Auto Action #1798

SPRING FEVER SUPERCARS ‘SILLY SEASON’ LATEST .COM .AU

SINCE 1971

EXCLUSIVE BETTY BREAKS SILENCE ON DRIVER EXODUS

‘CRAZY DAVE’ WANTS OUT OF EREBUS GOLD OSCAR PIASTRI ON PATH TO F1 RENAULT TARGETS ’22 FOR OUR NEXT GP STAR

Issue #1798 Nov 5 - Nov 18 2020 $8.95 INC GST

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EREBUS EXODUS Reynolds set to follow Anton exit

Betty Klimenko breaks her silence on driver unrest, telling MARK FOGARTY that she’s prepared for the worst ECCENTRIC EREBUS owner Betty Klimenko has admitted that her madcap star David Reynolds is no certainty to stay amid friction with hard-nosed team boss Barry Ryan.

Despite signing a 10-year contract, Reynolds is at the centre of escalating ‘silly season’ speculation as drivers and teams manoeuvre for next year.

Addressing the conjecture about her drivers publicly for the first time, Klimenko also conceded that keeping Supercars rising star Anton De Pasquale was in doubt.

De Pasquale is accepted to have signed with DJR to replace Scott McLaughlin.

While Klimenko won’t comment directly on ADP’s obvious departure, she was more forthcoming about doubts over Reynolds continuing. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s driving for us,� she told Auto Action. “But what he wants to do, I can’t speak for him.�

As first revealed by Auto Action, Reynolds is unhappy with Ryan’s harsh management style and is

looking for a new home after a desultory season.

He has been overshadowed by De Pasquale, whose early attraction to DJR as a McLaughlin replacement led to Erebus signing young gun Will Brown to step up to the main game next year.

Reynolds has been linked with a return to Kelly Racing to take over from retiring team co-owner Rick Kelly. Moves to Brad Jones Racing and going back to Tickford Racing have also been mentioned.

Auto Action understands Penrite will follow Reynolds if he leaves Erebus Motorsport.

While Klimenko is backing the team leadership of Ryan, who has a minority shareholding, she admitted there were “issues� between he and Reynolds. “They get on very well except for different views on a few subjects,� she said. “I understand there is an issue. They should be able to work it out between them.�

Klimenko confirmed she had sent an email to Reynolds’ manager seeking clarification on the driver’s

intentions.

She noted that “Contracts have gone out the window�.

Alluding to Reynolds’ dissatisfaction, Klimenko added: “David is a funny guy. Something’s bothering him, it’s coming out in his driving. I want him to stay with us, but he has to be willing to talk about his problems. “He doesn’t like confrontation very much. As far as I’m concerned, he’s driving for us, but I’ve never held anyone back.�

Reynolds joined Erebus in 2016 after being dumped by Tickford (then FPR) and scored a giantkilling win at Bathurst in 2017.

He famously re-signed last year for a further 10 years in what he described as a “lifetime� deal.

However, this year he has become disillusioned and it has become widely known in Supercars circles that he is looking for an out.

If he moves, he is likely to be followed by his race engineer Alistair McVean, with whom Reynolds has a strong rapport.

Erebus is looking at a complete

change of drivers next year as De Pasquale is gone.

Klimenko would not confirm that she knew De Pasquale had signed with DJR. “It’s no secret that we’ve signed Will Brown and also no secret that we’d always be struggling to hold onto Anton,� she said. “He hasn’t said anything to me, but if he goes, I’ll just give him a big hug. It’d be great for him.�

It is understood that Klimenko made a promise not to comment until ADP’s future was confirmed.

Initially, she was reluctant to address speculation about her drivers, dismissing it as media gossip. “I’m having a bit of a giggle,� she responded. “It’s people making up crap. It’s all news to me.�

However, when pressed, she conceded: “Of course, something’s going on. But I can’t give you an answer.�

Erebus Motorsport is prepared to reset with Brown and Brodie Kostecki, who starred alongside ADP at Bathurst.

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SPRING FEVER ‘SILLY SEASON’ MOVES ARE BREAKING OUT It’s all go in the driver market, as MARK FOGARTY reports MCLAUGHLIN GONE, Coulthard out and Rick Kelly retired. They are the confirmed moves of a late Supercars silly season that is suddenly hotting up.

To be formally confirmed: Anton De Pasquale to DJR, joined by returnee Will Davison, and also David Reynold’s status.

Reynolds is looking to leave Erebus Motorsport, but where he may go is the subject of debate.

Along with sponsor and REC movements, other drivers are also moving or in jeopardy.

Following the completion of the COVIDdisrupted Supercars season, speculation is rampant about who is going where in 2021.

Next to Reynolds, the biggest unplaced player is Fabian Coulthard. He is confirmed

4 AutoAction

as losing his full-time drive in the wake of Penske’s pull-out from DJR. Coulthard has been linked to staying with DJR as a super-enduro co-driver, a return to Brad Jones Racing or to lead the Blanchard family’s new standalone CoolDrive entry.

Confirmation that newly crowned triple Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin is embarking on an IndyCar career with Team Penske triggered the driver market rush.

News that Supercheap Auto is to replace Holden and join Red Bull as a major backer of Triple Eight has also had a ripple effect.

Supercheap’s move from Tickford Racing is set to cause a reshuffle at the Campbellfield squad.

Tickford could be back to three cars, plus

an arm’s-length customer support deal with the CoolDrive car.

It now seems certain the Blanchards will take their REC from BJR to run their own Mustang with Tickford support.

As well as Coulthard, Tim Slade has been linked with the entry. Slade has also been mentioned as a candidate at Matt Stone Racing, where his long-time benefactor James Rosenberg owns a REC. Supercheap’s departure would spark a reshuffle at Tickford, with Jack Le Brocq reclaiming his Truck Assist and Izuzu Trucks backing.

At risk is Lee Holdsworth, looking at being relegated to a co-driver role.

His place would be taken by James

Courtney, backed by renewed Boost Mobile support.

Holdsworth, who has been a surprise standout performer since his straight swap with Mark Winterbottom from Team 18 last year, is one of several holding his breath as the delayed ‘silly season’ shakes out.

Also to be accommodated is The Bottle-O, which is looking for a return after being locked out by other sponsors’ prohibition of an association with alcohol-related sponsorship.

Cam Waters will stay in the Monster Energy Racing entry as he firms as a leading title contender in 2021.

The Phil Munday owned REC leased by Boost boss Peter Adderton for Courtney

DJR HAS “MODEST” EXPECTATIONS

By BRUCE NEWTON

this year seems bound for BJR to fill the gap left by the Blanchard family’s departure.

The CoolDrive entry will move to their own one-car team run by Tickford race engineer Brendan Hogan out of a new base at Box Hill in Melbourne’s east. The new squad will run ex-Munday equipment with Tickford support.

Attempts to contact Supercars co-driver and likely CoolDrive team principal Tim Blanchard were unsuccessful.

Macauley Jones’ place at his dad’s team may be in doubt if an established driver is needed to secure support for the ex-Munday entry – or whatever alternative REC can be sourced.

BJR will continue to run Nick Percat and Todd Hazelwood, plus Jack Smith, whose entry is underpinned by his family owned REC. There are reports there is potential interest to boost the field from 24 to 27 cars, but not enough RECs available to meet the demand unless Supercars releases entries previously handed back.

There is strong resistance among the main body of teams to expanding the grid.

Kelly Racing is looking for a replacement for Rick Kelly, with Reynolds mentioned as a candidate to return to Braeside with Penrite backing. Reynolds and Penrite have also been mentioned as possibilities to join BJR.

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While Rick Kelly is a logical candidate to become a prized co-driver for his own team, more than one source has indicated he is looking to take his Castrol support for an enduro drive elsewhere.

The big winner of the post-season upheaval is Will Davison, who returns to DJR after losing his full-time drive in Phil Munday’s Tickford-run Mustang due to the coronavirus crisis.

Davo is a favourite of new DJR owner Ryan Story, who remembers the Gold Coast-based Melburnian’s race-winning time with the team from 2006-2008 and his two subsequent Bathurst wins with HRT and TEKNO. He is seen as a strong, experienced pair of hands to support future superstar De Pasquale.

Davo has ousted DJRTP stalwart Coulthard because Australian management lost confidence in the Britain-born Kiwi.

He was unable to challenge compatriot Scott McLaughlin, undermining the team’s longterm faith.

Coulthard could stay as a co-driver, but his regular partner Tony D’Alberto might be squeezed out despite the pair’s fighting fourth at Bathurst.

McLaughlin will return from the USA to co-drive car #17 for at least the Bathurst 1000.

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A RECONSTITUTED Dick Johnson Racing is conceding an all-new driving line-up will mean it starts the 2021 Supercars championship conceding an advantage to arch-rival Triple Eight Race Engineering.

But it is expecting to soon be back on front-running pace.

DJR is re-emerging as a standalone entity for 2021 following Roger Penske’s withdrawal from Supercars after a six-year involvement. The motor racing mogul bought a 51 per cent share in the team in 2014, establishing DJR Team Penske.

Penske’s withdrawal was negotiated in the days after the Bathurst 1000 and confirmed last Saturday morning. It was blamed on the global coronavirus pandemic, but the sour taste 2019’s various issues left with him are said to have also played a role.

In his time in Supercars Penske collected three consecutive drivers’ championship courtesy of Scott McLaughlin, three teams’ championship in four years and the 2019 Bathurst 1000 win.

DJR managing director Ryan Story and Dick Johnson are now 50:50 owners in the team.

Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison will be confirmed as full-time drivers for DJR within days, replacing IndyCarbound Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard, who has been offered an enduro co-drive by the team.

The new driver line-up is a key reason DJR expects to make a “modest” start to the 2021 Supercars championship, which is expected to kick off with a pair of 250km sprints at Bathurst in late February.

“I think we have modest expectations for the start of the year and that’s being realistic” said Story. “And I think we have to be realistic because they (Triple Eight) have continuity with their driver line-up and continuity with their team.

“They will have some partner changes

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but fundamentally that continuity is something that is very important. I wouldn’t say that would give them the upperhand, but they are a very strong team and they are difficult to beat and have been difficult to beat and we have been fortunate to have success against them over the past three seasons.

“But that is not an easy thing to maintain, especially when you are making the changes that we have. But we have faith in the direction we are heading and while we have modest expectations for the short term, we are confident we have put together a very strong team and a very strong line-up.

And that’s what we are going to build around for the future.”

If Coulthard accepts a co-driving role that means current endurance codrivers Tim Slade and Tony D’Alberto will be out of a gig.

That shouldn’t worry Slade who is expected to rejoin the championship on a full-time basis in 2021 with the new Blanchard family-owned Cooldrive Ford Mustang entry, while D’Alberto’s future is yet to be resolved.

Encouragingly for DJR, key partners including naming rights backer Shell V-Power have re-signed on multi-year deals.

The engineering team is also expected to stay fundamentally intact. Tech guru Ludo LacroIx’s future had been questioned, but now appears to be solidifying.

“Ludo is a mercurial guy and we would obviously like for him to continue with us and they are discussion that are still to be had,” said Story.

“But for all intents and purposes we don’t intend to make any changes and we are having very productive discussions at the moment.”

DJR has also been reappointed as the homologation team for the 2022 Gen3 Ford Mustang, although Ford has yet to commit to the category.

For more from Ryan Story on the return of DJR, turn to pages 16-17.

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MCLAUGHLIN TARGETS 2023 Team Penske has high expectations for its Supercars champ

By BRUCE NEWTON TEAM PENSKE has underlined its belief in Scott McLaughlin by setting him the substantial goal of racing for wins and even the IndyCar championship by 2023.

It’s a goal the 27-year old Kiwi has welcomed as he swaps from Aussie Supercars to the US openwheeler championship in 2021.

McLaughlin joins an expanded four-car Team Penske squad alongside Aussie IndyCar Champ-Will Power, 2020 championship runner-up Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud.

The 2018-19-20 Supercars championship was publicly confirmed in his new job only five days after landing in the USA from what turned out to be his final outing as a full-time DJR Team Penske driver at the Bathurst 1000.

Since then Mclaughlin has: Debuted in IndyCar at the final round of the 2020 championship at St Petersburg in Florida, where he qualified 21st and spun out while running 17th on the lap 47 of 100.

For a detailed wrap of McLaughlin’s IndyCar debut turn to pages 18-19.

Completed his Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation running at 218mph average (350km/h) and 225mph (362km/h) top speed,

6 AutoAction

ensuring he will be eligible to qualify for America’s great race next May. Participated in an open IndyCar test this week at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

Barber is the second round of the 2021 IndyCar championship on April 11, while St Pete will be the opener on March 7.

Off-track in his short time in the USA, McLaughlin and wife Karly have found an apartment in the town of Huntersville North Carolina, which is about 25 minutes from Team Penske’s IndyCar shop in Mooresville and about 25 minutes from Charlotte airport.

Naturally he’s also ordered himself a full-size Chevrolet Silverado pick-up.

“It’s been pretty crazy the last week or so but we got there,” he said.

McLaughlin is unlikely to return down under anytime soon as international travel is challenging and time consuming given the impediments posed by the coronavirus.

Instead, McLaughlin will be spending extensive time on the GM Racing simulator in Concord, North Carolina, in coming months as he learns tracks and acclimatise to the characteristics of the Dallara-Chev he will now race instead of a Ford Mustang Supercar.

Further actual testing is yet to be confirmed although he does expect at least a couple of

days in the car ahead of pre-season open testing, such as the session at the Circuit of Americas last February where McLaughlin was a sensational third fastest.

He’s also spending max time at the team’s base, sucking up every morsel about IndyCar racing he can find.

“I am living and breathing IndyCar, I am going into the shop a lot, I am watching old races and onboards and hopefully that accelerates it pretty quick,” he said.

It seems certain McLaughlin will retain engineer Jonathan Duiguid, who has worked with him through much of his Indy experience so far. IndyCar legend Rick Mears is also

expected to continue as his spotter.

Team Penske President Tim Cindric has outlined the three-year plan for McLaughlin that foresees him targeting top 15s in his rookie year, some top fives in 2022 and wins and a run at the championship in 2023.

McLaughlin is chuffed by the level of confidence displayed in him, but is conscious he has much to learn before he is an IndyCar contender against the likes of his Penske teammates and his fellow Kiwi and the six-time champion Scott Dixon.

“It’s cool to have that support and that balance ,” McLaughlin said.

“They are not expecting me to come out and

THE DRIVING SCOTT McLAUGHLIN’s twitchy Supercars set-up isn’t translating to IndyCars and he is having to adjust his driving style.

An IndyCar is a huge contrast to an Australia V8 Supercar. Powered by a 2.2-litre twin-turbo V8 engine producing up to 700hp (520kW), it weighs about 725kg has a 3000mm (approx) wheelbase, generate about 2260kg of downforce and has a push to pass function.

“It’s trusting the aero and trusting the grip of the car,” he explained. “I’m so used to a big heavy V8, driving it on the nose, holding the brake for a long time into the corner.

“If you are holding the brake on deep into a corner in an IndyCar you haven’t got enough aero.

“Traditionally I have liked a Supercar to be quite twitchy on entry just to help get it turned, but I found out in qualifying at St Pete I had it a bit too twitchy and a bit too much aero in the car,.

“So I think for me explaining the feedback and what I want out of the car will help me get quicker the fastest.”

Of course, tyres are a key to going fast. IndyCar has two tyre compounds on road and street course, the black (hard) and red (soft) Firestones that is faster. Like many rookies before him the red has proved the tougher nut to crack.

“It’s extremely hard to understand because you only get access to those red tyres at the race track. I’ve got to understand that tyre and how to phase it,” McLaughlin explained.

“There are different constructions for street courses and different constructions for road courses.”

Then there are other things to understand, like pitlane processing, rolling starts, side-by-side restarts and working through all the various buttons – including various engine modes - on the steering wheel.

One thing McLaughlin is enjoying is it’s much easier to make a pass in an IndyCar than a Supercar.

“You have less to pull up, it’s lighter and you can throw it in there and sorta half hold it, which is pretty cool,” he said. BN

INDYCAR TITLE turn ---- into gold. I am pretty excited they are behind me all the way to learn and have the patience with me.

“But at the same time I have to deliver in some ways, I can’t just come out and run 20th all the time. They won’t put up with that either.

“I am just giving it everything, making sure I am putting the best foot forward, It’s just giving me confidence as a driver that I am in one of the best cars in the field; just have a crack and worry about my driving rather than worry about whether I am going to have a good car and what the car will be like.

“I know it will be there or thereabouts most weekends.”

McLaughlin admitted the current version of himself with years of experience is better able to cope with the challenge of IndyCar, rather than the youngster who burst on to the scene in Supercars with blazing speed in 2013.

“I am pretty competitive and I was pretty frustrated with qualifying at St Pete, which is pretty ridiculous considering I came in with 90 minutes of practice and was expecting to be there or thereabouts.

“I have got to be realistic about it and I have to be careful I don’t get too complacent about it because I could trip myself over. They have a process and I trust that process.

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“At the end of the day I will drive as fast as I can and if it happens sooner that’s great, if not we’ll just use all the time we need to.

“The 21-year old Volvo guy would have said ---- that I just want to go fast. Now I get it much more for sure.”

TIMELINE WHEN he flew to the USA on the Monday after the Bathurst 1000 Scott Mclaughlin knew he would be racing in the USA in 2021, but he didn’t know till he landed that it would be full-time.

He had suspected he might be doing split-duty across the Pacific, turning up in both Supercars and IndyCars, a jetlag-inducing prospect if ever there was one!

“I did not know I was going to be full-time. I thought I might be part-time or whatever,” McLaughlin said. “I was prepared, but not prepared …. I would have done it!”

For a detailed wrap of McLaughlin’s IndyCar debut at St Pete turn to pages 18-19.

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PIASTRI: I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT Image: LAT

IT WAS a dream come true for Oscar Piastri as he left Bahrain’s pit lane driving the Renault R.S.18 to start his maiden Formula 1 test last Friday October 30.

A member of the Renault Sport Academy, Piastri was rewarded for winning the FIA Formula 3 Championship with a test of the R.S.18, joining fellow rising stars Christian Lundgaard and Guanyu Zhou.

Completing 82-laps during the test, Piastri was left awe struck by the performance of the Formula 1 machine, but adapted to the new challenge rapidly.

“There was a lot of different things to get used to, but I loved every second of it,” he said. “I had a lot of fun and I think I got used to it pretty quickly, which was nice in a way, but I don’t know if getting used to a Formula 1 car’s really that nice because there’s nothing faster.

“It was definitely very cool.”

His confidence grew throughout the day as Piastri acquainted himself with the large array of controls on the steering wheel and the team constantly changed the set-up.

“We were making changes to the car more or less straight away,” Piastri said.

“Normally, on a day like this, they said that depending on how you were coming up to speed, with some drivers they’d make set-up changes mainly just for the sake of it, to try something. With me, we were discussing the changes

together and making them in reaction to the genuine feeling off the car, which was nice to get a grip on that quite early.

“That’s the main thing to try and take away from these days, obviously being fast is important as well, but in a Formula 1 car there’s a lot more to being fast than driving the wheels off it. You’ve got a lot of different tools to help you go faster so understanding them and using them to your advantage is a massive part of it.

“So, I think getting on top of that early and starting to understand what a step difference in aerobalance, what one turn on the steering wheel does and getting my general understanding, I think they were very happy with how that went along.

The physical demands of driving a Formula 1 car are famously high – especially through the head and neck – but the extra loads failed to affect Piastri, who is now focused on an upcoming FIA Formula 2 test early next month.

“In terms of feeling, that was an eye opener and I think I got used to do that pretty quick,” Piastri said of the physicality. “The power you get used to reasonably quickly, but the braking was still something that I was pretty amazed at by the end of the day that’s for sure.” Heath McAlpine To read more of Oscar Piastri’s maiden Formula 1 experience, turn to pages 20-21.

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LATEST LATES S T NEWS

RECENTLY RETIRED Supercars driver Rick Kelly has announced that he is selling his very popular simulator setup used in the second half of the Supercars All Stars ESeries. During the COVID-19 enforced shutdown, Supercars drivers took part in e-Series to keep Supercars fans entertained during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic nationally. Kelly was known throughout for upgrading his simulator and the one on sale was the one that the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner ended with. DM

Image: Supercars

HOPE FOR ADELAIDE 500!

SA opposition leader promises return of iconic street race

By DAN MCCARTHY and BRUCE NEWTON

TIM BLANCHARD told Supercars.com that he is very humbled to see the level of interest surrounding his own Team Cooldrive REC for the 2021 season. Since Blanchard first secured the REC in 2017 it has remained with Brad Jones racing, however this is expected to be on the move in the Supercars extended off season. The 2007 Australian Formula Ford champion is optimistic that the deal can be secured by Christmas of this year. DM

JOSH ROGERS has lost his Supercars Pro Eseries lead after the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver was handed several postrace penalties dropping him behind WAU teammate Dayne Warren. The reigning Eseries champion who won last night’s opening round has been penalised for a series of pitlane infringements and as a result has lost the series lead. Rogers, who is currently located in Germany, came forward after the event and admitted he had inadvertently broken a pit lane rule. DM

THE LEGENDARY Dick Johnson is adamant that despite the Team Penske departure from Dick Johnson Racing, his squad will remain a front running team into the future. Before Team Penske merged with Dick Johnson Racing in 2015 the popular Queensland based team was struggling to stay afloat.

However, help from Roger Penske shot DJR to the front of the grid once more. DJR is the Blue Oval’s homologation team in the upcoming Gen3 era. DM

8 AutoAction

A SLITHER of hope for the salvation of the Adelaide 500 has emerged with South Australian opposition leader Peter Malinauskas throwing his support behind the race.

Malinauskas signed a memorandum of understanding last Monday afternoon with Supercars committing to bring back the event if he is elected state premier.

The only problem is the next South Australian state election isn’t until March 2022, which in reality pushes a theoretical return of the race back to a 2023 date.

After announcing in September the 2021 Adelaide 500 would be delayed until a likely season-end date because of the coronavirus, the South Australian state government abruptly cancelled the event late last week after leaking the news to the Adelaide media.

It was the last race due under the current contract and premier Steven Marshall made it clear there would be no new contract sought, effectively ending an event established 20 years ago and run with great success.

The decision shocked Supercars management, which had been negotiating to become the promoter of the race and take over the financial risk from the SA government from 2022 onwards.

The SA government notified Supercars of the decision only minutes before South Australian media broadcast the decision.

Supercars is still considering what to do with what it considers a still-valid contract for the Adelaide 500 in 2021.

The Adelaide 500 was set to be the final round of the 2021 Supercars championship but Seamer has told one media outlet – while declining to talk to others including Auto Action – that the Gold Coast 600 will take its place.

Malinauskas flew to Sydney with shadow treasure Stephen Mullighan on Monday to meet Supercars CEO Sean Seamer, declaring afterwards: “The decision by the Marshall Liberal Government to axe the Adelaide 500 was a gutting blow to the hundreds of thousands of motorsport fans across the country and the South Australian businesses which benefit from the event and the visitors who come from across Australia and overseas.

“That is why as soon as the decision was announced I took immediate action and commenced discussion with Supercars on how we could work together to make sure this wasn’t the end of this iconic race.

“Today the I have signed an MOU with CEO Sean Seamer which will bring back Supercars to the Adelaide Street Circuit if we win the next election in 2022.

“In the midst of a recession, we need a State government which is investing in major events and tourism which generate millions of dollars of economic activity – Steven Marshall’s decision was terribly short-sighted and I will reverse it.”

Image: LAT

The positive news for race fans aggrieved by the decision is a redistribution in South Australia has edged election boundaries in the Australian Labor Party’s favour, making Malinauskas’ commitment one he might have the chance to honour.

Premier Marshall announced said the event could no longer be justified, citing rising costs and falling attendances.

He said the $10 million spent on the event annually would be redistributed to other areas of expenditure. The state government committed to continued backing of the The Bend complex owned by the Shahin family.

“COVID-19 has presented significant challenges for the events sector, and the uncertainty and other factors became an unsurmountable hurdle in the plight to deliver a successful race,” Marshall said.

“The future of a street circuit funded by the taxpayers of South Australia in this COVID environment is completely unviable.

“We’ve got to respond to the (COVID) environment that we are in at the moment.”

Response in South Australia and among race fans nationally has been unsurprisingly fierce.

Adelaide-born Brad Jones Racing driver and Clispal 500 winner Nick Percat was perhaps most succinct: “F U to the idiot who made this decision.”A Facebook page was created titled “Save the Adelaide 500” and in just three days the page has recorded over 3600 likes, as well as a website and petition.

GIZ: WON’T BE EASIER WITHOUT SCOTTY BATHURST WINNER Shane van Gisbergen will miss arch-rival Scott McLaughlin, but he doesn’t expect his fellow Kiwi’s absence to make next year any easier.

In an extended interview, van Gisbergen ventured that others were ready to take over.

“I think there are plenty of people that’ll step up and replace him,” he said. “I think Cam Waters will be the main one. He’s been building momentum.”

Despite salvaging “scrappy” season with victory at Bathurst, SVG is under no illusions about he and Triple Eight having to raise their games next year, nominating qualifying as his weakness.

“It obviously takes a lot of the pain away, but, yeah, third in the championship and that far behind (481 points behind McLaughlin) is not really good enough,” he said. “For sure, I have to put a complete year together. Our series is really a qualifying series now and that’s never been a strong point of mine, so that’s something we

need to improve.

“I need to qualify better because it’s impossible to pass, so qualifying sets up your race, really.

That’ll be a big focus – to be up on the front row or two for every race.

That’s a huge area of improvement I have to work on, along with consistency.

“So a full year of qualifying well and no mistakes in the races, keep racking up the points and it should be better.”

While still hoping to resume racing overseas next year, van Gisbergen has no aspirations to follow McLaughlin into IndyCar full-time.

“I really think an IndyCar would be awesome on those road circuits and the Indy 500,” he said. “But doing 350 km/h around some of those shithole-looking ovals where there’s 10 people

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watching, that doesn’t interest me at all.

“There’s a lot of risk there doing that stuff on those ovals, for sure. But the road courses look awesome and I can certainly see the appeal of the 500.”

Van Gisbergen also spoke out on Gen3, supersoft tyres and expressed his desire to stay with Triple Eight beyond his current contract. MF

RICCIARDO NAILS IT AUSSIE DANIEL Ricciardo earned his second podium finish in three races when he finished third in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

“Two podiums in three races!” Ricciardo said. “I’m very happy and I didn’t forget to do the ‘shoey’ this time around!”

Ricciardo was just about to drink the champagne out of his racing boot on the podium when race winner Lewis Hamilton asked to join him.

“I was about to drink a beautiful fresh one, and I heard Lewis saying take your other shoe off,” Ricciardo said.

“Three years ago on the podium he said: ‘I will never ever do that, I will never drink it, you can offer me, you can force me, I will never do it.’ And he even asked for it today, so it took me by surprise, but 2020 is the year of the strange.”

Ricciardo qualified his Renault fifth after slamming in what he said was his best lap of the year, Overtaking around the 4.909km 19-turn Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy is very difficult. The Australian was running fifth in the closing stages of the race. Then Max Verstappen, who was second in his Red Bull, had a rear tyre blowout, and that triggered the safety car on lap 51 of the 66 lap race.

Sergio Pérez, third in his Racing Point, pitted for new tyres, and that promoted Ricciardo to third. The safety car came in at the end of lap 57, creating a dash to the finish. Ricciardo held on to third place in the closing laps.

“We were pretty settled in fifth but then Max triggered the safety car,” Ricciardo said. “It was the right thing to stay out, especially after Pérez pitted. It is pretty difficult to overtake here and it was worth the risk today: it paid off.

The result here means we get into third in the constructors’ championship, which is what the team is aiming for. I’m super happy to come away from Imola with a great podium.”

“Track position is obviously very important around here,” Ricciardo added, “so I think both myself and the team were very willing to keep me out on track and we held on.”

Team boss Cyril Abiteboul promised to get a tattoo after Ricciardo scored his first podium, but there will not be a

second one.

“Before he said congratulations, he said don’t even think about me getting two tattoos!” Ricciardo said. “So is just going to be one.”

This was Ricciardo’s 31st F1 podium finish.

“They’re all pretty good, for sure,” he said. “I’m also not going to take this for granted. It’s the second in three races but I’m excited as I was in Nürburgring. It was a bit more unexpected, this one.” DK

COVID CATCHES UP WITH SUPERCARS

Image: MTR Images.

THE EVICTION of Supercars superstar Jamie Whincup from Queensland and remnant traces of COVID-19 found near two motor racing tracks have been a rare setback for the category’s response to the pandemic.

Supercars managed to complete its 2020 season despite COVID forcing the shutdown of its season for three months and the Victorian teams being forced to go on the road for over 100 days.

But in the days following the Bathurst 1000 it was confirmed that several people including Whincup were found in Queensland without completing the required 14 days quarantine and were evicted into New South Wales.

Whincup, the seven-times Supercars champ, four-times Bathurst 1000 winner and Triple Eight Race Engineering coowner is also a licensed heavy goods driver and volunteered to drive a team vehicle back to its Brisbane base from Bathurst.

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Three hours after crossing the border he was advised to by email to leave the state, which he did, returning to quarantine in Kingscliff just south of the Qld-NSW border. Six other Triple Eight staff were also turned around, according to a report in the Courier Mail.

Auto Action understands some Bathurst participants crossed the border to take part in the Australian Motor Racing Series round at Queensland Raceway.

In the days following the Bathurst 1000 remnants of COVID-19 were found in the Bathurst areas raw sewage and could indicate either a current or previous infection in someone who attended or worked at the race, a visitor to Bathurst or even a local resident.

And just after the event at Queensland Raceway a routine wastewater test returned a positive result for viral fragments of COVID-19 in sewage at the treatment plant at Carole Park in Ipswich.

