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MATT PAYNE GROVE’S INVESTMENT PAYING OFF

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10 YEARS ON DAVEY WINS ON THE STREETS AGAIN

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Cam Waters’ win on Saturday at the Gold Coast has lifted a burden of frustration from him and the Tickford team. Images: MARK HORSBURGH-MOTORSPORT IMAGES

WATERS BREAKTHROUGH WIN FOR FORD AND TICKFORD CAM WATERS’ WIN ON SATURDAY ON THE GOLD COAST TRIGGERED AN EMOTIONAL OUTPOURING NORMALLY RESERVED FOR BATHURST AND MAIDEN WINS. POST THE RACE, ANDREW CLARKE SPOKE WITH WATERS ABOUT WHAT THE WIN REALLY MEANS ... TICKFORD RACING’S lead driver, Cam Waters, has had a tough season for one reason or another, and the win on Gold Coast gave way to an emotional outpouring like we haven’t seen this season. When he put the power down coming out of the last corner and it was clear he was going to hold off Shane van Gisbergen, the Tickford crew exploded with noise on the way to the wall to cheer home the #6 Mustang. Hoisted into the air by his Number 1 Mechanic Paul Auditore, the exultation was obvious. If this had been a Sunday race, the celebration would have been huge. For one reason or another, a combination of poor luck and a parity disadvantage, 2023 has been tough for Waters and his crew. On paper, there was a win in the first race of the season, but it wasn’t really a win. Then the hard luck set in. A bouncing wheel knocked the rear wing off the car at Sandown, the car caught fire in Darwin while leading, and a dubious penalty at Sydney Motorsport Park took away a podium, leading to Waters much publicised “it is no wonder no one wants to race here” comment. While Saturday 28 October didn’t quite

wipe away those memories, it did start to ease the pain and frustration. “It was great to finally get that monkey off the back, so to speak, and get the win. With so many bad races and things happening to us this year, we never thought it would end, and it was just a really great day,” Water said on Sunday night before celebrating the win properly. “We rolled out quick, were fastest in Qualifying and the Shootout – it was hooked up and the race was much the same. It was great to race like we did with Shane at the end, to have a bit of a battle and put on a show for the fans. “We haven’t had parity all year, and I still don’t think we do, but at least it’s getting closer and we can race. We feel like if we do a good job now, we can win races. “I think we have a car that works pretty well mechanically – we’ve had to work pretty hard this year to get to that. But at Bathurst, the delta between the cars was quite large. I just feel like we’ve kind of got similar strengths now.” This season won’t easily be forgotten either. “I think this year is going to be a permanent scar in my memory, but it’s great to have a

win and, hopefully, we can finish the year off strongly ... but it’s been a pretty shocking year. “We do this to compete and I don’t feel like we’ve have a level playing field for a lot of the year. When you can go for race wins and you can rock up to the track and think you’re capable of that, with equal opportunity as someone else, it keeps you motivated, doesn’t it? “When you don’t think you have an opportunity to win a race, it’s very hard to stay motivated. Everyone in the pit lane, including Supercars, wants parity. We all want it all to be even and leave it up to the teams and drivers to put on a show, which we did this weekend.” He was a bit cranky with himself for the mistake in the Sunday Shootout which could have cost him a second win for the weekend, but he’s happy to bank Saturday. “After the win, there was so much emotion. The team has put in so much effort all year just to be continually kicked, so to speak. With all the bad luck and all the things going wrong, it’s been tough on them and now there’s just a sense of relief for everyone. There’s definitely a little bit of a shift in motivation.

“Right now I’m just thinking of Adelaide and not next year at all. I’m thinking about racing my Sprintcar on November 4, which will be pretty cool. I’m keen to get back in that, where I can decide which gurney I want to run and where I want to put the wing, so that’s nice. And I’ve got heaps of power, too! “We’ll get through Adelaide and hopefully win again and then next year we want to go and race for the championship, a Bathurst win and race wins. That’s never changed – it is the same at the start of each season. Hopefully, Supercars can have a great offseason and the wind tunnel test is great and they can get on top of these engines and we can come out and race.”

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REYNOLDS ENDS 5-YEAR WINLESS SUPERCARS STREAK

PENRITE RACING’S DAVE REYNOLDS BROKE A FIVE-YEAR RUN WITHOUT A WIN, CLAIMING A RACE WIN AT THE PLACE WHERE HE FIRST WON 10 YEARS AGO. ANDREW CLARKE SPOKE WITH THE RACE WINNER ... SUPERCARS HAS missed having Dave Reynolds on the podium, so a double dose over the weekend, including a victory celebration with a fire extinguisher – he was hoping for a CO2 one to make a bigger visual statement – has helped to reignite the waning interest in the 2023 championship. For Reynolds, as with Waters the previous day, the win this season never felt possible until the latest round of parity adjustments. The win is Reynolds eighth in the series and is Grove Racing’s first since the team morphed out of Kelly Racing, which won

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back-to-back titles nearly 20 years ago. “Newcastle 2018 was my last win so, honestly, it’s just a relief. I feel very relieved. I feel like it’s been my first win again,” he told Auto Action after the race. “Like, 10 years ago, I won my first race here, and I was ecstatic but relieved at the same time, and I feel exactly the same way. “I like this place. I don’t know why but it just seems to suit my driving style and the way we set up our cars. I’ve had Al (Alistair McVean) for the last eight years, and we’ve always had strong performances here, and

we always go well at the street circuits. “I think it’s been a fantastic weekend for our boys at the little Penrite Racing team. We’ve done really well. Every session, we’ve been fast. Matt’s been super fast too. Third yesterday, two front-row starts, and a win today. That was the best weekend we’ve had as a team together in the last three years. “We’ve been working really hard all year. Every session, every race, every practice session, every test day. We work really hard. These are the hardest-working bunch of people I’ve ever worked with. We’ve found a

nice setup window to play in, and that’s been really good the last couple of rounds. “But obviously, there’s been a parity adjustment to the Ford, which actually gave us the opportunity this weekend to perform on an equal playing field. Probably without that, I wouldn’t be sitting here. Thanks to the category for doing that. “Any of our two cars on their day can win, and we proved it today.” For Team Principal David Cauchi, it means the move south two years is starting to give a return.

“It’s a huge achievement,” he said. “I always believed in Stephen Grove and Brenton Grove and their vision – that’s why I made the jump from what was a great team (Triple Eight) and a successful career. “But I believe in their vision, and I wanted to work with them to be able to share what I know and bring us up to the level that we need to be to win races. We’ve done that today, and now the next step is to continue to win races so we can win championships. “That’s been clear from day one, and we’re slowly moving to that.” But Reynolds didn’t have an easy day of it, crossing the line only 0.1880s in front of Brodie Kostecki, who was using the Perth ruling on tapping to full effect. Reynolds also had two shortcuts of the Turn 1 chicane during the closing laps after ‘banking’ his kerb strikes early. Kostecki took the lead on lap 72 of 85, but coughed it up two laps later with a small mistake at Turn 11, both drivers revealing a loss of downforce at the rear with a car right on the tail. Kostecki later said it was as much fun as he has racing this year; Reynolds said he wasn’t enjoying it as much. “I was cursing him, to be honest. I don’t really like to play like that. But you know, that’s the rules and he played it. He was rubbing me hard, trying to spin me, and then, he was letting me get back in and then trying to do it again. But that’s just how some people race. “At this race, you got to save yourself up for the last laps if you’re chasing or defending – if you haven’t got a bad

sportsmanship flag, you know you have kerb strikes in hand. Then you need to do everything in your power to utilise that. So, we’ve seen in the past that’s given people the win or the pass, and that’s no different today. It’s that style of track. “They’ve got a little bit more straight-line speed than us, so he can actually get up right behind me and take all my aero off going into the corner. I was trying to brake and turn and it feels like he’s hitting me, but he’s not. He’s just disturbing the air off my car, so I turned in, lost the rear, and if I tried to make the corner, I would’ve crashed. So, I did everything in my power just to make the corner. “I tried to maintain everything as it was and that’s just the way it was. I wasn’t trying to get any advantage – even though you think you can take a bit more kerb and take the piss out of it at Turn 1, I was actually genuinely just trying to make the corner. And I just couldn’t.” Reflecting on his move from Erebus three years ago, which ironically helped Kostecki into a full-time drive, he says this is a great way to end his relationship with Grove Racing, although he’s hoping for another win in Adelaide before joining Team 18 next season. “The past couple of years have been very tough. I feel very relieved. Five years is a long time to go winless. I’ve been second a few times, thirds too, a bunch of times on pole, but that race win has been a bit of a drought. “Generally, in our sport, the races are only won by one or two teams over the year. This year’s almost no exception, and until the little parity adjustment, I felt like I had no fight.

This has obviously given us something to work with. “We push ahead with the attitude we are there to win. And if you can’t win, you’re trying to come second. If you can’t come second, you try and come third and it just works its safe, self down. “It would have felt a little bit incomplete to leave Groves without a win, to be honest. I set out to win a race this year, and I knew after the first test day it was going to be very difficult. As the year went on the category’s done a good job to try and balance the two cars. And this weekend, it was a big shift, and that was the biggest shift we had. We’ve had two Ford wins with Camaros right up our arses – that shows how close the category is now. But he leaves now with confidence fully restored – not that he ever lost the belief that he would win again. “It just goes to show that I can still be a winner – and in motor racing, winning is everything. The team I’ve been with this year is on a good trajectory. We’ve got a lot of smart people there, and they do everything in their power to win. “This is just an amalgamation of all the thoughts of all the people there – the mechanics, the engineers, myself ... Matt Payne helped out today – he moved over when he had to – and without that sort of assistance in and that team effort, the win’s not possible. “I’m not leaving Grove because they’re a bad team or anything. I’m a little bit older and I was looking for a longer deal. That’s really it, there’s not much else to it.”

THE SIGHT of David Reynolds throwing pot plants off the Gold Coast podium was nothing new as he did the exact same thing to mark his maiden Supercars success a decade ago, with Dean Canto. On that occasion, a then 28-year-old racing for FPR overcame a race-long battle with James Courtney and a late challenge from Fabian Coulthard. After multiple near misses, Reynolds could not contain his emotions at finally standing on the top step again and was once again up to his old tricks a decade later.

DAVE REYNOLDS STATS > 430 RACES > 8 WINS > 42 PODIUMS > 16 POLE POSITIONS

Sunday’s win at the Gold Coast came despite enormous pressure from championship leader Kostecki. Above: wheeling the Penrite car through the chicane. Opposite: The Grove team is morphing into a serious championship contender for 2024. Images: MARK HORSBURGH-EDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS/MOTORPSORT IMAGES

> 1 BATHURST WIN

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OAM DATA 2023

POLES

WINS

PODIUMS

CHEVROLET

FORD

PARITY SOLVED? HAVE GOLD COAST CHANGES DONE THE JOB?

THE RACING ON THE GOLD COAST BETWEEN FORD AND CHEVROLET WAS AS GOOD AS WE’VE SEEN ALL YEAR, –HAS THE GREAT PARITY PUZZLE FINALLY BEEN SOLVED? ANDREW CLARKE EXPLORES .... FORD SCORED a few aero tweaks after the sporting parity trigger was reached at Bathurst, and Ford stepped up and won two races for the weekend, its second and third wins for the season. Dave Reynolds said it played a big role in his first win in five years, while Cam Waters felt it played a minimal role at best in his result. Erebus’ CEO declared cheekily that parity had been reached, and even Jeromy Moore from Triple Eight Racing Engineering was inclined to agree. But Ben Nightingale, Ford’s head of motorsport in Australia, said he’s not convinced yet, and that he’ll wait for the wind tunnel and transient dyno tests before feeling like the job is done. Ford wanted to make some changes

at Bathurst, all of which and more were included in the Gold Coast adjustment. There were infills for the cheeks in the front bumper and the more pronounced front flares, along with a wider rear wing that was moved back to its original position and had the gurneys removed. What was also added this time were some infills to the side skirts, and the wing was made even wider than first requested. Whether the Chev teams liked it or not doesn’t matter. The trigger they worked so hard to defend at Bathurst had been reached, and Supercars’ head of motorsport – Adrian Burgess – approved these changes. The trigger cannot be reached again this year.

Ford seemed revitalised with both speed and the ability to stick with the Chevs over a stint. Meaning the previously high rear tyre wear appeared a thing of the past. Job done? Maybe, and maybe not. “It’s hard to tell,” Triple Eight’s Jeromy Moore said after the Sunday race. “The info we have is only based on CFD from Ford itself, so it’s not actually measured in VCAT or a wind tunnel yet. So, it’s an estimate. “I think it’s certainly helped them out. They probably needed something, and I think it’s there or thereabouts. I think the proof will be when we go wind tunnel testing and figure out where we both are because there’s been a lot of changes to that car, and I think they’ll be a little bit

ahead now, but we’ll see soon.” He said he wasn’t disappointed with the changes because the system has been followed, which was all Triple Eight wanted at Bathurst and Sandown. “It’s the process and the rules have been applied correctly. We’ve had the trigger, they’ve had an adjustment, had another trigger and another adjustment. You can’t be upset about that, we had the same thing in 2019, I think. “Going forward to next year, we need to have a re-look at the rule book. The cars are going to be as close as ever in best practice measurement systems, so we shouldn’t need to have an archaic trigger system once we know that they are the same.”

GOLD COAST’S ZERO IMPACT ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP A PAIR OF 8s IS ALL BRODIE KOSTECKI NEEDS TO WIN HIS FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP ... ANDREW CLARKE DOES THE NUMBERS.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP lead for Brodie Kostecki over Shane van Gisbergen remains at 131 points after both drivers recorded a second and a fifth-place finish in

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each of the two races. Will Brown and Broc Feeney are now officially out of contention with not enough points on the table for either of them to beat Kostecki, or van Gisbergen in second, for that matter. Van Gisbergen closed the gap by 27 points in the Saturday race when he trailed home Cam Waters by 0.1945s after 250km, and Kostecki came home fifth after starting 10th following a mucked Shootout run with a kerb strike. But then van Gisbergen did the same in the Sunday shootout and started ninth before finishing in fifth, while Kostecki trailed Dave Reynolds by 0.1880s to be second in a weekend of swings and roundabouts. Kostecki also has 18 podiums from the 26 races this year.

With no points for fastest laps in Adelaide, all Kostecki needs is a pair of 8th-place finishes to win his first title. Kostecki has a finishing average of 5.0 this season and hasn’t finished lower than eighth in the past 10 races. If Kostecki wins the first race, van Gisbergen will need to finish second to keep the fight alive on Sunday. Van Gisbergen, on the other hand, needs a bit of luck and probably a pair of wins on the tough streets of Adelaide – where he has won five times previously, but not since 2018. Kostecki will be keen, however, to stretch the gap to van Gisbergen to more the 150 points so there is no debate around van Gisbergen’s disqualification from

the season-opening race after a technical breach of the rules. Waters’ pole position on Saturday ensured Kostecki of the pole award for 2023, the latter’s eighth pole for the season on Sunday confirming his award. POS DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP 1 Brodie Kostecki 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 Will Brown 4 Broc Feeney 5 Chaz Mostert 6 Andre Heimgartner 7 Cam Waters 8 Anton De Pasquale 9 Bryce Fullwood 10 Jack Le Brocq

POINTS 2696 2565 2201 2192 2056 1830 1829 1680 1623 1616

Chaz Mostert’s WAU Mustang enjoyed the gains made due to the parity adjustment. Far right: Ben Nightingale (Ford Motorpsort Australia) chats with Saturday race winner Cam Waters. The upgrades, as presented by various Ford teams ...including front spoiler ‘infills’. Images: MARK HORSBURGH The new shape on the left with infill panel He said the trigger is a measure of sporting parity only, and Supercars is based on technical parity, which he is looking forward to having along with the removal of ‘performance by politics’. Nightingale looked ready to shed a tear after Cam Waters won the Saturday race, which was arguably Ford’s first pure win for the season after a tough year on and off the track. After backing up on Sunday with Dave Reynolds, Nightingale felt vindicated. “What a great weekend,” he said. “I don’t think any of us expected to come in and do that. “We knew street circuits have been better for us throughout the year. But being able to come here with those aerodynamic changes obviously gave the car’s performance a boost. I think it also had the effect of giving everybody’s mental state a bit of a boost as well. “There was definitely a bit of optimism among all the drivers and teams and I think what we’ve seen this weekend is the result of when you give really high-performing teams and drivers the tools to get the job done. “We’ve finished both days with the top

two inside of a second of one another with one of each type of car, and that’s what Supercars racing should look like.” While he wasn’t happy with the system that blocked the requested changes for Bathurst, he was happy it finally allowed them to get close to what he believes is technical parity. “We went through the appropriate channels. The parity review system was triggered. We underwent the review with our homologation team, DJR. They went through all the right channels and the data supported the changes.” On getting more changes than Bathurst, he simply said that was what the system allowed. “You’ve got a certain data set and then after Bathurst, we had the Bathurst data set as well. So the DJR guys were able to properly analyse that data as well as everything else we’d seen through the year and simulate where the disparity was. “Ever since we got the aero mapping data back in August, Brendan (McGinniskin, the technical lead at Ford Performance in Australia) and the team have been working hard on a whole raft of changes

and potential pieces, some of which we’ve introduced this weekend and then there’s other tools that we’ll investigate during this offseason testing in the wind tunnel.” The data that was supplied in August was only part of what global boss Mark Rushbrook was asking for in the early part of the season; he was also after something like the SMT system we wrote about in AA1869, which shares live telemetry among the teams. “What Mark’s been talking about and what we’ve been looking for is very similar to the NASCAR model, which is actually live data and live telemetry from every car and everybody’s got access to it. “It’d be fantastic to see it because it would allow everybody to see what’s happening in real-time and then be able to go away and do the analysis and understand exactly what’s happening. “The aero map data that we got given in August was the first time we’d seen a proper comparative analysis and once we had that, it was immediately obvious that there was a disparity. “Yesterday was a pressure release for everybody involved. I think our teams obviously all want to win, but everyone

The Auto Action motorsport podcast The team that’s not trying to make friends or look after sponsors!

was “Oh, thank God”. Our teams have worked so hard this year – their grit and determination, their resilience this year has been astounding and they’ve been working so hard to get to that point. “I think that was what we saw in the Tickford garage yesterday. That emotional release and response ... I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. That was special. “Just to reiterate again, this is what our teams are capable of, and this weekend, they’ve been able to maximise the package with the changes that Brendan and the team worked on and have expanded the operational window of these cars and given them all the ability to show what’s possible. When we hang on to that rear tyre, which we’ve done far better this weekend, we can have grandstand finishes like we’ve had, which is fantastic.” In Sunday’s race, Dave Reynolds was able to complete 29 laps in the 11s bracket and 40 in the 12s, which compared with Brodie Kostecki’s 25 and 44 for the same lap times. Reynolds’s final five laps were all in the 11s, which shows the tyres had hung in better than at any other time this season.

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McLEOD LOOKING FOR A NEW SUPERCARS PATH THE BURGEONING Sports Sedan series is emerging as a wildcard way of getting in front of Supercars teams, but it will only provide part of a pathway for a seat, according to young gun Cameron McLeod. After winning all three races on the Gold Coast, McLeod said it is important to race on the same calendar as the Supercars if you want to be seen, although he doesn’t know if anyone was watching, but that he’ll still have to find a way to race in Super2 or Super3 to be able to get enough points to get a Superlicence. McLeod’s Mustang-based MARC car was marginally quicker on the Gold Coast than a Supercar and, while it is similar, it is also different. But it is part of his plan to drive as many cars as he can on his pathway to a rumoured Supercar test later this year. He wouldn’t confirm the test or who it is with but said he was hoping it will come off. “I’m just driving everything and anything I can. A lot of people like Geoff (MARC cars owner Geoff Taunton, who bought out McLeod’s father a few years ago) are helping it out, so I can’t thank them enough, but Supercars is definitely my aim,” he said from the Gold Coast before turning his attention to next season and his future. “It’s all up in the air at the moment, we just don’t know. So, we just keep chipping away at whatever we can and get in

Image: MICK REYNOLDS - MTR IMAGES whatever car we can. Now it’s just about connections, sponsors and people helping you out. “We are looking at a couple of things; we may not really know anything until the last minute. That’s how this year’s been as well – we just take it one day at a time. “Racing with Supercars is important because all the Supercar teams are there comparing. It’s a different car, but you’re still comparing. I don’t know if they were watching Sports Sedans or not, I hope they are because that is what matters at the moment.” Being in a car most weeks has taken the frustration out of the Super3 journey, which has been thwarted by a pair of DNFs at Sandown that have robbed him of crucial points and taken him out of title contention.

“I think you’ve got to finish top three in Super3 to get points for your Superlicense, or something like that. So, all we can do is just wait and see what happens. We can only do our best – we just have to focus on ourselves. “Ideally, we want to win Super3. We had the speed to win it, but we didn’t have the consistency of the car finishing.” With upwards of half a million dollars required for a Super2 season in 2024, he’s hoping merit and talent are enough to attract the right people. “We’ll see how that secret test goes. I don’t think we can afford to pay 100% of a Super 2 drive. I think if our sponsors keep helping us out, that’ll be great, but it is a lot of money.

For his father, ex-touring car racer Ryan, the mapping of a path for Cameron and his brother Nicholas has been interesting It started with karts for Cameron and moved through Formula Ford and into Super3, Sports Sedans and others. “We let him down as a team at Sandown; we ran out of fuel when he was leading, and it cost us the championship,” Ryan said. “We go into Adelaide with a chance, but it’s only an outside chance. But I think he’s got nearly all the pole positions, fastest laps and the most wins … all that sort of stuff. “It’s a difficult process of what do you do to get to the next step because somehow, we’ve got to do Super 2. The problem is, seems to be that you need half a million dollars, which we don’t have.” He’s got plenty of connections, which has helped to date, but they only go so far. Watch this space. Andrew Clarke

IN THE PAST TWO YEARS, McLEOD HAS DRIVEN… > Formula Ford – NSW and Queensland titles. > Formula 4 – Australian and British Series > Super3 > Sports Sedans > GT4 – Australia, Europe and Dubai > Marc Cars > Hyundai Excel Enduro > Karts

HAZELWOOD UPBEAT

HE IS ONE OF THE NICEST BLOKES IN PITLANE AND A PRETTY GOOD STEERER WHO HAS HAD TO TOIL AND FIGHT FOR EVERY OPPORTUNITY. NOW HE IS WITHOUT A FULL-TIME DRIVE FOR 2024. HE SPOKE WITH ANDREW CLARKE ...

TODD HAZELWOOD is one of the hard luck stories out of the 2023/24 Silly Season. The likeable South Australian has lost his full-time drive at Blanchard Racing Team, effectively to James Courtney, who brings Snowy River Caravans with him as a backer, and as the team invests in youth for its second car with Aaron Love. After the season he has just endured with the Blanchards, in which even they admit they have let him down, it is easy to see him as the sacrificial lamb but nothing is further from the truth. He has the option to stay with the team for the endurance races or explore other options, and is he sure to be snapped up by a leading team if he chooses to shop around. “I’m not necessarily losing a drive, but I guess I’m moving on to something else and something a little bit different,” he says with a typically upbeat vibe.

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“For me, obviously, it won’t be full-time in Supercars but there are still plenty of opportunities out there to keep myself busy and behind the wheel. “I guess I can broaden my horizons too. One door closes, and plenty more open. “As it stands now, it’s exciting because I’ve got a lot of opportunities and lots of different people that I’m talking to and a lot of other categories that I’ve never really been exposed to before. Yes, it’s a new challenge, but priority number one for me is to ensure that I get myself a good co-drive and be in a competitive environment. “I guess for me in Supercars, ever since I got out of Super2, it’s been a pretty tough road in the Championship for those six years, particularly the last two. I feel like I just haven’t been able to surround myself with the right people at the right time to get the results that I personally want to achieve. “There’s a big ambition there for me to, I guess, take a side step, but it’s more reset and realign and have a better future moving forward.” In 185 Supercars races, he has one podium and one pole position across full-time drives with Matt Stone Racing, Brad Jones Racing and Blanchard Racing Team. “We’ve no doubt had our challenges internally as a team, and being a Ford team has made that harder. It’s been challenging, but as I say, you’ve just got to learn to deal with the challenges that you’re presented with and if you keep doing the same thing year after year and expect a better outcome, then that’s the definition of insanity.” He said he wanted to race as much as possible next

year, but also wanted to try and get in a team where he can score a Bathurst win like ‘Lee and Richie’. He had a feeling before Bathurst he’d be looking around for 2024. “I had the conversation after Bathurst to get the full run-down on what was happening, but I’ve known for a while the cards were not going to be in my favour. We’re a business and John and Tim have been very good to me this year and it’s been a pleasure to drive the CoolDrive Mustang and be part of the program. “It would have been nice to continue and keep building, but they’ve got a business to run and obviously for them, they’ve got a plan of what they want to do moving forward. There’s an opportunity to stay here in this team in a co-driver role, but if I stay here or not, that’s up to me.” As well as circuit racing, he said he is keen to race a Sprintcar and is also looking at a wildcard appearance in off-road racing while he explores Porsche and GT3. “It’s nice to have respect up and down pit lane and that people respect my work ethic and how I interact with the fans and the sponsors. I like always to try and focus on being the full package. I feel like everything I’m trying to do outside of the race car I do to the best of my ability and I’ve certainly got that respect up and down pit lane with the multiple conversations I’ve had over the years. “I feel like you can either be a nice guy or an asshole, and the results would probably be similar. “To have that respect for me is really important, and that won’t change moving forward either.”

BATHURST SEASON OPENER CONFIRMED – SUPERCARS CALENDAR TAKING SHAPE FEB 19-21 BATHURST 500 *MARCH 21-24 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX APRIL 19-21 TAUPO, NZ JULY 5-7 TOWNSVILLE *OCTOBER 3-6 BATHURST 1000 OCTOBER 25-27 GOLD COAST * Not Confirmed, But Likely

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES SUPERCARS STARTED drip-feeding the 2024 Calendar during the Gold Coast 500 weekend, giving us dates for the

Gold Coast and Townsville events while confirming a season-opener at Bathurst in late February.

As expected, the revived Bathurst 500 will be part of a multi-weekend Bathurst SuperFest which will start with

the Bathurst 12 Hour and end with the Supercars a week later with NSW State Government support removing any potential blockages. Linking the two events in this manner means Bathurst doesn’t exceed the five events allowed under the NSW Motor Sports Events Act 2022, in a clever workaround to keen the season opening in NSW and with state government support. “The Bathurst SuperFest will give fans close to two weeks to celebrate some of the best drivers in the world, taking on Mount Panorama,” Supercars CEO, Shane Howard said. “Combining two marquee race meetings into the one major event in summer is an exciting initiative and we can’t wait to see fans fill the mountain and be a part of the action.” The dates for the two Queensland street races are also not a surprise, although the likes of Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters are no doubt disappointed it clashes with NASCAR’s Chicago street race. Andrew Clarke

HUNTER VALLEY REGION STILL KEEN FOR SUPERCARS DESPITE THE 2024 Newcastle 500 being cancelled, the Hunter Valley region is still keen for Supercars and looking for alternative options. NBN News has revealed that there is an enthusiastic group of local campaigners in Maitland and the home of Allan Grice, Cessnock. The report covered the news that the regions close to Newcastle have started pushing to find street circuit options less than 50km outside of Newcastle to keep Supercars in the area. Cessnock Mayor Jay Suva told NBN News he would be open to working with Supercars. “Working through with Supercars about what they are after, where they may want a track,” he said. “We have the tourism destination here and accommodation as well, which would be a great promotion.” Longtime local racer and Australian Production Cars regular Wayne Russell believes Cessnock would be an ideal location. “It would be huge, I cannot believe how big it got so quickly, so bringing it to Cessnock is a no brainer,” he said.

brings to the region makes the idea well worth chasing. “I think we (Cessnock and Maitland) could definitely work together on this one if we had to,” he said. “The economic benefit we would normally see from the event just when it was held in Newcastle means it would be a real shame to lose it out of the Hunter Valley.” Triple Eight Race Engineering star Shane van Gisbergen was sad to see Newcastle go, but made it clear the key to successful street races are being embraced by the public, with the longImage: MOTORSPORT IMAGES running Gold Coast and Adelaide events prime examples. At Cessnock its airport and back roads through “It is a real shame we are not going to Newcastle, “wine country” have been earmarked as potential track but you also want to race in a place where you feel locations. welcomed,” he said. Meanwhile, in Maitland a social media page called “You go to Adelaide and it is amazing because the “Maitland to host Supercars” has emerged and attracted people love it. hundreds of followers within four days. “Hopefully they can sort that out or we can go to Cessnock Chamber of Commerce representative Clint another town where people want us and have an Ekert said the economic benefit the Newcastle event awesome event.” Thomas Miles A return to the streets of Newcastle now looks less likely – but there are possible options nearby.

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PYE’S FURY AT GOLDING CRASH SCOTT PYE was on track for a pair top 10 results on the Gold Coast 500, but was fuming after a strange incident with James Golding. Pye was a solid eighth with eight laps to go when he exited the opening chicane and suddenly saw a PremiAir Camaro in front of him, which was flickspinning across the track after hitting the T3 tyres. Quick reactions ensured the Team 18 driver avoided a huge T-Bone, but he could not avoid making heavy enough contact with the wall to cause race-ending damage. “Came across the dumbest driver in the field today. Possibly the dumbest thing I have come across in 20 years,” Pye wrote on social media. Peter Xiberas was part of the Top Fuel debut at The Bend and came away massively impressed with the venue – and it’s potential future. Image supplied.

DRAG RESURGENCE NEEDS MELBOURNE Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MOSTERT SIGNS ON CHAZ MOSTERT will continue spearheading Walkinshaw Andretti United for years to come after signing a “long term” contract extension. Although Mostert’s future was not in the spotlight, he will be on the grid for at least the next two years. He has driven the lead #25 car of the Clayton squad since 2020 when he made a high-profile move across the divide from Tickford. “We came here with a few big goals in mind, and we haven’t achieved all of them just yet, so I’m as motivated as day one here to do that,” he said.

NEW MOTORSPORT CEO REVEALED BUSINESSMAN AND state level racer Sunil Vohra has been named as the new Motorsport Australia CEO. After 11 years in charge, Eugene Arocca will retire and Vohra will take over in November. Vohra is a state-level racer, who has a “lifelong passion” for motorsport with the 1985 Bathurst 1000 one of his earliest memories. The new CEO has 15 years of experience in the finance, insurance and business worlds. “This opportunity to be part of an organisation that plays such a vital role in the Australian sporting landscape is one that I am excited and honoured to take on,” he said.

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PETER XIBERAS WAS WOWED BY THE BEND’S NEW DRAG RACING FACILITY WHICH OPENED LAST WEEK. NOW HE SAYS WE NEED TO COMPLETE THE REVIVAL BY GETTING CALDER PARK BACK ONLINE. HE SPOKE WITH ANDREW CLARKE ... BY ANY objective measure, the launch of The Bend’s new drag facility was a raging success. Built alongside the circuit racing track, the Saturday night crowd would have made Supercars weep as more than 35,000 packed the banks. With the past few years of infighting seemingly behind it, drag racing is looking to regain its spot in the motorsporting landscape. Supercars team owner Peter Xiberas helped blow the dust off the track with his Top Fueller, and he said that for a first-up meeting, it was ticks all around. “It’s a green track, and for us to run as quick as we did first time out, I think, is a testament to the build quality and the prep job that they did,” he said “It was truly amazing and I would think this time next year we’ll be probably breaking national records because we ran quick from the get-go. So that was very impressive. “They’re not even finished – that’s the scary part. It’s amazing, but they’ve probably got a lot more to do; car parks and more extensions and all the rest of it. It’s just going to get better and better. I think it’s just the Shahins ... they just put their money where their mouth is, and it’s world-class.

He said there were issues such as cross winds, but he’s confident they’ll get that right too. “I’m sure they can put in bigger mounds or something. From what I understand, when they were building the facility, they wanted to dig deeper and have the track a lot lower, but the rock is that hard that they couldn’t dig. “I think they need to do something – whether it’s some sort of shades or trees or actually put more dirt and build the mounds up. But the crosswinds, when you pull your chute in your brain, you think, I hope this thing doesn’t pull me over to the other lane or into the wall – it’s not good. “At 500km/h it definitely catches your attention.” Australian drag racing appears united once more, and with places like The Bend and maybe Calder Park in 2024, there is plenty of growth ahead for the class. “As the old saying goes, divided you fall and united you grow, and I think that’s what’s going to happen. The fact that we’re all united as a series and as a category, we’re just going to grow and grow. Facilities like The Bend will make that easier. “I think the fact that South Australia has been starved of drag racing for so long, a lot of people

obviously wanted to get out for the first one, and I think in that whole region, whether it’s South Australia or Melbourne, I just think people have wanted it for so long. They voted in numbers. “You’ve seen the numbers that we pulled at The Bend – and this is just my personal opinion – but I think if they were to put Top Fuellers on in Melbourne, I reckon they would double those numbers. I think it would be epic. “The sport is probably the healthiest I’ve seen it in 10 years. We probably were the strongest back in the 90s, but I feel like the fact that we’re united and we’re getting some good tracks online now, I could just see drag racing going from strength to strength. “I think we’re in a good spot. It’s definitely growing. And I think the other thing that I think that’s really a massive positive is there are some awesome TV guys that are producing the TV show. When you look at what they do, it’s very inviting for people to watch. The more people that are watching it, the more people that will want to invest in it, more sponsors, and the more it grows.” The Australian Top Fuel Championship is on 7mate and 7plus.

RICCIARDO BACK IN THE GROOVE DANIEL RICCIARDO’S fighting seventh at the Mexican Grand Prix gave him his first F1 points since parting ways with McLaren last season, as well giving AlphaTauri its highest points score of the year after qualifying in a stellar fourth place. In fact, it was the team’s highest finish since Pierre Gasly’s fifth place in Round 8 at Baku last season –it was also its best qualifying result since 2021. It was the ‘Honey Badger’s’ fourth race since returning via the Italian outfit in the AT04, and second race since he returned from a broken hand at Zandvoort – and the Aussie said the performance was a relief, and that fighting up the front was a preferable place to be after a difficult few years. The talk about his potential future with a return to Red Bull will now continue to intensify, with the pressure set to keep growing on Sergio Perez after his early (desperate) incident with Charles Leclerc took him out of his home GP.

