Auto Action #1757 by Auto Action

AMBROSE SPEAKS! MARCOS ON LIFE AFTER RACING SINCE S INCE 1971 1971

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SUPERCARS MOVES TO REIGN IN RUNAWAY FORDS

! T S A F O O T

MUSTANG SET TO BE HOBBLED

EXCLUSIVE: TICKFORD FIGHTS BACK IN BATTLE TO KEEP MOSTERT

FRENCH MUSTARD

Renaults join Aussie TCR menu

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Issue #1757

Mar 21 to Apr 3, 2019

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DANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S STILL SMILING

Why Ricciardo will rebound from AGP disaster

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RENAULT WILL RECOVER

Ricciardo Ri i d andd tteam bbelieve li theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll th â&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be b better b tt iin BBahrain, h i reports t DAN KNUTSON FRENCH GIANT Renault is confident of a rebound from the Daniel Ricciardo disaster at Albert Park, citing the unlocked potential behind its disappointing Australian Grand Prix performance. Ricciardo struggled for pace in qualifying and then failed to finish his home nation race after a bizarre incident within moments of the start. But both the crest-fallen Aussie and Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul are forecasting a much stronger performance at next weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bahrain Grand Prix. Buoyed by Nico HĂźlkenbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solid seventh place â&#x20AC;&#x201C; albeit a lap down and behind Kevin Magnussenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Haas-Ferrari â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Abiteboul assured Australian fans that the team was dedicated to making Ricciardo stronger at Bahrain and beyond. The normally smiling Ricciardo was downcast after his race lasted just 18 laps. His front wing had been torn off when he went onto the grass verge at the start and further damage to the car caused the team to retire the car for safety reasons. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Flatâ&#x20AC;? was the West Australianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s description of how he was feeling after yet another AGP disappointment. He added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I feel like itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to get things going well here. Also today I feel like that was pretty unlucky.â&#x20AC;? Ricciardo reflected that he had too many

PR and sponsor commitments during the days leading up to the race. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just drained, just trying to please everyone this week and I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look after myself,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll change it for next year.â&#x20AC;? But Ricciardo is not the kind of guy who stays downcast for long. He will bounce back soon and his smile will be back as well. His aim in the upcoming races is to learn the best ways to dial in the chassis for maximum performance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That is the thing I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to say I underestimated, but I am certainly understanding it is taking a bit of time to figure out the magnitude of chassis changes,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With Red Bull, I was so comfortable with the car that, OK, two steps up on front wing and I knew exactly what that would do. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now, two steps, three steps? I am not sure to what extent it is going to change. So little things like that. It is coming. I just have to build that library of knowledge up in my head as quickly as possible. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The exciting thing is that once that does start to flow a lot more naturally, that will not only give me more confidence, but also give my engineer more confidence. That is then going to start to give everyone a good feeling.â&#x20AC;? Ricciardo noted that the list of things he

THIS WEEKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RACE CALENDAR

needs to get sorted in the upcoming races to be comfortable and fast in the RS19 is getting shorter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I never want to say I was naĂŻve, but it is naĂŻve to think I will just jump into a new car and feel amazing straight away,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Especially when it is a car that for now has less downforce than what I am used to. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect it to take too long, but the reality is that for everything to be perfect, I will just have to build up to it.â&#x20AC;? The minimum target for Renault is to keep moving forward, according to team principal Cyril Abiteboul. Renault is now in its fourth year of the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rebuilding program. Speaking exclusively to Auto Action in the Albert Park paddock after the race, Abiteboul laid out the plans to move the team forwards and upwards. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first thing to do is to analyze everything that happened this weekend and a lot happened,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As expected, the midfield is super-tight. So the first thing is to make sure that we understand everything to make sure we have a much better execution in the upcoming races, so that we can extract all the potential of the car. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And that potential is better than we showed in qualifying with Nico (HĂźlkenberg) 11th and Daniel 12th. The race was a much better representation, with Nico coming home seventh.

BIG BOOST FOR BOTTAS

VALTTERI BOTTASâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dominating win in the Australian Grand Prix has given him a massive confidence lift. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In this sport, the confidence you get from the results is a massive help,â&#x20AC;? Bottas said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It boosts you a lot, even through the difficult times that will come. But you always remember the good ones and you get strength from knowing you can do something like today.â&#x20AC;? The Finn went winless last year, although he could have had three victories but for assorted circumstances that were not his fault. But can he stay in front in upcoming races? His Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton had a damaged floor and therefore struggled for pace in the AGP. And then there was the mystery of the slow Ferraris which had been fastest in pre-season testing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find the right balance through the weekend and we were lacking grip,â&#x20AC;? Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Did we understand that yet? Probably not. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something we need to go back and analyse all the data and try to assess really what happened.â&#x20AC;? Winning the opening race of the season does not automatically mean Bottas will win the championship. He is certainly off to a strong start, but he is going to have fight on his hands when Hamilton and Ferrari bounce back. DK

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TOO FAST, TOO SOON

PARITY ROW ERUPTS FOLLOWING NEW FORD’S STUNNING START BRUCE NEWTON reveals how the Mustang is being scrutinised

THE FORD Mustang is set to be reined in by Supercars as Holden teams stew over allegations of US wind tunnel testing during the controversial coupe’s development. At least some adjustments could come as soon as the April 5-7 Tasmania SuperSprint at Symmons Plains. The Mustang is unbeaten after two Supercars championship events in 2019, scoring six straight pole positions and race wins. DJR Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin leads the title chase, with three more Fords in the top six. While DJRTP and fellow Ford team Tickford Racing argue they have simply done a better job of getting on top of the newly-mandated linear spring, the Holden and Nissan teams are convinced the first two-door to join the championship has an aerodynamic and centre of gravity advantage. They argue the CoG advantage showed up in Adelaide where mechanical gip is key and that the Mustang’s slick aero was apparent at Albert Park. Some rival teams are quietly claiming a Mustang was tested in the wind tunnel

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in the USA, although that’s something that’s not illegal until after the car is homologated. The wind tunnel allegations are being fuelled by the recent display of a Mustang Supercar in the foyer of Ford’s global headquarters in Dearborn. The show car is based on a deregistered chassis sent to Team Penske in 2015 to use as a basis for US manufacturing, a plan subsequently shot down by Supercars.

TUNNEL TEST DENIED

But DJRTP CEO Ryan Story is emphatic the Mustang Supercar was developed by Ford Performance using only Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) – essentially a digital equivalent of physical wind tunnel testing. “We have been on the record, as have Ford Performance, in terms of how we have developed this car using CFD tools,” Story insisted. He maintains that the show car was only built earlier this year, with significant restrictions imposed by Supercars. “It doesn’t have a front undertray, it doesn’t have a rear gurney,” Story said. “It

has a number of other changes, including a restricted ECU, that follow a precedent that’s been set in the past when other cars have gone overseas.” Meanwhile, the concerns over centre of gravity discrepancies exclusively reported in Auto Action last issue have been acted on, with 10 cars – including at least one Shell V-Power Mustang and Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore ZB – tested on Monday at Kelly Racing. The CoG testing follows on from Supercars weighing individual parts and pieces. As revealed by AA last Friday, this led to the discovery DJRTP was running heavy mufflers in Adelaide to compensate for their cars being significantly underweight. While not illegal, it does mean the team can claim a lower ballast figure than is reality. The more weight run low in the car, the better the CoG and handling balance. Much lighter mufflers were run at Albert Park.

MIND THE GAP

Supercars also instructed the Ford teams to close up the gap between the trailing edge of the rear screen and the boot lid to

stop a potential aerodynamic advantage. DJRTP says it was an installation issue, but such panel gaps are a common aero trick in the category. Supercars boss Sean Seamer said the Supercars technical team led by Adrian Burgess was investigating the Mustang’s pace versus its rivals. “The technical department’s working through a process of looking at all of the data that we have available to us, which ranges from pretty high simulation all the way through to more fundamental elements out of scrutineering, to try to understand if and where the perceived advantage may exist,” Seamer told AA. “We don’t all get a new car at the same time, so every year the game’s moving on and, of course, you would be looking at it. Obviously, this is the first time we’ve put a two-door car on the chassis as well and there’s less roof areas, less doors. “There’s a lot of different things about it, but I think the (Supercars technical) team’s done a good job to date and I think the technical department has the skills and support to get the answers everybody wants.” Most likely, a centre of gravity technical

RENAULTS JOIN TCR RUSH Media-shy benefactor buys two Meganes for GRM

Secret photos: Supercars made Ford teams reduce the big gap between the rear window and decklid of Mustangs. Rivals claimed it was illicit aero ducting.

as rivals call for urgent action parity rule will be mandated where none exists at the moment. But the aerodynamics of the Mustang should also be in for revision. Holden teams are known to be lobbying for a reduction in size of the rear wing endplate and the straightening the side skirt’s curved radius immediately behind the front wheel.

AERO ARGUMENTS

Both areas aid yaw or cornering grip, an area Supercars aerodynamic parity (VCAT) does not address. Auto Action has been told the ZB wasn’t allowed a side skirt design similar to the Mustang’s when the five-door Commodore was being homologated in 2017. Story has consistently pointed to the VCAT approval process for Mustang being the closest ever, but that purely applies to straightline testing. He conceded that DJRTP will accept the ruling of Supercars if it decides to enact CoG parity or modify the Mustang’s aerodynamic package. However, he urged caution on the latter. “I think we need to see more data on it,” Story said. “We have had a bit of a charmed run to date. I don’t think you can discount the quality of the talent behind the wheel in some

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of those examples as well. “I don’t think we are seeing our competitors at the peak of their powers yet either, especially with some of these other regulation changes we are seeing. “We want to see more play out or even venture into what comes next. But we will always play by the umpire’s decision.” The Ford teams argue the competitive picture is being coloured by RBHRT’s battles with the linear spring. They say the ZB was developed around trapezoidal springs with a rearward aerodynamic bias. Moving to the linear spring has been more of an issue for them than the Ford teams, who were aware the mandatory linear spring was coming last year as the Mustang was being developed. McLaughlin even ran the linear spring in Newcastle at the championship decider last December, although DJRTP says that was for competitive, not development, reasons. But RBHRT team manager Mark Dutton told AA the factory Holden team felt it had got on top of the linear spring in Melbourne. “I think there is only so much we can do with the package we have compared with other packages out there,” Dutton said, alluding to the Mustang. With Mark Fogarty

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RECLUSIVE PATRON Brian Boyd is understood to have upped his investment in the fledgling TCR Australia Series even further by buying two Renault Meganes that will be raced by Garry Rogers Motorsport. Built by Renault Sport supplier Vukovic Motorsport in Switzerland, the cars are being added to the two Alfa Romeo Giuliettas already in GRM’s stable for TCR, which kicks off at Sydney Motorsport Park in May. While Jimmy Vernon has been signed for one of the Alfas, no drivers have been confirmed for the Renaults. But one of the two cars headed here has been recently driven by Australia’s F1 star Daniel Ricciardo in a publicity stunt in the UK. The Renaults join the GRM Alfas and confirmed entries for Audis, Hondas, Hyundais and VWs. GRM’s Barry Rogers confirmed the Renaults’ drivers would have to bring funding. “Budget’s important, for sure, because you have to pay for the whole thing,” Rogers said. “There are plenty of gentleman drivers out there who can pay for it, but we won’t be taking them. “We want guys with a bit of a profile who are quick. We’ve had a bit of a chat to a couple.” Meanwhile, it is understood Renault Australia is considering some sort of support for GRM’s Megane TCR program, although that had not been confirmed as Auto Action went to press. The Megane TCR is powered by a 1.8-litre turbo four borrowed from the Juke R of Renault alliance partner Nissan. Boyd, a prolific motor racing sponsor via his property development and investment company Payce, has also bankrolled the local TCR deal

and its promoter, the Australian Racing Group. Typically, considering his insistence on a low profile, Boyd’s connection to the two Meganes is not being confirmed by ARG or GRM. It is also not known if Boyd plans to sell the Meganes to GRM or anyone else. GRM’s Barry Rogers told AA that he and team technical director Richard Holloway inspected the Meganes during their trip to Europe in January, when the Alfas were purchased. “We went to Subaru, Honda, Alfa, Renault and Peugeot, and afterwards we analysed everything,” said Rogers, the son of team owner Garry. “The heart said Renault, but the brain said the Alfa was the more suitable car. “The Renault struggled in 2018 and they have developed a new car for 2019. It’s a bit of a punt, but we like the brand and like the people to deal with. “Vukovic Motorsport is a bit smaller than us, actually, but a really passionate group.” Along with the Alfa and Renault TCR programs, GRM is funding and building 14 Onroak-Ligier S5000s for the new V8-powered open-wheeler category that is also managed by ARG. Add the Boost Mobile Racing Supercars squad and GRM is taking on a huge program in 2019, although it is understood one of the Alfas will be run by another team. “We really need to give our guys work and one thing led to another, to be honest,” Rogers explained. “We didn’t sit down with a notepad and plan for the next five years. I mean, really, we fly by the seat of our pants a bit. “We saw the opportunity and said ‘Let’s do it’.” Bruce Newton

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FRENCH TO EXIT

Tickford co-owner Rusty French looks to leave leading Ford squad

BY BRUCE NEWTON

RESUSCITATED Ford squad Tickford Racing is set for a restructure with current co-owner Rusty French looking to sell off his stake. The veteran racer, patron and businessman’s departure is being characterised as amicable by co-owner Rod Nash and is dependent on a buyer being found for French’s multi-million dollar share of the team. But with no negotiations underway with a potential successor, Nash says French could be staying a part-owner for some time yet. Recently appointed Tickford chairman Chris Stillwell is thought to be a potential investor at some point in the future. “It’s not a partnership fall-out or a shareholder fall-out, it’s nothing like that,” Nash told Auto Action. “It’s not a case of just Rusty wants to get out. Rusty decided to come into it and it served his purpose. “Rusty and I have no issues between us. At a point in time - we will pick when we can - if there is another interested party, he will be replaced. It’s a simple as that. “He still comes to every race meeting, he’s still part of our board. He still comes to every board meeting. “He’s a shareholder, he’s active, there’s absolutely no issues there. He’s racer through and through and as quick as he says he’s going you will still see him around. “Even after he goes I reckon he will still be part of it. He’s been part of it from the very beginning.” While Nash only spoke in terms of French departing altogether, it has also been suggested to Auto Action French might reduce his investment rather than depart altogether. French has been a co-owner of the team since 2013, when he and Nash bought Ford

Performance Racing from English motor racing businessman David Richards. Lawyer Sven Burchatz is the third shareholder in the team. Back in 2013 it was a factory-backed team and broke through for its first Bathurst 1000 win that year and then backed up in 2014. It also won its first and so far only driver’s championship with Mark Winterbottom in 2015. FPR lost its Ford backing in 2015 and became Prodrive Racing Australia. It then re-named itself Tickford Racing Australia in 2017. French’s move to exit Tickford comes after a disappointing 2018 when it could manage just one win across four cars. At the end of the season it sacked rookie driver Richie Stanaway and handed back the Racing Entitlements Contract that underpinned his car. Privateer Phil Munday moved in under the Tickford umbrella for this year, abandoning his own stand-alone structure for the Milwaukee Mustang driven by Will Davison. Winterbottom also departed the team for Charlie Schwerkolt’s restructured Irwin Racing outfit and a Triple Eight-built Holden Commodore ZB. In 2019 the arrival of the Mustang and return of Ford has boosted the team’s results. French’s protégé Thomas Randle is also showing strong form in Dunlop Super2 in a Tickford Racing-run Falcon sponsored by French’s company Skye Sands. French’s decision to sell his shares has become public around the same time as rumours of financial challenges for the team circulated in the category. But Nash insists Tickford’s balance sheets make solid reading. “We run an appropriate budget and set of

financials,” said Nash. “If I got an independent auditor to advise you and me if our financials stacked up at this point in time, they would. “I know our bank says that and our bank scrutinises us like everyone else. “But that doesn’t take away from the fact that teams have their cash-flow issues. That’s just business and I don’t walk away from that, absolutely we do. “We probably worked harder with our creditors in the past period because of that.” Nash said it was important to “run your business properly and structure it properly

and don’t have willy-nilly contractual arrangements that leave you in the lurch”. The team has three long-term naming rights sponsors in Bottle-O, Supercheap Auto and Monster Energy. For 2019, it has lost Mega Fuel to Walkinshaw Andretti United and Rabble.Co to rookie Garry Jacobson’s Kelly Racing Nissan Altima. Based in the Melbourne suburb of Campbellfield, the team currently has 65 employees, making it the biggest operation in terms of head-count in the Supercars championship.

lead the negotiations with Mostert. Tickford (then Ford Performance Racing) identified Mostert’s talent early, backing him in Dunlop Super2 and then supporting his entry into Supercars in 2013 with Dick Johnson Racing, where he won his first race. That restructured team, now under the ownership of Roger Penske, is widely expected to make a concerted bid for Mostert’s services to replace Fabian Coulthard alongside Scott Mclaughlin next year.

Mostert, who completed his mechanics apprenticeship at FPR rook over a full-time seat in 2014 when Will Davison departed for Erebus. “There is a bit of a nice storyline with that, rather than him just being another driver,” said Nash. “Because of all that we want to be party to when he really thrives, when he wins that championship or that Bathurst for Supercheap.”

MOSTERT ON WANTED LIST

But Tickford needs more results before making an offer AA EXCLUSIVE BY BRUCE NEWTON

TICKFORD Racing has yet to formally offer star driver Chaz Mostert a contract extension even though he is being heavily linked to a 2020 deal with rival Ford team DJR Team Penske. Tickford co-owner Rod Nash said the priority was to deliver results with the new Ford Mustang before attempting to lock Mostert in. “It goes without saying we [will be] trying to get another contract with him going forward,” said Nash at Albert Park, where Mostert won the Larry Perkins Trophy. “The best thing we can do is rather than getting carried away with throwing things at him at the moment [is] go for a few race meetings and all get on the same page of whether we are a team that he could shine in.” The 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner struggled along with his three Tickford team-mates to make the aged Falcon FG/X competitive in 2018, scoring Tickford’s sole win at the Gold Coast in the Supercheap entry.

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But Mostert and team-mate’s Cam Waters and Will Davison have bounced out of the blocks in 2019, showing front-running pace in the new Mustang. Mostert took the team’s first win of the year at Albert Park on Saturday and finished on the podium twice more. Nash believes a continuation of that form is what’s needed to ward off rival teams he has no doubt are already approaching Mostert. “He will have other offers,” said Nash. “It would be naive to say Chaz Mostert would not have other offers. What we have got to do is just work hard with him. “Mustang is a good product and the team needs to demonstrate to him it can go forward and has the ability to win Bathursts, championships and races. “And that’s what we need to focus on, rather than having those chats now. It’s better to concentrate on that.” Nash said team principal Tim Edwards would

SUPERCARS ‘PARC FERME’ TRIAL BY MARK FOGARTY

SUPERCARS WILL trial a Formula 1-style freeze on changes between qualifying and racing at Symmons Plains early next month. As revealed by Auto Action last week, teams have been notified that the cars will have to be raced in the configuration in which they qualified. That means fuel loads, tyres, suspension setups, engine mapping and aero settings used to gain grid positions must be retained for the start of each race. To enforce the no-change dictate, Supercars officials will impose a ‘parc ferme’ curfew between the end of qualifying and the beginning of the race on each day of the Tasmania SuperSprint at Symmons Plains, near Launceston, on April 6-7. It is an experiment to see if making the teams race their cars in qualifying configuration – or vice versa – will mix up the racing by introducing more strategy options. Teams will be forced to choose between configuring cars for ultimate speed and prime starting positions – possibly at the cost of a necessarily short opening race stint – or a

compromised qualifying set-up that is better for the race. AA understands the trial will be repeated in the Ipswich SuperSprint at Queensland Raceway at the end of July. The idea is modelled on F1’s practice of imposing parc ferme – French for ‘closed park’ – on the top 10 cars between final qualifying and the race. In F1, no work is allowed on the cars between qualifying on the Saturday and Sunday’s race other than authorised maintenance or damage repairs. The top 10 have to start the race with the same tyres, fuel load and mechanical set-up as used to secure their starting positions. As outlined in the supplementary regulations for Symmons Plains, after qualifying the teams will only be allowed to conduct specified maintenance work on the cars. Fuel loads, tyres, and suspension and aero settings used in qualifying will not be allowed to be changed. The post-qualifying parc ferme trials were

approved by the Supercars Commission some time ago and have been formally communicated to the teams. The intention to try limits on changes to the cars after qualifying is outlined in the Tasmania SuperSprint’s supplementary regulations, which have been distributed to the teams. In qualifying, teams routinely configure cars for optimum one-lap speed, using minimal fuel loads, fresh tyres, different springs and suspension settings, and sometimes altered aero settings within the restrictive range of the rules and cooling system blanking to reduce air resistance. They are then changed before the race to suit the teams’ planned pit stop strategies, which are often the same because years of experience have established the best approach barring safety car interventions or race-interrupting incidents.

Supercars officials hope the parc ferme trials will result in more varied strategies and less predictable outcomes, leading to more widespread adoption in 2020. There would also be the side benefit that team personnel would have time for a proper lunch break on the Saturdays and Sundays at sprint race events, whereas now the time between qualifying and the race each day is often consumed by reconfiguring the cars. However, the move is likely to opposed by purists, who point out that final qualifying is the only time the cars are seen in full flight, lapping as quickly as they can achieve in the conditions. Officials are aware of this concern and are remaining open-minded, trialling the idea to see if the potential racing benefits outweigh the compromised qualifying speed.

would just continue on regardless.” Removing the time-certain stipulation unless track conditions, weather or daylight are issues will be welcomed by TV viewing fans.

However, the impact on FTA broadcasts for the rest of the year will only be at Darwin, Townsville, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Sandown, which are the only events Channel 10 will be showing live.

SUPERCARS TV TO STAY LATE BY MARK FOGARTY

SUPERCARS HAS abandoned timecertain race finishes unless there are safety issues. Races will also continue on TV beyond the scheduled telecast time if necessary. In a move certain to be applauded by fans, races will be run to their full scheduled duration even if there are long delays to the start or in-race interruptions as long as it is safe to continue late. Time-certain finishes have long been a bugbear for free-to-air TV viewers, with networks stopping coverage to go to the evening news bulletin. Auto Action has learned that Supercars supremo Sean Seamer authorised a change of the race finishing time rules during the Melbourne 400 at Albert Park last weekend. From now on, races will run their full distances after delays if conditions permit. Seamer acted on the sore point after the second leg of the Adelaide 500 didn’t go the full distance because of a lengthy track condition hold up. The race distance was reduced because it had to end before FTA broadcaster Channel

10 went to its 6 pm AEDT Sunday evening news. Seamer is now negotiating with 10 to switch any race that over-runs to one of its secondary digital channels. The main Fox Sports coverage is unaffected because the subscription TV network is not bound by other programming commitments. The Adelaide 500 Sunday race Turn 1 track repair delay was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Seamer. “What we want to try to do is get to an agreement with our broadcast partners where the race just runs until it’s safe from a marshalling point of view and the amount of daylight that we have, rather than running time certain because of programming,” he told AA. “That’s what we’re talking about.” Having lifted the time-certain embargo, Seamer now hopes to persuade Channel 10 to switch races that are go beyond 6 pm AEDT or AEST marks from the main channel to 10 Bold, for example. “That would be ideal,” he said. “Fox Sports

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BOOST BOSS BUYS IMAGE AUSTRALIAN JAMES Davison will return to Dale Coyne Racing for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 in May. The American squad will partner with Jonathan Byrd’s Racing, Hollinger Motorsport and Belardi Auto Racing to run the No. 33 car for the cousin of Supercars racer Will Davison. The 32-year-old last competed with the IndyCar squad in 2017 where he led two laps before an incident took him out of the race.

PORSCHE HAS completed the initial shakedown of its new Formula E car ahead of its works entry in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship for Season 6 (2019/20). The German manufacturer confirmed that Neel Jani’s first drive with the newly developed fully electric Porsche powertrain passed without incident. “I am very proud to have been behind the wheel the first time our Formula E racing car was driven.” said Jani. “Being allowed to drive the rollout is not only a great honour, it is also very exciting. We’re breaking new ground. It was a fantastic feeling for me.” BRAD JONES Racing has announced that is has signed Madeline Stewart to their now twocar Super3 Series squad in 2019. Stewart has raced for nine years, working her way through the cadet and junior karting classes and has been competing in the top tier KZ2 class for the last two years. The third-generation racer explains how she got behind the wheel. “It’s been a challenging learning curve getting behind the wheel of the Super3 Commodore,” Stewart said. “It’s a big deal going from karting straight into Super3. If I can keep progressing, learning and moving forward through the field then that will be a pretty solid first year.” THE CONFEDERATION of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) has announced that Andrew Fraser and Thea Jeanes-Cochrane have been appointed to the CAMS Board. Fraser, the former Deputy Premier and Treasurer of Queensland, has significant sports governance experience, including at the Australian Sports Commission, the National Rugby League (NRL) and New Zealand Rugby League. He is also currently the Chair of Sunsuper. “I was raised in the back of a family car dealership in North Queensland – and probably pre-programmed to be a motor sport fan,” said Fraser. “Joining the CAMS Board provides the opportunity for me to combine my recent background in sports governance, and my public and private sector experience to a sport that I love.”

