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EXCLUSIVE VAN GISBERGEN’S NASCAR PREPARATION

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CHEVS RAMPANT AS DEBUT WINS SHARED AROUND!

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‘PARITY’ INVESTIGATION TRIGGERED

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Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks with his new NASCAR driver Shane van Gisbergen at the Nashville NASCAR race last weekend. Image: ANDREW CLARKE

VAN GISBERGEN WANTS OVAL RUN SHANE VAN GISBERGEN FRONTED THE NASCAR MEDIA IN NASHVILLE … AND ANDREW CLARKE WAS THERE IT IS a nudge below 100 degrees Fahrenheit when Shane van Gisbergen climbs into the air-conditioned media pit at Nashville Superspeedway, a curiosity to most of them as he prepares for his NASCAR Cup Series debut with Project91 out of Trackhouse Racing.

Australia’s reigning Supercars champion is jumping straight into the fire pit by skipping all the lower classes. Still, he also knows his maiden race will be as level a playing field as he will ever get in the world’s biggest tin-top racing category given his familiarity with street circuits.

Chicago, this weekend, is the first time top-level NASCAR has driven on a street circuit, and van Gisbergen believes that will work to his advantage – while not getting in front of himself. He’s also not ruling out the idea of returning for an oval track one day.

“It’s been pretty intense these last couple of days,” he said, having left Australia the day after going home from Darwin. “I’ve been following the series a bit more this year to try and study up and learn what I’m going to be in for.

“There’s a lot of anticipation from everyone for what the first street race will

be like. The track is similar in some ways to the tracks we have, but also pretty different, with not much runoff and how narrow it is in spots. It’s going to be intense.

“I’m just trying to take it all in this week.

See how it all works.”

On running on an oval, he said: “We (Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Mark and himself ) had a small chat about that earlier, but I’ve never really thought about an oval too much. I’d love to have a go – watching yesterday at how committed the guys were in qualifying and see who was braver than the others into Turn 1 was pretty cool ...

“It made me want it to be out there. I want to have a go one day.”

Focusing on Chicago, he said he would get a shakedown run on the Charlotte ‘roval’ on Monday (after AA closed for print) if the stormy weather held off, and then he would have a few runs in the simulator before one 50-minute practice session on Saturday with qualifying a few minutes later. The 350km race is Sunday afternoon, and that is the next time he will get in the car.

He acknowledges the challenge he has set himself this weekend, and while his tools won’t be familiar, the idea of racing on

a street circuit is right within his bailiwick.

Van Gisbergen is known to be unsettled with the direction of Supercars racing in Australia, and a successful run this weekend could open doors for him to slot into the Cup Series or the second-level Xfinity Series where he can learn oval tracks and the other intricacies of the sport.

“The first thing is sitting on the other side of the car, which is tough, and then climbing through the window … I’ve never done that before. So it’s quite different in some ways, but the technical side of things is pretty similar – big heavy cars with lots of horsepower and not not enough tyre.

It’s similar to what we have in Australia.

“And the strategy is quite different, so I’ve got to do a lot of study on that.

Obviously, the pits close when the yellow comes out, you don’t have a pitlane speed limiter, and stuff like that.

So just learning how to manage that side of the race.”

Trackhouse Racing set up Project 91 to bring drivers from outside NASCAR into the sport. Van Gisbergen is its second driver after Kimi Raikkonen ran the car twice. Marks thinks van Gisbergen’s background with Supercars is ideal, and he’d run the car more often with the right backing.

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WATERS DOUSES MUSTANG FIREBALL CAMERON WATERS and Tickford appeared destined for a first on-track win of the Gen3 era in the opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown.

After claiming pole position, Waters controlled the field during the early stages until hopes of a breakthrough win went up in flames at the start of Lap 4 when the Monster Mustang caught alight following a high-pressure fuel line that feeds the fuel rail on the Coyote engine either coming loose or failing.

The fire first appeared on the 1.1km main straight and by Turn 1 the inferno had spread across the front of the car and even crept beyond the passenger’s side firewall into the cockpit of the Mustang, filling the cabin with flames and acrid smoke.

At this point Waters was still behind the wheel and was lucky to escape unharmed as he pulled over close to a marshals post and jumped out of the car to try and escape the flames and minimise the damage to his Mustang.

He then seized control of extinguishing the blaze from the marshals to limit the damage under the bonnet.

This proved critical in helping the Herrod Performance Engines’ team assist Tickford in the rebuild, which continued deep into the early hours of Sunday morning to ensure Waters could return and finish fifth in the final race.

It was the third Ford fire of the season after both Nick Percat and James Courtney suffered similar experiences at the Australian Grand Prix.

But Tickford boss Tim Edwards confirmed to Auto Action that the latest episode was not related to those seen three rounds ago, confirming the cause was a fuel line fitting failure.

“The fitting is located on the line that feeds the fuel rail on the engine,” Edwards said.

“Data that logs the fuel pressure indicated pressure fluctuation and the colour of the flames also indicated a fuel fire rather than oil.”

Supercars itself also backed up Edwards.

“An investigation into the Car 6 fire incident in Darwin is underway,” a

With support from Herrod Performance Engines and other teams, the Tickford crew worked late into the night to repair the damaged Mustang. Image: BRUCE WILLIAMS

Image: FOX SPORTS Supercars statement read.

“Following an initial inspection, led

by Supercars, Tickford and Herrod Performance Engines, the fire appears to have been caused by a fuel fitting coming loose and is not related to previous fires experienced in the 2023 Championship.”

“Most importantly, Cam Waters safely walked away from the incident unharmed.

After conducting its own post-event investigation, Tickford made it clear that they felt the heartbreaking fire was not the team’s doing.

“It is something no team wants to

experience, but to have it happen twice was heartbreaking,” the team said in a postDarwin statement.

“The team has investigated and determined the cause to be a component the team is not responsible for.”

Waters explained the heated experience to Fox Sports’ Garth Tander.

“I am fine, just pissed off, but it is what it is,” he said.

“I got a good start and started looking after the tyres. The car was feeling really good and I came onto the front straight and had a fire in my foot well.

“The bonnet had a weird flap into the last corner but I just thought I hit something and then it was on fire down the front straight.

“By Turn 1 the engine was switched off and there was fire everywhere so at that point I had to bail and got a fire extinguisher to put it out.

“I had to get out of the thing as quick as I could and the Marshalls were great, but there was a fair bit of damage.”

Thomas Miles

PARITY A PART OF GROVE DROP-OFF

FOR THE second straight Supercars round, Grove Racing fell short after what was a promising start to the season.

After being the highest ranked Mustang team in third after Wanneroo, just two rounds later the Grove squad sits 10th after a major drop in form.

The best result across the entire Darwin Triple Crown weekend was the P12 recorded by David Reynolds in the final race, while rookie Matt Payne could only get as high as 20th.

It is a step backwards for the Ford team, which had already lost a lot of momentum at the previous round in Tasmania following a decent start to 2023.

Whilst admitting the need for improvement, especially over one lap, Grove Racing boss Stephen Grove released his frustrations on the parity debate.

He believes a “serious aero issue” need to be addressed.

“Obviously, parity is not helping us,” he said.

“There is a serious parity issue with the aero of the cars that needs to be addressed.

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We just cannot get any life out of our rear tyres.

“But beyond that, we need to re-group and do a better job.

“It was a bad weekend for us. We made too many mistakes in the cars and outside the cars.”

It could have been a much better weekend for Reynolds, who sat as high as ninth in the second race, but was spun around by Nick Percat at the hairpin, which relegated him to 22nd.

Despite taking a step forward in the final race, Reynolds highlighted qualifying as the area of improvement, with best grid position of 19th across the weekend.

“I think practice went pretty well and we thought that the car was good overall,” Reynolds said.

“But our qualifying results were not very good and we struggled to get the most out of the tyre for single lap pace.

“In the races we don’t seem too bad.

I was sitting ninth in Race 14 and got turned. Had I finished 10th that would have

Matt Payne. Image: MARK HORSBURGH been a stellar result.

“Our race pace is much better, but qualifying is absolutely everything in this sport.”

Meanwhile, Payne put down his performance, where he lost spots in all three races to “silly decisions” including a first-lap incident with Declan Fraser.

“I certainly had more downs than ups in my first weekend at Darwin,” he said.

“The track is cool and has a good flow (but)

I just didn’t quite get it right this weekend until maybe in the final race.

“I struggled and made some silly decisions.

Just need to look over it and see what we can do better for the next one.”

Two tough rounds has seen the promising Payne drop from 12th to 19th in the championship, while Reynolds has also lost ground going from challenging the top five to hanging on to the top 10. Thomas Miles

WHAT IS THE PARITY TRIGGER?

Cam Waters had pole and took an early lead in Race 1 at Darwin, but the in-car fire took away the opportunity to judge race pace. Image: MARK HORSBURGH

THE PARITY TRIGGER HAS BEEN HIT, BUT WHAT IS IT? ANDREW CLARKE TRIES TO UNDERSTAND THE MYTHICAL PROCESS THE MUCH-TALKED-ABOUT parity review trigger has been exceeded, and the Ford Mustang is now officially deemed to be racing with its hands tied behind its back. Supercars is now undertaking a full review of the cars in order to try and find a solution to the problem – as it has been doing since April.

It is not unusual for the parity triggers to be reached three to four times a season, but hitting the five consecutive triggers or five in eight races required for a review is unusual.

It is believed that engine issues have masked aerodynamic issues with the car, and the process of gaining parity from here will not be easy.

The Ford teams say that they have a very narrow set-up window, with rake and yaw significantly impacting the race speed of the cars and the ability to look after the rear tyres. The Fords have been relatively competitive when inside the window but never more than two cars at a time, indicating that Penrite Racing team owner Stephen Grove’s assertions on aero may have been right all along.

Ford, with its homologation team, Dick Johnson Racing, did the aero work on

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the car and Supercars’ technical team used the tools at hand to create parity on drag and downforce by adjusting the rear wing and front splitter. Changes from now on will most likely involve more significant work than just that.

Timing data for the trigger is collected from a complex matrix that includes collecting it in three lots to try and compensate for car and team disparity, among other things. Firstly the fastest two cars of each marque are assessed, and then the four fastest, followed by the six fastest.

Each measure is done in the races and uses the data from the fastest 27% of the laps from each of the cars in question. The times are averaged for each of Ford and Chev and then converted to a 60-second lap, and if there are five consecutive races or five in eight races (of which the latter is the actual trigger this time) with a difference of more than 0.1s, then the trigger is deemed to have been exceeded, and a formal review commences.

This review happens at every event session, but race data is used for the assessment.

Supercars now has to sit down

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with all the data it has to hand from the two VCAT tests, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and timing from micro-sectors, as well as comparison data of the two makes to determine where the issues lie.

From there, Supercars, with its homologation teams, will carry out significant simulations of the various options and go hunting for a solution, which will not be an overnight job.

Testing may be allowed to take place outside the normal team test days at Supercars’ request and parts will need to be produced.

This has been a work in progress from day one, and despite public statements to the contrary, the Supercars tech team has been continuously monitoring the data and thinking about possible solutions, but needed to first clear the issues with the engine map and also clear the hurdle created by shared data inside the Camaro world between some of the teams that were skewing the statistical analysis.

With Ford’s V3 engine map sorting the engine issues, attention will turn to Ford’s sensitivity on aero balance and the impact of yaw and roll on the car to

try and open up the set-up window. The cars are running softer than in previous years, and with softer tyres, the roll (side-to-side) and pitch (front-to-rear) are significantly increased, impacting pitch and yaw sensitivity.

Because of the reduced downforce, the yaw (side slip) on corner entry and exit is also significantly more than in previous years, affecting the angle of attack in which the car cuts through the air.

While the VCAT data measures and achieved parity on drag and downforce, that process alone cannot measure yaw.

CFD analysis was used to assess yaw and roll, and more were planned but did not happen due to due to the addition of the extra VCAT test that Ford requested.

CFD has its limitations since it is only a simulation, which is why real-world testing will be required before rolling out a solution that will be more than just changing the front splitter and rear wing angles and positioning.

It may require a complete change of the front bar design on the Ford, which Ford Performance has been resisting so far.

Teams are still testing and changing parts every week, and are hopeful of a solution before Bathurst.

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BJR BUILDING ON ITS SPEED

BRAD JONES RACING HAS AT TIMES THIS YEAR SHOWN SPEED WITH ITS FOUR-DRIVER SQUAD, AND A PAIR OF PODIUMS IN DARWIN HAS IT ON THE VERGE OF ITS FIRST GEN3 WIN. BRUCE WILLIAMS SPOKE TO JONES ...

AT THE start of the Car of the Future era, Brad Jones Racing shot out of the blocks as the team that best managed the new cars. Gen3 hasn’t been the same, but BJR is closer to being a more consistent front-runner than in past seasons.

Andre Heimgartner is a potential star of the sport, and his podium drives in Darwin on Sunday have him knocking on the door of BJR’s first win since the middle of the 2020 COVID run at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Bryce Fullwood is showing a bit more promise and recorded multiple top 10 finishes within a single weekend for the first time in his career at Darwin.

Macauley Jones also reached new heights with P7 in Race 14 his third

top 10 result of the season. This means Jones has already achieved more top 10 results from the first five rounds of 2023 than his first four full-time seasons combined.

With Jack Smith also not always holding up the time sheets from the bottom, the results ensured Brad Jones left Hidden Valley as a happy man.

“It was a pretty solid weekend,” Jones said. “I feel the difference between being a rooster and a feather duster is not much with these cars.

“It was a little bit like the Grand Prix where we’re definitely on for a podium and possibly on for a win, and it’s nice to be in that position.”

BJR had three cars in the top 10 for

Race 14 of the season – Heimgartner in third, Macualey Jones in seventh and Fullwood in eighth with Jack Smith a DNF – which Jones described as a solid result, indicating he wants more … expects more in the new era with new teams winning and the results more open.

“You turn up with the races, and you don’t know who’s going to win – that’s what it’s all about. That’s one of the things that makes NASCAR so great, and for us to be able to be in a position where you just don’t know who’s going to win, I think it’s great for the category.

“If the only two things we got out of this change is the updated shape and, for the first season anyway, the unknown

winner then it’s definitely working. I’m as happy as I can be when I’m not winning.”

The double podium on Sunday continued Heimgartner’s strong start to the 2023 season, which also includes further podiums at Melbourne and Tasmania.

This kind of form is proof of how he has become the perfect BJR spearhead.

“I was thinking prior to the event it was two years since Nick announced he was leaving the team and we started talking to Andre,” Jones recalled.

“Andre has been a great team leader.

We have a young driver group and they are all making great progress.

“He fits in really well and I could not ask for a better leader.”

BROWN WANTS BUMP AND RUN CONSISTENCY WILL BROWN hopes for consistency from the officials after being the victim of a bump and run penalty in Darwin.

Although Erebus Motorsport did not possess the outright speed it had earlier in the season, Brown was still pleased with his P7, P5 and P6 results across the Darwin Triple Crown.

However, Sunday’s Race 15 could have been even better after a five-second penalty cost car #9 two positions having crossed the line fourth.

The reason why Brown found himself losing five seconds post race was due to a flashpoint with Mark Winterbottom on Lap 18.

After Winterbottom boxed on the previous lap, car #9 had its tail up searching for a way to make the undercut work.

“Frosty” went to cover on entry to Turn 1, so Brown switched back to the inside and was able to sneak his way past by the time the pair of Camaros had negotiated the long left hander, but not without mid-

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Gisbergen’s race-winning move on Brodie Kostecki back in Perth.

“I don’t think the move with Frosty was terrible and I got a five second penalty which was a bit disappointing,” he told Fox Sports.

“I find that it is a little bit inconsistent. I am happy to get a penalty for it, that is not a drama at all.

“I just hope that it happens to people in the future, that is the main thing.”

Erebus boss Barry Ryan explained to Auto Action the race situation with Brown on warmer tyres also played a big role.

“It should of been play on because of the Image: MARK HORSBURGH situation,” Ryan said.

“Winterbottom had just come out of the pits, corner contact. so he was not in sync yet on cold tyres, so he was The stewards declared Brown made “avoidable contact with car #18 always going to run run in that corner. and gained a position as a result”.

“Will just chopped under him and just touched the back of him. He Despite not being too concerned, Brown made it clear he wants was coming at speed and Mark was only just getting up to speed, but consistency after Erebus appealed the decision not to penalise Shane van anyway.” Thomas Miles

DAVISON RELIEVED TO END ‘TOUGH DROUGHT’ WILL DAVISON gave Dick Johnson Racing its much-needed first podium of the Gen3 era at Darwin and the veteran could not hide his relief.

Dick Johnson Racing has suffered an under-par start to the 2023 season with only two top five results from the first four rounds.

But a “very different philosophy” was a major step in the right direction as Davison drove the #17 to third in the opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown.

The Race 13 result brought an end to the team’s longest wait for a trophy at the start of a season since 2015 when it took 29 races before Scott Pye finished third at the final race of that year’s trip to Pukekohe.

Despite having already stood on the podium 78 times, Davison admitted it was a sweet relief to end a “tough

drought” for DJR after receiving “unfair criticism”.

“It has been a tough little drought, so I would be lying if I said I was not ecstatic to give the team a reward for all of their hard work,” he said.

“We have got a lot of unfair criticism as a team but I am very proud of everyone’s morale and effort.

“It is really hard to continue going in when everyone is slamming you and your back is against the wall.

“We have had a big few years, so we don’t want to get carried away with third, but things have changed this year and it is just great to get a trophy.

“Hopefully it gives everyone motivation to keep pushing and we will get back to the top step soon.”

DJR showed strong speed straight away in Darwin as Anton De Pasquale topped Friday practice, but struggled to

replicate it when it mattered with a P9 followed by a pair of P17s.

However, Davison picked up the pace on Saturday with a calm race to third where he held off Brodie Kostecki by just over a second to defend the podium place.

The second race ended in the garage on Lap 29 due to a bent right-front steering arm, but this proved to be an outlier as he crossed the line eighth in the finale.

The time fighting at the front provided Davison with an “interesting” insight into the different characteristics of the Gen3 Chevrolet Camaros and Ford Mustangs as the parity debate raged on in Darwin.

“We ran with a very different philosophy setup and it showed good signs,” Davison said.

“But I certainly did not have the

pace to go with those front guys (Winterbottom and Feeney) in Race 14.

“I had to be calculated during the race because under braking the rear stability was very limited.

“It was interesting to race amongst those cars. I still had some challenges just through the strengths and weaknesses.

“It is more make-to-make which is not necessarily a bad thing.

“The engine characteristics are different. We have different gear cuts and you can hear it off the start.

“Our top end speed is good and then we lose out in other areas, so it is just interesting when racing to see where the strengths and weaknesses are.

“There are still lots we are working on in our end and that is all we are focusing on at the moment.”

Thomas Miles

Davsion ended DJR’s podium drought at Darwin.

Images: MARK HORSBURGH

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Matt Stone Racing was one of two Supercar teams to register a first win in Darwin. Image: MARK HORSBURGH

GEN3 PROMOTING THE PRIVATEERS THE DARWIN dreams-come-true experienced by Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing is proof Gen3 have encouraged smaller teams looking to taste Supercars success.

In recent years there have been very few underdog victories with the likes of Triple Eight Race Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United and Erebus Motorsport the powerhouses.

But the Darwin Triple Crown proved to be an exception, proving even the smallest “privateer-like’ teams can achieve their dreams. Incredibly not one, but two teams enjoyed their first taste of victory at the Indigenous Round.

On Saturday Mark Winterbottom ended a decade of pain for Charlie Schwerkolt, while a masterful drive by Jack Le Brocq gave Matt Stone Racing its own taste of success 24 hours later.

The pair became the first teams to record maiden Supercars Championship race wins in seven years.

The last time a squad was added to the list of victorious Supercars teams was the 2016 Adelaide 500 when Nick Percat walked on water for back markers Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.

With Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing joining Tickford, Triple Eight and Erebus there are already more teams standing on the top step in the first 15 races of 2023 than the 34 held last year.

These numbers suggest Gen3 is having a similar effect to the rollout of Car of the Future, which saw eight teams win in its inaugural 2013 compared to just two the previous year.

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Team 18 was one of two Supercar teams to register a first win in Darwin but how long before a Ford team will win.

Image: MARK HORSBURGH Whilst Ford teams claim Darwin proved there is a parity problem, many of their Chevrolet rivals celebrated the sight of some new winners.

One of the big factors of Gen3 was significantly increasing the amount of control parts to ensure there is a more level playing field.

Unlike recently, where big development dollars could make all the difference, now the smaller teams are given a far fairer share with set-up breakthroughs and hard work in the garage is rewarded.

A joyous Matt Stone said the results vindicated the Gen3 reset and why it provided the opportunity his team craved.

“This is what was promised with Gen3 and why we invested so heavily in building up to it over the last few years,” he told Auto Action during the celebrations.

“It is an even playing field. Everyone is a serious entry and the racing’s spectacular.”

Barry Ryan knows how hard the smaller teams fight for at times slim pickings and he was extremely pleased for both Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing, stating their success is a perfect example of what Gen3 has brought to Supercars.

“That is exactly what Gen3 was about. It was supposed to get everyone closer,” Ryan told Auto Action.

“We had a field spread of six-tenths which I don’t think we ever had with the old car.

“You can easily get it wrong, but it is awesome that two teams who have never won races before are able to do it.”

Much like Team 18, Brad Jones Racing had to wait more than a decade for its first ever championship victory.

Team owner Brad Jones does not believe their success would have been possible under the previous regulations and thinks the category has taken a much needed step towards becoming more unpredictable.

“I think it is fantastic because you turn up to the races and you don’t know who is going to win. That is what it is all about,” Jones told Auto Action.

“It is one of the things that makes NASCAR so great and for us to be in a position where it is so unpredictable is brilliant for the category.

“Having an unknown winner in the first season anyway shows it is definitely working.”

Whilst being at the front for the last 18 years, Triple Eight Race Engineering managing director Jamie Whincup said the team welcomes new competition and was thrilled to see two former customer teams get the job done.

“It has massively levelled the playing field like you would never believe,” Whincup said in Darwin.

“As we go on the more even the cars are becoming and the greater emphasis there is on the drivers, which is great to see.

“You see high quality teams and drivers up the front in one race and then down the back in the next, which is how close it is. if you don’t get it right, boom, you lose 15 spots.

“The racing has been extremely good and I think it is only a good thing for the sport.”

Get the inside story of Team 18’s and Matt Stone Racing’s underdog wins in our special six-page feature on Page 30.

Thomas Miles with Bruce Williams

TOWNSVILLE LITMUS TEST

FOR EREBUS HOPES AFTER FOUR STRAIGHT SUPER SPRINTS, THE TOWNSVILLE 500 OFFERS A STERN TEST FOR THE TABLE-TOPPING EREBUS GARAGE. TEAM CEO BARRY RYAN GAVE AUTO ACTION SOME THOUGHTS ON DARWIN, TOWNSVILLE, AND THE SEASON TO COME. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS …

THIS SEASON has to date had only one ‘long- format’ outing, which was on the hard-to-pass and straight up Gen3 hit-out on the Newcastle streets, where Triple Eight dominated on-track; but quietly, Erebus loomed large in the background and had a healthy points scoop.

That round is a distant memory now, with all the new aspects of this 2023 season and its constant variables having played out on the shorter format stage.

And since then, Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown have had the points edge over the 13 sprint races held since Newcastle.

Triple Eight have won six races to Erebus’ five since then, with the podium count 13/14 in the favour of Erebus, and points gap between the teams is 142 points in favour of Erebus, as well as the Melbourne team holding a one-two in the drivers championship.

With the title clearly looking like a twoteam/four-driver battle, the approaching longer format races. starting with Townsville, will make or break the Erebus charge and dictate the championship.

One thing that always stands out for Triple Eight in the longer format stuff is superior race strategy, where it always seem to find a way to muscle and think its drivers into the lead, even if qualifying hasn’t fallen their way.

And in Darwin, T8 boss Jamie Whincup said that they’ve closed the gap to their rivals ahead of Townsville, whilst Erebus CEO Barry Ryan tells Auto Action that they’re not concerned about the switch in formats.

Whincup said after Darwin that: “The Erebus team have definitely been the standout at the start of the year … but we’ve definitely got some confidence now, there’s one datum point from this weekend that shows we’re slightly better, so we’ll chip away at that.”

In regards to Darwin, Ryan told AA that he wasn’t concerned about the lack of pace and slight down-shift in performance compared to what they’ve become accustomed to.

“Rounds like that are just part of a championship every year but it just gets recognised more when you’re in the lead,” Ryan said.

“At least we got the most out of it – we got 18 points for being three laps down with Kostecki, so we were lucky in that way.

“We just didn’t quite get it right at Darwin. We had confidence in our setup, but obviously the tyre temp up there was higher than where we have been, so we’re not stressed about it. By Sunday we were actually pretty good, but it was a bit too late.

“If it wasn’t for that last corner in qualifying, Brodie would have started higher and finished second or third.”

In terms of approaching Townsville, it’s a pretty different place in terms of the track temp and braking, but Ryan knows

where their strengths at Townsville will play an important role.

“Darwin’s pretty much a one-off in terms of the tyre temp; you might get it at Adelaide later in the year, but that’s on the soft and not the super soft tyre.

“Riding the curbs is definitely the key at Townsville with the set-up … the curbs and the good braking, because there’s a couple of spots you can pass under brakes.

“We were pretty good with all that at Newcastle in terms of the curbs and bumps, and we’ve learnt a lot since then.

I think our braking has been really strong at both Perth and Tassie.

“Everyone’s running the same gear and compounds, so It’s all in the chassis set-up in making the Gen3 a stable car under braking, and we feel we’re strong in that area.

With the tracks on offer in the vital back half of this year, Ryan also feels that if anything, it’s a stronger second half of the year for the team than the opening five rounds have been.

“We’re not going to approach the longer format stuff any differently – we’ll keep on doing what we’ve been doing, which is keeping it pretty simple and not over complicating it.

“There’s some tracks coming up that we’ve got big confidence in … Townsville is probably the one that stands out where we’ve not been that strong in the past.

“But then there’s SMP where both our drivers have won, The Bend where Brodie’s been strong, and at Sandown they’ve both performed well, as well as at Bathurst, Gold Coast and Adelaide.

“So we’re looking at a second half where both our drivers have performed at all those tracks, whereas the first half of the year we’ve had more question marks than anything else, because they hadn’t performed at those tracks in the past.”

The teams take on the Townsville 500 on July 7-9 for two 250km races with the SMP and Bend sprints to follow, before a sustained long format run closes out the season.

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KOSTECKI NOT FAZED BY SETBACK AS AMERICA CALLS BRODIE KOSTECKI remains calm despite losing a major chunk of his championship lead in Darwin, while a potential drive in America may not be far away.

The Darwin Triple Crown arrived soon after Kostecki, Will Brown and a bunch of Erebus Motorsport crew members ventured off to America to attend a NASCAR Cup Series race at St Louis with Richard Childress Racing.

They turned out to be the US team’s lucky charm as they watched first hand as Kyle Busch drove to victory.

Even before the trip, have rumours have circulated of Kostecki resuming his American racing career with an appearance in the near future.

The Coke Camaro star raced as a youngster in the NASCAR K&N Series East in 2013 and 2014, while title rival Shane van Gisbergen will drive for Trackhouse Racing in Chicago this weekend.

Speculation is now in overdrive, as Kostecki’s manager Nathan Cayzer hinted to Neil Crompton on Fox Sports an announcement could be imminent.

“It looks good, so hopefully in the next week we have something locked away which is exciting for the young fella,” he said on the Sunday of the Darwin Triple Crown.

“I think it is in his blood, so it is just a matter of time until we get him in one and I am sure he will make us all proud.”

Back in the Supercars world, Kostecki arrived at Hidden Valley Raceway with an 87-point lead over Erebus Motorsport teammate Will Brown.

But after three eventful races and Erebus Motorsport’s first winless round since the opener at Newcastle, car #99’s advantage was trimmed to just 59 points.

Kostecki started the weekend strongly with a pair of P4s in the first two races, with Saturday particularly impressive having started down in 11th.

But when car #99 again lined up on

Images: MARK HORSBURGH

grid position number 11 on Sunday it came unstuck.

First lap contact with Anton De Pasquale at the tight hairpin in the ‘Valley’ shattered Kostecki’s front right steering arm.

The damage saw the front right wheel going in all sorts of directions and the championship leader limped back to the safety of the pits.

After quick work from the Erebus pit crew, Kostecki returned to the track, albeit three laps down, and he was last when the chequered flag fell, but importantly collected 18 points as Brown came home sixth.

Despite seeing his lead get trimmed, Kostecki is far from the panic button, having been pleased by Erebus Motorsport’s race pace and is keen to get stuck into it at Townsville where he has one top 10 finish from seven starts.

“It is our worst weekend this year but we will get back together and see how

we can move forward in Townsville,” he said.

“I think we still made really good steps.

It was strange because we went to so many different circuits and we came up here and we were a little bit off.

“We were awesome in race trim, but qualifying was not our strong suit which

put us in this place.

“It is so tight in qualifying and I did not maximise it and unfortunately this is the result we got.

“But there is no pressure. I will just take it race by race and there are plenty more to win.”

Thomas Miles

O’KEEFFE RETENTION A ‘NO BRAINER’ FOR PREMIAIR KEEPING DYLAN O’Keeffe paired with James Golding for the Supercars enduros is a “no brainer” for PremiAir Racing.

O’Keeffe, who has been racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia this year, will share driving duties of Golding’s #31 PremiAir Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

The pair paired up for the first time at last year’s Great Race and finished 12th, but had the potential to be a much better position.

In addition to the Mount Panorama experience, O’Keeffe has also cut some laps in the team’s Gen3 Camaro lately at both the pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park and at a recent Queensland Raceway session held just prior to the Darwin Triple Crown.

The 2023 Great Race will be O’Keeffe’s fourth, having raced with Andre Heimgartner at Kelly Racing in 2020 and Garry Jacobson for Team Sydney in 2021, while he made his Supercars debut on the Gold Coast in 2019 as a last minute substitute for Richie Stanaway at Garry Rogers Motorsport.

O’Keeffe is looking forward to continuing his union with Golding behind the wheel.

“I really enjoyed working with Jimmy and PremiAir Racing last year, so I am very excited to once again be partnering with the team to take on the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 in the new Gen 3 Camaro,” O’Keeffe said.

“I have had a good number of laps in the #31 this year

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between the pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park and the recent Queensland Raceway test day, and I am doing all I can off the track to prepare for this year’s enduro season.

“It’s good to have some continuity for 2023.”

PremiAir Racing team principal Matt Cook said locking in O’Keeffe again was a simple decision.

“This has been far from a rushed discussion, but at the same time, Dylan went above and beyond for us last year and the team were very happy with him while he also has a very good relationship with Jimmy, so it is a very natural fit and something of a ‘no brainer,’” he said.

“Dylan was with our team at the pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park at the beginning of the year and then again at our recent Queensland Raceway test day, with plenty of seat time at both.

“He was also at our opening round at Newcastle, at which he got a good feel for the 2023 team dynamic.

“We are confident he will be able to hit the ground running with us in Sandown for the start of the enduro season, and I can’t wait to see what he and Jimmy can achieve together in the #31.”

Now just Tim Slade and Todd Hazelwood remain as the only full-time drivers without a confirmed co-driver.

Thomas Miles

Image: MARK HORSBURGH

GODDARD DETERMINED TO MAKE THE MOST OF OPPORTUNITY ZANE GODDARD was thrilled to go solo Supercars racing again for the first time in two years at the Darwin Triple Crown and is determined to make full use of the ‘super’ opportunity.

Goddard had his maiden racing experience in the Gen3 Supercheap Auto/ Triple Eight wildcard Camaro, which made its first non Bathurst appearance at Hidden Valley.

Despite not completing a solo race since 2021, the 23-year-old did not look out of place in the full-time field.

With the likes of Wes McDougal, Jamie Whincup and Jess Dane in the garage, Goddard recorded a best result of P21 in his first race weekend in Gen3 machinery.

The Indigenous Round was used as a warmup for the main events at Sandown and Bathurst where Goddard will be joined by Craig Lowndes.

Youngsters who have previously been handed the keys to the Supercheap Auto Camaro have had a 100 percent success rate of getting a main-game drive the following season with Broc Feeney in car #88 and Declan Fraser in car #56.

After losing his seat at Matt Stone Racing and suffering a painful Bathurst 1000 codrive on and off the track last year, Goddard is determined to make the most of the opportunity Triple Eight has provided.

“A full-time drive is the ultimate goal,” he told Auto Action.

“I also think that is what Supercheap Auto want as well because they have got two drivers into a full-time seat and I think their intention is to try and make that three.

“If you are ever going to get an opportunity to display what you can do, this is it.

“I have just got to make the most of it.”

Reflecting on the weekend behind the wheel, Goddard admitted he was surprised at how quickly it all came back to him, having only performed one official test day in the #888 Camaro.

“It was awesome. Obviously it has been a fair while, especially since a solo round, so I just really enjoyed the whole experience,” he said.

“It was good fun to go racing door-todoor again and it all felt pretty natural straight away.

Scan here to access our comprehensive Townsville 500 Supercars event preview.

Goddard enjoyed in-garage support from the top! Image: MARK HORSBURGH “Obviously we would have hoped for slightly better results, but we showed good potential in the races.

“It is just so close now. On Sunday I think I was only two-tenths off pole and that put me back in 16th, where I think with the previous car you would be easily inside the top 10.

“The field was just so compressed.”

A hallmark of Goddard’s weekend was his ability to gain ground once the green flag fell.

On the opening lap alone he gained seven positions in the first two races.

This thrilled Goddard, who recently has been racing in S5000 where a much different style of racing is required.

“I was quite pleased as soon as the racing started because I made up something like five positions on the first lap,” he said.

“The actual launches off the line were good and I felt really comfortable racing, which going into it was probably the biggest question mark because I have mainly been doing open-wheelers recently which is a very different sort of race craft.”

But his momentum on Saturday was cut short by the Safety Car when car #888

was tangled up in the pit lane chaos hitting James Courtney and being rear ended by James Golding.

He would eventually cross the line in 22nd, while the first race on Sunday provided another important lesson.

Goddard enjoyed another strong start, flying from 20th to 16th on the first lap and even got to as high as 11th before the round of stops.

Despite emerging in 15th, he struggled with tyre life and dropped to 21st, which was his best result of the weekend.

