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TARGA TASMANIA LOCKED IN FOR NOVEMBER 2025

TARGA TASMANIA HAS FINALLY ANNOUNCED ITS 2025 DATE AND REVISIONS TO THE CLASSIC EVENT. CEO MARK PERRY SPOKE EXCLUSIVELY WITH ANDREW CLARKE ...

TARGA TASMANIA will recommence in 2025 after a three-year layoff dealing with coronial inquests and issues with Motorsport Australia, with changes to the event aimed at making it more interesting and popular, as well as safer.

Targa Australia CEO, Mark Perry says a new course for Targa Tasmania will see the event start in Hobart and conclude in Launceston and also now run in November, which should help it to embrace the best of Tasmania’s weather.

The conclusion of the recent coronial inquest into deaths on the 2021 and 2022 Targa events has allowed the organisers to take a deep dive into the event and its future – Perry says it was impossible to comment on the report or its implications until it was handed down. Perry has been adamant all along that the rally would continue and, while it would be his preferance to stay with Motorsport Australia, the event will run with or without MA sanctioning, as do many events of its ilk around the world.

He says they will also implement in full the recommendations from Coroner’s report, without impacting the integrity of the event.

“Slow moving Porsches are more important than fast running Skodas,” he told Auto Action prior to announcing the new date, saying there were ways to control the safety of the event

that don’t involve throwing away the cars that make it special.

“We’re not hiding from the fact that we can run independently, and we will if that is what is right for the event,” he said, turning his attention to Motorsport Australia.

“This event is big enough to run independently and there’s plenty of motorsport events around the world that do – in fact most of the big ones do. If you look at what happens in the US and Isle of Man, most of this sort of competition that goes on around the world happens outside the FIA.”

Perry agreed that being forced to sit back and take a good look has allowed it to reenvision the event, including looking at the course that incorporates Hobart and part of the south of the island.

“The reality of having time is that you’ve got to make the most of it. There’s no doubt we’ve been through some pretty dark times and there’s been plenty of times where we’ve wondered if it is worth the effort.

“But there’s thousands of people who would say it is worth the effort and it’s them that continue to inspire us. I think most would agree it has to be different – we can’t survive with the tragedy that has impacted us in recent years, so we needed to think outside the square.

“It’s always been a competitive event – we

can’t shy away from that – but it will look and feel different while still being exactly what it’s always been, which is an amazing event around Tasmania.

“My cliche saying internally over the last few months is that ‘slow moving Porsches are still better than fast moving Skodas’ – we feel quite strongly that slowing down the cars that we’ve got will deliver better safety outcomes than allowing other cars to go too fast.

“But we can’t really nullify the cars any further – they’re already running exactly how you can buy them. They’re perfectly roadregistered cars, not hotted-up race cars, so they’re being used as they’re made.

“We’ll make some further tweaks around things like ride height and tyres to make them even more like road cars. But the event is built on the premise of the world’s greatest GT cars.

“It has always been won by those cars, and so that is the fabric of the event.

“If we could survive with rally cars, we would have been running a year ago. But you won’t get enough to switch into those types of cars because they are completely useless for anything other than motorsport. We have people who race 911 Porsches and then drive them to work the day after, and that is important.

“The cars have become fast, and we don’t move away from that, but we can cover that in

course design and with other limitations.”

The 2025 event will get underway in Hobart with a Ceremonial Start and various stages across the south to give locals to see the cars in action.

The event will then head to Devonport for a first-ever overnight stop on Monday 17 November before heading to Launceston on 18 November, where it will remain until the finish and a first-time Official Finish to be held in Launceston on the evening of Friday 21 November, bringing a whole new Targa experience to the northern city.

The new event dates and course layout will remain in place for at least the next five years as part of the varied five-year funding agreement with the State Government – all of which will see one of the world’s iconic motorsport events continue to at least 2029.

Targa Australia CEO Mark Perry.

BATES TO PARTNER LOWNDES IN 2025

ZACH BATES HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS CRAIG LOWNDES’ CO-DRIVER FOR THE ENDURANCE RACES IN 2025, JOINING THE TRIPLE EIGHT-RUN SUPERCHEAP-BACKED OPERATION THAT HAS PROVEN TO BE A GOLDEN TICKET IN RECENT YEARS. BY ANDREW CLARKE AND THOMAS MILES ...

ZACH BATES has bounced back from the potential limitations in his future with Walkinshaw Andretti United by picking up the coveted Supercheap Auto Racing wildcard drive for the 2025 endurance series.

Bates holds a 39-point championship lead in the Dunlop Super2 Series heading into the final round this weekend, but with WAU locked into its two main game drivers for the next few years, his options at the team were limited and Triple Eight ,with Supercheap, has snapped him up.

With three of the last four drivers in that seat joining the main game the next season, Bates is hopeful this is the key in unlocking a Supercars future.

“It is one of those things,” he said about the diminishing opportunities at WAU, but with team principal Bruce Stewart actively helping to promote him, opportunities were likely to open.

“I am in this position where I am having to part ways because they have done such a good job for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at WAU and would love to go back there in the future.

“I need to say a massive thank-you to the whole team and family and friends

“For me signing the Triple Eight wildcard with Supercheap Auto is a great step forward and very fortunate to make my main game debut with a team like that and with Craig (Lowndes).”

Many outside WAU were slightly surprised that Bates wasn’t seen as a co-driving option for 2025 for either of their cars given his performance, reportedly being overlooked for Jayden Ojeda, while the team will alse retain Fabian Coulthard for the other car.

“They have their co drivers already locked in and I can understand their viewpoint; this is a cutthroat sport and I’m disappointed to leave, but very, very excited for the future.

“There were quite a few people that have played a reasonable role in helping to make this happen – the main one is Will Brown. I have been very fortunate to have his guidance and blessing. He went and talked to Jamie and has also helped me out a lot with the offtrack stuff which has been super valuable.”

His relationship with Brown started a few years ago in Toyota 86s where the Supercars championship leader helped him out.

“I was fortunate enough for him to help me out as far as an experienced guy to talk to, and it is very cool to pick his brain – even today I can ring him up with any question.”

Supercheap has also had its eye on him since mid-season as it started its hunt for its next star, having already used the #888 car to help Broc Feeney, Declan Fraser and Cooper Murray into the main game.

Bates is acutely aware there are limited opportunities to join the main game, and even fewer at Triple Eight which has two championship contenders who will both be recruiting targets for other teams when they come out of contract.

He has no expectations of anything happening, but he also knows he is in the best place should an opportunity arise at the team that has dominated the sport for the past two decades.

“The goal and dream is to be a full time Supercars driver, and I believe this is the best way to make that happen and the proof is in the pudding.

“To be able to have someone like Craig is incredible for a young guy like me, obviously on track but also the off-track stuff – like how to manage everything over the weekend. It is epic and to have Craig, Jamie, Broc and Will.

“It will be a big year for myself because the step from Super2 to main game is quite substantial, but I am in the best position to make the most of it.

“I cannot ask for much more.”

How the entirety of 2025 shapes up for Bates is not yet clear, with the wildcard the only thing he has locked away.

“We’re still working through that,” he said, “three rounds are not enough racing, so it’s

one of those things where I might have to look outside to see what is available. I will definitely look for something just to keep myself sharp for when I make that main game step.”

Lowndes and Bates – the 2025 Supercheap Auto wildcard combo.

Below: Bates winds his WAU Super2 entry down through the Esses at Bathurst. Image: RACE PROJECT

JIM RICHARDS AWARD FOR SUPERCARS’ BEST & FAIREST

SUPERCARS HAS STRUCK A NEW AWARD FOR SUPERCARS BEST & FAIREST DRIVER, ALIGNING MOTORSPORT WITH THE FOOTBALL CODES. ANDREW CLARKE TALKS TO MARK SKAIFE ABOUT THE NEW AWARD ...

The Auto Action

RevLimiter 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.

SUPERCARS LAST week announced a new award to reward its ‘best and fairest’ driver, naming it after multiple Australian Touring Car Champion and Bathurst winner Jim Richards.

Aligning itself with the process for selecting the AFL’s Brownlow Medal (which is for the fairest and best player) by having the selection panel from the sports judiciary means the emphasis on ‘fair’ will be at the forefront of the decision-making process.

Speaking to Auto Action at Historic Sandown, Richards said he was humbled by the award – which will be handed out by his granddaughter Priya for the first time next Monday night –being struck in his name.

“I never hit anyone deliberately, but I did make a few mistakes,” Jim joked referring to the fairest bit!

His partner in crime for most of the second half of his career was Mark Skaife, who still rates ‘Richo’ as the best touring car racer he has seen.

“I think it’s really fitting for this award to carry his name,” Skaife said. “If you look through his career and at the sort of cars that he’s driven across a wide range of disciplines, he’s just been an incredible competitor.

“I think, if you split it up, it’s effectively called best and fairest

“You could argue that he’s the best that we’ve ever seen in this part of the world. Just incredible. Some of his drives were unbelievable.

“To be the fastest of all the works BMW drivers when they were in Australia for Bathurst; to have dominated touring car racing in this country for as long as he did; or that drive he put on at Monaco in the XJ Jag as part of that series against all the Formula One superstars; his drive at Fuji in the NASCAR ...

“It doesn’t matter where you park him or what you do with him, over a very long

period he displayed incredible prowess.

He was certainly the world’s best touring car driver for a long, long time.” Turning his attention to fairness, Skaife says that even though he was an incredible competitor, that is fitting too.

“If you go to the fairest piece ... I mean, I always laugh about him being a Jekyll and Hyde, gentleman Jim away from the track but as soon as he pulled his helmet on he was certainly a very, very tough competitor – but that was not out of line in terms of fairness.

“Yes, there’s certainly been people on the receiving end of a bump from Richo, but that’s all been in the course of good, hard and fair racing.

“He was always big on if you did unfortunately come into contact, then you basically walked up straight away and shook hands. He had a real demeanour as a hard racer, but he was fair at its core.”

Skaife sees it fitting that the Richards name can now be seen by outside world with the same reverence it is inside motorsport.

“Jim didn’t do the things away from the car that people like Brock and Lowndes and Co have done; he was never really seeking any level of notoriety or publicity away from away from racing.

He just had his head down, week in, week out, doing the best he could on the race track.

“I think Supercars should be applauded to put a name like Jim’s on what is a very significant award and what will become, given this is the inaugural year of it, coveted like the Brownlow Medal in the AFL or the Dally M in Rugby League.

“It will become the award to win.”

In terms of 2024, Skaife says Will Brown is probably leading the way, but that any one of Broc Feeney, Chaz Mostert, Cam Water or Brodie Kostecki would be fitting winners.

NEW EPISODES OUT EVERY WEDNESDAY

Richo – hard but fair. Now with his name immortalised via Supercars’ ‘Best & Fairest’ award.

TICKFORD LOOKING FOR EXPANSION PARTNER

THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE OF SUPERCARS RACING IN AUSTRALIA HAS OPENED UP SOME NEW DOORS FOR TICKFORD. NOW IT SAYS IT NEEDS A NEW PARTNER TO HELP IT WALK THROUGH THOSE DOORS. ANDREW CLARKE REPORTS ...

TICKFORD RACING has gone to market looking for an investment partner to assist it with further expansion, a year after cutting its operation back to two cars and two years after the Gen3 program negated some of its engineering expertise.

According to CEO Simon Brookhouse, the team is not for sale and its current owners Rod Nash and Sven Burchartz are not looking for an exit plan.

“It is about looking to get someone to our table that can assist with the engineering options and the in the growth of that part of the business,” he said.

“There are finite outcomes that come from pure motor racing, but a good business has diversity, and we’ve identified we have latent capacity that we can expand with … there’s an opportunity to expand our engineering operations inside motorsport as well as outside.

“To do that we may need to engage with some form of manufacturing or prototyping, and that requires some unique capital or partnerships.”

He said that Nash and Burchartz want

to leverage the Supercars skillsets that were more critical in the past than they are today, but also recognising there were still engineering solutions required inside the spor –, like Tickford’s designing and building a new more reliable and robust steering rack.

Target areas will include low-volume engineering and manufacturing systems and could include defence clients as well as other race teams.

“When you’ve got a machine shop and a bunch of really clever engineers who are being underutilised, you look for ways of better using them. That is what we are doing, there is nothing sinister here.

“Our number one focus is strengthening the business to not rely solely on sponsorship given the tightening market, so we are looking at alternative income streams.”

SVG COMPLETES ROOKIE YEAR

SHANE VAN Gisbergen has finished the first chapter of his American racing venture on a positive note.

Van Gisbergen finished both his final NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races 12th, some of his best efforts on the ovals. It rounds out a whirlwind year where he took part in a massive 45 races in just 38 weeks.

The big highlights were three special NASCAR Xfinity Series wins – Portland, Sonoma and the Chicago Street Race –which cemented a Playoffs berth.

Whilst he got knocked out by the barest of margins in the first round, the Kiwi still pushed hard in the #97 Kaulig Racing Camaro to finish 12th in the standings.

In the Cup Series, van Gisbergen made 12 guest appearances and was unlucky not win at Watkins Glen or Chicago, with a best result of second at the former, but ended it with a bang by producing his best top tier oval finish of 12th at Martinsville.

Reflecting on another P12, at the Xfinity Series Phoenix finale, van Gisbergen was thrilled to end a big year on a positive note and thanked his new American fan base for a year of growth he would never forget.

“Solid finish to end the season!” SVG said.

“That was a crazy race. I couldn’t get my WeatherTech Chevy comfortable at the beginning, was super loose and then

tight towards the end, but the team and I battled through and came out with a pretty solid result.

“What a season with my No. 97 Kaulig Racing team!

“Thanks as well to everyone who followed my journey over here this year, been a great change for me and enjoyed the new challenges! “Looking forward to a couple weeks off now.”

Van Gisbergen has confirmed he will return home to New Zealand over the summer, but will not stop racing with seven Sprintcar races confirmed, starting with Western Springs on December 14.

Thomas Miles

ALLEN’S POSITIVE GROVE DEBUT

Having completed endurance duties with Dick Johnson Racing, Allen spent the Gold Coast 500 in the Grove Racing garage, getting a feel for the team that he will make his full-time Supercars debut with next year as Richie Stanaway’s replacement.

Allen’s immediate focus this weekend will be chasing history to be the first to record back-toback Super2 titles with Eggleston Motorsport.

However, the South Australian will still work with his future team, that won the VAILO Adelaide 500 last year, thanks to Matt Payne.

Reflecting on his first experience inside the Grove Racing garage, Allen had nothing but positive things to say as it only further fuelled his motivation for next year.

“I did not feel out of place one bit and it was a great experience,” he told Auto Action

“They all made me welcome and it was great get a head start on next year.

“It was surreal to see the way the engineers and the whole team work together and make the calls

“I had a really good stint with the guys at Shell V-Power Racing, but this is where I am going next year and it is time to knuckle down in that environment.

“As soon as Adelaide is done I will work a lot in the workshop with all the guys and girls there to understand the personalities and build bonds to get everything organised for 2025.

“They remind me of Egglestones in terms of not worrying about anyone else and just doing the best we can.

“That is what they do really well is work hard and leave it all on the table, which are things a lot of teams do.

“Even though I will be racing Super2, I can keep working with the guys and see if we can learn from each other going into next year.

“If I can help the Penrite crew in any way and bounce ideas off each other to do the best we can that would be great.”

Thomas Miles

KAI ALLEN has already enjoyed his first race weekend in Grove Racing colours despite his main game debut still being months away.

Image: MARK HORSBURGH

The reduction to two cars has brought success. Image: MARK HORSBURGH

HISTORY STACKED AGAINST FEENEY

BROC FEENEY has described his chances of winning the 2024 Supercars Championship as a “long shot” and history suggests that.

Heading towards the VAILO Adelaide 500 season finale, only two drivers can win the 2024 title – Triple Eight teammates Feeney and Will Brown.

Brown holds the high ground with a formidable 180-point lead, meaning Feeney must beat the #87 on Saturday to stay alive.

In the 21st century, only three drivers have come from behind during the season finale and none have had to deal with such a deficit.

The most recent cases was the extraordinary 2017 fight between Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin.

Whilst Whincup came from behind, he actually entered the Newcastle finale with a 30-point advantage.

However, a clash with Michael Caruso saw Whincup finish the Saturday race 21st, while McLaughlin was victorious.

As a result the DJR driver enjoyed a 78-point lead heading into the final race when things turned on its head.

As things unravelled in chaotic and controversial circumstances for McLaughlin including a pit lane speeding penalty, clash with Simona de Silvestro before the deciding and infamous moment with Craig Lowndes, Whincup won and overturned the biggest deficit of the 21st century.

Rewind four years earlier, Whincup did it again, this time to his own teammate on the streets of Sydney.

The first year of the Car of the Future was shaping up to be a cliffhanger with only four points separating leader Lowndes and Whincup.

But Whincup rose to the occasion when it mattered in the Sydney 500, winning the opener and finishing third on the Sunday to secure a record-equalling fifth title.

A 15th place finish on the Saturday proved costly for Lowndes a he finished a distant 128 points adrift.

They are the only two examples of come from behind glories in the current points system with 2007 the inly other such

instance of the 21st century.

This time it was Whincup the hunted as he arrived at Phillip Island, being seven points clear of Garth Tander.

But Tander turned the tables by winning the first two races and putting Whincup on the back foot.

Despite the then championship-less Triple Eight star recording three podiums and finishing the finale second, he was one place short as fourth was enough for Tander to cling on.

Looking ahead to the 2024 title fight, Feeney felt a maiden Supercars crown in 2024 was highly unlikely.

“It’s Will’s to lose, it’s not really mine to win at the moment,” Feeney said on the Supercars’ Drivers Only podcast.

“I’m a very long shot, but I’m one where it’s not over until it’s over. It’s 180 points, it’s outside a race.

“I’ll try and get through Saturday, try and have a shot on Sunday, and then see what happens.”

Whincup, now Triple Eight Team Principal, said it is still ‘gloves off.’

“It’s almost 200 points difference, so

it’s certainly Will’s to lose, of course” Whincup said.

“But that’s motorsport, anything can happen... you go into the last round going, gloves are off, go your hardest.

“But, it’s almost embedded in you that you want the best for the team. We don’t go out there to run second.”

Thomas Miles

LOOK OUT, OSCAR’S ON THE LOOSE

THE OUTCOME of the latest F1 Grand Prix, in Brazil, is great news for Australian fans.

Max Verstappen’s win, allied to Lando Norris’ sixth place – from pole – has effectively wiped out any chance of the Brit challenging for the World Drivers Championship.

That comes as good news for Australia’s Oscar Piastri who will no longer be leaned on to ‘assist’ his team-mate by handing over wins and other podium spots to assist the cause.

As AUTO ACTION ’s on-the-spot F1 expert Luis Vasconcelas says (see page 25) it’s time to ‘Free Oscar’ and see what he can do over the final three races of the year, as a build-up to

starting 2025 on level terms with Norris and being free to go for the title.

Vasconcelas, along with many other observers, and based on his

performances earlier, at Budapest, Baku and Monza, believes Piastri has the self-belief and speed to be a genuine championship contender next year, and comments that “the British driver seems to already have an inferiority complex when fighting Verstappen …

“Piastri on the other hand seems to only come back stronger when things don’t go his way, which bodes well for the future of his F1 career …”

In the meantime, the upcoming trio of season-ending races – Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – could be a preview of how the un-constrained Auto Action columnist (see page 19) could impact the championship – without the spectre of team orders … Bring it on!

Feeney is on form – a Gold Coast podium ... Image: MARK HORSBURGH

Newcastle, 2017. Controversial ... Right: A decade earlier, Philllip Island ...

Oscar is free to take on all-comers now, without ‘team orders’ duties ... Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MSR MAKES WILDCARD INTENTIONS CLEAR

FOR THE first time since 2017, Matt Stone Racing (MSR) has intentions on fielding a wildcard in the Supercars Championship next year.

Before its full-time debut in 2018, MSR made a wildcard appearance with Todd Hazelwood at the Queensland Raceway Sprint round where the #35 finished 22nd and 18th.

After growing across seven years of main game racing and becoming a race-winning force in the Gen3 era, MSR is ready to expand once again.

MSR Team Principal Matt Stone has

announced the team’s wildcard plans as it builds another new chassis.

Having given Nick Percat a new chassis at Sandown, the team’s sixth chassis will be ready for Cameron Hill at the 2025 season opener in Sydney.

As a result the team will have two spare Camaros, with one of them to be a potential wildcard.

“We have our fourth Gen3 chassis which we have just taken delivery of,” Stone revealed.

“We are currently prepping it to get it painted this week and we will start the

build process over the off-season ready for Cam Hill to debut in Sydney at the start of the 2025 season.

“This chassis will be MSR006 with #003 Cam’s current car, Nick’s chassis #005, while #004 is our spare ready for wildcard efforts next year.

“Next to it we have our spare which Nick last raced to victory at Tasmania and that will be getting rebuilt over the off-season ready for some wildcard efforts potentially in 2025.

“Pre the Gen3 era we always ran secondhand cars purchased from other teams so

a big shift for us has been building our own cars and, now that we have done that, we have kept the process going and, by next season, we will have a fleet of four cars.

“Two racing, one for a wildcard and a spare in case we need it in an emergency.

“We have no plans to bring in any further cars in 2025, but will plan to build more in 2026.”

Wildcards have been a growing presence in 2024 and with more Gen3 chassis floating around, more could be seen in 2025.

Thomas Miles

HOW ADELAIDE WAS A WAKE-UP CALL

THE VAILO Adelaide 500 is celebrating its 25th anniversary this weekend and it was an event – from day one – that put the very best, including Greg Murphy, in the most uncomfortable of situations straight away.

When the Sensational Adelaide 500 first arrived on the calendar in 1999, V8 Supercars was a very different sport. Before 1999, the Supercars/ATCC title had been determined almost exclusively by sprint races.

The entire 1998 season was run over short, rapid sprints ranging from 62 to 88km, effectively the same length as the shortest race of 2024, 80km at Albert Park.

But, with the sport growing, change arrived in 1999 when not only the enduros were added to the championship, but a ground-breaking street race at the former home of the Australian Grand Prix, in Adelaide.

Suddenly drivers faced an exhausting marathon in gruelling conditions with cockpit temperatures exceeding 60 degrees – and it became too much for some.

Gibson Motorsport’s Murphy ended the torture test second, only behind

races the norm in the 21st century.

highlight and as a driver the challenge was enormous,” Murphy recalled to Auto Action

“Before then, we had never done anything of that length other than Bathurst and Sandown.

“To do a single 250km race in those kind of conditions, often being very hot, in the car it was like ‘what the hell is this all about?’

“We were just used to doing 20 minute sprint races and sharing a car at Sandown and Bathurst which never seemed to be too arduous.

“But sitting in a car at Adelaide for two to two and a half hours ... suddenly it was a whole new level that we all had to adjust to.

“In that first year Paul Radisich had to be literally carried out of his car and put onto a drip.

“That started the whole focus of getting fresh air into the car and eventually cool suits

Things changed markedly and started to evolve from that point on.

Not only did the event set the standard for the arrival of future street Supercars races, but also formats with much longer

Murphy described the feeling of competing in the very first Adelaide 500 as a significant culture shock.

“The event for me has always been a

“It was massively challenging track and has played such a significant part of the history of Supercars.”

Thomas Miles

Craig Lowndes, who produced a sensational last-to-first drive.

Image: PETER NORTON EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

‘Murph’ shone in the Adelaide heat in 1999 ...Image: AUTO ACTION ARCHIVES

EREBUS EXPANDS INTO MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

EREBUS MOTORSPORT is to expand its manufacturing and repair capabilities to the wider racing industry, in addition to Supercars.

The Bathurst and championshipwinning Supercars team is offering its manufacturing and repair services, spearheaded by fabricator James White, to the motoring industry.

Part of the expansion will see Erebus build Gen3 Supercars chassis for other teams on the grid for the first time.

A deal has been struck with Dick Johnson Racing which means, notably, Brodie Kostecki will continue racing an Erebus chassis despite switching teams and makes.

Another team that has already turned to Erebus is Eggleston Motorsport, which used White to repair Kai Allen’s damaged ZB Commodore from a bruising trip to Bathurst in Super2.

Mount Gambier based fabricator White has been highlighted for his precision welding and his work has been a big part of Erebus Motorsport’s rise to becoming a Supercars force.

Erebus Motorsport’s journey in chassis manufacturing began with the first

in-house Gen2 Holden VF Commodore chassis in 2017.

That car ended up becoming the one David Reynolds and Luke Youlden raced to a famous Great Race win in the rain.

That chassis is still currently in White’s workshop in Mount Gambier where he also constructed the Gen3 chassis that pushed Erebus to championship glory in 2023 and a second Bathurst 1000 victory

NO MORE SUPER3

ADELAIDE WILL be the last ever Super3 round, with the COTF models now eligible to race in a standalone Super2 season in 2025. Supercars confirmed the news when it announced the models currently competing in Super3, Ford Falcon FG-X, Holden VF Commodore, and Nissan Altima, will now be eligible to return to Super2.

Since 2023 these models have been exclusively seen in Super3, which has been a separate class racing alongside Super2.

But this year will be the fifth and final edition of the third-tier championship and sadly a meek farewell is expected at this weekend’s VAILO Adelaide 500 with Tony Auddino possibly the only Super3 driver on the grid, having switched from a VF Commodore to an ex-Tim Slade FG Falcon.

Super3 became the official third rung of Supercars racing in 2019 with the likes of Broc Feeney, Nash Morris, Brad Vaughan, Jobe Stewart and Burcher becoming champions. However, it has been a challenging 2024 season where just two cars competed in both the Bathurst 500 and Townsville events, whilst

the field got as high as four at Sandown. It means the 2025 Dunlop Series will only stage Super2 for the first time since 2018 with a back-to-the-future theme.

From 2017 all the way to 2022, the VF, FG-X and Altima were all winning races in Super2 and will now return to the championship.

Despite racing older spec cars, the likes of Kai Allen, Vaughan, Cameron McLeod, Stewart, Burcher and Thomas Maxwell have all pushed themselves amongst the leading Super2 cars at times in Super3.

Supercars’ General Manager of Motorsport Tim Edwards hopes including current Super3 cars will grow the Super2 grid, which had 17 cars at Bathurst.

“We’re pleased to expand the eligibility requirements of the Dunlop Series from 2025, which we believe will create greater opportunity for teams and aspiring drivers looking to compete,” Edwards said.

this year.

Everything has remained in-house at Erebus Motorsport and Image Racing until now.

Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan praised White and is excited by the team’s new chapter:

“We have always been proudly a race team that held our cards close to our chest with our manufacturing skills,

particularly with fabrication under the lead of James White,” Ryan said.

“Jimmy and I have been working together on and off since 2003, back in our days at Perkins Engineering. In 2016, when Erebus moved to Melbourne, we re-established our working relationship, and James became ‘Erebus’—our sole source of fabrication and manufacturing work.

“We’ve generally kept everything we do in-house and exclusively for Erebus cars.

“Over the years, we have repaired several race cars for other teams and manufactured a lot of control GEN3 parts for others, contributing significantly to cost savings in the initial GEN3 builds.”

Erebus Motorsport’s manufacturing jobs also do not need to be exclusively Supercars, with White having recently designed a custom steering rack that has sold over a hundred units.

The manufacturing capabilities include all custom motorsport fabrication and repair work, custom car fabrication services, custom CAD design and inhouse 3D Creaform scanning technology for enhanced accuracy.

Thomas Miles

“With five car models now eligible, we’re expecting to see continued strength in car counts and car diversity on-track, while still delivering the robust, wheel-to-wheel racing that fans love and the Dunlop Series is known for.

“In recent years we have seen several instances of drivers in Super3 more than holding their own against Super2 competitors,”

Edwards added.

“It makes sense for us to bring all of these cars under one banner from the 2025 season and allow those teams and drivers to compete in Super2.

“We are confident it will only add to the on-track competition and challenge to win the Super2 Series title.”

The final Super3 race will be held on the streets of Adelaide on November 14-17.

Thomas Miles

Image: THOMAS MILES/SE VOICE

Image: THOMAS MILES/SE VOICE

Image: PETER NORTON/EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Chassis specialist James White and Erebus’ Barry Ryan worked together back in Larry Perkins team ...

BUCKING THE TREND

THE TREND of different TCR Australia champions each year has been broken by a faultless Josh Buchan, who raised his game to a new level in 2024.

After coming from behind to score a breakthrough national title last year at Bathurst, Buchan returned to the same circuit 12 months later as ‘the hunted’ and delivered again.

This time the HMO Customer Racing driver overcame a challenge from Zac Soutar with a composed performance in the finale.

It competed an ultra-consistent season where the #1 Hyundai appeared on the

podium 14 times, five more than the next best.

Having already joined the likes of Will Brown, Chaz Mostert and Tony D’Alberto, Buchan did what none of those Supercars drivers had done and became the first driver to win multiple TCR Australia titles.

He revealed the chance to prove to himself he could go all the way again was a great source of motivation.

“I wanted to defend the crown even more so than wanting to win the first one,” Buchan told Auto Action

“Not to prove to anyone or anything that I deserved it, but more to prove to myself that

I had it in me.

“I did not want to be one of those people that wins something and then chills out – I wanted to back it up.

“I was fortunate to drive in GT4 and have success in that and get picked up by Rodin. I had some great opportunities and feel like my driving was the best it has ever been this year.

“The reasons were very different in terms of how they played out, so it is extremely satisfying to win it in different matters.

“Grid sizes were a talking point, but the quality of the field has always been exceptionally high amongst the front

runners and that makes it more rewarding.”

The title is the latest high point for the special relationship between Buchan, HMO and Hyundai.

Bucham joined the team as Brown’s replacement with only Formula Ford and Formula 3 under his belt.

But he has grown into a title-winning force and gave a special send off to internationally acclaimed engineer Rob Benson.

As Buchan celebrates more success, he is very grateful for the role HMO and TCR have played in his career and he will be back on the grid chasing a hat-trick in 2025.

“I remember when the whole chat was coming about in terms of TCR at the back end of 2020 I did not even want to talk about it to my family because it would make me feel ill,” he recalled.

“I knew it could be something special if it happened, but such a missed opportunity if it did not.

“I knew it would be a big deal and it has given me the opportunity to be a fulltime professional racing driver, which is something I never really thought would happen.

“I came into the team after Will won the title and there were pressures that came with that.

“I was fast, but it took a bit of time for the team to realise they could do something with me as well.

“The last two years we have had great success and it is a pretty tight group of people at HMO now which makes it more special to deliver for people so interested and invested off the track.”

Thomas Miles

MIXED EMOTIONS FOR SOUTAR

AFTER FALLING short of the title in a standout TCR Australia, Zac Soutar promises to return.

Thanks to an ultra-consistent season where Soutar dropped out of the top six just once across the first 15 races, he found himself fighting for the title with reigning champion Josh Buchan.

However, Buchan managed to prevail after rising to the occasion across the final two rounds.

Soutar started the Bathurst finale brilliantly, taking a breakthrough pole and third win of the year.

After a seventh place in the reverse grid sprint, Soutar found himself side-by-side fighting for the lead with Dylan O’Keeffe in the opening lap of the finale.

Contact was made between the pair at Griffins Bend, which sent Soutar’s Audi skating towards the outside tyres – but he was able to somehow save it.

He fell down to eighth in the process but managed to claw himself all the way back to third, but the impressive comeback was not enough.

After a personal best season, Soutar admitted there were mixed emotions.

“There are split feelings for sure,” he told Auto Action.

“I am really proud of the whole team and the effort they put in at every round.

“The car ran faultlessly and did not have any mechanical dramas at all and we were quick basically everywhere, which is something I am really proud of.

“But, at the same time, you are always disappointed to finish second.

“From a weekend perspective we definitely did everything we could on Saturday. That was a maximum points day and to be honest I did not expect that at all.

“Race 3 was just one of those things with two guys going into the lead at Turn 2 and had a bit of a clash.

“I unfortunately ended up on the wrong side of that but I am proud of the recovery drive, getting back into third. I did not leave anything out there for sure.

