Auto Action #1815

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AMBROSE REVEALS HIS MASTER PLAN

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MARCOS REVEALS HIS RENEWED LOVE FOR RACING

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DEVIL RACER’S RETURN AMBROSE BACK IN LOVE WITH RACING

V8 legend opens up to MARK FOGARTY about overcoming “dark days” to re-ignite his passion and put his experience to good use FORMER SUPERCARS champion Marcos Ambrose has spoken at length for the first time about his reappearance in racing, revealing the post-NASCAR struggle that kept him away for five years.

Ambrose has rekindled his love of the sport and thrown himself back into it, taking on multiple non-driving roles since the start of the year.

In an extensive interview on pages 22-25, he opens up about his decision to walk away from his Supercars comeback with DJR Team Penske in early 2015, why he needed time away from racing and the reasons behind his return.

As well as helping long-time friend Owen Kelly run his Trans Am Mustang, Ambrose has been a surprise hit as a Supercars guest TV analyst and recently joined Garry Rogers Motorsport in a senior management position.

He is also assisting the early karting careers of his teenage daughters Tabitha and Adelaide, adding to his joy of being involved in racing again.

“I’m a fan of racing, first and foremost,” he

said. “I grew up loving racing and I still love racing today.

“I always did miss the people in racing and so just reconnecting in the paddock area has been a great experience, to be honest. It’s good timing for me to get back involved and to contribute where I can.

“I have a lot of knowledge in my head.”

Ambrose won the 2003 and ’04 Supercars crowns with Stone Brothers Racing before moving to America in ’06.

Nicknamed the ‘Devil Racer,’ his nine seasons in NASCAR were highlighted by two wins in the premier Cup Series. He is one of the few foreign drivers to score race victories at the top level.

Ambrose returned in 2015 to lead Roger Penske’s takeover of DJR, only to quit after just two events.

His only other start was as Scott Pye’s codriver in the enduros before he disappeared back to his native Tasmania.

In the interview, Ambrose talks candidly about the hidden stress of his repatriation that triggered his decision.

“It’s pretty obvious I was burned out from the States and I actually didn’t identify it as early as I should – and when I did, I made those hard decisions,” he said. “I just needed to get out of the race car, get back to a normal life, look after my family, so it’s taken some time to decompress from a fast-paced life.”

He agonised over walking away from DJR Team Penske, but remains adamant that he did the right thing for himself and the team.

“Back then, there wasn’t any talk about that mental health stuff, but I knew I wasn’t right and I needed to stop, and I knew I wasn’t the right person for them to carry them forward,” Ambrose explained. “So I made that hard decision and I stuck by it.

“I haven’t had any doubts about that decision at all, but now we’re five, six years on and life’s stabilised and everything’s going well, so I’m back in motor sport where I can help.”

He added: “Dark days, for sure, and, yes, I feel like I let people down, but ultimately, I stand by the decision I made.”

Launceston-based Ambrose, 44, is re-

enthused, embracing his newest role as ‘competition director’ at GRM. He is commuting to Melbourne regularly and has already using his NASCAR experience to help reorganise and expand GRM’s workshop, which is packed with TCRs, S5000s and Trans Ams. “They’re holding onto a bit of a monster here,” he said.

Ambrose has thrown himself into his multifaceted duties.

“My role here at GRM is fantastic,” enthused. “I’m fighting for the drivers, I’m fighting for the mechanics and the engineers to get what they need to go out there and win races. So I’m very focused on the competition side of things.

“I really enjoy being at this level because it’s what for me makes racing so great. I’ve always been more about the grass roots of motor sport, less about the fanfare.

“It’s just nice to be able to put your skills that you’ve accumulated to use. I’ve had 25 years of professional experience and it’s nice to put those skills back to work.”

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MORE BIDS FOR SUP

By MARK FOGARTY and BRUCE NEWTON SIX GROUPS are now believed to have made offers to buy Supercars from private equity fund Archer Capital.

Along with known bids from a consortium of motor sport identities, a leading sports marketing agency and a motor racing promoter, Auto Action has learned that three others have been received.

It may be more, with a senior source claiming “at least” six offers.

The bids were lodged by the deadline on July 7 for initial formal expressions of interest known as “non-binding indicative offers”.

AA understands they are now in what’s been referred to as the “data room”, undergoing due diligence.

The indicative offers are also

being reviewed on behalf of the teams by owners Roland Dane, Rod Nash and Brad Jones.

It’s understood that following due diligence, two or three of the contenders will be invited to submit binding final bids, which will be judged on their merits to decide the successful pitch.

However, the teams hold the final key to the sale as they hold what are known as “tag-along” rights.

This means they can enforce the buy-out of their shareholding at the same rate as the value of Archer’s majority stake.

That could be a stumbling block for potential buyers if activated.

Some of the offers are believed to include guarantees the teams will at least maintain their share of annual profits, currently 65 per cent or around $450,000 a year per car.

The teams as a group also have

the right to launch a counter offer for the Supercars business at any time.

Although details of the offers are subject to strictly enforced confidentiality agreements, a highly-placed source close to the Supercars sale process claimed six offers have been submitted.

A syndicate headed by Boost Mobile boss Peter Adderton, sports management company TLA and the Australian Racing Group are the known potential buyers.

There was speculation about a fourth mystery bid, but at the Townsville 500 last weekend, chat about more mystery offers emerged.

But informed insiders haven’t named the additional bidders,

“ ... following due diligence, two or three of the contenders will be invited to submit binding final bids ...”

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who could be a mix of local and international groups with entertainment and/or sports promotion experience.

Adderton’s takeover consortium includes expat Aussie BTCC boss Alan Gow, five-time MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan, Bathurst 1000 co-winner Paul Morris and Supercars REC owner Peter Smith.

TLA’s bid is fronted by touring car legend Mark Skaife and former Collingwood AFL star Craig Kelly, a leading athlete agent.

TLA is a leading sports management and promotion group with international ties.

Majority owned by Garry and Barry Rogers, ARG runs several major racing categories, holding rights to TCR, S5000, Trans Am and Touring Car Masters.

ARG made an unsuccessful bid for Supercars in 2019,

Ownership: The teams’ view

PERCARS which was apparently foiled by team rights.

Archer Capital controls 65 per cent of Supercars, with the teams owning the remainder.

The sale is being brokered

by Miles Advisory Partners, run by amateur racer and former Supercars team co-owner Tim Miles.

He orchestrated Archer’s takeover in 2011, reputedly worth $197 million. It is now valued at less than $60 million.

Supercars CEO Sean Seamer deflected enquiries about the sale process to Miles, who is not commenting because of confidentiality agreements.

Asked if he expected – or wanted – to stay on under new ownership, Seamer responded that he wanted to complete his master plan for Supercars.

“We’re only one year into

the five-year plan that we put together in 2019 as a leadership team,” he said. “We lost a year to COVID last year and we want to deliver the plan.”

Support in the paddock for the highly publicised Addertonand Skaife-fronted bids is divided.

Team chiefs have expressed concerns about both, with support split.

One persistent rumour that’s been ruled out is Skaife and Kelly buying the 26th entry to launch a new team.

They briefly ran Holden Racing Team together after Skaife’s takeover during 2003 following the collapse of Tom Walkinshaw’s TWR. Walkinshaw regained control of HRT in 2007, forcing Skaife out the following year

GROW the pie and commit for the long term

By BRUCE NEWTON THAT’S THE essential message from Supercars team owners polled by AUTO ACTION as the prospect of an ownership change solidified last week. We asked representatives of every team what they would like the priorities of a new Supercars owner to be?

Here’s what they told us:

Rod Nash – Tickford Racing

“The Archer private equity group has been there for quite some time and has been a great partner and owner. We’ve had to weather some storms within the business and through the current COVID environments and Peter Wiggs has supported the teams with some of the decisions made along the way.

“I think the platform has been great in that Supercars has weathered the COVID environment; our media rights were up for renewal in a challenging environment and we came out the other side with a very good Pay TV and Free-to-Air TV deal. It’s a recognition of where the Supercars platform is at.

“Going forward with the Gen3 plans and everything else, I think Supercars is a strong sporting entity.

“I’d like to see whoever the new owner may be have a vision to take the product to a greater level in respect to how we can grow our market.

Roland Dane – Triple Eight Racing

“You’ve got to listen to everything that has been put forward and I think It’s too early to talk about what works and doesn’t work.

“I have got a very open mind about it. There are at least six credible parties interested in buying it and we have to look at it and say who is putting forward the most satisfactory solution for Archer and teams.

“It’s as simple as that, but it is too early in the process to be able to say where that is and what it is.”

Tim Blanchard – Blanchard Racing Team

“I think they need to bring in some strong leadership and look to grow it and invest in the future.

“We still have a good product and we should continue to invest in growing the sport and marketing and growing it and reaching new audiences.

“Any new owner who can continue to improve the racing and improve the reach of the sport, that’s who we need.”

Charlie Schwerkolt – Team 18

“We need an ownership structure that is good for the team owners, so when we change the ownership structure we come out better as a group of team owners in this whole process.

“I think there are quite a few options out there and we want someone who buys it to keep it and build it, not someone who wants to sell it off.

“We want someone to build it and build our sport.

“Obviously, the media is a big part of it, whether it is a digital platform helping us or marketing.

We want someone to invest in people and the infrastructure of the business. I am quite excited about what comes in the future. It should be good.”

Stephen Grove – Kelly Grove Racing

“It’s a cliché but we are certainly in the entertainment business and I am looking for someone that can actually have that experience, to grow the sport, to grow the marketing side of the business and actually grow the brand of the sport.

“On the technical side, that is just normal business practice – you get the right people in the right places and they need to prioritise that.

They need to get the right people to make the right decisions on technical, the right decisions on marketing and strategy and how we do it. It all comes back to the fans. If we have no fans we have no sport.

“So for me it’s all about the entertainment and getting the infrastructure in-place.

“I’d been keen for the teams to keep their stake, just so they have some so-called skin in the game.

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It makes a huge impact in how its run and how people run themselves, so my preference would be for the teams to keep their part of the ownership.”

Barry Ryan – Erebus Motorsport

“My focus would be someone who sees a future in Supercars and not just a short-term investment.

“So someone passionate about marketing, helping us to push to make the category stronger.

“Technical doesn’t really matter, I think we need someone to invest in it for the right reasons, not just to make money.

“When you look at someone passionate like (former Supercars czar) Tony Cochrane back in the day, he brought a lot of passion to it and he had a lot of strength in the marketing and glitz and glamour side of it.

“Like I said, no more technical experts, just someone who wants to do it for the right reasons.”

Ryan Walkinshaw – Walkinshaw Andretti United

“My personal view is three-fold: “One: ensure that the teams have a sustainable path forward.

“Two: ensure that the fans have a product that is exciting that doesn’t detract from its legacy and history and heritage, but also is something that can be exciting and grow in the future.

“Three: a proper strategy for how we grow this sport in Australia and potentially externally. But focus on Australia.

“I’d be interested to see what the growth strategy is and what they are going to do to add additional value to the sport so there is something exciting to look forward to.”

Brad Jones – Brad Jones Racing

“I think Archer (Capital) has been a fantastic partner for us over the years and (owner) Peter Wiggs especially stepped in and steadied the ship when we were in a fair bit of trouble.

“I’d like to think we will end up with a partner who will do as good a job as Peter who will be good for the business and help us grow the business and they are two of the key things we need within a partnership.

“I think what is important to a team owner is how much money they get to help them go racing and there’s some value in the REC (Racing Entitlements Contract) or the license or whatever you would like to call it when you sell it and the business is run in a professional manner.”

Matt Stone – Matt Stone Racing

“I would certainly hope the new owners come in with a fresh look at how to maintain what is Supercars, but at the same time tidy up some of the back-end structures that allow the sport to grow and the teams to thrive.

“The REC was introduced from the original touring car category quite a long time ago when it was quite a different structure. I think the times are very different now, so I would like to see a fair deal for all and a more modern view on how to bring the sport forward and get the sport thriving and the teams thriving so we can really get the championship back to where it once was.

“It’s going to be really interesting to hear the potential options coming in; I just think the times have changed a lot in terms of sports marketing, online marketing and revenue streams involved in motorsport.

The technology has got more expensive and more complicated and we’ve got a growing labour force.

“For any owner to drive the sport forward they have to take a fresh approach to solving those problems and delivering a solution that is scalable.”

Ryan Storey – Dick Johnson Racing

“Reconnecting Supercars with its core fanbase, having the highest quality product on-track for maximum reach and expanded engagement from supporters trackside and at home, implementing a comms strategy that grows the sport and sees it reaching mainstream audiences.”

Declined to comment: Jonathon Webb, Team Sydney.

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6 AutoAction FEATURE LATEST NEWS

5.7L CAMARO VS 5.4L MUSTANG SUPERCARS HAS finally confirmed that the new Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro will be powered by a 5.7-litre V8.

What’s still not known is on which variant of GM’s ‘crate’ racing engines it will be based.

After strongly indicating last month that capacity of the Camaro’s pushrod two-valves-per-cylinder motor would be 5.7 litres rather than the longrumoured 6.2 litres, Supercars technical chief Adrian Burgess verified the smaller size.

“It’s going to be a 5.7,” he said.

The GM powerplant will go up against a 5.4-litre version of Ford’s double overhead cam fourvalves-per-cylinder Coyote V8 (similar to the 5.2-litre S5000 unit) in the Gen3 Mustang.

They will replace the long-serving but now expensive five-litre Ford and GM engines, which have been highly developed over nearly 20 years.

The switch to crate-based V8s is to reduce the cost from more than $100,000 to $60,000 each while extending engine life to 10,000 km before a

major rebuild, dramatically cutting maintenance bills.

Triple Eight’s long-time engine builder KRE is developing the Gen3 Camaro motor.

With development on-going, Burgess declined to nominate the Camaro motor’s genesis, claiming its specification was still to be finalised.

“I don’t think it’s right for me to outline all the technical details of that engine while they’re still working through their options,” he said. “So when they have something locked down and they present it to Supercars, then we can provide more details around it.

“But it’s not for us to dictate to them in entirety what the engine spec is, so we’re working with them and consulting with both engine builders continuously.”

When pressed on which version of GM’s lowcost ‘crate’ race engines it was based on, Burgess suggested it was a derivative of different models.

“They’re a long way advanced with it, but it’s not

a straight off-the-shelf road car engine anymore,” he said. “Our engines never have been. They’re an accumulation of parts. Now, they’re working with GM closely on what they believe is the best package for them to put forward that meets the financial criteria we’re putting in place.

“We put in a target (horsepower) number for them hopefully to reach, we put in targets for reliability and rebuild costs. So it’s not as easy as saying it’s an LS3 block or LS3 heads or they’re bespoke heads or it’s an LTR block. It‘s not that straightforward.

“Whilst from the outside it might seem that straight forward, it isn’t. There’s a lot of factors and Supercars is not in a position to tell you what it is until those guys are happy with what they’re presenting. And they’re still working through that.”

Long-time DJR engine supplier Mostech is developing the Mustang motor, while KRE is creating the Camaro engine – apparently from a combination of GM Performance components.

The latter ties in with Tripe Eight boss Roland Dane’s suggestion early this year, as reported

by Auto Action, that it would be a ‘hybrid’ design drawing from multiple GM racing V8s.

Renowned international race engine designer Ilmor’s American division is on stand-by to conduct final parity tuning of the Gen3 motors if required.

According to Burgess, Mostech and KRE are working on finalising engine specifications to assist those teams that have yet to decide between Camaro and Mustang for Gen3’s mid-season 2022 changeover.

“The engine builders are working flat out to get that information to the teams, who can then make their choice,” he said.

KRE and Mostech are working with the respective Mustang and Camaro homologation teams, DJR and Triple Eight, which are building the prototype Gen3 racers.

Mark Fogarty

GEN3 SUPERCAR REINFORCES ROAD-CAR LOOK ‘You won’t mistake Camaro and Mustang’ promises Burgess

By BRUCE NEWTON THE GEN3 Supercar will look even more like a road car than originally planned.

Supercars has confirmed refining the shape of the new Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang is a key reason the testing debut of the first prototypes has been pushed back from August to October.

Other reasons include a delay in

obtaining key parts from overseas suppliers.

The planned racing debut in August 2022 at Sydney Motorsport Park has not been impacted by the October start to testing.

A strong visual linkage to the road cars was a key plank of the Gen3 program when it was first revealed in 2019, after the Gen2 Ford Mustang received a mixed reaction because of its humped look.

“You are not going to mistake which car is which,” promised Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess. “You will see a lot of the styling cues you see on the

road car transform into the race car.”

The revised Gen3 look also goes hand-in-hand with a drastic cut in aerodynamic downforce from about 400kg to 100kg.

The styling changes may have a minor impact on that number, but the drag coefficient will remain unchanged.

Burgess confirmed the styling changes were decided upon in consultation with Ford and General Motors, of which Chevrolet is a division.

“Certain parts of this process when we’ve been engaging in dialogue with the manufacturers we ourselves have moved our own targets to allow the manufacturers to introduce more road car DNA. “Our aero program is an example of that. We changed our initial thought a couple of months back to allow them more road car DNA because we believe it is going to make the car look better.

“And that actually fed more time into the system.

“At the time we said ‘is this the right thing to do?’ and we categorically said yes.

“It’s an ever-evolving piece of work and we are working very closely with both manufacturers and at this time they are happy with the timelines we have put in front of them.”

Burgess didn’t delve into the specifics of what has changed, but explained the process by which Supercars and the manufacturers had revised the specification and therefore the look of the cars.

“When you start off with an aero program you give the manufacturers some guidelines; the heights of certain pieces of body work – the clearances, wheel arch openings.

“You give them guidance on what we believe the rulebook should look like. Then those guys come back and say ‘well this is the car we are looking at, we’d like to incorporate a little bit of styling in this area that represents closer to the road car than our current cars.’

“We sit with them and we talk with them and say ‘yeah, we need to move our guidelines to accommodate more road-car styling and DNA in our race car.’

“We have moved our initial set of guidelines to accommodate more road-car styling. Is that important? Of course it is. It’s important for the customer and it’s important for the manufacturer.

“They want these cars to look as close as we can to the road-car. We are trying to be very inclusive.”

GEN3 TESTING DELAYED TILL OCTOBER TESTING OF the Gen3 Camaro and Mustang prototypes will now not begin until as late as October.

Track trials were targeted to start by the end of next month, but Supercars technical chief Adrian Burgess has admitted the program has been delayed.

Burgess remains adamant that Gen3 remains on course for its controversial midseason introduction in 2022.

The first tests may not be until the cars’ planned public debut at the October 7-10 Bathurst 1000.

“It’s hard for us to give a precise date, but we’re hopeful we’ll be on track in October,” Burgess revealed. “We’re hopeful it will be at an event.”

He ruled out the test cars getting on the track by the end of next month, which was his forecast just a few weeks ago.

“With everything that’s in front of us at the moment, it’d be highly unlikely to be next month,’ Burgess confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not going flat-out. We haven’t taken our foot off the gas.

“We’re all trying to bring this together as quickly as we can.”

Homologation teams DJR and Triple Eight are building the Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro prototypes respectively as the new rules continue to evolve.

Burgess cited production hold-ups and the double-header in Townsville for delaying testing.

“We’re struggling a little bit with shipping, with getting parts, with getting materials for the composites and for the manufacturers to build the parts,” he said. “It is a little bit of a

fluid situation and we’re reliant on American and European manufacturers for some of the components.

“The two cars are coming together fairly well, but we still have lots of bodywork and things which are in production. Some of those parts have eight, nine, 10-week lead times to make them. So it’s impossible to give you a specific date.”

Burgess characterised the extended testing timeline as a consequence of circumstances rather than running late.

“I wouldn’t call it a delay,” he said. “It’s difficult in this process to nominate dates.

This thing is fluid and we’re dealing with a very complex set of parameters that are out of control with COVID lockdowns and supply chain issues all around the world.

“These are having impacts on how quick we can put it together. You try to set your

best target, but everyone has to be realistic that some of these things are just out of our control.”

Burgess also revealed that some of the delay was self-inflicted after Supercars allowed Ford and Chevrolet more freedoms to ensure of the shapes of the Gen3 racers were closer to the road cars.

“We’ve actually introduced delays,” he confessed. “We’ve changed some of our own targets to allow the manufacturers to actually introduce more road car DNA into the body shapes.

“We changed our initial thought a couple of months back to allow them more road car DNA because we believe it’s going to make the cars look better and that actually fed more time into the system. It’s the right thing to do.

“It’s an ever-evolving piece of work. Both manufacturers are happy with the timeline

we’ve put in front of them. All these timelines will hopefully allow us to hit the track in August next year and go racing.”

Added Supercars supremo Sean Seamer: “If we find a way to make a better product, but it takes a little bit longer, then we do it.”

Burgess is adamant there’s still plenty of time to ensure Gen3 is ready for its racing debut at the planned Sydney Motorsport Park event in August 2022.

“That’s our plan, that’s the target and that’s what we’re all working towards,” he declared.

“We’re 13 months out, so [some delay] at this point doesn’t really matter.”

Burgess also confirmed the prototypes would run the new 5.4-litre Ford and 5.7-litre Chevrolet V8s – the specifications of which are still being developed – from the start of testing.

Mark Fogarty

MSR THIRD ENTRY STILL A CHANCE SUPERCARS HAS confirmed a REC could still come off the shelf to underpin an additional full-time entry in the 2022 championship and Matt Stone Racing has confirmed it will bid for it.

MSR’s original attempt to secure a third Racing Entitlements Contract failed under the official process conducted in the second quarter of this year at the same time as a Tickford Racing tender was successful.

MSR wants the REC so it can expand from two to three entries in 2022. Tickford Racing will expand to a four-car entry in 2022.

At the moment the Supercars grid is set at 25 for 2022, but that depends on all 24 current RECs being entered in the championship by the October deadline.

After the tender result was announced on the eve of the Darwin SuperSprint, Supercars said it would offer no more comment on the matter.

MSR also issued a statement saying it still wanted to expand to three entries in 2022. It then also shut down any public comment.

But during a media roundtable at the Townsville 500 last Friday, Supercars CEO Sean Seamer confirmed the ‘26th REC’ was still a live option for 2022.

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“Any interest in that 26th REC will need to go through the board and the board will contemplate the treatment of that at that time,” he said.

Seamer said Supercars went through the tender process because of legal obligations. He confirmed failed bidders such as MSR could have another go.

“If someone is interested then they should submit an expression of interest to the board,” he said.

MSR boss Matt Stone made it clear that is exactly what the team would do.

“We remain determined to expand – we

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have been trying to do it for 18 months now,” said Stone.

“We went into the tender process and we submitted a tender bid that didn’t meet the reserve. So if the 26th REC is available we will certainly be in discussions.”

He also did not dismiss buying a REC from another team in pitlane or using a supplied one.

“We are not open to any model in the sense that we are doing it just for the sake of doing it. If expanding to a third car brings our whole operation up and brings us forward then that is what we are trying to achieve.

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“Do we need the REC off the shelf to do that? No. If the right opportunity presented itself with one of the existing 25 RECs we would certainly look at it.

“If their values aligned with what we were trying gain in going to three then it would certainly be a good opportunity.”

In the past Stone has talked about a third REC potentially underpinning a renewed SuperLites entry, where two rookie drivers share one car for the year.

Current MSR full-times Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki did just that in 2020.

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FEENEY: THE DEAL ISN’T DONE! Dane says there are “curveball” candidates on 2022 driver list

VICTORIA’S WINTON SuperSprint has been delayed for the second time, moved from its planned July 31-August 1 date, due to the ongoing uncertainty of COVID restrictions. A new date for the event is yet to be confirmed. All other events scheduled on the 2021 Supercars Championship calendar will not be affected by any change to the Winton SuperSprint. The last reschedule also occurred after a COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria.

BROC FEENEY and Russell Ingall have confirmed their first test date for Monday August 9 at Queensland Raceway. The previous Bathurst wildcard test day was rescheduled from June 30 because of the COVID-19 situation in the greater Brisbane region. Feeney has been dominating in Super2 this season. He is 42 points ahead of the nearest driver and had a clean sweep weekend for Triple Eight in Townsville.

RARE SPARES has agreed to an extended Super2 naming rights partnership with Jaylyn Robotham. The Australian parts company will continue its support of the 18-year-old Victorian, who has greatly impressed Rare Spares General Manager Lance Corby thus far. Robotham had a difficult weekend in Townsville, knocked out of Round 2 of the Super2 Series after a crash in Practice 1.

By BRUCE NEWTON HEIR APPARENT Broc Feeney insists he has yet to be signed as Jamie Whincup’s replacement at Triple Eight in 2022.

Speaking after dominating the Townsville Super2 round last weekend, Feeney dismissed pitlane chatter the deal was done and he was already locked in to take over #88 in the main game next year.

Separately, Triple Eight boss Roland Dane told AUTO ACTION that Whincup’s replacement would “most likely” be announced in the fourth quarter, meaning October at the earliest.

He also revealed there were two “curveball” candidates for the drive that had never been publicly speculated on.

Feeney’s chances of winning the prized seat currently occupied by seven time Supercars champion Whincup have risen as established stars such as Chaz Mostert, Nick Percat and Cam Waters have re-signed with their existing teams.

Mostert is back with Walkinshaw Andretti United on a new multi-year deal, Percat has extended his handshake agreement with Brad Jones and the renewal of Waters with Tickford Racing has happened but not been formally announced.

The Mostert deal was actually signed back in April, but not announced until last month. Feeney was emphatic he was not in the same situation – already in possession of a done deal that has yet to be made public.

“Definitely not,” he insisted. “That was only my second race for Tripe Eight, how can people say I have been signed for them?

“I have only done five Super2 races, so even the talk of me stepping up to the main game next year is awesome.

“But no, I am not signed for next year yet.”

Feeney said he was not aware of who he might still be in competition with to secure the seat.

“To be honest I haven’t really spoken to Roland about it,” he said. “I have enough good people in my corner to speak about that stuff.

“At the end of the day it’s Roland’s decision and whoever he picks as the best driver is going to get the drive.

“It’s great having him as my boss this year. The famous list … everyone wants to see who is on it. I am just doing everything I can to make sure I am on the list.”

Dane originally told the media there were about six candidates on the list, including Feeney. In Townsville he revealed some other candidates had never been publicly linked with the drive.

“As I have said for some time, Broc is on the list. Some people have taken themselves off the list because they wanted certainty about what they are doing next year. That’s fair enough, I have no issue with that,” he said.

“But the list contains at least two curveballs that not one single person has speculated on.”

Unsurprisingly, Dane wouldn’t volunteer who those two names were.

Feeney was fastest in both Super2 practice sessions in His T8 Holden Commodore VFII, took both poles and won both races cantering away from the field.

He now leads the championship standings on 540 points, 42 points ahead of Tickford Racing’s Zak Best.

“I’m lost for words to be honest. You dream of dominating a race weekend, and to be on top in every single session this weekend and win both races is a dream come true,” Feeney said.

Feeney’s performance drew praise from both Whincup – who will succeed Dane as T8 CEO and team principal in 2022 – and championship dominator Shane van Gisbergen.

“He’s doing a great job,” said Whincup.

“He was very quick in qualifying and then very good in the race, so he’s clearly doing everything he can to put his hand up for the #88 seat.

Added van Gisbergen: “He’s an awesome young kid and has got the right attitude,” said last year’s Bathurst 1000 winner.

“They just haven’t done enough racing, those Super2 guys, so it’s been hard to get a judge on them but, as Jamie said, he’s doing all of the right things.”

“I think that would be my position but my position next year won’t really carry any weight.”

However, Dane may have some input into the decision yet, as Whincup has indicated he wants to make public his potential co-driving future soon.

“We’ll make the call in the next couple of months,” Whincup told AA. “To be fair to the current co-drivers we should make a call sooner than later.”

That’s where a wildcard potentially comes in according to Dane.

Expanding to three cars for the enduros would allow Whincup to be accommodated along with his current co-driver Lowndes and Tander, who is the reigning Bathurst 1000 champion with Shane van Gisbergen.

“We always do that and try and be fair about that (co-drivers), but you’re working on the basis that we’d put Jamie into one of those (Red Bull) cars.

“You never know.”

Asked if that meant a potential wildcard entry, Dane said: “Yeah”.

Whincup continuing his relationship with the Bathurst 1000 would be welcomed by race fans as his star-crossed history in the race since his last win in 2013 has become legendary.

Dane acknowledges the history, but doesn’t think that’s a reason for him to continue.

“Anyone who has won four time there has won four times more than most people, so I don’t think that’s an issue,” said Dane.

“He’d certainly love to win there again and he’s been close a number of times, but that’s the nature of the race and that’s what makes the race so good.”

After a cautious start at Bathurst, Whincup has steadily gained momentum in his farewell full-time season and is sitting second behind van Gisbergen in the drivers’ championship.

Despite that front-running form, Dane thinks Whincup has chosen the right time to retire.

“There is no right and wrong time for everyone (to retire),” said Dane. “Different people will retire at different stages of their lives in sport.

“Jamie has chosen a time that should work for him. He’s still winning races, a lot of people have gone onto long, it’s very common in motorsport.

That’s because they are commercially valuable, or can’t they give up the drug of competing.

‘I sympathise with all of those positions, but Jamie wants to go out as a winner and then he’s got the next stage of his career lined up.”

KEEP DRIVING JAMIE! Roland Dane wants Whincup to co-drive, hints at wildcard SUPERCARS HAS confirmed the support categories for the second round of the doubleheader in Townsville. The combined Super2 and Super3 Series will race again this weekend along with a returning category, the Townsville Tin Tops. The Townsville Tin Tops consists of a variety of local entrants from across North Queensland in a range of cars. Their format will include one practice session, one qualifying session and three races.

THE FRESH look on André Heimgartner’s Mustang is here to stay. Celebrating NED Whisky 8% Cola, the black and blue livery seen last weekend will feature on the car for the next three rounds, at Townsville, Sydney and Perth.

The livery was produced as a joint effort with paint supplier PPG and vinyl partner Graphic Art Mart. Heimgartner has had a mixed season of results so far, but including a win at The Bend.

8 AutoAction

By BRUCE NEWTON OUTGOING TRIPLE Eight boss Roland Dane has urged his retiring Supercars superstar Jamie Whincup to take up co-driving duties in 2022.

He’s even suggested T8 could add a wildcard entry to its usual two-car enduro effort to accommodate Whincup without having to dispense with the services of current co-drivers Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander.

Whincup, the seven-time Supercars champion and four-time victor in the Bathurst 1000 will become CEO of Triple Eight race Engineering and team principal of its racing arm in 2022.

But he is yet to clarify whether he will keep his hand in as a co-driver at the team he has raced for since 2006.

Dane, stressing he was stating his personal opinion and not an official team position, was in no doubt what Whincup should do.

“I think that if I was having my two penniesworth I’d like him to drive for a couple of years just in the enduros,” said Dane.

“Why should he co-drive? Because he’ll probably be fast. What other reason is there?

DJR: WE CAN’T BEAT T8 FOR TITLE Race wins are the goal as upgraded Chev V8s help Holdens

By BRUCE NEWTON FORD FLAGBEARER Dick Johnson Racing has conceded the 2021 Supercars championship, pointing to a recent Chev engine upgrade as a key performance advantage for arch-rivals Triple Eight.

