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CHAMPION CO-OWNER J-DUB PREPARES FOR FUTURE .COM.AU

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EXCLUSIVE

UPDATE

MUSTANG SET TO TEST

FORD SUPERCOUPE ALMOST READY TO GO

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IN TITLE BRAWL

Issue #1748

Nov 1 to Nov 14, 2018

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Championship leader Scott McLaughlin expects title rival to employ tough team tactics in fight to the finish

TARGET ON MAC’S BACK

BY BRUCE NEWTON

SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP leader Scott McLaughlin is bracing himself for tough Aussie Rules-style tagging tactics as Triple Eight tries to hinder his Pukekohe progress this weekend.

And he’s lashed out at title rival Shane van Gisbergen’s description of DJR Team Penske as a “one-car team�, defending the performance of teammate Fabian Coulthard.

McLaughlin leads van Gisbergen in the drivers’ championship by just 14 points, with 600 points still up for grabs across the Kiwi event and the Newcastle finale.

Van Gisbergen’s teammates Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes are third and fourth in the standings, but with only outside mathematical shots at the title.

However, McLaughlin thinks either of them could pop up to run interference. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t do that,� the Shell V-Power Racing star told Auto Action when asked if he expected to be targeted by Triple Eight. “It will be like a tagger in the AFL. I don’t see why you wouldn’t. “It certainly is a tactic, but I think I am strong enough to hold my own.�

A tagger’s job is to curtail the performance of an opposition star, even if they sacrifice their own output along the way. Taggers are controversial because they push the limits of what’s allowed in the game and sometimes go beyond that to achieve their aims.

Van Gisbergen added fuel to the fire, claiming the championship battle was “a three-car team versus a one-car team�, a clear reference to Coulthard’s struggles for consistent pace in 2018.

But McLaughlin pointed out that he retook the championship lead on the Gold Coast after pit lane errors resulted in drive-through penalties for both Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodores. “He can say three cars and whatever,� he declared. “They can have as many cars as they want, they can have four cars. But what they did at the Gold Coast is they still stuffed up.

They still made mistakes and we still came out ahead. “I don’t think it’s three versus one – it’s a three versus two. Fabian is right in it. His car was very fast at the Gold Coast. They probably had more pace than us, but they were stepping aside for us despite that. “Fab has been an awesome teammate with that stuff and that’s what Penske culture is all about. It’s disappointing to hear that he (van Gisbergen) said that, I don’t agree with it by any means. Fabs will be fast just like he was last year.�

McLaughlin has reason to prepare for some burly confrontations with T8. At Pukekohe 12 months ago, Whincup copped a bad sportsmanship flag after shouldering him into the grass as they fought for the title.

And then, of course, in that tumultuous Newcastle Sunday race, McLaughlin and Lowndes clashed as they raced for the critical 11th place that would have delivered the DJR Team Penske driver the championship.

McLaughlin says he’ll do his best not get sucked in if he is provoked by any of his opponents, even if it is against his nature to turn the other cheek.

THIS WEEK’S RACE CALENDAR

“My flaws are I probably get caught up in the battle too much in some ways,� he admitted. “So I do try and race too hard. Someone gives me some, then I’ll have a crack back. “So I think I do have my aggressive side which is sometimes too over aggressive, but I have learned a lot and I am a lot more composed out of the car than I have ever been. “I am excited for it.�

That excitement is being driven by improved suspension tuning for the Gold Coast’s high kerbs and rough surfaces, which he believes will translate to the Pukekohe bullring. “We could hit the kerbs all right, but we would fly too long and that would then position us really badly,� he explained. “So that has been a really big focus for us to make us better, especially after Sandown, where we copped a walloping. “Now I feel we have something to fight with.�

McLaughlin hopes that if he is trading paint with anyone, it’s van Gisbergen in a one-on-one championship shootout. “I know he’s aggressive but I can be aggressive if I need to be,� he said. “Just look at the night race (at Sydney Motorsport Park), that was just two blokes being aggressive. “That proved to him and me we are going to be a fighter to the end. I think the next two rounds our car is going to be pretty good and I just have a really good feeling. “I look at that 14 points as nothing. We are both starting on zero and there’s just 600 points we have to beat each other for. “It is really us two and we have just got to beat each other to the end.�

DANE: ‘WE WILL KEEP IT CLEAN’ TRIPLE EIGHT supremo Roland Dane insists his three drivers will be instructed to race Scott McLaughlin fairly. “We won’t make it easy, but we will keep it clean,� Dane assured AA. “But they won’t make it easy, either – and nor should they. “If somebody is wandering around with a wounded car and three seconds off the pace, we aren’t going to get in his way. That’s not racing. “Whatever else there is, there is plenty of respect between the two teams.�

He also confirmed team orders have now been imposed at Triple Eight to give van Gisbergen points priority, in the same way Coulthard has been instructed by DJRTP to be McLaughlin’s wingman. “If we have double-stacking and have to sacrifice a car, then we will,�

Dane said. “On the race track, if they (Whincup and Lowndes) are holding up Shane, then Shane will go through.�

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ES MUSTANG SET TO TES

Amid fighting for the Supercars title, DJR Team Penske is getting ready to bee g AUTO ACTION EXCLUSIVE BY BRUCE NEWTON

CRUNCHTIME HAS come Ford fans! The new Mustang Supercar is set for its first testing hit-out early next month.

Still under construction at DJR Team Penske’s Stapylton headquarters in Queensland, the new hope for the Blue Oval faithful will kick off with a comprehensive round of testing in the days following this weekend’s penultimate championship round at Pukekohe in NZ. Before the championship roars back into action at the Newcastle 500 finale three weeks later, the Mustang is scheduled to complete up to six test days.

They will include straight-line assessments ahead of the official Supercars VCAT (Supercars’ Aerodynamic Testing) process as well as track trials.

But the exact timing and location of all this activity remains a closely guarded secret. Considering DJRTP’s south-east Queensland base it’s fair to speculate Queensland Raceway and/or the Norwell Motorplex might be on the agenda, along with a suitable regional runway such as Stanthorpe Airport, inland to the west on the Queensland/NSW border.

Auto Action understands the Mustang prototype – which will become DJRTP’s

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spare car next season – will test in a camouflage livery similar to the white-andblue mottled effect in Ford Australia’s recent close-cropped front-end teaser image.

Developed by DJRTP and Ford Performance with input from Tickford Racing, the Mustang is the first two-door to enter the Supercars championship.

It replaces the Ford Falcon FG X, which is based on a road car that went out of production in 2016.

Only officially kicked off in March, the program is running much later than the Holden Commodore ZB was at this time last year. The ZB was first tested by Triple Eight Race Engineering in September 2017 and homologated in November.

Emphasising just how tight the schedule is, DJRTP managing director Ryan Story revealed the final design piece for the Mustang was only signed off for production on October 12.

“It’s two minutes to midnight and we are still piecing the car together,” Story told AA. “And we are doing that while we are going racing. It’s very challenging.

“We are about to embark on a test program in the lead-up to the VCAT and that will include effectively replicating the

straight-line testing we do for VCAT. “That’s just to have an understanding of the car and just ensure we are where we need to be, and we have the numbers where we need to be. That will be an exciting time.

“There’s a lot happening here. Between New Zealand and Newcastle, we are ontrack to be testing with this car for five or six days and this is something we have never done before.”

Story conceded that all the private and official testing still won’t mean the Ford teams will have a full handle on the Mustang and its competitive potential until

the resumption of championship hostilities in early 2019.

Six Mustangs are expected to be on the grid – two for DJRTP, three for Tickford Racing and one for Phil Munday’s 23Red Racing, which is becoming a Tickford customer entry.

“There’s an awful lot of work that’s gone into understanding what the aero balance differences are between what we have and what we are heading to, and I don’t think it will be until we get to Adelaide next year (March 1-2) when we get a real indication of how competitive the car will be,” Story predicted.

HOLDEN SET TO STAY IN SUPERCARS

BY MARK FOGARTY

Computer generated image by Tim Pattinson/timpattinsondesign.com.au

ST SOON S

gin testing Ford’s new super-coupe gi “History shows that with the exception of Triple Eight and their Commodores in the recent past, it can take a little bit of time to get your head around and understand what the vicissitudes are as it comes to the set-up of your new car versus your old one, and we know it’s going to take us a little bit of time to get on top of what the new car is.”

DJRTP is working on the Mustang at the same time as it fights to secure a first drivers’ championship for Shell V-Power Racing Falcon driver Scott McLaughlin, who leads his Red Bull Holden Racing Team rival and fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen by 14 points headed to NZ. DJRTP’s race director Ludo Lacroix is leading the Mustang program as well as engineering McLaughlin. Just one extra engineer has been added to DJRP’s head count to cope with the added workload.

“We are using the same people for both of these monumental challenges,” Story said. “We are fighting for the championship and if we have any say in it, we will be taking it down to the last race and we want to win it more than anything.

“We are doing that at the same time as thinking about what next year looks like

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and making sure we have a good weapon to fight with.”

Last Thursday (October 25) marked an important moment for the program. It was the first time the race car really started to look like a Mustang.

“We had some key components arrive [that day], being the rear quarter [panel] and when you are talking about a twodoor sports car like the Mustang is, the rear quarters are a pretty pivotal part of the whole piece,” Story told AA. “That basically allowed us to see for the first time the basic silhouette of the car.

“We had guys from the panel department bring up the front panel and the door, which has only recently been assembled in the last few days and we put it all together.

“Let me tell you, a crowd gathered pretty quickly from the workshop floor to come and have a look.

“It was the first time we’d had a chance to have a look at it outside of a computer screen, so it was a very special moment.

“I think there are going to be more special moments like that in the lead-up to seeing this car on the track for the first time.”

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HOLDEN’S RENEWED interest in Supercars means the beleaguered brand is likely to continue factory backing of Triple Eight beyond next year.

In an in-depth interview, the Lion’s latest marketing director, Kristian Aquilina (above), reveals that preliminary discussions to renew the Holden Racing Team deal are underway.

“We’re at the very early stages of that,” Aquilina told Auto Action. “We’re developing our plans for 2020 and beyond now, so there’s a bit of work between now and the end of the year, maybe spilling over a little bit into the New Year, just refining what that might look like.

“I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m really keen for Holden to continue playing a role in the sport. The shape and form of that is what we’re going to start planning through and work out our strategy on what that might look like.”

Holden has re-engaged with racing this season, after downplaying the Commodore’s racing and performance heritage during the transition from local manufacturer to full-line importer.

There has been a noticeable change in Holden’s attitude to its Supercars involvement since Aquilina was recalled from running the company’s NZ operation to rejuvenate the brand’s marketing.

Triple Eight’s Red Bull Racing squad of Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen took over as the sole Holden factory team in Supercars – and inherited the HRT title – in 2017 in a three-year multi-million dollar pact.

Aquilina indicated that it was more a case of how, not if, Holden would extend the deal to 2020 and beyond.

“I won’t go into it because it’s very much in its infant stages of discussion at this stage, but the starting point is ‘What does our involvement in motor sport look like going forward?’ rather than are we in or are we not?” he said. “That’s not the question.”

He also revealed that ways to leverage the ZB Commodore’s success on the track to burnish the slow-selling imported road car’s appeal were in the pipeline.

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“I don’t know the answer as to whether the new Commodore buyers are going to be turned on by our involvement in motor sport,” Aquilina noted in the interview. “I certainly hope so because we’re investing in it. We’re going to give it a go over the next 18 months.”

However, he admitted that Supercars’ appeal or influence in terms of the greater car-buying public was limited, ruling out a return to promoting Holden’s racing success in mainstream TV or print advertising.

“We have to recognise the fact that whilst this sport has a great following – and it’s a big following – it is a very narrow component of the overall community and we have far more efficient ways of reaching them,” he explained. “Going and spending a helluva lot of money broad reach across everything is not the way to do it. We use our social media channels to reach the audience that is already predisposed and engaged to communicate our successes.”

In the interview, Aquilina outlines at length why Holden has rediscovered its racing roots, acknowledging that after 50 years of continuous involvement, motor sport was in the homegrown brand’s DNA. “We’re invested in the sport, we have a long heritage in the sport and the sport is very much behind what the brand has become,” he said. “Wh`at Holden is has got a lot to do with our heritage in motor sport, amongst other things.

It’s part of Holden’s history, so for me it was a natural reaction to get involved more deeply with the sport, and start to articulate and start to define that involvement.

“We truly believe that motor sport has an important role to play to help a brand like ours weave itself deeply into the culture of the country. Motor sport’s a great way to do that.”

While positive about Holden’s longterm future in Supercars, Aquilina poured cold water on the prospect of the Camaro racing against the Commodore in the foreseeable future.

For the full ‘Up Front With Foges’ interview, see pages 20-23

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LATEST NEWS

AS EXCLUSIVELY revealed on AA’s web site last week, championship-winning team boss Adrian Burgess is joining Supercars as head of motor sport. Burgess replaces sporting and technical director David Stuart in an expanded and more senior role. A former F3 and F1 team manager who worked with the late Ayrton Senna, Burgess guided DJR’s James Courtney to the 2010 Supercars drivers’ championships and Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup to his 2011-13 title treble. The expatriate Brit will leave Tekno Autosports at the end of the season.

THE SUPERCARS grid will drop to 24 cars next year. There will be two fewer entries because Triple Eight has handed back its third Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) and, although officially unconfirmed, Tickford Racing has parked its fourth licence. Its place in Tickford’s 2019 line-up – and Richie Stanaway’s drive – will be replaced by a customer deal to run Red23 Racing’s new Mustang, marking Will Davison’s indirect return to Campbellfield. The T8 and Tickford RECs will be put out to tender for possible sale.

SUPERCARS’ SWITCH to a British-made Xtrac transaxle, first revealed by AA back in June, is set to be officially confirmed. An agreement with Xtrac for its P1293 model transaxle to replace the Australian-made Albins ST6 combined gearbox/differential unit from next season, has been approved by the Supercars Commission and the contract was due to be signed by now. Tim Blanchard’s BJR Commodore and Simona de Silverstro’s Nissan Altima tested with the Xtrac transaxle during the Gold Coast 600, which insiders report went “very smoothly”.

Although understood to be more expensive, the change has been justified by the Xtrac unit’s greater durability and reduced maintenance costs. The Albins transaxle will continue to be used in Super2.

‘SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST’

Jamie Whincup and Jessica Dane potential rivals to lead Australia’s most successful Supercars squad

By BRUCE NEWTON

ROLAND DANE has intentionally set up a potential fight for the future control of Triple Eight Race Engineering between his daughter Jessica and his most successful driver Jamie Whincup.

In the wake of Whincup’s purchase of a 15 per cent share in Australia’s most successful Supercars operation announced last week, Jessica Dane is now the largest individual shareholder in the business with a 27 per cent stake.

Coinciding with the deal, Triple Eight has exercising its option to extend Whincup’s driving contract a further year until the end of 2020.

Because Dane sold Whincup a portion of his shares, his stake through his Park Lane holding company has dropped from 40 per cent to 25 per cent.

Racer/businessman Paul Dumbrell and trusted Dane adviser Tim Miles, who both invested in 2015, have 15 per cent and eight per cent respectively. The remaining 10 per cent is held

by Dane’s British business partner Andrew Jackson.

Despite his reduced shareholding, Dane confirmed he retains a control clause over the business whatever his investment.

He made no bones about the fact that either his daughter or Whincup, who is now an alternate director of T8, could emerge as the leader of the team once he steps away – something not expected to happen until beyond 2020 – or someone else could emerge and surpass them both.

“It could be survival of the fittest, but it could be them working together,” Dane told Auto Action “And not only them. I wouldn’t rule out several other people who are in the organisation if they are interested.

“I don’t have a set way I want it to be. When I kill myself – or someone does it for me – or I go off and do some other things I still want to do, I want to make sure the place has a reasonable chance of being able to continue what we have been doing here in Australia for the last 15 years

and for the last 23 years as Triple in the UK and here.

“I’d like to give it the best possible chance for the people who work here and the legacy to continue on at a high level.”

Whincup has been at Triple Eight since 2007 and won his record seven drivers’ championships, 113 races and 80 poles with the outfit. T8 is exercising an option to keep him in the cockpit through 2020 and Dane expects him to race on full-time into early next decade.

He rates highly the contribution Whincup could make to T8 once he does hang up his helmet.

“He lives and breathes motorsport, sees himself quite rightly as a part of Australian motor sport on a long-term basis and he wants to find out if he has the wherewithall, the ability and the interest in running a team,” Dane explained.

“This is an arms-length investment he has made and it will allow him to have much more of an insight into the workings of the team, the relationship with Supercars, the relationship with sponsors and understand much more about it.

“He knows racing, so that’s going to put him in a good positon purely from an operational point of view. What he has to work out is he able to rise to the occasion in terms of managing people – because this is very much a people business – as well as managing the commercial side of it, and being able to tap into the right financial resources and then looking after them.”

Jessica Dane has been working full-time at Triple Eight for all bar a short period since 2012, as well as two short stints with the team in 2008 and 2010 before emigrating from the UK. She worked in communications roles for some years before moving into commercial operations in 2017.

“I will give her the opportunity if she is good enough to also be part of the team,” said Dane.

“Of her own initiative – but I am very happy about it – she is in the middle of applying to go off and do commercial law … because it will make her more capable in her job.”

SUMMER SERIES PLAN CONFIRMED

By MARK FOGARTY

SUPERCARS IS seriously considering a change to a true summer series, following an interim split warm-weather season in 2020.

Also on the agenda is locking in the calendar three years ahead to provide certainty and stability.

Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer confirmed that next year’s reorganised 15-event calendar was a prelude to a split season with a long winter break in 2020.

That move, in turn, would be a prelude to switching to a September to March or April contiguous ‘summer’ season in 2021/22.

According to Seamer, the proposed 2020 split would see races run from January to April, followed by a long break until resuming from September to December.

“We think that’s the first step, what we’re calling a winter break,” he told Auto Action.

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“So you have an early-to-mid Darwin and then wrap up for a few months, and then come back and finish the season running into December.

“We believe that’s the first step. Once we get there, then we can look at, right, do we just fold that over to a summer series? But to try to do it all in one 18-month period is going to be very, very difficult operationally and commercially for everybody.

“What we’re looking for, we’ll get that winter break, anyway.”

Seamer admitted that accommodating the Darwin and Townsville rounds, which need to be run around mid-year in the tropical north’s dry season, presented a scheduling challenge.

Timings were also dictated by contract renewals, which for Townsville and Surfers Paradise are after next year’s events.

“Townsville we’re still working through,” Seamer said. “Obviously, Townsville and Gold Coast, we’re working through discussions of where and what that looks like with TEQ (Tourism and Events Queensland, the funding body) at the moment.

“It’ll be all one conversation.”

Seamer said there was more flexibility with the Townsville 400, currently staged in early July, than the Darwin Triple Crown, traditionally held in mid-June.

However, he clarified that Townsville’s slot was dictated by school holidays because the street track precinct incorporated a high school.

“When we go through all the weather patterns, we go through all the weather, but there’s certainly a lot more flexibility about Townsville than there is with Darwin.”

NO PERKS FOR J-DUB

JAMIE WHINCUP’S ownership stake in Triple Eight Race Engineering won’t stop team boss Roland Dane tapping his star driver on the shoulder if he feels it’s time for him to step aside from full-time Supercars racing.

Dane made that clear after last week’s announcement Whincup is now a 15 per cent stakeholder in the Queensland team.

“All the time I have control of the team, that (driver decisions) rest with me finally,” he said. “It always has done and will do until I am not running he team.”

Dane also made it clear Whincup’s minority ownership doesn’t buy him on-track privileges.

“He knows full well that doesn’t mean he suddenly gets the better engine or have his pick of anything,” he declared. “The relationship with him as a driver will stay exactly as it is today.”

Dane confirmed T8 will exercise a one-year option to extend the seven-time champion’s full-time career with the Banyo operation out to the end of 2020.

And Dane predicted Whincup’s full-time driving career with the team could stretch on into the early years of next decade.

Whincup has on multiple occasions ruminated on retirement, even suggesting back in 2009 he might call it quits at 30. Now 35, it seems clear Whincup will still be in the driver’s seat as he heads towards his 40th birthday in 2023.

But Dane thinks it unlikely Whincup would go beyond that and certainly won’t emulate Craig Lowndes, who is ending his full-time career at 44.

“He will get the timing right, especially having seen Craig get the timing right,” he predicted. “I think Jamie has no intention of going past 40, anyway.” BN

CAMARO RIVALS BLOCK CHANGE Fans want it, but competitors rule out concession for Chev coupe

By MARK FOGARTY and BRUCE NEWTON

DESPITE OVERWHELMING fan support, a rule concession to help get the Chevrolet Camaro into Supercars is being opposed by key potential rivals.

DJR Team Penske and Holden factory outfit Triple Eight are against moves by Walkinshaw Andretti United to allow the control chassis’ roll cage to be modified to accommodate the Camaro’s coupe roofline.

DJRTP boss Ryan Story and Triple Eight supremo Roland Dane have voiced their objections to Auto Action, dismissing WAU’s assertion that the Camaro’s shape doesn’t fit properly.

WAU launched a public campaign at the Bathurst 1000 to gain fan support for allowing the Camaro to join the Ford Mustang on the grid in 2020.

Backed by its Walkinshaw road car stablemate HSV, the team is adamant its Camaro Supercars racer design project won’t progress unless the proportions of the road-going Chevy two-door can be retained, claiming that requires a slight change to the upper bar work of the racer’s roll cage.

WAU insiders also suggest that making the Camaro shape fit is a safety issue, with the existing design forcing a positioning that severely reduces the driver’s forward vision.

While Supercars’ senior management acknowledge that fans are clamouring for the Camaro, their hands are tied by the requirement that a rule change would have to be approved by the Supercars Commission.

There is a widespread view that the rulerecommending Commission, which is guided by the views of the majority of team owners, will not allow the roll cage modification under the existing Gen2 regulations.

However, AA has learned that a relaxation could be considered for the Next Generation evolution, due for implementation in 2022.

DJRTP is opposed to the Camaro concession because it believes straightening the kinked tube above the driver’s head would lead to helmet contact with the roll cage, which is an obvious safety issue.

It fears more modifications to the roll cage would follow once the precedent is set and

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that means additional cost being accrued by the rest of the field.

Story also makes the point that as the lead Ford team on the Mustang design project, DJRTP managed to adapt the fastback two-door’s shape to the control chassis, which was originally designed for four-door sedans.

“I think they can make the Camaro with the current shell, I am confident of that, and make the same decisions we have made with Mustang,” said Story, speaking as managing director of DJRTP and not in his newly appointed capacity as an alternate member of the Supercars Commission.

“In terms of the process we have undertaken with our car, with the investment we have put in our car and Ford Performance have put into the project as well, there’s no doubt in my mind we could see a Camaro racing as well [without a rule change].

“We’d love to see it happen. Mustang and Camaro are natural enemies in the showroom and natural enemies on the racetrack. It would be fantastic to see that in Supercars.”

Triple Eight’s Dane is also unconvinced that the Camaro’s body shape can’t be adapted to the existing chassis without distorting its proportions.

“I am not sure you need to change it – in fact, I know you don’t need to change it to run the Camaro,’ he declared. “At the end of the day, the car could be run under the current rules. If you can do the Mustang, you can do the Camaro.”

Acknowledging that fans have expressed a clear desire for the Camaro to race against the Mustang, Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer outlined why the decision wasn’t up to him.

“I think there already is a clear pattern (of fan support),” Seamer told AA. “It’s not about me, it’s about the Commission. I can’t speak for the Commission, but I’d be very surprised if they changed their minds, having not done one thing for one manufacturer to turn around and do it for another.

“But I can’t speak on behalf of them. My view is I would be surprised if they did.”

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He conceded that allowing a change to the roll cage shape could be looked at in the longer-term review of the technical rules.

“It could be and I’ve encouraged the team (WAU) to speak to the Commission about it,” Seamer said. “Absolutely, it’d be great to have a Camaro. The fans love it, but it’s about timing.”

According to DJRTP’s Story, adapting the Mustang shape – which involved stretching the body length, reducing the width and raising the roof height – was not easy.

“We went through a number of challenges in terms of understanding how to best fit the Mustang shape over the chassis that we run and also going through the motions with Ford in understanding can we turn this into a competitive car in the championship, can we fight for wins with a Mustang in Supercars?” he explained.

“That feasibility study went on for a number of months before Ford made a commitment to bring the Mustang into the sport and coming back into the sport themselves. So I think that process still needs to happen with Camaro.

“I know it’s been expressed publicly some challenges that they have had with the chassis and those sorts of things. I think that requires a fundamental feasibility study before anything is changed.

“We went down a similar direction in terms of how things would perhaps most optimally fit, but under the grounds of safety, in addition to the grounds of parity, we went down the path that we are on now.”

Story added that he thought there was

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little prospect of the Supercars Commission altering the Gen2 rules for the Camaro.

“Realistically, in the short term, I would think that it was highly unlikely,” he said.

“Now, whether a feasibility study by the series potentially leads to that being part of whatever Gen3 (Next Generation) looks like, I don’t know.

“Maybe that is something that is looked at, but certainly in short-term and with the cars we are racing today, that is highly unlikely.”

Triple Eight Race Engineering developed the five-door ZB Commodore racer for Holden, overcoming – some say, exploiting – the technical challenges of the new imported model’s shape.

As well as dismissing the technical argument, Triple Eight’s Dane asserted that the Camaro Supercars racer wouldn’t gain the necessary clearance from General Motors in Detroit.

“There’s no prospect of it,” he declared.

“I know it won’t happen. The reality is it’s a Chevrolet product, so you’d have to get permission from Chevrolet, but they don’t sell it themselves here, it’s sold by HSV. “So where’s the motivation in anyone allowing it to happen? I don’t understand it.

If the product was here as a full-blown GM product on sale in Australia through GM, then I can understand it might make sense.