“No matter the situation you look at the little things where you could have gone a bit better, so it is bitter sweet I guess.”

Following the close call, Soutar revealed he is determined to go after the crown in 2025 and hinted his growing team may

be expanding even further.

“From my perspective, I love the TCR platform, it is great, close and exciting racing,” he said.

“We are still waiting on a calendar but it is pretty exciting from what I am hearing.

“At this stage we are pretty confident of running two cars again next year and possibly a third.

“Personally I would love to come back and try and go one better.”

Thomas Miles

A superb come-back drive at Bathurst wasn’t quite enough – but Soutar will be back next year!

STATE-OWNED Qatar Investment

Authority is expected to come to the rescue of Audi’s Formula 1 program, with its Sovereign Wealth Fund poised to take a significant shareholding in the team, finally bringing Qatar into the part-ownership of a Grand Prix team more than 15 years after Williams got close to sealing a deal with that Gulf country

Pressure in Germany has been mounting on Audi, with the powerful unions questioning how the manufacturer could be investing hundreds of millions of Euros in its Formula 1 program, when the entire Volkswagen Group is openly considering shutting down factories in Germany and potentially sending up to 30,000 people into unemployment.

Just two weeks ago, the group reported a 60% drop in profits amid a slump in sales in China, down by 12 per cent in the first nine months of this year. For now, the Volkswagen Group remains profitable but earnings before tax dropped almost 60% to A$3.9billion in the quarter from July to September, down from A$9.4billion one year earlier.

Looking at this background it’s clear that, with Audi being seen to spend a

QATARI MONEY TO REDUCE PRESSURE ON AUDI AUSSIES READY FOR MACAU

COOPER WEBSTER and James Wharton

hope to join Kevin Bartlett, Vern Schuppan and David Brabham, as Australian Macau Grand Prix winners this weekend.

Whilst Wharton has an exciting future locked in as he will take on his first full FIA F3 season in 2025 with ART, there is a lot on the line for Webster.

After Webster’s planned EuroCup3 campaign failed to eventuate in 2024 with Australian team Evans GP, it’s largely been a year on the sidelines for the ex-S5000 race winner after a fantastic maiden season in Europe which was also followed by capturing the satellite Indian F4 championship.

Webster had a brief foray in the Australian F4 Championship recently in Sepang, Malaysia, sweeping the podium with a race win, but it’s the streets of Macau in the F3 chassis Formula Regional by Alpine machinery that has his immediate attention. “I’m super excited to finally get back

tremendous amount of money in a racing program the company’s image back home was going to suffer quite a lot and serious industrial action was to be expected. But, by selling a significant parcel of the team to the Qatar Holdings and making the sum involved in the transaction public, Audi should be able to pass the message that it’s actually making a good profit out of being in Formula 1 and avoid the PR backlash back in Germany.

According to sources close to Audi, the Qataris are prepared to invest up to

A$1.6billion into the company’s Formula 1 program. With customer teams like McLaren currently valued around A$1.95billion, Audi, which will also design and build its own engines, could be valued up to A$3.25billion, so it’s reasonable to expect the new partner to acquire 49 per cent of the team, leaving the German manufacturer still as majority shareholder.

Above the value of Formula 1 teams and manufacturers, the most likely reason for Qatar Holdings to make this investment comes from the fact that the Arab country

is already a significant shareholder of the Volkswagen Group, owning 17 per cent of the company. This means that, more than making an independent investment in motor racing, what Qatar is doing is to protect its own, much bigger, investment in the car manufacturer.

It’s worth nothing the Qatar Investment Authority is valued at a whopping A$725billion, meaning that by putting even A$1.6billion into Audi’s Formula 1 team, it’s spending less than 0,25 per cent of its total assets …

With the Qatar Grand Prix looming, it’s logical to expect the official announcement of the deal when the Formula 1 community will already be in the country. On the other hand, the current deal Sauber has with Kick and Stake – owned by the same company – may have to be terminated at the end of this year, as gambling, even online, is illegal in Qatar and the country is unlikely to be associated with a betting platform like Kick. Should that be the case, it will leave a dent in the team’s 2025 budget estimated at 45 million Euros, as the Australian-based company has been Sauber’s main sponsor for the last couple of years.

Luis Vasconcelas

properly, I did a race in Malaysia recently but it was a bit last minute and I wasn’t as prepared as I wanted to be,” Webster told Auto Action

“The Macau GP has been in the works for a while, so I’m really eager to get cracking on that. I’ve tested the car a few times in Malaysia and Australia, but I’ve never raced in one.

“It will be new to me but it’s not unfamiliar, it’s more similar to the S5000 machinery than it is to the GB4 car, for example.

“I haven’t been in the car for a while, so I do realise that my name isn’t as common in Australia or overseas now, so it is important for me to do well in Macau.

“I haven’t had the opportunity of late to show people what I can do, and this event is very highly regarded in everyone’s mind as a highly regarded and tough circuit. Formula 1 drivers have done well here, and if you can do well there you’re a pretty good racing driver.”

Timothy W Neal

Apart from running its own Grand Prix, Qatar may soon have a sizeable stake in the new Audi F1 team. Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

S5000 and Indian F4 winner Cooper Webster hopes to capture attention at Macau ...

BEETON ACHIEVES SPECIAL FEAT

ANOTHER YOUNG Aussie on the rise is Jack Beeton, who has snatched a record second in the Italian Formula 4 Championship.

Whilst Freddie Slater cruised to the title, Beeton won a titanic battle for second best, rising from fourth in the final round to claim the spot by two points.

It is the first time an Australian has finished so high in the high-profile championship since it became a Formula 4 series in 2014 after being known as Formula Abarth/Azzurra in a different guise.

The previous best was fourth achieved by James Wharton in 2023.

AGi Sport member Beeton was not the only Aussie to perform, with Gianmarco Pradel getting a maiden win in the final race to secure seventh in the championship.

Beeton did it with US Racing across an

incredibly consistent campaign with 10 podiums from the 21 races.

Boosted by a breakthrough win at Catalunya in the penultimate round, the 16-year-old entered the Monza finale fourth in the standings, but a second, third and seventh was enough to overcome Hiyu Yamakoshi and Akshay Bohra by two points.

Beeton was delighted to perform under pressure and secure the record finish.

“I am stoked to rise from fourth to second in the last round,” he told Auto Action

“I had to fight hard for it. At Monza the racing is usually pretty crazy, let alone in the rain, so we knew it would be hard to get three good, consistent races.

“It was great to handle the pressure. With such small margins there were quite a few nerves heading into the final race where I was seventh, which is what I needed to get second in the championship.”

The rise is even more impressive considering Beeton finished 23rd in his rookie Italian F4 season with Van Amersfoort Racing.

A major moment in Beeton’s development between the 2023 and 2024 seasons was his championship success in the South East Asian F4 Championship.

“At the start of last year I did not understand downforce or anything like that,” Beeton recalled.

“I was driving it like a kart – braking as late as I could and seeing what happened in the rest of the corner.

“I literally did Australian karting and straight into F4, so it took me longer than it should have to figure it out, but this year I feel like I maximised the package most of the time, or at least 90% of the time. The US Racing car was very fast all year.”

Thomas Miles

HAZELWOOD EMBRACING ‘UNDERDOG’ STATUS

has already enjoyed an unforgettable 2024, but the cherry on top could be securing the Trans Am title on home soil.

Despite losing some ground in the penultimate round at Bathurst, Hazelwood enters the Adelaide finale with 24 points up his sleeve over reigning champion James Moffat.

But with both driver and team TFH Racing tasting Trans Am for the very first time in 2024, it is the championship leader that believes he is the underdog.

“It is a big job ahead,” Hazelwood told Auto Action

“I am certainly not taking for granted the challenge because there are some really fast guys and two rounds to go.

“We are somewhat of an underdog team, in particular based on James Golding and James Moffat being at the team that has dominated the last few seasons.

“They have the knowledge over us but we have just been working hard and doing out own thing.

“We will give it a big crack and see what we can achieve.”

After finding his feet and steadily improving across the early rounds at Sandown, Tasmania and Phillip Island, Hazelwood’s big Trans Am breakthrough arrived at The Bend when he took his first two wins.

Since then he took off, winning the final three races straight at Ipswich to storm into the championship lead ahead of the doubleheader.

Although Golding and Moffat had better pace at Bathurst, Hazelwood limited the damage to be fourth and third.

Hazelwood said he and the team entered Trans Am with an open mind and have embraced each new challenge that has come their way, helping them be on the verge of the ultimate goal.

“I have really enjoyed the challenge of being at a new team in a new category,” he said.

“We essentially started fresh and had a lot to learn so the label ourselves as title contenders at the sharp end of the series is something we are really proud of.

“We certainly set ourselves a goal to do the best job we could and it was hard to know what that would look like at the start of the year because it all happened at the last minute but I don’t think we are too surprised.”

Thomas Miles

TODD HAZELWOOD

INGRAM TAKES F5000 TASMAN CUP OPENER

KEVIN INGRAM has got the 2024/25

SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series off to a winning start at Manfeild’s Circuit Chris Amon.

However, young gun Michael Hey also made a great impression during the November 8-10 meeting by taking the fastest lap.

The event marked a roaring start to the new season being held at the annual MG Classic event.

Unfortunately, only eight cars were present for the season opener due to shipping delays affecting the return of several vehicles from overseas with a planned 60-day shipment now stretched beyond 90 days ...

Ingram took pole in a shortened qualifying session that was cut short due to Hey’s McRae GM1, which was second six-tenths away, firing off at the end of the first turn.

Ingram got a grand start from pole in his Lola T332 (HU 48R) to control the opening laps and ended up taking a lights-to-flag win.

However, it was far from easy as Hey put

Tony Galbraith, in another Lola T332 (HU 38), recovered to claim third after an early setback when an oil belt failed just before qualifying. This meant he started from the back of the grid, but flew through the field to third.

Glenn Richards was the only driver to find trouble, going beyond the grip threshold of his tyres while braking into Turn 1, resulting in

Sunday’s proceedings opened with a six-lap handicap race and, starting from the back, Hey was on the charge.

He steadily chased Ingram, who went back-to-back by 2.5s.

Tony Galbraith was also on the pace, being third, just 5s away, while Tony Roberts was the only non-finisher.

As rain threatened the eight-lap finale was

Ingram and Hey again had a fierce battle, being the pacesetters of the field.

While Hey had the fastest lap, Ingram still did enough to win the race by 1.27s and record a clean sweep.

They dominated the race with next best Galbraith a distant 21s back.

The next round of the 2024/25 SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup

With unique Fade Resistant Technology™, Halo P1 has a far lower and far more stable level of compressibility over a wide temperature range than the competition – giving drivers the confidence that their brake fluid will perform as well on the last lap as the first.

Kevin Ingram’s Lola T332 shows the way to youngster Michael Hey (McRae GM1). Image: JAROD CARRUTHERS

VALE: BILL JANE, THE CALMING INFLUENCE IN THE FAMOUS FAMILY

BILL JANE OAM, WHO DIED IN MELBOURNE LAST WEEK AGED 86, WAS THE YOUNGER BROTHER OF THE FAMOUS BOB AND THE CALMER HALF OF THE ‘BOB ’N’ BILL’ SHOW’ BEST KNOWN IN RACING CIRCLES AROUND CALDER PARK.

WHILE NOT quite as successful and extrovert a racer as Bob, who died six years ago, Bill Jane was a racer in his own right and was instrumental alongside his brother in the development of the Calder Park Thunderdome and the introduction of AUSCAR alongside Bob’s beloved NASCAR.

The pair grew up on the streets of Brunswick in Melbourne’s inner north and forged an impressive and enduring business relationship that would see the Jane family name become one of the most significant in the Australian automotive industry.

As teenagers they started working in the family leather goods factory, learning to sew, but the boys had a fascination with cars.

They learnt to make seat covers and before long it turned into a moneymaking exercise.

The pair formed the American Car Seat Cover Company and, with Bob’s sales skills hunting down work with the local car yards and with Bill back at base repairing and fitting the seat covers, it wasn’t long before the business grew.

The die was cast that the brothers would forge ahead in the motor industry.

They saw that there was money to be made in buying and selling cars and, with the help of the local mayor, they started their first car yard, Bob Jane Autoland.

As it succeeded the Janes bought into Southern Motors, then one of the biggest Holden dealers in the country, and subsequently took ownership of that thriving business.

Along the way the pair started a Jaguar dealership. They were disgusted by the tyres available to fit to Jags and hunted for a decent supply of the new radials to improve the handling of them.

Long-time motorsport patron Laurie

O’Neil gave them his tyre manufacturer contacts and the Janes sourced tyres directly from suppliers.

It wasn’t long before they started Bob Jane T-Marts and the rest is history.

As a racer, Bill had bought an Appendix J, 48-215 Holden in the late 1950s from Harry Firth, which helped to forge a relationship between Bob and Harry which led to that pair winning Armstrong 500s at Philip Island and

Bathurst in the early ’60s. He raced the ‘FX’ and others under the Jane Autoland banner.

Decades later Bill was the man behind the development of the Australian stock car category AUSCAR.

Bob had just launched American-style super-speedway racing at the Calder Park Thunderdome and needed a support category to NASCAR. Bill and his son Kim came up with the concept of racing converted production cars and the locally-grown AUSCAR was born.

Bill suffered a serious heart attack in the mid 70s and was forced to slow down but maintained his interest in car sales via a wholesale business that he remained a big part of until recent years. He was seen as a great mentor within the broad Jane family.

One of the great legacies is that two sons of the Jane brothers, Rodney and Kim, still work together as key players in the Bob Jane T-Marts organisation.

Bill is survived by ex-wife Joan, son Kim, daughters Tracey, Kathy, Sandy and Mandy. Daughter Susan passed away some years ago.

The Auto Action family extends our thoughts and best wishes to Bill’s family and friends.

A funeral service will be held for Bill at 3.00 PM Wednesday, 20th November at the Jane family church, Christ Church Brunswick, 8 Glenlyon Road, Brunswick Victoria. Bruce Williams

TASSIE GREAT GENE COOK DEAD

GENE COOK, who has died in Melbourne, in his late 70s, after a long illness, was one of Tasmania’s finest racers and one of Australian speedway’s greats.

Originally from Longford, the town near Launceston where racing was held on a famous road circuit until 1968, Cook was a member of both the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame and the Speedway Australia Hall of Fame. Beyond his racing days he continued with his renowned Gene Cook Race Engines at Tullamarine near Melbourne Airport.

Cook began circuit racing in 1962 at his hometown in his teens, progressing from an FX Holden to a Ford Customline, Ford Anglia and Fiat 1500. After the chequered flag was waved for the last time at Longford he turned to speedway at nearby Carrick and

excelled there and on the mainland.

He promptly won the 1969 Australian Saloon Car Championship at Ballarat’s Redline Speedway, then the 1972 Latrobe Grand Prix in an HR Holden, the 1983 Tasmanian asphalt championship, another grand prix at Latrobe and the Australian Pavement Grand National Championship.

There was to be a string of other national dirt-track successes over 15 years, including with a Chevy Monza.

These included a record three Australian Grand Nationals – Australia’s richest speedway race – at Sydney’s Liverpool Speedway and in 1983 Cook was voted the country’s No.1 speedway sedan racer.

He had led the Australian Saloon Car Championships at Toowoomba in 1979 for 46 of 50 laps before a puncture denied him victory.

During the ’80s he also raced a Ford Falcon, a Chev-powered Torana and a Mazda RX-7 in Touring Cars and Sports Sedans.

He competed in the 1983 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 with Johnnie Walker.

Cook moved into NASCAR racing when the Calder Park Thunderdome was built and from 1993 based himself in Melbourne.

He survived life-threatening injuries in a NASCAR crash at Calder and later returned to the dirt-tracks before retiring from racing around the turn of the century.

Gene Cook Racing Engines built components for Stock Cars until the Thunderdome’s demise in the early 2000s but continued supplying Midgets, Sprintcars, Super Sedans and HQ Holdens for circuit racing.

Auto Action extends its thoughts and best wished to Gene’s family and friends.

NEW CHAMPION Peter Ingram

entered his first full Precision National Sports Sedan Series season with high hopes internally, but plenty of mystery externally.

Few thought the #32 Mazda RX7 would have the reliability to go all the way, but combined with Ingram it became a fierce force.

It gobbled up each new track that came its way and come the Bathurst finale, Ingram had one hand on the coveted Sports Sedans trophy.

Even a first retirement of the year and a defeat to main rival Steven Tamasi in a thrilling final race battle was not enough to even make the New South Welshman nervous as he had already completed the job with an opening race win.

Ingram said it was satisfying to perform so well in an outstanding maiden full Sports Sedans campaign.

“It is pretty special to amongst some very well known Australian racing drivers,” he told Auto Action

“We raced a car this year that a lot of people did not think would be capable of winning a championship.

“People had written off a turbo car as not being possible, let alone being a rotary.

Not only did we race it and run at the front of the field, setting the pace, but we also were extremely reliable.

“Until the Sunday morning, where we had a 30c part failure and lost drive in the driveshaft, we had run the whole season without a DNF.

“We all knew it was capable, so it was really

INGRAM PROVES DOUBTERS WRONG NATIONAL CALENDARS TAKE SHAPE

THE REST of the 2025 Australian racing season is beginning to take shape with Trans Am and both Porsche national championships announcing new-look calendars.

The biggest change is happening in Trans Am where a seven-round season will conclude with a triple-header.

A Trans Am season launch will be held at Baskerville Raceway on Thursday, March 20 where the full grid will complete a day of practice before a competitive shootout at the historic circuit.

Racing will commence at the iconic

Symmons Plains Raceway the following weekend before a return to the Mountain and the Bathurst 6 Hour meeting.

Round 3 is the first of the TBCs before a new Race Winton event is held in August. For the rest of the year, the Trans Am teams will be competing in South Australia for the run to the title.

Kicking off the SA triple header is The Bend 500 Supercars enduro before the second TBC where “an exciting annoumcement” re a South Australian venue has been promised.

Just like this year, the famous streets of Adelaide will be a grand stage to decide

nice to show everyone it could be done.”

The success was no fluke either with the Ingram Brothers Racing team completing a number of busy test days, including one at Sydney Motorsport Park where Peter got 90 laps under his belt.

Ingram said he had to grow a lot as a

the Trans Am champion.

“Our 2025 calendar is a fantastic evolution for our series which builds upon the successful years we’ve already had and sets us up for an even bigger and better season of racing,” said Trans Am Category Manager Graham Sattler.

“This gives us the opportunity to showcase the immense talent within Trans Am on a larger scale at some of the country’s showpiece events.

“We look forward to sharing more details around 2025 in the near future, but now our attention turns to wrapping up our season with an incredible event at

driver to become national champion.

“The results have not come from a lack of hard work,” he said.

“The IBR guys part of our crew have been with us since day dot and are so committed and switched on.

“But this year we also had Rocky Rehayem from PAC Performance and he has been around racing for a long time and brought a lot of knowledge to the team.

“I had an engineer for the first time in Ruben Lawrenson which made a huge difference to my driving, it was all “brakes, brakes, brakes and brakes.”

“People will say the car is fast because it is fast in a straight line, but I make all my gains in braking performance.

“As I learnt this year, everything starts with braking. You cannot generate the tyre temperature or grip in order to go fast without braking well.

“A lot of my development has been to do with braking and a lot of that has come from Ruben.”

Ingram Brothers Racing will return in 2025, but are waiting for the calendar to see how many rounds they can commit to.

Thomas Miles

the VAILO Adelaide 500.”

The Porsche Sprint Challenge season has also seen some change with a mix of SRO and Supercars race meetings.

The first three rounds are all SRO-run events, at Phillip Island (April 4-6) SMP (May 2-4) and Queensland Raceway (May 30-June 1).

The first Supercars meeting will be a return to the streets of Townsville before the series heads to The Bend in September.

The finale will be another one on the Supercars stage, at Sandown.

Thomas Miles

Ingram took the top step on the championship podium ... Image: MPIX

Trans Am will return to The Mountain in 2025, at the Bathurst Six Hour event. Image: INSYDE MEDIA/TRANS AM

TOURING CAR MASTERS CONFIRMS SEVEN ROUNDS IN 2025

THE MANAGEMENT OF TOURING CAR MASTERS HAS ANNOUNCED ITS SEVEN-ROUND 2025 RACING CALENDAR, WITH SIX ROUNDS CONFIRMED ON THE SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP UNDERCARD ...

THE EXPANDED 2025 TCM championship starts at Sydney Motorsport Park as part of the first round of the Repco Supercars Championship Series before heading to Symmons Plains just outside Launceston, Tasmania, Hidden Valley in Darwin, Northern Territory as part of the Supercars Series before joining the ARG Series at Winton for the only race in the Championship not running with Supercars.

The final three round are The Bend Enduro in South Australia, the Repco Bathurst 1000 in New South Wales and the Penrite Oils Sandown 500 in Victoria during the Supercars Finals.

“We are very pleased with the make-up of the 2025 series, and it come comes on the back of a very solid 2024 season,” TCM’s Tony Hunter said while launching the championship calendar.

“We have seen a resurgence in the quality of racing and numbers of regular competitors, and this has delivered fantastic on-track racing this year.

“So, it is exciting to announce an expanded, seven-round 2025 series calendar that features more races on the Supercars program.

“We have been working with Supercars management who have acknowledged the improvement in the number of competitors and the quality of the on-track action and

racing and have offered us additional events on the Supercars program which we have accepted with great enthusiasm.

“It is an exciting development, and it confirms the commitment made by a substantial number of competitors and other parties in the TCM investment group, who have put their own money into the category.

“We want to acknowledge and appreciate Garry and Barry Rogers for their support in the transition, and so TCM will be part of a special ARG special ‘Race Winton’ event at Winton in August.

“It gives the teams, car owners and sponsors the opportunity to prepare ahead of what we think will be a great season.

“We thank Supercars and the huge number of TCM fans who have been very supportive of what we have been doing.

“For our 2025 season, TCM will run on six Supercar events, all with live Fox Sport

coverage, three rounds with live Channel 7 coverage and the balance featuring on Channel 7 highlights packages. Our seventh event, will be our Round 4 and will be held at Winton as part of the ‘Race Winton’ special event that will also feature Trans Am.”

FINAL ROUND FIGHT-OUT

The announcement of the 2025 Touring Car Masters event comes ahead of the final round of the 2024 series which will be held at The Bend West Circuit on November 22-24.

The final round will see a battle for the outright TCM title between Tasmania’s Adam Garwood and NSW racer Jamie Tilley.

Garwood, driving a Holden VB Commodore, has a handy 82-point lead over Tilley in his early model Mustang and, after taking wins this year is in with a chance of taking his maiden TCM title.

In a quality TCM field, other contenders

Round 1 Sydney Motorsport Park-NSW Feb 21-23

Round 2 Symmons Plains-Tasmania May 9-11

Round 3 Hidden Valley-NT June 20-22

Round 4 Winton-Vic August TBC

Round 5 The Bend-SA Sept 12-14

Fox Sports/ Channel 7

Round 6 Bathurst 1000 Oct 9-12 Live Channel 7/Fox Sports

Round 7 Sandown Nov14-16 Live Fox Sports/ Channel 7

for the round win will include local SA hotshot Joel Heinrich in the Whiteline Racing Camaro, former TCM series winner Ryan Hansford in the Multispares Racing Torana, Marcus Zukanovic in an XD Falcon and the A9X Torana of Danny Buzadzic who took wins at the previous round at Sandown. Cam Tilley in the fan favorite Valiant, Jim Pollicina in another Torana, Dean Lillie, who will once again steer the Hancock Racing #33 Mustang, Scott Cameron in the second Whiteline Racing Camaro and Andrew Fisher in his four-door Torana are also in with a showing.

The TCM competitors will also be racing for some serous prize money with $10,000 being on offer. The pole position winner will take home $1,000, while the winners of the three classes within TCM, Pro Masters, Pro Am and Pro Sport all set to take home $3,000. Touring Car Masters will race on both Saturday and Sunday of the event.

Bruce Williams

TOURING CAR MASTERS STANDINGS AFTER 5 ROUNDS

1 Adam Garwood 889 points

2 Jamie Tilley 807

3 Ryan Hansford 770

4 Joel Heinrich 755

5 Danny Buzadzic 738

SVEN BURCHARTZ LIVES

ALL IN FOR THE BIGGEST EVER

With the best motorsport action and spectacular entertainment, we'll see you in Adelaide.

14-17 NOV 2024

MUSCAT RIDES TO NEW RECORDS

TOP FUEL Motorcycle racer Damian Muscat has set a new benchmark in Australian Motorcycle Drag Racing.

At last weekend’s Drag Bike Nationals Presented by Harley Davidson at The Bend, Muscat recorded the both fastest and quickest passes, crossing the line in 5.800 seconds at 394.96km/h a new record.

This achievement follows Phil Read’s record-setting performance in his Top Fuel Car 20 days earlier at the October Spring Nationals at the same venue.

The Dragway at The Bend now holds the Australian record for both car and motorcycle drag racing, making it arguably the fastest track outside of North America.

Muscat and his team travelled 3200 km from Mackay, Queensland, to achieve this feat, also winning Round 1 of the 2024/25 NDRC Top Fuel Motorcycle Championship.

Muscat’s journey to this record-breaking pass has been intense, with a near-miss at Queensland’s Willowbank Raceway in June.

However, he shattered the existing record in South Australia on Saturday night, placing him in the top 10 globally for Top Fuel Motorcycle Drag Racing.

“We managed to run the best number of my career, and it just happens to be the fastest in Australia. It’s also number eight in the world, so I couldn’t be happier for all our sponsors,” Muscat said.

“It is odd – sometimes the best passes don’t feel that way, as everything just happens so smoothly and that is what makes a good run!

“My competitor (Rob Cassar) in the other lane actually saw the time board and was able to tell me when he pulled up beside me in the deep end, and once my crew came down beeping the horn, it was so surreal.

“As we did some fast runs earlier in the day too it was enough to back it up and reset the Australian record, and it also puts us as equal eighth in the world!”

Despite the flying finish, it was not an easy ride the whole way for Muscat.

In the first run a rider error led to a bike shut down, but in the second qualifier he

topped the times.

After a solo in round 1, a second soli finished in the sand trap with the bike on its side after a blistering time.

But he then sent the clock alight with a record-breaking time in the a Final against Rob Cassar.

Taking out the B-Final victory was Corey Buttigieg, over Danny Rickard.

The Bend’s Managing Director, Sam Shahin, is already looking to raise the bar further. “Australian records that have remained unchallenged for years have now been broken at The Bend. It’s time to

challenge the international benchmarks,” Shahin stated.

The next opportunity for records to be broken will be at the Summit Racing Equipment Track Championships on 23 November.

Auto Action’s latest issue is out now online and in store, so grab the latest copy at your nearest outlet, or read the FREE digital version online via the link below.

Round 2 of the NDRC Top Fuel Motorcycle Championship is at Perth on November 22-23, while the next NDRC event is at Sydney this weekend.

EXCITEMENT IS building for one of the biggest annual state level meetings in Victoria, the Island Magic.

The 2024 Island Magic will be held at the famous Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on November 23-24.

There will be a large variety of categories on show throughout the weekend at the event run by the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club.

For open wheel fans, leading the way are Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Ford.

Also on show are Formula Vee and Formula Open.

Historic Touring Cars will offer a blast from the past, while the Sports Sedans will erupt the serene and picturesque surrounds.

Saloon Cars and Sports Cars promise more variety, while the onemake Porsche 944 Challenge Cars should produce close racing.

Competitors will be offered private practice on the Friday before the event proper takes place over the weekend.

Tickets are available at the gate with a Saturday pass starting at $30 and a Sunday Pass from $35, while a weekend pass is only $40 and kids under 16 are free.

Gates will open at 8.30 each morning with track action taking place at 9.15 and concluding at 17.00 AEDT.

DJR ENGINEER KAPPER JOINS SUPERCARS

DICK JOHNSON Racing has lost veteran engineer Perry Kapper, who joins Supercars as the new Category Technical Director.

Kapper is currently Anton De Pasquale’s race engineer and has been at the famous Ford squad since 2018.

During that time he has overseen the development of the Gen3 Ford Mustang, which DJR homologated.

With De Pasquale also off to Team 18, this weekend’s VAILO Adelaide 500 will be a farewell for both driver and

engineer at the team.

Kapper will join the Supercars technical team with his role described as “to manage Supercars’ technical department, and be the bridge between the department and Supercars teams.”

He will also manage the technical regulations and work with General Manager of Motorsport Tim Edwards on the future direction of the technical side of Supercars and Super2.

This role has been held by John Russell in 2024, following in the

footsteps of the late and respected Campbell Little.

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome Perry Kapper to the Supercars team,” Edwards told Supercars.com.

“Perry has a proven track record in the championship, most recently with DJR, and was critical to the introduction of the Gen3 era.

“Perry will be a great addition to the technical department and brings a wealth of experience to the team.”

Thomas Miles

SEE THE MAGIC RECORD FIELD FOR UTES FINALE

A RECORD grid of V8 SuperUtes will take on the seasonending VAILO Adelaide 500 this weekend.

A maximum capacity field of 24 Utes will be on the streets of Adelaide for the sixth and final round of the season.

In addition to the news that sees the culmination of a threeyear growth strategy, a thrilling title fight is in prospect as the top three drivers are split by just seven points.

V8 SuperUte Series category operations manager Filippa Guarna was elated and hopes this is just the start of capacity fields.

“Every category has a grid number that allows it to operate the most productive off track, with maximum entertainment on track, while also being efficient onsite for event organisers, and 24 was always the goal for us,” she said.

“But the plan isn’t just about having 24 V8 SuperUtes at one round though.

“We’ve been working hard on a new shareholding restructure with our teams that will ensure we have a consistent 24-car field at every round moving forward.

“With a conscious effort made by management the last few years to streamline operations, increase new builds and welcome new competitors, the series has delivered on what it set out to do and that is consistent, solid growth.

“Considering where the category was just three years ago, this is hugely exciting going into 2025!” All eyes will be on Cameron Crick on 1040, who leads by last year’s runner-up Adam Marjoram (1037) and dual-champion Aaron Borg (1033) by nothing.

Boosting the field is the addition of two Adelaide locals George Gutierrez who last raced at this year’s opening round at the Bathurst 500 and February, and Craig Dontas who comes out of retirement to race in front of a home crowd. Thomas Miles

Image: TAMARA JADE MEDIA

FOR THE second year in a row, Dayne Kingshott took the Scardifields Smash Repairs King of Wings event, the third round of the 2024/25 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series.

The defending champion won a drawnout and drama-filled 40-lap feature race at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night.

It was a case of history repeating as Kingshott started from sixth, the same grid position as last year.

With Callum Williamson and Kris Coyle filling the minor places, Kingshott now enjoys a 14-point lead over Williamson.

Kingshott was able to control his car enough to win on the rubber down track that proved brutal on tyres and put some of his rivals out of the contest when their tyres ran out of rubber and deflated.

It was a war of attrition as only seven of the 23 cars made it to the finish.

Williamson almost joined that list, having suffered electrical issues in the A Dash.

This meant he started the A Main 11th, but flew up to third by quarter race distance and hit the lead by Lap 25. Williamson dropped back to third for a period before getting into second late and recording his second podium result of the season, bettering his third at the last outing.

Coyle impressively came from 14th as he chased grip on the low lines of the track with success.

Brad Maiolo, who started from second, staked an early claim on the race, leading

until lap 24.

In the next handful of laps he dropped back to fourth before getting back to second until he suffered tyre failure with only a few laps to the checkers.

Kaiden Manders qualified on pole after being second in his heat race and winning the A Dash.

After jockeying between the podium positions early on, he was out of the contest just over mid-race distance after being tagged by another car which set off a chain reaction, resulting in damage to a couple of cars.

Daniel Harding started from third and dropped back as far as seventh at one point, before making up lost ground, getting to second, before heading infield with a flat left rear tyre.

New Zealander Michael Pickens, in his second outing in the Sean Carren-owned W95, took fourth, backing up his second in the season opener back in November.

