one that always went a different way to try things and learn. I went out on wets for the warm-up. I tried different lines. Something new.

“But my last race at Bathurst was with David Reynolds and I didn’t enjoy it. As you get older the reality is that you’re not as fast as you were.

“So things get harder and they were getting more technically advanced in Supercars.

Unless the car is an extension of your arm, which the Porsche always was for me, you have to think about things.

“I tried sitting in his seat and it was like I was a half-shut pocketknife. It was just too fucking hard. I didn’t enjoy it and didn’t do it justice.”

So racing is done, but what about the IPO position?

“I don’t know. I change, race-to-race. It can be a job that’s so rewarding that gives me a platform to be involved in a sport I love,” Baird says.

“But if it’s all like the Cam Waters thing in Perth, then I’m done. I got abused by the people on social media – just horrific stuff.

“I thought ‘You know what, they can get someone else’. You could put anyone in that role and they are going to have some people saying Yes and some saying No. There is always going to be controversy. The educated people in pitlane know what’s right and what’s wrong.

“I could go and sell Porsches. There are always other options in life.

“But, deep down, I want to put in. I want to make the sport better. I’m not there to fuck people over.”

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At the wheel of the beautiful, but expensive and short-lived, Mercedes Supercar. Image: Motorsport Images Above: Bathurst in the Super Tourer days. Image: Dirk Klynsmith

So we “ came ” up with a process where I treated the job like I was on the driver’s side.

I’m not there for a hanging.

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BMW E30 RACING

THE ULTIMATE GRASSROOTS MACHINE AMONG THE ARRAY OF ONE-MAKE CATEGORIES IN AND AROUND STATE RACING, THERE’S ONE THAT PROVIDES SURPRISINGLY MODEST COST IN WHAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN SEEN AS A PRESTIGE MARQUE – E30 RACING. TIMOTHY W NEAL INVESTIGATES ESTABLISHED BY a group of Victorian BMW motor enthusiasts in 2000, the BMW E30 racing series has grown into a competitive one-make grassroots car club with a focus on racing, now cementing itself as a regular participant in the Vic State Race Series (VSRS).

By 2001, members of the group were running cars in competitive race meetings albeit, in those early years on track, forced to punch above their weight running against some heavily modified cars in categories such as Improved Production.

With subsequent growth, the numbers meant the category could start to stand alone with E30-only grids, making it more attractive for new members, who could be guaranteed a fair and competitive bang for their buck.

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As the membership has expanded, aside from being a regular VSRS category, the club also initiates its own race days with other categories, at Winton and Phillip Island, and attempts to get interstate once every season – with races at The Bend, SMP, and at Baskerville.

With that growth, the original concept for the BMW E30 Series has developed into that of a healthily competitive, affordable, and enjoyable entry-level touring car experience… with an earful of that straightsix howl. (As a side note, the E30 325i once featured on an Episode of Top Gear, back in 2010, when the three presenters were challenged with buying a four seater for less than 2000 pounds to race – leading Jeremy Clarkson to sum up that “all identical cars

aren’t necessarily identical …”).

A strict policy against enhanced engine alterations mean that the racing is competitive and close, with a heavy lean towards cultivating a driver’s racecraft, including a strict no-contact policy.

E30 race specifications are predominantly based around the 325i model, with strict limitations on available modifications – mainly related to vehicle safety. Promoted in the 80s as ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine,’ competitors can hit the tarmac with a BMW E30 3-series coupe or sedan, as marketed

by BMW Australia during the period of 1983 to 1991, such as the 318i, 323i or the 325i.

The cars offer a rear-wheel-drive chassis and compact dimensions that make for great braking and cornering capability. With

no ABS or power steering, the lack of driver aids makes for an honest stripped-back experience between the operator, car, and track.

The one thing that becomes apparent with this club, is the heavy emphasis on pushing one another to become better at their racecraft. No-one is short of lending a hand, whether that be in a mechanical sense, or in sharing information and onboard footage during a race meeting. There’s a healthy mix of veterans, younger drivers, and family ties that run throughout the club, making it an inclusive community that are proudly passionate and prideful of their classic E30s.

Auto Action was on the ground for Round 4 of the VSRS, getting a first-hand perspective, from the front runner to the

Images: E30 Racing-BMW Drivers Cup

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newbie, identifying what it takes financially to get involved in this series, and if there is a competitive financial line.

The Bell family has been in E30 racing from the beginning. We spoke to Club president and E30 racer Jess Bell about the benefits of joining the category.

“I grew up in E30s as a little kid, so for me there’s a close family connection,” Bell said.

“But the way that everyone supports each other to get on track is a special thing about our category. We’re obviously very competitive once the helmets go on, but our members just want to see everyone out there – it’s the big bonus of this category.

“For a grassroots club, it’s perfect for a first timer to join, and although the cost of an E30 car has gone up in recent years, it’s a very affordable category to stay in.

“There’s not a lot of car costs as it’s not a high-power category. So it’s just keeping up the basics, because they’re incredibly reliable machines to run over a long period of time.”

In terms of membership, the club offers a few different packages – $120 per year, or $100 for the pre January 31 early bird; as well as a $50 per round option, to suit those that can’t compete in the seven or so events that the club generally participates in.

There is also a $40 social membership; giving access to discounts on merchandise and deals for the clubs many sponsors.

Before getting into the cost of the machines, entry into a state racing round is $450-500, plus an optional $375-550 for a garage over the weekend; theres an optional $250 for a Friday practice and $185 for a garage on that day (Phillip Island costs). Costs do vary depending track-to-track, and the Island is one of the higher-priced circuits.

The 2.5 litre straight-six engine will need some $100-200 of petrol per round so, all up, a competitor should put aside around $1000-1200 per round for entry with a garage, not including any travel costs and accommodation, which is normally organised in-club prior to a round.

The initial cost of a BMW E30 is where the heaviest financial aspect lies in this category. But costs after its purchase is where the difference lies between this and other grass-root categories.

In today’s economy, the cheapest decent used E30 318i or 325i will run from $15,00025,000 dollars, with a new-build race-ready

car likely to cost around $25,000-30,000.

One in average condition, that needs a lot of work, can be snapped up for between $5,000-7,000 … if one can be found.

Prospective drivers are encouraged to contact the club re available cars, as they are highly active in sourcing E30s on the open market, as well as parts.

All up, it’s about a $10,000 spend to prepare a used car for racing, bringing it up to 325i spec, as well as adding a later model 2.5 litre M20 engine ($3,000-4000).

Series front runner and last year’s champion, Alex Jory, outlined how he went about acquiring his car and preparing it to try and find an edge in a field of evenly matched cars: “I actually tried to buy the car that I have now about five years ago – I think it was around $20,000 – but someone else snapped it up and it went up to Brisbane. At that time there weren’t a lot of cars around, so I ended up building one from scratch,” Jory said.

“At the time you could buy a base 318 Coupe for under a grand for one that was in pretty rough condition, whereas now, even for that same car, you’re probably gonna spend between $5,000 and $7,000.

“Building one yourself, the finished result really depends on the standard you want to build it to. You can definitely build one for less than the 20-25 grand that they’re now going for. You can still find a wrecker’s motor for between $500-1000 and give it a freshen up – you can still be competitive but maybe not quite at the front. You’d probably be about 80 percent of the way there.”

On average, the majority of competitors are averaging about $10,000 to bring a car up to competition spec.

“Seeing as everything is running on the same spec, there’s not a huge amount you can tinker with. But what you can do is run at a slightly higher compression, put in forged pistons, and maybe get some head work done.

“Other than that, the series is quite locked down and, because you can’t increase the capacity, it’s all driver’s skill. You can’t put in a different camshaft; the exhaust is free but there’s not a huge gain to make there. Same with the intake, so your biggest spend in that area is the pistons and head work.”

When it comes to the brakes, the category uses the stock 325i set, at around $500 a set. A disc set will cost you around $250 – which is why most E30 competitors do a careful cool-down after the race, to extend the lifespan, as it’s possible to nurse a set of pads through an entire season.

In terms of tyre, the series runs on medium compound all-weather Yokohama tyres, and most drivers go through two sets a year – though it’s possible to get through on one, depending on the overall weather conditions and driving style. A tyre set costs around

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$1300, making it the biggest overall running cost of the season (car-wise).

“Realistically you probably only need one or two sets a season, but it depends on the weather because you can run them right down to essentially almost being bald. If the weather’s dry they’ll grip right down to very low tread levels. It’s only when it’s wet that you really need that tread depth,” Jory related.

“With a lot of these cars, once they’re set up, you don’t really have to touch anything, other than your basic maintenance like oil changes and making sure your brakes and stuff are fine and your tyres are alright. Most of the time, other than checking the tyre pressure, you can just go out there and do your thing.”

It bodes well for the series that, in times of rising economic inflation, once a driver has their build, other than allocating money for entry fees (which is relatively the same across all categories in the VSRS), E30 racing is one of the cheaper categories to stay consistently functional and competitive in. In terms of the classic feel and look of the E30, Jory feels that an E30 member’s attachment to this particular series model of car, is what ultimately sets this club apart.

“I think most people have an appreciation for the cars that we›re racing. In the Excel or Pulsar series there’s probably not as much love for the cars in terms of them getting used and abused a bit more, with rubbing panels and stuff like that.

“I’d much rather be driving a classic car, and when you can run it at the cost we do, you’re not spending $40,000-50,000 thousand dollars to get every last little percent out of it to run at the front.

“And you’re not constantly spending, like in the Improved Production, where you could spend a significant amount and still run at the back. For example, previous championship cars for our series can be bought for $25,000.”

The beauty of not buying a straight 325 to do up – as they’re more expensive these days – is that turning an earlier 318 or 323 model BMW E30 into a 325, is simply a matter of changing the drive-train, the engine, gearbox and diff, because no matter what engine configuration came out of the factory,

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E30 CO$T$ Membership

New Build Used Car cost

$100-120

$25,000-30,000 $5,000-25,000

Engine $3,000-4000 (325i or later) the other vitals are all identical. They’re also lighter as they’re two doors, as well as having thinner panels.

An engine can also be taken out of the later 525s or the E34s, from 1989 to 1991, as they are identical to the E30 325i engine package – ie the engine, the inlet manifold, the throttle body, the loom and the ECU. The upside of

this is that the 5 series BMWs are far more common to find, which makes it easier to find parts if building from an earlier model as a project build.

In terms of doing anything else to an engine, porting of the cylinders for more air intake is okay, as you can’t upsize valves; and the engine can also be bored slightly to

Brakes Tyres

$500 per set $1300

Entry Fees

$450-500/round

Fuel

$100-200/round

Average Round Cost

$1000-1200

Most of the mechanicals of an E30 racer are standard road parts, or specified low-cost items.

increase compression, which under the E30 rules can be a maximum of 10:1.

The pistons that are used are JE Pistons, which have a standard compression rate of 9.7:1 – so any extra work to the cylinders to increase intake can only be very minimal.

Suspension costs come in at around $2,000, with options such as the Koni adjustable shocks, or a BC Racing kit, which will go for a similar price, which will give the build adjustable heights etc. The club itself has found that the Koni shocks are generally the best for E30 racing, as they are double adjustable. Adjustable sway bars are also allowed.

On top of that, the standard racing seat and roll cage will amount to another $30003500, plus the job of stripping the car out to fit everything. But, all-in-all, the eventual cost of a project build seems to have cost the majority of E30 drivers around 10-15 grand.

Graeme Bell, one of the founding members, along with Geoff Bowles, summed up the series perfectly, regarding the social and technical aspects: “After we have our qualifying or have a race, you might come in and check your tyre pressures, make sure everything’s good, and that’s it!” Bell explained about the relaxed nature of the club.

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“We don’t put things on jacks, we don’t pull wheels, or play around with too many things.

Look at us at any race meeting and we all stand around having a laugh and a bit of chat – just doing the social aspect.

“The cars are just so reliable, that once they’re set up, there’s not much tinkering needed. We often get comments from drivers in the other categories, because they’re all coming in, getting their cars on jacks, the wheels are coming off, they’re dusting, and they’re fixing and all kinds of stuff …

“We just check the pressures, have a chat and watch a bit of racing. It’s what I’ve always liked about E30 racing. It’s social and relaxed.

They’re just so consistently reliable.”

Although the buy-in isn’t cheap in terms of building or buying a race ready E30, it’s still cheaper than a lot of other categories and, importantly, even more so when you consider the low maintenance costs required to keep it out on the race track.

The additional costs, such as entry, travel, and accommodation – the same across all categories – will always sting a bit for a grassroots racer, but when you can competitively get about in a car that looks as good, and drives as well as a classic E30, this category will always be highly attractive for any prospective racer.

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SPEEDWAY

A GREAT WEEKEND FOR GOODYER DARWIN’S NORTHLINE Speedway exploded into Sprintcar action as drivers battled it out for the Darwin, then Northern Territorian Titles over successive nights.

The opening night of competition was for the McIver Engine Reconditioners Darwin Title in conjunction with the seventh round of the track championship, followed by the Scardifield’s Smash Repairs Northern Territory Title, Round 8, and with 31 competitors doing battle the action proved plentiful.

Tasmanian Jock Goodyer (right) wrote his name into the record books as the seventh different winner of the track championship and became the first competitor to enter the win book twice as he went back-to-back, adding the dual titles to his impressive CV. Night one: Goodyer came from behind, after an exciting battle with Queenslander Brock Hallett. The first six cars home would represent different states with South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales filling the next positions before the first Territorian in ninth place.

Victoria’s Ryan Davis claimed Pole Position and alongside was Goodyer. At the drop of the green Davis led the charge only for the yellows to appear after Daniel Pestka and Callum Williamson came to a stop in Turn 1.

While Pestka would restart, Williamson’s run was over as the front end was knocked out.

First reserve Ben Atkinson Jr would start from the back. The second complete restart would travel the same way, as Hayden Brown contacted the Turn 1 wall, ending his tilt at the title.

Third time lucky, the field pounced away

SPEEDWAY NEWS with Paris Charles without incident as the competitors settled into a rhythm Davis led comfortably over Hallett until the pair closed on lap traffic with 14 laps remaining, Davis ran the top with Hallett electing to forge the bottom, making his way through to lead.

With 10 laps remaining Goodyer moved to second and started his challenge for the lead as the duo traded slide jobs in the closing stages until Jack Lee red-lighted the race, inverting his machine with just 6 laps to run.

Goodyer led the field away which would soon be reset after Victorian’s Domain Ramsay and Dennis Jones tangled to halt.

With four laps remaining, Goodyer made the most of clear track ahead while Hallett battled with a wounded car after the front wing collapsed in the closing stages. Egel would advance to the final step of the podium relegating Davis to fourth over Kris Coyle, Matthew Dumesny, Ryan Jones, James Inglis, Atkinson Jr, Todd Moule and Glen Sutherland. One lap down were Kale Quinlan, Scott Enderl, Jones, Ramsay and Cori Jackson rounding the finishers. Lee, Grant

Image: Scott Kernahan Anderson, Pestka, Brown and Williamson failed to travel the journey.

The 8-lap Heat wins belonged to Moule, Hallett, Jackson, Coyle, Chase Karpenko and Lee while Inglis claimed the B Main.

In the supporting classes, South Australia’s Nathan Thorne proved to strong in the Street Stocks, coming from position five to claim victory in the front-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Magna over Justin Brumfield and Jake Koivumaki. The reigning NT F500 Champion Scott Leonhardt proved why he wears the NT1 on his tail tank with a strong victory over Boysie Bartholdt and Luke Higgins.

