Auto Action #1753

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CASHED UP!

Penrite claims naming rights at Erebus, taking the financial load off Betty

By BRUCE NEWTON

THE DAYS of Betty Klimenko’s millions propping up Erebus Motorsport are over.

The giant-killing squad will transform into Penrite Racing as the Australian-owned oil company ups its financial support to include Anton De Pasquale’s Holden Commodore ZB, as well as that of lead driver David Reynolds.

Both cars will be revealed in their new Penrite Racing liveries at a team open day next month, but we’re giving you a sneak peek of the new-look Penrite racers. The new Penrite Racing logo is also shown here.

The new public identity and Supercars championship entry title means ‘Erebus Motorsport’ won’t be seen too often in full, although the stylised ‘e’ will still get an airing.

Team principal Barry Ryan declined to discuss dollar or duration specifics of the deal, but made it clear Penrite’s commitment placed the team in its strongest financial position ever. “The money is what we need to get and what we deserve to get as a team,� Ryan told Auto Action. “Penrite recognised the value is there, so they are spending what they believe they should be spending to get the right outcome.�

It’s a far cry from the days when Klimenko sunk tens of millions of dollars into buying Stone Brothers Racing and then creating a three-car Mercedes-Benz E63 team launched in the 2013 season, or when she abandoned Queensland and took the Erebus name and little more to Melbourne to start again in 2016 with Reynolds, Ryan and an ex-Walkinshaw Holden.

“Betty’s always been a fairly big contributor to the business,� Ryan said. “In the Queensland days, she was a massive contributor, there wasn’t much commercial support at all. “The contribution Betty puts in is now a lot smaller than it once was. We are getting very close to standing on our own two feet, without relying on Betty’s passion and wealth.�

Penrite’s added sponsorship will also allow the team to focus more effort on research and development as it looks to make the step-up from being the best of the rest to challenging DJR Team Penske and Red Bull Holden Racing Team consistently at the front of the grid.

Part of that includes an all-new front upright design being developed under the direction of the team’s technical chief Alistair McVean.

Conversely, the added sponsorship will not result in a growth in staff at Erebus, which continues fundamentally unchanged into 2019. McVean will continue to engineer Reynolds, while Mirko De Rosa stays with De Pasquale.

In 2018, Reynolds was entered under the Erebus Penrite Racing banner, while rookie De Pasquale ran with a rotating series of primary sponsors including Penrite.

Along with Reynolds, De Pasquale will now become an ambassador for the Penrite brand.

Reynolds claimed fifth in the championship last year, winning three races and claiming three pole positions. If not for his mysterious Mount Panorama malaise, he and co-driver Luke Youlden would

THIS WEEK’S RACE CALENDAR

likely have won the Bathurst 1000 for the second consecutive year.

De Pasquale was 20th in the championship and second rookie behind Tekno’s Jack Le Brocq.

Memorably, the 23-year old qualified third for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in Penrite colours and was tail-gunner in an Erebus 1-2 for the first two laps of the race.

Ryan is clear De Pasquale is expected to up his performance in 2019. He is adamant team and driver must finish top 12 in the championship, which means the front 50 per cent of the points order. “We want him to be within five places of Dave, that’s what the target is,� Ryan said. “If Dave is on pole, he needs to be fifth. If Dave’s fifth, he needs to be 10th. “We think him finishing top 12 in the championship is realistic. He says himself: ‘If I can’t do that, I shouldn’t be there’. Those are his words. “I truly think he is going to be pushing Dave. You can already see when Anton is faster, it lifts Dave. “I guess Anton has to learn when he’s racing in the pack to improve his race craft a little bit. He had a couple of little incidents last year and got a slap on the wrist from the officials and from us. He may have backed off a little bit as a result of that.�

Ryan emphasised Penrite’s spend didn’t spread to other projects such as GT3 racing or Youlden’s bid to run a revived AMG E63 in Super2. And there was definitely no team ownership stake involved. “This will always be Betty’s team,� he declared.

UPRIGHTEOUS APPROACH MOVING TO a new upright has been overdue for Penrite Racing.

At first it used a Stone Brothers Racing design originally from the Ford Falcon FG back in the early days of the E63, making some modifications along the way.

Erebus initially ran a Walkinshaw upright in its first Commodore, but then shifted to another iteration of the E63 design.

The upright is critical because it is integral to the design of the double wishbone front suspension, which is one of the few significant technical freedoms allowed in Supercars. “The upright for 2019 is a completely new design,� Ryan confirmed. “But we haven’t gone for completely reinventing the wheel. “We have pretty much the same geometry, just a really good tidy-up and building it into something that’s going to be better, but not a risk of upsetting the set-up. “It should deliver small gains, especially in our brake cooling. We’ve had a real issue with that and then, in turn, over distance, our front tyres overheating.�

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WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE

After his first hit-out in a Holden, former Ford star Mark Winterbottom tells MARK FOGARTY that he has new insight into why Triple Eight is so good AFTER MORE than a decade of trying to beat Triple Eight, Mark Winterbottom can’t wait to join them after finally experiencing why the supersquad’s cars have been so good for so long.

Following his shock switch from Ford to Holden, Winterbottom drove his Triple Eight-built ZB Commodore in an evaluation test at Queensland Raceway early last week and declared the trial run an encouraging success.

“It was really good,” he told Auto Action. “Car ran smooth, no drama, no vibrations, no nothing. It felt pretty nice.

I was pretty happy with it.

Although very brief, the shakedown was enough to convince Winterbottom that his decision to join a heavily reorganised and enhanced Team 18 will be vindicated by a close technical alliance with Red Bull Holden Racing Team.

He also spent time at T8’s Banyo

4 AutoAction

headquarters in Brisbane to witness the final preparation of the updated ZB procured in a ‘part exchange’ deal, gaining further insight into the strength of the operation.

He was restricted to just four timed laps during the evaluation test, which is limited to 10 laps in total including out and in laps, but felt he got enough of a taste to draw an early comparison between the T8 ZB and the Tickford Racing FG X Falcon.

“It’s different, for sure,” Frosty said.

“But I liked it. I came home happy, which is a good sign. I could feel, just in the short time, why they’re strong in certain areas and why they race well.

“It was only four laps and we’ll change it a lot, but from how it felt, I now know why they’re so good. It was really impressive. I was surprised how good it was.”

Winterbottom’s ZB is Jamie

Whincup’s spare from last year, swapped in the new technical support deal Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt has signed with Triple Eight for the older car raced last year by Lee Holdsworth.

To be unveiled in its Irwin Racing livery on February 7, the upgraded Commodore was shaken down at QR in a mainly black and almost unstickered presentation.

It was prepared by Team 18 mechanics under the guidance of T8 staff, with Winterbottom and his race engineer Stuart McDonald visiting Banyo on the day before the test.

“The guys had all week at Triple Eight prepping the car,” he said. “It was good that they could build the car and then have a reference right next to them if they wanted to look at Giz’s car or Whincup’s car.

“They built the car in-house, so that

was good. I got comfy with the seat and all that sort of stuff and met all the team.”

Alluding to his former T8 arch-enemy status, Frosty added: “It was a bit strange to be standing in the Triple Eight factory. I never expected that to happen!”

The evaluation test was overseen by multiple title-winning Triple Eight race engineer David Cauchi and Winterbottom was impressed by how interested the skeleton T8 crew was in his feedback.

“They were all really interested to see what I thought about the car,” he said. “It’s nice they respect you and what you’re going to say about it, and wanted to get your thoughts. I was really welcomed.

“It was great. It kind of bought us half a test day because all the things I want changed will get done now before (next

STANAWAY’S BIG BOOST

Mark Winterbottom ‘came home happy’ after his first run in a Triple Eight built Holden Commodore.

month’s pre-season test at) Phillip Island, so we shouldn’t have anything there that will slow us down.

“I’m sure we’ll change it between now and Adelaide, but it felt good straight away. It had strengths. It was a good feeling.”

Winterbottom emphasised that there is no night-and-day difference between the ZB and FG X – although he hopes his experience will enable him to combine the best attributes of both.

“It’s not like that,” he said. “A Ford to a Holden isn’t necessarily a big switch. I could hop into the Penske car and it’d probably feel very similar to the Triple Eight car. The Tickford philosophy versus the Triple Eight philosophy is what you feel the most.

“Tickford did stuff well and Triple Eight clearly do stuff well, so my aim is to combine the best of both. If we can do that, we’ll have a really good car. It felt good, but after just four laps, I’m not going to say ‘Oh, now I know why they won nine championships’.

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“After Phillip island and Adelaide, we should have a pretty fair idea of how good or bad we are, but so far it’s looking pretty good and I’m feeling confident. Bring it on!”

According to Frosty, the biggest revelation was his visit to Triple Eight.

“Spending a day at the workshop was eyeopening,” he enthused. “It’s impressive how they go about it, the amount of time they spend getting everything right.

“Communication is exceptional and that was the thing that blew me away. You know they build good cars, but spending a day in their shoes really brought home how good they are.

“The communication in the whole team is seriously impressive. I’ve never seen anything like it. That was probably the biggest thing.

“I was surprised how well it went and, hopefully, the relationship will work both ways. If we can help them and they can help us, we both benefit. So far, so good.”

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BY MARK FOGARTY TICKFORD RACING refugee Richie Stanaway has opened up about his surprise rescue by a new-look Garry Rogers Motorsport, vowing to prove he deserves a second chance.

Stanaway was thrown the Supercars lifeline as a condition of Boost Mobile’s title sponsorship of GRM – but at the cost of Garth Tander’s secretly planned farewell fulltime season.

GRM will now race as Boost Mobile Racing, Boost switching its backing from Walkinshaw Andretti United to replace the Wilson Group, which has pulled out of racing following a change of top management.

After a miserable rookie full season last year, Stanaway fell out with Tickford and looked set to be sidelined.

But Boost boss Peter Adderton’s support saved his Supercars career, giving him a chance to live up to his international racing-honed reputation in the ZB Commodore Tander raced so effectively despite often qualifying poorly.

Tander had been planning to make this his last fulltime season in Supercars, only to be dropped without warning to make way for Stanaway.

The V8 veteran immediately rebounded by securing the plum partnership with Shane van Gisbergen at Red Bull Holden Racing Team in the enduros for the next two years.

Stanaway, who was outspoken at Tickford and gained a reputation for being difficult, is convinced he will prove his critics wrong at GRM. “It’s good timing to be in a better environment,” he told Auto Action. “It should be a good combination.”

Ironically, he cites Tander’s inevitable progress through the field as evidence that he will have the equipment to be competitive.

“Obviously, I was around Garth enough last year to see the back of that car,” Stanaway said. “Whenever he’d missed it in qualifying and qualified down around near me, Garth would always drive off into the distance, whereas I’d still finish the race where I started.

“He’d move up 15 positions and actually finish the race in a respectable position despite his

poor qualifying. Obviously, you need to be able to drive the car as well, and Garth certainly did a good job last year, but if you don’t have a fast car, you can’t move forward through the pack like that.

“I’ve seen the back of that car enough to know that it’s fast. Even before Tander, McLaughlin was winning races with them, so I think they’re a very competitive team.”

Stanaway is looking forward to driving for a team that backs his experience and ability – while acknowledging it is up to him to deliver.

“I just never had the confidence in my team or my equipment last year,” he said. “It didn’t necessarily bother me that much because I knew it was about learning, but when they started questioning my driving performance, then we came to a bit of a disagreement on what the cause of the problem was.

“Being in a GRM car this year is enough of a confidence boost in itself, knowing the car is competitive. Now it’s up to me.”

The taciturn New Zealander, who maintains his departure from Tickford after only one season of his two-year contract was mutual, revealed that he would have quit the Ford squad if he hadn’t been released.

“I didn’t want to drive there for another year and they didn’t want me, so it’s not like it came as a surprise,” he said. “In fact, if they’d wanted to keep me for another year, I would’ve considered not returning, anyhow.

“So I think it was fairly mutual and then the GRM deal started coming together pretty much straight away anyway, so I didn’t really have much time to consider an alternative.”

Stanaway, who came close to being sponsored by Boost Mobile last year, is confident he’ll get the chance this season to show his form as an enduro co-driver in 2016/17 wasn’t an aberration.

“I think it’s going to be a much different year to last year,” he said. “If that’s not the case, then obviously I’ll be mistaken. But as it stands right now, I’m pretty confident that I can actually be competitive this year.”

For Garth Tander’s expansive view on being ousted by Stanaway, see pages 20-23

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RED BULLS READY TO CHARGE

BY MARK FOGARTY

RED BULL racers Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen are ready and raring to regain the Supercars crown from Scott McLaughlin.

Van Gisbergen narrowly missed out in a fierce battle with McLaughlin last year, while Whincup finished a distant third in the title after struggling by his lofty standards.

With team chief Roland Dane vowing to eradicate the pit lane errors that were so costly for Red Bull Holden Racing Team last year, SVG and J-Dub are confident they’ll be a match for McLaughlin and his new Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang in their proven Holden Commodore ZBs. Whincup is especially fired up to mount a much stronger bid for a record-extending eighth Supercars crown.

“Motivated more than anything,” he declared.

“Any year that you don’t maximise and don’t achieve what you want to achieve, gives you extra motivation for the following year. So that’s the place where I’m at at the moment.”

While he was disappointed with last year, he is ready to bounce back, buoyed by the knowledge that only a small improvement is needed to gain a big result.

“It was a tough year,” Whincup said. “I expected a better end result than what we got, but you take the bad with the good, you learn from it and you use that as motivation for this year.

“The great things is, there are no major weaknesses to address. All the major ingredients are certainly there – just a heap

of minors to fix, which we’ll work on and try to rectify, and get better at this year.”

He agreed both he and Triple Eight had to lift their games, admitting that he made driving mistakes on top of the team’s uncharacteristic pit lane blunders.

“I made a few errors last year, no doubt,” he said. “As a collective group, we made plenty of errors that we set high expectations on ourselves not to do. There’s plenty of room for me to get better or to minimise errors.

“One of those errors was me hitting the pit lane speed limiter button too early (at Phillip Island). That’s a rookie error which cost us 150 points at the end of the day. As a collective group, we could have done a better job and that’s our focus this year.”

Whincup doesn’t expect DJR Team Penske and McLaughlin will gain a big advantage – if any – over RBHRT’s fully developed ZB Commodores.

“My prediction is they’ll find a very small gain with the new aero,” he said. “I think they’ve done a great job performancewise with the Mustang, but we’re talking such a small percentage of a gain.

“Like, if you don’t put the right spring in the car, that’s a much bigger loss than the aero gains. So all in all, I think the category has done a great job and I think the aero is as absolutely even as it can be.”

Van Gisbergen is more circumspect about the Mustang, waiting to see how it performs in the pre-season test at high-speed Phillip Island.

“I’m not sure,” SVG said. “Obviously, it’ll be different and we just have to trust that the parity thing was done right – which I’m sure it was. It’s interesting, I think the balance they’ve done is quite a lot more rearward, as you can see with the (huge) rear wing and the numbers they got from the test.

“So it’ll be interesting to see how it handles and what performance gain they get. It certainly looks interesting and I’m sure it’ll go good, too.”

Van Gisbergen is also relishing the challenge of battling McLaughlin – and Whincup – for his second Supercars title.

“I never have expectations, but knowing how we have been working and how this team

always seems to evolve, I certainly have some confidence,” he said. “But there’s still a lot of work to be done and it’s never going to be easy.

“I think with the technical changes and taking some of the engineering out of the cars (ban on twin-spring dampers), it’ll make the field a bit closer, but hopefully we’ll still be up there.”

He also expects RBHRT to return to its primacy in the pit lane.

“We were just under pressure last year and we let it get to us, so we need to put better systems in place so that doesn’t happen again,” SVG said. “Plans are in place to make sure it doesn’t.”

Whincup and van Gisbergen are teaming up with Craig Lowndes in a Triple Eight-run Merc at the Bathurst 12 Hour. For their thoughts on that race-favourite combination, go to autoaction.com.au

partnership in the Australian GT Championship over the last three years.”

The focus on moving road car metal also reflects a downturn in the Australian luxury car market. BMW sales were off 2.4 per cent in 2018, following on from a 15.7 per cent dip in 2017.

Steven Richards raced the M6 GT3 for three

seasons and finished third in the Australian Endurance Championship and fifth in the Australian GT championship in 2018. The team added an M4 GT4 in 2018.

BMW will still have GT3 representation at the Bathurst 12 Hour, with two M6s entered, including the factory-backed Schnitzer entry co-driven by Chaz Mostert.\

BMW OUT OF OZ GT Change of local marketing direction for German luxury brand

BY BRUCE NEWTON

BMW’S ASSAULT on local GT racing via Steven Richards Motorsport has ended after a three-year campaign.

The decision signals the completion of the latest chapter in relations between the German marque and one of Australasia’s greatest racing families.

The connection between BMW and the Richards family stretches all the way back to the 1980s, when Steven’s father Jim drove for Frank Gardner’s factory-backed JPS team in Group C and A touring cars and in the GT championship.

Jim won the 1985 Australian touring car championship (ATCC) in a BMW 635CSi and the 1987 ATCC in a BMW M3. He also raced an M3 for Peter Brock in 1988.

BMW Australia will park its racing ambitions at least for 2019 and Steven Richards will focus on another German make, Porsche, and a return to the Carrera Cup – alongside his Supercars co-driving duties with Mark Winterbottom at Irwin Racing.

Without factory support, the future of the SRM-run M6 GT3s – believed to be privately owned – is unclear. AA’s efforts to seek clarification from Richards were unsuccessful as this issue went to press.

Among the reasons being cited for BMW’s

6 AutoAction

decision is that the road car on which the M6 GT3 is based is no longer in production.

It has effectively been replaced by the new 8 Series, for which only a GTE world endurance championship contender has so far been developed.

But the local racing program with SRM also lost one of its biggest advocates when BMW Australia boss Marc Werner was promoted last year and returned to global headquarters in Munich.

His replacement Vikram Pawah and new marketing boss Tony Sesto have decided to focus the company’s funding on supporting a series of important new car launches in 2019, including the latest 3 Series.

“With the M6 no longer in production and a fresh senior management team settled in, a decision was taken to change our marketing and promotional strategies for the year ahead,” Pawah told Auto Action. “With our wide range of new cars on the way in the first half of 2019, management is focused on launching these next-generation machines and supporting the dealer network to deliver the next level of customer experience.

“We retain a close relationship with Steve Richards and wish to thank him for his

CONFIRMED: GRM TO RUN TCR ALFAS

BY MARK FOGARTY

GARRY ROGERS Motorsport is the first Supercars team to ‘break ranks’ and commit to the nominally rival new TCR series.

Following investigations by Auto Action, GRM and Australian TCR promoter Australian Racing Group have confirmed the country’s longest established racing team will field a pair of Alfa Romeo Giuliettas.

No drivers have been announced.

Supercars is not supportive of TCR, which is becoming the touring car category of choice elsewhere around the globe, and is not encouraging V8 teams to double-up.

Although not a direct rival, the low-cost production-based TCR formula is attractive to a limited involvement by manufacturers with no interest in V8 racing.

ARG’s efforts to get TCR on the Supercars support program at selected events was rebuffed, forcing the turbo two-litre category to headline the Shannons Nationals, beginning a seven-round CAMS-sanctioned series at Sydney Motorsport Park from May 17-19.

GRM is adding a two-car Alfa TCR team on top of its existing Supercars operation, running

Richie Stanaway and James Golding under the new Boost Mobile Racing banner, and becoming the agent for AGR’s new S5000 V8 open-wheeler category.

It is the second foray into international two-litre touring car racing by GRM, which has existed since 1963.

Garry Rogers ran a Super Touring Alfa Romeo 155 for Steven Richards in 1995, followed by a Honda Accord in ’96.

“We have been looking with interest in the TCR Series from afar, at both the local and international competition, and we have been really impressed,” said Barry Rogers, who runs GRM with his father.

“We are in the motor sport business and we will consider anything where we feel there is value for our business and the sport as a whole, and there’s no doubt that TCR competition is a costeffective way to compete, which is why we have

decided to secure two Alfa Romeos for the 2019 season in Australia.

“Obviously, GRM is heavily invested in Supercars and that remains our primary focus, however, like our involvement in S5000, we have seen a new market and we are very keen to be involved.”

Rogers Jnr and GRM chief engineer Richard Hollway visited TCR car-making teams in Europe this month, before deciding on the latest Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce produced by factory aligned Italian team Romeo Ferraris.

“The way they are in business is very similar to us – family run, strong ties with car makers – and we were impressed by their enthusiasm.

“We’ve formed a collaboration where we will help group the Alfa Romeo brand in the Asia Pacific region, and having the brand-new Giulietta Veloce at our disposal is perfect timing, too. We’ll

have the latest-spec car that will be competitive and unique.”

Added ARG director Matt Braid: “Alfa Romeo is a prestigious, global brand, with a great racing heritage and it’s fantastic to welcome them into the inaugural TCR Australia Series.

“It’s really pleasing to add another great manufacturer to the TCR Australia grid, with Alfa Romeo joining Audi, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Honda, which are already represented.

“Having a team of the calibre of Garry Rogers Motorsport is a great endorsement for the category. GRM is one of the best motor sport operations in Australia and I know they will put together a formidable TCR program.

“Momentum for the category is in full swing now and we are looking forward to a raft of exciting announcements in the coming weeks.”

TESTING TIMES PREPARATIONS FOR the Bathurst 12 Hour have ramped up after a number of leading teams tested at Phillip Island on Monday.

Scott Taylor Motorsport tested all three of its Mercedes-AMG GT3s and had no issues after each received an off-season refresh.

“We had all three cars running today. They have all been fully stripped and rebuilt since the last time they raced, so we wanted to make sure they were all up to speed and any bugs were ironed out,” said Taylor. “Most teams seemed to think the track was a little slow today so based on that feedback, we are pretty happy with the day’s work and the lap times we were aiming for.”

Taylor’s team are among the favourites to take out this year’s race, headed by the Vodafone

Mercedes-AMG GT3 to be driven by Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen.

For a comprehensive Bathurst 12 Hour preview and event guide, turn to pages 28-37.

Images: James Smith.

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AFTER A delay, the Australian Formula Ford Series has announced its 2019 calendar, headlined by another appearance on the Supercars bill at Winton. The FFs will also compete as part of the Australian Motor Racing Series at Tailem Bend, plus a number of state race meetings at Sydney Motorsport Park, Queensland Raceway, Sandown, Wakefield Park and Phillip Island.

Round 1: 6-7 April at Sydney Motorsport Park (NSW State) Round 2: 4-5 May at Queensland Raceway (Racers) Round 3: 25-26 May at Winton (Supercars) Round 4: 22-23 June at The Bend (AMRS) Round 5: 20-21 July at Sandown (Vic State) Round 6: 7-8 September at Wakefield (NSW State) Round 7: 28-29 September at Phillip Island (Vic State) MARCUS GRONHOLM, two-time FIA World Rally Champion, will make a one-off return to the series at this year’s Rally Sweden. The Finn will be driving a Toyota Gazoo Yaris, but will be unable to score manufacturer points for the team. Gronholm was close to making an appearance in Sweden last year, but a lack of cars meant it would not be possible for his 50th birthday wish to come true.

The now 51-year-old is the joint most successful WRC driver in Sweden, both Gronholm and Stig Blomqvist having five wins each. Gronholm will have a couple more tests of the Yaris before he gets the chance to enjoy his delayed birthday present in mid-February.

FORMER CHAMP Car Champion Paul Tracy has announced that he is making a comeback to race in the Bathurst 12 Hour. Since retiring from IndyCar in 2011 Tracy has participated in some sportscar races as well as competing in the Stadium Super Trucks. Tracy will replace the injured Boris Said for the 12 Hour, teaming up with 2007 12 Hour winner Paul Morris and Keith Kassulke. The trio will race a MARC Car Australia Ford Mustang, trying to win the invitational class.

M-SPORT HAS confirmed that British driver Gus Greensmith will make his WRC debut in Portugal, as well driving full time for the team in WRC-2.

The 22 year old finished fourth in the WRC-2 standings last year driving a Ford Fiesta R5 as a privateer, along the way picking up four podiums.

Greensmith had a test of an M-Sport Fiesta WRC car in November and will be given one more test before he makes his debut on the 30th of May. JASON DEAN “J.D.” Gibbs co-founder and coChairman of Joe Gibbs Racing, has passed away aged 49 after a long battle with a degenerative neurological disease. The eldest son of Joe Gibbs took on many roles in the team, starting in 1993 as a wheel man during pit stops, eventually becoming President. J.D. himself took part in over a dozen NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series races between 1998 and 2002.

NORWEIGEN MADS Ostberg will remain with Citroen in 2019, but has been demoted to WRC-2 Pro after he was replaced by Esapekka Lappi. For 2019, WRC-2 has been split into two separate championships, WRC-2 Pro for manufacturer entries and WRC-2 for privateer entries.

