Auto Action #1766

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MARK FOGARTY outlines the growing friction that has spilled over into a tussle for the rights to a fifth event at Bathurst THE GLOVES are officially off. Supercars and upstart newcomer TCR Australia aren’t fighting for Australian touring car racing supremacy, but they at loggerheads over major events.

Supercars and TCR Australia are also battling for the rights to stage the fifth major meeting at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama The simmering rivalry blew up when Supercars moved to block TCR Australia’s bid to gain a place on the Adelaide 500 undercard.

As Auto Action revealed on our web site early last week, Supercars has objected to TCR races at the V8s’ traditional season-opener, citing contract issues.

TCR Australia Series promoter Australian Racing Group and Adelaide 500 organisers are understood to have agreed on the two-litre front-drive hot hatchbacks joining the support race program.

Talks are continuing to find a way around Supercars’ objection.

A planned announcement of TCR joining the Adelaide support race program on Monday, July 15 was cancelled because of the Supercars opposition.

Local TCR promoter ARG and race organisers had scheduled a launch in the pit lane of the Adelaide Parklands street circuit.

Leading teams from the third round of the TCR Australia Series at The Bend Motorsport Park were due to attend on their way home.

ARG and the Adelaide 500 had all but done a deal for the opening round of the 2020 TCR Australia Series to join the support race program of the Supercars championship season-opening event on February 20-23.

TCR was also due to join Supercars on the undercard of the March 12-15 F1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne – although AA understands that, too, is being resisted.

Supercars and ARG are now direct rivals in the race to run a fifth full track closure event at Mount Panorama.

Bathurst Regional Council announced last week that they had been invited to make the final two bids in a “selective tender process” for the potential extra annual event.

“Council is currently finalising the tender specification and we expect the two companies invited to take part in that process will receive those documents before the end of the month,” Bathurst mayor Graeme Hanger said in a statement. “We anticipate Council will consider these tenders in September.”

ARG is pitching a 500 km international TCR endurance race and a possible sprint racing round of the WTCR on the same bill.

Supercars has proposed a Goodwood-style

motoring festival rather than a traditional race meeting.

The Adelaide 500 is one of the few rounds not promoted by Supercars and can decide what categories appear on the popular event’s support race program, subject to contractual restrictions.

AA understands that Supercars is objecting to TCR’s inclusion on the basis that is a breach of contract, claiming that its agreement with the SA governmentbacked event has a non-competing category clause.

Despite rumours that Supercars had threatened legal action to stop TCR’s inclusion on the Adelaide 500 program, AA’s investigations indicate that so far it has only “raised an objection”.

According to informed sources, there is a clause in Supercars’ contract with the South Australian Tourism Commission – which underwrites the event – that gives it a say, if not a veto, on support race categories.

Supercars issued a “No comment” response when contacted by AA. CAMS, which has licensed ARG as the TCR category manager in Australia, is taking a neutral stance in the dispute.

“CAMS is not party to negotiations between the promoters and category managers seeking to take part in the Adelaide 500,” a spokesman said.

Adelaide 500 chief executive officer Alistair McDonald told AA that TCR was among the potential support categories for next year’s event.

“Certainly, they’re one of the groups we’re talking to,” McDonald said. “But there’s no agreement in place at the moment. We’re working towards an agreement. We’re in no rush.”

He was evasive about last weeks’ planned announcement, asserting that “I think that might be one side’s interpretation”.

McDonald re-emphasised that “There’s no agreement in place at the moment”, despite all evidence to the contrary.

ARG director and former Supercars supremo James Warburton admitted that TCR was in active talks to join the Adelaide 500 undercard.

“We have been in positive discussions with the SATC about being part of the event for 2020,” he told Auto Action. “TCR will bring strong manufacturer and corporate support, a younger demographic and a large field with potential competitors from the Asian region, producing some great racing which would add to the spectacle.”

Supercars sources were adamant that no threat of legal action had been made to the Adelaide 500 organisers.

“We’ve pointed out our contract,” said an insider, who agreed that Supercars had “raised an objection”

to TCR being on the support trace program.

TCR Australia Series boss Matt Braid, another former senior Supercars executive, conceded that ARG was looking to expand into major events next year.

“Moving forward, we’re looking to add some major events in due course.”

Amid the obfuscation, it is clear TCR Australia Series has at least provisionally done a deal to race in Adelaide and that Supercars is offering robust opposition.

It is the first salvo in another potential Australian touring car racing civil war.

Although ARG has been careful not to position the multi-marque TCR Australia Series as a rival to Supercars – much less a threat – the V8 racing body has been resistant to the worldwide two-litre tin-top category’s arrival.

Supercars rejected approaches from ARG to be on the support race program of selected V8 events, fearing competition from a cheaper touring car class with broad appeal to manufacturers.

TCR Australia, which is backed by a consortium of wealthy investors including reclusive PAYCE boss Brian Boyd, has attracted eight makes with limited or no factory support.

Supercars has just three makes, of which only Ford and Holden are financially engaged.

Supercars has also actively tried to dissuade established V8 drivers and teams from competing in the TCR Australia Series.

While no current star driver is involved, fast-rising young gun Andre Heimgartner is racing for Kelly Racing which, like Garry Rogers Motorsport, is running four cars.

Leading Supercars enduro co-drivers Garth Tander, James Moffat, Will Brown, Chris Pither and Tony D’Alberto are TCR Australia Series drawcards, while veteran Russell Ingall came out of retirement for The Bend.

The growing friction between Supercars and TCR Australia is reminiscent of the V8 versus two-litre Super Touring war of the mid-to-late 1990s.

The then V8 Supercars won that split – which resulted in opposing Bathurst 1000s in 1997/98 – but TCR is even more global and cost-effective.

Although not a rival to Supercars in terms of spectacle, TCR is attractive to many more teams because its rigid cost controls make it much more affordable.

It also appeals to motor racing fans because of the diversity of makes and the close competition in short, sharp races.

TCR Australia Series races are shown live on free-toair network SBS, providing no-cost access to all racing fans.

“WE DIDN’T SAY NO”

SUPERCARS SUPREMO Sean Seamer played down any potential rift with TCR before the Adelaide 500 dispute arose.

At the Townsville 4000 er early this month, Seamer told AA that Supercars had been in talks with TCR Australia promoterr ARG about joining the support race program at selected events in 2020.

He maintained the heavyweight V8 category was still in dialogue with ARG, sation of next year’s dependent on the finalisation schedule.

“Shane Howard, our COO, is in the early stages of support category discussions for next year off the back of the calendar,” Seamer said.

“So once we get our calendar and everything locked down and our schedules locked down, then we’ll open up the discussions with our support category partners.

“They (ARG) have reached out to Shane to see what’s going on next year and it’s an ongoing dialogue.

“If they think there’s a way for them to add value like any support category, we’d be interested in them and we will have a conversation with them. It depends on what they want to do, what formats they want to run, all those sorts of things.

“It’s the same with S5000s (also run by ARG).”

Seamer also rejected suggestions that Supercars dismissed an approach from ARG last year for some rounds of this year’s inaugural TCR Australia Series to run at V8 events.

“We didn’t say no,” he said. “When we laid our program last October and were talking to all our other support categories, there wasn’t even another TCR car in the country (apart from an Audi RS3 LMS demonstrator).

“So we said once the field’s together and you’re up and running, come and have a conversation with us, but it’s not fair for us to not to commit to (a new category ahead of) an existing support partner that we have been with for multiple years, when we don’t have any line of sight on the (TCR) category yet.”

In hindsight, Seamer’s comments appear to be at odds with Supercars’ objections to TCR being on the Adelaide 500 – and AGP – undercards. Contributing: Bruce Newton

CRAIG’S TOP 10, RIANA’S RATINGS & AA’s ANALYSIS Searching Supercars mid-season review starts on page 20

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BETTY’S NASCAR

BRUCE NEWTON reveals eccentric Erebus owner’s big American ambition as

ICONOCLAST OWNER Betty Klimenko would like to take Erebus Motorsport into the hotbed of NASCAR in the USA. It’s a dream, not a plan, but it’s an idea that’s been talked about within Erebus and has the support of the team’s CEO Barry Ryan.

Recently handed a half share in the #99 Racing Entitlements Contract (REC)

by Klimenko, Ryan believes Erebus could make a success of a NASCAR bid.

“It’s something Betty would like to do,” he confirmed.

“It’s probably pie in the sky stuff, but it’s definitely been bantered around.”

While most commonly associated with Supercars, Erebus has raced in other categories including GT, winning both the Bathurst 12 Hour and the Australian championship.

The Melbourne-based squad has previously been linked with an overseas GT3 program to race at the Spa and Nürburgring 24 Hour classics.

Ryan admitted that while Klimenko – just turned 60 – still harboured ambitions to race in Europe, both share a

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passion for NASCAR. “She’s still got world domination on her mind and she has said that from the word go – whether it’s GT racing and racing at some cool tracks like Spa or the Nurburgring, or something like that, or NASCAR. “The sky’s the limit with what she might want to do. Personally, I would do NASCAR.” Whether a NASCAR foray would involve newly resigned Anton de Pasquale or soon-to-renew David Reynolds – or both – hasn’t been discussed.

In fact, the American dream is news to Reynolds, who unlike his new arch-rival Scott McLaughlin hasn’t harboured a NASCAR goal.

“I’ve never thought about it or had a passion to do it,” he said. “My priority is Supercars, but if that’s the direction in which they want to go, I’m on board.

“If that’s what they want to do, I’d like to be part of it.”

While Klimenko conceded she has overseas ambitions, she was reticent to nominate NASCAR as a specific longterm target.

“Barry and I had the

discussion about what would be next,” she said. “We have won the 12 Hour, the 1000 and if or when we win a (Supercars) championship, what would be our next goal?

“People are so focused on just one thing and it was simply a conversation about what else we could do as a team. Would we go to Europe or America, what is next on the bucket list?

“We have a very loyal group of people who are very talented in each of their departments, so we’d take them with us and it would be like a family adventure.”

According to Ryan, Erebus would follow the Furniture Row Racing model if it did turn the NASCAR dream into a reality.

Furniture Row Racing competed in NASCAR from 2005 to 2018 and won the championship with Martin Truex Jr in ’17.

Owned by Barney Visser, the co-owner of the Furniture Row retail business, the team ran from 2010 to 2015 in an alliance with Richard Childress Racing and then from 2016 to 2018 with Joe Gibbs Racing.

An over-achiever like Erebus, FRR pulled out at the end of last year, selling its REC-like charters.

“You look at the way Furniture Row went for those couple of years as a customer team and they were pretty similar to our model, so why couldn’t we do the same?” Ryan noted. “They used customer engines, customer chassis and just ran a good race team.

“Their owner was a successful business person like Betty is. So why not?”

There was a strong Supercars connection with Furniture Row Racing as two Aussie engineers, Peter Kraic and James Small, worked there.

“They are smart guys and they played a big part in winning that (2017) championship,” Ryan said.

He looked forward to the response the Erebus NASCAR dream would get once revealed publicly.

“It stirs people up, it makes them think, it shows we are serious about motor sport,” he said.

The ever-pragmatic Ryan was quick to stress a venture

EXC LUS IVE !

DREAM

she locks in her star of the future

Penrite’s livery would look mighty fine on an Erebus NASCAR. into American stock car racing wouldn’t come at the expense of Penrite Racing in Supercars.

“I think Betty will always want to be in Supercars; she owns the RECs,” he said.

Ryan took over Erebus team management after the expensive initial foray into Supercars with HWA-developed AMG E63s foundered.