NORTHERN TERRITORIAN SPRINTCAR CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER AN exciting opening night that went down to the wire, all and sundry returned for the NT Title/Round 8, second night of competition and Goodyer (right) would pick up from where he left off, claiming victory in the opening heat and later going on to win the important Top 6 Dash to set up the front row start for a flag-to-flag victory in what would prove to be an incidentplagued finale.

Goodyer led, followed by Ben Atkinson Jr, and with five laps down they would hit Image: Nakita Pollock lapped traffic; however the yellow lights would soon bring first of four red light stoppages occurred over a five-lap the field back together for successive Indian File restarts period, the first being Chase Karpenko, followed by – the first included Hayden Brown and Todd Moule, the Coyle, Kale Quinlan, and finally Atkinson Jr. At this point latter would retire while West Australian Mitchell Wormall the race was declared four laps early and Goodyer was would pull in to extinguish an engine fire. The second proclaimed the victor, while Grant Anderson and Jack caution period would see Kris Coyle spin, Wormall would Lee shared the podium honours. Matt Egel, Ryan Davis, succumb to his ongoing fire and Ryan Jones suffered a Brock Hallett, James Inglis, Cameron Water, Daniel flat right rear tyre, ending his run.

Pestka, Terry Kelly, Dennis Jones and David Donegan The recommencement would run without incident. would round out the dozen to finish.

Goodyer held sway while positions further back were Heat races went to Goodyer, Jones, Atkinson Jr, fiercely contested as they jockeyed for position, until the Anderson and Inglis the B Main two nights running.

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River Spitzbath proved the best of the combined Top Stars and New Stars in the Junior Sedan feature; flanking him on the podium was Degan Sherwood and Harison Turnbull. The race was declared four laps prematurely after Zack Czoloszynski had a huge barrel roll down the front straight – thankfully Zack was uninjured. Connor Bridgeford was in a class of his own, claiming victory in the Solo finial over Jason Hillier and Matt Chinn. Tristan Owen and Steven Hutchinson were involved in a massive crash in an earlier heat and took no further part of the nights racing.

HARDY HEADS SUPER STREETS CO-HEADING was Round 2 of the PRO1 Race Parts Tri Series for Super Streets and with 14 competitors all keen to put their best wheels forward, Townsville’s Brett Hardy (below) stamped his dominance taking a flag to flag victory aboard his Ford BA Falcon in the 20-lap final. Scott Vella would run the entire distance in second while local Tablelander Andrew McCreath managed to climb his way into third, rounding off the podium over Owen Rankine. Further back the hustle through the field proved to be quite exciting as many positions changed hands over the course of the journey. Luke Cummins, Michael Phillips, Melissa Close, Tony Villella and Aaron Brewer were next, one lap down, would be Brandon Wyatte while Ashley Goodman failed to travel the journey. The third and final round will be held on the 17 September at the Cairns Speedway.

The 10-lap heats were dominated by Vella and Hardy claiming two a piece while Mick Brook and McCreath earned singles.

In Formula 500s it was Ash Ewing on top followed by John Magro, Anthony Gunnell and Mitch Whitmore, while Andrew Campbell failed to finish. Ewing would take two of the three 8-lap heats and Magro the remainder.

In the Junior classes Dylan Hedger topped the points in the Junior Formula 500s while Kayla Adams proved the best of the Junior Sedans.

Image: Trevor Corica

Image: Vern Parker

ALEXANDRA ACTION APLENTY FOR 100 LAPPER!

Image: Nakita Pollock

CAMERON CLAIMS DUEL IN THE NORTH THE TYRE Factory Warrnambool Duel in the North for Wingless Sprints drew a top quality field of 17 competitors all looking to put their best wheels forward and the 20-lap feature would see pandemonium break loose with a multiple car pileup in the opening corner after Jamie McIness tagged the reigning Territory Champion Zac Grimshaw, ending his and others chances while McIness was sent to the rear as primary cause.

After 20 hard fought laps rookie racer Cameron Jaenke (pictured) snared the victory over Jarrod Goldoni and McInnes who fought his way back into a podium placing.

Bailey Jones, Angus Campbell and a smoking Matt Sealy would square off the top half dozen. Further back was Mathew McLennan and Shane Norman. One lap in arrears

were Daniel Taylor and Doug Walker to round out the finishers. Xavier Gotts retired at half race distance while Grimshaw, Tyson Newcombe, Sean Tiedeman and Keelan Edwards were all eliminated in the first corner incident.

Grimshaw, Sealy, Jaenke and McInnes each shared a heat win.

Mark Allcorn would prove the best in the AMCA Nationals taking victory over Peter Harding and Jim Keane.

For successive nights the Street Stocks would repeat the podium placings with Nathan Thorne showing the fastest way home over Justin Brumfield and Jake Koivumaki.

Victoria’s Jayden Lock proved his worth claiming victory over Deegan Sherwood and River Spitzbarth in the Junior Sedan ranks.

WALSH WINS ROUND 3 CELEBRATING 50 years, the Mareeba Speedway club played host to the third round of the North Queensland Sprintcar Championship, billed as the ‘Big Powerful Things with Wings’ for the running of the NQ Agricultural Services 20-lap Feature. With a dozen LSpowered Sprintcars squared up to do battle for the evening the racing would prove to be an exciting affair.

The first attempt at the start for the all important final would see helter-skelter as Brett Sciban and Daid O’Keeffe were caught up in a multiple car first lap incident, sending both to the infield before a shot had been fired.

For the complete restart Wes Jenkins sat in Pole Position alongside Brian Walsh; tucked in behind them on the second row would be second generation racer Gwesyn Dalliston and Jared Desmares, who had been chasing a minor motor gremlin throughout the night.

At the drop of the green Jenkins would shoot to the front as Brian Walsh fended off an early challenge from Dalliston over the first two laps, before the caution lights would blaze for Dalliston, ending his quest for second and sending him to the rear of the pack for an Indian File restart. Jenkins again set the pace; however just two laps

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100 LAPS around any track is a monstrous effort, however 100 laps, including the iconic dogleg section around Victoria’s Alexandra Speedway for the running of the annual Foodworks 100 Lap Derby bringing down the curtain on the 2021/22 season, proved to be both a challenging and exciting affair all rolled into one. A massive field of 60 Open Sedan competitors nominated although only 39 would square off for the challenge after surviving a massive 18 gruelling 6 lap qualifying heats and a last chance B Main prior to the enduro that lay ahead.

Damien Miller was the best of all in qualifying, winning all three of his heat races to claim pole position and alongside would be David Donegan, while eventual race victor Shane O’Brien (above) would start back in 13th position but with the marathon that lay ahead the starting position would not be a disadvantage.

Miller and Donegan scrapped over the lead for the first quarter of the race trading positions until Miller’s run came to an end on lap 23. Donegan soon found himself a new sparing partner in Andrew Jordan and the pair traded blows until around the half race distance before Donegan succumbed to mechanical damage and slowly fell back through the field until retiring a short time later. Jordan took control and for the next 20 laps would control the tempo until Steve Kershaw worked his way to front and the duo would battle it out as the later stages of the race was shaping up to be a cracker of an affair, with O’Brien making it a thrilling three way dance at the pointy end.

O’Brien’s Holden Commodore took the lead for the first time on lap 93 and didn’t look back as he made his bid for line honours. O’Brien went on to add his name to the prestigious winners list of the 100 Lap Derby; joining him in the podium celebrations would be Jordan, Joel Andrews, Kershaw and Gareth Wilson who had all finished on the lead lap.

Two laps behind were the trio of Josh Service, Dennis Reid and Lee Beach.

Jeff Blencowe and Luke Fallon checked in on lap 95 while further back was David Barrie, Daniel Unternahrer and Braydin Claridge classified as the final finisher, as most of the field fell around them.

Image: Vern Parker Image: Gordon Greaves further on the yellows would soon be on again, this time for the spun car of Mark Jorgensen, bringing the field back together for a second restart.

Jenkins again led the field away followed by Walsh, Desmares and Co as the field settled into rhythm. Things were going well for Jenkins as he drove unchallenged for the lead until retiring to the infield with mechanical gremlins, gifting Walsh the lead where he would go on to run the final three laps (pictured above) without incident to the waving chequered flags. Desmares remained second and joining them on the podium would

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be Cameron King, followed by rookie driver Brodie Davis who continued to improve with every lap gained.

Dalliston was next and rounding out the top half dozen was Jorgensen.

The four 8-lap qualifying heats were shared evenly with Desmares, Scibo, Jenkins and B. Walsh taking a bittersweet win– while the latter claimed the maximum points the team’s second car driven by his father Michael crashed out of contention and was sidelined for the rest of the evening.

Sadly, joining him on the non-starters list for the final would be Nick O’Keefe and female racer Libby Ellis.

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TAYLOR TAKES CRASH N’ BASH CASH! THE MEETING was also the inaugural running of the Mick Corbett Memorial. With 32 of the fearless Crash and Bash competitors assembled the racing proved to be a hard-fought affair, but after 18 heats and a smack down 60-lap final Mark Taylor (above) would come from dead last on the 27 car grid to work his way to Victory Lane as many crashed out before him.

Pole sitter Jackson Basten commanded the early proceedings before Rob Bushell, Shane Roycroft, Jaidyn Dredge and Daniel Williams all held sway before Taylor assumed control with around 10 laps remaining, to go on and claim victory over Ashley George, Daniel Kettles, Williams and Roycroft rounding the top five.

Pole sitter Basten would salvage sixth in the caution plagued affair while Zac Leeson, Anthony Sharam, Jordan Smith and Mick Sloane rounded out the top ten and only finishers.

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NATIONALS WRAP ROUND WITH RAMIFICATIONS THERE WAS more emphasis put on the fifth round of the NSW Motor Race Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park on August 6-7 with the penultimate outing next month cancelled.

Berryman, Lewis, and Webber Head the RX8 contest. Below left: Luke Harrison battles the HQ field. Right: Sparke, Porter,and Williams in close Vee company. Bottom: Cooper, Hodges,and Agathos contest Production Touring cars glory. Images: Riccardo Benvenuti

MAZDA RX8 CUP

IT WAS a breakthrough round for Shannon McLaine with two race wins steering him to overall victory ahead of points leader Tom Shaw, and Luke Webber. Shaw was the fastest qualifier, but it was his front row compatriot, guest John Bowe, who led at first. McLaine jumped ahead of Shaw and Jack Pennacchia with the four able to break away.

McLaine took the lead at Turn 6 on lap five.

Bowe then missed a gear and conceded to the next two and finished fourth ahead of Webber, Tom Duncan, Justin Barnes and Terry Lewis. McLaine had the lead in Race 2 from Pennacchia while Bowe was next but with a 5s start line penalty forthcoming. Shaw passed him on lap two before an incident between Duncan and Jason Galer at Turn 2 induced the Safety Car for the duration.

Berryman and Lewis were next best and finished one-two in Race 3. That was after McLaine and Pennacchia had Turn 2 contact, Duncan stopped separately, and the Safety Car. Webber was third in front of Shaw, Barnes, Bowe and McLaine.

Berryman had the last race lead before he was passed by Lewis who led narrowly until they came out of Turn 11 on the last lap. Lewis missed a gear and in the run to the flag, lost out to Berryman, Webber and McLaine. Shaw was fifth ahead of Pennacchia, Bowe, Justin Lewis and Barnes.

PRODUCTION TOURING

THE SPEED was with Simon Hodges (Class X BMW M4), yet the overall outright honours went to Harrison Cooper (Class A1 Mitsubishi EVO X). Hodges was beaten off the Race 1 start by Cooper and Dimitri Agathos (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) but soon showed the way until the final lap.

A miscommunication on the race distance allowed Cooper to pinch a victory. Matt Kiss (Class X HSV GTS) held a tentative fourth until a spin at Turn 9. That elevated Brian Callaghan (A2 HSV Clubsport) ahead of Paul Pearson (GTS) who pipped Glen Wilson (B2 Holden Commodore SSV) at the line.

There was no such error from Hodges in Race 2 where he headed home Cooper and Agathos. Callaghan held off Robert Coulthard (A1 Clubsport) and Tony Virag (SSV) who missed Race 1 due to clutch issues. Pearson was in this dice until he spun off at Turn 11 on the last lap.

Cooper took the lead immediately in the last, and never relented ahead of Hodges and Agathos. Virag finished fourth ahead of Coulthard, Adam Gosling (B1 Honda Civic Type R) and Wilson. Callaghan retired with a broken exhaust, and Kiss went out with a failed radiator fan. Meanwhile the competitive Class D went to Michael Sherwell (Toyota 86) with two race firsts before beaten by Liam Cade (VW Golf GTi) in the last.

SPORTS SEDANS THE LEADING contenders had their issues but not Steve Lacey (Chev Camaro) who won the round and took over the championship lead. Previous points leader Birol Cetin

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(Camaro) crashed in qualifying before Brad Shiels (Fiat 124/Rotary turbo) was a resounding winner of Race 1.

Shiels finished ahead of Lacey while Nick Mantikos (MARC II V8) was next from Willem Fercher (Toyota 86/Chev) and John Ford (Mercedes C63/Chev). Shiels led the second until he had a diff failure on the penultimate lap.

Lacey took the victory from Mantikos, Ford and Mark Duggan (Aston Martin/Chev) who was an early race casualty with a paddle gear shift fault. Shiels took five laps to get from the back to first in the last outing, and won from Lacey, Mantikos, Duggan, Fercher and Ford.

FORMULA RACE CARS ALL THREE races were won by AGI Sport’s Nathan Gotch in his Formula 3 Dallara.

Teammates Costa Toparis and Gianmarco Pradel (F4 Mygales) made it a trifecta in Race 1 where Doug Barry (Formula Holden Reynard 82D) was fourth. The Dallaras driven by Rob Rowe, Rod Brincat, Rod Baker and after stalling at the start, Glenn Lynch followed.

From the second row, Barry made a great start but faltered before Turn 1 and dropped to 14th by the end of lap one. Toparis was again second, but Pradel had a fuel pump issue and dropped to sixth behind Greg Muddle (Dallara), Brincat and Rowe.

Pradel had similar issues in Race 3, and was fourth across the line behind Toparis and Barry before a 30s penalty relegated him to 11th. The field was more compressed than the earlier races due to a Safety Car when Ron Coath spun his Dallara at Turn 8.

FORMULA VEES THE CHALLENGERS came constantly throughout the three races yet Craig Sparke (Jacer) managed to be at the front and first each time the chequered flag came out. In the opening stoush four rivals were vying to

take the win away with Aaron Pace (Jacer) ultimately second ahead of Curtis Porter (Jacer), Darren Williams (Sabre) and Hayden Crossland (Jacer).

There were three close behind Sparke in Race 2. Pace had the lead at the end of the penultimate lap, but slipped up at Turn 6 and finished a distant fifth. Williams was second ahead of Crossland and Porter and covered by 0.3s. In the last it was Williams again second ahead of Crossland, Pace and Porter.

HQ HOLDENS IN A tight contest for round three laurels, Luke Harrison was the winner. It was close in the first race where he led ahead of John Baxter, Chris Molle, David Proglio and Glenn Deering.

Three times the lead changed before Baxter won by 0.06s and Proglio passed Molle.

Baxter led Race 2 but ran wide at Turn 8 which allowed Harrison and Proglio through.

