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WAUPAINT! Bold new look as former HRT plots return to the front

BRUCE NEWTON details the MEGA deal that’s helping the famed Clayton squad aim higher in 2019 WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED has set itself bold targets on the track to go with its bold new look.

The latest livery, by Holden designer Peter Hughes, debuted this week featuring the logo of new team co-title sponsor MEGA. As exclusively revealed in Auto Action last month, the fuel distribution company takes over from GRMbound Boost Mobile as the former factory Holden squad’s primary backer with Mobil 1, which returns for the 26th consecutive year.

The team will now be known as Mobil 1 MEGA Racing.

Overall, AA understands the Clayton squad’s budget is healthier than it has been in some time, an outcome that clearly relates to 2018’s lift in results, highlighted by fifth in the teams’ championship and Scott Pye’s win in Melbourne.

Now WAU wants to use that solid financial underpinning to build its on-track speed in line with a three-year plan that kicked off last year with the buyin by Andretti Autosport and United Autosports.

Triple Eight Race Engineering, which took over the Holden Racing Team name in 2017, and DJR Team Penske are clearly in the gun sights. “We are not at the top rung yet, but we are certainly on the way, and we have a target on those guys’ backs to race against them and bring our team right to the top of this sport,� team co-principal Bruce Stewart bullishly declared to AA. “Last year we had 31 top 10s versus 10 top 10s the year before, so we expect that to grow significantly. “We also expect to have more podiums and a few more race wins. “There is no magic bullet, but we are on a pathway that is upward, and we expect to be more competitive. “We have a focus on where we are in our threeyear program and what the next steps are. But each hurdle gets harder, and you have to keep lifting and

continually improving. That’s both on-track and off-track – staff, engineering and everyone else.�

One person the focus will be shining strongly on this season is veteran driver James Courtney, who languished in 14th in the 2018 drivers’ championship. “James had some pretty hard luck last year, but equally had some fantastic results,� countered Stewart. “I think where James is at and his preparation is fantastic. I am expecting great things from him this year. “James and (endurance co-driver) Jack (Perkins) went on a training camp themselves with our trainer Phil Young.

We are pumped our drivers are doing the extras.�

AA understands both Pye and Courtney are up for renewal at the end of this year, although Stewart was unwilling to discuss the matter.

MEGA isn’t the only new name gracing the WAU Holden Commodore ZBs, with HSV, caravan outfitters Thetford, National Plant and Equipment, and Kings Springs coming on board. Few sponsors have jumped ship.

The most prominent missing name as this was written was Sharkbite Plumbing Solutions, although that remains a work in progress.

Apart from the change to the look of the WAU Commodores, the Clayton squad has been stable over the summer, with no significant changes to the engineering line-up.

That means co-team principal Mathew Nilsson is at the top of the structure, overseeing technical chief Carl Faux and engineers Terry Kerr and Robbie Starr, working with Courtney and Pye respectively.

Courtney will revert to Chassis 23, which has been refurbished after its Sandown 500 Saturday drama, while Pye stays in Chassis 24.

Nilsson confirmed the team had spent the summer seeking further speed from the ZB. The team will get to assess those updates for the first time at next week’s Phillip Island pre-season test day. “We introduced a lot of stuff during 2018 and did a lot of good work over the break,� Nilsson said. “It will be exciting to continue that work and go back to places like Adelaide and Phillip Island with a car that is considerably different.�

Stewart said the new paint scheme was intentionally styled to link it with previous designs, even though blue and gold are prominent instead of the traditional red. “This car is clearly one of our cars because it has a very similar look and feel to the 1994 car that we have paid tribute to in the past, with the white through to the dark colouring in the final quarter. You can see the DNA of the history brought to life. “This looks extremely like a Walkinshaw car. We are rapt how it looks and feels.�

CLAYTON CLOSE TO SUPER2 CALL WAU IS on the verge of committing to a Super2 campaign.

If it green-lights the program, a single car is likely to front at the Adelaide 500. “We are just trying to find the right solution for our team that would enable us to do it,� said team co-principal Bruce Stewart. “That’s commercially, and the right driver. “We have a few conversations going on right now. We really need to make a decision very soon. It’s a natural progression for our team and we would like to do it.�

Wildcard entries are also possible for selected sprint rounds and the enduros, but nothing is locked down. BN

The Last Lap – new offbeat look at racing, including ever-popular Stonie cartoon, is on page 58. Each issue, you’ll want to read the last page first!

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PONY EXPRESS Ford legend set to get behind the wheel for demo laps

Amid the catchcry “Saddle Up”, MARK FOGARTY outlines Ford’s plans to launch the Mustang Supercars racer at the Adelaide 500 HERE IT is. The Ford Mustang in Supercars guise, revealing the controversial shape without camouflage.

Images of the Mustang racer in Ford Performance livery were issued on Tuesday (February 5) following a secret photo session at the Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast last month.

Ford Australia has unveiled the car in corporate Ford Performance colours ahead of the launches of the Blue Oval teams’ Mustangs in their racing warpaint, beginning on Saturday (February 9) and continuing next week.

The undisguised shots show the shape of the Supercars version of the top-selling two-door coupe in a much better light than when it first appeared in camouflage in November.

Those photos sparked controversy over the Mustang racer’s distorted proportions,

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especially the raised roofline to clear the Supercars control chassis’s roll cage.

The Ford Performance-liveried Mustang will be the centrepiece of what Auto Action understands will be a promotional blitz by the Blue Oval at the season-opening Adelaide 500 on February 28-March 3.

Although Ford Australia wouldn’t reveal the activities it has planned, it is expected that Ford folk hero Dick Johnson will be given the honour of being the first to drive a racing Mustang on the Adelaide Parklands street circuit.

AA has established that this race-spec ‘show car’ – which is actually the DJR Team Penske test car that will become the squad’s spare – is scheduled for demonstration laps during the 500.

It would therefore be logical that Johnson will undertake the ceremonial driving duties as he is a Supercars legend who

is a co-owner of DJRTP and has been synonymous with Ford in racing for more than four decades.

Johnson was also the last person to race a Mustang in top-level Australian touring car racing, running international Group A versions in 1985-86.

Although close to 74 years old, Johnson is still fit enough to conduct demo laps and capitalise on his enduring popularity to focus attention on the new Mustang’s racing debut.

In Ford Australia’s media release that accompanied the undisguised images, Johnson said: “To have Ford back now with an iconic brand like the Mustang, it’s absolutely fabulous. This car will be, in my eyes, probably one of the best Supercars we’ve even seen.”

The Ford racing icon was also pleased that reigning Supercars champion Scott

McLaughlin had decided to retain DJR’s most famous racing number.

“It’s a great honour, from my point of view, that Scotty has decided to run the #17 – he could run #1 if he wishes, but he chose 17, which makes me very proud,” Johnson said The track displays will be just one element of a major promotional presence

by Ford at the Adelaide 500, which is staged in the city that was arch-rival Holden’s former manufacturing base and is still considered a ‘Holden town’.

AA understands that Ford Australia is also bringing in a new NASCAR Cup Series Mustang racer from the US for a static display at the track, along with a special high-performance road-going Mustang.

Ford Australia won’t comment other than to confirm it will have a major presence at

First look at undisguised super-coupe

Supercars Mustang in Ford Performance livery is arguably better looking than when first shown in messy camouflage. But it’s still no oil painting, with the bulbous roof line, skinny body width, elongated doors and massive rear wing out of proportion to the road car’s lowline stance. The real test will be the DJRTP and Tickford team cars in full racing warpaint and in the thick of battle with the ZB Commodores. After a while, we’ll probably get used to the Mustang racer’s look and rejoice in its return to the track.

the Adelaide 500 to emphasise its official return to Supercars, which is the primary promotional platform for the new Ford Performance-branded range of sporty models including the Mustang, Ranger Raptor and Fiesta ST. There will also be a big turn-out of senior executives, led by Ford Australia president and chief executive officer Kay Hart, who was thrilled to see the Supercars Mustang revealed at last in undisguised form.

“This is an historic moment,” said Hart in the official media release that accompanied the images.

“To see the project come to fruition has been immensely satisfying for everyone involved, and today marks the start of the Mustangs’ 2019 season.

“It’s the end of the hard work to make this happen, but the beginning of the push by the teams and the drivers to convert Mustang into a race and championship winner in Australia.”

Added DJRTP chief Ryan Story, whose team spearheaded the Supercars Mustang development program: “Today is when we show the fans what it really looks like – no camouflage, nothing to hide – raw Mustang Supercar, ready to go, ready for 2019.

“This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Ford, and that’s not just Ford Australia, it’s the Ford Asia Pacific Design studio and, most importantly and most pivotally, Ford Performance in the United States.”

Ford Performance motorsports supervisor Brian Novak, who led the aero development team in Detroit, commented: “I’m really proud of the team in North America, and I’m really proud of the team down in Australia.

“We use the same processes to develop the Supercar that we do the NASCAR Mustang, that we do the Mustang GT4, that we do the NHRA Funny Car Mustang.

“That development has been proven out

SLEEK OR FREAK? So what do you think of the Supercars Mustang? Is it distorted or svelte?

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through other programs – [like] the Ford GT at Le Mans – and we then transfer that knowledge back to the road car.”

The Ford media release also quoted Supercars CEO Sean Seamer, who regards the arrival of the Mustang as a pivotal moment for the sport.

“For Supercars, the Mustang ushers in a new era of relevance,” Seamer said.

“It’s a product that you see readily on the road, it’s been super successful for Ford globally and here in Australia, and it gives the opportunity to reach younger and older generations with a fantastic-looking race car.”

The six Mustang V8 racers – to be run by three teams – that will be on the grid in Adelaide will start being unveiled on Saturday (February 9), when 23Red Racing reveals Will Davison’s Milwaukee Racing machine in Melbourne.

Ford-backed DJRTP will unveil its Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustangs, also in

Melbourne, next Monday (February 11).

The other Blue Oval-assisted squad, Tickford Racing, will show Chaz Mostert’s Supercheap Auto entry and recent recruit Lee Holdsworth’s car in their liveries at – or just before – next week’s pre-season test at Phillip Island (February 14).

Mostert’s Mustang will continue as the #55 car, tying in with the iconic pony car’s 55th anniversary this year.

Cam Waters’ Tickford-entered Mustang will be revealed in its Monster Energy warpaint at the Adelaide 500, although it is expected to continue the all-black look of his Falcon FG X. Ford Australia and the teams are all using “Saddle Up 2019” as the promotional catchcry for the introduction of the Mustang, which is the first two-door coupe to race in the Supercars era.

See over the page for more details on the development of the Supercars Mustang

BATHURST 12 HOUR THRILLER – news on page 9, full coverage from page 46 www.autoaction.com.au

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BJR’S ‘NEW’ LOOK But the important changes are under the skin as team targets top four

BY BRUCE NEWTON

LOOK HARD at the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore ZB. Yes, it is the warpaint Tim Slade will campaign in 2019.

And, yes, the new look unveiled this week doesn’t appear to be that different to the 2018 version.

But it’s under the skin where it counts, and a smooth off-season, developing rather than building cars, has BJR believing better results are on the way in 2019.

“My target is to finish in the top four in the teams’ championship this year, and I see no reason why we can’t do that,” team owner Brad Jones told Auto Action. “That’s a step up from where we currently are, and that’s just chipping away at the job at hand.”

BJR finished fourth in 2015, but was sixth, eighth and sixth over the last three seasons, albeit coming on strong in the last half of 2018, benefitting from the shift to KRE engine supply after a slow start to the season.

The team was in position to finish fourth until dramas at the final round of the championship in Newcastle slowed its charge.

While Jones acknowledges it’s a tough challenge to consistently beat Triple Eight and DJR Team Penske, his objective would mean BJR mixing it with the likes of Erebus, Walkinshaw Andretti and Tickford Racing, which all won races in 2018.

It also suggests Slade (11th) and teammate Nick Percat (10th) will have to finish higher in the drivers’ championship.

“I feel like we regrouped a little bit from 2017 last year,” Jones said. “I feel pretty good going into the championship this year.

“I am not one of those guys who sells big at the start of the year and then tries to spend the whole year making excuses, but I think we are in a pretty good place and have some pretty good stuff going on.

“We have clever people here, good stability in people and drivers. We have good engines and cars, and we are making progress like

we did last year, especially at the end of the year, which is one of things that is making me excited about the year ahead.”

Slade continues in the Freightliner/Alliance Truck Parts entry into a fourth year at the Albury-based team, while Percat starts year three with backing for his Holden continuing to come from a rotating group of sponsors.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s a sign of the times,” Jones admitted.

Rookie Macauley Jones is the only change in the driver line-up, replacing Tim Blanchard in the ZB run as a customer car with backing from the Blanchard family-owned business Cooldrive and Macauley’s sponsor DrillPro. With Macauley in the main game, BJR plans to run a fourth car in wildcard events for emerging Super2 star Jack Smith.

“We feel that he’s at the point where that’s the next step for him because he is coming along pretty well,” Brad Jones said. “There’s a bit of work to do, but that’s the obvious step for us.”

While excited about the potential performance parts coming down the pipeline, Jones was careful not to venture into details.

“We’ve had some ideas of things we can do that we think can help, so we have been chipping away at that over the summer,” he explained.

“It’s nice to be working on some componentry stuff rather than build cars. So it’s a bit of a tidy-up, a couple of ideas we are working on.

“It will be interesting to get to the preseason test at Phillip Island and see where everyone is.”

The engineering group these ideas come

MUSTANG AERO HEADACHE FITTING THE Mustang body shape over the standard Supercars rollcage was the toughest challenge in the development program, according to Ford Performance aerodynamicist Sriram Pakkam.

Pakkam has worked on the Ford Mustang NASCAR and GT4 programs, as well the Fiesta WRC and World Rallycross projects, but says the difficulty of delivering the aerodynamic shape and performance of the unique Aussie racer ranks right up there.

“The fitting of the cage under the Mustang shape was definitely very tough,” he told <i>Auto Action<i>. “It’s a prescribed cage. It’s not impossible, obviously, because we have had to fit Mustangs over other platforms that have dictated that, just like with NASCAR. “We knew we could do it, but it’s still a

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challenge. You know at the end you of the day you are going to get it done, but it’s still a challenge to do it.”

The Mustang Supercars racer is longer, narrower and taller than the road car, with not a single common body panel. Its altered look has triggered much controversy.

Dearborn-based Pakkam says the other primary learning curve for the American aero team was coming to terms with the Supercars aerodynamic parity straightline testing.

“That’s something we don’t really see in others series, so that was a new experience and we just had to learn how to do it properly on our end,” said Pakkam, who attended the VCAT and private aero tests conducted by Mustang homologation team DJR Team Penske.

“Obviously, DJRTP knows the system, but we

from remains fundamentally unchanged for 2019, although Jones is unwilling at this point to publicly say which engineer will work with which driver.

Andrew Edwards will continue to oversee the technical group and engineer a car, while Julian Stannard and Tony Woodward will also don the headphones. Paul Scalzo, who stepped back from engineering Percat mid2018, continues with the team.

The biggest change is veteran Wally Storey’s semi-retirement (see separate story on page 9).

In addition to its own changes, like the rest of the field BJR must adapt to the new Xtrac

transaxle and the shift back to linear springs, as well as a minor weight reduction from 1410 to 1395kg.

The team already has experience running a prototype version of the new gearbox and put more kays on it last Tuesday during a rookie test day for Macauley.

But Brad Jones is doubtful any of the mandatory changes will make a significant impact on the order of the field.

“The twin-spring thing might shake things up a little bit, so hopefully we are on the right side of that,” he conceded. “But I am certainly not expecting someone running at the back to suddenly be running at the front.”

BRAD ON MAC

BRAD JONES is one racing dad who has every right to be in the garage. After all, he does own the team with brother Kim! And, having been part of his son’s racing career from the very beginning, he’s not going to feel as worried about Macauley’s move into a full-time seat in the Supercars championship as most fathers.

But there will still be nerves at the start of the first race at the Adelaide 500.

“I think you always have nerves,” Jones Snr said. “I dunno how I’ll feel, we’ll see what happens.”

He was confident his son had done the groundwork to justify his place on the grid, but neither father nor son are under any illusions about how tough the challenges will be.

“It is a big step up for him and I am really excited for him,” Brad said. “I feel he is

ready to make the step, but he is going to find it hard.

“From a dad’s point of view, sometimes you stand there proudly and sometimes it’s difficult to watch, but I think he will acquit himself really well. He’s as wellprepared for the task at hand as he can be.” BN

Adapting shape to Supercars chassis “a challenge” are designing the car, so you want it to be right, you want to understand all steps of the process correctly.”

Intriguingly, while Supercars tech-heads tend to play down the significance of aerodynamics in the category, Pakkam holds the opposite view.

“If you go to somewhere like Phillip Island, it’s a big factor,” he said. “It all depends on where we are and what we’ve tuned it to do. But, definitely, aero plays a big part in this series.”

Which means that even while Supercars tries to equalise aerodynamic performance in a straightline, there’s still much that can be achieved by tuning a well-balanced car for the twisty bits.

It’s understood the Mustang has a more rearbiased balance than the Falcon FG X, emulating

the Holden ZB Commodore.

“You try to make sure it’s not an evil handling car, because you are putting on an entirely new body with all sorts of surfaces that are unknown to the vehicle at this point,” Pakkam explained.

“You have to ensure that it is aerodynamically sound. So, yeah, there is a total downforce and a total drag target that you have to match in order not to go outside the realms of competition, but there is still a lot of scope in terms of vehicle behaviour that you have to work with.” BN

SUPER-STANG LOOKS LIKE A WINNER

Ford Performance program boss defends much-criticised appearance

BY BRUCE NEWTON

“THERE ARE no ugly cars in victory lane!”

That’s Ford Performance Mustang Supercar program supervisor Brian Novak’s curt response to criticism of the looks of the Blue Oval’s new Aussie racer.

Revealed this week in Ford Performance warpaint, ahead of the roll-out of the six DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing entries that will debut at the Adelaide 500 at the end of the month, the ‘Mutant Mustang’ continues to generate controversy and debate.

But the American, who has been integral to the complex trans-Pacific process that brought the Supercars Mustang to reality in just eight months, is having none of it.

“I think in the end, the rules are the rules and we had to do what we had to do,” Novak told Auto Action.

“I think the car is still a Mustang, it still looks like a Mustang, and if you look at it you know it’s a Mustang.

“I think the car looks great. The biggest thing at our end is how well it performs on the track. We think it will perform really well.

“I expect the car to be competitive and I am cautiously hopeful. This series is so competitive and the teams are so good, but I have high hopes for the car.”

Ford Performance is the Blue Oval’s global racing arm that develops vehicles in combination with constituent teams in categories as diverse as WRC, WEC, NASCAR, Rallycross, NHRA and global GT4. It also concocts road-going fast Fords including the GT and Focus RS. Ford Performance did the heavy lifting on developing a competitive Mustang Supercar body shape, using tools such as Computer

Aided Design (CAD) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which is essentially a math-based digital wind tunnel – something crucial in a category where physical wind tunnel testing is banned.

Dearborn-based Novak managed the process, leading a team of aerodynamicists, and interacted with homologation team DJRTP and its technical leads Ludo Lacroix and Perry Kapper, as well as Tickford Racing’s Nathan Osborne.

In addition, he had to deal with Ford Design Asa-Pacific, which was charged with protecting the racer’s visual link with the road car, and Ford Australia, which is the client in all this.

Throw in the unique technical and homologation requirements of Supercars, the substantial time difference between the US Midwest and the Australian east coast, and the truncated lifespan of

the development program, and it’s no surprise Novak rates this car as one of Ford Performance’s most significant achievements in its four-year history as a vehicle developer.

“It’s a pretty impressive effort by the whole worldwide team to get it done and get it homologated and to get it through homologation without any issues,” he said.

“It was a really good job by all parties.

“It kinda shows where our process has got to here at Ford Performance, that we can execute on something on a tight timeline and come out with what we believe will be a successful car.”

Novak revealed the program’s blitzkrieg development process was possible because of the lessons and tools developed over recent years on other programs.

“We have developed this strong suite of tools, and we can take that suite and do the

CFD work on the Supercar just the same way we have done the NHRA Mustang Funny Car. “We used the same tools there and we have expanded those tools over the last four years we have had the aero department.

“We have come up with a good formula how we approach those things.”

Novak admitted he was nervously awaiting for reaction to the Mustang’s launch and debut.

“I love it and I even get little butterflies in my stomach when it first comes out,” he said. “You know articles are coming and you are always excited to see the car.

“I grew up with this stuff, so to be part of it is just huge.

“I am always pumped to see it show up, and I want to read the comments and I want to read what everyone is saying. I want to get on and argue with them, but I can’t.”

CHARLIE DELVE$ DEEPER Winterbottom’s team owner admits he’s never been more financially committed

BY BRUCE NEWTON

A PROUD Charlie Schwerkolt will unveil his reconfigured racing team in Melbourne tonight (Thursday, February 7) knowing that, for all the new sponsorship he’s secured, he’s never dug deeper into his own finances to secure Supercars success.

Spurred on by a disastrous 2018, Schwerkolt has transformed his standalone single-car operation, securing category superstar Mark Winterbottom as driver, Steven Richards as his endurance co-driver, leading engineer Phil Keed as sporting director and motor sport industry veteran Steve Henderson as team manager.

Schwerkolt has also forged a new technical alliance with Triple Eight Race Engineering, traded in his 2018 Holden Commodore ZB for a fresher chassis, and signed on a clutch of new sponsors led by Irwin Tools, Black & Decker, Bunnings and ActronAir to supplement existing backers including Fuchs lubricants and Pulsar watches.

But, while there are substantial dollars coming in, there are still blank spots on the car and Schwerkolt has never been more personally committed.

“I have got to spend a lot more money to get it

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up there,” Schwerkolt admitted to Auto Action.

“I am throwing everything at it that I possibly can.

“We can’t give poor equipment to a driver of Mark’s calibre, so I am right in the deep end here.

“I am a little bit short in a few areas [financially], but we haven’t started racing yet and I think I have a great package to sell.

“I have really kicked in hard and I am committed. Without being ridiculous, if we need something, we are going to get it.

“We needed the same gear as Triple Eight, which we have. I need to ensure Mark has everything he needs.”

For all the effort and investment, Schwerkolt is reticent about his expectations when it comes to 2019 results, admitting only that his hopes are high.

“I think we will go well, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” he said. “I don’t want to give you a number of where I expect to be.

“It is so, so hard to be up the front.

“There’s going to be a fair bit of expectation on Mark to be up there. He’s had one or two lean years as well. Changing from Ford

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to Holden, there’s going to be big expectation on him to see how he goes.”

One imponderable for Schwerkolt is pit stops. This year his Melbourne-based squad is sharing a pit boom with the Gold Coast’s Tekno Autosports, which limits their ability to practice together.

“That’s a classic example of the variables in this sport,” he said.

“Hopefully, that’s under control.”

Schwerkolt was a co-owner of Dick Johnson Racing when James Courtney won the 2010 drivers’ championship.

After a breakdown in relations with Johnson, he stood out of the sport for two years, reclaiming his REC and running his own car from 2013.

After stints as a customer of both Ford Performance Racing and Walkinshaw Racing, he went out on his own in 2016 with Lee Holdsworth in an ex-Triple Eight VF II Commodore backed by Preston Hire and managed by veteran Jeff Grech.

The combination struggled for results, striking some serious bad luck, including Holdsworth’s

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horrendous Darwin crash in 2016. In 2018, the team struggled with the new ZB Commodore and Holdsworth finished only 21st.

“Last year was torrid and I don’t think I want to keep doing that, just making up the numbers,” Schwerkolt mused. “I just felt, let’s get into it (in 2019). You have got to have a go.”

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MOTOR SPORT identities were among the New Year Day honours with karter John Pizarro and Sharon Middleton among the awardees.

From Parkes in NSW, Pizarro was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his contribution over many years. The kart racer competed in six World Karting Championships.

Middleton at 57 is a director of an Adelaidebased truck company received her AM for services to the industry. She also the co-founder of the mental health initiative Foundation Shine.

In motor racing circles she is well known as half (along with husband Bob) of the Whiteline Racing Team that runs two Chev Camaros for Adam Bressington and Mark King in the Touring Car Masters.

Ken Lucas was also honoured for his services to motor cycle racing. So too was the late Arthur James Clisby who was one of the instigators of the Bay to Birdwood and for service to the community through historic motor vehicle organisations.

AUSTRALIAN RACING Legend Craig Lowndes has teamed up with a philanthropic foundation to help drive more support services for Australian Defence Force Members with physical or psychological injuries.

Newman’s Own Foundation have announced that Mates4Mates will receive $100,000 through their grants program that recognises the influential role Australian sportspeople play within the nation’s charity sector. Lowndes nominated Mates4Mates as his charity of choice, a cause close to his heart.

SUPERCARS HAS confirmed that fans will be permitted to attend next months official preseason test at the Phillip Island for free.

The test, which will be held on Thursday, February 14, will be open to the public following the trend set by previous pre-season tests at Sydney Motorsport Park. Many teams are expected to run their 2019 liveries but it will also give fans their first opportunity to see the new Ford Mustang in action.

AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESSMAN Chris Stillwell has been appointed chairman of Melbourne-based Tickford and Tickford Racing. Stillwell joins the team with an extensive background in the automotive and motorsports industry, having spent 14 years as CEO of Stillwell Motor Group, Stillwell’s addition to the team will complement the unchanged roles of co-owners Rod Nash, Rusty French, and Sven Burchartz, and CEO Tim Edwards.

8 AutoAction

CARUSO WANTS FULL-TIME RETURN Axed Nissan racer reckons his results justify a comeback in 2020

By BRUCE NEWTON

KELLY RACING reject Michael Caruso wants to reclaim a full-time drive in the Supercars Championship.

The 35-year-old’s 11-year full-time career in Supercars was officially paused last week when Kelly Racing confirmed his deal would not be renewed, a decision the team attributes to budgetary considerations after losing Nissan’s backing.