8 AutoAction

HONDA TCR INTEREST HIGH HONDA IS one of four manufacturers that will make up the inaugural TCR Australia grid, with interest high according to Honda distributor David Wall.

Wall Racing picked up the deal with Honda’s racing arm JAS Motorsport through a mechanic’s connection, which allowed Wall to make a proposal that proved successful.

The Honda Civic Type R has been successful overseas and Wall is confident that TCR as a class fills a void in Australian motorsport.

“There’s a spot for it,” Wall told Auto Action.

“There has been a bit of a gap there. For people spending what they are in Toyota 86, you probably need to spend what they’re spending and half of that again and you’re going to get on the grid with a TCR car.”

Wall has been overwhelmed with interest for TCR and has been impressed by the build-up since the media day occurred in late-November.

“Interest has been huge. It’s still a new series so there are things that we are waiting on for confirmation, then we can confirm the numbers that we are going to have,” Wall enthused.

“Generally, we get an inquiry once a week. It was very busy after the media day, we had a lot of inquiries about the cars, running costs and once the championship was announced, what would be involved for Wall Racing to run some cars for some people.

“The next three to four weeks will probably tell the story because the next month dictates if someone was to purchase a car to get it here in time for the series, which is a few months’ away.”

The excitement surrounding the category appears to be justified as Hyundai already has four confirmed cars on the grid, with more expected out of the Audi and Volkswagen camps.

Wall is confident the Honda will emulate

the success it has had across the world here in Australia, especially as the TCR platform appears an attractive proposition to a variety of demographics.

“The hype around the cars and even the different makes that were there, everyone was so enthusiastic, the people that drove the cars had nothing but good things to say about them,” Wall explained.

“They’re fun, they’re fast, they look good, they sound good, they’re economical to run for what it is. If you look at it that way, it is a very good stepping stone for someone to jump into a class that is a proven product, it has plenty of scope from here to overseas, if someone wants to make a career of driving these cars.

“For us, it made a lot of sense, ticked a lot of boxes and the biggest thing is the rules remain the same worldwide and as does the BOP for the series.”

LITTLE JOINS SUPERCARS

SUPERCARS HAS announced that they have appointed highly-experienced race engineer Campbell Little as the category’s Motorsport Technical Manager.

Reporting to Adrian Burgess, who also recently left Tekno Autosports to join Supercars as Head of Motorsport, Little comes into the newly-created role as the category ramps up its planning for the next generation Supercars.

As a race engineer, Little has won five Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 titles and two driver’s Championships, working with some of Supercars’ greatest teams including Stone Brothers Racing, Triple Eight Race Engineering and Dick Johnson Racing (now DJR Team Penske).

It included engineering Marcos Ambrose’ dominance within the category and being part of establishing Triple Eight and the subsequent successes of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Burgess says Little brings a substantial level of technical expertise to the Supercars team.

“Campbell brings with him a wealth of experience, not just within the Supercar paddock, but from around the world working in different categories and with different manufacturers,” said Burgess.

“His expertise will ensure we maintain focus on key technical projects, future technologies and initiatives from within Australia and around the world, as we also look ahead to the next generation.”

Little said he’s excited about the role, which commences this month and reports to Burgess who was appointed Head of Motorsport in October, replacing CAMS-bound David Stuart.

“With the introduction of the Mustang this year the timing is just right for this new challenge in my career,” said Little.

“I’ve spent a long time working within this great category, it really is the best touring car series in the world. I look forward to working with the Technical Department and the teams.”

The 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship gets underway at the Superloop Adelaide 500 in Adelaide on 28 Feb – 3 March.

POWER AND PENSKE RECEIVE INDY TROPHIES WILL POWER and Roger Penske have been presented with their miniature replicas of the famous BorgWarner trophy, for winning the 2018 Indianapolis 500.

The presentation was made at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, Michigan, which saw Power collect his 14-inch replica of the BorgWarner Championship Driver’s Trophy, while team owner Penske was also presented with the mini BorgWarner Championship Team Owner’s Trophy.

It was the first time that Power had won the prestigious race, on his 11th attempt, also becoming the first Australian to do so.

“It’s a big deal and something I’ve been thinking about for the last few months,” said Power.

“I didn’t realize you get your face on

the ‘Baby Borg.’ Not many people get to do that and not many people have one.

“It’s a real honour to do it in Detroit, with Roger Penske, with the General Motors people there. It’s a big honour all the way around. This is a pretty cool auto show. I always love coming here.”

Power also reminisced on the journey that brought him to this point.

“It is amazing as you look back at where I began racing go-karts on the dirt tracks of Toowoomba, Australia, to be standing up and receiving a Baby Borg trophy after winning the biggest race in the world,” Power continued.

“If I had sat back 20 years ago and thought I would be in this position, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

The 2019 IndyCar season commences March 8 in St Petersburg, while the 103rd Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for May 26.

THE BEND TO HOST INTERNATIONAL SPORTSCARS IT HAS been nearly 20 years since Adelaide hosted the last recognised international sportscar event in this country, the Race of a Thousand Years in 2000.

But in 2020 the Asian Le Mans Series will tackle The Bend Motorsport complex when LMP2 and GT cars will race on the 7.77km configuration.

It is expected that the LMP2 machinery will re-set the lap record for the track with the cars capable of 343km/h top speed, as recorded at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race.

A quality field of multiple Le Mans winning drivers and teams, World Endurance champions, former Formula 1 drivers and a number of GT

specialists will contest the category, which continues to grow in size and statue.

“We had been considering an expansion into Australia for quite some time, but we needed to find the right opportunity,” said Cyrille Taesch Wahlen, Managing Director of the Asian Le Mans Series.

“I visited The Bend last year and was blown away by the high standard of the track and the facilities. This, along with the enthusiasm being shown by the circuit management team, made it an easy decision.

“The feedback from our teams and drivers about the possibility of a trip to Australia was also

widely positive - we already have many drivers, engineers and other support crews from Australia!

“Not only is it a very exciting project, it also has the potential to be a really great event and it will be a very nice addition to the Asian Le Mans Series calendar.’’

Managing director of The Bend Motorsport Park, Sam Shahin has always stated that the goal was for the circuit to hold an international endurance race, which will be realised in 2020.

“The Asian Le Mans Series is the pinnacle of international endurance racing, and we are very excited and proud to bring the event to Australia and to continue to showcase Tailem Bend and the

EREBUS EXPANDS ACADEMY IMAGE RACING’S Super2 and Super3 programs will once again be aligned with Erebus Motorsport through its Academy set-up.

The Erebus Academy has fostered a number of young talent including Supercars drivers Jack Le Brocq and Anton De Pasquale, Super2 driver Adam Marjoram and GT driver Richard Muscat.

“Erebus has long held a commitment to the grass roots of motorsport and we would like to ensure we can continue to support up and coming talent,” said Erebus CEO Barry Ryan.

“Developing our crew and creating career opportunities is also a focus and having Image Racing, where they can work with Terry and his team, makes an ideal environment to learn and is

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very important for both our businesses.”

Image Racing run a pair of ex-Erebus Motorsport Holden VF Commodores, one of which was just recently acquired and was the last to be run by the Supercars squad. Team owner Terry Wyhoon is hoping that drivers Marjoram and Jordan Boys can continue their steady improvement for the 2019 season.

“Adam had his best-ever results last year and often commented how good the car was; now Jordan Boys is looking forward to getting into his new car and getting similar results,” Wyhoon said.

The alliance also includes technical support for Image racing’s Super2 campaign, which heats up as a number of Supercars teams transition into the

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surrounding region to the world,” Shahin said.

“The vision for The Bend Motorsport Park is to be a world-class facility which hosts international standard events of the highest calibre. Last year with 40,000+ fans attending the inaugural Supercars event, we took a big step forward in establishing our credentials. To be hosting this event in our third year of operation is a testament to the project, and an indication that our ambition has no boundaries.”

The race will be held during the summer months to fit with the rest of the Asian Le Mans Series calendar, with the date to be announced in a couple of weeks’ time.

series for the upcoming season.

“With several main series teams now running in Super2, it has become increasingly important for us to have access to an improved infrastructure, such as engineering advice, race strategy, and shared driver feedback,” he said.

“We believe we have a reputation for blooding young drivers, and with the increase of the main game teams in our category, it narrows the opportunity for driver progress.

“A closer alliance with Erebus will bring our drivers closer to being able to see the way forward in Supercars, and we also believe the improvements within Image Racing will also bring the Super2 drivers to a higher plane.”

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EYES ON STATES FOR SHIELDS

YOUNG TOOWOOMBA driver Cameron Shields has his eyes set on a career in the US after completing a number of tests in USF2000 machinery just prior to Christmas, where he and fellow Formula Ford driver Hunter McElrea impressed.

McElrea will contest the USF2000 series next year after winning the Road to Indy scholarship, but Shields is still piecing together a budget to contest the series having fielded several enquiries from teams such as the title winning Cape Motorsports squad that delivered Australian Anthony Martin the crown in 2016.

“We have received a lot of good offers from teams in USF2000, but unfortunately we’ve got a shortfall in the budget right now,” said Shields.

“If we can’t meet the budget to do a full season in USF2000, there are quite a few different avenues we can take, but I’ve been solely focusing on going to the states. If not, there are plenty of other options whether its racing in a category that I’ve already done or a different one.

“But at this stage, I’m not looking at different options until I can’t go race in America.”

Shields had a busy season in 2018. He contested a number of rounds in the Australian Formula Ford Series, undertook a full campaign in the Australian Formula 4 Championship, and contested the Formula 3 Premier Series. The 17-year-old told Auto Action it was tough to juggle at times, but he experienced success in each of the categories.

“From a driver’s point of view, I didn’t find it as difficult as I thought I would, although each car was very different,” Shields continued.

“And just from an engineering standpoint, it was hard because racing over three categories, there was no time to develop the cars.”

Branching out across three categories helped Shields immensely when he tested the USF2000 package at Homestead Raceway, when he was in the top two across the five practice sessions.

“It was very useful in fact because I got used to adapting to a variety of different cars. When I went to America, I had a limited amount of sessions to get used to a whole new car, new track, new team, all what I experienced last year,” Shields told Auto Action.

The goal for Shields is a full-time spot on the USF2000 grid in 2019, which begins at St Petersburg on March 8-10. HEATH MCALPINE

SERIES REVIVAL SET FOR MID-YEAR START PRODUCTION CARS Australia, the new category set to revive the Australian Production Car Series, joins the Australian Motor Racing Series from June.

With a greatly reduced eligible price cap, the series will kick off at The Bend Motorsport Park on June 21-23, with the second round planned for Queensland Raceway on August 16-18. Round three will be at Sydney Motorsport Park on September 27-29, followed by Wakefield Park (October 18-20) and Winton Raceway on November 15-17.

The new category was formed by existing GT-1 Australia Category Managers Rod Salmon and Paul Taylor,

for production car owners to compete in a cost-effective national championship with regulations based on those used by currently racing production cars.

Primarily the cars must be an Australian-delivered production model with a capped retail price of $100,000 (including options) and be a genuine four-seater which meets the definition of a ‘touring car’. It is intend to keep the regulations as simple as possible. So too the class structure with just five, which will be based on potential performance.

This eligibility list includes makes and models that already compete in production car racing. The Technical Regulations include detailed criteria

with which any new make/model must comply for it to be considered for inclusion.

Each round will consist of private practice and two 15min qualifying sessions back-to-back. Three races are planned for each round – two 20min sprints and a one-hour event with compulsory pitstop. Additional drivers will be optional.

There will be an Invitational Class for cars that otherwise would not be eligible to participate, although they will not be eligible for Championship points. There will also be a class exclusively for Toyota 86s – only for existing cars – and will allow limited freedoms in addition to what

is allowed in the Technical Regulations.

A long-term deal has been signed with Hankook Tyre Australia for the supply their Ventus Z221 as the control tyre.

The organisers are also specifying a minimum tyre pressure in the Technical Regulations.

Supercharged and turbocharged cars will only be permitted to run existing boost pressure up to the boost limit specified by the CM (based on engine capacity).

A Balance of Performance will be used to help level the performance of each car within each class. The BoP will only be used where a significant performance imbalance exists.

GARRY O’BRIEN

PANCIONE’S NEW WHEELS REIGNING GT3 Cup Challenge Class B winner Christian Pancione has upgraded over the off season and will be one to watch in 2019, driving a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car that has been newly acquired from New Zealand.

The 17-year-old, in his first year of circuit racing, proved to be a match for his more experienced rivals driving an older specification 911 GT3 Cup Car. In a newer, proven car Pancione is confident of challenging for the GT3 Cup Challenge crown, after his first test at Winton.

“The first test was at Winton, I loved it and thought it was a lot better than the 997. It suits my driving style a bit more than the older car,” Pancione told Auto Action.

“Overall, it’s a better package, and I much prefer the paddle shift over the sequential. That’s the thing that is a major improvement, it is a bit different though, it handles differently to the older car. It took a few sessions to get used, but when I got up to speed, it was good.”

The fight for the 2019 GT3 Cup Challenge promises to be another tight affair as youngsters Harri Jones and Ryan Suhle join the grid, plus for the first time the class will be on the support program for Supercars at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

“Our goal is to always win, we’re going to aim for the series win, it’ll be an interesting there are a lot more people in it. It’ll be good competition,

so it will be tough,“ he continued.

“It’s pretty exciting being a part of Australia’s biggest motorsport class, there are a lot of people watching. It’s another new track that I’ll have to learn, but it will be pretty awesome to race in front of those people.”

HEATH MCALPINE

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AA’s impressed pundit gets a lesson in rally greats from Ford WRC stalwart Malcolm Wilson, including a myth-busting view of excitement machine Colin McRae MALCOLM WILSON has been a Ford man for more than 40 years.

Almost as long as Dick Johnson.

In rallying, Wilson has been a byword for the Blue Oval since the late 1970s and has represented the everyman marque in the World Rally Championship from 1997.

This year is different. Wilson’s M-Sport enterprise won the last two WRC drivers’ titles with Sebastien Ogier, who has decamped back to Citroen. That has meant a diminution of Ford backing – again – and a return to relying on undeveloped talent.

It’s been a roller-coaster ride for Wilson with Ford over the past two decades, but he has stuck loyally to the brand with not only his WRC team, but also M-Sport’s extensive rally customer business.

The only deviation has been his unsolicited foray into GT3 racing with Bentley, which has been surprisingly successful. Wilson will be at the Monte Carlo Rally this weekend for the classic WRC opener, then fly out to oversee Team Bentley M-Sport’s bid to win the Bathurst 12 Hour (read more about that on pages 34-35).

WRC is at the core of M-Sport and Wilson has managed to retain Ford support since the company withdrew full factory backing at the end of 2012. Ogier’s arrival after VW shut down its all-conquering WRC team at the end of 2016 boosted Ford’s financial and technical contribution, but M-Sport Ford World Rally Team wasn’t on a funding par with Hyundai, Toyota and even Citroen.

Wilson has become used to Ford’s waxing and waning

– even after winning the 2006/07 manufacturers’ world championships – stoically accepting its support for what it is as the team prepares to unequally defend its drivers’ title with an upgraded, but vastly under-funded, Fiesta WRC. “Well, there’s never been two years the same, that’s for sure,” he said “There have been some great times, but there’ve also been some very difficult periods. One of those was the end of 2004, when Ford were restructuring and were going to withdraw, but I managed to get them to hang on and that’s when we developed a new car for 2006 and we were given a very clear brief that we had to win.

“And, of course, that’s what we did in 2006/07. But then we came across another difficult period at the end of 2012, when they decided to withdraw and this time there was no going back.

“But I have to say, even when they withdrew, we’ve always had technical support. And to be honest, the technical support has never been better. Technically, we know we can stay at the forefront because we have developments on the way and Ford is still very supportive.

“The commitment is still there on the technical side. I wouldn’t swap 2017 and last year for anything, but to be honest, there’s no way that we can sustain and continue at the level at which we’ve been competing and that’s why we’ve let Sebastien go, which was a really hard decision.

“But at the end of the day I have to think about the number of people

we have employed. The priority is to make sure that we can stay in business for the future.”

Wilson admits that replacing Ogier – the undisputed king of the current crop – is, quite simply impossible.

“That’s something you can’t do,” he sighed. “But we’ve been there before from 2012 until we got Sebastien in 2017. We had five years without even winning an event. So we’ve been there before, it’s not something we want to be doing, but the priority is to make sure we can stay in WRC. “We’ll work with young drivers again as we have in the past. It’s something I do enjoy very much, but it will be harder for the team after the success we’ve had in ’17 and ’18.”

Wilson rates Ogier as the greatest driver he’s ever had in his team – which is saying something for a roster that includes greats Carlos Sainz, Marcus Gronholm and the incomparable Colin McRae. “Without question, the best

driver we’ve had over the years is Sebastien Ogier. But it’s not just him. It’s him and Julien (Ingrassia, his co-driver) – they come as a team – and what they’ve delivered for us is something no other driver/ co-driver combination has done for us.

“I’ve had some great drivers, but without question, Ogier is the best.

(Nine-time champion) Sebastien Loeb is still the best there’s ever been, but I think if Ogier were prepared to continue long enough (to add to his six titles), then I’m sure he could give Loeb a good run for his money.”

Wilson’s most exciting driver, though, was the late McRae, the most spectacular and popular driver in the 1990s. Despite his ‘win it or bin it’ reputation, the flamboyant Scotsman was remarkably adept at gruelling oldstyle rallies like the Kenyan Safari, which he won at his first attempt with M-Sport Ford.

“They were exciting years and

challenging years,” Wilson smiles.

“There’s no question you always felt that if Colin was going to finish the rally, then you knew you’d always be in with a shout to win it.

We had some fantastic times with Colin. The real standout moment was Safari in 1999. To go there with a relatively new car and win first time was quite a special moment – and probably the only rally in Colin’s history that he won where he never had fastest time.

“For all Colin’s flamboyant driving and what appeared to be a very aggressive and damaging approach, he had an incredible ability on all the difficult rallies.

Acropolis, Cyprus, Argentina, Safari – that’s where Colin was most successful. He actually had incredible mechanical sympathy despite his reputation for being wild. He had a great mechanical understanding of how far you could actually push a car.”

Colin McCrash, wild and mild.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

HYUNDAI’S DUAL TCR ATTACK DESPITE WINNING last year’s World Touring Car Cup, Hyundai has released another TCR model which will race in the US this year, the Veloster N TCR. The purpose of the car is to further promote the N brand and as the i30 N isn’t sold in the US, building a TCR homologated model based on the Veloster N was an obvious choice.

“The Veloster is a perfect fit for the IMSA

Michelin Pilot Challenge as we expand our motorsports efforts,” said Dean Evans, vice president, Marketing, Hyundai Motor America.

“The all-new 2019 Veloster and Veloster N are playful, fun-to-drive cars, and thanks to Bryan and his team we’re excited to introduce them to racing fans across North America. In 2018, we won a manufacturer’s championship, so it is great to get back to racing with our proven

veterans, a pair of great young drivers, and this brand-new car.”

Bryan Herta Autosport are behind the new venture after dominating last year’s touring car class in the Pirelli World Challenge. The team move across to the IMSA-aligned Michelin Pilot Challenge where it will fight for honours against the Honda Civic Type R TCR, Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR and Audi RS3 LMS TCR.

INDYCAR’S NEW TITLE SPONSOR

BUSY BTCC SILLY SEASON

The BTCC grid is quickly taking shape.

Most of the key seats have been filled, but there are still some sought-after seats left for this season.

Here is a rundown of who is where ahead of the 2019 season: The factory Honda team, Halfords Yuasa Racing, is one of the few teams that will remain the same for 2019, with both Matt Neal and Dan Cammish re-signing with for this season.

2018 BTCC Champion Colin Turkington has also opted for consistency, deciding to defend his crown with BMW West Surrey Racing. The second seat last year contained a father and son combination. Rob Collard drove the car until he was injured at Snetterton, being replaced by his son Ricky Collard for the final four rounds.

Tom Oliphant will now replace the pair after leaving Ciceley Motorsport at the end of his first season in the BTCC. Andrew Jordan will once again fill the third WSR car driving the Pirtek backed BMW for a third straight year.

2018 runner-up Tom Ingram will continue with Speedworks Motorsport, last year with a customer Toyota Avensis. In 2019 Speedworks has stepped up as a factory Toyota supported squad, the move also seeing the team change to a Corolla.

Motorbase has re-signed the experienced Tom Chilton after he finished third in the standings in 2018, while also announcing the arrival of new signing Ollie Jackson to the team. Its third driver is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Team HARD has re-signed both Bobby Thompson and Mike Bushell for 2019. After giving former National Hot Rod World Champion

12 AutoAction

“The success we had last year with the i30 N TCR inspired us to expand Hyundai’s motorsports program and bring the Veloster N TCR into a tougher series, with longer races and more experienced drivers,” said Bryan Herta, President and CEO of Bryan Herta Autosport.

“Transforming the Veloster’s lightweight, rigid architecture into an endurance race car will help us build credibility for Hyundai’s growing N brand and bolster the reverse-halo effect that the Veloster brings to Hyundai’s diverse vehicle lineup. We can’t wait to get this new car out on the track and into competition.”

Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins lead the driver line-up, with the duo teaming up with youngsters Mason Filippi and Harry Gottsacker in a two-car attack.

The Veloster N TCR is a near exact duplicate to its i30N TCR brother underneath, with both models sharing 85 per cent of core components. They are built are at Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing Team headquarters in Alzenau, Germany.

The Veloster N TCR is fully homologated for competition but priority for deliveries will be given to markets that sell the Veloster N.

Carl Boardley a drive at Knockhill last season, the team has signed him for a full season in 2019. The team’s fourth driver will be 2018 Ginetta GT4 Supercup AM champion Michael Crees.

Sam Tordoff has moved from Motorbase to the AmD Technik Essex team, where he will partner Rory Butcher who remains with the team for a second year.

The Ciceley Motorsport team has announced it will scale back to two Mercedes A-Class cars in 2019, its drivers being team co-owner Adam Morgan and rookie Daniel Rowbottom.

The third Mercedes will still be driven by Aiden Moffat, but the Laser Tools Racing Team will be racing as an ndependent operation rather than through Ciceley Motorsport.

Jake Hill has signed with new team Trade Price Cars Racing and rookie Rob Smith has signed for new team Excelr8 Motorsport, with both teams yet to sign their second drivers.

Matt Simpson, who recorded his first race win last year at Oulton Park, will continue to drive for his own Simpson Racing team in 2019.

Both the Vauxhaul and Subaru factory outfits have not announced driver line-ups yet, nor have along many independent teams.

With names like Jason Plato, Ashley Sutton, Jack Goff, Josh Cook and Rob Collard still on the market the BTCC silly season is far from over.

INDYCAR HAS announced a new multi-year title sponsorship with NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), after the end of its five-year Verizon deal.

Verizon has signed another multi-year contract with Team Penske, which will see the Verizon sponsorship on the cars for many years to come.

As well as being the title sponsor of the series, NTT will also be the technology partner of the series, in which the company hopes to improve the fan experience by delivering digital innovations.

The Japanese company approached IndyCar about becoming the title sponsor in September 2018, and the deal came together quickly late last year.

“Based on our lengthy and successful experience, including work in mobile applications, analytics and user experience, we will help IndyCar create the next generation of fans globally who aspire to enjoy racing through a more digital experience,” said NTT’s president and CEO Jun Sawada.

“NTT is proud to be associated with IndyCar and accelerate the future of

smart racing. Technological innovations have the potential to change the sport and fan experience drastically.”

NTT Data, the sister company of NTT Corp., is the main sponsor of the #10 Chip Ganassi car which in 2018 was driven by Ed Jones, who finished 13th in the final standings. This year the #10 car will be driven by IndyCar rookie Felix Rosenqvist.

Although the Swede is an IndyCar rookie, he has plenty of racing experience in Formula E, DTM, Super Formula and many other championships.

“Having a strong technology partner is critically important to IndyCar’s continued growth,” said Mark Miles, President and CEO of IndyCar, “so we are thrilled to welcome NTT as our new title sponsor.”

The first race of the IndyCar season takes place on the 10th of March on the streets of St. Petersburg in Florida.

BRABHAM NAME TO RETURN TO LE MANS BRABHAM AUTOMOTIVE has announced its intension to race in the World Endurance Championship GTE Pro class as a factory operation, starting in 2021/2022.

The team will be run by Brabham Automotive and race the Adelaide-built Brabham BT62. The BT62 has done hundreds of test kilometres around the new The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, with testing focused on developing the car for high performance endurance racing.

“Returning the Brabham name to Le Mans is something I have been working on for years, so it’s fantastic to make this announcement,” said David Brabham, Brabham Automotive

Managing Director and former Le Mans winner. “Brabham Automotive only launched its first car, the BT62, in May 2018 so we have a long road to travel to earn the right to compete at Le Mans. That work starts now with a long-term racing commitment.”

