Auto Action #1762

NIKI LAUDA TRIBUTE TO THE TOUGHEST CHAMPION SINCE 1971

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CHAZ HAS BIG DECISION TO MAKE

CRUNCH TIME

MOSTERT MULLS OVERSEAS OFFER AS SILLY SEASON HOTS UP LE BOSS VS THE FOGES

TCR’S STORMING START

Jean Todt grilled on racing’s future

Issue #1762

May 30 to June 12 , 2019

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PLUS

What Supercar team bosses think

SANDOWN SAFE TRACK CHANGE SECURES FUTURE

TCR Round 2 Phillip Island

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LATEST NEWS

Image: LAT

SANDOWN SAFE! MELBOURNE’S ICONIC Sandown Raceway is safe for at least another five years following a $1 million upgrade.

Auto Action has learned that Sandown’s notorious Turn 6 will have a new increased run-off area in time for November’s 500 km endurance race.

The Sandown 500 will again be Supercar’s retro round, with teams encouraged to run throwback liveries.

Turn 6, the super-fast left-hander at the end of the back straight, will be upgraded to comply with FIA track safety standards.

The corner’s limited run-off will be significantly increased to reduce the incidence and severity of high-speed crashes into the tyre barrier, the scene of car-wrecking incidents in recent years.

The major upgrade, costing $1 million, along with some track resurfacing, is the best indication yet that Sandown’s medium-term future has been secured.

Sandown owner Melbourne Racing Club is in negotiations for a multi-year renewal for the Sandown 500 beyond this year.

The investment in improving the safety

of Turn 6 means the track is safe for another “five to seven years�, according to Sandown manager Brendon Stewart.

While some of Sandown may be sold off to help finance the $300 million revamp of MRC’s showcase Caufield racecourse, the motor racing circuit – and the entire horse racing facility – looks to be safe now until at least 2025 and more probably 2027.

CAMS’ manager of safety and racing operations, David Stuart, has endorsed the Turn 6 upgrade, which doesn’t change the iconic downhill corner.

Sandown Raceway will close for five weeks at the end of July for the work to be done.

The run-off area on the outside of Turn 6 will be extended to 18 metres by encroaching on the spectator bank close to the Dandenong Road boundary.

It will be asphalted to improve retardation before the relocated FIA-standard tyre wall, which will be supported by concrete barriers.

As well as some resurfacing of corners, the steel barriers along the back straight

THIS WEEK’S RACE CALENDAR

MARK FOGARTY reveals a six-figure safety upgrade has secured the metro track’s future for several more years

will be upgraded from double- to triplelayers.

The Turn 6 safety upgrade follows minor modifications for last year’s Sandown 500.

The track received a temporary licence contingent on the Turn 6 run-off being increased according to FIA guidelines.

According to Sandown’s Stewart, the $1 million investment confirms the MRC’s commitment to motor racing – and driver training – at the track for several years, despite pressure to sell the site (worth several hundred million dollars) for residential development. “I don’t think Sandown will be here forever, but it will be for the foreseeable future,� Stewart told AA. “Conservatively, I’d say at least another five to seven years.�

He confirmed that MRC was already talking with Supercars about a multi-year renewal of the 500 from 2020.

Sandown is likely to assume a new shortterm importance for the MRC because the Caulfield revamp will close the racecourse while a second track and new grandstands are constructed.

Trainers will be forced out of Caufield during the massive upgrade and Sandown will become the MRC’s major metropolitan racing and training venue in the interim.

Beyond 2025, Sandown’s long-term future is still up in the air because of its value for residential development in the midst of Springvale in Melbourne’s inner southeast.

However, it could survive because the local council is opposed to redevelopment, it is in Victoria premier Daniel Andrews’ electorate and there is a strong push to make it a sporting heritage site.

For the time being, though, it is very good news for motor racing that the MRC has invested in upgrading the track to meet international safety requirements, ensuring its future for years to come.

This year’s Penrite-backed Sandown 500 retro round will be run from November 8-10, switching from being the traditional midSeptember Bathurst 1000 warm-up to the final leg of the Enduro Cup. Sandown swapped places with Pukekohe, which will be the final pre-enduro event from September 13-15.

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BIG DECISION OVERSEAS OFFER HAS MOSTERT WONDERING WHETHER TO STAY OR GO

MARK FOGARTY reveals that most-wanted Ford ace is weighing local options against an international GT drive FRUSTRATED FORD star Chaz Mostert is seriously considering a switch to overseas racing as Tickford Racing and DJR Team Penske ramp up their bidding war to keep him here.

Mostert has confirmed that as well as his local options, he is now looking at an opportunity in international GTs that would mean stepping out of Supercars for at least two years.

Believed to be an offer from BMW, the normally dishevelled – but now sleekly groomed – Ford front-runner admitted that taking a ‘sabbatical’ to race overseas had become a serious alternative.

Having dismissed a possible foreign foray at the beginning of the year, Mostert revealed that his recent thinking has changed.

“There is still an option to maybe not to be in this category next year, which is something I’m taking seriously,” he told Auto Action. “I didn’t consider it as seriously at the start of the year, but recently, definitely taking seriously.”

Mostert, 27, is the key to the driver market for 2020 as the only truly top-ranked driver who will be out of

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contract at the end of this season.

Several others will also be up for renewal, including DJRTP’s Fabian Coulthard, whose major rival for his seat is Mostert, but the Tickford spearhead is the most prized catch by far.

Although looking forward to car updates at Darwin next month, Mostert has been frustrated by Tickford’s inability to match the front-running pace of the DJRTP Mustangs.

So far this season, he has two pole positions and a fortunate AGP win, compared with McLaughlin’s nine poles and 10 race wins.

Tickford wants to re-sign Mostert, while DJRTP is known to have been looking at him as a replacement for Coulthard, who has been solid but overshadowed by Scott McLaughlin.

As Mostert spoke exclusively to AA about his Supercars vs international GT dilemma, DJRTP boss Ryan Story admitted publicly for the first time that he had talked with other drivers.

“I’m not doing my job if I’m not aware of what the driver market looks like at any point,” Story said. “That’s

Actually, he hasn’t and that is new news from the team, which has previously stayed steadfastly shtum about its future driver line-up.

While there is no doubt championelect McLaughlin is on a long-term deal, Coulthard is up for renewal amid longrunning speculation – first revealed

by AA late last year – that Mostert had been targeted as a likely replacement.

SCOTTY TO THE STATES

Chaz Mostert is frustrated that he has been unable to match Scott McLaughlin’s success this year. Will he join him at DJR Team Penske next year? Images: LAT & Ross Gibb

fact. Does that mean I’ve spoken to other drivers? Of course. And that’s no secret. I’ve said that on the record before.”

MOSTERT HAS been in Penske’s crosshairs because he is the next best candidate to take over from McLaughlin when the reigning Supercars champion moves on to racing for Team Penske in the USA. Even if he were to win the 2019 Bathurst 1000 as well as successfully defending his title, which is now almost assured after his domination at Winton, McLaughlin is unlikely to be despatched to the States until 2021 at the earliest.

Looking to a post-McLaughlin future, DJRTP is looking at snapping up Mostert to take over as a ready made championship-contending race-winner.

EXC CHA LU ZB S OM IV B E

SHE LL!

BMW Motorsport boss Jens Marquardt admitted his desire to sign Mostert at the Bathurst 12 Hour in early February.

“Obviously, I have ties there, but at the end of the day, I can’t comment on it,” Mostert said.

He added that the prospect of racing GTs internationally was appealing.

“There is definitely excitement there to do it,” he said. “I’ve loved what I’ve been doing with BMW the last year or two, driving on different tracks and driving different cars.

“Maybe it might be great to go away for a couple of years and see a different side of things.”

Under cross examination, DJRTP’s Story acknowledged that while there was speculation about Coulthard’s future, there was no doubt about McLaughlin.

COULTHARD STAKES CLAIM

Chaz Mostert at the wheel of a factory BMW GT racer in the USA. Will we see him full time with the German factory team in 2020 and beyond?

However, DJRTP’s hopes of luring him away from Tickford, as well as Tickford’s desire to keep him, have been interrupted by Mostert’s renewed interest in racing overseas.

Both Mostert and DJRTP’s Story are adamant that no decisions have been made about next year and beyond.

“No idea,” Mostert said. “I have actually not a clue. At the moment I’m just trying to look at all my options, sit them on a table at home and weigh them up.”

Story commented: “We haven’t made any decisions. We’re not even at that point.

“Traditionally, we don’t talk about the length of driver contracts. But in terms of what the make-up for next year looks

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like, we have nothing to say. When we have something to say, we’ll say it.”

While Mostert admitted he’s had a renewal offer from Tickford and an overseas opportunity, he wouldn’t confirm an approach from DJRTP. “I’m off contract this year, so I have to look at my future within the sport,” he said. “There are a lot of great opportunities down pit lane. The team’s given me a fabulous run for my career so far and you have to repay the faith, so there is a bit of loyalty there.”

While he is giving Tickford until after the next round at Darwin to show true progress, his self-imposed deadline to decide his future is three months at the outside.

“I’m a big believer in trying to get

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things sorted earlier than later because if you’re lucky enough to be a driver that actually has two options, I don’t think it’s fair on the option that you’re not going with to be hung out to dry because it doesn’t work very well for either party,” he said.

“So, next two to three months. Three would be the absolute deadline I’d like to be organised by. Two is ideal for me and my mentality.”

BMW WANTS CHAZ

HE ALSO explained his rationale about taking a couple of years off to race international GTs, although he wouldn’t confirm the offer was from BMW, for which he has raced in the Bathurst 12 Hour and overseas.

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HE ALSO pointed out that Coulthard was making a great claim to keep his seat with his recent front-running form.

“I think there’s every expectation that Scott will be there,” Story smiled.

“There’s been a huge amount of speculation in the press about Fabian and other drivers potentially filling that seat. But Fabian is doing a great job for us right now.

“He’s second in the championship.

He’s won a couple of races for us and that’s the job he needs to be doing.

And if you look at his form compared with last year, he has taken a big leap forward and that’s precisely what we needed him to do.

“He’s doing everything he needs to be doing. That’s the easiest way to describe it. There’s always going to be speculation and the silly season tends to start earlier and earlier every year.”

Story has a close relationship with Mostert, with whom he talks regularly, going back to the Gold Coast-based star’s race-winning maiden Supercars championship season with DJR in 2013.

Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards conceded he could be looking at changing up to three drivers next year – Cam Waters is also in the final year of his current deal and Lee Holdsworth is on a single-year arrangement.

“I could have three new drivers in the cars next year if I elected not to exercise the option on the one I do have one on,” Edwards said, referring to Waters. “So if I elected not to exercise options, I could have three new drivers.”

Supercheap Auto’s backing, currently linked to Mostert, is also up for renewal, while Monster Energy is set to continue with Waters.

The Bottle-O’s backing of Holdsworth – and, indeed, his future – will depend on how he performs in the next few months.

Holdsworth’s uptick in performance at Winton was very timely.

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By BRUCE NEWTON SUPERCARS DRIVING Standards Observer Craig Baird has admitted he made a mistake in penalising an Erebus Motorsport driver at Winton last weekend.

But he’s not referring to the time penalty you might be thinking about; the 15 seconds Anton De Pasquale copped for shovelling his way past Rick Kelly in race two on Sunday.

No, it’s the five seconds Baird handed out to De Pasquale’s team-mate David Reynolds for that bump and run on James Courtney for the lead of Saturday’s race.

Having further reviewed the incident later, Baird has revealed to Auto Action he should have penalised the Penrite Racing Holden Commodore ZB driver 15 seconds.

“The five second thing is only a one-on-one redress and I clearly got the Dave Reynolds and Courtney’s one wrong,” Baird said. “The vision I got I didn’t stick with it long enough.

“I watched the bump and run and it was one spot. But it ended up he [Courtney] lost another couple of positions on the run down to the next corner.

“So David’s penalty should have been 15 seconds.

“I can never get it 100 per cent right, I am not saying I ever can.”

If Reynolds had taken 10 seconds longer to finish the race, he would have dropped from third at the finish - and his first ever podium in a Supercars race at Winton – to sixth.

It also would have elevated Courtney to third, handing the team now known as Walkinshaw Andretti United its first podium of a difficult season in its 800th race since being established in 1990.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup would have climbed to fourth and fifth respectively.

On the De Pasquale incident Baird was unphased, despite strong criticism of his decision

by Erebus team principal Barry Ryan.

“If they want promote passing, that was a pass,”

EREBUS TIME PENALTY WRONG DSO Baird admits an error – but it might not be the incident you’re thinking of

“Anton’s clearly not rotating around the corner, he’s now understeering across the bows of Rick, which causes the contact, which bends Rick steering and causes Rick to lose that position plus three more.” Images: Supplied by Supercars judicial

said Ryan. “He didn’t lock the brakes, he wasn’t out of control.

“They were side-by-side, he got on the kerb to get out of the way and Rick decided to hang around the outside.

“We’ve been told if they want to hang around the outside, it’s their demise.”

But Baird was having none of it.

“It’s fairly simple, one car passed another car, hit it on the way through, bent its steering, put it off

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the track and he lost four positions.

“The point of contact was side-by-side, but he [De Pasquale] wasn’t making the corner.

He went straight through the corner, past the apex and escorted Kelly all the way to the outside of the track.

“His defence was ‘I wouldn’t have hit him if he didn’t turn’. Well you know what? There is a lefthand corner there.”

Baird backed up his position by supplying two photos of the incident that support his view. They are reproduced with his explanations of their

significance.

Baird handed out four time penalties for infractions during Sundays’ race and four on Saturday, including the Reynolds/Courtney tangle and the opening lap clash between Shell V-Power team-mates Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin.

He said this was a trend that would continue now that the Hawk-Eye vision collation system, first rolled out in late 2018, was fully up and running.

“Hawk-Eye is absolutely a big part of the process,” said Baird. “The thing with Hawk-Eye is it give me confidence. I had five views of Anton’s crash and he had one with blinkers on.”

WILDCARD MUSTANG ON THE WAY

KELLY TCR DIET KELLY RACING’S troubled TCR Australia debut has a silver lining which could help translate to a stronger performance in the second round at Phillip Island on June 6-9.

Its two Subaru WRX STi and Holden/Opel Astra TCR racers have been awarded a 30kg ‘compensation weight’ reduction for the second Australian outing of the front-wheel drive turbopetrol touring car class.

Compensation weight is awarded purely on the basis of the performance of TCR models in the Australian series.

All 17 cars that raced in the opener at Sydney Motorsport Park carried 60kg of compensation weight on top of the category minimum 1265kg weight for car and driver. The compensation weight change is based on the fastest lap times of the two fastest drivers from each car model.

While Andre Heimgartner was amongst the quickest drivers in Sydney, Subaru team-mate Molly Taylor was amongst the slowest, neither driver helped by downchange issues. Meanwhile the Astras of Alex Rullo and Chelsea Angelo were hit with engine misfires.

Compensation weight is different to ballast added and subtracted under TCR global Balance of Performance structure. Think of BoP as a way of equalising cars globally while compensation eight is intended to equalise drivers in a series.

“We’ve had a pretty rough start with our cars arriving right before the first race,” said Kelly Racing’s Todd Kelly.

“We fixed Andre’s car for the Sunday in Sydney and he got going and we have wiring looms and all sorts coming out for the Astras.

“On the entry to the corner it’s very clear Rick gives him a lot of room, way over a car width. Anton chooses to jump over the kerb himself.”

Alex Davison nominated to slot behind the wheel as Bathurst warm-up

“Once we get on top of that we will certainly be a lot more competitive, but quite where that puts us in the field at Phillip Island I’m not quite sure.”

At this stage it is unknown if BoP weights will change for Phillip Island. The same goes for the ride height and engine performance of the cars that can also be changed via BoP. Also joining the Kelly Racing entries on 30kg will be the Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault Meganes of James Moffat and Chris Pither, and the single Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS3 LMS. That delivers them a 30kg ballast advantage over the four top-weight Hyundai i30 Ns expected to front for the event. The Hyundai is the only car in the field to stay at 60kg.

Super2 star Will Brown won two of the three races at the TCR Australia opener in Sydney in mid-May in an HMO Customer Racing Hyundai. The other race was won

by Jason Bright in his Taskforce Volkswagen Golf GTI. The Wall Racing Honda Civic Type Rs will drop to 50kg, as will the two Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloces and the three Golfs in the field.

The second outing for TCR Australia headlines the Shannon Nationals at Phillip Island on June 6-9. BN

A SEVENTH Ford Mustang is expected to appear on the Supercars grid at a sprint event before the Bathurst 1000.

Currently being built by Tickford Racing, the new coupe will be raced by Alex Davison as a wildcard entry as part of his Pirtek Enduro Cup preparation.

Davison, who took part in the co-driver session at Winton last Saturday, will partner brother Will in the Milwaukee Racing Ford Mustang in the PEC. The new Mustang is owned by Milwaukee Racing team owner Phil Munday and is being converted from a Super2 Ford Falcon FG X purchased from Tickford last year and last raced

by Richie Stanaway in 2017.

Its last public appearance was in the Ford speed comparison at Bathurst last year driven by Alex Davison.

Will Davison’s regular Mustang is based on the Monster FG X that Cam Waters and Stanaway raced to victory at the 2017 Sandown 500.

“The car is nearly finished, it’s just got to be painted and assembled,” Munday told Auto Action.

“It’s well underway.

“The chassis is painted this week and then it gets

all the panels fitted up. It will be stickered up and used as a show car initially.”

With no endurance warm-up ahead of Bathurst the revised 2019 PEC schedule it will be more important than ever for co-drivers to get seat-time in Supercars beforehand.

Davison, 39, last raced full-time in Supercars for Charlie Schwerkolt in 2013 and last contested a sprint round in a Mercedes-Benz E63 for Erebus Motorsport at Homebush in 2015.

He has partnered his brother three times at Bathurst with a best finish of fourth in 2014 in a Benz. In 2018 he and Will finished 19th in Munday’s Milwaukee Falcon.

“The only driver I’d give a drive to is Alex and the only reason I’d do it is because we go straight to Bathurst this year,” confirmed Munday.

“And I do want to win Bathurst one day, like everyone.”

Munday said the car there was every chance it would be rolled out again in 2020 for more racing.

“There is no other Mustangs built that are just going to be laying around and everything on the car is current spec,” he said. BN

COST IS THE GREATEST THREAT

SUPERCAR TEAM OWNERS TALK TCR:

Supercars needs to stop worrying about TCR says Bright

By BRUCE NEWTON THE COST of racing in Supercars is a much greater threat to the category than the arrival of the international TCR touring car formula in Australia.

That’s the view of Jason Bright, who is uniquely positioned to comment on the two categories as the winner of the first TCR race held in Australia as well as being the holder of a Supercars REC. Bright, winner of 20 Supercars races including the 1998 Bathurst 1000 and a team owner in the category between 2005 and 2008, said he wanted to use his REC to re-enter Supercars under his own name but it was unaffordable.

But Bright has purchased two Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR racers and a significant amount of spares for a fraction of the cost of putting a single Supercar on the grid.

He raced his Golf to victory in the first TCR race in Sydney in mid-May. Bright’s REC is in its second year underpinning the entry of Matt Stone Racing for Todd Hazelwood in 2019, but in 2020 he has to use it himself, sell it or hand it back to Supercars.

MSR is providing the infrastructure for the TCR team, in which Bright has been joined by New Zealand-domiciled Australian Alexandra Whitley.

Two other Supercars teams, Garry Rogers Motorsport and Kelly Racing, are also on the TCR grid, running four cars each. Kelly Racing has gone one step further by entering full-time Supercars racer Andre Heimgartner in TCR. While Supercars has not made any formal attempt

to stop its teams and drivers from entering TCR, it is known the category’s management is unimpressed by the cross-pollination.

“What Supercars needs to do is fix what they’ve got going on and not worry about what TCR are doing,” Bright told Auto Action.

“I’m still a REC owner in the series and I still want to have my own car on the grid here, but is it affordable? No. “I think they need to do some serious work on making it affordable so teams aren’t looking elsewhere.”

Bright is hardly alone in voicing concerns about the expense of Supercars racing and the category is making attempts to introduce cost-containment measures.

Control dampers is the latest initiative made public, but behind the scenes the category is understood to be pushing forward with other steps including an engine power cut for as soon as 2020.

“I don’t feel like they are doing enough,” said Bright. “I want to see more done because I want a car on the grid.”

The New Generation Supercar is due in 2021 and Auto Action sources have spoken of an objective to pull as much as $100,000 from the cost.

Possible moves allied with that could include a control front upright and more engine restrictions. There are even calls for a standardised crate engine to be introduced, something Bright said he was lobbying for as far back as 2009.

Bright said he doubted anyone wanted TCR to replace

Supercars as Australia’s premier touring car formula.

“But teams can’t afford to be in this pitlane and it gets back to the point where there are less cars on the grid,” said Bright. “We have to find ways to make Supercars more affordable so you can go and find a sponsor that can afford to be in the category for the right money and get the right exposure.”

At 24 full-time entries, the 2019 Supercars grid is the smallest in the modern era. Rumours about a number of RECs being handed back at the end of the season are circulating in pitlane.

Bright said the first priority was to improve the racing.

He nominated several ways of achieving that including abandoning the minimum fuel drop so strategy could become more diverse; introduction of an even softer tyre and abandoning moves such as closing pitlanes during pace car periods, as was done for safety reasons at Phillip Island.

He also urged a return to free-to-air telecasting and keeping manufacturer influence over category rules to an absolute minimum.

“The biggest mistake we have made as a motorsport category for too long is listening to what manufacturers want,” he said. “I have never seen a motorsport category work when you listen to manufacturers.”

POWER ANGER OVER PENALTY There was no wild celebrations for Will Power this time - just some fighting words aimed at officials.

By MIKE BRUDENELL TEAM PENSKE’S Aussie ace was penalised for a pit lane infraction early in the 103rd Indianapolis 500 that ruined any real chance of a repeat win for the Toowoomba native.

After starting from sixth position, Power, the 2018 Indy 500 winner, had his #12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet toward the front of the pack when he pitted for service on lap 69 of 200.

The 2014 IndyCar Series champion appeared to slightly overshoot his pit box marks while brushing a Penske crewman with the left rear tyre.

IndyCar sent Power to the rear of the lead-lap cars, which saw him drop to 17th, for allegedly hitting the tyre changer.

He bounced back to finish fifth as fellow Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud gave team owner Roger Penske his 18th Indy 500 victory.

Power was incensed by the penalty.

“They ruined my day for no reason,” he declared.

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“I didn’t even hit a guy. Wait until I see them. What a disgrace - to ruin someone’s day for no reason.

“I didn’t touch a guy. It was a really bad call.”

Power has never hidden his anger at IndyCar officials’ calls over the years and wasn’t pulling any punches after the 500.

“Shame on them,” added Power. “We were really good. It’s a disgrace that those guys control what happens on the track. I’m not really happy at all.”

Fellow Australian James Davison also experienced a frustrating day he described as “bitter sweet.”

Davison, the grandson of Australian legend Lex, qualified 15th in his #33 Dale Coyne Racing Honda and had moved up into the top 10 before the first pit stops.

On lap 37, Davison’s car was punted by threetime Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves as they drove towards their pit boxes. Davison was turned

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around and had to be pushed back into his box by his crew.

He rejoined a couple of laps down in 31st place.

Castroneves was penalised with a drive-through over the incident, while Davison regrouped and soldiered on to finish 12th, his best Indy 500 result.

Davison’s telemetry had failed and he was not sure of his speed on pit lane when the collision with Castroneves occurred.

He appeared to slow, looking for his box and turning into it late.

“I was trying to calculate my revs and speed,” said the US-based son of former Sandown Raceway promoter Jon Davison. “It all unfortunately created the perfect storm.

“My car was loose all day, but we could pass on restarts. We never gave up. At best today, I think we could probably have finished ninth. All in all, it was a solid run.”

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Ryan Story, managing director and coowner DJR Team Penske “I think it’s interesting. It’s good to have another international-style category here in Australia and I wish them well. “ I’m happy to see [DJR Team Penske codriver] Tony D’Alberto gets some miles up, racing those cars. It’s a good opportunity for him to get some racing miles before the endurance races.

“My only interest at the moment is around what he’s doing.”

Roland Dane, co-owner Triple Eight race Engineering “TCR may or may not find its place in Australian motorsport but it’s not a threat to Supercars.

“You are not going to have 30,000 to 50,000 people turn up to watch a TCR race in this country in my opinion.

“I’d never say never about anything, but at the moment I cannot see how it makes sense as a business proposition [for T8 to enter TCR in Australia].”

Tim Edwards, team principal Tickford Racing “There are plenty of forms of motorsport all around the world, but in this country, in this climate, Supercars is our premier and only professional motorsport category.

“I don’t think 2000 people turning up to a TCR race is a genuine threat to us.”

Kim Jones, co-owner Brad Jones Racing “I watched one race. I think they are a very nice club car.

“Not my cup tea. Does it have a place in Australian motorsport? Who knows?

“You can’t dismiss anything, but the structure of the whole thing and the way it’s been put together doesn’t convince me it’s the right model.

“No way [would BJR enter TCR]. We run up to seven cars in this category [in Super3, Super2 and Supercars] primarily to run three cars in Supercars.”

Barry Ryan, team principal Erebus Motorsport “We have no interest in it. We won’t go there unless we’re forced to. “it’s a production car category; to me front-wheel drive cars were created because they were cheaper to build, not to race.”

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KELLY RACING confirmed that Super2 series leader Bryce Fullwood will join Andre Heimgartner in the #7 Nissan Altima for this year’s Pirtek Enduro Cup. This will be his second campaign after joining Todd Hazelwood last year. “It’s really exciting, Kelly Racing is a very big operation and have been in the motorsport game for a long time, so I’m really excited to learn from the team,” said Fullwood.

DEAN CANTO drove the Cooldrive Commodore at Winton in the additional driver practice session, but a deal to share with Macauley Jones is yet to be confirmed.

DALE WOOD has re-joined Kelly Racing to drive alongside Rick Kelly in the #15 Nissan Altima in this year’s Pirtek Enduro Cup, having driven full-time with the team in 2009 and 2016 as well as being a co-driver to Todd Kelly in 2010. “Rick and I have shared a lot of experiences together over the years but never a driver’s seat so it will be pretty cool to join a good mate this year for the Supercars enduro series,” Wood said.

LOCK ‘EM UP! Control Supercars dampers should be taken away from teams between events

By BRUCE NEWTON TAKE THEM away and lock them up!

That’s the drastic action veteran team owner Garry Rogers recommends if Supercars goes ahead and adopts a control damper.

The category has released an ‘invitation to tender’ document on its official website that could lead to the introduction of a control damper as soon as 2020.

Currently, Supercars teams can select from a basket of homologated dampers from Ohlins, local brand Supashock, and SACHS, which is distributed by the parent of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team, Triple Eight Race Engineering.

T8 boss Roland Dane has confirmed to Auto Action that SACHS will tender for the control damper deal.

The investigation of a control damper is yet another cost containment move by Supercars, which has already banned trapezoidal springs and introduced an engine fuel-air combustion ratio cap in 2019.

Racing shocks cost as much as $5000 each, which adds up to as much as $20,000 per car before taking into account spare sets,

Image: Ross Gibb

replacement because of damage and development costs.

A control damper would have some external adjustment, but the internals likely would be sealed.

But Rogers made it clear that he not only wanted the dampers sealed but taken back by the successful tenderer between races to prevent any tampering.

“It needs to be heavily policed,” said Rogers. “In my opinion if you are going to have a rule like that, the dampers should be taken out of the car when the car leaves the track and returned to the team at the next meeting.

“The teams should not be able to take the dampers away and fiddle with them.”

Rogers said there were “ways

and means” to circumvent sealing.

He also made it clear the control damper should be technically basic, safe, reliable, usable and cheap.

“This category cannot continue to spend the money it spends. This damper should cost $500, so if you tear a corner off, it costs you $500.

That would be a good start.

“They don’t need to cost that ($5000), they need to be such a simple piece of equipment that supports the car and helps the spectacle of the car in the function of the event.

“But it just doesn’t need to be this wonderful piece of technical genius that no-one can afford to keep.”

Tickford Racing team principal and Supercars commissioner Tim Edwards supported the concept of a simple damper with only external adjustment. But he didn’t agree they should be confiscated between events.

“You just have a seal on them and if that seal is tampered with then that is a breach of the rules,” he said.

But Edwards admitted such details was yet to be sorted.

“First of all we have to see if anyone is interested and what’s the commerciality around that.

Once we tick those couple of boxes then we can start getting down into the detail of how they are sealed and controlled.

“That’s phase two, after you’ve got someone confirmed as a supplier.”

SVG’S HAPPY BIRTHD-EYE BOOST MOBILE RACING has opted for co-driver consistency, retaining Chris Pither and Richard Muscat for the 2019 Pirtek Enduro Cup. Muscat is likely to remain with Golding while Pither will join fellow Kiwi Richie Stanaway, the pair previously teamed up in 2016 when they raced for Super Black Racing.

“It’s probably nice from a team perspective to have some consistency there because we’ve lacked a little bit of consistency and continuity in other driving positions,” said Boost Mobile

Racing director Barry Rogers.

