Auto Action #1764

RICCIARDO SPEAKS OUT NO RENAULT REGRETS .COM.AU

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BULL FIGHT Holden factory team not giving up

SHOWDOWN! ROLAND VS FOGES BATTLE OF THE BELLIGERENTS

ALFA CENTAURI

Inside TCR’s Italian stallion

Issue #1764

27 June to 10 July , 2019

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SUPERCARS DISSING FANS WHY THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU

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DARING DAN’S FIGHTING WORDS

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Image: Renault

Ricciardo won’t back off despite penalties for last-lap scramble at Paul Ricard, reports DAN KNUTSON RELENTLESS RACER Daniel Ricciardo has no misgivings about his fierce fight with Lando Norris and Kimi RäikkĂśnen on the last lap of the French Grand Prix, even though race stewards subsequently gave the attacking Aussie two five seconds penalties that demoted him from seventh to 11th in the final results. “From my side, I’m glad I tried,â€? Ricciardo declared immediately after the race. “I have no regrets whatever happens because it was the last lap, a position [to be gained] and it is never my style to sit back and be the conservative one in a battle. So we will see. “Hopefully, fingers crossed, they (the stewards) are OK with it. I think I have a pretty good explanation for them. It was fun, nice to have a battle at the end.â€?

The Renault F1 star added: “I don’t think I gained an advantage from being off track – if anything, it hurt me. The problem is it is such an open track. If there are walls, then I am in the wall. “The difficult thing as well is that there are so many blind spots with these wide cars and the

mirrors being where they are. So I am trying to be respectful and be on my line, but it is so hard to see.�

Race officials, however, did not agree with Ricciardo’s view and the FIA’s Acting Race Director, Australian Michael Masi, took action. “The whole incident, with Lando and subsequently with Kimi, was referred to the stewards immediately,� Masi said. “For me, there was something in it. “Obviously, cars went off track, and there was a change of positions, which is generally a note for me to send it through. Particularly in the last 30 seconds before the end of the race.�

About three hours afterwards, the stewards handed down two rulings, both of which found Ricciardo guilty of breaches.

The first offence was that he left the circuit and rejoined unsafely forcing another driver off the track.

The ruling: “Ricciardo started to pass Norris on the outside at turn 8. At the exit of the corner, he distinctly left the track and the stewards determined that he rejoined at an

angle that forced Norris off the track to avoid the collision. “The stewards accepted Ricciardo’s explanation that when he was rejoining the track, he had slowed considerably, going down extra gears and locking up the front left tyre.

He also stated that the rumble strips in the turn made the car more difficult to control. “However, the stewards considered that the sequence of events constituted rejoining the track unsafely and he subsequently took the position from Norris.�

The second punishable incident was that Ricciardo left the track and gained a lasting advantage passing another car.

The stewards’ report: “Following the incident at turn 8 with Norris, RäikkĂśnen managed to pass both Norris and Ricciardo. Ricciardo, who by then had regained control of his car, then chased RäikkĂśnen from turn 9 and subsequently passed RäikkĂśnen. “RäikkĂśnen defended his position on the straight, moving slightly to the right. However, RäikkĂśnen never put any part of his car off

the track and he did not make any move to the right while any part of Ricciardo’s car was alongside, and did not crowd Ricciardo off the track. “To make the pass, Ricciardo drove off track and then subsequently completed the pass, gaining a lasting advantage. The stewards reviewed the case to see if it was a continuation of the previous incident. “However, Ricciardo clearly had regained control of the car following his incident with Norris and the pass off track was a separate incident.�

Masi explained that he treated the reporting of Ricciardo’s manoeuvres to the stewards exactly the same as he did with Sebastian Vettel’s offense in the Canadian Grand Prix.

In both cases, the stewards gave them five seconds penalties for similar breaches of the regulations.

Drivers and fans may not like the rules, but the stewards are applying them consistently.

And the rules won’t stop Ricciardo from attacking.

INSIDE RICCIARDO SPECIAL WHY HE HAS NO RENAULT REGRETS THIS WEEK’S RACE CALENDAR

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DIAL TRIPLE 0 HOLDEN FACTORY TEAM’S EMERGENCY CALL Triple Eight boss Roland Dane vows ‘No Surrender!’ as he tells MARK FOGARTY how his beleaguered squad is fighting back TRIPLE EIGHT Race Engineering is down but not defeated, with the once all-conquering squad preparing to mount a fightback against new Supercars superpower DJR Team Penske in the second half of the season.

As Scott McLaughlin rampages towards his second straight title in his unstoppable Ford Mustang, Triple Eight supremo Roland Dane is convinced his team has the depth of

talent and experience to recover.

Dane rejects any suggestion that Red Bull Holden Racing Team is in crisis after the worst first half of a season in more than a decade, winning just one race to Shell V-Power Racing’s 14.

“We never give up,” he declared. “We have plenty to do, but we don’t give up – and if we’re not quick enough, we say so.

“But on the other hand, when we do have positives, we also take them on

board and try to maximise them.”

Despite playing catch-up with the DJRTP Mustangs’ out-of-thebox superiority over the Holden Commodore ZB, which hasn’t measurably been helped by parity adjustments, Dane sees light at the end of the tunnel.

He was particularly encouraged

by Jamie Whincup’s performance at Darwin, recovering from a poor qualifying and a first-lap incident in the

Sunday race that saw him fall back to 24th to come home a fighting fifth.

“I was really pleased with Jamie’s effort,” Dane said. “We had some issues in qualifying, but he showed real pace in the race on Sunday. He had the second fastest race car out there.

“We could’ve been smarter on Saturday strategywise; on Sunday we were spot on and the car showed more speed than anyone but the #17,

ROLAND VS FOGES! THE BATTLE BEGINS ON PAGE 20 – AND CONTINUES NEXT ISSUE, ON SALE JULY 11 4 AutoAction

Image: LAT

FAN STORM OVER ‘SECRET’ AERO CHANGE

By MARK FOGARTY

Image: LAT

so I was actually not unhappy with that. Our qualy situation wasn’t good, but racewise, I was very pleased with the way that played out.

“Jamie’s car/driver/engineer set-up in the races was extremely good and really showed up on the Sunday.”

Darwin was the second time this year Triple Eight didn’t finish on the podium in either race – and this year is the first time that’s happened since Townsville 2015.

“We pride ourselves on being on the podium,” Dane said. “But also by the same token, I put more store than anything into where our performance really is.

“For wherever reason, Jamie ended up in P24 on the end of lap one (in Darwin’s Sunday race) and that compromised his race from a point of view of being on the podium.

“He finished two seconds off it.

That doesn’t happen very often.”

Along with capitalising on Whincup’s underlying pace – and addressing Shane van Gisbergen’s set-up struggles –

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Dane admitted the team must stop making strategy and pit stop blunders.

The conventional wisdom is that Triple Eight has been affected more than most by the mandated restriction to linear springs, but he rejected the change as a big factor in the team’s slump.

“I don’t agree at all with that,” he said. “If it were that big a struggle, then why were we on the podium in Adelaide at the first event? OK, we weren’t at Phillip Island or Darwin.

“What is true is that with the twin spring, we did have a very good handle on it. We’d been using it longer than anyone else in the category and continued to refine it.

“But, by the same token, we hadn’t used a twin spring on the front of the car for most of last year. So it wasn’t like some teams, we weren’t going from a complete twin spring set-up to a complete linear. We were already halfway there, so it’s something that, for sure, at some circuits, driver preference can

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help or hinder you more than others.

“But [is it a big reason?]. Nah. Where’s everyone else? Why’s Chaz up and down? Why is Fabs up and down? There’s only one person who’s been consistent.

That‘s Scotty and hats off to him.

Nobody else has.”

Dane also questioned whether Erebus Motorsport had the fastest Commodores, pointing out that it was only David Reynolds running consistently at the front in his Penrite Racing ZB. “In terms of his points, yes, but he’s been up and down as well,” he said. “They’ve had weekends where they’ve been nowhere.

“I don’t think they have any better handle on it than we have.

We’re ahead of them in the teams’ championship across our two drivers. So I think they’re doing a really good job, but they’re not doing a better job.”

As well as getting his team closer to DJRTP, Dane is embroiled in renewal talks with Holden and Red Bull to continue their backing.

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STRUGGLING SUPERSQUAD Triple Eight triggered the changes to the ZB Commodore’s aerodynamics that were ‘secretly’ approved ahead of the Darwin Triple Crown.

As Supercars supremo Sean Seamer denied a cover-up, it has been revealed that Triple Eight, which is the Holden homologation team, applied for the aero concessions in a submission to the Supercars Commission.

The Commodores are now running with an altered front undertray and reduced maximum rear wing angle after the Commission approved the changes on Wednesday, June 12 – nine days before the Darwin event began.

The way the ZB’s aero tweaks were introduced, without an official public announcement, caused widespread dissent among fans, who vented their disapproval on social media.

Although denied, the secrecy was widely interpreted as an attempt by Supercars to avoid further public controversy about the on-going parity debate, with team bosses and other figures almost universally critical of the tactic.

Fans were outraged that they weren’t informed about an important decision that was relevant to their understanding of the racing.

The ZB’s aero concessions only came to light on the Friday at Darwin and still haven’t been formally acknowledged or explained by Supercars.

It was left up to Triple Eight’s Roland Dane, Tickford Racing’s Tim Edwards and WAU’s Ryan Walkinshaw to confirm the Commodore’s aero adjustment, at the inaugural team principals’ media conference at Hidden Valley a few hours after the story broke.

Dane outlined that the extension strip at the rear of the front undertray had been re-angled – believed to be more acutely upwards – and the maximum angle of the rear wing had been reduced from 19.5 to 18.5 degrees.

The adjustments were aimed at shifting the ZB’s downforce balance slightly more toward the front.

Triple Eight’s instigation of the revision only came to light in an unreleased media statement, the existence of which was revealed by chance.

It said: “The commission approved a submission from Triple Eight, on behalf of the Holden teams, which requested a change to the angle of the front under tray and rear wing in order to shift the aerodynamic balance of the vehicle.”

The statement had been prepared on the Thursday in the event that Supercars received a direct request from media for an official comment.

Despite enquiries seeking information about the ZB’s aero adjustment, Supercars didn’t issue the statement because no one from the media asked specifically for an official statement.

Auto Action secured the unissued statement by asking for it explicitly after being alerted to its existence by an awkward case of miscommunication.

Despite Seamer’s assurance that there was no intention to keep the Commodore’s parity update secret, AA was told by several team bosses and drivers that they were instructed by Supercars not to talk about it to the media in the lead-up to Darwin.

The ZB’s aero tweaks are the latest of the parity adjustments aimed at reducing the Ford Mustang’s advantage.

None has stopped DJR Team Penske’s Mustangs from dominating, with 14 wins from 16 races.

Why Supercars is disrespecting the fans – see Foges column on page 15

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SUPER MAC TO RACE IN STATES HINT

By MARK FOGARTY TEAM PENSKE boss Tim Cindric has dropped a huge hint that Scott McLaughlin could switch to racing in the USA as soon as next year.

Confirming that a decision on DJR Team Penske’s driver line-up in 2020 will be made within days, Cindric has also cheekily introduced the possibility that a replacement for McLaughlin might be needed.

While speculation has concentrated on Chaz Mostert vying for Fabian Coulthard’s place at DJRTP, there now might be a chance that ‘Super Mac’ will be despatched to the States to race for Team Penske in NASCAR or IMSA sports cars.

Such a move would make Mostert the logical target to take over alongside Coulthard.

Both Mostert and Coulthard are in the final seasons of their current agreements with Tickford Racing and DJRTP respectively.

Cindric, the president of Team Penske, was at Darwin to witness McLaughlin’s historic Triple Crown sweep.

Asked when DJRTP’s driver lined-up for 2020 would be confirmed, he said: “Our goal was to be able to confirm by the end of the month, by the end of June. I wanted to come here and understand the landscape and then go back to the team.

“We’ve had some real good discussions with our people internally, so we’re satisfied.”

Cindric agreed that Penske’s Aussie outpost was close to locking in its line-up for next year and beyond.

But when it was suggested that only McLaughlin’s DJRTP teammate was in discussion, he tantalisingly commented: “As long as the other one stays here.”

Pressed further on McLaughlin’s future, Cindric teased: “As long as he stays here. That’s for you to speculate. When we announce our driver lineup, then you’ll know.”

Cindric’s allusion to the possibility that

Image: LAT

McLaughlin could leave Supercars to begin his American Team Penske ‘apprenticeship’ as soon as next year tallies with other intelligence Auto Action has received.

A senior DJRTP insider indicated that if McLaughlin successfully defended his title – which is almost now a given – and also won the Bathurst 1000, he would join Team Penske in the USA next year.

While Cindric acknowledged that Team Penske has long-term plans for the Brisbane-based, Australian-raised Kiwi star, he maintained that no firm program had been decided yet.

“We’d love to see him achieve his goals and, collectively, we’re trying to determine what exactly they are and how those can all be achieved,” he said. “He still has goals he wants to accomplish in this series and that whole thing is probably not as simple as just saying let’s go across the pond and go race something.

“You want to set him up for some success rather

than just going through the motions of saying ‘Yeah, you get to race in America’. Well, I don’t think he has any interest in just racing in America.

He wants to go there and compete at a high level.”

When asked about a multi-year structured program for McLaughlin in the States, and whether it would be Team Penske’s Ford NASCAR or Acura IMSA sports car programs, Cindric was noncommittal.

“That plan hasn’t come to fruition yet,” he said.

“I think those (NASCAR or IMSA) are all things we haven’t come to a conclusion on what would be the right path yet.

“That crossroads hasn’t come yet.”

Cindric also noted that McLaughlin and Coulthard, who is second in the Supercars championship just over a round behind in points, were a perfect pairing.

“They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do,” he said. “There’s more to it than what happens on the racetrack for us because you

Image: Insyde Media

FIRST S5000 BATCH NEARLY READY GARRY ROGERS Motorsport is busy putting the finishing touches on the first run of five S5000 cars in its Dandenong workshop as it waits for the final parts to arrive from across the ditch.

Building of the S5000s is being led by GRM’s own car builder Nan Kloth after the team took charge of the project prior to Christmas last year.

“The hold up of showing more cars at this particular moment has been supply of gearbox housings from Holinger, which has produced all of the internals and a lot of the fabricated components throughout the car,” GRM director Barry Rogers told Auto Action.

“The castings for the gearbox housings are completed in New Zealand and we didn’t expect them until now, so they should arrive in the next week to complete the five cars we’ve got at work and a further nine chassis arrive in a week’s time.”

It comes at a busy time for the team after announcing it was ‘open for business’ ahead of the impending S5000 debut in September.

Rogers told Auto Action that interest has grown

6 AutoAction

since the announcement and that a number of international enquiries have taken place through NZ’s Toyota Racing Series.

“We have had over the last week since we announced we were open to selling and leasing the cars, quite a bit of interest,” Rogers stated. “We do have some commitments in regards to wanting to lease vehicles.

“We haven’t sold a car as yet, our endeavours really from a business plan perspective if all 14 cars are leased that is not an issue for us.”

“We have had some interest through Europe via teams that contest the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand. There are international drivers looking for open-wheel seat time in their European off-season, so I think there will be some drivers that get involved, we hope, and if we run earlier next year there will definitely be a chance of attracting some European and US drivers.”

Development using the original S5000 chassis continues with test driver Tim Macrow

have to be good teammates, you have to from a business perspective represent us in the right way, so it’s the combination we look for.”

Whatever happens next year, Team Penske clearly has plans for McLaughlin in the States in the not-too-distant future.

If he doesn’t go next year, it’s almost certain he’ll go in 2021.

In that case, it is widely expected that Mostert will sign an interim deal next year before replacing McLaughlin at DJRTP in ’21 in a pre-arranged deal.

Given Coulthard’s form revival, it is now less likely that he will be ousted by Mostert if McLaughlin stays.

But if the champion-elect moves to the States next year, expect to see Mostert move in alongside Coulthard.

According to Cindric’s timetable, at least part of the DJRTP puzzle should be revealed early next month.

piloting the car, which features a large amount of Australian componentry fitted to the Onroak Formula 3 chassis.

“There has been a bit of development work, both with the engine alongside Roger Higgins and his company Innov8, so there has been engine development as we’ve gone along,” said Rogers.

“Innov8 has done a really, really good job with the development of the dry sump, the injection system and other little modifications to the engine, to really make it very, very versatile. It has also added to the longevity of the engines so maintenance is at a minimum.

“The has also been chassis development, although they have been built by Onroak, but in regards to front end, rear end, wishbone design, various uprights we’ve tried along the way, different steering racks, just to really get good feel for the car.”

Although a May debut was envisioned for the class, the push back to Sandown is a perfect way for the category to debut in September.

“Debuting at Sandown – arguably the home of Formula 5000 in the 1970s – is a pretty special place to be pulling them out for the first time,” Rogers concluded. Heath McAlpine

HEIMGARTNER HAPPY AT KELLY RACING But Kiwi young gun admits change of team possible for 2020

By BRUCE NEWTON KIWI YOUNG gun Andre Heimgartner, a major silly season target, would be happy to stay at Kelly Racing next year.

But the Melbourne-based 24-year-old, who has emerged as the privateer Nissan Altima squad’s strongest racer this season, admits he has been sounded out by other Supercars teams.

Heimgartner, who offers the appealing combination of pace and financial backing, is shaping as one of the main players in the driver market.

While the resolution of Chaz Mostert’s and Fabian Coulthard’s futures is the primary focus, the futures of Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq and Anton de Pasquale are on the next line of importance.

“It’s nice being wanted and all that sort of stuff, but at this stage, the Kellys have put their faith in me and I don’t intend to go anywhere at the moment,” Heimgartner told Auto Action. “But we’ll just wait and see, you never know what can happen. I might be sitting on the couch again next year. It’s not all done yet.

“This off-season is going to be interesting. A few people are moving around, a few people might be retiring, there’s different stuff, there’s rumours of new teams coming in.”

Heimgartner has scored Kelly Racing’s sole podium in 2019 – a third place at Phillip Island. He’s been the driver out of the Nissan quartet who’s been able to race most consistently in the front half of the field in a car that is still having substantial aerodynamic changes sorted.

He is 15th in the points, with an average qualifying position of 14.7 and average finishing position of 13.7.

Team lead Rick Kelly is 18th with a 16.6 average finishing position.

Co-owner Kelly has the better qualifying average at 13.6.

Heimgartner has had to fight hard to become a driver in demand in Supercars. He came into the championship full-time as a 19year old driving for Super Black Racing in 2015, but didn’t last the season.

After a stint at LDM in 2016, he dropped out of Supercars in

Image: Ross Gibb

2017, but revived his career with a strong showing for BJR in the Enduro Cup as a late replacement for the injured Ash Walsh.

That led to his deal with Kelly Racing for 2018, which was extended to this year.

“It’s been a rocky road over the last five or so years, fighting to be in that position (of demand),” Heimgartner said. “That’s been one of the hardest things.”

Driving a Subaru STi for Kelly Racing, Heimgartner is the only Supercars full-timer also contesting the new TCR Australia Series. He is also contesting the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia for HubAuto Racing.

“I think any time you can be in a car and go through the processes of starts and all that sort of stuff, thinking about how the car is feeling when you are driving it (is positive),” he said. “It doesn’t matter if the car is front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

“Of course, when you drop back in a Supercar, sometimes it takes a couple more laps to get into it, but overall you drive smarter, you’re more switched on and overall it’s a good thing.”

Heimgartner and the Kellys have taken on a huge task racing the Italian-built TCR Subaru as it is not being campaigned anywhere else

SUPERCARS’ FUTURE TO BE REVEALED

By MARK FOGARTY SUPERCARS WILL reveal next year’s calendar and the future of V8 racing at the Townsville 400 next week.

As well as the 2020 schedule, Supercars will outline the broad plan for the Next Generation technical rules due in 2021.

Other technical changes for next year – like control dampers and further cost-cutting measures – are also likely to be confirmed.

Supercars is planning to present its vision for the sport in the near future during the July 5-7 event at Townsville, led by the announcement of next year’s new-look calendar.

The series is set for a shake-up with a split season beginning earlier and ending later, divided by a nine-week winter break across July/August/ September.

There will also be revised race formats, some reshuffled dates and probably a couple of casualties as Supercars looks to reduce the schedule to 14 events as a cost-saving measure.

With Sydney Motorsport Park set to return with a mid-year night racing event, Winton and Phillip Island – both up for renewal – are vulnerable.

Supercars is negotiating new agreements with Townsville, Gold Coast and Queensland Raceway, all of which are expected to be renewed on multiyear deals.

There is also the possibility that Tailem Bend will replace Sandown in the Enduro Cup with a midSeptember lead-in to the Bathurst 1000.

If that happens, Sandown will stay in November

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Image: LAT

with a single-driver race format, most likely with a pair of 250 km mini-enduros to retain the Sandown 500 moniker.

Supercars supremo Sean Seamer told Auto Action that he plans a wide-ranging presentation at Townsville along with the 2020 calendar.

“We would like to talk about all of our plans for 2020 at Townsville,” Seamer said. “So rather than release everything piecemeal, talk about ‘Here’s our plan for 2020, this is what the calendar looks like, this is what the car’s going to look like, this is what the development into ’21 looks like, formats, night racing’, the whole thing.

“So we’re looking to put together a bit of a presentation and take everybody through it rather than drip-feeding out pieces, and not understanding the nuances and the interrelationships between those things.”

He confirmed that the changes were outlined to team owners at a meeting on the Thursday of the Darwin Triple Crown.

“The teams are already across where we’re at, what we’re looking to do,” Seamer said.

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in the world.

At the opening round in Sydney, Heimgartner and teammate Molly Taylor encountered a variety of technical issues, while at Phillip Island Heimgartner was taken out twice.

“That car doesn’t want to be on the podium.” Heimgartner joked.

“It definitely is [a big development challenge]. The car is clearly a bit different to other ones. It doesn’t mean it can’t be fast, but it will take a lot more work and we don’t have as many tuning tools with our car as some of the other ones.

“But in saying that, we still manage to race it up there (at the front), which is good fun.”

The Townsville presentation will also provide an update on the Next Generation evolution of the technical and eligibility rules.

“We’ll talk about what is under consideration for the development of the car and what we’re looking at from ’20 into ’21,” Seamer said.

He suggested that there will interim moves towards Next Generation next year.

“What we’re currently looking at for 2021, we think there are some steps we can make next year to get there,” he said.

Seamer reported that renewal negotiations for Townsville and the Gold Coast were on-track to secure new multi-year deals.

“Are going well, yes,” he said. “So we’re not completed with all of our government parties

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yet, but there’s nothing to suggest that we won’t be able to release things early July around Townsville.”

Despite rumblings that the Townsville street race event is in doubt, Seamer was confident the event would continue.

“The feedback I’m getting – and it’s not for me to speak on behalf of the Queensland government – but I think you’ll find Townsville is a critical region to them,” he declared. “And when I’ve had conversations with our team owners, who are the people that matter in pit lane, they all want to keep going to Townsville.”

Pressed on whether there was any question mark over the FNQ event, he responded: “Not in my mind at the moment, no”.

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KOSTECKI BROTHERS Racing will contest all three Pirtek Enduro Cup rounds in 2019 as wildcard entries. Dunlop Super2 drivers and cousins Brodie Kostecki and Jake Kostecki will team up for the Bathurst 1000, Gold Coast 600 and Sandown 500. The Kostecki pair will make their debut in series in the Triple Eightbuilt Holden run by Jake in Super2, which is currently being converted from a VF into a ZB Commodore. This will see Jake take the wheel of Brodie’s Commodore for the remainder of the Super2 season, while Brodie will watch from the sidelines.

TIM BLANCHARD will join the Super2 series in Townsville racing under the Petronas Motorsport banner, in one of Brad Jones Racing’s VF Commodores. Since stepping back from full-time duties Blanchard has entered as a wildcard at the Perth SuperSprint as he tries to remain sharp for the Pirtek Enduro Cup, when he teams up with South Australian Nick Percat. “I’m looking forward to joining the Super2 grid in the PETRONAS Motorsport colours at Townsville,” Blanchard said.

SUPERCARS DRIVERS Shane van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner participated in the third round of Blancpain GT Asia. Van Gisbergen, making his debut in the series, finished race 1 alongside his teammate Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim in 13th, Heimgartner and Yuya Sakamoto finished fourth. At the start of race 2 van Gisbergen charged from 16th to 7th on the opening lap and continued to make his way forwards.

After the driver changes, a couple of late race safety cars were called during one of which Ibrahim fired through the gravel trap falling to ninth. In the final five minutes Sakamoto took second position and made a move for the lead, running through the chicane. He and Heimgartner came home fourth once again, while Ibrahim in the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 ended the race in the tyre wall at 130R on the final lap.

PRESIDENT DONALD Trump is set to award Roger Penske with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in America.

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Image: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

GRM WANTS TO BUILD TCR RENAULTS

By MARK FOGARTY

GARRY ROGERS Motorsport is talking with the maker of the TCR Renault Meganes about supplying parts and even building cars here for the world market.

Independent constructor Milenko Vukovic visited GRM last week to view its facilities and discuss a closer alliance, including making composite panels - and, eventually, complete cars.

GRM runs a pair of Megane RS TCRs built in Switzerland by the small Vukovic Motorsport operation for Supercars refugees James Moffat and Chris Pither.

The association could also lead to co-drives for Moffat and Pither at the TCR Spa 500 superenduro.

The 500-lap race will be staged at the famous 7 km SpaFrancorchamps circuit in Belgium

capacity to build complete cars for Vukovic for the international market.

Although not quite a one-man band, Vukovic Motorsport is very small operation supported by the principal’s main body repair business.

The eccentric Swiss former racer was in Melbourne from late last Tuesday to Friday, spending two days at GRM, which has extensive composite panel production and engineering ability at its Dandenong South factory in Melbourne’s southeast.

Despite language difficulties, German-speaking Vukovic had extensive discussions with Garry and Barry Rogers about future partnerships.

“We’re interested in making cars and things,” Rogers Snr told Auto Action. “But that’s a long way away

at the moment. There’s no deal yet.”

Rogers is pleased with the association and satisfied with the Megane, in which Moffat was very competitive at Phillip Island earlier this month.

“What I like about Milenko is his enthusiasm,” he said. “And we’re happy to be racing those cars.”

The most immediate potential for GRM is to produce composite parts for Vukovic to replace the fibreglass panels.

GRM has approval to substitute composite components on its pair of Meganes and also to conduct a light-weighting program with the mechanicals.

The work might ultimately lead to an agreement with Vukovic to build complete cars here for sale overseas.

GRM also fields two Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloces in the TCR Australia Series.

surprised if somebody could just show up there and contend for victory, and we don’t really have an interest in just participating.”

Team Penske IndyCar and IMSA drivers like Power, Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and even NASCAR star Brad Keselowski have expressed interest in racing at Bathurst.

Apart from the lack of pre-event testing available Image: LAT to internationals, Cindric pointed out that the clash with Petit Le Mans was a problem prepared to participate in that event than they can in the because drivers and additional Bathurst race.” team personnel wouldn’t be Cindric also reiterated that DJR available.

Team Penske wasn’t interested in “When Petit Le Mans conflicts expanding to three cars, despite with Bathurst, the odds of wildcards and international drivers the ready availability of RECs. “No, no, no,” he declared. coming becomes less and less The Darwin Triple Crown, which because of their commitments DJRTP’s Scott McLaughlin there,” he explained. “Obviously, historically swept, was Cindric’s it’s easier for them to be more

first visit to a Supercars event this year.

His next scheduled appearance here is the Sandown 500 in November.

Team patriarch Roger Penske, who was at last month’s Perth SuperNight, is set to return for the Bathurst 1000.

“I think it’s important for Roger to be there,” Cindric said. MF

from October 4-6 – the week before the Bathurst 1000.

Moffat is partnering Chaz Mostert at Bathurst, while Pither is with GRM’s Richie Stanaway.

Either or both could be drafted to share Vukovic Motorsport’s Megane entry in the Spa 500.

Vukovic Motorsport is licenced

by Renault Sport to make La Regie’s TCR racer and sell it worldwide.

Although very well built, the Megane RS is over-engineered and over-weight, using fibreglass panels and hefty mechanical components.

GRM has the facilities and engineering expertise to design and produce lightweight replacement composite body panels, as well as lighter mechanical parts.

It also has the capability and

NO PENSKE WILDCARD ON HORIZON TEAM PENSKE boss Tim Cindric has ruled out an extra Bathurst 1000 wildcard entry in the foreseeable future for preparation and logistical reasons.

According to Cindric, as long as testing remains severely restricted, there is no chance of an entry at Bathurst for Team Penske stars like Australian IndyCar ace Will Power.