Brabham Automotive also plans to compete in the GTE AM class, in which Brabham Automotive would provide customer teams with BT62’s.

The Brabham name has great history at Le Mans, with both brothers Geoff and David winning the historic 24 hour race in 1993 and 2009 respectively.

“Our plan to go on the journey back to Le Mans is a statement of intent that Brabham Automotive is back and here to stay. In the BT62, we have already built an outstanding, unrestricted track car now with a road legal option,” said Dan Marks, Commercial Director of Brabham Automotive.

The BT62 has made a number of public appearances around the world to date, including at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Laguna Seca and the Adelaide Motorsport Festival. The car will also cut some laps at the Superloop Adelaide 500 in just over a month.

SUPRA SUPER GT RETURN TOYOTA HAS revealed a concept of its Toyota Supra Super GT car, which it plans to race in the series starting in 2020. That year will see Super GT adopt the new Class One rules which were jointly created and developed by Super GT and DTM. The Supra has a proud racing history, being raced in touring cars, endurance racing and even drag racing, but it was in drifting and the Super GT championship (formally known as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship) where the Supra has previously had extensive success.

Toyota won four championships in Super GT between 1997 and 2005 with the Supra, even though manufacturing of the fourth generation road car finished in August 2002.

In 2006 Toyota decided to replace it with the more road relevant Lexus SC 430. Since the luxury Toyota brand took over in 2006, Lexus has won five titles with three different car models, most recently in 2017 with the Lexus LC 500 in the hands of Japanese driver Ryo Hirakawa and New

Zealander Nick Cassidy. In 2018 the pair finished three points behind the champions, 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto.

The fifth generation Supra will begin production this year, Toyota seeing it as an opportunity to bring back the model name to GT racing.

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LATEST NEWS

BATHURST LEGENDS AT HAMPTON DOWNS

By GARRY O’BRIEN PROMINENT DRIVERS and team owners with success at Mt Panorama were special guests at the 2019 Hampton Downs Legends of Bathurst meeting on January 12-13, with some racing as well.

Legends Dick Johnson, Ross and Jimmy Stone, John Bowe, Jim and Steve Richards, and Paul Radisich all took part, together with Charlie O’Brien and Tony Quinn.

Host Greg Rust had them all up on the LOB Stage during the event telling tall stories and true.

There were also several signing sessions across the two days.

Among the cars of the Bathurst classes were a DJR Ford Sierra RS500 and Group A Ford Mustang, along with the Lansvale Smash Repairs Trevor Ashby/Steve Reed Walkinshaw VL Commodore.

Racing categories included Formula Libre, Formula Ford and Pre 65s with the Historic Touring Cars and Central Muscle Cars the headliners.

World Touring Car Cup winner Radisich, driving the Scott O’Donnell-owned Ford Modeo in which he won the WTTC twice, took out the opening six-lap encounter. Radisich and polesitter Steve Richards (Phil Mauger’s Nissan Primera) had exchanged

The Bathurst Legends entertained on track (above) and off, where Greg Rust asked the questions (left). Images: Dillon Photography.

the lead several times and finished just 0.0045s apart.

Third went to O’Donnell in another Mondeo, just ahead of Aaron Black (BMW E30 M3) and Lindsay O’Donnell (Volvo S40). Further back were sixth placed O’Brien (DTM 2.5-litre BMW), Bowe (Volvo 240T), Jim Richards (Group C BMW 635i) and Matthew O’Donnell (exTony Longhurst BMW E36).

The second race was equally close between the two front runners, with Richards edging out Radisich this time. Black was third just in front of Scott O’Donnell. Graeme Cameron (DTM BMW) failed to start race one with an electrical issue but came through for fifth this time.

Brett Stevens blew a turbo on his Group A Sierra in qualifying and lost an intercooler hose in race one. He finished sixth ahead of Jim Richards and Bowe in race two.

Stevens took the fight up to Steve Richards in race three until a slight error on final lap allowed the latter his second win. Less than a second away came Cameron ahead of Radisich, with O’Donnell and Black again close in their battle for fifth ahead of Jim Richards.

Bowe was unable to start the last as the new owner of the Volvo 240T collected his prized purchase, while O’Brien was also a non-starter, breaking a wheel in the morning outing.

Dean Perkins won both Central Muscle Car races, beating fellow Ford Falcon driver Andrew Anderson and Grant Dalton (Chev Camaro) in race one, before heading the Ford Mustangs of Greg Honnor and Bruce Anderson in race four.

It was a Chev Camaro shut-out in the first handicap (race two) with Mark Holland ahead of Paul Boden and Steve Doughty, before Andrew Turner headed Janine Douglas and Steve Ross in a Holden Commodore race three trifecta.

FOSTER FIFTH IN DUBAI 24

By GARRY O’BRIEN WINNER OF the 2015 Carrera Cup series Nick Foster, was the best placed of the Australians at the Dubai 24 Hour on January 10-12.

Driving for Attempto Racing and teamed up with Stanislav Minsky, Klaus Bachler, Marvin Dienst and Steijn Schothorst in an Audi R8 LMS, they finished fifth outright.

Punctures along the way and no Code60 luck hindered a potentially better result.

They completed 597 laps of the Dubai Autodrome circuit, 10 less than the outright and A6-PRO class winners, Dimitri Parhofer, Christopher Haase, Frédéric Vervisch and Rik Breukers, in their Car Collection Motorsport Audi.

The only other Australian to be classified a finisher was previous state MG series winner Cody Hill, who joined Ivo Breukers, Henry Littig and Klaus Kresnik in the reigning TCR European Champions Red Camel-Jordans.nl team. They finished third in class and 28th outright, despite their Cupra TCR DSG needing a tow to the pits having run out of fuel during the race.

The KCMG Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 piloted by Josh Burdon together with Katsumasa Chiyo, Tsugio Matsuda, Shaun Thong and Andrea Gagliardini were looking at a top five finish. But two

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A huge GT blasts away for the annual twice-around-the-clock Dubai 24 Hours race (above). Nick Foster’s fifth-placed Audi R8 LMS chases an AMG GT4 (right).

hours from the end they were out with an unspecified mechanical drama.

Singapore-based Martin Berry was having a crack at the event, joining Reicher Murod, Sultanov Klaus Koch and Philipp Sager in a Car Collection Audi in the A6-AM Class. They went out following contact with another car 15 hours in.

Americans Daren Jorgensen and Brett Strom, together with Gerard McLeod

and Danny van Dongen, were also involved in contact, early in the race.

The clash caused extensive suspension and drivetrain damage. They managed to re-join after losing some seven hours, but further damage to the suspension put them out later.

Aaron Cameron joined the Team Dynamics Audi RS3 LMS team, sharing with James Kaye, Will Neal, Henry Neal

and Jake Giddings, but the latter crashed at the end of the back straight, ending their event after 179 laps.

Just before that, the Reiter Engineering KTM X-Bow of Dean Koutsoumidis, Glen Wood, James Winslow and Mathias Beche suffered engine damage as a result of an electrical issue.

A MEXICAN FIESTA AT THE ROC THE 2019 Race of Champions took place in Mexico at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with organisers creating a pursuitstyle racetrack around a former Baseball pitch which forms part of the Grand Prix track.

Day One is the Nations Cup which sees drivers pairing up and racing for their country or region.

The final was contested between Johan Kristoffersson in the Mexican-built Vuhl 05 (above) was defeated by Sebastien Vettal who, together with Mick Schumacher, came second in the Nation’s Cup the usual suspects of Germany (below left). Pierre Gasly (below right) went down to local Benito Guerra. and Nordic, with team Nordic The part-time WRC-2 competitor beat World Rallycross Champion Kristoffersson in the Mexican built Vuhl 05 track day vehicles. prevailing in a close-fought contest to win its Formula 1 drivers Vettel and Pierre Gasley the Rallycross cars. This left three Mexicans The first race was the closest of the day, second Nations Cup. along the way and then beat Le Mans 24 in the final four.

Schmacher winning by 0.02s, the German Nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen Hours winner Loic Duval in the final.

In semi-final one Frenchman, Duval, then backing it up by winning the second took on Sebastien Vettel in the Rallycross Defending Race of Champions champion dispatched O’Ward by just over 0.2s. It was cars. Although the German won the first race, race.

David Coulthard and Vettel were eliminated in a Mexican standoff in the second semi-final The decider therefore was between Kristensen fought back to win the second the group stages, Vettel losing to Nations Cup between Gutierrez and Guerra, Guerra Kristensen and Schumacher, the Dane race, during which Vettel clipped a wall. In teammate Schumacher. winning by an even smaller margin of 0.12s. winning the first race by 0.5s and then case there was damage to Vettel’s car, both The quarter finals saw Schumacher lose The final between Duval and Guerra was a drivers were asked to change into the spare winning the second by 0.3s. Thus Team Nordic denied Germany their third straight to Esteban Gutierrez, Pierre Gasley lose best out of three competition. Guerra the rally Rallycross cars, to make sure all was fair.

Nations Cup. to Guerra, and both Nations Cup winners driver dominated in the Rallycross car to take Kristensen won the final race by 0.2s, giving a 1-0 lead.

On Sunday it was Mexican Benito Guerra eliminated. Duval was victorious over team Nordic a 1-0 lead.

He then won the second race in the Vuhl to who stole the show, becoming the Race of Kristensen, his former Audi World Endurance The second leg saw the young Mick the cheers of the local crowd, giving him the Champions champion in front of his home Championship teammate. Then Patrick Schumacher take on two-time FIA World crowd.

O’Ward, the Indy Lights Champion, beat Race of Champions title.

Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson in

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s w e n e n O Formula

WE WANT MORE RENAULT IS embarking on its fourth year as a full works team after its complete takeover of Lotus in 2016.

Renault has been here before, of course, as it owned the Enstone-based team from 2002 to 2011. Long gone are the glory days of the world championships with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006, and now Renault is in a rebuilding process that included hiring proven race winner Daniel Ricciardo as teammate to the veteran Nico Hülkenberg.

The team finished sixth in the 2017 constructors’ championship with 57 points and moved up to fourth last year with 122 points.

“The general global picture from sixth to fourth is good

progress,” Hülkenberg said. “But of course that’s not enough. We want more. We want to get better and faster.

There are a lot of positives that happened last year, which we got stronger and better at, but there still are some areas we really need to focus and work on.

“The ambition is to be more consistent on every track this year and to be competitive throughout regardless of the track characteristics.”

What about Ricciardo? Can Hülkenberg beat him straight away? Or will it be a close call?

“We’ll see – I have no issues with him arriving,” Hülkenberg replied. “It is all very positive and good news and should give a boost to the team, and we will get

EXPERIENCED CHANGES

TEAM MCLAREN is continuing to operate outside the norm when it comes to putting people without much Formula 1 experience in senior management positions.

CEO Zak Brown has lots of experience in racing, but his only F1 link was racing his historic F1 cars. Sporting director Gil de Ferran did hold a similar post at BAR Honda from 2005 through the middle of 2007, but of course he spent the bulk of his career involved in IndyCar and sports car racing.

And now McLaren has appointed ex-Porsche World Endurance Championship chief Andreas Seidl as managing director of the F1 team. Seidl, who will report to Brown, will have responsibility for all aspects of the team’s F1 racing programme.

Seidl does have an F1 background as he was with BMW Motorsport from 2000 and 2006 and then was head of track operations at BMW Sauber until 2009. But of course things have moved on considerably since then in F1.

“This is a significant appointment for us on two fronts,”

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Brown said of Seidl. “First, it is another important step in our F1 performance recovery plan and long-term commitment to F1.

Second, concentrated senior leadership on our F1 programme is an integral part of the long-term strategy of McLaren Racing to expand into other forms of global motorsport over time.

Andreas is a highly capable leader with a track record of success in everything he has been involved with.”

some good information as well from him. We’ll see how it all pans out.”

Four-time world champion Alain Prost who is now a special advisor to the Renault F1 Team believes Ricciardo will add a new dimension to the squad.

“For sure Daniel will give, not another motivation because we don’t need that, but he’s going to be quite a big help to make the team even better.” Prost told Autosport. “He’s going to give us some information; he’s going to make the team in another dimension.”

The Renault power unit won four races last year but, of course, hooked to a fabulous Red Bull chassis. But the Renault still lagged behind the Ferrari and Mercedes

Seidl said: “McLaren has the vision, leadership and experience but, most importantly, the people to return to the front, and that will be my absolute focus and mission.”

McLaren last won the world championship in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton, and has not won a Grand Prix since 2012.

“I have just presented a five-year plan and within that plan we think we have a journey to get back to winning races, and then once you’re winning races, you’re competing for the championship,” Brown recently said during a media conference. “We have laid out a journey and investment and a road to recovery that sees us getting back to the front of the grid in that timeline.”

It is unclear just when Seidl can actually start working at McLaren because he needs to do the mandatory ‘gardening leave’ required when senior technical people switch teams, even if he is coming from WEC rather than F1.

Former Toro Rosso chief technical officer James Key is also on gardening leave before taking up the same job at McLaren.

The new McLaren F1 car will be unveiled on February 14 and be on track with the team’s new drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, when testing begins in Spain on February 18.

POTPOURI

THINGS ARE ramping up on the Formula 1 scene as the teams prepare to head to Melbourne for the seasoning-opening Australian Grand Prix. Here’ a roundup of some of what is happening.

Red Bull’s racing advisor Dr. Helmut Marko wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to showing to the world which driver in the F1 team he favours.

In the days of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber he spent most of the time in Vettel’s side of the pit garage. And during the last couple of years he was frequently seen in Max Verstappen’s turf rather than that of Daniel Ricciardo.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, when Marko told Autosport that in the latter half of the 2018 season, Verstappen developed into a better driver than Ricciardo. Marko, however, did say that Ricciardo had been a valued member of the squad for the way he motivated Verstappen to improve and for the way the duo worked together off the track.

The new rules for 2019 mandating that the front wings be far less complex, and other rule changes including limitations on aerodynamic benefits created by the brake ducts and the sidepods, have had a dire effect on the cars’ performance.

Racing Point’s technical director Andy Green told Auto Motor und Sport that the immediate consequences discovered in the wind tunnel show

that the cars were several seconds a lap slower than the 2018 models. But this was only in mid-January.

Given the relentless development pace of the F1 teams, they will have clawed back some of that loss before the first race and will continue on that path as the season continues.

Pierre Gasly, who replaces Ricciardo at Red Bull this season, has gone on record saying he absolutely will not agree to playing the backup driver role for Verstappen.

Mick Schumacher, son of the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, has been signed up as a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

“This is another step forward in the right direction, and I can only profit from the immense amount of expertise bundled there,” said Schumacher, 19, who will compete in the Formula 2 series this year. “Be sure I will make everything to extract whatever helps me achieve my dream, racing in Formula 1.”

Giuliano Alesi, 19, son of former F1 driver Jean Alesi, and Enzo Fittipaldi, 17, grandson of former F1 and IndyCar champion Emerson Fittipaldi, are also members of Ferrari’s young driver development programme.

Red Bull Racing has retained Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi, 30, as its official reserve driver for a ninth consecutive season.

engines is all aspects including horsepower and reliability, and Red Bull never shied from pointing that out!

“I think they have a point,” Hülkenberg said. “We are also a little bit disappointed and didn’t find the performance we wanted through the season. That is a factor. That is why sometimes we drop in the competitiveness level also, but not just that reason, there are different reasons as well. So that is one of the areas we need for sure to get better for this year and the future.”

Renault sacrificed last year to focus on 2019. The team wants more this season, and Prost said the goal is to get closer to the big three teams.

POACHERS TURNED GAMEKEEPERS THE WILY Ross Brawn refers to himself as a poacher turned gamekeeper. It’s an apt description because after years as a technical director and designer trying to (legally) outwit the rule makers, he now helps formulate the rules in his role as the managing director of motor sports for Liberty Media’s Formula One group.

Pat Symonds falls into the same category. After all those years working for teams, he is now Liberty’s chief technical officer of motor sports.

When Symonds and Brawn speak, they are worth listening to because they know what they are talking about.

Symonds recently gave his views on various aspects of F1 while on stage in front of an audience at the Autosport International Show, which is held in the UK each January. He pointed out how Liberty is taking the scientific approach and using simulations and research when it comes to the future of F1, on everything from overtaking to circuit design.

The current starting grid with the cars staggered at eight metre intervals might be changed to having pairs of cars side-by-side like in the past.

“We built a simulation that uses artificial intelligence, but we can also put a human in,” Symonds revealed. “(We were able to) statistically analyse every single position of the cars at all times, so we can say

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‘when we did this to the grid, we got three percent more accidents; we got five percent more passes; we got 20 percent more side-by-side racing’ (during the first two laps.)”

Regarding overtaking, Symonds pointed out that the 2019 rules changes – changes to the front and rear wings, the brake ducts and the bargeboards – will help keep things in check before the major regulation changes in 2021.

“Formula 1 develops at an alarming rate, it’s relentless,” he said. “If we had not done anything the 2019 cars would have been even harder to follow than the 2018 cars were. We’ll have to see when we get the results. Don’t expect a transformational change but believe me it would only have got worse. What we’ve done is at least maintained the status quo, and I suspect actually improved things a little bit.”

The Formula One Group has produced the world’s first overtaking simulation which will help with current circuit upgrades or the designs of new tracks like the one in Vietnam, Symonds said.

“It’s been extremely complex to do,” he said. “To run a lap takes several hours. It’s a very, very complex simulation but it has a

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proper wake model of the cars; it looks at the surface and the tyre characteristics and all these sort of things. Vietnam…the first circuit we’ve really been involved with…we have been able to understand what it will take to make good racing there.”

All in all, the poachers turned gamekeepers are not making any snap decisions.

“We want to get away from those bad old days and work in a much more scientific manner,” Symonds stated. “We do want to make our decisions based on evidence.”

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F1 INSIDER - OPINION

ARRIVEDERCI ARRIVABENE STABILITY IS a vital key for a Formula 1 team to be successful. And things have certainly not been stable at Ferrari which has had a revolving door on the team principal’s office. Maurizio Arrivabene has been sacked and replaced by Mattia Binotto, 49, who previously held the position of chief technical officer in the team. Binotto is the fourth person in five years to hold the top post at Ferrari.

Compare that to Red Bull where Christian Horner has been the boss since 2005 and Mercedes where Toto Wolff has led since 2013.

The amiable Stefano Domenicali was Ferrari’s team principal from 2008 to 2014. He replaced Jean Todt who led Ferrari to five world championships with Michael Schumacher. Then, in a move I never understood, Ferrari replaced Domenicali with Marco Mattiacci who had been president and CEO of Ferrari North America and president and CEO of Ferrari Asia Pacific.

Mattiacci knew about selling road cars but nothing about F1, so he was really thrown in at the deep end. He lasted just six months, and then his long career at Ferrari was over.

Arrivabene knew a lot about F1 having worked with Philip Morris for 20 years – and therefore Ferrari’s main sponsor

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Marlboro – and he represented all the sponsors with a seat on the F1 Commission.

Then Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne put Arrivabene in the Ferrari team leader job in November 2014.

There are many different ways to be a leader, be it of a country, a company or an F1 team. The abrasive Arrivabene had a reputation of ruling by fear. He certainly made few friends in the media. Teams like Red Bull and Mercedes hold a postrace media debrief with their bosses. So did Ferrari until Arrivabene put an end to that. Under Arrivabene’s reign Ferrari became the only team to stop putting out press releases after practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday. When he had to appear in official FIA press conferences, Arrivabene could be terse with his answers.

Was it Arrivabene’s fault that Ferrari failed to win the world championship? The team made some tactical errors last season like sending the drivers out on the wrong tyres during qualifying in Japan and failing to get Sebastian Vettel on pole in Italy. Well, F1 is a team sport, but the buck stops at the team

The brooding, agressive Maurizio Arrivabene (above, with Sebastian Vettal) has been replaced with the open and friendly Marco Mattiacci.

principal’s desk.

The contrasting styles of Binotto and Arrivabene could not be more different. Binotto is open and friendly rather than brusque and aggressive. Team insiders talk about a growing rift between the two. It’s also rumored that Marchionne was getting ready to sack Arrivabene, but that was all put on hold after Marchionne passed away in July.

Binotto has worked for Ferrari since 1995 when he started in the engine department, and he became the head of that department in 2013. When Binotto was promoted to chief technical officer in July 2016 (replacing James Allison who

ended up at Mercedes) I did not know how good a job he would do because his specialty was engines rather that the overall car. In fact, Binotto did a great job and other teams came sniffing around to see if they could lure him away from Ferrari.

Now I worry how Binotto will fare in his new role. Being chief technical officer is a fulltime job, and now he will have to split his time between improving the car and running the team overall. He is going to have to delegate more responsibility and work to engine department head Corrado Lotti and aerodynamics boss Enrico Cardile. So far Ferrari has not

named a new chief technical officer.

Binotto won’t have time to make any major changes at Ferrari as pre-season testing and the season opening race in Melbourne are fast approaching. And these big changes will jar the team’s much needed stability. The question now becomes how patient will Fiat Chrysler chairman John Elkann and Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri be with Binotto?

If Ferrari does not start winning championships soon, how long will it be before Binotto too will be shown to the revolving door of the team principal’s office?

Australia’s motor sport authority since 1971

MOTORSPORT HAS MANY INSPIRATIONAL ROLE MODELS WE OFTEN hear talk about a lack of role models in sport, or even just generally in the world right now.

With Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms taking over the globe, the dangers of role models turning or being turned into devils at the click of a mouse button is higher than ever and happens regularly in Australia’s biggest sporting codes such as the AFL, NRL and Cricket.

But where does motorsport sit in this space?

The world of motorsport is not squeaky clean by any stretch and if the media scrutiny was even as half as strong as it is with the AFL, then there might be a few skeletons that come out of the closet.

However, with names like Mostert, McLaughlin, Reynolds and Whincup leading the popularity rankings after perennial fan favourite Craig Lowndes departed from the full-time scene at the end of last season, the sport has some genuine role models, and good ones at that.

All these drivers provide something different, but each demonstrates a hard-working persona the likes of which has started to wane with the latest generation of humans.

Some may ask why put David Reynolds in amongst that list after being fined for a defamatory comment at Bathurst a few years ago.

But Davy doesn’t pretend to be anyone else but himself, what you see is what you get, and that’s something that is lacking in sports these days.

Sporting organisations these days are very concerned – and probably rightly so – about the reactions and possible ramifications from a particular action or comment, but ‘Crazy Dave’ breaks the mould and has been a breath of fresh air for the sport.

Motorsport contains many inspirational role models, Alex Zanardi, Billy Motorsport role models both: Alex Zanardi and Billy Monger.

Monger and the recent Dakar victory of Toby Price all Monger at Donington Park missed by most motorsport being proof that the sport has in 2016 resulted in both his fans either, as a campaign some truly committed and legs being amputated, but he to see the Aussie receive the dedicated competitors who has since comeback to be a plaudits, he deserves from exude the right values. leading contender in British the mainstream media proved Zanardi continues to race Formula 3 and even got his successful. cars to this day and will chance to drive a Formula 1 There are many more contest this weekend’s 24 car late last year. inspirational tales in Hours of Daytona for BMW. Price had built up a cult motorsport. Some vary Not only has the Italian following numerous Finke from fighting budgetary won in the World Touring wins and an initial Dakar and geographical issues, Car Championship, victory in 2016. to clawing back through karting and GT racing But this year’s event truly adversity in a race or a title with hand-controlled cars, highlighted his grit and fight. after his Indycar crash at determination when he Motorsport has many role the Lautsitzring. Truly an raced, and won, with a models, some are in their inspiration, but he also took broken scaphoid courtesy teens, some in their ‘20s in the Paralympics and won of a training accident last or middle age, but each Gold in the men’s road time December. harbours goals and ambitions trial H4 in 2012, Gold four Yes, bikes haven’t been that can only be achieved years later in the H5 and covered in Auto Action since with determination and hard Silver in the road race. These it was revived two and a half work. are on top of many wins in years ago, but the enormity of These the qualities we want wheelchair marathons across Price’s win was not missed by to instil in the generations to the globe. the writers and contributors in come.

A shattering accident for the office. And it clearly wasn’t HEATH McALPINE

Publisher

Bruce Williams 0418 349 555 Associate Publisher Mike Imrie Editor-At-Large

Mark Fogarty

Deputy Editor

Heath McAlpine

Creative Director/ Production

Jason Crowe

Special Contributor Bruce Newton National Editor

Garry O’Brien

Intern Online Editor

Dan McCarthy Rhys Vandersyde

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BATHURST 12 HOUR GUIDE GT GLAMOUR AND GLORY SINCE 1971

.COM.AU

BLACK MAGIC ET E RET SECR S SEC R RS OVER COVE DISC TY DIS FROSTY

SS ESS SUCCE EIGHTT SUC LE EIGH TRIPLE O TRIP TTO TANDERISED

W DEEAL MEET Y’S NETHE BETTRITE ANT UPS ges FFo grills Garth

PEN

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Issue #1753

Jan 24 to Feb 6, 2019

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PLUS

SAUBERTOOTH TIGER KIMI ON HIS F1 FUTURE

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O N , G N O L SO L L E W E R A F Veteran Holden hero Garth Tander doesn’t hold back as he discusses at length the mixed emotions of being discarded by GRM and snapped up by Triple Eight within a week

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HEN ONE door closes, another door opens. It’s an old saying that sums up Garth Tander’s fortunes. In fact, after he was unceremoniously axed

by GRM, arguably a much better door opened.