“We made a lot of places up in the first race (on Sunday) right at the start, but the tyres were dead toward the end of it,” he said.

“It was definitely an important race to help me learn how to manage the tyres with the new Gen3 cars, especially on the exit of corners.”

The final race of the weekend was not without its dramas as Goddard firstly made a “mistake,” opening the door for Chaz Mostert, which sent him into the marbles and into the dirt.

A more physical altercation with Jack Smith rubbed further salt into the wounds with a 15s penalty dropping him to 24th.

But going forward Goddard will be better prepared than any other of the Supercheap Auto wildcards thanks to the Darwin experience.

He still has some testing time up his sleeve prior to Sandown, which will prove critical as teams carry on sprint racing.

With one solo round under his belt in the #888 Camaro, Goddard is excited for the next challenge that lies ahead in September.

“Now it will be all about getting Craig in the car more and getting the setup where we want it,” he said.

“Obviously it will be a different style of program to what the other teams would be doing during sprint events.

“I think that will put us in good stead when Sandown rolls around.”

Thomas Miles with Bruce Williams

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Barry and Garry Rogers.

Image: JACK MARTIN PHOTOGRAPHY

PREMIAIR POACHES GLOBAL ENGINEER PREMIAIR RACING has poached internationally respected engineer, Romy Mayer, from Triple Eight Race Engineering. Mayer spent eight years at Triple Eight Race Engineering, which included stints as Jamie Whincup’s data engineer in his 2017 title season and leading the Supercheap Auto #888 Commodore to a best ever Bathurst wildcard result last year.

She has also done lots of work in her native Germany for Mercedes, but is looking forward to a new challenge. “I am super excited to be back in the Supercar paddock,” she said. “I am looking forward to chasing the big dogs and hunting some podiums and even a race win with my new team.”

FROSTY SURVIVES RESTART SCARE BROC FEENEY thought he received a “free pass” to stop Mark Winterbottom from claiming a dream maiden win for Team 18.

Triple Eight Race Engineering alleged Winterbottom had accelerated before a green flag was waved at the Safety Car restart.

However, MA Stewards investigated and revealed “broadcast footage showed that the flag marshall at the exit of Turn 14 was slow withdrawing the yellow flag but the green flag was displayed at the start line.”

Post-race Frosty claimed “my dash went green” – and that’s when he put his foot to the floor.

DE SILVESTRO STILL KEEN ON GREAT RACE FORMER FULL time Supercars driver Simona de Silverstro returned to the Supercars paddock at Hidden Valley and made it clear she still wants to race at Bathurst.

De Silverstro is currently a reserve driver for Porsche in Formula E and has not raced in Supercars since 2019, but said a return to Mount Panorama still motivates her.

“It would be really cool to come back to Bathurst,” she told Fox Sports.

Negotiations for a de Silverstro return are ongoing with availability of Gen3 drives an issue with only two codriver roles left and few Gen3 wildcards on the grid.

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MORE MANAGEMENT CHANGES FOR AUSTRALIAN RACING GROUP FOLLOWING RECENT changes to the management structure of Australian Racing Group, Garry Rogers has confirmed the departure of John McMellan from the role of Executive Chairman and confirmed he will no longer have any operational duties at ARG moving forward.

This move follows on from several other high-profile departures which have included the former CEO Matt Braid and Ken Collier leaving the organisation in the past months.

Garry Rogers has expanded his investment in the Australian Racing Group (ARG) and is now the business’ largest shareholder.

In a media release Garry Rogers confirmed the departure of McMellan and re-affirmed his ongoing commitment to the ARG program.

“We are committed and continue to invest in motorsport and the Australian Racing Group, its categories and the sport in general.

“Moving forward, I plan to be more hands on and hopefully my 60+ years in this sport and enthusiasm will attract some like-minded people who

can work with Liam Curkpatrick to reenergise the business.” He said.

Talking to Auto Action, Barry Rogers confirmed that the ARG program would move forward and that Garry Rogers and himself were committed to the categories under the ARG umbrella.

“Look, we have made a few changes in recent times, but it’s all positive from our point of view.

“We have invested a lot of our own money into the sport and more recently the ARG categories, so we don’t have any plans for it disappear.

We have many great competitors and we are working hard to deliver a long term and viable motorsport program for them to be part of.

Auto Action can confirm that Barry Rogers and other senior management from the ARG group met with Motorsport Australia officials late last week to reaffirm their commitment to the national SpeedSeries.

“It was a very productive meeting, with both parties being open and honest about the future of national level racing in Australia.

“It is important for the health of the sport that we have a very strong second tier of motorsport in Australia. We can’t just have state and club racing and then Supercars events with nothing in between” He confirmed.

In a statement sent to Auto Action

by John McMillan made the following observations.

“As you are aware in 2022, the independent shareholders (AA believed to be Brian Boyd) that I represented exited the business and Garry and Barry Rogers (GRM) assumed this shareholding which saw them assume an absolute majority of 75% ownership.

“They have an absolute majority and have the capability to make all operational decisions via this controlling shareholding.

“Understandably they have now decided to appoint their own management structure.

“I remain the second largest shareholder at 20% and my interest and support will continue in line with this investment.”

REMEMBERING KENT YOULDEN THE NATIONAL racing community has lost one of its stalwarts in Kent ‘The Bear’ Youlden, who passed away on June 26 at the age of 72 after a long battle with dementia.

Kent spent his entire working life at Ford as a chassis development engineer, but a lot of motorsport fans will have known him for his decorated national production car racing career, of which he was one of the country’s most noted performers over a long period of time.

Whilst he began his racing life in an old rally cross racing SE Holden, he quickly moved onto rally racing in a Mitsubishi Colt because Colin Bond was winning in one.

He had some success in the Victorian Rally Championship between 1971-74, winning seven rallies, as well as taking third in the Alpine Rally.

He then won many Sports Sedans races aboard his self prepared LJ XU1 Torana throughout 1973-76, and also in his F5000 engined TE Cortina between 1978 and 1981.

Racing with his brother Brett in 1986-87, he drove a VK Commodore in both the Production Car and Commodore Classic Series, with the pair also winning the Winton 300 by two laps in 1990.

He also became a back-to-back Australian Production Car Champion in 1990-91, racing with factory supported EA and EB Falcons, whilst his Bathurst 12 Hour efforts yielded a second and fifth outright in ‘91 and ‘93. Following his production car career, he also won the group NC championship in a Monaro 350.

Kent is of course the father of Luke Youlden, winner of the 2017 Bathurst 1000.

Kent is survived by his wife Yvonne Youlden, his three Children

Luke, James, and Clinton, and his brothers Brett and Ray. His ashes will fittingly be spread at the sweeper at Winton Raceway.

Auto Action sends its condolences to friends and family, and all those that knew and admired Kent during his long and successful motorsport career.

TW Neal

MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA CEO TO RETIRE

INTERIM BOSS NAMED FOR AGP CORPORATION THE AUSTRALIAN Grand Prix Corporation is poised to appoint an interim chief as the search for a successor to Andrew Westacott continues.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s legal and general counsel manager Dale Nardella will step up as the stand-in, as revealed by the Herald Sun, while chief finance officer Anthony Connelly will perform as deputy.

Nardella and Connelly will perform their respective roles in an interim capacity until a full-time leader is found.

Westacott left major shoes to full having fronted the corporation which stages the Australian Formula 1 and Motorcycle Grands Prix at Albert Park and Phillip Island respectively since 2011 and left it in arguably better frame than ever before.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Paul Little told the Herald Sun the hunt for a new chief is “well under way” and should be finalised in the near future.

“Dale and Anthony both bring extensive knowledge of the Corporation and its priorities over the coming months to their respective interim roles,” Little said.

Despite Nardella and Connelly performing interim roles, they are not believed to be on a shortlist of candidates for the full time job.

Those leading the race to replace Westacott include former Formula 1 race director and current Supercars Commission chairman Michael Masi, plus non motorsport people such as AFL executive Travis Auld.

The upcoming Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix will be held on October 20-22, while the date for next year’s Formula 1 race is yet to be announced, but is expected to retain a similar spot on the calendar as the third race in 2024.

The debate of whether or not to turn the popular Australian Grand Prix into a Melbourne night race has popped up again.

To line up more favourably with European time zones, there have been requests to light up Albert Park in the past during the Bernie Ecclestone era.

Despite a night race concept being rejected, from 2009 to 2019 the Australian Grand Prix was run as a twilight affair

starting at 17.00 AEDT. But post COVID it has reverted back to a more traditional start time of 15.00 AEDT. However, this has not stopped the talk of a night race returning with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali addressing the issue.

Talking on Melbourne radio station 3AW, Domenicali said whilst a night race was a “possibility” the “very, very nice” advantages of a day race remain preferred.

“This year when we were there, there were a lot of people thinking it could be a possibility,” he said. “I think that in terms of TV, for the possibility to be seen in Europe, for example, that can help.

“But on the other hand I would say that to see that beautiful skyline of Melbourne and Albert Park at that time of the day is really very, very nice.

“The beauty of being in Australia is that no matter the time of the race, in Europe, the Far East — wherever it is — there is such excitement.

“That’s why we signed such a longterm agreement with Australia and with Melbourne.”

Thomas Miles

MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA CEO Eugene Arocca will retire from his post at the end of 2023 following 11 years at the helm.

Since 2012 Arocca has been charged with the task of providing financial stability to the sport, as well as having to see it through the COVID 19 pandemic.

He has seen the sport share an increasingly stable relationship with federal and state governments in Australia, helping to provide new revenue opportunities for its continued growth into the future.

Arocca, who was often seen down at the track to help at smaller state events, thanked those across the sport, along with the current and former Board and employees.

“This is a very emotional day for me but I know that while I still have some time in the chair to come, when I do walk out the door on my final day, I will walk away extremely proud of the 11 years and what has been achieved,” Arocca said.

“To the Motorsport Australia Board and staff, both past and present, I thank you for your support and for making this journey such a wonderful one.

“I am particularly grateful for the outstanding support I have received from past President Andrew Papadopoulos and current President Andrew Fraser.

“To the members, the officials, fans and everyone who makes our sport what it is, thank you for your dedication and commitment. There are too many people to thank, but the sport is a welcoming one that has an amazing future ahead.

“While I still have some months to go in this role, I know there will be no slowing down as 2023 finishes off on a high with a lot of events and plenty of work to do.

“I will continue to be involved in the sport in some way, particularly as a fan at the many events around Australia that make our sport so great.”

Timothy W Neal

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TOYOTA GT3 APPROACHING FOR 2026 TOYOTA HAS declared its new GT3 racer will compete in the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside the release of road-going version. Initially expected to compete as soon as 2025, the GR GT3 has been pushed back a year to coincide with the release of the road car.

It will replace the decade old Lexus RC F GT3, while it is unclear whether it will have Toyota or Lexus badges.

The new GT3 era in the WEC will see a more varied return of the manufacturing giants to the field alongside the hypercars, with Ford and Corvette to also have their new GT3 Rs on track over the next few years.

NEW S5000 TO RACE AT SYDNEY THE NEW S5000 tyres will make their racing debut at the category’s next round at Sydney Motorsport Park in July. The new compound developed by Hoosier will be unveiled at round 4 of the Gold Star series on July 28-30. The new tyres are a step softer than the previous compound and have increased 2.5 inches in diameter.

They are anticipated to help drivers push harder much earlier with the current compound taking multiple laps to warm up on occasion.

After receiving “really positive” feedback from testing, the tyres are anticipated to be “more predictable” especially when the rear end gets loose.

PRODRIVE CREATE FASTBACK RALLY CAR UK ENGINEERING masters ProDrive have created a remarkable left of field 1967 Fastback Mustang Rally car, commissioned by HERO-ERA. In a 12 month undercover project, the team turned a rust bucket fastback into a meticulously fine tuned rally beast, with the aim of it competing in the 2024 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge…that’s 37 days of racing across 14,000km and 10 countries. Some serious Dakar-style thought was put into the five speed (overdrive), 5.4L 400 bhp V8, Dart Ford 302 Windsor Block, long-range rally challenger…stay tuned for a full Auto Action feature on this remarkable car!

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FORD’S DAKAR RAPTOR FORD PERFORMANCE will continue to unleash the Raptor after announcing that it’s preparing a Race Ranger Raptor T1+ for the 2024 Dakar Rally.

Whilst the Ford Ranger Raptor has been rampantly proving itself and winning categories at some of the worlds toughest rally’s like the Baja 1000 and the Finke Desert Race, the manufacturing giants are now entering upon world’s greatest rally stage: The Dakar Rally.

In collaboration with Ford rally stalwarts M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsports (NWM), Ford will enter a very mean looking, purpose built, race-ready Ford Ranger T1+ at the 2024 event in Saudi Arabia.

The T1+ is an extreme racing version of the road and race proven Ranger Raptor, and after the famous

blue oval has raced, won, and conquered the worlds biggest events such as Le Mans, Monaco, Daytona, Bathurst, Finke and Ensenada, the T1+ is staring down the barrel at Dakar – the only iconic event Ford hasn’t tackled.

Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance Motorsports, says that the challenge is immense, and that there’s no underestimating the enormity of putting the T1+ across the finishing line at Dammam on the Persian Gulf.

“To lead the charge at one of the ultimate global off-road events – the Dakar Rally – has been a goal of ours,” said Rushbrook.

“We cannot underestimate the enormity of the challenge ahead of us. We need to finish and learn first with Ranger T1+ and partners like

M-Sport and NWM, who bring their expertise to bear.

“Together, we can do amazing things in the sand dunes of the Arabian Peninsula.”

Prior to going to Saudi Arabia, the Ford Performance program for its Dakar entry will see it compete at two high profile test races: Spain’s Baja Espana Aragon, and Morocco’s Rally du Maroc, with the latter also being an FIA World Rally Raid Championship round like Dakar.

“Our first time in Dakar will be a learning adventure that will help inform how we compete in the future,” Rushbrook continued.

“But as with all racing, we’re not just racing to win, we’re also racing to help build better products for our customers.”

TW Neal

SHUTE WINS THE RACE TO THE CLOUDS THE 101ST running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb was taken out by British driver Robin Shute - his fourth Unlimited class win in five years.

Near perfect weather conditions greeted the 66 car field, spread over 6 classes, with the Unlimited class considered the main attraction.

Shute entered the 156 turn -14,115ft climb - in his 2018 Wolf TSC-FS with its 2.1 L Honda turbo engine, putting down a time of 8min40.080s, smashing his 2022 time by well over a minute in the same car.

His closest challenger was Swiss driver Romain Dumais in the Pikes Peak Open class with 8m47.682s, driving the surprisingly fast all-electric Ford Performance SuperVan 4.

The van contains a powertrain with four electric motors, delivering an astounding 1,972 hp.

Third overall was another Open class competitor, Frenchman Raphael Astier, driving the 2018 Alpine A110 GT4 Evo, coming in at 9m17.412s.

Aussie entrant Brett Dickie contested his second Pikes Peak final in his Honda S2000 finished P27 overall,

and sixth in the Unlimited class, with a pass of 10:52.636.

On taking his fourth PPIHC win, the winning Brit was disappointed he didn’t go faster with the newly configured Wolf TSC, but maybe that was just his sense of humour speaking.

“Terrible!” Shute quipped after his run “it’s OK…it’s always great to get to the top of the mountain. Conditions were just different today; the car just wasn’t dialled in like I needed it to. But I held on and wrestled…it was a wild ride.

“To get the win is always such a

treat, this race is so hard to run, so to consistently win, year after year, is a testament to the program, the team, the car… and maybe my driving.”

The Time Attack 1 class was taken out by David Donohue, who climbed the summit in his iconic Brumos No. 59 2019 Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport, and achieved an overall P4, some 38 seconds in arrears of the Wolf.

The Open Wheel class was conquered by American Codie Vahsholtz in overall P5, breaking his fathers class record in the very same vehicle - a 2013 Ford Open Vahsholtz Custom - by over 16 seconds.

The exhibition class was won by Tanner Foust driving a 2023 Radford Type 62, whilst rookie Hayden Bradley topped the Porsche Pikes Peak Trophy in a 2020 Cayman GT4 Clubsport in twenty-fifth overall.

And as a tribute to her late father, 16-year-old Lia Block drove an untimed run in the purpose-built, twin-turbo, 1,400hp Porsche (the ‘Hoonipigasus’ the car that Ken Block was meant to compete in this year.

TW Neal

GILLIS ON THE MOVE

TRANS AM TAKING DALTON TO THE NEXT LEVEL LOCHIE DALTON has announced himself as one of the top Trans Am drivers after being an unstoppable force at the recent Winton round.

Dalton dominated proceedings, taking pole position by four tenths before cruising to three comfortable wins to complete a perfect weekend.

After the clean sweep, he has thrown himself into championship contention, sitting second just nine points behind James Moffat.

Reflecting on the special weekend, Dalton simply believed it was just one of those occasions where everything went the way he wanted.

“I have always been really confident and had a fast car,” he told Auto Action.

“We had to think about how to keep the car on rails for a long time in the races.

“It is just the way things go in motorsport, some weekends go your way and some others don’t.

“This weekend has just been better

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than other weekends.”

Dalton is dovetailing his Trans Am campaign with the Dunlop Series where he is driving a Holden ZB Commodore for Brad Jones Racing.

He believes racing both beasts embrace each other with the “loose” nature of the Ford Mustang Trans Am helping him grapple with the tyre wear experienced on the ZB. “The Trans Am is good because it is so loose it teaches you really good car control,” Dalton said.

“So when the Supercar tyre starts to wear off, some of this (Trans Am) stuff really benefits that.

“Also in Super2 you are racing once a month, if not every two months which is not enough seat time, so these Trans Am cars keep you busy and in shape.”

Whilst Dalton’s Trans Am campaign has been consistent, his Super2 trips to Newcastle and Perth brought contrasting results.

He struggled to unlock the ultimate

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speed from his #43 ZB Commodore in the opener and finished, while he did not start the second race due to a broken flywheel.

But Dalton bounced back brilliantly in Perth, qualifying on the second row and retaining that pace across the dramatic longer races to get a round podium.

Dalton will jump back in his ex Nick Percat and Macauley Jones chassis at Townsville on July 7-9.

He hopes his strong form can continue on the hybrid Queensland track where he has raced Toyota 86s in the past.

“Hopefully we can just keep the momentum going,” Dalton said.

“I have raced Toyota 86s there, so I have had a little bit of seat time and gained an understanding of how the track flows.

“But for sure it is going to be a bit different with an extra 500 horsepower.”

Thomas Miles

ROUND 3 of the national Trans Am series at Winton provided a surprise frontrunner in The Racing Academy’s Cody Gillis, who achieved a confident podium sweep at the Nations Action Track.

The WA racer has made a massive leap in 2023, making a switch from Karting into the high-powered V8 machinery.

The 24 year-old races for The Racing Academy team, which is a new outfit run by long-time driver trainer and engineer Tom Williamson, who has also made the leap from running a Karting team into the V8 world.

So far this year, the three car team has seen the likes of Supercars talent Tim Slade, Jaylyn Robotham and Tyler Everingham through its ranks, but it’s Gillis that’s moved the meter for the outfit.

Gillis put his #5 Mustang onto the front row with Lochie Dalton over qualifying, topping the likes of Grice, Kelly, Moffat, Rice and Everingham.

Over the first two races, Gillis held challenges from Grice then Moffat to finish P2 behind Dalton in both outings, claiming the fastest lap in Race 2, before taking P3 in the extended 25 lap closer, which assured him second place on the outright podium.

In a series that has only seen eight different winners since its inception, Gillis looks like he’s got the goods to expand that list in the near future.

Since the start of the year, he’s been improving in the background in an unassuming manner. He suffered a DNF in his first race in Tassie, before then taking a P9 from the back of the field.

At Phillip Island he qualified in P7, and took three top-tens including a P6, before Winton showed how assured he could be at the front of the field.

“The whole team had been chipping away for a while, thankfully, it all came together at once in Winton,” Gillis said.

“I’m getting more and more experience as time goes on, and I proved that in qualifying to set up the weekend.

“Going into the first race I was a little bit nervous, I started thinking I might have just fluked it in qualifying, but a couple of laps in I realised we were actually pretty strong…It felt like we belonged there.”

On the massive leap from Karting into V8’s, Gillis said being in a national series has been a dream of his for a while.

“It’s good to be in a racing car, it’s what I have always dreamed of and everything that comes with it,” he explained.

“The Racing Academy wanted to do something where I could race a car, and everything started to come together to join Trans Am. “It’s a great way to learn, no aero, heaps of horsepower and a decent tyre with not much grip, everything you want to learn is right there in front of you, so it was great to land myself here.

Gillis’ next trip sees him head to the lively Queensland Raceway August 11-13, which like Winton, has a first corner that provides plenty of action.

TW Neal

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YOUNG CARRERA LEADER KEEPS PODIUMS ROLLING AFTER LEAVING Melbourne on equal footing with Max Vidau in the Carrera Cup, a Darwin podium sweep from Jackson Walls (right) sees him leading the Porsche field into Townsville on July 7-9.

Walls took his maiden Carrera Cup win at Townsville in 2022 and, so far this year, he hasn’t been off the steps after five Cup races, including a win at the AGP. Although he’s leading the Pro standings, the McElrea Porsche youngsters main goal for this season is to top the Carrera Cup Junior table which gets decided two rounds before the season’s end at Bathurst, which he currently tops over fellow younggun Callum Hedge by 18 points.

Walls is also racing with his father Tony in the Super Trofeo Asia Series, where they’ve also swept the Pro Am podiums after four races in Sepang and at The Bend.

A focused Walls played a straight bat to Auto Action about being the overall leader, but discussed his desire to pursue GT racing, his Darwin round, and racing the Lamborghini EVO2 with his father.

“I don’t really think of it like that, “being

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on top”, I really just need to think of it weekend by weekend,” Walls told AA. “It doesn’t feel any different and it’s certainly not adding any extra pressure that I’m feeling – it’s just a number right now.

The main goal for me this year is trying to win the Michelin Junior Cup first, so if I’m still in the frame after Bathurst, we can focus on the overall championship then.

“But I’m really confident for the next round in Townsville having got my first Cup race win there as well as getting an outright round podium, and I learnt a lot from that, just as I learnt from the recent Darwin round.

“In Darwin it was about having bit of extra patience on the throttle to protect the tyres in the heat, so I didn’t find that side of it a struggle; in these cars makes a world of difference in terms of getting pace out of it for the whole race, and not just for five laps.”

After he and his father put in another good Super Trofeo showing in the Lamborghini at The Bend, he says racing with his father has been a special experience.

“Getting to race with my dad, and especially in a car like that, is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and it’s great that we’re competitive out there as well.

“Although they’re completely different cars, with the ABS and traction control stability aids in the Lamborghini, it really helps in maintaining my racecraft, and I feel a lot more confident when I get back into the Cup car after that.”

In terms of his future, after coming up through the ranks in single seater racing

– having raced and taken podiums in Formula 3 in Asia, and also in the Toyota Racing Series in NZ as a race winner against the likes of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson – Walls wants to keep pursuing GT racing as far as he can take it.

“My focus and goals are to stay in GT the next few years, but the main thing with that is on how this year goes, and that’s quite a big factor, if not the main factor, that determines what will happen in the future.”

TW Neal

LATEST NEWS

TOURING CAR MASTERS TEAMS DISCUSS TAKEOVER PLANS… FOLLOWING ANOTHER SMALL FIELD AT THE RECENT EVENT AT WINTON, PLANS ARE BEING DISCUSSED FOR A POTENTIAL TAKEOVER OF THE OWNERSHIP RIGHTS TO THE CATEGORY… BY THE TEAMS THEMSELVES. BRUCE WILLIAMS INVESTIGATES. IN RESPONSE to the development, AUTO ACTION’s Publisher and Editorial director, (and TCM car owner) Bruce Williams, looked at some of the issues and spoke to leading TCM competitor Andrew Fisher (right) and ARG’s Barry Rogers about the future of TCM. There was plenty of speculation and discussion around the future of Touring Car Masters at Winton’s round, including possibly developing plans for a potential take-over of the category by the entrants themselves.

It is considered to be a serious enough proposition for things to get to the point where a meeting took place on the Saturday evening in the Winton pits, where some heated discussions developed between interested competitors.

Just a few years ago there were consistently more than 25-30 cars regularly competing in the hugely popular Touring Car Masters series, but over time that figure has continued to decline and, with that, the competitors, category management and fans, are not happy.

Whilst the big names such as Steven Johnson, John Bowe and Ryan Hansford and other category stalwarts are still putting on a great show, a comparatively meagre total of 13 cars took part in the latest round at Winton last weekend, which is the most in the entire 2023 season.

The trip to the Victorian circuit was the second TCM trip on the SpeedSeries schedule after the opener at Tasmania, while it has also made an appearance on the Supercars platform on the high-profile event on the streets of Newcastle.

However, neither of those events attracted large numbers either, with just 12 and nine cars racing at Newcastle and Tasmania respectively.

After three underwhelming rounds, conversations have begun about why the decline has continued, with one of the most popular categories in Australian Motorsport having an average of a dozen cars showing up to a race meeting.

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Leading TCM driver Andrew Fisher, one of the prime movers of the potential move in a change of the ownership structure, says that the owners and the competitors have to take as much responsibility for the health and well-being of the category as the current owners ARG do.

“As car owners we are as much investors in TCM as the owners ARG are, and as such we are looking to the long-term future of TCM … It’s about what’s going to be good for the category,” Fisher said.

“Everybody loves TCM. All the owners, the drivers racing in the category and the fans all love TCM. “The cars themselves are great, and again the fans love them, and it’s one of the appeals for many of us who are racing in TCM, but we have seen a real drop off in numbers and it’s an issue that has to be dealt with,” he confirmed.

“What we see as one of the major issues from the TCM competitors’ point of view is that it’s just not sitting in the right position in terms of the profile and the way the category is being promoted, even just from an internal ARG marketing perspective.

“TCM is down the order of priorities within the ARG portfolio, and there is no doubt that TCR, Trans Am, GT and S5000 are ahead of TCM in the pecking order.

“TCM doesn’t even get a mention on their category transporter, and for TCM to thrive it must have a bigger focus.”

Looking ahead for a potential category takeover Fisher explained that despite there being a significant amount of enthusiasm for the competitor buyout, it was still a long way away from happening, and that other considerations had to be in place for it to be successful.

“Part of the process is talking to some people that can run the category for the entrants, because the owners can’t run it.

We will need a representative that runs it on our behalf, so we are looking for a professional category manager to look after it,” Fisher continued.

“We have Graham Sattler who is a cracking administrator on a race

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weekend, and we would like him to be part of the plans going forward.”

Fisher said that many of the TCM owners want to race at more Supercar events.

With continued poor grids I asked him about two of the more high-profile Supercars rounds being poorly supported: The Adelaide 500 at the end of last year delivered 13 cars, and then at Newcastle for the start of the Supercars season there were 11 cars – are those events not high profile enough that would encourage people to come back out?

“It could all change, if ARG said, ‘we’ll profile you as our second highest category and we’ll market you, we’ll give you the four high profile events and we’ll back you guys’ as I think they should, then maybe that could work.

“And then how do you bring new people into the series, rather than bring past competitors back to the series?

“I don’t think that we can bring new talent into the series whilst the majority of the series is run at non-high-profile events.

“I think the real thing is looking at what the future of TCM looks like?

“So, we need to find a way to get new people interested and excited and to make it an attractive category to be part of and refresh what TCM is all about and being on more Supercars events is one way to get more competitors interested.” Fisher concluded.

In response, ARG’s Barry Rogers acknowledged that the teams had been discussing a category buy-out and reaffirmed ARG’s commitment to the category.

He also said that while he is aware that the teams have been talking about taking on the category themselves, no formal approach has been made.

“Yes there was a meeting at the Winton event and several of the teams owners talked about taking on the category themselves, but as yet I have not spoken to any team representatives.” he said.

“We see Touring Car Masters as one of the most important and popular categories in Australian motorsport and we know the fans love the category.

Images: JACK MARTIN PHOTOGRAPHY “We also love TCM and while the competitor numbers are not great we continue to be committed to see TCM prosper and look forward to the grids growing into the future.

“There has been a TCM teams working group created, which happened some months ago, but we are not really aware on any of the specifics of what has been discussed.

However he was aware that teams wanted the profile of category to be higher with more races at big events.

“We have provided TCM race rounds at both the Adelaide 500 at the end of last year and Newcastle Supercars round this year, but it seems to have made little difference to the grid size.”

One of the arguments for a decrease in grid sizes is a perception among many in the sport that there has been an explosion in running costs for TCM competitors.

It is common knowledge that some competitors have upped the ante when it comes to chasing performance, which is partly the reason for the increased expenses associated with the category, and there is no doubt that this has an effect on racers who don’t have the funds to bring their own ‘older spec’ cars back to a level of competitiveness.

ARG has worked on a series of initiatives to encourage competitors of older generation TCM cars to return to the category, some of which include racing for their own series points and awards, and have even offered discounted entry fees etc and other incentives to get more cars onto the grid.

The Touring Car Masters returns to the Supercars stage at The Bend on August 18-20.

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BATHURST’S SECOND TRACK ON HOLD A JUNE 21st Ordinary Council Meeting has seen the plans for a second Bathurst track officially put on hold, with some further recommendations put forth for the future development.

The report was tabled at the OCM after the federal government alerted the Bathurst Regional Council that the initial grants had been withdrawn days earlier.

The Government funding was for a second Bathurst track to be built alongside the existing Mount Panorama circuit.

However, the council received a notification from the federal government that the $12.5 million dollar funding would be withdrawn after plans were first drawn up in 2018, with the aim of building a new 200 hectare site slated to be built southwest of McPhillamy Park, with access via the Mid-Western Highway, whilst the two facilities would be linked through either Barry Gurdon Drive or College Road.

Two seperate grants of $10 million and $2.5 million for the development of a second track, required that the money be spent by 2026.

Bathurst Mayor Robert Taylor had sought to repurpose some of the funding into the growth and development of the current

Mount Panorama facilities, but was told that this didn’t align with the original grant.

“Unfortunately, we were advised this didn’t align with the intent of the original grant funding,” Taylor said.

“The project is on hold for now, but Council strongly supports development of the second circuit and will continue to work with both the Federal and State

Governments and other stakeholders to make it happen.”

Council has also received $5 million and $10 million in funding commitments from the State Government. The $5 million grant was used to fund the design and documentation that were prepared as part of the development application process.

Among the OCM recommendations to

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the council was that the second track be “placed on hold until such time that an agreement could be entered into to acquire the remaining land required for the project,” and that they should “continue to lobby relevant agencies and respective stakeholders to retain support for the project”.

The track would have been used to ensure that Bathurst could have a racing calendar all year round, and that international motorcycle races could be held in Bathurst, with Supercars also stating its interest in holding an event at the new venue.

The circuit is expected to cost in the realm of $52 million to build, with around $25 million combined coming from both state and federal grants.

The initial design by the UK firm, Apex Circuit Design, was for a 4.5km track with an FIA Grade 2 and FIM Grade A specification, containing two configurations – a national circuit, and a smaller club circuit.

Also in the initially factored plans is a 1.26km rallycross track to host the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

TW Neal

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

GROSJEAN’S TRANS-TASMAN POPULARITY AT ALL-TIME HIGH ROMAIN GROSJEAN copped a colourful spray from Aussie Will Power at the Road America IndyCar round in Wisconsin on the weekend.

The Frenchman forced the two-time indycar champion off the road at high speed where he almost careened into the right-side concrete barrier.

Grosjean’s motion appeared very abrupt in cutting off Power’s pass during the practice session.

Power declared Grosjean a “piece of crap”, saying the former F1 driver needed “a punch in the face”, whilst he also tore into Kiwi Scott Dixon following a smash at Canada Corner in an eventful session, which saw the two exchange tense physicalities on track.

Power first spray was reserved for the track however, launching a scathing attack for the rough off-track surfaces that cause the cars to bounce wildly: “This track’s terrible when you go off – they do a terrible job here, they need to pick up their game.

Anywhere you go off you almost break your back every time … done it a couple of times this weekend. They need a kick in the butt, for this place”.

Power then directed his ire toward Dixon after the two collided in Practice when Dixon slowed to let Grosjean past and forced Power into the barrier at Canada Corner.

An incensed Power then approached Dixon on track

– who just didn’t see Power coming in his mirrors – with the Aussie grabbing at him twice, then flipping him the bird, before jumping into the recovery vehicle in a furious state.

“Just pissed at what Dixon did this morning, it ruined our whole weekend … it was a terrible move all up,” Power said in his angry outburst.

Aware of the error, Dixon replied with: “Really sorry for him and his team … a mistake on my behalf, and I feel frustrated for wrecking our car and his car as well.

We ended up getting in the medical car together and he was fine after that.”

Power left it till last to take his verbal shot at Grosjean, who’s had a colourful year with the Trans-Tasman drivers after he and Scott McLaughlin have twice taken each other out over the course of the season: “Disappointed with what happened … and Grosjean, he’s a piece of crap! If you saw what he did in practice … he needs a punch in the face!”

His eventual P13 finish on race day left the defending champion in eighth place on 190 points, whilst Palou sits on 324, enjoying a 74 point overall lead over Marcus Ericsson.

The next IndyCar outing is on July 2 at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course.

TW Neal

MCRAE DISPLAYS WINNING PACE MAX MCRAE was on track for a Junior ERC victory until a one minute penalty cost him his maiden ERC win despite being the fastest in the Rally4 class in Latvia.

McRae and his co-driver Mac Kierans were faultless over the Saturday, until a one-minute penalty for an early check-in saw his overnight lead vanish.

The Opel Corsa Rally4 pair held a one second advantage overnight from the eventual Norwegian winner Ola Nore, with the penalty putting the young Aussie into P7 to start the Sunday.

Despite the disheartening penalty, they fought back into P5 overall, but will be left ruing the fact that they

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were again quicker on the Sunday by 3.2s.

Although McRae was clearly disappointed, being the fastest on course was a big boost after showing the same speed in the Rally Poland opener, but was struck by mechanical issues in the Factory Racing Rally4.

“It’s unfortunate, of course it is. Mac and I are both disappointed not to have won, but that’s the sport,” McRae described.

“I’ve made mistakes in the past which have cost us a result, we’re a partnership. I know everybody says it, but we win and lose together.

“The main thing from here is that we go away knowing we have the speed to win and that gives us both plenty of confidence moving forwards.”