MATT STONE Racing will run children’s charity Variety on its ZB Commodore from now on.

Variety gives unique experiences to youngsters who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs. “We believe all kids deserve a fair go, so we’re proud to partner with Matt Stone Racing to raise awareness and funds for kids in need,” CEO of Variety Steve Wakerley said.

8 AutoAction

A 30TH BIRTHDAY paddock bash was responsible for the eye infection Shane van Gisbergen suffered at Winton last weekend.

But continuing problems sorting his Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore ZB were more painful for the 2016 Supercars champion.

Van Gisbergen explained to Auto Action that a birthday party spent racing paddock bombs on the family farm near Auckland left him with grit in both eyes.

“We had a dirt race last week so it ended up biting me in the arse. We were just racing shit boxes, there were about 45 cars or something.

“I just got a bunch of dirt in my eyes … and didn’t notice till Wednesday at pre-brief and they said ‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’

“That night I was just pulling dirt out and it obviously scratched.

“I was lucky there wasn’t any practice on Friday because it wouldn’t have been good. Then on Saturday I was good and on Sunday I was fine, it just looked shit.”

Van Gisbergen experimented with wearing sunglasses on Saturday to ease the glare but found they obscured the wet/dry surface of the track, and quickly discarded them.

He qualified 12th in mixed conditions on Saturday and raced forward to finish fifth. On Sunday he qualified 13th and finished seventh.

The results meant he stayed third in the championship, a mammoth 415 points behind runaway leader Scott McLaughlin and his Shell V-Power Ford Mustang.

“My racing issues were qualifying and just getting a

Image: LAT

balance and being confident,” he said.

“I was not confident in the changeable conditions on Saturday because in those conditions I needed to be committed, but I just couldn’t. I just kept going off the track. My race pace was fine.”

“Sunday was the same again, no confidence, no grip from the car, it just bites you in the arse.

“But I enjoyed my races. I went and saw Cam Waters and shook hands with him afterwards, because we had a cool race.

Little bumps at the end and I

almost got past him and gave the spot back.

“It was a fun race, just not far enough forward.”

While RBHRT traditionally picks up strongly in form from Winton onwards through the northern swing, van Gisbergen was playing that down in the face of yet another DJR Team Penske clean sweep of Winton.

“We just have to work at it,” he said. “We just have to keep doing our best, keep being the best Holden team, keep scoring top fives and keep scoring big points to keep ourselves in with a chance.” BN

Image: Ross Gibb

Image: Ross Gibb

ALTIMA ALTERNATIVES FOR 2020?

By BRUCE NEWTON KELLY RACING’S decision to stick with the Nissan Altima or swap to a Ford Mustang or Holden Commodore is being delayed, as Supercars mulls over significant technical changes for 2020.

Both a cut in engine power and aerodynamic downforce are understood to be under investigation for next season, as the category searches for ways to contain costs and improve the quality of racing.

To go again with the Altima would mean the team extending a single-year agreement with Nissan to run the cars privately after the Japanese car giant ended its backing in 2018.

Adding further complication is the family-owned team’s painful knowledge that a swap to another car brand could also mean junking millions of dollars of investment bringing the VK56DE Nissan V8 engine up to competitiveness.

There’s also the looming swap to a new generation chassis in 2021, which could mean whatever the team races in 2020 could have to be overhauled again at the end of the season.

“There are a lot of things that are at play with where the category is going to be next year,” team co-owner Todd Kelly told Auto Action.

“We really need to see where that is going to end up before we jump into something else and try and invest in something else.

“We can’t make any decision on what we are going to do until we know what the category is going to look like.”

Kelly said there were two reasons to change from the Altima to another car.

“The first is if there is a performance advantage.

And two is, purely to give the team a facelift with a newer and more current car.

“And if it is to give the team a facelift with a newer, more current car without any performance

advantage, well then we need to weigh up what that investment could bring to us.

“And it’s going to be a big one [investment] if it’s going to be engines and cars. You’d need all the sponsors to go ‘That’s awesome, here’s twice as much money’, which isn’t going to happen’.

“But if it’s for performance reasons. If the way the aero and the engines play out next year that we need to [change] for performance, then that’s a serious decision we have to make.

“We can’t be disadvantaged and uncompetitive as a team by staying with this car.”

There are a variety of different ways Kelly Racing could potentially resolve this issue.

A minor facelift of the Altima is one option, potentially grafting on the nose of the new generation Altima or Maxima sedan on-sale in the USA. Neither model is sold in Australia.

The nose surgery option is understood to have a good chance of gaining the okay from Nissan Australia.

If the team does swap to another brand, Kelly Racing’s chances of running the VK56DE would seem politically impossible, unless it was rebranded as a Kelly Racing or Supercars control engine.

“The engine we’ve got is a good engine now,” said Kelly. “It’s pretty much on the money powerwise and it’s reliability and service intervals are outstanding.

“Now we’ve invested so much money in it it’s the most cost-effective engine in pitlane. So we have it to a point where it’s good. If you put it in any car in pitlane it would be a good business investment.”

Kelly confirmed a call would have to be made soon on 2020 plans, because of potential engine development timelines. The easier part of the job would be the reskin, which could be completed between seasons.

FIFO PREMAT ‘BATHURST CONFIDENT’ FLY-IN fly-out Frenchman Alex Premat is confident he will provide strong support for Scott McLaughlin at what promises to be a pressure-packed Bathurst 1000 in October.

Premat flew from America to have his first taste of the all-conquering new Shell V-Power Ford Mustang in a damp 30 minute co-driver session at Winton last Saturday, and was scheduled to followed that up with a ride day at Calder on Tuesday.

He will return for a pre-Pirtek Enduro Cup test at Ipswich Raceway in September, and will then pitch straight into the 1000 as the traditional opener, the Sandown 500, has been shifted to the tail-end of the PEC. McLaughlin and Premat will both be hunting their first victory in the touring car classic, as expectation and pressure mounts inside and outside DJR Team Penske.

That pressure partly comes from McLaughlin’s dominant form in 2019, having already scored a personalrecord 10 wins.

Having wrapped up its first driver’s championship with Mclaughlin in 2018, the team from majority owner Roger Penske down has set itself the objective of a win at Mount Panorama in 2019.

But it will face a stern challenge from traditional rivals the Red Bull Holden Racing Team, which has

ramped up its assault by reuniting Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes for the first time since 2009 and recruited Garth Tander to join Shane van Gisbergen.

“I feel perfect,” said Premat. “That’s the goal for everyone since two or three years to win Bathurst and to win the championship.

“For sure, Bathurst is the big race here. I know Roger has 17 Indy 500 wins [18 after Simon Pagenaud’s win on Monday Aussie time] and wants to do Bathurst and the earlier would be the best, so let’s try to do this year.

“The last two years we had the car and the team to win the race, but you know you need to get some luck into that race because it is so difficult to win.”

Premat, who lives in Las Vegas and runs the Exotic Racing Series, keeps himself race-fit testing a variety of TCR and LMP3 racers and competing in a rear-wheel drive V8 MercedesAMG GT4.

“I am doing a lot of test day and racing in places like Portland, Watkins Glen and I am at Laguna Seca just two weeks before Bathurst.

“So for sure it keeps me warm and I do some simulation trying to keep me going for the enduro cup.”

That simulation includes I-Racing against van Gisbergen, whom he partnered to victory in the 2016 PEC. BN

FOR SALE 1986 VL Commodore historic rally vehicle.

Suitable for tarmac or dirt with plenty of potential.

Fitted with an RB30 Nissan engine with individual throttle bodies.

Steel CAMS approved roll cage, race seats, full harness belts, suspension modificationsSpare wheels & tyres and many extras and is ready for competition.

CAMS Log book, with NSW Historic road registered (Rally – 10431-R) This is a very fast car, has had little use and would be ideal for Targa type events.

For further information call 0419 202 040 www.autoaction.com.au

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ORANGE IS THE NEW RED

By MIKE BRUDENELL

ROBBY GORDON’S Stadium Super Trucks are set to make a return to Australian shores in 2020, it is likely that the American series could re-join the support bill at next year’s Superloop Adelaide 500 alongside the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. The Stadium Super Trucks were banned from all CAMS sanctioned events on safety grounds following an incident at the Perth SuperSprint last year.

IT HAS been confirmed that the 2020 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour will be held from January 31-Feburary 2. “Plans are already well underway for the 2020 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour and we are pleased to once again lock in the event’s position at the beginning of the Australian motorsport calendar,” said Event Director Kurt Sakzewski. Next year the event will revert to a three-day format and will remain the first round of the round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The ‘Town to Track’ concept will return with cars to drive from the circuit into the City of Bathurst and back on the Thursday.

THE FIRST M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 has arrived on Australian shores, the car will be prepared

by Peter Nunn Motorsport and be supported

by AGI Roll Cages. The Fiesta will be driven by Luke Anear alongside co-driver Steve Glenney, the pair currently sit third in the Australian Rally Championship.

FERNANDO ALONSO bit his lip, shrugged his shoulders and hitched a ride on a golf kart after one of the lowest days in his racing career.

Facing the international media scrum, the Spanish superstar had been remarkably restrained, somehow containing his anger at McLaren’s abject failure.

Alonso, a two-time Formula 1 world champion, suffered the ignominy – and indignity – of being bumped from the field for the Indianapolis 500, the biggest race in the world.

He had every right to unload on McLaren – whose ill-fated alliance with Honda ruined his F1 career – but he held back.

McLaren’s subsequent mea culpa was damning enough. It was a comedy of errors that ranks among the all-time Indy fails, joining Team Penske’s epic non-qualification in 1995.

Alonso was the victim of an extraordinary lack of preparation by the orange equipe – the hue revived in honour of team founder, the late Bruce McLaren.

McLaren was left red-faced after a day – and a campaign – bordering on shameful.

Alonso was bumped on the final day of qualifying by little-known Californian racer Kyle Kaiser of the tiny American/

Argentinian Juncos Racing team, who had fielded a car in qualifying without a primary sponsor.

Both Alonso and Kaiser had crashed during the week in practice for the 500, but unlike the crew at Juncos, who worked 48 hours straight to get Kaiser’s car back on track, McLaren’s inexperienced IndyCar crew dropped the ball.

They spent two days looking for spare parts and answers to their problem of finding enough speed to make the race, including borrowing equipment and set-up notes from Andretti Autosport and Team Penske.

The sight of mighty McLaren, who’d been prominent at Indy in the 1970s, winning with the late Mark Donohue in 1972 (in a Penske-prepped car) and Johnny Rutherford in ’74 and ’76, begging and borrowing at IMS was not pretty.

Former Indy 500 winner and McLaren sporting director Gil de Ferran immediately apologised to Alonso for the humiliation.

McLaren reacted by dismissing its Indy 500 project leader Robert Fernley – the ex-Force India F1 boss – in the chaotic aftermath.

It all began when McLaren turned

up for a pre-season test without a steering wheel, which big team boss Zak Brown had to cadge from Cosworth, of which he is also a director.

Then the team’s back-up DallaraChev wasn’t immediately available after Alonso’s crash because it was stuck in the paint shop being resprayed the proper papaya orange.

And the Carlin-supported crew confused imperial and metric measures to get the ride height wrong and then installed incorrect gear ratios for his crucial last-ditch qualifying run.

It must have been all the more galling for Alonso – chasing the last leg of the unofficial Triple Crown of Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500 victories – after he led the 2017 500 for 27 laps in Andretti-run entry before (ironically) its Honda engine died.

Debacle is too kind a word for the disaster, which Brown – an American – addressed in the lead-up to the Monaco Grand Prix.

“We got it wrong and I’m responsible

for that,” Brown said. “We didn’t execute and therefore we didn’t qualify for the Indy 500.

“It was a big public failure. Yes, it’s embarrassing. It’s not the McLaren standard. It’s not acceptable – but it happened and we’re going to learn from it and we’ll come back stronger.”

Brown has begun his postmortem, but wouldn’t be drawn into detail.

“Ultimately, it was a people issue, starting with myself not having all the bases covered,” he admitted. “We were just unprepared.”

Asked if McLaren planned to return to the 500 next year, Brown said: “There are good reasons McLaren should be at Indianapolis. A big market, partners want to be there, motor business is strong there.

“Would it be easier not to do something? I don’t think racers take the easy route.”

Alonso is open to another tilt, but McLaren – which is also considering a full IndyCar Series program – will have to convince him it will be up to the job in 2020.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? JOHN MARTIN has confirmed that he will race an alongside Victorian Rio Nugara in the 2019 Australian GT Endurance Championship. The pair will drive a Audi Customer Racing Rich Energy sponsored Audi R8 LMS GT3 prepared by the Melbourne Performance Centre car which they tested at Phillip Island last week. Martin will be performing double duties as he is also competing in the inaugural TCR Australia Series.

CARRERA CUP Australia driver Cooper Murray has changed teams, moving from Ashley Seward Motorsport to McElrea Racing for the remainder of the 2019 season. The 17-year-old has moved to the Queensland based team in a bid to follow in the likes of Matt Campbell and Jaxon Evans who took the title for the McElrea Racing squad in 2016 and 2018 respectively.

PAYNTER DIXON has signed a deal to partner with the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC) to present the inaugural Paynter Dixon Sydney MasterBlast featuring the Muscle Car Masters at Sydney Motorsport Park. “Paynter Dixon is a valued and enthusiastic supporter of Australian motorsport at a number of levels,” said ARDC President Andrew Leithhead.

10 AutoAction

IT’S A hot streak that has lasted 14 rounds so far of which 10 wins and nine poles have emerged, but can anyone beat Scott McLaughlin?

It is the best start to a season in recent times, if not ever, but what has made DJR Team Penske so dominant?

“We’ve ticked a lot of the boxes this year, just picking the right strategy for each car and getting it done,” he said. “I’m really proud of everyone. I’m really excited from what we learnt last night and transitioning it today, hopefully we can keep it heading to Darwin.”

Questioned whether the monotonous nature of the championship has made him complacent, McLaughlin was keen to scupper any suggestions of that happening.

“It’s not hard, you just have to keep focused and the best execution,” McLaughlin explained.

“I really enjoy getting the best out of the car and Fabs [Fabian Coulthard] does as well. I think having a good start and executing a race like we did just then that’s the motivation to go out there and be the best.”

McLaughlin paid credit to his team, but also reflected on his changed outlook since winning last year’s championship.

“I think it’s the team’s pace,” he stated.

“We’ve come out with a team and a car, we’ve adapted really fast the changes, we’re obviously fast at the moment.

“Driving last year was a big burden on my shoulders, I was probably thinking about things a lot more and not worrying about what the

consequences are now, I’m being a bit more calculated. I’m understanding the situation I’m in a lot better, so I think that definitely helps and it helps with results.”

McLaughlin also acknowledged the growing threat of his teammate Fabian Coulthard, who sits second in the points, 244-point in arrears.

These situations have forced the reigning champion to step up his game and therefore his results have demonstrated that.

“With Fabs and the set-up now, he’s really

adapted to it compared to how it used to be in the FG-X, he wasn’t comfortable in that, but now he is comfortable in this thing and that’s pushing me as well,” McLaughlin continued.

“I’m able to look at data and learn from him.

The team today will learn from each other, pushing each other as hard as we can, that’s probably why we’re succeeding as a squad – 1-2s, front-row lockouts – because we’re pushing to the absolute maximum within each other in the garage.” Heath McAlpine

WAU CHANGES PERMANENT WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United will carry on indefinitely with the engineering restructure introduced at Winton last weekend where the team produced its most successful outing of a disappointing 2019 Supercars season.

Both James Courtney and Scott Pye qualified and finished in the top 10 on Saturday in the 800th race since the entity first debuted 1990, while Pye backed up with another top 10 start and finish on Sunday.

After trialling the engineering changes at a pre-event test, the team continued with the new structure for the race weekend.

Team technical director Carl Faux joined Terry Kerr working with James Courtney, engineering a Supercar for the first time since he joined the championship in late 2017 from a long stint in British and world touring car championship racing.

WAU co-principal Mat Nilsson joined Robbie Starr working with Pye. “It will continue on as is. You continue on reviewing your team structures but it continues as is for now,” Nilsson told Auto Action.

“There is no timeframe on this, we expect it to go on for the rest of the year.”

WAU has struggled to come to terms with the linear spring in 2019 and to find race pace consistency across a championship weekend. Nilsson and co-team principal Bruce Stewart issued a statement promising improvement after the team’s poor Perth SuperNight showing.

Nilsson said the objective of the changes was to “maximise the potential within the group”.

“We just reviewed where we needed to improve. We clearly needed to get some confidence, freshen things up a little bit.

“The same people are working within the engineering department, some people are performing some different roles … but everyone is still working really hard.

“The way the decision get made are probably a bit more direct in terms of steering the ship, but in terms of performance it’s the same group of people are still involved in the same conversations working on the direction we need to go.”

Nilsson said the results were pleasing but still not good enough.

“You always want to do better,” said Nilsson. “there are always elements of disappointment.

“We are not going to jump up and down. It is positive to get three top 10s, 100 per cent and be more consistently in the top 10, for sure.

“We are happier to be in the 10 but we still have got work to do.

“We are not going to walk away and be content with finishing just inside the top 10, we want to be challenging for much more higher positions.”

Nilsson said the results were the reward for the effort put in to turn around from the Perth SuperNight and complete a test before Winton.

“It keeps everyone on the right track. We are making some gains and we have to continue that in Darwin.” BN

POSITIVE START FOR TCR AUSTRALIA AFTER MUCH fanfare, TCR Australia launched at Round 1 of the Shannons Nationals at Sydney Motorsport Park, but did it live up to the hype?

According to two of the weekend’s leading contenders it did. Head of the Honda-supported Wall Racing outfit David Wall and HMO Customer Racing’s Barry Morcom both had success with their respective teams over the weekend, but both were impressed by the number of spectators and the interest in the class.

“Quite high,” Wall told Auto Action. “I had some over the weekend, guys and girls, who were interested in the series and in the

www.autoaction.com.au

Hondas came out wanting to know more. After Saturday, it was double that again.

“It’s been very good from our point of view, but also that the Hondas a good product and it wants to be involved in the TCR Series.”

“Around the track it looked like many people were spectating down the main straight and in the usual areas, but there were plenty of families parked in their cars sitting in the back of the boots watching what was going, which I haven’t seen for years. That was already pretty positive.”

Morcom shared the same sentiments as Wall and put it down to the year of planning that the Australian Racing Group has undertaken in

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making the inaugural round a success.

“It was professionally run, there’s a pretty good organisation behind the TCR Australia guys,” Morcom said.

“They’ve been great to work with; they’ve been pretty supportive and they’re keen to push it along. We tried to present well and put our best foot forward for the Hyundai brand and I think we did a good job of that.”

Both teams are expecting to expand throughout the year, adding to the two cars each team enter already.

“We are definitely working to increase our

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cars from the current two,” said Wall. “I’d like to see three maybe four at some stage through the year and we’ll see how that pans out. We’re definitely trying to take a step with a third car hopefully soon and we’ll see how the rest goes from there.”

Morcom confirmed the purchase of a fifth car, but said that it will not arrive before the Phillip Island round in two weeks. HM

BATHURST ANNOUNCES SHORTLISTED TENDERS THE BATHURST Regional Council announced late last month six expressions of interests had been received to host a potential fifth event at the Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit.

A shortlist has been announced confirming that three of the original six organisations have continued to the next stage of the process.

The three EOIs to make the shortlist are from the Australian Racing Group and CAMS, Mountain Motor Sports and Supercars.

Announcing this was Mayor Graeme Hanger OAM stating, “council will now seek additional information from each of the shortlisted parties to further assess the suitability of their submission and is unable to comment further until this process is complete.”

The circuit currently hosts four events that require a complete closure of the track, which are the Bathurst 1000, Bathurst 12 Hour, Bathurst 6 Hour and Challenge Bathurst.

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LATEST NEWS

NEW McLAREN ARRIVES

BMW HAS confirmed that after just one season it will leave the World Endurance Championship making the Le Mans 24 Hours in June the manufacturers’ last race in the series. BMW motorsport boss Jens Marquardt confirmed that although they are pulling out of WEC they will remain in motor racing in both Europe and America. “The global presence of BMW M Motorsport is safeguarded by customer racing and the DTM in Asia and Europe, as well as the IMSA series in North America, even without competing in a world championship,” he said.

THE REMAINING rounds of the Porsche Supercup will be shown live on FOX Sports 506 following a record number of Australian competitors joining the series in 2019. Stephen Grove, Marc Cini and Joey Mawson are all competing under the Team Australia umbrella, along with the Aussies is last year’s Porsche Carrera Cup Australia champion Kiwi Jaxon Evans. “We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with FOX Sports to showcase the 2019 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup live this year,” said Porsche Cars Australia Motorsport Manager Troy Bundy.

SEBASTIEN LOEB will once again replace Andreas Mikkelsen for the next round of the FIA World Rally Championship in Portugal from May 30 – June 2. The Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT team confirming that the Norweigen will return for the following rally in Italy.

“This decision was not taken lightly. We need to move forward as a team and make the most effective use of our versatile crew line-up,” team director Andrea Adamo said.

AUSTRALIAN JOSH Smith is competing in the South East Asian Formula 4 Championship and is three rounds into the ten round series. Smith currently sits third in the standings 58 points behind championship leader Irishman Lucca Allen. Smith got off to a steady start in Round 1 but since then has recorded four podiums including a race victory in the last eight races.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will be given an Equivalence of Technology adjustment for the Le Mans 24 Hours on June 15-16. Both Toyota’s will be hit with an extra 10kg added to the minimum weight bringing the cars up to 888kg. The weight increase comes after the Japanese brand and the FIA came to an agreement following the 2018 24 hour, race that the performance concessions would not apply for this year.

12 AutoAction

A NEW McLaren 720s GT3 has arrived on Australian shores ahead of the first endurance round of the series at Phillip Island.

After piloting a prototype version at the Australian Grand Prix, Fraser Ross will return to the title in a new chassis after recently testing it at Phillip Island recently. The car is significantly updated to the latest spec and should be a frontrunner right out of the box.

“It’s nice to get behind the wheel of a brand-new race car for the first time that’s for sure,” Ross told Auto Action.

“We got the car the weekend before the test, we did some running in a similar car at the Grand Prix an we were pretty successful, it wasn’t for points, but we showed the capability of the car. We had a set-up and I had done some previous running in Paul Ricard, so we knew the area we wanted to start.”

The level of support McLaren are giving Ross is emphasised by the fact it sent one of its engineers to help handle the test.

“McLaren sent over a tech to attend the test day, it just

shows the level of support and commitment they’ve got to customer racing,” Ross continued.

Ross explained that the new model is a massive jump compared to the 650s GT3 he had used previously for the last two seasons and that the Grand Prix performance has brought further sponsors on board.

“It’s a big step up from last year with the 650, it’s quite incredible to be honest in the new generation GT3 car at the Island at a track where it is all about aero,” he enthused.

“McLaren is renowned for its aero design and this car pays true to that for sure.

“We showed what we could do when we’ve got the equipment, we’re doing the right thing attracting the new brands into the program, new sponsors.”

Ross didn’t state his co-driver for the endurance rounds.

The Australian GT Endurance Championship will be a feature of the Shannons Nationals round at Phillip Island where the second round of TCR Australia, Formula 4 and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge are also part of the bill.

Heath McAlpine

Image: Insyde Media

WINSLOW GETS LATE LE MANS GIG EXPAT BRIT and now naturalised Australian James Winslow has become a late inclusion in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hour on June 15-16.

Winslow received the late callup to join Poland’s Kuba Smiechowski and Englishman Nigel Moore in Inter Europol Competition’s Ligier JS P217 Gibson LMP2 entry following the withdrawal of Léo Roussel after suffering a vertebra fracture at Monza.

The 36-year-old Winslow has won seven championships including two Australian Drivers Championships and will be making

his fourth appearance at the famous twicearound-the-clock classic. He previously made LMP2 starts for Greaves Motorsport, Race Performance and Graff Racing.

Inter Europol earned the Le Mans entry via a Championship win in the LMP3 class of the 2018/19 Asian Le Mans Series.

“After battling against Europol Competition for victories last year, I look forward to joining with them. It’s ironic as I will be replacing a driver who has suffered the exact same back injuries as myself just 16 months ago,” Winslow remarked.

“I am now back to 100 per cent strength.

I will do Leo proud and I wish him a very speedy recovery.”

Team Manager Sascha Fassbender has welcomed Winslow to the team. “He is a worthy substitute for Léo.”GOB

POSITIVE TALKS IN SUPERUTES PADDOCK IT IS fair to say that the first season and a half in SuperUtes has started with a bang, but not the bang the category envisaged, videos of the tall Utes rolling over have gone viral not only in Australia but around the world.

Replacing the very popular V8 Ute category, the SuperUtes proved instantly unpopular from the moment they drove out of the pits in Adelaide last year.

In 2019 the category has gone about fixing some of the issues that fans had with the series, making the cars louder and a little lower in the first two rounds of the season.

The round at Winton Motor Raceway featured the biggest changes yet, in which a new wheel and tyre package was introduced and coupled with the suspension being dropped means that the drivers have increased grip around the turns.

“The tyres we had on it had too much roll in them, they would just never build up in the temp they were too much of a hard compound, you basically heard a lot of tyre squeal and no actual engine noise or anything,” two time Dakar Champion Toby Price told Auto Action.

“It is actually starting to feel like a race car now,” he said. “The changes they have made is massive jump forward, we were circulating three to four seconds a lap quicker.”

Last season’s inaugural champion Ryal Harris agrees with Price, he feels that the Ute is much more stable.

“It is much better we’re carrying much more

Image: Insyde Media

corner speed, the tyre squeal is no longer there because we aren’t using the radials anymore. So you can break deeper you can carry more corner speed and they are a lot more stable,” Harris told Auto Action.

Team boss of the Sieders Racing Team, Luke Sieders feels that the positivity in the SuperUte paddock is a lot higher that it has been in recent months, and this is down to the changes that have been made to the vehicles.

“It is all very positive, the centre of gravity is down now, the performance is up and the driver feel has increased. The racing is going to improve and the tightness of it all as it goes on as well, I don’t think there is a negative to what has happened at all,” Sieders told Auto Action.

Sieders believes that if the racing continues to improve like it has in both Perth and Winton more drivers will join the series in the future.

“I’ve got three new drivers in my team this weekend and every one of them has said sign me up let’s do some more, it is very positive,” Sieders said.

Going forwards further changes will be made to the Utes, focusing on engine performance and reliability.

“Engine reliability they are trying to work on, everyone is proactive in working together on that to make sure everyone’s reliability is up. A few other bits and pieces to improve the engine performance and stuff in the future as well,” Sieders said. DM

TCM COMMODORE IN THE WORKS THE FIRST of five Holden Commodores has started the build process for the Touring Car Masters category headed by former V8 Utes racer Gerard McLaeod and involvement from former Supercars team owner Lucas Dumbrell.

The Commodore will be one to watch in next year’s TCM series, McLeod expecting to be at the pointy end of the field, which has been dominated in the past by John Bowe and more recently Steven Johnson.

“The car is being built as a collaboration between myself and it’s funded by Lucas Dumbrell run under the Kali Motorsport banner, which we ran the Super2 cars out of last year,” McLeod told Auto Action.

“It is not being built as a mid-pack runner; it’s being built to the highest of standards to be a race winner.”

The Commodore-TCM journey began a couple of years ago after the V8 Utes category dissolved leaving McLeod on the sidelines, but as the category accepts newer cars – most recently the Ford Falcon XD – the Holden model was the next step and appears to be a very competitive prospect.

“It’s a next-generation car, technically it’s the latest model car you can build in TCM and

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the overall package that they allow with the new category-spec engine it’s very feasible to build the Commodore,” McLeod continued. “I believe, technically it’s the best package that the regulations with the suspension and so on that you’re allowed to do, it’s still a small car, so it is going to be potent when our car is finished.”

The car is expected to be completed by the end of the year in preparation for debut at TCM’s opening round in Adelaide, of which McLeod will be given the driving duties for the Commodore’s first season.

“It’ll be on track in December and it will debut in Adelaide 500 next year after some off-season testing,” McLeod explained. “Currently we have the donor car stripped, it has been sandblasted and it’s ready for fabrication, so it will be in that stage for three months ahead of final assembly.

“It has been developed with all the latest technology you can use in TCM by myself and all my resources. I’m undertaking the build process myself; we’re trying to build the very best car we can so it’s a race winner.”

All five of the available Commodore slots have been taken.

Heath McAlpine

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LATEST NEWS

OVAL VICTORY FOR SHIELDS AUSTRALIAN CAMERON Shields has dominated the latest round of USF2000 at the Lucas Oil Raceway, remarkably his first ever race on an oval.

Shields started from second position but took the lead on the first lap getting a good run out of Turn 2, completing the pass on the outside down the back straight before Turn 3.

From there Shields pulled a margin until the first safety car interruption just after the half way stage of the 75-lap race when an incident occurred between Manuel Cabrera and Brana Tomaselli at Turn 2.

After a short green flag period another safety car was deployed for Jack William Miller who spun into the Turn 3 wall.

On the final restart Colin Kaminsky and Alex Baron fought hard for second, allowing Shields to pull out a small margin, enough to see him clinch victory ahead of Baron and Kaminsky.