He has overseen

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the shift from Yatala on the Gold Coast to Melbourne, from Mercedes to Holden Commodore, the recruitment of David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale as drivers and Alistair McVean as technical director, and the Penrite-backed team’s rise to its current position as the top performing Holden squad.

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ANTON LOCKED IN AT EREBUS

In-demand young gun in multi-year ‘no thongs’ deal, reports MARK FOGARTY RISING STAR Anton de Pasquale is staying at Erebus Motorsport for at least the next two years, locking in another key player in the driver market manoeuvres.

Arguably the hottest up-and-coming young gun in Supercars, de Pasquale was on the top of other teams’ shopping lists for 2020 and beyond.

Confirmed without details of the duration beyond “multi-year”, Auto Action has learned the in-demand Melbournian’s new deal includes a ‘no thongs’ footwear clause.

He is again set to partner David Reynolds at in-form Penrite Racing, with the quirky 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner due to re-sign in the next few weeks.

De Pasquale, 23, scored his first podium with a third at Phillip Island in April and has been fast all season so far – although his results have been compromised by mishaps and mistakes.

He revealed that his renewal at Erebus, while not a formality, was the best outcome in a deal brokered by his mentor and manager Paul Morris.

“There wasn’t really any doubt I was going to be on the grid in 2020,” de Pasquale told AA. “There were a few different offers out there and I wasn’t really dealing too much with any of it. I was pretty much leaving that side of things to Paul to deal with, but in the end staying with Erebus is the best fit for me.

“We’re doing some really good things at the moment and staying in an environment which is working is a positive, for sure. We came to an agreement we were all happy with to carry on racing here.”

Penrite Racing owner Betty Klimenko always expected to keep de Pasquale, seeing him as a big part of the team’s future.

“I can see in Anton a lot of promise,” Klimenko said.

“He’s young and he’s shown glimpses of what he can truly become. Also, in my mind, you need stability and continuance to get everything out of your drivers.

“Anton believes in being able to reach as high as he can and he likes stability. Like everyone else, we want to win a championship and the only way you can do it is with consistency and stability because chaos in motor racing just does nothing for you.

“I like Anton. He fits in well. He’s a piece of the puzzle that was missing and he slots in nicely next to David.

He gets on well with the team.”

She added: “He’s a very loyal person and he knew we took him on a risk. He didn’t bring anything with him and he’s paying that back. He’s trusting us enough

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with his career to make sure it goes in the right direction.”

AA understands de Pasquale’s availability was sounded out by Tickford Racing – looking for a replacement for WAU-bound Chaz Mostert – and Walkinshaw Andretti United before it secured Mostert.

While de Pasquale declined to comment on the length of his new deal, Klimenko confirmed it was a “multi-year” agreement.

She also revealed that his contract contained a ‘no thong’ footwear restriction.

“He asked me not to say anything, so I’m not going to say anything about the contents of his contract,” Klimenko said. “The only thing I can say is that it does say he can’t wear thongs (flip flops). It’s very important.

“It’s in every contract I have with anyone. I have a thing against thongs and I actually have it in the contract that they can’t be worn in uniform or when they’re representing the team. I just think it looks unprofessional.”

Having locked in de Pasquale, Klimenko now expects to secure Reynolds for 2020 and beyond in “the next few weeks”.

“We’re close,” she said. “I just think he’s a little lazy. I don’t think David wants to go anywhere.

“You know, from the moment he started with us, he started shining and he knows that, I know that. I think we’re both a little lazy – ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll do it’ – we just haven’t gotten around to sitting down together.

“It a formality, I think, with David. There’s nothing really to sort out because it’s just a continuation.

Nobody else can offer him this environment. David realises that where he is, he is free to soar as far as he can and we give him that freedom.

“We give him the freedom to drive how he likes to drive. We don’t put restraints on either of them.”

Reynolds, who is awaiting a formal offer from Erebus, said he expected to renew “soon”.

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MORE “INCLUSIVE” RED BULL IMPROVING But title trophies set to elude Triple Eight for first time since 2007

By BRUCE NEWTON FACED WITH a championship silverware drought for the first time in more than a decade, Triple Eight Race Engineering has refocussed development efforts to overcome its speed deficit to dominant DJR Team Penske.

While the two sides of the Red Bull HRT garage have traditionally had license to operate with a degree of engineering and set-up independence, that is not currently the case.

Instead, the development process has been unified to make it as efficient and quick as possible.

“It’s a more inclusive approach in some regards,” RBHRT team manager Mark Dutton told Auto Action. “When our cars are fighting each other and we’re consistently up the front, we give the drivers and their race engineers a little bit of latitude to do some work and preplanning.

“But we not racing each other for poles and wins so far this year, hence you change the approach.

“It’s not that the old approach was wrong, it’s that the old approach suited the performance we had at the time. We don’t have that performance now, so we had to change the approach.

“That’s the definition of insanity, isn’t it?

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.”

The factory Holden team has two wins in 18

races in 2019, both recorded

by Shane van Gisbergen. He won most recently last time out in the wet at Townsville.

Teammate Jamie Whincup has neither a win nor a pole to his credit so far this season.

The team even called its drivers into pre-planning meetings they would not normally attend ahead of Townsville as part of the new process.

“It was just so we were on the same page even more than normal,” Dutton revealed. “It was really good.”

Established in late 2003, Triple Eight has won either the Supercars drivers’ or teams’ championship – and often both - every year since 2008.

But DJRTP’s runaway championship leader Scott McLaughlin has 13 wins and Shell V-Power Racing Mustangs have won 15 of 18 races and claimed 12 pole positions.

McLaughlin has a near unassailable lead in the driver’s title, with his team-mate Fabian Coulthard second. DJRTP is in a similarly dominant position in the team’s points race.

“They are in the box seat,” conceded Dutton.

“There’s some work to be done, but if they

keep their noses clean, there is not enough points to catch back up.

“They need to be having issues like they did (on Sunday) in Townsville, dropping points with one or both their cars.”

Qualifying speed is central to T8’s problems and key to that are the wider chassis issues the move from a trapezoidal spring to a mandatory linear spring have created in 2019.

“It’s not the linear spring itself,” insisted Dutton. “It’s what it leads to. Non-linear springs have the accompanying geometry, damping, all of that.

“The linear spring wants all of that to be different and that’s what we are doing.”

Ride compliance over kerbs – traditionally a

T8 strength – has been affected by the search for a linear spring set-up. As well as the Fords, other Holden teams also appear to be ahead of the factory team,.

“You could see our cars weren’t that nice on the (Townsville) kerbs, so some of things we did had side effects,” Dutton said. “We’ll keep refining, but definitely we did a step for car balance and handling. We thought we improved in Townsville.”

Speaking ahead of last week’s Ipswich test, Dutton confirmed T8 had made six significant chassis-related changes to the rear of the Commodore and three to the front since the Perth SuperNight. A new front upright was not among those changes.

interest Holden – and certainly Triple Eight – in a factory assault on the Mount Panorama marathon.

The R version of the C8 will use a competition derivative of the standard LT2 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8, revised for racing as the 5.5-litre LT5.

The mid-engined C8 is the first generation of the iconic American sports car to be made for RHD markets like Australia at the dedicated Corvette factory at Bowling Green in Kentucky.

The production C8 is the fastest and most sophisticated Corvette ever.

More extreme versions, including a twinturbo V8 with electric assistance, are planned.

Production of the C8 is due to begin late this

year, with RHD build following in 2020.

Holden will sell the new Corvette – styled under the direction of GM’s Australian global director of design Mike Simcoe – as a standalone model.

Although part of Chevrolet, Corvette barely acknowledges the bow tie brand. The Chevy emblem is only included in the model’s famous flying V badge.

The impending availability of the Corvette fulfils GM’s promise of a “V8 sports car” to replace the locally made high-performance Commodores.

Until the arrival of the Corvette, Holden’s only V8 models are the Camaro SS and LT1 imported and converted with GM sanction by HSV.

NEW CORVETTE SET TO RACE Holden Bathurst 12 Hour bid could happen

By MARK FOGARTY THERE WILL be a racing version of the new mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette, which will be sold in Australia by Holden.

A GTE C8 Corvette aimed at the Le Mans 24 Hours will be on the track from next year.

Later, there could also be a GT3 version eligible to race in the Bathurst 12 Hour, opening up the long-term possibility of a Holden-backed Corvette assault on the Mount Panorama marathon.

It doesn’t take too much imagination to envisage a Triple Eight-run squad of Red Bull Holden Racing Team Corvettes at the 12 Hour early next decade.

Holden will be selling factory made righthand drive C8 Corvettes from late next year or early 2021.

Initially, the racing version of the midengined C8 – an all-American rival to the Ferrari 488 – will be for the GTE class at Le Mans and GTLM in IMSA, including the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours classics.

Likely to be known as the Corvette C8.R, it will replace the front-engined C7.R that has raced successfully since 2014.

Like all racing Corvettes, the C8.R will be powered by a large-capacity naturally aspirated V8.

The C7.R won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans in 2015, completing the “Triple Crown” of endurance racing in addition to class victories

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at Daytona and Sebring.

Factory backed Chevy Corvette teams have been competing in international GTE and American GTLM endurance racing since the early 2000s.

Developed by GM Racing and factory team Pratt & Miller, the racing version of the new C8 – the first mid-engined Corvette – has been caught testing in camouflage by spy photographers.

But the concealment couldn’t disguise the racer stance and highmounted fixed rear wing, as well as other racing modifications.

A GM insider has confirmed to Auto Action that a C8 racer has been developed.

“There definitely will be a race car program,” the informant said.

Whether there will be a GT3 customer racing version for broader international competition is not clear.

But the mid-engined C8 raises Chevrolet’s aspirations for the Corvette and a slightly milder GT3 variant is likely to be considered – if not already decided.

A GT3 version would make the newgeneration ’Vette eligible for the Bathurst 12 Hour and other endurance classics like the Spa 24 Hours.

If it happens, a GT3 Corvette C8.R could

SCOTTY STAYING IN SUPERCARS FOR NOW

DJRTP boss swears there’s no American plan – yet

By BRUCE NEWTON THERE IS no path laid out for Scott McLaughlin to follow that guarantees him a drive with Team Penske in the USA. In fact, at this stage, DJR Team Penske expects McLaughlin to be racing in Supercars again in 2021.

That’s the word from team boss Ryan Story, who recently re-signed the Supercars dominator to a new multi-year deal.

Story told Auto Action that if McLaughlin does get a US offer, it will happen “naturally�. “There’s no yellow brick road to follow or these key boxes have to be ticked for this (McLaughlin to the States) to happen,� Story confirmed. “It’s going to be an opportunity that presents itself naturally and as a consequence of what comes up over there and what our position is over here.�

McLaughlin’s new deal confirmed he would continue in Supercars next year, scuppering speculation

the 26-year-old Brisbane-based New Zealander would be USA bound to begin an American career.

That speculation was stoked by the high regard team owner Roger Penske has for the reigning – and likely repeat – Supercars champion and McLaughlin’s own often-stated desire to race in NASCAR. But asked if he expected McLaughlin to be racing in Australia for DJRTP in 2021, Story responded: “It’s an interesting question. I wouldn’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be.�

Story conceded that the regard in which McLaughlin is held by Team Penske may circumvent that. “I think everyone has the ambition and would love to see Scott get that opportunity, but a lot of stars need to be in alignment and those things need to come to their fruition,� he said.

Story was adamant the focus was

Images: LAT

always Australia for McLaughlin in 2020.