Furthermore, he points out that Bathurst’s clash with the IMSA season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta means the operation doesn’t have the resources to run a third car in the Mount Panorama classic.

While a wildcard entry this year is out of the question, Cindric also dismissed it in the foreseeable future.

“Our position’s the same on that, until it’s looked at as a global event in terms of being able to prepare properly for that event,” he said. “Honestly, I would be

NIGHT RACE CHANGES LOOMING

More FTA live coverage also on the cards SUPERCARS IS looking at changing the night racing format next year based on the experience of last month’s event under lights at Barbagallo Wanneroo Raceway.

More free-to-air TV coverage is also on the cards following the ratings success of the Perth SuperNight, which was a late addition to Channel 10’s live broadcasts.

However, the Friday and Saturday nights scheduling is likely to change to either Saturday night only or a Saturday night race and a Sunday daytime appearance.

The Perth SuperNight is set to continue next year, with the Sydney SuperNight also rejoining the revamped 2020 calendar.

Sydney Motorsport Park pioneered the return of night racing to Supercars last year.

The track took a break from this year’s series in anticipation of the NSW government-funded installation of permanent lighting around the circuit.

Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer thinks that while the Perth SuperNight worked for 10 and Fox Sports – and also boosted

overall track attendance – the night racing time slots need fine-tuning.

“I think we learned a little bit in terms of scheduling and the time difference between Perth and the east coast,” Seamer told Auto Action. “We were happy with it.

It was obviously the first time that we’d run that late on freeImage: LAT to-air and free-to-air is obviously different to pay in terms of how you deliver that.

“Saturday seems to work better “There are some discussions than Friday based on what we have around whether we should have seen. I can’t speak for other sports, done Saturday night/Sunday but based on what we’ve seen, it afternoon versus Friday/Saturday works better for us.” night, so there are some of those Getting the 10 network to add nuances going on that we’re the Perth SuperNight to its live looking at for next year from a Supercars events was mainly about scheduling point of view. filling the gap between the Australian “But Saturday night definitely Grand Prix and Townsville, which is works, as we’ve now seen in both the next simulcast with Fox Sports.

Sydney and Perth.”

“The rationale behind that wasn’t He added that unlike AFL or anything about the night racing,” NRL football, Supercars racing Seamer explained. “It was really in evening prime time was day about if you looked at last year, we sensitive. had no live coverage on 10 from “Day of week becomes so much AGP through to Townsville and it more important the later you go,” was a big gap for our fans. So we Seamer said. “So that’s where that wanted to plug that gap.

“I can’t speak for 10, but they nuance between Friday/Saturday/ have told me that they would like Sunday is really important.

By BRUCE NEWTON

THE COMPLEX handicapping system applied to TCR touring cars could soon be simplified.

While all cars globally are subject to Balance of Performance (BoP) testing and then potential adjustments, compensation weight is also applied in individual series and reviewed after every round.

BoP specifies ballast over and above the minimum 1265 kg weight limit, turbocharger boost and ride heights for all cars in the twolitre turbocharged front-wheel drive category.

Compensation weight is based on the fastest qualifying and race laps of each brand of car contesting a specific series.

Up to 60 kg of ballast can be applied.

Adjustment is made in 10 kg steps.

But it has become apparent, especially in the global WTCR series, that drivers and teams are intentionally lapping slowly in races in an attempt to avoid compensation weight increases and to even achieve a decrease.

In WTCR, most squads run four cars, which makes controlling lap pace much more achievable than in national series, where it’s less likely rival teams racing the same car would collude.

“I am not convinced [about compensation weight], I have to tell you that,” TCR global boss Marciello Lotti told Auto Action.

“Compensation weight in some ways helps in different championships. There is different layout of track, different drivers sometimes and different tyres that suit one more car more than another.

“But, frankly speaking, the 60 kg weight you can carry is too much. I think the

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more regular coverage, absolutely.

But we’ll see how that shakes out in the next broadcast period.”

The prospect of more FTA live coverage in the next broadcast deal from 2022 will be a key point of discussion, as will Fox Sport’s ability to match – much less exceed – the existing $241 million six-year broadcast rights deal.

As has been widely reported, Foxtel is struggling financially and there are doubts it will be able to pay big sports rights fees in the future.

Seamer, who will start serious talks about Supercars’ new broadcast rights next year, isn’t admitting to being fazed by the parlous position of Foxtel/Fox Sports.

“We just have to keep our head down and keep doing what we’re doing, and innovating in the broadcast and the formats, keep growing our ratings,” he said. “If you get distracted from your own product and making that better, that’s when you start to get into trouble.

“But we have a really good relationship with those guys (Fox Sports) – we’re doing good things with them. The [race] format changes that we’re making, the new (three-phase) qualifying, etc are delivering a lot more ratings.

“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing so when the time comes, we’re in the best position possible.” MF

TCR TO SLASH WEIGHT COMPO Weight system to be revamped, series boss promises

Image: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

(adjustment) gap should be less than 10 kg, maybe five kilos.”

Lotti maintained that race lap times should also be excised from the compensation weight calculations so teams don’t sandbag.

“Base it on qualifying and finish the discussion there,” he declared.

Lotti’s company, World Sporting Consulting Ltd, controls the technical specification of TCR, including BoP and compensation weights.

Changes to compensation weight will be discussed at a global TCR promoter meeting

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in September All entries in the new Australian series ran with the full 60 kg compensation weight at the opening round in Sydney.

But from the third round at Tailem Bend from July 12-14, the Hyundai i30 N is now the only model still at the maximum weight.

Revised compensation weights issued after the second round at Phillip Island see the VW Golf GTI drop from 50 kg to 30kg and the Honda Civic Type R fall from 50 kg to 10 kg.

The Audi RS3 LMS drops from 30 kg to zero compensation weight, as do the Holden/

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Opel Astra, Renault Megane RS and Subaru STI. The front-running Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce stays at 50 kilos compensation weight.

Immediately prior to last weekend’s Nurburgring WTCR round, the FIA announced a revision to compensation weight calculations for the series, increasing the weighting placed on qualifying times over fastest race laps. WTCR compensation weights will be based on this new formula and issued after the Nurburgring.

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LATEST NEWS

MOFFAT SEES RENAULT POTENTIAL THE NEW Zealand BNT V8 Championship has revealed a cost effective racer designed to look like a two door American muscle car. The new generation car is set to make its racing debut at the start of the 2020 championship.

The current generation cars competing under the Class One rules will remain competitive with new generation cars, as the category’s current parity tuning will remain in place.

“We have spent a lot of time finalising the specification of this new generation car with Pace Innovations and think it will be a car that teams and competitors will be excited about,” said the head of the NZ development project team Ian Barlow.

VALE – FRED VOGEL THE MOTOR racing community and in particularly the Historic movement is mourning the passing of Fred Vogel. He was a founding member of the Historic Sports & Racing Club and died two days before his 88th birthday. When living in London, he acquired his first car, an MG J2. In Australia he started racing with a Morris Minor convertible then a Jaguar Mk4 before competing in Formula Vee, racing an Austin Healey Silverstone and Lotus cars.

Besides the HSRCA, Vogel was an active member of the Vintage Sports Car Club, North Shore Sporting Car Club, Australian Automobile Racing Club, Club Lotus Australia, and Australian Racing Drivers Club. GOB

By BRUCE NEWTON

SUPERCARS REFUGEE James Moffat is drawing encouragement from his strong start in the new TCR Australia series, despite his Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault Megane RS lacking development.

Moffat claimed third place in race one of round two at Phillip Island and runs fifth in drivers’ points as the series heads to Tailem Bend from July 12-14.

“Our car is, in a way, quite underdeveloped compared with the others and we are just trying to get the absolute best out of the package we have at the moment,” the son of legend Allan Moffat told Auto Action.

The 1.8-litre petrol-turbo TCR Meganes are built by a small Swiss operation Vukovic Motorsport, which also races a single example in the hyper-competitive Euro TCR series.

Other brands, such as Audi and Hyundai, have much bigger numbers of cars on various TCR grids and significantly more race support for their customer teams.

But according to Moffat, Vukovic

Image: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

and GRM have established a strong level of communication that was already paying dividends.

The key people in the exchange are GRM tech chief Richard Hollway, veteran engineer David Swenson and Vukovic Motorsport boss Malenko Vukovic.

“That dialogue and relationship they’ve got going seems pretty strong and there is good communication there,” said Moffat, who is engineered by Hollway.

“So together with what Malenko learns each time he takes his car out and what we are learning each time we are taking our cars out, we are definitely building a better bullet.

“There’s a lot [to be done], lots.

It’s not just one silver bullet. That’s never the case.”

Moffat is enthusiastic about the

racing experience in TCR. His sideby-side battle with Will Brown for second place on the last lap of the first Phillip Island race was one of the highlights of the meeting.

“I’ve heard from a number of people it was a great race to watch and it felt like a good race from where I was as well,” he said.

“Plenty of action the whole time, whether you were attacking or defending.

“It was all happening. I got out and had a big smile on my face, and Will and I were laughing at the battle we had. Yeah, I really enjoyed it.”

The former Supercars full-timer, who is partnering Chaz Mostert in the Supercheap Auto Ford Mustang in the Enduro Cup, noted that he and Brown would not have been able to run side-by-side in the V8 racers.

“The tyres we are running offer good grip,” Moffat explained. “And they are a small nimble car and they give you confidence to be able to do that. You don’t necessarily get that in the other things.”

Despite his enthusiasm for the new category, Moffat is adamant that Supercars is under no threat from TCR as Australia’s pre-eminent touring car category.

“I only see good things happening for TCR and I just hope, somehow as an industry, we can embrace it,” he said.

“Supercars still have the major footprint in the landscape – and I think rightly so. It’s 25-30 years of hard work that’s gone into that.

“I’m enjoying being involved in TCR and seeing what it can become.”

Image: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

TANDER DISMISSES TCR AS V8 THREAT But Supercars star warns other categories to be wary of turbo terriers

MARC CARS Australia has delivered its latest chassis to new customer Con Whitlock. The striking green and yellow MARC II V8 carries the chassis tag “Farnham” and follows in the tradition of Australian Rock named cars as the 6th Marc II car to be delivered in the last 18 months. This brings the tally of MARC cars to 23 since the marque’s launch at the Bathurst 12 hour 2014. Whitlock debuted the car at Winton Motor Raceway in a Victorian State Circuit round, where he finished fifth for the weekend.

THE PHILLIP Island Grand Prix Circuit will play host to an Endurance Access race meeting this weekend on Saturday 29thSunday 30th June. Four popular race series will take to the track, Australian Production Car Series, Radical Australia Cup, 2L Sports Sedans and Australian Prototype Series.

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TCR ISN’T a threat to Supercars racing, but it is a concern for many other Australian motor sport categories fighting for their share of racing budgets.

That’s the view of Supercars and Bathurst 1000 champion Garth Tander after his first experience of the new front-wheel drive two-litre turbocharged touring car category in the second round of the TCR Australia Series at Phillip Island.

Budgets to run in TCR are affordable by racing standards and there are other advantages the category offers, according to Tander.

“I think if you are going to go and spend $300,000-$600,000 in other categories with quite expensive repair bills on top of the running costs, this (TCR) may start looking attractive,” he told Auto Action.

“The repair bills aren’t ridiculous, the upfront cost isn’t ridiculous and there’s opportunity. If you like a Renault, you can get a Renault; if you’re an Alfa nerd, you can get an

Alfa. If you want an Audi, you can get an Audi and there is great support for it.

“I don’t think you need an army of boffins to run the cars, so you probably only need two or three people to run the cars, so your staffing costs are lower and all the rest of it.

“So categories in the $400,000$600,00 price range at the moment, they’re the ones that are probably looking at TCR warily.”

Australia’s plethora of categories include Supercars’ struggling SuperUtes and poorly supported CAMS-backed Formula 4, which has just been handed to former Nissan Australia boss Richard Emery and MSR in an attempt to inject life into it.

But Tander doesn’t think Supercars needs to be concerned about its dominance of the local landscape.

“The people writing up TCR’s a threat to Supercars – it’s not

the case,” he declared. “It’s a very different type of thing. So it does have its own rung on the Australian motor sport ladder.

“The Australian motor sport landscape is very crowded at the moment with the number of categories we have, but I think this one does have a place, given the type of racing and the performance of the car for the cost.”

Despite copping some big hits in his Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS3 LMS at Phillip Island – including punting wife Leanne after being rammed himself – Tander emerged enthusiastic about the quality of the racing TCR produces.

“The thing that surprised me was how close we could run

to each other through the highspeed corners, so really the aero wash isn’t as big as its in GT and Supercars,” he noted. “That enables you to run close and do those slipstreaming battles down the front straight and up the back.

“I saw plenty of cars going sideby-side out of Siberia all the way to Lukey Heights. So I think the racing reminded me more of the Toyota 86 series. So that was enjoyable.”

Because of clashing media commitments, the semi-retired racer has no plans to compete again in TCR this season. But he is keen for another crack at some stage.

“I’d like another opportunity to do it again now that I have a weekend of experience under my belt to see what we could do,” Tander added.

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BIG PLANS FOR DARWIN TRIPLE CROWN

BY MARK FOGARTY

DARWIN SUPERCARS organisers are planning to make next year’s event a must-see for motor racing fans.

Auto Action has learned that the Northern Territory Major Events Company, which backs the annual Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway, has big plans to upgrade the event.

A major support race is likely to be added to the program, with a round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia series a major contender.

There is also speculation about track facility improvements, particularly the construction of new pit lane garages topped by permanent hospitality suites.

NTMEC general manager Tim Watsford, who oversees the territory’s biggest annual sporting event, confirmed that exciting changes were in the works for next year’s Darwin Supercars event.

“Next year is going to be different,” Watsford told AA. “It’ll be one to remember. It’s time to make it bigger and better.”

He made it clear that the plan was to boost the

racing component to broaden the event’s appeal to motor racing fans and attract more visitors from around the country.

“It’s traditional motor sport on-track action,” said Watsford, who added that the major extra drawcard was close to being signed. “By the end of July, we will contract it. We’re really close.”

NTMEC has a contract through to 2030 to keep Supercars at Hidden Valley, with the stipulation that it has to be run in the mid-year dry season.

With the looming shake-up of next year’s V8 calendar, Darwin could be shifted slightly – and according to Watsford, there is flexibility within the May-August dry weather window.

An earlier date – or the now-traditional mid-June slot – is more likely.

Watsford also wants to keep the Triple Crown format, which awards a trophy to the driver who sweeps both races and the Sunday Top 10 Shootout.

Inaugurated in 2006, Scott McLaughlin was the first to claim the prize with his crushing domination of this month’s visit to the Top End.

Tilton’s wide range of products spans across metallic, cerametallic and carbon/carbon racing clutches, hydraulic release bearings, racing clutch disc packs, racing flywheels, racing pedal assemblies and master cylinders, the renowned Super Starter series, and the accessories that make them all work together.

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PENSKE BOSS WOWED

BY SCOTT’S SPEED TEAM PENSKE chief Tim Cindric has praised Scott McLaughlin and the whole Shell V-Power Racing Team for their domination of the first half of the Supercars championship.

McLaughlin has won 12 of 16 races in his DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang, with Fabian Coulthard scoring a further two victories.

Only Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert and Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen have interrupted DJRTP’s domination, winning a race each.

Although used to winning regularly in IndyCar, NASCAR and IMSA, Cindric acknowledged that McLaughlin’s superiority was outstanding by any measure.

“Scotty’s been in the zone, without a doubt,” said the USAbased Team Penske president, who was at the Darwin Triple Crown to witness McLaughlin’s historic sweep. “I hope we can keep it going. But we’re only half-way through the year.”

Cindric noted that McLaughlin, who Team Penske is looking at switching to racing in in the USA, was a stand-out talent.

“Well, you see how competitive this series is, so when somebody like that comes along, it’s pretty special,” he said, “So, without a doubt, he’s been the guy that’s continued to take advantage of the opportunities.”

Team Penske originally wanted McLaughlin to lead an expanded two-car DJRTP in 2016, but wasn’t able to secure him until 2017.

Cindric revealed that Marcos Ambrose, who briefly kicked off Penske’s takeover of Dick Johnson Racing in early 2015, identified McLaughlin as the team’s future superstar.

“Well, you never know,” he said. “There’s no doubt that Marcos Ambrose put him on our radar, but he (McLaughlin) reached out to me and said ‘Hey, here’s who I am’.

“I still have the first email he sent me – ‘You might not know me, here’s who I am’ and so forth – and I asked Ambrose

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Image: Ross Gibb

about him and he said ‘Look, if I ever have a young teammate and somebody that I’d like to groom, I think he has the tools to do it’.”

Cindric is also amazed by DJRTP’s strike rate with the Mustang so far this season, scoring 22 podiums from 16 races.

“As the numbers stack up, you really don’t realise till you say it in that way,” he said, recalling DJRTP’s initial hard years in 2015-16. “I was thinking back to the days when a top 10 was a huge day and you can’t forget where you come from, and it’s really through the efforts of a lot of people here.

“A huge amount of work has gone into the success that we have. We didn’t just show up and be successful because of Roger’s legacy.

“We had to really put in the plan and put in the work to do it, and it’s all paying off right now. I gotta hand it to all these guys to be able to put it in that position and you can’t take that for granted.”

Cindric also acknowledged that McLaughlin’s stranglehold was Team Penske’s most dominant performance in any series in the modern era.

“You typically lose more races than you win, but you can’t say that about Scott this year,” he said. “So at this point in the season, halfway through, it’s very rare where a driver’s won more races than he’s lost.”

So impressive is McLaughlin that Cindric has hinted that the Australian-raised New Zealander could be sent to the USA as soon as next year. MF

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LATEST NEWS

TOYOTA HAS confirmed that Brendon Hartley will directly replace Fernando Alonso in the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing car for the 2019/2020 World Endurance Championship. The Kiwi will partner current LMP1 champions and two time Le Mans 24 Hour winners Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Hartley himself has won the WEC title twice and Le Mans once, during a four-year stint with Porsche.

“Brendon will replace Fernando, that is the most straightforward way to approach it,” said Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon. “There was no point in changing (anything else).”

THE FIA World Motorsport Council has confirmed that hybrid engines will be introduced to the World Rally Championship in 2022, with a second level of hybrid engines to enter the series in 2025 that would use harvested energy. The FIA also announced that WRC will return to the use of a control tyre from 2021. The WMSC stated that “the cars will feature a supplementary hybrid system, to be comprised of common components and software for the first three years, with the potential for more technical freedom in 2025.”

FORMULA E has revealed its expanded 14 race schedule for the 2019/20 season. The season will commence a little earlier with the opening two rounds to be held in Saudi Arabia on November 22-23 2019. The championship will be contested across four continents before concluding with another double header round at a unique indoor/outdoor track in London on July 25-26 2020. Korea joins the Formula E calendar for the first time as the 10th round of the series.

Asian TCR headed Down Under Australia first expansion round for regional series

By BRUCE NEWTON

AUSTRALIA WILL join the burgeoning TCR Asia regional touring car series as soon as 2020.

Currently focussed on China and the northern Asian region, the series is set to expand southward in the wake of TCR’s arrival in Australia.

It is also expected New Zealand will host a round, as it joins the TCR bandwagon next year under the auspices of Australian promoter ARG. The expansion of TCR Asia was confirmed by the category’s global boss Marcello Lotti during his recent visit to Australia for the Phillip Island TCR event.

“I think that can happen here,” Lotti said. ”Today in the Asia-Pacific, I think there are around 150 TCR cars running and I think this could easily to be a joint event.”

The Asian series has been running since 2015. This year it is conducted over 10 sprint races at Sepang in Malaysia; Zuhai, Shanghai and

Image: TCR HUB

Zhejiang in China; and Bangsaen in Thailand.

Hyundai i30 N driver Luca Engstler is leading the series with two rounds to run.

Lotti said key countries involved in an expanded Asian series would be China, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

National TCR series are currently run in the Asian region in China, Japan and Malaysia, with the Thai series set to return with a new promoter in 2020.

According to Lotti, there were also enquiries for rounds from India, Indonesia and the Phillipines.

“But before we welcome everyone, especially countries that do not have a history in touring car racing like Australia has and Japan has, I think we have to be careful,” he cautioned.

That means while Australia will

likely join the series in 2020, further expansion won’t happen till 2021 or beyond.

TCR Asia is yet another opportunity that the global series presents for Down Under racers to experience international racing.

TCR Australia and New Zealand promoter ARG and CAMS are bidding for the rights to the fifth Bathurst event, which Lotti has already said would be an appropriate home for a 500 km endurance race, supported by a sprint-racing round of the flagship WTCR series.

He confirmed he had already had discussions about an expansion with TCR Asia promoter David Sonenscher and with ARG CEO Matt Braid.

“I am sure we can find a combination with them,” Lotti said.

He is also confident current Asian

series competitors would support an expansion into the wider Asia-Pacific region.

“I think today the needs of the competitor is to have a more better spread of the (Asian) championship, because now it is concentrated on China,” Lotti said. “I spoke with different competitors and for all of them, the dream is a little bit more the presence in the Asia-Pacific area and not only north and China area.”

Braid told Auto Action there was definite interest in the Asian series in Australia, both to host a round and have local competitors take part in races here and overseas.

“We are close-by from an event point of view, a destination point of view and from the point of view of cars and teams going back and forth,” Braid said. “All those things are being discussed at the moment.”

THE NEWEST AUSTRALIAN HOPE

AUSTRALIAN JOSH Smith is competing in the South East Asian Formula 4 Championship in 2019 and after winning the fourth round of the series, he finds himself right in championship contention.

Last year Smith competed in the Australian F4 Championship, finishing ninth in the standings and recording one top five finish in the 21 races.

The Asian series however has 40 races and Smith feels this has considerably helped with his race craft.

“I was making a lot of silly mistakes (in Australian F4), going for moves that weren’t on,” Smith told Auto Action.

“With the reverse grid races (in SEA F4) having to pass those cars that are a little bit slower has helped my race craft a lot, and I definitely haven’t been making those mistakes that I had last year.”

Despite taking a race win earlier in the season Smith was nervous heading into the fourth round. After missing practice the 17-year-old went on to win his first round in the series (see race report page 14).

“Obviously not having the practice everyone else had, I didn’t have real high expectations but I still wanted to do well. I was still able to qualify third and be close to the pace, I really wanted to make the most of it and I’m happy, I think I did that,” he explained.

After the round win Smith finds himself in the championship fight and has his sights set on the major prize come season end.

“I’ve really got to push hard and make sure I get the win, that’s the only goal I have. I’m not interested in second or third I’m going to go all out to try and win this championship,” he said.

Image: F4 SEA

Next year Smith is looking at making the step up to Formula 3 racing overseas.

“The main goal for next year would be something like Formula 3 in Asia. Overseas is where I want to be, that is where the support is more for motorsport. I’ll definitely stick to racing over there, just see where it takes me, take it one race at a time and just try to win.” DM

For Sale Genuine Group C Commodore This car raced in five James Hardie 1000s - 1980 to 1984 in the hands of Scotty Taylor and Kevin Kennedy.

GOODYEAR TYRES will return to endurance racing as part of the LMP2 class in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2019/2020. The 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours will mark the first time the American tyre brand will return to the Circuit de la Sarthe since 2006, after winning the endurance classic 14 times. “The nature of the races, varying from four hours to 24 hours means tyre choice and strategy are critical,” Goodyear motorsport director Ben Crawley said.

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MERCEDES EVO GT3 2020 LAUNCHED THE WRAPS came off MercedesAMG’s 2020-specification GT3 Evo, just prior to last weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hour.

The new evolution replaces the highly successful AMG GT3, which among other titles won the Australian GT Endurance Championship in the hands of Tony D’Alberto and Max Twigg.

The 2020 model’s improvements focus on user-friendliness and reduced running costs, and is available to existing customers through an upgrade kit and if a chassis has been purchased in the last 12 months, the kit can be purchased at a discount rate.

The evolution includes an optimised front, which better protects the radiator and a new integral beam specifically designed

to protect the engine, front axle and steering.

The front splitter and rear wing can be easily adjusted, while access to the air filter is further improved. A new ‘drop start’ feature starts the engine automatically once the car is dropped from the air jacks during pit stops, reducing the time spent in pit lane.

Further changes have been made to the front apron, front diffuser and rear apron, with updated headlights and taillights.

The upgrades leave head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Stefan Wendl confident that the evolution will continue where the previous model left off.

“Developing a worthy successor for the Mercedes-AMG GT3

Image: Mercedes

that has been so unbelievably successful is by no means an easy task,” Wendl said.

“Also in its fourth season, it still remains an extremely competitive car. With the further development, we want to underline our claim to be the leader. Many of the

innovations that we are realising in the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 have resulted from the good and close co-operation with our teams.

“We are certain that we are meeting exactly the requirements of our clients with our new offering.”

A 30-hour endurance test will be

held at race speed ahead of further running with HWA and a number of customer teams at selected races later this year, including the VLN. This is ahead of deliveries being made by the end of the year, before the 2020 season opening Dubai and Daytona 24 Hour races.

THE BEND TO THE RESCUE WHEN ORGANISERS of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival announced its cancelation at Victoria Park Sprint venue due to lack of government funding, it left thousands of passionate motor sport fans disappointed.

However The Bend Motorsport Park has stepped in and has announced that it will run a classic sprint event on December 7-8.

“The AMF has been fantastic for motorsport fans in SA and around the country and it would be a shame to see some of the activities fall away,” said The Bend Motorsport Park managing director Sam Shahin.

“It’s been humbling to hear encouragement and calls of support from so many people, who have asked how The Bend Motorsport Park can play a role. As a result we are opening Registrations of Interest for drivers and categories who want to participate in The Bend Classic,” he said.

Adelaide Motorsport Festival event director Tim Possingham told Auto Action that the AMF Sprint was cancelled because of a lack of government funding, due to changes in the amount of GST revenue the state now receives from the federal government.

“The Victoria Park component is the most complex and expensive part of the event to operate, therefore it is not viable to even attempt to operate this element without the funding that is in our current budget forecast,” he said.

Image: John Lemm

“Had we (had) more time we probably could have found a solution, but due to the size of the event now and the fact that we are six months out, it’s not something we can remedy.”

However Possingham told Auto Action that he is in positive talks with corporates about getting involved for the event in 2020.

“Most large corporates don’t have discretionary spend of the type we are talking about, things of this level need to be

entered into budgets 18 months out at least. We are keen to talk with anyone who may be interested in an event partnership or naming rights.”

The Shannons Adelaide Rally and the Gouger Street Party elements of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival will continue as planned, with an additional motorsport-themed street party also in the works. The motorsport festival will take place on December 4-7. Dan McCarthy

SUPERCARS BATHURST PROP IS “SOMETHING DIFFERENT”

By MARK FOGARTY

SUPERCARS’ DELAYED submission for a fifth annual event at Bathurst won’t be for a new race.

Tallying with speculation that a Goodwood-style motoring festival is being proposed, Supercars supremo Sean Seamer confirmed that the bid would be for “something different”.

Supercars will present its submission for an extra event at Mount Panorama next month after gaining an extension from the Bathurst Regional Council.

Australian Racing Group and Mountain Motorsports presented their proposals to BRC last Thursday, which clashed with an important meeting of Supercars executives and team owners in Darwin.

In conjunction with CAMS, ARG has pitched a TCR enduro and possible WTCR sprint races for the available fifth full-closure event at Mount

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Image: LAT

Panorama, which is a public road.

Mountain Motorsports is understood to have proposed a tarmac rally-style event utilising the hillside circuit.

The additional meeting would join the existing Bathurst 12 Hour, Bathurst Six Hour, Bathurst

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1000 and Bathurst Challenge as a full multi-day track closure event.

“We’re not seeing the council until next month,” Seamer told Auto Action. “We obviously don’t talk about tender processes with government parties, but we haven’t presented yet.”

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However, he confirmed that Supercars wouldn’t be proposing a race-based event or the reintroduction of a sprint race round at Mount Panorama.

“We want to do something different,” Seamer said. “We don’t think another race on that mountain [would work]. Just another race isn’t the right thing.

“It’s been talked about and looked at a number of times, so we are working on something different with them and our partners, and that is evolving as we go through the process.”

It is widely understood that Supercars’ bid is for a Goodwood Festival Of Speed-style event based on displays and demonstrations of highperformance road cars and special race cars, with a heavy emphasis on a garden party social atmosphere.

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LATEST NEWS

BRITON JAMIE Chadwick took her second victory in the W-Series, edging out Beitske Visser by just 0.5s to win the Italian round of the series at the Misano World Circuit. As a result of a mechanical issue, Australian Caitlan Wood’s qualifying session was hampered and came to an early end. From the back of the field she made her way up to a respectable 14th. She sits 12th in the series standings halfway through the inaugural W-Series, the next round at the Norisring in Germany takes place on July 6.