McRae was also quick enough to finish near the top at Rally Poland in Round 1, but dropped from the lead after suffering electrical issues.

“Poland was a bit of a tricky start for us,” he continued. “Definitely, we didn’t come in here on the back foot, but we knew we had to put some points down.”

The nephew of rally great Colin McRae will get another chance soon with the Royal Rally of Scandinavia just around the corner on July 7-8, but before that, he’ll take on the Castel Branco Tarmac Rally as part of the Portuguese championship.

TW Neal

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VAN GISBERGEN BEGINS

NASCAR JOURNEY SHANE VAN Gisbergen’s preparation for his NASCAR Cup Series debut is in full swing after he cut his first laps of the Project 91 Camaro on Tuesday.

Three-time Supercars champion van Gisbergen is in America, getting ready for an exciting new challenge that will reach a climax this Monday morning when he represents Trackhouse Racing at the Chicago Street Race.

He is racing the same Project 91 car Kimi Raikkonen drove at the Circuit of the Americas, while another former Formula 1 champion in Jenson Button will also be racing on NASCAR’s new street circuit this weekend.

Van Gisbergen will join the likes of Marcos Ambrose, Dick Johnson, Allan Grice, Owen Kelly, Geoff Brabham and Frank Gardner as former Supercars/ ATCC drivers to go NASCAR Cup Series racing.

The Kiwi enjoyed his first drive of the #91 Chevrolet Camaro at the famous

Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday morning and was buzzing after he jumped out of the car.

“Today was awesome, my first time driving the Project 91 car” van Gisbergen said in a social media post.

“Lots of laps and tired a few things to get a bit more comfortable.

“I am feeling more confident ahead of the weekend.”

Van Gisbergen could not join Trackhouse Racing at a better time after Ross Chastain scored his first win of the 2023 season at Nashville on Monday.

The #1 driver fended off Martin Truex Jr and Denny Hamlin in a tense race-long scrap to claim the Alley 400 with the twotime Bathurst 1000 winner watching on.

There was no time for van Gisbergen to join the celebrations however, as he jetted straight to the home of the Coca-Cola 600.

The test at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first major landmark of a busy

week of adapting to the NASCAR and American way of racing for the Kiwi, who will conduct many simulator sessions before the one and only practice session is held on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking before the Alley 400, Van Gisbergen said every day will be critical as he adjusts to a new method of racing.

“Tomorrow we have got a bit of a short test and that is just to get a feel and make sure I am comfortable in the car and everything is working,” he said.

“Then it is all simulator stuff. I think I get two sessions in the simulator just trying to learn things.

“Then there is also the dynamic of the team with engineers and crew chief and working out how the communication works.

“The strategy is quite different, so I have to do a lot of study on that.

“The pits closed when the yellow comes out. Don’t have a pit speed speedometer and stuff like that, so just trying to

manage that side of the race because it is quite different.”

Whilst van Gisbergen is used to being a winning machine in Supercars, he is keeping an open mind about what is possible in Chicago.

“I don’t really have any (expectations) results wise. I just want to do my best,” he said.

“I have prepared as well as I can and I know the Trackhouse team runs awesome cars.

“There is nothing wrong with the equipment and preparation.

“We are obviously not racing for points, so don’t have to focus on stages and stuff like that and will have to race with respect. There are guys fighting for the championship each week so I will try to stay out of trouble I guess.

“I have no expectations, but if I am prepared the best I can be, we can achieve anything.”

Thomas Miles

HITECH LOOKING TO JUMP TO F1

BRITISH BASED racing team Hitech is a new contender to join the Formula 1 grid in 2026 having submitted an application on Monday.

After selling a 25 percent stake to Kazakh businessman Vladimir Kim, the Silverstone based team officially announced it has lodged an application to join the pinnacle of motorsport in 2026.

Hitech was founded in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle and currently competes in Formula 3, Formula 3, GB3, British Formula 4 and single-seater series in the middle east.

The team is the current home of Australian youngster James Piszcyk, who is currently fifth in the 2023 British Formula 4 Championship with two wins under his belt.

Over the years Hitech has also been

represented by the likes of F1 drivers George Russell, Nikita Mazepin and Max Chilton, plus Formula 2 Aussie Jack Doohan and Kiwi Liam Lawson.

Having provided platforms for promising youngsters to launch to the top level,

Hitech now carries ambitions on racing Formula 1 itself.

In a press release on the new investment, Hitech made it clear that its ambition was a “move (to Formula 1) that would complete its single-seater ladder

and demonstrate that Hitech has all the right people, experience and resources to compete alongside the best teams in the world.”

Hitech is just one of a number of hopefuls to join the Formula 1 grid in 2026.

The most public push has been from America where Andretti Autosport has formed a works partnership with GM/ Cadillac within its application.

Another party to confirm its interest is Formula Equal, headed by former BAR boss Craig Pollock. His team has an even 50-50 split of female and male staff.

Hitech is currently eighth in the Formula 2 constructors championship, but third in Formula 3 with Gabriele Mini victorious at Monaco.

Thomas Miles

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BURDON KEEPS TOP SPOT IN IMSA

DARWIN DELIGHT EXTRA SPECIAL FOR WINTERBOTTOM AND MECHANIC TEAM 18’S first win at the Darwin Triple Crown courtesy of Mark Winterbottom had so many special storylines.

One of those was the bond between Winterbottom and his number one mechanic Josh Williams, who shared their first win together in 4054 days.

Williams started in Supercars at the 2011 Phillip Island 500 as an apprentice mechanic with Ford Performance Racing.

The first car he worked on was Winterbottom’s #5 FG Falcon, which finished the season with a flourish winning on the Gold Coast and Sydney streets.

The pair continued their bond through the 2012 season and across those two years “Frosty” claimed five wins,

but after that successful patch he and Williams went their separate ways.

However, the pair were reunited just six years later when Winterbottom made the high-profile switch from longtime home Tickford to Team 18.

But they would have to wait until 2023 at Hidden Valley for their next win, which was a “full circle” moment for them.

“I have been doing this for 13 years and my first round in Supercars as an apprentice was at Phillip Island in 2011,” Williams said.

“Frosty and Richards were running that race and to come full circle by getting a race win together is pretty cool.”

Williams also gave an insight into the emotions experienced in the Team 18

garage as it rode a “roller coaster” of emotions towards its maiden victory.

“It was pretty crazy because it has been a long time coming for this team,” he said.

“To get out there in the lead on Lap 5 we had to ride the roller coaster for the whole race wondering what was going to happen.

“It was a very surreal feeling to be in the lead for so long and you could see what it meant to the whole team.

“It is the first time Team 18 has built the cars from scratch and everyone has put in so much time and effort.

“It was a massive undertaking for us, so to get that win with our own car and way is something that won’t be repeated for a very long time.”

Thomas Miles

AUSSIE RACER Josh Burdon has kept himself at the top of the IMSA LMP3 table after his team took out victory at the Six Hours of the Glen.

The #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 took top honours from pole position, with Burdon sharing the load with Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga.

Although the team spent much of the race in pursuit of the #30 Jr III Racing Ligier, a bold move from Fraga put the American based Riley technologies outfit into the lead with 50 minutes remaining.

It was Burdon’s third victory in the LMP3 IMSA class, following up from their win at Sebring earlier in the year, and with the Daytona 24 result not counting in the LMP3 championship stakes, that’s two from two for the year.

Burdon crossed to Riley from Andretti Autosport after he took his maiden IMSA win last season at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, whilst he also competed with the team in the Asian Le Mans Series.

With Fraga at the wheel over the closing stint, the Brazilian built an eight second lead after making the bold pass.

“A couple of laps before, I left space for him (#30) and he didn’t leave space for me, so I ran over the curb,” said Fraga.

“The team let me know we had so much race left that I let him go because I thought it was safer. I was driving like crazy for two laps and again at the (Inner Loop) we could pass him.

“We had a very good car but it was very hard to follow today. With the aero, we had so much understeer when we were close. So I’m very happy. I think with Josh and Gar we did a very good job.”

That win gave the team a 124 lead at the top of the table with four rounds remaining, with their next outing coming at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Chevrolet Grand Prix on July 7-9.

Tim W Neal

RICCIARDO DREAMING OF ‘FAIRYTALE’ RED BULL RETURN DANIEL RICCIARDO has revealed he has a dream of finishing his Formula 1 career with a Red Bull renaissance.

Ricciardo is currently spending 2023 on the sidelines as Red Bull’s back up to Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez after losing his McLaren seat following two tough years and is on a sabbatical, but harbours ambitions of returning in 2024.

He has attended a select amount of races for the undefeated team including his home race in Australia where the huge crowd made it clear there is still

lots of love for the “Honey Badger”.

The Aussie will be back behind the wheel of a F1 car at a Silverstone Pirelli tyre test.

But Ricciardo has bigger things in mind and told ESPN returning to Red Bull and potentially reliving famous moments such as Hungary 2014 or Monaco 2018 would be the ultimate “fairytale”.

“This for me would be like a fairytale,” he said.

“Honestly, the fairytale ending (would be) to finish my career here if I could

have it all my own way.

“But we’ll see. I’ll probably have to work my way up a little bit but it’s really nice to be back here.”

Ricciardo enjoyed the recent Canadian Grand Prix from a different viewpoint as a commentator on an alternative ESPN call where he said he was confident of rediscovering his top form.

“I know I can come back as a more complete version of myself,” he said during the broadcast.

Thomas Miles

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LATEST NEWS

24 HOURS OF SPA: AUSSIE GUIDEBOOK THE LEGENDARY Spa 24 Hours kicks off this weekend for its 75th edition, with nine Aussies having made the trek to Belgium for the June 27-July 2 event.

There’s a large contingent of Aussies spread throughout the 79 entries and five classes this year, with all but the Pro field represented in the green and gold, with two Supercars drivers also making the trip to the beautiful Spa Francorchamps.

Most of the drivers are also in with decent chances of podium class success, if not class victory. Here’s your AUTO ACTION guide to the drivers and the teams.

JORDAN LOVE #79 TEAM: Haupt Racing CAR: Mercedes AMG GT3 TEAMMATES: Arjun Maini/Sebastien Baud/Hubert Haupt CLASS: Bronze RICKY CAPO #58 TEAM: GRT Grasser Racing CAR: Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 TEAMMATES: Sam Neary/Fabrizio Crestani/Gerhard Tweraser CLASS: Silver CALAN WILLIAMS #30 TEAM: Team WRT CAR: BMW M4 GT3 TEAMMATES: Jean Baptiste Simmenauer/Niklas Krutten CLASS: Gold

ALEX PERONI #3 TEAM: GetSpeed CAR: Mercedes AMG GT3 Teammates: Patrick Assenheimer/Kennith Heyer/Florian Scholze Class: Bronze CHAZ MOSTER/KENNY HABUL #75 TEAM: SunEnergy1 CAR: Mercedes AMG GT3 TEAMMATES: Martin Konrad/Nicky Catsburg CLASS: Pro Am STEPHEN GROVE/BRENTON GROVE/ ANTON DE PASQUALE #23 TEAM: Grove Racing CAR: Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) TEAMMATES: Earl Bamber (NZ) CLASS: Bronze

For Jordan Love, it’s the third Spa 24 outing for the Mercedes Junior Factory driver, and the WA born Aussie has been doing plenty of racing this season, competing in both the Nurburgring Endurance Series, and the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. “It is the highlight race of the season and I can’t wait to get going. Spa wasn’t so kind to me last year after a comfortable lead in class making it through the night to then be taken out after a small technical issue in the final hours was devastating,” Love said.

“I definitely return this year with some redemption to be made.”

Both Calan Williams and Ricky Capo are

good chances for class podiums and wins, with both drivers having been in good form for their respective teams in the GT World Challenge Endurance and Sprint Cups.

Williams has had a brilliant start to his GT career having got a podium on debut at Monza for WRT in the 6 hour, whilst he then took a victory at the Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch. He’s in a great team with a very fast, consistently reliable M4.

Capo in the meanwhile heads to Spa having had an unlucky outing at Paul Ricard in the new Huracan not getting through.

The team was on target for a second straight class podium after their strong outing at Monza. Whilst they are still learning with the new Huracan, if they can get the car through, they should take to the steps, with Capo being a winning and experienced driver in heavy GT traffic.

Both Stephen and Brenton Grove have good experience at Spa, as does Anton De Pasquale, and along with the always consistent Earl Bamber, they’re a good chance at finishing high in the Bronze category.

The team have experienced the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Kyalami 9 Hour, and Dubai 24 Hour together in 2023, and De Pasquale placed the Porsche into P2 in a practice session at Spa earlier in the year.

“It’s a long and challenging race with over 70 GT cars that always have weather challenges over the 24 hours. It is great to be joined by Brenton, Anton and Earl – all extremely capable drivers, and I look

forward to working with Earl Bamber Motorsport,” Stephen Grove said.

Kenny Habul and Chaz Mostert are a good chance in the Pro Am category, with Habul and his SunEnergy1 Mercedes carrying some fantastic GT form into this year’s event.

Habul of course won the Bathurst 12 Hour outright earlier in the year, whilst Mostert took the class Pro Am victory at the same event in an Audi.

Alex Peroni heads to his first Spa 24 Hours this year with the German GetSpeed team, with the former F3 driver still getting the swing of the GT scene after a tough start on the endurance side of the scale.

Peroni was unlucky to not get much seat time at Monza in the GT World Challenge Europe after the team bowed out early after contact, and again at Paul Ricard with the #3 Mercedes pulling the pin after 45 laps...being in the highest represented Bronze field, Peroni will have a tough fight on his hands to get on the steps.

Action will kick-off on Thursday with free practice one at 11:20 (CEST), prequalifying at 18:10, qualifying at 21:20 and night practice at 23:00.

Friday will see the superpole session at 15:35, followed by the warm up at 20:35 as the competitors will look to make their final preparations for Saturday’s highly anticipated racing action.

The green flag will drop at 16:30 on Saturday afternoon with 24 hours of non-stop action lying ahead before the chequered flag on Sunday.

BIG PERIOD OF RACING AWAITS FOR F2 AND F3 HOPEFULS AFTER A month away a busy period on classic European tracks awaits for the Australian Formula 2 and 3 drivers with the first challenge this weekend.

Both high-profile single-seater categories enter the second half of their 2023 seasons at Austria this weekend.

After that the races come thick and fast with four races within a month at Spielberg, Silverstone, Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps.

In Formula 2 Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan hopes the back end of the year will be much more productive than the first half.

Doohan currently sits 12th in the standings having scored points in both the Sprint and Feature races of the same weekend just twice.

However, the latest arrived at the last round in Spain after the Aussie and Virtuosi Racing believed they found a breakthrough at the earlier in-season test at the same venue.

In Barcelona Doohan recorded P5 and P6 results which were his two best finishes of the season.

The son of Mick Doohan has mixed memories of the Red Bull Ring, finishing third in last year’s Sprint before dropping to 19th the following day.

At the top end of town, Frederic Vesti hopes to extend his 11-point advantage over Theo Pourchaire.

In Formula 3, Campos Racing’s Christian Mansell is the only driver of the Aussie trio to get points on the board so far.

After a dream point debut on home turf at Melbourne, the latest occasion Mansell finished in the top 10 was last time out at Catalunya.

This was achieved after a comeback drive from 16th which left the Newcastle bred driver believing he had made “inroads” which he looks to build upon in Austria.

Mansell has raced at Spielberg once last year in the Euroformula Open Championship where he finished second in the first race and did not finish outside of the top five all weekend.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith is 22nd in the championship with a best result of 15th achieved on the streets of Monte Carlo.

Smith admitted Spain was “not our weekend” as he finished 18th and 23rd in both races.

He has raced at the Red Bull Ring twice in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2021, but battled with

26th his only finish.

Sitting one spot ahead of Smith in the championship is Melbourne’s Hugh Barter.

Despite enduring a “tough start” to his Formula 3 career, Barter is looking to rebound in Austria.

The Australian did make some solid progress in Sunday’s Feature race at Barcelona to finish 13th after crossing the line 19th in the Sprint.

Barter is full of optimism as sets his sights on Spielberg.

“It has been a tough start to the year.

Nonetheless it has been a great experience so far and we are working hard to get some better results,” he said.

“I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming race at the renowned Red Bull Ring this weekend, where I hope to have a chance to compete and, with a stroke of luck, secure valuable points for my team.

“I am filled with excitement as I look forward to the opportunity to showcase my skills on this iconic track and contribute to our overall success.”

Practice for both Formula 2 and 3 begins on Friday night.

Thomas Miles

MILLER ENJOYS ‘UNREAL’ START TO SEASON JACK MILLER enters the summer break happy after an ‘unreal’ first eight rounds of the 2023 MotoGP world championship.

Miller sits seventh in the standings after a difficult Dutch TT where he started strong, but struggled to replicate his Friday pace as the weekend unfolded.

After being third fastest in practice, the KTM rider experienced a “small vibration” issue in qualifying and had to deal with a P12 starting spot.

The Aussie struggled to make progress in the Sprint, finishing 11th, but was on fire at the start of his 200th Grand Prix.

Miller climbed up four spots on the opening lap alone until disaster struck on the first corner of the second lap.

“I mean, that is not exactly the way I wanted to celebrate my 200th Grand Prix start. I wanted more than one lap!” Miller wrote on his website.

“I got a decent start and put the move on ‘Vinny’ (Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales) into the last corner, and he came back at me at Turn 1.

“I thought he was going wide, so I tried to cut back under, but asked a little bit too much of the front-end and away she went.

“I held a couple of degrees more lean angle at the apex to square it up and was

just trying to slice and dice at that point in time, and it wasn’t to be.”

What makes the crash even more frustrating for Miller is his belief that a special result could have been possible.

He felt KTM had “found something” on race day morning which was a source of optimism after the “disaster” of Saturday.

Reflecting on the opening eight races of the season, Miller was extremely upbeat.

How the Australian would transition from reigning world champions Ducati to KTM was an unknown, but they have shown enough flashes of brilliance to create excitement for the road ahead.

His 2023 season has been an up and down one, but there have been big highs such as Saturday and Sunday podiums at Jerez, plus a further Sprint trophy in Germany.

Miller also displayed strong pace at Texas and France before incidents got in the way.

The 28-year-old said he feels KTM has proven a lot of critics wrong during a strong start to the season where it has established itself as the second fastest bike behind the all-conquering Ducati.

“It’s been an unreal start to my time here at KTM,” Miller said.

“We’ve had a bike fighting there every weekend, whether that’s myself, Brad or even (GasGas rider) Augusto (Fernandez).

“I’ve had two sprint race podiums and a main race podium and we’ve been challenging the majority of the time. We definitely can be very happy with what the bike is doing, and it feels like KTM is definitely on the right path.

“If you’d said last year when I signed for

KTM that we would be in this position now, the majority of people would have probably been laughing if you’d said that we’d be the only ones at this point really challenging the Ducatis.

“But we’re working extremely hard and keeping the right mindset and attitude.”

MotoGP takes a break before returning at Silverstone on August 4-6.

Thomas Miles

LATEST NEWS

MCLAREN ENTER THREE-STAGE-AERO FIX

MCLAUGHLIN SAYS SVG CAN WIN IN CHICAGO SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN believes his old nemesis and now best buddy, Shane van Gisbergen, can win on the streets of Chicago this weekend.

Speaking exclusively to AUTO ACTION in Charlotte, the three-time Supercar champion and now IndyCar driver says his fellow Kiwi has all the tools to take the race.

“It’s really cool. I’m really excited for him at this opportunity in NASCAR,” McLaughlin said from the Bristol Room at Team Penske.

“I think he’s going to kill it. Honestly, I think he’s going to turn a few heads.

I think he could potentially win the race.

“I hope he just kills it because he’s one of the best drivers in the world,

one of the best guys I’ve ever raced against, and to now call him a friend is really cool.”

McLaughlin added that he thinks van Gisbergen would be competitive in the NASCAR Cup Series if he made the move, but he doesn’t know where the reigning champ’s head is at with leaving Australia.

“Some people don’t like living away from home or being too far away, so I don’t know what he’d do. I could see him doing it [NASCAR] for a couple of years and then going home.

“I’m different because I’ve got my wife, Carly, and she’s from America.

So that’s why I see the end game of being here. But I could also see the other side of him just coming over

for a few years and then going back.

Because there’s always that option for either of us.”

He said he will have a chat with van Gisbergen over dinner tomorrow night in Charlotte before they head to different parts of the US for their racing this weekend, van Gisbergen in Chicago and McLaughlin at Lexington in Ohio.

As part of a bigger interview for Auto Action’s print edition, McLaughlin said he is settled in Charlotte and can’t see himself ever leaving. He and Carly are now house owners, but he says it is way too early to think about life after racing with championships and the Indy 500 yet to win.

Andrew Clarke

THE MCLAREN F1 team heads to Austria this weekend with its first aero surface package change, which will turn Into a near complete overhaul by Budapest.

After the Azerbaijan GP saw the team use its revised floor and rear wing package, Andrea Stella has indicated that Austria, Silverstone and Budapest will witness a nearly total overhaul of its current aero surfaces.

“Most of the upgrades we will see over the course of the following events, so there will be a major overhaul of the car that will be delivered across Austria, UK and Hungary,” Stella said, with the majority of that change expected to come at the Red Bull Ring.

“At the start of the season, we realised that the car needed a fundamental redesign, so this redesign is actually interesting.

“I would say pretty much every single aerodynamic part will be changed…that’s why the upgrades will be spread over the course of a few races. It will be decently noticeable.

“We had to redesign even some parts under the bodywork. That’s also why it took some time to be in condition to deliver these upgrades. I would say pretty much the entire car.”

After Oscar Piastri again fell just shy of the points in Canada, he’s looking forward to getting a feel of the new aero package, and he says the team is pretty positive about what’s to come.

“Hopefully, it’s faster. That’s obviously the plan. I think we’re positive and optimistic about the new package we’ve got coming for Austria and Silverstone.

“We’ll have to wait and see but I’m looking forward to firstly driving it in the sim when I have the chance and then obviously on the real track too.”

The young Aussie will also be heading into his second F1 Sprint, which means like Baku, the team will only have the one Free Practice session in which to get a feel for the new aero.

“I quite enjoyed the new Sprint format in Baku, so I’m looking forward to experiencing that again this weekend and hopefully bring back some points for the team.”

Stella concludes that the new package will equate to more tenths shaved off the lap times, which bodes well for both Lando Norris and Piastri, who have been putting in some decent qualifying efforts of late.

“I’m banking on this package…across three races in which we will introduce it, it should be a few tenths of a second (difference) - it will be noticeable from a lap time point of view.”

The Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring will take place this weekend, July 30-June 2, with the action to get underway this Friday at 9:30pm (AEST), followed by race Qualifying and the Sprint Shootout on the Saturday and 8pm and 1230am (Sunday) with the feature race kicking off at 11pm.

TW Neal

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INTERNATIONAL AUSSIES

WEBSTER’S GB4 CHARGE CONTINUES COOPER WEBSTER has scored a brilliant double along with a podium sweep in the latest GB4 Championship round.

After netting his first European victory in Race 1, the young S5000 charger from Victoria took a P2 in the second outing before coming from P11 to secure a sensational weekend double at Snetterton in England’s East.

After scoring a double pole, Webster would go on to claim his seventh straight podium to move to second on the table behind Tom Mills, and created a gap to third where his ever-present American rival Colin Queen sits.

As well as giving the Aussie-run Evans GP its first taste of European victory, he

also set a record for most consecutive podiums, whilst making it nine for the year in 12 outings.

“That was a good race, I drove really well. The key to getting to the lead was getting through the field quickly,” The Evans GP racer said after Race 3.

“I had to pull off some moves that I haven’t pulled off in this car before and I tried it and it worked and it worked for the whole race.

“It was tough – the first couple of laps I made contact with another driver and I made contact trying to pass for the lead so it wasn’t easy but it was so much fun.

“It wasn’t so much patience, it was just hard to follow and Aditya (Kulkarni) was

quite fast. I did my best and then he made a mistake and I went for it and it worked out good. I’m not counting podiums but everyone tells me seven in row is the record but I’ll try not to think about that!”

With nine races to come, Webster is a legitimate chance at a championship in his maiden overseas campaign – as well as balancing his S5000 duties in Australia, although he will miss the next national round due to commitments at Silverstone.

The GB4 field heads back to the Silverstone GP circuit on the July 29-30, where last time out the Vic F4 young gun scored a podium before having to retire from the front of the field in the finale.

TW Neal

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

GILL’S DREAM RALLY STAR DEBUT TAYLOR GILL and co-driver Dan Brkic have scored a sensational win in their first European FIA Rally Star event at the Rally San Marino.

The win gives the pair the perfect start in their bid to qualify for the Junior WRC field in 2024, with Gill not only topping the table in a great battle with Romet Jurgenson, but finishing P10 overall out of 45 finishers.

The 19-year-old from Newcastle – Australia’s youngest ever ARC Production Cup winner in 2022 – won the Pacific division of the FIA Rally Star to get to Europe, giving him a direct opportunitypathway to the Junior WRC. After topping the Rally3 table on Day one by 2.6s in his first rally on European soil, Gill and Brkic then went onto to secure a comfortable 4:13.7s victory over Peru’s Caparo Jose Abito following the retirement of the highly rated Estonian, Jurgenson, who was keeping at Gill’s heels.

The pair also achieved an overall top-10, which is an effort which can’t be underestimated on debut against seasoned rally drivers who know and have had experience on the San Marino course.

“It was an amazing feeling to get this result and it was just so good that after all the months of preparation that involved

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moving overseas, everything came together,” Gill said.

“With that said, it was a bit hard to know how we would go as we didn’t know much about the people we were up against, but I knew Romet would be fast and our times were very close together.

“The result gives us good confidence and gives us a good idea about where we sit and what we can improve on.”

They eventually finished 2m:08.1s off the overall benchmark in the Ford Fiesta Rally3, with the outright Italian winners driving a much faster Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo and the next Rally Star team down in P20.

Gill’s next FIA Rally Star outing comes in Austria, with the field switching to Tarmac at the Rallye Weiz on July 13-15.

TW Neal

HUGHES KEEPS USF2000 LEAD

LOCHIE HUGHES has continued his fantastic USF2000 campaign with a Race 2 victory at Road America in Wisconsin.

After taking Race 1 pole, Hughes suffered mechanical issues before a penalty saw him drop outside the top-ten, but he hit back in Race 2 from P3 taking a 0.627s win over Mac Clark and Max Garcia.

The win enabled him to hold the championship lead after his closet rival Simon Sikes took out Race 1, with Hughes holding a slender 3 point margin with plenty on the line for the championship winner to the tune of a US$433,200 scholarship into the third tier USF Pro Indy Feeder.

“It was a pretty good race. I was able to jump up to second at the start before the Safety Cars,” the Jay Howard Driver Development driver said.

“I got a great restart and just sent it around the outside of Mac. I wasn’t sure how much grip there would be with the resurface but I thought stuff it, go for it.

“I was in the lead and then another safety car again, but I got a good restart and managed to hold the lead.

“Then it was just about trying to break the tow which I couldn’t really do so Mac was always right there. It was critical to make no mistakes and just hold the gap I had and win the race and that’s what I did.”

Next up for the USF2000 series is a trip to the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio on June 30-July 1.

Hughes has eight more races standing between him and another victorious leap up the Indy Feeder ladder following his dominant F4US Championship in 2022.

TW Neal

MCFADDEN TOUGHING IT OUT IN CAREER BEST YEAR AUSSIE SPRINTCAR star James McFadden has continued what can only be described as a bipolar World of Outlaws season, with some career best highs, some big lows, and some on par middling stats.

His recent weekend at Huset’s speedway in South Dakota was the perfect example, highlighted by his $20,000 victory on Night 2 of the High Bank Nationals.

Night 1 saw him miss the A Main Final, before topping his 40th Career Heat, then getting the best of David Gravel in an entertaining tussle for his fourth win of the season – holding the series frontrunner off with superior wide positioning on the closing lap.

He then missed the Night 3 final, before finishing P20 in the $250,000 finale, which Gravel took out.

In his third full season his previous best was two victories, which he’s eclipsed with plenty of races left.

Earlier in the year, an extremely lean patch of four straight P13 or worse finishes was snapped by a victory at Devils Bowl, before some consistent runs had him seventh in the standings with two wins.

Roth Motorsports and the NT star were then banned for four races for using an illegal substance on McFadden’s tyre, and the Aussie was stripped of a massive 500 series points, which leaves him little hope of a top-10 series finish (it’s an incredibly long season though!).

Since the ban he’s retaliated big time, with two victories and nine straight top-tens in 12 races.

“After last night (Night 1), I was contemplating if I could drive a SprintCar anymore,” McFadden said harshly of himself.

“I didn’t do a very good job. I couldn’t figure out whether I wasn’t comfortable or it was me not doing my job right. We worked hard. I felt really good all night, and it shows. These deals are tough to win, so anytime you can win one is great.”

Although he sits 14th on the table after his crippling point deduction, his recent form (minus the four races he didn’t race) would have him pushing the top six, with his average finish after 27 races putting him at 9.26, which is nearly on par with rival Sheldon Haudenschild who’s in sixth place with only slightly better stats and two less wins.

TW Neal

PISZCYK LEADS THE PACK AT SILVERSTONE PATIENCE HAS been the key for HiTech GP racer James Piszcyk, and he arrived at Silverstone for the Round 6 of the British F4 Championship with some wind in his sails.

The young Aussie took a sensational lights-to-flag win at the Silverstone GP closer, after a P3 in the opener following his second pole position of the year.

The results were visibly on the up prior to his first win of the season at Thruxton, as the results gradually climbed higher into the top-10 as he figured his way around the Tatuus T-421 machinery with plenty of time behind the wheel.

Jimmy P was under pressure the entire race from teammate and championship leader Will Macintyre, as he also led home a HiTech-Pulse Eight podium sweep, taking the chequered flag by 0.937s in a tight but controlled finish.

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“Absolutely outrageous, a 1-2-3 for the team, what more could you ask for,” said an elated Piszcyk after the race.

“Such a great race, lights to flag … oh man! I got the jump at the start and I conserved my pace and kept calm.

Couldn’t be happier moving into the summer break.”

That win sees the former Formula Ford Australia ace move into sixth place in the standings in a tight pack that has just 19 points between him and third place.

NZ young gun Louis Sharp also managed a Podium on the weekend, as he sits in second place, 28 points off the lead.

The British F4 series next heads to Croft Circuit in the hills of North Yorkshire on July 29-30.

TW Neal

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Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

LISLE BECOMES FIRST TRIPLE WINNER OF ’23 NOAH LISLE added to a weekend of Aussie success at Silverstone in the British F4, by becoming the season’s first triple winner.

Lisle took out the reverse grid Race 2 at the famous circuit, and aside from two podiums, it’s been relatively win or bust for the young 16-year-old Rodin Carlin racer.

Juggling his season between the British F4 and Spanish F4, a series clash had him choose Silverstone, and that choice proved the right one.

Lisle started in P7, and quickly moved up into P3 before the half-way mark.

The podium looked settled before leader Jack Sherwood experienced mechanical issues, bringing out a yellow flag.

At the resumption, Lisle harangued the leader in Smith before slinging into the lead with 3 minutes remaining, taking the win by 0.570s.

“It would have been nice to have done better in qualifying, but it’s pretty good

consolidation for me to come back for a win.” Lisle said.

“It was a really tricky race to manage the tyres, but I took the opportunities when they came and I made the most of it.

“It was just a case of consistency and waiting for the chances to come, couldn’t be happier.”

Despite his three wins, Lisle sits eighth in the championship heading to Croft Circuit, and 18 points shy of Race 3 winner and fellow Aussie James Piszcyk in sixth.

Elsewhere around the world in F4 news, young Lewis Hodgson took out his first podiums of the year in the F4 US Championship, taking two P3s at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. A consistent year of top-10s sees him sixth in the championship, below Aussie Jesse Lacey in third, as he went his first round without a podium, but captured three top-tens.

TW Neal

www.autoaction.com.au I 21

LATEST NEWS

MR 24 HOURS STRIKES AGAIN

LIKE MANY DRIVERS, WINNING AT LE MANS STARTS WITH A CHILDHOOD DREAM. AUSSIE RACER JAMES ALLEN HAS NOT ONLY ACHIEVED IT, BUT RE-LIVED IT, AT THE HISTORIC CENTENNIAL EVENT. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS JAMES ALLEN and the Algarve Pro Racing (APR) team were near flawless in achieving back-to-back LMP2 Pro Am class wins at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Melbournian took on the challenge of the two-peat with new American teammates George Kurtz and Colin Braun.

The Aussie LMP2 regular made it twofrom-two in the world’s biggest 24 Hour races in 2023 after his incredible Daytona photo finish earlier in the year, where he ironically beat an APR ORECA to the line by 0.016s driving for Proton Competition.

On June 10-11, their dominant five-lap victory over Pro Am class rivals COOL Racing also saw the team take its fifth ever WEC win, giving APR the best current LMP2 Pro Am class record.

There is also the consideration that it may be the final appearance of the LMP2 Pro Am class at Le Mans, with a smaller prototype contingent slated for next year’s event following the categories axing from the WEC circuit.

Starting from P2 in the class, the team survived a myriad of battles including a brief late scare with their #45 ORECA going off track but pulling up short of the wall to rejoin, still holding a comfortable lead.

Prior to the race, Allen spoke of the opportunity as a once in a lifetime chance.

“Not everyone gets to race at the one hundredth anniversary of any race … so it’s

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James soaks up the Le Mans podium (top) and at speed in the APR car ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES definitely a huge thing for me.

“I’d always wanted to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a kid, so to be here at the centennial is quite an amazing thing to experience.”

Following the win, he spoke about the team environment, the atmosphere, and the achievement.

“The 24 Hours of Le Mans is always a pretty special event, but particularly this year with it being the centenary.

“This is the third time I’ve been on the podium and the second time I’ve won, and it’s always amazing to see the entire pit straight full of people from the top step. It’s really impressive.

“This is the first time I’ve ever worked with George (Kurtz) and Colin (Braun), but I was really impressed with both of them when

we first tested together at Monza.

“They adapted well to the new aero kit and tyres on the LMP2 car. As a result, we hit the ground running and got everything sorted out quickly here at Le Mans, and it soon felt like our race to throw away.”

Allen took the treacherous first stint in the #45 APR, choosing to stay out as long as possible before pitting, leaving the team with a solid starting position.