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The sample was taken on October 22 on the Thursday prior to the event when attendees would have been setting up for the AMRS. “Task Force Sierra Linnet detectives are currently investigating the alleged return of a number of Queensland residents that had attended the Bathurst 1000 sporting event on the weekend of 17-18 October, 2020,” Queensland Police advised Auto Action.

“These matters are subject to ongoing investigation and no further comment can be made until the completion of these investigations.”

AMRS series manager Matt Baragwanath confirmed Queensland police officers descended on the venue in search of the quarantine evaders.

“The police did attend the event and they were checking for COVID compliances at the venue and if they weren’t satisfied, they drove them out,” Baragwanath said to Auto Action.

“I wasn’t there early in the weekend, but I heard that a competitor in the Hyundai Excel category who had been to Bathurst was contacted and asked to leave (the state) on Friday night.

“They didn’t contact me directly and give me the circumstances around it, so I’m not in a position to pass comment, but I certainly heard that is what happened.”

A Queensland border breach can be subject to an on the spot fine of $4003, a court-imposed penalty of up to $13,345 or 6 months’ imprisonment.

Queensland state chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young expressed particular concern about the Ipswich wastewater test results.

“Positive results from a month ago were most likely caused by virus shedding from a case that was no longer infectious.

Viral shedding can occur for several weeks after recovery from COVID-19,” Dr Young said.

“We are uncertain about the cause of the positive result.”

“There is a very real possibility this wastewater result is a sign of one or more undetected positive COVID-19 cases in the Ipswich community, and we are treating this seriously.”

DM

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TCR AUSTRALIA team HMO Customer Racing has moved into a new race workshop in Campbelltown, New South Wales. The new purpose-built workshop has been built on the same site as the old and created by the inaugural teams champions themselves.

The building was designed and constructed by team owner Barry Morcom, his son Nathan (who drives for the team), engineer Rob Benson and team manager Scott Fulcher, with the build taking around four months to complete. DM

HOT HOLDEN STEERING ISSUE

By BRUCE NEWTON

MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA has announced that from November 8 it will allow motor racing events to take place throughout Victoria. Several weeks ago, MA confirmed that small regional motorsport events within Victoria could restart. With the 25km distance limit currently still in place for residents of metropolitan Melbourne, several events will not take place until the rule, which is expected to stay in place until November 8 is lifted. DM

A NEW class structure for the Australian Rally Championship has been announced

by Motorsport Australia. Rally competitors in 2021 can fight for the outright Australian Rally Championship, ARC 2WD Cup, ARC Production Cup, ARC Junior Cup, ARC Classic Cup and ARC Teams Cup, while the Manufacturers’ Championship is also retained. The control Hoosier tyre must also be used to be eligible for an ARC Cup. HM

ONE OF the first brand new KTM X-Bow GTXs is set to arrive in Australia in early 2021 for local dealer M-Motorsport to contest in the Australian GT Championship.

The Reiter Engineering-designed GTX was only unveiled just several days ago, revealing the turbo powered 5-cylinder Audi powerplant that produces as much as 600-bhp. For Australia’s M-Motorsport there was little question that one of the first cars off the production line would be flown over to Melbourne. DM

10 AutoAction

A RASH of Holden Commodore ZB power steering failures in 2021 have been traced back to the revised Supercars aerodynamic package.

The longer front undertray and its changed angle are being linked with increased under-bonnet temperatures that are contributing significantly to the failures.

Supercars is now understood to be investigating the issue and looking for as fix for next year.

Cars to suffer issues and/or failures at the Bathurst 1000 included the Triple Eight #888 which smokily let go with Craig Lowndes at the wheel in codriver practice, the Brad Jones Racing R&J Batteries Holden of Nick Percat and Thomas Randle and the Walkinshaw Andretti United entry of Bryce Fullwood and Kurt Kostecki.

The BJR entry also suffered a coil pack failure on race-day at Bathurst that is being linked back to under-bonnet heat.

While ambient temperatures weren’t excessively high at Mount Panorama, the circuit

is said to impose higher steering loads than any other the Supercars race on, most notably the grate across the top of the mountain.

Some people attribute the increased power steering failures to more aggressive suspensions settings, but the Ford Mustang had not had the same amount of issues as the Holden.

The Mustang’s aero package does not produce the same under-bonnet issues.

“Holden teams have been dealing with those issues all year-long,” said Triple Eight

SUPER2 WINNER LOOKING FOR A SEAT AFTER BEING crowned as the 2020 Super2 Series winner Thomas Randle confirmed to Auto Action that he will not contest the series in 2021.

The Matt White Racing driver is on the hunt for a full-time Supercars Championship drive in 2021 after controlling the shortened second-tier title this year.

However, Randle announced to AA that if he doesn’t get a Supercars seat in next year, he will not defend his Super2 title.

“I won’t be trying to raise a budget for Super2,” Randle said.

“That's very unlikely, I know this season was short, but I feel like I’ve accomplished what I needed to in Super2.”

“If I need to raise a budget for something, I'll be looking at trying to do that for Supercars not Super2 because that's where I want to be next year.”

Randle said that if his Supercar plans don’t come to fruition then

he plans to race in the inaugural Australian S5000 Championship.

“I’d like to do S5000 and also probably try and get my dad's Sports Sedan back out there,” he explained.

Randle confirmed that he is talking with Supercars teams for a seat on the grid in 2021 but admitted that budget has a lot to do with the outcome.

“As much as you need to be a good

driver and I want to get there on merit you need to bring in funding,” Randle told AA. “It’s hard to say, it’s a tricky one, it is who has got a seat and how much do they want, we have got a long off-season to work out if we can get the funding and see what is required to get us on the grid next year.

“You’ve got so many ex-main game drivers who are wanting to get

team manager Mark Dutton.

“It’s painful, you saw we had issues over the Bathurst weekend. We have gone a long way toward trying to deal with the issue.

“You insulate where you can, you shield where you can, but ultimately if the air flow is not there to extract the heat as well as it used to be … we are seeing more issues than ever.”

This issue and others are investigated in our ‘10 unanswered Bathurst questions’ feature on pages 32-35 back in the game, so that makes it quite difficult.

“There are only 24 seats on the grid, if they're all full, then they're all full, but I'll try my hardest to try and get into the main series.

“If it doesn't happen, I’ll be disappointed but you can't get angry over the things you can’t control.

“I feel like I've done everything I can leading up to this moment, I've won multiple car championships now.”

Randle felt it was his best season including the 2017 Toyota Racing Series title when he beat the likes of European Formula drivers Pedro Piquet and Marcus Armstrong.

“It was probably my strongest season ever in anything, albeit we didn't probably have the quality that you'd normally see in Super 2,” he explained.

“We still had strong competition, Brodie Kostecki for the first two rounds, Will Brown for all three, Jordan Boys and Jayden Ojeda.

Considering the off season Randle experienced in 2019/20 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer Randle noted the pole lap in Adelaide as his season highlight.

“I was really, really happy I had surgery five weeks before that, so that was really cool. My pre-season preparation was just recovering,” he concluded. DM

th Luke West iith wit

AA’s dismayed ayed columnist colum l i t laments l the end of a special era.

KIDS SHOW STAR FOR SUPERCARS TV

FORMER CHILDREN’S TV star Charli Robinson is set to join the Supercars broadcast commentary team next year.

As part of a shake-up of the on-air talent, Robinson is in line to become a celebrity presenter/reporter.

There is also a push for a regular main broadcast role for outspoken former racer Paul Morris.

Robinson is famous as one of the original cast of the popular kids’ TV show Hi-5.

She has had many other TV roles since retiring from Hi-5 in 2008.

Most recently she has been a presenter on Nine’s ‘Getaway’ travel and lifestyle show.

She is a motor sport fan and is engaged to Porsche racer Liam Talbot.

Auto Action understands that Robinson is being brought on board to appeal to a younger, wider audience.

Broadcast industry sources confirm she will join the Supercars commentary team in 2021, although her exact role is undetermined.

She could be a pit lane reporter or, more likely, a paddock behind-thescenes presenter.

Supercars is looking to broaden the appeal of its telecasts on Fox Sports and the Seven Network.

Robinson’s inclusion will be among significant changes to the commentary line-up.

It has now been learned that Fox

Sports and Seven will simulcast the coverage completely, with cross-channel commentators and personalities.

As a cost-cutting measure, Fox Sports and Seven will show the same Supercars Media-produced telecasts with the same presenters, commentators and reporters.

Seven will not ‘top and tail’ its coverage with different hosts and experts, as Channel 10 has done for the past six seasons.

Jess Yates will become the host of all broadcasts, backed by Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes.

They are secure because they are retained by Fox Sports, which has demanded Skaife continue against some resistance within Supercars.

Seven celebrity Mark Beretta, a motor sport fan, will be part of the cross-network team, most likely reporting from the pit lane.

The full commentary line-up is still being debated.

Supercars executives are pushing for a less technical call, with Neil Crompton and Mark Larkham under threat.

Crompton is ‘The Voice Of V8s’, backed by more than three decades as a commentator with top-level racing experience, while fellow ex-racer Larko is popular for his amusing and informative analysis.

According to our broadcast industry sources, neither has a confirmed deal for next year and

beyond.

Supercars Media boss Nathan Prendergast is reportedly fighting to keep Crompo and Larko, regarded as “too technical” by Supercars bosses.

There is also pressure to elevate Paul Morris from support race commentary to the main broadcast.

Morris’s ‘shoot from the lip’ pronouncements are regarded as ‘entertaining and informative’ within the corridors of power of Supercars.

Ironically, despite his close connections, he is often technical in his explanations and notably critical of officialdom. He is also a critic of Supercars’ management.

Likely casualties of the Fox Sports/ Seven broadcast aggregation are pit lane reporters Greg Murphy and Riana Crehan.

Murph has strong New Zealand TV appeal and undeniable knowledge, but he is expensive – and unavailable until travel between Australia and NZ is relaxed – while there is just no room for Crehan despite her expertise.

Ex-driver Andrew Jones, who was a pit lane regular due to the coronavirus disruption this year, is set to stay. He is informed and informative, as well as being useful as a support race co-commentator.

AA is reliably informed that Supercars executives regard the Skaife/Crompton/Larkham triumvirate as too ‘insider’, turning off casual viewers. Mark Fogarty

SUPERCARS TV CLASH LOOMING THE NEW Supercars broadcasting deal has reportedly struck problems because Foxtel wants to show races for free on its Kayo subscription streaming service.

According to a report published on the website of The Sydney Morning Herald, Kayo wants to place some Supercars races in front of its paywall as a promotional tool to lure more advertising and subscribers.

Under the new $200 million five-year deal that starts in 2021, the Seven Network has replaced Network 10 as the free to rights broadcaster of Supercars.

Seven is expected to televise half of the 12 events, which means Kayo might theoretically place events Seven doesn’t telecast in front of its paywall.

Conflict will arise if Kayo tries to broadcast events such as the Bathurst 1000 for free because Supercars has granted exclusive FTA provisions to Seven.

A source close to Seven said the network was

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expecting Supercars to deal with the issue.

The sources described Seven’s contract as “crystal clear”.

The SMH says Supercars has warned Foxtel about this potential conflict.

Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delaney recently previewed the free-to-air plan.

“A freemium element of Kayo which will include clips, repeats, shows and stats. But also a selection of live sports too,” Mr Delany said. “The sport we launch with is Supercars.”

Kayo has 600,000 subscribers. BN

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Oh boy, the Adelaide 500’s demise is a massive blow to Supercars on so many levels. Above all else, it’s a mighty psychological blow from which the category will struggle to recover.

Nothing trumpeted V8 Supercar’s extraordinary growth from niche sport to mainstream player than Adelaide’s annual streetfight. Its success laid the platform for every other street race that followed. The Clipsal 500 was the rock upon which Tony Cochrane’s mob built their church for V8 worshippers. And now that foundation has been demolished.

Back in 1997, when the Adelaide 500 was first rumoured, the category’s critics laughed off the possibility. Naysayers, including high-profile motoring journos, said it would never get off the ground. ‘The V8s were too small time,’ they argued.

To be fair, even true believers thought it sounded too good to be true upon hearing its announcement in 1998. The series was then still pretty lowkey.

That year’s championship comprised 10 races – all on permanent circuits – before the Sandown and Bathurst enduros. V8 Supercars was not yet a headline act for a temporary circuit event. No one really considered that feasible.

Fortuitously, the first Adelaide 500 was a corker, with then HRT golden boy Craig Lowndes storming from last to first in Sunday’s very entertaining event, after being pinged for carelessly sending privateer Danny Osborne’s Falcon into the wall the previous day. Over 150,000 was present over three days.

The 500 immediately became the blueprint for touring car street race festivals, building to a four-day crowd approaching 300,000 within a decade.

It showed how successful the category could be with all the right ingredients. The 3.2km circuit was perfect for the five-litre tin-tops – they looked and sounded mean and fast. Plus, they could also actually overtake each other!

The Adelaide 500 was the first V8 event to gain significant government backing and its success encouraged other ultra-conservative state and territory governments to underwrite their own rounds.

Adelaide 1999 was vindication for Tony Cochrane that the fledgling AVESCO was heading in the right direction.

“I had had a couple of meetings with South Australian Premier John Olson and I had convinced John to take a punt and reinstate most of the old F1 circuit and do a race based around V8 Supercars,” Cochrane explained to me in an interview back in 2007. “It’s easy to look back now and say ‘of course that was going to work’, but we were very nervous; he was particularly nervous. It cost him something like $10 million of the state government’s money to reinstate everything, as they had sold everything off, and to do marketing and the whole bit.

“So to be at that first Adelaide 500 in 1999 and see that crowd turn up and experience it was absolutely a huge moment. I personally felt tremendously proud and we had really arrived, once I saw just how many tickets we could sell to an event. Adelaide, for me, and I know for many others in the championship, was always the big breakthrough. That was the moment where I felt ‘now we are making progress.’”

Cochrane, in the years that followed, gave a steady stream of politicians from interstate the VIP treatment at this banner event as AVESCO sought to replicate it elsewhere. He got street races up, with varying degrees of success, in Canberra, Hamilton, Townsville, Homebush and Newcastle. The category also became the headline act on the Gold Coast after many years in a support role.

Adelaide raised the bar for all future events and played a big role in Supercars becoming a major player on the Australian sporting landscape beyond one weekend each October.

Its loss is a devastating symbolic blow for Supercars and its teams, Adelaidian motorsport enthusiasts, support categories and, well, the entire sport.

Garth Tander summed it up best when he Tweeted: “I’d imagine the SA govt will only realise what they had after it’s gone.”

The fact South Aussies were over-represented on Supercars grids in recent years stems from how the venue, over both GP and V8 eras, captured the imagination of locals, from school kids to the big end of town.

Supercars did a stellar job this year to execute a credible championship amid the COVID chaos, plus sign new TV and series sponsor deals on the strength of a calendar prominently featuring Adelaide. I hate to think what the commercial ramifications will be.

It’s 20 years since Luke West wrote his first column for Auto Action #896 in July 2000. ‘Reverential Ramblings’ evolved into ‘Revved Up’ and ran until 2010. Now, after a 10-year break, he’s back to survey motorsport’s changing landscape.

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LATEST NEWS

ONE OF the longest-running motorsport partnerships will continue between Repsol and Honda for another two years. The relationship dates back to 1995 and has been extended for a further two seasons. The now legendary Repsol Honda coloured bikes have been competing in MotoGP for 25 years and in that time have taken 180 premier class victories, 15 Rider World Championships, 10 Team Championship and 447 podium finishes. DM

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NICO ROSBERG has announced that he will field his own team, Rosberg Xtreme Racing (RXR) against Lewis Hamilton’s squad in the all-new electric offroad racing series Extreme E. Last month reigning Formula 1 champion Hamilton announced that he would enter a squad named Team X44 in the electric category and will now be competing as a team owner against long-time rival Rosberg. The two drivers had a bitter rivalry in Formula 1 between 2013 and 2016 as teammates at Mercedes. DM

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THE APRILIA MotoGP squad has announced that Italian Superbike Champion Lorenzo Savadori will compete for the team in the final three rounds of the season. The Italian replaces test and replacement rider Bradley Smith who has subbed in for Andrea Iannone in all 11 rounds of the 2020 MotoGP season thus far, as Iannone continues to serve his doping suspension. Savadori will debut in MotoGP in the European Grand Prix in Valencia from November 6-8.

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THE BELGIAN Ypres FIA World Rally Championship round has been cancelled just two weeks out from the scheduled starting date on November 19. The Belgium round was a late edition to the calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However surging COVID-19 cases within Belgium has forced the penultimate round of the season to be canned. This leaves just one more round on the calendar, the Monza Rally in Italy. DM

FORMER BATHURST 12 Hour podium finisher Jake Dennis will make his debut in the FIA Formula E Championship for BMW I Andretti to replace the departing Alexander Sims. The former BMW driver is moving squads, he will be racing for Mahindra in Formula E next season. Sims is filling the place of former F1 driver and veteran of Formula E Jerome D’Ambrosio who is retiring from competing in at the age of just 34, becoming the deputy team principal of Venturi under Suzie Wolff. DM

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TCR AND TRANS AM CONFIRM CALENDARS THE AUSTRALIAN Racing Group has confirmed the calendars for two categories within its portfolio, TCR Australia and the National Trans Am Series.

Both categories will kick off in Tasmania next January with Symmons Plains hosting the opening round before heading further south a week later to Baskerville just out side of Hobart for an invitational event featuring TCR, Trans Am and S5000.

From Round 2 through to the completion of the season, both classes will join the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships starting at Phillip Island in February.

TCR Australia and Trans Am next head to The Mountain for the first time as part of the Bathurst 6 Hour weekend on Easter before arriving at Sydney Motorsport Park in May, the venue where TCR debuted in last year.

TCR and Trans Am tackle another new venue in the form of Morgan Park before an extended break until the penultimate round of both series at Sandown in September.

Just like its inaugural season, TCR will again conclude its season at The Bend Motorsport Park in October.

“We’ve been working on it for a while and we’re very pleased with it,” ARG CEO Matt Braid told Auto Action. “I think it encompasses all the things we wanted and there is a good selection of tracks, good event schedule as far as timing in the year is concerned.

“That allows us to kick off with the Tasmanian

events, which is very good and exciting the way that event is going with borders and so forth, it’s all looking very positive.”

According to Braid, interest from ARG’s competitor-base for the Tasmanian trek is strong as national-level racing returns to the island state for the first time since 2019.

“The concern is for the competitors is the border issues,” Braid said.

“Everyone thinks it’s going to be a great opportunity to head down there and a great event because as we know the Tasmanian motor sport fanbase is pretty rabid. When Supercars tap into that, it’s pretty good so we’re hoping to tap into that local motor sport fanbase, which there has been a lot of talk locally.”

ARG’s competitor-base continues to be strong exiting the COVID-19 pandemic, despite failing to kick off this year as Braid predicts entry levels to stay as they were by the end of 2019.

“We’re happy to maintain the same,” Braid said. “Now we’re announcing the calendar, for the past couple of weeks, we’ve had other parties call up and ask questions. I think we’re pretty confident we’ll end up kicking off 2021 where we ended 2019.”

A gap between Phillip Island in February and Bathurst in April leaves a spot open for the TCR Australia to again support the Australian Grand Prix, as Braid confirmed conversations are being held to continue TCR and S5000’s

position on the support card.

“At this stage we’re in discussions with the Grand Prix about those events and what they’re doing,” said Braid.

“First and foremost, they’ve got to be able to run the event, but it’s probably too early for us to comment on that. Certainly, we’ve got a great arrangement with the Grand Prix for this year, which unfortunately didn’t transpire the way we wanted to, but we’re in dialogue with them and we’ll see the results from that.”

Braid also wouldn’t be drawn on the grand plans for the opening round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships at Phillip Island, only promising that the event will be an exciting spectacle.

“We had a great 2019 with them and we were looking forward to a positive 2020 with Motorsport Australia, unfortunately it didn’t happen and now 2021 gives us the ability to build on that again,” he emphasised.

“We’re working closely with them and there’s some exciting stuff we know we’re going to be delivering, so there are some announcements yet to come.”

Although it was previously announced that Supercars Television was to handle the TV production, Auto Action understands this has changed.

“At this stage we’re working with Seven on the production and again it’s probably too premature to confirm who our line up is, and who’s doing what,” said Braid. HM

SIX-ROUND SHANNONS SCHEDULED CONFIRMED A SIX-ROUND Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships 2021 calendar spanning February through to October has been announced.

Kicking off on a to be advised date in February at Phillip Island, Australia’s second-tier series will support the Bathurst 6 Hour as was originally intended earlier this year on its traditional Easter date.

Sydney Motorsport Park follows on May 1-2, before heading north to Morgan Park in June before a break until September where Sandown hosts the penultimate round, which is in place to avoid a clash with the Olympics as broadcaster Channel 7 is the primary broadcaster.

The Bend Motorsport Park will host the finale as a joint meeting alongside the Australian Rally Championship as previously reported by Auto Action.

Both entities will be based at The Bend, including the service park for the Adelaide Hills Rally, the penultimate round of the ARC. “There’s still a couple of announcements in terms of race formats, but we’re really happy with the calendar,” said Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships director Michael Smith.

“I think we’re uniquely placed to bring some of that content to the Shannons, Motorsport Australia is both the promoter of the Australian Rally and Off Road Championships, and I reckon for the motor sport punter, it will be an extravaganza.”

The opening round at Phillip Island will be a larger scale event not experienced at any previous Shannons Motorsport Australia Championship round, but Smith remained tight lipped on the details.

“There’s an opportunity that will be announced shortly for that February event at Phillip Island, which we’re pretty excited about,” Smith said.

“We were just keen to kick off the motor sport season proper with a really good and big event at Phillip Island. It’ll be a different format, combining something that’s never been seen before at a Shannons event with something that we think will be pretty spectacular.”

Smith hopes that spectators will be in attendance at Phillip Island.

“The whole concept behind this event that we’re talking about is to bring people to the motor sport program that we’re looking at running, which is a little bit different to what we have done before,” he said.

“I reckon the motor sport fan will be pretty excited about it, so we are hopeful we can get spectators there.”

Of recent seasons, the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships has invited state-based categories to participate at selected rounds and this will be no different in 2021.

“We’re always keen to make sure that we’re accommodating for club and state level categories on the Shannons because it’s a great opportunity for them to come and play at a national event,” Smith explained.

“None of those have been finalised yet, we have had some very initial discussions with some of those categories. Categories like Hyundai Excels, Porsche 944s and Improved Production, even some historic categories we’re really keen to have a run with us.” Heath McAlpine

SUPER3 DRIVERS SATISFIED WITH TWO ROUNDS SUPER3 SERIES category management has confirmed a title winner will not be crowned for 2020. As previously reported, the season was anticipated to be wrapped up after just two rounds.

The early conclusion is because Victoria is likely to remain closed to a vast majority of states until at least December due to the ongoing uncertainty of COVID-19 within the state.

Former Toyota 86 Racing Series drivers and now Super3 front runners Jaylyn Robotham and Declan Fraser are disappointed but content if the third-tier Supercars Series gets called after just two rounds.

Robotham has won all four races this season, the two at Sydney Motorsport and both at Bathurst.

Although the 18-year-old is disappointed, he understands that at least three rounds would need to be held to be declared a series winner.

“Organisers were a bit iffy about Super2 being called a series after three rounds, so we sort of knew we had no chance,” Robotham told Auto Action.

“It would have been nice to obviously be

crowned as the series winner for the year because we put in a lot of effort and time quarantining.

“But I’m not too fussed by it, we knew that they were going to call it after two rounds.

“If we had another round we probably would have been classed as the series winners and that would have been cool, but all in all, I think we proved that we’re quick enough to be the winner.”

His series rival, Declan Fraser is just happy he got to drive a Supercar a couple of times

this year and believes that another round simply isn’t feasible.

“I think this year has been pretty crazy for everyone,” Fraser told AA. “I’m just happy that we got out and were able to go racing.

“The guys behind the Super3 category Liam Curkpatrick (category manager) and the team have done a fantastic job to get us two rounds.

“Financially for a lot of people it’s just not viable and depending on borders as well, but I got to do my first race at Bathurst in a Supercar so I can’t complain at that.

“Even though we didn’t get that many rounds of racing this year it was still an awesome experience and I got a lot of exposure out of it.”

Despite the lack of rounds and the unlikelihood of a series winner being crowned both Robotham and Fraser feel that contesting the Super3 events in 2020 was worthwhile.

It has been announced that Super2 and Super3 competitors would also be awarded Super Licence points even with the limited rounds. Dan McCarthy

SANDOWN DOUBLE-HEADER DOWN TO ONE THE PREVIOUSLY announced Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships doubleheader at Sandown will be run across one weekend as doubt remains regarding border closures.

“It’s looking more likely that there will be one event, not two,” Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships director Michael Smith.

“There is still a little bit of doubt surrounding the border closures and when they’ll reopen. We’re now as time goes on a little more confident that the borders will be reopening and that we will be able to welcome some of those state-based competitors.

“But from our point of view, these rounds or round as it may turn out to be have really been all about trying to run a race meeting and giving a chance for our categories an opportunity to finish the year on a positive note.

“We’re not doing it for any other reason other

than to have a bit of fun to round out 2020.”

Although envisioned to feature categories from the Australian Racing Group, Auto Action understands a solely Victorian-based line-up will form the basis of the meeting, although Smith expects a mix of core Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships classes to join the bill.

“We’ll have some really good content there and announcements will be made about that shortly,” said Smith. “It’ll be as much a state-level event as it will be a Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships event.

“We’ll have a couple of our core categories that typically run with the Shannons, but also giving an opportunity to some of the Victorian categories that have been affected by this year.

“We’re just trying to make sure we can deliver something for them, and there might even be some supersprint or regularity type activities just for the club competitors.” Heath McAlpine

Image: Revved Photography

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13

LATEST NEWS

IT WAS an incredibly unlucky season ending for Aussie US F2000 Championship competitor Cameron Shields on the streets of St Petersburg.

In qualifying for the opening race of the weekend Shields set the fastest time and started from pole position. In the race itself Shields led away from the start and gapped the field, Shields looked good for a comfortable win but would lose all power and retire from the race. unfortunately for Shields the same issue occurred in the final race of the season forcing him to pull over. DM

Image: LAT

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL weekend for Christian Mansell in the British F4 Championship sees him retain the lead of the Rookie Cup heading into the final round of the season. In the penultimate round at Snetterton Mansell took the rookie honours in two of the three races, finishing second in the other race. In Race 1 Mansell took an overall podium, his second of the season when he came home in third position and rounded out the weekend with an eighth and a ninth. DM

PHILLIP ISLAND ACCESS DELAYED A WEEK THE PHILLIP Island Auto Racing Club has announced its traditional ‘Access’ meeting will occur a week later than was originally planned on November 14-15.

As reported by Auto Action last month, PIARC had scheduled three events on as many weekends in November, however due to the delay in lifting the metropolitan Melbourne restrictions the promoter was forced to move its ‘Access’ meeting back a week combining with PIARC November Supersprint.

This event signals Victoria’s return to motor sport action, although testing has been conducted at Phillip Island and Winton Motor Raceway, this will be the first race meeting conducted in the state.

Sprint competitors will contest both days, while Circuit Excels and the Victorian Superkarts Club are on the bill for Saturday for seven races split between the two categories. The third and final Circuit Excel contest will be a reverse grid race.

The Porsche 944s feature on Sunday for three races, including a 10-lap reverse grid finale.

Due to the current COVID-19 related regulations, there will be no spectators allowed. Only entrants, nominated crew and registered officials will be permitted.

Entries can be made via the Motorsport Australia Event Entry system for all classes.

PIARC SuperSprint, 14/15th November –

https://evententry.motorsport.org.au/ events/details/2111 Victorian Superkart Club Series, 14th November - https://evententry. motorsport.org.au/events/details/2277 PIARC Circuit Excel Challenge, 14th November - https://evententry. motorsport.org.au/events/details/2276 PIARC Porsche 944 Challenge, 15th November - https://evententry. motorsport.org.au/events/details/2275 The 30th running of Island Magic is expected to attract large fields and will be conducted two weeks later on November 2829. However, this too will be a non-spectator event. Heath McAlpine

Image: LAT

RONAN MURPHY, the son of four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg rounded out his inaugural campaign in the US F4 Championship with his best finish of the season. Racing at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas in a highly competitive 21 car field Murphy struggled with a few niggling issues on Saturday finishing in 14th and 19th respectively. However, from 16th on the grid in the final race, Murphy shot through the pack to finish the race in seventh position. DM

Image: LAT

IN THE British Formula 3 Championship Bart Horsten showed great pace at Donington Park with the results not showing the true story. In Race 1 the Horsten took a gamble to move to the slick tyres which didn’t pay off resulting in the Lanan Racing driver finishing 11th. In Race 2 from last on the grid, Horsten scythed through the pack jumping up six spots to finish tenth. In the final race Horsten made up even more spots, a total of eight. Leaping from 15th on the grid to finish in seventh. DM

A CHALLENGING day in the office for Aussie Jake Parsons and his Japanese teammate Ryo Michigami.

Around the legendary Suzuka Circuit in Japan the Modulo Drago Corse Honda NSX GT3 Evo drivers were handed several time penalties which ruled them out of contention early on. When Parsons jumped in to finish the race, he found himself buried in the pack and he was only able to recover to finish in 27th despite strong pace late on. DM

14 AutoAction

2021 AUSTRALIAN MOTOR RACING SERIES PLANS THE AUSTRALIAN Motor Racing Series (AMRS) series manager Matt Baragwanath revealed to Auto Action the current plans for the 2021 season.

Despite the COVID-19 interrupted 2020 series Baragwanath is optimistic about running a COVID normal season despite the lingering border closures.

Baragwanath explained that the calendar has not been finalised but gave the outline of the season at this point.

