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DAVID NOBLE DJR’S BOSS - FROM AFL TO SUPERCARS

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THE APPRENTICE AND HIS MASTER WIN THE 500 BUT NOT OUT OF GRAND PRIX RACE! INSIDER INSIGHT THE STATE OF PARITY PLAY AS BATHURST APPROACHES – FROM THE HORSES’ MOUTHS WHILE THE GEN3 ENGINES GET A BIG TICK

THE SANDOWN 500 RETURNS TO IT’S GLORY DAYS

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SHOCK AUSSIE F4 RETURN

ISSUE 1870

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FERRARI’S SINGAPORE SLING WITH THE DOMINEERING RED BULLS OUT OF THE EQUATION AT MARINA BAY, THE FORMULA 1 FIELD SERVED UP A BREATHTAKING ENCOUNTER, HEADLINED BY A FERRARI WIN FROM CRAFTY POLEMAN CARLOS SAINZ. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS.

THERE WERE plenty of sub plots at play in Singapore as the Milton Keynes cars were absent from not only the top-step, but from the whole podium for the first time this season. Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes … that’s how it read, and just like the race itself, it was refreshing.

Whilst Verstappen declared he was “driving on ice” on the preferred longrunning Hard compound, Sainz was saying that he could “drive like this forever.”

He didn’t drive forever (unlike Fernando Alonso clocking up his one-hundredthousandth kilometre on an F1 track during the race) but he did go 62 laps from lightsto-flag to take his second F1 victory to give Frederic Vasseur his first in the Scuderia colours.

And despite David Croft declaring on the broadcast that it was Sainz’ first win for Ferrari, it most certainly wasn’t!

Although Ferrari lost what could have been a one-two through a double-stack, they were brilliant in their plans and it made for a great race as Sainz and Leclerc both went about backing up the field, with the Spaniard also surviving two yellow flags and some fast changing Silver Arrows.

But this event was full of great subplots and notable efforts, including Liam Lawson’s first F1 points, George Russell’s last gasp mishap, Norris getting a helping tow from his ex-teammate, and Oscar Piastri’s drive into what was thought an unlikely points haul.

The McLaren rookie drove into P7 from P17 after missing Q1 after his last ditch green lap was ended following Lance Strolls massive shunt at the final turn.

But to start on another Antipodean rookie … since Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand, super-sub Lawson has turned heads in the AlphaTauri AT04.

He outqualified teammate Yuki Tsunoda in Singapore, knocking Verstappen out of Q3 as a result on the agreed toughest track for a rookie to encounter.

And for the second race running, achieving points was all on him, and this time he did it. It’s hard to imagine he won’t be on the grid in 2024, and he’s likely to still have Japan to come before the ‘Honey Badger’ is fit again.

Whilst Hamilton was back to cutting corners once again to cause some early ire from Norris, both he and Russell looked a real threat after Mercedes’ brilliant double-

High-speed chess – Carlos Sainz’ strategy of ‘giving’ DRS to Norris, enabling him to keep the Mercs at bay, was stunning ... and successful ...

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES stack roll-out under the Ocon-causedyellow put them in the frame on two spare sets of new Mediums.

And they came hard, with Russell saying several times over the radio, “tell me how I can win this”, but despite the advantageous rubber he couldn’t haul Norris in who was in P2 and flying on what seemed like some kind of magical force, ie DRS! Sainz slowed out front to allow Norris the DRS speed advantage, and wasn’t Zak Brown happy about that, giving the former McLaren driver a pretty loving hug.

As for Russell, it was all or nothing, and that was also refreshing.

But it cost him points as he clipped the same Turn 11 wall that Norris had just brushed in his own frantic push.

And as for our Oscar, he went in to

Singapore having been second fiddle re the MCL60 upgrades again (reportedly worth threeor four-tenths).

He was patient and precise and, it must be said, like much of the field, he drove to the conditions well.

Even Verstappen grew impatient and was told several times that it was not useful for the tyres to be so close to the car in front.

But Piastri crept, and he looked, pulled back, and took gains where he could, coming out in P12 after his first pit stop, and waited for others to falter.

When it appeared Alonso’s penalty would likely drop him below Piastri, and when the first yellow ruined Red Bull’s tyre ploy (who were running long in front of him at the time) things looked bright for both himself and the Red Bull junior

rookie who was tailing him nicely.

Red Bull will be back with a vengeance at the quicker Suzuka.

There’s little doubt the Red Bull’s will return to the front of the field and, though the Japanese circuit will present them a more comfortable environment, the Mie Prefecture track can serve up some wild conditions.

But Japan will also add weight or otherwise to some alternate theories on the RB19’s sub-standard handling at Singapore suggesting it was possibly due to F1’s crackdown on flexi-wings – which Red Bull has of course rubbished.

At any rate … More of whatever happened in Singapore please. It’s what F1 envisaged when it unleashed its “new dawn” in 2022

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TRIPLE EIGHT AND EREBUS BATTLE ROLLS ON TO BATHURST TRIPLE EIGHT AND EREBUS HAVE WON 19 OUT OF THE 23 RACES THIS YEAR – OR 20 IF YOU IGNORE SHANE VAN GISBERGEN’S ODD DISQUALIFICATION IN NEWCASTLE – AND THERE IS NOTHING TO SUGGEST THE BATTLE THAT WENT TO THE LINE AT SANDOWN WILL BE DIFFERENT AT BATHURST IN THREE WEEKS TIME ... ANDREW CLARKE EXPLAINS. TRIPLE EIGHT and Erebus have won 19 out of the 23 races this year – or 20 if you ignore Shane van Gisbergen’s odd disqualification in Newcastle - and there is nothing to suggest after that battle went to the line at Sandown that anything will be different at Bathurst in three week’s time.

The win by Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup was Triple Eight’s eighth at the event, moving it one clear of the Holden Dealer Team, and its 250th in the Supercars championship series. Whincup also drew level with Craig Lowndes and Allan Moffat on six Sandown 500 wins, three behind Peter Brock.

But for Feeney (59 races in the series), the win at his first Sandown 500 further stamps his championship credentials after holding off championship leader Brodie Kostecki (94 races) in a 15-lap run to flag after a late race Safety Car. “Today was awesome,” Feeney said, “there’s no other way to describe that feeling. It was pretty special to win today and under the circumstances at the end was very tough.

“My co-driver Jamie did a fantastic job to get us in the position up the front so we could get clean air, but the Safety Car got

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rid of that and it was game on until the end.

“All the guys in our team did a fantastic job, not only today but the entire weekend.

I’m so stoked to be able to stand on the top step today.

“The circumstances at the end of the race with the Safety Car made it an exciting end to the race and an even better way to win the race.”

Clocking in at more than double Feeney’s age, Whincup in his first of two Supercar races for this season was happy to add to his win tally.

“The feeling of winning another Sandown 500 is incredible,” he said. “I’ve always said that it doesn’t matter if you cross the line or you’re a co-driver, it’s still the same feeling that’s for sure.

“I don’t think you should underestimate the job Broc did in the last stint. That was as tough as it gets with all three cars breathing down his neck and it was a true four-way battle. To keep your nerve at a huge event like the Sandown 500 is very difficult and he did a fantastic job.

“I obviously can’t thank the team enough.

We had fast cars this weekend, and that’s the biggest thing you can do because it makes the strategy a little bit easier. A big

congratulations to the entire crew at Triple Eight Race Engineering who clocked up 250 race wins this weekend a few weeks after our 20th anniversary. What a day.”

For Kostecki second place was bittersweet after losing the best part of 25 seconds after double-stacking behind teammate Will Brown on lap 19 after Garth Tander brought out the Safety Car. Then in the final restart he strangely had a backmarker between him and the race leader, costing him time on the jump.

“It’s a lot worse today than what it was yesterday, that’s for sure,” he said. “It was a really cool race. Obviously, having doublestacked wasn’t quite ideal but D-Russ did an awesome job, coming back from 11th to drive it up to fourth in his stint.

“I think, unfortunately, I had James Golding in front of me and had to make up that eight-tenths there,” he said of the restart, “and just used too much of the tyre trying to get to the back of him, and then the tyre pressures blow out after you follow someone for two to three laps.

“Broc raced really smart and placed the car in the right spots, and it was a really good race, and he did well to pull it off.”

“I didn’t really want to have any wheel-to-

wheel contact – I kind of like the steering rack that I have at the moment – so I just sort of wanted to see if I could do it a different way without having to rub him up too bad.

Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway were third after starting the race in 19th spot. Will Brown and Jack Perkins were fourth after a late race error by Brown let van Gisbergen through.

All four Triple Eight and Erebus cars were strong all day and will be fired up for the return bout at Bathurst. The Triple Eight wildcard entry for Craig Lowndes and Zane Goddard was also 10th.

The reliability of the cars was impressive with few mechanical issues in the field.

Garth Tander lost a wheel early in the race from what is believed to be a faulty wheel nut; Thomas Randle and Gary Jacobson had power steering issues, but that came on the back of contact with the #11 DJR Mustang; Cam Hill lost his steering and a few other cars battled minor issues.

The reliability of the cars augers well for the Bathurst 1000.

Don’t forget to grab the next issue for our bumper preview of The Great Race.

Andrew Clarke

SANDOWN 500’S STUNNING RETURN

THE SANDOWN 500 MADE A STUNNING RETURN TO THE SUPERCARS CALENDAR WITH NEARLY 70,000 PEOPLE WITNESSING AN ENTERTAINING SHOW IN BRILLIANT SPRING WEATHER IN MELBOURNE. IT ALSO appears that the expiry of Sandown as a racing venue is far from a done deal as many have been reporting, with a further round of board elections at the Melbourne Racing Club expected to shift the balance more towards the retention of Sandown as a horse racing venue, and hence motor racing.

Last year’s board election saw three of the four vacant positions won by pro-Sandown candidates – a similar result this year will give pro-Sandown a majority of the board.

But all attention last weekend was on the 500 rather than board elections, the first since 2019, and the success of the event will no doubt guarantee its survival for as long as is possible.

“It’s incredibly pleasing to see such a large crowd of 68,724 attend the Sandown 500 over the weekend,” Supercars CEO Shane Howard said after the event.

“This is the largest crowd we’ve had at Sandown in recent years, and it’s a testament to the unwavering support of our fans who turned up in force to cheer on their favourites at this historic circuit.

“Our next stop is the 60th anniversary running of the Repco Bathurst 1000 next month, and we can’t wait to join our passionate fans at Mount Panorama to celebrate what will be yet another historic event for the Championship.”

Auto Action spoke with members of the crowd, who said they were embracing the uncertainty of the outcome with the Gen3 cars as well as having missed the event, which was sacrificed during the COVID pandemic.

Pressure from the teams for its return as not just the traditional lead-in to Bathurst, but as a significant event in its own right, ensured its spot on the 2023 calendar and any nerves from

Supercars would have been eased when the crowds started rolling in on Friday.

Supercars has tried a few times to move the race to venues such as Queensland Raceway and Phillip Island and was known to be exploring a move to The Bend before COVID put paid to all refuelling races except for Bathurst for two years.

The Sandown 500 is now locked back on the calendar.

Jamie Whincup became a six-time winner of the event, joining Allan Moffat and Craig Lowndes in second spot on the winners’ list behind nine-time winner Peter Brock, while Broc Feeney won his first Sandown 500 on debut.

Triple Eight also moved clear of the Holden Dealer Team with eight wins to lead the team’s data.

Andrew Clarke

Images: MARK HORSBURGH

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STOP PRESS!

NEW ZEALAND SUPERCARS LAUNCH THIS WEEK SUPERCARS WILL this week confirm the weekend of 19-21 April for its return to New Zealand next year, four weeks after a likely appearance at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Taupo Motorsport Park was declared a few weeks back as the chosen venue, but a date was not announced at the time as Supercars and the New Zealand government needed to juggle a few things to make the preferred date work.

We believe Supercars has a number of things to confirm before it can settle the rest of the 2024 calendar which is expected to start in Newcastle, including a possible return to the Middle East as exclusively revealed in the last edition of Auto Action. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are interested in using Supercars to support its Formula One events, while Singapore remains a remote chance only because of its proximity to Bathurst’s first weekend of October date.

Qatar appears to be the most likely of those options, with Saudi Arabia only coming into play if the negotiations between the AGP Corporations and Supercar fail to resolve their tensions.

If Supercars do run at the Australian Grand Prix, they will lose their dedicated pitlane, but one team principal told Auto Action that didn’t matter, and that the teams need to be less precious with the biggest crowds and TV audience of the year too important to the teams and their sponsors.

“We don’t need to do pitstops, but we do need to be there. The only thing that matters is that we are the last race on Friday and Saturday so we can run full distance and put on the best show,” he said. “Who cares if we are in tents with a plastic floor.”

Both Supercars and the team owners want to be at the AGP, but from Supercars point of view, it is not at any cost.

Supercars CEO Shane Howard would not comment on any of the above at Sandown. Andrew Clarke

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FORD’S FRIDAY FAMINE TURNS INTO A FEAST AFTER PERHAPS its worst day of the season, a Friday night change to the shift-cut times on the Ford Mustangs, at Sandown, appeared to transform the Blue Oval from backmarkers to contenders, much to the chagrin of the Chev teams.

The Fords were soundly trounced in FP3 late on Friday, with the fastest Ford being the #6 Monster Energy Mustang of Cam Waters in ninth place. By Saturday afternoon the Fords appeared to be back in the game, with six cars in the Top 10 Shootout, but all still lagging behind the brilliant Erebus cars of Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki.

A few of the Chev team owners expressed concerns over the process that allowed the change, and one even suggested that the Ford teams may have been underperforming on Friday to force Supercars’ hand.

Tickford’s Tim Edwards scoffed at that suggestion, saying the data used was full throttle acceleration out of Turn 4 coming onto the long back straight and that it was not possible to fudge a 100% throttle application. He also said it did not transform the Mustangs.

“We’ve never played those games on this side of the fence, but it was only miniscule.

Nothing. It’s such a small amount,” he said.

“What they tested in the practice session was actually lengthening the Camaro shift too on some of the cars – I think they went to 125 from 105, and shortening some of the Fords from 50 to 30. But my understanding is they couldn’t get agreement from the other side about the 125, so all they could do was sort a little bit on our side.

“From the micro sectors, it looked like the straights was where the Fords were all suffering, and that’s what they’re looking to address.

“We know there’s an imbalance between the engines. It’s been quietly forgotten about, but we know it’s still there. Hence, we need the different shift cuts to try. But it was a band-aid. There’s some work to be done there because nobody, neither side, wants it. GM don’t want it; we don’t want it.

“Some work needs to happen to actually understand what it is. We’ll be able to flush out what is the go when we have torque sensors, the transient dyno, and stuff like that. The band-aid served us reasonably

well for whatever it is, eight rounds, but at some point, you’ve got to pull the band-aid off and fix the parity issue between the two of them.”

Triple Eight’s Mark Dutton was emphatic the timing of the change wasn’t allowed, but also accepted that changes are required: “It’s against the rules,” he said unequivocally. “I think they had more than 50% in the top 10 in qualifying, so it’s been successful. If, all of a sudden, you get that many jump up, with how close this is, it usually means you’ve overshot the mark because teams always have to take a little bit of time to maximise it, no matter if it gives you gains or not.

“So, the fact that that didn’t happen means that you overshot the mark. There’s a little bit of a process through pitlane – we knew what was happening. The GM teams have been supportive of the category all the year to try and keep it as strong and competitive, even to the detriment of our own performance.

“We’re not against trying to get it right, but there is a process.”

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Brad Jones echoed his thoughts.

“I’m certain they’ve stepped their game up over the weekend. I think that we have got a process and it should be followed,” he said. “I’m not happy or unhappy about it. I just think we should follow due process.”

The change to Ford’s reduced the shift cut from 50 milliseconds to 30 on third to sixth gears. A shift cut momentarily interrupts the torque output of the engine, allowing the driver to change gear while maintaining wide-open throttle.

The change itself was easy to implement with Herrod Performance Engines changing the map and uploading it to all the Ford teams before qualifying.

Some of the Ford teams were worried it was going to increase rear tyre wear, and they favoured extending the shift cut on the Camaro, but that wasn’t accepted by the bow-tie brigade.

Six Ford’s made the top 10 Shootout which was dominated by the Erebus Camaros with a front row lockout, after the previous day saw the Mustangs losing up to 4/10ths on the back straight alone.

Andrew Clarke

NEW EPISODES OUT EVERY WEDNESDAY

AA’s Andrew Clarke gets the Blue Oval perspective from Australian Motorsport Manager Ben Nightingale.

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FORD UP TO THE FIGHT

WHILE THE PARITY DEBATE IS ONGOING, FORD HAS REITERATED ITS COMMITMENT TO THE SERIES AND TO GETTING THE CARS RIGHT. BUT THAT SUPPORT IS NOT UNEQUIVOCAL. ANDREW CLARKE REPORTS ...

DESPITE FEELING like it is racing at a disadvantage, Ford is persevering with its Supercars campaign and is looking forward to working with Supercars and General Motors to get technical parity in the sport.

Ford Australia Motorsport Manager, Ben Nightingale said several planned steps would hopefully get it to a spot where Ford can again compete for wins and titles. The focus will be on the two parts of the car that the manufacturers can influence, the engine and the bodywork.

With all the talk of transient dynos, Ford is looking to assist in the process to ensure the testing provides all the necessary answers. One of the challenges for Ford is that the Coyote engine has more scope for tuning, which has been used to match the Chevrolet engine on the static dyno to date.

Transient dyno testing has not yet happened, and a step up is required in the test and development regime.

“We have 17 transient dynos in Detroit,” he said, suggesting one of those could be used to sort out the engine issues that are acknowledged by both engine builders to still exist.

“The way they work is they set them up like a drivetrain, but we understand that the one in Melbourne needs work. We could go to the US and use one of ours – however, I’m not sure that they want to use OEM facilities, but it could be done.”

Both engines have had durability testing on transient dynos, but they have not yet been put on the same transient dyno for comparative testing.

“I’m sure GM has done the same thing, but our drivetrain has been on the transient dyno in Detroit, and it did thousands and thousands of kilometres of durability testing pre-season with the full drivetrain.

There’s a software system that simulates whole laps with gear shift inputs and the like.

“Our understanding is that there was a plan to do that [transient dyno testing] during the Gen3 development process – Ilmor Engineering was engaged at some point, but it never happened.”

He said that with plans for two cars to go to the USA

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after Adelaide for wind tunnel testing, it would be easy to send engines there too.

“It’s a necessity in a modern motorsport category.

This kind of testing is essential and the way we’ve been asking for it to happen for a long time. The old systems don’t work anymore; we can’t have the variance that we had. Supercars is moving to improve their processes in conjunction with the OEMs, and it’s very welcome.

“In the past there probably were parity issues, but you could engineer around it. You can’t do that now, so we’ve got to measure more accurately. Even a small change or variation in the body of two very different shaped cars can make a big difference.

“The thing about this category is that it is a technical parity category. It has to be right. The data demonstrates that it isn’t right now, so now we’ve got to work hard to get it right.

“Shane Howard and his team know there’s work to be done and they’re definitely working really positively with us and we’re engaging in the process and that’s ongoing and it will continue.”

He said there was pressure coming down the line from the US, which we have seen with statements from Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance’s Global Director of Motorsport, indicating that unless parity is reached Ford would have to reconsider its involvement.

“I think you’ve seen elements of that pressure, but we’re committed to our teams, and we want to be involved in Supercars. When you’ve got these ongoing and underlying issues, it’s a massive challenge. It’s not just about Ford, it’s about every single one of our teams and it’s about their sponsors in what is a difficult commercial environment.”

In Australia, he said Ford had plenty of competition options. It recently won its class in the Finke Desert race with a Ford Ranger Raptor, and it will also explore GT racing with the GT3 in 2025 and beyond.

A Dark Horse one-make series is also possible if the numbers stack up, but he said the market here is pretty crowded with racing series. The Mustang

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Challenge series will debut in the USA in 2024 on the IMSA undercard.

For this year now, Nightingale is hopeful of a good showing at Bathurst, which he says may be more important than the series at any rate.

“Hopefully we have a successful weekend at Bathurst because, ultimately, throughout the history of Australian touring car racing, everyone remembers who won the Bathurst 1000. It is the crown jewel of Supercars racing.

“So, if we won Bathurst, it kind of makes the struggle through the rest of the year melt away. Then with Supercars’ commitment to an updated testing regime and process in the off-season, we can hopefully come into 2024 with a genuinely even playing field and then it is absolutely up to the teams and drivers to maximise.

“That is all we want.”

He did concede that winning Bathurst with the cars in the current spec was going to be hard, but it is not out of the question, and it is not just a matter of the Ford teams not doing a good enough job.

“I mean, I’m sick and tired of hearing that. It’s absolute rubbish. I’ve heard it said many times, but the reality is this, we have five Ford teams in the championship. Four of those teams were in the top five of the team championship last year, and four of our drivers were in the top five of the championship.

They have not forgotten how to drive and the teams haven’t forgotten how to prepare a car.

“When Cameron Waters or Chaz Mostert, or Will Davison or anybody in any of our teams is on the podium, they’ve driven the race of their lives. That argument is rubbish. Utter rubbish.”

He indicated that it is quite possible some of his teams are even doing a better job than Erebus and Triple Eight since they are racing with equipment that is lagging on parity.

2023 OEM SUMMARY POLES

WINS

PODIUMS

CHEVROLET

18

20

51

FORD

5

2

17

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ENGINES ARE WINNERS IN GEN3 BOTH GEN3 ENGINE BUILDERS SAY THEY ARE SURPRISED AT THE RELIABILITY OF THE NEW ENGINES, WHICH IS BRINGING IN THE FIRST ROUND OF COST SAVINGS FOR SUPERCARS’ TEAMS. ANDREW CLARKE SPOKE WITH KEN MCNAMARA AND ROB HERROD.

Rob Herrod (left) and Kenny McNamara (right) – brand rivals are co-operating to get the cost-saving and parity work done.

Below: Chev engine, installed.

BOTH HERROD Performance Engines and KRE Race Engines have started mid-season maintenance on Supercars engines and it appears that they have both met the goals set in terms of reliability and running costs. Except for the ongoing engine mapping issues for Ford, the engines score a big tick.

To date, there has not been one engine failure and most of the engines have now run for around 7,000km and the first refreshes have revealed very little wear.

“We did them between Townsville and Sydney,” KRE boss Ken McNamara said from Sandown after pulling down the Chevrolet engines.

“We got all 14 motors back over a twoand-a-half, three-week period, and we basically changed valve springs, timing chains, spark plugs, and belts.

“All the power was still good; no degradation. They went back to the teams and they ran them at Tailem Bend and then we put fresh ones in here for Sandown and Bathurst. We’ll pull them back out and put the other motors back in to finish off Gold Coast and Adelaide, which should be around 10,000km.

“When we did those checkovers I think it was at a cost of just under five grand – $4,800. Then at the end of the year, they’ll get a full rebuild, which should be 30-odd grand. The Super2 teams just had rebuilds with similar mileage, they got it for 35, 40 grand, which is a big difference.”

He estimated the savings each season would be more than $80,000 per car for his clients, and that might get even more when he cuts back the travel next year.

The story in the blue garages is similar.

“I was very surprised when we started pulling them down because we really didn’t know what to expect,” HPE’s Rob Herrod said of the Ford engines.

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“We’d done durability testing at Ford in Dearborn, and they were really good, but they were engines that had been running on an AVL Dyno and not in racing conditions.

“Now we’ve got engines coming at 4,500, 5,000 and up to 6,000Ks, and I’ve got to tell you, I really believe we really could have just buttoned them up again and sent them out the door.

“We changed things like timing chains and gear sets, and water pumps.”

He said it was really a process of exploration and, like his opposite on the Chev side of the ledger, he has been surprised at the durability and reliability of the engines. There has not been an engine failure for either marque.

“Apart from that little fitting coming loose [Cam Waters in Darwin] we’ve had no issues. Mind you, that engine had been in that car for close to 4,000 kilometres.

Apart from that, we’ve had nothing.”

There have been some preventative measures taken for external wear from gravel and sandtraps, but little else to cause concern. New Ryco air and oil filters are among the many outside factors helping engine life.

Mapping remains an issue for Fords in combination with gear cuts, which were changed on Friday night at Sandown, but Herrod says they are getting there in concert with Supercars and Craig Hasted. Many teams say if they were allowed to map the engines themselves, the problems with the Mustang would have been solved – instead the process requires testing and authentication before any changes are made across the field.

“We keep looking at things, but it’s very hard when you can’t get in a car, and you’ve got to get someone to give you feedback about how the throttle feels.

We can only go off data that we have and feedback from the drivers. Everybody’s telling you it’s really great, then all of a sudden they go, ‘Oh no, this is not fun.’

Every driver has a different variation.

“Supercars have been wonderful to work with. Craig Hasted has been fantastic. It’s just been very good to try and work through all the issues on that mapping side of things. We even send things to Ford for Ford to go over to make sure everything’s okay, and if it all fits the criteria, Craig gives it the tick and puts it in the car.

“What people need to understand is it’s not like last year, where you could go in and pull the file out, and someone says, ‘Oh, it’s got a little bit of a blip’ or whatever it may be. We can’t change a thing without Supercars.”

The recent Sydney Motorsport Park test came out of the blue and wasn’t really planned, but it proved crucial, hence the improved performance of the Mustang since – but there is still a way to go.

Both Herrod and McNamara are keen for more sophisticated testing on a transient dyno, but issues with the planned unit have delayed the process.

A transient dyno is able to simulate race conditions, with the circuits teams race on inserted into the system to match as closely as possible real life.

The engine and the entire drive train are used, and much of pitlane sees this as the ultimate next step, and perhaps the only way to truly understand the issues.

“We’ve had some engineers in here today [Saturday at Sandown] that have done transient work,” Herrod said at Sandown, “and one of the guys works on variable cam timing, and he said, ‘what’s on the Dyno might not relate to what’s on the track’. So, it’ll be interesting.

“We’ve done all the hard work of what we can do up to now, and we can’t do any more than what we’ve done. We come here and monitor the cars and try not to stress ourselves out. The main thing I feel happy about is that our engines are reliable. I can’t control the speed of the power-up because we don’t control it.

“We sit down here and we monitor every vehicle. We’ve got 12 cars out there today, and there are three of us sitting there at that data monitor. We have alarms and so forth, if something’s going to go wrong, we know it’s going to go wrong.”

McNamara likewise is looking forward to the transient dyno test which he hopes will help generate engine parity.

“I think there are obviously some differences that no one really knows what they are yet. So, I think once they go to the wind tunnel and also the transient dyno, they should get some information on what points to target.”

A transient dyno has the ability to simulate real-world loads on the engine and test the entire drivetrain. AVL is the manufacturer of the transient dyno that Supercars is hoping to use, and testing should be completed before the end of the season.

One Ford and one Chev at the end of the season will be sent to the US for wind tunnel testing which should help fine-tune the aero package for the 2024 season. It is believed that one of the Blanchard Racing Team cars and one of the Triple Eight cars will be used.

SCAN HERE TO ACCESS OUR COMPREHENSIVE SUPERCARS EVENT GUIDE.

GROVE RACING’S BITTERSWEET SANDOWN 500

GROVE RACING HAD THE FIRST FORD HOME IN THE SANDOWN 500, BUT WAS RUEING WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AFTER A COMPONENT FAILURE ON LAP 19 FIRED GARTH TANDER INTO THE WALL WHILE RUNNING A COMFORTABLE FOURTH ...

THE CRASH sent the car out of the race without lead driver Dave Reynolds turning a lap, while the team’s efforts turned to its rookie driver Matt Payne and series debutante Kevin Estre from France. Estre showed his class by working his way into third spot before the second round of stops.

Payne hovered around there for the rest of the race before claiming sixth.

“I was pretty disappointed with #26, that’s pretty heart-wrenching for the guys,” Payne said after the race. “We’ve all worked really hard to have two fast cars this weekend, and we had two fast cars, but unfortunately, one just drove the wheels off it.

“But #19 was good. Kevin did a really good job in the first two stints and he got us up to third. He was very Impressive for the first time out in the car. He did a super job and managed the tyres really well. He’s a very good driver, and I couldn’t be any happier with his performance.

“We sort of lost a little bit of pace on the first stint I did; the tyres weren’t quite on.

And then the next two stints were a lot better for us. It was a really good day.”

Payne is the stand-out rookie of the season so far and he sits equal 16th in the series with Thomas Randle and he is hoping for even better results at Bathurst.

The other side of the garage was gutted with the failure on the Reynolds and Tander car, with a suspected faulty wheel nut the culprit – the wheel fell off as he crested the rise heading into the Dandenong Road Esses. The Penrite Mustang slammed into the wall before coming to a rest in the sandtrap.

His errant wheel eventually took the rear

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Above: Garth Tander – here with Brenton Grove – was an early DNF at Sandown after the left-rear wheel parted ciomopany with the car.

Image: PETER NORTON. Below: Matt Payne and Kevin Estre did a great job in the second car ...

wing off the Cam Waters and James Moffat Mustang with Moffat at the wheel.

Tander was otherwise happy with his first race with Grove Racing and his first in a Ford Supercar, despite the crash.

“I think we the fastest Ford today – the car was really good early,” he said. “Obviously got a few in the first couple of laps, which was part of the plan to get closer to some clear air. And then once I got behind the three Camaros in front, literally sat there and once a gap opened up behind me, I actually fell back into that gap on purpose to manage the front tyres. We were just sitting and waiting.

“It does feel ordinary,” he said of the crash.

“It’s more so because of the work the team put in this weekend. Our car wasn’t great

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on Friday and the team made it better on Saturday. And then we made it better again on Saturday night and then today we made it exceptionally better between the warmup and the race ... so it is disappointing for the team because we had a really good car.

“Our pace early in the race and then Matt and Kevin’s pace through the race proved we had quick cars, the fastest of the Fords. I’m not saying that we would’ve been in the podium battle at the end but, all things being equal, we would’ve been right amongst that at the end and they [the team] deserve to be there and have a crack at that.”

Tander said there was little warning of the failure, which appears to be from a component failure.

“When it went, it was really sudden. It would’ve been much handier if it went off at Turn 2 or Turn 11 where it’s second gear and a lot slower, but that’s the nature of motorsport – it was a big one. I hit the wall reasonably hard, but we could have lost the whole car having a moment like that at Dandy Road.

“It was 19 laps into a stint, so it’s not like the wheel was left loose. The other wheels on my car didn’t fall off or the four wheels on Kevin’s car didn’t fall off. Our torque setting was obviously correct. It was a brand new wheel nut apparently to a new specification, and the wheel clip obviously failed too. There needs to be some investigation into that, because we can’t have that happening at Bathurst.”

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EDWARDS GOING NOWHERE DESPITE TICKFORD DOWNSCALE ‘HAPPY TIM’ EDWARDS SAYS HE IS GOING NOWHERE AND THAT HE HAS PLANS FOR TICKFORD TO RETURN TO THE TOP. HE SPOKE WITH ANDREW CLARKE ...

Images: MARK HORSBURGH TICKFORD TEAM Principal Tim Edwards has reacted savagely to a false report on another motorsport website that he is leaving Tickford to take up the CEO role at Motorsport Australia. Despite Tickford dropping to two cars, Edwards says there are no wholesale staff changes at Campbellfield, including himself.

Dismissing the article as pure fiction, Edwards explained the reason for the drop to two cars is because of the labour intensity required to maintain the new cars.

“The reality is, the only way we feel that we can be more competitive and to get back to where we were and win a championship, is to focus all our energy on two cars,” he said from Sandown.

“These new cars are very timeconsuming on staff, and they’re exhausting to build and maintain.

“There are a lot of parts on the car that are way more labour-intensive. If I just use subassembly as an example, the steering rack we had on own car last year was one we developed over time – we only pulled it out once a year to service it because we

felt guilty. It was that robust.

“With the steering racks we’ve got at the moment, we pull all four out after every race. That’s increased the workload on subassembly, which hasn’t changed in size. You’ve got that much more energy going into service and things – even the bodywork is way more labour-intensive to fit and maintain. When you add all that up, it all becomes a distraction because unless you want to go throwing way more people at your business, our four-car model doesn’t work any more.

“The best way was just to harness all our energy, put it in the two cars and we think that’s our best way of performing on track.

“Gen 3 has influenced our decision, undoubtedly. To be more competitive, we’re playing a game of poker and we’re just going all-in on two cars, pushed all those chips in on two cars and that’s the approach we’ve taken.”

While he highlighted the steering racks as an issue, and Tickford is engineering a possible replacement for the current ‘fragile’ rack that many have said is not fit

Thomas Randle is expected to be part of Tickfords plans for 2024 and beyond and is excited with his recent results with the team. Image: MARK HORSBURGH

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for purpose, he said it was more than that alone and that as a team, Tickford can’t hang around with four cars while all the issues are solved and life becomes easier.

“I certainly hope it comes back,” he said of the workload. “That’s the goal, but there’s been so much energy going into issues and parity. There’s a long list of things that you want to fine-tune on the car, but you never get to it.

“Over time, I’m sure it’ll get better, but do you really want to just sit there and have another what I’ll call average year next year? This is the best way for us not to have an average year next year and for people like Brad Wischusen, who’s currently the chief engineer and has four drivers, four engineers to manage and four data guys to look after, to be able to do his job.

“He’s not going to know himself next year. I’m sure you’ll disagree with my comment there, but the reality is he’s got half of the headaches because invariably if one car’s not going so well, or one car’s going well, you get pushed and pulled all over the place. Next year, he will sit there with two engineers on either side of him; he doesn’t have to walk next door and see what’s going on in there.

“It’s going to simplify a lot of things about our business, and you could argue maybe we should have done this a few years ago – maybe we should never have gone up to four cars, but you don’t know what you don’t know.

“In 2019, we finished third and fourth in the Teams’ Championship with our four cars. Then COVID came along, and that had other complications. At the moment, our third and fourth cars, as in 55 and 56, earned their pit lane position because they’re tethered to 5 and 6, but in 2019, they earned garage four.

“We’ve demonstrated in the past that we can run four cars, but things have changed, and these cars have become more expensive, so you have now got to

do a better job commercially, which puts more pressure on Rich (Richard Marks, GM Commercial and Sales at Tickford Racing ) to make sure that every bit of the car is sold. You add it all up and it doesn’t add up with four cars.”

He said there would be no retrenchments, with the downsizing, allowing natural attrition to deal with any issues, for which Edwards is happy saying “The last you thing you want do is retrench staff” Three of his staff have already agreed to join Blanchard Racing Team as it expands to two cars, and others will continue across the two main-game cars and the two-car Super2 program which is just starting to hit its straps with Sandown pole-sitting Brad Vaughan and the rapidly improving Elly Morrow.

With current staff vacancies, the only staff losses appears to be the drivers, with James Courtney and Declan Fraser out of full-time drives with Tickford, although Courtney will soon be confirmed at Blanchards.

Snowy Rivers Caravans is also expected to appear at Blanchards after a successful campaign with Tickford, as it seeks to remain a naming rights sponsor on a car that is not available at Tickford with Monster Energy and Castrol remaining on the Cam Waters and Thomas Randle cars.

At present, Tickford plans to concentrate on its two two-car teams for 2024, but Edwards didn’t rule out an expansion into other categories in 2025, especially with the Mustang GT3 coming on stream.

“You can choose to do any of those things. Whether it’s GTs, Carrera Cup, or Super2, they have to be their own little business units with their own workforce, their own truck, all those things. You don’t want one campaign to distract or drain from the other.”

Tickford won the drivers championship with Mark WInterbottom in 2015 after back-to-back Bathurst wins in 2013 and 2014.

SVG CONFIRMS NASCAR DEAL WITH TRACKHOUSE SHANE VAN GISBERGEN HAS LOCKED DOWN HIS PLANS FOR NASCAR IN 2024 LESS THAN THREE MONTHS AFTER HIS HISTORIC WIN IN CHICAGO. ANDREW CLARKE REPORTS ...

Trackhouse Racing in the United States has confirmed it will continue its race-winning relationship with Shane van Gisbergen in 2024. The three-time Australian Supercars Champion and winner of NASCAR’s inaugural Chicago Street Race will run a learning program next year, meaning an emphasis on ovals rather than road courses.

Talking to Auto Action at Sandown, van Gisbergen indicated he would be based in the US before Christmas, but he doesn’t really know where and when he will be racing in 2024, just that he will be learning ovals, which has traditionally proved the hardest thing for NASCAR imports.

Marcos Ambrose, the most successful nonUS-born driver in NASCAR history, managed seven wins across the Cup and its feeder series (now the Xfinity Series), all on road courses and six of them at Watkins Glen.

Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity and the Cup Trackhouse founder and owner Justin Series as well as late models and other races.

Marks has remained steadfast in his desire “Expansion is not something to be to bring van Gisbergen into NASCAR after taken lightly, but we feel Trackhouse is his Chicago win but has also said it doesn’t commercially and technically positioned for mean he will go straight into the Cup Series. growth,” Marks said.