Tander was quickly signed for two years as Shane van Gisbergen’s co-driver in the endurance races. Winning races with GRM, even Bathurst, was always going to be unlikely.

But alongside SVG at Red Bull Holden Racing Team, the lanky Perth-born, Melbourne-based V8 veteran will be a leading contender to win six big races. So despite the shock and outrage, he’s actually in a better position to finish his Supercars career on a high note. It is inconceivable the crack tall-boy combination won’t win races.

GT’s legacy already includes three Bathurst 1000s (2000/09/11) among his 54 race wins, the 2007 Supercars championship and 30 pole positions, ranking him as one of best of his generation. He also anchored the winning team in GRM’s Monaro in the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hours and will be in contention for another Mount

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Panorama marathon victory with Audi Sport Team Valvoline next week in the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Tander, 41, is also probably only slightly disadvantaged financially – if at all – by his sudden Supercars semi-retirement, given that Rogers is famously parsimonious when it comes to paying drivers and Roland Dane doesn’t penny pinch on talent.

The unexpected move means Tander will extend his continuous record of racing only Commodores in Supercars until at least 2020.

His loyalty to Holden since 1998 is unmatched in the modern era on either side of the red and blue divide.

Fit, tanned and relaxed when we meet in Melbourne’s inner east, Tander is surprisingly sanguine about the premature end to his fulltime career. Despite his reputation for being prickly, there’s no sarcasm and he engages openly about what happened and why.

GT is articulate and pithy, and it would not be a surprise to see him join the Supercars broadcast commentary team as a guest pundit.

Are you over the shock of suddenly not being a fulltime driver?

I was laying in bed this morning actually thinking about that. At the moment everything still feels very regular and routine because there’s prep for the Bathurst 12 Hour going on and you’re in pre-season training for that. So all the regular, routine stuff you do in the lead-up to the start of a season, I’m still doing.

So I think, in reality, it will hit me post-12 Hour, when I go “Well, that’s done, now what do I do?

My calendar’s free till October”.

I’ve got my head around the fact that I’m not racing fulltime any more. That took a good few days because it was such a quick and abrupt thing. I think the reality of it is still yet to come, but we’ll manage that.

You genuinely didn’t see it coming? You had no inkling?

No, zero inkling. All the discussions that I’d had were that I’d be continuing to drive for them. My deal with GRM was for five years and there’d been a bit of chat around that I’d been

guaranteed two years of driving and then a team management role, but there was nothing actually on paper around all that. The initial verbal agreement was we’ll do two years and then we’ll discuss after that.

So we had that discussion and it was “Yep, 2019, you continue to go” – multiple reassurances of that. Even to the extent that when Craig Lowndes announced his retirement in July, Garry said to me “Don’t get any silly ideas”. So there were multiple reassurances I’d still be driving for them and I went on holidays at the end of last season with that understanding. Garry texted while I was on holiday – I think I was in Singapore at the time – saying “when are you back?

Need to have a chat”. I got back late December and we’d agreed to catch up early in January. I was thinking it was going to be about plans going forward. We’d run a lot of componentry on the car at Newcastle that was different and was going to require some spend from the race team, so I figured it was all around that. Walked into a meeting, got there at 11 am on January 3, was delivered the news and, seriously, you could have knocked me over with a feather at that point. There’s was a bit of chat, but to be honest, I don’t really remember what we talked about because my head was obviously spinning. I didn’t leave in a huff or storm out. I just simply said to both of them “I need to go away and process this”, so I left the workshop at 11 past 11. It was an 11-minute meeting. Like I say, I didn’t storm out.

I just needed to go and get my head around what had happened.

Just to clarify, was it a verbal agreement or did you have an actual written contract?

There was a contract. The initial contract when I signed at GRM for 2017 onwards was for five years. There was a driving aspect in the contract and then the potential to transition into a management position, which had been talked about. There’s been chat on social media that I was guaranteed two years and nothing was guaranteed after that, but the initial verbal discussion was that we’ll do two years and then we’ll go year-by-year after that – and ’19 was the first of those year-by-years.

So there’s no suggestion of breach of contract?

No, but we had to negotiate an exit from that five-year contract, so I no longer have any contract with GRM – and that was mutually and amicably agreed.

Are you disillusioned? It’s now the second time you’ve been let down.

Your departure from HRT was in similar circumstances.

No, I’m not disillusioned. I look at them as two separate things. What happened in 2016 was that Walkinshaw lost the Holden factory team deal and me continuing to drive there was

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d d h kkeeping i the h ffactory dependent on them deal. Once they’d lost the Holden factory deal, they didn’t want me there anymore. I don’t know what their deal was with other drivers or other parties.

Both departures have been the result of commercial implications. I get that motor racing’s expensive, but at the end of the day, I’m a race car driver and my job is to drive the cars I’m given as fast as possible. But now there are plenty of drivers on the grid in 2019 – good drivers – who’ve had to secure financial backing to maintain their position.

That’s reality of the sport.

Since the announcement, you’ve been very restrained in your comments. Almost too nice…

What are you looking for, Foges?

Well, are you really as relaxed about it as you appear?

What can I do about it? That’s the thing. I can’t do anything about it. I was reassured and given a verbal confirmation that I’d be driving in 2019 fulltime. I went away on holidays with my family, I come back, the goal posts have moved. I fully understand the commercial imperative of Garry’s decision and there’s nothing I can do about it. I could bang my fists on the table and say that’s not fair, but life’s not fair. So all you can do is look forward to what new opportunities present themselves to you. I’d come to the realisation, probably in the last quarter of ’18, that 2019 was going to be my last fulltime year. All that’s happened is that’s been fast-forwarded 12 months. I felt a bit helpless in the whole scenario because it was all out of my hands and I don’t feel that I needed or deserved the full Craig Lowndestype send-off because Craig’s clearly a massive champion of our sport. But not being given the opportunity to have friends, family, people that have helped me through my career be at my last race has probably been the most disappointing thing. We didn’t take the kids to Newcastle, so they weren’t at my last fulltime event because we weren’t

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i that h that h would ld b expecting be my llast fulltime race. It’s little things like that.

Individually, they don’t mean much, but if you add it all up, it probably means a bit, but I can’t change it. I understand where Garry has come from. It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing, it’s all that, but banging your fists on the table isn’t going to achieve anything.

Many would say that it’s actually turned out better than all right because you’ve landed one of the best co-drives available with SVG. Your chances of success now are actually a lot better now, aren’t they?

I don’t really know because it’s a new journey for me now, a new role, so I don’t know what all that means and I have to spend a bit of time thinking about that. But to go from, literally in seven days, finding out and understanding that your fulltime career is over to then signing with the most successful team in modern day Supercars for the endurance races with a former champion and a guy that should’ve won the Bathurst 1000 at least twice, to go to that opportunity, I couldn’t believe my luck, to be honest with you. I was amazed that that opportunity was still available. So it’s hard to wrap your head around all those emotions in such a short timeframe, but it’s exciting. It certainly is exciting.

Won’t your chances of winning races, particularly Bathurst, be a lot better?

I think that’s doing GRM a disservice.

Just being realistic.

Yes, but the last two years at Bathurst with GRM, I was second on the road in 2017 till we slipped off – ironically, following Shane – and then last year we were a top five car most of the day. So they’ve given me great cars at Bathurst the last two years, but stats say – and results would back up – that this is potentially a better opportunity. But I’ve been in the situation before where you go to Bathurst as red-hot favourites – red-hot car, red-hot team – and you go

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Tander partnered with Will Davison to win the 2009 Bathurst 1000 for the Holden Racing Team (right and below centre).

100 metres and she’s all over (2006 with Mark Skaife). So I learned a long time ago to not count your chickens, but just go there as best prepared as you can and execute, and what will be will be.

This plays to your strength now, doesn’t it? When you get to a certain point in your career, what suffers is ultimate qualifying pace, but in recent years you’ve shown that you can still race with the best of them.

I guess so. But in my last full-time qualifying at Newcastle, I qualified fourth, so… A lot of people have been on my case about my qualifying – and rightly so, the numbers don’t make for great reading – but my racing has continued to be strong. If Shane qualifies it up the front and I start at the front, I won’t know what to do because I haven’t been up there for quite a while! But all jokes aside, it’s a team effort and I’ll go there with my role, which is completely and utterly to back Shane up to the best of my ability and offer whatever help I can in whatever situation that crops up. If we just go there and do our jobs well, then the rest will take care of itself.

Tander’s second stint with GRM (top and above) kept him in the game ... he had planned on 2019 being his last full-time season of Supercar racing. Cockpit image: Ross Gibb.

Was the offer from Roland triggered by the announcement that you were out of GRM or had he heard about it on the grapevine?

He’s very good at hearing stuff on the grapevine, but it all happened very, very quickly. That deal literally

happened overnight. It was the easiest decision I’ve ever had to make. It happened almost realtime – just prior to real-time. I was aware of the timing ming of the GRM announcement – it came out on the Wednesday morning (January 9) – and we’d negotiated the end of the contract prior to then, and the Triple Eight deal happened very quickly after that.

You said earlier that you had already determined that 2019 was going to be your last fulltime season. Why? Oh, just the grind. I still love driving the cars and I love the competition and I love the team aspect of the sport. But

Tander tasted success at the 2018 season-opener in Adelaide, third for GRM. He now returns to the official Holden factory team as SVG’s co-driver for 2019. Images: LAT and supplied.

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Early days at GRM ... his first season saw lots of incidents but Tander quickly settled down and became a regular front runner and race winner aboard a succession of Holden Commodores. Image: AA archive

usually you get to September/October – especially around Gold Coast time – and the grind really gets to you. After 21 years of it, that’s what gets to you. And, in reality, there are young guys coming through that could maybe do the job better, maybe not, but if you don’t give them an opportunity, then how do you know? So I decided it was time. I’d thought about it previously, but I still felt like I had a bit to give, especially with the team (GRM), especially with James (Golding), helping him. He will be a good operator, he just needs a bit of time. I wanted to be in a position to be able to help him and I felt that ’19 was probably going to be the time where he would be challenging me on a more regular basis – and if that were the case, then it was time.

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Presumably you were thinking that th t you would then transition into some sort of team management role at GRM? Yes. Although given the increasing involvement of Barry Rogers in recent years, didn’t that raise alarm bells that it probably wasn’t going to happen?

A little. But they’ve also just recently expanded their motor sport portfolio significantly (S5000 and TCR), so there may have been other opportunities for me. However, the goal posts changed and that’s what it is.

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M h was made Much d off Mark M k Winterbottom’s switch to Holden after only ever having raced Falcons in Supercars, but in 20 years, you only ever raced Commodores. You are the most loyal Holden driver ever.

It’s an interesting stat, it certainly is, but it’s probably more good luck than good management. When I went to GRM the second time in ’17, there was still the likelihood – a very small likelihood – that I’d be driving a Volvo. And in no way, shape or form when I started my Supercars career (in 1998) did I ever think I’d be driving a Volvo – or that there’d ever be a Volvo in Supercars!

So it’s a unique stat, but it was never an over-riding thought (staying with Holden) when you were doing deals.

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It llooks k like lik you’re ’ going i tto end d your Supercars career when you finish codriving having raced nothing but Holden Commodores.

Who knows? But at this point, probably. It’s a unique stat, it’s an interesting stat that’s not lost on a lot of people on social media and I appreciate the support I get from that.

So, with all this extra free time, what are you going to be doing?

Honestly, as we sit here, I really don’t know because since that week coming out of the New Year where everything happened, it’s been so frantic and now 12 Hour preparation is in full swing. So, really, it’s about getting past the 12 Hour, and then sitting down and thinking about what I’m going to do around the enduros.

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E H T O T K C BA

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BEGINNING Kimi Räikkönen is going back to where it all began. began DAN KNUTSON and LUIS VASCONCELOS look back on Kimi’s years with Ferrari and forward to his return to Sauber where his Formula 1 career began back in 2001. And he explains why he does not

K

IMI RÄIKKÖNEN was 21-years-old and had started just 23 car races when he made his Formula 1 debut with Sauber in the 2001 Australian Grand Prix. Now 39, he returns to Melbourne this year driving once again for Sauber. His Formula 1 CV now includes 292 starts, 21 wins, 18 poles and the 2007 world championship.

Looking backwards and forwards ... a world champion usually likes to have one of the best cars, so why did Räikkönen choose to rejoin a midfield team at this late stage of his career?

“I don’t think it is any different story,” he replies.

“Who knows? I wouldn’t put money on anybody that this team is going to be first and that team second or third. You never know about these things. We (Sauber) might do well and we might not. I have a pretty good feeling about it. Why would I be scared to go there?

My purpose is to try and go and help them to do well and enjoy it. It is a different way of looking at things, so I think we actually will be pretty okay. That is my best guess now. When I went to Lotus (in 2012) people said it would not be good there and look how it turned out. It is pointless to start guessing; we will find out. It will come around very quickly, so we’ll see where we are and what will happen.”

Räikkönen is on record saying he is really tired of travelling around the world. So why continue doing that by signing on with Sauber?

He certainly does not need the cash.

“Well, I’m probably happier to stay at home rather than in planes all the time,” he acknowledges.

“But I’m happy to race, that’s the only reason I’m going to do it thiss year. At Sauber I’m not going to have a lot of the sort of things I had to do at Ferrari. So for sure it will be more about racing and that’s how, in my view, it should always be. But obviously I understand the other side of it. Of course, it’s not always nice to travel all the time.”

Finland’s Räikkönen lives in Switzerland, so it is a nice bonus to be close to the Sauber factory in Hinwil. That means he does not have to get on a flight to England or Italy to go to the team’s HQ like he did for McLaren, Lotus and Ferrari.

“That is for sure not the most important thing but it is easier,” he says. “When I need to go there, I drive 30, 40 minutes. So it helps for sure. Less time on the plane.”

THE SPECIAL SCUDERIA

RÄIKKÖNEN IS on record saying is that he loved Ferrari and wanted to finish out his F1 career with the Scuderia. What makes Ferrari so special?

Formula 1 rookie and Sauber recruit anticipates his first Grand Prix in Melbourne (above) and celebrates success in his first stint with Ferrari (left).

are a a lot of different ways of doing it and still achieving the same thing, so with an Italian a team that is the biggest thing to any other t team.” t “It is just the way Italians run things and how the passion is,” he adds. “It is just different but we all try to do exactly the same thing. You could say that an English team tries to do the same but in different ways from Ferrari. There is no good or bad. It has been proven that all of those ways can win the championship. There is the history at Ferrari, which is really special. th Most of the people wherever you go, know Ferrari. There is a lot of media attention.”

SECOND STINTS

RÄIKKÖNEN DID two stints at Ferrari and is now embarking on his second stint with Sauber.

He was at Ferrari from 2007 through 2009 but was then eased out because the team wanted

Kimi is still winning Grands Prix 18 years after his Formula 1 career began.

“It is different,” he states. “I’d say Ferrari is probably more complicated than many other teams, but I don’t say that in a bad way. Certain things are for sure. I’ve been lucky to be in the different teams in different countries like a Swiss team, a British team, and an Italian team. Everybody is trying to achieve the same result. But there

Fernando Alonso as its lead driver. He returned in 2014, which turned out to be Alonso’s final season with the Scuderia.

“It is easy to say I

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would never have gone back to Ferrari,” Räikkönen says, “but how many teams are actually here in F1?

The longer you stay here the bigger chance there is of going back. I always had a good relationship with teams. When I left Ferrari there were reasons.

Most of the people don’t know, some people do. I never had an issue with the team. So I never saw an issue coming back.

“If you talk shit about everybody, then don’t expect to ever go back! That is a normal thing in life – anything you do in life. Or if you end your work wherever you work and you slag them off afterwards, there is a high chance that you are never going to end up back there even if you want to go back. When I left Sauber I had a three-year deal when I signed, but there were some options and I went to McLaren. I also didn’t want to leave the team like I am leaving and don’t care what

happens to them. Sauber got a lot of money from McLaren.”

Incidentally, the healthy sum McLaren paid for Räikkönen to be released early from his contract helped fund the building of Sauber’s state-of-the-art wind tunnel.

“For sure they wanted to keep me but they understood that this is going to benefit both of us,” he recalls. “I always stayed friends with them, so I don’t feel that there is anything weird going back there.”

During his first three-year stint at Ferrari Räikkönen won nine races and of course the 2007 world championship. But the next five-year stint yielded just one victory and it came late in 2018.

How does he summarize his second period at Ferrari?

“I don’t think I can summarize it,” he declares. “It

is different. There have been quite a few changes over those five years. It was going in the right direction the last three years. I knew exactly what to expect when I came in, so I was not surprised how it was in the beginning. Where they are going is a good thing, so it is in good hands now.”

SHOES CARS AND BIKES

IT COMES as no surprise that Räikkönen likes to go barefoot but it is not just because he is so laidback.

“In Finland we never use shoes at home,” he explains. “Why bring all the shit you walk over to your house? I don’t think it’s very good for

LEAVE ME ALONE, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING FANS AROUND the world adore the way Räikkönen barks out terse messages over the car radio. One of most famous: “Just leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.” He said it while leading the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when his engineer was giving him too much excess information.

But his bark is worse than his bite.

“I don’t get really angry,” he explains, “but I think with the radio it’s easy for some people to say: ‘He’s shouting, he’s so angry.’ But if you put yourself in our position, radio communications are not the easiest things to hear and it makes sense, sometimes, as we try to communicate with the team to speak loudly. It’s so easy to be sitting elsewhere, listening to radio transmissions, and say: ‘He’s so angry, so pissed off,’ but it’s a different story if you’re trying to hear it in the pit wall, with cars passing by or from our own car and with all the noise around. In some parts of the tracks, in some conditions, the communications are quite tricky, so I just have to make my point clear. It’s easy to listen in and say he’s shouting, but I’m shouting to make it clear, make sure they hear me.”

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So you have to be loud and to d you have h t be b quick? i k?

“Yes,” he agrees, “you know what I mean, but it’s so easy to say ‘he’s shouting.’ When you know the whole thing, when you’re involved from the team’s side or the drivers’ side, then you know what’s the point of us to speak like that. But who cares what the people think.”

What about the classic: “Just leave me alone?”

“Also that one, it came out like I’m shouting at somebody,” he reveals. “But I was just saying: ‘Okay, I got it.’ They understood, the team got it completely in the right way, but some people try to make it like we were having a fight. This is a very good example how some people if they want to put it as a bad story, it’s very easy for them to do it. But with anything in life, if you want to make up shit out of anything, it’s very easy.”

Kimi went from Sauber to McLaren (right) early in his career, and looks like finishing it back at Sauber where he tested for the 2019 season (below) right after the final 2018 race.

Two stints at Ferrari saw Kimi a race winner and always a contender.

your feet either if you’re wearing shoes 12 hours in a row. That’s normal in Finland and in Switzerland.

And if it’s summer and I can be without shoes and even in town I’m without shoes. The other day I went to pick my son up from kindergarten without shoes and people were looking. But it feels good.”

What about his road cars?

“I don’t have a lot of cars,” he says. “I have some old cars in Finland that we just built up. I don’t

have a favorite one. I have one Ferrari. I don’t just keep it – I use it but not a lot. I use the Jeep, but the most I use my car for is to go to the airport and then to drive it back home. If I go around town I try to go by bicycle because it’s the fastest way around. I’m not that focused on the cars anymore.”

Räikkönen also backs a motocross team.

“I follow them every day,” he says. “I’m involved six days a week. We need to split it with my friend sometimes, but I know everything. I decide most of the things with my friend. So I’m involved even if I’m not there. For sure I would love to go to more races but obviously traveling all the time it’s harder. I want to be with my family and sometimes it’s hard or tricky to go. My son loves it and he already rides the motorbike.”

Is it also true the senior Räikkönen also enjoys eating a lot of sweets?

“Yes, I like sweets!” he confirms. “In Finland we have very good candies so I like most of them!”

He is The Iceman, famous for keeping his cool at the track, but when he is at home is there anything that makes him lose his temper?

“For sure I get angry, not often, but anything can make me angry,” he acknowledges. “It’s normal.

If people don’t get angry on anything and say everything is okay, I don’t think that shows the big picture. Things are not always how I want, but it’s pointless to start arguing about every little thing because it’s not going to change anything. What would be the point of wasting my time?”

I DID IT MY WAY

HOW DOES Räikkönen want to be remembered in Formula 1?

“I don’t care!” he says with a laugh. “I really don’t care. Whoever wants to remember me one way or another, or not remember, it’s absolutely fine. I do things the way I want to do and anything out of that it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve done it how I felt it was right, and that’s the only way to doing things in life that make you happy with yourself. Some people are not happy, some people are happy – who cares…”

And that sums up The Iceman and why he has so many fans. Right now he is happy. Happy to being going back home to Sauber, and happy to continue racing in Formula 1.

31 JANUARY – 3 FEBRUARY 2019

E S I R N SU to SUNSET The Bathurst 12 Hour is now internationally recognised as one of the world’s great GT endurance events. It attracts the world’s best GT drivers, teams and manufacturers. HEATH McALPINE previews the 2019 edition.

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T IS Australian motorsport’s traditional season opener, one of the most important events on the annual calendar and a globally significant event.

Even before the Bathurst 12 Hour became a part of the worldwide Intercontinental GT Challenge in 2016, the event already featured considerable manufacturer support and was gaining traction as a must do event for the best GT peddlers across the globe.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Its started as a Production Car race in 1991 sponsored by former long-time 1000 supporter James Hardie, with a small 24-car entry. A Toyota Supra driven by Peter Fitzgerald, Allan Grice and Nigel Arkell took the first victory, which was then followed by a dominant period with Mazda taking a hat-trick of victories.

The race died after the 1995 event was held at Eastern Creek (Sydney Motorsport Park nowadays), but was revived in 2007, again as a race for Production Cars.

After four events that failed to attract much manufacturer support, organisers opened up the race to the burgeoning GT3 category in 2011, 20 years after it first ran.

A similar number of entries to 1991 fronted for the first race of the new era and 2012 also had a small entry, which was further challenged by the naming rights

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The 12 Hour marks the first outing of the year for Bentley’s new GT3.

Audi remains a key contender and is the reigning intercontinental GT Challenge champion.

sponsor pulling out after the event.

However, 2013 was a breakthrough with more than 40 entries taking the start and strong manufacturer interest, sparking a strong period for the race that continues today.

Management changes during this period saw Supercars take over the running of the event from Yeehah Events led by James O’Brien.

Supercars’ involvement in this year’s event has increased still further with many of the leading drivers and teams entering the race.

That’s off the back of Supercar team success, with Erebus Motorsport (winners in 2013) and Triple Eight (winners in 2017 with Maranello Motorsport).

Scott Taylor Motorsport has the enviable task of working with both for this year’s race, with Triple Eight arguably providing the race favourites in the form of the Vodafone Mercedes-AMG GT3 piloted by Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and recent full-time retiree Craig Lowndes.

The Erebus collaboration with STM is a Pro-Am entry with The Bend co-founder Yassir Shahin driving alongside 2017 Bathurst 1000 champions David Reynolds and Luke Youlden. The third car coming from the STM stable that finished second in the event last year, features a revised ProAm line-up as Thomas Jager joins Kenny Habul and Tristan Vautier.

Matt Stone Racing also has entered, working alongside Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia to field an Audi R8 LMS GT3 for Supercars driver Todd Hazelwood, Tickford enduro driver David Russell and leading gentleman racer Roger Lago.

It was a disappointing end to Chaz Mostert’s race in 2018 but he again straps up for BMW Team Schnitzer, hoping to gain redemption after setting pole position and being in winning contention for most of the race last year.

Mostert’s two co-drivers have both shown strong pace in touring cars, particularly DTM. Augusto Farfus makes his second trip to the Mountain, and joining them is former DTM champion Martin Tomczyk, who is no stranger to long distance racing as he currently craces in BMW’s World Endurance Championship team.

Reigning Bathurst 12 Hour winners Audi Sport Team WRT are absent for this year’s race, the leading German manufacturer putting its full support behind its Australian arm led by recently announced Red Bull Holden Racing Team co-driver Garth Tander.

It was heartbreak for Tander and his team last year when, with four hours to go, Bathurst debutant Kelvin van der Linde hit the wall while passing a lapped car, ending an impressive performance. The line-up remains unchanged with Belgian Frederic Vervisch again sharing the driving duties.