Jason Kendrick was fifth after being caught up in a few incidents and going to the rear of the field on two occasions, including once where the team had to replace the front end of the Triple M Kendrick Racing W11.

The series will head south for the first appearance at Bunbury Speedway on November 23.

The Limited Sprintcars were also on show where Michael Keen made history.

Keen took a record fifth successive win in the Kings of Wings event.

He ran second for the majority of the

20-lap feature, but snatched the lead in the closing stages.

Keen was overjoyed with the success.

“To win my first King of Wings five years ago was a big deal, so to win my fifth in a row is a truly amazing achievement, not only for me, but the entire team,” he said.

“It was without a doubt one of the biggest weekends of my speedway racing career so far with running the Limited Sprintcar on both the Friday and Saturday night and the 410 Sprintcar on the Saturday night, so the team and I had a fair bit going on throughout the

weekend, but it was very satisfying to be able to handle all of the pressure that came with it.”

Thomas Miles

VALE NASCAR LEGEND BOBBY ALLISON KINGSHOTT AGAIN

NASCAR IMMORTAL Bobby Allison, a founding member of the ‘Alabama Gang’, passed away Saturday at the age of 86. His incredible racing career spanned nearly three decades, earning him 85 wins and the 1983 NASCAR Champion, and a lasting legacy within the sport.

Allison’s journey in NASCAR was marked by both triumph and deep personal losses, including the tragic deaths of his two sons and a devastating crash that cut his career short in 1988.

Born in Miami, Florida, Allison became a symbol of American racing in the 1960s. With natural skill and relentless determination, he quickly amassed wins and recognition, eventually becoming a dominant force on the track.

Allison’s early career was rooted in the dirt and short-track circuits, where he was known for his aggressive style and precision, earning him the admiration of fans nationwide. By 1966, Allison competed regularly in NASCAR’s premier series, achieving his first win at Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine and setting off a string of 10 straight seasons with multiple victories.

Allison’s career was also defined by his role in NASCAR’s infamous ‘Alabama Gang’, a group of fiercely talented racers hailing from Hueytown, Alabama. Alongside his brother Donnie and friend Red Farmer, Bobby helped make Alabama a powerhouse in NASCAR.

They were known for their camaraderie, competitive spirits, and sheer skill on the track. Here, Allison cemented his reputation, particularly after his involvement in a post-race fight with Cale Yarborough at the 1979 Daytona 500, an iconic moment that gained NASCAR national attention.

Although Richard Petty won the race, fans remember Allison’s defence of his brother, turning the rivalry into a NASCAR legend.

The highlights of Allison’s career include his three victories in the Daytona 500 (1978, 1982, and 1988), four wins in the Southern 500, and three Coca-Cola 600 titles. His final Daytona win in 1988, when he outpaced his son Davey to cross the finish line first, was a heartwarming moment in NASCAR

history, marking Allison as one of the oldest winners of the prestigious event. That win was a bittersweet reminder of the family’s racing legacy.

However, Allison’s career ended abruptly in 1988 following a near-fatal crash at Pocono Raceway, where he suffered significant injuries and a concussion. The accident left him with memory loss and marked the end of his driving days. Tragically, his sons Clifford and Davey both passed away in separate accidents in the early 1990s, underscoring the risks that come with a life in racing.

Despite these tragedies, Allison’s contributions to NASCAR continued. He was inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in 2011 as a member of its second class. He remains fourth on NASCAR’s all-time win list for its premier series, recently officially credited with an 85th victory for a disputed 1971 race. He was honoured as one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023, a testament to his impact on the sport.

NASCAR Chairman Jim France praised Allison, calling him a true icon whose influence stretched beyond the racetrack. Andrew Clarke

Image: RICHARD HATHAWAY PHOTOGRAPHY

RAPID RULLO TAKES ADELAIDE RALLY

HAVING MADE his Supercars debut in the SA capital in 2017, Alex Rullo (right) has now made a different kind of history in the same city by winning the 2024 Adelaide Rally.

Rullo and co-driver Steve Glenney took the win by a shade under 90s in the Hyundai i20 Rally 2.

It was a special result for the Rullo family with a father-son 1-2 with Peter Rullo and James Marquet in second place, one minute and 26 seconds behind the winning entry.

The next best behind the Rullos was 2023 joint winners Oscar Matthews/Naomi Tillett.

The 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI combination was 23s behind Peter Rullo, but importantly the leading local duo.

They just held off Challenge Category winner Mann in a Subaru STI by one second.

The Challenge Category was a Subaru one-two with Spry a 1m24s away, while Andrews was third in a 2018 Ford Focus.

The Rullo and Matthews top three were in a league of their own in Modern Competition being three and a half minutes ahead of next best in class Lovell/Radziszewski.

Some special cars from the 70s and 80s took part in Classic Competition and Dermody/Doble emerged on top in a 1978 Ford RS 2500.

They enjoyed a sizeable eight-minute advantage over next best Coulter/Colliver in a 1985 Toyota Sprinter.

The same entires also competed in the Handicapped Heritage Trophy where the same result occurred although Darmody only won by six minutes.

A Regularity also took place across the three days where Chris Oldaker and David Greaves finished at the top of the leaderboard in a Renault Megane RB8.

Their total of 48 was well clear of the 88 achieved by Stephen Barker and Tamara Brice in a Toyota GR Yaris Rallye.

The only other entry to record a double figure score was Anthony Dally and Cameron Van Den Heuvel in a Hyundai i30N.

Over 400 cars took part in the 2024 Shannons Adelaide Rally, across Competitive categories such as Competition, Challenge and TSD categories, tour groups such as Spirit Tour and Main Tour plus tour groups from car brands, dealers and clubs such as Adelaide BMW, Solitaire Automotive Group, Mercedes-Benz Adelaide and MercedesBenz Unley, Peter Page Hyundai, Porsche Centre Adelaide, Zagame Adelaide, Adelaide

Mini Garage, Formula Honda and Porsche Club South Australia.

Australian motorsport legend Craig Lowndes and wife Lara Lowndes took part in the Main Tour, driving a Chevrolet Corvette Z06.

Big crowds soaked up the atmosphere of not only the rally cars, but also the wide selection of free community events.

Thomas Miles

AMF FIELD GROWS

WHILST THE VAILO Adelaide 500 takes place this weekend, excitement is also growing for March when the same streets host the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

In the build up to the Supercars season finale, a number of special cars from all sorts of eras have been confirmed to come to the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

Spearheading the announcements was the news former Australian Formula 1 driver David Brabham will steer a Brabham BT59.

Brabham was one of just two Australians to race in an Adelaide Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The BT59 driven by Brabham and Italian Stefano Modena raced over the course of the 1990 Formula 1 season.

It will be first time the car will have been in Adelaide since it raced, 34 years ago.

After being a hit this year, the winner of the that 1990 race, the Benetton B19 driven to glory by Nelson Piquet, will return.

Joining the charge will be Shadow CanAm and open-wheel cars, which were the stars of the on-track action at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The Shadow racing cars, run by Era Motorsport, include the high-powered

Can-Am MKI Mosport, MKI Prototype and MKIII along with a 1975 Shadow DN6B Formula 5000 car.

Driving these unique and stunning V8-powered machines will be some international drivers that will be confirmed at a later date.

A Nissan R88C Group C sports car will also give fans a flavour of Le Mans from the 1980s.

The three-litre twin-turbocharged V8 that not only competed in the 1988 and 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours, but also the AllJapan Sports Prototype Championship and World Sportscar Championship will carry the standout blue and white Calsonic colours.

Before winning Bathurst in 1990, Allan Grice and Win Percy teamed up with Mike Wilds to finish 14th in the 1988 Le

Mans 24 Hours in a Nissan R88C.

A famous Peter Brock Ford Sierra RS500 will also be returning to the Festival.

It is the Ford Brock took pole position for the 1989 Bathurst 1000 with a 2:15.80s time, almost a second clear of Dick Johnson.

He was also victorious in the NissanMobil 500 Series across Wellington and Pukekohe in New Zealand alongside Andrew Miedecke in 1990.

Brock also drove the car around the streets of Adelaide when it hosted the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix during the touring cars support races.

Miedecke has since restored the car and will bring it back to the Adelaide street circuit for the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in the Heritage Touring Cars category.

Thomas Miles

Brabham (David) in a Brabham ... Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

Image: JOHN LEMM

Coming – the Shadow Can-Am MKI Mosport

CHASING THE TITLE

IT’S TIGHT at the top of the Constructors’ Championship with three teams pushing for top spot and we are going to need to be at our best in the final three races.

Ferrari and Red Bull are there and pushing hard so we need to keep picking up solid points at each race.

The last time McLaren clinched the Teams’ Championship was back in 1998, with Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard in the MP4-13, so it would be a great reward for the whole team. So much effort has gone in back at base in Woking.

McLaren has eight Constructors’ titles to its name but to become part of the team’s history in a small way and add a ninth would be a huge honour, especially after 26 years.

Head

FORMULA 1 WORLD

There’s a really good atmosphere within the team and it would be nice reward to secure some silverware and hopefully use it as a springboard to kick on in years to come.

We are in the best position currently but it can all change in an instant, so we are very much staying alert and ready for the challenges ahead.

An enormous amount of effort has gone into the season so far and we are determined to finish it strongly and be fighting

at the sharp end across Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Every time I visit MTC, you can see that hunger, hard work and determination.

On an individual level, I want to push for more wins and podiums and add to the two GP wins and seven podiums before the season is out. Momentum is important and I want to go into next season off the back of three strong races to close out 2024.

I’m currently fourth in the Drivers’ Championship and, while it is going to be hard to

overtake Charles into third, I want to push that fight all the way.

A bit of time has passed since the chaotic race in Brazil – which was eventful to say the least. The highlight for me was obviously the Sprint qualifying pole on Friday evening and a solid Sprint race on Saturday. I wanted more from Sunday but it was key to pick up points, add to the Constructors’ tally and move on to Las Vegas.

Since then, I’ve been resting at home and getting some fitness training in prior to the last triple-header of the season which I’m really looking forward to.

In 2023, I managed to sneak into the points in Las Vegas, Qatar was a great race and Abu Dhabi was solid but I am hoping to improve on all three.

I’ll be wearing my special

‘Route 81’ helmet that I also wore in Austin at the USGP. Half of the helmet displays night time in Nevada with the Las Vegas Strip in the background.

I’m sure Vegas is going to be a busy race on and off-track as it definitely brought something different and unique to the calendar last year.

Thanks as ever for all the support and all the messages that I receive in the mail and online. Take care.

IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

OSCAR

Oscar Piastri’s

Saturday in Brazil was a good day for Oscar – pole for the Sprint and a great team 1-2. Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

GILL

LOCKS UP ’25 WRC DRIVE

YOUNG UP-and-coming Aussie rally star Taylor Gill and co-driver Dan Brkic have been confirmed and deservedly rewarded with a second stint in the Junior WRC Championship in 2025.

The Newcastle-born rally driver and talented mechanic – who in 2023 became the youngest ever ARC Production Cup winner – had a sensational 2024 debut season in the Junior WRC, and will get a deserved second crack on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar next season.

Gill will again pilot a Ford Fiesta Rally3 Evo in the Rally Star program after a host of drivers were announced again overnight, with the 2025 calendar to take in Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Finland and Central Europe (new addition along with Portugal to the Junior calendar), with dates to be announced.

If not for mechanical and tyre issues on the brutal roads of the Acropolis Rally Greece, Taylor and Brkic were in the contention for the title in the final round, with a fighting eighth place finish seeing him drop from second in the title race to fourth by season’s end.

But in a huge year of learning and new experiences, the pair had a plethora of momentous outings, including becoming the first Aussies to capture a class win at the legendary Rally Finland, as well as a second place on the unforgiving Asphalt of Rally Croatia.

They had the pace to compete all season against eventual champion Romet Jurgenson, who captured the coveted title that netted a select amount of drives in WRC2 machinery in 2025.

As a cool spinoff bonus to their debut season, Gill’s Fiesta will also feature in the EA Sports WRC expansion pack, which Gill described by saying “A pretty cool boyhood dream to have our car in the world’s premier rally game!”

TW Neal

QUIMBY CAPTURES F4 US TITLE

YOUNG AUSSIE and Sydneysider Daniel Quimby has captured the 2024 F4 United States Championship, sealing the title over fellow Aussie Nicolas Stati in the season finale at COTA.

The series – which had faced uncertainty over its immediate future –was largely dominated by the Aussie pair, who took out 8 of the 14 races across its five rounds.

Quimby, who races for the Nova Scotia based Atlantic Racing Team, won it by 4.5 points with a double podium weekend, becoming the third Australian to take the title after Joshua Car in 2019, and Lochie Hughes in 2022.

Quimby entered Race 3 knowing he need to win the race or finish at least two spots over Stati (Crosslink Kiwi

Motorsport with guidance from AGi Sport), and he kept in the mirrors of Kiwi Alex Crosbie to take P2 in the finale, with Stati finishing in fifth after putting up a fight for the final podium spot, as well as putting pressure on his compatriot.

“This was a big weight lifted off my shoulders, I was a bit nervous this morning,” said a jubilant Quimby after the race.

“It was a really good race. I’d like to thank everyone who’s come on board this year—Motorhome Republic, Cruise America, Crankhouse, Galvanize Insurance, FIJI Airways, MIR Raceline.

The boys from Atlantic Racing Team have done an awesome job all weekend.”

As one of his rewards, Quimby will also

get to spend a round in the Formula 1 pits of the Haas team.

“I can’t wait to attend the FIA awards night in Europe and also spend a weekend next year with the Haas F1 team.” Quimby has also shown his talent in the tin-tops in Australia this season, winning his class on debut in October at SMP where he joined the Porsche Sprint Challenge field.

The NZ Crosslink team also captured the teams’ title in the first year of the switch to the new Ligier Gen2 JSF4 machinery, who alongside AGi Sport on Stati’s machine, took out five wins and 18 podiums ahead of their Driver Development union with Chip Ganassi Racing next season.

TW Neal

CAMPBELL FINISHES WEC ON A HIGH

PORSCHE FACTORY superstar Matt Campbell has ended his debut FIA World Endurance Championship in the Hypercar class with a second place podium at Bahrain in the season finale.

Seen within its doors as one of the team’s most reliable drivers, Campbell will now head back to North America’s IMSA in 2025 where the majority of his success has been with the German giants.

After looking pacy all weekend, Campbell was behind the wheel in the final stint as Porsche fought it out against Toyota for the Manufacturers title, falling just short with tyre wear in an epic battle (see page 58 for WEC race review).

In a huge year for the Porsche Penske team, taking out Hypercar titles in IMSA and WEC, Campbell was instrumental in setting the team up with a first-up win at the Daytona 24. That’s when the ball really started rolling,” said Campbell on reflection.

“The victory at Daytona was the key to all further successes this season. Right at the start of the year, we proved to the world and ourselves that we can achieve anything.

“I have been in motorsport for 20 years. I know that there

are beautiful and difficult phases. Of course, sometimes we experience days when we wonder why we invest maximum energy and countless hours in this sport. The answer is Daytona: moments like these are incomparable!”

Campbell’s association with the WEC will continue for the 2025 Le Mans 24, but he’ll be piloting the U.S based 963 machine alongside good mate Matthieu Jaminet in an exciting driver team reunion.

Although the 20-year racing veteran couldn’t capture a win in his first top-class WEC season, he finished the year with four podiums, starting the year off with back-to-back third places in Qatar and Imola, another third place at Sao Paulo in Brazil before the season high second in Bahrain.

Outside of that, he also added the win at Daytona, and two third places as the third driver at Sebring and Atlanta across his three IMSA races.

TW Neal

Success at COTA and the US F4 title for Daniel Quimby.

Campbell (left) has been a mainstay of Porsche’s program.

THE KIWIS ARE SHOWING US THE WAY

AN ANNOUNCEMENT from across the Tasman a couple of weeks back caught my eye.

A joint announcement by Rodin Cars owner David Dicker and recently elected MotorSport NZ President Deborah Day outlined the latest strategy to help NZ find its next Formula 1 driver, following in Liam Lawson’s footsteps.

Entitiled Formula Ford to Formula 1 – powered by Rodin Cars the program provides a solid, defined pathway for any aspiring young Kiwi, from Formula Ford, with door-opening opportunities made possible by Dicker’s investment in acquiring the British-based team that used to go under the name of Carlin.

Dicker is the latest in a long line of NZ-based motorsport benefactors who have directly assisted young kiwis along the international path

– not only to Europe and the F1 dream, but also the US Indycar scene. Among them have been Sir Colin Giltrap, who sadly died earlier this year, and our own Tony Quinn, whose presence in NZ motorsport, owning three key racetracks and now the group promoting NZ’s national series, equals his investment in Queensland Raceway and the Triple Eight Supercar team here.

His Tony Quinn Foundation has already made supporting grants to a number of young drivers.

All of the above three – Dicker, Giltrap and Quinn – have been among the core group who assisted Lawson through his pathway to and including Formula 2 – which was needed, even after Liam was drafted into the Red Bull system after dominating the TRS series in 2018.

While Tony Quinn is pretty-well known here, David Dicker is less so.

with

CL ON CALL

He’s actually an Aussie. Indeed, in the early 90s D. Dicker used to fling a Mazda RX-7 around Sydney Motorsport Park, but his story starts well before that – late 70s in fact, when he stepped back from an early ‘tradie’ background to explore the then-new world of computers, and computer hardware in particular. Long story short – and more the subject of a business publication – over the following years he created a billion-dollar Australian business … in which he still holds a significant share. It’s one of those amazing success stories … However, motorsport knows him primarily for what happened next. He moved to New Zealand and, on a quiet 550-hectare country property acquired in 2005, an hour or so north of Christchurch, started the project which ultimately saw Rodin Cars (the name is that of the 19th century sculptor who created ‘The Thinker’) launched in 2016, followed by the company’s first project, the FZED open-wheeler track car, and the subsequent spectacular FZERO.

In parallel came the start of support for young kiwis looking to make it overseas. Lawson was the first; the latest is 17-year-old Louis Sharp, who has progressed, with Rodin’s support, via British F4 in 2022 (he had to miss the first round as he hadn’t turned 15!) to, this year, winning the 2024 GB3 Championship. Most recently he tested ahead of his F3 debut next

year, for Rodin Motorsport … Rodin Motorsport? Oh yeah, forgot to mention, in early 2023, Dicker acquired an 80 percent stake in Carlin – the established UK company running successful teams in F4, F3 and F2.

By year’s end, circumstances saw Dicker acquire the remaining share of the company, and the re-named Rodin Motorsport was in business. While Rodin Motorsport, like everything else in the Dicker portfolio, is run on strictly business lines, having a ready-made F4-3-2 channel owned by a great supporter of kiwi racers can’t be bad.

Sharp and Lawson have much in common. Liam was 2016 NZ Formula Ford champion; Louis a race winner in the 2021 South Island Formula Ford series before leaving mid-year, mid-series that year to head to the UK.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Motorsport NZ and Rodin have combined to formalise valuable support for the NZ Formula Ford Championship. It will provide an all-expenses-paid opportunity for testing and evaluation – in NZ initially, then, assuming exceptional talent assessment, the UK, with potential for a spot in one of Rodin Motorsport’s F4 teams – which contest British and Spanish championships.

All else aside, the whole thing is a significant endorsement by New Zealand of Formula Ford as the most attainable and valuable

motorsport pathway training ground – still.

In Australia, Formula Ford’s status has ebbed and flowed. There is a huge list of Australians, both those who went on to Europe, including F1, others to Supercars, who took their initial steps and made their name in the category in which longterm tech stability and reasonable costs remain today.

You can still buy a championshipwinning car for $60,000 …

The category was ‘demoted’ from Australian championship status thoughout the ‘Formula 4 years’ (2014-2018) but continued to thrive at State and ‘Australian Formula Ford Series’ level throughout, regaining championship status when the ill-advised F4 venture ground to a halt.

The message is clear – and New Zealand is emphasising it.

Formula 4 is very much part of the European international pathway for all the budding Max Verstappens out there – but in racing terms, it happens ‘over there’ – ie in Europe, in particular – if you are serious.

There are a couple of well-run academies here giving OS aspirants quality time and experience in F4 cars (and the Formula Open series) before helping to pack their

suitcase, which is a terrific help. But in racing terms, full-on F4 just hasn’t hit the spot in Australia (and has never been attempted in NZ).

In Australasian terms, Formula Ford remains the proven and financially attainable entrée to fourwheeled motorsport after karting.

As such, Motorsport Australia and Formula Ford Australia must be charged with maintaining its philosophy, attainable economic status, and championship focus. The record, and now NZ’s re-investment in it, make the case.

Once upon a time, CAMS – as MA was called back then – had an in-house driver support programme, which eventually morphed into the privately-funded PODIUM group (run and funded primarily by Sydney businessman Geoff Morgan and Melbourne businessman Tom Warwick). Following Warwick’s untimely death in 2016, the group’s efforts scaled down, but not before it took Joey Mawson to the German ADAC Formula 4 Championship, and then into F3.

Is there the will, and the business support, here to follow NZ’s lead and re-validate that attainable start up the ladder towards Europe? I hope so. In the meantime, kudos to Motorsport NZ and David Dicker.

Chris Lambden

The 2024 Australian Formula Ford Championship made a rare appearance on the Supercars show in Tasmania ... Image: FORMULA FORD AUSTRALIA

‘Mr Rodin’ – David Dicker – with his latest young international, Louis Sharp, a NZ Formula Ford graduate and British GB3 champion, now headed for F3 in 2025 ... with Rodin Motorsport. Image: RODIN CARS

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Email: editor@autoaction.com.au

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SUPERCAR FINAL SERIES IS WELCOME, BUT A WORD OF CAUTION

GREAT ARTICLES on One Raceway and the David Reynolds rebuild in AA edition #1898.

I note also that Greg Murphy supports the final series concept in Supercars from next year, commenting that “it works in NASCAR”.

It is interesting that in the Xfinity Series the driver leading the 2024 Playoffs had just two wins out of 31 starts but seemed to have picked up his points up through his 16 stage wins.

In comparison, Shane van Gisbergen had three wins but only two stage wins and is out of the Playoffs.

In fact, only one other driver in the series had more wins than SVG.

Good on Supercars for trying something to add more excitement to races and the series, but if they follow the NASCAR concept it could result in drivers driving to suit the scoring system rather than racing to win – and I doubt that would improve the racing.

Progression in the finals could also be dependent on the skills of some less-skilled drivers if they tangle with leading contenders.

It will be interesting to see how the final series will be scored and how much luck plays a part in the results.

Bill Rooney Gilead NSW 2560

CONGRATULATIONS

BETTY, YOU’RE AN ALL-ROUND

STAR

HEY GUYS, great to learn that Betty Klimenko has come onboard at Auto Action

She’s a real inspiration to females who love racing, whether they be actively involved in the sport or just enjoy watching either at tracks or on TV.

Don’t know the details of Betty’s involvement but best wishes to her and AA

I’m sure it can only be for the best – and especially for us girls.

Pip Luxon, Morningside, Queensland

THOUGHTS FROM OVER THE DITCH ON HOW TO SPICE UP BATHURST

I WAS born into Supercars and as long as I can remember I’ve sat down with my dad (and grandad) and watched Bathurst start to finish.

Being a Kiwi I’ve started watching IndyCar and NASCAR in recent years as Scotty McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen took off in the USA.

In the wake of this year’s Bathurst, and criticism of it being boring, I just make the point that conjecture and surprises make excitement.

Commentators, both in the broadcast box and in the pits, need to focus on alternative strategies more, even the guys who are midfield or near the back.

In a 1000km race it’s not all about the winners.

The event needs to stand out as a no-matter-where-you-finish affair. To get to the finish is a big deal.

Now to race format … a few key changes would make the whole race a greater spectacle for race fans.

First change, go back to a mix of drivers at the start. Watching a top guy who hasn’t qualified well carve through co-drivers is super exciting.

Knowing also that their codriver at some point is going to have to try hold off fast cars with main drivers later in the race adds to the excitement of whether their strategy will pay off.

Second, and an easy one, close the pit lane on full-course yellow. Third, quarter-race resets (similar to NASCAR). In a race like this year’s Bathurst it would bring back the excitement three times as they are all bunched up again.

Rolling start and only one chance to pit, but this would really throw things out when it comes to co-driver strategy and safety cars. 54-lap minimums and 40-lap resets means it would be hard on race strategy to run only a five pit-stop strategy as it would most likely throw you to the back of the field if you started a co-driver and pitted on laps 27 and 54.

Just don’t put points on the line for quarter resets as no one wants to see the second car to cross the line win or the fourth

car across the line finish third.

If you do all this the need for a minimum/maximum fuel drop and softs or a mix of tyres is unnecessary. Race strategy alone would force teams to take different strategies.

I know it’s out of the norm for Supercars, but following different series more closely in the past couple of years, there really is something in the American format as far as fan viewership.

Bryce Taylor New Zealand

F1 AS GOOD AS ANYTHING HOLLYWOOD SERVES UP

I CAN’T resist Formula 1 in 2024. It’s like a Mad Max movie! Lando Norris, boo hoo.

It’s not fair, Oscar Piastri is beating me. Tell him to move over.

Max ‘Just tap ’em’ Verstappen is playing big boys dodgem cars. Dangerous.

Our Oscar is ‘The Man’ in big boys F1.

He’s a future world champion. Piastri has been mature in 2024, giving Norris points. But in 2025 it will be “Where’s Norris?”, as in Where’s Wally?

Daniel Ricciardo became ‘The Bridesmaid’. Pass Go, Do Not Stop, Collect Money!

Eric Schloss, age 81, Auto Action collector, reader and fan, Bribie Island, Queensland

Was SVG unlucky in terms of the Xfinity Playoffs – Reader Bill Rooney thinks so. Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

ALLAN MOFFAT has just turned 85.

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLAN THE TOURING CAR LEGEND MARKS A MILESTONE

It’s a big number for anyone, but even bigger for someone like Allan. He is suffering from dementia and the days when he was a giant on Australian racetracks are now receding deeply into the rear-vision mirror.

But Allan is still with us and his great mate and minder, ‘Big Phil’ Grant gives me regular updates on his love for donuts and ice cream. And ladies.

It’s hard to write about Allan now, when all we have are memories and pictures.

David Hassall has done a great job of preserving many of those memories with his thumping great history of Moffat’s famous CocaCola Mustang, entitled ‘The Boss

It’s on my ‘to do’ list and I’m hoping a copy of this brilliant book will arrive soon, just in time for Christmas.

But thinking of Allan reminds me of ‘Arthur’, the nickname he has had since a riotous party in 1984 at his home in Monaro Crescent (truly) in Toorak.

It was around 3am when

Wayne Webster, the whip-crack comedian who masqueraded as the car correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, asked ‘Arthur’ where he had hidden his twin brother Allan.

“You must be Arthur because you’re a good bloke. Not like Allan,” he said.

From then, the Allan-Arthur combination became code for who you would encounter at a racetrack.

Arthur was safe, Allan was to be avoided. Even the late Gregg Hansford was in on the gag, often serving as the lookout in the Moffat garage.

On his 60th birthday I wrote a column to celebrate Allan’s milestone and told the Arthur story.

Then the phone rang. The familiar Canadian accent came down the line. I was slightly fearful.

“Don’t worry, it’s Arthur,” Allan laughed.

Now it’s his 85th and I had to tell the story again because Allan is a truly great bloke.

He was a fearsome racer with the same laser focus as Mark Skaife in his heyday.

Moffat would do whatever it took to win. But he could always switch off and become great company away from the track.

That’s also my experience of Skaife, who has just received one of the many honours that have been awarded to Moffat over the years. He will soon become a member of Sport Australia’s Hall of Fame, joining Moffat and a very select group of other motorsport champions and sporting heroes from every other arena.

Sir Jack Brabham is there, so

is Peter Brock, as well as Mark Webber and Alan Jones.

In future years, I’m sure Danny Ricciardo and Jamie Whincup will join this elite group.

I’m also remembering that each of the Famers had their own inner ‘Allan’.

Brabham would happily cut corners to throw rocks at his challengers, Brock could switch into the wild ‘black-eyed’ racer at times, Webber was all business all the time at the track, and then we have AJ.

Jones had a bulldust meter that operated at all times. He hated almost everyone in F1, apart from Frank Williams and Patrick Head, and brought that same approach back to Porsches and BMWs and touring cars in Australia.

When he was called up before the Stewards after missing a drivers’ briefing he accepted the fine, but then paid in advance so he could miss those meetings for the rest of the season!

These days he has mellowed. And I owe him a lunch which will be all kinds of enjoyable.

Skaife is also a wonderful dinner date, can talk in depth on lots of

subjects, and has the knockabout charm that comes from his home town in Wyong, NSW.

But Skaife was the Australian equivalent of Michael Schumacher, as he re-wrote the rules for success in touring cars.

Craig Lowndes should have wiped Skaife when they were team mates at the Holden Racing Team, but it didn’t happen because Skaife was fitter, more focussed and, ultimately, more committed. Not faster, just better.

Skaife would do whatever it took to win. His rivalry with Marcos Ambrose was epic stuff, on and off the track.

Years later, it’s possible to look back at Skaife and celebrate his success and the combative entertainment he brought to touring cars. It’s the same thing which has made him so successful in business and on Supercars television.

But perhaps, like Moffat, we should also be enjoying more of the ‘Mike’ – or Matty, or Max, or Maverick – hidden inside Mark and looking forward to the celebrations when he eventually turns 85.

Back in 2021, former team-mate, rival and friend Fred Gibson visits his old sparring partner ... ‘Arthur’ Moffat.

DRIVERS TAKE A STAND AGAINST FIA PRESIDENT

THE GRAND Prix Drivers Association has launched an unprecedented attack against FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, issuing a statement defending the drivers’ actions and words, that have been heavily criticised by the Emirati, as well as openly questioning how the Fédération uses the money from all the fines they’ve imposed over the years.

The GPDA had promised a reaction to Ben Sulayem’s words after Max Verstappen was handed a heavy penalty following his use of ‘inappropriate’ language during the Singapore Grand Prix Thursday press conference, but it took six weeks to get everyone on the same page – so that the expected statement was approved by all of the association’s members.

While support was expected for Verstappen, Hamilton and others who have been targeted by the FIA’s president, via public criticism, the drivers’ reaction was surprising strong, openly criticising Ben Sulayem and demanding accountability from the Fédération.

In its initial paragraph the GPDA acknowledged that “as is the case with every sport, competitors must abide by the referee’s decision, whether they like it or not, indeed whether they agree with it or not. That is how sport works. The Drivers (our members) are no different, and fully understand that.”

The association, led by Alex Wurz, then went on to remind everyone that “our members are professional drivers, racing in Formula 1, the pinnacle of international motorsport. They are gladiators and every racing weekend they put on a great show for the fans.” But it’s the following paragraphs that openly criticised the FIA and its president in an unprecedented way.

First of all, the GPDA defended that “with regards to swearing, there is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as a Formula 1 car, or a driving situation.”

Then, trying to turn the tables, the drivers’ association wrote that “we urge the FIA President to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum

or otherwise. Further, our members are adults; they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants.”

Strong words indeed – but the criticism of the FIA didn’t end there, as the association then turned its attention to a matter that has been in the drivers’ minds for a while:

“The GPDA has, on countless occasions, expressed its view that Driver monetary fines are not appropriate for our Sport. For the past three years, we have called upon the FIA President to share the details and strategy regarding how the FIA’s financial fines are allocated and where the funds are spent.

“We have also relayed our concerns about the negative image financial fines bring to the Sport. We once again request that the FIA President provides financial transparency and direct, open dialogue with us. All

stakeholders (FIA, F1, the Teams and the GPDA) should jointly determine how and where the money is spent for the benefit of our Sport.”

The message concluded with a conciliatory note, the association stating that “the GPDA wishes to collaborate in a constructive way with all the stakeholders, including the FIA President, in order to promote our great Sport for the benefit of everyone who works in it, pays for it, watches it, and indeed loves it. We are playing our part.”