“We’ll run a six round series next year, kicking off at Sydney Motorsport Park,” he told Auto Action.

“We believe that anything Victorian based could still be a challenge (to run), you certainly won’t be able to have big crowds or anything like that.

“Traditionally we have our season opener at Winton and then go to our other venues during the year, but next year we essentially change all that completely around and run it towards the latter part of the year.

“There’ll be a couple of couple of Queensland tracks, Queensland Raceway and Morgan Park.

“Wakefield Park will be in there as well as The Bend at the end of the year.”

The six rounds would be played out over a total of four states Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

All of the existing AMRS categories are anticipated by Baragwanath to be out in force once again in 2021.

“Our initial discussions with TA2 have been that they’ll be committing to all of our AMRS rounds next year and along with the Enduro Champs Series,” he explained.

“Thundersports, the tin top category will be committing to the usual four rounds and the guys at RX8 will follow the series nationally as well.”

It was explained to Auto Action that since Oscar Piastri won the FIA Formula 3 Championship there has been an increased amount of interest in the national series.

“Formula 3 particularly on the back of young Oscar winning, there’s a lot of interest around Formula 3 at the moment,” he said.

“We’re excited that there is going to be potentially some more cars and some more competitors coming in Formula 3.

“We’ve got some categories lined up and we just

need to just get these venues locked away and then we’ll be able to make sure everyone is 100% committed.”

AMRS has got back underway under these COVID-19 conditions with the next round of the series to take place in Victoria.

When asked by Auto Action Baragwanath confirmed that it was all systems go and is not fazed by the fact the Sandown event is set to clash with the popular Island Magic event at Phillip Island.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have much choice with the date and by no means was it was it deliberately put on the same weekend as Island Magic,” he said.

“I’m certainly fully aware of the history of Island Magic being on that weekend for many years now.

“But when you’re dealing with essentially primarily with a horse business (at Sandown), they say well this is really the only weekend you can have.”

For more on the future of AMRS grab the next edition of Auto Action #1799.

Dan McCarthy

PORSCHE DOMINATES SPA 24 HOUR THE 2020 edition of the Spa 24 Hours was a dramatic and weather affected race, the #98 Rowe Racing trio of Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor sprung a late race charge to take the win.

The trio did not lead the race until the conclusion of the 23rd hour and spent a large majority at the back end of the top 10.

With 75 minutes the car remained on

circuit under a full course yellow giving them crucial track position.

Tandy held on, to take the win by 4.68s from Audi trio Mattia Drudi, Patric Niederhauser and Frederic Vervisch.

Sven Muller, Christian Engelhart and Matteo Cairoli rounded out the podium.

Three Porsches finished in the four positions as Australian Matt Campbell, Patrick Pilet and Mathieu Jaminet came home fourth. DM

F3 AUSSIES SOLID 2021 PREPARATION FIA FORMULA 3 Championship drivers Jack Doohan and Calan Williams performed very strongly in testing last week and are now in the midst of sorting out their deals to be on the grid in 2021.

After topping the final day of post-season testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain, Doohan signalled his intentions to drive for Italian squad Trident which finished second in the Teams’ Championship this year.

“My driving style seems to really suit their car,” Doohan said after the test.

“The atmosphere in the team is really good - the Aussie and the Italian seem to gel quite well, I am really enjoying it so far and I am hoping that we can continue this (partnership).”

The 17-year-old contested his maiden F3 season with HWA Racelab, the year had its ups and downs, and in the end the Queenslander concluded the campaign pointless, finishing 26th in the championship.

Doohan scored a season best finish in the final race of the season when he crossed the line in 11th.

If Doohan remains in the championship in 2021 it will be the first time that he will have raced in the same open-wheel category for two consecutive years.

“It (driving in the same category) will give me a slight bit of confidence to arrive at tracks like the Red

Bull Ring and Silverstone knowing that the braking points and the turning points are the same,” he said.

“That means that you can pretty much pick up from where you left off and I think that could be a big help.

“Hopefully, I can continue with these guys and do a lot better job than last year.”

Fellow Aussie Williams confirmed with Auto Action several weeks ago that he would remain on the F3 grid in 2021.

When asked if he would remain with Jenzer Motorsport he said: “I’m not 100% sure at the moment, we need to figure out everything that’s going to happen and then we’ll know for certain what’s happening for next year.”

It appears that a Jenzer deal is most likely as he conducted both post season tests with the team successfully.

Williams was boosted last week when former Fortec team manager Mick Kouros signed on to be the 20-year-olds manager.

The West Australian was very unlucky not to score any points in his maiden F3 season and looks to improve on that in 2021.

Williams ended testing in Jerez with the third fastest time and was consistently up the front throughout.

Dan McCarthy

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15

NEWS EXTRA

RETURN OF A LEGEND DJR driving force Ryan Story talks to BRUCE NEWTON on the rebirth of Australia’s most famous racing team

IT HAD been predicted for months and within a week of the Bathurst 1000 the withdrawal of Roger Penske from Supercars racing and his recruitment of Scott McLaughlin to a full-time IndyCar career had come to pass.

Penske took a majority stake in Dick Johnson Racing in 2014 as the storied squad emerged from one of its periodic lows. He departs with victories in three drivers’ championships, three teams’ championships and the 2019 Bathurst 1000.

The man central to the resuscitation of DJR in 2012-13, the pursuit of Penske in 2014 and the return of DJR in 2021 is Ryan Story. The South Australian has upped his stake to become 50:50 owner of the team with Dick Johnson and will continue to oversee business.

Much is left to be sorted, however with Scott McLaughlin now racing for Penske in IndyCar and the confirmation that Fabian Coulthard has lost his full time seat, it is certain that Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison will soon be announced as the teams 2021 drivers.

While some aspects of the teams make up are yet to be finalised, Story was happy to explain why he had decided to double-down on his commitment to DJR and what the expectations are for the teams future.

On why it was important to keep the team going after Roger Penske’s decision to withdraw “It’s down to three things. It’s down to people, partners and supporters. We have got a wonderful group of people who work for us and the opportunity to continue working with them is important.

“We have a fantastic group of partners within the team; we are the Shell V-Power

16 AutoAction

“Ludo is a mercurial guy and we would obviously like for him to continue with us,” Ryan Story told Auto Action in regards to the future of engineering whiz Ludo Lacroix. Images: LAT/Ross Gibb

Racing Team in 2021 and beyond and we will have more announcements on other partner renewals as time passes. It’s a wonderful group of partners and business to business networking. It’s second to none compared to any other teams, and the business we generate amongst our partner group is significant.

“Thirdly, our supporters. The 40th anniversary of the rock just brings home this is the people’s team in many respects. Dick Johnson Racing was started after Bathurst in 1980 on the third of December, as a consequence of ordinary people, ordinary race fans, donating money to a bloke and his wife who basically had everything on the line with a car that was a crumpled wreck.

“And with that money being matched dollar for dollar by Edsel Ford and Ford Australia, DJR was established.

“We still have tremendous supporter base and a really loyal supporter base that are loyal to the team and the number 17.

“For those three reasons it was important to do everything we could to ensure we kept going racing.”

On the new ownership structure of DJR. “Dick and I are 50:50 owners, that’s how it works. And that’s how it will be going forward.”

On what would have happened if Story had decided not to continue.

“It’s hard to speculate because we obviously had discussions with Roger Penske, (Team Penske President) Tim Cindric and others in terms of what the future may hold and we certainly had considered other options. But we made the

decision - with the support of our partners principally at that point - that we would continue and that made it fairly straight forward when Penske were able to clarify what their aspirations were going forward and the impact to the business globally of the pandemic.

“That doesn’t shy away from what the team has achieved and certainly what the Penske business in Australia-New Zealand looks like now. Certainly it’s a successful business and it’s bigger now than when we established the race team. And we grew as that business grew.

“We were effectively established to be the marketing arm and make the Penske name front and centre in people’s minds when it comes to trucks and on-highway and offhighway engines and entertaining existing, future and potential customers. That’s what we successfully did.

“We will have a sponsor-partner arrangement with Penske going forward.

We will still have an association with the team going forward and you can certainly never unlearn what you have learned and all the policies and procedures that led to our success aren’t the sorts of things that will change.

“We’ve said before that the development of the Mustang was a joint effort between ourselves and Ford Performance and the Ford Asia-Pacific design studio. Short of that, every component on the car and all the developments and manufacturing was driven by our engineering team and design team here in Stapylton. So while the procedures and the system with Team Penske have given us a tremendous step-up, especially where we were when we started, it’s not as if not being in partnership with Penske now will send us in a different direction.”

It’s all change at Dick Johnson Racing as far as the lead driver lineup is concerned, however Scott McLaughlin will return for the enduros.

On the impact on the team’s capabilities the withdrawal of Penske will have.

“The loss of Penske and Scott McLaughlin cannot be underestimated. Scott is a sensational driver and losing him is a great shame, but at the same time you never want to hold someone back when they have tremendous opportunities before them.

“But overall we are grateful for the experience and opportunity Roger and Penske corporation gave us and we’ve loved working with them over the years. It’s been quite a tremendous journey and we’ve had a lot of success.

“We are not proceeding for the purposes of stepping back, there will obviously be a learning and teething period as we get up to speed with the driver line-up, and that’s to be expected when you have people come from other teams and that sort of thing. But we will press on.

“Our focus is also on 2022 and what that looks like with Gen3. Having the support of Ford Performance and Ford Australia to continue as the homologation team gives you an indication of the faith that they have in our group.

“With Penske stepping away, if they had any concerns about the structure of the team and the ownership of the team and with the direction we were looking to take in our longer term plans we wouldn’t have been able to gain that confidence.

“The same goes for our commercial partners. So we are in a healthy position and we are extremely grateful to Penske for what has been a wonderful experience and for everything we have learned and harnessed from them over six seasons and we are really looking forward to going racing under the Dick Johnson banner as Shell V-Power racing in 2021.”

On the future of the powerful engineering group at DJR, including technical guru Ludo Lacroix whose future in the team had been questioned.

“We are still working through the staff side of things and don’t forget most of the guys are still on the south side of the border (in

www.autoaction.com.au

quarantine) and I have been communicating with them by phone and email. But we don’t expect any consequential changes and we are not planning for any.

“Ludo is a mercurial guy and we would obviously like for him to continue with us and they are discussions that are still to be had. But for all intents and purposes we don’t intend to make any changes and we are having very productive discussions at the moment.”

On DJR’s future driver line-up.

“I can tell you that we will have a new driver line-up (Ed: Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison), but as it stands publicly the only driver we have announced is Scott McLaughlin, who will return to race at the

Bathurst 1000 next year.

“We will make our driver announcement soon, but we have signed two new drivers to join the Shell V-Power racing team from 2021.”

On expectations of performance level heading into 2021 with this new line-up, especially how DJR will fare against archrival Triple Eight Race Engineering.

“I think we have modest expectations for the start of the year and that’s being realistic. And I think we have to be realistic because they (Triple Eight) have continuity with their driver line-up and continuity with their team.

“They will have some partner changes but fundamentally that continuity is something

that is very important. I wouldn’t say that would give them the upperhand, but they are a very strong team and they are difficult to beat and have been difficult to beat. We have been fortunate to have success against them over the past three seasons in the drivers’ championship and four years if you look at the teams side of things – three out of the past four teams’ championships.

“But that is not an easy thing to maintain, especially when you are making the changes that we have. But we have faith in the direction we are heading and while we have modest expectations for the short term, we are confident we have put together a very strong team and a very strong lineup. And that’s what we are going to build around for the future.”

Story is confident Dick Johnson Racing is in a healthy position as it prepares for a future without Roger Penske.

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AutoAction 17

NEWS EXTRA

BIG MAC IN THE US

Finally, ahead of his IndyCar debut in St Petersburg it was announced Scott McLaughlin will switch to IndyCar next season with Team Penske. Auto Action’s US Correspondent MIKE BRUDENELL analyses the Supercars champion’s debut race weekend.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN has been used to winning, hopping into his No. 17 Ford Mustang GT and making it look all too easy over the years.

Welcome to the USA, Scotty, in the midst of an out-of-control Covid-19 pandemic and an ugly-contested presidential campaign.

On the streets of St. Petersburg, last weekend, the 27-year-old Kiwi got to taste the highs and lows in his NTT IndyCar Series debut for Team Penske.

The three-time Australian Supercars champion lost control of his No. 3 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Chevrolet on cold tires and rear-ended Mario’s grandson Marco Andretti and spun Dutch flyer Rinus VeeKay, ending his race on Lap 47.

McLaughlin was disappointed with his 22ndplace finish, but the New Zealander has always been tough on himself when he doesn’t appear on the podium.

He was realistic enough later, however, to realize he’d shown the pace in practice and before his wreck to check the box that he belonged in the elite world of open-wheel racing, where tenths of a second in this series separates first from 20th.

“The race didn’t play out exactly like I wanted it to,” said McLaughlin afterwards. “We came in with a goal to complete every lap, learn as much as possible and finish the race. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to be fast and competitive too and I think we were. That’s just the pressure I put on myself.”

McLaughlin will race full-time in IndyCar in 2021 for Team Penske, which has pulled the plug on the Supercars championship after Scott swept titles in 2018-2020.

With 56 wins and 105 podiums from 251 Supercars races, fans of McLaughlin might have expected him to hoist the winner’s trophy at St. Pete. But with just a couple IndyCar tests before his first series start on Sunday, it was never going to happen, even in his wildest dreams.

“They (Indy Cars) are massively complex and there are so many things you can tinker with on them,” said McLaughlin this week. “It’s

18 AutoAction

Jon “Myron” Bouslog a longtime Penske team manger, served as race strategist for McLaughlin at St. Pete and is confident McLaughlin will stamp his presence on IndyCar (above). McLaughlin had to learn a lot fast in his debut IndyCar race including the complexities of the high intencity pit stops.

something that takes time to learn and figure out.

So just getting the chance to run clean laps on both black and red tires allowed me to do that.”

It was back to the sim and team meetings for McLaughlin at Team Penske headquarters in Mooresville, N.C., this week. He is already eying the start of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season at St. Petersburg on March 7.

Jon “Myron” Bouslog is confident McLaughlin will stamp his presence on IndyCar and

pressure fellow Team Penske drivers Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud for wins before long.

Bouslog, a longtime Penske team manger on their IndyCar and sportscar programs, served as race strategist for McLaughlin at St. Pete.

“I was really impressed with Scott’s performance from the start of the weekend and throughout the race,” said Bouslog, who has worked with the likes of Helio Castroneves and

Juan Pablo Montoya. “St. Pete is a tough track to make your IndyCar debut. It’s a tough, tight street circuit … with low grip, and, as we saw on Sunday, it can be a handful, even for the very experienced drivers in the series.

“Scott’s lap times were very competitive … and he had great pace to start the weekend.

He had a lot to learn – getting used to the hand clutch, the new aero screen, the mirrors on the car and of course the track itself. But overall pace was never a concern. As he got more comfortable, he kept moving up the timing chart. He had a top-10 time (in practice) and kept moving toward a top-five time when he knew it was time to push a little harder.

“Scott wanted to brake a little deeper in the corner and wound up finding the grass, but it was really intentional because he had to find that limit and figure out how far he could go.

“In qualifying, he really had the speed to be in the top 10. Scott gave really good feedback to the engineers … he was really good communicating what he needs out of a car.

“Scott certainly expects a lot out of himself.

He knows what he’s capable of and he expects to go out there and deliver for the team.”

Crashing in your first IndyCar start – how did Roger Penske handle McLaughlin’s exit?

“I talked to him after the race,” said McLaughlin. “I think I was more upset than he was. But he has so much going on. I’m just a small piece of it all. I know he’s going to keep an eye on how it’s all going … but he lets the team do its thing.”

McLaughlin wouldn’t say if and when he’ll next be able to return to Australia or New Zealand. He and his wife Karly are settling into the Charlotte area in North Carolina at present.

“I’m just going to be helping the team do some tests,” said McLaughlin. “Anything I can do to get a feel and some seat time, I’m keen to do. I want to be able to spend some time with the guys at the shop as much as I can … and I’m definitely learnig the Charlotte area, which is beautiful.”

THEN THERE WERE TWO TEAM PENSKE’S Scott McLaughlin has logged one IndyCar start, finishing 22nd.

Fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon’s 18-year IndyCar career includes 289 race starts for 49 wins.

The enormity of the gap and Dixon’s impact on IndyCar isn’t lost on McLaughlin, who watched his evergreen countryman at 40 years of age clinch his sixth IndyCar championship at St. Petersburg on the weekend for Chip Ganassi Racing.

“Scott’s a legend,” McLaughlin, 27, told AA this week.

“He’s a guy I always looked up to as a kid, so to get a chance to compete against him this past weekend was great. He is an outstanding auto racing driver.”

McLaughlin crashed out of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday. Dixon finished a measured third behind winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske. It was enough for Dixon to beat Newgarden by 16 points for the coveted title. Only A.J. Foyt with seven IndyCar championships heads Dixon.

McLaughlin viewed the finish of the St. Pete race from the pits after his shunt on Lap 47 took him out.

“I was pulling for my teammate (Newgarden), but you can’t take anything away from Scotty,” said McLaughlin. “He’s as good as they come. I think everyone in the sport is proud of him.” MB

HANDING OVER Scott McLaughlin had a lot to learn in a short time on the streets of St Pete. He showed real speed as well as racecraft in his first IndyCar race. (Below) But the three-time Australian Supercars champion struck trouble on cold tires and made contact with Marco Andretti and spun Dutch flyer Rinus VeeKay, ending his race on Lap 47.

IT’S GOT to be tough giving up your racecar to another driver.

Three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves did at the NTT IndyCar Series season-finale at St. Petersburg over the weekend.

Castroneves, the flamboyant Brazilian-born racer, handed over the “keys” to his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet to New Zealander Scott McLaughlin after 20 years running the number on the side of his open-wheeler for Roger Penske.

Winner of 30 IndyCar races for Penske, 45-yearold Castroneves, who is contesting the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the organization, was at St. Pete to watch the race – and McLaughlin, who finished 22nd in the No. 3 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Chevy.

If he held any animosity towards McLaughlin, Castroneves wasn’t showing it. Always a charmer and gentleman, Castroneves wished McLaughlin, who was making his IndyCar debut, well in the future.

“It’s so interesting … over 20 years, I’ll tell you what, it’s a great opportunity (the team) is giving to Scott,” Castroneves told an NBC Sports pit reporter over the weekend. “Not only is he a huge talent in a V8 Supercar, having the opportunity for him to come over here and show his talent in IndyCar is great.

“But at the end of the day, it is Team Penske’s number … so Paul Tracy was already using the number, I was using the number, now it’s Scott.”

HE’LL GET BETTER AND BETTER IT’S A mighty big pat on the back when Rick Mears says you belong in an open-wheel race car.

The Indianapolis 500 legend doesn’t heap praise on just anyone. Afterall, Mears won four Indy 500s and three IndyCar championships for Roger Penske from 1979-1992, retiring when many thought he had plenty of wins ahead of him.

Mears, 68, now a consultant and occasional spotter for Team Penske, was at St. Petersburg for Scott McLaughlin’s NTT IndyCar Series debut for Team Penske last Sunday.

He came away with what fans of the threetime Australian Supercars champ already knew about the 27-year-old Kiwi, who will compete fulltime in IndyCar in 2021.

“He’s a racer – he’s a true racer,” said Mears. “I think he did a great job this weekend.”

McLaughlin, at the wheel of the No. 3 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Chevrolet, finished just 22nd in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which was won by Penske teammate Josef Newgarden. He crashed out midway during the 100-lap race around the streets of the city. His abrupt exit on cold tires at the end of the main straight didn’t alter Mears’ opinion of McLaughlin, who

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teamed with Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Australian Will Power in the seasonending event.

“The circuit at St. Pete is narrow, fast and treacherous,” said Mears, who won 26 races for Penske and claimed 38 poles.

“You transition almost overnight from a sedan to open-wheel – that’s so difficult and demanding. I spoke to Scott the next morning and he was very hard on himself, which is a good sign. He said, ‘I’m really sorry I made a mistake.’ I replied, ‘Hey kid, don’t worry about it. That’s what the weekend was for.’ Scott was getting so much more comfortable with the walls, the traffic. It’s just a whole new world and it all boils down to seat time. He has the talent, the ability, he just needs more time.”

Mears watched McLaughlin early in January 2020 at an IndyCar test for Penske at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

“These cars twitch,” said Mears. “They are so more responsive than a NASCAR or Supercar. It usually takes a while to be smooth in an Indy Car. Right off the bat, Scott was smooth. He adapted very quickly.

He had a good feel.”

Mears said McLaughlin showed smoothness and poise this past weekend at St. Petersburg.

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“I would have liked to have seen him get the whole race under his belt,” said Mears. “But from what he did, he learned a lot. You learn more in one race than you can in a week of testing.”

McLaughlin made contact with Dutchman Rinus VeeKay and IndyCar veteran Marco Andretti in crashing out at St. Pete. Mears doesn’t think he made any enemies though.

“They know it wasn’t intentional,” said Mears. “But I do think a lot of drivers are probably sweating him getting comfortable in the car for 2021.”

The 2021 IndyCar season will kick off at St. Petersburg on March 7.

“Scott will be a completely different package next season,” said Mears. “He’ll get better and better.”

McLaughlin also completed an IndyCar test at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, in February before Covid-19 restrictions. While in the Lone Star State, he ducked over to the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth for a session on the super-fast mile-and-a-half oval. Mears wasn’t there but he was told about it.

“The Penske guys called me and said Scott had done a very good job,” said Mears,

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widely regarded as the best superspeedway driver ever. “He called me on the way to the plane after and said, ‘You are right – this place is about confidence.

That’s the fastest I’ve ever been in my life.”

Mears has little doubt McLaughlin will stamp his name at Team Penske in IndyCar. So, could the former Supercars ace get a cameo role on Penske’s NASCAR Cup team in 2021 with the series announcing it will feature six road courses on the schedule?

“I don’t know about that,” said Mears. “I’m sure he’d probably do it in a heartbeat. I don’t know how Roger would feel about it.

All that part is above my payrate.” MB

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E V I S U L C X E A R T X E S W E N

A SUCCESSFUL FIRST TASTE Australian Oscar Piastri took another step towards achieving his goal of reaching motor sport’s top-tier when he tested Renault’s R.S.18 Formula 1 car. The 18-year-old spoke exclusively to HEATH McALPINE about his first Formula 1 experience

AFTER WINNING the FIA Formula 3 Championship at his first attempt, Australia’s Oscar Piastri was rewarded by the Renault Sport Academy with a full-day of testing the French marque’s R.S.18 in Bahrain on October 30.

Joined by fellow Renault Sport Academy drivers Christian Lundgaard and Guanyu Zhou as part of the four-day test, Piastri completed the second day of testing completing 82 laps or 435km. Reflecting on the test, Piastri remained in awe of the machine speaking to Auto Action a day after his taste of what could be in his future.

“I was definitely excited and probably a bit nervous as well,” said Piastri. “It’s a very expensive race car, I didn’t want to mess up, but after the installation lap and everything I was all good to go to just focus on having fun, and drive a Formula 1 car fast.

“I don’t get to do this every day and there’s only a handful of people in the world that have driven a Formula 1 car.

“I remembered how lucky I am and just enjoyed the day once I got stuck into it.”

Before the test, Piastri’s manager and nine-time Grand Prix winner Mark Webber provided a few words of advice to his young protegee, although he retired from Formula 1 before the Hybrid-era.

Piastri’s confidence has grown from the experience of his first Formula 1 test. He spent the first day familiarising with the team, set-up changes and the procedures he needed to follow for the next day. He left the test feeling positive about the whole outcome.

“He hasn’t driven the hybrid era of the car,” said Piastri.

“He was a bit cautious because he didn’t want to lead me the wrong way. Basically, for the last few weeks, he made sure I was physically ready.

“I think his words to me before I jumped in were ‘enjoy having your neck this size

because it’s only going to get bigger from here on in’.

“He was just making sure I was physically ready because there is nothing worse than getting an opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car, lasting half a day and saying ‘sorry, I can’t hold my head up anymore’.”

Piastri spent the first day of the test

familiarising with the team, set-up changes and procedures he needed to follow for the next day, while Lundgaard was at the helm.

“Christian drove the day before me and I was on the radio, whilst I was not shadowing the engineers, I was still going through some things with them either with Christian in the debriefs or while he was driving,” Piastri said.

Preparations for the test were very straightforward, there was no briefing, no pep talk, it was just jump in and go.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” said Piastri.

“I got prepared 10 minutes before I got in the car, jumped in and basically as soon as the seatbelts were strapped in, I did a radio check and away I went.

“There wasn’t any major briefing or anything like that, it was as just like jumping in another car, obviously it felt a bit bigger, a lot more powerful and it’s a bit different having 12 mechanics standing around you rather than two!”

The experience provided an insight of what to expect when or if Piastri reaches the top level, but it highlighted that driving a Formula 1 car is more than just steering and pedal work, there are many controls at the driver’s disposal, which need to be mastered.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on in the

Oscar told us that there wasn’t any major

pre briefing, it was as just like jumping in another car, hovever he was quick to piont out it was a lot more powerful. 12 mechanics on hand standing around is rather more than two he is used to.

cockpit,” Piastri explained. “There are a lot of dials and switches on the steering wheel, which you really need to master to get the most out of the car, especially for the longer runs.

“I was looking at how Christian changed all the switch changes, the reasons why and his driving style.”

The physical nature of a Formula 1 car isn’t fully experienced at Bahrain, but Piastri explained there was still plenty to prepare for when completing the test.

“To be honest the physical forces are on the neck and in saying that I still feel fine this morning, but Bahrain is a soft introduction to the physical G-Forces of a Formula 1 car, there’s not too much high-speed stuff,” Piastri related.

“Normally under braking, I’ve never really had to focus on keeping my head up. But during the test, I think I was pulling more than 4G on the brake hits, so that took some getting used to. I could feel it in my neck, but I could still hold my head up at the end of the day.

“You get thrown around a bit more in the car, so having a comfortable seat is more importantly. You have power steering, which basically means there’s no force on the arms at all and even the braking wasn’t that physical, nothing more than a Formula 3.

“I’m sure if I test at somewhere like Silverstone or Mugello I will be saying different things about my neck, but so far so good.”

Piastri’s confidence has grown from the experience and he left the test feeling positive about the whole outcome.

“In each long run, I was getting more and more comfortable, and naturally getting faster through driving and through helping myself by changing the car during the run,” he said.

“I think on the first day its going to be difficult to be completely consistent, there was going to be a few mistakes. I’d say my longer running is where I needed to make a bit more of an improvement and to be honest that was very similar to how I started in Formula 3. In the end it became my strength.

“I think nailing the switch changes and using all the tools to your advantage during the longer runs is where it’s most effective.”

There was one misdemeanour during the final 19-lap run of the day, but a brake rotor change was to blame. “I’ve got to tick off the bucket list at some point,” Piastri quipped as he explained the R.S.18 spun very quickly leaving him little chance of catching it.

After an impressive maiden Formula 1 test, when’s Piastri next?

“As far as I know that’s the last test for the rest of the year and I don’t know when the next one will or might be,” he said “I’m hoping there’ll be another one and it depends on if I go well in Formula 2.”

Piastri’s attention now turns to FIA Formula 2 with testing to begin in Bahrain early next month before he returns to Australia prior to Christmas.

“It’s pretty much all focus on Formula 2, just mainly physically preparing for it,” he explained.

“We’re back in Bahrain in a bit over a month until the Formula 2 test. I need to train physically for that, I need to grow some arms because I’ve heard steering weight is pretty heavy!”

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Piastri was satisfied with his first F1 hit out. His attention now turns to FIA Formula 2 with testing to begin in Bahrain early next month before he returns to Australia prior to Christmas.

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LATEST NEWS

MCLAUGHLIN SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES BARBER TEST REIGNING SUPERCARS champion Scott McLaughlin has finished 19th in an IndyCar post-season test at Barber Motorsport Park.

A week after making his IndyCar debut and just days after lapping the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway, McLaughlin was back behind the wheel at Barber Motorsport Park.

McLaughlin ended the day 19th on the timesheets, logging a fastest lap of 1m 06.941s time to be 1.32s slower than the fastest man, 2020 Rookie of the Year Rinus VeeKay. The Kiwi completed 73 laps more than most in the field at the test and ended the day just behind his three Team Penske teammates.

Aussie Will Power and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud ended the test in 16th and 17th respectively, just 0.3s faster than the three-time Supercars champion.

The 2020 IndyCar Series runner-up Josef Newgarden was slightly faster ending the test in 13th, 0.53s up on

McLaughlin. the position of the Team Penske quartet suggests it was focused on race running rather than outright speed.

VeeKay topped the timesheets with a 1m 05.61 to lead fellow youngsters Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward.

After a disppointing run at St. Petersburg, Alexander Rossi set the fourth fastest time, ahead of Jack Harvey, Connor Daly and Ryan HunterReay.

Former F1 driver Marcus Ericsson

was eighth fastest pipping his teammate and reigning IndyCar Series winner Scott Dixon by 0.011s.

Returning full-time driver Sebastien Bourdais rounded out the top 10.

The test provided another run for seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

After completing a test in July, Johnson announced his confirmed transition to IndyCar in September with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Although slowest of all runners, Johnson furthered his experienced

down there,” Rogers said. “We are going to reinvigorate the Tasmanian 10,000, they’ll be $30,000 in prize for the Trans Am boys and they’ll be pushing towards a big Sunday event.

“They’ll be qualifying races through Saturday and early Sunday a big final on Sunday. It will be worth $10K to win and $30k overall.

“Unfortunately, $10k today certainly

isn’t worth as much as it was was in the 1970s, but it will be a great incentive and it will be a great event for the Trans Ams.” Rogers is excited to return nationallevel motor sport to Tasmania for the first-time since 2019, especially to the historic Baskerville Raceway.