Marks is a self-declared disrupter in “You need good timing, very good partners NASCAR, and he has Trackhouse on a and great drivers. Adding Zane is like signing growth curve that he hopes will make it the the No. 1 draft pick and we are proud that he powerhouse team of NASCAR. In addition is now a member of the Trackhouse family.”

NORTON to the van Gisbergen announcement last Image: PETER Turning his attention to van Gisbergen, week, he also revealed that 2022 NASCAR he said: “This is going to be a tremendous Craftsman Truck Series Champion Zane challenge for Shane but he is a tremendous Smith is also joining the Trackhouse family, driver as we have all seen. Next year will be with a plan to have him running a third about getting him acclimatised to oval track Trackhouse car in the Cup Series in 2025, racing, Superspeedways, 1.5-mile tracks and which indicates van Gisbergen may be on at everything he has never experienced in his least a two-year learning program. career. It’s obviously going to be a learning Smith is an accomplished oval track racer process, but we think Shane will perform and will run for Spire Motorsports at the top quite well.” level with support from Trackhouse, while Since winning in Chicago on his NASCAR van Gisbergen will run a mix of races in the debut, the first driver to do so in 60 years,

Image: ANDREW CLARKE van Gisbergen has been working on a 2024 program and is happy to stay inside Trackhouse despite many other offers.

Enhance Health founder, Matt Herman who backed van Gisbergen’s two races this year, will likely remain a supporter of van Gisbergen in 2024 after telling Auto Action in Chicago that he already had plans for van Gisbergen before he had won the race.

“This announcement means so many things to me,” van Gisbergen said. “I’m proud of what I have achieved here in Australia, but I’m excited by this new chapter in my career and the opportunities that it brings.

“I’m so thankful to everyone who has played a role in my career so far, especially Triple Eight Race Engineering, and looking forward to finishing our year with a few more highlights.

“It is time for a new challenge and this adventure into NASCAR will be the biggest challenge of my career and

one I’m really looking forward to. I want to thank Justin Marks and everyone at Trackhouse Racing who have taken a chance on me and given me this opportunity. I’m excited to get to America and get the season started.”

Project91, for which van Gisbergen has raced, is not a charter entry in the NASCAR Cup Series which is why van Gisbergen wasn’t in the NASCAR play-offs despite being one of 14 race winners in the season.

Non-charter teams can run in NASCAR Cup Series races, but they need to qualify for one of four spots at each race meeting and receive less of the prize purse.

Marks said in August that he didn’t think a lack of charters was an issue, with all charters subject to a performance clause that could force them onto the market if they fail to meet certain minimum standards. If a Charter team finishes in the bottom three of the owner standings among all 36 Charter teams for three consecutive years, NASCAR has a right to remove the charter.

“I don’t know if it matters,” Marks said of not having enough charters at the moment. “The charter thing is a funny business right now.

“I’m running a racing business here and don’t have a billion-dollar company that I can lean on or anything like that. We’ve got a lot of people that are interested. The barrier of entry is high financially right now and I’m not convinced you have to have one to go racing.

“We are going to try and expand and grow as a business, that’s not 100 percent dependent on us and our ability to buy a charter.”

In addition to his Chicago win, van Gisbergen also had a top 10 finish in the Brickyard 400 on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA BACKS SHOCK F4 RETURN

EXCLUSIVE

IN A MOVE likely to raise the ire of local single-seater series participants, Motorsport Australia is shortly to announce it has given its blessing and support to a five-round FIA Formula 4 series to kick off in Australia next year.

China-based company Top Speed, which promotes the Formula 4 UAE Championship (which runs across January and February) among its many motorsport activities and is likely to ship a fleet of cars to Australia for a five-round series, expected to kick off in April.

Auto Action understands that three of the rounds will be at The Bend in SA with other two at a single venue, likely to be Sydney Motorsport Park. As is the norm in regional F3/4 series there will also be significant test days for participants.

With the required five-race minimum being achieved, the series will be able to offer FIA Superlicence points.

FIA Formula 4 last contested a national championship series in Australia from 2015 to 2019. The Confederation of Australian Motorsport (as it was then, now trading as Motorsport Australia), called for commercial tenders to invest in its introduction – but none were forthcoming. So, CAMS undertook the purchase of a fleet of cars itself and the investment in the series.

But F4 struggled to gain a foothold in Australia, and the series was wound up at the end of 2019 due to a lack of competitors, and the cars were sold off at a reputed loss of $3m to CAMS. Now it is set to return, this time using another organisation’s cars – but with the endorsement of Motorsport Australia.

Several potential competitors and affected parties were contacted by Auto Action, including Adam Gotch from AGI Sport.

AGI Sport were involved in the original

“We’re (AGI Sport) about to go to Asia and take on all the Asian teams, so I don’t think it’s a crazy stretch of the imagination to think one or two will come this way and fill in that part of the year.”

At a time when Australian single-seater categories such as S5000 (less than $200k a season), the lowcost (earlier model F3/ F4/TRS) Formula Open series, and even Formula Ford, need the support and FIA F4 is coming back ... with Motorsport Australia’s blessing – S5000, Formula Ford, and backing of the governing Formula Open supporters and competitors are likely to be pretty unimpressed ... body, the re-birth of FIA Formula 4 – especially Australian Formula 4 series and ran same car, that Tatuus Abarth combination, given the past experience – supporting several drivers in its program, and are that they’ll be competing in over in England, an overseas promoter, is likely to prove currently heavily involved in junior openItaly, UAE, etc.” contentious. wheel categories both here in Australia Gotch said a driver in the AGI program It was the creation of the UAE F4 series, and overseas, and works with Motorsport would do between 60 and 70 days in an F4 on a clashing timeline, which led to a fall in Australia on the Ferrari Driver Academy car before graduating to the next level of overseas interest in NZ’s long-standing and program. motorsport. He is excited by the prospect of previously very successful TRS series (now “We’ll be running a four-car, maybe a a revived F4 program in Australia. known as Regional F3) earlier this year. five-car team with our brand new Tatuus “We’re not part of the organisation, but I’ve Formula 4 took the place of Formula 3 cars in April through to September,” Gotch been kept in the loop for sure. AGI Sport has in 2015 but did not gain recognition as the said, “although I’m not looking forward to the made a big investment in the new Tatuus Australian Drivers Championship which was backlash with what happened with the F4 cars and we’ll be taking those overseas as not contested between 2015 and 2020. The the first time around, but I think we’re in a well for an extensive program across Asia, ADC was revived in 2021 with S5000 cars, different place now. as well as operating here in the Australian F4 but according to ARG’s Barry Rogers, young “I think that most can see that F4 is a vital series.” drivers are more interested in pathways than part of the stairway after karting. All the He confirmed The Bend and SMP as the a Gold Star itself. major countries in the world have drivers two venues, but doubted others would be Motorsport Australia was contacted for stepping into F4 straight out of karts, and involved as they work to keep the costs of comment but did not reply before we closed you just need to look at Liam Lawson for an running the series own. for print. TW Neal example who was doing F4 over here in 2017 “I think it’ll be mostly Australian teams, but The F4 Matrix as proof of that pathway. It’s what helped I think it would be great if some Asian teams *Asian F4 – October-December launch him overseas. come down for it, and I think that would be *UAE F4 Championship – January-February “They’ll be competing here in the exact great. *Australian F4 – April-September

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX FIGHTS TO KEEP ITS CROWD FIGURES SECRET

THE AUSTRALIAN Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) is fighting a freedom-of-information ruling that says disclosure of the crowd figures at the Grand Prix is important for transparency and accountability. The FOI application was made by the Save Albert Park (SAP) group which has been fighting the AGPC since the race was first announced for Albert Park nearly three decades ago.

SAP believes the crowd figures are not accurate and leads to a distortion of the race’s importance. VCAT has previously sided with the AGPC and supported the claim that the release of the figures would be commercially damaging for the race.

This time around, SAP successfully appealed to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) after being refused access to the data.

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According to an article in The Age, by Greg Baum – chief sports columnist and associate editor – an approach was made to the AGPC in October last year and was rejected two months later saying the crowdcounting process was sensitive.

The Age quoted the AGPC’s information officer, Dale Nardella as saying: “The level of public funds invested in the commercial enterprise run by the AGPC is significant.

It cannot be in the public interest for the AGPC to be forced to compete in a market where its competitors and likely customers have access to information which could impede its effectiveness as a competitive business.”

After SAP approached OVIC, its deputy commissioner ordered the information should be made available, and the AGPC is fighting that decision in VCAT. A preliminary hearing is set down for 16 October. Andrew Clarke

Image: THOMAS MILES-AUTO ACTION

ASTUTI’S DAY IN THE SANDOWN SUN REIGNING NATIONAL Formula Ford champion Valentino Astuti finally got his Supercars day in the sun at the Sandown 500, sweeping the Dunlop Super3 podium on his debut.

The affable young Victorian was forced to sit out most the year due to budgetary restraints after winning the 2022 national title, a category that has seen its many champions go on to big careers, with no-less than 13 of its past champions appearing on Sunday’s main game grid.

Astuti took on the Dunlop Series field in an MW Motorsport Nissan Altima with minimal lead-up practice, and one session in DJR Gen3 as his reward for winning last year’s FF title.

There is also a strong chance that he’ll get to the next round, which is of course at the Bathurst 1000, which will be another deserving moment for the young talent.

At Sandown he was all smiles, 24/7, as he got around in his race suit sporting sponsors like Coca Cola, Bowser Bean, Caltex, Enidine and Encozy … and his V8 was probably the best looking V8 on track to-boot!

Auto Action caught up with Valentino in his team’s tent on Sunday.

“A big thanks to Matt White and the sponsors for helping me put a bit of a programme together It was a big commitment to get it ready at the last minute, and I’m extremely grateful and excited to be here,” Astuti said.

“Driving these is definitely not what I expected – it’s very different from what I was used to, so just adapting to the body roll, weight transfer, and putting the power down has been the challenge.

“Getting the brake pressure up there is not too dissimilar to the Formula Ford technique, but then holding the brake on to get these things to stop has been the biggest learning curve.

“But I feel after Race 1 the braking was there for me, but I’m still working on trusting the tyres into the corners and carrying that speed through.”

A big thing for practice was that White ensured that he had space on the track to adjust to his surroundings, which they did nicely, and speaking with the car engineers behind the scenes, they were

Valentino Astuti and team owner Matt White. all feeling very pleased with his quick adaptation.

“Matt gave me as much clear road as possible to learn on my own out there. You see cars in the distance taking corners and I thought ‘oh yeah I can see how they do that’, and when I had the pace to go with them, I just felt comfortable and in my own space. I feel like I can achieve consistent laps now.”

Whilst he also noted the huge commitment it took just to get to the

Sandown round, he said their chances of getting to Bathurst are looking positive.

TW Neal

HEDGE TRIMS OFF JR PORSCHE TITLE

PLENTY OF modern young drivers aren’t short in the confidence stakes, and Auckland-born Callum Hedge is overflowing with it. And so he should be after he just secured the Carrera Cup Australian Michelin Jr Award, paving the way for a visit to Germany to take part in the Porsche Motorsport Junior Shootout, as Harri Jones did last season.

After taking the series lead at The Bend in Round 4, his sensational last corner pass on Dylan O’Keeffe in Race 2 secured him both the Jr title and a comfortable series lead after chief rival Jackson Walls suffered a DNF. Hedge also leads the open wheel Formula Regional European Championship by a comfortable margin, and now he’s very much in the frame to qualify for the elite Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup next year as a result of his Oz Jr win in the Earl Bamber Motorsport #17 Cup Car. “It’s been a goal of mine since I’ve come to Australia to race Porches – the Porsche Pyramid has proven it works, and it’s a really great opportunity to go overseas and see how I go,” Hedge told Auto Action at Sandown.

“The Supercup is a great championship – it’s so

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competitive and a lot of guys from Australia have gone there and done really well, so I’d love to qualify for it and try and replicate some of that success.

After being relegated to P3 for a false jump in Race 1, Hedge bided his time to execute a memorable and crowd-pleasing pass at the final turn to take Race 2, saying he feels at home on the Sandown track.

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“It’s such a great circuit, it reminds me a bit of Pukekohe … a bit old school with gravel, grass, close walls, big kerbs with fast and high commitment.

“My plan wasn’t to win initially – running from third I just had to cruise around and wait for the other guys to struggle on the tyres.

“When I realised I had some tyres late on in the piece I really started to push, and when I was close enough to Dylan I really wanted to win it.

“My idea was to try something unexpected so he couldn’t cover it into the last complex, and I thought he’d be expecting a switch-back out of the chicane there and I just went for the pass straight away to catch him off guard, which paid off.”

Hedge was caught in the early mayhem in Race 3 (see page 49), but he leaves Sandown with the chance of continuing the historical Kiwi dominance of the Carrera Cup. Since Jim Richards in 2003, Fabian Coulthard, Craig Baird, Steven Richards, and Jaxon Evans, have taken half of the 18 titles, with Baird owning five of them.

TW Neal

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STOP / GO

STILLWELL NAME RETURNS TO THE TRACK THE STILLWELL name has been part of Australian motorsport for over 70 years and the story continued at Australian Production Cars level at Sandown recently.

Father-son combination David and Michael Stillwell fronted up for their APC debut in a #6 Ford Mustang Mach 1 at the historic circuit.

They are following in the footsteps of Michael’s father and David’s grandfather, Bib Stillwell, a fourtime Gold Star winner.

The duo finished all four races to end up third in their A2 Class, tied on 94 points with Brian Callaghan.

HAYMAN AIMING BIG TEENAGER TOM Hayman is one of the brightest young prospects in Trans Am and is thinking of racing both at home and overseas in 2024.

At just 18, Hayman has cemented himself as one of the category’s top stars in his first full season of Trans Am racing.

The Newcastle boy shot into championship contention by smashing the field at Queensland Raceway, winning all three races in the weekend of his life. Not a bad effort from a youngster driving a family run car out of a privateer team just made up of his father, uncle and sponsor.

Despite a strong second in Race 1, Sandown did not go Hayman’s way. He was spun at the start of Race 2 before being caught up in a separate tangle at Turn 12 with Edan Thornburrow which brought the weekend to an early finish – but he still sits fourth in the standings.

Being a Newcastle boy, he admitted he would love race in his home event if it stays on the Supercars calendar.

However, Hayman also revealed he is aiming to go racing offshore in addition to taking on Trans Am again.

“We will most likely stay in Trans Am – that will be our main series next year,” Hayman told Auto Action.

“Obviously if Newcastle gets signed again, it is on the cards. We are going to try and get on the grid somewhere there.

“Hopefully we can also do something overseas if we can. There is obviously a lot of money in it but if we can get enough to try different experiences we will take anything on.”

Hayman has stepped up to the tough Trans Ams having raced some of the smallest cars in Australia, the Aussie Racing Cars.

After making his debut in the category at just 16 in 2021, he then won eight of 15 races in his first full season the following year.

He also took on Trans Am for the first time in 2022 and scored a podium in just his eighth race.

In 2023 Hayman has been fully invested in Trans Am and it has paid off, becoming a consistent front runner with Queensland Raceway the obvious highlight.

He pointed out Phillip Island as the turning point as he continues to grow, racing against the likes of James Moffat and Lochie Dalton.

“We have been working so hard all year to buy ourselves into the championship fight,” Hayman said.

“Since Phillip Island we have definitely come on in leaps and bounds, making the car faster in different situations.

“You are always improving because there is a lot to learn, especially when you are racing against guys like Moffat who have tons of experience.

“Just following him out on track you learn a lot, so (I’m) always trying to grow as a driver.

“The cars are a big handful and great to drive. It was definitely a good decision to go racing in Trans Am.” Thomas Miles

YOUNG KIWIS STEP UP TO CARRERA CUP ZAC STITCHBURY and Marco Giltrap will race in the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia season for Team Porsche New Zealand.

The two youngsters currently racing in the Porsche Sprint Challenge will step up to the top level as part of the partnership between Team Porsche New Zealand and Earl Bamber Motorsport.

“I am extremely excited to be joining Team Porsche New Zealand for another season, joining Porsche Carrera Cup Australia next year,” Giltrap said.

“I’m so excited and grateful to step up into the scholarship’s main seat next year. It’s such an amazing opportunity,” said Stichbury.

TEAM 18’S STRANGE SANDOWN FOR THE first time in the squad’s decade long history Team 18 went to a race meeting without team principal Charlie Schwerkolt.

Schwerkolt missed the Sandown 500 due to business commitments in Singapore where he also got to enjoy the Formula 1.

In his absence team manager Bruin Beasley stepped up while, as he departed, the boss admitted it was “surreal” not being present.

“It’s actually pretty surreal to say I won’t be attending a Supercars round this weekend as I haven’t missed an event in over 20 years,” Schwerkolt said.

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Image: DANIEL KALISZ - ARG

CURKPATRICK STEPS DOWN FROM ARG THE AUSTRALIAN Racing Group (ARG) will be without Chief Operating Officer Liam Curkpatrick, who is stepping down from the role.

Curkpatrick has been on the ARG board since 2019 and has performed the COO role since October 2022.

He is departing the position to spend more time with his young family.

In Curkpatrick’s absence, Barry Rogers will look after the day-to-day operations of ARG in the immediate future.

Despite the news, Curkpatrick will continue to consult for the remainder of the 2023 season which wraps up in November with the Bathurst International.

Curkpatrick follows John McMellan, Ken Collier and Chris Lambden, who have all departed from their respective ARG roles this year.

However, it has been stressed by ARG communications that Curkpatrick’s departure is not related to the other restructuring in 2023 and had been planned for a period of time.

Curkpatrick said he feels he will leave ARG in “good hands”.

“I have been with ARG since its inception in 2019 and originally took on the role as TCR Category Manager,” he said.

“Since then ARG has grown to include six categories and five events and achieved a lot along the way of its rapid growth.

“The business is in good hands and has a bright future ahead. I will still be in the background guiding the team through the transition and where needed.

“I appreciate the opportunities ARG has given me and Garry and Barry Rogers for not only their commitment to motorsport but their faith in me to be a part of their business.

“I have great confidence in the existing ARG team and look forward to seeing a successful TCR World Tour and Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in a couple of months.”

Thomas Miles

Image: DANIEL KALISZ

BARGWANNA DAUNTED BUT EXCITED FOR MACAU CHALLENGE

WINTON NOT OUT OF SPEEDSERIES FRAME DESPITE OMISSION WINTON MOTOR Raceway is not losing hope of hosting a SpeedSeries event in 2024 despite being a notable omission from the draft calendar.

During the recent Sandown round, Motorsport Australia released an expanded draft calendar with 10 rounds, having held eight in 2023.

Whilst the series starts at Sandown, heads to the Bend and features double-headers at Sydney Motorsport Park and Queensland Raceway, Winton has dropped off the schedule for now, despite hosting a well-attended round in June.

There is hope however, with a TBC round scheduled for round seven on August 30 - September 1.

Benalla Auto Club general manager Stephen Whyte said there is still a decent chance Winton will remain part of the SpeedSeries season with many factors such as Supercars and the potential demise of the MA Trophy Series still to play out.

“I think it is still a very large draft,” Whyte told Auto Action.

“There is a lot of shifting going on with the Victorian state Motorsport Australia series and various other things.

“We are open to anything and it would not be a problem for us to work with the SpeedSeries to have another event.

“From our point of view that calendar is a first draft and see how it works with a pending Supercars calendar coming.

“It is not beyond the realms of possibility we could be the TBC.” Reflecting on the SpeedSeries ‘V8 themed’ round held at Winton during the June long weekend, Whyte said it was something he would like to see again having helped fill the void left by Supercars this year.

“There was a good crowd and the event was well received,” he said.

“We had camping and all the things we wanted to have so from the optical look it was a success.

“I don’t have any issues saying it is something we could do again.” Thomas Miles

BEN BARGWANNA will take his whirlwind 2023 campaign to the famous and ‘daunting’ streets of Macau in the TCR World Tour finale in November.

After the Sydney and Mount Panorama double-header in November, Bargwanna will follow the TCR World Tour circus to the Macau Grand Prix one week after the Bathurst International.

The Aussie will be representing his country at the highest level of TCR racing in a Hangcha Peugeot 308 TCR with the help of French full timers Teddy and Jimmy Clairet.

With the tight concrete-lined walls of Macau being some of the most unforgiving in the world, Bargwanna is bracing himself for a “steep learning curve” coming to grips with the 6.1km circuit first seen in 1954.

“It is pretty exciting, but I am a bit daunted by it and will have my eyes wide open during my first laps,” he told Auto Action.

“It will be a steep learning curve but I have a simulator and videos so I will do everything I can to learn it, but it will be another thing driving it.

“At the end of the day I will give it my best crack and that is all I can do.”

2024 SPEEDSERIES DRAFT CALENDAR ROUND 1: Sandown February 9-11 ROUND 2: Symmons Plains March 15-17 ROUND 3: Phillip Island April 12-14 ROUND 4: The Bend Motorsport Park May 24-26 ROUND 5: Queensland Raceway July 12-14 ROUND 6: Queensland Raceway July 19-21 ROUND 7: TBC August 30-September 1 ROUND 8: Sydney Motorsport Park October 18-20 ROUND 9: Sydney Motorsport Park November 1-3 ROUND 10: Mount Panorama Bathurst November 8-10

Bargwanna is no stranger to the TCR World Tour, having also raced at Portimao in Portugal and the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

The son of 2000 Bathurst 1000 winner Jason put in a solid performance on the global stage, with a best result of 12th in the second race at Portugal.

The result was enough to give Bargwanna the Rookie Trophy and the 22-year-old Victorian believed he came back from the experience as a different driver.

“I did surprise myself to be honest,” Bargwanna reflected on the trip to Portugal and Belgium.

“I had confidence in my ability but did not know what to expect because it was a completely new environment, in a team that barely spoke English.

“The results we got were awesome.

Qualifying (in Portugal) did not go as well as we hoped but we came back and got a strong result in the race to get the Rookie Trophy.

“Spa was another level of challenge because that track is pretty hard to get right.

“I was happy with how I performed and learnt so much.

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“I have taken a massive jump this year as a driver and it has been all about doing the laps.”

The final two TCR Australia rounds will be an unknown, with the locals racing alongside the TCR World Tour visitors to add extra spice to the title fight.

Bargwanna is the obvious exception, having first-hand experience of racing at the TCR World Tour level and predicts the battle for track position to be nothing but fierce.

“The level of competition and execution those guys produce is something you just don’t see,” he said of his time racing in the World Tour.

“No disrespect to anyone who races in Australia – we have some great drivers here – but over there they are all factory outfits and are in the cars most days of the week, so they have all developed their cars to such a point they are close to perfect.

“They race hard with their elbows out 100 percent of the time and are going to give us a wake-up call in terms of being rough and tough.”

Thomas Miles

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WEEL AND PRICE COP ANOTHER CRUEL BAJA BLOW A SECOND successive SCORE International pole from Toby Price couldn’t stop the off road racing gods delivering yet another cruel mechanical blow to the Paul Weel/Team Australia Trophy Truck at the Baja 400. Weel and Price were keen on redemption on the Mexican Californian Peninsula but, after the two-time Dakar winner scorched pole position by 7.706s, he and co-driver Kellon Walch then broke down 193 km into the race. This time, it was a front diff failure that unravelled yet another promising effort for the quartet.

CAMERON WANTING MORE AFTER SUPER2 SAMPLE AARON CAMERON sees a future in the Dunlop Series after his solid Sandown sample on debut.

Whilst being an S5000 and TCR frontrunner ever since his impressive inaugural season as a 19-year-old, Super2 has always been in Cameron’s sights.

He finally got to achieve the objective at Sandown last weekend by driving the Schramm Group Racing Mustang raced by Lee Holdsworth in Supercars last year.

Not only had Cameron adjusted to life to the new surroundings, but he performed and stayed out of trouble in what turned out to be a wild weekend.

He finished a strong sixth place in Race 1 before completing the weekend in 10th place.

Cameron was delighted to simply start in the Dunlop Series, let alone perform.

“There have been a few close calls over the years, so it has been a longtime coming and it has been a really fun weekend full of learning,” Cameron told Auto Action.

“There were a lot of big changes I had to adjust to such as right hand driver, stick shift and right foot braking which I don’t normally do.

“We are pretty basic operation, keeping things simple, so there is still a lot to learn in terms of getting speed out of it, but I am really happy with the progress and results we made.”

The first all-green race was the highlight of Cameron’s weekend as he qualified 10th, just three-tenths off the pace before climbing up to sixth across the 40-minute affair.

“Qualifying 10th was good and then in the race we just kept out of trouble,” he reflected.

“We also wanted to keep the rear

tyres underneath it, which I thought we did a really good job of because we saw a few guys go backwards at the end. Kai (Allen) passed me early but to stay within two or three seconds of him, who will be doing Bathurst, was pretty cool and I learnt a lot from how he drove the car.”

Going forward the TCR and S5000 title challenger is determined to make the jump from SpeedSeries to Supercars in 2024.

“I suppose this is the first sort of go at doing full time in Supercars which is great,” Cameron said.“We are trying to work on some things for next year and hopefully we can be on the Super2 grid for the whole year and have a bit more of a play with this thing.

“But we will see what happens because it is always a moving target.”

Thomas Miles

Image: MARK HORSBURGH

TAYLOR KEEPS EXTREME E HOPES ALIVE

A FIGHTING podium from Aussie Molly Taylor in Sardinia has kept her hopes of a second Extreme E championship alive. With Swede Kevin Hansen, the Veloce Racing racers were out to make amends for the first edition of the Island X Prix but, after placing well in Qualifying and in the Heats, Taylor had zero visibility in the first Grand final with broken wipers, but still managed to a podium to take third in the championship.

Despite not making the final on the Sunday, they remain only 23 points off the leaders ahead of Chile’s December 2-3 finale.

NEW LOOK RALLY CANBERRA READY FOR ARC FINALE THE 2023 Australian Rally Championship season will conclude with the new look Subaru Rally of Canberra to take place on November 18-19.

The rebranding brings the event back to its roots and organisers are excited about what it has to offer.

Not only has the rally name undergone a transformation, but this year’s event has also seen extensive redesign and enhancement, with a strong focus on enhancing both the competitor and the spectator experience,” an event statement said.

“Competition will take place in the captivating forests west of Canberra within the Tidbinbilla / Cotter regions on Saturday November 18. Crews will then return to the familiar roads of Kowen Forrest on Sunday November.

19.

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BORG CHASING TITLE AND OVERSEAS OPPORTUNITIES V8 SUPERUTE Series frontrunner Aaron Borg is not only chasing another title, but also opportunities overseas.

Sandown marked the return of Borg to the V8 SuperUte Series after he skipped the Bend, being overseas.

The reigning champion revealed he went to Europe to explore potential opportunities and revealed he is hopeful of announcing some news in the near future.

“I was not racing over there, but had a few meetings with some people,” Borg told Auto Action.

“Being so far away we made a little holiday of it as well.

“Things were very positive, so hopefully we can reveal things here in the not too distant future.”

Despite the break Borg was back like he never left, being the dominant driver all weekend.

Although he only won two races, it was agonisingly close to a clean sweep with the #1 losing Race 2 by a slender 0.04s as Ryal Harris crept his nose over the line.

Borg hit back in the third race and was on course for Image: TAMARA JADE MEDIA

another win, dominating the finale until mechanical gremlins caught him short on the very last lap.

For Borg it was an important way to pick up from where he left off at Sydney.

“It has been a great weekend returning to the category,” he said.

“The boys have got on top of the car by doing some testing and it has really set us up.

“The biggest thing was getting on top of the driving style because these things have a lot of power but not much tyres, so you really have look the rubber over the race distance.

“Those sessions really set us up for a good year and hopefully we can carry on the momentum across the back end of the year at Bathurst and Gold Coast.”

Borg is just 28 points behind Adam Marjoram in the V8 SuperUte Series title chase.

Thomas Miles

SMITH SET TO STAY IN FORMULA 3 AUSTRALIA’S TOMMY Smith is expected to enjoy a second crack at the FIA Formula 3 World Championship after a characterbuilding rookie season with Van Amersfoort Racing.

Smith was one of three Australians on the FIA Formula 3 grid and finished 27th in the championship.

The 21-year-old endured a point-less season, but had a couple of close calls to the top 10 including a charging drive from the back to 12th on home turf at Albert Park.

Despite results not going his way, Smith is excited to embrace the consistency of staying in Formula 3, having bounced between Australia and Europe across various categories in recent years.

“I have never had two years in the same category before, so that consistency will help a lot and hopefully we can take some strides forward,” Smith told Auto Action.

“It was difficult a first season, I am not going to lie, but I probably learnt the most in my racing career just this year.

“If you look at the overall result it did not go that well, but it does not tell the full story and we showed pace in some of the events.

“It was so annoying I did not get any points this year, but there have been a lot of good drivers who didn’t even score points in their first year, like Jack Doohan, but their second season was much better.

“We will keeping working. It is all down to hard work and you have to train everyday

to compete with the best.”

The reason why it is a big regret for Smith is because he and Van Amersfoort Racing took a step forward at the end of the season.

In the final two rounds he achieved his best two qualifying performances, inside the top 15, while he was on track to score PB results in both races at Monza before punctures arrived.

Smith said he and the team started to come to grips with how the car and tyres interacted and hopes the breakthrough can produce some momentum into 2023.

There is no doubt we struggled and in the middle of the season it got quite frustrating, but we thought we had good pace in the last two rounds at Spa and Monza,” he said.

“Monza was a big improvement for the

whole team and I was knocking on the door for some points.

“We started to understand the car and the tyre, which is the hardest thing because they are so sensitive.

“That might be why drivers go better in their second year because, if you do not warm up the tyre correctly, you can be a second off straight away.”

Going forward Smith said he will be focusing on his mental approach, having established his self-imposed pressure was leading to mistakes and hopes to be more relaxed behind the wheel come 2023.

“My biggest issue was just trying too hard,” he reflected.

“Andrew Jones and I worked on this a lot through the season and the harder I tried, the worse I went.

Track walk at Albert Park – again in 2024.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

“In Monza I arrived with a different mindset and thought ‘I am just going to enjoy it’ and we improved.

“I just need a calmer approach.”

Whilst the F3 season may be over, Smith hopes to return to racing at the famous Macau street race in November.

Thomas Miles

HAZELWOOD NOT GIVING UP ON KEEPING BRT DRIVE

Image: PETER NORTON ALTHOUGH SPECULATION has suggested youngster Aaron Love was primed to step up from Super2 and replace the uncontracted Todd Hazelwood in 2024, the incumbent will not give up his seat lightly.

As the wild Supercars silly season continues, one of the final questions surrounds the future of the growing Blanchard Racing Team, with Tickford veteran James Courtney expected to shift to the fellow Ford squad.

All this potentially leaves Hazelwood on the outer, restricting his time at BRT

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to just the one year after short stints at MSR and BJR. However, things could be changing after the South Australian produced a timely qualifying lap to put car #3 in the Sandown 500 Shootout.

Hazelwood’s 1:08.7177s was the fifthfastest time in an intense qualifying session, an impressive effort considering the tough year the Blanchard Racing Team has endured, with only two other top 10 qualifying results from the 23 sessions in 2023 as it grapples with limited testing and Gen3 data.

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Hazelwood said the “statement” lap meant a lot, while it could not have arrived at a better time with speculation surrounding his future at the growing team.

“It was one of the more rewarding laps I have done and it was max attack,” Hazelwood told Auto Action.

“To some people, fifth might not mean a lot, but for us we have had our challenges this year in more ways than one, so to come out and try and make a statement within this team is fantastic.”

After then starting sixth following the

shootout, Hazelwood and team owner and co driver Tim Blanchard were holding a firm grip on a top 10 place in the race, but ultimately dropped down to 17th as the CoolDrive Mustang “did not have any tyre life” Meanwhile the wildcard of Love and Jake Kostecki had a clean race, but finished three laps down in 24th.

When asked about his situation in the 2024 driver market, Hazelwood said negotiations were still ongoing, but is anticipating a decision soon.

“I do not know as far as Aaron’s position, but from my personal point of view I am not signed at the moment,” he said.

“I am still in that contract negotiation and ‘waiting to hear phase’ from the Blanchards.

“To be fair I should know what my position will be by the end of the week all going to plan, but it is hard to know.

“There are a lot of elements that will dictate my fate within my team – whether that is sponsorship or Aaron. There are a few moving targets I am not really in control of which is what makes it a bit hard.”

BRT owner John Blanchard told Auto Action no decision has been made on the fate of the two seats for next year and did not rule out the retention of Hazelwood.

Thomas Miles

www.autoaction.com.au I 17

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KOSTECKI “USED TOO MUCH TYRE” IN CHASE FOR SANDOWN GLORY THE 2023 Sandown 500 went down to the wire with Broc Feeney and Brodie Kostecki duelling in the dying stages, but the Erebus star conceded he “used too much of the tyre” too soon.

Kostecki was hunting down Feeney, closing car #88’s advantage from 10 to six seconds before a late race Safety Car caused by Cameron Hill threw everything up in the air.

On lap 144 racing resumed and after dealing with the lapped James Golding the championship leader stepped up his charge.

By lap 147 Kostecki was all over the back of Feeney and came close at Dandenong Road when the leader went slightly wide and had a lunge when they next arrived at turn four.

However, Feeney was able to resist and hold on by a single second.

Reflecting on the duel, Kostecki admitted “I did not get my cards right” prior to the Safety Car which left him with not enough rubber to have a full-blooded attack on Feeney.

“The Coke Camaro had plenty of pace, but just did not play my cards right in that last stint,” he said.

“Before the Safety Car came out Broc was 10 seconds ahead so I should have saved my tyres a bit more.

“Unfortunately I had James Golding start in front of me (at the restart) so I had to make up an extra seven or eight tenths, but I just used too much of the tyre trying to get to the back of him and the tyre pressures blow out after you follow someone for two to three laps.”

Despite admitting to not managing the tyres as well as possible, Kostecki was full of credit to Feeney, stating the Triple

Eight driver raced so hard he put the championship leader in a “risky”position to snatch the lead.

“Broc raced really smart and placed the car in the right spots,” Kostecki reflected.

“I would have had to take a pretty big risk to overtake him and did not want to have any wheel to wheel contact because I like the steering rack I have at the moment.

“He was really smart and put me in a situation I was not really going to come out of.”

Kostecki and co-driver David Russell spent the first half of the race playing catchup having lost the best part of 13 seconds and more importantly seven positions after being forced to double stack in the first round of stops during the Garth Tander Safety Car period.

But by lap 119 Kostecki was back at the

front and passed teammate Will Brown for second.

With nearest championship rival Shane van Gisbergen finishing third, Kostecki still increased his points lead from 137 to 155 points ahead of Bathurst and has plenty of confidence prior to Mount Panorama.

“It is always good to be on the podium,” he said.

“It was a good race but having to double stack was not ideal. David did an awesome job to come from 11th and get it up into fourth in his stint.

“It would have been cool to win this race but there is a bigger one coming up so we just have to put our heads down.

“The car has had awesome speed over the last few rounds and David did a great job, so we just need to minimise mistakes when we get to Bathurst.”

Thomas Miles

HEIMGARTNER/WOOD MAKE BIG GAINS DESPITE “DIFFERENT RACE” ONE OF the big movers both in the championship and at the 2023 Sandown 500 was the #8 Camaro of Andre Heimgartner and Dale Wood.

With the setup not favouring the warm track conditions of the Brad Jones Racing Camaros, Heimgartner was the team’s top qualifier down in 15th.

However, this proved to be no hurdle for Heimgartner and Wood, who charged into the top five by the time the chequered flag waved with a late move on Matt Payne.

The result also vaults Heimgartner past both Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters into fifth in the championship standings ahead of the big one.

The Kiwi said he was “surprised” by the speed of car #8 and believed they achieved a maximum result as the best of the rest behind the dominant Triple Eight and Erebus Camaros.

“It was an interesting race,” he said.

“I was pleasantly surprised with our pace and we were able to chip away and the team did some great pitstops

which was awesome as well.

“We are really pleased overall and I think considering where we started we couldn’t have hoped for much more than that.”

Wood made moves off the line by jumping two spots on the opening lap before settling into 12th by the time he

handed over driving duties to Heimgartner.

The experienced co-driver was driving in his eighth Sandown 500, but conceded the balancing act of chasing speed and managing tyres made it one of the “most different ever”.

“It was a pretty good day out really from starting 15th,” he said.

“For me, it was one of the most different races I’ve ever done in the way you have to drive the car and preserve the tyres.

“If you don’t get caught up in racing early, you knew you would reap the benefits later on, so it was very interesting for me.

“I felt like we had a really good car and to finish the day up in fifth and behind those two teams was a pretty bloody good result, so definitely happy with that.”