With a championship double almost certain, winning the Bathurst 1000 is a critical objective for DJRTP and Roger Penske. “The Supercars team is the priority and that’s what Scott was brought in to do for us,� Story declared.

According to informed sources, McLaughlin’s new contract is with DJRTP and makes no commitment

to overseas racing.

Equally, his deal doesn’t preclude Team Penske potentially inviting him to the USA for a test or to race. It currently operates IndyCar, NASCAR, Xfinity (NASCAR’s Super2) and IMSA sports car teams. “There’s no reason that couldn’t happen, but there’s nothing on the cards at the moment,� Story said.

MORE ALFAS ON THE WAY FOR TCR GARRY ROGERS Motorsport will further expand its TCR program as it adding further three Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCRs, which are currently being built at the Romeo Ferraris factory in Milan.

The three cars lock out the marque in Australia with only five examples of each manufacturer being accepted to compete, which is the main reason for the expansion said GRM’s Barry Rogers. “We just wanted to lock out the brand here in Australia, there’s five that you can have so whether we run them ourselves or we do a deal like we’ve done with Ash Seward Motorsport, I think that relationship will probably expand,� Rogers told Auto Action.

Our intention is to necessarily run them all, but to just control them all here and hope that teams run them, and support the brand.

Ash Seward confirmed to Auto Action that he has purchased one of the new cars after running Dylan O’Keeffe as a joint partnership with GRM. A recent visit by Romeo Ferraris team owner Mario Ferraris to GRM’s Dandenong workshop and the most recent TCR Australia round at The Bend, a growth in the relationship looks likely that will enable GRM to manufacture and sell spare parts for the Alfa Romeo

through the Asia-Pacific area. “It makes sense to Romeo Ferraris as well,�

Rogers said of the increased relationship. “They see our ability to produce homologated parts to the accurate specification and it works for them too. There are cars [Alfa Romeos] running through Asia and this whole region, it makes a whole lot of sense to say to teams get parts from Australia, it saves a lot of money in freight.�

The deal, alongside the one struck by Renault Megane RS TCR manufacturers Vukovic Motorsport has enabled GRM to diversify its business model after the majority of parts used on Holden’s ZB Commodore Supercar was moved to a sole supplier. “Our whole intention when we first entered TCR and S5000 was to give our workforce work to do,� Rogers said. “We’re a Supercars team and we’re proud to be self-sufficient by building our chassis, we produce our panels and those sorts of things. Obviously, when the ZB came into play, Triple Eight took a fair bit of control.�

Rogers confirmed that due to a parts delay, the Alfa

Image: TCR

Romeos won’t be seen until next year, however interest is already high especially from New Zealand in regards to purchasing or leasing for inaugural series over summer.

In other TCR news, the fifth Hyundai has just arrived at HMO Customer Racing’s Sydney workshop, while a Cupra TCR is on its way for Melbourne-based team Garage1. HEATH McALPINE

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GARRY ROGERS Motorsport has confirmed that former Supercars regular Michael Caruso will again sub in for the Richie Stanaway at the Ipswich SuperSprint as the Kiwi continues to recover from his neck injury. Chris Pither replaced Stanaway at Winton on Sunday and again at Hidden Valley before Caruso stepped in for Townsville. At the North Queensland event Caruso finished 22nd on Saturday and took full advantage of the wet conditions on Sunday to record a ninth place finish.

TEAM COOLDRIVE has announced that South Australian veteran Dean Canto will join Macauley Jones for this years’ Pirtek Endurance Cup. The two-time Super2 champion has made the switch over to Brad Jones Racing after 11 years with the Tickford organisation. Canto had his first drive of the Team CoolDrive Supercar in a rain-affected additional drivers’ session at Winton Motor Raceway last month. The 2019 Pirtek Endurance Cup kicks off with the Bathurst 1000 in which Canto will make his 21st start in the ‘Great Race.’

THE IPSWICH Supersprint will again see Supercars’ teams adhere to parc ferme conditions which were first introduced in Tasmania earlier this year. The concept is designed to force teams to compromise between a qualifying and a race setup in an attempt to shuffle the finishing order, as well as take load away from team personnel.

The second parc ferme trial will see the addition of a ban on tyre changes between qualifying and the race. The Super2 Series was set to trial tightened parc ferme regulations at the Ipswich Supersprint this weekend, but the trial has been postponed as the series bids to ensure a level playing field between local Queensland teams and visiting teams.

MATT STONE Racing has announced that Jack Smith will join Todd Hazelwood for the Pirtek Enduro Cup. Smith races for Brad Jones racing in Super2 and this year has made three wildcard round appearances in Supercars this year. The 20-year-old has previously won the Super3 Series (then known as the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series) and the New Zealand V8 Touring Car Series.

SUPERCARS AND Karting Australia have announced a partnership program that will

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CRUNCHTIME FOR the ongoing relationship between Garry Rogers Motorsport and controversial Supercars sponsor Peter Adderton is coming as soon as October.

But whatever happens, team executive Barry Rogers said GRM expects to be on the Supercars grid in 2020.

Adderton’s Boost Mobile signed a multi-year deal with the Melbourne squad kicking off this year, but there is a performance clause that allow the deal to be curtailed at the end of this season.

Adderton could execute that clause as the team has managed only two top 10 finishes all year.

They both came in race 18 in the wet at Townsville, where good strategy helped James Golding and Michael Caruso – standing in for injured regular driver Richie Stanaway – to finish seventh and ninth.

“They (Boost) have performance clauses in their contract with us,” confirmed Rogers “The Boost arrangement is a two-year deal but certainly some performance levels are to be adhered to and you don’t have to be Einstein to realise (they are not).

“There will be a discussion I suppose … in September or October where we ask ‘are we on or are we off?’.

If Adderton does depart, Rogers insisted GRM would race on in Supercars in 2020, debunking pitlane rumour that it might choose to focus on other motorsport interests such as TCR and S5000.

“I can understand how the conversation can happen the way we are going, but our intention is certainly to be here,” Rogers said.

“Garry has invested a lot of money in Supercars and he’s been here since day dot. That doesn’t give us the right to anything, but it’s a lot to give away if you are not there.”

Rogers indicated GRM’s 2020 driver line-up could only be determined

GRM CRUNCHTIME COMING Sponsor has right to exercise performance clause and end deal

following a discussion with Boost.

“We’d like to go with what we have got, but there are obviously some questions.”

Following the Townsville weekend, Adderton posted a strong defence of GRM’s drivers on Instagram and pointed to a lack of car pace, declaring “this can’t continue”.

But Rogers played down the interpretation of that post as Adderton having a crack at GRM. “Peter has his opinions on matters and he is entitled to those opinions, but our discussions with him are certainly more supportive than they are critical,” he told Auto Action.

Rogers defended the team, which is the same one that was a championship contender as recently as 2016 when the team was running Volvo S60s and Scott Mclaughlin was lead driver.

After the team switched to Holden Commodore ZBs for 2017, veteran Garth Tander had been lead driver and scored creditable results.

He was replaced by Stanaway as a condition of Adderton taking on naming rights sponsorship of the team.

SHINING IN THE GLOOM SEVENTH SPOT in the gloom of race 18 was the ray of sunshine James Golding needed. In the previous 17 races, his best finish had been 13th.

Golding is 19th in the championship heading into this weekend’s Ipswich SuperSprint.

“It feels awesome,” he said. “It’s been a pretty tough season for us. We didn’t get off to a good start and we have been struggling to make our way forward.

“It was a crazy race, but I believe we have made inroads into the handling of the car, so I am looking forward to Ipswich.”

Meanwhile, Michael Caruso’s guest return to GRM was eventful, scary and fun, but ultimately rewarding because of his ninth on the Sunday.

“It was great to see everyone smiling when we came back to the pits,”

Caruso said. “It’s a job, but we all love doing this and when you go well it makes your job that little bit better to be a part of.”

With Richie Stanaway still injured, Caruso will continue to act as supersub and continue his development mission with the team at this weekend’s Ipswich SuperSprint.

“Our cars have a bit to find in the dry, that’s pretty evident,” he said. “If I can help the team move forward, get a direction and gain an understanding of what to do to the cars to pick up some performance then that’s goal achieved.”

BN

“These guys are not dills, they are a great group of guys,” said Rogers of the GRM crew. “They are the same group of guys we have had all the way through.

“Really our core group has not

change since 2013. Maybe that’s a bad thing, but we have a lot of faith in our guys.

“Sure, we are in a rut, but we just have to keep working hard, keep our head down.” Bruce Newton

ARG TAKES OVER TCM MANAGEMENT

By MARK FOGARTY

FAST-GROWING promoter Australian Racing Group has taken control of the popular Touring Car Masters retro-look V8 series, joining TCR and S5000.

ARG’s assumption of the commercial management rights to TCM will be officially announced to competitors and sponsors at this weekend’s round at the Supercars Ipswich SuperSprint at Queensland Raceway.

Gaining control of TCM adds a significant and popular category to ARG’s racing portfolio alongside TCR and S5000, with the industry abuzz with speculation that other categories will be added to a growing list of exciting properties.

ARG director Matt Braid exclusively confirmed TCM’s change of category management ownership to Auto Action.

“ARG has acquired the commercial management rights to TCM,” Braid said. “That will see ARG take control of the strategy and commercial management of the category moving forward, while continuing

Touring Car Masters program.

“Everyone knows that TCM is a favourite with the fans and has been a solid contributor to the Supercars show for many years. But, if I’m being honest, it’s time to take TCM to another level and I’m excited to announce that ARG will the take over the commercial management and marketing rights of TCM. “While it will be pretty much business as usual, ARG will work towards generating greater commercial income for TCM and the competitors, and grow the profile of the category at the same time.

Images: Insyde Media “We have seen solid growth in the build of new cars and new competitors joining to work with Tony Hunter and his team, who will the category over the past couple of seasons, but it’s continue day-to-day management of the category. a huge task to run a major category and I think with ARG and our own on-the-ground TCM team, we will “It is an iconic and truly popular category that work together towards taking it to another level.” complements our other categories.”

ARG is looking at expanding its event schedule next Touring Car Masters founder Tony Hunter told AA: year beyond the Shannons Nationals to incorporate “TCM has been a significant category for a long major events like the Adelaide 500 and F1 Australian time and we have worked hard as a very small Grand Prix. With Bruce Williams organisation to grow and maintain the quality of the

RACE-WINNING HERITAGE QUALITY VALUE & SUPPORT

NISSAN: WE’LL MEET KELLYS But don’t expect any money for Altima update, warns local boss

By BRUCE NEWTON

NISSAN AUSTRALIA will listen to any approach Kelly Racing makes about extending the life of the Altima in Supercars.

That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news is that Nissan Oz managing director Stephen Lester is adamant the company won’t spend any money on reskinning the Altima or make a sponsorship return to the category.

Nissan ended its backing of the Kellys’ four-car Altima squad after a six-year run at the end of last year.

“Our plans do not include re-entering or re-investing in motor racing in the V8 format at the present time,” Lester told Auto Action.

However, he was willing to take a meeting with the team on the Altima’s future in Supercars.

“We keep the doors and the lines of communication open with the Kellys,” Lester said. “They’ve been professionals to the nth degree throughout the whole process and I’d like to think they’d reciprocate those comments and feelings.

“We’ll work with the Kellys to the extent it makes commercial sense, but the reality is we are not getting back into car racing.”

Team co-owners Todd and Rick Kelly and general manager Nick Ryan have publicly discussed racing the Altima again in 2020 rather than going through the expense of swapping to a Ford Mustang or Holden Commodore.