Post-race, the eight-time GP winner said it was “the weekend I dreamed of” amongst feeling “a lot of emotions”. “It’s fun, you know – it’s definitely more fun fighting at the front,” Ricciardo said. “It just feels better, feels right, so I’m happy with the weekend and we’ll try to keep this thing rolling!” He also managed to hold off his rookie compatriot in Oscar Piastri, who was gunning for seventh in the superior McLaren MCL60 machine, and was also well in the fight against Mercedes driver George Russell as he moved within DRS at the death. “There was moments when Oscar was catching me and I had to pick up the pace,” Ricciardo said “I felt like it took me a bit of time to get into a rhythm with the tyre. I felt like I was nearly better when the tyre was a bit more used. “That’s why at the end, when I saw Lando pass George, I was really trying

to do everything I could to put pressure on him. “At that point, we pulled away from Oscar. “All in all, it’s a good weekend. After last week, this is really the weekend I dreamed of and we got it.” He also pointed to the immense positives about his AT04 being able to show some real fight against the Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E. “We fought George on the last lap … I think sixth would have been even nicer, but to fight a Mercedes at the end of the race I think, big picture, we have to be very happy.” Ricciardo has three races left, in Brazil, Las Vegas, and Abu Dhabi, to further push his claim for Perez’s 2024 seat. TW Neal

DOOHAN ‘NOT STRESSED’ ABOUT FUTURE TWELVE MONTHS on from his Formula 1 practice debut, Jack Doohan (right) was back in the hot seat once again at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Doohan returned to a Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend at an interesting juncture in his career with nothing locked in for 2024 and trying to finish a rebuilding FIA Formula 2 campaign. He finished his third Formula 1 free practice session 18th, but the priority for the current Alpine reserve and academy driver was milage rather than speed as he put some 2024-spec parts to the test. The 20-year-old felt “really comfortable” as soon as he jumped in the car, which was a sign of his growth within the French squad since his F1 weekend debut a year ago. “It was my second time in Mexico but it was a completely different vibe,” Doohan recalled. “Last year was my first time at a Grand Prix and I had not done much time in an F1

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car at all. A big part of that program was being comfortable in the car. “Whereas this year I did not need to prove anything and I am super embedded within the team, which just makes everything much easier.” Being in a ‘comfortable place’ is also Doohan’s reason for not being concerned about what 2024 holds despite nothing being locked in. A move from FIA Formula 2 to the World Endurance Championship within Alpine’s LMDh program where it will field two

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A424 Hypercars has been hinted at as the current Virtuosi driver wraps up a second F2 campaign. But whilst no decision has been made, Doohan does not have any anxiety, with F1 in 2025 still the main goal. “At the moment nothing (is considered) publicly (but) I am not stressed about my future,” he said. “I am in a very safe and comfortable place within Alpine and there are opportunities for sure “There is the potential of WEC within

Alpine (but) we are still pushing for Formula 1 and we know there will be plenty of opportunities in 2025. “It is just deciding what is going to be best for me and the team.” The practice outing in Mexico was the first part of a busy end of 2023 for Doohan with an extensive test in the 2021 car at Bahrain preceding the F2 finale at Abu Dhabi where he also enjoys another FP1 appearance in the A523. “We have a great opportunity to secure P3 at Abu Dhabi and P2 if the situation arises,” Doohan said. “We were really quick in Abu Dhabi last year and we are hoping for the same. “Since Barcelona I think we have been the highest points scorer and I feel like when we have been in control of the car we have delivered. “It is a shame we could not fight for a title but some things are out of your control.” Thomas Miles

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AUSSIES READY TO TAKE ON THE WORLD NINE TCR World Tour drivers are coming down-under to take on the locals in this weekend’s Race Sydney event. For the first time in decades, an international level touring car championship will be racing on Australian soil with the TCR World Tour joining the Australian series for a huge double-header under lights in Sydney. One week later the roadshow heads to Mount Panorama for the Bathurst International where the stakes will be raised, being the TCR Australia finale and penultimate round of the World Tour. An Australian TCR record total of 25 cars will go racing with 10 nationalities and six brands represented. The field boasts two former FIA World Touring Car Champions, three FIA World Touring Car Cup winners, two TCR Australia champions and more than 150 wins in domestic and international TCR competition. The top nine TCR World Tour drivers will go night racing at Sydney Motorsport Park across three sprints. Leading the TCR World Tour standings is Hyundai racer Norbert Michelisz, by just four points over Yann Ehrlacher, who is driving one of five Lynk and Cos that will be on the grid. Audi pair Rob Huff and Frederic Vervisch will be the only World Tour drivers in Sydney who have previous racing experience down-under having competed in the Bathurst 12 Hour. They will be joined by Teddy Clairet at Bathurst where he takes over the Bargwanna Motorsport Peugeot from brother Jimmy, who is racing at Sydney. Nestor Girolami and Mikel Azcona carry winning form after sharing the wins in the most recent round in Argentina. Looking to make a name for themselves against the top-tier drivers will be the local stars, who also have a championship to win.

Hyundai’s Bailey Sweeny aims to build his 30-point championship lead over teammate Josh Buchan, while GRM Peugeot’s Aaron Cameron is on their tail. The only local who has previous TCR World Tour experience is Ben Bargwanna, who raced at Spa and Portugal and produced solid results with a PB of 12th. There will be plenty of attention on reigning champion Tony D’Alberto, who will debut a brand-new Honda Civic TCR at Sydney, while Supercars star Will Brown will also be in action in his Audi. D’Alberto is looking forward to the challenge, as he prepares to defend his crown, currently 83 points back in fourth. “It’s going to be really interesting with the World Tour, the competition is going to be really high,” he said. “It is going to be a big challenge because when some have come in the past, they are so in sync with their cars and can extract so much from them. “It will be a good measure of how competitive our series is.” Bargwanna Motorsport boss Jason Bargwanna had a first-hand taste of the TCR World Tour when son Ben competed in the Portugal and Belgium rounds and said fans can brace themselves for elite racing. But he is most looking forward to the internationals’ instant reactions to Mount Panorama. “It will be a massive deal,” Bargwanna told Auto Action. “Fans have become used to our domestic drivers over the last 30 years since international touring cars came to Bathurst in the Group A days. “It is an intensity of competition that I think is going to come with those guys because they are proper superstars and pros. “We have a pretty strong domestic category here and I think you will find

The TCR Sydney/Bathurst double kicks off this Friday night. Image: SUPPLIED

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cheering for our Aussie teams will be a very exciting thing to see because we will hold our own.” “I can’t wait to be standing in the pit lane and watch them get out of the car after the first session at Bathurst,” Bargwanna continued. “I had a bet with a few of them that they would be six seconds off the pace and they all laughed at me.” Three races where the TCR Australia and World Tour drivers face off are scheduled for both Sydney and Bathurst. Sydney sparks this Friday night and wraps up on Saturday, while the Bathurst International will be held on November 10-12. Thomas Miles TCR AUSTRALIA/WORLD TOUR COMBINED SYDNEY FIELD #1 Tony D’Alberto Honda #4 Jimmy Clairet Peugeot #9 Will Brown Audi #14 Lachlan Mineeff Audi #15 Michael Clemente Audi #18 Aaron Cameron Peugeot #22 Iain McDougall Audi #30 Josh Buchan Hyundai #33 Jordan Cox Peugeot #41 Kody Garland Peugeot #71 Ben Bargwanna Peugeot #TBC Will Harris Honda #74 Brad Harris Honda #105 Norbert Michelisz Hyundai #110 Zac Soutar Audi #111 Thed Bjork Lynk & Co #112 Santiago Urrutia Lynk & Co #115 Tom Oliphant Lynk & Co #122 Frederic Vervisch Audi #129 Nestor Girolami Honda #130 Bailey Sweeney Hyundai #155 Ma Qing Hua Lynk & Co #168 Yann Ehrlacher Lynk & Co #179 Rob Huff Audi #196 Mikel Azcona Hyundai

PAYNE IS ON THE RADAR

MATT PAYNE is a future superstar of the sport according to leading talent spotter Michael Patrizi (above), even if Australia is only just starting to cotton on. A former Supercars driver himself, Patrizi says Payne’s ability was immediately obvious and it has him on the radar globally, not just in Australia and New Zealand. “People are paying attention, Matt has made an impact on the motorsport scene that’s for sure,” Patrizi said. “It is his calmness and the rates of input along with his ability to switch on for one lap and pass cleanly. His ability to feel is quite unnatural and unique. He is a rare talent. “He is committed to the Groves for 2024, and it is the right place for him at the moment. The Groves see the vision too. But Matt is not going anywhere without multiple championships here – he sees what the Groves are building and he is committed to that.” Patrizi said plan was for Payne to run in the main series last year, but the Superlicence requirements meant he had to do Super2 to get enough points – but that alone is not a good training ground for Supercars because there aren’t enough laps in a season. So, they supplemented it with GT racing where he was immediately among the fastest drivers. “The Groves were fully supportive of that even if it meant races on back-to-back weekends with jet lag. He is now a gold-rated FIA driver, and there aren’t many of them in Supercars. Next year we’ll look at what else we can do, and the Groves see the same vision and potential for Matt and they are on board. “Stephen Grove put his balls on the line, and to me that is a major plus. We have put together a team at Matt Payne Racing, and we are being very proactive. We’ve learnt a lot from Dan (Ricciardo who is a mate of Patrizi’s after he worked with him in his early days), and we have his ex-trainer Paul Haynes on board, along with a lawyer, social media people, doctors and the like. “It is a good team with lots of motor racing experience, and they all see the potential too. It is my job to work out what he does in and out of the car, to analyse the opportunities that are presented, although Matt has to make the final decision on everything.” Payne started with Patrizi in 2016 and they went to the KZ2 World Cup in 2019 where he started the final fourth out of more than 100 entries but was taken out on the opening lap. He was planning a full season of karting in Europe in 2020 when COVID intervened and sent him scurrying home to New Zealand. His first proper car race was the New Zealand Grand Prix in 2021 and he finished third before going onto the dominate the domestic series. For the full story on Matt Payne, go to page 28. Thomas Miles

TRANS AM TITLE FIGHT WIDE OPEN ELLIOTT BARBOUR heads to Sydney as an unexpected championship leader after a some late disqualifications have blown the Trans Am title race wide open. GRM frontrunners James Moffat and Lochie Dalton were retrospectively wiped from the Winton round after a Motorsport Australia Investigatory Tribunal determined a breach of rules T2.1 and T2.3. At the centre of the tribunal were modifications to pedal set-up – although GRM has lodged its intention to appeal. Dalton dominated the round, winning all three races, while Moffat took two podiums. The pair was more than 100 points ahead of the rest of the field, but with the penalties applied are no longer leading the championship. Barbour thus enjoys a 21-point advantage over Josh Webster with Brett Holdsworth and Tom Hayman not far behind. Moffat, who has won four races in 2023, and Dalton have dropped from the top to seventh and eighth in the championship respectively. But they are not out of the picture, being just over 100 points from the top and with 520 points still on the table at Sydney and Bathurst.

Image: DANIEL KALISZ The Sydney field will be boosted by the returns of Tim Brook, Kyle Gurton and American Robert Noaker. Heading to the season-concluding NSW double-header with an unexpected lead having not won a race in 2023, Barbour is

relishing the opportunity. “It was nice to find out we were leading and I was not really surprised about the penalties,” he said. “At the same time, there is a lot of racing left but if you had asked me after Round

2 or 3 that we’d be leading going into the last few rounds I would have said you were dreaming.” The run to the championship begins with four races this weekend. Thomas Miles

JONES COMMITS TO FULL-TIME OZ RETURN AUSSIE PORSCHE racer Harri Jones (right) has announced he’ll be returning to the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia circuit to expand his new Jones Motorsport team as both driver and team manager The 2022 national Porsche champion has just finished a successful debut campaign in Europe in the Mobil 1 Supercup and the German Carrera Cup. Jones has explained that, whilst there were attractive offers on the table to remain in Europe, his ambitions to grow his new team on home soil were too strong to ignore. “I have a massive passion for motorsport and that goes beyond just driving the car,” said Jones. “I see some exciting opportunities to innovate and develop a team that can help drivers in all aspects of their career. “I of course have a background as a driver, having won multiple championships on the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid, but I also have years of experience as a driver coach and engineer, and have learned a lot from my time over in Europe this year.” The Queensland spent his time in Europe with Porsche’s premier one-make team, BWT Lechner Racing, as well as a season with Scherer Sport PHX in Germany, where

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he finished second in both Rookie championships, falling only one point short of the title at Monza in the F1 exclusive Supercup. “I’ve had a great year – it’s honestly been better than I could’ve ever imagined,” he continued. “Racing at Monaco and Spa was for sure a highlight, but it was in the final round of Supercup at Monza where I felt like things just clicked. I finished P4 outright and P1 Rookie and came just one point short from taking out the Rookie Championship. “The intensity of a European racing program is just something else. Nowhere else in the world are you in the car every week. Needless to say, I feel pretty battlehardened.” On returning to race on the Carrera Cup Australia grid, with the possibility to expand his team into the Porsche Sprint Challenge, Jones’ love for the national Australian program was a big lure. “Carrera Cup Australia is my favourite category in the world. I have raced across the globe, but to be in Australia, in Porsches, on some of the best tracks in the world is absolutely a dream come true.

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“I’d heard about all of the hard work the team had been putting in whilst I was overseas, but when we arrived at Bathurst and I witnessed it all paying off for our debut on track, it was just amazing. “Theres a lot more to come and I know we are just getting started on what will be an incredible journey.” TW Neal

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TARGA COMMUNICATIONS: FROM THE DESK OF THE CEO AS 2024 fast approaches, the wheels behind the revitalised Targa Tasmania are gaining traction for its planned April 8 start. Behind the scenes, Targa CEO Mark Perry has been in constant communication with prospective competitors, with weekly letter updates, as well as collecting feedback regarding the Draft Regulations for Targa Tasmania 2024. The aim of the Customer Feedback Form was to provide assurances in a time of uncertainty for Australia’s Targa based tarmac rally future. Some of the wider ranging topics of conversation included vehicle eligibility, handicap-based competition, and Speed limited competition. On these Perry offered some positive assurances, and opened the forum to further discussion. There was also a ‘Targa Tasmania 2024 Intention to Enter’ survey, in which more than 300 responses were received, showing a positive intent from prospective competitors. And on that front, the hope from the Targa CEO is that entries will be open by November 7. In a galvanising statement about the progress, Perry said in one of his letters that: “It has been a very tough 16 months for all of us and the coming together of the Targa family in recent months to fight for Targa and more broadly, tarmac rallying, has galvanised our resolve to keep moving forward and achieve what we all use to take for granted; the annual running of

the ‘Ultimate Tarmac Rally’ – Targa Tasmania.” Having run 14 Targa events, he points out that the next one carries extra significance. “… something tells me that the running of the next one will be my most satisfying when you consider the journey we have all been on to get to the Ceremonial Start on 8 April 2024.” Perry also moved to reiterate that the Targa Tasmania will remain “an international standard series of tarmac rally events with a set of wide-ranging rules and regulations to ensure its long-term viability.” Vehicle eligibility was one of the big topics, and in light of Motorsport Australia’s recent safety review implementation on some high performance cars in their own sanctioned event - the Adelaide Rally - Perry moved to ensure that there will not be a banned vehicle’s list at Targa within the scope of any safety implementations being adhered to. Perry stated in an assured manner that: “… current Targa cars need to be retained to protect the legacy of Targa and ensure its ongoing viability. “To reassure GT Outright competitors, who were mostly in the firing line when it came to vehicle eligibility, we met with them all earlier this year to reassure them that we would not move forward without them, and that Targa is about GT cars of various ages. Our position on this has not changed.” On that matter in regards to safety, he also clears

up the uncertainty over “ineligibility” in regards to ensuring that safety implementations are also met to ensure eligibility. Meaning it’s on the owner to implement any safety implementations on their cars. “Some owners will obviously need to make some upgrades to their vehicle to continue competing, which will be their decision to make. In some of the other topics covered in the Customer Feedback forms (outside of the Outright component and owing to a huge amount of comments) Perry addressed the idea of expanding the handicap-based competition – something he says he’s resisted in the past – to be more inclusive of smaller less-powered cars to return to the event. This would both increase the amount of entries, and make it more affordable for more people to enter. “A wholesale change of this nature could see a return to the foundations of Targa Tasmania with a Classic (1900 to 1985 plus run/ons), Early Modern (1986 to 2007) and Modern (2008 to Current) competition structure where all cars are eligible for the handicap and overall

competitions, giving everyone an achievable competition goal.” Another topic was regarding the Speed Limited competition. “As safety requirements have increased, the appeal has reduced, prompting calls for, say, a 165 km/h competition to be introduced in line with other events, by those not wanting to make the large step into Outright whilst justifying the additional expense of full safety cages, etc.” He raises the possibility with a question to provide a middle ground solution: “Would an increase in the current maximum speed be a better way forward to ensure we have valued competitions? Say, a maximum speed of 150 km/h, given there will still be a 130km/h-based competition in TSD Trophy for those who wish to compete at this speed? “If many agreed this was a workable solution, then the speed-limited competition structure could mirror the full competitions, providing a clear and concise two-tiered competition structure.” TW Neal

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GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN ONE OF THE GREATEST CHANGE AGENTS IN AUSTRALIAN MOTORSPORT HAS DIED. By Paul Gover ALLAN HORSLEY was a disrupter before it ever became a word. He was a maverick change agent across Australian motoring and racing, a one-time promoter who was instrumental in the success of Allan Moffat, created special vehicles for Mazda, and married a Miss Australia. The man known as ‘H’ was a racer’s racer, who loved to read the CAMS manual in the toilet to learn the letter of every law, and has died just a week before his 83rd birthday. Horsley was a country boy who grew up near Albury, created a radical racing special based on a 1930s Auto Union, and became the promoter for the defunct Hume Weir circuit while a teenager. He was recruited to run things at Oran Park in Sydney in the 1960s and changed everything with the flair of a true circus-style promoter. He helped created Sports Sedans, championed Formula 5000, extended the track into its figure-of-eight layout, promoted night races under lights, and even ran reverse-direction races. He was the first to recognise the brilliance of Peter Brock, singing the wild Victorian child to an exclusive

contract so he could only race at Oran Park in NSW. Horsley would also regularly spice the action at Oran Park by paying any CAMS’ fines for drivers guilty of roughhouse racing. But the salary at Oran Park was not great, as he often visited an illegal casino in nearby Liverpool to try and boost his weekly take-home pay. He went on to organise motor shows, became a promoter of indoor stadium motocross, and helped Allan Moffat to get his Mazda RX-7 into touring car racing and hyped up to beat Brock’s Holden Commodore. When the rotary-engined sports car became a winner, Mazda Australia took him on and he ran winning programs in the Bathurst 12-Hour and various types of rallying, as well as creating a specialvehicles operation that tweaked the RX-7 turbo and MX-5 sports cars from his tiny workshop in Sydney. His most successful creation was the RX-7 SP, which trumped Porsche in major sports car contests including the 12-Hour, as his knowledge the racing rules allowed him to build a car that totally optimised the Mazda package. But Mazda knew his intelligence and commitment, and used him for everything including choosing office

Allan Horsley talking Bob Muir Lola T300 on the grid at Oran Park Formula 5000 race in 1972. Image: RAY BERGHOUSE sites, making advertising decisions, and running its public relations operation in NSW. Horsley was tough-but-fair, massively successful yet hugely humble, incredibly grumpy but with a giant warm heart, and a friend to anyone who was prepared to listen and learn. A generation of drivers benefitted from Horsley’s involvement, a generation of Mazda management achieved more success, and a generation of journalists was both challenged and rewarded.

Horsley was a generous host, a great gardener, a challenging friend, a great cook, and a rewarding travelling companion. But perhaps Horsley’s finest achievement was winning the heart of Rhonda Iffland, the reigning Miss Australia when he courted her, and the arrival of their son David. Many people have reason to thank H for who he was and what he did, and the world is a little more mundane for his passing.

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NATIONALS NEWS Daniel Nolan and his rapid Nola Chev sports car will be one of the stars of the Q&R sports category. Image: REBBECA HIND-REVVED PHOTOGRAPY

HISTORIC SANDOWN BRINGING BIG HORSEPOWER ONE OF Australia’s biggest historic cars events is drawing near, with the VHRR Historic Sandown’s Thunder of Yesteryear taking place on November 10-12. Over 300 on-track entries will grace Victoria’s Home of Horsepower, with plenty of displays showcasing some of the finest automobiles ever built, with special attention paid to 100 years of the MG, as well as 50 years of the Honda Civic. A special addition to this year’s event, via luck of the calendar, will be an emotional pit road service for Remembrance Day on Saturday, November 11 (at 11 am of course) with a piper and bugle, as well as some historic army jeeps and 40 RSL members coming from Bendigo. With vehicles propagating the main straight Sandown will fall into a serene silence, with the Ode read by out competitor, VHRR member, and returned serviceman Ross Porter. For some highlights in the 300-car field, the Historic Sports Sedans will provide some iconic roar in their Super Sprint, with 21 entries. They include the likes of Simon Pfitzner’s Mercedes 450 SLC that was raced but the likes of John Bowe and Brad Jones, the Graeme Whincup built Chev Monza, Peter Fowler’s recreation of Brian Thomson’s famous VW Fastback, and more. The Historic Formula Fords will be a big hit with

30 entries, with some mean Van Diemen’s on show, driven but he likes of Andrew McInnes, Jonathan Miles, Richard Davison in a trio of Group Fc VD RF89’s, and a 1977 Crossle 32F driven by Paul Faulkner. The Group S and invited entries has an impressive 33 cars, including a ’69 Chev Corvette driven by Joseph Di Bartolo in the over 3000 class and Joe Calleja in the ‘66 Stingray, and also a very quick Austin Healey Sprite piloted by Peter Kaiser in the up to 1600cc class. There’s also Samuel Narkiewicz in a beautiful ’75 Stingray, and Ross Jackson in the powerful Italian De Tomaso Pantera. There’s 30 entries in the PQR Racing and Q & R Sports, with some sensational Formula 5000s making a return, and also a field of 20 Group 1 Historic Touring Cars, and 30 Group 2s with some great Mini’s, Camaros, Cortinas and Falcon’s on show. In addition there’s 17 Group M and O open wheelers, with some lovely machines like Andrew Robson’s Brabham BT30, and a 1965 5.7 L McLaren M1B driven by Laurie Bennett. There’s all this and more to make for an enthralling weekend, with free admission on the opening day, adults $40 on Saturday and $50 on Sunday, with a weekend pass at $80; with free entry for accompanied children under the age of 15. TW Neal

VALE PETER ORMSBY SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SPORTING identity Peter Ormsby sadly passed away in his sleep with family by his side on Wednesday, October 25, aged 70. Ormsby is best known for his work on the golf course, but away from the quiet fairways, his other passion was motorsport. He campaigned in the South Australian Formula Vee Series for many seasons starting in the 1970s. Ormsby had a passion for the locally built Elfins and played a strong role in helping to develop the Elfin Crusader. During this period, he won many series including the 1990 South Australian Formula Vee Drivers Championship and at one point ran a three-car team alongside his son Jordan and former Sports Sedan Champion Mick Monterosso. He also raced HQ Holdens from the inception of the popular class, with strong success, including Bathurst and support races at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. He then switched back to Formula Vee and in later years campaigned a Porsche 911GT3. Throughout his career he always had the #6 by his side. Ormsby’s work as a member of the Professional Golf Association of Australia and his Golf Super Stores is well remembered. He undertook his PGA apprenticeship at Glenelg Golf Club under legendary South Australian Professional, Murray Crafter, and was then appointed Professional at the West Lakes Golf Club in 1975. All up Ormsby opened five off course golf stores,

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Peter Ormsby in action during the 1999 round of the Formula Vee Series at Adelaide International Raceway. Image: PARIS CHARLES

with the first in Adelaide in 1982, the final one in Darwin five years later. Peter’s son Wade is a professional golfer who is currently on the Liv Golf Pro Tour and also has a history in motorsport, having raced in karts, has experienced driving at the Dubai Autodrome, and also enjoys Speedway racing. Wade’s son and third generation racer Oscar has also been refining his skills in the karting ranks. On behalf of the Motor sporting community, Auto Action sends its condolences to the Ormsby family and friends. Paris Charles

SUCCESSFUL VIC STATE CALDER RETURN LAST WEEKEND the Victorian State Race Series returned to Calder Park Raceway for the first time since 2008 and was an instant hit with competitors and organisers. Notably, it was also the first Motorsport Australia-sanctioned event at the track in over two decades. A lot of work went in behind the scenes to make the event happen and VSRS Chairman Paul Zsidy was delighted with how the event ran. “I get to have this conversation with you at the end of a successful weekend and stand up here and appear to be taking some accolades, but its 100% not me,” Zsidy explained to Auto Action. “It’s the crew behind the scenes, the VSRS executives who have worked tirelessly to make this happen. “We got the track license from Motorsport Australia at 5:15pm on the Thursday – that’s how hard Calder Park’s management, Motorsport Australia’s management and the VSRS executives have been working to make this happen.”

Calder is back, hosting its first State level event last weekend. Image: REBBECA HINDREVVED PHOTOGRAPHY As a late addition and with many of the championships having already wrapped up, entry numbers were down on a normal state round, however Zsidy knows that it’ll get stronger from here. “The numbers were great for what it was for this event – not what we would

WHEN COMPROMISE ISN’T AN OPTION

be looking for next year as part of a fullfledged championship round,” he stated. “At the start of the year we put it as a TBC, relying on a track licence and we knew the enormity of the task ahead of Calder Park to be ready – they did that, all credit to them.

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The competitors turned up and it’ll be bigger and better next year!” Victorian Saloon Car Series President Daniel Johnson was delighted about the Calder Park addition. “The more variety we’ve got, the more interest it creates,” he said to AA. We’re pretty spoilt here, having so many options, where other states maybe don’t have that luxury. “The more options, the better. There’s a lot of competition for racetracks with different categories like Supercars, so if we’ve got more tracks it might free up a few more options to race during the times that we want to.” Porsche 944 competitor/ commentator Jack Atley expressed to AA how important it is to have a second racetrack within the surrounding suburbs of Melbourne. “Everyone in the 944s is excited to be back at Calder Park, racing at a track that is central to Melbourne as well,” he said. “We are very proud to be racing on this circuit.” Dan McCarthy

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LOCAL WINS AUSTRALIA V USA SHOWDOWN THE OPENING round of the National Drag Racing Championship Nitro Funny Cars season went down to the wire with Aussie Justin Walshe facing off against American Tommy Johnson Jnr. The excitement was at fever pitch with Walshe vying for his first Gold Nitro Funny Car Tree and Johnson Jnr hoping to become the first American to come to Australia and win in both Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car, after having won in both of those brackets at home in the States. The pair ran side-by-side down the track with full candles and it was Walshe who crossed the finish line first with a 5.223 second pass at 373.74 km/h per hour over TJ’s 5.592s pass at 296km/h. But there was more drama to come as officials reviewed whether Walshe’s header had hit a centre line block, or if it was simply the fumes from his exhaust which had displaced it. Eventually the officials ruled in favour of Walshe with the fumes displacing the block. This meant the Aussie was awarded a breakthrough win and he was full of emotion.

Image: CACKLING PIPES PHOTOGRAPHY “I am lost for words,” a clearly emotional Walshe said upon hearing the verdict. “11 months ago, I lost my dad. He had come racing with me since I was 20 years old. We used to race group 3 dial on your own and he couldn’t understand how I would go too fast and lose. “Unfortunately, he isn’t here to see this. I am not religious or superstitious or

anything, but he is watching over us today.” Last season’s runner-up Brandon Gosbell opened the Nitro Funny Car books with a sub-five second pass at 4.97 and 381km/h. The B-Final was a face off between newcomer Adam Murrihy and Anthony Begley and the latter did not participate after the crew shut his car down following an “ugly sounding” burnout.

In Pro Alcohol, Russell Mills took the win in a weekend that also saw him set a new national speed record (431kph) from a red-lighting Daniel Reed. Craig Burns was another to have a perfect weekend in FuelTech Pro Mod. Burns was the top qualifier also taking out the A Final victory over long-time friend and customer, Rob Campisi, while third for the round was Frank Tarabay. George Terkalas (Junior Dragster), Nathan McKenna (Super Street), David Gruber (Super Sedan), Jess Turner (Modified), Steve Horvat (Top Sportsman), Mitchell Oxley (Super Comp), Joe Catanzariti (Super Gas) and Toby Austin (Supercharged Outlaws) were victors in the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship. The NDRC Group One Championship now heads to the Perth Motorplex for the Goldenstates across November 24 and 25, featuring Nitro Funny Car, Pro Alcohol and Top Doorslammer alongside the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship. Thomas Miles

THE BEND DRAGWAY FIRES TO LIFE THE BRAND new Bend Dragway burst to life in dream fashion with huge crowds soaking up the huge speeds produced by the high-octane racing. The newest track in Australia at Tailem Bend was opened in grand style with the first round of the National Drag Racing Championship Top Fuel season taking place and the South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas in attendance along with the brains behind it, Shell V-Power Motorsport Park MD Sam Shahin. Not only had the opening of the glitzy Bend Dragway been highly anticipated, but it was the first time South Australians enjoyed elitelevel drag racing in many years since the days of Adelaide International Raceway. The wait was worth it as more than 35,000 fans were treated to a special show with the 11,000 horsepower Top Fuel dragsters exceeding 500 km/h. The speed of Wayne Newby took the venue to new heights as he set a of

3.761s pass over 1000ft. Being just 0.12 of a second off the world record Top Fuel time, it ensured The Bend became one of the fastest drag racing surfaces in the world. After a sell-out crowd watched the action on Saturday night, the total attendance was 35,694. Shahin was overjoyed to see his dream open so successfully. “I am immensely proud,” he said at the opening. “It is hard to describe the emotions going through my head over the last few days. “It has been a hard slog for over 10 years and I could not be prouder in what we have built. “I have a magnificent team who believed in the vision. “This is the start of a long and exciting journey for drag racing as an industry for all those who have endured for years about the lack of it in South Australia.”

“Top Fuel well and truly delivered at Dragway at The Bend this weekend,” NDRC Co-Owner, Andy Lopez, said. “(Wayne) Newby’s 3.7 second run in round two at a brand-new track was insane and so close to the national record, we had a tonne of three second passes and even better, side-by-side three second passes, plus a heap of 500+kph passes, and breakthrough runs across the board.

“The new track here in South Australia is clearly blindingly fast and our Top Fuel racers took advantage of that fact to the delight of 35,000 spectators who couldn’t get enough – it is safe to say, history was made this weekend.” Fortunately South Australian fans will not have to wait so long with the next NDRC meeting at The Bend on January 13-14. Thomas Miles

Justin Walshe’s Nitro Funny car shakes the ground at The Bend Dragway ....

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TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN IT’S PRETTY UNBELIEVABLE TO THINK HOW QUICKLY THE F1 SEASON HAS GONE. IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, 19 RACES HAVE PASSED AND SOMEHOW, THERE ARE JUST THREE TO GO ... AS A driver, you have to be so focused on the small details inside the car, so concentrated on specific aspects at each of the circuits and adapt to so much information, that time just flies. I have no idea where the months have flown by since we first went testing in Bahrain all the way back at the end of February. We have three cool tracks to finish the season in style, with two of them being new tracks for me. The one I’ve already driven at is the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi that will host the season finale. It’s actually a special place for me as it’s where I clinched my titles in Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019 and F2 in 2021. I managed to seal the F2

Oscar Piastri’s

FORMULA 1 WORLD Championship with two races to spare there and went on to win the feature race that weekend for good measure, which was awesome. Formula Renault Eurocup was a lot closer, but a win and a fourth place did the job on the final weekend and it was cool to secure both the drivers’ and teams’ titles. I’ve never raced at Interlagos although I must have watched it countless times on TV growing up. Every corner seems like it’s had a historic battle or

championship-defining moment take place there. If there are a few moments that stick out, they are probably watching the highlights of Mark winning around Sao Paulo back in 2009 and again in 2011, and I also remember his last race there in 2013 when he took his helmet off on the slow down lap. The significance and honour of driving a McLaren in Brazil, given its association with the great Ayrton Senna, is not lost on me either and it will be

particularly special to represent the team in his home country. What he achieved and how he raced, and more generally what type of person he was from talking to journalists in the paddock who dealt with him, was remarkable and an inspiration. Las Vegas, meanwhile, will be a new one for everyone on the grid. It is going to be a spectacle to see F1 cars flying down the Strip and weaving past iconic locations such as Caesars Palace. It also looks like it could be a tasty track with average speeds up around the levels we usually see at Monza, so it could be handy from an overtaking perspective. Fingers crossed. From my two previous trips this year to the US in Austin recently and Miami in May, I’ve

been blown away by the level of interest and atmosphere created by the fans. Add in the party atmosphere of Vegas, and I think there is going to be a real buzz around the city that will make it a unique event. Between then and now, I have a few days back in the UK after the triple-header with some time booked in the simulator and some rest planned before we head out to Vegas a little earlier than usual given the race is on the Saturday. Enjoy the final three races and I will be back after the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi with my final column of 2023. Take care. Oscar.

America has taken to F1 in a big way – there was a huge crowd at COTA. Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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PIASTRI ENDURES ‘TOUGH SUNDAY’ IN MEXICO OSCAR PIASTRI flew under the radar for much of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, finishing the race in eighth place after a mid-race incident at Turn 1 disrupted his quiet Mexican campaign. Following qualifying, Piastri was set to lineup from P7 surrounded by both Mercedes cars on the grid. As the young Australian set off on the long run down to the first corner, he rivalled George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg, with the Mercedes getting a jump on the McLaren into Turn 1. Through the first sector of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Piastri tussled for P7 with Hulkenberg, running side-by-side from Turns 2 to 5 before clearing the Haas. His next task was to recover the place clinched by Russell, with the entire grid having inherited a position due to Sergio Perez’s Turn 1 DNF. Heading into Turn 12, Piastri made a bold move on the Mercedes, taking the outside line and risking contact with the kerb to be running marginally ahead of Russell. As the pair came into Turn 13, entering the heart of the Stadium section, Piastri was ahead, crossing the line to complete Lap 1 in P6. By the end of Lap 4, Piastri had broken clear of the DRS threat, with the margin between himself and Russell beyond a second.