“Symmons Plains is the better-known venue, and that will be run on Australia

by logging 100 more laps the other participants in the test.

Felix Rosenqvist completed his first laps in the Arrow McLaren SP entry he will drive next season.

He finished his first test after announcing his departure from Chip Ganassi Racing in 15th.

Rosenqvist’s replacement, Alex Palou was impressive in his debut IndyCar season and ended the test 11th.

The only teams absent at the test were Carlin Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and the second RLLR entry. DM

TASMANIA TEN THOUSAND TO RETURN IT’S BACK to the future for the Trans Am National Series when it races at Baskerville Raceway in January when competitors battle for the Tasmania Ten Thousand.

Contested by Sports Sedans for the first time in 1975, the race returns for 2021 after a lengthy hiatus.

The winner will receive $10,000 out of a $30,000 total prize pool, which awards drivers all the way down to 10th.

It also provides the opportunity for Trans Am racers to replicate the exploits of Allan Moffat, Jim Richards, Bob Jane, John McCormack and Garry Rogers, who all competed in the event during Sports Sedans peak during the 1970s.

This special invitational race at Baskerville forms the second weekend of the brand new Race Tasmania backto-back events beginning at Symmons Plains on Australia Day weekend.

Barry Rogers was one of the key influences behind Race Tasmania, says that the Trans Am event will be one not to miss.

“It will be a big Trans Am weekend

Day, but we were really keen to include the southern part of Tasmania with Baskerville,” Rogers said.

“It’s an iconic track, fantastic for spectators with an amphitheatre set up. It’s only 2km long built in a valley, cars can park in there and get a great view.”

The Baskerville weekend will be hold on January 29-31. DM

MATT STONE TARGETS FOUR CAR EXPANSION SUPERCARS TEAM owner Matt Stone has revealed his intentions to further expand his operation in future seasons As previously reported by Auto Action, Stone is aiming to expand his operation to three-cars for 2021 – RECs permitting – but is eyeing a four-car entry in his team’s future.

“Absolutely, it’s certainly not like we are in any rush by any means in that regard,” he told Auto Action.

“I wouldn’t see it as I immediate step for next year or the year after.

“But certainly, as I look at the next five-years I can see that, getting to that number is a concept that I am aligned with.”

In recent years, teams including Brad Jones Racing and Tickford Racing have both expanded to fourcar squads as it is a better fit not only logistically, but also at events where sharing a pit boom with a rival squad is avoided.

Stone debuted the SuperLite program this season where Super2 graduates Jake Kostecki and Zane Goddard split the Supercars round before combining for this year’s Bathurst 1000.

An added entry according to Stone would allow his team to have two-main entries to improve MSR’s position in the team’s title, while the SuperLite program is solely focused on gaining drivers the experience.

“To me, the SuperLite program would work better with a third car because you can have your two main cars pushing other teams for position

in pit lane,” Stone said.

Although deemed a success by Stone and the drivers, it is a program that may not be initiated every season.

“The Superlite program will definitely be part of our program in years to come, we just might not necessarily run it every single year,” Stone explained.

“We may, depending on the drivers graduating out of the SuperLite car.

Essentially it may be that the concept gets parked every year or so when we simply don’t have enough entries to run it.

“We’re flexible in that regard but from our point of view it (the SuperLite program) has been a success.” DM

“After I had a really bad start into the weekend with all my gear stolen from my rental car, it now couldn´t have ended any better than winning the championship.”

On Saturday, the New Zealander celebrated his first victory in this series, after starting from P3 on the grid.

“I had a terrible getaway and there was also some chaos in the first corner, so I dropped back to P8. But from then on I had a really good race and could fight my way back through the field.”

Team principal Walter Lechner was of course over the moon with the outcome.

“It was a fantastic weekend for our team, and it is a great feeling to win all the championships we competed for,” Lechner said.

“Especially as we are newcomers in the French Porsche Carrera Cup, fighting against more experienced competition.”

Rhys Vandersyde

EVANS WINS FRENCH CARRERA CUP SERIES JAXON EVANS has secured his second Carrera Cup title, adding the 2020 Porsche Carrera Cup France Championship to his 2018 Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia win.

Racing for BWT Lechner Racing, Evans took two commanding victories in the final round in Barcelona adding to his numerous podiums throughout the season to secure the French series win.

Evans’ efforts also helped BWT Lechner Racing seal the teams’ championship, while the Kiwi’s Lechner Racing teammate, Nicolas Misslin, defended his title in the Pro-Am class.

“I knew I had to keep my act together, make no mistake and bring the title home. I am so glad it worked out,” Evans said after the race.

LATEST NEWS

VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT LAUNCH NEW MOTORSPORT INITIATIVE A NEW initiative launched by the Victorian Government is dedicated to backing community clubs, participants and volunteers, while encouraging greater female participation through the Community Motorsport Program.

Launched last week by Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence, the Community Motorsport Program, forming part of the State Government’s $7.4 million Racing Into a New Era for Motorsport initiative aims to address a wide variety of issues within the grassroots level of the industry.

Areas targeted by the funding include improvement of motor sport infrastructure and equipment, the training of volunteers and

officials, the support of young motor sport participants and enabling women and girls to become involved in the sport.

“Motorsport and motorcycling clubs are a safe space where people can compete and learn,” said Ms Spence.

“This funding will help pave the way for the next generation of women and girls in motorsport, from grassroots to the professional level.”

The two categories that grants are available through the Community Motorsport Program are: •Motorsport Club Assistance –initiatives to boost women and girls participation (up

to $5,000); hosting events and activities (up to $20,000); funding to purchase safety and operational equipment (up to $10,000); training for volunteers and officials to build club capacity (up to $5,000).

•Infrastructure Upgrades and Equipment – funding to purchase critical facility equipment (up to $50,000); and deliver minor (up to $100,000) and major infrastructure developments (up to $500,000).

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca welcomed the timing of the new funding initiative with the motor sport industry in Victoria supporting more than 4000 jobs and contributes close to $700 million annually to

the state economy.

“The new Community Motorsport Program grants could not come at a more important time and will go a long way in helping grassroots clubs get back on track and doing what they do best,” Arocca said.

Motorcycling Victoria CEO Robert Mestrom emphasised the importance of the announcement and urged clubs to apply.

“These grants will make a real difference to motorcycle clubs and initiatives around the state. I’d like to thank the Victorian Government and encourage our clubs to get on board with the opportunities this program has to offer.” HM

CARRERA CUP DRIVER A SPRINTCAR WINNER PORSCHE CARRERA Cup Australia driver Max Vidau is keeping race sharp by competing in the 410ci Sprintcar Cup on the clay, recording his first heat win.

Racing at Whyalla Speedway for the first time in a 900hp 410ci Sprintcar, Vidau took his maiden win in just his second start.

Based on his previous performance at Murray Bridge, Vidau was granted dispensation to qualify and not start from rear of grid.

“I started from pole in the second heat and just drove away,” Vidau recalled to Auto Action.

“I thought they were right behind me the whole race, so it was just eyes forward and hammer down the whole time trying to try to get away, but I ended up winning by the length of the front straight.”

In the final Vidau started from seventh but described how different the car handles in the longer affair.

“The cars are a completely different animal in the final race with massive fuel loads, the car handles completely different,” he said.

“It took me about 10 laps to work it out a bit more and I just started to catch the guy in front but ended up eighth overall.”

The rising star is loving every second behind the wheel of his 900hp beast, but told AA that the power was not the most difficult area to adjust in.

“It is very different,” Vidau explained. “The 900hp wasn’t the big thing for me, it was driving the car in on the throttle and driving through the corner on the throttle which makes the car turn.

“Obviously, what we’re used to being bitumen drivers is we get the car on the nose and turn it that way, but completely different on dirt.”

Vidau has always had a passion for racing on clay and even began his career dirt karting before moving to bitumen.

“I started my racing career in dirt karts and that’s where it all started for me,” he said.

“My old man works on V8 Chevs, he grew up doing that and we’ve always thought about

doing this, but just never got around to doing it because we’ve been so focused on the bitumen side of things.

“But it all came together, and all the sponsors came together, they were all happy to jump in and we went racing.”

The 19-year-old believes not only he as a driver is improving, but his sprintcar is also developing into a quick package.

“It’s just such a weird thing to get your head around, but I’ve got some good guys around

helping me out, so I’m very lucky,” Vidau said.

“We learned a lot from Murray Bridge and how the car was handling.

“The car was trying to roll me over at Murray Bridge, but at Whyalla the car was a lot better, a lot easier to drive, and we’re only going to move forward from here.”

For more on Max Vidau read the latest Young Guns feature on the tall talent from pages 40-41. Dan McCarthy

RACING TOGETHER DRIVERS CHOSEN DRIVE AGAINST DEPRESSION CONTINUES WITH AASA RACING TOGETHER, the program designed to create an Indigenous motor racing team, has selected the 11 members of its squad.

The group of 11 are all from Logan just south of Brisbane and were chosen by a panel of experts out of more than 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants.

Each driver took part in a several assessments at the Norwell Motorplex, the challenges included driving and mechanical aptitude tests.

The selected team members now plan the build of their Hyundai Excel race car under the guidance of Racing Together founders Garry and Monique Connelly, 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner and Norwell Motorplex operator Paul Morris and Gunya Meta Indigenous mentor Michael Orcher.

In 2021 the car will be entered into the X3 Circuit Excel Racing Series allowing Australia’s first indigenous racing team a chance to develop in motorsport.

“There is currently no representation of our indigenous people in motorsport in Australia,” said Formula 1 race steward Garry Connelly.

“A few months ago, we decided to do something about it, and we decided to sponsor a pilot program to bring kids 12 to 16, boys and girls, into motorsport.

“The next step will be to start building a Hyundai Excel to compete next year. We may use different drivers at different events. While the build is occurring, the drivers will do intensive training under Paul Morris and his team at Norwell.”

The Racing Together project hopes to eventually expand into level motorsport with the goal of putting an indigenous driver into the prestigious Ferrari Academy (Asia Pacific).

Connelly said the weekend program at Norwell was a great success.

“The enthusiasm of the participants was high at the start but grew by the hour as they drove a number of track activities in dry and wet conditions,” he explained.

“We did classroom sessions on road safety, car construction and design, first aid, personal health and conditioning and learning also about how to become an official.”

Braedyn Cidoni aged 16 and Karlai Warner, 14, were both chosen as drivers within the 11, but team members may have a chance to have a turn at the wheel.

“We’ll see how they all develop. Some of them also have excellent mechanical abilities,” Connelly said. Dan McCarthy

AASA HAS announced that Drive Against Depression will continue as its official charity into the 2021 season after a successful year in 2019.

Drive Against Depression (DAD) is an organisation aimed at bringing together people with a shared passion for motoring, by creating judgement-free, non-confrontational environments in which people can have conversations about mental health issues.

Mental health is a topic that has prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic with many people stuck isolating away from friends and family during lockdown.

DAD co-founder and director Sarah Davis explained that it is important to get the message out there and support people close to you.

“Our involvement with AASA and BAC was a huge part of 2019, it gave our participants the chance to enjoy different types of motoring and motorsport activities and gave people a whole new level of joy,” Davis said.

“Looking ahead to 2021, we’ll be starting our social drives again and we’ll be looking

to dovetail those occasions with some events at Winton, such as the Friday Test and Tune sessions where some people might like to enjoy the experience of driving their car around a race track.”

AASA business manager, Stephen Whyte expressed that the AASA is fully committed to continue the support of the DAD cause.

“There is an overlap between the demographics of motoring enthusiasts and the demographics likely to suffer from mental illness, so there are some synergies with our involvement with DAD,” he said.

“We’ve been promoting DAD to our competitors at a variety of events, especially circuit racing and tarmac rally and in 2021 we’re aiming to raise awareness of the cause in other disciplines such as off-road and speedway.

“DAD continues to provide terrific support in the mental health space and we’re proud to be associated with them.”

Last year DAD facilitated social drives on public roads and used the AASA connection to form a relationship with the Australian Tarmac Rally Championship.

Dan McCarthy

EXCELS TO CONFORM UNDER NEW TENDER CIRCUIT EXCEL competitors will next year be permitted to run a sole suspension package after Supashock won the tender to supply the class.

In previous years, Supashock was one of the three choices competitors could choose between, but will now be the sole supplier for the growing state-based category.

The announcement also confirmed Federal Tyres as the control tyre supplier, a position it has held for a number of seasons.

“We were very impressed with the quantity of submissions from a variety of partners interested in the category, but more impressive for us was the quality of a number of companies who wanted to get involved,” said Circuit Excel Racing Association president John Broadbent.

“The tender process involved not just technical capabilities of the product the competitors would be using, but we also considered the commercial position of the product to ensure our competitors would be getting the best value for money.”

“After lengthy analysis of all submissions, including laboratory testing and some track tests, as well as extensive meetings around commercial implications for our race competitors, we are very happy with the products put forward by both Federal Tyres

and Supashock.”

“We are very excited, and look forward to see this roll out to our competitors on January 1, 2021.”

Supashock is already installed on many of Australia’s fastest Excels as company CEO Oscar Fiorinotto also announced the addition of a training program for young drivers and engineers to enhance the category’s reputation as a development proving ground.

“Supashock is proud to support Circuit Excel Racing Australia. With a rich global history in motorsport, and success in the Excel Circuit,” said Fiorinotto.

“Supashock are pleased to be offering a high quality and cost-effective Controlled Suspension Package developed for the Hyundai Excel Racing series.

“Supashock believe the Excel racing category to date has provided a fantastic stepping stone for the development of young drivers, and offers a path into the Australian Motorsport industry. To help aid development in the category, Supashock will offer a training program to help mentor and educate young drivers and aspiring engineers.”

“We are extremely excited to be awarded the right as control tyre for the Circuit Excel

Image: LAT

Association under Motorsport Australia from 2021.”

Federal Tyres motorsport manager Jeff Newick was pleased to continue its standing as the control tyre supplier for Excels.

“Both Neta Tyre Sales and Service and Exclusive Tyre Distributors have worked closely together to ensure uninterrupted

supply to all members in the past and this will continue into the future,” said Newick.

“We feel the Federal 595 RS-R is the best suited tyre for the series as it ensures ultimate performance and value for money to all competitors.”

“We are both looking forward to a prosperous future with the Circuit Excel Association and its members.” HM

with Dan Knutson

THE WILLIAMS Race Engineering interim team manager Simon Roberts has finally confirmed that former FIA Formula 2 Champion George Russell will remain with the team in 2021. Both Brit Russell and his Canadian teammate Nicholas Latifi were re-signed for next season by Claire Williams when she was still head of the team. Since Williams departed, there has been increasing speculation that Russell would be replaced, however in recent days that has been quashed by Roberts. DM

AFTER ANNOUNCING that Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi would remain with the team in 2021, it was confirmed that Alfa Romeo and Sauber would continue its partnership going forwards. Alfa Romeo which won the first ever Formula 1 race at Silverstone in 1950 has agreed a deal to continue its arrangement that gives the Italian brand the naming rights of the team.

The announcement was appropriately made on the eve of the third and final race in Italy this season. DM

IN PRINCIPLE F1 teams have agreed to a $42.68 million AUD driver salary cap for each team from 2023 with the idea to reduce the costs of running a Formula 1 team and also potentially stopping drivers chasing money from the big teams. The $42.68 million has not been finalised but whatever the final number comes to it has to cover both drivers, for example $30m and $12m. There are also plans to put a cap on the combined salaries of the top three employees. DM

RETURNING FORMULA 1 champion Fernando Alonso will have his second run in 2018 Renault Formula 1 car this week. The two-time Formula 1 World Champion previously drove the two-year-old machine for 100km in a filming day at Barcelona previously. It has been announced that the Spaniard will complete a two-day test with the French manufacturer at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain. DM

SCUDERIA FERRARI team principal Mattia Binotto has denied growing speculation that four-time champion and departing Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel is getting inferior machinery to Charles Leclerc. The challenging 2020 season for German Vettel sees Vettel comfortably outside of the top 10 in the championship, while his teammate Leclerc finds himself fighting in the top five in most races. DM

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RED BULL’S DILEMMA Image: LAT

PROOF POSITIVE as to why Red Bull was so keen to renew Daniel Ricciardo’s contract for 2019, and why the team has sorely missed the Aussie F1 ace, can be seen in the difficulties that it has faced in 2019 and 2020, and the dilemma it has to solve for next year.

Red Bull needs a driver who can race wheel-to-wheel with the exceptional Max Verstappen; and that driver must be capable of earning poles, podiums and wins. That driver was Ricciardo who came with the added bonus that he and Verstappen really get along well together. But Ricciardo moved to Renault last year.

While they are not terrible drivers, Ricciardo’s replacements – first Pierre Gasly and then Alex Albon – have come nowhere close to matching his pace. However, the team will not consider replacing Albon with another driver, for example Nico Hülkenberg, before the end of this season.

“We’re committed to Alex for this year,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.

“Everybody in the team wants him to lay claim to this seat next year. He’s a great guy, we believe he does have talent, he’s still only in his second year of F1. It’s mentally tough, it’s tough going up against Max. Alex has shown he can bounce back previously, and I really hope for him that he can bounce back.”

However, the team will consider Hülkenberg, Sergio Pérez and other drivers both inside and outside the Red Bull family for 2021.

“You’ve got to look at all of the options,” Horner said. “I don’t think we’d be doing our job if we didn’t look at the situation within F1, and that there are obviously drivers that have significant experience and ability; it’s a very unusual situation they could be available.

“So our first and foremost priority is to give Alex the opportunity to lay claim to that seat.

Let’s not forget when he jumped in that car last year he outscored and outperformed Pierre (Gasly) significantly in the balance of 2019. If we were to swap them back, why would it be any different?”

Gasly and Albon have now both had good performances in the Red Bull, but they have not been able to consistently deliver.

“The car is more difficult to drive than the AlphaTauri, we know that and it’s very, very clear,” Horner said. “The car is much more rear-sensitive, and that can be unnerving for drivers. Max copes with that incredible well; other drivers have struggled more with that. I think that’s just the facts of it.”

Even though he won the Italian Grand Prix this year, Gasly will not be promoted back to Red Bull next year. Verstappen’s 2021 teammate will be Albon or an “outsider.” But Ricciardo won’t be on the list.

THE HUMAN TOLL

THE PROVISIONAL 2021 Formula 1 calendar, which has been revealed to the teams, contains a record 23 races and a gruelling schedule that includes two tripleheaders. As usual, the season begins in Australia in March and ends in Abu Dhabi in December. Saudi Arabia gets its first F1 date, and the new race in Vietnam and the returning Dutch Grand Prix, both cancelled this year, are listed for 2021.

More races generate more money for the teams and Formula 1. Racing drivers love to race, so they welcome more events. But there is a human toll on the crews who have to be away from their families for weeks at a time.

“The toll on all the humans that are part of this travelling circus is getting heavier and heavier every single year with the races we added,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “We started with doubleheaders – that was not great fun having people away from their families. And then we have come to tripleheaders.

“There is no easy solution. I believe that the teams have to adapt to the situation. We can’t possibly have all the same people travelling to 23 grands prix. There will be a core team which needs to do it, but we need to re-organise

Image: LAT

ourselves back at base in terms of regeneration time for these people.”

“The teams also have the burden of all the logistical costs and the travelling to those various places,’ Wolff added, “and that is substantial.”

Are 23 races too many?

“Trying to find the right balance between oversaturation and exclusivity is the key question they (Formula 1) need to ask themselves,” Wolff said.

The teams are concerned that Formula 1 does not have a back-up plan. The entire world is still a very uncertain place because of COVID-19. If races have to be postponed or cancelled because of the virus, just as happened this year, what are the plans to adjust the packed 2021 schedule?

But Formula 1 and the FIA are working with the various countries on how to safely deal with the virus situation.

Formula 1 only released dates for the races up until the end of September. But, by applying some detective work and logic, it is possible to determine the dates for the latter races.

PROVISIONAL 2020 CALENDAR 21 March

Australia

28 March

Bahrain

11 April 25 April 9 May 23 May 6 June 13 June 27 June 4 July 18 July 1 August 29 August 5 September 12 September 26 September 3 October 10 October 24 October 31 October 14 November 28 November 5 December

China Vietnam Spain Monaco Azerbaijan Canada Austria France Great Britain Hungary Belgium Holland Italy Singapore Japan Russia USA Mexico Brazil Saudi Arabia Abu Dhabi

SIZZLING SILLY SEASON THE FORMULA One Silly Season – speculation swirling around which driver goes to what team next year – is still sizzling as the 2020 racing season heads into its final stretch.

Alfa Romeo has confirmed that they will retain both Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi for 2021. Auto Action hears that Räikkönen’s contract had a renewal clause on his side, and the Ice Man, who turned 41 on 17 October, was keen to return to F1 for a 19th season. Alfa team principal Frédéric Vasseur has faith in Giovinazzi who will be back for a third full season with the squad.

Haas has dumped Romain Grosjean, who has been with the team since its first season in 2016, and Kevin Magnussen, who joined a year later. Both drivers will leave at the end of this season.

Look for Haas to go for youth, fame and money with its new driver line-up. Mick Schumacher, 21, son of the famous seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, will be in F1 next year. The sport’s commercial owners Liberty Media and the FIA want the Schumacher name in the series because of the increased interest it will create.

Schumacher is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and Ferrari pushed hard for him to graduate from F2 to F1 next year. Haas and Alfa Romeo are

Image: LAT

Ferrari satellite teams, and therefore perfect landing places for the Scuderia’s junior drivers Schumacher and Giovinazzi.

Money? Nikita Mazepin, another Ferrari Driver Academy member, is the son of multi-billionaire Russian businessman Dmitry Mazepin. The senior Mazepin has already invested millions in the Haas team and might even buy it from founder Gene Haas.

Nicolas Latifi, another son of a billionaire businessman – Canada’s Michael Latifi – has a 2021 contract with the Williams team as does George Russell. While there has been speculation about Russell’s future with the team, they say he will stay.

Sergio Pérez, who will be replaced by Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin (Racing Point) next year, is looking for a ride. Pérez, who comes with US$14

million in sponsorship money for his prospective team, was linked with Williams, but now he could end up replacing Alex Albon at Red Bull. Nico Hülkenberg has also been linked with Red Bull.

AlphaTauri has confirmed Pierre Gasly, but who will end up in the second seat in 2021? Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda, a member of the Honda Formula Dream Project and the Red Bull Junior Team, is a leading contender. Daniil Kvyat might retain the seat, or he might be replaced by Albon.

Some of the Silly Season deals are a mere formality.

And that is the case for the biggest name in all of this: Lewis Hamilton. The soon to be seven-time world champion still had not begun negotiating a new contract by the end of October, but there is no doubt that he will return to Mercedes in 2021.

FERRARI’S SMALL STEPS FERRARI HAS been stepping in the right direction in recent races, but the improvements are only partially due to chassis upgrades because certain tracks have suited the SF1000 car as well.

The Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello, Ferrari’s 1000th championship F1 race, was an embarrassment for the Scuderia. Charles Leclerc was eighth and Sebastian Vettel was 10th but only 12 drivers finished the race.

Ferrari performed better in the Portuguese Grand Prix, or at least Leclerc did as he qualified and finished fourth. Vettel struggled for pace, starting 15th and finishing 10th.

“I don’t think it’s day and night compared to the Mugello,” said Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto.

“The car was slightly improved, but it’s not a completely different picture. The battle is so close in the midfield, so a couple of tenths may help being ahead of staying behind.”

Leclerc concurs.

“Some of the characteristics of the last few tracks have been towards what our car needs and have helped us,” Leclerc said. “But it was small (upgrade) steps all the time, but always small steps in the right direction. But that doesn’t explain the gains we had in

Image: LAT

the last two races, it’s not up to that.”

What is clear is that neither the car, its upgrades nor the tracks are suiting Vettel. Ferrari has discounted rumours that the two drivers are not getting equal equipment.

“From what I understand, he’s probably not at ease as much as I am with the balance we have in the car,” Leclerc said. “The rear is moving quite a bit, and I just feel quite good in the car at the moment.”

Vettel does indeed like to have the rear of the car planted in corners, which is one of the reasons he won four world championships in the Red Bull fitted with the now banned exhaust blown rear diffuser.

“I have to think that we have the same car,” Vettel

said. “I trust the people around me and in the garage.

I have one picture that is told to me by the stopwatch at the end of the lap, the other thing is by my feeling.

Feeling-wise I really struggle to put the good laps together, be consistent and feel the grip that maybe Charles is able to feel.

“I’m working on it and there’s nothing else other than work that will get me out of it. Together with the team around me I’ll try to make the maximum.”

Ferrari’s goal in the final races of the season is to decipher which performance gains come from the upgrades and which are circuit specific. That can then be translated into the design of the 2021 car which will be an updated version of the 2020 model.

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F1 INSIDER

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NOT UNASSAILABLE

RECORDS, MICHAEL Schumacher said, were made to be broken.

Schumacher’s 91st and final Formula 1 victory came in the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix. That record seemed to me to be unassailable.

Then, in 2007, a young guy called Lewis Hamilton began his F1 career and won his first grand prix. And now, with Hamilton finishing first in Portugal, he is the new record holder with 92 victories.

Hamilton scored 71 of his wins with Mercedes and 21 with McLaren. As I have said before, I thought, wrongly, that Hamilton was making a mistake switching from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013. But even Hamilton did not envision having so much success.

“I could only ever have dreamed of being where I am today,” he said. “I didn’t have a crystal ball when I chose to come to this team and partner with these great people. What I can tell you is that I am trying to make the most of it every single day.”

“I knew that we would win

championships,” he added.

“Did I think we would win as many as we have? No. Did I think we would win this many races? Of course not.

But it is a phenomenal time for us, and the great thing is that it’s not just me that is living with the history, it’s the whole team. I think everyone acknowledges and realises how much they are part of it.”

So how high can Hamilton raise the bar?

“I don’t believe in the saying the sky’s the limit,” he replied. “It depends how much we want it; how much we want to continue to raise the bar. Going by our history together we don’t sit back on our results, we keep working, we keep elevating.

Every race feels like the first one. I don’t know how that’s possible after all these races, but for me it does; just as challenging as the first. There is a lot more for us to do, especially as we’re in this crazy time of the pandemic.”

“I’m 35 years old,” he added. “I still feel physically strong, but you still wonder when is it going to tip over and lose performance.

But showing by (the win in Portugal) today it’s not yet.”

Hamilton certainly has the respect from his peers, including teammate Valtteri Bottas who finished second in Portugal, and Max Verstappen who wound up third.

“I want to say massive congrats to Lewis for this amazing achievement and being part of motorsport history,” Bottas said. “Some of the interviewers were asking what I think about it because many people thought it’s never possible to break the record. But that itself is a mistake, and I’m sure Lewis always believed it is possible and he’ll just keep going. So, really, hats off. Big respect.”

As of the Portuguese race, Bottas and Verstappen each had nine victories.

“Lewis says he keeps pushing because he wants to set it very high,” Verstappen said. “I have to work hard to try to get there! It’s amazing.

What can you say? It’s just incredible. An incredible achievement. Ninety-two victories and I don’t think it

stops there. It will go well over 100. He’s pushing me to go until I’m 40 years old, or something. It’s a good motivation as well.

“It looks like of course he’s also going for his seven world titles, which is very impressive. Everybody knows he’s very quick, but what has also been a very strong point is that he’s also very consistent and very rarely makes a mistake.

That’s why I think he got to this number so quickly. It’s just very impressive.”

There was a total of 354 grands prix between Schumacher setting the record and Hamilton beating that record. And of course Hamilton is not done winning.

How many hundreds of races will be run before another driver beats Hamilton’s seemingly unassailable record? Sebastian Vettel, with 53 wins, is third in the record books, but there is no way he has another 50 wins in him.

Hamilton’s record is going to stand for a long, long time, but it won’t be unassailable.

Records are made to be broken.

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THE FOGES FILE AA’s probing pundit reveals the hidden truth of the end of the Adelaide 500, the world’s most viable street race event AMID THE outrage and angst over the Adelaide 500’s demise, the real impact may be far wider and more damaging.

The repercussions threaten to extend far beyond Adelaide and South Australia.

Motor sport fans in mainland Australia’s most quaint capital city are rightly indignant that the state’s largest sporting event – by far – has been thrown away. It has been a big part of Adelaide’s identity for two decades.

In fact, as the successor to the Adelaide Grand Prix, the 500 helped keep the place on the map. The F1 AGP gave the minimetropolis unprecedented international visibility and the Supercars sequel was a big part of maintaining its profile as a destination.

So the axing of the Adelaide 500 is a big blow to SA’s prestige and all the more galling for the state government’s lame justification. COVID-19 is just a cover for political disinterest.

But there is a much bigger picture here.

If Supercars’ biggest and best street race event can fall, what about the others?

We should be worried about the future of the Newcastle 500 and Gold Coast 600, both of which are already under stress.

Both were cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and are looking problematic – if not doubtful – for next year.

If they disappear for two years, they may not be recoverable. Adelaide’s departure is especially worrying because it was ostensibly a successful event.

For most of its life, it was the model for street circuit events. It was for many years the only one anywhere that made money.

In later years, it broke even and more recently cost the government a relatively small amount.

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According to a former senior Adelaide 500 employee who contacted me, the event was “set up to fail” when the SA government disbanded the South Australian Motorsport Board and put it in the hands of the SA tourism department in 2016.

It is not a coincidence that the race’s crack commercial and media teams were dismantled thereafter.

“The cracks started opening in 2017,” my mole said. Instead of a dedicated team, the 500 was lumped in with five other state events, losing the commercial focus and not maximising revenue opportunities.

Even so – and despite this year’s drop in crowds in the wake of the summer bushfire crisis – the figures still weren’t bad.

According to my informant, the cost to run the Adelaide 500 was around $16.5 million. That included Supercars’ sanction fee up to $2.9 million and circuit set-up costs of more than $12.5 million.