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Owning the team not needed if the look and message controlled: Adderton By BRUCE NEWTON

OUTSPOKEN Boost Mobile boss Peter Adderton says he will not make a bid for an ownership share of Garry Rogers Motorsport or any other Supercar team as long as his brand dominates the team’s public image. The telephone reseller moved on from a cosponsoring Walkinshaw Andretti United with Mobil to take over primary backing of the two GRM Commodores for 2019 after the withdrawal of Wilson Security. With Adderton’s financial involvement came suggestions he was also interested in a stake in the team as he has previously considered becoming a Supercars team owner. But Adderton says because of the way his deal is structured with GRM that’s not needed. At the same time, Garry Rogers has publicly made it clear he’s not interested in selling a portion of his team to Adderton or anyone else. “If we get what we have right now with the Boost Mobile Racing and the whole thing,

then great,” said Adderton. “I want go like Red Bull. I want our team and our name and that’s what I want people to know.” “But if no team is willing to do that for us, then absolutely we will come in.” Rogers has ceded control to Adderton of the team’s public face and also agreed to release Garth Tander from the final year of his deal and replace him with controversial Kiwi Richie Stanaway. “We own the front-end and GRM do the back-end,” Adderton explained. “They do the team but we do the marketing, the social

branding, we put the drivers profiles up. “I want to have garages that look like an E-sports game. When a kid comes into our garage I want them to feel at home. I want our garages to be open and accessible.” Adderton said the only thing that might prompt a buy-in offer to GRM is if Rogers decided he wants a co-investor. “Right now Garry is passionate about this, but if he gets to the point where he doesn’t want to do it anymore and he came to us and said ‘we are interested in having an equity partnership with you guys’ … then 100 per cent we are interested in that.”

a number have been sold,” Thomas said. “We are going to play a wait and see game on that one for this first season. “But we think that the championship could be quite popular. We are certainly considering it for next year, it’s just a matter of the return on investment for us and what it does for us as a brand. “But remember through all this TCR is for independent teams, it’s not for manufacturers, so we would have to employ some people to race for us.” Reeves, who was involved in localising the popular road-going i30 N’s chassis and suspension calibration, has been developing his Targa entry in the Whiteline Tarmac Rally Sprint Series over the summer.

The car’s 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine will remain standard and the driver-adjustable multi-mode suspension will have only minor revisions. But Reeves has high ambitions in a field containing cars many times the price of the $39,990 i30 N “We’re aiming for a top 10 result, and if we can get into the top five by the end of the event that would be awesome,” he said. Reeves, who first raced in Targa 10 years ago and has a best finish of fourth in 2011, will team up with his sister Rhianon Gelsomino for the event. Caltex is confirmed as a sponsor of the car, which may race in other tarmac rally sprints this year. Bruce Newton

HYUNDAI’S FIRST AUSSIE DEAL

Targa toe-in-the-water could lead to TCR backing in 2020 THE AUSTRALIAN arm of Korean giant Hyundai will make its first official foray into local motorsport at Targa Tasmania, ahead of a potential involvement in the new TCR category in 2020. International rally driver Brendan Reeves will race an i30 N hot hatch in the GT2 class, with an outright top 10 the target. But this toe-in-the-water exercise could be followed up with a significant commitment to the TCR Series, which launches in Australia at Sydney Motorsport Park in May. “TCR would be a serious commitment for us and we will be looking at that for 2020,” Hyundai Australia’s new marketing boss Bill Thomas told Auto Action. Several TCR-spec i30 Ns are slated to race in Australia in 2019 via HMO Customer Motorsport, a private outfit that has no formal connection to Hyundai Australia. Supercar ace Chaz Mostert was planning to race one of those cars for the Morcomb family until Tickford Racing stepped in to stop that plan. Thomas said Hyundai would be paying attention to TCR in 2019 to see how it stacked up. “We are keen to see the cars in action, we are not sure how many cars are confirmed, but

MOBIL F1 EDGE FOR WALKINSHAW By MARK FOGARTY

GLOBAL RACING fuel and lubricants giant Mobil is trying to help Walkinshaw Andretti United gain a small performance edge. Mobil is working with WAU to develop a special transmission oil for the team’s ZB Commodores. Mobil 1 lubricants has been a long-time sponsor of the Clayton squad from its days as the factory backed Holden Racing Team. ExxonMobil’s global motorsports technology manager David Tsurusaki revealed that the fuel and lubricants giant is developing a special transaxle oil for WAU utilising the company’s F1 experience. Mobil is Red Bull Racing-Honda’s fuel and lubricants supplier, developing power- and

efficiency-boosting petrol and oil for the team. USA-based ExxonMobil is also involved with leading WEC, WRC, IMSA and NASCAR teams. Tsurusaki was in Melbourne at the weekend overseeing the fuel and lubricant requirements of Red Bull-Honda, which finished third on the debut of the partnership in the AGP. He also connected with WAU technical staff, with whom his group is working to develop a more efficient transaxle oil. Tsurusaki also confirmed ExxonMobil had been actively developing special engine oils for HRT/ Walkinshaw Racing/WAU for nearly 30 years. “What’s now the Walkinshaw Andretti United team has been a Mobil 1-sponsored team for

many, many years,” he said. “We still support them.” Speaking exclusively to Auto Action at Albert Park, Tsurusaki revealed his racing research and development team, based in New Jersey in the USA, was working on a new transmission oil for WAU. “We’re testing a gear oil with them,” he said. “There’s only a few things you can do in Supercars. Obviously, engine oil is the primary area, so there are areas to improve efficiency on the engine, just like in F1. “It’s a five-litre V8, so it’s a little bit different, but there are areas for improvement. We use what we refer to as a lower-viscosity racing oil for WAU

and we are testing a bespoke gear oil to try to optimise the gearbox efficiency. “You look at the timing of these cars and if you can gain a half a second or three-tenths of a second, that’s the race win right there.” According to Tsurusaki, WAU benefits from the ‘trickle down’ from Mobil’s F1 lubricants. It is likely that Shell-backed DJR Team Penske and BP/Castrol-supported Tickford Racing and Kelly Racing also benefit from F1-developed lubricant technology. Triple Eight has a commercial alliance with Caltex, which is part of global petro giant Chevron, but it is not clear if the relationship includes technical support from its Havoline oil brand.

explained Burgess. “Some of these things will be implemented this year, but we have some clear rule changes that will be in place for 2020 and for sure it will save the teams some money and the aim is to get more life out of these engines.

“A lot of these people rebuild these engines early just because they can and they have the resources to do it. Is it necessary? No it’s not.” Factory Holden team boss Roland Dane said mandated engine rebuild schedules were a “no-brainer”. BN

MORE ENGINE COST CUTTING Supercars plans to limit rebuilds A MANDATED engine rebuild schedule is being introduced by Supercars as another cost cutting measure. The timing of the schedule’s introduction and how it would work are not public, but Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess confirmed it was on the way. “We have a lot of R&D to do on it,” said Burgess. “It’s not that complicated, for me they are fairly easy and straight forward things to adopt, but we are not in a position to tell the world about it. “We are not inventing anything special here, but we need to finish the process before we start to talk about it.” This is one of a number of engine-related cost cutting initiatives Supercars has under

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consideration. As exclusively revealed by Auto Action previously, it has exploited the introduction of the updated Motec ECU by introducing a fuel/ air mixture limit to stop teams running their V8 engines ultra-lean and damaging internal components. Burgess said the Supercars ETAP (or Engine Technical Advisory Panel) had been reconstituted and the rebuild minimum had been signed off, along with some other initiatives. All engines builders on the Supercars grid were at the meeting. “It [ETAP} identified a clear path forward which will help save the teams from themselves and try and reduce the costs of the engine programs across the board,”

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RE-FOCUS FOR GT IN THE days leading up the first round of the 2019 Australian GT Championship, category manager Ken Collier announced via a personal letter to the GT teams that he was resigning after the AGP event. The mood in the GT paddock was mixed with the news and several GT Team principals spoke to Auto Action about concerns they had with the future of the category. Category rights hold Jim Manolios spoke to Auto Action and offered his perspective. “As far as Ken resignation is concerned, he put it in, and I accepted it. It’s all very amicable and people get to a point where they don’t want to do a certain job and he obviously didn’t want to do it,” Manolios told Auto Action. We are in the process of finding a replacement, whether that is one person or we restructure and it’s two or more people to look after the category, we’re considering literally right now. Hopefully we’ll have a new structure and some new people probably at the latest by next week.” When asked about the future direction of

the category, Manolios was firm in his position that over time things will improve for the category and the teams that commit. “Firstly these things don’t change overnight, secondly from my point of view we had to really sit back and have a look at exactly what was happening and how it worked and everything before we made the changes. “I have to say Ken did a fantastic job late last year under extreme pressure they have come up with the calendar that we have got, now we need to work out really how we are selling that calendar and what we are doing. “Originally, the deal was that we were going to take over the category in February last year. Between Tony Quinn and I, it took us until August or September to put ink on paper. That has been a bit of a disadvantage, we have been working against the clock ever since that happened and I think that has also put a lot of pressure on Ken. “Watch this space, there are significant changes happening we are trying to look to

Asia for customers, we are looking to join with other overseas categories, we are just trying to increase the reach of Australian GT. “We are already working on next year’s calendar way ahead of schedule, there is going to be some really interesting new concepts in that as well. “I think that Barbagallo will be very well attended. I think people’s focus at the beginning of the year is on the 12 Hour, then Adelaide and the Grand Prix. “Now that is out the way, people who haven’t signed for the season will be looking at what comes next so Barbagallo is going

to be sensational, we’ve got two-night races immediately after the Supercars. We are offering a $2500 transport rebate, to ease the cost of the cars all the way over there, we are working with some of the competitors who don’t have transport organised. We are trying to give an opportunity for the cars that are based in Perth. There is going to be one right on their door step at a track that they know and be part of a significant motorsport event with Supercars and under lights, live TV I just think it is going to be terrific.” Bruce Williams

PERONI REVEALS F3 CHALLENGER TASMANIAN ALEX Peroni will head into the upcoming European season with stability for the first time as his plans for 2019 were revealed much earlier than in previous years. The 19-year-old is set to enter the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Campos Racing after two years competing in arguably Europe’s most competitive junior category, Formula Renault Eurocup. Peroni’s plans were confirmed in February, which was a relief to he and his band of supporters as in previous years has struggled for budget. “Really happy to be racing F3 this season with Campos and as always, the hardest part of the year is the off season where we, mostly David [Quinn, Peroni’s manager] try to get

funding for the year,” Peroni told Auto Action. “You have a lot of uncertainty and you’re not sure whether you are going to race or not, so to announce I’ll be racing was a big relief.” A run at the end of season GP3 testing at Abu Dhabi demonstrated his speed and Campos were eager to snap the young Australian up. Although it was brief experience, Peroni was able to pick out the areas he needed to improve on, which helped in his preparation. “It was three days and you can do quite a lot in three days,” Peroni explained. “I learnt that physically I wasn’t up to par and it is a big jump from

Renault, I think a lot of the Eurocup guys struggled with that, but to drive it is a different technique. It was a good taste and to have good pace there was good even though it was a test.” Peroni spent three years in Formula Renault machinery, the last two in Eurocup where he took three wins and placed in the top 10 on both occasions in the final championship

standings. The decision to move on was not a hard one for Peroni, as he feels right at home at Campos and believes he’s in the best position he’s been in since competing in Europe. “We gelled straight away with engineer and the team,” Peroni said of his relationship with Campos. “I think it’s good to be with a Spanish team, for me, being half Italian I do things with a similar

passion and I think that suits me. The shakedown went well and they are working hard to bring good results, which is inspiring for me with the whole team working that hard for the drivers.” The opening round takes place at Catalunya on May 11-12, with Peroni’s striking car displaying support from the Tasmanian Government. HMcA

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MCELREA STARTS WITH SUCCESS

LUIS LEEDS AIMING HIGH IN HIS relatively short career Luis Leeds has already achieved a lot, finishing third in the British F4 Championship as well as competing in the Formula Renault Eurocup and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. This year, Leeds finds himself in Australia contesting a full season in Formula 4 with AGI Sport. Auto Action spoke to Leeds about his overseas experiences and what he hopes to do moving forwards. After spending a year racing in Australian Formula 4 Leeds moved to England when he was picked up by the Red Bull Junior

program early in 2016. “It was incredible, I learnt what it takes to perform at the highest level I spent a lot of time at Milton Keynes in the factory on the simulator at the gym just trying to improve physically and mentally,” Leeds said. After finishing an impressive third in the British F4 Championship Red Bull decided to drop Leeds, but the 19 year old explained that it was still a positive experience. “I’ve been able to put what I’ve learnt into performing better in Formula Renault, back here in Formula 4 and the Porsche GT3

last year, it has been valuable experience that I have gained,” Leeds said. In 2018 Leeds was back on Australian shores and entered a campaign in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, the first tin top race car Leeds had driven, but he insists tin top racing is not his aim. “My goal hasn’t changed, I’m still focused on trying to make it to Formula 1, the plan is to race Formula 3 in Europe next year,” said the Victorian. Leeds telling Auto Action that although no deal is done, he is in the process of getting a deal together. Dan McCarthy

SPORTS SEDANS SECURE TITLE SPONSOR THE AUSTRALIAN Sports Sedan Series has announced that DEA Performance will be its naming rights sponsor for the 2019 season, replacing Skye Sands. The announcement comes ahead of the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park on April 6-7 where a capacity grid is expected to contest the weekend, including the return of 10-time series winner Tony Ricciardello, reigning title holder Steve Tamasi, state winners Rick Newman and Steven Lacey, the Aston Martin of Mark Duggan, John Gourley’s famous Audi and many more. DEA Performance is a Melbournebased exhaust manufacturing company, which has more than 100 years of combined experience in the automotive industry. Plans for further activations between the National Sports Sedan Series and DEA Performance are planned at each of the five-rounds.

The National Sports Sedans will kick off its season at Round 2 of the NSW Motor Race Championship at SMP before joining the Shannons Nationals for back-to-back events at Tailem Bend and Queensland Raceway.

The series then takes part in two marquee events, the first being the Muscle Car Masters meeting at SMP in late August, whilst the final round will take place at the Sandown Historics weekend in late-October.

WINNER OF the Road to Indy Scholarship, Hunter McElrea has impressed on debut on the streets of St Petersburg after placing third and second across the pair of 40-minute races. The opening race was chaotic to say the least as crashes marred the event, highlighted by Frenchman Alex Baron’s Legacy Autosport Tatuus USF-17 heading skyward before Turn 1 after qualifying a disappointing seventh. McElrea was forced to take avoiding action as Baron’s car cartwheeled down the escape road, as he emerged unscathed from the damaged chassis. McElrea was on the recovery trail after the red-flag was brought out due to another incident under the initial caution to recover Baron’s stricken car. The Kiwi worked his way back to third ahead of Dane Christian Rasmussen, but couldn’t do anything about lead duo Braden Eves and Manuel Sulaiman. The second race of the weekend was less dramatic; however, Eves was gifted the win as a mistake from then-race leader Darren Keene hampered not only his own race, but that of Rasmussen, which allowed the Race 1 winner through to complete the double. McElrea was able to take advantage and slot into second, whilst rounding out the podium was American Zach Holden. “To get double podiums in my debut race in the series, and my first street races, I’m happy to work from here,” said McElrea post-race. “That was only my second rolling start and I think I dropped back to eighth so that’s not where we want to be, especially when we qualified up front. The car felt great and I think I could have gotten quick lap on that last one, if not for the incident. I would have loved a few more laps.” Cameron Shields had a tough initiation to USF2000 competition 11th and 16th after encountering troubles. The next round of the USF2000 Championship is at Indianapolis on road course on May 10-11.

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SRO ANNOUNCE BLANCPAIN SERIES ENTRIES THE STEPHANE Ratel Organisation has confirmed the entry lists for both the headline Blancpain GT Endurance Series and the renamed Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series, with 10 manufacturers represented in GT3 racing’s highest level. Covered over classes Pro, Silver Cup, Pro-Am and Am Cup, 49-cars will contest the five-round Endurance Cup component, while 24 full-season entries will take in the sprint-based World Challenge Europe. “I am pleased to see another extremely healthy entry list for the Blancpain GT Series and to welcome a number of new and returning teams to the paddock this season,” said SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel. “We are also particularly thankful to the teams that have been most faithful to the series and continue to race with us year after year.” Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche will all be represented on the grid across the two series. This season will bare witness to the debut of Aston Martin’s latest Vantage GT3 fielded by Bathurst podium-winning team

R-Motorsport, Honda makes its full-season debut with an NSX GT3 entered by Jenson Button’s new venture with the experienced RJN squad. Audi, Lamborghini, Mercedes and Ferrari will be the most frequently featured on the grid, while Porsche’s armoury is further strengthened by three Pro Class entries as part of the German manufacturers commitment to increasing its GT3 customers. “The Endurance Cup grid remains at the same extremely high level that we have become accustomed to, with 10 brands represented in 2019, extending the long run of success that the category has enjoyed since its creation. Among this year’s entrants, we will see the first full season in Endurance

DOOHAN ANNOUNCES ASIAN PROGRAM

AUSTRALIAN FOR ADAC GT SERIES

AUSTRALIAN EX-PAT Aidan Read will move to Europe in 2019 to contest the world’s strongest domestic GT championship, when he contests the ADAC GT Masters in Germany. Driving for Schutz Motorsport, Read will partner with 23-yearold German Marvin Dienst in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the seven round GT Masters series. “This season presents a great opportunity to challenge in a fiercely competitive European GT3 field,” Read said. “I am confident that Schutz Motorsport will have a strong package to contend overall and in the Junior Trophy class.” Read has competed in the Blancpain GT Asia Series for the past two seasons, first with the Triple FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini squad in 2017, then with the highly regarded Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche team last year where he met Schutz Motorsport team owner

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for Honda with its NSX GT3, as well as a number of new and updated cars from our existing brands. “There is also a healthy grid for the launch of Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe. The numbers are up from last year’s Sprint Cup field and competitors are clearly excited by the new GT World Challenge concept. “Overall, we can see increased balance between professional and non-professional drivers this season. This was a founding principle of our series and remains a matter of great importance. We have put significant work into this area and I am glad to see that it is paying off.” The Blancpain GT Series kicks off with the Endurance Series opener at Monza on April 12-14.

Christian Schutz, who engineered the Aussie. The first time Read will sample the Mercedes will be at the pre-season test at Oschersleben, which will also hold the opening round of the ADAC GT Masters on April 27-28. Read is looking forward to the new challenge that lay ahead. “I will be learning a new car, new tracks and a new championship this year,” Read admitted. “This will be a test of my ability to learn and apply myself quickly in different situations. I have confidence in my ability and feel supported by the team.”

AUSTRALIAN JACK Doohan is set to contest the FIA Asian F3 Championship in 2019, alongside his commitments in the European-based Euroformula Open. The 16-year-old has already acquired experience in Asia after undertaking a round of the Asian F3 Winter Series at Sepang, where he scored a pair of second places and was leading the final race before a raceending incident. Doohan will contest the FIA Asia F3 Championship with Dragon Hitech GP, which fielded his entry at Sepang. The team secured the inaugural team’s and driver’s titles last season. The Red Bull athlete finished as lead rookie in last year’s British F4 title and guest drove in both the ADAC German F4 Championship and the Italian F4 Series. “I’m very pleased to be working with such a high standard team for this year’s Asian F3 season,” said Doohan at the announcement. “After competing in the final round of the Winter Series, I now feel I’m fully comfortable with the car and team to take it to the next level for the main series. I’ll be doing my best to push to the maximum as I

know Hitech will be doing the same for me and hopefully, we can come away with a top result.” Hitech GP team manager Phil Blow is confident Doohan can replicate his previous performances on a consistent basis in the championship. “We’re really pleased to announce Jack as our first signing for the main Asian F3 Championship,” said Blow. “He did a fantastic job in Sepang jumping in for the last round, making steady progress and taking away two podiums whilst fighting for victory on his debut in the series. He showed great maturity against some vastly experienced drivers despite having to miss the first two rounds until he turned 16.” The opening round of the FIA Asian F3 Championship will be held at Sepang on April 7-8.

AA’s incredulous pundit wonders why anyone is surprised that the Mustang is so quick straight out of the box, much less the return of the dreaded P word IT WAS always going to happen. Once it became clear Ford was applying its global motor sport might to the Supercars Mustang, nothing was surer than a renewed parity debate. A new body shape, advanced development techniques and an open invitation to use more composite materials ensured the Mustang would be contentious. And it is. Unsurprisingly, after six straight wins from six starts, the Holden teams are in uproar. As we reported last issue and again in our lead news story on pages 4/5, parity is the buzzword along the pit lane. The Commodore teams, especially, are questioning the Mustangs’ centre of gravity and aerodynamics. What did they expect? The ZB let the genie out of the bottle and there’s no putting it back. Having noted the ZB’s advances, of course the Mustang – especially with heavyweight international input – was going to go to the next level. Ah, der! Albert Park was a hot bed of intrigue. Fingers pointed, secrets revealed. From creative interpretations of the rules to outright cheating, the allegations about the Mustang’s advantages flowed thick and fast. And, of course, the story has got out, not least due to our efforts to uncover the inevitable parity furore. This has been despite the best efforts of Supercars, which has strenuously avoided the P word. Supercars is scrambling to address the concerns about the

Mustang’s imperious performance advantage – and has been since before the Adelaide 500. But it is also trying to keep its investigations secret – which never works. There is possibly no major motor sport category in the world enveloped in as much on-going political intrigue as Supercars. Trust me, our mob make Formula 1 look like amateurs when it comes to rumour, innuendo, dispute, debate and backroom conniving. However, as well as trying to avoid any public acknowledgement of a parity row, Supercars has a legitimate concern about its investigation being exposed. It doesn’t want the teams to know its tactics. This came to light when I tackled Supercars supremo Sean Seamer on the growing concerns about the Mustangs’ soaraway speed. While it’s my job to subvert the system by finding out what’s going on, Seamer pointed out that publicising what was being investigated hampered their efforts. “We have to be really careful about that,” he told me at Albert Park. “We can’t tell you and we can’t tell the teams because we don’t want them to know exactly what we’re up to. The problem is, as I’m sure you understand, is that we’re dealing with some very clever people out there that could use that information to their advantage going into the testing.” Fair point. He also confirmed that a centre of gravity test of all three makes would be conducted at Kelly Racing, along with simulation work, to determine whether – for

the sake of maintaining technical parity – a CoG location rule needs be implemented. But CoG is just one of many concerns with the Mustang raised by the Holden and Nissan teams. Make no mistake, this controversy is going to run and run. Supercars’ official stance is vague, to say the least. “There are well defined processes, mechanisms and resources in place to manage the category and ensure equitable competition,” it said in what’s referred to internally as ‘a holding statement’. “A wide range of data and information has and is being collected, and will be thoroughly analysed. If an issue is identified, it will be addressed accordingly.” Notice the avoidance of ‘parity’. Supercars is paranoid about the Mustang – the biggest and best thing to happen for the category ever creating a parity controversy. Oops, too late. The fact is, Ford Performance and

DJR Team Penske did their jobs. They made the Supercars Mustang as good as they knew how within the rules. Or how they interpreted the rules. If you read them closely enough, the regulations are underwritten by Supercars having the right to construe the technical rules as they see fit. If something doesn’t comply with the spirit or intention of a rule, it can be outlawed. But, equally, it is perfectly acceptable for teams to push the boundaries. As long as they’re prepared to be reined in if they get too creative, all is well. I think it’s safe to say that DJRTP and Tickford Racing – not so sure about Ford Australia or Ford Performance, though – are expecting to be pegged back a bit after sweeping the first six races. That awkward-looking thing is simply too fast. Something must be done to avoid a season-long rout. The Mustang’s success so far has been a big hit, but continued

domination will wear thin with the fans very quickly. While I’m not at all surprised by the parity row, I am concerned that Supercars didn’t foresee this. The homologation process clearly needs to be strengthened so that questionable cars don’t make it into racing before being challenged. The jungle drums were beating last November, so why weren’t they heard? Also, Supercars’ ‘secret squirrel’ approach to technical matters has to change. Transparency with the media would avoid a lot of controversy. Of course, be careful what I wish for. Without all the secrecy and intrigue, our job would be a lot less interesting. But, seriously, after all this time, is it not clear that trying to hide things from the media, especially in Supercars, never works? Like the slogan of The X-Files TV series, “The truth is out there”. Always.

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s w e n e n O Formula

RACING WORLD MOURNS CHARLIE AUSSIE MICHAEL Masi, the former Supercar deputy race director, took over Charlie Whiting’s duties as the FIA race director, safety delegate and the permanent starter in Melbourne. Whiting died from a pulmonary embolism in Melbourne on March 14. He was 66 years old. Auto Action asked FIA president Jean Todt if Masi would continue in his new role at future races. Todt said that those plans had not been finalised yet but would be soon. It could be that several people including Masi will replace Whiting. The entire racing world was in shock about Whiting. “He was very important to the drivers,” Valtteri Bottas

said. “There were so many different things he was involved with and really helping us, helping the safety a lot. He was always taking all the notes during the drivers’ briefings if we had any concerns regarding track improvements or if we felt some was odd, it could be something to do with the kerbs or how the marshals were working during sessions – everything. He was involved in all of that. He had a massive impact in F1 and in what it is nowadays. At this point it’s difficult to imagine who can be there instead of Charlie to do the same job.” Whiting was a classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper.

