Auto Action #1880

SUPERCARS PREVIEW: WHO WINS AND WHY

AUSTRALIA’S INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MOTORSPORT

F1 GOES INTO BATTLE WHO’S HOT AND WHO’S NOT ...

FERRARI WINS THE BEAUTY STAKES...

HAVE THE WHEELS FALLEN OFF AT RED BULL RACING? PIASTRI AND RICCIARDO – LOOKING TO IMPRESS IN 2024

MATT AND HIS MATES BLITZ BATHURST

FEB 22 to MAR 6 2024 • $10.95 INC GST

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IN THE OTHER ‘GREAT RACE’

TCR AND TRANS AM RACING

WEC SEASON PREVIEW

MERC MONSTERS MOUNTAIN NATIONAL SPEEDWAY WRAP

TRACKSIDE RETREAT:‘THE CUTTING’

This unique property can be rented out all year round as well as being available for race teams who might be competing at events held on the famous Mount Panorama Bathurst race circuit.

‘The Cutting’ is a country retreat and short-term holiday stay that comfortably accommodates up to 20 people.

The unique position of this 9 acre (3.66 ha) property on the corner of ‘The Cutting’, on the iconic Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit, offers unparalleled private seclusion.

Surrounded by mature trees to ensure your privacy and with the 117 ha Mount Panorama Woodlands.

The property has beautifully landscaped gardens and north-facing views over Bathurst and beyond.

It offers easy 24 hours per day access during race weeks via Barry Gurdon Drive enabling guests to come and go from ‘The Cutting’ according to their own schedule.

LOUNGE ROOMS COURTYARD WITH BBQ This property is an entertainer’s delight.

This alfresco entertainment area located within the courtyard The upstairs living area open to impressive is another fantastic place to expansive views of the Bathurst landscape socialise.

The property features via a balcony, with the downstairs living area in ground magnesium swimming enjoying direct access to the wet bar room pool tennis and basketball court as well as outside to the croquet lawn.

DINING ROOM Next to the kitchen is the dining room offering expansive views of Bathurst.

BEDROOMS Set over two levels, The Cutting, with ducted airconditioning comfortably accommodates up to 18 people across 6 Bedrooms.

VIEWING PLATFORM FOR RACE EVENTS If you want to enhance your race experience, it is possible to erect a certified viewing scaffolding platform which can legally hold 20 people at one time across two levels.

MT PANORAMA RACING – view from ‘The Cutting’ This is the front row seat view of the racetrack from the entrance of ‘The Cutting’. “‘The Cutting’ gets its name from the obvious: the track is cut into the rock of the mountain. It provides drivers with a 1:6 gradient and is one of the tightest corners on the track. Overtaking is virtually impossible here, though that doesn’t stop drivers from trying. It is very hard to recover from spins due to the gradient and closeness of the walls.”

For more information and bookings at this unique and wonderful property-at the ‘Mecca’ of Australian motorsport, visit www.thecuttingmtpan.com Or contact Suzi Edwards +61 400 396 355 • Email: info@thecuttingmtpan.com Address: 212 Mountain Straight Mt Panorama NSW 2795 Australia

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Will Brown punts the Triple Eight Mercedes down the Mountain during the weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hours. Image: PETER NORTON. Triple Eight is already up to its ears in GT3 and team boss Whincup (below) sees GT3 as an option for Supercars in the future.

A NEW DIRECTION FOR SUPERCARS COULD MUSTANGS AND CAMAROS BE REPLACED BY GT3 SPORTS CARS? JAY DUBB THINKS SO ...

By Paul Gover THE FUTURE of Supercars could head towards GT3 cars if Jamie Whincup is right.

The Triple Eight team boss hinted strongly about the advantages of the sports car category during the lead-up to the Bathurst 12-Hour race.

“These cars are fantastic,” Whincup told a select group of Mercedes-AMG owners at Mount Panorama, attended by Auto Action.

Triple Eight fielded two cars in the 12hour and is also the Australasian agent for Mercedes-AMG competition cars.

The T8 crew came to Mount Panorama fresh from a pair of wins with one of its Benz GT cars in Abu Dhabi, overseen by former T8 owner Roland Dane.

The feisty team leader has raised doubts in the past about the suitability of GT3 cars for the rough-and-tumble of Supercars, pointing to their fragile bodywork and the high cost of repair work.

But Whincup is now happy to highlight the advantages of GT3 and the costs and

complications of a local development program focussed on the traditional red-versus-blue competition which has spawned the latest Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro.

He was also talking against a background that includes the imminent death of the traditional V8 Camaro in the USA, although the badge could continue with an electric twist, and Ford’s major commitment from this year to a GT3 and

GT4 future with its ’Stang.

“Supercars spent $10 million on Gen3 last year. I don’t think they will do that again,” Whincup said.

“Maybe, one day, Supercars could go in the GT direction.

“The cars are fantastic,” he repeated.

Triple Eight is also pushing the potential for GT4 cars in Australia, and the availability of its latest Benz sidekick to the full-house AMG GT3.

“Just give us a call. We’re the AMG agent for everything that doesn’t have a number plate. We’ve got plenty in stock,” he joked.

But Whincup believes there is a good chance the Bathurst 6-Hour race, currently for production cars, will switch to GT4 regulations in the near future.

“You will see the GT4 category going well,” he said.

Whincup’s time with the MercedesAMG owners also included the announcement of a new T8 program in GT3 racing down under.

“We’re committed to the Australian GT Championship this year,” Whincup said.

“It’s a National Storage car for Peter Hackett.”

Hackett has a long-term connection to Mercedes-AMG, first racing an SLS ‘gullwing’ and more recently sharing a GT3 car with Prince Jefri Ibrahim.

Now 50, but still super-fit and heading driver training activations for MercedesBenz Australia, Hackett could not help smiling about his news.

“Its’s super exciting. I’m very happy,” Hackett told Auto Action.

“I’ve been nominated as a bronze driver.”

His status points to the need for a high-profile driver to share the AMG GT3, although nothing is confirmed as the likely driver has yet to sign with Triple Eight.

For Hackett, it’s the return to a full-time championship challenge for one of the stalwarts of GT racing in Australia.

“I was in the SLS in 2011. I did my first GT race in 2005 in a Lamborghini,” he said.

UP COMING RACE EVENT CALENDAR Brought to you by www.speedflow.com.au SUPERCARS RD 1 BATHURST 500 FEBRUARY 23-25 • NASCAR ATLANTA 400 FEBRUARY 25 • FORMULA 1 RD 1 BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX MARCH 1-2 FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP RD 1 QATAR 1812KM MARCH 2 • NASCAR LAS VEGAS 400 MARCH 3 NATIONAL DRAG RACING CHAMPIONSHIP RD 8 PERTH MOTORPLEX MARCH 2-3

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ANOTHER B12 CRACKER DRIVER MIX STILL A CRUCIAL ELEMENT – BUT THERE ARE CHALLENGES ...

WHILE THE Bathurst 12 Hours again came down to a 20-minute sprint after eleven and a half hours, the circumstances leading to it were very different to similar scenarios in the Supercars Bathurst 1000 – again raising questions about the driver qualification level of some entries.

The race itself was won following a superb comeback by Australia’s international Porsche star Matt Campbell, along with co-drivers Laurens Vanthour and Ayhancan Guven, after their Porsche was among several cars penalised with pit lane drive-throughs.

A late Safety Car, brought on by a slightly comical incident at Griffins Bend – the Vortex of Julien Boillot stranded on the kerbs after a failed spin-turn – created a strangely lengthy Safety Car, which condensed the leaders and created a tight race to the finish.

In the end, Campbell managed a small gap back to Jules Gounon (SunEnergy1 Mercedes), while the final podium spot was decided after a three-way fight, resolved with the Haase/Van der Linde/ Talbot Audi getting there ahead of the second factory Porsche and the BMW M4 piloted by Valentino Rossi (a huge drawcard again), Maxime Martin and Raffaele Marciello. (Full race coverage, page 54).

The contrast with the 1000km October race featuring Supercars was, and remains, the potential for incidents initiated by significantly slower cars, several piloted by less experienced drivers. None more so than the mid-race crash at the Cutting as the pole position BMW, driven at the time by Charlie Weerts, hit the wall hard after trying to go

around a lapped GT4 Ginetta piloted by Colin White.

Accidents of this kind at the Cutting aren’t new, but Weerts paid the price for a move that, on reflection, could easily have been avoided: “It was quite unlucky to get that traffic at that exact spot” he said.

“Looking back now, for sure, I would have waited a bit longer, but at the end of the day we are racers and if we see a gap we go for it. It was very unfortunate for our car and I feel sorry for my teammates, my team, BMW M Motorsport and also for myself because that was not the goal after the everybody’s great work …”

The incident was one of several that

highlighted the challenge for the highly professional teams mixed in with other teams specifically containing ‘amateur’ drivers.

The formula is unlikely to change, however, as mixed teams are very much the backbone of major GT3 events around the world, including the iconic Spa 24 Hours and 3 Hour races at circuits such as Monza and the Nurburgring.

The unique situation playing out at Bathurst was the fact that it was the same two teams as last year fighting it out at the finish – Porsche’s win denying US-based Aussie Kenny Habul a third 12 Hour win in a row (and co-driver Jules Gounon a spectacular fourth).

The future growth of the event will depend upon organisers convincing more of the nine GT3 brands currently approved for new-for2024 World Endurance Championship competition to take part – the current Bathurst grid populated to a degree by cars not eligible for the all-new WEC series, such as Mercedes and Audi, but featuring Porsche and BMW from the WEC list.

Other WEC GT3 contenders include McLaren, Aston Martin, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford (Mustang) Lamborghini and Lexus.

It is hoped that the 2025 grid will include several more from that list – it would certainly spark up the Bathurst 1000 v Bathurst 12 Hours debate … Staff

Porsche-BMW-BMW ... both manufacturers are part of the new WEC GT3 class.

Above left: Matt Campbell (centre) brought the surviving factory Porsche home for his second big win in a fortnight. Right: Ford (here battling a Porsche at Daytona) is one of the new entrants into GT3 globally, with its GT3 Mustang – hopefully a 2025 12 Hour entrant ...

Image: PETER NORTON-EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY/MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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Tim Edwards oversaw the testing of both a DJR Mustang and T8 Camaro in 2024 specs at Bathurst during the 12 Hour.

Image: PETER NORTON-EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

EDWARDS SETTLING IN AT SUPERCARS

By ANDREW CLARKE

NEW SUPERCARS motorsport boss, Tim Edwards, is confident that a mountain of work since season’s end will have paritised cars on the grid for the start of the Supercars season this weekend in Bathurst. As part of the testing program, both the homologation teams ran cars during the Bathurst 12-Hour weekend.

Edwards has been on a whirlwind tour since the end of last season, overseeing the wind tunnel tests in the USA while also settling in to his new role with Supercars and dealing with some moments of awkward silence as he finds his feet. As part of his role with Supercars, he also attended his first Bathurst 12-Hour race and started to find his way around the administrative side of the sport.

“I’ve never been to the Bathurst 12-Hour before and understanding how everybody works behind the scenes was interesting.

I needed guidance to Race Control – I’d never been up the tower at Bathurst! It was very interesting; I enjoyed it.

“At the Queensland Raceway test a couple of weeks ago, on the first morning I walked into the Triple Eight garage and I was looking at the car and what was going on, and I found myself standing next to Jamie,” Edwards said.

“I looked at him awkwardly, he looked at me awkwardly and after about 30 seconds we both kind of acknowledged I am supposed to be there!

“The reality is I know all the teams and all the key people, so it’s more the awkwardness of adjusting. I never done this before.

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“I’m enjoying my new challenge.”

He explained that having two Supercars at Bathurst a week before the season opener was about validating parity and testing some assumptions.

“We’re very confident in what we learned at Windshear, and we’re confident in the progress we’ve made so far, and from what we’ve seen in the testing at Winton and at Queensland Raceway and all the stuff we did over the last 48 hours,

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we’re very confident that we’ve made fantastic progress.

“But, you know, time will tell. When we get 24 cars racing, we’ll have a bigger data set. Our intention is to carry on doing more testing than we’ve ever done in the past, with more sensors.

“Everybody’s now privy to exactly what was wrong with the aero on the cars last year. We all had a good understanding of whether there were issues with the engine too, and there’s been fantastic progress made. DJR has done an amazing job over the last two months since it took that business over. They’ve made some great progress and they’ve literally thrown the kitchen sink at it.”

Several tests were done with the engines at Bathurst leading to assumptions that shift cuts will be varied during the season to manage parity.

“That’s an incorrect assumption by a media outlet. If they’d asked we would have told them it’s not our intention to use it next weekend or during the season in that manner. We tested it yesterday because we’ve never actually done that proper test. We want to understand the cause and the effect.”

He added that having torque sensors in the cars provides real world data they have not had access to before and is a step up from the much-spoken-about transient dyno test which may still happen later this year.

“The transient dyno is still part of our program because we’ve also got to arm ourselves with information for the future. But we can’t commit to that at the moment because there’s still not a

final solution. By that, I mean, they’ve had to make interim parts because, for instance, the pump manufacturer in the US can’t make the actual parts that we need yet – so we don’t have the final parts.

“They’ve (DJR) made a local version, but ultimately, we want to run the part that comes from the actual oil pump manufacturer when we do the test.

“In some ways you could argue we’re actually doing the final step before the second final step because there are plenty of categories around the world that actually use he torque sensors in the car for BOP (balance of performance) adjustments. They’re very accurate.”

He remains confident that all the work during the off-season will produce much more even cars in 2024. Absolute parity is the goal, but also accepts that is a big job and will remain a work in progress.

The aero is unlikely to change, but the engines will likely get mapping tweaks during the year after the hardware has been locked down.

“You never want to put a percentage to it,” he said when asked how close he felt they were, “but we’re pretty close. Very close.”

He is expecting a busy year as he adjusts to his new life, with plenty to get done with the team in terms of getting not just parity right, but also fixing the weak points on the cars. He is also preparing to move into his new Gold Coast house with wife Trudie, who has been a regular at the tracks during his time with Tickford.

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CAN CAM WATERS FILL THE VACUUM? CAMERON WATERS IS BEING TIPPED BY MANY TO WIN HIS FIRST SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP – BUT, CAN HE DO IT? AND IF NOT HIM, WHO ELSE? ANDREW CLARKE GIVES HIS THOUGHTS ...

THERE ARE two sides to every argument in Supercars, and if you are a Chev fan you probably think your best bets are Broc Feeney and Will Brown heading into the season. But, on the other side (the one formerly known as the Blue Oval), it is Tickford racer Cam Waters that seems to be the most mentioned, with Chaz Mostert and Matt Payne also uttered at times.

There is a void, or a vacuum, at the top of the sport in terms of trophy winners.

This decade we’ve lost Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin from the regular grid, and this year we’ve lost Shane van Gisbergen and, somewhat controversially, Brodie Kostecki. In all, that is 17 Championships and the last eight in a row.

All 24 drivers are starting the year in the same position – as in zero points.

And all are starting the year with equal to or better than the number of wins that Kostecki has at this time last season.

More than half the field has won a race, Kostecki had none at the start of last year.

AA has done its driver ratings with a little bit of science and a kick-arse spreadsheet and, while I love numbers and the lies I can tell with statistics, sometimes the gut feel is just as important. To see the full set of numbers, head to page 32, but for a summary here is AA’s top 10 (out of 100): Broc Feeney Cameron Waters Will Brown Chaz Mostert Matthew Payne David Reynolds Anton De Pasquale Jack Le Brocq Andre Heimgartner Thomas Randle

95.25 89.00 87.25 84.25 80.75 79.50 78.00 77.50 76.75 76.00

If we add in the X Factor, or the ‘driver you like’ rating, and remove the form from last season, the numbers shift dramatically. Feeney and Waters are now less than a point apart and Mostert and Payne jump Brown.

But what of Waters – can he take the next step? I had dinner with his parents

in Mildura recently, and his mother, Nerine, implored me not to call him the favourite. She wants him to just sneak up on it and grab the spoils.

The open question for me is Tickford Racing. For years, Tickford has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but will dropping to two cars from four sharpen its attack? Waters has won the pole award so we know he can dominate the single laps, but errors not of his making appear in the races.

He can’t afford for his car to catch fire when leading, or for bad pit strategy to cost him on the road. Tickford won’t be able to have its ‘traditional’ struggle rounds. Questions will also surround his endurance co-driver, James Moffat, who last year crashed the #6 Mustang out of Bathurst in a rare lapse.

If the team can sort those sorts of things out, Waters can absolutely take the honours. Scoring a couple of runs in the NASCAR Cup Series will also help sharpen him up – look how good Kostecki was when he returned from the Indy road

course. This year he can run Sonoma (9 June) and Watkins Glen (15 September) if he is only looking at road courses.

But what of Feeney, the next heir apparent from Triple Eight? He is in a team that knows how to win, and he is now in his third season and a regular race winner. But last season he dropped off in the run home – he won’t be able to afford anything like that if he is going to fend off the revitalised Mustang army.

Outside of those two, the field opens up and it comes down to who can do it more often than the rest.

So, here’s some things to look for that we think can happen: Todd Hazelwood will likely join the winner’s list. PremiAir will score a podium or two. Andre Heimgartner can win and Dick Johnson Racing can return to the front of the grid.

And Grove Racing will become a power team – and maybe even the best Fords.

Let us know what you think on our socials. Tell us who is going to win, and what surprises you expect. And let’s be optimists and nice people!

With a slimmed-down Tickford team behind him, Cam Waters is the AA team’s pick to take it to Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney ... what do you think?

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

It’s hard and it’s fast and sometimes it’s a bit rough, but we call it how we see it and pull no punches.

Plenty of analysis and lots of opinion from some of the most experienced motorsport media people in the business - Bruce Williams, Paul Gover and Andrew Clarke.

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ANDREW CLARKE Cam Waters Broc Feeney Jack Le Brocq BRUCE WILLIAMS Cam Waters Broc Feeney Matt Payne THOMAS MILES Broc Feeney Chaz Mostert Cam Waters PAUL GOVER Broc Feeney Cam Waters Chaz Mostert COMBINED Feeney 10 Waters 9 Mostert 3 Le Brocq 1 Payne 1

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EREBUS DRIVERS TALK UP THE TEAM ACCORDING TO its 2024 drivers, Erebus is showing no signs that the tumultuous off-season has knocked it off course. Auto Action’s ANDREW CLARKE spoke with Jack Le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood on the eve of the 2024 season.

YOU’D HAVE to be a living under the rock as a motorsport fan if you hadn’t heard what has been going on at Erebus Motorsport, but the word out of Dandenong South is that things remain upbeat despite the chaotic off-season. Brodie Kostecki has left the team, Coca-Cola and Shaw & Partners have also bailed. The loss of the sponsors alone would be devastating to most teams, but this is a different outfit to everything else in pitlane.

Jack Le Brocq was recruited last season to replace Will Brown, and Todd Hazelwood was dramatically elevated from an endurance drive with Le Brocq, to the lead driver in the car that was nominated for the #1 that will not be used on the car for anything but the recent test day at Winton.

“It was a really good test day,” Hazelwood said.

“I guess I’ve being thrown the keys at last minute, but I still had the perfect preparation as we head to Round 1 at Bathurst.

“The car itself? You can certainly see why the team won in such a dominant fashion last year and, hopefully, we can continue those winning ways. I guess it’s one thing to hear about it and talk about what they do as a team, like we all did last year, but to go and feel it is certainly confidence inspiring.”

For Le Brocq, the season was planned from the minute he reached out to Erebus in the days after Will Brown’s departure was announced. To slot him back into the squad was easy. He’d been a co-driver with Erebus in 2013 and 14, and raced with affiliate team Image Racing in the development series.

“It was a really good day for us, it was great to get back in a Supercar again,” Le Brocq said from the pitlane at

Bathurst for the 12-Hour race. “We ticked all the boxes we needed to. The car was good, comfortable; got through all the ergonomics that we needed to tick off.

“There’s a few familiar faces, but mostly Barry, Betty, Daniel, Damo and the main guys are still around. The team is so welcoming and open and it’s an awesome culture within the team. They’ve done a great job with building that. The engineers and the boys on the floor all get along really well and up to the upper management staff, everyone comes down, throws a bit of banter around, and has a good laugh.

“It’s been good – I’ve actually settled in really well and, to be honest, I’m feeling at home and really looking forward to getting stuck into the year.”

Le Brocq said the past month is a distraction that he doesn’t want to get sucked into. He has a job.

“I think as a driver all we can do is try not to get caught up in it. It’s sort of none of my business, really. I came to the team to try and drive the car as fast as possible and the boys and girls in the team are just trying to give me the best tools they can to help me achieve what I need to do. I have a full focus on that, and nothing else.

“I feel in myself, especially after last year with the MSR guys, that we proved we could do the job. Coming to Erebus, who have proven what they can do, it’s a big thing. Confidence-wise it is through the roof. I just need to understand how this car works, how the team works, and hope it doesn’t take us too long to adapt and just try and hit the ground running from Round 1.”

Two new drivers into a Championship winning team has never been done before and, given one half of it was late in the planning, there’s plenty to do in a short space of time. People inside the team from the top down are talking about resilience; the drivers talk opportunity.

“Both those cars were consistently on the podium at all events last year,” Hazelwood says. “It’s certainly still early days, don’t get me wrong, but the team have wrapped their arms around me and made me feel comfortable which is great.

“We’ve got fantastic stability within the mechanics and the engineers; there’s been no changes in that line-up.

Moving forward, there’s no key issues that I can pinpoint from a negative point of view. Everything’s very positive on that side of things.

“But don’t get me wrong, when there’s so much negative media about the team and comments that are said on social media and stuff, all these people are all human beings and we’ve all got families and we all feel the emotions of what’s happening.

“It’s probably taken a toll on some key people. But the important thing is everyone’s had each other’s back and got everyone through this tough period.”

Todd Hazelwood shook down the #1 Erebus Camaro at Winton – both he and the team were happy with the pace. The car will carry a different number at the races ...

Above: Jack Le Brocq returns to a team he drove for on the way up, with most of the key personnel unchanged.

Images: ONE NINE MEDIA

Images: ONE NINE MEDIA

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ROSSI IS NOT RETIRED BMW GT IS SERIOUS RACING

By Paul Gover VALENTINO ROSSI is back to his roots as a four-wheeled racer in the BMW GT program.

During his second trip to Australia to race the Bathurst 12-Hour, a program which netted fifth place for Team WRT, he was open about his later-day change of focus.

“My career started with go-karts,” Rossi began in a small media briefing attended by Auto Action.

“I wanted to race with motorcycles because it was my first passion. When I was finished with the bike I wanted to go to cars.”

Rossi celebrated his 45th birthday on Friday at Mount Panorama and, although the WRT crew shielded him from the worst of the wild weather on Sunday, he made a solid contribution to the result.

“I am happy. See you next February,” he said.

Although he is best known as a nine-time world champion on two wheels, he recalled his earlier efforts in cars.

“In all my career with the motorcycles I race always with cars also, one or two times a year,” he said.

“I liked in the rally. And in Monza (rallysprint), some rally in New Zealand in WRC, and some race also with the GT3. And so I like a lot.

Rossi got close for a time to a Formula One seat with Ferrari, having several serious tests between 2004 and 2008, but said he has no regrets about staying with MotoGP. “I have no regrets,” he said.

“At that moment I think seriously to race with the cars. But, you know, difficult to say.

My level . . .

“I think that I did a good choice to continue with the motorcycle.”

But did Vale think he could have been a success in F1? Or was MotoGP the better choice?

“Ah. I was still in great shape. I won a lot of (MotoGP) races. I won another, maybe two, championships.

“So, is it ok?”

“At the end of 2006 I want to race with motorcycle because it was always my first choice.”

Rossi drew massive spectator support again at Bathurst, creating queues for autographs and selfies that rivalled the

heady days when Peter Brock was the fan favourite.

But, despite showing enthusiasm for the home-grown Supercars, he was not

as enthusiastic as the other BMW factory drivers about competing in the October classic.

“No, I don’t think so,” Rossi said.

MORE LIFE FOR THE AMG GT3 EXTRA CARS COMING SOON

By Paul Gover PRODUCTION OF the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is about to be extended to satisfy demand and bridge the gap to the German company’s next sports car contender.

The current GT3 was intended to die in 2024 but has just received a reprieve from company headquarters in Affalterbach in Germany.

“We are now running out of stock of cars.

We are right about to make another run,” the head of AMG Customer Racing, Christoph Sagemueller, told Auto Action at Bathurst.

When Stephen Grove decided to switch from Porsche to Mercedes-AMG for his international GT3 racing program this year he told Auto

Action it was with one of the final 10 cars.

Now, Sagemueller said things have changed.

“We are now in the investigation,” he said.

Mercedes-AMG has built more than 200 of its GT3 racers in a run which followed the program with the SLS ‘gullwing’, but Sagemueller said there as been no decision on the number of cars in the next – and final – batch.

But he was a little more open about the successor car, set for introduction in either 2025 or, more likely, 2026.

“We are already in development of the car.

It will definitely take us another two years,” he said.

“The next car has to be at the same level.”

He is cagey about the body of the car but

Mercedes-AMG GT3 – another batch coming ... more open about the power-plant, as AMG road cars – including its benchmark C63 hotrod – are downsized to four-cylinder turbo engines with a hybrid boost.

“It will be the engine of AMG will be a nice V8 engine, that’s for sure,” he confirmed.

The GT3 program has been hugely successful and profitable for AMG, even if

Sagemueller is vague on some of the details.

“We have built more than 200 cars,” he said.

“I truly believe customer racing is what it’s about. When we see our customers winning is the best thing.”

And what about the price?

“We definitely want to keep it affordable,” he said.

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BENZ BELTS BATHURST BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR THE UNLIMITED GT3

By Paul Gover THE BIG one got away but Mercedes-AMG still hit the target at the Bathurst 12-Hour.

A specially-developed, unlimited GT3 bagged the top honour for one-lap speed at Mount Panorama.

With three-time 12-hour winner Jules Gounon at the wheel, the car clocked a time of 1 minute 56.605 seconds to comfortably undercut the previous speed mark of 1:58.690 set by Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden with a Brabham BT62 supercar in 2019.

Gounon did the job on Saturday afternoon despite brushing the wall at ’The Tree’ on his fast lap, leaving yellow ‘witness marks’ on the side of the car and the wing endplate.

“The record lap demanded everything from me,” said Gounon.

“What we have achieved with our recordbreaking car is truly fantastic. Everything feels even faster and more intense.

“The car really comes into its own in the corners and it takes a lot of commitment to make use of this performance.”

The record runner is much more than just a mildly-tweaked GT3 car.

“You are limited in power and aero and weight,” the head of AMG Customer Motorsport, Christoph Sagemueller, told Auto Action.

Removing the inlet air restrictor and fitting an open exhaust to the 6.2-litre V8 – to create one of the best sounds heard at Mount Panorama – released more than 650 horsepower; the car ran with a DRS-style giant rear wing and active aero in the nose, and was fitted with carbon brakes and super-soft Pirelli qualifying tyres.

But the program did not stop at the mechanical parts.

“We started more than a year ago,” Sagemueller said.

“We tested at Aragon in Spain and Paul Ricard (France). The car went 320km/h in Aragon and had 3G braking.

“To be honest, I can’t tell you the miles we did, or the kilometres.”

The test work was handed to Gounon, because of his speed and familiarity with Mount Panorama, long before the car was shipped to Australia.

It wore the number #130 at Mount Panorama, to signify 130 years of motorsport for Mercedes-Benz.

Talking about the car, Sagemueller could not hide his enthusiasm.

“This is a really crazy machine. Not to stroll around, it is a fighting machine,” he said.

He revealed a couple of secrets and put some perspective on the performance.

“The horsepower is around 700, I would say. It is 40 kilograms lighter.

“Of course we worked on the aerodynamics, to get more downforce with active aero elements.”

What did that mean on the track?

“It was 302 on the straight. It’s like a good 30 kilometres an hour up on the race car.

“In the first runs we did 306 or something, but then we changed a bit the setting so the top speed wasn’t that high any more, but with a bit more downforce.

“Up the hill, 270. We wanted to show what this car could do.”

The unrestricted GT3 Mercedes (below) scraped its wing end plate against the wall during its hot lap (above) ...

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Image: PETER NORTON EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

NO SUPERCARS BMW BMW HAD a big presence at the Bathurst 12 Hour with all eyes on Valentino Rossi taking on the Mountain.

The famous German marquee has had famous pedigree racing all over the world, from Formula 1 with Sauber to Le Mans and was one of the top contenders at Bathurst last weekend (above).

But the prospect of BMW taking on Bathurst in the Great Race is highly unlikely in the future with Head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Roos describing the Supercars Championship as “fascinating” but not aligned with the brand’s identity.

“Not at the moment but it is always a process at BMW,” Roos explained.

“We always look at what is going on worldwide in motorsport and you always highlight the V8 Supercars in Australia because it is a fascinating championship.

“They are very good races and there are a lot of very good drivers and it is very competitive.

“It is always something we look at but you need the right car and right model which fits into it. Also with your brand strategy with how you want to communicate and do your marketing.

“For sure we will always look at it and maybe one day the door opens but at the moment it does not fit into our global brand strategy. “(But) as a motorsport fan you will always look at it and, me personally, I love it.”

Roos went on to explain the differences between developing a GT3 and GT4 car and a Supercars Championship contender which has a specific set of regulations to meet.

“What is very important to us is the road relevance. It has to be road relevant,” he said, “The BMW M Hybrid V8 (WEC car) is a V8 with a hybrid and soon there will be other cars with a V8 Hybrid.

“We have GT4 which is basically the M4 car we sell and the GT3 car is heavily modified but is not far from the road car.

“They are cars you can develop once and run all over the world so it is easy as a manufacturer.

“It is always more difficult when you have to develop a car for a specific championship.

“The times are a bit over in motorsport where you can just develop the car because you like the championship. It is more about how it fits into the holistic brand strategy.”

Thomas Miles

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BJR MAKE CHANGES TO CO-DRIVING LINE UP BRAD JONES Racing has a fresh and younger co-driving line up in 2024 headlined by the return of Declan Fraser.

Fraser’s first race in a Supercar since Tickford will be in the #8 alongside Andre Heimgartner, having replaced Dale Wood.

Another veteran in Dean Fiore will not return to Albury after two years with Bryce Fullwood, with Jaylyn Robotham getting a bigger opportunity in car #14.

Jordan Boys will continue steering the #96, while Jaxon Evans’ co-driver is yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, WAU will keep Lee Holdsworth and Fabian Coulthard, while Warren Luff remains part of the wider team.

KOSTECKI SPEAKS AFTER PETER BROCK MEDAL SUPERCARS CHAMPION Brodie Kostecki made a rare public appearance at the at the Motorsport Australia National Awards Gala Dinner where he received the prestigious Peter Brock Medal.

Kostecki has kept a low profile across the off-season with the MA awards his return to the spotlight.

The 26-year-old was honoured to win the PB Medal and touched on the current “crossroads” moment of his career, reaffirming his commitment “I’m truly honoured to receive the Peter Brock Medal,” Kostecki opened in his speech.

“This award was created with the intent to help promote the ideals and passions that helped make Peter Brock a legendary household name in this country.

“While we all know how good he was as a race car driver, my understanding is that this award was created to highlight Brocky’s passion for the sport, his camaraderie for his fellow competitors and his unwavering relationship with the fans.

“When you understand those criteria, it takes the meaning of winning this award to a whole new level.

“It is no secret that I have come to a crossroads with my 2023 Supercars team,” the 2023 champion said later

Brodie Kostecki, Dick Johnson and Craig Lowndes at the MA Awards dinner. in his speech.

“Ongoing discussions mean that I cannot say any more on that matter at this time – and I thank you for appreciating my position.

“What I can say is that I have been overwhelmed by the support from some quality individuals and sponsors in the industry who have offered their unwavering support.

“I also have to say a massive thankyou to the thousands of fans from both sides of the fence who have send me messages of support.

“I am unsure what the immediate future holds, but what I can say is that I am generally in good health and have a long-term commitment to Australian motorsport and have a burning desire to stand up here again.”