Heimgartner hopes to continue a personal best season by making another highlight at Mount Panorama on October 5-8.

PIASTRI PERFORMS IN ‘MY HARDEST F1 RACE’

WEBB ‘FEELING AT HOME’ AFTER SUPERCARS COMEBACK JONATHON WEBB was pumped to help push PremiAir Racing and Tim Slade to a strong ninth place result in his return to Supercars at Sandown.

The #23 Camaro finished ninth after a solid and trouble-free journey through the 2023 Sandown 500.

It was a welcome return to the top 10 for Slade, who was a regular member through the first half of the season, but only achieved the feat once in the last nine races.

However, it was a bigger achievement for Webb, who at 39 was making a Supercars comeback from obscurity.

Having not missed an enduro campaign between 2006 when he debuted with Marcus Marshall and 2021 when he shared a Team Sydney Commodore with Fabian Coulthard, Webb suddenly found himself unfamiliarly away from Mount Panorama last year.

But he is back for 2023 and performed

for PremiAir where he “feels at home”.

“Yeah, in my head I had the ability and desire to do it,” Webb told AUTO ACTION when asked if he was ready for the co-drive.

“I am thankful for PremiAir and Peter (Xiberras) for giving me the opportunity to do it.

“The key was getting in the car at the test and I was extremely happy with how Friday played out.

“The result is a good confidence boost for not just me but the entire team.

“I think I had 16 or 17 years at Bathurst straight and had a year off but now I am back again and it feels like I am home.”

Slade and Webb rolled out of the truck with good pace being in the top 10 in both opening practice sessions.

They narrowly missed out on the shootout by less than a tenth but did not let the setback hurt them in the race.

By lap 26 they hit the top 10 and were around the mark until emerging ninth

once the final round of stops were completed.

After utilising the four-stop strategy, Slade crossed the line safely in ninth, with no threat coming from Craig Lowndes and Zane Goddard behind.

Webb said the result is a boost for the team ahead of Bathurst.

“It was really good,”he said.

“We were so close to getting in the Shootout which would have been amazing but we knew the car was going to be good because the team had been doing a really good job at getting the car speed, pit stops and flow right.

“We were pretty confident the day was going to be a good one but you never really know.

“We sort of pushed up a few early in the day and then Tim just kept pushing and kept it clean, so to come away with a top 10 has made everyone really, really happy.”

Thomas Miles

WHILST LANDO Norris put McLaren on the podium, Australia’s Oscar Piastri gave the team more reasons to celebrate by charging from 17th to seventh with a sensational Singapore drive.

After being caught out in Q1 by Lance Stroll’s big qualifying crash, Piastri was worried points were “unlikely” at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay. However, he put in a storming drive by initially climbing up to 14th on lap one, a position he would retain until his only visit to the pits on lap 20.

The Aussie then completed the remainder of the 42 laps on the Hard tyres and seized on each on-track opportunity that was presented to him.

By lap 39 Piastri hit the 10 and after staying out during the Virtual Safety Car, Piastri climbed to seventh.

It was the position he would retain until the chequered flag despite Max Verstappen getting by before reclaiming it when George Russell crashed at the finish.

It was an impressive effort considering Piastri was driving the older spec MCL60 whilst Norris enjoyed the sole upgrades package.

Piastri was pumped to score points for the sixth time in his career, having not only survived the “hardest race” but also achieved the maximum.

“I am very happy to get back into the points with good points as well, I definitely did not expect that after yesterday,” he said.

“I felt like I definitely earned it because I am pretty tired. It was the hardest F1 race I have done being very hot and long, so I am happy to see the end.

“But I enjoyed it because whenever you finish in the points it is always worth it.

“Track position is so tough around here and at some points in the race maybe I was lacking a bit of pace, but realistically that was the most we could have done so I am not disappointed with that. I don’t think there was too much left on the table there.

“It’s great to see Lando on the podium and for the team to be rewarded for all their hard work.

“I’m looking forward to the upgrades next week and hopefully we can have some more fun.”

The Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka lies ahead this weekend.

Thomas Miles

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WAU LOOKING TO REBOUND FROM “KICK IN THE GUTS” WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United (WAU) received a “kick in the guts” at the Sandown 500 after recording its worst finish at the event since 1995.

Neither WAU Mustang finished in the top 20 with Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth leading the way in 22nd, one spot ahead of Nick Percat and Warren Luff.

It is the team’s worst Sandown 500 since 1995 when neither Holden Racing Team car finished the race.

The previous lowest leading classified finisher from the Clayton based operation was in 2006 when the #22 of Jim Richards and Ryan Briscoe crossed the line in 21st.

Mostert and Holdsworth arrived at Sandown hoping to maintain their unbeaten record as co-drivers, while Nick Percat and Fabian Coulthard

looked to build from a season-best weekend at The Bend.

However, it proved to be a weekend to forget as the WAU Mustangs failed to fire.

The struggling signs were evident as early as practice as Percat signalled his frustrations after getting out of car #2 in the first session where both he and Mostert were later disqualified for using the wrong drop gear.

Pace improved later in the day as Mostert and Holdsworth stayed in the top 10 in the following two sessions.

But this proved to be a false dawn as neither WAU Mustang could reach the shootout with the #25 starting 16th and the #2 on 26th having battled clutch dramas.

Coulthard started strong, moving up

five positions early on, but the pace disappeared as the race went on and Percat eventually crossed the line a lap down in 23rd.

This was one spot behind Mostert and Holdsworth, who had a bit of a wild ride on Sunday.

Holdsworth suffered significant rear end damage amid the early race jostling for position.

He climbed up to 16th, but had to make numerous visits to the pits during the early Safety Car to cut away the dragging rear bar.

The team managed to keep the #25 on the lead lap only just, albeit down in 26th position.

Mostert and Holdsworth managed to reclaim some ground across the next 130

laps to eventually beat their teammate, but down in 22nd.

WAU team principal Bruce Stewart said the Sandown struggle is a wake up call ahead of the big one at Mount Panorama.

“What the weekend has done is doubleddown on the focus for Bathurst,” he said.

“It’s a kick in the guts that ensures we will do everything we can for the big one.

“Clearly we struggled with car set-up all weekend. We threw a lot at it, but the difficulty with the Gen3 car is that the driver doesn’t have the ability to manipulate the set-up through the race with the anti-roll bars.

“So when you start with a difficult car then you cannot tune it up through the race.”

Thomas Miles

VAN GISBERGEN AND STANWAY ON “ENJOYABLE” RESCUE MISSION FEW WORKED harder for position in the Sandown 500 than Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway, who went from the back half of the field to the podium.

After a tough qualifying the reigning champion started down in 19th, but not for the first time at Sandown, car #97 made a charge through the field.

Van Gisbergen and Stanaway put in a fighting drive and by the late race restart found themselves in race-winning contention fourth in the queue.

The all Kiwi combo ended up salvaging an impressive podium finish having jumped Will Brown when the Erebus driver bowled a wide at the Esses.

Van Gisbergen was pleased to walk away from Sandown with a podium.

“I enjoyed it. We probably could have

had the car setup a little bit better but it was pretty good and Richie did a great job.

“You could see his pace in the race with how patient he was before he started passing people easily.

“We probably missed the Safety Car call a little bit and then we had to do all the good work Richie did all over again so that hurt us a bit as we got stuck.

“I came out in a pretty good spot and every time (engineer) Andrew (Edwards) put the right amount of fuel in and got me in clear air to allow me to do my thing, but we did not have quite enough at the end.”

It was a big weekend for Stanaway, who made just his second Supercars start in the best part of four years, having recently been signed up by Grove Racing for a full

time berth next year.

Since winning at Sandown six years ago at Tickford, 2023 marked his biggest chance of success sharing car #97 with the man who has won the last two championship titles.

Well aware of the opportunity, Stanaway admitted he was relieved to pick up a trophy on Triple Eight debut.

“It is good to be racing here and Bathurst rather than watching on TV like I have been used to over recent years,” the Kiwi said.

“I came here with a very different role knowing I am going to be here next year driving at the end of the race.

“It has been incredible to be a part of this team (Triple Eight). You could not ask for a better garage to be in and I have

loved every minute of it.

“You only get two goes at it with this team and it would be a shame to waste it by not getting on the podium so I am really pleased we could come through.

“It was not at an easy race but we got there in the end.”

Van Gisbergen and Stanaway now prepare to secure a third Bathurst 1000 win in four attempts on October 5-8.

Thomas Miles

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SUPER SAINZ THRILLED TO SEIZE ON THE “ONE OPPORTUNITY TO WIN” CARLOS SAINZ rose to the occasion in Singapore, making the most of the “one opportunity to win a race this year” by fending off Lando Norris and the Mercedes under lights.

Sainz delivered Ferrari its maiden win of the Frederic Vasseur era by controlling a tense Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Norris and Lewis Hamilton, while George Russell cracked under pressure and crashed on the final lap.

In addition to being Sainz’ second and Ferrari’s first win in 26 races since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, the Scuderia brought an end to Red Bull’s record breaking run of victories.

Although Sainz led all 62 laps, it was far from easy with the Spaniard forced to get creative to keep his rivals at bay.

Not only did car #55 take the breakthrough win, it also secured pole position in a near complete weekend by the Ferrari team, which carried on the momentum from a strong home Grand Prix in Italy.

Sainz was thrilled to deliver such a strong performance when Red Bull left the door open for once.

“We have to be extremely proud of the weekend that we’ve put together,” he said.

“We’ve had one opportunity this year to win the race, which was here in Singapore, and we nailed it.

“We didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend and there were a lot of moments out there where we were a bit under pressure.

“But we kept it calm, stuck to our plan and strategy. We also had to play with tyre degradation, pit-stop gaps and DRS, whilst managing to keep everything under

control and bring home a win that was never easy.

“That definitely feels incredible.”

A major part of the win was Sainz’ clever thinking to deliberately manage the gap to ensure Norris would stay within DRS range and have an extra trick up his sleeve to keep the charging Mercedes out of the danger zone.

Whilst Norris’ McLaren was second, it was the Medium shod Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton the biggest threats to Sainz.

However, the Spaniard’s DRS trick worked a treat as Norris stayed ahead of Russell, who cracked and crashed on corner entry to the old “Singapore Sling” on the final lap.

Vasseur revealed it was Sainz himself who came up with the plan.

“It was the idea of Carlos,” the team principal confirmed.

“I don’t want to say it’s obvious, but he knew he was more at risk with Mercedes than with Norris.

“With Norris we had the same tyres, and almost the same pace from lap one. We were not really at risk with Norris except if we lost the tyres, so it was a clever move from Carlos to keep Norris into the DRS.” Sainz revealed he had to “trust” his instincts and make the bold call work to take the win.

“This is a sort of strategy that you always keep in the back of your head in tracks like Singapore,” he said.

“It’s easy to have in mind, but it’s a lot more difficult to execute it because it does put you under some extra pressure and it comes with its risks.

“I felt like that was my only real chance of winning the race and I wanted to win, especially when I heard that 1.3s/1.4s gap up to Lando after he defended into (turn) 16, to take the decision to slow down in turns one and Three.

“I was like ‘well, I hope this works’ because if not it could look really, really bad on me, but it worked.

“Some days you need to trust your instincts, trust your feeling. I’ve been trusting that these last two weekends and it’s working well.”

Sainz is in the middle of a purple patch, having also taken pole position and a maiden podium at the last race at Monza.

The improved performances have arrived since the summer break where the Spaniard had a crucial meeting with engineers which has helped him understand how to extract speed from the SF-23.

“I think before the summer break there was already a decent feeling with everything and then I just sat down with my engineers in the summer break and we said ‘okay, what can we do to start putting the whole weekend together?,” Sainz said.

“Because clearly we have a lot of pace, we were doing some good things but we were never putting the whole thing together.

“And since then Zandvoort was a very good weekend, Monza was almost perfect and here I feel like it was the perfect one.”

Ferrari and Sainz hope to let the good times roll at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.

Thomas Miles

BIG CROWDS SOAK UP WORLD TIME ATTACK

THE 2023 World Time Attack Challenge has been deemed as a success by CEO Ian Baker after big crowds flocked to Sydney Motorsport Park.

Over 35,000 fans attended the event on the first weekend of September where class records were smashed left, right and centre.

The biggest was the outright lap record of the well known Sydney circuit, which had stood for 16 years since Nico Hulkenberg went faster than ever in an A1GP race in 2007.

Barton Mawer rewrote the record books with a 1:17.860 in his Porsche RP968, while Supercars driver Tim Slade was on fire in the Xtreme GTR to top the Superlap Shootout in Open Class.

After the sun went down and the lights turned on attention turned to “Drift Hill” where the International Drifting Cup returned and Luke Veersma prevailed.

Reflecting on the special weekend,Baker was thrilled to report the big crowds who watched the action both in person and online, suggesting bigger things are on the way in 2024.

“This was a year records were broken across the board, but the biggest thing I really noticed was the smiles on the dials!” Said Baker.

“The happiness this event brings to so many is unquestionable and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We welcomed the world back, and the world is loving it!

“I am stoked to report that we had over 35,000 people through the gates over the event, and over four million people around the world online tuned in to find out all about this event in Sydney.

“We also reported our largest ever trader alley which was completely sold out with the highest quality automotive brands and produce with everything from turbochargers to stroker kits, stickers to car loans, and everything in between.

“All I can say is we cant wait for 2024!

We are just getting started.”

Thomas Miles

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BRT WILDCARDS REFLECT ON DEBUT THE BLANCHARD Racing Team wildcard of Aaron Love and Jake Kostecki ticked off the latest objective by finishing their maiden race at the Sandown 500.

Love and the second BRT Racer Industries Mustang made their respective debuts at the ninth round of the Supercars season and finished 24th, two laps off the leader.

But car #7’s campaign was more about gaining miles and experience under the belt rather than chasing any special results.

Kostecki admitted it was a “weird feeling” on Sunday night but said the team did everything expected of them given it was a weekend of so many firsts.

“Overall we have a weird feeling, but we are happy to finish and can’t expect too much more,” Kostecki told AUTO ACTION. “Obviously it was the first time the team had two cars and the team did a pretty good job.

“We had a good strategy but just not enough pace.

“We were progressively moving forward throughout the weekend and in the race we were not too far off a few of the Fords in front of us.

“Hopefully we can learn from this weekend and keep the tyre on and take it all to Bathurst.”

Love and Kostecki gradually built speed across the weekend having started 1.4s off the pace on Friday before trimming the deficit down to 0.9s come qualifying.

Rookie Love started in the car when lights went out in the Sandown 500 and impressed from the get-go, making up three places to 27th on the opening lap.

After surviving a close call with the spinning Zak Best, Love handed over driving duties to Kostecki during the early Lap 19 Safety Car. The former Matt Stone Racing and Tickford full-timer immediately went to work and was not afraid to race hard against his fellow codrivers and even full timers.

Kostecki pushed the #7 Mustang all the way up to a solid 15th position - 12 places ahead of their starting spot - which he

held for 10 laps.

But Kostecki started to fade as he had to “hang on” driving with “shot” tyres until Lap 84 when Love jumped in for the run home from 25th and moved up one place after Cameron Hill ended up in the beach.

The wildest moment of the day arrived towards the end of Kostecki’s stint when he found himself flying through the turn three short cut.

Despite the Mustang landing head first into the grass, it carried on without any damage from the wild ride.

Reflecting on his first Supercars drive since Adelaide last year, Kostecki said he felt comfortable racing on the big stage again.

“I felt pretty fast against the other co drivers and I don’t think I could do much more,” he said.

“I had a bit of a battle in my first stint and raced pretty hard with Fabs (Fabian Coulthard) and some others.

“In my first stint I felt quite strong against all the co-drivers and then my balance changed a bit on my second stint and dropped a little

of pace, but not too bad.

“I only had a couple laps left in the stint and made some good progress getting to 15th, so I thought we have just got to hang on even though the tyre was quite shot.”

Kostecki believed the biggest lesson from the drive was trying to find the best way to make the tyres live.

“All these main game guys have been driving the cars all year and know all the tricks of how to keep the tyre under it,” he said.

“Also just doing little things like brake bias.

If you are a bit slow moving the bias you can spin the tyres easily and you can lose lap time that does not comeback.”

One of the biggest parts of the wildcard program was not only giving the team a taste of life as a two-car team ahead of 2024, but also providing an opportunity for BRT youngster Love, who has been speculated to receive a full-time rookie season next year.

The 19-year-old had a big weekend, dovetailing his Supercars debut with also a full weekend of Super2.

In the Dunlop Series Love came heartbreakingly close to a maiden win, leading the majority of race two, only to end up in the wall after getting caught out in a battle for the lead with Ryan Wood and Brad Vaughan that ended in tears at turn five.

The big 500km race also proved to be a massive learning experience as Love struggled to match the speed of his rivals like Kostecki.

Kostecki said the experience will “open Aaron’s eyes up a bit”.

“I have known Aaron for a long time since we were very young and he had a big weekend,” he said.

“Maybe this will open his eyes up a bit and make him realise it is not as easy.

“There is a lot of competition and it takes a lot of work, not just overnight to get up front.

“You need resources and people to help you but that still takes time to gel with the people as well.”

Love and Kostecki will now ready themselves to take on Bathurst on October 5-8. Thomas Miles

THE BEND DRAGWAY READY FOR FIRST EVENT THE BRAND new Bend Dragway is just days away from its first event with the finishing touches taking place.

The South Australian venue will host a seven-bike motorcycle demonstration event this Friday night ahead of the Grand Opening Spring Nationals featuring the Australian Top Fuel Championship coming on October 21-22.

Friday’s running at The Bend forms part of the Harley-Davidson HogFest, which celebrates 120 years of the famous make.

It runs across three days with The Bend a big part, as are surrounding regions.

The demonstration will feature seven nitro bikes with over 90 entrants registered to participate at this stage.

Although the ribbon cutting has been preserved for the landmark October 21-22 National Drag Racing Championship meeting, this Friday certainly serves as

a moment in history for riders, fans and for Harley-Davidson as The Dragway is opened to the public after more than 18 months of construction.

Dragway at The Bend general manager Steve Bettes said this Friday will be a special moment.

“This weekend is a moment that our team here at The Bend, the South Australian Drag Racing community and the wider Australian motorsport public have been waiting a long time for,” he said.

“We have pulled out all stops to ensure the surface is prepped to the highest standard in the country and Darren Aldridge and his team have worked around the clock to ensure that is the case and we thank them tremendously for that.”

The Bend Motorsport Park CEO Alistair MacDonald said fans will be welcome to experience the new drag strip themselves.

“Friday proves a fantastic opportunity to welcome the public in and get a feel for how people move around what is a brand new venue ahead of the Spring Nationals

in October,” he said.

“We are proud to be the chosen destination for the Harley-Davidson 120year celebrations here at The Bend.”

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HUNTING FOR THE BIG TIME

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT Indy NXT driver Hunter McElrea has finished his sophomore year in second place on the final rung of the Road to Indy system, finishing the year off with a dominant win from pole at Laguna Seca and P2 in Race 2.

A consistent year in the top-five saw him finish with a flourish of wins to fall 65 points short of Danish driver Christian Rasmussen, and now the 23-year-old is campaigning for a seat on the 2024 IndyCar grid.

McElrea completed the year with wins at the Indianapolis RC and Monterey, four podiums, five top-fives, and only two finishes outside the top-10 in 14 races.

His first season saw him take rookie of the year with two wins and five podiums, and he’s added a vital consistency to his bow second time around, and feels ready to step up.

“I feel really good about the work we’ve done now in two years of NXT,” McElrea told Marshall Pruett, ex racer and mechanic turned journalist.

“We raced hard against 2022 NXT champion Linus Lundqvist last year and got a couple of wins, and I think people have been impressed by him and what he’s been able to do for himself with getting hired by Chip Ganassi, so that gives me a lot of hope.

“Unfortunately, my family doesn’t come from money so I’m not capable of bringing a huge budget to a team, but I do have some amazing supporters and investors who’ve taken me this far in NXT and that’s what I’m working on for next year, to keep building support to get to IndyCar.” Whilst McElrea is realistic about the budget restrictions that face him, he’s hoping that a foot in the door could at least snag him a partial season.

His experience on ovals also means that he’d be a versatile part-timer for any team, and his improvement in gaining consistently high finishes is what IndyCar teams are looking for in that kind of role.

“I’d love for someone to hire me to become a fulltime IndyCar driver, but I don’t know if that’s realistic right away,” he continued.

“I’m talking with a lot of teams about doing tests just to get my foot in the door. And I’ve been honest with them about what kind of support I think I can bring, which isn’t enough for a complete year, but I’d rather do a partial season, however many races, with a good team than take whatever we can find.

“I know I’m ready for IndyCar, so I’m putting my energy into making it happen the right way and seeing where it takes me.”

TW Neal

WEBSTER SET FOR DONINGTON SCRAP COOPER WEBSTER and the Aussie-run Evans GP outfit left the GB4 Championship round at Brands Hatch with two more podiums to show for the Victorian’s impressive debut season.

They’ll now be heading to the final round at Donington Park in a bid to close out second in the drivers championship with the challenge coming from Liam McNeilly.

After topping the practice sessions, Webster qualified in fourth, needing wins to keep the championship alive against KMR’s Tom Mills, who eventually secured the title with two wins at the famous Kent Circuit.

Aside from one retirement, Webster hasn’t finished outside the top-10 this year with two wins and 10 podiums from 17 races, and he still has three more races to add to that impressive European debut total.

The S5000 Versa Motorsport racer – who now sits second in that championship on home soil – could only make up the one spot in Race 1 to claim third, 2.573s back on Brits Mills and McNeilly.

Webster threw the kitchen sink at Mills in Race 2, moving up into second with a

18 I www.autoaction.com.au

daring outside move on McNeilly at Westfield on lap 6, but fell just 1.201s short, which more-or-less ended his championship tilt.

He then finished with a P4 from the reverse grid finale, whilst his Evans GP teammate, Indian driver Kai Daryanani, took his first ever win to give the Aussie squad a third for the year, making it an impressive debut year for the team to essentially lock-up fourth in the teams’ championship.

It also made them the first team to have multiple drivers as race winners in 2023.

The Donington Park finale is on October 21-22.

TW Neal Webster can cement second in the GB4 Championship at the final round.

CAMPBELL HELPS PENSKE TO BIG MOMENT THE FINAL race result may not have gone to Matty Campbell’s liking, but his third podium at the top of Porsche Pyramid in the new 963 Hypercar was part of a bigger celebratory picture for Motorsport giants, Penske.

It was IMSA’s first outing at the Indianapolis Road Course in nine-years – at a complex owned by the Penske organisation – and they left with a one-two, a front row lockout in qualifying, and the Manufacturers’ championship lead in an historic year for Hypercar sportscar racing.

The #7 car that Campbell shares with Brazilian racer Felipe Nasr, also took out pole position thanks to the Aussie, but both drivers made crucial errors to cost them victory, running second to the sister #6 963.

After Campbell took his maiden victory at the top of the Hypercar sportscar world at the last round, at Road America, their P2 was their third podium for the year, elevating them to fifth on the table.

But their points were vital in giving Porsche the edge in the Manufacturers’ title, which they lead by only eight points over Cadillac with one round to go.

Taking pole position (his second of the year) at Penske’s home track by 0.152s over the sister car was also a big moment for the Aussie after topping both practice sessions, whose recent form has been some reward for missing out on a 24 Hours of Le Mans seat and a mechanically shaky start to the year.

“This pole position means a lot to the team because Penske owns the track. Everything ran perfectly for us in the free practice sessions and qualifying,” Campbell said.

But in terms of the race, Campbell’s lockup into Turn 1 to start the race wasn’t ideal … nor Nasr’s trip into the grass which cost them a shot at the lead in the closing stages.

“It was a tough race for us, but the one-two finish was a big result for the team,” he continued.

“It sort of started going to s**t a little bit at Turn 1. I just couldn’t stop the car on a dirty line, unfortunately, and just ran that little bit wide.”

Campbell heads into the final race of the year at the Petit Le Mans in Atlanta only 73 points of the lead in the thrilling and historic first GTP hypercars season, though the points

allocation system means a miracle would be required.

But for how the season started out for Campbell in the new LMDh 963 started, it’s a huge effort from him and Nasr to be back in the fight.

TW Neal

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

PODIUMS LEAVE LOVE IN ZANDVOORT TITLE FRAME THE PENULTIMATE round of the GT World Challenge Sprint Cup saw Aussie Mercedes AMG Junior Driver Jordan Love (pictured) take two vital podiums at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.

That means the WA factory racer will head to the last round at Zandvoort deep in title contention in his debut GT WCE season.

Fellow Aussie and WRT racer Calan Williams was also on track at Valencia, but strife ruined both his races – although he too goes to Zandvoort in the title fight.

But unfortunately for the Haupt Racing Aussie, Love’s two second place finishes in the Silver Class were to his title pursuers Alex Aka and Lorenzo Patrese benefit in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8, whose Race 1 and 2 victories now have them heading into the finale a solitary point ahead.

Love again went into the race with his super-sub, Alain Valente, who helped him take a victory last round at Hockenheim, with his regular co-driver Frank Bird still out of action owing to his fathers sudden passing.

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It’s been a season-long battle between the two cars who have separated from the pack, with little splitting them all year.

After Love put the #77 in the box seat with a class pole for Race 1, he held onto that lead heading into the first round of stops in the 38 lap opener, and Patrese and Valente then fought out a close battle, with the Italian junior getting up by a few seconds, with the cars finishing 10th and 11th outright.

A flag interrupted Race 2 saw the pair finish in 13th outright after qualifying fourth in class. But Love was able to overcome the Silver class cars in front of him in the second stint to save a podium and set up what is sure to be a thrilling encounter at the difficult Zandvoort circuit.

“Twice on the podium for the class over the weekend, Can’t complain with some silverware really, but we definitely wanted more,” Love said.

“The fight is really on for the championship with only one round to go. Thanks to Haupt for all their efforts, and for Alain for stepping up again … bring on Zandvoort.”

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Former F2 driver and fellow Aussie Calan Williams unfortunately had a round to forget but, like Love, still heads into the final Sprint Cup round deep in the title frame.

Also similar to Love, he too lost his cup championship lead at Valencia – but also by very little – in the Gold class.

Alongside teammate Niklas Krutten in the #30 WRT BMW, the pair received contact at the start of both races to count them out,

as they left a Sprint round for the first time without a podium.

They now trail season long rivals Alberto Di Folco and Aurelien Panis in the #9 Boutsen VDS Audi R8, who’s two podiums gave them a six point lead.

Both young Aussies will contend for their respective championships at the Netherlands track on October 14-15.

TW Neal

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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INDYCAR’S THERMAL CLUB MILLIONS

Could Toyota hold the key for a Subaru return to WRC? Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

FIA PRESIDENT FLOATS SUBARU’S WRC COMEBACK FIA PRESIDENT Mohammed Ben Sulayem has revealed that the famed Subaru rally brand could be in-line for an historic return to the World Rally Championship.

At the WRC Acropolis Rally Greece, Ben Sulayem let the cat out of the bag about Subaru making a potential return to the toptier of world rally.

The Japanese company pulled out of the WRC in 2008 during the world financial crisis, having taken three Drivers championships (Colin McRae 1995, Richard Burns 2001, and Petter Solberg (2003), and three Manufacturers titles.

Subaru’s return will be resting on the shoulders of its major stakeholder, Toyota, which has a 20.2% share of its manufacturing compatriot and, through the FIA president, has declared its support for the initiative.

Rally media company DirtFish spoke with Ben Sulayem, revealing a promising meeting with Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda.

“It’s not a secret. I had a good meeting with Mr Akio Toyoda, and I asked him what we

can do about enticing more manufacturers into the WRC, and I listened to someone who is passionate. And he mentioned Subaru,” said Ben Sulayem.

“They own a percentage of Subaru and they are going to support an initiative of Subaru entering. And I feel someone like him (Mr Toyoda), when he speaks, he speaks with confidence.

“I hope that some of that will come. I feel more manufacturers are good.”

Subaru is still in the rally scene in a manufacturing standpoint, but only in the American Rally Association, recently culminating in a new WRX rally model.

The main issue with them returning to the new era of WRC is the new engine regulations. The current space-frame hatchback chassis that the new hybrid Rally1 cars use is no hurdle, but the new engines married with the hybrid component are.

The plug-in Hybrid component of the Rally1 (in use since 2022) generates 100kW, which produces over 500 horsepower when

combined with the 1.6 litre turbocharged internal combustion engine … but this is where Toyota could step in.

“I see positive signs from the chairman of Toyota in convincing Subaru to come back and providing the engine, where Subaru’s issue is with the engine,” Ben Sulayem continued.

“It’s not with the car, it’s with the engine they have. And I can see some signs of optimism there, really.”

Currently, the WRC and the FIA are still in talks over how world rallying will look come the next evolution, slated for 2027. But the path there will begin in 2025, where the ideas will be steered toward the changes earmarked for ‘27.

That is the likely timeline for Subaru to reenter the WRC fold should the partnership with Toyota come through, with the desire for a fourth manufacturer to join factory teams Toyota and Hyundai, as well as the semi-fulltime involvement of Ford with M-Sport.

TW Neal

INDYCAR HAS announced that a $1,000,000 dollar non-championship race has been locked in for the Thermal Club circuit in Southern California on March 24 next year.

The made-for-TV event not only has the huge purse for the race winner, but will also receive a network broadcast showcase.

In the 2023 pre-season, Indycar did its open-day testing at the private Palm Springs complex situated south east of LA, with many drivers commenting that it would be cool to do a race there.

A second trip to the multi-circuit track, situated on a 490 acre property, has been planned for its 2024 open testing on March 22-23, with the preseason race to immediately follow.

Whilst the driver will receive one million dollars for winning, there is a multi-million dollar purse set to be spread between the top-five teams.

Race day will feature a qualifying session, and two heat races, with the top six from each heat to advance to an All-Star showdown, with the topfive being awarded the purse.

The pre-season this year utilised a 4.9 km, 17-turn section of the layout, which was voted in 2017 as the “Professional Motorsport Facility of the Year” at the Professional Motorsports World Expo in Germany.

The ensuing schedule for the 2024 IndyCar season is due to be announced shortly.

TW Neal

WEC VALKYRIE BACK ON THE CARDS? THE ASTON Martin Valkyrie LMH Hypercar program, utilising a racer developed from the road going version for the beginning of the new WEC/IMSA era in 2021, is said to be on the cusp of a revival.

The Silverstone-based manufacturer was initially signed up in 2019 for the bold new era, and started developing the racing version of the Valkyrie alongside Multimatic Motorsport.

The 6.5L V12 road going engine was deep into an amalgamated development when the pin was pulled on the programme (or paused, as the company then said), but all the building blocks still remained for it to be revived.

There are reports that the engine development to lower the 1000bhp of road-going Valkyrie to the required 670bhp is under way for a planned 2025 entry, and that a union with US-based team Heart of

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Racing is set to be announced soon, with Multimatic to continue as its developer.

When they pulled out in 2020, it put a cloud over the new post-LMP1 era, leaving only Toyota and the boutique Glickenhaus brand to compete in the first 2021 season, with Alpine later joining with its rebranded R-13 LMP1 whilst it developed an LMDh ORECA based

hypercar (due to start in 2024).

It was precisely that decision by the FIA and WEC to plan for the future LMDh ruleset to join the WEC and IMSA alongside the LMH machines that caused the ‘pausing’ of the Valkyrie racer programme.

Aston Martin cited that its multimillion dollar investment in even a single racing

version being built, was bad for its intended road going sale profits (its reason for joining) when another car manufacturer or privateer team could contest with a much cheaper LMDh ruleset Hypercar.

At the time, the WEC hit back saying that it was the manufacturer’s much publicised financial issues that was the actual real reason – with its 2021 F1 entry also needing big funds – and stressed to Aston Martin that the LMDh addition would turn out to be of financial benefit to everyone in growing the category. Which it has been (Porsche, Cadillac etc) ...

The initial Aston Martin programme had actually caused development regulation changes to be made to the planning of the new Hypercar class, with Toyota at the time having to shift its designs for the GR010 to allow the road-based Valkyrie to compete.

TW Neal

The Grove team’s Allan Moffat Federation Falcon retro look stole the show ...

Image: PETER NORTON

A REAL SENSE OF OCCASION TALL TALES OF FEDERATION AND TENNIS RACQUETS – THE SANDOWN 500 ...

LET’S GET the negatives out of the way before addressing the many positives from the Sandown 491.

Dearest Supercars management, we need to talk. It’s a really, really bad look for races not to go the advertised distance.

Especially events only telecast on pay television, like last Sunday’s affair, with no need to throw from the podium to the big rating freeto-air evening news.

I don’t think Supercars insiders realise how bad a look timecertain finishes are as the category has been stuffing this up for years.

How can a race with just two Safety Car periods for eight laps need to have laps clipped from it? Yes, I know the start of September 17’s event was delayed by 15 minutes to 2.30pm to repair the barrier after the Super 2 shunt. But such scenarios are commonplace at Sandown and need to be factored into the schedule.

Seriously, just schedule the start of the big race 30 minutes earlier to build in some

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contingencies. The worst-case scenario is that the feature event finishes early and fans set sail for home at a reasonable hour.

Why does Supercars make a rod for its own back by generating bad PR? All weekend the commentators bang-on about 161 laps and 500km, yet it finishes short of these promised markers.

The race itself was surprisingly uneventful, the demise of the Reynolds/Tander and Waters/ Moffat Mustangs aside. More on that in moment.

The biggest positive from Sandown was how anticipation rose as the weekend progressed, as a bumper crowd rolled in. The 500’s preliminaries had a real sense of occasion you don’t get from a regular round. Everything built to the 2pm start and ramped up considerably during the Sunday morning warmup.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the warmup, particularly the tension in pitlane ahead of the first two-driver 500km race in years. And the involvement of co-drivers brought so many extra dimensions to proceedings.

Kudos to Grove Racing for the greatest retro livery since, well, forever. No team has pulled off the tribute livery thing like this

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with Luke West

REVVED UP before I don’t reckon.

Adopting the stunning Allan Moffat Racing Federation Falcon’s livery from 1979 and applying it to another Ford coupe was superbly executed in a design sense. But running this much-loved paint-scheme was just part of Penrite Racing’s genius. The real brilliance was in the attention it brought to its sponsors and charity partner.

The benefits to Dementia Australia were genuine and wide ranging – awareness of both organisation and disease, plus a boost to DA’s coffers. Extra points for taking a car to the charity’s patron Allan Moffat to give the six-time Sandown classic winner a real buzz. It was transported to his nursing home on a flatbed truck, although I’d prefer to call it a ‘vulture carrier.’

If that means nothing to you, I suggest you check out highlights of the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 and Moffat’s reference when interviewed about the manner in

which recovery crews removed his stricken XC when its engine expired late in the race.

That livery has a special place in my heart, too. You see, in 1979 I made my motor racing spectating debut as a wee lad at Sydney’s Amaroo Park for the ATCC round. Although I had been watching the annual Bathurst October bash since before I started school, it took me a few years to convince my folks, who weren’t into cars, to take me to see the racing live trackside.

My most vivid memory of that day was of Moffat’s big black Federation XC hardtop battling the A9X Toranas on a circuit that better suited the latter machines.

I was so taken by the sinisterlooking Ford, I bought a tennis racquet to match. If my father was alive today and could read this column he’d learn the real reason I favoured the black, red and yellow racquet he bought me a few weeks after that

Amaroo meeting. I remember him taking me to Straight Sets tennis shop and me test-driving a dozen wooden racquets.

“Dad, the black one feels the most comfortable,” I offered, obviously convincingly enough for him to slap down his hardearned for it.

Anyway, that’s how you execute a retro livery, kids. I hope Penrite Racing keeps this livery for at least one of its cars for the Mountain. It’s too good for just one outing. And it would be a pity if the dream team of David Reynolds and Garth Tander had their time in Federation colours end on a downer – a Sandowner.

What were the odds that the errant wheel from the Allan Moffat tribute car ended the chances of Allan’s son James, too? I wish I could ask the racing gods why they allowed that to happen. Bizarre.

At least the team’s other retro-themed machine of Matt Payne and Kevin Estre had a competitive showing in finishing sixth and winning the Mustang class. Endurance racing is good like that, being a multi-class affair.

Well done Matt, well done Kev. See you on the mountain in hopefully the same colours.

www.autoaction.com.au I 21

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SOCIAL DISCOURSE FANS WERE HAPPY TO SEE THE SANDOWN 500 RETURN AS THE MOTORSPORT WORLD CONTINUES TO SPIN ON AUTO ACTION’S SOCIAL CHANNELS…

EASTERN CREEK SPEEDWAY BLOW

Could the glory days of Thunderdome NASCAR/AUSCAR return?

TAKE STOCK AND SPRING INTO A REBIRTH WHEN THE late Bob Jane built the Thunderdome oval circuit at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne and introduced NASCAR and AUSCAR racing to Australia in the 1980s they were popular until the late 1990s.