“That was absolutely incredible, I just can’t believe it,”

said Shields.

“I’ve worked so hard to get here, and even to finish the year I have to work really hard to make that happen. It was a really, really tough race – my mental state changed quite a lot. I had such a big lead and, all of the sudden, the yellow comes out and everything changed.

DOOHAN’S PROMISING EUROFORMULA FORM

PIASTRI PICKS UP POINTS AUSTRALIAN OSCAR Piastri collected two solid top five results on the streets of Monte Carlo in the third round of the Formula Renault Eurocup series.

Piastri finished the first race in fourth setting the fastest lap during the race and finishing Sunday’s race in fifth.

The Victorian started Saturday’s race from sixth but made a poor start losing two places at Turn 1, Piastri fought back making a move on Leonardo Lorandi at Rascasse, the Italian came out the battle second best being forced into retirement in his JD Motorsport car.

Piastri took sixth place when Joao Vieira made a mistake at the Swimming Pool chicane and fifth when Xavier Lloveras suffered a technical issue. Piastri finished the race in 5th behind Lorenzo Colombo, but the Italian picked up a two place penalty for not handing back all of the positions he gained from cutting the first turn, promoting the Victorian to fourth.

Race 2 was reasonable for the Australian R-ace GP driver, after qualifying in fifth he

“There was a bit of panic but I recouped and did a good job to keep the guys behind me” Hunter McElrea sat second in the standings coming into the race, but started from the back after a qualifying crash, the 19-year-old recovered well to finish the race in a respectable 11th.

made a decent start and kept the position in the opening laps behind Brazilian Caio Collet.

On lap 14, the safety car was deployed to recover the stationery Arden Motorsport car of Sebastian Fernandez. When the safety car pulled in the Australian was unable to move forwards and remained in fifth.

Victor Martins and Aleksandr Smolyar each recorded a vitory and a second place finish which has propelled them ahead of Piastri in the standings but he sits just five points back, Martins on 89 points, Smolyar on 86 points and Piastri with 84 points. The next round of the season takes place this weekend on June 1-2 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.

JACK DOOHAN recorded his first podium in the Euroformula Open series in the third round at the Hockenheimring in Germany.

Marino Sato was in a league of his own in the first race of the weekend, behind a brilliant battle between Australian Jack Doohan and Kiwi Liam Lawson ensued.

Liam Lawson started sixth after being carrying over a penalty from the last round of the series but got up to fourth on the opening lap. On the third lap he took third position and set about catching the Australian.

On lap 10 Lawson made a brave move on Doohan taking second position, it was short lived however as the Kiwi spun at Turn 1 allowing Doohan back through. That was the way it stayed as they crossed the line, Doohan recording the Double R teams first podium.

“First podium for the team and I in

Euroformula Open and the pace is really starting to look competitive,” Doohan said.

“Thanks to all the Double R Racing guys for the hard work all weekend.”

In Race 2 Sato got off the line from pole well but was soon passed by his team mate Yuki Tsunoda, Sato fell further back when the former Australian Formula 4 driver Lawson took second.

Despite sitting in second Lawson could not bridge the gap to Tsunoda and made a mistake spinning late on and eventually finishing down in fifth.

Jack Doohan finishing in seventh while Calan Williams improved from 15th in Race 1 to collect 2 points with a ninth place finish.

The next round takes place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on June 8-9.

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14 AutoAction

AA’s picky pundit was surprisingly impressed by the turnout for TCR’s Aussie debut at normally on-the-nose Eastern Creek CARS ON the hill. People on the ground. There was an actual buzz at Sydney Motorsport Park that you could see and feel.

And smell. It is, after all, still Eastern Creek Raceway, right next to a garbage dump.

Still, they came and they saw.

A lot of people at SMP is unusual.

Last year’s Supercars night race was an exception, recalling the old days of bumper crowds.

But in the past decade, attendance has been ordinary. So imagine my surprise when plenty of people turned up for the opening round of the Shannons Nationals a couple of weeks ago.

Normally, you can count Shannons crowds on one hand.

OK, I made that up. But hundreds of paying spectators would normally be a great result.

At SMP, attracted by the first appearance of the new TCR Australia Series, thousands turned up. Around 5000 over two days, it was claimed.

And, for once, I believe it. The car parks on the hill were as full as I’ve ever seen them on both days and the paddock was jammed.

If the ARDC, which operates SMP, had opened the ‘front’ gates, the grandstand on the main straight would’ve been packed. They didn’t and it wasn’t. Really could count them with a quick glance.

But if that wasn’t the biggest Shannons Nationals spectator turn-out ever, I’ll eat my old-school

reporters’ Fedora. Which, if you knew me, is no idol threat. I’ve had that hat since the mid-1980s, complete with the Press card in the band.

I’m like something out of The Front Page movie. Happy as.

What also struck me was the demographic. So many of the spectators were young people.

As in under 40. I feel at home at a Supercars meeting because oldies like me abound, but the hot hatch generation attracted by the TCRs was unfamiliar. In a good way.

So what do I think of TCR? You want to know because I’m ostensibly a died-in the-wool V8 person. Not so fast. Don’t forget, I was knee-deep in Super Touring back in the mid-to-late 1990s.

I worked in the BTCC, which at its peak was The Best. The two Super Touring Bathurst 1000s in 1997/98 were among the closet and most exciting ever.

So I’m up for racy two-litre tourers.

But TCR isn’t Super Touring. Not even close.

However, the racing at SMP was interesting, if not riveting. It got better with each of the three races as everyone got more used to their front-drive, turbocharged equipment – and more daring.

I expect that by the final Sunday 16-lapper – I love the short, sharp races – that it looked pretty good on SBS. Now, tell me again, where is that on the channel line-up?

Minuscule viewership aside, the

racing was decent, the grid healthy for a start-up, and the variety of cars appealing. But they sounded shit.

Strangled sheep is what I’m thinking. Even in a pack, they were droney, buzzy things. No scream, no bark, not even any snap, crackle ‘n’ pop.

But the atmosphere in the pits was great. Everyone was approachable – not just to the media, but more importantly, the fans. None of your Supercars hideaway – TCR is out there, up front.

I had a great weekend. Didn’t write a word. That’s not why I was there. I went to see what is the most viable second-level touring car series there is. The spectacle will never match Supercars, but the affordability makes it right for teams that could never aspire to Supercars or GT3.

Jason Bright was a good example how you can cobble together a TCR team. Two cars, not a bankbreaking fortune, competitive

off-the-shelf.

And Brighty won the first-ever TCR Australia race. The old bloke’s still got it. Mind you, those turbo terriers are hard work. Brighty looked like he was going to explode after his win – red-faced and sweaty in his curiously unbranded driving suit – but so did the young ‘uns like Will Brown (who, seriously, wouldn’t get into a pub without ID; he looks about 12).

You have to remember that TCR Australia – like S500 to come – is being underwritten by mega-rich, ultra-reclusive Brian Boyd. Good on him. Motor racing has always survived because of patrons like him.

And, Brian, I know you read Auto Action and I will hunt you down. In the meantime, good on you for tipping in to seed two new categories.

TCR promoter ARG also has former Supercars supremo James Warburton involved as a non-

executive director. God, I miss him.

Quote machine.

Warbo’s enthused, predicting 30-car fields by next year. ARG is also pitching for the fifth event at Bathurst to run a TCR enduro.

Might be nice. But make it the Bathurst 500 – as in klix, not miles – to recall the good old days.

And ensure a decent number of finishers.

In summary, I like TCR. Great second-level series that will attract a different, broader audience to Shannons meets. Can’t be bad.

But will global TCR ever rival local Supercars? You are kidding, aren’t you? Never. Ever.

As part of a regional movement, though, it is an affordable option for racing here, NZ and southeast Asia.

Live and let live.

Interest in the debut of TCR in Australia was evident to your eyes.

For a Shannons Nationals meeting, this was something very different.

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s w e n e n O Formula

FERRARI FLUBS IT IS going to be hard for Ferrari to step up a gear to consistently challenge Mercedes, plus keep the improving Red Bull at bay, if the Italian squad keeps floundering.

Sebastian Vettel crunched his Ferrari into the barriers early in Practice 3 on Saturday in Monaco. Not the end of world, but it did rob him of the chance to do some fast laps to prepare for qualifying later that day.

Then in qualifying session the team miscalculated things in the first round and did not send Charles Leclerc out for a second run. The result was that he did not advance to the second qualifying round and started his home grand prix way back in 15th place.

Ironically, Leclerc’s bad luck crashing with another car during the race itself set up the circumstances of good luck for Vettel, who finished second ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen, who had their own woes.

Ferrari is going through growing pains because team principal Mattia Binotto says it is “a young team.”

“A lot of us have moved into new roles recently,” he explained. “I moved to a team principal role only this year. The technical people are changing responsibilities very recently. In that respect we are quite a young team.

So, people in new roles recently. It has advantages because there are fresh ideas, maybe some more creativity, and a dynamic in the way of thinking and developing. But it means as well that we need to assess our

organisation itself, get more experience in the role and make sure that as a team overall we are growing in that respect.”

The last time Vettel won a grand prix was in Belgium last year. Counting the Monaco Grand Prix this year, his winless streak now stands at 14 races.

“I’ve had some difficult moments this year where I’m fighting the car,” Vettel said. “I’m not really entering yet to the level where I feel a lot more comfortable, and I feel comfortable to squeeze out more performance from the car. It’s linked to the fact that we struggle to put our car in the right window.

“Once it is there, it is feeling better and you’re able to build up on that, but it doesn’t happen very often. It’s a combination of things. We are lacking overall performance and that overall performance would help us probably to put the tyres more often in the window they would like to be in. It’s not a secret, by now, after six races that these tyres this year seem a bit more critical to get exactly into that window.”

The upcoming Canadian Grand Prix should be more Ferrari’s forte. With its long straights, the Montreal track requires plenty of power and that is one thing that the Ferrari does have.

But to finish first, the team and drivers will first have to ensure they do not flub things.

RENAULT QUIT THREAT RENAULT COULD axe its Formula 1 programme at the end of 2020. Sources have revealed to Auto Action that Renault’s board of directors has told team principal Cyril Abiteboul that the French squad must be battling for third place in the constructors’ championship by the end of this season or face the possibility of being shut down.

Like all the teams, Renault is contractually obliged to remain in F1 through 2020.

Abiteboul says the car will get a major performance upgrade package for the French Grand Prix at the end of June.

There are already signs of good things to come for Aussie Daniel Ricciardo and his Renault teammate Nico Hülkenberg.

Compared to the Renault engines they used in Monaco last year, both drivers said the current power unit is much better.

“I am pulling an extra gear before some apexes (compared to 2018) and we actually have a real qualifying mode this year,” Ricciardo noted.

The drivers have had to use reduced power in recent races because of reliability concerns. Abiteboul revealed that the engineers spent too

16 AutoAction

much time during the offseason on increasing performance and not enough on improving reliability. Some frantic work ensued at the start of the season.

“In five weeks,” Abiteboul said, “we managed to identify the problem, understand the problem, come up with a new design, source new parts, test the parts, sign off the parts on complete cycles, and build new engines in enough quantity for ourselves and McLaren in time for Spain. So that was the reason for the introduction of the new engine in Spain.”

Ricciardo believes that everything is now heading in the right direction on the performance front.

“The nice thing is there is still more to come,” he said. “The reliability is what is going to hold us up from going that step further.

But we could squeeze a bit more this weekend. Even on a low power

circuit you could feel it. There is some substance and data to support that.

“At the same time we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” he cautioned. “In China we qualified seventh and eighth, and we thought: ‘This is it; this is where we are at and we will chip away from here.’ But it has not been that easy since then.

“The reality is that it is tighter this year in that midfield to what Renault experienced last year. A lot of teams have stepped up. We can start to get ahead of them but the reality is that it is not going to be as easy as last year, and it will take a bit of time. It is showing a bit more direction now, which is positive.”

After the Monaco race Red Bull, third in the championship, had 110 points. Renault, eighth, had 14 points. That’s a steep gap for Renault to try to close up before the end of the year.

LAUDA’S LEGACY FORMULA 1 and the world of motor sport have lost two icons in the period of just over two months.

Charlie Whiting, the FIA race director, safety delegate and the permanent starter, passed away on the Thursday prior to the Australian Grand Prix.

Niki Lauda died on the Monday prior to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

Like Whiting, Lauda had no enemies in the F1 paddock. Lauda was liked and respected by everyone for what he had accomplished and everything he had endured.

“What he achieved in the sport was phenomenal,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “Just the most remarkable story. You only have to watch the movie (Rush, which covers the Lauda/James Hunt rivalry and Lauda’s near fatal accident in 1976) which is a pretty decent representation of actually what happened and the fight back that he had.”

While Lauda had friends all over the paddock, he was especially close to the Mercedes team where he had been a nonexecutive chairman and an advisor since 2012. Lauda called Lewis Hamilton in 2012 to tell him to switch from McLaren to Mercedes.

“All of these years,” Hamilton said, “he’s kind of been my partner in crime: all negotiations, when we were pushing for improvements on the car, he was such a

Images: LAT

TECHNICAL MONEY MATTERS HOW CAN you agree on something when you don’t know what it is going to cost you? That is the dilemma facing the F1 teams as the FIA and Liberty Media’s Formula 1 Group are supposed to present to them the all-new F1 technical and sporting regulations at the end of June.

The technical rules will change drastically in an effort to create closer and more entertaining racing with more overtaking. That process was already started in 2019 with simplified aerodynamics and will continue in 2021. To cut costs, a number of non-performance related car components will become spec parts used by all teams.

It remains to be seen if the sporting regulations include the much talked about budget cap.

Liberty has also said it plans to redistribute the commercial income to the teams in a more equitable manner, but as with the budget cap, exact

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details have been scarce.

John Malone, the chairman of Liberty Media, came to Monaco to talk with the F1 team bosses.

They were frustrated when they left the meeting because he did not provide them with many hard facts about what Liberty plans to do.

A lot more information has been made available on the technical regulations. But what gets presented in June, however, won’t be what’s seen in 2021.

“The FIA and F1 have done a huge amount of work in the background on this,” Racing Point’s technical director Andy Green said in Monaco. “We were exposed to some of it last week in a technical working group meeting. We could see that it’s quite well evolved. It’s going to need some tidying up for sure. We have meetings planned from now until the end of the year, which is where we all

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anticipate it’s going to go to. It’s a significant set of changes.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner predicts plenty of negotiating between the teams, the FIA and Liberty.

“I’m sure the regulations will change and evolve,” he said. “Something will come out in June, it will change in September, October, probably in

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racer and even though he wasn’t racing himself, he would come up to us and say ‘What could we do better, what needs to be improved on the car?’

“You would say front suspension or it’s downforce or it’s the engine, and he would say ‘Okay’ and he will go to the factory and he’ll be giving them arseholes like he would always say!

“Ultimately he was part of the process of changing my life. If I hadn’t had the call all that time ago, I would be a onetime world champion now and probably 22 wins whatever it was when I was at McLaren. I sit here a five-time world champion. I definitely feel like I owe him a lot.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: “One of the most immense character traits that Niki had was that he never stopped fighting. His accident definitely was a date that was important in his life, but Niki would have seen it differently. Every single day he was able to live in the present and not look into the past. He didn’t care about the past, the past was gone, he wanted to live in the present and more in the future.”

Lauda even had an influence on drivers who did not know him well.

“My personal moments with him, he was always kind,” Daniel Ricciardo said.

“Never a bad thing to say. The legacy he leaves is pretty amazing.”

There were a number of tributes to Lauda during the Monaco weekend.

November. There’s plenty of ground to cover, but there is a watershed where something will be put in front of us fairly shortly and then the fun really begins.”

Given that the 10 teams usually can’t even agree on what time of the day it is, getting them to agree on regulations that may or may not benefit them specifically, is always difficult.

But the real problem facing the teams is how can they agree to sign off on a new set of technical regulations when they don’t know how much income they are destined to receive, to pay for the changes they will need to make to the cars, and to race them?

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17

F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

SIR JACKIE RACES AGAINST DEMENTIA JACKIE STEWART fought many a battle on-track on his way to winning three world championships.

Now he is engaged in a different battle – one to find treatments and a cure for dementia.

Helen, his wife of 56 years, was diagnosed with dementia about five years ago, and as a result Stewart has started a charity called Race Against Dementia.

I was in a small group of F1 journalists in Monaco who had the chance to talk with Stewart about dementia, his charity and the late Niki Lauda.

“For over 30 years there has been billions spent on dementia research and yet there have been no results either for corrective medicine or more importantly, for preventive medicine,” Stewart said when I asked him about his cause. “More people die now with dementia than any other illness. There are over 50 million people in the world with dementia. It is the biggest killer. It is more expensive to care for a dementia patient than the

combined total of cancer and heart disease.

“The whole world is suffering from this. It is becoming recognised and therefore talked about. AIDS was around for quite a long time but it was not until some very anxious and famous people started to take an interest in it and to try and find something (that progress on treating it was made).

“Dementia is much bigger than cancer as far as loss of life is concerned. One of the biggest pharmaceutical companies withdrew from the dementia research because it was so expensive and they could not find a cure. We have to find that cure because it is an epidemic.”

Lewis Hamilton and Lauda had a special bond, and Stewart was asked how Hamilton would cope with the Monaco weekend on track so soon after Lauda’s death.

“Mind management is what I lived with,” Stewart said. “It is why I am alive today. In my day there were so many deaths. At one point one

in three of us were going to die. I lost 57 people who were my friends and had holidayed with me, stayed with me, played with me – great friends.

In those days you had to manage that mentally in a very strict way.”

Stewart climbed into his March for qualifying just 45 minutes after Jochen Rindt crashed in the Lotus and died at Monza during the 1970 Italian Grand Prix weekend.

“He was a close friend,” Stewart recalled. “I will never forget it for the rest of my life. I was crying when I got into the car, and I cried when I got out of the car. But I put in the fastest lap that I’d ever done at Monza. Lots of people, some in the media, said it was a death wish. It was not a death wish. It was just removing the bad bits, but the bad bits came back as soon as you stopped the car.

“So mind management and just being able to handle it – it is not being selfish or not caring, it is just you’ve got a job to do and you do

it.”

Stewart calls it “switch-off time.”

“When you get in the cockpit the lights go out,” he explained.

“You are a racing driver and you are driving a motor car which is the most sophisticated piece of motor engineering in the world. To take that to its absolute limit, Lewis is totally capable of doing that in qualifying and in a race itself, and in the same way that I did.”

(Hamilton did just that as he won the pole and dedicated it to Lauda.

He said that it had been a difficult week, but added: “Ultimately we are professionals.”)

Stewart qualified fourth and finished second in that Italian Grand Prix behind Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari.

Asked if Mercedes should win in Monaco “for Lauda,” Stewart responded that Lauda would have brusquely barked: “Well they should have won! With or without me.”

It was 50 years ago that I saw my first F1 race – Stewart winning the 1969 South African Grand Prix in a Matra. This also the 50th anniversary of the first of Stewart’s three championships.

To commemorate that, Rosland Capital commissioned and donated a one-kilo coin of solid gold and featuring his likeness on one side, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the other side. It was sold at an auction in Monaco to raise money for the Race Against Dementia charity.

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18 AutoAction

OPINION HOW TO FIX F1: BAN THE BRAINIACS

BY MARK FOGARTY Editor-At-Large

BY FAR the most sensible bloke in Formula 1 is Martin Brundle.

No one understands F1’s failings better than him – and no one expresses the frustrations of all fans more succinctly.

In my opinion, Brundle is the best motor racing commentator in the world. Sorry Crompo, apologies Leigh Diffey. Even Murray Walker takes a back seat to Brundle in terms of informed comment.

What makes Brundle so good is that he’s passionate. Loves racing, fascinated by F1, lives and breathes it. And after more than 20 years as a broadcaster, he communicates the intricacies of F1 better than anyone else.

I’m fortunate that Martin and I have always got on since his days as an F1 driver. He is my go-to guy in F1, which grew out of the common sense he spoke as a driver.

So when M Brundle unleashes on F1, I take notice. And so should you.

Following the tedious Spanish Grand Prix, he wrote a treatise on what’s wrong with F1 and how to fix it. It was the most logical argument for change I’ve ever read. Especially poignant because he put himself on the line.

He copped a lot of shit for his dissertation that F1 was broken.

Institutional flak. The powers that be weren’t happy. As if he gives a toss.

Brundle used his post-GP column on skysports.com – republished in Australia on the News Corp web site – to bemoan the state of F1.

“I’m frustrated with Formula 1 and the FIA because the 2021 regulations offer the opportunity for a root and branch change

that the sport needs and, from various conversations I had in Spain, I don’t sense it’s going to happen,” he wrote. “Teams are involved in the process, too, and they shouldn’t be because they are competitively hard-wired to think only of their own success, and not the good of the sport.

“I sense significant compromise coming, with little changing in terms of overall competitiveness through the field, and nothing to attract new teams and manufacturers which is critical to the health and future of F1, just as it was in the past.

“We are on a heavily-moated island, drawbridge raised, and more importantly, few are waiting for the drawbridge to be lowered.”

It’s difficult to disagree.

F1 is flawed to its core and unless it’s stripped of cost and aerodynamics, the unthinkable will happen. F1 will die as a global spectacle.

I never thought I’d say that, but F1 is in self-destruct mode unless the engineers are removed from framing the rules from 2021 and beyond. Much the same could be said about Supercars.

Let the brainiacs loose and the result is always inevitable: hightech, low racing. It’s so obvious you just want to scream.

“Formula 1 has to be entertainment first and foremost,” Brundle said. “The cars must lose 100-150 kg. We need bulletproof low-degradation tyres even if we have to mandate a number of pit stops.

“The aerodynamic influence must be slashed, such that we don’t need artificial band-aids like chewing gum tyres and drag reduction systems in the rear wing. Back to where we were, with a modern twist.

“F1 must be a drivers’

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championship, not an engineers’ tech fest. The cars must be the angriest, flightiest, most challenging machines on the planet. I don’t want to see teenagers jumping in them and having it all mastered by lunchtime, and fully on the pace.

“The drivers must be gladiators, but we’ve buried them so deep in the cockpit we can only tell them apart by a glimpse of a multicoloured crash helmet and some Day-Glo tape on half the camera boxes above the roll bar.”

Hear, hear! Shame that no one running F1 is listening. But, wait, there’ more!

“I’m convinced that F1 has gone the wrong way with these hybrid V6 1.6-litre engines, control systems and aero,” Brundle continued. “Of course, hybrid, electric and fuel-cell motors are incoming quickly, but the impressive engineering capabilities of F1 could be directed at other challenges such as battery development, super-fast battery charging in the pits and conductors laid into the track.

“We shouldn’t just laden the race cars with everything – they primarily exist to inform us who is the fastest, bravest driver and which team can best think on their feet in the heat of a race. Anything else is a by-product bonus.

“And this is why 2021 is so important for F1, but we’ve probably missed the optimum moment or maybe they should delay it a year. We must recreate the days when a Jordan, Stewart or Force India might, just might, win the race. And create the environment where they can exist in the first place.”

As far as I’m concerned, nobody in F1 speaks more sense than Martin Brundle. His wisdom is leavened with enthusiasm. In fact, I’d make him the boss of F1.

His parting shot is a cry for help. “There’s a 2021 mission statement for you, and there’s more than enough money, talent and knowledge in place already to make that happen.

“We deserve nothing less for our passionate support and loyalty.”

Who could argue with that?

Photographers Australia Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde International LAT Images Cartoonist John Stoneham Advertising Manager Bruce Williams All Advertising enquiries bruce@overdrivemedia.com.au (0418) 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

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We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1979:: R 1979: 1979 RACE ACE AC E DI DIRE DIRECTOR RECT CTOR OR o off th thee Ba Bath Bathurst thur urst st 1000, 1000 10 00, Iv Ivan an S Stibbard titibb bbar ard d an anno announced noun unce ced d th that at a new 1600 1600cc class l was tto b be iintroduced t d d tto encourage more current model cars to be entered. Stibbard stated the reason for the move was to further align the race with the then current car market, as the fuel crisis forced families into smaller vehicles.

1989: FORMULA 1 czar Bernie Ecclestone announced plans for compulsory pit stops to be implemented to halt the domination of the McLarenHondas. In other words, the more wins, the more pits stops made. Speaking of McLaren, Ayrton Senna took his 17th Formula 1 victory in Mexico City and it was announced that Andy Rouse was to join Peter Brock at Bathurst driving the Mobil 1 Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500.

19 1999 1999: 99:: IIT T WA WAS S V8 w war! ar!! Th ar Ther There eree wa wass a tu tuss tussle ssle le betw be between twee een n V8 b boss osss To os Tony ny C Cochrane ochr oc hran anee an and d th thee h head d off N New Mill Millenium i AUSCAR AUSCARs St Steve Frazer, after both planned to hold 1000km races at Bathurst. Head of the Australian Super Touring Championship, Kelvin O’Reilly revealed the possibility of 16 cars heading to Macau to conclude the series, a place that some Australians had race at before.

2009: AMIDST THE bankruptcy of General Motors in America, Auto Action investigated why Supercars could survive off the back of a potential withdrawal from Holden. In Blue Oval land, a now unsupported Triple Eight was struggling for horsepower according to reigning champion Jamie Whincup.

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 Distributed by Gordon & Gotch NIKI LAUDA TRIBUTE TO THE TOUGHEST CHAMPION SINCE 1971

COM AU .COM.AU

CHAZ HAS BIG DECISION TO MAKE

CRUNCH TIME

MOSTERT MULLS OVERSEAS OFFER AS SILLY LE BOSS VS THE FOGES

Jean Todt grilled on racing’s future

Issue #1762

May 30 to June 12 , 2019

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SEASON HOTS UP

TCR’S STORMING START

What Supercar team bosses think

L S LU PLU

SAFE SANDOWN SECURES FUTURE TRACK CHANGE

Cover image: Tim Pattinson, Ross Gibb, LAT

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THE VIEW FROM THE TOP In a rare extended interview, FIA president Jean Todt discusses the future of Formula 1 and motor racing’s place in a rapidly changing world

I

N THE 25 years since I first interviewed Jean Todt, one thing hasn’t changed: his imperious intolerance of ill-researched questions. Know your stuff and he engages, even enjoying robust interrogation.

But be just slightly off your game and you get a haughty response.

When I first met him in 1994, Todt was the Peugeot rally and race team boss given the daunting task of making Ferrari great again in F1. He had nothing to work with except his own conviction.

But you could sense he had a plan, backed by a mandate from colourful Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo. And Todt didn’t suffer fools back then, just as he still doesn’t now.

While he was an autocrat at the Scuderia, Todt as FIA president has been the great

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conciliator, repairing the deep divisions in F1 created by his predecessor Max Mosley while accelerating Mosley’s road safety reforms.

The Paris-based Federation Internationale de L’Automobile is not only the governing body of world motor sport, but also the peak body for motoring organisations.

Todt, 73, wields considerable power in the automotive world. Yet he rules by consensus rather than confrontation.

He is French and a Napoleon-like figure.

Short on physical stature, large on presence.

And he still doesn’t tolerate prosaic questions from high-minded media.

Monsieur Le Presidente is the big boss of all motor racing – except, ironically, Formula 1, the field in which he excelled. In the Michael Schumacher era – a move he engineered

– Todt led Ferrari to 11 drivers’ and teams’ world championships from 1999-2004, including Schuey’s record five straight F1 crowns.

In F1, Todt is hamstrung by the 100-year commercial rights deal Mosley did with Ecclestone and inherited by Liberty Media.

While the FIA has regulatory authority, its influence on F1 is restricted by the arrangement, which gave the governing body up-front funding to finance a raft of safety and developmental initiatives.

Now in his final third term, Todt – whose partner is TV and movie star Michelle Yeoh – is aiming to leave a legacy of stability for F1 and new dawns for top-level sports car and touring car racing, plus a long-term dramatic cut in the global road toll.

This vision for 2021 was announced late last year, but FIA President Jean Todt is a fan of the current regulations.

What Wh at is is your your vision vis isio ion io n for for F1 from fro rom m 2021 onwards?

IIs s it the the deal dea eall you you would woul wo uld ul d have have made?

We have just celebrated the 1000th world championship race and you just have to see the evolution of the cars and the circuits. It parallels the evolution the motor car over the past 60 years. There is quite a similarity. But it has not been the best evolution for the passion, for the show, for the excitement, but that’s the way it goes. We always try to get the best out of F1, which is always for me, the pinnacle of motor sport and that’s absolutely fascinating.

I will not take on the question because it is not something I can change. I tell you something. I have so much on my plate, so I’m not trying to second-guess the agreement. Maybe, one day, when I’m much less busy and my brain is still working, I will figure out should that have happened or not. But for now, we need to evolve with the world as it is. The agreement is there and we have to work with it.

How do you want to see it change?

For me, I’m not interested in the change for the sake of it. I am interested in constructive change.

There are a lot of things that need to be changed. If I had a magic wand, I would of course prefer to have unpredictability for every race. Sport in general, you see the same name for decades.

But with your experience, surely you can have an influence on where F1 goes?

Would you like the next-generation F1 cars to look better and sound better?