Another West Australian young gun, Aaron Love, was also honoured, named as the 2023 Young Driver of the Year Award winner, having impressed both domestically and overseas in Porsches in recent years.

Some of the biggest applause were saved for Dick Johnson, who was named as the Member of Honour.

Stalwarts Lawrie Schmitt, Paul Morris, Frank Lowndes, Stephen Preece and Phillip East each received MA Life Memberships for their contributions on and off the track.

With more than two decades of service, Susanne Dixon was a well-deserved recipient of the 2023 Australian Motorsport Official of the Year award.

Thomas Miles

SOLID CROWD CLAIMED FOR 12 HOUR THE SECOND highest attendance to a three-day Bathurst 12 Hour has been claimed for the 2024 event won by Matt Campbell, Ayhancan Guven and Laurens Vanthoor.

A figure of 47,333 ventured out to Mount Panorama for the international endurance race where once again Valentino Rossi took centre stage in the #46 BMW. Last year a record 53,446 watched the race, which was part of the Bathurst SuperFest this year.

“This year’s event has delivered exceptional on-track action over three days and been extremely well received by fans and campers off track. It has been a great success,” said event director Shane Rudzis.

MURRAY AIMING FOR MAIN GAME

FAMOUS GREAT RACE WINNER BACK IN ADELAIDE THE FIRST ever Bathurst winner of the “V8 era” in 1993 will be returning to the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

The Holden VP Commodore that Larry Perkins and Gregg Hansford steered to glory will race on the Adelaide streets it also raced on 31 years ago at the V8 touring cars supports for the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The Commodore itself will be rolled out after a sevenyear restoration by Perkins Engineering.

The VP Commodore not only won the race but also the hearts and minds of fans running a Perkins-developed Holden V8 engine and beating the Chevrolet powered Commodores.

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SUPER2 STAR Cooper Murray is hoping to use the opportunity of becoming Triple Eight’s new wildcard driver as a springboard to the main game.

Murray, 22, finished third in the 2023 Super2 Series with two race wins and will share the #888 Camaro with Craig Lowndes as the Supercheap Auto wildcard program extends into a third year.

The Eggleston Motorsport Super2 driver and Carrera Cup race winner knows what can be possible if he makes the most of the drive.

“I’m super excited and extremely grateful to have this amazing opportunity to join such a prestigious team in Triple Eight and an icon in our sport, Craig Lowndes,” Murray said.

“If you look at Broc (Feeney) and Image: RACE PROJECT

Declan (Fraser), they both got the opportunity to become main game drivers the year after their wildcard stint, and then obviously with Zane (Goddard) last year, it was great to see him get back in a car after a tough few years for him.

“100% my aim is to get into the main game. Competing in both Super2 and the wildcard program this year is going to give me a lot of experience and hopefully I can progress into the Supercars Championship.”

Lowndes himself knows what it is like to battle against Murray on the track in the Carrera Cup and is looking forward to racing alongside him.

“I’ve raced against Cooper in the Porsche series before, and he’s since stepped up into Super2,” Lowndes said.

“With my commentary role, I’ve obviously interviewed him a number of times and he presents very well. His race craft is good and he thinks on his feet which is even better.

“I’m really excited to work with him, share a car with him and see what his feedback is like so I can help him out both on-and-off the track.”

Thomas Miles

GOLDING BELIEVES PREMIAIR CAN STEP UP

JAMES GOLDING is confident PremiAir Racing can continue its progression up the Supercars grid in 2024 as he prepares for the new year in Trans Am. This weekend Golding will start his second full season with PremiAir Racing and already has some racing miles under his belt.

The 28-year-old made his Trans Am debut with Garry Rogers Motorsport at Sandown and has confirmed he will take part in the full season.

Golding showed great pace in the Mustang straight away, taking pole position and finished a close second to James Moffat in the opener before

incidents arrived in Races 2 and 3.

Speaking to Auto Action after Race 2, Golding said Trans Am is the perfect place to prepare for Supercars.

“It has been awesome,” he said.

“I have been watching Trans Am the last couple of years while I have been in S5000 and loved the racing.

“In Supercars we only have 12 rounds, which is not many so you need to find a way to stay sharp between rounds and there is no better way than Trans Am. “There are a few similarities in how the car handles characteristics, but the tyres are very different.”

Golding is looking to build from his first full Supercars season in four years where he finished Growing with him is PremiAir which in 2023 collected more than double the amount of (14) top 10s and 598 more points (3016) than its debut season.

After getting acclimatised to the “small” aero changes and some of Ludo Lacroix’s French at the test day, Golding is confident PremiAir can keep going forward.

“There has been a lot of big changes in the team and some of them we have had to take two steps back to go forward,” he said.

“Full credit to Peter for all of the time and effort he has put in.

“I can’t wait for the future. I think we will keep stepping further up the grid and looking forward to seeing what we can achieve.”

Thomas Miles

HUNGRY HERNE HAS UNFINISHED BUSINESS WHAT LIES ahead in 2024 may be currently unclear, but rapid Aussie Nathan Herne is certain on what he wants to achieve in the future.

After a tough maiden season racing Trans Am in the USA, Herne has enjoyed a busy summer of racing back home, starting with S5000 in Adelaide before some Speedway.

It wrapped up with great success in New Zealand, where the “Lismore Bullet” taught his rivals a lesson by winning all six races of the Aus v NZ TA2 Series.

But what is next remains unclear.

Herne endured a character building rookie campaign in American Trans Am racing the CUBE 3/Berryman Ford Mustang, with his obvious speed and potential brought down by off-track battles.

With the opening round this weekend

at Sebring, Herne will not be able to compete a full 2024 season, but is confident he can still find a drive.

“I had an opportunity (for 2024) but things happened out of my control and it didn’t happen,” Herne told Auto Action.

“We got very very close and were about to put pen to paper but that fell through and put me on the back foot. Hopefully I know more soon.

“Sadly I won’t be able to compete for a full season and maybe in 2025 I can.

“For now it is just going to take a bit of time and figure out the best way forward, but I am sure the second year will reap more rewards than the first year did.”

Not only does Herne want to return, he is determined to make a big splash in the states.

“I want to go back and dominate,” he continued.

“I am committed to getting back and race with one of the big teams in the future.

“I have realised how important racing with good teams are over there.

“Hopefully I can get myself into a better opportunity and tick off the boxes I didn’t tick off last year.

“Having learnt what I have and given good equipment, I believe I can be at the front.”

Thomas Miles

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YOUNG CHARGERS

NO TCR WORLD TOUR THE TCR World Tour will not return to Australia in 2024 after scrapping its trips to Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst.

After coming down under for the first time last year, a return trip was scheduled at the same NSW tracks in November.

However, that has been cancelled by the WSC, meaning just one SpeedSeries round will take place at SMP with TCR joining the earlier October 1820 window instead of November 1-3 as previously scheduled with the World Tour.

The 2024 Bathurst International will remain on November 8-10.

EDWARDS AND HIS COFFEE MACHINE When Tim Edwards arrived at Bathurst for the final preseason parity test he had a secret weapon with him. It was a coffee machine.

“It’s the same machine I had at Tickford and at home,” the new Supercars head of motorsport told AA. But there was no need for one in the caravan, which has now been sold as he has purchased a house on the Gold Coast – a classic Queenslander, not a McMansion in the Supercars’ driver enclave at Hope Island – and will be moving soon.

ROSS GIBB ON THE MEND ONE OF the sport’s truly nice people, and long-time AA photographer Ross Gibb suffered a heart related medical emergency on the Thursday of the Bathurst 12 Hour weekend.

As AA went to press, Gibb was waiting for a pacemaker to be fitted at the Hurstville Hospital in Sydney.

“Its been bloody hard to accept this but I’m above the ground ... and the support is so wonderful,” he told AA. “I want to thank Lara Lowndes who has been a star – her and CL called into the hospital on Thursday and she has gone out of her way to arrange transport of my car home!

“Plus many good wishes from my motorsport family.

When needed, we look after each other.”

We all wish Ross a speedy recovery and hope to see him back at the track soon.

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Kai Allen will be the hunted, with the #1 on his door, after winning the championship in his rookie season last year.

Images: MARK HORSBURGH EDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS/THE CREATIVE ONES/PETER NORTON EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

WITH THE CHAMPION FORCED TO DEFEND HIS CROWN FROM A NUMBER OF FRESH FACES HUNGRY TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES, IT PROMISES TO BE ANOTHER ULTRA COMPETITIVE SUPER2 SEASON. AA’S THOMAS MILES TALKS TO SOME OF THE PROTAGONISTS ...

IN 2023 the fight for the Super2 crown went down to the wire with the experience of Zak Best coming up against the youthful talent of rookie Kai Allen.

After six rounds it was Allen who shone under pressure and became the youngest ever category champion.

He will be back again with Eggleston Motorsport and becomes just the third driver in Super2 history to carry the #1 and return as defending champion, following Paul Dumbrell (2015) and Garry Jacobson (2017).

But neither could go back-to-back and Allen hopes to rewrite history in 2024.

Ominously he still labels 2023 as a “learning year” and believes there is still a lot more room for improvement.

Having won two races at Townsville and Bathurst in 2023, Allen is determined to further refine his skills, continue his rise and dominate with the #1.

“Last year was super hard. My mindset was about not taking too many risks and clawing my way

towards the front, so I probably didn’t show my full potential or maximum race pace or aggression to make sure we had a chance,” Allen reflected.

“I was still learning how to drive it and we were around the mark all the time. But now, with more experience, I feel we can work towards getting the ultimate car.

“I would love to win the championship again and go as fast as we can; show the race craft I have instead of trying to scavenge every single point.

“I want go go out there and extract everything out of every lap, limit my mistakes and drive as fast as I can.

Getting the most out of everything with Eggleston is the goal.

“It is going to be hard because there are a lot of great young kids coming up again, so I am excited to see who will be fast. It will be go-hard-or-gohome.”

Allen will be spearheading a stable and strong four-car Eggleston Motorsport line up, with race winner Cooper Murray also returning, hoping to be a bigger force after producing Image:atRACE PROJECTand special drivers Newcastle

Sandown last year.

Jordyn Sinni is back for a second season, while the team’s fourth ZB driver is yet to be announced.

Although Allen’s nearest rival, Best is not expected to return, there will be a number of fresh faces and new rivals to overcome in 2024.

One of them is Cameron McLeod, who has already amassed mountains of laps in 2024 and comes with the backing of PremiAir Racing.

McLeod will continue under the Ryan McLeod Racing Cars banner but will steer a former James Golding ZB chassis with the #92.

The third-generation racer arrives amid plenty of hype, having torn up Super3 with nine pole positions, 10 fastest laps and eight wins from 12 races last year in the Altima.

McLeod had a “mega” first test of the ZB, which was in the middle of a mammoth racing period in the last month which includes three long distance endurances races at Bathurst, Yas Marina and Dubai.

McLeod believes the extra seat time could give him an edge when lights go out.

Cameron McLeod will be hunting for more silverware in a Commodore.

Jarrod Hughes is eager to get stuck into his maiden Super2 campaign with Image Racing.

Tickford will continue to be spearheaded

by Brad Vaughan’s #5 Mustang.

Super3 champion Jobe Stewart testing his #99 ZB Commodore at Winton.

“They are all mega drivers in Super2 and it will probably be the hardest year of my career, but all we can do is focus on the process,” he said.

“Seat time is everything. Anything I can I can get by bum in, even if its a Hyundai Excel or go-kart, is the main thing to success. Just look at Shane (van Gisbergen) who is in something all the time.

“Doing those enduros are mega because I have so many laps compared to many who have only done a test day or two, so we have practised everything before Round 1 which can give us an advantage.”

The driver who used consistency to beat McLeod to the 2023 Super3 crown was Jobe Stewart.

Fresh from that success, Stewart will step up to Super2 within the Image Racing and Erebus Academy setup in the #99 ZB Commodore.

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Like Allen, he hails from Mount Gambier and believes the familiarity of being in the Erebus environment will assist with transition to the second tier.

“The car is similar but slightly faster with more aero so it won’t be too much of a challenge and will be like stepping into another race,” Stewart said.

“I have been with Image for one year and Erebus for the last six or seven and could not see myself doing it with anyone else.

“It allows me just to focus on my driving and learning as I go. I haven’t set any expectations and will just try my best.”

Stewart will not be the only Super2 debutant to watch inside the Image Racing garage with Jarrod Hughes also turning heads.

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Hughes is skipping Super3, but has plenty of winning experience in the Toyota 86 Series and TA2 Muscle Car Series.

Although his first drive of a Supercar was not until the recent test day, he took no time to get up to speed with the #118 ZB Commodore.

Hughes admitted he was slightly daunted by making his Super2 debut at Bathurst, but his confidence is sky high following the test.

“To be honest I was thinking ‘geez this is going to be a pretty big effort’ being my first time racing a Supercar at Bathurst – it is obviously a daunting place,” he said.

“But after the test I have a lot of confidence now and really excited to get stuck into it.

“I have an awesome team behind me in Erebus and Image Racing. It is my first time being part of a big team and I am loving it.

“It will be a challenge, but I am ready to embrace it.”

Whilst the likes of Eggleston Motorsport, Ryan McLeod Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United and Image Racing will ensure there will be plenty of Holdens fighting at the front, the Blue Oval brigade cannot be ignored.

Anderson Motorsport and its ex-DJR Mustang led the charge last year and in 2024 there will be another new face behind the wheel in Max Vidau.

Vidau has extensive experience in Formula Ford and six years racing Porsches and is determined to take the opportunity with both hands, but knows the Mustang is tough to tame.

“I’ve done the PremiAir ride days, but this was my first opportunity to really push these cars. It’s bloody hot work, certainly more than anything I’ve ever done before,” Vidau reflected on his test day.

“It was a bit of a learning curve, especially with the in-car adjustments you can make throughout the lap, but we got on top

of it quickly and put in some solid laps.

More pumped than ever for Bathurst.”

Tickford has grown, hoping to become a bigger force in 2024.

Bradley Vaughan has been retained for a second season in the #5 Mustang, but will have two new team-mates for company.

Joining him will be Lochie Dalton, who has made the jump from Brad Jones Racing last year, and 17-year-old Rylan Gray, who impressed in his one and only Super3 start at the Adelaide finale.

AIM Motorsport has grown with the addition third generation racer Jett Johnson driving for the manufacturer famously associated with his family name and James Masterton jumping onboard with improving regular Zane Morse.

Another famous name on the grid will be Mason Kelly. The son of Todd will steer a #22 Kelly Racing Mustang.

He will have TCR star Aaron Cameron for company to form the makings of a competitive comeback for the Kelly Racing team.

They will be looking to take on the might of current Supercars teams Brad Jones Racing and WAU which are back for more in 2024.

BJR has also grown, with Cody Gillis and Elliott Cleary driving a pair of ZBs. Zach Bates will be looking to build on a strong finish to his rookie season at WAU and replacing the Supercars bound Ryan Wood is former Toyota racer Campbell Logan.

Completing the grid are Reuben Goodall and Callum Walker.

Super3 has struggled to attract numbers with a meagre two-car grid at the time of print featuring Thomas Maxwell and Cody Burcher in Nissan Altimas.

Two 40-minute races kick off the season at Mount Panorama.

Jett Johnson will fittingly make his Super2 debut in a Ford Mustang.

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BARGWANNA AIMING FOR TCR CHAMPIONSHIP Ben Bargwanna could not wipe the smile off his face after dominating in Sandown.

Image: Supplied

MOSTERT AND TALBOT TO RACE FERRARIS SUPERCARS STAR Chaz Mostert and reigning GT World Challenge Australia champion Liam Talbot will race for Ferrari in 2024.

The pair will also be joined by BJR Supercars rookie Jaxon Evans and Bronze driver Elliott Schutte in two Ferrari 296 GT3s for Arise Racing.

Despite winning the crown, Talbot is committed to taste success with the famous Prancing Horse.

“I am more motivated than ever to be part of this exciting journey with Arise Racing GT after last year’s Championship win, and excited about the new team,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead with a new car and very strong team.”

BATHURST TO OPEN FORMULA FORD SEASON THE 2024 Formula Ford national championship will fire up at the famous Mount Panorama circuit at the end of March.

The opener of the seven-round season will run with the Bathurst 6 Hour on March 29-31.

Following Bathurst, the season then heads to some of the most famous tracks on the Eastern seaboard such as Winton, Sundown and Phillip Island.

Entries to race a Formula Ford at the iconic track are now open for drivers over the age of 16 with a full Motorsport Australia licence.

HAVING STARTED 2024 with a bang, a more confident Ben Bargwanna has his sights set on going all the way in the 2024 TCR Australia season.

Despite having just one win from his previous 56 starts, Bargwanna dominated the Sandown opening round, winning two of the three races.

As a result the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver heads to Symmons Plains with a two-point lead over reigning champion Josh Buchan in the standings and believes he has the tools to dream big in 2024.

“I have never been so happy,” a typically delighted Bargwanna told Auto Action.

“We have worked really hard for

this. I am starting my fourth year in TCR and have begun with a bang.

“That is what we are here for, we want to win the championship (and) this is the best way to start but there is a long way to go.

“I have the team and car behind me so I am going to give it everything we can because watching Josh win it has lit a fire inside me.”

Bargwanna was buzzing on Saturday when he won the opening race of the season after an aggressive first-lap move on Josh Buchan.

His Race 3 success was orchestrated by a fast start before overwhelming an early challenge

by Buchan with sheer pace in a commanding lights to flag performance.

COX IN A BETTER PLACE THEN EVER

Jordan Cox fends off Clay Richards on his way to victory in Race 2.

Image: REBECCA HIND/REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

F1 FLOODING BACK TO ADELAIDE THE 2024 Adelaide Motorsport Festival will be a treat for Formula 1 fans with famous figures and cars coming to town.

In addition to Sauber star Valterri Bottas, 1996 Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill will be making a guest appearance.

Hill won the last Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide in 1995 and will do signing sessions.

Joining him will be popular former Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner.

There will also be special F1 cars taking on the shortened Adelaide street circuit, with the 1993 Benetton B193B Ford steered by Michael Schumacher to victory in Portugal also entertaining the fans.

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Bargwanna’s breakthrough round win comes off the back of a big 2023 when he took on the TCR World Tour in three international events at Algarve, Spa and Macau in addition to the Australian double-header.

The third generation racer is adamant the experience of racing against high-level international drivers on unfamiliar and famous tracks was a big factor in his Sandown success.

“I did three rounds overseas and my trajectory as a driver has gone straight up since,” Bargwanna said.

“I learnt a world of stuff doing those races against those guys.

For example, in the past, in Race 1 I would have got to the lead and become really nervous and anxious and made a lot of mistakes.

“But I actually felt comfortable and I deserved to be there.

“Last year was so crucial and it is now starting to show.”

A return to overseas is yet to be confirmed but the Bargwannas are busy in the background trying to make it happen.

With support from Chinese forklift company Hangcha, Bargwanna pinpointed a Chinese round and also picked out Mid Ohio but said “anywhere would be awesome”.

Even if Bargwanna does not go overseas, it is clear he has jumped to a new level and is aiming big in 2024.

Thomas Miles

AFTER STARTING his fifth Supercheap Auto TCR Australia campaign on a winning note, Jordan Cox feels he is in better shape then ever to chase an elusive crown.

Despite being a regular frontrunner and podium finisher, Cox ended a two-year wait between wins by taking out Race 2 in the Sandown opener.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver sealed it with one of the great getaways, with his #33 Peugeot 308 flying from fifth to first before the field arrived at Turn 1.

Cox then sealed the deal by keeping Clay Richards at bay in a tense race-long battle.

Although he never lost confidence, he was relieved to break the drought and turn around what appeared to be a tough weekend after a driveshaft drama saw him start last in Race 1.

“It was great to get a win again,” he told Auto Action.

“I have always backed my ability knowing what I can do and it was just a matter of executing on track.

“It was all doom and gloom during Image: RACE PROJECT

practice, thinking that was our weekend pretty much done, but the car felt very good on Friday and we made up a lot of spots to be fifth (in Race 1) so we are very happy to be third overall.”

Since his rookie season in 2019, Cox’s lowest championship finish has been sixth.

Consistency has always been a strength, but now the 30-year-old believes he has the experience to go all the way in 2024 after backing up his win with a podium in Race 3.

“Experience always helps. I probably came into TCR a bit smug thinking I could do this but I quickly realised there is so much more to motorsport then just being fast,” he said.

“We were not fast enough last year and there were probably a few mistakes on my part trying to make up for that lack of pace.

“I learnt a lot about myself last year so I have a new mindset for 2024.

“I won’t try to do anything too silly and use pace as our strength and it has paid dividends.”

Thomas Miles

NEW ASTON MARTIN GT3 REVEALED THE NEXT phase of Aston Martin GT racing is here, with the new Vantage GT3 released alongside the road car.

The new Vantage GT3 which is the first production of the new collaboration between Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Performance Technologies, will compete all over the world at the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship and GT World Challenge.

It follows in the footsteps of the Vantage GT3, which raced for over a decade between 2012 and 2023 and collected 52 class wins and 11 world titles.

The new Vantage has already gone racing, albeit secretly at Daytona but has now been formally revealed to the world.

Changes to the new Vantage GT3 which has been described as a “comprehensive evolution” include re-worked aerodynamics on the carbon fibre bodywork and revised optimised geometry double wishbone suspension.

It is powered by a 4-litre V8 Twin-Turbo and built around a bonded aluminium chassis structure, weighing at 1265kg.

To get the new Vantage GT3 race ready, an extensive development programme including a 30-hour test took place late last year.

Lead engineer on the GT3 programme, Aston Martin Racing’s Head of Performance Gustavo Betelli said there was a big focus on braking stability.

“These new generation GT3 cars are more dependent than ever on aerodynamic downforce, so we wanted to make the car more stable under braking,” he said.

“The old car would dive a lot under braking, so we had to try and control the pitch with the rear suspension set-up.

“But this meant it was stiff, which made it quite snappy and, also over-worked the tyres.

Working heavily on damper tuning, we have found a much better balance with the new car so we can generate the downforce without compromising the suspension set-up.

“The result is much-improved progression and greater stability in all conditions. It also works its tyres much more evenly, so teams have more options on strategy. “The feedback from drivers who’ve tested it has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Thomas Miles

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TILLEY TO KEEP ON BUILDING HAVING RACKED up a special milestone in a personal-best campaign last year, Cameron Tilley is determined to keep building momentum in Touring Car Masters.

At the second round of the 2023 season in Newcastle, Tilley’s fan-favourite Valiant Pacer became just the fourth car in category history to raise the double century of race starts.

He kept the good times rolling with a consistent campaign highlighted by three podiums throughout the year to secure his best ever championship finish of third.

With the podiums taking place in the last two rounds at Bathurst and Adelaide, Tilley enters 2024 in strong form.

Both driver and his popular Valiant will be back in 2024 and he is determined to let the good times roll.

“After the season I had last year which was my best to date I am looking forward to seeing what we can do,” Tilley told AA.

The Pacer started life powered by a V6 engine but in recent seasons Tilley made the switch to the bigger and more powerful V8. Despite the change initially making him become aware how competitive his straigth six was, he is starting to come to grips with the new engine.

“There was not that much difference in the weight but it has waken me up to how competitive the six cylinder really was,” he said.

“The power band is very different. The thing had throttle response from 2000rpm so it is very different to drive because in the V8 it has a narrower power range.

“If you are under 4000rpm in the V8 they are not really doing a lot (but) the V8 now with the alloy heads is good. You cannot substitute the cubic inches as everyone says.

“Most of our speed last year came from

me working hard to develop and improve the suspension.

“Just trying to get my head around that because there was a lot of change getting power to the ground with the V8.”

In 2024 TCM will be bigger and better than recent years returning to being a Supercars staple under the new ownership structure.

Tilley believes it can only do good things for the sport.

“I think the Supercars deal is good for us as far as publicity and everything else,” he said.

“Mingling with the crowd and the support we get at a Supercars meeting compared to the SpeedSeries is chalk and cheese.

“If this doesn’t grow the cars and the category I don’t know what will so hopefully it all comes together.”

Thomas Miles

Cameron Tilley will be back behind the wheel of the Valient Charger in 2024. Image: RACE PROJECT

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www.autoaction.com.au I 15

LATEST NEWS

NEW HEIGHTS FOR WEC

THE GOLDEN ERA OF THE WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP IS HERE WITH MANY NEW MANUFACTURERS AND NEW REGULATIONS FOR 2024. DAN McCARTHY PREVIEWS THE EPIC SEASON AHEAD ...

Le Mans remains the focus of the WEC – Ferrari last year pulled off a huge win, denying Toyota. Below: Toyota won every other race ... and will be hard to beat in 2024.

Lower: Alpine (left) is one of four new Hypercar entrants along with Lamborghini (right).

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

NEW REGULATIONS

FAVOURITES

IN 2023 we go from three classes to two. Such has been the success of the top-tier Hypercar class, with 19 full-time entries this year and 18 in the revamped GT category, there is no longer a need for the second tier LMP2 category.

2024 sees the introduction of GT3 cars to the World Endurance Championship, replacing the LMGTE machines.

Moving to GT3 machinery has already seen increased brand involvement within the category. In fact, due to popularity, each brand has been limited to a maximum of two cars.

NEW MANUFACTURERS

THE HYPERCAR class will see not one, but four, yes, four new brands enter the championship this season.

The opening round in Qatar will see the worldwide race debut of the Alpine A424.

Alpine has entered a Hypercar previously (albeit fielding a modified LMP1 machine), but this is the brand’s first attempt with a purposebuilt Hypercar.

The Alpine A424 will be powered by a hybrid 3.4L V6 turbo – the two cars contain very reliable Sports Car aces and ex-F1 driver Mick Schumacher.

Another addition to the Hypercar category is Lamborghini. The iconic Italian brand will field a single SC63, powered by a 3.8L V8 Turbo hybrid.

This car could have debuted in the Daytona 24 Hours, although the Italian brand elected to delay it until the car was reliable and fast.

The driver line-up is very strong – Italian Sportscar aces Mirko Bortolotti and Edwardo Mortara will race with ex-Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat.

One privateer outfit, Vanwall, departs WEC, but in its place steps another – Isotta Fraschini. The Italian Team will field one Tipo 6-C which has been fitted with a 3L V6 Turbo hybrid. It will be fascinating to see how this little team competes against the might of the manufacturers.

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The final new manufacturer to WEC is BMW. The brand has been racing in IMSA for 12 months, however the Qatar event will be the first time that the machines have been raced in Europe.

As well as new manufacturers, Ferrari will run a customer car in 2024 and Porsche customer team Jota will also take on a second entry.

In other notable news, the Peugeot 9X8s will be fitted with a rear wing … but not until at least Round 2.

GT3 CARS AND BRANDS

LAST YEAR in LMGTE AM there were just four manufacturers; in the new era we kick off with nine, each with two cars.

Hypercar manufacturers also competing in the GT3 class are as follows: Ferrari with its 296, BMW with the M4, Lamborghini and the Huracan, Porsche with the 911 and Toyota (in

the form of Lexus).

Additionally, there will be Aston Martin Vantages, Chevrolet Corvettes, Ford Mustangs and McLaren 720s.

LOCALS TO FOLLOW

IN 2024 there will two Aussies to follow – one in the Hypercar class, driving a Roger Penske-prepared Porsche 963.

Hot on the heels of his Daytona 24 Hours and Bathurst 12 Hours wins, Matt Campbell returns to Europe, where he will compete at the top level for the first time.

The other Aussie will make his WEC debut – two-time GT World Challenge Australia champion Yasser Shahin will compete for the Manthey Porsche GT3 team.

Kiwis Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber remain with the Toyota and Cadilac Hypercar programs respectively.

IN THE Hypercar class it is hard to look past Toyota as the clear favourites. The Japanese brand has many more years experience with the regulations and last year won all but one race – Le Mans. There is no doubt however that in 2024 the competition will be closer.

Ferrari were the closest challengers last year, but must rectify a lack of cold-tyre pace if it wants to fight for more wins this year. Circuits such as Spa and Imola before the European summer begins will be a true test for the Italian manufacturer.

If IMSA’s Daytona 24 Hours is anything to go by, Porsche has made a big gain in the off-season and will be looking to at least challenge Ferrari week in, week out. Look for the customer teams of Jota and Proton Competition to spring a few surprises as they did late last year.

As previously stated, at some stage Peugeot will enter with a revised concept – the rear wing should help the French manufacturer become more competitive on bumpy circuits.

Cadilac was strong in 2023 but found themselves in too many incidents – BMW has shown pace in IMSA and should be close to Cadilac.

As for Alpine, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini, they are the jokers in the pack.

In terms of the GT3 class, it is going to be track-dependant. Different circuits will suit the characteristics of different machines, and that is why we love GT3 competition ... anyone can win on their day!

2024 WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR March 3 - Qatar April 4 - Imola May 11 - Spa-Francorchamps June 15-16 - 24 Hours of Le Mans July 14 - Sao Paulo Sept. 1 - Austin, Texas Sept. 15 - Fuji Nov. 2 - Bahrain

1966/67 LD STAR CHAMPION SPENCER MARTIN - GO SIC PHILLIP ISL AND CL AS PATRON OF THE 2024

Pic Courtesy Chris Carter

LATEST NEWS

F5000S TO RACE FOR KB TROPHY IN WHAT is shaping up to be a massive 2024 Island Classic, the Formula 5000s will be a highlight with the Kevin Bartlett Trophy on the line.

A strong field of screaming Formula 5000s from both sides of the Tasman will put on a show in the always entertaining the Phillip Island F5000 Historic Grand Prix.

But there is extra on the line with event organisers Victorian Historic Racing Register recognising a famous figure and one of their own.

The winning driver of the eight-lap feature will be presented with the Kevin Bartlett Trophy presented by the 1974 Bathurst 1000 winner himself.

Not only is Bartlett one of the most famous figures from the seventies being a star in both touring cars and open wheelers, he has also been a terrific servant for the VHRR, being its driving standards observer for more than two decades.

VHRR president Ian Tate said it will be a special occasion.

“We have 10 F5000s coming from NZ and another eight or nine from Australia so it will be fantastic,” he told Auto Action.

“They will have their own standalone race called the Phillip Island F5000 Historic Grand Prix for the Kevin Bartlett Trophy.

“Kevin is our driving standards observer for over 20 years and has been a long time supporter.

“He got a lot out of the sport and now is putting so much back in it is incredible.

An expanded field of Formula 5000s will be charging around Phillip Island.

Image: JOHN LEMM “There will be a special trophy and KB will present it himself.

“It will be an eight-lap rolling start race and, from what I have seen, it will be a very close, tight race.

“There has been good racing in NZ but we have almost double the field.”

The NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series has been busy with the Island Classic the fourth round of its championship.

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The most recent was held at Christchurch’s Euromarque Motorsport Park where 21-year-old Michael Hey led the way in his McRae GM1.

But he will have a lot more competition from the locals to contend with, likely to be led by Tim Berryman, who won all five races at last year’s Island Classic.

Overall a huge field of 415 cars are expected at the time of print and Tate can’t wait.

“To have 415 entries so far is extremely fantastic, it is a big return in terms of what the numbers used to be.” he said.

“We have cars from all over Australia and New Zealand and when you look at all the categories there will be fantastic racing everywhere.”

The 2024 Island Classic will be held on March 7-10 and tickets and more information can be found at vhrr.com.

Thomas Miles

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CLASSIC NEWS

TWO ROSTRUMS FOR TAYLOR

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

AUSSIES GO TROPHY HUNTING A PAIR of Aussies have ended their 2024 Formula Regional Middle East Championship campaigns by collecting some silverware.

Not only did James Wharton continue his good form for Mumbai Falcons Racing, but the biggest cheers were coming from Australian team Evans GP at the penultimate round in Yas Marina.

Thanks to fellow Aussie Jack Beeton, Evans GP returned to the podium in the competitive championship for the first time since 2022.

In what had been a tough season with a previous best result of 12th, Costa Toparis (above) was on fire at the home of the Formula 1 season finale.

Rookie Toparis found strong one-lap speed in a thrilling qualifying where less than half a second covered the top seven cars.

The #43 Evans GP car ended up fourth, just over a tenth away from pole sitter Taylor Barnard, while he edged out Wharton from the top four by 0.011s.