Although HubAuto Corsa are based in Taiwan, there is a distinct Australian flavour to the team that competes in the Blancpain GT Series Asia.

Former Australian Formula 3 and Carrera Cup driver Nick Foster nearly snatched the inaugural title, but he returns to Australia to take on the once around the clock challenge, bringing with him Brad Jones Racing pair Tim Slade and Nick Percat Slade competed in all but one round of the Blancpain GT Series Asia with HubAuto team owner Morris Chen, but results proved elusive. In recent years Slade has been part of the Pro-Am Objective Racing McLaren team after finishing second on debut with Erebus Motorsport in 2012, but is now an outright chance.

Percat’s last start was a disaster as contact on the very first lap at Griffin’s Bend led to an early retirement in the race in 2016.

There is also a sprinkling of Supercars drivers and co-drivers among Am class ranks including Tickford’s newest recruit Lee Holdsworth partnering with Dean Fiore in an Audi, Dean Canto joining former Formula 1 driver Ivan Capelli in the Trofeo Motorsport Lamborghini, while Tony D’Alberto is entered in a similar example run out of Wall Racing.

Although the Supercar driver roll call is impressive, a who’s who of GT racing’s finest is also set to descend on the Mountain headlined by previous winners, the two

Christophers, Haase and Mies, who are joined by fellow German Markus Winklehock in an impressive line-up for Audi.

Also carrying a strong line-up is Bentley.

The British manufacturer will debut its newgeneration Continental GT3 on the Mountain after a year of running successfully in the Blancpain GT Series, and carries much the same line-up it has done for the duration of its involvement in the Bathurst 12 Hour. The combination of Vincent Abril, Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet will be joined by the second Bentley containing Steven Kane, Jules Gounon and Jordan Pepper.

Highlighting the growing importance of not only the race but also the Intercontinental GT Challenge, is the growing presence of Porsche. GT3 is a category that the German manufacturer has wanted to grow its presence in recent years and in 2019 Porsche has entered two factory 911 GT3Rs in the hope that it can take a maiden victory on the Mountain.

Australian Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell leads the line-up, joined by former Supercup rival Dennis Olsen and Dirk Werner, marking it as a serious race contender, as are teammates Romain Dumas, Mathieu Jaminet and Sven Muller.

The same could be said for BMW as it has installed the aforementioned Team Schnitzer and Walkenhorst Motorsport to not only try to win the Bathurst 12 Hour, but to undertake

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31 JANUARY – 3 FEBRUARY 2019

the entire IGTC calendar.

Walkenhorst has unfinished business after failing to start the 2017 event due to a practice accident.

The man that lit up the 2015 race, Nissan factory driver Katsumasa Chiyo, returns in 2019 in a GT-R GT3, but not with NISMO. KCMG is another team that competes in the Blancpain GT Series Asia and has had moderate success in the category, winning a race at Fuji and finishing runner up in the Pro-Am driver standings courtesy of Yukinori Taniguchi.

Chiyo is joined by the vastly experienced Oliver Jarvis and Edoardo Liberarti in the lead entry, as Australian Josh Burdon heads up the driver line-up in the second GT-R GT3.

Last year it was the swansong for the previous generation Bentley Continental GT3, this year it’s the same for another British sports car.

In a career spanning seven years, Aston Martin bids farewell to the Vantage V12 GT3 and will do it in style with the factory affiliated R-Motorsport looking after the marque’s 12 Hour prospects.

Then there is Mercedes, a manufacturer that is second only to Audi in its support of the Bathurst 12 Hour. This year’s event will mark the debut of Craft Bamboo as a Mercedes customer, after being a previous Aston Martin and most recently Porsche affiliate, this year the team combining with the experienced Black Falcon outfit.

The driver line-up is also one of the best as ex-Supercar driver Maro Engel is joined by DTM champion Garry Paffett and Luca Stolz.

The Asian based GruppeM entry has an equally impressive line-up comprising of Maxi Buhk, Raffaele Marciello and Maxi Gotz, giving Mercedes an enviable line-up for the first round of the IGTC. Other drivers to keep an eye on will be British touring car stars Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, recent Porsche Shootout winner Jaxon Evans and GT star Kevin Estre.

Though the outright contest will be a close affair, the class battles continue the racing that Bathurst was built on. Class B is strictly a Porsche Cup Car affair with the competition set to be between the Grove Racing and

The Scott Taylor Motorsport/ Triple Eight alliance carries a formidable driver line-up.

Chaz Mostert took the spoils in the Top 10 shootout in 2018, can he do it again? Dean Canto and Ivan Capelli are back again in the Lamborghini Huracan (below).

INTERCONTINENTAL GT WHAT? SO, THE Bathurst 12 Hour is the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, but what is it?

The IGTC is a series that was inaugurated in 2016 by the Stephane Ratel Organisation, conjoining a number of the world’s premier endurance races to form a series in which manufacturers and drivers are able to score points.

The series is designed primarily for manufacturers that can nominate a local team to score points on its behalf at the selected events.

The races are a mixture of events that are already part of the Blancpain GT Endurance Series (e.g. Spa 24 Hours), but mainly comprise of stand-alone events such as the Bathurst 12 Hour.

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Audi has been the dominant manufacturer thus far taking all three titles, while Laurens Vanthoor, Markus Winkelhock and Tristan Vautier are previous winners of the outright driver’s title.

Aussies Steve McLaughlin and Kenny Habul are former winners of the Bronze driver section.

This year’s calendar comprises five events starting at the Bathurst 12 Hour, then moving to Laguna Seca for the California 8 Hour at the end of March. The longest event on the schedule, the Spa 24 Hour is next, followed by the Suzuka 10 Hours and finally the Kyalami 9 Hours in November.

Manufacturers that have nominated for the IGTC are BMW, Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes and defending champions Audi.

HM

Team Carrera Cup Asia examples.

GT4 has been a disappointment in Australia, but the 12 Hour does provide an increased entry each year. M Motorsport represent half the entry with its three KTM X-Bows. Joining these are two Ginetta G55 GT4s and the sole MARC supported BMW M4 GT4 ,driven by Americans Brett Strom and Darren Jorgenson.

The Invitational class is a solely MARC Cars affair with a pair of its MARC II chassis providing competition to the original Ford Focus and Mazda 3 bodied chassis. Paul Morris and former IndyCar winner Paul Tracy are the only confirmed line up alongside Keith Kassulke.

The quality of entries is extremely high for this year’s event making picking a winner near on impossible.

GT3 has proven to be a winning formula for the Bathurst 12 Hour race and no doubt will grow further when new models become eligible for the 2020 edition.

Factory-affiliated R-Motorsport add another professional manufacturer entry.

2019 LIQUI-MOLY BATHURST 12 HOUR - ENTRY LIST CLASS A Pro A Am A Pro A Pro A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro A Pro A Pro A Pro A Pro A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro A Pro-Am A Pro A Pro A Pro A Pro A Pro-Am A Pro-Am A Pro A Pro B B B C C C C C C I I I I

NO. 760 62 2 22 9 98 107 108 34 42 27 51 29 6 11 19 75 77 777 888 999 18 35 12 540 912 911 4 23 43 13 55 56 48 50 71 92 20 91 96

TEAM / ENTRANT R-Motorsport R-Motorsport Audi Sport Team Valvoline Audi Sport Team Valvoline Hallmarc Audi Sport Team MPC MSR /Aussie Driver Search Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley Team M-Sport Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Team Schnitzer HubAuto Corsa Spirit of Race Trofeo Motorsport Wall Racing Objective Racing Mercedes-AMG Team Ninteen Corp Black Falcon Sunenergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG Team Craft Bamboo Black Falcon The Bend Motorsport Park Mercedes-AMG Team Vodafone Mercedes-AMG Team MANN Filter GruppeM Racing KCMG KCMG Competition Motorsports / McElrea Racing Black Swan Racing EBM EBM Grove Racing Team Carrera Cup Asia Ashley Seward Motorsport RHC-Jorgensen/Strom by MarcCars Ginetta Australia Ginetta Australia KTM / M Motorsport KTM / M Motorsport KTM / M Motorsport Liajen Motorsport T2 Racing by Liajen Motorsport MARC Cars Australia MARC Cars Australia

BRAND Aston Martin Aston Martin Audi Audi Audi Audi Audi Bentley Bentley BMW BMW Ferrari Ferrari Lamborghini Lamborghini McLaren Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes Nissan Nissan Porsche Porsche Porsche Porsche Porsche Porsche Porsche BMW Ginetta Ginetta KTM KTM KTM Marc Car Marc Car Marc Car Marc Car

MODEL V12 Vantage GT3 V12 Vantage GT3 R8 LMS R8 LMS R8 LMS R8 LMS R8 LMS Continental GT3 Continental GT3 M6 GT3 M6 GT3 488 GT3 488 GT3 Huracan GT3 Huracan GT3 650S AMG GT3 AMG GT3 AMG GT3 AMG GT3 AMG GT3 AMG GT3 GTR GTR GT3R GT3R GT3R GT3R 991 GT3 Cup 991 GT3 Cup 991 GT3 Cup M4 GT4 G55 GT4 G55 GT4 X-Bow X-Bow X-Bow Focus V8 Marc II V8 Marc II V8 Focus V8

DRIVERS Jake Dennis Florian Kamelger Christopher Haase Garth Tander Marc Cini Pete Storey Todd Hazelwood Jules Gounon Vincent Abril Nick Catsburg Chaz Mostert Nick Foster Paul Dalla Lana Dean Canto Tony D’Alberto Tony Walls Mark Griffith Kenny Habul Maro Engel Yasser Shahin Craig Lowndes Maximilian Buhk Katsumasa Chiyo Josh Burdon David Calvert-Jones Tim Pappas Matt Campbell Romain Dumas Stephen Grove Paul Tressider Danny Stuttered Darren Jorgensen TBA TBA Dean Koutsoumidis David Crampton Dean Lillie Jason Busk Adam Hargreaves Keith Kassulke Hadrian Morall

Matthieu Vaxiviere Andreas Baenziger Christopher Mies Kelvin van der Linde Lee Holdsworth Matt Neal David Russell Steven Kane Andy Soucek Mikkel Jensen Augusto Farfus Tim Slade Pedro Lamy Jim Manolios Adian Dietz Warren Luff Christina Nielson Tristan Voutier Garry Paffett David Reynolds Jamie Whincup Rafaele Marciello Oliver Jarvis Tsugio Matsuda Kevin Estre Jeroen Bleekemolen Dennis Olsen Mathieu Jaminet Brenton Grove Chris van der Drift Sam Fillmore Brett Strom TBA TBA Jake Parsons Tim Macrow Justin McMillan Geoff Taunton Daniel Jilesen Paul Morris TBA

Marvin Kirchhfer Peter Leemhuis Markus Winkelhock Frederic Vervisch Dean Fiore Gordon Shedden Roger Lago Jordan Pepper Maxime Soulet Christian Krognes Martin Tomczyk Nick Percat Mathias Lauda Ivan Capelli Cameron McConville Andrew Watson Yelmer Buurman Thomas Jager Luca Stolz Luke Youlden Shane van Gisbergen Maximilian Gotz Edoardo Liberati Alexandre Imperatori Jaxon Evans Marc Lieb Dirk Werner Sven Muller Ben Barker Bao Jinglong TBA Gerard McLeod TBA TBA James Winslow Caitlin Wood Glen Wood Bryce Fullwood TBA Paul Tracy TBA

Mathew Parry

Ryan Millier Jules Westwood

Phil Hamprecht

Trent Harrison Pete Major

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31 JANUARY – 3 FEBRUARY 2019

R E Z A L B L I A R T the He has forged a pathway that many young Australian young drivers aspire to follow. Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell’s rise has been rapid after being born into a motorsport mad family. On the eve of his busiest racing season yet, HEATH McALPINE spoke to Campbell about his journey so far

I

T HAS been a whirlwind five years for Queenslander Matt Campbell, as he has gone from racing a historic Datsun 1200 to pedalling the latest Porsche 991 RSR during the night at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hour.

A packed year awaits the Porsche Young Driver as he contests his maiden campaign in the World Endurance Championship with Dempsey-Proton Competition in the GTE-Am category.

Campbell will also race in the fiveround Intercontinental GT Challenge, encompassing the Bathurst 12 Hour and Spa 24 Hour, while also contesting oneoff events like the upcoming Daytona 24 Hour.

For Campbell, all of this will tick many events off the bucket list, but Bathurst is still the highlight of his year.

“It’s very much looked at overseas, especially from my point of view, being Australian. It’s my only home race I get to do these days,” Campbell explained.

“It’s really the biggest highlight after doing Le Mans, because Bathurst is my favourite circuit. I’ve done the 12 Hour since 2014 and it’s just one of

those races that’s so exciting. It’s a 12 Hour sprint race nowadays and the level of competition has grown so much over the last few years, so I’m really looking forward to it because it’s one of my favourite races for the entire year.”

It will be the first time Campbell contests the 12 Hour in a full-Pro line-up, after strong finishes in the Pro-Am Competition Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R which delivered a podium in 2017 and fourth on 2018.

Joining Campbell is fellow Porsche Young Driver Dennis Olsen and the experienced Dirk Werner, in what is sure to be a contender, not that Campbell wasn’t been a contender in 2018 in the WEC.

It has been a swift rise for Matt Campbell since winning the Porsche Young Driver Shootout in 2016.

The Dempsey-Proton Competition team containing Campbell, Christian Ried and Julien Andlauer were leading the class title after winning in Shanghai, but irregularities discovered in the datalogger lead to the FIA removing all points scored in the season to that point. The trio had taken three wins and comfortably led the championship at

that stage. disappointment, Campbell Despite the disappointment is enthusiastic about the form he and the team had shown during the season, which was highlighted by a class win on debut at Le Mans.

“It was a massive step up for me last year, obviously moving across from the Supercup into the World Endurance Championship in the RSR,” he admitted.

“To get the opportunity alone to race at events such as Le Mans was an awesome experience. To be able to win on debut and get the first win for the team there made it extra special, that’s for sure.

“We had fantastic pace all year, a couple of poles and three race wins, so undoubtably the car was fantastic and the driver line-up really, really strong and Campbell has been a star at the Bathurst 12 Hour as part of Competition Motorsport’s Pro-Am campaign (far left). The Australian also found immediate success in Porsche Supercup, taking third in his only year in the class (left).

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we were fast everywhere we went.”

Speaking of the transition from sprint style racing in Porsche Supercup to the six-hour races that make up the majority of the WEC season, Campbell was able to draw on his previous experience in Australia racing the Pirtek Enduro Cup and Australian GT. “It was a smaller step than I thought originally going into the year. I suppose I was lucky in the sense that in the past years I’ve had plenty of experience in endurance racing all over, that wasn’t new for me,” Campbell reflected.

“Obviously the racing, the tyre and the car were all challenges, but at the end of the day, it’s still a Porsche, it’s just another step and it always has that Porsche sense. I had a lot to learn, but I’ve been having fun driving the car and now I’m comfortable in it as well.”

Speaking of his brief Pirtek Enduro Cup career, Campbell was a highlight when he debuted alongside Todd Kelly with Nissan in 2016, but the step up to partner then reigning Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen was a difficult one.

“That first year [with Nissan] was really, really good for me. Low stress and I got along with the team very, very well. I thoroughly enjoyed the

experience. It was definitely an eye-opener and a step in the right direction, getting an idea of I suppose (about) that level of motorsport. I mean obviously two years ago with Triple Eight, that was just another level in itself,” enthused Campbell.

“I think it has put me in good stead in going to Europe and being involved with some very high teams within Porsche. You’re not as wide eyed when you first go there and experience a new car or a new circuit.”

It has been quite the career so far, considering Campbell’s start in motorsport was rather untraditional.

He holds sfond memories from his gradual rise through Formula Ford and the Porsche pyramid pathway, starting in GT3 Cup Challenge.

“It’s been a bit of a different journey through my motorsport career. I didn’t do the traditional route of karting, I had a go kart when I was younger but it was just for fun and wasn’t really a proper thing, so I never raced a proper kart,” Campbell explained.

“My whole family was heavily involved with the local car club, which ran the race track in Warwick (Qld),

Campbell took four wins during his first European season.

Morgan Park Raceway.

“I learned how to drive a car when I was very, very young and I got involved as soon as I could. I was out at the racetrack nearly every weekend.

I started competing in my own Datsun 1200 at the age of 14, did that for a couple of years, then did a test in a Formula Ford and did some racing, and a few years later we’re where we are now.

“It’s a different progression compared to most aspiring racers, especially in the younger years, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I think it’s done wonders for me.

“I always just wanted to give motorsport a shot but I never thought I’d make a career out of it, I was quite realistic.

“We’ve had a crack at it and it’s ended up not too bad.”

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31 JANUARY – 3 FEBRUARY 2019

THE BENTLEY BOYS M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson explains to MARK FOGARTY ARTY how his rally empire fell into the Bentley GT racing deal and nd why winning the Bathurst 12 Hour is on his bucket list

H

OW M-SPORT got the Bentley GT3 deal is not so surprising for a team based at a former mental asylum. After all, you’d have to be mad to hire a rally team with absolutely no circuit racing experience to run a high-profile GT program, especially for a marquee marque.

OK, perhaps not the most politically correct analogy.

Mental illness and old school institutions are not funny.

But the fact remains that World Rally Championship giant M-Sport is based in what was once a psychiatric hospital.

Since the late 1990s, former British rally star Malcolm Wilson has run his WRC and customer rally car operations out of former lunatic asylum Dovenby Hall, a sprawling 46 hectares site at Cockermouth in Cumbria in the north of England. Of course, the, um, quaint name of the rural town is also a source of amusement.

It is so named because it is at the mouth of the Cocker River.

The converted mental asylum’s grand buildings, surrounded by tranquil grounds, front an industrial complex with state-of-the-art facilities for the design, development, construction and preparation of rally and race machines, and the headquarters of the M-Sport Ford WRT and M-Sport Bentley teams.

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Recently, as part of a major expansion, a 2.5 km test track was added.

M-Sport made its name running the factory tory Ford team in the WRC from 1997-2012 and continuing ntinuing with Blue Oval technical support since. It secured ured Ford back-to-back manufacturers’ world titles in 2006/7 and delivered Sebastien Ogier successivee drivers’ crowns in 2017/18.

So it was a shock when M-Sport, without ut any circuit racing experience, was retained byy Bentley Motors to field its official factory team in GT racing, starting in 2014 with the Continental tal GT3.

Bentley Team M-Sport is returning to thee Bathurst 12 Hour with a two-car squad off the latest Continental GT3s in a big bid to finally ally win the blue ribband event.

No one was more surprised to land the Bentley deal than Wilson, who had never thought of straying from his operation’s core ore competence.

“I always felt from day one that you start a business and concentrate on one thing, which is what I did, concentrated 100 per cent on rally – and, to be honest, we ,” always concentrated 100 per cent on Ford,” Wilson told Auto Action. “We never, ever

Bentley at Bathurst ... Malcolm Wilson tells Mark Fogarty about hhis determination to win the Bathurs Bathurst 12 Hour (right - image: Andrew Va Van Leeuwen).

looked at any other type of rally ve vehicle, even when Ford withdrew. We just said ““No, staying with Ford”. We stuck 100 per cent by the product.

“But then at some point po in 2012, we were approached by Bentley about running a race ra program.

I suppose by then we had built up quite an operation and when you get g a phone call from Bentley, Bent it at least makes you think. th They were looking to run a GT3 program progra and, to be honest, hone I was totally naive na because I didn’t follow racing fo at all. I didn’t fully understand what under GT3 was. w “The “T Bentley motor mo sport boss, Brian b Gush, rang G m and I was me v honest. very I said ‘Look, w have we n racing no

experience whatsoever’. He said that he’d like to come and view our facility. I said ‘Fine, you’re very welcome. When would you like to come?’ He said “Tomorrow”. [Laughs] So he arrived with a team of his people – Bentley engineers and designers – we showed them around and we obviously started to look more closely at what GT3 was. He said ‘Right, I’d like to bring back my chairman and some of the board members to have a look around. Is that OK?’ I said ‘Yeah, no problem’.

“So they arrived and they had a look around, and then we were having lunch and the chairman just stood up and said ‘Right, look, we’d like you to be our partner and I’ll leave you and the team to sort out all the issues’.

And, to be honest, it was literally as simple as that. We didn’t go looking for it, we didn’t do any proposals. It was sold, basically, on what we’d done, and the resource and the facilities we had, and they felt there was a lot of similarities between endurance racing and rallying.

“And, in all honesty, the more that you get into it, there are similarities between the old style of rallying and what GT3 racing is.”

Despite the Continental GT3 looking like a block of flats on wheels compared with the low-line Audis and Mercedes AMGs, etc,

M-Sport turned the big Bentley into a serious contender within the Balance Of Performance rules.

Wilson expects the new model to come into its own this year, starting at the Bathurst 12 Hour.

“We’ve had a difficult first year with the new car, but the potential is there,” he said.

“I’m very confident that we will win this year.

We have a great package and we know we have a really good race car now.”

While M-Sport’s WRC titles remain his highlights, victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour after previous narrow misses would come close.

“It’s a target,” Wilson declared. “There are two targets in my life – one is Bathurst and the other is Spa. I have to say Spa is the big, big challenge for 2019. We’ve come close to winning it now on two occasions, really, and we’ve lost it, we’ve thrown it away, so it’s the big target.

“It’s a box I definitely still have to tick before I retire. And then Bathurst. It’s the other race I really want to win.”

A major part of M-Sport’s success in rallying and racing is the scale of the operation at Dovenby Hall, where there are more than 250 staff (with another 50-plus at a satellite facility

in Poland).

“It is an amazing place,” Wilson smiles. “The simplest and easiest thing for me to have done would have been to just go to a greenfield side and build a purpose-built industrial unit. But I wanted to create something that was a little bit different, a little bit special, something unique.

“So when it came on the market, as soon as I looked at it, I just felt it had the potential for whatever we needed to do in the future because we had the room. We had the scope to expand, to the point now where we even have our own track.”

Given its dark past, you wonder if the original buildings have an eerie atmosphere at night, perhaps haunted by the spirit of a former inmate.

“I’ve never noticed it, but there are plenty of people who say that they have seen the ghost,” Wilson said. “And I have to say that there was one particularly time, shortly after we bought it, where some stuff had been pinched from the site, so the police were called in and they were there with the dogs, and there was one Alsatian that froze at one of the doors in the hall and could not be tempted into a particular room.

“That’s the only thing I’ve ever seen or heard in relation to any ghost or whatever.”

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31 JANUARY – 3 FEBRUARY 2019

2019 LIQUI-MOLY BATHURST 12 HOUR - SCHEDULE FRIDAY 8:50am-9:20am Practice 1 (excluding Class A Platinum and Gold drivers) 9:25am-10:25am 11:10am-12:10am 3:15pm-4:15pm

Practice 2 Practice 3 Practice 4

SATURDAY 8:35am-9:35am 11:20am-12:05pm 12:10pm-12:40pm 4:10pm-5:25pm

Practice 5 Qualifying 1 all classes Qualifying 2 Class A only Top 10 Shootout

SUNDAY 5:15am 5:45am-5:45pm

Pit Exit Opens Bathurst 12 Hour

12 HOUR STATS Qualifying Lap Record 2m 01.2860s Shane van Gisbergen McLaren 650S GT3 2016 Race Lap Record 2m 01.5670s Shane van Gisbergen McLaren 650S GT3 2016 Most Laps Completed 297 (1,845km) Shane van Gisbergen/Jonathan Webb/Alvaro Parente) 2016 Smallest Winning Margin 0.4132s

Craig Lowndes to Maximilian Buhk (2014)

Most Wins By Marque Mazda, Audi 3 PREVIOUS WINNERS 2018 Dries Vanthoor/Stuart Leonard/Robin Frinjs 2017 Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup/Toni Villander 2016 Shane van Gisbergen/Jonathan Webb/Alvaro Parente 2015 Katsumasa Chiyo/Florian Strauss/Wolfgang Riep 2014 Craig Lowndes/John Bowe/Mika Salo/Peter Edwards 2013 Bernd Schneider/Thomas Jaeger/Alex Roloff 2012 Christopher Mies/Christer Jons/Darryl O’Young 2011 Marc Basseng/Darryl O’Young/Christopher Mies TICKET PRICES (At the Gate) Covered Grandstand Adult$270 Concession $260 Uncovered Grandstand Adult $125 Concession $105 Trackside Adult – 4 Day $95 Concession – 4 Day $75 Adult – Weekend $75 Concession – Weekend $55 Adult – Sunday $50 Concession – Sunday $40 Pit Lane Walk Adult $25 Mountain Access 1 Day $5 4 Day $15 TV SCHEDULE 7Mate Saturday Top 10 7Mate Sunday Livestream Saturday Sunday

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4:00pm-5:00pm Race 5:30am-6:00pm Bathurst12hour.com.au 8:10am 5:30am-6:00pm

HOW B12 BECAME SO BIG Award-winning commentator RICHARD CRAILL, who has called every Bathurst 12 Hour in the modern era, explains the race’s rapid rise from local production car enduro to global GT giant

“Y

OU HAVE killed the event!”