Caruso has since been confirmed as Cameron Waters’ co-driver in the Monster Energy-backed Tickford Racing Ford Mustang for the Pirtek Enduro Cup. He had been looking good for a seat alongside Shane van Gisbergen in a Red Bull HRT Holden Commodore ZB at Triple Eight until Garth Tander swooped in at the last minute.

For more on Caruso’s enduro plans, check out the Auto Action website, autoaction.com.au.

Caruso told AA that a full-time drive remained his ideal goal, although he acknowledged the current economic environment made that a challenge.

“Ultimately, yes, I would love to come back and drive full-time,” Caruso said.

“It will obviously just come down to circumstance, which is no different to how things worked out this year.

“More so than any past year, it has been shown and pretty well documented that there needs to be a contribution from drivers to the team – more than just driving the race cars.

“That’s just the nature of where Supercars is at the moment, so I am on a different path to what I would have liked, but I am excited to be driving at Tickford.”

Caruso recorded 345 starts and two wins

over his full-time Supercars driving career, spending five years at GRM and another six with Nissan Motorsport. Both his wins came in Darwin, with one of them recorded for each team.

His best championship finish was 10th in 2014 and 2016 in a Nissan Altima.

“I am proud of what I achieved with the teams I got to work with,” Caruso said.

“I think I can still build on the results I’ve had and there is the opportunity to do that even this year.”

Caruso is keen to add more than the three enduros to his 2019 racing program.

“I’m sure you won’t just be seeing me in October,” he said. “I don’t have any money to bring, but I’ll do what I can and see where that puts me, talk to some people and see where we end up.”

JASON BRIGHT TARGETS TCR THE GROWING interest in TCR Australia continues, with Bathurst winner and former Supercars team owner Jason Bright signalling his intention to head a two-car program in the new series.

Bright has cited the worldwide interest shown by manufacturers as a key reason for his interest, with five already confirmed for this year’s local series.

“I’m very interested in TCR Australia, and I’m actively pursuing a deal to compete with a multi-car program for this year,” Bright said.

“For me, the interest TCR has created with manufacturers around the world, and the success it has enjoyed, is evidence the formula has what it takes to work in Australia.”

Talks between a number of marques are underway as Bright aims to compete in the inaugural season of TCR Australia, which kicks off as part of the Shannons Nationals at Sydney Motorsport Park on May 17-19.

“There’s a couple of different manufacturers that I’ve been talking to.

There is some good interest out there, so I’m really keen to get something locked away for the start of 2019 or, worst case, mid-way through the season.”

Bright aims to field multiple cars and admitted that manufacturer involvement is preferred, although interest from dealers has been particularly strong.

“It is important to be aligned with a manufacturer, but not essential. The key is

SPECTATOR INCIDENT BEING INVESTIGATED to do it with a two-car team as a minimum.

“From what I’ve found so far, there’s definitely a lot of interest at the car dealer level. The dealers of these types of cars haven’t had a motor sport program to support. There’s many dealers out there that love motorsport and see this as direct value.”

Bright has targeted young drivers to be a part of his program, with the worldwide TCR platform enabling drivers to race the same car across the world, while providing the possibility of a manufacture alignment.

“There’s a really great opportunity for young guys to progress their careers with a direct alignment to a manufacturer,” Bright said.

“It has always been difficult for young guys to achieve that here in Australia, but I feel that TCR is the perfect place to establish yourself on the track with different car brands and take that overseas.”

AN INVESTIGATION is underway after a pair of spectators took it upon themselves to extinguish a fire after an incident during practice at last weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

The incident occurred at The Chase after the Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3R driven by Tim Pappas was nudged onto the grass, subsequently lost control and hit the concrete wall. The impact fractured Pappas’s right arm and broke his pelvis, and initially he was unconscious.

Marshalls were hesitant to tend to the car, so a pair of spectators jumped the fence and, after alerting marshalls to the fire, decided to act themselves by extinguishing the fire, prior to fire marshalls arriving on the scene.

A statement released to the media by organisers said: “CAMS and Supercars Events, the promoter of the Bathurst 12 Hour, are investigating the incident and subsequent response to the accident involving car #540 this morning.

“As with any motor sport incident, CAMS will conduct a full investigation once all relevant information has been gathered.

“Supercars Events will assist in the review process, in consultation with track management.”

When Auto Action sought comment from CAMS it received following: “All aspects of the incident will be considered. The investigation is ongoing.”

STOREY STEPS AWAY

Veteran engineer moves into semi-retirement

By BRUCE NEWTON

ONE OF the great personalities of Supercars racing is stepping off the whirligig and into semi-retirement.

Engineer Wally Storey, who has missed only one Australian touring car/V8 Supercars/Supercars round since 1990 (and attended plenty before then, too), will continue at Brad Jones Racing in a part-time, workshop-based role.

That doesn’t mean the 68-year-old won’t turn up at a race meeting some time in 2019 if required.

He is also mulling over a Kumho Super3 Series engineering role, but right now he has no plans to work at the track in the main game.

That also means wife Lynne, who handles the catering for BJR at race meetings, is stepping back.

“I don’t hate work and I don’t necessarily want to stop work after 50-odd years, but I don’t want to continue at the pace that Supercars is pushing it along,” Storey told Auto Action. “And I’m not the Lone Ranger in that, I don’t think.

“It takes a lot out of you, you have to be prepared to give a lot to be part of it. And eventually, after a while, perhaps you decide you don’t want to give that much anymore.”

Storey, a highly successful racer in his own right who finished second in the 1979 Formula Ford Driver to Europe series, started his touring car career preparing Trevor Ashby’s and Steve Reed’s Lansvale Smash Repairs Holden Commodore, before stints at HRT – where he won the 1990 Bathurst 1000 –

Bob Forbes Racing, Lansvale (again) and Tasman Motorsport.

He joined BJR in 2007, continuing a working relationship and friendship with the late Jason Richards first established at Tasman Motorsport.

Wally admits Richards’ death from a rare form of cancer called adrenocortical carcinoma in 2011 took a chunk of enjoyment out of motor racing for him that has never been fully rekindled.

“He was like a son, he treated me like a father and we got on really, really well,” Storey said. “I was privileged to work with the guy. He was an extraordinary talent.

“When he died, I felt it was so unfair. He was cheated and I was cheated.”

Storey played a key role in improving BJR’s pit stops when he first joined the team. He’s also been in charge of shock absorbers. “When I first came here there were 12 shocks for

two cars, now there’s 70 for seven,” he noted.

Storey has also been a mentor for emerging engineers at BJR, most recently working with Tony Woodward on Tim Blanchard’s Cooldrive entry.

Wally’s son, Robert, is also an engineer, although he works in the defence industry rather than motor sport. He’s also a competitive and successful cyclist, whereas Wally prefers fishing in his spare time – of which he will now have much more.

“I am just going to do stuff in the workshop that they want me to do, basically. If there is something to do, I’ll do it. If there isn’t, I won’t.

“The plan is 2-3 days per week, but it’s pretty casual. It might be five days one week and none the next.”

Oh, by the way, Wally is not his real first name. It’s Laurence.

He picked up the nickname at school and it stuck.

XTRAC TRANSAXLE ARRIVES THE MAJORITY of Supercars teams will have only next week’s Phillip Island test to learn about the new Xtrac P1293 six-speed transaxle before the championship kicks off at the Adelaide 500 in the end of the month.

Replacing the locally made Albins ST6, which has been in service since Car Of The Future launched in 2013, production examples of the Xtrac began arriving at teams – including Garry Rogers Motorsport (pictured) – late last week.

The UK-made Xtrac is pretty much a straight bolt-in job, although a slightly different linkage requires a new hole to be cut in the floorpan.

GRM technical chief Richard Hollway told AA no major technical or driver adaptation issues were expected.

“Based on other teams doing miles on it (prototypes that began testing in 2018), there’s not a great deal of concern,” Hollway said. “I think it will be pretty seamless.”

All teams are expected to have two Xtrac transaxles per car by Adelaide, and it is mandatory to run them.

However, it is understood that most teams will take an Albins ST6 or two to the Adelaide opener just to be safe. BN

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LATEST NEWS

AUSSIE SET FOR IGTC ATTACK ASIAN-BASED ex-pat Josh Burdon is set to contest the entire Intercontinental GT Challenge as part of an expanded program from the Nismo-supported KCMG team.

Starting at last weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hour, Burdon will not only contest the iconic Spa 24 Hour and Suzuka 10 Hours that form part of the IGTC, but last year’s FRD LMP3 Prototype Series winner will head to Germany to contest the VLN and its hallmark race, the Nurburgring 24 Hour.

“I’ve had an association with the team for a couple of years now. In Asia I’ve done some prototype things with them, so we had quite a bit of success,” Burdon said of his relationship with KCMG. “They were looking for an extra driver for the Intercontinental GT Challenge

this year and, between Nismo and KCMG, I was the one that got selected.

“It’s going to be an exciting year. We’re doing the full Intercontinental GT Challenge with Nismo support, and we’re planning on doing some VLN races as well as the Nurburgring 24 Hour, so I’m super excited!”

It comes off a hectic 2018 for Burdon, who contested a number of series in Asia encompassing a wide range of disciplines ranging from prototypes to touring cars.

“Last year was extremely busy for me. I’m based in China at the moment, which is quite a good home base,” he explained to Auto Action.

“Last season I raced with Audi and Absolute in Blancpain GT Series Asia; we had some success there with pole positions, the LMP3 Series in Asia,

which we won, and I had a deal with Ford in touring cars.

“I’ll most likely be back for a couple of races of that and the thing that is attractive about it is there is big manufacturer backing behind it.”

He has an eye on other opportunities, but the Tasmanian native is focused on KCMG’s GT program and is confident it will be a successful season.

“At the moment my core will be the IGTC. You’re getting close to the highest level of GT racing with manufacturers involved. This is definitely my focus for the moment, as well as VLN and Nurburgring,” Burdon explained.

“But at the same time I’m working on some deals and fill in some time. I’d like to keep on driving as much as I can in Blancpain and other series.”

Heath McAlpine

NEW MCLAREN FOR GRAND PRIX

BRABHAM FLIES

MCLAREN REGULAR Fraser Ross will contest the 2019 Australian GT Championship in a new McLaren 720s GT3, debuting it at the opening round at the Australian Grand Prix meeting.

Ross tested a car late last year at Paul Ricard and is impressed by the first GT3 machine developed in-house by McLaren.

“It’s got the proper development you’d expect. The 650s GT3 hasn’t had the development for quite some time now, but it’s a much better car,” Ross told Auto Action.

“All round it’s much better. It’s got heaps more grip. The other car was pitch-sensitive, this isn’t.”

McLaren’s latest and greatest is powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a six-speed sequential gearbox delivering the power.

Last year’s Australian GT title went down to the wire, with Ross having been one of five drivers with a chance of taking the title, but the title wasn’t to be.

After driving the new 720s GT3, he is eagerly awaiting the start of the new season.

“I’m very confident in the year ahead with new equipment.

“Looking back on last year, we were in the oldest car on the grid and we were competitive right up until lap three of the final race. That’s why we have more confidence going into this year, because we know we can be competitive, we know we had the

THE BATHURST 12 Hour weekend hosted the first serious outing for the Brabham BT62, and steering the beast was 2017 Bathurst 1000-winning codriver Luke Youlden.

The Brabham made headlines over the weekend after Youlden unofficially clocked a record lap of 1m58.6944s, which topped the 1m 59.2910s set by Audi factory driver Christopher Mies during the Challenge Bathurst event in November.

The Brabham time is deemed unofficial due to it taking part in demonstration runs only.

Youlden was still disappointed by the lap. He feels there’s plenty left in the tank as there were a few hiccups in a straight line.

“It’s funny, I have mixed feelings about it because it didn’t run smoothly,” Youlden explained to Auto Action.

“There’s definitely more in it, we lost a little bit of time. As rapt as I am that we broke the record, I’m a little disappointed we didn’t smash it, and we know that the potential is there to do it.

“Hopefully we can come back and show the

pace last year with the older car, so the newer car should just add to that really.”

The new car will not be run by McElrea Racing like the previous 650s GT3, but Ross was coy when asked which organisation would run the car.

However, plans are well advanced to add a second car down the line once the 720s GT3 becomes a competitive package.

“One to start with it,” Ross said. “We just want to start with one and get our heads around it first before we expand, similar to what we did with the 650s GT3, obviously after we did the 12 Hour with two cars.”

Plans for Ross to race overseas last year failed to materialise and he will instead place all of his focus on this year’s GT Championship, with the Victorian keen to take the crown.

“The team would like to do it, but we just want to get used to the car and focus on the GT Championship.

“The calendar’s a bit better this year and it has allowed us to attract some fantastic commercial partners, so that’s our main focus – just setting everything up and getting on top of the new car.”

Heath McAlpine

FOR SALE

car’s full potential, but I think we’ve shown that it’s a plenty capable car and I really thank Brabham for the opportunity.

“It’s a once in a lifetime thing to try and break the lap record, in a Brabham, around Bathurst sub-two minutes.”

Youlden tried to explain the experience behind the wheel of the BT62, but admitted that it was hard to describe “It’s insane,” he enthused. “It’s mega, it’s lightweight, heaps of downforce, heaps of power, it typifies a race car. It moves around a bit, you feel every bump, you feel the cambers, it’s darting around, it’s reactive, but also planted all at the same time.

“It’s a difficult thing to explain what it’s like; a GT3 car feels like a taxi in comparison!”

Brabham has recently announced plans to develop a GTE version of the BT62, with the aim of contesting the Le Mans 24 Hour by 2021.

Heath McAlpine

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THE CAMPBELL CHARGE

BAMBER: ONE OF THE BEST DRIVES I’VE EVER SEEN BATHURST-WINNING Earl Bamber has heaped plenty of praise on Australian Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell, who guided his team’s Porsche 911 GT3R to the German marque’s first win in the 12 Hour classic.

“To be honest, that was one of the best drives I’ve ever seen,” Bamber told Auto Action after the race.

Strategy worked against the team initially, but a late-race Safety Car set up Campbell’s charge towards victory.

“We thought we were okay, we knew we’d probably come out behind the Aston, but that’s when we expected them to put tyres on,” Bamber said.

“When the first one came in and didn’t put on tyres, we thought okay, that’s bad.

“Then we fell back again and I was pissed we were off the

podium because I didn’t want to finish fourth after all this work.

“Then Matt just started charging. I think he started just before the Safety Car restart, he nailed Chaz [Mostert] in a good move, and then the Safety Car came out.

“We could see the others were dying on the tyres. The #999 Mercedes, he had nothing, he was finished.

“To be honest he pulled the move of the motor race over at the Elbow (to take the lead); he basically grinded along the wall, and what more can I say?”

It was a successful debut for the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia squad at The Mountain, and a late-race retirement for the team’s second 911 GT3R with steering failure ended that car’s race while fighting for the lead.

“We were sort of winging it

on a wing and a prayer. We had both cars 1-2, but I felt so sorry for the #911 car.

“They were looking like they could be in the lead of the race and then we had the steering issue, so I have to say sorry to them.

“We gave them the shot, they were in the lead, but we managed to do it with #912.”

Bamber put his team’s success down to the hard work the crew had put in over the course of the weekend in what was a nearfaultless display on race day.

“We’re very, very chuffed. As I said to someone, I left at nearly 1am every day and we were always the last people to shut the garage,” Bamber said.

“On race day, it’s about execution. I think we worked the hardest, we tried to tick all the boxes.

“We’re a new race team, so we

didn’t expect to be perfect. We were running around like mad in the garage a bit chaotically, but now I think it’s all justification.

It’s pretty surreal.”

Australian fans are normally used to seeing Bamber behind the wheel. However, he explained that he was just as passionate out of the driver’s seat as he is sitting in it.

“Nah, I was into it, I was up and down, I had people moving out the way and everything. It was pretty awesome.”

Victory at Bathurst capped off a successful 12-month period for Porsche as it continues to push more resources into expanding its GT3 program, with the oldergeneration GT3R being sent off on a high.

“It’s a special moment because Porsche has never won this race before,” Bamber said.

Heath McAlpine

IT WAS a perfect start to Porsche’s and Matt Campbell’s campaign on the Intercontinental GT Challenge as the Australian took a popular win in front of an adoring home crowd.

It wasn’t easy for Campbell, who teamed up with fellow Porsche Young Professional Dennis Olsen and the experienced Dirk Werner, as many of the cooling systems within the car shut down, making the race a physically taxing affair.

“Certainly, I gave it everything that I had,” Cambell told Auto Action.

“It wasn’t an easy day for us drivers. We had a cool suit failure and unfortunately the drink went as well, which wasn’t ideal.

“There’s nothing we could do to resolve that, so I’m really, really happy.

“What a way to get the win.”

Porsche’s strategy looked to have backfired after the leaders failed to fit new tyres, taking a risk that didn’t pay off. A Safety Car with 20 minutes to go played right into the Porsche team’s hands.

“We had a different strategy to everyone else and we were pushing pretty hard, we knew what we had to do, and especially when I came out of the pits after getting into the car for the last stint,” said the delighted race winner.

“Knowing the gap to the lead car, we had been strong and we worked on a strong race car for the end of the race, which worked perfectly, and to win it the way we did.”

After coming so close previously, the victory was one to savour for the Queenslander, who heads back to Germany to ready himself for a Porsche training camp.

“We’ve been close the last two years and to now get the race victory for Porsche – the last time in this car forever – it’s special for Earl, first race in the GT3 against such high competition.”

Heath McAlpine

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11

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

CLASSIC MILESTONES AT PHILLIP ISLAND

PHILLIP ISLAND is gearing up for a very special Classic Festival of Motorsport on March 8-10.

This year will be the 30th anniversary of the hallmark historic meeting, and Dick Johnson will be this year’s patron.

With the major backing of Burson Auto Parts and the continued – and unbroken 30-year – support of Penrite and Shannons, the event will acknowledge the half-century anniversaries of the formation of the Holden Dealer Team, Formula Ford in Australia, the Alfa Romeo Car Club and the Bolwell Nagari.

“We will have around 15 to 16 actual HDT cars or replicas, with many of the drivers

WINTON SIGNALLING SYSTEM UPGRADED

who drove for the team over the years,” said Victorian Historic Racing Register president Ian Tate, a former HDT chief mechanic.

Drivers expected to attend include Allan Moffat, John Harvey, Kevin Bartlett and Charlie O’Brien, along with John Sheppard, who took over as team manager from Harry Firth in 1978.

The Phillip Island event is renown for its array of exotic machinery and this year will be graced with the inclusion of a rare Maserati Cooper Monaco sports car that was ordered for the great Roy Salvadori to drive. It featured a 5.0-litre, all-aluminium V8 engine equipped with four twin-choke

WINTON MOTOR RACEWAY has taken advantage of the off-season to upgrade to a state-of-the-art Alitrax lighting system.

The new Alitrax system replaces the previous Tracksa lights, implemented at the Benalla Auto Club-owned Winton and Wakefield Park circuits in 2010.

The new system includes LED light panels at the start-finish line and all flag marshal points.

The new LED light panels display all standard flag signals, including green, yellow, red, blue, black, bad sportsmanship, chequered and Safety Car. They can be individually controlled from each flag point, as well as a central master panel in race control.

Advantages of the system include improved visibility for competitors and ease of operation for officials.

BAC Group CEO and acting Winton operations manager Chris Lewis-Williams was glowing in his remarks about the safety benefits of trackside lighting systems, and

veteran and vintage cars on display.

Among the usual categories, the feature race on the program will be for Heritage Touring Cars – the Group C and A cars of the period from 1973 to 1992 – over 50km.

Among the 40-car entry are five Ford Sierras and ten BMWs, five of which are ex-JPS cars that raced in Australia.

To mark its anniversary, Formula Ford will also have a 40-car entry for a 40km feature race. Also expected to have capacity grids are Group S Production Sports Cars and Group N Historic Touring Cars, which will be split into under and over 3.0-litre.

GARRY O’BRIEN

CARROLL JOINS SUPER3 GRID said the installation of the Alitrax system is a demonstration of the venue’s commitment to competitor safety.

“Both our circuits led the way with trackside lights when the Tracksa system was introduced – as a competitor, I know from first-hand experience that the lights are a valuable safety feature because they are instantly noticeable,” Lewis-Williams said.

“The Tracksa product has served us well, but it was time to upgrade.

“We’re proud to partner with Alitrax, a proudly Australian-owned company that produces cutting-edge, high-quality technology.

“The lighting systems have been installed at race tracks in Australia, New Zealand and North America, so it is a genuinely internationalstandard product.”

As well as race meetings, the Alitrax lights will be in use for other events such as Winton’s popular Test and Tune Days, where a central operator will be able to signal drivers at any point on the circuit.

WOOD ONTO THE NEXT STAGE CAITLIN WOOD is one of 28 female drivers and two Australians to progress onto the second stage of the W-Series after completing the initial qualification stage at a snowy Wauchauring in Austria.

Wood endured an interrupted 2018 season after initially coming across budget issues and then breaking her leg in a freak accident, but recovered in time to compete in the final round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe series.

She is pursuing one of 18-20 seats in the new women’s series, which will support the DTM at six rounds.

“I worked extremely hard to get myself through, as did everyone else that was there,” Wood told Auto Action.

12 AutoAction

Weber carburettors and produced more than 400bhp (300kW).

Other special cars on the program include George Nakas’ 1988 Supercupwinning Porsche 962 (pictured) and Russell Kempnich’s Porsche 956 that won the Japanese Sports Car Championship in the hands of Vern Schuppan. Also appearing will be Jason White in his ground-shaking 8.4-litre McLaren M8F Can Am race car.

The event is recognised as one of the world’s largest for historics by the number of entries and races held over the three days.

The Classic is expected to again draw more than 500 entries and more than 1000 classic,

TOYOTA 86 race winner Nick Carroll has joined MW Motorsport for the upcoming Super3 season.

Not only does Carroll join the title-winning team, but the 19-yearold will be at the wheel of the same Ford Falcon that delivered Tyler Everingham the title in 2018.

“I am absolutely stoked to be able to make the step up to Supercars this season with Matt White. It’s a tremendous opportunity, an absolute dream come true,” Carroll said.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time in (Toyota) 86s and learned a lot, but I know I am ready for the next step.”

A test was successfully completed

by Carroll last year at Winton, where he familiarised himself with the MW Motorsport squad and his 2019 ride.

Although it was brief, team owner White is confident Carroll will quickly adapt to the Falcon.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it, the assessments that were there were very challenging and really made you think what you were doing, your driving skills and having to adapt, especially for us Aussies who don’t know snow.”

Fellow Aussies Chelsea Angelo, Charlotte Poynting and Alexandra Whitley also progressed.

The experience was enjoyable for Wood, as competition judges Alexander Wurz, David Coulthard, Lyn St James and Dave Ryan provided advice and guidance for the 54 hopefuls.

“Nic was impressive in that short run; I was surprised how quickly he got to grips with the car and that’s what got us interested in running him,” White explained.

“It’s going to be a big step for him from the Toyotas, but he’s got the right attitude and you can see he’s very dedicated, so I think this will be a good first step on the Supercars career pathway for him.”

Carroll has signalled his intentions to make it all the way and believes Super3 is the right pathway to achieve his goal.

“I don’t know if I am good enough, time will tell, but Supercars is where you need to be if you want to be a professional in the sport in this country,” Carroll said.

“I have been presented with a fantastic opportunity to take the first steps toward that.”

“I had an absolute ball there and I’ve learnt so much,” Wood said. “I was able to show my strengths as a driver, but also my weaknesses, and then I was able to focus on them to make myself better, so I was grateful for that opportunity and grateful to take it to the next step to test the F3.”

The initial W-Series testing phase was spread over three days, with the drivers taking on 10 assessments covering on-track, fitness and psychological exercises.

The next stage of the W-Series selection process is a test in a Tatuus F318 Formula 3 car in Spain at the end of March, but in the meantime, Wood is looking to continue her overseas endeavours with English team MTECH, racing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe series, budget permitting.

HEATH MCALPINE

PERONI SIGNS WITH CAMPOS

AUSTRALIAN FORMULA Renault Eurocup race winner Alex Peroni will contest the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship after signing with leading team Campos Racing.

Peroni completed a three-day test with the team after the final round of the series at Abu Dhabi and the two parties quickly agreed to terms ahead of the opening round in Barcelona on May 10-12.

“I felt comfortable immediately with the Campos team in Abu Dhabi,” Peroni said.

“They did everything they could to help me, and good lap times came very quickly.

“I was very impressed with how hard they worked, and from that moment I wanted an opportunity to drive with Campos in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

“I’m very happy that we have reached an agreement.”

Team principal Adrian Campos, a former F1 driver, is confident the Tasmanian will be competitive in the newly rebranded series.

“Alex showed some impressive performances in Formula Renault last year. We believe that he has great prospects, and with the right preparation from Campos Racing he will reach his full potential,” Campos said.

“We were very pleasantly surprised in the post-season tests in Abu Dhabi, getting a quick adaptation and achieving competitive lap times. We expect him to continue his

progression, and Campos Racing will put everything at his disposal to grow together.”

Peroni is delighted to take another step in his career as he will be on show to the Formula 1 teams during the championship’s eight rounds, after winning Formula Renault Eurocup’s solitary F1 support slot, on the streets of Monaco.

“I’ve been dreaming of competing in GP3 – now the FIA Formula 3 Championship – since I graduated from racing karts to cars in 2015,” Peroni said.

“While it was amazing to win at Monaco in the Eurocup, that was the only round of the series where we raced as part of the Formula 1 calendar. This year’s FIA Formula 3 Championship multiplies that by eight, so it’s an incredible opportunity for me to show what I can do – and an incredible opportunity to gain exposure for my sponsors and for Tasmania.”

Peroni’s 2019 deal includes a position within the Campos Academy, a program that includes physical and psychological training, driver coaching and extensive access to the team’s simulator facilities.

“The Abu Dhabi test showed me that the GP3 car was a big step up in performance over the Formula Renault,” he said. “It didn’t

take long to get used to the nearly double engine power, but the extra aerodynamic downforce made the car more demanding physically on high and medium-speed corners.