Sensing a special opportunity, Toparis raced hard and managed to jump

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Zachary David off the line and secure third in the early frenzy.

As Barnard and Tuukka Taponen fought tooth and nail for the race victory with the pole sitter clinging on to a four tenth win.

But there were no such concerns for Toparis, who was sitting safely in third 4s back and scored a breakthrough podium for the Australian team.

The last time Evans GP was on the podium in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship was when Finn Patrik Pasma was victorious in a 2022 trip to Dubai.

Not far behind also in the top five was Wharton, who continued his consistent form.

But bigger things were to come as the 17-year-old, primed for the Formula Regional European Championship, took his season to new heights.

A sixth straight top five finish in Race 2 was followed by a first trip to the podium of 2024 in the final race of the penultimate round.

Wharton got a strong start and even challenged poleman Taponen for the

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lead into Turn 1 but was held off.

Despite this, Wharton never let Taponen jump clear to secure second place as just 1.5s separated them across the line.

Meanwhile, Toparis carried on his season-best weekend by finishing in the top 10 and points in both of the final races.

The championship then moved to Dubai for the season decider where Wharton was not able to maximise qualifying, but still raced hard.

In the opener he rose from eighth to sixth, before showing even more pace in an eventful Race 2.

Despite dropping to eighth on the opening lap, Wharton put his head down at the back end of the race.

As the likes of Taponen spun and Mari Boya went off, Wharton kept his nose clean to get third.

A second podium in as many rounds was enough to secure sixth in the championship, which could have been more with the two drivers above him only one point beyond.

Thomas Miles

FORMER EXTREME E champion, Aussie Molly Taylor got her new campaign off to a very solid start with two podium finishes in the opening events in the desert Saudi Arabia.

Round 1 saw the defending champions Rosberg X Racing take a dramatic victory; the lead exchanged hands on multiple occasions with the win eventually going to Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela AhlinKottulinsky, the margin to McLaren duo of Mattias Ekström and Cristina Gutierrez in second, just 0.167s.

Taylor and Kevin Hansen qualified for the Grand Final and inherited third on the final lap when Fraser McConnell rolled out of contention on the last lap.

The following day Taylor and Hansen again put the Veloce Racing machine in the Grand Final.

Taylor started the race and suffered slight contact in the opening corner from Ahlin-Kottulinsky. The collision knocked Taylor to the back of the pack but the Aussie suffered no damage.

Taylor made her way up a couple of places, into third by the time she handed the car over to Hansen for the second half of the race.

Hansen did well to fend off fellow Swede Kristoffersson throughout his stint and secure third place on the podium.

“It has been a great weekend for us,” Taylor said post-race. “We had some fantastic battles, and it was really challenging in the dust, but we had some amazing speed and the team have been on fire.

“It was really important at this point to take some solid points in the championship, and we’ve definitely started Season 4 on the right foot.”

Taylor departs Saudi Arabia joint third in the championship, only eight points off the series lead.

Dan McCarthy

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LATEST NEWS

BYRON DRIVES THE #24 TO DRAMATIC DAYTONA 500 GLORY WILLIAM BYRON survived late chaos to push the famous #24 Chevrolet to Daytona 500 victory lane and a Hendrick Motorsports one-two.

Crashes filled the closing stages of the 2024 Daytona 500 with a “big one” taking place with nine to go.

It was triggered by Byron getting unsettled from behind and spinning the second-placed Brad Keslowski across the track and into poleman Joey Logano, plus many other front runners with a total of 18 cars involved.

This setup a nail-biting four-lap dash to the chequered and whilst Byron led on the inside, Ross Chastain was getting a run up high out of the final corner as they took the white flag where the Trackhouse #1 collided and spun with Cindric to the infield to trigger a race ending caution.

With the Hendrick cars of Byron and Alex Bowman side by side, a tense wait to see who was in front followed.

Officials eventually determined the #24 was 0.006s in front of the #48, giving Byron a maiden Daytona 500 win and Hendrick Motorsports a ninth.

Fittingly the one-two finish arrived on the 40th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports debut in 1984 and Byron knew the significance.

“I have so many emotions,” Byron with a previous best Daytona 500 finish of 23rd said.

“I heard what happened on the back stretch. I just got pushed and got sideways but I am so proud of this team

40th anniversary to the day. Extremely blessed and thankful for the opportunity.

“We have a lot to prove this year and this is a great start.

“This is the Daytona 500, how awesome!”

A day later than expected after a wet weekend at Daytona, the 66th running of the Great American Race finally began under perfect sunny skies.

On pole Logano led early but the first caution arrived as early as lap 6 when a host of front runners were effected by a big crash on the start finish line.

Keslowski triggered the early wreck with a push on John Nemecheck who then took out Harrison Burton, whose #21 spun across the track before collecting Kaz Grala and Ryan Preece.

Rookie Carson Hocevar was also involved and made contact with the returning Jimmie Johnson.

Fuel saving became a factor throughout the first stage which was eventually won

by Chase Elliott thanks to a push from Kyle Larson.

Todd Gilliland took control of the second stage leading more laps than his entire NASCAR Cup Series career of 11 laps from 72 starts.

But he dropped out of the top 10 as the clean Stage 2 carried on and Ryan Blaney found himself at the front of the field ahead of Cindric at the stoppage.

Kyle Busch’s hopes ended under caution when his RCR pit crew did not get the front left on properly.

Although the tension could be cut with a knife as the pack racing got tighter and tighter, the race stayed as the final 25 laps approached under lights and Logano in control.

With 22 to go cars made their final trips to pit road and two laps later the leading group fronted by Logano dived to pit road.

The #33 only just rejoined in front Keslowski but they were all beaten by Chastain and Ricky Stenhouse Jr who pitted a lap later.

Despite losing track position, the Logano group had the momentum and the #22 quickly rose to second.

The lead continued to change hands between both Trackhouse cars and Stenhouse Jr, but as the race charged towards the final 10 laps and pushes got harder and harder, eventually the pressure became too much.

With Hendrick teammates Bowman pushing Byron, the #24 got unsettled in the middle lane and spun second-placed Keslowski across the track.

The #6 rotated from low to high and directly into the path of Logano and Penske teammate Ryan Blaney as chaos unfolded with the rest of the field having nowhere to go.

The full list of cars involved were Larson, Keslowski, Noah Gragson, Hamlin, Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Martin Truez Jr, Logano, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Creese, Erik Jones, Ryler Reddick, Stenhouse Jr, Ty Gibbs, Anthony

Alfredo and Suarez.

Leader Chastain emerged unscathed by a matter of millimetres with Keslowski almost taking out the rear of the #1.

But he survived and led Byron, Bowman, Cindric and Elliott at the restart with four laps to go.

The two-car train ran nose to tail with nothing splitting Chastain and Byron side by side.

The move came on the back straight with three to go when Byron got a push on the inside as the high lane disappeared.

But Chastain made a comeback up high just as the white flag was being waved for the start of the final lap.

However, Chastain’s charge ended in disaster, colliding with Cindric and spinning into the inside grass right in front of the flagman.

With the caution being waved just after the start of the final lap, a tense wait followed as NASCAR officials took time to determine which Hendrick car of Byron or Bowman was in front.

Eventually Byron was named the winner for an 11th time but first at the Daytona 500.

On Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary, it is the powerhouse team’s first Great American Race win in a decade, while the #24 has not appeared in victory lane at the event since Jeff Gordon’s last in 2005.

NASCAR Cup Series continues next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

COCA-COLA STAYS IN SUPERCARS AND BACKS SUPER2 YOUNG GUN COCA-COLA has decided to remain in Supercars with a multi-car attack spearheaded with naming rights backing for Cameron McLeod in Super2.

McLeod makes his Super2 Series debut this weekend with PremiAir Racing at opening round of Supercars Championship at the Bathurst 500.

The significant backing from Coca-Cola, signals a welcome continuation of Coca-Cola as a primary sponsor in Supercars and a first as a major backer of a Super2 program.

In addition to covering the Ryan McLeod Racing and PremiAir Racing supported #92 Super2 Commodore, Coca-Cola will also feature on a number of cars on the Supercars grid including Tickford and Brad Jones Racing.

The brand’s presence will not only be a boost to those teams, but the sport has a whole following the recent split from

the 2023 Supercars Championship winning team Erebus.

It is understood the car will be unveiled at Bathurst on Wednesday.

In 2024 PremiAir has expanded its Supercars racing program by supporting McLeod’s rise to the second tier Super2 Series.

The third generation racer is one of the hottest properties in the sport having won in very category he has raced and was Supercars’ Mike Kable Young Gun winner for 2023.

In 2023 McLeod’s #92 Nissan Altima

took nine poles, 10 fastest laps and eight wins from the 12 Super3 races.

If he continues his rapid trajectory, he could be one of the top contenders to challenge Kai Allen for the 2024 Super2 crown and put himself on the path to Supercars.

To prepare for the Bathurst season opener this weekend, McLeod has raced three endurance races in as many weekends at Dubai, Yas Marina and Mount Panorama which were all 6-12 hour endurance races.

The 2024 Super2 season begins with two races at the Bathurst 500 this weekend from February 23-25.

YOUNG GUNS SPEARHEAD KELLY RACING BACK TO SUPERCARS MASON KELLY will lead his family team Kelly Racing back to Supercars alongside TCR star Aaron Cameron in Super2.

Two years after Kelly Racing was taken over by Grove Racing, the team name that had been in Supercars from 20092021 will be racing two Ford Mustangs in the Dunlop Series.

Appropriately leading the way will be Todd’s son Mason, who will race with his dad’s HRT #22 as he steps up from Super3 to Super2.

Last year Mason Kelly raced a #22 Nissan Altima to fourth in a small Super3 field last year with five podiums at Wanneroo, Sandown, Bathurst and Adelaide.

The 17-year-old is determined to continue his progress from a “learning season” in Super3 last year and is boosted by a recent test in the Mustang.

“Last year was a massive learning season for me in terms of the tracks and the car as I expanded my skill set to get my head around the whole experience,” Kelly said.

“By the end of the year I was happy with the speed we had and the

progression made, so I feel confident entering Super2.

“It was great to jump in the Mustang during testing recently.

“It’s the same chassis underneath as the Altima, but there are a lot of differences as well such as the position of the windows around the driver, the feel of the engine and the stability of the aerodynamic package make it really nice to drive.

“I found it easier in certain areas than the Altima.

“I was really happy with how we went in the two day test and it was great to

complete all that running without any problems at a good pace.”

Alongside him will be Cameron, who is determined to make his mark in his first full Super2 season.

Cameron has been a TCR frontrunner since his debut in 2019 where he finished third in the championship.

Since then he has recorded six victories and was ultra consistent last year coming close to the title.

During the 2023 season Cameron also took on Super2 for the first time in a Mustang, competing in the final three rounds where he scored a best finish of

sixth at Sandown and Bathurst.

Having got a taste of Super2 last year, Cameron is determined to go “full attack” in 2024.

“To do three rounds last year was all pre-planning to undertake a full-attack of the 2024 Super2 Series,” Cameron explained.

“We learnt a lot about the starts, the race craft and the different driving technique a Supercar requires compared to categories I come from as I’ve had to switch to right-foot braking.

“The Kelly Racing crew put in a big effort during the break to not only go over my car, but also with Mason coming in his Mustang needed to be ready as well.

“To roll out pretty strongly with Mason and I was pretty cool, with the car feeling different to last year.

“My confidence has grown since my first race at Sandown last year heading into the opening round at Bathurst.

“I’m aiming to be inside the top five, that’s where we’d like to be as a base goal and we’ll keep chipping away at it throughout the year.”

LATEST NEWS

SVG SURVIVES WILD XFINITY DEBUT SHANE VAN Gisbergen managed to finish a solid 12th place despite being caught up in three separate incidents in an eventful NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in at Daytona.

More than 48 hours after originally scheduled, van Gisbergen finally got his chance to drive the #97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro in his second race of the Daytona 500 weekend after also racing in the ARCA Menard’s Series.

After an impressive qualifying effort, SVG started fifth but three incidents including two with the #27 of Jeb Burton meant it was a tough night behind the wheel.

But crucially van van Gisbergen managed to stay alive and be on the lead lap in 20th for the three-lap sprint to the flag and sneak through a wild final lap crash to salvage 12th under lights at the famous Superspeedway in the 300m opener won by Austin Hill at 23.50 local time.

As Jesse Love controlled the opening stage and eventually won it by the barest of margins in a photo finish, van

Gisbergen dropped from fifth to 15th as he came to grips in just his second taste of super speedway racing.

The Kiwi was lucky to avoid disaster early on when just behind him both Daniel Suarez and Josh Williams fired into the concrete.

Van Gisbergen survived the first stage and finished 14th before rising to fourth ahead of the restart as those in front boxed with the Kiwi benefitting from already pitting in the earlier caution.

Now fighting at the front, the Kiwi stuck up high and many jostled for position until disaster as van Gisbergen was an innocent victim of the lap 37 crash.

The field was three wide and the #2 of Love was in the middle of the train, hungry to return to the lead but contact from John Hunter Nemecheck saw the rookie get crossed up.

Love spun straight into the sister Kaulig Racing entry of AJ Allmendinger, who was right in front of an unlucky SVG, who whacked the concrete side on but was lucky

not join the others spinning into the infield.

Despite going a lap down van Gisbergen got a free pass and having been as low as 31st, worked his way to 17th at the back of an angry pack of cars inside the final 40 laps.

With some others still yet to pit, the #97 was on track to challenge for the top 10 until trouble hit.

Van Gisbergen was on the inside and tried to go up high, but slightly misjudged the amount of space available and tagged the Burton into a spin.

The Kaulig Racing driver initially kept going and then spun himself before using his versatile skills to save it and somehow regather the #97 Camaro having been completely out of control on the apron.

Drivers were unable to complete another lap after the restart as the second multi-car crash occurred at turn 3 and once again van Gisbergen and Burton were in the middle of it.

As Leland Honeyman and Jeremy Clements crashed further up the road,

the Kiwi was caught up as others took evasive action.

Van Gisbergen was behind the #43 of Ryan Ellis which went low and the Kiwi could not slow down in time to avoid Burton.

As a result van Gisbergen spun Burton for the second time and suffered more significant damage to the front of his Camaro.

The repairs put SVG a lap down in 24th but he was able to get a free pass and move up a couple of positions when five cars were caught in another midpack crash with nine to go.

When racing resumed for a thrilling three-lap sprint, van Gisbergen was back on the lead lap and 20th behind Allmendinger.

Despite the #39 spinning in front of the pack and creating a smokescreen on the back straight, van Gisbergen avoided all the chaos to surge to 12th.

Following his first race Van Gisbergen will be armed with a lot more experience and tools up his sleeve when the 250m race at Atlanta takes place next weekend.

VAN GISBERGEN REFLECTS ON “WILD” FORAY INTO XFINITY SERIES REFLECTING ON a “wild” NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Daytona, Shane van Gisbergen admitted he was “disappointed” to spin Jeb Burton.

Van Gisbergen could not have picked a more daunting place to participate in his first race in the Xfinity Series.

The Kiwi was thrown in the deep end of unique draft racing on a fast super speedway and despite going a lap down twice and three separate incidents, he put in a late charge to finish 12th.

For context that is four places better than fellow Supercars export Marcos Ambrose’s NASCAR Nationwide Series debut when he finished 16th in his first race in the second tier also at Daytona back in 2007.

Van Gisbergen did well to climb to 12th across the final three laps having started the final restart in 20th and driven through a big crash halfway up the back straight on the final tour.

It was van Gisbergen’s second race of the weekend having also took part in the ARCA Menards Series which ended in heartbreak as he was unluckily caught in “a big one”.

Two days later in the Xfinity Series,

SVG also could not avoid trouble being involved in three separate incidents.

One of them he was an innocent bystander while the later two both involved Burton.

Van Gisbergen put his hand up for the final one in particular where he tagged the rear of the #27 having misjudged a move to go from low to high and join the draft on the outside.

“That was wild,” SVG told FRONTSTRETCH. “I am pretty pissed and disappointed with myself spinning the #27.

“I just misjudged the side draft. He was coming around me quick and as I went to get up I sort of hung him back a bit and misjudged it.”

Overall van Gisbergen was certainly aware of his yo-yo journey up and down the leaderboard, getting as high as fourth before the incidents put him back a lap after repairs in the pits and finally emerging near the front when it mattered at the chequered flag.

“It was a wild night going down a lap, then back, down a lap and then back again,” he said.

“I certainly had a lot more fun then the

ARCA race. I could trust the drivers a lot more and the way I settled into the race really good.

“My team was awesome sticking with me. The Weathertech Chevy is pretty beaten up.

“I learnt a lot but pretty bummed for spinning someone else out.”

Next up is Atlanta Motor Speedway, which despite being much shorter then Daytona and not being a super speedway, still offers plenty drafting.

Whilst van Gisbergen will benefit from the Daytona experience, he is aware about the challenge ahead at Atlanta with no practice on offer.

“Atlanta is going to be tough,” van Gisbergen said.

“The first lap I will ever see at the joint will be qualifying so it will be tough without qualifying, but it is what it is.

“I will practice as much as we can on the simulator, try to adapt and see how we go in the race.”

LACROIX ‘RAISING THE BAR’ AT PREMIAIR PREMIAIR NULON Racing is already feeling the difference of having experienced and successful engineer Ludo Lacroix ahead of the 2024 season.

Although PremiAir will field an unchanged driver line up of James Golding and Tim Slade for this weekend’s Bathurst 500, it will be the first round of a tweaked engineering line up led by Lacroix.

The Frenchman arrives at Peter Xiberras’ team after highly successful stints at DJR and Triple Eight where they both dominated the championship.

PremiAir Nulon Racing hopes Lacroix can have a similar impact at the team which is still chasing a maiden win and podium but took a big leap forward in its second season.

PremiAir Nulon Racing team manager Stephen Robertson is hopeful of bigger results with Lacroix having a positive impact across all areas.

“Rolling on from 2023 where we had some success based on our own goals, including ten Top Ten Shootout appearances and 14 Top Ten race finishes, we are looking forward to building on those successes and our previous experience into 2024 and we have had an intensively busy off-season to set that up,” Roberston said.

“There has been quite a lot of changes to our line-up of personnel across the Christmas break. “We have changed personnel on cars, there have been changes to the engineering group, and we have Ludo Lacroix on board now.

“As part of that, there has been a large emphasis put on car preparation, even more than we have had previously.

“Ludo is a great believer in the performance of the car being gained in the workshop and the way we prepare;

so when we get to the track, we have a good base to move forward from.

“The changes that have been made in that approach has elevated the way everyone operates within the team.

“We have raised the bar in preparation, and everyone has lifted their game to meet that bar.

“Another thing that Ludo has brought is that he is really great at training people, from mechanics through to the guys that run the team and the guys in the engineering group.

“He is exceptionally good at showing people not only where the bar should be, but how to get there.

“With having a lot of new people in the team that has been exceptionally good for them, and even for those that have been here for a long time, it has been really great for them to really have that keen insight into how Ludo works.

“We know how the team needs to operate and what we need to do to go forward into 2024 competitively, and that is a great place to start from ahead of the new season.”

Not only has Lacroix arrived but there is also a tweaked race engineer line up with Golding now working with Romy Mayer and Slade resuming his relationship with Mirko De Rosa.

Slade and De Rosa worked together during the first two seasons of BRT where they showed speed at the previous Bathurst 500 in 2021 and achieved a best result of fourth three times.

“We have the old partnership of Tim and Mirko back together,” Robertson said.

“Mirko has already proved a massive asset to our team.

I am forecasting a solid gain for Tim in his confidence as they build on that familiar relationship and I think we will definitely see improvements this year for the #23.

“Jimmy and Romy have been working very closely together and I am very confident about how that partnership will evolve over the coming season.

“The entire engineering program is being overseen very closely by Ludo, and everyone is working together very well already.

“In some cases, we are starting from base level again, but I believe we will be getting to a higher level a lot faster.”

LATEST NEWS

TOURING CAR MASTERS GRID CONFIRMED A NEW era for Touring Car Masters begins with a return to the Supercars show at Mount Panorama this weekend and many big names and cars will go racing.

An 18-car grid is locked in for four races this weekend which will be one of the big support acts of the Bathurst 500 and the first under Touring Car Masters’ new ownership structure.

Leading the way will be reigning champion Steven Johnson and his mean looking Hancock Racing Ford Mustang Trans Am. Johnson returned to the top of Touring Car Masters last year, winning his fourth crown on the streets of Adelaide.

His biggest challenger Ryan Hansford will also return and is desperate to get back on top as their Ford versus Holden rivalry enters a new phase.

Hansford also returns in his A9X Torana and will be determined to take the fight to Johnson after just falling short last year.

Joining Hansford in the Torana brigade are the likes of Allan Hughes, Andrew Fisher, Peter Burnitt, Jim Pollicina and Danny Buzadzic, who has repaired his #3 after the big crash at Adelaide.

Another challenger could be Joel Heinrich, who after making a massive splash at selected races last year.

one to return for the 2024 opener is Angus Fogg.

Fogg’s black and gold Mustang Coupe is always a fan favourite and he will have no trouble finding the racing line having competed at last weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Another fan favourite machine is the Valiant Pacer that is the weapon of Cameron Tilley.

2024 TOURING CAR MASTERS ROUND 1 ENTRY LIST

Heinrich’s Whiteline Racing Camaro went on a run of five straight wins at The Bend and Adelaide.

But in 2024 he will be launching a fullscale attack on the title by taking part in every round.

Also supporting the “General” are Adam Garwood (VB Commodore) Warren Trewin (Monaro) Ben Dunn (Monza) and Geoff Fane (Monaro).

Johnson will not be alone representing the “Blue Oval” however thanks to Falcons steered by John Adams (XY) and Marcus Zukanovic (XD), who won last time out at Bathurst, while Jamie Tilley and Tony Karanfilovski will be steering a Mustang.

At the final two rounds last year there was a strong cohort of Kiwis joining the Touring Car Masters field and the only

CAR # CLASS DRIVER 2 Pro Am Adam Garwood 3 Pro Am Danny Buzadzic 4 Pro Sport Allan Hughes 6 Pro Master Ryan Hansford 09 Pro Am Andrew Fisher 12 Pro Sport Peter Burnitt 33 Pro Master Steven Johnson 55 Pro Sport John Adams 60 Pro Am Cameron Tilley 71 Pro Master Marcus Zukanovic 77 Pro Sport Warren Trewin 85 Pro Am Geoff Fane 88 Pro Am Tony Karanfilovski 95 Pro Master Joel Heinrich 99 Pro Am Ben Dunn 7 Pro Am Jim Pollicina 11 Pro Master Angus Fogg 29 Pro Am Jamie Tilley

GILL POSITIVE ABOUT JWRC DEBUT DESPITE THE odd obstacle, Aussie young gun Taylor Gill was “really pleased” with the promising pace he showed in the Swedish snow in his Junior World Rally Championship debut.

Held alongside the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Taylor and Australian co-driver Daniel Brkic may had finished seventh, but they does not reveal the fast start as they made a big impression.

Despite the challenge of participating in his first snow-based rally, Gill flew out of the blocks by setting the second fastest time of the JWRC competitors.

Another second place in Stage 2 was enough to put him into the overall lead, which he held until Stage 4.

Despite being overcome by local driver Mille Johansson, the Aussie was still within striking distance after six competitive stages, in third, just 7.5s away from the lead.

Gill admitted he was quite surprised by his hot early pace.

“I was really happy with our performance early in the rally,” he said.

“To be in the top three from the get-go was something that surprised me, and I was really pleased with.

“We were able to drive to the conditions accordingly and the times were coming out nicely.”

But hopes of a special debut result came

to an abrupt end on the seventh stage when the Aussie pairing were hit by tyre troubles.

In addition to suffering a double puncture, Gill also had nowhere to stop and had to endure a longer than preferred period of time on the defeated rubber and lost the best part of 10 minutes on Stage 7.

Gill said a “very small impact” on a snow bank which also caught out the likes of Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak had a “incredibly frustrating” impact on his campaign.

“We had a very small impact with a snow bank, and while it seemed like nothing, there must have been something in there because it was immediately two flats,” he explained.

“Normally we would’ve pulled over straight away, but due to how the roads are plowed of snow, there’s nowhere safe to pull over in a lot of spots, so we had to wait until a junction to have enough room to change it.

“It was incredibly frustrating. To be in such a good position and then to have it all over from such a small mistake was tough, but that’s the way it goes.”

As a result Gill dropped from third to 13th in the overall standings in one stage.

After experiencing a couple of over shoots early on the Saturday, it was not until Stage 12 when Gill reclaimed some of his earlier pace, being fifth fastest

and returning to the top 10 of the JWRC leaderboard.

“Saturday was a tricky day as we were more focussed on doing the kilometres and gaining the experience,” he said.

“Of course, we needed to get back some lost time as there was still championship points on offer for stage wins, as well as moving up the leaderboard.

“We had a couple of overshoots as well as a pretty sizeable moment that we were lucky to get away with, so we were happy to be ninth at the end of the day.”

On the final day showed top four pace in the first two stages before dropping to 11th in a competitive finale to end up seventh overall.

Despite wondering about what could have been possible without the punctures, Gill is still walking away from Sweden upbeat from the experiencing his first JWRC round.

“It ended up being a weekend of what could’ve been – we began so well and were very comfortable in the car at that pace, so it’s a shame we made a small mistake which put us out of contention,” he said.

“Realistically though, I’m happy with what we proved to ourselves and our competitors, in that we are here to give it a real shot for the rest of the year.”

Gill now gets to race on the more familiar tarmac in round 2 at Croatia on April 18-22.

CLASSIC F1, HERITAGE TOURING CARS, SUPERCARS, BATHURST WINNERS, G.P BIKES + MORE 18 CATEGORIES ON TRACK PLUS A FULL WEEKEND OF FESTIVITIES ON AND OFF TRACK

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LATEST NEWS

FEENEY AIMING BIG THE CHASE for the 2024 Supercars Championship could be one of the most open in years and Broc Feeney knows it could be his time to rise.

The 21-year-old is suiting up for his third Supercars season with Triple Eight and if he continues his trajectory he should be a title contender.

In 2022 the fresh-faced rookie found his feet by being a consistent top 10 finisher before ending the year with a bang, famously winning the final race on the streets of Adelaide keeping Chaz Mostert at bay.

Last year Feeney stepped up be being a more regular winner and earning the tag “Mr Sunday” by taking all five of his victories on the final day of the weekend.

After rising from sixth in his debut season to third last year, Feeney is eyeing the very top in 2024.

Despite losing its grip on the drivers and teams titles to Erebus Motorsport in 2023, Triple Eight shapes up to be one of the big favourites in 2024.

With new recruit Will Brown alongside him, Feeney is targeting a Triple Eight one-two.

Across the ATCC/Supercars history dating back to 1960, there have been 12 one-two championship finishes.

The last five have all been achieved by Triple Eight in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2021.

Feeney is determined to collect a sixth in 2024.

“At the end of the day, we’re both trying to win, but you both can’t win,” the 21-year-old said.

EVANS HOPING EUROPEAN EXPERTISE CAN PUSH BJR FORWARD

“We get along really well. Even me and Shane, there were a couple of times where it wasn’t so nice, but you get back to the truck and it’s brand new.

“I think we’re going to get along really well. The biggest goal here is trying to

be one-two.

“You do want to beat your teammate, but you have to beat everyone else first.”

The battle for the 2024 Supercars championship begins at Bathurst this weekend.

STABLE SUPERCARS COMMENTARY TEAM FOR THE ninth straight season, Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife will call the Supercars racing in 2024, but possibly not every session in an unchanged TV line up.

Since the second year of Fox Sports being the major broadcaster in 2016, Compton and Skaife have been the voices of the on-track action and that will remain the case when the new season fires up at the Bathurst 500 this weekend.

But they may not call every single session in 2024 with Chad Neylon and Garth Tander “set to make main game commentary cameos throughout the season” according to the Supercars website.

Both Neylon and Tander have subbed in for Crompton on the rare occasions he has been absent at Townsville 2021 and Bathurst 2023.

But for the majority of 2024 Neylon and Tander will continue their pit lane duties alongside fan favourite Mark Larkham and Riana Crehan.

One of the few stalwarts of the entire Fox Sports era has been Jess Yeates and she will continue to be the host for a 10th season.

The likes of Craig Lowndes, Richard

Craill and Matt Naulty will handle the support events, which include Dunlop Series, Touring Car Masters, Aussie Racing Cars and V8 SuperUtes.

Channel 7 remains the free to air broadcaster and the familiar face of Mark Beretta and expert Jack Perkins will remain the faces of that broadcast.

The Bathurst 500 is one of six free to air rounds in the 2024 season.

The other races that will be screened on 7 are Darwin, Townsville, Bathurst 1000, Gold Coast and Adelaide.

This is the penultimate year of the current TV deal between Fox Sports and 7.

SUPERCARS FULL time rookie Jaxon Evans hopes his European experience can hold both the Kiwi and Brad Jones Racing in good stead for this weekend’s Bathurst 500.

Evans will be driving the #12 SCT Chevrolet Camaro having taken over from the departing Jack Smith, who he has raced with in each of his previous three Supercars starts.

In addition to racing the last two Bathurst 1000s and 2023 Sandown 500, Evans has more experience then the average rookie.

The 27-year-old has spent most of his career behind the wheel of a Porsche, winning the 2018 Australia Carrera Cup title and finishing second in the top tier Porsche Supercup.

In 2021 he secured a top five class finish at Le Mans and was third in GTE Pro-Am in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Last weekend Evans found himself in the thick of the fight for the Bathurst 12 Hour podium for Phantom Global Racing.

Despite starting 18th he helped the team be on the verge of a podium before finishing fourth in the tense finish.

Evans believes his worldwide experience can be a valuable asset to building BJR into a greater force.

“Making my debut in the Supercars Championship as a solo driver is really exciting,” said Evans.

“After spending the test day and a little bit of time in Albury with the team, everything seems to be gelling really well and I’m just excited to see where we stack up on the track.

“I would like to think my knowledge from Europe can help BJR. “There are aspects of what I’ve done overseas, the endurance racing and little things that can be useful to myself as well as the team.

“I’ll think of it as a collaboration, which can be beneficial to both parties.”

Once Evans finds his feet in the cutthroat world of full time Supercars racing, he believes challenging for top five results are possible.

“It’s the first round on my own, so its going to be pretty full on and I’ll have a lot of things to take in,” he said.

“I just want to keep on learning. I want to make sure that we hit the ground running, but at the same time turn as many laps as I can.

“Everyone knows the level of competition in Supercars is very tight, so if I can be consistently running in the top 50 percent of the field and knocking on the door of some top five finishes it would be a really, really strong year.”

Evans will make his full time debut at the Bathurst 500 on February 23-25.

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TIME TO GO RACIN’ – THANK GOODNESS AFTER ONE OF THE WEIRDEST OFF-SEASONS FOR A LONG TIME, AND A TURBULENT LEAD-IN, THE REPCO AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP HITS THE ROAD THIS WEEKEND ...

KICKING OFF with a ‘Sprint’ round at Australia’s most challenging and famous track, 2024 could well shape up as the year Supercars most closely began to resemble NASCAR. How come? The investment in doing some proper comparative testing, wind tunnel and engine characteristics, between the two competing brands should take away the parity see-saw which saw Camaro teams benefit for much of 2023, before it was swung Ford’s way – once Bathurst was over.

At the same time, there’s been significant traffic in engineers and other key personnel between teams, as the newer/smaller teams – Grove and PremiAire in particular – fill in the gaps.

As a result – if you want a wild prediction – 2024 could well see the largest number of different race winners for a long time. Indeed, the grid could well resemble NASCAR, where a few hundredths of a second at the right time can catapult a midfielder into front row prominence, or the tiniest error do the reverse for a big name.

My guess is that you’ll see names you might not have expected popping up in the first three rows of grids – then it’ll be down to race craft and strategy, including that old regular, tyre deg … and teams who are able to get that little extra out of a set of Dunlops. Bathurst

with Chris Lambden

CL ON CALL this weekend is, however, the only event this year which will feature the harder Dunlop rubber, so is less likely to be a full guide to the tyre management qualities of various teams.