“But at the moment, it’s one batch of 550 cars which are the old model (RHDconverted MY17 SSs), so it doesn’t stack up at the moment. I’m not saying it won’t at some point in the future, but right now, it doesn’t stack up.”

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ELECTRIC TOURING CAR DEBUTS

SPANISH TOURING car driver Jordi Gene had the privilege of conducting the first public demonstration of the Cupra e-Racer at the Catalunya circuit on October 21.

At the launch it was announced that the ETCR series will kick-off in 2020. The launch was attended by representatives of car manufacturers, automotive suppliers and media.

The Cupra e-Racer is only in its development stages but provides a taste of what the regulations might look like.

“In the wake of the global success achieved by TCR and being aware of the automotive market’s current trend towards a new and responsible mobility, two years ago WSC Technology embarked on this ambitious project with the aim of educating the motorsport community in making contact with these new technologies that represent the future reality,” said Marcello Lotti, President of WSC at the launch.

“The ETCR applies electric power units to the very same chassis concept of TCR cars. It is already attracting the interest of different car manufacturers

that also regard it as a tool to restore the role of motorsport as a platform for research & development, that can transfer experience and innovations to the standard products.

“Our ultimate goal is to show the fans that electric car races are as entertaining as those for the internal combustionengined cars. And we would like to highlight the deep involvement of CUPRA in the overall project from a technical point of view. The co-operation between WSC and SEAT began from the inception of the TCR concept and has now taken a further step forward during this project, with the development of the first racing car built in compliance with the ETCR technical regulations.”

Cupra is the first brand to develop an ETCR chassis, which is powered by a pair of twin-electric motors located over the rear axle, delivering up to 500kW as well as being equipped with an energy recovery system. The e-racer weighs

400kg more than the conventional Cupra TCR, but still accelerates from 0-100km/h in 3.2s and 0-200km/h in 8.2s.

Further details are to be released in due course.

The latest addition to the growing list of TCR cars entering the country was spotted at the AMRS round at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend.

A Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR was lurking behind the pits belonging to Melbourne Performance Centre on Saturday. According to the snapper that took this photo the car was quickly hidden away the next day.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR FISKVILLE THE VICTORIAN Government has pledged $150,000 towards a business case study, which will assess the feasibility of developing the former Country Fire Authority training site at Fiskville, north-west of Melbourne, into a multipurpose motorsport venue.

The state government, alongside CAMS and the Moorabool Shire Council, are working closely to develop a business case for the site.

Thie study will investigate the opportunities for grassroots motorsport participation, driver education, training and industry development, and the facilities required.

CAMS CEO Eugene Arocca is delighted that the Victorian Government has thrown its support behind the Fiskville project.

“This represents an outstanding opportunity for Victoria to set a new standard for motor sport facilities and CAMS is grateful for the support

of the Andrews Government in assisting with the funding for a business case,” Arocca said.

“Motor sport generates more than $700 million of direct economic impact in Victoria alone, based on an Ernst & Young Report from 2013.

Since that report was issued the sport has grown by more than 40 percent, so the development of Fiskville is an outstanding opportunity for regional Victoria to capitalise on the economic, sporting and community power of motor sport.”

Victorian Minister for Sport, John Eren is excited by the potential that the Fiskville facility holds.

“We’re ensuring Victoria stays Australia’s sporting capital – investing in major sporting infrastructure like this, so we can host the big events that support our global reputation,” Eren said.

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SON OF A GUN: BARGS JOINS FORMULA FORD

NOISE IS LAKESIDE ISN’T CLOSING JOHN TETLEY, the Chief Executive of Queensland Raceways that operates Lakeside Park, is ready for a court battle over the suspension of motor racing activities at the Kurwongbah circuit.

Moreton Bay Regional Council is set to suspend activity there following complaints about noise levels. The move has been triggered by QR receiving fines totalling $29,100 (three fines of $9700 each) since August.

“We have declared our intention to fight these fines in court and have engaged lawyers and acoustic engineers to assemble the case against the current breaches and mount the case; that if we were to be judged under the correct zoning these infringement notices would

not have been issued,” Tetley said in a statement.

“Our hope is that this will bring things to a head sooner rather than later so that we can commit to conduct race meetings because, either MBRC withdraws the infringements pending resolution of the sports grounds issue, or we get to court early enough to get clarity on where Lakeside will stand in the future.”

Tetley said the issue was that racetracks were not recognised as “sports grounds” and therefore had to adhere to a lower decibel level. “As a sports ground Lakeside would be permitted a sound level of Leq15 of 75 A-weighted decibels, Db (A), but as an

outdoor entertainment venue, Lakeside is only permitted an Leq15 of 70dB (A).

“We have had discussions with the MBRC to get this recognition for at least seven years and had general consensus that Lakeside is entitled to be recognised as a sports ground - but it never actually happened.”

Tetley has confirmed that racing events planned for the rest of 2018 will go ahead, and sprints, theme days and practice will operate as normal next year.

He also encouraged people wanting to see a resumption of racing at Lakeside should contact councillors and Members of Parliament and politely but firmly express their concern.

GARRY O’BRIEN

VICTORIAN EXCEL champion and third-generation racer Ben Bargwanna will enter Formula Ford in 2019, more than 20 years after his father Jason competed in the class.

Bargwanna will race a Spectrum 014 chassis previously driven by national Formula 3 series winner Harrison Jones. Bargwanna recently tested the car at Winton under the watchful eye of Spectrum creator and founder of Borland Racing Developments, Mike Borland.

After winning numerous races in Excels, both in Victoria and interstate, Bargwanna feels he is ready to make the leap into the Victorian Formula Ford Championship, ahead of a planned tilt at the national title in 2020.

“The Excel Series was valuable for teaching me about changing gears, weight transfer and racing wheelto-wheel with other cars, but Formula Ford will give me a deeper understanding of car setup and driving technique,” Bargwanna said.

“When you look at the most successful drivers in Australian motorsport, most of them have come through Formula Ford and that’s because of how much you learn from it.”

In what was his second test in the chassis, Bargwanna was happy with how it went.

“I had already done a test in another car a couple of months ago, when we were evaluating options for next year, so in Friday’s test I was able to push the limits and start to understand how to make the car faster,” Bargwanna said.

“Mike knows so much about Formula Fords and could easily pick what I was doing right and wrong; it was very useful being around someone with his level of experience.”

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LATEST NEWS

NATIONALS EXPAND AS FIRST reported by Auto Action in September, the Shannons Nationals will extend to seven rounds for 2019 with a round at The Bend being added to the schedule.

A later start in May at Sydney Motorsport Park kicks off the Shannons Nationals, before travelling to Phillip Island in June and the first of two trips to The Bend a month later. The next three rounds occur in quick succession with Queensland Raceway, Winton and Sandown taking place over a six-week period in August and September, with The Bend hosting the finale in November.

“We’ve hosted a tremendous year of racing and we look forward to returning to those circuits in 2019,” CAMS General Manager of Motorsport Michael Smith said.

“After what was such a successful season this year, we felt the need to add another round to give back to our loyal categories and competitors.”

Categories are yet to be confirmed, but Auto Action believes that the GT3 Cup Challenge will contest six of the seven rounds, excluding the final round at The Bend.

However, the Australian GT Championship will run three of its rounds in conjunction with the Shannons Nationals, conducting the endurance segment of its title at Phillip Island, The Bend and Sandown.

Shannons Nationals Calendar

Round 1: Sydney Motorsport Park, 17-19 May Round 2: Phillip Island, 6-9 June Round 3: The Bend Motorsport Park, 12-14 July Round 4: Queensland Raceway, 2-4 August Round 5: Winton, 31 August-1 September Round 6: Sandown, 20-22 September Round 7: The Bend Motorsport Park, 15-17 Nov

Australian GT Calendar Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Dates March 14-17 May 2-4 June 7-8 July 12-13 September 20-21 October 25-27 November 8-10

The opening round of the championship again takes place at Albert Park as support to the Australian Grand Prix, before returning to the west for the second round at Barbagallo. The next rounds are the three endurance events, then a return to the Supercars program finishes off the season with Surfers Paradise and Sandown.

“We’re excited by the calendar we’ve put together for next season,” said Australian GT category manager Ken Collier.

“It offers an interesting blend of formats and

Venue Albert Park (Formula 1 Grand Prix) Barbagallo (Virgin Australia Supercars) Phillip Island (Shannons Nationals) The Bend Motorsport Park (Shannons Nationals) Sandown (Shannons Nationals) Surfers Paradise (Virgin Australia Supercars) Sandown (Virgin Australia Supercars)

Format Sprint Sprint Endurance Endurance Endurance Sprint Sprint

events which play to the strengths of what these cars can do. Having three endurance events was important to us as we felt that offered a really good balance in 2018, and made for a fantastic Australian Endurance Championship battle that went to the final round.

“And to return to the streets of Surfers Paradise is a fabulous opportunity. It’s been a few years since we’ve been there, so we’re looking forward to showcasing these fabulous cars, teams and drivers at that event.”

MINIMAL CHANGES FOR CARRERA CUP

NO TOWNSVILLE FOR TCM

NEXT YEAR’S Porsche Carrera Cup generation 911 GT3 Cup car has season features a largely unchanged been well received by our customers calendar, with the series heading and has added to the spectacle to Townsville for the first time since through exciting and close racing,” 2015. said Porsche Cars Australia The trip to Townsville replaces Motorsport Manager Troy Bundy. the round at Sydney Motorsport “Following a thrilling 2018 season, Park, which is discontinued due to the 2019 championship has all not being a part of the Supercars the indications of being as strong, if not stronger, than this season; Championship. aided by many of the current drivers The season opens in Adelaide continuing on next season along as part of the Superloop 500, then moves to Melbourne where the class with a range of new Pro and TAG Heuer Pro-Am competitors joining again supports the Australian Grand the series. We have also added six Prix at Albert Park, before heading new cars to the market, which we to Phillip Island. Hidden Valley and hope to see on track from the start of Townsville are up next, the first time the 2019 season.” the category heads to the two mostnorthern venues in the same season.

2019 Porsche Wilson Security Carrera Cup The season closes off Australia Calendar with rounds at The Bend, Round 1 – Adelaide 500, February 28-March 03, 2019 Round 2 – Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, March 14-17, 2019 Bathurst and the final Round 3 – Phillip Island 500, April 12-14, 2019 round at the Gold Coast.

Round 4 – Darwin Triple Crown, June 14-16, 2019 “The 2018 Carrera Round 5 – Townsville 400, July 05-07, 2019 Cup season has been Round 6 – The Bend SuperSprint, August 23-25, 2019 a tremendous success Round 7 – Bathurst 1000, October 10-13, 2019 for the category. The Round 8 – Gold Coast 500, October 25-27, 2019 addition of the newest

THE TOURING Car Masters 2019 Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters Schedule has announced a seven-round Round 1 – Superloop Adelaide 500. February 28 – March 3 calendar for 2019.

Round 2 – WD40 Phillip Island 500. April 12-14 However this won’t include Round 3 – Winton SuperSprint. May 24-26 Townsville, after a campaign Round 4 – Ipswich SuperSprint. July 26-28 by locals successfully brought Round 5 – Muscle Car Masters, SMP Aug 30-Sept 1 the category to the Supercars Round 6 – Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. October 10-13 Championship round this year.

Round 7 – Sandown 500. November 8-10 The class will also not return to Darwin or Newcastle, but will appear instead as it marks the ideal place to kick off our new at the Muscle Car Mas ters, season.

“Returning to Phillip Island, Winton, which returns to its traditional Father’s Day Ipswich, Bathurst and Sandown add both weekend date. great circuits and great regional events to Other marquee events include support to our calendar, as well as finishing the season Supercars endurance rounds at Bathurst strongly. and Sandown.

“The ARDC has big plans for Muscle Car TCM will start at the newly named Masters and have invited us back. We are Superloop Adelaide 500, before heading to happy to return as they go back to the two Victorian rounds at Phillip Island and Winton. Next is a trip up north to Queensland traditional date on Father’s Day and that weekend will mark a major event for our Raceway for Round 4, the return to Muscle Car Masters in early September and then sponsors and give them opportunities they Bathurst and Sandown close out the season. may not be able to have at other rounds.

“Most importantly, the calendar includes “The 2019 calendar took a lot of work and significantly less travel and more time consultation to get right, but we are very between rounds for our teams that will help pleased with the results,” said Touring Car keep the series as affordable and accessible Masters Category Manager, Tony Hunter. as possible, while still visiting great circuits “We are pleased to continue our relationship with the Superloop Adelaide 500 and major events.”

10 AutoAction

AA’s perplexed pundit wonders why NASCAR is being touted as the Surfers saviour when restoring the Gold Coast event’s glory more logically lies in its popular past SUPERCARS COULD go back to sharing top billing with an international category at the Surfers Paradise street race festival from next year.

Amid fanciful talk of a NASCAR race, Supercars is prepared to share the limelight with an overseas series.

The Queensland government, which underpins the funding, is behind the push to restore the glamour of the Gold Coast event, which was established 27 years ago as an international occasion.

But instead of NASCAR, the preferred option should be the return of Indycars, which made the annual stoushes on the streets of Surfers a big deal in the first place.

Indycar racing headlined the meeting from 1991-2008, after which it became a standalone Supercars show as far as the main act on the track.

The V8s had been on the Gold Coast Indy support program since 1994, gaining championship status in 2002 and sharing top billing with the declining Champ Car World Series.

The cachet of the visiting Indycars – through CART, Champ Car and reunified IndyCar guises – is such that locals still refer to the event as ‘the Indy’ a decade after their departure.

Along with the state government’s continued desire to restore international status, there are growing calls to freshen the format.

Supercars founder – and before that the boss of the Gold Coast Indy – Tony Cochrane received a lot of support for his pointed comments in his weekly Gold Coast Bulletin column that the event had gone

stale.

Cochrane’s scathing critique asserted that it was no longer the must-see occasion that used to dominate the southeast Queensland sporting landscape. His point: it lacks the pizzazz and prestige it once had.

The Gold Coast 600 is still the state’s biggest annual sports event and again attracted more than 180,000 over three days, but the fact is that since the Indycars left, the event is nowhere as big or as important.

Even the addition of rock concerts – mostly featuring faded groups like this year’s headliner, Foreigner – hasn’t stemmed the stasis.

The only gain post-Indycars has been a huge reduction in the cost to the Queensland government, which was spending $10 million or more to bring them out on top of underwriting the Surfers street circuit.

There are signs the purse strings will be loosened again, justified by an international category attracting increased overseas coverage that would boost tourism to the Gold Coast.

NASCAR was hastily trotted out as a possibility, but there are more holes in the proposition than Swiss cheese. For a start, many question why Supercars would want to share top billing with another V8 category featuring Mustangs and Camaros (plus Camrys).

NASCAR has distanced itself from speculation of anything more than a one-off demonstration, with a round of the premier Cup series ruled out on cost and scheduling

grounds.

Supercars flagged a possible NASCAR presence at next year’s new-look Gold Coast 500, which is set to become a single 500 km race on the Sunday. “That obviously frees up the Saturday for us to look at another category coming in potentially from overseas,” Supercars supremo Sean Seamer said.

The Queensland government backs the Surfers street racing fest through its Tourism and Events Queensland agency, which has identified that an international category coheadlining the Supercars-run event would increase overseas visitors and international TV coverage.

It is particularly interested in an American series to boost exposure of the Gold Coast in the USA. Supercars is open to the idea if TEQ funds the import, which would require sharing top billing, as it did from ’02 until ’08, when the newly reunified IndyCar Series staged a non-championship end-of-season race at Surfers.

Before then, the event was headlined by the CART Indy Car World Series and then Champ Car in the midst of the 12year Indycar civil war with the Indy Racing League.

As well as scheduling issues, the Queensland government baulked at the $20 million fee for IndyCar to return, attempting to replace it with the A1GP series in ’09.

A1GP folded on the eve of the event, resulting in a hasty deal to elevate Supercars to the main attraction.

Overseas co-drivers in the V8s restored

some international cachet from 2010-12 before that also became too costly for the state government.

But under Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, there has been a shift back to making the Gold Coast street race carnival an international event.

It is understood Brisbane Street’s additional budget for including an American series, which would take the spotlight on the Saturday, is around $5 million.

That presents problems for attracting either NASCAR or IndyCar, which would be looking for a bigger sanctioning fee, transport costs and accommodation subsidies for the teams.

A proper NASCAR Cup Series race is out of the question because the Gold Coast 500’s late October slot next year is in the midst of the Playoffs.

Supercars insiders talk wistfully of a field of around 15 Cup cars – NASCAR teams have no shortage, with multiple vehicles for different tracks, including road courses – steered by a mixture of second-level Xfinity drivers and retired Cup legends.

Plenty of interest among the latter is claimed by Supercars, but locals with close NASCAR affiliations and the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jnr scoff at the idea.

But rather than a mish-mash NASCAR affair, why not an Australian IndyCar Cup? It would be out of the main season, which ends in September, so there could be scope for local open-wheeler stars to join Will Power in the invitational field.

Just a thought. The point being that bringing back Indycars would restore the event’s allure without a lot of explanation.

As it is, a single 500 km Supercars enduro – the grid for which will be decided by a pair of Sandown-style Race For The Grid sprints on the Saturday – is not a game-changing drawcard.

Most agree that twin 300 km mini-enduros over two days are tough enough at Surfers and fans seem to like the format. Maybe it’s the presentation, not the composition, that needs to be revamped...

But if an international component is required and can be afforded, let’s look at re-showcasing Indycars rather than promoting a foreign tin-top series.

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11

LATEST NEWS

ALFIE’S LAST STAND MULTIPLE GOLD Star winner Alfredo Costanzo’s career will be celebrated at this year’s Historic Sandown meeting on November 9-11.

The event will be the swansong for the veteran, who went toe-to-toe with some of the world’s best in a number of Australian Grand Prix and was a consistent winner in the Gold Star in both F5000 and Formula Atlantic machinery.

Costanzo won four Australian Drivers’ Championships or the CAMS Gold Star between 1980 and 1983 under the patronage of Porsche Cars Australia distributor

Alan Hamilton, his 1981 title was the last national series worldwide for F5000 machinery.

Once the F5000 era was complete, he and Hamilton moved to Formula Atlantic where he is best known for his rivalry with John Bowe, with the Italian born driver continuing his winning ways until Bowe broke through in 1984.

Costanzo failed to win an Australian Grand Prix, although he came close in 1983 where he led the early running before a diff failed in his Tiga FA81. His best finishes were fourth in both 1980 and 1984, before he moved across into touring

cars after Hamilton pulled out of motorsport.

Costanzo finished runner up in the 1979 Bathurst 1000 partnering Allan Grice in the Cravan Mild Holden Torana A9X, which was his best finish as further drives with the factory Volvo Dealer Team and Dick Johnson Racing failed to garner a result.

Costanzo will be among a strong entry of Formula 5000s, which will be joined by Formula Ford, Heritage Touring Cars, Group S, Group N and the usual historic open-wheelers at Historic Sandown.

LOGANO BUMPS HIS WAY TO VICTORY JOEY LOGANO won the first Round of Eight Playoff race at Martinsville by controversially bumping Martin Truex Jr. aside on the final turn, second went to Denny Hamlin with Truex Jr. finishing third.

This was Logano’s first win at Martinsville and means he has automatically qualified for the Championship Playoff. Truex Jr. was fuming with the tactics used by Logano after he cleanly overtook the #22 car with no contact.

Heading into the final 100 laps Logano led Truex Jr. when Kyle Larson hit the wall resulting in a caution, the race returned to green with 86 laps to go.

Brad Keselowski took the lead off his teammate with 84 laps remaining, he was able to build a margin of over two seconds before another caution was waved for Playoff contender Clint Bowyer. Bowyer received a touch from Jimmie Johnson spinning him 180 degrees and putting him a lap down with 42 laps to go.

All the leaders chose to pit for fuel and tyres, Logano got the lead back in the stops. He led Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Hamlin and Truex Jr. when the race resumed with 37 laps to go.

Keselowski overtook Busch a couple of laps after the restart and attempted a safe move on leader Logano. Keselowski couldn’t get past his teammate and was caught and overtaken by a fast charging Truex Jr. with nine laps to go.

Truex Jr. caught Logano with ease, the

two fighting side by side for over five laps, at turn one on the final lap Truex Jr. patience paid off as he took the lead. In the final corner Logano bumped Truex Jr. out of the way as the two slid out the final corner Hamlin took second position off Truex Jr. finishing just 0.1s behind Logano at the line.

The winner at the Kansas Speedway the previous week was Chase Elliott, Elliott featured in a great battle for seventh in the closing laps eventually coming out on top.

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CARS VS PLANE DRAG RACE IN ADELAIDE FRESH OFF the release of the ‘Race to the City’ video, the Adelaide Motorsport Festival has announced that a variety of racing machinery will compete in a drag race with a difference.

The contest dubbed the ‘Winged Warrior’ will take place at 12 noon on both the Saturday and Sunday of the event as various supercars challenge Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall in his MSX-R plane that has finished runner up in the Red Bull Air Race twice. The motor, an 8.9-litre aircooled flat-six propels 700kg of aircraft to a top speed of more than 420km/h, climbing 3,700 feet a minute and 420 degrees a second.

Challenging Hall will be none other than seven-time Bathurst winner Jim Richards behind the wheel of the fastest factorybuilt Porsche 911, the new GT2 RS. The similarities between the two vehicles is both

are powered by flat-six motors and a wing, but that is where the similarities end as the Porsche produces 690hp – around double that of the plane – but mass is an issue with a kerb weight of 1470kg.

That isn’t the only contender as Ivan Capelli will also provide some competition in the 1989 Leyton House, which packs a 3.5-litre Judd V8 and weighs a mere 500kg.

Capelli used the car to set the fastest lap during that year’s French Grand Prix and set the record around the Victoria Park Sprint circuit in 2016.

The final vehicle to take on the MSX-R is the Brabham BT62 supercar, which boasts a 5.4-litre V8 producing 700hp in a chassis weighing 972kg. Behind the wheel will be Le Mans 24 Hour and multiple American Le Mans Series winner David Brabham.

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival kicks off on December 1.

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AUSSIES CLOSE OUT STRONG EUROCUP SEASON THE FINAL round of the Formula Renault Eurocup failed to bare fruit for the trio of the Australians in the series, but concluded a successful campaign.

Held at Catalunya on October 20-21, the Eurocup finale started well for Thomas Maxwell as he led the Aussie charge in sixth ahead of rookie Oscar Piastri in eighth and Tasmanian Alex Peroni in 11th.

The opening race was a disappointing one for Maxwell as he was caught up in an incident on lap 2, while Piastri was also delayed and was the last qualified finisher in 16th, a lap down.

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Peroni finished ninth after just failing to hold out title contender Yifei Ye. The season finale was a disappointment for Piastri and Peroni as both struggled to make their way through the field, whilst Maxwell started fifth and maintained it until the end to finish the season on a high.

Meanwhile, the championship was won by Brit Max Fewtrell by finishing fourth.

Debutant Piastri was lead Aussie in the overall standings, finishing eighth with 110 points, 21 clear of Peroni and Maxwell was a further 13 points back in 10th.

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13

s w e n e Formula On

RICCIARDO’S

DANIEL RICCIARDO’S retirement in the Mexican Grand Prix was his eighth of the season – and that is more than any other driver on the grid. Why is his Red Bull Renault breaking down so often?

“I don’t know,” the Aussie replied. “I’m not superstitious, but even if I was, I haven’t walked under any ladders, haven’t run over any black cats — sometimes I’d like to! I really don’t know. It’s just how it’s going at the moment. I don’t really feel I need to change anything in terms of I’m still motivated to finish strong and to try and get a result.”

Most of the retirements have been related to the power unit. In the U.S. race the engine energy store failed terminally. A similar sudden problem with the battery took him out in Bahrain. Ricciardo won the next race, in China, but was

eliminated from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the collision with teammate Max Verstappen. Following his victory in Monaco, Ricciardo did not get on the podium in the next dozen races.

In Austria an exhaust problem led to gearbox failure. An engine problem caused his retirement in Germany, and he got caught up in some other drivers’ accident in Belgium. His clutch broke in Italy. In Mexico he stopped on track with smoke pouring from the engine bay.

What makes these retirements even more frustrating was that he was heading for points, podiums and maybe even wins.

“You can’t blame him for being frustrated,” said Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner. “What’s ironic is it’s always on his car. It was the other way

FERRARI’S WRONG TURN AROUND ABOUT the time of the Singapore Grand Prix, Ferrari took a wrong turn in its chassis development. The team tried a new rear wing in Singapore and Russia but now no longer use it. In America and in Mexico the Scuderia did backto-back tests with a new floor and other modifications, but in both races it reverted to the old configuration for the race.

Updates are supposed to make the car faster not slower. Mercedes, meanwhile, has been making its car better.

“We went back with our car quite a long way, and it seems to work better that way,” Sebastian Vettel said in Austin where his teammate Kimi Räikkönen won.

Is Vettel frustrated that Ferrari went in the wrong direction?

“No, I think we need to look forward,” he said in Mexico. “It is important that we are starting to understand what didn’t work or was not as good as before. It was

14 AutoAction

important to go a step back to understand some things. But the main thing is we keep moving forward. The last couple of days have been quite important, the last weeks also, and we have started to understand a bit more so we try to move forward.”

Part of the problem is that modern F1 cars are complex machines.

“If it was easy then everybody would

always get everything right, as a matter of fact no one does,” Vettel said. “It is not always easy to understand everything straight away. In the last weeks and the last days we have been very busy, and it is important we had the laps that we got in Austin, starting to understand what is going on. We haven’t yet understood everything which I think is normal, so there is still a lot of work to do.”

Meanwhile, Vettel has been taking some wrong turns of his own. He spun while trying to overtake Lewis Hamilton in Italy; spun while trying to pass Max Verstappen in Japan; and did the same thing with Daniel Ricciardo in the U.S. race. Vettel thinks downforce “holes” created by the other car could be causing the problem.