He began working in F1 in 1977 as a mechanic for Hesketh Racing, but he spent most of his time working for Brabham where he eventually became chief mechanic. Whiting helped Nelson Piquet win the 1981 and 1983 drivers’ world championships. There were many occasions when Brabham got creative with the rules, something he would be on the opposite side of later on, at the FIA. Whiting remained with the team until owner Bernie Ecclestone sold it in 1988. Next, Whiting joined the FIA as the technical delegate, and in 1997 he became the FIA director and safety delegate. He worked constantly to improve safety in racing both with

THE JAMMED MIDFIELD THE FIGHT among the midfield pack of teams is shaping up to be an intense one this season. It is also jam packed with teams. Take out the usual big three – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – and Williams, which is trailing far behind, and the other six teams are all contesting for midfield honors. At the moment the Haas team is leading the pack that also includes, in no particular order, Renault, Racing Point, McLaren, Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo. “If you have two or three tenths in this midfield then you have a big gap,” Haas driver Kevin Magnussen said. “It’s not like we have a second to the next guys.” The surprise is how big a step Alfa Romeo has taken this year. “It’s Sauber engineering still as a factory and building the cars” said Kimi Räikkönen, who returned to the team he made his F1 debut with in Melbourne in 2001. “It’s a very good car and it’s crazy to think that there are other cars that are faster than this. It feels very, very, very fast.” Daniel Ricciardo reckoned that Renault was faster than it appeared

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to be in qualifying when Nico Hülkenberg and he were 11th and 12th. And Hülkenberg proved it by finishing seventh in the race. Racing Point finally has a decent budget, which it did not when it was Force India and owned by Vijay Mallya, so the team will be able to steadily and continuously update its car throughout the season. But the team has started the season on the backfoot because it had limited mileage during pre-season testing. Still, thanks to the influx of money, Racing Point was able to bring an upgrade for its cars in Australia that it normally wouldn’t have ready until the fifth race of the season. Things went smoothly for Toro Rosso’s build-up to the new season. “Our winter testing has been with no issues,” Daniil Kvyat said. “We came to Australia fully prepared. And we could focus on working on our normal racing schedule straight away.” Despite the fact that rookie Lando Norris qualified eighth in Australia, McLaren is probably at the tail end of the midfield. The Australian Grand Prix showed just how competitive the midfield

is this season with five different teams rounding out the top 10: Magnussen (Haas), Hülkenberg (Renault), Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo), Lance Stroll (Racing Point) and Kvyat (Toro Rosso), and the latter four were running nose to tail. Haas certainly had the legs on the rest for now, but Romain Grosjean is wary about his team staying ahead of the midfield. He points out that Albert Park, Bahrain, China and Azerbaijan, the first four races of the season, have very different circuit characteristics.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

the circuits and the cars. He certified circuits, wrote and clarified the technical regulations, and settled team disputes on the rules. He had many roles during a race weekend, including overseeing technical and procedural matters, doing driver briefings, listening to the driver and team complaints and, of course, starting the race. “He really was a pillar as Toto (Wolff) said, such an iconic figure within the sporting world, and he contributed so much to us,” Lewis

A LAST-minute rule change prior to the start of the 2019 season sees the driver who clocks the fastest lap time in the race being awarded a championship point. A similar system was in place from 1950 through 1959, and it helped Mike Hawthorn clinch the 1958 world drivers’ championship. But back then a winner earned only eight points, so an extra point could have a major influence. Will it make any difference now? With a win paying 25 points, a solitary extra point doesn’t mean much. In the last 18 years the only time it would have made a difference was in 2008 when Felipe Massa would have taken the title rather than Lewis Hamilton. But then the drivers were not gunning for fastest lap points, and if they had been, it could have been a different story. One of the provisos of the new rule is that in order to earn the point a driver must also finish in the top 10. But even if this was not the case, the chances of any driver not with Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari picking up a point will be slim indeed. Since the turbo hybrid era was introduced in 2016, the big three teams have harvested about 90 percent of the fastest race laps. Auto Action asked several drivers for their opinion on the new rule. “It’s good that they’ve restricted it to the

Hamilton said. “May he rest in peace.” Daniel Ricciardo said: “He was there for us, and we gave him a hard time; we really pressed him and pushed him and made him work. But he was always really receptive. You always felt like he was on our side. Like a broken record we would always complain, he would never really shut it down. He was always ears open. He did a lot for the sport. We’ll have some very, very nice and positive memories of him.”

top 10,” Daniel Ricciardo said. “So you do have something potentially to lose if you go in to pit for a fresh set of tyres to get the fastest lap. (Let’s) see how it plays out. I don’t think it will decide a championship – could do, but I don’t think it will.” Robert Kubica noted that the slow Williams won’t be a contender. “I think unfortunately it doesn’t affect us a lot,” he said. “At least for now. But the extra point – it can unlock some strange scenarios at the end of the race, with some cars pitting and it will open up. We’ll see three, four cars suddenly coming in. It will depend. It will be a kind of domino.” A driver will only pit for fresh tyres late in the race when most of the fuel load is burned off and make an attempt at a fast lap attempt. But a driver will also only pit if there is a big enough gap to the car behind to get a “free” stop and not lose a position. And that is assuming nothing goes wrong with the stop. So what’s the point of the new rule? Well, it might provide a talking point after the race if a driver grabs it using some curious tactics. “It’s 21 extra points, so it’ll be interesting to see how people try to get those points,” Hamilton said. But whether it will affect the outcome of the championship, and how the fans react to that, will only be known at the end of the year.

FW42 WOEFULLY SLOW THE WILLIAMS team dominated the first Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne back in 1996. But things were far from rosy in Albert Park this year for this once mighty team, and things are looking bleak for a long time into the season. The Williams car is woefully, painfully slow. It was two seconds slower than the midfield cars and four second adrift of the front runners in Melbourne. The team is stumbling operationally as well. For example, Robert Kubica damaged the floor on his car when he went over a kerb on Friday. The team had not brought a spare floor – there was a shortage of other parts as well – so the mechanics had to do makeshift repairs. Rookie driver George Russell said that there was a fundamental problem with the car.

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“Once we’ve solved that fundamental there’ll be a big leap,” he said. “We’ll probably still be at the back of the grid but with a chance to fight. At the moment the fact is we don’t really have any hope because we’re too far behind.” It is apparently a mechanical problem and not an aerodynamic one on the car. And there is no easy fix. “Last year we knew early on what was the fundamental problem with the car,” Kubica said, “and for the whole year it stayed more or less the same. I think we now have a much clearer picture of the car.” After missing nearly three days of pre-season testing, the team is using the early races of this season as test sessions. “Because we missed quite a lot of Barcelona running, it’s kind of normal that when the car

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runs it’s not running in the way it should run, so we’re mixing ideas a bit,” Kubica said. “George and I are in line with the feeling we have for the car, where we have to work but I would never say it will take two or three months to fix. For now no one knows. I hope it will take only two or three months.” On the bright side, Kubica drove in an F1 race for the first time in eight years and four months.

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He last raced in F1 in 2010. Then just a few weeks before the start of the 2011 season, he was badly injured in a rally accident that nearly severed his right arm. Since then it has been his goal to race in F1 again. Despite the woefully slow Williams, Kubica was the happiest person at the Albert Park circuit and maybe the happiest person in all of Australia. “I don’t think we all know to the extent of what he’s been through to get back here,” Daniel Ricciardo said of Kubica, “so I just think it’s awesome to see him back. I’ve known him from when I moved to Europe back in 2007, which feels like a long time. It is just a testament to his character, I won’t ask for everyone to applaud but I really think it’s awesome for him to be here.”

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F1 INSIDER IT WAS 50 years ago this month that I saw my first world championship Formula 1 race. My family was living in South Africa at the time, just 16 km from the fabulous Kyalami circuit, so my dad took a bunch of the neighborhood kids out to watch the 1969 South African Grand Prix. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how cheap the tickets were compared with now, when many families canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford to go to an F1 race. Jackie Stewart won in a Matra MS8-Ford with the highmounted wings that would be banned two months later because they were flimsy and prone to collapse. Graham Hill, the reigning world champion, finished second in a Lotus 49Ford. Denny Hulme (McLaren M7A-Ford), Jo Siffert (Lotus 49Ford), Bruce McLaren (McLaren 7A-Ford) and Jean-Pierre Beltoise (Matra MS8-Ford) rounded out the top six. Sadly, Siffert and McLaren perished in racing cars, while 1967 world champion Hulme died of a heart attack during the 1992 Bathurst 1000. The 1960s and early 1970s were desperately dangerous times, and Stewart must get high praise for his then controversial one-man campaign to improve safety of the cars, circuits and driver gear. F1 remains in Stewartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eternal debt as his crusade eventually transformed racing from a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;killing fieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to the relatively safe environment of the past 40 years In 1970, I rode my bicycle out to Kyalami when Stewart was testing the new March 701. There was no security of any kind and I was able to get into the pits. When I saw the reigning world champion, I jumped up and down and cried â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mr. Stewart! Mr. Stewart! May I have your autograph?â&#x20AC;? I still

with Dan Knutson

MY F1 GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

F1 remains in Stewartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eternal debt as his crusade eventually transformed racing from a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;killing fieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to the relatively safe environment of the past 40 years have that special inscription. I would get to attend three more South African Grands Prix. In 1970, I saw Jack Brabham win his 14th and final grand prix in his pretty Brabham BT33Ford. The next year I witnessed Mario Andretti win his first grand prix in a Ferrari. And in 1972, I watched Hulme, in a McLaren M19A-Ford, score his sixth of seven F1 wins. It was a thrill to meet these heroes of mine years later when I became an F1 journalist and went to all the races. I also have the autographs of Brabham, Andretti and Hulme in my treasured collection. In

fact, I had a chat with Stewart in the Albert Park paddock at the weekend and reminded him that I had been at Kyalami to see him win 50 years ago. LIKE EVERYONE in the F1 paddock, I was shocked to hear that longtime race director Charlie Whiting had passed away on the Thursday morning before the Melbourne GP. Just how much Whiting did for the sport and the safety of all involved is mind boggling, and just some of what he accomplished has been covered elsewhere in this issue of Auto Action.

But it was in improving safety that is his greatest legacy. Whiting pushed hard for F1 to adopt the HANS device in 2003, despite widespread resistance. Many drivers were against it, but now the HANS or similar head restraint systems are universal. In the face of their opposition, Whiting would tell the drivers back then that there was a time in F1 when the drivers did not want to use seatbelts. He made his point. The drivers in â&#x20AC;&#x2122;03 wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dream of racing without six-point harnesses, just as they now wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t race without a HANS device. Whiting also pushed hard for

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the F1 halo to be adopted last year â&#x20AC;&#x201C; another safety advance that was widely opposed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and it saved Charles Leclerc from serious injury or death in that big shunt just after the start of the Belgian Grand Prix. On top of all that, Whiting â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or just Charlie as everybody in the paddock called him â&#x20AC;&#x201C; was a genuinely nice bloke. Despite his punishing workload and schedule, he always had time for a chat if I wanted to ask him something about the technical regulations or whatever. Or he would relate an amusing tale from the old days when he was a mechanic at Brabham. Countless drivers are alive today, or have escaped serious injury in an accident, thanks to the tireless efforts and dedication of Charlie Whiting and Jackie Stewart. They are true icons of motor racing.

OPINION MANUFACTURERS ATTRACTED TO ELECTRICITY

Publisher

Bruce Williams 0418 349 555 Associate Publisher Mike Imrie

By HEATH McALPINE Deputy Editor

Editor-At-Large

MOTOR SPORT IS going through a rejuvenation, but through an unlikely source, electricity. Like it or not, the growth of Formula E hasn’t been witnessed around the track in terms of attendance, but from a manufacturer point of view it has been a bonanza. Porsche will be the latest to join the ePrix grid at the end of this year and it will be in the esteemed company of BMW, Nissan, Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes. Not only is Formula E going through a boom, but other motorsport disciplines are also joining in the party, TCR are currently testing in association with Spanish performance brand Cupra an electric version of a TCR-specification Leon. The aim is for electric cars to join the grid alongside its combustion counterpart using Balance of Performance measures to equal out the performance, just like TCR organisers currently do with new models. Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship also feature hybrid systems as it creeps into mainstream motorsport, rallycross is another that has plans to introduce electrical power, though there is uncertainty behind the move. Electric power is proving itself on one of the toughest events in the world, the Dakar

Creative Director/ Production

Mark Fogarty

Deputy Editor

Heath McAlpine 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

Rally. The car piloted by two-woman drivers also took part in the Finke Desert Rally here in Australia, with further improvements to lighten and lengthen the range of the batteries. Supporting Formula E, is the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, the first one-make electric category signifying a manufacturers commitment to supporting electrical power. Also planned is Electric GT based on the Tesla Model S, again bringing a manufacturer into the sport. It has been a rapid rise for electric motorsport over the pass five or so years and the amount of manufacturer interest has been the reason behind it, with marques such

as Audi and Mercedes aiming to release cars solely with electrical powerplants within the next decade, motorsport is following this trend. Manufacturers have been pulling out of motorsport in recent years and now are being attracted back thanks to electricity, much to many fans and pundits lament. The new ETCR title is the one that will be most popular I think, because the TCR platform has already been a success in its current form, but with manufacturers attracted to racing cars that are close to the street-going counterpart, Marcello Lotti is onto a winner. Look for this in 2020. The World Rallycross

Championship also aims to be fully electric in 2020 with more than 650hp on tap drivers such as Matthias Ekstrom excited by the potential. As revealed by Auto Action early last year, even Supercars are considering introducing an electrical component in the near-future in the hope of attracting more manufacturers. Whether race fans like it or not electrical power is here to stay and although the sound doesn’t exist, the racing may not be as good and the atmosphere maybe lost, it is attracting the manufacturers, which as we now rule the motorsport world. Electricity is about to take over, so we better all get used to it.

We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1979: The big news was cigarette company Rothmans pulling out of the sponsorship for the International Series for Formula 1 and Formula 5000 racing cars, while Peter Brock led the ATCC narrowly ahead of Bob Morris. George Fury headed a Datsun 1-2 at the Akademos Rally ahead of eventual champion Ross Dunkerton.

11999: Eddie Irvine was jubilant after

1989: Peter Brock’s move to Ford was vindicated after placing second at Symmons Plains, the second round of the series. Adelaide had just signed a deal to hold the Australian Grand Prix until 1996 and there were moves for IndyCars to race on the Gold Coast. The first appearance of the VN Commodore AUSCAR was conducted by Allan Grice.

2009: Jamie Whincup, Garth Tanderr 2

w winning the Australian Grand Prix. V8 Supercar team bosses and drivers S tthreatened to quit the AGP support bill, demanding better treatment from b tthe event promoters, while the races had plenty of biffo. Steve Owen was h tthe winner of the Alan Jones Trophy for Formula Ford. F and Mark Winterbottom were the early favourites for the title as the Adelaide 500 celebrated 10 years since its first event in 2009. Foges sat down with new V8 Supercars boss Cameron Levick, with many of the ideas such as night racing and expansion of calendar coming to fruition 10 years later.

Advertising Manager Bruce Williams All Advertising enquiries bruce@overdrivemedia.com.au (0418) 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

Published by Action Media Partners ABN number 62976094459 Suite 4/156 Drummond Street Oakleigh Victoria 3166 Phone: 03 9563 2107 The trademark Auto Action is the sole property of Action Media Partners The website www.autoaction.com. au and associated social media platforms are wholly owned by Action Media Partners All rights reserved No part of this magazine’s content may be reproduced, retransmitted or rebroadcast without the express written permission of the Publisher and Action Media Partners. Printed by Fairfax Media AMBROSE SPEAKS! MARCOS ON LIFE AFTER RACING .COM.AU

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SUPERCARS MOVES TO REIGN IN RUNAWAY FORDS

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FAST AFFORDABLE AND MUSTANG GT4 BEHIND THE WHEEL OF

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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH Uniquely a star in Supercars and NASCAR, Marcos Ambrose came out of retirement – very briefly – to join the Mustang demonstration at the Adelaide 500, but he’s adamant that he won’t be returning to real racing anytime soon

E WAS like a shooting star, burning brightly before disappearing. In just five seasons, Marcos Ambrose flashed through Supercars, becoming the dominant driver, and then he was gone. Ambrose spent nine seasons in NASCAR, with the last four in the top-level Cup Series. His achievements in the two most important sedan racing series in the world left a lasting impression. The Tasmanian’s legacy in Supercars is backto-back V8 crowns in 2003/04 and Ford hero status. In NASCAR, the self-styled ‘Devil Racer’ never had success on the ovals, but he won two Cup road course races at Watkins Glen, plus four more there in the second-level series. That Ambrose established himself in NASCAR was a lucrative achievement in itself, a tribute

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to his drive and determination. The only Australian to do so, he is also one of only two non-North American drivers to win Cup races. The other is Juan Pablo Montoya … Ambrose’s return to Supercars was not the triumphant homecoming he and Roger Penske hoped. He walked away from his DJR Team Penske drive after just two events in 2015, in what was portrayed as a selfless act as he struggled to readapt to Supercars racing. He came back to co-drive Scott Pye in the endurance races later in that year and then disappeared into the wilderness – literally. He led a project to convert a former training facility for Antarctic expeditions in Tasmania’s rugged central highlands, into a tourist getaway. Thousand Lakes Lodge is now wellestablished and Ambrose, 42, is tentatively

reconnecting with racing. He was enticed to join Dick Johnson and Scott McLaughlin in demonstration runs at the Adelaide 500, driving the new Mustang NASCAR Cup Series racer. Ambrose enjoyed the experience and expressed an interest in trying the Supercars version of the Mustang in the future. He was relaxed, personable and engaging – more like the charming Marcos of 2001-03, not the aloof Ambrose of ’04-05. But the hardened racer remains behind the friendly façade and the no-nonsense edge quickly reappears when you try to probe beneath the surface. While many still believe Ambrose quit his Supercars comeback too soon, he steadfastly maintains he has no regrets or second thoughts.

Marcos Ambrose made a brief return to the racing world, driving Ford’s latest NASCAR as part of the Mustang demonstration at the Adelaide 500.

I think it’s fair to say we didn’t expect you back here doing this. No, well, I didn’t expect to be doing this, but (DJRTP boss) Ryan Story rang me up and said “Hey, we want to do this Mustang demo, Dick’s going to drive, we’d like you to drive, Scott’s going to drive as well”. I said “Let me think about it for a day”. And I thought about it and I decided this is something I really should come bac and do, just because I wanted to celebrate Dick and Penske and the new Mustang. It’s a new leaf for Supercars and just to be part of that would be a lot of fun to be involved in, so I said yes. So here I am. And, surely, the chance to have a bit of a speed was part of the attraction? Oh, well, it’s just nice to drive a NASCAR again it felt very normal to me to sit in the left side of the car. Not so normal to drive it around the track here, but a lot of fun to be part of it all and get those sensations back. I have very vivid memories of my racing days and it was just like stepping straight back in. It felt right. Is it a handful around a street circuit? Yeah, it’s not great. I must say. I was very tentative, partly just because I haven’t

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driven anything at all for nearly four years and partly because I didn’t want to put it in the fence. It has a lot of power, it’s a very heavy car and it’s certainly not really suited to this track. But it’s a lot of fun, nonetheless. How different is the Mustang to the Fusion you last raced in 2014? It’s moved on a lot. All racing does move on, it’s never going to be the same, is it? They keep making nicer stuff, they keep refining race cars, they keep making more power and more grip, and so this car is no exception to that. It has a lot of grip for what it is and a lot of power. It’s just good to see it in the flesh and see the improvements. Clearly, I was on the cutting edge of NASCAR for several years and been away from it for a while, so it’s just good to see the progress. It’s the first time I’ve seen the electronic dash, which is interesting. What’s good about NASCAR is they change things, but they don’t change things too much. The suspension is still much the same as was on the cars 40 years ago. With some of the peripheral stuff, they’ve moved on and changed to modern technology, but they don’t go too heavy on it and that’s what I liked. I compare the NASCAR and the Supercar, and there’s still a lot of sport left

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in the NASCAR, whereas the Supercar is becoming more of a technical exercise. It wasn’t so long ago that digital instrumentation would’ve been regarded as heresy in NASCAR. Yeah, well, I was back in the day when they were running carburettors (before finally adopting fuel injection in 2012). But they’re moving on with the sport and I think it’s a good thing. It’s not a modern race car like a GT3 with carbonfibre or anything like that. It’s still a brutal machine, but that’s what makes the sport.

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It’s not easy to drive a NASCAR car. Do you look at the Supercars Mustang and wish you’d hung around a few more years? No, not at all because you just go with what you have. The cars I was racing in NASCAR were cutting-edge at the time. The V8 Supercar in 2003/04/05 (BA Falcon) was cutting-edge and it was the same with the FG X in 2015. Everything just moves on. Life moves on. Do you miss race driving?

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Marcos Ambrose was like a Supercars shooting star, winning the title in 2003/2004 before heading to America.

racing. I’ve been very fortunate with rac my career. I’ve had lucky breaks. had a dad (Ross) who put a ton I ha money into me to get going. of m I’ve been fortunate in all my racing career that I’ve had opportunities. care You can get into the online racing space spac for very little set-up costs, so it breaks down all those barriers of bre entry. entry And guys can have a genuine race on o there. It’s not jumping into one these cars, but it’s a great outlet th and it’s it pretty awesome to see how far it’s come.

No, I don’t miss race driving. I miss being involved in some elements of motor sport. Just turning up here at the track and seeing friends felt good. What I miss some days is just the process of what racing is. But I’m living a different life now and I’m happy with it. Do you see yourself getting involved in racing at some other level, maybe as a team owner?

Do you yo race online regularly? Oh, look, running a team is a labour of love. You don’t do it to make money. Any team owner will tell you that, so it’s probably not the best thing to o be part of, to be perfectly honest. Helping ng the next generation of kids coming through is something I’ve thought about, but they don’t really want to listen to someone who’s 42, so I’m not saying that’s the right approach. Maybe the administration side. I have a lot to contribute. I have a lot of experience and some element of a business mind. I see the big picture, so maybe there’s something there, but I’m quite happy to be on the outside looking in. I don’t need to be a fish in the fish bowl. I can be on the outside. So no regrets, you’re still convinced you made the right decision to quit when you did? It was an easy decision to make. I had to stop and that’s done. So I have no regrets. You keep track of Supercars, but you don’t watch the races, is that right?

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I don’t watch it intently, but I certainly keep abreast of itit. I’m like an old Millennial. I watch it on YouTube, I watch the highlights, I breeze through it that way. I don’t sit down and religiously watch a race, but I stay a part of the sport. I have friends and associates in the sport, both here and in the US, and I just like to follow them. So I stay across it, but I’m not deep in it. And yet you’re very active in online racing? I am and I’ve built my own machine. I did that because I wanted to get across all the tech stuff, to be honest. Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin and a few other guys were doing it, and I became curious and I got into it. So I built my own simulator and I really enjoy it. iRACE is the service that I use and I have a good relationship with those guys – they sponsored me back in 2010. I’m racing people from all over the world. I mean,

there was a session with Max Verstappen and I’m racing him! It’s quite incredible how far it’s come. Now, it’s not the real thing, OK? I’m not sitting here telling you it’s just like the real thing, but it’s pretty damn cool. That I can be in there and I can race an electrician in Tamworth who’s never sat in a race car and he can be racing me, he can be racing Shane van Gisbergen, he can be racing Max Verstappen, he can be doing 12 hour races, 24 hour races, all in VR (Virtual Reality) with all the sensations. So I fiddle around with that and it’s a lot of fun. It’s also me giving back a little bit. I help a couple of guys online with their platforms. Kevin O’Keefe is a guy I help. He has a little podcast and a channel called ‘The Warm Up Lap’ and it’s been great to see that grow. He has something like 8000 subscribers and he gets 10,000 views for his videos, and just to be part of that is a lot of fun. I just love that side of the racing because it breaks down all the barriers of

I do. But B I’m a casual online racer. My next race ra is the Nurburgring 24 Hours. I’m teaming team up with six drivers and I’ll do a couple of stints in that. So I’m a co casual racer, but I love the tech side r of it. So I’ve built my own suspension geometry to make it all move properly. I’m not into programming, but the mechanics of it fascinate me. It’s a full-on motion rig. It has three axes – pitch and yaw and roll – and I’ve screwed one of my NASCAR seats into it, so when I jump in it feels like one of my old cars. But you don’t use your real name in the races? Well, I do race under my own name when I’m doing some tutorials, but otherwise I race ‘invisibly’ under an alias. Did you actually officially retire? Probably not. That’s very Allan Moffat of you. [Laughs] Yeah, right, whatever.

Marcos Ambrose is one of only two drivers from outside North America to win at NASCAR’s highest level, doing it twice on the Wakins Glen road course.

So you’re not leaving the door open to racing again? No, 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. 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?

enough to be in the seat?” It doesn’t really matter where you’re from or who you are. All that matters is whether you can do the job.