With relative car performance hopefully at such an even level (could the ‘P’ word be a thing of the past?), the focus – PR-wise – will thus be on the drivers.

It is a shame that the past two champions won’t be on the grid – the first advancing his career across the Pacific, the other at the centre of what has become a highly publicised workplace disagreement.

That’s all it is.

Contracted employee doesn’t get on with the management (apparently); wants to leave after the company decides not to change management; company (team) says no, you’re contracted. The team has already promoted another driver to fill the breach. Normal procedure from here would involve either the employee staying on or someone negotiating to ‘buy out’ that contract, and everyone would move on.

The fact that it involves a professional sport, and a popular, high-profile driver, has brought a lot of emotion into the process, especially once it erupted on social media, with significant support for the driver, including a fair bit of the ‘the driver won the championship for the team’ commentary.

This isn’t a first. It’s happened many times before. I’ll give you an obvious example.

Those of you who have followed motorsport, and F1, for a while, or have studied it, will remember that Nigel Mansell won the 1992 Drivers World Championship, driving for Williams. Such was the dominance of the combo that it was all over by mid-August, Round 11 of 16.

Mansell’s manager was down at Williams shortly thereafter, suggesting that his star should benefit from a significant pay rise for 1993 (rumours at the time reported a doubling), having won the championship for the team.

Frank Williams, always a direct individual, pointed out that, possibly, the quite superb Williams-Renault

FW14B, had more than a bit to do with it and, if he didn’t like his deal, well, they’d manage without him in 1993 …

Which they did. Mansell stormed off to IndyCar and Alain Prost walked in the door, driving the 1993 FW15C car to an equally easy championship win, before the active suspension technology dripping from the car was banned.

You see where I’m heading? From where I sit, Erebus kicked goals in terms of its preparation for year one of Gen-3. They came out of the box firing, with both drivers up at the sharp end, both drivers winning races. It was a joint triumph, team and drivers, with one going on to a superb championship win, which makes the recent fall-out pretty sad on a ‘Mansellesque’ scale.

No-one outside of the parties concerned knows exactly what the issues between driver and team have been. There are of course rumours, many from people who wouldn’t have a clue and, ultimately, the 2024 championship will kick off this week without its 2023 champion. And the team’s primary sponsors have also stepped back – again, a lot of speculation as to the exact logic. Experts everywhere!

The signs are that the situation may not be resolved in a hurry. The 2023 champion may spend 2024 on the sidelines. In that case, the losers (apart from any dollars and cents

issues) will be the driver and the championship.

But here’s another rash prediction.

By all accounts, the surprised beneficiary of the situation, Todd Hazelwood, has raised team eyebrows with his performance in early testing. Could he be the Aussie equivalent of the 1993 Alain Prost?

Weirder things have happened! ...

ON A GLOBAL scale, another ‘workplace issue,’ this one boiling up at the Red Bull F1 team, with team boss Christian Horner facing accusations from a female staff member, may have even bigger consequences.

Ford’s head of motorsport has already weighed in with the obligatory corporate statement, hinting that conflict with Ford’s ‘corporate values’ could affect the car giant’s planned future cooperation with the team.

It could get very ugly. It’s overshadowing the roll-out of the new 2024 F1 cars, including a Red Bull that seems to have a few unique and interesting tweaks … typical Adrian Newey!

Guess we’ll see when testing kicks off but, frankly, I hope that’s not the case. Another year of Max Verstappen driving around in front of everyone is the last thing F1 needs right now. Most of Australia will be hoping it’s McLaren which has made the best off-season gains …

Sometimes you just have to acknowledge that it’s the team that puts a driver in a position to win championships ... It happens a lot in F1, in fact much of the time, but never more so than when Nigel Mansell piloted the brilliant Williams-Renault FW14B to the 1992 F1 World Championship ... and was then shown the door!

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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BEAM ME UP SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR BATHURST ...

THERE WERE dozens and dozens of racing cars at the Bathurst 12-Hour meeting but only one spaceship.

Hearing it come up the pit straight, screeching like a demented slot car as the wind rush over the bodywork created its own banshee howl, was totally unique.

And the acceleration . . .

Officially known as the Ford E-Transit SuperVan, the wicked battery-electric speed machine added a totally new dimension at Mount Panorama.

Even when it was parked at Harris Park, as part of an allelectric display of road cars, it turned heads and dropped jaws.

The SuperVan at Bathurst was the 2.0 model and a long way different from the original, from the bodywork to the futuristic cabin and even the exposed front suspension and the giant venturi over the tail.

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE There is even a button, marked as The Rocket, on the steering wheel ahead of its driver, Romain Dumas.

Want some numbers?

SuperVan 4.2 has 1490 kiloWatts of power with 4000 Newton-metres of torque and a 0-100km/h time of less than 2.0 seconds. Even better, it continues sprinting from 100 to 200km/h in less than 2.0 seconds.

“We call it silent but violent,” the head of electric motorsport programs for Ford Performance, Sriram Pakkam, told Auto Action.

If his name sounds familiar, it’s

because he is an aerodynamicist who did the original bodywork when Ford unleashed the Mustang on Supercars.

Now he has responsibility for a range of all-electric motorsport display vehicles, from SuperVan to a couple of drag racing sprinters and three upcoming models “I cannot talk about.”

Pakkam said the SuperVan is vastly improved in the 2.0 model, now with four individual electric motors – with mechanical limited-slip differentials – a new chassis, less weight and improved aerodynamics.

Another number?

“It makes two tonnes of downforce at 240km/h,” he said.

The SuperVan made a series of display runs through the 12-Hour weekend but was overshadowed by the unlimited Mercedes-AMG GT3 which eventually clocked a new record time for a sports car at 1 minute 56.605 seconds.

No-one was going on the record, but the futuristic Ford still managed around a 2 minute-flat lap.

That was without going all-out on the straights, or across the top of The Mountain, as Dumas learned the car-and-track combination without taking any risks.

Want another number?

During a shakedown run at Sydney Motorsport Park, the bulky blue Ford was given its head down the straight.

On a piece of track where a Supercars’ Mustang manages just over 250km/h, it zapped to

315km/h. Yes, 315.

Back to Bathurst, and the SuperVan was hitting 265km/h before it went over the hump on Mountain Straight.

On Conrod Straight, with a top speed limiter in place, it rocked to 250km/h in the distance from Forrests Elbow to the first kink.

Watching and listening, the car was other-worldly.

Truly, it’s a spaceship capable of compressing time and space.

And it still has a tow hook on the back ...

But it’s not over yet.

Ford is rushing extra chassis bits to Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 500 weekend and the start of this year’s Supercars championship.

Once the engineers are happy, and Dumas is comfortable, all the speed limiters will come off and Ford Performance will go all-out for a record lap.

Don’t be remotely surprised if it does the job.

And now for something completely different ...

Image: FORD/MARK HORSBURGH

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Oakleigh Victoria 3166 A FEW MORE IDEAS ON HOW TO FIX SUPERCAR RACING ANDREW CLARKE’S article Fixing Supercars in issue #1878 was great.

I don’t go along with everything he suggested, but the article certainly gets us thinking long and hard about the category’s future.

I have a few suggestions to add.

Scrap fuel drops in longer races as well as the fixed number of mandatory pitstops in such events.

Offer a choice of two tyre compounds in endurance races and the drivers can have a mix of the compounds if they want.

This would open the door to an interesting variety of race strategies and add an extra dimension to racing.

Scrap mandatory stops in sprint races and make them a straight fight to the chequered flag.

Have three more rounds a year, including another New Zealand race. Two NZ rounds back-to-back in October-November would be fabulous as spring is the best time weather-wise. There is a historical precedent to this as the Nissan Mobil series in the Group A era saw the Pukekohe leg a week after the Wellington street race.

Finally, allocate more recovery time in the support class schedule so that races can be run in full before going time certain. At present any safety car period almost certainly cuts a race short and for many interstate teams it can be a long way to travel just to trundle behind the pace car.

Rob Arnold Waikato, New Zealand

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE ON HOW TO SPICE UP THE SHOW

I AM 79 and an avid fan of touring car racing in Australia. I have been following the various politics, arguments and changes in the sport since the early 1960s and have some thoughts on spicing up Supercars.

I have watched every Bathurst endurance race since it was first televised in the early 1960s, even when I was serving overseas with the Defence Force in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. My friend would send me over taped recordings and later videos so we could all watch Bathurst. I have also been reading Auto Action since the beginning.

Even when I was serving overseas the magazine used to be posted to us.

I note the suggestions in your Fixing Supercars article (issue #1878) but don’t necessarily agree with all of them.

I believe that, with the first event this year being a 500km race at the home of Supercars, we should

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eliminate points for the Bathurst 1000 from the championship.

Over the years it has appeared to me that, although they try hard, in the back of the minds of drivers and team managers at The Great Race is a national championship and the points system involved.

Therefore they are probably competing at 99.9%.

If the Bathurst 1000 was taken out of the championship points system and run as a stand-alone race with no points you would see teams/ owners/drivers competing at 110%.

The Bathurst 1000 is in God’s country and we should not have another 1000km race – as a single race – in Australia.

We should go back to the system of the Pirtek years with three tracks, or even four, involved in a separate endurance series within the overall championship.

The Bend in South Australia, Eastern Creek in Sydney and one of the Victorian venues could have a 1000km event, but over two or even three days.

With Tony Quinn owning several tracks in New Zealand and in light of our close relationship with the Kiwis, I believe NZ deserves more Supercars.

Instead of talking about rounds in other countries, the cost of going to NZ should be spread over two races that are two or three weeks apart.

On the television front, state governments that contribute to the cost of staging Supercars events should insist that free-to-air coverage is live.

A lot of old people cannot afford to pay for subscription television.

I have had a gutful of the commentary team on Channel 7 who are probably more into fashion shows, cricket or other sports. One lady commentator was talking, before they cut her off, about one of the reality shows coming on the following Monday night.

Shouldn’t we be going back to fellows like Craig Lowndes, Garth Tander and Russell Ingall who know the sport?

If the TV networks don’t respect this sport we will lose it.

All our top drivers are already going, or wanting to go, to America.

The owners of Supercars should wake up to themselves and work to obtain more sponsorship rather than bagging the owner of Boost Mobile who wants to put so much into the sport. Perhaps the grid should be expanded by two places to allow him to participate.

Or perhaps we should go like English football and drop the bottom teams from each year’s championship to second grade and promote the top teams from the second division.

It’s a joke at the moment that we

have dad and mum or someone with money putting drivers into the A-grade competition who do not deserve to be there.

There should be no points for the lowest couple of teams in the championship.

And, yes, I agree that Supercars should go back to being called V8 Supercars.

Joe Fuller via emaiH

WEBSTER’S WARBLE MALCOLM WEBSTER is such an inveterate writer of letters to Auto Action that we’ve created a dinkus for his ever-thoughtful correspondence. Keep the suggestions coming, Webbo.

WEC RACE COULD BE CREAM ON THE CAKE

Australia has a Formula One Grand Prix, a MotoGP and a World Superbike round.

Previously we had IndyCar and World Rally Championship rounds, and hopefully those events will return in the near future.

There is another major international motorsport event that could be held in Australia annually from 2025 – a round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

There are two venues that could host it – Mt Panorama at Bathurst and The Bend in South Australia.

They are ideal circuits, have the pit garage facilities to cater for a round of the WEC and could cater for the 20,000-50,000 fans who would likely attend the event, many of whom would want to camp at the track.

TV and/or streaming coverage of an endurance race for top-level international sports and GT cars would be watched by lots of fans in Australia and overseas.

It could be a six, eight, 12 or even 24-hour race and could become one of Australia’s most popular annual international motorsport events.

An Australian round of the WEC at Bathurst or at The Bend could – and should – become a reality as a co-operation between the NSW or South Australian governments and Motorsport Australia and the management of either circuit.

Let’s see it happen.

Malcolm Webster Boronia, Victoria Editor’s note: We already have the Bathurst 12-Hour for GT cars, Malcolm. The WEC’s Hypercars may be a bit quick for Bathurst, but let’s see what others – and the authorities – think and say.

SOCIAL DISCOURSE RACING IS BACK ON TV AND FANS WERE KEEN TO DISCUSS MANY TOPICS ON AUTO ACTION’S SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES… CAMPBELL CONQUERS BATHURST Donald Kingsley Fantastic drive again by Matty.

First the Daytona 24 and now the Bathurst 12 Hour, what is next?

Phil Henry On fire all day. Matt was just an absolute class above the rest. Dry or wet it did not matter.

Lindsay Whitchurch Matt is a superstar and proved that. The media coverage of the event was also A1.

LEADING BMW CRASHES OUT Jason Can’t With more than half of the race to go, patience should have been applied. The Ginetta literally had nowhere left to go.

Nic Lucas It was ambitious overtake.

If he waited another 50m in the Cutting he would have continued racing.

ISLAND CLASSIC BRINGING BACK SUPERCARS TO P1 Darren Duffield It is very hard to understand why they would have ever stopped using this sensational circuit.

Clinton Rowles I really wish Supercars would return to P1. With Winton off the calendar too, Victorian fans only get Sandown and the F1 GP. Sandown is great but the F1 is massively overpriced and only very short sprint races.

Wayne Armstrong I can’t believe we don’t race at the Island. It is second to Bathurst all day.

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Australia’s F1 duo both need to further impress the people that matter in their respective teams to set them up for the future.

Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

DIFFERENT BATTLES, BUT THE SAME GOAL

THE WAIT is over, testing is upon us and the stopwatch will start to show us what the teams so carefully tried to hide during the car launch season.

All the new parts the teams have designed and developed will have to be on the cars in the three days of running currently under way in Bahrain, to be validated by track testing.

Simulation is one thing; real ontrack running is what matters ...

All the aerodynamic tricks will be on display and, with so much video and photographic evidence available, as well as the possibility of watching from the trackside on the key corners of the Sakhir circuit, the truth will be out. With so much technology available, teams will know how much fuel load the opposition had while doing short and long runs, so the real picture will be out even before the start of FP1 the following Thursday.

For the drivers, though, while the goal is always to do as well as your car allows you to,

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with Luis Vasconcelos

F1 INSIDER there are different battles to be fought and the tale of the two Australians that will be on the grid in Bahrain is a good example of that. Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo are at completely different stages of their Formula 1 careers, drive for teams with completely different structures and approaches to the job at hand, and have quite different targets for 2024. But the goal is still the same – to beat your teammate, establish yourself as the leading driver in your own team and show the world you’re a potential Grand Prix winner and World Championship material.

The young Melburnian had the kind of rookie season that

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put him in the same league as Verstappen’s 2015 and Leclerc’s 2017 debut years, with the advantage of having a more competitive car than the Dutchman or the Monegasque in their beginnings – but with the added difficulty of being teamed up with an experienced driver, while Verstappen had another rookie alongside him and Leclerc was paired with the underrated Marcus Ericsson.

It’s clear that Norris was McLaren’s lead driver in 2023, as he should have been, but on a handful of occasions it was Piastri who was the more effective of the two, especially when a cool head was

required. The Australian seems pretty hard to rattle, doesn’t panic and never makes the same mistake twice, so when the pressure was really on, he delivered, which is always a great sign.

Now in his second Formula 1 season, Piastri will be judged almost as harshly as his more experienced team-mate but he’ll be facing an experience he didn’t have in Formula 3 and Formula 2: a second year in the same category, where he’ll be able to apply all the learnings of the first season, improve in all key areas and iron out the few shortcomings he displayed in year one.

To match Norris throughout the season and leave Abu Dhabi at least one point ahead of the Brit has to be the goal; to show to Zak Brown, Andrea Stella and the rest of the team that he’s their leader for the next few years.

For Ricciardo, last year’s mid-season return was a good prologue for 2024, the year

that will define the rest of his Formula 1 career. Regardless of how quick his new car will be – and given the many parts imported from Red Bull, it should be a pretty quick one – flashes of speed and matching Yuki Tsunoda won’t cut it for him.

What Ricciardo needs to do is to completely dominate the young Japanese driver, lead the Faenza-based team right from the start of testing, punch above the team’s weight as often as possible and make it clear to the Red Bull management that he’s the ideal team-mate for Verstappen next year and beyond. Anything less than that may make him surplus to requirements, as Liam Lawson is eagerly waiting for another go at Grand Prix racing, and has both age and room for improvement on his side.

Two battles, two very different situations, but with the same goal: show the team and the rest of the world, you’re the man for the future.

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FORMULA 1 NEWS – LUIS VASCONCELOS

F1’S WEIGHT OBSESSION EXPLAINS BLACK LIVERIES

LOOK AT all the 2024-spec cars that have been launched and you’ll notice they have comparatively very little in the way of color but plenty of black areas, where carbon fibre is not covered by any paint.

Yes, there’s distinctive green in the newly named ‘Stake F1’ car, quite a bit of pink and blue on the new Alpine, but even cars with such striking colors have a vast percentage of their bodywork as exposed carbon fibre and there’s one

single reason for that – weight saving.

It has long been established by Formula 1’s technical people that every kilogram you add to your car increases your lap time by just over 0.03s and, given how tight the field is, even such a small drop in performance can make the difference between making the cut in Q1 or Q2.

Therefore, the orders from above have been to reduce the use of paint to the bare minimum. Originally, this meant teams abandoning gloss paint, opting for

matt paint, that weights less. Now, teams are going to the extreme of reducing the use of any kind of paint on the cars, running them with the carbon fibre in full display.

And, even if your car is already under weight, this allows additional ballast to be placed as low as possible, or further foreward/rearward to assist in preferred weight distribution.

Fans, though, are not interested in such detail and there is an increasing demand

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES/ MERCEDES for the FIA to do something about having so much black on all the cars as, not only is considered dull, it also makes it hard for the fans to distinguish the cars when they’re watching the action on TV. Last year it was common to mix up the Haas, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri when you saw them at speed; this year there will be even more cars with relatively similar liveries and that, for sure, is something even the sponsors will not be too happy with.

ANTONELLI IS MERCEDES’ FIRST CHOICE “STAYING WITH ASTON MARTIN include one year in GP2, one year in one of the IS MY PRIORITY!” – ALONSO teams Mercedes was supplying engines to –

TOTO WOLFF is prepared to be bold and take a gamble on the young and promising Andrea Kimi Antonelli (above), putting him alongside George Russell at Mercedes in 2025.

With Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas, among others, hinting they’d be interested in joining the German team at the end of this year, Wolff has told his staff that his first choice is to put the Italian sensation in the car as quicky as possible, provided he does the expected job during the 2024 Formula 2 season.

Wolff never really got over losing the bidding contest for Max Verstappen’s services during the summer of 2014, especially because it was a battle against Red Bull and Helmut Marko – the two Austrians have a huge grudge against each other.

Almost 10 years ago, Wolff offered the Verstappen family a contract that would

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Williams or Force India – with the guarantee that by the third year, in 2017, he would be racing for the all-conquering Mercedes.

But, having the advantage of running two teams, Marko offered a deal that would put Max Verstappen straight into Formula 1 the following year, with Toro Rosso, with the guarantee that if by the middle of 2016 he hadn’t been guaranteed a move to Red Bull Racing, he would be a free agent.

While joining Mercedes was a more attractive proposition at the time, the Verstappen family opted to take the shorter route to Formula 1 with Red Bull … and the rest is history.

Now, Wolff has vowed to avoid the same error, having told people close to him that “I made a mistake by not taking Max straight to Mercedes in 2015 – I won’t make that mistake again with Kimi!”

However, publicly, he has moved to reduce the pressure on his young star: “Kimi has been with Mercedes since he was 11. He’s been in the junior programme and his career was very successful. I think most important at that stage is he focuses on F2. If we start to spin his mind or unleash rumours, that’s not going to help his F2 campaign. He’s just stepped out of karts a few years ago.

He’s not even 18. I would rather not start any speculation about Kimi going into F1 at this stage.”

FERNANDO ALONSO’S contract with Aston Martin expires at the end of this year and ,with the drivers’ market at full throttle, the Spaniard’s name has been mentioned in connection with the seats that will be vacant both at Red Bull and Mercedes.

The fact that he has a very good personal relationship with both Max Verstappen and George Russell could faclitate his move to one of those top teams, but the veteran has made it clear that, if he decides to keep on racing in Formula 1, his first meetings will be with Aston Martin.

“When I make the decision if I want to keep racing or not for the future, first and only talk that I will have at the beginning is with Aston Martin, because this will be my only one priority.

“A few years ago, I would say that maybe being 42 or 41 was the limit to remain in Formula 1. Now, after I saw myself last year, motivated and performing well, I was thinking maybe that I can keep racing a few more years.

So, I would say that if you are motivated and if you want to commit, you can drive maybe until 48 or 49 or whatever, even 50. But at the same time, you have to give up everything else in life. Formula 1 needs total dedication. This is my 24th season in Formula 1 and I can keep doing for a few more years, but I don’t know if I will be racing until 50, with such a demanding calendar and things like that. Not for the ability,

but because there are other things in life that I’m curious about.”

But the two-times World Champion refused to close the door on a move to other team, should it be difficult to find common ground with Aston Martin and sees himself in a very strong position in the drivers’ market.

“But if we cannot reach an agreement, and I want to commit to racing Formula 1, I know that I have a privileged position. I’m probably attractive to other teams – the performance that they saw last year, the commitment. Also, there are only three world champions on the grid, and there is only one available for 2025 …”

Alonso is in no rush, believing he’s in a very good negotiating position: “I will have to wait a few races. Things used to be sorted in June or July, now it’s much earlier, but we have time. I’m aware of my situation, which is very unique.”

HOW HORNER MISJUDGED RED BULL’S POWER SHIFT REGARDLESS OF how the ongoing investigation into Christian Horner’s managerial behavior ends, it seems clear the British team boss has lost the power struggle that had been brewing, behind closed doors, since the passing of Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull founder and a great believer in letting the team run itself.

With ‘Didi’ around, Horner was free to make all the key decisions regarding the factory and race team, choosing the engineers that would join and so on, while Helmut Marko would essentially decide the driver lineup for both teams owned by the Austrian company. The veteran was also charged with convincing the boss to invest more money, if necessary, making the most of his close and long standing links with Mateschitz.

When the billionaire passed away 16 months ago, Horner saw an opportunity to seize full control of Red Bull’s Formula 1 operation, finally getting rid of Marko, to be

Horner and Marko – behindthe-scenes politics ...

the only man at the top of the structure. He quickly worked out that new Red Bull boss Oliver Minzlaff was not going to let Helmut Marko do whatever he wanted and, knowing that Red Bull’s Thai partner – and owner of

51% of the company, Chalerm Yoovidhyam – is a big fan of his, went on the offensive.

Minzlaff, however, had plans of his own – the former football manager has now made it clear he wants to be in control of the

VASSEUR ADMITS CALL TO SAINZ WAS MOST DIFFICULT …

AFTER ISSUING the shortest ever statement in Formula 1 history to announce Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team next year, Ferrari’s management had to answer questions about that decision during the launch of the SF-24.

Team boss Vasseur explained that he had a difficult time calling Carlos Sainz to let him know his contract wouldn’t be extended.

The Frenchman openly admitted that, “as you can imagine, it was not the easiest call of my life”, then joking that, it was “one of the two most difficult, with the one I got from Toto!”

With some questioning the fairness of letting go a driver who has done a good job for Ferrari in the last three years, Vasseur defended his and the team’s decision: “I don’t know if unfair is the right word because I think, for the team, the opportunity of getting Lewis under contract is something that you have to consider in any case. He’s the biggest name in the field; he’s the guy with the biggest experience, and it’s a huge opportunity for us – it’s nothing to do with Carlos. Carlos did a great job last year and I’m sure he will do a great job this year – he’s very professional, we have a very good personal relationship, but it is like it is and we have to be focused on the future.”

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“Maaaaate ... I have news ...”

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operation, from Austria, leaving just the dayto-day running of Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Powertrains to Horner, but insisting on make the final decisions on crucial and costly matters – cutting into the autonomy Marko and Horner used to have.

While Marko seems to have accepted the new terms of the deal, Horner’s attempt to sway Yoovidhyam to his cause has caused friction with Minzlaff. The Thai doesn’t want to be involved in any internal battles, keeping the same profile his father had when he was alive, so Horner finds himself isolated against the Austrian side of the operation and that’s a battle he cannot win.

Therefore, even if cleared of any wrongdoing, Horner will have to decide if he wants to stay in a more fragile position than the one he held for the last 19 years, or leave, with a rich compensation package in his pocket … and looking for another role in Formula 1.

... AS DRIVER INSISTS “I HAVE NOTHING TO PROVE!” ASKED IF he would start the season determined to prove his worth to other teams, in the hope of attracting an offer from other top teams with seats still available for next year – notably, Mercedes and Red Bull – Carlos Sainz (above, with his replacement, Lewis Hamilton) has dismissed that approach, pointing to his track record as proof of his ability: “Honestly speaking, I don’t think I need a new season to prove that or to show to anyone.

I think what I’m capable of, I’ve been nine years in F1 and I think after nine years, and especially the last three being at a team like Ferrari, everyone has seen more or less what I’m capable of.”

“Obviously my phone has been busy, especially the last couple of weeks. First of all, I received a lot of messages of support and a lot of nice messages during this last couple of weeks, and I would like to thank a lot of the Formula 1 world and friends back at home who have been very supportive and very encouraging. Apart from that, I have been busy with the launch, busy with the first race, with my engineers and getting ready to go.

“As much as I said I wanted to get my future sorted before the first race this year, the scenario has changed quite a bit. It is going to be probably a longer process ahead of me. Ahead are probably the most important three or four years of my career, where I want to make sure I’m in the right place at the right time.

“I want to make sure I pick the right next destination, so I want to take my time to think about it, to listen to all the options, have a look at all the options. Then I can just feel calm that when I take the decision.”

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ARE MAX AND RED BULL BEATABLE? THE 2023 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WAS, IN SOME WAYS, A DISAPPOINTMENT – BUT IT WAS A RECORDBREAKING YEAR OF COMPLETE DOMINATION BY ONE TEAM AND ITS STAR DRIVER. WHILE RED BULL DOMINATED, THERE WAS HOWEVER A RISE IN THE PERFORMANCE OF A COUPLE OF TEAMS AND, WITH THE DESTABLISATION OF THE RED BULL RACING’S MANAGEMENT, THE DOOR IS AJAR … AUTO ACTION’S F1 MAN ON THE SPOT, LUIS VASCONCELOS LOOKS AT WHO MIGHT STEP UP TO CHALLENGE MAX AND HIS TEAM ...

VERSTAPPEN AGAINST THE WORLD!

THERE’S NO point beating around the bush – Max Verstappen and Red Bull head into Bahrain as the hot favorites to win this year’s titles and it will take a giant leap from one of the team’s closest competitors to topple the partnership that completely dominated last year’s Formula 1 World Championship.

Very much like Mercedes understood the 2024 Technical Regulations better than any other team – in this case with particular emphasis on the way the innovative Power Units would work – Red Bull hit the ground running at the start of 2022, when new regulations for the chassis design came into effect.

With Mercedes and Ferrari insisting on keeping their failed 2022 concepts at the start of the following year, RB even managed to extend its dominance in the second year of the life of those regulations.

Now, at least, those two teams have completely redone their cars, accepted they’ve been going down a couple of deadend alleys, copied what they reckon was worth copying from Red Bull, and gone down their own routes in the areas they believe have better concepts than the Austrian team.

Therefore, while they may need a bit of time to fully understand their new cars, they should, in theory, start 2024 closer to Red Bull than was the case this time last year.

But clearly, Red Bull hasn't stood still and has continued to develop a concept that clearly worked, refining the car's design and pushing the boundaries, as is Adrian Newey’s trademark.

Look at the combination of the

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nosecone and the front wing of the RB20 and it’s not difficult to understand why the car failed the frontal crash test’s first attempt! With a couple more layers of carbon fibre skin added to it, the structure withstood the test, but the extra weight on the front of the car won’t make it ideal for Verstappen’s driving style, as it will make the front end of the RB20 less compliant with the first steering input – which, on the other hand, will play into Sérgio Pérez’s hands nicely. Shades of 2023, before the team optimised the car design, making the front end extremely sharp. From then on, Verstappen was in a world of his own, so it won’t be a surprise if the internal battle at Red Bull will go exactly the same way this time too. Even more so now that the team has no restrictions on its aerodynamic development time, unlike in 2023, as its penalty was served by the end of last October.

THE BATTLE OF THE BRITS

WHILE THERE’S no doubt the Red BullVerstappen combo is the odds-on favorite, Mercedes and Ferrari have both made it clear this is not a transition year and the goal is, clearly, to challenge the Austrian team and fight for the title. Both the W15 and the SF-24 feature some innovative and unique solutions

that, if working as expected, could give them some edge on a few areas – and all four drivers from these teams have something to prove in 2024.

For Lewis Hamilton, finishing his long partnership with Mercedes by winning a record-breaking eighth world title would be amazing and, in his and the team’s eyes, just reward for the injustice they were dealt at Wet shakedown for Mercedes ...

2024 SEASON PREVIEW the end of the 2021 season. While George Russell had the upper hand in the first half of 2022, when Mercedes was chasing all possible routes to try and find the potential of the failed W13, from the moment the team opted to simply maximise what it had, Lewis Hamilton has been the most effective of the two British drivers. Particularly in race management, he’s still a more complete driver than Russell and will want to make sure he leaves Mercedes on a high, remaining the clear team leader until the end. Russell, on the other hand, wants to put the disappointing 2023 season behind him and assert himself as the new team leader before a new challenger (possibly teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli) lands on his shores, to get an early edge over his future team-mate.

in Maranello with all the weight of being the most successful driver in the sport’s history.

The Monegasque is probably the fastest qualifier in the field, but has made it clear that plenty of pole positions and just a couple of wins per year are no longer enough to satisfy himself and the team. This year he’s out to challenge Verstappen and has proved in the past he can beat the ruthless Dutchman in wheel-to-wheel battle, so it will be fascinating to see them go head-to-head if they have identically competitive machinery.

For team mate Carlos Sainz, the two goals of the year are to prove Ferrari was wrong by letting him go and putting Hamilton in his seat, as well as showing the other teams he’s World Championship material and can lead a new challenge next year. The Spaniard is never a quick season starter, but works well to get to the front after a few races, a luxury he won’t have this season as he needs to make an immediate impact to prove both his points. A strong-minded man, Sainz may be more difficult to control from the pit wall than in the last three years, so Vasseur and his team may have a job in their hands to make sure the team comes first in the battle between its two drivers.

HOW FAR CAN MCLAREN GO?

Given there was never any love lost between Hamilton and Russell, I’d expect more on-track clashes between the two as none of them will want to lose this battle.

LECLERC ON THE ATTACK

LIKE RUSSELL, Charles Leclerc needs to show the Ferrari management he can be their team leader before Lewis Hamilton arrives Eye-catching – 2024 Ferrari.

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IN THE second part of last year, McLaren proved it’s possible for a 'customer' team to beat its Power Unit supplier – but without taking any merit away from Andrea Stella and his people, Mercedes has been underperforming since the start of 2002, so McLaren and Aston Martin took advantage of it.

This year, with stable technical regs, big leaps in competitiveness will be more difficult to achieve but, still, McLaren built a strong foundation in 2023 and is expected to capitalise on it.

The British team also has one of the strongest – if not the strongest – driver line-up in the field. Yes, Lando Norris is yet to win a Grand Prix but he has shown on plenty of occasions that he’s capable of beating the best, given the right car to do it. Anxiety got the better of him on a few occasions in 2023, particularly in Qatar where he threw away two pole positions and compromised his race results, but he’s worked over the winter to overcome his issues and should be a strong contender right from the start of the year.

Now on his second Formula 1 season, Oscar Piastri has all it takes to establish himself as a regular front-runner. When last year’s MCL60 became competitive, the Australian was instantly on the pace, from Silverstone onwards and, making fewer mistakes than Norris in qualifying, set himself for a sprint win and a solid P2 in the main event in Qatar.

Race management, particularly on tracks

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that were very demanding on the tyres, was where he was lacking but experience helps a lot and that’s why I expect Piastri to be a season-long match for Norris and making sure there will be two McLaren up there at all times.