“Maybe I need to try the outside next time, maybe I don’t spin!” Vettel said.

“Obviously you want to have the inside to the corner, so that doesn’t change. The closer you are to another car you lose some downforce. The spins I had were all quite weird because there was not much I could have done. It is not like I had gone in too fast or would have spun on own at that speed, not at all, so I guess there must be some sort of hole or something being on the inside of a car in that position.

Obviously on all three occasions I wasn’t clearly ahead, at best side-by-side, so as I said, maybe next time I try the outside.”

With this year’s World Championship lost, Ferrari needs to concentrate on its 2019 car development so that it makes a right turn into the new season.

UNLUCKY 8

around last year with Max. But as Renault’s premier driver next year, I think you wouldn’t expect these issues to be happening. From a team point of view, all we want to do is finish the year on a high with him and have a chance to celebrate the time that he has been with us. It’s just unfortunate that these things keep happening.

“He knows it’s not a team issue; he knows it’s nothing that we’ve done and he can’t get his head around why it keeps happening to him.”

Ricciardo recalls racing karts as a kid when one day the kart wouldn’t run properly and the next day it would.

“From then on I knew that motor vehicles are weird,” he recalled.” I’ll say weird — there are many more words I could use, but very weird and strange. That’s all it is. Sometimes they don’t work and sometimes there’s no explanation.”

Next year, of course, Red Bull’s Renault woes go away as it switches to Honda, but Ricciardo is heading to the works Renault team. Is he having second thoughts about that now?

“No,” he said. “For sure I’m aware there’s work to do, but I knew that as well when I signed. I think I’m still more excited than not, just about having a fresh environment and a change.”

IT’S BREAKING MY HEART DANIEL RICCIARDO has questioned whether he should attend race days after his latest retirement in Mexico.

The disappointed Australian was queried about what happened on lap 61 while sitting in second place behind teammate Max Verstappen. Over a weekend that had been dominated by the pair, with Ricciardo snatching Pole from his younger teammate and then the pair running 1-2 for the majority of the race.

“I saw pass fail on my dash which I guess was some sort of hydraulic failure and I was forced to retire immediately,” Ricciardo said.

“This sucks.”

“It is at a point where I feel, why should I even come on a Sunday. There hasn’t been a clean weekend for so long due too many different reasons and it’s breaking my heart. Deflated comes to mind but this feels deeper than that. I put it on pole but lost out at the start. It just doesn’t seem to happen for me on a Sunday, even if I have a good Saturday.”

He was quick to diffuse blame from the team and is hoping to have a positive finish to his final season with Red Bull.

“I don’t want to end it like this and I know nobody is doing it deliberately but I just can’t seem to catch a break and a double podium for the team today was exactly what we all wanted,” he continued.

“I’m a very positive guy and I will probably still wake up tomorrow with some sort of positivity.”

THE RACE FOR SEASON 2019 WHILE THERE was plenty of action on track in the races in U.S. and Mexico, there was also plenty going on off track in the world of Formula 1.

Despite his recent improvement in form, Brendon Hartley will have to wait until the end of the season to see if he will remain a Toro Rosso driver in 2019.

Daniil Kvyat is returning to the team, but Franz Tost says no decision has been made about his teammate. Red Bull has been negotiating with Formula 2 driver Alexander Albon, and some paddock insiders believe that he will get the seat.

But Hartley insists he has a contract.

“My contract is still valid for next year,” the Kiwi said. “I still believe I’m doing a good job, and when given the equal opportunities, I’m competitive against my teammate. After seven years away from single-seaters, I think it’s fair to say it took me some time to readapt. I’m happy that I’ve developed all season.”

Pirelli will simplify its tyre identification next year. While, like this year, there will

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be three different compounds of slicks at different tracks, they will always be called the hard (white sidewall), medium (yellow sidewall) and soft (red sidewall).

While Williams has confirmed rookie George Russell as one of its drivers in 2019, the second seat remains unfilled.

And now former F1 driver Esteban Gutiérrez has entered the frame on a short list of possible drivers that includes Robert Kubica, Esteban Ocon and Sergey Sirotkin. Ocon, however, is likely to sit out the 2019 season to be a Mercedes test driver instead.

“Time is running,” Kubica said.

“I don’t want to wait like last year, hopefully we will get a decision earlier than it was. The target will be to be on the grid next year but I cannot wait until December to find out.”

Gutiérrez comes with a good chunk of funding, and Williams needs money more than ever after a deal with energy drinks company Rich Energy to become the title sponsor

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fell through. William Storey, the boss of Rich Energy, and Claire Williams apparently had a handshake deal during the U.S. Grand Prix weekend, but a few days later it was announced that Rich Energy will instead become the title sponsor for Haas in 2019. Storey had tried earlier to buy the Force India team. Despite the deal coming together in just a matter of days, the Haas team is confident that it did sufficient due diligence.

There is good news that Niki Lauda has left the hospital where he had been more than two months after getting a lung transplant.

“I spoke to him,” Lewis Hamilton said. “He’s still very much the same character, very funny on the phone, always cracking jokes. He’s in good spirits. He’s obviously very much in touch with everyone here at the team.”

Lauda is now in rehab, and the Mercedes team expects he will be back at work with them next season.

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Formula One news

SEEING RED FAILING TO slow down enough for the red flag signal – and the subsequent three-place grid penalty during the United States Grand Prix weekend – did not cost Sebastian Vettel the World Championship. It merely drove in one of the final nails on a coffin lid that was already closed.

It also confirmed a penalty precedent.

During the first practice session Charles Leclerc went off into a gravel trap and then brought a bunch of that gravel back onto the track. The session was red flagged so the track could be cleaned up.

Vettel slowed down, but not fast enough and long enough.

“It is just an extension of the rules that we apply to Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car situations,” the FIA’s Charlie Whiting explained to Sky TV. “So, what the drivers have to do now under the red flag is exactly what they have been doing for years under SC and

VSC. They have to follow a speed that has been sent to their dashboards. They have a reference lap, and they have to stay positive to their reference lap – that is slower than the reference lap. And Seb didn’t.”

The stewards and the FIA have access to multiple data timing loop sectors – 20 in Texas – around the track.

“We know what the reference time is and the driver’s time for that sector will display green if he is positive and red if it is negative,” Whiting said. “It is very simple to check.”

Daniel Ricciardo got caught out by this when practice was red flagged in Melbourne for a minor track issue, and the stewards gave him a three-place grid penalty.

“Mine was not for a stranded car, there wasn’t really a danger,” Ricciardo said. “Seb’s was for a gravel. So a bit of common sense should prevail. Out of probably fairness to me, the stewards thought we gave Ricciardo the penalty so

McLAREN’S MOVERS BOTH FERNANDO Alonso Al and d Stoffel S ff l Vandoorne V d are leaving McLaren and Formula 1 at the end of this season, but only the latter has a firm plan in place for 2019.

Vandoorne will move to Formula E where he will drive for the Mercedes-backed EWA team. He tested the car in Spain prior to the United States Grand Prix.

“It has been a shame not to have better results in F1,” Vandoorne said, “but sometimes that is the way it goes. I’ve probably been at the worst time at McLaren in terms of the car performance. That is something I couldn’t really control. McLaren have given me great opportunities in GP2 and Super Formula, and also gave me my F1 debut.

The only thing that was wrong was the timing with the car. It is a shame but we have to move on.”

The only thing Alonso is 100 percent sure about, or at least will admit to, is that he has no desire to do a full season in IndyCar. The current WEC season ends with the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours in June, and Alonso said there is a possibility he will do another season in that series.

“There are a couple of things going on and different series that I need to have a bit of time thinking if I can combine them,” he told reporters in the paddock in Mexico, “and some other challenges outside the normal ones that maybe are interesting. I need to fit it all together and see what is the calendar proposal when you fit all those series, if it’s demanding or not demanding, if I have enough rest time, what also can be my life without Formula 1, how much I want to enjoy and rest, before making the final decision. It’s still ongoing.”

“Doing a full IndyCar season was never an

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i ” he h added. dd d “Th ld mean d i 17 option,” “That would doing races, all in America, learning the category and the tracks from zero, so that would require a commitment and determination that was never in my plans.”

Carlos Sainz, who leaves Renault to replace Alonso at McLaren, believes Alonso’s departure proves that Formula 1 is broken.

“To not have one of the best drivers or the best driver in motor sport on the grid at the moment is a big loss,” Sainz said. “It is something for Formula 1 and everyone to consider why one of the best drivers is leaving, and why we cannot have a bit more competitive grid where many drivers can fight for wins or for podiums.

It’s a thing to consider and something to think about for the future.”

But Alonso has a different take on things.

“I’m not stopping because I don’t have a competitive car,” he said.

“I’m stopping because I did everything I wanted in Formula 1.”

But Alonso might consider moving back to Formula 1 in 2020.

“It’s a possibility,” he said. “I don’t exclude that.”

it is unfair on him if we don’t give you the penalty. In a way I applaud the stewards for doing that, but generally speaking none of us should get penalties for that. We shouldn’t be speeding, but it is not like there is someone upside down.

That is a different story.”

The two penalties were indeed harsh – but then when the red flag signal is first displayed, the drivers don’t know if it is for something major or minor.

There’s a saying that you should learn from other people’s mistakes because you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself. After Ricciardo’s penalty in Melbourne and Vettel’s in Texas, maybe the drivers will finally learn that a red flag signal needs to be obeyed to the letter of the law and not just to a speed that they think feels appropriately safe when they see red.

F1 INSIDER - OPINION RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN WHILE HE didn’t wrap things up at the United States Grand Prix, it would be just a matter of time before Lewis Hamilton won his fifth drivers’ world championship.

It’s an amazing feat and he deserves a lot of credit. He joins the elite club of Juan Manuel Fangio, with five titles, and Michael Schumacher, with a record seven crowns, as the only drivers to win five or more.

When Schumacher won all those championships it seemed like he had attained a record that would never be topped. But records are made to be broken, and the way things are rolling along for Hamilton and Mercedes there is a good chance Hamilton will soon have seven as well.

What I find astounding about Fangio’s long-held record was that he competed inn just seven full seasons – 1950 through 1957 – of Formula 1 and was champion in five of those. Schumacher had 18 full seasons, and Hamilton is in his 12th season.

Part of the skill of being a championship caliber driver is choosing the right team at the right time. Fangio was a master at doing that, and things worked well for Schumacher as well. Hamilton made an inspired decision to move from McLaren to Mercedes at exactly the right time. Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, could easily have five championships instead of just two, but has ended up in good teams at the wrong times.

While the careers of Alonso, Hamilton and

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Schumacher overlapped, Fangio, of course was in a completely different era. Another skill Fangio had was simply staying alive in those very dangerous days of motor racing. Could Hamilton imagine racing back then?

“I have driven some of those cars,” Hamilton said. “Stirling Moss’s car I’ve had a go in, some of the Silver Arrows they had, around the old Monza circuit, with Sir Stirling, which is pretty intense. It’s always really strange to hear the drivers’ mental philosophy back then. Sir Stirling would say you’d want to fall out if the car’s going to crash: you hope that you get thrown out the car.

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“It’s a much more confined space for us. It’s all about being stuck in and being safe. I don’t know if the 50s was a particularly good time, (it) wasn’t a great time for black people either, so probably (I) wouldn’t have been racing back then.

“I’m grateful to be in this era and with the technology that we have and seeing the cars advance. Fangio is like the godfather of the drivers’ sport for us. He’s one of the greats from the beginning and will always be admired in the sport. It is crazy to think that I’m embarking on a similar number of championships that he had.”

When Alonso was asked to name the top

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five Formula 1 world champions, he said he five did nnot include himself on the list: “Michael (Sch (Schumacher), Fangio, (Ayrton) Senna, (Ala Prost, Lewis (Hamilton) probably (Alain) this will be the top five, but it’s difficult to com compare different times and different ways to w win those championships.

“L “Lewis winning five now and being the sam same as Fangio is a great achievement. If one had to do that in our generation, I’m happy that it’s Lewis because he showed the talent and he showed the commitment.

When the car was dominating he delivers and won the championship. When the car was not good enough to win the championship, he still put in some performances to show his talent, and that’s difficult to see in our days.”

Had things gone a little bit differently for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari this year, then he would have been the next five-time champion. But he has made too many mistakes – two of the most obvious and recent were spinning after colliding with Max Verstappen in Japan, and then doing the same thing with Daniel Ricciardo in the United States. You can’t do stuff like the when you are going up against an opponent as formidable as Hamilton. And Ferrari managed to muddle things with a fast car while Mercedes improved its car package.

Hamilton has done an amazing job, as Alonso points out, not only this year but in every season since he started in Formula 1 in 2007. He is a true World Champion.

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LETTERS CAMARO: A GREAT SUPERCARS PROSPECT Hi Auto Action, Your article on the Camaro coming into the Supercars was interesting in several ways. Yes, at Bathurst the interest was huge and the car out the front of the merchandise tent was good to see.

I understand Holden’s reaction as I believe Walkinshaw HSV have the rights to import and convert the Camaro, so Holden don’t have much say in this and that would hurt them. Also, as stated in the Daily Telegraph, General Motors has sold the Opel model which is the Australian ZB Commodore, to a European car company last October.

So the ZB Commodore could be a very short timeframe model and as stated, all Holden now owns is a name and a badge. Red Bull has invested all its money in the ZB and would not give up its grip they have in Supercars.

With the ZB being a not very popular car, Holden has to focus all its efforts on trying to sell the Commodore and not promote the Camaro. Look at the amount of Mustangs now on the road compared to ZB Commodores, I’m sure even though the Camaro will be dearer than a Mustang, we’ll see many on the roads.

Rod via email LET’S GET REAL The late Bob Jane would never race a Camaro with crazy stretch marks to accommodate a roll cage. The Mustang needs to be the exact shape of the road car and Holden needs to realize that the current Plain Jane Commodore is doomed, like the Plain Jane Altima for the same reasons an Austin 1800 would never have succeeded back in Bob’s day. NASCAR has the same problem.

Let’s get real people.

Mark Chapman Smith.

TV KILLS THE SUPERCARS RACE Hey Guys, Roland Dane made a good point this afternoon when he said “This shouldn’t be about the television.“ History probably shows that storms usually roll in to the Gold Coast late in the afternoon, so why have the support races enjoying the good weather and then risk the late

Send your emails or letters to the editor@autoaction.com.au

Jeremy Walford - One day Supercars will wake up to the fact that they run in storm season on the Gold Coast and it’s a fair bet that there will be a storm in the afternoon. Run the race earlier!

Stephen Richards - Race control knew the storms were coming ... been on the forecast since Friday.... should have started the race earlier and get a valid result. Bad call.

Phil Claxton - Next, they will have to add inflatable life jackets to suits, helmets and HANS devices with SES crews on standby next to the towies!

Alison Brewer - Supercars should start all races earlier just in case! afternoon weather playing a major part in in the main event. Start the main event at 1.00 pm. They can still run support races after this.

Cheers. Philip Cochrane AUTONOMOUS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE F1 has produced an entertaining year of racing so far. Ferrari has arguably the fastest car but the Mercedes team has out raced and produced better results.

F1 seems to be retaining a popular following with large audiences at the tracks and watching telecasts. If there is a failing in F1 it must be the diminishing number of teams and smaller grids compared to previous years.

F1 is a sport that has led automotive technology development for a century.

In the last 10 years we have seen the development of power regeneration and an increased use of electrical power boosts. We have not seen the introduction of autonomous driving systems or any of the latest artificial intelligence.

Imagine an F1 grid that includes a team of autonomously driven cars. This would open the opportunity for the world’s tech giants like Google, Apple, Tesla or others to prove their technology in front of a highly critical audience, as well as increase the number of cars on the grid.

The drivers and engineers within the sport are the world’s best at extracting the fastest laps speeds for given circuits.

As the world’s best, would they be willing

to compete against an autonomously driven F1 car using the artificial intelligence to manage the compromise required to lap fast and win an F1 Grand Prix?

An autonomously driven race car would need to be designed to comply with the rules and regulations of the sport with minimal exceptions. Cars would need to be designed to make the same autonomous decisions that a current driver must make, including how and when to overtake, what speeds to go through corners and how to compete with other drivers on the track. Teams would need the ability to call a car into the pits strategically for set up development and racing pit stops. To be fair, an autonomous car would need to retain the same driver safety features of every other car despite not having a human driver in the cockpit.

The autonomous team would save millions of dollars without the need to pay for drivers. Tech giants would have a strong general audience base to prove their technology and generate a larger base of interest for autonomous vehicles on our roads, particularly if they link the technology to the sports car segment.

The world’s best drivers would get to test themselves against the theoretical best setups determined through engineered algorithms within artificial intelligent racing cars.

Peter Baxter, Bundaberg West QLD A STORMY END TO GOLD COAST

STADIUM SUPER TRUCKS AND CAMS COURT FINDING Phil Hammond - So many different categories over the years have had near misses. Minis over the fence, loose wheels, shocks & tail shafts etc. More luck than good OH&S has prevented the unthinkable. There are too many unforeseen events in motorsport in general. This however, is looking more like a personal agenda than a preventative measure.

Ben Kjorsvik - If something was to be banned over safety concerns, it should have been the Super Utes after that wheel/axle assembly cleared the fence a few races ago. I get the feeling CAMS wants SST gone and fill the void it leaves with a new incarnation with Super Utes (I’m sure they will change this category next year).

Allan Jarvis - Good on Robbie for taking the high road and not pointing out to the judge other categories who have had identical safety issues currently running at the same event.

FORD LOOKING AT GT3 Lachie Andrews - The previous model GT had cars in the GT1, GT2 and GT3, although most of the programs weren’t run fully by Ford. However, I enjoy seeing a car run different class as it’s very interesting on a technical side with the difference between the multiple classes perform.

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OPINION Australia’s motor sport authority since 1971

By MARK FOGARTY, Editor-At-Large

ONCE AGAIN, the showcase of our sport has been left looking inept. While the reasons for calling off the second Supercars race at Surfers Paradise were correct, it shouldn’t have come to an embarrassing cancellation in the first place.

To all but close followers, abandoning a race because of wild weather looks bad.

To the uninitiated, which is the bulk of the viewing audience and spectators for a festival event like the Gold Coast 600, it is ridiculous.

Most watchers just don’t understand why the drivers can’t cope with torrential rain and fading light. Quite rightly, they assume the best drivers in the land would, as we are besieged to do on public roads, drive to the conditions. Just go slower – really slow, if necessary.

The general public shouldn’t have to comprehend the complexities of racing in a downpour. More importantly, though, the sport shouldn’t put itself in a position where it is exposed to this sort of ridicule.

The Surfers shemozzle should never have been allowed to happen. Cancelling the race short of the required half distance to declare a result was yet another example of Supercars not having a contingency plan.

How many times in recent years have we seen chaos ensue when things go slightly sideways? Too many times.

There was enough evidence that the Sunday afternoon final leg of the 600 was going to be swamped, many hours before the scheduled 2.25 pm local time (3.25 pm AEDT) start. In fact, the forecast was grim the day before and, arguably, in the days leading up to the event.

Now, Supercars will tell you that wasn’t the case, that storm warnings weren’t issued until 1.30 pm local, when the tempest was still 100 km away. Technically, that may be correct, but it was widely known and predicted that very heavy rain would arrive during the race, way before then.

Supercars also asserts that, in the end,

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“Visibility was a primary concern, not standing water. At one point it was pitch black. So much so some people were calling it a night race.”

Tell that to the drivers, who could barely control their cars in the rivulets streaming across the track and the deep puddles. The light was bad, but not the main concern of most drivers.

At its peak, after the first stoppage, lighting was a major concern for spectators, officials and TV camera operators. At 4.25 pm local, around 25 minutes before the TV-dictated timecertain finish, conditions were untenable and the race had to be cancelled, no question.

Again, though, it shouldn’t have reached that crisis point. No good saying it hasn’t rained that torrentially since the Indycar debacle in 2002. It’s now happened twice and can happen again.

Which begs the question of why the track’s notoriously bad drainage hasn’t been fixed in the ensuing 16 years. It is a well-known potential problem.

I understand the drains are blocked to prevent tyre ‘marbles’ and other racing rubbish from draining into the storm water system.

While that may be environmentally laudable, it ignores a practical problem. Surely some sort of filtration could be installed to protect the sea life as well as ensuring the track isn’t awash when it tips it down.

You’d think drainage might be high on

Supercars’ review agenda, but my enquiries only elicited this response: “There will be a full event debrief with the engineers where I am sure it would be discussed.”

Seriously? It’s like the TV scheduling issue.

Supercars is in denial. Both need to be fixed – and fast – to save further embarrassment.

Fox Sports isn’t the problem – it’s flexible, especially if it means showing a full race rather than a confused and inconclusive mess.

At the events it shows live, Network Ten is the stumbling block.

That has to change. Supercars has to institute the right to bring races forward to ensure completion. The sport’s image is more important than a network’s scheduling requirements when circumstances are in extremis.

Once again, I have to question why, yet again, there wasn’t a contingency plan. There should be a back-up position at every event for adverse conditions. Have the ability to bring a race forward a couple of hours just to be sure.

Better to disrupt the schedule and complete the race than stick to your guns and get a non-result.

The Surfers snafu could have been avoided.

For the good of the sport, let’s make sure it never happens again. It won’t be easy, but from now on, Supercars has to make sure it isn’t perceived as mismanaging its response to freak conditions.

Garry O’Brien Dan McCarthy Rhys Vandersyde

Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, David Hassall, Phil Branagan F1 Dan Knutson, Dieter Rencken Karts Frank Joseph Speedway Geoff Rounds Photographers Australia Dirk Klynsmith, Ross Gibb, Darin Mandy, Mark Walker, Rebecca Thompson, Mick Oliver, Wayne Jones, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde International LAT Images Cartoonist Emeritus John Stoneham Advertising Manager Bruce Williams All Advertising enquiries bruce@overdrivemedia.com.au (0418) 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

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As Holden’s market share plunges to an all-time low, marketing boss Kristian Aquilina explains how racing the new-age Commodore is an important part of the beleaguered brand’s revival – and why the Camaro in Supercars isn’t

T

LION S R A O R AGAIN

HESE ARE dark days for Holden. No longer ‘Australia’s Own’, sales have plummeted since production of the locally made Commodore ended just over a year ago.

The demise of the all-Australian Commodore was the end of an era– the fifth generation. The ZB model is the first imported version, the first without rearwheel drive and the first lacking a V8. In Supercars, the ZB is the first Commodore touring car racer not based on the body shape of a local model.

On top of alienating traditional Commodore buyers, Holden turned its back on its performance car and racing heritage, making an ill-fated attempt to In the last several months, there’s been a noticeable re-engagement with Supercars

by Holden. What triggered that change?

I don’t actually know what happened before, I can’t really speak to that, but for me it was just a natural reaction. We’re invested in the sport, we have a long heritage in the sport and the sport is very much behind what the brand has become. What Holden is has got a lot to do with our heritage in motor sport, amongst other things. It’s part of Holden’s history, part of Holden’s story, so for me it was a natural reaction to get involved more deeply with the sport, and start to articulate and start to define that involvement. We haven’t necessarily resolved how that involvement continues in the long run. One thing about Holden is that it has been involved with the sport in some way or form for more than 50 years, so it’s a

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appeal to women and minority groups. It stayed in racing with a greatly reduced investment, moving the Holden Racing Team branding to Triple Eight and switching to a V8-powered ZB racer.

This year, there has been a reawakening of involvement in racing at Holden amid the free-fall in market share during its transition to a full-line importer. The re-engagement has stepped up under Fishermans Bend’s new executive director of marketing, Kristian Aquilina, as the wounded Lion scrambles to heal its damaged image.

Appointed in April following a successful three-year stint as managing director of Holden New Zealand, Aquilina recognises that racing and performance are

long heritage. We’ve been there all the way.

We haven’t come in and out as has pleased us. We truly believe that motor sport has an important role to play to help a brand like ours weave itself deeply into the culture of the country. Motor sport’s a great way to do that.

As you say, Holden has a long and proud heritage in racing and performance cars, and yet before you, someone saw fit to just turn their back on all that. Despite the switch to Triple Eight with the ZB Commodore, the thrust of Holden’s marketing was to women and it clearly didn’t work. Does that about sum it up?

To an extent you’re right. Motor sport is part of the success factors in the past and contributes to what is the composition of the Holden brand. But at the same time, clearly

embedded in Holden’s DNA, thanks to half a century of motor sport involvement and close to 40 years of Commodore being synonymous with V8 racing success.

He is supported by key senior Holden management like GM Design Australia director Richard Ferlazzo, who commissioned the Bathurst Time Attack digital concept future racer unveiled during the Bathurst 1000.

Make no mistake, there are still enthusiasts within Holden at the highest levels who want to keep Holden in racing and who have emerged from the recent politically correct cul de sac with renewed influence.

our company is in a state of transition where we have fantastic new product that does everything that Holdens have always done, but just in a very different way and, hopefully, people will come along on that journey with us. It wasn’t like a very deliberate “Oh, we’ve buggered it up and we have to go back to the core”. All it is is just pure marketing. We have this real fantastic opportunity where we have an audience that’s predisposed most of the time favourably towards the Holden brand. We have supporters and fans out there. What a wonderful thing to embrace, nurture and cultivate to be part of the success of Holden in the future – and how many brands would absolutely love to be in our position that we have that following?

There’s a bit of work to be done in explaining and telling the story on the front foot about these new cars, what they can do and how they can continue to deliver the Holden

promise going forward. But to your point raised earlier, we’re not going to achieve that by detaching ourselves completely from the fans of motor sport and those who follow this sport, and abandoning that in favour of something else that we want to be some time down the track. The brand needs to progress, no question. The cars are progressing, so how can we all, arm in arm, walk towards this new future that will be a very different automotive landscape in this country? We just have to face that reality together and I think there’s a way to do that through the sport.