The concession came from DJR technical guru Ludo Lacroix, who cited the Holden team’s freshly upgraded KRE Chevrolet V8 engines on top of better braking performance and improved pitwork and strategy as key reasons T8 had gained a performance edge.

He also praised the driving of Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup, who sit first and second in the championship ahead of DJR’s Will Davison. His team-mate Anton De Pasquale sits sixth.

“On the day, we can beat them [T8] but for the championship definitely not,” said Lacroix.

Van Gisbergen and Whincup have won 11 of 16 races conducted so far this year, with the Kiwi championship leader taking 10 of them.

DJR’s new driving line-up for 2021 has managed one win, which came for De Pasquale at The Bend.

If van Gisbergen does go on and win the drivers’ championship as expected, it will defeat the Queensland Ford team for the drivers’ championship for the first time since 2017.

Scott McLaughlin, now racing IndyCars in the USA, won three straight drivers’ championship for the team in its previous guise, DJR Team Penske, between 2018 and 2020.

Triple Eight also dominates the 2021 teams’ championship, more than 700 points ahead of DJR. If it carries that form on to the end of year it will next year occupy the prestigious pit exit garages for the first time since 2019.

Lacroix, who swapped from T8 to DJR Team Penske in 2017 and played a key role in its rise to competitiveness and then dominance, was philosophical about the performance gap to the Holden team.

“We are clearly the second team,” said Lacroix.

“Unfortunately we are fighting a car which has an upgrade in the engine which is not a bad aero car either.

“It has a big performance in braking that we can’t do.

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Image: Motorsport Images

“The boys next door (T8) have raised their game; they are not making so many mistakes, they are not blowing tyres. All of a sudden they are making the one per-centers better with the base car and an incredible driver line-up.”

From Darwin onwards KRE Chevrolet engines received a revised 1.65 rocker ratio, bringing with it a slight horsepower boost. Van Gisbergen won the second and third race at Hidden Valley with the new engine-spec after a pitlane problem denied him in the opener.

He and Whincup dominated both races at Townsville’s Reid Park hybrid circuit, finishing 1-2 each time.

“At this stage I don’t think we have the performance to out-race them,” said Lacroix.

“I don’t see that coming soon because we are not allowed to homologate [engine or aero upgrades].”

Lacroix said the KRE upgrade meant beating T8 at Mount Panorama would be a big challenge: “At Bathurst probably not, because with the new engine and basic aero I don’t think we can get there.”

Lacroix wasn’t alone along pitlane in his concern about the KRE engines, which are also supplied to T8 customer teams and Brad Jones Racing. One team owner described the advantage it delivered as “shocking”.

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Lacroix pointed to the 105mm longer front undertray fitted to the Holden Commodore ZB as a potential reason the T8 cars had better braking performance than the DJR Ford Mustangs.

“Is the shorter undertray a good excuse for braking? I don’t know,” Lacroix said. “I can tell you one thing, it hasn’t been tested in aero, we never go that low in braking position.

“Clearly in braking performance we are suffering,” he added.

Both Lacroix and team principal Ben Croak were confident DJR was still operating at an elite level, even taking into account its new driver line-up and some engineering restructuring.

They did concede the departure of McLaughlin had hit DJR’s win-rate simply because he was such an exceptional talent.

Croak said T8’s improved form had prompted a response form DJR and a focus on what needed to be improved to close the gap as soon as the second Reid Park event this weekend.

“We closed the gap a touch on Sunday compared to Saturday,” he said. “We will work hard this week to try and close the gap some more.

“Whether we get all the way or not, probably not.

“We have already identified areas we need to improve on and we will work on those; qualify better and early stint pace.”

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ADP’s best weekend for DJR

ANTON DE PASQUALE delivered his best performance for DJR last weekend at the Townsville 500.

That’s based not only on his 3-3 finishes chasing home the dominant Red Bulls, but is the verdict delivered by his engineer Ludo Lacroix and DJR team principal Ben Croak.

“This was his best weekend,” said Lacroix of the 25-year old, who has won for the team but also made errors and suffered misfortune.

Added Croak: “Yep, in terms of his race craft and the way he has had to look after the car over along race, it’s been impressive.”

Lacroix said De Pasquale’s stoic nature meant he had a tendency to cop his lot rather than speak up and ask for changes.

“He has got no emotion – he is monologue and monotone and picking up what is important and what is not is sometimes difficult. But that’s ok – we get used to it.”

Croak backed that up, using the example of the new seat insert De Pasquale used for the first time in Townsville, which eradicated hip and leg pain he had been suffering this year.

“He needs to learn to say ‘I need this fixed’ and not just go ‘that’s how it is’,” he said.

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LATEST NEWS

AUSTRALIAN MOTOR racing legend John Bowe will be attending this year’s Historic Leyburn Sprints, in a massive boost for the event on its 25th anniversary. This is Bowe’s first appearance in the small Queensland town south-west of Brisbane, joining a group of iconic drivers known as the ‘Leyburn Legends’ from August 21-22. The Sprints will this year involve over 200 historic, classic and performance cars in its one-kilometre timed runs of a closed-street course.

F1 AND MOTOGP SAFE – FOR NOW TCR AUSTRALIA 18-year-old Lachlan Mineeff has received the backing of new partner Unitronic. The performance software brand will support Mineeff for the remainder of the 2021 TCR Australia Series. Mineeff drives the #14 VW Golf GTI TCR. The Unitronic brand is most recognisable in North American motorsport, running its own TCR program with JDC-Miller Motorsport in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Series.

SCOTT ANDREWS is confirmed as a driver in the Le Mans 24-hour, in LMGTE AM. He will be driving the #57 Ferrari 488 for Kessel Racing.

The 30-year-old Victorian will be partnered with team-mates Takeshi Kimura and Mikkel Jensen.

Andrews successfully raced at the Portimao WEC eight-hour with the same team and set the official LMP3 race lap record in Le Mans in 2018.

GREG TAYLOR’S Melbourne Performance Centre-prepared Audi R8 LMS GT3 Ultra will feature a revised red and silver infused livery when the GT World Challenge Australia returns at Sandown in September. This is a changeup from the regular carbon black appearance, Taylor noting “I haven’t seen it in the flesh yet, but Troy (Russell) at Melbourne Performance Centre reckons it looks pretty good.” It is currently placed third in the GT Trophy standings.

THE CAN-AM Loveday 400 will no longer take place in July, officially postponed until September. The current COVID situation across the country has created uncertainty for those travelling across state borders, impacting whether competitors will be able to get in and out of South Australia later this month. The third event of the Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC) will now take place from September 24-26.

10 AutoAction

By MARK FOGARTY AUSTRALIA IS not in danger of losing the F1 and MotoGP Australian Grands Prix because of the latest cancellations.

Both have been called off for this year due to on-going COVID-19 border restrictions.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief Andrew Westacott claims both events are safe – for now.

The cancellations have prompted staff cuts at the AGPC, which is a Victorian government funded instrumentality.

Victoria authorities weren’t prepared to waive the two-week quarantine requirement for overseas arrivals by the end of October for Phillip Island’s Australian Motorcycle GP nor the F1 AGP in late November.

Cancelled on the eve of last year’s scheduled

F1 season-opener, the Albert Park event had already been postponed from March this year.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation, which runs both AGPs, is planning for F1 to return next March and MotoGP to come back in October.

But AGPC boss Andrew Westacott admits that Melbourne could lose it’s F1 season-opener status and be pushed into April, with MotoGP at Phillip Island moving to later in the year.

According to Westacott, neither event is at risk – if they go ahead next year.

“No, I don’t believe so, but changing circumstances with F1 and MotoGP could change that,” he told Auto Action. “We have long-term arrangements with both.

“They are very, very established events.”

When pressed, Westacott was adamant it wasn’t a case of “use it or lose it” in 2022.

“No,” he declared. “We have contracts with F1 through 2025 and with MotoGP through 2026.”

However, in other media, he raised the alarm that if they didn’t happen in ’22, both could be lost to Victoria – and probably Australia.

Westacott indicated the cost of cancelling the F1 AGP would be offset by savings on delaying the build of the Albert Park street circuit and not paying F1’s sanction fee, worth upwards of $20 million.

However, AA understands there will be staff cuts, with at least one senior executive let go.

In addition to track layout changes in progress, plans to completely resurface the Albert Park lakeside are still in place.

The new surface will be laid over summer, ready for next March or April.

ALBERT PARK UNLIKELY TO HOST FIRST F1 ROUND IN 22 WITH THE announcement that both the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix and Motorcycle Grand Prixare off, Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Paul Little has admitted that Australia is very unlikely to hold the first F1 race next year.

Ever since the Australian Grand Prix moved to Albert Park in 1996, Australia has been the traditional season opener.

Only in 2006 and 2010 has Albert Park not started the F1 season since taking the Grand Prix from Adelaide.

While the MotoGP round is expected to fill its usual spot, the Formula 1 race will most likely move back to the third or fourth round according to Little.

“We are thinking April is a date that we would like to be able to make some positive moves on at this point in time,” Little said.

“We need to follow through till the end of this year; we need to see what vaccination rates are like; we need to see what the federal government does with visitation rights, off the back of that (and then) we’ll know a lot more about whether or not April is viable.

“There are no guarantees – we’re working with Formula 1, with management to try and work towards that date but at this point in time, we’ve just been dealing with the event that was to be held in November.”

Paluka continued, explaining how the discussion about April came about and why Australia is unlikely to be the first round in 2022.

“We’ve been talking about April with F1 for some time,” Pakula revealed.

“This year other events went into that first and second race slot, and I think F1 is keen to continue with those events being the first and second race of the year.

“We’ve been looking at April for some period of time, it’s not set in stone. We’ll

continue those discussions.”

Although Australia appears to have lost its status as the first event of the season, Pakula believes it is not the end of the world.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve lost anything,” he felt. “The fact is that Formula 1 looks at the calendar every year and every year it changes.

“We didn’t have it this year and it’s unlikely to be the first race next year, but frankly, that probably suits us.”

Dan McCarthy

SUPERCARS FACES COVID CALENDAR RESUFFLE Sydney in grave doubt, Perth and Pukekohe questioned

By BRUCE NEWTON THE SUPERCARS championship calendar faces revision unless the COVID crisis in Sydney quickly and remarkably improves.

As AUTO ACTION closed for press on Monday, the New South Wales capital was experiencing its worst day of the Delta variant and Victoria had closed its borders to the state.

That move that has serious implications for the August 20-22 Sydney SuperNight at Sydney Motorsport Park because so many Supercars teams are based in Victoria.

While the official Supercars position was the race still could happen because there was time for the Sydney COVID outbreak to die down, the belief it would not happen was widespread in the Supercars paddock at the Townsville 500 last Sunday night.

Instead, the expectation was The Bend in South Australia would be pencilled in as its replacement and could even host a doubleheader.

There is also widespread doubt the September 11-12 Perth SuperNight and November 6-7 New Zealand SuperSprint will go ahead.

Of course, by the time you read this the calendar may have already been revised.

In a media roundtable on the Friday of the Townsville 500, Supercars CEO Sean Seamer was publicly confident about the chances of the Sydney SuperNight going ahead.

He said it was a similar watching brief for the Western Australian event and New Zealand, the latter requiring a mid-September sign-off to proceed.

Supercars is working to fit the twicepostponed event at Winton in Victoria back into the calendar, either replacing Pukekohe if it is cancelled, or before the Gold Coast 500 season finale currently scheduled for December 3-5.

“We are still six weeks out from Sydney,” Seamer said. “That [Sydney Motorsport Park] is a dedicated racetrack, so we can be much more agile in the planning and the lead-up to that event than something like a street race.”

“I think we demonstrated last year, it gives us the opportunity to manage different restrictions or different challenges in the lead-up to the event.”

Last year SMP hosted two Supercars championship rounds as Victoria went into lockdown.

The WA race is a focus because the state government is very aggressive in its border restrictions and closures when there are COVID flare-ups in other states.

NZ and Australia have a travel bubble in-place, but it has already been impacted several time by COVID flare-ups. The NZ outing also needs to be addressed months ahead of its November 6-7

date because of logistical challenges such as the sea-freighting of the 24-car grid across the Tasman and getting Dunlop race tyres there too.

“With regard to Perth and New Zealand, sure those are ones we are monitoring closely,” Seamer said. “New Zealand being November, is less of a concern right now but Perth in September is something we are monitoring and monitoring the Western Australian response to the situation in New South Wales,” said Seamer.

“But keep in mind but none of our teams are based in Sydney; I think the guys at Tekno Team Sydney have relocated and Brad Jones Racing is based in regional NSW. “We have a little bit of flexibility with Perth – it’s more important how they view the borders with Victoria and Queensland than NSW.” Current discussions point to a late season date

for Winton in a weather climate more suitable to camping, which is integral to the financial success of the event run by the Benalla Auto Club.

Seamer revealed investigations had already begin about how to freight cars back from NZ for a Winton race.

“We are working with our freight partner to look at options about getting back [to race at Winton] and we had already started that work in earnest.

“A lot of the freight infrastructure we use to get to New Zealand is handled by the same people who were doing the MotoGP and the AGP, so we are just working through the implications, if any, of the AGP cancellation on our freight plans in the back half of the year. But we are certainly looking at that.”

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THE NEW-FOR-2022 British Touring Car Championship hybrid has undergone successful testing at Oulton Park in England.

Former competition champion Andrew Jordan gave the Cosworth-TOCA Hybrid Toyota Corolla a significant workout, completing 423km over 118 laps. The new engine produced by M-Sport has changed very little since its first test in July 2020, a promising sign approaching the 2022 introduction. However, testing of the unit will continue right up until next year.

THE 2022 World Rally Championship calendar is taking shape, as nine rounds were confirmed this week. The opening round at Rallye Monte-Carlo will finish on January 23, and Rally Sweden will wrap up from its new location of Umea on February 27. The FIA World Motor Sports Council meeting in Monaco also greenlit seven further events in Portugal, Italy, Kenya, Japan, Spain, Estonia and Greece. There are four slots yet to be decided for the 13-round season.

ROUND FIVE of the FIA World Endurance Championship, in Japan, has been cancelled, with Bahrain confirmed as the replacement.

The Six Hours of Fuji event is another casualty of COVID-19 travel restrictions which prevent competitors’ attendance. Bahrain will now include a six-hour race to form a doubleheader for the final two rounds of the season.

The races will take place on consecutive weekends, October 30 and November 6.

M-SPORT FORD has unveiled its new hybrid WRC car, the first team to do so. The new generation offering for 2022 is based on the Puma road car, replacing the Fiesta, in line with recent speculation. The prototype was revealed at Goodwood Festival of Speed and will be used as a development car approaching the 2022 season. The incoming hybrid era will combine the current 1.6-litre turbocharged engine with a 100kW electric motor and battery.

THREE NEW locations have been included in the 16-race provisional calendar for the 2021/22 Formula E season. Electric racing will travel to 12 cities over four continents next season, including a returning China E-prix.

Cape Town and Vancouver are the additions to what is the busiest calendar in Formula E history. Competition will kick off in Saudi Arabia on January 28 and the packed year will conclude on August 14 in Seoul, South Korea.

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STONE FRUSTRATED WITH STEWARDING INCONSISTENCY JAKE KOSTECKI was disqualified from Sunday’s 250km race in Townsville because of a tyre infringement, leaving team owner Matt Stone frustrated and disappointed with the stewarding.

On the grid, just seconds before the start of the warm-up lap, a tyre on the #34 Matt Stone Racing Commodore fell below the mandatory 17psi pressure.

This is remarkably similar to the situation in Darwin, when Brad Jones Racing let two tyres fall below pressure – however BJR notified Supercars and changed the tyres before they turned a racing lap.

Nick Percat finished third and was allowed to keep his podium; the penalty was the deduction of team championship points.

Stone is disappointed that one event later, his team has been disqualified for the same infringement.

“We’re just very disappointed,” Stone said to Auto Action.

“Unfortunately, we got our calculations slightly wrong and made the mistake – however ,the fact that it’s the identical breach in remarkably similar circumstances as Darwin, and yet such a different outcome, essentially a different set of rules, is an extreme disappointment.”

Like BJR, Matt Stone Racing let Supercars officials know – however the team was unable to do anything about the tyres as the crew had to leave the grid.

Stone explained that by Turn 3 of the warm-up lap Kostecki’s tyres were over 17psi.

He admitted fault, but felt that as BJR was allowed to keep its podium, his team should receive a similar penalty.

Percat escaped a disqualification because he did not race on the illegal tyres, whereas Kostecki was disqualified because he started the warm-up lap with tyres below pressure.

However, Stone drew attention to the rule, which states that, in the period between leaving pit lane and the start of the warm-up lap, tyres must not dip below the 17psi threshold.

“Our team made a mistake, and we received the penalty as is dictated in the rules,” he confessed.

“But I’m extremely disappointed that such a precedent was set for a different team. In my opinion the issue is less to do with our ruling, but the fact that it doesn’t coordinate with a consistent ruling from such a similar offence three weeks ago.

“They (BJR) had the two tyres fairly low at a

much earlier point in the proceedings, which gave them the ability to change tyres on the grid, despite the fact that it is not actually a way of getting out of the breach – the breach is still a breach.

“They actually breached the rules more because they had two tyres under, and far more under, than ours.

“However, because of that they’ve gotten away with much less of penalty – and to me that doesn’t really compute.

“There was a long hearing, where tempers flared and the outcome was a much, much more lenient penalty, which to me set a precedent.”

AA asked Stone if he was going to lodge an appeal and he admitted that he would not.

“No, we’re not,” he said. “We’re not going to appeal because we’ve admitted breach of the offence and it was a mistake by the team.

“We will work to ensure that we as a team we don’t make that mistake ever again.

“The penalty that was given to us is the standard penalty for that breach, so I don’t believe we have grounds to appeal, but I did express my extreme dissatisfaction that the standard was not upheld, despite the identical breach of rules.” Dan McCarthy

REACTION ON GEN2 JOINING SUPER2 FROM 2023 SUPERCARS HAS announced that from 2023 Ford Mustangs and ZB Commodores will join the second-tier Super2 Series.

The Gen2 machines that are currently raced in the Supercars Championship will be passed down to Super2 joining the existing Car of The Future (COTF) machines, the VF Commodore, FG X Falcon and Nissan Altimas.

The different generation cars will share the same track, however – they will race in two different classes, with Gen2 cars in one and COTF machines in the other.

Although Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess expressed delight in the announcement, the teams were quite mixed on the decision.

Rachael Eggleston, co-owner of Eggleston Motorsport a frontrunning team that has previously won the series, said that to make moving to a Gen2 car financially viable, they would need to run with those cars for five years.

“Our main question is getting clarity and confirmation on how long that (Gen2) car will be the car for Super2,” she told Auto Action.

“You really need it to be at least certainly no less than five years to be able to then make it financially viable, to put that much investment into something.

“For us to invest that kind of money, it’s going to have to be, at least five years.

“We’ve gone back and asked that question and are just waiting for some clarification on that. I’m not sure they’ve even thought that far ahead yet.

But that’s certainly something that teams like

us – who would need to look at investing millions of dollars –are going to need to know the answer to that question.”

Eggleston explained that she needs to know this before she can commit to either dropping down to or continuing in the series and making the financial leap to Super2.

“We’ve got these cars here, what we do there, whether we drop a couple down into the Super3 or Class 2 or whatever it ends up being, that’s definitely a viable option,” she said.

There has been talk of paritising the two generations of machines to make them the same speed, however Eggleston suggests that appears unlikely to happen now.

“I think that was potentially an initial idea so that people weren’t forced to buy new cars,” she explained.

“But I think there’s issues with that too, because you’d have to do all the proper aero tests and all of that kind of stuff. I said to them, I just don’t think it’s reasonable.

“Perception will always be that a newer car

is faster or better; the drivers that want to drive will want the new cars egardless of whether you paritise an old car.”

Image Racing boss Terry Wyhoon was not a fan of running the Gen2 machines at all and was prepared to wait for Gen3.

“If you’ve got people in there paying what they cost to run, that’s fine, then you need longevity to get your return on your dollar,”Wyhoon told AA. “But if you haven’t got anyone in there that can afford to drive them and the Gen3’s put off for Super2 for five years, that’s also a bit of a risk.

“I’ve thought about talking to Erebus about maybe when they build their cars to build a third one, so we’ve got some wildcard stuff we can do with the kids. Someone might be able to go and do the three wildcards in a Gen three car without me buying the REC.” As previously reported by Auto Action, the current COTF cars will be the sole generation Supercar eligible to race in the second tier Super2 Series next year.

Bruce Newton and Dan McCarthy

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AA’s long-time columnist reckons those not watching IndyCar are robbing themselves of the best racing on the planet.

STANAWAY: CO-DRIVING A CHANCE

BATHURST 1000 wildcard Richie Stanaway says a successful return to Supercars racing at Mount Panorama in October could tempt him into becoming an endurance co-driver.

But the 29-year old Kiwi, who quit Supercars at the end of 2019 after two tough seasons at Tickford Racing and GRM, says he will never return to any form of motor racing full-time.

Stanaway, at one stage regarded as a likely Formula 1 prospect before breaking his back in a Formula Renault 3.5 accident in 2012, will join Kiwi legend Greg Murphy in an Erebus Motorsport Holden Commodore ZB in a deal orchestrated by Boost Mobile boss Peter Adderton.

He says co-driving in Supercars in the future is a possibility because it would not bring the pressure of a full-time driving.

“I think co-driving could be a good balance between my other commitments and still having a toe in the water,” Stanaway said.

“It’s something I would think about and have a better idea about after Bathurst.

“I’ll see how that goes, how I feel in the car, what the results are like and go from there.

“At the moment I am focussed on October and I’ll worry about next year when it comes.”

Stanaway co-drove Cameron Waters to the win in the 2017 Sandown 500. Weeks later he displayed sublime wet weather skills in the 1000.

But he finished only 25th in his rookie full-time Supercars season in 2018 with Tickford, which was having a difficult year extracting pace from its FG X Falcons.

The following year he shifted to GRM with Boost backing, effectively replacing Garth Tander and forcing the veteran’s retirement from full-time racing.

He missed several rounds when a painful protruding disc triggered by his old back injury flared up. He was later sidelined by team boss Garry Rogers for one race on the Gold Coast for missing an autograph session.

At season’s end Stanaway announced his retirement and in years since has concentrated on establishing a new business career.

Stanaway says he is happy in his new life, hence the steadfast rejection of a full-time racing return.

“My career has really ended,” said Stanaway. “I am coming back for this one-off almost like a weekend warrior.

“I have moved on with my life now and I don’t have any silly ideas about what could come next year or the year after.” Bruce Newton

PITHER CONFIDENT FOR 2022 NEVER-SAY-DIE Kiwi Chris Pither expects to firm up within two months his plans to return to the Supercars championship full-time in 2022.

Pither is out in the paddock hunting for a drive with the backing of drink distributor Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.

He raced in Coca-Cola colours in 2020 at Team Sydney and when that drive didn’t continue in 2021, Pither took his sponsor to Brad Jones Racing where it features on both Macauley Jones and Nick Percat’s Holden Commodore ZBs. After being told he would not be eligible to enter as a wildcard in selected Supercars races this season, Pither’s sole outing will be co-driving with Jones at Bathurst in October.

He is attending all Supercars events as a Coca-Cola ambassador.

For 2022 he intends to be a full-timer for the third year in his career, following on from his 2016 season with Super Black Racing (Tickford) and last year with Team Sydney.

“To be mid-year and talking about it [a 2022 drive] I am almost ahead of the curve,” said Pither. “A lot of teams don’t necessarily know their position as yet.

“But there is definitely opportunity out there and that will definitely unfold in the next couple of months.

“I am more confident than ever that I will get a seat.

“Normally it’s the other way around; there are opportunities out there and I have got no money.”

Pither explained he was not touting a commitment for a certain amount of money from Coca-Cola.

His job is to establish where the opportunities are and then let his potential 2022 teams and Coca-Cola talk money.

“I just need to go out and find where the opportunities

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are and then I can leave the commercial aspect up to them (Coca-Cola).

“They know what they want out of an arrangement with a team. They have been involved on and off for a while now.”

Pither’s giving no clues as to where his prospects are for 2022.

But teams with potential seats to fill include Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United, BJR and Matt Stone Racing.

Pither, 34, remains staunchly confident in his ability to cut it in Supercars racing if given the right environment – the 2018 Super2 champion cites his Queensland Raceway pole position in 2016 as proof.

“When I am in the right team and the car is in the window; when I am with an engineer that I gell with and I am driving the car properly, then I can be as fast as anyone.” BN

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THE STANDOUT story of the 2021 racing season so far, for me at least, is Scott McLaughlin taking to IndyCar racing like a Kiwi to DB Bitter.

It was obvious the New Zealand-born and long-time Australian-domiciled driver was a special talent during his 10 years on the Supercars scene. After all, this was a stint that netted three consecutive championships, a controversial 2019 Bathurst win and many memorable moments “giving it jandal”. But I don’t think anyone realised just how special he is … until this year.

Firstly, Shane van Gisbergen’s dominance of Supercars since McLaughlin departed these shores has highlighted the missing void. Then there’s the manner in which Scotty Mac has performed in the ultra-competitive American open-wheeler category. It has been super impressive – and thoroughly enthralling – to observe.

The first five races of the IndyCar season featured a diverse mix of layouts – a natural terrain road course (Alabama), a street circuit (St Petersburg), twin 1.5mile oval races in Texas, and the Indianapolis infield ‘roval’. Despite only having competed on one of these tracks before, at St Pete, McLaughlin finished every event – no easy task given the cut-and-thrust of IndyCar competition, especially the early laps and restarts. His three top 10 results included a stunning second outright in his very first oval race.

The next five races proved more challenging, but he’s got a knack for reaching the finish. He was on target for a top 10 result in the Indianapolis 500 until pinged for speeding entering pitlane, ultimately netting 20th and rookie of the year honours.

This began a run of finishes between 12th and 20th in the rapid-fire post-Indy events, McLaughlin concentrating on keeping his nose clean in the manic mid-pack scramble to clock up race miles and experience.

With the series now amid a five-week break, due largely to broadcaster NBC’s Olympic commitments, the reigning Supercars champ sits 13th on the points table with six races to run – three on consecutive weekends in August, likewise three more in September.

Thirteenth may not sound spectacular, but he’s in good company. With him outside the top 10 are Penske teammate, fellow Antipodean and past champ Will Power (11th) and three of the four drivers from the crack Andretti Autosport operation, including regular frontrunner Alexander Rossi (12th). Such is the depth of the IndyCar field this season.

Most significantly, McLaughlin leads a fascinating rookie of the year battle with F1 refugee Romain Grosjean and seven-time NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson, the American driving for the series’ third powerhouse team, Ganassi Racing.

Johnson’s struggles to get up to respectable rookie speed are in sharp contrast to McLaughlin’s solid debut. Single-seater novice McLaughlin should similarly be a fish out of water, but it hasn’t panned out that way. His learning has been fast-tracked by having four-time Indy 500 winner and three-time IndyCar champion Rick Mears as driving coach and mentor at Team Penske.

Johnson’s and Grosjean’s decisions to sit out oval races, to this point at least, in their rookie year has given Scotty Mac the chance to build a lead in the rookie standings. Their conservative approach has also made our man look even more of a superstar. But Grosjean has now found his feet.

Interestingly, the general sports media here in Australia gave McLaughlin’s early-season efforts good coverage, but that has now dropped off. Mind you, other Australasian aces, Power and Scott Dixon, have received scant local coverage over the years despite their sustained success. The Brisbane-born New Zealander is still in the hunt this year for a seventh IndyCar title – along with Alex Palau, Pato O’Ward and Josef Newgarden – and yet is largely overlooked by both media and those racing fans for whom motorsport means Ford versus Holden and little else.

Truth be known, even if IndyCar wasn’t so wonderfully flavoured by folk from lands downunder it would still be compelling viewing. This is a category again on the rise. The racing is just so entertaining and unpredictable, with some special talent having joined the series.

The depth of talent is now extraordinary. Drivers like Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe, who were race winners in the recent past, have quickly become alsorans and fighting for their futures. With eight different race winners so far this year, it’s possible that number will hit double-figures by the season-ending Long Beach Grand Prix.

If you’re not watching IndyCar right now, you’re robbing yourself of the best and most credible racing on the planet. What’s more, under Roger Penske’s ownership the sky is the limit for a series that has its act together and is compelling viewing at each and every event. You can’t say that for all racing categories in 2021, including, arguably, the one from which McLaughlin has springboarded.

Luke West wrote his first Auto Action column in 2000. Today Revved Up surveys motorsport’s changing landscape. Contact via @Luke_West (Twitter) & aarevvedup@hotmail.com

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LATEST NEWS

SUPERCARS PLANS FUEL RIG RULE CHANGE

TRIPLE EIGHT’S bulging refuelling tanks won’t be seen again in the Supercars championship.

The championship-dominating team has been told to bring new tanks that have straight sides, as originally supplied, to the next refuelling race, the Bathurst 1000 in October.

Supercars will also a draft a new regulation to address a ‘grey area’ in the rulebook in relation to fuel rigs, exposed by the controversy that erupted last Friday the Townsville 500.

A spokesman for the championship declined to explain what the regulation would be until all teams were advised.

At Townsville, rival teams noticed the tanks on T8’s refuelling had curved rather than straight sides.

This theoretically leads to an increase in fuel flow rate because of increased height of fluid (or head pressure) inside the tank.

Rivals alleged the bulging could be worth

up to a second at a stop, while T8 argues it would be no more than a tenth of a second across a 25 second stop.

Supercars asked T8 to make a minor reduction to its fuel level in its refuelling tanks for last weekend, thus reducing head pressure. It has also made clear the tanks must be replaced for Bathurst.

There is no suggestion from Supercars that

T8 has done anything illegal.

Townsville is only the second refuelling race of the 2021 Supercars championship.

The rigs last appeared at the season-opening Mount Panorama 500.

A maximum fuel flow rate is not mandated for Supercars pit stops, instead a restrictor in the fuel line limits flow to about 3.7L per second.

Supercars calibrates the tanks at the start

of each season to ensure the 120-litre drop is the same for each rig.

Triple Eight says its refuelling tanks expanded in storage several years ago during an off-season and they have been used in that state ever since.

The tanks are identical along pitlane and were originally supplied by a third party constructor. BN

VICTORIAN STATE SERIES SET FOR SANDOWN

THE VICTORIAN State Race Series will return this to Sandown Raceway for the first time since the opening round o the series.

Held from July 24-25, this event will feature a Kent-only Formula Ford field as the feature category. Typically, the Kent engine cars race alongside the Duratec engine cars, but due to a rush of entries the field has been split to avoid grid density issues.

As of July 12, there were 28 Duratec powered Formula Ford’s and 17 that are either Formula Ford 1600s or historic registered. Each of those two groups will get one qualifying round on Saturday, then one race on Saturday and two on Sunday.

At the same time there were 195 cars registered for the event across all categories including Sports Cars, Sport Sedans, Porsche 944, improved production, Hyundai Excels, Formula Vee and Formula Open.

There are no completely new cars racing in 2021, but the historic Formula Ford’s will likely pique the interest of spectators.