The multi-million dollar investment in the VK56DE V8 engine is a strong motivator to keep racing the Nissan.

Kelly Racing has expressed the idea of potentially updating the body shape to the new-generation Altima sold in the USA or another Nissan large car, the Maxima.

The L33 Altima was discontinued in Australia in 2017.

However, the team is waiting on detailed information about significant technical changes to the 2020 Supercars package – including an aerodynamic downforce reduction – before deciding which way to proceed.

“I haven’t put much, if any, thought into modification and what that roadmap looks like,” Lester admitted. “We’d have to wait and see what that proposal would look like and then go down that road with them about next steps.

“I haven’t been approached, or it hasn’t got to my level, or I am just not in tune enough to reading the stories in and around V8 Supercars at the moment, but nothing has been brought forward.”

Tilton Engineering strives to produce the best racing parts and service for drivers and racing teams dedicated to their sport.

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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F1 IN MELBOURNE UNTIL 2025 FORMULA 1 has announced that the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix will continue to be held in Melbourne until at least the end of 2025.

The agreement between Formula 1 and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has been recently signed in London ensures that F1 will continue to race in Melbourne for the next five years.

“We are pleased to have renewed our partnership with the city of Melbourne, which will now host the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix until at least 2025.” said Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO of Formula 1.

“The decision to extend the current relationship for a further two years stems from the fact this event has proved to be a resounding success for the capital of Victoria, for Australia and indeed around the world, proving immensely popular with fans and those who work in Formula 1.”

“Working along with our partner, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, we plan to make the Australian Grand Prix even more exciting and spectacular, as a sporting event and as a form of entertainment.”

“Today’s announcement follows on from last week’s, relating to the British Grand Prix and is proof that more and more promoters are sharing our long-term vision for the future of Formula 1.”

“We cannot wait to be back in Melbourne, from March 12-15 next year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this race being held there and continuing a relationship which will also allow us to celebrate at least 30 years in the city in 2025.”

Australia has hosted a round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship since 1985. The race was held in Adelaide up until 1995 before moving to the

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Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in the heart of the Victorian state capital in 1996. Since then, apart from 2006 and 2010, the Australian Grand Prix has always been the World Championship season opener.

“This is a fantastic vote of confidence from Formula 1 to continue racing in Melbourne until at least 2025,” said Martin Pakula MP, Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events.

“Victoria hosts major events better than anywhere else in the world and I’m excited that Formula 1 has chosen to exercise its option to extend the contract and enable the Victorian Government and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) to continue to deliver more world-class events for Victoria.”

“The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix has contributed significantly to Melbourne’s standing as a global sporting and major events capital and the event is a key pillar of Melbourne’s and Australia’s international sporting calendar.”

“Beyond the direct benefits to Melbourne and Victoria arising out of Formula 1’s decision, the contract extension until 2025 also provides benefits and confidence for Victoria’s events industry and the associated supplier base to the AGPC.” “Additionally, it provides the AGPC with opportunities to further enhance and develop the event for the benefit of all fans and lovers of the sport of Formula 1.”

In the more than two decades since the race in Melbourne has consistently proved to be one of the most popular races on the calendar.

Next year’s race will once again get the season underway, from March 12-15.

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LATEST NEWS

WILDCARD BOOST FOR 2020 GRID? THE SUPER2 Series will see Jack Perkins remain in the #54 Eggleston Motorsport Commodore for a second round at the Ipswich SuperSprint after securing a late sponsorship deal. The Walkinshaw Andretti United co-driver competed in the series at Townsville, he retired from Race 1 after being involved in a multi-car collision on the opening lap.

However the 32-year-old fought back to finish the second race in eighth.

ORGANISERS OF the Shannons Adelaide Rally have announced that a single-day Rally Sprint event will be held on October 6th this year and will feature 11 stages during the course of the day.

The Adelaide Rallysprint is one of two new tarmac events planned for South Australia to service the burgeoning Tarmac Rally scene and support the premium Adelaide Rally event. The second tarmac event will be announced in due course.

THE BIENNIAL Classic Outback Trial will return to New South Wales in 2020 after the 2016 and 2018 events were based out of Alice Springs.

The 2020 edition will run for seven days, starting at Parkes in central NSW on August 8, before finishing in Australia’s motorsport capital Bathurst on August 15 with multi-night stopovers in Parkes, Orange and Bathurst. The field has been limited to 60 cars, with 27 nominations already lodged.

MANY IN the Australian motor racing community were shocked to hear of the sudden passing of Dean Neville. He was considered a good race driver and was well-liked by everyone that associated with him. The founder and CEO of the Kitome Group had a long association with Image Racing, campaigning cars prepped and run by Terry Wyhoon. In the early 2000s he raced a VS Commodore in the Touring Car Challenge before progressing to the Development Series in an AU Falcon and then moving to a BA. After which he raced in the Kumho series, Production Car Championship and in several Bathurst 12 Hours.

More recently he had been behind the wheel of his 1969 Chev Camaro, successfully racing in Historic Touring Car and Trans-Am events. Auto Action’s thoughts and condolences go out to his wife Marlene, his family and friends outside and within motor sport. GOB THE 40TH anniversary of the famous Repco Reliability Trial of 1979 is upon us. The next issue of Auto Action (1767) will contain a feature on the trial, as we look back on the historic event marking the momentous anniversary.

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Image: LAT WILDCARD ENTRIES could play a bigger role in maintaining Supercars grid sizes in the future.

The grid in 2019 sits at 24 full-time entries, the lowest in modern history as the significant sponsorship dollars required to run a team becomes harder to find.

There have been rumours along pitlane for months of a further reduction in full-time entries for 2020.

Supercars does have minimum entry requirements at some events and dropping below 24 cars is understood to threaten that.

But Supercars boss Sean Seamer has hinted that the wildcard entry system introduced in 2017 could be updated and expanded to bolster the grid going forward.

Wildcards are additional entries for Supercar and Super2 teams that don’t have to be underpinned by a Racing Entitlements Contract (REC).

In 2019 BJR Super2 driver Jack Smith has raced three times as a wildcard and will go again at The Bend, while Tim Blanchard re-emerged for the Perth SuperNight event. Kostecki Brothers Racing will contest the entire Pirtek Enduro Cup. Other enduro co-drivers are expected to front up for The Bend.

“We are seeing a lot more wildcard activity which is really interesting,” said Supercars CEO Sean Seamer.

“A well packaged and well put together wildcard

program supported by Supercars is a really good step between Super2 and the main game.

“With the annual grid plus all the wildcard activity we are already seeing this year we are confident with how things are looking.”

The Supercars field dropped from 26 to 24 cars in 2019 after Triple Eight Race Engineering and Tickford both handed back a REC. Seamer said it was too soon to predict whether they would be claimed by new entries for 2020.

“We are having some really good conversations with people, but until we get to the entry deadline after Bathurst we won’t know for sure.

“Anything before that is just speculation.” BN

KEED NOW IN CHARGE TECHNICAL GURU Phil Keed has quietly taken over as Mark Winterbottom’s engineer.

Keed joined Charlie Schwerkolt’s Irwin Racing this year as technical director, leaving Stuart McDonald in his position as race engineer.

But McDonald recently left the team on amicable terms due to other commitments and Keed has slotted into the role.

It’s not an unfamiliar job for Keed, the ex-Subaru WRC boffin who engineered Winterbottom at Ford Performance Racing and filled the position at PWR, BJR and DJR Team Penske.

“It’s working great, the radio’s busier!” laughed Schwerkolt. “They are both learning, they haven’t been together for a long time.”

Keed’s original role at Schwerkolt’s squad was to oversee the development, racing strategy and manage relations with Holden Commodore ZB and data supplier Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Image: Ross Gibb Winterbottom, who joined Irwin Racing from Tickford Racing this year, started the Supercars season strongly with a pole and five top 10s in his first eight races, but has scored only two top 10s since then. He is 14th in the title standings.

But Schwerkolt is pleased with the way his vastly revamped team is gelling.

“It’s a brand-new team and I’ve set about getting the best people I can for it,” he said. “There have been ups

and downs resultswise, but it’s been learning about the package, learning about our relationship with Frosty, learning about Phil Keed, learning a lot.

‘We had a target of 10th in the championship this year and having a real good crack next year. Sure, we would like to be a little bit higher, but some things have gone our way and others haven’t.

“I would have liked a few more top 10s, but we are not far away at all.” Bruce Newton

The Kostecki’s hope to test the ZB next month at Queensland Raceway, where the team will also organise its pit equipment, though the amount of testing the team will be able to undertake are yet to be determined by the Supercars board.

It is planned that KBR will carry on its alliance with Triple Eight through the Enduro Cup with Brodie keen to learn from the experience, not just on the race track, but in the way the multiple champion team conducts its weekend.

“I’d say that would be done with our Super2 program we go down our own path, I think we could take some things from them to help out the operation for our team and with the procedural things you don’t see on TV,” he stated.

Expectations for the two Bathurst rookies remain grounded as the three family members work hard to meet the midAugust testing date to achieve their dream of lining up for the 1000km in October.

“For Bathurst, we want to work out all the bugs, we need to do a brake rotor change, a lot of things need to be prepared and thought about correctly, and most of that will be done by Jake, Kurt and myself,” said Brodie.

“There’s no doubt the car will be competitive [at Bathurst], at the end of the day just to finish Bathurst and stay on the lead lap will be a good achievement for us.

“It’s going to be a very nervous and proud moment at the same time, it’s definitely daunting going into Australia’s biggest race with a new team into the level of competition it is today.

“There are no high expectations, but there’s no limitations either.”

In order for the wildcard to occur, Brodie decided to step away from the rest of the Super2 season and will instead aid the ever-improving Jake at the wheel of his old chassis. Even though Supercars maybe on the horizon for the 21-year-old, he still needs a budget to make the leap.

“It could possibly happen, but at the same time it does cost a lot of money,” he told Auto Action. “We’re not keeping any of our options closed, I’m walking up and down the grid, trying to put my face into teams.” HM/BN

KOSTECKI’S ENRURO WILDCARD ON TRACK

KOSTECKI BROTHERS Racing are ramping preparations on the team’s re-skinned ZB Commodore that forms the basis of cousins Brodie and Jake Kostecki’s Pirtek Enduro Cup campaign.

The car – used by Jake during the opening rounds of Super2 as a VF – was at Pace Innovations getting the final touches made to the body panels by the two cousins, joined by Jake’s brother Kurt. The decision to take on the Enduro Cup was made based the team’s solid growth and according to Brodie, is ready to dip its toes in the water.

“It’s something that we’ve always planned on doing over the past three years, but we didn’t want to do it,” said the Super2 race winner. “The team was under prepared, we didn’t have the right people, all those little factors that make a team, a team. We’ve had some people that have been with us for three or four years now, like Jason Gray who has been with us for three years now.

“The team has built up enough experience to be able to have a crack at it and it’s going to be up to Jake and I to get the job done at the end of the day.”

Image: LAT

IT’S TIME FOR A RESULT!

Hazelwood and MSR look to excel on home ground Image: TCR

BROWN EYES OVERSEAS OPPORTUNITIES RUNAWAY LEADER of TCR Australia, HMO Customer Racing’s Will Brown has signalled his desire to race TCR overseas.

Brown, who is also contesting Super2, currently leads the title standings by 125-point over Alfa Romeo driver Dylan O’Keeffe, but with the international presence of Marciello Lotti at Phillip Island and the boss of Romeo Ferraris, Mario Ferraris at The Bend, it signals the worldwide interest in the burgeoning series.