He then put the car into a class P2 over his next stint, and was consistently matching lap times with the LMP2 leader into the night time hours.

The team’s hot pursuit of P1 was put on hold when it was forced to replace an Accident Data Recorder at around midnight.

They then assumed P1 after surviving the night unscathed, when the #80 AF Corse

car took terminal damage in a high-speed collision with the barrier at the Porsche Curves – Allen would take over with the car in a comfortable P1 with nine hours to run.

They were never headed after that, and after 322 laps an historic victory was recorded as the biggest ever winning class margin.

Team Principal Stewart Cox described some ins-and-outs of the incredible achievement, describing APR’s well prepared approach as its key to victory.

“It’s a remarkable achievement to take the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Pro-Am two years on the trot, and the way the race was managed by the team and drivers was critical to our success,” Cox said.

“I can’t fault our attention-to-detail this week; we worked hard with track walks, incident and data analysis, and by learning how the car feels at every stage of the day and night, in all conditions.

“Our pace and overtakes were managed, our guys were kept fully informed of incidents and other drivers’ mistakes, we had people on pushbikes reporting the weather in various locations, because the strategy was to simply keep the car on the track.”

Allen remains in France and returns to action with APR in the LMP2 Pro field in the European Le Mans series at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet on July 16.

Will Ford have to fight the same battles to be competitive in the international GT3 category?

FORD’S PATIENCE IS BEING TESTED SUPERCARS INSIDERS ARE SEEMINGLY BLIND TO THE BIGGER PICTURE, WRITES AA’S COLUMNIST

HEAVEN HELP Supercars if a Ford Mustang doesn’t win the Bathurst 1000 this year. That’s the conclusion I’ve reached after another winless event for the Gen3 ’Stang in Darwin and another round of denials from the Camaro camp that there’s a parity issue.

It’s clear now to anyone with their eyes and minds open that the Mustang drivers are having to overdrive the car compared to the Camaro steerers. This, of course, leads to mistakes and the opposition then claiming Ford teams are not doing a good enough job.

It’s a repeat of the Falcon AU era, 1999 to 2002, when Holden teams and their mouthpieces successfully argued Ford teams weren’t doing a good enough job. The PR campaign was so successful that the status quo was maintained and Commodores won all four Bathurst 1000s and all four V8 Supercars titles in that period.

Virtually every time you turned on the TV for race coverage,

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REVVED UP the RPM magazine program – remember “RPM, 2pm, Network Ten”? – or the V8 Superstars chat show, there was Holden Racing Team driver Mark Skaife telling viewers the Ford teams needed to lift their game. Greg Murphy too.

The current situation whereby a Mustang is yet to cross the finishline first is history repeating itself.

Except these days Skaife is a category bigwig, a play-by-play television commentator and the co-host of the Foxsports/Kayo coverage. I’m picking up the same messages.

Okay, I guess those from the Camaro Gen3 side of the fence are just doing their jobs. I won’t say GM side of the fence as General Motors is merely the IP supplier. There’s effectively only one OEM involved boots-andall in Supercars these days and that’s Ford. But for how long if it continues to get shafted for its efforts?

Last issue on this page I drew attention to the unveiling of

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Ford’s Mustang GT3 challenger at Le Mans, which will tackle the 24 in ’24 and many other events besides, including the Bathurst 12 Hour, probably from 2025. I made the point that, as I watched Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook launch the GT3 ’Stang, I couldn’t help wonder why the Blue Oval bothers with its Supercars involvement? And at what point will Ford tire of fighting the parity battle and of being the token opposition in Australia?

With its brand new and globally relevant productionbased GT3 racecar coming on stream – which looks very similar to the Gen3 version and will race at the same track, when might FP consider the endless Gen3 politicking to be a misuse of company resources and a distraction? Surely Rushbrook now has bigger fish to fry.

Ford has an all-in approach to motorsport. It’s currently in WRC, NASCAR and NHRA drag racing and has

already announced its future involvement in Formula 1 (as power unit supplier to Red Bull from 2026), the aforementioned Le Mans, IMSA and the other top GT3 events. Most recently it announced a rally raid program (Dakar Rally) with its top-selling Ranger model. Then there’s its electric SuperVan demonstrator which ran at the Pikes International Hillclimb last weekend and this coming week’s reveal of the GT4 Mustang at Spa. That’s a full dance card!

Those in Supercars’ pitlane with their heads up their backsides and blind to what else is going outside their narrow little world, should consider that Ford Performance could easily trim its Gen3 program in Australia. This would barely cause a ripple for Ford with its extensive suite of programs but would create a tsunami in Supercars.

Roland Dane is clearly a smart man, so I’d have to think he’s considered that Ford might just pull the pin on its Supercars involvement at some stage. Roland has a wider view of proceedings, but I’m not so sure about others in pitlane.

Maybe these myopic folk should pop their heads outside their Supercars bubble and have a look around.

The motorsport world is changing oh-so quickly, with technology allowing race fans to access a global village. The motorsport I consume now (Indycar, IMSA, WEC, classic GT3 events) is very different to what I watched even five years ago. Streaming allows me to pick and choose the very best racing globally and I invest less time into categories that have jumped the shark. Or categories where the feeding frenzy detracts from fair competition.

Ford’s stated issue with Gen3 is a lack of data and a lack of transparency. No one knows how the cars compare because data is not being shared. It has prevented variances between the cars being identified.

Perhaps Supercars insiders should ponder if the series could survive if Ford pulled its factory backing and its permission for its IP to be used in the category. Could the category survive if it was a one-make series with a grid comprising only Camaros?

Maybe that’s RACE’s masterplan? Avoid parity issues by just running the Camaro and pack 24 of them into a plane to race overseas.

Who knows.

What I do know is that Ford’s patience is being severely tested right now.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

IS JENSON BUTTON CADILLAC BOUND?

JENSON BUTTON has signalled his intentions to return to full-time racing in 2024, citing that sporadic appearances haven’t been cutting it satisfaction-wise.

The 2009 Formula 1 world champion has been keeping himself busy with NASCAR commitments this year, which included racing the Garage 56 Hendrick Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller.

That deal led Button into signing a threerace deal with Rick Ware Racing where he first raced at COTA, and will also appear at Chicago on July 2 (alongside Shane van Gisbergen) and again the Indianapolis Road Course.

Button has signalled his intentions to join either IMSA or the WEC racing in the new LMH or LMDh Hypercars, and has hinted that he may be leaning on NASCAR CEO Jim France for the opportunity … France is also the owner of the Action Express Cadillac (AXR) IMSA GTP team.

“Who knows what could happen in the future, whether it’s WEC, IMSA, but I’ll definitely be leaning on Jim France a little for that,” Button teased.

“I didn’t think that I’d want to do a full season again, but I feel that I’ll be racing in something next year doing the full season.

“It’s great doing one-off races but you don’t get the best out of yourself … so, yes, I want to do a full season next year.

“It will be endurance racing, which will be either IMSA or WEC.” AXR currently runs a single entry Cadillac V-Series.R in IMSA alongside the two factory teams, with Cadillac also keen on putting two of its new LMDh into a full WEC campaign to have a better chance of winning Le Mans.

TW Neal

HYUNDAI ELEVATES FLYING FINNS THE HYUNDAI WRC team has made the decision to recruit Finnish rally drivers Teemu Suninen and Emil Lindholm into its ranks as a dual replacement for the late Craig Breen.

The Korean manufacturer let some time pass following the tragic death of the Irishman in Croatia in April of this year, and now they’ve announced two highly capable and very fast companions for Spaniard Dani Sordo in the third Rally1 i20N. The move is coupled as part of the teams revived Hyundai Motorsport Driver development Programme, with Lindholm being the WRC2 defending champion.

He makes the switch from his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo, and will complete the remaining WRC2 season in an i20N Rally2.

Suninen, who also competes in the WRC2 in a Hyundai Rally2, will get to feature in two home WRC rallies to start out with, whilst Lindholm’s schedule is still kept under wraps.

The 29-year-old’s first will be at Rally Estonia on July 20-23 - the country he currently calls home - before a true home WRC round in Finland in early August.

Suninen is well suited to the fast gravel roads in his home regions, with followers of the WRC to recall

his stellar performances for Ford between 2018-2020, where he achieved three WRC podiums. He came within a hair’s breadth of pulling off a shock win in Sardinia after his astounding speed through the highly technical Tempio Pausania Stage, outpacing the world’s best by over a second.

As a past regular stage winner with an ability to pull off extraordinary speed, Suninen’s return will be a welcome addition for fans, whilst Lindholm, at 26-years-old, is in turn considered by Hyundai to be a future title challenger.

TW Neal

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

TIFOSI LINE THE CITTA DI MARANELLO STREETS

IT’S BEEN a long time coming, but the city of Maranello has celebrated the first 24 Hours of Le Mans Victory in 58 years.

Whilst the sense of occasion was enormous at the Circuit de la Sarthe on June 11, the team got to keep the party rolling with its traditional winners’ parade at the manufacturer’s spiritual home, with both Hypercars rolling out of the historic factory gates (the Abetone Inferiore).

As tradition dictates, the winning #51 499P LMDh Hypercar carried the wear and tear it had picked up at the famous 24 hour French race, whilst the pole sitting #50 had received a nice wash for its P5 effort.

The winning drivers, Italians Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi, and British racer James Calado soaked in the applause, with Guidi behind the wheel and the other two sporting the Prancing Horse flag and the chequered flag.

As tradition also dictates at the Maranello factory, the entire quota of

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staff surrounded the cars within the gates where Ferrari chairman John Elkann dedicated the victory to them with the trophy present, before the two Hypercars

rolled out of the Abetone Inferiore.

The morning was then spent with the cheering Tifosi lining the streets in red and yellow attire as the cars passed the

Attivita Sportive GT and travelled into the city centre.

The celebrations for the Italian team aren’t over yet, with the next WEC round (as if by design) to take place at the Temple of Speed for the 6 Hours of Monza on July 6, where the Tifosi will turn out in force to see if the 499Ps can perhaps dream to achieve its next objective and win the WEC title.

Ferrari’s last top class endurance title was in 1972, the year before the manufacturer pulled the plug on its endurance program. It was then called the World Sportscar Championship.

Aussie Tim Schenken won two races for the Scuderia that year, in Buenos Aires and the Nurburgring.

The #51 team sit just 25 points in arrears of the leading #8 Toyota, whilst Ferrari also sit just 19 points behind the Japanese brand in the Manufacturers title.

TW Neal

REUNIONS AT LE MANS

KEN DOUGLAS IS THE LAST PERSON YOU WOULD EXPECT TO BUMP INTO AT LE MANS ...

HE’S A one-time production car racer in a Ford Falcon, then a prime mover for a time at MoTec, and has also been a key player in the back of the Triple Eight garage doing number crunching through the Bathurst 1000.

Yet, here is is, doing 24-Hour strategy for the WRT team which has starred for Audi at the Bathurst 12-Hour and will become BMW’s GTE spearhead in season 2024, after racing this year in the LMP2 category of the World Endurance Championship.

Ken’s hair is whiter, and he looks a little tired, but his enthusiasm is the same as always.

Over there is Rod Jane, racing a Carrera Cup Porsche on the 24Hour support program. Because he can.

David Brabham, a former Le Mans winner with Peugeot, is also in the Paddock and promising a re-boot of his Brabham supercar project. But he’s more excited about taking a ride in the Goodyear blimp.

It’s no surprise to find Mark Rushbrook on the Ford stand at the top of the Le Mans’ paddock, unveiling the all-new look for Ford Performance as well as the Mustang GT3 the company will be racing – starting at Le Mans – in 2024. He is backed by a lineup of motorsport heavyweights from NASCAR, IMSA and even Multimatic, which once had an outpost in Melbourne and has just completed the GT3 build.

Later, this is the opportunity for a quick catch-up on the Supercars’ situation – nothing for quoting – on a chance encounter behind the pits.

“I’m late for a meeting. You’ll

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE have to walk along. Fast,” Rushbrook, a serious fitness fanatic, told me.

A day later, just across from the Ford Performance display, there is another chance encounter.

This time it’s Hayley, the better half of Ryan Walkinshaw. And there he is, also not for quoting on Supercars, but happy to be spending time with Zac Brown’s United Autosports in the LMP2 paddock.

Other Aussie-connected notables at Le Mans include Mark Reuss, the one-time CEO of Holden and now the president of General Motors.

He’s a keen fan of motorsport, happy to watch the Cadillac crew fight for victory and cheer the NASCAR enlivening the Le Mans soundtrack with its bellowing V8.

Ryan Briscoe, who lives in the USA after a top-class career that took him to the top of IndyCar and gave him test-driver time with the Toyota team in Formula One, is part of the Glickenhaus private team competing for the big prize at Le Mans. Things don’t start well when the car has a gearbox leak, but the Briscoe car starts from the pitlane, and he helps it to seventh overall with Romain Dumas.

It’s Dumas who has created a unique niche as an electric prototype driver, first with the Volkswagen ID.R that won at

Pikes Peak, and now with Ford – under Rushbrook – with the Supervan 4 that will tackle the Colorado hillclimb this year.

“I don’t think we can win. We’re too big and heavy. But we’ve been testing and it’s going well,” Dumas told me.

Briscoe looks fitter than ever, even with 40 in his rearview mirror, as he had been preparing to compete in the Boston Marathon. But then came the Glickenhaus deal and he had to make other plans.

“I’m doing an Olympic-length triathlon,” he said.

Just over a week later came news of Briscoe’s result. He was second, not in the old-timer ranks, but overall …

Mark Webber is in the Porsche compound and driving one of its Le Mans winners – the 936 – in the pre-race parade, and so too is Matt Campbell.

The youngster is happy to chat but has limited time because he has to leave before the race starts. He has testing in the USA in the latest Porsche 963, which fails to star at Le Mans but has given him a second place at Le Mans in this year’s IMSA championship.

Campbell is clearly disappointed to be sitting on the sidelines at Le Mans – Porsche and Penske have 10 drivers and only nine seats – but he knows

Ryan Walkinshaw and Hayley. his time will come.

“You never know, next year my opportunity will come,” he said.

Campbell had hoped to be back in Australia for the Bathurst 1000 with Grove Racing alongside David Reynolds, until Porsche dropped him into a conflicting contest in the USA. But he is happy, and focussed, and was happy to talk for more than an hour about life, racing, Porsche and his career.

“I’m with Porsche until the end of 2025. I’m happy in sports cars,” he said.

“I’m at the point in my career now where I always wanted to be. I’m racing a the top level of sports car and endurance racing around the world.

“I’m happy with my performances and what I’ve achieved. But I want more. I’m

not satisfied yet.”

He has to rush, so our catch-up is over, but there are plenty of other people to see, including ace photographer Andrew ‘Skippy’ Hall, Bathurst statistician David Greenhalgh and even Marino Franchitti, brother of the IndyCar ace Dario and James Courtney’s best mate.

“See you back here next year, maybe,” he signs off ... like everyone else in the Le Mans’ family.

SVEN BURCHARTZ LIVES MOTORSPORTS LAWYER AND PARTNER

Know your position.

sburchartz@kkilawyers.com.au • Teams • Series owners • Manufacturers

T +613 8825 4800 kkilawyers.com.au

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PUBLISHER

Bruce Williams bruce@autoaction.com.au 0418 349 555 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Bruce Williams STAFF JOURNALIST Timothy W. Neal STAFF JOURNALIST Thomas Miles NEWS EDITOR Andrew Clarke FEATURES WRITER Paul Gover SENIOR ART DIRECTOR/PRODUCTION Caroline Garde SENIOR DESIGNER Neville Wilkinson NATIONAL EDITOR Thomas Miles HISTORICS EDITOR Mark Bisset SPEEDWAY REPORTER Paris Charles ONLINE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AUSTRALIA Josh Nevett, Dan McCarthy, Bruce Newton, Mark Bisset, Geoffrey Harris, Bruce Moxon, Gary Hill, Craig O’Brien, Ray Oliver, Martin Agatyn, Reese Mautone.

FORMULA 1 Luis Vasconelos US CORRESPONDENT Mike Brudenell PHOTOGRAPHERS AUSTRALIA Mark Horsburgh-Edge Photography, Peter Norton-Epic Sports Photography, Ross Gibb Photography, Daniel Kalisz, Mick Oliver-MTR Images, Rebecca Hind-REVVED, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Richard Hathaway, Bruce Moxon, Ray Ritter, Ray Oliver, autopics.com. au Geoff Coulson Photography, Roy Meuronen Photography, Angryman Photography, Riccardo Benvenuti, Matthew Bissett-MJB Photography, Phil Wisewould Photography.

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

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

Oakleigh Victoria 3166

A HUGE BAKE FOR THE CRENNAN CREDO ON PARITY THAT STUFF from John Crennan in your last edition about parity/ disparity was utter nonsense.

You can dress things up however you like with statistics, statistics and more statistics, but that was just an old Holden/General Motors bloke blindly denying the blatant fact that the Fords aren’t getting a fair go in Gen 3 Supercars.

It was propaganda dressed up as ‘news’ and ‘analysis’.

You can’t start from the premise that there is no mechanical discrepancy and then just launch into teams that don’t figure in the podiums very often and suggest they’re not having a fair dinkum crack.

Like the football codes and other sports, it doesn’t matter how many teams you have in the competition, there have always got to be teams at the bottom of the ladder just as there are teams at the top and in the middle.

Yes, it’s harder for many of those teams who are usually at the bottom to work their way up, but instead of sh..-canning them for that, how about a bit of credit for the fact that they get in there and have a go and stick at it against the muscle of big teams with massive piles of money to spend.

It’s all very well for Crennan to make a song and dance about the performance of some teams, but the mob he ran always had the big bucks and a manufacturer directly behind them, and even then it was a long time before they became consistent winners.

Blind Freddy can see that there’s a fundamental difference in the performance of the Camaro and the Mustang and Supercars and/ or Motorsport Australia have got to do something about it quick smart before us fans get jack of it and go watch something else.

Pity there isn’t more State of Origin!

Next time, Mr Editor, get someone without all that Holden

SOCIAL DISCOURSE

AUSTRALIA SHOULD DOUBLE UP ON F1 AND MOTOGP

baggage to do some real, independent analysis for you rather than that Crennan. Or should I say Cretin?

Phil ‘Bake’ Baker Toowoomba, Queensland Editor’s note: That’s very harsh, Bake. We here at AA felt John Crennan’s article was a very considered contribution. Don’t forget, the guy ended his time in the sport consulting to a Ford team – DJR Team Penske.

PATIENCE OF FORD FANS IS BEING SORELY TESTED IT’S BECOMING very difficult for a diehard Ford fan to support the Blue Oval at this point of time.

After watching the second race in Darwin, Chev have finished first in the last 14 races.

Driving Fords at the moment are drivers who have won Bathurst and have finished second in the championship in previous years.

The Blue Oval is not getting the results supporters require to maintain their long-time loyalty.

With success comes money from merchandise sales and sponsorship.

Another result of the dominance of Chev now is that Ford Motor Company is not getting the results they would be looking for either.

Hope Ford, Ford teams or Supercars can come up with a solution quickly.

AutoActionMag

P.S. I have been reading latest AA and some of my concerns have been written about in that issue.

My friend has named this year the Camaro cup and something needs to change for supporters to stay watching Gen3 fords Phil – South Australia - Currently nomadic and heading for the Townsville Supercars race.

DARWIN FIRE A SAD REFLECTION ON SAFETY STANDARDS THE PARITY debate between the Ford and Chevrolet teams in Supercars is one thing, but the fire in Cam Waters’ car at Hidden Valley is another.

The explanation for the blaze being a loose or failed fuel line fitting is understandable, albeit very unfortunate.

The flames inside the cabin on the WRONG side of the so-called fire wall were extremely troubling.

For the flames to penetrate the cabin in such a short time would indicate poor design and/or poor construction.

For a bespoke designed and built race car costing hundreds of thousands of dollars not to appear to comply to basic safety standards demanded of all competition cars is not on.

Over to Motorsport Australia and/or the Supercar administrators.

Mike Drewer Adelaide Auto_Action

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THE AUSTRALIAN Formula One Grand Prix has been held at Albert Park since 1996 and the contract has been extended until 2037. It’s a great location for the event.

The Australian MotoGP has been at Phillip Island since 1997 and it is a great venue for that too.

Both these events go really well and should remain, but the NSW government would like an F1 GP in Sydney and the management of The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia would like to host a MotoGP there.

Maybe Australia could host two F1 GPs and two MotoGPs a year.

Why not create a Pacific GP in Sydney and a Pacific MotoGP at The Bend? An F1 race at a Sydney harbourside street circuit could be like another Monaco, or maybe it could be at Sydney Olympic Park, which could be transformed like another Miami street circuit.

A Pacific GP would have to be in November/ December so it didn’t clash with the Australian GP in March/April and that would allow those who want to attend both those events to save up so they can do so.

The Bend has the facilities to cater for a MotoGP crowd. It would have to be held early in the year so it didn’t clash with the Phillip Island event in October and, again, fans would have time to save to attend both MotoGPs. So why not look into the possibility of having two F1 GPs and two MotoGPs in Australia?

Malcolm Webster Boronia, Victoria Editor’s note: It’s a wonderful idea Malcom, but with countries from around the world already fighting for races it would be a very expensive proposition to find the corporate backing for another two massive events...

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AS THE DARWIN DRAMA UNFOLDED, SUPERCARS FANS SPENT PLENTY OF TIME ON AUTO ACTION’S SOCIAL CHANNELS.

GEN3 PARITY DEBATE Michael Cleland What a joke! With three top teams unable to compete on a level playing field of course a middle team like Team 18 can step up. What happens if Tickford WAU and DJR are able to have cars that can win? We will be back to where we were in Gen2!

Bryce Bennett Okay, but what is the actual issue?

Cam took pole with the fastest lap of the weekend and Mostert and

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Waters passed more cars than anyone else during the races.

Denise Singleton How may years have they been working on this and they could not get it right? How long will this parity review take now?

Ian Porteuos I don’t understand. It was triggered after five races and we have had 15. Should have been done a long time ago.

Stephen Nash Sierras were winning – slow them down. Mustangs were winning – slow them down.

Camaros are winning – play on, nothing to see here.

Ian Somerville Does that include the skill and competency of the drivers and teams?

Could it be that the Camaro drivers and teams have an edge?

SUPERCARS TO LE MANS? Lachie Andrews Wouldn’t it be more logical to just get either a GT3, LMP2 or a hypercar to enter an Aus/NZ team in the WEC or ELMS? But sure, lets attempt to enter a Supercar.

Colin Smith Supercars are not fast enough to go in Le Mans.

There is no chance to see them there.

The gap is getting closer ... and there are factors which could see Red Bull challenged strongly in 2024. Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

F1’S 2024 SEASON COULD BE A GREAT ONE LET’S FACE it, only a series of unlikely events will stop Max Verstappen from winning his third Formula 1 World Championship in a row.

The Dutchman has not only more than 50 points advantage over team mate Sérgio Pérez, the only other driver with a car capable of matching his RB19, but the Mexican’s morale is in tatters after three terrible weekends in a row. Therefore, the best he can now hope for is to put this sequence to an end in Austria, start closing the lap time gap to Verstappen little by little and put distance between himself, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the championship – to finally give Red Bull the only success they are yet to achieve: to put its drivers first and second at the end of the season.

Having said that, the pace shown by Aston Martin,

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with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER Mercedes and Ferrari in Canada was highly encouraging, the three teams far from being destroyed by Verstappen’s race pace, so there’s hope they’ll be able to actually fight and beat the Dutch driver once in a while between now and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Austria, with just two quick sessions and three stop-start corners, could provide us with an interesting race, especially because the lap is so short someone may able to nick pole position from Verstappen if he doesn’t get his Q3 runs spot

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on, with Italy, Mexico and Brazil providing us with the other three big chances of a proper fight at the front, as those track characteristics won’t really play into the RB19’s strengths.

Next year, though, it could all be a different story. On the basis of what we’ve seen since Monaco, Mercedes has now fully understood what the W14 needed to become competitive and the package the German team will bring to Silverstone, in a fortnight, will be the baseline of next year’s car. So, if James Allison has got his sums right –

as he tends to do – Mercedes could be back to its 2021 level, at least on par with Red Bull.

Ferrari also showed in Canada it is now on the right track to build a competitive car next year. It was the drivers that let the team down in qualifying but in the race, particularly in the last stint, with tyres of similar laps’ life, that saw Leclerc match Alonso and Hamilton’s pace, as did Sainz right behind him, the SF-23 had genuine pace to fight for P2 had the drivers qualified where they should.

To add to these two breakthroughs, another denominator comes into the equation. By now, all design and development tools in the teams are geared up towards their 2024 cars and that’s when the penalty Red Bull incurred on last October, for breaching the 2021 cost cap, will start hurting the Milton Keynes-based team. Until now

and the end of October, Red Bull will be able to use its wind tunnel 50 hours and 24 minutes per week, while Mercedes will have 60 hours available, Aston Martin will move down to 64 hours (everyone’s quotas changes at the end of this month based on their standings in the Championship), and Ferrari will be up to 68 hours of wind tunnel running per week – and that s nearly 35 per cent more than what Red Bull will get.

Yes, Red Bull has a better baseline to start its 2024 chassis from than its three rivals, but will have considerable less wind tunnel time, runs and occupancy than Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari, so they should all be able to catch up by quite a bit.

Which is why, in the absence of any prospects of a straight fight for the title this year, I’m pinning my hopes on a cracking 2024 championship.

www.autoaction.com.au I 27

FORMULA 1 NEWS – LUIS VASCONCELOS

HORNER PROUD OF 100TH RED BULL WIN …

Verstappen, Horner, and some bloke who has won 200 Grands Prix ...

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES THERE WERE a few landmarks for Red Bull in Canada – Max Verstappen scoring the team’s 100th Grand Prix win while equaling the late, great Ayrton Senna by winning his 41st Grand Prix as well. Less publicised, though, was the fact that the Dutchman’s win gifted Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey his 200th success in Formula One, a mindblowing statistic that shows how successful the British designer has been in the last 32 years.

Looking back at how the team grew from the day Dietrich Mateschitz bought it from Jaguar, Team Principal Christian Horner said that, “when we first came into the sport, the ambition was to be competitive and to compete. It was

Dietrich’s vision, to bring Red Bull in as an entrant. And not just take part but try and be competitive. We won our first race in 2009, four years after coming into the sport, and I remember collecting the trophy that day and then getting on the plane to go home that evening and thinking “well, at least we’ve won one. If nothing else happens, we’ve won a race.” But it felt so good it was like, ‘well, we really want to feel that again’ and who would have thought 99 victories later we achieved a century.

“So, it’s a landmark for the team. It’s testament to the dedication and the hard work of all the people within the company, trackside, behind the scenes and all the support

services. There’s so many unsung heroes that have contributed to this incredible achievement. So, it’s something that the whole team is incredibly proud of.”

Horner also explained the way Red Bull Racing went racing back in 2005 was different to all other teams because that was the company founder’s vision: “He wanted to do things differently. He wanted to be different. He didn’t want to be a corporate team, where you needed 25 passes to get into the motorhome. So, he introduced the Energy Station; he introduced the Red Bulletin; and he wanted it to be fun.

“But he was also competitive, and he wanted to compete and he wanted to win. But I remember the first year. I think Jaguar scored nine points in 2004 and he gave me the target of scoring 12 points in that first season and we scored 34. He was a racer. He was a fan of Formula One and passionate about the sport, and of course Formula One for him and for Red Bull was a great way of of marketing their brand and their product.”

Fun may have been a word commonly associated with Red Bull Racing in the team’s first few years, but when people of the caliber of Adrian Newey started to join in, it was clear Mateschitz was in Formula One to win and the investment he made in the human structure quickly proved that.

That’s why Horner has credited the amazing group that has been put together by Red Bull as the main reason for its success: “It’s the people, it’s the spirit, it’s the culture.

It’s the attitude that we have. It is the way that we go about racing. It is the desire, it’s the passion. It’s the commitment.

It’s all of those aspects. Because when you work for a team like Red Bull, it’s clear what our goal is – it is that we want to win, and we want to be competitive, and everybody gives their best, and they buy into that. And you feel that energy in the factory. And it’s a culture that we have, which is, you know, we’re different to other teams. It’s a racing team. It’s just a big racing team.”

... AS VERSTAPPEN AVOIDS COMPARISONS WITH SENNA MAX VERSTAPPEN’S win in Canada put him next to Ayrton Senna in the list of all-time Grand Prix winners, both achieving 41 victories, but the young Dutch driver seemed keen to avoid any direct comparison with the great, late Brazilian.

When asked if there was any particular meaning for him in equaling Senna’s number of Grand Prix wins, Verstappen admitted that “I hate to compare different generations. From my side, the only thing I can say is that when I was a little kid driving in go-karting, I was dreaming about being a Formula 1 driver and I would have never imagined to win 41 Grands Prix. So, of course, to tie with Ayrton is something incredible. And, of course, I’m proud of that, but of course, I hope it’s not stopping here. You know, I hope that we can keep on winning more races.”

And on the team’s hitting 100 in Grand Prix wins, he made it clear he’s setting his targets really high: “I’m happy that’s done.

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How many F1 Grand Prix wins in this bunch? 32 + 200 (really) + 41 + 103 equals ...

We’ve won 100. But again, I hope we win more than 100. So the new target is 200!”

Based on his and Red Bull’s current form, only a fool would bet against them hitting that target before the start of the next decade …”

With Verstappen looking underwhelmed by the fact he’d equaled Senna’s number of wins, Horner explained his driver is not one to show his emotions in public: “What we’re witnessing with Max is the emergence

of another mega talent and you can start to talk about him in the same sentence as the greats now. And having matched Ayrton Senna, I thought the podium today actually was very apt of, if you like the last couple of decades of Formula One with Max, Fernando and Lewis up there.

“He just keeps delivering at such a high level. I mean, the race he did today was fantastic. But he’s not one to display emoticons, so I’m sure he’s super proud of equaling Ayrton’s record but he’ll keep that to himself.”

And when told his driver had talked about the team reaching 200 Grand Prix wins in the future, Horner concluded: “It shows where he is in his head at the moment. At 25 years of age to have won 41 Grands Prix, two world championships so far is an incredible performance. So, I said to him on the radio, “you know, Adrian won his 200th today, so he’s got a bit to catch up with Adrian.”

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SILVERSTONE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR HAMILTON’S NEW CONTRACT WOLFF WARNS “SOME ISSUES ONLY FIXED FOR 2024!”

MERCEDES’ MUCH improved speed since important changes were introduced in the W14 from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards has raised hopes among the German team’s fans that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will soon be able to beat Max Verstappen and finally win a Grand Prix this year, to put an end to the Dutchman and Red Bull’s complete domination of the championship.

Although he’s clearly pleased with the progress his team is making, Team Principal Toto Wolff has also been quick to pour some cold water on the excitement building up around the team, cautioning the fans some important changes to the car will not come until the start of next year.

Explaining the recent and quick progress of the W14, Wolff said that, “I think we are understanding better the simulations and they now correlate what we are seeing on track, and that is better because it has been a problem for the last one and half years. We are seeing good performance gains that are coming in the tunnel. We are seeing a better understanding of what the car needs in order to go fast, what the setup needs to look like, so in general the steps are getting bigger now. We are making good in-roads.”

The Austrian also confirmed that for the team’s home race there will be a new upgraded package available that will help the W14 make a good step forward: “Yes, we are bringing a larger upgrade to Silverstone and we should have another one before shutdown. It’s just that the learnings have accelerated a lot since we changed some of the conceptual architecture. There should be decent steps coming in the next four races.”

The modified front suspension has made the car much more efficient in corner entry, with better braking stability, but Wolff has agreed with Hamilton’s assessment that the main issue has always been in the rear of the car: “Yes, that was the problem of the car all along, since we started last year. We have a strong front, but the rear is still trailing and it’s still not good enough.

We’ve seen that out of the low-speed corners we lack traction and stability.”

And dealing a huge blow to his team’s fans hopes, Wolff concluded that, “I think we can fix it, but it is an aerodynamic and it is also in the mechanical concept, that is all intertwined. There is not one thing and that’s why we won’t be able to fix it before 2024.”

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LEWIS HAMILTON and Mercedes’ representatives are working flat out to be able to announce a new deal between the two sides at the start of next month’s British Grand Prix.

While both the driver and Toto Wolff have insisted the deal will be done and it’s just a matter of time before they can make an announcement, the fact Hamilton wants the contract to be extended beyond the end of his Grand Prix career, specifying his future role in the team and also the conditions for his ambassador role for Daimler, have meant the German company’s Board of Directors has got involved in the discussions, with the company CEO, Ola Kallenius, now also taking an active part in them.

In Montreal, Toto Wolff was very confident the deal would be struck in a matter of days, not months, saying that, “it is going to happen soon, and we are talking more days than weeks. We are trying hard. I have seen each other a few times over the weekend. The reality is that we have such a good relationship that we dread the moment that we need to talk about money.”

The Austrian businessman also alluded

to what the future of the relationship with Hamilton will be, insisting his driver has become much bigger than the sport he excels in: “Lewis is the most important personality in the sport. He is so multi-faceted, not only with the racing, but also off track, so we need to keep him in the sport for as long as possible. From a team’s perspective, Lewis and Mercedes have gone back a long time.

He has never raced for any other brand than Mercedes. We both joined the team in 2013 together, and from a professional relationship, we now have a friendship. It has been a wonderful time.”

For his side, the seven-times World Champion was a bit more careful with the timeline of the negotiations and was initially unwilling to speak of them in detail: “I’ve seen Toto, we’ve talked several times and we have a great relationship. There is nothing else to say at the moment.”

Even when asked to comment about a possible move to Ferrari, which he simply denied with a smile and a shake of his head, Hamilton refused to be drawn into when he expects the new deal to be announced: “It will get done when it is done. If that is next week, or in a month’s

time, as long as it gets done, I am not really bothered.”

Sources close to Mercedes told us in Montreal that while a new two-year deal is already agreed, but with doubts about adding an option for either side to extend it until 2026, it’s the discussions about Hamilton’s future role in the team and, especially, what will be his remit as a brand ambassador for Daimler, after he hangs his helmet up, that is delaying the full agreement.

In the Formula One team it’s now clear Toto Wolff is grooming former Grand Prix driver Jerôme d’Ambrosio as his successor.