Piastri wasn’t, however, able to make an impact on Lewis Hamilton two seconds ahead, instead falling back into Russell’s DRS grasp on Lap 10. With overheating a major issue for all teams around this hot and high-altitude circuit, Russell backed off, unable to pass the McLaren this time around. The order switched ahead of the 22-year-old, with Daniel Ricciardo the next closest challenger. The AlphaTauri driver was running over two seconds clear of Piastri as Max Verstappen, the first front-runner to pit, made his way back through the field. On Lap 26, Piastri was called in to relinquish his 26-lap old medium tyres, rejoining in P10, 1.9 seconds behind Valtteri Bottas after a slow left tyre change led to a 3.3-second stop from the World Record holding pit crew. Gradually bringing his fresh hard compound tyres to life, the over-cut on Russell was effective, seeing Piastri cruising down the main straight as Russell exited the pitlane five-tenths behind. He put a buffer between himself and the Mercedes by passing Bottas down the inside of Turn 4, also clearing Alex Albon just one lap later. Once again, Ricciardo was the car ahead of Piastri, however, the McLaren was still unable to catch the #3, instead the margin hovering at 1.8 seconds from

Lap 30 and beyond. When the Safety Car and eventual Red Flag was called as a result of Kevin Magnussen’s Turn 8 crash, the young Australian found himself in P6, set to start the standing restart ahead of Russell and behind Ricciardo. As the five lights went out for a second time, Piastri lost out to the #63 Mercedes, also momentarily falling behind Yuki Tsunoda before utilising any initial pace on the medium tyre to take the position back. “The pace was reasonable and then, after the Red Flag, life was a lot more tough,” Piastri said. “After the battling, I definitely struggled a bit more with the tyres and picked up some damage, which didn’t help.” Into Turn 2, the Alpha Tauri and McLaren made slight contact, foreshadowing what was to come in a few laps time. Tsunoda remained within the DRS range of Piastri, even swapping positions on multiple occasions across Lap 39. Just 10 laps later, the battle had ended in big contact between the drivers, with Tsunoda sent spinning onto the run-off area at Turn 1 after turning in on Piastri prior to the corner entry. Piastri left the Japanese driver space on the outside, however, the young #22 tried to make the move stick too early, connecting his rear wheel with the

McLaren. “I had a fair few battles out there, which made life interesting but definitely not the most straightforward of days. “Went for some big passes, and you know, managed to fend [Tsunoda] off. “I wasn’t really expecting him to go right like that in the braking zone, and yeah, anyway I was okay so…” From that moment onwards, Piastri began losing his impact on the timing sheets to the point where the McLaren pitwall instructed the #81 to let his teammate pass on Lap 56. For the remaining 15 laps, Piastri ran in a lonesome P8, eventually crossing the line under two seconds behind Ricciardo to add two points to his 2023 tally in Mexico. “Just struggled after the safety car, yeah, quite a lot of battling which I’m sure didn’t help. “A bit of damage on the car towards the end as well, but yeah, something to look into. “Good to bring home some more important points, but a few bits to look at for Brazil.” The rookie will have the chance to recreate some of his season highlights in less than a week’s time when the F1 grid heads into a Sprint weekend at the São Paulo Grand Prix. Reese Mautone

RYAN ‘VERY COMFORTABLE’ WITH FORD PARITY CHANGES DESPITE FALLING second best to former driver David Reynolds now in a Ford, Erebus Motorsport boss Barry Ryan is “very comfortable” with the parity changes applied to the Mustang. After the party trigger was pulled post a one-sided Bathurst, Supercars made six aero changes to the Mustang, which ranged from wider rear wings to other alterations to the side skirt and front fascia areas. The first race meeting following these changes produced immediate results with Cameron Waters and Reynolds giving Ford its first clean sweep of the year in the penultimate round. Despite this, Ryan, who did not oppose Ford’s attempt to implement changes pre Bathurst, was more than comfortable with the current Gen3 party situation, believing the sight of both makes fighting for wins until the final corner was great for the category. “Yeah, I am very comfortable,” the Coke Camaros owner said. “If they made them at Bathurst that would have been better because they would not have had that big huge wing on now!

“The straight line speed is really, really close. There was 0.001s between the two so it is a credit to the sport. “It will be interesting to see when we go through the wind tunnel to see where the cars are at. They might lose a bit, we might lose a bit, who knows. “But the racing this weekend was awesome. Two Fords won and it could not have been better for the sport.” Later in the post-event press conference Ryan even turned into an interviewer, asking the Tickford camp on their thoughts. “We still have some work to do Barry,” Tickford’s Matt Roberts replied. “We have had one round with the changes that we have got. “We will go back to do some homework and head to Adelaide.” Ryan also did not seem too concerned about Reynolds’ use of the first chicane run off in the closing stages of Sunday’s finale. As Reynolds and Kostecki diced for glory, the #26 Penrite Racing Mustang shortcut turn two on lap 71 and critically on the final lap when the #99 Coke Camaro was on his back bumper.

Ryan said it is simply a by-product of the nature of the Surfers Paradise street circuit. “That is a difficult one. This track lends itself to having a bit of a bend of the rules if you want to,” he said. “Obviously Davey knew there was one lap to go and Brodie would pass him at the hairpin, so just drove straight.

“That is what you can do with the rules.He had not had a warning all race so he could get away with it. “Brodie could have used the same trick but did not. That is just the nature of this track.” Erebus heads to the VAILO Adelaide 500 with leads in both the drivers and teams championships. Thomas Miles

HORNER: RICCIARDO ‘LOOKING LIKE HIS OLD SELF AGAIN’ RED BULL boss Christian Horner is believing Daniel Ricciardo is getting back to his best after the Australian’s special drive in Mexico. In just his second race since returning from his broken hand and fifth for the year, Ricciardo scored AlphaTauri’s best result of the season. The “Honey Badger” unlocked his best at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, qualifying a stunning fourth, which was one better than Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Whilst the Mexican crashed out, Ricciardo stayed composed and put in a fine drive to seventh having battled both Mercedes and McLarens. For Ricciardo it was his equal second best result since 2021 and equal best qualifying performance since that special weekend in Monza two years ago. But it arguably meant more to AlphaTauri with the result lifting the team off the bottom of the constructors championship and leapfrogging both Haas and Alfa Romeo. Sky Sports F1 commentators claimed the difference of prize money could be around $32million AUD. AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo are now level on points with 16 but the Red Bull sister squad is on top due to Ricciardo’s higher finish. The previous best result was Tsunoda’s

eighth place achieved the week before in Austin, while Liam Lawson had also scored ninth in Singapore. Ricciardo turned a lot of heads in Mexico City, including Horner as speculation surrounds whether or not the Australian could be considered as Perez’s replacement. “You could not fail but to be impressed by him,” the Red Bull boss told Sky Sports F1. “His qualifying was outstanding and he showed his maturity and experience in the race. “Fighting a Mercedes in an AlphaTauri for their best result of the year was a great performance. “Had it not been for the red flag he may have even finished further up.” Horner went on to say Ricciardo’s

trademark swagger and raw speed is returning as he is redelivering the “Honey Badger” that pulled off eight memorable Grand Prix wins. “He can take a lot of confidence coming back from the injury,” Horner continued. “He has had a rough time over the last couple of months sitting on the sidelines, but that was the Daniel we were used to seeing. “As we see in sport confidence is such a big thing and Daniel’s confidence is coming up. “For Checo (Perez) we just need him to have that confidence-boosting result but it was not to be. “It was great to see Daniel looking like his old self again.” It was another day of opposites for Horner’s main focus Red Bull with Max

Verstappen remaining unbeatable and claiming a record 16th win in 2023. However, Perez’s dreams of getting a hometown win lasted just one corner when an ambitious move around the outside of both Verstappen and Charles Leclerc ended with the #11 getting airborne. Horner defended Perez’s move and has vowed to support the struggling Mexican, who has scored just one podium in the last seven races despite being in one of the most dominant cars ever. “Very contrasting emotions. One one hand Max scored another crushing and totally dominant win, but it is absolutely gutting for Checo,” Horner said. “He had a rocket ship launch and had so much momentum going into that first corner so you cannot blame him for trying to take the lead in his home race. “Three into one did not go and unfortunately he was just on the wrong side of it. “He has got 13 years of experience in Formula 1 and when you are going through difficult moments it is important to support him. “He was having a great weekend up until that point.” Formula 1 has another Sprint race at Sao Paulo this weekend.

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MILLER PUTS THAI STRUGGLE DOWN TO SLOW-CORNER WEAKNESS WHILE KTM teammate Brad Binder was fighting for a maiden Grand Prix win in an all-time battle, Jack Miller was languishing out of the points in Thailand. With Miller starting 15th and finishing 16th, 17s off the pace and Binder being just a tenth shy of first place, the contrast between the two KTM bikes was alarming. Once again tyre dramas were at the centre of the frustrations for the Aussie, but he said a lack of drive from the slow corners at the Chang International Circuit was the major concern. “That really was not great, let’s be honest,” Miller wrote on his website. “The thing is, I didn’t make any real mistakes in the race and just didn’t have the pace. “I was just lacking drive off the slower

corners, Turn 1 and Turn 3 – and that was where the problems started. “When you lose two to three tenths every time you come off a slow corner, you carry that all the way down the next straight and you’re having to line up possible overtakes from a lot of bike lengths back which gets pretty sketchy. “I was able to make up a lot of time in Sector 3, especially in the first half of the race before the tyre started to drop.” Unfortunately it is not the first time Miller has struggled with the rubber beneath him, having on many occasions made early progress before dropping further down the pack as the race wore on. The timing of the Thai struggle is less than ideal for the Miller, who believed the tyre stayed in “relatively decent condition towards the end” of the Australian Grand

Prix despite rising to third on the opening lap and finishing seventh. But much like in Austria and India where the #43 only just held onto top 15 spots, maintaining rubber was an issue. The Townsville born rider admitted the tyre life struggles returned in Thailand and they are becoming a “head scratcher”. “All weekend I struggled with what we needed to do to get this tyre working,” Miller said. “Every time we have this (tyre) casing in, I seem to suffer more than the other tyres that we bring – we had it in Austria, India and now here. “I’m not really able to get it to work, or understand it very well. It’s a bit of a headscratcher. “I tried different lean angles, picking the bike up earlier, short-shifting – every

bloody thing I could.” The MotoGP world championship now takes a weekend off before finishing the season with an intense triple header at Malaysia, Qatar and Valencia. Miller admits lots of homework is required between now and then, but still believes he can make a statement. “We’ve got some work to do – to not even bring home a point this weekend is disappointing,” he said. “Quite clearly the bike’s able to work with these tyres, (KTM teammate) Brad (Binder) did a fantastic job all weekend and showed the KTM way. “We’ll put our heads down and get that work done and I’m confident we can finish this year stronger.” The Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix is on November 10-12.

LEGENDARY ‘GODZILLA” NISSAN SKYLINES TO RETURN TO ADELAIDE TWO OF the most iconic cars to conquer the Mountain, the 1991 and 1992 Bathurst winning Nissan Skyline GT-4 R32s will be reunited at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival and return a track they once dominated Both Gibson Motorsport cars will entertain fans in their original and iconic liveries at the South Australian event on March 16 and 17. It will see the Group A dominators return to the famous Adelaide street circuit where Jim Richards dominated the support races for the Australian Grand Prix when it was held in South Australia in 1990, 1991 and 1992. “Godzilla” won its first race on the streets of Adelaide when Jim Richards converted pole to a dominant 4s win in the 1990 Group A touring cars support race. Richards’ hopes of a clean sweep were denied by brake issues in race two won by Glenn Seton. However, Richards got redemption a year later when he did the double in the infamous 1991 weekend where rain made the Formula 1 race the shortest Grand Prix

ever at the time. That year’s Bathurst and ATCC champion won both races, but only just beating Win Percy’s HRT Commodore by a single second in the first and Seton’s Sierra by 3 in the second as the street circuit brought the machinery closer together. Fittingly, the Group A era of Australian Touring Car racing came to a close in Adelaide at the 1992 Australian Grand Prix.

As the crowd said goodnight Godzilla, Richards ensured it was gifted the perfect sendoff. The Kiwi and DJR rival John Bowe went head to head in two thrilling races but the Gibson Motorsport driver ensured the Nissan emerged on top on both occasions. However, nothing separated the pair with the difference just six tenths and half a second in the two breathtaking races. The Gibson Godzillas not only ruled the streets of Adelaide, but also dominated all over the country, cruising to the 1991 and 1992 ATCC crowns. The 1991 triumph was one of the more crushing wins, taking pole position, the fastest lap with a victory margin of an entire lap. Infamously and unforgettably the 1992 Great Race glory was more contentious, with the rain, the red flag, crash and “you’re a pack of” comment. The Skyline GT-R R32s were devastatingly quick, featuring all-wheel-drive and a 2.6-litre twin-turbo straight six engine and fans can relive them next year in Adelaide.

THIEVES STEAL CALDER’S POWER

DAVE KINDIG - ADELAIDE SUPERCARS NEWS By Paul Gover SUPERCARS RACING has an important new fan in the USA – reality TV star Dave Kindig. He’s not just a couch potato with a yearn for Aussie-style touring cars and will prove it soon. The custom car creator will be a special guest at the Adelaide 500 for the Supercars grand final of 2023 from November 23-26 and told Auto Action he cannot wait for his first trip to Australia. He and his sidekick from the high-rating Foxtel series Kindig Customs, Kevin ‘Kevdog’ Schiele, will be fronting the Kindig Custom Car Show but he is just as interested in being trackside for the Supercars racing. “Those drivers are crazier than cat shit. It’s crazy,” Kindig said, talking to Auto Action from his workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah. “I’ve watched a bit of the racing. It’s fantastic.”

Kindig still needs some education on the history of Supercars, and the difference between Australia’s signature Falcon and a Commodore, but intends to do plenty of research during his trip to the city of churches. “I’m a little familiar. Only from my experiences watching the Road Warrior (Mad Max) movie”. He continued his joking responses when he talked about his first trip down under. “Well, they don’t want me in the US any more. So I guess I gotta go somewhere great,” he said. “It’s very exciting. You know, I’ve never been to Australia before. I’ve been invited 100 times.” One of those invites came from an Aussie customer who had Kindig do a full re-make of his humble golf cart. For the Australia trip he is bringing two of his own cars – one is his father-in-law’s 1950s Chevrolet Corvette and the other is still secret – as well as judging an invited

field of custom cars during the Kindig show. He knows he will be busy, but is hopeful there will be less pressure than US events and the trip will give him a new memory for the traditional Thanksgiving holiday in the ’states. “This is a perfect fit because I don’t have anything going on for Thanksgiving (in the US), other than turkey. I’m really excited to see your car culture down there. “If you’re into hotrods, four wheels and a steering wheel, I think everybody’s got the opportunity to see something that just blows their mind. “It’s just a different culture, but at the end of the day it’s truly all the same.” The bottom line for Kindig is his enthusiasm for the on-track Supercars action. “I have watched a little bit of footage of your Supercar races over there,” he said. “I have never seen anybody cut straight through multiple chicanes at full throttle. It’s crazy, you know.”

ON THE back of gaining a Motorsport Australia category B track license and the running of the first Victorian State Race Series round since 2008, copper thieves destroyed the power installations at Calder Park Raceway. The valuable infrastructure provides the lighting for night drags and drifting and is seen is a huge setback for Calder Park which is well on the way returning the venue back to being fully operational for circuit racing, drag racing and drifting. This is the second time that thieves have struck at the iconic track. Back in May this year, thieves attempted to steal the cabling from the venue substation to the main lighting switchboard, some 250 metres of cable, but only succeeded in stealing the main power feed from the power lines. Calder Park then invested in upgrades to adapt the existing switchboard and wiring to use generator power for the lighting until mains power could be reinstated. That investment is now for nothing, and it is presumed that the same thieves returned last week in a second attempt to steal the cabling, and in the process, destroyed the substation and main switchboard and the whole of the power infrastructure for the drag strip lighting. Damage is estimated at more than two hundred thousand dollars. Police are investigating. Just last weekend the Victorian State Race Series returned to the revived iconic Victorian circuit. It was the first time a Motorsport Australia sanctioned event was held there for 15 years.

SPEEDWAY CHARGING TO THE CAPITAL FOR THE first time ever Sprintcars are coming to the capital and the historic season revs up this weekend. The 2023/24 ACT Speedway season has been revealed, with the opener being the ACT Speedcar Title this Saturday at Canberra. In addition to the Speedcars, Wingless Sprintcars, Compact Speedcars, Legend Cars, and Production Sedans will also be in action in the November 4 event. But the most notable highlight of the track’s biggest summer of speedway in its history stands out on March 9 2024. The event called the Kings with Wings Sprintcar Shakedown, will see Sprintcars race in Canberra for the first time ever. Methanol Breathing 410 Sprintcars will be roaring on the ACT clay under lights at the historic event. Joining the sprintcars will be Legends and Production Sedans with the ACT Production Sedan title on the line. Before then, the A.C.T. Speedway will host Speedcars, Wingless Sprintcars, Compact Speedcars, Legend Cars, and Production Sedans in the venue’s biggest season ever. The second event is the Compact Speedcar Stampede on December 2 which is the final race before the new year. That will also include Wingless Sprintcars, Production Sedans, Street Stocker

The last race meeting held at Canberra was on April 2 where Jack Murphy won Production Sedans, Formula 500 was taken out by Blake Mathews, Robbie Rawlings claimed Legend Cars and Brad Smith scored Late Models.

2023/24 ACT SPEEDWAY SCHEDULE 4TH NOVEMBER 2023 – A.C.T. Speedcar Title SUPPORTS – Wingless Sprintcars, Litre Sprints, & Street Stocker Sedans 2ND DECEMBER 2023 – Compact Speedcar Stampede Image: WE LOVE OUR CARS PHOTOGRAPHY Sedans and Legend Cars. The first event of 2024 won’t arrive until February when the ACT Legend Car title is up for grabs. Production Sedans, Limited Sedans, Street Stocker Sedans and Fender Benders ensure there will be lots of on-track action. The penultimate event of the season is the big sprintcar shakedown before summer wraps up on April 4 when the ACT Compact Speedcar Title is held. Fast Four Sedans, Wingless, Production Sedans, Street Stocker Sedans and Legend Cars also go racing in the finale.

SUPPORTS – Wingless Sprintcars, Production Sedans, Street Stocker Sedans & Legend Cars 3RD FEBRUARY 2024 – A.C.T. Legend Car Titles SUPPORT - Production Sedans, Limited Sedans, Street Stocker Sedans & Fender Benders 9TH MARCH 2024 – A.C.T. Production Sedan Title & Kings with Wings Sprintcar Shakedown SUPPORT – Legends, Production Sedans 6TH APRIL 2024 – A.C.T. Compact Speedcar Title SUPPORTS – Fast Four Sedans, Wingless, Production Sedans, Street Stocker Sedans & Legend Cars

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SUPERCARS TO RACE SUNNY DARWIN IN 2024 THE LATEST piece to be confirmed on the slowly developing puzzle that is the 2024 Supercars calendar is the Darwin Triple Crown, which will be held on June 14-16. For the third year in a row the annual trip to the Northern Territory will be the special Indigenous Round on Larrakia Land where all cars will sport special liveries celebrating First Nations culture. Hidden Valley is the track to be officially locked in for next year following both the Bathurst 500 and 1000, Sydney SuperNight, Taupo, Townsville and Gold Coast. The Darwin Triple Crown, Bathurst, Townsville and Gold Coast events have dates locked in. Ever since being a groundbreaking addition to the Supercars Championship in 1998, the annual journey to the Top End has become a fan favourite. The Darwin Triple Crown will take place for a 26th year in 2024 following this year’s edition where more than 42,000 people watched Broc Feeney, Mark Winterbottom and Jack Le Brocq score special wins. Supercars CEO Shane Howard cannot wait to return to the guaranteed sunny skies at Hidden Valley next year. “The Darwin Triple Crown as the official Indigenous Round is a popular and beloved part of our annual championship,” he said. “Darwin’s famous June weather is the perfect winter getaway for fans and teams alike, and the Indigenous Round element offers us the fantastic opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the rich Indigenous culture present both in the Northern Territory and across Australia. “In 2023 we were treated to a fantastic weekend of racing and enjoyed the sight of the entire Supercars field donning special Indigenous liveries for the event, each with its own story and featuring several initiatives to benefit the Indigenous community and First Nations people. “We look forward to adding to the legacy of the Supercars Indigenous Round when we return to the Northern Territory in June 2024 for this truly unique event.» Supercars racing in Hidden Valley is a major money spinner in the Northern Territory and Chief Minister and Minister for Major Events, Natasha Fyles is looking forward to Supercars return. “The Darwin Triple Crown Supercars Indigenous Round

is a huge event that attracts thousands of people to the Territory every year,” she said. “Once they’re here, they enjoy not only all the action on the track, but everything else the Territory has to offer, from our unique tourism experiences and incredible sunsets to our rich and ancient Aboriginal culture, which is showcased at the event itself. “The research from the 2023 Darwin Triple Crown shows, yet again, the value in investing in this event, which, like the Territory’s other major events, delivers massive benefits to the economy and Territorians. “The event is delivered by Northern Territory Major Events Company, and the team is busy designing another massive motorsports weekend.” With the Bathurst double, plus New Zealand, Sydney, Townsville, Gold Coast and now Darwin confirmed, deals in place with Perth, Symmons Plains and Adelaide, the continuation of the Sandown 500, plus the Australian Grand Prix looking likely, there are only two big questions left.

The 2024 season looms likely to be short once again being 12 to 13 rounds with The Bend still up in the air and a non championship trip to Qatar in the works. Thomas Miles

POSSIBLE 2024 SUPERCARS CALENDAR Bathurst 500 February 16-18 Australian Grand Prix March 21-24 Taupo April 19-21 Symmons Plains Perth Darwin June 14-16 Townsville July 5-7 Sydney The Bend* (Winton, QR - other possible options) Sandown 500 Bathurst 1000 Gold Coast 500 October 25-27 Adelaide 500 Qatar* (possibly non championship)

HERNE TO COMPLETE AMERICAN TA2 SEASON IN TEXAS ONE OF Australia’s most talented overseas products Nathan Herne will wrap up his debut season in the American TA2 at the Circuit of the Americas on November 2-5. The Texas track is where the “Lismore Bullet” first had his chance to impress in front of a US audience when he did a one-off round at COTA with StevensMiller Racing at the back end of 2022 after winning his second straight Australian Trans Am title. He finished fourth in that race in a massive field and turned enough heads to get a full season with the backing of Cube3 Racing in the Stevens-Miller #29 Mustang. Whilst Herne has had his fair share

of mechanical let-downs across the 12 round season, he’s also managed to fight his way onto the podiums at New Orleans, Nashville, and Virginia, as well as having another dubiously stripped at

Watkins Glen in the tech shed. Herne has also tried his hand at racing Late Model machines on the dirt of Missouri and St Louis for the Millard Family Racing team.

In the TA2 driver standings, Herne is sitting in tenth place overall (out of 64) with room to jump up the standings at COTA, and is third in the Rookie pointscore (out of 32), just 24 points behind Thad Moffitt, and depending on other results, can still haul in Austin Green to take out the first year drivers title. After Qualifying on November 4 at 3:10pm local time, Herne will be gunning for his first win of the season on November 5 with a 30 lap or 75min race. He also goes in with the advantage of having already raced at the Formula 1 circuit, which will be the first such occasion for the Aussie racer in a challenging 2023 season. TW Neal

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MCCARTHY CLINCHES VIC FORMULA VEE TITLE AT CALDER

Images: GEARS AND WHEELS PHOTOGRAPHY

AMOS IS KING OF THE HILL DEAN AMOS is Australia’s newest hill climb champion after taking out the national title with a record breaking run in his Gould GR55B. The 2023 Motorsport Australia Hill Climb Championship took place in Ringwood Park Motor Sport Complex in NSW, hosted by the MG Car Club of Newcastle. Amos was dominant against a field of more than 100 entrants with his 650bhp 3.5L V8 Nicholson McLaren engined machine, taking top spot in the outright and Formula Libre 2001cc and Over category, denying the second placed Dean Tighe and his Empire Wraith a sweep of Aussie titles for the year, whilst the podium was rounded out by Greg Ackland. With every competitor allowed seven runs, Amos was +0.74 quicker than Tighe with a best time of 32.66 seconds, whilst also being the outright fastest over six of his seven runs, with penalty on his fifth attempt likely denying the full sweep. After Tighe took out the Motorsport Australia Supersprint Championship, last year’s hill climb title holder could only crack the sub-33 mark in three of his runs, with Amos putting down two other times that were enough to claim victory. Amos also broke the previous course record of 32.86 set by Malcolm Oastle in 2014 in his Turbocharged Hayabusa powered OMS 28. As for third place Ackland’s time of 34.03 was also enough to claim the up to 2000cc class victory in his Ninja

Image: PHIL WISEWOULD PHOTOGRAPHY

GA8, finishing over two 2001cc and over competitors Warwick Hutchinson and Brett Bull in their OMS 28 RPV03 and Van Diemen RF03K machines. The rest of the top ten was also filled by the Formula Libre component, completed by Alan Foley (RFoley FL - 34.59s), David Mahon (Dallara F394 - 35.60s), Neil Lewis (Fly-001 - 36.39s), Miles Hoare (OMS 25 - 36.57s), and Dave Morrow (Krygger Suzuki 37.38s). Peter Brown was the highest placed outside of that class in the Pro Sport Mulsanne category, finishing 11th outright with a time of 37.58 seconds in his 2C Supersports AII. The fastest tin top placing went to Matthew Brown in his Audi RS4 in fourteenth overall, with a pass of 39.08 seconds. The fastest female competitor went to Pauline Graham with a time of 41.75

in a Datsun 1600 SSS in 43rd outright, whilst Travis McGeorge topped the juniors down in 83rd with a time of 45.68 seconds Peter Brown was the highest placed driver outside of the class - the Pro Sport Mulsanne Supersports driver going 11th fastest overall with his time of 37.58 seconds just two tenths short of Morrow in 10th. Just three places below Brown was the fastest tin top driver in Matthew Brown, who guided his Audi RS4 to 14th overall with an impressive time of 39.08 seconds. Other notable results included Pauline Graham, whose time of 41.75 seconds saw her as the fastest woman and in 43rd overall, while Travis McGeorge was the best-placed junior in 84rd overall, with a time of 45.68 seconds in a Fiat 127. TW Neal

YOUNG VICTORIAN racer Reef McCarthy has regained his status as a state champion by taking out his second Formula Vee championship at Calder Park Raceway. The Round 7 event was an historical occasion for Victorian racing, as the Victorian State Race Series made a return to the Calder Raceway after a long 15 year wait. Having won his first FVAV title in 2021, the former Super3 driver and 2022 Super2 Bathurst 1000 competitor finished second last season to Heath Collison, but went one better in his #61 Beacham Racing Sabre 02, and finished it off in style with a Race 3 victory. And like many young drivers of this generation, it was his first time competing at Calder. ‘It was a great weekend of competition and my first time racing at Calder Park,” McCarthy said. “Lee (Partridge) and I battled all weekend, swapping the lead on most laps. Total respect for the guy, clean but hard racing that saw us racing side by side on many occasions and never touching a wheel.” After qualifying on the front row next to poleman Partridge, Race 1 saw the #61 driver finish second in Race 1, only +0.255s behind Partridge over 18 laps with Nicholas Jones in third, with the podium enough to clinch the title for McCarthy. Race 2 finished under a yellow flag after 11 laps owing to an oil spill cleanup with the #28 and #61 again going one-two, whilst Brock Hamilton finished in third for his first ever Formula Vee podium. The season champion then finished off in style by going one better over Partridge and Jones, and in typical FVAV style it was another tight affair with only +0.031 separating the front two at the chequered flag with Partridge taking the round win. Now it onto the Island Magic event at Phillip Island for the FVAV fo the final event of the year on November 25-26, a track that McCarthy has dominated of late, taking two wins there in September’s round of six visit, whilst he’ll also be looking for his fifth consecutive Island Magic FVAV title, with the prestigious Mauri Fordham Memorial trophy also on the line. TW Neal

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INTERNATIONAL AUSSIES

ALLEN BREAKS THROUGH FOR ELMS TITLE AUSSIE RACER James Allen secured the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) title alongside his Algarve Pro Racing (APR) teammates in his seventh LMP2 ELMS season. It capped off a sensational season alongside Kyffin Simpson and Alex Lynn in the #25 ORECA 07 machine, with Allen’s personal record this season also seeing him take class wins at the Daytona 24 and Le Mans 24. All up, the team took two victories at the Four Hours of Le Castellet and at the Four Hours of Spa Francorchamps, as well as a vital come-from-behind third place at Aragon where Allen put on a masterclass in tyre management, before ending the year with two second place finishes in Portugal. The win also means that the team has secured one of the automatic invitation spots to the limited LMP2 field that will run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024, where Allen will look to take his third straight class victory at the famous event. At the start of the year, Allen earmarked winning the Pro LMP2 class title with Algarve Pro Racing as a huge career goal, and podium finishes at the Four Hours of Algarve and Four Hours of Portimao double header got it done in the rain-soaked finale.

“I knew I needed to play it safe in my stint and not take risks because it was so tricky on track,” Allen explained. “I had to use a few laps to discover the conditions. It was a lot wetter during the race than it was during the weekend. “It was consistency like that which won us the championship. Aside from Barcelona where we were turned around and ended up in the gravel, it’s been a superb run. “The whole season has just been amazing. I can’t thank everyone and the team enough for all the efforts that they’ve put in. Kyffin and Alex, and all the engineers and mechanics ... they all put in a fantastic effort over the whole year and I can’t express my appreciation for that enough.” Allen got the team off to a fantastic start over the weekend by putting the #25 ORECA 07 on pole for the Four Hours of Algarve opener, with their second place in that race securing the Teams Championship for APR. The second race saw Allen qualify in fourth place with the trio of drivers holding a 95 point lead over the United Auto Sports team, with Allen, Simpson and Lynn looking to sew up the drivers title. A huge rain storm in the finale saw a 45min red flag, with

the #25 ORECA working its way into second in the run home with Lynn behind the wheel, whilst Allen took the second stint throughout both races. The second place finish in the finale also meant that the team got to celebrate their double title on the podium. Allen finishes his year as one of the best performing International Australian drivers on the globe, having taken out two of the biggest endurance races, along with an Asian Le Mans win, and the two ELMS victories. TW Neal It’s been a superb and successful season for Aussie James Allen, winning the European Le Mans series Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

WEBSTER SWEEPS DONINGTON GB4 FINALE YOUNG VICTORIAN racer Cooper Webster has finished off his debut European season in dominant style, taking a sweep of wins at Donington Park to secure second place in the GB4 Championship. The S5000 front-runner has had a brilliant debut year alongside the Aussie-run outfit Evans GP, with his three wins at Donington coming off a double pole and a sensational comefrom-behind victory, fighting back from P11 in the season finale. Webster’s first European sojourn ended with five victories, which included a double at Snetterton back in June, as well as 10 podiums from 20 races, which also included a series record four podium sweep in Round 5 at Silverstone. Aside from a retirement at Silverstone in Round 2, Webster only once finished

20 I www.autoaction.com.au

outside of the top-10 (his second ever race in the machinery), ending the year 11 points short of the title winner Tom Mills who was absent from the last round. After securing pole from Liam McNeilly, who was aiming to take second in the championship from Webster, he took out the opener by just 0.627 from the Fox Motorsport driver despite experiencing problems under braking. The Vic jet then survived two restarts after getting a big jump in Race 2 to win over Colin Queen and McNeilly, before having to fight from P11 in the season closer. Webster had moved up to second place by the eighth lap before a Safety Car halted his inevitable charge. When the race resumed he had to dice with leader Sid Smith before taking the

lead, holding off a persistent Queen to win by 0.756 in the 12 lap finale. Webster now returns to Australia for the Adelaide 500 S5000 finale on November 23-26, where he’ll have to turn around an 85 point deficit to Aaron Cameron to try and win the Big Banger wings-and-slicks Gold Star title for the first time. Back at the S5000 round at Winton in June, Webster told Auto Action he’d love to step up into the GB3 if Evans GP takes that path. For Evans GP – run by the experienced Josh Evans – their debut international year has also been fantastic, and they’ve already announced plans to take on the 2024 Formula Regional Middle East Championship, and have already announced young Aussie Costa Toparis who raced in the GB3 this season, as one of their drivers.

Also finishing off a good year in the GB4 was another young Aussie – Jack Clifford. And although the Victorian couldn’t quite get to the podium, a consistent year had him finish seventh in the championship after featuring largely in the top-10 with a season-high finish of fourth at Snetterton. TW Neal

STREETS AHEAD AA’S COLUMNIST PONDERS SUPERCARS’ FUTURE ON TEMPORARY CIRCUITS ... THE NEWCASTLE street circuit’s demise is not only a huge shame, it’s a stark reminder that no temporary circuit’s future is assured. Not when they are at the whim of power-hungry pollies. In the end it was Labor party politics – at both Newcastle City Council and State Government level – that killed off the atmospheric beach and harbourside event, for 2024 at least. Regardless of what any politician said publicly over recent months, no-one wanted to fund or host the annual event. Nor did anyone want to kill Bambi. I’ll draw your attention to how Newcastle mayor Nuatali Nelmes phrased the announcement of the event’s cancellation, immediately and repeatedly stating Supercars CEO Shane Howard had called her to say the race would not go ahead. Well played, Ms Nelmes. Message received loud and clear: Supercars cancelled the event, not you. Clearly Supercars couldn’t wait any longer for a government decision that wasn’t going to come. The NCC got someone to bone the thing. On one hand, council didn’t want to upset the vocal inner-city folk by holding another race. On the other, residents of greater Newcastle

with Luke West

REVVED UP who supported the race couldn’t be offended either. They vote too. Supercars’ head honcho simply put everyone out of their misery. Don’t believe for a moment the NSW Government was planning a five-year investment, to follow their one-year pledge. I call bullshit. As I said, it’s a huge shame. The venue had a truly unique atmosphere. Where else could a spectator hit the surf in between Supercars sessions, catch a ferry from the main parking area or marvel at giant coal ships gliding down the harbour before disappearing off Nobby’s. One year I even enjoyed a sit-down lunch at a Thai restaurant inside the circuit, as the roar of engines drowned out the traditional music. The trackside viewing was great. Sure, you could only see one corner from any vantage point – like any street circuit – and overtaking manoeuvres were rare, but you got up close to the cars at everywhere. And

each turn offered a different spectating experience as cars either bounced over kerbs, risked brushing walls or charged up hill or down dale. Many spots had a spectacular ocean backdrop, bars or cafes, something Homebush, for instance, couldn’t offer. I’ll miss Newy. Perhaps, like the Adelaide Parklands circuit, it will make a miraculous return, but I doubt it. It’s surely consigned to history now. The incredible 2017 championship decider will endure as Newcastle’s supreme moment forever more. The demise of what was, overall, a highly successful event (with big crowds and lots of corporates) serves to remind us that nothing lasts forever. Especially not temporary circuits. Who can predict how long Surfers Paradise and Townsville will continue. Adelaide, too, for that matter. Again, they are all at the mercy of political agenda, financial viability and competing priorities.