I love the cars as they are now. I think they look great. I would like to see better the numbers and the names of the drivers. Just simple things. It’s something I’ve never understood why they aren’t bigger, but in a way, I’ve given up a little bit on trying to change this. What is interesting about F1 is that it’s a world where it’s very difficult to change things, even easy things like the name and the number. It’s almost Mission: Impossible.

the th e de decl clar cl arat ar atio at ions io ns w ere er e th that at n othi ot hing hi ng declarations were nothing will change with overtaking. So what do you do, you are a reporter? You report that nothing will happen. And then the fan reads that. Does that create excitement for them? No. We should create excitement. Same with the engine. F1 people say the engine noise is shit. Everybody has forgotten that before these hybrid power units, a lot of people were putting in ear plugs. Now they are not needed.

So you don’t think the fans miss the screaming engines?

Look at the success of Formula E and the interest. It’s fascinating because it’s a new category in its fifth year and now everybody is thinking about Formula E (widespread interest among major manufacturers). It’s 45-minute races in a city on one day. Most people don’t see the race – they are in a big hospitality area – and there’s no noise.

It’s a very different audience, though.

Sure.

So you you think thi hink nk that’s tha hat’ t s a good t’ good thing? thi hing ng? ng ?

Of course.

Will the FIA encourage more electric racing series – say, electric touring cars, electric rally cars?

That’s our duty, that’s an obligation, because motor racing is a sport which is not just about the athlete.

It’s motor sport, so it’s not only about the driver. It’s not only the sportsman – it’s the sportsman and the car. So, of course, with the car, we have to take into consideration climate change, we have to take into consideration CO. I mean, look at the constraints on manufacturers to reduce COemissions by 2030.

So we cannot ignore this. We need to be responsible. We cannot decide “OK, we don’t care about pollution”. It is the opposite. We have to be a role model.

Will there be touring car and rally versions of Formula E? At the moment, we cannot.

Simply because autonomy is

Should the engines be louder?

My influence is limited. I don’t want to be presumptuous. First, I am beholding to what is a 100 years agreement, with a covenant. So all what we do has to be in the frame of the covenant. So on one side it gives security, it gives stability to the institution because I am now in my 10th year as the president of the FIA. So soon I will have to give the keys back to my successor. The existing commercial agreement gives the FIA security, but it does not give the total freedom that sometimes I wish I would have. We can propose some changes, we can make some changes, we need to agree among them, but always in the frame of the global agreement.

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Honestly, the sound is something important only to people of a certain age. In a way, this thing about more noise is typical of the F1 world. F1 for me is my favourite spectacle. It is the pinnacle of motor sport, but it is the only category where you put shit on it. I mean, the actors of the business, they put shit on it.

There was criticism of not enough overtaking, so we have created new aero regulations, hoping that there will be better overtaking. Before even the first race this year, 90 per cent of Todt’s influence is limited in Formula 1 as Liberty’s Chase Carey leads the championship into a new era. Image: LAT

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One of Todt’s first initiatives was to further define a clear pathway towards Formula 1, one that Australian Alex Peroni is following.

Image: LAT

not enough and recharging time is too big. That’s why we have initiated Formula E in cities with a limit and then we moved from two cars to one car, which shows how successful has been the development on that (battery range). Today, a manufacturer cannot get involved in any category of motor sport if it is not environmentally friendly.

You’re now in your 10th year as president of the FIA. Will you stand for a fourth term?

I’ve been re-elected twice, but this is my last term (ending in December 2021).

In terms of unlimited term and age, our statutes changed to limit to three terms and to 75 years old. When I was elected, honestly, I wanted to see the experience and how well I would enjoy it, and how well physically I remained. I still enjoy the position and

Among your early motor sport initiatives was to establish a defined open-wheel ladder from karting to F1, introducing Formula 4 and changing GP2 and GP3 to F2 and F3. Are you satisfied this pyramid is working?

I’m very happy with that, yes. I wish it will be less costly, but still, you see a very high competition in F4, in F3, in F2 up to F1. A minimum six drivers have come through this progression to F1. It is makes more sense, going from F4 up to F1.

CAMS is a very prominent member of the FIA on the sporting side. Do you regard CAMS as one of the showcase ASNs? I really like and respect CAMS and its organisation. I respect very much the president Andrew Papadopoulos, who is also the man in charge of the development task force of our clubs around the world, and Garry Connelly, who is the head of the F1 stewards and a member of the World Motor Sport Council. As I have said, Australia has a good culture of motor The same formula used in open-wheelers is planned for touring cars. Image: TCR

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racing and a big passion for it. It is amazing how many drivers and also motorcycle racers from Australia have been successful internationally.

CAMS – and the AAA – are top members of the FIA. Contrarily to other big sporting organisations like the IOC, FIFA and IAAF, we have two pillars. The FIA is the regulator of motor sport – and we have clubs in 150 countries, from small, medium to big – and there is also Mobility, which is to facilitate through our clubs (motoring organisations like RACV and NRMA) the lives of road users. And, clearly, Australia is a strong player with AAA (Australian Automobile Association), which has close to eight million members out of a population of 24 million, and CAMS being at the top level in motor sports from grass roots to the highest levels.

Back to the future of racing, the World Endurance Championship is heading for a big change. Are you optimistic about the proposed ‘hypercar’ regulations?

I love it. Again, we must adapt the show to the times. I don’t think there is any more high fascination to LMP1, but I think there is interest for supercars and hypercars. I was at the Geneva Motor Show and there were so many cars like these, even from unknown brands. Of course, on one side, it’s a paradox because

you can’t anymore use those cars on normal roads – rightly so – but on the other side, there is a real passion for these dream cars. So, clearly, by just figuring out, predicting the grid, you would have the La Ferrari, Aston Martin Valkyrie, Mercedes-AMG One, a McLaren, a Toyota. I think we could have a great show. So that’s what we want to do.

Are you happy with where international touring racing is?

No.

manufacturers.

So still two-litre turbocharged front-drive small hatchbacks and sedans?

Yes. What do you think about driverless racing? Does it have a future in motor sport?

Will that be at a higher level than TCR?

If you tell me we are going to do autonomous racing, I am not so interested. For us, the important thing in motor sport is the champion, either a man or a woman and the machine. Autonomous cars are the future on the road, but I don’t want to see driverless ke ESC racing cars, just as I don’t like in racing. ESC saves many lives on the road, but racing should be about the driver’s skill. Maybe autonomous racing could be a showcase for the technology, but I would not like to see it becoming widespread. It could help develop new technology, but I think the fascination cannot be without the driver in the car.

No, I don’t think it has to be high level. We have a kind of menu, starting from the grass roots through to the top. So, for me, touring car has to be a medium level, more of a kind of generalist formula for mainstream

You’ve been very passionate about road safety and using motor sport, especially F1, to promote means to cut the road toll around the world. Is it working?

It’s not where it used to be, is it?

I agree. Incidentally, it’s something we discussed with one of your compatriots, Alan Gow, who is the president of the FIA Touring Car Commission. But we have good plans. I feel that touring car has been neglected and it’s maybe exactly what you were saying earlier about single-seaters. We had GP3 and F3, and there are too many categories in touring car, and the FIA has the responsibility to identify one strong series which will be representative of the FIA world touring car championship.

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Every year, 1.35 million people die on the roads. Every day, you have 3700 people dying. It’s the number one cause of mortality for youth from 14-29 and the cost to GDP depending on the country is from two to 10 per cent. In some countries like Australia, it has been made a priority by the government, but in many other countries, it is a carnage. In 2015, I was appointed the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy for road safety, which allowed me to speak with governments about addressing better road safety.

And I will say I have a passion for that. I have a passion and I use

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Multi-tasking Todt signed important documents while talking to Foges, above. Electric power is not yet ready to move into touring cars or rally. motor sport to promote road safety.

For me, motor sport is not only a show, it is also a laboratory and so that laboratory must be influencing behaviour on the road. We have been generating a better awareness about this global tragedy, which was hidden a lot in developing countries. Still a long way to go, but we are starting to put that on top of the agenda of our member states around the world.

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Niki Lauda began his career in the uncompetitive March 721 (right) but soon made his name at Ferrari (left & below).

NO REGRETS

Veteran t F F1 1 correspondent d tD DAN AN K KNUTSON NUTSON hhas nearly l 5 50 0 years off memories i off th the iconoclastic racer known affectionately as “The Rat”

D

URING THE Canadian Grand Prix weekend in June 2011 I did an exclusive interview with Niki Lauda for Auto Action, which appeared in issue #1446. One of the final questions I asked him was when looking back over everything, did he had any regrets.

“No,” he said. “No regrets at all.”

I’ll bet if he’d been asked the same question during his final days, he would have made the same reply.

I first saw Lauda race in the 1972 South African Grand Prix. He drove a March 721 – with that silly-looking high-mounted front wing – to seventh place in what was his third

24 AutoAction

championship F1 race start. I got his autograph – the classic one in which he printed NIKI, but extended the first stroke of the N down to become the L for the Lauda signature below it. I still have it today.

I will also bet that Lauda would brusquely brush off many of the praising tributes, however well deserved, that have been paid to him since he passed away last week. But there would be a twinkle in his eye nonetheless because the gruff, abrupt Lauda we’ve known all these years, had mellowed a bit.

During our chat in 2006 I asked him if he had a favorite race in the 171 grands prix he drove in.

“Not really because I had good

races and bad races, like in any career,” he said. “But generally speaking I was happy with what happened to me. Even with the accident – thank God I survived and I am still here! – but I mean for me it was a normal development because I knew about the risk, and I worked hard to win championships.”

That accident was the fireball crash that nearly killed him during the 1976 German Grand Prix.

I saw some of Lauda’s memorable races. I was in the grandstands for the 1977 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, where he finished fourth to clinch the championship and then walked away from the Ferrari team. I took photos trackside and reported on the race

during the 1983 U.S. Grand Prix at Long Beach, when McLaren drivers John Watson and Lauda went from 22nd and 23rd on the grid to first and second respectively in the race.

And I did the same at the 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix where Lauda managed to beat McLaren teammate Alain Prost by half a point to earn his third world title. By 1984 I was a fulltime F1 journalist, so I had dealings with Lauda during his final two seasons as an F1 driver, and then in subsequent years in his managerial roles at Ferrari, Jaguar and finally Mercedes. It was at the latter that he really found his niche.

Lauda says he did not have to do much to convince Lewis Hamilton to

FAREWELL TO A LEGEND:

Niki Lauda tribute

switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, but boy did that move pay off for both team and driver!

Lauda was always approachable, always ready to answer questions and give his blunt opinion. Here is a good example of his candor.

Instead of holding a press conference during the 2006 Italian Grand Prix weekend for Michael Schumacher to announce his retirement, Ferrari issued a press release while he celebrating his win on the podium. Okay, he and Ferrari didn’t want any distractions before the race, but this was a page of paper stating that the most successful F1 driver of all time was going to retire.

Things could have been done better.

Niki Lauda as we knew him in recent times as part of Mercedes’ grand prix dominance. It was his performances for BRM (right) that brought him to Ferrari’s attention. Images: LAT

I asked Lauda about the situation later that same day, and his reply was uncensored and to the point.

“We have to accept it as it is,” he told me. “The way it was handled was terrible. After he won, we just had a piece of paper in our hands that says he retires. Any human being, this is the worst thing you can do. He should say so himself, so we can see him and understand him, but to give a shitty copy of a Ferrari press release around in the paddock, I have never seen anything handled that stupid.

“Thank God he said it afterwards (in

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FAREWELL TO A LEGEND:

Niki Lauda tribute

Niki Lauda’s helmet shows the scars of his career-defining accident in 1976.

His car was destroyed (right).

the post-race interview), but we were faced with this piece of shit. How could this happen? Afterwards he explained, but they should have done it the other way around. Let him explain and then put the paper out.”

Other candid Lauda quotes include: On Enzo Ferrari: “For me, Enzo Ferrari is the most charismatic guy I

met in all my life. There is no question about it. I had really a good time there.

There were the normal ups and downs after my accident. He treated every driver in his own way, but I think with me we had a very good relationship and it worked out in the end.”

On Ayrton Senna: “Senna was sensational because of his

NIKI LAUDA: COURAGE AND CANDOUR THEY DON’T come any tougher than Niki Lauda.

That he survived until he was 70 is a tribute to his courage and tenacity.

Lauda died last week, most likely from complications following a lung transplant last year. That, in turn, was almost certainly a long-term repercussion of the life-threatening respiratory problems he suffered in his fiery crash at the Nurburgring in 1976.

In perhaps the greatest comeback in sports history, Lauda recovered from death’s door – he even had the last rights read to him in hospital – to return to racing just six weeks later.

Despite horrible burns and severely singed lungs, he resumed his title battle with James Hunt and took it down to the last race.

The dramatic rain-soaked finale at Fuji was the first F1 race televised live around the world, the start of Formula 1’s rise as the first truly global live sport on TV. In desperately dangerous conditions, Lauda – ever the pragmatist – had no qualms about pulling out of the race, deeming it an unnecessary risk, title or no title.

Hunt struggled on and, amid much confusion, clinched the championship in perhaps the most hollow circumstances.

Having stared death in the face just a few months earlier, Lauda was happy to run the risk of being branded a coward by abandoning the race. It was, in fact, an act of great courage.

It was also consistent with the forthright Austrian’s stance on the unacceptable risks of racing back then and his increasing advocacy for track safety improvements, which ironically peaked in the lead-up to that fateful German Grand Prix.

Lauda’s valour was immortalised in the 2013

26 AutoAction

movie ‘Rush’, which introduced his incredible comeback to a new generation just as he was experiencing latter day success as a co-owner and director of the all-conquering Mercedes F1 team.

He was instrumental in luring Lewis Hamilton from McLaren in 2013 and helping sow the seeds of the Mercedes domination that continues today.

Lauda was arguably the first true hard-nosed professional driver in F1. More demanding than Jackie Stewart, he pushed teams to build winning operations around him.

It was his way or the highway.

Also unlike Stewart, he eschewed celebrity trappings and cared little for his appearance. This was never more apparent than his refusal to have plastic surgery to repair his facial scaring.

However, he was canny enough to commercialise his disfigurement by selling sponsor rights to his ever-present cap.

Lauda’s clinical approach enabled him to lead Ferrari back to the top to win the world title in 1975 and he rebounded from his brush with death to win the F1 crown again in 1977.

He was disciplined in an era of daredevil playboys and, feeling slighted by Enzo Ferrari’s lack of support in his time of crisis, joined Brabham in 1978.

Lauda quit racing mid-season in 1979 to pursue his interest in aviation, setting up Lauda Air. When that needed a quick injection of cash, he returned to F1 with McLaren in 1982, securing the first $1 million-a-year driving salary (the equivalent of today’s tens of millions paid to the likes of Hamilton).

He won his third world championship in ’84, beating on-the-rise teammate Alain Prost by

BY MARK FOGARTY

just a half a point – the narrowest margin in F1 history.

He returned to running his airline fulltime in 1986, later selling Lauda Air to rival Austrian Air. In the early 2000s, he went back to aviation, setting up low-cost carrier Niki, which he also subsequently sold.

Famously, as an accomplished commercial pilot, he could often be found in the cockpit, captaining one of his flights.

His success as an airline entrepreneur was in stark contrast to his ordinary efforts in team management. He was a consultant to Ferrari in the early 1990s and briefly team principal of Jaguar’s short-lived F1 effort.

However, Lauda was an astute advisor to Mercedes in F1, earning a small shareholding for his advice and celebrity status.

In keeping with his no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it is persona, he was a popular pundit on Germanlanguage F1 telecasts for the best part of two decades, and was also a go-to figure in the British Sky Sports coverage seen on Fox Sports in Australia.

His candour verged on political incorrectness and he rarely let his team alignments get in the way of telling it as he saw it.

I had two memorable encounters with Niki Lauda. The first was at the 1987 Geneva Motor Show, when I stood next to him at a urinal. It’s not what you think.

I collared him while we were washing our hands and quizzed him on whether Lauda Air planned to take over the dormant Austrian airline rights to fly to Australia.

He revealed that he was not only planning flights to Australia, but to Melbourne, giving me a great

general news story for ‘The Herald’, the longdefunct Melbourne evening newspaper for which I was then motoring editor.

Nearly 30 years later, I interviewed him at length for Auto Action and he was as forthright as ever. It was a thrill and a privilege to talk with him.

Lauda, of course, was a regular visitor to Australia. He competed in the late Bob Jane’s Australian Grands Prix at Calder in the early ’80s, ended his F1 career in the first Adelaide GP, and attended most Melbourne GPs in various capacities.

He is an absolute legend of the sport, exhibiting rare courage and candour. And beneath his hardened exterior was an extreme passion for racing.

Niki Lauda was one of the all-time greats whose influence transcends his impressive results as a driver.

LARRY’S AND LAUDA’S FUJI DECISION

Niki Lauda walks away from his Ferrari and a world championship in Japan in 1976 (above left). In 1984 Lauda beat McLaren teammate Alain Prost (above right) to the World Driver’s Championship by half a point, the closest finish in history. Ayrton Senna shares the podium.

charisma, his personality and his performance.” p On the Merc Mercedes domination in recent year years: “It’s up to all the others to try to bring down our lead.

But you can’t artificially manipulate the sport to m make it more exciting.

Once you sta start doing that, motor sport is dead. dead.”

When then F F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone sa said he needed to talk to Lauda, who was chatting to a group of journ journalists at the time: “The Godfather cal calls.”

About Eccle Ecclestone when he was still running th the show: “My biggest worry is if Ber Bernie one day for re whatever reason will leave us, because he is the combination of the perfect businessman

and an ex-team owner. He is the master of all this success, and everything is in his head. So he has to continue, otherwise this business that is worth six billion dollars, will go down very quickly. All this will be destroyed in no time.”

On his rival drivers: “They have been all tough and hard. Some more, some less. But this was part of every year. Prost, in the end, was the toughest, for me to win the (1984) championship by half a point over him.”

On James Hunt: “James was my friend. I was happy that when I could not win the (1976) championship because of my accident, that he did win it. I always liked him.”

Talking about inter-team feuds such as the one between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren: “If you have an enemy in another team it is much easier because you don’t see him every day. You cannot win being a nice guy. You have to be a bastard to win in Formula 1.”

During these past years Lauda was the only team member who would walk from his office at the Mercedes hospitality unit in the paddock and enter Ferrari, Red Bull or any of the other team’s hospitality units, without having to ask permission.

He was an F1 citizen like no one else. In spite of his massively politically incorrect views, which he expressed with gusto, Lauda had no enemies in the paddock.

By BRUCE NEWTON LARRY PERKINS never achieved the same glory and success as Niki Lauda as a grand prix driver, but they do share something in common; both made the brave call to pull out of that fateful 1976 Japanese Grand Prix.

Having recovered from death’s door after his horrific Nurburgring crash, Lauda entered the final race of the season at Fuji three points ahead of James Hunt in the world driver’s championship.

But as rain bucketed down Lauda abandoned the race on lap two, declaring the conditions “suicidal”, leaving the way open for Hunt to claim the championship by just one point with a third place finish.

Perkins, driving a Brabham BT45 for Bernie Ecclestone, had crashed in the wet untimed morning practice session. Unhappy with the car’s handling, he had already pulled out of the race after one lap.

He said he “absolutely” understood why Lauda made his decision, clarifying his own motivation was his car’s behaviour rather than concerns for his safety.

“Bernie had said ‘if you can start the race I’ll be happy’ and ‘I said I’ll go as far as I can but I don’t just want to crash your car again’. The thing was undrivable in the conditions,” Larry told Auto Action.

“I pulled in, it was 100 per cent voluntary, but if I had done another lap I probably would have crashed.

“My car was still going but I still pulled in. I said to Bernie, ‘My car is undrivable in these conditions I’ll just crash it if I keep going’.”

Perkins raced in 11 grands prix in 1976 and 1977, and Lauda was on the grid in 10 of them, missing only the 1976 Dutch Grand Prix as he recovered from his terrible injuries.

“I didn’t really get to know him as such because everyone was in their own little world in Formula 1,” says Perkins of Lauda. “But I certainly knew him and I was the new guy on the block.

“Obviously, I was very aware who he was, but he wouldn’t have been aware of who I was.

“It’s a sad day that he’s prematurely passed away. He did a lot for the image of Formula 1.”

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Zane Goddard (on right at left) has settled in nicely at the MW Motorsport team. He scored two Super3 pole positions in his Nissan Altima at Barbargallo Raceway (right).

Images: Insyde Media and LAT

K C A B d n a E P O R U E To Having followed his dream to race on the international stage and achieve success, Zane Goddard has now returned home. Last year was a tough initiation but as Dan McCarthy discovered, he has his sights set on success once more

U

NDERTAKING HIS second season in Super2 this year, Zane Goddard has impressed driving his MW Motorsport Nissan Altima.

But then, given his success overseas no-one should be surprised.

Goddard may only be 19 but he has already raced successfully both here and overseas, taking race victories in the British F4 Championship and is now kicking goals in Super2 after a disappointing initial season with Brad Jones Racing in 2018.

Dirt bike racing provided Goddard’s competition start before karting took over, leading to national titles and then international events.

“I did a little bit of dirt bikes when I was seven and eight and then I tried go karting with my mate and just loved it. That is where the passion started off. Dad bought me a go kart for Christmas in 2008 [at the age of nine],” Goddard recalled.

The Queenslander won the Australian Junior Trophy Class

Goddard took four race victories in British Formula 4.

28 AutoAction

Championship in 2013, and then raced competitively overseas in both America and Spain.

Goddard stepped up to openwheel racing in 2015, competing in the inaugural Formula 4 Championship, against fellow Super2 rivals Thomas Randle, Will Brown and TCR Australia driver Jimmy Vernon.

Learning the ropes was the key goal for Goddard in Australian Formula 4, before he headed to Europe to pursue his dream of Formula 1. He and his family wanted to see how far Goddard could go, even though the right budget was hard to come by.

“We gave it a shot overseas to see if we could do it,” he said.

“When I did the year in British F4 I did a crazy amount of testing something like 25 test days - so as a junior driver it was a fantastic amount of seat time. I was always driving a car and learning so much.”

In 2016 Goddard competed for

Double R Racing, a team founded

by Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen and the Finnish star’s manager Steve Robertson, in what was mostly a single-car team. Goddard recorded four victories over the season, winning at Silverstone, Croft and Knockhill.

“That was a brilliant year, I learnt a lot, and I’d say that was my biggest evolving year as a driver,” Goddard told Auto Action.

Despite taking four wins, a few retirements cost him dearly, and he finished the championship in eighth position. However, Goddard decided to still take the next step and compete in the highly competitive Formula Renault Eurocup series against some of the brightest young talent from across the globe.

“They had a lot of depth to the field, there were some super strong drivers and everyone was very, very close timewise,” Goddard explained.

“The racing was extremely close, you made a mistake and you paid for it, the level of drivers and the depth was the hard thing. You had to nail it every single time you were out on track.”

Although he was chasing the Formula 1 dream, the distance between he and his family hit home when his father was diagnosed with cancer, forcing Goddard to make a critical decision to either continue overseas or to head home.

“It forced us into a position to come home. It was )already) a consideration but it just made the move (happen) a bit sooner,” he said.

While still in Europe, an opportunity was tabled for Goddard to drive a Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore in the 2018 Super2 Series, a deal that was struck thanks to his friendship with Jack Smith.

“I’m good mates with Jack Smith, who was my teammate and is still

racing with Brad Jones this year,” he said.

“I was involved in it all but I wasn’t at the same time, because I was overseas.

I was kept in the loop with what was happening, but I think that the main link there was through Jack.”

Goddard recalled the feelings he had when he first drove a Supercar and spoke about how different it was to anything he had previously driven.

“It’s quite a technique to drive a car with so much power, not that much grip and quite a heavy car that rolls around a lot,” he recalled.

“I’d come from something that is light, didn’t have that much power but a lot of downforce.

“But the amount of power, was just an awesome feeling.”

Despite these different challenges Goddard feels he got used to the Supercar characteristics fairly quickly.

He felt his time in Europe was well spent and it helped make the transition to Supercar racing easier.

“Every single day we lived and breathed racing so I did learn a lot in those years,” Goddard continued.

“I wouldn’t say it hindered me in anyway, maybe just the reliance on downforce that you build up in open wheelers. As soon as you switch out of that mindset, I felt it was a lot more positive.”

Despite only scoring two top 10 finishes, Goddard believed he had laid the foundations for an all-out attack on

the 2019 Super3 title.

“As a rookie it was a really good progressing year and obviously put me in good stead for this season,” Goddard told Auto Action.

“I finished 100 per cent of the races and kept the car straight, I feel like I was fairly consistent, we were second rookie in the championship. There weren’t a lot of standout races, but I’d say the best race would have to be Newcastle, finishing sixth.”

This season he has made the move to the crack MW Motorsport team, which has had much success in the Super2 Series, recently as Kelly Racing’s Nissan ‘B’ team. If results are anything to go by, Goddard will be a Goddard led home Luis Leeds in an Australian 1-2 at Silverstone in British F4. title contender by the time the series heads to Newcastle again.

He was hampered by two poor Consistency is one prerequisite “Everywhere they [MW Motorsport] starts in Perth, a weekend that towards winning this year’s Super2 went [in 2018] they were consistently promised more than the results he title according to Goddard, with up the front and they had two drivers achieved. failures to finish a key influence on in the top four in the championship last “The drivability of the car was how the series results will play out. year. For me, it was a car I wanted to fantastic, it made you so confident “If we are can stay towards the be in and the place I wanted to be,” he to just lean on the car and extract top three each round, I feel like it enthused. everything from it because you knew will put us in good stead for the “Now that I am there, I have a great it wasn’t going to bite you,” Goddard championship. It’s only seven rounds, you can’t afford a DNF. relationship with the guys, they are said.

“It is just being smart, being tactical real racers, they want the results and “If we can get the starts good, I and trying to be there by the time they are not going to leave a stone feel that will change the whole way Newcastle comes around and unturned.” we attack a race.We are still second hopefully have a go at taking out the From the first session in Adelaide in the championship, we are still in championship.

Goddard has lauded the MW Motorsport a super strong spot, we are only “It is a great way to immerse yourself 64-points off the lead.

Altima, finding the chassis excellent to drive, which has been shown by his “We are in a perfect spot at the in the Supercars paddock, but for now it’s all eyes forward on Super2, results, which include four podiums and moment, it is just about finishing races and being consistent.” and try to take that out.” two pole positions already this season.

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29

E H TBLOCK T

Social media superstar Ken Block talks to MARK FOGARTY about being a late-life rally icon who can now do what he wants

HE LICENCE plate on Ken Block’s retro rally car reads HHIC. It stands for Head Hoonigan In Charge and is a genuine rego.

Somehow, Block’s upgraded rally spec Ford Escort RS Cosworth is road legal in the American state of Utah, where the Gymkhana video star lives these days, qualifying for a vanity plate.

But we are talking about Ken Block, the most famous rally driver on the planet. Except he’s not famous for rallying. His fame comes from drifts, donuts and jumps in exotic and unlikely locations.

Lurid slides and tyre-smoking tricks in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dubai, plus more earthy industrial sites, have made 51-year-old Block the ultimate Sultan Of Sideways in the minds of Millennials.

Yes, fifty-‘king-one. A way old dude. Yet Block drives and acts like a rebellious youngster, in keeping with his Hoonigan racing and apparel brand.

When it comes to extreme drifting and tarmac-etching donuts, he makes TV larrikins Jeremy Clarkson and Tiff Needell look tame.

30 AutoAction

On the precipice of a pier or teetering on the edge of the Pikes Peak drop-off, Block’s car control is consummate.

At heart, though, he is a rally driver.

Becoming a YouTube sensation with his Gymkhana series – now up to number 10 – just facilitated his stage rallying fascination.

He was a skateboarding and snowboarding ‘rat’ – a contemporary of skateboard legend Tony Hawk – who co-founded DC Shoes, giving him the means to pursue his rallying dreams from 2005, when he was 37.

The Gymkhana videos, which began nine years ago, were the offshoot of his desire for more time in his car at autocross events and attracting sponsorship for his rallying ambitions.

“I grew up skateboarding and snowboarding, and racing dirt bikes,” Block recalled during a recent visit to New Zealand. “I practised and played much more than ever competing, and so when I got to start racing the rally cars in 2005, I was addicted to it and wanted to do it a bunch, but the only time I ever saw the race car was either when I was racing or testing.

“So I actually started doing the gymkhana

stuff because I just wanted more seat time. I wanted to practice more, I wanted to play with the car more, so that’s really where that came from.

“And a big part of any motor sports, because they’re so damn expensive, is the marketing side of things and we really discovered through the videos we were originally making for DC and then Hoonigan, that a lot of what we were doing with the race cars could be marketing and therefore paid for by the sponsors.

“I’ve had a very non-traditional race career, but it was really a matter of ‘OK, how do we make the most of this to go out and do the things I want to do?’ At the end of the day, I’m a racer.

“I want to go race and compete as much as I can, and the marketing stuff kinda gave me the avenues to be able to bring in the sponsorship money to do that.”

Block is nothing if not a promotional animal.

Try finding photos of him at events without his Monster Energy cap. He is obliged to wear it at all promotional or media activities.

Surprisingly, he turns up at lunch after his

Escort Cossie expires in testing for Rally Whangarei, a couple of hours north of Auckland, bare-headed. Surrounded by his entourage, it takes him a while to relax, but once he does, he becomes expansive.