AUSTRALIAN BART Horsten, who competes in the British F4 Championship, recorded two podium finishes in the two races at the Croft Circuit. After qualifying fourth, Horsten made a good start and took advantage of the battling Double R Racing cars ahead, pulling off a move on Louis Foster for third. Later in the race the other Double R Racing car of Sebastian Alvarez received a penalty for jumping the start, Horsten bagging a second place finish. Race 2 was abandoned due to horrific weather conditions, but Race 3 went ahead as planned. Once again Horsten made a good start in taking third off Alvarez, the Australian then held on to the final podium position to the end of the race.

AUSTRALIAN JOSH Car finished on the podium in all three races of the USF4 at the Pittsburgh International race complex. Car finished the opening race in second, behind Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport teammate Arthur Leist, who recorded his first victory. The Aussie finished the second race in third, before bouncing back to take the victory in the third and final race. After two rounds Car leads the standings by eight points, the next round is at the Virginia International Raceway on 26-28 July.

DOOHAN CLOSING IN ON SASAHARA THREE AUSTRALIANS raced in the third round of the Asian Formula 3 Championship at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan.

Jack Doohan, son of motorcycle racing legend Mick Doohan, took two of the three race wins across the weekend and gained on Hitech Grand Prix teammate Ukyo Sasahara at the top of the standings.

Jackson Walls made his debut in the series recording a podium finish in the second race of the weekend, while Tommy Smith had a challenging weekend failing to finish in the top 10.

In the first race of the weekend Sasahara made a poor start, Doohan made a great start and lead into Turn 1. A big accident

it counted,” Doohan said.

In the second race Doohan led from pole position until his car ground to a halt in the closing stages of the race when the field was running behind the safety car.

Sasahara inherited the victory to extend his championship lead, Jackson Walls benefitted from his fellow Australian’s mishap as he was promoted to the final spot on the podium.

Doohan came from fourth on the grid in Race 3 to take the victory after Sasahara got a drive through for turning around Petr Ptacek. Sasahara finished the race down in ninth, allowing Doohan to close to within nine points in the standings while Walls finished off the round with a top five finish.

MCELREA TAKES FIRST U.S WIN HUNTER MCELREA and Cameron Shields performed once again at the Road America round of USF2000, McElrea claiming two podium places including his first race victory, with Shields also taking home a trophy.

In Race 1 McElrea started from second and remained behind his pole sitting teammate Colin Kaminsky at the start. A feisty battle further back which included Shields and championship leader Braden Eves allowed the two Pabst Racing Services teammates to break away from the field.

As the leaders began the third lap McElrea slip streamed up alongside the American to take the lead, from there the Kiwi

SMITH STELLAR PERFORMANCE IN ASIA

AUSTRALIAN JOSH Smith won the fourth round of the South East Asian Formula 4 Championship at the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand, recording a victory and three second place finishes.

Despite missing practice Smith qualified third, in the first race he was involved in a brilliant four car scrap for the win. The Australian finishing second just 0.5s behind the race winner Lucca Allen.

Smith started first reverse grid race from eighth, avoiding an early crash the 17-year-old found himself fourth by the end of the first lap. From there Smith showed great pace and continued his march forwards to the race lead, holding off Muizz Musyaffa by just under 0.4s at the line to take his second win of the season.

Race 3 was another reverse grid race, this time the former

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occurred further back involving multiple cars, fortunately all drivers escaped unhurt but a safety car was called onto the circuit to recover the broken vehicles.

After the long safety car period Doohan made a good start keeping his Japanese teammate Sasahara behind. Further back Jordan Dempsey came under fire from Walls, but Walls could not get past and finished seventh, while Smith fell off the circuit near the end of the race. Doohan out front held on to take his third straight victory.

“I knew it was going to be pretty tough given the Suzuka Circuit and Ukyo’s knowledge around here. Luckily, I managed to get a good start, which I’ve rarely been able to do lately. I did it when

edged away pulling out a 3.5s by the end of the race.

“This feels like an entire elephant off my back, maybe two. This is what you work for, these moments. I knew I had the guys behind me to do it, it was just a matter of time. I’ll remember this day for the rest of my life,” McElrea said.

Manuel Sulaiman held third but was quickly demoted to fifth by both Shields and Eves, Shields held onto third by less than half a second from Eves.

Before the start of the second race McElrea’s engine went into limp home mode, but fortunately the problem was fixed and the Kiwi was able to start from pole position.

McElrea kept his head and

made a good start leading into the first turn, but coming down the pit straight to start lap 2 Eves got in the draft and took the lead into Turn 1.

Eves drove off into the distance and was not challenged again, McElrea meanwhile did not have the pace as he did in the first race and was involved in a four car scrap for second position.

The decisive move came on

Australian Formula 4 driver started ninth, once again he charged through the field, setting the fastest lap of the race on his way to record another second place finish.

In Race 4 Smith started fifth but only needed to finish third to secure the round victory, pushing early he made his way up to third. When Shihab Al-Habsi spun, Smith was promoted to second where he remained to claim his first round victory in the series.

“I didn’t quite have the pace of the front two, I did know that if I was to finish in the top three I was still going to win the round so I wasn’t prepared to risk it all but then when I saw Shihab spin out with a couple of laps to go, I was definitely comfortable then to finish in second and secure the round win,” Smith told Auto Action. DM

lap 11 when Darren Keane took second of McElrea at Turn 5, the Kiwi unable to get back through finished on the final step of the podium, whileShields came home in ninth.

McElrea now trails Eves by 41 points in the Championship with eight of the fifteen rounds still remaining, the next round takes place on the streets of Toronto on July 13 and 14.

Image: LAT

AA’s apoplectic pundit has had enough of Supercars’ cavalier attitude to keeping the media – which really means you, the fans – informed about significant technical decisions SENIOR EXECUTIVES of Supercars just don’t get it.

Not telling the media about technical rule changes or updates isn’t only poor policy. Withholding information from the Fourth Estate disrespects the fans.

Here’s how. Media – and especially motor sportdedicated outlets like this august journal – are the conduit through which Supercars speaks to its fans.

Same for the teams and drivers.

It’s axiomatic. If you want to inform, alert, interest or entice fans, you use the media to propagate your message. Of course, not all news is good or popular, but you have to take the bad with the good.

Trying to keep the lid on something controversial or unpopular rarely works. In the case of the very small world of Supercars, make that never. The sport leaks like a sieve. Always has, always will.

But tell that to Supercars.

Recent events prove the organisation thinks it can keep contentious things quiet or ignore them. And, once again, that head-in-thesand attitude has got them in exactly the hot water they were trying to avoid.

The fuss over unannounced aero tweaks for the ZB Commodore before Darwin – approved in the name of ongoing parity adjustment – was an own goal. Or a shot in the foot. Or both.

The story got out on the Friday morning, as it was always going to, and uproar ensued. On social media, their direct-access forum, fans were rightly incensed that more than a week after the decision had been made, they weren’t told.

As in, informed through the media. No mention on Supercars Trackside on Fox Sports on the Thursday, which you’d think would be the perfect opportunity to Larko to explain and analyse the small aero concessions the ZBs had gained.

There was nothing. Plus, no media release and no story on the Supercars web site. Still isn’t.

It’s like turning up at an AFL game and finding that the 50-metre goal circle had been increased to 55 metres. I think I got that right. But you get the point.

No wonder it smelled of a cover-up. And the lack of hard information or explanation over the weekend didn’t help.

Oh, we belatedly discovered, there was a one-line official

statement. But we had to ask for it in very specific terms.

The fact is, Supercars places more importance on informing stakeholders than the media – and therefore the fans. Of course, senior management – and it’s not all them, just key decision-makers – don’t see it that way.

Their view is that the announcement of decisions like the Commodore aero tweaks has to go through all the due process and paperwork. Even if the decision was made and the teams informed nine days before it all got out.

It’s not the first time this has happened. I’ve had a running battle with Supercars for 18 months over technical transparency.

Despite assurances, it hasn’t happened.

I spoke – again – with Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer about this on the Saturday at Darwin and, to say the least, I received a mixed message.

“Look, nobody was hiding anything,” Seamer said.

“It’s impossible to hide something like that. We had the Commission meeting last week, then by the time you do the bullet points and the minutes and the

communications to the teams and everybody else in the process, we were here.

“It just takes time for us to follow our own internal process and communicate those changes, and we were trying to do something perhaps too quickly to get it ready for this weekend.

Maybe we should’ve waited until Townsville to make the changes to be able to go through it properly, but it’s done now, there’s nothing untoward.

“I can understand how it’s frustrating, but when there are changes being made to a Vehicle Specification Document, there are process we need to go through to make sure it’s done the right way.”

I asked him why head of motorsport Adrian Burgess, who oversees the technical and operations department, couldn’t have joined the team principals’ media conference, rather than throwing Dane, Edwards and Walkinshaw under the bus (the last implied, but unsaid). “[It] was as a team owners’ conference, that’s what it was set up for,” Seamer replied. “I don’t think it’s on Adrian to go through all of that stuff, right?

The team owners’ conference

was the team owners’ conference. We prepared a statement for you guys, whenever it was, a few days ago…”

Ah, what statement? “On the changes to the ZB, in terms of what had been changed.

We explained that Triple Eight had sent a submission into the Commission and the Commission had approved the change to the angle of the front undertray and a change to the angle of the rear wing.”

Let’s just say there was a huge miscommunication on that one…

Back to Burgess’s role and Seamer made this telling observation: “You have to be very, very careful that you don’t make Adrian the poster boy for all of the technical changes in the rulebook in this category because that’s not how the constitution works.”

Seamer is well meaning, but his attitude to the media – and, once more, the fans – goes against the best advice he receives. If you can sense my frustration, you’re right. But that frustration is principally because, wittingly or unwittingly, Supercars is disrespecting its loyal fans with this ‘secret squirrel’ culture.

You have every right to be offended.

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s w e n e n O Formula FERRARI’S DOUBLE WHAMMY THE FINAL presentation of the 2021 Formula 1 technical, sporting and financial regulations has been pushed back until the end of October, after a meeting at Montreal and more recently in Paris. Attending the meetings were Pirelli representatives, team principals, technical directors and some drivers. It was agreed that it would be in Formula 1’s best interest if extra time was given for further refinements.

WHEN IT rains, it pours. It didn’t rain during the French Grand Prix weekend but there was plenty going on to dampen Ferrari’s spirits, as the team got a double whammy.

First, Ferrari’s request to have Sebastian Vettel’s penalty in the Canadian Grand Prix reviewed, was turned down by the stewards from that race.

Second, the upgrades Ferrari brought to France did not turn its car into a Mercedes beater.

The new wings, brake ducts and floor on the Ferrari did not fix its basic weakness, which is a lack of grip and downforce in low

speed corners. Ferrari was actually as fast or faster than Mercedes in the first two sectors of the lap at Paul Ricard, which have a lot of straights. But then Ferrari lost out heavily in the third, twisty, sector.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto acknowledged that the new upgrade package was “not perfect.”

“We brought some parts here that were important to test and understand the direction of development,” he said after practice on Friday. “We tested some new parts and some will be kept on the car for the rest of the weekend, so it’s not an entire

MERCEDES CONFIRMED that a hydraulic leak in the Canadian GP was related to the throttle actuator. It was discovered after qualifying but due to parc ferme conditions the team did not know the severity of the leak and were unable to do anything about the problem. On Sunday the team had a mammoth task to replace the hydraulic system by removing the power unit.

The team were able to fix the problem and Hamilton went on and win the Canadian Grand Prix.

MAX VERSTAPPEN is keen to race alongside his former Formula 1 racing father Jos at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the future. The 21-yearold feels this could happen while he is still racing in Formula 1, as his current employers Red Bull Racing helped design the Aston Martin Valkyrie set to race in the top tier class.

The young Dutchman has previous 24 hour racing experience albeit on a simulator.

Images: LAT

DRIVERS ASPIRING to race in Formula 1 will now be given superlicence points for participating in practice sessions. To participate in an F1 practice session a driver must have collected 25 of the 40 points required to race in F1. From 2020, drivers can add to the 25 points so long as the participating driver does not pick up any licence penalty points and completes 100km in a practice session. If this is achieved the driver earns an additional point. The FIA however has limited the additional practice points to a maximum of 10 over the three years.

FORMULA 1 and RM Sotheby have announced that Michael Schumacher’s 2002 championship winning Ferrari F2002 will be sold at auction on the Saturday evening of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 30. The car was driven to three of the 11 race wins that the German claimed in 2002.

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DAVISON GOES RETRO F1

AUSTRALIAN INDYCAR driver James Davison will go back in time when he contests the Masters FIA Historic Formula 1 Championship races at Silverstone, in support of the British Grand Prix on July 12-14.

The grandson of four-time Australian Grand Prix winner Lex and cousin to Supercars driver Will and former Porsche Carrera Cup driver Alex, will compete against the likes of former Formula 1 race winner Johnny Herbert in two 25-minute races.

Davison will drive a Lotus 81 owned by Andrew Beaumont in Essex livery and will be up against Herbert in a Ensign N180B. Herbert’s chassis was raced by Marc Surer and the late-Jim Crawford in Can-Am form, with former Force India team manager Bob Fernley now owning the car he worked on 35 years ago.

package that has been cancelled or not. Let me say it was considered positive. A few parts will be kept and some will be removed simply because they were part of their test plan, but not intended to be raced for the weekend.”

A story circulating in the paddock was that there had been a correlation problem between Ferrari’s wind tunnel and the track, which had robbed the car of 0.3 of a second per lap in its original version.

“It is not true at all,” Binotto said. “We do not have correlation issues. So I would say, unfortunately, because if that would have been the case then maybe we would have solved part of the performance!”

As for the five-second penalty the stewards gave Vettel in Canada for his unsafe return to the track in front of Lewis Hamilton – which meant that Vettel crossed the finish line first but was demoted to second behind Hamilton – Ferrari said it had “overwhelming evidence” that would convince the stewards to consider reviewing their ruling. But the stewards disagreed.

“I think that no doubt that as Ferrari we are all very unhappy and disappointed,” Binotto said. “We are disappointed certainly for Ferrari, but we are also disappointed for our fans and for our sport. We do not intend to comment any further.”

So the Canadian affair is finished, and Ferrari will be able to continue to try and improve its car and beat Mercedes on the track.

That was Hamilton’s advice: “If it was me, I would want my team concentrating on the race. Ferrari were spending a lot of time focusing on something else. Me, and my team, were focused on trying to improve the car.”

IT’S WAR FOR FOURTH THE WAR for fourth place in the constructors’ championship is heating up between the factory Renault team of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg versus the McLaren-Renault squad of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.

Renault brought a number of upgrades for its car to its home Grand Prix of France, but it was outpaced in qualifying and the race by McLaren.

“The McLarens were a long way down the road,” Ricciardo said after qualifying.

“They really had speed all weekend, so they’ve got like a little hidden update that they’d never told anyone about!”

McLaren did actually try a number of experimental parts including the car’s floor on Friday and carried the best over to Saturday and Sunday.

Renault’s new package included a new front wing and floor, plus a number of other parts. Ricciardo also ran an updated power unit. While all of this improved the car, it certainly was not the massive upgrade that Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul talked about earlier in the season.

“We try do things to improve the car,” Ricciardo said, “but if we put parts on and it doesn’t look better, then we are not going to keep them on. We will go back to old stuff. The engineers are happy with the new parts they brought.

We are not trying to reinvent the wheel.

We are making progress, and we will

keep chipping away because as good as Canada was, it is still not ultimately where we want to be.”

Ricciardo and Hülkenberg finished sixth and seventh in Canada, a result that Ricciardo said “ignited a pretty nice fire as the team had their first taste of a pretty big result in a while.” But they were only 11th and ninth respectively in the French Grand Prix.

McLaren’s steady trickle of upgrades plus the major one at the Spanish Grand Prix is paying off.

“Coming here (to Paul Ricard) we knew the upgrade we introduced in Spain helped a lot in high speed corners,” Sainz said.

Looking at the longer term, McLaren is going to replace its outdated wind tunnel at its Woking, UK base. That will mean McLaren no longer will need to use Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany.

“The 1.5 seconds we are missing to the top cars or even more depending on the race track is simply aero load,” McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl said. “This is what we are working on, day and night back home in the factory, trying also to set up the car in the right window to use the downforce we developed in the wind tunnel.”

While McLaren had the upper hand in France, Renault will be back in front at other tracks as the war between the two teams continues.

IGNORANCE AND ARROGANCE THE TRAFFIC jams and chaos and that spoiled last year’s French Grand Prix and caused frustration for fans and the people who had jobs to do at the track, were largely avoided this year.

The French round returned to the Paul Ricard in 2018 for the first time since 1990. While the track itself had been upgraded to modern standards, little had been done about access which still consisted of a single road. Getting cars efficiently and quickly into the parking lots was also a problem.

Most of these woes were created by the ignorance and arrogance of the local police and governments, as well as the race organizers who did not know how to cope with 25,000 cars arriving on Sunday. So a lot of effort went into making the whole process more efficient this year.

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CITEC, the company behind successful Ryder Cup, European Football Championship and World Cup bids, was hired to implement changes.

These included a new traffic plan, additional camp sites, a dedicated carpool route, a more expansive and better organised set of car parks, as well as an enhanced free shuttle service from nearby towns and prominent locations. There was also an App that provided information and updates in real time regarding the optimum car parks to use and the travel time to the destination.

All these enhancements definitely improved the overall situation.

Another major factor for the lack of traffic jams this year was because people stayed home for two main reasons. Many people like

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to go to an inaugural event but have no interest in returning for a second time.

And many of those who might have returned to Paul Ricard this year did not because of last year’s traffic nightmares.

The organisers claimed a race day attendance of 60,000 and 160,000 over three days in 2018. This year the official three-day turnout was 135,000.

Judging by many sparsely populated grandstands on Friday and Saturday, and that Sunday was not a sellout, 135,000 was a rather optimistic figure. Furthermore, thousands of school children were given free tickets. While this hopefully will help create future race fans, it did not help defray the costs to the organiser for hosting an F1 event.

Fortunately, Paul Ricard gets government

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financial assistance. That is not the case for the Spanish and German Grands Prix, and the future of both those European races is in jeopardy.

Paul Ricard’s contract runs through to 2022.

The fan turnout in year three, and an affirmation that this year’s traffic solutions worked, will be the true indictor if F1’s return to Paul Ricard will be considered a success.

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F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

BURN THE PENALTY PAGES SEBASTAIN VETTEL has a simple solution for a complex problem: “Burn the pages.”

He was referring to the multitude of pages in the rulebook used by race officials, and more specifically to the clauses that led to the five-second penalty that cost him the win in Canada.

Needless to say, the Montreal affair was a hot topic in the Paul Ricard paddock when the F1 circus reconvened for the French Grand Prix weekend.

The stewards from the Canadian Grand Prix had a meeting at Paul Ricard to review new evidence offered

by Ferrari but decided it was not sufficient enough for them to reopen the case. Vettel was still guilty of rejoining the track in an unsafe manner in front of Lewis Hamilton.

I feel for Vettel, I really do.

But he made a mistake.

As for the stewards, they did not pick on Vettel. They used all the data they had – much more than we get to see on TV – to make the ruling and apply the penalty as dictated by the rulebook.

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You could argue that the drivers are partially to blame for all of this, because they have asked for the rules and penalties to be consistently applied.

“Everybody is to blame,” an exasperated Vettel said when he met the media in the Paul Ricard paddock.

“The problem is we are hurt with these things. I think they started a long time ago: Did he cross the white line, or use too much kerb?”

Leave the drivers alone to race is what Vettel requests.

“Let us do what we want,” he said. “If you are unhappy with how we race and how we drive, then build different tracks – it’s as easy as that.

We have car parks with lines and kerbs on it. Anyway, it is what it is and as I said there are too many paragraphs, but what do you change?

“I hope they just burn the (rulebook) papers.”

However, all those pages have had some benefits.

“The past few years has been a lot better for penalties, and I think the decisionmaking has been stronger.”

Daniel Ricciardo noted on the Thursday before the French Grand Prix. “Four or five years ago I felt they were handing out penalties more easily.”

Ironically, the stewards would give Ricciardo two fivesecond penalties for Vettel-like offences during the race in France.

Some drivers believed Vettel was guilty and others said he was innocent. But the general consensus is that they want the rules to be applied consistently.

“I think there was no reason to give (Vettel) a penalty,” Carlos Sainz said, “but the rule is written and the stewards applied the rule.

There is a rule that I don’t think should be there, which is a bit too drastic and a bit too black and white and doesn’t interpret well the rules of racing, that is race hard and enjoy.”

Should the drivers have more freedom to race each other?

“That’s what we have been told we’d get,” Kimi Räikkönen said. “Then you look at some things and it’s definitively not that way. Freedom in a smart

Sebastian Vettel is smiling for the fans, not the rulemakers. Image: LAT

“Everybody is to blame. The problem is we are with these things. I think they started a long time ago: Did he cross the white line or use too much kerb?” way, yes, but obviously when you start pushing someone off or something stupid, as drivers we all know – or should know – what’s fair and acceptable. As long as it stays a fair fight then I’m okay.”

Valtteri Bottas agrees: “My point of view is that sometimes you should be able to race harder and not be afraid of getting a penalty. I’m pretty sure a lot of people would like to see that but it needs to be fair racing.”

A good example of this is the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix where Ayrton Senna did not even get an official rebuke for smashing Alain Prost out of the race.

Vettel did nothing so unfair or odious to Hamilton in Canada.

Nor did Ricciardo to Lando

Norris and Kimi Räikkönen in France. You can argue that they should not have been penalised, but where do you draw the line? I want to see hard racing but, again. where do you draw the line?

That line is defined in the rulebook. Unless all those pages are burned, that is.

The FIA’s Race Director Michael Masi said there will be no immediate changes.

“The rulebook is the one we’ve got for the entire 2019 season,” the Australian said.

“I don’t think it would be wise in any sport to change anything midyear.

Is it something like any rulebook that you can look at moving forward? Absolutely.

We are always in constant evolvement.”

OPINION TCR: JOIN SUPERCARS OR STAND ALONE?

By BRUCE WILLIAMS Publisher TCR IS here in Australia and it’s up and running, and while it’s early days, it’s starting to look positive for the Australian Racing Group (ARG), the Touring Cars Racing (TCR) rights holders and the sport’s controlling body, CAMS. While it’s not obvious, many industry people are hopeful that TCR might grow into something significant and worthwhile, and become a strong alternative program to the Supercars show.

But where to next? Should ARG forge their own path with TCR and the other categories that they are invested in and create their own identity or is it time for TCR to become a support category to Supercars?

Going down the path of independence, TCR would be the highlight of an expanding Shannon’s Nationals program. Throw in a couple of marque events, create their own endurance style event at Bathurst and hey presto, you have something pretty serious to sell to the market.

So, the question needs to be asked, do they want to be the main drawcard on a smaller show (big fish smaller pond), or should they attempt to negotiate to run TCR races on selected Supercar programs?

Right now, it appears that the main people at Supercars are publicly ignoring the fact that TCR exists, but behind closed doors they must be concerned about the strong and rapid emergence of the TCR program.

The fact is that Supercars was originally offered the category management rights to TCR by CAMS and they flatly refused the offer.

Since then it’s well known within the industry that after ARG negotiated to take control of the local rights to TCR, they approached Supercars with an offer to include TCR on the Supercar show. But they were sent on their way and in round about terms Supercars told them it wasn’t going to happen.

The first two TCR events have shown us the potential of the style and intensity of TCR racing. While it’s early days, the numbers of cars and manufacturers on the grid continues to grow, as does the quality and number of the drivers with budgets who want to be involved.

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The feedback from the teams, drivers and the people (enthusiasts) who attended the events and those who have witnessed the racing live and on TV, have been positive and the events have had a good vibe. The actual numbers of paying spectators at the first two Shannons’ rounds have been significantly higher than what would normally be expected at these events.

But has this just been curiosity or a genuine interest in watching TCR cars race as an alternative to what’s on offer elsewhere? Let’s not forget TCR has been well established internationally for several years, so plenty of people that read Auto Action and have access to the overseas racing, will know it’s good, entertaining, close and intense racing.

Many doubted that the AGR team would pull it off. But since then things have changed and the chat around the industry is mostly very positive. While some rusted-on Supercar team owners, Supercar fans and keyboard warriors are saying it won’t last, there were lots of long-term motorsport industry people quietly sniffing around at the first two TCR rounds.

Many of these are people involved in other categories and are starting to think that they need to be part of the TCR program before it’s too late to get involved.

But to the average (V8) Supercar fan who might attend their one local Supercar event per year (heavily supported by the taxpayers) and watch it on free to air when it’s available, they just won’t get TCR and therein lies the dilemma.

Have no doubt, Supercars is the biggest and best game in town and several of the Supercar events are major sporting events in this country.

So why would Supercars want to do anything that would give oxygen to the TCR category? There’s an old saying but it rings true, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’.

If Supercars has TCR on its program, it keeps the new category under control, limits the number of races and doesn’t allow it its own identity. While people might enjoy the TCR Racing on a Supercar program they will always be a part of the Supercar show, and fans will always compare TCR cars to the Supercars for speed and sound and more than likely conclude that they are not as exciting.

I can see reasons why Supercars might want TCR on some of its programs as it would potentially bring new vehicle manufacturer support to their events in the way of corporate hospitality and potentially deliver TV advertising support.

While for most people who follow motorsport, being on a Supercar show would appear to be an obvious benefit for the TCR (ARG show), I would argue that it’s not the way to go long term for them and for motorsport in this country overall.

So, if ARG is smart it will target a couple of key events to use as showcase TCR events.

The obvious event to target would be the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. It’s the right sort of event for TCR, the car brands will

fit well with the corporate types and would interest the genuinely engaged motorsport fans in the crowd.

If possible, they should attempt to also get onto the Adelaide 500 program. It’s a massive event and while Supercars might try to block it from happening, there is potential to get on the support program.

Add those two events, plus potentially some kind of Bathurst long distance race and you have the makings of a great series.

Let’s not forget, ARG’s S5000 series will be launched later in the year and I can’t see Supercars having (allowing) these cars on their show regularly, apart from maybe the Gold Coast and Adelaide.

ARG can’t abandon S5000 to the Shannons series on its own, so again it makes sense to go down the road of independence.

Throw in some free to air TV, lots of different brands of race cars (each potentially with their own small group of followers adding up) bringing a different audience, some other strong Shannons Nationals categories including GT, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge etc and you have the makings of something pretty good.

With the TCR we have a viable alternative to what else is on offer, but will it ever overtake the Supercars show?

No chance, but in my opinion Australian motorsport needs a viable upmarket alternative program to the Supercars show, and with ARG and its categories we might have that package.

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We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1979: THE ADVENT of the new generation Group C regulations meant rumours were swirling, but one confirmation was a twin Camaro attack sponsored by electronics manufacturer AWA and headed by Ron Dickson. A strong rumour circulating was that Datsun Rally Team boss Howard Marsden was crossing to the new team, however he confirmed he was continuing with Japanese manufacturers.

1989: INDYCAR IS coming! Auto Action confirmed that the Gold Coast IndyCar race was a goer as the opening round of the 1990 CART IndyCar World Series in late February-early March. A rumour that Keke Rosberg – through cigarette company Phillip Morris – was to join Glenn Seton at Bathurst were quelled after Seton confirmed the former Formula 1 world champion wanted huge money.

1999: 1 THERE WERE calls for V8 S Supercars management to stop the H Holden Racing Team domination b by changing the rules. After Round 6 at Sandown in which Mark Skaife w was victorious, he and teammate Lo Lowndes had won all bar one round, w with teams calling for an evening up of the competition. In Formula 1, Heinz-Harald Frentzen outsmarted He both Michael Schumacher and Mika bo Hakkinen to take victory in France.

Ha H 2009: THE 2009 season was far from 2 ffruitful for the factory Ford team, as pressure mounted for it to stem its p w winless streak. Ford had restricted itits funding to just two teams in 2009, F Ford Performance Racing and Stone B Brothers Racing. In a rare mistake, S Sebastien Loeb handed Rally Poland vvictory to Mikko Hirvonen.