Sports Sedans Australia’s Colin Smith

said he was looking forward to the event this year.

“The enthusiasm is there from every category,” said Smith.

“944 has 21. That will be a good race, any indication of what they did at Phillip Island and their racing will be very, very good.

“Formula Vee’s are back to being Formula Vee’s, they’ve been very good this year.”

“Formula Open is a breath of fresh air… the response from people from competitors in this group, which is so open, has been absolutely brilliant.”

Fan attendance will not be limited, but there will be Covid-19 protocols in place.

“Spectators are going to have to use the Eventbrite system and all spectators will have to go to the Red Hill spectator area,” said Smith.

Every race will be streamed online this year on Blend Line TV. According to Smith, the Sandown event earlier this year attracted over 100,000 hits, reaching an international audience.

Josh Nevett

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PEUGEOT REVEAL 9X8 HYPERCAR PEUGEOT HAS revealed its latestgeneration Hypercar for the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 9X8.

Due to makes its competitive debut in 2022, the hybrid-powered all-wheeldrive prototype is the latest creation from Peugeot Sport, aimed at adding to the brand’s three Le Mans 24 Hours victories.

A direct successor to the iconic 905 and 908 which both scored wins for the French brand at their home endurance race, Peugeot Sport and Peugeot’s Design and Engineering have taken advantage of the greater flexibility in the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class rule set to exploring new aerodynamic solutions with their race car creating an instantly-recognisable design.

“Since the 9X8 is a Peugeot, the original sketch that steered our work portrayed a big cat ready to pounce, a stance which we have suggested by the slightly forward-tilting cockpit.” said Matthias Hossann, Peugeot Design Director.

“The overall lines of the Peugeot 9X8 express the brand’s styling cues, while its sleek, racy, elegant forms inspire emotion and dynamism.”

The 9X8 also falls in line with Peugeot’s Neo-Performance vision, which aims to combine the premium sporting pedigree with styling excellence, efficiency and technological expertise into technology and concepts that can be carried over to the brand’s road cars.

“There’s more to Peugeot’s involvement

WEC & IMSA RULESET ALIGNED

in endurance racing than the sporting aspect.” said Peugeot’s Chief Executive Officer Linda Jackson.

“Endurance racing is a form of motorsport that provides us with an extreme laboratory, which explains why our association with Le Mans is so strong.”

“More significant perhaps than the results we obtain on the race track are the opportunities it provides to prove our technology and the fruit of our research work in a race that throws extreme conditions at you for 24 hours.”

“Le Mans gives us a competitive environment to validate the hybrid systems and technologies we are currently developing to reduce the fuel consumption – and therefore CO2 emissions – of our road cars.”

“The teams at Peugeot Sport are proud when they see their research carried over to our production models. For our customers, Le Mans is a laboratory that testifies to the quality of our cars.”

Two Peugeot 9X8s will contest the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship with a star driver line-up including Paul Di Resta, Loic Duval, Mikkel Jensen, Kevin Magnussen, Gustavo Menezes, James Rossiter and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Rhys Vandersyde

THE FUTURE of prototype-based endurance racing has been locked in with the organizers of the World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Challenge agreeing on a common technical rule set.

After announcing in early 2020 that the two championships would work together on a pathway forward for manufacturers across both series, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), FIA and IMSA have now come to an agreement on the technical specifications for the new category going forward.

The new agreement means LMH prototypes built to compete in the World Endurance Championship will be able to also compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from 2023.

“This major announcement stems from our ambition to forge a common future for Endurance racing.” said Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest.

“We have all worked together to achieve this landmark agreement and I would like to thank all the stakeholders very sincerely.”

“It is wonderful news for teams and fans alike and maps out a bright future for Endurance. The manufacturers dreamed of being able to participate in the greatest endurance races in the world with the same model of a car: this will now be reality.”

The announcement means that Toyota and Peugeot, who have already revealed their Le Mans Hypercar projects, will be able to compete in two of the iconic endurance races, the Le Mans 24 Hours and 24 Hours of Daytona using the same equipment.

“The FIA, ACO and IMSA have been working towards a common future where teams running in LMH and LMDh can race on both sides of the Atlantic.” said Richard Mille, President of the FIA Endurance Commission.

“Today we can see that the convergence has taken a step closer to reality, which is great news for all of us involved in endurance racing.”

“The principles have been agreed by all parties.

The dream of teams and manufacturers being able to compete in all of the top endurance races with the same car for the first time is now at hand. This represents a significant moment in the history of motor racing.”

The common rule set locks in four key technical elements – tire fitment, acceleration profile, braking capability and aerodynamics.

“What we achieved as a group a few weeks ago in Paris has the potential to revolutionize prototype sports car racing all over the world.” said John Doonan, IMSA President.

“The stage is set for a highly competitive top category that will include many of the world’s greatest automotive manufacturers, showcasing relevant technology in the world’s most prestigious endurance races.”

“Collectively, we have an opportunity to engage with the next generation of endurance sports car racing fans and elevate our sport to the highest levels. I cannot be prouder of the spirit of collaboration between our IMSA team, our colleagues at the ACO and FIA, and all of our automotive partners.”

Rhys Vandersyde

VICTORIAN STATE RACE SERIES

ROUND 4 – SANDOWN 24th - 25th JULY

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For more information visit www.vsrs.com.au

Tickets for spectators are available via the EventBrite link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/victorian-state-circuit-racing-championships-round-4-red-hill-spectator-tickets-162201070769

The event will be covered by Blendline TV. www.autoaction.com.au

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57

SYDNEY SPEEDWAY OPERATOR SELECTED FOLLOWING THE new Sydney International Speedway reaching the halfway point in its construction at the end of last month, it has been announced that an operator has been appointed. John and Kathy Kelly, and Scott Anderson will be the lease holders.

Along with Sydney Dragway, Kelly/Anderson were the only conforming tenders that were received when bids closed in March. Conducted by the Western Sydney Parkland Trust, the winning tender considered the financial offer, financial capability, experience, operational plans, and lease terms.

The Kellys are the current promoters of Queensland’s Archerfield Speedway while John Kelly is on the board of Speedway Australia and Kathy Kelly is President of the Sprintcar Control Council of Australia. Anderson owns and operates Monster Events which promotes monster trucks across the country and has done for several years.

The new speedway, which is next to Sydney Dragway and adjacent to Sydney Motorsport Park, will replace the shutdown Parramatta Valvoline Raceway. It is expected to be operational by the start of the 2021 racing season. There has

already been suggestions that the track will be in a position to test on before the end of this year.

Construction began in December last year and saw the excavation of a million tonnes of soil and rock to support construction of a 500-metre long reinforced retaining wall.

The wall uses almost 1000 precast concrete panels and 40,000 tonnes of recycled sandstone from the WestConnex project.

Other works have included the construction of the first of two 1.2 million litre stormwater retention tanks, a dedicated speedway competitors car park, an additional dragway car park, grandstand, seating, and corporate boxes.

Garry O’Brien

AUSSIES RACE TO THE CLOUDS AT THE running of the 99th edition of the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hillclimb in Colorado, USA, that culminated on June 27, there were two Australians competing – Brett Dickie and John McInnes – among the 54 entrants.

Victorian Dickie who generally competes in Sports Sedans and Time Attack events, was a rookie and drove his Honda S2000 to 31st outright and sixth in the Unlimited class, while expat John McInnes finished 40th and took an Open Wheel class fifth in his Sierra RX3.

The overall winner was Robin Shute in 5mins 55.246s, far faster than Romain Dumas (Porsche 911 GT2RS) in second, ahead of Paul Dallenbach (PVA-003 Dallenbach Special), Kiwi Rhys Millen (Bentley Continental GT3) and Raphael Astier (Porsche BBI Turbo).

The Race to the Clouds, on the last weekend of June, generally takes place on a 12.42 mile (19.99 km) public toll road with 156 turns and climbs 4,720 feet (1,440 metres). From the 9,390 feet (2,862 metre) start line at the Mile 7 marker, it finishes at the 14,115 feet (4,300 m) mountain summit.

This year the course was shortened to nine miles (14.5 km) due to adverse road conditions from the Devil’s Playground to the summit. Ice and snow covered the road and atmospheric temperatures were near freezing. The organisers made the decision early to end the climb at the Mile 16 marker.

Dickie had to overcome a setback in the lead-up as he crashed on the top of the course in practice and destroyed the front of his Honda. He and his team had to hot-foot it back to California in a 16-hour drive to make repairs.

Back at the mountain, they would find a cracked exhaust manifold which needed to be removed and repaired before a final shakedown run at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

Then Dickie in his Garrett turbocharged stroked 2.3lt F20c-powered flyer, which is mated up to a TTi sequential gearbox, logged a best effort of 7mins 58.078s.

“The last sector times were pretty good, so I was told. I could not tell as I was driving through a cloud and couldn’t see!

“I had the chance to spend time with Rhys (Millan) which helped me, being a rookie,” he said.

Meanwhile, McInnes, who finished 31st overall in 2020, three places ahead of fellow Sierra runner Aaron Kaufman, was in the Open Wheel category in the recreational Ultra Terran Vehicle. The single-seat, centre cockpit machine is very lightweight at 925 lb (420 kg) with a Suzuki Hayabusa engine that put out around 200 hp (150 kw).

“I was a little surprised when I saw the wet glaze on the road, and I was worried about running on the slick tyres as we usually run on hillclimbs (with road tyres) and off road events.

“The goal was to finish, and we did that,” he said.

Garry O’Brien

WINTON HISTORIC LONG CIRCUIT 2021 DON’T FORGET Winton’s Long Circuit Historic meeting on August 7-8!

With over 230 entries, it will be a beauty – something for all tastes, with full grids of single-seaters, sports and touring cars.

The 50K Cup for Historic Touring Cars feature race has a capacity field, including 17 V8s.

Drawcards include the Mustang Fastbacks of Darryl Hansen, Andrew Lane, Michael Miceli, Andrew Clempson and Joe Calleja, not to forget three ’68 Trans Ams. The General’s fight is led by the Tony Hubbard and Brent Trengrove’s Camaros.

Mazda RX2s will be up front along with quick Torana, Charger and Capri sixes.

Variety is the spice, including Falcon Rallye Sprint, Datsun 1600, BMW 2002, Alfa Romeo, Cortina, Volvo

122, Valiant, and Falcon. A Simca Vedette provides a bit of French savoir faire.

Sports Sedan star cars include Carey McMahon’s ex-Graeme Whincup Chev 350 Monza, and the Peter Fowler-built 1980 Mercedes Chev raced by John Bowe, Brad Jones and Bryan Thomson.

Tickets are available for purchase on-line only – cash sales at the Winton gates will not be available.

All pre-purchased tickets must be printed and presented at the gate for scanning.

Go to: https://www.ticketebo.com.au/wfos2021

ON SP L I EC N TA E I N TO AD R T VA IC N KET CE S ON .* LY

WINTON FESTIVAL OF

7 & 8 AUGUST 2021

Spectator Tickets*: www.ticketebo.com.au/wfos2021 Historic long track racing, classic car show and motorkhana both days Over 270 cars racing, featuring the Historic Touring Cars JUST CARS CUP 5Okm and the HQ RACING Anniversary Feature Race, plus Classic Sports Cars, Historic Sports Sedans, Grp C&A and TRIBUTE cars.

Categories incl: Grp N, Grp S. HQ Racing, MG Racing Formula Ford, Formula Vee, JKL, PQR, M&O. Car show + parade entries: 0413 247 817

For more information www.vhrr.com

*Spectator tickets are now available for pre purchase on-line. Cash sales at the Gate will not be available. All pre purchased tickets must be printed and presented at the Gate for scanning.

In addition, all attendees will be required to download the Services Victoria QR Code on to their mobile device prior to their arrival at the Track so that scanning of the QR Code will be a simple process. We are pleased to be offering the ability to buy tickets on line and have partnered with the secure on line ticketing services of Ticketebo for the provision of our tickets.

Buy on line today at www.ticketebo.com.au/wfos2021.

with Dan Knutson

LEWIS HAMILTON will likely stay at Mercedes beyond his new two-year contract, according to Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff. The seven-time champion is signed on until 2023, taking him to 10 years of service at Mercedes.

While Hamilton is the third oldest driver in the grid and will be 39 when the current deal expires, Wolff was confident in asserting “I’m pretty sure it’s not his last contract.” JN

FIA RACE Director Michael Masi has defended the penalties handed out at the Austrian Grand Prix. “I don’t think they are harsh,” Masi concluded. Of the six drivers penalised, the decisions against Lando Norris and Sergio Perez generated the most controversy. Norris served a five-second time in a pit stop. “In Sergio’s case with Lando, he was wholly alongside Lando and therefore there is an onus to leave a car’s width to the edge of the track,” he said. JN

MERCEDES HAS explained Lewis Hamilton’s continued absence from the podium in Austria, stating that bodywork damage cost Hamilton over half a second per lap. “It looks like the bodywork damage for Lewis was at the end of lap 29 just before we came in.” Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director revealed. Reigning champion Hamilton finished fourth and fell further behind the title leader Max Verstappen. JN

THE CANCELLATION of the Australian Grand Prix has hit many hard, including hometown hero Daniel Ricciardo. Denied the chance to race in Melbourne for the second consecutive year due to COVID-19, Ricciardo didn’t hide his disappointment. “Obviously I’m really, really gutted that we’re not coming back home to Oz this year, or I’m not coming home,” Ricciardo said. He has not been able to return home to Australia for over 13 months. JN

WIFE OF former F1 driver Alex Zanardi has provided a positive update on his condition.

Communicating via BMW Motorsport, Daniela has shared that Zanardi is in a stable condition undergoing a rehabilitation program. This comes 12 months after the Paralympic athlete crashed his handbike in Italy, sustaining serious injuries. Zanardi raced in F1 for Williams, Jordan, Minardi and Lotus. JN

18 AutoAction

CAUTIOUS BUT OPTIMISTIC RED BULL Honda has now won the last five F1 races – four for Max Verstappen and one for Sergio Pérez. The last time Red Bull won five consecutive races was in 2013, which was also the last time the team won the Drivers’ and Constructors’ world championships.

Prior to this year, Verstappen had never won back-to-back F1 races. Now he has won three on the trot. Prior to this year, Verstappen had never led the F1 points standings. He now has a 32 point lead over Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton who has dominated the championship category for the past four years.

But can Red Bull keep this momentum going

at the upcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone and for the rest of the season?

Red Bull won the 2012 British Grand Prix at Silverstone with Aussie Mark Webber driving.

Since then Mercedes have won every single British Grand Prix. The exception was last year when Silverstone hosted two F1 races on consecutive weekends.

Verstappen won F1’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the track as he was able to set a pace that Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas could not match because the tyres on their cars were blistering.

While Red Bull team principal Christian Horner

is optimistic about winning at Silverstone, he is cautious about the team maintaining its momentum for the rest of the season.

“We’ve now won the last five races, a first for us in the hybrid era, but we cannot get complacent and need to keep that momentum going,” Horner said. “There’s a long way to go in this championship. We don’t take anything for granted, and we have to keep doing what we’re doing, session by session, race by race.

“Silverstone will be a big challenge and it’s been a Mercedes stronghold for the last seven years. But there’s going to be a big crowd there and we have brilliant fans, so I can’t wait to put

RICCIARDO NEEDS TIME

DANIEL RICCIARDO needs more time to come to grips with the McLaren MCL35M. “After the French Grand Prix I was expecting to make more of a step in the two races in Austria,” the Aussie said. “It was not really the case, so I still have things to learn.”

Ricciardo finished sixth in France. But he qualified way back in 13th for the two races at Austria’s Red Bull Ring. He finished 13th in the first Austria race and seventh in the second race.

His teammate Lando Norris, meanwhile, is doing a much better job extracting speed and balance out of the car. He finished fifth, fifth and third in the respective three races, and qualified second for the third race.

Ricciardo is still working hard with the McLaren engineers to adjust his driving style to what the car requires, and to adjust the car to suit his driving style.

“There certainly are still some things to improve,” he said. “But I’m not going to expect it overnight. We are not quite halfway through the season, so it is going to be a longer process than maybe expected.”

“It is certainly something that I’m going to keep working at,” he added. “I definitely do feel more comfortable in the car now.

It is not like race two or three where you know there is more to come naturally from seat time. I have had enough time in the car consistently in the last few weeks to be at a level of comfort with it. There’s obviously still something that is missing, and we will have to dig a bit deeper for that.

“I feel okay right in the car. I will just keep trying to search for where that lap time is, because it is not a tenth of a second that we are talking about. We are still talking about big margins. So that one will require a bit

more analysis.”

The team has not lost confidence in Ricciardo.

“It is complex to change teams over the winter,” said McLaren boss Andreas Seidl. “I am still very, very confident and absolutely sure that it will click at some point, and the day will come when Daniel will feel happier with the car. And then we will see the Daniel again that we all want to see, and showing us the performances that we are all used to.”

Ricciardo’s race pace has been better than his qualifying pace. The upcoming British Grand Prix will feature the first Sprint qualifying race, with a 100km race on Saturday setting the grid for Sunday’s main event. That should give Ricciardo a good opportunity to be further up the starting grid on Sunday by making up places in Saturday’s race.

TOUGH AT THE TOP

on another show for everyone who comes out to support us.”

Red Bull is ready for the fight.

“We know Mercedes have been so strong at Silverstone over the last seven years,” Horner added, “so they’re going to be mighty around there and, of course, with the British fans supporting Lewis that’s going to be more petrol in his tank.

Of course, it’s the first of the Sprint races as well so it’s going to be a different dynamic – but if we can carry this momentum into Silverstone, then there isn’t really anything we should fear.”

THE PAST 12 months have been hectic and gruelling for the F1 fraternity.

In the space of 52 weeks – from when the pandemic-delayed 2020 season began in Austria last July through to this year’s Austrian Grand Prix – there were 26 races.

Take out the off-season period, which was just shy of 14 weeks, and that is 26 races 38 weeks.

The benefactors were the fans, who got to see plenty of races, and for the most part, the drivers, who got many opportunities to do what they like to do best: race cars.

“Yes, it is tiring,” Aussie Daniel Ricciardo said. “So a break is always nice. But I’m not going to say I don’t enjoy it. You have a good race and you want to do another one the week after to try and keep it going, and if you have a bad race you want to go again the next week after to make up for it. So there is always an excuse to want to

compete.”

But it has been gruelling and tiring for the rank and file workers in the Paddock. For the European races, the drivers can often fly in on Thursday morning and back home on Sunday night. But with the doubleheader and tripleheader race weekends, crew members have been away from home and family for weeks at a time.

Yet even the drivers have had tough times and taken on new perspectives.

“You appreciate the little things,” said Ricciardo who has not been back to Australia for over 13 months. “Like taking things for granted, like going out for a meal with friends or family. It sounds simple, but those things you certainly miss. It has also made me appreciate nature a bit more.

With big cities being closed or locked down, you are looking for other things to occupy yourself and getting out.

“We do it because of our job, but also staying active and staying healthy has been really important to keep yourself occupied as well for good reasons. The freedom of travel and stuff, especially when it comes to not seeing family for over a year is bad.

When it all comes back we will make the most of these things that we have.”

The horrible cloud of COVID-19 has a silver lining as it has forced the stuck-inits-own-mud F1 world agree to try new concepts – everything from lowering the new budget cap to US$135 million, to qualifying sprint races, to two-day race weekends and to lowering F1’s carbon footprint by reducing the number of staff and amount of equipment sent to the tracks.

Tripleheaders headers have been a necessary evil, but hopefully will disappear when the F1 world finally gets back to a new normal.

of the season, when Reutemann wanted to make peace and asked Jones to “bury the hatchet,” Jones said: “Carlos says he wants to bury the hatchet. I said, ‘Yeah, mate, right in your f****** back!’”

The last race of the season was in Las Vegas. Reutemann had a one point lead over Piquet in the drivers’ championship.

Reutemann started from the pole, but Jones, who qualified second, led every lap.

Reutemann faded back to finish eighth. The two points Piquet got for fifth place earned

him his first of three world titles.

Many people thought that the sensitive Reutemann had become “psyched out” by the mental pressure. The reality was that Williams had brought spare cars for both Jones and Reutemann after running just one spare car for Jones all season. The team just was not prepared to operate four cars. Reutemann crashed his race car on Saturday, so he and the team only had the half-hour Sunday morning warm-up to set up the car.

The race was a disaster for Reutemann.

“He said it was like driving over cobblestones on a skateboard,” a former Williams team member recalled to Auto Action. “The car was jumping up and down everywhere.”

Reutemann ran in two F1 races for Williams in 1982 and then retired. He returned to Argentina where was twice elected governor of his province of Santa Fe and sat in the country’s Senate since 2003.

VALE CARLOS FORMULA ONE ace Carlos Reutemann has died at age 79 after a long battle with cancer.

Born in Argentina, Reutemann competed in 146 championship F1 races between 1972 and 1982, driving for Brabham, Williams, Ferrari and Lotus.

He had six pole positions, 12 wins, 13 second places and 20 third places. Driving for Williams, he finished runner-up in the 1981 championship, just one point behind Brabham driver Nelson Piquet.

Two of Reutemann’s 1981 races stand out. His teammate, Aussie Alan Jones, won the season opener in Long Beach.

Alfa Romeo had offered Jones a lucrative contract for 1981, so he used that as leverage in his Williams deal that included priority use of the spare car, and a clause that said if he was running closely behind Reutemann in a race, then Reutemann had to let him go ahead. In Brazil, round two, Reutemann was ahead of Jones.

There were no pit-to-driver radios in those times, so the team hung out a pit signaling board that had JONES on the top line and REUT on the second line. Much to the fury of Jones, Reutemann ignored the team order and won the race.

A PR photo later showed the two drivers smiling and shaking hands. But at the end

AutoAction

19

LATEST NEWS

MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA CLARIFIES KOSTECKI PENALTY A STATEMENT has been released by Motorsport Australia regarding the disqualification of Jake Kostecki from Sunday’s 250km race in Townsville, in which it has clarified the reasons for the disqualification.

The initial statement said that the tyre pressures on car #34 for both the left and right rear tyres fell below the mandated 17psi on the grid prior to the race start.

However, evidence provided by MSR showed that only the one tyre was below the minimum pressure.

It was also confirmed that the stewards’ decision lists an incorrect time of the breach in its findings, with the tyre actually only dipping down below 17psi around 60 seconds before the race start.

Despite this it does not change the outcome of the result, Kostecki’s disqualification from Race 16 of the Supercars Championship stands.

MSR released the statement released by Motorsport Australia and the disqualification of car #34.

“Firstly and most importantly MSR accept the decision of the stewards, and do not dispute that one of our tyres dropped below 17psi approximately one minute before the formation lap of race 17 after sitting on the grid for around 29 minutes,” it read.

“The team also accept the penalty of disqualification as such a ruling adheres clearly to rule D17.1.17 of the operations manual which is our expectation as team.

“The rule states that the minimum permitted pressure of a control tyre when fitted to a car is 17psi which must be achieved at any time that the car is on the circuit during any session.”

The Queensland based team revealed it has already reviewed its pre-race tyre procedure, but

explained that in such a competitive series the limits are often pushed.

“Naturally the team are very disappointed that such a small error has had such a big penalty,” the statement said.

“We are particularly annoyed that we let our driver Jake Kostecki down on this occasion as he drove a good race and should have banked some valuable championship points.

“The team have already reviewed our calculations and procedures to do everything we can to avoid to this happening again.

“Supercars is the most competitive touring car racing category in the world and every team

pushes every legal limit they can, as they should.

“That’s the business we are in and occasionally all the teams make a mistake of some kind.”

The team admit that it got the calculations wrong on this occasion and suggested that the previous pre-race tyre rule be reinstated.

“In this case forecasting the heat of the sun and track temperature over a stationary 30-minute period whilst on the grid isn’t sometimes an exact science which is why we allow for a margin of error,” it continued.

“We just got that forecast slightly wrong and the regulations state that teams are not allowed to put any air in their tyres on the grid anymore

so once the cars leave the garage there is literally nothing you can do about it in most cases.

“We would hate to see a Championship decided on something like this.

“That’s not what the sport is about so maybe the rule should be rolled back to what it used to be where the teams were allowed to bleed the tyres back on the grid as you still can in Super2 for instance.

“Thank you again to our fans and partners for all your support. We look forward to bouncing back at this weekend’s Townsville SuperSprint.” Dan McCarthy

highlighted this weakness.

“Tyre deg is probably the worst it’s ever been around Townsville but our car wasn’t very nice either,” he said. “When the car is not nice it eats the tyres up even more.

“We’ve got a fair idea what we’re lacking, we’ve just got to work out what tool will influence it for us. A lot of ideas have been thrown around, now it’s just about picking the right philosophy and implementing it.”

Driving the #6 Ford Mustang, Waters finished eighth in Race 1 on Saturday before making some overnight improvements to finish fifth in Race 2.

Despite the changes, he still finished 50.408s off Shane Van Gisbergen at the front.

“Our car wasn’t really that nice on its tyres after 20 [laps] and he [SVG] was pumping

them out after 35 so we’ve definitely got some work to do, no doubt,” Waters lamented.

“We got lapped Saturday, which was a bit of a kick in the face. Sunday was definitely better but we’ve still got a long way to go.”

The 26-year-old is currently fifth in the championship standings behind Chaz Mostert and Will Davison. Van Gisbergen and Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup are the clear front runners at this stage.

Given the close battle for positions three, four and five, Waters is pulling out all the stops to ensure a quick turnaround in form.

“Were definitely diving through all the data trying to work out what that thing [issue] is,” he explained.

“It’ll be good to come back this weekend to see if we’ve influenced those issues and

fingers crossed we have, it’ll probably help us for the rest of the year.

“I’ve had many conversations with my engineer and even other engineers.”

The Victorian revealed that he will have a different engineer this weekend, but despite this is optimistic of a stronger second round in Townsville, “I’ve actually got a change of engineer for this weekend,” said Waters.

“Pottsy’s got an operation on his leg, so we’ve subbed in our head engineer, Ozzie, so he’s coming back for the weekend.”

“This weekend won’t be as bad because the races are a little bit shorter.

“You don’t have to draw those stints out as bad. You have your first stage of deg, and then your second stage which we probably won’t get this weekend.” Josh Nevett

WATERS TYRE LIFE DEFICIENCY STRUGGLE IN TOWNSVILLE CAMERON WATERS was disappointed in the performance of his car as he suffered from extreme tyre degradation over the first weekend in Townsville.

Speaking to the media ahead of the second half of the Supercars double-header this weekend, the Tickford Racing driver said his technical team were in the process of rectifying the issues.

“Very frustrating weekend for us,” Waters said. “We rolled out pretty good in practice and we were pretty confident that we were thereabouts.

“The track was quite fast in practice with the cloud cover, but when it got sunny on Saturday track grips deteriorates a little bit and then your issues that were marginal are now big issues so that was kind of our story from practice to Saturday.”

Tickford Racing has struggled with tyre degradation for much of the season, and Townsville, a track already tough on tyres,

PERCAT: HARDEST THING I’VE EVER DONE NICK PERCAT described driving nearly 250km around the tight and technical Reid Park Street Circuit in Townsville on Sundaywith no power steering as the hardest thing he’s ever done.

The Brad Jones Racing driver qualified fourth and was sitting in a comfortable third when the power steering let go.

Sadly for Percat, this cost him a realistic chance of a podium as he drifted down the order, eventually finishing three laps down in 21st position.

Post-race, the 2011 Bathurst 1000 winner described it as the toughest thing he’s ever faced behind the wheel.

“Never in my life have I done anything where I physically close my eyes, bite the drink straw and kind of swear as it’s happening (I’m turning) every time,” he explained.

“I was using my arm, as well as forearm, kind of locking that into the steering wheel, and then my leg was pushing up off my elbow to help turn it in.

“Definitely the hardest thing I’ve done.”

Percat made an earlier than scheduled first stop at the end of lap 25 hoping that the Albury-based outfit had a bigger steering wheel which could be put on the car.

However, the team were not ready for a stop and after putting new tyres on and filling it with fuel, Percat went back into the track with the traditional steering wheel which remained in the car until the South Australian’s next stop on lap 43.

Despite the early second stop forcing him onto a three-stop strategy, Percat explained that the situation had become dangerous.

“There is a big difference between gym strength and mental strength, I’ll give you the tip,” he chuckled.

“I was third driving around with no power steering with that little wheel and I came

on the radio, and I said, ‘I’ve got no power steering, but I’m not giving this up, I want to a Townsville podium!’

“Then it got to the point where the little wheel wasn’t quite cutting it and we had to put a big wheel on.

“It actually got to the point where it (the standard steering wheel) was dangerous, even through Turn 1, I couldn’t turn the car through there enough, and Turn 10 over the railway, so I went onto the big wheel.”

In the closing laps Percat set the third fastest lap time, showing that the car had genuine race pace to compete up the front,

however Percat knew without power steering it would not have been possible to do that each lap.

“At the end there for a bit of a shits and giggles I belted out a mid to low 1m 15 to show everyone that it’s (the #8 ZB Commodore) actually probably the third fastest car out there and we deserved the trophy,” he said.

The day before Nick Percat’s teammate Todd Hazelwood suffered a power steering failure also, however during the race team owner Brad Jones expressed that he felt the problems were not related. Dan McCarthy

WHINCUP FELT SVG HAD MORE SPEED IN OPENING STINT JAMIE WHINCUP came up just shy of both Supercars Championship victories in Townsville, overtaken by Triple Eight Race Engineering teammate Shane van Gisbergen late in both races late on, admitting that he just didn’t have the same pace.

The win yesterday was van Gisbergen’s 10th of the season, and every driver has taken 10 wins in a season has gone on to win that championship A total of 10 wins in just 16 races gives him a win ratio of 62.5% and the most recent victory was the 50th of his Supercars career.

Despite making a great start from pole on Sunday and leading the large majority of the race, he confessed he knew in the opening stint that it would be a challenge to keep the reigning Bathurst 1000 winner at bay.

“Obviously great team result this weekend so that is first and foremost, but of course there’s a part of me that it’s a bit gutted,” he said post-race.

“I think I’ve led 140 something laps this weekend and didn’t get the chocolates so there’s a small part of me (that’s disappointing), but I’ve got to look at the big picture, 1-2 both days.

“It was pretty obvious at the end of the first stint that #97 had better pace today, so we were a bit of a sitting duck from there on in, but just did what we could.”

During the final stint, on five lap fresher

tyres van Gisbergen caught up to Whincup in a race reminiscent of Saturday’s 250km encounter.

However, once one his tail, van Gisbergen did not breeze by, he was forced to work for it and forced to make his way past.

“We wanted to race all the way to the end,” Whincup said. “That’s important to us, we pushed hard and went for a bit of a block down into 11, “But #97’s pace was too good and (when he overtook at Turn 13) he propped it mid-corner.

“I just didn’t bother braking, just gave him a hit up the arse, and happy days, got to pay for that front splitter, it’s a bit silly really.”

In the final stint Whincup lost several seconds compared to van Gisbergen when lapping back marking traffic, however Whincup openly admitted this did not cost him a chance at victory.

“Blue flags are all automated these days, so it comes up inside the cockpit,” he said.

“I think it’s four flag positions, if you ignore the blue lights inside the cabin for more than four flag stations you come in through the pit lane.