Both Sunshine State events are vulnerable now with Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympic Games. The Games of the XXXV Olympiad will soak up Queensland government funds, resources and attention. It’s worth noting the Gold Coast will host several high-profile events including beach volleyball and triathlon. The non-Olympic sport of car racing might become difficult to justify in the nine-years to Bris Vegas ’32. Supercars must ensure its racing product entertains. It can’t afford for Gold Coast 500 attendance numbers to slip or the event will be an easy kill for the pollies who sign the cheques. As I’ve written before, if Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was as cluey as she thinks she is, she’d tell her tourism minister to ask NASCAR’s chiefs the cost of journeying to Surfers Paradise to race. Importing a field of cars to promote the Gold Coast as a holiday destination to Americans could make economic and political sense. Especially if SVG’s presence also entices his countrymen to cross the Tasman for the race en masse … and a week sunning their buns on Main Beach.

It’s all about return on investment and I’m not sure that Supercars’ diminishing domestic profile stacks up long-term. Maybe the category’s street race era is winding down and the V8s are returning to their mid1990s guise of a solitary street race outing per year, supporting the Australian Grand Prix. Alternatively, perhaps there’s merit in investigating Cessnock mayor Jay Suvaal’s suggestion of a temporary circuit in the NSW wine country town. Sounds farfetched, I know, but a circuit incorporating Cessnock Airport might not be such a silly idea. After all, the main straight at IndyCar’s St Petersburg event is actually one of the Albert Whitted Airport’s runways. And IndyCar raced for years in Cleveland, Ohio on the Burke Lakefront Airport. If there really was State Government funding on offer for the Hunter, spend it on the enigmatic Italia Road complex slowly coming to life, or a wine country event, or Maitland or, I don’t know, a blast up and down the M1. Anything. One way or another, some creative thinking is needed to find interesting Supercars tracks of the future. Creative accountancy too, as someone has to pay for them.

Kostecki leads SVG down the hill at Newcastle ... Image: MARK HORSBURGH

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FORD FINALLY WINS! Last issue’s look back at the Can-Am monsters went down well with readers! Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

A DIEHARD SUPERCARS FAN OFF THE HOOK

I’M A fed-up recent retiree who has spent the past five years saving and planning to follow the Supercars to all Australian circuits in 2024 along with a mate and our partners. I have now used that money to buy a boat. Fishing is much more enjoyable and I’m now hooked on it. Bathurst was the final nail in the coffin for us. We’re not interested in watching a one-make Chev series. I don’t mind which brand wins as long as all brands have a chance. The Dave Reynolds penalty was way overboard and should have been less. I also agree with the comments from Peter Warburton that Supercars need to listen to their customers (Letter, #AA1872, ASK FANS WHAT THEY WANT, DON’T DICTATE). He was also right in asking the question why can’t we have 30 or more cars competing. The drivers are paid big money so they should be able to navigate more cars on the grid. Love your mag and it’s going to be my source of keeping up with motorsport from now on. Noel Molloy Lara, Victoria

TOWNSVILLE TEMPLATE THE WAY TO GO FOR NEWCASTLE

IT HAS been announced that the Newcastle 500 won’t go ahead for the 2024 Supercars season, but a returning in the near future has not been ruled out. Although the Newcastle street circuit looks great and is like a ‘mini-Monaco’, it would be a very expensive event to stage and a lot

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of the locals are not happy with it being right in the city. Why not build a Townsville-style part-permanent, part-temporary street circuit at Newcastle? Not in the heart of the city, but near it. That would cause less disruption for the locals. The Townsville circuit is a smaller-size Albert Park and it became a reality as a cooperation and a co-funding arrangement between the federal and Queensland governments. A Townsville-style facility in Newcastle could become a reality with co-operation and co- funding between the federal and NSW governments. If Newcastle had a facility like Townsville the Newcastle 500 could continue for years and could have some permanent facilities. It would be a lot cheaper to stage. Malcolm Webster Boronia, Victoria

THREE CHEERS OR LOTS OF TEARS?

IF THE cards fall the right way, there could be three drivers from this part of the world on the Formula One grid next year. Oscar Piastri is locked in at McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo is signed up for a full season at AlphaTauri but has to be a big chance of replacing Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing (how on earth does ‘Checo’ keep his seat at RBR?) – in which case the New Zealander Liam Lawson is in the box seat to fill the AlphaTauri vacancy that would be created. How good would that be to see at the Australian Grand Prix? Yet the GP has put a ceiling on the number of tickets they sell each year now. Not because Albert Park

couldn’t handle a bigger crowd but, apparently, because they reckon they can’t get the staff to service the venue and bigger attendance. They’ve got to do better than that. If the demand is there for tickets, they’ve got to be able to meet that need, especially when you end up reading about how much they lose on staging the race every year. More people, more tickets, more revenue, closer to break-even, surely. My kids have got us tickets to go to the GP a few times, but with these hassles and the cost of flights, accommodation and everything we’ve just about put it in the too-hard basket. The GP organisers need to step up a few gears. Tony Williams Turramurra, NSW

MONSTER MEMORIES OF THE CAN-AM DAYS

GREAT TO see that article on the Porsche 917-30 in your previous edition (#AA1872, THE MONSTER THAT KILLED THE CAN-AM). Man, what a race car that was! A lot of the race categories nowadays leave me pretty cold. Although not many of us Aussies got to see the Can-Am series first-hand in the ’60s and ’70s, and there wasn’t the TV and internet coverage available to us then, just reading about it was fantastic. Some of the things guys in that series did were mesmerising – and still are. Jim Hall and what he did in building those Chaparrals is my all-time hero. You’ve got me forever if you can publish more stories on the Can-Am. Des Morrison, age 69 Hervey Bay, Queensland

Rob Falcon Great finish in both races. Shows what the Ford teams and drivers can do with closer to equal equipment. SVG on Saturday and Brodie on Sunday fought hard. Their straight line speed was noticeable but aero looks better now. Peter Herriott Never judge a book by its cover. David is the ‘court jester’ but he knows how to drive these things. Great win. Tony Nicastri Go Cam! For him and Tickford this is fantastic. What a great weekend after a very trying year so far. Wendy Cox Great job Cam to finish well and fight SVG off. Proud as punch to see Tim up there in the last year for that legend and his wife. Nathan de Rover That was great stuff. A reminder of how good this series can be.

SPORTS SEDANS STAR ON SURFERS Anthony Dean Clarke Tony and the Alfa is Australia’s greatest race car and driver combination. Accolades from all of us in WA. Angus Fogg He (Tony) was having serious gear change issues but it was cool to race him for half a lap!

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Allan Horsley. Image: RAY BERGHOUSE

GOODBYE ... AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING COUNTLESS PEOPLE HAVE REASON TO THANK ALLAN HORSLEY

ALLAN HORSLEY did many brilliant things in motoring and motorsport, but his greatest success will surprise most people. He married a Miss Australia. She was the one-time Rhonda Iffland, who claimed the crown in 1970. She always said it was because Horsley was the only person who asked her out during her yearlong reign. But it was because he was smart, had a great sense of humour, was hugely intelligent and a great cook. And he had a very cheeky smile. He aimed for the top, always, and invariably hit his target. Horsley was the powerhouse who turned Oran Park into Australia’s best racetrack in the 1960s and 1970s, got Mazda into motorsport, helped start indoor Supercross, ran Allan Moffat’s RX-7 squad, dominated the Bathurst 12-Hour, and created a couple of brilliant SP road cars for the Japanese company. He also ran the Public Relations operation, if you could call it that, for Mazda in NSW. Horsley always set the bar high and, provided you could clear it, you were right to go. Plenty of people failed.

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with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE He could be grumpy and intolerant, but that’s not unusual for perfectionists. And the flip-side was the immense joy that came from being inside the tent. Horsley – I always called him H – grew up in the countryside near Albury and loved to talk about the racing car – called Puff – he built with inspiration from a 1930s Auto Union. It would wheel-spin in top gear. He was more humble about his work at Oran Park, where the high point was the 1972 capacity ‘lock out’ – enforced by the police – at the touring car championship decider. He also helped create Sports Sedans, championed Formula 5000, ran Australia’s first night meetings, extended the track to the figure-of-eight layout, and once even ran a reverse-direction race meeting. It was H who really got Peter Brock going, before Harry Firth, by paying him appearance money. Cleverly, not for the first time, he signed Brock to an exclusive deal so he could only race at Oran Park.

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Once, when Moffat was struggling, he paid for an engine for his Coca-Cola Mustang. He also happily paid the fines for drivers convicted of rough driving by the Stewards. But Oran Park didn’t pay well, and most weeks he was at the illegal casino in Liverpool trying to ensure it did not become “another week of baked beans”. His life should have become a book, but he shied away, and then came Covid and the downturn in his health. In that book there would have been a huge number of tributes to H, like these. “He was one of the most honest people I’ve been associated with in motorsport,” said Kevin Bartlett. “Allan was a great man, I will always remember my dealings with him with respect and warmth,” said Warwick Brown. I met H in 1974 when I was just a cadet journalist at the local paper in Campbelltown, across the hills from Oran Park. When I was set out on assignment I would sneak

some time for a catch-up and a brew with him. We shared so, so many great times. He once arrived at a basketball game in Canberra, ‘under-cover’ on a special assignment for Mazda. I pegged him immediately, and was sworn to silence. He also ran a motor show in Canberra for a few years, bringing great cars and great company including his close mate the late Gregg Hansford. H was a perfectionist and that was reflected in his endless success in motorsport, often with Moffat and Mazda, and it could be tracked back to his obsession with reading the motorsport rulebook – on the dunny. He could also pick drivers, and his honour roll runs from Mark Skaife and Hansford to Dick Johnson and John Bowe, Allan Grice, Neil Crompton and rally driver Brendan Reeves. We drove together many times, skidding over dirt roads in Mazda preview drives – he never admitted the time he spun and I didn’t – and once went on a Dash to Darwin in an RX-7 Turbo at an average speed of 163km/h. The trip included passing more than 20 slow-moving Army convoys and running out of fuel . . . Once, in Japan, he asked me to give a Mazda engineer ’the

special’ at a racetrack, then complained when the man vomited. Another time, I spun at a spectator point while driving a 323 as the course car for a rally. He only wasted one word, “idiot”, then whacked me brutally hard on the head – even though I was still wearing my helmet. H never let me drive one his Mazdas in Targa Tasmania. When I complained he told me “I don’t want to kill one of my friends”. In recent years, his health went sharply downhill. He was never the same after Rhonda died. Luckily for me, and I would like to think also for H, we shared a couple of brilliant dinners in his final months. He was physically broken, but his mind was as sharp as ever and he was still the perfectionist – right down to setting the table for me and his wonderful carer Steve Rowland – who achieved so much. The gruff humour was also still there, as was his humility as we talked about his many successes – I nearly forgot to mention his garden – and the countless people whose lives were better for being touched by him in some way. This is my tribute to H. It’s not much, but it’s the best I can do. I was honoured to call him my friend and I will miss him.

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FORMULA 1 NEWS – LUIS VASCONCELOS

RUSSELL REACTS TO FORMER DRIVERS’ CLAIMS GEORGE RUSSELL was not pleased with accusations made by some former drivers, inclkuding Gerhard Berger and Christian Danner, who said the reason there were so many current racers suffering in the heat in Qatar was because they simply don’t train enough. The Mercedes driver resisted the temptation to rubbish these accusations in simple terms, preferring to give a thorough explanation of the reasons the drivers suffered so much in Qatar. Russell said that, “what I can say is I train substantially for the heat. I train with three layers of clothes ahead of these hot races. I do a huge amount of saunas to adapt to the heat. These guys who are commenting on this ... we’re driving laps 20 seconds faster than they were, going through corners pulling 5G in every single aspect. And yes, of course, we need to be gladiators. But when it comes to the heat, there’s only so much the body can take. And if you look at the Qatar World Cup, due to the heat they added three-minute water breaks twice throughout the game. They have their 15-minute half time break ... we were driving flat-out for 90 minutes on a super high speed circuit, high downforce circuit, with temperature and humidity that were through the roof.” But when pushed for a comparison with the old days, the English driver said that, “anybody can say what they like but also the race cars in the 90s and 80s didn’t have all the electronical boxes around the cockpit heating the cockpit up. They didn’t have the power steering system that was running at 50, 60 degrees radiating heat. We have hydraulic lines

George makes several good points in comparing F1 2023-style to previous decades ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES running all around the cockpit, which is at 120 degrees Celsius. The cockpit was closing in on 60 degrees Celsius throughout that race. We have thicker fireproof underwear than they ever wore since the Grosjean crash. The fireproofs are substantially thicker. It’s like wearing a fleece.

So, people can say what they like. Things are different now, in the same way things were different 40 years ago.” Having required an ice bath after the Qatar Grand Prix, so much he showed up to his media duties wearing a jumper, Russell was happy to admit that, “the recovery was pretty straightforward.

For anyone who’s been in a sauna before, at one point you feel like you need to get out of there because you’re about to burn; then, once you spend five or 10 minutes afterwards cooling down, you feel OK. But I know from some drivers who suffered with heatstroke, they were ill for the week following.”

DOMENICALI DOESN’T EXCLUDE FUTURE TYRE WAR PIRELLI WILL remain Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier until the end of 2027, with an option to extend the deal for one further year, but FOM’s CEO Stefano Domenicali has not ruled out the return of a tyre war to the top category of motor racing. The last time Formula 1 had two competing tyre manufacturers was in 2006, when Michelin and Bridgestone fought it out before the French company decided to quit the sport, feeling the FIA and its then president Max Mosley, in particularly, was very partial against them in some crucial decisions taken in the previous years. So Bridgestone remained on its own until the end of 2010 before also pulling out, with Pirelli taking the The last F1 tyre war saw monopoly of Formula 1 tyre supplying from Bridgestone versus Michelin. the start of te following year. Speaking of the reasons why Grand Prix racing but the cost was really massive – that was the reason we continues to go ahead with just one tyre manufacturer, moved from that direction to the new situation.” Domenicali explained that, “I think that point was tackled Asked if now that the sport is so vibrant and profitable together with the FIA, to make sure that we were able it would be the right time to reinstate tyre competition to control the cost of the ecosystem of Formula 1. That in Formula 1, the Italian started his answer in his usual was the main reason. When we moved from the tyre cautious way, saying that, “it is too premature to consider competition where we had a lot of testing, a lot of that this could be a possibility for the future”, before adding mileage, and a lot of research that was really beneficial, that, “in terms of the actual situation where the cost control

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is very relevant, I would say we haven’t decided for sure, but it is not yet on the agenda to see if this could be a possibility in the future”, before leaving the door slightly open to the return of a tyre war that always added quite a lot to the excitement and unpredictability of the races: “If this is a point of relevancy in the future, if we are able to control the different mechanisms of the cost, why not? But, so far, it is not on the agenda or discussions together with the FIA or teams.” Surprisingly, Pirelli, who never seemed interested in remaining in Formula 1 unless it was supplying the whole field, now seems to have changed its tune a bit, as the company’s Executive Vice-President, Marco Tronchetti Provera opened the door to such a possibility: “I think it is important to underline that Pirelli is part of more than 300 championships around the world in motorsport business. In most of them, there are also other suppliers and we are happy to compete with other suppliers. It has been never an issue for us, for us it has been always an opportunity, competing with other as we do, supplying tyres for the prestigious cars, premium cars, we are very happy as it’s an opportunity to prove our technology.”

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and Formula 1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali have plenty to discuss. Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

FOM VS FIA: A WAR NO ONE CAN WIN!

THE GLOVES are clearly off in the feud between FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and Formula 1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali. The most visible area of the confrontation is the prospective entry of Andretti in the World Championship, but under the waters there’s a much bigger battle going on, for money and power and both sides seem to be ready to go all out in order to get what they want. Formula One was very comfortable during the 12 years Jean Todt was running the FIA, as, in spite of his tremendously impressive racing pedigree, the former Peugeot and Ferrari boss almost ignored Grand Prix racing, leaving the running of the show to the teams and the Commercial Rights Holder – especially from the moment his former employee Ross Brawn joined the management of the sport after it was bought by Liberty Media. While, with Ecclestone, there was a tiny bit of needle between the FIA and the FOM, once

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with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER Brawn arrived on the scene, Todt simply forgot Formula 1 existed and even let the Commercial Rights Holder define the 2021 Technical and Sporting regulations, rubber stamping it without any amendments. The only thing Todt did was to secure a bigger yearly payment to the FIA in the latest Concorde Agreement, but the figures involved are still way below what the Federation needs to operate at the level Formula 1 now needs – and it’s still filling the 20 million Euro hole Todt left in its coffers! The arrival of Mohammed Ben Sulayem on the scene changed the dynamic between the FIA and the FOM. The Emirati wants the Federation to have a much

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bigger control over the sport and, crucially, demands a bigger share of the sports’ massive profits, pointing out that the measure he had to take to make Grand Prix racing better – a lot more officials on site; creating and maintaining the remote race management back in Geneve; developing software to help police track limits and technical infractions; together with an increase of 20 per cent in the number of Grands Prix per season, combined with the massive increase of traveling costs – are costing a fortune. Stefano Domenicali, on the other hand, wants to keep the commercial deal as it is and wants to see and hear less of the FIA president at the races, seeming to have most if not all

of the teams on his camp. In fact some Team Principals are almost too confident the FOM has all the good weapons in this battle and the FIA simply has to accept what it’s given or lose Formula 1, as they believe a breakaway series with the current 10 teams would keep the money coming at the same level as now. On the other side of the barricade, there’s an absolute belief a breakaway would be a failure, as circuits, officials, volunteers and other key personnel in the organisation of races and the championship, wouldn’t want to join a rebel series, for they’d be banned from any FIA-sanctioned events and, essentially, would only host and/ or work in just one event per year. The reality is that, as then FIA president Jean Marie Balestre and FOCA’s Bernie Ecclestone and his partner Max Mosley found in 1981, this is an unwinnable war. Back in 2009, Mosley, by then a weakened FIA president, faced the possibility of a breakaway

from all but two of the competing teams but both sides backed off, having reached the same conclusion. Therefore, it’s inevitable that Ben Sulayem and Domenicali will end up finding a solution that will suit both sides. Without the money generated by Formula 1, the FIA would have to fire hundreds of people and go back to the structure it had some 25 years ago; without the FIA, Formula One would need years to train officials, volunteers and be confined to non-permanent circuits – permanent circuits couldn’t exist hosting just one race per year, so the level of the championship would suffer a lot and its popularity would crumble. Hopefully the time egos and greed are ruling over common sense is coming to an end, and the two sides will recognise they need each other, sit down and have a sensible discussion about the way to move forward – because, frankly, this is the kind of war neither Formula One nor the FIA can win.

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FORMULA 1 NEWS – LUIS VASCONCELOS

MERCEDES AND FERRARI ADMIT MISTAKES THAT LED TO DISQUALIFICATIONS MERCEDES AND Ferrari promptly accepted the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc from the US Grand Prix results, the two teams acknowledging that the plank wear on the two cars was above what the regulations allow for and, therefore, making the exclusion from second and sixth place, respectively, inevitable. But accepting the Stewards decision is not the same as admitting there were no external circumstances that led to both cars’ planks being excessively used up during the race. Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, however, admitted that, “others got it right where we got it wrong and there’s no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend.” The Austrian, however, pointed out that, “set-up choices on a Sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice – and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package. In the end, all of that doesn’t matter.” The team’s Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, added that, “it is one of the pitfalls of the Sprint format where we have a solitary hour of running before parc fermé. Without running at a race fuel load in FP1, combined with a circuit as bumpy as this and the parts of the track where the drivers

Both Mercedes and Ferrari had a car disqualified – it could have been more if all cars had been checked ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

have to put the car during the Grand Prix, have contributed to the higher than expected wear levels.” With Red Bull running the RB19 with a higher ride than normal, it’s not like the teams were surprised by the fact the cars were bottoming in a few areas of the circuit and Ferrari’s Diego Ioverno, the Scuderia’s Sporting Director, even admitted that, “we knew it would be difficult and that’s why we raised the car’s ride height during FP1. From our point of view it should have been OK. Also, the wind had an influence, changing direction and increasing in intensity to a

higher level than expected. All of this led to our car not being legal at the end of the race.” McLaren seems to have been more alert than its rivals to the issue, Lando Norris being told by his race engineer, Will Joseph, to “stay off the kerbs in Turn 9”, a nearly flatout left hander that leads into the crucial Turns 10 and 11 that precede the circuit’s longer straight. In doing so Norris probably lost a few hundredths of a second every lap but the plank on his MCL60 passed the post-race scrutineering, so the decision paid off as the British driver was promoted

to second place after Hamilton’s exclusion from the results. One fact that has caused some discomfort in the paddock is that only four cars had their planks tested at the end of the race – the top three finishers and Leclerc’s – so we’ll never find out if the other 13 cars that finished the US Grand Prix had nonconform planks as well. The FIA doesn’t have the means to check all items in all cars at the end of each race, so does random checks, meaning teams won’t willingly risk being caught with illegal cars. The fact that Fernando Alonso had to retire following massive damage to the floor of his car indicates he too had been going too hard over some kerbs, but Lance Stroll’s car was not checked for plank thickness, as weren’t Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and George Russell’s Mercedes – so these three drivers may have just lucked in by not having their cars checked in that area. This turmoil will give FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem more ammunition in his battle to get more resources from the commercial rights holder, as with more resources all cars could be checked for crucial areas like plank thickness and, therefore, there would be no doubts about the legality of all classified cars at the end of each Grand Prix.

FIA WORLD COUNCIL INCREASES MAXIMUM FINE TO ONE MILLION EUROS! THE FIA World Council for Motor Sports met recently in Geneva and one of its most surprising decisions was to change a point on the International Sporting Code and increase the maximum fine that can be imposed on drivers and competitors to a staggering one million Euros! That’s a 400 per cent increase on what was the maximum fine the FIA and its officials could impose as, until now, 250,000 Euros was the maximum fine. According to the FIA’s statement, “this amount has not been reviewed nor amended for at least the last 12 years and does not reflect the current needs of motor sport, and the World Council therefore approved an update to this maximum limit in certain championships as follows: • FIA Formula One World Championship – 1,000,000 euros • All other FIA World Championships – 750,000 euros • All other FIA Championships, cups, trophies, challenges or series – 500,000 euros Among the decisions aimed solely at Formula 1, the “World Council noted the recent appointment by e-vote of Pirelli as the Sole Supplier for

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Powerbrokers on the grid: Domenicali (left) and Ben Sulayem – increased fine revenue. ... tyres in the FIA Formula One World Championship, FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championships for 202527”, with president Mohammed Ben Sulayem commenting that, ““Pirelli has been operating at the top level of motor sport for many years and I am sure that

they will continue to deliver innovation and excellence on the world stage. Formula 1 is a unique challenge for the tyre supplier, and Pirelli has demonstrated great commitment to producing tyres that meet the extreme demands of these incredible cars. I would like to thank Pirelli

for its ongoing support of motor sport not only in Formula 1, but in many other championships and categories at every level. Work will continue in the coming years to take further strides both in terms of performance and sustainability, and Pirelli have made strong commitments to both of these targets.” As usual, and with completely new regulations coming soon as from 2026, Formula 1 cars will look quite different: “The World Council approved several refinements to the 2026 Power Unit Sporting, Technical and Financial Regulations, as well as amendments regarding the supply and development of fuel.” Finally, and accepting a request from Pirelli, it was also announced that, “the World Council approved an update to the Sporting Regulations increase the number of days permitted for official tyre testing from 35 to 40. Additionally, a provision to add a maximum of four car days of testing organised by the FIA in consultation with all Competitors for the express purpose to facilitate the research into spray reduction techniques in wet weather, was approved.”

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FERRARI KEEN TO KEEP LINE-UP

SPRINT WEEKENDS SET FOR NEW FORMAT IN 2024 THE FORMAT of sprint weekends will change next year, after the teams, the FIA and Formula 1 agreed with the criticism from the media and the fans, pointing out that the current format makes no sense, as Saturdays are a completely separated event and there’s no continuity between qualifying for the main race, held on Friday afternoon, and the Grand Prix itself, run on Sunday afternoon. The format that has been used this year made its debut in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as a reaction to criticism that the original format created a very dull Second Free Practice Session, where teams and drivers would be running completely different programs, and the final results were completely irrelevant. Also, the fact that a driver who would have a problem

in the Sprint race would then have to start the Grand Prix from the back created a double jeopardy that was seen as unfair, so the new format was trialed early in the season, in Baku, and used in the remaining five sprint events of this year. The lack of continuity of the weekend, with the sprint qualifying and race on Saturday, cutting between qualifying and Sunday’s Grand Prix, was confusing for the fans and Formula 1 has reacted quickly proposing a new format that has been approved by the majority of the teams, in spite of some offering some serious objections. From the start of 2024, a Sprint event format will start, as usual, with one Free Practice Session on Friday, followed by the Sprint Shootout in the end of

the afternoon, to determine the grid for Saturday morning’s Sprint Race. Then, later on Saturday, we’ll have qualifying for the main event, with the race going ahead, as usual, on Sunday afternoon. This format gives the entire weekend a crescendo of suspense but it will be interesting to hear the drivers’ reactions, as already this year Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and other very experienced drivers expressed their reservations about going straight into a qualifying session on Saturday morning – so they’re likely to be less than enthusiastic about having to start a race without having any previous running on the day once the new format comes into effect, at the start of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship.

FERRARI HAS opened negotiations with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz with the goal of keeping the current driver line-up until the end of 2026. Frédéric Vasseur believes the combination of the Monegasque and the Spanish driver is strong enough to mount a title bid as soon as the Scuderia comes up with a winning car. With Verstappen, Hamilton, Russell, Norris and Piastri all tied to long term contracts, the Frenchman doesn’t see any better alternatives in the market and, following the Qatar Grand Prix, has opened proper negotiations with his driver’s representatives. As Charles Leclerc admitted soon after the summer break, “we’ve had a few informal talks regarding the future”, the Monegasque making it clear that, “my goal is to be World Champion with Ferrari and as long as I believe I can achieve that goal, there’s no reason to move to any other team.” Such was the young driver’s resolve that he quickly turned down a tremendously lucrative offer to join Audi for a three-years period starting in 2025, his management having a very brief contact with Andreas Seidl before being instructed by the driver to stop the negotiations, as Leclerc’s sole goal is to re-sign with Ferrari and extend his current deal with the Scuderia. Sainz’s situation is a bit different, in the sense that the Spanish driver wants to give himself the best possible chance of fighting for the title regardless of the team that can offer him the most competitive package and, therefore, is open to offers. But with Mercedes and McLaren having no seats available for 2025 and Verstappen staying put at Red Bull until the end of 2028, there are no really competitive seats available for the Madridborn driver when his current contract with Ferrari will expire at the end of next year. The fact that Sainz has been able to regularly beat Leclerc has also reassured his entourage, that openly feared Ferrari would favor Leclerc with the arrival of Vasseur in the team, knowing the two men have a firm relationship based on the seasons they did together in junior formulae and also during the Monegasque’s first Formula 1 season, with Alfa Romeo Sauber, back in 2018. The way the team has worked since the start of the year seems to have convinced the Spaniard’s camp there is no favoritism inside the team under Vasseur’s leadership and that has encouraged them to sign a new deal with Ferrari, although they’re likely to push for a new one-year contract, to be free in the market when both Mercedes’ drivers contracts expire at the end of 2025 – and there’s likely to be a vacancy at McLaren as well, if Lando Norris decides to move out. The Spanish driver hasn’t completely shut the door to Audi, but for now his priority seems to be extending the current deal with Ferrari, with negotiations picking up the pace during the triple American leg of the championship, as Vasseur and the drivers, together with their managements, are staying out there for the three weeks. Between races, they thus have plenty of time to sit down and make the negotiations move ahead quickly, allowing Leclerc and Sainz to prepare for the next season with clear minds, knowing they’ll be remaining with the Maranello-based team for the two seasons ahead.

DRIVERS PUSH FOR HARSHER PENALTIES THE SUBJECT of track limits has been a hot one for Formula 1 drivers and, after the US Grand Prix, the debate has been extended to the way some drivers overtake by going off track, believing that what they will gain once they’re running in free air will be a lot more than the five-seconds penalty they are likely to be handed for “exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage.” In Austin, George Russell readily admitted he knew he had passed Oscar Piastri by going off the track during the Sprint Race (see image, right) and, had he not been stuck behind Sainz’s Ferrari in the last few laps, the Mercedes driver would have probably finished sixth on the road. As it was, he crossed the line in P7 and lost only one place to Gasly after the 5s was added to his final race time – but the Mercedes driver was quick to admit there has to be a better system to penalise drivers than the current one. The GPDA director said that, “if there’s gravel there and someone pushes you wide, you’re going to end up in the

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gravel, so you’re not really planning to go there. Whereas, I was always intending to go around the outside, hoping that Oscar would leave me a bit of space, and if he didn’t it, he would just push me wide onto a bit of tarmac and you just sort of worry about the consequences after.” George added:, “I don’t enjoy racing like that and something does need to change and it’s only probably in three circuits out of the whole season where it’s like that.” Russell revisited his other penalty, received in Monza when he came out of the pits to find Ocon right in front of him, admitting that, “coming out of the pits, I went over the limit knowing that I’ve got a ‘get out of jail free’ card. And the same in Barcelona. You don’t want to have a ‘get out of jail free’ card, so the FIA needs to find a way to avoid that.” Asked about the incident, Piastri, who was only 10th at the end of the Sprint Race said, “I wasn’t really looking at him because he was behind me. I’ve seen the replay of it – he clearly just accelerates off the track and goes past. I don’t

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think you can get close to arguing that was a 50/50. The five seconds made a bit of difference to his race, but not much. That’s the kind of thing you can do when you are in a faster car in a situation like that and I don’t think it is great for everyone.” Teammate Lando Norris explained that, “these things have been brought up so many times in drivers’ briefings. It’s a point that we bring up every time – it’s a point that George brought up in Barcelona, with the fact that you can commit to the outside line in Turn 1, just overdoing it, you get past two cars – like we saw people doing in Russia as well, in Turn 2. So, it’s something you can easily prepare yourself for and I’m pretty sure we came up with the conclusion that people are going to do it on purpose. We discussed this exact thing and we discussed that if you’re quicker, you could past get someone and you’re easily going to pull away five seconds – in Monaco for example, if you cut the chicane.” Williams driver Alex Albon, who has been on the receiving

end of some moves done using the run-off areas this year, insisted that, “with George, the penalty isn’t big enough. It’s a silly penalty. It punishes a slower car. I’m sure George knew he was off track and thought ‘I can afford this five seconds quicker than being stuck behind him’. That’s how it is.” It’s a subject that was due to be discussed in Mexico, where going straight in the first corner drivers can gain a position or two, unless the FIA changes the mandatory route installed last year, as it didn’t offer enough deterrent for the drivers to stop using it to gain an advantage.

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GROVE GETS RETURN ON INVESTMENT FROM PAYNE MATT PAYNE’S ROOKIE SEASON HAS CONFIRMED THE FAITH OF STEPHEN GROVE IN ACCELERATING THE YOUNG KIWI INTO THE SUPERCARS SERIES. ANDREW CLARKE SAT WITH PAYNE ON THE GOLD COAST ... MATT PAYNE’S story is not too unfamiliar. A young child – in this case, a five-year-old boy – gets his or her bum in a kart thanks to parents who like car racing. They try it a few times and as the speed increases, so does the desire to go faster. Then, for some, the desire to beat others comes into play. A desire to not let people pass you and an eye for balancing risk and reward come into play. The elite quickly rise to the top. Those blessed with a bit of mongrel, as Mark Skaife would say, start taking scalps and climbing the motorsport tree. Hopefully, you get noticed, which is a factor of many inputs. Experienced talent spotters can do it from a young age. The story of Ron Dennis plucking a young Lewis Hamilton out of karting and accelerating his journey is one of the more famous. But we have talent spotters too. We have team owners and other advisers all looking for the next Lowndes or van Gisbergen, two drivers equally as talented but at other ends of the introversion-extroversion scale. People like ex-Supercar driver Michael Patrizi, who picked Payne up and put him in his karting team – PatriziCorse – and took him the KZ2 World Cup where Payne started fourth out of hundreds. Hailing from just outside Auckland, Matt

Payne was spotted, not quite as early as Hamilton, but he was spotted. After karting, he dominated his move into racing cars with a win in the Toyota series in New Zealand. Five wins from nine races and the Championship. He also had some races for Earl Bamber in the Australian Carrera Cup Series, which is where he met Stephen Grove with a couple of nudges. Grove liked what he saw and he started working with young Payne and, as he began to understand his talent, he started to invest in his future during the COVID years. He put him a Super2 car for Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst, and then in 2022 ran him for the entire series with a Image: Peter Norton/EPIC Sports Photography

The rookie debuted solo at Newwcastle earlier this year ... Above: chatting with Brenton Grove.

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bunch of other activities around the world. He finished third in Super2 behind Declan Fraser and Cam Hill. He made his Bathurst debut in 2022 and then Grove Racing gave him the #19 Penrite Mustang in the main game for 2023, which it probably would have done earlier had he enough points for a Superlicence. He’s been the best of the Super2 rookies in the series. He topped a practice session at Bathurst and qualified for the Top 10 Shootout, he was the first Mustang home at the Sandown 500 and then he went on to almost grab pole on the Gold Coast. Not bad for a rookie season – he’s tied up with Grove’s until the end of 2024, but could easily extend beyond that. “I think, to be fair, overall, our year has actually been pretty successful,” he said talking team rather than self. “I don’t think the teams’ championship and particularly the drivers’

championship for me and Dave is probably representative of how much effort we put in and sometimes the results we get on the track. “We seemed to fall off a little bit in the mid part of the year. We probably did a really good job in the first few rounds to get on top of the setup of the car and we had a fast car for the first three rounds. But then, everyone else started going faster and what we were using wasn’t good enough and we couldn’t make it better. “So, then we had a test and reset and the last three rounds have actually been really good in terms of pace – like we’re always up there in the top 10, which is really rewarding for everyone and it’s positive looking into next year. “But yeah, I feel like I haven’t been doing too bad. It’s obviously been hard coming to the tracks which I haven’t driven before – you’ve got so many people that have done this for 10-plus years. So, it makes it really hard when they could just go out and they know straight away where to drive and I’m still searching and learning where the track goes.” He said Gen3 probably helped him a little, with everyone needing a reset of sorts, but he hadn’t been around long enough to require a reset. It was just another new car, like the four or five different cars he had raced in the previous two seasons around the world. There was no database of what to expect in his own head. Landing himself in a Ford didn’t make 2023 any easier, but if you measure his year among the Fords you start to get an idea.