The NZ event, with its fast, open gravel roads, is one of his favourites. It kicked off his “Cossie World Tour” in his Escort Cosworth, which is an original body with modern updates for reliability. In NZ, where it ingested bits from a turbo failure in testing before a new engine was fitted, it was running unpainted ‘box flares’ on its fenders to accommodate its new widetrack stance.

“At this stage in my career, I want to enjoy some of the best stage rallies around the world and I have a long list of these rallies that I’d like to do,” Block said. “I didn’t want to just go out and race a current Fiesta R5. I wanted to do something a bit unique and a bit different. I’m such a huge fan of that ’90s Escort Cosworth.

“It was just a very iconic car. That wing, that era of rallying, I just love the whole essence of that. So I raced a classic ’90s Escort last year and we just had issue after issue with it because it’s just old equipment. So we built a

Ken Block chats with our Foges in New Zealand recently, the colourful 51-year-old standing beside his bespoke retro-mod ‘Cossie World Tour’ Ford Escort Coworth rally car. Images: LAT & supplied

new one with proper stuff like mechanical diffs ffs and modern electronics and safety equipment. nt.

“Still has the old engine and turbos, but everything around that is new. Still has the old chassis with modern suspension and wee widened it to be the same width as the current nt WRC car.

“I love driving it. It’s actually quite quick. It handles like a more modern car, hence it’s more fun for me. But the car’s not finished yet.”

His Hoonigan Racing Division team is run

by Derek Dauncey, who was a member of Mitsubishi’s WRC sweep with Tommi Makinen en in the mid-1990s. His American-based Italiann co-driver is Alex Gelsomino, who is married to Australian rally star Brendon Reeves’s sister.

The latter is not Block’s only link to Australia. a.

His aunt lives in Cairns and he has been a regular visitor to these shores since the ’70s.

He has competed in Rally Australia on the Coffs offs Coast, and conducted a Gymkhana-style event ent 00. at Calder Park and a demo at the Adelaide 500.

After several years dallying with WRC competition, Block’s reversion to an Escort Cossie reflects what got him interested in rallying in the first place and prompted his

Gymkhana homages to the slidemeisters.

“The biggest inspiration is rally from the ’80s because I liked watching the cars on Tarmac slide and drift through the corners, like Monte Carlo,” Block recalls. “Even Colin McRae in the ’90s in Corsica, sliding the hairpins. We didn’t – and still don’t – have any Tarmac rallies in America. There was one in New York in the mid-2000s and I did it once or twice, but, really, I didn’t have anywhere to go learn to slide an allwheel drive car like I saw my inspirational heroes do in rally cars.

“So that’s really real re ally ly

Ken Block’s Cosworth Escort is a serious bit of kit, built specifically to compete in rallies around the globe at the highest level.

the first inspiration. Then where the gymkhana thing really comes from is autocross, which is grass roots competition that’s quite big in the States, were you have to slide the car to be quick. So I did a couple of those events and I was like ‘Hey, this is really fun. This is getting to slide a higher horsepower rally style car around a course.’ That’s where I learned.

“The guy doing the events in southern California where I lived then quit doing those gymkhana events, so I had this car, but nowhere to go compete with it. So I went back to one of the places where I did a gymkhana race, which was El Toro airfield and that’s when we made the first video.

“We had no idea that itt would do what it did. It went viral right away. So it was quite a surprise to us and after a couple of months, my sponsors were like ‘So, when are you doin’ another one of those?’ It just kind of escalated from there.”

Block’s “Cossie World Tour” will next take in the classic Donegal tarmac rally in Northern Ireland next month, followed by the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Rally Legends at San Marino, Rally du Valais in the Swiss Alps, the Gymkhana GRiD event in Poland and then back to America for demos at the SEMA show.

“It’s just been fun for me to put this together to go out and do a lot of unique events around the world that are some of my favourites,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m a rally driver. I love rallying, and I love to promote rallying and Ford’s involvement. It’s a lot of fun for me.”

Block has done 10 Gymkhana videos in the past nine years, thrilling audiences with his spectacular driving displays in city centres and industrial sites. Two turnin’ and four burin’ is his mantra.

There is more to come from the don of drifting, with ‘Gymkhana 11’ set for later this year, although they won’t be numbered from now on.

“We’re not going to number them anymore, but we’ll continue making them,” he revealed, enigmatically. “My sponsors still want me to make stuff and people are still watching them.

There’s a new one that we’ll film this year.”

Block’s most iconic Gymkhana machine is the Hoonicorn – a 1400 horsepower, all-wheel

32 AutoAction

Ken K Ke e Block describes his hhi i ‘Hoonicon’ Ford Mustang as both M ““frightening “f f to drive” aand the “funnest car an I’II’ve v ever driven.”

KEN BLOCKED IN SYDNEY

drive, 1965-shape Mustang monster. It starred in Gymkhana 7 and again in the latest 10th edition.

The Hoonicorn is powered by a twinturbocharged 6.7-litre Ford V8 that gets Block’s attention.

“It’s actually a frightening thing to drive,” he said. “It doesn’t act like a normal car. An all-wheel drive car, you pitch it sideways and tell it to go that way. But with the Mustang, the wheels spin up so fast that it’s a real handful.

“It just does things unlike any other car I’ve ever driven.”

His favourite Gymkhanas are 5 in San Francisco, including an unexpected run across the Bay Bridge, and 7 in LA with the Mustang Hoonicorn.

“Gymkhana 5, doing the city thing for the first time, was really wild. That’s one of the coolest driving cities in the world. There’s just so much elevation change everywhere.

“And then Gymkhana 7 with the Mustang was really fun because I grew up in the LA area and that Mustang is just the funnest car I’ve ever driven. Nothin’ like it.”

Block’s Hoonigan brand is a conjuncture of hoon and hooligan. His videos carry the

ONE OF Ken Block’s internetO bbreaking Gymkhana videos could have been set in Sydney. ha Think of Block sliding and ddonuting one of his fast Fords th through the centre of Sydney, aaround The Rocks and over the H Harbour Bridge.

It nearly happened. His 2016 Gymkhana 9 was supposed to take place in Sydney.

It was all set until city officials got involved. Crucially, they demanded ed that Block kept to the speed limits – 80 km/h on the bridge, as low as 40 km/h in the CBD. It was a huge missed opportunity.

Following’s Sydney’s rejection, Block took Gymkhana 9 to an abandoned industrial site in Buffalo, in upstate New York. It was, of course, a viral hit.

“It was really disappointing,” Block recalls.

“We tried to be very plain and clear about the fact that everything we do is done in the safest way possible.

“We wanted to do Gymkhana 9 in Sydney and we went about all the right steps – film permits, work with the police and all that – but at the end of the day, the hierarchy got to a certain point where that person said ‘OK, well, if I’m allowing hooning on my streets, you can only go the speed limit’.

“That was actually one of the criteria that came down. It just didn’t make sense.

I thought it would’ve been really cool, but it

is what it is. We invested a bunch of money to scout and do the work there, and got nothing for it.”

Block’s advance party had mapped out a route through Sydney’s CBD and The Rocks, plus a run over the Harbour Bridge.

“It was all around downtown Sydney,” Block remembered. “I think we were even supposed to have the Harbour Bridge, but that’s one of the places they said I couldn’t go faster than the speed limit (80 km/h).

“That wasn’t going to make a very good video!”

Had it happened, Block would’ve used his 600 horsepower Ford Focus RS in Sydney.

NSW authorities were just as squeamish when Mark Webber drove an F1 Williams across the bridge in 2005.

Webber was also limited to 80 km/h, but exceeded that by at least double out-of-sight on the northern side of the bridge.

MFF

AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST SUPPLIER OF HIGH PERFORMANCE ENGINE PARTS!

SHOCK THERAPY

THE SULTAN of slide, the King Of Hoons, is a closet fan of electric racers.

Ken Block admits that he’s been thinking about an electric Gymkhana car for some time.

“I’ve actually wanted to do one for a long time,” Block revealed. “It’ll happen eventually. Ford has a very nice electric car coming. I’ve seen it.”

Block was referring to the all-electric Mustang Mach E that Ford will launch next year.

Although excited by motoring’s electric future, he admitted he would miss the sound of combustion engines.

“I am a big fan of internal combustion engines, but I like technology and I like change,” he said. “I don’t look at the electric thing as a negative. I look at the positives of what can come from it.

“I’ll miss the sound – I think all of us will, we’re old. My kids won’t give a shit. They’ll be like ‘Electric cars, cool’. They’ve grown up driving electric karts.

“The next generations aren’t going to have the same love that we do for the combustion engine. Watching some of the electric racing, I definitely miss the sound.

“But I do embrace it. I think that there are some interesting ideas that we can do with them.”

Block added that he saw the car eventually going the way of the horse.

“I think that no matter what, there’s always going to be cars that people buy that they drive,” he said. “I don’t ever see that enjoyment going away. I think it’s too much fun.

“Maybe it’ll be more recreational, as a dirt bike is. The future of all that stuff is really quite unpredictable at this point.” M

advice to ‘Hoon Responsibly’.

Although inspired by the Australian term, it has a very different meaning in the USA. “In America, hoon is much more a term of endearment,” Block explains. “Of course, it has a negative connotation in Australia. Everywhere else, it’s like ‘Oh, you’re having fun with a car’.

Block lives in Park City, Utah, a tranquil mountain resort east of Salt Lake City. He now defines his future as helping his three children – two girls aged 10 and 12, and an eight-year-old boy – achieve their racing dreams.

“Well, the future for me really has to do with my kids,” he said. “They’re actually getting old enough to race. We just bought my son, who’s my youngest, a kart and my eldest has what we call a trophy kart, like an off-road version of a kart, a little bigger, so she’s been racing that.

“I’m going to continue what I’m doing now, kinda the world tour thing, seven or eight events a year, but I’m starting to pay more attention to them at home now, to help develop their skills.

“I have three kids and they’re all interested in racing at some level, so I’m going to give them the best opportunity. I started so late in life that I’m going to give them the proper opportunity to start young, which is what I wish I could’ve done.

“They already want more horsepower.”

Block competed sporadically in the WRC from 2007 – just two years after he started with Subaru in the States – and did more events from 2010-14 when he switched to Ford.

His late-life tilt at WRC was decent, but far from outstanding. “WRC for me was a great opportunity, but compared with most rally drivers that grew up in countries like Finland or France, or even here (Australia or NZ), my pace notes development was not what it should’ve been going in at that level,” he admitted. “I could drive the car quite well. My testing times were very similar to the factory drivers, but the experience on the events and writing those notes wasn’t what it should have been.

“I was doing it in such a rushed way, too – usually you take a couple of years developing your notes on those events in a lower class. But I didn’t have that kind of time. I went straight to the top class and tried to compete.

“Looking back on it, it just wasn’t the ideal situation. But it was what it was. I was dealt a certain set of hands based on what the sponsors wanted and I went for it.

“It was a great experience. I wish it had gone a little better, but it is what it is.”

Ken Block is one of motor sport’s great characters.

He created a huge following among a younger generation and continues to be a social media superstar.

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33

FUELLING THE FUTURE From July this year leaded fuel will be banned for use in motorsport use.

HEATH McALPINE investigates the impact and alternatives available with the imminent end of Avgas fuels

A

LTHOUGH MOTOR sport in this country has gradually moved away from leaded fuel, many historic categories specifically but not exclusively still use the fuel. In 2017, the federal government announced a total ban on the use of leaded fuel, which comes into affect on July 1 2019, and gave competitors and suppliers two years’ grace to find a suitable alternative.

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport then responded to the federal government’s decision by banning the use of the fuel from CAMS-sanctioned events as of July 1 2019. CAMS created Schedule G – Fuel which enforces this change, in the 2019 CAMS Manual, which enables 5th Category Historic Cars to use alternate fuels and additives which

better suit engines that have used lead over the course of their lifetimes.

Mark Tierney is a man well versed in the world of fuel, having headed fuel supplier and logistics company RaceFuels for more than 20 years. Tierney first started holding discussions with CAMS about the removal of leaded fuel in 2003.

“When I started working as an agency for Elf, one of my first opportunities was to meet up with CAMS in March of 2003 to talk about the phase out of Avgas and the here we are in May 2019, and it is happening,” Tierney explained to Auto Action.

“It’s certainly been on the cards for a long time and I also think it is an easy argument.

The rest of the world has moved away from lead, particularly in Europe. If we look at

With a little tuning these cars will be able to race with unleaded fuel, just as they do at Goodwood, below.

34 AutoAction

our motor sport culture, we very much have a European influence through the FIA, CIK and FIM. “The motor sport we are involved in is heavily governed by Europe, the fact they got rid of lead around 10 years ago suggested that that was the direction they were hoping to take.”

Although the federal government has stated that environmental affects are the reason for the banning of leaded fuel in a motor sport sense, Tierney feels there is more to the story.

“Our understanding from Race Fuels is that it is more of a tax and excise compliance issue than it is an environmental issue,” said Tierney.

“The reason I say that is that Avgas is still available for sale into helicopters and light aircraft, it’s simply a desire to move it away from motor sport use and away from Avgas being used rather than petrol. The focus has been for a number of years on regulating the volumes and the controls of the product onto the market.

“For a time leaded passbooks were issued allowing for the purchase of Avgas, more recently only a select number of ‘regulated persons’ were allowed to supply Avgas for motorsport. We’ve spent a lot of time as suppliers reporting back to the government the exact volumes of leaded fuel that we do supply into motorsport. I’m not sure this volume reported by suppliers matches up with the figure that the governing bodies of

Historic Racing will be the main category affected by the change to unleaded fuel. Images: Neil Hammond, LAT, Rebecca Hind.

motorsport perceive and report as being used. For that reason, there is a big gap and potentially a lot of fuel being purchased as petrol replacement that is not being excised.”

Once CAMS provided the definitions for fuels to be permitted for the 5th Category – Historic Touring, Tierney went to work, travelling to France where Elf’s parent company Total – the fourth largest oil company in the world – is based to discuss the various options the company had.

“I went to them with the combination of here is the specs sheet on Avgas and also here are the CAMS new outlines for options on unleaded fuels,” Tierney explained.

“Almost immediately, Total came back with a product that we feel will be good for the Australian market. This fuel is in use at the Le Mans Classic event, which is France’s Goodwood. It has been used extensively in

Europe, where lead in fuel was removed 10 years ago and classic motor racing still exists over there, so it hasn’t had an impact.

“For that reason, we feel our new fuel Elf Race 102 is an appropriate product. We can hit the right price point to what Avgas was costing, we know we can get the supply, and we have the distribution methods to get it to race tracks around the country. This fuel has a lubricity additive for the purpose of protecting valve seats and being a racing fuel, it’s got the consistency and the quality that motorsport requires to go and perform.”

The good thing for competitors is that the dyno testing that has been conducted with the unleaded alternative has revealed limited tuning is necessary and no mechanical changes are required, and that power increases are an added benefit.

“We’ve done a lot of dyno testing already

and there seems to be a lot of interest in it.

We’re getting calls from people who definitely weren’t RaceFuels customers. Some suppliers have already stopped stocking Avgas, so we are getting calls from people who were sourcing their fuel from airports saying ‘What do you have? What can we use?’ The feedback has been very strong. Suddenly they’re using a racing fuel as opposed to a leaded aircraft fuel, so for that reason they’re seeing a small increase in power and they’re seeing the protection plus the consistencies of what we consider a racing product,” Tierney stated.

The key thing there is, shelf life of a racing product versus an Avgas is a lot longer so these guys don’t have to worry about how old their fuel is because racing fuel will live a lot longer because of the way it is produced, the way it’s packaged, it’s designed to be used in

motorsport and you might have two or three months in between uses of your race car.”

Also, another advantage to the unleaded fuel is that additives are not required making the transition as simple as possible.

“We’re passionate about not promoting additives, we feel that adding anything, particularly a chemical to petrol, is not something that we recommend or we wouldn’t want our customers to do,” Tierney told Auto Action.

“Here we are promoting an Avgas alternative: Elf Race 102, the engine tests that we have done already suggests that minimal tuning is required in terms of only one jet size.

We’re seeing protection and performance off the bat with minimal tuning, I can’t say there is no tuning required, but there certainly is no major mechanical changes to make the results.”

The unleaded fuel has already started to be utilised in historic racing events in Australia.

“Race Fuels has been selling a lot of leaded fuels into historic motor sport, so we know where we’re headed. We are seeing an immediate take up of the unleaded racing fuels without any concern or critique at this point.”

And if Europe is any barometer, historic racing will continue its strong growth.

Race Fuels has supported historic racing’s shift away from leaded fuel very early on.

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Formula One

Round Six Monaco

FIGHTING WITH THE SPIRIT OF NIKI LAUDA Hamilton puts in an epic Lauda-like performance to win in the streets of Monaco reports DAN KNUTSON

BY DAN KNUTSON IMAGES: LAT

LEWIS HAMILTON nursed degrading tyres and didn’t wilt under intense pressure from Max Verstappen, as he led all 78 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix. He then dedicated his victory to the late Niki Lauda.

“I was fighting with the spirit of Niki,” said Hamilton, who wore a replica of Lauda’s helmet. “I was just trying to stay focused and make him proud.”

While Hamilton celebrated one of his greatest victories, his third at Monaco and the 77th of his career, Daniel Ricciardo rued points lost due to a Renault team strategy error. The Aussie could have finished fifth but ended up ninth.

“Fifth was really our place,” Ricciardo said, “so it is a shame because we could have had a real big result today.”

The tone of the race was set by Charles Leclerc, who drove his Ferrari back to the pits with a shredded right rear tyre. That left debris on the track and brought out the safety car on lap 10.

Pole sitter and leader Hamilton pitted for a tyre change, as did his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), who were running in that order behind him.

Verstappen and Bottas then made contact

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in the pitlane, and officials gave Verstappen a five second time penalty for an “unsafe release” from his pit box. Once racing resumed, the order was now Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel and Bottas. Hamilton was on the medium compound Pirelli tyres while the other three were on the hard compound slicks.

Verstappen had to pass Hamilton and pull away by five seconds, but try as he might, Verstappen never found a way by on the narrow streets of Monaco where it is so difficult to overtake.

“It’s a shame to get the penalty,” said Verstappen, who finished second but dropped to fourth behind Vettel and Bottas.

“I gave my all to get by Lewis. He was on softer tyres and he was taking it very easy once we had done the stops. So I started to push him and get him to increase his pace.

At one point he went through his tyres so I could really start to attack him. But out of the tunnel you can’t get close enough to have a good go at it. I just tried to put the pressure on. The whole race following that closely in the dirty air through the high-speed corners is not easy.”

Hamilton said it was one of the hardest races of his career.

“It was so intense,” he said. “With 20 laps left I thought there was no way I was going

to make it to the end.

I thought I was going to crash; I was battling attling so much with the car. There was absolutely nothing left in the tyres and it was so tough to keep the car on the track. I thought to myself, ‘What would Niki do?’

“I was trying my hardest; giving everything I had. I just tried to stay focused and make no mistakes. I know he was watching me today, but with Niki by my side we managed to do it. I wore his helmet colours today and I didn’t want to let him down. He was close to my heart, I really wanted to deliver

Local Charles Leclerc had a weekend he would sooner forget.

for him this weekend and I was determined not to crack under the pressure.

Today belongs to Niki.”

For a change, Ferrari benefitted from the bad luck of others as Vettel took second, his best finish of the season.

“It was a tough weekend for us,” he said.

“We will take second, but we also know that the pace probably wasn’t good enough this weekend to really put the cars in front under enough pressure, to try and do something.”

Bottas had the speed but not the

Sebastian Vettel’s weekend began badly but he finished second, after Max Verstappen’s penalty, splitting the Mercedes.

As ever the start was critical at Monaco and Lewis Hamilton had the edge into turn one, after which he was never headed. Max Verstappen (above left) was second on the road but a penalty dropped him off the podium.

Carlos Sainz was sixth for McLaren in a strong run for the Spaniard.

RESULTS ROUND 7: MONACO GRAND PRIX

circumstances to win.

“We had to pit at the same time as Lewis, so that cost me a bit of time,” he said. “Max got me in the pit lane and then left me no room, so I got a puncture as well. Then I was stuck behind another car. It was like a Sunday drive.”

Ricciardo qualified seventh and moved to sixth on the grid after Pierre Gasly got a penalty.

What Renault really needs to work on is its strategy. For the second consecutive race bad calls on pit strategy cost Ricciardo positions and points. He made a great start in Monaco and passed Kevin Magnussen to grab fifth place.

When the safety car came out because of the Leclerc incident, Renault told Ricciardo to pit.

Haas did the same thing to Magnussen. It was a mistake as none of the other drivers in their group stopped. Mired way down in the running order, Ricciardo managed to eventually finish ninth.

“It was not the right call,” a disappointed Ricciardo said. “We’ll sort it out as a team what we could have done better. For now we have to have a look and see what they saw at the time, and why they called us in. If it was to cover Kevin or whatever. But obviously we both came in and just handed everyone else the positions. So it is a shame because we had a great start. Kevin was our target, and we had a good Turn 1 and got up to fifth.”

Hamilton planned to savor this special win.

“A friend of mine texted me saying you don’t celebrate enough, or take enough time to appreciate these great moments, and you’re doing such a great job,” he said. “It won’t be a crazy night. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow. I’d like to enjoy a whole full day and get workouts in – but I’m definitely going to try to enjoy a good meal tonight and maybe a glass of wine, for example – or a few.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 -

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

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

78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 76 16

1h43m28.437s 2.602s 3.162s 5.537s 9.946s 53.454s 54.574s 55.200s 1m00.894s 1m01.034s 1m06.801s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps Accident

Points: Hamilton 137, Bottas 120, Vettel 82, Verstappen 78, Leclerc 57, Gasly 32, Sainz 18, Magnussen 14, Perez 13, Raikkonen 13, Norris 12, Kvyat 9, Ricciardo 8, Albon 7, Hulkenberg 6, Stroll 4, Grosjean 2.

Constructors: Mercedes 257, Ferrari 139, Red Bull-Honda 110, McLaren-Honda 30, Racing Point-Mercedes 17, Haas-Ferrari 16, Toro Rosso-Honda 16, Renault 14, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 13.

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INDY 500

VIVE LA FRANCE! M MIKE BRUDENELL recounts the epic battle that secured yet another Indy 500 win for racing patriarch Roger Penske

THEY SWAPPED blows in the end like two heavyweight fighters.

American Alexander Rossi landed the first big hit in the closing laps of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26, sweeping to the lead with just three laps remaining.

Just when it appeared Rossi would add a second 500 victory to his resume, pugnacious Frenchman Simon Pagenaud responded on lap 199 of 200 as he made a slashing outside move in Turn 3 on Rossi to retake the lead and fend off the former F1 driver over the final lap.

It was brave stuff at more than 220 miles per hour (354 km/h), with neither giving an inch as they fought wheel-to-wheel after a five-car wreck on lap 180 brought out a red flag and a delay in the action to clear cars and debris from the 4 km Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was a fairy tale month of May for Pagenaud, who won the NTT IndyCar Grand Prix on the IMS road course on May 11 and took the pole for the 500 a week later.

Pagenaud, 35, gave team owner Roger Penske his 18th Indy 500 victory in winning his first.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Pagenaud, the son of a grocery store owner, after dousing himself in the winner’s milk in victory circle. “I’m speechless. The race car was on rails. Man, we did it. It’s awesome to share this on the yard of bricks with the fans.”

In another break from convention, instead of driving to victory lane immediately in his day-glo yellow #22 Menards Chevrolet, Pagenaud stopped his car on the famed yard of bricks finish line, stood on the engine cover and saluted the massive crowd on the front straight.

It was unorthodox, but the fans loved the

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Defending Champion Will Power (avove) was a contender until a pitlane drama cost him dearly.

There were many pitlance dramas, including Jordan King collecting one of his pit crew (below).

celebration. Pagenaud, who took the lead in the NTT IndyCar Series championship with his double-points 500 success, was swamped by his crew.

Rossi, at the wheel of the #27 Honda, drove a scorching race, overcoming a fuel

probe problem in the pits which cost him time earlier to finish just two-tenths of a second behind Pagenaud.

Third was Japanese driver Takuma Sato, the 2017 500 champion, in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.

Australian Will Power, the defending race champion, finished a withering fifth in his #12 Penske Chevrolet after a pit stop catastrophe and subsequent penalty shuffled him from the top five back to 17th, forcing him to claw his way back to the tail of the lead group.

Melbourne-born James Davison came home a stout 12th following a pit lane collision with three-time 500 winner Helio Castroneves (Penske) that saw him go a lap down as his #33 Dale Coyne Racing Honda was straightened up and serviced.

Rossi, who wore a helmet featuring Steve McQueen imagery, drove hard and angry, as he admitted afterwards, the result of almost being taken into the wall by part-timer Oriol Servia in the later part of the race.

“This will be a hard one to get over,” said Rossi, who drives for Andretti Autosport and won the 500 in 2016 as a rookie. “I think we had the superior car. There were so many slow drivers out there holding us up.

“We had a great car, but today will suck for a while.”

From the NBC Sports TV commentary booth, NASCAR idol Dale Earnhardt Jr called the racing “the bravest driving I’ve ever seen”.

From the start, the race pace was hot, with Power swapping the lead with teammate Pagenaud as Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden snapped at their heels.

Power took the lead on lap 34 and looked likely to feature in the finish. In 2018, he become the first Australian driver to win the Indy 500 when he raced to a 40-car-length victory over Carpenter.

But Power’s day took a turn for the worse when, pitting on lap 69, his rear left tyre hit a crewman and he was penalised, being

James Davison went a lap down after this incident nt with Helio Castroneves (above left); Simon Pagenaud leads the field away from pole (above); Alexander Rossi (above) was passed for the lead on the second last lap; Takuma Sato finished third (right). Images: LAT

ordered to the rear of the lead-lap cars.

The Toowoomba native, who qualified sixth, didn’t panic, though, resuming from 17th and working his way back towards the front. He joined the leading pack of cars with a dozen laps remaining and even looked a threat to repeat when he moved into fifth position.

Davison, who started the day in 15th spot, fought back from two laps down and as far back as 31st at one point to finish just outside the top 10.

But it was Pagenaud, who had struggled in 2018 at Penske, who stole the show, leading well over 100 laps on his way to 500 fame.

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“It was such an intense race,” the 2016 IndyCar Series champion said. “The car was just amazing. I worked a lifetime to achieve this. I knew we had the best car. We had to make the best of every opportunity.

“This is the best car I’ve ever driven on an oval. This was our time to shine.”

Pagenaud didn’t conserve fuel. It was all or nothing as he dominated the day at The Speedway.

“The Menards Chevy was the fastest on the track and the best handling car in traffic,” said the former Supercars guest driver, who joined Team Penske in 2015.

“But it’s not just me. Every pit stop was

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executed perfectly. We did it right today.”

Pagenaud dedicated his victory to France, but didn’t forget the country that gave him his big racing break.

“I’m so glad I can bring a little happiness to my French countryman,” he beamed after splashing milk all over his head and face in victory lane and shaking hands with team owner Roger Penske. “I am proud of being French, but I’m also proud of my American friends and family. What a great day.”

Penske couldn’t hide his delight over Pagenaud’s win. “I’ll take 18,” he wrote across a TV camera lens during the wild victory lane celebrations.

“What a guy,” Penske said later. “Simon

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won it. I can’t believe it.”

Pagenaud’s redeeming victory capped another great weekend for Team Penske alongside Scott McLaughlin’s domination of the Winton SuperSprint on the other side of the Pacific.

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TRUEX TAKES MIRACULOUS VICTORY AT CHARLOTTE MARTIN TRUEX Jr has taken out the Coke 600 after hitting the wall and making considerable contact with a back marker at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Early in the race pole sitter William Byron held onto the lead slowly pulling away until the first of many cautions was flown for blown tyres, the first one was for Erik Jones, the blowout sending his Toyota into the wall on lap 23. Matt DiBenedetto followed suit suffering a failure on lap 49.

Shortly after the restart Truex took the lead off Kevin Harvick on lap 63 and quickly pulled a lead before the eventual race winner himself clouted the wall due to a tyre failure, resulting in yellows being flown.

Keselowski elected not to stop and quickly

NASCAR

found his way to the front, despite another safety car being deployed he won the stage from Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Elliott and Kevin Harvick.

Harvick, Hamlin and Keselowski fought hard in the early stages of the second stage until Chris Buescher hit the wall. Before 55 laps were completed under green flag conditions before Hamlin’s tyre went down at Turn 2 sending him into the wall.

On the restart Keselowski quickly got around Byron and pulled a small lead on the pack behind, before another caution on lap 189 for Ryan Preece who hit the Turn 2 wall.

Most of the lead-lap cars came to the lane, this left Alex Bowman out front ahead of Byron as the race restarted, Keselowski was the leader of the Joey Lagano leads Ryan Blaney .

cars who had pitted rejoining the pack in 14th but quickly calved his way to the front of the field taking first off Bowman on the penultimate lap of Stage 2.

Kyle Busch elected not to stop between stages and found himself at the head of the field on the restart. Truex was making his way up the order and with 58 laps to go in the stage found himself three seconds behind Busch in second.