It’s come out that part of the reason Scott McLaughlin is at DJR Team Penske is that you recommended him… Oh, look, I know where you’re going and I’ll tell this: I didn’t do much. But when I stepped back from the driving role, the question was raised and I did put Scott’s name forward because I really liked him – and I still do. I like him for what he is. He’s humble, he’s gracious, he’s hungry and he’s a fantastic driver. He has all the talent. So I just said “Hey, if you’re looking around, you need to look at this guy”. I could just tell he was going to be great. Anyone who comes through Jim and Ross Stone’s stable is going to be good. And what I really liked about Scott was that he was working on the car, fabricating stuff, which showed he was hungry for it. Talented young guys with that sort of dedication don’t come around every day. They’re a rare breed. But I played a miniscule part in his career. I’m not claiming anything, but it’s nice that he gives me some credit, which is appreciated. He was already well on his way when I said to the (Penske) guys “He looks like a serious candidate and if you’re looking around, you should be looking at him”. What I really enjoy is seeing where he is today. I don’t talk to Scott much. We have each other’s phone numbers and we might text once in a blue moon. He turned up and he had that

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You established a wilderness lodge in the wilds of Tasmania. That’s a pretty dramatic change of lifestyle.

championship look. He is the champion now and you can see it in his stance, in his calmness, in his approach, and it’s just great to see that it worked out for him. He has said that, ultimately, he would like to race in NASCAR. There’s no reason why he can’t. It’s whether he can make the crossover because it takes a lot of other things beyond what I’ve said about him and until you put yourself in that position, you don’t know how it’s going to shake out. But for now, he’s focused on doing a great job for Roger Penske and Dick Johnson here, and he’s made it very clear that’s his priority. Nd if he keeps going that way, opportunities will pop up for him, I’m sure. I’m sure he’s talking to the right people and saying the right things, and when an opportunity presents itself, it’s whether he can jump in and take it. If I were him, I would. Now, whether those opportunities do come and how long he has to wait for them, only time will tell.

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What you did, though, has opened a pathway for someone like McLaughlin. Mate, I’m just a guy who drove a car and I wanted to have a go at NASCAR, and I went over and had a go. There was no masterplan. There’s no patting me on the back for anything. There’s still no pathway from Australian racing to NASCAR. I’ve done it, yes, but there’s no clear path for anybody.

Oh, look, I tell you what, I just wanted to be really busy, really quickly when I got out of the (DJR Team Penske) seat and just step back. It was one of those projects that you could do to get rid of all that energy and not miss what you’d left. It was an opportunity that presented itself and I went and did it. I’m a shareholder in it, I don’t own it completely. I’m really proud of it. We built a beautiful lodge in the middle of nowhere and it’s going well, but it’s 10 per cent of my day – or not even that. So you do other things as well?

You’re one of only two non-North Americans who ever won NASCAR Cup races (the other is Juan Pablo Montoya). You must be proud of that?

Oh yeah, I have plenty of other stuff going on. I’m just living life.

Before I went there, no one from outside North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) had lasted a season in Cup. That gives you an idea of how difficult it is to break in. The statistics don’t really mean anything to me. I was in America, I raced cars, I wasn’t treated any differently to anybody, no one said those stats to me when I was over there. The only question they asked was “Can he win races, is he good

I was out the other day. Found absolutely nothing. No, actually, some baked bean tins.

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Is your hobby still panning for gold?

Not really a typical hobby for a race driver, is it? No. But of the race drivers I know, none of us is normal and none of us is the same. We’re all different in our own ways.

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PONY EXPRESS! The track ready, Ford Performance-Multimatic engineered Mustang GT4 is a vehicle that fits well within the GT4 philosophy and is one of the more potent and affordable vehicles on the market. With one of the Ford Mustang based race cars now in Australia, Auto Action’s BRUCE WILLIAMS and Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden were invited along to an exclusive test day at Winton to get better acquainted with this real Mustang GT4 race car.

s has been discussed before, GT4 is a great race category option for plenty of reasons. One of the best reasons is its lower initial cost of purchase and reduced running costs. And while GT4 teams compete at the same venues and in some of the world’s classic races like the Bathurst 12 Hour, the GT4 cars are reasonably affordable to purchase and to race when being compared to the full blown GT3, WEC and IMSA style cars. They also offer a customer with less experience a vehicle that is designed with more mechanical grip and less aerodynamic performance, and for less experienced drivers that ultimately makes for an easier car to drive and race. In addition, the maintenance and running costs are a lot less even when competing at a high level. While the GT4 category has yet to really take off locally, with only a handful of cars racing in the Australian GT Series, the GT4 category numbers continue to grow around the world, off the back of similar international categories and lots of different manufacturer offerings. When Ford and its performance brand, Ford Performance decided to enter GT racing with the Mustang and offer it as a race package to customers, it turned to long time technical partner Multimatic who is a multi-national performance engineering-based company.

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Multimatic has engineering locations all over the globe, including here in Australia, and provides engineering and manufacturing services to some of the world’s biggest car brands. Multimatic was also the company Ford partnered with to build the Ford GT road cars and its 24 Hours of Le Mans class winning Ford GTLM. On behalf of Ford, Multimatic has been building racetrack versions of the Mustang over several previous models. Most of these offerings have been pretty much focused on the local USA domestic series, but now the Mustang GT4 complies to a global rule set for GT racing, approximately 30 Multimatic GT4 Mustangs have been built and distributed in Canada, the US, New Zealand, the UK and now Australia. When it was first unveiled at the 2016 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the all new Ford Performance, Multimatic engineered production-based Mustang GT4 race car was met with great applause and interest. Based on the championship-winning Ford Shelby GT350R-C, the new Mustang GT4 is offered as a highly developed GT based turn-key sportscar. With plenty of Ford Performance products fitted to the GT4 and along with Multimatic’s engineering input and many in-house developed components, the GT4 car was always going to be a popular and potent race car. With many of the sportscar/GT based categories sharing similar technical regulations, the number of potential

Approximately 30 of the Ford Performance - Multimatic built GT4 Mustangs have been constructed and delivered. They have gone to Canada, the US, New Zealand, the UK and now Australia. The Ford customer-based race program has already seen dozens of race wins, as well as several championships since being homologated. places to race these cars is significant. These include the IMSA Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge, Pirelli World Challenge for GTS/GT4 cars, and the various global GT4 Series, including here in Australia. Since it’s competition debut, the Mustang GT4 has proven to be a potent race and championship winning package.

With now over 30 of these GT4 Mustangs supplied to racers around the world, the Ford customer-based race program has seen dozens of race wins and several championships, including the hotly contested 2017 and 2018 USA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Grand Sport, GS manufacturers title. Ford customer teams KohR Motorsports, VOLT Lighting, AWA and

Multimatic Motorsports shared five wins and 10 podiums amongst them in 2018, as the Mustang GT4 continues to be the car to beat in the category. The global spread of the Mustang GT4 racing program is growing with Multimatic Motorsports announcing that it has now entered a pair of GT4 Mustangs into the 2019 British GT Championship. The British GT4 Championship has grown in stature in recent years and is now one of the strongest of all GT4 series, with plenty of cars and top teams competing.

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Multimatic sees the British GT program as an opportunity to demonstrate the Mustang’s race winning capability and to develop young talent, both behind the wheel and on the race team. Sebastian ‘Seb’ Priaulx (GB), son of Multimatic WEC regular Andy Priaulx, and winner of the most recent round of the British F4 Championship, will join Multimatic veterans, Scott Maxwell (CAN) and Billy Johnson (USA) in the team, with the fourth driver for the series yet to be announced.

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The Ford Performance GT4, 5.2L, 32 valve V8 race engine is heavily production-based. Each unit is built and tuned by Roush Yates Engines and fitted with some real racing components, including a crossplane crankshaft, which turns inside an OEM based lightweight alloy block, Ford Voodoo cylinder heads, upgraded valve train and a dry sump oil system. The package has proven to be a very reliable and durable power unit.

Now to the car itself The new Mustang Supercar has had to be adapted to wrap around the control Supercar chassis and ROP system, which makes it look strange. However, the Ford Performance Mustang GT4 race car is as close to a road car in its appearance as is possible.

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It absolutely looks like the Mustang road car it’s based on, with a few obvious race inspired bits added on that make it angrier looking. To quote Multimatic staff, the GT4 Mustang is 20 per cent production based and 80 per cent pure race car. The body starts life as a complete production body shell, which then

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UNDER THE SKIN

The dry sump oil tank is mounted in the engine bay (top left), the suspension package has some great features including front struts mounted via some very solid top mounts with adjustable shims that make camber changes quick and simple. Multimatic manufactures much of the modified suspension components including the adjustable rear arms (above). Both the 8.8 inch Ford limited slip diff and the Holinger gearbox are kept cool by under floor oil coolers. goes to Ford Performance where it is seam welded and fitted with a multi piont chrome moly Roll-Over Protection System (ROPS), before being shipped to the Multimatic Technical Centre in Toronto, Canada. Other modifications to the shell include lightening the body shell, fitting mounting points for the onboard air jacking system and a custom fuel cell enclosure. During the process of fitting the ROPS, the steel roof panel is removed, and a full carbonfibre unit is fitted. Other key components of the bodyshell are also replaced with Multimatic in-house made composite components. These include the doors, bonnet, boot lid. Once the body is completed and assembly begins a full military-spec wiring harness is fitted to the car, along with all the normal powered requirements, fuel systems, lights etc, it also includes all the wiring for the MoTeC data logging dash, the Bosch Motorsport ABS braking system, engine harness, etc. While the current spec Mustang road

car uses a 5.0 litre engine, the Mustang GT4 race car is equipped with a naturally aspirated 5.2L 32 valve V8 racing engine specifically tuned for GT4 competition by Ford Performance in partnership with Roush Yates Engines, and has proven to be a very reliable and durable power unit. While the race engine is heavily production-based, it’s fitted with some real racing components including a cross-plane crankshaft, which turns inside an OEM based lightweight alloy block, fitted with Ford Voodoo cylinder heads and upgraded valve train. An upgraded dry sump lubrication system is fitted to cope with higher cornering speeds. The engine is all controlled by a Bosch Motorsport MS6.1 engine management system, with all data being logged by our locally made MoTeC data logger dash. Other OEM components include the production-based inlet manifold, air intake snout and production-based air filter box, and cooling is provided by a custom aluminium PWR radiator and a

The Ford Performance GT4 race car shares its key DNA with the road cars that are built on the production line, so repair and replacement parts for the racer are based on a lot of production-based components.

Canton header tank. The GT4 is fitted with a fantastic sounding exhaust system, starting with the production header and moving into a dual rear exiting stainless exhaust system. As delivered, the GT4 race engine turns to 8000 rpm and is capable of around 580 bhp (433 kW). The Mustang we tested at Winton was in its detuned GT4 BoP (Balance of Performance) adjusted spec, making around 450 bhp (335kW). The power is delivered via a ZFdeveloped twin-plate racing clutch and lightweight flywheel, through the Australian engineered and manufactured sequential six-speed Holinger gearbox.

The gearchange is operated by steering wheel mounted paddle shift, the directpneumatic operation delivers fast, positive and consistent gear changes. And while these transmissions are lightweight and compact in design, they offer long service intervals and are almost indestructible, offering costeffective performance. Driving through an aluminium tail shaft, the GT4 is fitted with a Ford S550 8.8 inch differential (with Multimatic Motorsports Ramp LSD centre). Both the gearbox and differential are fitted with fan forced under-car Setrab oil coolers mounted forward of the rear axle. When it comes to the suspension,

BROTHERS IN ARMS WHEN BOTH the Ford GT and Mustang GT4 race cars appeared at the 2018 Bathurst 1000 for their demonstration runs, not many people were aware that both race vehicles were manufactured and engineered by Multimatic. As a global automotive manufacturing, research and development business, Multimatic operates in partnership with Ford Performance and is heavily involved with much of the development and construction aspects of what Ford make available to customers and deliver to race tracks around the world. When Ford decided to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ford’s 1966 GT40 Le Mans victory with the launch of the Ford GT road car, Multimatic was chosen to assemble the production run of the Ford GT road cars. When it turned to converting the Ford GT to competition, Multimatic was tasked with its development, turning to its global resources to design, construct and develop a

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LMGTE-homologated race version for Ford’s official competitive return to the Le Mans 24-hour race. Multimatic has a big hand in the construction of the vehicles, supplying many of the major components of the race cars. Along with the carbon composite tub and bodywork which are manufactured in house, the GT race cars are also fitted with Multi-

matic’s own designed and engineered DSSV™ adjustable cartridge-type dampers. The GT race cars now compete globally in the FIA World Endurance Championship, with Chip Ganassi Racing running a highly successful parallel North American campaign in IMSA’s GTLM category. BW

the GT4 uses a mixture of modified production-based components as well as some pure racing equipment. One of the key features of the chassis and the way it works is the use of Multimatic’s own in-house made Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers which are fitted front and rear of the car. The two-way adjustable shocks (Macpherson struts on the front) are fitted with coil over shocks on the rear. I like the way the suspension is mounted in the chassis. For example, the front struts are mounted via some very strong looking top strut mounts with adjustable shims that make camber changes quick and simple. The rear shock mounts again look well-made and strong. Both the front and rear of the car are fitted with blade style adjustable anti-roll bars, with the rear using the Ford Mustang rear multi-link IRS (independent rear suspension) with Multimatic-designed adjustable rear lower control arms (designed specifically for coil-over springs), racespecific bushings and ball joints are fitted front and rear. The brakes are also a key component of the GT4, with Brembo brakes fitted, all controlled by a Bosch Motorsport M4, adjustable ABS system. Brembo six-piston two-piece callipers, with 380mm ventilated iron rotors on the front and four-piston two-piece callipers, with 313mm ventilated iron rotors on the rear. The brakes are powerful and

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HORSES FOR COURSES AMATEUR DRIVERS, your search for a suitable car and category is over. It’s a Mustang (a good looking one at that) and the category is International GT4. The Mustang GT4 certainly ticks a lot of boxes: aggressive race car looks; awesomely loud normally aspirated V8 power; adjustable traction control and ABS; paddle shift … and with just enough downforce and tyre grip, the most important tick is saved for its extremely predictable handling characteristics. The Ford Performance Multimatic Mustang GT4 has to be one of the easiest race cars I’ve ever driven, particularly for the speed it generates. I almost think it would be impossible to spin! Ah, I get it now, the GT4 is squarely aimed at a specific market and I think they’ve got it just right. Having just come off the back of driving GT3 machinery at the Bathurst 12hr and witnessing the speed difference between us and the GT4 cars, I haven’t exactly been itching to get in one. I’m probably not being fair, though, as the current crop of GT3 cars are just out of this world to drive and have very high limits. Racing in the 2:04-2:05 range around the mountain for literally 12 hours is a mammoth task, even for Pros. The common misconception is that a GT3 car with traction control and ABS is easy to drive. Yes, the driver arguably doesn’t have to posses the best feel for the brakes or throttle, but I can tell you the hard part is trusting the downforce. Try not braking and holding throttle through Turn 1 at Phillip Island with a minimum speed at the apex of over 240km/h! In contrast, the GT4 car with less downforce and tyre grip has much more realistic and reachable limits. Don’t be fooled though, the Mustang GT4 is a serious racer and is not slow by any means. I was

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whipping around Winton in the 1.25’s and that’s a pretty handy time. The Mustang GT4 is loud (very loud in fact) but the sound is amazing. The torque band feels broad and the V8 seems to just want to keep revving. The gearbox ratios are nicely spaced but gave me the impression that I was travelling faster than I actually was. You could really lean on the Brembo brakes but I would have loved to have spent a bit more time in the car to start winding back the intervention and explore the limits further. If I had one complaint, it was that the ABS pulses were very large which caused a few corner entry over runs. Power down and traction is impressive and not once did I feel any noticeable rear slip. The handling too is very predictable, giving plenty of confidence to push and a benign understeer characteristic the only result if I over did it. The grip feels much like a Supercar to me but not quite as edgy. In my opinion, less experienced drivers could achieve lap times closer to a Pro in the Mustang and is a much more realistic starting point than a GT3 car. Luke Youlden

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The Mustang GT4 offers drivers with less experience a vehicle that has more mechanical grip and less aerodynamic performance, ultimately making it an easier car to drive and race. The Mustang GT4’s cockpit is clean and uncluttered, with lots of nice Multimatic made carbonfibre units that house all the controls and switches. The MoTeC dash is easy to use and the paddle shift works well. Above right: The Brembo brakes front and rear are controlled by a Bosch Motorsport ABS system in combination with Multimatic’s own in-house made Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve (DSSV) two-way adjustable shock absorbers. reliable. The car is fitted with lightweight 18” x 11” forged alloy wheels from Forgeline and the car as tested was fitted with Pirelli P-Zero DH 305/680 R18 tyres however the tyre brand and compounds vary with each series category. The improved aerodynamic components on the Mustang GT4 include a rear wing, the design of which was developed from lessons learned during the development of the Ford GTLM racing program, also undertaken by Multimatic. Other key aerodynamic lightweight components include the lightweight bonnet which features significant aerodynamic venting, the plastic front bumper is fitted with a carbon composite front splitter and dive planes, as well as the rear diffuser to the underside of the plastic rear bumper. The front/rear bumpers, and side skirts are plastic production pieces from the Shelby GT350 model. Other lightweight aerodynamic aiding components include the full roof panel and doors, all these composite components being manufactured in house. On the interior, the Mustang GT4 carries a full FIA-compliant roll cage, head restraint racing seat, six-point FIA safety harness, FIA compliant head and arm restraints and an onboard fire extinguisher Mounted onto the race steering wheel is the race-oriented dash logger from MoTeC, with all the usual controls and

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This Mustang came ready to race from the factory, with all the key components fitted for any sprint or endurance race including dry break fuel system.

Key composite components are manufactured in-house by Mutimatic’s own composite department, including the front doors and the Mustang GT4’s rear wing, the design that was developed from lessons learned during the development of the Ford GTLM.

switches as well as the paddle shift controls. On a carbon centre dash console is the control for both the ABS and traction control systems. An adjustable Tilton pedal system, with driver-adjustable brake bias is fitted, along with a false floor and foot rest. In the boot is an FIA-specification 120 litre ATL racing fuel cell, dry break fillers, duel fuel pumps and built in surge collector pot. Other key features that make this a real race car include a polycarbonate front windscreen, door and rear windows, and an on-board air jacking system. Unlike some of the other GT4 vehicles

that are based on exotic road cars, the Mustang road car is a relatively massproduced product. A lot of the repair and replacement parts are based on a lot of production-based components, many of the components are relatively inexpensive to replace and that’s another reason the Ford Performance Mustang GT4 represents good value for a racer. All in all, it’s a package full of highquality components with lots of features and plenty of built in high performance, durability and safety, including some great Australian engineered products. It's all thoughtfully put together in a tough

robust package that will deliver lots of long-distance racing without needing a massive budget to keep it on the track. At present the cost is listed as being “from US$245,000 ex works” so delivery and taxes must be paid on top of that, so it’s roughly AUD$320,000 plus any extras to get yourself into one. Potential customers are asked to contact Multimatic Engineering Australia to get more information. Visit www.multimaticmotorsports.com or email Jim Griffin General Manager, Multimatic Engineering Australia Pty Ltd jgriffin@multimatic.com

FORD

MUSTANG GT4 ENGINE

Naturally-aspirated Ford, 32 valve, quad-cam, dry-sump V8 with cross-plane crankshaft, 5.2L displacement, assembled by Roush Yates Engines Bosch MS6.1 ECU, Max power: Approximately 580 BHP, current BoP is set at approx. 450 BHP / 442 lb-ft Dry sump

DRIVETRAIN

Rear wheel drive, Holinger six-speed sequential in line gearbox, ZF-developed twinplate racing clutch and flywheel with steering wheel mounted paddle controlled pneumatic gear shift. Aluminium tail shaft, Ford S550 8.8 (with Multimatic Motorsports Ramp LSD centre) Ford Performance limited slip differential

SUSPENSION Front - Macpherson Strut Rear - Coil over Multimatic Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve (DSSV) two-way adjustable racing dampers. Blade style adjustable anti-roll bars front and rear Ford Mustang rear multi-link IRS (independent rear suspension) with Multimatic-designed adjustable rear lower control arms, racespecific bushings and ball joints, and Multimatic adjustable front top strut mounts.

DRIVER'S VIEW IT’S BIG, it’s brash, it’s loud, most of all it’s fast and I love it. There is lots to like about the Ford Mustang GT4 race car. As a car built to comply with the GT4 regulations the Ford Mustang GT4 car achieves its goals in every way. It’s a car that can be driven and raced by drivers of various skill sets, from full time pros competing and winning international championships, to gentlemen racers having fun on the weekend and that’s its beauty. In its factory delivered form, the Mustang GT4 is a race car that’s capable of being driven by relatively inexperienced drivers and even when being pushed hard the car delivers a sense of stability and predictability in the way it behaves, all aided by the technology that is built into the car. With adjustable ABS and traction control, a driver with limited skills can work up to finding the limit. It does everything you want and need in a race car of this type. From the first time you get into the cabin of the Mustang, you can see that Ford Performance has built a race car for one job and that’s to win races. For a start it feels like a real race car, no doubt at all, and while its DNA is Ford Mustang and it shares a lot of common components with the road car it’s based on, in no way does it feels like a modified production car. It’s a purpose-built race car that’s 300kg lighter than its road car counterpart, it has real brakes, suspension, grip and power, and that’s the way it feels and how it performs. It was easy to get settled into the car, despite being a left-hand drive, it was comfortable. The adjustable seating position and steering column meant that it was easy to find a decent relationship with the pedals and the steering wheel, that is except for the throttle pedal. The adjustable Tilton brake and clutch pedal assembly

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STEERING

Electric power-assisted steering

BRAKES

Front - Brembo six-piston two-piece callipers, Brembo 380 mm ventilated iron rotors. Rear - Brembo four-piston two-piece callipers, with 313 mm ventilated iron rotors. Bosch Motorsport – control adjustable ABS Adjustable Tilton pedal, with driver-adjustable brake bias

SAFETY

FIA-specification steel roll cage, head restraint racing seat, six-point FIA safety harness, onboard fire extinguisher.

FUEL SYSTEM

is nicely positioned, however the factory throttle was not in a great spot. Not really a problem as I was comfortable using the left foot to brake and the MoTeC controlled paddle shift on the Holinger gearbox meant the clutch wasn’t needed except for starting the car off from pit lane. The car we drove at Winton was running an engine spec which was to a BoP of around 450 HP (330kW), not a huge amount of power, but it was still able to lap Winton at a good pace, even with some very well used Pirelli tyres. While it is well behaved and predictable it’s not slow by any means and when pushed hard and with all the driver aids are turned off, it’s a real fast race car. The steering is sharp and it corners hard, the brakes are a great feature, the paddle shifted Holinger six speed sequential gearbox is silky smooth (I think the auto blip on this car could be adjusted a little for down shifts) and the engine is strong even in the detuned state. The brakes are great. As the laps increased I dialled down the ABS control to the lowset setting as I found the pulsing a little annoying, but it still pulled up hard. On

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a couple of occasions the back would start to drag and rear steer into the corners on trailing brake. The steering is sharp on turn in but as I pushed harder a little mid corner to exit understeer started to develop, it's not really a problem around Winton and it was still fast. I think the understeer was because the Mustang GT4 puts its power down so well, in fact I doubt that I have driven a race car round Winton with so much rear grip. No matter how hard I tried it would spin up the rear tyres. Even after I played with the traction control to see if that was what was affording all the rear grip and even with the dial turned down to setting nine, one off the minimum traction control setting, it still powered out of even the slowest of the tight Winton corners. The car does everything you would expect of a factory-developed race car and it doesn’t disappoint at all and I reckon it could be driven almost flat out for the duration of a race. As I said, there are so many things to like about this car. It's fast, it's loud and I love it and it is totally fit for the job it has been designed and built to do. I wonder if they accept trade ins... Bruce Williams

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FIA-specification 120 litre ATL racing fuel cell, dry break fillers, duel fuel pumps and built in surge collector pot.

ELECTRONICS

Race-specification Bosch M4 ABS and traction control. MoTeC data logger and dash system.

WHEELS Forgeline 18” x 11” alloy TYRES

As tested - Pirelli P-Zero DH 305/680 R18 (Tyre make/model varies on category)

AERODYNAMICS

Carbon fibre front splitter with dive planes, rear wing, rear diffuser and body panels. Lightweight, aerodynamically optimised bumpers, bonnet, sills, front guards and boot lid.

Length 4852 mm Width 1924 mm Weight 1490 kg OTHER FEATURES

Onboard pneumatic jack system, polycarbonate windscreen, door and rear windows.

