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SVG’S NEW DEAL WITH TRIPLE EIGHT BRUCE NEWTON reveals l th thatt th the Kiwi Ki i superstar t iis now llocked k d in i until til 2021

HOLDEN HERO Shane van Gisbergen has extended his driving agreement with Triple Eight Race Engineering for a further year to the end of 2020.

Auto Action has learned that van Gisbergen quietly agreed to the extension back in late 2018, aligning him with Red Bull Holden Racing Team teammate Jamie Whincup, who renewed for an extra season in October, along with taking an ownership stake in the squad.

It is understood that the timing of the 2016 Supercars champion’s re-signing reflects an as yet unannounced one-year extension of Red Bull’s naming rights backing to the end of 2020 as well.

AA understands that the energy drinks giant is unprepared to commit further until it sees the shape of the next Supercars media deal, which is being negotiated now and is due to kick in from 2021.

Meanwhile, T8’s deal with Holden is up at the end of 2019, although as we report on page 6, the company is publicly talking positively about a renewal.

Team owner Roland Dane was unwilling to make any definitive comments about the Holden and Red

Bull negotiations, and was certainly not prepared to confirm the latter had extended.

But his explanation of why both drivers were locked in only through 2020 seemed to reflect Auto Action’s understanding of the team’s situation. “We have just rolled it over,� said Dane of the SVG agreement. “His first deal with us was for three years, then we extended it into 2019 and now we have extended it into 2020. “I’ve got to make sure as a company we are able to deliver what he wants and we can afford to have two top-line drivers. “I don’t want to over-reach the business, so we just take it a step at a time. “Shane likes being here and we like having him.�

Van Gisbergen displayed his fighting qualities in Adelaide last weekend to claim two third places behind Scott McLaughlin and his dominant Ford Mustang, despite struggling to sort the Commodore ZB on the now mandatory linear spring. “There’s no point leaving when I am in the best team, having a lot of fun and in the best place,� he said. “There was no pressure [to re-sign], it was easy and it wasn’t a long

THIS WEEK’S RACE CALENDAR

conversation. “I have a lot of fun. The best thing is I can go back to New Zealand a lot and race overseas as much as I can.�

Van Gisbergen is second in the championship – 42 points behind arch-rival McLaughlin – and made it clear in Adelaide the ZB does not have the pace of the Mustang, all six of which demonstrated strong pace at some stage over the weekend.

But as van Gisbergen pointed out, he won both races in Adelaide last year and finished second in the championship, but he finished third on the street circuit in 2016 and went on to win the title. “It’s harder this year losing Craig (Lowndes), but our endurance lineup is really strong and I have the best teammate in the field. We are up against it, but we are working together. “But we definitely have a lot to do to catch them.�

Van Gisbergen spent time in the two races chasing McLaughlin and his Shell V-Power Racing teammate Fabian Coulthard, and Monster Energy Racing’s Cam Waters. He also found himself defending his position against attacks from Chaz Mostert (Supercheap Auto Racing) and Will

Davison (Milwaukee Racing).

So, while he has as good an understanding as any Holden driver of the Mustang’s advantages, SVG is refusing to accept the Ford may have an advantage – such as aerodynamics – over the Holden that cannot be bridged by tuning and development. “I am not allowing myself to think like that because I can’t do anything,� he said. “In the areas they are better, I have to make my car better because I can’t change that [body] stuff. “With our car, we haven’t got turn and drive this year like we had with the trapezoidal spring. That’s why I was on the roll-bar [adjuster] so much because we haven’t got a handle on it yet.�

While Dane clearly hopes this is just one of many extensions he and his star Kiwi driver agree to, he was far less definitive about seven-time champion Whincup. “Jamie is probably thinking about what the next steps [beyond driving are],� Dane noted.

Apart from the 2016 drivers’ championship, van Gisbergen has scored 20 of his 30 Supercars wins for T8, as well as claiming second (2018) and fourth (2017) in title chase.

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MUSTANG PARITY ROW LOOMS IT’S A SPORTS SEDAN, RAGES ROLAND

BRUCE NEWTON explains why the new Ford’s stampede in Adelaide has prompted a potentially divisive debate about weight distribution CENTRE OF gravity parity! That’s the call from rival Supercars teams following the sensational Adelaide debut by the Ford Mustang.

DJR Team Penske’s Mustangs took both pole positions and both race wins at the Adelaide 500 and a dominant Scott Mclaughlin emerged from the weekend with a perfect score of 300 championship points.

McLaughlin’s luckless teammate Fabian Coulthard was also a frontrunner and all four Tickford Racing Mustangs showed significant singlelap and race speed.

It was enough to get the alarm bells ringing for rivals, who fear the first coupe in the Supercars era of Australian touring car racing has been built significantly light and cleverly ballasted to meet the 1395kg minimum weight rule.

Ballasting a car with mass placed down in the chassis lowers the centre of gravity and therefore improves the dynamic performance.

Currently there is no rule governing the overall centre of gravity of Supercars.

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At the back of rival team’s minds is the desire to avoid another expensive investment in weight reduction, as prompted by the Holden Commodore ZB last year, which arrived underweight thanks to the extensive use of composite panels and parts.

Supercars is aware of those concerns and has been studying the equalisation of CoG for some time, but head of motor sport Adrian Burgess was cautious about the process.

“We have made some inroads into trying to equalise it (CoG) as close as we can, but we have to bear in mind there is no rule written around this,” Burgess said. “It’s easy for people to say ‘Let’s go CoG testing cars, but it is a very expensive and complex process to go and measure a complete car accurately.

“And once you have that information, it’s not going to be a quick and easy thing to adjust because the amount of weight you have to shift inside the car vertically to affect the CoG is more significant than people understand.

“But, yes, it is something we are working through. We are obviously

monitoring it and we are taking strides to equalise it.”

Those strides are understood to include weighing the individual outer panels and underlying sheet metal/ composite material of the three Supercars racers, and seeing how close they are.

Burgess also urged caution in regard to the Adelaide results.

“It’s too early to make any calls,” he declared. “Don’t forget, 12 months ago the ZB Commodore had two poles and two wins.”

Supercars has previously dealt with CoG when GRM’s Volvo lightweight Yamaha-developed V8 engine had substantial ballasting on the sump.

Rival teams objected and the ballast had to be shifted to the top of the engine.

Both the factory Red Bull Holden Racing Team and the Kelly Racing squad support a centre of gravity test, while DJRTP boss Ryan Story said it would willingly participate.

“It would be hypocritical of me not to because that’s something that I asked for last year when the ZB Commodore

came out,” Story said. “We’ve been fully transparent with Supercars about how much ballast we are carrying in the cars and the feedback is we are not carrying any more than the ZBs were in Adelaide last year.”

Kelly Racing is a strong proponent of a CoG rule. This is intended to be the last year of the Nissan Altima’s racing life and it went through an expensive diet in 2018. The team wants to avoid the financial cost of eking another few kilos from the car.

“It (CoG) has become quite a difficult thing to manage now the cars are so different,” co-team owner Todd Kelly said. “We got to the point where the cars were all fairly similar, where the front guards all weighed the same and the rear guards all weighed the same – roughly.

“There wasn’t really any opportunity for a significant centre of gravity difference. Now the cars are so different, to try and isolate each area of the car or each individual part and get parity, is next to impossible.

“There’s no transparency on how much ballast is in those cars, but I

DAN’S RARING TO RACE DAN KNUTSON looks at how Ricciardo is shaping up for his all-new start to the F1 season at the Australian Grand Prix

Roland Dane (left with Jamie Whincup’s engineer David Cauchi) supports a CoG test “100 per cent”.

could imagine with how they have been built that there is certainly the ability to have a fairly light car.

“I am not saying they have a got a heap of ballast and a lower centre of gravity, but the only way to find out is a bit of transparency. So let’s check them early in the year and find out.

“Hopefully, there’s a bit of common sense and we can react to it fairly quickly because what happened last year wasn’t a very good way to deal with it.”

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RBHRT’s Roland Dane said he would back a CoG test “100 per cent” if Supercars judged it the right thing to do.

“There are some very good [technical] people at Supercars now and I have every faith in them, if there is an anomaly, to recognise it and rectify it,” Dane said.

While not a technical parity issue, Dane was scathing about the differences between the look of the racing Mustang and the road car.

“The car is such a departure

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from the road car, it is not what Supercars set out to be,” he said. “The DNA of these cars is really important in the way they look.

“Even if we make composite panels – which we increasingly have over the years for one reason or the other, often as not, cost – we have kept the essential dimensions of the road car. That has maintained the look and feel.

“Now we have a sports sedan and I don’t feel it’s built with the best interests of the category in mind.”

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DANIEL RICCIARDO is keen to get back to racing after the long break since last year’s season finale, as he prepares for his Renault racing debut at Albert Park next week.

“It is pretty awesome to start the season at home,” Ricciardo said. “Just to compete on home soil is cool and arriving there with a new team is an added bit of excitement.”

Ricciardo and his Renault teammate Nico Hülkenberg completed 961 laps (4473 km) during the eight days of pre-season testing in Spain. The team achieved its objectives, according to Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul.

“The main objective of winter testing is to evaluate parts to their limits and some things worked better than others,” Abiteboul said. “Overall, we have had great factory/circuit correlation and co-operation, and gathered some critical information.”

Added Renault’s chassis technical director Nick Chester: “We racked up a lot of miles and sorted out a lot of little gremlins in the car. We are understanding it better.

“We knew coming into Barcelona we were going to have a lot to learn about the new aero package. It’s been pretty successful so far.”

Engine technical director Rémi Taffin said the power unit figures on the track matched those seen on the dyno. Taffin claimed that the improvements to power and reliability are “the biggest we have made in the last five years” since the introduction of the V6 hybrid engines in 2014.

Ricciardo is excited about racing with Renault at the Australian Grand Prix – even if his expectations aren’t high.

“I don’t really know what to expect in Melbourne,” he said. “I don’t expect to be on the front row or on the back row of the grid. We will be somewhere there in the middle.

I’m looking forward to seeing where everyone is at. It has been pretty close in testing.

“You are still going to get the top couple teams having a bit of a gap to the rest at the start of the season, but the midfield certainly seems like it is going to be close. It could even come down to which driver does the better lap in qualifying.

“That could make a difference of one to three positions.

It could also just be down to track temperatures or which track layout suits a particular team.

“I don’t think what we will see in Melbourne is going to be the way the whole season plays out. It is going to change quite a bit throughout the season.”

Ricciardo will be sporting an entire new look in Melbourne. His dark blue Red Bull driver suit has been replaced by the yellow and black Renault colours. He has also been working with an Australian artist on a new helmet design.

“It certainly will be different,” he said, “And it’s not going to be traditional and typical with halos and lines that mean nothing. I’m trying to get away from the typical helmet you see these days.

“It should be funky. It’s kind of artistic in a modern way.”

Ricciardo’s summary of the coming of the new season: “It is good to get started, period.”

10-page special on Daniel Ricciardo’s prospects with Renault begins on page 24.

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HOLDEN POSITIVE ABOUT SUPERCARS FUTURE

New factory deal for Triple Eight under negotiation

BY BRUCE NEWTON

HAS HOLDEN rediscovered its love for Supercars racing?

Having reached out to all Holden teams in recent weeks to provide limited support, the Lion brand is sending out strong signals it will continue its commitment to Triple Eight Race Engineering as the factory team into a new deal from 2020.

Holden’s executive director of marketing Kristian Aquilina confirmed positive negotiations for an extension were underway with T8 – which races as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team – to continue as the works squad.

“We have well and truly started [negotiations] and we are in active discussions with RBHRT over our relationship,” Aquilina said. “I will leave it for inside our four walls for the moment, but it’s a good relationship and we have had a lot of success through that partnership with Triple Eight as well as Red Bull.”

Holden’s optimistic tone comes as star driver Shane van Gisbergen confirms he has extended his T8 deal until the end of 2020, joining team mate Jamie Whincup.

Auto Action also understands Red Bull has extended its backing until the end of next year.

Aquilina has been upbeat about Holden’s Supercars involvement since taking over his current role last April and also professes to be a personal fan of the category.

But Holden’s support for Supercars had fluctuated significantly in recent years. In the lead-up to the end of local production, it debated cutting ties with the sport and ended up handing the factory HRT role and development of the ZB to Triple Eight race Engineering.

“Yes, the shape of our involvement has changed over time,” Aquilina admitted.

“We’ve had to cut the cloth to suit a little bit, but motor sport is so much a part of the DNA of our brand and will continue to be, and Commodore is what we have invested a fair bit of time and effort into preparing for the track “So we want to realise the full benefit of that investment over time. There’s a continuing involvement with Commodore. We are very positively disposed toward motor sport and Commodore playing a continued role on the track.”

Holden has recently announced it will focus on promoting its SUV range in 2019 and Aquilina is convinced Holden’s Supercars presence could aid that campaign.

“When you look at the Supercarsconsuming audience, there is a high pre-disposition toward the very cars we are focussed on (SUVs),” he said. “Very high. The car park tells you that, but the (demographic) numbers also tell you that.”

Holden’s support for other Holden teams first became evident at the Adelaide 500, where Penrite Racing replaced their Erebus badges with Holden Lion logos.

Feasibly, the forthcoming 522kW-plus Shelby GT500 road car could form the basis of the GT3 racer.

“We could use anything,” Rushbrook said.

“That’s the great thing with Mustang – plugand-play parts in a sense for the body parts that we could change.

“There are so many different performance variants that you can keep it fresh on the racetrack as well.”

Ford developed the GT for global sports

car racing with the aim of winning the GTE Pro class at the Le Mans 24 Hours, a goal it achieved first time out in 2016 – 50 years after the GT40 finished 1-2-3 outright in 1966.

It has been widely reported the Ford GT GTE program is expected to wind up this year, but Rushbrook wasn’t prepared to confirm that.

The initial run of 1000 road cars has recently been extended to 1350, with production now stretching out to 2022.

FORD CONSIDERING GT3 MUSTANG Blue Oval motor sport chief confirms both GT supercar and iconic pony car are in the frame for GT3

BY BRUCE NEWTON

THE BIG boss of Ford’s motor sport vehicle development has confirmed it is looking at a version of the Mustang for global GT3 racing.

Ford already has a GT4 Mustang developed in conjunction with supplier Multimatic and a GT3 derivative of the road-going GT supercar is under consideration, as exclusively reported by Auto Action in October.

But the admission by Ford Performance director of motor sport Mark Rushbrook that a GT3 Mustang could be the preferred weapon is new.

“We are very happy with the Mustang in GT4 and we would consider a Mustang in GT3, so it’s not a foregone conclusion that if we do a GT3 car it would be off the GT,” he told AA at last weekend’s Superloop Adelaide 500, where he witnessed the successful debut of the Supercars version of the Mustang. “There are no decisions made, but both are being studied.”

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While the prospect of the Mustang lining up against the exotic brands and models that populate the GT3 grid might seem a bit fish-out-of-water, such a decision would reflect Ford’s mandate to use the Mustang as its motor sport model wherever possible.

Apart from the Supercars and GT4 versions, Ford Performance has also recently developed NASCAR and NHRA Mustangs.

“When we went global with the Mustang street car, we also made the decision shortly after that to go global with the Mustang in racing as well,” Rushbrook said.

Ford Performance’s road car division is responsible for the high-performance Shelby GT350 version upon which the GT4 model draws much of its base.

AMBROSE: I HAVEN’T RETIRED

BY MARK FOGARTY

ALTHOUGH HE has no plans to return to racing, Marcos Ambrose still won’t commit to having officially retired.

Ambrose stepped away from driving after relinquishing his DJR Team Penske seat after just two events in 2015.

The 2003/04 Supercars champion, who returned after nine seasons in NASCAR to head Roger Penske’s entry into Supercars, hasn’t raced since co-driving Scott Pye in the enduros in ’15.

However, he never officially announced his

retirement and is still not prepared to say he will never race again.

Just like Allan Moffat, who stopped racing in 1989 without ever using the ‘R’ word to this day, Ambrose is reluctant to rule out ever racing again.

“I’m not leaving the door open, but if I decide that I want to go back and race again, I’ll go race again,” he told Auto Action in a full-length interview to appear next issue. “No one needs to tell me that I’ve retired.

“I don’t need to make an announcement. I’m

going to do what I want to do, right?”

While he maintains that driving a NASCAR Cup Mustang in a series of demonstrations at the Adelaide 500 hasn’t tempted him to make a comeback, he enjoyed the experience immensely.

Ambrose was particularly fascinated by the level of technology in the Mustang compared with the FG X he raced in 2015, marvelling at the new car’s world-class sophistication.

He is keen to try the Supercars Mustang and it will not be a surprise if he does a public demonstration run in DJR Team Penske’s Ford

Performance-liveried spare car later this year.

In the interview, Ambrose also notes the marked technical progression of the NASCAR Mustang compared with the Ford Fusion he last raced in the States in 2014.

He also declares that he has no regrets about quitting his Supercars comeback so soon and talks about his life in Tasmania – including his gold-panning hobby – and ambition to mentor young drivers.

As well, Ambrose reveals his secret life as an online racer with a very advanced sim set-up.

WHY BOOST DEMANDED STANAWAY

Image: Ross Gibb

New GRM sponsor has no regrets dumping Tander for Kiwi badboy

BY BRUCE NEWTON

BOOST MOBILE boss Peter Adderton has revealed Richie Stanaway’s demonic drifting at Townsville last year was a key reason he insisted the maligned Kiwi replaced veteran Garth Tander at Garry Roger Motorsports.

The phone service reseller’s move from Walkinshaw Andretti United to GRM as primary sponsor on both Commodore ZBs was one of the big shocks of the Supercars off-season, along with Tander’s unexpected dumping.

But Adderton, who had previously supported Stanaway, became determined to place Stanaway in a car when he lost his Tickford drive after a disappointing Supercars rookie season.

“Townsville was a turning point for me,”

Adderton told Auto Action. “The team screwed up and the normal thing a V8 driver would do is suck it up, but no, he went out and had some fun.

“He’s drifting when they’re telling him to stop doing it. I love that. That’s who I employ, those kinds of people who are willing to go outside the system.”

Stanaway joins another youngster in James Golding at GRM. Between them at Adelaide, they managed a best of 14th in race one for Golding.

Tander would have likely done better, but Adderton professes no regrets for forcing the highly accomplished veteran out of the team a year ahead of his expected retirement from full-time driving.

“When we went to Garry and Barry (Rogers), we said ‘Here’s the deal, here’s what the Boost brand is. It’s not about giving a guy a year for his retirement lap. If you want to do that, we’ll see you in 2020’.

“I said ‘We want two young drivers in the cars’ and I expected him (Garry Rogers) to push back. But for Garry it came down to ‘Do I take the Boost money, which has a very clear objective of what they want to do, or do I give Garth a victory lap? “‘Do I take the next three or four years of security for my team or do I give one guy the opportunity to say goodbye to his kids?’

“It was a pretty easy decision to make.”

According to Adderton, Stanaway’s controversial reputation worked with his desire to recast GRM as a youth-oriented team with attitude.

“Everything about Richie off the track makes him someone we want to get behind,” he said.

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BIG BOOST FOR MSR THE AUSTRALIAN Racing Group has announced that the inaugural TCR Australia Series will feature a significant prize pool, with a total of $250,000 up for grabs. This will see the winner of the series receive a career-bolstering $100,000. Second and third places will receive $50,000 and $25,000 respectively, while the winner of the Michelin Cup (for privateer entries) will get $25,000. There will also be an ‘emerging talent’ component that will provide a selected driver with an opportunity within the global TCR platform.

SUPERCARS HAS confirmed that night racing will return to Sydney Motorsport Park in 2020, following the announcement of a $33 million Government investment at the circuit. NSW Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres announced funding for permanent lighting and infrastructure at the circuit, following the success of Supercars’ debut under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park last August. The permanent lighting, consisting of 150 broadcast quality towers, means the hugely successful Sydney SuperNight format will return to the 2020 Supercars calendar, on a date to be announced.

PAUL MORRIS will expand his motorsport operation in 2019 to create the Paul Morris Racing Academy. The Bathurst 12 Hour, 6 Hour and 1000 winner will add two Toyota 86 Racing Series cars to his fleet, to be steered by young guns Declan Fraser and Luke Vanna.

It will be the second year in the series for both drivers. The addition of the Toyotas to Morris’ team, which also includes Broc Feeney in the Kumho Tyre Super3 Supercars Series this year, is part of a broader plan by the Bathurst 1000 Champion to add the Paul Morris Racing Academy to his Norwell Motorplex.

MANY LEGENDS of the sport will attend the Phillip Island Classic ‘Festival of Motorsport’ on March 8-10, to enjoy one of the largest historic motor racing events in the world for the 30th Anniversary of the Victorian Historic Register (VHRR). Also celebrated will be the 50th Anniversary of the Holden Dealer Team and the 50th Anniversary of Formula Ford in Australia.

Australian Motorsport legends attending will include Kevin Bartlett, John Bowe, John French, Fred Gibson, John Harvey, Dick Johnson, Allan Moffatt, Bob Morris, Larry Perkins, Dave Reynolds, Jim Richards and Brian Sampson, all on hand both Saturday and Sunday for patrons and enthusiasts for signing opportunities.

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Hazelwood’s top 10 pace to aid sponsor search AN OUTSTANDING start to his second season in the Supercars championship on home soil in Adelaide has bolstered Todd Hazelwood’s belief that Matt Stone Racing will soon secure season-long backing.

After a strong run to 12th on Saturday, Hazelwood leapt into the top 10 in Sunday qualifying, contested his first Shootout and then raced to 10th place – the best finish for both since their main game debut as a wildcard in 2017.

Hazelwood’s Triple Eight-built Holden Commodore ZB was running in the colours of his personal sponsor Unit sports clothing in a one-off Adelaide deal and it certainly picked up plenty of exposure, with the 2017 Super2 champion’s efforts highlights by commentators and former racers Mark Skaife and Neil Crompton during the telecast.

“We have a couple of deals in the works for the remainder of the year,” Hazelwood said. “It could be Unit, it could be someone else. We’re not sure at this stage.

“If we can keep getting results like we did on Sunday, that can only help increase the capability of our team and that will bring in sponsors. Success brings success and that’s the beauty of our sport – when you are on a high, things start coming together.

“Hopefully, we can leverage these results as best we can.”

Image: Insyde Media

MSR launched into its rookie full-time Supercars season in 2018 running an ex-DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X. But from Tailem Bend onwards, the tightknit team made the call to revert to its Super2-winning Holden Commodore VF ahead of an alignment with Triple Eight this year.

The squad has been boosted by the buy-in of long-time supporter Jason Gomersall during the off-season.

Technically, the mandating of the linear springs has eased the development curve the team has had to go through, while Hazelwood put himself through a tough physical and mental training program over the summer.

Hazelwood said the team went to Adelaide confident after a strong Phillip Island pre-season test. He was certain he would have qualified higher than 20th for Saturday’s race if not for an

error on his hot lap.

However, on Sunday it all came together. After setting ninth fastest time in qualifying, he started seventh on the grid.

“It’s great for your confidence and great for your experience to be running with the elite guys,” Hazelwood said.

“That’s because you learn all these little things that you are not aware of when you are running at the back of the pack.”

Hazelwood was given a standing ovation by the fans in the pit straight grandstand as he started his Top 10 Shootout lap.

“My (veteran) engineer Wes (McDougall) just told me to treat it like just another lap and go out there and enjoy it,” the jubilant youngster said.

“The response from the home crowd is always pretty cool and I can’t thank them enough.” BN

KEED: NO PENSKE REGRETS

Gun engineer relishing fresh challenge at Irwin Racing DESPITE ending up on gardening leave for 12 months, Supercars technical guru Phil Keed he has no regrets about his stint at DJR Team Penske.

Now back in the Supercars championship and celebrating two top 10 finishes with Ford refugee Mark Winterbottom as technical director at Charlie Schwerkolt’s overhauled Irwin Racing operation, Keed describes his time within the Queensland branch of US motorsport mogul Roger Penske’s global racing empire as “fantastic”.

Keed made headlines when he joined Fabian Coulthard in departing Brad Jones Racing for DJRTP in 2016.

They finished 12th in the championship that year with two podiums, but really hit their straps in 2017 when Coulthard scored the team’s first championship race win at Symmons Plains, led the driver’s championship as late as the Gold Coast 600 and ended the season third.

But that was all she wrote for Keed at DJRTP. There are a variety of possible reasons put forward for his departure.

Among them is Coulthard asking for a change and another is that Ludo

Image: Ross Gibb

Lacroix – who moved from Triple Eight Race Engineering for 2017 - engineered Keed’s exit to ensure the focus was solely on Scott McLaughlin as a championship contender.

That latter theory has been posed publicly by Lacroix’s previous employer Roland Dane.

“Sometimes things just don’t work out,” Keed offered on the subject. “It might come down to whether you fit the group and just individual personalities.

“As is their prerogative, they felt they wanted to make changes and change the group dynamic. If you have a really special driver and an iconic leader in the group, then you are going to do that.

“I don’t blame them at all, that’s just a decision that’s made every day of the week in big companies.

“I learned a fantastic amount, I always felt really proud to be part of that group. The presentation, the aims and the goals and the learnings from

those two years. I met some great people who I am still fantastic friends with.

“It was just a really exciting, fun experience and at the end of it all I had the best year of my life (on gardening leave in 2018).”

Keed spent much of last year in wife Amy’s home country Canada, where she still remains with their children until school term ends.

Keed himself is still located in southeast Queensland and commutes to Irwin Racing’s Melbourne base when necessary, as team owner Schwerkolt does. At this stage there is no plan for him to shift south.

Keed is now focussed on the challenges of working with Winterbottom, developing the ex-Jamie Whincup Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore ZB and building a relationship with technical suppler Triple Eight.

As technical director, he is not

engineering the car. Instead, Stuart McDonald is continuing in that role, with Nathan Pekolj as data engineer, while veteran engineer Steve Henderson has been signed as team manager.

All that means Keed’s fertile mind is left to explore the bigger technology and strategic pictures.

“I think I can add an awful lot freed up from the detail,” Keed said. “I am going to oversee and encourage and grow.

We can put some processes in-place, we can improve some things.

“I do tend to innovate a lot when I am not bogged down with the detail stuff, so I think I can bring a lot.”

Winterbottom’s Adelaide 500 performances have reinforced Keed’s optimism that the revamped Team 18 combination can perform strongly.

But having worked for Subaru’s world rally program, and Team Brock and Ford Performance Racing in Supercars before joining BJR, he understands a lot has to go right to take the chequered flag first.