Now NASCAR has started to get a renewed interest among Australian motorsport fans in recent times.

Why not reintroduce NASCAR and introduce Indy Lights to Australia as well?

A new Australian NASCAR Championship and an Australian Indy Lights Championship could operate as a spring-summer series.

The NASCAR championship could start with its first round as a support event at the Bathurst 1000 and maybe the rest of the championship and an Australian Indy Lights series could have two rounds at the Calder Park Thunderdome, with a round at Phillip Island, Sydney Motorsport Park, Queensland Raceway, The Bend Motorsport Park, Barbagello Raceway, Hidden Valley Raceway and maybe Symmons Plains.

As Australian motorsport fans love V8 racing, a new Australian NASCAR and an Australian Indy Lights series could become just as popular as the Supercars and could attract very large crowd attendances and enjoy strong television ratings.

NASCAR and Indy Lights championships could feature Australian drivers and teams and maybe draw American drivers and teams to take part as well.

They could attract young Australian and New Zealand drivers who have NASCAR or IndyCar aspirations to get experience for racing in North America.

Maybe Supercars Australia could be the governing body and

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operate the Australian NASCAR and Indy Lights championships?

These types of racing could add a lot of spice to motor racing in Australia.

Malcolm Webster Boronia, Victoria Editor’s note: Thanks Malcolm.

You’re always thinking of ways to improve Australian racing, especially for the benefit of fans, and your contributions are greatly appreciated. I particularly like your idea of reviving American-style stock car racing in Australia, whether it be NASCAR, AUSCAR or a hybrid of those two as I have very fond memories of competing in the earlier era under Bob Jane to which you refer. Bear in mind though that we now have TransAm in Australia, which has proven affordable and quite popular and perhaps could be grown further. Not sure that Supercars would be too receptive to your idea as it is intent on looking after itself – and, while that does not please everyone, it is understandable to a large extent. Not sure about Indy Lights either. We have S5000 now and history has shown that, beyond Formula Ford, Australia can’t support too many openwheeler categories.

WATCH A STAR EMERGING FROM LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUDS I’M A rusted-on Auto Action subscriber in New Zealand and just wish that you could broaden your horizons to be an Australasian publication rather than almost purely Australian.

The reason that prompts me to say this is that I think you have a blind spot towards our new Kiwi star on the international scene, Liam Lawson.

I can understand that you have long been cheerleaders for Daniel Ricciardo and more recently Oscar Piastri, but let me tell you that Liam Lawson is a real ace. You better believe it!

Piastri has done pretty well in his rookie year in Formula 1, proving more competitive with Lando Norris at McLaren than Ricciardo was.

Ricciardo’s been a great personality and won grands prix, but – realistically – what’s the future for him in F1?

If he stays at Alpha Tauri after he recovers from his hand injury, he’d just be keeping a young guy – like Lawson perhaps – out of a seat.

Even if Ricciardo did well at Alpha Tauri, the best he can hope for is to get back into the Red Bull team as very much No.2 to Max Verstappen. Although Verstappen was always going to be the favoured boy long term with Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, when Ricciardo was there before there was some semblance of equal No.1s. If there is to be a next time there for Ricciardo, his status would be much lower.

Alpha Tauri (formerly Toro Rosso and originally Minardi) was meant to be a team for Red Bull to groom young talent, like Liam Lawson, in F1.

As nice a guy as Ricciardo is, it’s time for your Aussie veteran to head off to the commentary box or wherever and let Lawson and, in time, other youngsters to come through Alpha Tauri (or whatever it is called next).

Steve Hammond Auckland, New Zealand Editor’s note: We are certainly happy to keep an eye on Kiwis and your NZ racing scene, Steve.

Lawson certainly has looked the goods at times – and his Singapore showing was superb.

Just don’t write off ‘Our Dan’ just yet ...

Daniel McNabb FOR NOW there is no metro speedway in SA, Qld, Vic and NSW. This kind of only leaves for metro racing WA, NT, and tracks in country Qld and Vic. Thank heavens for Murray Bridge and Allansford. The landscape has changed completely…

Mitchell Anderson THIS IS the latest blow to Speedway in Sydney and Australia side. Dollars will now be an issue too.

SANDOWN 500 RETURNS Neil Beamish YES! ALL the naysayers keep telling us it’s doomed but there is a huge crowd there this weekend.

Malcom Webster “IT’S GREAT to see the Sandown 500 back and it had a great crowd attendance to go with it but on a negative side, today’s Sandown 500 race started at 2.30pm which is way too late. The Sandown 500 traditionally starts at 1pm and the race usually finishes between 4.00 - 4.30pm and it didn’t finish until nearly 6pm.

Elmore James IT IS a sad day when we do not get a Sandown 500 on live free to air TV… what’s next, Bathurst?

PIASTRI POINTS IN SINGAPORE

Michael Orr OSCAR HAD an great race!

Lando’s race albeit a podium is a great result but let’s call a spade a spade, his race was average and lucky at the end to hold on and have George bin it

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IF WE COULD TURN BACK TIME Variety – the key to Sports Sedans Image: RICCARDO BENVENUTI

THIS COLUMN WAS INTENDED TO BE ABOUT THE SANDOWN 500 ...

IT’S ALWAYS been one of my favourite Supercars races, back from the 80s when I was reporting Brockie and the boys, then racing it in the 1990s, then all the inevitable action and drama through more-recent times.

Then I found myself at Eastern Creek – I can barely bring myself to call it Sydney Motorsport Park – on a sunny spring afternoon and everything changed.

It was as if the clock had been wound back to the calmer, gentler days when I first became a motorsport fan. It was the weather and the combined sights and sounds of a special Sydney meeting.

It was once the Muscle Car Masters, a brilliant and bumper event on Father’s Day, but has since become downgraded to the Sydney MasterBlast with a hit-and-miss collection of cars and contests, played out in front of a tiny crowd after years of neglect

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE by the Australian Racing Drivers Club.

And yet . . .

It transported me back to the days when I was just a kid and a long time before I found myself earning a living as a motorsport and motoring reporter.

My first experiences of motorsport were at Warwick Farm, then Oran Park and Catalina Park, even Amaroo, all clustered around Sydney. They were heady days for a teenager looking forward to hitting the road with something swifter and more weatherproof than my bicycle. A 1958 Beetle, as it turned out . . .

Even so, it was a great time for cycling adventures from Campbelltown – in the far west of Sydney – across the nearby hills to Oran Park to watch mid-week

private practice days for heroes like Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan and Frank ‘Curly’ Gardner. My best mate Mark ‘Minder’ Walton, back then and still today, would make a heads-up call to report V8 thunder and we would pedal out on our bikes.

Fast forward to the Creek, not the infamous Creek Corner at ‘The Farm’ – or Headquarters, as the toffs called Warwick Farm – and there were plenty of reminders of those earlier days. I even spotted a couple of Austin Healey Sprites looking like ancient history among the modern transporters.

But it wasn’t just the cars.

Dave Cameron, a mover-andshaker, invited me for lunch; I spent more than an hour in the excellent company of former racer Greg Crick, and there was also some time – never possible on

Supercars weekends – with the hardest worker in the V8 world, super-snapper Mark Horsburgh who shoots for just about everyone and still manages to stay calm and genuine.

I was really captivated at SMP – there, I did it – by the bellowing V8s in the Sports Sedan championship races and the memories triggered by the Group A touring cars.

There were two runners in the A-car field I had driven back in the day, the Datsun Bluebird Turbo and the HR31 Nissan Skyline, thanks to the great-but-late Howard Marsden.

There was also an HRT Commodore I remembered from a hot lap ride alongside Win Percy at Sandown, in the lead-up to the Sandown 500.

The Sports Sedans were thunderously fast and entertaining, with a variety of shapes – including a gorgeous Aston Martin – and speeds.

Watching them got me to thinking, and then one of my mates for the day put things into perspective.

“You know why I like these things?,” he asked, rhetorically.

“When I come to the Supercars meeting, the cars are all the same.

They look the same, they sound the same, the drivers change gears at the same place and they all brake at the same place.

“It’s the same with the Carrera Cup Porsches and the Toyota 86s.

Same, same, same.

“Look at these Sports Sedans.

They all look different, they sound different, they make their speed in different ways at different places.”

He was right, of course.

So now this column has become a shout-out to Supercars, and a reminder of what’s missing from too much of modern motorsport.

It’s called variety. And uncertainty.

Dave Cameron tells me the Sports Sedans will be part of the Supercars program at the Gold Coast, which promises plenty of variety and speed and action.

Even better, they could be on the undercard at five rounds of next year’s Supercars championship and I think that’s good news all around.

SVEN BURCHARTZ LIVES MOTORSPORTS LAWYER AND PARTNER

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www.autoaction.com.au I 23

NATIONALS NEWS Image: NEIL HAMMOND Images: MTR IMAGES

BOYDELL AND WALSH WIN WINTON 300

SUPERCARS STARS TO LIGHT UP IPSWICH EXCEL ENDURO QUEENSLAND RACEWAY’S annual Hyundai Excel enduro will have some extra star quality in the form of Supercars drivers this weekend.

The fifth round of the Queensland Racing Drivers Championship is headlined by a 300km Hyundai Excel race, while state Production Cars, Holden HQs, Utes and Hot Hatch Cup are also on show.

The big one is the EFS 4x4 Accessories Track Attack Excel Cup, which will be contested over 300km for the first time.

Joining the fun in the big field of over 50 cars will be some current Supercars stars.

The Racing Together team which creates motorsport opportunities for the Indigenous youth will be boosted by the addition of drivers from two of the biggest Supercars teams.

Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale and Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Zane Goddard will co-drive with regular Racing Together drivers Karlai Warner and Braedyn Cidoni.

They will be combinations to watch, while Matt Stone Racing’s Jaylyn Robotham is also part of the field.

With an increased race distance to 96

laps, strategy will become an even bigger element with refuelling part of the picture for the first time.

Teams must refuel during a five minute pit stop, while tyre changes must be completed separately.

Queensland Raceway general manager Josh McFarlane said it will the race will be an even bigger spectacle than usual.

“It is one of our biggest races of the year and our big enduro,” he told Auto Action.

“We have had multiple Supercars drivers race it in the past. Declan Fraser raced last year and we have also had Broc Feeney, Brodie Kostecki and a heap of others over the years.

“This is the first time it is a full 300km enduro and a bit like the old QR300 they used to do with refuelling.

“Up to last year it was a shorter race with simply just a driver change over 62 laps, so this will be a bigger challenge.

“Queensland Raceway is the best place to watch Excels race because you see the bump drafts with up to six or more cars happening down the straights, so there will be great racing.”

In addition to the 300km enduro, the

Excels will also conduct a Top 10 Shootout and a 30-lap Sprint race on the Saturday.

All up there will be around 120 vehicles racing around the “Paperclip” with at least 35 Queensland Production Cars expected to take part in three one-hour races.

A field of around 30 cars is expected in Production Sports which also have three one-hour races.

Bragging rights will be on the line in the Holden HQs which will be embracing the State of Origin rivalry with the Queensland drives looking to defend home turf from their New South Wales rivals.

The Utes and Hot Hatch category will battle it out over five races throughout the weekend on a mixture of layouts.

Practice takes place on Friday before racing and qualifying on Saturday and the enduro focused Sunday.

The entire track will be open for the fans, who can enjoy the new public bar located on level three of the new pit straight complex.

Ticket prices begin at $20 on Saturday and $30 on Sunday while under 13 are free.

Thomas Miles

ROUND 4 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championship was headlined by the 2023 edition of the Winton 300, won by Mazda MX-5 pairing Andrew Boydell and Jason Walsh.

The pair sat fourth in the first half of the race, pitting at the halfway mark - lap 50.

When all of the other competitors had completed their compulsory stops, Walsh emerged at the head of the field.

From there Walsh could cruise to the finish, winning the race by 1m and 29s from Andrew Shah and Jimmy Tran. It was the second year in a row that Tran finished the race as the runner-up.

Gerry Burges and Leigh Burges returned to the Winton 300 in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 and fought for the victory throughout the first half of the race, however a clutch drama meant they found themselves stuck in third gear late on.

Gerry Burges limped the car across the line in third position outright, two positions higher than where the duo finished in 2022.

There were plenty of support categories in action over the weekend including 10 of the ever-popular Australian Super Trucks.

Also on the support bill were the 2L Sports Sedans, Hyper Racers, Legend Cars Australia, the Victorian Sports Cars Championship and both Excel Masters and Trophy series’.

The full report will feature in the next issue of <i>Auto Action<i>, including coverage of the Winton 300, trucks and all the support category action. Dan McCarthy Boydell and Walsh in their Mazda MX5 on their way to winning the Winton 300

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24 I www.autoaction.com.au

Marko ... time to go, says AA’s columnist.

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MARKO OFFERS OPEN GOAL TO RED BULL

I WOULD never beat a dead horse, but I think it’s fairly clear time is up for Helmut Marko at Red Bull and in motor racing in general. The comments he made regarding Sérgio Pérez, a couple of days after the Italian Grand Prix have been criticised worldwide, with the focus being on the stereotyping of Latin American people, seem to have been the last straw for the new leaders of the Red Bull group, as the protection offered by longtime friend Dietrich Mateschitz is no longer there since the Austrian billionaire’s passing, one year ago.

As pointed out by Gunther Steiner and others, Marko has been to Mexico a dozen times and never knew he was in North America, not South America! But ignorance is not an excuse for anything in this day and age. And, more importantly, branding an entire ethnic group as lazy doesn’t show a lot of intelligence or awareness, particularly for someone who has travelled the world as much as the octogenarian has done.

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with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER But let’s consider other angles of Marko’s recent comments, as well. First of all, publicly criticising one of your own drivers – one that has a valid contract for next year; had just finished second in Monza after passing one Mercedes and two Ferraris on track; currently lays in a safe second place in the Drivers’ Championship; is doing a good job to help Red Bull secure the one-two finish in the final standings for the first time in its history; and was crucial in helping Verstappen win that controversial 2021 title.

What can Marko’s comments do to Pérez’s already shaken confidence? What encouragement do they bring to the dozens of young drivers Red

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Bull is supporting in the junior formulas, to continue to work under the Austrian company’s young drivers’ program, knowing the person that runs that program is ready to attack them in public at the first given opportunity?

And speaking of drivers, what about Marko’s open admission that, “it’s a shame Lando Norris is under contract with McLaren until the end of 2025, because he would be the ideal partner for Max at Red Bull ...”

While it’s clear Pérez has no chance to remain with the Milton Keynes-based team after the end of his current contract, Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are there, at AlphaTauri, doing the best job they can to show Christian Horner and

Helmut Marko they can do at least as well as Pérez once the Mexican leaves the main team.

What Marko is now telling them is that if one of them gets the call for 2025, he’ll be out of a job at the end of that first season with Red Bull racing, because the driver he wants alongside Max Verstappen is Lando Norris. Talk about giving motivation to your staff …

I have written this before, but I’ll write it again: the Red Bull program, Daniel Ricciardo apart, has failed to bring up any world class driver in its 25 years of existence. Verstappen was hired while midway through his only Formula 3 season, joining straight with a contract to race for Toro Rosso the following year; Vettel was dropped by BMW at the end of 2007 and then taken, in full, by Red Bull, as the two companies had co-owned his management for a couple of years; Tsunoda is a Honda driver on loan to Red Bull; and de Vries, who started the season with AlphaTauri, was never a Red Bull driver.

Now Marko says he wants Norris, who’s never been a Red Bull driver – putting him above the three men currently at AlphaTauri, the six drivers he’s supposed to support in Formula 2 and the many others that run with Red Bull colors in Formula 3, Formula Regional and Formula 4. If it’s to keep on hiring from other teams, why spend millions and millions of dollars for a young drivers’ program?

I believe back in Salzburg, Oliver Mintzlaf is just rubbing his hands at the open goal opportunity Marko has given him to break their contract one year ahead of its term. The group issued a statement, via Servus TV, the station they own, condemning Marko’s words and now that the FIA has cautioned him and Formula 1 is quietly putting pressure for him to go, he has the perfect excuse to show the veteran the door and finally make the young drivers program a scientific-based one, not a sort of lottery when the company gambles a lot and very rarely wins ...

www.autoaction.com.au I 25

FORMULA 1 NEWS – LUIS VASCONCELOS

PÉREZ SATISFIED “HELMUT HAS APOLOGISED” FOR RACIST COMMENTS

SÉRGIO PÉREZ has categorically stated he was “not offended” by the comments Red Bull’s main man Helmut Marko made in Monza about his mental capacity and working ethics to race against Max Verstappen, revealing that the two had a private conversation after the Italian Grand Prix and that, “Helmut apologised to me and that was the main thing.”

The Mexican insisted on a number of occasions that, “knowing Helmut quite well, I didn’t take offence when I read the comments, because I know what he thinks and we’ve got a good relationship.”

But Pérez admitted that for the fans, “as they don’t know Helmut, it’s understandable they took offence”, before insisting that, “for me, it was not a big issue and, anyway, he apologised, so that was the end of it.”

“Basically, we move on. I have a personal relationship with him, and I think you always have that; you can always have those feelings, when you see that sort of stuff.

Knowing the person helps a lot, because I know he doesn’t mean it that way. I took his apology, because I know Helmut, from the personal relationship that we have, that he doesn’t mean it that way.”

Having previously stated there’s a bias in the media, anti-Mexican or anti-Latin, Pérez insisted that he never thought Marko was going down that route: “If I were to look at those comments from the outside, I would feel like that but, knowing Helmut, because I have a personal relationship with him, it didn’t sound like that to me. Whatever I say to the

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES media or he says to the media is different to the conversations we have. Anyway, we have a good relationship, and I know that it’s not related to that side.

“Helmut did apologise. I think we all make mistakes, and to me what was most important is that I take his apology, his personal apology. What happens afterwards and on the media side, or in the public eye, that’s not in my control. To me the most

important thing is the personal relationship.”

Pérez went as far as saying that he appreciates Marko’s directness to the media, explaining that, “he will tell you what he thinks. I think something that we can appreciate from Helmut is that he’s very transparent, to the media and to the world in general, and also to the drivers. It’s just how he is.”

Still, he had to concede the fans had

reason to be upset with the Austrian, as, “those comments, when you read them in isolation, can be very disrespectful. But like I say, knowing Helmut, having that personal relationship, for me, helped me a lot to understand, understand him and, like I say, he gave me a personal apology. So like everything, when you have a personal relationship, it’s a lot more important, the personal feeling, than the public feeling.”

FIA PROMISES LIGHTER, SHORTER CARS FOR 2026 THE 2026 Technical Regulations are getting closer to being finalised and published.

While a lot of focus is being placed on the final version of the rules regarding the Power Units (with Red Bull insisting they need major changes but every other manufacturer insisting there’s only room for minor tweaks, a view shared by the FIA), the chassis regulations will reflect the need for lighter cars to be built, the drivers complaining the current generation of chassis is so heavy they lack the agility the best racing cars in the world should have.

Speaking to an Italian publication, Nikolas Tombaziz, the Federation’s Technical Director, has explained the steps that are being taken to make the cars more nimble, easier to follow and, therefore, facilitate overtaking: “Right from the beginning of the work, the goal was to make sure the 2026 cars will have to have significantly less aerodynamic resistance than the current ones. And simulations carried out indicated that it is possible to achieve low resistance levels, therefore, less drag, which will make the cars faster.

“One thing we’ve done is that the dimensions of the wheels which will be narrower, the rear wings will be smaller and we also aim to

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Current cars – too big, too heavy ... better top speeds and longer braking distances needed ... reduce the weight of the cars by around 50kg.

This means we’ll see smaller single-seaters, shorter and narrower than the current ones, hence more agile.”

With braking areas being currently extremely short, the FIA is working on a basic concept that will increase the straight-line speed of the cars but reduce their cornering speed, thus increasing the braking areas.

As Tombazis explained: “With lighter cars, we will be able to reduce cornering speeds a bit, because, being lighter, they will go faster on the straights, but will generate

less downforce. And that’s why we need to increase the hybrid’s energy recovery power, to ensure adequate lap performance.”

This being the area where Red Bull wants a change in the 2026 regulations to maintain a noticeable difference between the Internal Combustion Engine power output and the Hybrid Recovery System’s one, Tombazis seems very firm in keeping the agreed parity of power output between the two systems: “A lot of work has been done to understand how energy recovery and its management should be done and how overtaking can

be done according to the aerodynamic configuration. We have carried out many simulations changing these parameters and we have found solutions that we think work adequately.”

And repeating what he told AA in Zandvoort, the Greek engineer dismissed Christian Horner and Max Versappen’s statements that the 2026 cars will be undriveable: “If one were to take the 2026 power units and mount them on current cars, the result would probably be the scenario you are talking about. But we have gathered a series of very positive developments in recent months, so the comments express old positions, taking into account that engine and chassis will have to evolve together and it won’t be possible to think of one without the other.”

By the looks of it, Red Bull won’t be getting what it is pleading for. The change of leadership at Alpine takes away the only ally Horner seemed to have in the Manufacturers’ Commission – Laurent Rossi and Otmar Szafnaeur – so the Austrian company now turned engine manufacturer will have a tough task ahead to fight it out with established manufacturers like Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda and Audi, as well as Alpine.

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ALTERNATIVE TYRE ALLOCATION TO BECOME STANDARD FOR 2024

ZHOU SECURES NEW CONTRACT WITH SAUBER ZHOU GUANYU has agreed terms with the management of the Sauber Group and will remain with the Swiss team for another season. For Valtteri Bottas, the continuation was never in doubt, as his original contract was valid for three years, with 2024 being the last under the current deal.

The Chinese driver’s seat with the Swiss team was under threat due to a combination of factors and, for a while, Alessandro Aluni Bravi, the Team Representative, held exploratory talks with Felipe Drugovich and his management, eyeing the Brazilian driver as a good alternative to Zhou, as he’s been doing a good job in testing for Aston Martin and is also capable of raising an impressive amount of sponsorship from Brazilian private companies.

In the end, the deal was signed in Singapore with the Italian team’s lawyer explaining that, “the decision to continue our journey with our driver line-up unchanged is testament to the investment we have made in our project. Nothing in Formula One changes overnight, and we have taken a conscious decision to focus on stability and to keep building our team up together as we embark on an important period of transition. Valtteri and Zhou are drivers of known talent and skill and they work really well together: they are wellmatched and can push each other. Valtteri has taken a real leader’s role within the

team, pushing us all to give our best; Zhou has made impressive steps forward in the last two years and we expect him to continue on this trajectory in 2024.”

For the young Chinese driver, the decision was a huge relief, Zhou admitting that “signing again with the team is always a great feeling, especially when we know how things are shaping up. I am proud to be part of Alfa Romeo and grateful for their trust: I have been working extremely hard since day one and there is an incredible level of motivation to keep doing so every day forward. “ With continuity being seen as a key element for the team’s growth and with a lot of good drivers being out of a contract at the end of next year, the drivers’ market for 2025 could be wide open and Sauber, by then fully controlled by Audi, wants to be free to choose the two best drivers available.

Hiring Drugovich for just one year wouldn’t make a lot of sense, as his first Formula 1 year would always be a learning season, so negotiations with Zhou continued, as well as with sponsors only interested in staying with the Swiss team if there was a Chinese driver on board, and now the final details have been agreed, with the announcement of the new contract confirmed in Singapore.

With Sauber keeping Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu for next season, Williams becomes the only team to have a seat fully available for all, as Alex Albon is certain to remain as the number one driver but Logan

Sargeant’s position is far from secure.

As for AlphaTauri, it seems pretty clear the Italian team will choose between Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson, with the doors firmly shut on any other driver outside the Red Bull program.

This means Williams is now in the enviable position of being the target for all drivers currently looking for a place in the 2024 grid, with Drugovich and Mick Schumacher at the top of the list, fighting it out with Sargeant, as the American seems to have Team Principal James Vowles’ support.

While the Brazilian could be faced with the lack of experience that has cost Sargeant dearly so far this year, the fact he’s going to end up the year with 12 full days of testing with an Aston Martin AMR21, plus half a day of pre-season testing, when it was not certain Stroll would be fit to race, puts him in a better position to start his first full season.

As for Schumacher, he’s done two full seasons with Haas and has tested for Mercedes and McLaren this year, so he would be able to get up to speed quickly, should he get the call from Williams.

In any case the British team is in no rush to make any decisions and is likely to wait until the start of November to announce its plans, AlphaTauri may well probably decide which duo they’ll run next year at the end of the season, so the wait for Tsunoda,, Ricciardo and Lawson will be even longer.

THE ALTERNATIVE Tyre Allocation proposed by Pirelli and so far tested in the Hungarian and Italian Grands Prix, is set to become the standard tyre allocation from the start of next year, except for Sprint Event weekends, where the current rules allow each driver to go through 13 sets of tyres during a Grand Prix event and have free choice of tyre compounds for every segment in qualifying except Q3 – when the softer compound has to be used.

The first hint this ATA could mix up things came at the Hungaroring, with Lewis Hamilton securing his first pole position in nearly two years – but, in the race, Verstappen was immediately into the lead and the race produced a normal result. In Monza, though, Carlos Sainz not only beat the Dutchman for pole position but also led for the first 14 laps of the race. It was clear no team was able to get the most out of the three compounds Pirelli took to the Italian track, with some shock results in qualifying – like seeing both Alpines out of contention already in Q1 – led the teams to consider this could be an interesting move for next year with the matter now being discussed in the Formula 1 Commission.

Pirelli’s Mario Isola, who first came up with the idea of trying the ATA in at least two Grands Prix this year, explained that from his point of view, this new format, “is working well, but there are a few things to be considered if this is to become the standard allocation. For example, we can consider handing an additional set for the FP2 session, but then reducing the number of sets available for the qualifying and the race from seven to six. That would allow the drivers to use two different compounds in FP2 and complete more laps, giving the paying fans a lot of track action, while not detracting from the chances in the race.”

In conclusion, the Italian admitted that, “personally I believe that the qualifying session with this format is much more interesting, because the drivers have to quickly adapt to different grip levels in the three different segments of the session and the teams have to prioritize one or two compounds for their set-up choices, making them vulnerable in at least one of the qualifying segments.”

The subject was set to be discussed in the scheduled Team Managers meeting in Singapor and, if there was a consensus on the ATA format, then the Formula 1 Commission will make a formal proposal to the World Council for Motor Sports and then it will follow the integration of this system in the 2024 Sporting Regulations.

FIA SET TO ACCEPT ANDRETTI’S ENTRY THE FIA looks set to announce Andretti Global has fulfilled all the criteria set out by the Federation when the process to accept new teams into Formula 1 was started, putting the ball firmly in Stefano Domenicali’s ballpark, as the commercial rights holder will have to do a deal with any new entrant, the only way the new teams will be eligible to get a slice of the prize money.

In recent days, the American company announced that all its operations now fell under the Andretti Global umbrella – not only the prospective Formula 1 team but also the Formula E, IMSA, Indycar and other minor categories whish the team competes – in what was generally seen as a sign Michael Andretti had received the green light from the FIA and soon would be in a position to announce his company, together with General Motors,

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using the Cadillac brand, will join Formula 1, probably from the start of 2026.

It has now emerged that only four of the applications received by the FIA passed the initial triage made by the Federation, with Andretti Global and Hitech being the only two that moved into the final stage of evaluation and the American team getting the approval of the panel in charge of this process before it was put in president Ben Sulayem’s hands.

The Emirati has been waiting since July for Stefano Domenicali and the existing 10 teams to accept Andretti Global as a new entrant.

However, with the prize fund now being divided by all competing teams – and not just by those who finished the Constructors’ Championship inside the top 10, as it was the case in all Concorde Agreements signed under Bernie Ecclestone’s leadership, from

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1981 until 2016 – especially the smaller teams are weary they may lose up to US$10m in prize money with an 11th squad in the field and have, so far, vetoed the process.

Tired of waiting, Ben Sulayem seems tempted to make it official that the FIA accepts Andretti Global as a Formula 1 team from the start of 2026, putting the ball firmly on the commercial rights holder and the team’s side. Of course Andretti could agree to race without a commercial deal signed with Formula 1, but that would create an impossible situation as, on top of getting no prize money, the American team might find itself without passes for its staff and guests, space for its motorhomes and so on, as these are areas managed by Formula 1.

By announcing that the FIA accepts Andretti’s application before the championship

goes to Austin and Las Vegas, Ben Sulayem would put Domenicali and the 10 team principals in the difficult situation of having to explain to the American fans and media why they wouldn’t be willing to accept such a combination of big names – Andretti and Cadillac – into the sport, in a demonstration the Emirati is capable of playing hardball when he finds there’s unreasonable opposition to his plans.

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FOOTBALL, MEAT PIES AND… FORD CARS DAVID NOBLE’S PATH TO THE CEO ROLE AT DICK JOHNSON RACING IS NOT A TRADITIONAL MOTORSPORT PATH. HOW DID THIS FOOTBALL PLAYER AND COACH TRANSITION TO DJR? HE SPOKE WITH ANDREW CLARKE.

IN THE PAST, most stories like this on David Noble would focus on his footballing exploits, and by that we mean Australian Rules football. Two premierships as a player with North Hobart, a couple of games with Fitzroy in the AFL, a thumping 157-point loss to Hawthorn when the Lions played on his North Hobart ground and another against North Melbourne.

He was a handy rover and played State of Origin for Tasmania. Still, he proved more adept to the game at its highest level in other roles, peaking as the coach of North Melbourne in the AFL after other jobs on the admin side of the game, like being the head of football at the Adelaide Crows and the general manager of football at the Brisbane Lions. But, like when he joined Fitzroy, the timing with North wasn’t right.

He lasted two years with the Kangaroos and was effectively replaced by a coaching genius named Alastair Clarkson – perhaps the greatest coach of the modern era, I say, with my Hawthorn hat on my head.

This led Noble down an exciting path he’d never really contemplated. From his Brisbane days, he knew Nigel Calder, the Commercial Director at DJR. He loves cars and car racing, and the next steps were logical and straightforward.

“I guess I was more of an avid fan,” he says of his time before joining DJR. “I stayed in contact with Nigel, who I knew from when I was with Brisbane. I’d been down and had

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“ ”

The people management side is still the same.

I think how the two industries have done things are different ...

looked through the workshop, not overly deep, but certainly as a fan.

“I had a love for cars and watching the sport. I have a couple of cars of my own, too. I have a foot in both camps, you could say.”

His cars are special, too. A 1942 Ford JAILBAR Ute, a 1965 Mustang couple, and

(brace yourself DJR and Ford fans), a 2005 Monaro CV8.

When he first appeared at Bathurst last year, there was a minor buzz among those who are AFL fans. It was kind of like, what’s David Noble doing with DJR? “I had a few people wonder what the hell I was doing. I thought I was doing a bit of

work with the drivers initially. I got a call from the Doc, Dr Ryan Story, last year – I reckon it would have been sometime in late August – and he asked what I was doing.

“They were considering looking for a CEO and wanted to know whether I was interested in the organisation and a role in the organisation and whether or not I’d come up to Bathurst as the group’s guest and look around.

“Not many people knew why I was there at that point in time. We’d had a couple of long discussions around what he was after, particularly with me coming out of footy.

I went to Bathurst and then the interview process progressed until November when I got a chance to present to Ryan and Brett (team owner Brett Ralph) in mid-to-late November and turned up December 1 at Adelaide.”

So, how do you go from football to car racing?

“In those early days [of football], it wasn’t quite full-time – there certainly wasn’t enough money, considering I just got married before we headed to Melbourne. I had 10

years at AMP working in sales units and then in a sales division as an operational administration manager.

“I had exposure as an admin person early on.”

Football is a big business in a different way to car racing as a big business. There are more than 250 people at the Brisbane Lions, and the focus is on winning games.

Noble was in charge of football, meaning the 40 (actually 90 if you include the players) or so people on the performance side of the business, a similar headcount to DJR. Brisbane was a basketcase when he joined.

Players were leaving like rats off a sinking ship, but he and coach Chris Fagan stopped the desertion. In 2019, two years after finishing last, the Lions were back in the finals and are still there now and playing a home Preliminary Final this weekend.

How does it all relate?

“Both are team sports. That was the one thing that hit me really strongly and clearly: there are a lot of people that work towards the one goal.

Yes, we’ve got two cars and we have two drivers and there’s sort-of two teams within that, but we’re all working towards one thing on race day.

“And that struck me loudly. It’s a bit undersold, I think, in our sport – from the guy who does the stickers, to the guys who redo the panels in the paint shop, from the machine shop to sub assembly, to fabrication and a whole lot of mechanics. Then you’ve got the commercial guys that add the element of our great partners. It’s a really big team sport.”

What was the weirdest thing to come to grips with?

“The fact that the

DJR’s newest recruit has come at a hugely busy time for the organisation, which has been the Homologation team for Ford. Results were sparse until Anton de Pasquale snared a much-needed win at Townsville (opposite page, middle).

Images: MARK HORSBURGH

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departments were quite similar, but they were also totally different beasts. Coaches versus engineers, high performance versus mechanics. It was this sort of weird pseudo effect of ‘it’s similar but it’s different.‘ “I think the second thing for me is that the attention to detail is just on a whole new scale. The detail with the telemetry, the simulation, the preparation of the cars and the attention to the little things is on a way bigger scale.

“The people management side is still the same. I think how the two industries have done things are different, and I think the people side brings another layer in of ‘can this be done a little bit differently or a little bit more efficiently?’ I’m naturally inquisitive, so I like that aspect of how we can do things better. Are we able to be agile enough within our environment?

“I think they’ve seen a different approach.

There’s no doubt we’ve completed an internal exercise on our values and our mission. So, from that side of things, it’s been something a little bit different. We’re continuing to work at how we reward and recognise that internally.”

From football manager to coach was a big shift because the focus narrowed, and

there was less admin and fewer operational meetings. He’s trying to mirror that a little more at DJR, getting the engineers (or coaches) to worry about their primary tasks.

The other part that is similar but different is sporting politics. You cannot escape it, no matter how hard you try. Even we can’t.

“I think all levels of most sports have some level of politics. The difference with our sport is it’s private ownership. It’s not a not-for-profit. Whilst it’s got some rigour and accountability, and there’s undoubtedly procedure, protocols, and governance, when it is privately invested money, that’s on another level. There’s a lot of responsibility for budgets, financial accountability, business modelling and where you’re going.

“There’s another layer that comes with our sport, and I’ve enjoyed that challenge.

It’s been a steep learning curve for me to know who to talk to and which ones are right – trying to build relationships across the competition, up and down pitlane with some of the other Ford teams. Building relationships with Supercars is important as a homologation team. And then we’ve got Ford and building a strong relationship with

Noble’s philosophy is to disect every element of a pit-stop, perfect each, then re-combine ...

Above: settling into the job – Sydney. Above right: The AGP provided an early ray of sunshine. Images: MARK HORSBURGH

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Alan Burkik (Ford Australia President) has been really positive.

“Being the homologation team is completely unexpected for me. Stepping into the breach has been a real challenge. Finding the balance has been difficult at times, because there has been politics and financial tension around that now we have moved to an era of control parts.

“I wasn’t here 12 months ago, but I understand the movement away from engineering our car to a difference, versus having control parts. I’d have to say the political side of it has been extreme and challenging but, at the end of the day, we’ve got to get on with it.

“We had enough work to do in our backyard while parity was happening. We didn’t think that we’d completely got hold of it. We didn’t have a very good test day early in the year. That’s been well documented, and we slowly but surely just put our head down, bum up and got to work.”

The start of his time at DJR hasn’t been easy. The transition to the new cars was tough, but it did become the first Ford team to win on the track this year with Anton De Pasquale in Townsville. As the homologation

team for Ford, people naively expected a better performance. People failed to understand what DJR had a say in and what it didn’t.

There were plenty of cheap shots directed at the team from when the cars hit the track in Newcastle and even today. DJR might have done an average job, but people saying it should have done better because it was the homologation team was crap.

Slowly, DJR has worked its way back to the top of the Ford tree and is now in the battle to be the best on the blue side of the grid.

The criticism and barbs hurt. Noble said it stung because there was a limited understanding of what was going on.

“We didn’t prepare well, and we didn’t get it right for whatever reason. We’re the homologation team, and we wear that as a badge of honour. We don’t step away from that. Is it extra work? Yes, it is, but you’ve just got to get on with it at the end of the day, and this is a results-based industry, like it is at a lot of other elite sports. It’s not an excusebased industry – you need results.”

North Melbourne, where he coached, is what one of my mates, a Kangaroos’ supporter, says is a ‘boutique’ club. Which really means it has the smallest membership base of all the teams in Melbourne. It’s a far cry from DJR, perhaps the biggest team on the Ford side of the game.

Now he gets maybe one home game a year instead of 11, but he says the way fans attach to the teams is not that different.

“To have our massively rusted-on, inherently passionate fans come to rounds, the many fans that travel around the country with us, is great. I think we (the sport) have one of the best support bases around the country.