Another miscue at Turn 2 saw Molle and Shaun Boland also pass. Proglio retired with a fuel pump issue and Molle took a brief lead.

Harrison won from Deering, Boland and Molle.

In the last, Harrison was a 2.2s winner while Deering edged out Boland and Molle for second while Baxter was next.

SUPERKARTS OF THE four races, Aaron Cogger (125cc Avoig Elise) won three. Dylan Stephens (250cc Maverick) led the first race before he broke down. Then Cogger won ahead of Robert Trimmer (125cc Stockman) who he headed on three occasions.

Third placed Adam Stewart (Anderson) won Race 2 after Cogger had a drama and finished second. After a Cogger, Trimmer and Stewart result in race three, Trimmer was a DNF in the last where Stewart was second and Blake Roese (125cc BRM) was third.

PRODUCTION SPORTS THE TWO races were dominated by Sergio Pires (Audi R8). Casper Tresidder (Porsche) led initially before Pires assumed control. Meanwhile Marcel Zalloua (Porsche 991) pipped Anthony Skinner (Porsche) for third.

Zalloua led the second race before Pires overtook him. There was a safety car for the stranded Aaron Wemyss Lotus, after which Pires went onto a comfortable win. Zalloua spun on the last lap and gave up second to Tresidder.

Garry O’Brien

Paul Vuillermin (71, Falcon) and Wayne Twist (19, BMW E46) get it together in Improved Production ... Below: Hugo Simpson took the points in the Excel contest.

Images: Nakita Pollock

FOUR SEASONS OF SANDOWN Author: Steven Devries Images: Revved Photography WITH NINE categories and close to 200 cars in attendance, round four of the Victorian State Race Series at Sandown saw the weekend start in beautiful sunshine on Saturday but turn cold and wet by Sunday as plenty of drivers struggled to come to grips with the changing conditions.

FORMULA FORD Two wins to Matthew Hillyer moved him to the top of the State Championship standings; his nearest rival Jordyn Sinni managing one win but failing to finish Race 1 and Race 3. Three podium finishes to New-SouthWelshman Edison Beswick was enough to give him overall round honours.

In Kent Class, Brendan Jones celebrated his 200th race and tied with Richard Davison on overall points for the second consecutive round.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION Adam Poole (V2 Monaro) was pushed all the way to the Race 1 win by Jarrod Tonks (VY Commodore). The pair of them finishing 13 seconds clear of Luke Grech-Cumbo (HSV Senator). The same three would occupy the podium positions for the feature race on Sunday morning with Tonks taking his maiden win in IP ahead of Poole, capitalising on a mistake from the South Australian when rain began to disrupt proceedings.

With light rain falling, Grech-Cumbo turned in a stellar display of high-horsepower wetweather driving to survive the onslaught of Kaide Lehmann’s VE Commodore to win Race 3, with Tonks sealing round honours with a third-place finish.

CIRCUIT EXCELS When the going was dry, Ethan Grigg-Gault was fast and consistent. His laps were within half a second of each other across the first two races – resetting the circuit record in the process. Behind him, Hugo Simpson and Bradley James stood on the podium in Race 1, with Harry Tomkins and Simpson a similar distance adrift in Race 2.

When the going was wet in Race 3, GriggGault was in the box seat until a mistake on the penultimate lap end his race in the Dandenong Road gravel trap. His loss was Simpson’s gain, emerging from the last lap duel with Antonio Molluso (second) and

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NATIONALS WRAP with Garry O’Brien Tomkins (third) to take the win, the round, and extend his series points lead.

FORMULA VEE

PORSCHE 944

Saturday’s overcast conditions presented a four-lap sprint packed with action. Jake Rowe and Reef McCarthy staged a mistake-free scrap with the former managing to hold onto the race win. The pair finishing well clear of Heath Collinson in third.

The top two positions were reversed in both the Sunday races; McCarthy ahead of Rowe, with Collinson having to recover from two tardy starts to finish third and maintain his lead atop the standings. Behind him, several drivers struggled for grip with spins and off-track excursions punctuating some highly entertaining racing throughout the field.

Saturday’s dry running saw James Westaway and Cameron Beller’s title duel put on ice after an early Safety Car and a red flag stopped proceedings after just four laps, thanks to a collision between James Mitchell and Andrew Jones, resulting in the latter barrel-rolling three times on the outside of Turn 1. The Westaway and Beller duel resumed on Sunday morning; decided in Westaway’s favour by two-tenths of a second.

In slippery conditions, the returning Chris Lewis-Williams delivered the biggest result of the weekend. The former three-time category champion wound back the clock to snatch the third race win away on the final tour ahead of Westaway and Beller, thus showing the field that he still has it after almost five years out of the driver’s seat.

SPORTS CARS In a field dominated by Porsches, it was Ben Schoots in his Sin R1 that continued to dominate the Sports Car Championship, winning both the sprint and feature races.

Christian Fitzgerald was second in both the shortened dry Saturday sprint race and the tricky 40-minute feature race on Sunday.

Andrew Hall came home third in the sprint; 9 seconds off the lead, with the same position in the feature race going to Jamie Lovett. All three men behind Schoots piloting a Porsche 991.1 GT3 Cup car.

SALOON CARS Shaun Jamieson (VY Commodore) continued his dominant season with another pole position and all three race wins across the weekend: unchallenged in the first two races. Scott Dornan (VY Commodore), Jacob Prestipino (VT Commodore), Adam Lowndes (VY Commodore) and Daniel Johnson (AU Falcon) all took turns to join Jamieson on the rostrum.

The third race featured an early Safety Car when David Lines’ right front wheel parted company with his VT Commodore and saw Prestipino crash out of third place while challenging Lowndes for second. That elevated Samuel Milton (VT Commodore) to third after Saturday repairs following contact with the Turn 4 wall.

BMW E30s A feature race win and two top-four finishes kept Geoffrey Bowles’ championship hopes alive going into the final round in September.

Alex Jory chalked up another two wins either side of an uncharacteristic mistake at Turn 11 in the second race to minimise the damage to his series points lead.

VICTORIAN V8s A major start line incident for Gary Finemore in his Ford XB Coupe unfortunately declared Race 1 a no-contest; the car amazingly able to be repaired in time to start Race 3 on Sunday.

The Holdens of Gregory Lynch (HSV GTS) and David Ratcliffe (VT Commodore) split the two race wins between them on Sunday, finishing comfortably ahead of Brian Finn (VS Commodore) who was second in both races.

Below: Brendon Jones tied on points with Richard Davison in (Kent) Formula Ford. Right: Adam Lowndes heads eventual Saloon Car winner Shawn Jamieson.

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NATIONALS WRAP ENDUROS THE FEATURE AT QUEENSLAND RACEWAY

Above: Zak Hudson and Anthony Tenkate show the way in Trans Am. Below: The Excel field barrels into Turn 1, headed by the Wood-Wood, Owen-Fraser and Hughes-Allen cars.

Images: MTR Images

QUEENSLAND RACEWAY turned to enduro mode for some of the classes at the sixth round of the QR Drivers Championships on August 13-14. While it was very wet on Saturday, the sun shone throughout Sunday.

TRACK ATTACK EXCELS

A MAMOTH field of 47 took on the EFS Hyundai Excel Cup where Bradi Owen scored a narrow 0.43s victory in the 175km twilight endurance race after Declan Fraser did the first stint. Owen grabbed the lead off Nash Morris who was sharing with Connor Roberts, and then held him off to the chequered flag.

Just over 5s behind them were third placed Max Geoghegan and Hugo Allan.

They headed a large group that comprised Ryan Casha/Rylan Gray, Jack and George Wood, Todd Wanless/Brodie Kostecki, Jaylyn Robotham/Brett Parrish, Darren Whittington/ Tom Sauterchu who were 18th early, and Riley Beggs/Kaleb Ngatoa.

Tenth were Josh Dremel and B Tomlin while Holly Espray and her father Richard were 36th after the first lap, and finished 11th.

The race went 57 laps with Jarrod Hughes and Kai Allen in front for the first 33 and then again from lap 44 to lap 53. It was then that the exhaust came away from the engine and they were forced to retire.

Sixth at the end of the first lap Melinda Price/Josh Hunt had a puncture shortly after which cost two laps. Zane Rinaldi (with Treigh Maschotta) was seventh on lap seven when the gear shifter cable broke, and Cameron Bartholomew and Ian Harvey were up to 10th when their race ended with a broken driveshaft.

There were three lead up sprint races where Geoghegan won the first over Cooper Barnes, Owen and Bartholomew before Barnes beat Robotham, Owen and Roberts. The third was for the co-drivers which went to Fraser over Wood and Gray.

HQ HOLDENS/GEMINI ONE-HOUR

MADDEN BROTHERS, Brandon and Jake, were the winners in a very closely fought Margo Jones HQ/Gemini one-hour endurance race. They finished just over half a second ahead of Joe Andriske and his nephew Scott Andriske when they grabbed the lead two laps from the end.

Two-tenths behind were Ben Simpson and Brad Schromberg with another half second to Nick Rangeley and Ashley Jarvis in the lone Holden Gemini. Ryan and Brandon led from the start, lost the lead a couple of times to the Madden second entry (with the same drivers) and finished sixth after a pitlane speed drivethrough penalty cost them any chance of victory.

Fifth place went to the double entered, and driven Andriske HQ, 0.26s in front of

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Schromberg-Simpson, French-Lovering, and Andriske-Andriske show the way as the HQ One Hour gets under way. Right: Rob McMahon and Brendan Exner fought out the Ute contest. the Woods pair. Peter Coleman and Andrew Magilton, and Warren Parker/Tristian Ellery finished on the lead lap while Bruce French/ Kyle Lovering were a lap down.

Tim and Rod Boyle finished 10th after they had a moment very early on and were hit by the Chris and Jason Molle car. The latter finished but without enough laps after repairs as too Neil Jeffers/Derek Riseley. The second Madden car had brake issues and retired, so too Tye Gray/Dalton Ellery (gearbox) and Mark Strachan/Sam Taylor (head gasket).

The earlier Driver A sprint race was won

by Rangeley over Ryan Woods and Jake Madden, and the B race was taken out by Joe Andriske ahead of Jarvis and Ben Simpson.

MARC CARS/INVITED

IN THE wet and dry of the preliminaries, Geoff Taunton (MARC II V8) was victorious but fell marginally short in the 50min enduro.

On three occasions he finished ahead of the MARC Mazda 3s driven by Darren Currie and Lachlan Gardner. Kevin Vedelago (Porsche 991) was next in race one before Grant

Donaldson (MARC Ford Focus) picked up a couple of fourths.

Taunton led the enduro for 26 laps until his compulsory pitstop which was longer than the others. It left him third behind Gardner and Currie while Donaldson was fourth.

Taunton displaced Currie on lap 35 which turned out to be six before the end. He rapidly chased down Gardner, but miscued on the last lap, recovered and finished 0.13s off victory.

AUSTRALIAN TRANS AM

ON THE wet Saturday, Zak Hudson (Ford Mustang) was pipped in qualifying by Alwyn Bishop (Plymouth Duster). Then Hudson splashed through Race 1 the victor with Bishop second. After that Hudson was in a league of his own . . . until beaten by Anthony Tenkate in the last outing after a race-long dice.

Tenkate was third in the first two races behind Bishop before a pair of seconds ahead of the Duster. Fourth in each encounter was Ian Palmer (Plymouth AAR Cuda). In the

5.0lt class Ron Prefontaine (Mustang) was the best on four occasions, and fifth outright three times, only outpointed by Sean English (Mustang) in race three.

HOT HATCH CUP/PRODUCTION UTES

UTILISING FOUR circuit configurations, the five events were the realm of the V8s of Robert McMahon (Holden Maloo) and Brendan Exner (Ford Falcon) as they duked it out for the outright victories. The score went the way of the former, four to one.

Behind them the six cylinder fight was a Falcon battle where Dan Ford won the first two ahead of Mick McCloud and Peter Clarke before McCloud edged out Ford in the third.

The latter came back to beat Clarke and McCleod in the fourth, and then Clarke and Craig Kasper (Commodore) in the last while McCleod DNF’d.

Despite small numbers, the contest in Hot Hatches was close with Trent Laves (Hyundai Getz) the winner twice, Jack Munro (Honda Jazz) twice and Dylan Cothill (Ford Fiesta) once. Garry O’Brien

Y’S R R A G CAPO DOWNS THE WOLVES IN QUEENSLAND NATIONAL

VICTORY IN the third and final race of the GC Marine Australian Prototype Series’ second round gave Ricky Capo and his turbo Renault-powered Praga R1T EVO the round win over Wolf drivers John Paul Drake and Ryan Godfrey.

As part of the Speed Series at Queensland Raceway on August 6-7, Phil Hughes (Hayabusa V8 Radical SR8) led the opener when he beat Godfrey (turbo Peugeot Wolf Tornado) off the start, for 13 of the 14 laps until a spin on the last. Drake (Wolf F1 Mistral) passed Godfrey three laps in and had second until mid-distance when overtaken by Capo.

When Hughes spun, Drake scored a narrow 0.22s victory over Capo. Godfrey took third and Hughes recovered for fourth ahead of Jason Makris (Wolf Tornado) and Xinlei Song (Wolf Thunder). Peter Clare was seventh and won the Radical SR3 class over Bill Medland.

Drake was an all-the-way winner in the second race, with a 2.4s advantage over Capo. Godfrey was third in the early going but dropped to sixth on lap five before he ultimately crossed the line behind third place

WINNERS BLUNDER ALMOST BLUNDERED THE ‘DAYS of Blunder’ race team in their Mazda 3 were the winners of Motor Events Racing 12 hour day/night show at Mallala Motorsport Park on August 8, despite running out of fuel as they crossed the finish line.

They were one of several teams who were out fuel at the end. They also took out the ME-2 class, completed 411 laps, and won the event by three laps over the Nomiatas crew in their ME-2 Mazda MX-5. Third place went to Drought Breakers as their dry Ford Falcon EB coasted across the line.

EVENT

CALENDAR

John Paul Drake shows the way in the opening Prototype race. Image: Nathan Wong Hughes and Makris. Clare again showed the way to Medland.

Capo took out the last race when race leader Makris was hit by Drake at the final corner on the last lap. Makris was left

bunkered while Godfrey took second just in front of Hughes. Drake recovered for fourth with Song next as Clare scored his third triumph over Medland. Makris was a nonfinisher. Garry O’Brien

One further lap back was Team Gastrol Racing (Toyota Camry) in fourth two laps off third and four laps ahead of Scotchers Hyundies Racing (Hyundai Excel) who won ME-3.

The classes are based on engine power with ME1 for cars with 140-199kW outputs while ME2 covered 90-139kW and Winners – Days of Blunder! Image: Gorecki Photography ME-3 was for up to 89kW. Apollo 13 (Mazda 3) finished sixth, Attack (Falcon) continually garaged, ahead of Geisler Motorsport (Toyota Triple R Racing (Mitsubishi Magna) 86) who cooked their front brakes in the with wheel bearing problems, Old Men final hour, and then lost their rears with Racing (Toyota Celica) and Lancestrong 10mins to go. Dutch Courage Racing (Mitsubishi Lancer).

(Excel) came home eighth ahead of MER raised a further $2300 for the Team Excel-Lent (Excel), Team Scooby life-changing work of Rare Cancers Doo (Subaru Impreza), and Southgate Australia. The weekend result helped Automotive (BMW 2002). crack the $70,000 mark in total Those that didn’t finish included Track donations. Garry O’Brien

TIGHE SMASHES RINGWOOD RECORD ON HIS way to be outright fastest in the fifth round of the NSW Hillclimb Championship, overall points leader Dean Tighe (below) smashed the Ringwood Park A4 track record on August 7.