“I feel like we have a good handle on it all because we are taking a car that is a winning package and we should have a winning pace very quickly,” Keed said.

“It’s just bringing it home [first] and that’s the reason very few people win Supercars races, it’s really hard to do.

“Our goal is to be a top five car by the end of the year, but that’s a really lofty goal. I think we could win the odd race this year or next, but that still doesn’t mean we are continually in the top five.

“What we need to chase is that continual improvement, so we are always in the top five.” BN

NEW CAMARO HOPE

Supercars is taking a hard look at altering the rules to overcome corruption of coupe body shapes

By MARK FOGARTY

SUPERCARS IS seriously investigating changing the chassis rules to accommodate low-line coupes like the Chevrolet Camaro and even GT-style two-seaters to ensure the longterm future of manufacturer involvement.

As previously revealed by Auto Action, Supercars is actively investigating reducing the roll cage height and other dimensional changes to make it easier to adapt two-door body shapes.

Big changes are in the works for an evolutionary upgrade of the existing Gen2 New Generation technical and eligibility rules – dubbed Next Generation – as soon as 2021.

Behind the scenes, Walkinshaw Andretti United is maintaining its campaign to gain roll hoop height concessions to allow the Camaro’s low roofline to fit over the Supercars chassis without distorting the look of the road car.

Ford had to adapt the body shape of the

Mustang to the existing rules, resulting in the racer’s awkward proportions.

WAU and road car stablemate HSV are particularly keen to field a Camaro-look Supercar against the Mustang following confirmation that the range-topping ZL1 model will be sold in Australia for the middle of this year.

While he described the Camaro racer project as “dormant”, WAU and HSV chief Ryan Walkinshaw confirmed that the project was ready to be revived if Supercars approved a change.

“From what I understand, there’s an activate investigation going on and we’re obviously pushing that because we’d like to have that door opened for us,” Walkinshaw said. “We’ve been really clear that our ambitions are to race a Camaro in Supercars, but currently with the chassis and the roll hoop where it is, we’d have to bastardise the aesthetics of the car so

much, as we’ve seen with the Mustang.

“For us as the people who are bringing the Camaro in with Holden, we have a significant incentive to ensure that the race car represents the aesthetic integrity of the road car.

“So if and when Supercars changes the roll hoop and changes the chassis to allow more two-door exciting products into the category, we’ll be exploring that opportunity again very quickly.”

Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer revealed that computer studies were underway to assess adapting the chassis to a wider variety of body shapes.

“The process that we’re going through right now is trying to make sure we that have enduring market relevance and that we have the most opportunity for a number of different marques,” Seamer said. “We have about 20 different CAD files that the technical department’s working through and they’re

literally dropping those CAD files on top of the chassis and seeing what changes would need to be made to accommodate the maximum number of vehicles.

“This is a process that we’re doing some work on right now, but we really need to take it back to our OE manufacturer partners to get their feedback on what their product road maps look like. So we’re just doing a bit of grunt work right now to understand what the opportunities might be and then we can take that back to the OEMs and get their feedback, and make sure that what we’re looking at doing has longevity.

“We want to measure twice and cut once.”

Seamer sees the NASCAR-style manufacturers’ council he has proposed as playing a crucial role in developing the Next Generation rules, which are currently scheduled for introduction in 2002 but could be brought forward to ’21 if the teams agree.

high-fiving, then going up in the stands to see the Irwin people at their first event and they are all cheering.

“It’s cool. We don’t have to win every race to gain satisfaction. Today was as good as it gets.”

Winterbottom was pleased with how the team worked first time out, with star category engineer Phil Keed coming off gardening leave to become the team’s technical director, while Team 18 regular Stuart Henderson is his

engineer. Former category engineer Steve Henderson has slotted in this year as team manager.

One obvious sign of Winterbottom’s enthusiasm was his attendance at the Image: Ross Gibb track Sunday night long after the end of the action. He has previously been a fan of getting out of the track quickly after the action finished.

“I’ve had less sleep than I have had at a race meeting for a long time and that’s Phil,” he said. “He just pounds you and pounds you and pounds you, but it’s really rewarding.

“I drove the car like a Tickford car on Thursday and Friday and it didn’t respond, so he has been coaching me all weekend.”

FROSTY HAS NO REGRETS Mustang pace ignored as Irwin Racing charges into the top 10

By BRUCE NEWTON

FORD REFUGEE Mark Winterbottom made a pact with himself before the Adelaide 500 that there would be no regrets no matter how well the Mustangs performed.

They did perform well, but so did Winterbottom, who finished with 9-6 results and sixth in the driver’s championship in his first competitive outing in a Holden Commodore after 16 years as a Ford Falcon Supercars driver.

“I knew what was coming,” Frosty said of the Mustang’s introduction. “I said to (wife) Renee, if they go out and go top one to six, it is what it is. You make your decision and live with it.

“I loved the weekend.”

Winterbottom, who shifted from the four-car Tickford Racing squad, is the sole focus of Charlie Schwerkolt’s reconstituted Team 18.

He was pleased with his first competitive outing in the Irwin Tools-backed Triple Eightspec ZB and is optimistic about the future.

“I think we can turn this team into something really cool,” he said. “We are small, but I think we can do a good job.”

Winterbottom’s weekend wasn’t without its dramas. He started last on the grid on Sunday after a power steering issue in qualifying.

But the safety car timing and pit lane fracas helped his charge forward, and in the race’s closing laps, he successfully held off former arch-rival Jamie Whincup.

“That was a highlight, digging ourselves out of the shit and coming home sixth from 24th,” Winterbottom beamed. “Just seeing all the guys feeling like they have won and then

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BRAD JONES Racing has announced that Australian Karting Champion, Josh Fife, will join the Albury-based squad as part of its Super3 Series program in 2019.

Fife believes that making the move to tin-tops and the Super3 Series is the perfect place him to start forging his path into Supercars. In 2017, the now 18-year-old became the youngest driver to win two of the most prestigious Australian Karting titles of KZ2 and DD2. He also finished fifth at the SKUSA nationals in Las Vegas in the highly respected class of S1, as well as being voted by his peers as Driver’s Driver for the Australian Kart Championship series.

THE CAMS Australian Rally Championship has unveiled a brand-new logo for 2019 and beyond. Ahead of a highly anticipated season, the fresh look gives the ARC a modern feel and allows the branding to be used prominently around events and online. CAMS General Manager of Motor Sport Michael Smith said the new logo was a positive development for the Championship.

“We’re really excited about the 2019 season, with interest among competitors and fans really strong,” said Smith. “The previous announced changes to the calendar, which now includes more streamlined events, will make the ARC a real highlight of the motor sport season.”

THE ASIAN Le Mans Series has released a four-race calendar for the 2019/2020 season, all of the races four hours in duration. The season will begin at the Shanghai International Circuit in China from the 22-24 of November. The second round will take place at The Bend Motorsport Park from the 10-12 of January 2020, where the ALMS event will become the first series to race on the full 7.77km GT circuit. The series will head back over to Asia for the final rounds at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia and the Buriram Chang International Circuit in Thailand.

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OPEL PLANS FOR TCR AUSTRALIA ANOTHER MANUFACTURER is slated to join Honda, Volkswagen, Audi, Alfa Romeo and Hyundai on the TCR Australia grid.

Team Redline Motorsport will be Opel’s representative in TCR Australia after securing the Australian distribution rights for the Astra TCR, with Glenn Jagger heading the operation.

“I’ve always had my eye on TCR from the word go a few years back overseas,” Jagger told Auto Action.

“I’ve always been interested especially when the rate of the category exploded over the last couple of years. When it looked like it was heading for Australia, I started to research what car

options were around and just looking at other countries at what cars were competitive.”

Once it had been confirmed that TCR was launching in Australia, Jagger seriously looked at Opel, a manufacturer that hadn’t been considered.

“No one was really taking interest into it [the Opel], so I had more of a look into it and found that it was a pretty competitive car considering it won the championship in Germany and the year before that was runner up,” explained Jagger.

The alignment with Holden was another reason for choosing the Opel with the Astra also being sold here in Australia.

“For a big category like TCR that could potentially be a big category in this country, it would be a shame not to have a Holden on the grid,” Jagger continued.

The job of acquiring the Opel distribution was made hard as the European builder changed hands earlier this year, however Jagger has a strong relationship with Lubner Motorsport.

Although there isn’t an Opel in the country yet, Jagger is fielding inquiries from drivers as varied as ex-Supercar and young upstarts looking to take that next step.

“Just with how late we’ve taken this on and how serious we’ve got, just trying to find a buyer who is keen on the category and keen on

investing into these cars is very hard,” said Jagger.

“Especially when the category hasn’t proven itself in Australia yet.”

As it currently stands the team hasn’t ruled out making it to the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park in May, but it seems unlikely with the aim being to be at Phillip Island for Round 2 of the TCR Australia Series.

“It’s looking doubtful at the moment that we’ll have a car in time for the first round, which is a real shame, but considering how much work we have done in the last two months, we’ve come a long way,” Jagger concluded.

Heath McAlpine

Image: Insyde Media

STRAIGHT ON THE WINNER’S LIST A TEAM change over the off-season has already borne fruit for Territorian Bryce Fullwood, after he took the laurels in the opening round of the Super2 Series in Adelaide.

The 20-year-old has revealed himself to be a real contender for this year’s Super2 Series on his return to MW Motorsport, after a sole season at Matt Stone Racing which culminated in 17th place at the end of the series.

Fullwood qualified second and went on to take his maiden victory in Race 1, before rounding out the weekend with second and another victory.

“I’m really, really thankful, the MWM guys have done a really good job and given me a really fast car this weekend. I think ultimately this weekend we did have the stronger car,” Fullwood said.

“I’m really confident in the car and the team around me, the sky is the limit at the moment.

I’ve always felt like that, I think this year probably more so than ever, but I can’t get ahead of myself it’s only the first round.”

After an impressive first round performance, does Fullwood have an eye on an Kelly Racing Pirtek Enduro Cup seat?

“There is certainly not too much going on on the radar at the moment, but that is certainly a goal and something that I’d like to try and achieve, obviously still early days, but absolutely.”

Dan McCarthy

NEW GT4 CONCEPT

Images: Dave Oliver

OH WAIT…. ANOTHER MUSTANG THE OPENING round of the Australian Production Car Series hosted the debut of a different type of Mustang.

Coleby Cowham and Lindsay Kearns successfully debuted a production version of the car at Sydney Motorsport Park, finishing on the podium in one of the four hour-long races.

“I think if it was down to outright pace, we were third quickest all weekend,” car owner Cowham told Auto Action.

“It was fun to drive, it’s a good piece of kit.”

The desire to build the Mustang was to stand out on track after there had been previous chatter about potential Mustang builds.

Cowham was also keen to compete at the Bathurst 6 Hour, however the regulations have ruled the car out for the time being.

“We just wanted to do something different, the guys have been talking about Mustangs for a couple of years,” Cowham said.

“No one had committed to doing it, so we thought we’d just bite the bullet and we looked at the package, it’s a little heavy, but it makes good power. Bugger it, let’s do it with a cool car.”

The opening round of the APCS also heralded the debut of the category’s new MRF control tyres, and Cowham lauded the Indian manufacturers support.

“We had driven the car before Friday and we didn’t know what to expect with the tyres,” Cowham explained.

“They’ve got a little bit of work to do, but the positive thing is MRF are committed, they’ll get the product to where it needs to be.

You’ve never seen any tyre representatives at a production car event the past, so the positives are that the tyres didn’t fail and they’re committed to getting it right.”

The Mustang was one of a number of new cars to enter the APCS including a two-car Hyundai i30 N team and a HSV VF Clubsport R8. Coverage of this event will feature in Auto Action #1757.

Heath McAlpine

CALLS FOR IMPROVED SAFETY FORMER SUPERCARS driver Dean Canto has voiced concerns about the safety of the SuperUtes, after being involved in an incident guest driving Team18’s Holden Colorado in Adelaide.

The incident occurred during the opening lap of the weekend, when the Ford Ranger of Chris Formosa hit the tyre wall and rolled, leaving many competitors behind with nowhere to go. Ryal Harris, along with Canto, hit the Ranger which launched into the air and was finally hit by Ben Falk.

T O U R I N G

C A R

Auto Action spoke to Canto after the incident and he revealed that to combat the heat, the SuperUtes competitors had removed the driver’s side window to allow extra cooling into the cabin.

“It (the crash) bent the window net rod, which then dislodged it and just sort of grazed me, so [it was] very fortunate that we all walked away,” Canto said about the incident.

“I’m all about safety, so I’m going to make a recommendation to them that they change

TOYOTA HAS developed its new Supra road car into a GT4 Concept to explore the possibility of the returning nameplate being used for customer racing purposes.

Being displayed at the Geneva Motor Show, the GR Supra GT4 Concept has been developed by Toyota Motorsport GmbH located in Cologne, Germany. The road car used as its base already features a light-weight body, low-centre of gravity and high rigidity making it the perfect chassis to manufacturer a race car with.

“The dynamic abilities of the upcoming GR Supra have been honed on the track using lessons learned from our global motorsport activities under the banner of Toyota GAZOO Racing,” Toyota Australia chief marketing officer Wayne Gabriel said.

“A GT4 racing version will offer even greater performance, building on the supreme handling and agility from the production car’s front-engine, rear-drive layout, its rigid lightweight body and perfectly balanced chassis.”

The Supra GT4 Concept receives a performance boost from its turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six motor through a re-tuned engine management system and race-derived driveshafts and limited slip diff.

The car shares many features with the production model including the MacPherson strut front and multilink rear suspension set-up, though competition springs, dampers and anti-roll bars are fitted.

Brembo racing brakes are utilised as are 18-inch racingspec rims, whilst the body of the GT4 is longer and lower.

The aerodynamic aids fitted include a rear diffuser and wing, which reduces drag and optimises downforce, whilst the materials used to manufacturer these components are hemp and flax – opposed to the usual carbon fibre products.

If interest levels are strong, Toyota Motorsport GmbH will complete further development of the GR Supra GT4 Concept.

Images: Insyde Media

the window nets to what the Supercars run now, which is the FIA triangle. It doesn’t have a solid bar or anything in the middle of that opening.”

Canto clearly feels that the safety standards in the SuperUtes Series can be improved.

“At the end of the day the window net came off and it almost injured me, whereas the other design it’s fixed at one end on a latch and it will move but it won’t come undone.

I’m counting my lucky stars considering what happened.”

Dan McCarthy

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DOOHAN TAKES F3 PODIUM DEBUTING AT the final round of the Asian Formula 3 Winter Series, Australian Jack Doohan took a pair of podiums at Sepang.

Although the weekend was a success, it ended in disappointment for Doohan thanks to an incident with title contender Ye Yifei which ended the Chinese driver’s tilt at the title.

Doohan and Yifei were battling for the lead when they clashed, dropping the Australian to 14th and handing Rinus van Kalmthout the inaugural Asian Winter Series.

The opening two races of the weekend were dominated by Yifei and Doohan, with both taking the top two positions in

each race. Yifei staved off the challenge of Doohan during both, though van Kalmthout was lurking behind, finishing third and then taking advantage of the collision in front of him to take the flag in the final.

It was Doohan’s debut weekend in Formula 3, but comes after an intense pre-

season training regieme, which prepared him well for the hot conditions in Malaysia. “I’ve been trying to work on [fitness] over the summer in Australia,� said Doohan. “I’ve been back for the past month and a bit. In Australia, out in the sun, doing a bit of cardio, so when I’m here, it’s like a breeze.�

OILS CAUSING FRICTION RIVAL OIL company sponsors have brought a split between the Victorian Historic Racing Register and the Group S Racing Association.

The VHRR enjoys backing from Penrite for the upcoming Classic Festival of Motorsport at Phillip Island, Winton’s Festival of Speed and Historic Sandown.

The GSRA, on the other hand, has ongoing sponsorship from Gulf Oils Australia for signage/ decals on competing vehicles at Historic events – subject to the agreement of the Event Organiser.

Last year the two could co-habit as the VHRR had agreed to allow Group S to run with Gulf signage, provided there was no other external advertising except inside the garage or marquee areas.

Last month the GSRA lodged

a similar request for this year, but the terms of the agreement between Penrite and the VHRR specifically preclude any other competing oil company sponsorship at their events. Thus the request from the GSRA was denied.

The Historic Production Sports Cars category therefore has elected not to support the Winton and Sandown events.

Competitors wishing to compete at Phillip Island will be required to remove or completely cover any Gulf Oil signage. They will be closely monitored and any cars with visible signage will not be permitted onto the circuit.

A letter sent to VHRR members and Festival of Motorsport entrants concluded: “It is extremely disappointing that we

have reached this impasse, but it should be noted that competing sponsorships can never easily coexist and the VHRR is committed to the Penrite relationship which has existed for 30 years. Whilst we will continue to invite and actively encourage Group S competitors to participate in our events, we trust that the GSRA may source an alternative suitable sponsor which avoids this issue in the future.�

Coming off a hugely successful event at the Bathurst 12 Hour, the stance taken by VHRR creates a difficult situation for the GSRA in its own deal with Gulf Oil. This refusal places them at odds with every other promoter nationally, as all other 10 calendared meetings received promoter approval.

Group S had hoped for two grids for Phillip Island and had encouraged its members to enter en masse – but without success.

With the situation as it is, Group S is now resigned to alternative events to compete at in Victoria.

The Association has already entered into discussions with other event promoters and are confident that it can announce new events in a matter of weeks.

The committee didn’t take the

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decision lightly, consulting with previous presidents for their experience. All fully supported the move to withdraw support from the VHRR events.

A letter from the GSRA to it members acknowledged that the decision was not taken lightly and that it was in the best interest of continuing to grow and support the category, whilst understanding that the it may be at odds for some.

Garry O’Brien

FRUSTRATION FOR AUSSIE JOINING CHAMPIONSHIP winning team Jackie Chan DC Racing for the first time, Jake Parsons experienced a tough weekend at the final round of the Asian Le Mans Series at Sepang.

It was a troubled weekend for the team with Parsons sharing with the experienced James Winslow and Rick Yoon.

The Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier JS P3 the trio shared encountered issues that meant a good result was unattainable, finishing 25 laps down.

“The weekend was quite a challenging one to be honest,” said Parsons. “We spent a lot of time during practice and qualifying chasing some set-up issues, that we later found out were due to a failing component in the rear left.

“It eventually broke during the race, meaning we had to pit for a long time to change the damper. That, along with a penalty for an engine change, set us back several laps. We and the team did all we could, it was just one of those occasions where an unforeseen anomaly bit us, preventing us from achieving our true potential.”

Up the front, the Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JS P2 driven by Andrea Pizzitola, Harrison Newey and Ate de Jong won the race, ahead of series winners Paul Di Resta and Phillip Hanson in the United Autosports Ligier JS P2.

Aidan Read was the best placed Aussie in 10th and sixth in LMP3, Neale Muston and Michael Simpson finished 15th outright and ninth in LMP3.

VALE - DOUG STEWART DOUG STEWART was a rally competitor, leading businessman and rally team manager. He won the 1957 Ampol Round Australia Trial with Jack Witter in a VW. He finished equal first in the 1958 Ampol Trial and finished fourth in the 1964 Ampol event and fifth again in 1970. He was a regular competitor in Australian Championship rallies until the late 1970s.

In business, he helped to establish the Travelodge motel chain in Australia, and was made International Marketing manager for the company, based in San Diego and then Australia, responsible for over 400 motel properties.

Doug was also involved in motor sport administration at the highest level. He chaired the NSW State Council, became the NSW delegate on the National Council of CAMS and was CAMS President from 1969 to 1971. As a CAMS steward he was forced to fine Jack Brabham for displaying advertising signage on his Redex Cooper Bristol racing car, a decision he found ridiculous

although it was required by CAMS regulations. He fought hard to have those regulations changed and eventually succeeded.

On the motor sport side he made early contact with Mitsubishi Japan through rallies in New Caledonia and New Guinea, managing a team of Colt fastbacks with Colin Bond and Bob Riley as drivers.

Stewart ran the successful Mitsubishi team in the Southern Cross rallies of the 1970s, Andrew Cowan winning the event five years in succession from 1972 to 1976. This sealed a permanent link with Mitsubishi which culminated in him being granted the Ralliart franchise for Australia in 1988. When off road racing came to Australia

in the 1980s with the Wynn’s Safari and the Australian Safari he supported these events with strong teams from Mitsubishi, scoring wins with Ross Dunkerton, David (Dinta) Officer, and even himself in 1987.

Mitsubishi vehicles won the event on seven occasions.

Doug Stewart was a good natured and popular figure in motor sport. Although successful in competition he was never arrogant, and often helped up and coming drivers in their careers. He enjoyed a peaceful retirement in a manor style home in Hagley, Tasmania, where he nurtured an impressive collection of rare motor vehicles. A true gentleman of motor sport, sadly gone.

Bob Watson

VALE - COLIN DUNN THE V8 Utes fraternity has mourned the passing of Colin Dunn.

Universally know as Col, True Blue or Dunny, Colin Dunn raced over nine seasons in the ute racing series, competing in 100 races. His best result was second overall in the two-driver event that supported the

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Bathurst 24 Hour in 2003, where he shared with Warren Luff.

He passed away on February 12 this year at 68 after a battle with cancer.

A well-attended service to celebrate his life was held at the Peppers Craigieburn, Bowral on February 21.

Garry O’Brien

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R-MOTORSPORT OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES DTM ASTON TEAM R-MOTORSPORT ANNOUNCED last October that it was joining DTM with Aston Martin for the 2019 season.

The team recently hosted a launch which featured a sculptural model of its new racer, as the team presses ahead with the development of the Aston Martin Vantage DTM chassis.

Four cars will be entered driven by former Mercedes duo Paul Di Resta and Daniel Juncadella, Bathurst 12 Hour podium winner Jake Dennis and DTM debutant Ferdinand Hadsburg.

The new car is scheduled to take to the track as this issue is published, after a development program run by a new partnership between the experienced HWA team, AF Racing and R-Motorsport.

“The extremely short timeframe for development has put huge demands on the project team,” said Florian Kamelger, team

manager of R-Motorsport.

“We’ve got everything moving so that the new Aston Martin Vantage DTM can celebrate its racetrack debut in the first week of March.”

Former Formula 1 driver Di Resta is impressed by the amount of work undertaken by the team since the end of the last DTM season and is looking forward to testing the new machine.

“It’s amazing what everyone in the team

NEW BMW FOR BTCC LONG-TIME BMW campaigners and reigning British Touring Car champions West Surrey Racing will debut a new seventhgeneration 3 Series for this year’s season.

WSR is hard at work building three new chassis to replace the highly successful 125i M Sports that took two titles with driver Colin Turkington behind

has already achieved with the DTM project in the short time since the end of the last DTM season,” Di Resta said.

“This is the first time ever that a DTM car has been developed so quickly. Never before has a new DTM vehicle been developed in less time.”

R-Motorsport will also field Aston Martins in the Blancpain GT Endurance Series alongside its DTM program, which begins in May.

the wheel.

The 3-series model has had a strong history in the BTCC, having won a spate of titles starting with Frank Sytner’s in an M3 in 1988, although the model has been missing off the grid since the BTCC’s NGTC regulations took hold.

Two of the new cars will debut in 2019 under the Team BMW banner for Turkington and new teammate

Tom Oliphant, while a third for Andrew Jordan will be entered under BMW Pirtek Racing in acknowledgement of the former champion’s naming rights partner.

“We are really pleased to be bringing the BMW 3 Series back to the BTCC,” WSR boss Dick Bennetts said. “We achieved a great deal of success with the fifth-generation model between 2007 and 2012, so we are hugely excited to see what the latest version is capable of.

“A lot of hard work and countless hours lie ahead, but we are all confident of turning this car into a winner and hopefully reinstating it in its rightful place – at the front of the field in Britain’s premier motorsport series.”

The new car is set to debut during the BTCC media day at Brands Hatch in late April before making its championship debut at the same circuit in early May.

QUALIFYING SHAKE UP FOR INDY 500

THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 will feature a new qualifying format for 2019, spread over two-days and culminating in a Fast Nine Shootout to decide the front three rows of the grid.

Qualifying for May 26’s 103rd Indianapolis 500 will be conducted over two-days a week before the event, as has traditionally happened previously. However, Saturday’s running is when competitors will fight for one of the 30 locked-in starting positions and a berth at the Fast Nine Shootout the next day.

Each driver is guaranteed one attempt and multiple four-lap runs may be made as long as time permits. Positions 10 through to 30 are locked in for the race, while positions one to nine will duke it out in the Fast Nine Shootout.

As well as the shootout for Pole, there

14 AutoAction

will be a battle to qualify for the final three positions in the traditional 33-car field.

These sessions will be followed by a nearthree-hour practice session to complete the weekend.

“With this schedule, fans will get a phenomenal weekend of action, with two days of qualifying, bumping, the run for the pole and this incredible practice that effectively is the race before the race - all in a two-day span,” INDYCAR President Jay Frye said.

The previous qualifying regime saw the 33-car field shoot for best times on Saturday and lock away the top nine drivers to participate in the Shootout. However, final grid positions for positions 10 to 33 were not finalised until Sunday, just prior to when the Fast Nine Shootout took place.

AA’s phlegmatic pundit is excited by Ford’s return to Supercars and impressed with Scott McLaughlin’s literary ability THE ADELAIDE 500 was all about Ford and the Mustang. On and off the track, the Blue Oval had a smothering presence in the City Of Churches. I can never remember Ford being so keenly involved in Supercars.

Ford is not just back, it’s all in. In fact, emotionally, Broadmeadows is more invested than it ever was in the free-spending days of the early to mid-2000s. The show of force in Adelaide was impressive and heartening.

As well as global Ford Performance backing and deep involvement in the Mustang Supercars project, Ford Australia has embraced its comeback. The Mustang Safety Car and various course cars underline a solid commitment, plus the on-track demonstrations/handicap contests involving Dick Johnson in DJR Team Penske’s Ford-liveried spare Supercars racer, Marcos Ambrose in the specially imported NASCAR Cup Mustang and Scott McLaughlin in the track-spec road car.

Who couldn’t have been moved

by Dick having a go a decade after he last drove a Supercar? His aging body struggled to get into the cockpit because of all the bar work, but once in, he looked right at home. Even the furnace-like heat didn’t bother him.

And Ambrose hustling the lumbering NASCAR Cup around the Adelaide Parklands course brought back great memories. He had a ball and don’t be surprised if we see him

trying out the Supercars Mustang in the future.

Ambrose was unusually relaxed during the weekend. I think he enjoyed being back behind the wheel of a race car immensely.