Image: Peter Norton/EPIC Sports Photography

Heading the other Penrite car at Sandown. Below: Screen-watching with Alister McVean (left). Image: Peter Norton/EPIC Sports Photography

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Hopefully, you get noticed, which is a factor of many inputs. Experienced talent spotters can do it from a young age ...

Leaving the Gold Coast, he sits 14th in the Series , a few spots and 500 points in front of his rookie mates from Super2. But it is the last few rounds where he has impressed. He is only a couple of spots and a handful of points from Dave Reynolds in the same team. He avoids the P word and just wants to get on with his job and the things he can change.

“We always try and be the best Ford team. I don’t get involved in the other stuff at all – my job is to just drive the car as fast as I can and to be fair that task itself takes up all of my energy. “I’ve set myself goals of trying to make each top 10, I missed out on in the top 10 at Newcastle by one spot, and to do the Bathurst Shootout I think was a really big achievement for me.

Images: MARK HORSBURGH-EDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS/MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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“We had the speed on the weekend and to make it was something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. “Now it’s looking towards more top fives and trying to get on the podium because I think we’ve had genuine pace to get on the podium, but it has been hard this year with everything else that’s been going on. You don’t necessarily feel like your chance has been taken away, but it makes it harder knowing that there’s always a deficit or whatever you want to call it.” Driving with Kevin Estre at Sandown and Bathurst was weird. He was the lead driver in a car with someone vastly more experienced and also someone Payne had looked up to for many years. He knows they let a top-five finish slip at Bathurst with one little wheel lock for the Frenchman, but he enjoyed the experience. “I think our race pace was actually really good. We probably should have been fourth, maybe fifth in the race if Kevin didn’t make that little mistake. But hey, we know we have the pace now, and this year was always a learning year for me. It’s good to get some results as well as try to learn all the rest of it. “It was really weird with Kevin because I’ve been following him for three or four years and I know all of the GT stuff in Europe is next level and, watching him, he’s probably one of the most successful drivers over there and he’s probably one of the best GT drivers in the world. “He’s an exceptional driver and so, when I got paired with him, I was like, ‘Oh man, now this is going be really cool. I’m going be able to learn a lot of stuff.’ But then I started thinking, he hasn’t actually driven a Supercar before, so it’s probably going be me teaching him a little bit of stuff too. But he picked it

“ ”

up quickly and he did an exceptional job at Sandown, and I think he did a really good job at Bathurst. He was amazing to work with, and I learned a lot from him.” Payne is a sponge. Clearly intelligent, he takes it all in. He seems bereft of ego, but he must have one. He knows he is learning, and he is surrounded by some great people to learn from, Grove Racing has assembled a pretty impressive crew with the likes of Dave Cauchi, Alastair McVean and Grant McPherson in the shed and people like Garth Tander to give a different angle. Not to mention Dave Reynolds in the other car. “I always try and learn as much as I can from everyone else. Dave’s been really good this year – he’s helped me a lot. He understands where I am, where I sit, and

Cauchi, Shippy and the rest, they’re all there trying to help me, and I think we’ve got a really good shot going into next year ...

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The pathway – the tough school of European karting, then TRS (right).

Image: TayB

my position and how I’m learning. It’s my first year and he remembers what it was like for him in his first year. He’s been helpful this year, not just on the track but with everything that happens off the track. “Garth’s been really good too, especially for the Enduros because he’s working really closely with the team, more than just in driving. He’s stubborn, he’s a hard racer and I like that about him. He’s always working for the best result he can get and that’s why he’s good to have around here.

“You’ve got to be a hard racer and you always want to be trying to win. You’re not going to make it in your career if you don’t take anything less than winning. He’s definitely shown that, and it’s been good to have his experience. He’s got a lot of valuable knowledge, especially over the last few years at T8. He’s definitely a valuable asset to the team. “Cauchi, Shippy and the rest, they’re all there trying to help me, and I think we’ve got a really good shot going into next year.”

With team engineer Grant McPherson.

CAUCHI’S VIEW Image: Peter Norton/EPIC Sports Photography

Image: Peter Norton/EPIC Sports Photography

Image: Ross Gibb Photography Top: Taking the Super2 silverware and bouncing over the chicane at Adelaide, 2022 . Centre: With David Cauchi and pit vistors – Gold Coast. Above: European star Kevin Estre made a great pairing for Sandown and Bathurst. Left: Two-wheeling at the Gold Coast. Below right: sliding through the spray – Bathurst 2022.

Which opens up the mongrel discussion. Payne smiles a lot and, to be fair, why wouldn’t you with his job – but there is more to it than that. Perhaps like Lowndes, when the helmet is on there is a different person that comes to the fore. “I think outside the car, I’m happy. Sometimes I’m not happy when I’m slow. I don’t really know what I’m like in the cars – sometimes I throw a hissy fit if something is really not going on my way. I try and keep happy, and to be fair when you’re fast and you’re up the front racing, you’re always happy. “I think I think every racing driver’s got a little bit of mongrel. But I did a fair bit of European karting and I think that’s probably the hardest sport I’ve done in terms of coming up through the ranks. Supercars is definitely the most competitive series I’ve ever done, but the European karting was really good and you definitely learn to just be a hard racer. “I think there’s been times where I’ve been able to race closely with some people this year, but once you get in a race and in you’re in your own sort of spot, you’re not really passing anyone or you’re not racing them hardcore. There’s probably going be times in the future where you get elbows out and you’re next to someone and definitely show the true racer you really are. “So, I don’t think people would’ve necessarily seen the real me as a racer yet. But, hopefully, they will see that next year at the front.” Similarly, the real Matt Payne is not always visible. When you interview someone, you know, or you hope, they are thinking about what they say. Experience allows them to relax a little, but in your first season every word is analysed. Payne thinks about what he says, he doesn’t shoot from the lip. He looks happy enough, but he feels a little restrained at times. He says we don’t see the real him yet. But who is he? “A lot of people probably tend to think I’m a pretty quiet guy. But I think if you get to know me, I think you’d find out that there’s a bit of humour there. I like to express myself in front of everyone. I may look slightly

introverted or whatever on TV but, when you get to know the real Matt Payne, he’s a fun guy. I’d like to think so anyway.” So, summing up his first season: His best day of the year was Saturday and Bathurst and his worst was in Sydney. “I reckon the Top 10 Shootout at Bathurst is pretty hard to top. Sandown was cool as well – I always tend to struggle a little bit at Sandown but this year we had a fast car and it was a cool race. The Bend was cool racing up the front. But yeah, I think Top 10 Shootout at Bathurst was pretty special. “The worst day was probably Sydney when I qualified second last. It feels pretty bad when you’re back of the pack like that and we didn’t really have any car pace in general for those two rounds. I think the round before Sydney, we were just really, really slow and we couldn’t really work out why. “We sort-of raced it and then went for a test day and then we found some stuff that really helped us on the race weekends. Then we straight-away showed it and we went to The Bend and we were just straightaway really fast, a lot faster than we would have been if we hadn’t tested.” Setting goals for 2024 is not as easy as it seems. He is hoping the Mustang is competitive, and if it is, podiums are what he is chasing. “It’s going be tough to see what they do with the car and everything like that next year. But next year for me is definitely trying to score some podiums – and I think it’s possible for us. The team’s learning a lot and we’re getting better every round we go to. “But I think if we get the ball rolling quickly at the start with the championship and can have a good first few rounds and be up there in the championship straight away, then hopefully we can hold that throughout the year. “I think with the team we have now, it’s building and it’s a great atmosphere. We’ve shown in the last three rounds that we’re ready and we’re ready to fight at the front. I’m definitely going to be giving it my all to try and achieve that.”

DAVE CAUCHI has been there and done it. His departure from Triple Eight at the start of last year was highly publicised,and perhaps the measure of T8’s effort was a direct reflection of his talent and ability. For the past 18 months he has been the Team Principal at Grove Racing and that puts Matt Payne under his charge. They decided to bring his young engineer from Super2, Jack Bell, up with him to the main game, giving Cauchi two rookies to manage in the #19 Mustang. The pairing works, and Payne has been able to excel. “We’re not surprised that Matt’s had quite a strong rookie season,” Cauchi said. “It’s incredibly competitive to step up, even after doing Super2, into the Main Series. It is a huge step. It’s so competitive and there’s so many good drivers and teams, so it can be really tough. “But Matt’s really approached the season in the right way, taking a methodical approach to improving, not trying to do too much. So far, we’re really happy with how he’s progressed and the team’s been working really well with him. “He worked with his engineer, Jack Bell, in Super2. We made the decision to bring them both up into the Main Series. They’re really young – I’m pretty confident they’d be the youngest driver and engineer combination on the grid. They’re doing a great job and they’ve got the support of Alistair (McVean) and Grant (McPherson). The engineering team is working really well together, but Matt’s the one that’s out there getting it done and that’s not easy to do. Very impressive.” Cauchi said the support of Brenton and Steve Grove has obviously been pivotal in Payne’s progression, but not of that matters if the driver doesn’t perform. “They’ve been a massive supporters of Matt and it’s really awesome for us as a team to be able to bring him through from those feeder categories into the main series and start to really see them (he links Bell in again) thrive. “We think that in the future there’ll be plenty more rewards to come. “In terms of a rookie coming into the into the main series, I guess the best comparison would be with Broc (Feeney), who came into the best team in the championship last year. In comparison to that, I think he’s somewhat on par with what Broc’s done. That’s a pretty good benchmark. “I think Matt is definitely one of the more impressive rookies the category has seen for a long time. “It’s good to see the teams are willing to invest in rookies – that’s what Erebus did three years ago with Brodie and now they’re starting to see the rewards. It’s great that we have a lot more young and rising stars come in and teams willing to take the chance. “But we have to invest in the younger talent so that the sport’s forever evolving and remaining competitive with the best drivers that we have in the country.” One of the fears some teams have about the young drivers is the tearing up of cars. Payne has avoided that so far. “He’s been very methodical in his approach. He hasn’t come out and tried to go from 18th to P1. It doesn’t quite work like that – it’s not that simple and he understands that. He’s managed to just chip away each event. “The whole team’s working on this Gen3 car which has been a challenge this year and our packages change throughout the year as well, which has added to the complexity of being competitive. He’s managed that well with his engineer but that’s part of being a successful driver and being a champion one day.”

Image: Peter Norton/EPIC Sports Photography

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WASTE NOT… WANT NOT

THE ARGO CHEV V8

‘TIME KEEPS ON SLIPPIN’, SLIPPIN’, SLIPPIN’ ... TONY OSBORNE’S TOO SLOW CONVERSION OF HIS GRAND PRIX COOPER TO ARGO CHEV V8 SPORTSCAR NOBBLED ITS CHANCES. MARK BISSET TELLS THE TALE OF ITS TRANSMOGRIFICATION FROM SINGLE-SEATER TO SPORTSCAR AND BACK AGAIN ... THE MELBOURNE-built Argo Chev V8 finally made the grid successfully in 1967-68, even going head-to-head with Chris Amon’s CanAm Ferrari at 172mph at Longford. Unsold, it was put aside before being finally restored and raced again a half century later. Grand Prix Cooper Types 45, 51 and 53 were built in large numbers. As his Cooper slid down the timesheets, Roger Penske created the Zerex Special, a marriage of T51 Climax and a sportscar body. He beat everything with it, eventually selling it to Bruce McLaren where it formed a critical step in Bruce’s journey to Can-Am domination. Tony Osborne, born in 1938, raced a GP Bugatti Type 37, Cisitalia D46, Cooper Bristol and Lotus Elite before jumping into the big league when he bought an ex-Jack Brabham 1960 Cooper T53 chassis from Lex Davison. Many will recall Davo’s lucky escape from a high speed assault upon the Longford pub in 1962 – this was the replacement car. Davison raced it throughout 1962-63, before Osborne, an Adaminaby, New South Wales high country grazier purchased it. Antony Osborne: “Dad’s father died in the War. He was entrusted with the family property at a young age, splitting his time between farming and his racing program

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Peter Macrow tippy-toes into The Viaduct (railway) Longford 1968. Image: OSBORNE FAMILY COLLECTION’ – OLD RACE PHOTOS

based in Ray Gibbs’ Dandenong Road, East Malvern, Melbourne workshop.” The youngster’s Cooper contested five championship meetings throughout 1963-64 for a best of fifth in the ’63 Sandown Gold Star meeting. By then the dominant Formula Libre cars were Brabhams so Tony and Ray Gibbs (Argo Racing was an acronym of Osborne

and Gibb’s names) plotted their next move. Sportscar racing was on the rise, so they decided to ‘do-a-Penske’ and and convert the Cooper from an open-wheeler to a sportscar. Gibbs was a successful driver and had a stint at Cooper’s, Surbiton factory – so he knew his way around these cars. Murray Carter’s Highett workshop was close by – he was engaged to design and build the aluminium

body. The object was to use as many T53 components as possible including its chassis, suspension, brakes and gearbox. A Chevrolet 283cid/4.7-litre V8 was chosen and the Cooper’s Colotti five speed gearbox was used – but it “was torn to bits” in early tests by the Chev’s torque. Osborne ordered a ZF 5DS-25 five-speed transaxle to replace it, just as Ford had done when they found the Colotti wasn’t up to the job in their first GT40s. A Moon alloy bellhousing mated the engine and ‘box. There are two schools of thought in relation to the chassis: one that Gibbs widened the T53 frame, the other that he fabricated another to accepts the four suspension corners, and retained the original. The front and rear suspension is T53 – Alford & Alder uprights at the front, upper and lower wishbones, coil spring/Armstrong damper units and a roll bar. At the back are mag-alloy uprights, inverted lower wishbones, single top links with two radius rods locating things fore and aft, coil spring/dampers and a roll bar. Vertical movement of the beefy driveshafts is accommodated by rubber donuts. The Cooper’s cast iron rotors and Girling calipers – BR up front and AR at the rear – provided the brakes. A Triumph Herald

Two miles to the Longford pub! Macrow, at the entry to Mountford Corner Longford 1968. Image: OSBORNE FAMILY COLLECTION’ – OLD RACE PHOTOS

Ian Cook brakes into Peters Corner, Sandown 1967. Image: AUTOPICS.COM.AU steering rack and wheels, 10 and 12 inches wide and 15 inches in diameter, were supplied by Garrie Cooper; the same components he fitted to his Elfin 400s, notes Brennan who also has the ex-Matich/Allen Elfin 400 in an impressive fleet. Perhaps the surplus Cooper components were sold to Don O’Sullivan, Bob Jane, John

Roxburgh and Feo Stanton as one story goes. “That’s not proved though – Ray never sold anything! He bought heaps of Cooper bits in the 1960s when they were cheap,” one independent source very familiar with both cars offers. Murray Carter started the body but proceeded at a very slow pace … The competitor set wasn’t static of course. Cooper was beavering away on four Elfin 400s, the first of which went to Frank Matich in late 1965. Bob Jane and Noel Hurd also had 400s with the fourth going to Andy Buchanan in New Zealand. Other cars on 1967-68 grids included Alan Hamilton’s 2-litre flat-six Porsche 906, two Scuderia Veloce V12 Ferraris: a 3.3 litre 250LM and 4.4 litre P4/Can-Am 350, and the Matich SR3 Repco V8 4.4. Gibbs worked on the engine in parallel with the chassis build. The 283cid Chev Corvette motor used all the go-faster goodies readily available from the US. The cylinder heads were ported and polished and fitted with larger valves, quality pistons and rods used, plus a steel crank. A Schaefer alloy flywheel and Moon alloy front cover plate were part of the build as was a wet sump, which used a Melling high pressure oil pump – the motor sat relatively high in the frame as a consequence. Carbs were gorgeous, whoppin’ sand-cast 58DCO3 side-drafts – four of them mated with fabricated extractors created a visual feast. In period the engine gave about 390bhp whereas now it yields 490bhp; not too much for current owner Peter Brennan to handle given his Formula Holden and F5000 experience.

Above: Tony Osborne exiting Long Bridge, Longford, in the Cooper T53 in 1964 – that’s Graham Hill behind. Image: LIN GIGNEY. Right: Lex Davison, in the Cooper T53 Climax – Warwick Farm 100, 1963. Image: AUTOPICS.COM.AU

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Cook opposite locks Argo onto Calder’s front straight in 1967. Image: OSBORNE FAMILY COLLECTION

Carter had plenty on his plate, not least his own racing program. By late 1966 Australian Autosportsman reported regularly on the ‘mythical’ Argo Chev given the number of race meetings it entered and didn’t appear at. By mid-1967 Argo was ready. “Dad had decided to step out of the driver’s seat – he had responsibility for the farm and me! He selected promising Victorian, Ian Cook, to take the wheel. Cookie was an Aircraft Fitter at Trans Australia Airlines and was making a great name for himself in an Elfin Mono.” The curvaceous machine, replete with Carter Couture body, was tested at Calder. Cook diagnosed insufficient downforce from the Lotus 23-like rear bodywork, then fabricated and fitted the necessary spoiler to rectify things. The late Ian Cook’s friend and confidant, Denis Lupton, recalls that “Ian was amazed at just how much power the car had, but

“ ”

it danced around a lot under brakes and through corners. “The approach to Ian was made by Gibbs to test the car and this became an arrangement to race it.” Finally Argo was entered for the Calder August 6, 1967 meeting. The scratch race was won by Jane from Cook and Hurd. Argo showed plenty of promise but was highly unstable under brakes which gave its pilot plenty to think about and cost a couple of seconds a lap. Pit pundits were impressed, but mid-48s were off the pace of the SR3. Before the Sandown September meeting the team focussed on brakes and suspension as well as fabricating a front spoiler to reduce airflow under the car. It worked too, Cook led Hamilton’s Porsche and Bill Brown’s Ferrari 250LM but then had an ‘off’ at Shell with a lap to run – the crown wheel pinion had failed.

Cooper was beavering away on four Elfin 400s, the first of which went to Frank Matich in late 1965 ...

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PETER MACROW NOW 84, Peter Macrow’s career was almost entirely in single-seaters. In fact he raced Brian Shead’s first Cheetah and the Mk2 to Mk8, powered by all manner of engines from 1-litre push-rod Fords to the 1.6-litre BDA. While Macrow knew Harry Firth well, his Argo drives helped get his 1969 Holden Dealer Team Bathurst drive. Peter and Henk Woelders finished sixth in an HT Monaro GTS350. Peter was a late insertion into the team after Spencer Martin’s big Shell Corner accident at Sandown. “Harry called me four days before the race; I went up on the Wednesday night and drove a Monaro on the road for the very first time that evening! It was a great car to drive – with a little more luck we may have won the race.” “I drove AMI Corollas on the Mountain a couple of times but open-wheelers were more my thing.” Macrow finished runner up in the Australian Formula 2 Championship in 1981, 1982 and 1985. He won the Sandown Gold Star round in 1985 making he and son Tim one of only four father-son combinations to have won Gold Star rounds. Above: Macrow, Argo and admirer. Longford 1968. Image: OSBORNE FAMILY COLLECTION’ – OLD RACE PHOTOS The Argo’s door open as Macrow exits Mountford, Longford, 1968. Image: OSBORNE FAMILY COLLECTION’ – OLD RACE PHOTOS

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The handsome Argo is a tribute to Murray Carter; period typical but distinctively so. Below: A proud Peter Brennan and the Argo. IMAGES: PETER BRENNAN Off to Calder in November and a stronger field with a couple of Sydney boys present; Niel Allen in his ex-Matich Elfin 400 and ‘Pommie’ John Scott-Davies in a Lola T70 Chev. Cook had a wonderful weekend – his points haul was enough to win him the LucasDavison ANF 1½ series. Then, in the sportscar feature, the opposition fell off the island – Jane as a consequence of spilt fuel on his tyres and Allen and Scott-Davies with self-inflicted spins, giving Ian the win. Winton’s late November meeting was Argo’s last in 1967. Cook didn’t compete due to a split

“ ”

Dad was a really good judge of talent – don’t forget Alfie (Costanzo) also raced our McLaren M4A ...

clutch housing, but not before earlier setting a sportscar lap record. Bob Jane’s racing gave him the opportunity to see the competition up close and personal. He signed John Harvey and Ian Cook to race for him in 1968; by the end of that year he also had Bevan Gibson and Allan Moffat on the strength! Both Cook and Gibson had sad motor racing ends. Ian died at the wheel of the ex-Jane/Harvey Brabham BT36 Ford F2 car at Sandown in mid-1972 – the collision with the Shell Corner sign support was probably caused by a deflating tyre. Bevan’s demise was during Mount Panorama’s Easter 1969 meeting when the ‘not fully resolved aerodynamics’ of the Elfin 400, and circumstances, resulted in an horrific fatal flip over the second of Conrod’s Humps. The Elfin 400 spooked Ian and the very experienced John Harvey, who avoided driving it – it got very light at the front at high speed. “Ian had designed a front spoiler which Bob

Jane had approved but Team Manager John Sawyer vetoed. The ironic thing is that when Ken Hastings bought and rebuilt the 400 after the Bathurst crash – we drove over to Elfins to borrow the 400 jig to do so – Ken incorporated the changes to the car that Ian had made cardboard templates for two years before,” recalled Denis Lupton. Peter Macrow, father of nextgen racers Tim and Adam, then a Cheetah Ford twin-cam single-seater pilot, was offered the Argo seat. “Dad was a really good judge of talent – don’t forget Alfie (Costanzo) also raced our McLaren M4A for a season or so after Peter raced it. You might say it was the first seriously fast car that Costanzo raced,” Antony said. “Tony Osborne offered me the drive – part of the deal was that I worked for Ray which meant that I could look after customer cars and Argo and have the time off I needed for testing and racing.” “I loved driving that car! It was an easy car to drive if you approached it the right way, with

Images: PETER BRENNAN COLLECTION

plenty of respect. It had a lot of power and was slidey … I did about 300 kmh in it at Longford in 1968!” Peter Macrow recalls. Calder’s January meeting opened the Argo Racing Pty Ltd season. Ian Cook raced the Jane Elfin 400 to a couple of wins while Macrow had halfshaft failure in the first race, ending his weekend. That golden summer of ’68 Tasman Cup support events included titanic sportscar battles between Matich’s SR3 and Chris Amon’s Ferrari Can-Am 350 – both had tustled in the 1967 Can-Am Series. Matich won at Warwick Farm and Sandown in great scraps but the Sydneysider didn’t cross Bass Straight for the Longford round. The Argo crew missed the Farm with Macrow fourth at Sandown behind Matich, Amon and Cook. Chris gave a driving master-class at Longford. On the dry Saturday he won the sportscar race, topping 182 mph through the Flying Mile, and set the circuit’s all-time lap record at 2:12.6. Cook in second and Macrow in third did 2:22.0 and 2:28.7, indicative of the relative pace of their cars and Amon’s Top Five Grand Prix Driver status. Macrow’s weekend got better though. He won the Monday race, run in soaking rain, after Cook non-started and Chris gave the field a two lap start after battery failure on the grid. Racing cars, like women, can be seductive things – there can be a prettier, faster unit than the one you have! ... Osborne was stunned by the performance of Piers Courage’s F2 McLaren M4A Ford FVA, but Niel Allen outflanked him and bagged the Longford winner. Instead, Osborne bought Jim Palmer’s ex-Bruce McLaren M4A in New Zealand. Argo was entered at Calder’s March meeting, where Macrow had a similar lucky weekend to Cook’s six months before. Peter had an off in the preliminary, but in the 10-lap final he triumphed after Matich non-started with engine dramas and Cook broke a gearselector mid-race. Macrow’s best was 47.4 seconds. Matich had set an outright lap record

earlier in the day of 43.6, but let’s not forget Argo’s core technology dated back to 1960. May’s RAC Trophy at Warwick Farm was the event of greatest depth Argo ever contested. Matich won the 52-mile race from Allen, Cook and Pete Geoghegan in the SV 250LM. Peter Wherrett, in Racing Car News, observed that Macrow was suffering from Argo’s handling shortcomings on the tight track, which placed a premium on slow-medium speed changes of direction: a DNF for Peter. Mike Kyval helped Gibbs build the car: ”Ray was really an engine guy - he didn’t react well to both drivers suggestions about how to improve the car; we all thought it was too softly sprung and sat way high. The more recent cars had ventilated brakes too, whereas ours were the solid rotors from the Cooper. Peter did 172 mph at Longford in 1968 …” Osborne’s new M4A was soon tucked up in Gibbs’ workshop and first raced by Macrow in the HMV Trophy Race at the Farm in July. By then Argo was for sale. Despite its performances, there were no takers, so many components were sold including the engine which went into Taipan, a speedboat. With that, the car was set aside in Gibbs’ workshop and later his Chadstone home for yonks. Osborne and Gibbs had a business dispute, and Gibbs took ownership of the Argo as a consequence. As historic racing grew globally, the value of GP Coopers grew exponentially. The relatively large number of ‘Australian Coopers’ were hoovered up by ‘furriners’. Given the capital value extant within Argo, Gibbs resurrected the ex-Brabham/Davison/ Osborne T53, and the Argo from his large pool of Cooper parts, his fabrication skills dulynoted. Peter Brennan recalls, “I had known Ray forever; as his health rapidly declined his family

asked me to get the two Coopers running and the Argo for sale. In the process I fell completely for a car I admired in my youth and bought it, pulled it apart, crack tested all the critical bits and then reassembled it carefully to race.” For all the hard work which went into Argo it had a ‘shelf-life’ of only 12 months or so, during which it was reliable and lucky, not to forget the two driver’s careers it enhanced. These days, the car is a popular sight on historic grids as one of the few big-banger sportscars of the mid-1960s running. How marvellous it would have been to see Macrow, Cook and Amon at Longford in March 1968; two booming V8s and a sonorous big-12 blasting their way down Tannery Straight ... would have been really something!

Peter Brennan at speed in the Argo during the VHRR Phillip Island Classic several years ago; Presentation and preparation are exemplary. Image: PETER BRENNAN COLLECTION

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NATIONALS WRAP

Rinaldi, Collins and Boylett head the Excel Cup field. Image: MATTHEW PAUL PHOTOGRAPHY

QRDC SEASON WRAPS UP THE 2023 AASA Queensland Racing Drivers Championship wrapped up under sunny skies at Queensland Raceway with a busy one-day meeting. Across one jam-packed afternoon, the EFS Excel Cup, SuperKarts and Sports and Sedans completed a minimum of three races to round out the year. EXCEL CUP WHILST THE battle for Excel honours remained competitive as always, Tyler Collins was easily the top performer, while Jack Wood secured the championship title. After a three-part F1 style qualifying took place for the first time, Collins prevailed in a dramatic opener where the lead changed hands on four occasions across the 10 laps.

Matthew Boylett led early before fading away, while Jack Wood then took control. Wood appeared set for victory until the final lap when he dropped from first to last, paving the way for Collins. Wood fought back to third to regain valuable points in Race 2 as Collins and Boylett went head-to-head for victory. In a thrilling two-horse race just 0.05s split the pair at the chequered flag with Collins a nose ahead. Boylett hit back emphatically by controlling the longer 20-lap finale. Despite only enjoying half a second advantage on the field, the #80 led every single lap as Collins snatched second from Wood at the death. The move was enough for Collins to win

the round, but not enough to stop Wood from winning the championship. SUPERKARTS CONSISTENCY PAID off for Russell Jamieson, who claimed the SuperKart honours after four races of action. Tim Philp showed some blistering pace in Race 1, only for his rear axle to break on the last lap, allowing Jamieson into second. The opener was won by Timothy Weier, but he was another not to be seen for the rest of the weekend due to a motor failure. Jamieson then dominated Race 2, but his momentum was interrupted in Race 3, won by Douglas Amiss when a broken reed pedal forced him into retirement.

This setup a final-race showdown between Jamieson and Amiss, but with the latter breaking a camber arm just a few laps from home, Jamieson cruised to the race and round win. The champion will be presented at the presentation gala on Saturday, November 4. SPORTS AND SEDANS JUST THREE cars took part in the Sports and Sedans category. Across four races the Dodge Challenger of James Simpson proved untouchable. Simpson won all four races with Scott McLennan in second and Lee Sandes in third on each occasion. Thomas Miles

TIGHE GOES BACK-TO-BACK WITH LAP RECORD QUEENSLANDER DEAN Tighe (pictured) recently took back-to-back titles at the Motorsport Australia Supersprint Championship titles, held at Morgan Park. The multiple Aussie Hillclimb champion dominated the event in both the Group 1 and overall stakes, which was hosted by the Porsche Car Club of Queensland. Tighe achieved a record breaking lap of 1:05.891 on his eighth and final run to convincingly seal the deal in his Dallara-Judd 4.0 machine. The next closest contender in the overalls was Steven Woodbridge, some six seconds in arrears, whilst Slade Orsmond rounded out the podium, just three tenths behind. A heavy favourite going into the event, he essentially sealed

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the victory with his first run, posting a 1:07.160 before setting his sights on the lap record, previously held by 2022 Carrera Cup Champion Harri Jones in an Dallara F308/11 in 2018. “It was a good feeling to win and go back-to-back in this championship. The car was perfect and even though I made no changes to it, we got quicker and quicker as the weekend went on,” Tighe said. “I went into the event knowing that I would be in a good position to win, but to break the record was the sweetener.”

The other supersprint groups, Group 2 was taken by Brad Rankin with a 1:21.789, whilst John Adams topped Group 4 with a 1:27.390. In the Group 3 races, the two 12 lap and 33 lap enduro races were taken out by Orsmond from pole to sweeten his Supersprint podium effort. Sven Koremans also took a sweep of podiums across the three races, whilst Wayne Hennig finished

second in Race 1 and in the Enduro, and Shane Freese snuck into third in Race 2. Tighe will next take on the Australian Hillclimb Championships at the Ringwood Park Motorplex in late October, driving his Empire Wraith car powered by a supercharged Hayabusa, with hopes of becoming the first back-to-back Double Australian Champion. TW Neal Image: MTR IMAGES

Want to see your category event or news story included in the Auto Action Nationals Wrap. Send your information, images and contact details to team@autoaction.com.au or give us a call on 03 9563 2107

ACKLAND ENDS MAHON’S RUN GIPPSLAND’S GREG Ackland driving his Ninja GA8, denied Barossa Valley local Dave Mahon in a Dallara F394 his fifth straight South Australian Hillclimb Championship at Colingrove on October 14-15. Auto Action’s JOHN LEMM was on hand to record the action and supply the images.

GREG ACKLAND had previously won the title in 2015 and 2016. The 103 competitors faced cold, windy and eventually wet conditions over the two days. Ackland’s best time of 28.94 seconds came on his sixth run, leaving him 0.49s ahead of Mahon, with Derek Foster (White Suzuki) 0.45s back, 1.34s up on his brother Allan sharing the same car, in turn 0.20s ahead of Allan Foley (Rfoley). He was followed by the very quick 4WD Mitsubishi EVOs of Henry Beasley, David Coombe and Paul Healey. Foley’s car bottomed out on each run through The Dip, sending out a trail of sparks, staring a grass fire on the third run, which was quickly extinguished by marshals. Mahon started the weekend fastest, from Derek Foster and Ackland before the latter hit the front on the fifth run and increased his lead on the sixth, the day’s final run. Sunday’s weather turned worse, constant drizzle for most of the day, which saw the open wheelers stay in their trailers. Even the quick 4WDs set times four or more seconds off their Saturday times before conditions improved for the 10th and final run. Harry Pfeiffer (Mallock U2) was fastest in Sports Cars Open/Closed with 32.92s from Simon Richards (Daihatsu TRXX) on 35.23s and Sarah Bail (Mallock U2) with 35.47s. Anthony Norris (Nissan 200 SX S15) took Production Sports with 34.81s from Andrew Keen (Amaroo Clubman) on 35.68s and Rob McAllister (Mazda MX5) with 37.71s. Rally Cars went to Paul Healey (Mitsubishi Evo 8) with 32.88s from John Davies (Evo 8

Image: CH IMAGES

AGGIO AND BYRNE SWOOP LATE AT BENARKIN

Greg Ackland won the South Australian title for the third time. MR) with 33.43s and Gavin Farley (Evo 7) on 33.46s. Bradley Deluca (Ford Anglia-Mazda) was fastest in Sports Sedans with 34.57s from Geoff Vardon (Datsun 1200-Honda) on 34.63s and Peter Sendy (Holden VE SS) with 35.55s. HQ Holdens went to Lee Smith (40.13s) from Nathan Roberts (41.44s) and Anthony Whitehair (41.62s). The Mini Cooper S of Daniel Parsons won Improved Production with 37.54s from Joel Johnston (SEAT Ibiza) with 37.65s and Bruce Hamilton (Falcon BF) on 37.74s. Josh Axford (Escort RS1600) took Group N Historic Touring Cars with 35.60s from Neil Oatway (Falcon GT) on 38.08s and Evan Gobell (Torana XU-1) with 38.19s. David Coombe (Evo 7) won Road Car 4WD with 32.82s from Nathan Green (Skyline GTR) on 33.20s and Ashley Blanchard (Evo 5 RS) with 34.96s. Matthew Benneche’s PBS took Road Car Clubman with 33.92s from Matthew Reed’s Amaroo on 34.33s and John Coker (PBS) with 38.81s. Road Cars went to Sean Hayter (Corvette) with 34.89s followed by Peter Papadopolous (Porsche Boxter S) with 35.78s and Nathan Crettenden (Subaru BRZ) on 36.85s. Henry Beasley (Mitsubishi Evo) won Time Attack with 32.22s from Damien Brand (WRX STi Type R) on 32.93s and Nick Streckeisen

After having won for the past four years, Dave Mahon had to settle for second.

Alan Foley sends up a shower of sparks, which triggered a grass fire, on the third run. (Nissan SRR35 GTR) with 32.97s. Chris Frost (Fargo) took Historic with 38.32s from Lindsay Hick (MG TC) on 38.74s. Trophies were named after some South Australian motorsport icons with a connection to Collingrove – Doug Lehmann, Rory Thompson, Peter Hall, Stan Keen, Serge Deluca, Kevin Shearer and Clem Smith. In the shootout at the end of competition, Henry Beasley was fastest from Nathan Green, Paul Healey and Nick Streckeisen. However, Green took the trophy on the corrected formula, the time compared to the competitor’s best time.

BENNETT FAMILY ONE-TWO IN WA MOTORKHANA FINALE THE FINAL round of the Motorsport Australia WA Motorkhana Championship had a familiar name up top, with William Bennett dominating the event over 37 other entrants. It was a big day all round for the Bennetts, with Amy making it a family one-two at Wanneroo Raceway. The overall winner was dominant in his Turben Special, opening up the event with a four-test win streak, before putting it beyond doubt by taking the last five tests for a total of 10. In only dropping two tests, Bennett had a cumulative total 291.33s, and the only driver to go under the 300 mark. Amy had to battle a bit harder for an outright second in her Turben Special, fending off Jurgen Lunsmann in the Mazda MX-5 to win by less than two seconds with 320.75s across the 12 tests.