Tighe blistered through the 1.330km course with a best of 59.86s in his over 2.0lt Formula Libre supercharged Hayabusa-powered Empire Wrath. The

time on his third attempt knocked 2.1s off the record set by five-time national champion Malcolm Oastler in his OMS28.

Tighe was 0.2s off on his first run and 1.2s under the old benchmark on his second.

He was also way out in front of his nearest rival in Dave Morrow (under 1.3lt F/L Krygger Suzuki by over 7s while third place went to Peter Brown (Pro Sport

Image: camg_photo

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Mulsanne 2C Supersports) a further 3s away.

Fifty-four competitors took part with fourth, and first of the tin tops, taken

by Phil Heafey in his Time Attack AW Mitsubishi EVO 6. He was almost half a second quicker that Greg Jones (Locost GSL Clubman) and TA 2WD class Warren Bell in his Datsun Stanza.

Peter Akers (Road Registered Non log booked Subaru Impreza WRX) was seventh. The next two were from the Improved Production over 3.0lt class where David Isaacs (EVO 9) beat David Hussey (Ford Laser TX3) by 0.13s.

Their times pipped Brian Cox (under 750cc F/L Hyper Hugger X4) who finished 10th ahead of Tim Wrightson (Mini Cooper Sports Sedan). Michael and Andrew Fraser split shared the runs in their Road Registered Chev Corvette for 12th and 13th respectively. Garry O’Brien

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QUEENSLAND STATE CIRCUIT RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS RD03, Morgan Park QLD – Aug 26-28 AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP RD05, Morgan Park QLD – Aug 26-28 MILLMERRAN AUTO CLUB STREET SPRINTS, Pittsworth Industrial Estate – Aug 26-28 AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP RD05, Gippsland Rally, Heyfield VIC – Aug 27-28 VIC STATE RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP RD04, Gippsland Rally, Heyfield VIC – Aug 27 NSW HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP RD05, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW – Aug 27 TIME ATTACK #4, Lakeside Park – Aug 27 WEEKEND SPRINTS & SUPER SPRINT #8, Queensland Raceway – Aug 27 (afternoon) ROLL RACING BRISBANE #8, Queensland Raceway – Aug 27 (evening) MOTOR SPORTS CAR CLUB TARMAC KHANACROSS RD04, Symmons Plains TAS – Aug 27 THE BEND CLASSIC, The Bend Motorsport Park – Aug 27-28 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP RD0, Pt Germain SA – Aug 27-28 NEW SOUTH WALES OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP RD03, Dondingalong NSW – Aug 27-28 MOTOR RACE AUSTRALIA RD06, Wakefield Park NSW – Aug 27-28 VICTORIAN HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP RD07, Bryant Park VIC – Aug 28 QUEENSLAND MOTORKHANA CHAMPIONSHIP, Queensland Raceway – Aug 28 RALEIGH MOTORSPORT ASSOCIATION RALLYSPRINT, Raleigh Raceway NSW – Aug 28 MG CAR CLUB CANBERRA MULTICLUB MOTORKHANA, Sutton Road Canberra ACT – Aug 28 RALEIGH MOTORSPORTS ASSOCIATION RALLYCROSS RD03, Raleigh Raceway NSW – Aug 28 WEST AUSTRALIAN MOTORKHANS SERIES RD04, Perth Multiplex WA – Aug 28 LIGHT CAR CLUB OF WA KHANACROSS, Bayswater WA – Aug 28 MG CAR CLUB NEWCASTLE HILLCLIMB, Ringwood Motorsport Park NSW – Aug 28 TARGA GREAT BARRIER REEF, Cairns QLD – Sep 02-04 CENTRAL QLD MOTOR SPORTING CLUB GOLD RUSH HILLSPRINT, Bouldercombe QLD – Sep 02-04 MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP RD05, Hindmarsh VIC – Sep 02-04 AMSAG RALLY SERIES RD03, Rosewood Rally NSW – Sep 03 SOUTH EASTERN AUTOMOBILE CLUB TRIALS SERIES RD02, Mt Gambier Forests SA – Sep 03 ALFA ROMEO OWNERS CLUB SPRINT SERIES RD07, Sandown Raceway – Sep 03 WA SPEED EVENT POINT 2 POINT SERIES RD10, Wanneroo Raceway – Sep 03 WEEKEND SPRINTS & SUPER SPRINT #9, Queensland Raceway – Sep 03 MG CAR CLUB NEWCASTLE KHANACROSS DIRT/TAR DAY/ NIGHT, Ringwood Motorsport Park – Sep 03 NSW STATE HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP RD08, Gunnedah NSW – Sep 03-04 MOTOR EVENTS RACING, 16 Hour Winton Rumble, Winton VIC, Sep 03-04 ARDC SUPER 70, Sydney Motorsport Park – Sep 03-04 NATIONAL SPORTS SEDANS SERIES RD04, Sydney Motorsport Park – Sep 03-04 INTERCLUB HILLCLIMB, Mt Cotton QLD – Sep 03 (or 12) IMPREZA OWNERS CLUB ANNUAL HILLCLIMB CHALLENGE, Collingrove SA – Sep 04 TIME ATTACK TASMANIA, Baskerville Raceway TAS – Sep 04 VICTORIAN OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP RD03, Rainbow VIC – Sep 04 GEELONG MOTOR SPORTS COMPLEX MOTORKHANA RD06, Avalon VIC – Sep 04

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NATIONALS WRAP 2A COPY WALKY WIN WITH VICTORY in the second round of the MRF Tyres South Australian Rally Championship, Jamie Pohlner and Adam Branford (right) scored back-to-back triumphs in the Copyworld Walky 100 on August 13.

Just under a minute behind their Mitsubishi EVO 9 were 2019 winners Zayne Admiraal and Matt Heywood (Subaru Impreza WRX STi). There was another 10.2s to Guy Tyler and Steve Fisher (Mitsubishi Magna) who were the first of the 2WDs. Five seconds behind them were fourth placed and three-time winners Declan and Zoe Dwyer in their EVO 6.

Based out of Eudunda Oval, the event was scheduled to run over four legs and 12 stages for a total of 110kms. Two stages were deleted before the event started, one was later omitted due to Restricted Speed Zone penalties issues, and two because of road surface deterioration.

The first stage was won by Admiraal ahead of Pohlner, Tyler, Dwyer, and David McDonough and Naomi Tillett (EVO 6).

Stage four was the next competitive one which Pohlner won from Dwyer, Daren Herring and Matthew Woods (EVO 6) and Tyler.

Admiraal finished ninth with a welded clutch. He finished ninth on the next stage too, this time hindered by a stuck

Image: Stuart Daddow brake bias valve. The next stage (six) was again won by Pohlner over Dwyer, Herring, Tyler, and Rob Hunt and Jeremy Browne (EVO 6). Stage seven produced three in a row for Pohlner, with Admiraal next in front of Dwyer, Herring, and Wayne Mason and Mike Dale (EVO 7).

The final three stages (nine, 10 and 12) went to Tyler in the “taxi” where seconds went to Pohlner, Admiraal and Mason respectively. Dwyer followed with a stage third and fourth before an 11th on the last. But he held onto fourth overall ahead of Herring, Mason and McDonough. Garry O’Brien

COMEBACK AT WYNARKA

Image: Dale Bishop Photography

SECOND HALF WINNING CHARGE A STRONG second heat at Buggy Park gave Fletcher Murdock (above) victory in the Millicent Sand Buggy Club’s David Larter Memorial Off Road Day/Night Enduro on August 13.

It was his first outing behind the wheel of his dad Andy’s Unlimited Class Element Off Road Prodigy/Chev V8. He won the 160km event 7.8s in front of Daryl Nissen (Class 1 Sore/Nissan V6). Jake Douglass in his recently acquired Class 10 Jimco/Honda was 1min 23.9s further behind in third place.

Heat 1 was taken out by Nissen with a 31.5s advantage over Aaron Heemskerk (Class 10 Razorback/Honda). Douglass came in third ahead of Murdock, Brant Knight (Class 10 Sabre/Suzuki), Luke Densley (Class 6 Can-Am), Dean Russ in his Mitsubishi V6-powered Class 1, and Dean Carter (Razorback/Chev) who had a soft rollover.

Todd Lehmann was set to debut his new supercharged Chev Unlimited Brenthel, and was on the start line all set to go when it blew the torque converter. He only picked it up from Customs eight days prior!

The gap between Nissen and Murdock was 1min 15.7s second, and the latter’s second heat win over Nissen by 1min 23.4s was enough to ensure the overall victory. Douglass scored another third which gave him the final podium spot.

Knight finished fourth for the event ahead of Densley and Heemskerk who missed a corner and had to be dug out which cost him 19mins in the second heat. Others with issues included Matt Salt (Can-Am, driveshaft), Kurt Stephan (Truggy, diff), Rhys Watson (Self Built, tie rod). Garry O’Brien

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THE PRO 4x4 Wynarka Off Road Enduro was redemption for the front runners that excited early from the previous weekends Can-Am Loveday 400. Carl Haby and Wayne Tabe (Element Prodigy/Toyota turbo Pro Buggy – pictured right) came from behind to hunt down early leaders Toby Whateley and Simon Herrmann for an easy win on August 6-7.

Whateley (Extreme 2WD Rush Loveday Truck/Holden V8) dropped out with overheating problems and a serious lack off body panels with two laps to go. Luke Erceg (ECE Honey Badger/Nissan ProLite) was right on the pace from the start and was a couple of minutes behind the winner.

Brenton and Matthew Gallasch (Southern Cross/Chev Pro Buggy) had an uneventful race and made it onto the podium. Sam and Hayden

Image: Bob Taylor

Bentley (Racer/Chev Superlite) slowly picked their way through and were a handy fourth.

After a slow start Pat Byrnes and Van Nixon (Byrnes Truck/Chev) came back strong to be 15s adrift.

With only 36s back to Dean Miller and Joe Cassise (Triton Erceg Truck/Chev) the battle for Ext 2WD honours had been intense.

Chris and Colin Johnson (Custon/ Nissan) were next home well clear of Shannyn Fitzgerald, Elle Barrett and Brodie Wegener (S&S Frames/ Nissan). Ben and Heath Fatchen (Can-Am SXS Turbo) were next to greet the flag comfortably clear of Mark and Ryder Taylor (Cobra/ Mazda Super 1650) in tenth.

Retirees included Daryl Nissen/ Andrew Harness (Sore/Nissan) and Andrew Fitzgerald (Element

Prodigy/Chev) with his second DNS in a row. David Hall and Corey Hayworth (Murphy/Nissan) crashed out early and Jodie Vernon (CanAm) was out with a clutch issue.

Mick and Dave Heasman (Southern Cross/Nissan) were out with wheel bearing and suspension problems. On the penultimate lap Nick and Alex Burt (Rush Truck/ Chev) had the transmission cried enough. On the threshold of a top ten Hannah Bentley and Cooper Johns (Racer Trophy Truck/Toyota) until a problem with the fuel tank.

Ron and Debbie Ireland (Polaris RZR XP 1000) won SXS Sport as Michael Shipton and Paul Chorlton (Ford SBH Ranger/Chev) were the pacesetters in Performance 2WD but didn’t make the finish with a broken diff. David Batchelor

RALLY TIE AT THE BAY ON NSW’s South Coast, the Lazer Lighting Rally of the Bay, round four of the state championship, finished in a dead heat. Richie Dalton and Mac Keirans (Toyota Yaris – right) and Clayton Hoy and John Allen (Mitsubishi EVO 6) were tied after nine stages.

Sixty entries competed around Batemans Bay area where the organisers, the North Shore Sporting Car Club, faced many difficulties to get the event to go ahead. Severe rain and flooding had damaged many of the traditional roads, which left a vastly changed route. The stages were all in good condition, but some of the transport stages were very rough in spots.

Dalton took the first three stages, and edged a lead of 7s over Hoy, who took the fourth stage by 8s. The two drivers have vastly different styles; Dalton is flamboyant and spectacular, Hoy supersmooth and deceptively fast.

Hoy won the fifth and sixth stages, for a 7s lead. Dalton hit back on the eighth stage, and they were level into the last stage. Hoy took the final stage by just 0.4s and it was first thought, the win.

But the Championship rules require timing to the second, which meant

Image: Bruce Moxon timekeepers and stewards spent a long time afterwards as they rounded the times to the nearest second for each competitor on each stage, and finally came up with the dead heat.

Hoy was delighted after the event, and well he might have been – first rally in 15 months, first time with a new co-driver

and up against an ex-works car.

Tony Sullens and Kayleigh Newell (Subaru Impreza WRX) took third, 1m 22s further adrift, from Nathan Quinn/Ray Winwood-Smith (Hyundai i20) who were the first crew on a road book, the others on pace notes. Sixth were Riley Walters/ Andrew Crowley (WRX) and impressed

MARTIN AND DE SIMONE BIG GUNDY WIN FOUR PERFECT laps enabled Brent Martin and Andre De Simone (pictured) in their Class 1 Jimco Aussie Special/Nissan V6 turbo to take a comprehensive Goondiwindi 400 victory on August 13-14.

They won the third round of the ARB Australian Off Road Championship by over 6mins.

Second went to Talbot Cox, Craig King and Dan McDonald (Racer Engineering Carbon/Toyota V8) ahead of Unlimited class rival Michael Marson and Chris Colborne (Racer Engineering Carbon/Ford V8).

Due to unprecedent wet conditions, the prologue was cancelled, and the field seeded.

Starting sixth, Danny Brown and George Apted (Alumi Craft/ Nissan V6 turbo) were quickest on Saturday’s first 80km lap.

They finished ahead of Stuart Chapman (Chenowth Millennium/ Mitsubishi turbo) and Martin, Robert and Brett Plant (Jimco/Nissan V6) and New Zealanders Raana Horan and Michael Conner (Jimco/Nissan turbo). First to tackle the greasy conditions was Aaron James (Alumi Craft/Ford Ecoboost) who was eighth behind Horan, Kiwis John and David Morgan (Jimco/Nissan V8) and Cox. Crews tackled another four laps on Sunday and Martin was fastest in each. In the first he headed Brown,

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Cox, Horan, James and Marson who was 15th on Saturday. Through the next lap Brown was again second with Cox next in front of Horan, James and Marson.

Chapman had a rollover, while leading Class 4, Greg Gartner and Jamie Jennings (Ford F150 V8) had reoccurring fuel pressure issues. Morgan retired with a failed alternator. Also out was Plant, after electrical issues, but confirmed when he took out a gate post and a couple of trees.

Second on the next lap was Cox ahead of Marson, James, Steven, Ella and Daryl Graham (Class 10 Alumi Craft/Honda) and Horan. That lap saw the demise of Brown because of engine dramas.

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On the last lap, Cox backed up with another second. Third consolidated the final outright podium position for Marson as did fourth for James. Graham and finished sixth outright, behind Horan who finished the lap ahead of him.