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SINCE 1971

BULL FIGHT Holden factory team not giving up

SHOWDOWN! ROLAND VS FOGES BATTLE OF THE BELLIGERENTS

ALFA CENTAURI

Issue #1764

27 June to 10 July , 2019

$7.95 NZ $8.50

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PLUS

SUPERCARS DISSING FANS YOU WHY THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT

Cover images: LAT & TCR Australia

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Triple Eight supremo Roland Dane goes head-to-head with our arch-inquisitor in a lively, tension-filled discussion about his once-dominant team and the future of Supercars

Photos: LAT/Ross Gibb/Insyde Media

A

FTER A decade of domination, Triple Eight Race Engineering is no longer the team to beat. All sporting dynasties end, but Triple Eight’s decline over the past two years has turned into a plunge this season.

Two things highlight the factory backed Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s collapse. Firstly, at two events so far this year – Phillip Island and Darwin – RBHRT didn’t finish on the podium.

The last time that happened was Townsville in 2015.

The other telling fact is that although Triple Eight is second in the teams’ standings, it doesn’t have the fastest Commodores. Being routinely outpaced by David Reynolds’ Penrite Racing ZB must be the final indignity for proud, ultra-competitive T8 boss Roland Dane.

On top of the tearaway speed of the Ford Mustangs led by Scott McLaughlin’s crushing

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domination in his Shell V-Power Racing rocket, despite a succession of parity adjustments, RBHRT is struggling to re-adapt to linear springs after previously perfecting the art of twin and triple springs.

Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup are driving their hearts out, but in qualifying especially they just don’t have the consistent car speed to challenge DJR Team Penske. Add the continuation of team errors and they are languishing in fifth and sixth in points – and already out of contention for the drivers’ title.

As well as trying to salvage the second half of the season, Dane is waiting on a renewal of Triple Eight’s Holden factory team status and also Red Bull’s continued backing – neither of which is certain. The only certainty is that Whincup and van Gisbergen are locked in for next year.

Roland on the ropes is not something

we’re used to seeing in Supercars. He is enduring a level of discomfort he is neither used to nor willing to accept. But the pugnacious IrishAustralian businessman/ racer also doesn’t shy away from confronting the reality of Triple Eight’s slump.

Dane, 62, was happy to sit down for a robust discussion about his team’s shortfalls while stoutly defending its position. He was also, as you’d expect, outspoken in his views on the future of Supercars, the Mustang approval debacle and other contentious issues.

So expansive was he that we’ve split the interview into two parts. If you think this first instalment is thought-provoking, wait till you see part two next issue!

Let’s not beat around the bush. By your team’s standards, this has been a terrible season so far. What’s gone wrong?

I dispute it’s been terrible. I would say that we haven’t won the races we would like to. I always set the targets, really, as being in the hunt is important and coming away from each event with at least one podium. It’s unrealistic to expect to win at the rate we have forever, year in, year out, and this year we’ve only been to one event so far where we haven’t had a podium – and that was Phillip Island. Everywhere else (until Darwin) we’ve had at least one and so I certainly don’t regard it as terrible, especially in view of the fact that there clearly have been some parity issues, otherwise they wouldn’t have been corrected. Having said that, I still think we could’ve done a better job, even with the tools that we have. We’ve left some results on the table, but our version of under-performing is what most people would call doing very well.

The fact remains, though, that this year and last year, and even going back to 2017, the team has made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes in pit stops, wheels coming off, etc. That never used to happen.

Yes and some of those are the growing pains you have in terms of responsibilities changing, peoples’ roles changing, moving into different roles and allowing those people to develop, and there are clearly some errors that we would’ve preferred not to have made in hindsight. But it’s also part of

that learning process, especially when we’re in a position in the formula where we have to watch costs very carefully and, as such, we can’t have as many people as we would like and that means you have to prioritise various areas in the business. I don’t really make any secret of it, the fact is that our income as the team – and bearing in mind we are a business – our income on a two-car pro-rata basis is not as much as it was in 2012 and, of course, our costs have gone up. So that’s meant changing some things around with different priorities and maybe I haven’t got all those mixes correct straight away and that’s part of the learning process of trying to ensure that we are doing as good a job as we possibly can with the resources available to us.

Triple Eight is one of the very few teams – in fact, it may be the only team – that makes money. Broadly speaking, does it concern you how difficult it is for most teams in Supercars to make money?

Yes, very much. I mean, I can tell you that last year and this year are breakeven years for us. But, yeah, we’ve made money over the years and, of course, need to. I’m neither willing nor able to subsidise the team for any length of time, so the team has to be able to stand up on its own two feet. The viability of the pit lane does concern me very much and it always has done. It’s not a new thing. If you go back over a decade, I was the person who proposed

that we had an equal split of appearance money across all the teams, even though it would cost me and, at the time, probably Walkinshaws the most money to do that – to take away the prizemoney element and just go for a straight division amongst however many cars we’re running. And I proposed that because I thought it was in the best interests of maintaining the show and the size of the show along pit lane.

Getting rid of Level 2 with a different pay structure and allowing them to step up, that was my initiative and also the way that we executed it at the time. So I’ve always had a concern about trying to ensure that there’s a healthy level of competition in pit lane. I don’t expect everyone to be a business because in sport, there all sorts of examples of teams that are not necessarily business units in their own right, but they rely on the largesse of a country even, let along individuals. However, you still need, I believe, a healthy number of business as we used to have, like Stone Brothers

Racing, like Perkins Engineering, like the Walkinshaw Group set up, not that many years ago. So it’s a concern that there are maybe only one or two at the moment.

Are you satisfied that Supercars management is addressing this financial problem for the teams and is getting on top of it?

I think they’re doing their best in the circumstances. It’s not necessarily something they can easily control themselves because there are outside influences. You know, the sponsorship market these days is very different from a decade ago – and it doesn’t matter whether it’s us, Supercars, or other sports. There are changes, there’s fragmentation, there are new initiatives, there’s more money going into femalebiased sports, there’s The Big Bash, which didn’t exist a decade ago. Things like this that are drawing money.

It has been a fraught start to the year for the Red Bull Holden Racing Team with mechanical issues and mistakes in pit lane.

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RBHRT has taken only one victory this season, the Commodore’s only win since the arrival of the Ford Mustang.

One big step that Supercars can make is slashing the cost of the cars. Many argue that they’re at least twice as expensive as they should be.

So I don’t agree and people who argue against that are actually not people who are fully aware of the facts. Australian Supercars, as you’ll appreciate because you have not only spent time overseas, but also continue to study what’s going on, they’ve evolved like kangaroos for the local environment that we race in. We race on an extraordinary mixture of circuits, which nobody else does in a similar car. A climatic mixture as well. Speed differentials between Winton and Bathurst, etc. And also if you look at the way that our weekends run, where we have very intense, often fairly short practice sessions with short times in between. So the cars have to adapt to that. Now, there are hard costs in a car which are difficult to get away from, whether you’re talking about a seat that meets FIA specs or MoTeC data logging of the type that really the television demands, let alone the teams and from a regulatory point of view, etc, etc. There are hard costs in the cars which you can’t get around. Now, from a capital cost point

of view, I think there’s one area of the car that could be reduced - it’s going to take time and effort and investment – and that’s the engine. But apart from that, anyone who thinks that they’re going to make a substantial difference to the cost of the basic car is kidding themselves. But, actually, as a capital cost, our cars last a long time unless you’re very unlucky, and continue to get used in Super2 and Super3, New Zealand endurance series and Britcar in the UK, etc.

So the running costs of our cars are also a reflection of how many kilometres we do.

We do 13,000-14,000 km a year including ride days and test days, which is far greater than any equivalent series. We race this year 15 times. No other national category in the world apart from NASCAR and IndyCar try to do that. Nobody – including populations that are far bigger. There’s nothing goes over 12. So to expect a wholesale reset of the cost of our cars, whilst providing the show we do, with the pit stops that we do, the performance of the cars, the speed, is unrealistic.

2021? Where’s the progress there going to be?

So what can we expect, then, from the Next Generation evolution (previously known as Gen3) being looked at from

Surely there are some basics? One would be making it easier for two-door shapes to be adapted, plus more standardisation of components.

Well, I can’t tell you what Gen3 looks like because I don’t know. So far, I’m not part of any discussions about Gen3 in any sort of meaningful way. Whether it’s 2021 or ’22 or something, I couldn’t tell you.

That concerns me. I would’ve thought you would’ve been consulting the top teams in this planning stage.

I’m not sure that they’re in a position where there’s that much to consult about. We’re in a very difficult position in the motor industry in the world at the moment and trying to come out of having an Australian-based motor industry to not having one. And at a time when the world in the motor industry actually doesn’t know which way it’s going and every manufacturer’s trying to cover as many bases as possible without knowing what consumers are going to demand necessarily or what ratios in the next five years.

But we’re already a long way down the path of standardisation, aren’t we?

We’re further than we were, but we need to be careful how much further we go.

It seems like there’ll be a control damper, for example.

Well, that’s not decided yet.

The two-door thing, which if I were part of the decision-making process, which I wasn’t, I would have never allowed a car on track like the Supercar Mustang today. I would have made sure that we changed our rules in a couple of simple areas to allow what we have always done and followed, which is a facsimile of the road car. But that’s happened and we need to put that right so that our cars do resemble the road car, as Australian touring cars regardless of what’s been underneath have traditionally resembled, especially Dane is disappointed that the V6 Twin Turbo concept remains dormant.

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in the past 26 years since the basis of the current V8 rules, and we need to get back to that. I strongly approve of going down that route and it’s not hard to do. As far as the standardisation of cars, I’m not a big advocate of standardisation in cars because we might as well just go Porsche Carrera Cup racing – and Porsche Cup racing for the most part is boring. So we need cars to be able to have a difference. In fact, I would say what happens is that as you get more and more in cars and there’s less and less areas for teams and drivers to make a difference, all you end up doing is paying the drivers $2 million instead of $500,000.

But they’re looking at it.

For sure, they’re looking at it and I have a view as a potential supplier. But I also have a view as a team and I have to say there has to be a balance between trying to make sure we put on the best possible show and if you just take money out of one area, if the money is there, it will be spent somewhere else. That’s the issue.

So you argue that dampers and front uprights, which is one of Triple Eight’s specialties, are the last frontier of teams being able to express their engineering individuality?

I mean, dampers have been limited (to three approved suppliers) for over a decade.

But at least there’s a choice.

There’s been a realistic choice of two, so you’ve had a choice of what you do, but we all end up in a very similar place and there’s still the possibility to tread on your dick. And I’m not against standardisation because standardising the fuel cell, for instance, or the fire extinguisher system in the car make perfect sense. But we have to be very careful because if you standardise everything, you’ll end up compromising the quality of the show. We have engines that are so similar, it’s very difficult to differentiate, whereas 10 years ago, if you had a good engine, you had 20 horsepower more than somebody else.

Teams spend a lot of money on developing engines…

Well, they don’t anymore.

Why are they still so expensive, then?

Because, at the end of the day, we’re taking a pushrod engine and getting to a 640 (bhp) figure, for argument’s sake, at 7500 rpm that actually led to a German engineer at HWA (which developed the Erebus AMG motor) saying to Ross Stone when he first saw it ‘This is not possible’.

Well, that’s why.

But there are any number of Ford and GM crate engines that would do much the same job for a lot less.

Be careful there that you’re comparing apples with apples. Firstly, the crate engines that go much longer don’t necessarily produce more horsepower unless they have forced induction.

Secondly, you’d then have different layouts – for example, the Ford Coyote is a very different engine to the GM LT1. Different capacities, for a start. One of the beauties of what we have at the moment with the Holdens and Fords is that because the blocks are essentially almost the same, and they are cast iron blocks, the cooling requirements of the cars are pretty much identical. Now, as soon as you go to a different layout or a different structure, you’ll have different cooling requirements and that leads on to further points of difference, such as aerodynamics. So you could have discrepancies that are hard to deal with and we need to understand what those are. We also need to understand that if you do, for argument’s sake, take a Coyote from its crate engine spec of sort of

550 horsepower or thereabouts to suddenly over 600, what’s the downside? Because there will be one. It’ll cost more. How much more and how long will it last? Now, is it a concept that should be pursued and actively investigated?

Absolutely. And I’ve just given my personal opinion to Supercars that they should be trying to do that, and looking at those options and trying to see if it is realistic to go in that direction. So I certainly don’t dismiss it, but I also understand that anyone who says that this is going to be easy is kidding themselves and just doesn’t understand motor sport. It’s a o handled definite possibility, but it needs to with care.

You came across this problem of assimilating a different kind of engine when you were developing the GM twinturbo V6, which needed a lot of cooling, didn’t it?

It wasn’t so much an issue as just different.

So, therefore, you have to approach it differently. For sure, it has different requirements to a naturally aspirated V8 with a cast iron block. Absolutely.

So cooling wasn’t an insurmountable problem?

No, not at all. But it had to be investigated and dealt with from a pure mechanical point of view in the installation, but it also had to be dealt with from the point of view of how you would paritise cars using it with other cars, good, bad or indifferent.

You know, what happens on a cool day, let alone a hot one?

What happened to the twin-turbo V6 you were developing for Holden?

It all went back to GM. So it’s dead?

Oh, as far as we’re concerned, it is, yeah.

In hindsight, are you happy it didn’t go ahead?

I enjoyed the experience of the challenge of doing something with it and it was disappointing not to get the opportunity to

see it through. I think for where the category is right now, in hindsight, it’s probably a good thing, but it’s also a reflection of the motor industry itself looking for future direction and how that relates to motor sport because very few companies in the world can actually put their hand on their heart and say that they know the answers to those conundrums.

Getting back to the future of Supercars, I understand that you put together a manifesto on where the sport should be heading.

I laid out, at the beginning of this year, for the team owners and Supercars management, what I thought we should be concentrating on in terms of making the sport as sustainable as possible. It’s an internal document and many of the elements of it, I believe, will come out in time.

What was the headline? What was your big point?

Sustainability, as simple as that. Everything was about sustainability. Nothing was about performance or parity or anything like that. It was about the economics, which, honestly, I think I’m in as good a position as anyone else to try to determine – and give some direction on – what might be some good ideas. And in the absence of anything else, it was very favourably greeted.

In terms of ensuring sustainability, what was your main point?

There were a number of points. It was about trying to ensure team sustainability and the

economics of the category as a whole and the teams as individual units. And sometimes the two are in conflict with each other in terms of the category as a group wanting as much exposure as possible, but the teams are the ones who have to provide it. So you have to try to make the hardware and the software as compatible as possible – and that’s really what the document was about.

And I don’t want to detail it because it was confidential among the shareholder group of the business.

Going back to Triple Eight Race Engineering and where you find yourselves, an element of it has been the Mustang and its advantages. You would have expected it to be a step forward, wouldn’t you, as any new car is supposed to be a progression? But this time it has all gone wrong, hasn’t it?

I’ve said, and I stand by it, that I believe that as an industry, we screwed it up at the end of last year. Unfortunately, the technical department of Supercars did not do a good job. Some of it we saw coming and some of it we didn’t, and, honestly, I think that the responsibility for it rests with Supercars. The personnel have changed and I think they’re doing everything they can now to deal with the issues and put them right. Whether it’s in the short, medium or long-term, they are consciously trying to address that now and deal with it. So I have confidence in the future, but I don’t have any confidence in the past.

Next issue: Roland vs Foges Round 2! Dane unloads on the Mustang, talks about his rivalry with Roger Penske and postulates on Jamie Whincup’s future.

The viability of the Supercars pit lane concerns Dane, who would like to see steps taken to improve sustainability.

N E I R E T T E R G E R E N E J I HAVE NO REGRETS

Daniel Ricciardo opens up to DAN KNUTSON about racing for Renault and why he doesn’t regret leaving Red Bull IT’S BEEN 10 months since Aussie ace Daniel Ricciardo shocked the racing world with the announcement that instead of remaining with Red Bull, where he won seven F1 races, he would move to Renault in 2019.

Quelle surprise!

It seemed a risky move, to say the least.

Renault had achieved little since it made its return to F1 as a full works team in 2016 – no podium finishes and a paucity of points.

The switch was unexpected because the Perth native had a proven racewinning home at Red Bull and seemed set to stay. The team wanted him – and why wouldn’t it? Ricciardo is fast and capable of consistently delivering victories, podiums and points. Plus, he is the perfect counterpart to the mercurial Max Verstappen.

Yet for quite some time, behind the scenes, there had been talks back and forth between Ricciardo and Renault.

Clearly, ‘Our Dan’ saw potential that

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outsiders didn’t, as well as freedom from the Red Bull regime.

Still, it was a big call that it is yet to yield so much as a podium placing, much less a shot at a fortuitous win. Ricciardo remains confident – and maintains his trademark grin – in the face of ordinary results.

Renault’s stated goal is to be in fourth in the constructors’ championship and to chip away at the Big Three – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. But after the first six races of this season, La Regie languished behind McLaren, Racing Point, Haas and Toro Rosso. Ouch.

It wasn’t until the Canadian Grand Prix, where Ricciardo finished sixth and his teammate Nico Hülkenberg was seventh, that Renault started to show its potential.

So Montreal was a good time to sit down with Ricciardo to talk about his decision to switch teams and about life at Renault compared with Red Bull.

As always, Ricciardo is smiling, joking, laughing. But, equally, don’t mistake

his levity for how serious he is about his job and his mission.

He is dedicated to helping turn Renault into a winning team.

HAND ON HEART

THE FIRST and most obvious question is was there any time since last August that he regretted his decision to leave Red Bull?

“As soon as you said ‘Was theree any time,’ I knew that was going to be the question!” he laughs. “And really, really hand on heart (he places his right hand over his chest), no regrets. It’s like a gut feeling, [when] you know you’ve have done something the right way.

“As soon as I made the call, I was like, wow, and whatever stress I was carrying, it felt like it was gone. I get asked about this, and people say look at Max (Verstappen at Red Bull) this year – he has had a couple podiums and you are far from the podium.

“This is not criticising Red Bull, but that is what they have been doing the last five years. At this time last year, I had won two races (in China and Monaco) already with them and they’ve only had two podiums in first part of this season. So I would not be any better off staying there.

“That is really my argument. And the truth is, unless you are at Mercedes, no other driver on the grid is completely happy right now because Mercedes are dominating. So I definitely do not regret it (switching to Renault).

“Even though we have not had amazing results, I am actually really happy with the

Ricciardo has no regrets about joining Renault, despite a turbulent first half of the season. A strong performance in Canada had the Australian high fiving his team.

Renault team and happy with what I am seeing. And most important, happy with myself with what I am doing and trying to build around me with the engineers.

“It is quite nice as well to answer that knowing that it is really how I feel and that I don’t need to answer it politically correctly. It feels right.”

Renault finished fourth in last year’s constructors’ championship – albeit a long way back from Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. But the French squad struggled in the early races of this season. So is Renault

less competitive than Ricciardo c expe expected?

“Generalising it, yes,” he replies. “Even in the worst-case scenario, we still expected to be at the front of the mid-field.

But the mid-field has upped their game and the field has got tighter.

“We want to do better. It’s not a disaster, don’t get me wrong, but for what we want, we want to do better.”

THE COMFORT ZONE

NORMALLY, WHEN a driver moves from a customer team to a works team, it is an improvement. But Red Bull is an unusual

customer team because it is more like a works squad. Still, was Ricciardo a bit concerned when he saw what limited resources Renault had to offer?

“Not really,” he shrugs. “I spent quite a lot of time at Enstone (the chassis side in England) and Viry (the power unit side in France). I don’t know technically how to build an engine or how to design a rear wing or something like that.

“But when I go there, I see everyone has their head down and is working hard.

In the years I spent at Red Bull, from the chassis side, I saw the same. They were working hard.

“I see good things [at Renault]. I don’t see anything that raises any concerns for me or makes me think they should be doing that or this. But there is definitely a lot of push behind them as a team.

“From the engine side, I feel that I am getting more information this year about what’s what. It is all pretty chilled.”

Ricciardo grew up in the Red Bull family – as a junior driver, then farmed out to HRT in F1, next at Toro Rosso and finally at the senior F1 team. Did he feel that he had to leave his comfort zone to grow further? Or was the team no longer a comfort zone in recent years?

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Ricciardo’s fresh outlook on car set-up has provided minor breakthroughs at Enstone, as he and teammate Nico Hulkenberg look to make Renault a force in Formula 1 once more. His working relationship with Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul is very open and the development that Renault is putting in makes the ex-Red Bull driver confident of future success together.

“No, it was a comfort zone, for sure, and part of it was getting out of that,” he admits. “This was more with me as opposed to Red Bull, but I felt like at times I was maybe getting just a bit too comfortable.

“I felt like I needed a kick up the arse to force myself to work with new people in a team that still has a lot of work to do and try to extract a bit more out of myself. Also, having a new teammate is really good because every driver has something different – a technique or something we do with our style. No two drivers are identical.

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“I spent a bit of time with Max Verstappen and I felt like we had both learned from each other. He was very strong and I could see that. I thought for me to get better, I should go up against another guy and see if I could take one technique from Nico Hülkenberg which I could put into my repertoire.”

THE TEAMMATE BONUS

IS NICO Hülkenberg underrated because he never had a podium finish in F1?

Ricciardo doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge the German’s prowess.

“Having Nico as a teammate was a bonus for me signing with Renault,” Ricciardo reiterates. “I always knew he was strong. I watched him a lot as a junior driver and he won many championships. He was very highly rated “He has always been in a mid-field F1 team and never had a break. I know that the talent is there, but I am sure that there is also a bit of frustration over the years of never being in a top team.

“With me coming in, as a driver who has won grands prix, it is a real chance for him to say now I will show everyone.

If I can beat Ricciardo, people will be reminded remind of how good I am. will get the best Nico this year and “I wil that is good for me because then my chance chanc of learning something from him higher. It will push me to do better. I is high this whole dynamic.” like th Speaking of teammates, was he Spe surprised that Valtteri Bottas has surpr been challenging Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this year? Or is this finally Merc Bottas that Ricciardo fought the B against 10 years ago in Formula agai Renault?

Ren “T “That is a good question,” Ricciardo say says. “Valtteri came out strong at the sta start of this season, so maybe I am a littl little bit surprised. But I know that he is ttalented. I know that he is capable of getting results. ““Yet if he really pushes Lewis to the las last race this year, then I will be a bi bit more surprised. If Lewis starts to p put all his energy into it, then I think LLewis will be hard to beat.”

TOO MANY RACES

RACE DRIVERS love to race, but there is a limit to that affection. One of the rules proposals for the future is two-day race weekends and up to 25 races in a season. Ricciardo is wary about that.

“When we go to a place like Montreal, I am happy to stay there for five days because it is a cool place,” he says. “If 25 races mean more flying, maybe not. That is a lot of flying.

“It is a lot of races. Maybe they need to rethink this. This is where the drivers can have a say as well. This is where we as the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association) need to get together and find out what the plans are for the future.

“If there is something we are really against, we need to speak up.”

One of the underlying reasons why Ricciardo left Red Bull was because it was switching from Renault to Honda power this year. Honda got off to a rocky start when t returned to F1 in 2015 with McLaren. Is he surprised at Honda’s progress this year – not only the performance, but also the reliability?

“I’m not surprised about the performance because I have seen some of their infrastructure and there is no reason that they should not be performing,” he says. “The reliability has been good. In the first part of this season, Renault was the one struggling a lot more.

“So with the reliability, Honda seem to be doing quite well. From the pure power and performance, I’m not sure if it is anything crazy or unexpected.”

A FRESH SET OF EYES

SO WHAT does Ricciardo think that Renault is lacking that he can help with his experience?

“Like in any situation, it could be as simple as a fresh set of eyes,” he responds. “When I got in the car the first time, I noticed some characteristics. And I said: ‘When you do this, what about doing that?’

“There were some things with set-up that they had not really thought about.

Or maybe they tried two years ago and it didn’t work, so they didn’t try it again.

But I could say, actually, at Red Bull we worked on this item quite a bit and we found it was quite a good thing for the car.

“So I think let’s look again at developing this part to help in this area.

Things like that have been helpful. From an operations point of view, Red Bull has had a very similar team for quite a while now. Renault is still new, and people are still changing around quite frequently.

“Red Bull had a real structure in place and operated very well. For sure, I can bring some of that to this team. Like saying at that meeting we can have this guy come into talk.

“I don’t want to say that I am the guide to change the whole team, but for sure if I see something, I can tell them.

“The good thing with Renault and (team principal) Cyril (Abiteboul) is that they are very open to constructive criticism to get better. Cyril welcomes that. He says if you see something we can do, tell us because we want to get better.

“If Red Bull did something like this, tell

us and we will change the way we do it.

So I can be an arsehole without being an arsehole!”

If a team in F1 does not constantly upgrade its car, it falls behind. According to Ricciardo, Renault is aggressive with its upgrades.

“On the positive side, at nearly every race we’ve had something new on the car,” he notes. “That has been impressive. What Red Bull is really known for is its rate of development. I expected to see something significantly

less here, but so far this year Renault’s rate of development has been pretty good.

“From what I hear, compared with last year, it is a whole other world. It makes me happy that they are doing what needs to be done to get to a Red Bull level of development.”

Such is the way with F1 interviews these days, time is strictly limited.

Ricciardo has been gracious and forthcoming as ever, but the minder is winding us down. So one final question:

As the Renault team gets better, is there a track later in the season like Hungary or Singapore where a podium finish would be possible?

“I do think we can get a big result this year, but a podium is still a stretch for 2019,” ‘Our Dan’ smiles. “I really believed we could have had a top five in Monaco.

A top five is on the cards this year, but where it comes, I’m not sure.

“Standing on the podium – we have to first get a bit more out of the car to have that as a realistic target.”

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UNDER THE SKIN

SURPRISE PACKET

The inaugural TCR Australia season has been action packed and revealed some surprising pace-setters. One is a German-built, factory-developed Korean, the other is a privately-developed Italian. HEATH McALPINE goes Under The Skin to discover what makes the Giulietta Quadrifoglio TCR tick Images: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz/AA Staff

BY NOW most Australian race fans know what TCR is all about, having witnessed the opening two rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park and Phillip Island.

Interest has been high with as many as 11 new cars set to enter the country over the coming months.

Although there is a plethora of brands, so far this year there has been two consistent frontrunners, the Hyundai i30N TCR (which featured on these pages 14 months ago) and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Quadrifoglio TCR. Compared to the factory-developed, German-built Hyundai, the Alfa Romeo comes from a rather more modest background.

The model was one of the first cars to be homologated for the new set of regulations known as TCR which were devised by former World Touring Car Championship promoter Marciello Lotti in 2014.

The car was homologated and developed

by Italian team Romeo Ferraris, an exponent of the Superstars Series in which it was a semi-factory Mercedes team.

With former works Alfa Romeo driver

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Salvatore Tavano at the wheel, the original Giulietta is a very different beast compared to what has turned out to be a frontrunner this season.

“It has been hard work, because we had in mind the target of running the Giulietta before the end of the season,” admitted CEO Mario Ferraris back in 2015. “Finally, the first car was completed and the engine tested on the bench with promising results.

We are now ready to begin the technical development on the track.”

Various chassis developments, changes to the aerodynamic package and a switch of engine from the original 1.7-litre unit to a 2.0-litre motor taken from the Giulia, are the main catalysts behind the Giulietta’s success.

It has not gone unnoticed. Alfa Romeos now feature on the grid of most major TCR series around the world, starting at the top with the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) through to each major series in Europe and even in America.

Garry Rogers Motorsport team owner Garry Rogers is renowned for backing an underdog, but also has an association

with the Italian marque, having fielded an Alfa Romeo 155 for Steve Richards during the 1995 Australian Super Touring Championship.

This later became a dual ASTC and Australian Touring Car Championship campaign, but with the Alfa was parked in favour of a Honda Accord.

Fast forward 24 years and GRM is back in two categories again but to a much larger scale, running two Supercars alongside four TCR machines.

Running GRM’s TCR program is the experienced Bruin Beasley, who was attracted to the new class after accidentally stumbling on it last year while on a trip to Europe.

“For me, like a lot of people, I was very pessimistic,” Beasley told Auto Action.

“The eye-opener for me was last year, I was in Germany at a round and I started wandering around and thinking ‘what is all this?’ Every manufacturer had a marquee and a corporate area, each manufacturer had girls handing out brochures.

“I started looking around and I watched a race, I thought ‘This is something that

no one really understood what was going on,’ then I went to Italy, I walked into Monza (and) the same thing was going on. There were 25-30 cars on the grid and every manufacturer was there, had cars on display, every manufacturer had girls handing out brochures and I thought, ‘This has got some momentum.’”

Another attraction to Beasley was that TCR is a global formula with a clear set of rules and regulations, that are the staple of all TCR series around the world. This means that the cars competing in the Australian series can race in the same configuration in Germany or Asia or America or even WTCR, without modifications.

Balance of Performance is the key to the competitiveness of each car. The BoP formula has been successfully used in GT3 since its beginning and uses evaluation tests to level the cars out through a variety of measures. For TCR, organisers use a program to calculate what BoP measures need to be taken, focusing on engine mapping and weight.