Shortly after though, Bayley Curley and Truex got together, the incident sent Curley in the wall at Turn 2.

All the lead cars pitted and ironically it was Truex who came out the lane in the lead, Busch briefly

BJORK WINS ZANDVOORT THED BJORK took two of the three races in Round 4 of WTCR at Zandvoort, the victories firing the Swede right up into championship contention.

Bjork won Race 1 ahead of teammate Yvan Muller to give Lynk & Co its first 1-2 finish in WTCR, although Mikel Azcona kept them honest in his Cupra. He finished the race in third, the trio separated by 1.2 seconds at the line.

Race 2 was won by Esteban Guerrieri from a pair of Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golfs Benjamin Leuchter in second and Johan Kristoffersson who scored his first podium in the series.

The final race was marred by team orders, at the start Lynk & Co teammates Yann Ehrlacher and Bjork made contact on the approach to Turn 1. Bjork took the lead but was told to let Ehrlacher past early on, however in the closing laps the team then ordered Ehrlacher to let Bjork back through. Further back it was a similar situation, Augusto Farfus was also asked to move aside so Norbert Michelisz could stand on the final step of the podium.

All this means that Guerrieri now leads the championship from Bjork, Nestor Girolami and Michelisz as they head to the Nurburgring, to race on the full Nordschleife circuit from June 21-22.

42 AutoAction

WTCR

overtook his Joe Gibbs Racing team mate before Truex retook first position. From there on Truex could not be stopped and took the stage win.

The fourth and final stage was full of cautions for title contenders firstly Kurt Busch then Hamlin and finally Keselowski with just 10 laps remaining.

Many of the leaders elected to stop, as the green flag waved Truex was third but was able to make it to the lead as the cars went four wide.

“That was just incredible, what a race,” Truex said. “This is for everybody who gave their life so we could be here doing this tonight.”

Truex took the win from Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Elliott.

DTM PHILIPP ENG has taken the lead in the DTM standings after taking his maiden victory, backing it up with a solid second place finish on Sunday at Circuit Zolder in Belgium.

In the first race Bruno Spengler led from Turn 1 ahead of Marco Wittmann and Rene Rast, it stayed the same until the safety car was called to recover Jake Dennis and Daniel Juncadella in their stationary Aston Martins.

The caution cost the leading trio who had not stopped and caused them to plummet down the order leaving Eng out front to take his first win. Nico Muller tried everything to take second position off Joel Eriksson but to no avail, Eriksson

Martin Truex celebrates an unlikely win.

pipping Muller by less than 0.2s.

Race 2 was dominated by Rast who took his second victory of the season, Rast quickly took second off Eng on lap 1 before making the move on Sheldon van der Linde on lap 11 for the lead.

From there Rast was unchallenged to take the win, Eng claimed second ahead of Jamie Green who held Mike Rockenfeller and van der Linde at bay.

Two weeks previous Marco Wittman claimed the first race win of the season at the Hockenheimring, Rast had a difficult Saturday but bounced back to win the Sunday. The next round takes place in Italy at the Misano World Circuit on June 8-9.

BTCC

AFTER A big crash at Donington Park which ruled him out of all three races, Andrew Jordan has bounced back in spectacular style to take two race wins at the Thruxton Circuit.

Jordan claimed the first race, starting third on the grid he shot past Dan Cammish before Turn 1, he remained second until lap 13 when he overtook Sam Tordoff who was struggling with power steering problems, Tordoff did however hold onto second ahead of Cammish.

Jordan went back to back taking victory in the second race, from pole position Jordan from lights

flag holding back BMW team mate Colin Turkington who jumped up from fourth to second on the opening lap, Cammish in his Honda Civic again finished in third.

The final race of the weekend was won by Josh Cook ahead of Rory Butcher and Ashley Sutton, Cook overtaking pole sitter Sutton on the opening lap. Cook dealt with the pressure of two safety cars to take the victory.

The championship fight is very tight, Turkington and Butcher are level on top with 102 points, with Cook on 100 points and Sutton on 97.

DI GRASSI GIVES AUDI HOME WIN LUCAS DI Grassi had taken victory in the Berlin ePrix giving his German Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler team a home race victory.

Di Grassi started the race in third and quickly climbed up to the lead, once in the lead he was never challenged to clinch his second race victory of the season. A great battle for second took place throughout the duration of the race, pole sitter Sebastien Buemi taking second with Jean-Eric Vergne in third.

Buemi started on the front row alongside former McLaren Formula 1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne, the pair made an even start with Buemi holding the lead around Turn 1, the field all very well behaved in the opening lap.

Three minutes into the race di Grassi started his charge, getting through on Vandoorne at Turn 6 to promote himself up to second position. The Audi driver then quickly caught up to the Nissan eDams of Buemi and made the move into Turn 6 once again, this time to take the lead.

Strong pace and an early use of Attack Mode allowed Antonio Felix da Costa to jump from seventh to second in the mid portion of the race. As da Costa made the move Buemi decided to run the long way around the turn and activate Attack Mode himself.

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FORMULA E Four minutes later Buemi launched an attack to retake second, pulling off the move on the inside at the first turn.

With 17 minutes remaining the order was di Grassi, Buemi, da Costa Vandoorne, Audi’s Daniel Abt and hard charging Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne, the French driver quickly caught and dispersed of Abt. With a third of the race remaining Alex Lynn driving for Jaguar Racing came to a halt in the middle of the start and finish straight with rear axle issues, a full course yellow was deployed briefly to recover Lynn.

After racing returned to green Vergne honed in on the BMW I Andretti Motorsport driver of da Costa and making a very aggressive move stick.

This was the way it stayed until the finish with

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Sebastian Buemi led the opening laps.

di Grassi beating Buemi by 1.8s the Swiss driver claiming his first podium of the season in what has been a difficult season for the former champion. Vergne rounded out the podium finishing 2.5s off the lead to make it three former Formula 1 drivers on the podium, Da Costa finished fourth from Vandoorne and Abt. The result means that Vergne remains up front in the championship standings lead now leading from di Grassi, with Vergne’s team mate Andre Lotterer falling to third.

The next round of the Formula E series takes place on the streets of Bern in Switzerland on June 22.

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Points: Vergne 102, di Grassi 96, Lotterer 86, da Costa 82, Frijns 81, Evans 69, Abt 67, d’Ambrosio 65, Rowland 63, Buemi 61

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RACE REPORT

Winton Races 13 & 14

PERFECT 10 IT WAS a weekend where DJR Team Penske demonstrated its superiority once again. Glimpses continued to be shown by Tickford, Erebus and the Red Bull Holden Racing Team but the McLaughlin juggernaut continued to reign in rural Victoria.

Changeable conditions greeted the teams for the two-day format, which meant a quick turnaround for teams as a co-driver session and practice encompassed the only running ahead of the knockout qualifying.

As had been demonstrated last season, the Winton layout was not suited to the RBHRT and this showed as Shane van Gisbergen missed the cut for the final qualifying segment and Jamie Whincup just scrapped in, to finish 10th once all of qualifying had been completed.

Garry Rogers Motorsport completed a miraculous repair of Richie Stanaway’s Commodore after he went off at Turn 4 and was launched

by the tyre wall. This incident severely affected the driver’s weekend, although the chassis was repaired.

An impressive qualifying performance from local Shepparton lad Garry Jacobson was the only shining light for Nissan, as last year’s race winner Rick Kelly only managed 15th, the in-form Andre Heimgartner 21st, just one place ahead of Simona De Silvestro. Fortunes were to be reversed, however.

It was Chaz Mostert that proved the quickest, edging Fabian Coulthard for pole. The second DJR Team Penske Mustang was in an unaccustomed fifth place, though that didn’t last long off the start of Race 13.

It was a chaotic, think early morning peak hour, as the lead five jostled for position due to the even start that meant the two front-row men went side-by-side through the opening esses.

The biggest loser was Coulthard

Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Ross Gibb/Insyde Media/John Morris

Winner are grinners (top) while above, both Garry Jacobson and Chaz Mosterz had adventures.

as he dropped to fifth, Mostert also dropped back behind the new race leader, James Courtney. Starting from fourth, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s star took advantage to lead the field through Turns 4 and 5 where chaos ensued.

It kicked off when Coulthard was loose on the exit of Turn 4, giving his teammate the opportunity to challenge on the outside of Turn 5, but the two collided forcing both onto the grass, each having a different result. Coulthard dropped to 21st after re-joining on the entry to Turn 6, McLaughlin on the other hand cut through and re-joined in the lead at Turn 8, but heeded two positions, immediately blocking Mostert in fourth.

A 15s penalty was soon forthcoming for Coulthard’s part in the incident, but McLaughlin didn’t suffer the Richie Stanaway crashed in practice and aggravated an existing injury, putting him out of Sunday’s race.

Winton dished up mixed conditions over the two days.

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The WAU Holdens had a better weekend.

same fate as it was within the rules to cut the circuit in that way, and he continued to dice for the lead.

Stanaway also copped the wrath of the Stewards after a final corner incident between he and De Silvestro sent the latter through the infield, leaving a ropable Swiss driver at the end of the race.

Now with a small margin between he and McLaughlin, Reynolds was lining up for an attack on Courtney pouncing at Turn 4. But contact was made, which sent Courtney into the dirt on the outside and earnt the 2017 Bathurst winner a 5s penalty.

Whincup was first to pit on lap 4, employing the undercut, as did Heimgartner on the next tour with both benefitting significantly from this strategy after disappointing qualifying performances.

At the front Reynolds may have staved off Courtney, but another champion was after the lead, the reigning one. McLaughlin had reset Andre Heimgartner ran strongly on Saturday.

Xxx x x xxx Xxx x x xxx Xxx x x xxx Xxx x x xxx Xxx x x xxx Xxx x x xxx

after his off-track excursion and the race was playing into his hands.

Although he failed to pass Reynolds, his strategy again enabled him to come out in the lead through the undercut, Reynolds pitting nine laps later than McLaughlin and coming out well behind.

Mostert managed to also jump ahead of Reynolds in the pit stop and so did Whincup, as he took advantage of the Erebus driver’s cold tyres to sneak through at Turn 3. The Erebus junior, Anton De Pasquale was another to start the weekend off struggling. He missed the cut for the third qualifying stage and was then spun out of 15th by Lee Holdsworth, earning the veteran a 15s penalty.

Much like it has done all year, RBHRT ran van Gisbergen long and to great affect he joined behind his teammate in sixth, ensuing another battle between the pair just like in Perth. Unlike that situation, it was the Kiwi that got the chocolates and fifth place.

However, it was McLaughlin that held a constant 1s gap to take the victory from Mostert and Reynolds.

The back end of the top 10 witnessed two rapid charges through the field. Nick Percat climbed 10 positions to seventh, but this was overshadowed by Andre Heimgartner’s drive from 21st to eighth, which was a direct swap with teammate Jacobson, who spun and dropped out of his top 10 starting spot.

If McLaughlin’s rivals felt a weakness

Supercars’ Superstars? Scott McLaughlin leads Chaz Mostert in an all-Mustang battle at the front.

was beginning to show in his qualifying pace, those hopes were firmly dashed on Sunday with his pole lap bettering Mostert’s record from 2016. The 1m 18.5233s lap McLaughlin clocked was 0.529s faster than the next best, which in this case was teamster Fabian Coulthard, making Race 14 appear to be another DJR Team Penske crush.

As you were.

The Shell Falcons were too good both days.

Reynolds may have started fourth, but he made the best of the jump and forced the hand of the two DJR Team Penske Mustangs as both blocked him out approaching Turn 1.

This left him vulnerable to Whincup through Turns 3 and 4, while the two Mustangs in front bolted.

The previous day’s polesitter, Mostert, had a dog of an opening A penalty cost Anton dePasquale on Sunday.

stage to the race. He first speared off at Turn 6, luckily ploughing his way through the sand trap and re-joining in last. However, Mostert soon tried to rectify that when Jack Smith went off at Turn 2, leaving the Tickford driver to arrow down the inside for a straight forward pass at Turn 3. But he ran wide and a second mistake in a lap meant he had plenty of work to do.

Sunday’s race ended badly for Will Davison.

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RACE REPORT

Winton Races 13 & 14

The Nick Percat Holden sported yet another new colour scheme (above) while Lee Holdsworth had his best season finish for Tickford, fifth on Sunday (top right). Shane van Gisbergen struggled for ultimate pace all weekend (right).

The two DJR Team Penske twins quickly bridged a 2s gap over the rest of the field, but Coulthard was struggling to hold on as McLaughlin set the fastest lap of the race, a 1m 20.0718s on lap five, to soon have an advantage of 1.5s by lap five.

RBHRT played the opposite strategy to the day before, bringing van Gisbergen into the pits on lap 14. However, when the Kiwi exited pit lane he e was almost immediately overtaken by Jacobson, which played further into the hands of DJR Team Penske, though van Gisbergen quickly nudged his way through on the Supercars rookie.

There was more pain for RBHRT and again it was due to a Nissan. This time Whincup was overtaken

by Rick Kelly, which crucially hampered his pursuit of Reynolds in third.

The race leader and Reynolds pitted on lap 18 without any issues, though Reynolds emerged in an intense battle between Kelly and Holdsworth, which featured plenty of argie bargie.

Contact was a key feature of the race. Supercars DSO Craig Baird was kept busy handing out 15s penalties for a variety of incidents, even for Mostert after he tapped Courtney approaching the penultimate corner.

The most controversial was the penalty placed on De Pasquale after contact with Kelly. The Erebus driver was alongside Nissan heading into Turn 10, but contact was made and both ran wide, but not off the road.

The battle for third was a sees affair, but the final round saw of pit stops proved decisive.

R Reynolds emerged ahead of W Whincup exiting pit lane, but it only took until Turn 3 for the RB RBHRT Commodore to emerge ah ahead, a position he held to the en end.

B But then, the first introduction of the Safety Car for the weekend cam due to the sick 23Red came For Mustang of Will Davison Ford stopping on the inside of the Turn stop sweeper.

5 sw With 10 laps to go, Percat, De Pasquale and Mostert gambled on new rubber. Only one succeeded in advancing forward considerably and that was Mostert, after all his struggles he finished 10th.

Whincup missed the jump at the restart and that was the last chance of any others toppling the DJR Team Penske steamroller, with another 1-2 that made up for the previous day’s agony.

Whincup was a happy third, despite trailing the lead duo by more than 17s before the Safety Car. In 14th and giving the #14 GRM Commodore its best result of the year was endurance driver Chris Pither. The super-sub filled in for an injured Stanaway, who has been plagued by neck issues which were further extenuated by his practice incident.

The championship equation has been made tougher thanks to McLaughlin’s ninth and 10th race victories of the year; 244 points separate he and Coulthard heading to Darwin in a fortnight’s time.

The defending champion celebrates yet another win (above) while Rick Kelly retires the Nissan Altima with broken steering.

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SUPERCARS RESULTS RACE 13 40 lap 1 Scott McLaughlin Ford 40 laps 2 Chaz Mostert Ford +1.301s 3 David Reynolds Holden +8.949s 4 James Courtney Holden +9.530s 5 Shane van Gisbergen Holden +17.211s 6 Jamie Whincup Holden +18.424s 7 Nick Percat Holden +21.663s 8 Andre Heimgartner Nissan +26.637s 9 Mark Winterbottom Holden +31.711s 10 Scott Pye Holden +34.381s 11 Cameron Waters Ford +34.672s 12 Will Davison Ford +35.552s 13 Tim Slade Holden +35.921s 14 Rick Kelly Nissan +36.128s 15 Fabian Coulthard Ford +37.177 16 Macauley Jones Holden +37.576s 17 James Golding Holden +42.057s 18 Anton De Pasquale Holden +52.679s 19 Todd Hazelwood Holden +53.128s 20 Jack Le Brocq Holden +53.560 21 Garry Jacobson Nissan +55.677 22 Lee Holdsworth Ford +56.520s 23 Simona De Silvestro Nissan +72.633s 24 Jack Smith Holden 39 laps 25 Richie Stanaway Holden 39 laps FASTEST LAP Scott McLaughlin 1m 20.2031s

▲4 ▼1 0 0 ▲7 ▲4 ▲ 10 ▲ 13 ▼3 ▼3 0 ▲4 ▲6 ▲1 ▼ 13 ▲4 ▼8 ▼5 ▼4 ▲5 ▼ 13 ▼8 ▼1 0 ▼7

SUCARS RESULTS RACE 14 67 laps 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NC NC

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

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

40 laps +0.766 +1.988s +4.354s +5.393s +7.767s +8.260s +9.014s +9.240s +9.491s +12.779s +13.087s +13.824s +14.314s +14.939s +15.217s +15.566s +15.917 +17.380s +22.975s 66 laps 66 laps 66 laps 56 laps 34 laps

▲4 ▼ 13 ▲4 0 ▼8 0 ▲7 ▼3 ▲ 10 ▼1 ▲ 13 ▲6 0 ▼7 ▼4 ▲4 ▼5 ▼ 13 ▼8 ▲5 0 ▼3 ▼1 ▲4 ▲1

FASTEST LAP Scott McLaughlin 1m 20.0718s Points: McLaughlin 1646, Coulthard 1402, van Gisbergen 1231, Reynolds 1220, Whincup 1168, Mostert 1160, Percat 1057, Waters 985, Davison 983, Slade 972, Winterbottom 886, Holdsworth 858, De Pasquale 846, Courtney 844, Heimgartner 818, Pye 745, Hazelwood 703, Kelly 672, Golding 665, De Silvestro 619, Le Brocq 526, Jones 495, Jacobson 494, Stanaway 482, Smith 144, Blanchard 93, Pither 63 436, Jacobson 401, Jones 381, Blanchard 93, Smith 69, etc

Winton SUPPORTS

JOHNSON’S ROUND BUT TROPHY RACE STEALS SHOW STEVEN JOHNSON remains unbeaten after three rounds of the Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters with his second threepeat of the season at Winton Motor Raceway.

But it was a dramatic and spectacular conclusion to the Trophy race was all the talk of the weekend.

The Ford Mustang driver has now won all eight (race four was a non-event) races contested and this time had to ward off the Holden Torana challengers to extend his championship lead.

“They monstered me all weekend, they wouldn’t go away,” Johnson said.

He finished the round ahead of five-time TCM series winner John Bowe, and Adam Garwood, returning to the series at the helm of a Whiteline Racing Chev Camaro.

Round three began with the starting and finishing points only Dometic Trophy race, where the top 10 from qualifying were inverted and put to the rear of the grid.

The race had the closest and arguable the most spectacular finish ever in the category’s history.

In wet and tricky conditions, Bruce Williams (Holden Torana SL/R 5000 led Andrew Fisher (Ford Falcon XY GT) until a mid-race safety car. When the race went green again, Fisher had the better line and gazumped Williams for the lead. The Falcon driver then withstood every attempt by Williams to get by.

The latter threw out another challenge on what was to be the final lap, exiting the last

corner. They crossed the line side-by-side, split by 0.078s.

But as they did so, the Torana slewed sideways, having hit water, and glanced off the Falcon before then catapulting across the infield. Meanwhile, Fisher spun down the track.

“I had started to button off knowing it was the end of the race and then I saw him coming and then . . . bang,” said Fisher, who still managed the win.

“I couldn’t see the chequered flag and hadn’t realised the race was called a lap short, and it was the final lap. I just hit a puddle and it went from there. It was on me and Andrew was pretty good about it,” Williams recounted.

The race featured a host of incidents, albeit less spectacular than the one at the conclusion.

Adam Garwood (Chev Camaro) finished third ahead of Sven Burchartz (Porsche 911), Cam Tilley (Valiant Pacer) and Peter Burnitt (Torana A9X), who came back from an opening lap tangle with Marcus Zukanovic (Falcon XD).

Johnson won the first of the championship events, race seven in the series, where the starting grid went off qualifying. It was his 41st victory in the series and one of

Adam Garwood returned to the series in spectacular fashion the Mark King Camaro. Images: Ross Gibb & Insyde Media.

the toughest, as he was under intense pressure from Ryan Hansford (Torana A9X) throughout.

Garwood finished third, battling with Ryal Harris (Camaro) until the latter hit the back of the later-model American muscle car on the run to turn 10. That incident allowed John Bowe (Torana), Aaron Seton (driving Leo Tobin’s Mustang) and Adam Bressington (Camaro) through to fill fifth, sixth and seventh.

Zukanovic and Burchartz diced throughout and ultimately finished eighth and ninth, while Jim Pollicina (A9X) lost five places on the final lap with a spin and crossed the line 10th.

In race eight Johnson was pressured for

Stevie Johnson (above) was the pace setter for the weekend as usual but Andrew Fisher and Bruce Williams staged the closest and most spectacular finish in TCM history (left). much of the distance by Hansford, before gaining a small break when Bowe challenged for second place. Ultimately Hansford had a brake issue and fired off at turn seven.

Third place again went to Garwood after many hard-fought laps with Harris, who had an alternator failure later and finished eighth. Ahead were Pollicina in front of the dicing Zukanovic and Seton, and Hansford.

Bressington was fourth in the early stages until a spin put him well down the order.

The pressure on Johnson in race nine came from Bowe, with less than half a second between them at the chequered flag after the Mustang driver had a slight hiccup at turn nine on the final lap.

“I changed the car today as I felt a little vulnerable at the start yesterday (race seven),” said Johnson.

Third went to Garwood while Pollicina was fourth, just in front of Seton and Bressington. Then followed Zukanovic, Hansford, Harris and William in 10th.

Garry O’Brien

MOUZOURIS WINS IN ALL CONDITIONS ANGELO MOUZOURIS took victory in a penalty-affected round of Formula Ford at Winton Motor Raceway, with the three race wins now seeing him at the head of the series.

Race 1 took place in wet conditions.

Pole sitter Callum Hedge struggled to get away from the line and found himself in fourth by Turn 1. This allowed Mouzouris to pull a one second lead in the opening half a lap. He held on to take the victory by 1.5s after Hedge was given a five second penalty for a start infringement, which promoted Tom Sargent to second ahead of Jay Hanson.

Liam McLellan flew from fourth on the grid to take the lead into the first turn, while further back Ben D’Alia didn’t move off the line and the safety car was called.

It was a messy restart when Sargent and Hedge both overtook McLellan before the start line with Jay Hanson overlapping cars also, all three later given a penalty for the rule breach. Mouzouris overtook McLellan on the final lap for fourth, but this became the move for the win after the penalties were applied.

The final race was a little calmer, with Mouzouris leading away and Hedge made his way up to second, nibbling away at Mouzouris’s lead. Hank Perkins, nephew of six-time Bathurst winner Larry, beached himself off the road late in the race and a safety car was deployed.

Despite a one lap sprint to the finish, Hedge was unable to do anything about Mouzouris who took the win by just 0.12s.

Dan McCarthy

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SUPPORTS Winton IT WAS a thrilling finale to the second round of the Kumho Tyre Super 3 Series where Jayden Ojeda and Anderson Motorsport emerged as overall winners.

Second went to Hamish Ribarits out of the Matt White Motorsport stable, while third was Broc Feeney racing for Paul Morris Motorsport. Ribarits’ team mate Zak Best won two of the three races and was leading the third when his ex-Ford Performance Falcon FG cruelly lost all drive and didn’t finish.

Meanwhile in the Kumho Cup class it was Chris Smerdon who took the honours ahead of Brad Neill and Jason Gomersall – all racing under the Matt Stone Racing umbrella in ex-Stone Brothers Racing Ford Falcon FGs. Tricky track conditions following light rain set the scene for race one. Everyone was on dry tyres and Best made a blinder of a start to be just under 5s ahead at the end of lap one.

Pole sitter Ribarits bogged down at the start, losing several spots as Feeney (exDick Johnson Racing FG) assumed second place before he lost out to Image Racing’s Matt McLean (ex-Stone Brothers Racing FG) midway through. McLean then speared off at turn three and Ojeda (ex-FPF FG) grabbed second then until he too, made an indiscretion.

Feeney found himself again in second place by the finish, ahead of Nic Carroll (MWM FG), Ojeda, Josh Fife (Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore VE) and Smerdon. Ribarits was penalised 15s for an incident that turned Jon McCorkindale (ex-Dick Johnson Racing FG) around at turn one.

OJEDA’S SUPER 3 SIZZLER

Jayden Ojeda won the round with a fortunate win in the final race (aove). Nic Carroll (below left) was strong all weekend, as was MWM teammate Zak Best (below right) who went out with driveline failure in the final race. Images: Insyde Media

Rain tyres were on for the second race where the MWM threesome placed first, second and third. Best won ahead of Ribarits and Carroll.

Feeney slipped down the order and finished in seventh place behind McCorkindale, Fife and Ojeda.

Neill was the Kumho class winner ahead of Gomersall and Jason Foley (ex-DJR Falcon BF).

Smerdon was next, recovering from a clash with Garry Hills (ex-Walkinshaw Racing VE). Emily Duggan (ex-Kelly Racing VE) was primed for a

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spinning at the first corner and he was then hit by Tony Auddino’s Falcon BF. On race resumption Best led until passed by Carroll on lap four.

Best returned to the front a lap later but lost out to Ribarits on lap nine. Almost immediately Best pulled off at turn eight. McCorkindale was another retiree after contact with Carroll out of turn two.

Ojeda won by 0.3s over Ribarits, who now leads the series. Behind Feeney came McLean. Fifth went to Smerdon ahead of class rivals Duggan and Pollicina. Garry O’Brien

WIN, WIN & ROLL

GRICE EXCELS BEN GRICE took the Hyundai Excel weekend honours at the Winton SuperSprint, claiming three of the four race victories in a field that was capped at 42 cars.

In the first race Michael Clemente got the jump from pole and led Cooper Webster into Turn 1. Cam Wilson and Ben Grice quickly demoted Webster in the early laps before a quick mid race safety car was called.

After the restart Grice took second off Wilson, but couldn’t catch Clemente who took the victory.

Grice got the jump at the start of Race 2 from Clemente. Wilson was running in third before he dribbled off the road at Turn 8 and was then handed a five second penalty for a start infringement, so that he’d be classified seventh.

Clemente came under pressure from Asher Johnston but unable to make a move, so this is the way it stayed Grice, from Clemente and Johnston.

Race 3 was the reverse of the

class second until she and Stephen Page were tagged by Jim Pollicina (ex-Triple 8 VE) at turn 10 on the final lap.

The latter was a non-finisher as was Madeline Stewart (ex-BJR VE), who went off with broken front suspension and brought out a safety car.

The longer and points-weighted final race had four lead changes before Ojeda took over on the penultimate lap to win. Second went to Ribarits from Fenney.

There was an early safety car due to Fife

second race with Clemente leading Grice into Turn 1 before an early safety car was called.

On the restart a battle ensued between fierce rivals Grice and Clemente. The pair battled hard for a couple of laps, before Clemente went off at Turn 7, finishing the race in sixth.

Grice took the win from Jordan Caruso and Johnston.

Once again it was the man starting second who led into Turn 1 in the final race, Caruso leading a fair portion of the race before Grice got through at Turn 1 on lap 6.

In the final stages Caruso’s pace dropped away but he managed to hold Webster and Johnston at bay and take second behind Grice, who won the weekend.

DM

THERE WERE a couple of firsts at round three of the ECB SuperUtes.

Cameron Crick won his first round, Toby Price his first race, and Craig Woods had his second rollover.

Crick (Mitsubishi Triton) dominated the opening race and won by 7.2s. Ben Walsh (Toyota Hilux) was second as the action centred on the fight for third.

Price (Triton) and Ryal Harris (Mazda BT50) had contact in turn 10 and the melee continued at turn 12 when Price and Tom Alexander (Isuzu D-Max) spun around and Harris took avoiding action. In the end Harris fought back to third ahead of Price who was penalised 15s.

Gerard Maggs (Hilux) picked up fourth ahead of Alexander, Craig Thompson (Hilux) and Price. Woods was a non-starter due to a split highpressure fuel line on his Hilux.

The second race, the reverse grid affair, was led initially by Ben Falk (BT50) until passed by Alexander who then came under pressure and was overtaken by Harris, who was comfortably ahead in the end.

Alexander was also well ahead of third place Price. Despite tangling with

Maggs early on, Crick fought back to fourth ahead of Woods and Falk.

The final race finished in a onelap sprint after a couple of dramatic opening laps and a lengthy safety car. Crick was the initial front runner until he clashed with Alexander at turn three, which allowed Price into the lead. On lap two Gerard Maggs was spun around at turn two. Woods was left nowhere to go, hit the Maggs and rolled.

Harris couldn’t avoid Maggs and had race-ending damage. Chris Formosa (Ford Ranger) was caught up as well, while Keven Stoopman (Holden Colorado) was lucky to escape the melee virtually unscathed.

At the late resumption, Price held off Alexander while Crick was third just in front of Falk and a three-abreast battle to the line involving Walsh, Stoopman and Jaiden Maggs (Triton). GOB

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MCHUGH MIRRORS FATHER LACHLAN MCHUGH has added to his family’s rich racing history with a patient drive in winning the 2019 Queensland Sprintcar Championship at Toowoomba Speedway.

The 20-year-old Gold Coast racer’s maiden title win came at the same venue that his father Jamie claimed his maiden Queensland Super Sedan title in 2004.

For the first 15 laps McHugh was engaged in an epic battle with defending Qld champion Mitchell Gee and Sydneysiders Mick Saller and Marcus Dumesny.