Eighth placed Michael Denham/ Dan Adam/Jake Denham (Class 4 MickleFab Raptor/Chev Gen2), and Christian Trusz/Shane Harris (Class 8 Nissan Patrol/LS2) were class winners. So too were Russell and Kelsey Hartnet (Class 2 Razorback/ Honda), James and Michael Mogford (Class 66 Can-Am), Ryan Jones/Carl List (Class 11 Tatum/ Chev) and Michael Ranson/Blake Rogers (Class 5 Mitsubishi Triton/ LS1). Garry O’Brien

Image: Show ‘n’ Go Photography

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by the speed of those ahead of them on notes. Walters is leading the NSW Championship, and he is still on his Ps! Seventh and the first 2WD was the fanfavourites, Sean Mcaloon and Muiranne Hayes (Ford Escort Mk2). They were also first of the East Coast Classic entries.

Bruce Moxon

Image: JS Photography

MARTIN NAILS NANDALY AFTER FOUR laps of 45kms each, Chris Martin (above) won the Camels Capers Nandaly 180 at Pier Millan on August 14. The fifth round of the Victorian Off Road State Shield was conducted over two sections of two continuous laps each in the north west of the state.

Martin took his Unlimited class Feral Gen 1/Chev V8 to a 2mins 35.7s victory in the Sea Lake Off Road Club-event. Second was Dean Megineley in his Class 10 Tatum/Honda with second in Class 10 and third outright to Brant Knight (Sabre/Suzuki).

Martin was fastest over both laps of the first section, ahead of Brendan Payne (Unlimited Southern/Cross) in both for a halfway lead of 18.51s.

After the first lap it was congested behind them with the three Class 10 buggys of Brant, Paul Meikle (Sabre/Suzuki) and Megineley covered by 7.3s. Then on the second lap, Meikle was

faster, ahead of Megineley, Travis Conrad (Class 10 Southern Cross/ Honda), Luke Martin (Class 6 Can-Am), Stephen Burrows (Class 1 Jimco/Nissan V6) and Knight.

Payne was fastest on the first lap of section two, ahead of Martin, but was off the Martin pace on the last lap by over 5s which left Payne fourth in the final wrap up.

Third and second in the section was Megineley and Knight was next which consolidated their outright placings.

Meikle finished the event in fifth ahead of Martin, Burrows and Darren Mott (Bennett Truck Rodeo/Chev LS1) who won Class 4. Mott finished eighth ahead of Andrew Cameron (Mitsubishi Triton/Chev) who took out Class 5.

Tenth was taken by Mark Foster (Class 4 Toyota Tecoma/ Chev LS2) ahead of Graeme Symons (Class 2 (Raptor/Nissan SR16) while Class 7 went to James Markham (Nissan Patrol).

Garry O’Brien

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JETT FIRES IN TA2 Image: MTR Images JETT JOHNSON continued his 2022 blitz of the TA2 Muscle Car Series in Round 4 of the Motor Racing Series, claiming a comprehensive clean sweep of the four races at Queensland Raceway.

The third-generation racer has impressed as a rookie in the National Trans Am Series and dominated the TA2 competition, which he now leads by 126 points after saluting four times at QR. Canberra steerer Josh Haynes did his best to put up a fight in Ipswich, challenging Johnson in the first three races. Haynes led at one point in Race 2, however he was unable to match the raw pace of Johnson who has tallied up plenty of laps in Ford Mustang machinery this year.

“It was a tough weekend as Dad and Team Manager Paul Forgie were at Sandown, however Ben Leeds and the team did a great job in turning the car around between races so I couldn’t be happier with the result,” Johnson said.

“It was great battling with Josh, and it was pretty intense at times, but we had a lot of fun.”

In Race 4, a tyre failure prevented Haynes from challenging Johnson again, forcing the former into the pits and relegating him to 16th at the finish.

The unfortunate deflation gifted Graham Cheney second place in the round results, the #51 Chevrolet Camaro driver managing to perform consistently as the competition faltered.

Dylan Thomas was disqualified from Race 1 for a technical infringement and failed to finish in Race 3, while Zach Loscialpo also faced the stewards’ wrath in Race 3 – he was penalised for taking a short-cut as he attempted to recover from a spin initiated by contact with Nicholas Bates.

Murray Kent was not spared some drama of his own.

Kent had a fracas with John Hollinger in Race 2 which left both drivers watching on from the sidelines.

Two official rounds remain for the 2022 season, set for Sydney Motorsport Park and Winton Raceway.

For more insight into Johnson’s TA2 season and blooming career, grab a copy of Issue 1844 of Auto Action, which will hit shelves on September 8! JN

CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY celebrations of Phillip Island Auto Racing Club (PIARC) continued on August 6-7 with its regular August Access race meeting.

SUPERKARTS

THE 2022 Zucoins Australian Championships were decided with Gary Pegoraro (250cc International –pictured), Dave Salter (250 National), Nick Schembri (125 Gearbox), Jim Gorman (Stock Honda), Sanuja Perera (Rotax Light) and Patrick Ross (Rotax Heavy) the winners.

The 250I field was all Anderson Mavericks with Jordie Ford a qualifying casualty with a blown engine. Title contenders Pegoraro and Ilya Harpas went head to head with Pegoraro the first-up winner while Harpas DNF’d.

Harpas then took two narrow wins over Pegoraro and needed to win the last. Harpas was in the lead from Pegoraro when they clashed out of MG,;Harpas spun off, Matt Bass won the race, and Pegoraro’s second gained him the title. Salter’s 250N laurels came with a win and consistent placings in his Eliminator even though Michael Doherty (Avoig) scored three wins after a first race DNF. Schembri (Anderson) had a clean sweep in the 125s as Lee Vella (Avoig Elise) snared three seconds and a ninth while Brad Marsh (Anderson) was slightly better overall with a second and three thirds. The chances of Jeff Duckworth (Arrow X4) dissipated after his Stock Honda win in race one with an engine

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failure and Gorman (Arrow) headed the next three.

Overall victory in Rotax Heavy came down to the last race after Ross (Viper) won the first and Colin McIntyre (Woodgate) took the next two. In the decider Image: SD Pics Ross edged out McIntyre by 0.08s as Brandon Stillwell (Scorpion) and Martin Anderson the track dried. Craig won as Howard (Scorpion) shadowed them across finished ahead of Metz and Andrew the line.

Pinkerton (Datsun P510). Devlin It also took to the final race to had to pit when a tyre delaminated. decide Rotax Light. Antoni Ormsby Meanwhile Craig had a handy margin (Scorpion) with two, and Lucas on Maynard and Cannizzo.

Quattrocchi (Woodgate) won the Howard had the advantage in preceding races. In a tight finish to the third outing until the diff failed. the last where 0.08s covered the Lindsell inherited a sizeable lead top four, Perera (Arrow) edged out over Metz and Pinkerton while Craig Ormsby and fellow Scorpion pilots picked up fourth, clear of Maynard Johnathon Twigden and Doug and Cannizzo. Devlin and Field also Savage.

DNF’d with boost and gearbox issues respectively.

LITRE SPORTS SEDANS/ Metz led the last until passed by NISSAN PULSARS Lindsell. But neither could hold off THREE WINS and a second gave Howard. Pinkerton was fourth with Craig Lindsell (Mini Cooper JCW) Craig just in front of Maynard. Matt overall honours while Josh Craig was Butters was third of the Pulsars while unbeaten among the Pulsars.

Cannizzo watched on from an off at Race 1’s early leader Steve Howard Turn 1.

(Toyota Corolla) was overtaken by Lindsell. Linda Devlin (JCW) was CIRCUIT EXCELS third in front of Ed Metz (Datsun IN THE three races for the small 1600) and Robert Field (Nissan NXR). turnout, Toby Waghorn drove off Craig was sixth outright and clear of into the distance and left Donovan class rivals Steven Cannizzo, Michael Mrnjavac and Matt Seymour to Ricketts and Tim Maynard. The race fight over second place. In each ended prematurely due to Lauren encounter they exchanged places on Talbot’s Honda Civic Type R making several occasions. Mrnjavac took the heavy wall contact at Siberia. honours twice after Seymour who The track was slightly damp on triumphed in race one. Michael Jeffs Sunday morning. Devlin opted for was a lonely fourth ahead of Lachlan semi wets and had an early lead until Harvey each time. Garry O’Brien

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LARSON TAKES WATKINS GLEN

AS ELLIOT SEALS SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP

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KYLE LARSON took out Sunday’s NASCAR at Watkins Glen after some on-track hostilities between he and Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Chase Elliot, who clinched the regular season championship by winning the first stage, before a P4 finish in the finale.

It was a big round for NASCAR, heading into the second last round of the season, with a few international stars making their appearances, including former F1 world champ, Kimi ‘the Iceman’ Raikkonen, Russian F1 driver Daniil Kyvat, German endurance racing legend Mike Rockenfeller, Brit Kyle Tilley and Dutch driver Loris Hezemans.

Raikkonen would record a DNF by

climbing the left rear of Hezemans in a tight pack, but got as high as running in P8 before pitting during Stage 2. Rockenfeller was the best of the internationals, finishing in P30.

“I wish there had been more laps. It just felt like there is a lot of potential,” he said.

“But you know, I’m not sure which line to take and just not enough laps to put everything together. But yeah, it was fun,” Raikkonen said ... with a straight face ... following his series debut.

Larson won the race by getting the best of Elliot in the wet final restart with a risky dive, edging out AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano, taking the lead with

five laps to go, finishing 0.882s ahead of Allmendinger.

“I knew that was my only opportunity to get by him,” said Larson of the risky move to overtake Elliot.

“I feel like our cars were pretty equal today. Had a lot of fun after the greenflag cycle trying to chase him down. Kind of burned my stuff up a little bit.

“But the restarts kept me in it and kept our team in it. I’m proud of my guys.

Good to get another win here at Watkins Glen and get some more bonus points going into the Playoffs, we haven’t had a lot here this year.’

“We have a competition meeting tomorrow, I think if I was in his shoes,

HARVICK GOES BACK-TO-BACK AT VIRGINIA NASCAR KEVIN HARVICK won his second successive NASCAR round after breaking a 65-race drought the week prior, in Michigan.

Harvick took out the Richmond Raceway round in his Mustang by just 0.441 seconds in front of Christopher Bell, who was just a few car lengths back heading into the last turn, and Chris Buescher in third.

Image: Motorsport Images It was Harvick’s fourth overall

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victory at the short mile track, and the 60th of his career, tying the veteran for ninth in all time wins alongside Kyle Busch.

He led twice in the race for a total of 55 laps in the 400 lap race, after regaining it on the 353rd.

“It’s like I said last week, the cars have been running good week-in and week-out,” Harvick said.

“And you see that we have a much better understanding of

what’s going on with how we adjusted on the car after the first run and were able to get our car handling a lot better. I think as it got dark, the race track really came to our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang.”

Harvick sits at seventh in the title chase on 2013 points, with Chase Elliot holding onto fourth with 2024 points ahead of the Watkins Glen International in New York.

I would understand the risk that I’m taking, taking the left lane also. I’m not proud of it but I did what I felt like I had to do to get the win.’’

The next NASCAR round is at the Daytona International Speedway on August 27 for a 160 lap, 400 mile race, before the Playoff series kicks off on September 4 at Darlington.

NASCAR STANDING 1.

Chase Elliot 2.

Kyle Larson 3.

Ross Chastain 4.

Joey Logano 5.

William Byron 6.

Kevin Harvick

922 788 761 767 664 690

INDYCARS

Josef Newgarden (2) headed a Penske 1-3, either side of spectacular rookie Malukas. Images: Motorsport Images

NEWGARDEN TIGHTENS INDYCAR TITLE CHASE WITH WWTR TRIUMPH JOSEF NEWGARDEN’S WWTR IndyCar win has thrown an already tight championship table into a complete snarl up, with just 56 points separating the top seven contenders with two rounds left to race.

Will Power started the race in Pole position, tying him for the all-time pole record with legend Mario Andretti on 67. But as proved all year, the starting position is somewhat of a poison chalice, with Scott McLaughlin’s race one victory, the only win from pole all year.

In a weather interrupted race at the World Wide Technology Raceway, Newgarden captured his series leading fifth victory of the season over rookie David Malukas and kiwi McLaughlin, moving him into overall second behind Aussie, Will Power.

“I was so happy we could finish this race.

McLaughlin really wanted to win too. I love that about us. We have a good relationship.

He drove me super fair there at the end,” said Newgarden of his teammate after the race.

It was a career best finish for Malukas, who pushed hard after a restart and fell just short over 260 laps by 0.4708s, giving Newgarden his third straight victory at the oval-shaped Illinois circuit.

McLaughlin fell short by 1.0546s after leading the race with 37 laps to go, before a red flag was called due to thunder and lightning, delaying the race for over two hours before it could resume.

Finishing in fourth was Pato O’Ward, with the Arrow Mclaren driver taking valuable points and hanging onto the title fight in that clinging seventh position.

With a maximum of 54 points to be taken from any one of the two races left, the upcoming Portland Grand Prix is shaping up to be one of the biggest rounds in recent IndyCar history.

With the race resuming at 21:05 under lights, conditions were changed dramatically by the heavy rain, which cleared the track of rubber and made for extra grip due to lower temperatures on track.

McLaughlin came out flying after the restart, but his charge was halted by a yellow flag on lap 224, with Newgarden diving past

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POWER POLE EQUALS INDYCAR RECORD

McLaughlin’s Penske crew was fast ... his Team Penske teammate on the 225th lap for a lead that he wouldn’t relinquish.

“We just had to have a good start, I knew Scott was going to be good at the end there, and he had a great restart,” Newgarden said.

“I just tried to work the high lane. The high lane worked earlier for me. We just had enough to get by him. He was no slouch this weekend.”

Despite Mclaughlin sticking with Newgarden for a thrilling 34 laps, never falling outside 0.600s, it was the Malukas who would cost the kiwi a valuable six points by running him and O’Ward down to steal P2.

The young American came from fifth after the restart, and proved himself a star of the future in chasing down some very quick machinery, diving past McLaughlin on the last lap.

“We ended up getting around O’Ward and we ended up getting past a lapped car, and the pit box said, ‘You see them in front,’ and I saw two Penskes, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, they’re Penskes!’ They were tough,” said Malukas.

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Power’s valuable sixth position gave him 32 points, enabling him to keep the championship lead, finishing above close Swedish rival, Marcus Ericsson.

Takuma Sato upset the apple cart of the top seven contenders, with the Japanese Dale Coyne Racing driver grabbing P5 in front of Power, giving the team a double inside the top 5, along with teammate Mulukas.

Last week’s winner, Kiwi Scott Dixon, managed P8, with other title contender Alex Palou grabbing P10.

The next two rounds will return to a street racing format, with the Portland, Oregon, September 4 stoush to set the battleground for the final event of the year in Monterey, California, on September 11. TW Neal INDYCAR TITLE STANDINGS 1.

Power 482 2. Newgarden 479 3. Dixon 468 4. Ericsson 465 5. Palou 439 6. McLaughlin 428 7.

O’Ward 424

AUSTRALIAN WILL Power has entered the IndyCar record books by earning a record equaling 67th pole position of his storied IndyCar career at World Wide Technology Raceway, just outside St. Louis, Illinois.

He couldn’t turn the pole into a victory at the WWTR, with Kiwi Scott McLaughlin being the only driver to do so this year.

Power took pole position with a stunning lap of the 1.25 mile (2.01 km) oval track, tying the legendary Mario Andretti for the all-time series record.

Power who currently leads the IndyCar championship points, turned a two-lap average speed of 182.727 mph in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet to earn his fourth pole of the season.

Power will earned an extra point for taking pole to go with the 32 points from his eventual P6, which see’s him hold the championship lead over Newgarden by just three points.