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Despite giving away 18s to Lunsmann in the eighth test, she fought back over the remaining four, whilst Lunsmann took the class win. Simon Ridgewell finished fourth outright in his Mini Moke who also took a Class A win, only 2 seconds back on the Class B winner. It was the Junior Bennet in James who rounded out the five, missing fourth by under one second in his Class F Turben

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Special, and beating yet another member of the Bennett family in Ross Bennett by six seconds. Club competitor Dylan Holloway had the fastest Class C time in his Mitsubishi Lancer, whilst Class D was taken out by… you guessed it, another Bennett in Scott in his Nissan 180sx, whilst Class E was won by Toma Stanca in the Volkswagen Golf. TW Neal

THE BRISBANE Sporting Car Club’s Benarkin Spring Stages rally went down to the wire at the clubs season finale, with Craig Aggio and Megan Byrne (pictured) winning by two seconds in their newly built 4WD Toyota GR Yaris in dry and dusty conditions. The one-day, three stage event saw 24 crews tackle the 70 competitive kilometres, with multiple passes of each stage, situated in the Benarkin State Forest, west of the Sunshine Coast. The #2 Steerfast 2021 Toyota got the job done late in the 19km finale, topping the experienced drivers of Tony Quinn and Ryan Williams (the only Invitational crew) in the 2020 Nissan Navara, whilst the podium was rounded out by Neill Woolley and Liam Hinschen in the 1999 Mitsubishi Magna a further four seconds back. The winning pair had to come from behind in the final leg, after they had initially jumped out to a 16s lead over the Navara crew at the completion of the shorter 9.2km Balfour runs, whilst Woolley would miss the second run of the leg which would eventually prove costly. The second leg saw the #2 pairing endure a difficult run, dropping back into third after being 20 seconds behind Quinn, They pulled out all the gears for the longer third leg, out performing the leading car by seven seconds to create the 2s swing. It might have been a different story for the third placed Woolley had he made it to the 2nd SS1 run, but they did take top honours in the FWD Class. The pairing of Marius Swart and Alan Stean took fourth overall despite winning the final leg in their 2007 VW Polo S2000, 17s behind the winners as the second highest finishers in the 4WD class - the pair also missed two runs in the first and second legs, which like Woolley, proved a bridge too far to make a challenge. Finishing in outright sixth and completing the class honours for the day in the RWD category was David Byrne and Jake Keleher, driving the 1973 Datsun 240Z. TW Neal

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NATIONALS WRAP

NEW TRACK AND CHAMPIONSHIP OFF TO FLYING START

DAMIEN HARRIS kicked off his Top Fuel title defence in style by winning a memorable Spring Nationals opener at a packed Bend Dragway. More than 35,000 fans attended the brandnew South Australian facility at Tailem Bend across two special days that marked the beginning of a new era for both the track and the Top Fuel National Drag Racing Championship. With Top Fuel, Top Doorslammer, Top Fuel Motorcycle, Pro Stock Motorcycle and more than 300 racers in the Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship all on show, plus sell-out crowds and sunny skies, there was no better way for the brand-new state-ofthe-art Bend Dragway to roar into life.

TOP FUEL

THE FIGHT for championship honours in the Top Fuel season opener was dominated by Rapisarda Autosport with reigning champion Harris leading home Wayne Newby in a one-two finish. Saturday’s running was shortened due to weather, which set the stage for the first ever Top Fuel race at The Bend on Sunday afternoon. It ended up being a face off between last season’s title rivals Harris and Peter Xiberras. Once again Harris emerged victorious, but only just, beating the PremiAir Racing driver by three hundredths of a second. Despite Harris showing strong form, it was his teammate Newby, who was the quickest across the early stages. He was the favourite as the two Rapisarda Autosport cars lined up for the A-Final, but his hopes of victory were dashed by an intense tyre shake off the line. After experiencing the scare soon after the launch, Newby was forced to abandon his run, which gave Harris the ultimate victory. “Thank you so much to the Rapisarda family, to Atlantic Oil, and to everyone else behind this,” Harris said. “And of course, my crew – they have done

a great job this weekend, it was looking a bit rough in testing, but we have come back great. “I have been really lucky with my racing with the Rapisarda family to pick up a few firsts, and this is another great one! “I really want to thank Santo Jnr and Santo Snr, and Santino and Jana for their support – it really means the world to me.” After losing out to Harris earlier, Xiberras lined up against Phil Lamattina in the B-Final. This was another nail-biter with Xiberras getting the job done with a 3.837 second pass at 499.93km/h, trumping Lamattina’s 3.923 second run at 449.84km/h. The C-Final was played out between Kyle Putland and Phil Read. It ultimately went to Read comfortably as Putland’s hopes were wiped out by a fluid leak.

TOP DOORSLAMMER

THE TOP Doorslammer decider prove to be an anticlimax as strangely neither finalist could greet the starter. Ronnie Palumbo’s car shutdown during the burnout and had to be pushed back, while

Harris v Newby lit up Top Fuel ... Above: a big crowd watched Ronnie Palumbo (right), who made the Top Doorslammer final. Images: CACKLING PIPES PHOTOGRAPHY

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Lisa Gregorini’s machine was shut down by her team as she approached the start line with sparks shooting out of the side of her car. Initially both drivers were going to be rewarded with the runners-up points and trophies, but the racers themselves elected to re-run the final at Perth. The Top Doorslammer B-Final still went ahead with Matt Abel beating Peter Kapiris with a 5.877s pass at 396.75km/h. In the C-Final, Daniel Gregorini and Adam Tassone put on a huge show. Tassone got the jump with a staggering 0.001s reaction time, only for Gregorini to then drive around it with a 4.864s pass at 418.49km/h. Earlier, Peter Lovering had run a solo in the D-Final after John Zappia was forced to withdraw with engine damage.

TOP FUEL MOTORCYCLE

BENNY STEVENS continued his Top Fuel Motorcycle dominance by securing another win which was marked with a wheel stand after grand final opponent Damien Muscat was unable to front the starter. Stevens stormed to the decider after two impressive runs earlier in the day.

An event-winning 6.409s pass at 353.43km/h arrived after 6.483/355.05kph and 6.447/348.41kph passes in rounds one and two respectively. With Muscat a no show, Stevens was gifted a commanding win. The B-Final was another solo run and went to Danny Rickard after Mark Drew experienced problems following the burnout. The D-Final was also a one-sided affair as a Corey Buttigieg no show opened the door for Kevin Gummow. Both Rob Cassar and Les Holden actually went head to head in the C-Final. However, it was an easy win for Holden, who recorded an 8.302s/217.31km/h pass after Cassar misfired in the opening stages.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

THE BATTLE for Pro Stock Motorcycle honours was a tight affair with Scott White and Glenn Wooster going head to head. White emerged victorious with a 7.170s pass and a 0.032s reaction time, providing the whole shot over Wooster. It gave White a special win, having won at Adelaide a decade ago and he admitted it was special to repeat South Australian success. B-Final and third place honours went to Luke Crowley after overcoming Ryan Learmonth, Tony Frost beat Rocky Ireland in the C-Final, while Jason Lee had a free ride to the D-Final. The next Top Fuel NDRC round is at Willowbank Raceway on December 1-3. Thomas Miles

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AORC CHAMPIONS END SEASON ON A HIGH

TRAVIS ROBINSON and Andrew Pinto (above) put the icing on the cake to their maiden Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship title by taking out the Kalgoorlie Desert Race in the season finale. The pair had already wrapped up the title at the Loveday 400 in South Australia, but the WA duo had the chance to send 2023 out in style on their home turf, with Robinson taking the win over his brother and Outer Bounds Racing teammates Beau Robinson and Shane Hutt (lower left). The Pro Buggy class #13 Nissan powered Jimco took the win by 1min 6.90s over the Extreme 2WD pair in the national stakes, whilst both AORC and state component competitors Shane Elphinstone and navigator Mariah Baxter (right) came third, 3:30.40s off Robinsons overall time of 2:19.05.8. After a few years out of the sport, Robinson was elated to end the year with an in-family one-two. “It’s been a good year. We were just looking to get back into the sport and I had a bit of a crack today…it was good, I got my main main here (Pinto) looks like we’ve still got it,” Robinson quipped. “It was a good way to cap off the year and one-two with my brother, I just wish my old man was here to see it. So it’s good. “We just ran our own race. Beau was definitely the man to beat because he was amazing. We were pretty amazed at how quick he was going around that track because it is quite tight.” After a year in which consistency marked the path to their championship with one win, three podiums, and a fourth place, Robinson was elated to take a victory, declaring that he and Pinto would become

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a force to recon with. “This was just about getting back into the swing of things, and look out next year, we’re back on how we used to be and we’ll be chasing victories.” The event opened on the Friday in Kalgoorlie, with Beau topping the prologue from his brother The event was postponed to Sunday with two stages offering full championship points after Beau topped the opening prologue over his brother by four seconds, whilst Jared Percival was third a further 18 seconds back. Saturday’s planned course was cancelled owing to a tragedy in the motorcycle component, with a rider losing his life after

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being taken to Kalgoorlie Hospital. Event organisers and Motorsport Australia went ahead with the four wheel component of the event on Sunday, with two stages planned and full championship points awarded. The opening of Sunday’s first 121 km leg had the prologue winners starting off strongly, but midway through the section trouble hit with their Mason Motorsports truck suffering gearbox issues, which led to a costly loss of time. Although they finished the section, the eventual winners took control at that point, building a two minute gap, with Section 1 ending with a 1min 45sec split in favour of the #13.

The chasing pair were able to take out the second section by +20 seconds over the eventual third place getters, with Robinson and Pinto were third on the stage by 38s, but the gap from the first leg was large enough to secure the outright win. And although they finished 10th outright in Kalgoorlie, the runners up spot in the championship went to South Aussie Mel Brandle and navigator Emily Brandle (pictured lower right), with their third national top ten of the season also giving them the national Prolite class title, whilst Stephen Ketteridge-Hall and Haylee Cowling took out the Kalgoorlie class honours in the Prolite. Third in the outright championship went to Kiwi racer Kiwi Raana Horan after finishing fifth in Kalgoorlie, despite it only being his second event of the year after winning the Wentworth Shire Pooncarie Desert Dash. Nicholas Commins and Ryan Galvin’s outright ninth place in Kalgoorlie saw them second for the weekend in the Extreme 2WD Class behind Beau Robinson, which was also enough to secure them the outright national class title. Rounding out the state podium after Elphinstone’s outright third and state victory, were fellow Pro Buggy racers Troy Higgins and John Simmons 57.32s in arrears, whilst Horan alongside David Neill were classified as third. The SXS Pro class was taken by James Cook and Mitch Aucote, who also finished fourth in the national title, and were 16th overall in Kalgoorlie. The next national season gets underway April 2024, with the first round switching to the Wentworth Shire Pooncarie Desert Dash in NSW on April 19-21. TW Neal

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NATIONALS WRAP

Paul Dowie/John Allen took out the championship.

GREAT TARMAC RALLY ENDS SPECTACULAR ATR SEASON

THE AUSTRALIAN Tarmac Rally Championship ended on a spectacular note in the Victorian High-Country region with the Great Tarmac Rally (GTR). Based out of Marysville north-east of Melbourne a field of over 60 cars covered a scenic 250 km around Marysville, Cambarville, Cumberland Junction, Reefton Spur, Jamieson and Eildon. The AASA-sanctioned series with the Australian Tarmac Rally (ATR) group has flown the flag for tarmac rallying in the country in a difficult time for the sport, and this was the perfect end to the season. With nine categories heading into the GTR finale, the all important overall championship lead would see a change of leaders to end the year, with the title going the way of Modern 2WD class competitors Paul Dowie/ John Allen in their #785 Porsche GT3RS. They would claim the overall title from Super Rally husband/wife pairing Jason and Fiona Wright in their R35 Skyline, who held the pointscore heading into the finale. The overall victory at the Vic-High Country event would go to Modern 4WD class winners Matt Close/Cameron Reeves in their #813 Audi TTRS Sport, which perfectly suited the slippery conditions to take a 2min 30sec victory with six stage wins. Dean Lillie/Chris Exner took second in their Mazda RX7 despite the mechanical disadvantage, whilst Jeff Morton/Daymon Nicoli took third in their Porsche GT2 RS. (The championship for the navigators was also taken out by Fiona Wright). The category battles provided some thrilling stages across a range of spectacular machines. The Super Rally component had a surprise winner in Greg Base/Lance Arundel in their Toyota Yaris GR as

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Lillee/Exner ran second inn the rally in their RX7. Below left: Bray/Acker, runners up in Classic Modified. Right: Jon and Gina Siddins – Classic winners.

opponents fell by the wayside. The Wright’s traded blows with Mick Harding/James Thornburn in their Subaru WRX STi, until a small fire brought the latter to a halt, and an oil temp issue brought the championship leaders undone. Mark Cates/Bernie Webb were then seen as favourites in their Porsche 911 GT2 RS, but withdrew when the heavens opened on day 2 due to unsuitable tyres, leaving the Yaris as last machine standing. The outright winners were dominant in the Modern 4WD class despite overheating brake issues, and were consistently in the top-three throughout the first day, with the wet weather seeing them trump the class by five and half minutes over Toby Gill and Alice McKenzie in the Nissan R35 Skyline – they

also claimed all four outright stages on the final day to seal the deal. With the Wrights Day 1 retirement, Dowie just needed to finish on Day 2 to claim the championship, but they were pushed all the way and overcome in the Modern 2WD class by Jeff Morton and Damon Nicoli’s Porsche GT2 RS, who were also in with a shot in the overall before the rain came. In the Early Modern 4WD, it was the father/ son pairing of Liam and Larry Howarth in the fire-breathing Nissan GTR V-Spec that dominated the class after being challenged early by Michael Mansey and Anthony Carrs in the Mitsubishi EVO X. Coming within a shot of the overall when the rain fell saw a masterclass drive form Lillie in the Early Modern 2WD, with the

experienced driver taking the keys from navigator and car owner Exner, to take the class in the #507 RX7 and give Close a scare in the outright. Over the closing stages they pulled ahead of third outright getters Morton/Nicoli by 40s, and also took the class win over the BMW 1m of Paul and Claire Buccini. In the Classic Modified, the nimble Escort RS2500 of Tom Dermody/Padraig Cronin dominated by over two minutes from Mick Bray/Jarrod Akker in the Group C Commodore. Taking the class win over every stage of the Classic class were ATR debutants Jon and Gina Siddins, taking their #364 Datsun 240z to a win over father/son Michael and Lachlan Nordsvan, who pushed them all then way in the Mazda RX7, with Peter Gluskie and Samantha Winter third in their BMW E30 325e (The latter had a catastrophic transmission failure 5km from the finish, but geography was on their side as they angel geared downhill to the finish to keep their podium). Rally Sport was dominated by Scott Coppleman/Matt Van Rooye in their Subaru WRX STi, taking all 13 stages, whilst the Rally Challenge class went to Jeremy Dennison and Brett Williams in their BMW M140i by 11 minutes - despite some speeding penalties. Finally, the Early Classic was a one-horse race, with the beautiful 1958 Austin Healey of father/son duo Simon and Ben Kelly driving a solo class entry. Nevertheless, they raced it as intended with wild abandon, and even dropped the exhaust clean off the thing! The ATR championship returns on March 16-17 in 2024, with the Lake Mountain Sprint in the beautiful Cathedral Range. TW Neal

Want to see your category event or news story included in the Auto Action Nationals Wrap. Send your information, images and contact details to team@autoaction.com.au or give us a call on 03 9563 2107 Chris Lewis-Williams was imperious in 944s, and won the final.

Despite taking only one race win for the weekend, GrechCumbo took the Improved Production title.

the Vee round Veteran Lee Partridge won f McCarthy. Ree ner win ies ser te from sta

Images: REBBECA HIND-REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

VIC STATE RACING RETURNS TO CALDER! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIFTEEN YEARS, THE VICTORIAN STATE RACE SERIES RETURNED TO THE LEGENDARY CALDER PARK RACEWAY FOR THE FINAL ROUND OF THE YEAR. FOR MANY drivers it was a new racing venue and as a result produced a lot of dramatic moments as DAN McCARTHY reports.

MG AND INVITED

BMW E30 round and race winner Jesse Bryan takes to the curbs on his way to the win.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

IP SHOWCASED the largest field of any category at Calder Park, but it would prove to be a very high attrition weekend for the category. Victories were shared between three drivers, but in the end, the consistent Ian McLennan driving his Holden Monaro took the round victory. Race 1 was won by Paul Cruise after race leader Danny Timewell came to a halt on lap 15. Timewell was not the only notable mechanical casualty, as Luke Grech-Cumbo also stopped late in the race. Cruise took the win by 8.6s from McLennan and Robert Braune in his BMW E30. In Race 2 Cruise was unable to match McLennan and Braune who took off into the distance and had a great tussle through the lapped traffic, the battle went the way of McLennan by just 0.3s. Cruise rounded out the top three, ahead of Grech-Cumbo who stormed through the field to finish in fourth. In the final nobody could match GrechCumbo. He took the win by 5s from McLennan, while Matthew Logan in his VE Commodore rounded out the top three. Cruise’s race came to an end after just three laps. The round win went to McLennan, from Braune and the consistent Logan. Fifth place for the round was good enough for GrechCumbo to take the title.

PORSCHE 944S

THE PORSCHE 944s have been one of the highlight categories of the Victorian State Race Series in 2023, and the racing at Calder Park was no exception. Mark Verdino not only took his first 944 race win, he also bagged his first round win, while Chris Lewis-Williams won his fourth title. Lewis-Williams held off Verdino in the opening race of the weekend by just 0.4s. On Sunday morning however it was a different story. Joey Kellock looked set to

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take his maiden win, however he suffered a mechanical issue mid-way through the race. This handed the lead to Verdino who became a first-time victor himself. Former champion Cameron Beller finished second ahead of Lewis-Williams who wrapped up the title with his third placed finish. LewisWilliams now equals Beller as a four-time 944 series champion. With the title wrapped up, Lewis-Williams was imperious and won the final by 0.5s, holding off Beller and Verdino.

SALOON CARS

IT MAY have been a non-championship round for Saloon Cars, but it certainly didn’t show on track with plenty of door-to-door action. In a one-off cameo appearance, former regular Anthony Beare won the round. Beare and Travis Lindorff were locked in combat all weekend long, coming to blows on two occasions. Lindorff led Race 1 early, however Beare caught him and sent one up the inside into Turn 6. Beare locked up and made contact with Lindorff half spinning him. Beare crossed the line first, but was handed a 5s penalty for the collision, promoting Lindorff to first. Race 2 saw the two combatants Lindorff and Beare make contact at the very same turn. The contact saw Beare take to the grass and re-join right back in front of Lindorff. Just seconds later Beare would make an unforced error spearing off the road at Turn 1. Lindorff crossed the line first, however, was dealt a 30s penalty for speeding in the pits on

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the way to the grid, this promoted Beare to the front, Daniel Johnson to second, and Blake Harris third. Beare led every lap of the final race, he held on to the win by just 0.6s over Lindorff, Johnson rounded out the podium.

FORMULA VEE

IN FORMULA Vee it was a tale of two, with the veteran Lee Partridge winning the round from the 2023 state series winner Reef McCarthy. Race 1 set the scene for the weekend with the pair exchanging the lead throughout. McCarthy looked to have made the vital break away with only three laps to go; however Partridge responded with the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate tour. On the last lap Partridge made a brilliant move around the outside at Turn 6 giving him the inside for Turn 7. He held on to take a memorable win from McCarthy and Jason Kay. Race 2 was much the same as they jostled for position, however in the closing stages the safety car was called. Claudia Lennox fired over the Turn 8 kerb after sliding off the track on oil. The race finished under Safety Car, with Partridge winning from McCarthy and Brock Hamilton. Race 3 was again the McCarthy and Partridge show. This time it was McCarthy that made the final lap move at Turn 6 and held it to the line by just 0.03s, Nic Jones rounded out the top three. Partridge won the round overall from McCarthy and Kay who collected his first Formula Vee trophy.

IT WOULD prove to be a battle of survival in MG and Invited British Sports Cars, and so despite not taking a race win, Triumph GT6 driver Trevor Lindsay took the round honours. Race 1 saw Simon Elliott take the win from Lindsay and Anthony Vollebregt. After retiring from Race 1, Phillip Chester calved through from the back of the field to win Race 2 by a staggering 47s! Lindsay finished second ahead of 2022 champion Michael Trathen in his MG Midget. Race 3 would see more Chester domination, taking the win by 20s from Elliott and Lindsay.

BMW E30S/HYUNDAI EXCELS

THERE WAS a combined field of BMW E30s and Hyundai Excels at Calder Park and the racing was closely fought. Race 1 in the E30s went the way of Jesse Bryan, beating Brian Bourke and Royce Lyne, however Lyne fought back to win the Feature race from Bryan and Ashley Rogers. Race 3 saw a showdown between the two race winners. However an unforced error passing lapped traffic saw Lyne beach himself in the gravel trap. As a result, Bryan won the race from Rogers and Bourke. For the round it was Bryan, Bourke and then the consistent Simon Shiff. In the Hyundai class the round went to Carly Fleming who beat home Peter Fleming in all three races, Harvey rounded out the podium.

COMBINED SEDANS

THE COMBINED class was a one-off edition to the VSRS, with competitors able to enter any tin-top racing cars they wanted. It was dominated by Rob and Bailey Love in their Mercedes AMG GT4 cars. In Race 1 Bailey crossed the line in first but was dealt a 5s penalty for starting out of his grid box demoting him to second behind his father. Race 2 was a titanic tussle which was again won by Rob who held his son at bay for the entire 20-minute race. The final encounter was won by Bailey after he jumped ahead at the start, however Rob won the round. Third went to William Tymms in his MARC Ford Mustang.

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SUPERCARS SUPPORTS

RICCIARDELLO CLAIMS TITLE AMID McLEOD’S DEBUT ROMP

IT WAS A HUGE WEEKEND FOR THE PRECISION NATIONAL SPORTS SEDANS ON THE GOLD COAST FOR THEIR SECOND STRAIGHT SUPERCARS SUPPORT ACT, AS TONY RICCIARDELLO ADDED A HISTORICAL 12TH TITLE TO HIS AFLA’S CV, WHILST CATEGORY DEBUTANT CAMERON McLEOD STORMED TO A SWEEP IN THE MARC GT SS ... THE SPORTS Sedans national renaissance continued to build at the Gold Coast 500, and whilst McLeod’s new MARC car proved too fast and reliable for the rest of the field, Ricciardello’s iconic Alfa Romeo GTV outlasted Jordan Caruso and Ashely Jarvis to take an unprecedented 12th title. Whilst Caruso’s Audi A4 was typically fast, a season plagued by mechanical issues reared its head again in Race 2 which ensured the title was locked up on the Saturday. After his first season back since 2019, the WA Sports sedans stalwart could afford to relax in Race 3, though it didn’t stop him having a go as he almost came fatally unstuck at the beach side chicane. “I’m glad the title was wrapped up; it was a good tussle all year and the team put a massive effort in,” a relieved Ricciardello said. “All year it’s one of those things trying to manage the car on the road as you go, and probably didn’t finish as wanted, but the championship’s what we’re here for, and now it’s a 12th time. “Jordan was probably the quickest all year – I’ve done it before where I’ve been in that situation, put in a DNF, and lost the championship. They put in a massive effort all year, but Sports Sedans is one of those things where you just have to keep finishing and finishing, and this year we did that.” It was another big step for the category with a second week of full nationallytelevised sessions, and there was never a dull moment, particularly with the wet opening sessions, with the drivers looking to step cleanly through the chicanes on the slicks.

Cam McLeod took a clean sweep on debut, here heading the Caruso Audi.. Despite never having raced on the Surfers Paradise streets, It was evident from the get-go that McLeod’s GT – along with his prodigious talent – would be hard to combat, as he topped a wet first session from a late swooping Caruso by 0.173sec with Ricciardello and Jarvis in tow, whilst Caruso then topped a plucky McLeod in the final practice in dicey conditions ahead of Qualifying. Caruso and the John Gourlay-built Audi A4 then did as they’ve done all year, taking a season-sweep of the pole positions, as Caruso topped Mcleod in another wet session, with both drivers swapping pole in the thrilling closing stages with only 0.146s separating them. Race 1 then saw the young Super3 regular take a maiden win as he continued to prove that he really can drive anything, and anywhere. Despite having some overnight braking issues which the team fixed, McLeod kept total control to top Caruso by 2.7s, which cut Ricciardello’s title lead in half, who

encountered plug-lead issues to finish P15. Ashley ‘Mr Consistent’ Jarvis finished third in the Monaro to keep his slim title hopes alive in a largely green running affair which went the 13 laps. Whilst the Audi had the early lead, the MARC GT was better balanced in the chicanes and corners, taking the lead before a brief yellow when Compton’s BMW 318i spun and stalled, with McLeod then powering home over the final two minutes. Race 2 brought the McLeod double, whilst a second from the repaired Ricciardello Alfa sewed up the title in the face of Caruso’s midrace strife that left him stranded on track. This time it was Ryan Humfrey in the bargain basement XE Falcon who took third, whilst McLeod took it by 21s over the iconic red and yellow Alfa, who came from the rear of the field. After Caruso parked up after Turn 4, Jarvis had his own issues after contact with Humfrey to fall from the podium, ensuring the WA driver took the title then and there. Caruso hit back in the third to finish second

from the rear of the field, but it was the dominant McLeod by 4s to take the debut sweep, whilst Angus Fogg won the battle for third over Humfrey in his 1970 Fastback Mustang. It was flagged early when Jarvis parked up before the start, and Ricciardello held second at the restart before his spin that relegated him to finish P17. Fogg held second before he rubbed the wall to let Caruso through, but the visiting Kiwi held third, whilst McLeod put the cherry on the cake with a weekend fastest lap of 1:11.036 to bring it home. After a sensational year, the Sports Sedans will return bigger and better than ever with more 2024 Supercars dates, and a bunch of new builds to add even more firepower to the field. They look a natural fit on the main game bill and offer something unique to a race weekend which draws in fans with a great variance of machines, and a sound that can’t be matched. TW Neal FINAL SPORTS SEDANS STANDINGS Ricciardello 567 Caruso 528 Jarvis 497 Humfrey 451 Duggan 364

Images: John Morris - MPIX

Champion – for the 12th time ... the Ricciardello Alfa, and the team (above). Top: Ryan Humfrey’s Falcon took a podium.

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PORSCHE CARRERA CUP • SUPERUTES

Borg leads ... Image: TAMARA JADE MEDIA

BORG EDGES OUT MARJORAM IN FINAL LAP SHOWDOWN

Winner Hall leads the pack. Image: MARK HORSBURGH

WALLS TURNS THE TABLES JACKSON WALLS has snatched the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia championship lead from Callum Hedge as Bayley Hall became the seventh different winner from as many rounds. Hedge has been forced to regret one costly shortcut of the Turn 2 chicane at the Gold Coast, which presented Walls with the opportunity to head to the Adelaide finale with a 21-point advantage. The fight for Pro Am is also set to go down to the wire with Marco Flack leading Sam Shahin and Dean Cook by 15 and 23 points respectively. The dramatic weekend started slowly as just one racing lap was possible on Saturday. After missing Bathurst to race in America, Hedge made a statement immediately, getting a strong start from pole. Alongside him was Luke Youlden, who could not convert his first Carrera Cup start in 12 months and dropped to fourth, while the fast-starting Dylan O’Keeffe flew to second. Walls made an important move to take sixth, just before the first SC arrived for Matthew Belford, who lost it at the Beach Chicane. The SC was required again almost immediately when Dale Wood, Fabian Coulthard and Liam Talbot tripped over each other at the hairpin. A restart was not possible and drivers looked forward to the 28-lap enduro for more racing, but unfortunately that was also truncated. O’Keeffe got another cracking start,

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jumping Hedge, but the Kiwi reclaimed the lead just a lap and a half later. The move was well timed, arriving moments before the first of two SCs required for a stationary Courtney Prince, whose car kept shutting off. A decent period of racing allowed Hedge to rebuild his lead over O’Keeffe, while Hall snatched third from David Wall, who also lost out to Walls. With 12 laps to go the SC returned as a Pro Am car park emerged at Turn 12. Sam Shahin spun on his own and as he recovered he was hit by Rodney Jane, while Belford also spun taking evasive action, leaving Tim Miles with nowhere to go. O’Keeffe took aim at Hedge at the restart and appeared to get his nose in front as they approached the first chicane. While O’Keeffe took the racing line, Hedge skipped it all together in a costly move that would eventually see him receive a 5s time penalty and drop down to 11th. O’Keeffe was the big loser as he dropped to fourth with Walls importantly getting by to sit behind eventual winner Hall. The race was brought to a sudden stop when another car park developed at Turn 12. The incident, which required a red flag, was triggered by Alex Davison and Wall. Davison dived down the inside, but was squeezed by Wall which sent the latter spinning into the tyres. Wall carried on his momentum to spear across the track on corner exit

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which left Fallon with nowhere to go, being jammed between the #38 and the fence. Meanwhile Davison followed his rival into the outside tyres and Harri Jones fired into the back of him. Suddenly there was a roadblock and Talbot could not avoid Jones. Tensions then boiled over as Davison slammed the driver’s door on Wall, while Jones had to break them up in a spat between former champions. The chaos meant just 20 cars took on the finale where Hall put in an ultimate professional’s drive to secure the round win in style. He led home composed teammate Walls across the line, while Coulthard scored his first Carrera Cup podium since 2005. Due to the Race 2 penalty, Hedge started eighth and gained two positions to take the chequered flag in sixth. One of those spots was gifted by Wood, who lost fourth by coming unstuck at the opening chicane. The dramatic trip to Surfers Paradise means the season-long battle between Walls and Hedge will come to a close at the anticipated Adelaide finale on November 23-26. Thomas Miles PORSCHE CARRERA CUP CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 7 1 Jackson Walls 815 2 Callum Hedge 794 3 Dylan O’Keeffe 648 4 Dale Wood 577 5 Bayley Hall 569

THE 2023 V8 SuperUte Series title was not decided until the final lap as Aaron Borg and Adam Marjoram fought to the death on the streets of Surfers Paradise. It all came down to the fourth and final race where Marjoram held a slender fourpoint advantage over Borg. When they commenced the final lap, the pair were tied on points sitting second and third and went side by side through the hairpin which is where it was decided. Borg emerged in front as Marjoram slipped to fourth to ensure the AC Delco driver went back to back. Whilst all eyes were on the championship, Ryal Harris dominated the weekend, winning three of the four races. But his campaign went pear-shaped in Race 2. Being forced to start 10th due to the inverted grid, Harris found himself sandwiched between Gerard Maggs and Sieders in the run up to the Beach Chicane. Neither backed out and the end result was chaos, with all three spinning head first into the fence. The incident effectively ended Harris’ championship chances and he labelled Maggs’ driving as “foolish stupidity” before things got heated in the paddock. There was more drama on the restart as Marjoram made an aggressive move on Borg and squeezed the #1 into the fence at T12. Borg eventually dropped to ninth as Jaiden Maggs scored a breakthrough win ahead of Cottrell and Marjoram. Harris got some redemption on Sunday, dominating the final two races of the year. The first was the most impressive being an anger-fuelled charge from sixth to first within three laps. Along the way he had a run-in with Borg, which unsettled the #1 and dropped it to sixth, but fought back to get third. This setup a titanic battle in the finale where Harris was untouchable, leading every single lap, but all eyes were on Marjoram and Borg. Marjoram had fought for the lead with Harris by shortcutting the opening chicane twice, but by lap six was on the defence to Borg. The pair clashed twice at the hairpin with the decisive moment occurring on the final lap, where Borg forced Marjoram wide, which allowed Craig Woods to also go through and take third. As a result Borg was crowned champion for the second year in a row. The V8 SuperUte Series returns for a non championship round at the Adelaide 500. Thomas Miles

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SUPERCARS

IT’S A MUSTANG PARADISE IT WAS THE WEEKEND THAT THE SUPERCARS GEN3 PROGRAM NEEDED, WITH THE MANUFACTURER BATTLE FINALLY TAKING PLACE ON THE RACE TRACK AS BOTH CAMERON WATERS AND DAVID REYNOLDS HELD OFF THE T8 AND EREBUS CAMAROS TO GIVE FORD A GOLD COAST 500 DOUBLE. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS … THE DEBUT Gen3 season finally hit its straps at the penultimate round of the season, with an evenly matched battle between the Chevrolet and Ford camps at the Gold Coast 500. Teams and drivers headed to Queensland to take on the concrete walls of the Surfers Paradise streets for Supercars annual party, with its surfboard trophies and sun drenched race track, for two 250 km, 85 lap races on the Soft Dunlop tyre. The 2.9 km circuit, with its 15 turns and two wild chicanes present the constant danger of kerb strikes, with this year also seeing the tyre bundles removed to make sighting the kerb even more difficult. The pre-Gold Coast 500 lead-in may also be that last we hear of the dreaded ‘P’ word, as the parity trigger was pulled following the Bathurst 1000 and a raft of aero changes were given to the Mustangs. The changes included inserts in the front bar ahead of the front wheel (reducing downforce), a side skirt trailing edge, 100mm more of rear wing span (50mm per side) with the max angle now sitting at seven degrees, while the wings Images: MARK HORSBURGH-EDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS/MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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positioning has been raised 25mm and moved back 25mm. The rear wing, side skirt, and front fascia elements certainly seemed to improve the rear tyre life of the Mustangs, and fans finally got to see an even fight that finally produced the kind of racing that the Gen3 movement was intended to incite. Alongside the improved contest, all eyes were also on the championship battle between Brodie Kostecki and Shane van Gisbergen. With 600 points available from four races, the Erebus frontrunner enjoyed a 131 point advantage against the NASCAR bound three-time champion, and was aiming to take another step toward being the first Aussie to win a Supercars title since his T8 boss got it done in 2017.

FRIDAY – KEEP IT OFF THE WALLS

DRIVERS FACED two half-hour practice sessions to prepare for a big weekend, but the weather threatened to derail any decent simulation runs as the wind came in off the coast, bringing the rain. Teams were tentative to run any wet tyre laps with no rain expected over Saturday and Sunday.