Even Scotty had fun flogging the Mustang roadie around the track in air-conditioned comfort while listening to his favourite tunes. That he was so chilled on such a big weekend was impressive.

And then there was the Ford horde.

In attendance in Adelaide were Ford Performance global director of motor sport Mark Rushbrook, Ford Australia marketing manager Tony Jordan, FP aero guru Sriram Pakkam and, from Saturday night, Ford Oz president Kay Hart. Her enthusiasm was especially encouraging.

It never hurts when you win, of course, but even before Scotty swept both races, it was clear Broadmeadows – or Richmond, where the brass are located these days – had rediscovered its motor sport mojo.

Ford Australia’s racing and performance car heritage is right up there with Holden’s, and after being denied for a decade, it has been rediscovered. Hopefully, Holden, which is going through the same post-manufacturing traumas as Ford did, will also fully embrace its racing legacy and continue beyond the end of this year in Supercars with the Commodore and, longer-term, the Camaro.

The Mustang is a cash cow for Ford Oz and going racing with it will help the iconic nameplate to continue to sell strongly in defiance of the usual sharp decline of coupe sales after a couple of years.

As Supercars transitions from fourdoor sedans to a two-door coupe – and even two-seat – future, Ford’s enthusiastic return with the Mustang is no less than a category life-saver.

How long Ford Australia will remain so fully committed is always a question. But the next few years look safe. In the meantime, rejoice in the fact that arguably the most famous accessible nameplate in the automotive world is keeping interest in Supercars alive.

MCLAUGHLIN OPENS UP

DIARIES OF drivers’ championshipwinning seasons are rarely interesting or insightful. They’re spun out quickly to cash in on the success and most lack depth and many are just blow-by-blow accounts of the season with some gratuitous embellishments.

Scott McLaughlin’s Road To Redemption – A Championship Journey (Ten Bag Press, RRP $39.95) is not one of those feeble tomes.

Released on the eve of his title defence, the book is an unusually honest and probing account of his redeeming of his championship triumph last year.

The story actually begins with a searching analysis of how McLaughlin lost what even he admits was “unlosable” in the very final race of 2017, where he squandered a title that was there for the taking.

Although I think he was too hard on himself as he tried to recover from unexpected adversity, he isn’t afraid to own up to losing control.

McLaughlin is not even shy of using the word “choke” to describe his stunning capitulation. Elite athletes will normally avoid any suggestion of choking, but he is brave enough to go down that road.

He also acknowledges the demons that haunted him afterwards and outlines his initially

reluctant – but ultimately liberating – alliance with a leading sports psychologist.

The book reveals that through his friendship with 2017 AFL premiership-winning Richmond star Jack Riewoldt, McLaughlin hooked up with professional motivator Emma Murray, who helped the Tigers overcome their 2016 slump.

Scotty unashamedly admits that her counsel was a key to his title rebound, especially in combating the mind games with arch-rival Shane van Gisbergen.

With co-author Tim Hodges, McLaughlin puts the tragedy-turnedtriumph into unusually candid and revealing perspective. It is nothing less than I would expect as I have always found him to be a young man of integrity and refreshing candour.

I also think he has taken a big risk by exposing his frailties, but he is to be applauded for that.

Overall, Road To Redemption is a great read that is well worth your time and money.

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s w e n e n O Formula

FERRARI’S MELBOURNE HAT FERRARI HAS won eight of the 34 editions of the Australian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel won in 2017 and 2018, and given Ferrari’s form in pre-season testing in Spain there’s a very good chance he can make that a hat trick of victories in the 2019 edition of the race in Melbourne.

During much of the testing Ferrari was a full half second clear of its rivals. On the final day Lewis Hamilton slammed in a lap in his Mercedes that was a mere 0.003 of a second slower than Vettel’s best time. But, digging deeper into the data, it looks like Ferrari will arrive in Australia with a car that is about 0.3 of a second clear of Mercedes.

“Overall the car is strong, it feels good,” Vettel said.

“I am positive about the car and the feeling inside the car.”

However, the folks at Ferrari remain cautious.

“I believe that Mercedes will be very, very strong in Australia,” Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto said. “It would be completely wrong to think that we are faster than them.”

Expect Charles Leclerc to shine in Albert Park. While he is only in his second season as an F1 driver Leclerc, who replaced Räikkönen at the Scuderia, did a superb job during testing.

“The road is still long and to start a new adventure with a new team always takes a bit of time,” Leclerc said. “In terms of results in Australia I don’t have any particular target.”

Mercedes will have to raise its game in Melbourne and throughout the 21-race season to take on Ferrari.

“Already last year there were many, many occasions where we as a team were behind on performance so we had to overachieve on delivery,” Hamilton said. “But we’re going to have to be careful also in that scenario because if you just push over the edge you can have faults.”

ALBERT PARK’S CROWDED MIDFIELD IT WILL be very crowded in the midfield on and off the track at Albert Park during the weekend of the Australian Grand Prix. As usual, the park will be jammed with fans, but this year things are going to be jammed on the race track as well, in the battle of the midfield. The big three teams are still Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, although some question marks hover over the latter. A tragically hapless Williams will bring up the rear, a position held in the past by teams such as Minardi or Sauber.

Now called Alfa Romeo, Sauber has made huge strides, and it has joined the packed midfield that is made up of, in no particular order, Toro Rosso, McLaren, Renault, Racing Point and Haas. Just which team comes out

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on top as the best of the rest behind the top three will only be known after the 57 laps of the Australian Grand Prix.

But, crunching the numbers from pre-season testing in Barcelona, it looks like Haas and Renault are leading the pack, and the surprise Alfa is close behind. But who knows?

“We’ll see what we will face,” said Kimi Räikkönen who has moved from Ferrari to Alfa. “It’s very unclear for us where we are.

It’s the same for everyone. Conditions will be completely different in Australia compared to Spain.”

Renault’s chassis technical director Nick Chester commented: “There are a lot of other teams that are super close, and I wouldn’t want

to say where they are.”

However, Renault’s huge investment in rebuilding the team is starting to pay off, and that’s going to help drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg.

Haas has made a solid step forwards thanks in part to the fact that the car uses the same power unit and other parts as the leading Ferrari team. Haas also has continuity as it is the only team other than Mercedes to retain the same driver line-up as last year.

McLaren has also benefited from the improved Renault power unit. Honda has made a big step and that along with Toro Rosso’s new closer synergy with Red Bull Technology, makes the Italian team a factor.

PASSING IMPROVEMENTS

TRICK?

Red Bull was a bit of a dark horse – dark bull? – during testing. There is no question that Honda has made vast strides with its power unit. And of course the chassis created by the design team lead by Adrian Newey is as fabulous as ever. But Red Bull never really showed its hand at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. For one thing, the team lacked laps and new parts, after Pierre Gasly twice heavily crashed the car. Former Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo quipped: “I saved them a lot of

money in crash damages!” Besides not crashing very often, Ricciardo delivered a lot of points to Red Bull. The ever-maturing Max Verstappen will do a solid job at Red Bull this season, but it remains to be seen how Gasly settles in as Ricciardo’s replacement.

All in all, while Ferrari is the favorite to win this year’s Australian Grand Prix, you can’t count out Mercedes or Red Bull. Or for that matter even a victory by one of the midfield teams in bizarre circumstances.

RACE FANS should see more overtaking in the Australian Grand Prix compared to recent years. The new rules that made changes to the front and rear wings, the barge boards and the brake ducts, as well as the DRS system, were designed to reduce the amount of turbulent air behind a car so the following car does not lose as much downforce. The drivers got their first taste of regulation changes during pre-season testing.

“I’ve only properly followed another car for one lap and just one car, not multiple cars,” Valtteri Bottas said. “What I felt was that it was actually a little bit better, a little bit easier to follow. You still feel the effect, losing downforce because the cars have a lot of downforce, so when you are in turbulent air you lose part of it. The front wing is very important, but I felt it was a bit better, more consistent. The car still felt consistent following another car, so I think that’s good. But I think the bigger effect is the DRS. With the cars being more ‘draggy’ there’s a bigger effect down the straights when you are in a tow. For sure it has gone in the right direction and it’s going to be easier to pass if you have the pace.”

The DRS is about 25 per cent more powerful than in 2018.

“Definitely when you don’t use your DRS you feel like a sitting duck on the straight or you have a parachute on your back,” said Romain Grosjean.

Kevin Magnusson says that the cars will be fun to drive.

“When the car was just in the wind tunnel a lot of people were saying it (the new rules) wouldn’t make any difference.,” he said. “But following a car I felt a big difference. I could actually follow.

“The whole car just feels more consistent and stable behind another car. I’m looking forward to seeing if other tracks are the same. There are always different factors you might have overlooked, so you come to another track and it might be different. But first signs are good in this following aspect. Maybe it’s too much – now we have this big rear wing it will be too easy to pass and we won’t see racing anymore!”

Not all the drivers were as impressed.

“I have followed other cars,” Sebastian Vettel said. “It’s always difficult to say in testing and difficult to judge because you are on different tyres, different compounds and age. So far it was still tricky to follow and to overtake.”

Not only are the cars on different tyres during testing, but different fuel loads and engine modes, and the teams are conducting different programmes. So, it will not be until Melbourne that the cars and drivers will be on equal footing, and only then will the real effect of the new passing rules be seen.

One team that might be half a step behind is Racing Point. When the former Force India squad was planning its 2019 car its financial situation was muddy, so the designers had to incorporate many of the 2018 parts into the new car.

So who will come out in front of the crowded midfield in Albert Park? Räikkönen sums it up well: “It’s a big mystery. We’ll give our best and see what we get in our first race and work from there. We’re not 100 per cent where we want to be, but I if you ask anybody they’re going to say the same.”

The real winners will be the fans who will watch the fascinating battle unfold.

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F1 INSIDER WHEN SOME drivers stroll into the paddock at Albert Park they might have a double cheeseburger in one hand and a dumbbell in the other hand. Well, maybe not, but the fact is that most drivers no longer have to starve themselves and they can now do more weight lifting to build up their muscle mass.

Race car designers and engineers love light drivers.

Weight, after all, slows a car down, as does weight not strategically placed around the car. The F1 rules, to try and equalise things between the light and heavier drivers, have mandated a minimum weight for the driver and car combined. Naturally, the teams design the cars under the minimum so that ballast can then be put around the chassis for the best competitive gain, and that means the lighter drivers had an advantage.

The new rule for 2019 says that the driver, his helmet, HANS device, other kit and seat must weigh at least 80 kilos. That will then be factored into the overall minimum weight of driver and car, which is 740 kilos.

Still, even though the lighter drivers must now have ballast in the seat area, it can be lower down compared to the body of a heavier driver, so the latter still have a bit of a disadvantage.

Not all the drivers have gained weight by eating and exercising, but many of them have. During pre-season testing Kevin Magnussen’s Haas had a badly designed headrest that pushed his head uncomfortably forward.

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with Dan Knutson

LIFTING CHEESEBURGERS

But because he has added more muscle to his body he was better able to cope with the strain on his neck.

“I can feel that I am strong just generally in my body,” he said. “I have been telling my trainer that it is so nice to feel that improvement. I have gained four kilos, and those four kilos have paid off, that’s very clear.”

Other drivers like Nico Hülkenberg are already close to the 80-kilo limit.

“All my career I have been at one number,” he said. “I have my fighting weight, my happy place, and that is 78, two kilos below 80. That is more or less where I can be, not much less.”

Daniel Ricciardo jokes that he now looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the early 1990s. He – Ricciardo not The Terminator – did

Daniel Ricciardo jokes that he now looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the early 1990s. much of his pre-season training in Australia, where the weather is much nicer than the European winter.

“We can get a bit heavier this year,” he said. “I have not intentionally put on weight but we did not shy away from a bit more strength training. So that was ramped up as far as my programme involved for strength training, as opposed to heavier cardio and keeping the weight off.

So that was the difference from 12 months ago.”

Ricciardo is also training smarter than he did several years ago.

“I would go really hard pre-season to a point here I’d get to winter testing and always feel a bit empty and depleted,” he said. “I was kind of burning myself out a bit too early. So I’ve been a bit smarter with it. On the good days I push myself, but also take a rest and let my body recover. So far so good. I normally dread February because it is cold and pretty miserable (in Europe), but I’ve had a good spring in my step, so the energy so far has held on well.”

Lewis Hamilton has put on more than a couple kilos.

“I’m still within the limit so I’m good,” he said. “You have to reach a similar target every year. So for once to have that bar lifted, and to really dig deep into other elements of the training, has been quite an exciting challenge. Every year when you get back into training it’s painful trying different methods. I don’t have a trainer, but I’ve worked with people that I know. I tried different things throughout the weeks which has been exciting, and I get to take that throughout the year.

Deep-rooted core wise, I feel stronger than I’ve been in a long time.”

While he has been lifting weights, Hamilton of course is one driver who you will never see with a cheeseburger in his hand, because he is a vegan.

OPINION SUPERCARS & SPEEDWAY IN SUPER SUMMER SERIES?

By GEOFF ROUNDS Speedway Correspondent

SPRINTCARS AND Supercars together in the Summer of 2020!

As radical a plan as it is, I think it’s a real possibility!

That mouth-watering prospect of two of Australia’s motorsport favourites coming together could, I believe, become a revolution and potentially hijack the national sport newsrooms.

Why couldn’t we see a summer motorsport revolution, with the controversial Supercars plan for a summer series season switch in 2020?

While the Supercars bosses are investigating the possibility of moving the season to summer starting in September and ending in April - it’s a move that would pave the way for more night racing and benefit Australian Speedway.

The heads at Speedway Australia could really rally here and make the sport much more progressive, and should already be dialling the Supercars bosses.

Speedway has struggled to gain any real national mainstream coverage for years or for that

matter major sponsors, but the potential Supercars season move from winter to summer in a bid to avoid ratings clashes with both the NRL and AFL, looks a winner.

Nearly all the major Speedway racing is at night and with more night racing for Supercars planned, some clever scheduling from Speedway promoters is needed and could surely provide greater awareness of both genres.

Sure, this is not going to suit every Speedway fan or the Supercars disciples, but it is worth putting on the table, after all we just want to watch cars race.

Supercars is well established in

winter with a popular rhythm and a loyal following, while Speedway has for years had the advantage of the warmer weather and guaranteed crowds.

The proposal to switch to a Supercars summer series could see the season kick off straight after the major football codes finish, say late September, and wind up around Easter/April with the Adelaide 500.

National Speedway bosses could also move forward to begin in October with the World Series Sprintcars and with the sport’s major showpieces in January unchanged.

Super Motorsport events could easily be held. The logistics and how this radical idea could work is up to those in charge and the venues.

Maybe some Speedway racing could race late in the week and avoid some weekends altogether, and that would pave the way for the Supercars or vice versa, at various points of the year?

This would not be every weekend but would help avoid the two clashing often.

A packed summer motor-racing calendar would also effectively rule out any cooler climate race meetings, which might suffer from the threat of a bad weather window.

It would also be hoped that maybe some support from broadcasters Fox Sports and Ten could enhance both motorsports further, attracting more revenue, stronger ratings and more advertising growth.

Supercars is well established in winter just as Speedway is in Summer and never the two shall meet but maybe, just maybe, that could all change.

We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1979: IT WAS a tale of two Johns in 1979.

Marlboro Holden Dealer Team number two John Harvey took advantage of a second lap incident which ended the race for Allan Moffat and forced defending Australian Touring Car champion Peter Brock to play catch up at Symmons Plains, to take the opening round of the ATCC. Harvey was untouchable as local Garth Wigston and Allan Grice completed the podium.

Wanneroo hosted the 44th A Australian t li G Grand d Prix in a race that played out in a similar way to the ATCC opener as both race favourites – Alfredo Costanzo and Larry Perkins – were eliminated in a first corner incident, leaving Johnnie Walker to take the flag. This was after he was black-flagged, necessitating a charge from third.

Big news included the Craven Mild team moving to a new Test and Development Centre at Amaroo Park and Charlie O’Brien joining the Roadways team for the ATCC season.

1989: IN THE midst of Dick Johnson Racing Sierra domination, it wasn’t the team boss who took victory at Amaroo Park but John Bowe who held off a gallant Jim Richards in his

first drive for Nissan, to take the firs win win.

It was a surprise for many as it w was expected the Sierras of reig reigning Bathurst winner Tony Lon Longhurst and Ford defectors Pet Peter Brock and Glenn Seton wo would mount the strongest cha challenge to the DJR Sierras’ sup supremacy.

Th The major new news was Gen General Motors Hold Holden’s ann announcement that it was tto collaborate ll b t with ith Tom Walkinshaw to form the Holden Racing Team.

It ended Larry Perkins’ association with the factory, as he returned to the privateer ranks for 1989.

1999: ‘I HATE coming 199 i second,’ d’ utte uttered Wayne Gardner at the laun launch of his new Coca-Cola Perk Perkins Engineering Holden Com Commodore. The 1987 500cc Wor World Motorcycle Champion was kicking off his four-event V8 Supercars campaign at the Australian Grand Prix, in a yea year that the ‘Wollongong Wiz’ con concentrated on his Japanese Sup Super GT commitments.

S Speculation was also rife that for former Holden Racing Team eng engineer Ron Harrop and Peter Bro Brock were in discussions to

form a new V8 Supercar team.

In testing ahead of the non-championship Australian Grand Prix event, Mark Skaife set the quickest time at Eastern Creek by more than a second from teammate Craig Lowndes.

The test was also the debut outing of Ford Tickford Racing’s AU Falcon for Glenn Seton, which collided with Skaife.

2009: IT WAS all about the 2 20 FG Falcon and Ford’s reduction in its it support, which left top squad squ TeamVodafone without manufacturer man backing. Regardless, Jamie Jam Whincup rated teammate Craig Crai Lowndes his biggest threat to winning w back-to-back titles, after securing secu a maiden championship in 2008.

20 Larry Larr Perkins announced he was stepping stepp back from his involvement in Supercars Sup as the Kelly family began its V8 Supercars journey as team owners. owners Perkins changed his focus to the engineering e department rather than th team t ownership. hi It was also confirmed that Leanne Tander was to contest the V8 Supercar endurance events with Paul Cruickshank Racing, pitting her against husband Garth.

Speaking of the 2007 V8 Supercars champ, young upand-comer David Reynolds was looking to Tander as a mentor, as he undertook his debut Supercars season with the Walkinshaw Racing ‘junior’ team.

Publisher

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

Mark Fogarty Heath McAlpine

Creative Director/ Production

Jason Crowe

Special Contributor Bruce Newton National Editor Online Editor

Garry O’Brien Rhys Vandersyde

Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, David Hassall, Bob Watson, Dan McCarthy F1 Dan Knutson Speedway Geoff Rounds Photographers Australia Ross Gibb, Rebecca Thompson, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde International LAT Images Cartoonist John Stoneham

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Cover: Ross Gibb, LAT

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TOWERING

TALENT

At two metres, British Touring Car Championship star Matt Neal is one of the world’s tallest drivers.

He’s also among the most enduring BTCC racers, preparing for another title tilt at the age of 52

I

N THE golden era of the British Touring Car Championship from 1993-2000, Matt Neal was the leading independent entry amid up to 10 factory-backed teams. It was boom time for the two-litre Super Tourers, attracting more manufacturers than any series before or since.

Neal’s family run Team Dynamics harried the works teams, emerging as a real threat in 1998 before breaking through to become the first independent to win a race in 1999. The victory earned him the stupendous prize of UK250,000 pounds (close to A$700,000 at the time).

The lanky Englishman is a record six-time BTCC Independents champion who went on to win the championship outright in 2005/06/11. Along with arch-rival multiple champion Jason Plato, 52-year-old Neal is an enduring BTCC star who will again be among the contenders this year.

He has contested the Bathurst 1000 four times – in the Super Touring versions in 1997/98 and in the V8 races with Paul Morris Motorsport in 2000/08. He and Steven Richards finished a close second in a ‘bitsa’ factory Nissan Primera in the ’98 two-litre race after an epic race-long battle with the TWR Volvo S40 of Jim Richards and Rickard Rydell.

Neal was entered in a leading Audi R8 GT3 for last month’s Bathurst 12 Hour, but didn’t start after one of his co-drivers totalled the car in practice. He’s a Supercars fan and loves Mount Panorama, and will be back for next year’s 12 Hour if he is invited.

Back in the early 1990s, did you ever imagine you’d still be racing competitively nearly 30 years later?

certainly I could never have imagined I’d stay in the BTCC for 26 years – and still counting! It’s a bit a surreal, really.

No, not at all. I can remember going to Donington when I was 17 years old to watch Renault 5 Turbos racing. We paid our way in and the touring cars were also racing that day, and they were something else again. My mate and I watched it all and we loved it, but we were mainly interested in the Renault 5 Turbos because they were attainable to us.

Touring cars was just somewhere you’d never get. I never started out thinking that’s where I want to get to, I just started out wanting to do the best I could in whatever category I could afford. I never thought I’d actually get to touring cars, let alone win a race or a championship and

What got you interested in racing? Did your dad Steve inspire you to get into racing?

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Yeah, my dad was a factory driver with BMC and Cooper Car Company in the 1960s. He was doing the European touring car championship, but he had a big accident at the Nurburgring and that sort of finished it for him. He got right out of racing and started his own business.

He took me to some races as a kid, but not heaps. I remember hiding in the boot of the family car to get into the British Grand Prix for free. But from when I was about four years old, all I ever wanted

to do was become a racing driver. My dad bought me a kart to play around with, but he was so wrapped up in work that he never had the time to take me to kart races or anything. I used to just play in the fields. When I was 17 and got my driving licence, I’d saved up some money through working on weekends and I bought a motocross bike. I stuck it on a trailer and went off doing motocross for a few years because it was the most affordable racing for the biggest adrenalin rush. When I was 20, my dad got me into a car just to get me away from the bikes because I kept on hurting myself too much. I got to a point where I was brave enough, but I wasn’t good enough.

I don’t think my dad thought we were going racing – it was just to get me out of the bikes. He knew a guy who was a

good engineer and running some one-make Ford Fiestas at the time, and we managed to do a deal for the 1988 season.

You initially joined the BTCC as an independent with what was essentially a family run team. Was it the business that drove the move into the BTCC? My dad’s business went bust on my 18th birthday. They were tough times. We’ve never had a big pot full of money to go racing. My first season’s racing probably cost us three or four grand. But as the business grew, what we were doing was tapping up all our suppliers, anybody we could, for 500 pounds or 1000 pounds.

We went to the gas board, electric board and insurance companies, anybody,

just to try and scrape a bit from here and there. For my first race in the BTCC in ’91, we had a metal company, the gas board, all sorts of people on board. But as the business grew and its buying power grew, so did our budget. We use that business model even now. We took it to Max Power magazine in the late ’90s and then we took it to Halfords (British auto accessories chain) and we took it to Honda.

This was under the Team Dynamics banner, which was tied in with Rimstock wheels. Is that still the family business?

No, it’s not. Back then, Rimstock was making 100+ wheels. With the demise of Vic Lee Motorsport, Ray Bellm and my dad and Steve Soper bought the assets of VLM to help Tim Harvey win the championship and created Team Dynamics. BMW pulled out at the end of ’92 and it was Ray, Alex Portman and I in the Team Dynamics privateer team.

At that point, Rimstock was struggling with the brand.

They were more at the budget end with 100+, so it was decided to adopt the Team Dynamics brand with motor sport-orientated wheels and charge a premium for them. It was a way of hiking the price of a product we were making already. They sold like hot cakes and ended up killing off the 100+ brand. The racing did work in that respect.

And, of course, for some years now, that company has been supplying the wheels for Supercars.

Supercars, BTCC and world touring cars. They’re very proud to be involved in Supercars. I’m still involved with Rimstock, but the family sold the business some time ago. I’m involved as a brand ambassador and I’m the last one of the family left with the company.

You competed in the golden era of the BTCC in the Super Touring days as an independent. Most famously, you won the 250,000 pounds prize for becoming the first independent to win a race (Donington Park 1999).

I think we look back at Super Touring through rose-tinted glasses because it was an incredibly unfair period. Supercars has gone a long way to evening things up with the Car Of The Future rules, as has the BTCC with Next Generation, and control tyres. Back in the Super Touring era, it was a tyre war, it was an everything war. And as an independent driver, you weren’t allowed the same tyres as the factory cars and not the same engines.

I can remember in the mid-to-late ’90s, Michelin was making their factory teams nominate their No.1 and No.2 drivers, so they didn’t even get the same tyres. In ’96, it was only ever going to be an Audi winning, and in ’97 it was only ever going to be a Renault (Alain Menu), ’98 a Volvo and ’99 a Nissan. If you were in one of

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M Neal drove the Team Dynamics Nissan Primera to victory at Donington Park to Matt bbecome the first privateer to win a round of the BTCC, picking up 250,000 pounds in pprizemoney. Images: LAT and Gordon Shedden.

those cars, you had a chance of winning.

If you weren’t, forget it. We came here to Bathurst in ’98 and I was with Steve Richards in a works Nissan Primera and we were allowed the factory tyres. It was cobbled together and we weren’t meant to do very well, but, man, we put these tyres on and had a proper engine, and it just flew. It showed what we could do on the right tyres and with the right engine.

So in ’99, (expat Aussie series boss) Alan Gow put up the prize for an independent to win a race by insuring against the loss. It was a 30 grand premium against a 250K payout. But what he failed to tell the insurers was that he had changed the regs. So for the first time ever, the independents would get the same tyres as the factory cars. And the first time we got the same tyres, we won the first round – and we got the money. The cheque was for such a big amount that it had to be counter-signed by David Richards (TOCA director) as well as Alan Gow. You mentioned Bathurst ’98. Of course, that was an epic battle between Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards in the Volvo S40 and you and Richo Jnr in the Primera.

U But it was all a bit lastUK. m minute because RML wouldn’t rrelease the BTCC cars. RML (Ray Mallock Ltd, which ran tthe BTCC team) and NME (Nissan Motorsport Europe) were always at loggerheads.

But Nissan had committed to do the event and there were bits of a test car down at NME at Didcot, so they decided to throw everything into a container and send it aall to Bathurst. It arrived here in million pieces and we spent the first few days building the car to be ready by the Thursday. The Nissan engine was really fragile. I think the most one had lasted until then was 600 km. They didn’t think we’d last the 1000 km, but they decided to have a crack at it. NME boss Alec Poole turned up on the Thursday and said “Look, if you could just have half a go and qualify somewhere in the top 10, we’d be really chuffed”. So Richo gets it into the top 10 and then goes into the Shootout and bangs it on the front row of the grid next to Jim on pole. Big father/son thing.