All that was offset by revenues of as much as $14 million, leaving a small government-subsidised shortfall.

Street race events elsewhere in Australia and overseas would kill for that economic return, taking into account exposure and tourism.

My mole agreed that Premier Steven Marshall’s Liberal government just gave up on the 500, seeing its permanent cancellation as an easy saving amid coming financial strictures.

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It’s perhaps ironic that the Liberals secured the F1 Adelaide GP almost 40 years ago. SA Labour supports the Adelaide 500, but with an election not due until March 2022, even a change of government may be too late to revive the event.

The much bigger concern is what this means for other Supercars street race festivals. Nothing good, I would suggest.

Killing the Adelaide 500 is very bad news, with a potentially devastating knockon effect. The best, most successful street race event goes, so what is the future of the rest?

The Adelaide 500 was only behind the F1 Melbourne Grand Prix and Bathurst 1000 in importance.

It was, for many years, bigger than Bathurst corporately. More companies spent more money at the Adelaide season-opener than at the Mount Panorama classic.

It also drew way bigger crowds than Bathurst and was second only to the Melbourne GP’s four-day attendance.

Since 1985, Adelaide’s Parklands street circuit has been a great venue. The Adelaide GP rewrote the rules for F1 race promotion and the same organisers set the high bar for Supercars after a four-year hiatus.

From ’99, the Adelaide 500 – for so long the Clipsal 500 – was the template for the rash of Supercars street races that followed.

Supercars will miss Adelaide greatly. The city and the circuit have been staples of Australian motor racing for 35 years.

It is a warning that amid coronavirus constraints, which are going to last for years, state government-supported street race events are under threat.

Supercars needs to reset and concentrate on existing permanent venues, enshrining stalwart circuits here and in NZ. Secure state/regional government support for existing tracks – and new proposed permanent venues in Toowoomba and Townsville – and await the return one day of major metro street racing. Maybe.

I will miss the Adelaide 500 and the city’s vibrant embrace of racing. The party atmosphere and proximity to the city was always a buzz. My F1 and Supercars memories of Adelaide are enduring.

But it is gone. Time to move on. More than three decades of high-quality racing in ‘The City Of Churches’ has been a bonus.

The SA motor sport community needs to rally around The Bend as a major national venue and support Mallala, as well as campaigning for Adelaide International Raceway’s revival.

The rest of racing needs to adapt to a new future not dependant on supporting glamour street race Supercars events.

Existing permanent tracks are suddenly the future of professional racing.

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the odd couple Image: LAT/Supercars

Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander are very different characters, but as a driving combination they are the Bathurst-winning dream team THEY’RE BOTH lanky for race drivers, but that’s almost where the similarity ends. One is a contradiction of quiet personality and flamboyant driving. The other is contained behind the wheel and headstrong out of the car.

Of course, both are fast and fearless – and, in fact, they are each ruthless and relentless on the track. But as people, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander are almost polar opposites.

And yet together, they are perhaps the strongest pairing ever seen in Supercars. Contrasting characters who are complimentary in endurance races. They were formidable last year, finishing on the podium in three of the four Enduro Cup races, and unbeatable at Bathurst last month.

It was the long-awaited Bathurst 1000 breakthrough for SVG, who suffered heartbreak in 2014 when the topsy-turvy race was his for the taking, and missed narrowly in ’16 and again last year.

His flair in the defining wet period was underpinned by GT’s frontrunning speed and unerring consistency in his supporting stints. Tander

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joined the pantheon of Bathurst legends with a fourth victory – with the prospect of still more to come, especially if he stays paired with SVG. Together, the mercurial 31-year-old Kiwi and 43-year-old Perth-born Melburnian became enduring Holden heroes by winning The Great Race in the last factory backed effort for the ‘retired’ Aussie icon brand.

After their Bathurst triumph, van Gisbergen went home to NZ, and only emerged from two weeks’ hotel quarantine in Auckland on Wednesday (November 4), while Tander was reunited with his family in locked-down Melbourne (where restrictions have since been eased).

Tander’s pivotal role in their win warranted his inclusion in this ‘debrief’.

SVG, with nothing else to do, was chatty and expansive on the phone.

He is much more expressive and thoughtful in an in-depth, one-on-one interview than he is on TV, although his public presentation has improved noticeably in recent years.

Tander remains a wise media practitioner, combining candour with a political savvy developed over a long and successful career.

Now that you’ve had time to think about it, what’s your reaction to finally winning the Bathurst 1000?

It’s still hard to put into words.

Certainly, it was a weird one, not having all my family and friends there.

They normally come every year, and dad (Robert) has a good group of mates and I have a good bunch of mates who go camping and have a good time. Unfortunately, the one time they’re not there, I get it done. I really missed them not being there, but we’ll have a good time when I get out of my isolation back here. It was still really cool, though, and a good way to finish a strange year.

It seemed to me that you seriously had the eyes on that weekend.

I don’t know about that. I felt like I was driving normal. The way the weekend played out for us, it just all came together. I think ‘Shippy’ (engineer Grant McPherson) was really good and second year around, Garth and I really knew what each other wanted and how to get it.

The way we worked though it was important. From the Friday onwards, I focused on qualifying and Garth focused on the race car. I did the qualifying on Friday and then on Saturday I did two laps. I did a qualy sim at the start of Saturday practice and then the Shootout. Garth essentially did all the laps in practice on the Saturday to work on the race set-up and I think that worked quite well.

Once it started raining and conditions became slippery, that’s when you took control. You say you don’t like the wet, but that’s when you excel.

No idea why. The first lap was a bit crazy when it went green. We got to the crest on Mountain Straight and I could see so much water. I backed off on the crest and everyone else kept going flat-out. I near shit myself.

I thought everyone was going to crash into the fence. But once I got a feel for it, from that point on I started going forward, although it certainly wasn’t an easy time, not knowing what you have underneath you. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed that part and I certainly don’t know why I seem to feel like I have more grip than everyone else. But it worked for us – and you’re right, that’s what really set up the race because, as it’s welldocumented, it’s almost impossible to pass in these cars and everyone’s closer than ever. So, yeah, it really set up the race. We never gave up the lead from that point. We took control.

Garth had a good buffer and kept it, but when I was in front, I could even drive slowly, bringing in the tyres nicely, and Cam (Waters) wasn’t able to pass. He was almost a second quicker earlier on in the (final) stint, but you just can’t pass anymore. So getting to the front in that wet stage was really what got us the race win.

Cam certainly piled on the pressure at the end, didn’t he?

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Van Gisbergen held off a charging Cam Waters to finally end his run of near misses at Bathurst, although he wonders what the outcome would’ve been if their positions had been reversed, such is the difficulty of overtaking.

Yep. They were probably the dominant car on the weekend.

However, I did feel I had better pace in the stints, particularly the end of the stint – I was able to edge away. So it would have been interesting if he were in front, whether I could’ve run with him or put pressure on him, but I’m glad we never got to find out.

Having come so close three times before, is it a relief to finally win the Bathurst 1000?

I don’t think of it as a relief, I just think of it as the single biggest race win I’ve ever had. I’ve never put focus on it being a race that I’ve needed to win or failed at winning. I think of it as just a massive race – biggest race in this part of the world, for sure – and just stoked to have won it. The other ones, looking back on them, they hurt, being close three times, but that’s part of racing. We get closer more than we actually win them sometimes.

What does it mean to be the last official Holden team Bathurst hero?

Yeah, that’s something that certainly means a lot, especially – and it was just by chance grabbing that flag and carrying g it around. Those pictures and how many messages I’ve had from people who’ve been proud Holden fans for years, it‘s crazy and amazing how much it means to people. Thatt hits home a lot. For me, it’s been a relatively short time butt a great four years as being a Holden factory team driver.

–

Oh, as I tried to pull it into the car to turn into the pits, it fell off out of Turn 1. I’m not sure who has it now and they’re probably not going to own up to it. The bloke who owned it actually met us in the paddock the next morning. His name is Dennis King, a local guy who’s been a massive Holden fan for years. So he was just stoked to be a part of it. It would be good to get the flag back to him, but I think it’s going to be hard to find it.

In this win, I’d suggest Tander’s role was crucial. He was as good as the best out there, wasn’t he?

Oh, yeah. Now there are maybe eight co-drivers who are good enough to be main drivers and, for sure, we have one of the best ones in Garth. And as I explained to you earlier with the race set-up stuff, his experience really showed. He’s a massive part of our team and, hopefully, will be for a few years to come. We’re very compatible in the car. He just jumps in and drives it, and our styles are actually quite similar. He likes the way I like it to be set up and that makes it a lot easier.

It was a big finish to what was a scrappy season for you, wasn’t it?

Yeah, I think that’s a pretty accurate description for the middle part of the season, from Darwin to halfway through Townsville. We really lost some points there – and also Sydney Motorsport Park. We had a lot of speed, but we really didn’t get that tyre strategy right in the ‘gamble’ races. It was a lottery, but it was the same for everyone and that’s what Scotty was good at. He just kept his average results a bit better and we didn’t get that right, mixing and matching tyres. Then we had a few car problems at Darwin which took us till the second Townsville to solve and then from there on we were away again. But this win isn’t putting a shadow over that. We still need to work on a lot of other things and being consistent. It obviously takes a lot of the pain away, but, yeah, third in the championship and that far behind (481 points behind McLaughlin) is not really good enough.

What’s more important to you – the championship or Bathurst?

I’ve been asked that a lot this week! I still think championship.

Putting together a whole year with your crew and what it means to them after so much work definitely

So grabbing the flag was completely spur-of-themoment?

Yeah, I was thinking as I was driving around that I’d grab the chequered flag as I got to the line, but I saw this guy going wild and hanging over the fence. He’d been there all race, so I stopped and called him over to borrow his flag.

What happened to it?

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means more, but the short-term euphoria of winning Bathurst is just awesome. The team atmosphere and how stoked everyone was was pretty cool to experience. It means a lot, but I still think I put the championship before it.

Did you find it a difficult season because of all the disruption?

Well, it was difficult I think for a lot of families and the Victorian teams, but if you take that away and just look at the racing, I thought it was pretty awesome. The way they mixed and matched the tyres, had different formats, racing every week – for me, that was awesome. I really enjoyed the racing side of it. I don’t have a wife or children; I’m just there to go racing and it didn’t matter for me to be away from home. But I felt for a lot of the families, the Victorians especially.

For me, though, once we went racing, it was awesome, I thought. You know me, I’d race every week if I could, so no issue for me.

You’re back in NZ for the summer, so what will you be doing?

I have a fair bit planned. I bought a motocross bike, which will be a bit of fun, mainly for training. I don’t think I’ll race that – just have some fun riding around home and some mates’ places.

And then, of course, I have the rally.

Unfortunately, the WRC event this year was cancelled, joining a long list of things, so they’re going to have an Auckland rally. That’s a one-day event (November 14) and then on the Sunday they’re going to have a rallysprint with a knockout format (Battle of Jacks Ridge). The rally should be pretty cool – something I’ve always wanted to try. Done a few tests days, but never anything serious. So I’m quite looking forward to that. In the rally, I’ll be in the classic class in dad’s Escort. Should be awesome. In the rallysprint, maybe I’ll be in an outright car. I’m not sure yet what I’ll be driving in that.

Looking ahead to next season in Supercars, Supercars it’ll be a bit different, but obviously you’ll be looking to win another championship.

For sure. I have to put a complete year together. Our series is really a qualifying series now and that’s never been a strong point of mine, so that’s something we need to improve. I need to qualify better because it’s impossible to pass, so qualifying sets up your trace, really. That’ll be a big focus – to be up on the front row or two for every race. That’s a huge area of improvement I have to work on, along with consistency. So a full year of qualifying well and no mistakes in the races, keep racking up the points and it should be better.

And what about the absence of your arch-rival Scott McLaughlin?

I think there are plenty of people that’ll step up and replace him. I think Cam Waters will be the main one. He’s been building momentum. For sure, Scotty’s been a great competitor the past few years. We’ve has some really good battles. He’s going on to bigger and better things, but I’ve enjoyed the past five or six years racing against him.

As we know, know you love racing anything, so are you at all jealous that he’s getting this IndyCar opportunity?

I wouldn’t say jealous. I’m stoked for him. I got up early and watched his first race. I can cheer for him again now because we’ve always been friends. I’ll be watching all his races and cheering for him, that’s for sure.

Is IndyCar something you’d like to try?

I don’t know. I really think an IndyCar would be awesome on those road circuits and the Indy 500, obviously. I think it’d be really cool. But doing 350 km/h around some of those shitholelooking ovals where there’s 10 people watching, that doesn’t interest me at all. There’s a lot of risk there doing that stuff on those ovals, for sure. But the road courses look awesome and the Indy 500 looks awesome. I can certainly see the appeal of the 500.

What’s happening with your overseas racing?

It’s all on hold. I have the chance to do the Daytona 24 Hours again, but

After his fierce rivalry with Scott McLaughlin (above), SVG will be cheering him on in IndyCar. ‘Scrappy’ mid-season (below) cruelled the Bathurst winner’s championship chances.

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I just don’t think it will be possible.

I can’t commit to it because I can’t do the two-week isolation before our season starts. Our season is still up in the air at the moment. You just don’t know what’s going to happen, so I just can’t commit to overseas stuff, so it’s on the backburner. This virus has stuffed up a lot of things for a lot of people.

You’ve had a bit to say about Gen3 and it’s fair to say you have some concerns, right?

I think everyone does. It’s a hard one because my team and a lot of our people are putting big hours and effort into it [Gen3 chassis design for Supercars]. I understand all of the reasons why they want a lot more control components, but I’m definitely glad it’s not going to be a control engine. That was talked about at one point, but I think that would’ve been going too far. I think some of the things they’re talking about is very exciting, but the paddle shift and auto blip stuff is not. The best thing about watching Supercars compared with GTs is the gear changes.

Watching a Supercars driver pull out a lap, heel-and-toe gear shifting or left foot braking and blipping, is awesome. The driving element of Supercars is amazing. Paddle shifts and auto throttle blipping will be more appealing for other drivers and weekend warriors, which I think they’re trying to target. I don’t like it, but I understand the relevance

Iconic image: Van Gisbergen’s impromptu decision to grab fan’s flag will immortalise his and Tander’s victory, the 34th at Bathurst and last ever in racing for an official Holden factory team entry. The hunt is on to return the historic ensign to its owner. argument. How many cars now can you buy with an H-pattern gearshift?

I want to see the series keep some of its rawness along with some of the cool engineering things we have.

It’s a hard one. You want the racing to be exciting, but you don’t want all the cars doing the same thing and just following each other around.

You want to see some differences between the cars – different sounds, different looks. A couple of months ago it sounded like they were all going to be the same, but now it sounds like they’re moving away from that.

Generally speaking, are you happy with the direction Supercars is going?

I think so. The racing at the moment is not very good and we’re stuck with that for another year. But I think the way they’re heading is encouraging.

The parity issues are gone. Last year, when you watched some of Scotty’s qualifying laps, you just said “Well, that’s impossible with my car, you can’t do that”. But this year, I watched Scotty’s laps and it was “Well, f***, he’s driving awesome and the car’s set up well. We need to do this better or I need to drive better”. I think the parity was really good this year and we got beaten fair and square. So getting back to your question, I still think Supercars is a good thing and

in a good place overall, and hopefully it will get better. The way they’re playing with the formats to work around the following (aero wash) and tyre (degradation) issues is good.

Maybe there’ll be a super-super-soft compound tyre next year for a bit more deg. I think that would make it a bit better again.

Would you embrace a super-soft tyre for qualifying?

Well, no, I don’t think it would be for qualifying – I think it’d be for certain tracks. You know, when we go to Sydney Motorsport Park and Townsville, the soft and the hard are fine. But when we go to Darwin, where there’s new seal (track surface), people did the whole weekend on two sets of the soft tyre .

I think Anton (De Pasquale) did that.

So a super-soft is needed for tracks where it’s cold or the surface is good.

Wouldn’t you like to be let loose at most tracks – and certainly Bathurst – with the grippiest rubber possible to show how quick the cars can go?

Well, yes and no. For me, it’s the racing. The cars lost 20 horsepower this year, but you don’t even notice it. But you notice that the aero, which is also invisible, makes the racing much worse. So even if the cars

were two seconds quicker, but the racing wasn’t better, I’d rather have less aero and more overtaking. A GT3 car around Bathurst is a couple of seconds quicker, but it’s a lot less exciting to watch. That short time I was up at the top of the Mountain watching the cars (during co-driver practice) and how much they moved around into the Grate (Reid Park), for me that was the ultimate. I was up there by myself having the time of my life watching the cars. It’s unreal how impressive they are. So I think if you make the racing better, the whole thing gets better. It doesn’t matter how fast you’re going.

Do you see yourself staying at Triple Eight in 2022 and beyond?

Oh, yeah, for sure. I think it’ll still be the best series. As I’ve always said, when I go and race around the world and come back here, it’s always the best and closest racing. I love the series and I’ll keep doing it as long as I can. All the other stuff is still achievable for me. Roland (Dane) lets me go and race everything else as long as it doesn’t hinder my Supercars stuff. I love where I am, love the team, love the series, so I’ll try to stay as long as I can.

With Triple Eight?

Oh, yeah, for sure.

How has it been working with Jamie Whincup?

It works very well. We’re very different people and in very different stages of our careers. But when he has a bad qualifying or he makes a mistake, you see how hard he takes it. He still cares, which is awesome, how focused he is on his craft. I think one of his strengths is obviously not having many weaknesses. Whenever I do a good lap or do something a bit better on a couple of corners on the track, the way he is able to analyse the data and the video and then go and emulate it is pretty impressive, whereas I sort of get stuck in my way. If he’s a bit better in a corner, I’ll struggle to adapt to that. He’s very good at lifting his game. It’s impressive, after winning so many championships, how much he still cares about it and how hard he still pushes. That’s pretty cool to me.

Are you data-driven or are you instinctive?

Probably a bit of both. I don’t look at data as much as I used to, but certainly when I’m struggling I do. I understand it and know what to look for, but I try to just do it without a lot of reference to it. I find that I overthink things a lot and I go worse for it, so I try to just go out and do it. But sometimes you have to refer to the data when you’re struggling.

Over the page, Garth Tander reflects on his contribution to their Bathurst win www.autoaction.com.au

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continue to go back and race as long as I feel I’m a meaningful contributor to the team and to the result. So while I feel like I am doing that, then I’m very keen to stay where I am to continue to do what we do. Other than Sandown last year because of a mechanical problem, our averaging finishing result as a combo is pretty good. So why wouldn’t you want to part of that going forward?

Do you have a deal for next year at least?

‘MY BEST RACE CAR EVER’ Garth Tander on his growing Bathurst legacy

Four-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

How’s that?

Surreal, to be honest with you. If you asked the 21-year-old Garth when he was just starting out in Supercars would you take one, it would have been “Absolutely!” So win a fourth 20 years after the first one is pretty amazing.

Thursday. It was OK and we knew we’d get it right. We just chipped away and chipped away and chipped away, and as I said to the guys after the first stint in the race, the car’s coming and it’s going to be good. And then when I jumped back in for my second stint, that was the best race car I’ve ever had at Bathurst. I was proud to be part of that team performance.

You must have been pretty pleased with how you performed?

That’s a big call. The best car you’ve ever had at Bathurst…

You look back at things that you would improve, but I was really chuffed that Shane and Grant McPherson, our engineer, basically tasked me with setting the car up, doing the race setup work. Shane pretty much decided on the Friday night that he just wanted to concentrate on the Shootout, so he did his one Shootout lap sim in his practice session on the Saturday and then I went and did a race run. So it was nice they had that faith in me and then, obviously, in the race, the first stint was just stay out of trouble, no need to get involved in anything.

And then the second stint, when Shane had put us in the lead, was to maximise the gap that we had and make sure I gave the car back to him with that same gap, if not bigger, and the car in good nick – and I guess I ticked those boxes.

Yeah, best race car I’ve ever had at Bathurst, for sure. It just did everything you wanted it to. It had good stability across the top, it had good drive traction and not only handling and balance-wise, but the car was like it was brand new. The engine felt sharp, the brakes and the gearbox felt brand new – it felt like a Shootout car. A Shootout car usually has brand new everything – and that’s what the car felt like halfway through a 1000 km race. So not just car speed, but overall car, definitely the best I’ve ever had at Bathurst.

I spoke with Shane earlier and he paid tribute to you for sorting the race set up. So you must be proud of your contribution.

Oh, yeah, for sure. The co-driver role is tough and you don’t really understand it until you’re in it. You’re very much in someone else’s car, driving very much their set up and you have to adapt. I felt like last year at Bathurst I didn’t get my head around it properly and didn’t perform as well as I could’ve, but looking back now, I just needed more race miles in the car to understand it better. I was able to that more at the Gold Coast and definitely at Sandown last year. So to be able to turn up at Bathurst this year, realistically having done no laps, and perform at a reasonable level, I was pretty happy with myself – but also really, really proud of the way the entire team went about the week.

We didn’t roll the car out great on

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How did you overcome your lack of race mileage this year?

I just didn’t put any pressure on myself. I was pretty comfortable with the fact that I have a lot of experience up there and I could draw on that.

And then on the Thursday, I just didn’t put any pressure on myself at all as far as doing a lap time. I just treated Thursday as if it were a test day. So it was very much just getting back into the car, getting comfortable, and once I felt like I was comfortable, then I’d start to press on. But I was only pressing on a like 70 per cent. So I spoke to Roland, I spoke to Shane and spoke to ‘Shippy’ (McPherson) about that and they were comfortable with how I was going about it. I just didn’t put any pressure on myself because I didn’t feel I needed to. I wasn’t in an environment where I had to prove anything, so I could just ease myself back into it. By the time I’d finished on Thursday night, it was like I’d done my normal preparation. I was comfortable in the car and good to go.

You must have been pleased that in your race stints, you were as quick as or very close to the guns?

at’s always the That’s measure. Certainly, other people measure you that way. So, yes, that was encouraging. It’s very, very difficult to get to that last little bit and that’s just because you don’t spend enough time in the car – and 2020 is obviously an extreme example of that.

I was also very mindful of the fact that, even in the race, I drove with a fair bit of margin left so that I wasn’t going to make any mistakes and I wasn’t going to jeopardise the race for the team and for Shane. So being as close as I was performance-wise to the full-time guys was nice, but it’s not something I need to measure myself against anymore. I think the people around me and the people in the team are confident in what I bring to the team.

Th speed’s encouraging, but that’s not the be all and end all.

Is it the best team for which you’ve ever driven?

Oh, look, that’s hard to answer because I’ve only spent four race weekends with the team. But in saying that, they have a fantastic record, they have been incredibly welcoming to me, given that through the mid200s to the mid-2010s we had a fairly healthy rivalry going when I was at HSV Dealer Team and HRT versus Triple Eight. But they have bene amazingly welcoming to me in the organisation and gone out of their way to make me feel like I was part of the team. And the execute incredibly well – and they’ve proved that time and time again. I’m already on record as saying that if you could write a race plan and stick to it, this Bathurst was it. We hardly deviated from the race plan at all as far as executing what we wanted to execute and how we executed it. So all those elements suggest that they’re a very, very, very good team.

So what do you see as your future with Triple Eight? Are you up for a few more years as SVG’s co-driver and possibly more Bathurst wins?

I’d like to be – that’s the plan. Roland and I have spoken briefly already about working together further into the future. I’m not going to hang around just for posterity’s sake. I’ll only

We have spoken about it. We just haven’t dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, but we’ll get to that.

What are you doing otherwise tthese days?

W Well, I live in Melbourne, so not m much! This year has obviously been a very different year than what we’d planned. I was going to be racing in the GT championship, the TCR championship and the Supercars endurance races, but almost all of that hasn’t happened. Once we know how many V8 endurance races there’ll be, we’ll need to fill in some gaps in the calendar and make sure that I’m doing some extra racing. I’ll try to do TCR next year. We were planning to do it this, so we’ll try to roll that over into next year to get more race miles. And I enjoy the challenge of driving what’s a very different car to what I’ve driven pretty much for my entire career. I enjoy using my brain, and adapting and applying myself to something that doesn’t come naturally.

Does that help you as a Supercars co-driver?

I think it does. But I just enjoy it. A lot of people have asked me if I’d come back to Supercars as a full-time driver – and, no, I wouldn’t. I’ve done 20 years of that and I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy it again, but I’ve done that. TCR is a challenge. Front-wheel drive, the way you set the car up is very different, so I really enjoy having to really think about it. Even when I’m racing in TCR, I have to really think about it. It doesn’t come naturally, whereas at Bathurst, I hadn’t driven a Supercar all year, but within 10 laps I felt like I was back in my rhythm again. The TCR car takes a bit more than that, so I enjoy challenging myself. They don’t have the outright performance of a Supercar, but I’m not here to compare apples with oranges.

What about TV commentary? Are we going to see you on TV more?

With a bit of luck. I really enjoy the TV stuff. It’s a very different world to the driving world. It’s a bit like driving different race cars. Doing a bit of the TV stuff takes me out of that comfort zone and challenges you to improve yourself and be better the next time. The opportunities I’ve had I’ve really enjoyed and if there’s more opportunity in the future, then I’d love to be able to do it.

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Such is the case with the 2020 Bathurst 1000.

We know who won and who didn’t, but we want to understand more about why. So in an attempt to dig that bit deeper, AUTO ACTION compiled 10 of the questions the Great Race produced in 2020. We sent those questions out to the Supercars pitlane and waited to hear back. It didn’t take long. BRUCE NEWTON assessed and assembled the answers.

Did DJR Team Penske do the wrong thing starting Scott McLaughlin?

The lap 98 safety car was a pivotal moment for the chances of Scott McLaughlin and Tim Slade in the Bathurst 1000.

Two more laps under green and Slade would have cleared his 54 lap requirement, leaving the defending champ well and truly in the mix to fight for the win in the last three fuel stints against Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen and Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters.

Instead, Slade did 17 more laps and lost 13 seconds to the Red Bull Commodore and slid from second to fifth, the position where #17 finished.

Slade was in severe pain after stepping from the car as the long stint exposed an ill-fitting seat, which helped explain his pace shortfall.

Pitting the car early on lap 115 also meant McLaughlin had to fuel save to ensure he stopped only twice more.

So should Slade have started the race to ensure he was well and truly out of the car by the time Macauley Jones knocked Jack Smith into the Hell Corner sand trap?

Monday morning quarterbacking suggests yes, but the verdict from pitlane is DJRTP suffered more from bad luck than bad management.

“Two laps the other way they are in a different and better position,” said highly experienced Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton.

“It’s hard to call that strategy wrong or bad. Good work is easily undone

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by the safety car, we’ve had plenty of blows dealt out by the safety car over the years.”

AA says: It’s a mistake. McLaughlin and Slade should have finished on the podium.

Should there be a rule that main drivers start the Bathurst 1000?

Is it weird that we get to the most important Supercar race of the year and a great many of the stars simply stand on the sidelines and watch their co-drivers contest the opening stint?

Starting the co-driver is a darn good way to avoid what happened to McLaughlin and Slade, but it’s also a risk because the part-timers are launching these cars off an uphill grid with full tanks and tall gearing and then they get to race door-to-door on cold tyres around one of Australia’s most daunting racetracks.

Mandating who starts endurance races has been discussed at the Supercars Commission, but teams definitely don’t want a restriction placed on who starts the Bathurst 1000 because it narrows down strategic opportunities as the race unfolds.

“Would you really want all 24 cars on the same strategy?” asks Tickford Racing team principal Tim Edwards rhetorically.

Who starts also has no impact on TV audience viewer numbers, so if TV isn’t worried don’t expect a change to this anytime soon.

AA says: At Bathurst leave it as it is, but

shorter enduros – if they continue - such as the Gold Coast 600 need the main driver starting. Co-drivers can spend twothirds of those races behind the wheel.

Did team strategy stop Fabian Coulthard and Tony D finishing on the podium at Bathurst?

Through the years the #12 DJRTP Ford Mustang has been perceived very much as the team’s second entry. It was something Jamie Whincup emphasised only recently with his Townsville “plus one” comments.

This year at Bathurst Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’Alberto’s fortunes certainly suffered because of stacking. It was redressed somewhat because Tim Slade had to run an extra stint to complete his laps and Coulthard passed him for fourth place. McLaughlin never got that spot back.

But it goes deeper than that.

When #12 pitted on lap 98 it led the Mostert/Luff WAU Commodore that eventually finished third by 18 seconds.

It surrendered track position to that car because it had to stack and it never regained that position. DJRTP could have sent Slade around again under safety car and protected #12, but that would have

compromised #17. Instead both DJRTP cars took a hit.

DJRTP team principal Ryan Story says fourth was a good result for #12: “It was the best they could have done. I don’t think strategy was an overwhelming factor in where the finished, put it that way.”

While Coulthard might not have been in a position to win the race, he could have triggered a lead change at the final stop if he had arrived at his pit box only seconds later. That would have held up van Gisbergen and given Waters track position. Imagine #12 being involved in another pitlane drama after last year’s safety car incident!

AA says: Whincup’s got a case…

Why were there so many Holden power steering failures?

High-profile power steering failures at Bathurst included the 888 of Craig Lowndes in co-driver practice and the Nick Percat/Thomas Randle Brad Jones racing entry in the race – twice!

But the issue has been one the Holdens have fought with all year.

The primary cause is increased underbonnet temperatures triggered by the

The lights go green, let the battle begin. It was a clean opening few laps, however some teams on track were already compromised by the decisions made before the start of the race.

The damp track delivered the opportunity for the #97 car to take control of the race. (left)

change to the aerodynamic set-up of the Commodore for 2020, specifically the longer front undertray that also changes in angle.

Another contributing issue is aggressive suspension settings adopted these days, but that’s not unique to the Holdens.