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Formula One

Round 1 Melbourne

THE REBOUND

DAN KNUTSON witnessed Valtteri Bottas drive the best race of his life at the Australian Grand Prix AFTER GOING winless in 2018, Valtteri Bottas rebounded and got his new season off to a great start, storming to victory in the Australian Grand Prix. He beat his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who had qualified on pole, off the start line and went on to dominate the race. “It was definitely the best race I’ve had in my life,” Bottas said. “Obviously, the key thing for me was the race start, to get to the lead, and then being at the front I could show strong pace and I could pull a gap. I stopped a bit later so I had a good tyre in the end. Just the car was feeling so good today, it was truly enjoyable.” It was not an enjoyable race for Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie had an inauspicious start to the season as he had to retire from his home grand prix. He tore off the front wing just after the start of the race, and then had to stop after 18 of the 58 laps because his Renault was damaged from the opening lap incident. “I’m gutted, that’s for sure,” the Aussie said. “I made a good start, managed to get a good run on Sergio Pérez and then moved to the side. I put a wheel on the grass, which didn’t concern me, and then a

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massive bump caught me by surprise. It’s unlucky more than anything and, unfortunately, that was our race run there and then. It all happened very quickly and it was a shame we finished like that. Nico (Hülkenberg) showed in the race that our car belongs in the top eight and we’ll be aiming for a smoother weekend in Bahrain and a strong result.”

The floor on Hamilton’s car was damaged after he ran over some debris either from Ricciardo’s errant front wing or from Robert Kubica’s Williams tangling with Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull. After that all could do was to hold on to second place while Bottas pulled away. “I lost position at the start and my race was pretty much done and dusted after the

first corner,” Hamilton said. “Afterwards it was really about bringing the car home and bagging the points. I had to pit early to cover the pit stop from Ferrari, so I had a long second stint and drove super carefully to make sure I had tyres left at the end of the race. I’ll bag the 18 points I got today, keep working and come back recharged for w the t next one.” The debut of the Honda power unit in i the Red Bull went very well indeed. Max M Verstappen finished third, and he h even led for two laps when Bottas made his pit stop. The last time a driver m in a Honda-powered car celebrated on the th podium was the 2008 British Grand Prix, P when Rubens Barrichello finished third. th Verstappen got close enough to challenge Hamilton. ch “Trying to challenge for second was a very positive feeling,” Verstappen said. “At the end we couldn’t pull it off, but in general I’m just very happy to be on the podium.” “We had a good car,” Verstappen added. “In the start, stayed out of trouble. It was just very hard to stay close to Seb (Vettel’s Ferrari), as my tyres were overheating

Valtteri Bottasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; domination of the Australian Grand Prix shocked everyone, even his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Daniel Ricciardoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s race was over almost before it began, ripping his front wing off. The disappointment of his home crowd was audible.

Formula One very quickly. I just did my own pace, a manageable pace, and we could extend our stint a little bit and then when we did the pit stop later we had a bit fresher tyres than Lewis (Hamilton) and Seb ahead. I managed to get by Seb, which is not easy around this track, because it’s just so hard to follow.” Ferrari, meanwhile, were definitely not happy and more than a little mystified about the lack of pace in the car. “Why are we so slow?” Sebastian Vettel asked the Scuderia during the race in which he finished fifth, one place ahead of his new teammate Charles Leclerc. Ferrari was the fastest car in preseason testing but it certainly did not have that in Albert Park. The car lacked grip. “In Barcelona testing we were very happy with the car right from day one,” Vettel said afterwards. “I think the balance was right, the car was responding to what I was asking it to do, and we had a lot of confidence. The whole weekend here, summing up, I didn’t get that confidence that I had in Barcelona, so I didn’t have the car underneath to play around. It wasn’t doing what I was asking. I think there were glimpses here and there that were really strong, and I think our performance in some corners llooked k d really ll good. But the majority of corners it wasn’t, and that’s why we were slower than other people and lost out yesterday (in qualifying) as well as today.” Leclerc concurred. “It’s not like we arrived with a very different car to testing,” he said. “It’s not like Mercedes has come with very different

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Round 1 Melbourne

Racing Point scored its first official team points when Lance Stroll (above) finished ninth, one spot ahead of the returning Danill Kvyat (left). Driving once again for his original team Sauber, now rebranded Alfa Romeo, Kimi Raikkonen (below) had a quiet run to eighth.

cars. In been seen quite I the h past, iit hhas b i a lot of times that this is quite a strange track and it’s not always very representative of the real performance of all the cars. So I’m confident that we can come back. How much? We don’t know.” The Haas team is the strongest of the midfield right now, and Kevin Magnussen proved that by finishing sixth ahead of Nico

Hülkenberg’s seventh-placed Renault. “I made a good start and had a really g good car from there,” Magnussen said. “I was w able to push the whole race and look after a my tyres.” Last year both the Haas drivers retired from the race in Australia because botched pit stops left them with loose wheels. The team did more than 300 practice pit stops in the off season, yet things still went wrong with Romain Grosjean’s stop and he later had to retire with a loose wheel. That allowed Hülkenberg to move up to seventh. “It was a tricky race – especially the final

10 laps – I was under pressure and really had to fight to hang onto seventh place,” Hülkenberg said. “I’m pleased to pull that off. The start and the first lap made our race; it’s so crucial to have track position around here and from there it was about managing the car and the tyres. We can be pleased with today, it’s a positive result, but it also shows we have a lot of work ahead of us. We need to dig deep and continue finding performance especially to improve the car balance.” Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul said the squad is leaving Australia with mixed feelings and a contrast of positive and negatives. “The main negative was qualifying, where we had a number of issues that impacted our potential and starting position,” he said. “That made Daniel’s first race complex and we tried to recover positions at the start but we ultimately had to retire his car due to the damage. Nico managed to turn around the situation and had a very strong race. He was very smart and drove a good race to finish seventh. We know the car has much more pace than we have shown, especially in Qualifying, and it will be the priority of the next race to extract more from the initial platform with a smoother execution across the weekend, while we work on our planned upgrades.” Kimi Räikkönen rounded out the top eight in his Alfa Romeo. “Our car was pretty strong in the race,” he said, “but then we got stuck behind cars and there is not much you can do. It seems that it is easier to get closer to the car in front of you (this year) but it’s still very hard to overtake. In addition, we had an issue with the temperature of the rear brakes as

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Ferrari were expected to be the team to beat at Albert Park but Mercedes had a significant edge, leaving Sebastian Vettel to fight for third, a fight he lost to Max Verstappen in the new Red Bull-Honda combination (top). Daniel Ricciardo (above) had a disappointing debut home race for renault, while debutant Lando Norris was impressive for McLaren-Renault (above right). Kevin Magnussen’s Haas led Nico Hulkenburg’s Renault home for sixth.

one of the tear-offs from the visor went in and that’s why we had to pit earlier than planned.” As for the winner Bottas, he prepared for this new season differently to the way he has approached previous seasons. “Every year you learn as a person,” he said. “You learn about yourself, what works for you, what doesn’t work for you in terms of preparation and what preparation includes: how you rest, how you spend your free time, how you do the training, how much training, what kind, all those kinds of things, travel plans, all sorts.

“So just trying to optimise everything for this year, try to maximise every single thing that is possible. I don’t know, it’s quite difficult to explain what’s been going on here last winter, inside of my head and definitely something changed in terms of the way I feel about things in life in general and in racing, but that’s all in my thoughts. I felt good in the car today and yesterday. That’s all that matters.” To top off the best race of his life Bottas earned the extra point that is now awarded to the driver who turned the fastest lap of the race

RESULTS ROUND 1: AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 -

DRIVER Valtteri Bottas Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Sebastian Vettel Charles Leclerc Kevin Magnussen Nico Hulkenberg Kimi Raikkonen Lance Stroll Daniil Kvyat Pierre Gasly Lando Norris Sergio Perez Alexander Albon Antonio Giovinazzi George Russell Robert Kubica Romain Grosjean Daniel Ricciardo Carlos Sainz

CAR Mercedes Mercedes Red Bull/Honda Ferrari Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Renault Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Racing Point/Mercedes Toro Rosso/Honda Red Bull/Honda McLaren/Renault Racing Point/Mercedes Toro Rosso/Honda Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Williams/Mercedes Williams/Mercedes Haas/Ferrari Renault McLaren/Renault

LAPS 58 58 58 58 58 58 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 56 55 29 28 9

GAP 1h25m27.325s 20.886s 22.520s 57.109s 58.230s 1m27.156s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps 3 Laps Suspension Retirement Power Unit

POINTS: Bottas 26, Hamilton 18, Verstappen 15, Vettel 12, Leclerc 10, Magnussen 8, Hulkenberg 6, Raikkonen 4, Stroll 2, Kvyat 1. CONSTRUCTORS: Mercedes 44, Ferrari 22, Red Bull/Honda 15, Haas/Ferrari 8, Renault 6, Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 4, Racing Point/Mercedes 2, Toro Rosso/Honda 1.

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RACE REPORT

Albert Park, Races 3, 4, 5 & 6 Chaz Mostert put together a strong weekend to emerge the biggest winner.

MOSTERT TAKES LARRY PERKINS TROPHY Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: Ross Gibb/Insyde Media

THE FORD Mustang has been a contentious introduction to the Supercars field, similar to the ZB Commodore last year, however it wasn’t a DJR Team Penske machine that took the second Larry Perkins Trophy at the Australian Grand Prix, as was hotly tipped. Scott McLaughlin absolutely brained the opposition, bar one race, and that was the one that handed Chaz Mostert his first solo race success since Queensland Raceway 2017. The single race McLaughlin failed to take was through no fault of his own and was under one of the strangest circumstances witnessed in recent years. The fast-paced 10-minute qualifying sessions failed to spring a surprise as a Mustang was on Pole for each race, McLaughlin took three and Mostert the other, as lead Holden contenders Red Bull Holden Racing Team and Erebus Motorsport struggled to match the new coupe across the weekend. McLaughlin led away at the start, but all eyes were on Mostert, who started in 22nd and was sure to provide the entertainment during the opening 25-lap encounter. It was a DJR Team Penske 1-2 at the front as it remained for the entire race, the next best being the emerging Cam Waters. After a

Tickford had its strongest weekend in a while, with both Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters featuring in the action (above), Mostert emerging the overall winner of the Larry Perkins Trophy.

disappointing season in 2018, he is quickly becoming Tickford’s tail gunner to leader Mostert. However, in this race he was unable to make inroads on the Penske pair. The lead trio broke away early ahead of best of the Holdens, Shane van Gisbergen. The Kiwi headed an angry freight train including the Mustangs of Davison and Holdsworth, plus the Brad Jones Racing pair, a team that has historical gone well at the circuit. Mostert had made five positions by the time the lap counter had clocked over to three, then was 15th ahead of Van Gisbergen had to park his car when the engine failed in race one.

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the round of pit stops. The tight pit lane provided its first drama for the weekend as Jamie Whincup was forced to heed to James Courtney and Tim Slade hit a tyre from the Walkinshaw Andretti United pit. Waters left the pits under direct pressure from stablemate Will Davison, who was continuing his strong run from Adelaide, but he was unable to overhaul Waters, despite the latter locking up. The only danger for McLaughlin was from his teammate, but he kept a comfortable 2s margin over Coulthard, although the latter did close considerably during the pit stop sequence, the champion had it under control. Shane van Gisbergen was in the wars battling after dropping positions McLaughlin had the pace to win everything but not the luck.

in the pit sequence, first he took back fifth from Slade, then fourth from Davison, but it all came to nothing as an engine failure halted his charge and was a big dent to his title aspirations. This aided Mostert’s charge as he rounded out a top five consisting of Mustangs, Mostert didn’t need to charge in Race 2, and he’d qualified on the front row, but he fluffed the start allowing Whincup and Waters through, that was soon swapped as the Tickford driver overtook the seven-time champion and set his sights on McLaughlin. Mostert had dropped further back behind van Gisbergen, but that was soon changed as the Tickford driver was soon pursuing his younger Waters had a controversial coming together with McLaughlin on the warm up lap of Race 3.

With the front row disabled on the warm up lap, the Holden Commodores led into the first corner (top) but ultimately it was still a Ford Mustang victory. teammate in an intense battle between the pair. It culminated in some side-byside battling through Turns 3, 4 and 5 that fell the way of Mostert, but both didn’t have to worry about threats from behind as Whincup was well down the road in his own duel with Coulthard. In turn, Mostert and Waters battling meant McLaughlin took another comfortable victory by 2.5s. Drama began before the race started in Race 3, when a miscommunication between the front-row sitting Mustangs of McLaughlin and Waters saw the two of them hit on the warm up lap and meant each failed to make the grid. The damage for Waters was to the suspension and McLaughlin’s Mustang suffered a damaged transaxle. BJR duo Slade and Nick Percat inherited the top positions in the field

Will Davison had another strong weekend in his new Mustang for fifth (above) while Shane Van although from the second row of Gisbergen had a shocker by his standards in the Red Bull Commodore (below). the grid. Slade made a solid start, but it was Whincup that was keen to seize the advantage and followed Slade through the first chicane. Lee Holdsworth was having a reasonable weekend, but a bump from Richie Stanaway severely damaged the rear of his Mustang and earnt the Kiwi a suspended $10,000 fine. Whincup had found something extra after making some gambles set-up wise and was putting the blowtorch on Slade, until successfully passing him at Turn 13. Behind, Slade and Percat had an awkward encounter leaving the latter on the grass and dropping numerous positions. David Reynolds was having a quiet weekend in contrast to his raceMcLaughlin’s clash with Waters resulted in heavy damage and a non-start in Race 3.

Kelly Racing continued its woes, Rick Kelly finishing back in 19th for the weekend.

Anton De Pasquale out-qualified David Reynolds for half of the races and finished just outside the top 10

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RACE REPORT

Albert Park, Races 3, 4, 5 & 6

Lee Holdsworth got caught up in a stouch with Richie Stanaway, resulting in heavy damage for Holdsworth and a $10,000 fine for the Kiwi.

Mark Winterbottom’s first Grand Prix event appearance in a Holden (right) saw him on the fringes of the top 10 for the first three races before finishing sixth in the final race. out the first Safety Car of the meeting. Lap 21, the race restarted, but any idea Whincup had of mounting a challenge for the lead was snuffed out as Mostert checked out and preceded to waltz away with the win, keeping Mustang’s perfect record intact. The final 13-lap sprint was back to the usual state of affairs as McLaughlin led from start-to-finish, despite Mostert starting from pole. The Tickford driver was always concerned about his starts and this one wasn’t his greatest and it gave the reigning champion an opportunity which he seized upon. Whincup also gained a position courtesy of Mostert being run wide at Turn 1, which gave McLaughlin a 0.78s lead on the completion of After a hospital the o opening lap. visit only days A culmination c of earlier, Larry events even that again Perkins made it hurt van Gisbergen’s to Albert Park to hand over his championship cha tilt Trophy.` began beg when Coulthard locked lock up attacking Winterbottom, Win which whi gave the 2016 201 champion a passage pas to pass, but Coulthard Co mounted a comeback c through 11 and 12. Coulthard C snuck down do the inside approaching ap 11, forcing his Kiwi fo counterpart to run co w wide and cut Turn 1 which meant the 12, p approached pair T Turn 13 side-bys side. It appeared

winning form at the same weekend last year, but a strong starting position saw him positioned for a great result, though he dropped position in another Mostert charge. Whincup out front was making hay while the sun shone, bridging a 2.4s gap ahead of Slade, but Mostert was the concern, the first to pit on lap 9. Whincup followed a lap later and remained in front as BJR went long with Slade, which failed to work as he dropped to third. Mostert completed his charge on lap 13 when he snatched the lead off Whincup at Turn 13. The other side of the RBHRT garage also had a concern as van Gisbergen began to slow, then his right-rear wheel parted company and brought

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van Gisbergen tried to redress, holding the inside line, but he locked up and nudging Coulthard down the escape road, which earnt him a 15s post-race penalty. It didn’t take long for Mostert to complete a pass on Whincup for second, lap 2, Turn 13 to be exact, as drama at the back between Simona De Silvestro, Macauley Jones and Garry Jacobson bought the return of the Safety Car. For the second race weekend in a row, Jones hit the barriers heavily, this time after a squeeze from De Silvestro while Jacobson had an overlap, tipped the season debutant into the wall. The restart on lap 7 again had the two Mustangs break away to seal a dominant weekend, leaving the Holden teams wondering where the extra speed is going to come from. Mostert sealed the Larry Perkins Trophy and closed the title gap to 31-points.

SUPERCARS RESULTS ALBERT PARK: LARRY PERKINS TROPHY Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Driver Chaz Mostert Jamie Whincup Fabian Coulthard Tim Slade Will Davison Scott McLaughlin David Reynolds James Courtney Cameron Waters Scott Pye Lee Holdsworth Mark Winterbottom Nick Percat Anton De Pasquale Andre Heimgartner Todd Hazelwood James Golding Simona De Silvestro Rick Kelly Jack Le Brocq Garry Jacobson Macauley Jones Shane van Gisbergen Richie Stanaway

RACE 1 Q R 22 5 7 8 2 2 6 6 4 4 1 1 13 10 9 7 3 3 14 13 12 9 10 12 8 14 11 11 15 15 19 23 16 16 20 18 17 22 23 20 21 21 24 19 5 DNF 18 17

RACE 2 Q R 2 2 3 4 5 5 9 8 6 6 11 1 7 7 13 9 4 3 16 14 12 12 10 11 14 15 8 13 17 18 19 17 18 23 21 19 15 16 23 20 22 24 24 22 11 10 20 21

RACE 3 Q 7 6 5 3 12 DNS 9 10 2 18 14 11 4 8 17 21 15 23 19 22 20 24 13 16

R 1 2 5 3 10 2 4 7 DNS 6 12 13 8 11 9 14 18 17 16 15 19 20 DNF DSQ

RACE 4 Q R 1 2 3 3 8 15 9 7 6 5 1 1 12 8 11 16 4 4 15 11 10 9 7 6 13 10 14 12 24 14 16 13 23 18 20 21 18 19 21 23 19 17 22 DNF 5 22 17 20

Points: McLaughlin 500, Whincup 469, Mostert 437, Davison 413, Slade 390, Coulthard 370, Reynolds 368, Percat 355, Waters 346, Winterbottom 334, van Gisbergen 325, Courtney 322, Holdsworth 267, Heimgartner 266, De Pasquale 261, Hazelwood 253, De Silvestro 217, Golding 212, Pye 211, Kelly 204, Le Brocq 184, Jacobson 176, Stanaway 167, Jones 111

Carrera Cup Albert Park Round 2

SOLID WOOD STRIKES BACK TEAM MATES Dale Wood and Jordan Love won two races each and finished first and second in round two of the PAYCE Porsche Carrera Cup at the AGP last weekend. Wood took the round honours, redemption for last year when he came into the round as series leader and was innocently crashed out. “I came here thinking we could have a repeat of last year. Once I got through turn one into second, I thought that this is what I’ve got to do to get the round win,” said Wood who takes the series lead ahead of Love and 2017 title holder David Wall. Roger Lago was the best of the TAG Heuer Pro-Ams, winning the class ahead of Stephen Grove and Sam Shahin, while fourth-placed Anthony Gilbertson retains the points lead. “We were third quickest in qualifying and Thursday’s race was good, but Friday’s race was awful,” said Lago. “We then made some changes and the boys tuned the car up beautifully and it was absolutely perfect.” On his second tyre set and right near the end of the qualifying session, Wood secured outright pole. He was the only one to go under a 1min 57s to snatch the top spot from Almond by 0.4s. Meanwhile Sam Shahin was the best of the Pro Am qualifiers. Wood led race one throughout and weathered the challenge from Dylan O’Keeffe and Love to take out the first of four races. Cameron Hill crossed the line in fourth spot ahead of round one winner Nick McBride, Warren Luff, Wall, Cooper Murray,

Dale Wood continued his fine form of 2018, winning two races (above), as did teammate Jordan Love. Roger Lago (below) was the Pro-Am winner.

Thomas Maxwell and Duvashen Padayachee. In 11th was the first of the Pro Ams where Liam Talbot finished ahead of class rivals Shahin, Lago, Grove and Gilbertson. Michael Almond was a first lap casualty with right front damage and a cut tyre from contact with a tyre bundle. The safety car emerged when Steve Richards, Josh Hunt and Joey Mawson tangled. Only the latter of the trio was able to continue, but Mawson’s run was short – the car was deemed too badly damaged to continue racing after the race. It was another pillar-to-post

victory for Wood in race two. The pole sitter fended off O’Keeffe through the first corners and worked himself to a 1.79s win. O’Keeffe lost out to Love shortly after and on the second lap brushed a tyre bundle. The subsequent loss of coolant forced him into retirement. That elevated a fast-starting Luff into third spot, where he finished ahead of Hill. Meanwhile there was a hectic early scrap involving McBride, Maxwell and Wall, which ultimately went the way of Maxwell, crossing just in front of Wall. McBride leaked places in the second half of the race and

finished behind Padayachee, Murray and Hunt. Eleventh went to Talbot who won the Pro Am class again, this time ahead of Sam Shahin and Tim Miles. In between them in 12th and 14th respectively were Almond and Richards, the championship contenders starting rear of grid after dramas in race one. A brilliant lift-off from Love was the catalyst for him to take out the third race. Love beat Wood to the first corner and showed the race one and two winner the way to the chequered flag. Luff slotted in behind the leading duo and survived the challenge of Hill for several laps. The latter was relegated to fifth when he was ultimately passed by Wall. Just behind Hill was Murray who overtook Maxwell on lap two. Maxwell came across the line in seventh as he held off the closely pursuing Padayachee, Almond and Hunt. McBride was busy holding off O’Keefe who was eventually passed by Richards.

LEEDS TAKES EARLY LEAD IN FORMULA 4 CHAMPIONSHIP LUIS LEEDS took opening round honours in the Australian Formula 4 Championship at Albert Park, despite only winning one race. Race 1 Polesitter Jayden Ojeda made a poor get away and fell down to seventh by the end of the opening lap, Leeds capitalised on the opportunity to lead from Ryan Suhle. At Turn 3 Jackson Walls ran through the gravel and was joined by Christian Lester and Heath Collinson, who entered the gravel trap backwards hitting the right rear of the recovering Walls, an incident that brought out the Safety Car. Suhle sat second but ran wide at

Turn 1 on the penultimate lap, however recovered to mount a challenge on Leeds over the final tour. The experienced Leeds managed to hold out Suhle through Turns 12, 13 and 14 to take the win by 0.14s. The grid was reversed for Race 2, but heralded a strong dice between Tom Smith and visiting Kiwi Ryan Yardley, who attacked Smith through the opening chicane, but failed to take the position. A five-car incident took out many of the major contenders from Race 1 and meant the introduction of the Safety Car. The restart didn’t last long before Josh Smith was in the wall, but it did give the

Talbot led Pro Am until he pitted with a puncture. That put Miles in front before he slipped up on lap eight. Roger Lago went by and took the win while Miles was able to hold second, barely in front of Grove. Love dominated the fourth outing, leading from start to finish. Wood was a clear second after seeing off the early challenge of Luff and Hill. For many laps it was tight between the latter pair who also had Wall and Maxwell in close attendance. Maxwell had contact which put Murray off, before Almond joined the group. Ultimately Almond forged through to finish third with Luff, Wall, Maxwell and Hill following. Next was McBride as O’Keefe nabbed Richards late in the race. In Pro Am, Lago led throughout to place 12th outright behind Padayachee, and was closely pursued by Pro Am rivals Grove, Gilbertson and Dean Cook. Talbot retired early after contact with bundle of tyres. Garry O’Brien

Image: Insyde Media

chance for a new challenger to emerge. Antonio Astuti was well placed heading into the final lap and piled the pressure onto race leader Smith and, leaving it to the very last moment, Astuti made a successful lunge at Turn 15 and took victory as Smith dropped to fourth. Reigning champion Ojeda took the laurels in the final race from Pole Position as he quickly bridged a gap over Leeds, who only needed to hold second to take the round. A four-car scrap over second place was a highlight of the race as Leeds desperately tried to hold on, which he did to take the round. Dan McCarthy

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AGT

TWIGG LEADS A MERCEDES 1-2-3 OVER FOUR 25-minute races, Max Twigg won the opening round of the Australian GT Championship, held at the Australian Gran Prix on Albert Park last weekend. In doing so, he beat Eggleston Motorsport’s Peter Hackett and his Scott Taylor Motorsport US-based Aussie team mate Kenny Habul for a Mercedes-AMG one-two-three. “I like to think we had two race wins. We went all the way to the last lap against a McLaren that wasn’t homologated, then we were thwarted by a lapped car on the last lap whilst leading race three,” said Twigg. “I think we had speed, which was good and in the last lap I just had to finish well, stay out of trouble and that’s what we did.” Habul had two race wins but failed to finish race one while Fraser Ross won the other, though it was a controversial debut for the new McLaren 720S. It might have looked easy when Ross took the opening race by 2.2s, but it was far from that. He had to battle through from third. Ross put an aggressive move on Habul for second which saw Habul suffer a right rear puncture and retirement. Then Ross passed polesitter and race leader Twigg. Hackett had only a short qualifying session as he had early contact with Geoff Emery (Audi R8 LMS) which caused damage to his Mercedes and ruined one of his marked tyres. In the race he held off Emery for third while Ryan How drove splendidly for fifth in the older Audi R8 LMS Ultra and took the GT Trophy class. Tony Bates (Audi) was sixth ahead of second in Trophy, Nick Kelly (Audi) and Tony Quinn (Aston Martin Vantage).