Jim in the Volvo, Steve in the Nissan with me. Alec comes up to us on the grid and says “Look, if you could just run with the front-runners for an hour or so, that’s be beyond all expectations, we’d be chuffed to bits”. As you know, we ran nose-to-tail the whole race. The engine, which had lasted the whole 1000 km going flatout, actually cut out and died just after I crossed the finish line. The only way I got back to parc ferme was that John Cleland came up behind me in the Vectra and he pushed me all the way back. We didn’t have to turn the engine off during the pit stops – if we had, it probably wouldn’t have restarted. It was completely seized.

What about the V8 Bathurst 1000s?

It was a fantastic race. We only lost by 1.5 seconds or something. I got sent down as a bit of a reward for doing well as an independent in a Nissan and Steve had done well as Nissan’s test driver in the

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I did it in 2000 with Paul Morris in the Big Kev Commodore. I had a bit of a falling out with Neil Crompton that year. I don’t think he’s forgotten. So I’ve raced at

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Bathurst in the dry and the wet. It’s a very special place to me. I always try to watch the race and whenever I see it raining hard on The Mountain, I thank God I’m not racing there in those conditions. When I first came here for the V8s with Holden, it was so tribal then. I was told that if I stopped on top of the mountain, and I was in front of Ford fans, not to get out of the car. And if they realised there was a Pom in the car, they were really going to kick off. Paul Morris actually took me up to the top of the mountain and I was getting a bit twitchy because they were a bit lairy. The first year I came, the top of the mountain was policed by the local chapter of the Hell’s Angels. Paul said to me “Mate, just keep your mouth shut – as long as they don’t know there’s a Pom in the car, you’ll be all right”. They loved The Dude up there, so we were OK”. I raced again for Paul with Boris Said in 2008.

Back to the BTCC in the peak of the Super Touring era (1993-99). The diversity of makes was incredible, wasn’t it?

The money, the manufacturers, the cars. The cars were extraordinarily sophisticated – and expensive. They still look high-tech today. There were 10 manufacturers in the BTCC at its peak – can you imagine that?

You went through the Super Touring days as a privateer, so when did you finally get manufacturer support in the BTCC? In 2001, I signed for Peugeot and then they had their budget cut after the first meeting. It was a three-car team and I thought I was sitting pretty because I’d been pretty much the quickest in preseason testing, but then they told me it was last in, first out. I was the last driver to sign, so I got dumped. We still had the Nissan and the European touring car championship was still being run to the Super Touring regs, so we went and

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did some races in Europe, and then I was back here with Paul Morris for the Queensland 500. I didn’t have a very good year and I thought it was pretty much all over. I won the last international Super Touring race ever at Estoril, which was special. Then I got a phone call out of the blue from Vauxhall and I went to drive for Triple Eight in the Astra Coupe with egg credit card sponsorship. After egg pulled out at the end of ’02, I thought it was all over again and I was chasing a drive with BMW Motorsport. I didn’t get that – Andy Priaulx beat me to that – but Priaulx had been driving for Honda in the BTCC and that left a hole there. So Honda phoned me up and asked me if I was interested in joining them – which, of course, I was.

And that was the start of the relationship with Honda in 2003.

And finally you get to win a British Touring Car Championship with Honda in 2005.

I started with Arena Motorsport with the old EP3 Honda Civic Type R in ’03. It was fast, but it was fragile. Then Honda pulled out and my old man managed to secure Halfords sponsorship in ’04. So I went back to Team Dynamics with the cars and my engineer from Arena, and then we developed the Integra and finally won the championship in ’05 and then again in ’06.

You’re still in the BTCC and you’re still competitive, along with your long-time rival Jason Plato. It’s extraordinary that you’re both still front-runners.

Well, it’s not just us. Look at Gabriele Tarquini in WTCR. He’s 56! Whenever I see Gabriele, I put my arm around him and say “Mate, as long as you’re doing all right, there’s a few more laps left in me yet”. But you do question how long you can continue. I think we’re almost a little bit lucky in Europe, where it’s more sprint racing and it’s cooler. You get pensioned off in your early 40s in Supercars. As long as you look after yourself and still maintain your focus and hunger, you can hang on

in there in series like the BTCC. Especially in Britain, the racing is pretty brutal – it’s very physical – so experience teaches you how to stay out of trouble and how to look after your equipment, and that counts for a lot because you need to do that to try to string a championship together.

And the racing in the BTCC remains actionpacked. As a spectacle, would you agree it’s never been better?

I think so. I mean, we had 32 cars on the grid last year and at at least one race, seventenths of a second covered the whole grid. And that was at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, which isn’t a short track. It’s stressfully close. You’re looking for Nano seconds. The only problem is that it’s not cheap racing.

The cost has crept up.

It’s not as expensive as Supercars, but it’s getting to be heavy money. Nothing like the hey day when manufacturers were spending up to 10 million pounds a season, but the cost-effectiveness of the BTCC regs is being challenged by TCR. I was a big sceptic of TCR, I must admit, but it seems to be working and a lot of countries like Australia are picking it up.

show. There are another few years his show left with the current regs and they’re already planning a hybrid option. I put it to Alan that if you go TCR, then you follow what the manufacturers do and they’ll introduce hybrid as well. So rather than BTCC bear the cost, let the manufacturers bear the cost. But he wants to go his own route. It’s Alan’s pitch and Alan’s ball, and he can do what he wants with it, really.

Do you foresee TCR becoming the formula for the BTCC?

What are your plans for the BTCC this year?

If you speak to Alan Gow, there’s absolutely no chance because BTCC is his baby and he has control and it’s

Last year we introduced the new FK8 Civic Type R, which is quite a different animal. We’d run the FK2

Matt Neal and father Steve celebrate victory in the 2006 British Touring Car Championship title.

for five years, which was great. It wa was the weapon of choice in British tou touring cars, even though it’s a ha handicap formula with the weight an and the boost (success penalties).

La Last year was a challenging year be because obviously I’d been with ‘Flash’ (teammate and former ‘F BTCC champion Gordon Shedden) BT for near on 10 years and we had fo a good partnership and we could cover a lot of ground. Dan Cammish cove came in – he was multiple Porsche champion and he’s blisteringly quick, but he didn’t know touring cars. So in developing the car with a new inexperienced teammate, it was left down to me, which is OK, but if I ended up going down the wrong route, we both ended up going down the wrong route. So at a third of the circuits, we were faster than the old car, a third were the same and at a third we were slower. Hopefully, now, with a season under our belt with the FK8 and Dan having a season under his belt and understanding it a lot better, we should be in a lot better place this year.

“At some points I have wanted to burn his house down.”

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Matt Neal has had strong links with Honda for more than a decade, developing the Integra (top) and the Civic (above left) for the BTCC. Jason Plato and Matt Neal have had a long-term rivalry on the track (above right) and off it, though relationships have not always been unfriendly.

Looking back over your BTCC career, who is or was your greatest rival?

It has to be Jason, doesn’t it? But probably the driver I admired most, and who I put as a role model and wanted to emulate, was Steve Soper (voted one of the greatest touring car drivers of all time). he was the most complete professional driver I ever watched and admired and raced against. I can remember going to Hockenheim and watching a DTM race – and it was on the old Hockenheim circuit which went out into the woods – and when he came into the stadium section, the crowd would stand and cheer him. I started with BMW in the early ’90s and I went to the annual awards one year and the then BMW Motorsport boss, Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, was describing his factory drivers and he said “Roberto Ravaglia is the thinking driver, Joachim Winkelhock warms the hearts of the

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crowd and Steve Soper is like the English terrier that bites hard into the bone and does not let go”. And that’s Steve. He didn’t mind if he didn’t win the championship. He was a company man and he would do whatever it took to help BMW win. With Tim Harvey’s BTCC championship in ’92, Tim did a great job, but it was Steve who won it for him (by famously eliminating title rival John Cleland in the final race).

There was a poll of the touring car greats and (four-time BTCC titlist) Andy Rouse was voted No.1, but I would put Steve as the greatest.

Rouse was a great engineer and a good driver, but Steve was the ultimate for me. But as far as rivals go, it has to be Jason Plato. There’ve been times when we’ve got on – not many – and we’ve had a lot of times when we’ve really not got on.

It’s a great good guy/bad guy act, isn’t it?

Yeah, it is. At some points I have wanted

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to burn his house down and all the rest of it. It did get personal on more than one occasion. I really would’ve liked to have bashed him a few times.

He is an expert at rubbing people the wrong way.

Oh, yeah. I used to think it was really personal against – and I think it was at times – but I think he’d do it to anybody. That’s just him.

You’re 200 cm (six feet six inches), hes), which is very tall for a racing driver.

Has that ever been a problem?

It definitely was. In the early ’90s, when I was banging on the doors of the factory teams, my height and weight were issues. Even though I kept my weight down (to 90 kg), I remember going to a Ford test and Dick Bennetts (the boss of West Surrey Racing) had

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done of chart of the weights of all the drivers who were taking part in the test and, because driver weight wasn’t included in the total car weight back then, he’d calculated what they’d lose in lap time if they employed me.

I went “Really?” They dismissed me because I wasn’t the stereotypical small, light driver. I’m now north of 95 kilos and I’m very tall, so I’m a big guy in driver terms.

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Formula One

2019 Season Preview

DAMAGE

LIMITATION Did Daniel Ricciardo make the right choice to switch from Red Bull to Renault? DAN KNUTSON examines the main factors in the Aussie’s decision

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RISKY BUSINESS

ANIEL RICCIARDO is on record saying that it was less of a risk going to Renault than staying at Red Bull. His reasoning is that Red Bull is expected to win races, but the switch to Honda power units is an unknown factor. Renault, meanwhile, is not expected to win this year.

“I thought if the next phase with Honda does not work, it is just going to be potentially more risky for my happiness within the team and everyone’s motivation,” Ricciardo says. “So from that point of view, there is less risk coming into this at Renault because I feel there is more room for us to grow and the team here has grown every year.

When I say grow, I mean improved.”

RENAULT REBUILDING

RENAULT SCALED back its F1 program in 2011 and from 2012-15 Genii Capital was the major shareholder of the team, renamed Lotus F1. Renault retook control in 2016. The lack of funds during the preceding four years devastated the Enstone squad, which lost personnel as its infrastructure deteriorated as well.

Renault has been investing and improving both its power unit headquarters in Viry Chatillon just outside of Paris and the race team’s Whiteways Technical Centre base in Enstone, which is in

CONCLUSION: It is a big risk to leave a winning team for a team that last won a race a decade ago.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

DAVID COULTHARD rues the day his advisors told him to go for the money. He made his F1 racing debut with Williams in the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix, taking over the ride of the late Ayrton Senna, and he stayed at Williams in 1995. Then McLaren came calling with a lucrative offer and he switched to the Woking team in 1996.

Williams won a total of 20 races in the next two years, along with the world championship with Damon Hill in ’96 and Jacques Villeneuve in ’97. McLaren won just three races.

Those were the last world titles for Williams, and even though McLaren won many races and the championship in ’98/99 with Mika Hakkinen, Coulthard knows he blew a very good chance to be world champion with Williams.

Ricciardo dismisses suggestions that he moved to Renault merely for a big pay cheque. He points out that no one knows what Renault is paying him or how much he would have made staying at Red Bull.

Indeed, those figures are confidential. But even though Red Bull offered Ricciardo considerably more money for 2019, it was still much less than Verstappen’s pay packet. And that certainly miffed the Aussie.

CONCLUSION: Ricciardo is definitely making more at Renault – some speculate up to 20 million euros (A$31.7 million) a year – but he did not switch teams for the money.

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Oxfordshire. The number of staff at Enstone has grown from 400 to 700.

Ricciardo visited Enstone in December before going home to Australia for a holiday. “There was a lot of stuff being built and a lot of construction, and by the end of January that stuff was done,” he recalls. “It was pretty awesome to see how much had been done in the last six weeks. Because the team is on this trajectory, there is this really good atmosphere. Everyone was stoked to get fourth (in the constructors’ championship) last year, but it’s not like we are happy there.

“We are doing the right things, but now let’s build

and build.

So I just sense the right attitude and it’s certainly not a midfield attitude.”

CONCLUSION: Renault’s rebuilding program will pay dividends for Ricciardo and the team, but it will take time.

TEAMMATE RELATIONS

RED BULL wanted Ricciardo to sign a new twoyear deal, but eventually agreed to his demand of a contract for 2019 only.

One of the reasons Red Bull was keen on keeping

Renault’s current rejuvenation has led to renovations at the team’s Enstone base and growth in staff numbers from 400 to 700. Daniel Ricciardo visited the factory in December and immediately sensed a front-running attitude.

Ricciardo was that there was a near perfect chemistry between he and teammate Max Verstappen. Sure, they had some bumps out on the track, but they would talk things out later. And they genuinely got along very well off the track. Crucially, Ricciardo is an extremely fast driver who can deliver podiums, points and wins.

So what does Ricciardo think of his new Renault teammate Nico Hülkenberg? “Hate him!” Ricciardo quips with his trademark grin. He then adds: “I could be serious and you would still think I am joking!”

Getting serious, he says they are working well together.

“The important thing is that we both are asking pretty much the same things from the car regarding improvements, so that is good,” the Perth native says. “If one is pulling one way and the other the other way, the engineers will say what are we doing?”

Age is another factor. Ricciardo is 29, Hülkenberg 31 and Verstappen 21.

“I am just happy to be the younger driver in team again, it has been a while!” Ricciardo says. “I have

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Formula One

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It’s early days, but the relationship between Ricciardo and Hulkenberg has started off strongly (far left). Although Red Bull was a challenging environment, Verstappen and Ricciardo maintained a great bond (left).Ricciardo’s Renault debut finished impressively (above).

no concerns. Nico has done this for many years more than me, so that helps in terms of the competition we will have together, but also the respect in the team.

There is less risk of someone losing their mind.”

The rules state that a team can only run one car at time during pre-season testing, so the first time Ricciardo and Hülkenberg will be on the track at the same time will be at Albert Park. Until then, the only way to compare them is by looking at their telemetry.

“We get the data from each other,” Ricciardo explains.

“So if he was braking completely later than me, I’d see that, and that potentially is something for me to think about and say why is he doing that – maybe that is beneficial in that area for me. If he was doing something completely different, I’d see that and take what I’d want from it.

“But as far as a head-to-head comparison, you can’t see that until Melbourne.”

CONCLUSION: Although Ricciardo and Verstappen got along well at Red Bull, the relationship between Hülkenberg and Ricciardo should be even better at Renault.

SCRUPULOUSLY FAIR

RED BULL Racing has a history and reputation of being scrupulously fair when it comes to treating both its drivers equally. And yet… there have been times over the years where one teammate, and he has been an Australian, gets the short end of the stick.

Red Bull had just two updated front wings for the 2010 British Grand Prix. When the one on Sebastian Vettel’s car was damaged on Saturday, the team took the wing off Mark Webber’s car and put it on Vettel’s

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car. The furious Aussie stormed to a victory the next day and then famously said over the radio: “Not bad for a number two driver!”

Later that year, the duo collided when Vettel tried to pass Webber during the Turkish Grand Prix. Most observers believed that Vettel was to blame, but the team said both drivers were equally at fault. Horner said that Vettel’s move was “acceptable”. Webber was less than impressed.

The most infamous moment of favoritism came in the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, where Webber was leading Vettel. The team policy was that the drivers must hold station – the code for this was the radio message “Multi 21” – but Vettel ignored that and snatched the victory from Webber. Horner chided Vettel over the radio, but did not make him give the lead position back.

Two years later, in his book Aussie Grit, Webber revealed the reason why Vettel was never punished or reprimanded. Vettel’s lawyers had sent the team a letter stating it was in breach of his contract by giving him an “unreasonable instruction/team order”.

“Whatever (Vettel’s) thinking was, when he overtook me, I wasn’t so much angry as very sad that the team had reached this sorry state,” Webber wrote.

Flash forward to the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Verstappen and Ricciardo collided. Again, most observers thought Verstappen was more to blame, but the team and the stewards said they were equally at fault. Ricciardo now admits that simmered away inside him and left him feeling that Verstappen was getting better treatment.

“I couldn’t tell you how many little pieces made up the puzzle, the kaleidoscope, but I guess that was one of the little pieces,” Ricciardo says of his decision to leave

Red Bull. “We both got a talking to, putting it politely, but in my eyes, I felt like I was not really in the wrong even though I was the one that hit him.”

CONCLUSION: Ricciardo felt Verstappen was being favored, so it was time to leave Red Bull.

RELIABLE POWER

AS RICCIARDO points out, one reason he went to Renault was because of the unknowns about Honda.

The folks at Toro Rosso and Red Bull, who have access to last year’s Renault’s data, and the 2018 and 2019 Honda data, say that Honda has made a step forward in horsepower and reliability.

But the Renault engineers maintain that a considerable step has been made. Both power units performed well in pre-season testing.

CONCLUSION: It is too early to tell if Ricciardo’s choice of Renault over Honda was correct. It is going to take several races to see which manufacturer has more power and better reliability.

RIGHT AND WRONG MOVES

F1 HISTORY is packed with drivers making the wrong moves when deciding to go to another team.

Kiwi Chris Amon lost a lot of potential wins by being at the wrong team at the wrong time. He would later point out that he was actually very lucky because many of his fellow drivers were killed, while he survived.

After winning the world championship with Lotus in 1972 and McLaren in 1974, and with 14 race wins

“BECAUSE THE TEAM IS ON THIS TRAJECTORY, THERE IS THIS REALLY GOOD ATMOSPHERE” under his belt, Emerson Fittipaldi switched to his brother’s Copersucar team in 1976. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but his F1 career fizzled out during the next five years, when he earned a solitary podium. He did, however, go on to revive his career in Indycars.

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champ, had an offer from McLaren, but in 1999 he went with the new British American Racing team set up by his business manager Craig Pollock. Villeneuve now says he was promised things that never materialized. The team was a dud for years.

On the other hand, in the right moves department, Juan Manuel Fangio craftly jumped from team to team on his way to winning five consecutive world championships.

Michael Schumacher won two championships with Benetton in 1994/95 and then made a questionable move to Ferrari in ’96. At the time, the Scuderia had won a single race since 1990 and its last drivers’ world championship had been way back in 1979, with Jody Scheckter. It took time to rebuild the team, but Schumacher would win five consecutive titles.

Many questioned Lewis Hamilton leaving McLaren, which had won 18 times between 2010 and 2012, to join Mercedes, which had a solitary victory in the same three years. Four world championships with Mercedes prove Hamilton made the right move.

CONCLUSION: Drivers can make decisions to change teams based on facts rather than emotions, but it is still easy to get it wrong.

In Ricciardo Renault has a proven media performer as well as a race winner, in which it hopes it can develop a successful team around.

THE RIGHT FOOT

“I DID get on with everyone at Red Bull and it was a cool environment,” Ricciardo says. “Coming here to Renault, part of me was actually apprehensive that I wouldn’t have the same relationship that I had with some people at Red Bull, because in the garage with the mechanics we had a pretty strong bond.

“But already after a few days here, I don’t fear that is going to be an issue.”

CONCLUSION: Ricciardo is bonding well with the Renault crew and it’s important for the relationship to get off on the right foot.

THE BOTTOM LINE

RICCIARDO, OF course, hopes he made the right move. Time will tell. But with Ferrari and Mercedes focused on plans that do not, for now at least, include the Aussie, and with Red Bull centered on Verstappen, the reality is that Renault is Ricciardo’s best option.

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Formula One

2019 Season Preview

DAN THE MAN: WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

MARK FOGARTY canvassed five F1 achievers for their opinions and insights on how Daniel Ricciardo will fare with Renault and where he ranks among the top drivers MARK WEBBER

Winner of nine F1 races, F1 TV pundit SINCE HIS retirement from racing at the end of 2016, Mark Webber has been keeping a close eye on F1 as an expert analyst for Channel 4 in the UK and, annually, the Australian Grand Prix on Channel 10.

Webber also retains close ties with his former Red Bull Racing team as an ambassador for the energy drink giant.

When he retired from F1, his place at RBR was taken by Daniel Ricciardo, whose progress Webber has watched with insider interest.

Australia’s third most decorated F1 driver has no doubt about Ricciardo’s talent, but remains unconvinced about his move to Renault.

“I needed about two minutes to digest it, to be honest,” Webber said. “It is a concern. I would’ve liked to have seen him stay at Red Bull. You think it’s greener somewhere else. He justified in his own head that Renault was the way forward.

“I don’t think it was commercial; I think it was just purely emotional on the fact that he wanted to be the main guy at Renault, which he is – which I can’t imagine Nico’s too stoked about. In the end, historically speaking, Red Bull is a top team and I would have loved to have seen Daniel stay there. The Red Bull fit was awesome.”

Despite his reservations, Webber has no doubt that Daniel will be a big boost for the Enstone squad, where Mark was test driver in 2001 in its previous Benetton guise.

“Oh, he can certainly bring great energy to a team, there’s no question about that,” he said. “I think he will bring good enthusiasm, he’ll bring freshness, he’ll bring a

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Mark Webber took time to digest Dan’s move to Renault.

Alan Jones thinks Dan made the right decision.

change of gear, so that’s all positive to Enstone. I like the Enstone guys and I know them well. Many of them are still there from back in the day when I was there. There are a lot of real racers there. They get it, they cut through the bullshit.

“There are a lot of quality guys there who’ve won a lot of world championships. They know how to do it. Yes, it was a long time ago, but it’s really the financial situation that they need to address. R&D into chassis and aero and then the engine. It has to be the best engine. You need the best engine to win. They have a long way to go, we know that.”

Webber rates Ricciardo as one of F1’s top four or five drivers. “Totally, absolutely,” he enthused. “Daniel’s in that group. I think he knows he has to squeeze a little bit more out of himself in qualifying, but you can’t fault him on Sundays. Hardly goes off the road, very cool under pressure.

“I loved it last year at Monaco (which Daniel went on to win) when he had the engine problem and his first radio transmission was “What can I do to help?” That’s what a garage needs to hear, especially the Frenchies who are known to panic a bit. He’s brought a very calm approach to Renault.

“He’s top flight – absolutely top flight. And no question about it, Daniel’s a brilliant over-taker. His strike rate of pulling off the moves without any damage is very high. He loves Sundays. He’s a real racer.”

ALAN JONES

1980 F1 world champion AS AN unfiltered observer of F1, few approach AJ’s candour. Never afraid to say what he thinks – or offend – Jones was typically contrary in his support of Ricciardo’s shock switch – and nothing has changed his mind.

“If anything, I’m actually a little bit encouraged and I

stick by what I said before Christmas that I think he’s done the right thing,” Jones said. “I think that driving for Renault, which is a factory team with really good resources, is a good move. It has been a little bit disappointing, the time it’s taken them to come good, but come good I think they will and I think he could very well be at the right place at the right time.

“I think Daniel’s good enough to win a world championship in the right car. I’ve said that all along and I maintain that. When he was Verstappen’s teammate, and people said how quick Verstappen was – and he is quick, there’s no doubt about that – but at the end of the day, I think Verstappen’s probably got another one or two years to mature a bit in the cockpit and I think if you were to put Daniel in the same car now, I think Daniel would still probably come out on top pointswise.

“He had Max covered in the racing over the course of last season and I think a lot of that was because of his greater experience. Verstappen made quite a few fundamental mistakes. Daniel had a lot of mechanical problems and if he hadn’t had had those mechanical problems, he would’ve finished much further up the pecking order. That’s why I say, if you put the two in the same cars, I think certainly for another year or two Daniel would come out on top because he has more experience.

“He’s certainly one of the best overtakers and that more or less says he’s one of the best racers. When the flag drops, the bullshit stops and I think he’s the epitome of that adage.”

AJ won’t be surprised if Ricciardo’s racing guile enables him to sneak some podiums and maybe even a win if he gets the chance. “Absolutely, I think you’re dead right,” he said. “I wouldn’t be overly surprised if he snuck a win.

Certainly not surprised if he got a couple of podiums.”

Asked if he thought Ricciardo was Australia’s best F1 driver since himself, Jones spotted the leading question straight away and parried it with unexpected diplomacy.

“I think Mark did a pretty good job,” he retorted. “At the end of the day, he won nine grands prix and I think he did a very good job. I think Daniel’s at the Webber stage already and what he needs to do is surpass that, which I think he can.

“Whether he will is the question and that depends on Renault eventually giving him a car capable of winning races and contending for the championship. Of course, you always have to have the right car. But in the right car, as I say, Daniel is a potential world champion.”

MARTIN BRUNDLE

Former F1 driver, the voice of F1 on TV NO ENGLISH-SPEAKING F1 commentator is more astute in his analysis than former racer Martin Brundle. No one communicates the nuances and intrigue of F1 more simply and clearly, making him the successor of Murray Walker as the trusted voice of F1.

He is more famous in the UK and worldwide as a commentator than he ever was as an F1 driver, which continues to bemuse and frustrate him. Brundle was an effective racer, but he was never in the right car at the right time – and often in the right car at the wrong time, like when he was Michael Schumacher’s teammate at Benetton. But his experience near the top gives him unrivalled insight.

You’ll hear him again this year on Fox Sports’ F1 coverage, which is taken straight from Sky Sports in the UK. According to Brundle, it will be business as usual for Ricciardo – except for not being in a top three car. “I think you can expect the normal Daniel Ricciardo, to be honest, in terms of he’ll be quick, he’ll be funny, he’ll be brilliant in overtaking,” he said. “I don’t see anything will have changed apart from the colour of his overalls and his race car, and we’ll see to an extent if he’s made a good

Martin Brundle expects to see Dan ‘peak’.

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Damon Hill says Dan will have to alter his expectations.

decision or not in leaving Red Bull and going to Renault.

“He’s king of the castle there; I can see what appeals to him. He’s got away from things that annoyed him at Red Bull and I expect to see peak Daniel Ricciardo, really.”

So is Brundle warming to Dan’s widely questioned move to Renault? Not quite. More accepting than supportive.

“As I always said, it’s a decision he made about him and his career and his life, so it can’t be wrong in terms of that’s what he wanted to do, that’s what he felt best doing,” he observed. “Who are we to go ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about with your own life, your own career’? Whether it’s the right decision in terms of speed and victories and podiums and world championship chances, which is the whole purpose of going F1 racing, remains to be seen.

“Renault was a team that was pretty much lapped every weekend by the top three last year, so they have a lot of catching up to do and you’re aiming at a moving goal post as well. You’re not trying to catch something that’s static. They constantly improve and evolve, anyway, the top teams, so they have to close that gap and then get on terms and then get ahead, and those are really big steps.