“Since Abu Dhabi I’ve been doing additional daily training to ensure I’m fit enough to drive at 100 percent from start to finish in the FIA Formula 3 Championship races, which are longer than the Eurocup ones.

“I’m very excited to be joining Campos Racing this season. The team has won races in GP3 and GP2, so I’m confident of having the equipment and technical support to fight for good results throughout the season.

“The fact that this year all FIA Formula 3 Championship teams have to use a new chassis and a slightly different engine tune will give rookies like me a better chance than usual against the drivers with prior GP3

experience,” Peroni said.

Former Supercars champion and NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose is lending support to his fellow Tasmanian as he mirrors the pathway the two-time Supercars champion followed in the late 1990s.

“Alex’s dream and his chosen path up the motorsports ladder resemble mine 20 years ago,” Ambrose said.

“His European Formula Renault wins last year at the Monaco and Pau street circuits cannot be overstated. It’s on circuits like these that a driver can demonstrate his true talent.

“It’s great to see this talented young Tasmanian getting the support he deserves, and I congratulate all his sponsors for getting behind him. I wish Alex all the best in his endeavours, and will continue to support him in his journey to becoming a professional racing driver.”

MAWSON EYES AUSSIE RETURN AFTER COMPLETING an impressive debut season in the highly competitive GP3 class, Joey Mawson is eyeing a return to Australia.

The 22-year-old European-based Aussie endured a tough year in GP3 with Arden International, although he scored a number of podiums and was just shy of a race victory in Russia.

“Generally, it was a very tough season, to be honest. We had a lot of lows, but a few highs that made the year worthwhile,” Mawson told Auto Action.

“In Russia, we were so close to the win, which was a bit disappointing due to the Virtual Safety Car, but we still grabbed a good result.”

However, Mawson has been forced to reassess his options for the upcoming season due to GP3 combining with the FIA European Formula 3 Championship this season, which has bought an increase of budget and competition for seats.

“To get into GTs, there are a lot of options to race all around the world – Asia, Europe, Australia, America – and that looks like the direction we’re going for. To begin our tin-top experience, I think racing in Australia, the first option is to try and get an enduro drive in a year or two, so that’s the new direction we’re going for.”

Although Mawson has completed most of his racing overseas, he has also kept an eye on Matt Campbell’s progress, which is one direction he would like to follow, but the driver originally from Sydney is keen to remain based overseas.

“That’s a real goal to be picked up by a manufacturer.

“Matty Campbell has done really well. He’s a factory Porsche driver, so that’s something that I would definitely love to have.

“I’m still young, so I try and keep myself overseas to travel. I can always come back home, so that’s why I’m trying to stay in Europe as long as I can at this stage. There are a lot of options out there; I’d love to go to America or even Asia and we’ll see where we end up.”

In the meantime, Mawson will spend some time in Australia testing Porsche Carrera Cup machinery.

“At the moment, being in Australia, I’ll do some testing to get some seat time.

“We’ve still got to work out our plans and contract for this year, and what category.

“Obviously Porsche (Carrera Cup) is looking likely.”

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13

LATEST NEWS

ALONSO ON BRINK OF NEW LANDMARK

By MARK FOGARTY

SPANISH SUPERSTAR Fernando Alonso is now poised to create a new unofficial motor racing milestone – the ‘Quad Crown’.

Alonso’s victory in last weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours means he could become the first driver to win arguably the world’s top four races.

He has already won the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans 24 Hours, completing two-thirds of the famed Triple Crown.

The final leg of the elusive trio is the Indianapolis 500.

Although not officially recognised, the Triple Crown – modelled after American horse racing’s holy grail sweep of the top three races – has been an almost mystical goal since the late Graham Hill achieved the feat.

Hill won the Monaco GP five times, plus the 1966 Indy 500 and Le Mans in 1972.

Alonso is among a small elite who have since won Monaco and Le Mans, but not the Indy 500.

In fact, apart from 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who won the Indy 500 in 1995, in modern times none of them has had the chance to complete the Triple Crown.

Alonso is returning to the Indy 500 with McLaren this May after he led the American classic in his debut appearance in 2017, only for his charge to be halted by an engine failure.

With that experience under his belt – and backed by

a concerted McLaren effort – he has an above-average chance to win this year’s 500 and establish a new mark of winning the four greatest races in the world.

In fact, a ‘Quad Crown’ has already been established if you include the F1 world championship.

In addition to his Monaco, Indy and Le Mans victories, Hill also won two F1 crowns – just like Alonso.

So if he were to win this year’s – or any future – Indianapolis 500, Alonso would create a ‘Quin Crown’ – F1 world championship, Monaco GP, Le Mans 24 Hours, Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 24 Hours.

But just on the world’s biggest races alone, he is on the cusp of racing immortality.

Only victory in the classic Monte Carlo Rally could enhance his legacy as the most versatile driver of all time.

Actually, there is one more event he could conquer

to burnish his lustre. Perhaps, given its quirks, the most difficult of all.

If Alonso added the Bathurst 1000 to his winning repertoire, he would be acclaimed as the most adaptable driver since the great Jim Clark, who raced and won in touring cars, sports cars, F1 and Indycars in the 1960s.

Don’t laugh. Alonso has a direct connection to Walkinshaw Andretti United through co-owners Zak Brown (McLaren’s F1 boss) and Michael Andretti, who ran him at Indy in 2017.

WAU would run a wild card entry for Alonso in a heartbeat – and don’t think it hasn’t been canvassed.

And, given Alonso’s passion for racing and desire to master classic courses, don’t ever dismiss the possibility that he will turn up at Mount Panorama some day in the future.

The one great race Charly Lamm didn’t conquer in his storied career as touring car racing’s maestro manager was the Bathurst 1000

By MARK FOGARTY

NOT WINNING at Mount Panorama would have been among the very few regrets that Charly Lamm, who died suddenly on Thursday at 63, had in his nearly 40 years at the helm of the BMW Schnitzer squad.

He had been the boss, figuratively, of BMW in racing since the mid-1980s.

Lamm’s effectiveness as a team manager was exceeded only by his passion for motorsport and special regard for the classic races and tracks, including Bathurst.

Lack of opportunity, not lack of interest, meant Schnitzer’s only appearance in the 1000 was in 1987, when Australia’s Great Race was a round of the inaugural – and for a long time, only – FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Despite Lamm’s organisational and tactical brilliance, the factory-backed BMW M3 Evos were overwhelmed on the Mountain.

In fact, the M3 was out-gunned by the Eggenberger Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500s in the WTCC, and Schnitzer only narrowly snatched the drivers’ world title through Roberto Ravaglia on consistency.

It was also aided by Eggenberger being stripped of its Bathurst 1000 win months later for illegalities, resulting in Peter Brock being elevated to his ninth – and final – success in the October classic.

Not winning the 1000 – and not getting the opportunity to make more attempts

14 AutoAction

– would have frustrated Lamm because he recognised the importance of the race and the challenge of the Mount Panorama course.

Like winning at Spa-Francorchamps or the Nurburgring Nordschliefe or Macau, which Schnitzer under his command did so many times, a victory at Bathurst would have meant a great deal.

But not doing so wouldn’t have irked him or been regarded as a sore for Schnitzer that was never healed because, as competitive as he was, Lamm didn’t dwell on failure.

Charly Lamm celebrated his involvement in the greatest era of international touring car racing and cherished the success Schnitzer attained as BMW’s frontline team outside its F1 forays.

His only assault on the 1000 was in the early days of Schnitzer’s rise to becoming the dominant touring car team in the 1990s.

Its might permeated to Australia via the developments at the peak of the two-litre Super Touring global phenomenon that it passed on to Frank Gardner’s local titlewinning efforts.

Lamm eventually returned to Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 12 Hour and was with the team at last year’s event, where a Team BMW Schnitzer M6 GT3 co-driven by Chaz Mostert was fast but unsuccessful.

Team BMW Schnitzer returned for last weekend’s 12 Hour, with an M8 GT3 again anchored by Mostert in what was a tribute to Lamm, who retired from running his family team at the end of last season.

Lamm was a half-brother of the team’s founders, Josef and Herbert Schnitzer, joining Schnitzer Motorsport as a teenage student in 1978 and quickly rising to team manager three years later. It was a title that didn’t fully describe his pervasive influence and which cemented a decades-long alliance with BMW. His career highlight was orchestrating BMW’s Williams F1-engineered victory in the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours, which led to Schnitzer’s prominence to this day in GT racing.

Lamm’s reason for stepping down after guiding Schnitzer so well for almost four decades was, officially, to relax after so long at the intense end of racing. It is now more

likely, despite the announced suddenness of his death, that it was because he was secretly gravely ill.

Tributes to Lamm have flooded in from around the world since his sudden death was announced last week.

One of the most poignant came from expatriate Australian motor racing eminence Alan Gow, the long-time boss of the British Touring Car Championship and president of the FIA Touring Car Commission.

“How incredibly sad that Charly has passed away,” Gow informed me in an email. “He was, by a very wide margin, the best team manager I ever worked with… anytime, anywhere. And such a gentleman.

A very sad day.”

In relatively few words, Gow summed up the essence of Lamm. Top operator, top bloke.

Gow worked closely with Lamm in the mid-1990s, when Schnitzer’s BMW priority was the then booming BTCC, contested by as many as nine manufacturer-backed teams.

Gow also had regular interaction with Lamm through his senior FIA position when Schnitzer contested the latter-day WTCC. I dealt extensively with Lamm during my years covering the BTCC from 1993-1999 when I was based in the UK. Gow’s succinct tribute is difficult to embellish. It says it all.

Lamm was honest, upbeat and committed. He may have been a ruthless competitor, but he did so with a grace and charm that is rare in this business.

I wasn’t close to him, but I knew him well enough to genuinely mourn his passing as a great loss. Very few team bosses in my long experience combined such effectiveness with over-riding decency.

RIP Karl ‘Charly’ Lamm, 1955-2019

AA’s peripatetic pundit catches up with Mark Webber at the Bathurst 12 Hour to find out how his retirement from racing is going FOR THE first time in many years, Mark Webber is enjoying an extended pre-season holiday in Australia. He was at the Bathurst 12 Hour and, instead of rushing off overseas as usual, he is staying through until after next month’s Australian Grand Prix.

Webber will be at Albert Park in his burgeoning role as a Formula 1 TV pundit, adding his insight to Channel 10’s coverage and also Channel 4 in the UK. He’s been doing that since he retired from F1 and since he gave up racing all together at the end of 2016 he’s been a feature of free-to-air F1 TV broadcasts in Britain.

Both 10 and 4 have given up live telecasts of F1 except for their respective home GPs. But in the UK, Channel 4 will at least continue with post-race highlights this year, keeping Webber involved.

His laconic and forthright presentation is a highlight. Although Channel 4’s highlights still attract much bigger audiences than Sky Sport’s wall-to-wall live coverage – which we see here on Fox Sports – it’s a pity Webber hasn’t jumped the paywall.

He’d be much more effective on Sky than, say, Johnny Herbert, who witters on with very little depth.

Lovely bloke is Johnny, but as a TV analyst he’s a lightweight.

Especially compared with say-whathe-really-thinks Webber.

Team him up with Martin Brundle

and Damon Hill and you’d have the dream team of F1 pundits.

Webber was at Bathurst as part of his ongoing gig as a Porsche ambassador. Appearances, spruiking and road car development test driving for the Stuttgart brand keep him plenty busy when he’s not at F1 races.

But, as I learned during an entertaining and informative chat with ‘Our Mark’ at Mount Panorama, there’s another non-automotive side to him. His Aussie Grit sportswear is booming in Australia and the UK, where he lives most of the time.

In between his F1 and Porsche commitments, his apparel business is taking up most of his time.

“It’s full-on,” he told me. “That’s the other side that keeps us busy.

But it’s very enjoyable, challenging, intense, lots of new learnings.”

Based at Brookvale in northern Sydney, Aussie Grit is a passion for Webber as much as a growing business. It has six stores in Australia and outlets in the UK. “We have a very small, intimate little team there at Brookvale,” he said.

“People see me publicly wearing the apparel, but I’m kept busy visiting the factories and retailers.

So that’s certainly another pocket that’s filled up very, very quickly.

“It’s going particularly well. We’re very happy. In the UK, the biking stuff’s going a sniff better than in Oz, but that’s probably mainly

weather-dependent – the way we’ve done the fabrics, slightly heavier and tougher material.

“Once people get it in their hands, that’s the biggest thing. The materials and the fabrics speak for themselves.

“Retailwise, it’s going very well.

We have a lot more stores now than we did six months ago. That’s been the big change for us.

“It’s a very, very challenging business, but you can make a difference. It’s all about the product.

If the product’s not right, then you’re toast. You actually have to have good product. Quality is paramount.”

Webber’s flat-out schedule last year – 85 flights – means he appreciates the chance to chill with his family in Queanbeyan, just across the NSW border from the ACT, and his holiday home in Noosa.

It is a luxury to stay in Australia from now until just after the AGP, when his F1 and Porsche commitments will take off again.

Since he stopped racing the LMP1 Porsche 919, highlighted by the WEC world title in 2015, Webber has become increasingly involved in high-end road car development.

Nice work if you can get it, eh?

“We’re doing quite a lot with the Tycan (electric car), had quite a few test drives in that already and I have some more work coming up in April. I was with the whole 911 team, finishing up on the 992.

“There’s always something new at Porsche. It just never stops. It’s just fascinating how they work.

“It’s like a little mini racing team.

They have meals together and it’s really cool to see how closeknit they are. It’s really enjoyable working with them and I’ll be doing more with future products.”

Webber did ride laps with media and VIP customers at the Bathurst 12 Hour in a 700-horsepower Porsche 911 GT2 RS. Hot-lapping Mount Panorama for the first time since 1994 was a buzz, partially filling the driving adrenalin gap since he retired.

Webber admitted that he misses the essence of racing, if not the incumbent grind of top-level competition.

“Of course, I miss parts of it, but I had my time,” he said. “After F1, I enjoyed the Porsche program with the 919. That was the next best thing. It was truly rewarding. But then it was like, OK, I’m done.

“I feel I had a little more left in me, so the time was right. The main thing is you miss the competition.

I love winning. Champagne is brilliant.

“Running fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh doesn’t really inspire you.

You have to have a chance to win.

That’s what’s enjoyable.”

He gets his fix these days with dirt bike riding, karting and flying helicopters. “You don’t need to go through all the palaver to get the same kind of satisfaction,” he observes. “There are lots of things outside all that which can give you an adrenalin rush.”

As we sat chatting in the Porsche Motorsport hospitality suite at Mount Panorama, Webber was relaxed and in particularly good humour.

After the formal interview, he laughed and joked with Earl Bamber, who had arrived to talk with me. Webber, who really rates his former WEC teammate, engaged in exceptional banter with Bamber.

It was fun to be caught in the crossfire of two champions just being blokes.

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15

s w e n e n O Formula THE ALFA CONNECTION

ALFA ROMEO is returning to Formula 1, but in team name only.

Called the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team last year, the official name has been changed to Alfa Romeo Racing.

In 2019, just as in 2018 and every other season since the team debuted in F1 in 1993, the cars themselves will carry the Sauber name. And the team will continue to be an independently owned and operated company based in Hinwil, Switzerland.

The Sauber chassis name might be changed, but the regulations do not make it easy to do that.

What is important is that the money Alfa/Ferrari/Fiat Chrysler will pump into the team is said to have doubled

this year. The Alfa link also strengthens the team’s ties as a satellite team to Ferrari, which also has Haas in its stable.

Alfa Romeo competed as a factory squad in the first two seasons of the official Formula 1 World Championship when it started in 1950. It won drivers’ world championship in both years, with Guiseppe Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951.

Alfa’s second period as a full-time constructor in F1 – from 1980 through 1985 – was far less successful.

While Sauber’s record contains only one F1 victory – the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix with Robert Kubica when it was owned by BMW – the team, now embarking on

PROMOTER DISSENT

TWO OF the successful keys to Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 business model – well, at least for him! – were divide and conquer, and keep raising the price.

Whenever the teams would try to unite to support their own interests, Ecclestone would drive a wedge between them by signing exclusive deals with one or two of them. Circuit promoters wishing to host a grand prix had to pay a high fee (Monaco excepted), and that price increased every year.

Liberty Media, which took over F1’s commercial rights two years ago, is encountering challenges on both those fronts.

In this case it is not the teams but the circuit promoters who are mostly united, and they are protesting what they have to pay for grands prix and they are unhappy with the way Liberty is handling the sport and business.

The Formula One Promoters Association (FOPA) is made up of the promoters of the 21 races on the 2019 calendar, and 16 of them recently met in London.

“There is a lack of clarity on new initiatives in F1 and a lack of

16 AutoAction

engagement with promoters on their implementation,” a FOPA statement read. “New races should not be introduced to the detriment of existing events, although the association is encouraged by the alternative business models being offered to prospective venues.”

But the Mexican and Russian promoters said they did not agree with the statement.

What each promoter pays per year varies widely, from about 20 to 50 million euros. A number of promoters were upset when it was revealed that Miami would not have to pay for its proposed race, but rather do a profit-sharing deal with Liberty.

Silverstone has already taken up the option to get out of its contract

its 27th year, has survived in F1 far longer than Alfa’s combined seven full seasons as a constructor.

Only three current teams have competed in F1 longer than Sauber. Ferrari, which has been there since 1950; McLaren, founded in 1966; and Williams, which started building its own cars in 1978.

Ligier, Lotus, Footwork Arrows, March, Lola and Larrousse also competed in 1993, but they are long gone.

As for Tyrrell, BAR bought it to secure an official 1999 F1 entry, and later became Honda, then Brawn, and is today Mercedes. So, in a way, Tyrrell is still winning world championships decades after Ken Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart won in 1969, 1971 and 1973!

after this year’s event. The contracts for the races in Germany, Italy, Spain and Mexico also expire this year. And none of them have substantial government backing (zero in Silverstone’s case) like the races in Azerbaijan, Russia, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

To try and make a profit after paying the high sanctioning fees, the circuits have to charge spectators high ticket prices.

FOPA is also concerned by the trend to show the races on payfor-view rather than free-to-air TV because this means F1 reaches a smaller audience, which in turn reduces the ticket-buying fan base.

“If this continues, Formula 1 will be racing on second-rate circuits, if any at all,” Silverstone chairman Stuart Pringle told the Daily Mail.

“Everyone is disgruntled. Liberty’s ideas are disjointed.”

Ecclestone, who was ousted by Liberty, told the same publication that he would be happy to mediate.

“If they want me to help, I am willing to do so,” he said. “I don’t want to lie on my deathbed and see the sport I created go downhill.”

Liberty has been shocked how the various F1 factions air their dirty laundry in public as it prefers to sort things out behind closed doors.

While Liberty gave the former boss the title of F1’s chairman emeritus, it has shown little interest in consulting with Ecclestone.

Indeed, Liberty has been steadily erasing many things Ecclestone introduced over the years, and along the way is discovering just how complex and contrary is this business of F1.

VETTEL UNDER PRESSURE

Other teams from 1993 – such as Jordan, Benetton and Minardi – survived by changing owners and names.

Since 1995, Simtek, Pacific, Forti, Prost, Toyota, Super Aguri, a different Lotus, HRT and Virgin were also in F1, and they are also long gone.

Founder Peter Sauber always ran a very efficient racing team.

However, there were good times and bad times financially, and it’s doubtful the team would have survived if it had not been sold to the Swiss-based Longbow Finance in July

2016. Pascal Picci became the new chairman and president of Sauber.

The investment helped turn the team around, as did the decision by new team principal Frederic Vasseur to cancel the contract for Honda for 2018 and remain with Ferrari engines.

And now, in 2019, a new era for Sauber – Alfa Romeo Racing – begins.

With additional money coming in from the Italian carmaker, the fourth-oldest team in F1 looks like it will remain in the series for a very long time

IT IS inevitable in motor racing that younger, faster drivers will eventually replace the established stars. Three former F1 drivers are speculating that Charles Leclerc, 21, will pose a threat to his new Ferrari teammate, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, 31.

“He (Vettel) needs to improve and the team needs to improve,” 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg told Sky Sports News. “They (Ferrari) have made some major changes… they got rid of (team principal Maurizio) Arrivabene and put in (Mattia) Binotto. They’ve made a change in the highest position there. Leclerc could also be a very, very positive dynamic; but could also be negative, it could also backfire.”

Eddie Irvine, who drove for Ferrari from 1996 through 1999, does not seem to rate Vettel very highly.

“I think Vettel is good if he is at the front and he doesn’t have anybody to race,” Irvine told the BBC. “When you watch Lewis (Hamilton) race, Lewis is focused on racing and getting ahead. You watch Vettel and, when Vettel is racing someone, he is focused as much on the other guy as he is on where he is going and inevitably crashes into the other guy. That happens nearly all the time.

“I think Vettel is a good driver, but a four-times world champion, I just don’t see it. I think he is massively over-rated. I think he’s a one-trick pony.”

2009 world champion Jenson Button was Hamilton’s teammate at McLaren from 2010 through 2012, which was the period Vettel was winning his crowns with Red Bull.

“It’s a very different atmosphere for Sebastian at Ferrari than it was at Red Bull,” Button told Sky Sports News. “Maybe there’s more pressure.

“We’re going to see how he copes this year. It’s going to be a big year for Sebastian. When Daniel (Ricciardo) came into Red Bull, he found it difficult. Daniel put him under a lot of pressure and actually outperformed him. I think if Charles can do that this year it’s a tough decision of where Sebastian is going to go for the future and what he’s going to do.”

Leclerc insists that his Ferrari contract does not stipulate he plays a number two role to Vettel. But then Rubens Barrichello mistakenly thought the same of his Ferrari contract regarding Schumacher.

Hamilton, 34, is the second-oldest F1 driver this season (Kimi Raikkonen is 39) and knows he will have to fight hard to keep the younger generation behind him.

“How do I remain relevant?” Hamilton told Autosport. “How do I remain fitter than all these guys? How do I remain mentally more focused and more diligent than all these other guys?

That’s my super focus, to stay ahead of them.”

Vettel is also going to have to dig deep to keep the youngsters, and his detractors, at bay.

NEW FOR 2019

THE TEAMS will unveil their 2019 F1 cars in February prior to preseason testing, which begins in Barcelona on the 18th. Those cars comply to the new 2019 rules, and the drivers and teams will also have to deal with changes in the regulations.

Here’s a roundup of what’s new for this year: * One of the most visible changes are the aero regs aimed at improving the possibilities for drivers to overtake. These include: a higher, wider, simpler front wing; a higher, simpler rear wing; and restrictions on the brake ducts and barge boards. * After a safety car period, the restart line will now be the start/ finish line rather than a line in the previous corner as in the past.

Drivers cannot overtake another car before that line. * The rear wings will feature vertical strips of LED lights on the endplates, along with the traditional central rear light. This will improve the visibility of the cars in rain conditions, and the lights must be turned on whenever the cars are on intermediate or wet-weather tyres. * Minimum weight of driver and car increases from 733kg to 740kg. A major change is that the driver weight, including his seat and driving equipment, must be 80kg and is measured separate to the car. If ballast is needed to bring a lighter driver up to 80kg, it

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must be placed in the seat area rather than strategically elsewhere in the chassis. This evens the playing field between heavier and lighter drivers as it removes the advantage the latter have enjoyed. * Helmets must now meet new safety standards. * The maximum amount of fuel a driver may use during the race increases from 105kg to 110kg. This should enable a driver to go

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flat-out for the entire race rather than having to save fuel. On the other hand, the engineers are so paranoid of adding weight to the cars that they might still send them into the races with a lighter fuel load. * Drivers will now wear biometric gloves.

The tiny sewed-in sensors will transmit vital driver signs to the medical car heading to the scene of an accident so that the doctors will get an early indication of the driver’s condition. * Rather than having five different sidewall colours to differentiate the five different slick tyre compounds, there will be only three during a race weekend – red for the soft compound, yellow for the medium and white for the hardest compound. * While the traditional chequered flag will still be waved at the end of the race, the official signal will now be a lighted chequered display panel at the finish line. This will eliminate embarrassing moments such as happened in Canada last year when a celebrity guest flag waver mistakenly displayed the flag a lap too early.

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17

F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

FIRED UP FOR DAN THE MAN BRITISH BOFFIN Nick Chester keeps a low profile in the Formula 1 paddock. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a softly spoken guy. However, Chester has a major influence on things because he is the chassis technical director for the Renault Sport Formula One Team.

Chester has been working at Renault F1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s British base at Enstone in Oxfordshire since 2000, when it was called Benetton and he joined as a test team engineer. He worked with Mark Webber, Alexander Wurz and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Webber had a test driver role at Benetton in 2001.

He was working at the factory in early August last year when he heard that another Aussie â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Daniel Ricciardo â&#x20AC;&#x201C; would be joining the team. And not in a test role, but as a star driver alongside Nico Hulkenberg.

The news was then announced to everybody in the building. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The people at the factory went mad, everybody was cheering,â&#x20AC;? Chester recalled. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everybody was really, really excited. It was brilliant.â&#x20AC;?

Ricciardo is a big-name driver and proved at Red Bull Racing that he can fight at the front of the field and win races. Does that add pressure for Renault? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, for a start, it is really positive,â&#x20AC;? Chester said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It underlines the commitment of Renault to bring in such a top-level driver, and it also underlines the commitment for the team to invest to give him a good enough car. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It focuses your mind â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you know you have to make a very good car for him.

Renault F1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nick Chester expects a big step in engine performance for Dan Ricciardo this year.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is really positive because everyone is fired up. They know if we give him the right equipment, he will deliver. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We know we have a very strong driver pairing to work with in 2019. It is a real positive for everybody.â&#x20AC;?

Renaultâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s equipment in 2018 was good enough for fourth place in the constructorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; championship, but that was 297 points adrift of Red Bull, which used the same power unit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ideally, through 2018 we would have liked to have closed the gap to Red Bull, but the gap stayed fairly constant,â&#x20AC;? Chester admitted. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They developed, we developed. So it is still a big challenge to work on our

development rate because if we want to catch the top three teams we are going to have to start closing the gap. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But at least we kept pace with Red Bullâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development rate. It would have been very disappointing if we dropped away from them.â&#x20AC;?