Whilst Scott Pye would top a brief session owing to a red flag due an issue with the loose Turn 1 chicane kerbing, three cars would suffer from power steering issues to rule them out of the session, including the Tickford Mustangs of Randle and Fraser, as well as the Ford of Reynolds with a power steering line coming loose and spilling oil in pit lane. Waters showed good signs in the short run he had to go second, behind Pye’s 1:11.558, whilst plenty of kerb strikes were registered over the two chicane sections. With the track still fairly greasy, the damp conditions made for an interesting watch, with anything off the driver line causing imminent drama. While Fraser was again stuck in the sheds for Practice 2, teams scrambled in the short time available to get some short long-run sim and some Qualifying sim at the backend. Waters was quick again early on the slowly drying track, and it was largely the Mustangs that were looking good with their new aero set-up, but it was the Bathurst 1000 champion that came through late with a weekend high 1:10.667 leading into Saturday’s Qualifying.

Supercars RACE REPORT Round 11 – GOLD COAST 500

SATURDAY - QUALIFYING: MUSTANG FRONT ROW

SATURDAY KICKED off in much calmer conditions, and it was Waters who put the big challenge down by topping both Qualifying sessions, taking his 22nd career pole and third of the season. Whilst Waters was electric in both Qualifying and the TopTen Shootout, Payne was very impressive to take his first front row as a Supercars season rookie. Payne finished second to Waters in both sessions and continued to certify his star potential. Waters got through with a 1:10.836, to top Payne by 0.050s, with Kostecki, Randle, SVG, Pye Reynolds, Slade, Mostert and Heimgartner going though. Will Brown and Broc Feeney were the bigger names to miss the cut, with the Erebus driver encountering gearing issue, whilst kerb strikes were also rife. There would only be one kerb strike in the shootout, and that would go to Kostecki, which would ultimately lead to some championship consequences with SVG taking third to get a second row start next to Randle, over the Mustang’s or Reynolds and Mostert.

RACE 25 – WATERS PAR FOR GEN3 MUSTANGS

Parity – at last? Waters held on for a landmark win on Saturday (top), while Reynolds (left) completed the weekend Ford double on Sunday – with Kostecki virtually jammed in his boot. On this occasion, highflying defending champion Van Gisbergen (above) could only manage a Saturday P2 and Sunday P5 to lose ground in the championship battle.

CAMERON WATERS stood up for the Gen3 Mustang in a grandstand finish against SVG, taking in a well-constructed victory in the opening race. It came down to the last corner fight, with the last four laps producing a battle royale as Waters held off the #97 whilst also being tight on fuel, winning by just 0.194 seconds – and it was a deservedly boisterous Tickford driver in the pits after the race. “The emotions on my team’s faces says it all. Shane was coming for me but there was no way I was going to let a bloody GM beat me again,” Waters enthused. In a Surfers Paradise rarity, it was a flag-free green race over the 85 laps, with the rejigged parity on the Ford Mustangs proving a winner in an even battle with the Camaros. Reynolds would round out the podium over Randle, whilst Kostecki fought into P5 to minimise the points damage. It was two Mustangs facing off on the front row, with poleman Waters and Payne eying off the first turn, pursued by SVG and Randle. With few long runs done over the course of two short practice sessions, tyre life was a mystery, especially for the Mustangs and their new aero packages. It was a nice start from Waters who led Payne into the first chicane, whilst Randle and Mostert got the jump on SVG. Payne harangued the Tickford driver, with the unusual sight

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of four front-running Gen3 Mustangs tailing each tightly as the breakaway pack. Kostecki found three places into seventh behind Reynolds who was working on SVG, whilst the #88 T8 garage opted for some clean air as the first car to pit. After switching spots a few times, Randle and and Mostert lost contact with the lead pair, whilst Payne took a limits warning as the race passed 15 laps and into tyre life no-man’s land. Waters found lapped traffic in the early pitters which crushed his small break, and SVG reeled in Mostert for fourth, with the frontrunners coming back together as a result of the sluggish fuel-heavy Middy’s Camaro. Le Brocq then went into the sheds with leaking fluids, as did Smith with a failed alternator, which ruined their races 20 laps in and, as Reynolds pitted, Kostecki took P6 to inch up the board. Kostecki got a good run after the hairpin to take Mostert and find clean air in fifth, whilst Randle pitted from third, followed by Waters to leave Payne out front, with the #6 reentering in P8, whilst SVG took Payne for the lead to try and gap himself from Kostecki. SVG, Payne and Kostecki all pitted together lap 32, with the #99 jumping Payne in the lane, whilst Waters took back in the effective lead over Reynolds and Randle, as Payne’s big fuel load take saw him emerge in P12, leaving #97 and #99 in fourth and fifth. Payne’s race (in P9) was hurt by a five second penalty for a 150m brake-marker infringement during an earlier door-todoor fight with Courtney. At the halfway mark, Waters had a 2.1sec lead over the #26 Penrite Mustang who had the Castrol Mustang under his wing, whilst SVG picked away at a 6sec deficit to them, with Kostecki 5sec off him. Randle pitted from third after troubling Reynolds through a long stint to escape that drama, promoting SVG into P3, whilst Payne kept fighting to go into P6 behind Heimgartner after scrapping with Mostert. Waters pitted on lap 54, taking plenty of fuel, with Reynolds following him in the next lap, which led to a good battle between the two when the #26 rejoined next to him, whilst Randle was 2sec back on them. SVG took his 2nd pit leaving Kostecki out front, as the #97 came out into third place, setting up a good battle for the 27 lap run home. Kostecki pitted on lap 59 as Payne also served his 5sec penalty in the pits to emerge in effective P8, with the #99 coming out in effective P5 behind Randle. SVG and Kostecki took their final track limits warnings, with Reynolds in P2 also on his last warning, +14sec behind the leading Waters. The gap tightened between them with 15 laps to go as Waters conserved his tyres, as he also came up on the lapped traffic, whilst SVG loomed on Reynolds. Five second penalties were getting handed out frequently, with Mostert (P7) and Payne (P9) carrying strikes, and SVG was all over Reynolds as his pace deserted him, whilst Waters

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SUPERCARS The first five rows for the finale composed of Kostecki, Reynolds, Payne, Mostert, Winterbottom, Golding, Waters, Brown, SVG and De Pasquale, with Kostecki looking to take advantage of the track position over the #99, with the points difference standing at 104 points heading into Race 26.

RACE 26 – BUSH-REYNOLDS SCRAP LEADS TO MUSTANG DOUBLE

used the Percat car to find some space in nine laps to go. SVG got him down the pit straight for P2, and Waters needed to put the foot down with a 2.9sec margin. The #97 was lurking, shaving half a second from the split with 7 laps left with Waters also getting a limits warning. Waters had Van Gisbergen a little larger in his mirror than he would have liked with three laps left and one second in it. It was a full-blown battle to the end as SVG was right on his wing in the last lap as they fought I out. But, in Supercars race number 248, Waters took an absolute thriller in an epic battle, winning by 0.194s with David Reynolds in third.

SUNDAY – QUALIFYING: “BEST LAP OF MY CAREER”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP leader hit back on Sunday, taking his ninth career pole and and the eighth of his season,

proclaiming that cumulative pressure with so much on the line: “… that was probably the best lap of my career – there’s a lot on the line here this weekend and you have to take a lot of risks to get a lap time out of the car.” It was an error-strewn Top-Top Shootout in which the #99’s 1:11.011 was enough after a much quicker knockout session. Waters backed up his one-lap pace from Saturday to top that opening session, and did it with the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:10.463 to top Brown, Reynolds and SVG, with Kostecki, Mostert, De Pasquale, Golding, Payne, and Winterbottom all making the cut, whilst Feeney would miss his second straight Shootout in a 2023 rarity. The Shootout saw a much more conservative approach to the chicanes with no driver doing a sub-11, but it didn’t stop SVG and De Pasquale breaching the limits to have their laps scratched, whilst Brown found the exit wall at Turn 1, and Waters the Sector 2 escape road too. Above: Kostecki got the jump in Saturday’s opener. Below: Grove rookie Matt Payne starred – with P2 and P3 in qualifying, ... followed by a P4 and P9 in race trim.

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REYNOLDS WON his first Supercars race in five years in a massive scrap with Kostecki to give the Gen3 Mustang a double. It was a 0.18sec margin in the end as a late Safety Car got in between the huge fight in which they exchanged the lead before Kostecki missed an apex to lose the lead for one final time – prior to the Safety Car, caused by Golding’s desperate attempt to rejoin, trapping a hapless Scott Pye in the fence. “I’m just over the moon; it’s been a long time coming for Penrite racing – they’re one of the hardest working bunch of people I’ve ever worked with,” the outgoing Penrite driver said. “He (Kostecki) definitely was pushing me – I could feel it and I thought I was going to get crashed. We had a chat before the race and I told him I’m going for the win, and if I have to crash into you and you lose the championship, so be it! It was a hard fought race, I loved it.” Waters made it a great weekend for the Fords taking third to give Ford the podium ledger for the first time in 2023. Here’s how the battle went down … Race 26 got going with Kostecki next to Reynolds, with Payne and Mostert looking to attack from the second row. Kostecki got a big jump as Mostert battled Reynolds with the Penrite car taking second. A Safety Car was immediately called, the first of the weekend, with Courtney’s troubled Mustang, Jones, and Slade not getting far at the rear of the field, at the Hairpin, with the #20 and #32 tangling awkwardly, with Jones getting caught-up and Slade’s left front hanging off. The race went green on lap 8 and the #99 jumped again but Reynolds stayed with him to apply pressure.

Supercars RACE REPORT Round 11 – GOLD COAST 500

Chicane moment for Will Brown ... Above: to the winners go the ... surfboards. Right: James Cortney’s race didn’t last long on Sunday ... The battle out front was tight with Mostert, Payne, Frosty, Golding, Brown, SVG and Waters following. Kostecki started to inch away from Reynolds to gain some tenths by lap 20. Payne was the first of the top-ten to pit from fourth for a fresh set, coming out in P19 in a copy of Reynolds’ strategic move from Race 25, with Golding following suit shortly. Kostecki pitted on lap 28 giving the #26 Penrite the lead over Mostert, as the #99 emerged P12 with one second over Payne, whilst Mostert did the same to come out behind the #19 Mustang. SVG pitted from second in a lap 31 repeat of Saturday, with Reynolds following, with SVG coming out behind Mostert and Waters in P7, and Reynolds coming out in P4. Fullwood was the last to pit, giving Kostecki the overall lead back, over Payne by 1.7sec with Reynolds running third, 3sec off his teammate. Waters took Mostert for fourth at the end of the back straight to be six seconds off the leading Camaro, with SVG doing the same on lap 43, whilst Reynolds got by Payne for P2 with the #26 also holding a 4s fuel-fill time advantage on Kostecki, with the on-track gap at 3s. Waters entered the podium battle on lap 50 by taking

Payne to be 3.6s behind Reynolds, who was holding the 2sec gap to Kostecki. Waters took his last pit with SVG to follow as 30 laps remained, with Payne pitting alongside Golding, jumping SVG in the pit shuffle. Kostecki remained out, with a 4.2sec lead over Reynolds, with Waters holding effective third in P9. Kostecki pitted on lap 57 leading Reynolds out, with the #26 going in on lap 59 for his telling fuel-offset stop. The Mustang got the advantage in the end holding a 1.8s gap on the exit, with Waters a further 8.7s sec back on Kostecki. 20 laps remained and the gap was under a second, whilst Golding was looking strong to potentially challenge Waters for third. Kostecki shut the gap quickly to be under Reynolds wing, and Reynolds rebuffed his first passing attempt but he’d have his hands full with 15 laps left. Kostecki started to torch his rears up and was in danger of a bump and run, but he finally got it done at Turn 4 with 13 laps remaining, and it remained to be seen if the #26 had enough fight left to hit back. Reynolds then pulled a sensational move when Kostecki out-braked himself out of the beach chicane – so it was far from done, with 10 laps remaining, and they

were both killing their tyres in the fight. Kostecki got to the rear of Reynolds again, whilst Golding lost control in his pursuit of Waters, spinning wildly at the Chicane to trap a blind turning Pye with nowhere to go in a moment that could’ve been far worse, as he stopped on track with a Safety Car called to recover the Hino Camaro, whilst the two leaders almost had a moment in he chicane with Reynolds keeping the lead with a chicane cut. It left a tantalising four-lap dash with Waters, Payne, and SVG in pursuit. The battle resumed and Reynolds was looking strong for the Mustang garage. On the very last lap Reynolds cut the chicane, again with complaints from the Erebus garage ensuing, but the #26 held on in a thriller, and the joyous scream over the radio from Reynolds said it all. The successful parity gains for the Mustangs now sets up a sensational season closer on the streets of Adelaide on November 23-26. Kostecki’s second place saw him regain his 131 point lead over Van Gisbergen, with the potential for the Erebus driver to be crowned champion in the SA opener, whilst Erebus Motorsport also holds a 170 lead in the teams championship from Triple Eight, with the 24th VAILO Adelaide 500 holding plenty of intrigue.

GOLD COAST 500 RACE RESULTS QUALIFYING RACE 25 Pos Driver 1 Cameron Waters 2 Matthew Payne 3 Shane van Gisbergen 4 Thomas Randle 5 David Reynolds 6 Chaz Mostert 7 Scott Pye 8 Andre Heimgartner 9 Tim Slade 10 Brodie Kostecki 11 James Courtney`+0.5137 12 Bryce Fullwood 13 Jack Le Brocq 14 Nick Percat 15 Mark Winterbottom 16 James Golding 17 Will Davison 18 Anton De Pasquale 19 Macualey Jones 20 Todd Hazelwood 21 Broc Feeney 22 Cameron Hill 23 Declan Fraser 24 Jack Smith 25 Will Brown

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RESULTS RACE 25 85 LAPS SURFERS PARADISE Time 1:10.9501 +0.1050 +0.2043 +0.3872 +0.4149 +0.6023 +0.6960 +0.9002 +1.3697 +0.5188 +0.5406 +0.5626 +0.5747 +0.5753 +0.6279 +0.6422 +0.8318 +0.8396 +0.8464 +0.8497 +1.3976 +1.4389 +2.6886

Pos Drivers 1 Cameron Waters 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 David Reynolds 4 Thomas Randle 5 Brodie Kostecki 6 Scott Pye 7 Andre Heimgartner 8 Chaz Mostert 9 Matthew Payne 10 James Courtney 11 Will Brown 12 Mark Winterbottom 13 Anton De Pasquale 14 Broc Feeney 15 Will Davison 16 Macauley Jones 17 James Golding 18 Nick Percat 19 Todd Hazelwood 20 Declan Fraser 21 Tim Slade 22 Bryce Fullwood 23 Cameron Hill NC Jack Smith NC Jack Le Brocq

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Laps 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 84 84 84 84 81 73 27 20

Race time 01:44.30.448 +0.194 +8.246 +9.938 +12.369 +15.091 +18.167 +18.624 +21.954 +34.692 +40.849 +41.183 +49.372 +59.297 +1:00.645 +1:01.186 +1:07.378 +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +4 Laps +12 Laps -

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QUALIFYING RACE 26 s1 s2 t5 s1 s1 t2 t7 s1 s14 s3 s5 s7 s2 s3 s1 t4 s1 s3 t12 t10 t1 t12

Pos Driver 1 Brodie Kostecki 2 David Reynolds 3 Matthew Payne 4 Chaz Mostert 5 Mark Winterbottom 6 James Golding 7 Cam Waters 8 Will Brown 9 Shane van Gisbergen 10 Anton De Pasquale 11 Scott Pye 12 Thomas Randle 13 Broc Feeney 14 Andre Heimgartner 15 Nick Percat 16 Will Davison 17 Jack Le Brocq 18 Tim Slade 19 Bryce Fullwood 20 James Courtney 21 Declan Fraser 22 Macauley Jones 23 Todd Hazelwood 24 Cameron Hill 25 Jack Smith

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RESULTS RACE 26 85 LAPS SURFERS PARADISE Time 1:11.012 +0.1378 +0.2867 +0.4596 +0.5915 +0.6582 +10.5133 +18.9935 +0.3920 +0.4159 +0.4347 +0.4883 +0.5669 +0.5681 +0.5803 +0.7066 +0.8062 +0.8105 +0.8976 +0.9549 +0.9555 +1.2826 +1.6992

Pos Drivers 1 David Reynolds 2 Brodie Kostecki 3 Cam Waters 4 Matthew Payne 5 Shane van Gisbergen 6 James Golding 7 Thomas Randle 8 Broc Feeney 9 Mark Winterbottom 10 Bryce Fullwood 11 Will Brown 12 Nick Percat 13 Chaz Mostert 14 Jack Le Brocq 15 Cameron Hill 16 Will Davison 17 Andre Heimgartner 18 Todd Hazelwood 19 Jack Smith 20 Declan Fraser 21 Anton De Pasquale NC Scott Pye NC James Courtney NC Macualey Jones NC Tim Slade

Laps 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 85 84 83 81 77 0 0 0

Race time 1:54:10.874 +0.188 +2.870 +3.468 +4.884 +5.714 +6.492 +7.930 +9.237 +9.713 +10.209 +11.957 +12.737 +15.562 +16.131 +17.434 +27.125 +39.764 +1 Lap +2 Laps +4 Laps -

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 11 s1 t1 s4 t1 s4 s5 s5 t4 s9 t3 s3 t9 s3 s9 t3 s5 s6 s1 t11 t11 t3 t1 t7

Pos Driver 1 Brodie Kostecki 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 Will Brown 4 Broc Feeney 5 Chaz Mostert 6 Andre Heimgartner 7 Cam Waters 8 Anton De Pasquale 9 Bryce Fullwood 10 Jack Le Brocq 11 Will Davison 12 David Reynolds 13 Thomas Randle 14 Matthew Payne 15 James Golding 16 Mark Winterbottom 17 James Courtney 18 Tim Slade 19 Scott Pye 20 Nick Percat 21 Todd Hazelwood 22 Macualey Jones 23 Cameron Hill 24 Declan Fraser 25 Jack Smith

Points 2696 2565 2201 2192 2056 1830 1829 1680 1623 1616 1606 1539 1493 1487 1458 1447 1409 1383 1380 1137 1080 1045 987 986 937

s2 t1 s1 t2 s7 s5 s2 t1 t1 t4 t6 t2 s1 t2 s1 t1 -

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INTERNATIONAL

Price (centre) savours the win ... Above and below: a tough, tough desert rally.

PRICE TAKES BITTERSWEET VICTORY IN MOROCCO FINALE

AUSSIE MOTO legend Toby Price has conquered the Rallye du Maroc in north Africa for a third time in his career in the season finale of the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship, but fell just four points short of capturing a second world title. Price diced it out for the title with Luciano Benavides, whose win at the Desafio Ruta 40 set him up for the championship after the Aussie tragically had a rear shock absorber explode on him in Argentina. It was always going to be a hard prospect to overturn the pointscore heading into Morocco. The long-time KTM Factory Aussie took out his first win of the 2023 FIM World Rally-Raid season by three minutes over Benavides by the rally’s end, with third place going to Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla. It was Price’s first major win on the FIM global stage since he won the Dakar Rally in 2019 with a broken wrist, and his first win at the Rallye du Maroc since he also secured the world title there in 2018. Heading into the 2,240 km rally (1,470 km of timed specials over five stages) Price would have needed Benavides to finish fourth or worse to take the title if he won – and at the halfway point when he took the lead of the rally, the dream was at one stage looking probable. “I’m happy to have won the round here in Morocco,” Price said at the finish line in Merzouga.

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“The championship is a hard one to swallow – we put up a good fight and did everything we could but 2023 just hasn’t been the greatest season for us. “I’m happy in the fact that I never gave up and put in 100 percent right to the finish. I’ll take a little time now to get some rest but then we’re soon looking ahead to the Dakar in January. For sure, it’s going to be another tough one, but I’m feeling good, the bike is great, and I’ll do my best as always.” For Benavides, it was a mammoth effort in the 343 km Stage 4 that gave him the title lead back, winning the stage to move into third which tied them on points. “It’s a dream come true for me!” Benavides described after revving his Husqvarna and draping himself in his country’s flag. “It’s been a long journey to get to this point from finishing my first rally here in Morocco in 2017. To finish like this against Toby on the last day of the rally while opening the stage is incredible.” After the opening prologue was topped by Honda Privateer Tosha Schareina, the Rally-Raid finale got going in earnest on the country’s west coast in the Souss Massa region, with a 314 km leg between Agadir and Zagora. It was the Kalahari Ferrari in Botswana’s Ross Branch that took the opener and the rally lead, with things looking prospectively tough for the Aussie finishing in fourth, just over Benavides.

The first of two loops around Zagora saw Stage 2’s 296 km work out in Price’s favour with the KTM rider finishing second to the Honda privateer and close the gap to only 1:04 behind Branch for outright second whilst Benavides sat in fifth with the technical rocky stages also heading into the huge Chegaga Erg Dunes. The third stage was a 336 km Zagora loop of largely rocky terrain, and the #8 Rally 450 rider made his big move as the highest ranked W2CR rider on the stage behind Schareina, obtaining an overall 04:46s lead over Branch after a scoop of bonus time was awarded, whilst Benavides was in fourth and over one minute of Quintanilla who was third. Whilst Price didn’t put too much of a foot wrong barring some small navigation errors, Benavides was huge over Stage 4, taking the 345 competitive kilometres by over a minute from Cornejo with Price in third as the field navigated north east to the finishing point in Merzouga. And whilst the Aussie would enter the final stage (a loop of Merzouga) of the season with a 05:56s lead over Branch, the Argentine was third and tied on championships, a situation that would see him as victor on a count-back. The season ended with the field taking on the enormous Erg Chebbi dunes, the highest in Morocco, over 152 km.

Quintanilla would take out the final stage, but importantly for the Husqvarna squad, Benavides took second, with Price down in sixth and out of championship contention after Benavides was strong from the outset despite the difficult prospect of having to lead the field out in the morning. Price was a comfortable winner in the end, and will now have to wait until the 48th Dakar Rally on January 5-19 in Saudi Arabia to seek revenge. In the car component of the rally, the T1 championship was decided when Nasser Al-Attiyah picked up bonus for winning Stage 2 to make it back-to-back titles for the Toyota driver, but a mechanical retirement on Stage 4, saw him lose the rally lead, which saw his chief title rival Yazeed Al-Rajhi take the lead and the eventual victory. It was an all Toyota podium to finish the top W2RC class, with Denis Krotov finishing +34min 17s in arrears, whilst Juan Cruz Yacopini took third. TW Neal

FINAL FIM WORLD RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS Benavides 100 Price 96 Van Beveren 76 Branch 58 Quintanilla 55

WRC • CENTRAL EUROPE

YES CER: KING KALLE DOES IT AGAIN 23-YEAR-old Finn Kalle Rovanpera continues to write his name into the history books after clinching back-toback FIA World Rally Championship titles at the tri-nation Central European Rally (CER). Alongside co-driver Jonne Halttunen, the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 star wrapped it up in the penultimate round, finishing second behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville who took his second win of the season. Entering the rally with a 31 point lead, Rovanpera had to finish above teammate Elfyn Evans to sew it up one round early, and when the Welshman found himself in a barn off a slippery right-hander early on Day 3, the Finn just had to guide his #69 Rally1 car home. A dominant Day 2 in very tough conditions highlighted the sheer brilliance of the young driver, as that essentially shut the door, forcing Evans to push unduly which brought him undone. That elevated Ford M-Sport’s Ott Tanak onto the podium and, as Rovanpera backed off to play it safe despite having a big lead, Neuville was able to capitalise to win the rally by 57.6sec, Tanak was 1:52.8 back in third. After becoming the youngest driver to win a WRC rally in 2021, Rovanpera then became the youngest to win a title the following year – in a sport where championships usually follow the line of experience, his back-to-back titles will go down in folklore. A WRC history buff in his own accord, Rovanpera would have delighted in receiving the championship plaque from German legend Walter Rohrl. “It feels really good right now. I’m really relieved, because it’s always a big burden on your shoulders when you’re fighting for a title,” he said. “I think this year, it was tougher and more of a challenge than last year. The competition was tighter but we did a really good job. I’m really proud of the season that we did and I think I’m going to enjoy this one more than the first one. “… Once Elfyn went out, it was clear we didn’t need to fight for the win anymore because there was a bigger goal we were aiming for. The biggest thank you of course goes to Jonne – he is also the world’s best co-driver … Now I’m going to enjoy Rally Japan.” The debut of the historic CER rally, which took place over three countries, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, offered 313 km of competitive distance over 18 Stages. With the Service Park in Passau (southeast Germany) the first full day of action took place with 121.80 km over six stages in the Czech Republic for the first time the WRC had ever been to the Southern Bohemian region.

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Second was enough to wrap up the title for Rovanpera/Halttunen (below and above). Thierry Neuville took the win for Hyundai (right), while Andreas Mikkelsen/Torsten Eriksen had a rally to forget, but still locked in the WRC2 crown. Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

After Neuville entered Day 2 by taking the short opening stages around the Czech capital of Prague, the slippery and unknown roads, his overnight lead of 1.2s quickly vanished in the face of a Rovanpera masterclass. By the mid-leg tyre fitting zone, he’d taken all three stages to lead by 29.2s whilst Neuville struggled with tyres – and whilst the Belgian took two of the next three stages, the Finn would claim one more to take four of six and enjoy a 36.4s lead. A big crash on SS5 from Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi elevated Evans into third over Tanak, and then on the second day when the action moved to Austria, Evans’ own misdemeanour which took out a thick barn door elevated Tanak into third, and the championship battle was as good as over. With one hand on the trophy, Rovanpera backed off the throttle, as well as falling to some uncharacteristic

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errors by overshooting some corners. That opened the path for Neuville, with the i20N driver taking the lead on SS11 as the field made back-and-forth excursions over the Deutschosterreich border. As the rally moved to the beautiful German border are of Passau on the final day, Neuville enjoyed a 26.2s lead, growing to 57.6s split by the time the final four stages were managed, two of which were taken by Evans in a valiant effort to keep the title alive, which included winning the Power Stage by 3.4s. Eight time champion and Toyota part-timer Sebastien Ogier finished in a distant fourth over teammate Takamoto Katsuta, whilst Hyundai and Ford parttimers Teemu Suninen and Gregoire Munster followed. WRC2 drivers Adrien Fourmaux and Nicolas Ciamin were in eighth and ninth, with Frenchman Ciamin taking the win due to Fourmaux’s points ineligibility,

whilst Ford Rally1 driver Pierre-Louis Loubet ended a tough year in his WRC debut year for Ford M-Sport in P10, and will sit out Rally Japan. Despite finishing a distant P23 and 13 minutes behind WRC2 winner Ciamin, Andreas Mikkelsen and co-driver Torsten Eriksen also sewed up the Rally2 championship on account of both his challengers Yohan Rossel, and Gus Greensmith experiencing issues, making it two in three years for the former Norwegian WRC driver. The final round of the 2023 WRC season heads to Rally Japan on November 16-19. Thomas Miles WRC STANDINGS AFTER 12 ROUNDS Rovanpera/Halttunen 235 Evans/Martins 191 Neuville/Wydaeghe 184 Tanak/Jarveoja 162 Ogier/Landais 114

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ZARCO TAKES HIS CHANCE

It was a nail-biter, but Zarco emerged to win! Images: GOLD AND GOOSE JOHANN ZARCO seized his opportunity on the final lap to end a seven-year wait for his first MotoGP victory in a special Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, held on a Saturday at Phillip Island. For the first time, the race was run on a Saturday due to heavy winds and inclement weather forecast for Sunday – which ultimately meant no maiden Sprint race on Australian soil took place. Despite the drenched and disappointing finish, the super Saturday ensured Phillip Island produced yet another classic that had a major say on the title chase. From the moment bikes hit the track in glorious conditions on Friday, championship contender Jorge Martin

was the man to beat. The #68 Pramac Ducati was on fire and stormed to pole by obliterating both the field and the lap record. Martin’s 1:27.246 was four-tenths better than nearest rival Brad Binder, while championship leader Francesco Bagnaia was third despite having navigated the tense Q1 knockout. Australia’s Jack Miller had to settle for eighth after a heated incident with Aleix Espargaro, and Zarco started fifth. Martin converted pole into an early lead ahead of Binder when racing began under overcast skies at 15.10 AEDT Saturday afternoon. But all eyes were on home hero Miller as he nailed the start, flying from eighth

to third in a special opening lap that was a treat for all the fans. Despite the scorching start, the KTM could not handle the Ducati’s straight-line speed as Bagnaia blazed past to retake third down the Gardner Straight. This sparked another downward spiral for Miller, who would eventually drop to seventh by the time the chequered flag fell. Another rider on the move was Fabio Di Giannantonio, who was determined to make a statement without a 2024 seat. The Gresini Ducati rider snatched third from Bagnaia and caught the tail of Binder, but there was no catching Martin, who was soon more than 3s into the distance. Two riders that endured afternoons to forget were Joan Mir and Augusto

Fernandez with both falling in as many laps. The race settled down with Martin leading Binder, Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia and Zarco until the final four laps when it took off. Suddenly the rapid Martin was struggling for pace having lost life in his Soft rear tyre with his gap being slashed from 2.5s to just fourtenths within four laps. In that time, Zarco launched his counterattack, passing Bagnaia before wrestling for second with Binder and Di Giannantonio. The quartet had then caught Martin by the time the final lap began, setting up a grandstand finish. The #68 was caught at Miller Corner where the Spaniard, Zarco and Bagnaia went side-by-side for the win. Zarco was the calmest under pressure, perfectly placing his bike to seal the win while Bagnaia soared to second and picked up valuable points as Martin had no grip and slumped to fifth. Whilst the patient Bagnaia extended his championship lead to 27 points and Di Giannantonio scored a special podium, all eyes were on Zarco. After 120 races, seven years, 19 podiums and 11 runner-up finishes, the 33-year-old Frenchman was finally able to perform his trademark victory backflip. Thomas Miles

MARTIN SIEZES HIS MOMENT AFTER LOSING grip in Australia and crashing in Indonesia, Jorge Martin seized his moment a week later by prevailing in a titanic Thai Grand Prix. Martin, championship rival Francesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder fought to the death in a battle for the ages across the last six laps. In a tense 26-lap race where tyre preservation was key, Martin lost the lead to Binder on lap 23, but hit back on the penultimate lap when Bagnaia threatened to pass them both with one audacious move around the outside. At the end of it all Martin led home Binder and Bagnaia with just 0.253s covering the trio, making it the fourth closest podium in premier class history. Critically Binder was forced to concede second to Bagnaia due to a track limits penalty on the final lap, which limited the damage to the Italian’s championship lead. Jack Miller had a quiet race, starting 15th and finishing 16th after also missing points in the Sprint. Martin once again was electric on Saturday, taking a fourth pole in six races and converting it to a fifth straight Sprint success. Initially it appeared Luca Marini got the better jump off the line, but the #89 swooped around the outside and was

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Another last-lap thriller – this time it went to Jorge Martin ... unchallenged to the chequered flag. Bagnaia was battling on the other hand and fell from sixth to ninth before eventually finishing seventh, losing a big chunk of points. On lap six Binder snatched second from Marini and came within a second of Martin but could not challenge for victory. Takaaki Nakagami, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Augusto Fernandez all had falls, while Jack Miller climbed from 15th to 10th. The start of the Grand Prix was an instant replay of the Sprint with Martin again prevailing around the outside of Marini. Aleix Espargaro then got by the #10,

while Bagnaia enjoyed a better start, holding fifth from Alex Marquez. The top seven ran nose-to-tail and produced plenty of passing in the early laps with Bagnaia dropping as low as seventh before fighting back after braving the early battles. Binder once again scrapped his way to second as the reigning champion started picking off his rivals. Alex Marquez showed top-three pace on the medium rear tyre until his Gresini Ducati cartwheeled through the Turn 10 gravel trap. By lap 20 Binder started applying the blowtorch to Martin and an unforgettable

battle for the lead exploded. Binder made his first move at Turns 8 and 9, but the #89 performed the switchback to defend track position. The South African launched another counterattack when they arrived at Turn 3, but carried too much speed. This brought Bagnaia into play as Binder had another go at the double right hander and was successful on second attempt. As they started the penultimate lap the South African was within sight of a maiden win, but Martin had other ideas and threw it down the inside at Turn 3. Then Bagnaia somehow almost flew around the outside of both of them at the final turn to set up a grandstand finish. In the end Martin kept the pair at bay to win a battle to savour and generate more excitement ahead of the season-ending triple-header. The first of of those takes place in Malaysia on November 10-12 – bring it on!