Looking at the FIA’s record regarding criticism and Ben Sulayem’s own standing when his actions or words are questioned, a strong reaction against the Formula 1 drivers is expected, as this matter looks set to isolate the Fédération even further, after a number of spats with the Commercial Rights Holder, in the last two years, has already left Ben Sulayem in a precarious position within the sport.

MONEY COMPLICATES COLAPINTO’S MOVE TO RED BULL

IT’S NO longer a secret that Red Bull has opened negotiations with Williams and with Franco Colapinto’s management to try and buy the Argentinian youngster out of his long-term contract with the British team.

At Interlagos, Christian Horner made a very public visit to the Williams hospitality unit for a meeting with James Vowles. At the same time, Helmut Marko made it clear, as in many of his recent interviews, that the Austrian company is extremely interested in recruiting Colapinto from the end of this year, complaining that “it is proving to be extremely expensive to get him, but we are negotiating with Williams, so it’s still possible to do a deal.”

Colapinto, like Antonelli, Bearman, Doohan and Bortoleto – all likely to race in Formula 1 next year – was never part of the Red Bull young drivers’ program but, unlike the other four, was actually on Marko’s radar a few years ago. Twice there were discussions about getting the Argentinian into the program but, on both occasions – for quite trivial reasons, according to Argentinian sources – Marko opted against taking him. Having caused a massive impression in

the Formula 1 community with his speed right from his first Grand Prix with Williams, Colapinto knows he has no seat with the British team for the next two years, as both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz have signed long-term deals with the squad. And while the Argentinian insisted at Interlagos that he was not aware of any talks with Red Bull and was prepared to sit out at least the 2025 season, things evolved quickly, with his management and sponsors very active over the entire weekend.

Vowles believes that in Colapinto he has a huge talent that Williams would like to keep for the long-term, but also knows that he won’t be able to offer him a race seat for the next two years. At the same time, Colapinto’s backing from Argentinian companies continues to grow and could reach very high numbers if he found a seat for 2025.

It’s worth remembering that Globant alone has paid US$10m for the young driver to race for Williams in the last nine Grands Prix of this season and that, since he made his Grand Prix debut at Monza, a couple more Argentinian sponsors have joined Williams. The belief in the team is that, by having

Colapinto in one of the cars Williams could raise more than US$25m per year in sponsorship, so that amount, combined with the results he could potentially bring, are being evaluated by James Vowles as he tries to decide how much Red Bull must pay to take him.

On top of that, the former Mercedes man wants first priority for Williams beyond the end of the 2026 season, something Horner and Marko are not very keen to agree to.

The deciding factor could be Carlos Slim Jr’s position – the Mexican billionaire sponsors both Red Bull and Colapinto. While he made it clear Sérgio Pérez will remain a Telmex-backed driver, Slim Jr. would be willing to put enough money into the deal that would allow the Argentinian to join Verstappen from 2025, leaving Liam Lawson with no choice but to stay with VCARB with Isack Hadjar left as reserve driver for both of the Austrian company’s teams.

Via the GPDA, F1 drivers have demanded that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem treat them as adults ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

Lawson vs Colapinto. Both have scored a pair of top 10 finishes so far, but Colapinto has had two decent (Brazil) crashes. However, South American dollars could affect the outcome ...

FREE OSCAR!

MAX VERSTAPPEN’S dominant win in Interlagos, combined with Lando Norris dropping to sixth place after laying second in the first part of the race, has effectively sealed the Dutchman’s fourth consecutive title.

That much was admitted by McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella after the end of the Brazilian race, as the Italian vowed to put the team’s focus entirely on winning its first Constructors’ title since 1998.

On the outskirts of São Paulo, Oscar Piastri played the perfect second driver role both in the Sprint and the main race. On Saturday, leading from pole position, the Australian gave away the win with less than three laps to go, mere seconds before a VSC period was called to remove Nico Hulkenberg’s stranded Haas.

One day later, in wet conditions, while Norris was fighting for the lead with George Russell, Piastri was stuck behind Lawson for 25 laps, losing valuable time until barging his way past the VCARB, tipping it into a spin. By then, though,

with Luis Vasconcelos

F1

INSIDER

Norris was over 20s up the road, but the red flag that followed Colapinto’s violent crash put the two McLarens closer to each other on the second grid.

Again, Norris pulled away from his team-mate and Leclerc only to go off after a SC period, midway through lap 43, losing two places and dropping behind the Australian. As Piastri couldn’t clear Leclerc, three laps later he was told to let the British driver pass, helping Norris to P6 and another two points.

For sure giving up sixth place in the main race hurt less than giving away the Sprint race win but, on both occasions, Piastri did what he had to do and showed he’s a good team player.

This will surely be of great help in the future for, having

played second fiddle to Norris when the English driver needed help, Piastri will be in a strong position to get his payback when the positions will be reversed, maybe in 2025.

And with McLaren now fully focused on securing this year’s Constructors’ title, leading it by 36 points from Ferrari, the Australian will now be a free man until the end of the year – still plenty of time to put the record straight and prove yet again he can beat Norris in equal machinery.

No driver willingly accepts to help his teammate by giving away positions on track – some who did came to realise that as soon as you accept such a role, even for just a few races, your status inside the team suffers forever.

However, Piastri’s manager Mark Webber learned that lesson the hard way against Sebastian Vettel midway through their five seasons together at Red Bull and will be desperately keen to make sure his young charge doesn’t suffer the same fate – he will have assured the right contractual agreement ...

With Norris no longer in realistic contention for the Drivers’ title, Piastri should be a free man for the final three Grands Prix of the season and, of course, they’ll both start with equal status next year.

Given next year’s cars will be largely based on this season’s chassis – of the top teams only Mercedes looks set to make radical changes to its project –it’s to be expected McLaren will still have a very competitive car at all types of circuits and so both Piastri and Norris are likely to be strong title contenders in 2025.

While making sure he scores strong points in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, to secure his team’s advantage in the championship, now is the time

for Piastri to move up a gear and return to the form seen in Budapest, Monza and Baku, being the faster of the two McLaren drivers.

Achieving that will set the tone for the start of the 2025 season, while also reinforcing the young driver’s self-belief – not that he’s short in that department, but every time you beat your teammate it gets stronger.

And, crucially, it will put another seed of doubt in Norris’ mind. The British driver seems to already have an inferiority complex when fighting Verstappen, so it’s clear he gets affected when he’s beaten. Piastri, on the other hand, seems to only come back stronger when things don’t go his way, which bodes well for the future of his Formula 1 career.

Now it’s the time to put his foot down and show us what a free Oscar Piastri can do in, arguably, the fastest car in the field.

Then, it will be all focus on the 2025 championship, where the title seems to be a realistic target.

With Lando Norris’ slim championship hopes now over, Piastri should be free to go for it. “Free Oscar,” says AA’s F1 guru ... Image: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

WHY AUDI HIRED BORTOLETO

MATTIA BINOTTO has explained why he decided to hire Formula 2 driver Gabriel Bortoleto instead of extending Valtteri Bottas’ deal with Sauber, admitting he held long talks with the Finn.

The Italian revealed that “I think we really set a good, communication between us, and we had several talks about the journey, the length duration of the journey, and the difficulties we may face in the next seasons.

“We reflected together a lot and it’s when I came to the conclusion that maybe we need to have a young driver with us. With him it has been really mutual understanding, if not agreement, of the situation, the facts and what’s required.”

Then he paid tribute to the Finn, adding that “he has certainly been a very strong candidate. I know he’s very fast. I know that he has proven to be very fast. Still today, very fit.”

With Bortoleto joining Oliver Bearman, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan – and likely Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto, it’s clear teams are now putting their faith in young drivers – but Binotto denied he was just following this trend with his choice. He admitted that “it has been the case in the past two, three or four seasons that there are very strong young drivers, and you can see them in F1 – how many youngsters and so talented we have now. It’s impressive, it’s great for Formula 1 and it’s great for the motorsport.”

Mentioning FDA alumni Oliver Bearman, Binotto admitted that “I knew that Ollie could do very well in Formula 1 and that was not a surprise to me to see how well he’s performing today.

“The youngsters are all doing very well,” adding that “I wasn’t waiting to see them doing well to make a decision. I followed Gabriel’s career, certainly even more intensively in the last weeks and months. I saw him racing and racing so well, being impressed by the speed, as well as by this capacity to further develop and improve.

“I think he is one of the most talented and high-potential drivers we got as rookies. And for Audi, that was a no-brainer. Go for it. I think young drivers was a certain assertion and answers. So, it was only a matter of when we would get him, because it was clear that, sooner or later, we would have gone for Gabriel. That would have been our choice.”

McLaren boss Stella, interestingly, put both Piastri and Norris’ wet weather ‘offs’ in Brazil down to a technical issue with the braking system on the cars, rather than driver error –both drivers locked a front wheel into Turn 1 ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

STELLA CONCEDES DRIVERS’ TITLE IS GONE

WITH MAX Verstappen’s win extending his lead over Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship to 62 points, the Dutchman dealt a severe blow to his rival’s already slim chances of winning this year’s title.

Had things gone McLaren’s way in Interlagos and the track had been dry all afternoon, then Norris had realistic hopes of cutting Verstappen’s lead to below 30 points, as he started the Brazilian Grand Prix from pole position and the Red Bull driver was down in P17. But heavy rain, combined with a tremendous drive from the Dutchman along with a risky but inspired strategy turned the tables around and now Verstappen can even clinch the title at the next event, the Las Vegas Grand Prix – as long as he doesn’t lose more than two points to his rival during that cold, night race.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella acknowledge that his team’s focus now had to be fully focused

on securing the Constructors’ Championship (a title the Wokingbased team hasn’t won since 1998!) and played down the notion that Norris had a realistic chance of toppling Verstappen in the Drivers’ contest even before things went wrong in Interlagos.

In spite of Oscar Piastri being ordered to give Lando Norris the win in Saturday’s Sprint Race, to help the Brit’s quest in the championship, Stella insisted that “the Constructors’ Championship was always our priority. Even when there was a call to be made to support one driver or the other, it was always secondary to that to maximising the Constructors’ championship.”

The Italian refused the theory that Norris’ driving and strategic mistakes in the Brazilian race had anything to do with being under pressure, making it clear that, from his point of view, “I don’t think for Lando there was any

particular pressure because we were enjoying this quest but we knew it was a very long shot for him.”

Stella explained that “sometimes from outside it may come across like there is an error there or maybe – like when he locked the tyres with the car like we had today, I am not looking at the driver – I am looking at why the car keeps locking the front tyres in conditions like this – I don’t think pressure was a significant factor at all. The issue was with the car.”

Once again, the McLaren boss insisted the focus had always been in securing the Constructor’s title for McLaren, concluding that “the last two venues should be quite good, for us – Las Vegas will be potentially more of a Ferrari track and then we will see. The plan is for Lando and for Oscar to go to the next races trying to win the races. It’s all to play for and the Constructors’ Championship remains, and has always been, our priority.”

SHUNTS CANCEL MERCEDES UPGRADES

TOTO WOLFF has admitted Mercedes is unlikely to bring any upgrades to the final races of this season, blaming the succession of big crashes the team has endured since Monza for this measure.

The German team is running very close to the budget cap limit, having invested a lot in transforming the difficult W15 into a winning car before the mid-season break.

Speaking after the Mexican Grand Prix, where Russell crashed heavily at the start of the FP2 session, the Austrian explained how the cost incurred to repair the damage of recent incidents has affected his team’s development progress. Wolff recalled that “we’ve had Kimi’s crash in Monza, George’s crash in Austin and now George’s crash here,” going on to explain that “in a cost cap landscape, it is a tricky situation.

“These three shunts put us on the back foot, and certainly the one that happened in Mexico was massive. We had to opt for a completely new chassis – that is a tremendous hit in the cost cap – so we probably have to dial down on what we put on the car.

The team had a new floor for each car in Brazil but that seems to be it:

“We have certain limitation on parts where we need to be

creative how we’re managing this and certainly there is an impact. There is an impact on how many development parts we can put on the car – because the answer is zero now until the end of the year.”

A very contrite George Russell owned up to his mistakes, admitting that “over the last two weeks I’ve put so much pressure on the team now with lack of spares. It’s been pretty unnecessary. But we don’t really know why it’s happening. It’s not through overdriving … it’s just that the car bites.”

The young driver, however, believes that “there are no

concerns on the budget cap because we’ve always got a bit of margin and you’re always weighing up what you’re putting into this season versus what you’d put into next season,” before admitting that “now we may have to compromise the rest of this season, which I’d probably be in favour of, because we’re not fighting for a championship.

“I’d be more than happy staying on the old floor if that gives us a better chance into next year. I think we’d be able to repair the floor from Austin, because the damage wasn’t as bad as we initially expected.”

Budget cap concerns were also the reason Mercedes opted to keep the used Power Units in the cars for Sunday’s race in Austin, when Hamilton was starting from the back of the grid and Russell from the pitlane.

It’s clear that putting two fresh units into the cars would have offered a performance advantage as, with a life that would span just four more Grands Prix rather than the usual eight, they could be pushed much harder. But the team feared the impact of using two brand new Power Units in the final accounts and opted against it – a clear indication Mercedes has been sailing close to the wind in terms of its budget cap management.

Russell’s Mexican crash resulted in the tub having to be replaced ...

HAMILTON THRILLED AFTER DRIVING SENNA’S MCLAREN

THE HIGHLIGHT of Lewis Hamilton’s Brazilian Grand Prix came on the only occasion he didn’t drive his Mercedes W15 around Interlagos. The veteran had a torrid time all weekend, unable to get to grips with his car, complaining there was a tremendous amount of bouncing and that “the car is going all over the track,” describing the silver machine as “undriveable” on many an occasion during the weekend.

But when asked how to sum up his Sunday, the British driver had no doubts and pointed out that “while the race was crap, driving Senna’s car was the best thing ever. I’m still happy and grateful that I had that experience here in Interlagos.”

Hamilton had been scheduled to drive one of Ayrton Senna’s 1990 McLarenHonda MP4/5B on Saturday afternoon, around one hour after the end of qualifying

for the Brazilian Grand Prix, but the tremendous downpour that led to the postponement of the session to early on Sunday morning, also led to this tribute to the late great driver had to be rescheduled. With Mercedes not too keen on having Hamilton distracted by jumping into the 1990 machine, in what was always going to be an emotional moment, between qualifying and the race (with the five red flags that marked qualifying, there was barely three hours before the end of the session and the start of the race)

Ayrton’s nephew, Bruno was provisionally scheduled to do the demonstration run but Hamilton’s own wishes prevailed and he did three laps around the track, to the crowd’s delight.

As soon as he came out of the MP/5B, Hamilton saluted the fans that were filling the main grandstand and explained the

moment was “very, very, very emotional, naturally. I was just revisiting my childhood, as I was watching Ayrton race here as a kid and hearing that sound and watching him drive here and winning in that race.

“I just couldn’t believe that I just had that chance to do that.”

The fact the demonstration run had to be squeezed into a tremendously packed Sunday schedule added to Hamilton’s emotions, the Mercedes driver adding that “it was really the greatest honour of my career to do it here in front of this beautiful crowd, here in Brazil – a crowd that stood out in the rain all day yesterday and then have been here since 3am or 4am this morning.

“A very, very special day and incredibly grateful to everyone to make this happen”

In closing, Hamilton added that “to even have my citizenship here (in Brazil) is

such a huge honour. I hope Senna can be proud. That was the best drive of the whole weekend and I want to say a big thank you to everyone for taking a pause for this moment and allowing me … this is honestly a real honour for my career. This probably will never ever happen again, so I’ll definitely cherish the moment. That’s why I didn’t stop. I did one or two more laps more than I was supposed to!” he concluded with a grin on his face.

BINOTTO BRINGS FAMILIAR FACES TO SAUBER

MATTIA BINOTTO has brought two people to Sauber he knows very well from his days at Ferrari.

New Sporting Director Iñaki Rueda served in that same capacity at the Scuderia for two years, from the start of the 2021 season until his dismissal a couple of years later, soon after

Frédéric Vasseur replaced Binotto as Team Principal in Maranello.

And veteran engineer Giampaolo Dall’Ara, who returns to Hinwil after almost nine years away, has been appointed as Head of Race Engineering, overseeing the race operations both on site and in the factory. He has also worked with Binotto, during the Swiss-Italian’s days as an engine engineer for Ferrari early in his career, when he was the Maranello man appointed to look after the V8 that the Scuderia was supplying to Sauber, after the split with BMW.

Given his entire racing career was spent at Ferrari, it was to be expected that Binotto would first go looking for people he had worked with while in Maranello – that’s exactly what has now happened with the announcement Rueda and Dall’Ara will be joining the former leader of the Scuderia at

Sauber and then Audi.

Being a man who likes to surround himself with people who he knows will be fully loyal to him, Binotto is set to create a closely knit group at top management level, with one of his own at the head of every department – that way, he will have full control over everything that will happen in Hinwil, in Neiburg and at the tracks.

How that will work once future Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley will arrive in the team remains to be seen, but it’s clear Binotto is bringing as many loyal friends into the team before the arrival of the Red Bull man.

The team is undergoing a massive hiring spree as most of the sub-departments in the technical area have historically been understaffed when compared to most of the British-based Formula 1 teams. The situation became far more complicated for Sauber once

the budget cap came into the regulations, as the cost of living in Switzerland is considerably higher than in the United Kingdom or Italy, where the other nine teams are based.

According to a study done by the FIA, the costs of living in Switzerland are around 45 per cent higher than in the other two countries and that’s why it was decided that, from the start of the 2026 season, the cap applied to the Swiss-based team will be lifted from US$135 million per year (as it will be for the other nine teams) to US$215 million.

That’s why Sauber and Audi are now in the process of hiring a couple of hundred more engineers to work from their factories in the near future, as they’ll now be able to offer salaries that will be competitive against what the British-based team offers – even considering those much higher living costs in Switzerland.

Travelling back in time ... despite the damp weather, Hamilton didn’t want to stop. A huge crowd had been there since early morning to see their hero’s 1990 car in the hands of a driver who idolised him.

Above: Ayrton’s sister Vivianne, who runs the Senna Foundation, was also at the track.

Engineer Gianpaulo Dall’Ara was with Sauber nearly a decade ago.

HIGH STAKES FOR

22 RACES INTO THE SEASON AND WITH ONE WEEKEND REMAINING, THE 2024 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP IS DOWN TO TWO – A PAIR OF DRIVERS OUT OF RED BULL AMPOL RACING. ANDREW CLARKE LOOKS AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND HOW IT CAN BE WON ..

WHEN THE 24 cars lined up on the grid for the Bathurst 500 in February this year, every one of the drivers started out with lofty ambitions.

Even perennial backmarkers like Macauley Jones would have started the year with dreams – maybe not of the title but certainly of a first podium or a series of top 10 finishes at least.

For the rookies, Aaron Love, Ryan Wood and Jaxon Evans, the dreams centred around learning and growth, as well as securing further seasons … which we think they have all done.

But at the pointy end of the grid, it was all about championships – and the reality is that any of the eight race winners of 2024 should have been dreaming big. But how did they drop away, or more importantly, how did they remain in contention?

When we talk about championship contenders, we can talk about mathematical contenders – as in, are there enough points left on the table to catch and pass the series’ leader? – and logical, for which we’ve always used the points for a full round; rarely, when you drop 300 points behind do you jump back in. Andre Heimgartner did that when

Images: MARK HORSBURGH/MOTORPSORT

Perhaps the first contender to fall out of the running was Brodie Kostecki, the reigning champion pulling out of the first two rounds of the year – he fell outside 300 points at the first race meeting, the Grand Prix, as did Ryan Wood who picked up his first points for the year after doughnuts on debut.

Jones, Evans and Love were next, in Race 4, and then it was Cam Waters and Anton De Pasquale – only five races in and they were in need of lots of luck. One-by-one they fell, and by Perth only three drivers remained within 300 points of the lead.

Mathematically, the first contenders didn’t drop out of the running until Race 17 at Symmons Plains when there were no longer enough points for Todd Hazelwood. It took until Sandown and Bathurst to cull the contenders further. Six dropped out at

Golding and Payne’s unlikely chances expired on Saturday of the Gold Coast meeting, and then Waters and Mostert dropped out on the Sunday … leaving just teammates Brown and Feeney as the contenders.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing drivers have been one and two in the title since the very first race, but only after Race 1 and Race 3 did Feeney lead … otherwise it has been Brown out front all the way. Brown now holds a 180-point lead heading into the final pair of races which have 150 points each for a race win.

How does it play out in Adelaide?

That 180-point lead means Feeney has to score 30 points more than Brown in the

he won in Taupo, but then he dropped outside the 300 at the next race.

Sandown and 12 at Bathurst, leaving only James Golding, Matthew Payne, Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney and Will Brown to mathematically fight out the title.

Brown (right, two-wheeling at the Gold Coast) only has to be sensible and the title is his – but this is Adelaide ... Above: the two have ended up in close company many times throughout 2025.

IMAGES

FOR THE BULLS

Saturday race simply to keep the title alive going into Sunday.

Let’s look at Saturday and the possible outcomes.

If Brown finishes on the podium, he is crowned the champion because even if Feeney wins, he leads by 159 with 150 on the table.

Anything other than a Brown podium sets the slide rule into action. If Feeney wins on

TO KEEP IT ALIVE FOR SUNDAY

Feeney wins Brown 4th or lower

Feeney 2nd Brown 6th or lower

Feeney 3rd Brown 7th or lower

Feeney 4th Brown 8th or lower

Feeney 5th Brown 10th or lower

Feeney 6th Brown 11th or lower

Feeney 7th Brown 13th or lower

Feeney 8th Brown 15th or lower

Feeney 9th Brown 16th or lower

Feeney 10th Brown 19th or lower

Feeney 11th Brown 21st or lower

Feeney 12th Brown 22nd or lower

Feeney 13th Brown 23rd or lower

Feeney 14th Brown 24th or DNF

Saturday and Brown is fourth, they are on the same points, but Feeney would win on a countback if they remained tied on Sunday. Since the points gap gets smaller down the order, Feeney needs to finish further in front.

Of course, a DNF to Brown on Saturday moves the needle massively, so he’ll probably be playing it safe while Feeney races for the win.

On Saturday last year, Will Brown and Shane van Gisbergen crashed on the Saturday and DNFed the race, which handed the title to Brodie Kostecki. Brown doesn’t have a good track record in Adelaide – in his two years of racing there he has a

best finish of sixth from the Sunday race in 2022; his other races have been 14th, 22nd and a DNF.

Feeney on the other hand has starred there with eight, first, fifth and second in his four races over the past two seasons.

The pressure is on Brown. All he needs to do is stay out of trouble and he should claim his first Supercars championship, but this is Adelaide and, while not as brutal as the Gold Coast, it does spit out some unusual results.

Enjoy the fight. We will.

SEASON STATS SO FAR

25 YEARS OF ADELAIDE 500 MOMENTS

1999: SENSATIONAL START

FIVE YEARS after F1, Supercars arrived with a bang on the streets of Adelaide.

The format was unique – a 500km race held over two 78-lap legs – and Craig Lowndes stole the show.

The #1 HRT star led Saturday’s leg one, despite serving a stop-go for sending lapped privateer Danny Osborne into the wall –however he was excluded from the results post-race and lost Sunday’s pole.

The rear of the grid start did not stop him as Lowndes flew from 35th to first.

Notably, Paul Radisich was one who struggled with heat exhaustion and had to be carried from his car as drivers battled the unprecedented endurance test in the concrete canyon.

Lowndes and fellow podium finishers Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall were greeted with a hero’s reception as the 64,000 strong Sunday crowd filled pit straight – the figure broke the record for the biggest ATCC crowd at the time, while the full attendance was 158,000.

These numbers left no doubt the Sensational Adelaide 500 was a success and marked a new era of Supercars racing.

2000: WALKING ON WATER

AS THE race entered the new millennium with a new name, the other HRT driver produced another stunning last-to-first effort.

Whilst Lowndes carried on his winning streak in the Saturday sun, a massive thunderstorm at the 20-lap mark turned Sunday’s race on its head.

Despite a stop-go for pit lane speeding, Mark Skaife used the conditions and strategy to his

advantage, soaring from 38th to first.

Brad Jones also made headlines, becoming the first driver to roll, firing off the chicane that is now Turn 8 after clipping a tyre bundle.

Despite not winning a race, Garth Tander won the overall honours by accumulating the most points.

It was also the first year the event was known as the Clipsal 500 and it stuck straight away.

2001: OLD TEAMMATES TANGLE

SEVEN YEARS after Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill famously tripped over each other at Hutt Street, Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes (above) put on their best reenactment at the same corner.

In his second round since his big deflection from HRT to Ford, Lowndes was on fire, producing a special Saturday drive to silence the boos with a famous win as other big names tripped up.

He found himself fighting with former teammate Skaife on Sunday and the pair tangled coming out of the right-handed Turn 6. It allowed the #2 HRT Commodore of Jason Bright to stand on the top step despite suffering first-lap damage.

There was more action at the Turn 8 chicane

with brake failure seeing Dean Canto spearing into the tyres, while a clash with Todd Kelly sent Marcos Ambrose into the pit wall.

2002: BIRTH OF TURN EIGHT

FOLLOWING SOME high-profile crashes, the Turn 8 chicane was finally ditched and the iconically fast and fearsome sweeper arrived for the 2002 edition (above).

What was once a fourth gear, 130km/h awkward chicane was now a sixth gear, 210km/h challenge with no margin for error and it immediately caught the attention of drivers and fans alike.

As early as Friday practice, Turn 8 had its first victim – Paul Radisich.

The DJR driver hit the concrete side-on with the left-front wheel parting company.

The likes of Jason Bright, Steven Ellery, Todd Kelly and Glenn Seton all followed as some of the first to leave their signatures on the barrier.

Up front, no one could compete with Mark Skaife as he cruised to back-to-back wins

Another significant change was the calendar change from April to March as ‘The Clipsal’ became Supercars’ most iconic season opener.

2003: RED VERSUS BLUE

THE 2003 Clipsal 500 marked the start of a new era in Supercars, being the first of the Project Blueprint era.

It was the height of the tribal Holden versus Ford rivalry and each brand’s biggest name led the way.

Marcos Ambrose gave the Ford BA Falcon a win in its first attempt in a hotly contested opener.

However, the General hit back when it mattered, on Sunday, to maintain Holden’s perfect event winning record.

Due to the event’s constant growth, 2003 was the first four-day Clipsal 500, which pushed the attendance to over 200,000 at what was the fourth edition of the event.

2004: BIG BREAKTHROUGHS

FORD FINALLY celebrated its first overall Clipsal 500 success thanks to the dominant Marcos Ambrose in 2004 when Turn 8 also entrenched itself into folklore.

Greg Murphy initially set the pace, taking pole by what is still a record pole margin of 0.4957s. However, when racing took place it was all about reigning champion Ambrose, who swept up both 78-lap races in convincing style to give the Ford fans a long-awaited maiden Clipsal 500 success at the sixth attempt. The legend of Turn 8 was only growing by 2004 as Garth Tander crashed out of proceedings in the Sunday warm-up.

But the corner’s first “big one” took place with Cameron McConville, Jason Bargwanna, Brad Jones and Steven Johnson all caught in a chaotic tangle.

JUST TWO weeks before the

2005: WORSHIPPING THE DEVIL

start of the V8 Supercars season, Ford hero Marcos Ambrose announced his plan to move to America and take on NASCAR.

Brad Jones – upside down in 2000.

Turn 8 claimed Tander in 2004 ... Marcos completed the double in 2005.

As a result, the 2005 season became a farewell tour and that was never bigger than the Clipsal 500.

For the second year in a row, Ambrose was an unstoppable force, becoming just the second driver to take back-to-back Clipsal 500 overall wins and the first to take four race wins in a row.

In his first appearance for Triple EIght, Craig Lowndes impressed, taking a pair of podiums in front of another monster crowd of 256,000.

With Murray Walker labelling it the “best touring car event in the world” the event was the first to be inducted into the Supercars Hall of Fame, after just six years.

2006: A NEW SUPERPOWER

WITH NO more Marcos Ambrose, the door was open for a new hero to step up and Triple Eight found one in Jamie Whincup (above).

After a tough debut with GRM in 2003 and some promise at Tasman Motorsport in 2005, Whincup was an unproven talent when Roland Dane took a punt in 2006 – the rest is history.

Whilst Craig Lowndes excelled in the searing Saturday heat in the opener, Whincup finished an impressive third before scaling further heights the following day.

As many big names floundered, Whincup excelled and took a famous maiden win. It was a weekend of carnage as Skaife

1999: When Supercars racing came back to Adelaide – as the main show. Sunday’s race featured a last-to-first victory for Craig Lowndes and HRT ...

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES/MARK HORSBURGHEDGE PHOTOGRAPHICS/ PETER NORTON-EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY/AUTO ACTION ARCHIVES

crashed not once, but twice at Turn 8, whilst Lowndes’ hopes of back-to-back wins ended in a multi-car pile up on Wakefield Street. The weekend marked the passing of the baton of the leading Ford team from SBR to Triple Eight.

2007: FAMILY AFFAIR

THE 2007 Clipsal 500 was ransacked by the Kelly gang as brothers Todd and Rick (above) shared the wins.

Todd Kelly kicked things off by bringing HRT back to the top step on the Saturday race, which was the first to not feature a Safety Car.

On Sunday it was Rick Kelly’s turn to put car #1 into P1 and give the new VE Commodore more reasons to celebrate.

In a new first for the event, Touring Car Masters cars took on the streets of Adelaide for the first time and immediately became a hit.

2008: HIGHS AND LOWS

THERE WAS a great vibe leading into the 2008 Clipsal 500 as the now iconic race celebrated its 10-year anniversary.

A new record attendance of 291,400 people came to recognise the occasion as Jamie Whincup did the double as Cameron McConville and Lee Holdsworth took unexpected podiums.

A fresh-faced Kiwi called Shane van Gisbergen also took on the Adelaide streets for the first time and finished an impressive fifth on the Sunday where James Courtney and Craig Lowndes

clashed fighting for second at Turn 10. However, a shadow was cast over all the racing action due to the fatal crash for Ashley Cooper in the Development Series.

Cooper crashed at Turn 8 and tragically passed away from his injuries two days later in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. His was the first and only fatality on the Adelaide Street Circuit since F1’s debut in 1985.

2009: NEW LOOK

THE ADELAIDE Street Circuit had a fresh look (above) when the V8 Supercars arrived for the 2009 season opener.

After a two-year battle between the Government and City Council about track facilities, a permanent pit building did not eventuate.

However, a new and huge temporary pit building was built and complemented by new and bigger grandstands with striking red and blue shades.

Whilst the surroundings were different, the form guide was the same as Jamie Whincup became just the second driver to record a quartet of Clipsal 500 race wins, albeit after an almighty battle with new HRT recruit Will Davison.

2010: CHANGING TIMES FOR THE first time since 2001, Adelaide did not signal the start of the V8 Supercars season.

Instead, the championship started 11,037km away in Abu Dhabi, relegating the Clipsal 500 to Round 3.

Triple Eight also had a different feel, having made the high-profile switch from Ford to Holden.

Jamie Whincup fought hard to carry on his impressive streak, but a mix of fuel economy and pit problems saw him drop away.

But it was the factory HRT squad that returned to the top step with Garth Tander getting the team’s first overall Clipsal 500 triumph in seven years.

It was the first year the two 78-lap races had their own respective qualifying sessions.

2008 proved a tragic event with a seemingly innocuous Turn 8 crash claiming the life of Development Series driver Ashley Cooper.

2010: Tander, Whincup, and Courtney in close company. Tander won ...

2011: THRILLING FINISH

THE OPENING race of the 2011 Clipsal 500 was a cracker between the men who had dominated the event for the previous three years.

Garth Tander and Jamie Whincup put on a show in pursuit of the win, fighting until the chequered flag.

Just 0.5420s split the pair with Tander leading the way in the closest finish in Adelaide 500 history.

The first wet Adelaide race in 11 years added extra spice on Sunday, but Whincup (flying, above) used the tricky conditions to get revenge on a day when many came unstuck.