“Effectively, there is a program in place where lap times and weights are put into

MoTec instruments were optioned by GRM when ordering its pair of Alfa Romeos. The big brake package features Brembo 6-piston calipers at the front and 378mm Romeo Ferraris rotors, while the suspension package consists of Eibach springs and Bilstein two-way adjustable dampers, none of which can be changed as it's part of the homologation specification. software that then gives you a formula,” Beasley explained. “It comes back and says ‘That particular car gets 10kg more or 10kg less going into the next round based on the round before.’”

“There is BoP in engine mapping - there’s three levels: 95 per cent, 98 per cent, 100 per cent maps for example - and weight.

You can take weight out or put weight in.

The fastest two cars for each manufacturer are placed into the program and it will tell you in the end what the BoP is.”

In a motor sport world where there is plenty of control components, TCR goes against the grain with many road car components being carried over to the race

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car. In fact, when Auto Action visited the GRM workshop, the team was repairing Dylan O’Keeffe’s severely damaged car and in the process had acquired a wrecked road car shell to replace the necessary panels for the next round.

For this reason, Beasley likens the formula to the old Group C regulations due to the lightly level of modifications compared to the road car.

The aforementioned 2.0-litre engine used in the Giulietta Quadrifoglio TCR is taken straight from its sibling, the Giulia. It is a 4-cylinder engine that was launched by the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as its Global Medium Engine in 2016 and appears,

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despite some minor tweaks for performance and reliability measures, almost standard.

Some of the components are taken from other manufacturers and are generally shared by each constructor of homologated TCR cars, making it easier for organisers to gauge the performance of each model.

“There are little bits and pieces on the engine that are from variable things like the intercooler is off a Volkswagen van, the turbo is off a Mercedes. The engines are standard but not standard, (but) it's basically standard engines with standard components,” Beasley continued.

“Most of the other models are running the same turbo and go through the process

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before the homologated teams submit it for BoP. It's the same with all the mapping, TCR organisers have access to the mapping and can change it accordingly. The engines are basically standard with little parts added to make it reliable and generate the power that is needed.

“The engines come sealed from the manufacturer, we can’t even touch anything, which in theory is fantastic but we’re a long way from Europe. So when something does go wrong, we need to cover that base. We have a spare engine we haven’t pulled out of the box yet. We haven’t needed to.”

Another sealed item is the gearbox, which is a Sadev 6-speed sequential unit

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UNDER THE SKIN

Dylan O'Keeffe has certainly used the Giulietta Quadrifoglio effectively so far. The driver's office is tight in a TCR car but these racers meet the highest of FIA safety standards, with OMP providing most of the componentry. There is plenty of Alfa DNA within the rear suspension.

The 2-litre engine used in the Giulietta Quadrifoglio TCR is actually from the Giulia.

with paddleshift controls. It features an AP Racing sintered multi-disc clutch and sends power through a mechanical limited slip diff with adjustable preload, driving through the front wheels. The only thing GRM is required to do is complete general cleaning and servicing.

There is a lot of Alfa Romeo road car in the suspension with Romeo Ferraris modifying what is already at hand to fit the improved goodies.

“The rear uprights are a genuine Alfa Romeo part, but there is a bit of machining here and there to fit the drop link on, but fundamentally it,s original,” Beasley said.

“Romeo Ferraris make its own anti-roll bar, but there are three options we’re allowed to run, so all that stuff is off the shelf. All the arms and stuff it manufactures, none of it is outrageously priced, it’s easy to say ‘Romeo Ferraris are price fixing’ but it’s not expensive.”

Eibach springs and Bilstein two-way adjustable dampers are homologated with the car and provide limited set-up options,

which can’t be strayed from. The rest of the components, including sway bars, are built in-house at Romeo Ferraris and are purchased online.

The Alfa Romeo runs 6-piston Brembo calipers on the front and 4-piston at the rear, while the rotors are Romeo Ferraris branded.

According to Beasley, “It’s a big brake, almost like a Supercars brake, it’s massive.”

There are 378mm ventilated steel discs at the front and 290mm steel discs at the rear.

Inside the Giulietta Quadrifoglio TCR is cosy, with OMP 6-point safety harness keeping the driver safe in an OMP racing seat with the same brand fire extinguisher system, a CESAL 2 set-up and a Tilton off the shelf pedal box.

GRM ordered its fleet of Alfa Romeos with MoTec gauges as the team have the equipment already at hand and have experience with the systems. AIM electronics are used throughout as the system preferred by Romeo Ferraris alongside VBoxs to accumulate data,

however telemetry is prohibited.

As the TCR vehicles are smaller compared to a Supercar, the positioning of the driver within the car is completely different and more like where a driver would sit in a road car, although of course on the left-hand side.

“The only real difference in these cars compared to a Supercars is the driver isn’t as far back or across to the centre as they are in a Supercar; it’s a touring car and that’s where the driver sits,” Beasley stated.

“Dylan [O’Keeffe] had a big impact at Phillip Island, he got T-Boned both sides, (but) there was no injuries, the seat brackets didn’t break. There might be some people say TCR cars aren’t as safe, (but) they race these cars around the world and no one has been killed. The FIA standards are pretty good and these cars meet that, it’s part of the criteria."

Situated behind the driver, where the rear passengers usually sit, is the 100-litre fuel system and tank, which must meet all of the FIA’s stringent conditions.

Surrounding the driver is an FIA approved roll cage built using chrome moly, making these cars extremely safe as proven last year during the opening race of the WTCR event at Vila Real, when nearly the entire field piled into one other. There were minimal injuries amidst the damaged machinery.

As mentioned earlier, the bodywork is mainly original, as is the glass, with the only real modifications being to the front of the Alfa Romeo. The bonnet has been modified to fit the intercooler, flares are fitted to allow the Michelin S9H control tyres on Romeo Ferraris branded 18x10” rims. Fibreglass front guards, bonnet, front bumper and carbon fibre GT-style splitter make up the front end of the car, together with standard headlights.

At the rear, the bumper has been redesigned by Romeo Ferraris to improve the aerodynamics, while the carbon fibre rear wing has gone through an evolution where the uprights have been shortened to sit closer to the body, while fibreglass side

ALFA ROMEO GIULITTA QUADRIFOGLIO VERDE TCR ENGINE

Turbocharged 4-cylinder in line, transversally installed Distribution: two overhead camshafts, 16 valves Displacement: 1742 cc Bore x stroke: 83 x 80.5 mm Max. output 340hp @ 6800 rpm Max. torque: 440Nm @ 3500 rpm Lubrication: wet sump

TRANSMISSION

Front-wheel-drive Gearbox: Sadev 6-speed sequential with paddle shift Clutch: multi-disc Differential: mechanical limited slip differential

CHASSIS

Front suspension: McPherson strut, coil springs, gas-filled dampers, anti-roll bar Rear suspension: multi-link axle, coil springs, gas-filled dampers, anti-roll bar Steering: electrical power assisted rack and pinion

BRAKES

Dual circuit hydraulic system Front brakes: 6-piston calipers, 378 mm steel ventilated discs Rear brakes: 2-piston calipers, 290 mm steel discs

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4641 mm Width: 1950 mm Wheelbase: 2625 mm Minimum weight: 1265 kg including the driver

BOP

Engine performance level: 102.5 per cent Ballast: -40kg Ride height: 70mm

PRICE

AUD$192,000 approx.

The rear brakes again use Brembo calipers but twin-piston. The pedal box is an off-the-shelf Tilton product. Though the engine is a near-standard unit, it uses an intercooler from a Volkswagen van and a turbo from a Mercedes as do most other TCR cars as these provide the reliabilty and performance gains to be competitive. skirts finish off the aerodynamic details of the Alfa Romeo.

Despite Romeo Ferraris being a private team, the support GRM has received so far has been excellent.

“You can either say good planning or luck, both are beautifully built cars, Romeo Ferraris has done a really good job, worked pretty hard, (it's) professional with its online program and its assistance to us has been good,” praised Beasley.

“We’ve hit the ground running with those cars, which for us is fantastic, but I’m sure as we keep going along, TCR organisers will throw some weight at us and that’s part of the program.”

The Alfa Romeos come with a manual that specifies the homologated parts for the Giulietta Quadrifoglio, which are purchased directly from Romeo Ferraris. This means that development costs are non-existent and teams are guaranteed to receive the same part, making the Giulietta Quadrifoglio that races in America the same as the one in Australia.

A part can be re-homologated, but only if it is

a cost saving or safety measure, meaning endless upgrades just don't happen in TCR, which appears to learned from GT3 where upgrades have killed the category for privateer teams.

Beasley has jumped from Supercars to TCR so can form a qualified opinion on working between the two cars.

“It’s definitely a lot simpler, it hasn’t got the electronics and bits and pieces the

Supercars have got, but is that a good thing? I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Beasley told Auto Action.

“Supercars are extremely complicated for what they are, they’re extremely expensive and high maintenance for what they are.

These cars are a lot simpler and don’t have a lot of the things Supercars fans really like, but they don’t cost $2.5 million to run either.”

Beasley is excited by the possibilities of TCR as it is affordable compared to other similar categories (at worst, an annual budget is $300,000-$350,000) and provides the possibility to race at some of the best circuits in the world.

With further brands expected to compete in TCR worldwide, Alfa Romeo and Romeo Ferraris' emergence has come at just the right time.

THE PATH TO

S S E N T GREA The pathway to Formula 1 has been simplified by the FIA, as DAN McCARTHY explains.

Images: LAT

T

he ‘FIA Global Pathway’ was created in 2014 to make the steps simpler to go from karting to Formula 1. It decreed that the first step into open-wheelers is a driver’s national Formula 4 series, then from there it recommended the driver compete in a regional Formula 3 Championship in either Europe, North America or Asia. And then if successful, the driver would advance to the FIA Formula 3 Championship, then into Formula 1’s feeder category, the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

“The FIA has long been committed to creating a logical pyramid for its singleseater championships,” said FIA president Jean Todt.

“In recent years we have seen the carefully prepared foundations develop into a thriving system which is already producing a wealth of gifted young drivers who will undoubtedly become the stars of the future.”

The FIA Formula 2 Championship was revived in 2017 as the official second tier support category to Formula 1 and the final step of the FIA Global Pathway.

Since returning, the series has produced new Formula 1 stars including Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Alexander Albon.

“The FIA Formula 2 Championship is built on strong foundations. Between 2005 and 2017, Formula 2’s forbear GP2 has been an excellent platform for drivers to progress to Formula 1,” Todt said.

“The combination of talented young drivers and a hugely competitive and education environment, makes Formula 2 a crucial final stepping-stone.”

The second tier of top flight motorsport began pre-war, and had many names and many engine regulation changes before 1967.

It was in that year that the FIA increased the engine capacity to 1600cc to produce close to the same power as Formula 1 cars of the day, and became the official FIA European Formula 2 Championship.

This is when the series really took off, producing stars such as Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni and Ronnie Peterson.

The late ‘60s and early ‘70s was a time in which many Formula 1 drivers also tried their hand at racing in other disciplines,

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such as oval racing at the Indy 500, sports car endurance racing at the Le Mans 24 Hours and even rallying.

Many also contested Formula 2, joining teams such as McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Brabham, though the rules of the time made them ineligible for championship points.

In 1972 the regulations were changed to 2.0L production-based engines, which remained in place until the end of 1984.

Honda-engined cars started to dominate the series in the early ‘80s and as a result grid sizes diminished.

So at the end of 1984, the series was replaced by the FIA Formula 3000 International Championship, which was designed to cut the cost of competition.

The engine regulations permitted any 90-degree V8 engine with a rev limiter added, to stop a single engine manufacturer dominating.

Formula 3000 regulations were never as popular as the Formula 2 regulations as boundaries were frequently pushed and rules were often broken.

From 1996, the FIA introduced standardised cars, so that all teams ran a Lola chassis fitted with a Judd V8 engine.

As a result of this the series grew immensely in the late-’90s, but this created other problems. Almost 40 cars entered at most rounds, forcing drivers to pre-qualify, many of which headed home early after failing to make the grid.

The series produced the next generation of Grand Prix drivers including Jean Alesi, Juan Pablo Montoya and Nick Heidfeld, but F3000 lacked the stepping stone aspect of Formula 2, as technically it was too far away from F1.

In 2000 the series was restricted to 15 teams with two cars each, however costs shot through the roof as a result at the turn of the millennium, and grid sizes dwindled.

In 2005 F3000 was replaced by GP2, the series now running as a major support category to Formula 1 successfully. The series was popular among competitors and fans early on also ran standardised engine, chassisand tyres, as was relatively affordable. Straight away drivers and teams could see that this championship was a step in the right direction.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are former GP2 champions that have gone on

The two most recent graduates of FIA Formula 2, George Russell now at Williams and Lando Norris at McLaren, did battle in the category last year (left). Like its Grand Prix counterpart, Monaco’s round is the most prestigious on the Formula 2 schedule (above). John Watson (right) was one of the earliest exponents of Formula Two, on his way to a Formula 1 career. to win at the highest level in Formula 1.

During GP2’s heyday in 2009, Formula 2 was revived but did not follow the Formula 1 circus as GP2 and Formula 3000 had.

The cars were not as fast and all the cars were run by the one team, a system that proved unpopular with drivers and after just four years the series folded.

This wasn’t the only junior open wheel series to start up in the mid 2000s, there were many others including International Formula Master and Auto GP. Both of these categories also died after only a few years.

GP2 was not threatened by these other championships, but what it did was complicate the pathway to Formula 1 with no obvious stepping stone for all junior drivers to follow.

At the end of 2016, the GP2 series was rebranded as the FIA Formula 2 Championship, to create an understandable and promotable pathway to the most watched motorsport on the planet.

In its inaugural season the series ran V8 engines, but in 2018 it changed to the current regulations and specifications to align itself more with the F1.

The new Formula 2 cars are made by Dallara and built to FIA safety standards, which includes the addition of the controversial ‘Halo’.

Like Formula 1, the series now runs a V6 turbocharged engine but unlike F1 it does not run a hybrid system and therefore contains a bigger 3.4L engine.

Meantime, this year marks the inaugural FIA Formula 3 Championship which was created after the FIA European Formula 3 Championship merged with GP3 to set up the official third step on the ‘Global Pathway’.

“Since 2019 the FIA Formula 3 Championship has joined the same platform as Formula 2 and Formula 1,” Todt said.

“Having the top three tiers of FIA singleseater competition together at the same events is an important part of the learning process, and will make it easier than ever for fans to follow the careers of the sport’s rising stars and see the dramatic journey towards Formula One unfold.

“A brand new car will encourage closer racing and increased overtaking, whilst also benefiting from safety advancements made in Formula 1.

“The costs of competing are as affordable as possible, thus helping to safeguard the championship as a place where talent is able to shine in front of the world’s foremost race teams,” he explained.

Formula Three began life in 1966 as a single round cup competition called the Formula 3 Nations European Cup. In 1975 new 2-litre cars were introduced and this saw the creation of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. It ran for 10 successful seasons before the series returned to its one-off event roots.

This complicated the F1 pathway as it left no clear route to Formula 1 once you had left your home country. The Formula 3 Euro Series created in 2003 filled a gap, but like Formula 3000, was still very distanced from F1. The series was then merged into the new FIA Formula 3

European Championship in 2012, which was now competing against the GP3 Series.

This was a difficult era for young drivers as they were faced with a decision, compete in GP3 or F3 Europe? There was no clear cut obvious route.

In 2019, Jean Todt merged the two to create the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The new championship is the first time in history that there is a global F3 series, a clear F3 championship that drivers can strive to be a part of.

This move has in itself provided an obvious third tier to Formula 1.

Australian Alex Peroni is competing in F3 this season driving for Campos Racing and is currently the highest-positioned Australian on this ‘Global Pathway.’

Currently there are three regional F3

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33

FORMULA 2 SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: V6 - 3.4 litre single turbo charged Mecachrome engine.

Gearbox: Six-speed longitudinal Hewland sequential, electro-hydraulic command via paddle shift from steering wheel.

Clutch: ZF SACHS Carbon clutch.

Weight: 755 kg (driver on-board) Power: 462kW (620bhp) Torque: 570 Nm 0 - 100 km/h, 2.90 sec 0 - 200 km/h, 6.60 sec Max speed: 335 km/h with DRS use Survival cell - Sandwich Carbon/ aluminium honeycomb structure/Zylon anti-intrusion panels made by Dallara.

Front and rear wing - Carbon structures made by Dallara.

Bodywork - Carbon - Kevlar honeycomb structures made by Dallara.

Hydraulic activated DRS F1 type VSC system Halo built to F1 specification F2 specific Pirelli slick / wet tyres.

Fuel cell: Premier FT5 125 litres.

Suspension: Double steel wishbones, pushrod operated suspension.

Adjustable ride height, camber and toe and anti-roll bar (Front/Rear).

Brakes: 6 pistons monobloc Brembo calipers, carbon brake discs and pads.

Steering system: Non assisted rack and pinion steering system.

Australian Alex Peroni is currently contesting the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

series, one in Europe, one in North America and a series in Asia. Two Australians, Tommy Smith and Jack Doohan are taking part in the Asian F3 series this year.

Race weekends are a standardised format for Formula 2 and Formula 3, with a 45 minute practice session, a 30 minute qualifying session and two races.

In F2 the qualifying session determines the grid for the Feature Race. In this race the driver must complete a compulsory pit stop and use both tyres compounds.

The second and shorter Sprint Race grid is decided by the results of the first race, with the top eight positions reversed and no pit stop is to be completed.

In Formula 3, there are no compulsory stops in either races. The second race grid is also decided by reversing the top eight finishing positions from the race 1.

The point system is the same in both series for Race 1, and mirrors Formula 1 with 25 points for first down to one point for 10th position.

For Race 2, 15 points are handed to the winner down to one point in eighth place.

A bonus four points are awarded for pole position and an additional two points are given to the driver who sets the fastest lap if placed in the top 10.

Under-pinning Formula 2 and Formula 3 according to the FIA Global Pathway is Formula 4, the first rung on the international motorsports ladder.

Formula 3000 (above) started in 1984 and continued where Formula Two left off, only to be superseded by GP2 in 2005 (below).

FORMULA 3 SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Mecachrome 3.4 litres naturally aspirated V6 380 HP @ 8000 rpm.

Gearbox: Six-speed longitudinal gearbox designed by Hewland, Magneti Marelli electro-hydraulic command via paddle shift from steering wheel.

Chassis: Dallara Automobili with F1 type Virtual Safety Car system including Halo.

Pirelli tyres.

0 - 100 km/h: 3.1 seconds 0 - 200km/h: 7.8 seconds Max Speed: 300 km/h with DRS system

FORMULA 4 THE CAMS Australian Formula 4 Championship is the first step to Formula 1 for aspiring locals, giving them a first taste of open-wheel competition before heading overseas.

The championship runs to the same regulations as the near 20 Formula 4 championships worldwide.

This enables drivers to move to overseas Formula 4 competition with relative ease.

Australian Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo is a patron for

34 AutoAction

the series.

“I can honestly say things are going in the right direction for young Australian drivers looking to do what I have done, given Formula 4 is a category with wings and slicks and is part of a more structured pathway from karting to Formula 1,” Ricciardo said.

“I think for kids out of karts it’s a really good category.”

The FIA believe that Formula 4 is the first step on the path to Formula 1, but as of yet only

one Australian Formula 4 driver has reached Formula 3 or Formula 2, Kiwi Liam Lawson.

Many have competed successful overseas, however, including Thomas Randle, Harry Hayek, Zane Goddard, Jordan Lloyd and Luis Leeds.

Drivers to have competed in Australian Formula 4 previously who are now competing overseas include Josh Smith in South East Asian Formula 4 and Cameron Shields in USF2000. DM

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ON THE CAM IN TOWNSVILLE Is Supercars’ 10th anniversary in Townsville an opportunity to break the DJR Team Penske 2009 Championship stranglehold? HEATH McALPINE talks to an optimistic Cam Waters Images: LAT

SUPERCARS HAS contested a round in Townsville every year since 2009, with two teams dominating the results at the circuit since its inception.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team and Tickford Racing have both enjoyed multiple race wins at the Reid Park street circuit venue.

Both RBHRT drivers took a win a piece in 2018 to re-ignite their title aspirations, but for DJR Team Penske, it hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds.

The team has only taken two victories, back as plain old DJR with James Courtney Waters leads a DJRTP Mustang ... his aim in Townsville. in the event’s second race in 2009, and the other with Scott McLaughlin two years ago. guys back in range.”

That record suggests it is open for Jamie Although his 2018 didn’t go the way he wanted Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen to mount it too, one of his stronger rounds was in North a strong challenge this year and add to Queensland where he took a pair of top 10s.

Commodore’s solitary win of the season.

Based on Tickford’s history and his own form this Whincup has an undeniably strong record year, Waters is confident of getting a strong result, in Townsville, scoring 10 wins while his Kiwi if not a race win at Reid Park. teammate adds two to make 12 altogether for “I’m really excited for Townsville. It was an okay RBHRT. round for us last year and it’s a track that Tickford Second on the scoreboard for victories is Tickford has gone well at in the past,” he explained.

Racing with four wins.

“That aside, this year has gone a lot better and I The Campbellfield based team had a season think our package has improved quite a lot. It’ll be to forget last year, but has comeback strongly in good to get back up there and see what our car is 2019 to have all of its drivers in the 10, led by Chaz like over the bumps and curves.”

Mostert.

Waters will be one of many to watch at a circuit And lurking in seventh place is a driver that is that has launched title hopes previously. often underrated compared to his Tickford cohort McLaughlin may have a solid margin up front but Mostert but has been in fine form for much of the Townsville can be unpredictable, even more so season, Cam Waters. with the recent floods that has affected the track The man from Mildura sits 165-points behind surface.

Whincup in seventh, but if it wasn’t for some For the chasing pack it is more of an opportunity bad luck at the start of the year, he could be well than ever considering DJR Team Penske’s lack of entrenched at the front with teammate Mostert, van success at the venue. , Gisbergen and co.

“If you take out the cool suit in Adelaide and the WATPAC TOWNSVILLE 400 Scotty Mac thing [incident at the Grand Prix], I FRIDAY should probably up in that pack easily, probably in Practice 1 – 10:55am-11:25am fourth or fifth,” Waters told Auto Action.

Practice 2 – 2:25pm-2:55pm “Obviously that stuff happened, but for me (now) SATURDAY it’s about getting points and trying to get those Practice 3 – 9:55am-10:25am Qualifying Race 17 – 11:50am-12:10am Race 17 – 3:10pm-4:50pm SUNDAY Qualifying Race 18 – 10:35am-10:55am Top 10 Shootout Race 18 – 12:20pm-12:45pm Race 18 – 3:10pm-4:50pm TV (ALL TIMES AEST) Network Ten: Saturday July 6 11:00am Sunday July 7 11:00am Fox Sports: Thusday: Supercars Live 5:30pm Friday 10:00am on-air Saturday 8:20am on-air Sunday 8:30am on-air

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Formula One

Round Eight France

SILVER STREAK Lewis Hamilton streaked away from the field to win a processional French Grand Prix reports DAN KNUTSON

Lewis Hamilton won for the sixth time in seven starts.

Images: LAT

LEWIS HAMILTON was untouchable as he started from the pole and led all 53 laps at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France, to score his sixth victory in seven starts. He increased his championship points lead over his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished second, and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who wound up fifth.

“It may look easy from the outside,” Hamilton said after winning his 79th F1 race, “but it wasn’t easy at all; everything’s always on the edge. So, when I could, I was saving tyres, saving the engine, saving fuel. I had quite big blisters on my front tyres which I was a little worried about.”

Daniel Ricciardo initially finished

seventh in his Renault. The Aussie had a fierce battle with Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo), Nico Hülkenberg (Renault) and Lando Norris on the final lap, and they crossed the finish line in that order with Ricciardo ahead of them.

However, the stewards subsequently gave Ricciardo two five-second time penalties, which dropped him to 11th place.

One was for rejoining the track unsafely, and the other for leaving the track to gain a position.

“It’s clearly disappointing to drop outside the points with a postrace penalty, especially at the team’s home race,” Ricciardo said. “The last

lap was a lot of fun; we had a fight and I enjoyed it. I’d rather give it a go than not try at all, and I’m sure the French fans and the people at home liked watching. It’s a shame to be penalised for it, but we’ll aim to move on from that as quickly as possible.”

Hamilton could not be challenged and nor could Mercedes, even though Ferrari had a number of upgrades for its car in France. Bottas finished second, easing off towards the end of the race which allowed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to close in.

“From my side it was quite an uneventful race in the end,” Bottas said. “We were suffering with some front tyres blistering in the last stint, so we were a little bit concerned and Valtteri Bottas eased off towards the end to save tyres but was comfortably second.

38 AutoAction

just wanted to be on the safe side so we would definitely make it to the end without any failure on the front tyre.”

Leclerc finished third and celebrated on the podium for the second consecutive race.

“I’ve had a few difficult weekends, the last ones, especially in qualifying,” he said. “I changed the approach for here.

I changed also a little bit my approach on the car set-up, and I think it went in the right direction. It paid off and we could see it on the result this weekend.

We have brought some new parts this weekend, some were good, some others were not, but clearly Mercedes are quite better for now. We need to work and to try to catch up.”

Max Verstappen was a lonely fourth in his Red Bull.

“The team kept telling me about Mercedes and Ferrari lap times,” he

Lewis Hamilton heads the field into turn one and dominated from there. A weekend highlight was a very strong performance by the McLarens, with Carlos Sainz sixth.

RESULTS ROUND 8: FRENCH GRAND PRIX

said, “but I told them I really couldn’t go any quicker. I was trying everything I c could.”

Vettel, who had married his longtime p partner Hanna during the break between tthe races in Canada and France, seemed o off song the whole weekend. He qualified b back in seventh and finished fifth. The o only consolation was that he stopped for a new set of soft Pirelli slicks just before th the finish and then clocked the fastest lap o of the race, which earned him an extra w world championship point.

“We wanted to close the gap to M Mercedes by a decent amount and we di didn’t,” Vettel said. “So in that regard we have to be honest: we failed. But I w think nevertheless we tried everything we could, Charles’ podium is a little bit of satisfaction.”

McLaren had a strong race with Carlos Sainz taking sixth place and Norris classed ninth.

“I made another good start,” Sainz said.

“Once I was in P6 I controlled the race, controlled the pace, and drove to the target lap times the team was giving me to manage the tyres. We were definitely the fourth fastest car this weekend – in qualifying and the race.”

Renault brought a number of upgrades for its car to France. Ricciardo qualified eighth but dropped to 10th on the opening lap.

“I feel like I missed out a little bit at the start, especially after a really good launch off the line,” he said. “I braked too early for Turn 1 and that was too conservative looking back. That made the rest of the

race hard work, but we kept it clean and smooth from there. There are still a lot of positives to take and we’ll be looking for an immediate response in Austria.”

After the race the teams packed up and headed directly to Austria for the grand prix scheduled for the next weekend.

Verstappen won last year in Austria in his Red Bull, but he said Mercedes would be out of reach this year. Bottas has always done well at that circuit, so maybe he can close the gap on Hamilton or even defeat him. Ferrari, meanwhile, has plenty of homework to do.

POS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 -

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

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

LAPS 53 53 53 53 53 53 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 51 51 44

GAP 1h24m31.198s 18.056s 18.985s 34.905s 1m02.796s 1m35.462s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps 2 Laps Withdrew

POINTS: Hamilton 187, Bottas 151, Vettel 111, Verstappen 100, Leclerc 87, Gasly 37, Sainz 26, Raikkonen 19, Ricciardo 16, Hulkenberg 16, Magnussen 14, Norris 14, Perez 13, Kvyat 10, Albon 7, Stroll 6, Grosjean 2 CONSTRUCTORS’: Mercedes 338, Ferrari 198, Red Bull-Honda 137, McLaren-Renault 40, Renault 32, Racing Point-Mercedes 19, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 19, Haas-Ferrari 16

Daniel Ricciardo was engaged in an immense battle for seventh and was ultimately penalised - twice!

AutoAction

39

Le MANS

T A H S I N I F C I T A M A DR

S N A M E L

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: LAT

THE 87th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours was a captivating race with many twists and turns, after which the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing trio of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima took victory.

The sister #7 looked very much on track to take the win heading into the final hour when tyre sensors reported to driver Jose Maria Lopez that he had suffered a front-right puncture.

The team changed the tyre and sent the car back out only to find it was the left-rear that needed changing. With the tyre now almost flat, the former World Touring Car Champion had to limp slowly back to the pits, the

40 AutoAction

time lost gifting the lead to the #8 car.