“I’m not sure if that was policed as well as it could have been, I’m not saying it wasn’t or was, I’m not sure, but we’ll have a look at it. But that didn’t cost me a result today.” Dan McCarthy

LATEST NEWS

NERVOUS WAIT FOR SUPERCARS SUPERCARS FACES a nervous wait as Sydney’s COVID crisis continues, with an extended lockdown threatening next month’s planned SuperNight round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Although still just over five weeks away, the event relies on greater Sydney’s outbreak being contained in time for Queensland and Victoria border bans to be lifted.

While Supercars management is still planning for the August 20-22 Sydney SuperNight to go ahead, the latest extension of the Harbour City’s lockdown undermines that confidence.

A replacement second event at The Bend in South Australia – where the series raced in early May – is understood to be an option.

The NSW government has prolonged the restrictions in Sydney and surrounding areas until at least July 30, with experts predicting they will need to remain in force for at least another month to contain the rampant spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

That would extend the lockdown to August 13 – just a week before Sydney SuperNight.

Although perilously close, the lifting of restrictions by then would allow the event to go ahead, although almost certainly with limited public attendance.

The greater danger is that even if the restrictions are lifted by then, Queensland and Victoria are unlikely to lift border bans in time for Supercars teams to safely return.

Sydney’s red zone status means team personnel from Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast would have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back.

At the moment, for returning Queensland residents, the fortnight’s isolation has to be in a government-authorised quarantine hotel at the returnee’s expense.

For returning Victorian residents, only selfisolation at home with tests is required.

Only Albury-based BJR and Team Sydney – if it stayed ‘home’ rather than returning to its Gold Coast back-up – would be exempt, although many of their staff live in Melbourne or Queensland.

With the following round not scheduled until September 11-12 Perth SuperNight, two weeks in quarantine could be acceptable and manageable – just.

However, given the Western Australia government’s hard line on border control, that

event is already in doubt.

Supercars management is not panicking about Sydney – yet – but contingency plans are believed to be in place.

Delaying SMP by a week or even two weeks may be an option, but more likely is a return to The Bend Motorsport Park in SA. SMP could also be postponed to November given doubts about the proposed return to New Zealand.

At this stage, Supercars is doubtful about – but not ruling out – a double-header at SMP should it get the all-clear for next month.

Twice-postponed Winton is also on stand-by, but that is being held in reserve for a better weather time slot late in the season, most likely to replace the NZ round scheduled for November 6-7.

The Auckland SuperSprint is subject to the trans-Tasman travel bubble, which NZ authorities have shut to individual Australian states during the recent outbreaks.

Supercars’ cut-off for getting a guarantee the Pukekohe event can go ahead is mid-September due to the logistics of organising seas freight there and back for cars and equipment.

Cancellation of the NZ trip for the second year running seems more likely because of the virulence of the Delta variant of COVID-19, which spreads more quickly and more widely if it escapes.

Recent outbreaks, which locked down Melbourne and Brisbane/Gold Coast (now lifted) and Sydney and surrounds, were traced back to travellers returning from overseas. Mark Fogarty

COVID FORCES MORE ARC CHANGES THE VICTORIAN round of the Australia Rally Championship, the Gippsland Rally, will not go ahead in 2021, with ongoing uncertainty around border restrictions forcing the cancellation of the ARC component.

The event intends to continue as a round of the Motorsport Australia Till Hino Victorian Rally Championship, but given a large number of competitors and officials will be unable to attend from interstate, it will not be possible for the event to run as a round of the national championship.

Instead, Motorsport Australia has confirmed it is exploring options for a replacement round later this year at a location that has yet to be confirmed.

Motorsport Australia Director of Motorsport & Commercial Operations Michael Smith said the cancellation of Victoria was a disappointing outcome for all concerned.

“The organisers of the Gippsland Rally have done a significant amount of work on this event and we are saddened to be canceling the national component of this event, however we were really left with no choice,” explained Smith.

“The large number of both competitors and key officials from NSW and ACT in particular who would not be able to attend the Victorian round mean it is not feasible for the event to continue as an ARC round without their support. We wish the organisers all the best with the Victorian component of the event.

“Given that we have now lost a round of the national championship, we’re looking towards a replacement event sometime in 2021.”

Smith explained Motorsport Australia was keeping a close eye on the remaining rounds of the calendar and was prepared to adapt as required.

“We’re really excited with the positivity and interest in the RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship this year and we are doing everything we can to make sure we get a full six rounds in,” Smith added.

“Understandably a lot of these changes are out of our control given the ongoing COVID

situation, however we’re making sure that we are adaptable and doing everything possible to give our competitors the opportunity to compete and be part of as many events as possible in 2021.”

On the Gippsland Rally, the event will still remain as a pace noted state championship round, contested as two heats on Saturday, with reconnaissance on Friday. The event will now also count as a round of the Victorian Sprint Rally Series which is a short, single heat blind rally event designed as a low cost introduction to special stage rallying.

Event organiser Andrew Roseman said: “The

event is facing some challenges in having to re-source medical/safety providers and some course car personnel at short notice. But with only 20 VRC entries received so far, we will need to see a strong response of support in the number of entries in the next week from the Victorian rally community, including other interstate competitors free to enter Victoria to ensure the event is viable and run under these circumstances.

“We are pleased to announce that Wellington Shire will become the event’s naming rights sponsor. Whilst we are disappointed that we cannot have interstate competition this year, we want to recognize the Shire’s commitment to the event in their region and the return of the Motorsport Australia Rally Championship to Gippsland, Victoria.”

The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally will be held on 7 August 2021.

2021 RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship Calendar Round 1: Netier National Capital Rally (completed) Round 2: Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland (completed) Round 3: Les Walkden Enterprises Rally Tasmania, 10-12 September Round 4: AGI Sport Adelaide Hills Rally, 22-24 October Round 5: Date and location TBC Round 6: Coffs Coast Rally & FIA APRC Final – 26-28 November

WAKEFIELD PARK APPEALS COUNCIL DECISION THE COUNCIL has approved Wakefield Park Raceway’s development application however has released several conditions the track must adhere to; therefore the decision is being appealed by the venue.

In recent days the local council has granted permission for the development work to take place at Wakefield Park Raceway just outside of Goulburn in New South Wales.

The work on the new pit lane building, a new off-road experience, ongoing use of visitor accommodation facilities 14 garages, space for corporate functions, race control, commentary boxes and terrace space can take place but at a cost.

“Council has included noise limits as a condition of consent, with four different categories of noise being red, amber, green and blue,” a statement from the Goulburn Mulwaree Council said.

“Included in the condition is a transition period over a three-year period commencing 1st January 2022.

“At conclusion of this period, in the year commencing 1st January 2024, Wakefield Park will be limited to 30 days per calendar year with noise not to exceed 95 decibels, and a further 100 days with noise not to exceed 85 decibels.”

It is feared these new regulations will severely impact the successful running of the venue in the long-term future and for this reason Wakefield Park Raceway owners are appealing the decision.

“To take the approval of the Development

Application (DA) would be a devastating effect on Wakefield Raceway if we were to just except it and move on,” Wakefield Park Operations Manager Dean Chapman said to Auto Action.

“It provides us the knowledge that we did the right thing on Monday by filing a refusal on the DA. “We are going to proceed with the Land and Environment Court to get an outcome that is allowing Wakefield Park to be a long-term facility to provide Motor Sport for the people that obviously venture out

to it.

“There are four or five conditions that are just unachievable for Wakefield Park long term and when we talk about, such as a big drawback in events than what we currently operate under.”

“If we look at noise being produced, 85-95 a normal race meeting and we currently operate to 75 days a year of that, but over the next three years it will reduce to 30 days and that is not viable, that is a significant amount of events that we can no longer hold.”

Chapman said that if the decision is not overruled the venue would no longer be a profitable business, running such limited events at the track.

“Obviously there is a point where everything it gets to a mark where it is profitable to run the business,” he said.

“Not being able to get to that point would make Wakefield not viable going into the future.

“There is no reason from our point of view to invest in a facility that has not got a long-term future.” Dan McCarthy

LANDO NORRIS MUGGED, WATCH STOLEN ENGLISH FORMULA 1 driver Lando Norris was mugged shortly after the conclusion of the 2021 Euros final at Wembley Stadium where his watch was stolen.

Norris’ team McLaren Racing confirmed the news in a statement, announcing the 21-year-old had been involved in the incident.

“Thankfully, Lando was unharmed but he is understandably shaken,” the statement said.

“The team is supporting Lando and we are sure that racing fans will join us in wishing him all the best for the British Grand Prix this weekend.”

“As this is now a police matter we cannot comment further.”

Earlier in the weekend Lando Norris attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed and drove Ayrton Senna’s 1990 championship-winning McLaren MP4/5B up the legendary hillclimb.

Norris is currently having a breakout season as he sits fourth in the F1 standings leading into his home event, just three points behind Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez.

Norris has been remarkably consistent this season, the only driver to have scored points in all nine rounds so far.

He has already scored three podium finishes, including a third-place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix.

The McLaren youngster also bagged his first ever front row start, qualifying just a couple of hundredths of a second slower than his good mate and championship leader Max Verstappen.

Norris’ Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo has had a tough start to the season, the Perth-born driver sits eighth in the championship scoring a season-high sixth in Spain and France. JN

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F1 INSIDER

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Bruce Williams

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Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, Mark Bisset, Geoffrey Harris, David Hassall, Bob Watson, Bruce Moxon, Gary Hill, Craig O’Brien, Mick Oliver, Martin Agatyn. Paris Charles Formula 1 US Correspondent

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AMBROSE REVEALS HIS MASTER PLAN

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TRACK

WILL HE GO OR WILL HE STAY THERE NEVER was really any doubt that Lewis Hamilton would renew his contract with Mercedes. And, sure enough, on the Saturday morning of the Austrian Grand Prix, the team announced that he had signed a two-year deal.

There is doubt, however, about whether he will continue racing in 2024. He will turn 38 on January 7 of that year.

“Well, 38 doesn’t actually sound that bad,” he said.

“I am constantly being challenged. It’s never easy.

We are constantly having to push ourselves and elevate, and it’s a constant struggle within this sport trying to get the car right each weekend, trying to understand the tyres, trying to understand the aero config – each track is different, each compound is different at different tracks and different surfaces.

“You’ve got young cats coming through doing great.

You’ve got Red Bull who have just got an amazing

package this year. You’ve got McLaren, who have really progressed, so well and I am so happy for them. It’s exciting. It’s the closest pack probably we’ve ever had. I am excited to see what the next year holds – I hope that it remains the same in terms of closeness.

“When I am 38, there’s going to be a point at which I am going to want to move on to do different things. I never do anything half-arsed, so I am not going to do it at 80 or 70 per cent and just trundle along. There are people that can do that. I am only here to win. If there’s ever a point that I feel that I don’t want to commit the time or the effort, the mental time and energy that it takes, then that will be the time for me to stop.

“I don’t plan to be here until I am 40. I hope I have something else exciting to do beyond. But no matter what time you stop, I am going to miss this sport. I am going to

miss the competing side of it for sure.”

There is going to be an intriguing Silly Season in 2023.

Max Verstappen’s Red Bull contract expires at the end of that year, and he will be 27.

Does Mercedes try to snap him up? Would he want to leave Red Bull? Certainly not if the Red Bull is performing the way it is this year, while at the same time we are starting to see chinks in the Mercedes armour.

Aussie Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren contract runs through 2023. As of now, the only driver who has a 2024 contract is Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Surely Kimi Räikkönen, currently 41, will be retired by then. Fernando Alonso, who turns 40 in July, can’t hang around too much longer. And surely there will be some Formula 2 drivers like Australia’s Oscar Piastri graduating to Formula 1.

So there is going to be plenty of Silly Season speculation

about which drivers will end up with which teams in 2023 and 2024.

Another unknown at the moment is the pecking order of teams in 2024. There are the radical technical rules changes coming in 2022, and it remains to be seen how that shakes things up.

“We’re entering into an interesting phase for me personally,” Hamilton said.

“It’s not just the racing, it’s what’s coming up – the work we are doing as a sport in terms of trying to make it a more diverse and inclusive space. I’ve been a part of the start of that and look forward to continuing with that.

“I love working with this team, I feel constantly challenged and we’re being challenged more than ever this year, which I think is great.

And I love racing – this is what I was born to do. I still feel fit, I still feel as committed as ever, so I don’t see a reason to stop.”

MARCOS REVEALS HIS RENEWED LOVE FOR RACING

GIZ THE WIZ MORE MAGIC UP NORTH

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BETTY’S BATTLERS

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Cover over images: Bruce WilliamsWilliams Main and Cheetah/Ross Gibb Photography

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SuperSprint; British F1 WHAT’S IN THE NEXT Supercars-Townsville Grand Prix; Young Gun - Zac Soutar; Racing from around the planet; All the latest news ISSUE ON SALE JULY 29 and views....and something for the oldies....

with Mark Fogarty

THE FOGES FILE AA’s perceptive pundit saw the AGP’s cancellation coming, but it wasn’t such a bold call HATE TO say I told you so – but I did. The F1 and MotoGP Australian Grands Prix were never going to happen if Victoria maintained its hard line on two weeks quarantine for international arrivals.

Which, in the current environment, was always going to be the case. Recent community outbreaks of COVID-19 only hardened Vic’s stance.

Of course, next January’s Australian Open tennis tournament will be different – as it was this year. The Open is Spring Street’s favoured sporting child, apparently immune to the coronavirus pandemic.

But even the 2022 Aussie Open will have to be allowed the sort of freedoms F1 was seeking. This time around, it’s unlikely the world’s tennis stars will accept 14 days quarantine – even when allowed out for five hours a day for practice.

With the rest of the western world opening up and getting on with life, tennis won’t accept another Oz Open lock-in. So expect the Vic government to ease inbound restrictions they weren’t prepared to grant the MotoGP and F1 AGPs in late October and November.

Their postponements till 2022 are sad, but inevitable. In the current jittery COVID climate, neither was going to happen this year.

We forecast the F1 AGP’s demise weeks ago. Too many spurious outbreaks of carnivorous to risk an influx of foreigners, despite F1’s rigid COVID-19 protocols.

When the F1 AGP was postponed from March to November 18-20 early this year, it seemed possible that Australia’s border would be open by then. No longer.

MotoGP at regional Phillip Island a few weeks earlier had even less chance. And so it all came to pass.

At least the Victoria government had the gumption to call them off in good time.

Now we wait to see if next March is viable for the return of the F1 AGP, which will have missed two seasons.

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F1 authorities will be looking closely at whether they can risk scheduling Melbourne again early next year.

The chances of Albert Park happening at the start of next season depend entirely on Australia’s border controls. Right now, not looking good.

F1 is already flagging that the Melbourne GP will lose its opening race status, with April now the earliest likely slot.

Logic would suggest that going for a November ’22 date would be more sensible, giving the event the breathing space to give it the best possible chance of going ahead.

By then there is the reasonable expectation that the majority of Australians will be vaccinated.

Both Albert Park and Phillip Island have to happen next year to secure the events in the future, long-term contracts notwithstanding.

After two years out, both events could be dumped.

You could blame neither F1 nor MotoGP for becoming tired of Australia’s insularity. The reality is that plenty of other countries are in the queue to take our place.

So Victoria authorities need to make a commitment to both events happening next year. Use it or lose it.

Vic’s ‘walled garden’ approach is not helping Melbourne maintain its status as Australia’s sporting capital.

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If the F1 AGP and Phillip Island MotoGP don’t happen next year, they stand a strong chance of being lost forever.

It is up to Spring Street to step up – or stand aside for Adelaide, Sydney or Brisbane to step in.

Car and bike AGPs would be successful in any major metro area.

Victoria, so successful in shutting down the most recent COVID-19 outbreak, needs to commit to making both events happen next year, come what may.

TV COMMENTARY CLUTTER

ANOTHER SIMULCAST, another broadcast of a hundred voices. Or so it sometimes seems as talking heads crowd the Supercars telecasts.

It’s especially so at the events shown live on Seven as well as Fox Sports. At Darwin and again at Townsville 1, the simulcasts were crammed with hosts, commentators and reporters.

In Townsville we had Jess Yates, Mark Skaife, Garth Tander, Jack Perkins, Chad Neylon, Mark Larkham, Charli Robinson and Brad Hodge. Have I forgotten someone?

Probably.

Marcos Ambrose and Craig Lowndes were in the mix at Hidden Valley and will return later in the season.

To be fair, some of this cacophony is due to the absence of Neil Crompton while he recovers. We all hope Crompo is back soon and we certainly miss the stability and familiarity he brings to the commentary.

Tander and Neylon have been paired with Skaife for the race calls, obviously being trialled for bigger roles in the future while filling in for Crompton. Both have done well for different reasons.

Tander is a star, bringing authority and insight. Maybe too much alongside Skaife, who is less at ease with play-by-play than expert analysis. He is better with Neylon, a consummate race caller and scene-setter.

Neylon highlights the value of a traditional commentator/expert combination, rather than two ex-drivers competing to deliver quips and comments.

Perkins added value in the pits, but it’s already crowded in the lane. Meanwhile, Ambrose showed again at Darwin that he is an asset to be used more often.

Ex-cricketer Hodge is enthusiastic, but his banter from the bleachers at Reid Park wasn’t useful.

For mine, a return to less cluttered commentary at TSV2 this weekend would be a welcome relief. Unfortunately, Sydney’s ‘red zone’ status precludes Crompton from rejoining even if he were ready.

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EXCLUSIVE

Former Supercars champion and NASCAR winner Marcos Ambrose opens up about emerging from “a dark time” to re-embrace his love of racing

THE GARRY Rogers Motorsport workshop is packed full of race cars. You can hardly move for TCRs, S5000s and Trans Ams. They’re lined up and tucked away throughout the expansive industrial unit in outer southeast Melbourne.

Amid the racing car park, Marcos Ambrose is scurrying around, organising an orderly workflow. He speaks with mechanics and engineers about not only what needs to be done, but how it should be done.

Ambrose is in his element. His near decade and a half in Supercars and NASCAR taught him about efficient race team organisation. In his new role at GRM, his first job is to improve the efficiency of a sprawling postSupercars operation.

He enthusiastically outlines plans to open up space, expand and re-orient the layout to make preparing and maintaining a fleet of race cars easier and better. He is a man on a mission.

This is the new, re-energised Marcos Ambrose. No longer surly or defensive – or downright prickly – as he was at his racing height. He is friendly, excited and surprisingly introspective.

In an expansive interview, he reveals the pressure he was under when he returned from the USA to lead Roger Penske’s entry into Supercars in 2015. Why he quit after just two events amounts to a mental breakdown.

He is brave to enunciate his struggle, but it is no surprise given his strength and determination as a racer. Sheer grit as much as talent gained him back-to-

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back Supercars crowns in 2003/04 and enabled him to become one of the few non-Americans to win NASCAR Cup Series races.

His nine-season American foray made him many millions of dollars, but took a heavy toll personally. He has no complaints, but the fact is he could afford to walk away.

Ambrose laments his decision, but he has no doubts he did the right thing.

After quitting DJR Team Penske, the celebrated ‘Devil Racer’ retreated to Tasmania, restoring a lakeside lodge in the island state’s rugged central highlands.

Ambrose, 44, began this year with a tentative return, helping long-time friend and fellow Taswegian Owen Kelly with his Trans Am Mustang. Next thing you know, he’s on the Supercars broadcast from Symmons Plains and was back by popular demand at Darwin.

Then he joins GRM, whose principals Garry and Barry Rogers also have a significant stake in the Australian Racing Group.

Ambrose commutes regularly from Launceston, where he lives with his wife Sonja and karting-crazed daughters Tabitha (15) and Adelaide (13), to Melbourne to oversee GRM’s reorganisation.

He will be back on TV providing his popular, unvarnished insight at the Bathurst 1000 and seasonending Gold Coast 500.

In six months, Ambrose has gone from invisible to ubiquitous – and here’s why:

What has brought you back to racing?

It’s just time. It’s pretty obvious I was burned out from the States and I actually didn’t identify it as early as I should have – and when I did, I made those hard decisions.

I just needed to get out of the race car, get back to a normal life, look after my family – so it’s taken some time to decompress from a fast-paced life.

That box has been ticked. I feel like I have good balance back and everything’s good.

The kids are growing up and they’re showing an interest in racing, so I got back to the racetrack with them doing the go-kart thing.

Then I was helping Owen Kelly with his Trans Am. I always did miss the people in racing and so just reconnecting in the paddock area has been a great experience, to be honest.

It’s good timing for me to get back involved and to contribute where I can. I have a lot of knowledge in my head. Tucked away in Tasmania working on a wilderness lodge or in a family business, it’s going to waste.

So I just decided that this year that if the option came up, I’d look at it on its value.

There’ve been a couple of things I’ve done this year which have worked out great. I’ve really enjoyed being in the telecast team for the

Marcos Ambrose 2021-style (right) is relaxed and enjoying his low-key return too motorsport.

It wasn’t just the grind of NASCAR, it was actually getting the family back to Australia,, jumping into a team that was in a phase of change and I just wasn’t the right person for them. I wasn’t the right person for the job. I just actually needed to get out of the race car. I mean, we’ve talked about that stuff to death, but maybe I haven’t been as clear as I should have been. People maybe don’t understand. That’s fine – they don’t have to understand. I’ve never backed out of a deal, I’ve never let anyone down until that moment. It pains me to this day that I had to make that phone call to Roger and to Dick, and to step out. But it was the right decision for me and I believe it was ultimately the right decision for DJR Team Penske as well. I wasn’t going to be able to take them where they wanted to go.

It just wasn’t right. Stepping out of NASCAR was a big thing and the alarm bells should’ve been going off then and then trying to relocate the family was not easy as well. We were doing it on our own without a big family support network. And then trying to step in and be that person for DJR Team Penske was too much. I’ve talked about it to death, but that’s it. Back then, there wasn’t any talk about that mental health stuff, but I knew I wasn’t right and I needed to stop, and I knew I wasn’t the right person for them to carry them forward. So I made that hard decision and I stuck by it. I haven’t had any doubts about that decision at all, but now we’re five/six years on and life’s stabilised and everything’s going well, so I’m back in motor sport where I can help. And I do really enjoy helping people in racing – whether it’s the drivers, the mechanics, team owners or TV. It’s just nice to be able to put your skills that you’ve accumulated to use. I’ve had 25 years of professional experience and it’s nice to put those skills back to work.

As much angst as it caused, your decision to step away from DJR Team Penske indirectly opened the way for Scott McLaughlin, didn’t it?

Supercars series. It came out of the blue, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I really enjoy the people inside there and the feedback’s been great.

I’m still learning my way, so I feel pretty green, but it’s definitely been a great thing to do and I hope to do a bit more if they ask me back.

And then Garry and Barry Rogers reconnected with me when I was helping Owen. Owen’s been running his car out of here and I’ve been helping him on the race weekends, and so we just got chit-chatting and the Rogers could see what was going on with me and knew where I was at. So they said “Hey, we’ve changed a lot in GRM over the past three or four years”, stepping out of Supercars, taking on the S5000 development, taking on a pretty big program in TCR – they have seven TCR cars this year – so they’re holding onto a bit of a monster here. They just thought that I could fit in here and help them.

We have no titles. Garry doesn’t believe in titles here, so there’s no official title. It’s just “Can you come in here and give us a hand when you can?” and that’s where we’re at.

From what you’re saying, after you returned from the States, it suddenly hit you that the grind of NASCAR…

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It did. I actually recommended Scott. They asked me who I thought was the next potential star. I’d been watching videos of the racing and I said “He looks pretty good!”

Yes, my decision did open the door for him – and Scott Pye, too. Scott Pye had stepped down from the car to make way for me, so it gave him another lease on life and he did a great job working with them to get them back on their path. It was always going to be a long process. I could see pretty quickly that it was going to be a multi-year journey and I just didn’t think I was going to have it in me or be the right person for that role.

Dark days, for sure, and, yes, I feel like I let people down, but ultimately, I stand by the decision I made.

Among the many culture shocks you would have experienced when you moved to America, I imagine one of the biggest would have been the sheer relentlessness of the NASCAR racing schedule.

That’s right. At the Cup level, 36 championship weekends, plus all the testing and pre-season work. It’s about 42 weeks a year, so it’s a full-on thing. And I didn’t have a family support network around me. I tried to bring people in as support, but ultimately it was resting on my shoulders and that takes its toll over time. As you get older, you get more responsibilities, you have a young family. That all adds pressure to the whole thing.

So, yes, there was an element that I came into NASCAR from left field and I did well in the nine years, but it was a lot to take on and I think I paid a price. A price I was happy to pay. I had a great time there, but it was very fast-paced and a lot of load, a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, no doubt.

And I’m sure that all factors into how things are and who I am today.

After you left DJR Team Penske, you seemed to become a bit of a hermit…

No, that’s not the case. I just stood back. I got out of the way, if you like.

OK, but you disappeared from racing to concentrate on setting up the lodge out in the wilds. Was that a kind of therapy?

I think so. There was an element of just getting really busy. A lot of people when they step out of professional sports, they don’t do it well. Bad things happen. So I just knew that I needed to get really busy, do a project, so that’s what I did there.

The lodge is still running great and all the guests seem to have had great experiences. We get good feedback and it was a great thing to do. I needed to get busy on something, so I think there was an element of therapy, not that it was a conscious decision. It just happened.

Your level of knowledge indicates you were still keeping very close track of racing while you were away.

Well, I’m a fan of racing, first and foremost.

I grew up loving racing and I still love racing today. I’m an historian of racing – I like the old stuff. I appreciate and respect the drivers and the mechanics and the team owners and the sponsors who support motorsport. So, yeah, I stayed in tune. You don’t just turn that off. It’s just that I wasn’t physically at the track with a role.

My daughters (Tabitha and Adelaide) are coming up through racing – they’re really enjoying the go-karts – so it’s just nice to get re-engaged and I hope to allow them to make their choices in life, wherever they want to go.

So my being involved in motorsport is not bad for them if they want to start working in the industry somewhere.

It’s all a green light now as far as, yep, we’re back in the action. I’m helping where I can. It’s not over-committing. Here (GRM) is sort of a semi-role. It’s built to be not a full-time role, but a week-on, week-off on average sort of thing to help them kick along and it leaves me free to do the TV stuff if that keeps popping up. It allows me to have the time to look after my girls and their karts, and run the family business as well, which is ticking over in the background.

So there’s still plenty going on, but I’ve reacquainted myself with motorsport.

Equally, could you tell Penske was going to succeed?

Oh, yes. No surprise. There was no doubt Penske was ultimately going to achieve what they did. It was a matter of time that I just didn’t think I could give them. Don’t forget, I’m a similar age to Craig Lowndes, Russell Ingall and those guys, who were all close to retiring when I came back. It was a tough decision, but I just wasn’t the right fit and I knew it, and I just needed to step out for my own personal reasons – and the rest is history.

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After all these years ... the once ‘reserved’ Marcos now understands Fogarty!

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Was it your friendship with Owen Kelly that triggered your return?

It was just by chance. Owen rings me up and says “Hey, Barry and Garry are trying to do these races in Tasmania, it’s in the summertime over the holidays and I’m going to deal with them – would you like to give me a hand?” (Kelly’s Trans Am entry at ARG’s Race Tasmania at the end of January/early February). Owen and I are long-standing mates, so I said “Sure, why not?” That’s how it started. Then he did so well in those two meetings. He led laps at Symmons Plains and then won a race at Baskerville.

We hadn’t really done much to the car – we just turned up and went.

Then Owen wanted me to do one more, at Phillip Island, and the one more has led to this (GRM involvement). Now Owen is looking to do something a bit more serious next year and it makes sense for me to be involved if he still wants some help. And that’s kind of how we got to where we are.

This hasn’t been a plan. I didn’t decide to do TV. Nathan Prendergast (Supercars broadcast boss) rang me up because they had a problem at Symmons – they had a spot they had to fill – and that’s how that started. Garry and Barry Rogers had seen me helping Owen at the track and asked me if I could them. It’s all just happened.

The pressure involved in Penske Racing’s launch, and partnership with DJR, in Australia (above) proved to be the final straw for Marcos, and he made the big call to step back.

However, helping out mate Owen Kelly in running Trans Am has stirred Marcos’ dormant love for motorsport ...

With the TV, you seemed to take to it like a duck to water. Did you find it as easy as you looked?

No, I felt like a real newby, to be honest. I was looking at the wrong cameras and my eyes were flipping around and I was bopping around in the seat a bit. It was a pleasant surprise. I’ve done a lot of TV work on the other side of the camera and I think you’ll agree that I’ve always been pretty defensive.

I tried to guard against revealing my real emotions and character and feelings. Some people in sports are like that.

I reckon Shane van Gisbergen’s a lot like that. Shane’s an amazing guy, an amazing racer, but he comes across pretty short on the TV when he’s doing an interview if he’s not very happy.

But he’s actually very interesting to talk to.

Very interesting – and a great guy. And there are a lot of people down pit lane like that – very interesting people, but not necessarily how they’re portrayed out there to the fans.

First of all, I’m a fan of racing and I am a racer, so I’ve tried to talk about things I do know, which is from a driver’s perspective – what’s it’s like to be inside a team and how drivers think, and how mechanics think and how things really work, and just stay in my lane – talk about things that I do know about.

Being out of Supercars for five years, it’s moved on a lot. I stay away from things I don’t know anything about. I’ve just tried to stay in my lane and be honest. I don’t have any angle, I don’t have any alignments or prejudiced position. I call it straight, but still be respectful.

I was pretty hard on Anton (De Pasquale) in Darwin. He had huge speed at The Bend and again at Hidden Valley, but these little errors crept in and he wasn’t results commensurate with his pace. I picked him up on that, but I’m always very respectful

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because I know how hard it is to even get to that position. There’s a balance between being entertaining and also respectful of the people who are doing the job. But you have to be honest. That’s what the fans expect.

I now know what’s been like for you, Foges, for all these years!

the mechanical side, on the team owner side, it’s just really good to be able to help where I can. I’m certainly no guru, but I’ve had a lot of experience in a lot of facets of the motorsport industry. So if I can help people along the way and be a benefit, then that’s great.

You had a taste of a modern Supercar at Symmons when you drove the DJR Mustang. Was that enough for you or do you want to do some racing again?

So what are you doing here at GRM?

No, no, I’m absolutely fine. Tabitha wants me to be her teammate in a karting enduro coming up soon and that sort of stuff will be so much fun to do. I don’t ... never say never, but I don’t have any competitive juice left in me. I’ve been competing all my life and I just don’t have the drive to want to compete. It’s as simple as that.

If you raced, you’d want to win rather than just compete, wouldn’t you?

You have to really try to win, otherwise what are you doing it for? And you have all these expectations. Never say never, but right now I’m really happy to support others. My role here at GRM is fantastic. I have 10-12 drivers to talk to and, hopefully, I can help them go from aspiring professionals to full pro drivers or give these other pro drivers that are here a lift to go again. It’s been fantastic to be able to help like that. On the engineering side, on

Well, the press release said “competition director”. That title was bandied around a bit in NASCAR. You tend to have a crew chief who is responsible for the car – they prep the car and run the team – and then you might have someone sitting above that, which in the States they call a competition director.

That’s what I’m focused on here, to make the place more efficient and more enjoyable.