Renault kept developing its 2018 car until early September and then switched its focus completely to the 2019 model.

The underpowered and sometimes unreliable power unit, of course, let down both Renault and Red Bull at various times last year. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We know we did not bring all the engine development we wanted to the track in 2018,

but, on the other hand, we know that there are some good things in the pipeline for 2019.

So we might not have seen the performance last year, but we are looking forward to quite a big step on the engine.â&#x20AC;?

So what will Ricciardo bring from Red Bull to Renault? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Drivers carry in their head the things that have been important in terms of car setup and maybe some of the big things the team did to the car. So that is always useful.

He is obviously very good at feedback on set-up as well, so that is going to be a big help.

We are looking forward to it.â&#x20AC;?

Teams talk about whether they are ready for a star driver.

Is this the right time to have a proven race-winner plugged into Renault? â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is always the right time to take whatever makes you quicker. If that is a better driver, then that is great. It pushes the team on; it will help the development. It also shows the commitment we have, that Renault believes it can have a topline driver.â&#x20AC;?

You can expect Chester to maintain a low profile in 2019. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just the kind of quiet achiever he is. He will let Renaultâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strong driver pairing do the talking out on the track.

Renault will unveil the all-new RS19 F1 racer at its Enstone base on February 12.

CONGRATULATIONS PORSCHE

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OPINION

By MARK FOGARTY, Editor-At-Large

HERE’S AN idea. How about letting the Supercars off the leash at Mount Panorama to show what they can really do?

A GT3 Audi without shackles set an unofficial lap record last November, which was bettered by the unrestricted Brabham BT62 last weekend.

Surely the leading Supercars exponents could give those informal marks a good nudge – or, even better, blitz ’em – if their cars were given special concessions for a time attack on The Mountain? I reckon McLaughlan, van Gisbergen, Whincup and Reynolds, etc could go sub-two minutes if their cars were relieved of some key restrictions.

What I’m thinking is turning the Bathurst 1000 Top 10 Shootout into a special assault on the official qualifying lap record. That would mean beating the GT3 mark of 2m1.286s, set in 2016 by Shane van Gisbergen in a McLaren 650S. And with the right assistance, perhaps bettering the unofficial ‘closed car’ record of 1m58.670s set by Luke Youlden in the BT62 in a demonstration run at the Bathurst 12 Hour last Saturday.

That was 0.621s quicker than Christopher Mies wrung from an Audi R8 relieved of key GT3 Balance Of Performance restrictions in a dedicated record run at Challenge Bathurst.

The quickest clocking ever seen in Supercars – Scott McLaughlan’s Lap Of The Gods II in his Falcon FG X – is 5.4 seconds shy of the unofficial mark and 2.8 seconds away from SVG’s official qualifying record.

That’s just not right. It’s time to put the ‘super’ back into Supercars at Bathurst.

So how would you allow them to shine in the speed stakes around Mount Panorama?

Firstly, give them ultra-grippy Dunlop tyres – a special hyper-soft version of the control ‘super-soft’ rubber for one-off, limited use in a qualifying attack. Such a tyre would gain, I’m guessing, a few seconds at least.

Next, unchoke the engines.

Remove the 7500rpm restriction, allowing the motors to temporarily peak at 8500 or even 9000 revs to raise horsepower from 650 to close to 800 – and, with remapping, a big boost in maximum torque.

There may also be some weight reduction and suspension freedoms that would help them go quicker. Not my area of expertise.

But I’m pretty sure relaxing gear and final drive ratios would add to

Time to put the ‘super’ back into Supercars at Bathurst

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Bruce Williams 0418 349 555 Associate Publisher Mike Imrie Editor-At-Large Deputy Editor Creative Director/ Production

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Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, David Hassall, Bob Watson F1 Dan Knutson Speedway Geoff Rounds

Luke Youlden and Christopher Mies both broke the two-minute barrier at Bathurst, but how fast could an unrestricted Scott McLaughlin go?

the lower lap time dividend.

Again, I stress that this would all be limited-use, one-off freedoms for the Top 10 Shootout at Bathurst, nowhere else.

Also, allow the teams to run their cars in this full-qually configuration in a late-afternoon practice session to set the stage for a super-quick battle for pole.

Tell me a driver or a team that wouldn’t love to be allowed to make an optimised all-out assault on the lap record at Bathurst. Even the extra cost – minimal in the big scheme of things, not to mention the publicity windfall – wouldn’t be a deterrent.

And the fans would absolutely embrace the concept. The prospect of witnessing the top drivers on the absolute pumpedup edge would excite spectators and viewers, as well as giving the broadcast commentators something to really conjugate and hyperbolise.

It is only right and proper that, of all places, the stars of Supercars should be able to demonstrate their skill and speed at Mount Panorama. The rules, for costcontainment reasons, restrain the speed of the V8s.

Supercars is the biggest domestic motor sport game by far – and at the biggest event of the season, at least, they should be able to demonstrate they can be the quickest.

Letting the Top 10 loose on the qualifying lap record is a win-win scenario. Great pre-event publicity and tremendous theatre for the battle for pole position.

The one time Supercars should be supreme – notwithstanding the category’s ownership of the internationally renowned but locally ultra-niche Bathurst 12 Hour – is at the 1000 in October.

At the very least, create a special tyre for the Top 10 Shootout. Not. That. Hard. In fact, easy. And

you can’t tell me that Dunlop wouldn’t be keen to demonstrate its tyre technology with a strictly controlled showcase compound to help establish Supercars’ pace primacy at Mount Panorama.

Add a few more temporary speed tweaks and you’re talking major qualifying drama ahead of the 1000, adding to the allure of an event that rarely fails to enthral in The Great Race.

This idea is important because the recent efforts in GT to better the magic two-minute barrier make Supercars seem slow. Given that the Bathurst 1000 is the track’s – and Australian racing’s – premier event, that’s just not right.

For perspective, without GT3’s Balance Of Performance restrictions, Christopher Mies dipped under two minutes for the first time driving an Audi R8 Ultra in last November’s Bathurst Challenge free-for-all, before Youlden lowered that unofficial ‘closed car’ mark in the race-spec Brabham BT62 to 1m58.670s.

Scott McLaughlin’s scintillating 2017 Bathurst 1000 pole-winning lap was 2m4.147s. That was an heroic effort on the hardest ‘soft’ compound control tyre and with top speed limited by the mandated final-drive ratio.

But it’s still a bit ordinary in comparison to SVG’s recordbreaking 2:01.286 to claim pole for the 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour.

These figures are super-nerdy, appealing mainly to raceheads, but for the mainstream audience that the 1000 attracts, the prospect of watching an unrestrained race for pole position would be riveting.

So, Supercars, let’s do it.

Give the teams the freedom to show how fast Supercars really can be at our best track in our biggest event.

As Lambassador Sam Kekovich would say, “You know it makes sense.”

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Stonie has moved! Our veteran cartoonist’s popular satirical view is now a feature of The Last Lap – a light-hearted look at racing – on page 58.

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Getting ready for her third full-time season in Supercars, Simona de Silvestro talks openly about struggling to show she has the speed to be successful in a male-dominated sport amid the winds of change for women in racing

S

HE IS arguably the best female racing driver in the world. With Danica Patrick retired, Simona de Silvestro picks up the mantle of the most accomplished woman in racing, having performed credibly in IndyCar and now Supercars – two of the most ferociously competitive series in the world.

But it is almost damning with faint praise to anoint de Silvestro as the best of her gender. So few females compete at the top level that it is easy to stand out regardless of results.

The fact is that de Silvestro is the lone woman driver in Supercars. She attracts attention and interest because her sex. After two years as a fulltime driver, her results are, at best, inconclusive – or, at worst, condemning.

While you have to allow for the fact that she has been with a team that has struggled, it is also undeniable she has been out-performed by her Nissan Motorsport teammates in the inconsistent Altima.

There was a possibility that de Silvestro and her big Harvey Norman backing might have switched to Triple Eight in the Craig Lowndes-vacated third entry.

Had that happened, we might have been able to judge her true potential.

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But that deal couldn’t be done and she is seeing out the last year of her contract with Kelly Racing. Much is changing for women generally in motor sport – and de Silvestro is part of the movement – but she has to convert the tenacity and feistiness that earned her the nickname ‘The Iron Maiden’ into incursions into the top 10.

Based on the Gold Coast when she resides here, the 30-year-old Swiss national is an under-utilised promotional asset. Her switch to racing in Australia was brokered by Supercars, but apart from an initial burst of publicity in early 2017, her unique status has created little cut-through into the mainstream media.

She has flown under the radar, creating little impression in races, apart from the odd glimpse, and hasn’t been put forward as an alternative face of Supercars. That suits her low-profile approach, but does nothing to change perceptions about women racing drivers.

As de Silvestro admits, she must make her mark this season, translating two years of learning into tangible progress. That also depends on Kelly Racing giving her the support and equipment to show what she can do.

My understanding is that you had other options, so why did you decide to stay with Kelly Racing?

Yes, there were some rumours, but it didn’t happen, so I can’t really say much more about it. And anyway, I had a contract here (for 2019) and that’s how it kind of played out, pretty much.

But you did have some flexibility. You weren’t locked in, were you?

Well, I think I was pretty locked in and I think if there would have been a change, it would have been only for one thing. No, it was never that close to happening or anything. There were just a lot of rumours.

It was a pretty good rumour, though (replacing Lowndes at Triple Eight with Harvey Norman backing).

[Laughs] It could have been, I don’t know.

So you’re happy with this team and feeling confident that it will move forward?

Yeah. I think in 2018 we didn’t really perform that well, but Rick was OK at the beginning of the season and I feel that we were much closer in general to my teammates, but somehow it wasn’t showing in the results. It’s been a bit frustrating in that sense, but going into 2019, I’ll be with the same engineer, so hopefully that will get the ball rolling a little

bit more. But I think as a team in general, we have a lot of work to do. Rick finished eighth in the championship, but the rest of us were nowhere close to that, so there’s a bit of work to get all the cars where they need to be.

Before you joined the series full-time, everyone told you how difficult it would be. Has it actually been a lot tougher than you expected?

Yeah, the racing is different, but I think that’s the same anywhere you go, and 2017 was definitely pretty rough. But I think the biggest thing is just me trying to learn how to drive the car. That was really tricky.

It took a while to understand what I have to do, the inputs I have to do, and then not really knowing where to go with the set-up and stuff. But in 2018, I definitely felt more comfortable in my driving, so it was a bit easier to guide where we wanted to go set-upwise and things like that. But, yeah, I think in general the series is tough. If you look in qualifying, all cars are pretty much within a second, and if you miss by a tenth of a second, usually in that tenth there are six cars, so the racing is hard and it just shows that the level is really high.

A racing driver, by his or her very nature, is never really satisfied unless you’re winning…

Well, hopefully. I think it’s going to be a bit strange not having the Nissan backing, but the team is working hard, same as any other team, to try to improve. I think we started off last year really well with Rick, and then the events at the end of the season weren’t the easiest, so there’s definitely work that’s going to be done during the off-season to be better. I’m going to work on myself to be better and the team is going to do the same thing.

As you say, it will be strange because you’ve only ever known it as a factorybacked team. Do you have a sense of how different it will be?

Well, I think factory team in Australia is not the same as a factory team anywhere else.

There won’t be the backing from Nissan, but in general the team did most of the work, so at the end of the day it’s more of a Kelly Racing development, not coming from Japan or something like that. So, in that sense, I think they know everything they’ve done in the last six years and I think they know where the car is lacking as well and, hopefully,

during the off-season they’ll be able to tick off even more of those boxes that we need to improve in the car.

You also have this test driver deal with the Venturi Formula E team. Are you looking to the future with that? You’re not worried that will compromise your program here?

It doesn’t really because it’s happening all in the off-season. It was just a good opportunity for me. We got together with Susie (Wolff, Venturi team principal) in the middle of last year and I’ve always been kind of close to Formula E. There’s no Supercars testing until February and I get to do at least one test in the Formula E car in our off-season as well as going to the races, so it’s just keeping me busy until the Supercars start again. I just think it’s a cool opportunity for me to be involved there and also for the team to be believing in me that I can help them. Once the Supercars season starts, that has priority. I’m not going to be flying back just to do simulator work. I’ll be based here, but there’ll

Exactly.

Were Rick’s early performances and the other odd good results encouraging, showing that in certain circumstances the car can do it?

I think so. I just think our window with the car is really small and it’s hard to nail.

Sometimes the car was pretty good and then other times we were just nowhere, so it just really puts you behind. We had a few odd things happening (breakages) and sometimes me as well, you know, not really nailing the lap when I needed to and being two-tenths off my teammate. Then you’re starting 18th instead of 11th, so that makes a big difference in the race, and I think that’s something I need to focus on, and every race weekend really need to nail the (qualifying) lap and get the car in the window that it needs to be at every race.

I think it’s hard to do, but that’s what racing’s about.

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But after two years in Supercars, are you satisfied with your progress or is there still an element of frustration?

I think there’s still frustration because the results aren’t there. You know, I think pacewise we’re there now. In 2017, sometimes we were kind of cruising around and we would end up in the top 15, whereas we’re now kind of there, but we haven’t been able to crack the top 10 and I think that’s really frustrating. That’s something we really need to change for this year. I feel like I’m driving much better than in the first year, so whatever I’ve learned should make me better this year. We just really need to nail everything on the race weekend.

Is it your understanding that the team will also make progress in 2019? Are there developments in hand for the Altima?

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be just a few times when I’m in Switzerland anyway, so it works out fine.

This could open up opportunities for you, so from 2020 is your future in Supercars up in the air?

Well, I don’t know. I think as a driver, especially nowadays, you have to explore any opportunities you get. Those opportunities don’t come around very often, so for me I’m really lucky that there’s interest in general. But Supercars has the priority anyway. I wouldn’t have come here for just three years and then say, “Oh, I’m done.”

But my deal with Kelly Racing is finished at the end of this year, so right now I’m not too worried about it because this season is going to be about trying to get results and then, hopefully, something comes out of this to keep me here.

De Silvestro was part of an all-female crew at the Daytona 24 Hour last month, alongside Katherine Legge, Christine Neilsen and Anna Beatriz (above) driving an Acura Honda NSX (below). They finished 33rd overall and 13th in the GT3 class.

The Newcastle street track is where you have shone. Will we see more of that at other tracks this year?

Well, I thought that was going to happen last year, but it was just a hard year in general.

How I drive at Newcastle is the way I used to drive all the time. The car was really good there and it made it possible for me to drive my natural way, which is very aggressive.

Sometimes we were there at other tracks, but more often we weren’t, so we just have to transfer that form at Newcastle to every race. That’s how I’m going to be able to race like that on a regular basis.

Especially in 2017, your performance at Newcastle proved that you’ll take on anyone when you get the chance.

Well, that’s how I like to race. Until Supercars, that’s how I always raced. But everything has to be right to be able to be like this. That aggressive style of racing is more me, definitely.

You mentioned commuting back to Switzerland. My understanding is that you do that a lot rather than spending most of the year here, and I wonder

whether all that travel is disruptive?

Well, in 2018 it was a bit more because I had some family issues back in Switzerland.

Sometimes there are other things outside of racing that are important as well. But to be honest, I don’t think the travel is really hurting me that much because I feel comfortable in Switzerland. That’s where my home is, where my family is, and we have like a three- or four-week break, I feel better going home than being here on my own.

So, at the end of the day, it’s a decision I

take, but, for sure, last year was a bit more because of those family issues.

Do you enjoy living here?

I do, I love it. I really like it. I love Australia and living on the Gold Coast now is cool.

I’m starting to make friends and I have a bit of an environment there now. When you come to a brand new place, it takes time to just find your feet and also to find a life outside of racing. I’ve started to achieve that on the Gold Coast, which is positive.

In Supercars, the fans are a lot more in your face than big series overseas.

You’re pretty popular, so how have you found that close interaction with the fans?

It’s cool. I’m used to it because it was a bit similar in IndyCar, where the fans are also quite close. But I think it’s cool. It makes the sport accessible to the fans – they can see us and spend time with us as well. It’s awesome to see so many people lining up to see you.

De Silvestro battles with Coulthard, De Pasquale and Blanchard at Hidden Valley

22 AutoAction

Do you think that you’re inspiring young girls?

In a sense, yes. I do a lot to help promote women in racing. I’m part of the Dare To Be Different program here in Australia. But I never really look at it that I’m inspiring young girls. I’ll do promotions or events and

there are maybe young girls that look up to me, and, for sure, hopefully in their eyes I can show that anything is possible and you just follow your dreams. To be honest, we’ll only know in a few years if I am an inspiration. I think it’s good and I’m lucky to be in that position to kind of create this opportunity to show that you can do it.

I would have thought you’d be more approachable for young girls.

Maybe. I don’t know.

I know you regard yourself as just a driver, but…

Yeah, it is different, for sure.

You’re a pioneer in Supercars, and now there’s this worldwide Dare To Be Different program to promote women in motor sport, with leaders like Susie Wolff overseas and Jessica Dane here, and your own involvement. Is it working?

I think there are more women in racing now and it feels like we are kind of sticking together to really push this agenda, which I think is something really cool. It’s cool to be part of it.

But you’re not a big fan of the W Series, are you?

No. I don’t think it’s the way to do it. If I would

“A woman needs the right opportunity in a good car, and I think that would change a lot of opinions if that would happen” at the right time. But like I said, if I’m 15 and don’t have any backing, and that’s the only option, it could be the right way. It’s hard to say, but I don’t think it’s the way to do it.

What is perhaps more meaningful is Susie Wolff taking charge of the Venturi FE team, Jessica Dane being on a pathway to possibly one day running Triple Eight and Claire Williams being co-team principal of Williams F1. Possibly a better way forward is for women to, essentially, get into powerful positions in teams and drive change from there?

Yeah, I think so. Hopefully, that’s going to happen because more women are going to be involved in racing. There’s a big shift with Susie at Venturi – I think that’s a pretty big deal. So we’ll see where all of this is going to go in the future. be 15 now and not have any sponsorship to go racing, maybe it’s something I would consider because that would be the only way out. But I think the biggest thing is, as a woman, at the end of the day I don’t think there has been one woman who has been in a top team in any racing series and I think that’s what’s lacking. If I look at my career, in IndyCar, yeah, I’ve had some success, but I’ve never been in one of the top teams.

Now, if I look at who won the IndyCar Series two years ago (Simon Pagenaud), I was racing against him (in junior racing in Europe) and we were kind of the same pace and things like that. So I think that’s what’s missing, and with the W Series, you go do it for maybe a year, but you then still have that issue of not getting an opportunity in a good team. I think it’s a big risk because people are then going to say, “See, it can’t

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Of course, there’s also Betty Klimenko as a team owner in Supercars. Have you had much to do with her?

I think she’s awesome. She’s a really cool person and I think she’s great for the paddock as well, and her team is doing really well. It just shows that she has the right people around her and it’s bringing the results.

And we’re seeing more female engineers and technicians in Supercars, aren’t we?

Yes, so there’s definitely a wave of change, I would say.

You’re not so alone anymore, are you?

I’ve never looked at it that way, but, yeah, there are more and more girls, for sure.

be possible.” A woman needs the right opportunity in a good car, and I think that would change a lot of opinions if that would happen.

And it seems to me to be introducing a form of segregation that’s never existed in motor sport, which is one of only a few professional sports where women compete with men.

Exactly. I don’t think it’s the way to do it. If I look at myself, I don’t think it’s the way to do it because once you leave the W Series, you have to be in a good car to be competitive. You go do it for a year and then after that... okay, you do have a little bit of money, but then you’re still looking at going into F3 and still have the same issue, which is that you have to be in the right car

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TAKING IT TO

THE MAX F1 phenomenon Max Verstappen defied his critics in 2018 by turning early crashes and clashes into a stunning finish to the season. As the unrepentant ace explained to DAN KNUTSON and LUIS VASCONCELOS, the turnaround was the result of slowing down to go faster

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I

T ALL started badly for Max Verstappen at Albert Park when he damaged his car by sliding over the kerbs. It was not the start to the 2018 that the young Dutchman wanted, but it got worse.

After making a major mistake in qualifying, Verstappen then retired in Bahrain after a collision with Lewis Hamilton. In China, he locked his rear wheels and slid into Sebastian Vettel. Verstappen finished fifth while his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo sailed to victory.

While the race stewards doled out equal blame when Verstappen and Ricciardo knocked each other out in Azerbaijan, the general feeling was that Verstappen was more at fault.

A third place in Spain was followed by Monaco, where Verstappen crashed in qualifying and therefore was unable to challenge Ricciardo as the Australian nursed his ailing car to a famous victory.

But then things changed for Mad Max. He took third in Canada, second in France and first in Austria. He scored points in each of the final nine races, including another win and six more visits to the podium.

Here, Verstappen talks openly about his abrupt approach on and off the track, which has both thrilled and divided F1 fans.

How do you look back on your 2018 season?

It could always be better, but in general I am satisfied.

What were your best and worst moments?

The worst moments were the initial few races â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they were not that great â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but after that we started to have some good results. So I am really pleased with that.

Was your win in Austria your best moment?

The win, yes, but not only the win. That was, of course, great, but also there were races being on the podium that were really good.

Have you found an explanation for your tough start to the season?

I think I just wanted it too much. So I just calmed down a little bit. Not calmed down, but I just drove a little bit slower, and that actually meant that I was going faster.

So after Monaco you re-adjusted?

I just drove a little bit slower.

It was a mixed 2018 season for Max Verstappen. Despite starting poorly, he had a run of podiums and victories towards in the second half.

Slower is better?

maybe you need a bad race or a hard lesson to become a better driver.

At the moment, it seems like it, yes.

But does that feel natural for you?

Sometimes it is, yes, but you have to adjust yourself to it.

One gets the feeling that the FIA is a bit harsher on you than some of the other drivers. Do you think that is really the case?

I’m a racer and I’m always going to fight for my position, so, automatically, you will end up in tougher positions – and sometimes I think they are very easily giving penalties.

Looking back at some of the incidents last year, is there anything you would do differently?

Maybe not because it also made me the driver I am today.

Even the one at Suzuka? (The stewards gave Verstappen a five-second penalty for contact with Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap of the Japanese Grand Prix.)

Yeah, I think it sometimes happens for a reason. Sometimes

Your collaboration with teammate Daniel Ricciardo has come to an end. How was it to work with him?

He is a great guy. He is very fast as well, and he is very open in terms of we didn’t hide stuff from each other, and that is also very good. So he was always very enjoyable to work with. On track, of course, we tried to beat each other, but off track we have a lot of respect for each other.

He has more experience than you, so could you learn some things from him?

I have just gained experience throughout my career and that is what helped me.

How will it be to work with your friend Pierre Gasly, who replaces Ricciardo as your teammate?

He is a very nice guy. I am sure he is going to be really quick as well. But I don’t foresee any problems. Of course, initially, he has to get in with the team a little bit, but they are very nice here, so he will easily feel at home very quickly. I look forward to the partnership and, hopefully,

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Verstappen is confident the Honda package is not only a faster one, but is more reliable.

we can score a lot of good results together.

You will be the experienced driver now at Red Bull, so will you feel a bit like a team leader?

I personally don’t feel like it. Yes, I am going to be the more experienced one, but I think it is not going to make a massive difference.

The unreliability of the Renault power unit created some disappointing retirements for both you and Ricciardo. And the horsepower

deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari was frustrating as well. This year, Red Bull has a new partnership with Honda. What is your current knowledge of where Honda is and what are your expectations?

The current level is that they are better than Renault. So of course we are very happy with that. There is a lot of stuff still coming, so I am very excited to look ahead to this year. We know where we were at with Renault and how much we are missing. And the Honda is already better than that. And also what they are promising us for the beginning of this year is another step. Of course, the other manufacturers will also improve, but I feel like we have more to gain. And the steps they are making are very promising. I don’t expect at the beginning of the season that we can fight for victories, but towards the middle and the end of the season, then we should be able to close the gap even more.

Are you satisfied that you know why Honda failed to be competitive at McLaren?

Pierre Gasly will be Max’s teammate this season (above). Former F3 rival Esteban Ocon clashed with him in Brazil (below).

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It was because McLaren was telling them how to design the engine and we don’t say that. We just tell them to design the engine to be as fast as possible and we will make it fit into our car. We will have more horsepower, but also lighter and better packaging (than the Renault) and that helps a lot.

How much input do you have on the design of the 2019 car in terms of what you want for your driving style?

I just go with what I felt last year and they will take that into account for the new car.

You have two more years in your contract with Red Bull going into this partnership with Honda. So from your point of view, does Red Bull have two years to prove to you that they can give you the world championship?

Yes, it is very clear. We want to win together and we

S A E G A K C A P E M A S E H T D A H I H IS W “I T O N D L U O W E H K IN H T I N E H T !

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Verstappen feels he would be more than a match for five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton if he had equal equipment.

have another two years to do that. And after that, we will make up our own minds about what we are going to do.

Is there pressure on everybody in the team?

No, we just want to win – and we want a faster engine.

So we are just looking forward to it.

Especially in Europe, there is a sea of orange with all the Dutch fans in the grandstands, and at some races like Austria there are whole Max grandstands.

What does it feel like going to a track knowing there is support like that for you?

It is always very, very nice to see all the orange. It gives you extra motivation to do well. I am not going to go faster because of it, but it is nice to see, for sure.

George Russell and Lando Norris are making their F1 racing debuts this year with Williams and McLaren. You made your F1 start with Toro Rosso, which was not too bad a car. So do you think it will be tough to get into F1 with an uncompetitive car, which seems to be the case for them?

Sometimes it can help you as well because you make mistakes in an uncompetitive car and nobody pays attention to it. And that will then help you to be a better driver later. Time will tell if it was the right decision for them or not.

You were only 17 when you began your F1 career.

Looking back, were you ready for the big league?