Lee Partridge (Audi) had a big moment on the first lap, a result of contact with Bates, and dropped to 19th before fighting back to ninth ahead of Porsche GT3-R drivers (Trophy fastest qualifier) John Morriss and Scotty Taylor. First in GT4 went to 14th placed Glen Wood (KTM X-Bow) ahead of Ryan Simpson (McLaren 570S) while David Greig lost out to fellow Porsche driver Nick Karnaros in Challenge due to a last lap spin. Class pole sitter Luke Seidler fenced his Porsche 991 on the opening lap. There was a separate qualifying session for race two where Ross was fastest. Habul was second and led from start to finish after out-dragging Ross to the first corner. He held the McLaren driver at bay for the duration as Twigg maintained third throughout. Hackett occupied fourth just ahead of Emery and How until he surrendered to both on the last lap. Partridge came through to take seventh, fighting his way past Bates and Quinn. Bates held his spot despite a

Ryan Simpson won GT4 in his McLaren despite not everything going smoothly.

5.0-second penalty for a starting infringement. Quinn on the other hand, spun out and tagged the closely following Kelly. Morriss finished ahead of Taylor in battle of the Porsche GT3-Rs. Both finished in front of Kelly who was 11th overall. Challenge Class went to Shane Barwood (Porsche 911) ahead of fastest in practice Karnaros. Simpson improved four positions and took out GT4. The third race grid was based on the race one result. Hackett tookk line honours ahead of Twigg and Habul. Pole sitter Twigg held the lead from the start until penultimate lap on which Hackett grabbed the lead. Habul came from the rear of the grid to snare third while How finished fourth. Behind the 17-year-old came Emery and Ross who started ten grid spots further back – a penalty for contact with Habul in race one. Bates and Kelly had contact late on the first lap which put the latter out. Bates was able to continue and took seventh ahead of Morriss who maintained eighth despite a 5.0-second penalty and a hit from Taylor at the first corner. That put the latter’s Porsche out. Morriss was second in Trophy ahead of Richard Gartner (Lamborghini R-EX). Tenth place Karnaros was the first of the Challenge class cars while the GT4 class went to 12th placed Simpson, just in front of Wood. The fourth race was based on the results of the second. There was drama at the start with Ross and his McLaren stranded on the

PRETTE SEES OFF FERRARI CHALLENGERS PHILLIPPE PRETTE got his Asia Pacific Ferrari Challenge Championship off to a great start by taking the opening round at the Australian Grand Prix. A charge from Kazuyuki Yamaguchi placed him as the surprise leader after the opening lap of Race 1, after starting fourth, but it was the opposite for Prette, who had started from Pole but he dropped to fourth. A Safety Car was required to collect the stricken Ferrari of Makino Fujiwara from the Turn 3 gravel trap, and this closed up

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the race. At the restart, Prette attacked James Weiland at Turn 1 but it proved unsuccessful and compromised his exit, giving Go Max the opportunity to attempt a pass on Prette. The pair collided and the latter spun, dropping to ninth. Weiland snatched the lead off Yamaguchi on lap 5 and was certain to open his account with victory, however an upright failure meant the American retired, leaving Yamaguchi to pick up the pieces and take the win ahead of Max and Dave Pun.

Prette dominated the second race, leading from start-to-finish comfortably. The experienced Hector Lester made a poor start and dropped from second to fifth, but by race end had been able to make limited progress to fourth. The race was curtailed by the Safety Car due to Atsushi Iritani firing off into the Turn 1 gravel trap on lap 8, and the race was not restarted. Behind Prette, Weiland and Max rounded DMCC out the podium.

Ryan How was untouchable in the final GT Trophy standings. Images: Insyde Media. grid with the front brakes locked on. The race started from lap two when the safety car departed, and Habul cleared out for a comfortable win as Twigg and Hackett diced and finished a close second and third. Emery was a lonely fourth while his team mate Bates successfully held off How who had to overcome a gearbox issue to hold off Partridge. Morriss and Taylor exchanged places a couple of times before eventually placing 10th and 11th respectively, having had Kelly and Quinn go by. Behind 12th placed Dale Paterson (Chev Camaro) who went out of the previous race with a broken tyre valve stem, Barwood headed Karnaros and Greig for Challenge honours, and Simpson again won GT4. How was untouchable in the final GT Trophy standings. With two wins, Karnaros topped Challenge ahead of Barwood, and similarly so, Simpson won the GT4 over the Wood and Justin McMillian KTM. GARRY O’BRIEN

WRC

Ogier tasted victory for a second time in 2019, this time in Mexico.

OGIER BACK TO WINNING WAYS

REIGNING WORLD Rally champion Sebastien Ogier took a comfortable 30.2s victory in Mexico to put his title defence back on track. Citroen’s number one led from startto-finish, although he had to overcome a number of issues including a failing differential and an incident involving a tyre wall during Saturday’s Super Special stage, to hold off a charging Ott Tanak. “It has always been a special place since the start of my career and I’m glad it remains that way,” Ogier said. “It’s been a tough weekend in difficult conditions. It wasn’t a trouble free rally for us, but we managed to make the best of it and came out with maximum points.” Tanak’s second place came after he forced to open the road as championship leader on Friday, losing a massive amount of time as he ploughed through the thick gravel. The

Estonian overhauled Ford’s Elfyn Evans on the final leg’s opening test and extended it to 19.2s by the close of the rally. The rally was one of attrition from the outset, with Andreas Mikkelsen the first victim while holding a slender 1.6s advantage over Ogier during the morning’s mid-point. He hit a stone and broke the Hyundai’s suspension, which handed the advantage to teammate Dani Sordo, the Spaniard also failing to see out the day due to an electrical issue. Next to hit issues was Jari-Matti Latvala as an alternator failure ground the Toyota Yaris to a halt, leaving it to Evans and Kris Meeke to challenge Ogier. Evans was forced to deal with an overheating Ford Fiesta and trailed Ogier by 14.8s, but was crucially 6.3s ahead of Meeke. Championship leader Tanak was next, followed by Esapakka Lappi and an

ill Thierry Neuville in the sole remaining Hyundai i20. It was a dramatic opening stage on Day 2 as both Citroens struck trouble, Ogier’s overnight lead being wiped out after picking up a puncture while his teammate Lappi finished his rally in a ditch 800 metres from the end of the stage, partially blocking it. Meeke and Evans squeezed through before organisers stopped the stage for safety reasons. Ogier’s puncture occurred before the stoppage and with

Tanak (above) and Evans (left) squabbled for second on the final day.

nominal times being awarded, Ogier was given a time 22.4s slower than Meeke, leaving the Ulsterman with a 1.6s lead. It was short lived as on the very next stage Meeke picked up a puncture himself, damaging his suspension and dama ddropping a combined 3m 15s as hhe limped through the next pair of stages. TThe battle for second intensified between Evans and Tanak as a be mere 2.2s separated the pair. It me had been more than 20s during ha the morning, but the title leader charged during the afternoon cha stages. stag Neuville was in fourth as he Ne continued to struggle with sickness cont and car set-up. The final day of competition provided less action than the previous three days as Ogier safely guided his Citroen home to take his second win of the year and his 46th WRC victory. Tanak charged, demoting Evans and closing to within half a minute of Ogier, but as his title margin closed to four points. Fourth for Neuville meant he sits 10-points behind Tanak heading to the fourth round of the series, the first tarmac event of the year, on the island of Corsica on March 28-31. Points: Tanak 65, Ogier 61, Neuville 55, Meeke 35, Evans 28, Lappi 20, Loeb 18, Latvala14, Mikkelsen 12, Guerra 8.

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Newgarden was all smiles after winning the season opener at St Petersburg.

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NEWGARDEN RETURNS TO VICTORY LANE

TEAM PENSKE’S Josef Newgarden has kicked off his 2019 IndyCar campaign with victory at St Petersburg, his first since July last year at Iowa. Reigning Indy 500 winner Will Power took the first pole position of the year, but in the race was muscled out of second by 2018 champion Scott Dixon, while his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Felix Rosenqvist made an impressive debut to finish fourth. Power made a perfect start ahead of Penske teammate Newgarden, who was in turn overtaken by Rosenqvist down the inside of Turn 1. The margin between Power and Rosenqvist remained constant at 0.7s, but the debutant had broken away from Newgarden and the chasing pack containing Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Marcus Ericsson was the first to pit on lap six for the Firestone primary compound, as others followed including Sebastian Bourdais, but his race ended when his Dale Coyne Racing-Honda blew an engine. Roger Penske thought his an ideal opportunity for Power to make his first pit stop, however the anticipated full-course caution didn’t materialise, giving Rosenqvist the lead in his maiden race. It was only for a single lap, though, before he was brought in and emerged just behind Power, but when Newgarden and Dixon took service and left pit lane, Rosenqvist had a battle on his hands to retain his position. The only thing that saved the Swede was his warmer set of tyres. The recently pitted Hunter-Reay was another Rosenqvist’s maiden outing produced fourth place.

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Reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon robustly overtook Indy 500 winner Will Power to finish the race in second.

victim of a Honda blow up as his engine let go along the front straight, causing the first full-course caution of the race. Although he had kept his car to the inside in case the expired engine dropped oil, it now made overtaking down the inside at Turn 1 very hazardous. The race resumed on lap 23 with Rosenqvist placing intense pressure on Power almost immediately after the restart and was successful,

despite locking a tyre at turn one. Power remained under pressure as now Newgarden was also scheming for a way through, an overboost penalty for the Australian almost giving the 2017 IndyCar champion a chance but his more experienced teammate held him off. The race was stopped again as Ed Jones made heavy contact with the outside concrete at turn nine, also being collected by Matthias Leist. Rosenqvist was comfortable in the lead at the restart, holding off Power, but behind the lead duo was a battling pack containing Newgarden, Dixon and Rossi. The Kiwi tried to complete a move down the inside, but was foiled, which placed him under pressure from Rossi. Power was the first of the leaders to pit on lap 51, this was quickly followed by Rosenqvist a lap later and when he emerged, he was overtaken by Power, who was then held up by Spencer Pigot. This worked into the favour of Newgarden and Dixon, as Dixon left the pits alongside Power and yielded. Crucially, once Power had disposed of Pigot he was then held up by Andretti, which gave Newgarden the advantage he needed when he took service on lap 57, taking a comfortable lead on the red compound tyres.

Lap 58 was when Dixon made his move and passed Power into turn one, however it was short lived as the Aussie took the position back at turn two. But the reigning champion made the move stick at turn three, giving his teammate Rosenqvist half a chance at the next corner, but it just failed. Andretti moved out of the way on lap 62 but the damage had been done and Newgarden now held a 6s lead, which was further extended when the two Carlin cars held Dixon up. The only worry Newgarden had was slotting through the lapped traffic, which dropped the margin to 2s with 10 laps to go, as Andretti continued to hold up the leaders. The gap was 2.90s as Newgarden crossed the line to collect victory ahead of Dixon and Power. “We were literally talking about [tyre strategy] right before the race,” said Newgarden. “We were trying to figure out, should we go used [tyres] or new Firestone reds [alternate tyres] and we made the call at the last minute to stay with used [tyres]. We’ll have that advantage if we need it and we used it. It just worked out perfectly.” Points: Newgarden 53, Dixon 40, Power 37, Rosenqvist 33, Rossi 31, Hinchcliffe 28, Pagenaud 26, Herta 24, Ferrucci 22, Harvey 20

WEC

TOYOTA IN ANOTHER LEAGUE AT SEBRING TOYOTA GAZOO Racing dominated a weather interrupted 1000 Miles of Sebring which, due to the mixed conditions, became an eight-hour event. The #8 Toyota of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima beat the #7 sister Toyota, which spent a lap in the pits with damage. The Toyota continued to dominate the LMP1 Class. The pair of Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrids spent most of the race within a few seconds of each other, but that changed in the in the fifth hour when Jose Maria Lopez made contact with Jonathan Adam in the #90 GTE AM Aston Martin at Turn 15, costing the #7 car almost two laps repairing floor damage. The #3 Rebellion was on for a podium finish before hitting mechanical trouble late in the race, while the sister R13 retired early, completing just 138 laps. Heavy rain fell in the closing 30 minutes, and despite changing to extreme wets, Nakajima had a late race spin. He was still a lap ahead when Loic

Duval in the #28 TDS Racing LMP2 car crashed with 12 minutes remaining, which brought out a race-ending Safety Car. Brendon Hartley had a great return to the World Endurance Championship with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin in the #11 SMP Racing car, the team recovered strongly after an early race puncture to finish on the final step of the podium, 11 laps behind the winning Toyota. In LMP2 Will Stevens, Jordan King and David Heinemeier Hansson controlled the race to finish in fourth overall and just three laps behind the SMP Racing BR1 Engineering BR1. Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao finished second in class in LMP2 to retain their lead in the class. GTE Pro was closely fought with four manufacturers finishing in the top four positions, but it was Porsche through Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz that took victory ahead of the BMW M8 GTE driven by Martin Tomczyk, Alexander

Sims and Nicky Catsburg. The BMW trio were set to take the German manufacturers first WEC success with the M8, but a slow pit stop within the last half hour dropped them behind the Porsche. Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Jonathan Bomarito led for most of the race in a Ford GT, eventually finishing in third. In GTE AM Matt Campbell once again drove the #77 Dempsey Porsche 991

CADILLAC LOCK OUT PODIUM IN CLOSEST SEBRING 12 HOUR THE WHELEN Engineering Cadillac Dpi-V.R driven by Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran took out the closest ever Sebring 12 Hour, beating Daytona 24 Hour winners Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and new driver Matthieu Vaxiviere by just 1.030s. The race started in very wet conditions and the Cadillac set the pace from the outset, taking the lead at the end of the first hour. Despite many Safety Car periods the Whelen Engineering team was able to remain out front with Derani holding a 47s when a caution was called with two hours remaining At the restart, Taylor overtook Brendon Hartley in another Cadillac to take second position and he set his sights on Derani. With 21 minutes of the race to go the two cars ran nose to tail, but Taylor was unable make a move before

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another Safety Car was called with a quarter of an hour remaining. The restart took place with seven minutes left with Nasr showing great pace and able to bring it to the line ahead of Taylor, van der Zande and Vaxiviere, while Hartley, Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa completed a Cadillac 1-2-3. LMP2 was won by the #38 Performance Tech

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RSR across the finish line to give the team another class win, 12s ahead of the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari driven by Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella. POINTS: Alonso/Buemi/Nakajima 135, Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez 120, Laurent/Menezes 81, Beche 73, Jani/ Lotterer 63.

Motorsports Oreca squad of Kyle Masson, Cameron Cassels and Andrew Evans. Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki took an unlikely win for Porsche in GTLM, coming from a lap down after a tough start in the wet conditions. At the halfway stage the trio had made it back onto the lead lap and when the Safety Car was deployed with two hours remaining, they jumped from fourth into second. As the final stops took place Tandy was in the lead ahead of the #67 Ford GT driven by Australian Ryan Briscoe. Briscoe closed the gap down to a second before hitting a backmarker, which handed second position to teammates Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand. The podium was rounded out by Jan Magnussen, Mike Rockenfeller and Antonio Garcia in a Corvette. GTD was closely fought throughout but was won by the #11 Grasser Racing Lamborghini, driven by Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen.

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KYLE BUSCH TAKES 200TH NASCAR WIN Joey Lagano finished second at Fontana for Penske.

KYLE BUSCH dominated the Fontana 400, winning all three stages to take his 200th NASCAR victory, despite a penalty in the final stage. Busch took the lead off Denny Hamlin on lap 13, building a lead out to a comfortable margin to take the first stage. Denny Hamlin finished the stage in second ahead of Joey Logano. On the final lap of the Stage 1 a multi car crash occurred involving Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and William Byron. Busch elected not to pit as the end of stage caution was thrown, so when the yellows were removed Busch dropped back to third losing paces to Logano and Aric Almirola, but after three laps he had made his way back to the front of the field. Brad Keselowski was showing strong mid race pace and made his way up to second on lap 88. Busch pitted on lap 93, holding onto the lead, as Keselowski had no answer for Busch finishing the stage five seconds behind

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Ryan Blaney ran strongly at Fontana, in contention, but ultimately finished fifth.

the #18, with Ryan Blaney third. Under the competition caution all of the leading cars pitted, Busch and Hamlin were caught speeding in pit lane and had to start stage three from the rear of the grid. Truex was also penalised for having too many pit members over the pit wall during his stop. Brad Keselowski led at the restart from Kevin Harvick and Blaney.

Within eight laps of the restart Busch had made his way up from 18th to 10th and in the following 10 laps made his way up to fifth. With 40 laps with Logano and Blaney made their final pit stops. With 37 laps remaining Bubba Wallaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tyre came apart, throwing debris on the circuit resulting in the deployment of a Safety Car. All leading cars apart from Blaney elected to

pit under the yellows, Kyle Busch leaving pit road first and joined Blaney on the front row for the restart. Keselowski and Harvick were on the second row with Logano fifth. There was a lot of shuffling of positions soon after the restart, with 26 laps to go the top three were now Logano, Keselowski and Kyle Busch. The following lap Busch managed to overtake both Penskeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to take first position. The 33 year old then built a two second gap over the next eight laps, bringing his Toyota home 2.3s ahead of Logano. Keselowski finished third to make it a Penske 2-3, Harvick was fourth and Blaney finished fifth. Busch has now taken 53 Cup race wins, 94 Xfinity Series wins and 53 in Truck Series victories. The previous week in Phoenix, Arizona Kyle Busch held off Truex to win his 199th career win, meaning that Busch has taken two wins in two weeks and is in a great run of form as he heads to Martinsville, Virginia this weekend.

FORMULA E

MORTARA TAKES MAIDEN WIN EDOARDO MORTARA has won a controversial Hong Kong ePrix, which was decided in the steward’s room after Sam Bird was given a five-second penalty for contact with Andre Lotterer on the penultimate lap. A very wet qualifying session provided a mixed up grid and gave Stoffel Vandoorne his first pole position with Nissan E.DAMS driver Oliver Rowland alongside. When the race got underway it was Rowland who made the better start in the greasy conditions, taking the lead into turn one. Bird had a great first lap making two positions on the outside of the first turn, a further position at turn two and then taking Lotterer on the inside into turn three, promoting the Brit from seventh to third in three corners. Towards the back of the pack, the two Dragon cars made heavy contact at turn one as Felipe Nasr crashed into the back of Jose Maria Lopez, Nasr suffering front wing damage. On lap two, Bird got a great exit out of the

first turn easily overtaking Vandoorne into turn two, then at the following turn Nasr’s front wing collapsed sending the Brazilian into the wall as both of the Mahindras of Pascal Wehrlein and championship leader Jerome d’Ambrosio arrived and collected the stricken car. The red flag was called to clear the incident, the three drivers unable to continue. On the restart, all drivers apart from Robin Frijns and Daniel Abt activated Attack Mode, this allowed Lotterer to launch a successful attack on Vandoorne for third position. The following lap exiting turn one, Rowland lost drive for a few valuable seconds dropping him back from the lead to 10th position. Lotterer then began to pile the pressure on new race leader Bird, forcing him into a mistake at turn two with the Brit lucky to lose just one position. Bird clearly with more pace was keen to re-take the lead, but was unable to complete a pass on Lotterer, until with 21-minutes left the Belgian ran wide giving Bird a sneaky

chance. However, it wasn’t to be as Bird was placed on the outside approaching turn three and still couldn’t get the pass done. The race spiced up with 15-minutes to go, when the Safety Car was deployed to rescue the standed HWA Racelab Spark-Venturi of Vandoorne after a driveshaft failed. All the leaders who could, used their final Attack Mode for the restart and once again Bird put severe pressure on Lotterer, but he was unable to make the move and signaled his frustration by tapping the rear of his rival. There was another twist as the Safety Car was again deployed to recover Rowland’s Nissan after it hit the wall on the exit of Turn 7, but upon the restart Lotterer was under severe pressure from Bird, which led to a race-changing incident. Bird was still thwarted by Lotterer’s defence, but on the second last tour, the two made contact causing Lotterer to have a puncture, dropping to 14th. Bird crossed

Mortara was here celebrating second, but was soon to be elevated into first place due to Bird’s penalty. the line first, but was penalised post-race sropping to fifth, whilst Edoardo Mortara headed Lucas di Grassi to round out the podium until both were elevated, as was Robin Frijns to third. POINTS: Bird 54, d’Ambrosio 53, di Grassi 52, Mortara 52, da Costa 47, Frijns 43, Evans 34, Abt 34, Wehrlein 30, Lotterer 29.

Lotterer sustained pressure from Bird until the the penultimate lap.

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John Magro was the pacesetter in the Australian Formula 3 Championship. Images: Luke Hunter Media

F3’S MAGRO SETS NEW TRACK BEST JOHN MAGRO set the fastest-ever lap around Winton Motor Raceway, a 1min 14.3058s, at the opening round of the Australian Motor Racing Series on March 9-10. The R-Tek Motorsport Dallara F311 pilot set the new benchmark in race two, as he comfortably won all three races at the first round of the Australian Formula 3 Championship. Magro was beaten off the line in race one by Gilmour Racing’s Josh Buchan (F311) and Richard Peasey (F307), but soon relegated the pair for a clear-cut victory. Peasey finished second in race two where his teammate ran out fuel. Buchan hit back in the last for the runner-up spot, ahead of Peasey. Fourth in race one went to Roman Krumins (F307) who won the National Class ahead of Shane Wilson (F311). But it was Gerrit Ruff (F304) who came through for the overall class honours when his class rivals failed the finish the last race.

Stephen McLaine proved the dominant hand in the Mazda RX8 Cup (above), while a strong number of competitors contested the opening round of the Thundersports Cup (below).

MAZDA RX8 CUP A NEW car, a new look and three wins, saw Stephen McLaine take out the opening round, ahead of Will Harris and Ben Silvestro. McLaine and Ric Shaw diced fiercely throughout race one with McLaine holding off the 2018 title holder. In race two, Shaw overtook McLaine at the start, but McLaine retook the lead and again crossed the line first. But a post-race penalty for jumping the start placed him second. Will Harris and Aaron Prosser tangled in race one and the latter retired. Minus a door skin, Harris soldiered on to third, clear of Terry Lewis and Ben Silvestro. Lachlan Cook was out for the weekend when he crashed after turn three. Prosser recovered to fifth in race two, finishing behind Lewis and Harris,

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although Lewis would also get a start infringement penalty that dropped him to fourth. McLaine took the early lead in race three while Shaw fell back on the opening lap. Prosser capitalised, and moved up to second ahead of the battling Lachlan O’Hara, Silvestro and Harris, until retiring. A strong start from O’Hara saw him taking the early race four lead from

McLaine, but an off-track excursion dropped him down the order. Prosser moved up to second and pressured McLaine early, until he forced him into retirement which allowed Harris to take second.

THUNDERSPORTS CUP WORKING HARD for his race wins, Cory Gillett (Nissan Silvia V8) won the opening round for the new category.

Gillett and Mark Tracey (BMW E36) shared the spoils in the first two races. Pole sitter Gillett won race one after Tracey beat him away. They also diced throughout race two with Tracey taking the win. It was a similar tale in races three and four, with Tracey leading early and Gillett ultimately getting ahead. Merrick Malouf (Ford Ford Ute), Vin Stenta (Nissan R32 GTR) and Ashley Maclurkin (Silvia) battled over the minor places, Maclurkin finishing third in race one but was a non-finisher in race two where Malouf was best placed of the trio. Stenta finished third in race three and his fourth in the last behind MacLurkin, secured the Skyline driver third overall.

COMBINED CATEGORIES WITH IROC only racing on Saturday, Sven Burchartz (Porsche) dominated both races ahead of fellow IROC competitor Terry Knight. Gavin Ross (Holden Commodore) was third and best of the Group 4s before he won the two Sunday races, as Brent Edwards (Ford Falcon BA) dominated Super 6s. Jeremy Payne won both Saturday BMW E30 races from Alex Jory, after polesitter Brian Bourke fell down the order with a slow race one start. Payne and Jory continued to battle on Sunday, where each took a race win. Jesse Bryan just edged out Tim Freeman to take third for the meeting. Wayne Williams (Falcon) was the round winner in Aussie Racing Utes, after dicing with the Glenn Hancox and Clint Henderson driven Commodores. Williams won the first three races, but a 5s penalty for jumping the start, handed the fourth win to Hancox. Ryan Phillips won among the Excel class ahead of Liam Irving and Mark Garner. Garry O’Brien

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It was all smiles for new NZ V8s Champion Jack Smith.

SMITH SEALS TITLE

SUPER2 DRIVER Jack Smith has won the NZ V8s Championship, despite not taking a victory over the three-race finale held at Hampton Downs. The Aussie placed third in the opening race, but was later penalised 30-seconds for contact with the Nissan Altima of title rival Nick Ross that dropped him to eighth. Fourth in Race 2 gave Smith the points required to seal the title, whilst third in the final provided a fitting finish for the champion after taking 10 wins across the series. “It’s a great feeling. We secured the Championship in race two today, so we could go out and have a bit of fun in race three,” said Smith. “The second year in the Championship was always going to be the year for us. We had a lot of things to get on top of last year and we were super confident coming into this season. The team did an amazing job in the off-season, they put a lot of effort into both cars and this

Ashwell took Class 2 honours.

was the intention. Feels really good to be able to give it to them.” The weekend was a double celebration for Smith’s Hamilton Motorsports, as team owner Lance Hughes took a clean-sweep for the weekend. The Class 2 title went in favour of Justin Ashwell after a close fought battle over the course of the season with Matt Podjursky.