“When you look at where motorsport sits in the fabric of sport across the country, it holds a really unique spot. It doesn’t necessarily

A better residual tyre bank (from Saturday) paved the way for de Pasquale’s Townsville win, but with the parity situation getting closer, the team is now in a competitive window. Image: ROSS GIBB

Image: ROSS GIBB

compete from a ball sports perspective, and you can be a DJR Team Mates member, as well as a member of a footy team, a rugby team, or a soccer team. It does matter. We want to make sure that what we’re doing, we are strongly connected to our fans across the country.”

So, the fans are a big tick for Noble as he learns his way in his new industry. With not even 12 months on the board, he’s not ready to start making dramatic changes and

“ ”

Being the homologation team is completely unexpected for me. Stepping into the breach has been a real challenge ...

throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He is analytical and observant.

“It’s about fine-tuning for me. I think the first six to 12 months, you get your feet under the desk and see how it operates organisationally. I’m still in the process of having a look around and seeing how the flow looks around who we’ve got in certain management roles.

“The athletes – we need to ensure their functionality on race day is about getting in the car and racing. The preparation for that, whether it’s food, physio and those types of things, we work with them. Both drivers have their own element, like their own sports psych, so we don’t need to do that.

“It’s less about the drivers for me and more around the operation of the business, an executive team, how we meet regularly, how we execute our plan. We’ve tried to restructure and move forward and become more efficient in what we do.

“I didn’t know any different,” he says, switching the discussion to the ownership change at DJR. “That was what I knew. I met Brett at Bathurst last year and got on with him like a house on fire. I love how he operates in his own business of Jet Couriers and the connection he’s got with the Storm, Melbourne Aces, Melbourne United and the Lightning … he’s involved with some very top-end sports groups, which was a real attraction for me.

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“I was probably a continuation of that change, with Ryan stepping back to a nonexec chair role.

All the guys and girls here are willing – they’ve been accepting of what we are trying to do, and that’s been appreciated by me.”

He’s keen on stability and not changing elements that are working. Both drivers are staying with the team next year, making it the only team in pitlane without a driver change. Both Davison and De Pasquale are delivering, even if the team hasn’t quite given them a car yet to perform at their peak. But Bathurst, generally a good hunting ground for DJR despite limited success in the past

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two decades, is somewhere it performs.

“My experience is that when you’ve got the people in the right seats and you can create stability, it gives you consistency. I think you can ride the ups and downs better because you’ve got the people that have been with you for a while and understand the movements in the cycle and how the industry tends to move.”

As for the cycle of life, Noble is enjoying the slightly less hectic pace of a season.

Until now, it was a week-to-week thing, and now he’s got 12 performance weekends over nine months. He can now jump on a plane to watch his son, John, play for Collingwood in the AFL, and spend quality time with his other kids.

Life in the AFL, particularly as a coach, doesn’t allow that. It is all-encompassing and draining.

“There’s no doubt that is a difference. The ongoing repetitiveness of the rounds, or just your weekly cycle, is different.

“I’ve always been an avid learner.

I think I’ve been a life-long learner and always been comfortable challenging myself with different and varied roles. So, being uncomfortable with some of the tasks you take on ... I’ve always been comfortable doing that.

“I’m lucky. The chance to work in a second passion has

been great. A lot of people sometimes get a chance to explore that with one and work full time in one passion, and now I’ve been able to find a second passion to work in, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m loving it.”

Step-by-step, he’s working his way through the team. His coaching and leadership allow him the chance to do things a little differently, meaning he’s not a typical CEO of a race team who has probably come from an engineering background or is a cashed-up someone with a life-long passion.

He can break down a pitstop in much the same way as a stoppage clearance. The coach in him says, let’s get one part right – like getting the wheel off cleanly – and then move to the next. Improve each of the elements, and then, as a whole, you’ve got a quicker stop.

Bathurst, in a couple of weeks, is the 12-month anniversary of the start of this phase of his life. He’ll keep in his lane and rely on his administrative and coaching skills.

All of which makes him the most interesting team leader in pitlane.

Team Principal Ben Croke – on pitstop duty.

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JARROD

HUGHES

EMBRACING THE KAIZEN

AS PART OF AUTO ACTION’S YOUNG GUNS FEATURE SERIES THAT CASTS AN EYE OVER AUSTRALIA’S PROMISING YOUTH, TGRA 86 RACER JARROD HUGHES IS OUR LATEST INSTALMENT: A DRIVER WHO IS GETTING BIG RAPS FROM THE RIGHT PEOPLE; WHO’S SHOWN A CONSTANT WILL TO IMPROVE AS HE’S CLIMBED UP THE RANKS. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS …

Jarrod and his Toyota 86 crew ...

AT THE end of the 2022 racing season Jarrod Hughes was awarded one of Toyota’s most prestigious national and global recognitions when he received the Kaizen Award for his efforts in the 2022 Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series.

The term Kaizen encapsulates a Japanese philosophy that simply means an ongoing and continuous improvement through a methodical process to achieve success; and it’s a term that suits the journey of the 18-Yearold Brisbane resident to a tee.

Hughes motorsport story starts in karting at

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the age of 10, through to Hyundai Excel racing, TGRA 86 and, more recently, an appearance in the TA2 Muscle Car Series at Hidden Valley’s world first co-driver TA2 event.

He is also embedded in the Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast and cites the heavy influence of Paul ‘The Dude’ Morris – in befitting the Kaizen philosophy, Hughes has been able to approach his racecraft from another angle, having been made a driving instructor and track manager at Norwell.

On top of Morris’s tutelage, ACDelco has also been a big part of Hughes racing backbone as

a sponsor on his cars for the last seven years.

Having been there from his karting days and through to the present, they’ll hopefully be there into the future as Hughes gets ready to step things up a gear on his promising career pathway.

Like many young racers in Australia his goals are orientated towards racing in the main game, with the TGRA series being one vital step in that process as Supercars teams utilise it as a base breeding ground for Australia’s up-and-coming talent.

Hughes is determined to give it everything he has to get to Supercars, and that was a goal that formulated early on the competitive national karting scene.

Auto Action spoke with Hughes at Sandown about his racing life, as he prepared for Round 4 of the 2023 TGRA 86 Series.

Right from the start, a 9-year-old Hughes showed he knew how to utilise a racetrack.

“I went to a Slideways Go-Karting facility at Eagle Farm when I was nine, but I was a bit too small to have a go actually,” Hughes began.

“But the people there put a few cushions under the seat and let me have a crack, and I was only one second off the track record on my first go. So when I turned 10 I got my first

ever kart and I knew that racing was what I wanted to do.”

Six months later, in 2015, he started competing in state and national rounds, consistently running up the front, taking round wins over the course of five years whilst he started thinking about a future in racing.

“Around 2016-17 I started really getting into the Supercars on TV, and that’s when I started to really have a crack on the national level because I had something to personally aspire to.

“I was quite lucky to be able to go around the country with the help of my parents in karting, flying to a different place from week to week, and that gave me the experience to be able to move on to where I am now.”

His first experience in the tin-tops came through state Excel racing, which is where he started his lasting relationship with the Norwell Motorplex, which quickly led onto his TGRA step-up.

“Norwell put on a Saturday afternoon test and tune day where you could take your XL and cut a few laps In the afternoon with everybody ... so that was sort of the first taste I got with the Norwell complex and environment.

Sharing feedback with ‘The Dude’ ...

Left: Pressing on in the current Toyota.

Far left: It all started with karting ...

Images: PACE IMAGES

“I did my first Excel race at Morgan Park, and Paul just said to get out there and give it a go, and then I sort of just merged into the Norwell team ....

“Then when I won my second ever race in the Excels we thought it was time to up the ante a little bit, and it was a big step up for me to then get into the 86 after that.

“Going to Townsville for my first ever 86 race was a bit daunting, but after my first lap I just thought it was awesome. The 86 Series is a great place for young people like myself to show off their talents.”

Hughes also became a driving instructor at the tender age of 15 at Norwell, which has

“ ”

through, and with what he’s done for guys like Broc Feeney, Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki … he just cares so much about us and wanting to help us step up through the categories.

“It’s the passion he has for wanting to help that’s so special. You name any racecar series and car and he’s probably driven in it, and having that knowledge base on your side and knowing him like I’ve been able to is a real privilege, as it is for a lot of people.”

2022 was a big year for Hughes, taking his first 86 win at Sandown and also winning a state title in the Excel series, setting a host of category win records along the way.

But winning the Kaizen award gave him the

I was quite lucky to be able to go around the country with the help of my parents in karting flying to a different place from week to week ...

helped him hone his own racecraft from a different perspective.

“Paul threw me under the bus so to speak at a young age, and I’ve been doing that ever since.

“Now that I’m 18, and had three years at Norwell, and having learned quite a few things that Paul’s taught me in my own racing, being able to teach other people that are coming through has been important.

Teaching kids coming through karting like I did is quite special, but I think the best thing for me doing that is obviously you see how other people do it, and there’s always something that they do better than you, so I think that’s the best part about teaching.”

He also spoke a bit about ‘The Dude’ – who is one of Australian Motorsports most pivotal figures for young racers behind the scenes.

“Having Paul on my side is massive. He’s so strong on wanting to help kids coming

opportunity to travel overseas to the Daytona 500 ... and then he got first dibs on the new Toyota GR 86 that he will race in 2024.

“Winning the Kaizen award really topped off a perfect year – to have people noticing you like that was a big upper hand for going into this year. I couldn’t tell you how it felt hearing my name called out, and then to go to the NASCAR race at Daytona to see directly how they operate … it’s helped me implement a lot of things that I’ve utilised this year with my organisational and driving skills.

“And also being able to go to the North American Toyota Gazoo Racing Facility to see the cars being built; and the Jacob’s Racing factory, that was unbelievable. You think of the big teams in Oz like T8 and DJR and their factory set-ups, and then times that by 20 ... it was pretty eye opening.”

This year he also got his first taste of racing in a V8 at Hidden Valley when he took on the TA2 national series in a Dodge Challenger as a co-driver with Hayden Jackson.

He backed up that faith by scoring an early podium, whilst the pair finished fifth outright in the event standings.

“That was the hottest I’ve ever been in a race cabin, but what an experience – it was my first time on slick tyres and in a big V8, as well as driving on the left hand side!

“First time I hopped in I thought ‘Jesus, this has some boogie to it…’ – had a bit on an 86 anyway. Unfortunately the gearbox gave way in the finale which prevented us from getting second overall.”

This year has been a bit of a struggle on track for Hughes in the 86 series, as things just haven’t clicked mechanically in what is likely his last full year in the series.

“We’ve had gearing issues unfortunately and we’ve just been losing big time out of the corners. We took the engine out here at Sandown so we’ll see where that gets us.

“I’ll just have to be wheeling as hard as I can from here on in, but we’re still fifth in the championship, so we’ll see what the rest of the year brings.”

Following on from the aptly themed Kaizen motif, 2024 is a year where Hughes is wanting to step up in his development as he assesses several options to get to that next rung on the ladder.

“In the ideal world I’d be in the Super2 series, but the biggest problem is getting the money for that ... but we’re looking at those options, and the other one for us is to race in the Porsche Sprint Challenge.

“A lot of kids have been going through that and progressing into other things, which is awesome to see, so they’re our two main options.

“But of course, the TA2 series is also looking like a very cool option, but with having Paul on my side who he knows – it’s most likely Super 2 or Porsche … but you never know what’s going to happen ...”.

In terms of his relationship with ACDelco, Hughes is also confident that that relationship can be something that’s also carried forward.

“I absolutely love working with them, so to have them stick with me for so long is a real privilege.

“Hopefully I can stick with them and one-day we can make it to the main game together. They’ve been there from the start, and I feel that that would be a cool thing to say once we make it. I’ve also been lucky to have people like Rusty French and Skye Sands on board for this year... I’m very lucky to have what I have.”

Like many, Excel racing (here leading) provided the early car race experience.

Left: Checking out the 2024 Toyota 86 ... Images: PACE IMAGES

www.autoaction.com.au I 33

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SPEEDWAY

ANDERSON DANCES TO NT CHAMPIONSHIP NT14 Michael Jones and S18 Jason Duell battle for the lead in the Street Stock final.

Grant Anderson, NT Sprintcar Champion Images: BEC THOMPSON PHOTOGRAPHY AFTER THE completion of a successful Chariots of Thunder Series, a variety of teams travelling home from Darwin headed south to Alice Springs’ Arunga Park Speedway for their opening meeting of the summer season. A bumper crowd, the biggest in many years, was in attendance to watch the highly anticipated Steely Sales NT Northern Territory Sprintcar Championship in conjunction with the annual Dance in the Desert. This made for a perfect last stop for of the Territory Sprintcar Tour as Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, and the locals were all represented.

Albury’s Grant Anderson proved to be the dominant competitor, opening the night in scintillating fashion, claiming Quick Time and the only runner to break into the 12s, posting a 12.896s for his qualifier. Anderson followed this up by winning both his heats and the sixlap Dash to line up on Pole Position for the 30-lap final. Fellow Victorian Jordyn Charge and Tasmanian Adam Garwood claimed the remaining two 10-lap heats.

Anderson made the most of his prime

Tony Moule – Wingless Sprints ‘Dance In The Desert’ victor

starting position and was never headed in the 30-lap final, despite multiple caution periods in the first half of the race, including a caution period called by the Chief Steward to allow the track to settle as excessive dust was causing a visibility issue for the competitors.

The final 15-laps ran express and without position change as Anderson went on to be crowned The Northern Territory Sprintcar Champion and successfully defend his Dance in the Desert mantle from last year.

Charge ran second with Garwood and South Australia female racer Lisa Walker sharing the top four podium celebrations.

Fifth was Tony Clasener, chased by Jack Wade and Steven Loader. One lap in arrears

SPEEDWAY NEWS with Paris Charles were Nathan Swan and Jamie Phillips, the remaining cars to travel the journey, while Libby Ellis, Mark Phillips and Johnny Little would not greet the chequered flag. Sadly, Daniel Goldoni’s long awaited comeback to Sprintcars after a five year hiatus proved to be a frustrating return after succumbing to mechanical issues early in the evening.

MOULE MUMBOS TO DESERT DANCE VICTORY!

THE WINGLESS Sprints again accompanied the Sprintcars in their NT tour as they continued to entertain the large crowd with

close racing for their Dance In The Desert.

Again, South Australian, and Victorian drivers would accompany the locals. Experience came to the fore for the 20-lap final as veterans Tony Moule and Freddy Walsh squared up on the front row, with Thomas McDonald sharing the second row with local hometown hope Jet Thompson.

As the lights blazed green, Moule jumped to command from the front in a free-flowing race that would only encounter one caution period. The top three positions would remain the same from go to whoa as Moule led Walsh and McDonald to make it an allVictorian podium. Angus Hollis was fourth, followed by Alan Saint, Nathan Dicker, Thompson, Shane Norman, Sharni Pitcher and Mike Thompson completing the top 10 and Jade Blazely the lone retiree.

Heats were shared with Moule, Walsh, Thompson and Dicker taking one apiece.

DUELL DOES IT … AGAIN

FRESH FROM claiming the NT Street Stock Championship, South Australian Jason Duell continued his winning form, clean sweeping both heat races to claim pole position for the 10-lap final. Michael Jones was runner up in both, earning him the outside front row position.

At the drop of the green the pair quickly got down to business, trading multiple challenges aboard their Holden Commodores as each took turns at the front.

Duell proved too strong in the end snatching the lead back on the seventh lap and powered home over the final three laps to claim the final from Jones. Shane Greening ran the entire race in third and was trailed to the finish line by Rod Berry and Axle Greening, one lap in the rears were Samantha Radford and Dacoda Kessner while Jack Thomsen failed to trouble the lap scorers.

IT’S GO TIME AT THE BRIDGE SPRING HAS sprung and that means that the southern Speedway season is right around the corner – and recently the Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway in South Australia held its first of two practice days prior to the season.

The venue is ready to launch for the summer and will kick off with its opening meeting on Saturday September 30. The track will run over 23 nights of Speedway competition from the September opening and through to April 27. Also, in that time the venue will host the two-day Murray Bridge Auto Fest and Sponsors fun day, keeping

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the track management and officials very busy throughout the summer.

The first practice session saw many drivers in both varied sections of open wheeled and Sedan categories keen to knock some of the off-season rust away while it gave new drivers a chance to find their feet. In doing so it exposed some new cars breaking cover with freshly designed war paint and sponsors – the presentation across the board was top shelf, including that of father and son team of Nigel and Brodie Reichstein’s Street Stock and Junior Sedans.

The father and son team of Nigel and Brodie Reichstein’s Street Stock and Junior Sedan.

Image: STEPHEN PICKERING

Want to see your category event or news story included in the Auto Action Speedway pages.

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WELCOME BACK PRO SPEEDCAR WEEK

‘THE WILD AND WINGLESS SERIES RETURNS!’ AFTER A seven summer hiatus, things are about to heat up again in the wild and wingless Speedcar kitchen as the directors of the Pro Speedcar Group – headed by co-creator, West Australian Lee Redmond, and Victorian’s Travis Mills and Andy Pearce, all of whom are former Speedcar racers themselves – has announced the highly anticipated return of the Pro Speedcar Week.

The inaugural Pro Speedcar Week series was staged across two states, kicking off in Western Australia at the Perth Motorplex, plus rounds at Moora and Kalgoorlie Speedways before crossing the Nullarbor Plain and culminating in South Australia with rounds at the Whyalla and Murray Bridge venues.

The series proved an overwhelming success with strong TV coverage on Foxtel and featured a trio of professional American wheel twisters – Darren Hagen, Austin Brown and Tyler Thomas – who took on the best Australia had to offer including former Australian Champions Nathan Smee, Neville Lance, Dayne Kingshott amongst many others, over the five rounds. The event wins were shared

by Lance, Hagen, series co-creator Lee Redmond, Smee and Thomas. After the five intense nights of competition, Smee would be crowned the overall champion ahead of Hagen and Brown.

For the 2024 series the landscape has been changed to offer more teams the

opportunity to compete with a centralised geographical location and with one round less making a less gruelling schedule for the teams, officials and fans taking in the series.

The opening round will be hosted at the Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway in South Australia on January 3 before moving into Victoria for the remaining rounds which include The Race of Champions, Round 2 on January 5 at Southern 500 Speedway in Portland. Round 3 doubles as the 78th Victorian Speedcar Championship on January 6 at Heytesbury Stockfeeds Simpson Speedway and then the fourth and final round will be held on the high banks of Warrnambool’s Sungold Stadium Premeir Speedway on Sunday January 7, doubling as the prestigious Beasley Family Memorial.

As the kick-off date draws closer, the organisers have had interest from around 30 competitors who have expressed interest in running the series and, while final competitors are still to be confirmed at time of writing, the event organisers have begun to fill key positions for the five nights, which include the return of Shane Collins as Race Director, series commentator Wade Aunger, and Scott Beatie who will combine his roles as timing official and pre and post-race media. In addition to the above, the PSW

Nathan Smee was the winner of the last Pro Speedcar Week series.Images: PARIS CHARLES

team have secured some fantastic series sponsors, including Mobil 1, American Tire and Racing Services, Empire Graphics

and C & H Trucking, with the organisation working feverishly to secure more support before the series kicks off in January.

O’BRIEN AND BONNICI TAG TEAM ENDURO CHAMPIONS AFTER A cold winter, the Alexandra and District Speedway Club has begun to defrost as they opened the gates for the running of the annual Three-Hour Enduro Tag Team Race, The Big Mick Corbett Memorial for Crash and Bash, with the opening round of Ladies Crash and Bash in support, giving the crowd 10 hours of nonstop action.

After an enduring 179-laps of hard fought action that included the negotiation of the combination dogleg, brothers-in-law Shane O’Brien and Lennie Bonnici found the fastest way to the chequered flag in the allotted three hour period, over 28 other hard charging duos. Runners-up were Luke Fallon and Steve Kershaw, while the Millers – Damien and Brendan – led most of the journey but would have to settle for the third step of the podium.

Fourth was Lee Beach and Lenny Bates, Bates fresh from fifth placing at the NT Street Stock Title. The next two placings went to family duos, Jeff Blencowe and his son Mitchell chased by Knights Anthony and Daniel. The team of David Barrie and Garth Wilson fought hard, after dropping back to 26th they fought their way back to seventh. Dylan Barrow and Warrick Taylor (the latter who raced last season in Sprintcars and V8 Dirt Modifieds) were next, fromFelicity Roycroft and Corey

autoactionmag

Auto_Action

84 Brad Warren leads the Crash and Bash through the dogleg.

Shane O’Brien and Lennie Bonnici Tag Team celebrate with doughnuts and burnouts after their 3 Hour enduro victory. Images: PHIL WISEWOULD PHOTOGRAPHY Lincoln. Rounding out the top 10 were Brendon and Wayne Eames.

WARREN WINS

THE BIG Mick Corbett Memorial for Crash and Bash 35-lap final proved a thrilling affair – right from the get-go the competitors were going in all directions as James Carden-David spun towards the pointy end of the field as he approached the waving green flag. Steve Young’s pole position advantage would be short-lived as Daniel Kettels took command. Rob Bushell then made his presence felt in the lead, but his quest was also short lived as Brad Warren had stormed from the rear of the field to take command on the ninth lap. The only red light stoppage of the race occurred when Jordan Smith rolled in spectacular fashion, holding down third as the race approached the halfway point.

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From the recommencement, Warren would survive the carnage-filled affair that went on behind him to claim a dominant victory, lapping the entire field. Mark Hebblethwaite and Kettels squared off the podium. Fourth to the line were the Pettys, with John at the wheelhouse, and Jack riding shotgun. Craig Claridge, Daniel Cook, William Leeson, Kenneth Mankey, Brad Trainor and Mark Taylor were the final top 10 finishers from the 25 competitors.

JUDD JIVES HOME

NOT TO be outdone, the Women’s 15-lap feature event started in the same fashion as the men’s final as Felicity Roycroft on the front row, tagged the fence and spun out of control, right on the starting line.

Reigning Victorian champion Leeanne Young led the opening seven laps in dominating fashion before a caution period

regrouped the field. This gave Lea Judd the opportunity to chase closely before making a clean pass for the lead and with 10 laps remaining Judd charged to the chequered flag. Romney Stirling and Bree Claridge survived the bump and grind to round out the podium. Clare Lynch was fourth, minus a left rear tyre which had peeled away from the rim. Kimberly Greengrass and Simone Rawlins were the final finishers as Sam Robinson ran out of power just metres from the chequered flag to join Young, Roycroft and Kath George on the non-finishers list.

In other positive news for the Alexandra Club, after 54 years the club now owns the land it is situated on.

Past and present club members have worked diligently throughout this time to improve the facility from humble beginnings and while the new custodians of the property are celebrating this major achievement, they are not resting on their laurels as the club have more developments and exciting plans in the pipeline going forward.

www.autoaction.com.au I 37

NATIONALS WRAP Image: SHOW N GO PHOTOGRAPHY

CRESPAN BAILEY’S DON PERFECT IN RIVER TRIUMPH PITTSWORTH Image: CH IMAGES

FOR SOUTH Australians Roydn and Lachlan Bailey (above), it’s hard to imagine a more special location for the father and son duo to record their maiden outright victory than the 2023 Comiskey Mining Services Don River Dash.

The Mickey Thompson ARB Queensland Off Road Racing Championship round was the scene of the Bailey duo’s breakthrough triumph.

The #52 Element Prodigy campaigners started from third in Sunday’s traditional reverse grid format, before launching towards Don River supremacy.

Bailey capitalised on late dramas to race leaders Talbot Cox and Craig King and was delighted taste success as a fatherand-son pairing.

“We are extremely happy and proud to claim our first major win at the iconic Don River event,” said a thrilled Roydn Bailey.

“To do it alongside my son Lachlan just makes it so much better – all the hard work and late nights in the shed have paid off.

“We had a great run all weekend, the car was perfect after curing our overheating dramas from last year.

“Although we did almost have a huge moment within sight of the finish, being so close to Haby all weekend was definitely a highlight, having two South Australian Element cars on the top two steps was unreal.”

The late drama to Cox not only allowed the Baileys to win, but do so by a record margin.

The pair enjoyed a 34s margin over fellow South Australian Element compatriots Aaron and Liz Haby.

Car #57 also had Kris Booth in the navigators seat on Saturday, but the entry ultimately fell short of back to back Don River Dash crowns.

A further two minutes back were Symon Knight and Joe Brown, who put in an strong performance.

The Goondiwindi hard chargers were super impressive in Bowen, finishing

their maiden Don River Dash campaign first in Class 11 and third outright.

Novacastrians Michael and Chris Dolan #455 continued their hot run of form to collect the Class 4 silverware in fourth outright; whilst in one of the drives of the season, recent Gundy 500 champions Clayton Chapman and Adam McGuire #15 came from the clouds on Sunday after an unlucky mechanical issue early in the event to finish in fifth.

In the Ladies Class, Savanna Marradom #1170 scored a maiden victory, surviving Kate Swinglehurst #631 who fell just short of four consecutive titles, and Katelyn Long #6626 for the win.

The 2023 ARB Mickey Thompson Tires Queensland Off Road Racing Championship will now turn its attention to the eighth and final round, the McCosker Mount Larcom Short Course, held over the October 21/22 weekend.

By TC Media

PIARC RETURNS TO CALDER PARK THE REBIRTH of Calder Park continued with the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club hosting a Sprint event and motorkhana at the Melbourne circuit on the Father’s Day weekend.

A one-day Sprint was held on the National circuit, while a Motorkhana took place on the back straight of the Thunderdome oval.

To complete the day, all competitors enjoyed the joy of participating a parade around the Thunderdome.

The PIARC event was the first held at Calder Park under a Motorsport Australia licence since its return from a 15-year hiatus between race events.

The track was granted a MA Category C licence a week before the event.

The PIARC Sprint itself was a tight affair with less than two-tenths splitting the leading runners.

After four hours, 49 minutes and 35 seconds of running, it was Graham Bentley emerging in top in his Audi TT RS. His 1:05.5857 ended up being 0.1840s clear of Jason Manifold’s Titan Mk6C. Manifold left it late, posting his fastest lap on his 32nd and final lap of the session.

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Third placed Mark Stevenson was the only other driver to lap within two seconds of Bentley in his Subaru. Brett Zieren and Adrian Jarvis rounded out the top five.

With Calder Park once again a major circuit on the Victorian circuit racing scene, expect PIARC to return as early as April next year after director Jose van den Dungen made the promise to do after a successful sprint.

“We are about running more events down the track and providing access to motorsport,” he told Auto Action.

“Some people said we have not been at Calder for around 30 years and thought ‘geez, what does the place look like?’

“It was a really big learning curve for us and the officials needed to learn the track.

“All in all it was a really good event and many drivers loved it, saying they will comeback.

“The positives out of it is that we have an arrangement with Calder that we can move forward and I can say without any fear of contradiction 100 percent we will be back.”

Thomas Miles

MARK CRESPAN (above) overcame 160 overs to claim the annual Pittsworth Sprints event in Queensland.

A big field of cars of all shapes and sizes had a crack at the street event held by the Millmerran Auto Club.

The Pittsworth Sprints offers a unique challenge with drivers chasing the fastest time on the layout which runs in both a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

To achieve victory drivers had to achieve the fastest combined time from Saturday’s seven runs, plus Sunday’s five runs.

After a big weekend of speed, Crespan emerged at the top of the timesheets by a healthy margin.

A top Saturday time of 45.31s and a Sunday best of 45.85 meant the AC Cobra driver registered a combined time 1:31.16s.

This proved to be 1.7s better than runner-up Trent Laves as Crespan was the only driver to dip under 46s.

Laves secured an easy second place enjoying a 2s gap over fellow 2WD Turbo class driver Paul Bond in third.

Little separated Matt Duncan and Andrew Herron in the battle for fourth as Scott Pedley, Christopher Ching, Ryan Campbell, Shane Hill-Motion and Daniel Bartkowski rounded out the top 10.

It marks back-to-back successes for Crespan, who also won the last Pittsworth Sprint in 2021 and was thrilled to do so after a tight tussle with Laves.

“I am over the moon to be able to win this great event again,” he said.

“I won it here a couple of years ago and I’m glad I was able to get up there again this year.

“I am very competitive; the car went really well and I was just pushing my hardest to match my time on the reverse run, not worrying about what everyone else was doing.

“Trent was beating me all weekend until the final two runs. The car is quicker in the afternoon for me and I was able to put two quick ones together and do what I wanted with the car.

“We were really happy with it.”

The Pittsworth Sprints are confirmed to return in 2024 with dates to be confirmed, entries opening in June next year. Thomas Miles

Want to see your category event or news story included in the Auto Action Nationals Wrap.

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MENZIES FLIES TO QRC TITLE IAN MENZIES and Robert McGowan (pictured) have snatched the 2023 Queensland Rally Championship after winning a final-round showdown at the Lakes Hyundai Imbil Forest Rally.

With the Menzies and McGowan duo, plus Glenn Brinkman and Steven Richardson sharing the spoils across the first two rounds, nothing separated the top two in the championship ahead of the season finale.

Both Mitsubishi Lancer combinations were on 91 points, setting up a winnertakes-all scenario.

In the end it was Menzies and McGowan, who thrived under pressure in each of the nine stages to enjoy a two-minute buffer over Brinkman and Richardson after 112km through the Imbil forest.

The 2023 title is the combination’s fourth, having also claimed titles in 2015, 2018 and 2020.

Whilst it was a competitive fight throughout the nine stages, the victorious #4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 always held the upper hand.

Image: CH IMAGES The pair bolted out of the gates, going 15s faster than everyone else on the opening stage and did not look back.

Menzies and McGowan won the remaining eight stages on their way to completing the rally in one hour, 10 minutes and nine seconds.

But behind them it was a fierce fight for the runner-up place with just three seconds the difference.

Brinkman and Richardson started strong,

but its margin over Erik Johnsson and Larisa Biggar shrunk as the rally went on.

Johnsson and Biggar were the faster pair across the final three stages in their Subaru WRX Sti, but ultimately fell 3s short of second place.

Thomas Darmody and Eoin Moynihan were a further four minutes back in their Ford.

Rounding out the top five were Toyota drivers Craig Aggio and Megan Byrne.

One crew that showed early pace was Adam O’Brien and Matt Sosimenko in their Mazda.

However, their rally was cut short after four stages.

Clay Badenoch and James Wilson were even faster in the opener before they also failed to make half distance.

Ryan Williams and Brad Jones also showed plenty of promise, but they only completed one stage.

They were just some of the 19 retirements as only 17 cars reached the finish line.

Despite finishing fourth, Darmody still received QRC and East Coast Classic Series 2WD honours.

The leading junior driver was Joshua Wiedman after a solid eighth place in the Ford Fiesta.

Having helped Aggio score a top five result, Bryce was named as the top junior co-driver.

Gary Dutton and Ray Priest won Clubman, while the most notable Novice was Max Bailey.

Max Bailey and Stephen Christensen finished 14th overall, but were the first in ECCS 4WD. Thomas Miles

HURLEY DUO RUN RAMPANT AT ROSEWOOD WENTWORTH’S EPIC SUNRAYSIA SAFARI

THE FIFTH edition of the epic Sunraysia Safari Cross Country Rally returned to Wentworth in outback NSW on September 6-9, with 72 teams battling more than 1200 km of action, making it the longest rally on the Aussie calendar.

Based out of the Wentworth show ground for its service park, the production-based rally featured four looped stages entering different terrains each day.

Over four days, the rally featured an Auto and Moto field, with motorsport magnate Tony Quinn getting the outright job done in the Auto division in Nissan Navara, and Jacob Smith topping the Moto entrants in his Husqvarna FE 501.

Quinn and his co-driver John Doble outpaced the other 27 entrants in their direct field with an overall time of 10:07.12.

They had to come from behind at one stage on the final day to take the stage after leading most of the rally, eventually topping Todd Smith and Christopher Holman in a Nissan Patrol by only 12 seconds in a tight run affair, that saw the two separated by mere seconds throughout, with Luke Olholm and Eric Anderson taking third, also in a Patrol.

Early on it was last year’s runners up in Andrew and David Travis who got off to a flyer, but they went by the wayside with a rough day two and subsequent DNF’s over the last two stages.

Two time ARC champion Rob Herridge (pictured) also competed, coming fifth in a Subaru Forester XT alongside Chris Randell.

Class wins in the Auto Divisions went to Ethan and Lisi Pickstock in the Recreational Vehicles & Light Commercials category, Lance Rippon, Paul Loughnan and Morgan Cornelius for Vehicles 3501cc and Over, and Richard and Andrew McNay for Modified 2WD Vehicles 3501cc and Over.

Quinn and Doble, and Ed Mulligan and Mark Bramble also won their A5 classes, whilst Robert and Sophie Cox were best in the Utility Terrain Vehicles Side by Side class.

For Classic Safari Cars, it was Murray Rogers and Darren Wythe, as well as Jamie Lawson and Darryl O’Brien who took home the win in the Rally category.

TW Neal

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MAL AND Reagan Hurley (right) were convincing winners in round four of the AMSAG Southern Cross Rally Series at Rosewood, NSW on September 9.

The event went ahead despite a lot of rain in the lead-up, after a late course check and the slippery conditions could not hold back the Hurleys.

The pair were the clear pace setters in their Subaru WRX and won by over four minutes from Brad and Hunter Goldsbrough (below).

Like the recent Monaro Stages Rally, the Hurleys were near-dominant, taking six of eight stage wins and opening up a big margin.

Andrew Maurer and Brett Kerr took the first stage in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6 from the Ford Fiesta of Simon and Luke Jamieson with the Hurleys next.

However, this was not a sign of things to come as Hurley found top gear and took the next four stages to be nearly three minutes ahead at the major service.

Despite being fast in the opener Jamieson was the first major retirement, breaking a gearbox on Stage 2.

Whilst Hurley was collecting wins, he did receive a challenge from Maurer, who was just 21st back during Stage 5.

But this is where it all went wring as Maurer went off the road, putting them out as well and leaving Hurley unchallenged.

At the break, the Datsun 1600 of Brad and Hunter Goldsbrough was second, from Brian and Chandluh Hunt’s Lancer Evo 3.

Goldsbrough took the next stage, a repeat of the opener, to snap Hurley’s winning streak.

But this proved to be brief as Hurley

took the final pair of stage wins to run out winners by just over four minutes from the Goldsbroughs, then the Hunts.

Fourth were Bethany Cullen and Mel McMinn in their Evo 6, then Pat Ryan and Aaron Douglas in a Skyline then Peter Ewing / Robert Sommerville’s Volvo 240.

The next round of the AMSAG Southern Cross Rally Series is Saturday, October 14, at Walcha.

Bruce Moxon

Images: MONARO PHOTOGRAPHY

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NATIONALS WRAP

CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS BATTLE HARD

AUSTRALIAN TARMAC Rally title contenders Jason and Fiona Wright plus Paul Dowie and John Allen fought it out until the end at the recent Snowy River Sprint.

Across 18 stages and two days the battle between the two combinations went to the finish, but Dowie could not overhaul Wright, who carries the championship lead into the season finale.

The Wright duo initially had plenty of competition in Super Rally, but none by the end of day one when they were the sole survivor of the class.

Last start winners Michael Harding/ James Thornburn lost time with a highspeed spin in the opener, but clawed back to second by Stage 3 only to retire after damaging a diff on the launch of the following stage.

Australian Tarmac Rally debutants Peter Nunn and Keith Johnson came out of the blocks fast in their 2019 Porsche GT3, holding the lead in Modern 2WD and second outright.

But their Modern 2WD lead was short lived as Dowie blazed ahead to eventually win by 25s.

The Modern AWD battle was a one-sided affair, dominated by Toby Gill and Alice McKenzie in their 2015 R35 GTR. They took charge from the outset and led the class throughout to come home fourth overall.

Stalwarts Barrie Smith and Dale Moscatt were next best in Modern AWD for much of the event.

All was going swimmingly in the 2017 Audi TTRS until they struck a flock of

birds on on the 13th stage, damaging the windscreen and forcing the pair into an unlucky retirement.

This left the Burrowes duo of Greg and Rhonda to battle it out with fellow Toyota Yaris runners Damien O’Halloran/Brian Foster for the minor positions.

The Burrowes ended up claiming second by just 12 seconds.

Early Modern was whitewashed by the crew of Michael Mansey and Julie Winton-Monet.

The duo were in a league of their own, finishing a whopping 10 minutes ahead of both the McDonald and Wilson Subaru WRX STis.

Mansey/Winton-Monet’s pace was so strong they ended up fifth overall.

Rallysport was taken out by Scott Coppleman and Adam Kudra, who maintained a top 10 position throughout the event and finished sixth outright in their Subaru WRX STi. Jamie Whitemore and Peter Hellwig were their nearest rivals in the Porsche Cayman.