It depends on the way you have been preparing from a young age. I had my dad (former F1 driver Jos Verstappen) helping me a lot. He knew what it took to become an F1 driver, so that is why I was already very experienced for my age. I don’t think everybody can do it like that – it just depends on the people you have around you to make you already that experienced with a car and the knowledge of doing things. That is one scenario, but you also have a lot of talented people who maybe come into the sport a bit later in life and also

achieve a lot. For me, everything was a bit fast-tracked because of my dad.

Lewis Hamilton says that even at his age (34), he is still learning every season. What valuable lessons have you learned last year?

In general, you just gain more and more experience, and that at the end of the day makes you also a better driver and knowing how to handle situations.

So how do you continue to improve your F1 racing craft?

Now it is more about overall general experience which makes me better. There are some little things which could be better. I have been racing a car now for five years – four years in F1 and one year in Formula 3. So I didn’t really have a lot of experience or a lot of qualifying sessions to get the experience. So, through the years, I just got better; you understand the tyres better as well and how to get them to the limit. People are comparing me to drivers who have been driving formula cars for 10 years or more. So it is never easy initially because everybody in F1 is quick and when you don’t have that experience initially, it is hard to beat them.

Through the years you become better at it.

Are you sorry that your Formula 3 sparring partner, Esteban Ocon, does not have an F1 race seat this year?

Not sorry, but of course it is not nice to see him struggling when I think he would have deserved an F1 seat. But you always have to put it in the other perspective – would they feel sorry for you if it was the other way around?

Finally, what is it like to go wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton, who is one of the most impressive drivers at the

moment with five world championships? What do you think of what he has achieved?

I wish I had the same (Mercedes) package as he does! Then it would have been a lot different. I think he would not have been a five-time world champion. But it is always difficult if you are racing against someone with a different car to really say how good he is. I am very confident that if someone else was driving his car, he would also win world championships. So he is very good, for sure, he is an amazing driver, but he is definitely not out of this world.

ri Tazio Nuvola GP n a rm 1935 Ge

Tazio Nuvolari and the

IMPOSSIBLE VICTORY

Enzo Ferrari rated him the greatest driver of all time, and in the 1935 German GP he proved it with an incredible drive – much to the disgust of the Nazis

I

By BOB WATSON n the current era of Formula 1, with drivers aided by every possible safety measure and item of technical assistance, it is fascinating to look back to where the current sport came from. In the 1930s, long before the first Formula 1 World Championship race, drivers had to cope with machines that produced massive power, had skinny tyres, very little traction and no safety features to speak of – not even crash helmets. The driver mortality rate was very high.

The drivers of these cars were true heroes, and none more so than Tazio Nuvolari, known as ‘Il Mantovano Volante’ – the Flying Mantuan. Born in Mantua, Italy in 1892, he was recognised as the greatest driver of his era, and for some the best ever.

Ferdinand Porsche, for whom Nuvolari drove the fearsome Auto Union monsters, said: “Nuvolari is the greatest driver of the past, the present and the future”.

Enzo Ferrari said: “There is nobody else like him who can join an incredible sensitivity for the car with inhuman courage.”

Nuvolari had a late entry into motor sport, starting at 27 on motorcycles, as his father had done. After winning the 350cc European Championship he switched to cars and won the 1932 European title – effectively the world championship – in a factory Alfa Romeo.

When Alfa Romeo withdrew from racing, he switched to Scuderia Ferrari and won the 1933 Le Mans 24 Hour in the Ferrari team’s

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Alfa Romeo. A week after the Le Mans win he switched to the Maserati team and won the Belgian Grand Prix.

Nuvolari returned to Ferrari for the 1935 season and won the German GP in an outdated Alfa Romeo, beating factory cars from Mercedes and Auto Union – the “impossible victory” of which more later. It was the only win by a non-German car in the period from 1935 to 1939.

According to Enzo Ferrari, Nuvolari was the inventor of the fourwheel drift, a cornering technique that was later utilised by Fangio and Stirling Moss at a time when the tyres had a fraction of the grip of those in use today.

Courage behind the wheel was the Flying Mantuan’s hallmark.

Nuvolari and co-driver Battista Guidotti won the Mille Miglia in a Zagato-bodied Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS, becoming the first to complete the race at an average of over 100km/h. At night, leading on elapsed time but still lying behind teammate Achille Varzi on the road because he had started after him, he tailed Varzi at speeds of up to 150km/h with his headlights switched off, so that he could not be seen in the other car’s rear-view mirrors. He eventually switched them on to overtake Varzi near the finish at Brescia.

In 1935 Ferrari designed a ‘bimotore’ (twin-engined) Alfa Romeo to compete against the all-conquering Mercedes and Auto Union cars. The objective was to create two world speed records on a motorway near Florence. On the day of the attempt, there was a strong wind, but Nuvolari decided to drive anyway. At around

Nuvolari drove the race of his life to win at the 1935 German GP at the Nurburgring (above). Mercedes-Benz assembled no fewer than five of its powerful W25s, racing under the Nazi swastika (below).

320km/h a strong gust of wind caused the car to skid for more than 200 metres. Incredibly Nuvolari controlled the skid and went on to set two world records: 321.420 km/h for a standing kilometre and 323.125km/h for a standing mile, with a recorded top speed of 360km/h. His intestinal fortitude was not lacking!

During qualifying for the Grand Prix of Tripoli in 1936, Nuvolari had an accident . A punctured tyre sent his car off the track into an embankment and he was flung from the car. At the hospital he was found to have multiple fractures and the doctors said he could not drive for 20 days. Tazio declared that “tomorrow I will race” – and he did.

After being lifted into his car by his mechanics, he fought for the lead in the early laps, but the pain became too severe and he dropped back. The race was 500km long and the temperature over 40 degrees C. Despite these difficulties, the incredibly brave Mantuan finished the race in 8th and was given a hero’s reception as he was lifted from his car at the finish.

According to respected racer and writer SCH (Sammy) Davis,

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v larii Taziio Nuvo an GP m r rm e 1935 G

Novolari told Ferrari: “What if I am brought back in a coffin? You could have wasted the return fare” Nuvolari possessed a dark sense of humour. For example, after being given a return ticket for a journey to the Targa Florio in Sicily, he said to Enzo Ferrari, “What a poor businessman you are. What if I am brought back in a coffin? You could have wasted the return fare.”

For the 1932 season, Grand Prix races had to be between five and ten hours long. I wonder how Lewis Hamilton and company would handle that?

Nuvolari won the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix, and also the Targa Florio. In the latter race, riding mechanic Mabelli said: “Before the race Nuvolari told me to get down on the floor of the car every time he shouted, which was a signal that he had gone into a corner too fast and needed to lower the car’s centre of gravity. I spent the whole race on the floor. He shouted at the first corner and did not stop until the finish!”

For 1935 Nuvolari was determined to join the German Auto Union team, but was thwarted by Varzi who did not want Nuvolari in the team as his teammate. Italian dictator Mussolini helped to get him back in the Ferrari team.

This was the year he achieved the “impossible victory” in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, beating all the German cars in a race that was meant to demonstrate German superiority.

At the age of 43 and driving an outdated Alfa Romeo P3 with a 3167cc engine and 265 horsepower, he was up against five Mercedes-Benz W25s (3990cc and 375hp) and four Auto

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Unions (4950cc and 375hp) driven by the likes of Rudolf Caracciola, Luigi Fagioli, Hermann Lang, Manfred von Brauchitsch, Bernd Rosemeyer, Varzi and Hans Stuck.

But Nuvolari was confident in his ability and in the superior handling of the Alfa Romeo. The race started in rain and Caracciola went into the lead. Stuck’s Auto Union broke down at the start.

After six laps the rain stopped and the Mercedes were leading, with several of the Alfa Romeos and Auto Unions having retired. Nuvolari stepped up the pace and, to the amazement of the crowd, passed von Brauchitsch, Fagioli and Caracciola to take the lead.

However, during a refuelling stop the Mantuan struck trouble. The refuelling pump would not work, so the pit crew had to refuel the car using drums and a funnel. Nuvolari Watched by a crowd estimated lost over a minute to the leaders and at some 300,000, Nuvolari splits when he rejoined the race was facing two of the Mercedes at the start (top). The Italian driver a seemingly impossible task. He was used to celebrating big launched into pursuit, and by lap 13 race victories (above) but the the two Mercedes of Rosemeyer and German GP would be his Caracciola were having mechanical most famous. problems. Rosemeyer retired, while Nuvolari passed Caracciola to be second behind von Brauchitsch’s Mercedes.

The Mercedes’ tyres were deteriorating as Nuvolari applied pressure, but rather than stop the Mercedes driver pressed on, hoping his tyres would last to the finish. von Brauchitsch was still leading at the start of the final 21km lap,

ERA founder Raymond Mays qualified among the dominant German and Italian teams but the Brit retired mid-race with engine trouble (above).

Mercedes-Benz seemed to have the race won until the final lap (right).

Racing driver fashion in the 1930s, as demonstrated by Nuvolari, second from the left, and his colleagues at the 1935 Monaco GP (right).

and the German officials began to prepare for a German victory with the Reich flag and the national anthem at the ready.

As the crowd waited for the expected German victory, the sound of a roaring engine became clear. Then out of the haze and towards the finish line came not a silver car, but a red one. It was Nuvolari!

After a stunned silence, the 300,000 strong crowd applauded wildly for the diminutive Italian and his achievement of the impossible victory, but Hitlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Third Reich representatives present were not amused.

Meanwhile, the organisers fumbled around to find a recording of the Italian national anthem.

Tazio Nuvolari resumed racing after the hiatus of World War II, but he was in poor health. When he raced at Monza in September 1946 it was seen that he was steering with one hand, the other holding a bloodstained handkerchief. He died in 1953 of a stroke, aged 60. The greatest racing driver had gone.

Motor racing reporter Cyril Posthumus wrote: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tazio Nuvolari was not simply a racing driver. To Italy he became an idol, a demi-god, a legend, epitomising all that young Italy aspired to be; the man who â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;did the

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Porsche conquers the Mountain Australian sports car sensation Matt Campbell produced a stunning drive, along with Earl Bamber Motorsport team-mates Dirk Werner and Dennis Olsen, to race the Porsche 911 GT3 R to 2019 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour victory.

Porsche conquers the Mountain Australian sports car sensation Matt Campbell produced a stunning drive, along with Earl Bamber Motorsport team-mates Dirk Werner and Dennis Olsen, to race the Porsche 911 GT3 R to 2019 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour victory.

INDY MATERIAL

Australian-based Kiwi Hunter McElrea comes from a strong motorsport family, but is doing it his own way.

And, as HEATH MCALPINE found out, the Road to Indy Shootout winner is determined to join Dixon and Power on the IndyCar honour roll

T

HE SHEER relief and excitement were clear to see once Hunter McElrea was announced as the third winner of the Road to Indy Shootout after an intense three days of testing at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

McElrea, whose prize is a fully funded USF2000 ride for this year worth $US200,000 as the reigning Australian Formula Ford Series winner, has his eyes set on following Scott Dixon and Will Power into the world of IndyCar. “To win the Australian Formula Ford Series last year was amazing. It was definitely a big weight off my shoulders to get my first series under my belt,” McElrea told Auto Action.

“My dream is to be IndyCar champion and to win the Indy 500, like a lot of young drivers.

Going to America was a dream of mine as well; last year I got the opportunity to test a few times in USF2000, which went pretty well, then going to the Shootout and winning that was an unreal experience. A dream come true.

“Last year was a massive breakthrough year and hopefully we can continue the momentum into this year.”

Although Europe was an early goal, McElrea soon decided to pursue a career in the States – the country of his birth – based on the opportunities available and the potential of racing in one of the world’s greatest races.

“When you’re young everyone at one stage wants to be a Formula 1 driver, which was no different to me, but as I got older, a bit wiser you could say, IndyCar probably attracted me a lot more.

“It’s definitely on the rise and I think there’s

a lot of hype around it at the moment. Being over there, it’s such a cool place and there’s a lot of opportunity I think. You still have to work very hard, like anything, but just from what I’ve noticed, there’s so much opportunity if you work hard enough.

“Not saying that it just falls in your lap, but there’s certainly new teams and people getting behind IndyCar and just the whole American racing in general. And with the Indy 500, that’s probably the most exciting race in the world, and to win is a dream of mine.”

The 19-year-old is confident the competition in Formula Ford and the environment at Sonic Motor Racing Services has provided the right ingredients for him to continue his success in the US, especially when he tasted the USF2000 chassis for the first time.

“Formula Ford is my first step into cars. I’ve spent two years racing with Sonic and I can’t thank them enough for everything they taught me,” McElrea said.

Image: Insyde Media

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AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST SUPPLIER OF HIGH PERFORMANCE ENGINE PARTS!

Hunter McElrea has shown strong pace in USF2000 post-season testing, just prior to winning the Road to Indy Shootout.

“Formula Ford is the only junior category in Australia that I think teaches you racecraft, how to drive a car properly fully, mechanical grip, and it shows that moving from a car that has no aero and a treaded tyre then going to a car that has aero and slicks, it feels really good because you have a lot of grip to play with.”

This association was a strange one because McElrea’s father, Andy, operates a rival Carrera Cup team to Mick Ritter’s Sonic team, but the younger McElrea’s determination to forge his own path was a key reason to go in that direction.

“Sonic made me feel like family, that’s the only way to describe it. A lot of people find it funny because my dad’s team [McElrea Racing] and Sonic are rivals in Carrera Cup; for people on the outside, they couldn’t really understand that.

“For me, I always wanted to do my own thing and go my own way. Sonic and my parents supported that and obviously it has turned out well with me winning the Australian series.”

Speaking of his father, McElrea senior won two NZ Formula Ford titles, but has taken a backward seat in his son’s career after being initially hesitant to his son following the same path.

“I had to hassle him to let me start racing,” McElrea said.

“He’s very experienced in the sport and has been around a long time. I’m pretty lucky with that. He helps me off track with contacts, helping me, giving me as much advice as he can and letting me do what I want to do.”

Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx

However, the banter between the two hasn’t stopped now that McElrea has taken his first title.

“It was good that I won the series. Funnily enough, he’d always joke around and say I haven’t won a championship, so when I won the series it was good to put that to bed,” he laughed.

“But now, because I have only won one and he has won two, he’s joking around that I haven’t won as much as him. I still have to win a lot more races yet, otherwise I won’t hear the end of it.”

McElrea completed two test sessions before the Road to Indy Shootout, and was joined by Formula Ford rival Cam Shields, who had also competed in both the Formula 3 and 4 national titles with some distinction.

It was McElrea’s first wings and slicks experience and to say the two Aussies were impressive is an understatement.

However, the jump proved a relatively straightforward one for McElrea considering he was green to the new car, team and circuit.

“Obviously, when you first jump in it’s like, ‘oh my god, this has so much grip’, and telling yourself to go flat in some spots you don’t think you can flat, but when you do it and it sticks it’s like, wow!

“It took me a few sessions to get used to that, but once I did it felt really natural.”

The next generation of drivers from down under are in a great position to join the likes of Power, Dixon, Daniel Ricciardo and Brendan Hartley at the top level, and McElrea is one of them.

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GIANT S R E Y A SL Aussie Racing Cars is celebrating 20 years since its inaugural series. For much of this time it has been a major fixture of the Supercars support program, but with exciting developments ahead HEATH MCALPINE investigated the story behind the entertainment category.

A

USSIE RACING Cars are what some would call an accidental success. Designed for corporate drive days, these small, motorcycle-engined pocket rockets have grown to become one of the most successful categories to grace Australian race tracks.

The category continues to attract not only competitors but fans, who regularly race to the fence to catch a glimpse as three, four or five of these ‘karts on steroids’ (as described to me by back-to-back champion James Duckworth) fan out side-by-side in a thrilling display of racecraft.

It’s a credit to the Ward family, led by father Phil, that the category’s core principles are still applied successfully today in an ever-evolving motorsport landscape that has witnessed the halo revolution in open-wheel racing, the Car of The Future shift in Supercars, numerous new models in Carrera Cup and the transfer from V8 Utes to SuperUtes. The only hint of change from

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an Aussie Racing Cars point of view has been a rethink on the components and parts used to aid with reliability.

After the Ward family sold the Aussie Racing Cars business to Tony Quinn, the category has continued this development through new bodyshells, while still maintaining its cost-effective and easily accessible formula.

Phil Ward’s son, Brad, continues to be involved with the category, despite Quinn having taken over ownership in 2012, and is proud to look back on the initial growth of the class.

“Dad built the first car, made the first chassis and then started running races; he used to run corporate go-karting days once a month,” Ward says.

“He tested the first prototype car for a few years and after that started selling them to some of the corporates running in the go-karting. It was originally designed as a corporate drive day car, but as it turned out the cars were so

Many drivers have enjoyed the Aussie Racing Cars challenge, including category founder Phil Ward (left, in an ‘FJ Holden’), a prominent former Bathurst and Sports Sedan racer. good, they raced so well and they were so good as proper engineered and designed race cars, that it just grew into this motor racing category.

“I think we may have had 25 cars running around at the time when Supercars saw the category; it was Tony Manson at the time who was the operations manager or GM at the time, and he was the one who invited us to come and be a support category.”

Prior to being invited onto the Supercars bill, Aussie Racing Cars had run standalone events at various kart tracks and Oran Park’s South Circuit before joining the Power Tour as part of the program alongside NASCAR, Future Tourers, Super Touring and Trucks.

But how has the category remained largely unchanged since its birth?

Ward puts it down to the drivability of the cars and the excitement each race provides, with many decided right on the line. There is rarely an event where the leader has any sort margin and Ward believes this is why Aussie Racing Cars continues to be a success.

“What it comes down to is that the cars are good, they’re good to drive and proper race cars, but they’re also entertaining,” Ward told Auto Action.

“We’ve always called it ‘the entertainment category’ because fans love them, and due to this people want to get involved, people want to drive them, so it not only has one aspect that’s good, but it has several.

“They’re easy to handle because you can go away racing at a major racing event like the Adelaide 500 by yourself, you don’t need a crew of mechanics or

engineers, you can hitch it on the back of your family sedan and go away racing at one of the biggest events in the country quite easily and cost-effectively.

“We’ve raced at the Australian Grand Prix a few times; I’ve raced there myself three times. Where else can you go and race at these major events easily and cost-effectively? Aussie Racing Cars has given a lot of drivers the opportunity to do that over the last 20 years.”

Aussie Racing Cars holds the distinction of being the longest-serving Supercars support category, having joined the tour in 2003. and during that time it has maintained consistently strong grid numbers, while providing a stepping stone towards higher classes.

“I always say to people when we talk about the 20th year that it’s really the longest-standing Supercars category

in history and the longest-standing Australian motorsport category in history run at the highest level for the longest period with the strongest grids under the same brand or name,” Ward said.

“There is no other category that has done that. Supercars itself has had a name change from V8 Supercars to Supercars, V8 Utes had a complete change in strategy, Porsche Carrera Cup had a couple of seasons where it didn’t run; there’s no other category that rivals the strength of this one for such a long period of time.

“It was never marketed or pushed like that [a development category]. I suppose it was always pushed as the entertainment category, but I think the cars are proper race cars, they’re built and designed like a proper race car with all the adjustments.”

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“They are not difficult to drive but a challenge to drive absolutely on the limit, which means anybody that wins a race in one of these cars is a damn good driver” Proof of this is that last year’s series winner, Joel Heinrich, will step into a Matt Stone Racing-prepared Ford Falcon FGX for this year’s Super2 Series, while third-placed Kyle Ensbey will race in Super3. Other highly credentialed drivers such as Kel Treseder, Justin Ruggier, Blake Scriberras and Charlotte Poynting continue to compete in the class, which has provided a number of opportunities to drivers thanks to the environment the class runs in.

Ward also believes that, as they are bespoke race cars and not modified road cars, the category provides an early understanding of how engineering and

set-up changes affect a race car.

“It is a proper purpose-built race car that races well, and because they race well you can learn racecraft. And, due to racing at the big events, you can progress up so all of those elements just resulted in the fact that they have turned d into a stepping stone to some of the other h categories you can run.”

Stability in the category continued after 2012 when Quinn took over, with an evolution rather than revolution taking place. Ward led a refresh of the cars, with the aim to finesse the product that already existed. Added to this, Quinn’s

financial clout enabled the team at Aussie Racing R i Cars C to t construct t t ready-to-race d t cars to sell direct to competitors, making it even easier to go racing.

“We’ve got complete race cars ready to go on the showroom floor since Tony [Quinn] purchased the business and ramped up production of new cars. We called it the Car of The Future program,”

Ward W d told t ld Auto A t Action.

A ti “We didn’t re-design stuff, but we re-looked at all of the componentry in the car and we went through a process of improving the reliability and serviceability of all of the components.

We did a whole bunch of upgrades to make the car reliable.

“From that, basically we had the resources with Tony’s backing to stock the parts and components that we needed and build complete cars to have them sitting on the showroom floor ready to go. So if anyone wanted to get into the category, they could do it very quickly, as opposed to previous years when we owned the business and it was a buildto-order process just because we didn’t have the capital to do it.”

Another important development has been a more visible one. Some manufacturer support enabled the range of bodyshells to expand to include the Nissan Altima, Holden Cruze and Toyota Aurion silhouettes, while also adding some muscle to the category.

“The other key change has been the addition of new bodyshells. I think the first one that we built under Tony was the Euro GT, which was modelled off the Mercedes C63, then from there we built the Nissan Altima, Holden Cruze, the Camaro and the Mustang.

“This really lifted the category through

Aussie Racing Cars have embraced the style of cars old and new over the past two decades, but have always provided some of the most exciting racing at circuits throughout Australia.

Auss presentation, it increased grid numbers because there were more options out there, and it increased the level of interest from prospective racers. All those things help to improve it.”

Looking back over the past 20 years, who has been the standout driver?

Candidates include early category leader Paul Kemal, who took three titles.

Mike Russell was a close rival to Kemal in the early days and took back-to-back titles, as did James Duckworth (later on, in 2016-17), and then you can’t forget Kyle Clews, who is also a two-time series winner.

Ward, himself a title winner, along with his brother James, was not willing to pick just one standout driver.

“There have been so many good drivers and this is the thing that punters don’t realise about this class – they’re not difficult to drive but a challenge to drive absolutely on the limit, which means anybody that wins a race in one of these cars is a damn good driver.”

Although Aussie Racing Cars has stayed rather static for 20 years, Ward has one eye on the future with a planned season launch and celebration in Adelaide, culminating in the launch of the

first electric-powered Aussie Racing Car. This is strictly a ride car, but will provide competitors, organisers and fans a glimpse of what the series may look like in 10 years’ time.

“The electric concept, there’s no doubt that’s the future, so we’ve gone through the process over the last 12 months to develop the first electric Aussie Racing Car, which will be launched in Adelaide,” Ward said.

“It’s not a race car as such, it’s a twoseater ride car that is powered by an electric motor with lithium batteries. It will never be raced.

“It’s not something that we would seek to introduce into the category, but what it’s about is developing something that we all know is the future and using that as a tool to see whether it’s something that someday could become part of the category and part of a hybrid race series. It is where potentially petrol and electric cars could compete on a level playing field.

“There’s years of development in all that and there’s no suggestion whatsoever electric cars will enter the series any time soon. These cars might be perfect for electric power, but how do they look or feel, how much does it cost, is it feasible?”

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NASCAR 40 AutoAction FEATURE

EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION On the eve of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series, DAN MCCARTHY analyses the technical changes and driver swaps that have taken place during a hectic off-season

THE 2018 NASCAR Cup Series was a close and at times controversial season, and in the end it was Joey Logano who won his first title with Team Penske. Logano didn’t have a stunning start to the season, but he hit his stride when the playoffs began, finishing with an incredible run of results.

The coming season is also shaping up to be another interesting championship, with many key drivers changing teams and new car models being introduced to the series.

Mustang will be the hero car for Ford fans in 2019, replacing the Fusion, but it’s not Kurt Busch replaces Jamie McMurray in the Ganassi team’s #1 Chevrolet

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completely new because the model has been used in the Xfinity Series since 2011.

There are a few regulation changes for this season, including the reduction of engine power from 750hp to 550hp on tracks longer than one mile (1.61km).

Aerodynamics will also be adjusted on these longer tracks, fitting a taller rear spoiler, a wider radiator pan and a larger splitter with an overhang of 50mm.

As a result of these new aerodynamic and engine regulations, restrictor plates will only be required for the Daytona 500.

Th man tto bbeatt iin 2019 will The ill bbe TTeam Penske’s Joey Logano (above), who will defend his title in a new Mustang (main).

Martin Truex Jr (right) was forced to find a new home and will race a factory Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Another change is a reduction of test days, down from four to three.

Due to lack of sponsorship, 2017 champion team Furniture Row Racing had no choice but to close, but Martin Truex Jr has found a new home as part of Toyota factory team Joe Gibbs Racing, where he joins Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch.

Truex replaces Daniel Suarez, who won the 2016 Xfinity Series with the team. Suarez moves to Stewart-Haas Racing, where he joins Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer.

The biggest news of the off-season was Kurt Busch’s defection from Stewart-Haas Racing to Chip Ganassi, in what is expected to be his final NASCAR season.

Kurt will take over the #1 Chevrolet from Jamie McMurray, marking the first time since 2009 that the number has changed hands.

McMurray is set to play a leadership role with the team as well as joining the Fox Sports broadcast team as an expert commentator.

However, he will make a brief return with the new Spire Racing squad at the Daytona 500.

Others to depart the NASCAR Cup Series ahead of the 2019 season have been former champion Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and A.J. Allmendinger.

Team Penske retains the same driver line-up as last year, led by reigning champion Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney.

As a Ford team, Penske will change to the Mustang – as it will in Australia.

The 2019 schedule is essentially the same as last year, beginning at Daytona on February 10.

However, the first championship points race will be the Daytona 500, which takes place on February 17.

Sam Bird negotiates the crumbling track as he heads for victory, and the title lead.