Thomas Miles

2023 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ROUND 17 1 Francesco Bagnaia 389 points 2 Jorge Martin 376 3 Marco Bezzecchi 310 4 Brad Binder 249 5 Aleix Espargaro 198

MOTOGP • AUSTRALIA • THAILAND I NASCAR MIAMI • MARTINSVILLE

BELL TOLLS FOR CHAMPIONSHIP 4

Blaney (above and below) takes thre final Top 4 spot. Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

BLANEY COMPLETES PLAYOFF FOUR IN MARTINSVILLE TEAM PENSKE driver Ryan Blaney took out the final Round of 8 clash in the NASCAR playoffs at Martinsville to book a maiden berth in the Championship 4. The Ohio native stamped his ticket by 0.889s over Aric Almirola in the 500 lap affair, whilst William Byron will complete ‘the four’ on the strength of points earned despite finishing in 13th, joining Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson for the final race of the season at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona. It was heartbreak for Denny Hamlin (P3), who led a race-high 156 laps, in need of a win to advance, but Blaney led for 145 laps of his own with the race staying green for the final 168 laps on the short “half mile of mayhem” (0.8 km) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia. The Mustang charger ran down Stewart-Haas’ Almirola with 22 laps to go after the #12 Penske team opted to pit well within the fuel window, with the other front runners banking on a caution that would never come, leaving Blaney with a tyre advantage who cleared the #10 Mustang on Turn 4 with ease. “Really cool, I have wanted to win here for a long time and been super close for many years. Awesome to close it out,” Blaney said. “It felt like we put together really strong playoffs, especially the Round of 8, we had a good run in the whole Round of 8. Just overall really proud of the whole effort. “RP (team owner Roger Penske)

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couldn’t be here, unfortunately, but I know he was watching. This is awesome. Can’t wait to get to Phoenix next week.” Missing out on the Four were Round of 8 contenders Hamlin, Tyler Reddick (P26), Brad Keselowski (P33), and Chris Buescher (P8). It was Hamlin who took out the first stage after getting the advantage on a restart, leading Blaney by 0.873s over the already eliminated Martin Truex Jr, Blaney hit back in the second stage of proceedings, running down the #11 Toyota car with 29 laps to go to flip it by 0.617s, whilst Truex bowed out with pit lane speeding penalty after a caution sent the field diving in on lap 217. Stage 3 wasn’t without its caution, with Joey Logano sending Ty Gibbs into the back of Hamlin for the first caution on lap 273 with several cars getting caught

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up and, when Blaney led from Hamlin on the restart, Gibbs got spun again to bring out another caution with the lead then remaining the same on that restart. And when Micheal McDowell spun for the final caution Almirola had the lead out of pit lane and diced with Elliot, but Blaney had the fuel advantage on both of them, who needed one more stop, with that scenario getting him to the end. Whilst Larson goes to Phoenix looking for his second title (2021), the remaining three are still chasing a first, with Bell’s highest ever season finish being third, Byron’s sixth, and Blaney’s seventh. The NASCAR season finale takes place on November 5, with 312 laps of the 2.4 km low banked tri-oval, affectionately known as “The Desert Oddball”. TW Neal

THE WEEK before Martinsville, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell (above) took his #20 Toyota to a thrilling victory at the Miami Speedway, earning the right to a second straight appearance in NASCAR’s Championship 4. The Oklahoman joined Kyle Larson as the other straight-up qualifier after beating Ryan Blaney to the line by 2.870s with Tyler Reddick in third. With Blaney leading for 53 of races 267 laps, the JGR racer was in the picture until 50 laps to go, and would lead the final 16 laps to take a sixth career win and the second the season. The already-qualified Larson led a racehigh 97 laps but an incident heading into pit lane saw the Hendricks driver collect the sand-filled barriers after avoiding a slowing Blaney on the approach, whilst completing the playoff picture, William Byron’s fourth place ensured he finisheded 30 points above the cut-off line over Blaney heading into the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville. Whilst Reddick remained 10 points below the cut-off in fifth, fellow contenders Martin Truex Jr and Denny Hamlin came unstuck in the final minutes, with Hamlin going into the Turn 1 wall, while Truex turned into pit lane under the resulting yellow with his car overheating, leaving both drivers outside the four, whilst the final contender – Chris Buescher – struggled outride the top-20 all day to remain last in the Playoff 8 count. “Honestly I don’t know how we did it – that race was a whirlwind,” Bell said. “I was about ready to throw the towel in during that second stage, I got really frustrated. But crew chief Adam Stevens kept after it and gave me what I needed. Whenever we got some clean air, this thing was really good.” After Larson took out Stage 1 under caution over Keselowski and Blaney, Blaney ran down Larson late in the second stanza to take Stage 2 over Byron. In the planned 95 laps Stage 3, after the wreck from Larson on lap 213 Hamlin found himself in the lead with 38 remaining after the extensive cleanup from the mess Larson made of the pit wall. With Bell then coming into the picture and leading for the first time, Blaney and Hamlin squabbled with some high speed contact, before Hamlin’s playoff picture turned bleak five laps later when he hit the wall. Byron then led off the restart, but was caught by the rampant Bell, who was then taken by Blaney, but the Mustang driver couldn’t keep up with Bell to take the vital win with only the half-miler at Martinsville (left) to come before the final four meet at Phoenix Raceway in November. TW Neal

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WHEN THE RED FLAG SPOILS THE SHOW Report: LUIS VASCONCELOS Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MAX VERSTAPPEN won again – no surprise there – but this time the Dutchman also benefited a bit from what is known as “luck of the champions”. It’s virtually certain the World Champion would have beaten Leclerc and Hamilton without the race being stopped after Kevin Magnussen’s scary accident, but it would have been much nicer to see him work hard to get there, rather than being handed it by the luck of the draw. Much to everyone’s surprise, Red Bull seemed less certain of its tyre management on race day – one of the RB19’s main strengths this year – and committed from very early on to a two-stop strategy with Verstappen – Pérez was out at Turn 1 after a very ambitious move trying to go from third to first! – while its rivals were only determined to stop only once. Verstappen’s first stint, on the Medium tyre, was not fantastic as he was only 4.6s ahead of Leclerc at the end of lap 19, pitting the lap after and resuming 16s behind the Ferrari driver and with a bit of traffic to clear. In truth, Russell, Piastri and Ricciardo cost him little or no time before he passed them, using the long DRS zones to clear of all three and get up to P3, having already gained 4.4s on the Monegasque – that gap continued to shrink, with Verstappen passing Sainz for second place on lap 29 and the gap being cut to just 6.1 to the faster Ferrari driver on the day. Leclerc stopped on lap 31 and resumed 16.5s behind Verstappen, with 40 laps to do on the Hard compound – but we never really got to see how much quicker than Verstappen he could go on tyres that were 11 laps younger, as Kevin Magnusssen’s crash brough the red flag out, after the Dutchman

Ricciardo had a blinder, here ahead of Hamilton who (right) pushed through to a superb second place. A huge crowd turned up to see Perez – briefly – but had to content themselves with Norris’ epic drive from well down the grid.

had quickly used the initial SC period to pit again and still resume in the lead. Given Sainz was lapping 0.5s quicker than Verstappen, it’s quite feasible Leclerc would be even a couple of tenths faster than his team-mate, so the gap for the Red Bull driver would have be down to close to ten seconds by the time the leader would have done his second scheduled stop, around lap 42 or 43. In theory, Verstappen would have resumed a couple of seconds behind Hamilton and some 10-11 seconds behind Leclerc, and with almost 30 laps to go and on fresher tyres he could have caught him in the last 10 laps. Alas, we’ll never know, but even the Dutch admitted the end of the race could have been more interesting: “I think on the Hard tyre, we were quite competitive, and I closed a lot of that extra pit stop deficit down. I think it would have been quite interesting to the end, to see how much faster I could

have gone with a new set of Hard tyres.” The Dutchman admitted that, “the tyres around here are always very hard to manage, but I think we had quite decent pace on them. And then of course, we opted to box a bit earlier. I think the strategy was looking great, but then we had the red flag. So, basically, everything that we did, we could throw in the bin and start over.” On tyres with basically the same life as Leclerc’s and with a faster car, Max disappeared into the distance, earning his 16th win of the season and establishing a new record, the target now being 19 wins in total for 2023 – given his tremendous pace, only a fool would bet against him managing it.

HAMILTON’S MANAGEMENT MASTERCLASS

WITH PÉREZ taking himself out of contention 10 seconds into the race, Lewis Hamilton managed to beat Charles Leclerc in the battle for second with another extremely solid race.

Qualifying had left him down in P6, which became fifth with the Mexican’s demise. Ricciardo did put up a proper fight and defended his position until lap 11, before the Mercedes driver made a clean pass, pulling away quickly. Catching Sainz took another five laps but there was no way to get a move, even with DRS, so Hamilton pitted on lap 24 and with clean track ahead, plus the advantage of running new Hard tyres, he gained enough on the Spaniard to be already 6.5s in front once the second Ferrari pitted, on lap 30. Leclerc was just 2.7s in front of the seven-times World Champion as he exited the pits at the start of lap 32, with the red flag interrupting the battle. After being unable to make progress on the re-start, in spite of being on Medium tyres against Verstappen and Leclerc’s Hards, Hamilton did a bold move into Turn 1 at the start of lap 41 to get the position and quickly pulled away from his rival.

Piastri was hindered by this clash with Tsunoda ...

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Formula 1 Round 19 MEXICAN Grand Prix - Race report

DANNY RIC HANDS ALHPATAURI BEST RESULT OF THE YEAR

Dumb. Perez’s first corner banzai won’t help his 2024 employment prospects. Above: Mexicans love F1 ... With Ferrari predicting the Medium tyre would drop performance with 20 laps to go, Hamilton proved the Scuderia wrong, continuing to pull away from Leclerc with still enough in reserve to set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap! It was a masterclass of tyre management while driving very fast, the veteran being delighted with his pace and result at the end of the race: “It was a difficult weekend to start with, but I just kept my nose clean at the beginning of the race and then just really tried to manage the tyres and maximise and progress forwards. And when I noticed that I had the pace on Carlos, I knew that with the undercut, it really worked quite well. So, the team did a great job with strategy.” On older tyres than Leclerc, he admitted the red flag had played into his hands and credited the team for the inspired tyre choice for the re-start. “The red flag probably played into our hands in terms of getting onto the fresher tyre at the end. But I just I didn’t know if whether or not the Medium would make it that long. I was trying to see if I could close the gap to Max but he was long gone and I could only just about equal his times. But great result for the team – really proud of everyone.” Once again, George Russell was no match for his team mate, the youngster qualifying QUALIFYING RACE 20

eighth and barely holding Ricciardo in the battle for P6, explaining that, “while I was stuck behind Sainz, in the second part of the race, my brakes overheated, so I had to back off and as soon as I did that the tyres lost temperature and never recovered, so I was just sliding like crazy in the last 15 laps.” He then admitted that, “another lap and Daniel would have got me because he had so much more speed than me.”

FERRARI MAKE PROGRESS BUT STILL FALLS SHORT

FOR FERRARI, third and fourth place was as good as it could get, as on race pace the SF23 is no match for Red Bull and Mercedes, but Frederic Vasseur was clearly not happy with poor starts from both cars early on: “The start was not good; we gave a tow to everyone and completely lost control of the situation. If you start poorly, you give a tow to others, and this put Carlos and Charles in a difficult position.” Leclerc was lucky to escape contact with Pérez with just a damaged left front endplate – the broken part breaking free on lap three, thus avoiding an inevitable stop for repairs at the FIA’s request – and was disappointed not to be given, at least the chance to battle Verstappen: “I think Max was too strong, anyway, but it would have been nice to be able to fight with

RESULTS RACE 20 71 LAPS MEXICO CITY

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 20

Pos Driver

Time

Pos Driver

Team

Laps

Margin

Pos Driver

Charles Leclerc

1:17.166

Max Verstappen

Red Bull

2:02.30.814 -

Max Verstappen

491

Carlos Sainz

+0.076

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

+13.875 s4

Sergio Perez

240

Max Verstappen

+0.097

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

+23.124 t2

Lewis Hamilton

220

Daniel Ricciardo

+0.216

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

+27.154 t2

Carlos Sainz

183 s1

Sergio Perez

+0.257

5 Lando Norris

McLaren

+33.266 s12

Fernando Alonso 183 t1

Lewis Hamilton

+0.288

6 George Russell

Mercedes

+41.020 s2

Lando Norris

169

Oscar Piastri

+0.457

AlphaTauri

+41.570 t3

Charles Leclerc

166

George Russell

+0.508

8 Oscar Piastri

McLaren

+43.104 t1

George Russell

151

Daniel Ricciardo

Points

Valtteri Bottas

+0.866

Alex Albon

Williams

+48.573 s5

Oscar Piastri

10 Zhou Guanyu

+0.884

10 Esteban Ocon

Alpine

+1:02.879 s5

10 Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly

+1.355

11 Pierre Gasly

Alpine

+1:06.208 -

Lance Stroll

12 Nico Hulkenberg

+1.358

12 Yuki Tsunoda

AlphaTauri

+1:18.982 s6

12 Esteban Ocon

13 Fernando Alonso

+1.572

13 Nico Hulkenberg

Haas

+1:20.309 t1

13 Alex Albon

14 Alex Albon

+1.981

14 Valtteri Bottas

Alfa Romeo

+1:20.597 t5

14 Valtteri Bottas

15 Esteban Ocon

+1.914

15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo

+1:21.676 t5

15 Nico Hulkenberg

16 Kevin Magnussen

+1.997

NC Logan Sargeant

Williams

+1 Lap s3

16 Yuki Tsunoda

17 Lando Norris

+4.388

NC Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

+5 Laps s2

17 Daniel Ricciardo

6 s4

18 Yuki Tsunoda

NC Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

+24 Laps t5

18 Zhou Guanyu

6 t1

NC Kevin Magnussen Haas

+40 Laps t3

19 Kevin Magnussen

3 t1

NC Sergio Perez

+70 Laps t15

20 Liam Lawson

2 t1

19 Logan Sargeant 20 Lance Stroll

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+2.061

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Red Bull

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Leclerc – ‘solid’ third for Ferrari ... him after he’d stop a second time. On the restart we thought the Hard tyre was the best choice – we certainly couldn’t have done 35 laps on the Medium, but Lewis could, so P3 was the maximum today.” Sainz backed his team-mate with a solid drive to P4, but was never as quick as Leclerc, even when the Monegasque did 34 laps with damage in the left front of his car, but has now passed Alonso for fourth in the championship, something that will make him a bit happier after a low profile weekend.

A CASE OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN FOR MCLAREN

LANDO NORRIS has only himself to blame for missing out on the battle for the podium after a mistake in Q1 – and the bad luck of being behind Alonso when he spun in a very strange way, bringing out the yellow flag – that forced him to start from the penultimate row of the grid. His recovery was one of the highlights of the race and he had to do it twice, after losing four positions at the re-start. So for him to finish fifth and just 10 seconds away from Leclerc, shows the speed he had in Mexico. For Piastri the red flag was a disaster, as he’d been in a solid sixth place and the gamble on the Medium tyres for the second part of the race didn’t pay off. A couple of contacts with Tsunoda caused some damage to his MCL60, so he gave way to Norris without a fight and didn’t have enough pace to catch Ricciardo, eighth place being the best he could do at the end of what he described as, “a tough Sunday. “I had a fair few battles out there, which made life interesting but definitely not the most straightforward of days.” He went on to explain that, “after the Red Flag, life was a lot more tough, I definitely struggled a bit more with the tyres and picked up some damage, which didn’t help…” Behind him Albon and Ocon were the final two points-scorers, the Thai having, for once, a lonely race while the Alpine driver had to battle hard to get past Hulkenberg and reclaim P10 ahead of team mate Gasly.

DANIEL RICCIARDO had a dream weekend in Mexico, the stage for his last pole position, back in 2018, clearly putting a strong claim for Sérgio Pérez’s seat at Red Bull, especially if you compare his performance with that of the local hero. Ricciardo was sensational in qualifying, splitting the two Red Bulls on the grid and was on course for a fantastic fifth place when the red flag spoiled what had been a perfect race for him. Resisting Hamilton until lap 11, Ricciardo defended well from Piastri and kept the position in spite of being undercut by his fellow Australian, the gap between the two remaining stable until the race was stopped. With no fresh tyres available, he lost out to Russell at the re-start and then couldn’t do anything about Norris, losing the position with 11 laps to go. Russell was struggling even more, but the AlphaTauri driver ran out of laps to get P6 back – but still achieved the team’s best result of the season. No wonder, then, Ricciardo was very happy at the end of the race, even if he could genuinely rue the red flag: “I think everything was actually working pretty well. Honestly the red flag hurt us. It obviously bunched everyone up and allowed some cars to use the Mediums, which we didn’t have. I think at that point, it was probably a bit more nervous on pit wall, but to still come out with seventh and six points, and nearly eight points – we got very close to George at the end – I think looking at the big picture, we have to be very happy.” Having worked hard with the team to find a new set-up direction for this weekend, Ricciardo was delighted to find a car he was much more comfortable with right from the start of FP1: “I think the direction we went with set-up allowed me to have a bit more confidence with the car. There’s still certainly some things to get out of it. Even in the race, my first sector was a little average, I wasn’t very consistent through the first chicane. For sure some things I could improve on, but, overall, I was very happy with the weekend.” As he should be, having helped AlphaTauri move up two places in the championship, into eighth position – along with potentially A$35m in seasonend prizemoney!

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MAX HITS 50 – BUT HE HAD TO WORK FOR IT! Report: LUIS VASCONCELOS Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES MAX VERSTAPPEN WON the 50th Grand Prix of his career, after also dominating Saturday’s sprint race. Starting from P6 for the main race, the Dutchman had to work hard for his 15th success of the season, particularly as he had to fight some issues with the brakes on his car from the first lap. Opposition was quite tough, with Lando Norris easily leading during the first stint and Lewis Hamilton coming back really strongly in the last 15 laps, but, at the end, Verstappen still prevailed, winning by two seconds from the Mercedes driver, while Norris dropped a lot of pace in the final stint and ended a distant third on his 100th Grand Prix start – before inheriting P2 after Hamilton was excluded from the results, as was Leclerc, for a technical infringement. Starting from sixth on the grid, Verstappen made a position in the first corner, getting past Russell, but it was only on lap five that he got ahead of Sainz into fourth place. Leclerc fell six laps later but, after that, the Red Bull driver couldn’t make any inroads on Norris and Hamilton, and pitted on lap 16, as his tyres had lost grip, as he explained at the end of the race: “I made a good start and in the first stint I tried to be patient but, at the same time, following other cars for so long did hurt my tyres a little bit.” The other issue, though, was with his brakes, as the Dutchman complained of a lot during the race: “I was struggling a lot with the brakes compared to yesterday, so I couldn’t really be that nice to the tyres under braking, just being very inconsistent. That basically carried on for the rest of the race, which compared to yesterday was quite a big factor, because I never really had a lot of confidence to be consistent under braking.” On a fresh set of Medium tyres, Verstappen’s second stint won him the race,

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as he overtook Norris on track, on lap 28, with a late dive into Turn 12 and benefited from Mercedes leaving Hamilton out too long in the first stint, a deficit of 4s to the British driver before the first tyre change becoming an advantage of more than 6s in the space of just five laps! That’s why Verstappen praised his team’s work, explaining that, “as a team we did the right strategy, we pitted at the right time, and because of that I could work my way forward. I think we did everything correct today, but I was hoping for a little bit more pace, because I think yesterday we were a lot more competitive.” Asked for more detail on his brake issues, Verstappen explained that, “I just couldn’t feel the brakes, I very easily locked the fronts and I tried to adjust it and was locking the rears. It was

something very weird because normally I never really have issues with the braking, but, nevertheless we still won the race.”

HAMILTON LOSES WELLDESERVED PODIUM

WHILE THE final result of the US Grand Prix meant that Lewis Hamilton left Austin empty-handed – read sidebar – his performance the whole weekend was his response to taking himself out of contention in Qatar at the first corner, the Mercedes driver admitting that “I felt great from lap one on Friday, so I had a good recovery week. I felt solid in the car, and this is the first weekend that I’ve really felt the upgrades work. It felt really positive ... incredibly grateful, because I know how hard everyone is working back at the factory, so It’s nice to finally start to see SPRINT SHOOTOUT

Big, big crowd descended on COTA. Above: Early glory for Lando as the McLaren hit the front at the start and led the first stint.

the rewards of their hard work and to feel it in the car as well.” Having lost a position to Sainz at the start, Hamilton cleared both Ferraris by lap six, but Norris was 3s ahead and, for another six laps, the gap didn’t change. As tyre degradation kicked in, the gap came down by one second, prompting the McLaren into an early stop. And it was then that Mercedes made a decision that, according to Hamilton, cost him at least the chance to really fight for the win: “I do think we would have been in a position to fight with Max. I think we made our life a lot harder today than it probably needed to be. I was 0.8s behind Lando when he pitted, and there’s a huge undercut, a two second undercut. So, in that moment, most likely, we should have probably pitted. It would have been close, RESULTS SPRINT LAP 19 LAPS COTA

Pos Driver

Time

Pos Drivers

Make

Laps

Margin

Max Verstappen

1:34.538

Max Verstappen

Red Bull

31:30.849 -

Charles Leclerc

+0.055

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

+9.465 s1

Lewis Hamilton

+0.069

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

+17.987 t1

Lando Norris

+0.101

Lando Norris

McLaren

+18.863 -

Oscar Piastri

+0.356

5 Sergio Perez

Red Bull

+22.928 s2

Carlos Sainz

+0.401

6 Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

+28.307 -

Sergio Perez

+0.503

Pierre Gasly

Alpine

+32.403 s2

Alex Albon

+0.828

8 George Russell

Mercedes

+34.250

Pierre Gasly

+1.359

Alex Albon

Williams

+34.567 t1

10 Daniel Ricciardo

+1.440

10 Oscar Piastri

McLaren

+42.403 t5

George Russell

+0.661

11 Esteban Ocon

Alpine

+44.986 s2

12 Fernando Alonso

+1.549

12 Daniel Ricciardo

AlphaTauri

+45.509 t2

13 Esteban Ocon

+1.599

13 Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

+49.086 t1

14 Lance Stroll

+1.643

14 Yuki Tsunoda

AlphaTauri

+49.733 s5

15 Zhou Guanyu

+1.644

15 Nico Hulkenberg

Haas

+56.650 s1

16 Nico Hulkenberg

+2.211

16 Valtteri Bottas

Alfa Romeo

+1:04.401 s2

17 Kevin Magnussen

+2.384

17 Zhou Guanyu

Alfa Romeo

+1:07.972 t2

18 Valtteri Bottas

+2.384

18 Kevin Magnussen Haas

+1:11.122 t1

19 Yuki Tsunoda

+2.407

19 Logan Sargeant

Williams

+1:11.449 s1

20 Logan Sargeant

+2.648

NC Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

+3 Laps t6

Formula 1 Round 18 TEXAS Grand Prix - Race report

potentially overtaken Lando. It would have still been close between us all because I think we were all similar pace. I think we just lost too much time in extending the first stint and really dropped off a cliff in performance. And then when I came out, these guys were miles up the road. When Max came into the pits, he wasn’t even close to me and when I came out they were miles ahead.”

NORRIS’ EARLY LEAD SHOWED PROMISE

FOR NORRIS, it was the behavior of the Hard tyres that hampered his progress, McLaren opting to start on Mediums and then use two sets of Hard tyres, while their rivals used two sets of Mediums and only one of Hards. Verstappen saved them for the last stint, Hamilton using them in the middle one: “It was great to get Charles at the start and pull away from the rest. By the end of my first stint the Mediums were starting to go, so we pitted to avoid being undercut, as we believed the Hard tyre would be the better race tyre,” Lando said. “It was probably too hot for them to be as strong as we expected, I had good speed at the start of every stint but then the drop off was bigger than what Max and Lewis had, so I couldn’t fight them. Still, another good podium for the team – I’m happy with it, but when you lead for so many laps it never feels great to end up in third place.” In the end the McLaren had to look over his shoulder and his friend Carlos Sainz was catching up fast, but there were still 4.4s between them at the end, Norris inheriting second place after Hamilton was disqualified with Sainz moving up to a podium position at the same time. QUALIFYING RACE 19

Verstappen squeezed Leclerc pretty hard at the start of the Sprint race ... Left: Sargeant took points in front of the lone star of Texas flag ... Below left: Strategy errors ruined Leclerc’s day – then he got DQ’d anyway. Right: Tough return for Danny Ric – car damage drifting him to last.

MIXED FEELINGS AT FERRARI

HAVING STARTED from pole position, Charles Leclerc was obviously hoping for a lot more than finishing only sixth on the road, the post-race disqualification just adding to his woes. The Monegasque was the only front-runner to stick to a one-stop strategy, admitting that, “our numbers showed that was a viable strategy and by the time we had to make a decision the readings I had on my steering wheel still pointed in that direction.” Those numbers, though, were wrong, as Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur admitted, the Frenchman pulling no punches: “We fucked up with Charles’ strategy, there’s no doubt”, before admitting that, “now we have to understand why our numbers were wrong, why our simulation put us down the wrong path, to avoid having the same problem again. I mean, Charles was four or five seconds ahead of Carlos when he pitted, so you can see a podium was possible if he’d also done two stops – we made a mistake, as simple as that.” Sainz inherited that podium slot after Hamilton was excluded from the results, the Spanish driver putting in a very solid performance to keep Sérgio Pérez behind the whole race and helping Ferrari recover some points against Mercedes in the championship. The Mexican was never able to be even close to Verstappen’s pace and

RESULTS RACE 19 56 LAPS COTA

CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER RACE 19

Pos Driver

Time

Pos Drivers

Make

Laps

Margin

Pos Driver

Charles Leclerc

1:34.723

Max Verstappen

Red Bull

1:35.21.362 s5

Max Verstappen

466

Lando Norris

+0.130

Lando Norris

McLaren

+10.730 -

Sergio Perez

240

Lewis Hamilton

+0.139

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

+15.134 s1

Lewis Hamilton

201

Carlos Sainz

+0.222

Sergio Perez

Red Bull

+18.460 s5

Fernando Alonso 183

George Russell

+0.356

5 George Russell

Mercedes

+24.999 -

Carlos Sainz

171

Max Verstappen

+0.358

6 Pierre Gasly

Alpine

+47.996 s3

Lando Norris

159 s1

Pierre Gasly

+0.366

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

+48.696 s13

Charles Leclerc

151 t1

Esteban Ocon

+0.431

8 Yuki Tsunoda

AlphaTauri

+1:14.385 s6

George Russell

143

Sergio Perez

+0.450

Alex Albon

Williams

+1:26.714 s6

Oscar Piastri

10 Oscar Piastri

+0.744

10 Logan Sargeant

Williams

+1:27.998 s6

10 Pierre Gasly

Points

Yuki Tsuonda

+0.974

11 Nico Hulkenberg

Haas

+1:29.904 s7

12 Zhou Guanyu

+0.975

12 Valterri Bottas

Alfa Romeo

+1:38.601 s1

12 Esteban Ocon

13 Valterri Bottas

+1.135

13 Zhou Guanyu

Alfa Romeo

+1 Lap t1

13 Alex Albon

14 Daniel Ricciardo

+1.251

14 Kevin Magnussen Haas

+1 Lap t1

14 Valterri Bottas

15 Alex Albon

+1.592

15 Daniel Ricciardo

AlphaTauri

+1 Lap t

15 Nico Hulkenberg

16 Logan Sargeant

+2.104

NC Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin

+7 Laps

16 Yuki Tsunoda

17 Kevin Magnussen

+1.157

NC Oscar Piastri

McLaren

+46 Laps

17 Zhou Guanyu

18 Nico Hulkenberg

+1.512

NC Esteban Ocon

Alpine

+50 Laps t12

18 Kevin Magnussen

19 Fernando Alonso

+1.545

DQ Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

+2.225

19 Liam Lawson

20 Lance Stroll

+1.866

DQ Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

+24.662

20 Logan Sargeant

autoactionmag

Auto_Action

autoactionmag

Lance Stroll

56 s1

autoactionmag

53 t1

was lucky to extend his gap over Hamilton in the championship after being soundly beaten by his rival on track, P4 being more than his performance all weekend deserved. George Russell was always the slowest of the front runners and committed to a one-stop strategy as a last resort to try and move up. Unlike Ferrari, Mercedes changed tactics during the second stint, Russell stopping on lap 39 after just 18 laps on the Hard tyre, but it was still not enough to beat Leclerc on track, the Brit moving up to fifth after the two disqualifications.

SMALLER TEAMS CAPITALISE ON PENALTIES

PIERRE GASLY was best of the rest, inheriting P6 in the final results, the Frenchman having a very solid weekend in which he was always faster and more consistent than team mate Esteban Ocon. Lance Stroll moved up to seventh after the disqualifications, the Canadian also benefiting from Alonso’s retirement, with a broken floor, after both Aston Martin started from the pits as the set-ups of the two AMR23s had been modified after qualifying. The pace shown in the race demonstrated that was a wise decision, as Alonso and Stroll moved up the field with ease, showing much better pace than in practice or qualifying. For Yuki Tsunoda P8 was just rewards for a tremendously solid race, the Japanese lapping quicker than his direct rivals while keeping his tyres in good shape. He opened such a gap to the Williams behind him that he had a free stop with two laps to go, using Soft tyres to set the fastest lap of the race – his first in Formula 1 – adding an extra point to his tally. Hours after the end of the race Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant moved up into the top 10, benefitting from the exclusions, the Thai earning P9 with a couple of bold moves into Turn 12 while the American more than deserved a bit of luck to score the first point of his career after a gritty drive from last on the grid. For the two Australians in the field this was a weekend to forget, Piastri retiring following damaged caused by Ocon simply driving into the side of his McLaren in the first few corners of the race, while Ricciardo was close to Tsunoda until his car hit debris and sustained damage, the AlphaTauri man soldiering on but finishing last after a second stop for repairs.

WHY HAMILTON AND LECLERC WERE EXCLUDED LEWIS HAMILTON and Charles Leclerc were excluded from the results after post-race scrutineering showed both cars had excessive wear on their car’s plank, a consequence of Mercedes and Ferrari running their cars quite low on a very bumpy track and with quite punishing kerbs as well. Both cars breached Article 3.5.9 e) of the FIA’s technical regulations, an article that rule outlines the required thickness and dimensions of the planks underneath the cars: “10mm ± 0.2mm” before a race, while a “minimum thickness of 9mm will be accepted due to wear in a race.” It’s so rare for cars to fail this check that the last time a driver was excluded from the results was at the end of the 2018 Italian Grand Prix, when Romain Grosjean’s Haas was found not in conformity of the regulations. The plank on the underside of an Fomrmula 1 car is made of Jabroc, a composite material, with its primary purpose being safety, as it stops the cars from bottoming on the circuit. Running a car too close to the ground can offer a performance benefit by increasing the downforce generated by the floors, which are especially powerful under the current ‘ground effect’ regulations. Without the means to check all items of all cars at the end of each race. FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer makes random checks and, in Austin, the top three finishers plus Charles Leclerc had their cars’ planks checks, with Verstappen’s Red Bull and Norris’ McLaren passing the scrutineering. And while it’s reasonable to suspect the other Mercedes and Ferrari also had excessive wear of their planks, as teams tend to run their cars in identical configurations regarding ride height, the fact they weren’t checked for that item probably helped Sainz and Russell to escape scot-free from a likely exclusion from the results. Luis Vasconcelos

www.autoaction.com.au I 57

TEST YOUR MOTORSPORT KNOWLEDGE ACROSS

DOWN

4 Emerson Fittipaldi raced in Formula 1 and IndyCar representing which nation?

1 Logan Sargeant became the first American to score points in F1 since 1993 – who was the previous American to scored points? (full name)

6 Who won the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship race at Calder in 1969? (surname) 12 Ash Sutton won the 2023 British Touring Car Championship – how many titles has he now won? 13 Who was the only driver to win multiple Australian Grands Prix at Calder Park? (surname) 14 Calder Park is located in which Australian state? 16 Lando Norris and George Russell celebrated a milestone in America – how many race starts did they make at COTA? 19 Who finished fourth for McLaren in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix – it was the final race of his F1 career? (surname) 22 What was Michelle Alboreto’s highest F1 championship finish? 23 Who scored his maiden MotoGP podium in the 2023 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix? 24 Who inherited a podium finish after the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton at the 2023 US GP? (surname) 25 Which manufacturer leads the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ Championship heading into the final round?

2 Who won his maiden MotoGP race at Phillip Island a couple of weeks ago? (surname) 3 The Calder Park Road Course contains how many turns? 5 Where did Jack Miller finish the 2023 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix? 7 By how many laps did Damon Hill win the 1995 Adelaide Grand Prix? 8 Who led all but one lap of the 2023 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix? (surname) 9 Where did Daniel Ricciardo finish on his F1 return in America? 10 Who crashed out of the race lead of the 1995 Adelaide Grand Prix when he hit the pit lane wall? (surname) 11 Lewis Hamilton and which other driver was disqualified from the recent American Grand Prix? (surname) 13 Who finished third in the final Adelaide F1 Grand Prix? (surname) 15 Which brand won the 1987 World Touring Car Championship race at Calder Park? 17 Ott Tanak will race for which WRC manufacturer in 2024? 18 Who won the 1980 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park? (surname)

26 Over how many hours is the WEC finale being held?

20 Where is the World Endurance Championship finale taking place?

28 Who finished as the Supercars Championship runner-up in 2000? (surname)

21 Who won the final V8 Supercars Championship round at Calder in 2001? (surname)

29 Who is the only driver to win an Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park and on the Adelaide streets? (surname)

27 Which Aussie bagged his first podium at Moto3 level in his home race at Phillip Island a couple of weeks ago? (surname)

1872 CROSSWORD ANSWERS 1 down – Love, 2 down – three, 3 across – two, 4 across – Perez, 4 down – Piastri, 5 down – Estre, 6 down – eighteen, 7 across – Kostecki, 8 down – Alfa Romeo, 9 down – Sargeant, 10 across – Randle, 11 across – four, 12 down – McLaren, 13 down – Murphy, 14 across – D’Alberto, 15 down – Winterbottom, 16 down – eight, 17 across – sixteen, 18 down – twenty, 19 across – Verstappen, 20 down – Ocon, 21 across – Brown, 22 across – three, 23 across – fourth, 23 down – fourth, 24 down – Sainz, 25 down – fifth, 26 across – Norris, 27 across – Moffat, 28 across – sixth

We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

1973 THE 1973 Australian Grand Prix was hailed as the “race of the year and one of the greatest ever” after Kiwi Graham McRae overcame John McCormack. McRae took the win in style by recording a new outright lap record in a new McRae GM2 Chevrolet. McCormack led 40 of the 52 laps in his Ansett Elfin MR 5 Repco but could not keep the persistent McRae behind. Ford unveiled the new facelift its cars were set tor receive for 1974 but hinted “Ford would be pulling out of active participation with a works team in racing next year”.

1983 SANDOWN THREW its hat into the ring to host an F1 Grand Prix in 1985, joining both Sydney and eventual winner Adelaide. Light Car Club officials were awaiting the official government announcement that $3million of state and federal funding would be spent on upgrading Sandown, bringing the pits to its current position and lengthening the circuit from 3.1 to 3.9km. Allan Grice tasted success in the Australian Endurance Championship by winning the Gold Coast 300 at Surfers Paradise. Both home hero Dick Johnson and Bathurst winner Peter Brock challenged early, but both encountered mechanical dramas.

58 I www.autoaction.com.au

1993 THERE WERE fears Ayrton Senna would not participate in the upcoming Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide. Senna punched debutante Eddie Irvine after winning in Suzuka after the pair engaged in a “slanging match” after the McLaren lapped the Jordan late in the race. The Brazilian lapped Irvine, who then went back past, to be described as a “great idiot” by the three-time champion. Irvine responded by saying Senna “can go screw himself”. Auto Action’s Australia’s Best Driver award went to Kiwi Jim Richards after a panel of 46 experts voted.

2003 RUSSELL INGALL ruled the streets of Surfers Paradise, dominating both races in a big weekend. Ingall led home Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife in both races, while championship leader Marcos Ambrose rose from 15th to fourth. However, the Pirtek SBR star was at the centre of silly season speculation, with an offer from the newly formed Triple Eight team of up to $1.5million to bring both driver and technical manager Campbell Little across. It was also speculated Craig Lowndes could move from FPR to SBR as part of the deal. The main event on the Gold Coast was the Lexmark Indy 300 CART event where Ryan Hunter-Reay holding off Darren Manning.

2013 THE FIRST Gold Coast 600 in the Enduro Cup era was all about David Reynolds after he scored a breakthrough Supercars win with the help of Dean Canto. Reynolds won a race-long battle with James Courtney, whose campaign was cut short by steering issues, with Russell Ingall getting his final podium. As a result Reynolds went crazy on the podium, whacking mascots and throwing pot plants. Earlier, Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff prevailed and snatched the championship lead from Jamie Whincup. Sebastian Vettel completed his undisputed dominance of New Delhi, clinching his sixth world title by smashing the field by 29s, while an alternator failure meant Mark Webber had more bad luck.

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