In equaling Andretti’s pole position record Power said “It’s just amazing.”

“It’s been an amazing year so far. This is a big victory for me, to reach the 67 number and equal such a legend of the sport in Mario Andretti. I just can’t believe that I’m right there with Mario because there’s been no one like him.”

Fellow championship contender Marcus Ericsson joined Power on the front row after his qualifying run of 182.070 mph. Ericsson sits fourth in the title battle, 15 points behind Power.

Team mate to Power and two-time series champion and current title contender Josef Newgarden started third after his run of 181.629 in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet.

Newgarden is now second in points three behind Power.

Kiwi Scott McLaughlin ensured the asymmetrical, 1.25-mile oval was a Penske playground with all three cars starting on the first two rows of the grid, as he qualified fourth with a 181.406 mph average in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet.

The high-speed oval is an intriguing 1.25-mile (2.01 km) oval favoured by many of the drivers who race there due to the unique shape and varying degrees of banking in each corner. TW Neal

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WRC

LAST MAN STANDING REPORT: Josh Nevett IMAGES: Motorsport Images OTT TANAK (above) outlasted his rivals in Belgium to register back-to-back World Rally Championship victories, consolidating his runner-up position in the standings.

Hometown hero Thierry Neuville appeared destined to claim his first win of the season, leading comfortably midway through the event, however a late crash gifted Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja a third triumph in 2022.

British Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Elfyn Evans (inset image top right) came home second just 5s off the leader, while Esapekka Lappi completed the podium in his Toyota GR Yaris.

Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera bowed out on the opening day – the flying Finn understeered into a ditch before his Yaris began to roll. Both Rovanpera and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen were unharmed in the spectacular crash, but the pair were

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ruled out of the remainder of the rally.

As such, Evans and Tanak were left to duel it out at the front in the early stages, before Neuville surged into contention on Friday afternoon.

The Belgian driver struggled to achieve a balanced setup in his Hyundai i20 and dropped over 10s on the first stage, much to his dismay.

It was a different story in the afternoon though, as some set-up tweaks gave Neuville the confidence he needed to ace the asphalt lanes of Flanders and reel off four consecutive stage wins.

He emerged 2.5s clear of teammate Tanak at the end of the day, who was consistent throughout.

Evans was also around the mark, despite experiencing a rollercoaster of fortunes throughout. He took the lead after Rovanpera’s retirement but copped a tyre failure and a 10s late check-in penalty in quick succession, dropping him back to third.

Tyre choice separated the frontrunners from the rest, as some elected to fit wet weather tyres for rain that never came.

Those unfortunate drivers lost time as a result, Lappi joking that he was “leading the class for the wrong tyres” in fourth, 23.6s off the podium.

Saturday brought more drama, with Neuville crashing out from a winning position.

The local star repelled a charge from Tanak in the morning, setting up a 17.2s advantage by the penultimate stage of the day.

However, 6.4km into the Wijtschate stage Neuville ploughed into a ditch, his Hyundai sustaining irreparable damage.

“It was basically full of dirt from the cars in front,” Neuville said.

“We had nothing in the pace notes and we weren’t aware it would be so slippery, so we got caught by surprise and understeered into the ditch.”

Tanak was the main beneficiary, inheriting a lead which totalled 8.2s over Evans heading into Sunday.

Evans ended the day a lonely second, over 1m clear of Lappi.

Irishman Craig Breen was running in the top five until he made a mistake at Dikkebus, rolling into an early retirement.

Takamoto Katsuta recovered to sixth overall after enduring persistent transmission issues on Friday.

On Sunday, Tanak remained composed over four asphalt stages in Flanders to secure the victory.

Evans won the opening two stages but

was unable to erase the margin, settling for second.

“To win here is a big surprise for us - more or less the same as it was in Finland,” Tanak said.

“We didn’t expect it from anywhere basically, but somehow we were able to pull it together during the rally.

“It’s great to see that some results are coming, but there is so much we can improve and we could still be a lot stronger, so there is still some work to do.”

Lappi completed the podium in his Yaris, finishing well clear of Hyundai young gun Oliver Solberg who scored a career best result despite early setbacks.

Katsuta also completed his recovery in style to finish fifth, overcoming transmission and hybrid unit issues.

Thanks to five Power Stage bonus points, Rovanpera still leads the championship by 72 points heading into Rally Greece and remains the odds-on favourite to clinch the title.

Rovanpera’s Toyota Gazoo Racing maintain an ascendency in the Manufacturers’ Championship, sitting 88 points clear of Hyundai Motorsport.

STANDINGS AFTER 9 ROUNDS 1 Rovanpera 203 2 Tanak 131 3 Evans 116 4 Neuville 106 5 Katsuta 92

SUPERCARS AUSSIE RACERS SUPPORTS

BATES AND HUGHES TOP 86s

Jarrod Hughes heads the queue through the esses.

Image: Mark Horsburgh-Edge Photography

THE FOURTH outing for the Toyota Gazoo 86 Australia Racing Series saw Zach Bates return to the winners’ rostrum twice. Then Jarrod Hughes broke through for his first win, on a Sandown track he has never driven on, and in a borrowed car.

Bates was at the top of qualifying before officials addressed the last lap’s times where there were yellow flags out and he would start second alongside Hughes.

Bates grabbed the lead off the start of the first encounter while Hughes held second ahead of Ryan Casha, Bailey Sweeney, Lachlan Gibbons, and Toyota guest driver

Fabian Coulthard. Luke Pink was spun into the barrier at Turn 3 which necessitated a Safety Car, and Clay Richards had a slow journey through the sand trap at Turn 9.

Bates held off Hughes for the remainder as Casha fended off Gibbons. Coulthard crossed the line fifth but would be relegated to the rear for the next race, due to front straight contact that spun Sweeney on the last lap. Sweeney recovered for 11th behind Campbell Logan, Reuben Goodall, Jobe Stewart, guest Warren Luff and Ryan Gilroy.

Hughes won the start of Race 2, but Bates passed him before the end of the first lap.

Jayden Wanzek and Jack Westbury had contact at Turn 1 as they disputed 10th, yet were able to continue.

Hughes hounded Bates while Casha had third until overtaken by Gibbons. The latter was able to reel in the leaders until they came across lapped traffic. Gibbons was able to take advantage and secured second.

Goodall placed fourth ahead of Casha, Stewart, Logan, Gilroy, David Schulz and Luff.

Hughes won the start of race three and led Gibbons, Casha and Goodall as pole sitter Bates slipped to fifth. Casha had a drama at

Turn 1 on the second lap and pulled up out of Turn 4 which brought out the Safety Car. The race resumed and, shortly after, Gibbons grabbed the lead while Bates was able to slip past Goodall who had gone wide at Turn 1. Then Bates slipped up at the same corner and Goodall was third again.

Gibbons looked to have the race in hand until he ran off at Turn 9 and allowed Hughes to take the win. Goodall finished third ahead of Bates, Stewart and Gilroy.

Logan was next ahead of Luff, Schulz and James Holdsworth .

Garry O’Brien

ANDERSON TAKES AUSSIE CAR CROWN THERE WERE four different race winners at the final round while Josh Anderson did enough to take out the 2022 Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series.

After he qualified fastest, Joel Heinrich (Cruze) took an all-the-way and comprehensive victory in Race 1. He won by 2s over the team mates Cody Brewczynski and Ryan Reynolds (Mustangs) with Kody Garland (Mustang), Anderson (Mustang), and Ryder Quinn (Euro GT) close behind.

In their wake, there was a three-way dice where Anthony Di Mauro (Camaro) came out ahead of Courtney Prince (Mustang) and Lachlan Ward (Camaro). Reece Chapman (Mustang) had to pit to remove body parts after he brushed the wall out of Turn 4 where shortly after Nick Lichtenberg (Camaro) was turned around into the inside barrier.

Reynolds and Brewczynski went first and second in a thrilling second race.

Brewczynski was the early leader until Reynolds took over. Several put the pressure on including Heinrich and Garland. The latter spun out of Turn 3 and recovered quickly. Heinrich had second until pipped at the finish by Brewczynski.

Ward was next, and ahead of Anderson and Garland. Behind them Prince edged out

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The Shell pair, Brewczynski and Reynolds, lead the chase of Race 1 winner Heinrich. Image: Ross Gibb Photography Chapman and Leigh Bowler (Camaro).

Tenth went to Brett Osborn (Camaro) who had pole for the reverse top 10 Race 3. Quinn started sixth but had contact with Anthony Di Mauro (Camaro) at Turn 1 on the first laps and spun. He recovered to 11th while Di Mauro slowed with a wayward plug lead.

Bowler was the immediate leader of race three as Osborn fell down the field. Chapman was second for the first three laps, then

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Garland passed both and Anderson took second, the pair able to gap third where Ward emerged ahead after he passed Chapman. Behind them Prince spun at turn four after a touch with Heinrich who finished fourth after Chapman went off at Turn 1.

Fifth place belonged to Di Mauro who swapped places with Quinn on a couple of occasions and ultimately crossed the line just in front.

Brewczynski won the final race after a three-way battle with Heinrich and Garland saw the latter two have contact at Turn 1 on the last lap. Heinrich finished second while Garland slipped to fourth behind Di Mauro. Ward (Camaro) was ahead of Di Mauro and Anderson for much of the race until his engine went off song and he finished 11th.

Garry O’Brien

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CARRERA CUP SANDOWN

LOVE THUNDERS INTO CARRERA CUP CONTENTION REPORT: Josh Nevett THE PORSCHE Carrera Cup Australia Championship title race is wide open after Dylan O’Keeffe and Aaron Love split the wins in Round 6 at Sandown Raceway.

O’Keeffe kicked off the weekend in style with a Race 1 victory but had a Sunday to forget, while Love took out round honours with consecutive triumphs at the tight circuit in suburban Melbourne.

While Love dominated Qualifying, O’Keeffe was quickest off the line on Saturday, taking the lead by the first corner.

From there the RAM Motorsport driver managed his ascendency, keeping Love in his rear-view mirror throughout.

It was a significant result for O’Keeffe, his second career win in the category and first since 2018.

“Completely stoked with that win,” he said.

“It was excellent, our car has been really fast, we tested here a few weeks ago and we got a heap of points last round, but the car didn’t feel that great, we still maximised it.”

The pair were followed by TekworkX steerer Max Vidau, who held third position for the entirety of the encounter.

Simon Fallon managed a career best fourth result in his Sonic Motor Racing Services car, withstanding the challenge of series leader Harri Jones who made the most of a strong start to finish fifth.

Dale Wood, Christian Pancione, Angelo Mouzouris, David Russell and David Wall completed the top 10.

Jackson Walls looked likely to be among those names until he spun at Turn 4 with two laps remaining.

In Pro-Am, Geoff Emery took the win from pole ahead of Dean Cook and Adrian Flack, both of whom challenged for victory.

Sunday saw a change of fortunes at the

top, as the two Sonic steerers ran riot.

Drivers across the field had clearly consumed their morning coffee before the early enduro cup race, as they came out with plenty of enthusiasm.

Vidau and Love traded the lead at Turn 1, before O’Keeffe capitalised on a mistake from Love at the same corner a few laps later.

All three drivers proceeded to battle for front spot, racing door-to-door through the high-speed sections of Sandown.

It ended in tears for O’Keeffe, who made contact with Vidau, sending him into the fence and out of the race.

O’Keeffe managed to soldier on briefly but was forced to retire soon after. To add insult to injury, the Race 1 winner was penalised 25 points for the incident.

“It was a really unfortunate situation; Aaron had a slow run out of Turn 4 and I tried to pass him, but we ended up three-wide at the end of the back straight and I was in an awkward spot,” O’Keeffe said.

“Unfortunately, I made contact with Max which put us both out of the race – I’m sorry to him.”

Love led Jones from the restart, while Fallon was well placed to better his career best result from Saturday.

Indeed, Fallon moved past Jones into second by the final flag, completing a 1-2 finish with teammate Love.

Jones completed the podium, his best result since June.

Matt Belford won the Pro-Am race within a race, besting Liam Talbot and Flack.

Buoyed by his efforts so far, Fallon surged into an early lead in Race 3, before relinquishing it to his teammate at Turn 3.

Love did not look back from there, winning by a record margin of over 8s to emerge as the round victor.

“It’s a pretty good felling to win the round here and carry on from Tailem Bend,” Love said.

Dylan O’Keeffe two-wheels into Turn 2 ahead of Aaron Love and the pack on the way to a strong win.

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Simon Fallon recorded his best Cup Car result.

Round honours went to Aaron Love – now in title contention.

“For us to win two out of the three races and have Simon (Fallon) second for a 1-2 Sonic podium finish is pretty cool.

“The car felt great all weekend and the Sonic team’s been working really hard, so its huge props to them, they’ve really turned it on this year and its definitely showing on and off track.”

Callum Hedge was the hardest charger in the round closer, finishing second ahead of Jackson Walls who completed the podium.

Unfortunately for Walls, earlier in the affair he was involved in an incident with teammate Jones, who ultimately failed to finish.

David Russell and Fallon were fourth and fifth. Title contenders O’Keeffe and Wall languished down in 15th and 10th, respectively.

Emery scored a narrow win in Pro-Am over Belford and Flack.

Despite enduring a tough end to his weekend, Jones walked away from Sandown with the championship lead heading into Round 7 at Mount Panorama.

Love shot himself into contention – he is now fourth behind Jones, Wall and O’Keeffe.

The penultimate round of the championship will take place at the Bathurst 1000 this October 6-9.

SUPER 2 AND SUPER 3

Mayhem in the background as Dean Fiore leads the field away in Race 2. Inset: Zak Best – second in the series. Below: Declan Fraser has extended his championship lead. Bottom: Jason Gomersall finds a unique way to park at the esses ...

Images: Ross Gibb Photography, Mark Horsburgh-Edge Photographics

FRASER WINS AGAIN REPORT: JOSH NEVETT

THE SAYING goes that when it rains it pours and that was the case for Super2 Series star Declan Fraser at Sandown Raceway – the young gun claimed a second race win in as many rounds to retain his standings lead.

Despite crossing the line second in Race 1, Fraser was awarded the victory, giving him breathing room over the other title contenders.

Kiwi Matt Payne won in similar fashion to Fraser on Sunday, avoiding chaos to move closer to season frontrunners Fraser and Zak Best.

Payne showed plenty of pace in Qualifying on Saturday, setting the fastest time.

However, he lost pole position after copping a penalty for setting the top time under yellow flag conditions.

As a result, Tyler Everingham inherited pole and started off the front alongside Best in Race 1.

Thomas Maxwell stalled on the start line before early Super3 action brought out the Safety Car, so Everingham was able to hold the lead for a lap 3 restart, from which the chasing pack began to battle.

Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Cameron Hill was spun around at Turn 4 before Aaron Seton found the sand trap at Turn 9, hindering both of them.

Meanwhile, Payne was doing his best to make up for a three-place grid penalty. The Supercars hopeful attempted an ambitious move on Matt Chahda at Turn 11 which

ultimately failed, and he climbed the curb and into the side of Chahda with heavy impact – Payne lost multiple positions and the #18 Ford was turned around in the process.

The mud which had bogged down Payne became more treacherous from lap 10 onwards, as the race was declared wet.

It wasn’t the mud that got the better of Everingham though.

The race leader made contact with Super3 driver Garry Hills at Turn 2, sustaining front splitter damage to the front of his car.

Moreover, Everingham was dealt a 15s penalty, shutting the door on a potential win.