HEDGE TAKES CHAOTIC TITLE IN WHAT was a finale filled with drama, Callum Hedge has taken the NZ Toyota 86 Championship after rival Jaden Ransley went scoreless during the opening race of the weekend at Hampton Downs. The incident that effectively took Ransley out of the title fight was unlucky. Connor Adam slid down the inside of Brock Gilchrist and both made contact, sending Adam into a roll approaching turn four, where Ransley had already turned in. The rolling Adam contacted the championship leader, sputting each out of the race and handing the title on a platter to Hedge. Hedge had started the race from pole and led from start-to-finish as the event ended under Safety Car, while Ransley had started sixth but quickly progressed to third before the incident. The championship now swung 57 points in favour of Hedge. A miraculous effort from Ransley

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Callum Hedge capped off a terrific season with a pair of wins.

in Race 2 meant he finished on the podium in third, however it was behind Hedge. The new championship leader wasn’t the winner of the race, that honour went to maiden victor Kaleb Ngatoa in a breakthrough weekend for the 17-year-old. The final race went the way of Hedge as he sealed the title, Ransley on the other hand had a shocker with his car still hampered by the accident and finishing ninth. Ngatoa continued his strong run during the final round to finish second ahead of Peter Vodanovich.

Hedge will cross the Tasman to contest this year’s Australian Formula Ford Series, but was elated to win such a hard-fought title. “Winning the title is fantastic but for sure I would have loved the two races on Sunday to have been about Jaden and I fighting it out side by side for the title,” said Hedge. “I think we’d both have loved that. There’s a really great camaraderie among the drivers. A lot of us have been racing each other for years now in karts and other junior formula. That’s part of the reason it’s such a difficult championship to win.”

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CELEBRATIONS APLENTY AT THE ISLAND THERE WERE many anniversaries to celebrate at the Phillip Island Classic ‘Festival of Speed’ on March 8-10, as a big crowd and large entry were once again a highlight of Australia’s biggest historic race meeting. The event was the 30th Phillip Island Classic event, which also acknowledged the 50th anniversay of the e Holden Dealer Team, the 50th year of Formula Ford in Australia, the 60th year of the Mini and the Bolwell Nagari’s 50th anniversary. A number of the HDT’s famous race cars were on display, including numerous Toranas from the team’s dominant era during the 1970s. Also on display was the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship winning Ron Hodgson Holden Torana A9X driven by Bob Morris, whose success marked the end of a dominant era for Holden with the A9X model. Andrew Cannon raced the car over the course of the weekend. A capacity field of Formula Fords celebrated the categories inauguration here, the weekend’s racing being taken out by Brit Oliver White. He won three races over the weekend, while a familiar name to Supercars fans, Tim Blanchard, took victory in the other two. The Group A and C races featured a large JPS BMW presence, but it was a Ford Sierra RS500 domination up the front with Jimmy Vernon taking all five races in the ex-Benson and Hedges example. John Bowe was busy at the Island (right) while William Attard gave Mazda fans something to cheer about (right).

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Blanchard Tim TTi im Bl B lannch char ard ard and Oliver White an nd Ol O livver liv er W hite hi ttee were combatants all weekend, whilst Jonathan Miles tried hard to keep up. Image: John Lemm

This was the sight competitors in Q & R Sports & Invited saw for the weekend, the rear of Tom Tweedie’s Elfin MS7 (above).

RESULTS BY CATEGORY:

PHILLIP ISLAND HISTORICS M & O Sports Racing & Formula Junior & Invited

Race 1: Perry Spiridis (Lola T70 Coupe), Laurie Bennett (Elfin 600), Keith Simpson (Brabham BT16) Race 2: Spridis, Bennett, Andrew Robson (Brabham BT30) Race 3: Bennett, Robson, Craig Van Diemen (Brabham BT18) Race 4: Robson, Van Diemen, Tim Kuchel (Brabham BT35) Race 5: Kuchel, Van Diemen, Herbert Neal (Neal Ford Mk2)

J, K and Lb Sports & Racing

Race 1: Nick McDonald (Repco Holden Monopost), David Reid (Faux Pas), Leslie Wright (Dalro Jaguar) Race 2: Reid, McDonald, Michael Oshea (Maserati Cooper) Race 3: McDonald, Oshea, Reid Race 4: Reid, McDonald, Oshea Race 5: Reid, McDonald, Oshea

Formula Vee

Race 1: Christopher Jackson (Avanti), Dean Briggs (Spectre), Conor Ryan (Daveric) Race 2: Jackson, Ryan, Matthew Scott (Elfin NG) Race 3: Briggs, Jackson, Ryan Race 4: Jackson, Ryan, Elizabeth Bailey (GAS) Race 5: Ryan, Jackson, Bailey

Group A & C

Race 1: Jimmy Vernon (Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth), Bryan Sala (Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth), Tony Karanfilovski (Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth) Race 2: Vernon, Sala, Terry Lawlor (Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth) Race 3: Vernon, Sala, Lawlor Race 4: Vernon, Sala, Lawlor Race 5: Vernon, Sala, Karanfilovski

Group S & Invited Cars

Race 1: Paul Blackie (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray), Wayne Seabrook (Porsche 911), Stan Adler (Porsche 911) Race 2: Blackie, Carey McMahon (De Tomaso Pantera), Demetrios Constantin (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray) Race 3: Constantin, Seabrook, Adler Race 4: Constantin, McMahon, Seabrook Race 5: Constantin, Seabrook, Brett Smith (Datsun 280Z)

Q & R Racing, F5000 & IndyCars Variety was the spice of life at Phillip Island, whether it was the Group A & C fields headed by Jimmy Vernon (above) or the 1952 Allard J2X driven by John Bowe (below). Images John Lemm, Rebecca Thompson

Race 1: Guido Belgiorno-Nettis (Ferrari 156/85), Simon Gardiner (Chevron B42), David Hardman (Hardman JH-1) Race 2: Belgiorno-Nettis, Ian Buddery (March 86C), Andrew McInnes (Ralt RT21) Race 3: Belgiorno-Nettis, Hardman, Gardiner Race 4: Belgiorno-Nettis, Gardiner, Andrew McCarthy (Ralt RT4) Race 5: Hardman, McInnes, McCarthy

Formula Ford

Race 1: Oliver White (Reynard FF89), Jonathan Miles (Van Diemen RF89), Tim Blanchard (Van Diemen RF88) Race 2: Blanchard, Wood, Richard Davison (Van Diemen RF89) Race 3: White, Blanchard, Miles Race 4: White, Blanchard, Miles Race 5: Blanchard, White, Davison

Group N Over 3-Litre

Race 1: Dean Neville (Chevrolet Camaro), Aldo De Paoli (Chevrolet Camaro), Ben Wilkinson (Ford Mustang) Race 2: Paul Stubber (Chevrolet Camaro), Neville, De Paoli Race 3: De Paoli, Stubber, Neville Race 4: Stubber, Neville, De Paoli

Group N Under 3-Litre

Race 1: William Attard (Mazda RX2), Tony Gilfuis (Ford Capri GT), Joshua Axford (Ford Escort RS1600) Race 2: Attard, Quentin Bland (Ford Capri), Gilfuis Race 3: Attard, Gilfuis, Wayne Rogerson (Mazda RX2) Race 4: Attard, Gilfuis, Bland Race 5: Gilfuis, Attard, Bland

Q & R Sports & Invited

Race 1: Thomas Tweedie (Elfin MS7), George Nakas (Porsche 962T Group C), Russell Kempnich (Porsche 956T Group C) Race 2: Tweedie, Kempnich, William Porter (Prosport 3000) Race 3: Tweedie, Kempnich, Daniel Nolan (Nola Chev) Race 4: Tweedie, Nolan, Kempnich Race 5: Tweedie, Nolan, Porter

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There’s always plenty to watch at Th tthee annual Phillip Island historics th m me meeting, whether it is a gaggle of ggeese or sports cars. ge

It was th the weekend k d ffor cubic bi iinches h in Group N Over 3 Litre, as the Chevrolet Camaros of Paul Stubber, Dean Neville and Aldo De Paoli held sway. Ben Wilkinson was the best of the rest in his Ford Mustang. In Under 3 Litre, William Attard was the dominant man over the course of the weekend in his Mazda RX2, winning four out of the five races ahead of the the Ford Capris of Tony Gilfuis and Quentin Bland, whilst the Ford Escort RS1600 driven by Joshua Axford also provided competition. Paul Blackie was the form man

d driving i i a Chevrolet Ch l tC Corvette tt Sti Stingray in Group S, but an issue in the third race handed the weekend to fellow Stingray driver Demetrios Constantin, who proceeded to win the next three races ahead of the De Tomaso Pantera of Carey McMahon and Wayne Seabrook’s Porsche 911. A multitude of star drivers from the past were also in attendance as special guests including this year’s Grand Patron Dick Johnson, John Bowe, John Harvey, Kevin Bartlett, John French, Fred Gibson, Allan Moffat, Bob Morris, Jim Richards and Brian Sampson.

Group N Over 3 Litre field was the domain of Chevrolet’s thundering Camaros (below).

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s w e n Y A W SPEED A GOODYER FOR JOCK

Image: Geoff Rounds

“A WEIGHT off my shoulders” is how Victorian driver Kye Walters described his relief at winning a maiden state title win in the 2019 Tasmanian Modified Championship held at Latrobe Speedway. “Nothing really went wrong in the heats at all, just a tricky track to get a hold of. Just trying to find a happy medium was the challenge,” Walters said. He started off the front row alongside Jakobe Jetson and the pair swapped positions until Walters went low and Jetson high and was able to get the pass done to take the lead. Image:44Photography

Image: Geoff Rounds

NATHAN DISNEY has capped off a perfect night with an easy victory in the 2018-19 Queensland Late Model Championship at Toowoomba Speedway. He won both his qualifying heat races and led the 25-lap feature from green to chequer and won from David Doherty and Darren Kane. DOMINANT IS how Sean Mazzuchelli’s victory was in the 2019 Western Australian AMCA Nationals Title at Narrogin Speedway. He led every lap of the 30-lap decider, finishing five seconds clear of his nearest rival Murray Parsons Jnr. The followed Greg Horan in third place, defending WA champion David Boyes, Ajay Hammer and Rob Trenaman. Image: Geoff Rounds

JOCK BAKER was never headed in any qualifying race he contested as he took a convincing win in the annual Les McMaster Memorial for Limited Sportsman at Horsham’s Blue Ribbon Raceway over a fast finishing Adam McKenzie and Mark McDonald finishing a close third from a start in the midfield. LAANG SPEEDWAY hosted the annual Neville Pike Memorial for Junior Sedans and in the Top Stars class for A grade it was the defending champion Kasey Garlick winning from Todd Atkins, Ben Micallef, Darcy Micallef and Darcy Wilson. THE 2019 season is proving a good one for Gary Higgs as he claimed his third feature race win of the WA Super Sedan Summer Series with a dominant victory in the Mount Barker Super Sedan Classic. Higgs led from start to finish to grab the win from Kevin Bell aboard his new car finishing second in the 25-lap main event with Adyme Harvey rounding out the podium.

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JOCK GOODYER seems to be on his way to Speedway stardom. The teenager from the Launceston suburb of Riverside in Tasmania grabbed his first of many state championships in early March with victory in the Tasmanian Sprintcar title. Since 2017 Goodyer has been and raced everywhere in Australia. During April last year he led all 20 laps to win his first race and then things escalated. “That’s a night I’ll never forget. Everything just clicked for myself and the team and I think it was what made me really keen to race on in this class,” Goodyer told Auto Action. The 17-year-old apprentice electrician works in the family’s D&B Electrical business and his parents Darren and Belinda are the major force behind his burgeoning career. “I’m lucky and I couldn’t and wouldn’t be racing without mum and dad. I even run number 22 which is actually mum’s birthday which is pretty special for us all.” Cutting his teeth in the competitive Formula 500 class, Goodyer took out nine feature races and his debut Tasmanian title. In 2019 he’s done double duty between the classes and finished runner-up in the national and Tasmanian F500s. “I started out in a dirt go-kart because I was never old enough to get in the bigger cars. I did that for a year before I could and then as soon as it was my birthday I always begged Dad to get me a Formula 500. “I didn’t actually want to get a Sprintcar but he built it and I got in it and now I love it. Mum and Dad are my best supporters I’ve got - they support me in everything, they do it all, they pay for it and allow me to do everything I can, taking the time off work to go over there and race.

F500 STARS HEAT UP STEVEN ELLEMENT’S third win in the Western Australian Formula 500 Championship is likely to see him aim for a bigger prize next month. The national title at Goulburn Speedway looms now as a real possibility for him after this recent success at Margaret River Speedway. One of Ellement’s toughest rivals for the coveted Australia number one will be reigning national champ Liam Williams. He added to his superimpressive resume of wins with victory in the 2019 ACT

Formula 500 Championship. It is the second time Williams has won the title and he defeated Nathan Pryor and third place was Steve Caunt. At Avalon Raceway Steph Munn showed the boys a clean pair of heels, winning the sixth round of the F500 Stampede Series. A front row start alongside Dion Bellman and a superb start saw her lead all the way in the 20-lap race to grab her first-ever victory in the class from Jack Bell and Bellman. “What a feeling it was. Never

“It’s been a big step up from the 500s but I think I’m getting the hang of it. It’s just about more laps and more laps and getting more comfortable.” The Goodyer house has seen some of the world’s best Sprintcar drivers visit and take their seat in the family’s Sprintcar, including American legend Craig Dollansky and Australian star Ian Madsen. “We’d often have a driver come race in the family team over the years it was always an exciting time, having either someone like Craig and Ian in and around the car. I‘ve listened to them talk and remembered some of the things they’ve said, I hope some of it rubs off on me.” The wise words of two of the best has seen Goodyer not afraid to wrestle the sport’s biggest names and he’s racked up some impressive results on the tough Australian mainland. Goodyer finished 18th in the A-main of the 2019 Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic and also made the feature races of the Darley Challenge and the Prelude to the Title in Brisbane. His current season has also included an overall top 10 finishes of the Chariots of Thunder in Darwin of 42 entries. Top 10 finishes now seem to be the norm for Goodyer. He’s a regular for A-mains and says he’s up for the challenge every week. “It’s definitely challenging to take on the country’s best Sprintcar drivers at these renowned events, but it’s the perfect opportunity to build up my confidence and learn as much as I can from them,” he said. “We’re really happy with the speed we’ve been consistently producing this season and we’ve been so close to the featurerace win on numerous occasions, we just haven’t quite been able to pull it off yet. Image: Rock Solid Pics

did I think I would be able to beat the boys. I try so hard to run up the front with them every week. As a team we’ve worked so hard for this, since

we made the change to the Hyper Chassis we’ve been consistently moving forward, and this is just the icing on the cake,” Munn said.

Image: Geoff Rounds

DILLON BAGS THE SPUDS

Image: Ray Ritter

SMEE WINS THE ORIGIN

LUKE DILLON finally broke through to win the annual Tyson ‘Spud’ Perez Memorial and emotionally reflected on the life of his former friend in Victory Lane. Adelaide-based Dillon a regular in the 410 cubic-inch Sprintcar ranks had travelled to Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier since the event started 10 years

ago. This year Dillon made his task a lot easier from the front row with Mark Caruso who had also been solid all night and lead the 31-lap tribute race until lap mid-race when Dillon grabbed the lead. A hard and fast race ensued but Dillon got home first from Brendan Quinn, Dan

MCFADDEN WINS KRIKKE SHOOTOUT

Evans, Brad Keller and Caruso in an event that doubled as round 10 of the Australian Sprintcar All Stars series. “We are the 2019 Tyson Perez memorial winners. You could say we have brought home the Spuds tonight and Tyson would be pretty pleased that we have won this race in honor of him,” Dillon said.

Image: Richard Hathaway

MULTIPLE AUSTRALIAN Sprintcar champion James McFadden saw off an epic battle with Kerry Madsen to win the 22nd edition of The Krikke Boys Shootout at Bunbury Speedway. McFadden in the Monte Motorsport machine used a position two start for the time-honoured event to win from Madsen driving for Krikke Motorsport and the in-form Jason Kendrick. The blue ribbon event was created to commemorate the lives of Darryl and Jason Krikke, who died in a tragic car accident in 1997 and is the biggest event on the Bunbury speedway calendar. The 2019 version was another for the history books and came down to the final two laps as McFadden and Madsen threw everything at each other that went down to the wire. In the end just the margin was just 0.592 of a second after 30 laps. “To get the win was really good. I’m pumped because we’ve

Image: Gary Reid

crashed while leading a few races this year and ran second in a bunch of races. We got it rolling there in the end and the boys worked hard for us to get further up in the Shootout, when you start up the front, it makes driving a lot easier,” McFadden said. The event was also the Grand Final of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series and Kendrick’s high finish helped him claim backto-back championships on 2448 points, a comfortable win in the end over Jamie Maiolo’s 2366 points, Kaiden Manders (2302) and Brad Maiolo (2276).

HUNTER WINS THE SHOWDOWN A VERY patient wait of nearly two decades was finally rewarded for Charles Hunter with his first feature win in Sprintcar racing. His historic win was in scorching 40 degrees heat at Avalon Raceway with victory in the annual $25,000 Great Southern Showdown. A $5000 first prize awaited the winner and it would be Hunter who did lead home Terry Rankin, Brock Hallett, Corey McCullagh and Jamie Veal in fifth. The timely win from pole position in the 10th round of the SRA saw Hunter lead all

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Image: Rock Solid Pics

25 laps of the A-Main and kept his chances alive for overall honours in the tournament. “We were definitely up against some of the heavy-

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STATE VERSUS State and mate versus mate looks a likely catch cry as a new event was contested with the inaugural Australian Speedcar State of Origin at Wangaratta Speedway. Organisers are hailing it “a huge success” that attracted 22 entries with drivers from across the country competing in the 45-lap feature that celebrated the present time at the present location. Seasoned campaigner and NSW star driver Nathan Smee who was piloting the Troy Jordan machine, which was rated as the biggest race meeting ever at the North East Victorian venue, won the final. Smee led every lap and was challenged hard in the final 10 laps by eventual runner-up Nick Parker while Joe Lostitch filled third and Justin Paull charged from 14th to finish fourth. Smee like many is possibly looking to build on this victory by contesting the 28th running of the annual blue ribbon event the Beasley Memorial at Avalon Raceway on March 23.

hitters, to come out on top off our own merit made it even more special. We’ve been sticking to basics with our car and it’s really been paying

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off, but I think being able to focus solely on my racing has made all the difference in our consistency and results,” Hunter said. Driving for his brother Heath and with legendary racer and father Butch on the spanners, the night went according to plan finally for the hardworking family team. “It was truly a night to remember. All this hard work has paid off over the 18 years and now finally got a number one win in an A Main. The team has worked so hard over the years, especially Butch.”

RACING’S REAL FOR MOCK SPEEDWAY RACING got very real for Kyle Mock after claiming his maiden victory in a race dedicated to one of the sport’s pioneers. The 18-year-old took the lead on lap 13 of 41 and withstood all challengers to win the shortened (due to time) Wingless Sprints 50 Lapper, held in remembrance of Peter Craft at Valvoline Raceway. “We have been trying so hard for a number of years now to get a big win like this,” an elated Mock said. “To win this race, dedicated to Peter, makes me very proud and I can’t thank my team enough for their efforts.” Mock led home Jamie Dicker who also drove his best race this season and in a night that trend continued also for Sean Mayo, who claimed third. Rounding out the top five was Mark Blyton, who topped the points after the heats then followed Dean Thomas, Marshall Blyton, Ashleigh Jack, Troy Little, Daniel Sayre and Brian Briton completing the top 10.

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p ra w S L A N NATIO

BMW DUO TAKE APCS OPENER

THE OUTRIGHT winners of the Sydney 240 were Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey who now lead MRF Tyres Australian Production Car Series after the first round at Sydney Motorsport Park on March 2-3. In their Class A1 BMW M3 they finished ahead of Chris Lillis and Matthew Holt (Class AM1 HSV Clubsport R8) and brothers Grant and Iain Sherrin (Class A1 BMW M4). The Sherrins won the A1 Class due to taking pole position, while other classes went to Coleby Cowham and Lindsay Kearns (A2, Ford Mustang), Klae Eckhardt (B1, BMW135i) and Cem Yucel/Iain Salteri (C1, Volkswagen Golf R). There were a number of withdrawals before the first of four one-hour races began. The

Wins were shared amongst the German BMWs and the Australian HSV over the course of the four races. Image: Dave Oliver Photography

new Anthony Soole/Rob Bubis M4 blew an engine in testing. Practice brought about the undoing of Colin Osborne’s Renault Megane (broken front strut and shock) as well as the Michael Benton/Hadrian Morrell Falcon (blown head gasket), while preparation delays rule others out. It was a BMW one-two in the opening pair of races. Grant Sherrin won the first ahead of Lynton, who elected to start from the rear of the grid after a broken driveshaft in qualifying. Third went to Lillis ahead of Dimitri Agathos (Subaru Impreza WRX STi), Eckhardt and the Mitsubishi EVO 9 shared by Jason Miller and

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

out of turn 8. In race two Jarvis and Wright diced throughout for fifth and were joined in the latter stages by McAlister. Behind them were Murray Kent (Camaro), Ridge and Matt MacKelden (Mustang). Race three also saw race-long battles between McAlister, Wright and Kent as Herne fell to eighth, struggling for tyre grip as Drew Ridge and Simon Tabinor (Mustang) completed the top 10. Miedecke kept the pressure on Seton early in race four, before Seton spun at turn five. Miedecke and Jarvis slipped through, and Seton had to settle for third. Wright had a strong run to fourth, passing Andrew Miedecke and McAlister. MacKelden failed to take the third race start due to a broken wheel stud. He started last on the grid to finish seventh. Kent was eighth ahead of Ridge and Anthony Tenkate (Mustang) as Herne retired with a suspected fuel pump failure.

PADDON POUNCES AT SMP RETURNING TO home turf at Sydney Motorsport Park, Peter Paddon won both round two 50-minute races and finished second in the sprint to take the points lead in Radical Australia Cup on March 2-3. In the first of two 50-minute races of round two, Paddon scored a narrow victory over Chris Perini, who charged home after an early spin. Simon Haggerty was a distant third and just ahead of the father and son combination of round one winners Brad and Mitch Neilson. Tony Haggarty was fifth on his return to the Cup, repelling a challenge from rookie Max Medland.

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Sherrin crossed the line 1.5s clear of Leahey. However, a two-lap penalty for a wheel change infringement was then applied to Sherrin. Despite being in different classes, Kearns enjoyed a race-long battle with Lillis. Matt Boylan took a second Class B1 win in the WRX, while Kaden Olsen (Hyundai i30N) took the C1 Class honours. After securing the race lead following the compulsory pit stops and despite a 5-second penalty, Holt maintained a healthy buffer. Leahey took an additional pitstop for tyres which allowed Iain Sherrin to finish second. Eckhardt got the better of Agathos.

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

SETON SECURES SYDNEY SUCCESS DESPITE A spin in the final race which dropped him to third place, victory in the opening three races was enough to secure Aaron Seton the first round of the Performax TA2 Muscle Car Series on March 2-3. Seton made a storming start to the 2019 series. In the first three races he won ahead of fellow Ford Mustang driver George Miedecke, who grabbed the lead, and win, in the last when Seton looped. Andrew (Dodge Challenger) made his category debut and finished third in race one, but fourth placed Nathan Herne (Challenger) reversed those placings in the second outing. Reigning title holder Ashley Jarvis (Chev Camaro) finished a close fifth ahead of inaugural series winner Russell Wright, Drew Ridge and Hugh McAlister, all in Mustangs. There was a safety car interruption with Tim Tritton (Mustang) against a wall before Chris La Rosa (Mustang) had heavy contact

Richard Backus. There was an extended Safety Car in the second race due to crash involving Scott Cameron (BMW 335i) and Miller after turn five. Lynton led after the restart and the round of pitstops to take the win. Second across the line was Eckhardt but was he docked 5s and was relegated to fifth behind Iain Sherrin, Matthew Holt in the HSV and Coleby Cowham, in the category debut weekend for the Mustang. In the third race Leahey led until Grant Sherrin took over the front running 10mins into the race. Despite a rear end vibration,

AUDIS CLEAN UP IN FIRST ENDUOS SHARING THE driving duties in an Audi R8 LMS, Daniel Gaunt and Gary Higgon won the two one-hour races of the new CUE Super Enduro Series’ first round at Sydney Motorsport Park. In both outings they won ahead of the similar car shared by Nick Kelly and Bart Mawer. In a lone hand effort Vince Muriti made it an Audi trifecta in race one with third place, before Matt Stoupas scored a similar result in race two. Despite a lurid spin out of turn 11 late in the race, Aaron Tebb brought Steve Voight’s Porsche GT3-R across the line in fourth, and the pair also secured fourth in the second race. With the Porsche 991 of Sergio Pires and Marcel Zalloua fifth, the top five cars in race one were all in the GT Class. Brad Schumacher (Porsche 997) finished sixth and the best of the Class A cars ahead of Nathan

Halstead (991). Class B went to Peter Lucas (Porsche) and Class C to Glen Townsend (Lotus). There was a lengthy safety car due to Peter Boylan running his Porsche wide out of turn one and spearing across the track and backwards into the inside wall. GT Class filled the top five spots again in race two with Anthony Skinner (Porsche 991) finishing fifth. Muriti was placed fourth when he spun at a slippery turn 1 with 10 minutes to go. Class A honours again went to sixth placed Schumacher ahead of Halstead, while Val Muzman and Justin Levis (Lotus Exige) won Class B, and Townsend again topped Class C. There was one safety car, brought about when the Lucas Porsche dropped its engine oil at turns one and two, and expired on the top of the tunnel.