Australian Matt Campbell looked in contention for a GTE Am class victory halfway through the race, but a splitter change put paid to those hopes, dropping the Queenslander and his #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche teammates Christian Ried and Julien Andlauer towards the tail of the class top 10.

The trio drove a very strong back half of the race to come back from multiple laps down and ninth in class, to finish fifth.

This was then elevated to fourth after the class winner was disqualified post race.

Campbell and Ried thus finished the World Endurance Championship (WEC) Super Series in second place, despite being stripped of all points from the opening four races of the season for a technical infringement.

Up front, it was a bittersweet victory for the #8 Toyota trio in taking their second Le Mans 24 Hour victory and the 2018/2019 WEC Super Season title by 16s, after the sister car’s issues.

Some sloace was found for the Japanese manufacturer in securing its second 1-2 on the trot.

Rounding out the LMP1 podium was the #11 SMP Racing BR Engineering Ra BR1 BR in the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne, Vitaly Petrov Va and an Mikhail Aleshin. The trio completed the race without co any major issues, finishing an six laps behind the leading Toyotas.

To The #3 Rebellion Racing ca car of Nathanael Berthon, T Thomas Laurent and G Gustavo Menezes were ccomfortably in third when an u unscheduled stop lasting th three and a half minutes put

Toyota’s victorious drivers and team management lift the coveted winner’s trophy, while the #36 Signatech Alpine was driven to victory in the LMP2 class.

the team seconds behind the #11 car. Pushing hard to retake third Menezes lost the rear of the car, spinning into the gravel trap at the Porsche Curves, gifting the sister #1 crew fourth.

The other SMP car, the LMP1 DragonSpeed and the ByKolles all failed to greet the flag at the end of the 24 hour race race.

In LMP2 the #36 Signatech Alpine Oreca took its second consecutive Le Mans class victory. After inheriting the victory last year, this time round the trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao secured victory on the road and earning themselves the LMP2 WEC Super Season title.

Adopted Australian James Winslow had a difficult 24 hour race driving with Jakub Smiechowski and Nigel Moore in the #34 Inter Europol Competition car. The drivers had comparable pace to the LMP2 regulars before suffering a multitude of mechanical and technical issues. The trio did finish the race but as a result of the gremlins finished 45th outright, 43 laps off the class winners.

The #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca driven by Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert was dominating the class and leading by more than three minutes when a routine stop

Toyotas dominated as expected, with the #8 greeting the chequered flag to win after the #7 Toyota was cruelly robbed with less than an hour remaining.

Ford raced its last Le Mans 24 Hours as a GTE manufacturer (left), while Australian Matt Campbell could not replicate his 2018 class victory (here) as the GTE Am class class fell to the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche (below).

19 hours into the race turned into disaster. Due to a wiring issue the car failed to restart.

The helpless drivers could only watch the lead disappear before their eyes.

They eventually finished four laps behind the class leaders, recording sixth position in class.

The #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing trio of Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi challenged for the win at one stage, before suffering a puncture which caused the team to lose a lap. They never managed to get the lap back and remained in second position, which was enough to take the runner up spot in the title.

In third place a further lap behind was the #28 TDS Racing car of Francois Perrodo, Loic Duval and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

They inherited the final podium position when former Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado crashed at Tertre Rouge. Despite this, Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez still finished third in the championship race.

The United Autosports Gibson driven to fourth by Paul di Resta, Filipe Albuquerque and Phil

Hanson was the best of the nonOreca cars and was also best of the non-regular WEC LMP2 entries.

GTE Pro was the most exciting of the four classes, with six manufacturers fighting for class winning honours.

Surprisingly it was Ferrari which won its first Le Mans GTE Pro class victory since 2014, in the hands of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra.

Australian Ryan Briscoe made his annual Le Mans appearance in one of four Ford GTs entered in the race, as the American manufacturer said goodbye to the WEC at the endurance classic. The former IndyCar driver finished a respectable sixth in class, but was promoted one spot when one of the sister Fords was disqualified for an illegal fuel tank capacity.

As the GTE Pro race evolved different manufacturers looked strong at certain points during the race. Aston Martin had looked fast early, Ford looked fast, as did Corvette and Porsche at times, but it was the consistent Ferrari which came out on top.

As dawn broke it was a close race between the #51 Ferrari and the #63 Corvette, but it was American manufacturer that faltered first.

After losing a minute waiting to join the queue behind the second safety car, former Formula 1 driver Jan Magnussen tried too hard to regain the time lost and touched the wall at the Porsche Curves. The team finished five laps down.

Behind the #51 squad were two of the four-strong factory Porsche squads, led by the #91 car of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki.

The #93 car of Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Patrick Pilet followed, ahead of three Ford GTs. While Ford finished strongly, the same could not be said for BMW as it left La Sarthe and the WEC with a disappointing 11th placed finish.

Aston Martin looked really

good early on, but both cars suffered damage in separate accidents during the night, and neither car finished the race.

Exhaust dramas cost the #92 Porsche any chance of defending its 2018 class win, however the silver lining was that in bringing the car home Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen won the GTE Pro class championship.

The GTE Am victory was inherited by the #56 Project 1 Porsche trio of Jorg Bergmeister, Egidio Perfetti and Patrick Lindsey, when the #85 Keating Motorsports Ford GT was disqualified for a fuel tank capacity breach. It was double delight for the Porsche trio as

th they had already p picked up the WEC G GTE Am class vi victory.

IIt had been a clo closely fought race be between the German an American brands and in the closing stages of the race, when Ke Keating earned a pe penalty for spinning his wheels during a pits pitstop This meant its lead evaporated to just 5s, but in the final hour Bleekemolen pulled the gap out to 50s at the line. It all came to naught, however, due to the infringement.

This meant second place was awarded to the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rodrigo Baptista, Jeff Segal and Wei Lu, trailing by 40s at the line. American team WeatherTech Racing, fielding another Ferrari 488, filled out the podium with Cooper MacNeil, Robert Smith and former Bathurst 12 Hour winner Toni Vilander.

The 2019/2020 WEC season starts later this year in England with the 4 Hours of Silverstone on September 1.

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WRC

Dani Sordo suprised with his first WRC win in six years.

SORDO BREAKS THROUGH SPANIARD DANI Sordo was the surprise winner of Rally Italia Sardegna on June 14-17 as bad luck struck championship contender Ott Tanak on the very final stage.

Tanak had led the rally since the morning of the second day and was set for a 30s victory before a steering issue on the Power Stage lost him 2m and dropped Toyota’s leading driver to fifth. The podium was filled out by Ford driver Timo Suninen and Hyundai’s

Andreas Mikkelsen. The latter snatched the final podium place by 0.9s off Suninen’s teammate Elfyn Evans on the final stage.

On the rally’s opening day, it was Sordo that held a 10.8s lead by the end ahead of Suninen with Tanak only 0.4s behind the Finn.

It was a day to forget for championship leader Sebastien Ogier as he retired instantly when he hit a rock, wrecking his Citroen C3’s

TRUEX TAKES SONOMA VICTORY MARTIN TRUEX Jr. has taken back to back Sonoma Raceway victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch in the closing stages.

With fresher tyres Busch closed the leading gap in the final stint down from 8.2s to 1s but that was as close as he got, Truex keeping the #18 Toyota Camry at bay. The race itself ran caution free apart from the two breaks in between stages.

Kyle Larson scored pole position but lost the lead to William Byron on the first lap, from there Byron went on to win the first stage.

Truex was leading in the second stage with a handful of laps to go but like many others elected to pit to give himself better track position for the final stage, ultimately the strategy worked.

Denny Hamlin inherited the stage win as many cars pitted in front of him.

During the caution drivers who elected not to stop towards the end of the second stage were buried down the field, such as Hamlin who restarted the race in 26th position.

Truex once again found himself up front as the race resumed, once again he broke away at the restart to and was never

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suspension while in ninth place.

Hyundai’s lead title protagonist, Thierry Neuville had a marginally better day after two wrong tyre choices and a pace note mix-up caused him to go off, damaging the i20’s radiator.

The second leg of the rally was dominated

by Tanak as took three early stage wins to bridge a 25.9s gap over Sordo and Suninen a further 17s in arrears.

The rally failed to improve for Neuville, finishing the day sixth after Toyota’s Kris Meeke suffered a late puncture and dropped to eighth.

The final day belonged to Mikkelsen as he took all four stage wins, setting up his charge to third in a duel that lasted all three-days with Evans.

Tanak’s problems failed to aid Neuville as he finished just behind the Estonian in sixth,

NASCAR

INDYCAR troubled going on to claim the victory and giving Joe Gibbs Racing its 10th race win in the first 16 races.

“I just dug down deep and tried to be smooth and hit my marks,” said Truex.

“Luckily I began with a big enough gap where I could get away and not feel too much pressure.”

Ryan Blaney finished the race in third, his Penske teammates however had a day to forget. Championship leader Joey Logano was forced to pit near the end of the race with alternator problems resulting in him finishing 23rd, while the #2 car of Brad Keselowski finished the race in 18th position.

Matt DiBenedetto scored his best NASCAR Cup Series result in fourth position, while Denny Hamlin came from 26th position at the start of the stage to finish fifth.

ROSSI REIGNS SUPREME AT ROAD AMERICA ALEXANDER ROSSI dominated the Road America Grand Prix, winning the race by 28.4 seconds over Australian Will Power in the tenth round of the round IndyCar Series.

Rossi’s second victory of the season sees him close to within seven points of championship leader Josef Newgarden who finished the race in third.

Colton Herta scored his first IndyCar pole position, but it was Rossi who started alongside and who led out of the first turn.

From that moment on Rossi drove his Andretti Autosport car into the distance and was never challenged.

Scott Dixon’s race got off to a bad start, after starting 12th due to an engine failure in qualifying and was tapped into a spin by Ryan Hunter-Reay in the opening lap.

BTCC BMW DRIVER Andrew Jordan was the man to beat at the latest British Touring Car Championship at Croft.

The 2013 champion converted his first pole in five years to win the opener, which was stipulated by a Safety Car due to Rob Collard going off at Sunny Out in his Vauxhall Astra. It was a clean restart for Jordan as he was never challenged for the victory from then on ahead of podium debutant, Honda driver Chris Smiley and Tom Chilton driving the Motorbase Ford Focus.

The second race proved more straight forward for Jordan as he dominated from the outset leaving Smiley to deal with the angry pack behind. BMW teammate and championship leader Colin Turkington was the first to pass the Eurotech Honda on lap 5,

though he continued to hold onto third.

The two factory Honda Civics piloted by Matt Neal and Dan Cammish were next to move through on Smiley, before contact with Ash Sutton’s Subaru spelt the end of Smiley’s run, dropping him to 27th.

The two BMWs of Jordan and Turkington took a West Surrey Racing 1-2 ahead of Cammish, Neal and Sutton.

“It was pretty much perfect,” said Jordan. “I was pretty overwhelmed after winning Race 2 with full ballast because to get two double-wins in successive events is something that almost never happens in the BTCC and it shows what an amazing job WSR have done with the BMW. “The title fight really starts here,” said Jordan

FORMULA E Images: LAT, Red Bull Content Pool

bringing to an end a disappointing rally for the Belgian.

However, it was Neuville’s Hyundai teammate Sordo that took only his second WRC win in 164 starts.

“It’s an amazing feeling to take my first win for Hyundai and the second WRC win of my career,” said Sordo.

“I am very sorry for Ott and Toyota to have experienced such bad luck on the Power

Stage. We knew we had to keep the pressure on in case this sort of situation occurred. I just can’t believe it happened. We have been quick and consistent all weekend and we now have this fantastic victory as a reward.”

The top three title contenders are split by just seven points heading into the next round of the WRC in Finland where Tanak takes a four point lead over Ogier and Neuville a further three back.

Power elevated himself to second place dispatching Herta on lap 13, things got much worse for the youngest ever IndyCar winner, a refuelling issue cost him many spots in his first pit stop. Working his way from eighth back through the field Herta then tripped over Pagenaud costing them both two positions.

At the second round of stops former Formula E race winner Felix Rosenqvist lost a couple of positions falling from sixth to eighth.

Rossi with a 20s lead over Power on lap 40 was the first driver to make his final stop. In the final stint the American pulled out a further 8s lead over the Team Penske car allowing him to cruise to victory.

“It was probably one of the best race cars I’ve

ever had,” Rossi said.

“We have been quick through the whole season, but we just haven’t really had it come our way as many times as we want, for one reason or another.

To come out and be able to do what we did today is a huge testament to the whole organization.”

Power finished second, giving the Queenslander his second podium in three races. After falling outside the top six in the early stages Newgarden recovered to finish third and keep his championship lead.

Graham Rahal continued his outstanding run of form finishing fourth to record his seventh top 10 finish in 2019. Despite spinning on the opening lap Dixon showed great pace to move through the field and finish inside the top five.

Rosenqvist finished the race sixth ahead of Canadian James Hinchcliffe who ironically overtook Herta at Canada Corner on the final lap of the race when the 19-yearold ran wide.

The next round of the season takes place at Exhibition Place on the streets of Toronto on July 14.

Standings: Newgarden 402, Rossi 395, Pagenaud 341, Dixon 308, Power 294, Sato 292, HunterReay 271, Rahal 244, Hinchcliffe 216, Rosenqvist 209.

JEAN ERIC Vergne has extended his championship lead after taking a hard fought race win in Switzerland, the DS Techeetah driver holding back Kiwi Mitch Evans.

Championship contender Lucas di Grassi started 19th on the grid while Vergne started from pole. It was a chaotic start with a track being blocked at the opening turn. The decision was made to restart the race under safety car inl grid order.

From the moment the race restarted Evans applied maximum pressure to Vergne but the reigning champion defended strongly.

Pascal Wehrlein was running strongly in fourth on the tail of Nissan E.Dams driver Sebastien Buemi, when his Mahindra came to a halt and a full course caution was called to remove his car.

After the caution was removed Evans used Attack Mode,

Vergne managed to keep the Jaguar driver behind before he too activated Attack Mode.

With 17 minutes of the race to go Evans activated his final Attack Mode, but around the tight Bern circuit was it was proving difficult to make an overtake.

In the closing laps heavy rain started to fall, this condensed the top four drivers as Vergne was driving cautiously, Evans again applied the pressure but ultimately could not get through.

Vergne held on to take the win by half a car length from Evans and home hero Buemi. Lotterer was handed a postrace penalty of 22s for ignoring the pit exit light demoting him to 15th.

The next round of Formula E is the finale in New York for a double-header on July 13-14.

WTCR

TWO NEW WTCR race winners were crowned at a chaotic and attritional German round of the championship around the full Nordschleife Nurburgring Circuit.

Norbert Michelisz scored his first race victory of the season in Race 1, beating pole sitter and championship leader Esteban Guerrieri into Turn 1. Michelisz then put his head down and pulled a margin of 2s by the end of lap one, from there he cruised home to beat Guerrieri by 1.7s. Nestor Girolami finished ahead of Rob Huff and Frederic Vervisch in a great three car scrap for third.

In race two it was two time Rallycross World Champion Johan Kristoffersson who claimed his maiden WTCR victory. Starting from pole the Swede was pressured by wildcard Antti Buri into Turn 1 but

Kristoffersson held onto the lead around the outside.

Frederic Vervisch took second on the opening lap but could not match the pace of the race leading Swede finishing 5.1s behind, Brazilian Augusto Farfus rounded out the podium in third.

It was an exciting final race with Sebastien Loeb Racing taking its second win in two races, this time it was Benjamin Leuchter who took his first victory ahead of Vervisch and Guerrieri. Kristoffersson came crashing back to earth in Race 3 literally, when fighting for 10th position with Nicky Catsburg the Swede hit the wall very heavily.

Guerrieri leads Michelisz the standings by 45 points with Thed Bjork a further nine points adrift at the halfway stage of the championship. The next round takes place in Portugal on streets of Vila Real on July 6-7.

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RACE REPORT

Hidden Valley Races 15 & 16

SCOTTY’S TRIPLE TREAT Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Ross Gibb/Insyde Media

AGAIN IT was a masterful display from DJR Team Penske and in particular reigning champion Scott McLaughlin, who achieved what Craig Lowndes, Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall, Marcos Ambrose and Jamie Whincup had failed to do, by capturing the Darwin Triple Crown for the first time in the event’s history.

McLaughlin’s form on the Supercars weekend was supreme, as he comfortably won the two races to add to his tally of 10 already under his belt this season.

The Kiwi is on track to smash the

record for most wins in a season, which sits at 16 set by Craig Lowndes during his whirlwind debut season back in 1996.

Success in Darwin isn’t new for McLaughlin. The man who had stopped his charge to the Triple Crown at last year’s event, David Reynolds, was this time left to be ‘best of the rest’, a result that elevated him to be Holden’s lead runner in the Supercars Championship and within reach of breaking the DJR Team Penske points stranglehold at the top.

On the other side of the Holden fence, Chaz Mostert’s undercut strategy was perfect in Race 15.

Qualifying pace was seriously lacking for Shane van Gisbergen, failing to make the top 10 for either race.

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Tim Slade’s race 15 didn’t last long after contact with Rick Kelly on the second lap sent him into the armco and earned the Nissan driver a pit lane penalty.

the factory team continued to struggle in Darwin, particularly in qualifying, which set back any chance of victories up north.

Shane van Gisbergen had to fight his way through the first segment of qualifying and failed to proceed to the final segment, so started 12th for Race 15. Teammate Jamie Whincup only faired marginally better, to start eighth.

All Mustangs made it into the top 10, as did both Erebus Commodores and Andre Heimgartner was again clearly the fastest Nissan, starting from 10th.

It was a frantic start to Race 15, with the two second row men – Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale – making better There was plenty of the usual lap one, turn one drama in the dust at the start of Race 15.

jumps to Turn 1 than Reynolds and McLaughlin. But with the two front-row drivers boxing in Davison, Erebus’ young gun was left to make a challenge around the outside; it failed and allowed Davison back into third.

Towards the rear, heading into the valley, chaos ensued when three into one simply didn’t go. For season debutant Macauley Jones his first year has been incident filled and that narrative continued in Darwin when James Golding tangled with Jack Le Brocq, which squeezed the two into Jones forcing all three to either retire or spend a lengthy time in the pits for repairs.

Cam Waters made a concerted challenge for the podium but fell just short of making it a Mustang 1-2-3.

This was the closest anyone got to Scott McLaughlin on Saturday as David Reynolds was forced to do defend from a fast starting Will Davison. Nissan again had a disappointing weekend at a circuit on which it has previously enjoyed success. The opening lap of Sunday’s encounter was more of a challenge for the championship leader as Reynolds sniffed the lead, but the DJR Team Penskes team leader had it handled.

The strong cold tyre pace of the Mustang continued. Davison passed Reynolds at Turn 5 after being brave around the outside at Turn 4, while McLaughlin was long gone, some 0.750s up the road already.

Reynolds had no answer to the Mustangs in front, although the Commodores were the fastest through the speed traps.

A parity change had been made to the Commodores on the Friday (not announced by Supercars, but explained in the first team owners’ media conference

by Roland Dane). The changes were an extension to the rear of the front splitter and the reduction of the rear wing angle by one degree, which Dane stated was a uniform change to level the Commodore up with both the Mustang and the Altima.

The change had an affect in a straight line but still the Mustang held the advantage in overall lap speed, for McLaughlin in particular.

Davison had more of a fight on his hands as Reynolds ranged up on the rear of his Mustang at the beginning of lap 2 at Turn 1, maybe a little too much as he locked up and gave the Mustang a small tap.

Heavier contact was made between Heimgartner and Mark Winterbottom on the exit of the final corner, followed by wheel-to-wheel contact which vaulted the Commodore into the air spectacularly, however there was surprisingly little damage to either.

Further contact in the midfield brought the introduction of the safety car, when Rick Kelly tipped Tim Slade into the wall approaching Turn 4.

The stricken Brad Jones Racing Commodore was left on the outside of Turn 5 with significant damage, making it two panel-bashed BJR cars failing to see out the opening stages. A pit lane penalty was given to the Nissan driver for the incident.

Davison and Reynolds resumed their battle once the safety car was called in on lap 7, while Chaz Mostert began to set-up his move towards the front by passing Anton De Pasquale, who was then the first to pit working on an undercut strategy. However, it all came to nothing as the front right tyre change was delayed meaning a 16s pit stop compared his rivals which were in the 4s bracket.

Mostert was next and he worked It was all hands on deck for Brad Jones Racing after two cars crashed in qualifying for Race 16.

the undercut perfectly to emerge in an effective second place, overtaking Reynolds and Davison in the process.

There was then drama between that duo in pit lane when Erebus was quicker with its stop and an unsafe release ensued when Tickford released Davison, with the two touching. A 15s penalty was applied to Davison’s final race time.

Both Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodores pitted late and made gains with Whincup taking fifth and van Gisbergen eighth.

While McLaughlin and Mostert were secure in their positions up front, Reynolds was not. He was coming under fire late by a determined Cameron Waters, the Erebus driver holding on but only just.

For Sunday’s Race 16 the boys at Brad Jones Racing must of thought its truckie had run over a black cat on the way to Darwin.

In qualifying both Nick Percat and then Jones speared off at Turn 10 during the session, without setting a time. Again the team set to work, repairing a significant amount of damage to both cars, to have them on the grid for the race.

The qualifying woes continued for Whincup was run wide twice on the opening lap to be 24th. He came back to fifth by the close of Race 16 .

the RBHRT with both drivers incredibly missing the Shootout, which was won by McLaughlin, which ticked off two parts of the elusive Triple Crown.

Teammate Coulthard won the initial jump for Race 16, but McLaughlin held the inside line. Much like Davison in the first race, Mostert made a flyer from the fourth row, but was boxed in.

Meanwhile, Coulthard lost second to Reynolds approaching Turn 4, who then made an attack on the race leader at Turn 5. While the reigning champion held on, a former title winner was struggling in the mid-pack. Whincup was bustled out of 11th at Turn 4, ending the first lap in 24th after he was further fed wide by Percat at Turn 6.

McLaughlin was again quick out of the blocks and held a 0.830s margin at the conclusion of lap 2 and further extended it to 2.5s by lap 7.

The first to pit was van Gisbergen, who short filled along with Whincup a lap later. Next was Coulthard, while McLaughlin and Reynolds followed on lap 20. The DJR Team Penske pair filled to 53 litres, but Reynolds had 60 litres put in, which became an issue when he came out of the pits splitting the RBHRT A close moment in Race 16 between wildcard runner Jack Smith and McLaughlin in the pits.

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RACE REPORT

Hidden Valley Races 15 & 16

If Brad Jones was shaking his head after Nick Percat found the wall in qualifying, then his head must of been in his hands when son Macauley crashed at the same spot seconds later. Reynolds and Fabian Coulthard battled throughout Race 16.

Commodores. This was rectified when Reynolds slipped down the inside of van Gisbergen quite easily at Turn 4, four laps later.

Chris Pither was again leading the charge for Garry Rogers Motorsport in his fill-in role for Richie Stanaway. He was continuing his strong form from Winton finishing 15th in Race 15, but on Sunday was stuck uck in a battle pack behind Simona De Silvestro causing the engine to overheat.

Waters kicked off the second pit stops on lap 36 in an undercut situation, but this was stifled by DJR Team Penske’s move to bring Coulthard in the next lap.

McLaughlin nearly suffered a glitch when exiting from his pit stop on lap 44. His crew just managed to call him to stop before he ran into the side of Jack Smith in pit lane, similar to Davison’s incident with Reynolds in Race 15.

Speaking of the Erebus leader, he was encountering further traffic and couldn’t make an impact on McLaughlin’s growing margin.

Although both team cars b had h advanced positively after po the th pit stop cycle, there cy was wa further pain pa for RBHRT when wh it was deemed that van dee Gisbergen’s spun Gis the wheels during his pit stop. The team was fined $3000 $300 and 30 championship cham points.

Mostert was the last of the leaders to pit, but he came out well behind McLaughlin and Reynolds. On new tyres he charged, quickly embroiling himself in the battle for fourth between teammates Waters and Lee Holdsworth joined by a recovering Whincup. He passed both Holdsworth and Whincup but was unable to make an impression on his young teammate.

A 14s advantage was what McLaughlin greeted the chequered flag with, ahead of Reynolds and Coulthard giving him a 219 point margin heading to Townsville on July 5-7.

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team pair were strong in the races, but qualifying was a different story, leaving both drivers with work to do.

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RACE RESULTS RACE 15 42 LAPS 1 Scott McLaughlin 42 laps 2 Chaz Mostert +6.883s 3 David Reynolds +7.878s 4 Cameron Waters +8.242s 5 Jamie Whincup +8.953s 6 Lee Holdsworth +12.462s 7 Fabian Coulthard +14.008s 8 Shane van Gisbergen +15.289s 9 James Courtney +20.145s 10 Scott Pye +26.524s 11 Anton De Pasquale +28.185s 12 Will Davison +32.133s 13 Nick Percat +32.662s 14 Garry Jacobson +34.715s 15 Chris Pither +35.324s 16 Simona De Silvestro +35.710s 17 Andre Heimgartner +38.926s 18 Mark Winterbottom +39.704s 19 Todd Hazelwood +44.663s 20 Jack Smith +65.327s 21 Rick Kelly 41 laps 22 Macauley Jones 34 laps NC Tim Slade 1 lap 24 Jack Le Brocq 0 laps 25 James Golding 0 laps FASTEST LAP Chaz Mostert 1m 06.6034s

0 ▲4 ▼1 ▲1 ▲3 ▲1 ▲3 ▲4 ▲5 ▲7 ▼7 ▼9 ▼2 ▲7 ▲9 ▲6 ▼8 ▼5 ▼1 ▲5 ▼6 ▲1 ▼7 ▼4 ▼6

RACE RESULTS RACE 16 70 LAPS 1 Scott McLaughlin 70 laps 0 2 David Reynolds +13.832s ▲1 3 Fabian Coulthard +14.875s ▼1 4 Cameron Waters +21.162s 0 5 Jamie Whincup +21.911s ▲6 6 Chaz Mostert +22.324s ▲2 7 Lee Holdsworth +22.911s ▼2 8 Anton De Pasquale +27.639s ▼2 9 Will Davison +29.360s ▼2 10 Shane van Gisbergen +31.987s ▲6 11 Andre Heimgartner +35.735s ▲6 12 Mark Winterbottom +36.405s ▼4 13 Todd Hazelwood +46.892s ▼1 14 James Courtney +46.923s ▼1 15 Nick Percat +55.337s ▲9 16 Rick Kelly +57.235s ▼7 17 James Golding 69 laps ▲5 18 Tim Slade 69 laps ▼1 19 Scott Pye 69 laps ▼4 20 Simona De Silvestro 69 laps ▼2 21 Jack Le Brocq 69 laps 0 22 Macauley Jones 69 laps ▲3 23 Chris Pither 69 laps ▼4 24 Garry Jacobson 69 laps ▼4 25 Jack Smith 69 laps ▼2 FASTEST LAP Cameron Waters 1m 06.9750s Points: McLaughlin 1946, Coulthard 1627, Reynolds 1487, Mostert 1400, van Gisbergen 1399, Whincup 1390, Waters 1225, Percat 1183, Davison 1136, Holdsworth 1056, Slade 1023, Winterbottom 1009, De Pasquale 1008, Courtney 991, Heimgartner 947, Pye 871, Hazelwood 820, Kelly 771, Golding 719, De Silvestro 712, Jacobson 590, Jones 573, Le Brocq 568, Stanaway 482, Smith 219, Pither 159, Blanchard 93

Carrera Cup Darwin Round 4

ALMOND WINS DESTRUCTIVE DARWIN

Report: Dan McCarthy Image: Insyde Media/Ross Gibb

THE FOURTH round of Porsche Payce Carrera Cup Australia at Hidden Valley in Darwin featured three race winners across the three races, with South Australian Michael Almond taking the round honours becoming the fourth driver in as many rounds to do so.

The longer endurance race began the weekend’s race action with Canberra born Cameron Hill starting from pole for the first time in Carrera Cup Australia history.

As the lights went out at the start of Race 1 Almond made a better get away in his #77 Sonic Porsche and led Hill into Turn 1.

Further behind in Pro Am Anthony Gilbertson and Roger Lago collided, Tim Miles took avoiding action but damaged his rear wing.

On lap two Hill made a move on the inside of Almond into Turn 1, the pair made slight contact, Hill ran wide allowing Almond straight back through.

Still with a damaged rear wing Miles dropped the rear of his car onto the grass on the exit of Turn 1, spinning him violently into the tyre barrier on the inside of the track and as a result the safety car was called.

The race restarted on lap 16, with Hill

pouncing on the opportunity to retake the lead, from there the 21-year-old wasn’t headed.