When news broke that the Bathurst 12 Hour would open up the grid to international GT racers in 2011, it would be polite to say that reaction was ‘mixed’.

The small but vocal group of fans the race had attracted since its 2007 return was unhappy that solid, 50-car fields filled with a huge mixture of machinery, teams and drivers were going to be usurped by the more elite world of GT racing.

Production Car competitors, meanwhile, were angry that their headline event was being taken from them by the same people, though a bulk of the existing field remained eligible.

Realistically, though, going global GT was the only logical way that what has now become ‘Australia’s International

Endurance Race’ could grow from a grass roots event to something significant on a broader stage.

At the time, it seemed a forward-thinking, if highly risky roll of the dice by thenpromoter James O’Brien. In 2011, GT3 racing was not quite the global, manufacturer-driven powerhouse that it is eight years later.

So while the race is now regarded as a classic on the GT calendar, the early days of the ‘GT3 era’ were run on shaky ground.

The field of 26 that assembled for the 2011 race was patchy at best, with a smattering of Australian GT Championship teams joined by just 11 Production Cars (down from 47 the year prior) and only three truly international entries.

Two of the international entries, however, came from Audi, who

tend to not do things by halves when it comes to long-distance racing. In fact, without their early backing, there’s a chance the race may have never gone beyond that initial GT year.

Despite questions surrounding the visibility of what was essentially a brand-new race, the German brand went all-in, drawn by the lure of adding a Bathurst crown to those already won at Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Audi fielded a two-car team operated by the renowned Team Joest outfit and grabbed Craig Lowndes to instantly win over a legion of Australian fans to their cause. The marketing and corporate effort was scaled to match the seriousness of the campaign.

Despite the slim field, the race itself was compelling, with Audi’s all-German team pipping their

A COUNTRY PRACTICE WITHOUT BATHURST, it’s fair to say that the concept of the Intercontinental GT Challenge may not have got off the ground.

International GT guru StÊphane Ratel’s idea of a global GT3 series was generated around the concept of manufacturers using their customer racing teams in each region to represent the brand – in theory meaning the only freight they would need to pay would be the plane tickets for the drivers.

While that concept has only been partially successful (there are still plenty of cars being shipped around the world for ICGT duties), Bathurst was the template that proved it could work.

While key GT races like the 24 Hours of Spa relied on teams and drivers based in Europe, the Bathurst 12 Hour was already a melting pot of local teams and drivers mixing with their European, Asian and American counterparts. Ironically, the race that existed about as far away from the hub of GT3 racing as you could possibly get, was probably the most truly ‘global’ GT3 race of them all.

Quite inadvertently, it was proof of concept.

Perhaps more than that, Bathurst offers the Intercontinental GT Challenge immense credibility.

Fledgling championships require headline acts and as one of the most famous locations in global motor sport, any calendar that includes Mount Panorama was always going to be appealing to teams, manufacturers and drivers.

Backed by Destination NSW to promote an important regional centre, the Bathurst 12 Hour gains international exposure that rivals the offshore fame of the iconic Bathurst 1000. The two are very different events that appeal to disparate audiences, but together they reinforce Bathurst’s local and international notoriety in motor sport.

Few other country towns in Australia are as well known here or overseas and it’s all because Mount Panorama hosts the two biggest races on the calendar. Being a founding leg of the Intercontinental GT Challenge only enhances the 12 Hour’s contribution to Bathurst’s claim as a motor sport Mecca.

Aussie entry at the final pit stop. The tension that crackled from the pit lane, however, indicated there was more to the fight than just an intrateam battle. It was Australia versus the world, a theme on which the race would build its reputation.

By 2013 the field had grown back to pre-2011 levels and the race had begun to draw serious teams and drivers to the event. However, it was the live streaming coverage, introduced during the Production Car era, that had begun to take the race to a global audience, with the race one of the first in Australia to fully embrace the digital world. The addition of the almost cult-like following the Radio Le Mans crew added when they first appeared in 2013 only enhanced the online appeal.

If there was one break-out moment, though, it was a captivating final hour in 2014 that changed everything. Live on commercial TV in Australia for the first time, the finish saw Craig Lowndes in a Ferrari holding off young German star Maximillian Buhk’s Mercedes-AMG SLS GT3 in a thrilling battle for the win.

Lowndes, who was part of the team to have lost the 2011 race, wasn’t going to be denied this time and held off the flying Mercedes, winning by under half a second and sending social media into a frenzy of ‘greatest race ever’ tweets.

Controversy saw the event grow further the following year, when Supercars scheduled their preseason test at Sydney Motorsport

Park the same weekend as the 2015 race. The decision effectively removed the full Supercars roster from competing in what, at the time, was seen as a rival event. It generated enormous discussion and debate.

While the race was clearly established internationally, the broad backlash to the Supercars pre-season test clash proved that it was now also a force on local shores. It was clearly a fixture embraced by the drivers and brands alike. Nissan hero Katsumasa Chiyo storming from fourth to first in the last two laps probably didn’t hurt the cause, either – nor did the Japanese brands’ PR efforts post-race.

Of course, six months later and

amid a world of irony, Supercars purchased the event, which has become stronger and bigger under its umbrella.

Stability, consistent evolution and accessibility may have been the foundations of where the Bathurst 12 Hour is today. In the end that one gamble for 2011 – and ignoring those with predictions of doom – proved to be key in creating what is now indisputably one of the world’s greatest GT endurance races.

Long may it remain so – and on the basis of the 12 Hour’s growth, its international stature will only increase.

Richard Craill is an award-winning commentator and media manager of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

NEWS UPDATE: Bathurst 12 Hour Top teams selecting Elf LMS Elf is undefeated at the mountain

Set up your 2019 Fuel Account, forms available at:

AVGAS Replacement Coming soon: April 2019 Race Unleaded inc lubricity Expect power and protection

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GAME CHANGING Last year’s World Rally Championship was a thriller all the way to the final round. HEATH McALPINE recounts what has transpired since then and what to watch out for in 2019 HEADING INTO the final round of the World Rally Championship in Coffs Harbour (NSW) late last year, no less than three drivers representing three different manufacturers had a chance of sealing the title.

It was the culmination of an enthralling season-long battle that witnessed the emergence of the increasingly more consistent Thierry Neuville and the rallywinning pace of Ott Tanak.

Neuville and Tanak came close but it was multiple world champion Sebastien Ogier who eventually took his fifth WRC title on the trot.

It was a fitting end to Ogier’s career with M-Sport, the team that provided a home for the Volkswagen refugee after the German giant stepped away from its motorsport involvement due to the ‘diesel gate’ scandal.

Two years with the Ford team has delivered a further pair of titles to the Frenchman’s trophy cabinet, but a new challenge beckons as he now heads back ‘home’ to Citroen. The team has

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struggled in recent years but for 2019 has undertaken critical groundwork ork to return to its dominant form of thee mid2000s.

In Ogier, Citroen has a driver it can develop a team around, much like ke M-Sport did, but it has also thought ght of the future, securing young Finnish sh star Esapakka Lappi as his teammatee in a reduced two-car line-up.

Lappi joins from Toyota where he secured five stage wins in his very first WRC event and three events later took his maiden WRC victory on his home rally. Lappi aided Toyota securing last year’s manufacturers’ crown by backing up his experienced teammates, finishing fifth in the title.

Toyota was another major player in the silly season, replacing Lappi with a surprise but inspired choice. Kris Meeke returns to the WRC field after being fired by Citroen mid-last season, after a number of high-speed incidents.

Will a new environment garner better results for a driver that often is compared

to the late, great Colin McRae? Potentially, Potentially but he will need to get used to playing a supporting role with the emergence of Ott Tanak as a genuine threat to Ogier’s reign, a role that he never had to play at Citroen. Meeke just has to look at teammate Jari-Matti Latvala to see how best to play that supporting role.

Tanak comes into this season with much confidence after a stunning debut season with Toyota. The Estonian seemed out of the title fight mid-season until a hat-trick of victories closed the championship up significantly. He took the most victories of any driver last year and was unlucky not to snag a number of others, but four retirements proved costly. Better consistency will deliver

the title as Tanak and the Toyota Yaris appear to form a perfect partnership.

Sebastien Loeb is synonymous with one manufacturer, Citroen. But that all changes in Monte Carlo when he takes the start in a Hyundai, teaming up with Belgian Thierry Neuville and Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen in what has become a very competitive package.

It was a major coup for the Korean manufacturer, which also has undergone a management change with customer racing boss Andrea Adamo replacing Michel Nandan in the top job.

Hyundai came so close to the title in 2018 with Neuville, who led for much of the season and pushed Ogier into mistakes that observers haven’t

Toyota will be hopeful of taking both titles in 2019.

Xxxxx

M-Sport loses experience, but the Fiesta is a proven package.

Citroen has gone all out to return to the top, recruiting current WRC champion Sebastien Ogier to lead its attack.

witnessed before. But crucial failures in Turkey and Australia gave Ogier enough of a sniff to overhaul the Hyundai driver.

Loeb will provide much needed experience to the Hyundai line-up even though it is only for six events. Dani Sordo takes the seat for the remaining rallies.

The final team taking part is M-Sport, which loses Ogier and instead takes on an incredibly inexperienced and youthful line-up. Add to this reduced support from Ford and the team may struggle in 2018, although the Fiesta is a known quantity.

Elfyn Evans leads the line-up, after a

disappointing year in 2018, finishing last among the drivers who completed the full WRC schedule, having failed to score in six events. This came after an impressive debut year for the second-generation driver, who took a dream home victory on Rally GB in 2017. Better things are to be expected in 2019.

Partnering the Brit at M-Sport for the fullseason is Finn Teemu Suninen. Finishing a best of third in a partial program in 2018, Suninen was a consistent points finisher and will be one to watch in the future.

Sharing the third car will be Rallycross

driver and WRC-2 runner up Pontus Tidemand.

It’s a changing of the guard at the top of M-Sport too, as Malcolm Wilson has stepped down as Team Principal after 21 years in the role, replaced by Rich Millener.

WRC organisers also announced an extended 14 event calendar for 2019.

Hosting a WRC event has become very competitive with a further 12 candidates including Japan, New Zealand, Kenya and Croatia keen to stage an event in the future.

Despite Rally Japan appearing to have a spot on the calendar, replacing the Tour de

Thierry Neuville is one of the top contenders for this year’s title.

Corse, this was later abandoned.

The WRC will however travel to its 32nd country this year when it heads to the Rally Chile in May, running back-to-back with Rally Argentina.

It can safely be said that the WRC is once again enjoying a golden era with increased manufacturer support, a new generation of drivers ready to take the crown, and growing popularity among organisers and fans alike.

The 2019 season is shaping up as a classic and another close finish seems almost guaranteed.

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2019

Round 1 Rallye Monte Carlo January 24-27 Round 2 Rally Sweden February 14-17 Round 3 Rally Mexico March 7-10 Round 4 Tour de Corse March 28-31 Round 5 Rally Argentina April 25-28 Round 6 Rally Chile May 9-12 Round 7 Rally de Portugal May 30-June 2 Round 8 Rally Italia Sardegna June 13-16 Round 9 Rally Finland August 1-4 Round 10 Rallye Deutschland August 22-25 Round 11 Rally of Turkey September 12-15 Round 12 Wales Rally GB October 24-27 Round 13 Rally Catalunya de Espana October 24-27 Round 14 Rally Australia November 14-17

Kris Meeke will make a welcome return to the WRC

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UNDER THE SKIN

PURPLE REIGN A bit of Formula 1 here, a bit Aussie ingenuity there, Dean Tighe’s Dallara-based, Judd V10-engined hillclimb weapon is one of the quickest in the country, as GARRY O’BRIEN found out

I

F THE look of this car with its stunning graphics doesn’t grab you, then the noise it makes certainly will.

Featuring the characters from the Marvel Comics Avengers, Dean Tighe’s hillclimb open wheeler Dallara also delivers music to the ears with its Judd Formula 1 V8 powerplant.

At Collingrove Hillclimb in 2017 the Clerk of Course approached Tighe and said, “If anyone complains about the noise, let me know and I will have them removed from the venue.”

Last year, Tighe won the Queensland State Club series (which was backed by his company), finished second in the Queensland Hillclimb Championship and ventured interstate to take out the South Australian Hillclimb Championship.

Unfortunately he came up short in the Australian Championship, where he was fourth.

“We just have to work at making it faster,” he said of his ever-developing car.

But even as it stands, it is an intriguing project that began several years ago.

Tighe is the son of the late Ivan Tighe, a successful racer and renowned engine builder. Tighe Senior won three Australian Hillclimb Championships over a period of 27 years and added two NSW titles as well.

He also drove the ex-Peter Gethin/Bruce Allison Chevron B37 Formula 5000 when venturing onto the circuit.

In 1966, Tighe Senior set up his own firm in Brisbane, operating under the name, Ivan Tighe Engineering, which continues to thrive today as a wholly Australian owned manufacturer of camshafts.

Dean Tighe started racing motorcycles while still at school and won an Australian

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club track title in his senior year. He went on to compete in motocross until the age of 19.

“I worked out that I wasn’t bulletproof as by that stage I had started breaking things, like around 10 to 12 bones,” he recalled.

So he switched to racing karts – International Lights – and progressed to fourth in the Queensland rankings and sixth nationally.

He moved on to rallying in a Suzuki GTi and subsequently a Nissan Skyline GT-R. He competed in five Rally Australia

events, taking out the Queensland Rally Championship in 1997 and in Targa Tasmania as both a driver and navigator.

He also tried some Australian Touring Car Championship racing, at the wheel of a Bob Holden Toyota Sprinter.

It was no surprise that the discipline of hillclimbing soon came into play, given his lineage. In the late ‘90s he armed himself with Chevron chassis in which he scored third in the 1997 QHC, second in 1998 and also competed in the Australian Championship. At the latter in 1997 he finished equal second in the rain, driving

on slick tyres.

Motor sport had to take a respite and he sold the one-off B37-001 back to the United Kingdom, sans engine, to fund the purchase of land in the Brisbane suburb of Wacol to expand the business.

Into the 2000s, Tighe returned to racing, in the ex-John Lennon Ralt RT4 in the state and national Historic Racing Car Championship.

With his attention turning back to the hillclimb scene, Tighe found a thencurrent Formula 3 Dallara 395, which originally raced in Japan. He purchased

Dean Tighe's Dallara is among the country's most sophisticated hillclimb specials.

it off John Campbell, who planned to cannibalize it to use as a sports car, utilizing everything other than the tub itself.

The plan was build it up as an outright contender by slotting an alloy Chev V8 he had kept from the Chevron into it. But that soon changed!

“Dad and I were watching the Australian Hillclimb Championship which was in Queensland that year, and when we saw the Gould go up the hill, Dad turned to me and said, ‘the Chev won’t be fast enough!’

“He then asked me what about that

www.autoaction.com.au

Judd engine Ian Palmer has.”

Palmer had brought the engine from England to put in his Honda NSX, which turned into something of a nightmare.

“I brought it after a test session at Queensland Raceway where he completed around a lap and a half and a rod bolt fell out,” Tighe recalled.

“I offered him ten grand for it which he accepted. So I had a Formula 1 engine but it did have a hole in it and was a mess inside.”

The benefits would be significant with big horsepower and light weight. Reading

AutoActionMagazine

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up, he figured it would weigh around 80kgs.

On the scales back at the factory and fitted with a massive flywheel, clutch, headers and trumpets, it came in 106kg.

“To give you an idea how that compared, we had a Toyota 4AGE out of a PRB Clubman I had used in Targa . . . and without the inlet and exhaust manifolds, tipped the scales at 122kg.”

The 3.5-litre EV engine came out of the Leyton House March when Adrian Newey was there. The previous Judd CV was designed with a conventional 90-degree

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

V8 engine block. Following the 1988 season, it was decided that a narrower V angle would be adopted to give a more compact engine.

The original intent for the EV was a 75-degree V, but limitations in Judd's CNC equipment (it could only work in even-degree increments) meant that 76 degrees was used instead.

“Dean Amos has two of the Goulds and one has the CV Judd which purrs like a kitten when fired up. Mine has a far more aggressive howl,” Tighe said.

It runs a flat plane crank, although the

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41

UNDER THE SKIN

DALLARA

F395 ENGINE

Judd EV 76 degree 4.0-litre V8 Power: 485kW (650hp) Torque: 515Nms (380ft/lbs) Cooling: Two PWR radiators Exhaust: Inconel on titanium, four and two Into one Electronics: Motec Transmission: Six-speed Hewland TMT-200 Differential: Clutch-type Limi8ted Slip Clutch: AP carbon Axles: Fabricated Tighe Engineering Brakes: Four-spot Performance Friction front and rear Bodywork: Tighe Engineering carbon

SUSPENSION

The Dallara's Judd EV F1 engine sounds and means business. Its aerodynamics are bespoke and can change from track to track.

Front Suspension: Push Rod Mono Damper Rear Suspension: Push Rod Twin Damper Shocks: Penske Springs: Eiback Fuel system: Holley HydraMat Seat: Tighe Engineering Harness: Weilands Steering wheel: Sparco Gauges: Motec Pedals: Tilton floating Wheels: Oz Racing from Renault F1 Tyres: Avon

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 450kg Length: 3990mm Width: 1750mm Height: 930mm (ground to top of roll hoop) Wheelbase: 2490mm Track: 1800mm front, 1300mm rear

injectors are on top of the trumpets, which is not how the EVs were originally built.

The engine rebuilds are done in England every three years, meaning Tighe didn’t get to compete at the 2017 Australian Championship The only gearbox he could get hold of at the time was a Reynard H-pattern which gave the car a wheelbase of 2692mm.

“I guess the car was somewhere between quarter to half-finished when this guy came in looking for a camshaft for his BMW,” Tighe recalled.

“The old man says to me ‘do you know who that is?’ and I said ‘no’.”

That person turned out to be racing car designer and engineer Ralph Bellamy who worked for Brabham, Ensign, Fittipaldi, Lola and McLaren. He then became involved in the design of Tighe’s Dallara.

“We were going to run a flat floor and obviously it’s not a flat floor. Ralph did a drawing of the floor and the shape is what it is now,” Tighe said.

In England where cars like the Gould were conceived, they use flat-bottom cars with skirts but here in Australia they are illegal.

“The rulebook actually says you cannot join in any way, the bottom of the bodywork to the ground by any means.

“They can make the car a lot stiffer and much closer to the ground, so it is a different concept of a car. We have designed our car for more mechanical grip.”

The next development was to replace

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Images by John Lemm and Gary Hill. the gearbox with a transverse TMT 200 sequential Hewland – which also brought down the length of the wheelbase to 2489mm. The TMT-200 was designed specifically to suit the mid-torque singleseater and GT racing applications.

Much of the rest of the car doesn’t owe anything to the original Formula 3 concept either.

The differential is a clutch-type limited slip, different in the fact that is has a spring pack and a set of clutches. The spring pack pushes the side gears

against the clutches, which are attached to the cage. Both side gears spin with the cage when the rear wheels are moving at the same speed, the clutches step in when something happens to make one wheel spin faster than the other, as in turning.

In fuel delivery, the Holley HydraMat offers starvation protection and greatly reduces the potential for air to enter into the system. The area of the HydraMat is uncovered, and tiny pores in the media seal off through surface tension, forcing fuel to be drawn from other areas of the mat where fuel continues to be available.

It also has a Tilton pedal box where the floating cylinders go through the flywheel and don’t actually bolt to it.

The front suspension is predominantly Dallara albeit from the later model F398 with its wider track arms and uprights.

The rear has been completely fabricated.

It has a load detector on the gearshift so there is no need to use the clutch on up-shift changes and he heel-and-toes on the down changes. Launch and clutch control with various percentages of wheel slip can be alternated, depending on the track and weather conditions.

As far as bodywork goes, it is also fabricated, as utilising pieces from later model Dallaras was deemed impractical due to the lack of downforce.

The graphics were done by his 10-yearold daughter Charlize. “We liked the Avengers characters and the people and that is what we went with. Like it or not, it gets more pictures taken of it than it ever

had previously,” Tighe confirmed.

There are 25 different characters on it, having been completed at the beginning of 2018.

“Even the guy who did the actual graphics loves it!”

As the hillclimbing venues vary so much, aerodynamics play a crucial role in setting up for various events – whether it is in Queensland, South Australian or Victoria.

The aero changes are not done by a wind tunnel or some sort of CAD program, but rather through the recommendations of Bellamy.

“I would just ask whether this wing or front spoiler change would work, Ralph would say no, would that work, ‘no’, or that and he would say ‘yeah, that will’.”

The aero was much the same from Collingrove to Bryant Park and would be the same for the Esses layout at Mt Panorama.

But he would make changes for the Mountain Straight track – the one that will be used for this year’s national title on the first weekend of November.

The Dallara has been often referred to as the “meccano car” as it never appears too often in the same configuration.

Tighe is looking forward to this year’s national title.

“By the first corner (Griffin Bend) it will touch 260km/h – it can hit 160km/h in just over two seconds.”

As for other competition, he has toyed with the idea of running a Supersprint but the problem there is that it won’t go far as it only has a 15-litre fuel tank.

Plans are ramping up at Wakefield Park as the circuit continues to prove a popular venue for motorsport and driver training activities.

WAKEFIELD’S DEAN CHAPMAN ON THE FIRST SIX MONTHS WITH JUST over six months as Operations Manager of Wakefield Park, Dean Chapman talks to GARRY O’BRIEN about celebrating the circuit’s 25th Anniversary and exciting plans for future amenities developments

B

orn and bred in the national’s capital, Dean Chapman came into his role as Operations Manager at Wakefield Park after a previous stint as CEO for West Race Cars in Bangkok, working with race teams in the Thailand Super Series and GT Asia.

In expectations verses reality, the past half year or so at Wakefield has been an eye-opener – not unsatisfying but certainly different.

Chapman took on the job to be involved in motorsport at a higher level, working on events, the way competitors can access the track and to bring new people to the venue.

“Being on the other side of the fence, as it were, has been so different; organising a race meeting and encouraging people to turn up and providing them with value for being there.

He adds that other important aspects are acknowledging how much effort the officials put in, monitoring what happens on track, as well as looking after the accommodation cabins and the track amenities.

Plus there is also the maintenance with the track itself, the tyre walls and general amenities.

One of the craziest things he still gets asked:

“Is it a fulltime job? I don’t think people really understand what goes on here at Wakefield Park and how many days we are booked out.

“It is a fulltime job; the track is booked out some 300-odd days a year. This include new car tests, Drive Days, government authorities doing training, and the historic side as well with the GEAR meetings.”

Dealing with the Historic community – like GEAR, the Historic Sports Racing Car Association and the Historic Touring Cars – overall was a revelation. He wasn’t aware how big historic racing is and how good they are to work with.

He also paid tribute to his predecessor Matt Baragwanath.

“He turned stones that some may not have liked in order to keep the facility moving forward.”

Despite the track being owned by the Benalla Auto Club with its close ties with the AASA, Chapman cites a good relationship with CAMS and says they have been particularly helpful with the running of rounds of the State Circuit Racing Championships.

“This is the 25th year for the track and we will be gearing up for a celebration over two weekends in November,” Chapman enthused.

“There will be a Gala Dinner on the 16th and the first of two weekends will be about Historic racing, before test and tunes during the week, which will recognise the bikes as well. The second weekend will be about the classes we run throughout the year.”

There are plans to supplement the cafe

“IN 10 YEARS’ TIME WE WILL HAVE TO CATER FOR OTHER THINGS, LIKE AUTONOMOUS DRIVING, WHERE VEHICLES CAN BE TESTED ON A TRACK.” with additional food and drink outlets, as part of making the facility more comfortable for spectators.

“We have started to build a marketing team to also promote the circuit with ride and drive days.”

Chapman also talked about building a 10year plan where they will look at any noise issues, what curbing needs to be attended to, and when the track will need a full resurface.

Part of that plan will be a pit lane upgrade with wider garages so they more easily

accommodate bigger cars such as Production GTs, with a corporate facility to be constructed over the top of it. The current garages would be relocated behind the new facility and could also be used as race car storage for weekend racers.

“In the plan we also want to place a grandstand, where we can put a skid pan. On certain things we have quotes done (already) and we are about to pull the trigger on getting them started.

“In 10 years’ time we will have to cater for other things, like autonomous driving, where vehicles can be tested on a track.

“Also, how we will deal with new products, technology changes and continue to make ourselves relevant.

“All this will be part of the 10-year plan and really it is not a case of if, but when!

“People know who I am now. I have spent a lot of time getting to know what the community here in Goulburn has here, how we can utilise it and help each other in terms of local businesses and jobs.

“We want to benefit local business with any of our developments. It is good for us but it needs to good for the whole community.”