The hard charging Justin Waterhouse and Adrian Bryant looked a threat early on in their Mitsubishi EVO X before a blown turbo gasket forced them to limp back to service on day one.

The sole Early Modern 2WD entrant was driven by Andrew Bollom and Stuart

Greaves, who had a reserved start to the event by their standards.

They sat 20th overall before mounting a charge to climb to eighth outright by the end of the event.

The fight for Classic honours was a twohorse affair between Peter Gluskie/Sam Winter in their BMW E30 and Bruce Power/ Russell Hannah’s Mazda RX7.

Michael and Lachlan Nordsvan were in contention earlier until they faded following a damaged gearbox on Stage 9.

In the end Gluskie and Winter held off their rivals to win Classic.

Rally Challenge entrants Jeremy Dennison and Jaidyn Gluskie caught the attention of all, as they took out the second fastest times on Stages 11 and 12.

However, the BMW M140i entrants would succumb to time penalties and finish 12th outright ahead of husband and wife pairing Paul and Sharon Poulter and the Priestleys Audi T7.

Simon and Ben Kelly were the only entrants in Classic pre 1972, performing in their Austin.

After the Wrights prevailed in the Snowy River Sprint, they now hold the lead in the chase for the Australian Tarmac Rally title.

The challenge has been thrown to Dowie and Allen with just one round to go.

The season will end with the Great Tarmac Rally event at Marysville, Victoria where over 250km await around special locations such as the Reefton Spur and Jamieson-Eildon roads.

The finale will take place on October 21-22.

Thomas Miles Jason and Fiona Wright took a close win ...

Top: Michael Hanrahan and David Tweedie.

Above (left): Dave Chapman and Les Salmon.

Above right: Max Williams and Bruce Bush.

Images: ANGRYMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Images: ANGRYMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

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SEASON HEATING UP AT LAKESIDE IT WAS ALL ACTION AT THE LEGENDARY LAKESIDE RACEWAY WHERE A WIDE RANGE OF CATEGORIES CONVENED FOR THE PENULTIMATE ROUND OF THE 2023 GRASS ROOTS RACING SERIES ...

REPLICA TOURERS

DANIEL ROSS was triumphant in taking Group A honours in the popular Replica Tourers category.

Although fellow Mazda driver Billy Scoles offered plenty of resistance, Ross always gained the upper hand, taking the chequered flag first in three of the five races en route to a round victory.

Scoles was the most consistent throughout the weekend, not winning a race, but never finishing lower than third to make it a Mazda one-two.

Daley Martin was the driver to prevent Ross from a clean sweep, but a last race DNF limited him to fifth overall.

It was a thrilling fight for Group B victory as just six points split the top three competitors.

Across the first three races the trophy appeared destined for Steve Hay. Hay took a hat-trick, but his round hopes vanished when his final race lasted just four laps.

Instead Geoff Russell prevailed in the Mustang to snatch the overall win, two points clear of John Robinson.

QUEENSLAND TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

BEN MALPASS was in strong form in his BMW E36, winning three of the five races to take the honours in the Queensland

Billy Scoles heads the Replica Tourers field. Below: Les Hanafin (VK Commodre) in the Qld Touring Car Championship. Right: Rob James (Group N Capri). Images: BRYCE CARRIER PHOTOGRAPHY Bray ended his winning streak by going back to back in the last two sprints.

But an opening race DNF after just two laps restricted him to third overall behind the consistent Linton.

GROUP N Touring Car Championship.

Malpass managed to hold off a host of Holdens with Commodore competitors Nick Linton and Peter Bray completing the podium.

Malpass was strong from the get-go, taking out each of the three races to lay the foundations for the round win.

THERE WAS one driver stealing all the spotlight in Group N Historic Touring Cars and that was Graeme Wakefield.

Wakefield won all five races at Lakeside as his Ford Mustang 68 Coup proved to be an untouchable figure.

As Wakefield drove into the distance, it was on in the fight for second with just 10 points separating five drivers.

Despite failing to finish Race 3, Stephen

Scales managed to snare second in his Chevrolet Camaro.

He emerged one point ahead of David Streat’s XU1 Torana, who edged out Rob James’ Ford Capri.

SUPERKARTS

CONSISTENCY CAME to the fore for Russell Jamieson, who emerged on top in Superkarts. Jamieson won Races 1 and 3, whilst not finishing any lower than second in the others.

This meant he would claim the round despite not winning the most races across the weekend.

That honour went to Timothy Weier, but he was forced to regret failing to finish the opener and Race 4. This also allowed Ewen Burg to snatch second.

Thomas Mikes The fifth and final Grass Roots Racing Series round is on October 14-15.

WILSON DOMINATES TARMAC WEST TROY WILSON took a clean sweep of the three AASA sanctioned Tarmac West Rallysprint events to go back-to-back in WA in his 2010 Mitsubishi Evo X. The ex-West Coast Eagles footballer won every single stage across the Ellenbrook, Malaga, and City of Perth sprints, with 96 competitors taking part over Thursday and Sunday and over 18,000 spectators getting roadside, as well as plenty of people getting river-side for the huge motoring festival with hundreds of cars on display.

There was also an additional event, the Engine Shop City Sprint, on the Sunday Morning for drivers only (no co-drivers) which was taken out by Peter Bergman in his 1990 Mazda MX5 NA-K24.

But it was Wilson who stole the show again, using a mix of old tyres and a slightly green co-driver in Brodie Kirwan.

After his final and victorious City run, Wilson said the Rally Gods were on his side at the Tarmac West event.

“I had a lucky run in the city where there’s massive kerbs, anything can go wrong. I

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guess the Rally Gods were smiling on me today,” Wilson said.

“It’s been a great few days of racing. My co-driver on other hand left feeling really sick – it was his first time co-driving and I have a feeling it might’ve been his last….”

It all opened on Thursday in Ellenbrook with a 1.8km Tarmac street stage with 6,000 spectators enjoying the speed and the evening sun.

Wilson took every stage to finish 12 seconds ahead of Matthew O’Neill and Kelly Thomas in the 2006 Subaru WRX STi Spec C, with Brett Morse and co-driver Rodney Ng only two-tenths of a second behind in the 2019 BMW M2 Competition.

Alex Rullo and co-driver Ben Searcy was initially holding second place in the Hyundai i20 Rally 2 until they overcooked a corner and ended their night in a water barrier.

Sunday kicked off in the Malaga industrial area in the city’s north, with around 3,500 spectators lining the 5.85km stage, with four repeat runs.

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Image: ELEVATION DIGITAL Again it was Wilson who took the honours, but the competition was close as he did it on three-year-old tyres. But when he strapped on a pair of Yokohama’s with a bit more tread, he really hit his straps.

But 18-year-old Max Whiting, alongside co-driver Savanna Maxted, was hot on his tail through the early stages.

In the 1999 Subaru WRX that he and his father built, they eventually finished in second place 3min and 35s behind Wilson.

Just 7.6s behind Whiting, Rullo and Searcy

recovered from their Ellenbrook slip up for third.

Thousands of spectators were on hand for the events closing Rallysprint, with 8.4 km of competitive racing on show in the City of Perth Sprint.

Wilson completed his romp by taking all four of the 2.1 km stages with O’Neill and Thomas again taking second place, 14s in arrears, whilst Whiting and Savannah impressed again for their second podium of the event. TW Neal

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NATIONALS WRAP

Group C and A Touring cars provided the highlight.

Images: RICCARDO BENVENUTI AND BRUCE MOXON

RACING ERUPTS AT SMP John Burk’e s Group N Charger heads a threewheeler ...

IN ADDITION to the Precision National Sports Sedans, there were plenty of other support categories that excited crowds at the annual Master Blast event at Sydney Motorsport Park. Auto Action’s Bruce Moxon was on the scene to cover the racing …

Stillwell after a tussle with Alford and Adrian Allisey’s VL. Allisey eventually got the upper hand over Alford to cross the line second, then Allisey and Rick Allen next.

Best of the Group C cars all weekend was Axisa, who even led a couple of races.

Axisa and Singleton dispute VH supremacy.

FOR THE the first time, there was no one dominant driver at a Toyota Gazoo Racing 86 Scholarship Series round and each of the three races produced a different winner.

Ben Stewart took the first before Lachlan Bloxsom claimed the second.

Race 3 was a thriller as Ryan Tomsett had a titanic struggle with Bloxsom on the last lap.

In the end Tomsett held on by the barest of margins with just 0.0034s the difference across the line.

GROUP C AND A

THE MAIN drawcard at Sydney Motorsport Park was the Group C and A category with a healthy grid of cars on show.

The 26-car field was headed by Chris Stillwell’s Sierra and Tony Alford’s R31 Skyline.

Stillwell won the first two races on Saturday afternoon, but behind him, though, there was some drama.

Bill Cutler’s BMW M3 got out of shape and hit a couple of other cars with the impact breaking the M3’s steering.

Stillwell’s hopes of a hat-trick ended when he had a front wheel come loose in the third race, leaving Rick Allen’s M3 to take the chequered flag from Steve Axisa (VH Commodore) and Norm Mogg’s VL ‘Walkinshaw’.

Stillwell started from the back in Race 4, but this did not stop him from coming through the pack to be second behind Alford at the finish, followed by Allen, Axisa and Terry Lawlor’s Mustang.

The final race, over 10 laps, went to

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TGR 86 SCHOLARSHIP SERIES

being passed by Makris on lap 11 of 15, while Drake was third again.

GROUP N

ALDO DI Paoli brought his Camaro over from Western Australia and was well on his way to giving the locals a shellacking, winning the two first races quite comfortably.

This left John Burke (Charger) and Spencer Rice (Alfa) to share the remaining spoils for second and third.

But the tables turned in the third race, when Di Paoli retired with a broken water pump belt.

This left Burke and Rice to dispute the lead, with Burke getting the upper hand winning by a narrow margin.

Just a short distance behind was David Noakes in his twin-cam Escort.

GROUP S AUSTRALIAN PROTOTYPE SERIES

JASON MAKRIS (Wolf – above) led home a small field in two of three races, with the opener going to Phil Hughes’ Radical.

Makris could only manage second in the first race from Mark Williamson’s Revolution.

Makris and John-Paul Drake (Wolf) had a tough battle for the lead in the second race, with Makris only getting ahead on the last lap, with Hughes third.

In the final, again Hughes led early, before

TERRY LAWLOR (Shelby Mustang) took the opening race from Ray Narkiewicz and Stephanos Constantinidis in their Corvettes.

In the second race, Lawlor was penalised five seconds for exceeding track limits, which dropped him to fourth, as Contantinidis took the silverware.

Narkiewicz was second ahead of Damien Meyer in his giant-killing MG Midget.

Lawlor blazed away in race three, with Andrew Purvis second (Porsche) from Meyer, while Narkiewicz had a spin.

In the final, Lawlor again raised the ire of the officials, and got another penalty, but this time had enough of a lead to still hold onto the win.

Purvis was next from Narkiewicz and Meyer again in fourth.

Lee Vella leads Mark Robin and Laurie Fooks.

SUPERKARTS

AVOIG ELISES smashed the field in Superkarts, winning all four races in his 125cc machine.

He took the first two ahead of Mark Robin, Aaron Cogger and Lee Vella.

Robin didn’t finish Race 3, leaving Vella from Cogger then Mark Vickers (Woodgate).

The final race only lasted for one competitive lap as Vella took the flag from Cogger and Vickers.

The unfortunate chain of events started when two karts broke down and then a severe crash followed on the restart, involving Paul Campbell.

Campbell was taken to hospital and placed in an induced coma – but was later reported to be out of it and expected to recover fully..

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Mason Kelly heads the Hyundai Excel field. Opposite: Peter Kingston and Aaron Ellings go at it (top), while Troy Johnson (bottom) was the Sports GTA winner.

Images: ANGRYMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

TOP TASSIE DRIVERS WRAP UP TITLES FIVE TASMANIAN CIRCUIT RACING CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES HAVE ALREADY WRAPPED UP AFTER SOME FINE PERFORMANCES IN THE PENULTIMATE ROUND AT SYMMONS PLAINS OVER SEPTEMBER 2-3. AUTO ACTION’S MARTIN AGATYN COVERED THE EVENT WITH 165 points available in each round, series leaders in the HQ Holdens (Andrew Toth), Historic Touring Cars (Phil Ashlin – Over 3 litre and Derek Koistra – Under 3 litre), Jeremy Dyer (Formula Vee) and Sports Sedans (Tim Mann) can already get the engraver out and put their names on their trophy.

HOLDEN HQ

ANDREW TOTH already had a handy lead in the HQ Holdens before the fifth round, and he was never challenged by the small field.

With his main protagonist this season, former multiple Tasmanian champion Andrew Bird, not entered, Toth was able to win everything by a big margin, apart from the Ian Beechey Memorial Handicap Race.

Peter Cameron was the front marker for the race, named after one of the founders of HQ racing in Australia (they started in Tassie first), with Toth the backmarker and giving 27 secs head start to Cameron.

Cameron was able to make good use of his mark and wasn’t seriously challenged, winning from last year’s winner Andrew Bennett, who was third for much of the race before a late challenge on Neville Rattray, with Toth making it up to fourth.

3L HISTORIC TOURING CARS

PHIL ASHLIN had an almost unbeatable lead in the over 3 litre historic touring car category, which is just as well.

Ashlin’s Holden Torana only finished the first race, but earned enough points to make his lead unbeatable.

Further back in the pack, it was a similar story for Derek Koistra (Morris Cooper S), except he finished every race to also put his title beyond doubt.

Tim Mann (Ford BF Falcon) was a clear winner in the Sports Sedan category,

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Ben Newman took out the Sports GTB category on debut ... winning every race from Tim Champ (Holden VE Commodore) to also place him in an unbeatable points lead.

FORMULA VEE

JEREMY DYER (Elfin Crusader) had a 160-point lead at the start of the weekend and only needed to qualify in the top four, which he did, to secure his first championship.

With the title in the bag, Dyer seemed content to sit back and watch the other drivers fight it out for the title podium collecting just the two race wins for the weekend, including the double points final.

But Adam Prewer (Elfin) won the round with three wins and two seconds.

Tim Tubb (Spectre) in his final meeting before retiring, and Michael Vaughan (Spectre) shared third and fourth places for much of the weekend.

SPORTS GTB

WHILE SOME championships may be decided they are still very much alive in others, including Sports GTB. A classic Holden versus Ford rivalry is on the cards as Steve Gangell (VX Commodore) has an 11-point lead over Troy Wood (Falcon).

However, they can thank their lucky stars

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Ben Newman’s Subaru WRX Sti has not been running all season.

A well accomplished Targa and gravel rally driver, Newman was making his circuit racing debut, and dominated the category, to clean sweep the weekend, and even pushed some of the Sports GTA drivers up towards the pointy end of the field at times.

Troy Wood was consistent over the weekend with a third and four seconds, while Gangell finished fourth in every race to maintain a narrow series lead over Wood.

Up towards the front in Sports GTA, it was a case of the Johnson brothers as usual in their pair of Porsche GT-3s, but things didn’t go the way as expected.

Series leader Beau Johnson qualified on pole position, but only won the second race, and seemed strangely off the pace.

Meanwhile, brother Troy enjoyed his best round of the season with four wins and a second to now be within 67 points away from winning the championship himself.

RACING AND SPORTS CARS

MATTHEW ROBERTS made it three winners from as many rounds in the third Racing and Sports Cars round of the year.

His Reynard Formula Ford proved uncatchable all weekend to score maximum points and move to third in the championship.

The most entertaining part of the weekend in this category was the tremendous battles between Rod Bender and Daniel Hoult in a pair of Radical SR3s.

Bender, a former Tasmanian hillclimb champion, who led the series by three points at the start of the weekend, took the honours with three seconds and two thirds.

In doing so, he was able to extend his lead to 110 points, with second-paced Phil Sutton (Ralt RT 35) only finishing the first race before problems struck, slipping to fourth in the series.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

THE IMPROVED Production Sedan championship has taken an interesting turn, with the top two in the championship Shane Bond and Michael Symons not showing up.

This left the door wide open for thirdplaced Andrew Colquhoun (Ford Falcon), who won all five races easily, to move to within 115 points of the championship lead.

HYUNDAI EXCEL

JEREMY BENNETT has one hand on the trophy with a handy 154-point lead after another consistently good weekend.

Three wins and two seconds was followed by a new lap record which put the icing on the cake.

Mason Kelly showed speed but struggled with gearbox issues before working his way to third in the final heat.

Kelly went even better in the double-points final, snatching the win from Bennett at the chequered flag, to score by just 0.23 secs in a photo finish.

Jackson Shaw was in the mix all weekend with podiums in every race to maintain his second spot in the championship.

The final round of the Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championships is at Baskerville on November 11-12.

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NATIONALS WRAP MEMORABLE MAIDEN FOR POLLICINA ON THE DAY when he equalled the most starts in the V8 Touring Car Series, Jim Pollicina finally scored his first ever round win.

Pollicina emerged on top in the nine-car field after three eventful races were won by as many drivers at Sandown.

The action arrived as early as the first sprint where an unexpected rain shower threw a curveball on the slickshod runners.

Polesitter Jude Bargwanna held the early advantage, but did not last long as the lead changed hands no less than five times.

After an initial slip at Dandenong Road, Bargwanna was back in charge by lap seven after Brad Tilley locked up at Turn 1.

However, it all came undone for the Anderson Motorsport driver when he speared into the Turn 4 tyres.

This put Tilley back in charge for him to take the chequered flag under the control of the Safety Car. Tilley looked set to go back to back having led the majority of the 14-lap second race until a jammed throttle sent the FG Falcon spearing into the fence at the final corner.

Bargwanna was the beneficiary and took the chequered flag first on the road, but a post-race penalty for track limits at Turn 7 saw him fall to sixth.

It promoted Pollicina to victory lane ahead of Ray Hislop.

The start of Race 3 was one to remember with Tony Auddino, Hislop, Pollicina, Tony Evangelou and Jason Foley going five wide into Turn 1.

The #17 BF Falcon of Foley painted in 2007 DJR colours emerged in front, but by lap eight Bargwanna held a lead he would never let go.

He crossed the line first and kept the win this time to the tune of 15s, while Pollicina (below) recovered from spinning to the back to finish third on the road, enough to score a breakthrough round win, in race #55.

Thomas Miles V8 TOURING CARS CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 4 1 2 3 4 5

Jude Bargwanna Jim Pollicina Jamie Tilley Tony Auddino Ray Hislop

462 412 373 323 319

Image: IAN SMITH AUTOPIX

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Image: DANIEL KAILSZ-ARG

SWEENY SHOWS OFF

BAILEY SWEENEY has made his mark on the 2023 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia championship by sweeping Sunday at Sandown.

With only one point splitting HMO Customer Racing teammates Sweeny and Josh Buchan, plus the imminent arrival of the TCR World Tour, round five was always going to be a pivotal part of the race to the 2023 title.

And the iconic Victorian circuit became Sweeny’s stage to make a major statement.

He hit the ground running in qualifying by finally taking pole after four front row appearances.

Sweeny could not maximise it however, as he slumped from first to fifth at the start of Race 1.

The biggest beneficiary was Tony D’Alberto, who flew from fourth to first ahead of Aaron Cameron and Lachlan Mineeff before an early Safety Car caused by a Clay Richards stoppage.

When racing resumed, Brown continued his charge all the way up to the rear of Cameron to setup a tense scrap for second.

In the end, Brown ran out of time to hunt down Cameron, while D’Alberto was one second up the road, finally celebrating his first win of his 2023 title defence.

But post race both Cameron and Sweeny were hit with five second penalties which dropped them down to fourth and ninth respectively and

promoted Soutar to the podium.

This disappointment fuelled both drivers to success on Sunday as it, ironically, gave them better grid positions for the inverted top 10 race.

Jordan Cox got the best jump and led into Turn 1, but suddenly found himself in sixth after a nudge from Tom Oliphant.

This put the Lynk & Co in charge for a lap and a half until Sweeny and Cameron stormed ahead.

Another driver on the move was Brown, who snatched fourth with a daring Dandenong Road move on Cox. But once again teething issues hit the MPC driver, with a leaking engine ruling out car #9 for the remainder of the weekend, bringing Brown’s finishing rate to just six from 12 races.

This brought Mineeff another podium and Buchan into fifth, a position he held only after surviving a drag race against Ben Bargwanna.

The sister Hyundai of Sweeny enjoyed an untroubled run to the chequered flag to spark his Sunday sweep which he completed in a dramatic Race 3.

Sweeny and Mineeff lined up on the front row for the finale, but a slow start from the leaders and a lightning one by Cameron saw the #18 Peugeot go straight through the middle and into the lead.

Cameron controlled the early stages, albeit with Sweeny shadowing his every move and the Hyundai driver had enough

on lap eight, storming by at Turn 1.

They would have been pleased to have built a gap over the rest of the field because it was bedlam behind.

Soutar and Mineeff were in an arm wrestle for third, but that ended in tears as wheel to wheel contact at Turn 12 shattered the steering of car #110 which pulled over on pit straight.

Mineeff thought he had got away with it – until a puncture struck a lap later and ruled him out of contention.

This left an angry pack of cars in a fight for third that went down to the last lap.

After Cox was knocked out of the way, Michael Clemente and D’Alberto went side-by-side into Dandenong Road in a game of chicken and it was the reigning champion who was the bravest.

The Honda driver flew around the outside of Clemente to snatch third, while there was no stopping Sweeny from swooping to another big win to extend his championship lead.

The Hyundai driver cannot rest however, with the TCR World Tour to add a whole new element at the next round in Sydney on November 3-4. Thomas Miles TCR AUSTRALIA CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 5 1 Bailey Sweeny 589 2 Josh Buchan 559 3 Aaron Cameron 551 4 Tony D’Alberto 506 5 Jordan Cox 496

EARLY WINS FOR MCLEOD ONE WEEK before going Super3 racing at Sandown, Cameron McLeod (right) was winning at the Victorian circuit in the MARC Cars championship.

McLeod was in fine form, racing the MARC Mazda, winning two of the three races and taking out round honours.

Despite the youngster being the class of the field, he did not hold the initial high ground after Jacob Camilleri took pole by a tenth. But when racing got underway McLeod was in control, even if there was some timing confusion with Camilleri’s #36 after the initial round of stops.

Whilst Camilleri was listed as the leader until the penultimate lap there were no doubts once the chequered flag arrived with McLeod winning by 51 seconds.

The #94 Mazda MARC continued to be the pace setter in Race 2.

Once Camilleri slipped up at Turn 1, McLeod quickly established an unassailable lead which grew to 16s by the chequered flag over Darren Currie, who held off Geoff Taunton for second spot.

McLeod appeared to be on track for a clean sweep after enjoying a near-perfect opening stint in the third and final race.

Car #94 nailed the rolling start and was already more than a second up the road at the end of the first lap.

McLeod retained the lead until a round of stops where he was held back by a handicapped stop of around 10 extra seconds.

The competition penalty, plus some fast laps from Dan Jilesen allowed the #20 to

Image: THOMAS MILES rejoin with around a lead of around 4s over McLeod with just under quarter of an hour left.

The youngster could not reel in the bright blue #20 to give Jilesen a well earned race win.

Whilst Jilesen won the battle, it was McLeod who won the war.

The next MARC cars round is at The Bend on October 13-15.

Thomas Miles

SPEEDSERIES • SANDOWN RACEWAY

MOFFAT BOSSES SANDOWN JAMES MOFFAT was the dominant force in Trans Am at Sandown but a late incident denied him a perfect weekend.

Moffat was on top in every single on-track session but a post event peanlty for spinning Elliott Barbour at Turn 1 in the final race dropped him from first to fourth, elevating title rival Lochie Dalton to victory lane.

Up until that point it had been a dream weekend for the #34.

Having sailed through practice and taken pole by four-tenths over Ben Grice the opening race proved to be a more tense affair for Moffat.

He suddenly found himself on the back foot and surrendered the lead to Grice, who flew around the outside at Turn 1.

But by lap six Moffat was sick of being second best and nudged his way through at turn nine.

The move put Grice under pressure from

Hayman and suddenly the #02 was down in fifth after going off at Dandenong Road.

Dalton also went off at the final chicane and it proved to be a costly mistake, limiting him to ninth.

Moffat’s cruise was interrupted by a late Safety Car caused by the spinning Josh Thomas. It set up a one-lap showdown but with Moffat in such prime form, he remained unbeatable. He led home Hayman, while Nash Morris “just sent it” on the final lap to snatch third.

The second Saturday race was another Moffat procession, but the battle for minor places was anything but.

As the #34 took control of the field, Cody Gillis took out Hayman before turn two, while Mark Crutcher also spun.

It was a costly blow for Hayman, who dropped to the back, but he charged past his rivals to salvage ninth.

It promoted Barbour to second, but Gillis had his heart set on the spot and made a move at Turn 11. However, he got it wrong and lost control of his Mustang, rotating in a cloud of smoke, slipping to eighth.

This handed Holdsworth a podium finish alongside Barbour and the runaway Moffat.

Moffat saved his most convincing performance for the finale, winning by 12s, but not without drama.

The GRM driver survived a first turn scare after Barbour was the one with a brilliant getaway.

The #75 Camaro took charge into Turn 1, but contact by Moffat on the inside sent it spinning in a cloud of smoke that Cleary, Morris and Lee Stubbs were also involved in separately.

All the chaos allowed Moffat to take control and drive into the distance once again.

It was on in the fight for the minor positions

with Holdsworth, Grice, Dalton, Hayman and the charging Edan Thronburrow, who climbed 12 spots on lap one alone.

But Thornburrow and Grice were both spun in separate incidents at the Turn 11-12 chicane and, at the end of all the drama, runner-up Dalton led home Gillis in what would become the fight for race three victory due to the dominant Moffat being hit by a penalty.

The Trans Am field has an almost two months break before Sydney Motorsport Park on November 3-4.

Thomas Miles TRANS AM CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 5 1 2 3 4 5

James Moffat Lochie Dalton Elliot Barbour Tom Hayman Joshua Webster

924 894 791 783 770

Trans Am becomes ‘Off Road’ at Turn 1 ...

Image: IAN SMITH AUTOPIX

HOW EDGES OUT GRUBEL

Smollen (56) and Begg (40) show the way in their GT4 machinery. Image: SPEED SHOTS PHOTOGRAPHY

SMOLLEN AND SHERRIN SOAR IN SANDOWN SHANE SMOLLEN and Grant Sherrin cleaned up all four GT4 Australia and Australian Production Cars sprints respectively at Sandown.

Although Smollen took the chequered flag first on each occasion in GT4, he did not have it all his own way.

The opening race was a nail-biter with Karl Begg’s McLaren 570s actually looking on course for victory.

However, Smollen denied Begg by snatching the lead at the first turn on the final lap before lapped traffic halted the McLaren’s effort.

In APC, Grant Sherrin was the only one to keep up with the GT4s, finishing third overall, 22s ahead of his nearest class rival.

In Race 2 Smollen enjoyed a much smoother route to GT4 victory with Begg out of action due to radiator

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damage and won by 5s over Steve Jukes.

Grant Sherrin remained untouched in APC as Lindsay Kearns edged out Iain Sherrin for second.

Begg returned in Race 3, but was the last of the GT4 runners as Smollen won by a convincing 17s, while Grant Sherrin won again in APC. The heat was back on in Race 4 where Jukes pushed Smollen hard, but ultimately fell 1s short as the #56 Porsche swept Sandown.

The APC battle also livened up in the finale as Grant Sherrin received resistance from teammate Iain, but claimed the clean sweep by 4s.

The next Australian Production Cars and GT4 meeting is at The Bend on October 13-15.

Thomas Miles

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THE BATTLE for Formula Open honours went down to the wire with just one point separating the top drivers at Sandown.

Ryan How and Trent Grubel were in an arm wrestle all weekend, but after the chequered flag fell the former emerged victorious.

How landed the first blow by taking pole having been the only driver to record a 1:08s lap time in qualifying.

Grubel was his nearest threat, twotenths away as the only driver to come within eight-tenths of the benchmark.

Although How retained the lead and never let it go across the entire 11-lap opener, the pressure was on all the way until the chequered flag.

How held on by just four-tenths of a second with Grubel right behind his rear wing. Two seconds further back was Trent Shirvington in third, while Peter Bouzinelos and Matthew Roesler failed to finish.

The intensity rose in the second race as How and Grubel were locked in combat.

How led the whole way until the final lap when Grubel surged ahead.

Despite Grubel winning on the track, a post-race five second penalty demoted him for second for overlapping on a Safety Car restart.

This brought How back into P1 in a

moment that would have a major say on how the weekend transpired, while Miles Bromley was third.

Fired up from the penalty, Grubel hit back in the third and final race.

Victory was an impressive effort considering Grubel suffered wheelspin off the line and dropped to third behind Bromley on the opening lap.

By lap five Grubel was back on How’s tail and made the race-winning move at the Turns 11/12 chicane before crossing the line with just 0.6s to spare.

Ryan Astley got a little too carried away at Dandenong Road and took out an advertising board before being beached in the Turn 9 sandpit.

Despite Grubel’s late charge, he fell one point short of knocking off How for round honours, but still holds the championship lead.

The stage is set for the season finale at the Island Magic event on November 25-26. Thomas Miles AUSTRALIAN FORMULA OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 5 1 2 3 4 5

Trent Grubel Ryan How Ryan Astley Miles Bromley Winston Van Laarhoven

196 176 93 85 77

Ryan How took the points. Image: IAN SMITH AUTOPIX

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NATIONALS WRAP Images: RICCARDO BENVENUTI

Tony Ricciardello and the iconic Alfa was the SMP winner.

ICONIC ALFA TAKES DES WALL HONOURS ROUND 3 of the Precision National Sports Sedans Series headed back to SMP for the annual Sydney Master Blast, and it was category legend Tony Ricciardello in the Alfa Romeo GTV who took both the round honours and the Des Wall Cup. The perpetual Des Wall Cup was on the line for Race 3 of the weekend, in honour of Wall Racing founder, series stalwart and 2009 champion Des Wall, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 61.

Ricciardello marked the occasion with a step-by-step climb up the podium, and now the WA speedster can dare to dream of a remarkable 12th Sports Sedans title after he left Eastern Creek in the championship lead over Ashley Jarvis.

It wasn’t all going his way over the weekend, however, as the reigning champion and Des Wall Cup holder Jordan Caruso was on song in the first two stanzas.

His push for a dominant sweep unravelled late in Race 3 after his #1 Audi A4 encountered gearbox and engine issues that initially reared up on the Friday.

But Ricciardello kept the pressure on over the Sunday to make it three wins for the year, becoming the third different round winner in 2023.

“It’s great. I raced with Des and we have to keep remembering all of the great people that made this category, which is what it is all about,” Ricciardello said.

“We just struggled for pace. We were good over one or two laps but then battled for outright pace ... but you still have to finish.

“During the race I could see Jordan was working hard a few times and saw a few puffs. I don’t know what happened.

“But I wanted to keep putting the pressure on him and keep pushing, so we were both making little mistakes.

“It was a shame for him because he was

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Jordan Caruso shows the way. Kiwi Angus Fogg’s Nustang (right). Cetin leads Shiels (below). probably the quickest all weekend ... but we managed to finish.”

The trip to SMP featured a packed grid of 27 National entries, including NZ international Angus Fogg in his very handsome 1970 Ford Fastback Mustang, as well as 10 State entries, including the likes of Peter Ingram in the Mazda RX7, and the quick Brad Shiels in his red Fiat 124.

The weekend started off with Caruso taking pole by 0.527s over Ricciardello, whilst Steve Tamasi looked to have his pace back in the Calibra, 1.203s off and sharing the second row with local ace Shiels.

Caruso led Race 1 from the green to chequered, but the Vic Calibra driver stayed on his case after passing Ricciardello on lap four, to finish just 0.3s back, with the #5 Alfa taking third.

Shiels converted his efforts by holding fourth over Birol Cetin in the Camaro.

Tamasi’s rediscovered pace was shortlived, making the call to sit out Sunday, with some worrying oil indications suggesting possible engine issues – and as no one wants to miss the Bathurst round, the call was made.

In Race 2 on a sunny Sunday, the Alfa flew off the line to find the lead early over the Caruso’s Audi, and after an early

spin from Stuart Eustice, a yellow would eventually drop when Greg Boyle’s Skyline GTR was turned.

The #5 held the restart with Cetin holding third behind Caruso, before a second yellow came after Michael Robinson couldn’t get restarted after getting some love from Ryan Humfrey’s XE. A two lap sprint to the end saw a blazing Caruso make the pass on lap nine, whilst Shiels took Cetin for third. Caruso set a predicted lap record (1:27.153) on the last to win by three flat.

The fight for the Des Wall Cup began with the #1 in control, whilst importantly for his championship fight, Jarvis took early spots in the Monaro.

Ricciardello was kicking up some dust down Brabham Straight in a desperate chase, whilst Shiels had a moment to drop down the field and put his state round win in jeopardy, which he did ultimately hold.

Meanwhile, Ingram’s RX7 moved into third as Mark Tracey pulled up in his E36.

That’s when Caruso also came to a heartbreaking stop, jammed against the wall on Brabham in lap 7, but the race stayed green.

Jarvis made important moves into P4 as Ingram took a maiden National podium in second over fellow state-man, Cetin.

Ricciardo took the flag, the round, the championship lead, and the coveted cup by 16.249s, as his legendary Alfa now heads the table by 29 points over the consistent Jarvis, with Caruso sitting third, whilst Mark Duggan’s consistent top-ten finishes at SMP in the VB liveried Aston Martin earn him fourth over the equally impressive Cetin.

With two rounds remaining, the next meeting is an epic visit to Mount Panorama for a spot on the Bathurst 1000 bill on October 5-8.

TW Neal SPORTS SEDANS STANDINGS AFTER 3 ROUNDS 1. Ricciardello 342 2. Jarvis 313 3. Caruso 294 4. Duggan 217 5. Cetin 201

SUPERCARS SUPPORTS

SUPERUTES I TOYOTA 86

RIDING EVERY EMOTION ONLY MISFORTUNE stopped Aaron Borg from sweeping Sandown, but he was still head and shoulders above the rest of the V8 SuperUte Series field.

Borg won two of the four races, but came within a hair’s breadth of victory in another, while a last-lap mechanical rarity robbed him in the other.

Despite the dramas, Borg still held off final race winner Adam Marjoram for round honours as the championship battle tightens.

After skipping The Bend, Borg immediately made up for lost time by fending off Marjoram in the opener.

Marjoram got the jump over Borg, but by lap four the #1 AC Delco Isuzu swooped down the inside at Dandenong Road to retake a lead he would not let go.

The second and reverse grid race will go down as history as one of the closest ever finishes, at just 0.042s.

Borg started sixth due to the inverted grid, but shot to second before the halfway mark, while Ryal Harris took the lead from Adam Marjoram.

This set up a two-ute showdown and a photo finish was required as Borg came up alongside Harris at the chequer.

In the end just 0.042s separated the pair with Harris getting his nose ahead of Borg.

Borg only had 90 minutes to get over the near miss and no one could come close to him in Race 3, as he cruised to a dominant lights-to-flag success.

The #1 nailed the start and dominated, while Marjoram snatched second from Harris in unusual circumstances.

Harris sat second until he got sideways through the fast Turn 6 and drifted throughout the left hander before somehow getting his Ranger back in the right direction.

Once ‘The Kid’ was back on the black stuff, it was too late as Marjoram had slipped by to clinch the position.

However, drama continued to follow Harris as his podium place disappeared for good when he was suddenly reduced to a crawl on lap four.

He limped back to the garage and eventually returned to the track a lap down as Borg cruised to a 1s win.

Borg looked destined for more success in the fourth and final race on Sunday.

The reigning champion started the

Image: TAMARA JADE MEDIA

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Image: PETER NORTON

LOGAN TAKES ROUND AND POINTS LEAD

10th and final lap with a 0.7s lead over Marjoram and was in cruise control.

But just when the AC Delco Isuzu crossed the line, it suddenly started to slow and Marjoram blazed into the lead.

By the time Borg had to put the foot down again on the back straight, the acceleration was not there and David Sieders also sailed by into second.

Borg eventually limped to third with the reason behind the sudden drop in straight line speed down to the loss of fourth gear.

It was a big blow for Borg who controlled the entire race until the end, while Harris went from the back to sixth.

Despite Borg’s last lap heartbreak, he still held onto the round win as the V8 SuperUte Series heads to Bathurst with little separating the title rivals.

Thomas Miles V8 SUPERUTE SERIES AFTER ROUND 4 1 Adam Marjoram 2 Aaron Borg 3 David Sieders 4 Ryal Harris 5 Ryan Woods

758 730 718 715 687

CAMPBELL LOGAN made his move at Sandown with two wins pushing him into the Toyota 86 Series lead.

Whilst Logan finished the weekend with a bang, it started with a familiar name being back on top at Sandown.

Clay Richards showed great speed in car #14 to take pole and convert it into a breakthrough victory.