It was a controversial moment as Everingham believed that Hills had seen him and seemed to make room as they approached the corner only to have the gap close and the pair making contact.

Behind him, Best and Fraser took advantage of a Dean Fiore mistake at Turn 9 to take position #2 and #3, before Fraser jumped into second thanks to an error by Best at Turn 1.

Fraser held sway from there, winning from Best and Fiore, while Image Racing’s Jaylyn Robotham and Angelo Mouzouris were fourth and fifth.

Chahda made his way back up to sixth ahead of Matt McLean, Zane Morse, Ryal Harris and Jay Hanson, who rounded out the top 10.

Everingham was classified 17th, while Payne, who also copped a 15s penalty, was dead last.

Starting from the front row, Fiore got a fast start in Race 2 which began in less dramatic fashion.

Polesitter Maxwell lost ground after a couple of mistakes, falling to fifth by lap 2.

Best and Everingham pushed hard to move up the pecking order, both drivers gaining five places in the early stages.

The same could not be said for Fraser though, who was turned around by Maxwell mid-race.

“We started carving through the pack and got up into fifth or sixth position, but then another car jumped the kerb and spun us around, and from there it was a recovery race,” Fraser said.

A late Safety Car period meant that the race became a two-lap dash to the finish, a dash that ended in disaster for many.

On the very last lap Super3 steerer Jason Gomersall hit the wall at Turn 3 … and from there, a huge pile-up ensued.

Maxwell hit Gomersall and as did Mouzouris and McLean behind him, while Chahda and Robotham spun in the mud.

Fiore was able to cross the line first, but for the second day in a row the second car on the road was deemed victor, as Fiore was penalised for being outside his grid box at the start.

As a result, Payne celebrated a win ahead of Eggleston Motorsport addition Jack Perkins and Best, who topped the round standings thanks to a pair of podium finishes.

Everingham was fourth and Fiore was demoted to fifth.

Hanson, Cameron Crick, Fraser, Seton and Nash Morris rounded out the top 10.

Fraser, who consolidated his lead at Sandown, was satisfied with his efforts despite a difficult second race.

“Overall, we got some silverware and some solid points in the championship, and we’re still leading the championship coming out of this round and we’ll keep pushing onto the next one,” he reflected.

The Super2 Series will return at the Bathurst 1000 event from October 6-9.

STANDINGS AFTER 4 ROUNDS 1 Fraser 972 2 Best 858 3 Payne 822 4 Hill 798 5 Everingham 774

VAUGHAN MOUNTS SUPER3 CHARGE KAI ALLEN and Brad Vaughan will face off for Super3 Series supremacy at Mount Panorama after both drivers took race wins in the fourth round of the season at Sandown Raceway.

Up and coming steerer Allen looked the goods early with a victory in Race 1. However, he fell at the final hurdle in the second encounter, gifting Vaughan a much-needed triumph.

The title race was effectively reduced to two contenders in Race 1, after Jim Pollicina and Blake Fardell collided at Turn 1.

The coming together forced an early Safety Car and left the pair languishing

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towards the rear of the field.

Several other Super3 runners ran into strife though, beginning with Garry Hills.

Hills was spun by Super2 driver Everingham at Turn 2, spearing off into the tyre barrier.

Fortunately, he was able to return to the track.

Chris Smerdon found trouble shortly after, taking an off-road excursion at Turn 9, before Brendan Strong slowed to a halt on pit straight.

At the front, Allen cruised to a 4s win, while Vaughan and Ray Hislop completed the podium.

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In Race 2, Allen and Vaughan (pictured) went toe-to-toe again while rivals dropped like flies.

James Masterton was forced out of the race with broken steering late on after he tangled with Hills at Turn 1, prompting a Safety Car period.

When racing resumed, Jason Gomersall crashed at Turn 3 creating carnage behind him, which ultimately defined proceedings in Super2. The biggest moment in Super3 occurred when Allen made a mistake at the death, handing Vaughan victory for the race and round.

Jim Pollicina completed the podium.

STANDINGS AFTER 4 ROUNDS 1 Allen 1104 2 Vaughan 1050 3 Fardell 939 4 Pollicina 864 5 Smerdon 813

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 9 – SANDOWN

SVG TAKES TWO FROM THREE IN SANDOWN SPEED-FEST FOLLOWING HIS SWEEP OF THE BEND, SHANE VAN GISBERGEN TOOK OUT SUNDAY’S DOUBLE HEADER AFTER WILL DAVISON’S DOMINANT SATURDAY VICTORY, EQUALLING CRAIG LOWNDES’ IN-SEASON RECORD OF 16 WINS TO INCREASE HIS HOLD ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP TO 500 POINTS.

By Timothy Neal Images: Motorpsort Images-Mark Horsburgh, Ross Gibb Photography.

MELBOURNE’S HISTORIC Sandown hosted its second successive SuperSprint, with the fast and aggressive track welcoming round nine of the 2022 Supercars calendar for three 36 lap races.

Teams were allocated last year’s Dunlop Supersoft compound tyres due to an abundance of stock and, although they don’t degrade as quickly as the 2022 soft’s, Sandown’s nasty pronounced kerb’s and high speed corners would prove a challenge.

After a week of massive announcements, Dick Johnson Racing entered Sandown on a high with driver contracts locked down and a new ownership model declared, as well as a hometown veteran with a fast Mustang and a point to prove.

Friday’s practice run would give teams and fans an insight into Bathurst preparations, with the second practice allocated as a co-driver hit-out, providing a mixture of legendary veterans and some up-andcoming tearaways.

FRIDAY’S FIRST practice saw Davison and van Gisbergen show their intentions

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early, with the newly re-signed DJR driver posting a lap time of 1:07.808, showing fortuitous speed ahead of Saturday.

The only in-event co-drivers session ahead of the Great Race, saw Lowndes back in a Supercar along with his Gen3 Camaro duties.

Broc Feeney’s co-driver, Jamie Whincup, proved to still have the nous for pace out of retirement, whilst Garth Tander also put in a good showing. Whincup posted 1:08.230, saying afterwards, “I really enjoyed our session today. It’s quite nice to be able to go for a ‘Friday fang’ with no pressure and just get out there to cut some laps.”

Lowndes finished in P20 after sitting in the mid-pack early, whilst Tander finished in P2 ahead of his pairing with van Gisbergen, giving Triple Eight a pleasing insight into its Mt Panorama preparation.

Saturday morning saw Cam Waters top a cautious practice session on a greasy track, with times lagging off Friday’s pace, topping the session with a 1:09.516 lap.

The three-part qualifying for Race 24 saw Davison beat the Sandown lap record in the top 20 session of Q1 with a blistering 1:07.481. He followed that up by grabbing pole in the shootout ahead of van Gisbergen (+0.187) and Erebus Racing’s Will Brown.

RACE 1

Davison’s pace was searing in the build up, and he’d find more of it in a flawless victory from pole. The tables were flipped on van

Gisbergen as he became the chaser, with the #17 Mustang enjoying a comfortable victory.

After heading up the first corner, the rest of the field was left to jostle for spots, as

New team owner, new contract, lap record speeds ... it was a pretty good weekend for Will Davison.

Mark Winterbottom cuts the grass (or sprays mud) while Cam Waters two-wheels through the Turn 2/3 esses. Centre: Repeat, repeat ... more of the same for SVG. Bottom: Brown and Courtney argue over track space ...

Heimgartner was hit with a 15s penalty after shunting Broc Feeney, effectively ruining both their days.

The field settled into a holding pattern, with van Gisbergen getting as close as he would all race to the Shell V-Power Mustang, whilst Brown and De Pasquale would take up a fight for third.

Waters threatened early and moved into sixth, whilst De Pasquale went for the early undercut. Van Gisbergen tried the same on lap 18 as Davison was pulling away upfront.

Waters took a brief lead with Davison’s lap 19 pit, re-entering two seconds up on van Gisbergen with plenty of power left in the tank.

By the 22 lap it was evident that the series leader didn’t have the pace, and by lap 12, Davo had put 3.341s on the #97 Commodore.

De Pasquale did enough to hold Brown off, with the #11 DJR driver earning the team a double podium.

Davison stormed home in the end, taking the chequered flag by 8.4920s over van Gisbergen, who topped De Pasquale by 0.522s.

“It was a great way to kick off the new era for DJR,” said Davison, “Ive blown a few pole’s in the past, and there was no point in over thinking it. I feel like we have more speed left in the car.”

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leading him to bail from his car and denying him a last flying lap, starting Race 2 in P11.

Mostert looked on par for pole, but van Gisbergen responded to Saturday’s loss by bettering Davison’s fastest ever Sandown lap, posting 1:07.446 to secure pole ahead of a late charging Waters and Mostert.

Davison responded in Q2, with the team scrambling to fix the fault in a quick turn around, taking pole with a 1:07.207 lap, again claiming Sandown’s fastest ever recorded lap.

Race 3’s grid thus had Davison comfortably heading van Gisbergen and DJR teammate De Pasquale.

RACE 2

SUNDAY GOT underway with clear skies ahead of qualifying and Races 2 and 3. In the usual tentative start with cold tyres in the back-to-back 10 minute qualifying format,

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teams held off for a three minute attack.

Saturday’s victor wouldn’t get the chance as smoke poured into Davison’s cockpit forcing him out of the session with an electrical fault,

In the 25th race of the season, van Gisbergen settled the score with Davison in a typically infallible showing, recording his 15th win of the campaign and the 69th of his career.

Waters attacked the first corner, making contact with ex-teammate Mostert, but the corner would be taken by the pole getter and he wouldn’t look back.

Jack le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood wrote each other out of contention early, allowing Feeney to push up into third behind Mostert with Waters dropping back.

Davison started well off the grid and jumped into eighth early, moving up to P6, 4.668s off the front runner.

He then got stuck in a train of the four front

www.autoaction.com.au I 55

Supercars RACE REPORT Round 9 – SANDOWN

Right: A two-wheeling Scott Pye was part of an altogether better weekend for Team 18.

Centre: A Saturday podium was the best outcome for Anton this time.

Bottom: James Golding pushed PremiAir Racing into new territory with a top 10 qualification and result on Sunday.

challengers, pitting on lap 13 in an effort to get some space and mount pressure for a podium. However the move came unstuck, incurring a penalty from jumping too early with the wheel gun still attached.

Approaching the halfway mark, van Gisbergen was driving a familiar race, +12.850s on Waters, leaving Heimgartner in P3 in front of Tim Slade and Nick Percat, to allow him a comfortable pit.

Mostert was well placed in P7 after his early undercut, as the top three pitted, leaving Slade, Percat and Fullwood in the lead on lap 22.

With that group pitting, Van Gisbergen retook his lead, 2.065s ahead of Mostert and Reynolds, with 3.930s between them by lap 30.

Will Brown provided a tough contest for Reynolds, taking him on the inside on lap 33 to put himself in the hunt for his first 2022 podium, moving into P3, 4.950 off Mostert.

But it would be SVG to take victory, lapping Brodie Kostecki on the last straight to finish 7.516s up on Mostert with Brown in P3.

RACE 3

Van Gisbergen snatched back-to-back victories to cap off a huge Sunday, with Davison fighting hard for a close fought

56 I www.autoaction.com.au

P2, making it a successful points scoring weekend for the DJR charger, taking him to third in the standings.

Davison held off van Gisbergen into the first corner, who pushed hard but couldn’t get his nose in front.

The two leaders went door-to-door going into the sixth corner of lap three, with van Gisbergen squeezing past in an ominous sign of things to come, before the two DJR teammates almost derailed each other with De Pasquale cannoning into Davison’s rear, nearly climbing up the back of him.

De Pasquale pitted with major damage to his front right, ending his hopes for another podium.

Thomas Randle stepped into the team spare, put it onto grid five on Saturday, and went home with a couple of top 10 results.

Right: Podium for T8’s youngster. Fam proud ...

Below: Caption competition? Below right: Is it really? Yup, 500 for Lee Holdsworth ...

QUALIFYING RACE 24 Pos Driver 1 Will Davison 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 William Brown 4 De Pasquale 5 Thomas Randle 6 Mark Winterbottom 7 James Courtney 8 Jack Le Brocq 9 Andre Heimgartner 10 Broc Feeney 11 Scott Pye 12 Cameron Waters 13 Chaz Mostert 14 Brodie Kostecki 15 Todd Hazelwood 16 Jake Kostecki 17 Bryce Fullwood 18 Lee Holdsworth 19 Tim Slade 20 Macauley Jones 21 Jack Smith 22 Nick Percat 23 Chris Pither 24 David Reynolds 25 James Golding

RESULTS RACE 24 36LAPS ( 112 KMS) Time 1:07.6500 .1871 .3191 .3559 .3615 .4805 .6384 .9178 1.7446 No time .1786 .1889 .2378 .3288 .5103 .5517 .5780 .5857 .6677 .0186 1.9579 2.5628 2.9667 03.1604 No time

QUALIFYING RACE 25 Pos Driver 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Cameron Waters 3 Chaz Mostert 4 Broc Feeney 5 Scott Pye 6 David Reynolds 7 William Brown 8 James Golding 9 Andre Heimgartner 10 Brodie Kostecki 11 Will Davison 12 Mark Winterbottom 13 Anton De Pasquale 14 James Courtney 15 Jack Le Brocq 16 Macauley Jones 17 Tim Slade 18 Chris Pither 19 Bryce Fullwood 20 Thomas Randle 21 Nick Percat 22 Todd Hazelwood 23 Lee Holdsworth 24 Jake Kostecki 25 Jack Smith

Pos Drivers 1 Will Davison 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 Anton De Pasquale 4 William Brown 5 Cameron Waters 6 James Courtney 7 Scott Pye 8 Mark Winterbottom 9 Thomas Randle 10 Chaz Mostert 11 Brodie Kostecki 12 David Reynolds 13 James Golding 14 Broc Feeney 15 Nick Percat 16 Bryce Fullwood 17 Macauley Jones 18 Tim Slade 19 Jack Le Brocq 20 Jack Smith 21 Todd Hazelwood 22 Jake Kostecki 23 Andre Heimgartner 24 Lee Holdsworth 25 Chris Pither

Laps 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 35

Race time 41:58.7286 42:07.2206 42:07.7461 42:14.0458 42:14.2616 42:14.5002 42:14.9617 42:15.3799 42:16.3641 42:16.9855 42:18.3315 42:26.7208 42:28.5821 42:35.2162 42:35.5290 42:36.6614 42:36.9155 42:38.6856 42:39.6859 42:42.4030 42:43.5908 42:44.1380 42:46.1667 42:52.1007 42:29.5496

– – s1 t-1 s7 s1 s4 t-2 t-4 s3 s3 s12 s12 t-4 s7 s1 s3 s1 t-11 s1 t-6 t-6 t-14 t-6 t-2

RESULTS RACE 25 36LAPS (112 KMS) Time 1:07.4467 0:00.0138 0:00.0225 0:00.0763 0:00.1179 0:00.2153 0:00.2499 0:00.2549 0:00.3139 0:00.3685 0:00.3690 0:00.4015 0:00.4262 0:00.4533 0:00.5055 0:00.5518 0:00.5527 0:00.5895 0:00.6094 0:00.6214 0:00.6754 0:00.7231 0:00.7785 0:00.9323 0:01.3778

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Pos Drivers 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Chaz Mostert 3 William Brown 4 David Reynolds 5 Scott Pye 6 Andre Heimgartner 7 Cameron Waters 8 Anton De Pasquale 9 James Golding 10 Broc Feeney 11 Tim Slade 12 Mark Winterbottom 13 James Courtney 14 Macauley Jones 15 Will Davison 16 Chris Pither 17 Thomas Randle 18 Lee Holdsworth 19 Nick Percat 20 Jake Kostecki 21 Bryce Fullwood 22 Jack Smith 23 Brodie Kostecki 24 Todd Hazelwood 25 Jack Le Brocq

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Laps 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 35 31 31

Apart from a rubbing tyre, Davison avoided any damage and kept the heat on van Gisbergen, trailing by 0.387s into the fifth lap, with Mostert, Waters and Feeney making up the quintet, separated by just 1.3s.