2012: BACK TO THE TOP

AFTER TWO years the Clipsal 500 once again opened the V8 Supercars season with a bang.

It was Supercars at its best as Will Davison did his best to fend off a charging Jamie Whincup in a finish for the ages.

In a late twist, Davison ran out of fuel on the final lap, as Whincup blazed past to another win.

Davison would have the last laugh however, dominating the Sunday race to give FPR its only Adelaide win in the event’s first 23 years.

For the first time the racing did not feature Greg Murphy after he suffered a horrific qualifying crash collision with Jonathan Webb on the Friday.

2013: NEW BEGINNINGS

THE CAR of the Future arrived and for the first time in Adelaide’s championship era, brands other than Holden and Ford went V8 Supercars racing.

The old foes were joined by Mercedes and Nissan, but the first bout of the new era was dominated by The General.

A Safety Car-free Saturday saw Craig Lowndes cruise to a huge 20s win in the COTF opener.

But the headlines were stolen by Shane van Gisbergen, who announced himself as a rejuvenated figure.

After abruptly retiring from SBR/ Erebus, he entered the weekend under threat he may not even be able to race, but dominated Sunday’s more eventful race where only 17 of the 28 starters made it home.

Casey Stoner drew worldwide attention on the Development Series, driving a #27 Triple Eight VE Commodore. He retired in race 1, but rose from 30th to 14th in Race 2.

2014: JANDAL ALL THE WAY

VOLVO WAS the latest international make to arrive in 2014, but few predicted just how big of a splash the Swedish brand would make on debut (above).

As Craig Lowndes cruised to his sixth and final Adelaide win, McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup had a legendary scuffle for second. They banged doors until the last corner where McLaughlin “gave it some jandal” and drove to second place and into folklore.

Whilst James Courtney would eventually take his first Clipsal 500 crown, his win was overshadowed by Jason Bright’s spectacular roll over in the Senna Chicane sparked by the short-lived ‘Acceleration Zone’ restart.

It marked the most significant race format change, with Saturday’s 250km leg split into a pair of 125km sprints, with the twilight affair producing McLaughlin’s heroics.

2015: RETURN OF THE DEVIL

FORD’S FIRST and most successful Adelaide 500 driver, Marcos Ambrose, made his comeback to V8 Supercars (below).

Adelaide was the scene of what was

DJR Team Penske.

Whilst the team would go onto great things, it proved to be Ambrose’s one and final solo round of 2015.

He started with a pair of P16s in the sprints won by Jamie Whincup and Fabian Coulthard before the #17 was a popular part of the Shootout, qualifying ninth and finishing 12th on the Sunday.

Whilst lots of attention was on Ambrose, his SBR replacement James Courtney produced another Sunday special by holding off Shane van Gisbergen.

2016: WET AND WILD

FANS WERE singing in the rain as biblical conditions produced the first home town winner of the Clipsal 500.

After a massive thunderstorm reduced Sunday’s main race to 48 laps, Adelaide’s own Nick Percat splashed his way to a famous win for underdog Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. A massive part of the story was the LDM team completing the 140L fuel drop before the chequered flag – a rule that caught many out. James Courtney and Jamie Whincup shared

Bike champ Casey Stoner went racing in 2013.

Home-town winner, Nick Percat, 2016.

2012: After losing on Saturday after running out of fuel, Will Davison nailed it on Sunday, providing a first win for Ford Performancer Racing .

would be the last Clipsal 500 under the famous sponsor’s name.

2017: CONQUERING KIWIS

BEFORE 2017, only one of the 36 Adelaide 500 races had been won by a Kiwi, but that was about to change.

Kicked off by a dominant Shane van Gisbergen clean sweep in 2017, New Zealand drivers won it all for three years in a row.

The Sunday leg was the fastest Adelaide 500 race ever with Alex Rullo made history as the youngest driver to start an ATCC/Supercars race at just 16, while Simona De Silvestro was the first female to race in the South Australian street event.

2018: NEW CAR, SAME RESULT

FOR THE first time in 18 years, the race was no longer known as ‘The Clipsal’ and a new car created its own history at the 20th anniversary event (above).

The Holden ZB Commodore was given the perfect christening by Shane van Gisbergen as he became the third driver to record back-to-back clean sweeps.

It was also the last time Nissan took on the streets of Adelaide, while Jamie Whincup suffered his first Adelaide DNF ever on the Sunday due to a broken gearbox.

2019: PONY POWER

THE 2019 Superloop Adelaide 500 not only revealed a new name, but also a new car as for the first time in event history Ford was not represented by the Falcon. Instead, the brand-new Mustang GT arrived on the scene and Scott McLaughlin (above) crushed the opposition, sweeping both races.

It was sweet relief for Ford fans as the DJR star ended the brand’s longest Adelaide 500 drought of 15 races stretching back to 2012.

Whilst there was some pit lane chaos, Sunday’s race was the first and only time every driver finished.

2020: END OF THE ROAD

WHEN THE Superloop Adelaide 500 was held, everything seemed alright.

The parity concerns of the previous year appeared to have been in the past after Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin (pictured) gave Holden and Ford a win each.

Whilst 206,000 was the lowest attendance since 2003, no one could imagine what was about to come.

Within weeks COVID-19 arrived and put the world on pause and just eight months later, the Steven Marshall South Australian Government made the shock announcement it would pull the plug out of the entire event all together.

The South Australian Tourism Commission did not renew the event’s contract with COVID-19 the reason given in what proved to be a highly unpopular decision.

2022:

BACK TO ITS BEST

THE SUPERCARS season did not feel the same without the Adelaide 500 but it only had to wait a year before the iconic event would make a sensational comeback.

In the lead-up to the 2022 State election, spearheading the campaign of Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas was the promise that he would bring the race back if elected.

And after convincingly winning the election in March, Malinauskas did just that.

He put in a power of work to stage the VALO Adelaide 500 as the F1 style 2022 season finale, just eight months later.

The comeback proved to be a hit, with the fans voting with their feet as 258,000 people flocked through the gates.

2022: FAREWELL THE LION

ANOTHER MAJOR reason why emotions were high that weekend as it was the final time Holden raced in Supercars and its drivers saluted the brand in style.

Racing in 1990 tribute colours, the brand’s most famous factory team, now known as WAU put on a clinic.

Chaz Mostert led home teammate Nick Percat in a fitting formation finish.

But the Holden celebrations were far from over.

In another Sunday classic Broc Feeney followed in the footsteps of Jamie Whincup and became the first since Lowndes in 1999 to win on Adelaide debut.

He held off Mostert in a tense run to the flag, while Triple Eight teammate Shane van Gisbergen pulled off an unforgettable victory burnout (left).

A 617th and final win was the perfect way to salute Holden.

2023: A NEW CHAMPION

FOR A decade, Adelaide crowned F1 champions and now it was going the same way in Supercars and 2023 saw its first title showdown.

Having already wrapped up the crown before the finale in 2022, Shane van Gisbergen had his work cut out trying to defend his title from new challenger Brodie Kostecki in 2023.

The first Supercars title showdown on the streets of Adelaide proved to be an anticlimax as van Gisbergen had a first-lap incident, allowing Kostecki and Erebus to take a historic maiden success.

Ford dominated the weekend as Cameron Waters gave Tickford just its second Adelaide triumph, while Matt Payne was the latest rookie to rise to the occasion, dominating the Sunday race.

The crowd kept growing with the 2023 event being the first since 2018 to exceed 260,000.

With great racing and global mega music stars such as Robbie Williams and Icehouse performing, there was no question that the Adelaide 500 was firing on all cylinders once again.

Mostert vs Van Gisbergen, 2017.

Celebration SVG-style ... 2022.

2022: Mostert heads Nick Percat for a 1-2 Walkinshaw Andretti United form finish on Saturday.

Adelaide crowned a new champion in 2023 – 2024 will provide a repeat.

THREE-WAY SHOWDOWN

IN ADDITION TO THE MAIN ACT, THERE WILL BE NO SHORTAGE OF ACTION PRODUCED BY THE SUPPORTS ON THE STREETS OF ADELAIDE WITH LOTS OF TITLES TO BE DECIDED. THE MOST SPECTACULAR FINISH COULD BE IN SUPER2. THOMAS MILES PREVIEWS THE ACTION AND CAUGHT UP WITH THE TITLE PROTAGONISTS…

THE MOUNTAIN has turned the fight for the 2024 Super2 crown upside down and suddenly a gripping three-way fight for the crown will be decided on the streets of Adelaide.

Before the Bathurst 1000 weekend, reigning champion Kai Allen appeared destined to become the first ever to score back-to-back Dunlop Series triumphs.

He arrived at Mount Panorama with a huge 138-point lead, but he now finds himself third in the standings behind both Zach Bates and Aaron Cameron.

Thanks to impressive consistency, Bates has hardly missed a podium and finds himself entering the finale as the hunted with a slender 39-point lead over Cameron.

The WAU driver admitted he is surprised to find himself as the leader, but the chance of chasing a maiden Super2 crown will not change his mindset.

“I did not think I would be in this position, but it is the best one to be going into the last round in, so I just have to do my best,” Bates told Auto Action

“I think Bathurst was the epitome of Super2 racing in terms of not being able to predict what would happen.

“We had a strong car in Adelaide last year and it is a track that I really enjoy, so just have to put my best foot forward and see what happens.

“Every time I go to a race track the aim is to win, so I need to go in with the same mentality. There is more at stake, but in terms of processes for me and the team nothing changes.”

Bates is flourishing in his second year at Super2 after being overshadowed by the impressive Ryan Wood last year. Bates spearheaded the WAU assault impressively with a breakthrough win at Wanneroo backed up by at least one top four finish in each round. He has the most podiums of the entire grid and admits taking on each track for a second year running has been beneficial.

“I have been to the tracks before so doing it a second time around means you don’t have to build up to things and can go in with a bit more aggression,” Bates said.

“I learnt the hard way in the second race of the year in a tangle due to some impatience.

“The big learning from that was you cannot win every single day and have to think about if it is on or not because it is hard to pass with no tyre deficits.

“I have just been trying to qualify well and make the most of the great race cars we always have at WAU.”

Winning the Super2 title would be the ultimate salute to WAU for Bates, who will become the latest young gun to steer the Triple Eight wildcard with Craig Lowndes next year.

Whilst a championship is the ultimate goal, it would mean the world to WAU in particular which, despite all of its might, has not won a single title since 2009 when Garth Tander and Will Davison powered HRT to the teams championship.

Another driver finding himself with the unexpected chance to fight for maiden Super2 success is Cameron.

The experienced and versatile Kelly Racing driver was a distant third and that felt even more difficult after a heartbreaking power steering issue in the Bathurst opener.

However, a crushing win in his last start has catapulted Cameron into the picture, blowing previous expectations out of the water.

“It is very exciting for us,” Cameron told Auto Action

“Coming into this year the goal was just getting a top five finish.

“Even going into Bathurst it was just about maintaining our top three position.

“We were not necessarily thinking about the title too much, but it became apparent at Bathurst in qualifying and we needed to have a good weekend.

“We had been close but not fulfilling our potential all the time.

“We have been hitting our strides at the right time – but getting a lap record and race win at Bathurst

was incredible for the team.

“I have confidence our car should be in the mix.

“This is my first full season so that is where Kai and Zach have the upper hand, but you never know.

“We will have a crack and hope it sticks.”

After starting the year with three straight wins, it appeared Allen was in a league of his own.

But after a freak set of events produced a hellish weekend at Bathurst he finds himself on the back foot – perhaps this will bring the best out of the talented teenager.

Allen is in a similar position to where he made history at Adelaide last year as he overturned a 30-point deficit to Zak Best to snatch the title.

However, the championship is not the main focus.

Having seen his Eggleston Motorsport team work relentlessly since the qualifying crash, Allen simply wants to enjoy his last weekend

with the Victorian squad before stepping up to Supercars in 2025.

“We are in a similar spot to last year and hopefully we have used up all our bad luck, but there is no real pressure,” Allen told Auto Action

“I just want to enjoy my last race with the Eggleston crew.

“I have been with them for three years and Ben, Rachel and the crew are like family so it will be a sad moment on Sunday when I do my last race with them.

“It will be a little bit emotional because of all the effort and fight we have had to do.

“Even just the sheer work ethic and support I had behind me at Bathurst was phenomenal

“I don’t think they have had a break over the last few weeks so that’s got me fired up to go hard at Adelaide and end on a high, rewarding them with some good results.

“I am not counting it (the title) out, but it is not the main thing on my mind.

“The biggest thing I want to do is just enjoy it and whatever happens, happens.”

Images: PETER

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP

UNLIKE LAST year, there is no doubt, who is the king of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2024.

The entire season has been utterly dominated by Harri Jones, who has returned to the category with a bang. After winning the title in 2022, Jones went global last year and competed in Mobil 1 Super Cup and he has used that experience to obliterate the opposition in his return to Australia.

The Porsche Centre Melbourne driver has won 12 of the 21 races so far to enjoy an unassailable 181-point advantage over David Russell.

Jones went on a special seven-race unbeaten run from Darwin to Sandown, which orchestrated his run to become just the second driver ever to win multiple Carrera Cup crowns alongside Craig Baird. All eyes will be on the fight for second with Russell sitting pretty with a 91-point buffer, but still has to shake off the likes of Dylan

Zach Bates leads the Super2 field into the Adelaide decider.

NORTON EPIC SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY/TAMARA JADE MEDIA

O’Keeffe, Jackson Walls and Bailey Hall, who are all spread within 31 points.

Hall thrust himself into the conversation after a special clean sweep on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

Despite only taking two podiums in the previous 18 races, the Gold Coast local took all three wins in the penultimate round.

But the driver that is sixth in the standings and 203 points behind Russell, Dale Wood, could be the one to watch.

Although a win has remained elusive in 2024, Wood can turn to 12 months ago for confidence as he won all three races on the streets of Adelaide.

The Pro Am title is also a formality, having been dominated by Adrian Flack.

But one prize still up for grabs is the Endurance Cup with only 10 points splitting Jones and Walls.

TRANS AM

THE FIGHT for the 2024 Trans Am title will be decided on the big stage on the streets of Adelaide.

For just the second time in history, and first in four years, the category is taking on the famous concrete canyon, meaning teams are driving into the unknown.

The 2024 Trans Am season has been bolstered by the addition of a number of Supercars stars.

Leading the way is Todd Hazelwood, who has impressively progressed throughout each round.

Despite both driver and his TFH Racing team having no prior experience of the category, they have risen up the ranks.

After being seventh after the Sandown opener, Hazelwood scored breakthrough podiums, then wins and by Queensland Raceway he was the man to beat.

Three race wins saw him soar into the championship lead, leaving James Moffat with some work to do in his pursuit of

GRM teammate James Golding was also in the mix, but he will pour all of his focus into his Supercars commitments with PremiAir Racing chasing Adelaide 500 glory.

Whilst he is not in the championship picture after missing the opening round, Nathan Herne will be one to watch out for.

After retuning from America, Herne took his first win as a privateer racing his own Mustang, that was once a Challenger, at Ipswich.

He is one of the few survivors from the only Trans Am Adelaide round, in 2020, and would love to go one better after being second best to Aaron Seton on that occasion.

V8 SUPERUTE SERIES

THERE IS nothing in it as the fight for the 2024 V8 SuperUte Series crown goes down to the wire in Adelaide.

After five rounds just seven points splits the top three in the championship, while up to seven drivers remain in contention, effectively making it a winner-takes-all finale at Adelaide.

Cameron Crick has his nose marginally ahead. He holds a three-point advantage over Adam Marjoram, who is desperate to get his hands on the trophy after coming so close last year.

A tough time at Surfers Paradise means Aaron Borg’s dream of a hat-trick took a significant hit. He lost the best part of 100 points in the penultimate round, seeing his advantage disappear.

Whilst nothing separates the top three, the likes of David Sieders, Cody Brewczynski and rookie Jayden Wanzek are all less than 100 points away, while Ryan Hoy and Jimmy Vernon are still mathematical chances.

STADIUM SUPER TRUCKS

AFTER ALMOST four years away, fans will be thrilled to see the Stadium Super Trucks return to the streets of Adelaide.

The wild Stadium Super Trucks first appeared on Australian soil at Adelaide in 2015 and were an instant hit.

With the trucks reaching speeds of 240km/h and flying over jumps that launch them 5m in the air, they are always a stunning spectacle and create close racing.

Due to the popularity of the category, it has come all the way across the Pacific from America to make this happen.

The stars from the last round in Adelaide are back with Robby Gordon looking to repeat his

Ex TCR/S5000 winner Aaron Cameron is every chance in Super2 – currently sitting second in the points. Above: V8 Utes, with the title on the line, and Super Trucks, add variety.

A tough Bathurst finds Kai Allen in third in Super2 and looking for a strong Adelaide finish. Below: Carrera Cup is decided, but the Trans Am championship is wide open.

The Speedway entry includes well-credentialed race winner

SPRINTCARS READY TO EXCITE SUPERCARS FANS

THIS WEEKEND’S SPEEDWAY RACING AT THE ADELAIDE 500 COULD CHANGE THE FACE OF SPEEDWAY RACING IN AUSTRALIA. ANDREW CLARKE SPOKE WITH SPEEDWAY’S SA PRESIDENT ADAM CURRIE ON THE EVE OF THE MONUMENTAL OUTING ...

THERE ARE still concerts this weekend at the VAILO Adelaide 500, but the main concert area from past years has been handed over to Speedway South Australia to build a speedway track and run a groundbreaking series of races on each night of Supercars biggest race weekend.

Super2 driver Brad Vaughan is confirmed in a wingless car for the weekend along with Joel Heinrich, and it is still possible that Cam Waters will race a Sprintcar with Brodie Kostecki watching on enviously from the stands.

The event came about when the SA Motor Sport Board (SAMSB) approached Speedway SA with the idea, it was then up to the speedway people to make it happen.

“It’s hugely exciting to get the opportunity to put Sprintcars on the main stage with the premium category in Australia,” Speedway SA President Adam Currie told Auto Action

“It has been a monumental task, but fortunately the motorsport board has got a great team themselves; and then we have also compiled an awesome team of speedway experts to produce the track.

“We have the best speedway track builder (Allan Barlee, aka Doctor in Dirt Science) in Australia, and whatever we’ve needed to build the track they supplied, so

Work in progress ... Right: Artist’s impression of just how cool the ‘drop-in’ track will look ...

you know we’ve got the best opportunity to showcase our part of the sport.

“We think that the track is going to be a good track to put on a spectacle – we’re hoping for multi lane racing just like a permanent track. There’s a lot of money at stake with a $125,000 prize pool so the guys are going to be out there to win, which is going to create a good show.”

The NAPA Sprintcar Invitational is the feature act for the weekend, and it will be joined by Wingless Sprints and Street Stocks during the weekend.

“Sprintcar meetings are pretty simply run. We start with time trials at the start of the night and that sets the starting positions for the heat races which sets the starting position for the final. Those three basic elements will be explained by the commentators and the big screens and everything like that that are onsite.”

Currie said this is a great opportunity to expose Speedway to Supercars fans, and the attention shown to the sport has been so great that the experiment is being replicated at the Supercars’ season opening next year at Sydney Motorsport Park – but he also hopes that fans of motorsport will embrace a new racing experience like many of the drivers.

“I think we’re probably one of the most underrated racing platforms in Australia if not the world and I think, once motorsport fans see it, they’re going to fall in love, so it’s definitely the shot in the arm that Sprintcar racing and speedway racing in Australia needs.

“We don’t usually get an opportunity like this so it’s going be great to see the wider motorsport community watching our style of racing.”

In recent years, Waters, Kostecki and

Shane van Gisbergen have embraced Sprintcar racing, while drivers like Vaughan, Heinrich and Max Vidau grew up in dirt karts then Speedway before going circuit racing.

Currie said the opportunity to run in Adeliade was so big that Speedway SA has engaged with similar bodies in other states to make sure they put on the best show.

The speedway format will also provide the 8,000 or so fans that stay for the evening session with non-stop action, with drivers like current Australian Sprintcar Champion Lachlan McHugh and highly rated international level drivers Jock Goodyer and James McFadden competing with another 45–47 drivers. Thursday and Friday feature two standalone race meetings, with feature race points from both nights accumulating to the overall Championship.

Each night includes time trials, heat racing and a feature race for the Sprintcars, while the Wingless cars will complete three heat races both nights.

The format duplicates the High Limits format from America with the fastest time trialer being inverted into the fourth starting spot in their heat race to guarantee wheel to wheel racing. Heat race finishing positions dictate the starting positions for the Top 8 Dash and Feature.

Jock Goodyer.

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LOCKED AND LOADED

HAVING IMPRESSED IN BOTH AUSTRALIA AND EUROPE, ONE OF THE BRIGHTEST PROSPECTS IS GROVE JUNIOR OSCAR TARGETT. HE IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AND DOING THE RIGHT THINGS TO LIVE UP TO HIS NAME AND ACHIEVE HIS OBJECTIVE. THOMAS MILES TALKS TO THE LATEST YOUNG GUN …

THE PORSCHE pyramid has produced many young stars and one of the latest could be Oscar Targett.

He may be short in stature, but Targett is determined to achieve big things behind the wheel.

The 18-year-old has held his own against some of the best the European karting scene can offer and now back home is making a name for himself.

He is on a high after becoming the second youngest ever to lift the Porsche Sprint Challenge crown recently at Sydney Motorsport Park.

But this is just the start of Queenslander’s journey as he aims to join the likes of Matt Payne and Richie Stanaway racing for Grove Racing in the Supercars Championship.

It has been far from a smooth ride for Targett, who endured open heart surgery as recently as early last year.

However, that did not stop him from rising to the front of the grid and eventually dominating the one-make category.

Targett took the title in style, winning the Sydney finale with two race wins to lock down the title by a convincing 157 points after an impressive campaign that netted 11 wins and 16 podiums from 18 starts.

Despite being rather comfortable on the outside, Targett was relieved to have completed the objective.

“Going into Sydney it was not a sure thing it was going to happen,” Targett told Auto Action

“We had a nice lead, but for the amount of wins and podiums we had it was not that big a gap.

“I had a really good test day at Sydney prior to the race and was quite confident the car was going to be pretty good and fast enough.

“I also knew I had a good team around me and if I did what I had done for the rest of the season I would be okay.

“The first race was always going to be difficult and it turned out to be a wet race, at night, on slicks which was the worst outcome of the lot.

“It was a relief to get it done and I am very happy it is now over and a tick in the book.”

The championship success arrived in Targett’s second Porsche Sprint Challenge season, but what made the feat even more impressive was the significant reason that delayed his debut.

Targett missed the opening round of the 2023 Porsche Sprint Challenge as he was still recovering from the small matter of undergoing open heart surgery in January.

The composed youngster calmly overcame the setback, even though it disrupted his racing plans.

“I missed the first round of 2023 because I actually had open heart surgery in January (2023),” he recalled.

“In the December I tested a Sprint Challenge car for the first time, but as we were driving out of Queensland Raceway the cardiologist rang mum saying we are going to do the surgery in six weeks time.

“There are only two people in Australia that are certified to do that operation and both

of them were there so I felt as comfortable as you can when someone cuts your chest open.

“I could not do much for myself for 4-6 weeks and had x-rays until they said ‘your sternum has healed enough’ to have a go.

“I was a bit of a mess that first day (back in the car) and by midday I could not press the brake pedal anymore and was struggling to

Two wins and a second at Symmons Plains got Oscar to within a few points of the 2024 Porsche Sprint Challenge title. Left: Confirming the win, at SMP, was a relief ... Above top and left: From a long-time karting family, the initial pathway was obvious ... Above (middle) and bottom right: Toyota 86s provided the first car action. Above: Showing the way at QR in the Porsche. Above

Images: PACE IMAGES, MARK HORSBURGH, SUPPLIED

hold my head up, falling asleep just sitting in the car.

“I rang Stephen (Grove) and said I have to miss the first round, this is what is happening, and he was great and the whole Grove team and Earl Bamber Motorsport were massively supportive.”

Once on the track, Targett’s biggest focuses behind the wheel were dialling in car set-up with the engineering team and unlocking the driving style.

And once he got to grips with those areas, he was close to untouchable.

With both parents heavily involved in karting, Targett was “into motor racing from day one.”

His father spent 11 years in Italy as a driver, team owner, chassis and engine builder and is even currently in Europe working with a karter.

With such a strong family connection and

“The biggest difference is just the quantity of people that are not only good, but also have good enough equipment to win.

“At the end of 2021, I did the Richard Mille Academy Shootout in Spain with MP Motorsport in F4

I finished second in that competition to Tymoteusz Kucharczyk, who now races British Formula 3 and, I’m pretty sure, will be doing F3 next year.

“Martinius Stenshorne was third – who was an FIA F3 race winner this year.

“Unfortunately it was only if you win that program you get the next step and I came second.

“It (staying in Europe) was considered but the budgets required to race open-wheel cars in Europe is just crazy and unfortunately my family and supporters were not even close to making that budget.

I missed the first round of 2023 because I actually had open heart surgery in January (2023) ... “ ”

making his own mark down under (being a two-time top 5 finisher in the Australian Kart Championship), Targett junior also headed to Europe to blaze his own path.

Despite coming up against a stacked field where “50 drivers could win” Targett achieved eighth in the KZ2 European Championship and 20th in the KZ2 World Championship.

He did have ambitions to chase the European dream, but the result of one cutthroat program forced him to return home.

“I did my last year of karting in Europe and that was a big step and taught me a lot,” he recalled.

“I would have loved to go down the openwheel dream and chase the F1 dream that everyone thinks about and considered staying in Europe.

“But for me it is Supercars or GT3 or something with a roof is now my sort of style.

“Supercars is the sport I grew up watching so it only makes sense for that to be the end goal.”

For Targett to achieve that dream, he has landed in the perfect environment.

The Queenslander is a Grove Racing Junior, allowing him to tap into the rich experience of the race-winning Supercars team featuring

the likes of Garth Tander, Matt Payne, Richie Stanaway, plus race-winning engineers David Cauchi, Grant McPherson and Alistair McVean.

Targett not only gets to race with the backing of the Groves, but he also gets to soak up the Supercars world in the garage at each race.

Whilst he put the hard yards in during the application process, a bad COVID situation turned into the perfect opportunity to win the Groves over.

“In late 2021 Grove announced they would start a junior program and, like most things, they put out invitations for applications

“From a few-hundred applications they interviewed around 30 people after the resumes and then they went through another interview stage,” Targett recalled.

“I had just come home from the shootout in Europe and happened to be stuck in Sydney because of Covid at the same time the Supercars were there for four weeks in a row.

“They found out I was in Sydney and, once I got through to the final interview stage, asked if I wanted to go to the track to meet them all.

“Within about two hours they went ‘hey, do you want to join the junior program ... and I thought yeah that would be really good!

“It was a really cool experience ... I will never forget.

“There are a lot of people there that have a lot of experience, so any question I have they have an answer. They are great people.”

With the Porsche Sprint Challenge now knocked off, Targett has his eye on bigger things in the future.

Next year the Grove junior hopes to continue following in the footsteps of Payne and will either race in Super2 or Carrera Cup Australia.

Whilst a call has not been made yet, Targett feels ready for the elevation as he aims to take the next step to Supercars.

“Both Carrera Cup and Super2 are options and we are currently weighing up which one is best and where there is a good seat,” Targett said.

“Carrera Cup has its benefits because it opens doors to not only Supercars, but also GT racing internationally.

“Winning the Sprint Challenge you get a free entry as well so there is a budget incentive and it is what I have been doing. I understand the car quite well.

“But Super2 is also a benefit because not many get drives in Supercars as a junior driver outside of Super2 so we have to weigh up both options and see where they take us.

“I feel like I have prepared myself well and done everything I can to get myself ready for the next step.

“I feel like my performances say I am hopefully good enough to do it, so now – until I hopefully get a go – we just have to keep working hard.”

right: With the Groves, Stephen and Brenton, and their young Supercar star Matt Payne.

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Sharing insight into the next phase of the launch, Mr. Ito shared:

“Further to the launch of our IFG Series, we plan to release our new top-tier IFG Plantech Racing Oil in November 2024, which is formulated with over 80% plantbased raw materials.”

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SPEEDWAY

GOODYER GETS OPENER

THE 2024/25 Sprintcar season opener at Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway on November 2 has been run and won by Jock Goodyer (above).

Goodyer started his season in impression fashion by charging to victory in the opening round of the Total Tools Warrnambool Track Championship.

In addition to the racing, the event was the first stress test of the new surface at Premier Speedway, which was installed over the winter.

A number of drivers left positive feedback about the new track, including winner Goodyer, who described the race as “wicked – requiring good throttle control to keep the wheels underneath me.”

Drivers got to grips with the new surface and track shape during qualifying where the field was split into four groups.

Luke Dillon led the way with a 10.985s, which was the only one in the 10s bracket as the likes of Marcus Dumesny, Corey McCullagh and Todd Moule were next-

best heading their respective groups.

Attention then turned to the heats where Gippsland’s Bobby Daly, Tasmanian Tim Hutchins, Geelong’s Terry Rankin and South Australian Lachy McDonough took the wins.

Two dashes then set the starting order for the top 14 direct qualifiers with Jamie Veal and Dillon earning the front row spots.

This left Dumesny and Mount Gambier’s Glen Sutherland on row two with

Sutherland coming off a podium finish from the week prior.

The C-Main was a clean affair, led by Jett Bell, while the B-Main was heavily impacted by multiple stoppages and time constraints, which saw it become a shortened affair.

The likes of Tate Frost, Brendan Quinn, Tim Hutchins, Parker Scott, Jordan Rae and Dennis Jones managed to stay out of trouble and book tickets to the A-Main.

Dumensy got a flying start to shoot from fourth to first on the opening lap, while Dillon faded from pole.

Within five laps Dillon dropped all the way down to eighth before eventually recovering to fourth, while fellow front row starter Veal also failed to get away and slipped to fifth.

Sutherland also struggled to stay at the front of the field, having fallen out of the top three on lap two before eventually crossing the line down in 10th.

Behind Dumensy, Peter Doukas initially shot to second, but could not keep Goodyer at bay.

As the race went on it came to Goodyer, who found more speed as the laps ticked by. He eventually snatched the lead from Dumensy on lap 13 and charged home.

Goodyer ended up winning by the comfortable margin of 5s as attention turned to who would be second-best.

Determined to recover from his slow start, Veal picked off rivals to catch Dumensy inside the final 10 laps.

With six to go he made his move to snare second.

The next event on the Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway schedule is November 16 with the 360-LS Sprintcars contesting Round 1 of the Welsh’s Garage Doors & Gates Track Championship. The prestigious Jack Willsher Cup for Formula 500’s rounds out the program.

Thomas Miles

SCHLEIN’S CLEAN SWEEP

THE UNDER-16 Sidewinders Junior Speedway Club opened the 2024/25 season in front of a healthy crowd at Wingfield for the third running of the Clyde Mundy Memorial.

Defending champion, Blake Schlein was in red hot form, taking victory in all four of his qualifying heats with a perfect 12 point score to go into the final as the clear favourite over the other nine competitors entered.

With the top three point scorers Schlein, Riley Stout and Ryleigh McGregor moving directly into the final, Connor Machin would do it the hard way.

He had to dispense of Owen Chapman, Hayden Matthews and winner of the inaugural running of the event, Hayden Pascoe, who endured mechanical issues earlier in the qualifying heats.

William Nicol was next on the point tally followed by second-generation riders Nate

Sadler and Jett Plaisted, both in their first open competition.

With favoured gate position, the welltravelled Victorian youngster Schlein commanded the four-lap final from the tape, leading home Stout, McGregor and Machin.

Running in support to the main field was a healthy group of nine Novice solo riders.

Several of these riders showed great form and it is expected that are not too far away from graduating to the main field that featured Koby Smith, Axel Smith, Cooper Karpinski, Izabelle Murtagh, Cooper Coats, Jack Johnson, Curtis Sanders, Oliver Coats and Hope Coats.