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

Bill Medland was next up after getting the better of Phil Anseline during the pit stops. Second early, Kosta Pohorukov came unstuck at turn 5 with just five minutes remaining when he suddenly lost power and went into the outside tyre barrier. Before the second enduro, there was a 15-lap preliminary. Paddon led early before Mitch Neilson passed him and went onto win. Perini held third until a spin at turn six on lap 11.

He yielded places to Peter Clare and Simon Haggarty, who ultimately finished third when Clare ran wide at turn one. The second of the enduros was taken out by Paddon by a narrow margin over Perini and the Neilsons third. After being sidelined from race one with a gear selection issue, Clare was fourth ahead of Tony Haggerty, (son) Simon Haggarty and Rowan Ross. Max Medland succumbed to overheating while Phil Anseline retired with damaged steering.

RECORD CELEBRATION AT BARBAGALLO BIG FIELDS celebrated Barbagallo Raceway’s Golden Jubilee on a newly surfaced track with several lap records going by the board on March 2-3. There was a new outright lap record set top, a time of 53.168 seconds by Tony Ricciardello in his Chevpowered Alfa Romeo which eclipsed the time set by John Bowe (Ralt RT4) way back in 1984.

SPORTS SEDAN/SPORTS CARS/STREET CARS

AFTER DELAYS to race one, Darren Boland (Ford Falcon) got the jump on Grant Hill (Falcon) and led when the safety car appeared for the duration. In the reverse grid race two, Ricciardello forged through for victory ahead of Ryan Humfrey (Falcon) and Tony Roskell (Falcon). There were early incidents in the third, involving Ken Coppin (Falcon) and John Roderick (Lotus Exige). At the restart Ricciardello led to the flag, setting his new benchmark ahead of Hill and Humfrey. In the last Ricciardello led away but on lap five stopped. After a safety car, Hill won from Boland and Humfrey. Brad Cuss (Nissan 200SX) came home first of the Street Cars but had a 30s penalty in the first, where second overall Denver Parker (Nissan Skyline) inherited the win.

FORMULA FORD

THE FIRST two races went to Braedyn Bowra (Stealth) over Josh Matthews (Stealth), as Andrew Goldie (Van Diemen) and Dan Gate (Stealth) scored

thirds. Simon Ridgewell (Van Diemen) had been in the mix until he dropped to seventh. Ridgewell also had dramas in the second race. Then in a great comeback, he finished second to Rob Appleyard (Van Diemen) and ahead of Gate. Bowra and Mathews tangled at turn seven with the latter bunkered and Bowra excluded. Ridgewell won the final from Appleyard while Bowra came through for third.

SALOON CARS

IT WAS a team one-two for Grant Johnson and Matt Martin as they steered their Holden Commodore VTs ahead of the opposition four times. Third every time was Rick Gill (Ford Falcon AU) after battling Brad Boley (VT). In the EA/VN class Nick Hanlon (Falcon) and Brandon Sharpe (Commodore) had two wins each.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

BROTHERS SHOWED the way in the three championship races with John Bondi leading home Brian Bondi in their Holden Monaros. Greg Barr (Holden Torana XU-1) and Graham Woolhouse (Ford Mustang) threw out challenges but fell away, into retirement and seventh respectively. Simon Northey (Mustang) finished third and backed up for another third in race two after Woolhouse had a 30s penalty. Woolhouse atoned with third in the next. The last race was a handicap, taken out by Randle Beavis (Ford Cortina) from Woolhouse.

FORMULA CLASSICS

MICHAEL HENERSON (Ralt RT4) was dominant with four wins. Simon Alderson (Van Diemen FF2000) had three seconds and a third. Martin Bullock (Chevron B20) kept Alderson honest but a DNF in the last let Ricky Virago (Ralt Supervee), with four fourths, third overall.

Images: Mick Oliver

HQ HOLDENS

MATT CHERRY (Holden Monaro) dominated with outright wins over John Callegari (Holden Commodore) with three seconds, and close rival Reuben Romkes (Monaro). Garry Edwards (BMW E30), Grant Gellan (Ford Escort MkI) and Tim Riley (Toyota Corolla) were the class winners.

MICK WOODBRIDGE started brilliantly and opened up a race one gap on Marc Watkins and Michael Howlett, which dissipated quickly on the penultimate lap. Woodbridge went wide at the final corner, letting Watkins and Howlett through. In the reverse grid race two Woodbridge won from Watkins and Howlett. Race three had several lead changes between Howlett and Watkins. In the run to the flag, Howlett edged ahead of Watkins with Woodbridge third. Watkins got the jump in the last. Woodbridge led briefly and then slipped down the order. Howlett moved to second as Watkins pulled clear, while Rory Sharp consolidated third.

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FORMULA VEE

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ALMOST NOTHING separated Jordan Oon and Adam Lisle for outright top spot, as both Stohr drivers had two victories. A third place to Lisle in the opening race behind Stuart Kostera Jnr (Stohr) handed Oon the round. The Radical class went to Aaron Love with a clean sweep over BD Soutar-Dawson and Ashleigh Stewart.

EXCEL CUP

THE LAP record was broken 10 times in race one before Rob Landsmeer won ahead of Dean Hill and Carlos Ambrosio. In the second race Natasha Passaris joined the leaders where Hill held off Ambrosio and Passaris – and the lap record went again, five times. Landsmeer returned to the fore in race three, narrowly beating Hill and Ambrosio, after Passaris bunkered at turn 7. She also came unstuck in the last, at turn one. Landsmeer retired while Hill won and Ambrosio prevailed ahead of Malkin.

RACE ONE was red flagged when Bruce Welsh spun a borrowed Brett Scarey Ajay and was hit by McKenzie Matthews (Gerbert). At the restart, David Caisley (Jacer) was the leader until Cody Hill (Jacer) took over. At the finish though, Hill was pipped by David Campbell (Jacer), while Caisley was third. The second race saw Caisley lead all the way. Second was Mark Horan (Stinger) narrowly ahead of Hill. Caisley won the third encounter from Hill and Rod Lisson (Sabre). After several lead changes in the last, Hill broke clear for victory from Caisley and Campbell. Franz Esterbauer (Ribuck) was dominant in the 1200s with four wins, though Scarey (DC-Vee) was close in the first but sidelined for the remainder. April Welsh (Jacer) snared seconds from there, ahead of Andrew Lockett (Ajay). MICK OLIVER

MCKENZIE OPENS WITH VICTORY SUPER SPRINT Series is well underway after the opening round of the B series took place on March 2-3. There was a large number of competitors competing, driving in a variety of machinery led by Bruce McKenzie and Geoff Noble, who was one of a 17-strong Lotus entry. At the close of the event, McKenzie took the honours in his Formula 3, just ahead of Noble and the Time Attack-spec Subaru Impreza WRX STI of Stephen Faulks. Seven runs were completed with each consisting of three laps on the large 3 km Circuit K, though conditions were mixed for most of the event with some patchy rain before fine weather emerged on the second day. The juniors were back in force as Kyle Evans led the way, heading the ever-improving Alyssa Lepp.

McKenzie was the man to beat (left). As ever, there was an eclectic array of cars competing (above and below).

A few minor incidents occurred over the weekend, one of which was Paul Buccini’s early retirement after the turbo on his BMW blew. However, his weekend didn’t end as he shared his daughter Karlie’s BMW, creating some in-family rivalry. The next round for the Morgan Park Super Sprint Series is on March 23-24, and hosts the opening round of the C Series. A wide range of cars will take

part including a vintage Ford V8 Special, modern sports cars and open-wheel formula vehicles. Spectator entry for all the Super Sprints is free and offers a fantastic action-packed weekend with a large variety of different cars competing. For more information and for what events are coming up visit: www.morganparkraceway. com.au

CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE

Bruce McKenzie Geoff Noble Matt Plowman Mitchell Ringuet Rob Bellinger Darrin Siddins Stephen Faulks Tony Seymour Trent Laves Kees Van Der Horst

44 43 41 36 36 35 34 33 33 32

Proudly presented by Warwick District Sporting Car Club Inc for more information visit www.morganparkraceway.com.au

Next Round: C Series Round 1 March 23-24 AutoAction

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

OASTLER TOPS HILLCLIMBS TWO-TIME STATE Hillclimb Champion Malcolm Oastler kicked off a bid for a third NSW Hillclimb Championship with victory in the opening round at Mt Panorama on March 2. He sent his turbocharged OMS 28 up The Esses course, which ran from the top of Conrod Straight to Skyline, in a best of 21.71s, beating the 2016 champ, Queenslander Dean Tighe (Dallara F395/ Judd V8) by 1.7s. Then Oastler backed up to take the second Mantic Clutch round the following day, where his 37.69s toppled Dean Amos (Gould GR55B) by 1.8s. The course started at the crest of Mountain Straight and ran upwards through to just before McPhilliamy Park. At 1.7km it is the longest on the NSW calendar. Amos was third in round one on the Saturday, ahead of Ron Hay (Synergy Dallara) with Formula

Libre over 2.0-litre class cars filling the top four spots. Fifth overall and fastest of the tin tops was Phil Heafey in his Mitsubishi EVO 6 with a quick 25.22s best run. Sixth was Neville Shears, running his Nissan Skyline GTR R35 in the new Time Attack class and finishing ahead of Zac LeLievre (Group 2A Open/Closed Sports Westfield Megabusa). Michael Von Rappard (FL O2L Dallara F392), Wayne Penrose (Group 3D Sports Sedans O3L VW Superbug) and Troy Nicholson (HSV Coupe 4) completed the top 10. Dave Morrow (FL under 1300cc Krygger Suzuki) and James Pearson (Group 2B Prodsports over 1600c Mazda RX7) were equal 11th. The fastest junior was Riley MacQueen (Holden Commodore)

Image: Bill Pearson

and Karen Wilson (Ford Focus RS) was quickest of the ladies. Tighe was third on the second day, ahead of Hay as Von Rappard appeared to like the faster course and came in fifth. Heafey was again fastest of the tin tops and many of the open wheelers and posted a new class record, placing sixth ahead of LeLievre,

also with a new class record, Penrose and Matt Cole (RX7) in the best of the Sports Sedans. Class rival to Cole, Daryl Small (Commodore) was next, finishing 10th, and ahead of Nicolson and Shears. MacQueen was again the best of the juniors as Wilson doubled up as the fastest femme. JAMES PEARSON Image: Wishart Media

HASTY HARDING IN THE HASTINGS CONDUCTED OVER the forest roads in the Hastings Shire on March 9, the second round of the Shannons NSW Rallysprint Championship was won by Michael Harding and Jason Thornthwaite in their Subaru Impreza WRX STi. It was the second year of this venue – around 20mins south west of Port Macquarie and based out of Wauchope – for the Blue Range Rallysprint. Harding was fastest over both the short and long stages, finishing with a combined time of 38mins 57s. Second and some 37s in arrears were fellow 4WD class competitors Andrew Penny and Rhys Llewellyn (WRX), while third outright went to the 2WD winners Aaron Casmiri and Adrian Pallister (Mitsubishi Mirage). Russel Winks and Steve Hodgkin (Holden Commodore) were the runners-up in 2WD and fourth outright ahead of Peter Dimmock and Peter Hellwig (Datsun 1600). The Blue Range Rallysprint followed the opening round held at Nabiac in February. That event was won by 2018 Champions Michael South and Justin Goodreid (WRX) ahead of Dan and Ken Maurer (WRX). Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith (Mazda RX2) finished third. GARRY O’BRIEN

MITTA MOUNTAIN RALLY FOR THREE STARTERS GLEN RAYMOND and Kate Catford dominated the Border Oils and Batteries Mitta Mountain Rally on March 2, which was the opening round of the MTA NSW Rally Championship, the Hino Geelong CAMS Victorian Rally Championship (VRC) and East Coast Classic Rally Series (ECCRS). The 2017 Victorian champions have entered the NSW championship this year in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 and the win on home territory was the perfect start. Tristan Kent and Robert Males (EVO 9) nominated for both state championships, and whilst finishing some three and a half minutes behind the winners, secured the VCR victory, while Richard Shimmon and Jim Gleeson (EVO VII) rounded out the podium in third. Tony Sullens and Kayleigh Newell had a sensational run to fourth overall (first NSW 2WD) in a Citroen DS3 ahead of the Andrew Penny and Rhys Llewellyn (Subaru Impreza WRX STi). Ivan Register and Paul Humm (WRX) completed the top six overall and third in the VRC. Other winners included Justin Walker and Blaise McNamara Ford Escort RS1800) in VRC 2WD, Nick Seymour and Ognjen Jovanovic in the Fiesta Rally Series,

and Lochlan Reed and Will Murphy in the Grant Walker Parts Hyundai Excel Series. With temperatures searing into the mid-30s and featuring the longest stage on the calendar at 55km, it was a demanding event on both man and machine. Of the 50 crews that started, 16 failed to finish. Tom Clarke and Ryan Preston (EVO 9) won at Mitta last year, but didn’t fare as well this year, sliding off the road on SS2 but re-joined for heat two. Arron Windus and Daniel Brkic also came to grief a little further down the road but their Mitsubishi’s excursion was terminal. Current NSW champs Glenn Brinkman and Harvey Smith (Evo 9) were out early with an intercooler issue, and Victorian title holders Ben and Cathy Hayes (Holden Commodore) retired with overheating. In the ECCRS, Thomas Dermody and Eoin Moynihan slipped off the road and ended with their Ford Escort RS beached on logs. They re-joined to take victory in heat two. Luke Sytema and Adam Wright (Escort RS1800) were on course to win both heats, before a puncture 20km into the final stage dropped them to second, and elevated Brian Semmens and Dan Parry (Nissan 200SX) to victory. CRAIG O’BRIEN

“Coming up at the nation’s action and spectator tracks” Wakefield Park

www.wakefieldpark.com.au

March 28 Speed Off The Streets/Test & Tune March 29 HSRCA – Test Day March 30-31 HSRCA – Autumn Festival April 3 WPM Trackschool Track Day April 5 Champions Ride Day April 6 Speed Off The Streets/Test & Tune Track Day

56 AutoAction

Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au

March 22 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers March 23 AWCC Rapid Lap Dash March 27 Performance Test Day March 29 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers March 31 Nugget Nationals April 5 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers

Brought to you by:

www.racefuels.com.au

Image: Elgee

HAYWARD BACK AND BLITZES THEM

ONLY COMPETING occasionally these days, Brett Hayward put in a masterclass performance to go FTD in the second round of the Trydel Up & Go Victorian Hillclimb Championship at Bryant Park last month. He finished almost 3s ahead of the opposition on the challenging clockwise figure eight track, with all four of his runs good enough for the win. South Australian Michael Bishop (Hayward 019) finished second outright and took out the up to 1300cc Formula Libre class, while Mike Barker completed the Hayward top three in his 07. Barker still holds the Championship lead ahead of Bishop while David Mahon (Ninja GA7) is level with Garry Martin. Martin again suffered front end problems but says he will be upgrading by the next round. With his Martin a16 back on the trailer, Martin accepted an offer from Andrew Mizzi to drive his GAK-Martin and set the car’s owner a new target.

Mirko Grbic (Mitsubishi EVO 7) was the quickest tin top for eighth place ahead of Tim Boyd (Mazda RX7). Completing the top 10 was Wesley Inkster who showed his son Tom how to take the Spectrum Formula Ford home unscathed. The latter was less than 8s slower than his father despite driving a Hyundai Excel, although he paced 47th and fourth in Improved Production up to 1600cc. The class was won by Ian Grinter (Mini Cooper) also finishing 13th outright. Historic Group N had a great mix with Larry Kogge (Holden Torana XU1) in the over 2.0-litre class proving quickest. Steve Weymouth Wilson (Mini Cooper S) topped the up to 2.0-litre class ahead of Peter Owen (Ford Escort MkI) and was followed by Callum Ross (Hillman Imp), while Geoffrey Bower (Austin A40 Farina) was next ahead of Neville McCleod (Morris Major). GARY HILL

HUTCHINSON WINS SERIES OPENER THE TIGHE Cams Queensland Hillclimb Series began at Mt Cotton on March 2-3 with Warwick Hutchinson achieving the round one win. Despite a couple of light showers, Hutchinson (OMS 28 RPV03) and second placed Ed McCane (turbocharged DJ Racecars Firehawk) were in the exclusive Under 40s Club. Both have been there before but this was the first time in their current hillclimb specials. Hutchinson went FTD with a 39.81s on the last of 12 available runs while Ed McCane was just 0.07s slower on his final attempt, albeit he did go quicker (39.73s) in the Top Six. Behind the two over 1300cc Formula Libre class cars was third placed James Milliner (under 1300cc FL OMS 2000M), Steven Woodbridge (Dallara F396) and David Quelch (Honda DPQ Special), who was second in class behind Milliner. Sixth outright was David Homer (Grp A GAE001) ahead of Greg Tebble in his Group R Van Diemen FF2000. Rounding out the top 10 were Matthew Read (Readster MTR1), Michael Larymore (Production

Image: Ian Colley

Sports Toyota MR2) and 2018 outright champion Ross Mackay (Ford Escort MkI). Just one record was broken, by Philip Dalton (Honda Integra) who went under his own record time in the Road Registered Sedan 16012000cc class by over half a second. Best MG Award went to Peter Andrews (TF) and Most Improved to Jeremy Mattea (Hyundai Excel X3). GARRY O’BRIEN

BIG WIN IN ROD HATTER MEMORIAL IN CONVINCING fashion Darren Agrela and Ryan Barton won the GTurbo Rod Hatter Memorial Perenjori 360, round one of the West Australian Off Road Championship on March 2-3. Of the 39 starters, just 19 managed to complete the full six laps with some of the fancied runners falling by the wayside, with Agrela/Barton (Jimco/Chev) winning the event by over 14 minutes. Second place went to Phillip and Stewart Shepley (Extreme 2WD Chevrolet Pro 2), with Mark Harris and Gloria Viggiano (SXS Turbo Can Am Rotax X3) another 25s behind. Finishing fourth were Garry Povah and Dennis Duncan (Ext 4WD Holden), ahead of Mathew Birnie and Rochelle Funneman (Can Am), Mark Murray and Jim Ingham (Ext 4WD Nissan Patrol/Toyota), and Peter Barrett Callan Barrett (SportsLite Bullet/Honda). The remainder of the top 10 at the finish were Karl Richardson and Shane Walsh (Performance 2WD Nissan), Graeme Bentink

Club Rally, Canberra ACT, Mar 22 Wellsford Wander Club Rally, Axedale – Wellsford/Knowsley Forest, Mar 23 Southern Cross Rally Series Rd1, Rosewood NSW, Mar 23 Multi Club Khanacross, Powranna Dragway TAS, Mar 23 Club Motorkhana, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 23 The Byfield Fire Tower Rallysprint, Byfield QLD, Mar 23 Multi Club Supersprint, Barbagallo Raceway WA, Mar 23 Top End Mud Racing Series Rd6, Downes Park NT, Mar 23 Cub Khanacross, Bunbury Autocross Centre WA, Mar 23 Multi Club Supersprint, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 23 Tighe Cams Qld Hillclimb Series Rd2, Mt Cotton QLD, Mar 23-24 Club Rallycross/Autocross, SEAC Park SA, Mar 23-24 Multi Club Tri Series Hillclimb, Mount Cooperabung NSW, Mar 23-24 Club One-Car Sprint, Wodonga Logic VIC, Mar 23-24 Club Hillclimb, Mount Porcupine Hillclimb NSW, Mar 23-24 Club Short Course Off Road, Milbrodale NSW, Mar 23-24 Club Quarter Mile Sprint, Shark Lake Road Esperance WA, Mar 23-24 Tarmac Rally Championship Rd2, Lake Mountain Sprint, Marysville VIC, Mar 23-24 State Hillclimb Championship Rd3, Mt Leura VIC, Mar 23-24 State Circuit Racing Championship Rd2, Baskerville TAS, Mar 23-24 NAMSC Circuit Racing Pointscore Rd1, Hidden Valley NT, Mar 23-24 Club Hillclimb, Mt Gladstone Cooma NSW, Mar 24 Multi Club Khanacross, Bryant Park VIC, Mar 24 State Supersprint Championship, Sydney Motorsport Park Rd1, Mar 24 Multi Club Supersprint, Sandown Raceway VIC, Mar 24 Multi Club Motorkhana, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 24 State Motorkhana Championship Rd2, PAC Grounds Pakenham VIC, Mar 24 State Motorkhana Championship Rd1, Mallala Motorsport Park SA, Mar 24 Multi Club Motorkhana, Boisdale Hillclimb Track VIC, Mar 24 Multi Club Hillclimb, Mount Stuart Townsville QLD, Mar 24 Multi Club Khanacross, METEC Driver Training VIC, Mar 24 Rally De La Vie Sprint and Hillclimb, Ringwood Hillclimb NSW, Mar 27-29 State Motor Race Championship Rd1, Morgan Park QLD, Mar 29-31 State Rally Championship Rd2, Ada River Rally, Wesburn VIC, Mar 29-31 HSRCA Historic Wakefield Park NSW, Mar 30-31 QR Drivers Championship Rd1, Queensland Raceway QLD, Mar 30-31 State Clubman Rally Rd1, Mini’dulla, Ulladulla NSW, Mar 30 State Rally Championship Rd1, Rally Southport TAS, Mar 30 Multi Club Quarter Mile Sprint, Eddington VIC, Mar 30 Club Motorkhana, Rob Roy Hillclimb VIC, Mar 30 Mt Alma Mile Hillclimb, Mt Alma SA, Mar 30-31 Multi Club Dirt Khanacross, Benaraby Motor Sport Complex QLD, Mar 30-31 State Circuit Racing Championship Rd2,0 Collie Motorplex WA, Mar 31 State Rally Series Rd1, Ada River Rally, Yarra Forest VIC, Mar 31 Interclub Challenge Hillclimb Rd1, Rob Roy, Mar 31 Club Hillclimb, Bryant Park NSW, Mar 31 Multi Club Khanacross, Booral Road Booral QLD, Mar 31 State Supersprint Championship Rd2, Sandown Raceway, Mar 31 State Motorkhana Championship Rd1, Tiger Kart Club WA, Mar 31 Oh’ What a Feeling Autum Autocross, Nabiac Motorsport Complex NSW, Mar 31 Motorkhana and Go-To-Whoa, Barbagallo Raceway WA, Mar 31

Image: Jason Galea

and Caleb Bradfield (Production 4WD Toyota Landcruiser), and Gavin Rodgers and Latia Reeves (Can Am). Current and three-time state champion Jared Percival and Darryn Beckett (ProLite SS Racetech/Toyota) failed to finish the Prologue. Colin and Peter Doney (Ext 2WD Volkswagon Baja/Nissan Maxama) were fastest over section three but had a DNF on the previous section. Agrela was untouchable in the first section, with a 92s lead over Doney and Justin and

Archer Steadman (Pro Buggy BAT Spec 3/ Chev). Malcolm Yeardley/Alex Cowan (BAT/ Nissan), Brad Cooper/Aaron Smithson (BAT/ Chev) and David Hickey/Ash Ruthers (Jimco/ Chev) all fell out of contention. On section two, Doney suffered a flat tyre and Steadman broke an axle. As a result Shepley moved to second outright and Harris to third. Shepley had a flat tyre on section three and dropped a lot of positions on the road, but held onto his second outright. GARRY O’BRIEN

AutoAction

BOTTAS SENDS HIS REGARDS VALTTERI BOTTAS had a message for his critics while on the cool down lap after his victory in Melbourne. “To whom it may concern, f*** you!” Bottas said over the car-to-pit radio. Later on Sunday evening, while still in the paddock, he explained that he’d made the remark spontaneously and that the people who got the message knew who they were. And that the list of detractors was rather long. “I’m sure the people to who it was, they would know it,” the phlegmatic Finn said. “I just wanted to send my best regards. That’s it. I didn’t think about it or plan it, it just came. “Obviously, there are many people who support you and, honestly, I appreciate that a lot. There are many people around me, supporting me. “There are always ups and downs, and you can really see the true

58 AutoAction

support quite easily. And then through the difficult times, there’s the other part, which is a lot more negative. That’s their weakness, so it’s fine.” Bottas missed out on wins in China, Azerbaijan and Russia last year,

through no fault of his own. “I can’t say unfair, because everyone can say what they really want,” he said of those who criticised him. “Just for whom it may concern, maybe they should look in the mirror sometimes

and think actually why they do that. For me, it’s okay now.” With his win and radio comment, Bottas is sending a message to one and all that he does not give a damn, he is here to win. DK

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