The whole field was throwing its collective weight around the track, with the back runners remarkably setting the fastest laps.

Mostert went for the early undercut on lap 10, putting Waters into P3 ahead of Feeney and Winterbottom, reentering 33s back on the leaders, well placed to fight for his second podium of the day.

Van Gisbergen looked to pull away, but Davison stuck doggedly, just 0.382 back on the 14th lap, setting up a tantalising strategic battle for the first pit.

Van Gisbergen made the first move on lap 18, pitting QUALIFYING RACE 26

Race time 42:03.8337 42:11.3505 42:15.8308 42:17.8192 42:20.0182 42:20.0197 42:31.4033 42:32.3426 42:35.2309 42:37.4047 42:37.789 42:39.6600 42:40.6547 42:41.0805 42:41.2984 42:43.5397 42:46.1168 42:46.2884 42:50.4756 42:51.6744 42:54.9232 42:55.5326 42:06.5933 43:00.5006 43:10.0966

– s1 s4 s2 – s3 t-5 s5 t-1 t-6 s6 s1 s2 t-4 s2 s3 s5 s2 s4 t-2 s3 t-13 t-2 t-10

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

Driver Time Will Davison 1:07.2078*R Shane van Gisbergen 0:00.0413 Anton De Pasquale 0:00.2182 Mark Winterbottom 0:00.2351 Chaz Mostert 0:00.2382 Cameron Waters 0:00.2930 David Reynolds 0:00.3002 Thomas Randle 0:00.3071 Broc Feeney 0:00.3645 Scott Pye 0:00.3774 William Brown 0:00.3913 Tim Slade 0:00.4257 Jake Kostecki 0:00.4438 Andre Heimgartner 0:00.4671 James Golding 0:00.4734 Lee Holdsworth 0:00.4996 Nick Percat 0:00.5109 James Courtney 0:00.5428 Todd Hazelwood 0:00.5871 Brodie Kostecki 0:00.6004 Macauley Jones 0:00.6683 Jack Le Brocq 0:00.6806 Bryce Fullwood 0:00.7998 Chris Pither 0:00.8459 Jack Smith 0:01.2806

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ahead of Davison, which proved to be a telling blow.

Davison was still out on lap 21, with Holdsworth between him and van Gisbergen in P3, 33.785 off Davison.

Davison finally pitted on lap 23, coming out behind van Gisbergen on the cold Softs, 1.990 in arrears but chipping away at the front runner, shaving off the tenths to 1.768 into lap 29 Waters again locked up chasing Mostert, spearing into the grass to drop him into P10, ending his chances of a podium. This dropped Feeney into P4 from which he would overtake Mostert into Turn 1 to take P3 on lap 33.

Davison couldn’t quite pull van Gisbergen in, getting as close as 0.461s, with Feeney earning Triple Eight a double podium.

That makes it 16 victories from 26 races this year for SVG, having only missed the podium four times as he continues to etch his signature into this year’s championship trophy.

“It was a pretty cool race in those opening few laps because we were having some awesome battles,” commented the happy winner.

“It was a shame Anton (De Pasquale) suffered damage and we couldn’t all battle it out. I’m stoked for the team to get a double podium, and congratulations to Broc and the entire crew.

“Will was really fast this weekend, and he was driving really well in the last race, I knew I had to get him at the start so I put maximum pressure on him. At the end I could see him coming but I went as hard as I could and didn’t look into the mirror – I just kept pushing.”

His 70th career win comes ahead of his home race in Pukekohe, NZ, on September 9-11 for the third straight SuperSprint format.

RESULTS RACE 26 36LAPS (112 KMS) Pos Drivers 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Will Davison 3 Broc Feeney 4 Chaz Mostert 5 Mark Winterbottom 6 Tim Slade 7 Scott Pye 8 Thomas Randle 9 David Reynolds 10 Cameron Waters 11 William Brown 12 James Courtney 13 Andre Heimgartner 14 Bryce Fullwood 15 Jack Smith 16 Brodie Kostecki 17 Macauley Jones 18 Lee Holdsworth 19 James Golding 20 Jake Kostecki 21 Chris Pither 22 Nick Percat 23 Anton De Pasquale 24 Todd Hazelwood NC Jack Le Brocq

Laps 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 35 34 34 30 29 32

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 9 Race time 42: 06.0656 42:06.5267 42:17.8704 42:21.3291 42:21.4746 42:23.0275 42:24.6437 42:28.4610 42:30.1576 42:31.7813 42:32.4141 42:34.4284 42:35.0944 42:40.9893 42:42.9879 42:44.9112 42:45.4649 42:45.9363 42:50.2252 42:45.0939 42:42.0868 42:54.9413 42:50.6605 42:55.1076 10 1:09.2452

s1 t-1 s6 s1 t-1 s6 s3 t-2 t-4 s6 s1 s9 s10 s4 s4 t-2 t-4 t-7 s3 t-5 t-20 t-5 t-3

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 28 29

Driver Shane van Gisbergen Cameron Waters Will Davison Anton De Pasquale Chaz Mostert Broc Feeney David Reynolds Brodie Kostecki James Courtney Andre Heimgartner Tim Slade Mark Winterbottom William Brown Lee Holdsworth Nick Percat Todd Hazelwood Scott Pye Bryce Fullwood Macauley Jones Jack Le Brocq Thomas Randle Chris Pither Jake Kostecki Jack Smith Garry Jacobson James Golding Jordan Boys Zak Best Jayden Ojeda

Points 2493 1993 1974 1971 1764 1648 1562 1389 1349 1346 1343 1309 1280 1174 1122 1068 1022 938 917 885 873 813 807 754 513 308 168 162 150

s1 t-1 s2 t-1 t-1 s1 t-1 s2 s1 t-3 s2 t-1 t-1 -

www.autoaction.com.au I 57

Name:

Auto Action crossword TEST YOURTest MOTORSPORT KNOWLEDGE your general Motorsport knowledge 1 2 3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11

12

13

14 15

16 17 18 19

20

21 23

22 24 25

26

Across

Down

2. Which manufacturer is departing MotoGP at season’s end?

4. The previous iteration of the Alpine F1 team was called what?

8. Who won the Formula E Championship for Mercedes earlier this month? (surname) 12. Who was the first person to win the Supercars Development Series twice? (surname) 13. Jonathon Webb’s sole Supercars Championship race win came on the streets of which city?

14. At what track did Broc Feeney score his first podium?

16. In his final Bathurst 1000 start John Goss won his class driving what brand of car in 1990?

17. Former Supercars driver Max Wilson is what nationality?

19. For what Formula 1 team did Michael Andretti race in 1993?

20. A Scotsman, I won the Formula 3 Masters and Macau Grand Prix in 1991 before making my F1 debut with Williams. (surname) 22. Jamie Whincup finished runner-up in the 2007 V8 Supercars Championship to who? (surname) 23. Which manufacturer took its sole Le Mans 24 Hours win in 1991 with a rotary powered engine?

25. Who won the 100th edition of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016? (surname) 26. Who is the only South African to win the Formula 1 World Championship? (surname)

1. Which manufacturer won the 1991 Bathurst 1000?

2. Who won his final Formula 1 World Championship in 1991? (surname) 3. For what team did James Courtney make his Supercars Championship debut? (abbreviation) 5. Who signed up as Scott Pye’s co-driver for the Bathurst 1000 in the lead up to Sandown? (surname) 6. Who currently leads the FIA World Rally Championship? (surname) 7. Kimi Raikkonen made his NASCAR Cup Series debut at what track?

9. Jean-Pierre Beltoise scored how many Formula 1 race wins?

10. Michael Schumacher and who hold the Formula 1 record for most races as teammates? (surname) 11. How many times did Michael Andretti win the Indy 500?

13. For what team did James Courtney record his first Supercars race win? (abbreviation) 15. Jim Richards won his final Australian Touring Car Championship in 1991, what number title was this?

17. For what team did Riccardo Patrese score his first Formula 1 race win in 1982?

18. Who is the only multiple time AUSCAR champion? (full name) 19. Who won his fourth and final Indy 500 in 1991? (surname) 21. Who won the 1991 Sandown 500 alongside Rohan Onslow? (surname) 24. How many more points did Whincup need to win the V8 Supercars Championship in 2007?

Created using the Crossword Maker on TheTeachersCorner.net

#1842 Crossword Answers: 1 down – sixth, 2 down – Monaco, Down 3 down – Russell, 4 down – two, 5 across – sixth, 6 down – four, 7 across – Ocon, 8 across – Schumacher, 8 down – Silverstone, 9 down – McLaren, 2. What manufacturer departing MotoGP at 12 season’s end?

1.down Which manufacturer won the 1000?

10 downis– Imola, 11 down – Perez, down – one, 13 across – three, 13 – two, 14 across – Alonso, 151991 acrossBathurst – Vettel, 16 across – Leclerc, 17 down – Latifi, 18 across – six, 19 down – Belgium, 20 down – Norris, 21 down – three, 4. The previous22iteration the Alpine F1 team was called 2. across Who won his final Formula 1 World Championship 1991? across –ofeight, 23 across – Hulkenberg, 23 what? down – Hungary, 24 – Zhou, 25 down – third, 26 across – Miami, 27 in across – third

ross

8. Who won the Formula E Championship for Mercedes earlier this month? (surname) 12. Who was the first person to win the Supercars Development Series twice? (surname) 13. Jonathon Webb’s sole Supercars Championship race win came on the streets of which city?

14. At what track did Broc Feeney score his first podium?

16. In his final Bathurst 1000 start John Goss won his class driving what brand of car in 1990?

17. Former Supercars driver Max Wilson is what nationality?

19. For what Formula 1 team did Michael Andretti race in 1993?

20. A Scotsman, I won the Formula 3 Masters and Macau Grand Prix n 1991 before making my F1 debut with Williams. (surname) 22. Jamie Whincup finished runner-up in the 2007 V8 Supercars Championship to who? (surname) 23. Which manufacturer took its sole Le Mans 24 Hours win in 1991 with a rotary powered engine?

25. Who won the 100th edition of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016? surname) 26. Who is the only South African to win the Formula 1 World Championship? (surname)

1972: THE MUCH hyped Australian/New Zealand Challenge for Sports Sedans and Touring Cars at the Calder Raceway was seen as a flop due to the Kiwi cars suffering mechanical failures. Only one of the three Trans-Tasman rivals actually started the race, with the day being saved by the Aussie representatives (Bob Jane, Allan Moffat, Alan Hamilton, Jim McKeown, Bryan Thompson) putting on a close show.

(surname) 3. For what team did James Courtney make his Supercars Championship debut? (abbreviation) 5. Who signed up as Scott Pye’s co-driver for the Bathurst 1000 in the lead up to Sandown? (surname) 6. Who currently leads the FIA World Rally Championship? (surname) 7. Kimi Raikkonen made his NASCAR Cup Series debut at what track?

9. Jean-Pierre Beltoise scored how many Formula 1 race wins?

10. Michael Schumacher and who hold the Formula 1 record for most races as teammates? (surname) 11. How many times did Michael Andretti win the Indy 500?

13. For what team did James Courtney record his first Supercars race win? (abbreviation) 15. Jim Richards won his final Australian Touring Car Championship in 1991, what number title was this?

17. For what team did Riccardo Patrese score his first Formula 1 race win in 1982?

18. Who is the only multiple time AUSCAR champion? (full name) 19. Who won his fourth and final Indy 500 in 1991? (surname) 21. Who won the 1991 Sandown 500 alongside Rohan Onslow? (surname) 24. How many more points did Whincup need to win the V8 Supercars Championship in 2007?

1982: IN THE 300th edition of Auto Action, Alan Jones captured his first Australian title, winning the Australian Sports Sedan/GT Championship in his XE Falcon after a CAMS hearing went in the favour of the former world champ. He also announced that he intended to return to open wheel racing after retiring and leaving Williams in 1981. Motorcyclist Greg Hansford also joined Allan Moffat’s Mazda team for the Touring Car enduro’s.

58 I www.autoaction.com.au

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1992: DESPITE DRIVING in the test sessions at Bathurst for the Tooheys 1000, the Nissan GT-R’s were no certainty to start the October classic due to boost and weight penalties handed down by CAMS at the beginning of 1992 Shell series. The review of the handicaps came after team boss Fred Gibson threatened legal action due to the handicaps being dangerous for endurance racing, believing they overloaded the Nissan components.

2002: KING OF The Mountain, Peter Brock, confirmed his Bathurst 1000 comeback by partnering with Craig Baird in the Team Brock Commodore. It would be Brock’s first time back in a V8 Supercar since his retirement in 1997. The legend of Australian motorsport was quoted as saying, “If I was ever going to drive anywhere, it would have to be at Bathurst.” The race also coincided with the 30th anniversary of his first Bathurst victory.

2012: AFTER MERCEDES-Benz’s foray into running a V8 Supercars program was supposedly declared dead by the manufacturer and Supercars officials, Auto Action revealed that the supposed plan was not over, following revelations that Erebus Aussie GT owner Betty Klimenko and team manager Ryan Maddison had signed a deal in Germany to develop an E-Class Car Of The Future.

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SAVE

$

Order Code: L849

2,299

449

1250 x 2mm capacity Segmented top blade Adjustable clamp blade Steel fabricated construction

ABLE REMOV IDUAL INDIV FINGERS G BENDIN

SAVE

297

$

Order Code: S255

3,597

$

$

RR-10 Manual Section & Pipe Rolling Machine • • • • •

$

37

$

PB-420 Manual Panbrake

SAVE

• 915 x 460mm table top • Multi use for any workshop • 4 x large swivel castor wheels with brake

Order Code: P064

SAVE

PACKAGE DEAL

PNP-3/4-3" OFFSET PIPE & TUBE NOTCHER & HOLE SAW • OD capacity from 19mm to 76.2mm (3/4-3") • Cutting angle up to 50º • Works with a 12mm chuck power drill 1/2" x 20tpi, 5/8" x 18tpi thread sizes • Hole Saw Kit: 11 Piece HSS M42 Bi-Metal set Ø19 ~ Ø76mm, supplied in convenient SET UP blow mould case SHOWN

50 x 10mm flat bar 20 x 20mm solid bar Gear driven hardened rolls Cast iron housing Adjustable side guide rolls

SAVE

154

$

Order Code: K4012

396

$

Order Code: S681

1,925

$

SAVE $33 off RRP

www.machineryhouse.com.au NSW Specifications & Prices are subject to change without notification. All prices include GST and valid until 24-09-22

(02) 9890 9111

QLD

(07) 3715 2200

VIC

(03) 9212 4422

1/2 Windsor Rd, Northmead 625 Boundary Rd, Coopers Plains 4 Abbotts Rd, Dandenong

WA

(08) 9373 9999

11 Valentine Street Kewdale

07_AA_250822

Order Code: W181

$