The Belgian is now shadowing his boss in almost every single Grand Prix, at the factory and now even at the meetings with the FIA and Formula One Management, so Hamilton’s role would have to be more linked to the technical side. As for his future role as brand ambassador, there’s little appetite from Kallenius to pay an astronomical amount of money to the Brit, while Hamilton believes he’s added value to the brand, so reaching a figure they’ll be both happy with in just over one week won’t be easy to achieve.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

NORRIS MULLS FUTURE ELSEWHERE

MCLAREN’S LACK of competitiveness is clearly frustrating for Lando Norris and the British driver’s demeanour after almost each qualifying session or race since the start of this season just shows how disappointed he is by the fact he can no longer fight at the front of the field as he did for most of 2021 and more occasionally last year too.

Contracted to McLaren until the end of 2025, Norris is seeing his friend and former rival in karting, George Russell, always fighting at the front of the field and getting ready to take over from Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes’ main driver as soon as the seven-times World Champion retires, while more recent friend and former team mate Carlos Sainz has already won a Grand Prix for Ferrari and amassed a large number of podium finishes as well.

All that has combined to make Norris even more frustrated, the happy-go-lucky image he cultivated in his first few seasons in Formula 1 now giving way to a stern and almost annoyed demeanor, the driver’s shoulders being down almost all the time he gets out

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of his car. In Montreal, after qualifying in seventh place, Norris dismissed his chances of fighting for the points, stating clearly that, “we’re slow in the corners, we’re slow in the straights too, so we won’t be able to defend from Pérez and the two Ferraris …”

For a while, Norris and his representatives held hopes of a move to Mercedes when it was not so clear Lewis Hamilton would extend his deal with the German team, but that door is now virtually shut – but two alternatives are starting to emerge. In the more immediate future, Norris could join his friend Max Verstappen at Red Bull, but to be able to do that he’d have to buy himself out of the contract with McLaren. Given he’s very well paid – close to US$20 million per year, according to British sources – that could prove very expensive even for someone as wealthy as Norris and can only happen after Helmut Marko leaves the scene, as the Austrian has a negative view of Norris, having approached him twice in the last seven years, engaged in negotiations, only to find out he’d been used by the driver’s representatives to gain a more favourable negotiation position with McLaren.

The other alternative is more for the long term and would see Norris join Audi from the start of 2026. With former boss Andreas Seidl now in charge of Audi’s Formula 1 future, Norris has a strong ally in the Hinwill-based team and with Hamilton and Alonso likely to be retired by then, while Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc have long-term deals with their current teams, he could be, together with Carlos Sainz, the best driver available for Audi.

That, however, is still two and a half years down the road, so Norris could clearly prefer a more immediate exit strategy from McLaren, as the changes introduced by Andrea Stella in the technical structure of the team are unlikely to produce positive effects before the start of the 2025 season.

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To win in Supercars, you have to beat the big boys ... Team 18 did.

Images: MARK HORSBURGH-EDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS

SATURDAY’S MAIDEN WINNER

TEAM 18 TEAM 18 RECORDED A BREAKTHROUGH WIN IN DARWIN WITH MARK WINTERBOTTOM, AND CHARLIE SCHWERKOLT SAYS THERE IS MORE TO COME. BRUCE WILLIAMS AND ANDREW CLARKE REPORT ...

SUPERCARS’ PERENNIAL nice guy, Charlie Schwerkolt, is now a race winner with his Team 18 outfit. Team 18 was formed after his relationship breakdown with Dick Johnson Racing in 2010 – a championship year for DJR with James Courtney.

It took a little while to find his feet. At first, he leased his Racing Entitlements Contract – now a Teams Racing Charter – to DJR for the maximum of two years allowed; then he ran in partnership with Ford Performance Racing and then Walkinshaw before going it alone as a Triple Eight customer team in 2016, his second of three seasons with Lee Holdsworth before settling on Mark Winterbottom in 2019.

It’s been a bumpy ride from the start, and even going to two cars in 2020 with Scott Pye after buying a REC off Kelly Racing didn’t seem to smooth the ride. Enter Gen3.

Schwerkolt and his team, led in the workshop by Bruin Beasley and former Holden Racing Team and Garry Rogers Motorsport gun Richard Hollway, decided Gen3 was the time to build its own cars for the first time rather than being a Triple Eight customer team. Now the mostly smiling but occasionally frowning Schwerkolt has a trophy for the empty

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shelf in his Notting Hill workshop.

“It feels amazing. It really does feel amazing,” he said in Darwin after the win.

“Everyone wants to be a winner; everyone wants to win, and it just lifted the whole team, which it needed, and everyone’s pretty pumped.

“The driver [Mark Winterbottom] did a great job, and the whole team did a great job. And the owner, who’s been working his ass off trying to put the right people in everywhere, he’s taken this on, and he’s pumped too,” he said in his best third person.

Charlie, we’ll call him that for the rest of this story because it suits him more than just his surname, has never really been concerned about the outside world. As a successful businessman, he has learned you worry about what you can deal with yourself, which in this case was building a successful team in one of the toughest racing categories in the world.

When you beat teams the calibre of Triple Eight, you have done well.

“I’m not too worried about what other people think, but it does make me feel better.

“A couple of team owners came up to me, and the congratulations were great. “ [It’s been] so flaming close for so long. We were following Triple Eight with their setup

for all those years, and now we’re completely on our own, doing our own thing, and that makes me even prouder.

“We built the cars ourselves. And if there’s a hundred things you’ve got to get right, you’ve got to get a hundred of them right.

You can’t get 90 or 95 or 99. You’ve got to get them all right, and it’s hard.

“Up and down pit lane, I think I’ve got a good rapport with everyone and good credibility in the sport. So I don’t think this changes anything there; we’ve always had respect.”

Earlier this year, Charlie spoke about his pride and the challenge of finally going his own way with the development of the car. With brains like Hollway, who was part of HRT’s dominant era with Lowndes and Skaife, and then part of the team that developed the Volvo at GRM, he was confident this step wouldn’t prove a bridge too far.

“We built the cars. It’s everything ourselves; there’s no-one helping us in any way. You’ve got to get the best possible people in every single category of the workshop. We’re striving to get the best we can. We know where our weaknesses are, but we still delivered.

“My goal is obviously to be up with the others. Obviously, Erebus is doing an amazing job, and Triple Eight is too, and it’s

taken a little while to learn the cars. It’s taken a little while to understand them.

“On our test day, we learned a bit more about some of the setups that we could change and not change so we’ve just got to keep learning and making things better and, obviously, no mistakes.”

While not quite a minnow to riches (that story is left for Sunday), Charlie says it is important that as many teams as possible can win races, and not just two or three of the super-rich teams. The surge of Erebus has created an environment of belief and, in Darwin, Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing amplified that to the point where anything is now possible – Charlie believes that is good for the sport and that the investment from RACE and Barclay Nettlefold is taking

he did everything 100% right. He raced and drove well, he had to hold him up a little bit to get ahead and look after his tyres. He’s still got it and he’s an important part of the team.

“We were really nothing until he came on board. We brought some good people in that believed in Mark. Mark’s a legend and he’s a ripper guy, and I hope he’s racing with the team for a few more years ... but he’ll know when to stop.”

The future for Team 18 is largely mapped out, and the results are something that will come from that and how well as a team they execute that plan.

Charlie is planning to build a spare car and will also look at Super2 to groom the next Frosty, Pye, and Hollway in the workshop.

For the first time since forming the breakaway team, everything looks like it is coming together for Team 18. Gen3 has been a good break in routine, and Charlie has embraced change and opportunity.

There is more to come in these pages for this team.

Supercars somewhere bold after years in hiatus.

“You want a category similar to NASCAR where anyone can win; that Team 18 can win if we get our stuff right. Barclay and RACE have invested, and I see new owners that want to invest and build. We haven’t had that since the SEL days, and that investment is making it a really serious touring car championship in the world.

“The close racing for the fans and sponsors is so important, and I think the category, with Gen3, can deliver.”

“ ”

partner network that’s also part of my Waverley Forklift group, but it’s worth everything to me. We’re going to keep delivering, but I guess there’s a little bit more credibility that a Team 18 can actually win.

“We’re slowly getting there, and it is not happening overnight. It’s the fifth round of Gen3 and we’ve had loads of rounds over the journey. We’ve had loads of fourths and a few podiums, but to get that elusive win, it’s a bit of the monkey off the back, and we can move forward.

The close racing for the fans and sponsors is so important, and I think the category with Gen3 can deliver ...

With his first podium and win for Team 18, he is now thinking about what is possible.

After years of investing in his passion with both time and money, he hopes the rewards will start to flow. Even before the win, he had no regrets about what has gone before.

“Of course, it’s worth it. One per cent of your time is because you win and that’s important. But I love the sport, I love the sponsorship side. We’ve got an incredible

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“It’s a different team owner and a different team that’s winning. People like an underdog, I guess, but we’ve been sneaking up and investing slowly and gone from renting a place in Dandenong to Mount Waverley from one car with Lee Holdsworth and then to Frosty and then two cars after buying another license.

“It’s building something from scratch, and that’s also important. It’s a harder way of

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doing it, but we didn’t borrow money to do it, we just slowly keep investing, investing, investing. So the team’s in a good spot, it’s got no debt, and I think that’s good. It’s got no other owners, and I can lead the team with a team manager, crew chief, and all those great people we’ve got.”

There was speculation about the future of Mark Winterbottom last year, but his faith in the veteran champion never wavered. His sponsors love him, and the fans love Frosty too. Getting him back into the winner’s circle after seven years can only be good.

“He’s the second oldest driver out there, but some of these old dogs don’t forget what to do.

He covered Broc Feeney, and

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Images: MARK HORSBURGH

WINTERBOTTOM OVERJOYED WITH TEAM 18 FAIRYTALE MARK WINTERBOTTOM has done it all in Supercars as both a series and Bathurst champion, but steering Team 18 to its maiden win in Darwin was one of his “biggest” wins.

For Winterbottom himself, taking the chequered flag 0.4s ahead of Broc Feeney marked the end of the longest wait in his decorated career.

After collecting 38 wins within 10 years, ‘Frosty’ has spent the last seven away from victory lane, with his last success 2414 days earlier, at Pukekohe in 2016 during his Tickford days. But for Team 18 the wait was even longer.

Since being formed in 2013, Charlie Schwerkolt’s team had never got its hands on a P1 trophy and finally did it in race #333.

Even though Winterbottom has experienced the elation of winning the Bathurst 1000 following a last-lap showdown, he admitted his fifth win at Hidden Valley is near the top of his long list of career highlights.

“This is just unbelievable. It is one of the biggest wins of our lives,” he said.

“It is probably one of the most emotional because seeing the emotion of Charlie and the team was a big moment.

“I think I almost punched the windscreen out I was that excited.

“You put so much in because it is so hard to win a race in this category and it is an incredible feeling to win it with a crew – some of whom have never even had a podium before.

“There are guys like our apprentice Will, who has watched all these other teams get trophies – and I promised ours will come.

“I have had success previously but I really wanted to do it with this group, so seeing

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guys like him get their first trophy makes me so proud.”

Not only was it the breakthrough success Schwerkolt was dreaming of, but it ended an agonising wait for Winterbottom, who is relieved to finally be back in victory lane.

“It is good that I can remember how to win.

You don’t forget how to drive, but you forget what winning feels like,” Frosty said.

“It has been a tough run, not winning since 2016. I was well aware of how long it has been because not just everyone, but also my kids, tell me. But you never doubt yourself because if you do you give up.

“We have the monkey off the back now and hopefully it can open up better opportunities for the rest of the year.”

The triumph was an emphatic way for Winterbottom to silence his critics and show why he is still on the grid 20 years and 606 races on from his debut for Stone Brothers

Racing.

To get this one, Frosty had to turn back the clock.

A decade ago he was all over the back of Craig Lowndes in a late-race duel for the win, but car #888 prevailed by a tenth.

However, this time ,the roles reversed and Winterbottom was able to prevail ahead of Triple Eight charger Feeney having used his two decades of race smarts.

“Once I was in front I kept letting Broc catch me and then drop him,” he said.

“I knew I could cook Broc’s brakes and when I could see him pull out I was, like, ‘I got you’!

“I was really trying to narrow up the corner exits to protect the rears. I think Broc could follow through some of the faster corners better than previously but at some of the stop-start ones it definitely affected him.

“When you are in front you can dictate

the play and the brake deg was quite comfortable.”

After a nightmare milestone weekend in Perth and a middling Tasmania, Winterbottom revealed he entered the Darwin Triple Crown with a new approach, which has paid off handsomely.

Now with the breakthrough success he promised to Schwerkolt when he arrived at Team 18 after 13 years at Tickford, Winterbottom has ambitions to snatch even more silverware.

“We did not test in that little gap (post Tasmania) and used the three weeks to really crunch out numbers and do a lot of work,” he said.

“There is no way in the world the car we had in Tassie would have won here.

“There were a lot of promises when we signed the deal and I told Charlie when I joined we were going to win.

“It has taken a while, but getting the first one is so hard to get and now the trick is to do it every weekend because we need to get better at our consistency.”

Thomas Miles

JACK WAS QUICK IN THE new GEN3 era the 2023 Darwin Triple Crown will go down as one for the underdogs as MSR’s Jack Le Brocq took the flag for the small team from Yatala in Queensland.

Just 24 hours after Team 18 secured its maiden success, Matt Stone Racing enjoyed its own first taste of the winning feeling.

Thanks to Jack Le Brocq, Matt Stone Racing claimed one of the more unexpected Supercars wins in recent times – but the team did it in style.

After taking his and the team’s maiden pole by just 0.0102s, Le Brocq controlled the race like the very best to provide a memory the small two-car team will never forget.

For the man who drove Matt Stone Racing into the history books, it was also a major statement.

Although the #34 driver had already tasted victory at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2020, he has no doubt which trophy will take pride and place in the cabinet (with his maiden win heavily dictated by uneven tyre allocations).

“The first one is always nice, but this is definitely more special,” Le Brocq said.

“The win in Sydney was tainted by the tyre rule, but we earned this one.

“It has been coming. We have shown good pace, especially in quali, but it is great to convert it into race pace and get the first win for Matt Stone Racing.

“I am over the moon.”

Le Brocq has, thus far, been a driver full of potential without things ever quite clicking at the top level.

Across his first 184 races, he has raced for five different teams and become just the sixth driver in history to race for six different brands/manufacturers.

After bouncing between Erebus Motorsport, Prodrive (now Tickford) and Nissan as a co-driver, Le Brocq was finally awarded a main game drive at Tekno Autosports in 2018.

But his second year at the single-car operation was a tough one, finishing better than 20th just seven times across the 30 races with rumours of being dumped inside the first four rounds even emerging.

Amazingly this led to a special opportunity arriving at Tickford when he was the replacement in car #55 for the big-name departure of Chaz Mostert.

Jack shaded front row partner Heimgartner and led all the way.

The partnership started brilliantly by taking a maiden career win in just their third round together at Sydney Motorsport Park when Supercars returned from COVID-19 in 2020.

However, consistency was lacking for Le Brocq and he found himself out of the door again after two years, having finished 15th and 16th in the standings.

A fresh start awaited at Matt Stone Racing and he has flourished, leading from the team front in the Gen3 era.

From the moment Le Brocq hit the ground running with a pair of top 10s at Newcastle, he has turned heads.

It was clear the pace was here to stay when he finally overcame his ‘bogey track’ of Albert Park to get his first top five finish in three years.

Despite things not quite coming together at Perth, the orange cars recovered brilliantly to appear on the front row at Symmons Plains, while even greater success awaited at the top end.

After collecting nine top 10 finishes in 2023, Le Brocq was already on track for a career best championship finish, but the win has only further cemented his super season so far.

Team owner Matt Stone has watched first-hand how Le Brocq has grown from being a new face to team leader at precisely the right moment.

“Last year was a big learning year for him,” Stone told Auto Action.

“It was his and (engineer) Jack’s (Bellotti) first year working together so they had to learn how to best maximise each other’s output.

“We had a lot of hurdles to jump over as

a team last year as well with consistent staffing.

“So I think all of that hard work Jack and the team have put together over the last 12 months is starting to show now.

“It is not an overnight thing – it is just a combination of everyone’s hard work and we are starting to see what that looks like.”

Le Brocq also could not have found a more fitting venue to steer Matt Stone Racing to a maiden Supercars success.

Hidden Valley Raceway was also the

scene of Stone Brothers Racing’s 41st and final Supercars win – by Shane van Gisbergen, in 2011.

Whilst van Gisbergen marked the occasion by doing burnouts all over the 2.9km circuit, Le Brocq was slightly more understated pulling into victory lane.

However, it was clear the success meant just as much and now both he and Matt Stone Racing will be determined to prove it is no flash in the pan.

Thomas Miles

Tasmania was promising, with a front row start, but the big win would come at the following race ...

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Matt Stone – second generation team owner .... now winner.

SUNDAY’S WINNER:

MATT STONE RACING ENTERS THE RECORD BOOKS

IN ONE OF THE FEEL-GOOD STORIES OF THE YEAR, A HISTORIC WEEKEND IN DARWIN WAS CAPPED OFF WITH A FIRST-EVER RACE WIN BY MATT STONE RACING. THE QUESTION IS WHETHER IT IS JUST AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER OR THE HIGHLIGHT, SO BRUCE WILLIAMS ASKED MATT STONE AND JACK LE BROCQ ...

A PAIR of maiden wins made the 2023 Darwin Triple Challenge a truly significant weekend for Australian Supercars. Jack Le Brocq won the final race on Sunday, adding Matt Stone Racing to the list of teams to win in our top category, leaving only Nulon Racing and Cooldrive Racing to break the duck.

MSR is the story of a legacy that began more than 60 years ago after a young Jim Stone fell in love with motor racing at the New Zealand Grand Prix in 1956.

Jim went on to work with Kiwi racing legend Bruce McLaren in England before returning to the Antipodes to go racing with his brother Ross.

They built cars for Ross, then moved into touring cars with Graeme Crosby and then Andrew Miedecke before running Dick Johnson Racing. That led to the formation of Stone Brothers Racing – and with a Bathurst win and a trio of championships, it was the best Ford team in the land. But that team was sold before Jim’s son, Matt, was old enough to take it over … so without SBR, he built his own team for the main game after playing around in Super2.

Now MSR is a Supercars race winner with Jack Le Brocq, who has added to his one win so far in the series from his

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Starting from pole always helps! ... Right: MSR’s drivers Le Brocq and Cameron Hill.

Tickford days. Sunday’s win in Darwin was a dominant run from pole, not a fluke or a lucky win, and proved again that Gen3 is creating opportunities for the teams. MSR, like Team 18, broke its Triple Eight shackles with the new breed of cars, investing in building its own from the ground up, and the results are starting to show.

It hasn’t always been easy for Stone and he reportedly plays the game on a tight budget. Like fellow debunante winners Team 18, MSR started as a one-car team, in this case leasing a

licence from Jason Bright to run Todd Hazelwood. Then later it bought a Racing Entitlement Contract from each of Garry Rogers Motorsport and Kelly Racing and embarked on a bold new program it called Super Lite, with Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki sharing a car for the season and Garry Jacobson getting his own car.

Then Kostecki and Goddard got their own cars for the entire season before both were replaced by Jack Le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood for 2022, with rookie Cam Hill replacing Hazelwood for 2023.

Like other small teams, Stone saw Gen3 as a time to rewrite the rules for itself and built two new Camaros for the season. Like all the other teams, it had a crazy rush to get the cars finished, but it got there. It entered 2023 with a best race results of fifth and only a handful of top 10 finishes, but this year it was clear there was more potential.

Le Brocq started the year with a series of top 10 finishes and that elusive podium beckoned.

“It’s pretty unreal,” Le Brocq said after the win. “To do the first pole and first race win today is pretty cool … skip the podium, go straight to the win! It’s unreal for Matt; he’s put a lot of time, blood, sweat, and tears into this, and it’s great. He’s built a great team here, and I think it’s just a start for us.”

The quietly spoken Stone often reminds you of his father in the way he contemplates answers, and he took the win in his stride. No tears of joy, no fist pumping, just a quiet acknowledgment that he knew his small team could do it.

“It’s fantastic. It’s everything we’ve been building towards this year with Gen3, and it’s great to validate that what we’ve been aiming to achieve is possible, and we’ve been saying

Running two cars has helped transform MSR into a winning squad. Images: MARK HORSBURGH but to come out there today and not step a foot wrong in that second race shows we are learning. First pole, fantastic pit stops, great stop by JLB. He drove the whole race perfectly and brought it home with a win; he made it look too easy, so perfect.”

That said, the day could have gone pear-shaped pretty quickly when Jack Smith turned around Le Brocq early in the first Sunday race.

But he escaped any major damage.

“ ”

it openly,” he said late on Sunday afternoon in Darwin.

“We started the year with modest expectations, and we’ve been happy enough to say out loud that we think we’re getting there and we’re going to get there. Now to get to the front ... it’s just brilliant, and I can’t thank the team enough.

“It was a massive effort from the whole team to build these cars and it was something that we hadn’t done before as Matt Stone Racing. Plenty of us within the team have done the job, but

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“It’s pretty unreal,” Le Brocq said after the win. “To do the first pole and first race win today is pretty cool ...

we haven’t done it as our group. So, to give everyone the result like this so early in the piece and get a reward for all that hard work, it’s fantastic.”

Breaking into the top tier of Supercars is not, and never has been, easy. Teams like Triple Eight are as good as any team in any category in the world, and whether you think the Camaro has an advantage or not, MSR had to beat Triple Eight with the equipment. And Erebus, and Team 18, and Brad Jones Racing.

“We never go into racing thinking we’re just going to bang around in the back.

We’ve been wanting to get to the front, but we always took a realistic approach.

“We weren’t going to win it in year one.

We were building as a team, but Gen3 was our time to say, ‘We’re serious, let’s have a crack’.

“We’ve had good pace all year; we’ve had to learn how to operate at that top level, and we’ve made a lot of little operational mistakes to start the season,

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Gen3 was always seen as an opportunity for people like Stone to shake the running order a little; he says that is what was promised, and it is why the team started thinking about how to do the new cars well before the parts had started arriving. Like Erebus this is the result of two years of planning and work.

“It’s an even playing field – we’ve all got the same cars and it’s up to us to go out there and race them. And, whoever gets it right on the day, gets the trophy.

“You’re seeing a lot of ups and downs.

We had an average morning and a great afternoon.

“The margins are so tight because there’s no one messing around in the pitlane. Everyone’s a serious entry, and they’re all going at it, and the racing’s spectacular.”

Neither of the elder Stones were at the race. Jim is often a visitor, but Ross is rarely seen. He had texts from both of them to answer that night and there would be no doubt they could see a

little of themselves in he younger Stone.

Le Brocq also took the win in his stride.

With his new ‘mean NASCAR look’, it is a different and more focussed Le Brocq this season. He knows, and believes he knows, that more wins are coming.

“It’s great for the team,” he said.

“They’ve been working very hard, especially in this Gen 3 era. Last year was a big building year, getting to know the guys and then building on that. Gen 3 has been great for the team. They’ve all done an awesome job at Truck Assist Racing, and we’re stoked.

“I absolutely love it here at Matt Stone Racing. It’s a big family vibe, everyone gets along really well, and I’ve found a nice home that I feel comfortable with. The whole mental game is a massive thing in Supercars and I think that’s what I’m starting to learn and understand as time goes on.”

He admits to some nerves preparing to start off pole for the first time, especially after getting spun earlier in the day and with such a long run to the first turn.

But he nailed it, and was never really headed: “I had some butterflies and some nerves again – I haven’t had that in a long time, so it was good to get off the line. I calmed down after that and we had some great pace, which is pretty cool. So I got it done.”

Most race drivers are not short of self-belief, but winning seems to breed winning and once the monkey is off the back, anything is possible.

“I think we’ve had pretty good quali speed, and that’s been from the outset this season, but I’ve been struggling with how to drive these cars in a race.

In the final race at Tassie we found something that was working for me, and we’ve been building on that again this weekend, and learning and understanding how to maximise that.

“It’s great for the confidence, so we’ve just got to keep building on that now, and hopefully, it’s the first of many.”

Matt Stone with team engineer Paul Forgie.

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SPEEDWAY

NOTHING BUT A ‘JOLLY’ GOODTIME!

#59 Haydon Jolly runs inside #43 Jason Gantz. Images: PARIS CHARLES

SPEEDWAY NEWS Super Sedans – #93 Kym Jury slides inside #19 Danny Smith.

UNDERDOG HAYDON Jolly claimed the biggest win of his career, in the 2023 Steve Butcher Memorial for Street Stocks on the June long weekend in front of a festive crowd who had gathered at Waikerie’s Sunline Speedway for the final hit out of the season. Against a field of 14 other finalists, Jolly, who had travelled the furthest to attend, found the shortest way to the chequered flag. Starting from third on the grid for the 20-lap final Jolly made his way into second on the third lap before chasing race leader Keith Moore, then pouncing to the lead at three-quarter race distance.

Once out in front, things became hectic for Jolly as veteran racer Sam Brumfield had chased hard, coming from sixth to second and, while challenging for the lead, Brumfield gave the slightest tap in the rear which proved just enough to spin Jolly to the infield as Brumfield powered through. The caution lights were triggered, reinstating Jolly to the prime position while Brumfield was sent to the rear for the restart.

With just 5 laps to run Jolly withstood a strong challenge from Moore, while backto-back defending champion Jason Gantz powered from eighth to a close third, taking the final step of the podium. Fourth was Kye Richardson followed by Grant Harris, Anthony Buchanan, Andy Maxwell Jnr, Phil Watson, Brumfield, Ryan Buchanan and Matthew Lepoidedin rounding out the finishers on the lead lap.

Kym Jury was in a class of his own, running flag to flag in the 15 lap Super Sedan final.

This proved a fitting result for the South Australian who has announced that next season he will base his racing in Tasmania in search of deeper competition. Neville Nitschke and Victorian Danny Smith finished in close quarters to round out the podium. Adrian Wright was fourth in the Paul Blenkiron entry, with Gary Fallon and Sarah Pope making up the top half dozen.

Peter McCarthy proved too strong in the 20-lap Modified Sedan feature with a flagto-flag victory while others crashed and

with Paris Charles bashed behind. Mark Sheen challenged early for the lead as the race tightened up at the pointy end before Sheen made an uncharacteristic mistake and spun, sending him to the back of the field for the restart. While McCarthy led the field, all eyes were on Sheen, who powered through with maximum effort to regain the real estate on the leader only to finish a close third behind Trev Logan, making it an all Victorian podium. Marty Raams and Shelley Hardy rounded out the finishers in a heavily depleted field.

Jake Armstrong proved the dominant force in the Modlite Klub OutKast Kup. Dylan Richter led the opening five laps before Armstrong found a way through to lead the final 10. Brian Chadwick ran express as he chased in the runner-up position while rookie racer Jordan Miller in only his second meeting advanced from sixth to third followed by Richter, Kier Doe, Justin Chadwick and Tristan Douglas making up the finishers.

ALLY ALL THE WAY!

THE DROUIN Speedway held its final event for the season with the Ladies Standard Saloon feature the main attraction. Making the most of her front row start Ally Morrison went on to win the final; Sharlene Laidlaw chased hard for second with Michelle George rounding out the podium. Bronwyn Miles, Tasharni Murray and Melissa Van Strien completed the top half dozen.

A strong field of 21 Standard Saloons fronted for their final run of the season.

Mark Miles came from position six in the 15-lap final to take victory over Matt Leek,

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and Kacey Ingram, the top six completed

by Andrew Miles, Aaron Cormack and Polly Perkins.

From position 7, Nathan Miles claimed victory in the Junior Standard Saloon 12-lap final. Brodie Robertson was next followed by the Braz’s, , Tom and Jack, heading off Ella Sheedy and Dyclan Sweet in the first six home.

Victorian Junior 1200cc Sedan Champion Bryce Leek proved too strong in the 12-lap final, from Braidan Webster, Chase Doherty, Dayne Murdoch, Maddy Beach and Blake

Modlite Klub OutKast Kup: Jake Armstrong and Keir Doe.

Nick Butterworth in the iconic Team Kelly Winfield Sprintcar.

The New and Top Stars combined for the Junior Sedan final. Pole sitter Lachlan Brown led early before the lights blazed red for second placed runner Summer Gesell, rolling in spectacular fashion and destroying her Charade in the process. Diesel Fallon was first to the finish while Deklan Bolitho advanced from seventh to second after a battle with Brown. Fourth was Ryan Burns chased by Seth Grieg, Max Richter, Violet Thorne, Bree McAllister, Neela Fear-Wright and Lucas Warnett completing the top 10.

A mixed field of Classic Super Modifieds and Sprintcars turned back the hands of time as they thrilled the crowd with a series of spirited demonstration runs throughout the day’s action.

Beach making up the top six.

The Aces of Spades Club gave their classic Hot Rods a final fling, turning back the hands of time with some spirited demonstration runs. The large crowd of 1200 plus Ally Morrison, Ladies Standard Saloon winner were treated to Ramp Image: LOUISE NORMAN / NAPIER PHOTOGRAPHY Racing with Wayne Gibson and Brendan Sheedy showing the where Brad Warren finished off Chris Aarts to way and a bone crunching Demolition Derby be the final car running.

Want to see your category event or news story included in the Auto Action Speedway pages.

Send your information, images and contact details to team@autoaction.com.au or give us a call on 03 9563 2107

AFTER 100 LAPS IT’S MILLER TIME! 100 LAPS is a long journey to travel and being the nature of the short oval track with a dog leg thrown in for good measure many of the competitors who started the final could be excused for getting dizzy, as the 2000 plus crowd gathered at the Alexandra Speedway, cheered on from the sidelines for the running of the annual Foodworks 100 Lap Derby.

A total of 57 competitors started the gruelling 24 rounds of qualifying heats.

Darren Forrest was undefeated in his four heats to earn pole position and Daniel Scott with three wins qualified on the front row for the final. Doubles went to Lennie Bonnici, David Donegan, Jamie Lock and Damien Miller, while Daniel Knight, Russell Smith, Luke Fallon, Corey Lincoln, Dale Smith, Frank Ramsdale, Brendan Miller, Josh Service, Warrick Taylor, and Matt Nelson each claimed a single.

Forrest and Scott led the field away at the drop of the green with the latter leading the opening dozen laps before Damien Miller made his way to the front.

Forrest dropped back to third before retiring at just past the one third race distance. Once Miller got to the front he would not be headed over the duration.

Taylor was the man on a mission coming from 18th, slicing his way into second by the halfway point. As the race progressed, the real estate between the lead duo narrowed greatly with the leader

Damien Miller, 100 Lap winner Images: LOUISE NORMAN / NAPIER PHOTOGRAPHY Will Fallon – 1200 Junior Sedan winner

River Paterson – Junior Sedans winner in Taylor’s site as the pair had opened a handy margin over the rest of the runners.

As the race had gone 80-plus laps without stoppage, and with just six laps to run, Taylor was forced to pit for fuel, dropping him back in the pack while Miller went on take a well-deserved victory, setting a new race record time of 31.063 with a sizeable two-lap gap over defending race champion Shane O’Brien, Joel Andrews, Dale Smith and Ramsdale making up the top five podium. Sixth was, Steve Kershaw from Scott, Taylor, Dennis

Reid, Lee Beach, David Forrest and Sprintcar competitor Donegan squaring off the top dozen. The final six classified finishers were R. Smith, Hank Orme, Scott Bull, Lennie Bonnici, Jackson Basten and Bradin Claridge.

Against 18 other chargers, Victorian Standard Saloons champion Rhys Lansdown proved why he wears the #1 mantle, dominating the Rusty Cars Down Under Standard Saloon Cup 25-lap final with a flag-to-flag victory to take the win by more than seven seconds. Mitch

Blencowe and Kacey Ingram took the final steps on the podium, while Andrew Miles, and Neil Ingram rounded out the top five. Nick Harnett, Aaron Price, Brodie Robertson and Michelle George going the distance.

Qualifiers went to Mark Miles, Blencowe, Ingram, Brodie Ardley, Ingram, Miles and a deuce to Lansdown.

A modest field of eight Street Stocks produced a thrilling 20-lap Aero Spec Engineering Street Stock Spectacular with Matt Nelson, Mick Dann and Morris Ahearn putting on a great feature event.

Nelson led the first 11 laps before Dann assumed the lead and would narrowly hold on to win by just .221 of a second over Ahearn and Nelson for the podium.

Tim Hutchinson, Matthew Brooks and Leigh Gooding were next. Dann took a clean sweep, claiming all three qualifying heats.

Will Fallon won the Fallons Bus Services 1200 Junior Sedan Dogleg 25-lap final, tailed by Billy McBride and Braidan Webster third. Andrew Mitchell and Chase Doherty completing the top five.

Rounding out the weekend was the Victorian Short Circuit Championship for Speedway Sedans Australia Juniors Sedans. River Paterson won the 25-lap final for his class. Completing the top five was Bree Simpson, Will Fallon, Lachie Bull and Nathan Miles.

TASMANIAN TEAM TAKES TRI STATE OF ORIGIN WAHGUNYAH SPEEDWAY fired up for the final blue-ribbon events of the season featuring AMCA Nationals, Standard Saloons and Production Sedans.

The AMCA National Interstate Challenge was a tri-state of origin affair between the hosts (Victoria), New South Wales and Tasmania. Stephen Hopkins with two of the three qualifying wins and Frank Thierry the remained shared the front row. When the lights blazed green, the latter took command and controlled the pace for most of the journey, while places were traded in behind.

As the race narrowed towards the finish Rodney Bassett advanced from third to first, earning the Tasmanian the race honours over Thierry a close second and Mildura’s Darren ‘Plugger’ McCarthy rounding off the top three podium. Neale Peachey and Justin Richardson were next followed by the lone New South Welshman Nathan Dunn and the second of the Apple Islander’s Garth Stevens to bookend the finishers.

In an emotional Lachie Howie Memorial for Standard Saloon, Warrick Howie, brother of Lachie claimed the final with a two second margin over Michael Fleming-Robertson and

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Victorian Ladies Champion Jaimi Barber; the top three placings did not change order in the run to the flag. Andrew Marshall, Daniel Joosten made up the top five. The Cormacks, Aaron and Ashley, were next followed by Scott McAuliffe, Andrew Cormack and Tony Spale rounding out the top 10.

The Production Sedan 1000 proved a tough affair. Jacob Mills rolled in spectacular fashion on the third lap while challenging the leader Scott Hawkins, who went on to claim victory over Stephen Laidlaw, Trevor Mills, Johnny Ralph, James Hodak, Jack Bear and Rodney Anderson all on the lead lap.