“I’d go overseas for sure if I

could get a drive,” Brown said.

“I don’t know if I would want to move over, but I’d like to go over for a race to see what it was like and get my toe in the water, then go from there.”

It comes after a chaotic round at The Bend for the Erebus Motorsport Pirtek Enduro Cup driver as he recovered from a Friday accident involving James Moffat and a lowly 16th qualifying position storming to second in the opening race, while taking victory in the second.

Brown was unable to extract any pace from the Hyundai i30N in the rain, which was in direct contrast to teammate Nathan Morcom, leaving many questions unanswered.

“I generally really like the rain, karting, Super2, I’ve been quite confident and good in it, I just couldn’t get the car to rotate how I wanted it to and it caused a lot of understeer on exit,” he explained.

“It might be worth having a test day and work out why we had that.” HM

CHANGES PLANNED AMID AUSTRALIAN GT DISCONTENT ROUND 3 of the Australian GT Image: Insyde Media Championship at The Bend had one of the smallest fields in the category’s history, with growing pressure on the GT management to increase entry numbers and address competitor unrest.

A meeting between Australian GT powerbrokers, which resulted in competitors threatening to withdraw from the event as concerns were raised about falling entries and growing disillusion with the current category management regime.

At Phillip Island there was a meeting between key stakeholders and category management discussing the key changes for informed. “This includes for Pro-Am Bronze and the category in 2020, which includes a return anything, for GT4 it will be Pro-Am Bronze and to combined sprint and endurance events and Silver, then there will be an Am Cup for either two cost-cutting measures that plan to alleviate the Bronzes or one Bronze on their own for sprint skyrocketing running costs of GT3 racing. events.”

“I understand why competitors are unhappy Vervaart acknowledged the advent of new with this year, it’s not perfect and we’re doing categories including TCR and Rod Salmon’s the best job that we can for this year,” category AASA-aligned GT-1 had dented entries, while the manager David Vervaart told Auto Action. “But introduction of the new Porsche 991 GT3 Cup also, we’re spending a lot of time making sure Car has also had an impact notably in the form of that next year is bigger and better, and suits our former competitors Liam Talbot and Roger Lago customers as best of possible.” making the switch in recent seasons.

“We’re talking about next year everybody being “I think GT-1 has had an effect, the price of on the same pits stop time, making it long and racing in that category is cheaper than running having the same two guys do the fuel then change with us,” Vervaart explained. “I think we offer a the tyres. We’re also looking at combining sprint better package than GT-1, we certainly have better races at endurance rounds encompassing GT circuits. If you were here two or three weeks ago Trophy and GT4.” when GT-1 there were 11 GT3 cars and others, The most significant change is to the driver but mainly GT Trophy models. rankings system, which has come under much “We need to look at that for next year and we’re conjecture from both teams and fans alike. After about to do a market research program where the meeting at Phillip Island it has been decided to we get feedback from not just from our existing conform to the current FIA driver rankings that are competitors, but from past and possible future used by the majority of GT3 series globally and competitors to see where the price is at.” crucially by the SRO, the worldwide manager and The calendar has also come under scrutiny, in creator of GT3. particular the round on the Gold Coast has been “We’re going to the FIA driver rating,” Vervaart unpopular with teams, though an alternative was

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provided, it was voted against by the majority of competitors.

Another issue that has stymied entries has been the inability to gain insurance making arrive and drive packages difficult, but Vervaart told Auto Action that this has been remedied through insurance company Motorsport Insurance Group.

The key impact on dropping numbers, however are the associated costs of purchasing and maintaining a GT3 car, which have blown out incredibly during recent times, despite entry fees making up a tenth of the figure for a race weekend. “[The] cost of entry now is cheaper than what it was a couple of years ago, I think entry for this weekend for a GT3 car was $8000 and for other GT Trophy entrants it was only $4000, and for that you’re getting livestream, post-produced television package and all the rest,” Vervaart continued.

“That cost of entry is only a small part of the cost of participation, you have to ask yourself has GT3 peaked? Let’s talk about the cost of the cars, the cheapest one is probably the Lamborghini [Huracan GT3] at $750,000, the most is probably the Ferrari at in excess of $1 million. The cost to operate them is high, talking to teams this weekend it’s somewhere between $50,000$80,000 a round.”

Vervaart confirmed that approximately the same number of teams had committed to the next round at Sandown, including the debut of Tony Quinn’s highly anticipated new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of which he takes delivery at Spa this weekend.

He also implored teams to take up any issue each may have with him so both can work together to improve the competitor numbers.

“Come to me to talk about the issues, I’m always willing to listen,” he said.

Heath McAlpine

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MAN-ON-A-MISSION Todd Hazelwood believes the time has come for Matt Stone Racing to turn promise into results at hometrack Queensland Raceway this weekend.

In their sophomore year in Supercars, Hazelwood and MSR have posted some outstanding qualifying results in their Triple Eight-built Holden Commodore ZB. Frustratingly, they have yet to translate them to front-running finishes, the most recent example being fourth place on the grid on Sunday in Townsville resulting in only a 16th place finish because of a puncture.

Hazelwood’s motivation is not only to achieve a worthy result at the Ipswich SuperSprint because the team deserves it, but also to push his case for another drive in 2020.

The 2017 Super2 champion lies only 17th in the drivers’ championship.

“QR is our home round and we are champing at the bit to go racing again,” Hazelwood said. “You’re always excited for the next race and, obviously, I can’t wait to see how we go there.”

MSR already has experience with the ZB at QR, having sampled the car for the first time at the track last December and tested along with the heavyweight Queensland teams Shell V-Power Racing and Red Bull HRT last week.

Hazelwood’s confidence is further boosted by a belief the team has learned a significant amount about extracting pace from the ‘super-soft’ Dunlop tyre.

“That’s probably something we have struggled with for the last 18 months, to be honest, and I think to nail our set-up on the soft tyre at Townsville adds to our knowledge and will help us keep climbing the ladder,” he said.

That knowledge showed up in his qualifying effort on the Sunday in Townsville in only his second Top 10 Shootout.

“We are exceptionally proud of that,” he said. “If not for the puncture in the race, we could have been in the top five.”

Hazelwood has raced for MSR since 2014, but was told earlier this year to look for a new drive in 2020 because of uncertainty over the team’s future.

While unwilling to talk specifics, Hazelwood believes his performances so far this season have helped his chances to stay in the championship.

“I have been able to show some promise this year and I will keep working hard behind the scenes,” he vowed.

MSR also gave Pirtek Enduro Cup co-driver Jack Smith a run at the test day last week.

The funded Super2 driver is regarded as a possible graduate to Supercars in 2020.

BN

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LATEST NEWS

THIRTY CARS will take to Silverstone for the first round of the 2019/20 World Endurance Championship at Silverstone on September 1.

It has been revealed that Rebellion Racing will scale back from two cars down to one this season, elsewhere in LMP1 the two Toyota Gazoo Racing cars will be joined by the new Ginettas. A competitive eight car field will feature in LMP2 including a Signatech Alpine, a Jackie Chan DC Racing car and United Autosports car. The GTE Pro grid is down to just six cars after the withdrawal of Ford and BMW at the end of last season. The GTE Am class is the strongest with 11 cars entered for the opening round, which includes Australian Matt Campbell in car Porsche #77.

AFTER WINNING the team’s title with DS Techeetah, Andre Lotterer has announced his departure from the team to race for the new Porsche Formula E team set to make its debut at the first round of season 6 in Saudi Arabia. Lotterer recorded two podiums in 2018/19 season and finished eighth in the standings. The Former World Endurance Champion drove for Porsche in WEC in 2017 and will join another former Porsche LMP1 driver Neel Jani.

WELSHMAN ELFYN Evans will miss the next round of the World Rally Championship in Finland next month after hurting his back in last weekend’s non-championship event in Estonia upon a heavy landing, doctors have advised Evans to rest and sit out the Finnish Rally. The M-Sport driver will be replaced by Gus Greensmith who will make his second event start in a WRC spec car, after making his debut in Portugal earlier in the year.

THE ASTON Martin Valkyrie was revealed at the 2019 British Grand Prix, driver by Aston Martin test driver Chris Goodwin, the 865KW (1160bhp) Aston Martin hypercar was not put through its paces but did complete some laps of the Silverstone circuit. The car was created by a collaboration between Aston Martin, project partner AF Racing and Red Bull Advanced Technologies and headed by Adrian Newey. A race going Valkyrie will be driven in the World Endurance Championship at the start of the 2020/2021 season. The 150 road-going Aston Martin Valkyries are sold out, with first deliveries commencing later this year.

12 AutoAction

BRUT MUSTANG JOINS TCM

Images: Ross Gibb

A NEW Ford Mustang that promises to lift the bar in construction and engineering will debut at the next round of Touring Car Masters at Queensland Raceway after it was launched in Melbourne with the help of a legend last week.

The Russell Hancock-owned 1969 Ford Mustang Boss will make its eagerly anticipated debut at Ipswich after the car successfully debuted at Sydney Motorsport Park. The car will be driven by regular TCM driver Cameron Mason, which replaces the older Ford Mustang Fastback he has campaigned during the last few seasons.

“Very excited,” said team manager Steve Mason.

“The car will be completed this afternoon [Tuesday] and we test Thursday at SMP. It has been built to the highest of standards, there wouldn’t be another car in Australia, certainly in this category that has been built to this standard.

“We’re pretty happy, the car will be fast.”

There has been no expense spared in building the new Mustang, with the chassis incorporating the latest and greatest in componentry allowed under the regulations, put together by the team at Garage1 led by renowned race car builder and preparer Marty Brant.

“We started with a brand new shell, which means it wasn’t twisted and contained no rust,” Mason explained.

“Everything’s been handmade on the whole of the car, it has a fabricated diff, it’s got the latest model NASCAR gearbox, it’s running a 351 Windsor with Dart heads dry-sumped, it has the big Brembo chrome calipers, chrome-moly roll cage.

“It has the very best that you can buy available in the rules.”

The Mustang is resplendent in the Brut 33 colours that Allan Moffat carried on the similar model he raced in the early 1970s.

BRADFORD’S BIZARRE RIDE

it stopped with the broken gearbox. But at around 60 degrees in the cabin and the race continuing, there was no way I was staying there.

“I have been towed more than once in my life and I think that Phillip Island is the only place they ensure you are belted up and have a helmet on,” Bradford added.

“I am not blaming anyone, shit happens.

I just hope something good comes out of it and CAMS do a proper investigation into the incident,” he further suggested.

Images: Insyde Media Bradford’s priority is to now have the car ready for the next round at Queensland Raceway on the first weekend of August. sideways and as it was being towed, bit in and went over,” he surmised.

“The cage is okay, and I have plenty of panels, the Bradford was taken to Murray Bridge Hospital for only real issue will be getting another roof. observation and said that his only injury was a sore “Apart from the odd off-track excursion where I may neck. have damaged a skirt, I haven’t put a scratch on the “The Clerk of Course called to check on my condition car previously. I just want to just get back in the car and and suggested that I should have stayed in the car when race. Garry O’Brien

SPORTS SEDAN driver Shane Bradford ended upside down in an unusual accident at The Bend on July 14 . . . after a race was over.

Bradford was running third in the final race of the second round of the DEA National Sports Sedan Series which was part of the Shannons Nationals, when he had pulled off the circuit with a broken gearbox.

After the race the Trans Am-spec Chev Camaro was being flat-towed back to the pits when it rolled over at turn 16.

“The details are a bit sketchy, I was knocked out,” Bradford said. He was steering the car but was not belted in or wearing a helmet.