The son of Steven found himself going side-by-side with Ryan Tomsett and won the battle after receiving a whack from the #27.

Tomsett’s had two more cracks at the lead but fell short on both occasions with the latter bringing Rylan Gray into play.

Tomsett would eventually cross the line down in 22nd, while Richards was never threatened again and cruised to a 3s win.

The fight for second was undecided until Gray took it from Reuben Goodall on the last lap of the race.

There was no waiting for the action in Race 2 as Richards and Goodall went sideby-side through Turn 1, where Tom Davies spun out.

Richards and Goodall carried on their battle all the way to Dandenong Road where the latter snatched the lead in impressive fashion around the outside.

Hughes then took a lunge on Goodall at Turn 9 which opened the door for Logan to sneak to second.

At this point Richards had dropped out of contention and even went flying off at Turn 3 – the landing destroying the left rear tyre.

Another story of misfortune was Targett, whose hit the Turn 4 fence, while up front Hughes and Logan were giving it everything for the win.

Logan got a run up the back straight and surfed around the outside of Hughes in the Esses to take the lead in memorable fashion.

He then controlled the final seven laps of the race as Goodall also jumped Hughes for second.

Logan found himself on the defence at the start of the finale, with Goodall taking the challenge to him off the start, but fell short.

Logan held an early lead, but had Josh Goodall, Jarrod Hughes and Brad Owen close for company.

A thrilling four-car fight was bubbling away with two laps to go, only for a stationary Jordan Freestone to bring out a Safety Car that would not disappear until the chequered flag.

After the anticlimactic finish meant it was, Logan claimed round honours by six points over Goodall with the next stop Bathurst.

Thomas Miles

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SUPERCARS SUPPORTS

WOOD DUSTS HIMSELF OFF FROM DUNLOP DRAMA IN HIS first race weekend since being signed up to Supercars by WAU, Ryan Wood took a second Dunlop Super2 Series round win in a Safety Car-filled round at Sandown.

Sunday’s 40-minute affair was full of incidents and Cooper Murray emerged from all the chaos to take a second win of the season.

But a storming Saturday drive by Wood meant round honours went the way of the emerging Kiwi, whose weekend was not without its moments.

Wood made his intentions clear by edging out Aaron Love by nine hundredths to get pole, while some were caught out by a late red flag caused by Jack Perkins’ Commodore going kaput.

The #2 Kiwi then converted pole to lead every lap en route to an opening race win, but it was far from that simple as he was swamped in the run up to Turn 1.

The Kiwi went into the opening left hander down in fourth but by the approach to Turn 2 he found himself in the lead as the seas parted. Best carried too much speed on the inside and bowled a wide, while both Love and Morse followed the #17 over the kerbing.

This opened the door for the only member of the top four who stayed on the track, Wood, to vault into the lead and within five laps he enjoyed a 2s gap over Zak Best.

Brad Vaughan had to start down in 22nd after being caught out by the late red flag in qualifying, and his tough day continued by bogging it down off the line and spinning Ryan Gilroy.

By lap 15 the battle for third got physical between Love and Morse as the pink Mustang lined up the silver Ford and made a big lunge at the heavy braking Turn 9.

Morse reached the Love’s front wheel by the apex which is where the two Mustangs collided with the whee-to-wheel contact sending the BRT driver into the sand and dropping him all the way from fourth to 19th.

Morse kept going but lost fourth to Allen late in the piece, as Wood’s relentless pace never disappeared beating Best and Bates by 6s.

This set the scene for one of the craziest races, on Sunday.

The action began off the line when Love’s flying start

Love, Wood and Vaughan ... couldn’t get closer if they tried ... Image: MARK HORSBURGH allowed him to suddenly challenge poleman Vaughan into Turn 1.

The BRT driver hung tough around the outside which gave him the inside running for the following right hander where he claimed the lead and the chaos started.

After two Super3 runners found trouble (see below) the Super2 midfield could not avoid tripping over themselves on the back straight.

Matt Chahda was spun by Cameron Crick while Masterton’s Mustang became a pinball machine on the inside.

He was spun across the track before firing head on into the guardrail at high speed.

At the restart, Wood sent it around the outside of Turn 1 and snatched second from Vaughan.

But the Safety Car soon returned as Morse punted Best into the beach at Turn 9.

Fortunately for the championship leader he was able to get the #17 Mustang out of the sand trap but only after falling from fourth to 21st.

When racing resumed Wood was all over the back of Love and made two attempts at Turns 12 and 2.

But after neither worked, Wood, Love and Vaughan found themselves charging up the back straight three wide for the lead.

The trio could not make it through the high speed Turn 5 kink cleanly as side-to-side contact between Wood and Vaughan sent the Tickford Mustang into Love on the outside.

The chain reaction fired the leader into the fence, while the seas parted for Murray, who found himself in charge.

All the chaos created a one-lap poast-Safety Car dash but Murray held firm ahead of Vaughan, while Wood wrestled third off Allen as Lochie Dalton was spun into the Turn 3 tyres to give the race an appropriate finish.

Everyone now must take a deep breath before Bathurst on October 5-8.

Thomas Miles SUPER2 POINTS AFTER ROUND 4 1 Zak Best 882 2 Kai Allen 798 3 Ryan Wood 747 4 Cooper Murray 711 5 Jay Hanson 669

McLEOD’S PAIN IS STEWART’S GAIN JOBE STEWART (right) has jumped clear in the Super3 standings as Cameron McLeod suffered the weekend from hell at Sandown.

Despite doing everything right in qualifying, nothing went McLeod’s way in either of the two 40-minute races in a pointless campaign.

Meanwhile his title rival Stewart stayed out of trouble to inflict maximum pain by winning both races.

Not only that, but McLeod has lost second in the championship to Jett Johnson.

Over one lap there was no catching the #92 Nissan Altima, which was the only Super3 car to record a 1:09s time in Saturday qualifying.

McLeod was 10th overall with Stewart next best in 14th ahead of Mason Kelly, who had a spin.

When the race arrived everything appeared to be running smoothly for McLeod, who not only defended his Super3 lead, but was running a superb sixth overall.

McLeod was never under threat from

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Image: MARK HORSBURGH Jobe Stewart, who was eight spots further back, but the third generation driver suffered a rotten piece of luck on the final lap.

With the race running three minutes overtime the #92 Nissan Altima ran out of fuel and came to a crawling stop on the back straight, just half a lap from the chequered flag.

McLeod was dejected and unleashed his frustrations by putting in another smashing effort in Sunday qualifying.

He took a seventh straight pole with a 1:09.5473 which was enough to knock off the fast Kelly and Stewart.

After ticking the first box in his road to redemption, McLeod then set his sights on the race, but it was over just after it began.

Two corners after Ryan Gilroy was spun, McLeod was another victim of the first lap jostling for position.

His #92 Nissan Altima came to a stop at Turn 4 after he suffered significant front left steering damage, having received relentless contact.

McLeod returned to the pits but the damage was too severe to continue racing.

This sent Stewart into a lead he would never let go with another well-executed clean race.

Two seconds back was Johnson, while rookie Valentino Astuti claimed a third place to remember.

McLeod hopes to pick himself up at Mount Panorama on October 5-8.

Thomas Miles SUPER3 SERIES POINTS AFTER ROUND 4 1 Jobe Stewart 1152 2 Jett Johnson 1014 3 Cameron McLeod 849 4 Ryan Gilroy 702 5 Mason Kelly 702

SUPER2 • SUPER3 • PORSCHE CARRERA CUP

O’KEEFFE SUPER AT SANDOWN THERE WAS no catching Dylan O’Keeffe as he made it five different winners in as many Porsche Carrera Cup rounds at Sandown.

O’Keeffe was so consistent that he was two-tenths shy of compiling the perfect weekend.

The only driver to beat him across the six on-track sessions was Callum Hedge, who did it by perfecting a last-corner pass in Race 2 and securing the coveted Junior Cup title in addition to extending his series lead as Jackson Walls found trouble.

In Pro-Am Sam Shahin still holds a 21-point lead over round winner Dean Cook despite the late trouble, while Luke King’s sub, Liam Talbot, performed to be the thirdhighest points scorer of the weekend.

There was no doubt O’Keeffe was the man to beat as he backed up his practice double by emerging on top in a tight qualifying session.

After an intense 20 minutes, the PremiAir co-driver kept his nerve to post a 1:08.6980s, which was a tenth clear of his rivals.

Hedge snared second having edged out Max Vidau, David Russell and Bayley Hall as less than a tenth split positions two to five, while Walls could only manage 13th.

When racing began it appeared initially things may not be going O’Keeffe’s way for once.

Hedge got off to a flyer and hit the lead off the start over O’Keeffe, Hall, and Max Vidau, but race control handed out a five second penalty to the Team Porsche New Zealand driver for a jumped start.

Then Vidau lost control and spun into retirement at Turn 4, while Angelo Mouzouris and Tim Miles also had moments.

The race had developed an interesting angle up the front

of the field with Hedge’s penalty, as O’Keeffe could afford to sit back, but also had to defend from Hall as he eyed off a maiden Carrera Cup win.

In the end, O’Keeffe managed the gap well enough to take victory with Hall also being promoted to second as Hedge had to settle for third thanks to the penalty, just slotting in front of David Russell.

Hedge stamped his ticket to Europe in Race 2 by crossing the line first and being rewarded the win in memorable fashion.

With Walls out of action early, pulling over on the exit of Turn 4, it was left to Hedge to finish the race to take the Michelin Junior crown and he did it in style.

However, the 31-lap main event appeared destined for O’Keeffe.

The #88 led the field for 30 of the 31 laps and controlled the field through Turn 1 after resisting a challenge from the fast starting Hall.

Following an early Safety Car for the unlucky Walls, Hedge joined their battle and surged to second after Hall dropped a wheel off the road at Turn 9.

With seven laps to go, O’Keeffe enjoyed a 1.6s lead, but Hedge was a man on a mission.

The lead had evaporated by the time the last lap arrived and the Kiwi sensed an opportunity under the wing of car #88.

Then at the last corner, Hedge ‘sent it’, diving down the inside to steal it on the line in a finish for the ages.

O’Keeffe had to settle for second having been pipped at the post while Hall was third ahead of Dale Wood.

Come Sunday, a fast start allowed O’Keeffe to take an unchallenged lead into Turn 1, but drama unfolded behind.

Hedge was unable to get a smooth getaway and soon he found himself swallowed up by the pack.

Things then took a turn for the worse as contact by Fabian Coulthard spun Hedge, which triggered bedlam behind, with cars going everywhere.

Christian Pancione was spun by Flack while Nick McBride climbed over the top of car #20, which sent him on a collision course into the side of Sam Shahin, who was minding his own business in the run-off area.

It was a wild ride for McBride, who was tipped on two wheels and landed on top of the left front of Pancione before tee-boning Shahin.

All four were wiped out on the spot, while Angelo Mouzouris joined them on the sidelines with damage by lap six and Coulthard received a drive-through penalty.

Walls also caught the attention of race control, receiving a five-second penalty for overlapping on the restart, which meant his troubled weekend ended with him finishing down in ninth.

Hedge, luckily, was not collected by the oncoming pack and joined the field at the restart to salvage 12th, while O’Keeffe claimed another win.

Hedge’s comeback drive was enough to ensure he enjoys an extended 118 point lead over Walls as the series heads to Mount Panorama. Thomas Miles PORSCHE CARRERA CUP POINTS AFTER ROUND 5 1 Callum Hedge 620 2 Jackson Walls 511 3 Dale Wood 476 4 Max Vidau 422 5 Dylan O’Keeffe 356

Sunday drivers – O’Keeffe leads as mayham breaks out further back in the field ... Image: MARK HORSBURGH

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SUPERCARS

THE APPRENTICE AND HIS MASTER TRIPLE EIGHT REAPED THE REWARDS AT THE RETURNING VIC ENDURO, NOTCHING A MILESTONE VICTORY FOR ALL INVOLVED, LEAVING SANDOWN WITH A MAIDEN, A SIXTH AND A 250TH WIN, AS THIS YEARS HEAVYWEIGHT CAMARO TEAMS DID BATTLE. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS …

THE MELBOURNE weather gods got the message loud and clear for the Sandown 500, with perfect conditions greeting a field of 27 cars – including two wildcards – for the season’s first enduro, which also signalled the first proper enduro season since 2019.

In the year of Gen3 unknowns, the Supercars world felt vaguely right again with the return of the traditional Bathurst prelude. But as they would all year, queries and questions still loomed in a season of firsts.

Some of the talking points included such questions as tyre life on the Dunlop Super Softs, steering arms, and the brake callipers. Rear tyre degradation was a particular concern for the Mustangs over the first few days, but this particular weekend had a way of hiding a few truths until the final show.

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The Ford squads also went in with yet another parity tweak, with the shift-cut for gears 4,5, and 6 slashed from 50ms to 30ms.

In terms of some pre-race tech-talk, the new Triple Eighttested and developed steering racks were not yet available and still under development, with the Sandown kerbs expected to cause issues in that regard over the course of Sunday’s planned 161 laps – but aside from a few instances, it turned out to be a minimal issue ... almost.

With the 3.1km 13-turn track offering up a short lap, time saved in the pits would also be a vital factor.

The narrower and more compact cockpits would see the driver changes as one of those time-cutting targets, as well as the much talked about brake changes with their fiddly dual screw calipers.

The co-drivers were set to take a minimum of 54 laps, whilst the fuel dump was open season as drivers were able to take five sets of greens into the race.

300 points were on offer for the victor, with both Sandown and Bathurst to shape the championship picture, with Erebus heading in as the team to chase in both the drivers and teams stakes.

By race’s end that picture remained more-or-less intact, with some movement made by those fighting for the crumbs, whilst many more Gen3’s survived the distance than was initially predicted. And in the Melbourne sun, the much loved Vic enduro also kicked off with a handsomely full historic grandstand.

FRIDAY CAMAROS IN COMMAND

THE OPENING day of the Sandown 500 showed up a clear pace difference between the Gen3 models down the two long straights.

Across the three sessions, only five Mustangs appeared in the top-10 results, whilst it was the Camaro’s of Triple Eight and Erebus that topped the times overall.

With Broc Feeney, Zane Goddard, and Brodie Kostecki finishing on top respectively over two all-driver sessions and a sole co-driver only session.

For a change, there were no steering rack issues reported as teams went for the tried and tested to take on the Sandown’s monster kerbs. Instead, it was the brake changes that took the spotlight.

The new mono callipers that require two attaching screws seemed to cause a few issues, and with a short lap, the spectre of lost pit time ahead of Sunday threatened to rest there, with teams planning to avoid a change.

The hard-braking Turn 9 and its sand trap featured a few times over the course of the day with Zak Best and Todd Hazelwood both missing their braking points out of the Turn 6 esses down to Dandenong Road.

Both WAU cars were also disqualified from practice (after the fact) for running the wrong drop gear in breach of Supplementary Regulation 6.2 (fined later in the day for being in breach of Rule D11.7.6), with a few errant wheel nuts seen about pit lane.

The Feeney/Whincup car took the spoils with a 1:09.296s, with the #99 showing some late toe to take second behind Feeney’s early lap, whilst James Golding was quick to take third, with the #6 Mustang making the only Ford

Supercars RACE REPORT Round 9 – SANDOW N 500

SATURDAY

Will Brown (below) took a stunning pole from team-mate Kostecki (above) – but in the end it was the Apprentice/Master Triple Eight duo (below left) which ticked all the boxes and took the race despite a late Safety Car. Andre Heimgartner and Dale Wood were strong, for ‘Best of the Rest’ – fifth, behind the two dominant teams. Matt Payne, with Euro-visitor Kevin Estre, also raised eyebrows, first Ford home, in sixth.

Images: PETER NORTON-EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY AND MARK HORSBURGHEDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS

appearance in the top-ten.

A redemptive Zane Goddard played a cool hand in the #888 Wildcard in the all-co-driver session with a 1:09.310s to top Richie Stanaway by 0.337s.

The #88 made it a T8-triple-take, as fourth went to another lone Mustang top-10 hand with Mostert and the returning veteran in Lee Holdsworth holding fort.

Two reds appeared over the half-hour, first with Best, then an exposed kerb at the super fast Turn 6 bringing the session to an end, whilst the returning Garry Jacobson also took a wild ride, collecting some dirt in his front splitter off of Turn 3.

The teams started to use some fresher rubber for the alldriver Friday finale, and as the times tumbled, the split down the field narrowed.

Kostecki beat his own early time to be the first under the 9s mark, with a 1:08.712s beating Feeney’s time by only 0.0003s.

With the co-drivers mostly at the back-end and driver change practice paramount, those early times wouldn’t fall, but the field was split by only 0.889s down to Hill/Robotham in 24th, with the BRT wildcard of Love/J.Kostecki rooted at the bottom by 1.443s.

The Mustangs were sparse up top again, with only the Waters/Moffat and #25 WAU showing up in the 10.

Jordan Boys was fast early in another good sign for the #96 Jones Camaro, whilst Will Brown and Jack Le Brocq stitched together his best efforts for third and fourth respectively over the #97 T8.

THE LAST half-hour of the two allotted hours of total practice elapsed with the final all-driver session. Teams approached the session with varied goals to prepare for the afternoon and evening qualifying sessions, with some preferring to focus on race-trim, namely Kostecki, who eschewed using his greens whilst Russell got extra time in the knowledge he’d have the first Q session sorted … which he did.

Feeney topped the session over Brown with Whincup staying out of the car to focus on the set-up, whilst the #88 youngster had one last look at what he could get on the greens with a 1:08.583s.

Stanaway was impressive again ahead of qualifying, which wouldn’t go to plan for the #97, whilst some Mustangs would start to trickle into the party in the form of Waters, Reynolds and Davison.

QUALIFYING – SLICK EREBUS LOCK-OUT

EREBUS SECURED a fairly dominant front-row lock-out, with Brown ensuring that Perkins had the clear look down pit straight, whilst Kostecki ensured that Russell would take the clean line next to him.

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SUPERCARS

Feeney’s first; Whincup’s sixth ... Above right: A great first stint from Stanaway, plus the usual SVG recovery, saw the second T8 car get from 19th to third ... Lower right: Both Shell DJR cars made the top 10. Below: The Coke co-driver duo made the best of their front row start, with Alex Davison crowding Moffat, and Whincup out wide ... Images: MARK HORSBURGH; PETER NORTON An admittedly over-achieving Waters, took the second row alongside Davison for an all Mustang second row, as only the top-three could pull a sub-9s lap, with Moffat and Alex Davison to give chase.

But firstly, to sort out the top-ten shootout field Kostecki showed his full hand, putting down the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:08.455s in qualifying.

The biggest casualty was indeed SVG, whose kerb strike near the death of the session ruled him out, though he didn’t look like getting through at any rate. His co-driver, Stanaway, would start the 500 in P19.

The big leaper was Hazelwood, who ran a beautiful Sub-9, only 0.262s short, one of six Mustangs to salute in a much improved session for the Blue Oval.

Both PremiAir Camaros would miss out after being strong in practice.

Kostecki topped Brown and Feeney to get through, followed

by Randle, Hazelwood, Reynolds, Davison, Waters, Le Brocq, and Payne with a 1:08.796s. Payne survived the last three minutes to take the final spot with no late takers getting it done.

For the shootout, it was the first sector that provided the defining order, and any Camaro that finished in the top 10 would have felt justified with any of the front five row spots.

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Feeney left a bit out there to go fifth in the #88, whilst Hazelwood was delighted with sixth.

The two Grove Mustangs followed in Payne and Reynolds, while the fifth row went to Randle and Le Brocq.

Over to the co-drivers …

SUNDAY – MR SANDOWN SUNDAY TAKES 500 THRILLER

BROC FEENEY and Jamie Whincup continued Triple Eight’s love affair with the Sandown 500 by keeping a charging Brodie Kostecki at bay after a late yellow led to a time-certain finish over 158, rather than the traditional 161 laps.

A late Safety Car caused by Hill erased Feeney’s lead that was already being eaten into by the gaining championship leader.

The two Coke Camaros had the pace after the restart, but Feeney kept cool to win by just a single second, with Brown also going off late to allow Shane van Gisbergen to sneak through and steal a podium after starting in 19th, mitigating the damage to his title chase to leave the gap at 155 points.

It was Feeney’s maiden Sandown 500 crown, but it was Whincup’s sixth and T8’s eighth of the last 12, as well as it being an historic 250th win for the Red Bull outfit.

Andre Heimgartner toiled in the background for a well

earned fifth behind Brown, and Payne drove a fantastic race with the early assistance of Estre to be the highest Mustang, in sixth.

Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale took P7 and P8 for DJR over PremiAir’s Tim Slade, with Zane Goddard and Craig Lowndes achieved a great finish in the Supercheap Auto T8 wildcard with a top-10 finish after the veteran showed some great toe in a long co-driver opening stint.

The action was thick and fast early with some strange occurrences affecting the #26 and #6 Mustangs, with Reynolds not seeing a lap after Tander’s mishap, whilst Waters’ tilt was derailed through no fault of Moffat’s with a wild bouncing tyre making their wing vanish. Here’s how it all unfolded…

THE LONG overdue Sandown 500 began in front of a packed grandstand and sunny skies, with Perkins and Russell pulling the early weight of the Erebus hopes, and Tickford’s Moffat and DJR’s Alex Davison in tow.

Perkins took the first corner over Russell with the field of codrivers going through cleanly over Moffat, with Whincup and Tander jumping Davison.

Whincup moved into third early and nearly braked into Russell’s rear before he then blazed past him into Turn 4.

Supercars RACE REPORT Round 10 – SANDOWN 500

Whincup was then able to pass Perkins, with the #88 carrying strong pace to take the lead.

Best took a trip near to the fence into Turn 2 after side-toside contact with the BRT wildcard to put him in last.

Stanaway was slowly working the #97, up four spots into P15 by lap 15, whilst Whincup kept the gap at one second.

Estre was looking nice in the #19 Penrite to leave a congested pack, whilst Caruso was up five spots into eighth in the #18.

Then came the mayhem.

Tander triggered a Safety Car on lap 20 when his left-rear wheel detached through the esses, beaching him in Turn 9 after hitting the wall hard, whilst the Waters car lost its rear wing as the errant tyre bounced on top of it in a stroke of illluck, causing a big Tickford pit scramble to attach another and get the height vaguely correct.

The #25 Holdsworth car also took rear big diffuser damage after it had bounced off a kerb and thumped the grass in a separate incident.

A lap 26 restart had Perkins back in front after a shorter fuel stop, whilst the #99 came out in P10 after all the SC pit stops had settled, as Caruso found himself in third, with Estre sweating the back of him.

Perkins came under heat from Whincup, whilst Estre went third by lap 40.

Whincup moved quickly on Perkins down the main straight, whilst Lowndes and Robotham almost had a moment through the esses with the #888 and #97 moving through as a result.

Moffat’s nightmare continued when O’Keeffe went into his side, going for a spin to be even further back.

Russell found fresh air on lap 48 to go into sixth, whilst up front, only two seconds separated the top three.

As the race passed 50 laps, the minimum 54 -ap co-driver window neared.

Jacobson complained of steering issues in the Castrol Mustang to head into the pits after taking a whack from Davison, with its race now in trouble.

Perkins was the first co-driver to pit for a swap, with Brown jumping in as the pit lane got busy.

Whincup also swapped with Feeney, as Stanaway stayed out until lap 60 to swap with SVG. The only co-drivers still out at this point were Robotham, Fiore, and Ojeda.

Feeney put Ojeda (the last of the co-drivers going long) between himself and Brown to create a handy 5s gap, whilst behind Brown, Payne held a 5s gap to Kostecki.

Lowndes moved into P7 over Slade in the Supercheap wildcard, with the veteran running strong.

Smith, Golding, and J.Kostecki all made some contact to squabble over P16, while Ojeda slipped off damaging the left rear before he pulled in to swap for Le Brocq, negating any overcut.

At the halfway mark, SVG had worked into eighth over Slade and Davison, 27s from the leader and running behind Heimgartner. Kostecki made ground to pass Payne for third, 18s off Feeney, and 12s behind Brown.

SVG had moved into fifth after 85 laps, 27s to Feeney, as Brown pitted for greens (set three of five) and fuel, leaving Kostecki to eat into the #88 lead, before both pitted on lap 91.

The #97 went in from the lead on lap 97, coming out in front of Payne on cold tyres but defended well, keeping the spot by putting Fullwood between them with a Turn 7 dive for effective fourth.

Kostecki started gaining ground on Brown and Feeney, with the #88 12s up at the time, with SVG 24s back in fourth with 48 laps left.

Erebus had a decision to make as Kostecki took Brown for second to be 13s behind Feeney, but the #88 also had a shorter fuel window in front of him, with the final tyre change windows approaching.

As it stood, the top 10 after the provisional podium was SVG, Payne, Heimgartner, Davison, De Pasquale, Goddard, and Frosty, with the #18 51s back.

Kostecki went in on lap 126 for his final stop and had 39s of fuel go in, another advantage to the leader, as Brown went

Below: Terrific Qualifying/Shootout form saw Todd Hazelwood (with Tim Blanchard) start from sixth on the grid, but tyre deg saw the CoolDrive car drift back on Sunday.

Above left: What are the odds? – a flying wheel took out the Tickford/Monster Mustang’s rear wing early in the race, after the left-rear detached from the Grove/Penrite car (here being retrieved) at the end of the back straight ...

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Next up is the 60th anniversary running of the Great Race on October 5-8. Could Mount Panorama provide a shock result? It seems like it would take a mechanical disaster to un-seed the two Gen3 juggernaut teams. But as history has shown, the Bathurst 1000 demands not only precision, but an element of luck ...

SANDOWN 500 RACE RESULTS QUALIFYING RACE 23 Pos Driver 1 Will Brown 2 Brodie Kostecki 3 Cameron Waters 4 Will Davison 5 Broc Feeney 6 Todd Hazelwood 7 Matthew Payne 8 David Reynolds 9 Thomas Randle 10 Jack Le Brocq 11 Tim Slade 12 Cameron Hill 13 Mark Winterbottom 14 James Courtney 15 Andre Heimgartner 16 Chaz Mostert 17 Declan Fraser 18 James Golding 19 Shane van Gisbergen 20 Anton De Pasquale 21 Scott Pye 22 Jack Smith 23 Zane Goddard 24 Macauley Jones 25 Bryce Fullwood 26 Nick Percat 27 Aaron Love

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in the lap after for a quick stop with the #99 shuffled into second.

Feeney pitted on lap 130 and, amidst the final pits within the top four, SVG managed a huge gain – only five seconds off Brown, whilst the leader exited the pits with a 10s advantage on Kostecki.

Feeney protected his fresh tyres whilst Kostecki had to throw some caution to the wind by pushing the gap at 7s with 27 laps left.

Just as #99 was eating the tenths away from Feeney to 5s, the race turned on its head as Hill went off at Turn 9 with steering issues – stuck in the gravel with 22 laps remaining.

That left a tantalising finish with a bunched field.

The green dropped on lap 143, with Feeney using the lapped Golding as a wedge who initially didn’t move aside for Kostecki, but he got around him with less than a second splitting them, with the race also going time-certain to eventually run three short of the traditional 161.

Kostecki was right there with the #88 and was in a position for a look as Feeney went wide on Turn 9.

Brown was also close for a pounce as the leaders squabbled, as Kostecki’s Turn 4 lunge hurt him to lose the tow with the clock showing eight minutes, and that being the telling blow.

Feeney didn’t flinch, with a PB lap as Kostecki lost the tenths, whilst Brown ran wide to allow SVG through to take third and minimise the championship damage.

Feeney was far too level headed to drop it, pulling away to become a 20-year-old Sandown 500 winner, with Kostecki in second over the late coming SVG.

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Brought to you by

RESULTS RACE 23 161 LAPS Time 1:08.6693 +0.1862 +0.3088 +0.3318 +0.3632 +0.3943 +0.4312 +0.4605 +0.6015 +0.7733 +0.4047 +0.4073 +0.4564 +0.4738 +0.4774 +0.4837 +0.5179 +0.5256 +0.5298 +0.5518 +0.5753 +0.5758 +0.6181 +0.6271 +0.6465 +0.7141 +0.9801

Pos Drivers Laps 1 B.Feeney/J.Whincup 158 2 B.Kostecki/D.Russell 158 3 S.Van Gisbergen/R.Stanaway 158 4 W. Brown/J. Perkins 158 5 A. Heimgartner/D. Wood 158 6 M. Payne/K. Estre 158 7 W. Davison/A. Davison 158 8 A. De Pasquale/T. D’Alberto 158 9 T. Slade/J. Webb 158 10 Z. Goddard/C. Lowndes 158 11 M. Winterbottom/M. Caruso 158 12 J. Courtney/Z. Best 158 13 D. Fraser/T. Everingham 158 14 B. Fullwood/D. Fiore 157 15 J. Golding/D. O’Keeffe 157 16 J. Le Brocq/J. Ojeda 157 17 T. Hazelwood/T. Blanchard 157 18 J. Smith/J. Evans 157 19 C. Mostert/L. Holdsworth 157 20 M. Jones/J. Boys 157 21 C. Waters/J. Moffat 157 22 S. Pye/W. Luff 157 23 N. Percat/F. Coulthard 156 24 A. Love/J. Kostecki 157 25 T. Randle/G. Jacobson 145 NC C. Hill/J. Robotham 137 NC D. Reynolds/G. Tander 18

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 9 Race time 03:21:16.9982 +0.9816 +2.2220 +5.8498 +6.7914 +6.9582 +10.7987 +11.5801 +19.8850 +23.0022 +23.3114 +33.8931 +41.5202 +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +2 Laps +1 Lap +13 Laps -

s4 s16 t3 s10 s1 t3 s12 s2 s13 s2 s2 s4 s11 s3 t6 t11 s4 t3 s4 t18 t1 s3 s3 t16 t14 t19

Pos Driver 1 Brodie Kostecki 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 Broc Feeney 4 Will Brown 5 Andre Heimgartner 6 Chaz Mostert 7 Cam Waters 8 Jack Le Brocq 9 Will Davison 10 Bryce Fullwood 11 Anton De Pasquale 12 Mark Winterbottom 13 Tim Slade 14 Scott Pye 15 James Golding 16 Thomas Randle 17 Matt Payne 18 James Courtney 19 David Reynolds 20 Todd Hazelwood 21 Macauley Jones 22 Nick Percat 23 Jack Smith 24 Declan Fraser 25 Cam Hill

Points 2171 2016 1967 1877 1680 1660 1550 1385 1375 1314 1314 1294 1209 1170 1146 1139 1139 1127 1038 981 910 891 805 794 771

s2 t1 t1 s1 t1 s1 t1 s2 t1 s2 t2 s2 t3 s1 t1 s1 s1 t2

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INTERNATIONAL

Jorge Martin – never in doubt!. Below left: Bezzechi was a strong second. Bottom of page: The ageless Pedrosa leads Binder.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MARTIN MIGHTY IN MISANO

JORGE MARTIN was in a league of his own in the 2023 San Marino Grand Prix to ignite his MotoGP title charge, but it was the gritty work of those behind which drew the most applause.

Martin’s Pramac Ducati was an untouchable figure for the rest of the field as the #89 took pole position before leading every lap of both the Sprint and Grand Prix.

However, joining him on the podium were two injured riders in the form of Marco Bezzecchi and Francesco Bagnaia, who pushed through the pain barrier carrying injuries from separate Catalan crashes.

Bagnaia was particularly impressive on the golden Ducati, finishing third just seven days after being hospitalised from a horror high side.

He pushed himself so far that he could barely move after the 27-lap Grand Prix.

Bagnaia’s grit denied veteran Dani Pedrosa a fairytale podium as a returning wildcard on the cusp of 38 years of age.

However, Pedrosa’s fourth place still ensured he was the leading KTM with Australia’s Jack Miller struggling to make an impact all weekend and Brad Binder falling on Sunday.

It was a weekend to forget for Miller, who

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never finished higher than 13th all weekend in a campaign which came to a crashing end.

As the Aussie battled, Martin excelled with the pace of the Pramac Ducati clear for all to see.

The Spaniard flew to pole, beating Bezzecchi by a formidable four-tenths of a second with Bagnaia in third and Miller 1.3s off the pace in 18th.

Martin enjoyed an untroubled journey through the Sprint, taking a lights to flag success 1.5s ahead of Bezzecchi.

The VR46 rider had to overcome Bagnaia, who flew around the outside of Turn 1 at the start.

But Bezzecchi did not have to wait long for the factory Ducati to run wide and let second slip.

This meant all eyes were on the battle for third as Pedrosa closed in on Bagnaia inside the final five laps.

Despite the #26 coming up alongside the #1 Ducati at times, the 37-year-old could not make a serious challenge and settled for fourth which was his best result since Malaysia 2017 and the leading KTM. WHILST THE TOP four remained unchanged on Sunday, the Grand Prix was much more dramatic being a war of attrition under the San Marino sun.

Martin took control into Turn 1 off the start ahead of Bezzecchi but Bagnaia sent it into Turn 2 and surged to second.

It quickly became a three-horse race at the front full of Ducatis with Martin leading Bagnaia and Bezzecchi, while Binder and Pedrosa were already a full second behind after one lap.

However, as Bezzecchi and Bagnaia started battling, Binder began closing in on the leading trio. But his charge came to a sudden stop when he crashed at Turn 14, promoting Pedrosa to fourth.

Joining him on the sidelines were Joan Mir and Pol Espargaro, with the latter suffering his fifth fall of the weekend.

For the second year in a row, Miller crashed at Rio, this time due to a tangle with Ducati’s Michele Pirro.

Despite both full-time KTMs crashing in as many laps, there was still plenty of optimism inside the garage as Pedrosa was turning back the clock and hunting down the top three.

As Martin checked out, Bezzecchi made his move on Bagnaia to seize second.

Pedrosa then had the golden Ducati in his sights and was on the Italian’s back wheel with two laps to go.

However, Bagnaia kept the KTM at bay all the way to the chequered flag to hold on to a gutsy podium, six-tenths ahead of Pedrosa.

It ensured his championship lead remained intact despite Martin’s massive inroads.

Bagnaia now has a fortnight to recover before MotoGP’s first trip to India at the Buddh International Circuit on September 22-24. Thomas Miles MOTOGP CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 12 1 Francesco Bagnaia 283 2 Jorge Martin 247 3 Marco Bezzecchi 218 4 Brad Binder 173 5 Aleix Espargaro 160

MARQUEZ TO LEAVE HONDA? MARC MARQUEZ sent the rumour mill into a spin at Misano with speculation his highly successful time at Repsol Honda could be coming to a sudden end.

Despite Marquez being contracted until the end of 2024, reports have suggested the #93 is set to leave Repsol Honda for the first time in his career and join brother Alex at Gresini Ducati.

Pre race, Marquez said “I know where I am racing in 2024” and admitted he was “enjoying” the speculation.

Although San Marino was a step in the right direction with Marquez’s first top 10 Sunday result of the horror 2023 season, Repsol Honda manager Alberto Puig said a “radical change” is required to keep the #93.

“It is obvious that our situation is bad,” he said.

“It is very important to give him a bike he can trust next year. That’s why we are thinking about a radical change (to the bike).

“It is Honda who has to convince Marc to stay.”

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Rovanpera has all but locked in the 2023 championship. Below: Evans backed up his Toyota team-mate with second – and is the only realistic title challenger. Bottom: ‘Part-timer’ Sordo battled with Evans, but had to settle for third.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

KING OF THE ACROPOLIS KALLE ROVANPERA withstood the challenging roads around the host city of Lamia at the Acropolis Rally Greece to take his third FIA World Rally Championship win of the year and close in on a second straight title.

‘King’ Kalle’s second WRC win in Greece was all but sealed at the end of Day 2 when a spate of retirements saw him elevated into the lead from third position.

Leading into the rally, central Greece was inundated with extreme conditions that initially threatened sections of the planned route, with rampant wildfires giving way to torrential record rainfall that saw the Lamia shakedown cancelled and the service park flooded.

After the disappointment of a retirement at his home rally, the young Finn and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen finished 1:31.7s ahead of Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans, who had a tough scrap on his hands to finish ahead of reliable Hyundai part-timer Dani Sordo.

The result (plus the Power Stage win) gave Rovanpera a 33 point buffer at the head of the table over Evans, but initially the provisional podium was looking fairly different up until SS9 on Day 2 when Thierry Neuville came unstuck from the lead.

That handed the advantage to Sebastien Ogier, who then suffered similar suspension woes through SS12 to hand a comfortable lead to Rovanpera.

“This rally is always so tricky and it was a tough week with all the difficult conditions, starting already in the recce,” Rovanpera related.

“It was a big challenge and, starting first on the road, I was not expecting to finish first, so taking 30 points is amazing. Last year we struggled from start to finish in Greece, and this year even as the first car we could at least fight with the others.”