Are you saying that being in racing still has a halo effect on Holden’s very new, very different and evolving product line?

In some respects, yes, but in other respects it’s an avenue. If we can deliver

Aquilina, above, is the face of Holden’s rejuvination after the manufacturer turned its back on performance branding and introduced the imported ZB Commodore. Ferlazzo, left, is keen to see racing models continue to influence their production counterparts.

good results on the track, to open the conversation not only about the new version of the Commodore that you see racing around the track, but also using the sport to showcase these other great products that we’re bringing into the market like the Arcadia. If you look around the car parks of these events, it’s very informative about where even some of the very traditional Commodore and Falcon customers have gravitated to SUVs as their needs have changed. If our involvement in motor sport does the job of both haloing the brand and giving us an opportunity to talk to customers who are truly engaged in this industry to help tell the Holden story, then that’s another reason for being involved.

You have to do it a very different way, don’t you, because there’s no longer the direct correlation between the racing and the road-going V8 Commodore?

Well, you do, but that detachment between road car and race car has been there a lot longer than what we’ve seen in the past 18 months or so. That’s been a long time coming and I give more credit to this audience that they’ve got that for a long time. People who follow motor sport, fans of the sport, get it. In many ways, the involvement in motor sport is just, again, continuing to cultivate what makes up the Holden DNA. For the people that are involved in this company – the Richard Ferlazzos of this world, the Brett Vivians

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Photos: Daniel Kalisz/Holden Motorsport

(Holden’s executive director of engineering), the 500 engineers and designers – racing is part of their DNA and that’s what we bring to the way that we design future cars not (just) for Holden, but for the GM world. So it’s part of Holden and to go back to your point, the way that we need to draw that link is no different to Renault’s involvement in F1 and Toyota’s involvement in WRC. That direct link is no longer there. The requirements and the pressure on the race-going version of the car is going to continue taking it further and further and further away from where the road cars are, and that’s great for the development of the sport. But racing still has a role to play in our overall marketing mix and we direct part of the budget to motor sport because we believe it’s true to our Holden DNA, and we want to remind people of that and we’ll continue to do that.

wheels and big fender flares, and big spoilers and wings, that’s why they end up on production cars. I’d like to see this continuation of Holden in motor sport forever because it’s part of motoring, which is why all the major brands do it. All the major European and American brands are in motor sport.

You talked about the dissociation with road cars, but in NASCAR you have Toyota Camrys with V8s in them and people go in their droves to watch them.

Richard Ferlazzo, what does racing and a performance image bring to Holden Design – or GM Design Australia as it is now – in this very new era?

So, Kristian, how seriously are you taking the involvement in motor sport now? You have signage on the RBHRT cars, but there’s been little or no activation around that. How are you using the involvement to justify the considerable amount of money you spend on backing the team?

We don’t design race cars, of course, although we do participate in the livery (of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team ZBs).

It’s not really part of our charter to design race cars, but I do see the value in it for the brand. You can’t really separate them in terms of appeal. What appeals to someone in a road-going vehicle extrapolates into a race car, which is why car designs are influenced by race cars. The large alloy

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Racing – and by extension performance – are embedded in Holden’s design DNA, aren’t they?

And have been for the longest time, that’s right. When brands take things seriously, they get into motor sport.

In practical terms, we have a car that hasn’t even been released yet on display here at Bathurst, the Acadia, and getting feedback on it. Similarly, we have a Commodore VXR that we’ve done a little bit of work on – black roof and wheels, little embellishments that Richard and his team have created – and

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we’re getting some feedback from it. So it might be something we merchandise and sell in the future if there’s enough favourable reaction. We’ve also used our involvement in the sport to come up with the Bathurst Time Attack digital concept, and Richard and his team have done a great job showcasing the long-term future and the exploration of what that might be. In terms of where we take it from here, it’s a big investment, as you say, to just show a couple of cars and get a bit of feedback.

So that’s not going to cut it in its own right.

We get, obviously, the brand benefits of being involved in racing, especially when the Holdens are performing well. But, essentially, we’ll need to be looking to this audience for the opportunity to sell more vehicles, establish credibility in the new Commodore, get people exposed to it and test driving it and eventually purchasing it.

We have to get to that sort of point in the future.

So will we see the return of Holden advertising its success on the track, maybe in new and different ways, not just traditional TV or print ads?

We have to recognise the fact that whilst this sport has a great following – and it’s a big following – it is a very narrow component of the overall community and we have far more efficient ways of reaching them.

Going and spending a helluva lot of money broad reach across everything is not the

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way to do it. We use our social media channels to reach the audience that is already predisposed and engaged to communicate our successes. The thing to remember is that we’ve been a constant in this sport. Now, the level of investment has flexed up and down in accordance with the conditions of the business and it has to. It would be not right to maintain a huge level of investment as we did in the past with the business having changed the way it has. But what’s incumbent upon us as a marketing challenge with a new rival car coming in (the Mustang) is how do we extract the most benefit for the brand out of this. We can’t be spending excessive amounts just to be there and have fun. We’re doing it to deliver a return.

Does your gut feeling or actual research tell you that, broadly speaking, current generation Holden buyers and owners – and particularly ZB Commodore owners – relate to the racing and performance heritage?

The people in the market now still buying Commodores do have a loyalty to the brand that, in some cases but not all, is based on our motor sport heritage.

And I think as we put the right amount of focus on it and try a few things in the next 18 months around Commodore in motor sport on a more active way, we’re going to put it to the test in terms of answering that question ourselves. I don’t know the answer as to whether the new Commodore buyers are going to be turned on by our involvement in motor sport. I certainly hope so because we’re investing in it. We’re going to give it a go over the next 18 months.

The Bathurst Track Attack concept, where does that fit into the scheme of things?

From a Holden marketing perspective, it’s another way of engaging with this audience, but the engagement outside the traditional motor sport audience has been fantastic, too. It’s actually piqued quite a lot of interest out there if you look at not only social media, but mainstream media as well. It’s attracted a fair bit of attention and what it does is a couple of things. We’re sending a message that Holden has a long future ahead of it and we’re looking ahead in terms of automotive technology.

We’re not just trading on our past. We have a 500-plus strong engineering and design team that is inventing the cars of the future and the Bathurst Track Attack digital concept points to that. And just like any concept car, whether it’s raceoriented or not, it’s there to get people talking about our brand in an aspirational and exciting kind of way. It’s core reason for being is a true design and engineering exercise to show the reach and stretch of what these guys are working on. The marketing spin-off from that is fantastic.

You get people talking about your brand and what our people are capable of.

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Holden is steadily increasing its involvement in motorsport as shown by the signage on Triple Eight’s three cars and by displaying its newest models, the Acadia and the Commodore VXR at Bathurst.

Richard, it’s a true dream machine in the tradition of Holden show cars like the Hurricane, GTR-X and Efijy, so how big a project was it?

There were many months involved in it, but it wasn’t a mainstream project. It was more of a ‘skunk works’ project and we’re always doing those kinds of things. You get a lot of very motivated people in the design department and when you can allow them to explore outside the realms of a production car, they’re more than willing to give up their own time to do that. It did take a lot of extra time, but nowhere near the amount of time a normal concept car would take, which is like a year and about $2 million-$3 million. This is a much cheaper exercise and it’s a product of the changing landscape.

One is there are no more motor shows in Australia, so we don’t have that platform to

release a concept car like we used to in the form of a built-up model that can run, and it’s glossy and shiny and you can hop in it.

We just don’t have that platform, we can’t do it. But we wanted to keep doing that for the Holden brand. Now, on an annual basis, we build concept cars for other GM partners, but as a Holden-branded one for our public, we couldn’t do it. Things have changed and the tools that we use to design production cars in the form of simulations and visualisation, we can apply to concept cars in a virtual environment.

engineer things, and the whole idea of this was to show the public what the emerging technology is in a sexy way that they can relate to and that conditions them for the future. This concept alerts people to what’s coming, but “Hey, don’t be alarmed, we’ll make it sexy and we’ll make it good”.

It’s a concept, a bit of fantasy, but how practical is the design? If you had the budget, could you actually build it?

Yes, we’re at the very early stages of that.

We have a new managing director on board (David Buttner, ex-Toyota Australia boss) and he’s very supportive. We’re developing our plans for 2020 and beyond now, so there’s a bit of work between now and the end of the year, maybe spill over a little bit into the New Year, just refining what that

Of course. It’s a CAD model, so what you see is a maths surface that exists. Are we in the business of designing future race cars?

No, but we can style things and we can

Kristian, Holden is committed to Supercars until the end of next year. Are you going to stay in racing for 2020 and beyond? Are you starting to think about the renewal process?

happening, happening there are a few mountains to climb.

And even if those difficulties were overcome, wouldn’t it still be a dilemma for Holden? The Camaro would be a rival to the Commodore, but Holden also has a partnership with HSV to import and convert Camaros.

It’s a little complicated, I’ll grant you. But I can only speak to Holden’s view and that is that at the time when I was initially quoted, I said our first, second and third focus with our involvement in motor sport is Commodore. It’s Commodore, Commodore and Commodore. And we’re just fresh off an investment in the sport with getting ZB Commodore to the point where it’s on the track and we want to see some realisation of that investment over the coming years and that’s just what we’re focusing on. I don’t mean to be a kill-joy, but it (Camaro) is a little bit of a distraction from what we are here and in the market to do. Fact of the matter is, resources aren’t aplenty like they used to be. We have to really narrow our focus on what we concentrate on and we’ve decided what we’re concentrating on, and I said it at the time and I’ll say it again now – it is Commodore, making ZB an absolute success.

There are a few mountains to climb according to Aquilina when it comes to developing a Camaro Supercar.

But isn’t it in Holden’s interest, as part of the GM family, for HSV to sell as many Camaros as it can?

might look like. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m really keen for Holden to continue playing a role in the sport. The shape and form of that is what we’re going to start planning through and work out our strategy on what that might look like.

As we speak, are you thinking it’ll be a good thing for Holden to stay in Supercars, presumably staying with Triple Eight beyond next year?

I won’t go into it because it’s very much in its infant stages of discussion at this stage, but the starting point is “What is our involvement in motor sport look like going forward?” rather than are we in or are we not? That’s not the question.

My impression is that when David Buttner was at Toyota, he wasn’t a supporter of racing and opposed any

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involvement in Supercars. Has he changed his attitude now that he’s running Holden?

My understanding of Dave is that he’s most interested in what it’s going to take for a brand like Holden to succeed. Now, I’m not going to talk – and he won’t talk – about his time at Toyota and the mix of things that they brought to the market to make that brand succeed. But I do know that when it comes to the Holden mix, it’ll be very different to the Toyota approach.

You’re on the record as having said that in broad terms, Holden would have no issue with the Chevrolet Camaro racing against the Commodore in Supercars. Is that still the case now that HSV’s Camaro racer project is close to becoming real?

I think it’s probably a bit of a leap to say

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it’s close to being real. I don’t think that’s the case at all. But they’re talking about it and it’s created a bit of excitement leading into this weekend (Bathurst 1000) and I can understand why something like a Camaro would excite a few folks. To get it to the point where it’s on the track here, there’s a few things to overcome. And part of that, as Ryan (Walkinshaw) and perhaps Tim (Jackson, HSV boss) have articulated through the lead-up and around the weekend, is that there are rule changes (needed) and technical things to overcome.

There’s the level of involvement required from GM and from Holden. Those are all undefined big issues that make this thing still pie-in-the-sky at this stage and I think the people involved there, both Ryan and Tim, also refer to it as a bit pie-in-the-sky at this stage. And I know that what they said indicates advanced thinking about this and no doubt if you’re selling a road car, you’d be fancying it, but as far as the actual practicalities of getting this thing

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I think it’s in GM’s interest, but even within GM, there are priorities that we need to face. We need to decide on the things we do do and focus our constrained resources on them and let go some of the things that are lower priorities. So even whilst there might be an argument in that regard, our higher-order priority has to be selling as many Commodores and establishing that car in a market that is quite challenging.

So lots of moving parts involved and still a long, long way to go before there is any decision on whether Camaro races in Supercars?

Yes, by all the parties involved. We’re no closer than where we were when I made the comments I made earlier, other than to say that we know where our focus has to be. It’s a commercial reality. I can understand why fans are excited (about the Camaro), but our job is to get as many people as possible excited about the Holdens that we’re selling rather than Chevys.

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By DAN KNUTSON and LUIS VASCONCELOS

While Lewis Hamilton comfortably leads the World Driver’s Championship thanks to Ferrari’s late-season slump, the contribution of his Mercedes Grand Prix teammate Valterri Bottas cannot be underestimated

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ALTTERI BOTTAS could have won four grands prix so far this season. The 29-year-old Finn, now in his second season with Mercedes, is driving better this year than he did last year. But by this time in 2017 he had won two races, and he was a lot closer to teammate Lewis Hamilton, both on the track and in the points standings.

So what has gone wrong?

“There have been a few events that have cost me a lot of points, and that have allowed my competitors to gain points,” Bottas explains.

“A few times also strategy-wise we have tried some things which in theory should have been possible but it was not. Running quite long before pitting and so on.

“So it has just felt like many things have gone against me, and that is why there is a big difference. The main thing was the run of bad luck, and that way others gained points and I lost points.”

THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

THE SEASON started badly for Bottas when he crashed in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix and finished eighth in the race. But he could have won the next three rounds in Bahrain, China and Azerbaijan where he had strong weekends but a run of bad luck.

In Bahrain he got some criticism for not making a Daniel Ricciardo style lunge for the lead on the last lap. But the Mercedes team had held him back for 10 laps, telling him to conserve his tyres. The team only unleashed him on lap 44 of 57, by which point he was 8.1 seconds behind the leading Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. Bottas only got within the DRS zone to Vettel at the start of last lap. But he was still 0.75 of a second behind at that time, so he was not close enough to make the move.

Bottas was also poised to win in China, but then the Safety Car came out at a very inopportune moment and ruined things for him.

He was heading to victory in Azerbaijan

Unlike Un U nlilik like ke his his teammate, tea eaamm mat ate, e, bbad add luck lluuck ck has has befallen befa effal allleen Bottas Bott Bo tttaass on on a number numb nu mbber er of of occasions, including here at Azerbaijan.

when a piece of debris seemed to materialize out of nowhere on the Baku streets and caused a rear tyre blowout.

In the middle of the season he started from the pole in Austria, where he won last year, and was running in second place when his gearbox broke.

And recently he was ahead of Hamilton in the Russian Grand Prix, another race Bottas won last year, when the team ordered him to move over and let Hamilton pass. Hamilton went on to victory.

Which of these setbacks was more difficult to take?

Bottas pauses to think and answers, “I would say Baku. Maybe also because it was the third race in a row that something good was possible and then it was taken away.”

And how did he handle the disappointment of all those ones that got away?

“For sure it was tough because of

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the amount of points that I lost,” he says. “You just need to move on.

There is no point really in getting stuck in the past. It is part of motor sport, and sometimes there is a longer run of bad things and sometimes it is only one or two races.

It is what it is.”

THE UPPER HAND

FROM ROUND 10, the British Grand Prix, Hamilton has consistently had the upper hand over Bottas. Hamilton was more effective in qualifying mainly, and that helps in the race because if he is in front he has an advantage due to the Mercedes policy of giving the lead driver the optimum pit strategy.

“I would say that my driving has not changed,” Bottas says, “so maybe he has raised his game a bit. I don’t remember any more in detail of those weekends why exactly that happened, but obviously there are always reasons why he has had a very good strong run lately.”

To even get close to Hamilton requires Bottas to be on the top of his own game every week.

“For sure it is tough to do that,” Bottas acknowledges.

“Every track is unique; there is always different set ups and downforce levels, and so on. And Lewis has double the experience in F1 than me, so that helps him. But every year you get better with doing that and knowing all the tricks.”

Bottas puts down Hamilton’s flourish of form to superior experience: ”Lewis has double the experience in F1 than me, so that helps him. But every year you get better with doing that and knowing all the tricks.”

SECOND YEAR STUDENT

THE WORLD of Formula 1 evolves so quickly that the fact that this is only the second season for Bottas with Mercedes, is sometimes easy to forget. He got the job when Nico Rosberg decided to retire at the end of 2016 after winning the world championship. It was a major shift for Bottas to move from Williams to Mercedes, and he had a lot to absorb with his new team in 2017.

“During last year it was race after race of learning little things here and there, about setting up the car, about making sure I changed my driving style to fit this car,” he says.

“The main thing was my driving style, how I used to drive. How I had to drive the Williams car, and how this car behaves mechanically is very different. With this car you can be much more aggressive turning into the corner and getting on power.

“The suspension works in a very different way, mechanically and also set-up wise. What I was always pushing for before at Williams was a very strong front end. That always was quicker and was always better for me. Now that is not really the case with this car. And because of that you need to change the driving style. It is not massive things but small things

here and there I had to learn and change.

“And in the end, it makes a difference. That is why this year my performance is better. It is also a fact of getting to know the team better, being comfortable with all the people around me, knowing them better, and that makes all of us work more efficiently.”

Bottas has not stopped learning and adapting. The advantage of being a second-year student at Mercedes is that he now has last year’s data and experiences to study, which he can now couple with assistance from the team’s vast resources.

“I can focus on the weaknesses,” he says. “For example, at tracks where I struggled last year against Lewis I go through a lot of the things: the driving lines, the set-up differences, everything. So I really try to improve the weaknesses and correct any mistakes.

“And at the same time naturally you get better, and you are not forgetting your strengths. It is an ongoing process. And especially from one year to another, when you come back to the team, now having all the information from last year of what happened and why. So it is quite easy to pinpoint those things and focus on them.”

Comparing to where he is now with two years ago at the same time with Williams, in which areas does he feel he is a better driver?

“I am more adaptable now to

t a th e s u a c e b d te a tr s u fr rd o “I don’t like the w I d n a p u e iv g to g n ti r ta is for me a sign of s ” d in m y m in t a th e k li g in th don’t have any

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THERE IS NO “I” IN TEAM IN RUSSIA yet another victory escaped Valtteri Bottas’ grasp. But this time it was not due to Safety Cars or punctures but rather to team orders to let Lewis Hamilton go ahead. It was not that Mercedes did not want Bottas to win, but rather that the team was worried about Hamilton losing a position to championship rival Sebastian Vettel. Worse yet, because Hamilton already had blisters on his rear tyres, he could have used them up battling with Vettel and would then need to pit and lose even more places.

“Rationally, it was the right call to do,” says Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff. “But our sporting heart says no. At the end (of the season) if five points or three points are missing, then you are the biggest idiot on the planet by prioritising Valtteri’s single race result over the championship.”

Team order are part and parcel of Formula 1 and always have been, but Mercedes is reluctant to use them except in the direst of situations. This certainly was not the

case for much of Michael Schumacher’s career at Benetton and Ferrari, where his teammates were consistently ordered to play second fiddle.

When Mario Andretti won the 1978 world championship his Lotus teammate Ronnie Peterson dutifully held station behind him. The same was true in 1979 when Gilles Villeneuve supported Jody Scheckter’s championship winning season at Ferrari.

Formula 1 is a team sport, and Bottas knows that there is no “I” in “team.” Just after the race in Russia he rated the difficulty factor in accepting the situation at 7.7 out of 10. But by the time he had arrived in Japan for the race the following weekend, he had shrugged off the Russian business.

“For me that’s now completely in the past,” he states.

“We’ve discussed it in a lot of detail with the team, and for all of us it’s very clear what happened and why. I’m fine with

it; I just look ahead now. We need to play as a team. We want to win those titles and that’s how it is.

“But I also need to prepare myself mentally and don’t want to turn up to a race weekend thinking that I’m just here to help. That way you can’t get everything out of yourself. So I will try to be on pole position, try to win the race and then we will see how it goes.”

Once the championship is settled there will be no more team orders, and Bottas will once again be free to race Hamilton.

“For sure it gives confidence in knowing that once things go right and everything goes as planned, that it is possible be faster than Lewis,” Bottas says. “I definitely know that I can beat him. I know that it is extremely difficult and that I need to really be on top of my game and everything needs to go well. But I always know that is it possible, and I will know it is also possible in the future as well.”

different conditions,” Bottas says. “I have been able to adapt to different set-ups and different driving styles. That is the main thing.”

NOT FRUSTRATED

SO, ALL in all a strange season for Bottas. He is driving better than last year but did not win one of the first 17 races. Is he frustrated?

“Hah! For sure it is not ideal,” he replies. “I don’t like the word frustrated because that is for me a sign of starting to give up, and I don’t have anything like that in my mind.

So I deal with the situation. I take it how it is and just focus ahead. Each weekend is again a new opportunity.

Maybe I can win the race, maybe not, but that is ahead and that is the only thing I can have an effect on; I can’t affect anything that is behind. So it is now this situation, I have this many points and I need to make the most out of it for the rest of the year.”

Bottas’ third victory in 2017 came in the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Another victory in that race would be a nice way for him to close out his second year with Mercedes.

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UNDER THE SKIN

OL’ FAITHFUL The Whiteline Racing Chevrolet Camaro has been a mainstay of the Touring Car Masters field for nearly 10 years, first in the hands of Andrew Miedecke and now with Sydneybased engine components distributor Adam Bressington. Auto Action took a look under the skin of the brutish yellow Camaro, which has been a constant thorn in the side of both John Bowe and Steven Johnson at the front of the Touring Car Masters field

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N ITS 10-year history, the development of Touring Car Masters has been rapid as the class has moved away significantly from its amateur Group N roots to become a semi-professional category featuring names like John Bowe, Steven Johnson and Jim Richards.

The level of car preparation and development has also lifted as demonstrated by the recent additions of Andrew Fisher’s Ford Falcon GT, Jason Gomersall’s Holden Torana A9X, Marcus Zukanovic’s Ford Falcon XD and Mark King’s newer-shape Chevrolet Camaro RS, all of which have made use of the continued freedoms allowed under updated rules.

However one driver, Adam Bressington is bucking the trend. His 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS has continued to be a highly competive car that has not upgraded to some of the more recent freedoms and yet after nearly 10 seasons continues to be as competitive as ever.

Bressington has been driving the car for two years now, taking over from former open-wheel and touring car driver Andrew Miedecke, who had garnered strong results during his time behind the wheel. Bressington had had a disastrous year in a Holden Monaro owned

by Jim Morton in 2013 and entered rounds sporadically, until Bob Middleton offered a drive in the Camaro at the Queensland Raceway round in 2016.

It was a strong round for Bressington, who then enjoyed another at Bathurst before Middleton suggested he should contest the series full time in 2017.

“I’ve always enjoyed the category,” Bressington told Auto Action.

“I had a great run at Bathurst [2016] where I was battling Bowe, Johnson, (Glenn) Seton and Kingy [teammate Mark King], then Bob suggested ‘we better do it next year’, so we did.”

Bressington has been a frontrunner over the past two seasons of TCM in what is one of the oldest cars in the field. He acknowledges that it may not be the fastest in a straight line or the lightest car in the field, but he explained the car is well balanced and a pleasure to drive.

“It is a nicely balanced car that has been engineered well.

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“It’s a special thing to drive and it’s good under brakes. It was really good in the wet at Bathurst, which is the first time I had run in the wet with newer tyres. I feel comfortable in the car despite not having the seat time I’d like. We don’t test, we do our testing during the practice sessions at a race meeting,” Bressington explains.

The guru behind Bressington’s Camaro is the experienced Mark Peacock, affectionately known as ‘Birdman’. Peacock has been preparing Middleton’s array of racing machinery for 30 years, detailing to Auto Action how far TCM has evolved in its short history.

“It evolved from Group N, but the cars are notoriously fragile because they are all productionbased and the life of those cars are getting so old now,” Peacock explained.

“The main issue was the reliability, so it has transformed into this, which basically are Group N cars with some modifications to make them more reliable and safer in the form of better brakes, better gearboxes, better diffs.

“It was just simply from a reliability point of view and it really started out as gentleman racing, but very quickly – within 2-3 years – it became a senior’s tour for retired racing drivers and it got pretty serious.

“We’ve had a fair bit of evolution in the 10-12 years it has been going, but we’ve got to the point where the availability of parts is a lot thinner in terms of panels, and with the engine rule changes, it has developed into a very serious category.

“Considering the differences between one of these and a Supercar, these have no tyres, no brakes and only four gears, yet they aren’t that much slower.”

This is mainly down to the engine. The 350 small block Chev motor is made almost entirely of aftermarket parts due to the limited supply and reliability of the originals. To keep up with the frontrunners, the engine is good for almost 700bhp, using a single four-barrel carburettor and utilising a dry sump.

“We have a reasonable amount of freedom in the engine, we have control cylinder heads, there the are certain types approved for each engine en and we’re not allowed to use much in the way of exotic material, so no titanium rods ro or cranks,” Peacock said.

“The engine side of it, now that it has gotten go so serious, when we first started a 530hp engine was good enough, but now n if you’re not pushing 700hp, you’re nowhere.” n When quizzed where the aftermarket parts p are produced, Peacock explained that th most of the parts are custom designed and a built in Australia. He went onto explain further that originally he utilised American f parts and modified them slightly to suit p A Australian racing conditions, but that local c components have proven to be the equal o the imported parts. of “Most of those are custom and built

Although close to 10 years old, the Whiteline racing Camaro continues to be as competitive as ever in the hands of Bressington.

UNDER THE SKIN

Th 350 smallll bl The blockk Ch Chev iin B Bressington's i t ' C Camaro generates t awesome power bbutt PPeacockk says it needs d tto: "Wh "When we firstt started t t da 530hp engine was good enough but if you're not pushing 700hp, now you're nowhere."

here,” Peacock told Auto Action.

“I imported American exhaust systems and modified them because the problem was that ground clearance became a big issue. Because we were running so close to the ground the standard exhaust systems don’t last very long, so what I did was buy off the shelf competition designed systems, then modified them to fit them in the available space.