The younger kids included Jack Johnson, Toby Monkhouse, Oskar Karpinski and McDonald’s Encouragement Award winner Hudson Monkhouse competed in the Pee Wee and 50cc classes.

Paris Charles

Blake Schlein chalked up a perfect night. IMAGE: PARIS CHARLES

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FIT FOR A KING

DAYNE KINGSHOTT (pictured) claimed the second round of the 2024-25 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night.

The defending champion started from pole and dominated the 30-lap final ahead of Ryan Newton and Callum Williamson.

Kingshott lined up on the front row with Williamson and the Krikke Motorsport driver got the jump.

He maintained composure throughout the race, running high against the fence to control the fast race.

Kingshott was second in his qualifying group and went from third to second in his heat race before winning the A Dash from the front row.

“The Krikke Motorsport team made some great calls with our crew chief Matty (Cochrane) throughout the night and we had a really good race car from beginning to end of the night, and it’s a fantastic feeling to get a win on the board so early in the season,” expressed Kingshott.

“With the feature race running non-stop, lapped traffic was a bit hectic and I had a few hairy moments on the fence, but I kept it all together until the end and picked up the win.”

Krikke Motorsport team manager Ryan Krikke was equally as happy as Kingshott to open the team’s 2024-25 season winning account.

“I’m happy with how the night panned out, as that was as good as a race as I have seen Dayne put together,” he praised.

“The track was super technical, and traffic was thick, but he made the right decisions at the right time, and I’m very happy for the entire Krikke Motorsport team to pick up our first win in only our second outing of the season.”

Newton started the feature fifth and soared up to third by Lap 4, which was the start of some intense racing with Williamson and Manders across the next 13 laps.

On Lap 17 he took second and held position as Williamson fell to fourth also, behind Manders.

This left Williamson and Manders in a battle Royale for the final spot on the podium.

Williamson won the battle in the closing laps as Manders settled for fourth and Kris Coyle completed the top five.

Andrew Priolo moved up sixth spots to take seventh, but the hard charger gong went to Ryan Lancaster who started from p15 and finished just behind Priolo in eighth.

Also victorious was Raff Frisina and his RF Motorsport team in the Junior Formula 500s.

After multiple podiums last season, Frisina was one of the form drivers during the heat race action by virtue of finishing second in his opening heat race and then was able to go one better in his second and final heat race by scoring the win.

Thomas Miles

SOARING IN SYDNEY

MARGO GETS CROWN

overall.

It is the first time Margo has won the crown, but it is his fifth championship

“It’s a huge honour to win the North Queensland Series in only my second full year of LS Sprintcar racing – this year hasn’t been without its challenges, but I’ve been able to enjoy a consistent

second half to the year, and it has rewarded me with the series win,” the 39-year-old said. With the title wrapped up, Margo’s attention now turnd to the 2024 season finale at Cairns.

MICHAEL STEWART took an impressive 410 Sprintcar victory after a dominant night in Sydney. He won the feature race after being third in qualifying and then winning the heat and dash.

“The Bohud Racing team gave me such a fantastic car all night after just sticking to our own setup plans and knowing what we had to do so we were in contention to get the win, and that’s what we were able to achieve,” commented Bohud Racing team driver Michael Stewart.

“I didn’t make the best of starts in the feature race, as I took off a bit slow in those early laps, but within five or so laps, I found my groove and was able to get to the front and stay there all the way through to the finish.

“I’m super proud of the entire Bohud Racing team and their wonderful efforts to put a great car under me.

“A big thanks must go to team owner Scott Jones for making it all possible, along with all of the team’s sponsors and the race fans who support me, and it’s an awesome feeling to be able to have the run that we did last night and reward everyone with a victory.”

Bohud Racing team owner Scott Jones was rapt that Stewart was able to get the fourth career 410 Sprintcar feature race victory for the team.

“Michael (Stewart) and the team did a great job all night and it was the perfect type of run that everyone chases,” he enthused.

“For this season we have based our schedule around Sydney, so it was awesome to get the first win on the board there and hopefully we can pick up a few more as the season goes on.”

The focus for the Bohud Racing team and Stewart is now on their next outing, the ‘Sprintcars in the City’ that is running within the Adelaide 500 Supercars event on November 14 and 15.

Thomas Miles

JOHN MARGO (pictured) achieved his latest success by taking out the 2024 North Queensland LS Sprintcar Series at Mareeba Speedway.

Image: RICHARD HATHAWAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Image: ZP IMAGES

SPEEDWAY

Image: ANDY TICEHURST MEDIA

McHUGH PUTS ON A SHOW

LACHLAN McHUGH (above) is back to winning ways after taking out the November 2 meeting at Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway.

The 410 Sprintcar A-Main started with McHugh and Hallett on the front row and the latter got the initial jump.

However, McHugh fought back as they came out of Turn 2 with Ryan Newton in third.

McHugh got underneath Hallett and levelled up a couple of times – and finally made it work.

He established a lead by the time they approached lapped traffic, but Hallett was running the high line and started closing the gap.

While this was happening, Oldfield had a big but unsuccessful look under Ryan Newton, before Nick Whell drove underneath him and into fourth.

The fight for the lead exploded with 13 laps to go as Hallett made his way underneath McHugh.

He then pulled away while Newton also relegated McHugh back to third with a determined Whell on this tail.

McHugh and Newton then traded slide jobs with five laps to run, and this continued several times  for the next few laps until a caution with two laps from home changed things.

Hallett led at the restart with McHugh and Newton right there on this tail.

McHugh made the big move and went straight to the top, winding the car up throwing everything he could to get around Hallett and sensationally snatch the lead with two laps to run. Hallett returned the favour on the bottom with one to run and they drag-raced across the line with McHugh sneaking ahead to take a classic win.

Newton was third as Nicholas Whell and Luke Oldfield rounded out the top five.

Ryley Smith and Jacob Jolley led the 360-LS Sprintcars to the green flag for

NYORA’S FESTIVAL OF SPEED ENTERTAINS

THREE DAYS of Speedway action was completed at Nyora Raceway in front of an appreciative crowd from Saturday to Monday evening.

their feature race in Round 2 of the Field the Label Series.

Jolley led but was soon three wide with Smith and Brian Walsh.

The pair raced wheel-to-wheel, putting on a thrilling show, with Smith soon making his way under Jolley to take the lead.

Jensen sat in third while Walsh and Burnham continued an exciting battle for minor positions.

When the Modified Sedans rolled out for their feature race for Round 2 of The Toowoomba Steering and Suspension  Smackdown Series, many predicted it would be a good race and it proved to be the case.

Round 1 winner Brodie Boss started on pole and led as Aidan Raymont settled into second. Without a lap completed there was a traffic jam in Turn 4 and a restart to follow.

Despite a four-wide run off the restart Burkley built a lead with 15 to run just as Brodie Boss backed it into the inside turn four wall.

MacDonald moved up alongside Boss making slight contact unsettling both cars as the laps were winding down and even caught Burkley, who suddenly gets shuffled back to fifth.

Meanwhile, MacDonald went after Boss, who just drove around the outside of both of them.

Enter Aidan Raymont and he went straight into the lead with just a few laps remaining taking the win from Brodie Boss and Max Clark who started 13th.

In a race that had plenty of twists and turns. Hollywood could not have scripted it better in what could only be described as a very exciting and entertaining race.

Speedway returns to Hi-Tec -Oils Speedway on November 16 with Round 1 of the Wingless National Series AMCA Cars plus Formula 500s Street Stocks and Juniors.

David Budden

The weekend’s biggest winners were Brody Chrystie, who won both Modified Sedan Memorial races held, Wayne Sheerman, who took the Stephen Douglas Memorial event for Standard Saloons and Brad Warren, who won round one of the Eastern Victoria Wingless Sprint Series.

The Alan Ramsdale Memorial for Modified Sedans to honour a life member and longtime racer took place on Saturday night.

Dale Hallett, Jamie Paull, Damien Miller and Brody Chrystie would each win a heat race, with the latter setting a 10-lap record of 2:51.966.

In the 22-lap final Chrystie took the race lead on lap two from Matt Nelson and the two raced closely early.

As thing progressed, Chrystie charged ahead by more than 6s finishing ahead of Nelson with Felicity Roycroft third followed by Hallett and Cameron Dike.

The Standard Saloon memorial known as the Dougo 44, a 44-lap final, awaited.

Rhys Lansdown, Kacey Ingram, Wayne Sheerman, and Jack Yeomans won the four heat races.

The first 22 laps took place in one direction before the cars switched direction and raced the other way.

Sheerman held a slender lead over Ingram, Ardley and Yeomans.

However, Ardley and Yeomans could not maintain their positions as their cars suffered breakdowns in the second half.

This allowed Sheerman to win by almost two seconds over Ingram, while Harry Cecil charged to the podium ahead of Lansdown.

Nathan Miles and Axel Robinson won heat races in the Junior Sedans whilst Luke Morrison won his class and the overall final on night one.

Morrison in New Stars defeated Cruz Abela and Darcy Dannatt with Miles winning top stars ahead of Tyson Heaphy and Axel Robinson.

Also competing were Outlaw Karts seniors and Juniors.

In the seniors Jamie Payne showed early speed before rolling over in the last heat.

In the final Chris Nankiville stormed to victory in front of Marcus Reddecliffe. Bodhi Doig was the standout juniors driver as he defeated Ashton Tuckett and Freddie Carrigy.

ON NIGHT 2 Chris Aarts and Jordan Haley both won a qualifying heat in the Sports Sedans before Jack Chiminello stormed to victory in the final ahead of Aarts and Haley. Marcus Reddecliffe and Daryl Hickson won heat races in the Dirt Modifieds before Michael Ardley claimed a win in the 15-lap mini feature.

Ardley passed Hickson on lap four and dominated from there in front of Matt Reddecliffe and Jack Smith.

Standard Saloon drivers raced for the Miles Cup and Harry Cecil started the 30-lap final strong until he succumbed to damage, allowing Ingram to move to the lead.

But Ingram’s own run to victory ended on lap 18 and Ardley went on to win from Chris Miles, but only just with the difference 0.600s.

Modified Sedans competed in the Russell Bent Memorial on Sunday night and Brody Chrystie led all the way ahead of Warren.

The Victorian Wingless Sprints Association Travis Millar beat Chris Temby by over a second.

SPORTS SEDANS raced on Monday night where Braidan Webster impressed as Trish Dike was penalised for contact.

In the Junior Sedans Top Stars final Cosson, Nathan Miles and Jaylen Knight were in a tight scrap before Cosson sustained damage in a racing incident. This meant Knight would win Top Stars over Miles, Morrison went back to back in New Stars.

Ardley led every lap of the Dirt Modifieds feature event to beat Hickson.

Wingless Sprints raced in round one of the Eastern Victoria series on Monday with Brad Warren leading every lap in the final to hold out Millar by three-tenths.

Nyora’s next event is December 2 with the Junior Sedan Victorian Series, Compact Speedcars, Outlaw Karts and club classes on show.

Dean Thompson

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SPEEDWAY KICKS OFF IN THE CITY OF STEEL

THE NEWLY-NAMED Rabig Bulk

Haulage Whyalla Speedway dusted of the cobwebs and opened the doors for the opening night of the 2024/25 season.

The evening featured a wide selection of five Speedway classes, providing plenty of entertainment for both open wheeled and sedan fans.

A field of 10 Wingless Sprints ventured west for the opening round of the South Australian Wingless Sprints Series.

Hayden Vickers got the ball rolling by taking the opening and final qualifying heats while Alan Saint and club President Darryl Sloan took singles.

The Top 6 Dash was claimed by Normie Moore to take pole, which helped him dominate the finale.

Jesse Alexander worked his way past Tate Cowie on the 18th lap for second place.

The nimble Formula 500s were out in force for the opening round of their Tri Series Championship.

The three heat races were evenly split with Corey Jones, Richard Schmidt and Dean Cottrell taking the wins.

Cottrell would continue his strong run into the 15-lap final with a flag to flag win over Jones and Nathan Oshea.

A small field of just six Modlites made the journey to the west but those in attendance provided fast and close racing.

Jake Armstrong made a clean sweep taking all three qualifying heats and, with an inverted grid for the final, would start from the rear of the field.

From pole position Brian Chadwick drove a smooth and fast line, despite pressure from Armstrong who challenged.

Going into the final corner Armstrong threw caution to the wind and went for an all or nothing move for the lead which did not pay dividends, opening the door for Mick Hayden to move into the runner up position.

Normie Moore claimed the opening round of the South Australian Wingless Sprints Series. Image: PARIS CHARLES

The Super Sedans were a late but most welcomed addition to the program after the Sprintcar were cancelled due to a lack of numbers.

Taking the bull by the horns was Neville Nitschke, taking two of the three heat races and Kym Leyson the remainder.

Nitschke looked strong in the final before making an uncharacteristic mistake and dropped back to fourth, allowing Paul Blenkiron into the lead and win.

A determined Nitschke raced his way back to second over Leyson. Round 2 of the Southern Street Stock Series saw the largest entry of competitors for the night with 16.

Mount Gambier’s Jayden Edwards took an impressive green to chequered victory in the 30-lap final after securing the Gold Shootout.

Jayden Bromeley and local ace Andy Maxwell Junior rounding off the podium.

Paris Charles

STEWART CLEANS UP IN TOOWOOMBA

THIRD GENERATION racer

Harry Stewart was unbeaten at the Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway in the opening round of the GSA Advanced Machining Ultimate Speedcar Championship.  Stewart and Mitch Kendall made up the front row of the 20-lap A-Main.

The initial start was quite untidy and worse arrived at Turn 1 when a coming together of some cars saw Kendall, Tim Devine and Seth Atkinson eliminated while Daisy Smith was able to refire.

The restart only made a lap when the yellow light appeared again as Farmer hit the inside wall.

It was third time lucky as Stewart sped to the front and was unchallenged – but back behind him there was plenty of action.

Casey O’Connell was second during the opening laps with Dylan Menz who soon lost a spot to Whittaker.

Menz was the only driver trying the high line, but the low line proved to be faster and he dropped to sixth.

During lap 10, Whittaker moved past O’Connell to take second and Lacy Paulger  took fourth. However, O’Connell kept hounding Whittaker as they raced low on the track and close to the inside wall.

O’Connell’s persistence paid off when he raced inside Whittaker as they took the white flag and held on to finish second behind Stewart with Whittaker third then Paulger and Menz with 13 cars finishing.

Barry Lane

NATIONALS WRAP

TIME TO FLY

THE VICTORIAN Motor Racing Championships wrapped up with a bang at Winton on November 2/3.

Four categories were on show, including one national series - the Australian Super Trucks.

AUSTRALIAN SUPER TRUCKS

THE AUSTRALIAN Super Trucks roared all weekend with four races for the regular drivers and the unique two-race challenge for the mechanics.

The regular races were fiercely fought, producing four different winners.

The opener was dominated by six-time truck champion Steven Zammit, who started imperiously leading Robert Fern by 3s.

In Race 2, Zammit started strongly and set the fastest lap, but failed to greet the chequered flag. As a result Fern was able to take the win by 1.8s from Marcus Prillwitz.

After failing to start Race 1, Dale Cornfoot responded by recording best result of fourth.

After a challenging first two races Frank Amoroso hit back by beating Cornfoot to win the third race as Zammit’s truck was not running on song.

In the finale it was Lachlan Fern’s turn to dominate proceedings, leading Cornfoot by 8s.

Harvey Dale and Lachlan Prillwitz shared the team races with the latter taking it out after seven tenths split the top three.

NO BEATING BARRY

BARRY NOWELL (above) performed and became a national champion by winning the Motorsport Australia Australian Khanacross Championship.

The event saw competitors go between the dirt of Khana Park and the iconic tarmac of Symmons Plains Raceway.

With national honours on the line, a total of 50 competitors turned out across three groups.

Standing out as the only non Subaru in Group 2 was Nowell in his winged Baztec 23. Nowell managed to hold off the likes of Leigh Ford and Damien Midgley to take overall honours and be crowned the 2024 Australian Khanacross Champion.

Ford in his Honda Civic and Midgley in his Subaru Liberty RX impressed, but could not get close enough to Nowell.

Lyndon Kettle, Corey Baker and Robert Edge rounded out the top six.

Ford had to settle for Class C honours, while Bradley Trenham overcame Jonathan Marshall in Class B.

Midgley secured Class G over Kettle, while Jason Street and Dennis Cooper were the only Class D competitors.

Thomas Miles

2-LITRE SPORTS SEDANS & APRA

IT WAS a dream weekend for James Harris in the 2L Sports Sedans as he took all four wins on offer at Winton.

Harris’ Nissan Bluebird was untouchable all weekend, but all eyes were on the championship protagonists, with series leader Steve Howard and Lynda Devlin hot on the heels of Harris throughout.

Harris beat Devlin in her John Cooper Works Mini by just under 3s in the opener and it was since and repeat in the following sprint.

Harris was in a league of his own in Race 3 winning the race by 10s.

He was able to charge away thanks to an intense fight for second where Howard’s Corolla prevailed.

As Harris completed a clean sweep, Devlin settled for second, while Howard kept Talbot at bay by just 0.8s.

The APRA Pulsar class was similarly oneway traffic as Dan Smith cruised to all four wins ahead of Matthew Butters and Lee Nutall.

VICTORIAN SUPER TT

NATHAN LEBROCQUE turned back the clock in his Holden VE Commodore.

Lebrocque was unstoppable driving his retro livery paying tribute to Rick Kelly’s 2008 HSV Dealer Team machine.

However, he was not the only one as there were clean sweeps all round in the various classes.

Lebrocque took the wins in the Over 2L

Slick tyre class, while Carl Gibbs was unbeatable in Over 2L in his Mitsubishi Starion and Declan Kirkham was peerless in the Under 2L class behind the wheel of his Nissan Pulsar.

Despite their dominance it was actually David Buntin, who started on pole.

But Lebrocque breezed past in Race 1 and won by over 12s Buntin settling for second.

Kirkham posed the biggest threat to Lebrocque in Race 2, but still ended up 5s back in second, while Treaded tyre class winner Gibbs was third.

Lebrocque was on another planet in Race 3, blowing the entire field away.

He beat home Joe Strickland by the whopping margin of 53s as Kirkham and Gibbs filled the minors.

The final race was slightly closer, but not by much with the difference to Lebrocque 30s.

Strickland just held off Kirkham for second after a penalty.

A 2025 Victorian Motor Racing Championship calendar is expected to be announced soon.

Thomas Miles

CLUB RACERS CROWNED

THE FOURTH edition of the Karting Australia Ultimate Club Racer event was held at Murray Bridge’s Go Kart Club of South Australia recently with the winners crowned.

Adelaide’s Mitch Burgmeister impressed in the KA3 Light category with a special drive in the final.

It was somewhat of a surprise after Max Wucsko dominated all four heats.

But Burgmeister timed his run in the final to perfection taking the final by 2.2 seconds ahead of Chris Alexopoulos.

In TaG Restricted Light, Brayden Parkinson was mixing it with the KA3 racers and beat Jayden Voss and Joel Miller to class honours.

The 4SS Senior Medium final was a tight one between Samuel Miettunen and Brayden Slama.

Slama led early but Miettunen (pictured) hit the lead and resisted a late charge from his rival as Dan Virgo finished third.

The likes of Jake Holland, Baxter Fountain and Steve Miller duked it out for TaG Restricted Medium with Holland emerging on top.

Levi Jones crossed the line first, but KA3 Junior honours ended up going to Max Johnston due to a post-race penalty.

Jones dominated the weekend, but dropped to third with Mass Calabro also being promoted.

One driver that did dominate and kept the win was Des Harral. In his first year of junior competition Harral flew to 4SS Junior

honours over Levi Ross and Lucas O’Regan. Victorians Milan Sami and Ari Djemil ferociously fought for Cadet 9 honours.

Whilst the top two took turns in the lead, Ryder Xiong closed the gap towards the end of the race to make it a three-way fight.

Less than a second separated the top three as they crossed the line with Sami securing the honours.

There was a formation finish in the 4SS category with Elliott Thompson getting a narrow win in Supermaxx over Luke Smith and Jason Lloyd.

Nick Somerville still won the 4SS Light category after battling with the more powerful Supermaxx competitors.

In 4SS Heavy Andrew Hall led the way as Jake Holland won a stunning battle for next best against James Pace and a

gaggle of machines.

But it was even closer in Cadet 12 with Sammy Jansen Van Vuuren beating Rossi Yau by just over a tenth as Mason Martin won a race-long battle for third.

TaG Light was a thriller as only half a second split Hugo Garraway and Josh Elliston, while in Heavy Nathan Rosenzweig stood on top of an all-local podium.

Overnight changes worked wonders for Dominic Mercuri to win KA3 Junior Light.

The annual State of Origin honours were also on the line and the South Australian Red Team took it out.

The final event on the Karting Australia calendar is the Summer Series Final at Port Melbourne’s Todd Road facility across the weekend of November 31-December 1. Thomas Miles

Steve Zammit shows the Trucks the way ... Top right: Nathan Lebrocque dominated Over 2-Litre Super TT, while James Harris did the same in 2L Sports Sedans ... Images: NEIL HAMMOND

Image: PACE IMAGES/SUPPLIED

Image: NATHAN RUSSELL

BRANDLES COMPLETE AORC TITLE RUN

AND son duo Mel and Liam Brandle have further strengthened their bond by winning the 2024 Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship.

The Prolite South Australian duo (pictured) completed the title assault by finishing third in the Kalgoorlie Desert Race finale on October 26-27 won by Travis Robinson and Andrew Pinto.

With title contenders Beau Robinson and Shane Hutt retiring on Sunday morning due to brake issues.

As a result, third place was enough for Brandle to win the title by a commanding 690 points over Pro Buggy pairing Jared Percival and Joshua Howat.

The tight knit family pairing are the first Prolite combination to win the crown since 2017.

“It feels magnificent,” said Mel Brandle.

“What a race. We’ve had it going on all weekend, there’s been dust, there’s been everything.

“Just out there then, there’s a lot of cars broken down and a lot in the way, so anything really could have happened right to the end.

“To get in and make it, we’re stoked.”

“It’s incredible. I never thought that something like this could happen, but I trust Dad and I trust his driving. He’s amazing, that’s all I will say,” Liam Brandle added.

The Brandles entered the meeting with a commanding 216-point advantage, but Robinson raced out of the blocks, topping the Prologue.

But with the ‘points and a half’ scoring system in place, the title fight was not going to be over until the very end.

Robinson carried on his momentum from the opening day by finishing a solid second, 53s behind early leader Boston Morgan-Horan and navigator Fergus Crabb. The 2023 championship winning combination of Travis Robinson and navigator Andrew Pinto were third, 31 seconds further back, while Brandle was fourth.

But the big drama arrived on Sunday morning as overnight leader MorganHoran had power steering issues inside the first 10 minutes.

Incredibly, around the same time, Beau Robinson suffered a braking failure. After going to the pits and repairing the truck in 15 minutes, he returned,

determined to make up for lost time.

However, he was disqualified for receiving outside assistance from the crew during the middle of the lap, seeing his title dreams disappear.

“It’s carnage, but this is how it goes in off road racing sometimes. Boston was out and off to the side of the track. As we’ve gone to pass him we just lost all our brakes – had a master cylinder go bad or something,” Robinson said.

In SXS Glenn Ackroyd impressed to win the finale as James Mogford and Michael Mogford who secured the outright SXS title with a runner-up finish.

Travis Robinson won Pro Lite as Brad Geraghty and Nina Kells secured Super 1650.

Andrew Commins and Anthony Cook drove to Extreme 2WD as there were plenty of trophies handed out in Performance 2WD where Mathew Beck and Lindon House/Sean Beck/Chloe Richardson were victorious.

Rob Clarke and Paul Tavani were super in SXS Sport and Extreme 4WD went to Max Bradley and Sean Beck/ Mathew Beck.

Thomas Miles

FIESTA FOREVER

IT WAS a Ford Fiesta 1-2 in the final round of the Victorian Rally Championship, the Akademos Rally.

Adrian Stratford/Anthony Staltari (above) prevailed after a fight with fellow Ford competitor Troy Dowel/Bernie Webb.

After two contested heats, only 25s covered the top two, but the Lightening McQueen liveried Ford emerged on top having won six of the eight stages.

There was drama from the very start of the event as reigning champion Richie Dalton retired as early as the opening stage.

Dalton and Mac Kierans suffered a power steering failure and became one of three entires that could not complete SS1.

Stratford started on the front foot by winning the opener by 8s over Brad Luff and Dowel.

Stage 2 was a thriller as the Fiestas of Dowel and Stratford could not be separated, both registering 8m05s times. Whilst Stratford maintained a narrow lead with another stage win, a tight battle for second was forming as Luff’s Subaru WRX edged back ahead of Dowel.

In the final stage of Heat 1, Stratford carried on his winning ways to open a 25s advantage at the halfway mark of the rally.

Danny Traverso showed some pace to get his Mitsubishi Lancer into second for the stage, while only 1s split Dowel and Luff.

The opening stage of Heat 2 was a thriller as 5s covered the top four entries, however, none of them could stop Stratford from doing it again.

Luff gained a second on Dowel, who could not be split from Traverso.

For the first time in the rally Stratford finally did not have everything his own way, being forced to share Stage 6 with Dowel.

The two Ford Fiestas both stopped the clock at 7m53s and shared the honours, with Dowel critically gaining 6s on Luff to snatch second overall.

After coming close, Dowel finally knocked Stratford off the top in the penultimate stage.

Dowel won Stage 7 by a resounding 7s over Stratford, who had to settle for second.

With Luff in third, 9s adrift, it was a critical stage in the fight for second.

Just to cement second place, Dowel won the final stage over Stratford by 3s, while a further 15s adrift in fourth was Luff.

It was far from an easy rally with 13 cars not finishing.

The non VRC event, Bagshot Rallysprint will be held on October 26.

Thomas Miles

FATHER

NATIONALS WRAP

DEAN AMOS (pictured) smashed a 13year record to blitz his way to another Australian Hillclimb Championship title at Bryant Park on October 24-27.

No-one could come close to Amos as he was the only driver in the 87-car field to eclipse the 50s barrier of the Bryant Park figure eight layout.

The Gould GR55B was flying with a winning time of 48.59s in Run 6, a huge 1.80s clear of next best Brett Hayward.

To rub salt into Hayward’s wounds, he saw the record he held at his home track since 2011 broken.

The pair appeared to be set for a thrilling arm wrestle after Hayward made the first move.

His 50.64s was the only time below the 51s mark on the opening run, and whilst he went even faster on the next attempt.

But so did Amos, who after only being

SUPER AMOS STEAMY FINALE

ON A hot steamy day at Hidden Valley Raceway, the NT circuit racing season wrapped up with a total of 17 cars pushing the limits.

The day started with Practice/Qualifying with 2024 IP Nationals NT leader Rodney Jessup staying on top and gaining pole.

A trio of Commodore Cup cars, of Shane Smith and Ian Roots, trailed his times.

The leader of the Excels pack was Connor Kroonstuiver and Voltz in seventh and eighth respectively, while the HQs came into the picture with Dylan Bujnowski in P13.

Race 1 was an eight-lap affair and it was the VE of Jessup that made a clean getaway and took a comfortable lead ahead of Cowie.

But he was soon demoted by Stephen Johnston, who flew to second from 14th. In the Excel battle, Kroonstuiver drove a smart race to stay P1 in class and P8 on the track.

Noah Grosser, after a terrible NT Title run, battled with Voltz and Kroonstuiver all race long and held them off.

The HQs battled hard and it was Whitehair who would get the better of Anderson with Hill rounding out the podium.

Dylan Bujnowski would be the only DNF in Race 1 after only completing six laps.

Next race, and Johnston got the upper

fourth on Run 1, went straight into the 49s in his next attempt.

After a pair of low 50s Amos then laid a haymaker with a 49.62s on Run 5 and then the knockout 48.59s.

He did not stop pushing, with his final three runs all also fast enough to take top honours.

This left it a battle for second best and Hayward was among many also pushing the limits.

Both Dean Tighe and Greg Ackland also shot out of the gates, dipping into the low 50s as early as Run 2.

Tighe edged ahead in his Empire Wraith, but skipped the next three runs after a slow third attempt and did not go below the 51s area for the rest of the weekend.

With Ackland also unable to match his early 50s run, Hayward was able to work

his way back to second spot.

Having flipped between 51s and 50s times, Hayward went on a late push and managed to snatch second before closing to a 50.39s time on the penultimate run to be best of the rest.

The top 12 were all Formula Libre cars with Amos winning overall and 2001cc over, while Hayward clinched 751-1300cc, while Ashland claimed 1301-2000cc.

2B/2F Prod Sports 1601 - 2000cc went down to the wire with Paul Finch beating Harrison Bishop by a tenth.

Less than half a second split Steven Buffinton and Matthew Benneche in 2B/2F Prod Sports up to 1600cc.

Harry Pfeiffer won 2A Sports Cars Open/Closed up to 1600cc, while Hugh Feggans (2B/2F Prod Sports 20013000cc) and Nick Cascone (2B/2F Prod Sports 3001cc and over) were victorious.

hand at the start and found his way in front of Jessup, who even gave the leader a kiss on the rear bumper just for good measure.

They raced hard until the chequered flag, but there was no positional change in the end.

This saw fellow Commodore Cup drivers Cowie and Austin battling it out for first in class and P3 on track, with Cowie ultimately getting the jump on Austin.

Kroonstuiver continued showing his clean set of heels for the second race in the Excels by finishing P1 in class and P8 on track, as Grosser was next.

Peter Anderson obtained P1 in class for the

HQs and 12th on track, well ahead of Hill.

The Sports Sedans victors were Stuart Haverkort, Michael Green, James Dyer, Jordan James and David Cantwell. There were plenty of Improved Production winners as Kevin Coulson and took wins Zachary Hamlin, while Karl Hess and Rhys Yeomans held on by tight margins.

Steven Weymouth-Wilson easily won Historic Group N up to 2000cc while Scott Slater had a good battle win inFormula Vee 1200cc.

won single-car classes.

Thomas Miles

became buried in the gravel.

At the late restart Johnston completed the win with Jessup trailing behind.

There were battles all race long with the Commodore Cups guys, with Cowie and Smith chasing third on track.

Cowie ultimately got the better of the Club President as Roots would complete the class podium.

Whitehair and Bujnowski were both nonfinishers after an on-track incident caused Bujnowski to fly into the Turn 6 gutter and get stuck.

Whitehair was able to continue on his own power and reached the pitlane.

For the final circuit race of the 2024 NAMSC Dimet Tools championship, drivers had a 12-lap journey.

From the drop of the green it was yet again Johnston who would prevail in his VP and leave the field behind.

Mitch Kroonstuiver’s weekend ended on a

Connor Kroonstuiver completed an Excel clean sweep with Masters second after Kroonstuiver, Grosser, and Voltz all received a 15 second penalty for a driving infringement. With Voltz coming home with a P3 in class, with Grosser finishing P4, the four HQs would battle for the 12 laps with Anderson coming out on top for P1 In class.

Whitehair and Hill rounded out the top three HQ finishers as Eddie Austin would DNF due to heating issues.

Holloway would also join the DNF list after just four laps, and Mitchell Kroonstuiver was unable to continue after his car became stuck at Turn 10.

Jake Dunn/Northline Media

Sean Martin took 21 Sports Cars Open/ Closed 2001 - 4000cc, while Brent Coleman was the 3C Rally Cars 4WD winner.

Cory Horter, Emie Corry, Raymond Dore, Mirko Grbic, Peter Horter, Matt Brown, Drew Windgery and Sei Vella

Image: Jarrod Bryant/ Gippsland Car Club

Peter Anderson’s HQ in clear air – and P1 in class. Right: Stephen Johnston had a dominant weekend.

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK AT BASKERVILLE

NOSTALGIA RULED at the SRT Logistics

Baskerville Historics on November 2 and 3, with more than 180 entries in 11 categories over the weekend and a huge crowd on hand to watch the action unfold.

The programme included six racing categories and five regularity or sprint categories, providing plenty of variety, as well as an exclusive small Fords-only race.

Most categories boasted big grids, but the attrition rate was high, with small fields in a number of categories by late Sunday afternoon.