“The tow point is on the left-hand side, and I think that somehow the back wheels were off the circuit, it slewed

BIG FIELD FOR WINTON THE LARGEST gathering of Historic Sports Sedans headline this year’s Winton Festival of Speed at August 2-4.

The 24-car entry includes the ex-Bryan Thomson Mercedes-Chev and the Barry Bray Nissan Gazelle piloted by the man himself.

Historic Sports Sedans are the fastest growing category among the older tin-top classes, behind Group A and C. These vehicles are pre-spaceframe, with bodyshells cut to allow the engine and gearbox mid-mounted for better weight distribution.

Also, being celebrated at this year’s Winton Festival of Speed are the 50-year anniversaries of the Bolwell Nagari, the Holden Dealer Team and the Ford Capri.

Formula 5000 returns to the rural circuit for the first time since James Hunt’s victory at the 1978 Rose City Trophy, joining the 50km Touring Car Cup and a 50th Formula Ford anniversary feature race of 15-laps.

Hyundai Excels, Group S, MG Racing and many other historic categories will take part over the course of the weekend.

The man himself was there to help launch the car last Friday.

“He loved it, he said to me ‘I wish I had this car in my day!’” Mason enthused.

The decision to display the car in the iconic Brut 33 livery was an easy one for the Mason team as it differentiated itself from the numerous Mustangs among the TCM field already. The Team Mason Motorsport squad has taken a measured approach when it comes to initial expectations, but are confident the car will become a frontrunner by the conclusion of the season.

“We expect it to be fast, but we don’t expect it to be on the pace from day one, it’ll take a little bit of getting it up to speed,” Mason explained. “The competition is so quick these days, you can’t just buy speed and we’ll be happy to be in the top 10 at Queensland Raceway. As we go through the year, we hope to be moving towards the front.

“That’s our common sense approach to it.”

Heath McAlpine

PEDAL DOWN. PERFORMANCE UP. WILLIAMS GOES BACK TO THE FUTURE BRUCE WIILLIAMS will step back in time and swap his ACDelco SLR5000 Torana for the Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars HQ GTS 350 for upcoming Touring Car Masters Ipswich round.

Williams’ regular TCM Torana was damaged in a dramatic end to the wet and wild Trophy race at Winton where a puddle sent Williams sideways and into Andrew Fisher’s Ford Falcon GT-HO as they approached the finish line with the two crossing the line sideways and separated by a mere 0.007s While Fisher flew off the road into the turn one grass, Williams’ Torana was spectacularly launched into the air as he crossed the old Winton circuit and then a dirt access road on the infield, resulting in the Torana sustaining front suspension damage.

The team has worked hard to get the Torana back on track, but the repairs have not been finalised, ruling out the running of Williams’ regular car for the next round of the series.

“It’s not ideal, but our Torana is not ready to race. It was a big moment as we battled for the lead with Andrew and the subsequent unauthorised flight was spectacular, but my Torana sustained more damage than was obvious at the time,” Williams said.

“While we finished the weekend, the front suspension was badly bent, and although I was able to keep racing and collect some points, the car was nasty to drive for the rest of the weekend’s races.”

Following the Winton race and the resulting front suspension damage, the team elected to carry out some planned suspension

development work.

“With damaged components needing replacement, we decided to take the opportunity to do a planned upgrade to the front suspension,” Williams said.

“Garage 1’s Marty Brant does the fabrication work, however he was committed to finishing the new 69 Mustang that fellow Pro-am racer, Cameron Mason will drive this weekend for the first time. We tried to get the mods done for round four, but we are still waiting for some parts, so time has beaten us.”

Now, approaching Ipswich, he’ll race an HQ Holden again, nearly thirty years since he won the HQ Nationals at Winton in 1990. Williams has generously been offered a lifeline, driving the HQ GTS 350 that Garry O’Brien raced during the first three rounds of the 2019 TCM series.

The Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars HQ is fitted with a six litre V8 engine, making around 650 HP, and it’s one of the original TCM cars built to compete in the Biante Historic Touring Cars series.

“I’m lucky that Gary has offered me the opportunity to race his trusty HQ GTS 350 for the weekend, and in some sort of a Back To The Future moment, it’s thirty years ago to the weekend that I first raced my HQ at the first official HQ race on the mainland,” Williams said.

“That was at Winton in August 1989, so to be back behind the wheel of an HQ race car is a feeling of déjà vu. However, while it’s an HQ sedan, it’s a very different car to the 200HP, six-cylinder, three speed car that I raced all those years ago.”

VALE: GRAHAM HOINVILLE AUSTRALIAN MOTOR sport has lost one of its greatest contributors, Graham Hoinville at age 90. His input to Australian motor sport was huge, and the motor sport community mourns his passing.

Hoinville’s racing and rally career are legendary. He raced a supercharged MG TC from the late 1940s, then an Elfin Mono for many years. He won the Grand Prix Rally with his son Greg in an Elfin Clubman, the first car to win the event other than a Porsche. He navigated for the late Harry Firth in rallies, and the pair were dominant. They won everything worth winning including the Alpine Rally on five occasions, the 1964 Ampol Round Australia trial, the first Southern Cross Rally in 1966 and the inaugural Australian Rally championship in 1968.

Graham was co-organiser of the International BP Rally of South Eastern Australia with John Pryce and Donald Thomson. He was a leading member of the Ford Australia assaults on the East African Safari rally in 1962 and the 1968 London to Sydney marathon, navigating for Firth. The team finished 3rd, 5th and 8th in the marathon and won the teams prize.

Hoinville was one of the founders of CAMS, the organisation that controls

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motor sport in Australia. In 1952, CAMS founding President Maurice Monk and National Secretary Donald Thomson approached Graham, a mechanical engineer, to act as a technical advisor for the newly created governing body. Together with Thomson and John Pryce, they wrote the rules under which motor sport is run. Hoinville devised a set of regulations for touring cars which came into force for the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship in 1960 and served as Appendix J for four decades.

Graham was a qualified engineer, and understood the technical side of motor sport very well. After his retirement from active competition he was instrumental in the creation of the CAMS judicial system, which in turn saw the establishment of the CAMS Eligibility Committee (CEC), which he chaired for more than 30 years. He has been Australia’s delegate at FIA Historic Racing Commission meetings in Paris and was appointed Honorary Vice President of the FIA Appendix K sub committee.

Hoinville was chief steward at the Bathurst touring car race for several years, Targa Tasmania and many other major events. Apart from motor sport he loved skiing, both on water and

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snow and was the founder of a ski club at Mount Buller. In 2011, Graham was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for his contributions to both the community and motor sport, adding to his CAMS Award of Merit presented in 1972.

In paying tribute to Graham Hoinville’s enormous contribution to motor sport CAMS President Andrew Papadopoulos said “Graham was an instrumental figure and one of the cornerstones of motor sport in this country and I was honoured to work with him throughout my time at CAMS”.

“Australian motor sport has lost an iconic administrator, a passionate competitor and a genuinely good person who was well respected and highly regarded among many of the various communities within motor sport.”

Graham Hoinville was a gentle, fair, knowledgeable and highly respected person and motor sport will be the poorer for his passing.

Bob Watson

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13

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

THE BRITISH round of the Porsche Supercup Series featured our three Aussies and Kiwi Jaxon Evans. Evans qualified in third but made a cracking start to take second before Turn 1, however within four laps the Porsche Junior was relegated to fifth where he stayed for the remainder of the race. Joey Mawson finished the race in ninth to score two points. Stephen Grove finished second in the Pro Am class finishing 24th overall, while Marc Cini finished in 31st.

IT WAS an eventful U.S. F2000 round for Australian Cameron Shields and Kiwi Hunter McElrea on the streets of Toronto. Towards the closing stages of the opening race Shields hit the wall hard at Turn 8 resulting in the Newman Wachs Racing driver rupturing his knuckle joint and partially dislocating his knee cap. McElrea favoured much better, falling just short of second after a great battle with Christian Rasmussen, the Kiwi still recorded his seventh podium of the season. A resilient Shields returned the next day and rewarded his team for the hard work by bringing the car home in an impressive sixth.

When avoiding an incident McElrea got caught up in his own accident failing to score any points.

The next round takes place at Mid-Ohio from July 26-28.

THE AUSTRALIAN pairing of Ben Porter and Andrew Macpherson one again shone in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia winning the Am/Am class in the opening race of the weekend finishing 14th overall. The AMAC Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO drivers could not repeat the class victory on Sunday but still picked up a 15th place finish. The Triple Eight Race Engineering Australia team with Roland Dane in attendance came home 11th in the first race after setting the fastest lap. In Race 2 Jazeman Jaafar drove superbly in the opening stint and when H.H. Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim left the pits the Malaysian pair were sitting second. Unfortunately a late race safety car did not play into the hands of the #888 Mercedes GT3 drivers, eventually crossing the line in fifth position.

IN CARRERA Cup Germany Jaxon Evans recorded two top five finishes in the fourth round of Carrera Cup Germany around the tight Norisring street circuit. In the opening race the reigning Australian Carrera Cup champion climbed up the order from seventh to finish in third. The Kiwi again gained four positions in the second race jumping from ninth up to finish fifth.

14 AutoAction

DOOHAN AND WILLIAMS STRONG SHOWING IT HAS been a successful couple of rounds for both Australians Jack Doohan and Calan Williams in the Euroformula Open Series at the Hungaroring and the Red Bull Ring.

Doohan recorded his second podium finish of the year at the Red Bull Ring while Williams did not finish outside the top eight places in all four races.

In the first race at the Red Bull Ring, Motopark driver Kiwi Liam Lawson finished on the podium in third. Fortec driver Williams picked up his fourth points haul of the season coming home in eighth. Doohan spun during the race and as a result finished down in 16th position.

In the second Hungarian race Lawson plummeted down to the back of the field but was able to recover a tenth place finish.

Doohan had a much better second race, the Australian finished the race in seventh and completed the rookie podium, while Williams recorded his third straight eighth place finish.

Lawson missed the Red Bull Ring Euroformula Open round due to clashing commitment with the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

In the first race both Williams and Doohan fought up the front of the field, with Doohan taking second off Williams as he set his sights

on catching leader Marino Sato. Doohan got the gap down to 0.6s at the end of the race claiming second to match his best result of the season. Williams gave his Fortec team its best result since 2017 when he brought home a solid fourth place finish.

In the final race Williams stuck to the back of the podium battle for the majority of the race coming home in the top five for the second day running. Unfortunately Doohan could not carry his form over to Sunday when the Double R Racing driver had to stop for a front wing change early in the race, coming home in 13th position.

PERONI SHOWS STRONG SPEED AT SILVERSTONE ALEX PERONI showed amazing pace in the fourth round of the FIA Formula 3 season at the historic Silverstone circuit in England.

A challenging qualifying session resulted in the 19-year-old having to start the first race from 21st position on the grid.

When the first race got underway the Australian stayed out of trouble on the opening lap climbing two places to sit 19th.

He kept that forward momentum going throughout the race and when a virtual safety car was called for a stranded car on the pit straight just before half race

distance the Campos Racing driver found himself in 13th place.

The race restarted for a few laps before a full safety car was called for a crash at Copse which helped out Peroni as points were near touching distance.

On the restart with a handful of laps to go Peroni climbed further up the order, eventually taking tenth on the final lap of the race and with it a welldeserved championship point.

The second race didn’t go as well for the former Formula

Images: LAT

Renault Eurocup, again Peroni stayed out of trouble on the opening lap, competing lap 1 in 10th.