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A combined field of Sports Sedans and Unlimited Sedans produced an incidentridded and shortened final. Corey McDonald (Unlimited) claimed the overall win followed by a trio of Sports Sedans, Rhys Meakins, Joe Otimi and Marc Hanson. Rounding out the top three Unlimited were Wayne and Brenton Eames. The Open Sedans trailed off the finishers with Daryl Joosten, Paul Lamb, Ian Bartlett, Vicki Alford and Shelby Higginbottom.

The Junior Sedan Daytime Track Championship final went to Riley Balins who a dominated the early proceeding, Warrick Howie – winner, Lachie Howie Memorial for Standard Saloons. Image: VERN PARKER

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claiming three of the four qualifying heat wins. Anthony Hanson second and overall champion Marcus Maclean third. Jacob Tinworth, Macca Bunt, Jordan Tewkesbury and Mia Lamb were followed by a succession of Cs in Cooper Lack, Cobie McGraw, Connor Lovell, Chloe Creek and Brodie McCarten to round out the finishers.

Nathan Shortis ran flag-to-flag in the Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association final over reigning Victorian Champion Justin Brockley, Billy O’Donoghue, Chris Brockley and Marty Bassett. Next was Daniel McCarten, Robbie Miller, Ben Schmetzer, Daryl Joosten and Brendan Lovell. Rounding out those to go the distance were Tommy Schmetzer, Wade Little, Luke Collis and Stuart Balins.

While the curtain may have fallen on the Wahgunyah Speedway racing, the break will be a very busy time for the small but dedicated band of hard working club members who have been successful in securing funding to have new LED lighting installed that will include 16 new towers around the outside and two new towers on the infield.

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NATIONALS WRAP

SUPPORTING THE RAGING BULLS A NUMBER OF CATEGORIES WERE ON HAND TO SUPPORT THE LAMBORGHINI SUPER TROFEO ASIA SERIES AT THE BEND MOTORSPORT PARK OVER THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 9-11, AND THERE WAS PLENTY OF ACTION, AS DAN MCCARTHY REPORTS

Images: DAVID BATCHELOR

AUSTRALIAN PROTOTYPE SERIES ROUND 2 of the Australian Prototype Series saw local South Aussie John-Paul Drake take a clean sweep of victories.

Drake driving his Joker liveried Wolf F1 Mistral won all three races but was pushed throughout.

Drake held off Scott Bormann and Jason Makris in Race 1, the top three separated by just 1.2s at the line.

The second encounter saw the top three finish in the same order, however in Race 3 Englishman Miles Lacey driving the Praga R1 finished the weekend with a secondplace finish ahead of Bormann.

Drake won the round from Bormann and Makris.

Ryan How took a Formula Open triple. Above right: Glenn Mackenzie won the Excel Masters class, while Joel Johnson took the Challenge win. Left: J-P Drake swept the Prototype races.

AUSTRALIAN FORMULA OPEN

YOUNG VICTORIAN Ryan How won all three races in Formula Open, driving a Dallara F308/11.

In Race 1 How make a final lap pass for the lead into Turn 1 and then held Trent Grubel at bay to the line.

In Race 2 Ryan Astley held the lead early before How swept around the outside of Turn 1 on lap 4. How won from

Astley, while Grubel recovered from a stall to finish fourth.

Race 3 saw How win again from Grubel and Astley, they finished in the same order for round honours.

HYUNDAI EXCEL INTERSTATE CHALLENGE

IT WAS Victoria versus South Australia in the Hyundai Excel Challenge and would

see the visitors dominate the event.

Mildura’s Joel Johnson won all three of the qualifying races as well as the feature race.

In the final Victorian’s locked out the top six positions, Toby Waghorn and Cadel Ambrose rounded out the podium.

Jacob Currie was best of the South Aussies in seventh place, as Victorian Glenn Mackenzie won the Masters class.

BMW E30S AND SA TIN TOPS

IT WAS a triple treat for Royce Lyne who won all three races in the BMW E30s. The consistent Brian Bourke finished second for the round ahead of Ashley Rogers who scored two second-place finishes.

SA Tin Tops saw Aaron Steer in his Porsche GT3 win all three races from Stratton Limberis and Damian Sullivan.

TEN HAY WINS TO DWYER Image: ZED PHOTOGRAPHY

HOY AND KELLY TAKE QLD WINTER WARM-UP A 29 strong rally field took on the KCF Rallysport Benerkin Winter Stages on June 17-18, with the top honours going to Clayton Hoy and co-driver Erin Kelly (above).

The competitive 85km hit-out, over three stages and five passes, was the perfect warmup for the upcoming QLD State Rally Championship round in Gympie on July 22-23, which will run alongside the Australian Rally championships return to the Sunshine state.

Taking to the stages in their #2 Mitsubishi Evo 5, Hoy and Kelly had to push hard to overcome Ian Menzies and Robert McGowan in their Mitsubishi Evo 9, with John Bustard and Melinda Bergmann taking third, driving the same EVO model that the late QLD rally driver Ronnie Bustard drove in the ARC. Despite Hoy getting a move in over the first stage, the #2 fell just shy of Subaru pair Ryan Williams and Brad Jones, and

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by Stage 2, Hoy had even found himself outside of the top ten.

Stage 3 then saw Hoy and Kelly’s two passes explode into the lead, with their second pass registering a full minute over the Evo 9 runners up.

Menzies couldn’t match anywhere near the pace that Hoy was pushing, and despite their early advantage, settled for outright P2, 20 seconds over Bustard.

In outright fourth, John McHugh and Ray Priest took their 1984 Toyota Corolla to the winning post in the RWD class.

The Stage 1 victor in Williams took P5, ahead of fellow WRX competitors Todd Webster/Nicola Hay, whilst Alan Kuss/ Jayden Night and Shane/Sylvie Garner made it four straight Subaru’s, with the Toyota GT Yaris team of Craig Aggio/ Megan Byrne ahead of FWD class winners Ethan and Meeka Kilbride.

TW Neal

LEYLAND MOKE driver Declan Dwyer (right) took his tenth win at the Australian Hay Mini Nationals on June 11 by just 1.35 seconds from fellow South Australian Moke driver Tony Wallis.

It was the 55th running of the motorkhana just outside of Hay in NSW, originally conceived as a competition between rival South Australian and NSW Mini clubs.

The motorkhana, which attracted 101 entries from five states, consisted of 6 tests on a dirt surface with 2 runs of each, but only the fastest run counting.

Wallis broke the metacarpal bone in his right hand in a fall a few days before the event, then broke the gearbox in his Moke whilst dicing for the lead with Dwyer with two tests to go. Dwyer graciously loaned his car for the remainder of the event.

0.96s behind Wallis was NSW’s Cooper Ellis (lower above) in his 1100cc Mini Clubman, in turn only 0.21s ahead of three-time winner Kelvin Goldfinch (Moke) with Victorian Simon Kerr (Morris Cooper S) 0.33s away, just holding off 16-year-old Josh Dwyer in his father’s Moke by 0.03 sec. This earned him the J. K. Stoneham Future Champion Award.

Seventh was NSW’s Brock Heydon (Leyland Mini S) whilst finishing eighth outright and first BMW MINI, NSW’s Corrine East-Johnston won the Mary Hill Trophy for lady drivers for the 17th time.

Finishing ninth outright gave SA’s Reece McIntosh the Rookie award.

The Mini Club of NSW picked up the GB

Images: TARYN RUIG

Staunton Teams Award for the 28th time.

The weekend began with a street parade of Minis and derivatives through the town of Hay on the Saturday before the nighttime running of Hay Heroes, a side-by-side knockout slalom event.

Junior Hay Heroes (for Under 16s) was won by Bradley Axford, with a new event, Hay Heroines, attracting 18 entries ranging from first timers to national champions, won by 18-year-old Zoe Dwyer, making it a great weekend for the Dwyer family.

Hay Heroes was won by Cooper Ellis for the fifth time, ahead of Greg Dobson (Morris Cooper S) and Tony Wallis in a borrowed BMW MINI Cooper S. A spectacular fireworks display completed the night. John Lemm

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OBERON RALLY FINDS NEW BATHURST HOME

THE ANNUAL Oberon Stages NSW Rally Championship event has found itself with a new home in 2023, moving to Bathurst and scheduled for September 27.

The move, after over a decade in Oberon, will afford the round the infrastructure and commercial opportunities that come with racing in the famous motorsport town, and will make up Round 3 of the state championship alongside the East Coast Classic Rally Series, The NSW Clubman Rally Series and, The Hyundai Rally Series.

One of the unique features of the event, is that the service park will be smack bang in the middle of town on Russell St alongside the Bathurst Regional Council Offices, and the War Memorial Park, bringing the rally to the people.

“In order to grow the rally and to deliver an even better competitor experience we believe the move to Bathurst – a town that is traditionally considered the ‘Cradle of Australian Motor sport’ – is a very exciting one,” Event Director and Clerk of course Jon Thomson said.

“The stages incorporate some of the best forestry and shire rally roads in the country and will provide some adrenaline-pumping action for both competitors and rally fans.

“We have found some fantastic roads that will thrill motorsport enthusiasts from around the country, and this new event promises an unparalleled experience that combines skill, speed, and a breathtaking natural backdrop.”

The event will cover 150km across 11 competitive stages around Bathurst and Blayney, with some top ARC teams and the best of NSW’s state teams expected to enter.

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Mirko Grbic (Lancer) won the day. Glenn Latter (RX-7, below) held FTD for most of the event, but ended up second. David Harris (Subaru) took third.

Images: SEVEN70 PHOTOGRAPHY

TIN-TOPS TAKE ON ONE TREE HILL THE SIXTH round of the EZI Up & Go Victorian Hill Climb Championship saw many tin-tops take on the well-known ‘One Tree Hill” course in Ararat.

After two days of action over the June long weekend, first place honours were taken out

by Mirko Grbic and his Mitsubishi Lancer.

The event Ararat Car Club hosted attracted a big field of competitors looking to take on Ararat’s famed ‘One Tree Hill’ Hillclimb.

It’s worth noting that this venue’s track permit doesn’t provide for any open wheel competition, so all competitors either raced sedans or sports cars with roll bars etc.

As the event was due to get underway early Saturday morning, the competitors faced a heavy fog which delayed the start by some time.

The first run up the 1240m course was slippery and damp and times reflected this.

By the end of Saturday Glenn Latter had the fastest time with Brenton Byfield second and Mark Dixon third

Sunday was a cold start but there was no fog, so competition was underway by 10am in faster conditions.

Latter kept getting faster with each run and looked set to take victory honours, however it was Grbic in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo ‘Time Attack’ car who would take the fastest time of the weekend.

Grbic’s with a 40.87s run was overwhelmingly the best of the event with Latter and his Mazda RX7 would be more than two and a half seconds off the pace.

Latter ended as the runner-up with a 43.47 run and was closely followed by David Harris in a Subaru Impreza, who lapped a 43.83.

These were the results after competitors had 11 runs over the weekend to conquer the hill, while a non-championship top 13 shootout finished off the weekend prior to the presentation of trophies.

The next round of the Victorian Hill Climb Championship will be held by the MG Car Club at the refurbished Rob Roy Hillclimb, Clintons Road, Christmas Hills on Sunday 9 July.

LOCAL DEBUT WIN FOR TAS RALLY CREW

STEVE MAGUIRE AND STUART BENSON HAVE SCORED THEIR FIRST WIN IN A TASMANIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP WITH VICTORY IN ROUND TWO, THE PIRTEK NATONE RALLYE. AUTO ACTION’S TASMANIAN CORRESPONDENT MARTIN AGATYN REPORTS ON AN EXCITING EVENT ...

By Martin Agatyn HELD IN the Natone area, the event was run by the North West Car Club and attracted one of the biggest fields for a Tasmanian state round for a number of years.

The rally opened with a super special stage on the club’s motorsport park, on recently purchased land adjacent to the Ridgely Highway, which saw a number of passing traffic stopping for a look.

Unfortunately, torrential rain mid-afternoon turned the stage, which was to have also been the final leg of the event, into a quagmire, making it unsafe and forcing organisers to cancel it.

Image: DMAC PHOTOGRAPHY Meanwhile, the outright win didn’t come easy for Maguire and Benson (pictured), who fought hard throughout stage win by 12 seconds saw them blast into the lead. the afternoon in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.

From that point on, the top two crews could hardly be Maguire’s brother, two times Tasmanian rally champion separated, posting equal fastest times on the sixth stage, and reigning Targa Tasmania champion Eddie Maguire and with Reading and Young winning the seventh stage by just navigator Zak Brakey, set the early pace in Maguire’s new 3/10ths of a second.

Skoda Fabio and had a handy lead by the fifth stage.

The winning margin, after nine stages, was just 13 seconds However, they hit a rock on the next stage, damaging their in an enthralling battle. steering and putting them out of contention.

The two leading crews dominated the timesheets, with Before the start of that stage Steve Maguire and Benson Crichton Lewis and Anthony Carr (Subaru WRX Sti) trailed reigning champions Bodie Reading and Mark Young finishing four minutes behind Reading and Young in a (Subaru WRX Sti), by just one second, but a blistering fifth distant third outright.

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Last year’s outright winning driver, Nic Grave (Mitsubishi Sigma) and navigator Caleb Wade, were proving more than competitive until a fuel pump issue ended their event prematurely on the seventh stage.

Other notable retirements included Lee Peterson and Matthew Whitten (Nissan Sunny GTi), who lost a wheel after wheel studs broke, Tim Auty and Callan Randall (Mazda 323 GT-R), who experienced driveline issues, and Kurt Wyllie and Abbey Sims (Subaru WRX STi) with gearbox problems.

Further down the field, the battle for two-wheeldrive honours saw a convincing win to Aiden Peterson and Mitchell Newton, in a Daihatsu Charade, with a giant-killing performance to finish fifth outright ahead a number of higher profile contenders in conditions better suited to all-wheel-drive cars.

Father and son team Adrian and Jacob Walsh, with Jacob at the wheel of their Mazda RX-7, also surprised a few onlookers to finish 24 seconds further back in sixth outright and second in 2WD, with husband and wife team Ben and Reubecca Sheldrick (Holden Commodore), redeeming themselves in third for 2WD, after being forced out of last year’s event in similar conditions when their windscreen wipers failed.

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NATIONALS WRAP

POOLE TAKES THE IPR NATIONALS TITLE ADELAIDE DRIVER ADAM POOLE TOOK OUT THE 2023 IMPROVED PRODUCTION NATIONALS. THE EVENT WAS RUN AS PART OF ROUND 1 OF THE MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA ‘TROPHY SERIES’ WHICH WAS HELD AT SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK OVER THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 17 AND 18. AUTO ACTION’S BRUCE MOXON WAS ON HAND TO REPORT ON SOME GREAT RACING.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION RACING NATIONALS ADAM POOLE (pictured below) had invested heavily in taking out the 2023 IPR National title and delivered a flawless weekend of racing in his Monaro. Over the weekend he took pole position and won both his heat races ahead of taking victory in the final.

Having visited Sydney Motorsport Park a couple of weeks earlier for a NSW Championship round, Poole knew what he needed to win. He’d set a new lap record and worked out spring, shock and sway bar questions well ahead of time. He tried some taller tyres in Friday practice, but while they gave him another 5km/h on the straight (to 260 km/h), were not as effective over a lap.

Only in his second heat was Poole ever headed, when Ben Algie’s Nissan S15 got away at the start. Poole explained that his starts were a bit tricky as he had no linelocker to stop his Monaro from rolling as the SMP straight is on quite a slope.

Under and over 2-litre cars were mixed together in the heats, but then had their own finals.

In the opener, Poole won from Zac Hudson (RX-7) and Ryan Gorton’s 200SX. Heat 2 looked like it was going to be Lachlan McBrien’s (BMW M3) but his gearbox drain plug worked loose and he retired from a healthy lead with a lap to go, letting Kurt Macread’s 2-litre Nissan through to win from Ben Algie and Steven Engel’s Lancer. Fortunately, McBrien’s gearbox seemed not to be damaged Heat 3 was Poole again, from Algie and McBrien, who’d started at the back. Just McClintock retired with engine trouble in his Honda; he could have been a podium contender in the under 2-litre race. Heat 4 had Hudson from Macready and Engel.

Hudson won heat 5 from McBrien and Scott Cook’s Nissan Syliva. In heat 6 a first-lap drama took out Macready with, thankfully, only minor damage, as Poole won again from Gorton and Michael Hazelton’s RX-7.

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OVER 2-LITRE FINAL

POOLE GOOD a good start in the final and Hudson also made a good start and went with him, staying close enough for a half-lunge at Turn 6. Unfortunately, that was as close as he’d get as he was giving away the best part of 30km/h on the straight.

Hudson would later comment that ‘there’s no replacement for displacement.’

As the race went on for the 2023 Champion, Hudson was able to stay within sight of Poole, but over the race distance he slowly fell back – a second and a half on lap four, out to just over 6 seconds by lap 10. In the end it was a dominant performance, with Poole was comfortably ahead and racing within himself, winning by just over 11 seconds to Hudson and taking fastest lap. Third went to Scott Cook in his Silvia from Mc Brien and Hazelton.

UNDER 2-LITRE FINAL

IN THE under-2-litre final, Kurt Macready had to start a bit further back than he might have expected, on the third row of the grid, but was soon up second behind Gorton. At the end of the first lap, Tim Robson’s Civic ground to a halt at Turn 1.

Robson got it well out of the way, but it caught fire.

Dousing the flames meant a Safety Car for a couple of laps. At the restart, Gorton was heading Macready but not by much, then a small gap to the battling trio of Charlie Viola (Honda), Michael Ricketts (Pulsar) and David Birks (Corolla). Birks would retire on lap 10, parking out of harm’s way while Ricketts and Viola disputed second place, playing nice because they’re team-mates.

Gorton took the flag, but postrace scrutineering found a technical infringement and he was disqualified, leaving Macready with the silverware.

Ricketts in the Pulsar took second place, with Charlie Viola filling the final podium spot, Graham Bohm took fourth place in his Civic.

AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION CARS/GT4

THE AUSTRALIAN Production cars were scheduled to have four races of an hour each, with compulsory pit stops in each.

Iain Sherrin (pictured below) took all four races in the Production Car class, driving in his BMW M4.

Andrew Miedecke struggled all weekend with ongoing problems in his Mustang’s 10-speed automatic. A sensor failure on Friday meant a new gearbox that night, but a DNF followed in Race 1, although he did finish (and finish well) in the other races.

Second places went to Cameron Crick (Lancer), Grant Sherrin, Lindsay Kearns and Colby Cowham (Mustang).

In the GT4 category it was Shane Smollen and Justin Rugier who took their Porsche Cayman to three of the four wins, with the final going to Nash Morris in the AMG GT he shared with Mark Griffith.

Smollen and Rugier took second in that race, while Morris and Griffith took all the other second places.

Race 3 was red-flagged after 36 minutes, following a clash between Paul Morris (AMG) and Grant Sherrin’s BMW M4, which saw Morris make heavy contact with the wall and Sherrin’s car spread oil over much of the track.

The four races saw four different third place getters. In Race 1 it was Renee Gracie (Ginetta), Race 2 Paul Morris, Race 3 it was Tony Quinn (Cayman) and Steve Jukes (BMW M4 GT4) in the last.

EXCELS

CLOSE RACING was the order of the weekend in the Excels. William Brittain (pictured) took the first race from Hayden

Auld and Monique Scibberas. Shannon Williams took the next, from Scibberas, Auld and Brittain. Scibberas led early in the third,

with Auld and Brittain in hot pursuit. Brittain had a moment and dropped from second to fourth at the hairpin, then getting involved in a scrap with Auld and Williams – the three cars crossing the finish line abreast on lap three.

Brittain was able to get away from the others and chase down Scibberas, taking the lead on lap four, while Auld and Scibberas squabbled over the minor places.

Scibberas took second place right at the death, from Auld and Caleb Hefron.

Scibberas got away well in the final race, heading Brittain, Auld and Hefron. And that’s how they finished, apart from Hefron getting his nose ahead for a lap, before Auld repassed him on the final tour.

MARC CARS

A SMALL entry of MARC cars was bolstered by a couple of Production Sports Porsches, of Geoff Morgan and Eric Constantinidis. John Goodacre / Cameron McLeod took pole by over three seconds from Grant Donaldson who crashed heavily and would miss the three races. Race 1 started with Darren Currie crashing as well, with the first four laps running behind

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the Safety Car. Once the race resumed, McLeod led until his Compulsory Pit Stop, Goodacre rejoining in second behind Adam Hargraves. Geoff Morgan took third place, having run as high as second early on.

In Race 2 Hargraves led the first five laps before Goodacre made his way past. This race had no CPS, and that’s how they finished, with Jacob Camilleri next from Morgan.

The final race had adjusted CPS times, with Hargraves suffering the most.

Morgan led the first lap and a bit, before Goodacre made his way past at Turn 1.

Behind them was some chaos on the first lap, with Hargraves spinning at Turn 2 and Constantinidis coming to a near-complete stop to avoid him. Camilleri took the lead on lap nine and held it even through his pit stop, but McLeod was able to run him down to win, with Morgan third.

TOYOTA 86 SCHOLARSHIP SERIES THE TOYOTA Gazoo Racing Scholarship Series was back at Sydney Motorsport Park for round two of the series and Max Geoghegan (below), grandson of the late Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan, showed a lot of composure to take all three races under immense pressure at times. Brock Stinson took pole from Geoghegan, with Marcus La Delle and Ryan Tomsett next.

Geoghegan got the best of the start in the first race as Stinson was slow off the mark.

V10S ECHO AROUND THE BEND

RADICALS

TEENAGER ALEX Gardner made a great debut in the Workhorse Radical events.

He qualified third and made a great start, getting ahead of Terry Knowles/Bart Mawer and Joey Mawson/Mark Rosser. Gardner held the lead in the 50-minute race until

his CPS. Rosser then led until stopping and handing over to Mawer, when Gardner moved back into the lead. Behind Gardner were Chris Perrini and Elliott Schutte.

Gardner’s dream debut turned to a nightmare in the second race, a gearbox failure putting him out after 15 laps, while running a strong third and having led earlier. Rosser/Mawer led early but faded late in the race to be sixth but taking fastest lap as some consolation.

In the end it was former National Radical Champion Peter Paddon (pictured) who took the silverware with a convincing win over Schutte, from the combination of Peter Clare/Josh Hunt.

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La Delle had slotted into second after the first lap, from Tomsett. Stinson was up to second by lap four, from Tomsett, as La Delle’s car started to slip down the order, having lost power. La Delle would end up 12th, two places ahead of Matt Hillyer, who’d been doing so well in the series until this round. Geoghegan won by just under a second from Stinson and Tomsett.

La Delle came down pit road after the warm-up lap in the second race and was never in the hunt. Geoghegan led from start to finish but was under constant threat from Cody Burcher and Stinson. Geoghegan’s car appeared to be oversteering and this allowed his pursuers to get very close. On lap five, Geoghegan appeared with a sudden large gap behind him; Stinson and Burcher had collided at Turn 2, with Stinson being penalised 30 seconds post-race, dropping him well down the order. Burcher was down in eighth. Taking second and third were Lachlan Bloxsom and Ryan Gray.

Race 3 was more of the same, Geoghegan under constant attack from Bloxsom, who was unable to find a way past. The two ran side-by-side for several corners near the end of the race, but the result was the same, Geoghegan from Bloxsom, then Jack Westbury and Oscar Targett.

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THE LAMBORGHINI SUPER TROFEO ASIA SERIES MADE ITS AUSTRALIAN DEBUT AT THE BEND MOTORSPORT PARK IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA ON JUE9-11. MANY SPECTATORS MADE THE TRIP AN HOUR SOUTH-EAST OF ADELAIDE AND WERE NOT DISAPPOINTED, AS DAN MCCARTHY REPORTS LAMBORGHINIS from across the continent were the headline act with two 50-minute races, however the Australian Prototype Series, Australian Formula Open Championship, BMW E30s, SA Tin Tops and Circuit Excels were all in attendance.

Jonathan Cecotto, son of 500cc World Motorcycle race winner and Bathurst 1000 podium finisher Johnny, was fastest all weekend. He took pole position for Race 1 and held the lead on the rolling start ahead of Carrera Cup driver Jackson Walls, accomplished Kiwi Chris van der Drift, Dan Wells and Sam Brabham.

The top five remained in that order throughout the opening laps, with the top two skipping away.

Wells was a man on a mission in the opening stint overtaking van der Drift for third at Turn 6 and quickly caught Walls.

Walls fought hard and was able to keep Wells at bay before the compulsory pitstop window opened – however the fight allowed Cecotto to extend his lead.

Brabham was the first of the leading five cars into the lane as he handed the #6 machine to Dean Canto.

The two leaders came in a lap later; Jackson Walls handed over to his father, GT driver Tony, while as a single driver this round Cecotto remained in the car.

Wells and van der Drift pitted just before the window closed and handed over to Oscar Lee and Marco Giltrap respectively.

As they both emerged from the lane the Safety Car was called – the #18 machine was beached in the gravel at Turn 13.

On the restart Cecotto led from Giltrap, Walls, Canto and Lee – however Walls spun out of third at Turn 1.

As a result, the top two broke away, the Pro-Am class leader Oscar Lee now third ahead of Canto.

With four minutes remaining the #28 car hit the wall on the run to Turn 6 and as a result the race finished under Safety Car. Cecotto crossed the line first, but was handed a 30s post-race penalty for a Safety Car infringement, demoting him to 12th. Giltrap and van der Drift inherited the

Top: The Giltrap/van der Drift car took a win and second. Above: Cecotto set the pace.

Images: DAVID BATCHELOR win from Changwoo Lee/John Kwon the Am class winners.

Lee and Wells won Pro-Am and finished third outright ahead of Canto/Brabham and Aniwat Lommahadthai/Pasarit Promsombat in fifth.

In 14th, Supachai Weeraborwornpong won the Lamborghini Cup for older class cars.

Race 2 saw Cecotto start alongside Canto, and it was the Australian who made the better start, although he could not do anything with it and slotted into second.

On lap one Cecotto pulled a 1.5s lead and continued to edge away lap after lap as Canto was being pursued by Giltrap.

Giltrap was first to stop, hopping out for van der Drift. A lap later his rival Canto entered the lane swapping out for Brabham. The undercut paid dividends for the #84 Absolute Racing crew as they jumped ahead of Brabham.

Cecotto went long and re-joined the track with an 11s lead over van der Drift. Despite his best efforts in the final stint van der Drift could not close the gap.

It was redemption for Cecotto who took the win by 13s, van der Drift and Giltrap finished second, with the all-Aussie pair of Brabham and Canto rounding out the top three.

For the second day running Lee and Wells won the Pro-Am class in fourth ahead of the Walls duo.

Lommahadthai and Promsombat won the Am class as Kumar Prabakaran and Chi Min Ma took out Lamborghini Cup.

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NATIONALS WRAP

RAIN BRINGS GREAT ACTION IN THE WEST

THE WA SPORTING CAR CLUB’S JUNE RACE MEETING AT WANNEROO RACEWAY WAS HELD UNDER THREATENING SKIES AND EVENTUALLY LATER RACES TOOK PLACE ON A DAMP TRACK WHICH MADE FOR SOME INTERESTING RACE RESULTS. AUTO ACTION’S RAY OLIVER WAS ON HAND TO COVER THE EVENT. HISTORIC TOURING CARS

THE DAY started in dry conditions with the Mustangs of Brian Edhouse and Graeme Woolhouse qualifying one-two over John Bondi in his HQ Monaro.

The first race of the day was run in dry conditions, and the top three on the grid retained their places across the eight-lap opener. However, with rain arriving the results for Races 2 and 3 were a different story with the XU1 Torana of Stuart Young excelling in the wet conditions. The Mini driven by Mitchell Evans was nipping at the tail of the Edhouse throughout the last two races to claim a pair of top five results.

SPORT SEDAN, SPORTS CARS AND WA MUSCLE CARS

Top: Mark Redman heads the Formula Ford field. Above: Brian Edhouse shows the way in Historic tourers. Below left: William Norman heads Stewart Burns and Allan jones in Free Formula. Right: David Caisey and Paul Mooltoni head the Vees bunch. Images: RAY OLIVER

FORMULA FORDS

THE MOST on track action of the day was put on by the Formula Fords with some great wheel-to-wheel racing. There was a four to five car fight almost all day with Logan Eveleigh taking both the opening races from Marc Redman. Race 3 was held in wet conditions and went right down to the last corner with Brock Brewer trying to pass Redman around the outside. However, Redman held on as Brewer ran out of laps to finish his challenge for the win.

FREE FORMULA/HISTORIC RACING & SPORTS CAR SERIES/FSR

WITH MOST of the FSR field away getting ready for Radical Cup Australia

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A VERY small grid of five Porsches and one TA2 car showed up for the category’s twin 15-lap races. Richard Bloomfield in his Porsche 997 GT3R would win the first race in the dry conditions, but in the second race it was Walter Epple driving a Porsche 997 who came through to give a master class in wet conditions.

Mark Cirillio’s debut in his new Porsche almost was over before it started with a high speed off out of Turn 7 where he thankfully missed the internal pitlane walls.

FORMULA VEE

opener in Sydney, only Stuart and Cameron Burns joined the Free Formulas in the 11-car field. Both claimed the front row but lost the lead to William Norman (RT4) and Allan Jones (RT5) into Turn 1 after their first taste of standing starts.

This would restrict the Burns brothers to third and fourth when the chequered flag arrived. Race 2 was another story being a tight three-way fight for the podium won

by Norman. However, he would receive a penalty for passing under yellow and dropped to third. The fight for the win between Stuart Burns and Jones would go to the line with Jones edging ahead by a nose cone. A downpour arrived for race 3 and Norman went backwards in the slick shod Ralt. Jones had put on wets but could not beat Burns with Ricky Virago in third.

WET AND greasy conditions were on show for all three of the Formula Vee races. The 1600s had a cracking duel with Paul Moltoni, Franz Esterbauer and David Caisley fighting it out lap after lap. Moltoni eventually prevailed over Esterbauer in the run to the line, which would be the highlight for the latter.

In Race 2 he would spin into Turn 1 at the start in the changing conditions as Caisley took victory ahead of Picket.

Andrew Locket and Brett Scarey were the giant killers with getting up to fourth and fifth outright in their 1200s. Race 3 was again a wet affair with Caisley taking the flag from Picket in the 1600s and Locket getting ahead again of Scarey in the 1200s.

DRAG RACING

HARRIS TAKES OUT

TOP FUEL TITLE THE DESTINATION of the Stan Sainty Cup has been decided with it resting in the hands of 2022/23 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel champion Damien Harris.

A three-way championship showdown was on the cards at the Nitro Up North finale with Harris leading both Peter Xiberras and Jim Read by 65 points.

Despite reigning champion Xiberras giving it everything to defend his title by winning the season finale at Hidden Valley, Harris joined him in the A Final, which was more than enough to seal the deal.

The Rapisarda Autosport International driver confirmed the championship success as early as Round 2 when he defeated Kyle Putland.

Meanwhile, Read’s campaign ended in a solo in the D-Final which saw his 4.160s pass punctuated by a half-track explosion and a cooked right rear tyre.

This all meant Harris was champion and he was thrilled after overcoming some “silly mistakes”.

“It is an awesome job by the team, I am lost for words a little,” Harris said.

“I can’t wait to give the Stan Sainty Cup to Santo Snr back in Sydney when we get there.

“It is awesome you know, we got out there in front points-wise, and then we struggled a bit towards the back end of the season with silly mistakes, so to come back and get it is awesome.”

Rapisarda Autosport International crew chief Santo Rapisarda Junior provided an insight into the team’s journey after falling short last year.

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“The first thing I said was that was a driver’s win,” he said.

“We saw (Wayne) Newby’s car shake and I got a bit nervous, but that is why he (Harris) is number one.

“He is a great driver and he deserved it last year, but we got it this year, “We assembled this team at the start of last year and they have come along in leaps and bounds. I am so proud of them.”

It was a complete reverse of what occurred last season when Xiberras won the title and Harris secured the Nitro Up North finale in the A Final showdown.

This time it was the PremiAir Racing driver, who dominated proceedings at Hidden Valley.

Xiberras landed the first blow by topping qualifying after beating Read with a 4.101s pass at 222.99mph.

But this could not stop Harris from getting the trophy that mattered most.

The B and C final wins went to Phil Lamattina and Olive over Wayne Newby and Kyle Putland respectively.

In addition to the Top Fuel title, the Top Doorslammer and Top Fuel Motorcycle crowns were also on the line.

The Top Doorslammer honours were effectively a formality with Kelvin Lyle only needing to qualify for the event, which he duly did so.

Although 11-time champion John Zappia reminded the field of his class in qualifying, Lyle was determined to complete his title in style when the pair lined up for the A Final.

However, any celebrations were mooted in the decider when Lyle suffered a heavy

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Top: Damien Harris and team – champions. Above: Peter Xiberras shaded Harris in the Darwin finale. Below: Rob Cassar locked up Top Fuel Motorcycles. Images: CACKLING PIPES PHOTOGRAPHY overshoot accident and was hospitalised (thankfully he is in a stable condition), while Zappia was declared the winner.

The Top Fuel Motorcycle title was still well and truly up for grabs in the finale with Rob Cassar leading Benny Stevens by 47 points.

Stevens held the upper hand after beating his rival in qualifying by going 30mph faster on Friday night.

But when the rivals faced off again 24 hours later, the title was on the line as early as Round 2.

It was Cassar, who rose to the occasion, progressing and ending his rival’s dreams after Stevens crossed the centre line.

Cassar went on to go all the way to the A Final where he faced off with Aaron Deery and got the job done to celebrate his longawaited title in style.

“It has been a long year and 27,000 kilometres, and it is a miracle,” said the emotional 2022/23 Top Fuel Motorcycles champion.

“I am the smallest bike in the field and probably the smallest, most under-budget

guy. We bleed drag racing and I have been doing this for 32 years.

“This is fantastic. I can’t do it without my crew, my wife, my nephew, my sponsors, and everyone that helps me.

“I lost my dad in March. My dad used to say I am crazy (doing this), and I think he was right!

“Gavin Spann was the last one to win a title on a nitrous bike in Australia, so it has been a while, and it is just fantastic.”