So I think he’ll have to be patient and we’ll have to wait and see.

“I was surprised when he made that decision and I remain surprised now. A lot of us were surprised when Hamilton left a strong McLaren to go to a struggling Mercedes, but look how that turned out. I don’t think this is going to turn out the same way with Daniel because the Renault team just doesn’t have the might and the resource of Mercedes.

“But we all know Team Enstone, as I call it, in terms of its iterations – Toleman, Benetton, Renault, Lotus and Renault again – it’s fundamentally a similar group of people. The question is whether they have the resources to take them back to the top.”

While Brundle has a high regard for Ricciardo, he doesn’t think his ability has been fully tested yet. “He’s the best overtaker in the business,” he declared. “He’s won races, he’s a world-class driver. Is he season-long championship material? We don’t know yet. Would I put him on a par with Hamilton, for example? Not yet.

“But I do think he has a huge amount of talent and

30 AutoAction

harnessed in the right way, if he’s more comfortable at Renault, he could excel. Whether the car’s quick enough is another matter, but I think Daniel could excel. He’s a burglar, isn’t he? He steals races. He’s done that a lot and he might do it again yet for Renault.

“He’s certainly top five in F1, no doubt about that, and could knock on the door of top three if he brings it all together. He’s at that perfect age of experience and fitness and reactions and bravery.

“He’s also bright enough to lead Renault back to the front. He knows which way’s up. We all know that under that smiley exterior there’s a fiercely competitive guy. I don’t have doubts that he could lead Renault forward.

“I think he and Hulkenberg are a great line-up. I used the expression ‘peak Daniel Ricciardo’ earlier on and I think if he’s in an environment where he can flourish, I think this might be his best year yet in terms of his own performances.

“I don’t think he’ll find his teammate that easy, either.

So I don’t think Daniel will think he’s moving from a challenging Verstappen to an easy touch Hulkenberg, that’s for sure.”

DAMON HILL

1996 F1 world champion, F1 TV pundit ANOTHER THOUGHTFUL driver-turned-TV analyst, Damon Hill has the added credibility of being a world champion. Whether you rate him as a great or not, his view of F1 is from the highest peak.

Hill will also be seen on Fox Sports’ F1 telecasts, delivering his considered opinions with his dry, quirky sense of humour.

While surprised by Ricciardo’s move, his own experiences give him an insight into the West Australian’s thinking. “It was quite a story when he decided to leave the nurturing environment of Red Bull,” Hill said. “They did quite a lot for his career. He got an opportunity that is pretty rare for any racing driver. All they ask is that you deliver 110 per cent and if you don’t, you get turfed out.

“So I don’t think there’s any doubt they wanted to keep Daniel in the team, but his gut told him to get out and go to Renault, which is a gamble. From the outside, it looks like a slightly perilous move because the Red Bull was always going to be a front-running car. He’s won races with them and he’s

raced well against this phenomenon in Max Verstappen, so he can hold his own.

“So it was a bit of a surprise for him to go to Renault, but I completely understand that when a driver gets to a certain stature and is not winning over the attention of the people that you drive for, you feel that you’re not the favoured driver in the team and that is not a position you can tolerate. So I completely understand why he decided he needed to go somewhere where he’ll get that.

“He’s come out and admitted that he was upset with the way that the Baku race was dealt with. He felt like he was unfairly implicated in that incident (crashing into the back of a doublemoving Verstappen). If you get that feeling within a team, then you cannot operate fully as a race driver. It’s very difficult to have two hot drivers in the same environment together because everything counts.

“So Daniel has gone to a team which has not yet shown frontrunning pace. They’ve ramped up their investment massively – almost doubling their workforce, I think – so they are definitely on the up and it’s a works team, so it’s not a bad move. He also has a very highly regarded teammate in Nico, so he’s not up against some pushover by any stretch of the imagination.

“Nico is already established in the team and he was already quite capable of taking care of any other teammate he’s been up against, so he’s not going to be a pushover for Daniel. But Daniel has shown himself to be not only a massive asset to F1 because of his personality, but also he’s a fantastic racing driver.

“He’s exciting to watch, he’s really entertained us, and shocked and amazed us with his full-on commitment to passing and his desire to win. I really want to see him have another crack at the front of the field, but that’s going to be so hard at Renault – a lot harder than it would have been at Red Bull.”

Hill cautions that Ricciardo will have to alter his expectations.

“Daniel will have to get used to being pumped up to come fourth,” he said. “The race win opportunities are going to be very thin. I can see him sneaking podiums, but a win would have to be in an extraordinary situation.

“The car looked a good in early pre-season testing, but I just don’t see Renault breaking into the top three at this stage. The best they can hope for is to be the best of the rest and closer to the six cars ahead of them.

“He’s a proven race-winner. His arrival has put more pressure on the whole team to lift their game. He’s a known quantity and they can learn a bit from him, but they’re also going to be the weakest link, not Daniel. He’ll show them where they are because he’ll get the absolute maximum out of the car.

“But he could pull a surprise at somewhere like Monaco. It’s quite possible.”

SAM MICHAEL

Former Williams F1 technical director AMONG THE many talented Australians who have made their mark in F1 behind the scenes, Sam Michael is the most accomplished in modern times. He was technical director at Williams in the mid-2000s when the team was still strong andmoved to McLaren in 2011 as sporting director, joining the

Sam Michael thinks podiums for Dan would be a big achievement.

senior technical management group.

That didn’t end well as McLaren was already in the grip of its decline and he returned to Australia in 2014, subsequently joining Triple Eight as an engineering consultant and mentor.

As his involvement with Triple Eight winds down, he is ramping up his advisory safety work with CAMS and the FIA, as his Sydney-based automation software development company Ox Mountain takes off.

Perth-born Michael, always a smooth presenter, remains an interested and astute F1 observer from afar and has been following Ricciardo since before his fellow Sandgroper even got into F1.

“He’s a great driver,” Michael said. “I’d heard really good things about him out of Australia. Even just getting to F1 as an Aussie is a pretty remarkable achievement these days. It’s a

tough sport – which it needs to be, that’s what F1 is all about – but even when things go well, it’s hard to get in there and do it, and Dan’s done it.

“He’s a professional winning racing driver and he’ll be focused on trying to win a world championship. He’s a great character, really good for the business. He’s on to his next challenge and it will be a big challenge. He wants to try to make the Renault team win again. They have won before – albeit with a quite different structure of people there – and that’ll be the target.

“He’s already proven he has what it takes. It’s pretty hard to win a grand prix and he’s done that several times now. You don’t just luck into those wins and he certainly didn’t. He’s proven his mettle against any driver he’s been up against, from Sebastian to Max, and Fernando and Lewis.

“I’d love to see him be a success with Renault. It’d be great to see a character like that actually get up there. I think his goal for this year, realistically, will just be getting Renault back up into the top-running positions.

“And although it sounds like a step back from winning at Red Bull, if he got Renault to regular podiums, that would be pretty successful given how competitive F1 is. That to me would be a huge achievement if Daniel could do that regularly this year.

“He’s one of those guys that’s quite easy to get behind because of his character. He has a great personality, so I expect his team to warm to him very quickly. He’s definitely capable of leading them forward.”

As someone who’s been in the middle of two top teams trying to rediscover their mojo, Michael believes Renault can stage yet another comeback if it has strong basics on which to build.

“Anyone can effectively do it if they get all the right people and processes in place, assuming that they have the fundamentals like engine and aero right,” he posited. “But even when you get them right, it’s not enough. It really comes down to those relationships, making sure they’re strong across the board. You can’t do it by yourself.

“It’s a big game now and you need to have all of the 500600 people you have in your factory all focused on doing the absolute best job that they can do. And if those systems don’t come together, it doesn’t work on the track.

“So if you get the right people in the right places, then, yeah, you can do it.”

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31

Formula One

2019 Season Preview

RICCIARDO REVS UP RENAULT Renault F1 Team boss Cyril Abiteboul tells DAN KNUTSON and LUIS VASCONCELOS why Daniel Ricciardo’s arrival has had such a positive impact on the team already

I

N JUST over three years Renault has hired some 300 people as it undergoes a massive and intensive rebuilding programme of its Formula 1 team. There is no “i” in team of course and the now over 900 people who work solely on Renault’s F1 effort all play important roles.

But when Renault announced last August that it had hired a new employee it made headlines around the world because it was none other than F1 superstar driver Daniel Ricciardo. After 10 years in the Red Bull family, seven and a half years as an F1 driver, and five years as a driver for the elite race-winning Red Bull team, the Aussie would move to Renault in 2019 with a lucrative two-year contract.

The news came as a surprise to most people, including the management at Red Bull who were certain that Ricciardo was poised to renew his contract that expired at the end of 2018.

32 AutoAction

Indeed, during the Hungarian Grand Prix and the test at the Hungaroring afterwards in late July, Ricciardo gave no real hints that he was considering switching teams. He was not certain himself. Then he made up his mind as the F1 fraternity headed into the annual August three-week break. On August 3 last year the news was announced to the world.

Cyril Abiteboul, the managing director of Renault Sport Racing, divulged the news to the staff working at Renault’s F1 bases in France and the United Kingdom. They cheered and applauded wildly when they heard that the seven-time race winner would join their team.

“It was an impact like you can imagine,” Abiteboul tells Auto Action. “It was a huge surprise and therefore a huge moment in the reconstruction of the team. A fantastic moment in our construction, and from that point on it has created motivation and confidence and also responsibility in doing the best that we can to offering the best possible at this point of our journey.”

While the Ricciardo announcement was out of the blue, the actual deal came about, according to Abiteboul, “quickly and not quickly.”

“It is fair to say that we knew Daniel Ricciardo

extremely well for a while on the basis of our engine partnership with Red Bull,” he explains.

“We had been discussing, joking, plotting, for months. But indeed, I think his decision was eventually made in the three days or something like that following the Budapest test and the start of the shutdown.

“We have been extremely straightforward and clear on all the aspects of the project and the team, where it stands, and where it will be in one year and two years. Clear also on our expectations from him on track and off track.

Clear also in the commercial parameters.

And from that point it was in his hands. It was up to him to make the decisions of what he felt. And when the decision was made, the implementation and execution of the contract was extremely quick.”

Ricciardo has only been with Renault for a short time now, but what has he already brought it the team?

“The main thing that he has brought,” Abiteboul replies, “is what I mentioned – he is a motivation and an extra bit of energy and a confidence that he has brought to the staff over the winter. That is an important moment because it is really in the winter that you

EXTRA HORSES FOR THE WIN!

Renault’s determination to join Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull is taking shape under Abiteboul’s watch (left). “It was a huge surprise and therefore a huge moment in the reconstruction of the team,” Abiteboul remarked about Ricciardo’s arrival.

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define the following season both on the engine and chassis side. So he has brought that to the team. And also his smile and the fact that he is so generous in the way he is engaging and interacting with people.

“He is also bringing his mindset. As we are growing and expanding extremely quickly, it is also important that we invest in the company’s identity. And he brings something very important to our identity, which is a mix of being professional, being very serious about our ambition, but also having an open, relaxed and inclusive environment. So those things are important for us.”

While Ricciardo, 29, has been garnering a lot of the headlines, he is, of course, teammates with another experienced driver, Nico Hülkenberg.

While he has never finished on the podium in an F1 race, Hülkenberg, 31, is a Le Mans 24 Hours winner and he is well respected in F1 circles. For the first time, therefore, since it returned to F1 in 2016, Renault has two really experienced drivers.

How much of a boost is that for the team and the development?

“It is important because obviously a lot will have to happen on different days of the season to get the best out of the package that we give to our drivers,” Abiteboul says. “I am pretty sure that they are talented enough, quick enough, but also mature enough and smart enough to know and appreciate what they have to do, how they need to behave, and also think about the team’s best

interests first because if they want to perform, the team has to come first. At the point where we are now, we do not foresee fighting for a drivers’ or constructors’ championship. So that is why they team’s progression has to come first. They understand that, and I am absolutely confident that they will contribute.”

Renault has been spending millions to rebuild and expand its F1 facilities and programmes. That outlay now includes hiring Ricciardo who was not cheap. Does all this put extra pressure on Renault to perform quickly?

“It puts on pressure to perform,” Abiteboul says, “but it is because we know what it takes to perform that we have done these investments. We knew that we were not in F1 just to participate. We were here to win and knew what we had to do in order to win. So we are ticking the boxes one by one. But all of that was also made possible thanks first to our professionalism and the fact that we have known F1 for 40 years. So we are not new to the sport.”

The box of hiring an F1 race-winning and motivating driver who already has had a major impact on Renault, has been ticked. Now an upcoming box to tick is the season opening race and Ricciardo’s home Grand Prix of Australia.

“We know that it is not going to be a race winning car at this point in time,” Abiteboul says of the 2019 Renault R.S.19, “but we want to do the best we can for Daniel for the first race in Australia.”

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AutoAction

33

Formula One

2019 Season Preview

BURNING QUESTIONS With new rules, new driver line-ups and other changes, DAN KNUTSON is optimistic that we are in for a fascinating Formula 1 season full of unknowns

T

HE AUSTRALIAN Grand Prix is always one of the high points of the Formula 1 season – and that is truer than ever this year.

There are the usual reasons why the event is one of the favorites for the fans, teams and drivers, including the wonderful Melbourne venue, four days of fun and action on and off the track, and the anticipation of the first grand prix of the year.

What makes the 2019 AGP even more appealing is that there have been so many changes on the F1 scene during the off-season, which in turn has led to many questions about the upcoming season.

And because Australia hosts the first race, it is where the initial answers to those questions will start to become apparent.

There have been massive changes on the driver front, with only Mercedes and Haas retaining the same line-up as in 2018.

Driver moves include Daniel Ricciardo going from Red Bull to Renault; Kimi Räikkönen moving from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo (née Sauber); and Carlos Sainz trading Renault for McLaren.

The technical regulations have changed considerably as well, with the cars featuring new rear wings and simplified wider front wings, as well as other tweaks aimed at improving overtaking.

On the engine front, Red Bull now uses Honda rather than Renault power units.

Three rookies will make their debut at Albert Park – George Russell with Williams,

34 AutoAction

Alexander Albon at Toro Rosso and Lando Norris with McLaren. Antonio Giovinazzi, who has two previous F1 starts under his belt, will make his fulltime debut with Alfa Romeo.

And in one of the greatest comeback stories in F1 history, Robert Kubica is back racing in the series for the first time since 2010, following an horrific rally accident in early 2011 that has kept him out of F1 in the meantime.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton arrives in Melbourne as the reigning world champion and ready to embark on his quest for a record-approaching sixth title.

“I am hopeful that it is an exciting year, particularly with the drivers moving around,” Hamilton says. “You have a lot of young drivers. I am definitely interested to see the growth and journey these youngsters embark on, and see their progression and the pitfalls they come across, which every driver does, and how they spring back from it. And, naturally, I get to race against some of them as well.

“I feel stronger and fitter than I have ever been all round. Hopefully, that reflects in my driving.”

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas was squeezed out of at least three victories last year, so he is determined to make amends.

“I don’t want to be in that situation again where I feel like that and I start to question myself if I could have done something better,” Bottas says. “I just want to make sure that this year I’ll do everything I can

to achieve those targets. My target for the year is to win as much as I can.”

Ferrari looked very strong in pre-season testing with Sebastian Vettel and his new teammate Charles Leclerc. Vettel won the first two races last year, but over the rest of the season, his championship quest fizzled out.

“Overall, the progression is there,” Vettel says of Ferrari’s and his pursuit of the crown. “We’re getting closer together yearby-year. I hope this year we can have a lot of fun, win a lot of races and fight for the championship.

“That’s what we want, but at this point it’s very far away.”

One of the questions for 2019 is how quick Leclerc will be in relation to

Vettel. “He (Leclerc) is young and he’s going to make mistakes,” Hamilton observes. “He’s obviously very quick, very talented and most likely he is going to surprise many, many people.

But you’re talking about a veteran (Vettel) out there now who’s a four-time world champion.

“There’s no substitute for experience, so it will be interesting to see how those two parallels work together.”

There will be a similar scenario at Red Bull Honda, where

A WING AND A PRAYER

THE MOST visual change to the 2019 regulations are the giant front wings, which have grown from 180 cm to 200 cm in width.

These are much simpler affairs than in the past with the end plates now just a single piece, rather than the complicated affairs they have been in the past.

This change has been put into place to improve overtaking opportunities by creating a less turbulent aerodynamic wake for the car behind. Whether it works or not is yet to be seen.

Other changes in this quest are a higher, simpler rear wing, which has a more deeply dished profile and a DRS that is 25 per cent more powerful than in 2018.

The brake ducts are also simpler so that they cannot be used quite as much for aerodynamic gains. And the bargeboards on the sides of the cars also have some new restrictions.

One of the most crucial regulation changes cannot be seen: the driver, his equipment and his seat must weigh a minimum of 80kg. This helps level the playing field because it means that lighter drivers can no longer place as much ballast weight strategically around the car, which the heavier drivers were unable to do. DK One of the biggest unknowns will be the new partnership between Honda and Red Bull (above).

George Russell is one of three rookies debuting in Australia (right).

Max Verstappen at the still-tender age of 21 is embarking on his fifth season in F1. His new teammate is Pierre Gasly, 23, who moves to Red Bull after a single season at Toro Rosso.

“I think it’s too early to talk about expectations,” Gasly says.

“We need to understand the car a bit more before having any expectations.”

The Honda power unit in the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos is an evolution of the one used by the latter team last year.

“We worked not only on the performance, but also reliability,” says Honda F1 technical director

It’s back to the future for Raikkonen as he joins the refreshed Alfa Romeo neeSauber squad.

Toyoharu Tanabe. “We believe we improved both. The development area is not only a single part – we reviewed every part.”

The question is how much the Honda has improved in the power and reliability stakes, both of which were lacking last year.

One of the reasons Ricciardo decided to leave Red Bull for Renault was the uncertainty over the potential of the Honda.

Whether the Australian made the correct choice has been delved into on pages 24-27.

Of the newcomers, it will be interesting to see how Norris and Russell cope in their rookie season,

as Williams in particular appears not to have produced a very quick car for the start of the season. There will also be questions about whether it is the car or the driver – as in Kubica’s physical ability to race – if the Williams is not performing well.

Not all the questions will be immediately answered in Melbourne. But two of them will be.

How many of those new wider front wings will survive intact through the first lap, never mind the entire race?

And what is the fastest driver/car combination of them all?

That will be known after qualifying and following the Australian Grand Prix itself.

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35

Formula One

2019 Season Preview

CARS AND STARS

Your guide to every F1 team and their prospects for the coming season, as rated by MARK FOGARTY

MERCEDES AMG

SCUDERIA FERRARI

Mercedes M d W W10

FFerrarii SF90

#44 Lewis Hamilton (GBR), #77 Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Everything to lose, nothing to gain.

Bottas must prove he is more than a safe pair of hands.

#5 Sebastian Vettel (DEU), #16 Charles Leclerc (MCO) New top management, new resolve, new hope. Leclerc to push Vettel to a higher level.

RED BULL RACING Red R dB Bull-Honda ll H d RB1 RB15

#33 Max Verstappen (NDL), #10 Pierre Gasly (FRA) Honda risk worth taking to challenge top two. Max will just get better in a more potent package.

36 AutoAction

RENAULT F1 TEAM

Renault Re ena naul u t RS19 R 1199 RS

#3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS), #27 Nico Hulkenberg (DEU) On the rise, edging closer to top three. Dan has the brilliance and audacity to break through.

HAAS F1 TEAM

McLAREN

RACING POINT

Haas-Ferrari H F i VF-19 VF 19

#8 Romain Grosjean (FRA), #20 Kevin Magnussen (DNK) Need to tidy up its act, eradicate errors.

Last chance for Grosjean.

McLaren-Renault M L R lt MCL34 M

#55 Carlos Sainz (ESP), #4 Lando Norris (GBR) Make or break year, can’t afford another dud car. Massive weight on Sainz’s shoulders.

Racing Point-Mercedes RP19

ALFA ROMEO RACING

SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO

Alfa f Romeo-Ferrari C38 C

Toro Rosso-Honda STR14

#7 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN), #99 Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) Mid-field no longer good enough for Swiss snoozer. Kimi will struggle to maintain motivation.

#26 Daniil Kvyat (RUS), #23 Alexander Albon (THA) Could prove a pest with improved Honda power. If Kvyat’s head is right, he’ll be a points predator.

#11 Sergio Perez (MEX), #18 Lance Stroll (CAN) Now with budget to achieve longpromised potential. Stroll has a lot to prove.

WILLIAMS RACING Williams-Mercedes Willi M d FW42 FW #88 Robert Kubica (POL), #63 George Russell (GBR) The end is near as inexorable decline continues. Kubica’s return is heart-warming, but smacks of desperation.

FOGES’ FEARLESS FORECASTS •Ferrari will finally topple Mercedes •Leclerc vs Vettel will be ‘friendly feud’ •New aero rules won’t improve racing •Red Bull will be a major threat •Verstappen to emerge as next great •Ricciardo to score daring podiums •Raikkonen will be more deadpan than ever •McLaren can recover, Williams can’t •Liberty’s efforts to reinvent F1 will stall

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37

Supercars

2019 AGP Preview

CLASH FOR POINTS In its first-ever year as a championship round, the 2018 Australian Grand Prix Supercar event was intense. Weather played its part to make it a dramatic affair, as did the controversial event format. HEATH McALPINE previews this year’s event.

A

FTER ALL the discussions that occurred for more than a decade, Supercars finally battled for not only bragging rights, but also for points in front of the sport’s elite at the Australian Grand Prix in 2018.

Reflecting on the decision to make the Australian Grand Prix a championship event, generally supported, nonetheless thoughts were mixed on the race format of the event.

The four-race event was split into two 130km races containing a compulsory pit stop and a pair of short, sharp 70km sprint races.

David Reynolds won the final race of the weekend, a 13-lap 70km sprint, but explained after the race that the format and conditions were far from ideal.

“I love the four qualifying sessions, that’s kind of cool,” said Reynolds.

“Short races, pit lane conditions that are really, really tight; that sucks for everyone. It’s like polishing a turd, trying to make the best out of what we’ve got.”

Jamie Whincup also had a

38 AutoAction

successful weekend, mounting a strong challenge to Scott McLaughlin during the opening two races and finishing second in the final, but thought the introduction of points to the event was unnecessary.

“It’s really critical it’s part of the calendar and we are in front of the big stage,” Whincup said.

“That’s absolutely critical and we’re thankful to be here. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing having maybe one round a year that’s not part of the championship.”

Despite the mixed opinions, the situation hasn’t changed for 2019 and Supercars will continue to race for points at what was a difficult race weekend last year.

As it does in Melbourne, the weather played a big part over the course of the weekend and results were mixed with four different winners from as many races.

The main story of the weekend was Scott Pye’s memorable inaugural win, which was also the first victory for the Walkinshaw Andretti United combine.

The result was made even more impressive by the conditions that mother nature conjured up, sheet rain

Nick Percat took third at Albert Park last year.

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX SCHEDULE FORMULA 1 – FRIDAY Practice 1: 12:00-13:30 Practice 2: 16:00-17:30

SATURDAY

Qualifying: 17:00-18:00

SUNDAY

Australian Grand Prix (58 laps): 16:10-18:10

Scott Pye won his first-ever Supercar race last year, in very difficult conditions at Albert Park.

SUPERCARS – THURSDAY Practice 1: 12:50-13:20 Practice 2: 15:00-15:30 Qualifying Race 1: 16:4016:50 Qualifying Race 2: 17:0017:10

FRIDAY

Qualifying Race 3: 13:5014:00 Qualifying Race 4: 14:1014:20 Race 1: 17:55-18:55

SATURDAY

Race 2: 12:50-13:20 Race 3: 18:30-19:30

SUNDAY

Race 4: 13:35-14:05

TICKETS – GENERAL ADMISSION

Four-day pass: From $185 Thursday: From $35 Friday: From $45 Saturday: From $85 Sunday: From $99

GRANDSTAND

Ricciardo: Four-day pass: From $225 Schumacher: Four-day pass: From $125 Senna: Four-day pass: From $129 Webber: Four-day pass: From $129 Waite: Four-day pass: From $125 Fangio: Four-day pass: From $169

TV TIMES

Jamie Whincup (above right) won the Larry Perkins Trophy at the Grand Prix last year, but will have to fight off Scott McLaughlin (right) and David Reynolds (above) among others, to retain it this year.

and near-darkness in stark comparison to what the drivers experienced earlier in the weekend.

Pye held off resident rain master Shane van Gisbergen in what was a classic finish with headlights blazing.

Up to that point, McLaughlin and Whincup had held their own private duel for the lead in Races 1 and 2, taking a win each.

Turning our attention to this year, the Mustang has made a strong start in Adelaide and is the second consecutive new model to appear in Supercars competition after the ZB Commodore last year.

Like Adelaide, the Australian Grand Prix provides a form guide to what to expect for the 2019 season, with teams and drivers still getting acclimatised to the technical, and for some, team changes.

Drivers will be racing for the Larry Perkins Trophy, an award that was inaugurated last

season to honour the former Formula 1 driver, Supercars team owner, driver and Bathurst winner.

Jamie Whincup is the defending trophy winner, beating out Reynolds and Nick Percat.

A crucial milestone will be reached during the Australian Grand Prix weekend in the history of Australian Touring Car Championship, the 1000th race.

The ATCC was first run in New South Wales at the Gnoo Blas circuit in Orange (NSW) as a single-race event on February 1 1960, and has since grown to incorporate 15-rounds covering each state in Australia and an event in New Zealand.

Will Whincup be handing over the Larry Perkins Trophy?

If he does, the prime candidate is reigning champion McLaughlin. He came close last year, but faltered in the poor conditions of

Race 3, though he wasn’t the only one.

Another major contender will be Shane van Gisbergen, especially if the weather gets bad.

Reynolds finished a close second last year and Brad Jones Racing continued its love affair with the lakeside course, by taking the final podium spot with Nick Percat. Final race winner Pye was another to have a strong weekend and with WAU’s current trajectory, he shouldn’t be discounted.

The same goes for the second Erebus Motorsport Commodore driven by Anton De Pasquale, who has continued his ascendency up the field this year, while Fabian Coulthard and the Tickford fleet have also shown improved form with the new Mustang.

The Australian Grand Prix round has always created drama and as the field becomes ever clkoser, the racing is likely to be more intense than ever.

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39

WHO’S HEADING WHERE? A new generation of Australian hopefuls are spread across the globe chasing international success. So where can you watch these overseas talents competing? HEATH McALPINE investigates.