On lap 2 Peroni tried to take ninth position but lost momentum

onto the pit straight which allowed several other cars to draw alongside him. On lap 3 the Peroni suffered broken steering after contact with another car forcing the Aussie into retirement.

CAITLAN WOOD NEARING AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION AUSTRALIA’S CAITLAN Wood recorded her best finish in the W Series of fifth at TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands and has greatly improved her chances of continuing in the category next year.

Series organisers announced last week that only the top 12 drivers from the inaugural season are guaranteed places next year. The result has elevated Wood from 15th to 11th in the standings with just one round remaining.

The women race identical Formula 3 cars, with big prizemoney on offer $2.13 million AUD in total, with $710,025 AUD for the series winner.

At the Dutch round Wood finished within 10s of title rivals Jamie Chadwick, of Britain, and Beitske Visser in her home race, who were third and fourth at the chequered flag.

Wood had qualified sixth, just 0.353s slower

than Finn Emma Kimilainen’s pole position time.

Kimilainen missed the early rounds of the series because of injury, won the race from Britain’s Alice Powell. Wood finished 18.5s behind Kimilainen at the conclusion of the 30 minute race and collected 10 points.

A reverse-grid, non-championship race also was held at the legendary Dutch circuit, which was won by the youngest competitor in the series, 17-year-old Canadian Megan Gilkes, by 0.003 seconds from Powell.

Gilkes led all the way from pole position, while Powell started 17th, Wood finished 12th after starting from 10th.

In the previous round at the Norisring Wood finished just outside the points in 11th position.

The final round of the inaugural W Series concludes on August 11 at Britain’s Brands Hatch Circuit.

Images: LAT

AA’s pernicous pundit remembers a time when big brand names were all over the leading cars ONCE UPON a time, on a dark and stormy night, in a land far, far way… Nothing. I just wanted to use those all-time classic story intros in one place. Job done.

Anyway, there was a time when motor racing was awash with the biggest commercial brands in the world as sponsors. In the 1970s, motor racing in Australia was neck-and-neck with the VFL (now AFL) in terms of big-name sponsorship.

No longer. The big brands are still supporting the AFL – including car makers Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and Holden – and the NRL. In Supercars, the biggest backers are Red Bull and Shell.

One is a modern energy drink disruptor that makes so much money it can indulge in sponsorship of so-called ‘extreme’ sports to burnish its image. The other is a B2B deal. It’s not Shell as in the Anglo-Netherlands Royal Dutch Shell conglomerate, but a local branding deal offset by a big Penske transport fuel deal.

Such is the way of the world now. The next biggest sponsor is Supercheap Auto. Industry. Then Castrol. Industry. Monster Energy.

Small player. The Bottle-O. Good onya, mates.

OK, Vodafone is sorta significant, but peripheral these days.

Milwaukee, Irwin and all the other tools, bit players. Big signage, small backing. Some legacy sponsors like Mobil 1 hang in there, but at a pittance compared with their glory sponsor days in the 1980s, ’90s and even early 2000s.

But where are the hot consumer brands like Apple or Microsoft

– or even Samsung, LG or Hisense? Nowhere.

Brad Jones Racing hangs in there with truck giant Freightliner and wholesale automotive distributor CoolDrive (hardly a household name, however), but Nick Percat’s car is a revolving door of one-off, low-profile backers (although 7-Eleven was a great get) or deeply insider sponsors – and, yes, I’m looking at you, Dunlop.

The rest are mainly low-level deals with enthusiast-driven companies. Well done Penrite, but really? Who are you in the (to me, unfeasibly) big after-market scheme of lubricant sales?

I’ve never touched the oil in my cars in my life – and I’m an enthusiast. Why would you when it gets done at the regular service? But, apparently, Castrol, Shell Helix, Mobil 1, Havoline and Penrite sell squillions of litres of the stuff. Go figure.

Supercars still clearly appeals to that market, but what about mainstream consumer brands?

All I hear is crickets.

Almost 50 years ago, motor racing was a showcase for FMCGs – in advertising lingo, fast moving consumer goods. That’s a Vegemite or a Coca-Cola or a Domino’s Pizza, etc.

Back in the 1970s, it was even better. Forget cigarette brands Marlboro, Camel and Rothmans – they dominated later – but you had the likes of Levi’s jeans, department store giants Grace Bros and Myer, and all manner of consumer brands.

Even into the mid-2000s, Kmart was a major – dual Bathurstwinning – sponsor.

Since then, even the tradiecentric Enzed and Pirtek are gone

Images: Chris Batchelor/AA Archive

as major players. Tool companies and any number of randoms get Mega signage (not looking at anyone…), but their backing is in the hundreds of thousands (maybe), not millions.

Seriously, if you look at photos of racers in the 1970s and early ‘80s, it was a cornucopia of bigname sponsors.

Not anymore. And why not?

Well, for a start, the whole sports sponsorship market has contracted in the past decade.

Unless you’re a very top team or competition, you don’t get the big, big money anymore.

When the tobacco and car industry money flowed, it was easy. Now, it’s tough as. The limited Foxtel audience hasn’t helped, but F1 is also suffering.

And that’s simply because the audience numbers don’t add up.

If you’re a global player or big in Australia, Supercars doesn’t regularly get the big eyeballs.

But it’s more than that.

Supercars should appeal to trendy, edgy brands. It doesn’t.

Touring car racing’s appeal to FMCGs peaked in the ‘70s, when the Brock vs Moffat, Holden vs Ford rivalry was at its zenith.

Motor racing became

complacent in the multi-million dollar cigarette sponsorship era.

And never really recovered. At its peak, Fred Gibson’s Winfieldbacked Nissan GT-R team had an annual budget of $4 million.

Any Supercars team would sell its soul for that level of backing – even Triple Eight and DJR Team Penske.

But, still, their big Holden/Red Bull and Ford/Shell V-Power backing is only marginally mainstream. They’re tired brands that no longer resonate with youngsters. Even Vodafone is seen as old-fashioned.

My point is that 50 years ago, motor racing was at the forefront of commercialisation. And even more surprisingly, it was led

by CAMS, which these days is asleep at the wheel commercially.

Actually, that’s only true outside Supercars, over which CAMS has no control. The governing body reaps big rewards by sanctioning lesser series, as well as its beholdence to the FIA. But, long-term, where are the sponsors that excite fans to go out and spend?

Apart from series sponsor Virgin Australia – which is mainly an airfares deal – and series telcoms

provider Vodafone, the only truly big-name backing is Harvey Norman’s support of Simona de Silvestro.

How’s that gone? Not well – to be brutally blunt.

Supercars bosses need to go back 20 years – plus another decade – to realise how big the sport used to be.

Many millions in manufacturer funding from Ford and Holden lulled teams into a false sense of security. Then, around the time of the GFC, it all came crashing down. Had to fend for themselves.

At about the same time as the other big-name sponsors fled. Premium booze brands Jim Beam, Jack Daniel’s and Bundaberg Rum have also come and gone.

The Bottle-O is one of the few true consumer brands left. But for how long?

There was a time when bigname brands would fall over racing. Now, unfortunately, they’re just over it.

What Supercars needs is the promotional push of an alliance with, say, Marvel Studios.

Supercars and superheroes. Is there a better match?

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s w e n e n O Formula ‘LET THEM RACE’ MCLAREN HAS re-signed British rookie Lando Norris for the 2020 Formula 1 season. The popular 19-year-old will again share the garage with Spaniard Carlos Sainz next year. Norris currently sits ninth in the drivers’ standings, while he and Sainz have elevated McLaren up to fourth in the constructors’ standings, a far cry from where McLaren found themselves at this stage in 2018.

THE RACES in Austria and Britain produced no-holds-barred wheel-banging, fierce battling where the drivers pushed things to the limit but escaped any penalties. The only exception was Sebastian Vettel’s penalty for rear-ending Max Verstappen at Silverstone.

Auto Action asked the FIA’s race director, Australia’s Michael Masi, after the British Grand Prix if the policy is now “let them race.”

“The let them race philosophy has been adopted all year,” Masi replied. “What we saw out there, with the nature of this

(Silverstone) circuit, yes there was some wheel-to-wheel action, but it was the same that it has been previously. And it has been judged in exactly the same manner. The nature of the way this venue is probably makes it a perceived view that it is more of let them race. But it has been adopted and applied in exactly the same way it has been all year in our view.”

Masi, the former Supercars deputy race director, will be F1’s top official for the rest of the season, FIA president Jean Todt told Masi during the Silverstone weekend.

Melbourne-based Masi has been in the position on a race-by-race basis since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, following the sudden death of Charlie Whiting. Masi, who had been appointed as Whiting’s understudy, stepped into the breach at Albert Park.

He has continued to hold the post of FIA race director at all 10 F1 weekends so far this year, impressing all with his calm, deliberative approach.

Todt told Auto Action back in March that several people would assume Whiting’s

RICH ENERGY CEO William Storey announced on the Wednesday before the British Grand Prix that the company had terminated its sponsorship deal with the Haas F1 team. Since then Storey has sold his majority stake in the company and Rich Energy has been renamed Lightning Volt. It was a disastrous weekend for the American Formula 1 team. Not only did it suffer sponsor dramas, but drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean collided on lap one, forcing them out.

IT ISN’T just the Australian Grand Prix that has signed a multi-year deal. Silverstone, home to the British Grand Prix, has also signed a long term contract that will see the race remain at the circuit until at least the end of 2024.

Silverstone played host to the inaugural F1 race in 1950, and has seen the sport grow immensely in that time. With Bernie Ecclestone at the helm it looked as if Silverstone’s time had ended, but with Liberty Media in charge the British Grand Prix was salvaged.

Images: LAT

VETTEL’S DIFFICULT SEASON THE WILLIAMS team announced in the lead up to its home grand prix at Silverstone that it has extended its sponsorship partnership with ROKiT from three to five years. Williams joined forces with the telecommunications company this season and ROKiT feels it has seen positive results come out of the partnership and technical collaboration.

RED BULL Racing reserve driver Sebastien Buemi took part part in the Pirelli tyre test on the Wednesday after the British Grand Prix.

The Swiss driver had a massive high speed crash at Abbey, fortunately the reigning World Endurance Champion escaped from the accident uninjured.

16 AutoAction

HOW WOULD Sebastian Vettel sum up his 2019 season with Ferrari in one word?

“Difficult,” the German driver replied.

Vettel could have won the Canadian Grand Prix except that he got a five second penalty for going off the track and cutting off Lewis Hamilton when he returned to the circuit.

On many occasions this year Vettel’s 21-year-old teammate Charles Leclerc has been the quicker.

Leclerc has had four consecutive podium finishes in the most recent races compared to only one for Vettel.

Back in 2014 a young Daniel Ricciardo was often faster than Vettel at Red Bull, and the Aussie earned three wins while Vettel had none. Are there any comparisons like that in Vettel’s own mind?

“No, not really,” Vettel replied. “First, I think it’s a long time ago and second it’s very different. If you

are talking about frustration, I think it’s maybe here and there the end result that probably is missing. But I think in terms of races we had they could have gone the other way as well, so I think you need to be fair.

“Other races could be different as well so I’m not too worried, but I know that I can obviously have better results.”

Lewis Hamilton, who has won three of last four races, believes that Vettel will bounce back and become a competitive force again.

“I loved competing against Ferrari last year,” Hamilton said. “I wish that the battle in Silverstone was with the Ferraris, it’s different when you’re racing within a team.”

Hamilton’s fight for the lead at the British Grand Prix was with his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas rather than the Ferrari drivers.