Jordan Love was looking for his sixth consecutive race victory but had to do so from ninth on the grid. In the closing laps he edged up on his Sonic racing teammates Almond and Dale Wood fighting for second.

On the final lap Love made an aggressive move on Wood resulting in the pair making contact; despite this Love made the overtake stick for third.

Hill took the victory from Almond, Love, and Wood, but after the race Love was handed two five second penalties for incidents with Warren Luff and with Wood resulting in the young Western Australian finishing 11th.

In the second race Hill made a much better start from the pole and led into Turn 1 ahead of Wood and Almond.

Further back Liam Talbot and Dean Cook made contact, spearing Talbot onto the grass and into the Turn 6 traffic, wiping out Love. Both cars were out for the weekend but fortunately Talbot and Love drivers escaped serious injuries. The safety car

There was no joy for Jordan Love or Liam Talbot. inevitably was called to clean up the mess.

On the restart Hill ran in deep at Turn 1 allowing Wood to get past and with better momentum Almond stole second position on the approach to Turn 5.

This was the way it stayed at the front of the field with Wood taking victory ahead of Almond and Hill, the trio equal on round points heading into the final race.

At the start of Race 3 the Sonic cars on the front row made an even start but it Adrian Flack ran out winner of the Challenge Class.

was Wood who led Almond exiting Turn 1. Further back on the approach to Turn 5 Steven Richards and Thomas Maxwell touched, Maxwell on the grass spearing into the side of Nick McBride, with Gilbertson, Cook and Duvashen Padayachee all picking up damage attempting to avoid the incident.

As the safety car pulled into the lane, Almond got a run on Wood on the pit straight, making the move for the lead into the first turn. Hill tried to take second off Wood on the approach to the Turn 6 hairpin, with no success.

Almond pulled a small gap but in the closing stages Wood and Hill closed the margin but it wasn’t enough, Almond took the win and the round from Wood and Hill.

Adrian Flack dominated the Pro Am, winning all three races in class. Staying out of trouble, the Queenslander recorded three top 10 results outright including a seventh place finish in the final race.

Outright Standings: Dale Wood 640, Jordan Love 475, Nick McBride 468, David Wall 463, Warren Luff 439. Pro Am Standings: Anthony Gilbertson 515, Roger Lago 502, Sam Shahin 487, Liam Talbot 428, Stephen Grove 394.

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SUPPORTS Hidden Valley

JUSTIN JUST TOO GOOD Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Insyde Media

ROUND THREE of the Aussie Racing Car Championship Series was as near as perfect as Justin Ruggier could have wished for at Hidden Valley. He was fastest in practice and qualifying before winning three of the four races, taking his tally for the year to nine as well as his third round win in a row.

In the first, which was interupted by a safety car when Grant Thompson heavily crashed his Mustang, team mate Ruggier had to fight doggedly to hold off Joel Heinrich (Cruze) who led early after a blinding start, with the pair just 0.16s apart at the chequered flag.

Third went to Kel Treseder (Camaro) ahead of Blake Sciberras (Mustang) and Paul Morris (Altima), with Jos Anderson (Camaro) and Craig Woods (Mustang) immediately behind them.

Thompson’s crash occurred on lap two at turn three after slight contact with Jonathan Bloxsom (Camaro) caused the Mustang to rollover and career into the armco barrier. He was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with broken ribs.

Contrary to the earlier poor getaway, Ruggier led from the outset, firstly fending off Heinrich and then Treseder to win by 0.24s.

Heinrich held onto third ahead of Morris and Anderson with a healthy gap to Leigh Bowler (Camaro), Woods, Reece Chapman (Camaro) and Sciberras who lost early momentum with an oil leak interfering with the electrics.

Ruggier won three while Treseder (below) contended.

Despite starting out of 10th in the reverse top ten grid race three, Ruggier drove brilliantly to win. Before he hit the front, there was a massive scrap at the front where at

GUESTS RULE THE HOUSE

Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Insyde Media

Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Insyde Media

THE INTERSTATERS showed the local HQ Holden drivers the way around Hidden Valley over four races supporting the VASC. From NSW Jack Harrison won each, repelling the early challengers before dominating in the end. The first race was closest where he initially led WA’s Adam Butler and NSW’s Shaun Boland before the latter was able to move through to the lead by the end of the second lap. Harrison relegated Boland the next time around and stayed in front for the duration.

Behind them there evolved another three-way scrap where Frances emerged ahead of fellow Victorians Phil Aitken and Andrew Lorgelly. Luke Harrison held fourth for a period until low oil pressure forced him to join Tony Moloney (head gasket), Steven Ling (melted points) and Marian Bujnowski (bent valves) on the sidelines.

Boland was the early leader of the second race, surrendering the lead on lap three and retiring three laps later with a blown head gasket. Behind Butler and Francis, it was Aitken from Peter Brown and Lorgelly.

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times, there were five race leaders and many positional changes among the top 11 cars.

Race leaders included Dan Price (Camaro), Morris on a couple of occasions, Sciberras and finally Ruggier. In the end it was Treseder (Camaro) who was a close second ahead of Morris, Heinrich, Chapman, Sciberras, Bowler, Price, Craig Dontas (Camaro) and Josh Anderson (Camaro) 10th.

Accumulated points determined the final race grid where Treseder led from the outset and

In the third outing Harrison had an all-the-way win, as he maintained a 1s plus advantage over Butler. The battle for behind was far more intense and involved several where Aitken was able to pass Moloney in the latter part for third.

Starting at the back, Boland joined this pack and finished fifth, having passed Francis and Brown. Ling also started rear of field and worked his way through to ninth behind Gavin Thompson (NT) and ahead of Bujnowski.

Harrison grabbed the front running almost immediately in the final race and went on to a 6s plus win. Boland quickly jumped to third and after a couple of laps, wrestled second off Butler who in turn engaged in a good scrap to hold third but ultimately succumbed to Moloney.

withstood the race-long pressure from Ruggier for the win. There was a multi car tangle at turn six on the opening lap which brought out a brief safety car and left some with damage.

On the resumption, Morris and Heinrich had contact at turn one that caused Sciberras to go off and lose several places. Not long after Morris and Price were in the wars with the latter crashing. Later it was Morris on the receiving end with a spin following contact with Adam Price (Camaro).

In the end Anderson hung on ahead of Heinrich and Woods to claim third, while the next best were Sciberras, Bowler and Chapman.

Post-race penalties would see Woods drop to seventh and Bowler to ninth.

A BIG WIN COMES TO DARWIN

IT MAY not have been Cyclone Tracey, but Ray Hislop and his Ford Falcon BF blew through Hidden Valley with a four-race domination of Improved Product and Commodore Cup. In the first two the Tasmanian was out dragged off the start by WA’s John Callegari in his Holden Commodore VN who in the first race, held the front running over the first lap before Hislop blasted away into the distance.

Callegari maintained second throughout and was just ahead of NT’s Tim Playford (Mazda 808 Turbo) who won his dice for third over Rod Jessop (Commodore VE).

The scrap for fifth raged all race long and ultimately went to Keven Stoopman (Mitsubishi EVO 7) over Rob Braune (BMW E30) and the Under 2.0-Litre front running Ford Escort piloted by Peter Cusato.

Zac Hudson (Mazda RX7) had an early off-road excursion and dropped to 24th before fighting back to ninth ahead of Bryce Fullwood in the first of the Commodore Cup cars.

In the second outing, Hislop retrieved the lead at the first corner. Hudson continued his comeback, finishing just behind Callegari. Playford was next as Stoopman again headed Braune and Cusato, Tony Isarasena (RX7), Barry Smith (Commodore) and Fullwood.

Hislop continued his winning way in race

three. He was well clear as the battle for second between Callegari and Hudson until the Commodore driver spun off, dropping to sixth before fighting back to third.

There was a great tussle between Tim Playford (Mazda 808 Turbo) and Rob Braune (BMW E30), with the former finally edging ahead. Chasing that duo was Keven Stoopman (Mitsubishi EVO 7), clear of Ross Salmon (HSV VZ), Fullwood, Cusato and Isarasena.

As Hislop disappeared into the distance of race four, Callegari and Hudson scrapped until a bump sent the RX7 off the track.

Hudson did fight back for a close third – which became second when his rival copped a 5s penalty.

Third went to Braune from Callegari after the adjustment, Playford, Stoopman, Salmon, Gary McKay (Holden Torana XU1), Cusato, and 10th-placed Smith after he had an earlier spin. Next was Isarasena (RX7) while son and father Bryce and Brad Fullwood were almost side-by-side across the line at the head of the Commodore Cup class.

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AMERICANS LOCKED IN FOR AUSTRALIA THREE OF the best American racers are set to hit Australia’s east coast towards the end of 2019.

Of those already to commit to racing is reigning Knoxville Nationals champion Brad Sweet who will again drive for Mark Cooper, along with fellow American Aaron Reutzel in a car prepared by Mick Saller, while Donny Schatz will again be racing in Queensland.

Sweet of California last teamed up with Cooper for a brief and 11th hour stint late in 2018 but will come with a more comprehensive campaign this time around to compete in the entire Ultimate Sydney Speedweek as will Reutzel of Texas.

Reutzel is teaming up with Sydneybased Saller Motorsport as he makes his first appearance in Australia.

He started his career as a junior in the late 1990s and has gone on to become one of the most feared competitors in All Star Circuit of Champions and World of Outlaws battles across the USA.

BIG WEIRD wings were in play for a good reason for Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters in a completely different warm-up prior to racing in the Darwin round of the Supercars, with his first drive of an 850 horsepower Sprintcar at Northline Speedway. The car owned by multiple NT and 2019 Darwin champion Chace Karpenko impressed Waters (who was the 2018 Australian Modified Sedan Championship) so much he was left saying, “I drove this beast and had so much fun, I want one.”

Image: Rock Solid Pics Image: 44Photography

“We can’t wait for this,” Mick Saller said.

“Aaron runs a Triple X chassis like we do and Dad and I think we can learn a lot from the way he races and the way he goes about things. This can’t come soon enough. He doesn’t leave anything on the table and we can’t wait to see him rip the lip at Parramatta.”

and Made Too Go Principal Barry Waldron.

“We have already had interest from American and interstate teams. The idea of being able to race with this kind of frequency, with this kind of money and not have the added expense of travel between races is very attractive. We are really excited about the possibilities.”

One of the big winners of scheduling could be veteran speedway identity and current Lismore Speedway promoter Dave Lander, who will host a round of next season’s WSS at the iconic Northern NSW venue on Jan 14.

The date fits in perfectly with the WSS East Coast swing, and could catch other teams in the travelling tournament during its Queensland commitments.

Non-contracted WSS teams could easily make

AUSSIES ON USA TOUR AUSTRALIAN DRIVERS are currently taking on the Americans and proving their worth with some solid results already posted in the Unites States.

Scott Bogucki recently grabbed consecutive wins in the American Sprintcar Series with a clean sweep in South Dakota with victory at Black Hills Speedway and at Brown County Speedway on successive nights.

Brooke Tatnell has also tasted victory of late in Minnesota and Peter Britten has grabbed two wins in the tough DirtCar championship at AlbanySaratoga Speedway, New York.

Brothers Ian and Kerry Madsen are recording regular top 10 results as they prepare for the upcoming

Image: Nikita Pollack

Image: Art of Speedway

Unlike Reutzel, Schatz is no stranger to Australia since the late 1990s and the multiple World of Outlaws champion will again compete at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway over the Christmas/New Year period, contesting six nights of racing and chasing a 10th Australian Sprintcar Open victory.

Image: Art of Speedway

FANS ARE BIG WINNERS AUSTRALIAN SPEEDWAY fans have been given one of the best and toughest choices in many years.

The recent Sprintcar calendar released by Sydney Speedway bosses is an interesting racing schedule that will run directly against the opening six World Series Sprintcars rounds from Boxing Day. All six Speedweek rounds at Valvoline Raceway correspond exactly with WSS competition at Murray Bridge, Mount Gambier, Avalon, Warrnambool and Brisbane twice.

The combination of a large cash incentive and the frequency of racing in the Harbour City is an attractive one for teams and fans, without the need for extensive travel.

“We believe that this is going to be a very attractive concept for NSW teams, interstate teams and international teams alike,” said Valvoline Raceway

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KLINTON HANCEY has added a third consecutive state title to his superb season with a comprehensive win in the NSW Modlites Championship at Grafton Speedway.

The 37-year-old has already won the Victorian and South Australian titles in 2018-19. He used pole position to his advantage and grabbed a flag-to-flag win in the 25-lap race ,from Terry Leerentveld and Scott Lehfeldt. “I’ve absolutely loved being a part of one of the country’s premier speedway classes. The competition is formidable and I’ve already learned a lot from the other drivers, so I’m looking forward to continuing that next season.”

Image: Geoff Rounds

the trip north in a return of the tournament to one of the original tracks on the schedule, when the series was first introduced to Australian speedway back in the 1987-88 season.

Lander last hosted a WSS tournament round at the Lismore Showground Speedway during 2014 and has now decided to host a round in his revamped schedule, despite the cost.

“It (WSS) will be the most expensive show of the season.

But it’s a chance to again be involved with World Series

Sprintcars, which I have had a close affinity with over the years and I made the decision to accept a round when it was offered to me,” Lander said.

“It’s all about giving the fans what they want and World Series Sprintcars remains very popular in the framework of Australian Sprintcar racing. It does sit well for us on the schedule and, even though it is a weekday event for Lismore, it’s in the middle of the holiday period and our summer season high time, so I am anticipating a big crowd will be on hand.”

Image: Lee Greenawalt

majors during July and August at Eldora and Knoxville. Darren Mollenoyux, Allan Woods, Lynton Jeffrey and Jesse Attard have also been busy since hitting the US during recent weeks.

Reigning Australian Sprintcar champion Andrew Scheuerle has just about to embark on his first American sojourn, as is Rusty Hickman.

James McFadden has been in good form and posted some nice results on the Outlaws in the immaculate Kasey Kahne prepared car and the current Australian Late Model champion Paul

Stubber has again shown good results on the Hell Tour.

Multiple national Formula 500 winner Liam Williams is contesting the tough California Speedweek for Micros and Declan Brownsey and Renee Leggo are competing mainly in Illinois in the Modifieds divisions.

SOME OF Tasmania’s finest young Sprintcar drivers have been recognised in the annual end of season awards, with Tate Frost winning the Rookie of the Year and Scott Bissett the Most Improved driver. Nick Penno had his best season and scooped the pool in both the GBE Series and topped the Club points. In just his second season of Sprintcars Jock Goodyer and his busy team were awarded Best Presented and he also won the Driver’s Driver award.

SEDAN SUPERSTAR Kye Walters has capped off an amazing 2018/19 racing season with victory in the Victorian Modified Production Series championship, adding to his Australian and Tasmanian Titles. Walters beat home Andrew Blackwell and Brock Atkins and the Cockerill Motorsport duo of Darren and Nick. Walters was also judged the winner of the Sportsman award as voted by his fellow drivers, while Rachel Pratt and her crew were the recipient of the Best Presented Car and Crew.

ANOTHER AUSSIE taking on the Americans produced one of the coolest and most memorable moments in his Sprintcar racing career, was Stuart Williams. He cut his teeth racing at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway several years ago and is living his dream racing in the USA and recently scored his maiden victory at Attica Raceway Park in Ohio. “Wow is all I can say. Words cannot really describe how that felt. My parents have given me all the opportunities I could ask for and this was for them and my wife and kids,” Williams said.

LENNIE BONNICI outclassed his rivals to win the annual 100-lap Derby at the Alexandra Speedway for the fourth consecutive time.

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Sam and Yasser Shahin were top points scorers.

RECORDS BROKEN AT THE BEND Report & Images: David Batchelor

THE THIRD round of the Australian Motor Racing Series visited the The Bend Motorsport Park for the first time on June 22-23, with the series showing off his diversity of categories.

FORMULA 3

NO ONE could catch John Magro (Dallara F308/11) who cruised to victory in all three races and locked away a new outright lap record of 1min 40.7295s in the final race.

Reilly Brook (Mygale M07) was next best followed by Roman Krumins (Dallara F307).

Josh Buchan (Dallara F308/11) showed good pace after running out of fuel on the final lap of Saturday’s race, as he carved his way from the rear of the grid. He progressed to second in race two on Sunday and also claimed second in the final race. South Australian Andrews Roberts (Dallara F304) ran out of luck when he broke the gearbox in race two, putting him out for the weekend.

FORMULA FORD THE PRESSURE was on with three different winners from three races and the battles for the minor places were epic and track limits stretched to the max.

Lachlan Mineef (Mygale SJ10A) took the round by only one point but comfortably claimed his first championship race win in the final heat. Thomas Sargent (Mygale SJ12A) had taken the opening win on Saturday and was credited with second for the round.

He tied on points with championship leader and race

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two winner Angelo Mouzouris (Mygale SJ18A). Kiwi teenager Callum Hedge (Mygale SJ10A) had a productive weekend in the second Sonic entry, claiming fourth.

Harrison Goodman (Mygale) and Paul Di Biase (Spectrum) had a coming together at the first corner in race one, which bought out the safety car.

Seton fought for over second.

Unfortunately Herne had the differential fail while he was leading the final race, gifting Miedecke an outright win ahead of Seton. Consistency paid off for reigning title holder Ashley Jarvis elevating his Chev Camaro into third outright.

TA2

DESPITE FINISHING second in both races, Sam and Yasser Shahin (Lamborghini Gallardo) were the top points scorers.

Matt Stoupas (Audi R8 LMS) came out on top in race one after the safety car was bought out on lap one with Peter Corbett’s Lamborghini Gallardo looking very

TA2 HAD the biggest field and it looked like the Mustangs of George Miedecke and Aaron Seton would be fighting for the minors but fate intervened. NSW’s Nathan Herne had dominated proceedings in his Dodge Challenger, winning the first three races while Miedecke and Lachlan Mineef claimed his first championship race win and the round.

GT-AUSTRALIA

second hand as it limped back to the pits. The stranded Porsche GT3 of Rick Mensa had to wait till the race’s end to be rescued by the tow truck.

There was a little less excitement in race two with John Morriss (Porsche 911 GT3R) taking the chequered flag first. Shahin and Stoupas took the minor places.

Geoff Taunton and Jason Busk were the MARC 1 winners with Taunton the top points scorer.

THUNDER SPORTS

JOEL HEINRICH (Ford Falcon AU ex-Supercar) had looked set to win all four races until a misfire saw him dive into the pits and lose a lap with that race win going

Nathan Nat Na thann HHerne th than errne ne w won onn races tthree th hree TA TTA22 rra acees aan nd then then th en hhad ad tthe ad he he and ddifferential di iffffeerren enti ntitial al ffail. ail.l. ai

A misfire stopped Joel Heinrich from winning all four Thunder Sports races. to Mark Tracey (BMW E36). Rick Newman (Falcon) had been able to outpace the V8-powered BMW but retired from the final race after only one lap.

Brett Mitchell was the best of the rest in his OzTruck. Myles Bond (turbo Ford Escort) had given the frontrunners something to worry about, leading race one briefly before running out of

fuel and then withdrawing from the event after some other problems were found.

Class A winner Heinrich and Class B winner Tracey were tied on points for the outright win by the end of the weekend.

John Magro set a new outright lap record on his way to three wins.

BMW E3S, UTES & IROC PORSCHES

HAVING IT all their own way, Jeremy Payne and Jesse Bryan filled the top two spots every race of the Garagistic BMW Drivers Cup. There was a bit of movement and a little bit of rubbing in the mid order with Brian Bourke grabbing the last podium position.

It was Commodores one, two and three in the Utes with Glenn Hancox leading VE clean sweep. Local Ute campaigner Charlie Kovacs was a close second with Hancox’s team mate Colin Sieders third. South Aussie Wayne Williams was the lone Falcon

runner tying on points with Sieders.

Greg Keene was the lone IROC Porsche and spent his weekend at the pointy end showing the Utes and BMW’s how it should be done.

RX8 CUP

SERIES CREATOR Ric Shaw eventually prevailed after Aaron Prosser claimed the first two wins.

Prosser struck trouble in race three and finished well down the order but bounced back in the final race to consolidate his second place ahead of William Harris.

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

BATES ANNIHILATES ARC FIELD HARRY BATES and John McCarthy have continued their dominant start to the 2019 CAMS Australian Rally Championship by taking out the third round in Tasmania, winning all but one stage over the weekend.

So far in 2019 the Toyota Gazoo Racing men are unbeaten, having taken victory in the opening three rounds of the season, giving them a big margin in the championship at the halfway stage.

Molly Taylor and Malcolm Read took the final stage win of Rally Tasmania by just 0.8s, denying Bates and McCarthy a perfect weekend. The Subaru do Motorsport pairing tied on points for the round with Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin, the final stage victory for Taylor and Read giving them second for the round on a countback.

On Saturday Harry Bates and McCarthy took all 11 stage victories to take the heat win. Taylor and Read finished 95s adrift, with younger brother Lewis Bates and McLoughlin a further 55s behind in third.

Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt fought with Lewis Bates all day before striking trouble on the 10th stage and robbing them of a solid result.

Timothy Auty and Jon Mitchell

Harry Bates was unstoppable in Tasmania, winning both days easily.

Images: Aaron Wishart, Angryman Photography

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finished fourth in their Mazda 323 GTR ahead of Luke Anear and Steve Glenney in the brand new Ford Fiesta R5, with John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver in a Skoda Fabia R5 finishing the heat in sixth to make it five brands in the top six.

A broken gearbox hampered Simon Evans’ cameo return. After midday service repair he showed great pace to finish the heat seventh.

It was a Bates and Toyota 1-2 on Sunday with Harry beating Lewis by 60.8s, Taylor and Read finishing just 11.2s further back.

Simon Evans drove well in the second heat but received a two minute penalty for the use of an extra tyre, the penalty demoting him to fourth. Bodie Reading and Mark Young rounded out the top five in their Subaru WRX STi. “It was a very good weekend for us, very happy to be here and the car is all in one piece,” Harry Bates said.

“It was tough. The conditions yesterday morning asked a lot of questions of us, it was very icy and created a lot of challenges,” he sa id.

Standings: H Bates/McCarthy 223, Taylor/Read 162, L Bates/ McLoughlin 132, Anear/Glenney 113, O’Dowd/Feaver 84

Molly Taylor won the final stage, preventing Harry Bates from taking a clean sweep.

Luke Anear continued to adjust to his Ford Fiesta R5, while Simon Evans returned to the ARC.

Image: XM Photography

Q i in Quinn i a canter at Barraganyatti

Image: Igor Semenov

AUSSIES PLACED WELL IN MARATHON FIVE AUSTRALIAN crews are in the top 10 of the Classic category halfway through the seventh running of the Peking To Paris Motor Challenge.

On June 2 the 105 rally cars headed from Beijing on a 36-day marathon to arrive in Paris, some 16,000km away, on July 7. The rally traverses highway, byways, back roads and no roads through 12 countries. It is a massive test of speed and endurance for both the cars and the crews.

By June 20, the rally had reached the halfway point after 18 days, having already been through China, Mongolia,

Russia and Kazakhstan.

Currently leading Classic is two-time winners Gerry Crown and Matt Bryson driving their 2013 event-winning Leyland P76. Crown and Bryson hold a 1min 14s lead over USA’s Chris and Tjerk Bury (Datsun 240Z) and fellow Americans David and Susan Danglard (Porsche 911).

The other Aussies well placed are John Henderson and Lui MacLennan (Volvo 144), David and Steve Gainer (Datsun 240Z), Phillip and Lynda Blunden (EH Holden) and Paul Hickman and Bas Gross (Bristol 403).

SCHLIFELNER TAKES MYSTON RUN IN two separate groups, Eric Schlifelner won the Samba Metal Works Moyston Short Course, the third round of the Victorian Off Road Club Shield held on June 9.

Schlifelner (Saber/Hayabusa) completed the 27 laps of the 5km course in 1hr 56mins 29s, to win by 27.4s over Ian and Julie Terry, with a further 2mins 12.9s to Glenn Pike and Darryn Coon, both crews in Class 6 Can-Ams. The event was originally slated for later in the year but was brought forward following the cancellation of the Sea Lake Mallee Rally. As many had prepared already for the traditional long

weekend Sea Lake event, it therefore attracted 27 entries.

Fourth outright went to Class 4’s Peter and Bill Sibson (Bennett P1 Trophy Truck/Chev V8) ahead of Dean Williams and Jonathon Huber (Class 3 Southern Cross/ Daihatsu), Rowan and Todd Frankling and Brett and Christy Jorgensen in Class 6 buggys, and the Unlimited buggys of Rachel and Peter Bolton, and Kevin Howitt/ John Mahon. Jason Forssman and Del Palmer (Class 7 Nissan Patrol) rounded out the top 10.

The event was split into two groups with both required to do three heats, two over 10 laps and

Image: JS Motorsport Photography

one over seven.

Out of the first group it was Schlifelner winning from the Terrys and Pike/Conn, while the second group was headed by the Williams’ ahead of the Boltons and Howitt/Mahon.

Fourteen completed the course with just under half succumbing to dramas. The Class 2 buggys of Graham Symons/Natasha Gill and Mark and Nathan Hubbard were out in their first heat with ignition issues and an expired engine respectively, while Jason and

WILSONS WIN MANUMBAR THRILLER CONSOLIDATING THEIR place as the points leaders, Brayden and Blake Wilson won the second round of the P3 Solutions CAMS Queensland Rally Championship in the final stage at the SR Automotive Manumbar Rally on June 15.

They were second in the opening round and this time had a tight battle with Glen Brinkmann and Harvey Smith, as both Mitsubishi EVO 9 crews traded stage wins. By the eighth and final stage, Brinkman and Smith had a 30s lead over the Wilsons after netting their fourth stage victory.

But the leaders had dramas and struggled, falling more than 4mins behind the stage winners Ryan

Smart and Hugh Reardon-Smith (Datsun Stanza). Brinkman and Smith also finished behind the Wilsons, which meant they would pick up the outright round win having taken three stage wins.

With five top-three finishes and the last stage win, Smart and Reardon-Smith ended up second

This event which was first run in 1907 and won by Prince Borghese in a 1907 Itala and was revived in 1997.

Since 2007 it has been run every three years by the Endurance Rally Association, in the spirit of those famous long distance rallies such as the London to Sydney Marathons and the World Cup Rallys of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The event can only be contested in a pre-1977 model 2WD car and is split into two categories – Vintage for preWW2 cars and Classic for post-WW2.

Steve Maher

outright, as well as scoring the 2WD win. Third spot was taken by the Image: CH Images all-female crew of Melinda Bergmann and Larisa Biggar (Mitsubishi Lancer), after they finished inside the top five in seven stages.

First round winners Marius Swart and Alan Stean (VW Polo S2000) finished fourth outright ahead of Brinkmann/Smith, Garry Yeomans and Nigel Walters (EVO 5), Jeff

Chris Cachia retired with damaged steering.

Glenn and Courtney Wilkinson (Class 1 Payne/Nissan V6) had their right rear wheel tear off the arm and Dean Bennett/Baillie Bennett (Class 8 Nissan Patrol) lost a wheel. Andrew and Jack Cameron (Class 5 GMC Sierra Pickup/Holden V6) succumbed to a gearbox failure. GOB

and Holly Kilbride (Toyota Corolla AE111), Clay Badenoch and Catriona Kelly (Toyota Celica RA40), Wayne Hoy and Richard Galley (Datsun 260Z) and Ian Reddiex and Mike Mitchell (Datsun 1600 SSS).

In the Clubman competition, Dominic Corkeron and Dennis Neagle (BMW E30) were 2min winners over Rhys Simmons and Mick Baker (Hyundai Excel) and Brendan Mole and Simon Teed (Datsun 1600). Michelle Van de Wilk and Kevin O’Connor (Impreza) were the Novice winners ahead of Gary Dutton and Jennifer Garth (Toyota Celica) and Marcus Connelly and Ray Priest (Datsun 1600). GOB

AT THE Mag Barraganyatti Rallysprint, round five of the NSW Shannons Series held on June 2, it was Nathan Quinn with Ray Wynward-Smith and Dan Smith slated to do the co-driving, that were the winners.

In his Mazda RX2, he was 14s faster than David Opie and Ben Richards (Mitsubishi EVO IV), while third place went to Shane Clarke and John Newton (Subaru GC8).

The event was conducted on forest roads within the Kempsey Shire over two 7km stages, with three attempts each. The quickest two times from each were added together and lowest combined effort was the winner.

Fourth place went to Evan Bollard and Kellie Pearce (RX2). Their best time after the first three runs was bettered by John Newton and Shane Clarke (Subaru), Jacob Keogh and Brad Dawson (Datsun 1600) and David Skelton and Kieran Munro (Mazda RX7).