Five laps later race-leader Andrew Scheuerle was caught, triggering a rush for the podium positions before the trio of young racers in McHugh, Gee and Dumesny created their own final-five lap battle.

McHugh posted his quickest lap of the race on the second-last tour and would seal his maiden Queensland Sprintcar Title from Gee and Dumesny.

“We love this place. It felt like every position was earned, but it was a lot of fun and racing against these guys was really clean too, which was great.

I’ve had a heap of fans tell me it’s one of the best races they’ve ever seen, so it’s great to have put on a great show for the people who pay their hard-earned money to come and watch us race,” McHugh said.

With double points on the line, Peter Lack led the main race early, before surrendering control to Scheuerle in lapped traffic, while Lachlan McHugh again scored a podium finishing second from Lack. Kevin Titman and Brent Kratzmann both had big runs to cross the line fourth and fifth respectively.

FOR THE fourth time in his racing career Jason Kendrick has been crowned the 2018-19 Speedway Driver of the Year and also won the Perth Motorplex track championship.

He polled the most votes to win from Late Model drivers Michael Holmes, who also won the venue’s points aggregate, and Kye Blight was third.

Other track champions were Alex Williams (Limited Sprintcars), Ash Hounsfield (Wingless Sprints), Darryl George (Junior Sedans), Ben Butcher (360 Sprintcars), Cameron McKenzie (Formula 500s) and Rob Golding (Speedcars).

JUST DAYS later at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway it was current Australian Sprintcar champion Andrew Scheuerle taking his sixth win in the 15th round of the 17 round series and wrapping up the tournament.

Image: 44Photography

NURSING A broken steering column between his knees just added to a dramatic Australian Modlites Championship win for Kyle Honour. Just 10 laps into the 31-lap national final, Honour encountered the problem but still grabbed victory from Scott Lehfeldt, who raced from 17th on the grid to narrowly finish in second ahead of Nathan Politch, Chris Were and Dan Lewis. Just days later Lehfeldt scored another runnerup placing behind Sean Rose, who won the Queensland title with Dan Lewis in third.

Image: Rock Solid Pics

MATT PASCOE’S win in the GP53 Graham Pascoe Memorial for Super Sedans at Archerfield Speedway was a fitting result for the National Champion, winning the race in honour of his father. Despite starting the feature race from position nine, Pascoe faced little resistance in advancing to the front of the field before clearing away to score an emphatic win. Despite a couple of mid-race restarts that brought him back to the field, Pascoe was more than seven seconds ahead of second-placed Sean Black at the chequer, with Justin Randall finishing in third spot ahead of Ash Bergmeier and Darryl Moon.

Image: 44Photography

Image: 44Photography

LANDRIGAN’S SECOND STAMPEDE WIN

Image: Richard Hathaway

A BREATHTAKING last corner pass by Jamie Landrigan helped him claim back-to-back victories in the annual Karratha Sprintcar Stampede at Nickol Bay Speedway.

The North West Australian venue hosted a handful of features on the night but it was Landrigan who provided the highlights.

He started from position four in the 20-lap final, with the front row shared by Michael Keen, who had won every race he started across the weekend to start from pole, and Daniel Hartigan.

Landrigan would use lapped traffic to his advantage to take second place on lap 15 running the inside and all of a sudden was on the tail of Keen.

Keen still led and he looked home, but a fired up Landrigan put in some epic laps, moving to the outside in the final lap and turn and racing around Keen to grab the lead in what was the quickest lap of the race.

Keen was forced to settle for second, his only defeat of the

CHEVY RINGS IN TITLE CHEVY EDWARDS had three big reasons to celebrate at Wahgunyah Speedway recently.

He won his first feature race, he won the 2019 Victorian Late Model Championship, and moments after his historic win he got engaged!

Edwards, 22, is in his fourth season of the division, and scored a come from behind win in the 20-lap feature to pick pocket the victory from race leader Callum Harper. Third was Lachlan Onley and fourth was Edwards’ brother Brock.

From pole position Harper used the high side to effect in both his heat race win and shot away to an enormous half lap lead in the A Main.

Edwards decided the time was right to

The awards also recognised the three WA and current Australian Champions in Paul Stubber (Late Models), Dayne Kingshott (Speedcars) and Kaiden Manders (360 Sprintcars).

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A BIG seven-second gap was the end difference for Scott Thomsen as he raced to victory in the 2019 Queensland Wingless title at Maryborough Speedway.

From the front row Thomsen grabbed the lead early and easily won from Cody O’Connell and Dan Moes. Other recent winners in the division of late included Chris Inch winning the annual Wingless Stampede at Nickol Bay Speedway in Western Australia, while Chris Temby delivered a strong performance in the final round of the Nyora Nationals Series to achieve his maiden featurerace. In round three of the Ladies of the Dirt Series at the same venue, Jess Moulden was first from Renae Eastham and Ebony Hobson.

Image: 44Photography

whole weekend, while Blake Jackson held on for third.

Also on the program were the 410/360 Sprintcars with AJ Nash defeating Trevor Jolly and Daniel Keen. Candice Jones also won the Wingless feature while Dane Francis claimed the Top Star Junior Sedan Feature race.

Image: Geoff Rounds

have a crack at the leader with just four laps remaining and did it, despite nearly rolling his car in the process.

“If I wanted to pass him I had to go through the holes on the bottom,” Edwards said.

“I thought I was gone, but there was no way I was lifting. I knew I had a chance to get my first win and we had a few months to fix the car before the new season, so I was going for it.”

The celebrations would keep coming for

Edwards as he dropped to one knee in the pits at the trophy presentations. With the title trophy in one hand and a ring in the other, he proposed to girlfriend Annika who she said yes.

Edwards left the popular 640-metre Wahgunyah Speedway as Victoria #1 and engaged.

TOOWOOMBA SPEEDWAY wound up its big season with two titles decided. Shane Munro proved too good in winning the Australian Microsprint Championship Title and Bodie Smith won both the Queensland and national Compact Speedcar titles in a dominant weekend.

MULTIPLE AUSTRALIAN V8 Modified champion Peter Britten destroyed the field and grabbed his first major win in New York, at Lebanon Valley Speedway in the Modified class. He started in the eighth position and was into the top five by lap two and would take the lead on lap 18, never looking back to become the first ever Australian to take a victory at Lebanon Valley. “The Troyer 21a was flying tonight. You never really know what you got when you’re racing as hard as we were.

You pick guys off in front of you and it helps make you think you’ve got something pretty good, and we did tonight,” Britten said. With the win, he now has three top five finishes in four starts to begin his first full season as a Valley regular.

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TCR Round 1 Sydney Motorsport Park 18-19 May

BROWN MAKES HISTORY

By Heath McAlpine Images: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

HIGH INTEREST and elevated expectations had been placed on the new TCR formula as excitement built up to the firstever event at Sydney Motorsport Park.

And the formula’s first foray in Australia delivered, providing close contests, panel rubbing and a few surprises.

Will Brown made history by becoming the first-round winner of TCR Australia, as did Jason Bright by taking the inaugural race. But it was the evenness of the cars and the close quarter racing that impressed and suggested that there will be more to come from this burgeoning world touring car class.

Brown may have come out as the winner, but it appeared a last-minute addition to the grid in the form of fellow Hyundai i30N TCR driver Michael Almond who was set to surprise as he topped Friday’s running. This changed when qualifying came, Tony D’Alberto gave Honda a perfect start by taking pole position, becoming $1000 richer and starting his title tilt with twopoints.

Drama began early on as the Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault Megane RS TCR of James Moffat had earlier had

Dylan O’Keeffe sits second in the points after an impressive debut outing driving the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

turbo issues, but a failed o-ring meant it expelled oil on the front straight and left the grid on a tow truck.

There were no worries out front, especially if you were driving a Volkswagen. Jason Bright was second best in qualifying, but was best placed heading into Turn 1 after making a lightning start. D’Alberto was left behind and had plenty of pressure to overcome from the Hyundai of Brown.

Brown took a chance at Turn 2 around the outside of the lead pair, but he failed to make it slipping back behind the Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R piloted by D’Alberto. This tight battle continued as Brown’s cold tyre pace was superior to D’Alberto’s and the recent Super2 race winner pressed for the position.

The racing among the midpack was robust, Almond was forced to pit after his bonnet was left flapping due to a broken pin. Already sporting a cracked screen in his new Renault Megane RS TCR, Chris Pither added to the damage by contacting Aaron Cameron’s Volkswagen Golf GTI at the exit of Turn 2.

While D’Alberto was focused on Brown, Bright skipped

Will Brown was all smiles after taking out the first TCR Australia weekend, above. He battled Honda’s Tony D’Alberto for almost the entirety, left.

away bridging a second gap over the duelling pair, which was the narrative of the race.

The veteran showed a clean pair of heels and maintained a comfortable lead.

The surprise of the race was the pace of Dylan O’Keeffe in the Alfa Romeo, the Italian model was quick in a straight line and O’Keeffe was pushing the Giulietta Quadrifoglio TCR

in fourth, catching the battle for third very quickly.

This was all good for Bright, who continued to extend his gap whilst Brown kept working D’Alberto over, but then dropped back as he struggled to maintain the life of his tyres, giving O’Keeffe an opportunity to attack for third.

A 2.177s margin was the result, Bright over D’Alberto

with Brown holding off the Alfa Romeo to round out the very first TCR Australia podium.

Bright may have got a great start in Race 1, but he failed to do so in the second, arriving into Turn 1 in fourth with D’Alberto making up for his poor get away in the first to lead O’Keeffe and Brown.

O’Keeffe didn’t waste time in trying to overhaul D’Alberto. He was unsuccessful in his attempt at Turn 2, but heading through the sequence of Turn 3 and 4, the Alfa Romeo emerged in the lead and soon had a margin.

The mid-pack was well shaken up with fellow Alfa driver Jimmy Vernon making a great recovery from a Race 1 puncture to move from 16th to 10th, while Andre Heimgartner charged in

There was no love between the Hyundais, left. Jason Bright took the first victory of TCR Australia, below.

the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, placing in sixth after starting 10th.

Brown and D’Alberto renewed their private battle from Race 1, but this time it fell to the Hyundai driver with a patient move around Turns 2 and 3, leaving him to pursue O’Keeffe’s Alfa Romeo for the win.

Brown was on a charge as he started to gain on O’Keeffe, though the worry now was that i30N TCR may have used its tyres. Within a lap he had taken 1.2s out of his Super2 rival, but the straight line advantage of the Alfa Romeo played to the advantage of O’Keeffe.

Just as the battle for first and second began to heat up, there was an intense battle for the final step as Bright mounted a challenge on D’Alberto. However an off for Alexandra Whitely scuppered those attacks as a safety car was called to recover

the Queenslander’s Golf GTI. Lap 10 and the restart from O’Keeffe was perfect as he used the Alfa’s grunt to hold off Brown, but by Turn 2 the Hyundai was latched onto the rear. Critically, Brown had opted for a set-up that optimised the last portion of the race and it showed.

The lead pair were comfortably ahead of D’Alberto and Bright to the tune of around a second, but with Brown dipping into the 1m 34s, the writing was on the wall for O’Keeffe as the Hyundai drew alongside in between Turn 5, completing the move at Turn 6.

Heimgartner continued to progress, hitting the top five and setting his Subaru up for an attack on the podium in Race 3. Dutch import Rik Breukers, guesting in the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS3 LMS TCR was not having a good time of it, jetlagged and with damaged steering, he dropped

out of the top 10.

O’Keeffe wasn’t able to keep up with Brown and finished 3.160s behind, with D’Alberto holding off Bright and Heimgartner, so the top five saw a different brand in each position.

The final race of the weekend got off to an exciting start with Brown, D’Alberto and O’Keeffe three-wide through Turn 1, but it was the Alfa that again took the lead and was first to Turn 2.

The other Alfa wasn’t as lucky, Vernon failing to get away off the line and an unsighted Breukers having nowhere to go, significantly damaging both cars.

Meanwhile, Heimgartner had made a cracker start and slid down the inside of both Brown and D’Alberto, before the safety car was deployed to clean up the mess from the start line.

The restart was another strong one for O’Keeffe, but Heimgartner demonstrated the

Subaru’s strength in the corners to be right on the tail of the Alfa.

Brown was not far behind as he continued Hyundai’s strong weekend pace.

In contrast to his Race 1 victory, Bright was had a struggle on his hands, which was emphasised by his battle with Morcom that sent the Volkswagen into the marbles and sideways back in seventh.

The battle for the lead took a cruel turn for Heimgartner when a suspension failure dropped him out of the running, leaving Brown to attack the rear of O’Keeffe’s Alfa.

Morcom may have overcome Bright, but he found the going tough when confronted with the rear of D’Alberto’s Civic Type R. An attempted move by the Hyundai driver at Turn 9 ended in contact, which sent the Honda wide and dropped him multiple positions. Next on Morcom’s

radar was Almond, with further contact occurring, this time with D’Alberto’s teammate John Martin.

Martin was experiencing a consistent run, but a tap from Morcom spun the Civic Type R TCR towards the Turn 10 wall.

The Hyundai driver was later penalised a minute for his role in both Honda incidents.

Brown again made his move at Turn 5 and quickly went 0.501s ahead of O’Keeffe, which was extended to 2.607s by the flag, with Almond surviving to follow the lead duo.

Brown takes a 12-point lead ahead of O’Keeffe to the next round of the series at Phillip Island on June 6-9.

Points: Brown 122, O’Keeffe 110, D’Alberto 101, Bright 97, Cameron 76, Almond 74, Morcom 57, Rullo 51, Moffat 49, Martin 48.

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p ra w S L A N NATIO NOTHING SHORT ABOUT MARK’S WIN WITH LESS cubic capacity than anyone else, Mark Short took his Suzuki-powered Prince LSR to victory in round one of the Australian Prototype Series. He took the points at SMP ahead of a tie between Mark Laucke and David Barram for second.

It was a battle in the first half of race one but ultimately Barram pulled away in his Hondapowered Chiron to win by over 12s. Short clambered all over the race leader for a while but didn’t have the straight-line speed to stay with him.

Third place saw the battle of the Peugeot turbo-powered Wolfs for several laps before Jason Makris emerged third ahead of Daniel Gonzalez and Laucke. John-Paul Drake was in the mix early but spun his Honda-engine Wolf out at turn 10 and then pitted.

Behind the Wolfs it was on between the leading Radical SR3s where Peter Paddon came out on top ahead of Stephen Champion and Carmelo Bonaventura.

Short won the second 15-lapper after initial leader Barram had a big brake lock-up and an off-the-road excursion at turn six on the first lap. Short was unchallenged to take the win while Gonzales held second until he was passed by the similarly mounted Laucke.

Makris held fourth until he had a tyre blow.

That left Drake to cross the line next before he was disqualified later. Fourth eventually went to Bonaventura over Champion and fellow Radical pilots Zig Fuhrmeister, Bill Medland and Michael Whiting. Barram finished ninth and a lap down. GOB

JONES GETS BREAKTHROUGH PORSCHE VICTORY HARRI JONES scored a maiden victory in the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy race at the second Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia round and won overall on May 18-19.

Driving for McElrea Racing, he was the third race winner after Sonic Racing’s Max Vidau won race one and Ryan Suhle tasted victory in the second outing.

Second overall went to Aaron Love with Christian Pancione third.

Meanwhile Sam Shahin, with two class wins, topped the TAG Heuer Pro-Am ahead of Brett Boulton with Michael Loccisano taking third. In Class B, Andrew Goldie completed a clean

sweep of three wins.

Vidau converted pole to a race one victory. Love was second and made it a Sonic Racing one-two, while Jones and Suhle were third and fourth. Cameron Crick finished fifth, despite a 5s penalty for rolling at the start Next was Shahin, although Boulton had led Pro-Am for most of the race. A late spin saw Boulton drop down the order, while a post-race penalty for overtaking under yellows saw him relegated further.

A failed clutch left Vidau stranded at the start of race two. Love assumed the race lead and extended an early margin following the safety car

Images: Insyde Media

period. But he ran off at turn two which allowed Suhle to take the top spot.

Shahin recorded a career-best second, defending ahead of Jones, Tom Taplin, Pancione and Crick in a furious five-car dice. Taplin was handed a postrace penalty that placed him seventh behind Boulton. Goldie drove his older 997 GT3 Cup Car to a strong 12th outright.

At the start of the longer Jim Richards Endurance Trophy over 25 laps Suhle suffered a clutch failure and was left stranded at turn 3. Shahin led from the outset but would incur a 5s penalty for his start and soon surrendered the lead to

Jones.

Jones opened an early buffer and then had to fend off a charging Love in the closing stages after he stormed through from 10th. Love and thirdplaced Pancione chased down the leader, and finished just behind Jones in a tight finish between the top three.

Meanwhile Boulton passed Shahin in the second half of the race, finishing fifth outright behind Crick and ahead of Shahin, Taplin and Vidau, who started 23rd. Vidau progressed to fifth by mid-race, only to leak places as he struggled following damage to his front splitter early on. GOB

PERINI PREVAILS

A DOMINANT race one win set the scene for Chris Perini to win round three of the Radical Australia Cup ahead of Max Medland and the father and son combination of Brad and Mitch Neilson.

For all but eight laps of the 30, Perini led the first 50min race. He opened up a substantial gap on his rivals in the lead-up to the compulsory pitstops and once back in front, drove away to a 26.7s victory.

Second place went to Kostinken Pohorukov who had a 8.7s advantage over Stephen Champion at the conclusion while Medland was fourth, sharing the drive with his father Chris, ahead of Rowan Ross and the Neilsons. Peter Paddon and Paul Braico were early casualties after clashing at turn 2 whilst debating second place.

The two-driver combination of Peter Anseline and Oliver Smith won the second 50min race.

They were victorious ahead of Peter Paddon while the Neilsons were third and retained a narrow fourpoint lead at the halfway mark.

The race really didn’t get underway until 13mins in after a safety car period for a first corner incident that took out Braico and John-Paul Drake. Perini led until the obligatory pitstops when the Neilsons led.

Smith soon grabbed the lead and drove away.

Paddon snared second with just a couple of laps to go. Ross seemingly had fourth stitched up until a late spin. That spot then went to Max Medland (on his own for this race) over Greg Kenny and Perini, impeded with a front suspension failure.

Pohorukov was as high as fifth but eventually went out with a blown diff. GOB

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LUIS EXTENDS F4 CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD TWO RACE wins helped Luis Leeds take out round two of the CAMS PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Championship and extend his points lead, winning ahead of teammate Antonio Astuti and Lochie Hughes.

From lights out to flag fall Leeds took advantage of his pole position to win the opening encounter. The AGI Sport driver saw off the early challenge of Team BRM’s Hughes to win by 3.5s. Round one runner-up Ryan Suhle (Team BRM) didn’t figure in the results, having blown the diff at the start.

Astuti was third ahead of Tommy Smith (Team BRM) while it was nose-to-tail between Jackson Walls (Patrizicorse) and

Emerson Harvey (Team BRM) for sixth.

With a reverse grid start from the finish of race 1, Walls was the second race leader until passed by Astuti on lap 4. A lap later Walls fell to the charging Suhle. Hughes was an early casualty, launched off at turn two after contact with Astuti.

Leeds had started on the second row but contact at turn six dropped him to last. The AGI Sport driver fought his way back to fourth until a touch with Smith pushed him to the rear again. Not done, Leeds came back a second time and

managed to pip Walls for third at the flag.

In the last Leeds led throughout, holding off Hughes and Suhle for the duration. Astuti crossed the line fourth, ahead of Walls, Harvey and Smith. GOB

MEMORIAL TROPHIES HEADLINE HISTORIC THE HISTORIC Racing Car Club of Queensland’s Autumn Historic Warwick on May 4-5 at Morgan Park featured two important races for Group N, the Bill Campbell and Jack Lacey Memorials, plus several other historic categories.

GROUP N HISTORIC TOURING CARS

IT WAS a great weekend for Craig Allan and his Holden Torana XU-1, winning both the Memorial trophies. He led every lap of the Bill Campbell race and won by over 4s. Graeme Wakefield (Ford Mustang) was second initially but finished sixth. Ian Mewett started fourth and progressed to second before dropping to fifth.

Peter Baguley was another front runner and he fell by the wayside stopping his XU-1 on lap four, and joining Kevin Heffernen (XU-1) who was out earlier. Second and third went to Matt Clift (Mazda RX2) and Grahame Wrobel (Mustang), having started sixth and eighth respectively.

In the Jack Lacey Memorial, Allan was best away as Wakefield lost ground with wheel spin.

Mewett went to second and pounced on the lead as they crossed the line the first time. Clift

had a shot at getting past both at turn six, but ran wide and lost out to Wakefield for a while.

Mewett crossed the line first but incurred a 5s penalty which dropped him to third behind Allan and Clift. Wakefield was fourth in front of Wrobel and Torana drivers Ron Blake and Bruce Dummett.

The first Group Nb/Group Nc up to 2.0-litre race was dominated by Mini Cooper S’ with Graham Russell ahead of Stephen Hoade and Ed Ohlrich. Norm Singleton (Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV) won the second ahead of Hoade and Adam Duce (Cooper S) who turned the tables in the third, getting ahead of Hoade and Geoff Pike (Cooper S).

The Group Nc over 2.0-litre lead up races both went to Baguley, beating Mewett and Wrobel in the first and Allan and Mewett in the second.

Dallara, this time it was an Elfin MS7. He scored pole in the wet and easily won the opening race ahead of Bruce Taylor (Tiga Sports 2000) and John Wishart (Welsor Clubman).

Tweedie didn’t figure in race two where Taylor won ahead of Whishart and Mark Goldsmith (Elfin 400), but Tweedie returned for race three.

That he won comfortably ahead of Taylor and Kevin Gray (Tiga) and took over 3s off the lap record. The MS7 was retired early out or race four when the exhaust header broke. Taylor won ahead of Goldsmith and Gray.

HISTORIC RACING CARS GROUPS Q, R & GROUP F

HISTORIC RACING CARS GROUPS V, LB & M

OVER THE four races, Bill Norman (Group R Ralt RT4) was in a league of his own, beating Robert Foster (Group R March 81A) on each occasion. Dan McCarthy (Group Q Elfin 622) picked up a couple of thirds, as did Barry Wise in his Group R March Super Vee. Of the Historic Formula Fords (Group F), Kendal Barry-Cotter (PRS) was the best in some close results as Robert Fry (Elfin) and Geoff Karger (Reynard) offered some serious challenges.

HISTORIC SPORTS CARS GROUPS O, Q & R Images: Trapnell Creations

IT WAS 10 years since Thomas Tweedie last raced the Warwick circuit, but rather than a F3

INITIALLY IT was a Formula Vee fest, dominating the opening race with Nigel Jones (Renmax) home first ahead of Don Greiveson (Spectre), Anthony Paynter (Stag), Graeme Clarke (Nimbus) and Geoff Stone (Elfin).

Finishing eighth was Richard Nitschke who then steered his Group M Elfin Catalina to win the three remaining races, ahead of Jones firstly, then Paynter and Jones who were split by just 0.02s. In the last it was Paynter second which secured him Group Va overall.

Jones won Group Vb as Craig Carlson (MG TC Special) and Barry Bates (Thompson Special) were the respective winners in Lb Racing and Lb Sports.

HISTORIC PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS GROUPS S, T & INVITED

PORSCHE 911 Carreras were the cars of choice. Stan Adler was best of the five entered, taking out the first three races. He won the first by 0.15s over Greg Horwill with David Cunneen and Tony Richmond third and fourth. In race two Horwill ran second until his race ended short of the flag where Kevin Luke finished second ahead of Cunneen and Richmond.

Adler had another close one in race three, ahead of Luke, while Trevor Bassett (Ferrari Daytona) slipped by the dicing Richmond and Horwill for third. Adler came from the back in the last, getting as high as second before finishing ninth. In the meantime Luke scored ahead of Horwill with Richmond taking third away from Cunneen. GOB

ALL LEVEL IN B SERIES

THE SECOND round of the WDSCC Sprint B Series was held on May 11-12, with Morgan Park’s D configuration being utilised.

In wild and windy conditions, there was action aplenty as Mike Collins struggled to keep his AUSCAR Holden Commodore in the right direction on old tyres. Kepping his wheels on was a struggle for Darrin Siddins after a hub failed on his Ford Escort MkI, leaving the unfortunate driver to retrieve the wheel.

At the close of the weekend Bruce McKenzie and Geoff Noble were left on equal points at the top of the championship, making the next round to be held on August 3-4 a very important one in regard to the B Series title.

Time Attack Subarus and Holden Commodore AUSCARs provided some of the action, but not as much as Darrin Siddins in his Escort, left. Images: Trapnell Creations The C Series is next to complete its third round on June 1-2.

A big thankyou to all volunteers and officials who braved the cold wind to help run such a fantastic event. Volunteers are always welcome and it’s a great way to get up close to the action.

Spectator entry for all the super sprints is free of charge and is a fantastic action-packed weekend with a large variety of different cars competing.

CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE Geoff Noble Bruce McKenzie Matt Plowman Stephen Faulks Rob Bellinger Trent Laves Saxon Moyes Jason Patullo Zak Hudson Kees Van Der Horst

86 86 77 76 72 70 58 54 52 51

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

Next Round: C Series Round June 1-2 AutoAction

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

CELEBRATIONS A PLENTY AT WINTON ONCE AGAIN a great crowd flocked to Winton Raceway for the 43rd Historic Winton, the event still growing with over 10,000 spectators through the gates.

Historic Winton ran on the shorter original configuration of the circuit and resulted in spectators being able to see all of the close and cleanly fought racing action without having to move around the track.

There was also the Shannons Classic Car Park on the inside of Turn 3, which featured a large collection of interesting road cars including original Ford Falcons, old Rovers and MGs. Many historic Citroens also flocked through the gates to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French marque.

Bugatti also celebrated its 110th birthday this year with a display on the outside of the final corner, joined by Morgan with its three wheelers also celebrating 110

years.

Many Minis, Austin Healey 3000s and Triumph Heralds were in attendance too, as it was the 60th anniversary of these popular British icons.

As Formula Ford celebrates its 50th anniversary in Australia this year, the historic competitors put on a good show especially Phil Oakes and Nick Bennet, who dueled over the three races. The score; Oakes 2, Bennett 1.

Group N was strictly for the older Nb models and was dominated by the Minis. Suited to the shorter Winton layout, Jason Armstrong, Jeremy Bennett and Linda Devlin led a Mini domination of the results.

Group S was also dominated by the smaller capacity Lotus Seven S4 driven by Michael Byrne, toppling the Corvettes and De Tomaso Panteras, to take a cleansweep of the results.

DMC

Image: Rebecca Hind

Image: Neil Hammond

Group M&O Sports & Racing/Formula Vee Race 1: Laurie Bennett (Elfin 600B), Scott Whittaker (Milano GT2), Perry Spiridis (Lola T70 Coupe) Race 2: Spiridis, Bennett, Harry Hickling (Rennmax BNI) Race 3: Spiridis, Bennett, Peter Williams (Brabham BT21A) Group LB Sports & Racing Race 1: Samantha Dymond (Lola Mk1), Dick O’Keefe (Photon Lotus 11), Robert Lesslie (Nota Minx) Race 2: Russell Budge (Ausca Zephsca), Shane Bowden (Prad 5 Sports), Peter Mcknight (Aarons Lotus Mk9) Race 3: Dymond, O’Keefe, Geoff Wright (MG Regah Special)

Groups Q & R Sports & Racing Race 1: David Hardman (Hardman JH1), Andrew Makin (March 73B), John Bowe (Martini Mk 45) Race 2: Hardman, Makin, Bowe Race 3: Hardman, Makin, Bowe Formula Ford Race 1: Phil Oakes (Elfin 600), Nick Bennett (Elfin FF), Bruce Connolly (Reynard FF84) Race 2: Oakes, Bennett, Kevin Kosa (Lola 342) Race 3: Bennett, Oakes, Kosa Groups J&K Race 1: Graeme Raper (George Reed Monoskate), Conor Ryan (Ford Special), Michael Shearer, (Ford A Special) Race 2: Raper, Shearer, Ryan Race 3: Raper, Shearer, Ryan

Group N Race 1: Jason Armstrong (Morris Cooper S), Jeremy Bennett (Morris Cooper S), Linda Devlin (Morris Cooper S) Race 2: Armstrong, Bennett, Devlin Race 3: Armstrong, Bennett, Devlin Group S Race 1: Race 1: Michael Byrne (Lotus Seven S4), Ray Narkiewicz (Chevrolet Corvette), Adriano DiMauro (Alfa Romeo 105) Race 2: Byrne, Narkiewicz, Hugh Harrison (Alfa Romeo GTV) Race 3: Byrne, Narkiewicz,

COLLIE EXTENSION GETS THUMBS UP ENTHUSIASM RAN high for the annual Ernie Hastie Memorial Meeting, run for the first on the new Collie (WA) track extension on May 18-19.

Now out to 2.55km, ithe extension meant that most races were reduced in length due to the extra time required for vehicle recoveries and surface clean-up.

FORMULA VEE

THE FIRST race was red flagged when Ken Wyatt put his Jacer into the turn 2 tyre wall. At the restart Rod Lisson (Sabre) recorded the first outright and 1600s win on the new track. David Caisley (Jacer) was second with Austin Pearson (Jacer) third.