It was another brutal week for the Ford M-Sport team, as overheating issues saw

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Ott Tanak’s ability to challenge rubbed out on Day 1 – a familiar story of late – when he incurred a 3min 40sec penalty after having no choice but to leave the mid-leg tyre fitting zone 22 minutes late.

The same but more severe overheating issue also saw his teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet forced into an early retirement in the same breath, as the luckless year continued for the Frenchman.

The rally opened with the Super Special in the capital of Athens, with Rovanpera topping the short asphalt challenge, with conditions bearing no resemblance to the challenges that awaited 150 km north in Lamia.

The 103.46 km/five-stage opening day saw last year’s Greece winner Neuville hold off the returning Ogier in a day which offered no mid-service break.

The i20N driver topped the eight-time

champion by 2.8s in a predictable day of mechanical carnage on the rough and rocky roads with most cars suffering some sort of issue.

Neuville himself held on late in the day with transmission issues, whilst Ogier couldn’t take advantage due to a split rear wing after hitting a tree branch.

With both Fords hitting strife, Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi also managed a water leak, Evans had punctures, and Sordo lost ground due to stalling.

Six Stages over 141.52 km punctuated Day 2, as the rock-strewn roads took an even bigger toll on the Rally1 field.

Neuville was 10.9s clear of Ogier and 20s ahead of Rovanpera when he hit a hole and shattered the right front suspension, with the leading Frenchman then striking a rock on the final stage to lose a 12.4s lead of his own with rear left suspension damage.

Sordo had climbed from seventh to second with Lappi (transmission) and Takamoto Katsuta (tyre punctures) both hitting trouble, whilst Evans held onto third ahead of Tanak despite the Welshman having overheating troubles, with Tanak having risen from ninth to fourth.

As a result of the retirements, Rovanpera entered the final day with a 2:04.7s lead after taking four straight stages to finish the day, with only 42.37km and three stages to negotiate.

Evans reversed the 5s gap to a 4s advantage over Sordo by winning the opening stage of the final day, before Sordo then hit back by winning SS14 to head into the Power stage two seconds down.

Rovanpera dominated the Power Stage to add 5 bonus points to his cause, whilst Evans took second in the Tarzan stage to ensure a Toyota one-two in the overall.

A fascinating duel in the WRC2 stakes saw Norwegian driver Andres Mikkelsen take the lead on the penultimate stage over former Puma driver Gus Greensmith, with Mikkelsen extending his championship lead to 16 points over third place-getter Yohan Rossel.

They filled spots seven to nine on the outright behind Lappi and Katsuta respectively, whilst Ogier fought back to finish in 10th.

Evans remains the only realistic title challenger after Neuville’s retirement, but would be needing Rovanpera to incur some DNF results in order to be in with a look, with 30 points maximum available in any one outing.

The next WRC outing sees a return to Chile for the third last round of the Championship on September 28 - October 2, featuring fast, technically challenging, smooth, and heavily cambered gravel surfaces in the forests around the harbour city of Concepcion.

TW Neal WRC STANDINGS AFTER 10 ROUNDS Rovanpera/Halttunen 200 Evans/Martins 167 Neuville/Wydaeghe 134 Tanak/Jarveoja 119 Ogier/Landais 99

WEC • FUJI I IMSA • INDIANAPOLIS

TOYOTA TAKES FIRST NEW-ERA WEC CROWN TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has claimed the Manufacturers bragging rights in the first year of the World Endurance Championship’s new Hypercar era with a one-two at Fuji.

Racing on their home turf at the 6 Hours of Fuji, the Japanese brand overcame the influx of the new LMH/ LMDh hypercar manufacturers to take a one-two, as well as all but cement the fact that one of their GR010 Hybrid crews will also take the Drivers title.

A spirited early challenge from the eventual podium finishers in the #6 Penske Porsche 963 couldn’t hold off the rampant pole sitters, as the #7 with Conway/Kobayashi/Maria Lope reeled in the early 20s deficit, with the drivers championship leading #8 GR010 going with them into second.

A record crowd of 54,700 people saw the #7 take a 39.119s win over its sister car, keeping their own title hopes alive in doing so, to close the gap to 15 points.

It was a bitterly disappointing weekend for the title challenging #51 Ferrari 499P, as it finished in fifth behind the #50 Ferrari,

with both machines being a lap off the pace and never really looking a chance.

The leading podium finishers competed 229 laps after the six hour battle, with Toyota making it nine wins from the last 10 races at the Fuji International Speedway.

“It was a difficult race, especially after the start when we lost some positions. It is very challenging to overtake Hypercars here” said driver of the #7 GR010 and team principal, Kamui Kobayashi.

“Our first target was to win the Manufacturers’ title and we will celebrate this. The next step is the Drivers’ title – our car is a bit behind in the points standings, but we will work hard and do everything we can in Bahrain.”

After the two Ferraris, sixth

went to the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche with Da Costa/Stevens/Ye behind the wheel, whilst the two Peugeots 9X8s couldn’t cash in on their huge BoP advantage over the rest of the field, finishing in seventh and eighth ahead of the Proton Competition Porsche and the #2 Cadillac, which lost a wheel in the final hour of the race.

The struggling Floyd-Vanwall Vandervell 680 took 11th, whilst the #5 Porsche Penske finished last in the class after a costly first-lap puncture.

In the LMP2, the #41 Team WRT squad won its second race of the year to extend its championship lead, overhauling the pole sitters in the #22 United Autosports ORECA, with WRT’s eighth

overall WEC win making it the most successful LMP2 team in the history of the category.

It wasn’t all gloom for Ferrari, however, as the #54 AF Corse 488 GTE claimed its first win of the year over the pole-getting and title-winning #33 Corvette Racing C8.R, despite the AF Corse making early contact with the #33.

The final round of the WEC sees the championship head to Bahrain for the Eight Hours of Bahrain on November 4.

TW Neal The #7 Toyota (above) sealed the Manufacturers’ title, having led from the start.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

PORSCHE TOPS IMSA INDY RETURN THE PENSKE Porsche GTP squad celebrated IMSA’s return to Indianapolis with a one-two finish after a nine-year absence from the famous Road Course.

After locking out the front row following Aussie Matt Campbell’s pole efforts, it was the sister #6 963 Hypercar (below) which got the job done, courtesy of an unfortunate late error from Campbell’s #7 teammate Felipe Nasr.

Aside from keeping the drivers title alive, the onetwo also gave Porsche the Manufacturers lead over Cadillac by eight points in the fight for the inaugural and historic GTP LMDh Hypercar bragging rights.

The victory from the Penske squad after 113 laps also set-up a thrilling run home for top tier of the IMSA championship, with the Indy winning pair of Mathieu Jaminet and

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Nick Tandy a close third in the championship. They sit just five points in arrears of Leading Cadillac pair Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani, with the 10 hour final – the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta – to come, with the #10 Andretti Acura ARX-06 just three points behind in second.

The decisive moment came in the final pit cycle when Nasr pitted from the lead before spinning on cold tyres on his out lap, with Tandy then capitalising on his own out lap to cruise to a 17.421s victory.

The gap to the third running #25 BMW M hybrid was enough for Nasr to keep second with a 15.543s advantage.

Things didn’t start smoothly for the pole man, with a Turn 1 lockup allowing Jaminet to lead, with the incident causing contact between the #60 Acura and the #24 BMW bringing at early caution.

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Another caution flew after some LMP2 and GT3 contact which led to a raft of driver changes and, with both Penskes in front, a penalty was issued to both for not yielded to the initial yellow, which allowed the #31 Cadillac (championship leaders) to take the front.

Nasr jumped Tandy at the restart with 1h35min remaining and gave chase to Derani, chasing him down after 25 minutes with the aid of lapped traffic.

When Derani locked up in Turn 1, both Porsches went through.

Despite the two stablemates making near disastrous contact in the heavy traffic that followed, the spots remained unchanged until the final pit stops with 46min to run when Nasr’s error shut the door on victory.

The Cadillac dropped plenty of pace from earlier cooking its Michelins in traffic, as the BMW enjoyed a 15s split to the final podium spot.

The LMP2 championship lead also swapped with the victory of the #11 Thomas/Jensen piloted TDS Racing ORECA, taking a 20 point lead after beating the Tower Motorsports and Crowdstrike APR LMP2s to the line respectively.

The LMP3 win was taken by the #17 AWA team in the French Duqueine D08, with Aussie Josh Burdon in second with Gary Robinson in the Riley Motorsport Machine, whilst the GTD win went to Bathurst 12 Hour winner Jules Gounon alongside Daniel Juncadella in the #79 WeatherTech AMG. The final IMSA round, Petit Le Mans, is on October 14 in Braselton, Georgia.

TW Neal Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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INTERNATIONAL

He did it again ... another back-to-front win for the veteran kiwi. Below: Team-mate Palou took the championship cup home. Right top: Just another IndyCar first lap ... Bottom: McLaughlin completed his best season yet – third outright.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

DIXON STORMS HOME IN MONTEREY FINALE THE ‘ICE Man’ of IndyCar, Scott Dixon, has claimed the season finale at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, taking his third win in four races.

Remarkably, it was his first win at the track in a career that spans 23 years, 56 wins and six championships, as his end of season romp saw him finish second by 78 points behind 2023 Champion Alex Palou.

The Chip Ganassi veteran topped compatriot Scott McLaughlin by 7.318s in a wild race at the newly re-paved Laguna Seca, overcoming both a starting grid penalty of six spots, and a contentious early on-track penalty, with the Penske runner-up also overcoming some early set-backs to claim the podium.

His P2 also saw him leap into third on the table as he finished his third year with a career high championship result.

Astor Cup champion Alex Palou took the final podium spot, 10.611s behind the leader having already sealed his title at Portland the week prior where he took his fifth win of the year.

Last year’s champion, Aussie Will Power, took fourth on the day to finish a challenging year in seventh, whilst rookie Kiwi Marcus Armstrong emulated McLaughlin by claiming the rookie title in his debut year with a P8 after signing a full-time deal for 2024 with CGR during the week.

Dixon capped off a stellar year for the Indianapolis-based team, with nine combined wins for the year, a one-two in the championship, and the rookie title.

“A credit to this team – they’ve been executing like that all year,” Dixon said.

“It’s been a special group to be a part of, and obviously we’re also celebrating

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Alex’s second championship which is a big thing.

“We got caught up in some mayhem at the start. I definitely didn’t agree with the penalty call, but I haven’t seen all of it yet. I had nowhere to go, but we won and that’s all that matters.”

The race started with surprise pole getter Felix Rosenqvist – in his last race for McLaren – on the front row next to McLaughlin, and the action came thick and fast from there.

A five car collision at the Andretti Hairpin kicked things off, with a trapped Dixon tapping Rinus VeeKay into the gravel, with officials giving him a drivethrough penalty.

But it was Christian Lundgaard who triggered the pile-up with McLaughlin, Armstrong, Juri Vips, Graham Rahal, and Josef Newgarden all going off.

Just like his win at the Indy RC, Dixon was forced into fuel-saving mode to conserve for a comeback run.

Palou grabbed the early lead after the

restart, with another yellow called shortly after when Newgarden spun solo into the tyres at Turn 4.

McLaughlin meanwhile had gotten rid of his Alternate rubber for the Primaries after his trip into the gravel early, and had worked his way back into 12th.

A third yellow was waved after Marcus Ericsson (in his last race for CGR) punted Rosenqvist from second, cutting his tyre.

In a failed restart on lap 27, Power clipped Callum Ilott, and McLaughlin hit Santino Ferrucci from behind, which left the kiwi needing a new front wing.

Palou led on the lap 42 restart but O’Ward got the advantage when he pitted from second just prior to David Malukas going off, causing another yellow when Devlin DeFrancesco veered violently into him.

Palou Pitted under the yellow and was stuck in 15th before another calamitous restart had Ferrucci fly into the gravel to cause a sixth caution.

The constant restart chaos continued when Ericsson collected Armstrong who

was spun by Pederson, with O’Ward in front at the next restart, with 23 laps remaining with Palou leading Dixon in sixth.

A bad exit from Palou at Turn 7 allowed Dixon to scoot through and he rocketed up to third with McLaughlin in tow, and when another yellow flew from Castroneves taking out Herta, and with O’Ward and Grosjean pitting, Dixon had the lead over McLaughlin, Ilott and Palou.

Dixon got a great jump at the restart with 17 laps remaining as Palou moved into third over Power, who’d moved up three spots since the restart, with the podium spots holding to close out another brilliant season of IndyCar. TW Neal INDYCAR FINAL STANDINGS 1. Palou 656 2. Dixon 578 3. McLaughlin 488 4. O’Ward 484 5. Newgarden 479

NASCAR BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY • TENNESSEE

HAMLIN DELIVERS REDDICK ADVANCES BRISTOL IN KANSAS KNOCKOUT THE SECOND Round of 16 clash in the NASCAR postseason went to Tyler Reddick with a Bold late move at Kansas Speedway, giving the 23XI Racing driver an automatic push through to the Round of 12.

Ironically, Reddick beat Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, a co-owner of the 23XI team.

Hamlin was a full two second ahead of Reddick when a blown tyre from Chris Buescher on lap 261 sent the race into overtime with a ninth and final caution.

Starting on the bottom of the third row, Reddick went forward like a rocket whilst his fellow Toyota driver hung in the top lane, and when the field came to Turn 4 Reddick had gone past him on the inside to take the win by just 0.327s, the fifth of his career.

Non-playoff driver Erik Jones took his highest finish for the year in third, whilst also having blocked Hamlin’s path to give Reddick the required space to take the bottom line, who also had the tyre advantage.

“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said after taking his first win on the 2.4 km oval.

“We had really good pace, but just couldn’t get ahead of Denny there ... but chaos ensued, people stayed out, some took two tyres, and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy.”

Hamlin had led 63 laps of the Hollywood Casino 400 clash, but the points for second gave him third in the playoff standings, which was 49 points clear of the four-driver cut-off zone, with his teammate and regular season champion Martin Truex Jr seven points below the line.

The race had bad consequences for a few playoff drivers, but disaster hit early for Truex when he made heavy contact with the wall on lap four, which did irreparable damage to suspension, leading to a retirement.

The other to have a tough time of it was Bubba Wallace – on lap 108 his right rear tyre exploded whilst running strongly in second, with his Toyota going hard into the wall. His loss of laps in the pits and another trip to the repair lane had him five laps down in 32nd and 19 points from 12th, above Ricky Stenhouse Jr, who twice hit the wall in Kansas, and Michael McDowell.

As it stood after Kansas, Kevin Harvick was seven points to the good of the cut-off in 12th, with only the one chance left to ensure safety at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

TW Neal

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THE FINAL Round of 16 stoush in the NASCAR Playoff Series has seen Joe Gibbs Racer Denny Hamlin take victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway, with some big names dropping out of contention.

Former champions Joey Logano and Keven Harvick bit the dust, alongside Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Michael McDowell, with all four needing a win to advance.

After just missing out in Kansas, Hamlin took control of the 500-lap race with 135 laps remaining, leading home Kyle Larson by 2.437s and teammate Christopher Bell.

Bell led a race-high 187 laps of the final to book a comfortable Round of 12 passage. Hamlin was next with a total of 142 laps, making the decisive jump from the pits, as all five Toyota drivers in the playoffs booked passage, including Bubba Wallace in 12th overall despite finishing in P14.

“Really amazing how our team has been, I’m so happy about the way we’re running. Can’t wait to keep going,” Hamlin said after his third win of the season, and for the 51st time in his 19 year NASCAR career.

“It’s our year. I just feel like we’ve got it

all put together. We’ve got the speed at every single type of race track. Nothing to stop us at this point!”

Chris Buescher followed Bell to the line to also qualify, with Brad Keselowski and William Byron (eighth and ninth) also advancing, as did 23XI Racing teammates Wallace and Tyler Reddick (13th and 14th). The final four spots went to Martin Truex Jr (19th), Kyle Busch (20th), Ryan Blaney (22nd) and Ross Chastain (23rd).

Byron finished equal as points leader with Truex Jr after the three-race round.

For Wallace (right), it was his first time in the playoffs despite not registering any actual points – his eight points achieved by finishing third in Stage 1 gave him the nod over Logano and, to booing from the crowd, he rejoiced by addressing the Bristol mob with, “I love that (fire truck expletive) right there ... counting us out!

All they’re doing is adding fuel to the fire.

I love it.”

It was only the third time since the advent of awarded stage points; it’s only the third time a driver has advanced out of the Round of 16 without gaining any playoff points.

It means advancing without a win in the next three races won’t be easy

coming from negative points, but the next race at the intermediate Texas Motor Speedway has traditionally been a Toyota stronghold.

For Logano, a huge backstretch wreck cost him any chance as he was collected

by Corey LaJoie sweeping across the track and into his path. It was the first time a defending champion has missed the Round of 12 cut.

After Texas on September 24, the Round of 12 concludes with visits to the Talladega Superspeedway, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course to decide the Round of 8.

TW Neal

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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INTERNATIONAL

SAINZ AND FERRARI BREAK RED BULL’S RECORD STREAK Report: LUIS VASCONCELOS Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

CARLOS SAINZ and Ferrari won the Singapore Grand Prix in style, the Spanish driver leading the 62 laps of the night race from lights to flag, with a masterclass of measured driving, tyre management and extremely clever use of Lando Norris’ vicinity to give him the chance to have DRS in the last five laps – when the two Mercedes were coming quickly towards the two of them but couldn’t pass the MCL60 while Norris was still able to use the drag reduction system.

Having shown his speed in qualifying, to score his second pole position in a row, Sainz demonstrated his already known strengths in the race, never putting a wheel wrong and doing exactly what he had to do at every stage of the Grand Prix.

With the dominant 2023 team out of contention, the doors opened for its closest competitors, and it was Carlos Sainz and Ferrari that made the most out of it. Since the end of the summer break the Spanish driver seems to have moved up a gear and, two weeks after being on pole in Monza, repeated the dose in Singapore, after being fastest also in FP2 and FP3.

George Russell split the Ferraris on the grid, with a surprising Norris in fourth place ahead of Hamilton and it was clear these were the five drivers with a shot to win on Sunday.

Desperately needing a win, Ferrari put the team ahead of the drivers – unlike in the last five laps in Monza! – and put Leclerc on Soft tyres for the start. The goal was to get past Russell off the line and then serve as a buffer for Sainz, to avoid any chance of undercut from the Mercedes driver.

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The plan worked a treat and, with his teammate behind, Sainz set a very conservative pace, knowing he wouldn’t be attacked: “We had a target lap in mind. Charles was dropping back a bit, I was managing my tyres and waiting for the time to start to push”, he said. But that time never came. After all, this was Singapore and Safety Cars are almost an inevitability, so when Sargeant hit a wall on lap 20 and left parts of his Williams scattered all around the back of the circuit, as he drove back to the pits, the race was neutralised and everyone but Verstappen, Pérez and Bottas – who had started on the Hard tyre – dived into the pits.

“That was a bit too early for us”, said Sainz, “because the second stint was going to be very long, so we continued to do a lot of tyre management, as we’d done with the Mediums.”

Ferrarii’s perfect plan took a hit as Leclerc was unlucky, having to wait for Hamilton to get past him while in the pits before being allowed to leave his box, so he dropped behind Russell and Norris, as well as the two Red Bulls, now on very used tyres. Russell, Norris, Hamilton and Leclerc made quick work of the blue cars but Sainz hadn’t pulled away, saving his tyres – a move that was quite crucial for the final result.

The game had changed, as now it was George Russell in P2 but Sainz’s strategy didn’t change: “I felt under control, to be honest. I always felt like I had the head space and the pace in hand to do whatever I wanted to do. I’m not going to lie, you’re under pressure and you obviously are very close to making any kind of mistake, but I felt under control, I felt like I could manage well.”

Russell was getting frustrated. “He’s

Lance Stroll had another decent shunt in Q1, and was withdrawn from the race. just going so slow, doing so much tyre management”, he told his team, but didn’t have the speed differential to go for a move, so the race seemed decided, at least for the top five, as Norris, Hamilton and Leclerc were the other three wagons in this DRS train.

And then, a VSC on lap 43 to remove Ocon’s stranded Alpine gave Mercedes a chance to gamble and make the most out of being the only team with a second set of new Medium tyres available. Russel and Hamilton duly pitted, dropping to fourth and fifth but now with a massive tyre advantage over the top three.

It was only then that Sainz admitted that, “at the beginning, I was not so nervous, because I felt like I had a lot of pace in hand to push the last 12-15 laps. But I immediately felt like as soon as I started pushing, my tyre degradation started to kick in. And I think Lando and I were sliding a lot, so it surprised me quite a lot how quickly the Mercedes managed to pass Charles and close the gap on Lando and me.”

It was the Spaniard’s intelligence and cool head that, in the end, guaranteed him a second Grand Prix with: “ At that point, I thought, “it’s

Sargeant’s drive back to the pits with bits hanging off the Williams, brought out the Safety Car. The Haas duo qualified well, Magnussen taking a single point on Sunday.

not going to be easy and these last five, six laps is going to be a fight. And at that point, obviously I had to change the strategy. I had to give Lando a bit of a cheeky DRS boost, and that helped us to keep them behind him and get the win for Ferrari – that feels great!”

The Ferrari driver twice had to wait for his friend and former team-mate after Norris

Formula 1 Round 16 SINGAPORE Grand Prix - Race report

Hamilton cost himself a better result with his Q3 lap.

Lawson’s drive into points was ... superb.

Impressive sight – the start under lights. Below: McLaren had a pretty good day (left), while Verstappen found himself being passed for the first time in a while (right) ...

dropped out of DRS range on laps 59 and 61, the first time nearly parking in Turn 3 before accelerating and keeping the McLaren less than one second behind.

Credit to Leclerc for playing the team game with no complaints, “because it was very important for the team to get this win. At a time the car understeers too much, or my driving style and I can never get the oversteer I prefer”, the Monegasque explained.

NORRIS BEATS THE MERCEDES

USING THE only upgrade McLaren finished in time for this weekend, Lando Norris was always among the fastest drivers on track and, after being fourth in qualifying, he scored a season-best second place, with a good amount of fortune and the crucial help of his mate Carlos Sainz helping him beat Leclerc and the two Mercedes.

Obviously the Spaniard didn’t help Norris for any other reason than he needed to have him behind as a buffer against the two Mercedes but, to his credit, the Brit made very few mistakes and grabbed the opportunities he was given with both hands. No wonder he was pleased with the result and not even frustrated to have, again, missed out on what would have been his first Grand Prix win: “I was just protecting P2. George couldn’t overtake me – he struggled to overtake me QUALIFYING RACE 16

when he had a five, six-tenths advantage, so the chances of me getting past Carlos with, maybe, a one-tenth advantage, was no chance. Carlos played it smart. There was no need for me to try and attack him. The more I attacked him, the more vulnerable I would have been from both the guys behind and I wouldn’t be sitting here – we wouldn’t be on the podium if I played it differently. So, it was a stressful, stressful last few laps, for sure. Carlos was generous helping me get DRS. It helped my race, and also helped his.”

For Mercedes, having the quickest race car on the day wasn’t enough to finally get the first win of the season. Russell, who dropped behind Leclerc at the start before getting back to P2 when the Monegasque lost time in the pits, was all for “going for the win” and pushed for the team to pit him during the VSC period – an inspired move. However, he may have taken too much out of the new Mediums on his out lap for, after pulling away from Hamilton, he saw his team mate come back from 5s behind to just 1.9s behind in six laps, before they both got stuck behind Norris.

Then, the unthinkable happened, as the young Brit crashed on the last lap.

“A heartbreaking moment I can only explain it by lack of concentration, as by then any chance of passing Norris was gone. I’m devasted”, he admitted, “but I’ll be back on

RESULTS RACE 16 61 LAPS 5.063 KM SINGAPORE

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 16

Pos Driver

Time

Pos Drivers

Make

Laps

Margin

Pos Driver

1

Carlos Sainz

1:30.984

1

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

62

1:46.37.418 -

1

Max Verstappen

374

-

2

George Russell

+0.072

2

Lando Norris

McLaren

62

+0.812 s2

2

Sergio Perez

223

-

3

Charles Leclerc

+0.079

3

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

62

+1.269 s2

3

Lewis Hamilton

180 s1

4

Lando Norris

+0.286

4

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

62

+21.177 t1

4

Fernando Alonso 170

-1

5

Lewis Hamilton

+0.501

5 Max Verstappen

Red Bull

62

+21.441 s6

5

Carlos Sainz

142

-

6

Kevin Magnussen

+0.591

6 Pierre Gasly

Alpine

62

+38.441 s6

6

Charles Leclerc

123

-

7

Fernando Alonso

+0.631

7

Oscar Piastri

McLaren

62

+41.479 s10

7

George Russell

109

-

8

Esteban Ocon

+0.689

8 Sergio Perez

Red Bull

62

+59.534 s5

8

Lando Norris

97

-

9

Nico Hulkenberg

AlphaTauri

+0.824

9

62

+1:05.918 s1

9

Lance Stroll

47

-

10 Liam Lawson

+1.284

10 Kevin Magnussen Haas

62

+1:12.116 t4

10 Pierre Gasly

45

-

11

+1.189

11 Alex Albon

Williams

62

+1:13.417 s3

11

42 s1

12 Pierre Gasly

+1.290

12 Zhou Guanyu

Alfa Romeo

62

+1:23.649 s7

12 Esteban Ocon

36

-1

13 Sergio Perez

+1.326

13 Nico Hulkenberg

Haas

62

+1:26.201 t4

13 Alex Albon

21

-

14 Alex Albon

+2.735

14 Logan Sargeant

Williams

62

+1:26.889 s4

14 Nico Hulkenberg

9

-

15 Yuki Tsunoda

-

15 Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

62

+1:27.603 t8

15 Valtteri Bottas

6

-

16 Valtteri Bottas

+1.825

NC George Russell

Mercedes

61

+1 Lap t14

16 Zhou Guanyu

4

-

17 Oscar Piastri

+1.918

NC Valtteri Bottas

Alfa Romeo

51

+11 Laps t1

17 Yuki Tsunoda

3

-

18 Logan Sargeant

+2.268

NC Esteban Ocon

Alpine

42

+20 Laps t10

18 Kevin Magnussen

3

-

19 Zhou Guanyu

+2.274

NC Yuki Tsunoda

AlphaTauri

0 t4

20 Lance Stroll

+2.613

DNS Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

Max Verstappen

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Liam Lawson

Points

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Oscar Piastri

19 Liam Lawson

2 s1

20 Daniel Ricciardo

0 +`

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it chance of passing Norris was gone. I’m devasted”, he admitted, “but I’ll be back on it in Suzuka.”

Inheriting P3 with a few corners to go, Hamilton wasn’t too happy either: “I can only blame myself. Had I done a good job in qualifying I would have put it on pole position and won the race.”

As for the last few, exciting laps, the veteran admitted that, “there was no way I could pass George on equal cars and tyres, but I was hoping he’d get by Lando and Carlos so we could score a one-two. We certainly had the pace but I lost it all on Saturday.”

POINTS FOR THE YOUNGSTERS

PIERRE GASLY capitalized on a better race pace than qualifying speed to move up to sixth place at the end but it was Esteban Ocon who starred for Alpine until, cruelly, the gearbox broke, robbing him of a deserved amount of points.

Behind him, two young drivers showed that Australia and New Zealand have a lot to look forward in Formula 1 from now on.

With a ‘standard’ MCL60, Piastri was terribly unlucky in qualifying as he was about to ease his way into Q2 when Stroll had an almighty crash in front of him, so he was out in Q1 but then made steady progress in the race. On a very hard track for rookies the McLaren driver picked his battles and moved up to seventh when Russell crashed, earning four valuable points for McLaren. And with Aston Martin having a dreadful weekend, the gap for P4 in the Constructor’ Championship was cut by 24 points, but still stands at 78 points with seven Grand Prix to go.

Liam Lawson scored his first Formula 1 points with ninth place, scoring AlphaTauri’s best result of the season at the end of a solid and impressive weekend. On a new, difficult, track for him, the Kiwi didn’t put a wheel wrong and made it into the top 10 in qualifying, before keeping a cool head when far more experienced drivers lost theirs, to score two valuable points.

Still, he admitted, “I need to improve my starts because that’s the second race in a row I lost two places off the line and that’s on me, not the car.” Nevertheless, the youngster was beaming at the end of the race, admitting that, “for the rest, I think we extracted everything out of the car. We didn’t quite have the race pace. To be honest, we kind of felt going into the race, it was going to be a little bit difficult, because we felt this on Friday as well. But we tried to correct it as much as we could. So, I think we maximised what we had today and this result feels great.”

Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 in Haas’ best weekend in ages, having already starred with P6 in qualifying and minimising the damage when the VF-23’s massive tyre degradation levels hit him again on Sunday.

,

WHY RED BULL STRUGGLED SO MUCH

“WE KNEW this day would come”, a downcast Max Verstappen said at the end of the Singapore Grand Prix, his amazing winning streak having come to a halt with a bang. From the start of the weekend it was clear the team couldn’t get the RB19 into a comfortable operating window and, no matter how many changes they made, none of its drivers made it into Q3 and Verstappen could only recover to fifth at the end of a difficult race.

With Pérez recovering from 13th on the grid to P8 this was, by far, the worst result of the season and the team wasn’t too sure why it had struggled more in the Marina Bay circuit than expected.

The new floor tried in Free Practice was removed for qualifying and the race, allowing the team to run the car stiffer and lower, but Verstappen admitted that, “I couldn’t brake hard because on the bumps the front wheels would unload and I also had poor traction.”

By the end of the race he was slightly more optimistic, saying that, “we have an idea of what we did wrong but only next year, on this track, we’ll know if that’s the case.” But his confidence towards the rest of the season was unchanged, clearly stating that, “Suzuka is a very different track – it suits our car, so we’ll be back up there!”

While there were a few wild suggestions Red Bull was in trouble because it had to adapt the RB19 to Technical Directive 18/23, that states all areas of the aero parts couldn’t flex any more, the data suggests reality was far simpler. The brilliant car that has dominated the season works in a way that the airflow under the chassis stalls on the straights – reducing drag – but generates maximum ground effect under braking and cornering, as it runs with a lower ride height than any other car and has the most powerful diffuser, which is why fast corners are its forte.

With Singapore bringing a combination of slow corners and bumpy braking areas, the car had to be run with a higher ride, meaning the ground effect and diffuser generated downforce in the corners was nowhere near as powerful as at normal circuits. Any attempt to run it lower made the front of the RB19 bottom under braking; any attempt to run it higher cost rear end downforce, hence, lack of traction and, as a consequence, too much sliding.

And that’s why, as Verstappen openly admitted, the status quo should be back in Suzuka, a track that could well have been designed to suit the car that, until last Sunday, had won every single round of this year’s World Championship.

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TEST YOUR MOTORSPORT GENERAL KNOWLEDGE ACROSS 2 How many F1 victories did John Watson take?

3 Which IndyCar team is Felix Rosenqvist moving to for 2024? (abbreviation) 6 For what manufacturer did Alex Albon race for in the DTM series in 2021?

7 Who has signed to race for Arrow McLaren in IndyCar next year replacing Felix Rosenqvist? (surname) 8 What position did Alex Albon finish in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2018?

10 In what country was Alex Albon born?

Bathurst 1000 and finished third – who did he share the car with? (surname) 28 Alex Albon has scored how many podiums in his F1 career to date?

DOWN 1 Marcus Gronholm dominated the World Rally Championship in 2002 driving for what manufacturer?

3 Allan Moffat won the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship driving for what brand?

4 Who made his V8 Supercars debut in the 2003 Sandown 500 alongside Mark Noske? (surname)

12 Which track hosted the first round of the Australian V8 Touring Car 5.0L era in 1993?

5 Which track hosted the British Grand Prix in 1986?

16 Who am I? A Kiwi I won Le Mans with Porsche before racing for Toro Rosso in F1 fulltime in 2018. The following year I returned to WEC winning at Le Mans with Toyota in 2020 and 2022. (surname)

9 Who won Ferrari’s first Formula 1 World Championship race in 1951? (surname) 11 Who famously said, “the lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical.” (surname)

17 Who won the first Bathurst 12 Hour with Peter Fitzgerald and Nigel Arkell in 1991? (surname)

12 On August 28 2021, the final turn at Monza, the Curva Parabolica was renamed the Curva what?

18 What is the nationality of John Watson?

13 Who won the 2001 and 2002 Indy 500s, his first two appearances in the race? (surname)

19 Who won the Australian Drivers Championship in 2002? This driver has had a very successful open-wheeler career overseas. (surname) 21 John Watson holds the record of winning an F1 race from the lowest position on the grid, where did he start the 1983 Long Beach GP? 24 Who won his first V8 Supercar race for Stone Brothers Racing at Hidden Valley in 1998? (surname) 26 Alex Albon finished as the FIA Formula 3 Championship runner-up to who in 2016? (surname) 27 Thomas Mezera raced for HRT in the 2002

14 Who has led the most laps in IndyCar Series history?

15 Who won the last Supercars Championship round at Calder Park in 2001? (surname) 20 For what manufacturer does Augusto Fernandez ride for in MotoGP? 22 Which team won the Bathurst 24 Hour in 2002? (abbreviation) 23 Which driver recently became the first to complete 20,000 racing laps in Formula 1? (surname) 25 How many times has Shane van Gisbergen raced in the NASCAR Cup Series?

1869 CROSSWORD ANSWERS - 1 down – one-hundred and sixty-one, 2 down – Holden, 3 down – Brock, 4 down – Penrite, 5 down – Muller, 5 across – MSR, 6 across – Holden, 7 across – Russell, 8 down – Stanaway, 9 across – thirteen, 10 down – Percat, 11 across – Goddard, 12 down – three, 13 down – zero, 14 across – Nissan, 15 across – three, 16 across – three, 17 across – Reynolds, 18 down – Onslow, 19 across – Winterbottom, 19 down – Whincup, 20 down – Estre, 21 across – Lowndes, 22 down – zero, 23 across – two, 23 down – two, 24 across – three, 25 across – two, 26 across – seven

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1973 LEO GEOGHEGAN took charge of the Australian Formula 2 Championship with another big win at Symmons Plains.

Geoghegan won the race in style, breaking the previous lap record by almost three seconds. The race was marred by a nasty second lap crash between Kurt Seeberg and a slower car. Seeburg’s car was “virtually demolished” in the incident which blocked the circuit in what is now Turn 3.

Another dominant force was Colin Bond in his Holden Dealer Team Torana in the Australian Rally Championship. Bond and George Shepheard “spreadeagled” the field to win the Brookside Warana Rally by 21 minutes.

1983 ALLAN MOFFAT took his fifth Sandown victory at the 1983 Castrol 400 with the help of his controversial fuel-injected, 13B-engined Mazda. It was a race of attrition as four of the top six cars dropped out and Moffat’s new engine reigned supreme to win by 15s over Jim Richards’ BMW. Peter Brock broke the lap record to take pole position with a 1:10.7, but had to settle for third. The Australian Drivers Championship also held a round at Sandown where Alfredo Costanzo strengthened his grip on a record fourth straight title. Meanwhile, Lucio Cesario threatened he may quit racing all together after a series of fines for dangerous driving and ignoring black flags.

62 I www.autoaction.com.au

1993 ALLAN MOFFAT’s Bathurst campaign was thrown a setback on the eve of the Great Race having discovered lead driver Klaus Niedzwiedz was held back by commitments in Germany. Moffat turned to the experienced Andrew Miedecke in the emergency scenario to race the #10 Cenovis Vitamins Falcon.

Anticipation was building for the upcoming Bathurst 1000 which was labelled as the “most open in years,” being the first of the V8 era. In Formula 1, Michael Andretti’s failed crack at Formula 1 came to an early end when he quit McLaren to return to America.

2003 TWO DECADES ago, the Sandown 500 returned to Supercars after a brief hiatus and it was unforgettable. Stone Brothers Racing’s winning streak ended in the sand pit as Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly prevailed in a race of meteorological mayhem. After a wet and wild day, Skaife had to fend off surprise packet Jason Richards, but sadly Team Dynamik’s hopes of a fairytale win vanished when the Kiwi went too deep at Dandenong Road.

Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall could only manage fifth after a costly trip through the sand.

Matt Coleman was lucky to survive a spectacular take off in Carrera Cup while, off the track, Holden was trying to lure Triple Eight away from Ford as early as its first race in charge.

2013 AS JAMIE Whincup and Paul Dumbrell flew to Sandown 500 glory, there was a “civil war” breaking out at FPR. With a Ford backing deal being delayed and both cars encountering pit problems, the team and drivers were not seeing eye to eye post-race. The factory Ford team could not stop a convincing Triple Eight one-two, with Whincup and Dumbrell overcoming a pit lane penalty for spinning the wheels during a stop and snatching the lead from Lowndes with 11 laps to go. Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier held off Thierry Neuville to win Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour, while Mark Webber predicted Sebastian Vettel’s shock move from Ferrari to Red Bull a year early.

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