But Bollard was fourth fastest after the next three runs while Keogh was sixth and fell behind James and Lindsay Collits (Datsun 180B) in the overall standings. Newton and Clarke only completed one run on the second leg and were non-finishers.

Seventh overall were Wayne Meyer and Steve Mitchell (Datsun Stanza) in front of Jonah and Peter Summersell (Nissan Pulsar Q) and Nigel Bland and Michael Rourke, who switched rolls in their Commodore Ute for ninth and 10th respectively. GOB

Vic series round to South Aussies

Image: John Doutch B Team SOUTH Rally AUSTRALIAN pair Aaron Bowering and Nathan Lowe scored a narrow victory in the German Technik Nissan Nightmoves Rally, round three of the Victorian Club Rally Series on June 15.

Teamed in a Subaru Impreza WRX, they opened up a 23s lead on the first stage, increased the margin on the second and they were never headed from there. They were however beaten on the final two stages, which allowed Cody Richards and Matt Dillon (Ford Escort) to close and finish just 13s in arrears.

The VCRS points leaders were lucky to survive a last stage off-road excursion into the shrub, before extending Richards’ margin. Next were Tim and Leonie Clark (Volkswagen Golf GTi), who maintained third throughout.

Eighth after two stages were Aidan O’Halloran and Darren Davison (Mitsubishi EVO III) before improving to fourth in the end. They were helped as Ryan Humphreys and Steve Kenway (Toyota Sprinter) dropped to 26th, having missed three checkpoints.

Added to that, Aiden Peart and Kim O’Halloran (Datsun 260Z), Adrian Stratford and Kain Manning (Daihatsu Charade) as well as Daryl King/Troy Hutchins (Toyota Corolla) who were running fifth, sixth and seventh, were later retirees.

That also elevated Phil and Damien Wilson (Toyota Soarer) to a top five spot after being 10th early on.

Next were David Burn and Mitchell Lukasz (Hyundai Excel) ahead of Joel Wald and Chris Ellis (Datsun Stanza), David Gates and Gareth Nicholls (Mazda MX5), Daniel Devenish and Andrew Murdoch (Nissan 180SX) and 10th placed Colin Sichlau and David McKenzie in an EVO IV RS. GOB

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Time to attack Ararat IN HIS Time Attack Mitsubishi EVO, Mirko Gribic took out the fifth Image: Burnouts Unlimited round of the Trydel Up & Go Victorian Hillclimb Championship at Ararat on June 8-9.

The One Tree Hill course is the only one on the championship calendar that doesn’t include open wheelers and Gribic took full advantage.

Gribic dominated the event, winning by more than 3s over his nearest rival by posting a best time of 39.91s – only the third ever under the prestigious 40s mark.

The battle for second place was a lot closer, between Glen Latter (Mazda RX7), James Callahan (EVO) and David Harris (Subaru Impreza WRX). In the end Latter’s penultimate run was enough to secure the runner-up spot.

Throughout the middle stages, Callahan led a trio in second outright, but had to settle for third, more than a second ahead of Harris. Meanwhile Steve Grinstead (Holden Commodore VL) secured fifth. The top five outright finishers also won their respective classes.

Completing the top 10 of the 76 entered were Jordan Jason (Holden Torana SS), Chris Brooksby (Ford Falcon AU), James Cruttenden (WRX), John Young who was the winner of the largest, Non Logged Booked class, and Brenton Byfield (Subaru).

The closest class finish was in Sports Sedans O2L with just 0.05s splitting Grinstead and Jason, while it was tight between Stephen Lambrick (Proton Satria GTi) and Les Morrall (Ford Escort) in Improved Production U1.6L at 0.87s, fractionally less than in NLB. Tania Langcake (WRX) took home the fastest female honours, and her daughter Chloe scored fastest junior. GOB

New surface suits Tighe A BRAND new surface greeted Image: CH Images 57 competitors for round five of the NSW Hillclimb Championship on the Mountainview Complex at Grafton on June 9, where Dean Tighe was far too good, posting the fastest times on every run.

Tighe’s best of the day was a 43.51s run in his F1 Judd V8-powered Dallara, also taking the Formula Libre over 2.5-litre class win by a large margin on the 968m course.

Outright second and almost 4s behind was Dave Morrow (Formula Libre U1.3-Lt) with Steven King (Formula Libre up to 1.3-lt Uberkart Reaper) third.

Fog cleared to a sunny day of official competition on Sunday and it was smiles all round for the Grafton Sporting Car Club-run event. There were some greasy first runs to give competitors a taste, before the track dried out for closeto-ideal conditions.

The battle for was between Stan Pobjoy (VW Special) and Garry Ford, who both recorded their best times on their third attempts with the former the better by two tenths of a second. The latter was the best of the Tin Tops in the Formula Libre-dominated event aboard his Historic Group U V8-engined Ford Escort.

Ron Hay (Dallara Synergy) was sixth fastest after only two runs while next came James Pearson in his Group 2B/2F Prod Sports over 1.6-lt Mazda RX7. Coming in at eighth outright was the fastest female Pauline Graham (Group 3J Improved Production up to 3.0-lt Datsun 1800 SSs) who beat Karen Wilson (Ford Focus RS) in 33rd.

Just one position behind her in the outright standings was the faster junior Riley McQueen (Holden Commodore) and 10th outright went to Ken Graham in the Datsun he and wife Pauline shared.

James Pearson

Image: David Batchelor

MAC PARK RETURN FOR SUPERKARTS AFTER A 30-year absence, Superkarts returned to McNamara Park at Mount Gambier for the running of the 55th Australian Superkart Grand Prix on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

Tim Clarke cruised to victory in 250cc International In after the demise of early leader le Anton Stevens with gearbox pproblems. Clarke won the first two heats aand also set a new outright lap record ((1min 08.790s). Stevens collected the hheat three win but ran out of luck before the halfway mark in the final, leaving th Matt Bass and Jamie MacDonald to M trail Clarke home. Paul Snaith was a lap tr down but collected the 250cc National silverware.

Jim Gorman dominated Stock Honda, winning all the heat and comfortably defeating Shane Varley in the final with Thomas Roe a distant third. Brad Tremain looked set to take the 125cc Gearbox final after snaring three heats. He made the best of the start from Gary Pegoraro, but became an unwilling spectator after three laps, allowing Pegoraro to take victory, unchallenged ahead of Shane Jones and Troy White.

James Boden was the man to beat in 125 Non-Gearbox Rotax, his winning ways only being punctuated by Jim Gorman’s win in heat two. Boden led throughout the final with the battle raging behind for second. Sebastian Amadio,

Rod Savage, Hayden Veld and Gorman were dicing for the whole 12 laps.

Amadio and Savage claim the minors after a lot of positional changes between the four. Brandon Stillwell was the best of the Heavys in sixth while Hayley Thompson was top Junior.

Boden looked set to take an easy 125 TAG finale victory after winning all the heats despite some close battles and even closer drafting down the back straight with Jaryd Berry. Fate stepped in, though, when Boden lost a chain within sight of the chequered flag, handing the win to Berry while pushing his kart across the line for third behind Kelvin Moreland. David Batchelor

WINTER MAKES ALL WAIT PATIENTLY WAITING for dry conditions was key to winning the Noosa Winter Hillclimb Challenge on June 8-9. That is how it worked out for Michael Von Rappard who posted his best time on the final run, to win the event.

Von Rappard (supercharged Hayabusa powered Dallara F392) ran the wet Saturday sessions, but sat out the slippery conditions of Sunday morning before his last attempt produced a 54s dead FTD. He was over 5s faster than anyone else.

Matt Read (Readster MTR1) also produced his best on the last attempt to finish second as did third placed Warwick Hutchinson

(turbo OMS 28 RPV03).

The slippery conditions tested the limits and numerous cars fell to Noosa’s unforgiving 1.5km course.

Paul Hibberd’s Mazda fell off the road, Robert Kippen’s Datsun 1600 came off second best after barrier contact, and Robyn Manning’s Mini Clubman flipped onto on its roof.

Even von Rappard had a moment, hitting the banking as it crossed the finish line on one run.

Von Rappard and Hutchinson were first and second in Formula

Image: Noosa Hill Climb Libre in Over 2.0-Litre class, while Read won F/L U2L. Predictably the All Wheel Drive class would figure well and it was no surprise to see Sebastian Black (Subaru Impreza WRX) and Phillip Sutcliffe (Nissan Skyline GTR) fourth and fifth outright, as well as heading their class.

Next was Blaise Paris at the

helm of his Early Modern Sports Car Porsche.

In his Historic Racing Car Ralt RT4 William Norman was seventh overall, ahead of Brett Bull (F/L O2L turbocharged Van Diemen RF03K), Grant Elliott (BMW E36 M3 Sports Sedan) and Daniel Mischok in his Classic Touring Car U2L Ford Escort. GOB

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

www.wakefieldpark.com.au June 28 Speed Off The Streets/Test & Tune June 29 Austin Healey June 30 MRA July 1 WPM Trackschool Track Day

54 AutoAction

Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au June 28 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers July 4 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers July 5 Test & Tune – Super Trucks ONLY July 12 Test & Tune – Cars and Open Wheelers

Image: Riccardo Benevenuti

Laaceyy takes Lacey taakees adavantage

Image: Riccardo Benevenuti

SOGGY START TO MRA ROUND EARLY HEAVY rain at Sydney Motorsport Park mixed up the results in some races in round four of the Motor Racing Australia Series on June 16.

SUPER TT

THE SODDEN opener went to John Walker (Morris Mini). Polesitter Steven Lacey (Commodore) spun on the first lap and dropped to 16th, eventually recovering to be ninth. Todd Herring (Mazda MX5) was second with Ashley Slavkovic (Nissan Sylvia) third.

Normal service resumed in race two, Herring leading from start to finish on a less-sodden track. Lacey came through to finish second from Walker, who just didn’t have the power to stay ahead on a track with more grip.

In the final, Lacey bogged down on the start and was fourth at the end of the first lap. Herring again led all the way, Walker slowed suddenly with a loss of power on lap three and retired. Lacey moved to second on lap two in a three-wide move on the straight, passing

both Walker and Michael Musumeci (Alfa GT).

Meanwhile, Slavkovic was progressing up the order, having started 10th after a troubled race two. He passed Lacey on the sixth of eight laps and set off after Herring. The Mazda had enough in hand to take the win.

MINIATURE RACE CARS

FIRST AND second in the opening race were Shane Burns and Peter Griffiths in Aussie Racing Cars, with Luke Bergens (Future Racer) next. Griffiths led the early part of race two, before being passed by eventual winner Craig White (Future Busa).

Chad Cotton (Future Busa) led the cracking third race early before his front splitter started dragging on the track, bringing him to the pits for a quick fix. This left Griffiths in the lead but Matthew Thewlis (Aussie Racing Car) was hunting him down. Thewlis took the lead on lap seven of eight and won from Griffiths and Bergens.

WEATHER PLAYS PART TOWARDS THRILLING FINALE ROUND 3 of the Warwick District Sporting Car Club A Series Super Sprints started off with morning fog and damp conditions. The round was conducted on the 2.1 km E layout with conditions worsening during the event, as small showers tested out levels of car control as well as bravery, especially those running on slicks.

Due to the treacherous conditions some of the faster cars soon became the slowest with dry runs at a premium.

Apart from plenty of spins, slides and a lot of dancing on the wet Morgan Park tarmac, the event ran well with no major incidents. Stephen Riley was lucky to emerge unscathed after a stuck throttle put his V8 MG into a tyre bundle, a very unnerving experience for anyone.

At the completion of Round 3, the

MX5S & BRITISH SPORTS CARS

A FEW Nissan Pulsars and others found their way into this group as Curren Brennan (MX5) took the opener from Ian Joyces (Pulsar) and Stuart McFadyen (MX5). Tim Herring (MX5) took race two from Brennan and Greg Dufficy (Pulsar).

Race three went to Herring from Brennan and McFadyen.

VELOCE ALFAS/PULSARS/BMW E36S

Pulsar drivers dominated with Josh Craig taking three wins with Ian Joyce second twice and Dufficy once. BMW wins went to Jeff Barnes, Robert Boaden and David Bailey. Seconds went to Barnes and Boaden twice. Andrew and Brad Wilson took first and second in the first race in Alfas, before Darren Harris put them back to second and third next time out. Brad Wilson won the last from Urs Muller and Richard McKie. Bruce Moxon

IT WAS going to be a showdown between Chev Camaro drivers Steven Lacey and Birol Cetin after they each had round wins in the Kumho Tyre NSW Sports Sedan Championship, but round three would be dominated by Lacey as Cetin had dramas in qualifying and packed up.

Lacey won all three races at Wakefield Park, the first two with a clear advantage before being pushed in the third by Grant Doulman in his Falcon/Chev.

Every lap in that race was under 60s, quick times for the category.

In race one Doulman was third behind Scott Reed but beat his Ford Mustang rival in the second outing. Reed was a distant third in the last while Simon Copping (ex-Supercar Holden Commodore) finished with three fourths after two entertaining races with fellow ex-Supercar Commodore driver Warren Millett.

Behind that duo Jason Compton (BMW/Chev) was dicing with Phil Ryan (Nissan 280ZX/Chev) who ended up spinning off at the last corner on the final lap of the first two races. Compton split the Commodores in the last where Mark Duggan (Aston Martin/ Chev) finished eighth behind Matt Ingram (Mazda RX7), despite losing his rear wing. GOB

Bill Norton found it difficult on slicks.

Images: Trapnell Creations

Lachlan Sutton found the going tough as more nimble cars stole the show.

Championship points were tallied up with the result being a tie between Vikki Paxton and Ashley Bright at the top of the points ladder.

Round 4 is going to be a nail biter as Paxton and Bright go head-to-head for the 2019 Super Sprints A Series Championship on August 31-June 1.

The B series is next for their third round for 2019 to be held on August 3-4, followed by Round 3 C Series on August 24-25.

Spectator entry for all the super sprints is free of charge and offers a fantastic action packed weekend with a large variety of cars. For more information and for what events are coming up, visit www.morganparkraceway.com.au

CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE = 1st Ashley Bright Vikki Paxton 3rd Peter Hancock 4th John White 5th Beau Hatton 6th Tony Hatton 7th Bill Norton 8th Adam Kin 9th Matt Allsop 10h Ryan McSwan

126 points 120 points 109 points 107 points 102 points 100 points 94 points 89 points 82 points

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

Next Round: B Series Round 3 August 3-4 AutoAction

55

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

THE THIRD round of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships took place on June 15-16 at Winton Motor Raceway, the circuit certainly lived up to its title of the nation’s ‘Action Track’.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

BEN GRICE took the round win after a typically competitive Hyundai Excel round.

Grice didn’t have it all his own way, Jordan Caruso taking the win in Race 1 ahead of Cam Wilson, although Grice only finished 0.9s behind the leader in third.

In Race 2 Grice overtook Wilson early and when Caruso dropped out of the race, Grice held onto the lead to take the flag, finishing 0.7s ahead of Wilson with Cooper Webster in third. Grice flew off the line in the final race leading into Turn 1, and from there edged away from the pack to win by a massive 8.3s margin ahead of Wilson.

The 12-lap finale was highlighted by Caruso charging from 27th to a remarkable third at the conclusion of the race. Grice won the round from Wilson and Webster.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

AFTER TAKING two second place finishes in the opening two races, Nathan Robinson took victory in the final race and with it It didn’t remain like this for long. Cam Wilson failed to hold Ben Grice at bay.

the round. Damien Milano won the first two encounters and Luke Grech-Cumbo finished third in the opening races, however both failed to greet the chequered flag at the conclusion of Race 3. This allowed Lachlan McBrien to finish the race in second and Andrew Butcher in third, in what was a very drawn out field at the finish. Robinson won the round ahead of Butcher and the consistent Mark Defanis.

Joesph Ensabella dominated Sports Cars (above) while Brendan Jones won the Formula Ford 1600 class.

Images: Rebecca Hind

FORMULA VEE

THREE DIFFERENT drivers won races in an exciting round of Formula Vee. Nicholas Jones took the first win, Reef McCarthy did the same in the second and Heath Collinson took the final victory. After finishing the round equal on points with the consistent Jake Rowe, Collinson was awarded the round victory for taking the final race win, while Jones finished the round in third just two points behind.

SPORTS CARS

JOSEPH ENSABELLA in his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car won all three races in the Sports Cars category. Nick Karnaros came home just behind in each of the three races to take second position for the round ahead of Jamie Lovett. The weekend was

dominated by Porsche drivers as they locked out the top four positions.

SPORTS SEDANS

ONLY 10 cars entered the Sports Sedan category at Winton but this certainly did not affect the quality of racing over the weekend. Francois Habib took victory in the opening race, Ian Cowley won the second and it was Dean Camm who won the final race and with it the round.

Cowley finished the round in second with Habib in third.

PORSCHE 944S

THE 944s put on a great show with Tony Westaway taking the round honours.

After finishing 2.2s behind Lyndon Watson in Race 1, Westaway bounced back to take the second race. The third race consisted of a six car train fighting for the lead but eventually Westaway took the final race win and round.

Watson finished the round in second, with Ken Rowland claiming third for the round after finishing second in the final race.

56 AutoAction

FORMULA FORD

IN THE battle of the Bens it was Benjamin D’Alia defeating Ben Bargwanna to the Formula Ford round honours. D’Alia won the first two races with relative ease, but in the final race Bargwanna - son of 2000 Bathurst 1000 winner Jason - put up a fight sticking to the tail of D’Alia. D’Alia won the final race by just 0.4s to give him round honours ahead of Bargwanna and Matt Holmes. The 1600cc class winner was Brendan Jones, taking all three race victories.

SALOON CARS

AFTER CRUISING to a 5.2s win in Race 1 it looked as if Travis Lindorff was going to take the round, but Anthony Beare struck back, winning the second race by 0.5s. In the final race the pair exchanged lap records throughout the race with Beare holding on to take a sensational race victory and also take the round honours. Lindorff finished second for the round with Adam Lowndes in third.

Dan McCarthy

Tim Berryman was unstoppable in his Lola T332 F5000. Images: Riccardo Benevenuti

Brought to you by:

www.racefuels.com.au Winter Supersprint, Sandown Raceway VIC, Jun 28 Endurance Access, Australian Production Cars Series Rd2, Radical Australia Cup Rd4, Australian Prototype Series Rd2, Phillip Island VIC, Jun 28-30 State Motor Racing Championship Rd2, Formula Vee National Series Rd2, The Bend Motorsport Park SA, Jun 28-30 State Motor Race Championship Rd2, Morgan Park QLD, Jun 28-30 Rally of the Bay, State Rally Championship Rd4, Batemans Bay NSW, Jun 29 Copyworld Walky 100, State Rally Championship Rd2,

HSRCA’S SYDNEY CLASSIC TAKEOVER

Walkerville, Eudunda SA, Jun 29 Club Rallysprint, Byfield QLD, Jun 29 Markwell Demolition Gold City 162, State Off Road Championship Rd2, Nth Qld Off Road Series Rd2, Milchester Motor Sports Complex QLD, Jun 29-30 Multi Club Autocross/Motorkhana, Bagshot Motorsports Complex VIC, Jun 30 Club Khanacross, Old Rockwell Pub Menindee Rd near Broken

THE HISTORIC Racing and Sports Car Association took over the organisation of the June Sydney Motorsport Park event and put on an entertaining two days of racing on June 8-9.

MG AND INVITED

A FEATURED event was an all-MG race, with other English sports cars added for some variety.

Phillip Chester and Vincenzo Gucciardo in their MGB GT V8s dominated the weekend, running one-two (often in close formation) and finishing the three races in that order.

Third in the opening race was Garry Baxter in his V8-powered MG ZR, but didn’t appear for the last two races. Those two third places went to Paul Vernal’s four-pot turbo ZR, albeit a long way behind the leaders. Next was the first of the non-MGs, Simon Elliott (Lotus Elan), from Andrew Sebefsi who punched well above his weight in a 1.3-litre MG Midget.

The 10-lap feature had a great scrap for the bottom of the top 10 between Noel Bryen (AustinHealy Sprite), Keith Ondarchie (Triumph Stag), Anthony Vollbregt (MG ZR) and Warren Holz (Midget).

GROUP Q & R

THE SLICKS and wings races were dominated by Tim Berryman (Lola T332 F5000). Glenn Welch qualified second in the Matich–Repco but had

gear selection problems in the first race. This allowed. Ben Tebbutt (Spa Formula Holden) to take second from Mal Oastler (Kaditcha F2).

Welch came from the back in race 2 and was second by the end of the first lap, holding that spot to the end. Third went to Oastler from Tebbutt.

Race three saw Berryman and Welch circulate in front from Grant Doulman in his father Peter’s Shrike Formula Holden. Doulman had suffered a driveshaft failure in the first race when running well. Luckily they had one spare. This was the car’s first outing for 30 years.

FORMULA FORD

CAMERON WALTERS won three races in his Van Diemen RF86. Entries were bolstered by the return of 1983 Driver To Europe winner Bruce Connelly, driving Richard Davison’s RF84. Connelly showed he’s lost none of his speed, qualifying second and taking third in race one, but was hit with a penalty post-race and dropped to fifth. Dan Holihan (Swift) took second from another veteran Lyndon Arnel (Lola), then Nigel Hook (Ray).

In race two, it was Walters from Holihan, Geoff Walters (RF89), Connelly and John Pymble (Reynard).

Race three was the feature race, and a round of the revived Driver To Europe series. Walters won again, despite an engine that sounded a little Dan Holihan locks up fighting for top spot with Bruce Connelly in the Formula Fords.

fluffy at high revs. Holihan was unable to hold off Connelly with Geoff Walters taking fourth, then Pymble, Hook and Arnel.

The Walters pair had put their cars away for the final race. Connelly won at a canter as Holihan retired with a miss. Pymble took second from Hook, then Scott Blake (Reynard) and Keith Hammond (Mondiale).

GROUP S PRODUCTION SPORTS

A BIG field of diverse cars put on some good action. Carey McMahon (De Tomaso Pantera) led the first of their races for seven of the eight laps, before a gear-selection drama ended the weekend. Doug Barbour (Porsche 911) won the opener from Stan Adler’s similar car, after Adler got a five-second penalty. David Cunneen took third in another 911 from Aaron Smith (Datsun 280Z) and Micahel Byrne (Lotus Super 7).

Adler triumphed in race two from Barbour and the Shelby Mustangs driven by Peter Hansen and Terry Lawlor. Barbour hit back in the final, winning from Adler, Hansen, Lawlor and Kevin Luke (911).

FORMULA VEE

THERE WERE only five entries but they still managed to put on good racing. Mixed in with either Formula Ford or Groups M and O, David Clark (Avanti) won one race, Gary Meyers (Ranger) took two and Steve Normoyle (Spectre) the other – his first race win since 1985, he told us.

Hill NSW, Jun 30 State Motorkhana Championship Rd3, La Trobe Pits TAS, Jun 30 Multi Club Motorkhana, TCCA Grounds Werribee VIC, Jun 30 Multi Club Khanacross, 308 Alcheringa Drive Buronga NSW, Jun 30 Watpac Townsville 400, Supercars Championship Races 17 & 18, Porsche Carrera Cup Rd5, Super 2 Series Rd3, Toyota 86 Racing Series Rd2, SuperUtes Rd4, Townsville QLD, Jul 05-07 ARB Off Road Racing Championship Rd1, Griffith NSW, Jul 05-07 State Rally Championship Rd4, Kirup Stage, Kirup WA, Jul 06 State Off Road Championship Rd2, Bagshot VIC, Jul 06 Multi Club Supersprint, Phillip Island VIC, Jun 06 Volunteers Rallysprint, Awabawac Park NSW, Jun 06 Super Trucks Rd2, Winton Motor Raceway VIC, Jul 06-07 QR Drivers Championship Rd4, Queensland Raceway QLD, Jul 06-07 State Off Road Championship Rd2, Mackay QLD, Jul 06-07 Club Motorkhana, Tonker Park Whitsundays, Jul 06-07 State Off Road Club Shield Rd6, Bagshot VIC, Jul 07 State Hillclimb Cup Rd3, Baskerville TAS, Jul 07 Multi Club Hillclimb, Huntley Hillclimb Dapto NSW, Jul 07 Prospeed Racing/MCA Suspension SubiNats, Multi Car Supersprint Phillip Island VIC, Jul 07 Multi Club Motorkhana, Geelong Motor Sports Complex VIC, Jul 07 Tarmac JDP #2, Club Khanacross, Adelaide International Raceway SA, Jul 07 State Motorkhana Championship, Nirimba Education Precinct Quakers Hill NSW, Jul 07

GROUPS L, M & O

SINCE THE late 60s Paul Hamilton has been racing his Elfin 600, so he’s pretty familiar with it and picked up three more race wins. Herb Neal (Neal Ford) scored three second places and a win in the final, which Hamilton sat out. Wayne Wilson (Brabham) netted the final second place.

GROUP N HISTORIC TOURING

AGAIN SHOWING a great turn of speed was Chris Thomas in his Holden Torana XU-1, but he was unable to match the power and top-end speed of the Ford Mustangs. Race one went to Ben Wilkinson from Thomas, Jamie Tilley, Dale Parry and Darryl Hansen, all in Mustangs. In races two and three, Tilley went to the front and was first in both ahead of Thomas. Bruce Moxon

AutoAction

57

TOYOTA TRIPPED OVER ITSELF … AGAIN THE LE Mans 24 Hours is the most difficult endurance race in the world.

Before this dominant era as the sole-manufacturer in LMP1, Toyota had an incredibly poor history in the world’s most famous endurance event.

Year after year the Japanese marque would arrive at the Circuit de la Sarthe full of hope, before finding a unique and often spectacular way to throw away a Le Mans 24 Hour victory.

Case in point was on the penultimate lap in 2016, when after leading for almost the entire 24 hours, the #8 Toyota rolled to a stop out on circuit and wasn’t even classified as a finisher.

In 2017 the team had a clear 1-2 lead but by day break mechanical failures and accidents had put all three cars out of the race.

Finally in 2018 Toyota got the monkey off its rear wing and took a 1-2 victory. It wasn’t a trouble-free result because that’d be a lie, but nevertheless the brand finally won Le Mans.

As it was in 2018, Toyota had an extraordinary advantage on the rest of the field this year, as clear favourites thanks mostly to its incredible hybrid power unit.

The Japanese brand was almost guaranteed a victory unless the team threw the win away itself, but as usual Toyota tried

Toyota has taken two straight Le Mans 24 Hours victories but that is almost in spite of itself. It’s been a long time coming.

LE MANS CROSSWORD ANSWERS 1-Down: Pirro 2-Down: David Brabham 3-Down: Needell 4-Across: Graham Hill 5-Down: Dunlop 5-Across: Diesel 6-Down: Ferrari 7-Across: Kristensen

58 AutoAction

8-Across: Hulkenburg 9-Down: Andlauer 10-Down: Thirteen 11-Across: Ickx 12-Across: Nakajima 13-Down: Four 14-Across: Porsche

its best.

With a three-minute lead on the sister car with just an hour to go, victory was in the bag for the #7 Toyota. But n on-car sensors detected a rightno, fr front puncture, except that the Toyota a actually had a puncture on the left-rear.

Surely with a near-lap lead the team s should have checked all four tyres

in the pits, which is common sense.

Instead, the car pitted, the right-front was changed and the #7 sent back out to do another lap ... only to discover that it was really the left-rear that was punctured!

A huge amount of time was lost with the #7 crawling back to the pits, to have the correct wheel replaced.

How can a team with this much experience could overlook something like that is baffling.

The cause of the sensor problem was a “wiring issue” ... someone quite literally got his or her wires crossed, and it cost the #7 car a certain victory.

Fortunately for the team, the #8 car picked up the pieces and took its second straight Le Mans crown.

However, if Toyota had had any real opposition such as it had in previous years, Auto Action almost certainly could have added this debacle to its list of Toyota failures. Dan McCarthy

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An Auto Action subscription is available in either print or our newlylaunched digital format.

An Auto Action yearly print subscription includes 26 issues featuring the latest news, previews, analysis, features and results across international, national and state competitions. Our improved mailing service means that the magazine always arrives well protected from the elements on your doorstep, for just AUD$199, a saving of more than AUD$30.

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For more information on subscriptions, please contact Heath on (03) 9563 2107 or heath@autoaction.com.au and he will guide you through the subscription process.

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MORE BRANDS, MORE ACTION

TCR HAS ARRIVED LT + SUBARU + VOLKSWAGEN

+ HYUNDAI + RENAU ALFA ROMEO + AUDI + HOLDEN + HONDA

Round 3 – July 12-14 The Bend Motorsport Park

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