The Nitro Up North event closed the curtain on one era of the sport, but a new one begins in October when the National Drag Racing Championships begin at The Bend on October 22.

Thomas Miles

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DARWIN SUPPORTS

BREWCYNSKI MAKES A NAME FOR HIMSELF

DRIVERS COME OUT TO PLAY

David Waldon won the finale. Image: ROSS GIBB

THERE IS a new name on top in Aussie Racing Cars – Cody Brewczynski (#18 above) – who overcame the heavyweights to take round honours at Hidden Valley.

In another enthralling round of action in Darwin, just nine points separated the top four cars in the fight for supremacy with Brewczynski’s flying finish enough to get the job done.

There was no time to mess around for the 31 cars taking on the fourth round of the championship with three races squeezed into Saturday’s schedule.

The action started with a familiar script as championship leader Joel Heinrich scored his 10th win of the year.

Heinrich sealed the victory with a move on poleman Josh Anderson at Turn 5 on lap 3 which left Anderson to hold off Brewczynski for second.

Race 2 was a dramatic affair with a fierce fight for the lead.

Once again Heinrich lined up Anderson at Turn 5 and this time the latter was demoted to third behind Brewczynski.

By the time Heinrich saluted the chequered flag for a 10th time in 14 races, Anderson once again found himself on the back foot and dropped to fourth in the late jostling for position.

The third Saturday race was a wild affair, with the reverse grid contest being decided by a single-lap showdown.

It took Brewczynski just three laps to get to the lead, but in his slipstream the entire way was Anderson.

Their charge was interrupted by a Safety Car caused by the parked Denis Butler.

This set up a one-lap dash to the flag where Brewczynski held his nerve to secure a breakthrough triumph ahead of Anderson and Anthony Di Mauro.

The finale was another unpredictable

affair with race and round honours going down to the final lap.

Brewczynski and Anderson were embroiled in a battle for the lead which was interrupted by the Safety Car, which was required after Cody Mckay, Brendon Tucker, Scott O’Keefe, Matt Gooding, Grant and Craig Thompson were all caught up in two separate incidents at Turns 1 and 5.

For the second straight race a last-lap sprint to the chequered was on the cards.

Brewczynski was able to resist an assault from Chapman, who slipped behind Anderson in the contest for second.

The applause were saved for Brewczynski, who kept his cool under pressure to claim a maiden round win ahead of Anderson, Heinrich and Chapman.

Aussie Racing Cars are back in action in Townsville on July 7-9.

Thomas Miles

CARS OF all shapes and sizes took part in the Combined Sedans category where Tim Playford emerged victorious in his Mazda 808.

Across three races, a huge 39-car field featuring a mix of Mazdas, Commodores, Falcons, Excels and HQs ventured around the 2.9km Hidden Valley Raceway.

From the early laps it was clear P1 would be fought between the two Mazdas of Playford and David Waldon.

Just 0.0971s was the difference in qualifying with Queenslander Waldon edging ahead of hometown racer Playford.

Only three laps were possible in the opening race, but this was enough time for Playford to get the better of Waldon, while VH Commodore runner David Ling was not far behind.

An extra lap was received for the second race and it was a repeat result with Playford leading home Waldon by three seconds.

VH Commodore runners Ling and Ian Roots followed the Mazdas home, while AU Falcon driver Shawn Jamieson completed the top five.

Neither Anthony Whitehair or Garry Dempsey made it past the first lap.

Sick of finishing second best, Waldon turned the tables to take victory in the third and final race.

The Mazda RX3 driver beat his Mazda 808 rival by the best part of a second after their five-lap dash.

Despite the late success, Playford still clung onto overall and Improved Production honours.

HQ Holdens were insanely close with Lee Smith and Peter Anderson tying on points, while the healthy Circuit Excel class went to Asher Johnston.

Ling claimed the Commodore Cup after a tight battle with Roots.

Thomas Miles

HERFOSS KEEPS RIVALS AT BAY AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKES brought some rare twowheel action to a Supercars race meeting at the Darwin Triple Crown and produced some great racing.

At the heat of it all was a thrilling arm wrestle between the likes of Troy Herfoss, Mike Jones and Josh Waters.

Hidden Valley marked the halfway mark of the season and following a nail-biting round Waters now leads Herfoss by just eight points.

Waters laid the foundations by dominating the opening race, converting his pole position.

Behind him Jones and Glenn Allerton were in an arm wrestle for second, and the pair traded blows between Turns 5 and 6.

Just when the #1 Yamaha looked safe, Allerton slipped back past at the hairpin to take second behind the dominant Waters.

Although Waters had a joyride on Saturday, Sunday was a different story with Herfoss and Jones duking it out for glory.

The #21 Ducati rider looked destined to go back to back leading the opening lap of Race 2.

However, Waters speared off at the end the main

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straight and slipped all the way from first to 13th.

This left Herfoss and Jones to scrap it out for first which is exactly what they did.

After a tense back and forth battle, a mistake missing the apex in the ‘Valley’ by Jones opened the door for Herfoss to ride through.

This proved decisive as Herfoss made sure he did not lose the lead until the chequered flag with Allerton in third and Waters recovering to fifth.

There was even more action in the finale as five bikes went into Turn 1 side by side.

Arthur Sissis made a bold move on the outside, but emerging from the long left-hander in P1 was Herfoss ahead of Allerton.

However, Allerton only lasted until Turn 5 when he fell off, while Cru Halliday also found the turf.

The rest of the race was all about the battle at the front where Herfoss and Jones were at each other.

After many near misses down the main straight, Jones made his move at the hairpin, but Herfoss immediately fired back at the following corner.

With Waters once again in third, the wins were a vital

Herfoss heads a watchful Jones. “confidence booster” for Herfoss, who is now just eight points behind in the standings ahead of next round at Morgan Park on July 14-16.

Thomas Miles ASBK CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 1 Josh Waters 220 points 2 Troy Herfoss 212 3 Mike Jones 161 4 Glenn Allerton 160 5 Cru Halliday 145

WOOD CELEBRATES CENTURY IN STYLE DALE WOOD raised a century of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia races by stitching together the perfect weekend at Hidden Valley Raceway.

No one could come close to Wood as the 40-year-old took pole position, a new lap record and round honours by winning all three races.

The results were so strong it shot Wood from a distant fourth to second in the championship, while Jackson Walls took the lead as Max Vidau struggled.

But the weekend was all about Wood, who was thrilled to celebrate his century of races in such commanding fashion.

“It’s just unbelievable,” he said.

“To go and do that, to get pole, three race wins and a lap record ... I’ll call that a good weekend. It’s bloody awesome.”

After a long 76-day break after the season opener at Albert Park, the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia season fired back to life at the Top End. Unlike the dark and gloomy Australian Grand Prix, cars were greeted with bright sunshine at Hidden Valley and the times were hot from the word go.

Wood instantly showed pace, but he was just 0.0084s away from being the fastest on Friday, which went to Dylan O’Keeffe, while Walls was also within a tenth from the top.

This set the scene for a competitive qualifying session where the top four were all within a tenth.

But in a sign of what was to come, it was Wood who emerged on top.

His 1:06.6637 was 0.0581s ahead of Walls, while Thomas Maxwell and O’Keeffe were within 0.04s from the runner-up.

Despite the close margins over one lap, there was no stopping Wood over a race distance.

The first of his three wins were set up off the line with car #992 getting the jump over Walls, who bogged it down.

As Walls had to get his elbows out to hold onto second, Alex Davison got an even worse start and stalled his #222, but eventually got going.

Despite the slow getaway, Davison climbed his way back into the top 15 by Lap 6.

O’Keeffe battled for pace and was pushed off at Turn 5 but this was the least of his worries as he crawled to last a lap down due to damage.

The battle for Pro Am was interesting with Adrian Flack diving down the inside of Sam Shahin before the latter hit back on Lap 15 as Rodney Jame spun out.

Chris Pither and Vidau put on a show, going side by side from Turns 1 to 6 with Vidau finally making it stick at the exit of the hairpin to take ninth.

Despite a late charge from Walls, Wood was never troubled on his way to a 0.3s win with Maxwell a further 6s back in third.

The top seven positions were stagnant for all 18 laps as Fabian Coulthard finished his first Carrera Cup race in 18 years in eighth.

Although Wood waltzed to another win on Sunday morning, there was plenty of drama behind.

Callum Hedge got a lightning start to fly past Walls and challenge Wood for the lead around the outside of Turn 1.

Despite the young Kiwi hanging tough, Wood clung onto P1 around the long left-hander as Ryder Quinn spun.

Turn 5 became a hotspot with Matthew Belford’s right front tyre exploding and leaving debris on corner entry.

Soon after, contact with Coulthard sent Nick McBride spinning, while the sister BWT entry of Courtney Prince also ran into trouble, firing Quin into the wall. To complete the drama Pither was also spun at the first turn.

Up front Wood held off Hedge to go back-to-back, while Jane took his first Pro-Am win since Bathurst 2008.

It was another Wood v Hedge battle at the start of Race 3 with the Kiwi mounting an even more significant challenge around the outside.

But just when Hedge looked to have won the battle, Wood hit back to take the lead and was never headed.

Walls settled into third as the battle for the remainder of the top five was intense with a big gaggle of cars squabbling for position.

Simon Fallon and David Russell were the big movers getting to fourth and

sixth respectively.

The race was quiet until Lap 16 when Jane and Belford speared off at Turn 11.

This handed Pro-Am honours to Dean Cook, while Tim Miles stood on the podium for the first time in 23 years.

After a long break between Rounds 1 and 2, drivers only have to wait until July 7-9 for the next round, in Townsville.

Thomas Miles PORSCHE CARRERA CUP AUSTRALIA CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 2 ROUNDS 1 Jackson Walls 264 points 2 Dale Wood 259 3 Callum Hedge 247 4 Max Vidau 153 5 Thomas Maxwell 144

Top: Dale Wood wins – a dominant weekend. Image: MARK HORSBURGH Above right: On the comeback, Fabian Coulthard heads a tight group.

Below: Callum Hedge took out second place points.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 5 – DARWIN

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES/MARK HORSBURGEDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS/ROSS GIBB PHOTOGRAPHY

DARWIN DELIVERS FIRST UP WINNERS THE DARWIN TRIPLE CROWN WITNESSED THREE SUPERCARS FIRSTS: TEAM 18 AND MATT STONE RACING RECORDED THEIR FIRST EVER MAIN GAME VICTORIES, WHILST BROC FEENEY TOOK HIS FIRST PODIUM SWEEP AND ROUND WIN TO TRULY ANNOUNCE HIMSELF AS A SERIOUS CHAMPIONSHIP THREAT. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS… ROUND FIVE of the Supercars 2023 season headed to Hidden Valley Raceway in the Top End, and would be the last of a four-race SuperSprint stretch before the longer stuff briefly gets going again in Townsville.

The sprint format had so far covered Melbourne, Perth, Tasmania, and now Darwin, with teams having found plenty out about where they stand in the Gen3 pecking order, and where they need to find improvement.

Erebus headed into Darwin with a Championship one-two, as Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown deservedly occupied those spots respectively.

They would leave the Top End having preserved those spots, but not without Triple Eight’s Broc ‘Mr Sunday’ Feeney having shut the gap to 91 points.

The teams would get a true test of juggling the new Dunlop Super Soft after the low degradation surface of Tasmania saw the same tyre allocation, with drivers facing the hottest on-track and in-cabin conditions that the Gen3 season will most likely witness.

The Gen3 ‘P’ buzz word of the year would continue to be thrown about both pre and post-event. Ford’s head of performance Mark Rushbrook had said pre-Darwin that they have the utmost confidence in the Mustang machinery, but that parity won’t be achieved without data transparency between the two makes.

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FRIDAY

Feeney again ‘lit up’ on Sunday, getting the better of his illustrious team-mate.

After what would prove another poor showing in the pointy end of the field for the Mustang’s despite the addition of the V3 engine mapping, WAU team principal Bruce Stewart declared that parity is “more than white noise”, as it was again clear that the Ford drivers are tending to cook their tyres at a far quicker rate than than the Camaros do.

To a typically healthy Darwin Triple Crown crowd, the Supercar teams and their indigenous liveried cars not only looked great, but put on a pretty good show in the Top End. The round would offer up three different winners, including a couple of unexpected wins by veteran Mark Winterbottom and the popular Jack Le Brocq, whilst Race 1 would literally get pretty fiery ...

THE OPENING day of the Darwin Triple Crown saw two half-hour practice sessions that would see teams protect their Super Soft allocation of four pre-marked, and 28 eventmarked Dunlops, alongside a completely unnecessary allocation of wets.

The two sessions were marked by teams using the track sparingly, with plenty of time tinkering in the sheds as they got the balances right. And despite the long Hidden Valley pit straight, they opted for a steeper rear wing to better aid cornering capability rather than speed down the 1.1km stretch.

The opening session would see Feeney top the timesheets with a 1:06.513 over a near session-high 15 laps, whilst his T8 teammate would have a difficult day overall, at first with a software issue with Supercars’ new Safety Car test system, and in the second practice, a mysterious steering issue.

In a show of one-lap pace, the Mustangs were more present than the Camaros in the top-10, whilst plenty of drivers were locking up deep into Turn 1.

Anton De Pasquale would get the job done in the second session with a 1:06.285, as the entire field would be split by 0.682s in another tentative session which surprisingly had Chaz Mostert at the bottom of the pack.

Above: After his team’s miracle rebuild overnight following Saturday’s nasty inderno (below) Cam Waters put together a character-filled Sunday, fifth in the third. Left: Will Davison and local Bryce Fullwooed each took a pair of top 10s.

Whilst DJR would be buoyed by their practice improvement, Shane van Gisbergen and T8 would be left with an overnight task, as he again saw little time on track after experiencing an unstable Camaro, heading to the garage with a steering complaint that would pull his #97 to the left under braking.

SATURDAY - Q1/RACE 13

THE REAL stuff got underway with a 45 minute three-part Qualifying knockout session for Race 13, and some brief joy was given to the Gen3 Mustang component as Cam Waters took his first pole for 2023.

In what would end up being a very tough day for Waters and the Tickford team, he’d also be the only car to go under the six second mark with a blistering late pass of 1:05.902, with the largest margin between the field being a 0.838s split down to Randle in the top-10 Q3 session.

Q1 had SVG appearing after most of the #97 Camaro’s steering components were replaced, whilst Fraser, Hazelwood, Reynolds, Smith, Jones, and Percat would all

get the chop, as Waters just scraped through in P20.

The second Q2 session had some surprising omissions by the end, with both Erebus cars missing out after Kostecki chose to stay in, thinking his time would cut it. De Pasquale would also miss, with the split being just 0.653s down to Courtney, as Le Brocq, Payne, Heimgartner, Hill, Mostert, and the 26th (wildcard) entry in Zane Goddard all missed out.

Feeney would then put in a six flat before Waters jumped him late to take pole, whilst Winterbottom secured P3 next to SVG, with Davison and Fullwood on the third row, over Golding, Slade, Pye, and Randle.

RACE 13 – VICTORY IGNITES TEARS FOR TEAM 18

AN EMOTIONAL maiden victory came in the opener for Team 18 after a decade of attempts, as ‘Frosty’ Winterbottom secured it for Charlie Schwerkolt and the crew.

As well as it being his first win since 2016, it was his first

Team 18 podium, and he had to choke back some tears post-race after taking Feeney to the line by 0.456s.

DJR’s Davison would take just the seventh Mustang podium of the year and the team’s first – whilst the race would also be remembered for Waters’ fiery exit on Lap 4.

After Frosty took P2 from Feeney on the inside of Turn 1, he inherited the lead after the #6 Mustang started billowing with flames inside and out, as he stopped at the exit of Turn 1, thankfully escaping the cloud of petrol smoke, and put the fire out himself, with help from nearby marshalls.

The cause would be identified as a fuel fitting having come loose, spraying fuel under the bonnet and igniting, bringing out a Safety Car. That then caused a chaotic fullfield pit stop to jump on the compulsory tyre change, with Winterbottom coming out over Feeney and Davison.

After the race turned green on Lap 10, the fiery scenes kept coming as Fraser went off and caused a grass fire in a similar place when he took off, bringing out the last Safety Car for the weekend.

On the Lap 19 resumption, Frosty kept his lead, whilst both

Pure joy for Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18, as Mark Winterbottom registers the team’s first win.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 5 – DARWIN

Erebus cars had made it into the top-10, with plenty of contact being made down a tight field.

Fullwood in the meantime was looking at a season best finish in P4, as Winterbottom nursed his rears out front which kept Feeney interested.

Kostecki got a movie done on Fullwood with four laps to run, whilst the podium was looking relatively settled.

Despite Feeney shutting the gap slightly, the #18 Camaro leader used all the experience that had netted him a championship and 38 Supercar victories, to make it 39 for him, and a memorable #1 for Team 18.

SUNDAY - Q1/Q2/RACE 14/RACE 15

QUALIFYING FOR Races 14 and 15 would greet drivers with vastly different track conditions than what they had on Saturday, with far less grip on offer for the back-to-back 15 minute sessions.

With only the Aussie SuperBikes having been out, there was little Dunlop rubber on the track and the temp was also slightly down to begin with.

The morning was also punctuated with the remarkable effort of Tickford getting the #6 Mustang back out on track - an unlikely outcome given the severity of Saturday’s fire.

Qualifying would provide another “team first moment” after Mr Sunday did what he does best on his traditional prayer day with a third career pole. Le Brocq followed that up by securing MSR’s first ever pole – backing up from their great Tassie Q-sessions – with the 30-year-old showing why he’s inside the championship top-10.

With the last three minutes typically providing the top-10 in a 15 minute hit-out, Feeney would use the rebuilt Waters Mustang to get a tow down the straight to put up a 1:06.142 to grab pole.

In what would prove a fantastic Sunday for another driver, BJR’s Andre Heimgartner took P2 over SVG, whilst Kostecki and Brown finished over Golding, Percat, Davison, Fullwood and Hazelwood.

With more grip and heat on the tarmac for Q3, the

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sectors were again lit up with late runs at P1, and at first, it looked as though Feeney would do the double when he got another tow.

But late flyers from the #34 MSR, Heimgartner and Winterbottom respectively, would see him dislodged into P4 over Brown, Davison, Waters, De Pasquale, SVG, and Scotty Pye.

RACE 14 – MR SUNDAY … TAKE 4

ONE DAY he’ll do it on a Saturday, but there’s plenty enough Sundays left in the year for it not to matter, as Feeney continued his march into championship contention.

The 20-year-old just keeps showing up his threetime title-holding teammate in 2023, taking van Gisbergen to the line by 1.475s, whilst Heimgartner would take his third podium of the season.

It was a strong race all round for BJR as Fullwood and Jones would also get in the 10, as well as PremiAir’s Golding and Pye with Erebus also joining the party making it a 9/10 Camaro split, with Randle elevated into the 10 post-race after a Percat penalty on Reynolds saw him drop out.

The 400m sprint to Turn 1 saw Feeney take the inside corner, whilst SVG moved neatly on Kostecki into P3.

The #88 got a clean break on Heimgartner as SVG backed off to protect his tyres.

Brown went in for an early undercut which would nearly pay off after getting clean air, whilst van Gisbergen started to pull up on Heimgartner which triggered his pit stop.

After he re-entered in front of Brown, Feeney then went for fresh rears and came out over Heimgartner who had a tyre advantage.

Whilst Feeney defended hard, SVG went in for rears on Lap 25, rejoining in P3 over Brown.

As Heimgartner then fell off, SVG took him on the outside at Turn 5.

There was no catching his Red Bull partner however, whilst Heimgartner enjoyed a comfortable gap for the podium over Brown and Kostecki.

QUALIFYING RACE 13 Pos Driver 1 Cam Waters 2 Broc Feeney 3 Mark Winterbottom 4 Shane van Gisbergen 5 Will Davison 6 Bryce Fullwood 7 James Golding 8 Tim Slade 9 Scott Pye 10 Thomas Randle 11 Brodie Kostecki 12 Anton De Pasquale 13 Jack Le Brocq 14 Matthew Payne 15 Andre Heimgartner 16 Cameron Hill 17 Chaz Mostert 18 Zane Goddard 19 Will Brown 20 James Courtney 21 Declan Fraser 22 Todd Hazelwood 23 David Reynolds 24 Jack Smith 25 Macauley Jones 26 Nick Percat

RESULTS RACE 13 35 LAPS Time 01:05.9027 +0.1058 +0.2256 +0.2907 +0.3720 +0.5655 +0.6039 +0.7611 +0.8277 +0.8383 +0.3881 +0.4011 +0.4376 +0.4492 +0.4833 +0.5356 +0.5391 +0.5640 +0.6288 +0.6534 +0.5636 +0.5673 +0.5720 +0.5815 +0.7067 +0.8033

Pos Drivers 1 Mark Winterbottom 2 Broc Feeney 3 Will Davison 4 Brodie Kostecki 5 Bryce Fullwood 6 Shane van Gisbergen 7 Will Brown 8 Chaz Mostert 9 Anton De Pasquale 10 Tim Slade 11 Jack Le Brocq 12 Scott Pye 13 Cameron Hill 14 James Golding 15 Macauley Jones 16 Andre Heimgartner 17 Todd Hazelwood 18 Nick Percat 19 Matthew Payne 20 David Reynolds 21 Thomas Randle 22 Zane Goddard 23 James Courtney 24 Jack Smith NC Declan Fraser NC Cam Waters

Laps Race time 35 46:52.8384 35 +0.4561 35 +3.3527 35 +4.6420 35 +7.5152 35 +9.4362 35 +9.9630 35 +10.1114 35 +11.1581 35 +13.9438 35 +15.5451 35 +16.4704 35 +16.7379 35 +17.0134 35 +17.6103 35 +18.4016 35 +19.8496 35 +21.0588 35 +22.3188 35 +22.5711 35 +23.9029 35 +24.0630 35 +27.5850 30 +5 Laps 11 3

s2 s2 s6 s1 t2 s12 s9 s3 t3 s2 t4 s3 t3 s10 t1 s5 s8 t5 s3 t12 t4 t3 t4 t25

James Courtney had a rough weekend after early contact. Percat follows – WAU had a tough weekend too, though Mostert charged from the back to P9 in the final race. Below left: Andre Heimgartner joined the ‘Sunday’ Club, co-starring with a pair of second places.

Below right: James Golding is out wide with a queue of cars bumper-to-bumper on the inside ...

Sunday saw Matt Stone Racing join the Winners Club, with Jack le Brocq (above, left) doing the business from pole, gapping Heimgartner for the victory. Below left: The usual strong Darwin crowd watches on, as Reynolds heads Golding and Hazelwood.

RACE 15 – LE BROCQ, STOCK, AND ONE MAIDEN VICTORY

IN A weekend of emotional breakthroughs, the popular and admired team of Matt Stone Racing took out a maiden Supercars win with their small family-run operation.

It would be an assured drive from pole for Le Brocq, as he never realistically looked like getting beaten, putting in the kind of front-running display that a driver like Brown has been readily praised for this year.

This time Heimgartner would keep hold of P2, as Feeney would compete the podium to get his first SuperSprint trophy (in this case a didgeridoo) sweep.

After comfortably getting to the inside on Turn 1, Le QUALIFYING RACE 14 Pos Driver 1 Broc Feeney 2 Andre Heimgartner 3 Shane van Gisbergen 4 Brodie Kostecki 5 Will Brown 6 James Golding 7 Nick Percat 8 Will Davison 9 Bryce Fullwood 10 Todd Hazelwood 11 Matthew Payne 12 Macauley Jones 13 Scott Pye 14 Declan Fraser 15 Jack Le Brocq 16 Tim Slade 17 Cameron Hill 18 Thomas Randle 19 Jack Smith 20 Zane Goddard 21 Anton De Pasquale 22 David Reynolds 23 Mark Winterbottom 24 Chaz Mostert 25 Cam Waters 26 James Courtney

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Brocq won the opening drag, whilst Winterbottom came under instant pressure from Feeney as a clustered field turned through the hairpin with lots of wheel-to-wheel and panel contact.

After making contact with DJR’s De Pasquale, the championship leader was forced to wobble into the shed with severe steering damage, with the team scrambling to get him back out in a bid to register 26 laps – which they did by a hair.

Le Brocq gradually put the tenths up on Heimgartner as Feeney and Brown hung onto the back of Winterbottom.

Goddard’s T8 wildcard weekend would end in a lowly finish after getting the wrong side of a charging Mostert, as Feeney and Brown went for the first undercut options.

With the leading trio then following suit a lap later, Frosty was the odd one out, getting caught on his cold tyres by both Feeney and Brown.

Brown would get an infringement for a bump and run on Winterbottom, whilst SVG had a stall in the pits, which potentially cost him a podium.

After Waters was the last car to pit, Le Brocq inherited his lead back on Lap 25 of 35, while the split to the BJR Camaro had grown to two and half seconds.

Despite his earlier stall, SVG then made a series of moves on Davison, and then Winterbottom, again using Turn 5, to be three seconds back on Brown in P4 – who

RESULTS RACE 14 35 LAPS Time 01:06.1426 +0.0098 +0.0140 +0.0712 +0.1445 +0.1603 +0.2125 +0.2369 +0.2518 +0.2581 +0.2600 +0.2652 +0.2691 +0.2711 +0.3068 +0.3401 +0.3518 +0.3528 +0.3603 +0.3785 +0.3788 +0.4342 +0.4370 +0.4406 +0.5962 +0.6712

Pos Drivers 1 Broc Feeney 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 Andre Heimgartner 4 Brodie Kostecki 5 Will Brown 6 James Golding 7 Macauley Jones 8 Bryce Fullwood 9 Scott Pye 10 Thomas Randle 11 Tim Slade 12 Cam Waters 13 Chaz Mostert 14 Todd Hazelwood 15 Cameron Hill 16 James Courtney 17 Anton De Pasquale 18 Mark Winterbottom 19 Nick Percat 20 Jack Le Brocq 21 Zane Goddard 22 David Reynolds 23 Matthew Payne 24 Will Davison 25 Declan Fraser NC Jack Smith

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QUALIFYING RACE 15 Laps Race time 35 40:48.2780 35 +1.4763 35 +3.306 35 +4.1347 35 +10.9813 35 +11.8306 35 +15.4381 35 +15.7798 35 +19.8413 35 +21.9617 35 +22.4285 35 +25.1759 35 +25.8514 35 +26.143 35 +27.6201 35 +30.4015 35 +31.2377 35 +32.8866 35 +36.5241 35 +37.3011 35 +37.852 34 +1 Lap 34 +1 Lap 32 +3 Laps 29 +6 Laps 19

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s1 t1 s5 s1 s4 s8 s5 s13 s11 t4 s2 s10 s4 s5 t12 t5 t1 t12 t16 t11 t7

Pos Driver 1 Jack Le Brocq 2 Andre Heimgartner 3 Mark Winterbottom 4 Broc Feeney 5 Will Brown 6 Will Davison 7 Cam Waters 8 Anton De Pasquale 9 Shane van Gisbergen 10 Scott Pye 11 Brodie Kostecki 12 Thomas Randle 13 Todd Hazelwood 14 Bryce Fullwood 15 James Golding 16 Zane Goddard 17 Macauley Jones 18 Declan Fraser 19 David Reynolds 20 Cameron Hill 21 Matthew Payne 22 Tim Slade 23 Jack Smith 24 Nick Percat 25 Chaz Mostert 26 James Courtney

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had a penalty still to be applied.

It finished with the podium well decided, although Heimgartner did pull some time back on Le Brocq, who scored a memorable win to cap off an entertaining debut for the Gen3 cars at Hidden Valley.

Waters would settle into P5 over the demoted Brown, with Winterbottom, Davison, Mostert and Hazelwood making up the top-10.

With the run of four straight SuperSprint formats at an end, a brief return to some longer form racing returns with the Townsville 500 on July 7-9.

Only two more SuperSprint then remain, with back-toback rounds at SMP and the The Bend, before the return of the Sandown 500 precedes the Great Race, the GC 500, and Adelaide.

As the season now stands, Brodie Kostecki kept his championship lead in Darwin, sitting on 1164 points, with his mate Will Brown holding the Erebus fort in second on 1105.

Feeney was the big gainer in the Top End, closing that gap to within 32 points to the #9 contender, whilst holding a 19 point advantage over SVG. In terms of the podium count, the Camaro field has taken its Gen3 count to 38, with the Mustang teams and Ford Performance left to scream “bloody parity” with a total of 7.

RESULTS RACE 15 35 LAPS Time 01:06.0550 +0.0102 +0.0123 +0.0161 +0.0805 +0.0814 +0.1268 +0.1714 +0.1758 + 0.1881 +0.2010 +0.2030 +0.2263 +0.2302 +0.2611 +0.2715 +0.3216 +0.3332 +0.3625 +0.3753 +0.3982 +0.4333 +0.5534 +0.5684 +0.5941 +0.6236

Pos Drivers 1 Jack Le Brocq 2 Andre Heimgartner 3 Broc Feeney 4 Shane van Gisbergen 5 Cam Waters 6 Will Brown 7 Mark Winterbottom 8 Will Davison 9 Chaz Mostert 10 Todd Hazelwood 11 Bryce Fullwood 12 David Reynolds 13 Macauley Jones 14 Thomas Randle 15 Nick Percat 16 Cameron Hill 17 Anton De Pasquale 18 Tim Slade 19 Declan Fraser 20 James Golding 21 James Courtney 22 Jack Smith 23 Scott Pye 24 Zane Goddard 25 Matthew Payne 26 Brodie Kostecki

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 5 Laps 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 31

Race time 40:40.6945 +1.349 +8.493 +10.314 +12.405 +14.925 +16.072 +16.704 +24.3500 +25.317 +26.573 +28.022 +28.236 +29.1700 +30.309 +32.987 +33.9600 +34.7300 +38.295 +38.295 +39.791 +42.536 +47.112 +51.029 +53.995 +4 Laps

s1 s5 s2 t1 t4 t2 s16 s3 s3 s7 s4 t2 s9 s4 s4 t1 t5 s5 s1 t13 t8 t4 t15

Pos Driver 1 Brodie Kostecki 2 Will Brown 3 Broc Feeney 4 Shane van Gisbergen 5 Chaz Mostert 6 Andre Heimgartner 7 Cam Waters 8 Jack Le Brocq 9 Will Davison 10 David Reynolds 11 Mark Winterbottom 12 Bryce Fullwood 13 Tim Slade 14 James Golding 15 Scott Pye 16 Todd Hazelwood 17 Anton De Pasquale 18 Matthew Payne 19 Thomas Randle 20 James Courtney 21 Macauley Jones 22 Cameron Hill 23 Nick Percat 24 Jack Smith 25 Declan Fraser

Points 1164 1105 1073 1054 985 882 877 814 802 743 720 701 685 680 648 622 619 589 584 543 532 529 467 418 369

s3 t1 s1 s1 s2 t2 s4 s2 t2 t2 t2 s1 s1 t2 s1 t1 s1 t1 -

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IMSA NASCAR

BMW B MW AWARDED MAIDEN HYPERCAR VICTORY

A HECTIC finish at the IMSA Six Hours of the Glen initially had the #6 Porsche 963 Hypercar in front as a late yellow was called, but a post-race penalty has seen BMW break its Hypercar duck.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan manufacturer team was awarded its first ever modern-era GTP victory in the new Endurance SportsCar class, meaning all four manufacturers have now taken a win after five rounds of the championship.

The revised podium saw the #25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi/Nick Yelloly take the win over Whelen #31 Cadillac driven by Pipo Derani/Alexander Sims/Jack Aitken in P2 over the #60 Acura ARX-06 team of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun.

The penalty to the Porsche Penske winner was given after a technical inspection found the skid block measured less than the permitted thickness by less than one millimetre, though the team has lodged an official protest, citing the rear skid wear was of legal thickness.

The race ended under a yellow following a BMW GTD car dramatically somersaulting at the last corner, with the pole-sitting #6 driven by Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy having taken the lead with 6 minutes remaining from the BMW, leading to a thrilling chase through thick traffic before the full-course yellow (FCW) at the iconic Watkins Glen track.

It was more mechanical pain for Aussie Matt Campbell, with the #7 Porsche driven by him and Felipe Nasr

retiring from P2 after another hybrid failure at the 2hour 30min mark.

There was plenty of drama throughout, with three Full Course Yellows in the first two hours.

The other BMW was out after lap one after hitting the Turn 1 barrier, whilst theSebastien Bourdais driven Chip Ganassi Cadillac crashed after a misjudged lapping move on GTD Porsche, and was then rammed into by the eventual BMW winner.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

After the #7 963 retirement, the P2 spot seemed cursed, as shortly after the #10 Acura inherited it, a loose wheel came flying off citing a faulty wheel assembly.

The #25 BMW was living a charmed life, going into another spin in P4 after contact with a Lamborghini GTD. The #60 Acura then suffered a puncture whilst in P2, whilst a four car LMP3 and GTD pile-up allowed the tyre stricken #60 back into contention with another Full Course Yellow.

After the restart, the winning BMW jumped into P3, and following a rapid driver change, found itself in the lead with 75 minutes remaining.

After fighting back from 7 seconds down, Jaminet was remarkable in pulling the #6 Porsche into the lead for its second win of the year, taking on the heavy traffic with great skill to run down the BMW, with the postrace penalty still under protest as Auto Action went to print.

After winning Le Mans, the Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 took another victory with George Kurtz again in the team, whilst Aussie Josh Burdon was in the LMP3 #74 Riley Entry that took the class prototype victory.

In the GTD and GTD Pro stakes, it was a Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 sweep for a rare team double.

The next IMSA round is the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 14-16.

TW Neal

CHASTAIN CRACKS NASHVILLE WATERMELON DERISIVE NASCAR personality Ross Chastain has taken his first win of 2023, taking out the Ally 400 at the Nashville Superspeedway.

The Chevrolet Trackhouse Racing star – who’s developed somewhat of an on-track bounty from several teams and drivers of late – took advantage of his first career pole to take a third Cup Series win.

In the process, he also booked his Postseason Playoff spot after beating home the in-form Martin Truex by 0.789s, with Joe Gibbs Racing making it a pair of Toyota podiums with Denny Hamlin taking P3.

Chastian led for a race-high 99 laps of the 300 on offer, with lapped traffic perhaps being his biggest rival on the night, as Truex Jr cooked his tyres in the final chase to the chequered flag.