Aston Martin should be part of this battle at the front, the lessons learned from last year’s very competitive car now integrated on the first chassis fully designed and built in the new factory. In Fernando Alonso, the British team has a formidable leader who will squeeze everything out of the AMR24, in search of that elusive 33rd Grand Prix win. But unlike Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, Aston Martin doesn’t have a balanced line-up, as Lance Stroll doesn’t belong in the same class as his direct rivals, leaving Alonso alone on most occasions, and, therefore vulnerable on strategic battles.

AIMING TO JOIN THE TOP TEAMS ...

FOUR OTHER teams start the season aiming to mix with the best: Alpine, Red Bull’s second team – whatever you want to call it now – Williams and Sauber, now rebranded as Stake. The French team was on its own all 2023 and will continue to battle with a weaker engine, but it made some breakthroughs on chassis performance and could close the gap to the

front.

Daniel Ricciardo’s team should benefit from a much closer technical cooperation with Red Bull, but its move to the front of the grid will surely come with a political backlash as the rest of the field will try to force the sale of the team to make it a level playing field for all. Still, until that happens, the Aussie and Yuki Tsunoda will also battle it up between themselves, both targeting Pérez’s seat for 2025 and under pressure from having Liam Lawson waiting in the wings to replace them.

Williams was one of the sensations of 2023 and, in Alex Albon, has a potential Grand Prix winner who can take the car to positions it shouldn’t be in. So if the new car is quick, the Thai will deliver. Logan Sargeant, on the other hand, has one year to prove he’s Formula 1 material, but I believe he’s got the necessary talent and will run Albon much closer than in 2023.

Down at Sauber Stake F1, everyone has to prove their worth: the team underperformed badly last year, Valtteri Bottas rarely showed the form seen for five years at Mercedes and Zhou Guanyu didn’t make the progress expected for his second season, so it’s a case or win or bust for all of them in Hinwill.

Finally, by its own management’s admission, Haas is likely to start the year at the back – and I can’t see how it will move forward, as the concept the team operates with is inadequate for the current Formula 1 format. Without Gunther Steiner the team will be less mediatic but in Ayao Komatsu it will have a capable Team Principal, more technically minded and more adept to find a positive way to motivate Magnussen and Hulkenberg than giving them Steiner-style tough love!

2024 Alpine.

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES/SUPPLIED

2024 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR RD DATE RACE TESTING FEB 21-23 OFFICIAL PRE-SEASON TEST 1 Feb 29-Mar 2 Bahrain Grand Prix 2 Mar 7-9 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 3 Mar 22-24 Australian Grand Prix 4 Apr 5-7 Japanese Grand Prix 5 Apr 19-21 Chinese Grand Prix 6 May 4-6 Miami Grand Prix 7 May 17-19 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 8 May 24-26 Monaco Grand Prix 9 June 8-10 Canadian Grand Prix 10 June 21-23 Spanish Grand Prix 11 June 28-30 Austrian Grand Prix 12 July 6-8 British Grand Prix 13 July 19-21 Hungarian Grand Prix 14 Jul 26-28 Belgian Grand Prix 15 Aug 23-25 Dutch Grand Prix 16 Aug 30-Sep 1 Italian Grand Prix 17 Sep 13-15 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 18 Sep 20-22 Singapore Grand Prix 19 Oct 19-21 United States Grand Prix 20 Oct 26-28 Mexico City Grand Prix 21 Nov 2-4 Brazilian Grand Prix 22 Nov 22-24 Las Vegas Grand Prix 23 Nov 30-Dec 2 Qatar Grand Prix 24 Dec 7-9 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

LOCATION SAKHIR CIRCUIT Sakhir Circuit Jeddah Corniche Circuit Albert Park Suzuka International Racing Course Shanghai International Circuit Miami Autodrome Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Monaco Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve Barcelona-Catalunya Red Bull Ring Silverstone Hungaroring Spa-Francorchamps Zandvoort Monza Baku City Marina Bay Circuit of the Americas Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace Las Vegas Street Circuit Losail Yas Marina

START TIME 18.00 AEST 02.00 04.00 15.00 15.00 17.00 07.00 23.00 23.00 04.00 23.00 23.00 00.00 23.00 23.00 23.00 23.00 21.00 22.00 6.00 7.00 4.00 17.00 04.00 00.00

2023 WINNER Max Verstappen, Red Bull Sergio Perez, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull N/A Max Verstappen, Red Bull N/A Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Sergio Perez, Red Bull Carlos Sainz, Ferrari Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull Max Verstappen, Red Bull

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DANIEL RICCIARDO F1 CAREER STATS:

TEAMS: HRT (2011), Toro Rosso (2012-13), Red Bull (2014-18), Renault (2019-20), McLaren (2021-2022), AlphaTauri/Racing Bulls (2023-Current) RACE STARTS: 239 RACE WINS: 8 PODIUMS: 32 POINTS: 1317 FASTEST LAPS: 16

AUSSIES ABROAD ...

TWO AUSSIES ARE ABOUT TO LAUNCH INTO THE 2024 F1 SEASON. AUTO ACTIONS’ IN HOUSE FORMULA 1 REPORTER REESE MAUTONE TAKES A LOOK AT THE LOCAL HOTSHOTS' CHANCES IN THIS YEARS CHAMPIONSHIP ...

IF 2023 taught us anything, it was that the limit truly goes beyond the sky when it comes to record achievements in Formula 1, making it ever-so fitting that the 2024 Formula 1 season has set its own before the racing has even started.

In just a few weeks, the grid will embark on an unprecedented 24-round journey spanning five continents, 22 countries, and 11 months, with the drivers revving up for the opening weekend in Bahrain from February 29. Whilst the world will have its eyes on the defending champion and all those shaping up to challenge for the crown, our focus here at Auto Action will be slightly skewed towards our local talent.

Oscar Piastri, after an iconically tumultuous entry into the sport in 2023, proved his value among the big boys as he excelled in his rookie season, already etching his name as a race winner, albeit a Sprint race, in the early days of his F1 career.

He won’t be the only Australian representative on the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo back for his first full season in the sport since making way for Piastri at McLaren. After signing on as a Reserve Driver for Red Bull in 2023, Ricciardo was placed on loan, taking over from a sub-par Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri after a few months of rejuvenation.

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Running re-designed cars, bold colours and under a new team name, Ricciardo and his compatriot will be tested to the extreme as they begin a lengthy season, both with hopes of making an impact on the 2024 championship.

OSCAR PIASTRI & MCLAREN

ALTHOUGH BREAKING his run of rookie season championship victories, 2023 was a near-perfect start for Oscar Piastri’s F1 career.

Across the 22-race rollercoaster, Piastri drove to two stellar podium finishes in both Japan and, most notably, at the Qatar Grand Prix, a weekend in which Piastri also won the Sprint race in the face of extreme conditions.

The year wasn’t all smiles for the rookie, however, with the team starting the season off on the completely wrong foot in Bahrain.

After months of work on the MCL60, things started to turn around for the Woking-based team, with Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris proving a real threat to the field at the United States Grand Prix, where he led the race momentarily, before taking his first of seven podiums at Silverstone.

Piastri finished the year with 97 points to his name, a tally which earned him ninth in the Drivers’ Championship and contributed to McLaren’s fourth-place finish on 302 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

At the end of last year, Piastri wasn’t hiding his feelings on his opening season, saying that he’d been through “basically every situation you could have, apart from a championship fight. I knew there would be ups and downs, maybe not as down at the start or as up at the end!” Piastri said.

“There were a lot of highlights that I wouldn’t have been able to do without the team improving the car the way we did. So I have to give a lot of credit to them. But also, I guess to pat myself on the back – I had to deliver in those moments too.”

Brushing his and his team’s hard work aside in 2023, Piastri now enters his second year in the sport, with heightened confidence and increased expectations from his team, and vice versa.

McLaren revealed its new livery in January.

It features the iconic papaya colours, now synonymous with the McLaren brand, as well as a larger display of bare carbon, an addition that has since gained traction with the rest of the grid following suit in their designs. Piastri is clearly a fan, describing the livery as “really cool”.

Coming as the perfect Valentine’s Day present for the ‘Papaya Army’, McLaren unveiled its 2024 Challenger, the MCL38, coinciding with a promotional filming day in which the drivers racked up their first few

miles around Silverstone in the new toy.

After the day out, Piastri said it was “great to be able to drive the MCL38 on track for the first time. It’s an important milestone in our development for the year and I’m excited to see it on track in its new livery."

Naturally, McLaren hasn’t revealed all of its 2024 weaponry, with the launchspec car displaying only some of the new innovations ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain, as in-season upgrades are already in the works.

“These areas – rather than being specific, I will keep it relatively general – effectively have to do with improving the aerodynamic performance, improving the mechanical side and the interaction with tyres,” McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella said.

“There’s a few projects that we had started and saw they had potential, but we just couldn’t finalise them in time to have it on the launch car, so they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

The true competitiveness of the MCL38 won’t be known until the lights go out in Bahrain, but Stella said the team are looking to “build on the momentum of last season”, which saw the #81 and #4 battling closely with Ferrari and Mercedes in the closing rounds.

2024 SEASON PREVIEW Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

DANIEL RICCIARDO & RACING BULLS

They say cats have nine lives, but the same might just go for the Honey Badger, as fan favourite Daniel Ricciardo gets ready to kickstart his 2024 campaign, setting out to prove that it’s never too late to start anew.

Originally enticed by the familiarity of the team, Riccardo returns to what once was Toro Rosso, followed by AlphaTauri, to embark on his 14th year in the sport with the reinvented Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team.

Ricciardo may be a long way from home at the Faenza-based team, however, he is far from out of his depth, having run an extensive F1 career thus far that has seen him enjoy success at Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault and McLaren. Last year was the definition of a whirlwind season, with Ricciardo originally set for a 12-month stint on the sidelines after losing his McLaren seat to Oscar Piastri towards the end of 2022. The #3 was ‘saved’ by his former Red Bull team, entrusted with the role of Reserve Driver before being called up by sister team, AlphaTauri, midway through the season after Nyck de Vries failed to meet expectations.

“We won’t know where we stand in terms of competitiveness until we go racing in Bahrain,” Piastri said.

When asked about who the competitors will be, and in particular if they could bring the fight to the ever-so dominant Red Bull team, Stella said Red Bull will keep enjoying some advantage in the early stages: “I say this because they didn’t develop the car very much last year, and I would think it’s reasonable to expect that they will have accumulated some knowledge and development last year that will be capitalised on to the 2024 car.

“That said, I think that looking at ourselves, looking at McLaren, if – and I say if – we keep the development rate that we had in 2023 (that we will hopefully have on the 2024 car,) then I think we can be in a strong position.

"Whether that’s enough to challenge Red Bull and the other top teams, who certainly will have made good improvements, we will find out. But we think this is a strong development rate – but as I said it’s up to us to try and consolidate over time.”

Oscar Piastri and the MCL38 will hit the ground running once again in Bahrain Testing on February 21-23, before the real deal just one week later.

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His first race back on the grid was at the Hungarian Grand Prix, followed by the Belgian Grand Prix before his time in the cockpit was cut short following an incident at the Dutch Grand Prix that resulted in a broken hand. The Australian was back on the sidelines, watching young Kiwi driver, Liam Lawson excelling in his AT04 until his return at the US GP. In the short-lived season, Ricciardo scored six points on one standout occasion, in Mexico, earning him 17th in the Drivers’ Championship, sitting at an 11-point difference compared to his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda. The team narrowly missed out on P7 in the Constructors’ Championship, losing out to Williams by a slim 3-point margin.

This year, Ricciardo will embrace the normality of a structured pre-season buildup, as well as the security of a full-year contract with RB, leaving the door slightly ajar for a drive at Red Bull in 2025. The team itself has undergone an internal remodel, with former Ferrari Sporting Director, Laurent Mekies taking over the role of Team Principal from Franz Tost, as well as Peter Bayer as Chief Executive, Tim Goss as Chief Technical Officer, Alan Permane as Racing Director and Guillaume Cattelani as Deputy Technical Director.

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At the team’s flashy Las Vegas car launch, a very Toro Rosso-remnant 2024 challenger was revealed, named the VCARB 01. The livery is one of, if not the most striking of the entire 2024 grid, displaying a white, red and predominantly cobalt blue design with sponsors, Visa and Cash App taking centre stage on the sidepods. But looks aren’t everything, with the team, now building their own brand, hoping to see a step up in performance come Bahrain in a few weeks.

“Speaking in the team, some people are encouraged and optimistic, and then others are like, ‘let’s just wait until we put it on track’. So you never know, and that’s the truth,” Ricciardo said. “I like what’s happened; the changes that have taken place. I feel like there’s something about the team – the mindset’s a little bit different – kind of like a point to prove.”

At the glitzy launch, Ricciardo said that RB is “no longer just a platform for Red Bull Racing”, going on to add that it is “time for us to fight at the front of the midfield”.

With a 2025 Red Bull seat technically on the line, the dynamic between Tsunoda and Ricciardo will be one to watch.

The pairing has had limited runins on track, boding well for their off-track relationship, in which the teammates seem to get along well, with both being vocal about their united role in bringing the team further up the grid: “The team has always taken itself seriously, but I feel like this is another step up now,” Ricciardo said. “It’s a team that is going to stand on its own two feet and hopefully make some noise.” , All will be revealed in a couple of weeks, with a small twist to the opening two weekends seeing the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix taking place on Saturdays due to the Muslim holy period of Ramadan.

OSCAR PIASTRI F1 CAREER STATS:

TEAMS: McLaren (2023-Current) RACE STARTS:22 PODIUMS: 2 FASTEST LAPS: 2 POINTS: 97 BEST FINISH: 2 BEST GRID: 2

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Supercars made use of the Bathurst track availability during the 12 Hour to do some final testing of both the Camaro and the Mustang on track.

Image: PETER NORTON - EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

SHOULD BE THE CLOSEST YET ...

WITH INTER-MARQUE PARITY ISSUES EXPECTED TO BE LESS OF A FACTOR, JUST ABOUT ANYONE COULD WIN THIS YEAR'S CONTEST. AUTO ACTION’S ANDREW CLARKE EXPANDS HIS VIEWS ON WHAT COULD AND SHOULD HAPPEN IN THIS YEAR’S CHAMPIONSHIP ...

THE CHAMPION may have, rightly or wrongly, decided not to defend his crown, but it only changes one element of the season that lies ahead. Our excitement for the 2024 season ahead remains undiminished – the narrative has just shifted now to who is next, with the only two champions in the field, Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney, starting very much as outsiders.

Shane van Gisbergen has been the benchmark champion for many years, taking up the running from his old teammate Jamie Whincup and New Zealand nemesis Scott McLaughlin, but he has left to pursue his NASCAR dream, for which we are very excited. Those three drivers are among the very best we have ever seen and having none of them, nor the very impressive first-time champion Brodie Kostecki, leaves a vacuum into which many drivers can step.

If we look through the field, there are so many potential race winners ready to take the next step.

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MIA – 2023's two title contenders won't be on the 2024 grid.

Opportunity beckons for new contenders ...

But first, let’s discuss the elephant in the room – parity. Last year, fans of the sport were very much divided along party lines as to whether the racing equipment was the same across the Ford and Chevrolet platforms.

Parity dominated the season even more than Kostecki did with Erebus.

We are not taking anything away from what he and that team did – regardless of a parity issue, they still had to take on one of the best drivers of all time in the best team of all time in the same equipment, and that has not happened since its first title win with Whincup in 2008. Kostecki worked with his team on a

plan, and he stepped up to win his first race in the main game and went on to win the title in emphatic fashion.

Which is why we are saddened by what is going on. But c’est la vie, and we must move on and hope we see him on the grid at some point this year.

But there is no doubt he was only fighting part of the field for most of the season as the Mustang didn’t measure up tto he Camaro. It had a difficult aero balance that had a narrow set-up window and pitch sensitivity. The Ford teams worked hard with one hand tied behind their backs, and the wind tunnel data to which we have been privy proves that.

But, without doing a deep dive into that, again, we are confident that will not be the case in 2024. The wind tunnel work has created as close to aerodynamic parity as we can expect with two cars that have different body shells. So that is a big tick.

Then there’s the engine, which is the other area of parity, and an army of work by the

2024 SEASON PREVIEW

Above: Grove Racing and Team 18 are among the teams with revised tech line-ups. Right: The dark-horse wildcard – Todd Hazelwood gets his chance with a top team – the Erebus shakedown was promising ... Images: NEIL HAMMOND/MARK HORSBURGH

2023 OEM SUMMARY Chevrolet Ford DRIVERS Brodie Kostecki Will Brown Broc Feeney Shane van Gisbergen Cam Waters David Reynolds Anton De Pasquale Jack Le Brocq Mark Winterbottom Matt Payne Andre Heimgartner Chaz Mostert Thomas Randle James Courtney Will Davison TEAMS Erebus Triple Eight Tickford Grove Racing Dick Johnson Racing Matt Stone Racing Team 18 Brad Jones Racing WAU

P0LES 22 6

WINS 22 6

PODIUMS 57 27

10 4 3 3 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0

6 5 5 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

18 11 11 9 5 6 3 1 1 1 6 6 4 1 1

15 5 4 1 1 1 0 1 0

11 9 3 2 1 1 1 0 0

28 21 10 7 4 1 1 6 6

team at DJR Power Trains (we’re not sure if they took that name, but they should) will hopefully have eliminated the differences here. In some ways, strangely, this may be harder than the aero given the different architecture of the engines, but at least the hardware is locked down and the engine mapping can be changed on the fly.

Just when the transient dyno testing will take place we’re not sure – so for us the jury is out until that has happened. But we are confident the cars will be closer than ever, and that is what makes this season so interesting.

Cam Waters, despite not being the highest Ford in the championship, was the most impressive of the drivers in a Ford last season, and many have him as the championship favourite. Our ratings have him at number two behind Broc Feeney, and he is only behind in the end because he is with Tickford instead of Triple Eight.

The off season changes at Tickford push us into the unknown as it shrinks from four cars to two. The logic behind the move is sound, and only time will tell if it is the right move or not. We think Tickford was pretty good last year considering, and perhaps even it was doing as a good a job as Erebus, as it suggested.

Anyway, the pressure is on for the hardest charger in the field to give Ford fans the series win. He has 11 career wins and 22 pole positions and will add to both of those this season. Thomas Randle has been retained as his teammate. He is yet to take the top step of the podium, but he stepped up last season and looks ready to win his first race – but again, will Tickford be sharp enough?

Waters’ great mate from the other side of Melbourne, Chaz Mostert, is the other leading option for Ford Performance. Mostert didn’t

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win a race in 2023, but he was the highest place Ford in the Championship. He has a new teammate in Ryan Wood which will likely have little impact on the #25 car.

Mostert has all the makings of a being a superstar if he can win a title, if in fact he isn’t already. He is a good racer, hardnosed and aggressive, but occasionally needs to dial it back a little. He is articulate and can be used as a spokesperson for the sport with equal dashes of humour and sensibility. The winless season will have hurt him though, and he will come out fighting with a new engineer for the first time in a long time.

Matt Payne is the other one we want to mention for Ford. The Grove Racing driver has all the tricks to climb to the top rapidly.

He won in his rookie season in the final race of the season, just as Broc Feeney did the year before, and his Mustang last season was one of the best in the field. Grove Racing won two races at season’s end, and we are truly excited to see what he can do this year with a team that has as much engineering grunt as any in the field.

And new teammate Richie Stanaway could be anything – and we hope we get the gun Richie. Who knows, he may even smile.

Before we jump off Ford, we need to touch on Dick Johnson Racing, the homologation team which lost a lot of shine last season.

This year is a recovery year and it's about whether driver Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison can climb back into the reckoning.

Logically, there is no reason this can’t happen, but we are nervous. We have their equipment rated as the second best for Ford – the Groves are ahead – so there are no excuses.

Over to the other side and the leading teams are Triple Eight and Erebus, with a

question mark hovering over the latter. Triple Eight, with drivers Feeney and Will Brown, will be in the thick of it, but both drivers need to iron out the form dips and keep themselves on the first two or three rows of the grid. Each can win the title, no doubt, as first and third on our rankings prove, but parity may test the team’s resolve at times.

Jack Le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood – we are assuming Kostecki will not race for Erebus ever again – have been gifted the golden goose. Erebus was the class of the field last season. It was quick everywhere and didn’t put a foot wrong on the track, but obviously all was not well behind closed doors as we can see now. Will that lead to an implosion or increase resilience? That is the great unknown.

Neither of its drivers was a regular winner until last season – that is the step Le Brocq and Hazelwood need to take.

Dave Reynolds rates highly, but Team 18 will need to capture all its potential to do more than just score podiums and wins with him and Winterbottom. Likewise, Andre Heimgartner at Brad Jones Racing. PremiAir and Matt Stone Racing should be better too.

What we have is a season with more unknowns than even since the start of Gen3. We hope that parity is right, and we can’t wait for the Bathurst 500 to show the naysayers.

Now to the ratings (next pages) – if in fact you haven’t jumped forward to first to look for your favourite. These ratings are out of 100, and look at racing and qualifying ability, the quality of the car build and the ability of the team to get it right in race weekend.

Bruce Williams, Paul Gover and I are responsible for the scores ... so if you have any issues, fire at us on socials!

Tickford – scaled down from four to two.

Both cars are serious contenders.

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AUTO ACTION DOES THE SUMS THE SUPERCARS class of 2024 represents possibly the most open field in years with Shane van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki not taking the grid, and Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup long gone. You

have to go way back to 2015 to find a champion in the field in Mark Winterbottom, and to 2010 to find the other, James Courtney.

That pair heads the veteran stakes with 621 and 554 starts each, with

Davison, Reynolds and Slade also sitting on more than 400. Then we have Ryan Wood, with no starts in the main game, Aaron Love with two and Jaxon Evans with three … and a brace in between.

TRIPLE EIGHT RACE ENGINEERING

TICKFORD RACING

BROC FEENEY - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1

AUTO ACTION RANKING #1

ENGINEER: Martin Short AGE: 21 DEBUT: Bathurst 2020 STARTS: 64 BEST QUAL: 1st (x3) PODIUMS: 14 BEST RESULT: 1st (x6) BEST BATH: 5th 2022 2023 CHAMP: 3rd

95.25

The numbers have been generated

by Andrew Clarke, Paul Gover and Bruce Williams, and all were collected and collated independently of each other, measuring the drivers as both racers and qualifiers. Then the team

AUTO ACTION RANKING #2

89

88

CAM WATERS - FORD MUSTANG GT ENGINEER: Sam Potter AGE: 29 DEBUT: Bathurst 2011 STARTS: 251 BEST QUAL: 1st (x22) PODIUMS: 47 BEST RESULT: 1st (x11) BEST BATH: 2nd (x2) 2023 CHAMP: 6th

6

Triple Eight’s third year driver faded away from mid-season as The Giz took the fight to Kostecki. Five wins, 12 podiums and 21 times out of 28 he finished in the top 10, making him one of the star performers of the season.

He can only get better. He is also backed by the best team in the business.

The Tickford driver has long been on the verge of a title, and many are rating this year as his best chance to date. And, assuming the parity issues have bene solved, he has every chance. He is fast and qualifies well and is the aggressive sort of driver we like to watch – and another summer season of speedway will have sharpened the reflexes even further.

TRIPLE EIGHT RACE ENGINEERING

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED

WILL BROWN - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1

AUTO ACTION RANKING #3

ENGINEER: Andrew Edwards AGE: 25 DEBUT: Sandown 2018 STARTS: 102 BEST QUAL: 1st (x5) PODIUMS: 13 BEST RESULT: 1st (x5) BEST BATH: 8th 2023 2023 CHAMP: 5th

87.25

AUTO ACTION RANKING #4

84.25 87

CHAZ MOSTERT - FORD MUSTANG GT ENGINEER: Sam Scaffidi AGE: 31 DEBUT: Perth 2013 STARTS: 324 BEST QUAL: 1st (x23) PODIUMS: 87 BEST RESULT: 1st (x21) BEST BATH: 1st 2022,14 2023 CHAMP: 4th

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New to Triple Eight, Brown will settle in like he has been there forever because T8 is the most professional outfit on the grid. His data from last year almost matches his new teammate, making him one of the form drivers heading into 2024. He has gone missing at times before and was eclipsed by Kostecki, but smooth out the bumps, bully his younger teammate, and anything is possible.

Mostert was the best-placed Ford in last year’s title but didn’t win a race, and the challenge remains whether his team can step up. WAU is making all the right noises and the cars look a million bucks, and we know Mostert can race as hard as anyone on the field. We don’t buy the Ford transition as an excuse for last year – Gen3 was so different for everyone it was the right time to change. It all comes down to the team, can WAU step up?

GROVE RACING

TEAM 18

AUTO ACTION RANKING #5

​80.75

MATT PAYNE - FORD MUSTANG GT ENGINEER: Jack Bell AGE: 21 DEBUT: Bathurst 2022 STARTS: 29 BEST QUAL: 2nd (x3) PODIUMS: 1 BEST RESULT: 1st (x1) BEST BATH: 6th 2022 2023 CHAMP: 14th

​79.5

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This kid can drive, and winning in his rookie season puts him elite company. Grove Racing has also emerged as one of the form leaders from the former blue oval, but now just Ford Performance. If we choose drivers we know will step up during a year, he has the most upside and he’s already a gun.

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AUTO ACTION RANKING #6

DAVID REYNOLDS - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Richard Hollway AGE: 38 DEBUT: Sandown 2007 STARTS: 432 BEST QUAL: 1st (x16) PODIUMS: 44 BEST RESULT: 1st (x8) BEST BATH: 1st 2017 2023 CHAMP: 9th

20

A race winner late last year, one of the sport’s most important characters takes great form to his new team, Team 18. Chatting to him in the off-season, he’s full of confidence too, and the staff changes at Team 18 will only improve his Camaro over what was delivered to Scott Pye last year. It’s all about smoothing the ride at the team.

2024 SEASON PREVIEW

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AND RATES THE CONTENDERS was added into the equation, both in their ability to build the car and get it basically right when it arrives at the track, to the ability to call strategy and make the right decisions during the races.

It is worth noting that we have assumed parity, a position we will reassess in the mid-season review. If we split the rankings for an arbitrary figure, the Triple Eight cars are on 54.4 points and the Erebus cars 52.0 points,

then the best of the Fords is Grove Racing at 50.5 from Dick Johnson Racing on 49.9 and Tickford on 48.0.

When previous form is added in and Microsoft Excel takes over, a rating out of 100 is obtained (actually, if you

DICK JOHNSON RACING

EREBUS MOTORSPORT

ANTON DE PASQUALE - FORD MUSTANG GT

AUTO ACTION RANKING #7

ENGINEER: Perry Kapper AGE: 28 DEBUT: Adelaide 2018 STARTS: 162 BEST QUAL: 1st (x16) PODIUMS: 32 BEST RESULT: 1st (x9) BEST BATH: 3rd 2023 2023 CHAMP: 8th

78

picked up all the bonus points from last season, 128 was technically possible).

For the sake of the exercise, SvG would have topped the ratings from Kostecki (97.6 to 97.2) had they both lined up with the same teams as last year ...

AUTO ACTION RANKING #8

77.75

11

JACK LE BROCQ - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Tom Moore AGE: 31 DEBUT: Sandown 2015 STARTS: 198 BEST QUAL: 1st (x1) PODIUMS: 3 BEST RESULT: 1st (x2) BEST BATH: 4th 201 2023 CHAMP: 12th

9

A new engineer for 2024 will make it interesting for De Pasquale at DJR, but it feels like a little bit of the gloss fell off the former shiniest team in pitlane last year. There was no real reason for it either, so maybe the driver and team just bounce back into contention by doing what they did before. We just need to be convinced about his ability to race when the car is not perfect.

We’re calling him ‘Black Jack’, and we want him to drive as hard as his new-for-2023 mean look inferred.

Erebus has had a rocky off-season, but will hit the ground running and the full effect of the tumultuous off-season may yet to be felt. A two-time race winner, there’s no reason why Le Brocq can’t keep up Erebus’ momentum if the team is up to it.

BRAD JONES RACING

TICKFORD RACING

ANDRE HEIMGARTNER - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1

AUTO ACTION RANKING #9

ENGINEER: Tony Woodward AGE: 28 DEBUT: Bathurst 2014 STARTS: 244 BEST QUAL: 1st (x3) PODIUMS: 15 BEST RESULT: 1st (x1) BEST BATH: 9th 2017 2023 CHAMP: 7th

76.75

AUTO ACTION RANKING #10

75.5

8

THOMAS RANDLE - FORD MUSTANG GT ENGINEER: Chris Stuckey AGE: 27 DEBUT: Bend 2019 STARTS: 79 BEST QUAL: 1st (x1) PODIUMS: 4 BEST RESULT: 2nd (x1) BEST BATH: 7th 2021 2023 CHAMP: 13th

55

A heap of podiums last year had the talented Kiwi knocking on the door of a win. We’ve always rated him, in fact, this writer helped slot him into a drive many years ago when Super Black was tossing up whether to employ him. We want that faith rewarded. BJR remains the unknown, four cars remains a lot to juggle and it feels more like a business model than a race team.

Randle emerged in 2023 as a worthy driver in the field after a tough run into the main game. We like him, he’s good to talk to and you can see when he has his race face on. Tickford, with only two cars to worry about, should be sharper too, and we could have undersold the combination. He must win races in 2024 after four podiums in 2024, three of them on one weekend. He will improve during the season.

GROVE RACING

DICK JOHNSON RACING

RICHIE STANAWAY - FORD MUSTANG GT

AUTO ACTION RANKING #11

ENGINEER: Alistair McVean AGE: 32 DEBUT: Sandown 2016 STARTS: 62 BEST QUAL: 4th (x1) PODIUMS: 2 BEST RESULT: 1st (x2) BEST BATH: 1st 2023 2023 CHAMP: 26th

74.25

73

26

It is hard to work out what to make of Stanaway. We rate his talent, but he has sometimes proven his own worst enemy. And a lack of desire to do media means we have little power to understand him, so we’re hoping he has his head in the right place and with it the form people like Greg Murphy and SvG attest. If he does, we think he’ll grow as the season progresses as the rust gets removed from the system.

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AUTO ACTION RANKING #12

WILL DAVISON - FORD MUSTANG GT ENGINEER: Richard Harris AGE: 41 DEBUT: Winton 2004 STARTS: 546 BEST QUAL: 1st (x28) PODIUMS: 79 BEST RESULT: 1st (x22) BEST BATH: 1st 09,16 2023 CHAMP: 10th

17

Davison likes a beautifully balanced car, and he’s a great development and test driver, but somehow both he and the team missed the mark last season. We know he’ll be better than he was last season, but how much of a step can Ford’s homologation team take this year, and can it rediscover its former glory? Surely it can’t be as bad as last season, which means Will can only climb the order.

www.autoaction.com.au I 35

EREBUS MOTORSPORT AUTO ACTION RANKING #13

BRAD JONES RACING

TODD HAZELWOOD - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: George Commins AGE: 28 DEBUT: QR 2017 STARTS: 187 BEST QUAL: 1st (x1) PODIUMS: 1 BEST RESULT: 3rd (x1) BEST BATH: 8th 2021 2023 CHAMP: 21st

68.5

AUTO ACTION RANKING #14

67.75

99

BRYCE FULLWOOD - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Phil Keed AGE: 25 DEBUT: Sandown 2018 STARTS: 129 BEST QUAL: 3rd (x1) PODIUMS: 1 BEST RESULT: 3rd (x1) BEST BATH: 5th 2021 2023 CHAMP: 11th

14

Read very little into 2023 when it comes to Hazelwood – Cool Drive Racing let him down. He is a lot better than he showed, so there is easy logical improvement by dropping into a very good team and car. He’s been a solid top 10 driver to date, but is he more? This year, there are no excuses as he steps into the car, with the engineer, that would have worn the #1. Could well be the surprise package of the season – there are many fans who hope so ...

Fullwood was one of the surprise packs last season, knocking on the door of the podium a number of times in a car and team many didn’t rate. The challenge is to take that next step and remove the rough weekends.

Eleven times he finished in the top 10 last season – we’d like to see him double that, and we think he can, but this is a competitive series.