Multiple Australian champion driver Paul Stokell returned to his former home track in style to win Formula Libre and break a longstanding lap record, while Matt Carey had an almost faultless weekend to dominate two different classes, in the Muscle Car Cup and Sports Sedans.

Paul Stokell was re-united with Formula Ford owners Danny and Barb Newland in the car he raced previously, and it was as if he had never been away.

Stokell was unbeaten all weekend in Formula Libre in the distinctive yellow Formula Ford Reynard.

Given that Formula Fords haven’t raced at Baskerville a great deal, the lap record for the category had stood since 1995, but Stokell was equal to the task, breaking the record on the first day in what was to be a perfect weekend.

Kevin Miller (Elphin 300) spent most of the meeting trying to chase down Stokell, but a costly DNF in the final race cost him any chance of a podium for the weekend.

Nathan Lovell (Reynard Formula Ford) was consistent on both days with a string of placings to finish second overall, with former HQ Holden champion Paul Baily (Wren Formula Ford) third for the weekend.

The small Ford race was held on the Saturday programme, attracting a mix of Escorts and Cortinas.

The Escorts proved the dominant model, taking all three podium spots, with Greg

Hayes (Ford Escort Mk2) scoring a close win by just 0.31 secs over Lachie Thomas (Ford Escort Mk1).

The margin was even closer between second and third, with veteran Leon Duggan (Ford Escort Mk1), just falling short by 0.11 secs.

Racing in the F5000 and Group Q and R category was some of the best of the weekend, with Jeremy Dyer (Cheetah Mk8), Noel Clark (Cheetah Mk8) and Paul Zazryn (Lola T332) in the thick of it for most of the meeting.

Zazryn was the most consistent with three wins, including the final, to take the round by just four points over Dyer.

Dyer was equal to the task and never finished worse than second.

Veteran Noel Clark qualified second, but a DNF in Race 1, before a string of placings, ultimately cost him a podium spot to the consistent Matthew Roberts (Dallara F3), who finished in the top four in every race.

Tasmanian Historic Touring Car champion John Talbot (Ford Mustang) showed the visitors why he has won the 2024 state title with a round to spare, with some strong drives in the Group N historic touring car category. Talbot’s worst result of the weekend was a third place, while several front runners had costly DNFs, including Darren Pearce (Chev Camaro), who won the first three races, before the differential in his Camaro gave up just as he crossed the line to win the third outing.

It was truly a shame, because Pearce had just won arguably the best race of the weekend, with multiple lead changes and a great battle with Talbot for the entire journey.

Reigning 2023 Tasmanian historic car champion (for one more round) Phil Ashlin (Holden Torana XU-1), was also quick early, but didn’t return to the track for Race 4.

Veteran Warren Bryan (HQ Holden Monaro) was in the top five or six for most of the weekend, but importantly finished every race to finish second overall.

Bryan had some good battles with Leigh Woolley (Holden Torana XU-1), who was similarly consistent to grab third on the podium, finishing just four points behind Pearce.

Matt Carey spent most of his weekend changing wheels.

Carey’s Holden V8 Commodore was eligible to compete as both a Sports Sedan and also in the Muscle Car Cup – it was just a case of changing the tyres to the relevant category and what followed was an almost flawless meeting.

In the Muscle Car Cup, Carey qualified second behind Shane Bond (Datsun 1200 coupe turbo), but he was able to get the better of Bond in every subsequent race, although the results don’t reflect that exactly.

Carey was penalised five seconds in Race 4 after creeping out of his grid box at the start.

He went on to win the race, but was quick

enough to minimise the damage after the penalty was applied to officially finish second.

Bond was also quick for much of the meeting with a third place his worst result of the weekend, to finish second on the podium.

Leigh Forrest (Toyota Celica Turbo) was also at the pointy end of the field for the entire weekend, until a costly spin on the opening lap of the final robbed him of valuable points, he only recovered to 12th by the chequered flag.

David Waldon (BMW E30) is getting faster with every outing in what is a new car for him this season and was rewarded for his efforts, finishing fourth or better in every race, to leap-frog Forrest and pinch third overall for the meeting.

The other category dominated by Matt Carey was Sports Sedans, where he qualified second behind Michael Cross (Rover Vitesse). However, it was his only blemish for the weekend, winning every race on offer.

Cross was in the top three for all but the third race, in which he finished sixth, to take second overall.

John Douglas (Holden Gemini Coupe) also performed strongly in all but the first race, which he did not finish.

He recovered quickly to score two seconds and two thirds, with some good battles with Cross, but had to settle for third overall on points after his initial DNF.

Racing in Group S was entertaining all meeting with no stand-out dominant driver and three different race winners over the five races.

David Cunneen (Porsche Carrera 3) started his weekend in style, top qualifying and winning the first three races.

However, his colours were lowered by a determined Lincoln Spur (MGB V8) in Race 4 and the final.

Cunneen was never far from the front though, and picked up two seconds to win the weekend from Spurr.

Alexander Webster’s promising start to the weekend, top qualifying his Porsche 911 Carerra, unfortunately got progressively more difficult, slipping back a placing almost in each subsequent race, to finish fifth in the final, but on the upside, salvage enough points to take

Matt Carey dominated two categories with the same car – including Muscle Cars. Right: Brabham F1 cars provided great demonstrations. Below: John Talbot and Phillip Aslin head the Group Nb/c Touring cars. Bottom: Paul Zazryn and his Lola T332 were dominant ... Images: ANGRYMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

HISTORIC SANDOWN HOSTS ENTHUSIASTIC CROWD AND IMPRESSIVE CAR DISPLAY

MORE THAN 200 CARS ACROSS COUNTLESS CLASSES LINED UP FOR HISTORIC SANDOWN, ANDREW CLARKE WENT BACK TO HIS ROOTS … AND EVEN SOME CARS WERE OLDER THAN HIM ...

Trevor Talbot’s Chev Camaro shows the way in Historic Touring Cars. Above: Alex Davison had a ball in the Ralt RT4 once campaigned by his father ...

Images: IAN SMITH/NEIL HAMMOND/ANDREW CLARKE

THE HISTORIC Sandown circuit was abuzz with activity as a good crowd gathered to witness an impressive display of automotive excellence. With more than 200 cars on the track and just as many off the track, the event showcased a wide range of vehicles, from brilliant restorations to meticulously maintained classics. The relaxed atmosphere allowed car owners to engage in conversations about their prized possessions. Enthusiasts shared stories and insights about their vehicles, which ranged in value from $20,000 to potentially $1 million, and some with a history exceeding any dollar value. For many in the motorsport industry, it was like a weekend for catching up with old mates, and we discovered that artisans still exist in Melbourne. And while the headline act was the Formula 5000 cars – reminiscing for me about the first time I saw racing live – they didn’t steal the show.

Alex Davison, who was running the Ralt RT4 his father Richard ran in a couple of Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park in the early 1980s, summed up the meeting:

“I feel special and it’s nice just coming away racing with Dad for the weekend. It’s low-key, a little bit like when we were kids, going away go-kart racing unlike the racing I’m normally involved in, which is all a bit more serious and a bit more pressure,” he said.

“The cars are old and you drive them reasonably hard still. So obviously, if something fails, that’s probably what concerns me in these old cars. This car’s well-prepared though, and it’s had a good restoration so I feel pretty safe in it.

“But I love it. It’s no bullshit. It’s just enjoying nice people. And you notice at these events the fans are real enthusiasts as well. They’re proper race fans who are appreciative of the cars and the people.

“It’s such a nice crowd of people here, and quite different than at a Supercars event where sometimes I question whether the fans are actually motorsport fans or not these days.

“It’s sometimes very disappointing the way the disrespect a lot of the fans show the teams and drivers. It’s very strange.

“But it is what makes one of these weekends so great, I love these weekends.”

In the same garage as Davison’s Ralt –I’d forgotten how small they were – was Luke Warwick’s stunning silver McLaren M1A; and further down the pitlane was a M1B driven by Laurie Bennett – the first sportscar designed and built by McLaren and two of 50 ever built. They were stunning!

The fastest car for the weekend was Paul Zazryn’s Lola T332 with a qualifying lap time of 1m09.8463s, with Bryan Sala (Matich A50/51) 1.2311s away in second. They shared the three race wins for the weekend, Zazryn with two.

The classes at an historic race meeting don’t seem to make sense from the outside, with open-wheelers lining up against sports cars and touring cars, and V8 MGs racing 4-cylinder MGs, but it makes the on-track action interesting … especially when Terry Lawler bogged

down at the start of the first Sunday race for Group S in his Shelby American GT35 ... and then ate up slower cars down the straights to climb from eight to second in four laps.

Or how about David Brown in a Datsun 1600 SSS racing Phillip Shepherd in a Holden EH. The Holden had the legs on the straight and took the lead early in both Sunday races only to be hauled in over a race distance by the nimble and light Japanese car.

Historic Sandown wasn’t about the racing – although the HQs and Historic Touring Cars were pretty serious – as much as it was about the history and sheer beauty of old racing cars.

And best of all, there are smaller meetings all the time with cars like these, such as the Geelong Revival in two weeks’ time, and they are well worth a look.

Paul Zazryn (#24 Lola T332) and Bryan Sala (Matich A50/51) dominated F5000. Right (top): The business end of Luke Warwick;s McLaren M1A – real history ... Right: The Repco Holden monoposto ... awesome. Below left: Graeme Raper percolates in the George Reed Ford Special.

Jonathan Miles’ Van Diemen RF99 – a bit crossed up ... Below: A tyre smoking David Brown-Datsun 1600 SSS shows the way in Historic Touring Cars (under 3-litres).

NATIONALS WRAP

ENDURANCE TEST

THE WORLD renowned Le Mans 24 hour enduro may have all the high-tech cutting edge factory performance race cars, plus the celebrity glitz and glam that comes with it ... however at The Shell V Power Motorsport Park, things went one better.

The annual MelonAid 25 hour enduro, a fun race for budget-minded teams was held over 25 hours, while raising funds and awareness for the Rare Cancers Australia Foundation.

A record amount of $29,501 was raised and announced during the podium celebrations, which is a record amount for Motor Events Racing.

The race attracted a field of 47 teams, run over a three day period, starting on Thursday and culminating on the Saturday.

The teams were divided into four categories based the Redbook listing on their car’s engine size and performance capabilities.

Many of the cars were cleverly themed with a creative team name and paint livery to match.

Some of the more notables included Team Nahboro, a tribute livery to the iconic Peter Brock Group C Commodore and Team Lube Mobile sporting the Vaseline signage inspired by the corporate Valvoline/NASCAR warpaint.

After a tiring but fun-filled 25 hours of action, Team Shwarze Wurst Motorsport took their BMW (pictured above) to an impressive 416 laps to win outright.

They were followed by fellow ME-1 class competitors, The Buccaneers, Double Decker Racing and Days of Blunder.

Fifth to the line and just one lap shy of the 400 mark was ME-2 class winner Kelley Brothers Racing; Class ME-2 victor BCC Racing was next chased by The Imposters and Lube Mobile, all eclipsing last years winner who reached 389 laps.

In ME-Open/200KW plus, BCC Racing led the way with 398 laps, 55 more than Messerschmitts.

Shwarze Wurst Motorsport took the ME-1 140-199KW victory with 416 laps, edging seven laps ahead of The Buccaneers. Kelley Brothers Racing claimed ME- 2 90-139KW after 399 laps over Live Laugh Liberty.

ME-3 89KW & Under was a competitive affair with Lube Mobile ending up on top with 389 laps, while HyUndies Racing Team 78, Heaps Dinkum Racing and Hy-undies Racing 68 were not separated by much.

Paris Chares

BUSY AT THE BEND

TAILEM BEND was the place to be as the Bend Classic coincided with a country music festival and National Drag Racing Championship meeting.

On the track, the Bend Classic stole the stage, enduring that over 300 competitors took part in the event across the Nostalgia Drags and Spring Nationals, Motor Racing, BBQ Village and Ute Muster, which attracted 26,868 people.

As always the fastest and most spectacular cars took part in the Shootout and an Italian icon was on top.

Scott Bormann’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo was the fastest in the shootout.

Another highlight was seeing Supercars legend Russell Ingall drive a VE Commodore and, most notably, a 1988 Argo JM19C Cosworth sportscar.

The Historic Touring Cars ensured their Camaro v Mustang rivalry took place.

Paul Stubber started strongly by topping the Shootout by four-tenths over Jamie Tilley in his TCM Mustang.

But in the opening seven-lap race it was a Tilley takeover.

Jamie Tilley led home Brad Tilley in a Mustang 1-2, as Stubber fell to third, while six could not finish.

Jamie Tilley went back-to-back in Race 2 where Aldo De Paoli put his Camaro between the two Mustangs and into second.

With Brad Tilley out of the picture, Race 3 was a close two-horse race where Jamie again prevailed, but by only 3s.

However, his hopes of a clean sweep were destroyed in the finale where he could only complete four of the seven laps before a costly retirement.

As a result De Paoli cruised to a 10s win in an all Camaro podium also featuring Paul Stubber and Andrew Beard.

Stubber’s consistency throughout the weekend saw him win the round.

The Formula 5000s produced a huge roar and leading the way was Paul Zazryn.

Zazryn’s Lola T332 was the class of the field, winning the opening race by 41s over David Hardman.

Race 2 was slightly closer, but a similar story as Zazryn won by 17s over Hartman as

Robert Platt retired on lap two.

The third race was an attritional affair with only three cars making the finish led by Zazryn again, with Frank Harris next best.

But there was big drama in the finale as Zazryn retired just two laps from home, allowing Harris to be victorious overall in his Chevron B24.

More stunning open-wheelers were on show in the Group F, M and O events.

But it was all about Brabham in the opening race as Andrew Robson’s BT30 convincingly led an all-Brabham podium over David Kent and Sean Whelan.

Laurie Bennett’s Elfin 600B broke the Brabham deadlock at the front of the field by sneaking ahead of Kent for second best behind the dominant Robson in Race 2.

Robson’s run of success was over in Race 3 where he retired after five laps.

This opened the door for Kent to win in his BT21 over Phil Randall’s Chevron B14.

There were only three starters in Race 4, but it went down to the wire with Norman Falkiner leading Noel Bryen by just eighttenths. A distant third place for Kent was

enough to steal the round.

With so much going on including Lee Kernaghan, Kasey Chambers and Beccy Cole playing live music, Shell V-Power Motorsport Park CEO Alistair MacDonald was delighted with the event.

“We are absolutely over the moon with the way crowds from across the country have embraced this event and travelled to our Murray River, Lakes & Coorong region to enjoy some truly world-class entertainment,” he said.

“When we conceptualised this event we firmly believed that there was something in the growing Australian Country Music scene and the people have spoken with their feet so we can’t wait to see just how far we can take The Bend Classic next year and beyond.

“We have never done an event of this kind, and we just need to commend all who attended, particularly those who camped, for collectively creating an enjoyable atmosphere for anyone who walked through the gates. See you next year.”

Thomas Miles

Jamie Tilley’s Mustang leads the Historic Touring Cars field into Turn 1. Images: JOHN LEMM AND DAVID BATCHELOR

Image: PARIS CHARLES

TBC Bormann Lamborghini Lemm: Scott Bormann’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo was the fastest in the shootout.

Russell Ingall straps in ready for his lap in a 1988 Argo JM19C Cosworth sportscar.

Paul Zazryn’s Lola T332 leads Frank Harris’ Chevron in the F5000 and Groups P, Q & R field.

TAMASI WINS BATTLE, INGRAM THE WAR

THE 2024 Precision National Sports Sedan Series ended in style with Steven Tamasi holding off champion Peter Ingram in a thrilling battle.

Despite starting the final race all the way down in 14th, Ingram needed just two laps to fly to second and catch Tamasi.

However, catching was one thing and passing was another as the Holden Calibra resisted two challenges at The Chase.

Elsewhere, Tamasi did enough to ensure Ingram could not think about challenging for the lead and took a stunning six-tenths win in the five-lap dash.

Ingram had already sealed the title with victory in the opening race of the weekend.

The prospect of a title fight going down to the wire was always a massively unlikely one.

Ingram arrived at Mount Panorama with an imposing 103-point advantage and started the weekend with a bang.

The championship leader dominated the early morning qualifying session by going 1.4s faster than the rest of the field.

Ingram’s Mazda RX7 was rapid, posting a 2:05.3096 on his sixth lap of the 20-minute session.

Geoff Taunton was the only driver remotely close to Ingram, being 1.4s off the pace in his Marc IRC GTSS.

The sister Marc entry of Steve Lacey was next best, but a distant 3s adrift having held off Brad Shiels’ Fiat 124 Coupe and Ashley Jarvis’ Holden Monaro.

Critically Matthew Ingram kept Steven Tamasi out of the top six.

It was an early start for the 15-car field with the session kicking off at 7.15 AEDT and Hugh Zochling was the only one

unable to post a lap time in his ex James Brock/Steve Owen V8 Supercar Holden Commodore VX that competed in the 2001 Bathurst 1000.

When the lights went out it was actually Taunton that got the better getaway and led the field through Hell Corner.

However, the Mazda RX7’s straight line speed was unstoppable down Mountain Straight and Ingram drove into the lead.

However, he could not drive into the distance and shake off Taunton, who shadowed his every move as the top two skipped away from the rest with the attention also on Tamasi.

He only gained one spot across the opening three laps before being able to snare fourth from Lacey.

However, his charge was cut short from a Safety Car caused by Paul Boschert, who fired his Corvette into the Griffins Bend tyres.

With no more racing possible, Ingram held on to another win, but one of the most important.

The victory was enough for Ingram to lock in the championship in his first attempt at Sports Sedans.

It was well timed as Ingram retired from Race 2 with a driveshaft issue, which allowed nearest title rival Tamasi to enjoy

a comfortable drive into victory lane, 5s ahead of Ashley Jarvis and Matt Ingram.

In the final race, Tamasi and Jarvis shared the all-Holden front row and the Monaro won the initial fight, but the Calibra fought back down Mountain Straight to no avail.

The Ingram brothers made some extremely aggressive moves to throw themselves into the top four.

Peter Ingram’s work was particularly impressive, rising from 14th to fourth in just four corners.

Jarvis’ time leading the way ended at The Chase where Tamasi flew around the outside.

Meanwhile, Matt Longhurst was an early victim, while Taunton and Shiels did not start.

On lap two, Jarvis had his work cut out keeping both Ingrams behind him and found the grass at The Esses.

Peter Ingram had a big lunge at Forrest’s Elbow and just avoided making contact with Jarvis as he snatched second.

By Mountain Straight Jarvis also lost third to Matt Ingram, who had the far superior legs.

This meant Ingram had eight minutes to slash the 2s lead Tamasi had built up.

But he only needed two minutes to catch the bumper of the Calibra.

Ingram had his first look on the third visit to The Chase, but smartly backed out of it.

Despite Ingram breathing down his neck, Tamasi was impressively keeping the champion at bay.

On lap five, Ingram tried to launch another attack at The Chase, but Tamasi again had an answer.

This proved to be Ingram’s last chance as the chequered flag suddenly arrived four corners later despite 1m22s still being on the clock.

The reason was Matt Ingram crawling to a halt underneath The Tree and retiring from third place.

This promoted Jarvis to the podium as Michael Robinson and Steve Lacey completed the top five.

Victory gave Tamasi both the race and round honours ahead of Jarvis and Lacey as Peter Ingram was only fourth due to the DNF.

It was a special way to end the season on a special track and bigger things are to come in 2025.

Thomas Miles

PRECISION NATIONAL SPORTS SEDAN SERIES POINTS AFTER ROUND 6

1: Peter Ingram 603 points

2: Steve Tamasi 543

3: Steven Lacey 479

4: Matt Ingram 407

5: Geoff Taunton 387

Peter Ingram sealed the championship early in the weekend., but (below left) Tamasi won out on the weekend ...

Right: After a strong second in the opener, Geoff Taunton’s GTSS was a non-starter. Images: MPIX

NATIONALS WRAP

ARISE THE PRANCING HORSE

FERRARI IS back on top in Australian motorsport after Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot (pictured) pushed Arise Racing to instant GT World Challenge Australia championship glory.

A pair of podiums was easily enough for Mostert and Talbot to secure the crown despite some Saturday pace from nearest rivals Will Brown and Ben Schumacher.

It was Ferrari’s first Australian title since Allan Simonsen in 2007 and ended a sixyear unbeaten run for Audi, while Talbot became the first driver to win back-to-back GT World Challenge Australia crowns for different brands after tasing success in an Audi last year. All of came with thanks to Arise Racing, which could not have asked for a better start to GT racing.

Talbot and Mostert entered the weekend effectively needing to avoid disaster to lock the crown away.

The #1 Ferrari 296 looked ominously fast in qualifying where Mostert took pole with a scorching 2:00.986s, eight-tenths clear of Brendon Leitch, while Alex Peroni impressed in his first visit to the Mountain.

However, when it was time for racing, there was the strange sight of cars being parked on the front straight as a delay was needed due to a timing fault.

When racing finally took place, Talbot took charge ahead of Paul Stokell and Schumacher.

However, things shook up during the cycle of stops where Mostert fell to third behind Renae Gracie and Brown.

The current Supercars drivers easily

picked off Gracie to create a two-horse fight for the lead.

However, Mostert could not get close enough as Brown took a vital win by 4s as Leitch/Miles completed the podium.

This kept the title fight alive into Sunday, but the Audi combination still needed a miracle.

Being 24 points adrift with only 25 up for grabs, Brown/Schumacher faced a mustwin scenario.

Helping their campaign was the fact that Mostert and Talbot started last due to boost irregularities in qualifying.

However, Mostert was rapid behind the wheel and incredibly only needed two laps to fly into the top 10.

He ended up forcing the Ferrari all the

way to sixth in an astonishing nine-lap stint where he even passed title rival Brown.

Brown eyed an opportunity from the front row, but dropped to seventh on the opening lap as Leitch took control.

Leitch and Miles dominated the race, but their hopes of victory were dashed by a drive-through penalty for not meeting the minimum pit stop time.

This turned the race into an epic four-way battle with Schutte/Evans leading ahead of Peroni/Rosser, Fraser/Hackett and Mostert/Talbot.

The quartet ran nose to tail throughout the final stint ... but it was also decided by a penalty.

Whilst Schutte took the chequered flag, he fell to fourth due to a 5s penalty for an

unsafe release when all the contenders boxed at once.

This gave Peroni and Rosser a surprise, but well deserved win after the latter did a mighty job keeping Hackett and Talbot behind in the thrilling final laps.

Only two green flag laps were possible before the yellows arrived for a big crash at the top of the Mountain.

Ash Samadi lost the rears going through Turn 9 and went backwards into the concrete, leaving only 35 minutes to decide the winner, but it was worth the wait.

Whilst there was initial disappointment for Arise Racing seeing Schutte lose the win, the rookie squad were rightfully celebrating winning a title on its first attempt.

Thomas Miles

THE METHOD WORKS

THERE WAS a double success for Chaz Mostert as his own team, Method Motorsport, also enjoyed championship success in its rookie GT4 Australia campaign.

Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman won the year-long McLaren v Ford battle for outright Silver championship honours against George Miedecke and Rylan Gray.

The Method Motorsport duo entered the finale with a 25-point advantage, but that was trimmed to just 10 after the opening race.

Although the McLaren got the job done, the Ford Mustang was the fastest car throughout the weekend at Mount Panorama.

Lochie Dalton had taken pole and led the early laps of Race 1, while Miedecke jumped fellow Mustang Aaron Seton for second, while Flack sat fourth.

But things changed in the stops where Miedecke/Gray had 10s standing time in the lane, while Cody Burcher and Tim Leahey did not have any, allowing their BMW to shoot to the outright lead.

After disposing of Newman, Burcher and Gray appeared set for a thrilling run to the flag, but the race was interrupted by a big crash on lap 19 of 24.

Contact between Lawrence and

Griffith at McPhillamy Park led to the #19 Mercedes nearly riding the bonnet of the Randall Racing BMW.

It meant Am honours went to Peter Lawrence, whose Pro Am was taken by Seton and Gomersall after an exciting multi-car fight.

Gray and Miedecke did everything they could to snatch the GT4 Australia title on the final day.

The Mustang was mighty, dominating the last race of the year, which had a delayed start due to the rebuilt Randall

Racing BMW of Lawrence failing to launch during the reconnaissance lap.

Gray led away from pole, but Hayman ensured he would not get too far away, placing his McLaren exactly where he and the team needed it to be.

However, Method Motorsport hit back by snatching the lead in the lane.

Miedecke Motorsport tried to overcome its extra compensation time by performing a four-lap undercut, but it did not work.

Flack found himself in the lead, but

not for long as a determined Miedkecke stormed past almost instantly down Mountain Straight.

To make matters worse for Flack, he also could not keep a charging Jake Camilleri at bay.

Camilleri charged past to steal second inside the final five laps, but there were no panic stations at Method Motorsport.

Although Miedecke/Gray blitzed the field and won by 11s, third place was enough for Flack and Hayman to be the Silver class stars.

Also driving for Method Motorsport, Lachlan Mineeff and Shane Smollen became the Pro-Am champions as Dalton and Ben Newman charged to class victory.

Fittingly, John Bowe and Jacob Lawrence took the final win of the season in Am Cup.

Thomas Miles

Image: JACK MARTIN PHOTOGRAPHY

Method Motorsport – GT4 Champions. Right: The Miedecke Mustang won the day. Images: GT4 AUSTRALIA

BACK TO BUCHAN

A COMPOSED Josh Buchan (pictured below) made history on the Mountain by being the first ever to score multiple TCR Australia titles at Bathurst.

Although Zac Soutar put in an impressive comeback drive, rising from seventh to third in the finale, sixth place in both the final race and round was enough for Buchan to get the job done by 18 points.

Last year Buchan joined Will Brown, Chaz Mostert and Tony D’Alberto on the TCR Australia champions list, but in 2024 he has created more history by being the first to multiple crowns.

“It is a tremendous honour to compete let alone win titles and to go back-to-back with this team is incredible,” Buchan said.

“I am incredibly thankful because I am a very small cog that gets the glory.”

Buchan held a 36-point advantage leading into the finale, but it was Soutar who laid the early punches in the fight.

Knowing he had to beat the Hyundai, Soutar enjoyed the perfect start, taking pole by a huge eight-tenths over Will Harris as Buchan was third.

Aaron Cameron’s weekend was over by

the formational lap due to power steering issues in the new P51 308. With Tony D’Alberto also withdrawing on the eve of the event, a small 10-car field went racing.

Soutar got a grand start to enjoy an unchallenged run into Hell Corner as Buchan also shot to second as Harris slumped to fourth. But Buchan could not hold second for long as Dylan O’Keeffe launched an assault at Forrests Elbow.

These proved to be the critical moves as the 11-lap race was a clean sprint to the flag.

Soutar secured an important 3s win over O’Keeffe as Buchan had to settle for third a further 4s adrift. Tom Oliphant was promoted to fourth due to a 5s penalty for Brad Harris for a starting infringement.

As a result the deficit was trimmed to 28 points for Soutar, but he was unable to make further ground in a dramatic reverse grid race.

Kiwi Brad Knowles inherited pole, but his race was over after just one corner when contact between Brad Harris and Ryan Casha sent the 99motorsport rookie into the outside wall.

Before then, Cox and Bargwanna got

lightening starts to shoot to the lead, which was not decided until the Cutting after the GRM teammates banged doors at Griffins Bend.

Cox won the team-mate tussle and cruised to a commanding win 2s win in the Peugeot P51 308’s first trip to the mountain.

Bargwanna was safe in second, but crawled to a halt in the popular parking spot leaving Griffins Bend with suspected oil issues.

Casha was leading the fight for second, but was cast aside by Will Harris and Tom Oliphant, who pulled off some astonishing moves under the tree.

With O’Keeffe also passing Casha, he slumped from second to fifth ahead of the title contenders.

Critically Buchan finished sixth, ahead of Soutar, who had a big task ahead in the final race. He started on the front row and fought for the lead with O’Keeffe, but lost out after a scary moment at Griffins Bend.

The Tufflift Racing driver found himself on the outside of O’Keeffe and apparent slight contact saw the championship-contesting Audi slide towards the tyre barriers.

A clash appeared destined, but Soutar somehow skated his way out of it, but slipped from sixth to eighth in doing so.

Critically he was behind Buchan, but the Hyundai did not put up much of a fight.

Soutar soared all the way to third, but with the top two 7s up the road, his title dream was over.

O’Keeffe held off Oliphant to complete the race and round win double for Ashley Seward Motorsport.

But the biggest cheers were at HMO Customer Motorsport as Buchan drove into the history books.

Thomas Miles

TCR AUSTRALIA STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6

1: Josh Buchan 640 points

2: Zac Soutar 604

3: Brad Harris 579

4: Ben Bargwanna 555

5: Jordan Cox 548

GOLDEN GOLDING

THE TUSSLE for the Trans Am title will go all the way to the streets of Adelaide after James Golding dominated the Bathurst International.

However, more importantly, James Moffat managed to finish second, ahead of championship leader Todd Hazelwood.

As a result, only 24 points split the reigning champion and the rookie as the VAILO Adelaide 500 decider awaits.

Whilst many were focused on the title tussle, Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Supercars star Golding stole the entire spotlight.

He was unbeatable all weekend with his run starting in practice and stepping up in a tight qualifying where he had to overcome some significant challenges from Todd Hazelwood and Nathan Herne.

His 2:10.6725s was just enough as Hazelwood gave it everything a fell just 0.0214s short, while Herne was a tenth away.

Crucially Moffat could only manage seventh, two spots behind Jordan Boys, who sat third in the standings.

Off the rolling start Moffat got a rocket launch and sent it down the inside. The bold

move paid massive dividends as he soared up to third behind leaders Golding and Herne.

Hazelwood had tried to go side-by-side with Golding through Hell Corner, but lost out on the outside and dropped to fourth.

Tim Brook also went off and lost numerous positions.

That was the key moment of the race as the top six positions remained unchanged all the way to the chequered flag.

However, that was far from the full story as Moffat and Hazelwood fought furiously for third.

Hazelwood had two big looks at The Chase and Griffins Bend, with the latter an especially close call as the #111 climbed the kerb and the #34 skated sideways mid-corner.

The race was heavily interrupted by the Safety Car following a hefty head-on crash for John Holinger at the top of the Mountain.

In the finale, Golding had Herne alongside him in the rolling start and once again he got his elbows out to great effect.

Herne was checked up on corner exit, which allowed Moffat through, while Hazelwood

dropped to fifth.

Nash Morris was a victim of the first lap battle, coming out of the opening corner with significant bodywork damage.

Boys split Moffat and Hazelwood, but a mistake for the #88 coming out of The Chase and finding the grass proved critical.

It gave Hazelwood enough momentum to get by on Mountain Straight, while Herne also shot clear two corners later.

Although there were battles behind, no one

was in the same league as Golding. Teams will now race from Bathurst to Adelaide for the season finale this weekend. Thomas Miles

TRANS AM STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6

1: Todd Hazelwood 718 points

2: James Moffat 694

3: Jordan Boys 659

4: James Golding 646

5: Nathan Herne 467

Image: INSYDE MEDIA/TCR

Golding (31) and Hazelwood (111) head for Turn 1 as Moffat (34) looks down the inside.

Image: INSYDE MEDIA/TRANS AM

BMW DOMINATED the final round of the 2024 Australian Production Car Series as Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell (pictured) clinched the title.

BMW won all four races, but the clear standout was the #82 of Crick and Campbell, winning three of the sprints to secure the championship.

They headed into the final round with a 70-point advantage, but that became 49 due to dropping the worst round, meaning Grant Sherrin was still a chance, but even though the latter won the final race, the title was already wrapped up.

“It is good (to win the title and the event). Obviously a big part of this is Dean, he invests a lot into it and has been a big sponsor of mine for many years now, so to

be able to help him seal the championship has been awesome,” Crick said.

“It has been a very successful year and to come back from the last couple of years, which have had some pretty tough luck, and finally crack it here has been very pleasurable,” Campbell said.