No track imposes higher loads on chassis than Mount Panorama. The grate is said to have the highest load on steering of any corner in the country.

“We were very fortunate none of those failures threw any one into a wall,” remarked Story, who remembers painfully Scott Pye’s smack into the wall in 2015 because of a rack failure – but not as painfully as Pye, who suffered a fractured rib.

AA says: This is an issue that must be fixed for 2021.

Why did some teams run cool suits and some not and why do they fail, most notably in Tickford cars #5 and car #6.

The simple reason in favour of cool suits is they should keep the driver fresher and

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faster for longer. The simple reason n against them is the cooling system m ry adds weight, around 10kg as a very rough guide. That affects the lap speed potential of the car.

The car can’t simply have ballast removed to compensate for some of that added weight because the dry ice – up to six kg worth - in the system evaporates.

Dry ice is used in Supercars to cool the system’s recirculating water ter because it draws minimal power from om the car’s electrical system.

A failure of the cooling system means water circulating through the he vest under the racing suit quickly warms up and starts to overheat the driver. Failures can be caused by a number of different issues, for instance, the system can freeze because teams target a too low suit temperature or the plumbing can be installed incorrectly.

Replenishing the dry ice at pit stops is also another task that can go wrong .

So what happened to Tickford?

“Car six (Waters/Davison) failed because it wasn’t plugged in properly during a pit stop.,” Edwards said. “Cam knew it wasn’t working so he didn’t put his vest on for last stint. Car five (Holdsworth/Caruso) is an unknown cause.”

There was another recurring issue for Tickford with Jack Le Brocq ill in the #55 Supercheap entry on both Friday and Sunday and Waters ill during his final stints on Sunday. That is most likely related to fumes entering the cabins. It is being investigated by Tickford, which returned to work this week.

AA says: Tickford has had issues with cool suits before – remember Waters having to pit in Adelaide in 2019 because of a failure. They’re far from alone in having problems with them though.

They’re going to keep happening.

It was another tough weekend on the mount for BJR, Nick Percat showed real speed but was let down by power steering and ultimately engine issues.

Another Bathurst opportunity missed for Supercar-Superstar Jamie Whincup, he let frustration get the better of him in his battle with Brodie Kostecki

Was Brodie Kostecki doing the right thing racing so hard?

There’s two distinct ways of looking at Kostecki’s determined defending in the Great Race. The negative view was he was simply driving too hard too soon in his role as co-driver to Anton De Pasquale.

The positive is no-one was left in any doubt about Brodie’s competitiveness and bravery and that’s important for a bloke trying to secure a seat in the main game in 2021 based on talent rather than bank account.

In his first stint, Kostecki took over from De Pasquale in third place. He found himself up against a series of main game drivers and resisted each one in turn as they tried to pass. He even repassed some and ran off at the chase more than

once ttrying hold his ground i tto h ld hi d under d brakes.

“I enjoyed watching him race, there were some really ballsy moves,” said Dutton. “But there was also a bit of a lack of overall pace. As soon as he had someone to race he would pick up his pace and he’d do some great moves.

“I’d prefer if he was driving for us that he have the fast lap time more consistently.

His bread and butter is clean car, clean

bring llaps, b i it home for the main driver to get back in in a good position.”

The view from Bathurst podium finisher as driver and team owner Brad Jones is simple: “He was racing pretty hard and that’s his right.”

AA says: Yes, in his role as co-driver for Erebus Kostecki was not doing the right thing. Gotta love it though.

Brodie Kostecki showed his real competitiveness and bravery in his role as support driver to Anton De Pasquale, it was an audition from a young bloke trying to secure a seat in the main game in 2021 What was going on inside Jamie Whincup’s head?

Of course, Brodie Kostecki’s tactics came into sharper focus after he essentially faked Jamie Whincup into crashing into the outside wall at the Cutting.

The four-time race winner had caught and challenged Kostecki for fourth place racing into the Chase on lap 33. He had nearly piled into the back of the Penrite Commodore, as Kostecki moved across to defend his position.

Despite his engineer Dave Cauchi assuring him up Mountain Straight there was no rush to pass Kostecki, Whincup then made a lunge at turn 2 on lap 34 that didn’t quite stick. That left him hung out to dry as they raced up the hill.

The end result was the Red Bull Commodore stuffed into the wall and Whincup and Craig Lowndes nonfinishers in the Great Race for the first time since 2002.

So what was going on in Whincup’s head? Dutton, who engineered him to five of his seven Supercars championship, suspect the usually unflappable and calculating Whincup just got as bit annoyed.

“There’s enough evidence to say (he was) probably not 100 per cent. Jamie at his best – cool, calm and collected - doesn’t make decision that leads to those sorts of issues.

“Purely by process of working through the issue he had to have had a bit of mongrel in him saying ‘I want to get this pass done’. His engineer had just told him there was no rush to get the pass done, he knows its early in the race, he knows it’s risky passing there.

“But even knowing all those factors he still makes the decision to do it. So he had the race eyes on.”

All-time great turned commentator Mark Skaife says Whincup compounded his

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error by not being committed enough in attempting a properly executed turn 2 pass. “It was an unusually amateurish mistake. You could forgive a young bloke in a DVS car making that sort of mistake.

Clearly it was a lack of judgement that got him. He was clear of Kostecki and could have moved across to the left for the corner. He was never online and got caught by the car placement.”

AA says: Whincup seemed caught out by the resistance offered by Kostecki and didn’t adapt quick enough. There’s no doubt as a category superstar he’s accustomed to ‘lesser’ cars moving aside. In the end it means yet another weird Bathurst race for Whincup, who now hasn’t won the race since 2012.

Why does Brad Jones Racing battle at Bathurst?

Brad Jones Racing has bever won at Bathurst and you have to go back to 2009 for the last time it finished on the podium at Mount Panorama, when the late Jason Richards and Cam McConville missed out on the win by just 0.7 sec.

Over the years since there have been top fives, Friday fast times, front row starts, impressive speed and real potential.

But 2020 was mostly awful for BJR thanks to a series of failed steering pumps, driver’s doors that refused to stay shut and disqualification for Nick Percat from the top 10 shootout because the R&J Batteries Commodore was two kg underweight. That car also suffered a coil pack failure in the race.

Then there were practice and race crashes at either end of pit straight for rookie Jordan Boys, the friendly fire clash between Macauley Jones and Jack Smith and Smith’s spin into the Chase sand trap late in the race because of a deflated tyres.

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It was an unbelievable litany of disaster and another chapter in the unique lovehate relationship the Albury team has with Mount Panorama.

BJR is still investigating the mechanical problems, but team owner Brad Jones says there are valid explanations for them that do not relate to the team personnel or processes. That’s good news.

“Keep in mind we raced all year and we were the only other team that locked out a front row apart from Penske and Red Bull, so we are not a bunch of dithering f---wits,” was Jones’ succinct view.

AA says: BJR’s litany of Bathurst failures were in contrast to the team’s other 2020 achievements, which were thoroughly impressive. It’s like having a great home and away season in the AFL and then getting flogged in the Grand Final. Continuing that analogy, smashed footy teams either use such results as motivation to rebound for greater success or are crushed by them. We’re tipping a rebound for BJR. Did fatigue and the limitation imposed

by COVID leading up to and during race week contribute to multiple issues across multiple teams?

There’s no doubt 2020 was an exhausting and unique Supercars season, especially for the Victorian teams that put up with more than 100 days away from home.

But the teams that had the toughest Bathursts were evenly split across the home states for Supercars – Erebus (Vic), BJR (NSW) and MSR (Qld).

Victorian-based Tickford Racing came on strong in the second half of the year while on the road and went within seconds of winning the Bathurst 1000.

Star driver Cam Waters on more than one occasion said being on the road bonded the team closer together.

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AA says: Everyone involved in completing the Supercars season deserves our gratitude. But the Victorians and the families they left behind moreso than any others.

Is a brake rotor change actually required, or is it just an expensive distraction that cruels the race for some teams?

Rotor changes became mandatory at Bathurst in 2018 after Mark Winterbottom’s Falcon suffered an exploded disc in 2016 and an upgraded AP disc still suffered cracking in 2017.

For 2020 it appeared they would become voluntary once more because an endurance-spec AP rotor was rated capable of making it through the race.

But safety-first ruled the day.

It has been down to the teams to develop their rotor change methodology. The need is to change the red-hot discs inside the fuel window at a pit stop.

Inevitably some do it better than others and time is lost when it goes wrong. So should the rotor change be made voluntary or the change procedure standardised.

No-one AA polled thought so.

“We’ve always prided ouselves on being able to figure out how to get the cars in and out of the pits as quickly as we can and when there’s a freedom we work pretty hard at making sure we can meet the time limits set by the fuel going in the car,” said Jones.

“Different teams have come up with different options and I think that’s what makes our race a little bit special sometimes.”

AA says: Safety first. Always. That it adds another storyline to the race is a bonus.

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35

Images: Insyde Media, AMRS/Ricciardo Benvenuti

Since its introduction onto the Australian Motor Racing Series calendar in 2018, the one-make Mazda RX-8 Cup has rapidly built a solid following in what is a crowded motor sport marketplace.

HEATH McALPINE investigates how cost-effective this series is and why its popularity continues to grow.

A CONVERSATION between co-drivers during the Bathurst 6 Hour spawned the concept of RX-8 Cup, a class that has experienced steady growth over the course of its inaugural three seasons.

The man behind the series is noted production car racer and rotary specialist Ric Shaw, who was determined to provide an accessible option to get into motor sport.

“After a 37-year career in motor sport spanning whatever I’ve done, I just decided in some respects that it was time to give something back to the sport,” explained Shaw.

“I’m fairly strong on the idea of giving something back to the sport for the guys,

36 AutoAction

who want to start motor racing that don’t currently race, so it’s orientated around grassroots at the beginner-type level.

“It’s for competitors that want to race easily and affordably at a level that’s not rocket science. Easy to build a car, easy to maintain, easy to run, you don’t need a transporter, no need for a cast of thousands to specially run it.

“That’s the incentives I had towards it.”

And from all reports, RX-8 Cup achieves those goals. Shaw’s development started with devising a control parts package in mid-2017, similar to the formula used in the Toyota 86 Race Series, but remaining very much production car based.

With the initial package decided, the

first RX-8s hit the track in 2018 as part of the Australian Motor Racing Series where competitors have competed at circuits including Winton and The Bend Motorsport Park.

The category is aimed at beginners, but also experienced competitors continue to join the series, some have even used the class to return to motor sport after a long hiatus. Enter former production car frontrunner of the early-1990s, Terry Lewis.

RX-8 Cup caters to both national and state-based competitors through the AMRS with entry fees hitting the $1000 mark, which includes a garage and Friday practice.

A weekend encompasses four or five

practice sessions, qualifying and four races. While plans for next year are not set in stone, it is envisioned RX-8 Cup will conduct a six-round national series, plus four-round state component.

The category employs four-staff, including its own scrutineers to police the strict rules put in place by the regulations.

To get involved in the series there are a variety of pathways. One is to acquire and build a Series I RX-8 (2003-2007) into a race car, another is to purchase secondhand and finally leasing one is also a possibility.

A road-going RX-8 can be bought for anywhere between $2000-$7000 depending on its condition. To convert

Mazda RX-8 Cup is one of the fastest growing categories in Australia, consistently attracting 20-entries a round (left). Building a car is relatively easy to do, a kit is bought through Ric Shaw and is troublefree to install (above). Shaw is the creator of the series (below).

the platform to RX-8 Cup specification can cost as low as $12,000 or top end builds can reach $35,000. Anymore than that and Shaw says it’s a waste of money.

“Guys are building RX-8s from go-towoe, $20,000 for a brand new car,” Shaw told Auto Action.

“It depends how much you buy the car for, whether its $2000 or $5000 and then our control package is $4100.

“The cheapest RX-8 to be put on the grid cost around $12,000, but realistically, a well-built car that I could do competitive lap times in costs around $20,000.

“If some guy – and this goes for any category – starts with a shell, strips it, puts it on a rotisserie, sandblasts it, builds it from there with new nuts and bolts on the thing, yeah sure he could spend $50,000, but it would be a waste of money.

“I think the most someone’s spent to build a car is $30,000, because they’ve rebuilt the motor and the gearbox with everything new. Did it go any faster? No. “When you look across the board, most people have got a very cost effective, wellbuilt, reliable car on-track for $20,000.”

The roll cage is not controlled, but must meet Motorsport Australia National specifications, though most competitors use a bolt-in unit that can be installed at their home for $4000.

Next, a RX-8 Cup control kit is needed to complete the transformation, which is purchased directly through Shaw.

At a cost of $4100, the kit comprises an MCA suspension package including springs and shocks, a Ric Shaw Performance exhaust system, a set of 18 x 8 Speedy Wheels rims including open wheel nuts, a set of Nankang A1 tyres, Circo brake pads and a category supplied air intake utilising a K&N filter.

Shaw designed the kit to not only be cost-effective, but easy to install limiting the requirement for professional help.

“I think 99 percent of the cars on the grid have been built at home,” explained Shaw.

“Everything that bolts on is all off the shelf, really, really easy provided you have some mechanical ability, you can do that.

“You don’t need to come to me or another mechanical workshop and ask us to build you a car, you could build one yourself if you wanted to.”

Although, keeping costs low was a high priority, it didn’t compromise on the quality of the product as Shaw researched and tested the concept to achieve the desired result.

“I didn’t want the cars to be super, super cheap, but horrible to drive because they were on an unsuitable tyre, I didn’t want that,” said Shaw.

“I wanted them to be pretty good to drive, quite rewarding to drive and to feel like they cost more than they already do.

“We’ve sort of achieved that and that’s what everyone says, the package is good and they’re surprisingly good to drive for the little money to get it that good.”

Getting the components is also an easy process with Shaw maintaining a large inventory.

“We have a supply chain of absolutely everything,” Shaw said.

“If someone comes to me who is building a car, we can supply him 100 percent of every component they need right down to bonnet pins at a competitor price. We have a discount on everything, right down to lithium batteries, seat mounts, isolator switch mounts, we have everything that is customised for an RX-8.

“As soon as they’re apart of the category and they’re building a car, they are entitled to those discounts.”

Extra items that can be fitted include an improved clutch plate developed by Direct Clutch in Queensland, a category bespoke PWR radiator, suspension bushes, stock brake rotors are commonly replaced with DBA 4000 Series, adhering to the same size as the original component.

“Where the rules allow freedoms is either it’s a needed safety item or to

make it reliable and motor sport savvy,” emphasised Shaw.

“There’s still enough to adjust and tune, ride height, shock settings, wheel alignment and tyre pressures without having too much. It’s enough for the average first-timer to get their head around and play with.

“The RX-8s less modified than a 3E production car because those are allowed to modify the brakes, we’re not and certainly we can’t touch the engines in any way or the engine management in anyway.”

Speaking of engines, the famous Mazda Rotary is a reliable base for the category and maintaining it during the season is trouble free.

“The requirements of servicing are low, it’s not like a piston engine, there are no timing belts or valves to adjust,” Shaw explained. “You pretty much don’t have to do anything to them other than servicing the ignition system, like changing spark plugs, changing oil and filters. It’s really simple basic servicing stuff that gets done.

“It is dependent on the competitor, some spend a little more time polishing things, but some guys are rather lax and do little more than change the engine oil.

They are quite maintenance free, so very light, general servicing, bleeding brakes,

AutoAction 37

CO$T$ GUIDE ENTRY FEES

$1000 per round (includes garage and Friday practice)

NEW DIY CAR BUILD $12,000-$32,000

NEW CAR PURCHASE From $20,000

LEASE

$3000 per round

RX-8 CUP KIT

$4100 (includes: set of 18x8 Speedy Wheels rims and open wheel nuts, a set of Nankang AR1 tyres, Circo S99 front brake pads, Circo S83 rear brake pads, Ric Shaw Performance exhaust system, MCA springs and shocks, air intake).

EXTRAS

DBA 4000 Series front $200, rear $250-$300 PWR radiator $1000 Clutch plate Direct Clutch $1000 Oil cooler S-Sport supplied complete kit $450

TYRES

Nankang $800 a set, $200 each

BRAKES

Pads $220 Rotors $200-250

SIX ROUND - NATIONAL SEASON BUDGETS

Approximately $20,000, including interstate meetings.

WANT A TASTE?

COMPETITOR SAM Silvestro supplies many components that form part of the Mazda RX-8 Cup package, but has now branched out into offering arrive and drive packages.

Through his S-Sport business, Silvestro offers a variety of levels catered to a client’s needs whether that be providing partial track support or a bring your helmet and drive deal.

“We offer pretty economical packages tailored to what somebody wants, whether they want to turn up and drive, then leave afterwards or if they want to pitch in and tow the car to the race track,” said Silvestro.

“Some of those guys have gone on to build cars, absolutely. They used me as a toe in the water and they went on to build cars like Adam Spence and Matt Butters.”

Silvestro estimated a fullysupported package at Sydney Motorsport Park to cost $3000 for the weekend, which includes a crew member and the right spares to finish the weekend.

S-Sport also supply a bundle of safety components including steering wheels, seat, seat mounts, isolator switch bracket, window nets and fire extinguisher at an estimated cost of between $2000-3000. HM

3388 Auto AutoAction oActiion

Most competitors fit a bolt-in cage due to its easy installation (above left). The Rotary engine remains stock apart from a PWRdeveloped radiator that is optional, so is an additional oil cooler, while the air filter is a control component (above middle). Competitors including such as Justin Barnes race at circuits including Sydney Motorsport Park, Winton, Wakefield Park and more as part of AMRS. changing engine oils, maybe checking wheel alignment and a good clean is all that it probably needs.”

One item the RX-8 Cup is very stringent on is appearance in its aim to uphold a professional standard, although still an entry-level class. Also, each competitor must have an A-Board providing information on their career, car history and sponsors.

Driving standards is also a key focus as well, with improvements made each meeting and a category driving standards officer installed on most race weekends.

As aforementioned, in-house scrutineers are also employed at meetings to make sure all entries conform to the regulations.

“We’ve got our own in-house technical scrutineers,” Shaw said. “The sole job for them is to be with us and to check the technical requirements of the cars.

Whether it’s weighing cars, checking ride heights, marking tyres or checking engine seals, diff ratios and just looking at all the different things.”

But how have competitors found the class?

Steve McLaine was one of the first converts to RX-8 Cup in 2018 and has built two-cars, one at each end of the price spectrum. McLaine and his son Shannon form one of the many fatherson combinations in the field.

“The first car I bought was for $2500 as a road-registered car and I ran that motor at its first meeting, so that car cost me $17,000 to build,” McLaine said.

“I left the motor, gearbox, diff, it didn’t have all the offset bushes in the suspension, it was a very basic race car.

“This car I have now, I went the other way. This one cost me $32,000 to build, I paid $4000 for an immaculate one owner, which was way too good to turn into a race car, but I just wanted a good base.

“It owed me $32,000 when I’d finished, but that was a rebuilt motor, rebuilt gearbox, rebuilt diff, new driveshafts, new wheel bearings, everything in the car was brand new to start with.”

Preparation for the McLaines is comprehensive.

“Three-four days before every meeting, it’s on the hoist and the car is stripped, the suspension comes out of it, it’s fully nut and bolted, all the oils get changed, all the fluids – as in brake fluid – gets changed, wheel aligned, gearbox gets rotated every meeting,” McLaine detailed.

The budgets McLaine adheres to are

approximately $2000-$2500 per local round at Sydney Motorsport Park and $4000 for interstate meetings, which includes accommodation and transport.

This works out to be a season budget of $20,000.

McLaine did highlight one weakness, the gearbox. This can be encountered through drivers flat changing, but if this is avoided a gearbox can last a full-season.

“Gearboxes are probably the biggest weak point of the car,” McLaine admitted.

“If you drive them sensibly, your gearbox lasts for a whole season, but the way they’re driving at the front now, they’re smashing gears so hard and if you want to compete with these guys,

you’ve got to drive the same as they do.”

McLaine also complemented Shaw on his approachability in providing advice to all competitors.

“What we’ve learnt over the past three years running the series and what the cars are like, Ric passes that on,” McLaine said. “Competitors building new cars from scratch can have a good RX-8 out of the box. We’re not testing things any more, we know what works on them.

“Ric’s pretty hands on and gives every competitor the same advice.”

Justin Barnes recently joined the category as a lifelong fan of the Rotary engine and has emerged as a series frontrunner, winning rounds this season.

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Barnes handles everything himself, he built his RX-8 at home in the garage, the preparation and transportation as a ‘one-man-band’.

Purchasing his RX-8 for $7000, it took Barnes five-weeks to build his weapon and found the whole process very simple.

“Extremely easy,” Barnes summed up. “Ric can supply all the bits that you need to build the car. The components are all bolt-on bits, all replacement items so they all fit quite easily.

“The best thing about it is there is only one of everything, there’s no variations. It’s one suspension package, one tyre, one brake pad, it’s controlled and it makes for an even playing field.”

He admitted to throwing new tyres on at every meeting with the Nankangs costing $800 a set or $200 a tyre. Although, some competitors can go through a season on a set of tyres, as although there is an initial drop off, the Nankangs remain constant afterward.

No modifications (buffing) can be made to the tyres, however cleaning can be completed with a glove.

The Circo brake pads last four to five meetings at the rear and three at the front, changing a set costs $440.

Barnes is another to use the DBA 4000 Series rotors, which can be purchased for $200 for the rears and $250-$300 at the front. Also, Barnes has invested in a second oil cooler as advised

by Shaw and suspension bushes at a cost of $500-$600.

The racing clutch plate installed hasn’t been a problem for Barnes, who remains on a strict budget. He brings his own fuel to the track, which will change as the category is expected to use Race Fuels as a control fuel supplier and estimates he uses 80-litres a race meeting.

Oil change occurs after every two meetings, but does need to be topped up during a weekend. Barnes also stated that he hardly touches the gearbox or diff oils, just general checks during servicing.

Engines are sealed by the category, a replacement unit costs $8000 with the ECU locked and a gearbox is $2500.

Another competitor is Jake Lougher, who bought an RX-8 direct from Shaw for $20,000 and is enthusiastic about the series.

“Value for money, I think it’s a really great entry level class that is very competitive and I thoroughly enjoy it because there’s not much that you can do to the car to make them go that little bit more,” Lougher said.

“It’s all about the driver to try and get as much out of the car as you can.”

Competitors receive 25 percent of OEM parts through Mazda, but Lougher explained a donor car is a handy investment as well and is handy when wanting to build a new machine.

“When you go to buy replacement parts, it’s cheaper to buy a doner car rather than a guard, which might cost you $300, but a whole spare car may cost $1500,” he explained. “So, we’ve got a vast array RX-8s in the garage, one of which might be built into a new car for next year.”

A GoPro is also required at a cost of $400 to Lougher, while he purchased a radio for $1500, though it isn’t mandatory for the class.

Although the motor sport marketplace is a crowded one, categories that were once seen as cheap and cheerful are quickly becoming the opposite.

Through the controls put in place, the RX-8 Cup won’t meet the same fate and provides an easy and accessible entry into motor sport.

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39

A TALL TALENT Beginning his career karting on the dirt, Max Vidau has transitioned to the tarmac with ease and is the latest in a long line of drivers to follow the Porsche pathway as DAN McCARTHY discovered

IN HIS short motor racing career so far, Max Vidau is already a previous winner of the Australian Formula Ford Series, before stepping up to the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge where he finished third on two occasions.

This year, Vidau progressed to the ultra-competitive Porsche Carrera Cup Series until COVID-19 put a halt on the season.

Nevertheless, Vidau has kept race fit in recent months by returning to his roots driving dirt karts and racing in sprintcars, which he plans to do during the summer season.

“I built a dirt kart for my school project,” Vidau told Auto Action. “I ended up putting a 125cc engine in that and having a few runs. I have also had my first runs in a 410 Sprintcar,” “The Sprintcar is definitely different, you’ve got to completely relearn how to drive a race car!

“A whole lot of horsepower there that I’m not really used to in the Porsche, which obviously is a quick race car, but 900hp is a bit different.

“It’ll be a nice busy summer for us and it’ll keep me race fit.”

Vidau enjoyed success at the start of his career in dirt karts, winning a national championship and three state titles, but made the decision to move into tarmac racing.

“Growing up watching Supercars, that was obviously a big goal of mine,” he said.

“But, when I started doing well in the dirt kart I was looking at speedway.

“When I was 14-years-old, I wanted to race some fast cars, but couldn’t race a 410 Sprintcar, so I moved over to the bitumen.”

After racing successfully in tarmac karting

40 AutoAction

South Australian Max Vidau is a former Australian Formula Ford Series winner (below), before following the Porsche pathway with noted junior development team Sonic Motor Racing Services (above). Vidau served his apprenticeship in Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, winning multiple races before transitioning to Carrera Cup for this season (above right). Vidau is also a wiz on the clay (right). for two years, the next step was circuit racing where Vidau made his debut at Mallala in the South Australian Excel Series in 2015.

“It was a bit of a laugh that weekend but I managed to get the lap record!” Vidau

said.

The following year, Vidau’s career took a major step forward when he contested the Victorian State Formula Ford Championship, before contesting the Australian title in 2017.

Vidau has enjoyed an association with Sonic Motor Racing Services since racing Formula Ford and is one that continues to this day.

In fact, it was the father of a Supercars star that guided Vidau towards Mick Ritter’s noted developement team.

“My dad knows Nick Percat’s old man pretty well, because they both have mechanical workshops here in Adelaide,” Vidau explained.

“He just said ‘if you want to do it, do it properly, and if you want to know if you’re a half decent driver you have got to go to Mick (Ritter team owner of Sonic) and he will tell you straight up.’

“I’m lucky enough that Mick sees

something in me, and I’m still racing for him.

“The first day went pretty good. I fell off the track a few times as you do, but I learnt a lot and ended up doing some pretty decent times by the end of the day.”

The 2016 season was a breakout for Vidau as he won 13 of the 15 races that season. It was clear that the next step was the national series.

Success continued for Vidau at national level as he finished either first or second in seven of the first eight races.

“After that, I just stayed consistent,” he recalled. “Going into the second last round I could have wrapped it up there but I made a little mistake.”

It became a nail-biting season finale when Vidau was caught up in an accident during the penultimate race of the season.

However, he was able to fend off rivals Hunter McElrea and Cameron Shields to take the title.

By winning the Australian Formula Ford Series, Vidau had the chance to compete in the Road To Indy Shootout, but found it was a tight fit.

Vidau keeps tabs on his McElrea and Shields, who are both forging careers in the states.

“We looked to move overseas, but I honestly don’t fit in an open-wheel race car very well, I’m six foot five and over 90 kilos so I’m not quite the perfect open wheel driver.

“For Hunter to go on and do what he’s done, it definitely would have been cool, but it didn’t work out.”

Vidau’s budget was more suited to GT3 Cup Challenge, which has proven to be a successful formula for young drivers to take in recent years.

Matt Campbell, Jordan Love, Dylan O’Keeffe and Jaxon Evans are just some of the graduates.

“We could have gone the Supercars route, but the money just wasn’t there to do it.

“At that stage of my career I was pretty much followed what Ritter told me to do

and I got an awesome opportunity to run with Sonic in GT3 Cup Challenge.

“It’s a front running team, no matter what you’re in.”

It was a seamless leap into the secondtier Porsche category, winning his maiden round to kick off the 2018 season.

However, he finished third in the title behind Simon Fallon and Cooper Murray, but explained that he took many lessons away from his maiden season.

“The Formula Ford’s a lot more forgiving, you can absolutely drive the wheels off the thing and get a lap time, I did that in the Porsche and it didn’t quite work,” Vidau explained.

“I made a few mistakes but learnt a lot,” Mechanical failures cost Vidau during his sophomore season in the category.

Despite picking up eight race victories and 13 podiums he again finished third, but the season gave him confidence to join Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2020.

“We had a clutch go and a fuel pump go,” he said. “We were up the front of the field no matter what, it was an interesting year but unfortunately we couldn’t get it

done.”

“We were pretty consistent as the year went on. If one of those DNFs didn’t happen we would have been fine, we would have won it, but oh well.”

Vidau made his debut at home on the streets of Adelaide and recorded a top five finish among a hungry pack of talented drivers.

“I have been pretty lucky to be teammates to guys like Dale Wood and Michael Almond,” Vidau explained. “I’ve learnt a lot from them, just a few little things that I’ve picked up.”

“Drivers are definitely more aggressive

compared to Cup Challenge.

They aren’t afraid to have a drive at you, but that’s all good!”

Following a certain pathway is not on Vidau’s radar, he just wants to race for a living.

“I’m just happy to race cars, obviously what Matt Campbell has done over in Europe is awesome,” Vidau commented.

“It’d be awesome to follow him and end up where he is today, but if I end up in a Supercar I definitely would not be complaining.”

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Formula One

Round 13 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP

Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

LEWIS EXTENDS WIN TOTAL Lewis Hamilton’s extended pit strategy resulted in victory, while Daniel Ricciardo joins him on the podium LEWIS HAMILTON’S strategy of extending his stint out on the track before his first pitstop worked perfectly to give him the lead, and he went on to increase his record number of victories to 93.

Then, late in the race, the strategy of the Renault team to not have Daniel Ricciardo pit during a safety car period resulted in the Australian finishing third – his second podium in three races and the 31st of his Formula 1 career.

F1 returned to race at Imola, Italy for the first time since 2006 – that race was won by Michael Schumacher – and a circuit with a veil of poignant sadness because Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna died there in 1994.

Imola is an old school track and overtaking around the 4.909km 19-turn Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, its official name. This season the track hosted the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, is extremely difficult. Qualifying well, therefore, was crucial.

Valtteri Bottas qualified his Mercedes on pole while Hamilton lined up second.

Max Verstappen slotted his Red Bull into his customary third place. Fourth was Pierre Gasly, on thier ‘home track’ both the AlphaTauri/Honda’s were inside the top ten and looking fast.