FORMULA E

FORMULA E TURNS UP THE HEAT IN CHILE SAM BIRD became the third different race winner in the first three races of the Formula E championship, taking the series lead while many of his championship rivals had a race to forget. The Santiago ePrix was a scorcher in 37-degree temperatures, and the weather made the race an attritional affair, as just 14 of the 22 starters finished.

Sebastien Buemi inherited pole position after Lucas di Grassi was disqualified for a brake temperature infringement.

At the same time, most of the championship contenders qualified down the back of the field due to bad track conditions in the first qualifying session.

When the lights went out Buemi got off the line well and led into Turn 1 from Pascal Wehrlein and Sam Bird, who overtook Daniel Abt. On the sixth lap Buemi was the first driver to use Attack Mode on the outside of Turn 3, just keeping his lead, and the Swiss driver then started to edge out a gap over the battling pair of Wehrlein and Bird.

Bird activated Attack Mode and made short work of Wehrlein, firing up the inside at Turn 1 on lap 11.

When fighting for fifth, Alexander Sims in the Andretti BMW turned around Edoardo Mortara in the Venturi at the tight Turn 8/9/10 chicane. Mortara recovered quickly, only losing two places, while Sims would receive a time penalty for the incident after the race, denying him a first Formula E podium.

On lap 12 Maximilian Gunther suffered a mechanical failure that left him stranded on the pit straight, resulting in a full course yellow.

After the restart, Stoffel Vandoorne understeered into the Turn 3 barrier, bringing out another full course yellow to clear the debris.

The Belgian limped back to the pits, holding up Buemi and Bird, allowing Wehrlein to catch the leaders.

The tarmac on the outside of Turn 7 had broken up in the heat, creating a single-line grove through the corner. Buemi found this out the hard way, trying to gap Bird after the restart, but the Nissan E-Dams driver ran wide at Turn 7, clouting the outside wall and breaking his suspension.

Bird inherited the lead and with clear road in front decided use his final Attack Mode to gap Wehrlein, while further back Sims overtook Abt. With six minutes to go Wehrlein activated Attack Mode and quickly closed the gap to Bird, putting the Brit under maximum pressure and forcing him to defend.

When Wehrlein’s Attack Mode ran out he was told by his Mahindra team to slow down and manage his battery temperatures. This allowed Bird to cruise home to a 6.5s victory ahead of Wehrlein in just his second Formula E race.

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Sims crossed the line in third but dropped to seventh after the time penalty was added for spinning se Mortara.

As a result, Abt was promoted to third, giving M Audi A its first podium of the season.

“Everyone was struggling out there, so I’m absolutely delighted to bring it home,” Bird said. ab The top three in the drivers standings coming into the th weekend all had disasters in Chile.

Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne retired after aft an early incident with Andre Lotterer, while Jerome d’Ambrosio made his way up from 20th to Je finish fin eighth before a post-race penalty for speeding under un full course yellows demoted the Mahindra driver to tenth.

POINTS: Bird 43, d’Ambrosio 41, da Costa 28, PO Frijns Frij 28, Vergne 28, Evans 22, Abt 21, Lotterer 19, Wehrlein 18, Sims 18 We Bird Bi irdd ((above) abov ab bovve)) ttook ookk vi oo victory ict ctor tor oryy an andd th thee tititl title tltlee llead, d while hil rival i l JJean-Eric E i VVergne ended dd his race in retirement (below).

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WRC-MONTE CARLO

C E M O H T C E F A PER R EIGNING WORLD Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier took his sixth victory in a row on the slippery Monte Carlo tarmac, but only just, holding off Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by a mere 2.2s, setting the scene for an incredibly close title battle.

It was the perfect start to the renewed partnership between the French driver and Citroen, as the manufacturer celebrated its 100th WRC victory.

Traditionally treacherous conditions greeted competitors for the opening two stages, which suited Toyota’s lead driver, Ott Tanak. The Estonian took the advantage over the first 20.76km test from La Breole to Selonnet after utilising Michelin’s studded tyres, while Neuville gambled by opting for a mix of studded and non-studded tyres, which benefitted the Belgian on the second 20.59km stage from Avancon to Notre Dame du Laus.

Despite winning the stage by 11s, Neuville still trailed Tanak after the opening leg by 14.5s, and 5.4s behind Ogier. Last year’s three title contenders were more than 30s ahead of their pursuers led by Citroen debutant Esapakka Lappi, former teammate Jari-Matti Latvala and M-Sport’s Elfyn Evan, with just 3s covering the trio.

Returnee Kris Meeke was closest to challenging the top three, but a puncture just 9km from the finish cost the Ulsterman 45s.

The first full day of stages fell the way of Ogier, after a mixture of bad luck and mistakes from his title rivals meant he held a small lead at the end of the day.

The day’s opening stage was cancelled, which hurt Ogier because his studded winter tyres suited the icy conditions. Neuville took the

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advantage after winning the next two stages, as Tanak struggled and dropped to third.

However, Neuville’s advantage turned into a 14s deficit when the Belgian overshot a corner and lost 20s, but the Hyundai driver recovered to win the final stage and close the margin to 2s.

Tanak was out of contention due to a broken wheel rim that cost 2m20s, dropping him to

Thierry Neuville (above) and Ott Tanak (above right) resumed their battle with world champion Sebastien Ogier, but both came up short in the snow and ice of Monte Carlo.

seventh ahead of teammate Meeke, who had similar issues and lost four minutes changing a wheel on the penultimate stage.

Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen headed a close battle for the final podium spot, leading Latvala by 7.4s, with Sebastien Loeb in fifth and struggling with tyre choice in his first event for Hyundai.

Lappi was the highest profile

retirement after contact damaged the wishbone and driveshaft on his C3, while Pontus Tidemand joined teammate Teemu Suninen on the sidelines as he damaged his wishbone, while the latter crashed on the opening night.

The pressure was high throughout the third leg, as the lead fluctuated from 2s to 5.6s to close at 4.3s, causing the world champion to joke,

“I have a big lead, I’ve doubled it since this morning!”

Neuville played it conservative, but was still within striking distance, as 64km lay ahead to conclude the opening rally of the season.

The battle for third was just as absorbing between Mikkelsen, Loeb and Latvala, although the trio trailed the lead duo by more than two minutes.

Mikkelsen’s challenge failed to see out the opening stage, hitting a wall on the final corner and severely damaging the rear of his i20, but Tanak emerged as a challenger to Loeb and Latvala’s podium hopes, clean-sweeping the day’s four stages and closing within 15s of the pair.

M-Sport’s disappointing rally ended when Evans crashed out of sixth, his Fiesta plunging down a steep bank.

The final day was set up for a thrilling finish and it didn’t disappoint, as Ogier not only battled the committed Neuville but also a throttle sensor issue that meant it intermittently stuck open under braking.

COMING Kris Meeke struggled with tyre issues to finish sixth (above), while it was a rally to forget for M-Sport (below), as all three of its Fiestas failed to finish.

As a result, only 0.4s separated the pair heading into the final test.

The final stage had a number of lead changes, but Ogier battled back to take his seventh Monte Carlo win in total for four different manufacturers.

“It is the rally I want to win the most in the season, that is why I am so happy now,” Ogier said.

“It was tough today because we had a problem with a sticking throttle which was pushing the car when I was on the brakes.

“Six years in a row with three

different cars – that’s not so bad!”

Third place went to a charging Tanak in a drive that could become crucial later in the season.

Loeb and Latvala rounded out the top five.

The World Rally Championship round is the snow of Rally Sweden on February 14-17.

POINTS: Ogier 29, Neuville 21, Tanak 17, Meeke 13, Loeb 12, Latvala 10, Greensmith 6, Bonato 4, Sarrazin 2, Formaux 1.

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DAYTONA 24

ALONSO SHINES IN THE DAYTONA RAIN

I

N A DRAMATIC 57th running of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the weather threw up perilous driving conditions that shortened the race and the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPI.V-R led by Fernando Alonso took the win.

The win continued Cadillac’s dominance of the race in the DPi era, having now taken the past three victories, while WTR took its second after winning in 2017.

The race provided maiden Daytona wins for Alonso, Toyota LMP1 teammate Kamui Kobayashi and Renger van der Zande.

Two red flags were brought out over the duration of the race, the second due to an accident for second-placed Felipe Nasr at the 22-hour mark, but the race was not restarted and the organisers declared the result with 11 minutes remaining.

Japanese manufacturers led during the initial stint of the race as Mazda and Acura battled for the lead.

The pole-winning Mazda RT24-P driven by Oliver Jarvis had set a new Daytona lap record in qualifying, but was unable to shake the Penske Acura duo led by Juan Pablo Montoya.

Montoya hit the lead at the 30-minute mark and was joined by teammate Ricky Taylor soon after, as the two Mazdas led the chase from a fleet of Cadillacs.

Jarvis further challenged Montoya

BMW took an emotional class victory (left) that was dedicated to the memory of legendary team manager Charly Lamm.

until a full-course yellow forced the leaders to the pits, where Eric Curran driving the first of the Cadillacs leapfrogged three positions and moved into second, just as Montoya handed over to Dane Cameron.

However, Alonso put in a stunning night drive to take the lead just before the quarter-race mark, helped slightly by a full-course caution that set up his charge. The ex-Formula 1 driver took

care of Cameron and Curran off the restart, before chasing down the lead Mazda driven by Rene Rast.

The race was further halted by another full-course caution, but once it restarted Alonso was able to establish a comfortable lead and hand over the WTR Cadillac to Kobayashi.

It was a lead Kobayashi held until a strategy call by Action Express Racing placed them into the lead, rewarding

the earlier work by Curran. The team left Pipo Derani out during the fourth caution period and took the lead as most of the DPi runners pitted.

The Mazdas still sat behind, but the first of many issues for the Multimaticled squad appeared when Harry Tincknell spun.

Worse was to come during the seventh hour. Tincknell handed over to Oliver Pla, but his stint was short as he returned to pit lane with a suspected fuel leak, while Timo Bernhard in the second Mazda was forced to stop and the pole car was engulfed in flames a matter of seconds later.

As the race approached the halfway mark, it was between the WTR Cadillac and Team Penske Acura, but pit stops fell the way of Penske and Alexander Rossi led the way ahead of his team car until the rain hit.

ARMSTRONG HOLDS SERIES LEAD WINNING THE Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy at Taupo eased the pressure on Toyota Racing Series leader Marcus Armstrong after a car failure allowed Liam Lawson to close in the standings.

The opening race at Taupo was dominated by Lawson, who led from start to finish (opposite) and closed the championship gap to Armstrong, who had to contend with an inspired Lucas Auer. The pressure placed on Armstrong from the Austrian was successful as a better exit out of Turn 10 set up an impressive pass to give Auer second place.

Armstrong (pictured, left) didn’t have time to relax as Artem Petrov had the eyes on, but he was unable to penetrate the series leader’s defence.

The second race didn’t go Armstrong’s way, suspension failure forcing the Ferrari Academy driver into the sand trap, while Lawson finished a close second to Lucas Auer. It was a race Auer had to win as he desperately tries to remain in the hunt for the title.

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Lawson’s runner-up spot was enough to put him into the championship lead, while Brit Raoul Hyman rounded out the podium.

Belgium’s Esteban Muth made it three winners across as many races at Taupo.

Muth withstood a spirited attack from Kiwi duo Brendon Leitch and Lawson, but the highlight of the race was Armstrong’s charge as he moved from the rear of the field to finish eighth, setting himself up for an attack in the final race.

Armstrong had narrowly lost pole to Auer, but beat him off the line to quickly take control of the race. Lawson was stuck in fourth behind teammate Muth, as a significant margin appeared between the lead duo and the chasing pack.

A Safety Car proved crucial for Lawson because on the restart he passed Muth for third, though he was unable to make any in roads on the lead pair.

Armstrong’s win meant he regained the title lead by

Wayne Taylor Racing took its second victory in three years, delivering a hattrick for Cadillac.

This enabled Nasr to regain the lead for Action Express Racing heading into the morning, but the chaos continued.

By this time Alonso had taken the lead and was pushing to gain an advantage, though cautions were prevalent throughout his stint.

The Penske attack was reduced to one car when the Montoya Acura dropped out with alternator issues with IndyCar star Simon Pagenaud behind the wheel, as the battle between Action Express Racing and WTR heated up.

Nasr and Alonso put on an intense battle for the lead, but a mistake by the Brazilian just prior to the race being neutralised meant Alonso took what turned out to be a race-winning lead because the race failed to restart.

“I’m very, very proud of the job that we achieved today, but it was not a one-day job, it was a one-month job,” Alonso said.

“For me in December we started preparing the race and receiving all the

Alonso scored another big win (above), while Lamborghini (left) went back-to-back in GTD.

documents, how the Cadillac works and how Wayne Taylor Racing, some procedures that maybe are different compared with other teams. We tried to have a quick integration, Kamui and myself, trying to learn as much as we could from the team.

“Then in the race itself it was very, very difficult. Conditions were changing all the time.”

The classes each featured drama.

The battle for GTLM saw three cars finish on the lead lap, led by the BMW M8 GTE driven by Augusto Farfus, Colton Herta, Philipp Eng and Connor de Phillippi.

Farfus sealed the victory when he overtook James Calado 20 minutes prior to the red-flag coming out, with third place falling to the Porsche crew led by Earl Bamber.

Lamborghini took back-to-back

victories in GTD with the Grasser Racing Team Huracan GT3 Evo driven

by Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart, Rolf Ineichen and Rik Breukers. The team benefitted from spins by rivals, but had to come back from a 3m40s penalty for an improper wave-by as well as a pit lane penalty for running over a fuel hose.

Ryan Briscoe finished fourth after his Chip Ganassi Ford GT unfortunately pitted under the caution that eventually turned into the red flag.

Steering issues meant Chaz Mostert finished 40 laps down in his GTLM BMW, while fellow Supercars driver Simona De Silvestro was 11 laps down in a GTD Acura NSX GT3.

Third in class for James Allan driving the Dragonspeed Oreca LMP2 was a strong result, while Porsche ace Matt Campbell finished a lap down in eighth in the GTD class.

five points at the end of the meeting, and gave him his second Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy.

“It’s quite strange,” Armstrong reflected afterwards.

“Yesterday in no way, shape or form was I able to fight for the win, then today it was quite easy. I didn’t have to push really hard to build a gap to Lucas. It just worked today.

Yesterday I had to push very hard and it wasn’t enough.

“I’m really happy to have won the race, and to make up for failed suspension yesterday.

“We’re right back in the Championship fight. I think it will be close as usual. I’m sure it will go down to the wire.

It will be a spectacular show.

“I have to make up for what happened last year and take the title.”

The Australian contingent had a mixed weekend, with Calan Williams scoring a pair of eighths and two ninths.

Jackson Walls scored his best result so far in the opening race, sixth, then followed with 13th, 12th and 10th, while Thomas Smith finished 11th, 14th and 13th twice.

The previous round was held at Hampton Downs on January 25-27, with Petrov and Lawson taking a win apiece, while Armstrong took the remaining two.

The series finale will be held at Manfeild this weekend.

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RACE REPORT

Bathurst 3 FEBRUARY 2019

FINE FAREWELL

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

T

HIS YEAR’S edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour reinforced the race’s importance in the global GT landscape as Australia’s leading GT driver took a popular victory amid a thrilling conclusion.

In what was a fine farewell to the older-generation Porsche 911 GT3R, Porsche Young Professional driver Matt Campbell helped deliver Porsche its first victory on The Mountain in a race that signalled increased global interest and professionalism.

The record for attendance – some 49,495 – wasn’t the only one to tumble, as the packed mounds on the front straight witnessed a new distance record of 312 laps, smashing the previous mark of 297 laps in 2016.

It was a relatively incident-free race

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compared to recent editions, with a mere eight full-course cautions, though this included what seems like the now traditional appearance of the Safety Car within the final hour.

The event also highlighted the Balance of Performance, which was near perfect for the event, as demonstrated in qualifying when the first 18 cars were within a second.

It was Aston Martin that headed into the race with plenty of confidence, with the R-Motorsport team headed by GP3 race winner Jake Dennis taking provisional pole and following that up with a scintillating shootout lap.

Or so it seemed.

It was deemed in post-shootout scrutineering that the R-Motorsport Vantage V12 had exceeded the rev limit, so it was booted from the

shootout results. A previous two-spot grid penalty for speeding in pit lane meant the rapid Aston Martin started only 12th.

Mercedes-AMG was, outside of the Aston Martin, nothing short of dominant, three of the marque’s six entries placed in the top five in qualifying, with another also taking part in the shootout.

However, this was a 12-hour race.

The start in the darkness was a great spectacle, led off the line by the Team Craft Bamboo Mercedes-AMG GT3 that started from pole alongside the similar fluro yellow GruppeM example.

The man who had taken it to Craig Lowndes five years ago, Maxi Buhk, led the field through the opening dark stanza. But, speaking of Lowndes, the all-star Triple Eight Mercedes that he

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Clockwise from top left: Matt Campbell again proved himself one of the best sports car drivers in the world; Battle for third went down to the wire; Bentley began centenary celebrations with a strong race; Porsche finally wins at Bathurst; Aston Martin crew set the pace in qualifying and finished second. was piloting alongside teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup had qualified in 19th, more than a second off pole as the team tried to counter a braking issue.

The job of clawing back lost ground at the start was given to the Kiwi. Despite fighting transponder issues and a minor indiscretion at Murray’s Corner, he made steady progress to be within the reaches of the top 10 by the conclusion of his stint.

Buhk and Luca Stolz established a comfortable margin over the chasing Bentley Continental GT3 started by Steven Kane, who in turn was having a lonely race as he had broken away from a chasing pack led by David Reynolds, Dirk Werner and Frederic Vervisch.

Others to have strong starts were the HubAuto Ferrari 488 GT3 started by Nick Percat after fuel issues had hampered the team’s qualifying, when Nick Foster had frontrunning pace, and Oliver Jarvis in the lead KCMG Nissan GT-R GT3, which picked up pace as the stint wore on.

Mostert was a surprise omission from the shootout, but the dual Allan Simonsen Trophy winner progressed to establish himself in the top 10 just prior to the first round of pit stops. It set up the day for the BMW team, which never dropped away from the leading pack for the remainder of the day.

Just as the second Bentley driven by Vincent Abril clocked a 2m03.6988s, the Triple Eight Mercedes was the first to blink and pitted to change the troublesome transponder – as did the Walkenhorst BMW, though the M6 GT3 had bigger issues as it retired with oil pump problems. Nicky Catsburg had in vain tried to cut across the sand trap after a drop of oil pressure, but beached it right on the edge and had to be towed back to the team’s pit, making it awkward for van Gisbergen on pit entry.

Abril’s fastest lap didn’t last long, as Stolz eclipsed it with a 2m03.6111s, just as many of the contenders undertook their first service of the race.

Katsumasa Chiyo, the star of the 2015 race, had completed an excellent stint in the second KCMG GT-R GT3 to place it among the battle for fourth place, as had Marvin Kirchhoefer in the penalised R-Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 to also be among a growing pack.

Mostert was another in that pack as he completed a mega opening stint before handing over to former DTM champion Martin Tomczyk.

Out front, the pit stops had created a change at the head of the field. Buhk in the GruppeM Mercedes started his second stint ahead of Stolz, but that lasted only a few laps as the Team Craft Bamboo example wrestled back the lead.

It had been a frantic but clean opening stint, which lasted nearly two hours without the introduction of the Safety Car. The green running ended just as the sun rose, and David Calvert-Jones ended his race in spectacular fashion. Having just taken over the Competition Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R from Jaxon Evans, he lost the rear end at ‘the grate’

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Bathurst 31 JANUARY – 3 FEBRUARY 2019

KCMG team impressed on its Bathurst debut (above), but was no match for the EBM Porsches (left).

and ended his race prematurely against the inside concrete wall at McPhillamy Park.

Critically, just prior to the ensuing incident the pair of Mercedes had put a lap on the similar Erebus Motorsport model now taken over

by Yasser Shahin, which proved to be the start of a multitude of issues encountered by the team.

At the restart, the leading Bentley, with a double-stinting Kane behind the wheel, displayed its distinct advantage up the steep Mountain Straight by pulling alongside the Mercedes of Buhk, but a move on the outside at Griffin’s Bend failed and dropped Kane into the clutches of teammate Abril.

Unlike at the race start, the Mercedes duo were unable to pull a margin. As a result, the top seven were covered by just 3.3s and

represented four manufacturers. manufacturers Buhk was still resisting the pressure of the big Bentley, which continued to make big gains along Mountain Straight, but as the saying goes, ‘Safety Cars breed Safety Cars’, and it wasn’t long before its services were needed again.

A clash between the HubAuto Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 and the Class I MARC Ford Focus V8 of Mathijis Bakker at Forrest’s Elbow was the reason. The faster Ferrari, still driven by Percat, tried to round the Focus on the outside approaching the corner, but a collision spun both cars into the outside wall and dropped the Ferrari many laps down.

The restart on lap 53 was all too brief when R-Motorsport’s Pro-Am entry driven by team manager Andreas Baenzinger lost control

before the restart while exiting The Chase, destroying the front of his Vantage V12 GT3.

In the brief green period, Kane finally managed to pass Buhk for second, but in the ensuing pit stops the GruppeM Mercedes regained the position as the pair of Bentleys followed the same strategy.

In a sign of drama to come, Andy Soucek failed to exit pit lane cleanly after pressing the wrong button and cutting the engine, leaving him stranded at the pit exit.

He also baulked Kane, but the Bentley squeezed past.

On the third Safety Car restart, the lead Audi of Kelvin van der Linde was a little tardy and Stolz attacked, while behind an intense battle between Lowndes and Tomczyk for sixth saw the Mercedes being robust in its defence. The German completed a pass at The Chase, only to run wide and allow Lowndes a better

run towards Murray’s, but contact between the pair made the BMW loose and Lowndes was able to retake the position.

Continuing Chiyo’s earlier push, Matsuda Tsugio was now well entrenched in the top five and was starting to emerge as a threat, just as the Audi threat was starting to diminish. Behind the wheel of the Audi Sport Team Valvoline R8 GT3 LMS was previous 12 Hour winner Christopher Haase, who was not only coming under pressure from a charging Matsuda, but Werner was beginning to come into calculations as the Porsche’s superior fuel economy had placed him on the edge of the top five.

Jules Gounon had taken over from Kane in the lead Bentley and retook the fastest lap for the marque, a 2m03.5721s, as the third round of pit stops began, and Lowndes was able to return on brand new rubber.

Another to take on new tyres

during the round of pit stops was Garth Tander, taking over from van der Linde on lap 90, while GruppeM Racing followed suit, giving Maxi Goetz a set of greens to chase the leading trio of Engel, Tomczyk and a fresh Matthieu Vaxiviere in the R-Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3.

Matsuda displaced the Aston Martin and set about chasing the leaders, while an angry pack behind was headed by Dennis Olsen and contained the Audi Sport Team Valvoline pair, though Tander was about to be removed from the battle.

Meanwhile, all was not well in the Triple Eight Mercedes. Its ABS troubles continued to take a toll on Lowndes, who was physically struggling, as was clear to see after he handed the car over to Whincup. The recently retired full-timer was helped back to the transporter by wife Lara, clearly struggling to walk.

It had been a frantic but clean opening stint, which lasted nearly two hours without the introduction of the Safety Car before the sun rose

Grove in the groove for fourth The race started spectacularly in the dark (above) and David Reynolds soon emerged as a threat in the Erebus AMG Mercedes (below). Jake Dennis was quick all weekend in the lead Aston Martin (below) and lost by less than four seconds.

Lowndes left the car in safe hands, as Whincup started a brilliant stint that kept the team with a sniff of victory.

Matsuda ended his charge for the lead by passing Augusto Farfus, who had taken over the Schnitzer M6 GT3. The Brazilian had no response to the GT-R GT3 as he easily built a 2.5s margin before pitting to hand over to Josh Burdon.

Tander’s race ended after nudging the rear of Christina Neilson’s Mercedes, resulting in the front of the Audi looking very second-hand, and he returned to the garage six laps later for extensive repairs.

The excellent run from the second KCMG GT-R GT3 also ended when a loss of power on Mountain Straight caused Burdon to stop. Although he was able to restart, he was destined to spend a lengthy time in the garage.

The fourth Safety Car, for debris, brought about another round of stops, which proved a turning point for Whincup as he was handed a penalty for overtaking cars while the Safety Car boards and yellow flags were displayed.

Team boss Roland Dane immediately argued the decision with officials, which led to a review that resulted in the decision being overturned, as officials acknowledged they had made a mistake!

The Safety Car also changed the race for the GruppeM Racing crew, with a penalty handed to Buhk for weaving after the Safety Car lights went off. The penalty would cost the team dearly.

It didn’t affect him on the restart as the fluro yellow Mercedes proceded to pressure Farfus, who was deemed to have defended in an unsportsmanlike manner, weaving from side-to-side along Mountain Straight in a desperate act to hold onto the lead. As a result, he was shown the Black Flag.

The Bentley showed its advantage on Mountain Straight once again as it took over from Buhk as Farfus’s pursuer once the GruppeM Racing Mercedes had taken its penalty. Andy Soucek tried to pass around the outside at Griffin’s Bend, but that did more harm than good as he hit the marbles and ran wide.

The remaining Audi Sport Team Valvoline R8 GT3 LMS of Christopher Haase had been hanging in there with the leaders, but a steering rack issue ended the team’s challenge and initiated the introduction of another Safety Car. The race also ended for the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes after a rock punctured the radiator. The car was well out of contention regardless, having been penalised earlier after contact with the SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes.

Vaxiviere led at the restart and was aided by the battle behind between Olsen and Abril for second, which fell the way of the Bentley the very next lap.

The Aston Martin was in the gunsights of the Bentley, and with Abril attacking it almost ended in tears when he locked up, nearly centre-punching the rear of the leading Aston.

Next lap, Vaxiviere tempted fate

by letting Abril through, but the concern for the Aston Martin soon turned to a charging Jarvis in the KCMG GT-R GT3.