So for Garry and Barry, it’s about making it more enjoyable for them to go racing; to add that racer’s element to the workshop area.

I’m fighting for the drivers, I’m fighting for the mechanics and the engineers to get what they need to go out there and win races. So I’m very focused on the competition side of things. And it just so happens in here that the competition phase is more about, well, the team’s changed a lot since it was a Supercars team.

They’ve produced an amazing vehicle in the S5000 – the engineering and design involved in that – and then taking on these TCR cars. You have three different makes (Renault, Alfa Romeo and Peugeot). So they’re trying to run an S5000 business,

they’re trying to run an S5000 race team, they’re trying to run seven TCR cars and they own a couple of these Trans Ams. It’s become more about production and less about competition, so I’m trying to bring back some competitive juices into the mix, to say “OK, we need to go out there as a race team.” I don’t really care about the S5000 business – that’s Garry’s and Barry’s to run. I care about the race cars and winning races for GRM in S5000, TCR and Trans Am. I’m focused on the race team side of things, including improving the logistics of the place, minimising movements to make ourselves more efficient – a bit like NASCAR. When you run a NASCAR Cup Series campaign, as a driver you’d have 15-16 race cars, all lined up at different stages of development and production. You might have two or three drivers, so there might be 30-40 race cars floating around your workshop – plus trailers (transporters), test trailers, dynos, flat floors, pull-down rigs. There are a lot of bits laying around and you have to be very smart about how you organise your workshop. That’s part of what I’m doing here, as well as looking at where our weaknesses are from an engineering perspective with facilities and personnel, and thought processes and policies. It’s also about helping Garry and Barry find the right drivers and find the right sponsors. So there’s a lot going on, but primarily it comes back to “Does it make our team faster?” and “Is it going to make us win races?” That’s my focus.

There is a lot going on. Too much?

I don’t think so. I think we’re actually in a phase of it’s already grown, now we’re bringing it back to a more manageable level and to simplify things. We’ve had that big growth spurt and we’re getting it back to a balance.

Do you wish GRM was still in Supercars?

No. It’s up to Garry and Barry to decide where they want to go, but my role here is

A stand-in TV pundit role at Symmons Plains in January led to further opportunities behind the microphone, here at short notice in Darwin. Marcos’ withdrawal from Penske’s Australian venture allowed Scott Pye to return (right). to help them right now – and their ‘right now’ is TCR, S5000 and Trans Am. I guess Supercars is more fun for you as an occasional pundit.

It’s a bit tricky. I have a foot in each camp.

I have my feet in GRM and I have my feet in Supercars TV, which I’m actually really happy with – I just hope everyone else is.

For me, it’s a great blend. I get to go to the Supercars races and see what’s going on there, I get to talk about it, I get to be involved and I get to contribute, and hopefully my contribution is worthwhile.

At the same time here, this is more grass roots. This is the kids coming through who want to be champions and guys who’ve been bounced out of Supercars (like James Moffat and Lee Holdsworth) looking to rebuild their careers. I really enjoy being at this level because it’s what for me makes racing so great. I’ve always been more about the grass roots of motor sport, less about the fanfare.

I think grass roots motor sport has to be well-supported for the top end to be Ambrose enjoyed a stellar NASCAR career, his touring car background aiding wins on the road circuits.

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successful. If there aren’t fresh drivers and sponsors and everyone coming through the feeder categories, ultimately the premier show will suffer.

When are we going to see you on the Supercars telecasts again?

At this stage, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.

There are too many bodies and not enough microphones. I think that’s pretty much what’s going on. The feedback from Symmons Plains caught me by surprise – and I think the guys at Supercars TV as well.

Then everything changed with Darwin being rescheduled and Winton being cancelled, as well as Neil Crompton getting ill, so Hidden Valley popped up. I’m really happy to help where I can. I do enjoy it, I’ve had a great time with it. It’s nice to get the feedback that we did and, hopefully, I get to keep doing it.

You said you’re interested in the history of racing. What about you own history? Do you have any of your old cars?

I haven’t collected anything. I’m just not that kind of person. That’s why I’m really happy to help Garry Rogers. Garry has supported motor sport in Australia for decades as a driver and then a team owner. Now he has

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a further involvement behind the scenes (majority ownership of Australian Racing Group). He’s put his money where his mouth is. He’s stood up and he’s supported Australian motor sport.

He’s always supported the junior drivers coming through. He actually tried to get me to drive for him. I turned him down…

So, yes, I’m a history buff of motor sport sport, but I’m also a grass roots guy. Grass roots motor sport has to be protected and supported because that’s where the champions come from and you want to make motor sport accessible to more people.

Going back to Supercars, from what you’ve seen this year, is Shane van Gisbergen in a class of his own?

Well, he wasn’t when Scott McLaughlin was around and so I think there’s a void there.

So that’s the first thing. I think he’s a full professional. I love the way Shane’s gone about his racing because he’s all about just racing. He’s a racer’s racer, in my opinion.

He doesn’t necessarily need to be in front of the ccamera – he doesn’t like it. He’s the opposite. He just wants to go race car and race cars as often as he can. He’s rracing everything he can. I think he has iimmense talent and a great attitude, and we’re seeing him in his prime. w No one carries that kind of form forever, but I respect and admire what fo hhe’s doing this year. He’s definitely the class act so far in 2021, but the th thing about racing is that it’s always th uncertain.

Things can happen and un things can change very, very quickly. thi We’ve We seen it with my career, Mark Sk Skaife’s career, a whole bunch of guys.

The hit a streak of form and then they They fall off a cliff. Things change. Someone mig start taking it up to Shane – and might that why we tune in and watch. that’s

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What are your thoughts on Jamie Whincup in his final full-time season? He was just starting in V8s when you were at your peak.

I remember him at Winton when he first turned up (in 2003 with GRM). It was in practice and I’m thinking “Who’s this kid trying to keep up with me? This is not right”.

It was Jamie. So from the very first time I remember him in a V8 Supercar, he looked pretty special. He did some awesome stuff in 2005 (with Tasman Motorsport), which got him the drive at Triple Eight. The stopwatch doesn’t lie. He’s been one of the greatest of all time, but he’s on the tail end of his career whereas Shane is in his prime.

And that’s how those things go.

How do you think Jamie will do in team management?

It’s going to be up to him. Nothing’s easy in life to change. Jamie’s had a fantastic career as a driver – and good on him – and he’s involved in one of the greatest teams – if not the greatest – in Australian motor sport history in Triple Eight.

He’s super-experienced and as good as anyone to take the helm. He’s been around racing a long time and it’s up to him to see if he enjoys it or if it’s what he thinks it is or if he can actually handle it. But it does take a different skill set. What he’s done so far has been done to excellence already and I would expect a similar outcome as team principal at Triple Eight.

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Brian Shead’s Cheetahs were among Australia’s fastest small-bore single seaters for two decades. Mark Bisset explains the secrets of the Mk 6, perhaps the sweetest of them all.

All smiles; Proud racer and constructor, Brian Shead after his ‘79 F2 Championship title win at Symmons Plains. Born February 13, 1937, died December 30, 2020.

BRIAN SHEAD was a quiet i t guy, a doer and a goer who flew under the radar despite vast success behind the wheel, the drawing board, and in the CAMS corridors of power with contributions to the evolution of single-seater racing and circuit safety. Never was an Australian Championship win more merited than his F2 title victory at Symmons Plains on November 11, 1979.

There was plenty of depth in that year’s field – the first of the great 1.6-litre, SOHC, two-valve ANF2 formula – including stars like John Bowe, John Smith, Brian Sampson, Peter Macrow, Graham Engel and Ian Richards.

It was a timely one for Shead’s Cheetah Mk6 too. The beautifully built monocoque single-seater – and its close F3 Mk5 cousin – provided a good chunk of F3 and F2 fields from 1974, but the

Brian Sampson’s Cheetah Mk6 Toyota, chassis 63-2, delivered on February 20 1976 - Restored to it’s original Aust F2 specs, now owned

by Sampson’s stepson Brandan Jones – is our feature car.

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advent of ground-effects heralded a new breed of machines, not least his own MK7.

Shead first competed in his road-going Austin A40 in 1960, progressing to his own Cooper influenced Cheetah Mk1 in 1962.

The evolution Mk2 followed and all new spaceframe Mk3 in 1963.

Shead and Peter Macrow – racing ex-Garrie Cooper, Cooper the ex-Garr diced regularly all over Austin – dic Macrow was so impressed Victoria. Ma Mk3, he convinced by the Cheetah Che Shead tto sell it to him, and help with its development.

The T Mk3 evolved from

Images: Autopics.com.au/Auto Action archives and photo shoot - Bruce Williams

Ford pushrod to twin-cam power to be a potent ANF1.5 force. Peter’s performances resulted in drives with Tony Osborne’s Argo Racing (McLaren M4A Ford FVA and Argo Chev) and the Holden Dealer Team (Monaro at Bathurst together with Henk Woelders in 1969).

With orders for two new cars in the late sixties, Shead decided to build one for himself too. Seven Mk4s were built from 1970-1974 with engines ranging from the 1.3-litre Toyota Corolla for F3 use, through to the 3.5-litre Oldsmobile V8 fitted to Don Biggar’s hillclimber.

1975 Bathurst winner (with Peter Brock in a Holden Torana L34) Brian Sampson was a Cheetah Mk4 customer – he sold his Corolla powered Elfin 600B F3 to do so (“he kept driving away from me, so I thought it was time I bought one” Sampson recalled).

“Sheady said ‘If you put a deposit

Graham Engel aboard his Ford Kent engined Mk6 chassis, 63-6, at Amaroo Park in 1980. Cheetah was all about the customers – developments made by Shead and Sampson were shared and made available for sale to Mk6 owners.

on a car, I’ll quit my job and focus on building and racing cars’. So he resigned as service manager of Proline Industries and built all those cars for all those years in the workshop behind his house at 34 White Street, Mordialloc.”

Brian Shead Engineering built the cars, Sampson’s Motor Improvements business, the Toyota engines. The ‘Two Brians’, with AMI sponsorship, soon had F3 locked up from coast to coast, selling plenty of cars and engines as a consequence.

The first of Cheetah’s many titles was Shead’s 1972 Stillwell-Davison AF3 Series victory at Calder.

The Elfin, Bowin, Rennmax and Wren competition became even more intense when Malcolm Ramsay and Tony Alcock’s Birrana Cars produced a monocoque F3 design.

The 374 – a variant of their dominant 272/3 Formula 2 designs – was raced by two young thrusters in Paul

King and Dean Hosking, from the summer of ’74.

Shead responded with his own monocoque, of simple box section construction, it was made of 16-gauge aluminium sheet and had tubular steel frame extensions at both the front and rear. The bare tub weighed a svelte 29kg; this Mark 5 evolved into the Mk6.

“Sheady told me the Mk4 spaceframe was 1,100lbs, and Mk5 tub 3,300lbs of deflection” David Crabtree, Cheetah Mk6 owner, third in the 1983 AF2 championship, recalls in discussing the merits of the two types of chassis construction.

The front upper wishbone and lower link attached to the tub, while the forward-facing lower arm mounted to the steel front chassis section. It carried the radiator, roll bar and bodywork, and was easily and cheaply replaced in the event of a minor front-end hit.

The fuel tank was located under the seat, while the roll-over bar was braced forwards into the tub, close to the tubular dash support. This was unusual at the time; as a driver, safety was very much on Shead’s mind.

The rear suspension was period typical, comprising a single upper link, two parallel lower links, coil spring/dampers (Armstrong and later Koni), two radius rods and an adjustable roll bar. The uprights were Shead’s steel fabrications front and rear; the front stub axles were live.

Peter Holinger provided the steering rack, wheels and usually the modified VW 5-speed transaxle, while some specified the Hewland Mk 9. Ford Cortina GT discs were used front and rear, clamped by twinpiston alloy calipers; Girling at the front and Lockheed up the back.

The Motor Improvements prepared Toyota Corolla 1.3-litre engine, fed

by a pair of 42DCOE Webers gave about 130bhp. Non-stress-bearing, it attached to a tubular A-frame, which in turn was bolted to the rear monocoque bulkhead.

The whole package, aided by much slipperier and sexier bodywork than the Mk4s, and a centre-post mounted rear wing, made a very quick racing car.

Shead won upon debut at the 1974 Sandown Tasman meeting, with the pair of Birrana 374s present. This encouraged plenty of customers; he built three Mk5s in 1974, and three again in 1975.

Despite the heightened competition throughout 1974, it was very much a Cheetah F3 year; Shead won 18 times and Sampson eight. The dose was similar in 1975 when Shead took 15 wins, and Sampson 11 from meetings at Calder, Sandown, Hume Weir, Adelaide International and Amaroo Park.

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“Sheady tested his car with addedon, pop-riveted wider bodywork – it improved the top speed,”Crabtree recalled. In a happy confluence of performance and safety, this desirable shape was incorporated within a new, wider monocoque – a the light makeover of Mk5 to Mk6 – to improve crash protection for the driver and meet FIA deformable structure requirements.

Frontal safety was improved by incorporation of a structural tubular dash support which was braced forwards towards the tub’s leading edge. “He triangulated the tub back into the frame by adding a tube from the outer rear edge of the monocoque into the frame below the rear spring/shock mount on each side of the car. This made a big difference, making the car more responsive to a change of springs.

It was more stable and forgiving,” Crabtree explains.

Shead built and delivered six Mk6 cars in 1976, three in ’77, three in ’78 and two in 1979 – 14 in total. Five of the six Mk5s were updated to Mk6 chassis specifications.

Most of the cars had Corolla engines, one for Lew Wade Motors was fitted with a Fiat 128 1.3 unit, while Mike Stack’s car was built to ANF2 spec using a Lotus-Ford 1.6 twin-cam motor.

Hot Summer Sandown 1974 F3 competition (above). The Dean Hosking and Paul King Birrana 374s sandwich Shead’s equally new Cheetah Mk5 at Shell Corner. Sampson’s Mk4 nose is aft of King with the Paul Bernasconi Mawer and Peter Lissiuk Titan FFs further back. At right, it’s Shead from Sampson in spaceframe Cheetah Mk4 Toyota F3s at Winton in 1973.

Note rear winglets atop the engine covers and no front wings at this stage of the car’s development

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‘Sambo’ with his old car (far left) in July 2021, and racing the same machine in its F2 specification, dicing with Terry Finnigan’s Mk6 Toyota at Amaroo in 1979.

The general chassis construction, suspension and other mechanical specifications – and silhouette – of the Cheetah Mk6 are classic mid-late 70s F3/F2/F Atlantic fare.

The Cheetah’s overall aerodynamics were based on the 1971 ‘Tyrrell nose’ adopted by many constructors as an alternative to the Lotus 72 approach; wedge nose and side radiators.

Stack ordered another with a Renault 1.6-litre SOHC engine for “the new Australian Formula 2 which had been devised by Elfin Sports Cars owner Garrie Cooper and myself and ratified by CAMS,” Shead wrote in his diary.

The existing 1.6-litre twin-cam F2 ran out of puff after its 1973-4 glory years. The following two-valve/single cam (pushrod or SOHC) formula was a hugely successful class which ran from 1978 to 1988. An era of great chassis and engine diversity, the Cheetah Mk6 was often the tool of choice, so simple was its upgrade from 1.3-litre F3 to 1.6-litre F2.

To cope with a diversity of engines, Shead increased the engine bay by an inch. Solid disc rotors were replaced by vented ones and fourpiston calipers replaced the twopotters.

The rear wing was bigger too, but still single post mounted. Later, Shead located the wing – Ralt like

– on deep wide endplates which mounted to a large-section tube running across the rear of the car under the gearbox. The primary aim was to improve airflow over the wing.

The main changes to the cars were of course the engines fitted. Shead and Sampson were sponsored by Toyota so Sampson’s team set about getting the best out of the Celica SOHC 1.6-litre unit.

In addition, Datsun, Holden Gemini, BMW, the much fancied VW Golf, which had benefited from Formula Super Vee development, and the venerable Ford Kent were used. Power outputs started from about 160bhp and increased as the Formula matured.

Shead still won plenty of races in 1978; seven from 11 meetings, despite the level of competition increasing. There were some quick Elfin 700s about, monocoque F3 cars conceptually similar to the Mk6 – John Bowe had terrorised The

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Amaroo Park Cheetahs. Gary Scott and Sampson in F3 3 Mk6 To Toyotas yotas in 1976 (above).

Later a touring car racer, Scott then had two years working rking at Ralt, and racing an F3 Ralt RT1 quite successfully until his funds ran out. At right,, the star start rt of a ‘‘Formula C Cheetah’ F2 race in March 1979. Sampson and Ian Richards upp front, G Graham raham Engel and Peter Macrow on row two.

Frontt suspension detail; upper and lower wishbones, vented rotor, Girling i ling caliper, Koni shock, Aeroquip brake-line. Cockpit is roomy by modern standards, the customer car accommodated 60kg youths and big bastards equally well. Lower right rear end shot from above, detail as per story. The Shead designed and built cars were strong, safe, easy to set up, service and maintain.

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Nude shot at left shows the very strong Shead monocoque centre section and tubular structures fore and aft. Note the forward facing roll bar supportss and dashboard structure affording improved driver protection. Shead was a great believer in driver safety. This was reflected in his later work with CAMS CAM MS and the FIA in track safety. Shot below highlights the location of the wing aand Holinger 5-speed transaxle - like Hewland’s Mk9, based on a VW case.

Brians in Tasmania with his Elfin 700 in 1976-7.

Peter Larner’s Ford pushrod powered car was quick that year, as was the similarly engined one-off Galloway F2/F Pacific car raced with heaps of tail-out brio and speed

by John Smith.

Smith and others stepped up from Formula Ford, or moved across from F3. The just-replaced F2 twin-cam cars were a little bit heavy in the new class, having been designed with wider wheels/tyres and FT200 Hewland gearboxes designed around 200-300bhp engines.

The Cheetah Mk6 transitioned beautifully, “It was just a simple, torsionally stiff, forgiving, fast car. It was nicely sprung, not overly stiff and you could work on them yourself without too much trouble,” Samson observed, looking wistfully at

his old car at Speco Thomas, Moorabbin HQ in early July.

The Mark 6 was still a competitive jigger in 1980 as constructors of production racing cars around the globe got to grips with the levels of downforce ground-effect tunnels released, and related chassis torsional stiffness challenges.

Graham Engel was third in the ’80 AF2 despite scoring in only one round; he won at Winton.

In 1981 John Smith’s brilliance behind the wheel of a Ralt RT1 Ford triumphed over the next seven placegetters, all of which were GE cars.

The last hurrah at championship level – seven years after the Mk6’s debut – was Crabtree’s joint third place in the 1983 AF2 championship.

The winner that year was Mk6 graduate Ian Richards in his self-built Richards 201 VW.

Motor Improvements : The other half of The Two Brians “I LEARNED the basics at Samson Bearings (correct spelling), my father’s engine bearing re-metalling business, I was an apprentice fitter and turner,” Sampson recalls.

“Another apprentice, Steve Smith and I used to port and polish cylinder heads after work. This provided the skills and reputation – via my own racing – to set up on my own.”

“Motor Improvements absorbed the Eddie Thomas and Norm Beechey speed shops and imported performance products; my Speco Thomas business still does today.”

“The relationship with Toyota came via Australian Motor Industries, who also imported Triumphs, I had a lot of success in the AMI Racing Spitfire. Toyota followed from that, running Coronas at Bathurst in 1965.”

“The Corolla was a natural to tune. It was a small, lighter engine than the Ford with its aluminium cylinder head. The basic design was sound and the heads amenable to tuning. Our initial engines – Steve and I did the development – were 1100cc, and later 1300cc when the F3 rules changed.”

“We built a lot of them, with first mover

advantage, for F3, Clubmans, Sports Sedans and fast road cars. They gave better than 130bhp; the most we saw was 142bhp from one for Peter Jones’ Cheetah Clubman, one of Australia’s winningest ever cars.”

“When the new F2 rules came in we applied the same techniques to the 1.6-litre Celica engine.

“I was away in the US when Sheady competed in 1979 – he pinched our development engine off the dyno while we were still working on it! He won the title with it. At that stage it gave about 160-165bhp.”

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Testing, although rarely televised, is an essential part of motorsport t t and d more often ft than not leads to success on a race weekend. But what actually happens on a test day?

Auto Action’s Dan McCarthy spent the day with Erebus Motorsport to find out.

WINTON MOTOR Raceway, located just outside of Benalla in country Victoria, is a three-hour drive from the Erebus Motorsport headquarters in Dandenong South.

The morning starts early with the machines leaving the garage and heading onto the circuit at 8.30am.

At the test is a skeleton crew, a much smaller allocation of staff members than would attend a race meeting.

The engineering line up is a mixture of knowledgeable youth and experience.

Will Brown’s engineer on car #9 is Tom Moore, while Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Commodore has George Cummins by his side.

Although new to Erebus Motorsport in 2021, Cummins is an extremely

With test days restricted in number, it is crucial for teams to maximise the value of each test day, and incorporate gains into race setups.

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experienced and well-credentialled engineer, having worked at Kelly Racing for the past six years.

Prior to that he worked for Dick Johnson Racing and Larkham Motorsport as well as a stint with the Williams Formula 1 team.

On the other hand, Moore has progressed through the Erebus ranks.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Melbourne last year, regular #9 engineer Alistair McVean remained in Melbourne and, as a result, Moore stepped up from data engineer to lead engineer on David Reynolds’ Commodore.

When McVean departed the team at the end of 2020 Moore was promoted to the role on a full-time basis.

Besides these four, at the test there was

also a data engineer allocated to each driver, plus several mechanics as well as team CEO Barry Ryan, Loretta Ryan and managing director Shannen Kiely.

This particular day was one of Erebus Motorsport’s eight rookie test days and meant that co-drivers Jack Perkins and David Russell were not allowed to steer the ZB Commodores.

Testing is not about just turning up at a circuit and driving around and around.

No, each team goes into a test with a planned structure of what they will be testing and when.

Every day teams will plan to test around 10 components or new setup ideas – things that you wouldn’t have time to try out during a two or three day race meeting.

“We certainly plan the day pretty carefully before we get here,” Kostecki’s engineer Cummins told us..

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s the same structure for every test day.

Moore agreed and expanded further on the comments.

“You’re always trying to improve things,” Moore told AA. “You want to make sure that there’s a reason that you’re testing – you don’t just go to the track and just bang out random changes.

“Today we’ve probably got more development items than we normally do on the cars; we’ve got a few new things on the front of Brodie’s car and a few new things on the front of Will’s car as well.

“Whether they’re new parts or new ideas or anything like that you always plan out and make sure you have specific items that you work through, whether they’re components or just variations to components that you already have.”

Tests are a great opportunity to test new unproven componentry to see of it has the desired effect, as well as trialling radical setup changes to see if anything can be learnt or improved, something too risky to perform on a race weekend.

On this particular day, the team are testing several new components in the front of both cars as well as several base setups they think will be fast and work well – they first test and then fine tune if it’s a gain.

Runs on track are short and sharp, with drivers sent out to complete just one or two flying laps

Best test results come when there is a good level of communicatiopn and understanding between driver and engineer. before returning to the lane where quick changes are made and sent out once more.

The fine tuning is achieved equally between the engineers and drivers – based on the driver feedback the engineers come up with the next setup accordingly.

“It’s a combination of both,” Brown’s engineer Moore explained. “We’ll turn up with a plan which we plan out in time intervals – like from 10 o’clock to 11 o’clock we want to be doing this.

“From my point of view, I’ll instigate a change to the car and then we’ll fine tune that car based on Will’s feedback.

“It’ll start from an engineering point of view and then the driver will help you tune It’s never going to be perfect the first time you throw anything at the car, especially if it’s a big change.

“From that point on you then fine tune it with the driver feedback until you get to the point where the driver can’t feel any more changes in the car, and then make the final call – was it positive or negative.”

Every time a driver goes out on the circuit an extensive spreadsheet is completed full of information about the car setup.

Cummins explained that Supercars Championship testing is not as data driven as it once was and puts more emphasis on the driver feedback.

“With the yaw sensor gone it (the data) is not as useful as what you might think any more – looking at the balance, you really only have a steering sensor,” Cummins explained.

“It’s about getting the feedback from the driver, when they’re saying I need more of this out of the car versus the change that you make.

“It’s more about that communication than anything else. So that is what you are trying to build on test days, to give you more tools you can change at a race meeting to address the issues that they have are having.”

This is why the Excel sheet is so vital to jot down important notes, changes and then send the car back out with some more changes.

“The spreadsheet is the kinematic model for the car basically,” he continued. “All the geometry options are in there in terms of where we put roll centres, roll bar rates and things as we have different roll bar rockers front and rear which have various levels of progressiveness.

“It’s (a Supercar) got a pretty small window that you need to try and keep the car in, especially when you’re jumping between two different setup styles.

“You use those tools and that information to know that when you change a roll bar tube that you are going to end up with the same rate – they should in theory have the same balance.

“Likewise when you do geometry changes and things it has a knock-on effect on the whole car, it’s just making sure that you keep it inside the window that you want to be in so then you’re evaluating the component change rather than messing with the balance.”

During the course of the day, the team will perform a couple of lengthy setup changes,

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Crucial to successful testing is being able to back-to-back compare changes knwing C th that conditions haven’t changed – and to do that requires rapid turnaround between runs (above and below). But tat the end of the day, nothing changes – everything has ru too be loaded up, again, for the return to base.

taking between an hour and 90 minutes.

This is when they are changing the base setup, trying something completely different.

Cummins said that in a race meeting such bold setup changes would never be made, as the risk does not meet up with the reward.

“You’re more likely to do it (at a test) – there’s no consequences of having a big swing here and it not going very well,” he said. “Whereas, in a race meeting, it is certainly easier to lose a tenth or two, than it is to gain a tenth ... you are more measured at a race meeting.”

AA asked Moore why they complete such short runs rather than a race stint distance, in which you would truly see how a car performs.

(Formula 1 is one of many categories globally in which teams still perform race runs, in which they will remain on the track for 15-20 laps and simulate a race-length stint).

“Doing race runs and longer runs are a bit of a luxury,” he said.

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“It takes up a lot of time and a lot of tyres – it’s a similar deal throughout a race weekend as well.

“You are tuning the car in short runs in practice and in qualifying and you need to hope that the changes you make to the car to make them appropriate over a longer distance are going to work.

“It can seem counterintuitive, because we don’t get points for qualifying and you want to perform in the races.

“But in the grand scheme of things, a race run is quite time and tyre expensive, so that’s why you probably don’t see as many of them as you’d expect.”

Drivers only have only a couple of laps to get a read on the new setup. Moore believes that this is the difference between a good driver, and a great driver.

“That’s what makes a really good driver,” he believes. “They don’t need more than one or

two laps at a time to get the most out of the car.

“You need to be able to change the car, send them out, and in one lap they need to extract everything they can out of it, so that we get a clear direction on whether that was the right change or not.

“It’s one of the things that the good drivers are able to tell – ie when you make a change to the car, you’ve got to go ‘right, this change might not be fast straight away, but if we tune this for half an hour it might be faster in the long run.”

In order to keep things consistent, the car does not differ too much from a datum fuel level which is somewhere between what a car would run in practice and qualifying.

Every two or three runs, the car is topped up back to the same datum level.

The thorough process of many small changes followed by a bit setup change also continues throughout the day.

Drivers generally go in different setup directions in order to cover more ground. It means that after eight hours of running, when a test is concluded, teams are even more exhausted than on a race meeting, as there are no notable breaks.

Drivers often refer to a test as simply good or bad. On this day in particular, both drivers felt it was a really solid day. But AA asked Moore what defines a good test day compared to a bad one.

“A good test is defined by the outcomes that you get from the items that you’ve tested – they don’t always have to be good, they can be good or bad,” Moore said.

“From an engineering standpoint, it’s getting clear decisive outcomes from each test item that you worked on throughout the day, and it gives you a setup direction for the future.”

Packing up commences as the cars complete their final runs, tools and equipment

THE DRIVERS VIEW TYRES HAVE been a talking point in Supercars for quite some time, most recently in Darwin when the new supersoft tyre debuted.

Supercars teams are forced to test on the second-hand rubber used during race weekends. In a rookie test day, both Brown and Kostecki are given one set of green tyres, in addition to the five or six very used sets taken by the team.

This makes testing hard when drivers are searching for the optimum setup on tyres that are well past their best.

Kostecki explained how drivers have to overcome the tyre quality problem in a test.

“We go onto different sets and different batches and they drive differently,” Kostecki said.

“It’s pretty hard to disect what you need and what you are going to have at a round. It’s a bit of a circus on what you’ll get.”

Brown felt that while test days are incredibly useful, they are not fully utilised due to a lack of rubber.

“No matter what, it’s always great to be in the car,” Brown told AA “It’s just more laps.”

“Obviously it’s hard –you don’t get that many tyres and then you go first, with cars the last thing to go back onto the truck.

Back in the workshop, the engineering pair of Cummins and Moore sit down and have a lengthy discussions about what worked and what didn’t.

“Myself and Tom will sit down and go through every change that we did through the day,” Cummins explained.

“We’ll look at the data for every run, look at what was better or worse and compare, check if that marries with the drivers comments and what they said after each run.

“From that we’ll summarise things that were positive, things that weren’t positive, and so on.

“It’s as much about trying to merge the feedback from the driver with the changes that you are making, so when you have to make a change in qualifying or in between sessions, you know you’ve made the right change.”

do extra rookie days and you burn up more tyres during the extra rookie days ... it’s just one of those things.”

Kostecki is well known in the Supercars paddock for his descriptive feedback and mechanical knowledge, and explained that having a mechanical mind is still beneficial on a test day.

“It’s definitely good thing from my point of view. It helps us shortcut trying to validate other things that seem not quite right to me,” he said. “So it definitely helps out on a day like today.

“In the rounds, it doesn’t really mean too much – we have such short practice sessions ... pretty much what you roll out of the truck with is what you have.

When asked if he tries different driving techniques and tricks on a test day, he explained that it is all about staying as consistent as possible, unless he is following a setup that requires a different technique.

“You want to keep your driving pretty consistent and adjust the car to your driving as much as possible,” he said “But at the same time, I do have to change my driving a little bit to make that path work, so it goes both ways.”

The advantage of a two-car team over a single car team is that twice as many options can be tested at the same time ...

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Declan Fraser has quickly gone from a Toyota 86 Racing Series front runner to a Super2 Series contender with the Matthew White Motorsport operation. AA’s Dan McCarthy spoke to the Queenslander

RED HOT RACER

EVERY CAR racing category that Fraser has competed in, has seen him up front fighting for victories, from his days in the Toyota Gazoo Racing 86 Racing Series, to his time in Super3 and occasional races in Hyundai Excels.

After winning races in the 86s, on debut at The Mountain in a Supercar, racing in the third-tier Supercars category, Fraser took pole position, and rates this as his career highlight to date.

“Probably the biggest highlight and the biggest point of my career so far would have to be getting pole at Bathurst in the Super3 with Anderson Motorsport,” he confirms.

“My first 86 win, around Newcastle,

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(absolutely love that track) has got to be one of my other main highlights.”

Fraser’s career began on two wheels, but after moving to Queensland a switch to four wheels occurred.