Crick used his Bathurst 1000 experience to take pole by a whopping 3.7s margin over Grant Sherrin.

However, when the 34-car field started the first race, Iain Sherrin got the better start against Campbell.

But Campbell returned serve a few laps later in a critical move.

The race was disrupted by a Safety Car to retrieve Alek Hoskins after his engine let go.

This created a late dash where Campbell held his nerve to win by 6s over Sherrin, while Simon Hodges held off Chris Lillis in a close battle for third.

The Karlie Buccini/Courtney Prince #999 BMW was disqualified from ninth for a technical infringement, for having a metal blow-off valve in place instead of the factory plastic one.

APC kicked off Saturday’s on track action and Crick dominated the 10-lap sprint, winning by 4s over Grant Sherrin. It was an attritional race with Geoff Tierney, Matt Clift and Harry Inwood all retiring, while Justin Ashwell was disqualified.

It was rinse and repeat in Race 3 where Crick led all 10 laps.

In fact the top five positions were unchanged throughout the half-hour dash. The Sherrins had to settle for second 12s adrift ahead of Simon Hodges. Many struggled to keep up with the pace as Mick Rowell, Jamie Canellis, Brett Thompson and Jason Galer all retired.

A clean sweep for Crick and Campbell was ultimately denied by Grant Sherrin, who controlled the finale after a fast start, But the #118 crew did not mind because they were champions.

Paul Buccini (A1) Chris Lillis

Karlie Buccini and Courtney Prince

Brent Peters (B2) and Allan and Rob Jarvis

were the other class champions.

Thomas Miles

BMW’S BATHURST RADICAL BATTLE NATIONALS WRAP

THE FIGHT for the 2024 Radical Cup Australia title went down to the wire between Cooper Cutts and Peter Paddon at Bathurst.

Paddon entered the final round with the upper hand, enjoying an imposing 36-point advantage over Cutts.

However, Cutts gave it everything, producing the perfect round at the perfect time with his clean sweep reducing the deficit to 12 points.

However, Paddon used his experience to finish the weekend third, which was just enough to become champion.

Cutts was a man on a mission and enjoyed the perfect start by taking pole by twotenths with a 2:12.5902.

The first race was held under perfect blue skies and Cutts jumped to an early lead with Justin Tigani and Paddon unable to get close.

Critically Paddon passed Tigani on lap three, while the latter was demoted to fourth by Bryce Moore.

Cutts built a 10s lead over Paddon before the lap six stops.

No-one could come close to Cutts across the long final stint as he cruised to a huge 32s win.

But importantly Paddon kept Chris Reindler/B Moore behind to finish second.

Peter Clare and Tigani were at the front of the field early, but both retired.

Cutts’ biggest threat arrived at the start of Race 2 where Hunt swept across him and snatched the lead in the run up to Hell Corner.

The top three, that also included Paddon, jumped away from the pack, but racing was cut short due to a second lap Safety Car for Warwick Morris, who was stuck in the gravel.

Hunt kept the lead all the way to the pit stop cycles where Cutts made his move.

Now back in the lead, Cutts quickly built a 9s advantage ahead of Tigani and Paddon, while Clare/Hunt would fall out of the top five.

But the Safety Car returned when Andrew

Eldridge got trapped in the Murrays Corner gravel.

This set-up a nine-minute run to the flag and Cutts powered away from Tigani.

With Paddon needing to finish in the top five to win the title, he looked safe in third.

However, Moore created a late scare, challenging the championship leader on the final lap.

The pair swapped places as they crossed the line with Moore edging three-tenths ahead of Paddon.

But with Mark Brame a further 3s back, Paddon was safe in fourth and claimed the 2024 Radical Cup Australia crown.

Thomas Miles

(A2)

(B1)

(C)

Image: SPEEDSHOTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Peter Paddon did the maths, secured the title and celebrated with a shoey ... Image: RADICAL CUP AUSTRALIA

STAYING ALIVE

THE REMATCH between Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin will go down to the finale, wherever it will be, after the Ducati rider won an epic duel in Malaysia.

Martin is in the box seat to take a maiden title as he leads reigning champion Bagnaia by 24 points after both title combatants had moments in the Sepang sun.

After Saturday, it appeared the Pramac star had landed the knockout blow.

Despite Bagnaia taking pole by an imposing two-tenths, Martin hit back by taking the lead in a tight side-by-side drag race off the line.

He led the first two laps before decisive moment arrived at Turn 9.

Bagnaia, desperate to stay in touch, lost the front and slide off the track – the damage sustained by the Desmosedici GP24 from the fall was too much for the reigning champion, who had his head in his hands as he was forced to retire.

Knowing this was his time, Martin took full toll and dominated the 10-lap sprint to lead home Marc Marquez by over a second and celebrated like he had won the title.

It was Bagnaia’s fifth fall in a race this year, and possibly the one that could decide the title.

“I entered the corner a bit slower but I touched the bump at the apex and I lost the front,” Bagnaia explained.

“I’ve touched the bump many, many times without crashing (but) there is always a first time.

“It wasn’t the ideal moment, but honestly, it’s something that can happen.”

KNOWING HE either had to win or finish second to keep his dream of a hat-trick of MotoGP crowns alive, Bagnaia gave it everything on Sunday as he and Martin produced one of the great battles.

After a second attempt at starting the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix was required following a scary first-lap crash for Australia’s Jack Miller (right), the championship contenders sent fans into delirium as they produced a battle for the ages. The pair exchanged the lead an incredible 16 times across the first four laps amid some breathtaking bar-to-bar action.

Bagnaia had a rocket start from pole and leaped into the lead ahead of Martin as Marc Marquez and Franco Morbedelli fought for third with the Gresini rider winning the battle.

But by Turn 5, Martin was on Bagnaia’s back wheel and launched a a surprise move at Turn 6, but could not make it stick.

When Martin took another dive at the penultimate corner he completed the job, only to throw it away by running wide at the final hairpin.

The #89 savagely snatched back track position on corner exit, but again Bagnaia responded at the end of the main straight.

At Turn 4 Martin had yet another go with an aggressive lunge – but it was also unsuccessful as the factory Ducati performed the criss-cross.

The end of lap two was an instant replay of the first as Martin made a move at 14, but again ran wide at the final turn. They then almost touched as they charged down towards Turn 1 where Martin ran wide.

This did not stop him from making another dive at Turn 4, which was again not fruitful. However, this only presented an opportunity for Martin to nail a sensational slide down the inside of Bagnaia at the fast Turn 6 sweeper.

Bagnaia saved his response for the back straight, which meant the duo flew past the start-finish line side-by-side once again.

Bagnaia was the winner of the ballsy latebraking contest into Turn 1 and this proved to be the decisive move as his fastest lap of the race saw Martin drop a second back and unable to fire another response.

As everyone finally took a breath, Marquez crashed out of third at the final turn of lap seven. This meant Bagnaia, Martin and Enea Bastianini cruised to podium places.

Another contender to fall was Morbedelli, who crashed at Turn 9 moments after losing a battle with Bastianini.

Alex Marquez held off Pedro Acosta for fourth as the Tech3 rookie made up an impressive 13 places. The first non-Ducati was Fabio Quartararo, who completed a dramatic day in a strong sixth for Yamaha.

The finale is believed to have been moved from Valencia to Barcelona on November 17 after the tragic Valencia floods, but was yet to be confirmed at the time of writing.

Thomas Miles

MOTOGP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 19

1: Jorge Martin 485 points

2: Francesco Bagnaia 461

3: Marc Marquez 369

4: Enea Bastianini 368

5: Pedro Acosta 209

MILLER SURVIVES HORROR CRASH

A MAJOR scare went through the racing world when Australia’s Jack Miller was involved in a horrific opening lap crash at the start of the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Amid the bottleneck into Turn 2, Miller got tangled up with KTM teammate Brad Binder and Fabio Quartararo.

With Miller falling on the inside, the chain of events led to the shocking sight of his helmet rubbing against the rotating rear wheel of Quartararo’s Yamaha, while Joan Mir also ran over the Aussie’s leg.

Miller required immediate on-track medical attention, but was thankfully cleared of any injury.

“It was very bad to see but luckily nobody is injured,” KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti said.

“Everything is fine. Jack went to the medical centre to have his foot checked but he is fine. He has no pain anywhere.

“From the images we have, it’s not really clear what happened.

“It looks like Brad was far to the inside and touched someone (Alex Marquez) in front. He had to pick up the bike and he hit Fabio. Then Fabio hit Jack. Just a racing incident and was like a domino effect.

“We have to be happy that both of them are fine.”

Bagnaia and Martin’s opening laps duel in the GP was sensational ... Images: GOLD AND GOOSE

PORSCHE AND TOYOTA SPLIT THE WEC SPOILS

THE SEASON FINALE OF THE 2024 FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE 8 HOURS OF BAHRAIN WENT THE WAY OF TOYOTA ON THE TRACK AS IT SEALED ITS FOURTH STRAIGHT MANUFACTURERS’ CROWN, WITH THE DRIVERS’ TITLE FALLING TO PORSCHE. TIMOTHY W NEAL REPORTS …

AFTER SWEEPING up the honours in North America’s IMSA, Porsche Penske made it a Hypercar/GTP double by sealing the WEC Drivers’ title despite a lowly 11th place finish via its #6 963 piloted by Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor.

And whilst Penske became the first team to take a season sweep of the world’s premier Sportscar competitions, it couldn’t stop Toyota claiming its fourth straight WEC Manufacturers’ crown, as the #8 GR010 machine of Sebastien Buemi/Ryo Hirakawa/ Brendon Hartley took out the 8-hour affair in a 90 minute sprint to the line.

In real race time, it was the #51 Ferrari 499 that took second after controlling much of the day, but a penalty owing to a tyre infringement (exceeding allocation, which it insisted offered no performance advantage –maximum is 26, it used 28) dropped it to 14th, elevating the #5 Porsche into second over the #93 9X8 Peugeot.

That meant that Aussie Matt Campbell finished with a WEC season-high second place before the Porsche factory ships him back to his preferred IMSA GTP competition in 2025.

It was also the first occasion this season where a car won from pole, with Buemi the main protagonist as he charged home with an inspired stint from 10th place in the final 40 minutes following the final caution, to keep Toyota at the top of the WEC manufacturing tree.

“That was maybe my best drive. The early contact put us on the back foot (spun out of the lead in the first hour), but it’s always a long game and our strategy was to make

sure we saved some great tyres for the end of the race,” Buemi reflected.

“When I jumped back into the car, we were down in 10th and I honestly thought we had no chance to come back but, with our tyre advantage, I was able to make some moves and I knew the #5 would begin struggling at some point. In the end, everything fell into place perfectly.”

After starting in the race in ninth, the eventual championship Porsche fought back to second, but a succession of penalties set it back. Despite that, with its nearest competitors out of positional range, it had the luxury of crossing the line with the title

The #8 Toyota won, from pole. Below: Peugeot matched its best result of the year, with third.

already in the trophy cabinet.

“We haven’t made many mistakes this year, but I made up for that today!” Porsche’s Vanthoor said.

“Still, we have been laying the foundations for this all season-long, with a great strategy and great car, and that’s why we are world champions now.

“It’s been an amazing year. I’ve never worked with a team like this before, from my team-mates to the mechanics and engineers. This is one of the best days of my life and I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. It’s something I will never forget.”

Buemi’s run to the chequered flag for an eventual 27.539 second win was highlighted by his battle with Campbell, whilst the sister #7 GR010 – which started in title contention 35 behind with 38 available – would retire with fuel pump issues.

The other machine in contention was the Le Mans-winning #50 Ferrari, but its stuttering challenge was put to bed with a rear puncture in the seventh hour after clipping a spinning Alpine with Ferrari’s

As the second year of the manufacturer heavy Hypercar class was put to bed, the elevated Peugeot had its season high with its second ever podium, whilst the #35 Alpine A424 also has a season high of its own in fourth over the #15 BMW, with Cadillac finishing sixth in an uneventful end to a subpar season for the US giant.

In LMGT3, with Porsche having wrapped up that title last round via the Manthey PureRxcing 911, it was the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 with a thrilling win over the TF Sport’s Corvette Z06 LMGT3R.

IN SOME quick post race news, the Lamborghini SC63 LMDh programme is in danger of being axed completely amidst the WEC 2025 two-car rule, with an IMSA-only season seeming like the only saving grace after a tough debut year with a retirement at the finale.

2025 will be the 13th season of the FIA WEC (which superseded the ACO’s Intercontinental Le Mans Cup which superseded the World Sportscar Championship), with manufacturers also required to field at least two cars in order the participate (with Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini yet to commit), whilst the Hypercar grid maximum grid size will be increased to a potential of 40. The 2025 Hypercar manufacturer addition will be the long touted Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH machine, whilst the calendar will remain unchanged from 2024, with the season kicking off with the Qatar 1812 km at the Losail International Circuit on February 28.

golden Dane, Nicklas Nielsen as the wheel.

Porsche added to an impressive list of championship wins ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

PHOENIX THRILLER FOR PENSKE TITLE ROMP

THE FINAL race of the NASCAR Playoffs produced a thrilling finish at the Phoenix Raceway as Penske’s Joey Logano put the foot down to hold off team-mate Ryan Blaney and capture a third series championship in seven seasons.

The 34-year old #22 Mustang driver from Connecticut also gave Penske its third straight title and its first championship onetwo – third in a row for the Ford Mustang since the advent of the Next Gen car – and became the 10th driver in history to take three Cup Series titles (the only active driver with three titles).

In what will be remembered as one of the best seasons in recent memory, it was only fitting that it came down to the last lap, as Martinsville winner Blaney fought like hell to pass Kyle Larson and then William Byron to be within sight of his team-mate.

The Stage 2 winner arguably had the faster machine by two or three tenths, as he closed onto Logan’s rear with seven laps to go. In his final attempt to become the first backto-back champion in 12 years, Blaney took the high line to escape the dirty air but didn’t have the final push in him, falling short by just 0.330 seconds, with Byron 5.119 seconds back.

The pivotal moment for Logano was the final restart after the final caution with 55 laps to go, when he went from fifth to first within a single lap, with Blaney getting stuck behind Larson in the wash. In the hectic run home, crew chief Paul Wolfe got on the radio as Blaney was gaining and simply said “stick your tongue out, let’s go.”

“I love the Playoffs, I love it man ... what a race and what a Team Penske battle at the end,” Logano said.

“Had a good restart and was able to get

in front of the #12 (Blaney) who had a lot of long run speed, and that was all I had there to hold him off. To get three of them, that’s really special.

“What a crew chief do I have in Paul Wolfe – I have the best team! I don’t know if I’m the best driver, but I have the best team. We’re very well rounded and can show up when it matters most.”

“It started in Vegas with us with the amount of effort we put into this race car, We were up

at 6am going over stuff ... we wanted it badly and I’m glad we delivered.”

The ‘Captain’, Roger Penske, was present at the track known as the ‘Desert Oddball’ fresh from winning Hypercar titles in IMSA and WEC, witnessing his North Carolina empire take a fifth Cup Series title.

The other Championship Four contenders in Byron and Tyler Reddick ended up in third and sixth respectively after 312 laps of racing, with Logano holding 107 laps of the lead

throughout – Blaney 12, Byron 19, and Reddick none, to finish at the bottom of the four after winning the regular season honours.

The race also saw a bizarre incident where the Pace Car crashed into the pit wall, causing a brief red flag at the conclusion of Stage 1, almost taking out then race leader Chase Elliot.

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series will kick-off with the Daytona 500 on February 16.

TW Neal

MANIC MARTINSVILLE SET THE PHOENIX FOUR

PENSKE’S RYAN Blaney (right) mirrored his 2023 effort in winning the Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville Speedway the week before Phoenix, advancing into Round of 4 finale (above) in his bid to go back-to-back.

He wasn’t the only driver to turn back the clock, as the post-race-eliminated Christopher Bell tried to emulate Ross Chastain’s open throttle wall ride at the same track from 2022 in a bid to knock out William Byron from the Four.

After being penalised, Byron was reinstated as part of the Phoenix 4, who along with Blaney, Joey Logano, and Tyler Reddick, headed to the ‘Desert Oddball’ with a chance at the title.

For Blaney, his 13th career win came over Chase Elliot by 2.593 seconds, with Kyle Larson in third, the latter being a surprise non-title contender for Phoenix, with both those podium-getters needing to win to

advance as with Bell and Alex Bowman.

The win came after the Penske charger ran down Elliot on lap 486 of 500, pulling away with his right side option, and left side soft Goodyear tyres.

“Oh my God, I’m tired,” Blaney said.

“Good battle, and this car hung on longer than most, and I could really make some ground.

“I hated that I had to lay the bumper to some guys, but I had to do it. It was nice to pass Elliott clean. I laid the bumper to a

couple guys that I wish I didn’t have to, but I needed to get going, so it was a long night.”

For Byron – who finished in sixth and was effectively eliminated with Bell’s illegal charge to finish in 18th – he wasn’t fretting that the wall move would escape punishment.

“He rode the wall, and there’s a clear rule against riding the wall,” the Hendricks driver said. “We all sat in meetings and talked about whether there should be a rule against it, and his front tyres were off the ground coming off Turn 4 ...”

Bell felt that he had no other option in a last ditch bid to make it.

“It was Martinsville, and it was a Round of 8 cutoff race,” Bell said.

“Unfortunately I was on the bad side of it. Made a lot of mistakes, ran a sloppy race … I slid into the wall and kept my foot into it. I guess that is a losing move.”

TW Neal

‘The Captain’ watches on as Logano takes the trophy. It’s been an amazing year for Team Penske all over ... Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

VERSTAPPEN BREAKS McLAREN’S MOMENTUM

Report: LUIS VASCONCELAS

Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES

MAX VERSTAPPEN’S masterful wet weather display in Interlagos earned the Dutch driver and Red Bull more than the 25 points he scored on track. It broke Lando Norris’ and McLaren’s momentum and, judging by the British driver’s body language after the race, it broke his spirit as well. For quite a while. Red Bull had been on the back foot, the RB20 unable to keep up with McLaren and Ferrari in most of the recent weekends. Verstappen’s heroics in qualifying put the dark blue car in grid positions it didn’t deserve but, on race day, he couldn’t keep up with the faster cars on most occasions. Since the Belgian Grand Prix, only in Austin – in very controversial circumstances – had Verstappen outscored Norris, as in all other races since the mid-season break it had been the McLaren driver outscoring his rival.

Arriving in Interlagos 47 points behind Verstappen, with two Sprint weekends out of four Grands Prix still to go, Norris had good reason to believe he could still win the title.

But by Sunday night, in the outskirts of São Paulo, things had changed dramatically. Now the gap between the two has grown to 62 points and with just 86 points left on the table, it’s basically game over and Verstappen is on his way to his fourth World Championship in a row.

And yet, things had gone against the championship leader almost from the start of the Interlagos weekend. Only 15th quickest in FP1 – but aborting what would have been a very quick lap – Verstappen was fourth

quickest in the Sprint Shootout, beaten by the two McLarens and Charles Leclerc.

In the short race he managed to get ahead of the Ferrari driver with six laps to go but made a mistake under the Virtual Safety Car and the 5s penalty he received from that infraction put him back in P4.

With Norris handed the win by Piastri, that was another three points taken away from his championship lead, but worse was to come his way.

FROM QUALIFYING DISASTER …

THE POSTPONED qualifying session couldn’t have been more troubled for the Dutchman. Fastest of all in Q1, a combination of wrong track position at the start of Q2 – apparently caused by GPS issues for his team – and a late red flag that didn’t allow him to show his speed, saw him out of the final (Q3) session.

With a five-place grid penalty coming his way, for exceeding his allocation of ICEs for the season, the Red Bull driver was down in P17 on the grid and, with Norris on pole, the title battle looked set to rage on for quite a while longer.

But Interlagos has a big history of tumultuous races and this year’s was one of the most unpredictable ever, with Verstappen recovering from P17 to win by nearly 20 seconds, with the two Alpines scoring a completely unlikely double podium – the first for the Enstone-based team since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix!

… TO WITHIN A SNIFF OF THE TITLE THERE WERE a few factors that help explain this remarkable turn of events but, regardless of all the others, it was

Verstappen’s tremendous speed in treacherous conditions that was behind his spectacular recovery – and a crucial one at that, as it essentially settled the championship battle as he now only needs to score 24 points in the next three Grands Prix to guarantee his fourth title.

The Dutchman himself admitted he really enjoys driving in these difficult conditions, explaining that “my emotions today have been a roller coaster, with qualifying being really unlucky with that red flag. Starting P17, I knew that it was going to be a very tough race, but we stayed out of trouble.

“We made the right calls, we stayed calm and we were flying. So, all of these things together, of course, made that result possible. But it’s unbelievable to win here from so far back on the grid!”

With Ocon and Gasly by his side, Verstappen explained his speed in the wet with the extensive practice done in these conditions since karting:

The guys that were good in the wet, they’re good nowadays also in Formula 1. I was racing them as well in karting and they were also good in the wet, so it definitely is a thing that you pick up when you’re younger.

“I think where we come from, it definitely rains a bit more than maybe in some other places. So, you go out there, you practice, you get more comfortable, and you are definitely tuning your skills to be better. I think you carry that, and of course, you evolve and become even better and you use that to your advantage.”

McLAREN BANKS ON CONSTRUCTORS’ TITLE

WITHIN THE McLaren camp, there was clear disappointment but also a quiet determination to win the Constructors’ Championship now that, as Andrea Stella admitted, the Drivers’ competition seems to be out of reach.

The Italian engineer admitted that “I don’t think for Lando there was any particular pressure because we were enjoying this quest, but we always knew it was a long-shot. Mathematically he’s still in the championship, but it will be a tall order to succeed.”

Which is why Stella’s focus is on the Constructors’ Championship, where McLaren’s lead over Ferrari got extended to 36 points –with Red Bull a further 13 points in arrears.

The Team Principal explained that “there’s still all to play for and the Constructors’ Championship remains and has always been our priority.”

Norris, for his part, did his best to keep a sad smile on his face after the race, insisting it was “quite easy” to digest the result and defiantly stating that “I did all I could today. That’s all. Max won the race. Good on him, well done, but it doesn’t change anything for me.”

The McLaren driver insisted that pitting for new Intermediate tyres “was the right call” at the time, even if the drivers who finished on the podium were among the few that stayed out on worn Intermediate tyres until there was a red flag following Colapinto’s heavy crash at the end of lap 32:

“It was the right time to box. It was the right thing. So, no regrets, just unlucky.”

Main: Verstappen put on a wet weather masterclass ... and (opposite) celebrated hard. Opposite bottom: Norris attempts (unsuccessfully) to hold Leclerc at bay at the restart. Left: Yes, the red flag helped, but Alpine’s 2-3 was an amazing result points-wise for the team. Left: Oscar led the Sprint, but let Norris past for the win points ... Below left: Russell got the initial jump but was also a victim of the red flag. Bottom of page: Flag marshall assistance meant disqualification for Hulkenberg

With everyone allowed to change tyres for the re-start, Norris – and Russell’s – advantage of being on fresher tyres was erased, the McLaren man saying, that “it’s a silly rule that no-one agrees with, but you’ll always agree with it when it benefits you.

“So, every driver has said they don’t agree with it and want it changed. It’s just unfortunate, but it’s the rule. You win some, you lose some … it benefitted them today.

“So, well done to them.” And game over for the 2024 Drivers’ Championship, by the looks of it…”

MERCEDES DENIES RUSSELL’S CHANCES

IF NORRIS defended his team’s call, long-time race leader George Russell was still furious with Mercedes for forcing him to stop when the rain intensity increased a lot, around lap 25.

Hulkenberg went off, bringing out a VSC period and, with both VCARBs pitting for Full Wets, it was clear conditions were extreme. But a couple of seconds before Russell and Norris dived into the pits, the marshals pushstarted the Haas back onto the track, so the VSC period came to an end.

But soon afterwards, Colapinto, on fresh Intermediates, had a massive shunt on the uphill section to the flag, bringing out the red flag, as there was debris all over the track.

That effectively gave Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers a free pit stop, as they could change tyres before the race resumed.

Russell was still upset with his team’s decision by the end of the race:

“I mean, it was ‘box’. I said ‘stay out’. It was ‘box’ again. I said, ‘stay out’. And they said ‘box’ again. As I said, ‘I want to stay out’.

“And then, you know, the last one, you’ve got to go for it. Sometimes you have to trust your gut. Last time I trusted my gut, it went down pretty well. Today, who knows if we could have won the race, but if we hadn’t pitted, we would have been leading at the restart.”

Norris actually passed Russell before the red flag, being quicker on new tyres but made a mistake on the restart and Leclerc passed him to secure P4 behind the Mercedes driver.

As Piastri had also got ahead of his teammate, for the second day in a row, he was told to let the Brit pass, dropping eventually to eighth place due to a 10s penalty for punting Lawson, before the red flag.

Tsunoda drove a phenomenal race, remaining third until his pit stop and ending up in P7. Lawson recovered well from his induced spin to finish ninth, ahead of a despondent Hamilton, who had his worst ever race in Interlagos and scored a single

ALPINE’S DAY OF DAYS!

ALPINE’S TOTALLY unexpected double podium in Interlagos, added to Pierre Gasly’s P7 in Saturday’s Sprint race, secured the team a whopping 35 points across the weekend – the most any team scored and two and a half times more than the French team had been able to secure in the previous 20 Grands Prix of this season!

When the team arrived in the Autódromo José Carlos Pace on Wednesday, their main target was to catch and pass Williams in the battle for P8 in the Constructors’ Championship, as the Grove-based team was just three points ahead of the French squad. Gasly’s P7 on Saturday cut the gap to just one point and, when Alex Albon was ruled out of Sunday’s race after his huge shunt in qualifying, with Esteban Ocon sitting in P4 on the grid, the chance to move up a place was there for the taking. In the end, with a car that was perfectly set-up for the conditions, great driving from the two French drivers and a risky but inspired decision to keep both cars out on very used Intermediate tyres, when conditions worsened midway through the race, put them right up there.

Ocon sensationally led and pulled away from Verstappen after the restart, leading the Dutchman by 4s when Sainz’s second crash in two days brought the Safety Car out.

Second time around, Verstappen didn’t fail and took the lead, but Ocon remained unchallenged to secure a sensational second place ahead of Pierre Gasly, who kept Russell behind all the way to the flag without making the slightest mistake.

Without an issue that prevented him from setting a proper time in Q2, Gasly would have started much further up the grid – but his recovery drive was also one of the highlights of the race.

Those 35 points now put Alpine in P6 in the championship, ahead not only of Williams, but also VCARB and Haas – the French team is now three points ahead of the American squad and five in front of the Faenza-based team. At play are many, many millions of US dollars in prize money – the difference between finishing the season in sixth or ninth place is estimated at US$36 million!

No wonder, then, new Team Principal Oliver Oakes was delighted with the outcome of the weekend, saying that “it’s just a great result for the team.

Across Enstone and Viry, that’s a big result after the last couple of years, or even the beginning of this year. Since I arrived after the shutdown, I could see already the build-up to Austin with the sort of tempering of expectations, because it has been really hard to develop a car, especially in-season.”

The US Grand Prix, though, marked the beginning of this remarkable turn-around for Alpine, as the new mechanical parts introduced on the A524 really transformed the handling of the car, as Oakes acknowledged:

“In Austin, I was full of praise for the fact we brought performance to the car and it was nice to back that up in another way with points in Mexico. And then I think here in Brazil, we did another improvement on that and that will definitely help us moving forward.”

ONCE UPON A TIME – 50 PLUS YEARS OF AUTO ACTION

2004: LOWNDES’ FIRST TRIPLE EIGHT DRIVE

CRAIG LOWNDES made a surprise early outing with his 2005 team, Triple Eight, at Queensland Raceway on AA’s deadline Monday.

The extraordinary test session –which saw the Blue Oval star get behind the wheel of an all-new Ludo Lacroix-designed BA Falcon destined for Max Wilson – came about after Lowndes received special permission from his current outfit, Ford Performance Racing, in a spirit of co-operation between the Ford teams.

While ‘The Kid’ couldn’t be reached for comment about his initial trial before AA went to press – and Triple Eight boss Roland Dane declined to – it’s understood that the test went largely to plan despite the engine suffering an oil pressure problem after returning to the pits 15 laps into proceedings, something that prompted the team to opt for a precautionary engine change.

Aside from early running in the car, the day also gave Lowndes a good chance to get to know the crew members and other key players in the British-owned V8 outfit, including team manager Campbell Little, the man credited with being a driving force behind Marcos Ambrose’s 2003 championship title.

Lowndes signed with Triple Eight in early August at the high point of the V8 silly season.

1974

AUSTRALIA WELCOMED Frank Gardner back home for good.

Gardner called time on his international career to return home permanently and join the Bob Jane Gloweave Racing team where he would race Touring Car and Sports Sedan races.

A fourth straight win was enough for Max Stewart to secure the 1974 Australian Driving Championship after dominating Formula 5000. His latest success arrived at Sandown, ahead of Kevin Bartlett.

A complete reversal of the Bathurst results at Surfers Paradise meant Holden was on the verge of a third Manufacturers championship. Colin Bond drove a flawless race to lead all 95 laps.

While contracted to FPR until December 31, he had expressed a desire to AA at the previous month’s Gold Coast Indy round to test early with his new team.

“It depends if Triple Eight have a test day available [this was their last], and the other thing is to obviously make sure we obligate our contracts and agreement with FPR,” Lowndes explained.

“The last thing I want to do is cross the boundaries and have a problem, because they’ve [FPR] been fantastic about it, so I want to do the right thing by them.”

The resulting co-operation between Triple Eight and FPR is something of a rare collaboration between rival Blue Oval teams, and one praised by Ford Racing chief Stephen Kruk.

“I think those actions are indicative of the fact that we want to work together to provide the best possible sporting spectacle we can,” said Kruk.

“I think our aim with this is to give ourselves and our Ford fans the best possible opportunity to see success, and I don’t think there’s anyone, Ford or Holden, that doesn’t want to see Craig Lowndes successful in his new venture.’

Lowndes won’t be the only FPR driver with the chance to test the water with his ‘05 squad.

1984

ALTHOUGH PETER Brock won the final round of the Endurance Championship, at Surfers Paradise, second place was enough for Allan Moffat to take the title.

There was a spectacular start due to a big startline shunt involving Bob Thomas and Martin Powers, while an early stop for Moffat allowed Brock to charge to victory in the Motorcraft 300.

It was Brock’s third straight win, but not enough to wrestle the championship away from Moffat’s Mazda.

Excitement was building for the Australian Grand Prix and World Endurance Championship rounds that were fast approaching in Melbourne.

Glenn Seton has also been granted permission to join DJR in a session to be scheduled between the Symmons Plains and Eastern Creek rounds.

The Triple Eight Falcon sampled on Monday is understood to be one of two

1994

THE STAGE was set for a thrilling Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 finale in Adelaide after Damon Hill’s masterclass at a slippery Suzuka.

Hill held off Michael Schumacher by 3s in a tense two-horse race in docile conditions, whilst next best Jean Alesi was a distant further 49s adrift.

new cars the British outfit will campaign next season.

The team’s two BAs, inherited from Briggs Motorsport, have been sold to V8 Development Series squad Howard Racing.

2014

SICK OF receiving criticism from V8 fans, Supercars boss James Warburton spoke out to AA

As a result, only one point split Schumacher and Hill in the standings and writer Joe Saward predicted “Adelaide is going to be wild and TVs all over the world will be turned in for the best F1 showdown since 1986.”

There was also drama in touring car land as CAMS rejected longer rear suspension arms on the new Holden VR Commodore.

But Ford also copped a hit with its quad headlight XR8 front end a no-no.

“It has been 15 months, but has felt like four years. There is a lot of change in the business and that has created a bit of noise but I think we are on a very clear path. International events are still important and we are working on Asia especially,” Warburton said at the start of his term.

“Eighty-seven percent of our audience are on the six free-to-air events and, unlike other codes, everything is available in a highlights package. We are with the right partner and its a pretty good package,” Warburton said of the new Supercars Foxtel deal.