“Coming up at the nation’s action and spectator tracks” Wakefield Park

www.wakefieldpark.com.au

January 25 Speed Off The Streets/Test & Tune February 1 Speed Off The Street/Test & Tune February 2-3 MRA February 6 WPM Trackschool Track Day February 9 PCRA February 11 WPM Trackschool Open Pitlane

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www.wintonraceway.com.au

January 25 Test & Tune – Bikes January 26 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers January 27 Winton Fun Day January 31 CAMS & AASA OLT February 1 Test & Tune – Cars and Open Wheelers February 5 Performance Test Day

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PRICE TAKES INSPIRING DAKAR VICTORY IN ONE of the best performances in Dakar history, Australian Toby Price took a surprise victory in the 2019 rendition of the world’s toughest and most arduous adventure, finishing 9m 13s ahead of KTM teammate Matthias Walkner, while Sam Sunderland completed a 1-2-3 for the Austrian manufacturer.

“I’m over the moon, I’m so damned stoked,” said an elated Price.

“It’s been a long 10 days. Now I’ll just wait and see what damage I’ve done to my wrist. At the end of the day, the pain and torture has been worth it.

I thought I would only be able to do two stages and then pull out and that would have been me done, but the support from everyone back home in Australia and then having some things go my way and a bit of luck, it just worked out in the end. It’s been an unreal rally.”

Price had to not only battle the extreme Peruvian conditions, but also was recovering from a broken right scaphoid, an injury that occurred during training in mid-December.

It was a struggle early for the 2016 Dakar bike winner, as the injury caused much discomfort, which was further compounded when he got lost on Stage 3. Even this failed to hamper his charge as he remained within striking distance of the overall lead.

The rest day came at a crucial time as Price set up his attack the very next day

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to overhaul Pablo Quintanilla and take a 1m 03s lead. The Chilean was unable to challenge Price on the final stage after a crash dropped him to fourth in the general classification.

“It’s very crazy to sit here and say that we won the Dakar Rally with no stage victories until today. It’s really crazy,” said Price at the finish of the 41st Dakar. “[On the pain] Pretty much all I can

Nassar AlAttiyah stormed to Toyota’s first Dakar win (above).

Sebastien Loeb (right) had a troubled event.

Aussie Toby Price was brilliant to win his second Dakar (left) while Kamaz dominated the trucks again (right).

FINAL CLASSIFICATION BIKES

POS RIDER NAT MAKE TIME/MARGIN 1 Toby Price AUS KTM 33h 57m16s 2 Matthias Walkner AUT KTM +09m13s 3 Sam Sunderland GBR KTM +13m34s CARS 1 Nasser Al-Attiyah-Matthieu Baumel QAT-FRA Toyota 34h 38m14s 2 Nani Roma-Alex Haro Bravo ESP-ESP Mini +46m42s 3 Sebastien Loeb-Daniel Elena FRA-MON Peugeot +1h 54m18s

MINI’s new buggies were fast but ultimately too fragile.

say is that it feels like there are about five people driving a knife in my wrist now. It’s not very comfortable, it’s not very enjoyable, but at the end of the day the victory has paid off. I’ll forget about the pain now, that’s for sure.

“If it wasn’t for this victory it wouldn’t have been as sweet, but at the end of the day I was just happy to make the finishing line. I didn’t think I was even

going to be able to do that. I just don’t like giving up, I don’t like quitting, that’s for sure. I love being out on my bike and I love riding and to be here with all the Dakar family and the KTM team it’s amazing. So, yeah, we’re pumped”.

It was joy for Toyota too as Nasser Al-Attiyah steered his heavily modified Hilux to the marque’s first victory in

the event.

Al-Attiyah had previously won the event in Volkswagen and Mini machinery, but in his third attempt for Toyota the driver from Qatar dominated. In all but one stage, he failed to head the general classification and ended the rally 46m 42s clear of the Mini of former bike competitor Nani Roma.

M Multiple World Rally Ra champion Sebastien Loeb completed the podium in his Peugeot after encountering numerous issues that culminated in a navigation error dropping the Frenchman out of contention.

Reigning Champion Carlos Sainz damaged his Mini on Stage 3, but won the final stage as a consolation.

Australian duo Steve Riley and Trevor Hanks suffered a tough Dakar initiation, when a crash in the rally’s famous dunes ended the pair’s event for good on Stage 6.

Russian truck manufacturer Kamaz completed a hat-trick of Dakar victories as Eduard Nikolaev, Evgenii Iakovlev and Vladimir Rybakov crossed the line ahead of teammates Dmitry Sotnikov, Dmitrii Nikitin and Ilnur Mustafin.

The Quad category was taken out by Nicolas Cavigliasso and the SxS was won by Francisco Lopez Contardo.

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FORMULA E

D’AMBROSIO WINS MAGNIFICENT MARRAKESH E-PRIX JEROME D’AMBROSIO took his third career victory in Formula E and his first with Mahindra, in a dramatic Marrakesh ePrix which will be remembered for the two Andretti BMW’s colliding when fighting for the lead.

In qualifying it was Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird who took pole position from reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne by just 0.05s.

When the lights went out Vergne made a poor start, but had a late dive up the inside of Bird heading into Turn 1. The two made contact, Vergne came off worse, spinning in the middle of the circuit and scattering the field. Vergne rejoined the race with no damage, albeit at the back of the pack.

It was clear from the beginning that leader Bird was going to have problems keeping both Andretti BMWs behind. It was Round 1 winner Antonio Felix da Costa who made the first move, firing up the inside of Bird into Turn 4. Bird chose to cut the chicane and in doing so lost momentum down the next straight, allowing da Costa’s teammate Alexander Sims around the outside into Turn 7.

At the midway stage of the race Robin

It was a chaotic ePrix as Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer found out.

Frijns overtook his teammate Bird to briefly take third, before d’Ambrosio and di Grassi overtook both the Virgin cars.

At this stage the BMW pair had stretched out a comfortable 4.5s lead on the quartet behind.

Bird, Frijns and d’Ambrosio then used Attack Mode to try and close down the gap to the leaders, reducing it to just over a second.

At turn 7 Sims tried a move around the outside of his teammate but da Costa locked up both front wheels, making contact with Sims pushing him wide. da Costa was unable to slow his car and crashed into the tyre wall, retiring from the race, while Sims was able to continue but fell down to fourth position.

“I want to apologise to the team. I have never been in this A smiling Jerome D’Ambrosio took his third career Formula E victory on the streets of Marrakesh. situation before. I’m sorry. Alex than expected, resulting in a one was removed from a dangerous (Sims) was amazing today and I made a lap dash to the finish. Sims was the position. It was D’Ambrosio who mistake,” da Costa said after the race. only driver in the top six positions now led Frijns, Bird and Sims.

The Safety Car was deployed with Attack Mode on the final lap.

The Safety Car stayed out longer as da Costa’s stationary BMW D’Ambrosio came under immense pressure from Frijns in the closing corners, driving as defensively as he could. At the final turn Frijns looked up the inside, d’Ambrosio locked up and ran wide, but had just enough momentum to cross the line first. D’Ambrosio led home Frijns, Bird and Sims, who could not get through on his fellow Englishman. The quartet were separated by 0.74s at the line, while Vergne recovered well to finish fifth.

“That felt amazing. I’ve been fighting to be in this position and I’m thankful to the team,” said D’Ambrosio after the race.

The next Formula E round takes place this weekend in Santiago, Chile.

POINTS: d’Ambrosio 40, da Costa 28, Vergne 28, Lotterer 19, Frijns 18, Bird 18, Evans 14, Sims 12, Buemi 12, di Grassi 9.

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DRAG RACING

FENECH WINS AND CRASHES DESPITE WINNING his first Pro Slammer event, disaster struck Sam Fenech moments after taking victory at Santo’s Summer Thunder at Sydney Dragway.

After crossing the line with an event-winning 5.66s pass at 255mph, Fenech went for a wild ride through the braking area as his chutes failed to blossom, covering 600m in 6s before entering the gravel trap, catch net and hitting the tyre wall.

Much to the relief of the crowd, Fenech emerged from his Camaro unaided before being checked over in the medical centre.

“I’ve had a lot of phone calls and a lot of messages and a lot of words of encouragement (since the accident),” Fenech said.

“Thankfully I am feeling really good today. I have no injuries that I know of, all the safety gear did its job. The track staff, the ambulance crew, everybody did an unreal job.

“Unfortunately, the car is gone, but we had a really good win.

As far as the team goes we are strong and everything is good, so thanks for all the well wishes.”

Fenech defeated points leader Paul Mouyahet, who still managed to extend his lead as second placed John Zappia withdrew after Round 2 with mechanical issues. Another to contend was Steve Ham after setting runs of 5.70s, 5.70s and 5.68s, but narrowly missed the final.

With the catch net disabled

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Kelly Bettes won twice in Top Fuel but the Final was cancelled.

due to Fenech’s accident, further racing was cancelled.

Top Fuel provided much of the excitement during the evening as the strong six-car field included four national champions and two Americans. Kelly Bettes and Phil Read were to take on each other in the final, but this was one of the events to be cancelled.

Bettes defeated Damien Harris and Ashley Sanford, Read likewise defeated Sanford and Harris, with Wayne Newby just failing to beat Bettes’ 3.86s run to make the final.

Pro Extreme was taken out by Greg Tsakiridis, defeating Gina Bullans, after he had nearly set an Australian door slammer speed record earlier in the night.

Other winners of the night were Alf Sciacca Jr in Supercharged Outlaws, Steve Fowler in Top Sportsman, Modified was won by Peter Brown and Enio Marroccoin Super Sedan.

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Phil Read was set to race Bettes in the Top Fuel Final.

Images: Dragphotos.com.au

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NEW ZEALAND 50 AutoAction FEATURE

Lawson had a dream start to his TRS campaign.

HOMECOMING A SUCCESS FOR LAWSON KIWI PRODIGY Liam Lawson has taken victory in the opening round of the Toyota Racing Series at Highlands Motorsports Park.

Runner up in the German Formula 4 title in 2018, Lawson lined up second on the grid as recently crowned Asian Formula 3 champion Raoul Hyman took pole position. It was Lawson who made the best start as he quickly gapped Hyman and set a new Highlands benchmark at a 1m 28.910s, while the chasing pack was 7s behind.

The battle for second was fierce between Lucas Auer, Kiwi Marcus Armstrong and Hyman as the latter continued to struggle to regain the pace he had in qualifying.

Lap 12 was key for Auer and Armstrong as the pair found a way through on Hyman

and tried to eat into Lawson’s comfortable lead, but it was a fruitless task as the Kiwi took the opening victory of the season.

It was another Kiwi’s turn to take victory in the reverse top 6 race 2 as Brendon Leitch took the win, although he was second across the line. Belgian Esteban Muth took the flag first, but was deemed to have jumped the start and was given a 5s penalty leaving Leitch to take advantage.

The lead duo gapped the chasing pack comprising of Hyman, Auer, Armstrong and Lawson, but a mistake from the growingly impatient Auer brought out the red-flag and the end of the race. A hard collision with the outside wall left Auer’s team to replace the engine and gearbox before the feature race.

In very wet conditions, Lawson took

SMITH CONTINUES NZ HOT STREAK SUPER2 DRIVER Jack Smith has dominated the third round of the NZ V8s Championship at Highlands Motorsport Park.

Smith took a comfortable victory in the opening race of the weekend after scoring pole position in the Hamilton Motorsports Holden Commodore. Title rival Nick Ross took second place on the grid in his Concept Motorsports Nissan Altima, but had his hands full with the Toyota Camry driven by Aussie Brenton Grove.

It was a torrid battle between the pair, but Grove took second at The Carousel and tried in vain to pursue the runaway leader. A 10s margin was too much to overhaul, leaving Smith a comfortable victor over Grove and Ross.

Smith repeated his Race 1 result in the second, although he had to fight off an early challenge from Grove with Brad Lathrope taking the final podium spot driving a Ford Falcon.

The final race of the weekend occurred in tough conditions, so much so that the race had to be stopped to allow competitors to change to wet tyres.

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Prior to the red flag, Smith started from fourth, but was quickly ahead of Lathrope at the Bus Stop.

However, it was back to the status quo for Smith once the race resumed, leading comfortably to take a clean-sweep and further enhance his title aspirations.

Grove finished second and third went to Smith’s teammate Lance Hughes. It was a poor day for Ross as a mistake in race 2 meant he failed to take the flag and then a poor strategy move in the final race meant he lost a lap, finishing eighth.

“It was the perfect weekend, it doesn’t get much better than that, getting pole and three race wins,” said Smith.

The three race wins saw Smith extend his championship lead over nearest rival Nick Ross, who had a troubled weekend.

“A shame for Nick Ross that he didn’t finish all that well, but we’ll take it and we’ll take the extended lead in the championship.”

The tight Class 2 fight intensified as Matt Podjursky took the weekend honours ahead of Justin Ashwell courtesy of two wins and a second.

a dominant victory in the feature race, crossing the line 10s clear of his nearest rival, performing the pass of the weekend to get there. Auer started on pole with Armstrong and Lawson chasing the Austrian with the race starting under Safety Car. Auer pulled a handy gap as the two Kiwis duelled. Lawson made his move on lap 6 when he completed a brave move on the outside of Armstrong at the final corner.

That was followed by a small touch at turn 1, but the move was complete, leaving Lawson to attack Auer.

Halfway through the race, Lawson caught and passed Auer with a clean move under the bridge, as the 16-year-old gapped the experienced Austrian to take a comfortable victory.

Auer had to settle for fourth after Armstrong passed him on lap 13 and Hyman did likewise on the final circuit.

“I’m stoked! Since I started racing, I’ve wanted to race TRS and to finally be able to do that today is pretty cool,” Lawson said.

“After qualifying on the front row, I was focusing on my start, making sure I was going to get away cleanly and then make sure I could either move forward or hold my position into the turn 2.

“From there it was just about getting into my groove and getting a gap on the field.

I think we looked after our tyres pretty good. I can’t thank the M2 Competition enough, they’ve provided another winning car in this series and I’m privileged to be a part of it.”

HEDGE EXTENDS MARGIN ALTHOUGH HIS lead in the New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship was extended after the third round of the title at Highlands Motorsport Park, 15-year-old Callum Hedge did it the hard way.

Hedge was pushed all weekend by Jaden Ransley, but the latter was unable to prevent the championship leader from taking a race victory and a second.

Pole position was won by Hedge with Ransley alongside, but it was Peter Vodanovich on the second row who made the best start, however he was unable to take advantage as the pair in front blocked any clear path.

It was a seesaw battle between the top three and the chasing pack led by Connor Adam and Jordan Baldwin, though the lead trio hampered each other, resulting in a six-way battle for the lead with a recovering Arran Crighton joining the fray.

Ransley’s race ended with an issue forcing

him to pit lane, leaving Hedge to take a comfortable 2.2s ahead of Vodanovich and Crighton.

It was redemption for Ransley in race 2 as he was awarded victory post-race after Hedge was given a 5s penalty for an indiscretion involving Ransley. The race grew progressively wetter the further it went, making the racing very interesting. The defining move occurred mid-race when Hedge tried to slide his car on the inside of Ransley, with contact sending the latter into the dirt and incurring a 5s penalty.

This dropped Hedge to fourth as Ransley took the win ahead of Baldwin and Vodanovich.

Another close affair concluded the weekend as Vodanovich took his maiden victory, managing to hold off a rapid Hedge, who tried to steal the lead on a number of occasions and failed. Ransley had to fight his way through the pack and managed to shadow Vodanovich and Hedge across the line.

At Teretonga Brendan Grove claimed his first V8 Championship round victory.

SMITH’S STREAK ENDS JACK SMITH’S winning streak in the NZ V8 Championship came to an end during Round 4 at Teretonga, when suspension failure dropped the Australian out of the final race of the weekend.

Smith had already taken the opening two races and was certain to take victory in the third, until a component failure in the front left corner dropped him out of the race. However Smith was still awarded the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy as the driver with the most accumulated points over the past two rounds at Highlands and Teretonga.

The opening race was dominated by Smith,

but fellow Australian Brenton Grove, driving the Richards Team Motorsport Toyota Camry, challenged heading into the first sequence of corners leaving him vulnerable to third placed Nick Ross.

The positions remained the same as the Hamilton Motorsports Commodore took another comfortable victory ahead of Grove and the Concept Motorsport Nissan Altima of Ross.

Smith was again the man to beat in Race 2, leading home Grove and Ross, and to emphasise his strong form, he reset the lap

TRS LOSES BATTLE WITH WEATHER ROUND 2 of the Toyota Racing Series was cut short after a single race, as severe weather lashed the Teretonga Park circuit in Invercargill on January 19-20.

Gale force winds which reached up to 100 km/h forced the organiser’s hand. After consultation with team owners and drivers, TRS racing was suspended on Sunday.

Race 2, which was supposed to have taken place in the morningat Teretonga Park, will instead be contested at Hampton Downs this weekend, while qualifying and the race that was set to take place in the afternoon will be now run at Taupo the following weekend.

“Our conclusion is that the predicted wind speeds and gusts combined with the high speed nature of the coastal track, could compromise the downforce of the 500kg machines and potentially put driver safety and the safety of others at an enhanced and unacceptable level of risk,” said Toyota Racing Series Category Manager Nico Caillol.

“It’s a shame but we considered the situation

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carefully for fans and drivers, safety comes first, and we have reluctantly decided to cancel our qualifying and racing today.”

Saturday’s action had been dominated by Kiwis as the wet conditions played into the hands of Marcus Armstrong and Liam Lawson.

The championship leader after Round 1, Lawson was immediately settled in the damp conditions and edged Armstrong by a scant 0.10s.

Lawson set the lap during the middle of the session and despite the ever-drying conditions, he remained at the top of the timesheets.

Australian Calan Williams starred to set sixth fastest time after finishing with a trio of top 10s in the opening round of the series at Highlands Park. Fellow Aussies Jackson Walls and Thomas Smith qualified 14th and 15th respectively.

The race proved to be a battle between the pair of Kiwis as Armstrong made a perfect getaway to steal the lead, while Lawson floundered to third, but quickly jumped into

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record to a 59.276s after reducing the mark in Race 1.

Ross was able to take advantage of Smith’s misfortune in the finale to take victory ahead of Grove and his teammate Chelsea Herbert, but with three second places Grove took his first NZ V8 Championship round victory.

“That last race was really cool, to get five cars, side by side. Winning the round is awesome.

We’re definitely making progress with the car and hopefully we can keep bridging that gap to the guys in the front,” said Grove.

“We’ve had some bad luck this season. I think that based on raw speed Jack’s car is still a fair way up the road, but as we saw this weekend, if he has a bad race, we can definitely fight with everyone else.”

Class Two was dominated by Matt Podjursky as he took pole position and proceeded to clean-sweep the races, ahead of Justin Ashwell, extending his lead in the class battle.

The next round of the NZ V8 Championship heads to Manfeild on February 8-10.

Battle of the Kiwis ... Marcus Armstrong leads Liam Lawson.

second and pursued his fellow Kiwi.

A Safety Car to collect Petru Florescu stricken car from the Castrol Complex sandtrap gave Lawson his chance to attack, but Armstrong held firm and took the win after a mistake from Lawson on the final lap meant the margin was too big to overhaul.

An intense battle for third between Artem Petrov and Raoul Hyman fell in favour of the

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Russian after the latter had charged from 11th place, but ran wide at the final corner.

The result for Armstrong means he has levelled the pointscore heading to the third round at Hampton Downs.

“It certainly wasn’t the easiest of races but it was fun and I really enjoyed it,” said Armstrong. “It was difficult conditions but the M2 guys gave me a great car.”

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47th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic - Premier Speedway Warnambool

FARR’S CLASSIC HOODOO OVER

BY GEOFF ROUNDS

ROLLING CARS and wrecks were abundant as per usual at this year’s Classic. A total of 22 cars had rolled after the two nights of racing. In what is without doubt a first for the event there was a five-car roll in the Saturday night final, with John Vogels, James Inglis, Jye O’Keeffe, Kevin Titman and Brayden Parr all up-ending between turns three and four.

THE 2019 Classic was another financial bonus for the Warrnambool and district economy. Over the three days of racing, around $3.5 million is injected into the city and the surrounding farming region and was a considerable moneyspinner for the Premier Speedway Club. This 47th year of the event around 24,500 came through the gates of this famous venue, peaking at around 10,500 fans on the final night.

ONCE AGAIN American drivers were part of the Classic. Just five of Uncle Sam’s men lined up to carry on the annual USA tradition which began when Ted Bohlander flew in to compete in 1974.

2014 Classic winner Tim Kaeding led this year’s USA charge with Parker Price-Miller, Carson Macedo and Cory Eliason all returning, and talented teenager Gio Scelzi made his Classic debut over the weekend representing the Stars and Stripes in fine style.

MOTHER NATURE roared loudly and put on spectacular weather show, washing out the 25th annual Kings Sprintcar Challenge at Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier. The $10,00-to-win race attracted 44 cars but after eight qualifying heats and the time trials, rain hit and the race meeting was washed out as it was in 2017. Kerry Madsen had secured pole position and was on track to make it a hat-trick of wins, adding to his victories in 2015 and 2016.

THIS YEAR’S 100 entrants is a long way from the 40 entries in 1973 who were vying for a total prizemoney of $2500 in front of about 12,000 people, where admission was just $1 for an adult.

Total prizemoney in 2019 increased to a huge $220,000 with the winner pocketing $30,000 and adult admission was $37.

SPEEDWAY FANS weren’t just hungry for on-track action but just as hungry off-track. Between the venue’s two canteens over the three nights, patrons consumed 5000 pies and pasties (all made in Warrnambool), 8000 donuts, 2500 hot dogs, 1500 pizzas, 90 loaves of sandwich bread, 130 crates of flavoured milk and 50 kig of mixed lollies, all served up by 40 staff.

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FOR three decades Robbie Farr has been desperate to win Australia’s most prestigious Speedway race.

He’s finally done it with an emotional victory in the South West Conveyancing 47th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway.

The 45-year-old from the Gold Coast held off some of the world’s best, and a life-long dream became a reality as he hoisted the most sought-after trophy in Sprintcar racing high above his head, having defeated past Classic winners Jamie Veal and Kerry Madsen “It’s been 30 years, the longest apprenticeship to win this race. Now I’ve just won the biggest race in the country, I have actually, finally won a Classic,” Farr told Auto Action post race.

“Everyone was telling me it’s your year, it’s your year, but I hear that every year. I was getting to the point that I was wondering if my opportunity was gone.

“This is not my best track, this is my worst track in the country. I’m happy to repay the guys for 15 years of service and (car owners) Barry and Felicity Waldron for this opportunity. I think I told Barry it’s just sinking what’s happening here.”

Farr became the 26th different winner of the event and the 16th different Australian to win. His previous best result was third in 2016, ironically behind winner Veal and Madsen, the pair he beat home this year.

From position four behind polesitter and early race leader American Cory Eliason and multiple Classic champ Brooke Tatnell, Farr took over the lead with 30 laps to go of the 24-car 40-lap A-Main after earlier sitting second.

Eliason in the Diamond Bay Motorsport car was the heartbreak story of the night.

After a superb weekend he got caught with lapped traffic on lap five and his Classic was over a handful of laps later, when he was involved in a crash on turn two.

“That’s the way racing goes. I was really excited about our chances this weekend Brooke Tatnell finshed just off the podium in fourth.

American Carson Macedo won on night one (above) but Robbie Farr was the big winner (above right). Jamie Veal (here) contended as always.

and more so tonight. This is a great Sprintcar race and I’ll be back next year for sure. This hasn’t put me off, I’ll be back to win it,” Eliason said.

Farr in his superbly set-up Cool by longtime crew chief Nick Speed ran midtrack on the racy surface. It was time he finally etched his name alongside seventime Classic winner Garry Rush, who was trackside to witness Farr’s efforts.

“I have been driving to this place for so long I know every part of the road.

It always gives me time to think about winning it, what it might be like. Now, I can do this drive not wondering any more,” Farr said.

“There is a lot of history here and a lot of legends have won this race and I’m proud to put my name near them, just like Rushy who is here, that’s pretty cool.

“It was a thing missing off the resume and that completes that resume for me. In my mind the last couple of years, it felt like things were building towards something

47th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic - Premier Speedway Warnambool

Things did not go well for Rusty Hickman (above) but went brilliantly for Robbie Farr (right).

really big, but you never really know.

“I have dedicated my life to this sport and to win the biggest race in the country is pretty cool.”

All drivers will be in Brisbane for this weekend’s Australian Sprintcar Championship but it was the most distant thing from Farr’s mind.

“Right now, I have to enjoy something I haven’t been able to do (before) and that’s celebrate me winning the Classic, not celebrating with someone else for a change. I know I’ll really enjoy tonight.”

Veal, the 2016 winner ,was again brilliant at his home track and said he had nothing left for Farr to make any late challenge.