“Dad used to race motocross himself and loved it,” he said. “But for most parents I think it’s a safety thing, when it’s your actual kid out there, I think he felt safer with me on four wheels and I liked it a lot more.”

Fraser spent very nearly a decade in karts, from Cadets and Rookie classes all the way to the senior categories.

In that time he won several state titles and club titles as well as a national round.

However his karting highlights came in

international competition.

“But to tell the truth,” he said. “I sort of wish we’d moved to cars a little bit earlier and got a bit more experience with something a bit earlier on.

“With the Excel racing and everything now there’s people as young as 15 out there running around ... but I’m still happy with the success I had in karting.”

Fraser explained that in 2017 it was time to move into car racing, and he chose the blossoming 86 Racing Series as it was a great place to learn car race craft while getting exposure on the Supercars support bill.

“We’d seen the 86 Series and the exposure that you got being able to run

with the V8s, I guess it was probably the obvious pathway to go for the time being,” he said.

“It was real-wheel-drive, manual, gauging all the fundamentals that I needed to learn to progress in this type of career, and it was relatively cheap for what it was. So for us that was an obvious one (pathway).

“I fell in love with the whole idea of Supercars. Obviously to go racing in Formula 1 for the open-wheel scene, I needed to be in the car a lot earlier and basically be in Europe straightaway.”

Fraser was still competing in karts when he first entered the 86 Series in 2017 – he feels that this held him back slightly in

Fraser has followed a traditional path trodden by many before him – karting and Toyota 86s, en route to Super3 and Super2. performing at the top of his game.

“My first season was a very, very steep learning curve,” he felt. “Obviously 2017 was my first season in cars, but it’s also my last season in karts, so I was sort of chopping and changing between both of them – one weekend in the car, next weekend I’m in a kart.

“I didn’t really have time to focus on both singularly, so the first season was a massive struggle for us.”

That first season in 2017, Fraser finished 20th in the series, but broke through to score his top 10 finish in the final race of the season at Newcastle.

The following year also started off slowly, although Fraser turned a corner after visiting the Norwell Motorplex midway through the season.

“At the start of the year it was just me, Dad, and one of our mates Jason Sidwell mechanicing for us,” he said.

“We’d driven past there (Norwell) a few times and had a look at it, and then one day Dad decided that we’d go down and go see Paul (Morris) and I had a few lessons with Robbo, the 86 whisperer!

“The next round was Tailem Bend and from then we had a fair few podiums and stuff to finish out the year which was

really cool.”

The Queenslander scored two top three finishes at The Bend Motorsport Park and rounded off the season with a win at the notorious Newcastle Street Circuit.

After running his own car for two seasons, a blossoming relationship with Morris saw Fraser race for the 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner in the 2019 series.

In the first three rounds, Fraser failed to finish outside of the top 10 and was building up a strong challenge for the title – however brake problems at Bathurst would take him out of contention.

“We were really looking forward to hopefully winning that championship,” he said. “Dad and I ended up building a new car, back at dad’s workshop up here in McKay. “We debuted it at Bathurst and we just had a fair few brake problems, so that sort of hindered our championship hopes for the year.

“At the last round, we decided to go back to our original car, and we ended up getting back on the podium.”

In the end Fraser finished an impressive fourth in the series, and he felt it was time to move on – but where?

“At the end of 2019, we decided that

Fraser’s Super2 debut came at 2021’s opening round, at Bathurst, with a solid pair of top 10 results, sixth in the Sunday race.

we’d had our run in 86s – we really wanted to take that next step, but we were at a crossroads ... we weren’t really sure which direction we should take” he said.

“Obviously that’s when TCR first came on the scene and it started to get a really massive following so at that time I was thinking, do I want to follow the TCR route and maybe try and get something overseas on the world TCR stage? Or do I want to go Supercars?”

Fraser raced in the Malaysian TCR series for one round early in 2020, before returning to take part in the TCR Asia Pacific Cup at the infamously cancelled Australian Grand Prix in 2020.

Several weeks later, with no racing taking due to the COVID-19 outbreak place, Fraser received a call from Morris.

“He said, ‘why don’t you give these guys a call?’, which was Anderson Motorsport. From there the relationship grew with those guys,” Fraser explained.

Fraser signed a deal to race for the team in the Super3 Series. However the series was cut to two rounds and no champion crowned due to a lack of events caused

by COVID. Fraser finished on the podium in all races he finished in that campaign, but elected to move to Super2 to get more TV exposure for sponsors.

“We didn’t really see any point of running Super3 again, when we were going to be on the same tyre compound in the same field,” he felt.

“If we’re going to be out on track, we wanted to get as much exposure as possible and if we’re going to be in a new generation car, hopefully we can get up the front and prove ourselves.

“For us it was sort of a no-brainer. We wanted to make the next step up and we spoke to Paul (Morris) and he said take the bull by the horns and go for it.”

The 20-year-old managed to secure a drive with Matthew White, team owner of the two-time reigning Super2 Series winning team MW Motorsport.

“We approached Matt – we knew that he had another car obviously, with Tom (Randle) moving out (of the series).

“We gave him the call just to see what he had available and then one thing led to another, and we end up signing a contract with him.”

To date, the debutant’s 2021 season is progressing well. After Bathurst and last weekend’s tricky Townsville round, Fraser lies sixth in the points, including a sixth place at Bathurst, with a consistent string of top 10 results.

That’s a strong foundation on which to build.

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ROD ANDREWS RACE CARS UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP HAVING SUPPLIED Chrome-moly tubing, plate and other specialist steel materials for the construction of roll-cages and other race car building components for over 32 years, Rod Andrews has sold the business.

Supplying both the trade and retail customers, Andrews Race Cars has been a significant supplier to many within the motorsport industry.

With the sale of the business confirmed, Rod is incredibly happy to have succeeded in securing a succession plan for the continuation of Rod Andrews Race Cars.

“Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. As many of you are aware we have had our business for sale for the past couple of years. Surprisingly, I am not getting any younger, and some facets of the day-to-day operations of the business have become increasingly difficult for me.” Rod told Auto Action.

“A young couple, Josh and Rebecca Stephenson, made contact and after a few months of back-and-forth we recently exchanged contracts for the sale of Andrews Race Cars. The new ownership took effect from July 1st.

Josh and Rebecca have big plans for the business and Rod will continue to assist them full-time through the month of July and will be on call to them until December 31.

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Formula 1 Round 9 Austrian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen dominated the opposition in Austria to the delight of his orange-clad fans Report: Dan Knutson Images: Motorsport Images MAX VERSTAPPEN’s grand slam during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend was cheered on by his adoring Dutch fans – most wearing orange – as he qualified on pole, led every one of the 71 laps in his Red Bull, clocked the fastest lap of the race, and won for the third time in succession and for the fifth time this season.

The crowd on race day numbered 132,000 – the first full house since the pandemic-delayed Formula 1 season kicked off at the same Red Bull Ring in Austria one year ago.

“It was insane today to see all the fans here first of all and, of course, so much orange – it was just incredible,” Verstappen said. “A great motivation as well – especially on the last lap, the in-lap, there was a lot of orange all over the track. Thank you very much for coming.”

Fans of Verstappen and Red Bull Honda are happy. This was Red Bull’s fifth successive victory; Sergio Pérez has one of them and Verstappen four including another led-every-lap at the same circuit a week earlier.

The long-time dominant Mercedes team is not out of the fight, but it is on its back foot. Lewis Hamilton would have finished second if he had not damaged the floor of his Mercedes going over a kerb. He wound up fourth. Teammate Valtteri Bottas crossed the line in second place, albeit 17.973 seconds behind the winner.

“I’m enjoying it,” Verstappen said, “but I’m also focused on the rest of the season. It is still so long and there are still a lot of points you need to score. We need to make sure that

40 AutoAction

ORANGE CRUSH

A podium without Lewis! The balance of power in F1 is starting to change just a little as Red Bull, and McLaren, make positive progress.

every single weekend we are back up there and we basically use the whole potential of the car.

We had a good car here in Austria especially, I think, it was just very dominant.”

Bottas hopes that Mercedes can get back to the front of the pack at the upcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“We’ve been racing on the same track for two weeks and it is clear Red Bull is faster here,” he said. “But it could be different on some other tracks. I think this track suits their car pretty well, but they’re not slow anywhere else.

“Silverstone is completely different. There are a lot more high-speed corners and so we’ll

see. We have something planned in terms of new bits for Silverstone. I think after that it will be quiet in terms of new parts but we’ll keep pushing as hard as we can – but we know it’s going to be tough.”

Indeed, the last major planned upgrade for the Mercedes is scheduled for the Silverstone round.

The ever-improving McLaren and Lando Norris would have finished second if Norris had not received a five-second time penalty for forcing Pérez off the track when they were battling on lap four of 71. Still, Norris wound up third. His Aussie teammate Daniel

Ricciardo carved his way from 13th to seventh.

The cooler ambient and track temperatures compared to the race at the same track a week earlier suited McLaren.

“This was the first race where we were there because of our pace, and we were there on merit and we were fighting for third and second for the whole race,” said Norris who finished just 2.046 seconds behind Bottas.

Mercedes announced on the Saturday of the race weekend that Hamilton had signed a contract extension that will keep him with the team through to the end of 2023.

“It’s not the result I wanted but it’s still some decent points,” he said after finishing fourth. “I sustained some damage just before I overtook Lando. The rear of the car started to feel strange and it just got worse throughout the race. Otherwise it would have been a straightforward second place for me.

“Max is clearly out front at the moment so we need to improve our car and start performing better each weekend. The team are working incredibly hard and we need to continue that so we can find performance.”

As for Ricciardo, he started and finished 13th at the same track the week before. This time around, he battled with Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The latter, on fresher tyres, took sixth place away from Ricciardo with two laps to go.

“I’m trying not to be too high because qualifying yesterday was not great,” the Perth native said. “I do not want to be too extreme and be the guy that when everything goes right you are super cool and nice, and when it

22021 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 2021 71 LAPS P Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 DNF

Driver Max Verstappen Valtteri Bottas Lando Norris Lewis Hamilton Carlos Sainz Jr. Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Charles Leclerc Pierre Gasly Fernando Alonso George Russell Yuki Tsunoda Lance Stroll Antonio Giovinazzi Kimi Raikkonen Nicholas Latifi Sebastian Vettel Mick Schumacher Nikita Mazepin Esteban Ocon

Team Red Bull Racing Mercedes McLaren Mercedes Ferrari Red Bull Racing McLaren Ferrari AlphaTauri Alpine Williams AlphaTauri Aston Martin Alfa Romeo Racing Alfa Romeo Racing Williams Aston Martin Haas Haas Alpine

Laps 71 71 71 71 71 71 71 71 71 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 69 69 69 0

Margin

+17.973s +20.019s +46.452s +57.144s +57.915s +60.395s +61.195s +61.844s +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +2 Laps +2 Laps +2 Laps Incident

Points: Verstappen 182, Hamilton 150, Perez 104, Norris 101, Bottas 92, Leclerc 62, Sainz 60, Ricciardo 40, Gasly 39, Vettel 30, Alonso 20, Stroll 14, Ocon 12, Tsunoda 9, Raikkonen 1, Giovinazzi 1 Constructors’: Red Bull Racing 286, Mercedes 242, McLaren 141, Ferrari 122, AlphaTauri 48, Aston Martin 44, Alpine 32, Alfa Romeo Racing 2

Top: Hamilton was pressured, and passed, by Norris after rear floor damage affected the Merc’s handling.

Above: Solid fifth-place points went to Carlos Sainz after a gamble on Hard tyres at the start.

doesn’t you hate everybody. I will try to stay a little bit more level.

“I enjoyed the race. That was important. I had fun. It sounds so basic but sometimes it is the most important thing. You want to be enjoying it out there. When you do not have good or successful days it is hard to enjoy it. So having a day like today and having some battles, and a race with a lot of pressure, that kept me occupied and meant that I enjoyed it more. I had some good battles and annoyed some people, so that makes me very happy!”

Verstappen now has a 32 point lead over Hamilton after nine races in this year’s drivers’ world championship.

“We have to make sure that in Silverstone we are there again,” Verstappen said. “That’s what we will look into now again to make sure we are very competitive there.”

Ricciardo (above) had a better weekend, climbing through to a seventh place finish. The star of the weekeknd, though, was team-mate Lando Norris, below, who finished a well-deserved third. It would have been second if not for a controversial (and much-criticised) penalty, after heb was deemd to have ‘escorted’ Perez off the road early in the race ...

INTERNATIONAL

NEWGARDEN BREAKS THE PENSKE DUCK Report: JOSH NEVETT Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES THE OLD adage ‘third time lucky’ couldn’t be more accurate for Josef Newgarden and Team Penske right now.

The two-time series winner has put two consecutive race weekends of misfortune behind him to record a well-deserved win at Mid-Ohio on Sunday.

The victory is the first for Newgarden and Team Penske in 2021, ending what has been a lean run for the legendary IndyCar team.

Held winless in the last nine races, Newgarden and Team Penske had not stood atop the podium since last October in the 2020 St. Petersburg season finale.

The day was not so satisfying for his Australian teammate, Will Power, who was eliminated early after a collision with reigning and six-time series champion Scott Dixon.

The pair were engaged in an intense tussle for fourth on lap 4 when Power spun after light contact in Turn 5. The #12 Chevrolet was a sitting duck, invisible behind a cloud of white smoke and pointing toward the oncoming cars.

Ed Jones was the unfortunate driver to plough into Power, inflicting raceending damage to both cars.

Kiwi and fellow Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin had to settle for 12th place after starting 14th on the grid.

Out front it was relatively straightforward early for Newgarden and his #2 Chevrolet, which led for 73 of 80 laps.

“I’d start each stint and feel like we had everything under control,” Newgarden said.

However, the demons of recent races and a fast-finishing Marcus Ericsson began to plant the seed of doubt as the finish line approached.

“You get to the back end of it, and I felt like I was starting to fall apart, so it was really

Penske Racing took its first 2021 win with Josef Newgarden (above), while (below) Marcus Ericsson was closing in fast at the end.

hard to hang on. I had my wingman, Tim (Cindric, Team Penske president), coaching me all the way, just making sure I knew what was up.

“This team has been doing the job.

Everyone has been giving me a hard time, asking what’s up with us not winning a race.

But I don’t think these people at Team Penske could have done anything different.”

Ultimately, Newgarden spoke with a

seal a win here finally,” he concluded.

Ericsson was gallant in his pursuit of Newgarden and threatened to inflict further heartbreak.

The #8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was 0.879s off the pace, unable to extract a mistake from Newgarden and settling for a seventh top-10 finish of the season.

“We had a great day,” Ericsson said.

“I’m really proud of the whole team. We

satisfaction that no doubt reverberated throughout his team.

“We’ve been in the game almost every race, had great performance. It’s great to

were pushing very, very hard there at the end to catch Josef. A couple of more laps, and we could have challenged for it. But overall, p2 was a very good result today.”

NASR AND DERANI BOUNCE BACK FELIPE NASR and Pipo Derani claimed their first victory for the DPi season, overcoming inclement weather at the helm of #31 Whelen Engineering’s Racing Cadillac in the Watkins Glen 240.

A 46-minute-long red flag made for a rain-reduced race with a congested field, but savvy fuel use ensured that Nasr curbed the competition to secure the welcome result.

They crossed the line 1.473s ahead of Renger van der Zande in the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac co-driven with Kevin Magnussen. Rounding out the podium was Konica Minolta’s Acura driven by Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor.

In LMP2, Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen extended the points lead for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, comfortably crossing the finish 21.839s in front of second place.

The closest challenger was the #11 WIN Autosport ORECA co-driven by Tristan Nunez and Images: Motorsport Images Steven Thomas.

Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson rounded out a

42 AutoAction

dominant outing at The Glen, winning both races at the circuit in LMP3, making it four from five for #74.

The GT classes were won by Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor and Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz in GTLM and GTD respectively, as both showed their sprint capabilities.

The forces of nature descended upon Watkins Glen, but no rain or lightning strike could prevent either from claiming top spot after the restart.

Garcia and co-driver Jordan Taylor owned the Watkins Glen weekend in the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, commanding both races and taking the brands win tally to 117 wins in IMSA competition.

The final margin in GTLM was 1.895s over Tommy Milner and co-driver Nick Tandy’s #4 Corvette.

The points acquired from the race will only contribute toward the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup standings. Josh Nevett

Ericsson beat home his two Chip Ganassi Racing teammates, with championship leader Alex Palou rounding out the podium in third and Dixon – who survived the early race contact with Power – in fourth.

Alexander Rossi secured fifth place, his best finish of the season in the #27 Honda.

Ericsson wasn’t the only challenger to Newgarden throughout the course of the race, as Colton Herta took advantage of his front spot early.

Herta kept pace in the #26 Andretti Autosport Honda, but ultimately fell back through no fault of his own, hamstrung by a pair of disastrous pit stops.

The first, on lap 31, drew out to 25s, dropping him from second to eighth.

The second culminated in the car stalling, dashing any chance of victory and consigning Herta to 13th.

Next up in the IndyCar Series is the inaugural Nashville Street Circuit race on August 8.

Points: Palou 384, O’Ward 345, Dixon 328, Newgarden 315, Ericsson 280, Pagenaud 271, Herta 260, Veekay 257, Rahal 256, Sato 226

KURT PIPS KYLE TO BUSCH NASCAR VICTORY

Truex Jr. finished third, climbing through the field after starting in 37th. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was fourth followed by previous winner Ryan Blaney, finishing fifth for Team Penske.

Kyle won the first stage of the race, just in front of Kurt, but the race proved to be a see-saw affair when these positions flipped by the end of Stage Two. After the final round of pit stops, it was Kyle again who seemed set to finish the race on top, but Kurt had other ideas.

He made the critical pass with 25 laps remaining and could not be reeled in from then on.

Despite the lead changes during the race, Kurt led for a race-high 144 laps.

The win is significant in the makeup of the playoffs, as Kurt claimed one of the remaining positions.

The top 10 was completed by Tyler Reddick, reigning series winner Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto and Brad Keselowski.

Winless in 2021, championship points leader Denny Hamlin finished 13th.

Kyle Larson, who has won the most races in this series, was nowhere to be seen near the front of the field, finishing 18th.

He threatened until late but was penalised for speeding in pit lane during his final pit stop.

As it stands, 12 drivers have automatically qualified for the 16-driver playoffs field.

Five races are still to be run, with Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon and Reddick leading the overall points. Josh Nevett

KURT WON The battle of the Buschs to come home first in Race 26 of NASCAR Cup Series in Atlanta.

It was the Chip Ganassi Racing driver’s 33rd career victory and he has now locked down a 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs spot as a result.

Atlanta has been a happy hunting ground for the senior Busch, who has won at the venue four times now. Kurt also evened the ledger with younger brother Kyle in the pair’s fourth career 1-2 finish, levelling the duel at two wins apiece.

The gap between the brothers was 1.237s after 267 laps.

“Hell yeah, we beat Kyle,” a smiling Kurt Busch said after the race.

“What a battle on an old-school race track.

It’s been one of those years where I knew we were going to have our back against the wall, just above the (playoffs) cut-off line and needed to race hard and race smart.”

Kyle’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin

RETURN TO FORM FOR TARQUINI IN WTCR

GABRIELE TARQUINI (right) beat the heat at MotorLand Aragon in Spain, registering a victorious round in WTCR. The Italian compiled 35 points across the weekend, thanks mainly to a win in Race 1.

Frederic Vervisch of Comtoyou Team Audi Sport was another strong performer, winning Race 2 to earn 33 points for his team (above).

Tarquini found himself at the front of the grid for the first race despite qualifying 10th fastest in Q2 due to WTCR’s inverted-grid structure.

Although the Hyundai driver denied this was a tactical decision, the reverse-grid pole was his second in as many events.

This outcome paid dividends, as Tarquini took out Race 1 on Sunday.

It was his first WTCR victory for two years, sweetened by the addition of a Best Lap Trophy for driving a 2m 07.023s around the 5.345km circuit.

Tarquini would control the race out front leading from lights to flag and taking a 1.88s victory.

Second was local Mikel Azcona of Zengo Motorsport in his CUPRA Leon Competition, Vervisch’s teammate Tom Coronel round out the podium, 8.455s off first place.

In qualifying for Race 2, Vervisch stole the prized pole position from Thed Bjork on the final lap.

The Belgian conquered the height of a Spanish summer to edge Björk’s Cyan Performance Lynk & Co by just 0.021s.

This feat of concentration extended into Race 2, Vervisch converting his spot at the front of the grid into a tight victory.

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BIRD IS THE WORD IN NEW YORK

The third win of his WTCR career lifted him to 11th in the championship standings and is the first for the newgeneration Audi RS 3 LMS. Bjork finished as runner-up ahead of Gilles Magnus, the top three separated by less than 1.7s in what was an exciting contest.

At the conclusion of the round, Hyundai driver Jean-Karl Vernay held on to top spot in the championship with 82 points. He finished ninth and fourth in the races over the weekend.

Countryman Yann Ehrlacher is eight points behind in second, and Yvan Muller sits on 67 points.

The next round is Race of Italy at the Adria International Raceway from July 31-August 1. Josh Nevett Vernay 82, Ehrlacher 74, Muller 67, Urrutia 60, Tarquini 58

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SAM BIRD jumped to the top of the Formula E standings after a packed weekend of competition in New York City after winning the second race of the weekend while, the day prior, Maximilian Gunther took the opening encounter, his first win of the season.

Sebastian Buemi was the fastest in practice, with a 1m 09.386s time.

Buemi’s day improved further, as his 1m 09.531s gave him provisional pole.

The Nissan driver could not capitalise on his form in the Super Pole shootout, though as Nick Cassidy secured pole.

Behind him were Jean-Eric Vergne and Alex Lynn.

Despite this, it was Gunther, from BMW Andretti Motorsport, who came from fourth on the grid to win Round 10.

Gunther remained in touching distance of the front row starters Cassidy and Vergne and with several minutes to go took the lead.

Vergne made a dive for the lead on Cassidy at the hairpin – they both ran wide and allowed Gunther to sweep

into the lead. Once out front, Gunther put his head down and gapped the field to take his third Formula E win by 2.072s from Vergne.

Lucas Di Grassi took third after starting seventh on the grid, pole sitter Cassidy, Robin Frijns and Buemi rounded out the top six.

In Round 11, Jaguar Racing driver Bird qualified on pole and cruised comfortably to a lights-to-flag victory by 4.167s and with it takes the championship lead.

Cassidy and Evans were involved in a nail-biting affair for second with the former coming out on top.

The British driver came under attack from reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa on the final lap, but he held his ground and held second.

Evans ran out of energy on the final lap and finished outside of the points.

Josh Nevett Points: Sam Bird 81, da Costa 76, Frijns 76, Mortara 72, Cassidy 70

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INTERNATIONAL .

HAUGER HEADLINES F3 RESULTS ROUND 5 of the GT World Challenge Europe saw Aussie Jordan Love scored seventh and eighth place finishes in his first appearance in the Sprint Cup. Racing the #40 MercedesAMG GT3 for SPS Automotive Performance in tandem with German GT driver Lance David-Arnold, Love improved on his qualifying position in both efforts around the Misano course in Italy. His one-off sprint appearance served as preparation for the Spa 24 Hours later this month.

ALEX PERONI had a disappointing weekend in the latest Indy Lights Series for Carlin Motorsport, finishing ninth in both races at Mid-Ohio. Subsequently, Peroni is now tied with Benjamin Pedersen for eighth place in the championship standings, 111 points off the leader Kyle Kirkwood. Reflecting on the results, the Hobart-born 21-yearold described the weekend as “character building”. Peroni’s form has dropped away since a breakthrough podium in Indianapolis in May.

AUSSIE CHRISTIAN Mansell has jumped up to fourth in the British F3 standings after a consistent weekend at Donington Park. The Carlin driver finished fifth, sixth and sixth in each of the races. He accumulated 51 points, the fourth most of any driver. Fellow countryman Bart Horsten would have had an excellent weekend but was disqualified in Race 2. He is now eighth in the standings after earning 32 points at Donington.

DENNIS HAUGER was the big winner in a bumper weekend of FIA Formula 3 Championship action at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

A consistent weekend of podium finishes ensured that the championship leader extended his ascendency to 41 points.

After the success in France the Aussies did not perform as strongly, but once again both drivers picked up some points including a podium for Jack Doohan.

Championship leader Hauger took pole for Prema Racing followed by Frederik Vesti and Alexander Smolyar.

The Australian pair were solid but unlucky in qualifying. Fresh off his maiden win in France, Queenslander Doohan qualified in seventh position, after initially sitting right towards the

top of the timesheets.

The lack of a clear track prevented Calan Williams from setting a very strong time. He was just 0.046s off the fastest time to the second sector before being baulked at Turn 7 – he ended up qualifying 13th.

Going into Race 1, not even a reversed grid could deny Hauger from storming home to a win.

Starting in 12th, Hauger showcased his driving talent, overtaking all ahead of him in the 24 laps to claim a memorable win.

The Norweigen inherited the lead when Matteo Nannini and Clement Novalak collided exiting Turn 4 with just a couple of laps remaining.

Olli Caldwell finished in second, while, despite finishing seventh on the road, Doohan inherited third after several drivers ahead of him were penalised.

Williams was 16th after the application of a 5s penalty after a collision with David Schumacher.

Race 2 provided a special moment for Schumacher, who won his first F3 race. The nephew of Michael and son of Ralph put in a clinical effort, leading from lights to flag.

Vesti crossed the line second ahead of Hauger.

Doohan gathered some more points in seventh, while Williams ended the race 15th.

In the feature Vesti claimed his first race win of the F3 season and first with ART Grand Prix. The Danish driver started second, but quickly rounded Hauger using DRS on Lap 5.

Hauger and Brit Olli Caldwell completed the podium.

Doohan was forced to retire one lap shy of the finish after a puncture was sustained in contact with Jak Crawford.

Williams fared far better, climbing from 13th spot on the grid to a points-earning ninth. Josh Nevett Points: Hauger 115, Vesti 74, Doohan 72, Caldwell 70, Martins 66

McELREA REGAINS MOMENTUM AT MID-OHIC HUNTER McELREA returned to form, recording his second win of the Indy Pro 2000 season in Race 2 at Mid-Ohio.

It had been lean pickings for the Pabst Racing driver (pictured) since his promising start to the championship at Barber Motorsports Park, but a win in the sixth round has McElrea both relieved and optimistic for the rest of the season.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s been a wild year so to put it on pole and control the race was great,” said McElrea.

“I know we’re back now. We have to keep doing this, keep getting the race wins and keep pushing and see what happens.”

The kiwi finished a relatively long way back despite placing fourth.

This all changed in Race 2 though, as McElrea channelled the confidence from qualifying at the front of the grid to hold off allcomers for victory by 0.7498s. On paper the margin was slim, but McElrea was calm in maintaining a defendable ascendency.

“It was about controlling the gap the whole time. I knew I was fast and I just drove as fast as I had to in order to stay out front, make no mistakes, stay in control and bring it home,” he explained.

“I knew I could do it, I knew the team could do it, but so many things that have been out of our control have hurt us this season – but it’s not about the setbacks, it’s about how you come back from them.”

Artem Petrov claimed second place ahead of Kryffin Simpson.

McElrea remains fifth in the championship with 231 points, series leader Christian Rasmussen in on 306 points.

The Indy Pro 2000 action will resume on August 21 at Illinois’s Raceway which hosts the second of two oval track races on the 2021 schedule.

Josh Nevett

“I was certain that Dylan would have problems with his tyres after his brakes locked up so I wasn’t too worried,” Evans said.

On lap 7 Evans set the fastest lap of the race and thereafter drove a mature race to keep Pereira at bay.

The victory has fired Evans into second place in the standings ahead of his rookie teammate Dorian Boccolacci.

A fierce battle took place for third between defending champion Larry ten Voorde, Ayhancan Guven and Germany’s Laurin Heinrich for third.

They switched positions on several occasions, and it looked as though Guven was going to prevail.

But on the penultimate lap Guven suffered a puncture and was forced to pit. He would go on to finish the race in 26th position.

Ten Voorde held off the attach from Heinrich to finish on the podium for the third time this season – however his unbeaten run had come to an end. Heinrich finished in fourth, from Florian Latorre in fifth.

Hollywood star and guest driver Michael Fassbender finished the race 24th of the 32 starters. Dan McCarthy

EVANS WINS IN AUSTRIA IT WAS a disappointing weekend for British GT competitor Harry Hayek. Driving for Rocket Motorsport, Hayek started the weekend well in his McLaren 570s GT4, qualifying pole in class and second overall. Racing was a different story though. Hayek was involved in a collision at the front of the field while vying for position, failing to return to the track afterwards. He is now tied for 10th in the GT4 drivers’ standings.

HUGH BARTER has clung to third in the French F4 Championship after struggling at the Hungaroring. Barter, who grew up in Melbourne, could only muster a best race finish of fourth as Frenchman Maceo Capietto was on the podium twice. Esteban Masson still leads the standings on 143 points. Barter could not quite replicate his form from Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, where he was in the Images: Im mages topImages three sin: Motorsport every race. Images

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NEW ZEALANDER Jaxon Evans (right) took his first win of the Porsche Supercup season at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and maiden win with the French Martinet by Almeras outfit.

The former Australian Carrera Cup Australia Series winner started the race from second position on the grid, grabbed the lead on the opening lap, and controlled the race from that moment on.

After finishing sixth a week earlier, the Kiwi rebounded to take victory by 0.646s from polesitter Dylan Pereira.

Pereira made a good start but locked up and ran wide at Turn 1 allowing Evans into the lead and from that point on the Kiwi was never headed.

Evans managed both Safety Car restarts maturely and managed to pull clear of his rivals.

Out front, Evans was flying – only BWT Lechner Racing driver Pereira could match him, although Evans explained after the race that he was not too concerned:

Points: Ten Voorde 67, Evans 55, Boccolacci 36, Kohler 36, Zochling 30

MOTORCYCLE NEWS

TOPRAK TAKES LEAD Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: MOTORSPORT IMAGES FACTORY YAMAHA rider Toprak Razgatlioglu has vaulted to the top of the World Superbike Championship after taking two race wins at Donington Park in England.

Coming into the fourth round, the Turkish rider sat several points behind the six-time reigning champion Jonathon Rea, but a crash for the Kawasaki rider in the final race opened the door for Razgatlioglu to nose ahead in the title fight.

Race 1 took place in extremely tricky mixed conditions, and after a poor qualifying session Razgatlioglu started from 13th but made a blinding start.

He sat in fifth on the exit of Turn 1 and by the end of the lap found himself in second behind Rea. On lap 2 Razgatlioglu made his move, made it stick and quickly attempted to pull a margin.

In a bid to keep up with the Turk, Rea made a mistake at Turn 2 a lap later and had to take to the grass, very lucky to stay upright.

A great battle took place for third between BWM teammates Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark, as well as Alex Lowes and Garrett Gerloff.

Gerloff, when sitting in fourth, fell off his bike

In typically British Summer conditions, Razgatlioglu (above) hit the championship lead by staying on his bike! BMW teammates Sykes and van der Mark battle for third (left).

Rea (#1) pressed Razgatlioglu but errors at key moments cost him the championship lead.

at the final corner. He quickly remounted but his podium hopes were done.

Out front, Razgatlioglu took a dominant win.