“With our latest spec engines, we decided to go with a system that was designed in Queensland by CES (Competition Exhaust Services), that do a lot of work with some Supercars teams. The team at CES completed all of the design work, then a local company in Adelaide did all the fabrication. It’s quite a complex undertaking because there are space restrictions in the car such as steering boxes, wishbones and all the other engine components, which makes it a really tricky job and on average takes two weeks to finish.

“It’s not cheap.”

But there is reason behind the madness is that critical power gains can be made through the exhaust system, which is ideal for the Chev small block, which according to Peacock has a number of deficiencies compared to the rival Ford engine.

“Running a Chevy, you’re a little bit behind the eightball compared with the Ford. It’s a lot easier to get the horsepower and torque out of the six-litre Ford engine than it is out of a Chev,” Peacock continued.

“Whatever little bit we can find in the exhaust through fabrication and design, we get a little bit more mid-range torque, ultimately it all counts. You get to the point where you’re spending lots of money for very small improvements.”

Cooling is also another important feature of a car the age of the Camaro. An American Afco radiator was chosen by Peacock as it fitted in the tight confines of the engine bay and provided adequate cooling to keep the engine running at top performance.

Much like the ‘70s, oil cooling is still an issue now, but Whiteline Racing has experimented and successfully found a solution to the problem despite coming at a cost.

“One of the biggest issues we have is oil cooling.

There are two ways you can go, a smaller oil cooler in front of the radiator, then you compromise your water cooling and run the risk of getting small punctures in the oil cooler. Or what we have chosen to do, which is run the oil cooler behind the water radiator which means it has to be a lot bigger and is a little bit expensive than normal.”

TCM regulations dictate that all cars must use a 4-speed gearbox, which mean the majority of teams look to the US and NASCAR for a strong and reliable unit. Whiteline Racing use a 4-speed Jerico NASCAR

gearbox in the Camaro, based on the Super T10 or Ford Toploader, but enhanced for racing.

“Virtually everyone uses NASCAR-style four-speed gearboxes, it’s a dogbox primarily designed mostly in America, although I’m now having some gears made locally.

It’s a proper racing gearbox and that’s always been the case from the beginning, because it was one of the big issues with the Group N cars. The production four-speed gearboxes weren’t up to the punishment.” were When it comes to the diff, Whiteline Racing has gone Wh either eith ithe way with a Ford nine-inch (which features in this car) and a Chev 12-bolt fitted in the other team car. Both have advantages and disadvantages in terms of ratio availability adva power loss, which Peacock said evens itself out over the and p two cchoices. “[The “[ [Th 12-bolt] is certainly strong enough, but the ratio availability isn’t quite as good as the nine-inch, but the other availa side of the coin is it is a more efficient diff with less power loss tthrough the driveline. Because there are very few power losses through the transmission, the main loss of power is losse through the diff and the Ford diff consumes a bit of power as throu primary design was to be quiet for road use. the p “The trade-off there is that all of the componentry is ready “Th to go with the aftermarket stuff and almost an infinite number ratios. But the down side of it is that it tends to run at of ra high higher temperatures, which means that you have to stay t of oil lubrication and make sure that your set ups on top are right, because if you get it wrong, it turns to shit pretty qui quick.”

Whiteline Racing's Camaro is a consistent frontrunner and delivered Bressington the Pro Am title last year.

1969 CHEVROLET

CAMARO SS ENGINE

350 small block Chevy, 23 degree heads, dry-sump, single four-barrel carburettor, CES custom exhaust system, Power: Approx 650bhp Max Revs: 7500rpm Transmission: Jerico 4-speed NASCAR dogbox Ford 9-inch differential Triple-plate clutch

INTERIOR

Cobra seat, Sparco seatbelts, fire extinguisher, built-in custom pedal box, Auto Meter gauges

SUSPENSION

F: King Springs coil overs, Penske shocks R:King Spring Mono leaf, Penske shocks Brakes: 4-piston Brembo calipers, 12” discs, Project Mu pads Wheels and Tyres: 15” x 8” performance Superlites, Hoosier racing tyres

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4724mm Width: 1880mm Height: 1298mm Wheelbase: 2743mm Weight: 1500kg

Brakes are a major consideration on the Camaro due to the need to stop the 1500kg monster at fast tracks like Bathurst and Sandown.

Further development of the TCM regulations allow carbon clutches to be installed but when the category moved away from standing starts, the clutch ceased to be a weakness, so Whiteline Racing decided to stick with an off-the-shelf triple plate clutch, which is "nothing particularly exotic" according to Peacock.

Having King within the Whiteline team has been useful in regards to suspension tuning, as shock absorber development has proven to be an area where big gains have been made. This has allowed the team to make minimal changes from track-to-track, which was aided by the category moving away from incorporating a production-style spring and allowing full coil-overs to be utilised.

“Originally, we had to use the production-style of springs, 5-inch diameter things, it was all free other than that. Now we’re allowed to use a full coil-over in the car, so that means we can use a much smaller spring than the shock absorber,” Peacock said.

“Where we spend all our time and effort is shock development, which has been mainly completed at King Springs. It’s a whole world unto itself and to do it properly you have to have access to the shock dyno, experiment a bit, be conservative or be 95 per cent, so you can push the envelope a bit. It’s one area that we spend a lot of time and effort in development because with any one brand of shock, there is often a choice of half a dozen different style pistons, which produce different curve characteristics and combinations of such.

“Some of the technology we use is stuff that’s been

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developed in the states for NASCAR, some of it is our own doing.”

The shocks chosen by Whiteline Racing are Penskes and King Springs supply the front coil overs and mono leaf springs on the rear.

Brakes are a big issue for the behemoth Camaro as regulations dictate 4-piston calipers all round and a less than ideal diameter size that stops a car weighing 1500kg. The goal for Peacock was to make sure the car stopped as well at the end of the race as it did at the start, and for that he has chosen Brembo calipers, Project Mu pads from a Supercar and American sourced 12” discs that are machined to size, a choice that is made based on cost.

The Camaro bodyshell was originally sourced from the US and came complete with bullet holes!

Once it arrived at Whiteline Racing’s workshop it was sent to be soda-blasted, removing all the paint and cleaning the bodyshell. Once soda-blasted the process of repairing and reinforcing the bodyshell got underway, removing unrequired items such as handbrake cable brackets and battery carriers, before a cage was installed, which Peacock farmed out.

“There are a couple of ways you can go about it. You can build an FIA specified design with approved material and we farmed that out because there are builders who have CAMS accreditation to do that,” Peacock said.

“You can theoretically do it yourself, but when there is an inspection process, it is fairly complex especially if you’re not in Melbourne. The roll cage design is relative to the car, but primarily it is a full cage similar to what Supercars were

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running 5 or 8 years ago. You can go chrome moly, but that involves a rather complicated inspection and design process that gets very expensive, so we chose to just go down the expanded approved design route, which is cheaper and quicker. The difference in weight is not hugely significant, it is probably 20-30 pounds over the whole car.”

Dummy assembly was the next step to take place before the bodyshell was sent to the paintshop before final assembly completed, or as Peacock put it, ‘finding all the little things missed’.

Electronics are starting to creep into TCM, with partial MoTec systems being utilised in some of the newer racers, however wheel sensors are banned, leaving only a limited amount of data that can be utilised by teams and drivers.

“We’re very limited with electronics, we’re now able to use some data acquisition and digital dashboards, not that we run them as when I originally built the car it had to be all analogue gauges. Adam’s car has got a PDM unit, which is just a concession to reliability really,” Peacock expanded The rest of the interior is made of a Cobra seat and Sparco belts, which have a lifetime of around 10 years as TCM only complete short sprint races, Despite newer, younger competition, Bressington continues to be a fixture at the front of the TCM field in the yellow Camaro. Even though on the outside it looks straight from the race tracks of 1969, the venerable Camaro hides underneath its stylish body a mixture of NASCAR and Supercar technology, in what is becoming a very advanced class.

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MILLE MIGLIA the true test of man and machine

In the first edition of Auto Action’s Great Drives series, Bob Watson examines how Stirling Moss took a heroic victory on the notorious Mille Miglia

By BOB WATSON

T

HE MILLE Miglia was an event that today would be regarded as motoring lunacy. As the name suggests, it was a thousand mile race run in Italy on open public roads, with cars driving non stop except for refuelling, tyre changes and necessary repairs.

In the later events attempts were made to free the roads of other than race traffic, but drivers could never be sure of what was around the next corner.

Enzo Ferrari described it as “an epoch making event which created our cars and the Italian Automobile industry. The Mille Miglia caused the birth of GT, or Grand Touring cars. It proved that by racing over open roads for a thousand miles, there were great technical lessons to be learned by brake, clutch, electrical and lighting component manufacturers, proving that motor racing improves the breed”.

The first Italian Grand Prix had been held in Brescia in 1922, but the following year it was transferred to the newly built Monza circuit in Milan. Suitably outraged, the good folk of Brescia decided to organise a 1000 mile race travelling south to Rome and then back to Brescia.

The first Mille Miglia was run in 1927 and the race rules were simple – drive as fast as you can for as long as you can. Refuelling, meals and comfort stops were all in your own time. The race was run 24 times, and attracted 5 million spectators each time.

The Mille Miglia became a heat of the World Sports Car championship in 1953 and was an important sales platform for companies making Gran Turismo type cars. Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes

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Benz and Porsche all ran factory cars driven by the top drivers of the period – Fangio, Moss, Castellotti, Frere, Taruffi, Collins. The dominant marques were Alfa Romeo with 11 wins, mainly pre World War 2, and Ferrari, which won the event 8 times. Alfa Romeo Drivers included Nuvolari, Caracciola and Ascari.

Mercedes Benz won in 1931 with Caracciola, and returned to the race in 1955, determined to break the Ferrari domination. The driver lineup was Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss (partnered by a motor cycle racer and journalist Denis Jenkinson), Hans Herrmann and Karl Kling and the team was managed by Alfred Neubauer, the famous manager of Mercedes Benz’s pre war racing team of Silver Arrows.

The Mercedes cars were fuel injected in line 8 cylinder engined 300SLR models. The car number showed the time the car had started the race: in the case of Moss, 722 which meant that the car left the start in Brescia at 7.22am. This excellent system allowed spectators along the course to gauge how the cars were performing.

Moss elected to take Jenkinson with him as a navigator, whereas most drivers were alone. Jenkinson was no novice in the sport; and not short on courage. He had won the World Motor Cycle Sidecar championship with Eric Oliver on three occasions. Together the pair developed a system of notes devised by Jenkinson, so that he could warn Moss of hazards and also help Moss go flat out over crests where the road ahead was straight. Altogether the notes totalled 17 closely typed pages in the form of a roll of paper, and Jenkinson kept track of

where the car was on the course by referring to road side kilometer posts which are placed every kilometer on Italian roads. Driver and co-driver communicated by hand signals because the noise level was so high in the open topped car.

The crew also practised wheel changing in case of tyre trouble, and got the time for stopping, getting out the necessary tools and the spare wheel, doing the wheel change and putting everything back again down to 1min 25sec which impressed the Mercedes mechanics greatly.

Moss and Jenkinson drove the entire 1000km course several times, first in Moss’s own Mercedes 220A sedan, and then in a prototype 300SLR, in which they crashed into a truck.

Jenkinson fine tuned his notes, and the pair felt they were well prepared for the event.

So at 7.22 am precisely they left the start at Brescia. The first car in the field had left the

The calm before the storm, above right, Moss and codriver Jenkinson are ready to set off. The windscreen failed to keep Moss clean during the 1000 mile journey, below right. It had been 24 years since Mercedes had taken victory and Moss delivered it in 1955, above left.

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Jenkinson not only had to hastily read his pacenotes, but feed Moss lollies and warn other motorists of the impending approach of the Mercedes by flahing the lights and tooting the horn, above. The race proved popular with spectators as many flocked to the event from across Italy, right.

previous evening at 9pm, slower cars starting first. Highly favoured Castellotti in a 4.4 litre Ferrari was immediately behind at 723 and then race favourite PieroTaruffi (3.7 litre Ferrari) at 728. Accelerating at full throttle they left the start ramp and were away.

Within 10 kms Moss had passed car 720, a Ferrari, and on the straights to Verona the car was reaching 7500 rpm in fifth gear, 170 mph (274 km/h). Jenkinson was very busy what with his roll of notes, feeding Moss sweets to suck on, blowing the horn and flashing the lights to pass cars. Near Padua they saw a car gaining on them rapidly – it was Castellotti in the Ferrari. As they arrived in Padua Moss braked too late on a corner in the town and bumped a hay bale, with Castellotti right behind and slipping by.

They followed the wild progress of the Ferrari as it slid around corners, using the footpaths and the unsealed edges of the road, throwing up dust and stones.

Eventually Moss backed off and let the Ferrari go, but at Ravenna they repassed as the Ferrari stopped for new tyres. Moss pressed on down the fast winding road to Rimini but Jenkinson was feeling ill due to the heat, the smell from the inboard drum brakes and the fumes from the engine. He leaned out to vomit up his breakfast and in the process the wind blew his spectacles off. Oops.

Fortunately he had a spare pair.

They were passing many slower cars and ones that had broken down, but there was no sign of their main rivals.

At the Pescara control they took on fuel in 28 seconds, and set off for Rome where they were handed a sheet of paper telling them that they were running second, 15 seconds behind Taruffi. After leaving Pescara they had a minor “off�, going through a wall of hay bales, but luckily there was no serious damage.

There were many railway level crossings along the route. During

34 AutoAction

their practicing Moss and Jenkinson had found that if the crossing rails were down there was sufficient slack in the mechanism to allow the rail to be lifted enough for the Mercedes to pass underneath.

Fortunately none were closed during the race.

The last ten kilometers into Rome were a nightmare.

The crowds were so thick that Moss was forced to slow, weaving the car from side to side at 130 mph to make the crowd move back. At Rome after checking in to the control the Mercedes mechanics refuelled the car and changed the rear tyres while Moss got out to relieve himself. It was the first break after three and a half hours of flat out driving.They were told that they were leading the race by two minutes from Taruffi, Herrman, Kling and Fangio. There was no mention of Castellotti.

From Rome the course became more mountainous, with the Radicofani, Futa and Raticosa passes to negotiate. Moss was driving superbly, sliding the car around the twisting roads and constantly passing slower cars. Then on a downhill section of the Radicofani pass a front brake locked causing the car to spin and go backwards into a

“Moss and Jenkinson drove the entire 1000km course several times, first in Moss’s own Mercedes 220A sedan, and then in a prototype 300SLR, in which they crashed into a truck.

Jenkinson fine tuned his notes, and the pair felt they were well prepared for the event.”

The battered Mercedes crossed the line at Brescia with no idea of the result, but Moss had given it everything, above. Jenkinson had the unfortunate case of losing his glasses during the race, but luckily he had a spare pair, left. There were obviously no crowd control measures in 1955, below.

repairs. They had won! Moss and Jenkinson averaged over 157 km/h, racing virtually non stop for 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds. They had made motoring history and had also refuted the old Mille Miglia saying “he who leads at Rome is never first home” The Mille Miglia race was banned in 1957 after two fatal crashes. The first was Spanish driver Alfonso de Portago and his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson driving a Ferrari 335 S that took the lives of the crew and nine spectators at the village of Guidizzolo. Five of the spectators killed were children, all of whom were standing along the race course.

Portago, already unsettled by doing a race he felt was too dangerous, waited too long to make a tyre change and the crash was caused by a tyre blowout. The tyre manufacturer was sued for this, as was the Ferrari team. The second crash, in Brescia, took the life of Joseph Göttgens.

He was driving a Triumph TR3. ditch, denting the tail of the car. Moss selected first gear and the car drove out, and after two reverses was pointing the correct way and off they went.

At the Siena control there were no scores available, but Moss had been giving it everything and had given Taruffi a hard task to catch up.

The Mercedes by now was looking rather dirty and battered, but was still running superbly. Moss attacked the roads between Siena and Florence at full speed, even though he had been driving flat out for over seven hours in very hot conditions. Jenkinson was tiring due to the constant high cornering forces and having nothing to hang on to.

It was very hot, and at the top of the Futa Pass the road surface had melted and this plus the oil dropped by the cars still in front made conditions treacherous. Moss had to back off considerably, thwarting his aim of covering the Florence-Bologna stretch in less than an hour. They took one hour and one minute.

After Bologna the roads were easier, and Moss then thought they could reach Brescia in ten hours, which would give an average speed of one hundred miles per hour for the race.

The last corner into the final control at Brescia was taken in a long slide at 100 miles per hour. They had finished, but had they won? Where was Taruffi? Then they were told that Taruffi had retired wirh a failed oil pump and Fangio had stopped for minor

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Much of the information for this article was taken from Denis Jenkinson’s report on the race, “With Moss in the Mille Miglia” published in the June 1955 issue of Motor Sport magazine. Some photos from Stirling Moss’s Book of Motor Sport

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LAST STOP:

AUSTRALIA The final round of the World Rally Championship will host a tantalising threeway battle on the gravel roads around Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales. Auto Action previews what will be a nail-biting finish to one of the closest seasons in WRC history

By HEATH McALPINE

THE NORTHERN New South Wales holiday town of Coffs Harbour is usually the destination of caravans and motorhomes belonging to families or grey nomads.

But one weekend a year in November the town reverbarates to the roar of rally cars as the gullies and forests around it host the the final round of the World Rally Championship.

The Championship is poised to be an exciting affair this year as any one of three drivers can take the WRC title, so the fight could go down to the very last stage on the final day.

As defending Rally Australia winner and current WRC points leader, Thierry Neuville will be trying to successfully claim his and Hyundai’s first piece of WRC silverware.

The Belgian has built on the successes he had in 2017 but with consistency and maturity,

36 AutoAction

which has put him in the position he is now in.

Enter current five-time WRC champion Sebastien Ogier. The Frenchman has had some rare blemishes this year but his form in Australia has been extremely strong in the past, his worst being a fourth-placed finish during last year’s trying conditions.

Ogier heads to Citroen next year after two very successful seasons with Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport organisation and wants to end the association on a high by taking his fourth Rally Australia title and a sixth WRC crown.

The third and final WRC title contender this year is Ogier’s ex-M-Sport teammate, Ott Tanak. Toyota’s newest recruit has taken the Japanese manufacturer to title contention after it had an up and down debut season in 2017. This year has been much stronger, with

Tanak’s teammates Esapakka Lappi and Jari-Matti Latvala right behind the Estonian in fourth and fifth, though out of title contention.

Three non-results in Mexico, Portugal and Great Britainhave harmed Tanak’s run to a maiden title, but a hat-trick of rally wins still have him within striking distance of Neuville and Ogier, and equal with Ogier for overall wins this season.

The three title contenders won’t be the only drivers to watch during this year’s Rally Australia, as teammates will play

Ott Tanak (right) & co-driver Martin Jarveoja are used to winning.

a critical part in the way the championship plays out.

Hyundai’s line-up consists of Kiwi Haydon Paddon and Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen, who both carry strong form in Australia.

Paddon finished on the final step of the podium last year after a torrid 2017 season.

Mikkelsen is a previous winner in Australia, although for Volkswagen, and was leading the event early last year until he struck an embankment and punctured two tyres.

Lappi and Latvala have experienced a strong run of late, scoring multiple podiums and securing Toyota a comfortable lead in the manufacturers’ standings.

Lappi’s first trip to Australia last year was fraught with power steering issues, but he made a superb comeback to sixth, but Latvala’s ended in disappointment.

Australia is a rally where the Fin has enjoyed plenty of success without winning, but in 2017 a mistake on the final stage of the rally led to retirement while sitting in a comfortable third place.

Backing up Ogier is second generation British rally driver Elfyn Evans and Australian debutant Teemu Suninen.

Evans has failed to convert the promise he showed in his first full season in 2017 into further podiums this year, thus far. It has been a disappointing season for the young Brit after being elevated into the seat vacated by Tanak. The inexperienced Suninen sits just ahead of Evans in the championship rankings and successfully scored a podium in what has been a partial season, and will be keen to back Ogier up at Coffs Harbour.

It has been a horror season for the once dominant French marque Citroen.

The firing of Kris

Latvala will have to put the disappointment of last year’s result behind him to back up teammate Tanak’s championship tilt.

Meeke mid-season has been the tip of the iceberg for the team that boasts a superb record of titles. But with Ogier returning next year and the continued development of Craig Breen, there is definitely potential for growth in 2019. The French cars were fast last year but failed to convert, so it seems the team will have to wait until 2019 to return to the winner’s rostrum.

Crews will tackle a heavily-revised route during this year’s Coffs Harbour event, with the popular Destination NSW Super Special Stage featuring two new jumps and a watersplash. The 16 daytime stages the crews will encounter use a mixture of different roads and previous stages reversed in direction. This includes the longest stage, the 28.84km Argents Hill test that utilises parts of the former

Nambucca stage, regarded as one of the most challenging in the WRC. The final stage of the season, Wedding Bells, will be run in reverse direction providing spectators with a much higher jump to watch the cars fly from, while the 1.97km Raleigh amphitheatre stage will be run twice across the

weekend.

After recently confirming its place on the 2019 schedule, this year’s Rally Australia is set to be one of the closest fought of the season as the fight for the title goes to the wire. Nothing is guaranteed.

7Mate and 7plus.com.au schedule

Saturday 17th Nov 0630 Friday Highlights 0700 LIVE (60min) – Argents Hill Reverse 1200 LIVE (60min) – Argents Hill Reverse Sunday 18th Nov 0800 Saturday Highlights 0830 LIVE (60min) – Wedding Bells 1300 LIVE (90min) – Wedding Bells Power Stage, followed by podium presentation at NSR Forests Rally Village from approximately 2.20pm

Ogier is gunning for his sixth WRC title in a row having experienced previous success at Coff Harbour.

(All times Eastern Daylight Time; check guides for latest local broadcast times.)

Fox Sports times, check your local guides

The ever popular Destination NSW Super Special features further challenges this year.

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F1 GP – UNITED STATES Raikkonen was unsurprisingly matter of fact about his victory, but it stopped Hamilton from stitching up the crown.

THE ICE MAN BREAKS HIS DROUGHT

Five years and 113 races. It’s been a while between drinks for Kimi Räikkönen and it was crucial in terms of the championship. Despite a number of issues, Sebastian Vettel kept his title hopes alive with fourth, right behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Report: DAN KNUTSON

AFTER WINNING the Australian Grand Prix in March 2013, Kimi “The Iceman” Räikkönen had to wait 2044 days until his next Formula 1 victory, which came in the United States Grand Prix in October 2018. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, would have to wait at least seven more days before winning his fifth Drivers’ World Championship, after failing to get the job done in the race in Texas.

“I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or not because sometimes it’s been close and something maybe happened,” Räikkönen said of his 21st career victory.

“All of us want to win. I’m happy for that.

It was a great day to prove some people wrong and having a good race, but it doesn’t really change anything for me.”

The outcome of the race – and the 2018 championship – went down to the final laps and a close fight between Räikkönen in his Ferrari, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Hamilton (Mercedes). They crossed the finish line in that order. And, behind this battling trio, there was a fight for fourth between Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari).

Vettel got by Bottas to claim fourth.

But Vettel would have to win all three of the remaining races with Hamilton

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Renault finished 1-2 in the ‘Best of the Rest Cup’ with Hulkenberg edging out Sainz. scoring fewer than five points, to become Champion. Hamilton remained patient.

“I was trying to win the race,” Hamilton said, “but you look at the two guys (Räikkönen and Verstappen), they’re not fighting for a championship, so I had to be very, very careful how I navigated around them. Championships are not won by fighting and making silly mistakes. The key was that I at least finished ahead of Seb, and for me it doesn’t matter when you win the Championship as long as you get it done.”

After having a slower car than Mercedes in the previous two races, Ferrari brought chassis changes to Texas. But not only

did the old spec car work better, it was also faster than Mercedes.

“It’s good news but you can also see it’s bad news,” Vettel said. “If we have to go back to a car that has been competitive three or four months ago, surely it can’t be good news if you think about it!”

But Ferrari and Vettel also continue to make mistakes that cost them points and the Championship.

Vettel failed to slow sufficiently for a red flag in the first practice session at the Circuit of The Americas, and that earned him a three-place grid penalty for the race start. Hamilton took the pole, but instead of lining up second, Vettel started fifth

with Räikkönen second, Bottas third and Ricciardo fourth.

That set up the second problem for Vettel. Räikkönen squeezed ahead of Hamilton at the start to take the lead.

Vettel, meanwhile, banged wheels with Ricciardo, spun, and fell back to 15th. The stewards called it a racing incident, but the bottom line was that it took Vettel out of contention for the victory.

“I didn’t try to lose the race in that corner,” Vettel said. “If we had stayed fourth or fifth after the first lap, we would have been a lot closer. I’m sure we had the speed to win.”

Further back there was more serious car bashing going on in which Fernando Alonso’s McLaren was eliminated.

“The level seems lower than ever,” Alonso said of the midfield drivers. “In Spa they played bowling with us into the first corner. Here they play bowling again into Turn 4. It is a misjudging of distances and speed, which is quite strange to see.”

Ricciardo literally punched a hole in a wall after enduring yet another frustrating retirement. The Aussie was running fourth and would have been in contention for a podium finish when his Renault engine just quit on lap 10.

Raikkonen took a vital lead at the start, above, while Vettel tangled with Ricciardo and dropped to last, leading to a superb recovery drive.

RESULTS: US GRAND PRIX – AUSTIN OCT 21 2018 POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 -

“I just don’t seem to have any luck at the moment,” he lamented. “Everything just switched off and it seemed pretty much identical to the issue I had in Bahrain at the beginning of the year. I couldn’t even communicate with anyone on the radio, so it looks like a battery failure. Now seeing how the race played out makes it even harder to take, as it could have been pretty interesting and it was a great afternoon for Max. The biggest shame is that I only have a handful of races left with Red Bull and I want to have more highs than we’ve had.”