INTERCONTINENTAL GT CHALLENGE: MATT CAMPBELL AND JOSH BURDON

TWO AUSTRALIAN young drivers will go head-to-head in the SRO’s Intercontinental GT Challenge, which kicked off at the Bathurst 12 Hour a month ago.

Matt Campbell made the perfect start to Porsche’s campaign by capturing victory on The Mountain in the old specification 911 GT3R’s swansong. Campbell will participate for the first-time in the IGTC, but is no stranger to endurance racing as he is completing his maiden campaign in the World Endurance Championship.

The calendar for the IGTC is spread across five races, each on a different continent. Starting off at Bathurst, the next race is the California 8 Hour at Laguna Seca, followed by the classic Spa 24 Hour, then to Japan for the Suzuka 10 Hour and finally the Kyalami 9 Hours in November.

Campbell will have an Aussie rival in the form of Asian-based ex-pat Josh Burdon who, as Auto Action revealed, is to contest the entire IGTC season as well as the Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Unlike Campbell, Burdon is less known, but his credentials include the 2016 Formula Renault Asia Series title, plenty of LMP3 sportscar wins in Asia and a part-program with the factory Ford team in the Chinese Touring Car Championship.

Burdon participates with the factoryaligned KCMG Nissan team, which at Bathurst showed it will be a contender for the overall IGTC title, although Burdon’s GT-R dropped out whilst in a leading position.

The next round of the IGTC is the California 8 Hours at Laguna Seca on March 30.

M Campbell celebrates his recent Bathurst Matt 12Hr victory (above), while Alex Peroni gets the 12 feel of Formula 3 (left). fe

T Toowoomba-local Shields can also rely on the backing of Indy 500 winner Will Po Power and his father Bob. T USF2000 Championship opens on The the streets of St Petersburg on March 8-10.

FIA FORMULA 3: ALEX PERONI

USF2000: HUNTER McELREA AND CAMERON SHIELDS

THE RECIPIENT of the Road to Indy Shootout and reigning Australian Formula Ford Series winner Hunter McElrea joins Pabst Racing for the 2019 USF2000 Series.

Although McElrea isn’t Australian (he is a Kiwi), he hails from the Gold Coast, so we’ll include him in this preview anyway.

McElrea showed impressive form over two tests conducted at Indianapolis and Homestead, topping the timesheets at the former.

Pabst Racing are a strong outfit having won the last two USF2000 titles, a record that McElrea is keen to continue.

“I am extremely happy to be joining a top Road to Indy team such as Pabst Racing,”

he said at the announcement. “I am really looking forward to putting the massive effort from the team and myself from the off season to use, and I will do my very best.”

McElrea is set to be joined by Formula Ford rival Cameron Shields, who carries a variety of experience including Formula 3 and Formula 4. Shields was another to be on the pace during the two test sessions, particularly at Homestead where he never left the top five.

The team with which Shields will be competing was formed by the late actor and IndyCar team owner Paul Newman, together with friend Eddie Wachs, Newman Wachs Racing. It recently re-entered open-wheel competition in 2018, but can lay claim in the past to supporting drivers such as JR Hildebrand and Supercars’ own Simona De Silvestro.

“Newman Wachs Racing is a very professional team, with a long history of results to back that up and I am full of confidence that together this season we can continue that trend of success with the ultimate goal of becoming the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 champions,” said an excited Shields.

Cameron Shields from Toowoomba (left) will take on Hunter McElrea from the Gold Coast in the USF2000 series.

40 AutoAction

IT W WAS a disappointing end to Alex Per Peroni’s Formula Renault Eurocup 2018 cam campaign, despite the highs of Monaco whe where he won (alongside Daniel Ricciardo’s Gra Grand Prix victory). In the end he failed to improve on his 2017 debut season.

The Tasmanian was left frustrated, but has found a new home in the newly rebranded FIA Formula 3 Championship, an amazing achievement considering the amount of competition for seats in this category.

“I’m very excited to be joining Campos Racing this season,” said Peroni.

“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.”

Campos, as Peroni stated, has won a number of titles, the last being the Euroformula Open Championship with Leonardo Pulcini in 2016.

It finished third in the overall GP3 points last season, with Pulcini taking two wins on the way to fourth in the title.

Peroni will make his racing debut in F3 machinery at Barcelona on May 11-12.

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP: OSCAR PIASTRI

IN WHAT will be only his third year of circuit racing, UK-based Oscar Piastri is in one of

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Oscar Piastri steps up to the Formula Renault Championship winning team this year (above), while Josh Car (right) will contest F4 in the U.S. Josh Burdon (below) continues with the KCMG Nissan team.

the most sought-after seats in the Eurocup field and heads into this season as one of the favourites for the title.

Piastri impressed in his maiden Formula Renault Cup season last year, finishing as lead Aussie, beating out the more experienced Alex Peroni and Tom Maxwell, whilst finishing eighth in the title with three podiums to his name.

That was with Arden, now the 17-year-old moves to the championship winning R-ace GP team, which is French-based and is a perennial front-runner in Eurocup. Last year, it scooped the teams’ prize with a number of rounds remaining and Brit Max Fewtrell the driver’s title.

Piastri will be a lone hand, the first time in a couple of seasons when there has been only one Australian competitor in the class. The class also goes through a change of chassis, which Piastri tasted at a shakedown day at a very wet Cremona.

“You can definitely tell the car is heavier,” Piastri told Auto Action after testing.

“It’s 100kg heavier than last year, so you can definitely feel that in the corners, you can definitely feel the power, it has 50hp more and a turbo.

“Initially, it’s been very good, it’s a physical car, very physical. I think it’s even harder than the GP3 car, or at least just as hard.”

US FORMULA 4: JOSH CAR

AUTO ACTION hasn’t previously reported on New South Welshman Josh Car and his race-winning form in the strongly contested US F4 Championship.

Though it doesn’t have the same limelight shone on it as the Road to Indy program, US F4 is growing quickly. The fields are strong and dense, plus

Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx Xxxx

through support f H d it is i becoming b i a popular l step t ladder l dd from Honda, for juniors to climb before heading to USF2000 or even Europe.

Car finished a strong fourth in the US F4 title last year with a pair of wins at Pittsburgh International Race Complex and podiums at Mid-Ohio, New Jersey Motorsports Park and at the Circuit of The Americas.

Car will continue in the series for 2019, but whether he continues with Crosslink Racing with Kiwi Motorsport is not known.

PORSCHE SUPERCUP: JAXON EVANS

ANOTHER TO win a scholarship was 2018 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia winner Jaxon Evans, becoming the second winner of the Porsche Junior Programme Shootout to come from Down Under.

As part of the prize Evans will participate in the 2019 Porsche Supercup, which supports the Formula 1 circus around the world.

It is also hoped that the Kiwi will participate in a number of German Carrera Cup races as well, as he is expected to race with the team that fielded Matt Campbell’s entry during his Supercup campaign, FACH Auto Tech.

A number of other Aussies haven’t announced their international plans as yet but keep an eye out for more news in future issues.

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RACE REPORT

Adelaide, Races 1 & 2

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NEW YEAR, NEW MODEL, SAME OLD STORY Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Dirk Klynsmith/Ross Gibb/ Insyde Media

infamous Turn 8. An all-nighter for the Erebus squad meant De Pasquale was out on track for the opening race, though the same couldn’t be said for debutant Macauley Jones, who had a frightening incident during final practice.

A braking issue approaching Turn 9 threw the Brad Jones Racing Commodore violently into the wall, the debutant’s car severely damaged, though he emerged unscathed.

The following Top 10 Shootout resulted in a DJR Team Penske Mustang on Pole, but it wasn’t the reigning champ. Rejuvenated with the arrival of the Mustang, Fabian Coulthard secured top spot alongside Jamie Whincup as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team showed no sign of its testing struggles.

Behind lurked McLaughlin.

RACE 1

ALL THE expectation, all the preparation, all the hard work, was it all worth it? As the large crowd and Ford teams in Adelaide witnessed, it was. Mustang was a success, though it was no surprise with DJR Team Penske being the development brains behind the coupe, giving Scott McLaughlin the perfect start to his title defence.

The hot Adelaide conditions made the Mustang’s debut a tough test, though it breezed through with bare-minimum issues.

However, the initial pacesetter on Thursday wasn’t a Mustang, instead it was impressive Erebus Motorsport youngster Anton De Pasquale.

By Friday it was a story of heroto-zero for De Pasquale as he became the latest victim at the

44 AutoAction

Reigning Champion Scott McLaughlin started his title defence perfectly.

Lee Holdsworth’s first outing with Tickford ended in the wall.

Will Davison was strong both days, finishing in the top 10.

“In the team’s haste, Mostert was released into the path of Kelly, spinning the Nissan and blocking pit lane.”

The 2019 Supercars Championship kicked off with a new look for the new season, with the new Ford Mustang to the fore, leaving the Commodores to do the chasing.

RACE 2

As the lights came on for the start, Coulthard made a blue and crept, Whincup nearly did the same thing, but McLaughlin made a textbook start and led through the chicane for the first time, while the RBHRT men jostled leading to van Gisbergen snatching second.

Coulthard was penalised 10s for the creep, which he dually took at his first pit stop and which dropped him out of contention.

Whincup was up to speed quickly and was pressuring van Gisbergen, almost colliding with his Kiwi teammate at Turn 9. A mistake on lap 5 from van Gisbergen allowed the seven-time champion through when he dropped a wheel onto the grass approaching the final hairpin, forcing him to run wide and spoiling his run onto the straight.

McLaughlin now had a healthy lead, which contrasted with how David Reynolds was going. Struggling on cold tyres, the larrikin was finding it difficult to hold position with first Chaz Mostert forcing a way through, then Scott Pye. Cam Waters was having a return to form after last year’s disappointing season. He qualified in the top 10 and was holding his own amongst the top five, but his cool suit

had frozen and stopped working, leaving him to work hard in the incredibly hot conditions. Tickford called its man in to try and rectify the issue with Waters less than impressed.

Whincup was the first of the leaders to stop on lap 20, then McLaughlin on lap 23, filling with 70 litres of fuel, but there was a new contender that emerged after the first pit stops, Mostert.

Mostert disposed of Coulthard and latched onto the rear of van Gisbergen as the Mustangs continued to demonstrate superior cold tyre pace compared to the Commodores. The Tickford machine was pacey, though, and was very stable over the bumps with Mostert becoming increasingly impatient.

Just as the battle was starting to heat up, Mostert’s new teammate Lee Holdsworth locked up at Turn 4 and hit the newly aligned tyre wall upon the exit. Tim Slade was oh so lucky not to gain heavier damage than just a few scraps as he brushed by, but Pye wasn’t as lucky and joined Holdsworth in the wall. The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver was vocal about the wall’s placement after retiting.

Mostert made his move at Turn 9, but Sunday’s race was delayed while tyre bundle repairs were made.

locked up, nearly collecting van Gisbergen and dropped behind Will Davison. Just like last year, 23Red were on the pace and the team made the strategy call to undercut, which forced Mostert and van Gisbergen to respond on lap 42 Mostert had again caught van Gisbergen and was continuing to arrow in on the RBHRT driver, but another costly mistake hurt Tickford’s leader, but this time at Turn 4. Impatience was his kryptonite as he dove down the inside and the Mustang failed to pull up and he ended down the escape road, emerging behind Davison.

Davison was holding his own and was starting to catch van Gisbergen, but he ran out of time.

Ahead, nothing had changed, McLaughlin cruised to a 12.9651s clear of Whincup, while van Gisbergen held off Davison for the final podium spot.

For Sunday, either the field had gained pace or RBHRT had lost it. Qualifying for Race 2 was not quite a disaster, but van Gisbergen and Whincup found themselves in uncustomary positions mid-pack.

Whincup had to view the Top 10 Shootout on TV in the pits, while the Kiwi just scraped in to be 10th.

Pit lane chaos on Sunday cost Chas Mostert and Rick Kelly dearly.

Mark Winterbottom finished ninth in the opening encounter, but failed to take part in qualifying after power steering issues afflicted the Team18 Commodore. A great drive was to follow from Holden’s newest recruit.

The 2016 champion made the most of it, qualifying second in a Top 10 that featured some different names. Anton De Pasquale recovered well from his Friday accident to make it, as did Nick Percat, and a breakthrough qualifying session for Todd Hazelwood meant the local made his maiden Top 10 Shootout appearance.

It was McLaughlin who continued his hot form to take Pole. Teammate Coulthard had set a time fast enough to be third, however the team struggled to get his car started and had to lift the bonnet to rectify a problem, which meant his lap was void as this was against the regulations.

Mostert was another to not have his lap counted after getting a kerb strike at the Senna Chicane, just the start of a disappointing day.

The race was then delayed by 20 minutes due to a repair to the Turn 1 tyre bundle meaning a time certain finish was on the cards.

Mark Winterbottom starred on his Holden debut, storming through the field on Sunday.

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45

RACE REPORT

Adelaide, Races 1 & 2

The title protagonists started the year the way they finished 2018, battling for the lead.

It was an equal start from both Kiwis from the front-row, but McLaughlin held on as chaos at the rear of the grid approaching Turn 4 sent Simona De Silvestro across the track and down the escape road.

Reynolds was again struggling on cold tyres, with Waters on his hammer. The Tickford Mustang Nick Percat (above) had good pace all weekend, scoring a pair of top 10 finishes in the BJR completed a pass at Turn 9 and ran Commodore. Cam Waters (below) starred both days, second on Sunday. the Erebus Commodore wide, which dropped Reynolds to seventh, ahead alongside the Kiwi, but the next lap and many drivers used this despite of Mostert. the Safety car was called and pit stops the crew still trying to pack up the Mostert made his intentions known ensued. equipment. James Courtney quite by nudging Reynolds, and eventually Percat and Reynolds were the only literally pushed Hazelwood through, forced a way through as did Coulthard, leaders not to pit as multiple teams while there were many other close who was recovering well and was fifth double-stacked, causing chaos. calls. by lap five.

Mostert was delayed significantly as Mostert and Kelly suffered damage as Holdsworth was showing pace in his Coulthard took service in the DJR the latter retired, and Mostert copped a new steed, but the brakes were still Team Penske pit, but a tyre was in drive through. proving troublesome and he again hit the Tickford driver’s way, resulting in Percat and Reynolds led, but the wall at Turn 4. That incident wasn’t the crew manoeuvring the Mustang McLaughlin had the race under to cause the first Safety Car, though, around. control, while Waters was also coming Jack Le Brocq was after he had fuel In the team’s haste, Mostert was into play, putting the disappointment of issues and stopped on track. released into the path of Rick Kelly, Saturday behind him.

This was the point of the day when it with the Nissan spinning the Mustang Coulthard’s day failed to improve, turned sour for Mostert. around, blocking pit road and causing first a wheel nut issue delayed him He was the biggest challenge to van a dangerous situation. The only clear in the pits, then he was penalised for Gisbergen’s second place after both path was through the RBHRT pit boom spinning rookie Garry Jacobson into had pitted, the wall. p , Mostert emerged g McLaughlin had concerns in the form of the Tickford Mustang of Waters as he unsuccessfully challenged on a number of occasions. Another reason for concern was van Gisbergen, who was pitting late and in clear air. Not only that, but he had new tyres to bolt on for the last stint.

Emerging in third, 6s behind McLaughlin, van Gisbergen had some work to do, but reeled off personal best after personal best to be right on the rear of Waters with 10 laps to go.

However, he was unable to do anything about it after making a mistake on the final lap at Turn 8.

Although the margin was closer, it was another success for McLaughlin, but that wasn’t drive of the day. That award went to Winterbottom as he climbed 18 positions to finish sixth and ahead of rival Whincup.

46 AAutoAction utoAction

RACE RESULTS RACE 1 78 LAPS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 NC DNS

Scott McLaughlin Jamie Whincup Shane van Gisbergen Will Davison Chaz Mostert Fabian Coulthard Nick Percat David Reynolds Mark Winterbottom James Courtney Rick Kelly Todd Hazelwood Andre Heimgartner James Golding Simona De Silvestro Anton De Pasquale Tim Slade Richie Stanaway Garry Jacobson Jack Le Brocq Lee Holdsworth Cameron Waters Scott Pye Macauley Jones

78 laps +12.965s +13.954s +14.943s +17.571s +22.290s +33.279s +33.772s +49.366s +55.970s +63.340s +64.308s +65.846s +70.583s +80.110s 1 lap +39.539s 77 laps 77 laps 77 laps 77 laps 71 laps 64 laps

FASTEST LAP

▲2 0 ▲2 ▲3 ▲ ▼6 ▲1 ▼2 ▼7 0 ▼3 ▲9 0 ▲5 ▲7 ▲8 ▼6 0 ▲1 ▲2 ▼7 ▼1 ▼8

Chaz Mostert 1m 21.0525s

RACE RESULTS RACE 2 71 LAPS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Scott McLaughlin Cameron Waters Shane van Gisbergen Tim Slade Nick Percat Mark Winterbottom Jamie Whincup Will Davison David Reynolds Todd Hazelwood Lee Holdsworth James Courtney Andre Heimgartner Anton De Pasquale Chaz Mostert Simona De Silvestro Scott Pye Richie Stanaway James Golding Fabian Coulthard Jack Le Brocq Garry Jacobson Macauley Jones Rick Kelly

FASTEST LAP

71 laps +2.385s +2.940s +18.398s +18.955s +24.939s +25.420s +27.570s +31.502s +32.048s +32.475s +37.297s +39.589s +41.216s +46.431s +47.315s +51.088s +52.056s +58.571s +62.864s 68 laps 67 laps 57 laps 55 laps

0 ▲2 ▼1 ▼7 ▲2 ▲ 18 ▲5 ▼3 ▼6 ▼3 ▲3 ▲3 ▲4 ▼7 ▼6 ▲4 ▼4 ▲1 ▼1 ▼ 10 ▲1 ▲1 ▼2 ▼8

Scott McLaughlin 1m 19.4625s

POINTS: McLaughlin 300, van Gisbergen 258, Whincup 234, Davison 210, Percat 207, Winterbottom 186, Waters 177, Reynolds 174, Slade 174, Mostert 171, Coulthard 147, Courtney 147, Hazelwood 147, Heimgartner 132, De Pasquale 120, De Silvestro 117, Holdsworth 114, Golding 111, Kelly 105, Stanaway 102, Jacobson 87, Le Brocq 87, Pye 54, Jones 36

2018 Dunlop Super2 Series Adelaide: Round 1

FULLWOOD MAKES WINNING RETURN RETURNING TO the Matt White Motorsport fold has helped 20-year-old Bryce Fullwood to his first two Dunlop Super 2 race wins and his first round of the new season.

Stopping a clean sweep and finishing second for the weekend was Brodie Kostecki in a Kostecki Brothers Racing Holden Commodore VF, while third overall was Fullwood’s new team mate Zane Goddard.

Both Nissan pilots felt they would have the cars to win in Adelaide. “We couldn’t believe how quick the cars were after we tested at Winton,” said Fullwood.

Meanwhile Kostecki conceded: “We really lacked the speed to go with Bryce and struggled all weekend with front end turn.”

The Nissan squad would be down one car for the opening race at least, with last year’s V8 Touring Car Series winner Tyler Everingham finding the hard way what can go wrong at Turn 8.

The heat and the Adelaide streets continued to take their toll on the Dunlop Super 2 field in their first of three races. As the numbers dwindled, Fullwood dominated from the outset to head a MWM team one-two over Goddard.

“The Nissan has been a super forgiving car all weekend. Any little mistake was quite easily gathered back up,” said Goddard.

“The best thing has been its driveability.”

Polesitter Mason Barbera (Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore VF) finished third just in front of Kostecki, who started 15th.

Incidents came thick and fast. Thomas Randle (Tickford Ford Falcon FG/X) was hit

by Kurt Kostecki (Triple 8 VF) near Turn 4 on the opening lap and was out. Kostecki then had contact with the wall at Turn 8, which necessitated the safety car.

There was also a clash between Matt Chahda (FG/X) and Brenton Grove (T8 VF), but both were able to continue.

Not long after that, Will Brown (Eggleston Motorsport VF) crashed out of Turn 6, bringing out a second safety car. The team had already lost one car with a very sick Dean Fiore – but not because of that. His drama was a flat battery.

Image Racing’s Jordan Boys (VF) pitted with an electrical issue, later rejoining but not completing enough laps to be classified a finisher.

Jake Kostecki (KBR VF) crossed the line fifth ahead of Ash Walsh (Matt Stone Racing VF), Adam Marjoram (Image VF), Jack Smith (Brad Jones Racing VF), Dylan O’Keefe (GRM VF), Grove, Justin Ruggier (EM VF), Joel Heinrich (MSR FG/X), Chahda and Abbie Eaton (MSR VF).

Bryce Fullwood made a successful return to MWM and leads the Championship (above). Brodie Kostecki (left) was his only real challenger.

The second race was not an incident-filled repeat, rather a race in two parts where Fullwood looked likely to dominate before Brodie Kostecki took the win.

Fullwood struck out to a handy margin from the outset, while Kostecki quickly jumped from fourth to second and remained there until taking the lead on lap 15, just four from the finish.

Third went to Goddard clear of Barbera and Walsh. Sixth was a tight result between Marjoram, Jake Kostecki and Dylan O’Keefe (GRM VF).

Atoning for being chased down and passed in race two, Fullwood took out the Photos: Dirk Klynsmith

Zane Goddard also switched to MWM and reaped the rewards with third overall.

third and final race. He went straight to the lead from the start, while Brodie Kostecki chased in vain and finished 3.4 seconds in arrears.

“The first race was absolutely littered with safety cars and we got 13 racing laps. It is really hard to guess what is going to happen and if it (race two) is going to be a short race you have to set the car up differently,” said Fullwood.

“Race two went 19 green laps and we didn’t have the car setup for that, so we knew what we had to change and that was all we needed to do.”

Third again was Goddard while Randle forged his way from ninth to fourth. Brown followed him through from 10th to fifth. Walsh was fourth through the opening two laps, but dropped out of calculations due to a pitlane penalty for working on the car on the grid before the start.

Following were Jake Kostecki, Barbera and Fiore in their Commodores. Kurt Kostecki finished ninth as he and Triple 8 Commodore team mate Grove started rear of grid, due to park ferme penalties for using cooling fans after the previous race.

GARRY O’BRIEN

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Carrera Cup Adelaide Round 1

NICK TOO QUICK IN PORSCHES NICK MCBRIDE carried on from the form he displayed at the final round last year with a perfect race weekend, taking out all three races of the PAYCE Porsche Carrera Cup opening round in Adelaide.

“We’ve been fast all weekend from practice; I felt really comfortable in the car and it showed in the results,” said McBride.

On each occasion he beat the 2017 title winner David Wall, while Dale Wood was third across the line. Warren Luff placed fourth for the round ahead of Jordan Love.

In the TAG Heuer Pro-Am contest it was Anthony Gilbertson with two wins to Liam Talbot’s one, giving him the round where Stephen Grove picked up third.

“I grew up just down the road and I used to come here for Formula 1 all the time,” said Gilbertson, who now resides in Queensland.

“I still call this place home, so to get a round win here I can’t imagine topping that apart from winning the Pro-Am championship,” said Gilbertson.

It didn’t take long for Adelaide’s infamous Turn 8 to claim its first victims. In the first session Dave Stevens crashed heavily in front of Steve Richards, leaving him nowhere to go, and then Duvashen Padayachee became part of the crash as well.

Both the Stevens and Richards cars are out for the rest of the meeting, with Stevens taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

Michael Almond was the fastest ahead of McBride, Wood, Love and Luff.

Almond and McBride (in reverse order) were the pacesetters in the second practice session – a much tamer affair – until Luff went quicker and was the fastest overall on the opening day.

Behind McBride and Almond were

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Adrian Flack becomes another victim of Adelaide’s notorious Turn 8 during qualifying.

Wall and Wood, who survived a highspeed spin at Turn 7 without damage.

Gilbertson was the best of the Pro-Am drivers and eighth outright. Right at the end of the second session, Indiran Padayachee spun in the Senna Chicane and bounced off the tyre barrier.

Benefitting from a better start where he took the lead immediately, McBride won the opening race, fending off fastest qualifier and poleman Wall for the duration. Wood who started sixth, came through for third ahead of Luff, Cooper Murray, Love and Hill.

Behind eighth placed Josh Hunt was the first of the Pro-Am drivers in Gilbertson ahead of Thomas Maxwell.

Michael Almond was running third in the early stages but suffered a loss of coolant and engine power before calling it quits. Tim Miles, one of the leading Pro-Am runners, caused the only safety car period when he bunkered at Turn 11.

The race was down another car with Gilbertson was a Pro-Am front runner all weekend, winning the class. Images: Insyde Media.

Adrian Flack a non-starter after he crashed at Turn 8 during qualifying.

Continuing his great start to the season, McBride won race two. He out-pointed front row rival Wall through the first corner and held him off for the duration of the 10-lap race.

Third went to Dale Wood ahead of Luff, Love, Hunt, Hill and Thomas Maxwell. Murray bogged down in his starting position of fifth, dropped to 11th before fighting back to ninth. He was

also delayed as result of a clash that put Max Twigg out of the race.

Finishing in 10th was Almond, who started at the rear of the grid, nabbing Pro-Am winner Anthony Gilbertson late in the race. Talbot in 12th, was second in class with Sam Shahin third.

With a slightly better start, it looked like Wall would snaffle the lead in the third race. But it wasn’t to be as McBride assumed the ascendancy into Turn 1 and was never headed.

Wall maintained second throughout as the two skipped away from a four-way battle for third, where Wood managed to hold off Love, Luff and Almond. The latter started 10th and had to work his way past four cars to join the dice.

The next four also fought hard for much of the race with Hill eventually getting clear of Hunt, Murray and Maxwell. Hunt would be relegated to 12th with a post-race penalty and split the top two in Pro-Am, Talbot and Gilbertson.

Shahin was a likely prospect for an overall third in Pro-Am until a touch with Gilbertson at Turn 4 on the second lap speared him down the escape road.

Garry O’Brien

TCM Adelaide Round 1

JOHNSON’S PERFECT TCM START TRY AS they might nobody was able to unseat Steve Johnson from taking all three races in the opening round of the Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters in Adelaide on the weekend.

Behind the dominant Ford Mustang driver, Chev Camaro racers Ryal Harris and Adam Bressington fought over second while John Bowe, the series’ most prolific winner, fared badly on the street circuit.