Rea closed in during the final few laps but came home 2.4s shy of the race victor.

Rea’s teammate Lowes rounded out the podium, ahead of Sykes, van der Mark, Leon Haslam and Gerloff.

In the shorter Superpole race it was Rea who tamed the conditions best, taking a lights to flag victory.

After a strong showing in Race 1, BMW riders Sykes and van der Mark scored BMW’s

Points: Razgatlioglu 183, Rea 181, Redding 117, Lowes 114, Rinaldi 94

“We are very sad to announce that we won’t be able to race at the stunning Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in 2021,” he said.

“We very much look forward to seeing the Australian fans in 2022 and staging another fantastic event together – this time with two

home heroes, Jack Miller and Remy Gardner, on the premier class grid when we return.”

Paul Little, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chairman, was disappointed with the outcome.

“We’re terribly disappointed that for a second consecutive year, MotoGP fans won’t see the world’s best riders compete at the wonderful Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit,” Little said.

“We’re also disappointed for our staff, suppliers and partners, as well as the Phillip Island community and associated tourism industry that relies on the economic boost which comes with staging the event.”

Barring further complications, the race will return to Australia for the 2022 season.

MotoGP is currently on its summer break – the next MotoGP round is the Grand Prix of Styria at the Red Bull Ring in Austria from August 6-8.

Josh Nevett

AUSTRALIAN MOTOGP ROUND REPLACED AS REPORTED inour news pages, MotoGP will not visit Australia’s Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit this year, and a replacement has already been found.

A second race at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal will take place from November 5-7.

The Australian round scheduled for October 22-24 became yet another casualty of logistical barriers caused by Covid-19 with the second event at the undulating Algarve taking its place.

The Malaysian GP has also been brought forward a week to October 22-24. This is the Images: Motorsport Images weekend after the rescheduled Grand Prix of Thailand.

The unpredictability of Covid-19, with its travel restrictions and quarantines, was cited as the reason for the decision.

Carmelo Ezpeleta, the CEO of MotoGP organiser Dorna Sports, was regretful about the loss of the Australian GP to this season’s calendar.

first double podium in the championship since 2013. They beat home Haslam, Gerloff and Razgatlioglu who again charged from 13th to finish sixth, earning himself that starting position for the final race.

Lowes sat second but crashed out on lap 2 trying to overtake his teammate.

The title was turned on its head in the final encounter when Rea crashed out of the lead.

Starting from sixth, once again Razgatlioglu made a strong start and made his way to the front of the field at Turn 8, Coppice, on lap 4.

Rea remained on the tail of the blue machine and on lap 10 forced Razgatlioglu into an error at Turn 8 allowing him to take the lead.

Just a lap later, in a bid to break away from the Turkish rider, Rea made a very rare unforced error, crashing out at Coppice.

This allowed Razgatlioglu to cruise to victory from teammate Gerloff, Sykes, Scott Redding, van der Mark and Lowes, while Rea crossed the line in 20th and last position.

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Supercars RACE REPORT

Round 6 – Townsville

TRIPLE EIGHT DOMINATION Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images/Ross Gibb IT WAS a sublime weekend for Triple Eight Race Engineering and Shane van Gisbergen, who extended his championship lead further after winning both races on the streets of Townsville.

It wasn’t just a double for van Gisbergen – Triple Eight scored a 1-2 finish in both races as seven-time champion Jamie Whincup delivered two second place finishes.

The other teams, including Dick Johnson Racing, Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United, simply could not match the Red Bull sponsored machines in either of the 250km races around the tight and technical Reid Park Street Circuit.

In both races the Triple Eight duo converted their 1-2 on the grid into a 1-2 on track, but not necessarily in the order they started.

Both Whincup and van Gisbergen were allowed to race each other and, despite leading for much of the encounters, Whincup was hunted down and overtaken in both.

Supercars returned to the standard soft tyre after the debut of the supersoft in Darwin. However due to the nature of the Townsville street circuit, tyre degradation would play a major factor in the weekend’s results.

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Incredibly, both of the 88 lap encounters ran Safety Car free, a real shock at what is now considered the most physically demanding circuit of the season.

PRACTICE – TRIPLE EIGHT ASSERTS AUTHORITY

THE WEEKEND did not get off to the silky-smooth start that Triple Eight were hoping for in Practice 1 as Whincup was sixth and van Gisbergen buried in ninth.

Tyre degradation was a big talking point throughout the day, with drivers surprised by the severe deg.

As a result, many teams elected to send their drivers out for a couple of simulation race stints, something rarely done in a Supercars practice session these days.

In the opening session, Kelly Grove Racing showed that Darwin was simply a blip, with 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner David Reynolds topping the times from Will Davison.

A majority of the field, but not all, put on new tyres. In the end, it was Reynolds who ended up at the top of the timesheets after setting a 1m 12.797s time, 0.221s faster than Davison.

The drivers felt that the track in the opening session was incredibly slippery, and the times showed it.

Behind the top two was Brad Jones Racing youngster Todd Hazelwood, returning to the venue at which he took his maiden pole position last year. Chaz Mostert was fourth ahead of Will Brown, Whincup and Cam Waters.

While team-mate Hazelwood ended the session third on the timesheets, Macauley Jones spent over half of the session in the pit garage with a clutch drama.

Practice 2 saw van Gisbergen find the setup he was after. He was comfortable for the remainder of the weekend, always within the top two.

At the end of the day second green tyres were bolted onto the cars as quali simulations commenced.

After a mistake on his opening lap Van Gisbergen went fastest with his second attempt. The New Zealander set a 1m 12.381s time, 0.122s faster than Davison who was second fastest once again.

Next were a pair of Tickford Racing Mustangs, with Cameron Waters edging out Jack Le Brocq by 0.028s. Despite a mid-session excursion down the Turn 3 escape road, Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat rounded out the top five, ahead of Whincup, ahed of de Pasquale, Brown, Reynolds and Mostert.

QUALIFING RACE 15 – VAN GISBERGEN OBLITERATES FIELD

VAN GISBERGEN was a step above the rest in qualifying for Saturday’s opening leg, taking pole position by 0.357s. The Red Bull Holden Racing team driver ended the five-race pole position streak of Dick Johnson Racing.

Whincup didn’t have the greatest of laps, but it was enough to start on the front row of the grid.

It was a DJR second row with Davison third, just 0.043s behind Whincup.

De Pasquale squeezed into the Top 10 Shootout in 10th, but set a strong opening benchmark to qualify in fourth, just ahead of Percat.

James Courtney was best of the Tickford Racing drivers in sixth, just 0.08s ahead of his team-mate Le Brocq.

After qualifying second to make it into the shootout, Slade went backwards, qualifying in eighth ahead of David Reynolds.

While the Red Bull and DJR cars were at the front, several of their rivals were buried in the pack.

The shootout lap was not what Cameron Waters was after. A big slide out of Turn 2 before running wide at the final corner meant that Waters qualified in 10th position.

Adopting a ‘longer’ strategy allowed van Gisbergen (left) to easily run down his team-mate, twice. Top: Blast-off – a sea of RB blue and DJR red. Above; Courtney (#44) was top Tickford car on Saturday, but a lap one incident ruined Sunday. Right: De Pasquale was a clear ‘best-of-the-rest’ with third on both days.

The big surprise however was Mostert – the 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner missed out on a Top 10 Shootout position in 17th.

For the first time this season Bryce Fullwood out-qualified his WAU teammate, in 16th.

Andre Heimgartner was unlucky, qualifying in 11th, missing out on a spot in the Top 10 Shootout by a mere 0.019s.

Scott Pye qualified in 12th ahead of the

Erebus Motorsport teammates Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown.

Race 15 – SVG HUNTS DOWN WHINCUP

SVG PREVAILED in the first Triple Eight duel on Saturday taking his ninth victory of the season by 7.368s.

The two Triple Eight Race Engineering drivers were in a league of their own and finished half a minute ahead of the rest

of the field, delivering the teams third 1-2 victory of the season.

Despite Whincup taking the lead off the line, van Gisbergen ran longer on old tyres in both pit stop sequences, allowing him to catch and pass his teammate on fresher tyres with 17 laps of the race remaining.

It was an intense battle between the pair, but in the end it was the current championship leader that came out on top.

Whincup faded late on, but took his seventh podium of the season and third in sucession, although losing more ground to van Gisbergen in the championship.

De Pasquale came home in third position, a welcome return to the podium after failing to finish in the top five at Darwin.

The DJR driver lost third position to a fast starting Courtney on the run to Turn 2, however in an attempt to keep up with the Triple Eight machines the former champion burnt through his tyres.

This allowed de Pasquale to catch and easily pass the Tickford driver on lap 22 into the final turn.

From that moment on de Pasquale had a very lonely race, finishing in an uneventful third.

Percat had supreme tyre life and brought his BJR ZB Commodore home in fourth. Post-race he was taken to the medical centre for treatment for dehydration as he completed the race

Illustrating the team’s competitiveness, Tim Slade made both Shootouts and finished sixth and eighth repectively in the CoolDrive Mustang.

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Supercars RACE REPORT Round 6 – Townsville

without a functioning drink bottle.

Davison looked set for a top five finish but with just two laps remaining he was forced to make an unscheduled third pitstop. His crew had not put in the entire mandatory 140 litres of fuel during his two stops, so despite being only a few mililitres short the #17 had to enter the pits or face a 90 second penalty.

This elevated Reynolds to fifth position, his best result since finishing on the podium at Sandown in Round 2.

The former Bathurst 1000 winner stayed cool under pressure and kept the hard charging Tim Slade at bay by just 0.6s in the closing laps.

Despite Courtney’s strong start he faded quickly. Aware of his mistake in using up the tyres early in the opening stint, he deployed a more measured approach in the final two segments to finish in seventh, best of the Tickford Racing cars.

His team-mate and championship challenger Waters struggled in traffic in the opening stint of the race – eighth in the end was a surprisingly good recovery.

After taking the extra stop Davison re-joined in eighth position – however e allowed Waters through at Turn 2, clearly unaware that it was for position.

Davison came home in ninth, four places lower than where he would have finished, had the unplanned stop not been made.

Team 18 driver Winterbottom showed very strong car pace as always, making his way up from 21st on the grid to round out the top 10.

Fullwood came home in 11th ahead of Heimgartner and Brodie Kostecki.

Mostert appeared strong early in all three stints, however poor tyre life saw him struggle to retain track position.

He would eventually finish a lowly 14th and as a result would fall over 300 points behind championship leader van Gisbergen.

After a strong top 10 qualifying effort, Le Brocq made a poor start and dropped back through the pack. Throughout the race he was unable to recover pace and move back up the field, finishing in 15th.

Todd Hazelwood was on the fringe of the top 10 before his power steering failed, costing him 8 laps, while Pye lost 10 laps with a broken steering arm.

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A few cupfuls of fuel cost Davison (above) big-time on Saturday ..., while Will Brown (right) had one of his best on Sunday, qualifying a strong fourth fourth and ending the day fifth, behind only the Red Bull/DJR foursome.

Zane Goddard was last of the finishers after a collision with Jack Smith sent him into the wall at Turn 10.

RACE 16 QUALIFYING – WHINCUP FIGHTS BACK

WHINCUP SHOWED the other 23 Supercars Championship drivers that he has still got it with a blistering Top 10 Shootout lap on Sunday.

The Team-Pricipal-in-Waiting set a 1m 12.310s to take pole, a staggering 0.34s faster than van Gisbergen who had taken the pole by a similar margin the day before.

Brad Jones Racing locked out the second row with a rejuvenated Hazelwood slightly faster than his 2011 Bathurst 1000 winning team-mate Percat. Second out, and on used tyres, Hazelwood set a blinding time and sat on top of the timesheets for much of the shootout.

On new tyres his team-mate was unable to match his fellow South Aussie, after locking up and running wide at Turn 2.

However a good end to the lap meant he was 0.015s shy of Hazelwood.

De Pasquale, also on new tyres, was unable to turn the tyres on, qualifying just

0.008s behind Percat to round out the top five.

Waters and Tickford Racing took a swing at the qualifying set-up and started from sixth.

On his shootout debut, Erebus Motorsport driver Will Brown qualified seventh ahead of Davison who made a mistake at Turn 11. Slade and Reynolds rounded out the top 10.

Macauley Jones was unlucky not to make it into the Top 10 Shootout, knocked out by his teammate Percat in the final seconds of the first segment.

For the second day running Mostert failed to made the top 10, one silver lining being that he qualified several rows further up, in 12th.

Fullwood was just 0.007s slower than his teammate and would start from 13th, ahead of Pye. Le Brocq could not replicate his qualifying form from Saturday and qualified 15th ahead of Brodie Kostecki.

RACE 16 – SVG COPY AND PASTE IN THE 88-lap race on Sunday van Gisbergen recorded his fourth consecutive Supercars race win,

10th victory of the season and notably his 50th in the championship. For the second day in succession, the kiwi overtook his long-time race leading team-mate Whincup in the final stint of the race.

In a situation almost identical to Saturday, van Gisbergen was able to catch the seven-time champion – only this time the seven-time champion put up more of a fight.

Whincup defended at Turn 11 on lap 76 of 88, but two corners later the #97 slotted up the inside and made a solid block pass at the final turn.

Whincup tried to respond at Turn 2 on the following lap but van Gisbergen covered the inside before taking off into the distance.

He took the win by 2.925s from Whincup while, for the second day in a row, de Pasquale made the best of the circumstances and came home in third, this time 23.224s behind the winner.

Davison finished the race in fourth a good recovery after being buried in the pack during the opening stint.

A good use of the undercut put the #17 DJR Mustang in clear air and Davison was able to set the lap times he needed

RESULTS RACE 15 TOWNSVILLE 87 LAPS Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Driver Shane van Gisbergen Jamie Whincup Anton De Pasquale Nick Percat David Reynolds Tim Slade James Courtney Cameron Waters Will Davison Mark Winterbottom Bryce Fullwood Andre Heimgartner Brodie Kostecki Chaz Mostert Jack Le Brocq Macauley Jones Jack Smith Will Brown Jake Kostecki Garry Jacobson Fabian Coulthard Todd Hazelwood Scott Pye Zane Goddard

Margin 87 laps 0 +7.368s 0 +37.453s ▲ 1 +48.879s ▲ 1 +51.354s ▲ 4 +51.986s ▲ 2 +60.213s ▼ 1 +1 lap ▲2 +1 lap ▼6 1 lap +11 +1 lap ▲5 +1 lap ▼1 +1 lap 0 +1 lap ▲3 +1 lap ▼8 +1 lap ▼1 +1 lap ▲5 +1 lap ▼4 +1 lap ▲1 +1 lap ▲4 +2 laps ▲2 +8 laps ▼3 +10 laps ▼ 11 +11 laps ▼ 6

RESULTS RACE 16 TOWNSVILLE 88 LAPS Pos Driver 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Jamie Whincup 3 Anton De Pasquale 4 Will Davison 5 Will Brown 6 Cameron Waters 7 Todd Hazelwood 8 Tim Slade 9 Chaz Mostert 10 Jack Le Brocq 11 James Courtney 12 Andre Heimgartner 13 Bryce Fullwood 14 Macauley Jones 15 Brodie Kostecki 16 Mark Winterbottom 17 Jack Smith 18 Zane Goddard 19 Garry Jacobson 20 Nick Percat 21 Scott Pye 22 David Reynolds DNF Fabian Coulthard DSQ Jake Kostecki

Left: After a power-steering failure cost a Saturday top 10, Hazelwood smashed out P3 in Sunday’s Shootout, on used tyres ... Middle: Whincup put it all on the line to try and usurp his T8 team-mate, but was run down twice.

Right: De Pasquale progressed forward in both races for his excellent double podium. Below: Race pace just wasn’t quite there for Waters and his Tickford colleagues this weekend. to leapfrog the pack.

Erebus Motorsport rookie Brown scored his third top five finish of the season, after impressively overtaking Waters with two laps to go. The Tickford Racing driver came home disappointed in sixth, the second round in a row where he has struggled for pace.

After locking out the second row of the grid in the Top 10 Shootout, it was not the race that BJR wanted.

Hazelwood sat in fourth throughout the opening stint, but lacked car pace thereafter. He finished the race in seventh, after preventing Slade from overtaking him in the closing laps of the race.

Percat sat in third in the opening stint, but a power steering failure forced the team to change the steering wheel. Percat battled on but finished 21st, several laps down.

Mostert had a much better Sunday, however it was still only ninth for

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Margin 88 laps +2.925s +23.334s +40.034s +46.588s +50.408s +53.414s +53.758s +62.154s +68.579s +63.632s +64.964s +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +3 laps +4 laps +14 laps +86 laps +88 laps

▲1 ▼1 ▲2 ▲4 ▲2 0 ▼4 ▲1 ▲3 ▲5 ▲6 ▲6 0 ▼3 ▲1 ▲5 ▲7 ▲1 ▲4 ▼ 16 ▼7 ▼ 12 ▼1 ▼4

Points: van Gisbergen 1661, Whincup 1416, Davison 1291, Mostert 1278, Waters 1256, De Pasquale 1020, Winterbottom 996, Percat 992, Courtney 912, Brown 903, B Kostecki 863, Heimgartner 860, Fullwood 801, Reynolds 794, Le Brocq 772, Pye 768, Slade 754, Hazelwood 716, Goddard 616, J Kostecki 596, Jones 498, Smith 490, Coulthard 458, Jacobson 446, Randle 260, K Kostecki 222

the Walkinshaw Andretti United championship contender. The result sees him slip to fourth in the championship behind Davison.

Le Brocq rounded out the top 10 ahead of his Tickford Racing teammate James Courtney – the latter having found himself facing backwards and in last position at the end of lap 1.

Heimgartner and Fullwood finished 12th and 13th respectively after being overtaken by Courtney in a thrilling battle over the closing laps.

Jones also made his way forwards to 14th after a lap 1 incident and finished ahead of Brodie Kostecki, Mark Winterbottom, Jack Smith, Zane Goddard and Garry Jacobson.

Jake Kostecki rounded out the top 20 – however he was disqualified post-race for a tyre infringement.

Pye, Reynolds and Fabian Coulthard all picked up damage in the Turn 11 chaos on lap 1.

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Supercars Super 2 Round 2 – Townsville Report: Dan McCarthy Images: InSyde Media AS IN the Supercars Championship, Triple Eight Race Engineering dominated the Super2 Series weekend, with the team’s prodigy Broc Feeney not only clean sweeping both victories but topping every single session.

The 18-year-old was in a league of his own in both races and did not do his prospects of potentially replacing Jamie Whincup in the main game any harm.

Making a one-off cameo return was Tim Blanchard, in a bid to keep race sharp ahead of his Bathurst 1000 appearance in his own Mustang alongside Tim Slade later this year.

Blanchard impressively finished second for the round, ahead of title contender Jayden Ojeda.

A tight first qualifying session saw Feeney prevail, scoring his maiden pole position in the second-tier series.

Feeney took pole by a mere 0.033s, from Matthew White Motorsport driver Ojeda and just over 0.1s from Blanchard.

Third-generation racer Aaron Seton qualified fourth from Zak Best and Angelo Mouzouris.

When the lights went out, Feeney and Ojeda on the front row made an incredibly even start, however it was Feeney who nosed ahead and retained the lead into Turn 1.

Feeney quickly established a slight gap on the opening lap as battles ensued behind.

Despite being out of competitive Supercars action for nine months, Blanchard had lost none of his speed He was immediately on the pace and challenged Ojeda in the early laps of the race but the Nissan driver held the Supercars veteran at bay, before building a near second advantage after the first handful of laps.

Out front, Feeney continued to steadily edge away – at one stage in the race he held a lead of over 8s.

On lap 9 when sitting in a comfortable fourth position Mouzouris’ Commodore

FEENEY SUPERIORITY Above: D-O-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N was the name of Feeney’s game ...

Left: Blanchard (88) and Ojeda (31) scrap for best-of-the-rest points.

ground to a halt. The Melbournian quickly refired the car up, but the damage was done – he had dropped to 18th position.

Late in the race there was a bit of action as the Super2 machines found themselves lapping the slower Super3 cars, with the top three drivers all lucky to escape some close moments.

On the closing laps Josh Fife crashed out of the race at Turn 2, locking up and hitting the wall on the run towards the corner.

This resulted in a Safety Car which would remain on track until the end of the race.

Feeney therefore scored his second victory of the season and with it retook the series lead. Ojeda was second from Blanchard; Best and Matt Chadha rounded out the top five.

In qualifying for Race 2, Feeney was untouchable, taking his second pole in succession and a staggering 0.4s up on the rest of the field.

Tickford Racing driver Best qualified on the front row alongside his series rival, while Ojeda outqualified Blanchard, Everingham and Fife.

Mouzouris’ horror Townsville continued, as he locked up and came to a halt just centimetres from the wall at Turn 11 – he would qualify 10th.

The second encounter was heavily interrupted by Safety Cars, but through it all Feeney kept a level head and was never threatened. Never forced to defend his position he finished 5s ahead of the rest of the field despite the shortened race distance and multiple Safety Cars.

After a strong P2 in Race 2 qualifying, Zak Best was beaten off the line, but recoded his second P4 for the weekend.

SUPER3 provided the Anderson and Morris show – Saturday was dominated by Michael Anderson, while Morris controlled Sunday’s encounter.

It was quite simply a tale of two halves – after taking a comfortable pole position, Anderson converted it into the win, Morris was second and Reef McCarthy third, his first podium in the series.

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It was the same on Sunday, just with Morris and Anderson switched around, Morris beat Anderson by 3.9s and therefore took round honours as he had won the final encounter.

Anderson beat home McCarthy who was third once more. DM Points: Anderson 540, Morris 501, McCarthy 489, Strong 489, Gomersall 300

As soon as the lights went out Blanchard shot from fourth to second and was followed by Ojeda who took third from Best.

On the opening lap, Feeney built a 1.6s lead – however that would be brought back to nothing as the Safety Car was deployed on lap 2. Seton had locked up his Matt Stone Racing Commodore into Turn 2 and speared into the side of the luckless Mouzouris, for which Seto Jnr would receive a 25-point penalty.

The restart on lap 6 saw an intense fight for second, Ojeda briefly took the spot at Turn 11 – however Blanchard repassed him, cutting back up the inside at the next turn.

Blanchard looked around the outside at the final turn and Turn 1, before slotting back into third just as another Safety Car was called.

After this restart, Ojeda made another attempt on Blanchard, but had no luck.

Feeney would take the win ahead of Blanchard, Ojeda, Best and Jordan Boys who had made his way up from eighth.

In the round honours, Feeney took the maximum 300, ahead of Blanchard and Ojeda on 267 – however Blanchard was awarded second as he finished higher in the final race.

Points: Feeney 540, Best 498, Ojeda 474, Chahda 408, McLean 393

Carrera Cup - Toyota 86

MURRAY RETURNS TO THE TOP COOPER MURRAY of McElrea Racing claimed the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia round honours in Townsville, interrupting Cameron Hill’s dominance of the category.

The result was decided on countback, Murray’s higher finishing position in the final race cementing the win. Success in North Queensland is familiar for the Victorian, who won there in 2019.

Impressively, Murray achieved the win on the back of a nasty collision at The Bend Motorsport Park in May. Meantime, in the Pro-Am category, Stephen Grove pipped Geoff Emery by a single point.

Qualifying was led by Matthew Payne, who secured pole position, his second in the first three rounds of his Carrera Cup career, with a 1m 13.988s.

Aaron Love was 0.22s back, ahead of series leader Hill, Murray and veterans Dale Wood and David Wall.

Harri Jones was forced out of the session with a snapped driveshaft, triggering a red flag which reduced time on track.

Hill won Race 1 after a 5s penalty denied Murray post-race. Wall and Russell were also beneficiaries of this decision, promoted to second and third respectively.

There was early drama as the lights went out. Polesitter Payne stalled at the starting line, requiring the rest of the field to take evasive action.

Love took the lead, but on lap 5 at Turn 2, he was tapped into a spin by Murray, who made a late inside move. Love failed to finish while Murray fell to second behind Hill.

It was not long before Murray retook the lead, and held it thereafter, but the contact with Love was enough to see him penalised.

Murray was classified in fourth ahead of Craig Lowndes and Christian Pancione.

Stephen Grove was the best of the ProAm’s, finishing 11th, ahead of multiple professionals.

Top: Cooper Murray (36) heads championship leader Hill. (Image: InSyde Media). Left: After topping qualifying, Payne stalled at the start of the opening race but recovered strongly to win Race 3. Right: Pro Am points went to Geoff Emery.

Race 2, a 28-lap Jim Richards Endurance Cup race, began the comeback for Murray.

Starting from fourth, Murray was keen to make up for the post-race five second penalty he received on Saturday. He stole the lead from fourth within the first lap, and would then expertly navigate the final section of the race, after a Safety Car, to secure victory by 1.5s ahead of Hill, Payne, David Russell and Jones.

Wall paid for a slow start off the front row of the grid, dropping to 11th after his poor launch.

Simon Fallon and Lowndes had their day ended early when Fallon locked up at Turn 2 on lap 2, colliding with Lowndes’ rear.

A violent crash occurred when Am class frontrunner Adrian Flack lost control at Turn 3 midway through the race, hitting the wall before rolling back into Sam Shahin who unsuccessfully tried to evade.

Payne finally had success in Race 3, winning his first race Porsche Carrera Cup race from Murray and Love. Hill was fourth and Jones fifth.

Payne moved up to second spot early in

the race, before firing up the inside on the final corner of lap 6 to take the lead.

Series leader Hill was shuffled back early in the race and was unable to make his way back to the front costing him the round honours, despite finishing equal with Murray.

Emery was the top placed Am driver, coming in 14th – however, this was not enough to leapfrog Grove.

Josh Nevett Points: Hill 510, Murray 350, Jones 326, Wall 318, Love 254, Pro Am Emery 422

BATES UNBEATEN IN TOYOTA 86 TOWNSVILLE MASTERCLASS ZACH BATES had a perfect weekend in the Toyota 86 series in Townsville, earning the maximum 300 points after three consecutive wins.

Bates did not drop a session, topping the leaderboard in practice, qualifying and the races.

Guest driver Lee Holdsworth was the other big winner of the event, second to the finish in every race.

Practice set the tone for the action to come, as 16-year-old Bates topped the charts with a time of 1m 30.175s.

In his debut season, the ACT youngster continued his fine form from practice to qualify first on Saturday.

He posted a 1m 29.121s to set himself up for Race 1, leading from Holdsworth and consistent performer Cameron Crick of Sieders Racing.

Bates took his morning form into race time, winning a carnage-laden Race 1 ahead of Holdsworth and Bradley Vaughan.

A six-car pile-up on Turn 2 of lap 2 defined

the race. Three separate incidents triggered the destruction, which prevented 10 drivers from finishing.

Series leader James Holdsworth was one of these drivers, impacting his title credentials.

On Sunday, Lee Holdsworth did his best to challenge the leader by finishing second in both races.

Starting from pole position for Race 2, Bates was quickly out of the blocks to establish an early gap. He broke the Toyota 86 Townsville lap record twice in a row, on laps 2 and 3, maintaining the lead throughout the race to ensure a comfortable victory over Holdsworth by 1.6s.

Rookie Kai Allen finished third, a further 7.9s back, ahead of Crick and Luke Van Herwaade (Vanna).

There was also plenty of aggressive driving throughout the race, resulting in entertaining racing for spectators.

Race 3 followed a similar script at the top, as the only change to the podium was Crick sneaking into third.

Image: InSyde Media However, in the final encounter Holdsworth took the fight to Bates, applying the pressure – however, the Supercars veteran could not force the race leader into a mistake.

The margin between Bates and Holdsworth

at the top was just 0.523s as the pair crossed the finish line.

Crick Held off Allen for third by 0.5s, while Vaughan held of Vanna for fifth by half a Josh Nevett second also.

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p ra w S L A N NATIO

LEADERS STRENGTHEN GRIP DRIVERS THAT already led the various Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championships flexed their muscles in the fourth round at Pepsi Max Baskerville Raceway on June 27.

Wade McLean (Formula Vees), Mick Williams (Sports GTC), Jared House (improved production), Phil Ashlin (HQ Holdens) and Michael Cross (Historic Touring Cars) all recorded clean sweeps.

They each topped qualifying, won their heats and the double-points finals, and extended their championship leads with two rounds remaining.

SPORTS GT

IN SPORTS GTA, third round winner Liam Hooper (Subaru Impreza WRX), almost joined the list of perfect results. He only had his colours lowered in the first heat which was won by series leader David Paine (Holden Commodore). Hooper’s round win only slightly narrowed the gap to Paine, who still has a commanding lead over the Subaru racer.

Back in the pack, Honi Pitt (Mitsubishi EVO 7) saved her best to last to win the final in Sports GTB after she played second fiddle to series leader David Walker (Datsun 1200 ute) for most of the day. In a small field of Sports GTC cars, Mick Williams (Datsun

the first round and faced a difficult task to challenge the leaders with two rounds to go.

SPORTS SEDANS

Darren Pearce heads Danny Slater as the pair battled for Sports Sedan honours. (Pics: Angryman)

240Z) was never seriously challenged and continued his amazing run of undefeated victories for the entire season to date.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

WHILE SOME classes experienced clean sweeps, that was far from the case in the Excels as they provided some of the best racing of the round and three different winners.

Campbell Logan top qualified but failed to finish an incident-packed first heat along with fellow front runners Callum Bishop and Jeremy Bennett. Jamie Keeling took advantage of the early dramas to snatch the win from series leader Charlie Parker.

Parker jumped away at the start of the second heat to lead all the way from Keeling, while Bishop (fourth), Bennett (sixth) and Logan (seventh) made good progress through a large field after their DNFs in the opening race.

In the final Parker led for the first three laps before Bishop took over the front running on the next lap. Logan was on a charge from seventh and provided plenty of entertainment as he forced his way towards the front. He broke the lap record on lap five before a late charge on Parker on the final lap, which saw him snatch second place.

The wash-up at the end of the day was that Parker narrowly won the round to extend his championship lead over Logan.

Bishop consolidated his series third with a third overall for the round.

HQ HOLDENS

Bennett, Midgely and Logan head a tight midfield Excel bunch ... (Pic: Angryman)

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THERE WAS a small, but entertaining field in action and, although Phil Ashlin (see lead pic) top qualified and won every race, it was no easy task as he was pushed all the way

by Otis Cordwell, Andrew Toth and Andrew Bird.

Cordwell finished with two seconds and a third in the final, but it was not enough to retain his series lead, as Ashlin edged ahead to be five points in front.

Andrew Toth was third for the round and sits fifth in the title chase after he missed

IN A return to the category, Darren Pearce in a new Holden Commodore and had some good battles with Danny Slater (Holden Torana XU-1). Slater won the second heat and was well placed in other races, to finish second for the round in his best meeting of the series to date.

Championship leader Laurie Williams (Mazda RX-7) was sadly off the pace in the early part of the day, but eventually finished third overall. Williams’ significant points buffer from the first three rounds enabled him to keep the championship lead.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

SERIES LEADER Jared House (Holden Torana A9X) continued his dominance of the title to date, with a clean sweep. Current champion Mathew Grace (Nissan 200SX) was second in all races as Jason House (BMW E30) struggled with dramas all day and finished eighth for the round, yet he retained second in the series by seven points over Grace.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

NEVER CHALLENGED all day, Michael Cross (Holden Torana XU-1) easily won the round ahead of Lachlan Thomas (Ford Escort). Thomas was unable to match the pace of Cross, but was consistent, with a third and two seconds, to move into a distant third in the championship.