Lisson got the jump in the second and led until Pearson passed him on the fourth lap. Caisley slipped through Lisson for second on the last lap. Caisley continued his progress by winning the third ahead of Pearson and Lisson.

In the 1200s, Franz Esterbauer (Ribuck) won the first comfortably over Brett Scarey (CD-Vee) and Kathy Lisson (Sabre). Gear selection issues had Esterbauer fifth early in race 2. Scarey won from Lisson with Esterbauer recovering for third.

Esterbauer was again slow early in race 3. Scarey led until he slowed two laps from home. Jack Sheldon (Polar) led narrowly from Lisson before both had dramas on the final lap. Andrew Lockett (Ajay) took advantage and won from Mackenzie Matthews (Gerbert) and Sheldon.

Images: Mick Oliver

EXCEL CUP

HAVING COMPETED in Saturday’s Time Challenge helped Robert Landsmeer to an all-the-win win in Race 1, closely followed by Dean Hill, with Cooper Smart third.

In the second race, a reverse grid, Tanya Aitken led for three laps until Hill took over. Second went to Carlos Ambrosio ahead of Landsmeer, who won the last race from Hill and Ambrosio.

HQ HOLDENS

AGAIN FEATURING two rounds over two days, Marc Watkins won the Saturday opener from Michael

Howlett and Mick Woodbridge. The second race was a reverse grid which Chris Ainscoug led until the last lap when Stuart Kenny took over and won from Howlett and Watkins. The latter led the third from the outset to beat Kenny and Woodbridge.

In the first race on Sunday, Howlett broke away for a solid win over Woodbridge and Watkins, who won the second ahead of Rory Sharpe and Kenny. The last race had Watkins again winning from Kenny and Woodbridge.

FORMULA CLASSIC

MICHAEL HENDERSON (Ralt RT4) won all four races despite an off in the last race. Simon Alderton (RF88

FF2000) was consistent with four seconds, while Craig Thompson (RF82 FF2000) took three thirds only to miss out in the last when Allan Ould (Aztec) broke the sequence.

FORMULA FORD

DEPLETED BY not having five of the top runners didn’t deter those that did run. Joshua Matthews (Stealth) took the first from Thomas Hamlett and Jason Youd both in Van Diemens. Matthews went on to take the second from Craig Jorgensen (Van Diemen) and Hamlett, before Jason Youd hit back in the last, ahead of Jorgensen and Hamlett.

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

www.wakefieldpark.com.au June 1 Porsche Car Club NSW June 2 MX5 June 5 WPM Trackschool Track Day June 7 Speed Off The Streets/Test & Tune June 9 WRX Club Interclub Super Sprint

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Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au June 3 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers June 4 Mod Box Track Day – Private Hire June 5 MSCA June 10 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers June 12 Officials / Volunteers Training Day

Image: Bruce Moxom

Richie Ru Rules ulees Rallysprint Raallysprinnt

Image: Barbara Te Iri

COMMODORES SHINE AT THE VALLEY AT THE second round of the NAMSC Shannons pointscore, Ross Salmon and David Ling topped their categories at Hidden Valley on May 12.

Stavros Mostris won the three HQ Holden races over Rossi Johnson, and the three Lapsprints were topped by Tom Maxwell (Holden Commodore), Scott Grosskopf (Volkswagen Golf) and David George (Lotus).

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

HOLDEN COMMODORES headed the charge off the start of race 1 with pole sitter Rod Jessup leading Salmon and Steve Johnstone.

The latter was an early retirement along with Carl Wienlands (Toyota Celica). Jake Burgess (Commodore) came third ahead of Craig

Wright (Ford Escort) and Evan Bartlett (Ford Falcon AU).

Jessup was best away in race two, but ran off at turn one on the second lap which gave Salmon a clear run through to the finish. Jessup re-joined and finished second with Burgess third from Wright and Bartlett.

Johnstone had a tyre issue and failed to finish.

In the third, Salmon, Johnstone and Jessup battled with Johnstone victorious as Burgess, Wienlands and Wright diced in their wake.

Bartlett and Craig were also close, dicing for seventh and finishing 0.1s apart.

COMMODORE CUP

THE OPENING race had Ling and Ian Roots pirouette at turn 1 which gave Alan

Langworthy the front running until he spun at turn 10. That put Glen Holdsworth in the lead and he took the win 0.4s ahead of Ling, with Langworthy 1s further away in front of Roots and Shane Smith.

Ling led throughout the reverse grid race two. A battle between Langworthy, Holdsworth and Roots ensued for the duration.

The third race went 15 laps with Ling a resounding winner while it was close for second between Langworthy, Roots and Holdsworth. There was a mid-race safety car after Holdsworth came off and started a grass fire. It worked out ideally for Smith who pitted to replace a puncture and only lost one lap. GOB

RICHIE DALTON, driving his Ford Fiesta, dominated the Volksmuller Rallysprint at Sydney Dragway on May 19. With wife Louise calling the notes, Dalton was fastest on every run to win by 12.5s from Mike Harding and John Hill (Subaru Impreza WRX).

There were 50 starters for round four of the NSW Rallysprint Championship, ranging from WRC-level cars like Daltons, to a Range Rover, and even standard production cars. A very rare Lancia 037 even put in a brief appearance before lunch.

The course was mostly gravel and dirt and ran around the Dragway’s access roads and car parks, and was mostly tight and technical, with a fast tarmac straight and a spectacular jump. Incidents were few on the day. A great deal of pre-event preparation went in, the North Shore Sporting Car Club trying to minimise the dust that had hampered previous events.

Third place and first 2WD went to Neal Bates (Toyota Celica) with regular co-driver Coral Taylor calling the notes in the morning, before son Harry sat in for a lesson with the old man.

Next was Brent and Mitchell Money (Mitsubishi EVO 2) and they swapped seats to also be sixth with Mitchell at the helm.

They bookended Michael O’Hagon and Jaya Warby (Ford Escort RS1800), who were also first outright of the Rallysprint Championship entrants.

Competitors were full of praise for the event, especially the road preparation, although dust did become thick later.

“The track held up really well. There were no ruts or dust issues for us. The event ran like clockwork. It was good to have my wife in the car. Maybe she’ll get why I do this now and cut me some slack!” Richie Dalton said. Bruce Moxon

SALOON CARS

IN THE PRO (AU/VT) class Grant Johnson (Holden Commodore) was victorious across the three races ahead team mate Matt Martin, while Rick Gill (Ford Falcon) had two thirds before a DNF where Vince Ciallella picked up the minor spot.

In PRO-AM (EZ/VN) Nick Hanlon (Falcon) had two wins and a second. Carl Fanderlinden (Falcon) began with a second, and then won the second race which he led from the start. After two thirds, Chris Kneafsey (Commodore) pushed Fanderlinden to third in the last.

Image: Tim Allott

History is with Greenham

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

IN A very small field, Aldo De Paoli (Chev Camaro) won the first two races. The last was a battle between Simon Northey (Ford Mustang) and Scott Mackie (Holden Torana XU-1) with the former winning and De Paoli finished third.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

MICHAEL SCIORIO (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) took advantage in running in the Time Challenge the previous day to get track time and won all three races ahead of Nik Mitic (BMW E36 M3) in each. Rueben Romkes (Holden Monaro), Glen Melling (Holden Commodore) and Grant Gelling (Ford Escort) were hard at it for third. Romkes came out on top when Melling retired in the last.

SPORTS SEDANS/STREET CARS

THE SPORTS Sedans class was fought out between Brett Niall (MARC Focus V8) and Ryan Humfrey in his Chevpowered Ford Falcon. They were square after a win each before Niall led the last until retiring. Peter Callo (Chev Corvette), third in races one and two, finished second ahead of Wayne Hastie (Nissan Pulsar).

Denver Parker (Skyline R33) dominated Street Cars, snaring three class wins ahead of Paul Kluck (Nissan Skyline R32). Chris Cheveral (BMW E36 M3) was third twice while Philip Crouse (VW Polo) was third in the other.

Mick Oliver

Image: Insyde Media

Gatto gets Alfa gold WINNERS WERE abundant as the Veloce Alfa Romeo Challenge which joined the Shannons Nationals at SMP and competed in six classes.

But in the outright stakes Daniel Gatto was on his way to a trifecta of wins until a slip-up in the last.

Gatto (GTV6) took out the first race, finishing 1.2s ahead of Class A rival David Capraro (Alfetta), with a 5.7s gap back to third placed Class E’s Enzo Piazza (GTV6). Michael Musumeci (GT) was third across the line but was relegated to fourth due to a 5s penalty. There had also been a safety car instigated at the end of the opening lap as a result of an incident for Antonio Strano at Turn 2.

From the second row Michael Musumeci (GTV6) started race two

brilliantly to take the lead, racing in front until turn 8, where Gatto took over for the duration. Capraro went to second on lap two and was followed through a lap later

by Piazza, who ultimate grabbed second on the final lap. Fourth went to Alfio Musumeci (GTV6) who edged out Michael Aarons (Alfetta).

Michael Musumeci finished ninth in the end.

The final race saw Gatto leading Capraro until both spun off in unison at turn 1 on lap 7. Michael Musumeci assumed the lead until lapped traffic on the final lap allowed Piazza to sneak past at turn five and take the win. Third went to Aarons ahead of Gatto, Frank Carigliano (GTV6) and Capraro. GOB

MARK GREENHAM won this year’s Make Smoking History Targa South West on May 17-19 and maintained his feat of winning every event entered, having previously won in 2016 and 2018.

With Stephanie Esterbauer co-driving the Competition Modern Mitsubishi EVO 9, Greenham won eight of the 18 stages that were run. They managed a broken front strut for the final four stages and finished 35s ahead of Will White and Bernie Webb (EVO 9), the pair ruing 45s in penalties for breaching controlled speed zones.

Third were Mark Cates and Declan Stafford (Nissan R35 GTR) another 28s behind and 44s ahead of David Heaton/ Steve Glenney (Ford Focus RS). Next were John O’Dowd and Glenn Macneall in a Skoda Fabia, the first time that an R5 car (one level below a World Rally Car) has competed.

After a wet start on Saturday morning, conditions were near-perfect for the10th running of the event which was held in the south west towns of Pemberton, Manjimup and Northcliffe and scheduled to run over 22 stages and 130km.

An incident 400m into the first stage involving the Darren Wese/Evan Cockram Holden Torana forced the cancellation of stages two, three and four, with derived times given on stage one. Both the driver and co-driver were flown to Royal Perth Hospital and were expected to make full recovery.

In the Competition Classic (pre-1986), Tim Wolfe and Richard Harbron (Porsche 911 Carrera RS) won ahead of Kim Steward and Frank Zanotti (Ford Mustang GT350).

The Targa 130 class (formerly Challenge Category), speed restricted to 130km/h, went to husband and wife Jeffrey and Catherine Foster (Porsche Cayman 981 GTS). They finished 26s ahead of Steve Turpin and Daniel Gregory (HSV R8 Clubsport) with another 36s to Steve James and Nicholas Bentley (Subaru Impreza WRX). GOB

AutoAction

55

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

Image: JS Msport Ph otography

Murdocks’ Mumbannar DEBUTING A Pro Buggy Element Prodigy/Chev L98 V8, the father and son combination of Andy and Fletcher Murdock recorded a first-up victory in the GT Bobcat Mumbannar 160 short course event on May 18.

Held just 30km over the Victorian border from Mount Gambier on a heavy sand-laden 10km sprint track, the Murdocks relished their move from Class 4 to Unlimited during the off-season and completed the 16 laps in 1hr 43mins 14s, 12s quicker than Jason Peel and Daniel Lamb (S&S Element/Chev).

Third and something of a surprise was Tim Walker, who had his wife Angela and Damien Rowe sharing the navigator duties in the Class 3 1300cc buggy, surprising many, more fancied competitors.

Thirty crews took part in the cross-border event which was run under a unique format that consisted of three heats. The first was for the Classes 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 66. Heat three was exclusively for Unlimited, Classes 1, 4, 6 and 10, after they were all inclusive in heat two. GOB

Image: Tasmanian Off Road Racing

Tassiee all tied d up THE TASMANIAN Off Road Racing Series has tightened up after the second round, the Cambridge Sprint, on May 19, with joint leaders and third place also tied. All heats were won by Mike Males (Can Am X3 Turbo), making a perfect, albeit late start to his season.

First round winner Michael Stalker (Yamaha XYZ SXS) encountered dramas in the opening heat and only completed two laps. Chris Boon (Hornet/Hayabusa ProLite) scored a first heat second ahead of Chris Branch (ProLite Hornet/Nissan V6).

Stalker’s issue was resolved for the next heat and he was quickly back on the pace, finishing fourth and on the lead lap, behind Boon and Branch. In the third heat Stalker bested Branch to snatch third behind Boon, with Males virtually untouchable 20s ahead.

The fourth and final heat had the same podium result, with Boon improving to the leader by only 12s at the chequered flag.

Branch struck trouble and only completed three laps.

Overall, Males finished 50s to the better of Boon with Campbell third, and moved to a clear championship second. Stalker was eventually classified seventh outright.

Campbell’s consistency with two round thirds has given him a share of the series lead with Stalker.

Branch was classified fifth and now sits just two points behind in equal third with Andrew Giffard (Rivmasta Toyota 1600). The Super 1650 pilot struggled to keep up with the front runners on the fast Cambridge course, with his best result a sixth place in heat three, to finish eighth overall. Martin Agatyn

56 AutoAction

ANOTHER DASH FOR ELPHINSTONES

Image: Randall Kilner

THE ELPHINSTONE brothers showed a liking for the point-to-point format, adopted last year, to win back-to-back in the Coral Coast Helicopter Services Gascoyne Dash, round two of the WA Off Road Championship last month.

In their Jimco/Nissan Twin Turbo Pro Buggy, they won the 410km event and King of the River title by 18min 40.3s over John Purshouse and Murray Hynes (Extreme 4WD Ford Ranger), with Malcolm Yeardley and Alex Cowan third in their ProLite BAT Spec 3/Nissan.

Troy and Deborah Schoen (Racetech Hustler/ Chev) won the 11km prologue out of the Carnarvon Speedway by 2s over Justin and Archer Steadman (BAT Spec 3/Chev) and Darren Agrela and Ryan Barton (Jimco/Nissan Twin Turbo).

The 205km first leg ran from Carnarvon to

Gascoyne Junction with the Schoens leading. The Steadmans suffered multiple flat tyres, slowing their progress, before a stray tree branch came through the front and struck the navigator, forcing them out.

Schoen was under pressure from Agrela until they went out with mechanical issues. Elphinstone challenged and were able to get by Schoen, who was battling electrical, overheating and steering issues. Starting 12th, Purshouse and Hynes stormed through to second while Dean and Jordan Terry (Jimco/Chev) were third.

The Elphinstones cut over 3mins off on their return time on the Easter Sunday. After Purshouse/ Hynes and Yeardley/Cowan, who copped a late puncture, Mathew Birnie and Rochelle Funneman (Can Am Maverick) were fourth and also the SXS Turbo class winners.

Fifth went to Brett and Kevin Renton (Jimco/Chev) ahead of the sole Sportlite buggy of Peter Barrett and Craig Carson (Bullet/Honda). Then followed the Terrys, Colin Bevan and Michael Dodds (Can Am), Sean Fitzpatrick and Brett Funneman (Can Am), and Mark Murray and Jim Ingham (Nissan Patrol).

Brad Cooper and Aaron Smithson (BAT/Chev) stormed from 19th to third on the return leg, after losing time to a day one flat tyre with left them 11th overall.

Other class winners were Michael Davis and Andrew Kingscott (Super 1650 Southern Cross/Toyota), Gary and Christopher Kirkwood (Production 4WD Landcruiser), Matty Beck (Performance 2WD Holden Kingswood) and Russ Cullen (Extreme 2WD Mitsubishi Galant).

GOB

Image: Tim Allott

Image: Randall Kilner

EVANS GETS RIGHT START

MCRAE HELPS O’DOWD TAKE KARRI

REIGNING CHAMPION Simon Evans has begun this year in fine style by winning the first round of the DEWALT CAMS SXS Australian Championship at the Cessnock Motorcycle Club on May 18.

Evans won three races, including the five-lap final after a slow start.

He was fifth after the first turn, but managed to work his way forward and eventually take the lead with two laps to go.

There were a number of different leaders before Evans grabbed the top spot, including SXS Sport winner Tim Liston who eventually finished second in his Yamaha.

Third went to Evans’ brother Tom in his first outing in a turbo and he also bagged the day’s fastest SXS Turbo lap. Despite not making the SXS Sport podium, Mitch Keyte (Polaris) ended with the SXS

PILOTING THE most powerful car, nobody could match John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver in their Skoda Fabia R5 as they clean swept the stages in the Trade Hire Karri Rally on May 11.

They won the second round of the CAMS Zestino Tyres Western Australian Rally Championship by 1min 49s over Ben Searcy and Jimmy Marquet (Mitsubishi EVO 9).

Coaching from former World Rally Champion Alister McRae helped O’Dowd become more familiar with the R5, which is a level below a World Rally Car and used in Europe in WRC2.

Meanwhile Searcy ran down the order and copped plenty of dust, particularly on the second run of stages where visibility was down to 15m at times.

Father and son Stephen and Archa Oxley (Subaru Impreza WRC STi) were a further 14.3s adrift in third place. Oxley recruited his 20-year-old son as a last-minute substitute

Sport’s fastest lap.

It was a brilliant performance from Simon Evans in his new Polaris RXR Turbo S at the new Cessnock venue, which he described as a really challenging and technical track.

“The car came through without putting a spanner on it. I never gave up, just tried to gain a position every lap and then a few of the boys up front overdrove, broke a few things, had a couple of unlucky dramas and the race came to me,” Evans said.

The Turbo class cars have had the edge over the Sport class, but Liston defied the odds and drove to an outright podium place. In the past he hasn’t been able to get past the first few races, so the first aim was get through to the finish.

GOB

after his usual co-driver broke his ankle the previous weekend.

The event was set for three stages over 100km, which were run twice along state forest roads in Nyamup, east of Manjimup.

Stages five and six were stopped because the medical crew were attending Wayne Richardson and Ash Ridden, who hit a tree stump in their Subaru Impreza WRX. Both went to Royal Perth Hospital in a stable condition.

Provisionally 2WD honours went to Razman Vlad with his wife Ioana co-driving the Ford Fiesta, ahead of Andrew Pinker and Caleb Ash (Hyundai Excel) who were in front for four stages, and Glenn Alcorn and Shaun McMacken (Ford Escort). The result came down to derived times after the accident.

With no other contenders, Stephen Vass and Ashely Burton (Datsun 1600) took out the Clubman Cup Class, and Lance Stringer and Chris Parish (Nissan Silvia) headed Clubman Masters. GOB

Image: Wishart Media

Brought to you by:

www.racefuels.com.au State Hillclimb Championship, Mt Cotton QLD, May 31-Jun 02 Motor Racing Australia Rd4, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW,

Image: Breanna Galea

Jun 01

UREN ALONE IN BROOKTON BLITZ GOING SINGLEHANDED Harleigh Uren dominated the Racegear Western Australia Brookton King of the Hill, the opening round of the WA Off Road Association multi club series on May 11-12.

In his Extreme 2WD Chevpowered Pro 2, Uren won all three sections, finishing 7mins 13s ahead of Brad Cooper and Aaron Smithson (Pro Buggy BAT/Chev), with Jared and Jess Percival (ProLite SS Racetech/Toyota) a further 2mins 38s behind.

In dusty conditions, the short course off road event was held at the Williams property ‘Brookton’ and consisted of three five-lap sections with the field split into two heats for each.

Uren was in charge from the outset, finishing section one clear of Stephen and Brin Ketteridge-Hall (ProLite Bullet/Nissan), with Cooper third. Then followed Steven and

Harry Phillips (Pro Buggy Aceco/ Cadillac), Gavin Rogers and Latia Reeves (SXS Turbo Can-Am Rotax), and the Percivals.

Section two was closer between Uren and Ketteridge-Hall as Rodgers moved ahead of Cooper for third, and Percival improved to fifth. In the final section both Ketteridge-Hall and Rodgers became casualties as Uren was again unchallenged ahead of Cooper and Percival.

David Rowett and Kelly-Sue De Bruyn (ProLite DDR/Nissan) and Karl Richardson (Performance 2WD Nissan Navara) were fourth and fifth in the end and the only others to complete the whole 15 laps.

One lap down and sixth place went to Jason Galea and Kiera Piercy (Yamaha XYZ) and they took out SXS Sport. Next were Danielle Joyce and Jake Pugh (ProLite AL-CO Racing/Holden) with 12 laps completed. GOB

THREE ROUNDS, THREE WINS AFTER THREE rounds, Glen Raymond and Kate Catford have a perfect score in the MTA CAMS New South Wales Rally Championship, after a dominant performance in the Netier National Capital Rally around Canberra on May 11.

The third round was run in conjunction with the Australian Rally Championship and followed its one-day, two-heat format.

In their Mitsubishi EVO 9, Raymond/ Catford won both heats and six of the eight stages. In the heats, the only other crew to finish both in the top three were Tristan Kent and Kirra Penny (EVO 9) for an overall second for the round, after a heat one second followed by a third.

Third overall went to Richard Shimmon and Jim Gleeson (EVO 7) after fourth in each heat. They finished ahead of Andrew Penny and Rhys Llewellyn (Subaru Impreza WRX), with the pair third in heat one and sixth in the afternoon.

Tom Clarke and Ryan Preston (EVO 9) started the event by taking the first two stages. However the boost hose popped off towards the end of stage three, and again 500m into stage four. They recovered to a runner-up finish in heat two, just 0.43s behind Raymond/Catford for a round fifth.

Seventh and first in the East Coast Classic Rally Series were Tom Dermondy and Eoin Moynihan in their Ford Escort RS1800. Finishing eighth and ninth were Bethany Cullen and Jasmine Lockley (EVO 6.5) and Stuart Collison and Lance Arundel (Subaru Impreza WRX STi).

Dermondy dominated the ECCRS third round, winning each stage ahead of Peter Dimmock and Pete Hellwig (Datsun 240Z), who were 10th outright, and father and son duo of Peter Stringfellow snr and jnr (Datsun Stanza) 11th overall.

GOB

Multi Club Supersprint, Wakefield Park NSW, Jun 01 State Motorkhana Championship Rd2, CBH Mirambeena Albany WA, Jun 01 Tasmania Circuit Racing Championship Rd3, Symmons Plains TAS, Jun 01-02 QR Drivers Championship Rd3, Lakeside Park QLD, Jun 01-02 Multi Club Dirt Khanacross, Benaraby Motor Sport Complex QLD, Jun 01-02 Rally of the Heatland, State Rally Championship Rd2, Burra and surrounds SA, Jun 01-02 Extravaganza of Motorsport, Multi Club Supersprint, Albany Wind Farm WA, Jun 01-02 Classic Motoring Event, Multi Club Regularity, Albany Township and Mt Clarence WA, Jun 01-02 Boddington Safari Rally, State Off Road Championship Rd3, Boddington WA, May 31-Jun 03 State Rallysprint Championship Rd5, Barraganyatti NSW, Jun 02 Club Khanacross, Sydney Dragway NSW, Jun 02 Multi Club Khanacross, Bryant Park VIC, Jun 02 Multi Club Khanacross, The Quarry Bathurst NSW, Jun 02 State Multi Club Hillclimb Rd2, Collingrove SA, Jun 02 Club Motorkhana, Boisdale Hillclimb Complex VIC, Jun 02 Multi Club Supersprint, Pheasant Wood Circuit NSW, Jun 02 Multi Club Khanacross, 285 Dee Rd Millgrove VIC, Jun 02 Multi Club Supersprint, Collie Motorplex WA, Jun 02 State Challenge Hillclimb Trophy Series Rd2, Collingrove SA, Jun 02 Club Hillclimb, Fairbairn Park ACT, Jun 02 Club Hillclimb, Ringwood Park, Jun 02 Shannons Nationals Rd2, TCR Australia Rd2, Australian GT Rd3, Porsche GT3 Cup Rd3, Australian Formula 4 Rd3, Australian Formula 4 Rd4, Phillip Island VIC, Jun 06-09 Australian Mini Nationals, Hay NSW, Jun 07-09 Finke Desert Race, CAMS Off Road Racing Championship 2, Alice Springs NT, Jun 07-10 Sydney Classic, HSRCA Historic, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Jun 08-09 Mudbash, Club Khanacross, Mafeking Rover Park VIC, Jun 08-09 Muscle Car Challenge Hillclimb, Noosa QLD, Jun 08-09 Southern Cross Rally Series Rd3, Bega NSW, Jun 08-09 State Hillclimb Championship Rd5, One Tree Hill VIC, Jun 08-09 State Hillclimb Championship Rd5, Mountain View Grafton NSW, Jun 08-09 State Off Road Club Shield Rd3, Moyston VIC, Jun 08-09

CAN AMS CAN DO THE SXS Turbo class went onetwo in the Scott’s Hydraulics Dondingalong Off Road Challenge, round two of the NSW Off Road Racing Championship on May 18-19.

Peter Carr and Matt Wyndham won ahead of Nathan Chivas and Scott O’Connor, both crews piloting CanAm Turbos and split by just under 50s in the end. A further 24.38s adrift were Justin Guy and Eric Hume in their Pro Buggy Jimco/Chev V8, despite being the fastest in the fifth and final race.

Held at the Dondingalong Circuit,

13km south west of Kempsey, the event consisted five four-lap races, with cars starting each in rows of three, spaced at 20s intervals.

Kicking off on the right note, Carr won the prologue and then won the first race by 11s over Phil Lovett and Luke Stanley (Can-Am), Chivas, Justin Chisholm and Irene Keramidas (Yamaha 1000c Turbo) and Derek Rose and Tim Baxter in their Pro Buggy Southern Cross/Mitsubishi Turbo.

The second race was halted due to an accident and carried

Multi Club Hillclimb, Bryant Park VIC, Jun 08-09 HSV Fest Track Day, Multi Club Motorkhana, Logic Centre Wodonga VIC, Jun 09 Club Autocross, Bunbury Autocross Circuit WA, Jun 09 Multi Club Supersprint, upersprint,, Sandown Raceway VIC, Jun 09-10

Image: Gordon Robb

over to Sunday. Danny and Bruce Morgan rolled their Production 4WD Mitsubishi Pajero and fortunately both were okay.

Carr maintained his lead as Chivers climbed to second and Lovett fell to third when his mount went onto limp mode.

Worse was to come for the latter with two broken axles in the third race as Carr continued ahead of Chivers, with Guy jumping to third. In race four there was another rollover, at the same place as the previous day and involving Alex Gradys and

Jay Neate in their Can-Am. SXS Turbos filled the next two spots with Chisholm fourth and Luke Kenyon going solo in his Extreme 2WD Chev for fifth, ahead of Josh Nurrish and Danny Krappick (Extreme 4WD Ford Ranger/Chev).

Eighth placed Glenn Spizzo and Doug Cupit (Spizzo/Nissan) took out Sportlite, Super 1650 went to Tom Berry and Zeekiel Stokes (Nissan powered buggy), while Greg and Sarah Barron (Hunter Rivmaster/ Suzuki) topped the Sportsmans.

GOB

THE NOT SO SAFETY CAR THE SAFETY car is meant to be deployed when an incident on track requires the intervention of recovery vehicles.

The safety car drivers’ job then becomes to slow the field down so no further incident occurs.

At leat that’s what is supposed to happen.

The first race of the 2019 Chinese Touring Car Championship can only be described as one the most bizarre starts to any race.

As the cars were competing their formation lap before the championship had even begun, a safety car suddenly entered the circuit and caused a huge pile up.

The SUV safety car entered the track at some speed, without warning, straight into the path of the front row.

Soon not be pole sitter David Zhu spotted the mobile chicane and darted to the left, straight into the path of his team mate and brother Juan Carlos Zhu! The safety car’s antics scattered cars everywhere across circuit as drivers reacted in avoidance, though fortunately no others were damaged in this wholly avoidable incident.

Both Zhu brothers were unable to retake their place on the front row with severe damage, so we think it’s fair to say that they probably aren’t the biggest fans of safety cars right now.

The very first appearance of a safety car in Formula 1 was simply an embarrassing failure.

At the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix safety car driver Eppie Wietzes picked up the wrong car, one that was a lap down. As a result of this calamity it took many hours for the officials to work out who had actually won the race, and

58 AutoAction

because of this the safety car disappeared for 20 years.

Unfortunately, the Chinese incident was not the first safety car related incident and it certainly won’t be the last.

In 1995, for example, a Jeep ploughed into the back of a Formula 3 driver in Germany.

These accidents haven’t just occurred at a national level, either.

In the 2009 World Touring Car Championship the safety car was parked around a blind corner and was hit heavily by race leader Franz Engstler, destroying both cars.

Even the medical car has got in on the action, such as when the passenger opened the door on Nick Heidfeld’s Formula 1 car, wiping him out of the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2002.

Unfortunately, this most recent incident is unlikely to be the last caused by either a safety car or medical car.

But let’s hope for racing drivers around the world, the Chinese safety car driver sticks to his day job. Dan McCarthy

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