TEAM 18

PREMIAIR RACING

AUTO ACTION RANKING #15

MARK WINTERBOTTOM - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Som Sharma AGE: 42 DEBUT: Sandown 2003 STARTS: 621 BEST QUAL: 1st (x36) PODIUMS: 118 BEST RESULT: 1st (x39) BEST BATH: 1st 2013 2023 CHAMP: 15th

66

AUTO ACTION RANKING #16

64.5

18

JAMES GOLDING - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Romy Mayer AGE: 28 DEBUT: Sandown 2016 STARTS: 120 BEST QUAL: 3rd (x1) PODIUMS: 0 BEST RESULT: 4th (x2) BEST BATH: 8th 2018,20 2023 CHAMP: 16th

31

Still one of the most popular drivers in the series, his drought-breaking win last year was just what was needed at Team 18. Off season changes will sharpen the squad, but 'Frosty' is now a veteran, and questions remain over whether he can return to past glories on a regular basis. He’ll there or thereabouts at times, but how often will that be?

PremiAir is another team that has had a big off season, and Golding we feel has not yet shown us his best. So far, his second journey in Supercars has been an up-and-down affair, with some great signs – qualifying at Bathurst, for instance – being dragged down by weekends where it all just doesn’t work. More of the Bathurst Golding is what Ludi Lacroix will be trying to unlock.

BLANCHARD RACING TEAM

MATT STONE RACING

AUTO ACTION RANKING #17

61.75

JAMES COURTNEY - FORD MUSTANG GT ENGINEER: Raymond Lau AGE: 43 DEBUT: Sandown 2005 STARTS: 556 BEST QUAL: 1st (x10) PODIUMS: 65 BEST RESULT: 1st (x15) BEST BATH: 2nd 2007 2023 CHAMP: 17th

61.75

7

Courtney’s final year at Tickford was sometimes a disaster not of his own making, while at other times it could have been anything. He was the first driver to discover the fragility of a Gen3 racer and a fire at the Grand Prix added to the lowlights. His experience is important for this next phase of BRT and he’ll be solid in the twilight of his career.

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AUTO ACTION RANKING #18

CAMERON HILL - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Paul Forgie AGE: 27 DEBUT: Bathurst 2022 STARTS: 29 BEST QUAL: 5th (x1) PODIUMS: 0 BEST RESULTS: 8th BEST BATH: 15th 2023 2023 CHAMP: 23rd

4

Was good in his first season of Supercars, but hardly looked like a star on the rise. MSR snagged a win last year but overall it was a tough season. We know he can race based on what he did before last season, but can he lift with MSR? We hope so, but the jury is out.

2024 SEASON PREVIEW PREMIAIR RACING

BRAD JONES RACING

TIM SLADE - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1

AUTO ACTION RANKING #19

ENGINEER: Mirko De Rosa AGE: 38 DEBUT: Adelaide 2009 STARTS: 427 BEST QUAL: 1st (x2) PODIUMS: 17 BEST RESULT: 1st (x2) BEST BATH: 5th 2020 2023 CHAMP: 19th

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AUTO ACTION RANKING #20

58.25 23

JAXON EVANS - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Julian Stannard AGE: 27 DEBUT: Bathurst 2022 STARTS: 3 BEST QUAL: 22nd PODIUMS: 0 BEST RESULT: 18th BEST BATH: 21st 2023 2023 CHAMP: 47th

12

Many think Slade was lucky to hang on to his seat, and if he wants to drive in 2025 he’s going to need a much bigger return this season than we got last year. He’s now a veteran and PremiAir has ramped up for this season – he needs podiums to rebuild the faith. He will be an interesting watch for the season.

Brad Jones Racing has plucked the promising Kiwi to replace the retiring Jack Smith. The third and fourth car can be a tough place at BJR, but if he shows early signs the effort will swing into the #12 car and he has every chance of running in the mid-pack. He’s been around the team for a while, so this will make settling in easier.

WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED

MATT STONE RACING

RYAN WOOD - FORD MUSTANG GT

AUTO ACTION RANKING #21

ENGINEER: Adam Austin AGE: 20 DEBUT: N/A STARTS: N/A BEST QUAL: N/A PODIUMS: N/A BEST RESULT: N/A BEST BATH: N/A 2023 CHAMP: N/A

58.25

AUTO ACTION RANKING #22

57.75

2

NICK PERCAT - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Jack Bellotti AGE: 35 DEBUT: PI 2010 STARTS: 316 BEST QUAL: 1ST (X2) PODIUMS: 14 BEST RESULT: 1st (x4) BEST BATH: 1st 2011 2023 CHAMP: 20th

10

Wood could be a star of the sport. WAU have plucked him out of Super2 based on what they have seen working with him, and he was very impressive in Adelaide. We’re excited to see how this one maps itself out.

Percat’s move to WAU didn’t work, and now he has to rebuild himself at MSR. Stone thinks he can re-engage Percat and get the race and Bathurst winner back to his best. After a season or two holding up the grid from the bottom, this is crunch time.

BLANCHARD RACING TEAM

BRAD JONES RACING

AARON LOVE - FORD MUSTANG GT

AUTO ACTION RANKING #23

ENGINEER: Chris Fitzgerald Age: 21 DEBUT: Sandown 2023 STARTS: 2 BEST QUAL: 26th PODIUMS: 0 BEST RESULT: 19th BEST BATH: 19th 2023 CHAMP: 49th

53.5

51.75

3

Another rookie, Love was good enough at Bathurst to lock down this drive and convince the Blanchards he is the future. It is a big ask, though, joining an expanding team, and he’ll be wanting to suck as much information out of Courtney as possible and get himself into the top half of the field more often than not.

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AUTO ACTION RANKING #24

MACAULEY JONES - CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 ENGINEER: Andrew Donnelly AGE: 29 DEBUT: Sandown 2015 STARTS: 174 BEST QUAL: 8th (x2) PODIUMS: 0 BEST RESULT: 6th (x2) BEST BATH: 7th 2018 2023 CHAMP: 22nd

96

A regular at the back of the field, it is hard to see anything different for this season. Every so often we see something that makes us pay attention, but this is not often enough. We’d like to say this is a crunch season, but we’re not convinced that it is, and maybe that is what is needed.

www.autoaction.com.au I 37

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SPEEDWAY

Jock Goodyer and Lockie McHugh went head-to-head in a battle for the ages ... Below: Kris Coyle on the edge of disaster. Images: RICHARD HATHAWAY PHOTOGRAPHY

WILD WILD WEST THE FOCUS of the summer of speedway has now shifted west where the big names of Sprintcars have been doing battle.

Fans have been entertained by no less than four action-packed race meetings as the fight for the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series has stepped up a gear.

The busy period began with round 11 taking place at Bunbury Speedway where Brad Maiolo landed the first blow.

Maiolo started fourth but immediately surged to second on the opening lap and hunted down leader Andrew Priolo.

With seven laps to go the pair started entertaining with a back and forth battle for the win only for a cation to spoil their fun with five to go.

At the restart Maiolo powered away to record his first victory in the best part of two years.

The following round at Perth Motorplex saw a number of stars join the locals and one of them went straight to the top, Jamie Veal.

Veal dominated the race, leading from start to finish and enjoying more than 2s on runner-up and home hero Callum Williamson.

Marcus Dumsney sat second or most of the race only to retire on lap 25, setting up a tight tussle for the minors eventually won by Williamson and Matt Egel as Dayne Kingshott dripped back.

The Barbagallo Mr Sprintcar Nationals took place at Perth the following night and both Jock Goodyer and Lockie McHugh turned the meeting into a showdown between the two most recent Aussie champions.

Both drivers stole the spotlight in a

thrilling showdown that went down to the final laps.

Much like the Aussie title, McHugh had pace to burn from 10th on the grid and flew to third inside the first 19 laps.

By lap 22 he had displaced Maiolo from second and set his sights on ending Goodyer’s race-long lead.

Four laps later McHugh did it, knocking off Goodyer to take control of the field.

However, Goodyer had one more trick up his sleeve and regained the lead with just four laps left.

The pair did not stop pushing each other to the chequered flag with only 0.078s the difference.

Goodyer gave himself a special Valentines Day present by taking a more comfortable win in the Midweek Sprintcar Mayhem race.

His second Perth Motorplex victory in as many attempts was a commanding performance.

The Tasmanian saw off an early challenge from Priolo on lap 6 and was never headed, eventually winning by 2.7s over Matt Egel.

After the fast start Priolo had to settle for third as there was limited passing at the front of the field in the clean race.

Thomas Miles

WALSH WINS WINGLESS WARRIORS

BLAKE WALSH emerged victorious in the battle of the Wingless Sprints which headlined a big night of racing at Blue Ribbon Raceway.

A solid field of 29 competitors arrived for Round 3 of the Dirt X industries Wingless Sprints Super Series and were broken into three even groups which ran two heats each, before a last chance B Main set a 20-car field for the 30-lap final.

Blake Walsh and William Caruso shared the front row for the final and they pulled away from the rest of the field despite the many early stoppages.

Despite a red light and numerous yellow caution periods interrupting his progress, Walsh was never headed in the run to the finish line.

Caruso ran a lonely race in the runnerup position, while Blaine Densley rounded the podium edging out the fast finishing Chris Ansell who had worked his way from 14th.

40 I www.autoaction.com.au

Blake Walsh, Wingless Sprints feature race winner Images: PARIS CHARLES

VStephen Hopkins, AMCA Nationals feature race winner.

The Owen Portable Homes Stampede Series for the Formula 500s also provided plenty of action with three heats and a 20-lap A Main final. Liam Russell qualified in pole position alongside Indy Rea. Russell controlled the early proceedings before Dale Sinclair made his way through to take the lead around quarter race distance.

From there, the two entered a close battle with Russell regaining the lead at the halfway point, while Sinclair’s race came to an end as he retired to the infield.

Now fighting for the win, Russell withstood a strong challenge from Rae in a tense finish.

Hugo Chivell proved too strong in the WMI Feeders Junior Formula 500 15-lap final.

Chivell controlled the field in a comprehensive flag-to-flag performance.

Jack Hewitt pressed the leader over the journey only to retire two laps prior to the finish, elevating Rusty Ponting and Rowdy Andreatta onto the podium.

The Austrek Outdoor Adventure Centre AMCA Nationals final took several aborted

starts to get going as the competitors crashed and bounced off one another.

Malcolm Crick was a red light stoppage before a single lap could be run, smashing the wall and tearing the front left corner off the car in spectacular style.

Pole sitter Justin Richardson was even a victim, leading the first lap before his run would also come to an end.

Once the race settled into a rhythm, a thrilling battle developed between Stephen Hopkins and Frank Thierry, the latter controlling the first 10 laps before Hopkins snuck his way past and onto Victory Lane.

The SSA 1200 Junior Sedans also provided plenty of close racing with Brad Marshall victorious but only after being chased hard by Holly Hutchinson.

The Production Sedans provided thrilling door to door racing as Anthony Hanson overcame Peter Dowling after trading many blows.

Paris Charles.

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BROWN WRITES HIS NAME INTO AGP RECORD BOOKS KAIDON BROWN followed in his father’s footsteps by writing his name into the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix history books with victory at Lismore Speedway.

Brown won the 71st running of the Speedcar Grand Prix ahead of Matt Gearing and Nathan See after a demanding 40-lap race.

At one stage it appeared Charlie Brown might be the one in victory lane as he put in a blistering charge.

He flew up to second and caught Kaidon Brown, only for the latter to hug the low line and pull away.

In the end Charlie Brown’s once promising race ended with four laps to go when his differential burst into flames.

This meant Kaidon Brown could complete his dream of winning the storied race just like his father Mark did six times.

“I’m exhausted after that – it took a lot out of me,” he said post race.

“My dad and I worked on the setup and it

No one could stop Cory Stein from going back to back in Modlites.

Kaidon Brown overcame a big challenge from Charlie Brown to win an emotional Speedcar Australian Grand Prix. Images: TONY POWELL paid off, the car was really good.

“The yellows hurt me a bit (but) I did what I had to do so nobody could get past me.”

The NSW Modlite title and

Kevvie Cup also went on the line but it did not change hands as Cory Stein went back to back.

Stein was chased hard by

Nathan Politch and Mitch Pammenter but they ultimately had to settle for the podium.

In the support classes, Matt Hardy won the AMCA nationals feature race ahead of Bruce Marshall and NSW champion Steve Potts.

The F500 juniors feature was won by Charlie Bowen finishing just in front of Daisy Smith and Zack Hilder.

Jacob Jolly was awarded the win of the Wingless Sprints A main which was impacted by a scary crash for Kevin Willis.

Thomas Miles

ROBOTHAM WINS AUSSIE MIDGET TITLE

Image: ANTHONY SNEDDON

Image: ZP IMAGES

BOHUD RACING RETURNS TO VICTORY LANE

MICHAEL STEWART (above) brought the Bohud Racing Team back to victory lane after winning the 410 Sprintcar feature in round two of the Regional Rumble Series at Dubbo Speedway.

In what was a hard-fought battle for the lead throughout with his best mate, Jackson Delamont, Stewart managed to hold on and was delighted.

“It was an unreal night to be able to battle for the lead with Jackson (Delamont) lap after lap,” he said.

“It was certainly helped with some lucky yellow light stoppages when we really needed them and they

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certainly kept us in the fight.

“The whole Bohud Racing team worked hard on the car throughout the night, as we were chasing the track conditions, but we had a really good car for the feature race.”

Earlier in the night, Stewart had finished his two heat races with a sixth and a win, which earned him a position five starting spot for the feature race.

It was Lachlan Caunt who dominated the early proceedings as he quickly established a lead over Zac Pacchi Their grip on the top two spots was unbroken until lap

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16 when Stewart began his charge.

Having risen from sixth to fourth in the opening three laps, the #NS14 had found itself in the top three by lap 10 when he displaced Warren F. Caunt stayed in charge for the next seven laps until lap 17 when Stewart’s momentum proved too overwhelming and he hit the lead.

However, following him up the order was Delamont who had also picked off the rivals to sit second for the closing stages, setting up a nail-biting finish.

But Stewart held on by six-tenths and Bohud Racing

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team owner Scott Jones was thrilled after exactly of waiting for wins.

“Michael did a fantastic job all night and the battle with Jackson (Delamont) for the lead in the feature race was a very close, and Michael’s talent as a driver was certainly on show, as he just knows how to win and what to do to finish off races like that,” he praised.

“It’s funny as how things work out, as last night’s win came on exactly the same weekend as when Michael won at Eastern Creek Speedway 12 months ago.”

AA Staff

PETER ROBOTHAM was crowned the new Australian National Midget champion after a controlling drive at Goulburn Raceway.

Robotham used his years of experience to hold off home hero Gary Bowyer by a second in a tense finish.

At the start of the big night, each competitor was allocated into three of the six qualifying races where Bowyer and Robotham found some form and reigning national champion Anthony Lea failed to start after blowing a hole in his engine prior to the first heat starting.

After the six heats Bowyer secured pole position with Robotham alongside, followed

by Terry Brown and Chris Fowler.

Getting off to a quick start was Bowyer as the top four held position early on, while John Rouse was an early retirement.

Robotham moved past Bowyer on lap two with Paul Perry, who started eighth up into fifth spot by lap two.

But he started making a slide backwards to last on lap three when he spun on the back straight. Black and Jack Ward lasted until lap four before their races ended by breaking a CV Joint.

Florrimell was the first of the front half of the field to exit the race on lap eight whilst Hall had moved to sixth spot by this time in the race.

At the halfway mark of the title race, Robotham led Bowyer, Fowler, Brown and Kamolins who had just passed Buckley.

In the end Robotham was able to call upon his years of experience to hold out the field with a margin of over one second and took the flag ahead of Bowyer and Fowler.

AA Staff

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SPEEDWAY

DUELL’S PAIN IS KOIVUMAKI’S GAIN

THE WAS no stopping the visitors from cleaning up the NSW SSA Street Stocks Title at Grafton Speedway.

South Australian Jason Duell was the standout driver, but a late mechanical issue forced him out of the running, and it handed the lead and the eventual the win to Northern Territory’s Jake Koivumaki (above).

Not regarded as one of the favourites, Koivumaki, had travelled the furthest distance of nearly 3,000 kilometres one-way from his home base of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to compete.

He was up front all night and therefore able to be in a position to benefit from the misfortune of Duell with just six laps remaining.

Duell suffered a broken rear suspension arm aboard his Holden Commodore on lap 23 and was forced to retire.

It was Koivumaki’s biggest win as he joined Terry Reichstein, who won the 2004 South Australian Title in Super Sedans, as the only Northern Territory-based drivers to win a Speedway Sedans Australia sanctioned title interstate.

Behind him was Lismore-based veteran Luke Gray, while third place on the podium was filled by John Stoward with Luke McNabb and Rylee Smith completing the top five.

Earlier in the night, Peter Thompson, Chris Corbett and Koivumaki won the heats.

But Thompson’s night was brought to a premature end after the second heat race, due to mechanical issues, while Queensland Champion Chris Corbett crashed out of the third heat race in spectacular fashion.

In the V8 Dirt Modified action, it was local Andrew Firth (left) who made a pleasing return to the class by taking out the feature-race spoils.

After sitting out most of this current season, Firth managed to take pole position and pace the field for the entire 20-lap distance.

Despite their best efforts, youngsters Seiton Connor Young and Luke Dunn had to settle for the minor positions on the podium.

A small but strong field of AMCA Nationals resulted in local Tony Blanch continue his outstanding form.

Blanch comfortably collected his third Grafton Speedway win of the season over Matt Hardy.

The support class feature-race wins were shared between Brodie King (RSA Four Cylinder Sedans), Seiton Connor Young (Modlites) and the night’s double feature-race winner Jackson Bailey in both the SSA Junior Sedans and RSA Junior Sedans classes.

The next Grafton Speedway meeting is on March 2930 for the Australian Modlites Title.

AA Staff

SIMPSON SURVIVES DRAMA HORSHAM’S DANIEL Simpson (pictured) overcame a drama-filled evening of Modified Sedan racing to collect the 2024 Ern Overall Memorial Trophy at Ballarat’s Redline Raceway.

Simpson started the 25-lap feature race from the front after winning the first of six heats and narrowly prevailing in the top 8 pole shuffle.

But his run to victory was far from straightforward, with Darren Cockerill and Matt Gerlach both mounting a stiff challenge before the latter retired with mechanical problems.

Ultimately, Simpson was able to hold out Cockerill in a tight finish, with Ballarat’s Darcy Wilson finishing third.

“We had a clean run through the heats and were able to win the pole shuffle, but there was a bit of track water on the pole line, which made the early laps tough,” Simpson said.

“It was getting frustrating having to keep stopping with all the caution periods, so it was good to get some clear running at the end.

“I know Ern was a well-respected businessman in Ballarat and a passionate speedway racer, so it’s an honour to win

42 I www.autoaction.com.au

Image: DEAN MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY the trophy that has been created in his memory.”

The feature race was an attritional affair, with only 10 of the 23 starters making it to the chequered flag.

The preliminary heat races were less chaotic overall, although there was a lengthy stoppage in Heat 4 when Chris Reick and Kye Waters collided, with the former’s car rolling over. Amazingly, both cars were repaired and finished the feature race sixth and ninth respectively.

Also on the program were the SDAV

(Speedway Drivers Association of Victoria) Hot Rods, Street Stocks and Standard Saloons.

The Hot Rods saw a mixture of results in the three heats, with Shannon Meakins, Kali Hovey and Tony Green all scoring victories, but in the feature it was Meakins who took advantage of a touch-and-go moment with a lapped car to snatch the lead from Andrew Kemp, who also lost the runner-up place to Brendan Roberts.

Meakins was awarded the Ted Alabacus Memorial Trophy for his efforts.

“I had a ripper start to the night in the first heat, but I got stuck down the back in the second heat and had a flat tyre in Heat 3,” Meakins said.

“I started down the back in the final and I had to battle hard – everyone was driving really well. When Andrew and I came up to the lapped car, he got stuck on the inside and I took the outside, which turned out to be the right call.”

In the Street Stocks, Ron Davey, Bhoe Patterson, Nick Chrystie, Scott Secombe and Mark Purdie all achieved heat wins, but the feature came down to a battle between Purdie and Nathan Fawns.

The duo swapped the lead several times before Purdie ultimately prevailed.

After a consistent run through the heats, Leigh Gooding’s car became stronger as the track evolved in the final, and he was able to charge his way onto the podium.

Mitch Foster went into the Standard Saloons feature race as the clear favourite, after winning all three of his heats.

However, he had to work hard for his win in the feature, with pressure from Scott Whittle and Jacob Vuilermin all the way to the chequered flag. AA Staff

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SPEEDWAY NEWS Jac Laneyrie from NSW visited Nyora and won F500 state series round. Images: NAPIER PHOTOGRAPHY/LOUISE NORMAN

RAMSDALE WINS STATE TITLE TRAVIS RAMSDALE drove his way to the Victorian Unlimited Sedans State title in a family one-two on a big night of racing at Nyora Speedway recently.

Three times Victorian Unlimited Sedan champion Warrick Taylor started strongly, winning the first of six heat races.

Both he and Peter Cox won two heats with Corey Ramsdale also victorious.

The title went on the line across 30 laps with Taylor taking control from the start, while Peter Farley retired for mechanical reasons.

But there was a big change on lap 18 when leader Taylor and Lennie Bonnici exited the race, which turned the top five upside down.

A spin to Cox sent him to the rear and, after all the drama, Ramsdale ended up in front and took the chequered flag at the end of 30 laps, winning from his brother Corey Ramsdale and Davey.

Victoria’s Formula 500 Association were also in town for Senior and Junior series racing.

The four heats races were shared by Aaron Cook, Bailey Stephens, Jac Laneyrie, and Jack Nolan, setting the scene for the 20-lap feature.

At the halfway mark Laneyrie had retained his lead with Stephens and Hart chasing.

But Laneyrie did not put a foot wrong across the final 10 laps to complete the victory.

In the Junior Formula 500 department, Hugo Chivell, Matilda Farrell, Paddy Lewis and Koby O’Shannassy all won heat races before a 15-lap final.

Chivell hit the lead but only until lap eight when Rusty Ponting hit the lead and did not let it go until the chequered flag in the all-green race, ahead of Stevens and Farrell.

Meanwhile, O’Shannassy set a blistering one lap time in Heat 4 of 14.906 to set a new record.

In Junior Sedan racing cars, the more experienced Top Star racers Tamieka Simpson and Tasmania Tyler Smith took victories in qualifying, while Jaylen Knight and Luke Morrison took the early honours in the New Star category.

In the eight-lap final, Brad Marshall made a fast start but Knight staked her claim on the race taking over again quickly and went on to secure a win in front of Morrison.

Competing for the Miles Cup, some of the state’s best Standard Saloon competitors hit the track, which also had points on offer for the state series. Jack Yeomans from Moe won the first of six qualifiers followed by Wayne Sheerman, Jack Braz and Rhys Lansdown, Jay Miles, and then his older brother Mark Miles from Catani.

Kacey Ingram started the 20-lap race from pole, while Jack Braz didn’t last long, retiring on lap two.

Harry Cecil tried numerous times to challenge Ingram, but the latter held on by less than half a second.

Only limited numbers raced in Dirt Modifieds and Daryl Hickson had the early pace, setting a new eight lap record.

He eventually took the honours from Shane Ardley and Rodan Blackman.

Racing returns to Nyora on March 2 with the Super Sedans and also Sports Sedans competing for the ‘Robert Bickham Memorial’.

AA Staff

LS POWERED SPRINTCARS GAINING MOMENTUM A NEW cost-effective way of getting involved in Sprintcar racing is building momentum throughout Australia, and one of those is team owner and engine man Leigh Holman.

The Cairns-based Holman, who started his Sprintcar racing career during the 1980s, enthuses that the LS-engine Sprintcar concept has refreshed his interest in the sport.

He feels it is a cheaper and efficient

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around every 20 race meetings, so it eliminates much of the upkeep cost.

“They most certainly aren’t ‘set and forget’ type engines, as they still require responsible care and maintenance, but it isn’t as strenuous, full on, or expensive as maintaining a 410 Sprintcar engine.

“You still get the buzz of racing a Sprintcar at speed, but at the same time it isn’t breaking the budget.”

MORE MOTORSPORT COMING TO BATHURST BATHURST IS full of motorsport right now, with both the 12 Hour and 500 taking place, but the action does not stop there.

A week after the Supercars season begins, the Bathurst Showgrounds will host the Bathurst Long Track Masters event.

The motocross event attracted well over 100 riders last year and a similar amount is expected, with no less than 16 separate classes on offer covering from juniors to seniors.

“We have riders coming from around Australia to compete in the various classes and it will be a great show,” enthused Panorama Motorcycle Club Wade Carter.

The Bathurst Long Track Masters event continues the town’s long-running history of two-wheel racing which dates back to 1925 while in 1951 it hosted a Speedway Test Match between Australia and England.

Travis Ramsdale - New Unlimited Sedan Victorian Champion.

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way of going racing, with his driver Brodie Davis (above) finishing second against 410 Sprintcars at Maryborough proof it can compete.

“With a properly prepared and maintained LS engine, it has a very long life, possibly only needing a basic rebuild approximately every 50-100 race meetings,” he said.

“Unlike its big brother, the 410s, which are usually being rebuilt at

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WISEMAN MOTORSPORT EXPANDING

WISEMAN MOTORSPORT will expand to a two-car team for the upcoming 2024 season, with Cameron Jaenke joining team owner Kyle Wiseman (above) in Wingless Sprints.

Darwin, Northern Territory-based team owner Wiseman, who is entering his fifth season in Wingless Sprints, is looking forward to fielding a two-car team with Jaenke, who has been competing in Wingless Sprints for the past two seasons, having also won the Formula 500 Northern Territory Title victory, but is looking forward to the challenge.

“Going from a one to a two-car operation is going to be quite the change for the Wiseman Motorsport team,” he said.

“But we have a fantastic team behind us, which includes pit crew and valued sponsors, to make a go of it and try and compete at the front of the field.”

Jaenke is determined to be a frontrunner at his new home in 2024.

“I’m aiming to have both Wiseman Motorsport cars competing at the front of the field, and Cameron shares that goal, too,” the 26-year-old enthused.

“We have two competitive cars and enough spares to back us up throughout the season, so we have set our goals on trying to contend for the local club championship here in Darwin and also having a good run at the Northern Territory Title.”

The 2024 season gets underway for the Wiseman Motorsport team on May 11 at Northline Speedway.

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NATIONALS WRAP

HOBART SPORTING CAR CLUB TURNS 70

By Martin Agatyn

ONE OF Australia’s oldest continually running motorsport clubs, the Hobart Sporting Car Club, is celebrating seven decades of racing.

The club, formed in 1954, conducted hillclimbs and trials on closed public roads in its early days, but quickly recognised the need for a permanent circuit.

At that point, Tasmania didn’t have a permanent circuit, with racing conducted at airstrips at Valleyfield and Quorn Hall, and of course, from 1953, the famous Longford Grand Prix Circuit, rated as the fastest in Australia at the time, but also not a permanent track.

In 1957, after several years of concerted fundraising, the Hobart Sporting Car Club (HSCC) bit the proverbial bullet and land was leased from Calvin Morrisby on his Baskerville property near Old Beach, 20km from Hobart.

The club was granted a 100-year lease for the princely sum of one shilling (10c) a year.

Form then on, the history of the HSCC and the Baskerville Raceway, which still has a turn named Calvin’s corner in a nod to its beginnings, have been inextricably linked.

The first race meeting on February 9, 1958 attracted a massive crowd, estimated at around 20,000 people.

The track is now Australia’s longest running continual licensed racetrack – a fact the HSCC is very proud of.

At that point it was little more than a track in a paddock, but had the wonderful outlook of a natural amphitheatre, making it popular with spectators.

When Calvin Morrisby died in the 1980s, the land was sold to a local consortium of motorsport-minded local identities keen to see racing continue at the site.

The Hobart Sporting Car Club retained a 25% interest in the new company for a nominal fee.

In the late 1980s the consortium decided to sell the circuit and the Hobart Sporting Car Club took over ownership, which included a considerable mortgage of $275,000, or more than half a million dollars in today’s terms.

Despite hosting many successful rounds of national series and stand alone touring car and sports car events, the financial burden was proving too much for the club to handle by the end of the 1990s.

In 2000, a new company was formed, made up of 35 individuals and Tasmanian motorsport clubs as shareholders of a new entity, known as Motorsports Tasmania.

The company purchased the assets of the Hobart Sporting Car Club, paid off its debt and began operating the Baskerville circuit, with profits being used to maintain and improve the track.

Motorsports Tasmania also purchased the Symmons Plains circuit in the early 2000s.

In 2013, the Baskerville Foundation was launched with the aim of raising $600,000 to pay for a muchneed track resurfacing within five years.

The target was far exceeded, with more than $1.08 million paying for the resurfacing in December 2016.

The Baskerville Historics is the club’s – and the track’s – biggest annual event, so it was only fitting the 70th anniversary meeting on January 27 and 28, took on an historic theme.

The now 70 year-old Hobart Sporting Car Club has a bright future and will this year host and organise three rounds of the six-round circuit racing championships, as well as the annual historic meeting, the Tasmanian Drift Series, the popular Baskerville 1000 regularity enduro event and numerous track days and other events.

Baskerville today – both Tasmanian circuits are owned an operated by Motorsports Tasmania.

Top and above: Competitor line-up and programme from Baskerville’s opening meeting in 1958.

Images: HOBART SCC

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Steve Banks snared the points in HQs. Top: a pair of wins was enough for Brian Finn to take the Vic V8 win. Above: Jake Rowe took the Formula Vee points after a tight contest. Images: REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

SANDOWN KICK STARTS VICTORIAN STATE SERIES THE 2024 VICTORIAN STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS GOT UNDER WAY AT SANDOWN OVER THE WEEKEND OF THE FEBRUARY 17 AND 18. DESPITE THE EARLY START TO THE SEASON, SOME SOLID FIELDS COMPETED OVER THE WEEKEND WITH A COMBINATION OF DOMINANT PERFORMANCES AND MIXED RESULTS ACROSS THE 11 CATEGORIES. STEVEN DEVRIES WAS ON HAND TO COVER THE ACTION FOR AUTO ACTION ...

FORMULA FORD

CODY MAYNES-RUTTY chalked up a pair of race wins and a second-place finish to top the weekend in Formula Ford Duratec, with the third race win going to Jack Bussey where the top three were separated by a quarter of a second.

It was another trouble-free weekend for Richard Davison in Kent class, continuing where he left off in 2023 with three wins.

Andrew Torti and Gavin Dumas joined Davison on the podium twice, and Jarrod Hurst and Adrian Wilkinson once each.

SALOON CARS

SPORTS SEDANS

DEAN CAMM (Chevrolet Corvette) swept the weekend in dominant fashion. He gained the upper hand against Jim Pollocina (VE Commodore) at the start of all three races and kept him in the rearview mirror at every turn as they both pulled clear of the chasing pack.

2023 champion Francois Habib (VZ Commodore) bagged two third place finishes, but succumbed to Brett Dickie’s turbocharged Honda Prelude in the final race with two laps to go and could not find his way back past.

SHAWN JAMIESON (AU Falcon) continued his love affair at Sandown with pole, but Commodore drivers Kerran Pridmore and Travis Lindorff made him earn his three race wins as they kept up the pressure but failed to make Jamieson crack.

Last season’s champion Daniel Johnson (AU Falcon) banked valuable points with three third places – the last one of those coming by virtue of Pridmore making minor contact with the concrete wall at turn four, that saw him come home in sixth.

VIC V8s

FORMULA VEE

TWO-TIME CHAMPION Jamie Westaway slotted into first place in race one’s opening laps and held sway over Mark Verdino and Cameron Beller for the win.

Westaway doubled up on Sunday morning ahead of Verdino, with 2023 champion Chris Lewis-Williams replacing Beller in third.

Westaway made it a hat trick of wins in the afternoon, but a hard collision with the wall

WITH THE last two state champions both absent, this year’s title was predicted to be close. Nick Jones led a group of four cars to the line in the opening race, keeping Jake Rowe and Lee Partridge at bay whilst polesitter Ash Quiddington fell to fourth.