However, the Vervisch Audi Sport Team Valvoline R8 GT3 LMS cried enough at The Esses, while the Team Craft Bamboo Mercedes, with reigning DTM champion Gary Paffett at the wheel, overheated after grass blocked the cooling ducts.

The following Safety Car set off a chain of pit stops, but the Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsches didn’t pit, valuing track position, and headed the restart.

Another drive-through for the GruppeM Racing Mercedes again proved costly as the car was deemed to have passed under yellows. Soucek also earned the wrath of the officials for a Safety Car indiscretion, which dropped him a further lap down.

Coming into calculations was the SunEnergy1 Mercedes Pro-Am team, as strong pace from bronzerated driver Kenny Habul placed it in a solid position. However, just as Thomas Jaegar was about to attack, it was diagnosed with a holed radiator and taken out of contention.

Drama also struck the Bentley team when Gounon mysteriously slowed, but the Frenchman managed to get the big Continental back to the pits. It appeared he had run out of fuel, and when Jordan Pepper took over the car returned to the pace.

The next round of stops left the Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsches in the lead, with Mathieu Jaminet five seconds ahead of Campbell,

IT WAS near enough to a perfect day for Grove Racing in taking out Class B. Stephen Grove, his son Brenton and Ben Barker completed 299 laps and finished 16th outright, taking the class for the fourth time.

“The only issue was when I was at driving with a cool suit failure,” Stephen Grove said.

“We had planned for each of us to double stint, but we changed to single-stinting from there on. It really didn’t affect our pit stops, with the driver change taking less time than the tyres anyway.”

Team Carrera Cup Asia, with drivers Chris van der Drift, Paul Tresidder, Jinlong Boa and Phillip Hamprecht, lost many laps early on with two separate stops for suspension component changes.

They also had pit infringement penalties, before running strongly for second in the class, albeit 20 laps behind the winners and 19th overall.

The third car in the class, the Ashley Seward Motorsport entry of Danny Stutterd, Sam Fillmore and Richard Muscat, was a strong contender, but Stutterd crashed on top of the mountain while avoiding a lapping Aston Martin on their 135th lap.

GARRY O’BRIEN

A KTM breakthrough FOR MUCH of the 12 hours, Class C for GT4 cars was a battle between the KTM X-Bow team cars, and Justin McMillan, Dean Lillie, Glenn Wood and Elliot Barbour delivered the marque their first win.

They always held sway – but not by much – over the David Crampton/Trent Harrison/Tim Macrow/Caitlin Wood entry until it expired on Conrod Straight with less than half an hour of the race remaining.

Second in class ultimately went to Daren Jorgensen, Brett Strom and Gerard McLeod in a BMW M4, which was the early class leader. A troublesome right-rear wheel that continually came loose cost them six laps. They eventually picked up five of those laps to finish just one lap down on the winners.

Losing the driver-aiding traction control and ABS together with the dash display, as well as a couple of spins and drive-through penalties, made for a difficult day for the lone Ginetta G55. But Brad Schumacher, Jimmy Vernon and Aaron Love stuck with it to finish third.

“Because we had no dash, we couldn’t gauge our pitlane speed and that is why we had the penalties,” said Vernon.

The other class casualty was the KTM driven by Dean Koutsoumidis, Jake Parsons, James Winslow and Mathius Beche, which qualified fastest but never recovered after an ABS issue on lap five that put it into the wall at Hell Corner.

The impact caused the KTM to suffer suspension damage and multiple issues followed.

GARRY O’BRIEN

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The GruppeM Racing Mercedes had a mixed race but hung on to finish third.

The Class I winner overcame problems of its own to take the chequered flag

One MARC home in Class I

Nick Percat’s day turned sour when he collided with a MARC Focus, costing many laps in the pits while the Ferrari was repaired. but another contender was also set to fall when Jaminet’s 911 GT3R went into the garage with steering issues, completing an amazing period of attrition.

Campbell acquired a 20s lead over Kirchhoefer, but soon pitted to slot Olsen into the car and fit new tyres, leaving the Norwegian marginal on fuel.

Edoardo Liberati continued the early hard work started by Jarvis as he held third ahead of the lead Bentley being driven

by Abril, but it was in vain because the throaty Continental GT3 forged ahead. But both were off sequence compared to the Buhk Mercedes and the Tomczyk BMW, who were in a good positions to challenge for victory. However, they also had concerns, as Whincup continued Triple Eight’s charge and was breathing down the German duo’s necks.

It was set to be grandstand finish, as Campbell on the newest tyres out of all the leaders emerged from the pits in fifth and was charging. This culminated in a controversial incident between he and

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Mostert at The Chase. Race officials decided to investigate after the race, but no further action was taken.

Campbell was also aided

by Soucek making the exact same mistake at the pit exit that he had made earlier, then further to that a Safety Car was needed to collect an expired GT4 KTM X-Bow on Conrod Straight, playing well into the hands of the Queenslander.

Campbell’s first target was Marciello, on ragged tyres, and he passed with a late-braking manoeuvre at Hell Corner. Next was race leader Dennis in the Aston. He took chunks out of Brit’s lead and was laying the pressure on the R-Motorsport driver before an incredibly tight move on the inside of Forrest’s Elbow gave him the lead.

Dennis immediately attacked back, but was slightly baulked

by a lapped car, enabling Campbell to quickly build a 1.6s margin.

All eyes turned to the battle for third, with van Gisbergen hungry to step on the podium.

Despite many lunges and a few touches, Marciello held on.

CLASS I was contested exclusively by MARC Cars, with the MARC II V8 driven Adam Hargraves, Daniel Jileson and Steve Owen running out of opposition in the end.

They had issues as well, leading the sister car of Keith Kassulke, Paul Morris, Paul Tracey and Anton de Pasquale until a cool suit failure and a broken header pipe.

The latter car then led until it broke a gear selector, internally in the gearbox. It ultimately returned to the race and would have picked up second if not for something letting go in a cylinder head.

“I’m not sure what it was, could have been a lifter,” said MARC boss Ryan McLeod after it was parked with 189 laps completed.

The other two entries in the class were Marc 1s. The Jason Busk/Geoff Taunton/Dylan O’Keeffe entry was never too far away from the leaders, but many attempts to repair the gearbox came to nothing. It was ultimately retired after 136 laps.

“When that car (MARC II) went into the garage and the other car had dramas, we could afford to garage as well so we could fix the header leak,” said Owen.

The second of the MARC 1s, scheduled to be shared by Hadrian Morral, Mathijis Bakker and Einar Thorsen, only completed 44 laps. On lap 45 it was involved in an accident with the HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 piloted by Nick Percat in the run to Forrest Elbow and took no further part in the race.

GARRY O’BRIEN

2019 BATHURST 12 HOUR TOP 10 POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DRIVERS Matt Campbell/Dennis Olsen/Dirk Werner Jake Dennis/Matthieu Vaxiviere/Marvin Kirchhoefer Raffaele Marciello/Maxi Buhk/Maxi Goetz Shane van Gisbergen/Jamie Whincup/Craig Lowndes Chaz Mostert/Martin Tomczyk/Augusto Farfus Andy Soucek/Maxime Soulet/Vincent Abril Oliver Jarvis/Alexandre Imperatori/Edoardo Liberati Jordan Pepper/Jules Gounon/Steven Kane Paul Dalla Lana/Pedro Lamy/Mathias Lauda Todd Hazelwood/David Russell/Roger Lago

CLASSES Class A Paul Dalla Lana/Pedro Lamy/Mathias Lauda Class B Stephen Grove/Brenton Grove/Ben Barker Class C Justin McMillan/Glen Wood/Dean Lillie/Elliot Barbour Class I Adam Hargraves/Daniel Jilesen/Steve Owen

TEAM EBM R-Motorsport GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG Team Vodafone BMW Team Schnitzer Bentley Team M-Sport Nissan GT-R GT3 Bentley Team M-Sport Spirit of Race Aussie Driver Search

CAR LAPS/MARGIN Porsche 911 GT3R Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 BMW M6 GT3 Bentley Continental GT3 Nissan GT-R GT3 Bentley Continental GT3 Ferrari 488 GT3 Audi R8 GT3 LMS

Spirit of Race Grove Racing M Motorsport MARC Cars Australia

Ferrari 488 GT3 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car KTM X-Bow MARC II V8

312 laps +3.4413s +7.5942s +7.7984s +8.9161s +12.5019s +51.0909 1 lap 2 laps 4 laps

Supports Bathurst 12 Hour Photos by Rhys Vandersyde/InSyde Media

MAKING A MARC ON THE MOUNTAIN GEOFF TAUNTON took his MARC Cars Ford Focus V8 to victory in all three Skye Sands Combined Sedan races. He finished ahead of George Miedecke (TA2 Dodge Challenger) in the first race and Tony Groves (MARC Mazda 3) in the other two.

Miedecke initially led Race 1 before Taunton scooted by. James Winslow (V8 Touring Car Holden Commodore VZ) chased them until a miscue on lap five dropped him to 11th.

David Murphy (V8TC Ford Falcon AU) moved to third but spun off at Murrays Corner, which elevated Groves ahead of American Gar Robinson (TA2 Chev Camaro), Brad Neill (MARC Mazda), Hugh McAlister (TA2 Ford Mustang) and Matt Ingram (Mazda RX8 Sports Sedan).

Winslow recovered to eighth ahead of Ashley Bright (V8TC Commodore) and Mark Duggan (Aston Martin/Chev).

Best of the Chassis Class was Denver Parker (Nissan Skyline) in 18th, just 4s ahead of class rival Michael King (Mitsubishi EVO X).

Taunton won Race 2 from Groves. Miedecke was was running second early before finishing third, ahead of Neill and Robinson. Winslow

was fourth until contact with Garth Walden when lapping the Mitsubishi EVO X production car on the last lap.

Meanwhile, Hugh McAlister chased Robinson and seventh was fastest qualifier Steven Lacey (Chev Camaro Sports Sedan), who had clutch

issues and missed Race 1. Ingram came home eighth ahead of Wright and Ian McAlister, while Murphy was just behind them.

The third race finished under safety car conditions, with Taunton greeting the chequered flag ahead of Groves, Miedecke and Neill.

Earlier, Lacey shot through to the lead but retired at Hell Corner with a broken input shaft.

With Paul Boschert (Chev Corvette/Dodge) stranded near Griffin Bend, Ian McAlister backing into the tyres over Skyline, and Bright bunkering in the Chase, there wasn’t time to get back to racing.

Fifth went to Robinson ahead of Murphy, Hugh McAlister and Wright. They were followed

by Ingram, Michael Kulig (TA2 Camaro), Peter Robinson (TA2 Dodge), Anthony Tenkate (TA2 Mustang) and John Ford (Nissan Skyline/Chev) in the best of the Chassis cars.

GARRY O’BRIEN

BUCHAN CELEBRATES FF HALF CENTURY OVER THREE Formula Ford 50th Anniversary races – exclusively for Kent-engined cars – outright honours went to Josh Buchan in a Listec with two wins and a second.

Buchan also won the Invitation Class (post-1989), while the Historic classes went to Richard Davison (Fc, 1984-1989), Van Diemen driver John Van Leeuwen (Fb, 1978-1983) and Garry Watson (Fa, pre-78).

Buchan (Listec) held off a last lap challenge from Swiss driver Mathius Beche (Spectrum) to take Race 1.

Third went to Jayden Ojeda (Spirit), who edged out Davison (Van Diemen)

and Watson (Mawer). Geoff Walters (Van Diemen) had contact on the opening lap and lost a wheel.

Later, Tim Berriman, Lachlan Ward and Paul Morris tangled out of Forrests Elbow in their Van Diemens.

Mark Lowing (Van Diemen) finished a lonely sixth, well clear of Tom Hamlett (Stealth), Cameron Walters (Van Diemen), Tim Hamilton (Spectrum) and Dylan Fahey (Van Diemen).

Buchan overcame another sluggish start to come through for victory in Race 2.

With Beche committed to the 12 Hour feature race, Buchan battled

Ojeda, with 0.24s between them at the chequered flag.

Davison and Hamlett raced with them before settling for third and fourth. Lowing was a lonely fifth, while Cameron Walters (Van Diemen) finished ahead of Watson, Austin Pearson (Stealth), Morris, Simon Hodges and Berryman from the back.

A clash between Hamilton (Spectrum) and Jason Youd (Van Diemen) brought about a Safety Car. Shortly after Fahey was caught out in an incident with Morris at the Chase.

After an initial Safety Car period to recover Lachlan Ward’s bunkered

Galloway at McPhillamy Park and the damaged Van Diemen of David Wood at Forrests Elbow, it was game on between Hamlett and Ojeda until the latter banged into the Elbow wall.

Buchan eventually drew clear of Davison, Lowing and Pearson for second, and on the last lap Watson passed Berryman for sixth.

GARRY O’BRIEN

BLACKIE’S BIG BLOCK POWERS TO VICTORY HAVING A big-block 454 cubic-inch (7.4-litre) engine under the bonnet of his Chevrolet Corvette no doubt helped Paul Blackie to three Gulf Oil Australia Group Production Sports Car victories.

From the outset of Race 1, Blackie used the power of the big block to forge a sizable lead over polesitter Geoff Morgan in his Porsche 911 Carrera.

However, as the laps counted down Morgan whittled away at the gap and it was just under a second by the chequered flag.

Third place went to Stan Adler (911),

who had to fight his way through from sixth, passing John Harrison (Shelby GT350) and Doug Barbour (911), who spun shortly after and was stranded at the Chase for several laps.

Harrison finished fourth ahead of Joe Di Bartolo (Corvette) and the 911s driven by Richard Watts, Bryan Taylor, Greg Norwill and Andrew Purvis, with tenth spot going to Stephen Smith in his Datsun 280Z. In Race 2 there were none of the brake issues that had troubled Blackie in the first race, and he triumphed over Morgan by 15.6s.

With no third gear, Harrison fell to sixth in the early going before passing Adler, Taylor, Horwill, Bartolo and Watts to finish third. Adler was fourth while Watts just held onto fifth ahead of Barbour, who started 34th.

Blackie had too much pace in Race 3 and again won ahead of Morgan and Adler. Purvis was gifted a slingshot to fourth when Taylor rode over the Hell Corner kerbing and encountered Watts and Barbour. Smith was fifth while Harrison was passed for sixth by Damien Meyer (Austin Healey Sprite).

GARRY O’BRIEN

OPENING RADICAL ROUND TO MUSTON THIRD PLACINGS in both 45-minute races gave Neale Muston victory in the opening round of the Radical Australian Cup at Bathurst.

The father/son combination of Brad and Mitch Neilson won the first race ahead of Chris Perini, before Peter Paddon took out the second from Aaron Love.

Pacesetter Brad Shiels was fourth across the line in the first but was excluded for coming in underweight.

Paddon was on track to win as he took his pitstop early, but a wayward water hose put him out.

Several drivers were handed 60-second penalties for pitting outside the compulsory

window. As a result, Simon Haggerty was denied his place and Brenton Griguol was elevated to fourth ahead of Chris Medland and Greg Kenny.

The first Safety Car came very early when Michael Whiting was stranded at Murrays Corner. The second came shortly after when Ed Singleton crashed.

Paddon secured his eighth race win at Bathurst when he took out the second leg.

He overtook Perini on the opening lap and led through to the mandatory pitstops.

The Safety Car was deployed once when Neilson and Singleton tangled at the Chase. The latter was out immediately, while Neilson pitted for quick repairs and

copped a drive-through penalty.

There was a three-way scrap for second involving Muston, Perini and Love that was resolved in Love’s favour, while Perini stopped on pit straight close to the finish with a broken ignition coil.

On the last lap, Joey Mawson (sharing with Peter Clare) relegated Haggarty to finish fourth. Shiels was sharing with Grant Denyer and, while he set a new benchmark lap for the SR3 model, they placed down the order, having stopped for a second driver change.

GARRY O’BRIEN

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s w e n Y A W D E SPE SCHEUERLE WINS MAIDEN AUSTRALIAN TITLE ANDREW SCHEUERLE broke a longstanding record to become just the second Queenslander to win the Australian Sprintcar Championship at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway.

The 44-year-old Toowoomba driver in his 25th year of Speedway racing in car #25 joins fellow Sunshine State winner Todd Wanless as a national titleholder. Wanless won in 1996 at the same venue, which this year hosted its seventh title.

In 57 years of the prestigious title, Bob Kelly (1982), Nathan McDonald (2000) and Cameron Gessner (2005-06) are the other Queenslanders to even make the podium.

As Scheuerle raced across the line from former national champion James McFadden and Jamie Veal, the partisan crowd gave him a standing ovation.

From second on the grid next to Gold Coast racer and Preliminary night winner Robbie Farr, Scheuerle sat back behind early race leader Farr and McFadden, and his patience was rewarded, sliding into the lead.

For three-quarters of the race, Scheuerle showed his years of experience and kept Australia’s best at the base of his tail-tank to take a rousing win.

“It hasn’t sunk in to be honest,” he said.

“The lead up this weekend was horrendous.

We put another car together; it was a rush job to get this car ready. It’s just its third night and we just wrapped the car and put the stickers on it to get here. The boys have worked their tails off and we finally got it right tonight.

“I can’t thank my car owner, Stewart Craig, enough right now.”

“I only had one chance and I took it. Then I got caught up in the lapped traffic a couple of times and I thought they would be coming, but I knew if I just kept picking off car by car that they weren’t going to get by. I looked at the board with 10 to go and thought, it’s just a heat race now. I am just so proud to repay the fans here at Archerfield who have stuck by me and supported me for all of these years.”

Scheuerle said recent racing against the

Image: Art of Speedway

world’s best drivers at Archerfield helped hone his racecraft and dismissed recent thoughts of retirement.

“I learned a lot from Donny (Schatz) over Christmas, and that’s helped no doubt.

“Two weeks ago I was ready to retire and then I saw Farry (Robert Farr) get up with the Classic and thought I’ll press on. I’m very glad I did.”

Unlike some past national champions, Scheuerle plans to proudly display the ‘Australia 1’ on his car and show the nation.

“We’d like to travel more next year and show the new number one off a lot. I’ll be putting it straight on, soon as.”

In the A-Main huge drama unfolded between two of Australia’s best drivers.

McFadden, a multiple national champ, admitted he’d made an error, getting into a slippery part of the track and messing up his approach to the restart cone.

Farr, the 2004 Australian champion, was bearing down on McFadden and the two cars made contact, with Farr damaging the front end, bringing out the final caution of the race and ending his chances.

From here the title race ran 35 laps nonstop, with the track becoming a race around the bottom.

After Scheuerle got by McFadden he wasn’t challenged for the crown.

Veal had a late charge at McFadden but came up short, and the Victorian had to settle for third.

It was a dejected McFadden after he had charged to the lead from grid position four only to finish runner-up for the second year in a row. He had again led the Championship race without going on to win.

“I got to the lead early, had an interesting restart, then searched high to try and get around a lapped car, but left the door open

a sniff and got passed on the bottom,” McFadden said.

“It was a challenging track when lapped traffic was involved, and unfortunately it was one that didn’t fall our way tonight. It’s a tough pill to swallow as we wanted nothing more than to give this Monte team their first A1 win.”

Fourth went to dual National Champion Dave Murcott, who charged from 11th, and Ian Madsen came from position eight to record a top five result.

Steven Lines, Lachlan McHugh, defending champion Kerry Madsen, Brooke Tatnell and Matt Dumesny rounded out the top 10.

Jessie Attard again showed his immense talent and transferred from the B-Main to finish 11th, ahead of Danny Reidy, Darren Jensen, Randy Morgan and Luke Oldfield, who faded back after starting from position five in the 20-car field.

BOOGIE NIGHTS A STAGGERING 92 nights of racing has been locked in for the American World of Outlaws Sprintcar Series in 2019, and Australians look to play a major part of it.

Dubbed ‘The Greatest Show on Dirt’, the Outlaws heads into its 41st season racing in 25 different states, competing at 53 different venues, commencing on February 8 in Florida and finishing on November 9 in North Carolina.

Donny Schatz will be looking to add another Outlaws title to his 10 already banked, while Australia is likely to again have the Madsen brothers, Kerry and Ian, as regulars.

The annual ‘Month of Money’ from mid-July, which attracts scores of Australian visitors, features the year’s highlights, starting with the $41,000-towin Jackson Nationals in Jackson, Minnesota.

The Kings Royal weekend is slated for July 18-20 at Tony Stewart’s Eldora

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Speedway, and is followed by four straight events that pay at least $20,000 to the winner.

This lucrative stretch ends at the biggest event, the $150,000-to-win Knoxville Nationals in Iowa, which will see Brad Sweet looking to defend his title.

After winding through America’s Mid West, the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway on November 7-9 again concludes the season.

“We are looking forward to another great season of World of Outlaws racing in 2019,” said World of Outlaws Sprintcar Series director Carlton Reimers.

“On the strength of our excellent relationships with tracks and promoters, we are eager to get the season started with our determined teams for our dedicated fans.”

Image: Richard Hathaway

STORER’S DRAMATIC VIC TITLE WIN JUST DAYS out from Image: Robert Lake the Australian title, huge drama has surrounded the 2019 Victorian Wingless Sprints Championship.

The biggest field ever assembled for the annual event, some 78 cars, saw in-form Dayn Bentvelzen cross the line first at Avalon Speedway, only to lose the win post-race, handing the win to Luke Storer.

Bentvelzen, from Leongatha and driving for Adrian Densley, is the current Avalon track champion and was left heartbroken after failing to park at a concrete pad in the pits that was a requirement, being a state title. the majority of the race. It’s a true credit His car was weighed on the infield and how he handles himself and he’s well was of legal weight, but was then parked at overdue for a title win. his team’s trailer and disqualified.

“We will roll onto the Australian Everyone behind Bentvelzen moved up championship at Premier Speedway on and Portland’s Storer was awarded the title February 22.” from Tony Moule and Bhoe Paterson.

After a massive qualifying period of 21 Polesitter Luke Weel led the first 26 laps heats, two C-Mains and two B-Mains, of the 30-lap event before his night was Bentvelzen earned the right to start the final ended by a right-rear tyre failure. from position two. He moved to the lead “Well, an unreal night to say the least,” with Weel out and raced home first, only to Storer said. be denied the win.

“It was a one-lane rubber-down track A distraught Bentvelzen said he was right from of the start of the final, with “absolutely gutted... not only for myself but passing pretty difficult. the whole team”.

“I really feel for Luke Weel, who led for “We won the Victorian state wingless title

FORMER NATIONAL champion David Clark took out the NSW V8 Dirt Modified Championship at Lismore Speedway. He took the chequered flag from former state titleholder Andrew Pezzutti, with defending NSW #1 Jai Stephenson third.

IT WAS a unique finish in the Rod Quarrell Memorial, which doubles as the Victorian Grand Prix Midget Championship at Rushworth Speedway. Starting from the back of the field for the 20-lap final, Rod Saville of NSW took a special victory in the title decider ahead of daughter Janelle, with David Bacon the first Victorian in third place.

and beat all cars fair and square only to have it taken from me after the race.

“We pushed the car straight over to the pad when we realised it was too late.

“I was told I had been disqualified for not going directly to the pad, even though major engine checks would take place the next day… that pad was where I needed to be for the officials as soon as I came off the track.

“Such a small mistake made in the heat of the moment and emotions of winning one of the biggest races there is to win.

As petty as the rule is, rules are rules and I only have myself to blame for getting caught up in the moment.”

YANKEES WIN THE WEST

JUST SIX points separated Americans Billy Moyer and Tyler Erb after the final round of the annual Western Australia Late Model USA vs WA Invasion Tour.

Moyer recorded the 837th win of his stellar speedway career as he raced to victory in the fourth round of the tournament at Bunbury Speedway, beatiung home Erb, Brad Blake, Paul Stubber and Michael Holmes.

Moyer and Erb had identical Tour results, both grabbing two wins, a second and a fifth in feature races; the difference in deciding the winner was points gained in heat races.

Erb emerged as series champion from Moyer, Holmes, Jamie Oldfield and Blake.

The final night of the Tour was a rough and tumble one that saw just 13 of the initial 19 cars take the green for the 40-lapper, as a number of cars succumbed to issues in the heats.

Moyer grabbed an early lead from Erb and they quickly pulled away from third-placed Brad Blake.

On just the second lap, Erb went low and swept underneath Moyer to grab the lead and raced away.

He led from Moyer, Blake, Holmes and Oldfield with four laps complete, when Simon McNab spun heavily into the Turn 4 wall.

On the restart, Oldfield swept past Holmes for fourth and set out after Blake for third as Erb and Moyer again began to pull away.

Cameron Pearson also made his moves, passing a couple of cars to be in fifth, then a lap later moved past Oldfield for fourth.

With 28 laps left to run and just eight cars remaining, Erb again led away and, just as the race settled again, Moyer closed

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Image: Richard Hathaway

the gap on Erb and suddenly moved straight underneath him, grabbing the lead and beginning to pull away from Erb in a spectacular move.

As this was happening, Stubber made his way past Oldfield for fourth, the field then spreading out.

Lapped traffic was no obstacle to Moyer, working the high and low lines to move past and pull further away from Erb, who in turn continued to build his gap on third-placed Blake, while fifthplaced Holmes went down a lap, such was Moyer’s form.

Moyer’s lead was out to nearly three seconds as he crossed the finish line.

“It was a fantastic trip and all the thanks in the world go to our hosts and car owners, Paul and Alice Stubber,” Moyer said.

“They provided me with a fast racecar right out of the box and we were able to put it into victory lane a couple of times.

“I would have liked to have made a couple of different setup decisions on the two nights we didn’t win, but that is all part of learning a new racecar.”

FOR THE 11th time in his career Donny Schatz (below) has been voted the Driver of the Year by the North American 410 Sprint Car Poll and the team he drives for, Tony Stewart Racing, received the Team of the Year Award based on a strong 2018 season.

Schatz received 16 of the 19 votes cast in the year-end poll to finish ahead of Brad Sweet and the late Greg Hodnett. Jack and Bonnie Elam of J&J Auto Racing won the Builder/Manufacturer of the Year for the 14th time and Hodnett was posthumously honoured with the Thomas J. Schmeh Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Sport.