Johnson qualified fastest for the 14th time in oppressive heat, 0.6s to the better of category debutant Harris in Ian Woodward’s Camaro and Bowe’s re-livered Holden Torana A9X. Al Boughen (Mercury Comet) missed the qualifier with suspension dramas, so too Cameron Mason (Mustang) with brake issues. Leo Tobin (Mustang) ended his qualifier with an Turn 8 accident which was repairable for the races ahead.

Auto Action’s Bruce Williams won the Dometic Trophy race which featured a jumbled grid and only scored points for starting and finishing. Williams led throughout in what was a top four result for the Torana drivers

Steve Johnson (top) was dominant in TCM all weekend, while Bruce Williams (above) scored a dominant win in the Dometic Trophy race. Adam Bressington (above right) was also a front runner all weekend as usual. Images: Insyde Media. with Jim Pollicina second ahead of Bowe and Gray.

Aaron McGill miraculously salvaged what could have been a monumental crash at Turn 8 in his Ford Falcon XW GT, with only light damage.

While Johnson continued his winning form with a start to finish victory, Bressington was second and Bowe third. Harris was third initially but lost that spot when he clipped a tyre barrier.

He ultimately finished seventh behind Jason Gomersall (A9X Hatchback), Pollicina and Rob Hackwood (Pontiac Trans Am).

The race had one safety

car, when Fisher crashed his Falcon XY GT heavily at Turn 8.

Harris just held off Freestone while Williams won his dice with McGill and Bernie Stack (Camaro).

Johnson repeated the dose in race two, with a narrow advantage over Bressington and an enormous gap to third.

Coming through, Harris fought off a challenge from Pollicina to take third. Meanwhile there was a duel going on for fifth between Freestone, Williams and Gomersall.

Freestone bounced across the Senna Chicane on lap

nine and then clashed with Williams entering Turn 5, allowed Gomersall to sail past both. With a damaged car Freestone was involved in another incident with Stack that relegated both the back of the field.

Williams finished sixth ahead of Markus Zukanovic (Ford Falcon XD) and the team Toranas of Jeremy Gray and Ryan Hansford, with Hackwood recovering for 10th after early contact with Harris. Bowe was out on the opening lap with an engine only operating on six cylinders.

Johnson took out race three

ahead of Harris and Bressington, who was second off the start.

Harris made a brilliant lift-off from fifth and went to third before passing Bressington at Turn 14.

Pollicina was a solid fourth as Bowe, with a fresh engine shipped in overnight, forged his way from the back to take fifth ahead of Gomersall, Williams and Gray. Just behind them in ninth was Cameron Tilley in his Valiant Pacer.

Pro Master honours went with Johnson, Pro Am to Pollicina and Pro Sports to debutant Gray.

Garry O’Brien

AutoAction

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Supports Adelaide

DOUBLE DUTIES, NO WORRIES DESPITE DOUBLING up with a Super 2 program in Adelaide, Justin Ruggier won the opening round of the Aussie Racing Car Championship Series with three wins and a second.

In each the Mustang racer battled with Kel Treseder (Camaro) who won Race 3 and finished second overall, while Ruggier’s team mate Blake Sciberras overcame a character-building start to finish third.

Ruggier took the win in an incidentfilled opener when fastest qualifier and race leader Craig Woods (Mustang) was turned around at Turn 9, in an incident that involved Treseder and Ruggier. Woods recovered for third with a 15s margin over Leigh Bowler (Camaro).

Next was Craig Thompson (Mustang) who was also in the wars, dicing with Reece Chapman which seen the latter’s Camaro off at Turn 11. Sciberras had to start from pit lane due to electrical gremlins that limited his qualifying and surged to fifth.

Warding off the early challenge from Treseder and a later one from Sciberras, Ruggier also won the second race. Woods languished in fourth off the start, passed Bowler for third early, and then crashed at

Justin Ruggier took three wins and a second for the round victory (above) while further back the action was fraught as usual (left). Images: Insyde Media.

Turn 8. Just down the road, David Makin (Camaro) crashed at Turn 9.

After a safety car period, Sciberras passed Treseder at Turn 1, and held him off for second. Fourth went to Bowler ahead of Josh Anderson (Camaro), who got away with an altercation with Pawel Faber (Euro GT) on the opening lap.

Race three was the traditional shuffled

grid with the top 10 from race two reversed.

Treseder started from eighth and together with Ruggier from 10th, wasted little time in forging through to finish first and second.

There was just 0.4s between them at the flag while Sciberras was third in front of Anderson and Chapman. Finishing sixth was Tony Quinn (Mustang) who briefly sampled the lead after starting fourth.

He came home ahead of Kody Garland (Altima) starting from 12th.

Ruggier was steadfast in holding off Treseder through the fourth race. Right behind them and battling a car that was jumping out of gear was Sciberras. Bowler held down fourth until relegated to fifth by Anderson. Jeff Watters (Altima) was sixth before his Altima ground to a halt on lap six.

That elevated Bloxsom and he was passed on the last lap by Adam Clark (Camaro). Finishing ninth and 10th were brothers and Mustang team mates Grant and Craig Thompson, while Adam Casuccio (Aurion) was 10th.

Garry O’Brien

SUPER ROLLS IN SUPERUTES

AUSSIES TAKE AUDI RACES FOR THE second consecutive year, the Asian-based Audi R8 LMS Cup opened in Adelaide and two Aussie guests shared the spoils, as Tony Bates won Round 1 and Geoff Emery won an eventful Round 2.

Andrew Haryanto made a scorching start in Round 1 to draw alongside Thai driver Bhurit Bhirombhakdi and Bates, to make it three-wide into Turn 1. Haryanto was forced to cut across the Senna Chicane and in doing so he tripped over the kerb. He rejoined the track sideways, making heavy contact with Bhirombhakdi leading both to retire.

Bates slowly increased his lead margin over fellow Australian Yasser Shahin. With a handful of laps remaining Bates made a mistake just as Shahin set the fastest lap, with the margin between the duo cut from 4.4s to 1.7s, but a gearbox issue for Shahin meant his challenge ended.

Behind, Daniel Bilski held third before a mistake while lapping a back-marker allowed Emery through for third. Bates took the win, while Shahin limped over the line

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beating Emery by just 0.5s.

For Round 2 Emery took Pole, but it was Bhirombhakdi and Alex Au who swept through into first and second and at Turn 4 Au completed a move around the outside to take the lead.

On Lap 7 Bhirombhakdi started to put pressure back on Au, forcing him to defend at Turn 6, this created a gap at Turn 7. The two made contact, Au ran wide allowing Bhirombhakdi through and costing him momentum onto the back straight, allowing Emery to make a great run and overtake Au at Turn 9.

Bhirombhakdi pulled out a little gap in the final five laps, but Emery started to chip away. On the penultimate lap, Bhirombhakdi succumbed to the pressure, ending his race in the tyres at Turn 14.

Emery defeated Au by 0.39s at the line, with Shahin third.

“It was awesome, that was a gift, obviously the pressure I applied to him throughout the race got to him by the end,” Emery said post-race.

Dan McCarthy

THE FIRST round of the SuperUtes was claimed by Ryal Harris, who won two of the weekend’s three crash filled races.

Race 1 was a reverse grid. The 13-ute field headed into the chicane spread out five-wide, but all emerged unscathed. At Turn 5 Chris Formosa was forced into the tyre barrier, which sent his Ford Ranger into the air and crashing back down onto the tray of Harris’ ute. Dean Canto’s Holden Colorado also suffered damage to the roof and bonnet, before being hit by Ben Falk.

Luke Vanna overtook Adam Dodd at Turn 9 to win the race as the Safety Car was required, but the race wasn’t to be restarted.

Race 2 started with front-row pair Harris and Tom Alexander running side-by-side through the first four corners, with Harris eventually taking the lead.

Craig Dontas and Ben Walsh tangled as both hit the wall on the outside of Turn 6, subsequently Craig Woods took avoiding action but too much kerb on the inside of

Turn 7 caused him to understeer into the tyre wall, which tipped the Toyota Hilux onto its side.

Vanna ended up in the tyres and was hit

by Adam Dodd, who was rear-ended by Dean Canto. The race returned to green for a two lap sprint which saw Harris hold on from Alexander.

In the third race Alexander was able to pass Harris at the Senna Chicane, but at the final bend Alexander ran wide, which allowed both Harris and Elliot Barbour through.

On lap 4 Alexander made a move to take second position off Barbour, getting a great run out of Turn 8 and firing up the inside into Turn 9.

Alexander chipped away at the gap Harris had created, and on the final lap had closed the gap but not enough to make a move on Harris.

“Everyone has lifted this year and I think they’ll give us a run for our money it’s going to be good,” Harris said looking to the year ahead.

Dan McCarthy

NASCAR

PENSKE MUSTANGS DOMINATE NASCAR JOEY LOGANO led home a closely fought Penske 1-2 finish at the Las Vegas 400. It was Logano’s first win of the season and Penske’s second in two weeks, after Brad Keselowski scoed the first win for Mustang in the Cup Series.

Kevin Harvick dominated the early stages of the race leading almost all of the first 80 laps. He took the first stage by well over 4s ahead of Kyle Busch and Logano.

At the end of the first stage a round of pit stops were completed with Harvick falling to third, behind Keselowski and Kyle Busch.

In the eight laps after the caution Logano was able to work his way up from fourth to first. On lap 113 Kyle Busch got around Logano for the lead, before the defending champion fought back at Turn 4. Before the green flag pit stops started, Kyle Busch was able to make the move stick to retake the lead.

During the round of stops Kyle Busch was caught speeding in pit lane and had to serve a drive through penalty, dropping him to 24th and down a lap. This allowed Logano to take the second stage ahead of Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. After Stage 2 Kurt Busch elected not to pit, this put him first on the restart ahead of Logano and Harvick. Harvick had good pace on the laps after the restart and this enabled him to take both Logano and Kurt Busch for the lead of the race. Twenty five laps after the restart Logano finally made the move on Kurt Busch for second.

With 60 laps to go Harvick led Logano, Keselowski had made his way up to third, Kurt Busch sat fourth, while Kyle Busch recovered well from the drive through penalty to be fifth.

As the final stops began Logano managed to retake the lead from

Harvick, who lost a further position to Keselowski in the pits.

With 27 laps to go Keselowski got through on Logano but four laps later Logano got back through, this allowing Harvick and Kyle Busch to close the gap.

With three laps to go Kyle Busch was able to get through on Harvick for third position.

On the final lap Keselowski made a move up the inside of Logano but the latter got a better run out the turn and held on to take the victory.

Keselowski finished second ahead of Kyle Busch, Harvick and Kurt Busch.

The previous weekend in Atlanta, Keselowski battled flu, his teammate Logano and Martin Truex Jr to take Penske’s 60th NASCAR win across Cup and Xfinity classes.

Joey Logano celebrates Penske’s second win in two weeks (top), at Las Vegas just holding off teammate Brad Kseselowski (below) who scored the Mustang’s first NASCAR win in Atlanta. Kyle Busch (above) was third at Las Vegas.

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s w e n Y A W SPEED Image: Geoff Rounds ONCE AGAIN Shaun Walsh made the annual Trevor Podger Memorial for Super Rods at Simpson Speedway in Victoria all his own. Walsh led all the way in the 25-lap feature from the front row, to win the event for the seventh time from Troy Gleeson, Ewan McKenzie, Jamie May and Neville Gange. From the front row Walsh also broke a 19-year-old, 25-lap track record. The 40-year-old heaped praise on his small but dedicated team. “The Trevor Podger Memorial is considered the biggest event on the Super Rods calendar and it carries a lot of prestige. To have been so successful in it over the years is a real honour,” Walsh said.

LINES WINS SECOND WSS TITLE

FORMER NATIONAL champion Rhys Heinrich added to his racing resume, winning the NSW Street Stock championship at Broken Hill Speedway. It was his first state title victory, and from the front he led all but two of the 30 laps to win from Jayden Edwards and Jason Duell.

JUSTIN PAULL won his third straight Curren Memorial for Compact Speedcars at Rosedale Speedway, from Butch Hutchinson and Jack Day. Across in Kalgoorlie in the third round of the JSRA Country Super Series the winners were Tilly Leonard and Bryden Southwell.

Image: Rock Solid Productions

TRAVIS FLORRIMELL has warmed up nicely for next month’s Grand Prix Midgets national championship, with victory in the inaugural Wally Anskaitis Cup at Avalon Raceway. He proved too good, winning from Shawn Ward and Chris Fowler. Wally’s son Tyson Anskaitis was on hand to present the trophies to the drivers, which also doubled as the fifth round of the Masters Series. For the past 27 years the GP Midgets have raced at Avalon Raceway for the Jason Glyn Memorial, but club members decided to re-name the race after Anskaitis, who sadly passed away in 2016.

PAUL DOMBURG grabbed one of the Victorian majors for Standard Saloons, the 25-lap Chivers Memorial at Redline Raceway, Ballarat, from Scott Whittle and Chris Carvill. “This is always a good strong field of front runners and to beat Scott here is a thrill with the Victorian title only a few weeks away. It has taken us a little while to get the car on track, however it looks like we have a good one,” Domburg said.

STAN MARCO has won the coveted Victorian championship in the SDAV Rods at Bairnsdale Speedway from Dean West, Russell Hovey, Kali Hovey and Phil Jenkins.

Image: Geoff Rounds

ONE OF America’s best Micro drivers Jake Hagopian will return to Australia in late April to contest the Ken Willsher Classic at Laang Speedway. On top of his 2011-12 Formula 500 Speedweek success here, he’s won America’s biggest events and is keen to return.

“I’ve been longing to get back to Australia and race, but with kids and a business making life hectic it hasn’t been possible until this opportunity came up,” he said.

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Images: Richard Hathaway

STEVEN LINES breathed a sigh of relief after adding a second QSS World Series Sprintcars Championship to his career tally with a tight victory in the 2018-19 tournament.

Lines, the WSS 2013-14 champion, proved too good with victory in the final round at the Perth Motorplex to clinch the overall series by 36 points from Kerry Madsen and James McFadden.

“I’m glad that’s over. Coming in with just seven points at the start of the night, we just had to keep it together and not get too worried, but now I just couldn’t be happier. To win this for (car owners) Dave and Lorraine Horrell and for (crew chief) Dave Sharman is brilliant, and I’m just so pleased to be able to do it for them,” Lines said.

During the 10 round tournament Lines grabbed three wins and made every A Main. His team made the decision to pursue all of the series despite being ineligible for any championship prizemoney, as they were not contracted to race in the tournament.

The final race had Madsen off pole and he tried everything to make gains on fellow front row starter Lines, who won the eighth round at Albany.

In the season-ending final Madsen came close on multiple occasions and made a late lunge on the final turn, to just fall short by .728 of a second. A further 1.3 seconds back was the brilliant Jason Kendrick, who roared home from starting position 22 to third.

In the end there could only be one winner and it was Lines in his Cool, despite Madsen’s spirited challenge.

“It was all on the line, we had a plan to get after it early and it paid off for us,” Lines said.

“We committed to the top (line) to try and keep our pace up. It could have backfired on us, but we were lucky enough to stay out front. I knew we didn’t have many options, Kerry was right there.”

Madsen has had a very successful career in Sprintcars, but a World

Series Sprintcars title is one honour that still eludes him.

“Whoever won was going to be over the moon, whoever lost would have disappointment,” Madsen said.

“We pushed hard all the way. I don’t think we could have driven any harder than the last 14-lap stretch. I was hoping we could get to lapped traffic and Steve might get some bad air.”

McFadden, the round nine WSS winner, also came within striking distance of Lines on numerous occasions until lap 19 when the leader passed two back-markers with a huge slide-job into turn four, forcing them to brake. McFadden was left with nowhere to go. The four-time WSS champion clouted the turn four wall hard, sending the Monte Motorsport #W17 skyward and into a bone-jarring landing, which ended his campaign.

Final WSS Standings: Lines 2902, Madsen 2866, McFadden 2538, Hickman 2124, Wormall 1927, Lee 1919, O’Keeffe 1841, McHugh 1641, Veal 1639, Pryde 1575, Tatnell 1528, Keller 1476, etc.

ROSS RULES WINGLESS CHAMPIONSHIP THIRD GENERATION racer Alex Ross proved unstoppable, using a home track advantage to win the 2018-19 Australian Wingless Sprint Championship at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway.

The 21-year-old builder, in just his second season of the division, finished top of the record 108 entries in the 11th running of the title, recording a flag-toflag victory. His crushing win saw him become the first Victorian to clinch the title since Brett Milburn at the same venue in 2013.

Driving for Warrnambool dairy farmers Mick and Nicole Uebergang, Ross defeated perennial runner-up Luke Weel and a hard-charging Dayn Bentvelzen.

“Unbelievable, I’m not sure what I

should be feeling or saying right now.

This really is a dream come true,” an emotional Ross told Auto Action.

“I had confidence coming into this race and I’m feeling really good about all this. I never thought I’d be standing here in just my second year in the class. This won’t ever get old.”

Fighting back tears, Ross paid tribute to his grandfather Bob Ross and the foundation the family built its Speedway racing on.

“My Pa was a founding member of Darlington Speedway and that’s where I guess all this started for our family, a long time ago. I’d like to think he’d be pretty happy with this as much as I am.”

Ross’, whose previous best result was

Image: Geoff Rounds

a second in last year’s Victorian title, qualified in position two on the outside of Weel, who has now qualified on pole position for three of the last four national titles but has not been able to win the coveted A1.

“I’ll just keep trying. Something that I’ve not been able to tick off is a national or a state title. It’s just one of those things.

Tonight we were thereabouts but just not good enough,” Weel said.

Images: The Art of Speedway

STUBBER SPEEDS UP WHEN MOST people hit 60 years of age they look to slow down but that’s certainly not the case for Paul Stubber.

HE IS a lifelong devotee of anything fast and that’s not changing anytime soon, particularly now Paul Stubber has won his first major Speedway title.

Stubber, a motor-racing veteran, made the very long trek from his Bunbury base in South Western Australia, to Parramatta in Sydney to win a somewhat interesting Australian Late Model Championship at Valvoline Raceway.

This most recent victory was years in the making and Stubber rates it high in his motorsport career, which was achieved despite carrying severe illness into the title weekend.

“It’s certainly my biggest win in Speedway,” Stubber told Auto Action.

“Our goal was to win a national Speedway championship in five years. This is my fourth year in the Late Models, so I’m very pleased with this win.”

Stubber, who won the 2004 and 2006 Group N Historic Touring Cars titles, has now become the first man to win a national crown on both asphalt and dirt.

Stubber started the 40-lap feature from sixth and quickly found his way inside the top five. He said he felt like he received a hit from behind but the officials later reviewed the footage and judged that he was the cause of the incident on lap four.

“I was a little disappointed, I suppose, getting put to the rear, because I did not drill Jeff Roth,” Stubber said.

“A series of savage bumps early in the race saw Jeff and I tangle fenders and bumpers

and that was on lap three. It’s one where I had to take my medicine off the stewards and I had to re-focus and just think I can only go forward.”

Stubber was fortunate that the race was littered with cautions early on.

The early pacesetters included Joe Lodge Jnr, American Joe Godsey, Cameron Pearson and Sprintcar ace Robbie Farr, who drove through the B-Main field to win to lock himself into the championship finale where he started 21st and with 13 to run, found himself near the front.

History was on the line for Farr, looking to become the first person to win four national speedway titles in four different divisions. He was pulling away from the field on the restart, but with six laps to go, slowed with a flat right rear tyre.

“I’ve been doing this long enough to know what this sport can give you both ways.

It would have been nice to make history but I wasn’t expecting that coming into the weekend.” Farr said.

Throughout all the drama, Stubber took control with five laps to go and never looked back, claiming his first Australian Late Model Title.

“I set out with a goal. When we started racing these things we said, ‘We’ll give it a good swing for five years.’ Our goal was to back up our national titles on asphalt with a national title on the dirt, and I’m absolutely rapt.”

Victoria’s Pearson started from pole but drifted back through the field in the early

stages before recovering to finish in second, with West Australian Jay Cardy completing the podium in third after starting 13th.

For Stubber a new trophy adorns his full mantle. It’s a long way from his first racing car, an EH Holden he campaigned in 1989 and just three years later had his first race at Mt Panorama, Bathurst.

“I’ve done some wonderful asphalt racing over the years, racing at magnificent Formula 1 tracks through Europe — but at some point in time it is just asphalt,” Stubber said.

“After doing it for 20-odd years I really was looking for something different. I had a go back on the dirt and now it is my primary objective to get as good as we can in as short a period of time.”

Stubber does have speedway history, having formerly raced Sprintcars and Super Sedans.

He laughed when suggested that he was quick around the oval, but accident- prone.

“The way I describe my Sprintcar racing was all balls and no brains,” he said.

“I did discover how to flip them from one end of the straight to the other. I was fast but crashed often.”

Acknowledging that he is on the wrong side of 50 to be racing Sprintcars, Stubber said the Late Models looked an exciting alternative.

“I think it was the quality of the cars that attracted me more than anything, they are a great car to race on dirt with the engineering in the steering and suspension,” he said.

HICKMAN RECOGNISED BENDIGO-BASED Hickman Motorsport’s debut season has been recognised in the 2018-19 World Series Sprintcars awards.

An overall fourth placed finish behind more established teams and drivers was seen as a fitting result for 19-year-old driver Rusty Hickman, who delivered an unforgettable win at Brisbane’s Australian Sprintcar Open preliminary A-Main in early January, leading home world champion Donny Schatz.

His peers voted Hickman’s father Darren as the winner of the prestigious Crew Chief of the Year and they tied with Krikke

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good quality driver. driver “They reward a good-quality When I was introduced to Late Models I was impressed.

“They’re a very responsive car to drive and it is probably the most exciting car I have raced on dirt. I like the way we can move them around on the track. I think the Late Models will take over in the next couple of years. In the last decade they have gained momentum.

“Sprintcars can get stuck in a preferred piece of track and follow each other nose-totail; in Late Model races there is a lot more track to work on. We can see ourselves three or four-wide regularly.”

To help build his experience, Stubber brought out American Hall of Fame driver Billy Moyer Jnr to WA for the Late Model Nationals in January to do some racing.

“We’ve raced with Billy in the USA, he is a very well-credentialed racer and he provided us with some more thoughts and understanding on getting around the track.”

Road racing and Speedway will fill the remainder of 2019 for Stubber, who will shortly fly to his Indiana base for an extensive American campaign.

“I’m off to the USA for 40 races from midMay until mid-September. I’d love to win a feature race over there. Something like the World 100 or the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora would be nice to win.”

Image: Geoff Rounds

Motorsport for Best Presented Team.

First-time Race Director for WSS Ian Cartlidge presented 47-year-old Kerry Madsen with Rookie of the Year honours and the superstar driver also took home awards for recording the most Quick Times, highest Top 8 Shootout wins and was runner-up in the series.

The Hard Charger award was won by Gold Coast’s Lockie McHugh, the Driver’s Driver by James McFadden, Speedway Australia Sportsman by Mitchell Wormall, while Steven Lines in the Horrell Motorsport Cool were crowned Overall Champions.

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p ra w S L A N NATIO WHITE’S REVENGE DESPITE WINNING three of last year’s four Australian Targa Championship events, it was the Jason and John White’s failure at the season opening Targa North West that prevented the pair from taking the title.

In 2019, the Dodge Viper was supreme at the same event. The Tasmanian father and son team dominated the season-opener, leading from start-to-finish to claim victory 1m 28s ahead of the Lotus Exige shared by reigning champion Paul Stokell and co-driver Kate Catford.

In what was a clean-sweep for the host state, Hobart surgeon Michael Pritchard took third alongside co-driver Adam Butler, piloting a Porsche GT3 RS. The younger White was pleased to take victory but has now turned his focus to the biggest event on the calendar, Targa Tasmania, which starts on April 29.

“It’s an important win for a whole lot of reasons. It’s our home town rally with some of our favourite roads and we’ve finally won this one and got the monkey off our back,” Jason said.

“It’s a great start to the championship too, which is probably the most important thing for us. Not finishing here last year cost us the championship when we managed to win everything else but this one.

“We want to win the championship right or wrong and we want to win Targa Tasmania as well, so we can equal Jim Richards’ record of eight wins.”

There were a number of hard luck stories at Targa North West, none more so than fourth placed John Ireland, after clutch issues halted his podium charge. In GT4, Jesse Medwin and Zak Brakey led the class for almost the

Images: Angryman Photography

entirety of the event in their Subaru Impreza WRX STI but suffered issues on the final day, handing the victory to the older Subaru of Ralph and Malcolm Norton.

Other class winners were Mick Downey (1979 Holden Commodore) in Classic GT, the 1975 Fiat Abarth Rallye piloted by Nik Preiston and Dylan Braithwaite took out

Classic handicap, while Jon Mitchell and Anthony Carr gave Subaru another victory in Early Modern.

Tony and Sandra Seymour won GT Sports Trophy in a Lotus Exige, the Throroughbred Trophy was won by Jack Waldron and Vin Gregory (Mitsubishi Sigma) and TSD was won by Peter and Tristian Taylor.

TRAVERSO TAKES FIERCE SPRINT

Image: Craig O’Brien

THORPES GET ROOKIE RALLY WIN OPENING THE Victorian rally season with victory were David and Andrew Thorpe in their Subaru Impreza, at a dusty 37th running of the George Woods Introductory Rally on February 23.

Utilising the popular rally roads to the north and south of Powelltown in the Yarra Ranges, the event is designed for rookie and novice rally crews as an introduction to rally competition. In a throwback to navigational events of the past, a challenging element for co-drivers includes some basic map reading in addition to the more common route charts.

The first half of the event was conducted over 45 competitive kilometres in the early evening, with plenty of exuberant driving on display for the spectators gathered a few kilometres into the opening stage.

When crews returned to service nothing separated the Thorpes, Anthony Morrow

and Luke Sytema (Holden Commodore) and Harley Gill and Mitchell Goudge (Subaru).

Overheating issues forced the spectacular Audi Quattro of Doug Fernie/Amelia Jarvie into an early retirement, with eight other crews failing to finish by night’s end.

The impressive performance of Gill/ Goudge saw them edge out Mitch Garrad and Taylah Murphy (Hyundai), and Andrew Hitch and Ken Polley (Mitsubishi) for top honours in the Rookies Ramble.

As night fell, a further 55 kilometres awaited the competition, with the Thorpes doing just enough to finish the rally two points clear.

In the Historic Rally Association’s Resto Country Spare Standard Car Challenge (SCC), Graham Wallis and Nick Luxton claimed a comfortable win in their Peugeot 205.

CRAIG O’BRIEN

THE PENULTIMATE round of the AASA Australian Tarmac Championship was a tough battle but former champion Danny Traverso and co-driver Jason Page prevailed in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, at the Mt Baw Baw Sprint on February 23-24.