A racing incident with Partridge on race two’s final lap brought Jones’ bid for a second win to a halt, giving Quiddington the win ahead of Partridge and Rowe.

Jones started in 21st place for Race 3, going on to finish a sensational second just behind Rowe and ahead of Partridge.

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NEW SOUTH-WELSHMAN Luke Wall (Holden Monaro) opened the weekend with a well-timed pass on Brian Finn (Holden Commodore) to take an unexpected win – the pair 30 seconds clear of third-placed Queenslander John Adams (Ford XY GT).

Finn comfortably took both wins on Sunday as Wall failed to suit up. Adams and Greg Lynch (HSV GTS) picked up a second place each, with Aaron Wheatley (VY Commodore) earning himself two third places.

PORSCHE 944s

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brought Verdino’s weekend to an end, gifting Lewis-Williams second place and Beller third.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

SUPERCARS ENDURO driver Jaylyn Robotham held off the advances of Bradley James and Harry Tomkins over race one’s 11-lap distance, while Hugo Simpson marched his way from 29th to sixth.

An early Safety Car briefly paused Race 2 but did not prevent Robotham securing a second win ahead of Simpson and James.

Simpson spoiled a maximum pointspaying weekend for Robotham with Race 3’s victory, but Robotham’s narrow second place finish ahead of James was enough for round honours.

SPORTS CARS

POLE-SITTER DANIEL Reynolds (Porsche 991) recorded a comfortable opening race win as Stephen Sluga (Porsche 991.1 GT3 Cup) and Andrew Smith (Porsche 997.2 Cup) came home second and third, respectively.

A pair of Sunday wins for Andrew Hall (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) following his opening race DNF gave him a decent haul of points, but Reynolds’ consistency with two second places to go with his race win was more than enough to top the round.

HQ HOLDENS

ANDREW MAGILTON devoured two of the three race wins on offer but was

pressured into a mistake in Race 2 that allowed Steve Banks to finally snare that elusive first win in his newly liveried car.

Multiple podiums for Banks and Ryan Woods along with two fourth places and a third for Kenneth Wright kept the overall points close, but saw Banks leave the event with the series lead.

MG & INVITED BRITISH SPORTS PHIL CHESTER (MG B GT V8) roared away from the field and was never challenged – another driver who clean swept the weekend.

In his wake, Richard Milligan (MGB V8 Roadster) finished second on all three occasions, with the remaining podium spot filled by Danny Ciama (MGB GT V8) once, and Michael Trathan (MG Midget) twice.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

BRETT TRENGROVE (Chevrolet Camaro) may have swept the weekend, but it was far from easy. First, he held off fellow Camaro-drivers Trevor Talbot and Adrian Moyle in a closely fought first race.

Trengrove then edged out Moyle in the second hit-out as they finished well clear of third-placed Domenic Leo (Chevrolet Camaro). The same podium trio repeated in Race 3 with Trengrove’s margin a little more comfortable at three seconds.

Two wins and a second equalled overall victory for Cody Maynes-Rutty in Formula Ford

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NATIONALS WRAP SHAW OFF TO FLYING START

RX8 CUP

RIC SHAW has sent a statement by taking out the opening round of the 2024 RX8 Cup at a sunny Phillip Island as part of the PIARC Sprint event.

A solid 19-car field was greeted by sunny skies and Shaw took pole by two tenths with a 1:51.9 over reigning champ Justin Barnes.

Barnes got a good start in the hotly contested opening race but slumped from first to fourth after small contact with Shaw at Miller Corner.

It proved decisive as Shaw took the honours before going back-to-back with a dominant lights to flag drive in Race 2.

Barnes had to scrap desperately to secure second with two moves at Lukey Heights on Jack Pennacchia and Brock Paine.

Barnes then took the Race 3 victory despite being second on the road to Shaw.

Shaw received a 5s penalty for a Safety Car restart infringement following David Grice’s off at Southern Loop.

As a result he dropped to fourth while Pennacchia secured second after some tough battles.

Despite starting on the second row, Shaw shot back to the lead by Turn 2 with a strong start.

This left Barnes to settle for second while Paine jumped Pennacchia.

After a competitive weekend of racing, Shaw leads Barnes by five points heading to Round 2 at Winton on April 26-28.

SUPERKARTS

THE 2024 SuperKart season fired to life where Nicholas Schembri was a dominant force.

No one could catch the #45 as Schembri dominated all four races, being untroubled to take both outright and 250 International.

On most occasions Garry Haywood was second best, aside from Race 2 when he retired, which allowed Matthew Denysenko to the runner-up.

Bradley Tremain took a hat-trick of 125 wins only for a DNS in Race 3 to deny him a perfect weekend.

There was nothing in it in 125 Max Heavy with Colin McIntyre, Stuart Robertson, Tony Moot and Martin Anderson winning a race each.

125 Max Light was a thrilling arm wrestle between Sanuja Perera and Russ Occhipinti

Tom Shaw fired back to form in the opening round of the RX8 Cup at Phillip Island.

Nicholas Schembri was in a league of his own in the SuperKarts.

who split the race amid some photo finishes.

Joe Brancati was a dominant force in 125 Max, winning three of the races with Cameron Austen the only other victor.

Oliver Bonaccorso ended up claiming Stock Honda despite both Jeff Duckworth and James Strah also being victorious.

PIARC SUPERSPRINT

A SOLID field of 66 cars rolled up to the seaside circuit for the first PIARC SuperSprint of the new year.

The field was split into four groups which enjoyed six runs each squeezed onto Sunday at Phillip Island.

The fight for fastest honours was contested by a big field of Hypercars and Dean Crooke’s 1:34.8030 beat Luke Claver by three-tenths.

Andrew Cook in a Ford won Closed Racing Cars over 2500cc by over a second, while Paul Lummis comfortably won the up to 2500cc class.

Michael Seferis won Modified Over 3000cc by a huge 9s margin while Matt Gower’s Renault was similarly dominant in 1601-2000cc.

Modified 2001-3000cc was much tighter with Andrew Campbell beating George Whenn by three-tenths.

Tony Costa and David Hawkes won Standard 1601-2000cc and 2001-3000cc respectively.

Matthew Lehmann, Simon Latimer and Gregory Bass won their respective small classes. Thomas Miles

Darren Steeden in his colourful Ford Escort leads the Super TT field into Turn 2.

Images: RICCIARDO BENVENUTI

BATTLES REBORN A NEW Motor Racing Australia season burst into life at Sydney Motorsport Park which saw a number of on track rivalries return.

No less than five categories took on the circuit’s shorter Druitt layout in the early February race meeting which started the five-round season.

In the Hyundai Excels Blake Tracey recorded a clean sweep, but had to fight for it.

Whilst he won Race 2 comfortably, Races 1 and 3 were nail-biters with Monique Sciberras coming with half a second of glory on both occasions. Caleb Hefren was third on all three occasions.

Herring Racing controlled the first fight for MX5 Cup by winning all three races.

The first two were professional as the team recorded a pair of one-two finishes with Tim leading Jett Herring in formation on both occasions.

However, although Herring Racing completed the clean sweep in Race 3, it was not completely smooth sailing.

Jett Herring was fighting for second with Sarah Medley until the pair tumbled down the order at the halfway mark.

This promoted Jacob Giovenco to second and he pushed hard for the win but came just shy of 3s short of Tim Herring who completed the perfect weekend.

The opening Super TT race was a competitive affair in which Darren Steeden and Jimmy Tran tussled for glory.

Steeden led off the line in the Ford Escort before Tran’s Honda Integra hit the lead on lap two and held it for all the way until the final lap.

However, Tran was demoted to second due to a 5s post-race penalty which handed the win to Steeden.

Things got more frustrating for Tran as he also led Race 2 only to slump to fourth

inside the final four laps.

The dramatic finale saw Steeden cruise to a second straight win by the comfortable 9s margin over Myles Jones.

Although Tran fought back to second in the final race, he could not stop Steeden from completing a hat-trick.

For the majority of the weekend the #1 of Rob Boaden was in a league of its own in the Alfa Romeo/E36 class.

After taking pole by eight-tenths, Boaden controlled the first 9-lap race by 10s.

He looked on track to do it all again in Race 2, only to retire on the penultimate lap, handing the win to Jeff Barnes.

Despite the retirement, Boaden needed just five laps to return to the lead and take another impressive win in Race 3.

The Pulsars category was owned by the Craig family with either Jamie or Josh standing on the top step.

They went head-to-head in the 9-lap opener and Jamie overcame Josh by just half a second.

Race 2 was slightly more calmer as Jamie Craig led home his fellow TC Racing driver by just over a second having led every lap.

However, the #1 rose to the top in the Race 3 finale as Josh Craig kept Jamie at bay, but only just by just a tenth of a second.

The second round of the Motor Racing Australia season is on SMP’s Grand Prix Circuit on May 17-18.

Thomas Miles

Tim Herring played a big role in sealing a Herring Racing clean sweep in the MX5 Cup. Above: Josh Craig rides the kerb on his way to a Pulsars win.

2023 Series Champion Justin Barnes leads the feild into turn 2. Images: REBECCA HIND/REVVED

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Taunton and Fogg head the pack into Turn 1.

Images: MTR IMAGES

TAUNTON VS FOGG IT WAS a tale of two in the Combined Sedans support races at the Bathurst 12 Hour with Geoff Taunton in his MARC car fighting tooth and nail against a Ford Mustang driven by Angus Fogg.

In the first of three 20-minute races, polesitter Taunton led into the first turn, however up Mountain Straight Fogg’s Mustang showed its strength. It not only drew alongside but took the lead before the braking zone of Turn 2.

However, Taunton, mighty strong under brakes reclaimed the lead around the outside and pulled a margin on the first two laps.

At the end of lap two, Taunton led Fogg by 2s, Mark Duggan sat a further 4.5s back ahead of Scott Cameron and Paul Boschert.

After several laps the Safety Car was called, Duggan in his Aston Martin came to a halt at Skyline, his front-left tyre had let go. The race finished behind the Safety Car, Taunton took the win from Fogg, while Cameron inherited third in his Holden VS Commodore.

Race 2 was a classic, a replica from Race 1 occurred on the opening lap into Turn 2.

Fogg briefly held the lead before Taunton shot back around the outside under brakes.

In the opening laps Taunton started to edge away from Fogg, however the New Zealander in second was much braver lapping the traffic and this brought him into contention.

At one stage the lead was 5s, but into Turn 2 on the penultimate lap Taunton was forced to defend and was forced into an

error, he ran wide allowing Fogg to sweep around the outside and take the lead into The Cutting.

However now it was Fogg who was forced to defend – on the last lap Taunton briefly took the lead around the outside at Turn 1, but Fogg’s power advantage saw him quickly move back past.

Taunton was applying the pressure and forced Fogg to defend into The Chase and then again into the final turn, Fogg locked up and ran wide, Taunton nipped back up the inside and stole the race win by less than 0.2s.

However, post-race, Taunton was handed a 5s penalty for going faster than the 2m 09s lap time barrier allowed in Combined Sedans, dropping him to second. Cameron came home in third, while notably Duggan

recovered to finish in eighth.

Race 3 saw Fogg lead early from Taunton as the two exchanged fastest laps at the head of the field.

Mid-race Lib Palermo ran wide at The Chase, he lost control of the car and fired back into Mark Griffith and then the concrete wall requiring a Safety Car. The race resumed with two laps remaining and Fogg immediately pulled a margin over Taunton.

However, the Kiwi’s car shed a wheel (wheel-stud breakage) at McPhillamy Park and he crashed spectacularly into the concrete wall.

The race was therefore called one lap early with Taunton taking the win from Duggan, who finish an impressive second and Boschert in third. Dan McCarthy

LAWLOR IN CONTROL VETERAN RACER Terry Lawlor (pictured) took out the Group S round at the Bathurst 12 Hour by claiming two of the three race wins in his Shelby GT350 Ford Mustang.

Group S ran three 20-minute races, one on Friday and two before the Top 10 Shootout on Saturday.

In a unique concept, qualifying set the grid for Race 3; the Race 1 grid was determined with the top 10 cars in qualifying being inverted.

When the lights went out at the start of Race 1, the man who started fourth, David Cunneen, put two wheels through the grass to take the lead into Turn 1.

Cunneen pulled a substantial lead of 5.2s before Lawlor made his way up to second place.

Lawlor very quickly caught Cunneen on Conrod Straight and Lawlor was soon followed through by Geoff Morgan in his Porsche 911 Carrera.

Initially Lawlor had a big margin over Morgan, but as the racing minutes ticked down the lead margin also dwindled.

On the final lap Morgan had cut the once

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3.2s lead to nothing, the fight was on, as was the fight for third between Doug Barbour and Andrew Purvis, as Cunneen dropped to sixth.

With just a couple of kilometres remaining Lawlor slowed down on Conrod Straight, allowing Morgan to fly by and take the win. Lawlor limped across the line in second – the reason? He had run out of fuel.

Third went to Purvis as Barbour too ran out of juice at the top of The Mountain.

Race 2 saw the top 10 finishing order from Race 1 inverted to set the grid.

Morgan knew he had to make hay early and did just that, he made his way up from ninth to fourth by the time he got to Forrest’s Elbow and with significantly more power than those ahead, he swallowed up the top three on Conrod Straight to take the lead.

Lawlor wasn’t far behind; he completed lap one in third and took second place from Purvis into Turn 1.

Lawlor caught Morgan over the top of The Mountain and took the lead going down Conrod Straight.

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From there Lawlor controlled the race, but he was held up by lapped traffic and opened the door in the closing laps.

However, Morgan himself was held up and allowed Lawlor to take the win by 0.8s, Purvis finishing third 39s behind the lead pair.

Race 3 was a calmer affair. Lawlor made a good start and led into Turn 1; from there he bolted.

He pulled out a 6s lead over Morgan, Barbour and Purvis.

The top four remained the same until a collision at McPhillamy Park between Hugh Harrison and John DalCollo which saw the latter get stuck in the gravel and require the Safety Car. Sadly, the race did not go back to green allowing Lawlor to claim the win from Morgan and Barbour.

Dan McCarthy

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NATIONALS WRAP Ben Bargwanna leads Josh Buchan through Dandenong Road on his way to a special win.

Image: REBECCA HIND REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

PEUGEOT PERFECT THE 2024 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia season fired to life and there was only one make to have under the sunny Sandown skies – a Peugeot.

Peugeot swept up all three races in the season opener as Ben Bargwanna and Jordan Cox made their championship intentions clear with some special drives.

A 16-car field arrived at the historic Melbourne circuit for the early start to the year with some new teams and faces in different colours.

Peugeot’s Sandown speed was evident as soon as wheels were in motion as GRM’s Aaron Cameron took out both practice sessions.

But come qualifying Josh Buchan put car #1 into P1 by topping a dramatic qualifying.

Driveshaft dramas forced Cox to start last in the opener, while Will Harris’ weekend ended early, pulling out with sore ribs, which meant Wall Racing called up John Martin as the sub.

When the chequered flag fell, less than a tenth covered the top three but both Bargwanna and Zac Soutar just fell short of snatching pole from Buchan, while rookie Ryan Casha was an impressive fourth.

Buchan led away off the line but the new #1’s time in P1 did not even last a single lap.

Bargwanna was a man on a mission as the #71 Peugeot launched a counterattack on the reigning champ.

After Buchan did not perfect Dandenong Road, Bargwanna came up alongside the HMO Customer Racing driver for the final chicane.

Bargwanna held tough on the outside of Turn 11 to be on the inside for the following left hander.

The aggressive move paid off as he caught Buchan napping and blazed on to glory.

Despite Buchan initially hanging around, Bargwanna soon proved to be untouchable and charged to a crushing 6s win as Buchan “had nothing” in response.

Cameron was an early mover surging to third but dropped out of contention due to a broken alternator belt.

This promoted Tony D’Alberto into third place having held off Soutar early on. Cox put in one of the drives of the day to soar from last to fifth, while Indonesian rookie Glenn Nirwan explored the Sandown countryside.

Importantly, Martin managed to bump his

way past HMO’s Tom Oliphant to secure 10th and pole position for Race 2 where the first five rows on the grid were flipped.

But the reshuffling of the order did not matter as Cox shot like a tracer bullet when the lights went out.

Despite being on the third row, he put the power down and by the time the field got to Turn 1, the #33 soared around the outside and into the lead ahead of Clay Richards and Casha as Martin dropped to fifth.

An immediate Safety Car was required to clean up newcomer Marcus LaDelle, who was spun at Turn 4, with Nirwan and Oliphant also caught in the crossfire.

The clean-up created what turned out to be a nail-biting six-lap sprint to the chequered flag.

Cox could not shake off Richards after the restart, with the Cupra hounding the back of the #33.

Despite Richards coming close on a number of occasions at Dandenong Road, including the last lap when both leaders almost went off, Cox had an answer for every challenge, determined not to let a first win in two years slip by.

Heading into the final race, the fight for round

honours was on a knife-edge with the top four of Buchan, Cox, Bargwanna and Soutar covered by just two points.

The reigning champion had Bargwanna for company again during the early stages and this time the #71 308 got the jump.

However, this time, Buchan hung around being the only driver to record a 1:15s lap time.

But as the race went on, his challenge waned and Bargwanna cruised to another joyous win.

Behind the lead pair, Cox had secured a safe third in what proved to be a quiet end to the weekend.

But there was nothing sedate about Bargwanna’s celebrations as he marked his maiden TCR round win in style.

He now heads to Symmons Plains as the championship leader on March 15-17.

Thomas Miles 2024 SUPERCHEAP AUTO TCR AUSTRALIA CHAMPIONSHIP 1 B. Bargwanna 125 points 2 J. Buchan 123 3 J. Cox 119 4 Z. Soutar 116 5 R. Casha 108

GOING THE DISTANCE THE OPENING round of the 2024 Australian Formula Open season was all about going the distance at Sandown.

Although Miles Bromley dominated the majority of the weekend, it was Kyle Evans who had the last laugh, getting the Race 3 win and sneaking to the round win.

Bromley started strong in qualifying where he edged out Trent Grubel by 0.08s while Evans was fourth behind Ryan Macmillan.

Bromley then bossed the opening race, taking a lights to flag win from Grubel, who did pose the odd threat across the 11 laps.

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The #9 driver then carried on his momentum by taking out a 7s triumph in Race 2 over Evans who rose from fourth to second.

But the big victim was Grubel, who got tangled up with Ryan Macmillan at Turn 1 and failed to finish.

Bromley appeared destined for a clean sweep after passing Evans, until a mishap at Turn 1 saw him spin out.

This handed the lead to Evans, who kept a hungry Macmillan at

bay after the latter made a last-lap lunge.

Grubel put the foot down to charge from the back to third.

The Australian Formula Open season returns at Winton on April 26-28.

Thomas Miles

Kyle Evans made a late charge to steal the opening round win Image: REBECCA HIND REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

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 James Moffat kicked up from where he left off in 2023.

Image: REBECCA HIND REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

Image: REBECCA HIND REVVED PHOTOGRAPHY

PRODUCTION CARS - A TWO-HORSE RACE

MOFFAT MOTORS THROUGH THE TRANS AM MADNESS SOME BIG names joined Trans Am but it was once again James Moffat who led the way as chaos unfolded behind him at Sandown.

A host of Supercars stars including Todd Hazelwood, James Golding, Tim Slade and Jordan Boys joined the competitive 15-car field to build anticipation for the first round of the new season.

Despite being on Trans Am debut, Golding rung the neck of his #31 Ford Mustang to start his rookie race from pole position.

In a tightly-contested qualifying, where the first eight cars were covered by less than half a second, Golding was able to edge out reigning champ Moffat by a tenth.

This set the scene for the former GRM Supercars co-drivers to go head to head in their GRM Trans Am Mustangs in the opening race.

At the rolling start, Moffat got the jump but only after the pair went side-by-side through the first two corners.

The #34 hung tough on the outside for the opening left hander before completing the job by muscling out the #31 on the inside at the right-handed Turn 2.

Moffat was unable to shake off Golding all race, with the rookie under the reigning champ’s wing throughout the 15-lap journey.

Behind them, Nash Morris had jumped Jordan Boys for third and this was the status quo until Tim Hayman brought out the Safety Car on lap five.

Hayman spun after a conrod bolt broke and ruined his only engine, ruling the young gun out of the entire weekend.

Racing restarted on lap 10 and Moffat kept Golding at bay while Ben Grice went off and Edan Thornburrow spun Jackson Rice at Dandenong Road.

Golding continued to apply the pressure

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Todd Hazelwood showed pace but could not avoid the chaos of Race 3. but, despite the odd peak, he fell two-tenths short after a tense battle as Morris got the podium.

The second race under the Saturday sun saw Moffat take the lead on the inside, this time from Golding.

But there was drama just behind them as Elliott Barbour and Boys went side-by-side fighting for a top four place through the Turns 2 and 3 chicane.

With Barbour on the outside of the right hander, he was forced onto the grass and missed Turn 3 as he bounced across the infield.

When the #75 Camaro returned to the tarmac it cut in front of Hazelwood before firing into the outside fence.

Despite the heavy hit, he continued as Morris made an aggressive dive-bomb on Golding to steal second.

Not only did it demote Golding but it also effectively ended his race with the #31 heading to the pits with left front damage from contact.

By lap 8 Morris was on the defence against Boys and, three laps later, the #67 Mustang was reduced to a crawl with a suspected gearbox issue.

Morris’ issue released Boys, who was on the charge and came within three-tenths of Moffat, but once again the #34 prevailed.

There was also a tight fight for third that was won by Hazelwood, who overcame the

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likes of Slade and Cleary.

Moffat got another perfect getaway in Race three but as he led the field through the Turns 2-3-4 funnel chaos unfolded behind him.

Boys had worked his way up to second but was on the outside of Turn 4 with Hazelwood having a look on the inside.

But beneath them both was Golding and three into one didn’t go, with contact between Golding and Hazelwood sparking a chain reaction.

Boys spun in front of the field, leaving many with nowhere to go and suddenly there was a car park featuring nine cars at the start of the back straight.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to avoid the chaos, Barbour fired into the outside wall.

The big winners from the bedlam were Elliott Cleary, Rice and Tom Davis, who avoided it all and found themselves in the top four, having moved up five, nine and 11 spots respectively.

Despite carrying front-end damage, Hazelwood charged up to third when racing resumed, only to lock up and get stuck in the sand pit at Dandenong Road.

The excursion set up a one-lap dash to the chequered and Moffat kept cool to complete a hat-trick, while young guns Cleary and Rice were equally thrilled to join him on the podium.

The Trans Am field has a month for the battle scars to heal before Round 2 at Symmons Plains on March 15-17.

Thomas Miles TRANS AM CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 1: J. Moffat 140 points 2: E. Cleary 90 3: J. Boys 88 4: T. Slade 76 5: B. Grice 73

THE OPENING round of the 2024 Australian Production Cars season at Sandown was dominated by two BMWs. The four races were shared by the #118 M2 of Dean Campbell and Cameron Crick, plus the #21 of Simon Hodges and Jayden Ojeda in the #21 M4.

The small 10-car field had little time to settle in, with three of the four races being squeezed into Saturday.

Hodges/Ojeda landed the first blow by taking pole with a 1:15.6171 by two-tenths over Campbell/Crick while it was almost a second and a half to the next car of Iain Sherrin.

Ojeda made the most of the track position to convert pole to a 5s victory over Crick.

Race 2 proved to be a competitive battle with Hodges slipping from first to third.

This meant Campbell and Sherrin went head to head for flory and Campbell prevailed just by a single second.

The third and final race of Saturday was a two-horse race with Ojeda and Crick charging away from the pack.

Despite Ojeda applying the blowtorch, he could not find a way past Crick, who held on by eighttenths of a second while more than 30s back was Grant Sherrin.

The fourth and final race on Sunday proved to be the decider in the tight contest for overall round honours.

Campbell produced a faultless drive to take the round with a commanding 6s win over Iain Sherrin, while Hodges fell to fourth.

Paolo Buccini won A1, Nathan Callaghan dominated A2, as Ben Gersekowski, Allan Jarvis and David Bailey won their respective classes.

Round 2 of the Australian Production Car series is at The Bend on May 31-June 2.

Thomas Miles

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INTERNATIONAL

A DRAMATIC WEEK FOR SVG TO SAY Shane van Gisbergen has had a rollercoaster week in NASCAR competition would be an incredibe understatement.

In order to make his debut in the secondtier Xfinity Series van Gisbergen had to perform double duties by qualifying for the fourth-tier ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona a couple of days earlier. This was to gain approval to race in the Xfinity Series race.

In total, 50 cars were vying to qualify in 40 slots – the fastest 34 automatically qualified, while the remaining six places were determined by the car owner’s points.

In qualifying, cars are sent out in groups.

However, immediately, SVG hit problems – his car did not immediately launch out of the pit lane, and he crucially lost the slipstream of the cars ahead.

As a result, van Gisbergen effectively had one hand tied behind his back. His time

was only good enough for 35th position, 1.9s from pole.

To make matters worse, his Pinnacle Motorsports Chevrolet SS was not granted entry in the final six places. His week looked to be over before it had even begun.

However, the #7 CCM Racing Toyota of Eric Caudell, which had qualified comfortably inside the top 20, withdrew from the race. Out of nowhere, the reigning Supercars Champion was elevated onto the grid.

The New Zealander made a blinding start, from 35th on the grid, and made positions easily in the opening laps.

He sat 20th when disaster struck on lap four. Up ahead, Toni Bredinger who sat seventh, was spun in front of the pack.

As a result, a massive multi-car pile-up

occurred collecting 10 drivers, one of which was the #28 of van Gisbergen, who was slap bang in the middle of the melee.

“I tried to slow up, but I got run over hard from behind,” SVG told MRN Radio.

“It was fun for those few laps – I went three wide a couple of times and felt really comfortable, so I just wish it lasted longer.”

SVG did get back on the track but finished 26 laps down, classified in 28th place.

As he took part in the ARCA race, he was allowed to qualify for the Xfinity race – going out one-by-one seemed to suit van Gisbergen who had practice at this earlier in the week.

As always SVG impressed. At the time he set his lap, he went to the top of the order. He was shuffled back to fifth, but nevertheless a remarkable performance from the adaptable Kiwi.

Another run was set to take place, with an average of the two setting the grid, however rain called the second runs off.

Sadly, due to rain both SVG’s debut and the Daytona 500 was postponed until after AA went to print. Dan McCarthy

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

SLATER TAKES UAE F4 AFTER A disastrous penultimate round, Freddie Slater (right), recovered to win the UAE Formula 4 Championship, as Aussie Jack Beeton finished on a high.

In the penultimate round at the Yas Marina Circuit, Slater failed to score a single point in the three races and conceded his championship lead to Keanu Al Azhari, while Kean NakamuraBerta and Rashid Al Dhaheri closed into contention also.

Al Dhaheri won Race 3, while the others went to WEC driver Doriane Pin and Garbriel Stilp.

The final round took place at the Dubai Autodrome with Alpine F1 protégé Nakamura-Berta further buying himself into contention by winning the opening race of the weekend.

Al Dhaheri finished in second while American Alex Powell rounded out the podium finishers.

After taking the series lead the race before, Al Azhari’s opening race finishing position of ninth opened the

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Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES championship door once again.

Slater qualified well down the field, in 13th, and steadily moved up the order to finish inside the top five.

Race 2 saw Slater do the same again

– this time he came through the field to finish in fourth place beating all of his title rivals. All of a sudden things were looking a lot better for the Brit.

The final race was nail-biting. Off

the line, Nakamura-Berta lost his pole position advantage to Al Dhaheri who shot by on the run to Turn 1. Slater moved into third just behind.

The title was in the balance – if Nakamura-Berta got back into the lead he would be champion, if not Slater would take the crown.

Impressively Al Dhaheri held firm and took the win, Nakamura-Berta finished second and missed out on the title by just four points to Slater who finished in third.

Aussie Beeton finished the season on a high, finishing all three races inside the top 10 (the first time he has achieved that). He finished fourth in the opening encounter and mixed right in the thick of the title fight, he backed it up with two 10th place finishes.

Another Australian, Kamal Mrad, equalled his season best result in the final race, coming home in 13th while Nicolas Stati recorded three top 25 place finishes. Dan McCarthy

WRC R2 • SWEDEN

Lappi (right and below) flew to a timely win for Hyundai. Top: Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux took second for M-Sport. Above: A puncture robbed Aussie Taylor Gill of a potential WRC3 win ...

Images: RED BULL CONTENT POOL

LAPPI ENDS DROUGHT FINLAND’S ESAPEKKA Lappi has broken his FIA World Rally Championship victory drought by taking his first win in six and a half years.

The Hyundai driver prevailed in the snow while many of his more experienced rivals fell by the wayside.

It is Lappi’s first with the Korean manufacturer, after what was a tough end to last year. He thanked the team for their continuing support: “It feels really good,” Lappi said. “I’ve been hunting for this second victory for quite a while. I would like to say a million things but probably I’ll forget many of them.

“But many thanks to Cyril (Abiteboul, Hyundai Motorsport president and team principal) – he kept me in the team after a very bad second half last year.

“It’s quite a massive contrast from that moment until now, so thanks to the team and my family as well.”

By taking the win Lappi breaks the record of longest gap between WRC rally victories – but he was not the only good news story of the event.

Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux scored his first career WRC podium finish, after what has been a tough period for both himself and the M-Sport Ford team.

“It’s really, really good for us to be on the podium, after coming back to Rally1,” said Fourmaux. “It’s been two really hard years,

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but we never gave up and to be on the podium in Sweden is really special. Honestly, I have no words ... it’s just so nice.”

Welshman Elfyn Evans finished the rally in second and took the maximum seven Sunday points home.

In doing so, Evans reduces Thierry Neuville’s championship leading margin to just three points, however it could have been even less had he not clipped a snow bank in the Wolf Power Stage. As a result of the mistake, Evans lost the Power Stage by 0.039s.

Neuville himself finished in fourth position, a good recovery after suffering from fuel pressure issues and the worst road position early in the weekend.

From there it was a tail of woe in WRC. Reigning champion Kalle Rovanpera, making a cameo appearance, went off on Friday ruling him out of a Sweden Rally win, but he finished second on Sunday and claimed maximum points in the final stage.

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Title contender Ott Tanak also went off the road on Friday and was in recovery mode from there on. He was fourth fastest on Sunday and fourth on the final stage to collect a disappointing but potentially crucial six points.

It was a case of what could have been for Takamoto Katsuta. He led the early running of the event and on Saturday was locked in a battle with eventual winner Lappi. The Japanese driver was within 1s of the rally lead when, on Stage 10, he made an error and buried his Toyota Yaris in the snow.

The mistakes from the WRC drivers opened the door for the WRC 2 competitors to score big points.

Oliver Solberg, the son of 2003 World Rally Champion Petter, won WRC2 in Sweden for the second year running and in doing so finished fifth overall.

The top nine were rounded out by WRC 2 runners Sami Pajari, Georg Linnamae, Roope Korhonen and Mikko Heikkila.

Tenth went to Italy’s Lorenzo Bertelli who was competing in a privately entered Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1 car.

WRC CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS 1 Thierry Neuville 48 2 Elfyn Evans 45 3 Adrien Fourmaux 29 4 Sebastien Ogier 24 5 Ott Tanak 41

AUSSIES UNLUCKY

AUSSIE TAYLOR Gill was leading the Junior WRC class (WRC 3) when he suffered heartbreak. A double puncture forced the Ford Fiesta driver to limp across the line.

“It is a cruel sport,” Gill said on social media.

“While comfortably holding onto second place after SS6, we suffered a double puncture and lost over nine minutes.

Gutted.”

Nevertheless, Gill earned some valuable points, finishing the event in seventh position and was positive about the weekend.

“What a mega weekend, so much to take away from this event,” he expressed.

“Although the final result wasn’t what we hoped for, there’s still so many positives from our first outing on snow.

“Huge thanks to @fiarallystar for the opportunity and to all my sponsors and supporters back home in Australia.”

On debut Peter Rullo and Ben Searcy driving a Skoda Fabia performed very strongly, they finished Day 1 in 30th overall and continued to move up the order.