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JOEL BERKLEY won the National Production Sedan title at Hamilton’s Western Speedway in a thrilling race from local driver Dehne Sparrow and Justin Hawkins. The 40-lap feature featured multiple lead changes and also a spectacular rollover, but Berkley from pole position mostly led, despite fans erupting when Sparrow flew to the lead with just 11 to run. However, Berkley regained the lead and held it, while the minors battled hard on a desperate last lap as Sparrow held off Justin Hawkins, Beau Riley and Richard Cook in a blanket finish.

JANUARY 2020 will be a busy time for speedway fans, with two of the country’s most prestigious races locked in. The 2020 Australian Sprintcar title will head to Tasmania for two days of racing from Jan 31 at Latrobe Speedway. The last time it was held there was in 2014 and was won by Tasmanian hero David Murcott. Just a few days prior, the 48th running of the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic reverts back to its traditional three dates in late January, with action from Jan 24.

KIONA SUNERTON has made motorsport history, becoming the first woman to win the RSA Street Stockers Australian title.

Sunerton led from the first corner to the finish line of the final at Gilgandra to win the title from Dungog’s Brendan Wakeman and Raymond Terrace’s Shane Carlson , the 2018 champion.

Image: Geoff Rounds

FINAL STANDINGS: Erb 456, Moyer 450, Holmes 430, Oldfield 389, Blake 384, Blight 383, Godsey 370, Cardy 357, Vosbergen 356, Stubber 354.

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BRITTEN CREATES NATIONAL HISTORY KEVIN BRITTEN has created more history in his stellar career, winning his fourth straight Australian V8 Dirt Modified Championship at Toowoomba’s Hi-Tec Oils Speedway in Queensland.

He becomes the first driver in the event’s history to claim four wins on the trot with victory in the 2018-19 title ahead of Mitchell Randall and 2014 national champion David Clark.

Prior to the event, Britten was part of an illustrious group, which consisted of his older brother Peter, Stuart Herne and Tim Morse, as the only drivers to have claimed three Australian Championships straight.

From pole position for the 35-lap final, Britten was pressed hard by two-time Australian champion Andrew Pezzutti, who had his race end on lap 10 when his car slipped on fluid left behind from Chris Corbett’s car.

Britten powered away at the restart and controlled the remaining 25 laps to greet the chequered flag in impressive fashion.

“It’s amazing to get four in a row. We got to four, I guess we’ve got to get to five now,” Britten said.

Randall’s weekend was outstanding after starting from the outside of the front row, and the Grafton-based racer finished with a career-best performance.

Clark’s third place was the second season in succession for him on the national podium and coming from position five, while the long haul from Western Australia for Travis Kennedy was positive with fourth place.

SPEEDWAY’S RISING STARS

THE FUTURE of the sport will again be on display with the 2019 Rising Stars announced

by Speedway Australia.

The Rising Stars program has been running since 2009 and as usual the city of Canberra will host the candidates in April for four days of high performance training.

In 2018, the intake for this initiative was increased to 20 participants and that figure has been continued for this year’s program.

Speedway Australia again received an incredible response from a number of drivers aged 16-23 with just 20 people selected.

The 2019 intake includes drivers from seven states and 10 different classes and includes: Alex Ross, Alisha Fielder, Ardie Jonic, Ben Atkinson Jnr, Bodie Smith, Brad Scherer, Brayden Parr, Carly Walsh, Casey O’Connell, Cody O’Connell, Jack Selmes, Jakobe Jetson, Jorj Park, Keenan Fleming, Kirby Hillyer, Samual Payne, Tarlea Apelt, Tate Frost, Trent Vardy and Tyson Martin.

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Image: Art of Speedway

HOT HARPER IN HOBART SEDAN SUPERSTAR Callum Harper has won his second Super Sedan Grand National in three years at Hobart Speedway, defeating a hot field in the 50-lap feature.

Just a week earlier, Harper won the Super Sedan Grand Prix, started on the front row for the A Main, and led every lap of the race in a powerful display of driving.

Harper came from the front row for the final with Shaun Black, but it was five-time race winner Darren Kane who took up the early challenge behind Harper.

Ryan Alexander and Black, along with Dave Gartner, Adam Beechey and Peter Nicola, swapped positions numerous times across the first 10 laps.

Kane lost second to Black on lap 19, and then third place to Alexander on lap 23, as Harper continued to lead, albeit not

by much as the drivers started to negotiate the heavy traffic.

On lap 30, Kane lost four positions in a lap, effectively ending any chance of a sixth victory, while Harper started to slowly open a race-winning lead.

Black, Alexander and Beechey battled hard for the minor placings, while Harper again proved too strong, winning his second major event in a week and sixth feature race win of the season.

Second place went to Black from Alexander and Beechey, who were separated by a mere 0.644s. Lucas Roberts was fifth and Darren Kane sixth.

Harper will now focus his attention on the upcoming Late Model national title in Sydney, an event he has won previously, and must be one of the pre-race favourites.

ANOTHER VICTORY FOR VINE IN FRONT of a packed house at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway on Sunday night (January 27), Darren Vine clocked another feature race win to take out round seven of the Polar Ice Midget Track Championship.

Assuming the lead on lap six, Vine was untroubled in his drive to victory lane, while Rusty Whittaker advanced into second spot following the demise of early leader Glenn Wright. Having started on the front row alongside Wright, NSW’s Mitch Brien finished third ahead of Brad Dawson and Tom Clauss.

Wright easily accounted for Brien to lead the field away in the feature race and he remained in command until lap six when Vine charged into lead. Wright continued to hold sway in second spot despite the best efforts of Whittaker, who started back in the pack after failing to finish his opening heat.

It was only when Wright headed infield in a cloud of smoke and steam with five laps to run that Whittaker was able to take possession of second spot, leaving him little time to make any impression on Vine.

Next in line were Brien and Dawson, with Clauss completing the best night of his rookie season with a fifth-place finish.

Doyle, Singleton, Mathers, Farrell and Malt completed the top ten, although Robinson was the only other finisher as Harrison and Whatmore failed to go the distance.

Image: Chris Metcalf

SPEEDWAYnews RAYMONT IS KINGAROY KING AIDAN RAYMONT is $10,000 richer after winning one of Australian speedway racing’s major events – the 2019 Kings Royal for Modified Sedans at Kingaroy Speedway in Queensland.

Raymont, the current Queensland and Victorian champion, proved too good for brothers Shane and Nathan McDonald.

Third behind V8 Supercars star Cameron Waters in the 2018 Australian Championship, Raymont again proved his talents in this popular class and will seemingly have the edge on his opposition at the modified sedan Australian title in April, also at Kingaroy.

After three big days of racing by a record 77 competitors from across Australia and a massive 35 heats, it was Raymont who emerged top of the points and secured scored pole position for the 50-lap final.

“I had a perfect weekend from the start.

Everything that could go right did and that’s what it takes to win a massive event like this,” Raymont told the local South Burnett Times.

Image: Richard Hathaway

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Raymont hasn’t had much luck in the Kings Royal of late, but this year the car held out just until he crossed the line.

“I broke something (going past) the chequered flag and I wouldn’t of been able to do another lap,” he said.

Brodie Boss finished in fourth place followed by Johnno Collins in fifth in the well-attended event.

In the women’s Queens Royal, Maddi McGee won consecutive feature races from pole position, defeating Jessica O’Meara and Amy Evans.

“To win it back to back in a car that I have only driven once is pretty cool,” McGee said after the race.

“The fact that you are supporting females and nurturing the growth of females in the division is pretty cool, and to run it in a meeting that is so big like the Kings Royal is awesome.”

In the Junior Sedans Top Stars, Todd Atkins won from Mitch Glynn and Dakota Laverty, while in the Junior Sedans New Stars, Damon Musch was first ahead of Tristan Knowles and Dane Andersson.

SMEE’S QLD TITLE A FAMILY AFFAIR

NATHAN SMEE has claimed his third Queensland Speedcar Championship in four years with victory at Castrol Edge Lismore Speedway.

Driving the Graham Racing Developments car, Smee won from Rusty Whittaker with Smee’s nephew, Harley Smee, third in just his sixth Speedcar race, coming from position 10 in a car owned by Nathan.

The hard luck award of the race went to race leader Darren Vine, who crashed in the latter stages while lapping a slower car with just five to run in the 30-lap feature.

Brock Dean grabbed an early lead and maintained his advantage from Vine as Matt Jackson, Nathan Smee, Harley Smee and Whittaker battled for positions as the heavy traffic involved Bradley Harrison and Braydan Willmington who finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Vine eventually took over the at the front, while Whittaker got under Dean as Smee followed Whittaker in the same passing move on Dean.

It looked as though Vine was set for victory, but then his race was lost after he tangled with a lapped car and rolled his machine.

Vine escaped unscathed and watched the rest of the race from the infield as Smee, after passing Whittaker, took up the front running at resumption. Smee was always going to figure in the

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JAMIE PAULL reigned supreme and won all his qualifying races to be crowned the Victorian Sport Sedan champion for the 2019 season at Bairnsdale Speedway. After nine qualifying races and leading all 30 laps of the final, Paull got home easily from Luke Fallon to win back a title he had previously held. “It was elbows-up racing and it encouraged passing for our sedans. We bounced around a little and that’s good fun. Credit to the club and the track crew for their efforts,” Paull said.

TOM PAYET went to Kalgoorlie Speedway and again struck gold winning his fourth Western Australian Wingless Sprint Championship.

In a big two-night show just outside the famous Australian mining town Payet’s patience in the 30-lap final proved to be his key to winning. Payet beat home Brendon Wedge and Matt Iwanow, who has now filled every spot on the podium over the last decade.

Image: Geoff Rounds

result and took the chequered flag in a repeat performance of his 2017 title success.

The podium and the story of the night was Nathan and his nephew Harley sharing the podium.

“Picking up a state title podium this soon after stepping into Speedcars and also being able to share the podium with my uncle and car owner is a great result. It’s been a really positive transition into the class so far and I’m definitely getting more comfortable in the car, which is reflected in our results,” Harley said.

HARDY WINS SECOND AMCA A BIG barnstorming run from deep in the field has helped Matt Hardy to his second AMCA National title at Toowoomba Speedway.

The 2016 Australian champion came from a challenging 11th grid position and worked the low line of the Queensland venue to defeat a field of 40 entrants in the 40-lap feature.

At half-distance Hardy found himself in second and turned his full attention towards chasing down the race leader, Tasmanian Rodney Bassett.

Mounting the pressure on Bassett, Hardy was eventually able to pip his rival after four laps of pursuit, taking his place at the front of the field, where he remained to win the second Australian title of his career.

“What a roller-coaster the last few days have been,” Hardy said. “I struggled on the first night and sat 16th in points. I ran the gutter the whole race and picked them off

KAIDEN MANDERS won rounds five and six of the Make Smoking History 360 Power Series at Esperance Speedway over the Australia Day weekend. Ben Butcher was second and the pair have a good battle for the lead in the overall series. “We had a fair crack. Kaiden was quick all weekend, but we were on the pace as well. We’ve still got races to win yet, so we’ve got work ahead of us,” Butcher said.

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one by one to win my second Australian Title. Words can’t describe the feeling. The first one was unreal, but this one is extra special.”

A hard-charging performance came from Lee McKinnell, who powered forward from position eight to take over the runner-up spot with just eight laps remaining, securing a pleasing podium ahead of second-place starter Tony Blanch (NSW), who couldn’t quite hold on to second but was able to round out the podium in third.

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SPEEDWAY LEGEND Danny Smith has wasted little time getting his first victory of the new 2019 Sprintcar USA season, with victory at Hendry County Motorsports Park in Florida. The regular visitor to Australia and six-time winner of the Warrnambool Classic raced from pole to win the 25-lap USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour opener with a broken left front shocker arm and nose wing to claim a unique personal achievement. It is the 45th straight year the seemingly ageless Smith has won a Sprintcar feature during his career.

JACK BARNEWALL held off one of Australia’s best drivers to win his first WA Street Stock Championship at Collie Speedway.

Barnewall beat polesitter Jamie Oldfield in a race that saw the duo split by just 0.066 seconds as they crossed the line after 35 laps, with Paul Joss in third. Oldfield, riding the back straight wall, drew back alongside Barnewall through turn three and on the final lap ducked underneath Barnewall in turn four, the two cars side-by-side across the line. Barnewall got there first by the smallest margin in WA Street Stock Title history since electronic timing was introduced.

SCOTT THOMSON led the most laps to win one of Australia’s longest races, the 100-lap Wingless Sprintcar Australian GP at Castrol Edge Lismore Speedway. The race ran virtually incident-free – apart from a yellow light with 62 laps remaining.

Jacob Jolley challenged Thomsen late as lapped traffic came into play, but Thomsen maintained his advantage to the chequered flag with a good win over the fast-finishing Jolley and Michael Butcher in third.

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MADSEN’S FULL CIRCLE KERRY MADSEN is like a caged lion as he paces backwards and forwards to the pit gate in a scenario he repeats many times a night.

It is a familiar scene from his transporter and racing car; this time it’s during the 47th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Premier Speedway near Warrnambool in Victoria’s south-western region.

Madsen is plotting how he can add to his three Classic wins in 2005, 2007 and 2008, and then there’s his national title defence in just a few days in Queensland.

He’s been called ‘The Madman’ for many years due to his polarising emotions and his on-track demeanor, which is sometimes perhaps misunderstood.

Fans now don’t care and have warmed to this iconic and at times controversial figure in a major way during the past decade.

If he’s not selling his very popular merchandise range or signing his name for a fan, he’s holding babies or just being the nicest guy in the pits. Realistically, he now could run for parliament and he’d get voted in – he is that popular.

As polarising as he might be to some, he’s a hell of a racer and a great ambassador for Australian speedway at home and abroad.

Madsen is intense, but is armed with rare talent, tasting victory in most Australian majors, including multiple national Sprintcar championships.

“If you are somewhat polarising then maybe you’re going okay. That’s the way it should be, and I’ve got no issue with that whatsoever,” Madsen told Premier

Speedway’s Four Wide webcast.

“I don’t really mean to be a different person at the racetrack, I just get focused. I’ve just got so many things running through my mind, I’m trying to put as much stuff mentally in my head so it all flows.

“It’s just a desk for me and it’s my job to race, I’m just trying to put my feet on the chair and think on how to get the job done.

“You get annoyed when you run second. It hurts for a couple of days. When hen you are going well it’s all fine, but you can’t an’t relax, as there are people lurking in the shadows to throw the knives in.

“I’ve been on the wrong side and lost big races. To have some in the bank helps, and coming into a major race the pressure is there but if something goes wrong then you move on.”

The triple Classic winner has stood atop the podium three times and placed on two more occasions. It’s a race he doesn’t feel the pressure like he did as a brash young Sydneysider 20 years ago.

“The Classic is feast or famine; you can walk around with 40 grand or with 40 bucks. Once you win a Classic then it definitely ticks off the box. It’s a box you like to keep ticking, though.”

Madsen currently leads the World Series Sprintcars standings by just eight points from Steve Lines, and aboard the famous Krikke Motorsport #2 is in line to potentially win his first tournament with three rounds still to run.

Madsen was unable to take a fourth Classic, Classic but currently leads the WSS standings.

He is the 11th most victorious racer in the series and is ranked 12th overall, just behind 2013-14 champion Steve Lines, who has one fewer victory, yet significantly more Top 5 results.

With 11 wins, 32 podiums and 41 Top 5 finishes, Madsen is the highest-ranked noncontracted Sprintcar driver in World Series history, almost a quarter of a century since his first Quicktime award at Wagga in the 1994/95 season The New Zealand-born, Australia-raised, Iowa-based racer’s overwhelming desire to master the sport in the USA has been his main alibi for never fully contesting the Australian series – a move he made in the early 1990s that was rewarded with his first win on American soil at Ohio’s KC Raceway in July 1993.

Since those early days Madsen has garnished 25 World of Outlaws victories

a two appearances on the and K Knoxville Nationals podium, along with w a stellar 2014 season that netted wins at the famed Kings n Royal Ro and Ironman55 events.

“I just loved the style of the racing in America, and the big, fast ra tracks were what really sparked tra my interest. I watched a lot before raced there, but I had so much I ra passion for the sport that I knew that pa if I was going to make it my career, it would have to be in the USA, as fullwo time rides weren’t very common in Australia back then,” Madsen said prior to the final rounds of WSS. His resolve was often tested with the occasional “dark night of the soul” as he struggled through the yo-yo of elation and heartbreak, but the now 47-year-old attributes his survival to mental toughness and an undeterred passion that came from starting slow.

“I’ve just maintained an optimism my whole career, fuelled by a simple passion for the sport, but I think a lot of that can be a result of me doing it tough in the early days and not getting my success too quickly.

“We were just a low-budget family deal back in those days, but we chipped away and slowly started to get success, and that slow growth has been the reason for my longevity, I believe. It made me hungry, and now I’m experiencing the most enjoyable days of my career. I guess you could say I’m a late bloomer.”

“Coming up at the nation’s action and spectator tracks” Wakefield Park

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February 9 PCRA February 11 WPM Trackschool Open Pitlane February 12 Speed Off The Streets/Test & Tune February 13 GEAR February 16 WPM Trackschool Track Day February 22 CAMS State Test & Tune Day

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Winton

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February 8 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers February 9-10 Mod Box Track Day – Private Hire February 12 Supercar Test Day February 13 Performance Test Day February 14 Test & Tunes – Cars & Open Wheelers February 17 WMR Training Day

HISTORICS – WHERE IS IT GOING? THERE SHOULD be around a dozen or so Historic meetings this year with varying appeal of significance. Do they have the same appeal as they used to and are the categories looked at in the same light?

The Classic Festival of Motorsport at Phillip Island on March 8-10 is the first on the historic calendar and, nestled between the Adelaide 500 and the Australian Grand Prix, ranks as the number one historic event of the year – of that there is no doubt.

Phillip Island usually puts on good weather and draws larger numbers of interested observers. The event will this year mark its 30th running, and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Australian Formula Ford, the 60th anniversary of the Mini, the 50th anniversary of the Holden Dealer Team, and the 50th anniversary of the Alfa Romeo Car Club among other milestones.

Over the years the organisers have brought in some mouthwatering machinery, some even racing, while more than 1000 classic, veteran and vintage cars are expected to be on display.

Despite the popularity of PI, there can be drawbacks. There are so many historic categories and cars these days that not every car can get on at all meetings and must take a turn at having to be dropped.

That can lead to the impasse of making the meeting attractive when, say, a popular category with the spectators is omitted.

Last year PI proved it still was a ‘must do’ for the enthusiast. But some other meetings appealing to the same audience had disappointing attendances and competitor numbers. I thought Historic Sandown and the Tasman Festival at Sydney Motorsport Park were well down on what we have seen in the past, while others at Mallala, Wakefield Park and Winton held their own.

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On the other hand, Historic Queensland at Morgan Park in the middle of the year was a pleasant surprise, with a large roll-up of cars and spectators in attendance. A lot goes back to the planning and ensuring that the meetings are never too close together.

There’s no question that the whole movement is gaining more cars, but is it gaining more fans or interest? Does the younger motorsport fan, mainly post-Baby Boomers, appreciate cars built before 1960, 1970 or 1980?

Historic race meetings have always been about the cars more than anything else – even the legend drivers from the era have had to take a back seat to the cars that they raced in the period in some instances.

This is what some quarters are saying about the revival of the Formula Ford Driver to Europe, which was the precursor to the Australian Formula Ford Championship.

There are also concerns from some that the historic movement has never looked favourably on sponsorship, although there has been some hardnose melting of the hard-line attitude. This revived competition

is more about the driver rather than showcasing the car in its historic context.

The Historic Formula Ford Australia Association will promote a four-round competition to celebrate the early years for Fa (pre-1978), Fb (1978-83) and Fc (1984-89) cars, with support from Factory Enterprises. Drivers will count their best three rounds, with the winners in each class receiving two airfares from Australia to the United Kingdom.

Heritage Touring Cars (Group C and Group A) runs its championship in a similar manners but not all their rounds are at historic race meetings.

To be fair, the original Formula Ford competition for an overseas trip was eagerly pursued and, as the open-wheeler category is celebrating half a century of competition, why not revive what became a stepping stone for many of our top-line drivers?

To many, the cars are not as easily recognisable compared to the good ol’ tin-top contemporaries in Group C and Group A, which can stand on the cars’ histories regardless.

BARKER TAKES FIRST ROUND MIKE BARKER took the lead in the 2019 Trydel Victorian Hillclimb Championship with an outright win at the opening round at Rob Roy on January 20.

Barker is no stranger to winning at this climb, having done so in both his Elfin Clubman and the Hayward 06 that he was driving this day (pictured). But he was surprised by this win as he had just replaced the engine, which came from a second-hand Hayabusa and was standard apart from some minor computer tweaks courtesy of Brett Hayward.

Barker was quickest from the start and finished on 20.03s, just 0.07s off his best.

There was plenty of competition among the open-wheelers, with David Mahon in the ex-Greg Ackland GA7 taking a close second with a 20.29s run, while the favourite in the championship, Garry Martin (Martin a16), was plagued by problems, but still finished third outright on 20.93s.

Fourth place went to Michael Bishop in his

new Hayward 19. Hayward set some quick times when he tested this car before handing it over to Bishop, so we can expect some serious competition as the new owner becomes more familiar with it.

Fastest tin top and fifth outright was Tim Boyd (Mazda RX7), well ahead of his opposition in the 2WD Sports Sedan class, while Daniel Sedgeman (Subaru Liberty) finished sixth but was the only 4WD Sports Sedan.

Shannons Targa Rallysprint Rd4, Perth Motorplex WA, Feb 07 State Hillclimb Cup Rd1, Highclere TAS, Feb 09 Multi Club Motorkhana, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Feb 09 State Supersprint Championship Rd1, Phillip Island VIC, Feb 09-10 Multi Club Rallysprint, Nabiac Motor Sport Complex NSW, Feb 10 Multi Club Khanacross, Hampton Motorsport Park NSW, Feb 10 Multi Club Motorkhana, 1637 Greens Beach Road Kelso TAS, Feb 10 Multi Club Supersprint, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Feb 10 Multi Club Motorkhana, METEC Driver Training Centre Bayswater North VIV, Feb 10 Multi Club Motorkhana, The Quarry College Road Bathurst NSW, Feb 10 Multi Club Hillclimb, Huntley Hillclimb NSW, Feb 10 Summer Autocross Series Rd4, Perth Motorplex WA, Feb 13 State Motor Racing Championships Rd1, Mallala Motorsport Par SA, Feb 16 Targa North West, Australian Targa Championship Rd1, Burnie TAS, Feb 16-17 Mt Baw Baw Sprint, Tarmac Rally Championships Rd1, Mt Baw Baw VIC, Feb 23-24 State Circuit Racing Championships Rd1, Symmons Plains TAS, Feb 23-24 State Motor Race Championships Rd1, Wakefield Park NSW, Feb 23-24 Superloop Adelaide 500, Supercars Championships Race 01&02, Dunlop Super2 Rd1, Porsche Carrera Cup Rd1, Touring Car Masters Rd1, SuperUtes Rd1, Aussie Racing Cars Rd1, Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup Australian Production Car Series Rd1, Radical Australia Cup Rd2, Prodsports Enduro Series Rd1, TA2 Muscle Cars Rd1, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 01-03 State Rally Championships Rd1, Mitta Mountain Rally, Mitta Mitta VIC , Mar 02 State Hillclimb Championships Rd1, Esses, Bathurst NSW, Mar 02 State Circuit Racing Championships Rd1, Sandown Park VIC, Mar 02-03 State Circuit Racing Championships Rd1, Barbagallo WA, Mar 02-03 State Hillclimb Championships Rd2, Mt Straight, Bathurst NSW

Ian Grinter topped Improved Production in his Mini Cooper S, finishing over a second ahead Maurice Harper in his family Corolla.

South Australian Sarah Pfeiffer (Mallock U2) was the fastest lady despite nursing an injured hand from an accident last year. She was second in Sports Cars, while fellow visitor Mark Patane (Alfa Romeo GTV) won the class and finished 13th outright.

Gary Hill

AutoAction

57

You can have your say in a poll we’re running at autoaction.com.au

PORSCHE SUPERCARS SHOCK? ALTHOUGH YOU’VE now seen the Mustang Supercars racer uncamouflaged, debate continues about its look compared with the road car’s sleek lines.

Before it was revealed in Ford Performance warpaint, DJR Team Penske issued a media invitation to the February 11 launch of the Shell V-Power Racing-liveried Mustang with a black silhouette profile image.

The image prompted comment from several Supercars insiders, including Penrite Racing team boss Barry Ryan, who on Facebook joked that it indicated that Porsche was joining Supercars.

Ryan compared the silhouette with the profile of a 1980s Porsche 935 ‘Moby Dick’ – and his observation was immediately endorsed by many, including Walkinshaw Andretti United boss Ryan Walkinshaw.

Funnily enough, a DJRTP insider had made the same wry observation in a casual conversation about the

58 AutoAction

Porsche’s famous 935 ‘Moby Dick’ (above) and DJRTP’s invitation outline (below).

launch invite’s dark teaser image.

And the resemblance is uncanny.

Same bubble roof line, massive rear wing and drooping nose.

The difference is more pronounced in the undisguised profile shot from Ford, but from

the side, the Supercars Mustang’s shape is still 935-esque. There is no doubt the push-me, pull-me solution to meeting the Supercars body shape regulations has resulted in a disproportioned shape.

But the Ford Performance-liveried

racer – which is a rebodied DJRTP Falcon FG X chassis that will be the squad’s spare car – does look better than when it first appeared in a busy camouflage livery.

That colour scheme was deliberately distracting, creating comment and discussion, although the adverse reaction from fans on social media – not to mention the negative judgement of traditional media – surprised Ford and the teams.

We’ll reserve our final verdict until the DJRTP and Tickford Racing Mustangs are revealed in their racing liveries.

But even then, we fear ‘Porsche 935’ will still permeate our thoughts, especially the side view.

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