Ironically, it was Ricciardo’s stranded car that triggered the Virtual Safety Car which in turn triggered Hamilton’s early pit stop for tyres. Räikkönen stayed out for 10 more laps and was therefore able to pit just once during the 56-lap race, while Hamilton would have to stop again.

That set up the thrilling finish with Räikkönen ahead of Verstappen, who had carved his way up from 18th after qualifying woes, and Hamilton. All three were nursing fading grip from their tyres.

“I was trying to get close to Kimi but at the same time keeping an eye on Lewis in my mirror,” Verstappen said. “It was close but we managed to hang on to second. Lewis had a go but we both gave each other plenty of room, and thankfully he ran a bit wide and onto a dirty part of the track. I started to run out of traction towards the end, so attacking Kimi was not on the table.”

Räikkönen had 113 races between his previous victory and this one, beating the previous record between wins of 99 races set by Riccardo Patrese.

DRIVER Kimi Raikkonen Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel Valtteri Bottas Nico Hulkenberg Carlos Sainz Kevin Magnussen Sergio Perez Brendon Hartley Marcus Ericsson Stoffel Vandoorne Pierre Gasly Sergey Sirotkin Lance Stroll Esteban Ocon Charles Leclerc Daniel Ricciardo Romain Grosjean Fernando Alonso

CAR Ferrari Red Bull/Renault Mercedes Ferrari Mercedes Renault Renault Haas/Ferrari Force India/Mercedes Toro Rosso/Honda Sauber/Ferrari McLaren/Renault Toro Rosso/Honda Williams/Mercedes Williams/Mercedes Force India/Mercedes Sauber/Ferrari Red Bull/Renault Haas/Ferrari McLaren/Renault

LAPS/GAP 1h34m18.643s 1.281s 2.342s 18.222s 24.744s 1m27.210s 1m34.994s 1m40.657s 1m41.080s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps Disqualified Retirement Retirement Collision Collision

Riccardo’s luck was all-bad again, his Red Bull stopping on lap 10.

It might otherwise has been a win.

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F1 GP – MEXICO

HAMILTON MAKES HISTORY

Max Verstappen may have taken the spoils in Mexico but the headlines belonged to Lewis Hamilton after the Brit took his fifth World Driver’s Championship, equaling Juan Manuel Fangio. In a weekend dominated by Red Bull, it was yet another heartbreak for pole-winner Daniel Ricciardo Report: DAN KNUTSON

MAX VERSTAPPEN drove a perfect race in his Red Bull to win the Mexican Grand Prix, and Lewis Hamilton drove a cautious race in his Mercedes to clinch his fifth world crown.

Sebastian Vettel, who saw his chances to become a five-time drivers’ world champion in 2018 end, finished second in Mexico after inheriting that position from Daniel Ricciardo, who suffered yet another gutting retirement in his Red Bull.

Kimi Räikkönen joined his Ferrari teammate Vettel on the podium in third.

“The start was the key,” Verstappen said after his second win of the season, his second in Mexico and the fifth of his Formula 1 career.

“To be honest, I didn’t sleep very well last night; I was really determined to win today. Luckily, we did that. Amazing job by the team as well. We had the right tyres available and the car was working really well.”

Hamilton really had to pamper his car to the finish.

“It was a horrible race,” he said. “I had a great start and was working my way up but then I don’t know what happened after that.

We were struggling, both myself and Valtteri (Bottas). I was trying to hold on and bring the car home. So grateful for today. To my

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Lewis Hamilton celebrates his fifth world title. family back home, I love you and thank you for all the support. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the hard work my dad and all my family did. A very humbling experience.”

Vettel gave Hamilton a hug and a handshake. There is great respect between the two drivers.

“Congrats to him and his team,” Vettel said. “They did a super job all year. We would have loved to have hung in there a little bit longer, but it wasn’t the case.”

Ricciardo had won the pole the day before, just pipping Verstappen for the prime

starting spot. It was the Aussie’s third career pole, the other two coming at Monaco. It also prevented Verstappen from beating Vettel’s record as the youngest-ever F1 pole sitter.

The Renault engines were not suffering quite as big a horsepower deficit to the Mercedes and Ferrari power units thanks to the high altitude of Mexico City. And that gave Red Bull its first front row lockout since the 2013 United States Grand Prix.

After suffering his seventh retirement of the season in the U.S. Grand Prix just the week

before, the smile was back on Ricciardo’s face when he got the pole in Mexico.

But the smile would soon be wiped off again. At the start he got too much wheelspin and dropped to third behind Verstappen and Hamilton.

Going for a one-stop strategy – Vettel, Hamilton and Verstappen pitted twice – Ricciardo was running second when he stopped with 10 laps to go, because of a suspected hydraulics failure. Retirement number eight!

That made Verstappen and Red Bull very nervous indeed. The team asked Verstappen to turn his engine down to conserve things.

“Without the issue for Daniel we could have had a one-two or at least two cars on the podium,” Verstappen said. “Then of course afterwards it was making sure I didn’t retire.”

Still, Verstappen lapped Valtteri Bottas who finished fifth in his Mercedes. Nico Hülkenberg, sixth in his Renault, was two laps down. Unfortunately for the sellout crowd, Mexican hero Sergio Pérez retired with brake problems while running in the points in his Force India.

The fans, packed into the former baseball stadium that overlooks part of the race track and the podium, did however celebrate with

Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo battled for second (above); Sebastian Vettel congratulates Lewis Hamilton (above right) on beating him to that coveted fifth world title.l

Stoffel Vandoorne was eighth for McLaren (above), Marcus Ericsson ninth for Sauber (below), Sergio Perez (also below) retired the Force India.

the top three finishers and the new five-time champion.

“It’s very strange feeling right now,” Hamilton said. “Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to all the fans for making this Mexican Grand Prix as special as it is. Secondly a big thank you to my team.

(The title) was won through a lot of hard work throughout a lot of races. I’m so grateful for all the hard work back home and for all our partners. And ultimately for Mercedes. I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13. To complete this, when (Juan Manuel) Fangio did it with Mercedes, is an incredible feeling. It’s very, very surreal at the moment.”

Hamilton and the Mercedes team performed even better this year than when they won the championship last year.

“I won the championship last year,” Hamilton said, “and thought how the hell am I going to improve, how am I going to be fitter, how can I be more focused, how can I manage my time better, how can I just be better all round, a better driver in the car but also with my team, in the garage, with the engineers, back at the factory, trying to be a better son and friend. In all areas. I think this year I have been able to lift them all up. I don’t know if that’s something that comes with age but I’m sure that helps. I honestly feel like I’ve performed my best this year so I’m very happy with how it’s gone.”

Mercedes did not wrap up the constructors’ championship in Mexico, however, so that will have to wait until Brazil or Abu Dhabi, the last two races of the season.

“The Drivers’ (championship) obviously really is the one that is more important for the visibility,”

RESULTS: US MEXICAN GP 28 OCTOBER 2018

He missed pole but Max Verstappen scored his fifth GP win.

POS DRIVER CAR LAPS GAP 1h38m28.851s 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 71 2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 71 17.316s 3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 71 49.914s 4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 1m18.738s 5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 70 1 Lap 6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 69 2 Laps 7 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 69 2 Laps 8 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 69 2 Laps 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 69 2 Laps 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 69 2 Laps 11 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 69 2 Laps 12 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 69 2 Laps 13 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 69 2 Laps 14 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 69 2 Laps 15 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 69 2 Laps 16 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 68 3 Laps Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 61 Retirement Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 38 Retirement Carlos Sainz Renault 28 Retirement Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 3 Retirement Points: Hamilton 358, Vettel 294, Raikkonen 236, Bottas 227, Verstappen 216, Ricciardo 146, Hulkenberg 69, Perez 57, Magnussen 53, Alonso 50, Ocon 49, Sainz 45, Grosjean 31, Gasly 29, Leclerc 27 Vandoorne 12, Ericsson 9, Stroll 6, Hartley 4, Sirotkin 1.

Constructors: Mercedes 585, Ferrari 530, Red Bull-Tag Heuer 362, Renault 114, Haas-Ferrari 84, McLaren-Renault 62, Force India-Mercedes 47, Sauber-Ferrari 36, Toro Rosso-Honda 33, Williams-Mercedes 7.

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RACE REPORT

Bathurst 1000 Race 26

THE DUCK IS BROKEN

Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Dirk Klynsmith/Ross Gibb/ Insyde Media

A RELIEVED Chaz Mostert took the flag on Saturday in what was a faultless performance by Tickford Racing. Though it may have been aided by mistakes from others, Mostert and codriver James Moffat kept their noses clean to break Tickford’s 2018 duck and collect the surfboards.

Ford has a strong recent history at the shortened Gold Coast circuit, having taken both races at last year’s event and it appeared when Scott McLaughlin took his 12th Pole Position for the season that the result was going to be replicated.

And there was further joy for the DJR Team Penske driver as championship leader Shane van Gisbergen was too hungry on the kerbs during his shootout lap and had his time disallowed, meaning he would start ninth.

Co-drivers started in 25 of the 26 cars. Reigning Bathurst champion Craig Lowndes had had a shocker in qualifying and

Lowndes charged during his opening stint to set up second.

was back in 16th, so started the race to gain as much track position as possible, praying for a Safety Car near the conclusion of his stint.

The race start was frantic, but clean. Alex Premat made a perfect start to head Paul Dumbrell during the opening segment of the circuit, but the Red Bull Holden Racing Team Contact between Premat and Dumbrell dropped the Penske man to fifth.

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man was keen to get on with it and had a dive at Turn 12.

There was contact and the Frenchman rear-ended the wall, recovering to fifth with damage to the back of the Penske Falcon. Dumbrell continued in the lead and no further action was taken by Race Control.

Lurking in third was Moffat. He had bolted off the line, avoided

the incident between Premat and Dumbrell ahead and was setting up a run to the lead.

This was further helped by the introduction of the Safety Car on lap 23, due to rookie Will Brown heavily hitting the wall on the exit of the first chicane. The incident was further compounded when Steve Owen failed to avoid the Brown caused the first Safety Car after a monumental crash, of which he emerged unscathed.

stricken Erebus Motorsport ZB Commodore and collected the front, ripping a wheel out of his Tickford Racing Falcon.

The ensuing Safety Car was race defining as Moffat’s crew were swift in its service of the Falcon. Dumbrell emerged from his pit alongside Moffat and collected the Falcon as he tried to merge, a crucial error of judgement from the normally clockwork RBHRT team, but an unsafe pit release and pit lane drive through was the result.

And if that wasn’t enough, Earl Bamber in the championship leading car was also cited for the same error after Garry Jacobson had to brake to avoid the merging Kiwi.

There was further trouble up pit lane for Brad Jones Racing as a wheel and, strangely, the disc brake had parted company from Tim Slade’s ZB Commodore, further compounding another disappointing weekend for the team.

While all that action was going on, D’Alberto was forced to play the team role and short filled A pit lane penalty meant van Gisbergen did it the hard way for his 10th place.

Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x Xxxx x

Jones was superb during his stint to be fifth for an eventual sixth place result.

Perkins was another to star as he received a Surfboard for his efforts.

The engine issues that plagued Caruso and Fiore at Bathurst continued on the Gold Coast

to allow Premat a clean run into the pits, avoiding a double stack. This took both cars off the same strategy and D’Alberto the lead.

Also coming into calculations was Lowndes, who had now swapped with Steve Richards, but had one hell of a stint to be in the 10 before his stop and with the pitlane penalties, the Pirtek Enduro Cup leaders were sitting pretty in the top five.

Due to D’Alberto’s compromised strategy, it was Moffat and Mostert’s race to lose. The DJR Team Penske Falcon was struggling as D’Alberto went into severe fuel conservation mode, making it easy pickings for Moffat, who gained the lead on lap 36 and held it until the end.

The battle behind for third

and fourth was intense as Luke Youlden tried to hold out a recovering Premat, which he successfully did on a number of occasions. But a locked brake just prior to the second round of pit stops allowed the DJR Team Peanske driver through.

Where, however, was the championship leader?

After the second stops, van Gisbergen sat behind his teammate in 17th. This contrasted with Lowndes, who jumped a further two positions to sit third behind James Courtney.

An all mighty charge followed, as team orders came into play with Whincup allowing the Kiwi through as he dealt with no radio for the final portion of the race.

Lowndes was challenged by

engineer John McGregor to clear Courtney as the two had a spirited battle, while David Reynolds lurked behind, waiting for his opportunity to attack.

Lowndes took his chance with four laps to go along the back of the course at the Beach Chicane, leaving Courtney to defend from a desperate Reynolds.

Meanwhile, Mostert was a comfortable 8s up the road and repeated his race-winning performance from last year, this time ahead of Lowndes and Courtney.

As for the title contenders, McLaughlin finished fifth and van Gisbergen 10th in a robust recovery drive, but it meant that the DJR Team Penske driver held the ascendency in the title by 14 points.

RESULTS RACE 26 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP 102 LAPS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NC NC

Chaz Mostert/James Moffat Craig Lowndes/Steve Richards James Courtney/Jack Perkins David Reynolds/Luke Youlden Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat Nick Percat/Macauley Jones Mark Winterbottom/Dean Canto Cameron Waters/David Russell Garth Tander/Chris Pither Shane van Gisbergen/Earl Bamber Fabian Coulthard/Tony D’Alberto Will Davison/Alex Davison Scott Pye/Warren Luff Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell Lee Holdsworth/Jason Bright Jack Le Brocq/Jonathan Webb Tim Blanchard/Dale Wood Simona De Silvestro/Alex Rullo Andre Heimgartner/Aaren Russell Todd Hazelwood/Bryce Fullwood Tim Slade/Ash Walsh Rick Kelly/Garry Jacobson Michael Caruso/Dean Fiore James Golding/Richard Muscat Anton De Pasquale/Will Brown Richie Stanaway/Steve Owen

Ford Holden Holden Holden Ford Holden Ford Ford Holden Holden Ford Ford Holden Holden Holden Holden Holden Nissan Nissan Holden Holden Nissan Nissan Holden Holden Ford

2hr 11m13.6939s +9.503s +10.965s +11.187s +13.694s +30.814s +34.151s +34.467s +35.494s +36.490s +40.583s +42.250s +43.331s +43.987s +50.785s +53.167s +1m11.925s +1m12.354s 101 laps 101 laps 99 laps 98 laps 95 laps 91 laps 22 laps 22 laps

▲4 ▲ 16 ▲7 ▼1 ▼4 ▲1 ▲5 0 ▲ 10 ▼1 ▼7 ▲3 ▲7 ▼ 12 ▼2 ▲6 ▲9 ▲5 ▼1 ▲5 ▼7 ▼ 11 ▼ 17 ▼3 ▼8 ▼2

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FASTEST LAP: Jamie Whincup 1m 11.6637s

RACE REPORT

Gold Coast Race 27

A WASH OUT

Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Dirk Klynsmith/Ross Gibb/ Insyde Media

THE SCENE was set, the championship battle was heating up, the Pirtek Enduro Cup was still to play for and Saturday’s winners were on the front row alongside a determined team that were hoping to make up for the heartbreak of two weeks previous.

But mother nature had other ideas.

The weather conditions were in stark contrast to the day before, where sun was in abundance and the weather was perfect.

On Sunday threatening skies appeared overhead as thunderstorms and hail were set to engulf Surfers Paradise, in reverse to last year when rain on Saturday was traded for sun on Sunday.

At a track that hasn’t been the team’s strongest, Erebus Motorsport and David Reynolds put recent history behind it to take Pole Position ahead of Chaz Mostert and Shane van Gisbergen, the latter aiming to avenge his disappointing result from Saturday and take back the championship lead.

It was dry as a bone as Luke Youlden made a textbook start to lead James Moffat into the first chicane and held that lead during the opening 12 laps.

Battling what was first thought to be a tyre issue, but later was diagnosed as a faulty sensor, Youlden built a lead but was quickly caught up by Moffat.

To the victors go the spoils, veterans Lowndes and Richards finished on the podium of each Pirtek Enduro Cup race to take the silverware.

Contact between Richards and Luff could have changed the outcome of the Pirtek Enduro Cup.

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An excellent run through the first chicane gave Moffat his opportunity and he slid down the inside of Youlden at Turn 4 on lap 12. Following close behind was the fastest man on track, Earl Bamber. Just as the Kiwi was making his move on Youlden, the Safety Car was required to retrieve the second Red Bull entry.

Rain had started sprinkling on lap 15 but changed into a downpour within five laps, leaving teams in a strategic bind. Leave the co-drivers out on slicks or bring them in and lose vital track position.

This proved costly for Paul Dumbrell. With Jamie Whincup’s slim title hopes hanging on a strong result, he locked up at Turn 13 and nose-dived into the tyre wall. He was joined by five other cars, but only Macauley Jones hit the stricken Red Bull Holden Racing Team ZB Commodore. Dumbrell tried to remove himself from the wall, but the car was stuck fast and was damaged further when Ash Walsh hit it two laps later.

The weather conditions intensified in a small amount of time as pit stops were made and the Red Flag was shown on lap 37. Confusion remained over the compulsory pit stop necessities, while the co-driver lap requirement was wiped, though that was only if the driver had banked laps already.

The race leader at this stage was Anton De Pasquale., who Whincup’s title chances seemed to have taken a big hit when Dumbrell hit the wall.

Surfboards were more appropriate than Supercars on Sunday as a severe storm lashed the Gold Coast and stopped the race.

had started the race with Will Brown yet to get behind the wheel. It didn’t matter. After a delayed break and an attempted resumption, the race was canned with only 43 laps banked and less than 50 percent of the race complete.

Try as they might, Supercars officials were unable to get the race restarted, leading to a non-event.

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RESULTS RACE 27 RUNNING ORDER AFTER 43

No points were awarded.

This confirmed Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards as Pirtek Enduro Cup champions for 2018, after what had been a challenging race for Richards.

After letting Bamber through early on, a mistake exiting the first chicane allowed both Walkinshaw Andretti United ZB Commodores through. But in attempting to reverse the situation, Richards spun Warren Luff. This delayed them both as well as Dumbrell.

In the end, the old boys took their final piece of silverware as a Supercars codriver pairing.

Heading to his homeland, Scott McLaughlin still holds a 14-point championship lead.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NC NC NC

Anton De Pasquale/Will Brown Will Davison/Alex Davison Andre Heimgartner/Aaren Russell James Golding/Richard Muscat James Courtney/Jack Perkins Chaz Mostert/James Moffat Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat David Reynolds/Luke Youlden Shane van Gisbergen/Earl Bamber Craig Lowndes/Steve Richards Garth Tander/Chris Pither Lee Holdsworth/Jason Bright Tim Blanchard/Dale Wood Simona De Silvestro/Alex Rullo Mark Winterbottom/Dean Canto Scott Pye/Warren Luff Tim Slade/Ash Walsh Rick Kelly/Garry Jacobson Fabian Coulthard/Tony D’Alberto Richie Stanaway/Steve Owen Michael Caruso/Dean Fiore Cameron Waters/David Russell Todd Hazelwood/Bryce Fullwood Nick Percat/Macauley Jones Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell Jack Le Brocq/Jonathan Webb

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FASTEST LAP: Earl Bamber 1m 121643s

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POINTS LEADERS: McLaughlin 3368, van Gisbergen 3354, Whincup 2935, Lowndes 2925, Reynolds 2687, Mostert 2438, Coulthard 2354, Kelly 2281, Pye 2248, Percat 2053, Slade 2012, Tander 1914, Winterbottom 1874, Davison 1732, Courtney 1725, Waters 1582, Caruso 1525, Le Brocq 1499, De Pasquale 1314, Golding 1238, Holdsworth 1167, Blanchard 1142, De Silvestro 1119, Stanaway 1043, Hazelwood 1030.

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Supports Gold Coast 600

GC PORSCHE CC WINNERS APLENTY IT ONLY took the first race day at the eighth and final round for Jaxon Evans to secure the Wilson Security Porsche Carrera Cup Australia title for 2018.

“It was pretty cool to wrap up the Carrera Cup championship in the first race. This is really special,” said Evans.

In his 50th round, 2017 series winner David Wall set the fastest qualifying time for the serieswithin-a-series Endurance Cup, and wrapped up that title.

Stephen Grove had already wrapped up the TAG Heuer ProAm class for the season and also took the Pro-Am honours.

And just to add to the winners’ list, Nick McBride and Adrian Flack were the respective round winners.

“I am really happy with the two race wins. The last race was great with (Earl) Bamber behind me, he put a lot of pressure on me, especially in the mid-part of the race,” said McBride.

The opening two races were won by McBride. He trailed Wall early in the final enduro before forging ahead, and then led lights-out to flag in the sprint race. A second lap crash and a poor result in the sprint race for Dylan O’Keeffe meant that Evans couldn’t be beaten for the outright title.

Second place in the opening race handed Wall the 2018 Endurance Cup in the Pro class, while Grove secured the crown in the TAG Heuer Pro-Am, even though the class victory in the race went to Flack.

“In practice one I nearly wanted to packed my bag and go home because it was so scary,” said Flack.

“But I was pretty comfortable

with it by the time we got to qualifying and, race after race, we’ve really come on strong.”

Third in the longer race was one-round guest driver Earl Bamber ahead of Evans, Dale Wood, Glen Wood, Cameron Hill and Adam Garwood.

James Moffat finished ninth after contact with Glen Wood earlier, forcing him off at turn 11.

There would be a further confrontation between Moffat and Wood in parc feme. That led to a hearing after race two, with Moffat copping a hefty fine and suspension from competing in the third race.

Wood was also penalised with a fine.

Behind 10th placed Flack was Anthony Gilbertson and Tim Miles, filling second and third in Pro Am. Jordan Love triggered the only safety car when he had a skirmish with the track barrier in the back straight chicane.

Bamber was able to beat Wall away in the second race and Nick McBride took the round win, above, but Jaxon Evans took the title, left.

Photos: Dirk Klynsmith, Insyde Media

apply pressure to McBride.

But McBride was dogmatic in

holding on to the race lead.

Behind Wall, Evans was fourth

with Moffat passing the Wood brothers to take fifth. In Pro Am it was again Flack who was the victor. Gilbertson was second while Miles came in third.

With all the titles decided, the gloves were off for the final race. Evans made the most of being let loose to come home with another race win.

He started from the second row and with Bamber, was able to get past pole sitter McBride at turn four. The latter struck back at turn 11 where he displaced Bamber to third before lap’s end.

The order remained that way

until the race completion – one lap short and under the safety car. Wall was fourth ahead of Dale Wood, Glen Wood, Love, Hunt and Almond. For the third time over the weekend Flack took out Pro Am, ahead of Gilbertson, Miles and Dean Cook.

The race-ending safety car was triggered by Graham Williams and Indiran Padayachee becoming embroiled in an incident at turn four on lap eight, just after Adam Garwood coasted to halt with a broken driveshaft.

HARRIS CLOSES ON SUPERUTES TITLE SERIES POINTS leader Ryal Harris extended his ECB SuperUtes Series lead by winning round seven on the Gold Coast. He won ahead of Craig Woods and Tom Alexander.

For the 10th time in its inaugural year, Harris tasted victory when he triumphed in the opening race in his Mazda BT50 after qualifying quickest. He led throughout the eight-lap race to beat home Alexander (Holden Colorado) and Woods (Toyota Hilux).

Luke van Herwaarde (Hilux) put the pressure on Woods early, but a slip up at turn 11 where he overshot the corner slightly dropped him several places and he finished behind Cameron Crick (Mitsubishi Triton) and Ben Walsh (Hilux).

Aaron Cameron (BT50) was seventh ahead of Chris Formosa (Ford Ranger), Matt MacKelden (Hilux) and Richard Mork (Ranger). Thomas Gasperak (Colorado)

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retired to the pits as the race started while Mick Sieders (Triton) didn’t start - after his heavy qualifying accident there were electrical issues on the dummy grid. Engine dramas ruled out Kim Jane (Isuzu D-MAX) for the weekend.

The top nine finishers from race one were reversed for the start of race two. Recording his maiden category triumph, Cameron won ahead of his team mate Harris, with van Herwaarde third in front of Crick and Woods.

From the second row of the race three grid, Woods made the perfect start to grab the lead and despite a brush with the concrete and Alexander early, held on to win. Third was van Herwaarde after Harris had dramas attempting to secure second place. Harris was fourth in front of Woods’ team mate Walsh.

GARRY O’BRIEN

Photo: Insyde Media

GARRY O’BRIEN

Supports Gold Coast 600 JON McCORKINDALE emerged the winner of the Kumho Series Gold Coast Challenge, finishing with a third and two seconds across the three races of the last minute, nonchampionship addition to the Gold Coast 600 program.

Driving a former Triple 8-built Dick Johnson Racing-campaigned Ford Falcon FG, McCorkindale won overall ahead of Kyle Austin in an ex-Ford Performance Racing FG. Jack Smith came back for third overall after a race one crash and two race wins, driving a Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore VE. The opening race was won by 2018 series winner Tyler Everingham in the Matt White Motorsport-prepared ex-FPR FG. Smith was the race leader until tangling with the lapped Stephen Coe (ex-Paul Morris Motorsport VE) on lap 10 of 12 at turn 13. Both cars suffered race-ending damage and the track was partially blocked.

The race finished behind the safety car with Kyle Austin (ex-FPR FG) second, while McCorkindale was able to work his way to third ahead of fellow Ford drivers Chris Smerdon (ex-Stone Brothers Racing FG) and Michael Anderson, in the FPR FG Cam Waters won the 2015 Development Series in.

Best of the Holdens was sixth placed Brendan Strong (ex-Kelly Racing VE).

CHALLENGE TO STEADY McCORKINDALE

Photo: Dirk Klynsmith The following pair of races were great for Smith’s recovery. Unfortunately Everingham, who was leading race two until a front upright failure put him into the tyre wall at turn 11. Racing resumed three laps later with a threelap dash to the flag.

Smith, who started rear of grid,

challenged new leader McCorkindale before eventually going ahead. Austin was third across the line ahead of Smerdon, Anderson and Shane Hunt (ex-Triple 8 Falcon BF).