Traverso and Page headed a three-way tussle during the final day of competition, aided by a close battle for second between Tim Hendy and Julie Winton-Monet in their Porsche 911 GT3 and the Lotus Exige shared by Jeff Morton and Daymon Nicoli.

Traverso and Page led from the outset, holding a lead of 27s over the Morton and Nicoli Lotus, which held a mere 13s lead over the Hendy and Winton-Monet Porsche.

Behind in fourth was the surprise of the event, the HSV GTO driven by Dean Lillie and co-driver Steve Glenney, which was 1m 20s off the lead.

The HSV held a slender 1s lead over the Nissan GT-R piloted by Angus Kennard and Ian Wheeler, which in turn held the same margin to Craig Dean and Mary Hughes in a Ford Mustang Shelby GT. Traverso continued to hold sway at the head of the field ahead a diminishing gap between second and third, which was just 0.9s halfway through the final day.

The 32-kilometre, 320 turn Porcupine Creek

run from Icy Creek to Mt Baw Baw summit was the deciding stage as Hendy and WintonMonet’s Porsche not only extended its lead by 21s over the Lotus, but cut Traverso’s 45s lead in half by the end.

Behind, the battle for fourth fell the way of Lillie and Glenney, but only after holding off the continued presence of Kennard and Wheeler.

The Mustang of Dean and Hughes was well in contention for fourth, but destroyed a tyre and rim after hitting a fallen branch.

“The competition over the weekend has been fierce,” said Traverso.

“We’ve pushed each other hard right to the final stage and you can’t ask for anything better than that. This was the first outing for both the Lotus and Porsche, so staying in front is only going to get tougher as they develop their cars.”

Classic went the way of Peter Gluskie and Samantha Winter in a 1985 BMW E30, 38s ahead of Robin and Peter Lowe in 1971 Datsun 240Z. The result came after the driver and mechanical issues played a role on the final day with the Holden Commodore of Mark Clair and Lee Harper hitting a pothole, damaging the suspension. Keith and Alex Morling had led on Saturday in their Ford Escort, but broke a lower control arm on the last stage.

“Coming up at the nation’s action and spectator tracks” Wakefield Park

www.wakefieldpark.com.au

March 9 Track Day Club March 12 Over 65 Track Day – Goulburn Mulwaree Council March 15 Champions Ride Day March 16 Revolution Motorsport March 18 WPM Trackschool Track Day March 22-25 ASBK – Australian Superbike Championship

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Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au

March 8-10 AMRS – Winton March 15 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers March 16 Track for Days March 22 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers March 23 AWCC Rapid Lap Dash March 27 Performance Test Day

MITOLO OWNS MALLALA WITH THE exception of Circuit Excels, small multi class fields were the order of the day at the opening round of the South Australian State Racing Championships staged at Mallala on February 16.

CIRCUIT EXCELS

AMID PLENTY of action, defending SA champ Michael Clemente had to work very hard to overcome a fast-starting Asher Johnston. Johnston had some car issues, though, and made a great save at the southern hairpin in race three when he and Clemente rubbed panels.

Danny Errigo was the best of the rest, although James Benford may have finished the day better. He had a coming together with Gil Slade at the northern hairpin in race one, which put both cars out of that race.

FORMULA VEES

ADAM NEWTON was the man to beat in 1600 Vees. Peter Hood (Jacer) put up a good fight and was happy with second behind the winning Sabre driver, and well ahead of Ron Stevens (Elfin Crusader). Rob Surnam was in good form and took the 1200 win in his Stag, well clear of Frank Chessell (Elfin Crusader) and Andrew Mutch (Caracal).

PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS, IMPROVED PRODUCTION, SPORTS SEDANS

WITH TWO victories, Paul Mitolo (Ferrari 458 -- pictured above) overcame Anthony Giustozzi (Porsche 997) for the Sports Car win, with Alex Dianos (Porsche 997) picking up the last minor place. Franco Quaini stranded his Porsche GT3 at turn two in race one, bringing out the safety car.

Michael Naguib (Datsun 1600) easily

HEAPHY AGAIN, ON MODIFIED COURSE YET AGAIN Phil Heaphy in his Mitsubishi EVO 6, with regular co-driver daughter Amelia back on the notes, was again supreme at round four of the Whiteline Twilight Rallysprint Series on February 14.

First-time Director Rhianna Froome had plenty of headaches. The course had to be changed because of parked semi-trailers. Then, another section was getting concrete works done, so a corner had to be re-profiled and an allowance made for cement trucks coming in and out. But the North Shore Sporting Car Club kept it all together and the event came off.

The new layout was a few seconds slower, with the start being an almost-endless series of secondgear lefts and rights. Heaphy was fastest on the opening run from the Michael Caine/Mark Newman Mazda RX7 and Steve and Olivia Marlin (EVO 9).

THORNTON THRILLER FINISH IT WAS a tight result at the end of the Thornton Short Course off road event on February 23-24, with Sybrand De Klerk hanging on for a very narrow victory.

Run through the foothills of the Lockyer Valley by the Brisbane Sporting Car Club, De Klerk (Can Am X3 Rotax) finished just 0.3s ahead of a late charge by David Loughnan (Can Am -- pictured above right). Rob and Will Scott (Can-Am Maverick) came home third 1min 37s away. Can-Ams filled the top six places with Greg Guliandi fourth ahead of Rohan Williams and Dylan Mead, with Michael Schneider finishing sixth.

Campbell Smith (Extreme 2WD Ford Trophy Truck) was seventh ahead of Gary Taylor (Polaris RZR 1000), Russell Towers (Pro Buggy Rivmasta/ Mazda) and Callam and Jack MacNamara in their Extreme 4WD V8 Nissan Patrol. The last car to go the distance was the Performance 2WD Nissan Navara piloted by Andrew Barber, finishing 11th.

The event was held over five heats, each of which were three continuous laps of the 7km course. Greg Guiandi (Can-Am) won heat one ahead of Guy Hicks

defeated the small Improved Production field well clear of Adam Trimmer (Toyota 86) and Jason Palmer (Mazda RX7). Wade Reynolds (Toyota Corolla) won all three encounters in Sports Sedans.

RACING CARS, FORMULA FORDS, SPORTS CARS

SHOWING THE way in all three combined categories races was Daniel Gonzalez (Wolf GB08CN). Meanwhile Sam Woodland’s Van Dieman RF06 was back on the trailer after race one and Ian Shelby-James (Mygale SJ11) spent all of race one parked at turn six.

That forced all but the first lap to run under the safety car and it was NSW’s Philip Oakes (Van Deiman RF88) that claimed Formula Ford honours.

Andrew Ford took the opening Historic win

in the Birrana 274 but failed to finish race two and was out for the day. Keith Williamson (Farrell Clubman) picked up the win as a result of Jim Doig (Motorlab Asp) getting a time penalty for passing under yellows in race two. That left him second for the day, while Dave Benda (Lola T590) picked up third.

HISTORIC TOURING, HQ HOLDENS

THE HISTORIC category led the way over the single make Holdens, with Brett Munns (Holden Torana XU-1) comfortably taking the Historic Touring win with the Ford Falcon GTs driven by Kym Burton and Adam Smith fighting it out for the minor places. Winning at will, Darren Jenkins was the dominant force in HQs. Dave Smith was best of the rest followed by Matt Davidson.

Words & image: David Batchelor Image: Angryman Photography

NEW TASSIE CHAMPS LIKELY

Run two saw more of the same, Heaphy also doing the fastest time of the night at 2m08s.

On run three Heaphy had “a brain fade” and went the wrong way on one of the early corners. He dropped nearly 15s to Caine, but with the best three runs of five to count, was still in contention.

Run four and Caine was fastest again, with Heaphy only 1.4s behind. The final run and Heaphy was fastest again from Caine and Marlin, and that’s how they finished. The Heaphys won by just 1.2s from Caine/Newman with the Marlins 4.8s further adrift.

Words & image: Bruce Moxon Image: Alan McIntosh

(ProLite Sollitt/Subaru), who would later succumb to gearbox issues.

Christian Trusz (Extreme 4WD Nissan Patrol V8) was quickest over heats two and four, but had tyre dramas. Guliandi was the best through heats three and five as several were also delayed with punctures, due to the rocky nature of the course.

Other retirees include Darren Barker (Can-Am) due to losing a wheel. Pat Philp and Karin-Ann Barker (Pro Buggy Jimco Special/Mitsubishi V6) had a CV failure, Chris Rosch and Adam Gree (Polaris) had belt issues, and David, Imogene and Bridge Ellsworth (Can-Am) had engine dramas on day one, before continuing through day two.Seventy-year-old rookie Ross Newman (Yamaha YXZ 1000R) ran out of tyres by the final heat, as did Zac Marsh (Polaris) earlier, withdrawing so his wife Brook Kelly could continue in the double entry.

Garry O’Brien

A CHANGING of the guard is likely in Tasmanian circuit racing, following the first round of the 2019 Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championships at Symmons Plains on February 24.

Previously known as the Tasmanian Super Series, it rewards consistency with three heats and a double-points final in each of the six rounds counting towards the championships. With four defending champions missing the season opener, which sadly had small fields in several classes, it’s looking like some new champions will be crowned.

Three reigning champions did make the effort and it worked in their favour.

FORMULA VEES

FINISHING THIRD overall last year, Justin Murphy (Polar) took the honours with a couple of winning late race moves under brakes.

However, it was 15-year-old teenager Callum Bishop (pictured above) who almost stole the show and made an immediate impact in his first circuit racing appearance, qualifying his Gerbert on pole position for the first race. But the youngster blotted his copybook in the first race with a couple of errors best described as “rookie mistakes,” and finished eighth.

A quick learner, Bishop advanced to fifth in race two, and by the third race he was leading the field, only to be outsmarted by the pack in the latter stages for another fifth place.

He used his gained knowledge to great effect in the final, breaking through for his maiden win to cap off a day of brilliant racing. Richard Gray (Trowbridge) finished second for the round, with youngster Bishop a point adrift in third overall.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

DEFENDING CHAMPION Peter Kemp and runner up Josh Webster resumed hostilities from last year, with Kemp able to resist most of Webster’s challenges.

Kemp won the round with three wins, but spun out in the third race, which saw second-

year driver Grant Seamer take the battle up to Webster. After an intense battle, Seamer secured the first win of his career.

SPORTS GT

ONE OF the most impressive rookie performances came in the Sports GTA class, where second generation racer Brett O’Shea blew the opposition away in a dominant display in his powerful Holden Commodore V8.

He is the son of former Tasmanian motorcycle racing champion and Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee, Laurie O’Shea, who passed away last year, with his son dedicating the victory to his late father.

In Sports GTB, Edrei Stanton (Mitsubishi EVO) took the honours.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION, SPORTS SEDANS

IT WAS a day of attrition in Improved Production with first race winner Jared House (Holden Torana L34) struggling with an engine misfire for the rest of the afternoon, while second placed Matthew Grace (Nissan 200SX) also struck engine dramas in the second race.

With his main opposition in the pits, defending champion Leigh Forrest (Toyota Celica Turbo) cruised to the round victory.

Meanwhile Eric Taylor (Hyundai Excel) cleaned up in Sports Sedans.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS, HQ HOLDENS

KICKING OFF his title defence, Scott Cordwell (Holden Torana XU-1) was unchallenged taking the wins in Historics Touring Cars, while his son Otis made it a family double by taking the points in the HQ Holdens.

Martin Agatyn

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

Jordan Jordan Jord an C Caruso arus ar usoo won won twice in the huge Excel field, to take the Trophy Class.

SCINTILATING SANDOWN IMPROVED PRODUCTION

ROUND 1 of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships at Sandown Raceway kicked off in blistering heat – the meeting highlighted by a massive turn out of Hyundai Excels comprising 66 cars.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

THE FIELD was split into two classes -Trophy and Master -- with Jordan Caruso emerging victorious in the Trophy Class, flaunting race-winning pace all weekend and capitalising on a scary moment in Race 3 for main rival, Jordyn Sinni, lucky to manage a fast spin at Turn 6 on the last lap. Two victories and a second netted Caruso the round victory, with Liam Gretgrix and Adam Bywater completing the podium with impressive Race 3 performances.

John Agosta likewise revelled in the hot conditions to take out the Masters weekend, a pair of victories on Sunday putting him ahead of second placed Brendan Avard – with Dylan Innes home in third.

FORMULA FORD

A CONSISTENT Ben D’Alia took out Formula Ford Duratec honours, with

Jake Rowe demonstrates the commitment needed to win in Formula Vee. Images: Revved Photography.

main challengers Cody Donald and Liam McLellan clashing on the final lap of Race 2, sending an opportunistic D’Alia to the top. Donald secured second overall despite his Race 2 setbacks, Kyle Gurton home in third with McLellan dropping to seventh following a final race DNF spurred on by a spirited battle with Donald.

Brendan Jones capped the Formula Ford 1600’s weekend off on top, a DNF for John Connelly in Race 2 enabling the defending champion to win from Peter Fitzgerald and Byron Thomas. Fitzgerald nursed his car home in Race 2 despite a spark plug lead Cameron Beller won three from three in the Porsche 944s.

issue, while Connelly’s weekend lost its spark following a coil malfunction.

SPORTS SEDANS

IAN COWLEY overcame early weekend gearbox dramas to lead home the Sports Sedans, helped in part by a dramatic Race 2 for Dean Camm when a broken lower arm on his Corvette’s differential thwarted his race-winning pace. Camm recovered to win Race 2, but Cowley’s consistency earned him the round victory from Brett Dickie.

PORSCHE 944S

CAMERON BELLER decimated his Porsche 944 Challenge rivals at Sandown, claiming three victories from as many starts as he set off to reclaim the title lost to Jamie Westaway in 2018. Paul Crocitti put up a strong fight in the #16 to lead Beller early in Race 2, however Beller proved too strong. Ken Rowland finished third in his first visit to Sandown in two years, edging out Mark Taubitz for third.

FORMULA VEE

JAKE ROWE claimed the top step of Formula Vee competition in the GR Motorsport Electrics Sabre 02, two seconds placings and a win putting him ahead of Nicholas Jones by just fourpoints at the end. Adam Slattery rounded out the podium in a promising weekend for the #99. Race 1 winner, Heath Collinson, came unstuck in Race 2, an electrical gremlin putting him out of contention before recovering to third in Race 3.

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REIGNING CHAMPION Luke GrechCumbo’s started season 2019 in a similar vein to his 2018 Championship winning efforts, claiming three seemingly easy wins in the GC Electrical Services HSV Senator. Grech-Cumbo faced a complete engine rebuild on Friday evening, working through the night to arrive and qualify Saturday morning, going on to dominate.

Nathan Robinson successfully debuted a new BMW E46 M3 to be second, with former IPRA Vic champion Gary McKay home in third.

MGS AND INVITED BRITISH SPORTS CARS

MGS AND Invited British Sports Cars was dominated by Phillip Chester, sporting a smart new livery and plenty of pace to dominate all three races from Robin Bailey, and Ben Muller – an all MG V8 podium.

Rhys Howell raised eyebrows debuting an MG factory built, GT3 spec SV-R, eventually finishing seventh.

The Peter Lee MGB Memorial Race meanwhile went to Richard Vollebregt after Richard Milligan received a post-race penalty of five-seconds. David Mottram was classified second.

HQS

A NEAR-PERFECT weekend earned Ray Jardine overall victory in the Holden HQs, a second-place finish behind Andrew McLeod in Race 2 his lowest result in an otherwise flawless weekend. McLeod’s victory helped him to second ahead of Jake Bekkers, who featured in a four-car battle for the lead along with Ryan Woods.

SALOON CARS

DOMINANT PERFORMANCES in Races 1 and 3 surged Travis Lindorff to the top of the Saloon Cars, which shared most of its weekend track time with the Holden HQs. Anthony Beare revelled in Sunday’s opening Race 2 for victory, however a fifth-place finish in the final race dropped him behind Adam Lowndes, who rounded out his weekend second overall. Luke O’Callaghan managed fourth place from Jacob Callum Branagan Prestipino.

WINNERS WORK FOR WAKEFIELD REWARDS THE OPENING round of the NSW CAMS State Racing Championships produced tight struggles in many of the categories racing at Wakefield Park on February 23-24.

PRODUCTION TOURING CARS

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IMPROVING OVER the weekend, Michael King came away with two outright wins while fellow Mitsubishi EVO X driver Jimmy Vernon (Mitsubishi EVO X) took a first-up victory.

King was second from the race one start, ahead of Matthew Holt (HSV Clubsport) and Tony Virag (HSV GTS), who then forged through to second. Tom Muller (BMW 1M), Stephen Thompson (EVO X) and Daniel Oosthuizen (Clubsport) were next.

Vernon led race two but with a slipping clutch couldn’t hold off Virag, who went on to cross the line first ahead of King, Holt and Muller, as Dieter Holzl (EVO) led Ryan Godfrey (Mercedes A45) and Oosthuizen. Vernon stopped when the clutch let go entirely. Virag was then handed a 5s penalty which gave King the victory.

King then led all the way in the last. Holt was second early before Virag passed him. Holt then held off Muller, as Thompson came home just in front of Oosthuizen.

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Images: Insyde Media

Image: Sportz Fotos

SPORTS SEDANS

BIROL CETIN was off to a perfect start with three wins in the opening round. Through races one and two he led all the way and despite a pirouette at turn six in the third which dropped him to fourth, he still won!

Fellow Chev Camaro steerer Stephen Lacey chased in race one before running into lapped traffic . . . literally . . . retiring with front end and tyre damage. That left Grant Doulman in the refurbished Chev-powered Ford Falcon second, but on seven cylinders. Scott Reed (Ford Mustang) was next from Simon Copping (Holden Commodore VZ), Mark Duggan (Aston Martin/Chev) and Jason Compton (LS-powered BMW E46).

Lacey started at the rear along with Anthony Macready (Nissan 300ZX), who retired from race one when stuck in gear. Lacey made good headway, getting to second while Macready had a pitlane penalty for contact with another car.

Reed took third ahead of Copping and Adrian Wilson (BMW M4). Duggan retired with a drive pin failure and Compton stopped with fuel starvation. Lacey was again second in the last with Macready third in a strong comeback after over two years of not racing. Reed and Copping filled fourth and fifth.

HQ HOLDENS

AFTER QUALIFYING fastest Brett Osborn won the first race. Initially he showed the way to Duane Cambridge, Jason Molle, his brother Chris Molle and Dave Proglio. Jason Molle then passed Cambridge for second while Chris Molle was lucky to finish fifth after a suspension mount tore.

The opening round of Production Touring fell the way of Michael King. Images: Insyde Media

Birol Cetin led an eclectic mix of Sports Sedans (top), while Jason Molle led early in the HQs (above). Tony Moit was a winner in the Superkarts (left).

Jason Molle led the second race, holding off Osborn until the safety car was deployed.

Jason Johnston had spun at Turn 8, causing Mark Baxter to stop and leaving Ian McLean nowhere to go but into Baxter.

Jason Molle bogged down at turn two after the restart before going off with Cambridge at turn four. Osborn had the lead but couldn’t hold off Chris Molle. Glen Deering was third from Luke Harrison and David Allan.

Chris Molle bolted away in the third for a comfortable win. Osborn fought off Deering to take second with Proglio fourth. After a DNF in race one with steering failure, Scott Walker came through to edge Allan out for fifth.

Cambridge, Jason Molle and Harrison were non-finishers.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

OVER FOUR races Brad Tilley was dominant in his Ford Mustang – only surrendering the lead briefly midway through the last.

In race one which was safety car interrupted when Michael Rose (Mustang) bunkered at turn 10, Michael Anderson (Ford Falcon XY GT) battled with Chris Thomas (Holden Torana XU-1) before securing second.

It was a similar tale in race two between the pair. In the third, Thomas finished second after

Anderson had a moment when the rubber came off the brake pedal. Anderson didn’t start the last where Thomas harried Tilley, even getting ahead before taking second.

Adam Walton (Mustang) finished with four fourths despite stalling at the start of the last, beating Bill Attard (Mazda RX2) three times and finishing behind him in the last.

FORMULA VEES

TEAM STINGER stung with Stephen Butcher winning the three races at the opening state title round, but none came easily.

Butcher (Stinger) just held off Simon Pace (Checkmate) in race one, as Craig Sparke (Jacer) was less than a car’s length ahead of Dylan Thomas (Stinger), while Aaron Lee (Jacer) shadowed them. In the second that five-way battle became six with Gary Ogden (Corsica) joining, and again Butcher won, just ahead of Sparke and Thomas.

In the last Butcher and Thomas pushed clear and after the team mates exchanged the lead, Butcher won. Third went to Pace, who had closed in while Sparke held off Lee and Ogden.

Geoff Bassingthwaigh was a non-finisher when his Thomsen shed a wheel at turn two.

Infinite Time Attack Rd1, Barbagallo Raceway WA, Mar 07 Club Superkarts, Phillip Island VIC, Mar 07 Classic Festival of Motorsport, Phillip Island VIC, Mar 08-10 State Rallysprint Championships Rd2, Hastings NSW, Mar 09 State Rallysprint Series Rd2, Port Macquarie NSW, Mar 09 Blue Range Rallysprint, Uriarra Forest - Blue Range Road ACT, Mar 09 Multi Club Motorkhana, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 09 Multi Club Rallysprint, Burrawan State Forest NSW, Mar 09 Club Khanacross, Broken Hill Racecourse NSW, Mar 09 Australian Motor Racing Series Rd1, Mazda RX8 Cup Rd1, Australian Formula 3 Rd1, Winton Motor Raceway VIC, Mar 09-10 Rainbow Rises 240, State Off Road Championship Rd1, State Off Road Series Rd1, Rainbow VIC, Mar 09-10 Motor Racing Australia Rd2, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 09-10 Interclub Khanacross Challenge, Swan Hill VIC, Mar 09-10 Qld-NSW Sprint Challenge Rd1, Morgan Park QLD, Mar 09-10 State Hillclimb Series Rd1, Mt Cotton QLD, Mar 09-10 NQ Sprint Series Rd1, Multi Club One-Car Sprint, Reid Park Townsville QLD, Mar 09-10 Club Autocross, Jack Chisholm Reserve Swan Hill VIC, Mar 09-10 Multi-Club Khanacross, Colo Park NSW, Mar 09-10 State Motorkhana Championship Rd2, Awabawac Park NSW, Mar 10 Multi Club Supersprint, Wakefield Park NSW, Mar 10 Motorkhana Come & Try Day, Perth WA, Mar 10 Gravelrash, Dirt Khanacross, Naomies Quarry SA, Mar 10 Club Motorkhana, Mt Gambier Sales Yards SA, Mar 10 Multi Club Supersprint, RAAF Base East Sale VIC, Mar 10 Multi Club Supersprint, Pheasant Wood Circuit Marulan NSW, Mar 10 Club Motorkhana, Metec Driver Training Centre Bayswater North VIC, Mar 10 Multi Club Motorkhana, Ansell Park Richmond NSW, Mar 10 Club Motorkhana, Gunnedah Aerodrome NSW, Mar 10 Multi Club Motorkhana, New England Traffic Centre NSW, Mar 10 Multi Club Motorkhana, Tiger Kart Club WA, Mar 10 Multi Club Khanacross, Reef and Rainforest Track Mossman QLD, Mar 10 Multi Club Autocross, 405 McGregor Road Pakenham VIC, Mar 10 Australian Grand Prix, Supercars Championship Races 3, 4, 5, 6, Porsche Carrera Cup Rd2, Australian GT Rd1, Australian Formula 4 Rd1, Albert Park VIC, Mar 14-17 Shannons Targa Rally Sprint Rd5, Perth Motorplex WA, Mar 14 Twilight Tarmac Rallysprint Series Rd5, Sydney Dragway NSW, Mar 14 Twilight Khanacross, Dowerin WA, Mar 16 Club Rally, Greater Burnie TAS, Mar 16 State Sprint Series, Collie Motorplex WA, Mar 16 Club Rally, Blythe Road and Riana Surrounds TAS, Mar 16 Multi Club Supersprint, Baskerville Raceway TAS, Mar 16 Multi Club Hillclimb, Pinnacle QLD, Mar 16 Safari Gravel Rallysprint, Mundaring WA, Mar 16 State Circuit Racing Championships Rd1, Morgan Park QLD, Mar 16-17 Lakeside Tribute, Lakeside Park QLD, Mar 16-17 Multi Club Rallysprint, Millchester Motorsport Complex QLD, Mar 16-17 Club Khanacross, German Sports Ground Inverell NSW, Mar 17

SUPERKARTS

IN THE first of four races for round two, Tony Moit (Anderson Maverick) led throughout, beating Lee Vella (IWT Scorpio), who grabbed second mid-distance from 125cc rival Aaron Cogger (Stock Honda). John Pellicano (Avoig Elise) was second initially but slipped to fourth.

Moit led the second outing all the way too. Cogger was second and Mark Robin (Stockman) filled third ahead of Paul Campbell (Avoig), while Vella was an early retiree.

Pellicano was second early but dropped to fifth.

Cogger took the third race ahead of Robin and Moit. Campbell and Pellicano retired, as did Laurence Fooks (Avoig), who then hit back to win the last ahead of Cogger, Mick Doherty (Avoig) and Moit.

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CARNAGE IN ADELAIDE THE SUPERUTES continued to make headlines for the wrong reasons with rollovers again prevalent for the dual cab tradie utes.

Although the drivers emerged unscathed, some spectators would suggest that the decals need to be placed upside down for the SuperUtes’ next meeting at Perth on May 2-4.

These images were supplied by Bob Taylor showing the results of both roll overs.

The first image shows the remnants of o Chris Formosa’s Ford Ranger after it collided with reigning series winner Ryall Harris, Dean Canto and SuperUtes R debutant Ben Falk. d “Coming into Turn 5, I just felt a hit from the back-left and it pushed me into f the t tyre wall,” Formosa told supercars. com. c “I climbed up the wall and flipped, and then got another hit while I was on the t roof. r “I unbuckled my seatbelt first, when I should’ve taken the clip off the helmet. s “So, once I came to floor, I actually

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had to lift myself back up to unclip the helmet, and once I unclipped the helmet I was off again.

“The issue was I couldn’t shut down the car because the master switch inside was crushed by the rollbar.”

The race finished under a Safety Car. The second race of the weekend was also marred by a rollover, with last year’s title challenger Craig Woods the next victim as he tripped up while avoiding the stricken Triton of Craig Dontas. The tyre wall was the next object Woods hit and it flipped the car onto its side, as shown by Woods making a rapid exit.

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