Ricciardo slammed in what he called his best lap of the season to claim fifth on the grid.

It may be better to be lucky than good, but to be both, as was the case for Hamilton in Imola, was even better.

Hamilton dropped to third behind Bottas and Verstappen at the start of the 66-lap race. On lap two Bottas ran over some debris and then struggled for the rest of the race with a damaged car.

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Lewis Hamilton enjoyed Grand Prix win number 93. So much so, that he joined third placed, our man Dan Ricciardo with a sip from Dan’s other shoe. Valtteri Bottas lead from pole until his Mercedes suffered serious floor and aerodynamic damage on lap two. He fought hard to fend off Max Verstappen, but the damge limited his cars speed in fast corners. (Below)

“It affected me mainly in high-speed corners,” Bottas said. “I could feel that the car was sliding a bit, and in some braking it was a bit unpredictable.

So sometimes I would lock the wheels and sometimes it would stop pretty quickly. It was not really consistent, the downforce I had in the car. It made it really tricky, and I could see I just didn’t quite have the pace.”

Still, Bottas led until he pitted for tyres at the end of lap 19. Hamilton took the lead and kept it when he finally pitted at the end of lap 30.

“It was incredibly intense, very hard, physically and mentally quite draining as well, mainly because it’s a very fast circuit, very bumpy,” Hamilton said.

“Valtteri got a great start. I thought I would get a better start, but it didn’t turn out the way I would have liked and I fell to third. My next strategy was to try and get by the Red Bull, but it was just impossible to get close, and in trying to get close I was killing the front tyres.

So I backed off and just tried to keep within distance. Then Max stopped much earlier than I thought he would and Valtteri stopped to cover him, and there was no way I was doing the same.”

Verstappen fought his way past Bottas to claim second place, but then his race ended on lap 51.

“I was actually having a lot of fun,” Verstappen said, “and then suddenly on the straight I lost the car because of some sort of tyre failure.”

That put Bottas back in second behind Hamilton, and it promoted Ricciardo to fourth behind Sergio Pérez.

However, Racing Point made a

EMILIA ROMAGNA GP 63 LAPS

A late race pitstop to go onto new soft tyres while in third place probably cost Sergio Perez and Racing Point a well deserved podium. (above) It was a race long battle between Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc, until the final saftey car. (below) Daniil Kvyat in the AlphaTauri pitted for fresh soft tyres and with pace he battled up to forth right up to the back of Ricciardo. (below)

massive strategic mistake by calling Pérez in for new tyres during the resultant safety car period. And that moved Ricciardo up to third, a position he held on to at the restart at the end of lap 57 and for the rest of the race.

“We were running P5 with roughly 15 laps to go,” Ricciardo said. “Then there was the issue with Max (Verstappen), so that brought out the safety car. That put me in fourth on track, and then (Sergio) Pérez pitted. I was smiling about that because I was: ‘Well, that’s given me third on track.’

“I knew hanging on with the (well worn) hard (compound tyres) on the restart was going to be tricky, but I was more than happy to fight for it at the end. Track position is obviously very important around here.

Both myself and the team were very willing to keep me out on track. We held on.

“The threat at the end was (AlphaTauri driver Daniil) Kvyat and that was very surprising. I wasn’t sure where he came from, but I was told he was on the soft (tyres) and he was coming on obviously very strong – but I held on and I’m just very, very happy.”

Hamilton was happy as well because Mercedes clinched a record seventh consecutive world constructors’ championship.

“It’s almost more exciting winning the team one,” he said. “It’s a very strange sport in the sense that it is a team sport, but there are two championships and then there is an individual championship. But what is at the core of our job is to deliver points and results for the team. So, when you win a team championship, I think it’s almost better than an individual because it’s something you do collectively, with a large group of people. And whilst we are the ones standing on top of the podium we are not above anybody. We are on the same level; we are all part of the chain links.”

While Bottas still has a mathematical chance of grabbing the title, Hamilton is now on the verge of clinching his seventh world drivers’ championship and tying the record with the legendary – and seven-time F1 winner at Imola – Michael Schumacher.

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h28m32.430s 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 5.783s 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 14.320s 4 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 15.141s 5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 19.111s 6 Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes 19.652s 7 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 20.230s 8 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 21.131s 9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 22.224s 10 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 26.398s 11 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 27.135s 12 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 28.453s 13 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 29.163s 14 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 32.935s 15 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 57.284s George Russell Williams/Mercedes Spun off Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda Puncture Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari Physical Esteban Ocon Renault Clutch Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda Radiator Points: Hamilton 282, Bottas 197, Verstappen 162, Ricciardo 95, Leclerc 85, Perez 82, Norris 69, Sainz 65, Albon 64, Gasly 63, Stroll 57, Ocon 40, Kvyat 26, Vettel 18, Hulkenberg 10, Raikkonen 4, Giovinazzi 4, Grosjean 2, Magnussen 1.

Constructors: Mercedes 479, Red Bull Racing-Honda 226, Renault 135, McLarenRenault 134, Racing Point-Mercedes 134, Ferrari 103, AlphaTauri-Honda 89, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 8, Haas-Ferrari 3.

It wasn’t a great day for the McLaren duo, but they were both solidly inside the points.

Pierre Gasly was in great form and qualified in forth, but his car was suspect before the start of the race and he retired early with a coolant leak. (Below left) The Alfa Romeo/Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi ran well, a long first stint saw Raikkonen as high as forth while Giovinazzi and his excelent starting pace delivered both drivers World Championship points. (Below)

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Formula One

Round 12 Portuguese GP

MAKING HISTORY

Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

Lewis Hamilton made history by setting the record of 92 career F1 victories AFTER TYING Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 Formula 1 wins with his victory in Germany, Lewis Hamilton topped it by finishing first in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

“I owe these 92 wins to the team here and back and the factory for their tremendous work,” Hamilton said. “They are continuously innovating and pushing the barrier even higher every year. The reliability has been incredible thanks to the Mercedes team, Petronas and all our partners who are continuously pushing.

No one is sitting back on the success, everyone is pushing and pushing and pushing. That’s the most incredible thing to be surrounded by; it inspires you, that collaboration, and there’s nothing quite like it.”

Of course Hamilton has been doing his part as well! After struggling in the early laps in Portugal he went on to score a convincing win ahead of his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Formula 1 returned to race in Portugal for the first time since 1996, but not to the Estoril circuit outside of Lisbon but to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve at Portimão. The track has numerous configurations, and the one used for the weekend was 4.653km and had 15 turns (nine right, six left).

It had been resurfaced recently, and that surface was very slippery – something that would play a key role in the race.

Hamilton had pipped Bottas for the pole, and they along with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were the only drivers in the top 10 to start the 66 lap race on

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Lewis Hamilton broke the record for all-time Formula 1 wins at Portimao, but it wasn’t without an early fight (above). Pierre Gasly again starred for AlphaTauri in finishing fifth (below)

Pirelli’s medium compound slicks. The rest were on the soft compound tyre.

Light rain at the start made the track even more greasy, and the drivers on the mediums struggled to get their tyres switched on. There was plenty of slipping and sliding, and Bottas took the lead, while Carl Sainz vaulted from seventh to second and then first in his McLaren. Hamilton dropped to third.

But then the complexion of the race flipped as the rain stopped, the track dried, and the medium tires started working while the softs deteriorated.

Bottas overtook Sainz on lap six, and Hamilton grabbed the lead from Bottas on lap 20 and pulled away. A key to Hamilton’s victory came in practice when he dialed in his car differently to Bottas.

“Set-up was something that I really focused on,” Hamilton said. “It was less about qualifying set-up, and more for the race set-up and I think today that enabled me to go one better, I guess, than before. I just felt like I was generally getting faster and faster throughout the race, but I had to keep up the pace for these tyres. That was really the key.”

Hamilton endured a painful cramp in his right calf, dealt with tricky cross winds, and kept discovering ways to go quicker. Bottas could not stick with his teammate.

“I just didn’t have the pace today,” Bottas said after finishing second.

“And I don’t understand why – no pace whatsoever. I was pushing hard but I couldn’t go faster. It was a tough one for me, and I will be working hard with the team to understand why.”

On their medium tyres the Mercedes

Max Verstappen continues to be a thorn in the side of Mercedes, but was unable to sustain his challenge, finishing third and lost more ground to Valtteri Bottas in the battle for second in the Championship.

Carlos Sainz Jr took an early lead, but dropped back to sixth (left). Kimi Raikkonen charged on the opening lap, however faded as the race went on to finish just outside the points (right). drivers extended their first stints before finally pitting – Hamilton after 40 laps and Bottas after 41 laps – for the hard compound Pirellis.

In retrospect, Red Bull acknowledged it should have put Verstappen on the medium tyres first strategy. His soft tyres lasted 23 laps and then it was onto the mediums.

“The beginning was of course not so easy with a little bit of rain and low grip, which meant the tyre temperatures were very low for the first few laps,” Verstappen said after finishing third – his 40th F1 podium. “The soft tyre wasn’t working so well today, but once we pitted and went onto the medium tyres, we had good pace and it was quite okay. Of course, by then already the gap to Mercedes was so big so we couldn’t really do anything.”

Daniel Ricciardo finished in the points for the sixth consecutive race. But while he had crossed the line between fifth and third in the previous rounds, he was back in ninth place this time. While the Renault team has improved the car, its weak point is still high downforce circuits. And Portimão, especially After contact with Verstappen and spinning off on the first lap, Sergio Perez recovered to take seventh.

with its slippery surface, required maximum downforce.

“A bit of damage limitation,” the Australian said after the race. “From a constructors’ point of view McLaren gained two points on us, and we kept a tie with Racing Point, which is important in a difficult race.”

Ricciardo started 10th and had to pit after just 14 laps to switch from the soft to the medium compound tyres.

“I had graining on the soft tyres, so we did not have enough aero balance on the car and killed the fronts quite quickly,” he said.

“On the medium it was a struggle to get the tyre working and to get it into the temperature window. You would get a few drops of rain every now and then, so I felt I would get there, and then the track would cool and I was just underneath the window. Very tricky to push and to generate temperature. I did not have the grip to push. So a tricky one, but we still got some points so not too bad.”

And it was not too bad a day for Hamilton either.

The positions were reversed between the Renault teammates by the end of the race.

RACE RESULTS PORTUGESE GRAND PRIX

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h29m56.828s 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 25.592s 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 34.508s 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m05.312s 5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1 Lap 6 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 1 Lap 7 Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes 1 Lap 8 Esteban Ocon Renault 1 Lap 9 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1 Lap 10 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1 Lap 11 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1 Lap 12 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1 Lap 13 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1 Lap 14 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1 Lap 15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1 Lap 16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1 Lap 17 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1 Lap 18 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 2 Laps 19 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 2 Laps Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes Accident damage Points: Hamilton 256, Bottas 179, Verstappen 162, Ricciardo 80, Leclerc 75, Perez 74, Norris 65, Albon 64, Gasly 63, Sainz 59, Stroll 57, Ocon 40, Vettel 18, Kvyat 14, Hulkenberg 10, Giovinazzi 3, Raikkonen 2, Grosjean 2, Magnussen 1 Constructors: Mercedes 435, Red Bull Racing-Honda 226, Racing Point-Mercedes 126, McLaren-Renault 124, Renault 120, Ferrari 93, AlphaTauri-Honda 77, Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 5, Haas-Ferrari 3

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MOTOGP AND WORLD SUPERBIKE WRAP

MORBIDELLI IN THE FIGHT Reports: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT WITH VICTORY in the Teruel Grand Prix at Aragon in Spain, Franco Morbidelli has launched himself into title contention with only three races remaining.

The win was Morbidelli’s second victory of the season as he joins teammate Fabio Quartararo as a multiple MotoGP race winner this season.

After a controlled display oneweek prior, Suzuki’s Alex Rins came into the race as the favourite with teammate and championship leader Joan Mir also expected to be in the running.

Not to be ruled out, Honda riders Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami were finally delivering on their potential.

After signing a contract extension with LCR Honda leading into the weekend, Nakagami took that momentum into the weekend by remaining in the top two during practice, before achieving his maiden MotoGP pole position.

It was an extremely competitive qualifying session as the Japanese rider edged out Morbidelli by just 0.063s. The previous week’s winner, Rins was third.

Factory Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales started fourth ahead of the sole Ducati in the top 12, Johann Zarco.

Quartararo started in sixth while Mir started down in 12th after a challenging Q2 session.

All current-spec Ducati riders failed to progress into Q2,

Franco Morbidelli racked up his second win of the season at Aragon Motorland.

Aussie Jack Miller was 14th and championship contender Andrea Dovizioso 17th.

The three riders on the front row made an even launch at the race start. Nakagami ran slightly wide at Turn 1, but Morbidelli was unable to capitalise.

Morbidelli didn’t have to wait long, as race favourite Nakagami crashed out of the event at Turn 5.

Further back Miller’s race was even shorter, the Australian was innocently taken out when he was hit from behind by factory KTM rider Brad Binder.

Both riders crashed out but were fortunately uninjured.

Post-race Binder was handed a long lap penalty to serve at the next event in Valencia.

At the end of lap 1 Morbidelli

led from Rins, Zarco, Vinales, Mir (who made up seven spots) and Quartararo.

It was clear in the early laps that the Yamahas of Vinales and Quartararo lacked race pace as both began to slide down the leaderboard.

Factory Honda rider Marquez was the only competitor in the field to choose the hard-front tyre in a bid

DOVI FEELS TITLE CHALLENGE MAY BE OVER NAKAGAMI ANDREA DOVIZIOSO has conceded his MotoGP title chances are slim if Ducati’s current form slump continues after finishing 13th in the Teruel Grand Prix.

Dovizioso finished runner up to Honda rider Marc Marquez in the last MotoGP seasons was left deflated and defeated after Tereul Grand Prix.

Venting his frustration post-race, Dovizioso conceded he is no position to fight for the title if Ducati’s form slump continues.

“I don’t think there is any reason to speak about the championship in this moment with that speed, we don’t have any chance to fight,” a frustrated Dovizioso said.

“We will see the situation in Valencia, but we are not in that (title) situation.”

Since winning the foruth round in Austria back in August, Dovizioso has failed to record a podium finish and now sits 28-points behind championship leader Joan Mir. The Italian doesn’t believe Valencia will improve his chances or spark a form reversal

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by Ducati.

“We’re struggling in always the same things, in this moment is difficult to be optimistic for Valencia,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s a special track for us, but every race has a different story so we will see.”

With just three races left as a factory Ducati rider Dovizioso appears to be at a real low point and is on course for his worst finish in the championship since 2015.

After an early charge during the Teurel GP, Dovizioso encountered grip problems for the duration of the race, expressing his dismay for not being in a position to fight.

“I was struggling all race, but I put myself in the right position,” he recalled.

“I was really on the limit, but I saw (Fabio) Quartararo and Maverick (Vinales) struggling so I wanted to overtake them, but I was really on the limit.

“With the soft tyre, the way I rode, the (tyre) consumption was too high, and I couldn’t keep that speed, but I was there, I was trying.

“Aleix Espargaro overtook me and pushed me out (wide) at Turn 1 so I had a margin to recover.

“I was pushing really hard and I did another mistake at Turn 8 and I lose two positions, my tyre was destroyed and I didn’t have the energy to ride in a perfect way.

“I couldn’t do anything, the final position is really bad but the feeling was not good.”

DM Image: LAT

INKS NEW DEAL

RISING JAPANESE MotoGP rider Takaaki Nakagami has signed a multi-year deal to remain with the LCR Honda squad.

The Japanese rider is Honda’s leading rider this year after reigning MotoGP Champion Marc Marquez was injured during the opening round of the season.

Leading up to the Teruel Grand Prix, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) announced that it had extended its contract with Nakagami for two years starting in 2021.

Nakagami will remain with the satellite LCR Honda squad where he will be joined by new teammate, Alex Marquez (brother of Marc) for 2021.

From 2021, Nakagami will be one of four riders competing on the new Honda

Image: LAT

ANOTHER TOP FIVE FOR GARDNER

AFTER QUALIFYING on the front row in third Australian Remy Gardner converted it into a fourth-place finish in Aragon.

It was the Onexox TKKR SAG Team riders third successive top five finish and has lifted him to sixth in the standings.

The championship position is made even more impressive considering the fact the 22-year-old missed two races due to injury.

In the Teruel Grand Prix Gardner dropped to fourth on the opening lap, however on lap 3 he overtook Jake Dixon for third.

On lap 5 championship contender Enea Bastianini scythed his way onto the podium and demoted Gardner to fourth where he stayed for the remainder of the race. DM

Image: LAT Alex Rins ran second for Suzuki (above), while Morbidelli enjoyed the spoils (left).

to go for glory and take the race victory.

By the end of lap 4 the Spaniard had made his way up to fifth from 10th and the hard compound tyre gamble appeared to be paying off at the halfway stage of the 23-lap encounter.

However, shortly after overtaking Zarco for fourth the front end of Marquez’s Honda tucked

underneath him at Turn 2 and into retirement.

Out front, it was still line astern with Morbidelli withstanding the pressure from Rins, Mir was a further 2s back, ahead of Zarco was fourth and Pol Espargaro fifth.

On lap 19 Morbidelli extended the lead to more than 1s for the first time and continued to extend that margin all the way to the finish.

Image: LAT

RC213V. “I’m very happy to be able to continue racing for LCR Honda IDEMITSU in 2021 and beyond,” Nakagami said.

“I’m grateful to Honda for their generous support, allowing me to bring out my full potential this season.

www.autoaction.com.au

“I will be doing my best to gain solid results for the remaining races and build on that momentum next year. I’m aiming higher with Honda. I look forward to your continued support.”

Nakagami has a long affiliation with Honda, from 2014 competing in Moto2 he rode

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The Italian took his second career premier class win by a comfortable 2.2s.

Rins came home in second ahead of teammate Mir, who extended his championship lead.

Pol Espargaro was fourth ahead of Zarco, Miguel Oliveria, Vinales and Quartararo who rounded out the top eight.

Dovizioso briefly sat ninth but an unforced error into the Reverse Corkscrew compounded a distinct lack of speed in the closing laps meant he finished 13th.

With just three races remaining 14 riders remain in mathematical contention to take the title, however it appears that only the top six are now a realistic chance .

STANDINGS Mir 137, Quartararo 123, Vinales 118, Morbidelli 112, Dovizioso 109, Rins 105, Nakagami 92, Espargaro 90, Miller 82, Oliveira 79

for IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia, as the manufacturer tried to nurture world-class riders from Asia.

In 2018, he stepped into MotoGP with LCR Honda and has remained there ever since, finishing his debut season in 20th place before improving to 13th last year.

HRC director and race operations management division general manager, Tetsuhiro Kuwata is excited for next season with two rising stars of the sport.

“I am very pleased that we can continue to battle with Takaaki Nakagami in the MotoGP class next season onwards,” said Kuwata.

“I am truly grateful to the fans and IDEMITSU who have supported his career to date.

“His presence in the MotoGP class is on the rise, and we look forward to his performance in the remaining races.

“He will be joined by Alex Marquez from next year, and I hope the two teammates will be able to bring out the best in each other and bring the team better results than ever before.” Dan McCarthy

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MARQUEZ TO SIT OUT REMAINING RACES FACTORY HONDA test and replacement rider Stefan Bradl has confirmed he will see out the remainder of the season as sub for reigning champion Marc Marquez.

The announcement was made over the Teruel Grand Prix weekend confirming Bradl will compete in the final four rounds for the Repsol Honda squad.

The former Moto2 champion replaced Marquez from the third round of the season after the Spaniard fractured his right arm during the season-opening race at Jerez.

Although Marquez’s return was rumoured, Bradl extinguished these rumours once and for all.

“It’s a fact, I’m going to finish the season,” Bradl said on Servus TV. “I don’t know if I can say it officially, but it’s a fact.

“Marc has to concentrate that everything is going to be okay. I don’t think it’s worthwhile for him to take the risk of trying anything.

“He has to get well again.

“In the meantime, there is still a lot of work waiting for me. After the two Valencia races I’m going to Jerez for a test and then on to Portimao for the (season) finale.”

Paddock mumours suggest Marquez requires a third operation on his arm, which is the major cause of his delayed return.

Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig provided an update on Marquez’s recovery.

“He is trying to be well again, he is being slower than we thought, but in principle the idea is to try to make sure that this is well consolidated and that he can continue to recover,” Puig said.

“The truth is that it is going slow, but it is going forward, so at this moment there is no reason to think about anything else.

“Obviously I am not a fortune teller, but in theory we have to think that this can go well.”

When bluntly asked if Marquez will be returning before the end of the season Puig replied: “Most likely, he will continue to recover little by little.” Dan McCarthy

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INTERNATIONAL

WRAP

DIXON’S SIXTH Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT DESPITE WINNING the final race of the season on the streets of St Petersburg Josef Newgarden could not stop Scott Dixon from taking his sixth IndyCar Series title.

It was a dramatic season finale, full of twists and turns. The race would see Australian Will Power would start from pole position and the much-anticipated debut of his new Team Penske teammate, three-time Supercars Champion Scott McLaughlin.

Power led into Turn 1 but it was clear early on that he was being hindered with downshifting issues.

As a result, Power lost the lead to Alexander Rossi on lap 6 and things only got worse for the #12 driver, who ended his race when he slid wide into the concrete wall on lap 36.

Power vented his anger by throwing his HANS device after what had been a character building season for the Queenslander.

McLaughlin started from 21st and sat as high as 16th with an effective undercut in the first round of pitstops.

However, after a lengthy safety car period McLaughlin was caught out on cold tyres.

On lap 47, the New Zealander ran slightly wide going into Turn 1, clouted the side of Marco Andretti and spun into the innocent Rookie of the Year winner Rinus VeeKay. The collision with VeeKay wiped McLaughlin out of the race in what had been an impressive debut weekend to that point.

Although Power and McLaughlin retired it was a much better day for their teammate Newgarden who took the race victory.

Newgarden methodically worked his way up from eighth on the grid and did everything in his power to take his third IndyCar title, but it was not enough.

Scott Dixon also had to make his way through the pack. Starting outside the top 10, he clambered into third to take his sixth title and already has his eyes firmly fixated on number seven.

“Six is good, seven is better,” Dixon said.

“That’s going to be the goal, but it’s tough.”

“As you can see from the competition, even if you mess up just a little bit, you pay the price in qualifying, we had some problems this weekend and just couldn’t piece it together.

“Credit again to the team and just being able to pull ourselves out of that hole and stay consistent and just have a smooth race, and

that’s what we did.”

Newgarden came under immense pressure from McLaren Arrow SP driver Pato O’Ward in the closing laps but would eventually pull out a 4.1s lead.

“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Newgarden said. “First off, congratulations to Scott and all his guys, his crew, it’s big time to win six championships.

“I don’t really know what I could do different this year. My guys were flawless, fastest in the pits all year long, I’m extremely proud to drive for my team.”

In finishing second O’Ward finished on the

podium for a fourth time, but that maiden win still eludes the Mexican.

Dixon finished third ahead of Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay. The fourth Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud finished sixth from Marcus Ericsson, Charlie Kimball, Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato.

After leading much of the race Rossi crashed out late on, concluding his first winless season in IndyCar. Final standings: Dixon 537, Newgarden 521, Herta 421, O’Ward 416, Power 396, Rahal 377, Sato 348, Pagenaud 339, Rossi 317, HunterReay 315

forward. On the final lap Harvick was one position away from qualifying for a Championship 4 spot, a desperate move on Kyle Busch did not pay off as he spun across the line finishing in 17th and missed the vital cut.

Truex drove a solid race, the Joe Gibbs racing driver even took the lead of the race on the final restart with 43 laps to go.

However, he reported a loose wheel and resulted in him making an unscheduled stop, finishing the race in 22nd and as a result was knocked out.

This allowed Elliott off the leash and go on to take the race victory.

Outside of the top five, Alex Bowman finished sixth, but it was not quite enough to squeeze in the top four.

Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top 10, just ahead of Hamlin.

A week prior, the race at Texas saw reigning champion Kyle Busch score his first win of the season.

The race took days to be completed as the event was postponed multiple times due to rain.

Eventually, over three days after the race started Busch came home in first position ahead of Truex and Christopher Bell.

CHAMPIONSHIP 4 LOCKED IN Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT THE NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 have all been locked in ahead of the final round next weekend at Phoenix Raceway, after two dramatic and nail-biting races at the Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville.

Despite dominating the season Kevin Harvick had two poor races to conclude the Round of 8 Playoffs. The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion finished second in the first of the three rounds at Kansas, but a 16th at

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Texas followed by a 17th saw him eliminated.

Other casualties were Martin Truex Jr, Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch.

This means that Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, reigning Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and Championship 4 debutant Chase Elliott will be the quartet competing for the 2020 Cup Series.

Elliott controlled the race at Martinsville leading 236 of the 500 laps to take his 10th Cup Series victory and fourth of the season.

“Oh my gosh, the biggest win ever for us,” Elliott said after the race. “Just so proud, couldn’t ask for a better night, it’s unreal!”

Ryan Blaney finished the race in second position from the Penske drivers Logano and Keselowski with Busch rounding out the top five.

Harvick struggled early on to make his way through the pack, before suffering a puncture on his Stewart-Haas racing Ford on lap 182 which put him down two laps.

By lap 400 he had worked his way back onto the lead lap and continued to march

TURKINGTON BACK UP TOP

McELREA TAKES INDYPRO WIN NEW ZEALANDER Hunter McElrea has ended his rookie season in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship with a maiden victory on the streets of St Petersburg.

It has been a solid year for the Pabst Racing driver who to that point had previously collected five podium finishes, but the win eluded him.

Qualifying was the main Achilles heel but bad luck early in the season also prevented him from finishing higher than fifth in the championship.

“I can’t even explain how tough this year has been, so to end it like this is so good,” McElrea said after the race.

“It’s been the toughest year of my career. It’s been all kinds of little things, you think it’s your weekend and something out of your control happens to knock you down.

“I kept resetting, believed in myself and the team, and just did what I needed to do – and today, we did it.”

In the opening race of the weekend McElrea wasn’t quite able to challenge for a podium. In the middle part of the race he closed in on Artem Petrov, but the Russian able to up his pace late on in the race.

McElrea finished a lonely fourth, but nevertheless it was more solid points in bank.

The second race saw an opportunistic and mature drive from McElrea which yielded his first win.

Sitting in third when the race restarted after a brief safety car period for a lap 1 incident, champion Sting Ray Robb locked up and ran wide at Turn 1 allowing Colin Kaminsky and McElrea through.

At Turn 2 Kaminsky missed the apex and cost him momentum down the long flat-out section towards Turn 4. Under brakes McElrea darted to the inside pulling off a brave move on his teammate.

Kaminsky applied maximum pressure for the remaining laps of the race, but McElrea did not flinch and held on to take the win by 0.62s.

“I felt so comfortable in the lead, I’ve been third and second, so close to a win,” McElrea recalled.

“I maintained the gap to Colin and put the hammer down to take the chequered, there was so much screaming on the radio!

“The competition was so tough for a rookie team, so to take a win and fifth in the championship in what I believe is the toughest field in the history of this series, I’m proud of what we did.”

Dan McCarthy

CAR’S CHALLENGING FINAL ROUND AUSTRALIAN JOSHUA Car concluded his 2020 Formula Regional Americas Championship with a mixed bag of results at the Circuit of the Americas.

After dominating the highly competitive US F4 Championship in 2019 Joshua Car moved up with the Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport outfit into the Formula Regional America Championship.

In the final round Car finished sixth, ninth and recorded his third Race 3 retirement in succession.

Car qualified in sixth position for the opening race of the weekend, 1.2s off the pole position time.

Off the start Car made a good start and managed to overtake the slow starting Jacob Abel who started from fourth on the gird.

On lap 5 however, the American made his way back through and recovered to finish in fourth, while Car remained in sixth for the remainder of the race finishing only

0.4s behind Nicky Hays.

The following day Car did not have the same levels of success, scoring two points over the two races on Sunday in Texas.

Car started in seventh for Race 2 qualifying 1.88s off the pole position time. As the race progressed the New South Welschman slipped to the back of the top 10.

On the final turn of the race the tight left hander Car launched a risky and successful pass to finish in ninth position.

Despite only qualifying 1.6s off the pace in Race 3 Car started down in 10th position, but made his way forwards throughout the race.

While sitting seventh Car set the fastest lap of the race, only to be forced into a sudden retirement.

Car ended the championship in sixth position, claiming three podiums over the duration of the season.

Dan McCarthy

NORTHERN IRISHMAN Colin Turkington has leapt back into the British Touring Car Championship lead after taking two wins in the penultimate round at Snetterton.

In the opening race, Turkington converted pole position into a comfortable 2.5s win over Tom Ingram and Jake Hill. In fourth was Rory Butcher who finished just ahead of Turkington’s closest championship rivals Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish.

It was the same top six in Race 2 with Turkington again finishing up front ahead of Ingram. Sutton rounded out the podium from Butcher, Hill and Cammish who dropped to sixth on the last lap.

In Race 3 Ollie Jackson took his second career victory by 0.2s from Mercedes driver Adam Morgan, Turkington and Sutton.

Heading into the final round Turkington leads the series with a small points margin to Sutton. While Cammish, Ingram and Butcher all still in mathematical contention. DM

EHRLACHER EDGES FURTHER AHEAD

FRENCHMAN YANN Ehrlacher extended his series lead in the penultimate round of WTCR at Aragon despite only scoring one top 10 finish.

It was a difficult weekend for all of the title contenders and allowed Jean-Karl Vernay to leap into contention, however a retirement in Race 2 could cost him dearly come season end.

In Race 1 Vernay took the lead from the slow starting pole sitter Norbert Michelisz into Turn 1 and was never headed, the Alfa Romeo driver beat home Santiago Urrutia and Gilles Magnus.

In Race 2 Cupra driver Mikel Azcona took the race win with Lynk & Co drivers Muller and Urrutia in second and third.