FORMULA VEES

THE SMALL field of Formula Vees had no answer for Wade McLean (Elliott), who won every race by an average of 8s. Michael Vaughan (Spectre) finished second each time to consolidate his second place in the championship and stay within striking distance of McLean.

Martin Agatyn

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RAIN SHORTENS MEETING WHAT COVID could not stop, the force of nature did, bringing about a premature halt to the one-day WA Sporting Car Club July Race Meeting at Wanneroo Raceway on July 4.

The organisers mandated very restricted conditions to run the meeting with no spectators or media. They then had to overcome an early deluge after wet qualifying sessions which triggered a delay in proceedings. After that, a revised race scheduled was adopted where each category managed to get in one wet race each.

Further extreme weather was enough for the meeting to be called for the day. Whether this meeting can be reorganised for another day will be advised.

EXCEL CUP

THE MAIN race was set to be a 100km enduro with two drivers, each to get one heat that would decide the start positions for the 40-lap event. Unfortunately, the only heat did not have much racing either as the Safety Car was out on lap two of the scheduled six, and racing only resumed for one lap.

Qualifying fastest was the Mason Harvey/ Jackson Callo entry ahead of Tayla Dicker/ Tom Hamlett. Hemlett grabbed

the lead off the start while Carlos Ambrosio (paired with Jack Brett Scarey took out the 1200Vee opening race from Andrew Lockett. (Pic: Mick Oliver) Clohessy) jumped from fifth on the grid to be ahead of Harvey and second on the opening until the gaps went out over the last couple (Ajay) showed the way for the first half before lap. The safety car was out as Tanya Aitken of tours. Behind them Mark Mettam held fifth Brett Scarey (CD-Vee) passed him and went (who started sixth and dropped to tenth) had until lap seven when he started to fall down onto to take the chequered flag 0.5s ahead. dramas, as did backmarker Paul Passaris. the order.

Well behind Robert McAfee (Polar) was next Hemlett retained the lead through the oneahead of Connor Welsh (Repco V). lap flier to the flag while Harvey regathered STREET CARS second off Ambrosio at Turn 7. Jake Passaris FROM THE outside of the front row, Nick FORMULA FORDS was fourth ahead of Andrew Malkin, Cameron Tagaris (Mitsubishi EVO 8) led race one FROM POLE position in the only race, Ben Atkins, Dylan O’Connor and Stephen of what was to be the 47th Annual Torque Leslie (Stealth RF93) shook off the early McGregor.

Trophy, ahead of polesitter Neil Pollard challenge from Mark Pickett (Van Diemen (Honda Civic) with Wayne Hastie (Nissan RF01) to record a 3.9s victory. Well behind in HQ HOLDENS Pulsar) third. Andrew Stevens (Nissan third was Tom Chapman (FR92) well clear of THE START lap of the first and only race 180SX) only qualified fifth, but was fourth at Craig Jorgensen (RF93) and Marc Redman provided pole sitter Michael Woodbridge the end of lap one.

(FR92). with the edge that propel him to victory Stevens was third a lap later as he in the end. He had a 2.2s advantage over continued his charge until he took second on FORMULA SPORTS RACING Michael Howlett after the first of six laps and lap seven and then the lead. Pollard seized IN THE wings, slicks and aero category, withstood the latter’s late charge to win by the opportunity to pass Tagaris, but the latter Radical racers duked it out after a one-lap 0.13s. returned to the runner-up spot before the end. Safety Car at the start. Adam Lisle led at the Brian Bo Pangler maintained third Paul Kluck (Nissan Skyline R32) was a distant start before Max McRae took the lead on lap throughout, albeit just in front of Ryan Davis fourth ahead of Peter Calio (Infiniti V35), three. Lisle hit back to lead the next two but, and Dennis Russell for much of the race and Hastie and Phil Crouse (VW Polo). in the end, McRae pipped him by 0.1s.

The race for third was a similar scenario FFORMULA VEES with Elliott Schuttle (Radical) ahead at the JJUST FOUR each in the two classes start before Gianni Lutzu made the second started s the first race where Rod move (after he led on lap three) stick. In their Lisson L (Borland Sabre) led all the wake, Andrew Eldridge (Radical) was fifth. way from Jason Fowler (Jacer) to Andrew Malkin (Radical) started third but also be the first of the 1600s and went off on the first lap and was the reason outright winner while Ken Wyatt the race went cautionary.

(Jacer) was third in front of Simon He re-joined last and ultimately finished Bate (Stinger). sixth.

Garry O’Brien In the 1200s Andrew Lockett Like most, the HQs (left) only completed a single race, as did the Sports Racing field (below), where Adam Lisle and Max McRae fought it out. (Pics: Mick Oliver)

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

HUTCHINSON WINTER WINNER

ONE WEEK after a second place at Mt Cotton, Warwick Hutchinson ventured north to the Sunshine Coast and recorded the fastest time in the Noosa Winter Hillclimb on June 26-27.

Aboard his OMS 28 RPV03/ Rotary turbo Hutchinson, with the FTD of 55.2781s, was easily the quickest overall and of the Open Wheelers, some 3s and a bit better than his nearest rival.

Second and third were a pair of Subaru Impreza WRX STi pilots in Nick Contojohn and Cody Davidson, the duo first and second in Modified Production AWD. In its 24th year, the event attracted 114 entrant in 19 classes. They would tackle a 1.5km course through national park on Gyndier Drive Warwick Hutchinson dominated the day, on a cambered bitumen road with a strong FTD. (Pic: Russell Witt) that featured a mix of 14 tight and moderately sweeping corners.

It has been run by the Noosa Beach the track by Reed & Co and included Classic Car Club and, from 2019, has Triple Eight’s founder Roland Dane been sponsored by local real estate (15th in a WRX) and the real estate’s agency, Reed & Co Estate Agents boss Adrian Reed. with nine run opportunities available Next in sixth place was Reid Hinton over the two days of competition. in his self-built Hayabusa-powered Fourth quickest and the Sports 2 Edge Barracuda Open Wheeler, Seater O3.0-litre class winner was ahead of regular state competitor Ed Fabian Coulthard in a Porsche 911 McCane (DJ Racecars Firehawk).

GT3RS. He was one of 14 brought to Consistent NSW tin top front runner

Greg Boyle (Nissan Skyline R32 GTR) was seventh in front of Phil Sutcliffe (Mitsubishi EVO 9).

Young gun Broc Feeney drove Reed’s Audi S5 in his debut at this event for ninth overall and the best of Standard AWD Production, ahead of Jason McGarry (Caterham R300) the winner of the Clubman 1601-2000cc class.

The entry covered a wide era of both cars and drivers, and included Justin McCarthy who celebrated his 81st birthday in his 1925 Austin Seven. Pete Dutkowski, one of the original club members, has raced his 1980 Porsche 924GT since the Noosa Hillclimb started . . . and continues to do so.

Garry O’Brien

HISTORICS TAKE IN THE VIEW TWO WEEKS after a round of the state championship, it was the Historics turn, and they were out in force at the Mountain View complex for the Grafton Sporting Car Club Hillclimb on June 26-27.

The inaugural event for pre 1975 Racing, Sports, Production Sports and Touring Cars (sedans) drew 56 entries on Saturday and 48 on Sunday as well as a gathering of Nota cars as the featured marque

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across the weekend.

Bill Norton and his 1973 GRD Ford F3 (pictured) were the fastest on both days with a run of 50.64s on day one and 47.97s the following day. Ken Norton drove a 1969 Remlin Ford to second on Saturday before switching to GRD Ford and turning in the third quickest time the following day. In a 1974 Bulant Clubman, David Owen recorded a third and second on the respective days.

Competitors were split into 10 groups with Mike Gosbell (1932 Russell Morris) considerably quicker than Ian Whitehouse (Austin 7) in pre-1945. There was only Steve Eather (Austin Lancer) in 19451960 Sedans while the comparable Sports/Racing group was well supported with Dick Willis (Nota Major) the quickest of the nine.

In the Production Sports of the same era, Phil Redhead (1960 MGA)

showed the way.

For the Sedans, Sports/Racing and Production Sports of 19611970 the respective best were Mark Wood (1970 Ford Cortina), Ken Norton and Roy Davis (1970 Triumph GT6). Shane Hafner (1972 Holden Torana), Bill Norton and Dick Hughes (1974 MG Midget) set the benchmarks in 1971-1975 in the three corresponding categories.

Garry O’Brien

BENDER IN A RADICAL WIN ROD BENDER is the new Tasmanian Hillclimb Champion after a stunning day at Pepsi Max Baskerville on July 4. The event was conducted by the Club Motori Italiano was also the third round of the Tasmanian Hillclimb Cup Series.

In only his third outing in his Radical SR3, Bender blitzed the course for the FTD, outright and Class G (Specials) championships. His fastest pass was almost 3s better than the opposition.

Nathan Oliver (Mazda RX8) was second fastest on the day, also won Class E (over 4.5 litres). The result handed him handy points for the series, in which he won the two previous rounds.

Conditions were good for most of the day and early times were fast, until showers in the mid-afternoon saw several front runners, including

Rod Bender dominated the event to seal the Tasmanian Hillclimb Championship. (Pic: Glenda Reid) Bender and Oliver, parked after their fourth (of six) runs.

Third outright and Class F (AWD) winner David McCullagh (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) also pulled up stumps after four runs with his best time posted on his third run.

Experienced tarmac and gravel racer Ben Newman (Porsche GT3) was

fourth fastest overall and won Class D (3.0-4.5lt) on his fourth attempt.

Without a doubt, the giant-killing performance came from Honda Integra driver Leigh Ford, class winner in Class B (1.6-2.0lt) who finished 13th outright ahead of more experienced drivers in more powerful cars. His best pass came

on the sixth pass.

Further down the field, the top driver in Class C (2.1-3.0lt) was Taylor Wilczynski in a Toyota MR2 who finished 23rd outright, while the best run in Class A (under 1.6lt), was recorded by 26th outright Darryl Bennett in a Suzuki Swift.

Martin Agatyn

FOLEY TAKES FLAT HILLCLIMB THE INAUGURAL round of the Eziup & Go Victorian Hillclimb Championship at the Logic Centre in Wodonga saw Alan Foley posted the FTD to be the outright fastest.

Promoted by the Albury and Wodonga District Car Club, it was tagged as the “horizontal” hillclimb, no doubt due to the lack of elevation. Round six of the VHC drew 57 entrants to the TAFE training centre, close to the NSW border on a cold six degree July 4, where the weather

conditions ranged from damp to wet.

In his turbocharged R Foley (built by his father Ron), Foley best effort was a 47.11s and was 1.7s up on Patrick Malanaphy with his 750cc engined buggy-style Yalar Cross K8. With David Mahon (Dallara F398/Hayabusa) in third spot, just 0.03s off second, made it an all Formula Libre up to 1.3lt podium.

In practice, Foley had been significantly faster, and broke into a high 45s. Mahon too was faster with a low 48 which he was

about eight tenths off when it counted.

In the meantime, Malanaphy was able to mirror his early effort.

Mirko Grbic in his Time Attack Mitsubishi EVO 7 (pictured) was the best of the tin tops and fourth outright. Next were David Casey (F/L up to 1.3lt Casey TH109R) and Wim Janssen (F/L over 2.0lt Wimp 003) with the two split by 0.01s.

Second of the tin tops was Glenn Latter in his Open/Closed Sports Cars Mazda RX7 in seventh place overall ahead of

Benton Byfield (Subaru WRX Sports Wagon), Jordan James (EVO4) and Bronson Waldner (Time Attack Datsun Ute).

In the classes, Sports Cars up to 1.6lt produced closest result with 0.09s between Steven Buffinton (Westfield) and Colin Newitt (Locost) while there was just over half a second covering the top three Mini drivers Stephen Schmidt, Steven and Peter Weymouth-Wilson in Group N. Garry O’Brien

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NATIONALS wrap en ie ien rie r br ’b o’b o’ y o ry r rr ar gar ga y g by ed b led iil pil mp mp compi com co

MAZDA PAIR WIN NISSAN EVENT STARTING AND FINISHING in the dark, Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith were the winners of the Nissan Nightmoves. It was round five of the Victorian Club Rally Series held in the forests around Costerfield on June 26.

Run out of the Barrack Reserve at Heathcote, the all-dark event covered 160kms over eight stages as stage nine was downgraded. The weather was good with the predicted wet conditions not happening, just a couple of muddy spots along the way.

Quinn and Winwood-Smith in their Mazda

RX2 were first by 18s even though not eligible for points. Second place went to Cary and Russell Seabrook in their Datsun Stanza with 14s back to Cody Richards and Matt Dillon third despite various setbacks along the way in their Ford Escort MkII. The top three were well ahead of the rest which were led home by fourth placed Rowan Woollard and Tom Wright (Mazda RX7) ahead of Brian Semmens and Dan Parry (Nissan 200SX), with the latter pair second in the points before the round.

In sixth outright were Neil Schey and Scott

Middleton (Mitsubishi Mirage) ahead of Chris Tobin and Melissa Crowe (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) who were also not eligible for points, so too Gerard Blum and Luke Daly (Hyundai Excel) who were next, in front of Brian Semmens and Dan Parry (200SX).

Quinn held a 45s lead over Seabrook at half distance (after four stages) with Seabrook second and Richards third. The latter was still in contention after the next stage even with a puncture, and struck back with two stage wins before a broken header pipe on the final stage dulled any chance of an

outright victory.

In their Holden Commodore, Keith Cuttle and Darren Davison were fifth after four stages but faded to 10th behind John Rawson and Kim Begelhole (Stanza) by rally end. James Leoncini and Darren Wythe (Toyota Corolla) were equal seventh midway through but failed to get through stage five.

They were not the only DNFs with 23 others out of the 55 entries not able to complete the event, including round two victors and points leaders Keith and Judd Lewis (Datsun 1600).

Garry O’Brien

V8S ALONE AT PI

PORT GERMEIN, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MULTI CLUB SERIES RD02

COVID HITS WITTITRIN AFTER ONE DAY THE RETURN to Wittitrin, 20kms west of Kempsey, for round two of the Hunter Rivmasta Motorsport Australia NSW Off Road Racing Championship for the first time in three years was short-lived. The event was cancelled halfway through the two-day June 26-27 event due to state governmentintroduced Covid restrictions.

After one four-lap heat of the course that ran 48.4 kms, Glenn Spizzo and Doug Cupitt (Toyota V6 supercharged Micklefab Pro Buggy) led by 59.83s over Phil Lovett and Luke Stanley (SXS Turbo Can-Am Maverick) with Tom Dixon and Jessie McGrath (Jimco/ Toyota turbo Pro Buggy) third another 4.5s behind.

The Jim Anderson Earthmoving Kempsey 300 started with a one-lap prologue of the course where Lovett had a handy 5.8s advantage over Steven Graham and Jason Richerds (Sportslite Tatum/Honda), and the Pro Buggies of Spizzo, Mathew Huxley and Toby Turnbull (Thronbuilt Wasp/Chev V8), and Dixon.

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Spizzo made it through despite blowing a power steering hose which put out of contention in the shootout after which he would start heat one out of tenth place. From there he blazed his way to the have the overnight lead – which turned out to be the end of the event.

Graham started second but a shed a couple belts and finished the day well down the order. Lovett had problems too, a blown front diff had slowed him, but he and Stanley soldiered on and held second.

Sixth outright and the best of the ProLites were Scott and Michelle McNeill (MMS/Honda) while the 1650s was headed by Des Woods, Amber Towel and Chris Gloag in 12th position.

Leading the other classes were Jake and James Conomos (Sportsman), Anthony Abson (Sportslite), Kevin Cant and Ethan Harris (SXS Sport), David and Robbie O’Grady (Extreme 4WD), and Darren and Josh Blackburn (Production 4WD).

Garry O’Brien

THERE WAS a bumper 42-car entry with 29 starters, plus there was good rainfall in the week leading up to the Guidolin Carpentry SGORA 200 at Port Germein on June 26-27. The ARB South Australian Multi Club Series second round was won by Darryl Nissen and Andrew Harness in their ProLite SORE/Nissan.

Matt Curtis and Brad Traynor (GCR Rhino/Nissan) set the early pace but dropped out on Sunday morning with fuel pressure problems which allowed the ever present Nissen to move into the lead. Chris and Colin Johnson (Custom/Mitsubishi) were 5mins further back in second with only a small gap back to third placed Shane Waters and Scott Watson (Southern Cross/Honda).

Hot on Waters tailpipe was Brenton and Matthew Gallasch (Pro Buggy Southern Cross/Chev) followed a couple of minutes later by the Extreme 2WD-winning Mitsubishi Triton/Chev crewed by Chris Pickert and Bryan Brown.

The rest of the top 10 was dominated

by Super 1650 class buggies with only 15s separating Connor and Peter Corrigan (Raptor/Toyota) from Justin

and Mark Battersby (Rimco/Toyota).

There was a bit over a minute back to Mick Surfield and Craig Matthews (RIDS Joker/Nissan).

Darren and Chloe Wright (Southern Cross/Mitsubishi) made the trip down from Alice Springs and pushed hard from well back in field to claim eighth, comfortably clear of Cooper Johns and the rest of the Johns family in their Toyota-powered Proud Tyrant.

Robbie Ward and Kahlia Jenke were comfortably in the top 10 in their Extreme 2WD Nissan Navara/Chev but the transmission let them down on day two. Nev Day and Tanya Wales (Mantiss/Mitsubishi) were among the lead group on Saturday but were out early on Sunday with broken steering.

Easily inside the top 10, Jamie and Naomi Parker (Nissan Patrol/Chev) until a broken a tailshaft in section two on Saturday afternoon, and Trevor Snow and Darrin Jocey-Prior (S&S Race Frames/Mitsubishi) had a timing belt let go.

The other class winners were Waters in Sportslite, and Extreme 4WD was taken out by Aaron Harre and Nathan Dunn (Ford Maverick).

David Batchelor

THERE WAS only one category racing at Phillip Island on June 26-27, other than a round of the state Supersprint Championships, and that was the Victorian V8s Series third round which was won

by Brian Finn.

Over four races, Finn was victorious in three of them in his Holden Commodore VS, and a very close second in the other when it was red flagged after three laps. David Ratcliffe was the leader in that one in his Commodore VL and finished the weekend second overall while third spot was taken

by Craig Eddy (Commodore VH).

Finn led every lap of race one and was 8.8s ahead of Michael Budge (Commodore VZ) with Eddy third in front of Ratcliffe. The best placed Ford driver was Gary Finemore (Falcon XB) while Peter Owen (EF) and Victor Argento (XB) were out with terminal issues while the Mark Houeix VY was also a retiree.

Finn led all the way in race two where Ratcliffe was second after Budge retired with an engine drama, and Houeix bounced back for third. Eddy was third across the line but penalised 5s and dropped to fifth behind Gary Vella (VS).

Race three was called after Greg Taylor came unstuck out of Turn 12 and his VY hit the tyres on the outside. Behind Finn and Ratcliffe in the last, Houeix was third until the last lap when he was pipped

by Eddy.

Garry O’Brien

s w e n Y A W D E SPE

MAROSKE MAKES MOST OF ECL SERIES FINALE Words: Paris Charles Image: Declan Brownsey.

FOR THE final time in the 2020/21 East Coast Logistics Sprintcar Series at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway, the Sprintcars would square up for the 14th and final round of what has been an outstanding series and for the grand finale the racing would again prove its worth despite the series already being wrapped up by Lachlan McHugh – who is currently racing in the North American World of Outlaws series.

After coming agonizing close to capturing victory in the previous round a determined Ryan McNamara would start from Pole Position and from the glow of the green light, he would pounce to open a commanding lead over Cody Maroske, Brent Kratzman, Kevin Titman, and the rest of the hustling field.

Further back an intriguing encounter had developed between Callum Walker and Aaron Kelly, this battle for track position between the duo would potentially determine second outright in the series points score. Up in front McNamara was finding it difficult to pass the slower traffic allowing the minor placing to gather ground and Maroske and Titman traded positions for third.

Brendan Scorgie was the car to come unglued as Kratzman squeezed underneath while putting him down a lap. The New South Welshman ran out of room and rode the turn 4 wall, tipping the car on its side to bring on the red light stoppage.

An Indian file restart would follow and

again McNamara would checkout however the Kratzman and Maroske Show would keep the fans on the edges of their seats as the duo traded blows on the first revolution.

Titman locked down fourth while Walker and Kelly continued their epic duel. Until the reds were again ablaze as Brad Ayres flipped the Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Q4 entry down the back shoot and race leader McNamara clipped the wall also.

McNamara would again lead the field away however the damage from tagging the wall would hamper the performance of the Titan Sheds & Garages Q88 allowing Kratzman and Maroske to enter turn 1 threewide, Kratzman would find himself leading the charge while McNamara spun out of contention after one rotation.

This time Kratzman would lead the field away, Titman would advance past Maroske and the yellow lights were on again when the Innov8 Property machine of Mitch Gowland would spin also in turn 4. With

9-laps to run Kratzman would again lead the field away Titman and Maroske holding down the minors while Kelly would use the topside to pass Walker and Kaiden Brown would follow suit while Maroske relegated Titman back to third and with three laps to run Jy Corbert would spin in turn one, setting up a nail biter for the final three laps.

Kratzman would launch again but Maroske was able to pull a textbook slide job as they raced through turn one, Kratzman tried to fight back and with one revolution remaining the pair would touch sending Kratzman into a 360 revolution and while keeping momentum he would drop several positions to finish in sixth.

Following the SRV Road Freight Q27 of Maroske to the line was Titman, Kelly, Brown, Walker. Seventh was Adam Butler followed by Michael Saller, Kristy Bonsey, Darren Jensen, Tim Farrell, Corbert and Gowland would round out the 14 of 18 starters to travel the distance.

The qualifying heat race wins were claimed by Jy Corbert and Cody Maroske while the fast and fearless female Kristy Bonsey doubled up with two. The Shootout and Pole Position was claimed by Ryan McNamara while teenage sensation Jy Corbert snared victory in the 10-car B main event.

2020/21 East Coast Logistics Sprintcar Series Top 20.

Lachlan McHugh, Callum Walker, Aaron Kelly, Darren Jensen, Kevin Titman, Brent Kratzmann, Adam Butler, Luke Oldfield, Allan Woods, Tim Farrell, Kristy Bonsey, Randy Morgan, Andrew Baumber, Brad Ayers, Ryan McNamara, Mitch Gowland, Mitchell Gee, Brendan Claridge.

In the Petzyo Development series for less experienced Sprintcar competitors Brant Chandler proved to be the best overall, claiming the championship with Jason King and Libby Ellis rounding out the top three placegetters.

KARPENKO KARATE KICKS OPPOSITION FOR VICTORY Words: PARIS CHARLES Image: NAKITA POLLARD WHILE THE colder weather sets in and the Speedway diehards down south reach for their blankets and or stoke up the fire after a great summer season, the 7Mate Northline Speedway in Darwin has fired up for their season and just recently five southern and a West Australian team have ventured up early to the warmer climate in north to get some vital laps in before the running of the annual Chariots of Thunder Sprintcar Series kicks off.

Going into the 20-lap feature race Victorian Ryan Davis would start from Pole Position and sharing the front row was local gun Chace Karpenko at the wheelhouse of the Western Australian Muir Motorsports National Karate W53 entry. At the drop of the green Karpenko would challenge early however Davis would take control on the second circulation at Victorian Jack Lee manoeuvred his way into second and the small field had stretched out across the track’s real estate. The first retirement was local driver Hayden Brown who quickly pulled to the infield. Further back a gripping battle had developed between Domain Ramsay and Todd Moule would trade places back and forth.

Davis continued to trail blaze out front, in doing so setting the fastest lap of the race with an 11.508 revolution and second placed Lee would

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do his best to keep the leader in check as they negotiated lapped traffic and Alice Springs based competitor Lenny Cole would retire to the infield at half race distance. Lee continued to close the gap on Davis and before too the Lilly’s Lane Quarry V25 entry was challenging for the lead, tried to slide under coming out of turn four and touched the front runner in Davis sending him into a spin and brushing the Mawpump Darwin supported V95 against the concrete wall as he came to a premature end

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with just three circulations remaining.

For the restart Lee would be sent to the rear of the field and Karpenko would inherit the prime position aboard the Territory Plant Hire entry. For the final three revolutions Karpenko would make the most of clear track a head to claim victory over Ramsay and Moule who had battled hard over the distance, Lee advanced one place to fourth and rounding out the finishers was local Cori Jackson in the NT Energy Air Conditioning NT22 Maxim.

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The three 8-lap heat race wins were shared one apiece between Cori Jackson, Ryan Davis and Domain Ramsay.

Also, on the card were no less than six supporting classes. However, the main supporting division would see the running of the Brumfield’s Race Parts Darwin Street Stock Championship. With a total of 14 cars in yet another classic Holden V Ford action packed 15-lap Street Stock blue ribboned event Justin Brumfield would claim the number one mantle piloting the NT5 Frontier Cement Supplies Holden VF Commodore. Jack Koivumaki was a close second, rounding out the top three podium placings was Jake Yates and Queenslander Peter Thompson completing the top four.

The Dirt Kart feature was won by Tim Feehan.

The well-travelled Queenslander Cameron Jaenke claimed the Formula 500 victory. The Tasmanian Champion, Daniel Brooks was the man who travelled the longest to be there found the quickest way home to claim the AMCA nationals feature race. Jarred Goldoni proved too strong in the 15-lap Wingless Sprints main event and a jubilant River Spitzbath claimed the honours while debuting a brand new Mitsubishi in the Palmerston Brake and Clutch Centre Darwin Junior Sedan Title followed by Will Prest, Deegan Sherwood and Jake Park claiming the final step on the podium.

AutoAction 57

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

B

A Images: AA Archives

Across

5. Which Australian was the rookie in the 1980 CART Series? (surname) 6. How many times did Ayrton Senna win Monaco consecutively?

7. A driver who will contest the 2021 Bathurst 1000 is photographed in shot B racing overseas in 1992 – who is it? (surname) 9. By how many laps did Peter Brock and Larry Perkins win the Bathurst 1000 in 1980?

12. Who became the youngest Super2 Series winner at 19 years of age? (surname) 13. Two drivers won the 1956 Argentine Formula 1 Grand Prix – Luigi Musso started in the car but who took over? (surname) 16. Who won the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix by 73 seconds? (surname) 19. After finishing second with the Holden Racing Team in 2009, what position did Will Davison finish the 2010 season?

1971: IN THE New South Wales State Rally Championship, a dispute occurred between title rivals Bruce Collier and Barry Ferguson about who won the MG Newcastle Castrol 300. The argument came to an end when both drivers agreed to tie for first position. The photo (on the right of the cover) shows a spectacular image of when a Ferrari crashed at Le Mans.

1981: JOHN SMITH won the fourth round of the Australian Formula Two Championship in 1981 and built up an unassailable lead over Bob Prendergast with a round remaining. However, he could not be officially crowned, as there was a possibility of an additional round being held at Adelaide International Raceway, meaning that his 17-point margin was not quite big enough. In the Australian Drivers’ Championship Alfredo Took victory at Amaroo in his McLaren M26 g/e.

1991: NEW ZEALANDER Jim Richards became the third driver alongside Bob Jane and Allan Moffat to win four Australian Touring Car titles after finishing third at Lakeside. ‘Gentleman Jim’ took the title in his Nissan GT-R, his second consecutive crown.

In Formula 1, Williams Grand Prix Engineering driver Nigel Mansell won both the French and British Grand Prix and closed the gap to championship leader Ayrton Senna to 18 points.

2001: DESPITE LOSING title sponsor ICS just four months into a three-year deal, Mark Larkham vowed that he would continue to race in the V8 Supercars Championship. ICS (Intelligent Card Systems) hit financial difficulties and left the team with no option but to terminate the contract according. Larry Perkins announced that Formula Ford champions Luke Youlden and Adam Macrow would team up together in the second Larry Perkins Commodore during the Supercars endurance season.

2011: LEE HOLDSWORTH was emerging as a favourite to race for Triple Eight Race Engineering in its planned four car expansion. Dane was attempting to take over the two Paul Morris Motorsport cars and run a four-car super squad out of the Triple Eight Workshop. Mark Skaife would be forced to relinquish co-driving duties after the 2011 Supercars endurance campaign.

The five-time Supercars champion was set to join the commission and rules dictated he could not be a driver also.

28. Who is the only driver to win the F1 World Championship and Indy 500 in the same year? (surname) 29. Who is the only driver to have scored a podium for Jaguar in F1? (surname) 30. With what team did James Courtney make his V8 Supercar debut as a co-driver in 2005? (abbreviation)

Down

C

21. With which driver did John Fitzpatrick make his Bathurst 1000 debut in 1975 driving an Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV? (surname) 23. Which former Bathurst 1000 winner is photographed on the right in photo ‘A’ (name) 25. Who is the driver in the centre of shot A? (surname) 27. Which well-known Scottish driver who would go on to race in F1 and win the Le Mans 24 Hours is behind the wheel in shot C?

1. Who finished second to Alan Jones in the 1980 F1 season? (surname) 2. Three former Supercars Championship drivers are photographed in shot A, what category did they all compete in in 1997?

3. Who is the only driver to win Le Mans and the F1 title in the same year? (full name) 4. Who won the final Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2013 before it became known as the Formula Ford Series? (surname) 8. Who won the first, and thus far only officially titled Super3 Series in 2019? (surname)

10. Who won the 1994 Bathurst 12 Hour with Gregg Hansford? (surname) 11. Who is the driver pictured in the left of shot A? (full name) 14. Who paired up with Allan Moffat to win the 1988 Sandown 500 in a Sierra? (surname) 15. Who am I? Born in Switzerland, I tested for the Sauber F1, took a second place in IndyCar, before racing in Supercars? (surname) 17. Who looked set to take his maiden MotoGP victory when he crashed exiting the final corner of the 2006 Dutch TT? 18. In what month was the Indy500 held in 2020?

20. From 2003 until 2009 how many drivers scored points in an F1 race?

22. For how many years were Garth Tander and James Courtney team-mates at Walkinshaw Andretti United?

24. For how many seasons were Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup the full-time sole Triple Eight drivers?

26. After taking his fourth pole position in the Daytona 500, who finally broke through to win the race in 1980? (surname)

#1814 Crossword Answers 1 down – Hansford, 2 down – de Cesaris, 3 across – Mallala, 4 across – Stockell, 5 down – BMW, 6 down – Brundle, 7 across – Mears, 8 down – once, 9 down – Neveu, 10 across – Reynard, 11 across – Frank Gardner, 12 down – Alan Hamilton, 13 across – Janson, 14 across – thirteen, 15 across – Nurburgring, 16 across – McLaughlin, 16 down – milk, 17 down – Webber, 18 across – Alan Jones, 19 down – Prost, 20 down – Pryce, 21 down – Clark, 22 across – Holdsworth, 23 down – Skaife, 24 across – Erebus, 25 across – Scheckter, 26 across – Unser, 27 across – two, 28 across – twelve

58 AutoAction

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