They finished Saturday in 27th and remained there until the penultimate stage when they dropped to 32nd. Sadly the pair did not make it to the finish of the final stage and were classified as a DNF. Dan McCarthy

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INTERNATIONAL

KIWI WINS NZ GP LOCAL LIAM Sceats (above and right) may have won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park, but he could not stop Polish driver Roman Bilinski from winning the Formula Regional Oceania Championship.

Not only did Bilinski have pace at every round, winning five of the 15 races, he backed it up with consistency. He finished off the podium just three times.

Sceats did all he could by winning three of the last four races, but the margin was too much to overcome.

Sceats dominated the opening race of the weekend from pole position, breaking the lap record along the way.

After finishing as the New Zealand Grand Prix runner-up in 2023, Callum Hedge returned for the final round attempting to go one better.

Throughout the opening race Hedge sat in second, pressured by Bilinski all race long, but he knew the M2 Competition driver behind would not try any move that could jeopardise his championship chances.

In the end Bilinski elected to collect the points and settle for third position, a good result after crashing in qualifying.

Michael Shin moved up to finish in fourth ahead of Jacob Abel. Gerrard Xie, Patrick Woods-Toth, Bryce Aron, Elliot Cleary and 16-year-old Sebastian Manson rounded out the top 10.

Notably Kaleb Ngatoa, a winner earlier in the season was forced to miss the final round after breaking his hand in a quali crash.

As always, the top eight finishers from Race 1 were inverted to set the grid for Race 2. It saw American Bryce Aron take his maiden FR Oceania race victory.

Despite taking the win, the accolades post-race went to Bilinski who finished third, enough to take the title.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said. “What a crazy race and a crazy season.”

“We have worked so hard, I really gave it everything in that race, I didn’t hold back.

“I really have to thank my parents and my team, I’m over the moon. This is a massive win for me, when you look at the drivers who have won this championship. It’s huge.”

On Sunday the cautious Bilinski had gone, the aggression which won him five races was back. He moved up from sixth to finish on the podium in ‘reverse-grid’ Race 2, while Sceats finished in ninth.

Race winner Aron started from pole position and drove maturely to take a thoroughly deserved race victory, a very impressive performance considering he only contested the last two rounds.

Canada’s Woods-Toth finished in second, his best result of the season, and in doing so took the Rookie of the Year honours. He pressured Aron all-race long but could not find a way past.

Bilinski made a great start and briefly sat third on the opening lap. He was demoted to fourth by Abel, but reclaimed the place back on lap two and remained there until the conclusion of the race.

Abel held onto fourth in what was a

thrilling three-way scrap. Hedge threw everything at it, but finished fifth ahead of Xie, Shin and Manson.

Sceats made a poor start dropping a handful of places – he could only recover to ninth ahead of Elliot Cleary.

SCEATS REBOUNDED from his Saturday disappointment emphatically to take victory in the 68th New Zealand Grand Prix.

Notably, it was a Kiwi 1-2 with Hedge coming home in second position. However, he could not match his countryman who romped home with a margin of 5.5s.

“We have been very strong in the second half of the season and I’ve loved going head to head with Roman,” said Sceats.

“We’ve been a bit unlucky with results, but it feels great to finish like this.

“I wouldn’t be here without my family and I’m definitely going to share this one, We’ve been through a lot to get to this moment.”

He joins the New Zealand Grand Prix winners list which includes Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, John Jackie Stewart and Bruce McLaren.

Early on Sceats had to keep Hedge at bay, but the 2023 Carrera Cup Australian Series winner was never close enough to have a lunge.

On the opening lap the top two pulled a small margin on Abel and Shin, who were fiercely fighting for third.

After wrapping up the title, the pressure was off Bilinski who started 12th, but he was up to eighth by the conclusion of lap one, and sixth by the end of the third tour.

That third lap also saw Shin move into third ahead of Abel.

Late in the race it was clear Hedge had used up his tyres – he not only dropped well off Sceats, but fell into the clutches of Shin.

Hedge was forced to defend on the last three laps – he just held onto second from Shin. Abel finished a lonely fourth while Bilinski and Aron collided on the run to the line.

Aron hit the wall out of the final turn and slowed; unable to avoid the car ahead Bilinski rode up the back of Aron’s machine. Both cars were badly damaged but incredibly spun across the line, Bilinski in fifth and Aron sixth.

Alex Crosbie was seventh ahead of Ryder Quinn, Woods-Toth and Cleary.

Dan McCarthy FINAL STANDINGS 1 Bilinski 385 2 Sceats 342 3 Woods-Toth 255 4 Shin 245 5 Crosbie 208

BILINSKI EDGES CLOSER VICTORIES WERE shared across the board the week prior to the NZGP, at the Euromarque Motorsport Park.

Roman Bilinski (pictured) scored his fifth and what would turn out to be final race win of the season in the opening encounter.

He led home Liam Sceats and American Jacob Abel who returned to the Formula Regional Oceania Championship with a podium finish. Abel finished third in the 2023 Championship and his come-back could not have gone much better.

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Race 2, the inverted top eight grid race, was won by Michael Shin, it was South Korean driver’s first in the championship. He led home Gerrard Xie and Patrick Woods-Toth.

Bilinski marched through from eighth to finish fourth, while Sceats finished eighth and lost more crucial points.

Sceats rebounded to take his first win of the season in Race 3, the Lady Wigram Trophy Race. Polesitter Bilinski finished as the runner-up, while Woods-Toth drove up the field to finish third. Dan McCarthy

NEW ZEALAND GRAND PRIX • HIGHLANDS PARK

UNTOUCHABLE HERNE THROUGHOUT THE two weeks and six races of the TA2 Trans-Tasman Challenge Nathan Herne (above and right) was in a league of his own, winning every single race!

The former Australian Trans Am Series winner could not be stopped at any point and even came from the back of the grid to win in the final race of the series.

The Trans-Tasman Challenge is the first ever inter-country TA2 competition staged worldwide.

For Herne it was a title that meant a lot to him after racing in America throughout 2023.

“This was an awesome experience

and I have to thank Chas Howe, Peter Robinson and Cam Sendall for making this happen,” Herne said.

“To be working again with Dad takes us back to the way we did it years ago and I was really happy how it’s all worked out.”

In Round 1, at Euromarque Motorsport Park, Herne did not have things all his own way, challenged by 18-year-old Kiwi Ben Stewart.

Herne led from lights to the flag in Race 1, but came under relentless pressure from Stewart, the margin at the end just 0.6s. Graham Cheney placed third.

In Race 2 Stewart sat right on the tail

of Herne until a broken axle forced him to retire on lap five, allowing Herne to cruise to a 18s win over Cheney. Aussie Brad Gartner stormed from 10th to third.

Herne dominated Race 3 while New Zealander Brent Collins and Gartner fought hard for second. Gartner briefly held the spot before Collins reclaimed the position in the closing laps.

After Round 1, Australia led New Zealand 179 points to 134.

After taking pole by nearly 2s at Highlands Motorsport Park, Herne was untouchable in the first race, winning by 6s from Stewart and Gartner.

Once again Herne was unmatched in Race 2, while Stewart retired from

second, this time with a clutch issue.

For the final race, Herne started from the rear of the grid – if he won, he would win $1000.

Collins started from the front of the grid and looked comfortable out front, but Herne was calving through like a knife through butter and was assisted mid-race when a Safety Car was called due to Michael Coulter coming to a halt.

On the restart, Herne made light work of the remaining competitors, and again comfortably took the win and the $1000 prize.

Over the two rounds, Australia scored more points and won the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy. Dan McCarthy

BEWLEY TAKES LEAD TOM BEWLEY (right) took two out of three race wins in the fourth round of the 2023/24 NZ Toyota 86 Racing Series.

Race 1 of the weekend was riddled with post-race penalties – Bewley himself was slapped hard with 15s.

When Race 1 results were finally made official, Australian Lockie Bloxsom took the race win ahead of Jackson Rooney and Hayden Bakkerus.

Bewley’s penalty saw him start Race 2 from 15th on the grid. When the lights went out he started moving forward, and quickly.

By the end of lap one, he was inside

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the top 10 and by the end of lap 2 he was fourth.

While the front three fought for the lead, Bewley was putting in some strong laps and caught the group.

He continued to make light work of the field and by lap five was in front, a quite incredible drive. He took the win ahead of William Exton and Bloxsom.

Despite starting from pole for the Feature race, Bewley had more of a fight in the final race – nevertheless he held off the advanced charges of Exton and Hunter Robb and in doing so reclaimed the championship lead.

Consistency saw Robb take the round honours. Dan McCarthy

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INTERNATIONAL Images: PETER NORTON EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY/SUPPLIED

MOUNTAIN TAMER

BATHURST THREW EVERYTHING AT THE EMA MANTHEY PORSCHE, INCLUDING MULTIPLE PENALTIES, LATE SAFETY CARS, RAIN AND EVEN LIGHTENING, BUT NOTHING COULD STOP AUSTRALIA’S MATT CAMPBELL FROM SECURING A CRUSHING BATHURST 12 HOUR VICTORY. AA’S THOMAS MILES REPORTS ...

FORGING A LEGACY

THE 2024 motor racing season is already shaping up to be a legacy-defining year for Matt Campbell, who is cementing himself as a worldwide star.

Campbell kicked the year off by playing a key role in Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Daytona 24 Hours glory.

Two weeks later the 29-year-old was back in victory lane at a big endurance event and this time he was the star of the show.

The Campbell-led EMA Manthey Porsche was easily the dominant car of the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour with great assistance from Laurens Vanthoor and Ayhancan Guven.

Car #912 might have been leading for 190 of the 275 laps around the Mountain – the most in 12 hour history – but it was no simple journey to victory lane.

After taking over the lead in the second hour from the #32 Team WRT BMW on lap 32, courtesy of the overcut, the Porsche was cruising but it was forced to suddenly change strategy mid-race.

To compound matters even further, the Porsche completed two mid-race drivethrough penalties, as heavy rain and even

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lightning arrived at The Mountain.

Then, just when the EMA Manthey Porsche had appeared to sail through the storm, a late-race Safety Car wiped out its valuable lead and set up a 30-minute sprint to the flag.

But just like it had done all day, the #912

was able to overcome its latest challenge, with Campbell sprinting his way into victory lane and the history books.

In a role reversal of 2023, the Campbell-led Porsche was able to hold off Jules Gounon and deny the SunEnergy1 Mercedes a hat-

trick in the grandstand finish After 12 hours, 275 laps and 1705km of racing.

It was EMA Manthey’s first 12 Hour win, but Campbell’s and Porsche’s second having also done it together in 2019.

“This is awesome. It was a tough day,”

BATHURST 12 HOUR • MOUNT PANORAMA MOTOR RACING CIRCUIT

The winning Porsche 911 – piloted by Laurens Vanthoor, Ayhancan Guven, and Aussie Matt Campbell – came back from a double pit lane penalty for a superb win. Below left: the sister car was in the contest, but eliminated in an unnecessary shunt with a backmarker. Top right: #46, the BMW featuring ‘Vale’ was in the contest for a podium late in the race, but was elbowed to fifth. Right: The Triple Eight Merc finished sixth – only seven seconds from the leader. Lower right: Sheldon Van der Linde put the Shell-liveried BMW on pole.

Images: PETER NORTON-EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY/MARK HORSBURGH

Campbell said when he got out of the car.

“Hats off to everyone (because) we were not always running at the front.

“It was not easy in mixed conditions. It is phenomenal!

“It was a little bit of risk management as well. There was quite a bit of water off-line as well (but) we got there in the end.”

GATHERING STEAM

ALL THE stars from last year and more arrived at The Mountain to form the biggest field of internationals at the 12 Hour since before COVID. The calibre of driving across all the classes was clear for all to see as not one GT3 car was bitten by the notorious concrete walls around Mount Panorama.

The early speed was all Audi as the four rings took out the opening two sessions thanks to the #22 of Liam Talbot, Christopher Haas and Kelvin van der Linde with the best time of a 2:02.7346.

The victorious #912 then showed its first signs of speed by topping Practice 3 as all drivers survived the opening day.

Then Mercedes started to flex its muscles with the Erebus Motorsport, Triple Eight and Scott Taylor Motorsport AMGs showing pace to lead the final three practice sessions respectively.

This speed carried over to Qualifying where Broc Feeney made another one-lap statement in the #888 Mercedes.

Despite storm clouds threatening to derail the second segment of qualifying, Feeney flew through the first two sectors to record the fastest time of the weekend, a 2:01.8911.

However, when the Allan Simonsen Pole Award was on the line in the Shootout, Sheldon van der Linde found top gear in the #32 Team WRT BMW M4.

The usually thrilling Top 10 Shootout proved to be an anticlimax due to van der Linde’s brilliance.

He blew the field away by setting a 2:01.9810 with the best part of eight minutes left in the session.

As the South African enjoyed the rest of the session in the garage, the others pushed hard until the chequered flag, but none could even get in the 2:01s window.

Feeney was second best, two-tenths adrift with Maro Engel in the #130 Mercedes and Campbell in the #130 Porsche completing the second row.

HERO TO ZERO

ON A high from the brilliant pole, van der Linde carried on his momentum to dominate the opening hour of the race and fuel Team WRT’s dream of a BMW Bathurst glory.

He wasted no time in converting pole into an early lead in the #32 Team WRT BMW also driven by Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor, within a lap was already 1.4s up the road from the pack.

Despite not being threatened for the remainder of the clean first hour, van der Linde was unable to extend the gap with Mikael Grenier keeping it to around a second as morning broke.

Van der Linde led for the first 32 laps until being the first of the leaders to box with the #888.

But with the overcut proving decisive due to the struggle to get temperature into the tyres early in the morning, the #32 slumped from first to fourth and behind the #46.

After an initial battle that raised heart rates in the Team WRT garage, Valentino Rossi eventually let Weerts by at Murrays Corner.

After the next round of stops the #46 emerged back in front with the two BMWs

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sitting comfortably in the top three as the race inched towards the second half.

However, the dreams of the #32 came to a crashing end.

As they approached the Cutting for the 120th time, Weerts optimistically tried to pass the lapped #56 Ginetta of Colin White around the outside of the Cutting.

But as the track tightened they made contact, which fired the BMW backwards into the concrete wall in a similar trajectory to Marcos Ambrose in the 2005 Great Race.

Reflecting on the incident, Weerts admitted he should have been more patient.

“Looking back now for sure I would have waited a bit longer, but at the end of the day we are racers and if we see a gap we go for it,” he said.

“It was quite unlucky to get that traffic at that exact spot.”

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With one M4 down it was up to the #46 led by Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin and Raffaele Marciello to fly the Team WRT flag.

Having survived the shower that soaked the second half of the race and recovered from a drive-through penalty, the #46 was in the hunt for the podium at the death.

With just seven minutes to go Martin sat fourth, but was well within striking distance of the podium as positions two-five were all bunched up within 1.5s.

As Jules Gounon in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes and Jaxon Evans squabbled at The Chase, both Martin and Christopher Haase joined in on the fun at Murrays Corner.

Martin went around the outside of Evans at the final left-hander to briefly be in the top three, but could not maintain the speed and fell to fifth.

www.autoaction.com.au I 55

INTERNATIONAL

A top five result was still a solid performance, but Team WRT knows at least a podium slipped away at The Cutting.

PENALTIES AND STORMS CAUSE HAVOC

HAVING THREATENED all weekend, the rain finally arrived just after the halfway mark, eventually soaking the circuit.

Initially some took the risk to stay on slicks but during the long Safety Car period to clean up the crashed John Holinger at The Esses, all opted for wets.

Despite the dramatic change in conditions, penalties actually proved to be the biggest hurdle for some of the top contenders.

The first to be significantly hit was the #2 Audi of Brad Schumacher, Markus Winkelhock and Ricardo Feller, which had run as high as fifth.

They received a two-minute stop-go penalty for punting the lapped Holinger into the concrete.

However, that was just the start of it as the stewards got busy and some big names were impacted.

The #46 received a drive through for

crossing the blend line too soon on pit exit, while countless others were in breach of the Safety Car protocols.

But the one that had the most significant impact on the race was experienced by the leading #912 EMA Manthey Porsche.

Since taking over the lead on lap 32, the car had dominated the race, controlling it all the way until lap 157 when it received a drive-through penalty for undercutting the minimum 85s pitstop time when Campbell replaced Guven.

The penalty was handed soon after a restart, but green flag racing did not last long as Paul Tracy spun car #702 at The Cutting.

At the same time the Safety Car returned, Campbell dived into the pits to serve the penalty and dropped to sixth.

However, with drive-throughs only to be served under green flag conditions, the #912 had to return to the pits again once racing resumed.

As a result the car that had dominated all day was down in 15th with just over five hours to go.

The double drive-through forced EMA Manthey to change its strategy and pit earlier

The field winds its way across the top of the Mountain under the rising sun ...

Above: Gounon heads Jaxon Evans (Porsche), Marciello (BMW) and the Team MPC Audi as the final sprint tussle – for second – plays out.

Above centre: The Manthey EMA Porsche completed a double for the team, taking out Pro Am.

56 I www.autoaction.com.au

than their rivals.

After a mighty stint, rising back to P1, Campbell handed over to Guven, while the SunEnergy1 Mercedes was now in control.

By now the #13 Phantom Global Porsche was a contender, having impressively worked its way from 18th on the grid by mirroring EMA’s strategy in the first six hours and fast driving from Evans, Joel Eriksson and Bastian Buus.

The two Porsches were battling side by side for the effective lead once the reigning champion pitted the #75 and Guven won out, eventually building a 14s advantage as the race headed into the final hour.

COOL UNDER PRESSURE

WHEN CAMPBELL jumped back into the #912 with 52 minutes left, he enjoyed a 19s lead over Gounon’s Mercedes.

But this was suddenly irrelevant when the #701 of Julien Boillot brought out a racechanging Safety Car. The Vortex lost it at Griffins Bend before strangely getting stuck on the kerb.

This se tup a grandstand finish with a 30-minute sprint to the chequered flag.

Unlike previous restarts Campbell could not pedal away from his rivals, with Gounon applying the blowtorch.

But the speed of the Porsche down the Mountain and switching-on the tyres proved to be the difference with the #912 powering to a 1.5s lead from Griffins Bend onwards.

It would eventually grow to beyond 6s and Gounon had no answer, having to settle for second best.

BATHURST 12 HOUR • MOUNT PANORAMA MOTOR RACING CIRCUIT

In the rain, Jaxon Evans helped Phantom Global rise from 18th to be in podium contention.

The ‘Martini’ MARC car was an unlucky early DNF – but scored highly in the livery stakes.

Campbell put in a brilliant stint in the wet.

An almighty fight for third broke out and an opportunistic Haase pounced from fifth to third by winning a drag race with Evans up Mountain Straight to secure a trip to the prestigious podium.

PRO AM

THE FIGHT for Pro-Am went down to the wire and in the end the sister EMA Manthey Porsche got the job done to complete a perfect day for the team.

Whilst not being as dominant as the #912, the #911 of Alessio Picariello, Harry King and Yasser Shahin also had a dramatic journey to the top.

It started smoothly with Harry King and Alessio Picariello fending off Jamie Whincup and Jordan Love in car #88 across the opening three hours.

But things took a turn for the worse when

Shahin jumped into the Porsche.

Class rival Glenn Wood in the Erebusbacked Mercedes had approached the back of the #911 and tried to make a move down the inside at McPhillamy Park, but could not get up far enough.

Contact sent the #911 Porsche spinning into the sand and Shahin was beached.

The incident sent the EMA Manthey Porsche down to fourth in class at midway, but by then King had already regained plenty of ground.

By the conclusion of the 10th hour King was up to second behind the #27 of Alex Riberas and the #911 returned to the lead when the final hour began.

However, for the final restart, Picariello fell to third behind both the #88 and #27.

Whincup was able to keep the #27 at bay until the latter’s dream was dashed from a drive-through penalty for a Safety Car infringement.

Despite one rival dropping out of contention, Whincup was unable to hold on as the #911 of Picariello came charging through.

He passed the 2017 12 Hour winner just 11 laps from the finish to make the EMA Manthey celebrations even sweeter.

SILVER

THE COLOURFUL Wall Racing Lamborghini of Tony D’Alberto, David Wall, Grant Denyer and Adrian Deitz won Silver by the comfortable margin of two and a half laps.

This was despite the #44 of Marcel Zalloua, Sergio Pires, Luke Youlden and Brad Shiels controlling the first half of the race.

At mid-way the Mercedes was the best part of half a lap ahead of the Lamborghini, but the Wall Racing crew made a late charge in the slippery conditions.

The #93 surged ahead of their rival when the #44 lost significant ground on lap 162 and did not look back.

GT4

THE RED Mercedes of Daniel Bilks, Mark Griffith and Adam Christodoulou crossed

the line 17th overall which was enough to secure GT4 honours.

Immediately behind them on the leaderboard was the #18 of Tom McLennan, Tom Hayman and Elliott Schutte, but the healthy margin of an entire lap split them.

The #25 led by Chaz Mostert led class honours early, but eventually had to settle for third to give Method Motorsport a double class podium on debut.

INVITATIONAL

FOR SO long Invitational appeared to be the class no-one wanted to win and eventually the #20 of Adam Hargraves, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli and Daniel Jilesen was left standing at the end.

Across the opening three hours, the well presented Martini MARC car of Keith Kassulke, Tim Slade, Cameron McLeod and Hadrian Morrell were in complete control.

But the team’s promising run came to an end when Morrell lost the rear on the exit of Griffins Bend and spun head on into the inside wall.

With the car out of action, the Invitational lead was taken over by the MSR #10 of Nick Percat, Cameron Hill and John Hollinger.

But misfortune once again struck the class leader – this time Holinger was punted into the concrete by a frustrated Feller.

The bandaged-up MSR MARC car eventually returned and suffered another incident at The Cutting, but these setbacks were not enough to stop them from battling their way to third in class.

The remainder of the race for Invitational honours was controlled by the #20 with Hargraves leading the #702 of Danny Stutterd across the line by 12 laps.

To make the result more impressive, the T2 Racing team rebuilt the car deep into Saturday night after a heavy crash at The Grate.

The 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour was the opening round of the GT Intercontinental Challenge, which returns at the Nurburgring on May3—June 2.

2024 BATHURST 12 HOUR RESULTS POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NC NC NC NC NC NC

CAR 912 75 22 13 46 888 222 130 911 27 88 93 9 44 47 48 19 230 20 702 10 25 701 77 2 111 32 91 56

COMPETITOR/TEAM Manthey EMA SunEnergy1 Wash It Team MPC Phantom Global Racing Team WRT National Storage Racing Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM The Bend Manthey EMA Heart of Racing by SPS Triple Eight JMR Wall Racing Hallmarc Team MPC Valmont Racing/Tigani M‘sport Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani MMotorsport Prestige Iveco Method Motorsport T2 Racing / Localsearch IRC / TekworkX Motorsport SUPAGLASS RACING Method Motorsport Vortex Mercedes-AMG KFC Team MPC MRA Motorsport / 111 Racing Team WRT Wheels FX Racing Ginetta Australia

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DRIVER L.Vanthoor/A.Guven/M.Campbell K.Habul/J.Gounon/L.Stolz L.Talbot/C.Haase/K.van der Linde J.Eriksson/J.Evans/B.Buus ÅV.Rossi/M.Martin/R.Marciello B.Feeney/W.Brown/M.Grenier C.Waters/C.Lowndes/T.Randle M.Engel/F.Fraga/D.Reynolds A.Picariello/H.King/Y.Shahin A.Riberas/R.Gunn/I.James J.Whincup/J.Love/J.Ibrahim T.D‘Alberto/D.Wall/G.Denyer/A.Deitz L.Holdsworth/D.Fiore/M.Cini L.Youlden/B.Shiels/M.Zalloua/S.Pires D.Russell/J.Webb/J.Koundouris/T.Koundouris G.Wood/J.Le Brocq/G.Walden/J.McMillan M.Griffith/A.Christodoulou/D.Bilski T.Hayman/T.McLennan/E.Schutte C.Sbirrazzuoli/D.Jilesen/A.Hargraves D.Stutterd/P.Tracy/G.Emery/M.Twigg N.Percat/C.Hill/J.Holinger M.Flack/C.Mostert/J.Bryan L.Amrouche/J.Boillot/P.Bonnel Team Craft-Bamboo D.Juncadella/J.Ojeda/M.Goetz B.Schumacher/M.Winkelhock/R.Feller D.Currie/R.Gray/G.Donaldson C.Weerts/D.Vanthoor/S.van der Linde T.Slade/C.McLeod/H.Morrall/K.Kassulke P.Buccini/A.Zerefos/C.White/O.Hizzey

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VEHICLE Porsche 992 GT3R Mercedes-AMG GT3 Audi R8 LMS Evo II Porsche 992 GT3R BMW M4 GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Mercedes-AMG GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Porsche 991 GT3R Spe Mercedes-AMG GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Lamborghini Huracan Audi R8 LMS Evo II Audi R8 LMS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO Mercedes-AMG GT4 McLaren Artura GT4 IRC GT IRC GT IRC GT McLaren Artura GT4 Vortex Vortex 1.0 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Audi R8 LMS Evo II Marc II 2023 BMW M4 GT3 MARC II 0 Ginetta G56 GT4

CLASS LAPS PRO 275 PRO 275 PRO 275 PRO 275 PRO 275 PRO 275 PRO 275 PRO 275 PAM 274 PAM 274 PAM 274 SIL 273 PAM 270 SIL 270 SIL 268 PAM 259 GT4 253 GT4 252 INV 245 INV 233 INV 222 GT4 217 INV 212 PRO 223 PRO 216 INV 198 PRO 120 INV 85 GT4 83

RACE TIME 12:01:22.0968 12:01:24.7304 12:01:25.8759 12:01:27.5006 12:01:27.9663 12:01:29.4263 12:01:38.2583 12:01:52.7166 12:02:00.9098 12:02:30.4313 12:02:59.2924 12:02:36.4909 12:01:23.5852 12:01:53.1097 12:01:58.7227 12:02:45.2693 12:02:03.1843 12:01:56.8704 12:03:02.2293 12:02:04.3997 12:03:36.9567 12:02:58.2208 12:03:00.3802 09:57:41.0598 09:37:30.2597 09:57:20.9053 04:47:46.7614 03:20:00.0847 05:30:58.5650

www.autoaction.com.au I 57

ARE YOU READY FOR THE 2024 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP? ACROSS 3 How many rounds does the Supercars Championship consist of in 2024?

4 Will Brown will race which number Camero in 2024?

8 Jack Le Brocq moves to Erebus this year – what team has he moved from? (abbreviation) 10 Who is the reigning Supercars Drivers Champion? (surname) 11 How many full-time cars are entered in the Championship this year?

13 What is David Reynolds’ car sponsor in 2024?

14 Jay Robotham has been signed by which team as an endurance co-driver? (abbreviation) 16 How many drivers are graduating from Super2 into Supercars this season?

19 Which track has fallen off the calendar in 2024?

22 Who replaces Nick Percat at Walkinshaw Andretti United? (surname) 23 What outfit won the Teams’ Championship in 2023?

24 In what month will the Supercars Championship conclude in 2024?

25 How many rounds of the Supercars Championship will be endurance events in 2024?

27 Which team did Richie Stanaway last race for full-time? (abbreviation)

28 In which city will the 2024 Supercars Championship conclude?

DOWN 1 Who will make his Matt Stone Racing debut in 2024? (surname) 2 Which state has the most rounds this year?

3 What circuit will debut on the Supercars calendar in 2024?

5 Declan Fraser will be a co-driver for which Supercars driver in the season of endurance? (surname) 6 For what team will James Courtney race for in 2024? (abbreviation) 7 Who was the highest placed driver in the championship returning to race in the opening round? (surname) 9 Who will co-drive alongside Will Brown this season? (surname) 12 Who has replaced NASCAR bound Shane van Gisbergen at Triple Eight Race Engineering?

(Surname) 14 In which city will the first Supercars round take place?

15 Who is the highest placed 2023 Super2 driver graduating to the Supercars Championship in 2023? (full name) 17 Who will replace Brodie Kostecki at Round 1? (surname) 18 Which team has the only allKiwi driver line-up this season?

20 Which full-time debutant will race for BRT in 2024? (surname)

21 Aside from Mark Winterbottom, who is the only other Supercars champion racing at Bathurst? (surname) 26 Who will make his full-time Supercars debut in 2024 for Brad Jones Racing? (surname)

1879 Crossword Answers - 1 down – fifty-three, 2 down – Nissan, 3 across – sixth, 4 down – two, 5 down – Jaxon Evans, 6 down – Porsche, 7 down – John Bowe, 8 across – two, 9 down – Matt Campbell, 10 down – McLaren, 11 down – two, 12 across – Simonsen, 13 across – Bentley, 14 across – Chaz Mostert, 15 across – MSR, 16 down – Randle, 17 across – Webb, 18 across – Jamie Whincup, 19 across – Gounon, 20 down – BMW, 21 across – one, 22 down – Nineteen, 23 across – Habul, 24 down – Audi, 25 across – Maro Engel, 26 across – Jordan Love, 27 across – zero, 28 down – Eddy, 29 across – Mies, 30 across – Mercedes

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

1974 THE 1974 Tasman Series was approaching the finish line as the penultimate round took place at Sandown. After 100 miles of racing, Peter Gethin emerged victorious by more than 10s in his Team VDS Chevron B24 Morand. Graham McRae put in another consistent drive to take second, while John Walker completed the podium despite changing a cylinder head gasket with an hour to go. There were high hopes that Chrysler would make a return to motorsport with then Managing Director of the Australian arm, Bob Perkins, giving it “serious consideration”. Rumours suggested the upcoming Mitsubishi Lancer was coming to Australia and could provide the HDT some competition in rallying and rallycross.

1984 THE AUSTRALIAN Touring Car Championship had an early February start at Sandown and Peter Brock got off to a winning start. The #05 HDT Commodore took pole, a lights-to-flag win and set a lap record that “would stand forever,” with the likes of Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat forced to settle for the minors. Also on show was Formula 2 where “one of the strongest fields seen at Sandown” went racing with Neil Israel taking a surprise win. Proposals of significant changes to CAMS also emerged with a group called AUSTAR chaired by Bob Jane raising concerns about the “economic future of the racing industry”. The main objectives of the new arrangements included an “increase in the overall level of racing activity.”

58 I www.autoaction.com.au

1994 FRUSTRATED BY being forced to ditch his BMW for a new VP Commodore, Tony Longhurst has promised “no more Mr Nice Guy”.

The Queenslander, who felt he had been “unfairly treated by motorsport administrators” was “never more determined to get a result”.

In addition to securing the Australian Grand Prix from Adelaide, Melbourne was bidding to host the Pacific Grand Prix in 1995.

Keen to host F1 earlier than 1997, Ron Walker’s team began negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone to stage a second Grand Prix of the 1995 season at Albert Park. In the end the Pacific Grand Prix remained at Japan’s TI Circuit in Aida for a second year in a row.

2004 EXCITEMENT WAS building ahead of the 2004 V8 Supercars season with the new liveries coming out, but most of the chat centred around PWR. The team was in a state of change, having been called Team Brock in 2003 but, following a bust-up over the off season, headed into 2004 as PWR. Team boss Kees Weel stated “its fairly disappointing. Peter Brock didn’t have any financial contribution in it or have a say in how it was run. It was just one of those things that didn’t work out.” David Besnard returned to the grid in the new WPS Racing outfit backed by a $10m commitment from Craig Gore. Emotions were high in Florida as Dale Earnhardt Jnr won the Daytona 500 three years after his father passed away at the same race.

2014 AFTER REVEALING the team’s fresh new look, new HRT boss Adrian Burgess made his determination clear: “Im committed and hungry to make sure this is not just a PR campaign.

We need some bloody results.” The fight for the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour went down to the wire as less than half a second split the top two cars. In the end Mount Panorama experience came to the fore for Craig Lowndes as he steered Maranello Motorsport and co-drivers John Bowe, Peter Edwards and Mika Salo to glory having kept Harold Primat’s Mercedes at bay. A decade after his first Daytona 500 victory, Dale Earnhardt Jnr returned to victory lane in the “Great American Race” after 42 lead changes.

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