Ehrlacher finished the race in sixth while his closest championship rivals struggled in the race, Esteban Guerrieri finished 10th, while Vernay retired with a mechanical issue.

In the final race of the weekend, Thed Bjork broke through to take his first win of the season from Urrutia and Gabriele Tarquini. DM

IMSA TEAM ORDERS

DESPITE DOMINATING the IMSA Sportscar race at Laguna Seca, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron did not win as the latter let the championship contending sister Team Penske car through on the penultimate lap.

Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves were the benefactors taking their fourth win of the season and fourth victory in five races.

The Team Penske pair now lead the series by two points heading into the final race of the season as major title rivals Renger van der Zande and Ryan Briscoe finished tenth.

Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr finished the race in third only 1.4s back and also sit third in the standings, nine points behind heading to Sebring.

Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor scored their first GTLM class victory of the season for Porsche from the two Corvette machines. Dominik Farnbacher and Matt McMurry took the honours in the GTD class. DM

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p ra w S L A N NATIO

ELPHINSTONE FINALLY WINS DESERT RACE IT WAS a break-through win for Shane Elphinstone and Troy Higgins when they won the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race on October 24.25.

Elphinstone had gone close to victory several times in the past and finished second two years ago.

Together with Higgins, Elphinstone took their Pro Buggy Magnum Slingshot/Chev V8 to a 1min 13.48s victory to win the third round of the WA Off Road Championship.

They also took out the West Australia Cup which will give them free entry to an Australian Off Road Championship round next year, apart from the Finke Desert Race.

Second of the 45 entries in the 375km event were Beau Robinson and Paul Currie (Extreme 2WD Geiser Bros Trophy Truck/Chev).

Next were Dean and Jordan Terry in their Tatum/Chev which ran in a demo/data collection class within Pro Buggy as it featured a 7.0-litre engine.

Elphinstone began the two-day event in third place behind 2019 winner Robinson and the Prolite duo of Stephen Ketteridge-Hall and Haylee Cowling (Bullet/Nissan) before forging through to lead at the end of day one by 45s. Elphinstone also won day two by 13s.

The official third place went to

Images: Kalgoorlie Desert Race

Troy and Deb Schoen (Tatum/Chev) ahead of Dylan Nollas and Matt Boath (SS Racetech/Chev). Behind the Pro Buggies, it was all SXS Turbo Can-Am/Rotax buggies piloted by Chriss Kounis and Jhye Kent ahead of Jason Galea and Kiera MannPiercy, Colin Bevan and Michael Dodds, and Friday Boyce and Chris Summerfield.

Prolite class winner and ninth was Jake Clucas (Chenowth/Toyota) who lost second gear on day one. Despite

his worst result of the season, he is provisionally the WA Off Road Champion as he won and placed in the top three earlier this year.

Other class victors were Deon Visagie who took out Sportslite in his Home Built/Nissan. Two places further back came Production 4WD winners Aaron Griffiths and Adam Webb (Toyota Prado) one outright place ahead of Barry and Greg Schultz (Jeep Grand Cherokee).

Garry O’Brien

fastest and led early before Saturday before Josh Howells and Eric Hume (Jimco/Nissan) topped the leader board. Both cars were out early on Sunday with Milburn breaking the steering rack while Howells had a CV break which left the Habys in front.

Chris, Geoff and Dianna Pickert (Performance 2WD Mitsubishi Triton/ Chev) rumbled into sixth just clear of Roydn and Lachlan Bailey (SXS Turbo Can-Am Maverick) There was a bit of a gap back to Nick Price and Ben Fatchen (Can-Am) followed by Phil Lovett and Luke Stanley in their stretched Can-Am VTwin. David

Mendham and Michael Shipton (Jimco/GM Ecotech) rounded out the top ten.

Ally Howells and Sarah Corrigan (Jimco/Nissan) were on track for a top ten but pitted with transmission problems with two laps remaining, as did Mel and Liam Brandle (Alumi Craft/Nissan).

Simon and Kyle Tucker (Ratbagz/ Toyota) finished just outside the top ten and were the best of the Super 1650s. Nathan Edwards and Gary Hardie (Bravo/Suzuki) were the lone Sportsman and completed enough laps to take the class win.

David Batchelor

HABYS SURGE TO CENTRAL EAST CUP VICTORY FOLLOWING THE hotly contested early laps, Aaron and Liz Haby scorched to an eight-minute victory in the Loveday 400 on October 24-25 and collected the inaugural Motorsport Australia Central East Cup. The winners will have free access into an event of their choosing during next year’s BFGoodrich Australian Off Road Championship (AORC) except for Finke.

Behind their Element Prodigy/ Toyota Twin Turbo Pro Buggy, there was less than 20s with Hayden Bentley and Viv Coe (Extreme 4WD

Racer Trophy Truck/Nissan V6 TT) second and Garry and Tamara Turnbull (Jimco/Chev).

Fourth were Toby Whateley and Simon Herrmann (Extreme 2WD Rush Truck/Chev) after a weekend of drama. They ran a stock LS2 engine after the race motor let go in testing, and then the diff had to be changed on Saturday night. Next were Brett Smith and Mike Peake (ProLite Southern Cross/Nissan) less than 20s away.

Travis Millburn (Sportslite Chenowth/Mitsubishi) qualified

Images: David Batchelor

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HICKS HOOKS ANOTHER THE NT Titles off road events were completed when Greg “Hooker” Hicks won the Dennis Zaglas Short Course at Mt Ooraminna on October 17-18.

At the helm of his Subarupowered ProLite Sollitt, Hicks who won the corresponding event last year, finished 9mins 11.4s ahead of class rival Locky Weir (Jimco/ Toyota). Third home was Jack Weir in his Super 1650 Holeshot/Toyota a further 2mins 49.3s away.

The season finale comprised five races of three laps of the 15km course. It started on Saturday afternoon and ran into the evening before a resumption on Sunday morning through to a noon finish.

Just prior to the start, a dust storm rolled in and that caused problems for David Bird (Extreme 2WD Bennett TT/Chev) and Patrick Geraghty (Sportslite Tiny Built/ Suzuki) with one lap that became a marathon by a wrong turn.

But it did not affect Hicks who won the first leg ahead of Alex Heinzel (Southern Cross/Nissan)

Image: ASORRA

and Locky Weir. It was the same result in the second leg. Race three also went the way of Hicks, again ahead of Heinzel but this time Shannon Lander (Extreme 2WD Ford Ranger/Chev) was ahead of Weir.

After two ninth place results Harry

Weckert (SXS Sports Yamaha YXZ 1000) was out with broken axles, and he was joined on the sidelines

by Heinzel in the fourth outing which went to Hicks over Lander Weir.

With the race five victory over Locky and Jack Weir, Hicks clean

swept the Alice Springs Off Road Racing Association event. Lander was down in the final race and overall placed fifth behind SXS Turbo class winner Jason Flavell in his Can-Am. The SXS Sports class was won by Dolland Du Toit (Polaris). Garry O’Brien

behind in third spot. The navigators’ points went to Jaycob McDonald by a single point over Bensemann.

The event was held around the Milchester Motor Sports Complex at Charters Towers and was also a round of the Queensland Off Road Championship. It began with the prologue, one lap of the 18km course and was followed by two Saturday sections, each of four laps, and one on Sunday, made up of three laps.

Battle was on song from the outset when he was fastest in the prologue ahead of Nunns and Robert Turner. Battle continued to be the pacesetter by taking the first section. Turner was second ahead of Chris Sollitt (Sollittco)

who failed to get through the second section.

Brad Belcher and Lachlan Wearing (Can-Am Maverick X3) topped section two by 9.0s over Battle with Turner third and the Sants, James and Elizabeth fourth, fourth after their Razorback DNF’d in the opening section.

The third and shorter run in section three went clearly to Battle with Sollitt second and Turner third ahead of Mark Bredden (Matrix MkI), and Wes Turner and Waylon Jaggard (Can-Am).

In the classes it was Battle the victor in Pro Buggy, Nunns took out Sportslite while Belcher scored a narrow victory over Wes Turner in SXS Turbo. GOB

BATTLE ON IN CHALLENGE THE GOLD City Challenge was the third and final round of the North Queensland Off Road Racing Super Series on October 24-25 and was won by Kent Battle and Adam Franklin.

They guided their Chev V8-powered Element Prodigy Pro Buggy to a 3min 12s victory over Robert Turner and Jordan Bensemann (Desert Dynamics/Chev). Third place went to Peter Nunns (Sollittco/Subaru) in a singlehanded effort.

Nunns podium placing was good enough to secure the drivers’ title by six points over Robert Turner with Wes Turner three points

Images: NQMS

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

TWO RALLY ROUNDS, TWO WINNERS

TWO TEAMS celebrated at the Adelaide Hills Rally on October 17-18. Guy Tyler and Mike Dale were the winners of round two before Aaron Bowering and Heath Weedon won round three and took out the AGI Sports South Australian Championship.

The National Motor Museum at Birdwood acted as the service park and Tyler (Mitsubishi EVO 9) started in hot form and won the first four stages of round two. He built up a near 30s lead ahead of Luke Anear and Andy Sarandis (Ford Fiesta R5) with Zayne Admiraal and Matt Heywood, and Aaron Bowering and Heath Weedon the next two crews in their Subaru WRX’s.

Anear hit back in stage five after repairing some clutch issues.

However, any gains made on Tyler’s lead were nullified after exceeding the allocated time for the service and he was late to the regroup. A 3min time penalty dropped him to 21st.

Tyler and Anear swapped stage wins as the clutch on the Fiesta seemed to be sorted but the time gap lost was too big to make up –

even when Tyler limped home on the final stage with clutch problems himself.

Tyler had banked enough of a time gap to hold on for the victory ahead

of Admiraal and Bowering, who both pushed hard to make the podium.

A second win for the season put Tyler in a commanding position to regain the championship after last

winning it five years ago.

The Sunday round three morning stages were run in Mt Crawford Forest before the afternoon took to the closed road sections North East of Birdwood. Tyler again started hot ahead of Anear with little between them at the top of the time sheets.

It was on the fourth stage that everything fell into place for Bowering. Tyler’s brake, clutch and engine gremlins from Saturday had reappeared and he pulled out, effectively putting an end to his title bid. Anear also succumbed to reliability as an exhaust issue led to some bigger issues under the bonnet.

Admiraal broke a drive shaft that caused gearbox to fail and left him stranded in Mt Crawford Forest until the end of the competitive stage.

Bowering powered on ahead now unchallenged for the win and the championship. Jamie Pohlner and Adam Branford (WRX), and Daren Herring and Matt Woods (EVO 6) led the charge to chase down Bowering and finished second and third. Stuart Daddow

Jimmy Marquet (Lotus Exige Targa GT) who were quick from the start and won the first two stages. Third were husband and wife Bill and Glenys Stagoll (EVO 9) from John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver in their leased 2004 Porsche 996 Turbo. White had a fuel regulator issue and looked unlikely to be in contention. contenti On day two Rullo made up enough time in the first four stages to be equal first with Greenham. Rullo pulled away in the last three stages before overheating from a broken belt retired them. Meanwhile there was a tie for third between Morse and Foster. White finished fifth ahead of Heaton, but O’Dowd had issues with a slipping clutch and dropped to ninth.

Rullo was back for day three, won two and finished equal first in two other stages. O’Dowd won the first stage of the day and finished with a class seventh

behind Heuson Bak/Roger Tan (Lotus Exige).

All Competition Classic stages before the last day went to Simon Gunson and Peter Morley (Ford Capri Perana). They won four out of the final six to finish almost 5mins ahead of Tim Wolfe and Scott Beckwith (Porsche 911 Carrera RS) and had the sixth fastest time overall.

Third in class were cousins Nathan and Keven Ellement (Chev Corvette C4) ahead of Kim Stewart and Frank Zanotti (Ford Mustang).

In the speed restricted Targa 165 class Ben Pang and Brandon Chin (Honda Civic) easily won ahead of Nick Rahimtulla and Lisa White (Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV 105). Husband and wife Jurgen and Helen Lunssman (Telsa 3 Performance+) clean swept the Targa 130 stages ahead of David and Anna Hodges (Holden Commodore VF SSV). The 2 Day Rallye went to Paul Pernechele and Ben Trager (Ford Falcon XY). GOB

GREENHAM/ESTERBAUER CONTROL TARGA WEST PRESERVATION WAS critical for Mark Greenham and Steph Esterbauer as they went on to win the Make Smoking History Targa West event on October 23-25. In their Competition Modern Mitsubishi EVO 9 they started the final day with a healthy lead and won by 2mins 22s.

Meanwhile the fight for second went all the way to the wire. Jeff and Catherine Foster (Porsche GT3 RS) started the day 11s ahead of Will White and Matt Thompson (EVO 9). White was 1.0s behind into the last stage and took second place over the Fosters by the same margin.

Fourth went to Brett Morse and Rodney Ng (BMW M2 Competition) who were third earlier but lost time due to tyre

degradation and placed ahead of David Heaton and Caleb Ash (Nissan GTR Nismo).

The 16th edition of the event feature 54 starters and was held over 36 stages and 268 competitive kilometres in around Perth and the surrounds.

Greenham led at the end of day one from Peter Rullo and

Images: Targa West/CMR Photographic/Turn7Media

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Images: Stuart Daddow

2WD RALLY SURPRISE IN AN upset result, Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell scored the victory in the Midstate Freight Caves Classic, round two of the Motor Traders’ Association of New South Wales Rally Championship on October 10.

Based out of Oberon in the Central West of the state, the event attracted 45 entries.

Sullens and Newell piloted their Citroën DS3 R3T to a 2.1s victory over Mal Keogh and Andrew Bennett (Audi Quattro). Thomas Clarke and Jim Gleeson (Mitsubishi EVO 9) a further 9.1s away in third, retained the title lead.

Rain fell a few days before the rally. It did little to settle the dust but did create some wet and boggy spots.

Keogh took fastest time on the opening stage, by less than a second from Clarke who ran first on the road. However, Clarke found the loose gravel slowed him. He thought that running down the order a bit, with the road swept, was an advantage, particularly for Keogh.

Clarke hit back when he won stage two from Keogh, and Sullens who was equal third with Ron and Jo Moore (EVO 6). Clarke was also first on stage three, before he lost time in stage four with a brake issue and dropped back into the clutches of his pursuers. Later, a rear suspension drama cost even more time.

To the last couple of stages, Keogh was in control, by just 3.1s from Sullens and 6.8s to Clarke. Clarke flew through the second-last stage retrieve second, just 1.4s behind Keogh.

The final 9.45km stage went to Sullens by 4.8s, which saw him leap-frog Keogh and Clarke. The 2WD car found the faster, more

Images: Bruce Moxon flowing roads well-suited to it, and Sullens commented that all he had to do was “drive at 11/10ths all day and not crash”.

This was Keogh’s first visit to the area, while the Moores, with two stage wins and finished fourth, live just up the road in Bathurst. Keogh took the East Coast Classic part of the event from Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith (Mazda RX2) who were fifth overall.

EVOs filled the next four positions with Tim and Peter Joass ahead of Chris and Katie Giddins, Bethany Cullen/Mel McMinn, and Chris Jaques/Hugh Taylor. Taylor Gill and Peter Harris (Subaru Impreza WRX) were 10th. Bruce Moxon

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

Nathan Herne was Na athhan nH erne er ne w as dominant as dom omin i an nt in n TA2 TA2 A2 (below) (b beelo l w w)) and Tony Quinn was untouchable racing his Aston Martin V12 Vantage in Super GT (left).

AMRS TAKES IN QUEENSLAND THE AUSTRALIAN Motor Racing Series continued its somewhat state-centric program due to Covid-19 restrictions with Queensland Raceway the latest port of call for round three on October 24-25.

However typical of the Sunshine State in the south-east, the weather would play a role in proceedings. After dry conditions in the Saturday morning qualifying sessions, heavy rain in the afternoon made for a vastly different scenario.

Some races were held over to Sunday where drivers, crews and series organisers very efficiently made up for lost time with a busy final day at the Willowbank venue.

Kent (Chev Camaro) pitted with visibility issues before Anthony Tenkate bunkered his Mustang at Turn 2 on the final lap.

Herne surged away to a 10s win in race two from McLaughlin. Kent came through from eighth to third ahead of Tenkate and Robinson.

Richardson spun at Turn 3 with a couple of laps to go, and Pappas spun at the last corner on the final lap.

Through the remaining races the top three remained unchanged. It was particularly close in race four with 0.11s between McLaughlin and Kent at the finish. Robinson and Richardson crossed the line fourth and fifth in both outings.

TA2 MUSCLE CARS

SUPER GT

NATHAN HERNE put in a dominant display over the four races. He won them all and took the weekend points ahead of John McLaughlin and series founder Peter Robinson.

Ahead of race one Herne took his Dodge Challenger to pole by almost a full second.

Then in a very wet first race he led from the outset but aquaplaned off at Turn 6 and re-joined in sixth spot. He quickly moved back up the order and went on to win ahead of McLaughlin (Ford Mustang) and Robinson (Challenger).

Shaun Richardson (Challenger) finished fourth ahead of debutants Nick Lange and Chris Pappas, both driving Mustang. Murray Scott Andriske and Brad Madden fought off a tight battle early to win the HQ one-hour.

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THERE WAS no touching Tony Quinn in all three races. The Aston Martin Vantage driver was a comfortable winner of all three races.

That was despite a pit drive-through in race two that temporarily dropped him to third. In the longer third outing he lapped everyone in the small field, up to second place.

It was far closer for second place in race one where MARC II V8 drivers Adam Hargraves and Geoff Taunton duked it out throughout. They swapped places several times before Hargraves won the stoush by 0.25s. Fourth went to Lachlan Gardner (MARC Cars Mazda V8) ahead of Bayley Hall (MARC Cars Focus V8).

Taunton accounted for his teammate Hargraves in race two where Madeline Stewart (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car) finished fourth ahead of Gardner. Dan Jilesen took the helm of the Taunton’s car for the last and

placed second ahead Hargraves, Stewart, and Hall.

SERIES X3 EXCELS

OVERALL VICTORY after four races went to Jarrod Hughes who was nearest the front of anyone after qualifying fastest. He finished the weekend ahead of Tyrone Gautier and Darren Whittington.

Riley Beggs won the first race which was held in very wet conditions. He crossed the line second behind Cam Bartholomew who was excluded for not obeying a black flag for a pass under yellow flags.

Next was Connor Roberts, but a 10s penalty dropped him to 10th. That gave Gautier second ahead of Ryan Casha, Matt Broadbent, and Hughes who along with Zak Hudson ran one-two for the majority before both fell prey to Turn 6.

In race two Gautier led early as Beggs fell down the order. Hughes worked his way to the lead before Casha passed him to take the win. Broadbent finished third ahead of Gautier, Hudson, Josh Richards, Whittington and Beggs.

In race three, Hughes broke away for a 2.1s

TITLES DETERMINED IN TASSIE THE SHORTENED Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championships concluded in style with round four at the 60th Anniversary of the Buckby Motors Symmons Plains Raceway on October 24-25. The opportunity to give all classes seven heats and a double point final over the weekend, effectively carried as many points as two rounds.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

THE MOST impressive performance of the weekend, and the whole season, was reigning champion Josh Webster who went through the entire series undefeated. The talented teenager qualified on pole for every round and won every heat and final – a total of 16 straight victories. But despite that, Webster still needed to perform consistently to wrap-up back-to-back titles.

Although he made a couple of mistakes, he was able to regain the lead each time and was largely unchallenged throughout. Securing the title after the sixth heat, Webster went for broke in the double points final and broke the lap record three times.

Jeremy Bennett tried hard and finished second in the championship in another consistent outing.

HQ HOLDENS

THE LAP record for HQs was also broken in a memorable race. Andrew Toth held a three-point lead in the series over another Phil Ashlin, but Ashlin clean-swept the races to claim the championship by 30 points, leaving Toth and defending champion Otis Cordwell to fight over the minors.

By the double-points final, Ashlin had all but wrapped-up the title, with the last event a special memorial race. The inaugural Ian Beechey Memorial Handicap was named after the man who started the whole HQ Holden category back in the 80s and lost his battle with cancer earlier this year.

Ashlin started off the back-mark 30s and powered through to claim the win in style, motivated by the memory of his late brother and former HQ racer Shane Ashlin, who passed away last year. Ashlin also smashed the lap record on the fifth lap by more than 0.3s – beating the benchmark which had stood for five years.

FORMULA VEES Jarrod Hughes took out the Series X3 Excels at Queensland Raceway. Images: MTR Images.

win as Hudson won the fight for second over Gautier and Bartholomew. It was a tight run for fourth where Whittington edged out Casha and Roberts. The trio had several car lengths on Richards and Beggs.

It was a brilliant finish to the fourth race where the top five were covered by 1.3s.

Bartholomew pipped Whittington, Brett Parrish, Hughes and Hudson after the lead changed several times throughout.

HQ HOLDENS

CLEAR CUT winners in the feature twodriver one-hour race were Scott Andriske and Brad Madden with an emphatic 20s victory over Brad Schomberg and Ben Simpson, and third placed Joe Andriske and Brock Mitchell.

Their three HQs were close in the opening laps, as they vied for the lead. But at the mandatory pitstops were completed the gaps between the three cars widened.

Fourth place went to the lone Holden Gemini which was shared between Nick Rangeley and Ash Jarvis. Next were Dion

Cidoni and Justin Van Twest, the only other crew on the lead lap.

The first sprint race was won by Scott Andriske, despite his 14s lead being stymied by a safety car for the very wet racing conditions. Andriske won over Schomberg and Van Twest. Race two was taken out by Jarvis over Madden and Cidoni.

QLD OPEN WHEELERS

FORMULA FORD drivers Jac Preston, Jack Hotter and Tim Hamilton filled the podium after the four races. Fastest qualifier Chris Purvis (Mygale Formula 3) opted to skip the wet first race which went to David Rodgie (Chiron LMP3) who cleared out from Preston (Mygale SJ2021A) and Hotter (Van Diemen).

Purvis made up for his early absence to win the remaining three races. He beat Rodgie and Preston in two of them, and then Preston and Hamilton (Spectrum) in the last when Rodgie failed to take the grid. Garry O’Brien

THE CHAMPIONSHIP was on a knife edge with three-time Australian champion Wade McLean (Elliott) three points ahead of defending champion Callum Bishop (Gebert). McLean, Bishop, Michael Vaughan (Spectre) and the much-improved Chris

Images: Angryman Photography

Neil (Hepburn Spectre) diced and swapped spots in every race.

When it mattered most, McLean managed to greet the chequered flag in front for all but one heat. In the final points tally McLean won by 86 points – it wasn’t a true reflection of the closeness of the final round, or the entire series.

SPORTS GT

ONLY A handful of points separated 2019 champion Stephen Noble (Nissan 350Z) and Roger White (Nissan Skyline R32) in Sports GTA. The first two heats promised a great battle to come, but in the third, a coming-together saw White fail to finish and he did not return Sunday, which assured Noble the title.

Although not in contention, Scott Smith (Porsche GT3) won a few heats, but failed to finish twice, which meant Noble also won the round. The battle for the Sports GTB title was much closer with David Walker (Datsun 1200 Ute) leading David Wrigley (Ford Mustang) by 44 points. Wrigley dominated to best Walker in every race, but Walker was able to secure enough points to secure the championship by 7 points.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

CURRENT CHAMPION Matthew Grace (Nissan 200SX) had a handy lead over Jared House (Holden Torana A9X) who missed the first round. However, House won every race, but it still was not enough.

Grace’s consistent run of seconds and thirds enabled him to go back-to-back.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

AS THE weekend started John Talbot (Ford Mustang) led the series with Michael Cross (Holden Torana XU-1) his only danger. Although Talbot only won four races, one was the doublepoints final and he finished ahead of Cross in all races. Martin Agatyn

PURDIE TAKES TWO ROUND WINS TWO RACE wins set the scene for 16-year-old Blake Purdie to win round two of the OTR South Australian Sports Car Invitational Series at The Bend Motorsport Park on October 24.

The Wolf GB08 CN driver followed up his first round win in September by winning ahead of fastest qualifier Chris Perini (Radical SR3) and his teammate Garth Walden who finished on the same points.

Walden was fourth with another of his GWR teammates Stephen Champion next in front of Glen Stallbaum (Wolf), Chien-Wen Liew (Wolf), Kostinken Pohorukov (Radical), Brenton Griguol (Radical) and Mark Laucke (Wolf).

Purdie led all the way in race two while Laucke improved to second ahead of Walden. Naguib was fourth in front of Marty Ewer (Wolf), Perini, Peter White (Radical), Pohorukov, Peter Paddon (Radical)

Images: Insyde Media

who DNF’d the first race, and Ian Eldridge (Stohr WR1).

Purdie missed the clean sweep after he lost his lead on the second lap of the final race. After he dropped to 10th due to the mandatory pitstops, he fought back to third behind race winner Yasser Shahin (Radical) and Paddon.

Shahin managed to avoid a first lap drama involving Ewer and Pohorukov and picked off seven rivals in the first two laps. He took the lead seven laps later and pulled away to win by over a minute. GOB

AutoAction

57

We take a look back at who or what was making news in the pages of Auto Action 10, 20, 30 & 40 years ago

Testing your motorr sport knowledge

1980: FORD’S EXIT of the Australian Rally Championship signalled the end of a golden era for the discipline, coinciding with the final Southern Cross Rally. The decision came after the Laser replaced the Escort as Ford Australia’s small car of choice with it not being suitable to rally. NissanDatsun were also expected to leave rallying and focus on circuit racing.

1990: BENETTON’S NELSON Piquet secured victory in the season-ending Australian Grand Prix on the streets off Adelaide. A battle with Ferrari driver Nigel Mansell highlighted the race, as the Brit nearly took both drivers out with a desperate move at the hairpin.

Also, Porsche’s V12 powerplant for F1 was successfully tested, albeit overweight.

ACROSS

4. Chaz Mostert finished third in the 2020 Bathurst 1000, who was his co-driver? (surname) 7. Who is the only driver to have contested more than one round and finished in the top five in each race? (full name) 9. How many podiums did Scott Pye score in 2020?

10. Cam Waters scored a career high championship result, in what position did he end the 2020 Supercars Championship?

12. Which main driver finished fourth in the 2020 edition of the Bathurst 1000? (surname) 13. During the COVID-19 enforced break, who won the Supercars All Stars Eseries? (surname) 14. Who replaced James Courtney at Team Sydney after the opening round? (full name) 19. At Hidden Valley, a second maiden winner took a race win in 2020, who was it?

21. Of the 11 rounds this season, at how many did McLaughlin take at least one victory?

23. How many podiums did David Reynolds take in 2020?

24. At what track did Fabian Coulthard score his sole Supercars race win in 2020?

25. Two South Australians scored maiden podiums on the streets of Townsville, Nick Percat was one, who was the other? (surname) 27. How many races were there in the 2020 Supercars

58 AutoAction

Championship? (including the four cancelled races in Melbourne) 28. Who took the first Supercars Championship race victory of the season on the streets of Adelaide? (surname) 29. What number did the Garry Rogers Wildcard entry run during the Bathurst 1000?

30. How many race wins did Scott McLaughlin take in 2020?

DOWN

1. James Courtney left Team Sydney and joined which team?

2. Who was the highest placed driver in the championship to not score a podium? (surname)

2000: DICK JOHNSON Racing star Paul Radisich was eyeing redemption after falling short in the previous season’s Bathurst 1000. Partnered

by Indy Lights hotshot Jason Bright, Radisich was eager to make amends after 1999’s disappointment. Garry Rogers Motorsport tested Formula Ford driver Leanne Ferrier at Winton ahead of her anticipated debut in the Konica Series in 2001.

2010: JAMES COURTNEY was a wanted man. The 2010 silly season was in full swing as Will Davison was all but confirmed at Ford Performance Racing freeing up an opportunity for the championship leader to fill his seat at the Holden Racing Team. After racing in A1GP, Earl Bamber turned his focus to racing V8 Supercars stating it was too expense to pursue an openwheel career in Europe.

3. Garth Tander won the Bathurst 1000 alongside Shane van Gisbergen in 2020, how many times has Tander now won the ‘Great Race’?

5. How many podiums did Chaz Mostert claim in his debut season with Walkinshaw Andretti United?

6. Who was Whincup trying to overtake when he crashed out of the Bathurst 1000? (full name) 8. At what track did James Courtney score his maiden podium with Tickford Racing?

11. What was Bryce Fullwood’s highest finishing position in his debut Supercars season?

15. Which driver scored his maiden Supercars race win at Sydney Motorsport Park?

16. Who took his maiden Supercars pole position in the final of six races at Sydney Motorsport Park? (surname) 17. In what month did Supercars action return from the COVID break at Sydney Motorsport Park?

18. The Australian GP weekend was cancelled before any Supercar races took place, but how many qualifying sessions were run?

20. In how many races did Scott McLaughlin finish off the podium in 2020?

22. Between them how many races did Triple Eight win in 2020?

26. Nick Percat took two wins at Sydney Motorsport Park, what was the sponsor on his BJR Commodore during these events?

# 1797 Crossword Answers 1 down – Ligier 2 across – Fifth 3 down – three 4 across – Brazil 5 down – Victoria 6 down – Zolder 7 across – Arrows 8 down – Nelson Piquet 9 down – Mansell 10 down – twenty-seven 11 across – Needell 12 down – Long Beach 13 across – Alfa Romeo 14 across – one 15 down – Spain 16 across – Jabouille 17 down – Alain Prost

18 down – Reutemann 19 down – Laffite 20 down – Shadow 21 down – Depailler 22 across – Emerson Fittipaldi 23 down – Brabham 24 across – Keke Rosberg 25 across – Thackwell 26 across – Scheckter 27 across – Ford 27 down – five 28 across – Ferrari 29 across - tenth

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