Smith came off the third row in the last to chase down and pass McCorkindale. Austin was again third

while an off for Kumho Cup class (privateers) winner Smerdon meant he surrendered spots to Anderson, Hunt and Brad Neill (ex-SBR FG).

Behind Smerdon was Blake Fardell in the Heritage class winning ex-Perkins Engineering Commodore VX. GARRY O’BRIEN

HEINRICH PREVAILS FOR AUSSIE SERIES TITLE THREE DRIVERS came to Thompson smacked the the final round on the Gold concrete wall on the main Coast with a chance but straight. only one left with the Aussie Ensbey (Mustang) finished www.aussieracingcars.com.au fourth after being passed Racing Championship Series title and that was Joel Heinrich. his way past Treseder on the final lap by Sciberras He finished second to Blake (Camaro) and Heinrich (Altima) (Mustang). Next was Tyler Sciberras in round seven, while to win from the latter. Pole Owen (Camaro), Justin fellow title contenders Kyle sitter Treseder went out on lap Ruggier (Mustang), Adam Uebergang (Camaro), category Ensbey and Kel Treseder had four with a broken diff, before newbie Broc Feeney (Camaro) weekends they would rather a safety car was deployed and 10th-placed Leigh Bowler forget. for Keelan Dunston, who (Camaro).

The first race went to Paul spun into a tyre wall and was subsequently hit by Pawel Morris had an all-the-way Morris in his Altima-bodied victory in an abbreviated racer. Third early, he worked Faber. Immediately after, Grant Photo: Insyde Media

race two while Heinrich was involved in a battle for second, placing ahead of Sciberras, Ruggier, Reece Chapman (Camaro) and Uebergang.

Feeney was a contender until putting his Camaro into the back straight chicane wall.

After a safety car Treseder spun at turn four, was clipped

by Thompson and then hit by Brendon Tucker (Camaro).

Ensbey stopped on the beach straight on the final lap with an electrical-related engine drama.

Race three featured a top 10 reverse grid start where after two safety cars, Ruggier picked up the win on the final lap.

He finished ahead of Owen, Sciberras, Morris, Uebergang and Heinrich. Treseder had a brilliant last lap to get back to 10th after being delayed by Charlotte Poynting spinning.

Ensbey was a casualty, retiring early. The first safety car came when Jonathon Bloxsom crashed on the second lap and the second came after Faber and Troy Jones tangled.

The fourth race saw Morris lead from the outset, fending off Sciberras and Ruggier, and crossed the line first, but the lack of an engine seal had him excluded. Sciberras won the race ahead of Ruggier, Owen, Treseder, Heinrich, Ensbey and Uebergang.

The race was punctuated by three safety car periods for incidents involving Jeff Watters and Thompson, then Troy Dontas, Jones and Dawson, and the third where Matt Nolan stopped separately from a touch-up between Ben Wilcox and Emma Clark.

GARRY O’BRIEN

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WEC

TOYOTA TAKES HOME VICTORY RATHER PREDICTABLY, Toyota took a home victory at the latest round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji, but this time the win went to the #7 TS050 Hybrid driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.

The #7 had to claw its way back from the rear after Lopez had set the Pole-winning time, then incurring a penalty for speeding in pit lane which dropped the Argentine to the back of the LMP1 grid as he had failed to bank a secondary flying lap.

It was the #8 that acquired Pole alongside the lead Rebellion Racing R-13, which clocked a time that was just within a second of the pole lap.

It was a swift comeback from the #7, which sat second by the end of the first hour. This was despite the opening hour being interrupted by a Safety Car as a GTE-Am Ferrari 488 experienced a tyre failure, spreading debris across the track. This helped the SMP Racing BR1 AER, led by 2009 Formula 1 Driver’s Champion Jenson Button, which was in front at the close of the opening hour.

GTE-Pro was the most competitive class, but Porsche won out.

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The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid took its first victory of the season at home in Fuji.

The LMP1 field had already dropped by two as the second SMP Racing LMP1 had a wheel depart at 100R and the title contending Rebellion Racing R-13 had an accident on the exit of Turn 1, which extended the Safety Car period.

However, Button’s lead didn’t last and in front of the home crowd the Toyota steamroller dominated the next segment of the race. The #7 and

#8 traded positions approaching the halfway mark, as the privateer LMP1 entries failed to keep pace with Button’s car fading and the Rebellion now a lap behind.

It was a controlled conclusion to the race as #7 led the second half of the race comfortably, to take a 11.4s victory over the sister championship-leading entry, while the #1 Rebellion R-13 of Bruno Senna, Andre Lotterer and Neel

Jani finished a distant third.

The home victory for Toyota and Kobayashi lifted the championship chances for the #7.

“It’s amazing to win my home race for the second time,” said Kobayashi postrace. “The team has done a great job all weekend and they really deserve this.

We were disappointed after qualifying but we came back in the best way possible with a victory.

“We have waited a long time on car #7 for this; finally we are in the centre of the podium again. I think this can be a turning point for us for the rest of the season and now we need to celebrate this moment.”

LMP2 was similarly dominated by the Jackie Chan DC Racing pair of Oreca 07s leading from the second hour, the #37 all-Malaysian trio of Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri heading teammates Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi, who head the LMP2 title.

It was a thrilling race in GTE-Pro as all five manufacturers duked it out for the lead during the opening stages of the race. Porsche ultimately that took the win with the #92 driven by Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen holding off the BMW and Ford challenge by 12s.

Ferrari and Aston Martin were in the thick of it early until the #71 AF Corse 488 got tangled with the LMP1 Dragonspeed Oreca, losing Sam Bird and Davide Rigon plenty of time as it was forced to pit. The Aston Martin challenge faded over the course of the race despite its two cars qualifying on Pole and third.

BMW had a strong race and were rewarded with the runner-up slot for Antonio Felix da Costa and Tom Blomqvist, while Andy Priaulx took the final podium spot in the Ford GT partnering Harry Tincknell.

GTE-Am honours went to Project 1 drivers Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey, who took control over the second half of the race and were never headed in their Porsche 911 RSR. POINTS: Alonso/Nakajima/Buemi 84, Lopez/Kobayashi/Conway 71, Menezes/ Beche/Laurent 63, Lotterer/Jani 51, Jaafar/Jeffri/Tan 34.

WRC

BACK TO THE FUTURE

NINE-TIME World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb turned back the clock to win the mixed-surface Rally Catalunya, his first win in five years as Ott Tanak has a steep mountain to climb to take his first crown after he picked u a puncture while comfortably in the lead.

Loeb fended off reigning world champion and fellow Frenchman Sebastien Ogier to win by 2.9s, while for Ogier consolation came in the form of the championship lead, courtesy of Thierry Neuville missing out on third and bonus points after hitting a rock on the power stage.

Tanak, however was the early pacesetter a he continued the form he has shown over the most recent rounds. The Estonian was masterful on the slippery gravel stages to head hometown hero Dani Sordo by 26.8s at the end of the leg, with Elfyn Evans a further 2.9s behind.

Championship contenders Ogier and Neuville struggled back in seventh and ninth at the end of the opening day.

Tanak’s biggest challenge early was his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala, but a puncture lost him 50s and dropped him behind Neuville in 10th, this also aided Loeb, who struggled with understeer early but recovered to be a close fourth.

Loeb’s teammate Craig Breen struck trouble while in fifth when he had a spin and damaged the rear wing of his Citroen, finishing the day eighth.

Andreas Mikkelsen was able to take advantage and replaced Breen in fifth.

The focus changed to asphalt on Day 2 and with slippery conditions greeting competitors, Toyota made a

Neuville lost his championship advantage after clipping a rock on the final stage, dropping to fourth and failing to score bonus points.

The French dominated in Spain as nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb took his first win in five years, above, ahead of reigning champion, Sebastien Ogier, below, who took the title lead.

bold decision and fitted the rarely used Michelin wet tyres. This decision paid dividends immediately as Tanak and Latvala started to take the ascendency, until the Estonian title contender lost 1m 45s with a front left puncture leaving his teammate to hold a narrow 4.99s lead over a charging Ogier.

Ogier climbed from seventh and headed fellow Frenchman Loeb, who was getting reacclimatised to driving on wet tarmac, the first time he had done in six years. Evans was jumped by the pair as he held off Neuville for fourth, while behind, Sordo lost out on the penultimate stage of the day to drop four positions. As for Esapakka Lappi and Breen, both had spins and Mikkelsen struggled to round out the top 10.

Tyre choice proved critical on the final day as Loeb gambled on a hard compound, which enabled the ninetime champion to elevate to the lead and bridge a gap. This was vital as a rare mistake from the Frenchman allowed Ogier to close, but he held on to take Rally Catalunya win number nine.

“The information we had from the weather team was right. The roads were drying and I knew if I used hard tyres in these conditions I could be fast,” Loeb said after the final stage.

“To win after almost six years is incredible, but to do so in a battle like this, where you only discover after the finish line that you have won, is amazing. I never believed I would win again.”

Wrong tyre choice cost Ogier early, but as has happened this year the title pendulum switched in his favour when Neuville hit a rock close to the finish and broke a rear wheel. The damage allowed Evans to snatch the final podium spot and also left the Belgian with no power stage bonus points meaning he heads to Australia with a three-point deficit.

Critically, Tanak recovered to sixth after teammate and overnight leader Latvala had another puncture and slowed on the final stage to allow Toyota’s title contender through to another position.

Tanak is still in title contention, but it’s only slim.

POINTS: Ogier 204, Neuville 201, Tanak 181, Lappi 110, Latvala 102, Mikkelsen 84, Sordo 71, Evans 70, Breen 61, Paddon 55.

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s w e n Y A W SPEED DECLAN BROWNSEY has a hectic USA schedule awaiting him mid next year. The Queenslander is set to compete in the Summer Nationals Hell Tour for Late Model and Modified drivers from June 2019. Back in 2015 Brownsey ran a four-cylinder Hornet to great success winning a feature at Farmer City Raceway as well as grabbing podiums at many Illinois venues. “Next year I’ll be heading over to race a lot of the Hell Tour along with some local shows. I’ll be based in Bloomington, Illinois driving for my good friend Brian Deavers in his Modified,” Brownsey said.

THE BATTLE is on in Canberra to host more Speedway race meetings. ACT Speedway hosted its first night races in more than 20 years in late September after the club gained approval from the ACT government for the one-off event. The future of more night racing at the venue now hinges on the results of independent noise testing from the event, conducted as a condition of the trial. The recent meeting attracted over 2000 patrons, a 10-fold increase on crowd numbers at regular daytime meets at the Piallago venue. The report must be presented to the ACT’s Environmental Protection Authority before November 3 for scrutiny before considering future night races.

REIGNING AUSTRALIAN Speedcar champion Kaidon Brown will lead an Australian team as part of the annual International Midget Series in New Zealand. Western Springs Speedway will host Team Australia with Brown, Matt Smith and Scott Farmer set to compete against Team USA comprising NASCAR stars Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Tyler Courtney. A Kiwi team is yet to be picked for the racing over one month later this year.

IAN MADSEN set a new one-lap track record at Dodge City Raceway in Kansas but it wasn’t enough to stop Donny Schatz grabbing his 20th World of Outlaws victory of 2018. Madsen of Sydney looks likely for a Top 10 WoO finish with the final round of racing due this weekend at North Carolina. Schatz, a nine-time and defending Outlaw champion, charged around the outside of Madsen and led the final 22 laps to the win and now tops the overall point standings. While Schatz adds to his career tally, 60-year-old Jac Haudenschild won his third Trophy Cup title at Tulare in California with seven years between each championship and pocketed $25,000.

ELIASON’S DIAMOND DRIVE AMERICAN ACE Cory Eliason is returning to Australia and is set to drive for one of the best-prepared teams.

Eliason has signed to drive for Bunburybased Diamond Bay Motorsport for the East Coast stint of their 2018-19 campaign, with Brooke Tatnell also be joining the team.

He replaces last season’s team driver and fellow American Jason Johnson who died tragically in June after a racing crash.

“It took us a while to get our mojo back

after JJ’s passing,” said Diamond Bay boss Steve Stathy.

“We had to really think about what and how we were going to do it all this season with a new face.”

Eliason, a regular with the World of Outlaws, has had multiple wins this season with Roth Racing and has just finished 70 races in the USA. Stathy is looking forward to Eliason joining the successful team.

“It would be nice to think we could have

the same driver year in, year out, but that’s not how this gig works. We think we can have a good synergy with Cory.

“It’s all brand new gear for him and we are racing to win, he knows that and what the team is about.”

Eliason already has a busy 2019 American season earmarked.

The Diamond Bay team’s Western Australian schedule will see Tatnell, a fivetime Australian Sprintcar champion slip into the driver’s seat.

SEDANS SET RECORDS

BUSY CREWMAN Jarrod Kent is back on the spanners after representing Australia at the Invictus Games in Sydney. He said his brush with English royalty was a great experience and is now looking towards a hectic Speedway season on both the DBG Motorsport and Redpath Motorsport Sprintcar teams.

JUSTIN RANDALL has won the second round of the 2018/19 Queensland Super Sedan Series at Archerfield Speedway. The first round was washed out at Archerfield and Randall had to be patient during the 40-lap decider, grabbing the lead on lap 30. A tight final lap saw Randall hold off al challenge from Matt Pascoe to win by a mere 0.349 seconds, with Trent Wilson third and Darren Kane in fourth.

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SPEEDWAY SEDAN racing records have tumbled across Australia.

Nathan Barbeler took a second off the existing Street Stock one lap record at Toowoomba Speedway, Josh Crang shaved a fraction off the existing Production Sedans and Zac Parsons lowered the Junior Sedans record.

The Dean Fraser Memorial was won by Joel Berkley who drove superbly to win his third feature in as many starts, beating home Josh Arthur, Thomas Fuller, Brody Fraser and Steve Jordan.

The opening round of the Street Stock Club Championship was a tight affair with Ryan Kahler hitting the lead late and hanging on to win ahead of Barbeler, Peter Thompson, Travis Hutchison and Robert Trapp.

In round one of the Toowoomba Junior

Sedan Club Championship Erik Wallace proved too good and beat home current Australian champion Ardie Jonic, followed home by Brad Pascoe, Mitchell Pammenter and Jordan Cunningham. Kaitlyn Field was awarded the Junior Sedan encouragement award for her outstanding performance to finish sixth in an impressive field of 16 Junior Sedans.

The Toowoomba Speedway also honoured former racer and current Club President Doug Schultz, who has been a pivotal member of Sedan racing.

He represented Queensland in many interstate matches between 1972-1974.

He won the 1973 Carnival of Flowers Championship and that same year was victorious in the 1973 Toowoomba Track Championship. For the last 20 years he’s

served on the board of the Downs Speedway Club and has been President for the last eight.

At Murray Bridge Speedway the Street Stocks were a late addition to the Sportsman program and the traditional Ford versus Holden battle was still intense. The Fords emerged victorious as Caret Weston edged out Nigel Reichstein and Phil Watson. Heath Thorne dominated the Junir Sedan class, swepping all four races including the 10-lap feature from Sharni Pitcher, Drew Flatman, Chelsea Gwynne, Kirra-Lee Pitcher and Damon Laan, the only other drivers to finish on the lead lap.

At Latrobe Speedway in Tasmania, Corey Bauld won the Street Stocks 25-lap feature from Steven Harvey, Ben Riley and Jarrod Rogers.

DILLON WINS THE BATTLE

BUSY BOGUCKI BOGUC CKI IN 2019

IT IS said things go in threes and for Luke Dillon that was certainly the case with victory in his third Bill Wigzell Battle of the Bridge at Murray Bridge Speedway.

Coming from the front row Dillon raced past early pacesetter and fastest time-trialler Chace Karpenko five laps in and put his name into the record books as the winner of the 100th Ultimate Sprintcar Championship

A-Main.

Jessie Attard put in a career-best drive from ninth to finish second on the slick surface, to grab his first USC podium with defending USC SA champion Robbie Farr in third.

“This is a great way to get our season underway. In the past we have always had a fast car in time trials, but we haven’t had a winning car at the end of the night. Tonight,

we had both and I must thank my guys for putting together a great new car,” Dillon said.

In the support categories, the Super Sedan feature saw Kym Jury prove too good while Robert Heard was a surprise winner in Speedcars. Ben Hall edged out Melissa Crouch in the V6 Sprints and Heath Thorne beat home his brother Nathan in the Junior Sedans.

“It could work two ways with our deal with Steve. It could either work really well from the start or it could take a while to figure things out, so far it’s been good,” he said.

Mollenoyux will run a slimmed down season of racing but is keen for the momentum of a new season.

“We are not running the whole SRA Series but we plan on contesting all the events at Geelong and aiming for the Avalon Track Championship in particular and also Warrnambool’s.

“We’ve got a good package for all our racing this season. I’m keen just to be based at home and race around the southern part of Victoria and the tracks around me.”

Mollenoyux will contest the 47th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool and is hoping to compete in the upcoming Australian title in Brisbane also in January.

His best finish at the Classic is a second in 2016 and in last year’s edition he finished eighth. His last track championship victories at Avalon were in the 2012-13 and 2016-17

seasons.

The mechanical engineer, who owns and runs Swift Industries, said commitments in Warrnambool factored in his decision to commit to racing in Victoria.

“With family and business commitments I can’t travel away as much as we did last season,” Mollenoyux said.

“We have just over 20 races planned in the calendar. We are looking at the idea of possibly going to Brisbane for the Aussie Titles but we will see how things are going now until Christmas and decide from there.”

Duggan will be kept busy with not only Mollenoyux but leading Northern Territory racer Chace Karpenko, who will run at selected meetings in Duggan’s home state.

“Darren showed how good a driver he is last season in (my) #41 car. I am very happy to work with him again this year. I saw Chace run in Darwin back in August and he was very impressive. He and I have done a deal that will see him run select shows at the Motorplex and Bunbury.”

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN Scott Bogucki has won the ASCS National Tour Rookie of the Year for 2018.

The McLaren Vale racer is leaving little time to celebrate and is already back in Texas preparing for his 2019 USA season and then home to Australia.

“We have a lot of work to do. I head back to Australia at the end of November and we are planning to get back to racing in the States in March,” Bogucki said.

In his seventh season of Sprintcars, Bogucki is approaching his 2019 American season with recent changes resulting in instant success. A runner-up result in the eighth annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial coming from sixth was proof.

“We finally found some things with our shocks and to be honest it was my fault,” he said.

“We talked over what we were doing and were able to figure out what was wrong and the car was a rocket ship.”

MOLLY’S FRESH START A NEW outlook has already paid dividends for Darren Mollenoyux as he looks to add to his first win of the new season.

Mollenoyux, 36, opened his 2018-19 season with a hard-fought victory in the Victorian Sprintcar Series at Avalon Raceway and is looking ahead to even bigger things.

“So far things are going pretty well. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season and am keen to add to it,” Mollenoyux told Auto Action.

Mollenoyux’s 14th season of racing sprintcars saw him lead home fellow Warrnambool drivers James McFadden, Corey McCullagh and Jamie Veal.

Veal raced from the B-Main and carried strong form into the race with victory a week earlier in the Lord Mayor’s Gold Cup at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway. It was his fourth win in the race in five years.

Mollenoyux is looking to keep things closer to home and unveiled a new-look Sprintcar deal and crew for the season.

Former Krikke Motorsport and Dobson Racing crew chief Shane Finch adds experience to Mollenoyux’s team and joining Finch is former Sprintcar racers Chris Heard and longtime crewman Simon Van Ginneken.

A new engine package via Western Australian team owner Steve Duggan also forms a major part of Mollenoyux’s team, along with his family-owned chassis.

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WORMA ALL C HOPS WORMALL CHOPS BUTCHER OUT MITCH WORMALL was quick to seize on the mechanical issues Ben Butcher suffered and went on to win the opening round of Western Australia 360 Power Series.

Butcher looked set to start his defence of the Power Series in fine style at Ellenbrook Speedway, leading the first eight laps before experiencing diff problems.

This gifted Wormall the 20-lap race and he crossed the line first ahead of Sam Borlini, in his first season of Sprintcar racing, with last year’s Series runner-up Ray Leonard third.

Wormall, who is preparing for another tough World Series Sprintcars campaign, clocked the fastest lap time of 16.589 seconds during the journey after coming from position four in the final.

Todd Davis started on pole, setting the quickest time in hot laps, before he took a fourth and a win in the heats. He finished fourth in the main event, followed by newcomers Jaydee Dack in fifth and Power Series rookie Matt Boyd was next.

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p ra w S L NATIONA

INTERSTATERS GOING AROUND THE BEND WITH THE Improved Production Nationals only weeks away, there was a large interstate contingent of drivers across all categories at The Bend for round four of the CAMS State Race Championships on October 20-21.

FORMULA 3/FORMULA FORDS

IT WAS the final round of the national Formula 3 Premier Series where Dallara F311 drivers Harrison Jones and Cameron Shields battled to decide the title. Shields qualified fastest but with two race wins to one, Jones came out ahead.

Shields didn’t go home empty handed, though, claiming the lap record with a 1min 41.7753s flyer. Roman Krumins (Dallara F307) filled the bottom rung of the podium.

Among the Formula Fords that completed the field, Sean Whelan (Reynard) won three outings and Samuel Woodland (Van Diemen) one.

Photo: John Lemm Topping the round and series were Jones and Shields, above, as Pederson took out the Formula Vees, below, and Poole won in Improved Production.

CIRCUIT EXCELS

HARD AS he tried Asher Johnston still came off second best to the young Victorian Michael Clemente. Danny Errigo was the best of the rest in a huge field.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

AS USUAL it was the Adam Poole show with most interest on who would claim second behind the Holden Monaro driver. Scott Cook (Datsun Sunny) looked a good chance but slipped to third behind Victorian Robert Braune (BMW E30) after having some issues in race three.

FORMULA VEES

OVERCOMING A slipping clutch, Brian

Photos: David Batchelor Pedersen (Jacer F2K7) was the winner from Ben Forgan (Sabre 02) and Adam Newton (Sabre 02).

SPORTS CARS

OVERCOMING STRONG opposition from Ross Lilley (Audi R8), Tom Taplin (Porsche 991) took the honours. Emanuel Palyaris (Porsche 997) picked up third after Marty Ewer (Porsche 991) was slowed badly in race three. It was the Cameron Beller show in Porsche 944s, comfortably leading home Mark Taubitz and Pedr James.

SPORTS SEDANS/SALOON CARS/ HQ HOLDENS

THE COMPETITION was very close in the combined sedan races, and Josh Pickert looked set to get a Sports Sedan round win in his Holden Monaro. But a broken front hub saw him fail to start race four, which dropped him to third for the round. Keith Short (Toyota Corolla) grabbed a narrow win from the 2.0-litre Corolla of Victorian Ryan Woods.

Despite not getting a win, Peter Holmes (Holden Commodore VN) comfortably topped the Saloon Car points ahead of an equally

consistent Mike Dale (Ford Falcon EA), while Thomas Walkom (Commodore VT) overcame an early DNF to grab third. David Smith showed the way in HQs with Darren Jenkins chasing him home for second and Tim McNamara clawed his way up to third.

HISTORICS RACING CARS

IT WAS all Andrew Ford (Birrana 274) with Tim Kuchel (Brabham BT18) hanging on for second, ahead of Jim Doig in his Motorlab Asp. DAVID BATCHELOR Photo: John Lemm

STUBBER DOMINATES CUP PAUL STUBBER was pre-event favourite for this year’s THR Developments SA Historic Touring Car Cup on October 20-21, but nobody realised just how dominant he would be.

After setting a pole time in the 35-car field, over 8s ahead of the nearest rival, the Chev Camaro driver proceeded to storm away in Saturday’s opener, eventually finish 34s ahead of fellow Western Australian Darryl Hansen (Ford Mustang), with the Mustangs piloted by Ben Wilkinson, John Harrison and

Harry Bargwanna close behind.

Josh Axford (Ford Escort BDA) was best under 3.0-litre in seventh outright, just ahead of the battling Tony Gilfuis (Ford Capri) and David Brown (Datsun 1600).

Sunday’s first race had a huge number of DNFs – 13 in all. Some were mechanical, such as Alf Bargwanna (Holden Torana XU1) throwing a fan belt for the second time, Axford losing an oil line and both Graham Jarrett and Aldo de Paoli suffering gearbox problems in their Camaros. But most were

due to visits to the gravel traps!

The most spectacular retirement was Gilfuis spinning the Capri, resulting in Brown taking evasive action which saw the Datsun trip on a kerb into into a barrel roll. The driver was unharmed, but the race was shortened by a lap.

Stubber went on to win easily over Hansen, Harrison and Graeme Woodhouse (Mustang). Jason Armstrong took the U3L fight over Justin Elvin’s similar Cooper S. Race three was far less eventful, with only

two DNFs. Stubber eased off a little, even had small off at turn 10, eventually heading Hansen home by 15s with Harrison another second back. Gilfuis topped U3L ahead of Armstrong and Elvin.

For the final, Stubber eased up again yet was still quick enough to finish clear of Hansen, with Harrison ahead of de Paoli, finally getting the Camaro’s gearbox to behave. Finishing fifth ahead of Armstrong, Gilfuis also won U3L overall.

JOHN LEMM

“Coming up at the nation’s action and spectator tracks” Wakefield Park

www.wakefieldpark.com.au

November 1 Speed Off The Street/Test & Tune November 3-4 CAMS National SS Championships November 5-6 Aussie Driver Search November 8 WPM Motorcycle Ride Day November 9 Test & Tune Only November 10-11 Motor Race Series Rd 3 Wakefield 301 November 12 Mates Track Day

54 AutoAction

Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au

November 2 Test & Tune Cars & Open Wheelers November 3 Track For Days November 4 Australian Tractor Pull Event November 5 MSCA November 9 Test & Tune Cars & Open Wheelers November 10-11 RXA Australian Rally Cross Nationals

Austin Pearson had to battle his way to victory in the Trophy Race.