“We needed a little bit to get to Robbie and even more to pass him I feel. He ran a perfect race. Forty laps is a long way around Warrnambool and it got a bit harder as it went on to catch him,” Veal said.

For Madsen it was his eighth time on the Classic podium and he showed his brilliance working through traffic from his 10th place starting position.

“I went pretty hard at it. We made some great calls before the start of the A and it could of gone our way pretty easily. I was pretty happy out there passing cars and it was a lot of fun. I

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Premier Speedway turned it again for its annual Classic with 24,500 spectators through the gate. Kerry Madsen raced to third (right). Images: Geoff Rounds, Richard Hathaway, the Art of Speedway.

had a quick car and I’m really enjoying my time with Krikke Motorsport,” Madsen said.

Victorian youngster Jordyn Charge won the Hard Charger award for his drive from 24th to a 12th placed finish, and earlier in the night Max Johnson’s car owned by Darren Wheeler was the choice for Best Presented Car at the Classic.

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CLASSIC FINISH: Robbie Farr, Jamie Veal, Kerry Madsen, Brooke Tatnell, James McFadden, Grant Anderson, Luke Walker, Matt Egel, Jamie Bricknell, Tim Kaeding, Carson Macedo, Jordyn Charge, Brad Keller, Sam Walsh, Darren Mollenoyux, Luke Dillon, Terry Rankin, Jock Goodyer, Tim Van Ginneken, Max Johnston, Brayden Parr, Steve Lines, Cory Eliason, Ryan Jones.

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s w e n Y A W D E SPE

TK POCKETS COOL $10K

A DOMINANT drive by 2014 Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic winner Tim Kaeding saw him lead all 35 laps to become the third American in nine years to cross the line first in annual $10k to win Australian Sprintcars All Star Challenge at Simpson Speedway.

Kaeding made his night easier, securing pole position with a jaw-dropping slide-job on Mark Caruso at the final corner.

There was more to come.

While Kaeding, in the Dan Scott-owned Maxim, again showed he’s one of the best,

all eyes were on American Gio Scelzi, the 16-year-old youngest son of four-time NHRA Drag Racing legend Gary Scelzi.

The teenager blasted through qualifying and started ninth for the 35-lap A-Main and then proceeded to slowly picked off cars at will and was in chase of Kaeding who had a comfortable lead.

With just 12 to run Scelzi had flown past Scott Bogucki and looked in podium contention and even a possible racewinner.

Images this page : Geoff Rounds

BELLMAN BROTHERS DOMINATE SPEEDWEEK DION BELLMAN is looking to make a big charge at winning his first Australian championship after clinching overall victory in the annual Formula 500 Speedweek.

The 21-year-old from Purnim (Victoria), just on the outskirts of Warrnambool, scored three wins over six nights’ of racing to earn bragging rights over older brother Chris, who finished second.

The pair were never out of the top five and a final round win at Southern 500 Speedway, Portland, was enough for Dion to grab title honours from Chris. Next best were Josh Buckingham, Jack Bell and American and Series rookie Jake Andreotti.

The Bellman brothers will now look towards the national title at Goulburn at Easter.

“The Australian title is next on the list to try and tick off. I ran in Darwin last year and finished inside the top 10,” Dion Bellman said.

He joined the Formula 500 ranks two years ago after two seasons in Sprintcars and was keen to make an impact in this year’s Speedweek.

“It was cool to win and a real honour. There’s a lot of great winners there, so it’s a top achievement.

It’s a long week with a lot of racing and you have to make sure you finish all of them.”

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SERIES POINTS: Dion Bellman 678.5, Chris Bellman 670.5, Josh Buckingham 669.5, Jack Bell 646.5, Jake Andreotti 641.5, Koen Shaw 625.5, Dylan Willsher 616.5, Ash Sinclair 605.5, Thomas Davies 599.5, Angus Hollis and Lexi Underwood 585.5.

Scelzi was aiming for Kaeding and on the final lap challenged hard but it was a narrow miss and he crossed the line second.

However Scelzi did not weigh-in post race at the infield scales and was disqualified. Bogucki #27 was moved to runner-up and Brendan Quinn third, then followed Brenten Farrer and local favourite John Vogels #V70.

Kaeding was ecstatic and celebrated wildly after the race in his car and on the top wing.

“The last few months have been hard after recovering from a broken ankle.

I just had to keep my nose clean here

tonight,” Kaeding said.

“I didn’t want to do anything stupid and at times I even drove a bit timid. It’s great to be back in Australia and I enjoyed this win and the challenge tonight to be here.”

All Stars Series leader Daniel Evans blew an engine while Scelzi’s teammate Domain Ramsay suffered a similar fate.

The night left tournament boss Mandy Searle thrilled.

“Again it’s an honour for us to have these yanks run with us. Gio is a star of the future, they (drivers) must get such a thrill out of it, I know that I do. After a disappointing show last year with rain ruining the night for us, what a way to make a comeback,” Searle said.

SCHUCHART SCHUCHART WINS WINS FINAL DARLEY DARLEY LOGAN LOGAN SCHUCHART SCHUCHART has has become become the fifth American American to to add add his his name to winners winners list listfor for the the final final running of the the Scott Scott Darley Darley Challenge.

The The Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian pocketed pocketed $19,000 $19,000 and joins Steve Steve Kinser, Kinser, Donny Donny Schatz and Shane Shane Stewart Stewart as winners of of the the race race that that celebrates the the life life of of Darley, Darley, who lost his life life racing racing over over aa decade decade ago.

Schuchart Schuchart steered his his John John and and Vicki Vicki Weatherall Triple Triple XX to to victory victory in the 11th running running of of the the 38 38 lap A-main event, event, to to lead lead home home 2013-race 2013-race winner winner Ian Ian Madsen Madsen and American American Cory Cory Eliason, Eliason, in a tight tight podium podium finish. finish.

The The winner winner created created some some added added drama with a possible possible disqualification disqualification for not not driving driving to to the the infield infield scales directly directly after after the the race. He drove drove to to

the thepit pitscales scaleswhere wherehehe had hadbeen beenearlier earlierininthe the night nightafter afterhis hisheat heatwin. win.AA decision decisiontotodisqualify disqualifyhim him was waslater lateroverturned overturnedbybya a judiciary, judiciary,who whoruled ruledthat that he hehadn’t hadn’tdriven drivenpast pastthe the scales, scales,he’d he’dmerely merelygone gone to tothe theones onesused usedininthe the pits pitsmistakenly mistakenlyinstead insteadofof the theones oneson onthe theinfield. infield.

AArelieved relievedSchuchart Schuchart was washappy happyhe hehad had cracked crackedaawin wininin Australia Australiaininhis hisfinal finaldrive. drive.

“It “Itwas wasaabig bigwin winfor forour our final finalrace raceDown DownUnder.

Under.

I’m I’mso sohappy happywe wewere were Image: Image: 44photography 44photography able abletotoget getaawin winbefore before I Iwent wenthome homeand andend end much of of thethe race race lead lead battle battle on onsuch suchaahigh highnote note......I can’t I can’t much before Schuchart Schuchart eased eased wait waittotocome comeback,” back,”Schuchart Schuchart before himself himself into into thethe point point position position said. said.

Madsen Madsenand andEliason Eliasonwere were and and simply simply refused refused to give to give it it the thetwo twomain mainprotagonists protagonistsforfor up. up.

the win.

Jamie Jamie VealVeal waswas the the polesitter polesitterthe win.

It was difficult difficult for him forto him getto get andand boldly boldly elected elected to take to take the the It was D19D19 challenge challenge andand startstart backback through through the field the despite field despite his his in 19th in 19th position, position, for afor chance a chance bestbest efforts efforts and he andfinished he finished at $38,000 at $38,000 if heif could he could still get still get 15th15th of theof24-car the 24-car field. field.

Image: Image: Richard Richard Hathaway Hathaway

ERB SPICES UP UPWA WA TYLER TYLER ERB ran hot hot on on his his way wayto to victory victory in the Late Models Models Nationals, Nationals, becoming becoming the third consecutive consecutive American American to win the the tough tough Western Western Australian Australian event in three three years. years.

Behind Behind the wheel of of his his impressive impressive Rocket Rocket XR1 Chassis Chassis owned owned by by Cameron Cameron Pearson, Erb Erb of of Texas Texaswon won $7000 $7000 and joins inaugural inaugural winner winner Steve Steve Francis Francis and Jason Jason Fitzgerald Fitzgerald as as event event winners.

After After aa tough battle battle Erb, Erb, 21, 21,crossed crossed the the line line first at the Perth Perth Motorplex Motorplex ahead ahead of American and and Late LateModel Model legend legend Billy Moyer, and and Michael Michael Holmes.

Holmes.

The The 40-lap 40-lap feature feature was was aa tough tough one one from from the start with with Erb’s Erb’sfellow fellow American American and polesitter polesitter Joe JoeGodsey Godsey taking taking the lead, as Moyer Moyer looked lookedto to keep keep the the leader close. close.

Erb, Erb, who who competed competed in in aa whopping whopping 89 89 events events in America America last last year, year,was was third third as as Holmes battled battled with withKye Kye Blight Blight and and Brent Vosbergen Vosbergen for foraatop top

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five fiveposition. position.

Godsey, Godsey,who whowon wonthe the previous previous night’s night’sracing, racing,had hadhis his lead lead out out to to 4.64.6 seconds secondsby bylap lap15, 15,with with Moyer Moyer still still second secondasasthe thepair pairran ran into into lapped lapped traffic trafficwith with25 25laps lapscompleted. completed.

Moments Momentslater laterGodsey’s Godsey’s lead lead was was gone goneand andsosowas washis histeammate teammate Jeff Jeff Roth, Roth,as asRoth Rothspun spunand and the the cautions cautions were wereon. on.

Another Anotherstoppage stoppagehad had Erb Erb gogo under under Godsey Godseyand andthe thepair pairmade made contact contact ininthe themain mainstraight. straight.Erb Erb emerged emerged ahead aheadas asGodsey Godseytagged tagged the the wall wall and andwas waspassed passedbybyMoyer, Moyer, Holmes Holmes and andBlight.

Blight.

With With32 32laps lapscomplete complete Holmes Holmes was was under underMoyer MoyerasasErb Erbheld held offoff Holmes, Holmes, trying tryingtotorace raceaway awayonon the the highline highline of of the thetrack. track.

On Onthe thefinal finallap lapHolmes Holmes made made a big a big effort efforttotoreclaim reclaimsecond second but but toto nono avail availas asErb Erbraced racedhome home first first from from Moyer, Moyer,Holmes, Holmes,Godsey Godsey and and Marc Marc Giancola.

Giancola.

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Image:Image: RichardRichard Hathaway Hatha

KENDRICK’S KENDRICK’SWINNING WINNINGHAND HAND earlier in the in season. the season.

IT IT WAS WAS a masterstroke a masterstroke from from Jason Jason earlier The The round round was was not anot good a good one for one for Kendrick Kendrick to play to play his his invaluable invaluable the Maiolos the Maiolos as the asfeature the feature race race had had joker joker card card to grab to grab thethe leadlead in the in the them make make contact contact whilewhile they they werewere Maddington Maddington Toyota Toyota Sprintcar Sprintcar Series Series at atthem battling battling for second for second place. place. thethe Perth Perth Motorplex.

Motorplex.

BothBoth werewere forced forced to retire to retire from from the the It was It was Kendrick’s Kendrick’s third third straight straight win win feature feature racerace because because of theofaccident, the accident, and and after after 10 10 rounds rounds Kendrick, Kendrick, hashas costing costing themthem valuable valuable points points in thein the a narrow a narrow 10 10 point point lead lead overover Jamie Jamie series.

Maiolo Maiolo with with brother brother Brad Brad Maiolo Maiolo in in series.

Race Race leader leader Kendrick Kendrick won won the 30-lap the 30-lap third. third. feature fromfrom Taylor Taylor Milling, Milling, grabbing grabbing Each Each driver driver could could playplay a Joker a Joker cardcard feature his first podium, podium, and Kye and Scroop.

Kye Scroop. once once upup until until thisthis meeting. meeting.

All they All they his first had had to do to do was was declare declare it atitthe at the startstart SERIES STANDINGS: STANDINGS: Jason Jason of of thethe show show andand then then roll roll the the dicedice - - SERIES Kendrick 1724, 1724, Jamie Jamie Maiolo Maiolo 1714,1714, hoping hoping they they would would getget a good a good feature featureKendrick Maiolo Maiolo 1696, 1696, Kaiden Kaiden Manders Manders race race result result andand double double theirtheir points points for for BradBrad that that round. round.

1536, 1536, Kye Kye Scroop Scroop 1348,1348, Tom Tom PayetPayet Heading Heading intointo round round 10 Kendrick 10 Kendrick waswas1328, 1328, Andrew Andrew Priolo Priolo 1328,1328, TaylorTaylor third third in the in the points, points, behind behind Jamie Jamie andand Milling Milling 1125, 1125, Chace Chace Karpenko Karpenko 1112,1112, Brad Brad Maiolo, Maiolo, who who played played theirtheir Jokers Jokers Jason Jason Pryde Pryde 928 928

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55

AMERICAN TEENAGER Jake Andreotti is set for his Sprintcar racing debut in the USA, after he raced away to win the 2K-To-Win feature at Premier Speedway, Warrnambool. The 16-year-old took over the lead with four laps to run of the 20-lap feature when early race leader Dylan Willsher spun. Andreotti then produced a smooth drive and cruised to an easy win from Thomas Davies, Kayden Iverson and Josh Buckingham.

SPEEDWAY SEDANS Australia has locked in its venues and national title dates for 2019/2020. The national Junior Sedan title has been allocated to the Collie Speedway on January 10-13, 2020. The Super Sedans will head to Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier March 6-8 and the Modified Sedan Championship is scheduled for Carrick Speedway in Tasmania, March 19-21. Also in the Apple Isle is the national running of the Street Stocks at Latrobe during Easter 2020. Ellenbrook Speedway in Western Australia will host the National Production Sedan Title for a first time on the ANZAC Day long weekend on April 24-26.

RYAN ALEXANDER is a strong chance to win next month’s national Late Model Championship after victory in the annual Firecracker 5000 at Ballarat’s Redline Raceway. He set the fastest lap time and led home Brett Watson in second, Brendan Hucker, Brock Edwards and Mick Nicola. At Avalon Raceway Mick Nicola Snr edged out Dave Gartner to win the annual K-Rock Cup for Super Sedans. The pair waged a tense battle, but Nicola Snr got home just ahead of Garter, who came from 10th, and Mick Nicola Jnr in third.

STORER’S SUPERB SUMMER SLAM LUKE STORER has warmed up for a big assault on next month’s Australian Wingless Championship with victory in the Summer Slam Series.

Storer’s consistency over the three rounds won the overall aggregate with 650 points from Luke Weel 631, Alex Ross 596, Daniel Storer 469 and Mitchell Broome 466.

“To win the series overall with the quality of fields every night is incredible.

What an unreal weekend,” Storer said.

He began his series in fine form with a win at Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier from Ross and Weel, while a new winner emerged the night after.

At Western Speedway, Hamilton Jordan Abbott

led all 30 laps to defeat polesitter Weel and Mick Rigby, who retained his starting position. Luke Storer and Geoff Cook filled the top five placings.

A bumper field of 70 cars lined up for the final round at Premier Speedway, in what was a handy hit-out for drivers to gain valuable laps before the national title at the venue on February 21-23.

The final feature race of the series was declared on the opening lap when Matthew Symons crash and rolled his car and was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

A replacement ambulance could not make it to the track in time for the meeting to finish at a reasonable hour and so the meeting was called off.

JONIC IS NATIONAL CHAMP AGAIN

A FLAWLESS drive has helped Louis Rodriguez win the 2019 Victorian Compact Speedcar Championship in hot conditions at Wangaratta. On a slick track Rodriguez held off a fast-finishing Gary Hudson, who was impressive in his debut drive with the Victorian club. Third was Ayden Elliot and fourth Rod Francis.

Speedcar driver Ash Booker showed great pace all night, taking out two heat wins and won best presented car, but luck wasn’t on his side in the final, losing a sump plug while running third in Brad Day’s car.

BRANDEN FRASER has become the third different winner of the South Coast Classic at Attwell Park, Albany and pocketed a cool $5000 for his efforts.

In a thrilling 30-lap final Fraser held off a last lap challenge from Nathan Penn to win by 0.061seconds with Matt Kata rounding out the podium.

SHAUN WALSH has again proved too good, winning the Southern Rod Showdown at Simpson Speedway.

Walsh in his usual neat-looking Andy Howard-owned machine won the 25-lap feature from Michael Coad and Ewan McKenzie.

56 AutoAction

BURGEONING TALENT Ardie Jonic has successfully defended his National Junior Sedan Title with a flag-to-flag win at Maryborough Speedway in Queensland.

Jonic,16, of Ipswich became the first driver to claim consecutive wins in the title decider since Todd Waddell won the first three National titles.

It was just seven months ago when Jonic won his last national title and carried excellent form into this year’s race, with nine state titles under his belt.

He time-trialled in 20th place of the 75 entries and had a trouble-free qualifying period with wins in all his heats. A pole position awaited Jonic and he led all the way despite a determined chase by Braith Hogan, who also started on the front row and set the fastest lap over the three days.

Jonic was able to keep himself clear of Hogan as he cut through lapped traffic,

and went on to win by 4.099 seconds.

Hogan was brilliant all weekend, and thoroughly deserved his second placing, while Todd Moule was fast for third.

Eric Wallace drove well after plenty of dramas on the opening night to finish fourth, with Jye Irving a credible fifth, driving his Charade for just the sixth time, after driving a Datsun for most of his Junior career.

Kasey Garlick would finish sixth, and proved to be highly consistent across the weekend after being on the podium at the Mt Gambier title two seasons ago.

Jonic will chase more Speedway state titles during this year and prepare himself for his second season in Formula 4, which is likely to include racing at the upcoming Australian Grand Prix in March.

SYMONS RECOVERY CONTINUES MATT SYMONS is making a slow but steady recovery after a vicious racing accident left him with serious injuries.

The 23-year-old Simpson driver has a broken neck and fractured the T4 and T5 in his back, sustaining the injuries in a wingless crash on the opening lap of the final round of the Summer Slam Series at Premier Speedway on January 6.

He has full movement in all limbs and has been fitted with a head halo but does not require surgery,

according to his father Alan.

“He has feeling in his arms and legs and the surgeons had a look at his scans and said they wouldn’t have to operate,” he told Fairfax media.

“They took him to The Alfred (Hospital) because they thought they were going to have to operate on him.

“We have been texting him and he is in good spirits apart from the fact he is staring at the roof and can’t move. It’s going to be a long recovery process.”

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MILLS AIMS FOR HISTORY TRAVIS MILLS is hoping to become the first Victorian to win the Australian Speedcar Championship since Ted Grey did it in 1939.

The Australian title will be held at Perth Motorplex on February 6, just days after the Western Australian Speedcar title at Manjimup on Feb 2 to which the 39-year-old will make the long haul from his Echuca base.

This unique chapter of Australian Speedway is something that’s not lost on the recently crowned back-to-back Victorian Speedcar and newly crowned Tasmanian champion, whose best result in a national decider is two fourth placings.

“For me to bring an Aussie title back to Victoria would be awesome and I think it’s long overdue,” Mills told Auto Action.

“I feel I’m driving as good as ever.

I’m probably enjoying it more than I ever did. I’ve been close to the podium and I need to now take that next step.”

History ran deep for Mills in the recent 74th Victorian Speedcar Championship at Premier Speedway, when the 11-year veteran of the class won his third Victorian title. Quickly on hand to celebrate too was his 16-year-old son Caleb, who was also competing in his first Vic title on the infield as the first emergency for the 30-lap feature.

“To celebrate with Caleb was very cool. It was good he got to watch it all from the infield as the Reserve. I couldn’t quite believe I’d won a third title when he came over to me.”

The historic win was the eighth state championship for the legendary Mills family.

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Caleb is a third generation Speedcar driver. His mother Katie Mills is the daughter of another Victorian champion Wayne Pearce, and he is also the grandson of the celebrated John Mills, a multiple Victorian champion.

At Warrnambool Miils came from position three for the final, behind Nathan Smee and polesitter Braydan Willmington, who set a new one lap record. Mills went from grid position seven to the front in the top eight dash for the 24-car field.

Wilmington skipped away to a comfortable lead but a race stoppage just eight laps in proved costly, as he hit the on-track restart cone, costing him the lead.

Mills went untroubled for the remainder of the race to win from a fast-finishing Wilmington and Harley Bishop.

Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx

SPEEDWAY TITAN GONE ONE OF the staples of Australian Sprintcars, the Titan Racing Team, has ceased competition after more than two decades in the sport.

The Gold Coast-based team has had a long and successful time in Sprintcar racing but stopped its racing operations during the first week of 2019.

In a statement released by the team on January 7 on its Facebook page it said; “As some of you may have already heard the Titan Racing Team has unfortunately closed the doors after a long and successful 25 years. Thank you to all our loyal fans and supporters.”

Titan boss Reeve Kruck has been instrumental in having some of the best drivers in the world in his cars, including

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former World of Outlaws champion Daryn Pittman, Knoxville Nationals winner Tim Shaffer, Tyler Walker and more recently Queenslanders Luke Oldfield and current driver Mitchell Gee. Gee was quick to thank Kruck and longtime crew

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chief Bingo Jenkins for their support in his career.

“I cannot thank Reeve Kruck enough for the last two and a half seasons. We had some great success with podiums and wins, the standout highlight being a win in the 2018 Queensland Sprintcar Title,” Gee said.

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57

WORLD SERIES SPRINTCARS - ROUND 7 ARCHERFIELD

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58 AutoAction

KERRY MADSEN enjoys a slender lead with three rounds to go in the Queensland Speedway Spares World Series Sprintcars Championship.

Just eight points will separate Madsen and Steve Lines when the Series resumes in West Australia, with the eighth round on February 16 at Attwell Speedway, Albany.

The most recent round at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway was won by American Donny Schatz, now back in the USA, after he had a near perfect night winning from a determined and in-form Jamie Veal and Luke Oldfield.

Schatz began his night setting the fastest time trial and finished fifth and fourth in his heats, locking into a front row start alongside

Oldfield for the 35-lap final.

It was Oldfield leading Schatz, Veal and James McFadden into turn one but Veal grabbed the lead soon after and held sway for four laps, until Schatz got past.

Veal was now in the battle for second with McFadden and Oldfield, while Kerry Madsen had advanced to sixth after starting 10th.

Series leader Lines had started eighth but struggled to make the topside of the track work, slowly falling back through the field as Brooke Tatnell progressed to fifth, to stay in touch with the top four.

McFadden was trying everything, dislodging Oldfield for third on lap 14 and momentarily making it past Veal for second on lap 23.

The reigning WSS champion clouted the

turn three infield tyre barrier on lap 31 whilst running third, only surviving half a lap before retiring to an eventual 18th.

Just when it seemed that Schatz was left to cruise home to victory, Veal came again.

With two to run Scahtz, a 10-times Knoxville Nationals champion, tried to needle through a wall of lapped traffic, running side by side out of turn two for the final lap.

Schatz worked the high side of the track to avoid traffic, leaving Veal too short of a run out of turn four, missing the top spot by just two-tenths of a second, with Oldfield in third.

Lockie McHugh passed seven cars to finish ninth, while Madsen finished in fourth to inherit the series lead from Lines who finished 15th.

SCELZI CROWNED AVALON PRESIDENT AMERICAN TEENAGE Sprintcar sensation Gio Scelzi set Avalon Raceway alight, becoming the youngest-ever driver to win the time-honoured Presidents Cup. The 16-year-old from Fresno, California, staged one of the best-ever wins at the packed venue to score his first victory on Australian soil, racing wheel-to-wheel with eventual runner-up James McFadden.

Scelzi in the Domain Ramsay-Bernie Stuebgen #71 and McFadden both came from the front row and cleared out as soon as the green flag dropped.

Lap after lap after lap McFadden stayed low and Scelzi perched high on his tail tank.

McFadden was typically superb negotiating the lapped traffic just five laps into the 25-lapper.

Behind was Jamie Veal, who had locked down a very solid third and could only watch the leaders keep attacking out front.

The first and only stoppage came on lap 11 and it halted McFadden’s momentum.

With 10 to go Scelzi had forced his way under McFadden in turn one to take the lead and although briefly challenged again late by McFadden, scored comfortably.

Scelzi’s night started perfectly, clocking the fastest overall time trial with an 11.930 second lap.

Five-time Presidents Cup winner Robbie Farr finished fourth, coming from ninth ahead of veteran

Mike Van Bremen, who was a strong fifth after starting third and was the fastest in his timed group with 12.473.

Sam Walsh moved from 10th to finish sixth as Marcus Dumesny was up seven spots from 14th, ahead of American Parker Price-Miller and Dennis Jones who climbed up nine positions for ninth and Jye O’Keeffe rounded out the top 10.

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