Before receiving his winners guitar trophy, the 30-year-old Florida resident performed his trademark celebration in front of a sell-out crowd, smashing a watermelon on the track – a nod to his family’s generational watermelon farm in

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Beats drinking milk! Chastain smashes the celebratory watermelon!

rural Florida.

“This is incredible, this is why every little kid out there, anyone in the world when you get criticised – and you’re going to if you’re a competitor – they will try to tear you down, and you’ll start believing it, and you can’t do that,” he said with a mouth full of melon.

“Go to your people. Trust in the process, and just keep getting up and going to work on it.

“A lot of self-reflection through all this, but I had a group that believed in me, and they didn’t let me get down.”

He lost his lead early to Tyler Reddick after he was pushed hard by a lapped

Noah Gragson, the driver he punched in pit-lane a month back, who was out for on-track revenge.

Reddick would take Stage 1, but shortly after he spun out on pit road after losing a rear tyre which counted him out for the win.

Whilst Hamlin took out the second stage – his fourth of the year – the final stage was a battle between Chastain, Truex Jr, and some heavy traffic trying not to get lapped by the leaders, with the relatively clean race only featuring two cautions all up.

Truex Jr stuck fast to Chastain’s bumper in the slower and heavy traffic, which probably helped in cooking his tyres for the run home.

His second place sees him maintain the championship lead however, leading both William Byron and Chastain by 18 points.

The next outing is at the Chicago Street course on July 2, where threetime Supercars Champion Shane van Gisbergen will make his NASCAR debut for the winning Trackhouse team.

TW Neal

INDYCAR Road America

THE PALOU SHOW KEEPS ON ROLLING WITH ONE race to go to the halfway point of the 2023 IndyCar season, Alex Palou has put the grid on notice with his third victory of the season.

The Spaniard’s second straight win came at Road America in Wisconsin, giving the 2021 champion a 74 point buffer over his Chip Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson.

The race was largely dominated by pole sitter Colton Herta, but the Andretti driver was forced to back-off due to fuel mileage, dropping back five spots in seven laps.

Penske’s Josef Newgarden finished 4.561s behind Palou, with Mexico’s Pato O’Ward claiming P3, edging out Scott Dixon with Herta some four seconds back.

“It’s been an amazing weekend – I’m super happy. They gave me the pit stop that gave us the win,” Palou said, referring to the fact that pitting after Herta gave him the positive fuel mileage.

“We’re going to keep it going, and we’re going to try and keep it rolling. We have an amazing team behind us.”

After needing to slow to make the finish to the tune of 0.3s a lap, Herta rued the unfortunate misjudgment of pitting too early with 15 laps to run.

“It was unclear to me how the race was going to play out at that point,” said Herta.

“It was hard to say what was going to happen on fuel numbers. I knew there was about 15 laps to go and that’s usually a pretty reasonable fuel number.

“But it ended up being quite a bit more... we were saving fuel and trying to go that lap later, so it’s a killer.”

The weekend also saw a fierce on-track altercation between Aussie Will Power and Dixon, after an at-fault Dixon slowed into Powers Chevrolet during practice to let Sebastien Grosjean pass through.

Power has also had a dangerous run-in with Grosjean prior to the incident when the Frenchman squeezed him into the barrier on the straight, with the Aussie taking verbal aim at both drivers in a colourful interview.

“Just pissed at what Dixon did this morning, it ruined our whole weekend … it was a terrible move all up,” and then Power

Palou won (above) after #26 Herta had to ease back and save fuel late in the race.

aimed some bigger barbs at the former F1 driver: “Disappointed with what happened…and Grosjean, he’s a piece of crap if you saw what he did in practice. He needs a punch in the face!”

The two-time champ would end up finishing P13 on Raceday following an extensive rebuild by his #12 Penske team.

Poleman Herta led from the outset on the Sunday, whilst an early yellow was called

after Kyle Kirkwood went into the back of O’Ward, with the Mexican then forcing Santino Ferrucci off track moments later to bring out a full-course yellow.

Kiwi rookie Marcus Armstrong found himself behind Herta early in the chaos, with most of the front runners on the primary tyres.

A penalty for the opening action saw O’Ward penalised into P9, as plenty of contact ensued between the likes of

Lundgaard and Newgarden, then Veekay and Rosenqvist, whilst Grosjean then got stranded in the gravel at Turn 3, causing a mad rush into the pits under the caution.

Herta kept his lead ahead of Palou, whilst Newgarden passed Armstrong into third, who was then penalised for an early pit release into Pagenaud.

More drama ensued when Harvey went into the final corner gravel, whilst O’Ward started his march back up the field and was back into third when Malukas got stranded at Turn 8, with Herta’s lead over Newgarden cut back under the yellow.

After another flurry of pits for the leaders to fit alternate Reds, Newgarden tangled with the back markers and would have to fight his way back up from effective P6.

Herta then retook the lead over Palou on lap 30 after Power had a brief pit-cycle spell up-front, with the eventual podium in behind him.

With the track rubbered in, the Red tyres held the clear advantage in the lead up to the final pits as the middle stint Black rubber was dropping off.

Herta then went in with 15 to go to make the switch whilst Palou ran a lap longer, and whilst Herta used up his push-to-pass to find the lead again, his lead started to plummet with nine laps left, driving to his bigger fuel number due to pitting earlier than Palou.

Palou eventually made the move with seven laps to go at Turn 1, whilst Newgarden and O’Ward did the same to take to the chequered flag as they stood.

After Dixon and Herta, Ericsson finished in P6, with Lundgaard, McLaughlin, Kirkwood and Rossi rounding out the 10.

The next IndyCar outing is on July 2 at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course as the season reaches its halfway point. TW Neal INDYCAR STANDINGS AFTER 8 ROUNDS 1. Palou 324 2. Ericsson 250 3. Newgarden 243 4. O’Ward 226 5. Dixon 226

Herta (26) led from the start, but Palou’s team did the better job in terms of fuel management. Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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WRC Kenya

KINGS OF KENYA SEBASTIEN OGIER has led a Toyota 1-2-3-4 at the World Rally Championship in Kenya, with the Japanese manufacturer continuing its stranglehold on the African event at its 70th Anniversary.

Ogier’s victory came over championship leader Kalle Rovanpera by 6.7s, the closest finish in the rally’s history, with the reigning WRC champion extending his championship lead with the P2 finish.

GR Yaris teammate Elfyn Evans survived a charge from Takamoto Katsuta on the final day to wrap up P3, as the Japanese drivers bid for a third straight Kenya podium fell 25.3s short.

The four-car sweep emulated the manufacturers efforts from 30 years ago, whilst it was also the second straight year of an African podium sweep.

That makes it 10 victories all up in Kenya for Toyota, with the next best effort being held by Mitsubishi with five.

The team survived a nervous last day as its drivers jostled for the podium positions in trying conditions across the loose fesh fesh and rutted roads, with Ogier surviving a smashed drivers-side windscreen to claim his third victory of the year and the 58th of his career for the eight-time champion.

“Unbelievable! Look at that, even on the Power Stage I got a stone on the windscreen,” Ogier quipped at the finish line.

“We had a lot of issues to face but it could have been a more comfortable rally for us in terms of pace. A lot of misfortune but we brought it home.”

Hyundai’s Dani Sordo was the best of the rest in P5, whilst his teammate’s didn’t fare so well mechanically.

Esapekka Lappi held P3 on the Saturday but a broken propshaft followed by steering damage had him drop into P12 by the end, ending his run of three straight podiums.

Controversy surrounded i20N veteran Thierry Neuville after the finish, with the Belgian disqualified for illegal recce behaviour, after someone acting on his behalf was caught on course locating dangers on the course – such as large rocks and ruts – ahead of the stages on Friday and Saturday night.

Neuville had fought back into P8 after suffering broken suspension on the Saturday, but his points were turfed, elevating Ott Tanak above him in the championship.

It was another nightmare event for both Ford M-Sport Drivers, with tyre issues plaguing both Tanak and PierreLouis Loubet throughout the event, and the team had to be satisfied with P6 and P7 finishes respectively.

An eventful shakedown on the Wednesday saw Katsuta flip his GR Yaris badly, but the team managed a quick rebuild for him to start on the Thursday.

The Thursday would start well for Tanak around the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, edging out Ogier over the 4.84km opener, with Rovanpera holding P3.

A challenging Friday saw six stages covering 125.54km around Lake Naivasha, with Toyota setting itself up with 1-2-3 finish by day’s end.

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Ogier was typically clean in building a commanding 22.8s lead over Rovanpera and Evans, taking four stages, whilst Katsuta sat in P5 behind Lappi after having to change a steering arm on Stage 3.

Both Ford Pumas were on the back foot from the outset having sustained tyre damage, whilst Sordo carried the same burden.

Saturday’s 150.88km route around Lake Elmenteita saw even more extreme conditions, as a late thunderstorm would keep Sunday interesting.

Ogier again led at the end after a day that was all Toyota, with Rovanpera and Katsuta also taking stage wins.

The dusty conditions quickly turned into a mud bath over the last stage, with Ogier’s commanding 32 second lead being cut down to 16s as limped through Stage 13 with two punctures.

Katsuta briefly took P3 from Evans, but the Welshman shut the door when Katsuta pushed too hard and had to navigate wide around a bush.

Above: Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais celebrate Toyota’s 1-2-3-4 result. Below: things didn’t go so well for Katsuta during Shakedown ...

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

Lappi’s unfortunate propshaft retirement came on Stage 12, alongside Neuville’s suspension break, whilst both Ford again suffered tyre issues.

Sordo was 1:12.3 back on the last Toyota in P4, but that didn’t stop the nerves being felt as Rovanpera wouldn’t give up the win, nor Katsuta from his podium push.

The field headed back to the southern side of Naivasha for the final six stages, as Tanak fought hard through the Hell’s Gate pass, taking both stages, incising the final Power Stage after Neuville’s disqualification.

Although Ogier held firm, Rovanpera attacked early to cut the lead to eight seconds after the opening stage, with Ogier hitting back on Stage 15 to take the eight seconds back.

He wouldn’t be headed despite the late rock scare, with Rovanpera showing his clear disappointment at the loss, despite the P2 giving him a 41 point lead at the season’s halfway mark.

Taking the final spots in the top 10 was the WRC2 podium, with Polish Skoda driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz taking his second victory in the African country, whilst Olly Solberg and Martin Prokop rounding out the top 10.

Just six points separate Evans, Ogier, Tanak, and Neuville behind Rovanpera, with Ogier to sit out the next two rounds.

Rally Estonia (July 20-23) and Rally Finland (August 3-6) lay in the wings for the next round, the fastest gravel rallies of the year, with flat out speed the key to victory.

TW Neal WRC STANDINGS AFTER 7 ROUNDS 1 Rovanpera/Halttunen 140 2 Evans/Martin 99 3 Ogier/Landais 98 4 Tanak/Jarveoja 98 5 Neuville/Wydaeghe 93

MOTOGP

BAGNAIA BITES BACK IN ASSEN FRANCESCO BAGNAIA charges into the MotoGP summer break with a commanding advantage after taking backto-back Dutch TT victories.

Bagnaia led 24 of the 26 laps to take a commanding 1.2s win over Marco Bezzecchi, who was first in every session aside from the Grand Prix.

Brad Binder was third, but a post race track limits penalty saw a podium place snatched away and promoted Aleix Espargaro.

Bezzecchi started the weekend as the rider to beat, showing extreme one-lap pace to top both Friday practice sessions, plus take pole position.

The VR46 rider beat the factory Ducati rider by 0.061s, while Jack Miller struggled with a small vibration issue to finish 12th.

Despite briefly losing the lead early, Bezzecchi carried on his form to take out the Sprint in impressive fashion.

Once the Italian was in front after a mistake by Bagnaia at Turn 5, the reigning champion had no answer and trailed by at the chequered flag.

All eyes were on the battle for third in the clean race with Binder leading Fabio Quartararo and Espargaro.

However, the KTM rider suffered his first heartbreaking track limits penalty, dropping the South African to fifth. Miller could only make up one spot to 11th.

Marc Marquez battled his way to 17th, but the pain proved too much for the Grand Prix as he withdrew for the second week in a row.

THE GRAND PRIX itself became a war of attrition in hot conditions with just 14 of the 22 riders reaching the finish.

The first to fall was Miller, who enjoyed a great first lap climbing from 12th to eighth,

Can anyone beat Bagnaia? Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES but his progress was cut short with a fall on the first corner of Lap 2.

Up front Binder got the ultimate getaway from the front row and beat all three Ducatis ahead of him into Turn 1.

But his lead only lasted two laps when Bagnaia got by as Fabio Quartararo and Johann Zarco fell simultaneously at the high speed Ruskenhoek.

Maverick Vinales became the fourth rider to crash in as many laps as Bezzecchi joined Bagnaia and Binder in the fight for the lead.

Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannatonio

both made the same mistake, falling at Turn 5, while Miguel Oliveira and Repsol Honda sub Iker Lecuona encountered mechanical gremlins.

On the softer rear tyre choice, Binder could not stop Bezzecchi from flying by into second with nine to go.

As Bagnaia expertly controlled the gap to Bezzecchi, Binder had a fight on his hands to keep third.

Although Espargaro and Jorge Martin hunted him down, the South African held firm to cross the line in third only to repeat his Sprint mistake and promote the Aprilia rider,

who held off his Pramac rival by just 0.09s.

MotoGP now takes a month off for the summer break before firing back to life with the British Grand Prix on August 4-6.

Thomas Miles 2023 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 8 1 Francesco Bagnaia 194 points 2 Jorge Martin 159 3 Marco Bezzecchi 158 4 Brad Binder 114 5 Johann Zarco 109

MARTIN WINS GERMAN DUCATI DUEL JORGE MARTIN has announced himself as a new MotoGP championship contender after fending off Francesco Bagnaia in a thrilling German Grand Prix, the week before Assen.

The factory and satellite Ducati stars were the two runaway stars at the Sachsenring and their fight for victory went down to the very last corner.

Martin looked to have won the battle after passing Bagnaia with seven laps to go – however, the reigning champion launched a late offensive and was all over the back of the #89 at the death.

The penultimate lap concluded with frontto-rear contact between the pair, which would prove critical as Bagnaia lost some momentum.

When they returned for the final corner of the race, Martin took a defensive line, but Bagnaia went even lower, getting a slight overlap on the exit.

From there it was a sprint to the chequered, with Martin holding on by a meagre 0.064s.

A first win since the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix vaulted the Spaniard into championship contention, leapfrogging Marco Bezzecchi to sit second, just 16 points away from Bagnaia.

Although Marc Marquez was chasing a 12th straight German Grand Prix success, it was abundantly clear Sachsenring was Ducati country in 2023.

The Italian manufacturer led every session

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as Marquez battled to stay on his Repsol Honda.

The height of the drama was a frightening FP2 shunt where the out of control #93 took out Johann Zarco’s Pramac Ducati at pit exit.

Only one of them started Sunday’s Grand Prix as Marquez withdrew on race morning with that incident just one of five the Spaniard suffered.

In between times Baganda beat Luca Marini to pole by just 0.078s, while Australia’s Jack Miller took an impressive P3 as the only non Ducati in the top six.

In the Sprint, Martin gave Ducati its first German race win since 2008 when Casey Stoner held off Valentino Rossi.

Fast forward 15 years and it was Miller who was putting on a show in his KTM, enjoying one of the bike’s trademark rocket starts to take the lead.

But Bagnaia held tough and reclaimed the lead around the outside of the following lefthander.

Miller snatched it back until he was swallowed up by Ducati’s straight line speed as Martin rode clear.

Despite this, the Aussie still would have been thrilled to get his second Sprint podium of the year in third.

THE SPRINT was just an appetiser for the race where Martin and Bagnaia had a race long

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Jorge Martin leads Bagnaia. Below: Jack Miller briefly led both races.

battle for the win.

This was briefly interrupted by Miller, who led into Turn 1, but got swallowed up down the back straight and would eventually drop to sixth.

His KTM teammate Brad Binder had moved up to a strong third, but came unstuck at Turn 8, promoting Zarco to the podium.

By now Martin looked in control until Bagnaia reeled him in across a gripping final third of the race.

The Ducati rider seized his moment at Turn 12 and led for three laps before the Pramac contender repeated the move three laps later.

Despite the reigning championship throwing everything at him, Martin held on for an “emotional” win, two years in the making.

Thomas Miles

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Formula 1 Round 09 CANADIAN Grand Prix - Race report

VERSTAPPEN HELPS RED BULL HIT 100 Report: LUIS VASCONCELOS Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MAX VERSTAPPEN continued his very impressive run of leading every single lap since the middle of the Miami Grand Prix and, by winning in Canada, he equalled the great, late Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 Grand Prix wins, while bringing Red Bull’s total to a very impressive 100 victories. Historic numbers on a day where his final gap to second-placed Fernando Alonso was the smallest of the season but, still, Verstappen was happy that, “on a track and in conditions that were probably the worst for us, to win by 9s is a great result and shows the strength of our car.”

The Red Bull RB19 excels in tyre management, meaning tracks that are particularly demanding for the Pirelli rubber, like Barcelona or Silverstone, are ideal to pen a gap to its rivals. And if there’s high track temperature in the mix, so much the better. There was none of that in Montreal, as the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve features only straights and low speed corners, plus it was generally very cold the whole weekend and Verstappen felt the difference.

He was quick to admit that, “it was not a very straightforward race because the tyres were not really getting in their window. It

was very cold today compared to Friday and we were sliding around quite a bit.” The Dutchman complained several times about the Hard tyres, before being told by race engineer Giampiero Lambiase, “we’ve heard you before, just put your head down” and with the gap to Alonso slowly growing, his win was never in doubt.

However, the fact that Saturday had been a washout also made life harder for the World Champion and his team: “I didn’t really know what to expect because of the track in general. So, it had nothing to do with competitors or whatever. We changed the car around quite a bit compared to Friday, so I didn’t really know how it would feel today.

“Luckily, it went in the right direction. but I think it was quite tough today to keep the tyres in the right window – they were always running quite cold. So, we had to push actually quite hard on the tyre. And then with low grip, low rubber, it was not the easiest or most straightforward.”

For the Red Bull driver, “that stint on the Hard tyre was a bit of a limitation, even harder to keep the tyre temps. And I think we know that our car normally is very good when there’s high degradation compared to other cars. Today, probably, you would have needed a car which is a bit harder on the tyre, to keep the temperatures in. So it’s

probably not been our best race today. But still, to win by nine seconds, I think shows that we have a great car.”

Having held off Hamilton in the first lap, Verstappen slowly opened a gap to the British driver, pitted under the Safety Car like his two rivals, mastered the re-start but was less certain of how things would end up once Alonso moved up to second place, on lap 22: “You are alert because you keep checking is he catching or not? What do I need to do?

At the beginning of the race when he passed Lewis, I thought, ‘OK, let’s see what his pace is’ and then initially it was quick and then I could manage my pace around it. But you can’t relax too much, and especially today with the tyres being so cold, you have to be on it all the time, especially also here a street circuit. A tiny mistake is big lap time lost or you’re in the wall.”

For team mate Sérgio Pérez, the Canadian Grand Prix was just a carry over from his disappointing outings in Monaco and Spain.

Out of Q3 for the third time in a row, he wasn’t even able to keep up with the two Ferrari and had a lonely drive to P6. The Mexican’s morale is terrible now and with Daniel Ricciardo knocking on Red Bull’s door, he’d better act his act together – and quickly!

ALONSO WINS BATTLE OF THE OLD MASTERS

THE BATTLE between the two oldest drivers in the field was one of the highlights of the Canadian Grand Prix, as Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton traded positions on a couple of occasions. The Mercedes driver got the better start and passed his rival going into Turn 1, explaining that, “I quickly managed to get alongside him and made sure he stayed on the dirty part of the track, so he couldn’t out-brake me”, immediately setting his sights “on Max ahead of me. I wanted to fight him, but he was way too quick; his car is so well planted, the rear doesn’t move at all and out of every corner he was just gaining and gaining, so it was clear our fight was with Fernando.”

The Spaniard was puzzled by his relatively poor start, “because I don’t think I was slow off the line but maybe I did something wrong with the procedures ... we’ll have to review.

Maybe being on the dirty side of the track didn’t help, because others starting on that side of the track also lost positions.”

For the first 12 laps the veterans were never separated by more than one second, but even with DRS Alonso couldn’t get through. The Safety Car period, to remove Sargeant’s stranded car, gave Aston Martin the opportunity, as Mercedes’ pit stops are Right: Hulkenberg excelled in qualifying, earning grid two – before a blocking penalty.

Below: The field got through Turn 1 intact, with Verstappen already clear.

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Left: Stroll fought his way to points at home. Below left: Albon put on a top show for points for Williams. Below: Despite tyre temp issues, Verstappen was still out front all day ...

FERRARI ANSWERS CRITICS WITH NEARPERFECT RACE not generally the fastest and the two cars were close to colliding as the two drivers resumed, Alonso complaining “I had to brake to avoid him”, a view the Stewards did not endorse, so the battle resumed on track, with no penalties imposed.

Now on the Hard tyre, it was soon clear that Alonso’s pace advantage was bigger than on the Mediums and by lap 22 he got past his rival on the long straight before the chicane. For Hamilton, “there was nothing I could do – he had more speed, put on a good move and that was it.”

Quickly the Aston Martin driver opened a decent gap over his rival, being 4.7s ahead before the Mercedes driver pitted a second time and went for Mediums, while Alonso only had a new set of Hards for the final stint.

A rare mistake by Alonso, who went straight on in Turn 8 on lap 47, gave hope to his rival, the Spaniard admitting that, “I thought I had him covered but in the last

, FERRARI’S TOUGH season continued in Montreal

The two former champs fought out second place, Alonso getting the better of Hamilton in the end.

20 laps he just kept coming, so it was flat out to the flag.” Being told to lift and coast for a while, Alonso felt vulnerable, but admitted, “I don’t know why I was given that instruction – maybe it was temperatures, but it certainly made life harder.”

With five laps to go it was Hamilton’s time to start lifting and coasting, so the positions didn’t change, the pair enjoying the fact they were closer to Verstappen than ever before this season and hoping for more progress in the next couple of races.

Their team-mates didn’t do so well, Stroll recovering to P9 after a very poor qualifying while Russell grazed the wall on lap 12 and later retired with brake issues.

ALBON STEALS THE SHOW

WITH THE two Ferrari drivers having a much better race than qualifying (read sidebar), Alex Albon was the other star of the Canadian Grand Prix, the Thai driver literally holding off the entire midfield to score a season best seventh place for Williams QUALIFYING RACE 09

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 09

Time

Pos Drivers

Laps

Margin

Pos Driver

1

Max Verstappen

1:25.858

1

Max Verstappen Red Bull

70

1:33.58.348 -

1

Max Verstappen

195

-

2

Nico Hulkenberg

+1.244

2

Fernando Alonso Aston Martin

70

+9.570 -

2

Sergio Perez

126

-

3

Fernando Alonso

+1.428

3

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

70

+14.168 -

3

Fernando Alonso

117

-

4

Lewis Hamilton

+1.769

4

Charles Leclerc Ferrari

70

+18.648 s6

4

Lewis Hamilton

102

-

5

George Russell

+2.035

5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari

70

+21.540 s6

5

Carlos Sainz

68 s1

6

Esteban Ocon

+2.087

6 Sergio Perez Red Bull

70

+51.028 s6

6

George Russell

65 t1

7

Lando Norris

+2.188

7

Alex Albon Williams

70

+1:00.813 s2

7

Charles Leclerc

54

-

8

Carlos Sainz

+3.436

8 Esteban Ocon Alpine

70

+1:01.692 t2

8

Lance Stroll

37

-

9

Oscar Piastri

+5.491

9

Lance Stroll Aston Martin

70

+1:04.402 s7

9

Esteban Ocon

29

-

10 Alex Albon

-

10 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo

70

+1:04.432 s4

10 Pierre Gasly

15

-

+1.890

11 Oscar Piastri McLaren

70

+1:05.101 t3

11

12

-

+2.234

12 Pierre Gasly Alpine

70

+1:05.249 s3

12 Alex Albon

13 Lance Stroll

+2.759

13 Lando Norris McLaren

70

+1:08.363 t6

13 Nico Hulkenberg

6 t1

14 Kevin Magnussen

+2.953

14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri

70

+1:13.423 s5

14 Oscar Piastri

5 t1

15 Valtteri Bottas

+3.096

15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas

69

+1 Lap t10

15 Valtteri Bottas

5 t1

16 Yuki Tsunoda

+1.895

16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo

69

+1 Lap s4

16 Zhou Guanyu

4 t1

17 Pierre Gasly

+2.035

17 Kevin Magnussen Haas

69

+1 Lap t4

17 Yuki Tsunoda

4 t1

18 Nyck de Vries

+2.286

18 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri

69

+1 Lap t1

18 Kevin Magnussen

2 t1

19 Logan Sargeant

+2.486

NC George Russell Mercedes

53

- t15

19 Nyck de Vries

0

-

20 Zhou Guanyu

+2.491

NC Logan Sargeant Williams

6

- t2

20 Logan Sargeant

0

-

Charles Leclerc

12 Sergio Perez

Auto_Action

RESULTS RACE 09 70 LAPS MONTREAL GP

Pos Driver

11

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and himself. On a weekend where his FW45 featured its first big upgrade of the season, Albon pitted under the Safety Car on lap 12 and then managed the feat of making no mistakes and keeping both Russell and Ocon behind for 58 long laps, while keeping his Pirelli Hard tyres alive.

For the Alpine driver the fact he was up to fourth after Russell’s mistake and ended the race in P8 was a disappointment, losing out to the two Ferrari drivers, Pérez and Albon, who went for a one-stop strategy, while the Frenchman stopped twice.

With no top speed to pass Albon, he resisted Norris’ comeback “just for a bit of fun and prove a point”, knowing the McLaren driver had a 5s penalty to add to his race time and wasn’t even on course to score points because of that.

Running out of battery at the worst possible moment Valtteri Bottas lost P9 to Stroll with a few metres to go, but recovered well from a poor qualifying effort, moving up five places to score a precious point for Alfa Romeo.

autoactionmag

autoactionmag

Make

Points

Lando Norris

7 s6

with qualifying providing lots of ammunition for a group of critics that resent Mattia Binotto’s firing and the arrival of a Frenchman to lead the Scuderia. With Sainz demoted to P11 after a penalty for impeding and Leclerc not even making it to Q3, those who want Vasseur out of Maranello had their moment to shine but the team’s strategy and the SF-23’s speed and consistency in the race forced them to simply shut up.

In fairness, in qualifying, Leclerc only had himself to blame for being knocked out in Q2.

His second lap on Inters was already good enough to go through to the final round, probably in third place, when he overshot the chicane, destroying that and the following lap, before the rain started to come down heavily.

As for Sainz, he also has to take the blame for being only eighth-quickest in qualifying, as he aborted what turned out to be his only timed lap in Q3 reasoning he could do better the following one, the red flag meaning he had lost a great opportunity to be second quickest, just behind the unreachable Verstappen.

Being the only front-runners to start the race on the Medium tyres, Leclerc and Sainz were stuck in a DRS train until lap 12 and then the team made a call that allowed them to move up the order and finish the Grand Prix in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Resisting the temptation to swap for the Hard tyres, Ferrari kept both drivers on track and with free track ahead of them they stayed in touch with the Alonso-Hamilton battle until the Medium tyres started to go off. Still, Ferrari kept them out there, as they were pulling away from Pérez, only stopping them at the half race mark – it was possible to see that on the Hard compound, with virtually the same amount of laps done, the red cars matched the speed of the best Aston Martin and Mercedes, with no sign of tyre degradation – a major breakthrough for the Italian team, as tyre management had been the SF-23’s Achilles’ heel since the start of the season.

Sainz was twice told to refrain from attacking his team-mate (even the Spaniard admitted that was the right call), pre-empting any post-race criticism of his team: “Before our stops the main priority was to open as big a gap as possible to the midfield, to make sure we’d be back on track ahead of the DRS train where we’d been stuck before they all pitted under the Safety Car. “And after the pit stop our battle was with Pérez, who was not far behind us, so fighting between ourselves was just going to hurt us and, at this stage, it doesn’t really make a difference who finishes fourth and fifth as, after all, it’s not like we were fighting for the win.”

On the face of what we saw in Montreal, fighting against Verstappen won’t be the work of a moment but it’s now realistic to expect the red cars to be up there with Aston Martin and Mercedes in the battle for podium positions.

www.autoaction.com.au I 57

TEST YOUR GENERAL MOTORSPORT KNOWLEDGE ACROSS

year? (surname)

2 Which Australian claimed back-to-back Le Mans LMP2 Pro Am class wins this year? (surname)

4 Which 2023 Le Mans LMP2 class winner fractured his foot during a pitstop early in the 24-hour race? (surname)

3 Team 18 broke through to win its first Supercars Championship race in Darwin – what other team achieved the same feat? (abbreviation) 7 Where did Alex Albon finish the Canadian Grand Prix?

8 How many podiums did Erebus claim in Darwin?

11 In Darwin Mark Winterbottom won his first Supercars race since 2016 – at what track did he take his previous race win?

14 Who crashed the Action Express Cadillac in the wet on the opening lap of the Le Mans 24 Hours? (surname) 15 Which legendary American race team recorded its 250th race win, including victories in IMSA, IndyCar and even Global Rallycross? (abbreviation) 17 The Townsville 500 is what round of the Supercars Championship this year?

20 Which driver is set to contest his 500th Supercars Championship race in Townsville after debuting at Oran Park in 2007? (surname) 21 Who won the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix for Red Bull Racing? (surname) 22 Who won the 2023 Road America Grand Prix? (surname) 24 Scott Dixon finished the 2023 Road America Grand Prix in fourth, but where did he qualify?

25 Who took pole position for the Hypercar class at Le Mans this year? (surname) 26 Which manufacturer won the LMGTE Am class?

27 Heading into Townsville who leads the Supercars Championship? (surname)

A LOT OF MOTORSPORT HAS TAKEN PLACE OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS, HOW MUCH HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION?

5 James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi previously won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans on how many occasions?

6 Red Bull Racing scored its 100th Formula 1 victory in Canada, but who claimed their first victory? (surname) 9 Canada saw the anniversary of the first Formula 1 Safety Car deployment – how many years ago did the Porsche 914 deploy?

10 In Canada Max Verstappen tied Ayrton Senna for F1 victories; how many do they both have?

12 Which Ford driver scored his first Supercars podium of the season in Darwin? (surname) 13 Which manufacturer won the Le Mans 24 Hours?

15 In what country did the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team take its first win back in 2009?

16 Which manufacturer scored its first WEC podium of the season at Le Mans?

18 Who scored back-to-back podium finishes for the first time in his Supercars career in Darwin? (surname) 19 Which former F1 driver won his maiden Le Mans 24 Hours? (surname) 23 Five drivers have won for Red Bull Racing.

Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel have recorded the most wins for the team, but who is the team’s third most successful driver? (surname)

DOWN

24 How many Supercars races has Jack Le Brocq now won?

1 Who was the only Supercars driver to finish on the podium in every race at Hidden Valley this

25 How many times has Sergio Perez won for Red Bull Racing?

1 across – PMM, 2 down – Mostert, 3 down – Sears, 4 across – Rea, 5 down – Fangio, 6 down – Schlesser, 7 down – Ocon, 8 across – Ferrucci, 9 across – Wilson, 10 across – fourth, 11 across – Ducati, 11 down – Darwin, 12 across – five, 13 down – Dale Earnhardt, 14 down – Golden Child, 15 down – Williams, 16 across – Castroneves, 17 across – Mansell, 18 down – Palou, 19 across – Enzo Ferrari, 20 down – De Ferran, 21 across – The Chase, 22 across – Fourteenth, 23 across – Norris, 24 down – Jane, 25 down – Harris, 26 down – Rossi, 27 across – Newgarden, 28 across – Robotham, 29 across – Rossi

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1973 ALLAN MOFFAT was crowned as Australian Touring Car champion for the first time. Moffat secured his first of four ATCC championships at Oran Park in style by winning the seventh round of the championship. He had actually crossed the line second, with race winner Peter Brock excluded due to an oversized exhaust manifold. Brock’s exhaust manifold was found to be .12 inches greater in diameter on his XU-1 and subsequently the stewards recommended the Holden Dealer Team’s entrants licence should be revoked for 30 days.

HDT enjoyed greater success in the Victorian Rally Championship with Bob Watson and Jeff Beaumont taking victory in Round 4.

1983 MT BARKER’S Vern Schuppan delivered Australia Le Mans 24 Hours success after his Porsche 956 crawled across the line.

Schuppan and American co-drivers Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood denied teammates Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell victory in a tense finish.

The trio overcame two flying doors and a late engine intake issue which saw their factory Porsche cross the line in a cloud of smoke.

Back home Allan Moffatt secured his final ATCC championship a decade after his first. Whilst Moffat took the big title, Peter Brock put on a “faultless display” of driving to win the Lakeside finale.

58 I www.autoaction.com.au

1993 IT ONLY took seven rounds, but Holden finally claimed a race win in the 1993 Australian Touring Car Championship. The General’s saviour was Mark Skaife, who converted pole to victory in the Mallala opener. However, the reigning champion could not stop Glenn Seton from pressing on to yet another Ford round win to continue the Falcon’s perfect start to the season. Alain Prost took a victory on home turf in his dominant Williams, while Ayrton Senna and Jean Alesi finally put pen to paper and committed to their respective homes McLaren and Ferrari for the remainder of the year.

2003 THE STUNNING winning streak of Marcos Ambrose did not slow down at Hidden Valley where he secured a fourth straight round win.

Ambrose and Mark Skaife shared the first two races, but the deciding moment was in Race 2 when the #1 HRT star missed a gear. This allowed the #4 Pirtek Falcon to blaze on to back-to-back race wins on Sunday and equal Moffat’s record.

As questions continued to swirl around the ownership of leading Holden teams, Peter Brock’s name entered the ring as a candidate to own the Kmart cars in addition to Team Brock.

2013 FOR THE first time in almost two years, the Holden Racing Team returned to victory lane courtesy of Garth Tander at Townsville.

In sensational scenes, Tander led home HRT teammate James Courtney on the Sunday at Townsville after 637 days and 58 races since the last.

A day earlier Will Davison’s victory celebration donuts went wrong after he led an FPR 1-2.

Mark Webber announced his retirement from Formula 1 on the eve of the British Grand Prix where he came just 0.7s away from victory in a race eventually won by Nico Rosberg.

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