Photos: Mick Oliver

TROPHIES ON THE LINE IN OCTOBER THIS WAS only the second time this year that there was a two-day meeting and it featured two annual trophy events, the Morton/BM Graphics Plates for the Formula Vee and the Trevor Roy Young Memorial event for Historic Touring Cars.

FORMULA VEE

THE LAST race was the prestigious one and was won by Austin Pearson (Jacer). He led after a safety car to retrieve the beached Jeff Cadman Jacer, but lost the front running to Rod Lisson (Sabre). He regained the lead in the dying stages and finished ahead of David Campbell (Jacer) and Lisson.

In damp conditions earlier, Pearson ran away with race one and left Campbell to win the battle for second over Lisson and Cadman. It was tougher in race two and Pearson just edged out Campbell, while Lisson was a distant third.

In the 1200s Franz Esterbauer (Ribuck) won each time including the Plate, taking the first by a considerable margin over Brett Scarey (CD-Vee) and Danny Cherro (Polar). In race two, Scarey was second whilst Kathy Lisson (Sabre) was third. Esterbauer dominated in the Plate while the minors were heavily contested before Cherro secured second from Lisson.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

FOR THE Memorial race a group of the slower cars had a 50s start over the faster cars.

Michael Holmes (Ford Cortina GT) made the best start and lead until the last lap, when he was relegated to third by Glen Badger (Ford Falcon GT) and John Bondi (Holden Monaro).

Brian Bondi (Monaro) won the opener over his brother with Badger third, before John Bondi led the second from start to finish and Badger passed Brian Bondi to take second. Don Behets (Ford Galaxy) was fourth while the other Galaxy

Brian Bondi battled hard in Historic Touring Cars. of Mick Moylan ended up in the sand. Badger topped race three from John Bondi and Behets.

In the fourth race John Bondi turned the tables on Badger with Brian Bondi third.

EXCEL CUP

OVER THE three races Dean Hill and Robert Landsmeer duelled at the front and the latter just couldn’t get by. Behind them the tussle for third went with Greg Dicker twice and Ryan McNess once.

F1000

THE LATE decision by Sam Dicker to race put the cat among the pigeons, winning all three races. He took out the first and second from championship contenders and fellow Stohr drivers Henry Lake and Aaron Love. The last race was heading for the same conclusion until the last corner where Lake and Love tangled and bunkered, leaving Adam Lisle (Stohr) second from BD Soutar-Dawson (Radical SR3).

FORMULA FORD

EQUIPPED WITH the Stealth normally piloted

by Bryce Moore, Braedyn Bowra nabbed a

pair of wins and took out the round. Robert Appleyard (Van Diemen) took the first race ahead of Joshua Mathews (Van Diemen) and Ho Man Ho (Van Diemen). In the second race Bowra appeared and took the lead on lap three, disappearing into the distance, and leaving Appleyard second from Ho – and they went through that again in race three.

SPORT SEDAN/SPORTS CARS/ STREET CARS

IN A dominant Sports Sedan performance, Grant Hill (Ford Falcon) recorded three wins ahead of Clint Harvey (MARC Cars Focus V8) and Laurie Whittome (Mazda RX7). Meanwhile Street Car honours went with Brad Cuss (Nissan 200SX) winning, initially from Andrew Stevens (180SX) and Craig Maloney (Subaru Impreza WRX), and then over Paul Kluck (200XS) and Drew Watkins (180SX). In the third Shaun Mulquiney (Nissan Skyline R33) got the jump but Cuss soon took the lead and won from Mulquiney and Kluck.

HQ HOLDENS

WITH TWO wins and a second, round honours

went to Marc Watkins. He won the first outing after third-placed Michael Howlett ran off at turn one and brought out the safety car. Watkins went on to win ahead of Michael Woodbridge and Robert Roelofs.

The second race was off to a bad start when Roelofs ended up in the wall down the hill at high speed. The race was red flagged. With the restart Watkins won ahead of Adam Butler who had started well down the order, Ryan Davis and Stuart Kenny, who was later excluded.

Woodbridge took the last from Watkins and Butler.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

THREE WINS went to Reuben Romkes (Holden Monaro) but two came by way of exclusions to others who crossed the line first. Nik Mitic (BMW E36 M3) was ousted from race one, and Glen Melling (Holden Commodore) in race two.

Second in race one was Garry Edwards (BMW E30) ahead of Rachel Beers (Commodore).

In race two Nigel Wilson (Commodore) was awarded second ahead of Edwards third. The third race was completed without exclusion, with Romkes winning ahead of Melling and Wilson.

FORMULA CLASSICS

IN FIVE races Michael Henderson (Ralt RT4) was unbeaten. In three of them, he won ahead of Glen Caple (Birrana) and Simon Alderson (FF88 FF2000). In the other two Alderson was second ahead of Caple.

The second race had a safety car when Harvey Lees (Chevron B19) had a moment in the esses and ended up on the infield. Race four saw also a safety car for Lance Carwardene (Jane Brabham) who went off at turn six.

MICK OLIVER

SEASON FINALE AT THE VALLEY ROUND FOUR of the 2018 Shannons Northern Australian Motor Sports Club Pointscore Championship at Hidden Valley completed the season for Top End competitors on October 14.

A SECOND and two race wins gave Carl Wienlands and his Toyota Celica the outright round win as well as first in the over 2.0-litre class, while under 2.0-litre honours went to Craig Wright (Ford Escort).

Ross Salmon (02L Holden Commodore) won the first race, was fifth in the second and suffered a DNF in the third. Wright was third in the opener, and then picked up a pair of seconds, first ahead of John Newman (U2L Toyota Corolla) and then Ebony Coats (U2L Holden Gemini).

IN COMMODORE Cup Glen Holdsworth and Ian Roots were first lap casualties of race one, before Geoff Cowie took the win. Cowie led from the outset before Brad Fullwood forged through to lead on lap three. Cowie was back in front a lap later and won ahead of Alan Langworthy, who pipped Fullwood by 0.05s.

It was on again in race two between Fullwood and Cowie. The former showed the way early before Cowie led the middle stages. Fullwood hit back on the final lap, eclipsing his adversary by 0.022s this time.

Holdsworth started sixth and finished third ahead of Langworthy.

The third outing was a longer 12-lap affair where Cowie led until lap eight when

Fullwood took over. There were further lead exchanges, this time Langworthy getting into the show and ultimately taking the win, less than a tenth ahead of Fullwood.

A distant third was Cowie clear of Bruce Panting.

OVER THREE HQ Holden races, Marion

“Scab” Bujnowski was unbeaten in a small roll-up. He won the first ahead of Peter Anderson and Stavros Mostris, while Steven Ling failed to get through the first lap. Ling came back to finish second in race two ahead of Anderson and was the early leader of race three before another second place in front of Anderson.

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55

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

Photo: Bruce Moxon on

Photo: Bruce Moxon

RAIN ON PAIN FOR HEAPHYS NOT PUT off by preceding heavy rain and tricky conditions, Phil and Emilia Heaphy won the opening round of the 2018-19 Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Series at Sydney Dragway on October 18.

Heavy rain and a 4WD show had left mud over much of the route in the early part of the stage. Event Director Brett Middleton warned the nearly 90 competitors that the grassed areas were very soft and boggy, so caution was called for. A shower just as the event started raised the bar higher again, and the greasy conditions caught out a few competitors.

But not the Heaphys (Mitsubishi EVO 6) who were fastest on their first run. “The mud and rain made it very tricky at first. You had to build up speed over the night,” said Phil Heaphy, who was nervous in the build-up. “I’m okay once we’re going, but I get very edgy while I’m waiting.”

Second early on was David Isaacs and Aeron Napier (EVO 5), but they would slip down the field to end up sixth. Stephen and Alex Marlin (EVO 9) and Neal Bates and Coral Taylor (Celica GT4) took equal fastest next time out, with Heaphy nearly a second behind.

As the surface cleaned up, times got better. Heaphy’s last three runs were his fastest. Mark Caine and Mark Newman (Mazda RX7) were consistent, taking a fastest time and two seconds to finish 1.9s adrift at the end, a fantastic performance in a 2WD car. Next were the Marlins, from Bates and Taylor. Marlin also took the fastest individual time of the event.

Jordon Cox was entered in the near-standard Hyundai I30 he’d used at the Time Attack the week before. He shared the car with Australian Rally Champion Brendan Reeves and the pair was 16th and 19th respectively.

BRUCE MOXON

RELOCATED 100 WON

BY COX MOVING THE inaugural Phoenix Powersports 100 from Benarby to the Donnybrook Motorsport Complex on October 13-14 did not stop Talbot Cox continuing on his winning way.

Cox won the fourth round of the Mickey Thompson Tires AORRA Queensland Off Road Short Course Series by 1min 33s in his Toyota V8powered Racer Engineering Carbon Series buggy. Second went to fellow Unlimited Class competitor Michael Marson (Racer Engineering Carbon Series/Ford Windsor V8).

The third podium place went to Brett Thorn (Can-Am Maverick X3 Rotax) who just missed out on second outright, his time less than a second off the runner-up spot. Thorn won Class 6 for SXS Turbos ahead of Brayden Mifsud (turbo-powered RZR Polaris), Drew Callander (Can-Am), David Loughnan (Can-Am), Robert Scott (Can-Am) and Evan Bussey (Polaris).

The event started with one lap of the 7km course for the Prologue. That was followed by three heats, each over two laps on day one. There were a further three on Sunday before a one-lap dash

56 AutoAction

DELUGE DAMPENS DECIDER TORREN TORRENTIAL TORR ENTI TIAL AL RAIN RAI AIN N caused caus ca used ed tthe he ssixth ixth ix th and final round of the NSW Rally Championship to be shortened, but it didn’t stop Glenn Brinkman and Harvey Smith taking both the rally win and the championship on October 20-21.

The victory didn’t come without a scare for the Mitsubishi EVO 9 crew.

A damaged brake pipe left them with three-wheel brakes for most of a long stage and then no brakes for a few kilometres, after the fluid was pumped out. They ran out winners by just 5s from Tristan Kent and Mike Behnke (EVO 9). Third went to Richard Shimmon and Katie Fletcher (EVO 7), 16s further back.

First 2WD and winner of the inaugural

East C East Coast oast oa st C Classic lass la ssic ic S Series erie er iess we were re TTom om Dermody and Eoin Moynihan (Ford Escort BDA). They took a fastest stage time outright (not getting the worst of the rain may have helped) and finished fourth outright.

The route moved south from last year’s shire roads to forest stages closer to Bombala and Cooma. The 10 planned stages were cut to eight as violent thunderstorms with torrential rain and hail lashed the forests, turning some of the roads to impassible bogs.

Going into the event, any of the teams of Brinkman/Smith, JJ Haton/Nathan Long (EVO 9), Tom Clarke/Ryan Preston (EVO 9) and Tim Wilkins/Jim Gleeson (EVO 7) could win the championship.

Hatton driveshaft Hatt Ha tton on hhad ad a d ririve vesh shaf aftt fa failil jjust ustt in us into to one. the first stage and was out of heat one They would restart after repairs, only to have another transmission failure, this one putting them out entirely.

Clarke and Preston were caught in the worst of the storm, reduced to crawling along with ‘hail the size of ten-cent coins’ hitting the car. Add to this a spin that damaged the exhaust and they were too far behind to make an impression. Fastest time on the last stage was their only consolation.

Wilkins and Gleeson were near the front until their windscreen fogged up, costing nearly 2mins and dropping them to eighth.

BRUCE MOXON

Photo: Anita Berardi

to complete day two.

The SXS Non Turbos of Class 66 filled out the top 10. Ninth was Mifsud (RZR Polaris) who was doubling up and managed to be competitive in two classes, ahead of Davie Muir

(Yamaha YXZ1000R). Meanwhile Chris Colbourne (Jimco/Nissan) who finished 11th, was the best and only Class 1 ProLite.

The winner of Class 8 Extreme 4WD was the 13th placed Ross

Challacombe (Mitsubishi Triton) and Class 2 Super 1650 went to Rob Stieber (Southern Cross/Mitsubishi) over Luke Buckingham (Cobra), the next two in the outright results.

GARRY O’BRIEN

READING’S RALLY CROWN

BODIE READING won his first outright Dunlop-Motul Tasmanian Rally Championship with a solid result in the final round, the Les Walkden Enterprises Mountain Rally, held in the forests near Fingal on October 13.

In one of the closest fought titles for years, Reading and Alex Malcolm (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) needed a strong result. It was a far from ideal start, losing 33s in the opening stage to heat winners Tim Auty and Jon Mitchell (Mazda 323 GTR), and around 20s on the third and fourth stages, to finish the first heat third.

Second was experienced duo Steve Maguire and Stuart Benson (Mitsubishi EVO 5) who were not in title contention, having missed a couple of rounds.

The second heat saw Reading winning the first stage by 16s from Maguire, with Auty a further 38s behind. The remaining stages saw less than 10s between Auty and Reading in an enthralling battle.

Maguire struck problems in the penultimate stage, losing 3mins and limping home after losing another 4mins in the last stage, to finish 11th. Reading took the heat victory by just 8s from Auty, and secured the championship.

Auty and Mitchell leap-frogged into championship second, with Nic Grave and Craig Sheahan (Subaru Impreza RS) eventually finishing third after a fourth in the morning heat and third in the afternoon. Grave also won the one-make Buckby Motors Subaru RS Challenge in a dominant display, winning the series from Ben Newman and Anthony Carr, who finished seventh outright and fourth in class.

Meanwhile in the 2WD championship, Stephen Turner and Mitchell Newton finished fourth outright and won their class to clinch the championship, finishing the day with a win in the first heat and a second in the afternoon run.

Mark Kyle and Daniel Davies (Datsun 1600) won the afternoon heat to lock in a 2WD championship third place. Nathan Roddam and Nicole Bryan (Hyundai Excel) finished fourth and third in the final round to wrap-up a championship second.

MARTIN AGATYN

Photo: Angryman Photography

FIGHTBACK GETS GOLD AFTER A couple of seconds in the local series, Brett Thorn and Martin Cameron broke through to take out the Pump Energy Markwell Demolition Gold City 126 last month.

It was the fourth round of the North Queensland Off Road Racing Super Series and round two of the CAMS Queensland Off Road Championship at the Milchester Motor Sports Complex outside Charters Towers.

Following the prologue and Top T10 Shootout, the event ran five heats. All in for the 18km heats and then split into three groups for the two major 36km heats over the 18km track, covering 126km in total.

Thorn and Cameron (Can-Am Maverick X3 Rotax) failed to finish the Prologue but came back for fourth in heat one, second in heat two, and wins in the remaining three. They finished 1min 13s clear of

Michael Marson in a singlehanded effort, while third went to Drew and Jye Callander (Can-Am).

While the SXS Turbo Class finished with Thorn/ Cameron ahead of the Callanders and Brayden and Lauren Mifsud (Polaris), both the Pro Buggy and ProLites runners didn’t finish all heats.

They did in Sportslite where Marson headed Chris Sollitt, and Super 1650 with victory for Luke and Matt Buckingham. The SXS Sports went to Allan and Courtney Muir, while Extreme 4WD was won by James Sant and Elizabeth Murrell.

The Prologue, which was won by the Mifsuds, brought about an interesting conundrum for the Top 10 Shootout. The Buckinghams and the Muirs tied for 10th and made the Shootout for 11 cars.

Subsequently they couldn’t be split there either, recording identical times.

GARRY O’BRIEN

FAMILY AFFAIR AT WYNARKA LACHLAN AND Kerry Turley stormed to victory in the 2018 Denise Gosden Memorial Ladies and Juniors enduro at Wynarka on October 14.

Fourteen-year-old Lachlan (Can-Am) from NSW, top qualified but was quickly hunted down by multiple winners Tanya Wales and Nev Day (Mantiss/Mitsubishi).

Wales was comfortably lapping under six minutes and pulled out a handy lead before breaking a CV and handing the top spot back to the Turleys.

Victorians Lynda Miller and Brendan Payne (Southern Cross) slotted into second after steadily improving their pace throughout the 12 lap race. It was a close tussle for third with Lauren and Rich Andrews (S&S Woftam/Nissan) as they just snatched it away from Kimberley and Darren Hille (Ford F100) with seconds to spare on the last lap.

Jarrah and Mark Taylor (Cobra/Mazda) were next home despite developing a misfire in the dying stages of the event. Milli and Darran Vanderwoude (Holden Colarado) gradually picked up the pace as Milli’s confidence grew, crossing the line just ahead of a fast-finishing Wales.

Shaydon and Matthew Witmitz (Land Rover Discovery) qualified well in third but struck problems early in the race.

They still managed to complete the 12 laps.

DAVID BATCHELOR

Photo: Wendy Moohin

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57

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie co

Photo: Elgee

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58 AutoAction

BEFORE THE Australian Hillclimb Championship, Malcolm Oastler confirmed that he will be a strong contender by taking the outright win in the Gippsland Car Club Hillclimb at Bryant Park last month.

Oastler was one of several interstaters who took the opportunity for some extra practice for the AHC that is coming up at the same venue and his FTD was a 45.30s, 1s off the track record he set in 2016.

Second outright went to current Australian Champion Brett Hayward who debuted his Hayward 18, a new car just completed the day before and only needing some bodywork to complete.

Destined for a customer, the car should

please the new owner as Hayward set a new up to 1300cc Formula Libre record of 46.51s, taking almost a second off Victorian Champion Garry Martin’s 2016 time.

Also driving a not quite complete car was Alan Foley taking third outright in his new R Foley which was built by his father Ron. Apart from completing the bodywork, the Foleys had some development work to do on the 1.0-litre turbocharged engine and hopes to make much better show than his debut 51.76s.

Open wheelers filled the top seven places

with Peter Minahan and his brother Bruce taking fourth and sixth in their shared Hayward 07 while Fred Galli spotted some improvements in his SYGA-CGA to take fifth place.

Ewen Moile was on form in his KTMpowered ZIP Kart to take seventh ahead of Ian Speight coming home as the fastest non open-wheeler in his Mallock U2.

Closely followed was Dale Hocking and his Dalrick Clubman. Tim Boyd completed the top ten to be the fastest tin top in his Nissan S13.

GARY HILL

DAD’S FORD WINS AGAIN

MICHAEL SHEARER, driving the sidevalve Ford A Special made famous by his late father Kevin, has taken out this year’s Barossa Vintage Collingrove Hillclimb on October 7.

Although leading from the opening run, Shearer was pushed all the way

by Bill Bentley (1965 BMC-powered Photo: John Lemm Nadger Clubman), running in the Invited Post-War category and Chris Frost (Hartwig Fargo). the start, Philip Evans won Group J in his The smallest car running was Geoff Riley 9 Brooklands replica from Richard Vaughan’s diminutive 125cc Clisby Creasy (Amilcar 9) and Patrick Ryan Bantam, built by the hillclimb’s co(Vauxhall 23/60). designer Harold Clisby. Last year it made The latter car, shared by Mark Burns, its first competition outing since 1957, was the favorite of many - a classic “barn struggling to make it up the hill, but this find”, its alloy body showing through year Vaughan was delighted to finish 18th the faded paintwork in many places. At outright, his time of 49.47s almost half a the other end of the scale in regards to second under Clisby’s best at the opening condition, was Jim Thompson’s exCollingrove in 1952.

Lou Molina Bugatti T23 Brescia, which With Phillip Hallo’s Austin 7 Special unfortunately only made one run up having its flywheel work loose prior to the hill before problems with a blocked

GREAT TARMAC RALLY THE AASA Australian Tarmac Rally Championship came down to the final stage of the Great Tarmac Rally where Tim Hendy and Julie Winton-Monet in their Porsche GT4 took the title on October 13-14.

However, it was Angus Kennard and Ian Wheeler (Modern 4WD Nissan GTR) that took the round win, finishing 1m 5s ahead of Craig Dean and Dean Hughes (Showroom 2WD Shelby GT) and a further 51s up on third placed Ben Calder and Julie Winton-Monet (Mitsubishi EVO 6.5).

Kennard won six of the 11 stages, Calder two and Dean one. The points leaders coming into the round were Danny Traverso and Jason Page in their EVO and they were in contention until losing a front wheel on the sixth stage. They fought on and won the final stage. Third in the points, Greg and Rhonda Burrowes (EVO X RS) failed to finish stage four owing turbo issues.

The 2018 title would be a two-way contest between Hendy/Winton-Monet and Michael Harding and Adam Kudra (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) who won the fourth stage and

carburettor jet.

Shearer took Group K from Frost and Gerard Miller (Plymouth Special) with Fred Nitschke (Ford Roadster) winning Vintage Sports from Jim Scammell (Railton Terraplane) and Thompsoni.

Bentley came out on top in Invited Post War from the twin-cylinder JAP-powered Coopers driven by Brian Simpson and Steve Denner. John Mason (Plymouth Special) won Come and Run from Jim Runciman (Riley Sprite) and Vaughan.

JOHN LEMM

scored several top five stage results. Starting day two, Harding looked the goods but subsequently suffered a clutch failure which put a dent in their title aspirations, Photo: Mountain Motorsports continuing on by working around the problem. related electronic issues. They temporarily The last Lake Mountain lost power steering before finishing tenth to Marysville descent determined the title. outright and second in Modern 2WD behind Harding suffered a puncture which ripped Hendy. wiring out of the car, and destroyed its In Classic, father and son team, Keith and electronics while Hendy completed the stage Alex Morling (Ford Escort) won the round tenth. and the championship while Super Sports Harding/Winton-Monet finished the event honours went with James Callahan and Hugh fourth ahead of Anthony Moss/Julie Hunter Feggans (EVO) over Mark and Lacy Biggs (EVO X), Neil Cuthbert/Sue Evans (EVO (WRX) who took the 2018 title.

X RS) and Matt Gibbens/Tim Jurd (GTR).

Despite not winning the outright Barrie Smith and Dale Moscatt (Audi TT RS) championship, Traverso/Page were the overcame wheel sensor dramas to finish season’s Modern 4WD winners, as Adam eighth.

Spence and Lee-Challoner-Miles (Renault Behind Allan and Kerry Hines (EVO X), Clio) won Showroom 2WD. Craig Haysman and Julie Boorman in the GARRY O’BRIEN second outing for their C7 Corvette had heat-

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WDV-8 Industrial Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner

Motorcycle not included

RST-300P Platform Trolley

• 1.6mm mild steel capacity • Includes 22.5, 28.3, 34.6, 43.2, 49.6, & 61.5mm dies

WO

SAVE $99

SAVE $55

• • • •

R

693

594

CHP-60 Hydraulic Chassis Punch Set

E

TESTED &

$

$

550

IAN AL TR

U

Order Code: C188

Order Code: A349

SAVE $55

• 130 piece kit • Aluminium rivet nut inserts: M5, M6, M8, M10 - (10ea size) • Blind aluminium rivets: Ø3.2, Ø4.0, Ø4.8, Ø6.4mm (20ea size) • Mandrel spanner & blow mould case

• 1000kg load capacity • 2500-3600mm adjustable height • 2300mm clearance inside frame • Swivel wheels with brake

760mm platform height 1800 x 570mm platform 220 - 760mm lift height Foot operated hydraulic lift

$

RNB40 Nut & Blind Riveter Set

• 670 x 445 x 495mm • 12 drawers with protective liner • Ball bearing slides • Key lockable drawers & lid

• • • •

Order Code: A345

SAVE $25

SAVE $69

MLR-454 Motorcycle Lifter

ED AT

129

$

• • • • • •

MGT-1T Mobile Girder Rail

TR

Order Code: T758

SAVE $22

TJ-500 Swivel Transmission Jack

• 740 x 510 x 20mm top tray • 860~1200mm adjustable tray height • 34kg tray load capacity • Padded vertical support

NOVEMB

Better by design

$

4PM!TH

SAT. 17ER

ARMSTRONG

Order Code: J022

SAVE $11

OPEN TILL

TY

Order Code: A005

+($9< ARMAS5000R 7< Vehicle Axle Stands '8

Professional series ARMSTRONG 2.5 tonne capacity Steel construction Fast lift, two piston pump Universal joint release 102 ~ 520mm lift height

SAU LE SIZZ

H R S!

• • • • • •

D

FRSEAEGE

OU

ARMM901QL Quick Lift Hydraulic Trolley Jack

• 6 swivel wheels • Fabricated steel frame • 1020 x 440 x 110mm

D TR A I N G

AU S

MCW-40H Mechanics Creeper Tilting Head Rest $'-867$%/( 7 • 3 position head rest +($' 5(6

E X TE N D E

“Setting the standard for Quality & Value”

AL-320G Bench Lathe

+($' 527$72(6

MDS-H Mill Drill Stand Order Code: M135A

$

• 320 x 600mm • turning capacity • 38mm bore, 12 spindle speeds • Geared headstock • 1hp, 240V motor Order Code: L141

297

$

2,475

SAVE $33

SAVE $374

ST-320G Lathe Stand Order Code: L142

297

$

SAVE $33

...ENDS 30TH NOVEMBER!

Barrel Barr B Bar Ba arre arr rrrel e ell Dr D Draw rra aw 3PM 3P PM on 5 PM 5th th h off D Dec. ecc att Har H Hare are a re & For F Forbes orb orb bess Machineryhouse Machi hinerryh yhous hous uss Unit 1, 2 Windsor Road, Northmead NSW 2152

SPEND $100 S

GO ONLINE TO ENTER

www.machineryhouse.com.au/Win-A-Harley w y y Permit No. LTPS/18/23950

UNIQUE PROMO CODE

AUTO3DS

ONLINE OR INSTORE!

See our website for full Terms & Conditions

www.machineryhouse.com.au SYDNEY

BRISBANE

MELBOURNE

PERTH

(02) 9890 9111

(07) 3715 2200

(03) 9212 4422

(08) 9373 9999

Specifications & Prices are subject to change without notification. All prices include GST and valid until 17-11-18