“I much prefer it when you’re racing against

Red Bull and Ferrari but currently that’s how it is,” Hamilton said. “I absolutely believe Vettel will rebound.

“He had a difficult race (in Britain) but he’s a fourtime world champion. He will recover; he will redeem himself if he feels he needs to, and he will come back stronger in the next race. That’s what great athletes do.”

The next race is Vettel’s home German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Vettel has 52 F1 victories, but the only win in Germany was in 2013 when he was driving for Red Bull.

duties including that of the permanent starter – a role that Christian Bryll, also the FIA’s F1 logistics manager, has now taken over.

The FIA has yet to make any decisions about the F1 race director post for 2020, but Masi would have to be hot favourite to retain the position.

He is a sharp administrator, having schooled under former Supercars teams body boss Kelvin O’Reilly. Masi was Supercars’ deputy race director under Tim Schenken last year, as well as race director of the Super2 series.

After a series of FIA engagements, he was elevated this year to deputy F1 race director, as well as F2 and F3 race director. Whiting’s sudden death thrust Masi reluctantly into the spotlight.

And he certainly has been in the spotlight in recent races. It was Masi who alerted the stewards to the driving infractions by Vettel in Canada and Daniel Ricciardo in France. The stewards subsequently penalised both drivers, which knocked Vettel out of first place and Ricciardo out of the points.

When Masi sees untoward driver actions on track he ‘flags’ them to the stewards. But Masi said, “The stewards are absolutely entitled to investigate things of their own volition of any way shape or form.”

Masi and the stewards have not become more lenient recently. It is more the case of the drivers now finding out just how far they can push the permissible limits when fighting on track.

DRIVER INPUT ON 2021 FOR THE first time ever the drivers are being asked for serious input into forming a new set of technical regulations.

“In the past the drivers never ran F1,” Nico Hülkenberg said, “and I think they shouldn’t, but we can be listened to.”

Hülkenberg and Lewis Hamilton represented the drivers during a meeting with the FIA and Liberty Media’s Formula 1 group, to hammer out the sweeping changes to the 2021 technical rules package.

“The first meeting that we had was very good and the drivers stood as a group,” said Ross Brawn, Formula 1’s managing director of motorsport. “Drivers come under pressure from their own teams to take a position and that means that they’re just another voice in the same direction.

But when the drivers stand and give us their own views, as a drivers’ group, the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association), that’s really helpful and constructive.”

Hamilton, who often assumes the role of a senior statesman in F1, is upbeat about the drivers’ role in the rules.

“There is not one single individual who has come up with all the ideas,” the fivetime world champion said. “It is going to be a group thing. But what is really encouraging was that the drivers were there, and they (the FIA and Formula 1) really took it on board.

“They weren’t just like, ‘Oh, thanks for coming and saying your words, can you leave now?’ They said we could stay the

whole day. We were able to comment on everything that went on. When they were doing a summary, for example, they really went back to the things that we had commented on. It’s going to be key that we stay a part of that and work with them, hopefully towards a common goal.”

Different drivers will attend upcoming meetings and give their input.

“If there are some crazy ideas, because we drive the cars and know how certain things would impact the driving, the show and the racing, we can say hang on guys this is a bit crazy or too extreme,” Hülkenberg said.

Hamilton and Hülkenberg were aghast when they heard the proposal to raise the minimum weight of the driver and car by 15kg from the current 734kg.

“We are adamant that we don’t want the weight to go up,” Hülkenberg said.

But this is one quest the drivers are likely to lose. The long list of standardised parts proposed for 2021 will increase the car’s weight because the teams will not be able to try to make the parts as light as possible as they do now.

One proposal to make the cars lighter is to bring back refueling during the races. But in the last era of refueling, which ended in 2010, there were fewer overtaking moves on the circuit than now because rather than attacking on track, the drivers would rely on fuel strategy to get ahead. If the goal is to create more passing and improving the show, refueling is not the way to go.

RADICAL RULES FOR 2021 FORMULA 1’s technical regulations will undergo radical changes for 2021. The FIA and Formula 1 have revealed a blueprint of how the sport will achieve closer racing, a more competitive grid and a sustainable future for the pinnacle of motor sport.

The 2021 rules package was supposed to be ratified at the end of June, but as Auto Action reported at that time, the teams agreed along with the FIA and the Liberty Media owned Formula 1 that everything would be postponed until October.

Those rules are now being finalized.

One of the biggest changes is the return of ground effects (used in F1 from the late 1970s until 1982) to create downforce rather than the complex front wings and bargeboards currently used. The latter create a disruptive wake of ‘dirty’ air behind the car, which makes it difficult for the car behind to follow closely. Ground effects use Venturi-type tunnels

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under the car that do not create as much turbulence.

Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s head of Single-Seater Technical Matters, said the 2021 car will go from the current 50 per cent loss of downforce for the following car at two car distances, to about a 5-10 per cent loss.

On the tyre front, wheel rim size in 2021 will be 18 inches compared to the 13 inches used for decades.

Pirelli will create tyres that will enable drivers to race, and don’t degrade or force drivers to manage them so much. “They will need a broader working range and will not be as sensitive as the current tyres,” Tombazis said.

Ideally, the tyre specifications will force drivers to pit twice compared to this season when most races have been ‘one stoppers.’

A serious effort is going into reducing the performance gap between the top teams and the

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mid-pack teams so that the latter occasionally have a shot at winning a race.

There will be a budget cap – a yet to be confirmed US$175m per year per team.

The FIA and Formula 1 propose to simplify a range of car systems and parts in order to reduce cost and allow smaller teams to target resources more effectively. Cost controls will limit the size of teams with the goal to stop the big teams dominating the smaller ones via superior resources.

Work on the 2021 rules continues in the coming months, and the drivers are contributing their suggestions.

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There will be discussion about placing more responsibility for race management in the hands of drivers, via a possible reduction in car electronics, the limiting of driver aids and restrictions around car-to-pit telemetry.

The rules must be in place by the end of October so that the teams can begin designing their radically different 2021 cars.

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F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

TRULY AMAZING A BOMB exploded on the front step of Flavio Briatore’s London home in 1993.

It wasn’t a big one – more to send a warning than blow up a house. One theory was that it was an IRA bomb that had been placed in front of Briatore’s door by mistake.

Other theories centered on some of Briatore’s alleged former shady business dealings, but the case was never solved.

An undeterred Briatore still made the trip up to Enstone that same day, where he chatted in his office with several reporters including me, who had been on a tour of the Benetton F1 factory.

Briatore was then the boss of Benetton Formula, the team that had snapped up Michael Schumacher in 1991, one race after he’d made his F1 debut with Jordan in the Belgian Grand Prix.

A year later Schumacher was back at Spa and won his first F1 race.

By 1993 Schumacher and Benetton were a big deal in F1, and so I went for a tour at the factory located near the village of Enstone, about 100km northwest of London and about 45km southwest of the Silverstone circuit.

Back then the factory, just as it is now, was impressive.

After the tour I compared the place to something you

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Image: Renault Sport

“A bomb exploeded on the front step of Flavio Briatore’s London home in 1993.

An undeterred Briatore still made the trip up to Enstone that same day” would find at NASA. And, indeed, that factory turned out drivers’ world championship winning teams for Schumacher in 1994 and ‘95, and it won the ’95 constructors’ title as well.

About 180 people worked at Enstone in 1993.

In 2019, Renault gave me, representing Auto Action, an

exclusive tour of the Enstone factory on the Wednesday prior to the British Grand Prix weekend.

Boy has the place changed!

Today it is a sprawling campus that employs over 700 people.

What hasn’t changed is the access via narrow, twisting tree-lined country lanes. There is not even a sign directing

you to “Renault F1” where you have to turn off one lane onto an even narrower one.

And then, suddenly, this F1 factory pops up in the middle of nowhere.

Back in Schumacher’s time the aim at Benetton was to get the right people in place, the right structure in place, and the right drivers in place. The same is true today as Renault’s rebuilding programme included hiring Daniel Ricciardo.

“Danny was a big investment but it shows our commitment,” a senior team member told me, “but it also shows that a world-class driver switching to a car that at the moment is slower than the Red Bull. He would not have done that if he did not believe in the project.

Nor would other employees.

We all know it is a hard, hard job and a long, long journey.”

Much of the factory expansion has happened in the last three years.

Ricciardo says there was even a noticeable difference during the weeks he spent in Australia, during the offseason break.

Along with its crew at Enstone, Renault has over 400 people working at its engine base near Paris. So that

means over 1100 people are employed to create and build two F1 cars (and a couple of spares) for Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg, to race 21 times this year. A far cry from the 180 (plus the additional engine staff) required in 1993.

But also still nowhere close to Mercedes, which now has a total of nearly 2000 people in its two factories.

I don’t recall how many transporters Benetton needed to move its team to the tracks around Europe in 1993, but it would have been a mere few. In 2019, it takes 17 transporters to haul 37 tonnes of equipment (including everything needed to construct the huge hospitality unit in the paddock) to each race.

It takes a lot more to win in F1 these days. Renault has realised this and the team is ramping up. The overall level of technology and computer power in F1 these days is remarkable.

And speaking of NASA, July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon in 1969.

Now that was something truly amazing, especially considering the rudimentary technology of the time.

OPINION

By BRUCE NEWTON Special Correspondent

CLIMATE CHANGE has delivered us one small positive. An actionpacked wet race at Townsville reminded us that Supercars racing can be great.

It was as if the racing gods had had enough of Scott McLaughlin’s incredible domination and decided to really mix it up.

It’s not hard to have mixed feelings about McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske’s recordbusting charge. On one hand it’s brilliant – a great driver and team doing extraordinary things. At the same time, the lack of variety been stultifying.

You can console yourself knowing it’s all happened before.

Glenn Seton and Alan Jones still roll through my 1993 memories running 1-2 in their blue Falcons.

Craig Lowndes crushed everyone in 1996. Jamie Whincup did the same for about 10 years in a row, it felt like. Now, it’s McLaughlin’s turn.

The trouble is the procession at the front is being reflected through the field. The racing – Townsville aside – hasn’t been much of a spectacle.

Again, this is not new news.

Through the decades there have been stellar races, gripping moments and some immense title fights, none more epic than 2017 when it went right to the last lap between DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight Race Engineering.

But much more common than those moments of excitement and exhilaration have been a lot of straight forward races. Yes, processional even. Cars separated by tenths on the grid have strung out during races into gaps numbered in seconds.

For years the line about Supercars being the toughest, tightest touring car racing on earth has been stated as if it were an immutable fact.

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It’s simply not true. Epic dices where drivers swap and re-swap position just don’t happen that often in Supercars. That’s why everyone still reminisces about the van Gisbergen versus Mostert fight at Townsville a few years ago. It’s a rarity.

It’s understandable drivers emerge at the end of a race with a different view. They’ve wrestled difficult, powerful cars for at least 120 km (Albert Park excepted) on the limit on degrading tyres knowing a mistake will cost them hard-won and rarely changed positions.

From the stands it looks less impressive. Yes, the cars are big, loud, gaudy and fast, but they are not banging doors, passing and repassing, four or five of them arguing for a position.

Trouble is, there is racing like that in Australia this year. It’s called TCR and it’s placed some of the inadequacies of Supercars in a harsh, clear light. It’s a lot easier to convince yourself you’re doing great when you are the only show in town. Harder when someone else is banging the drum nearby.

Yes, TCR is in its infancy in this country. No, it’s not a direct rival

for Supercars - the cars lack the same visceral drama and menace.

But it is a touring car formula where good drivers and quality cars are turning on an entertaining show.

TCR cars can run closer than Supercars because they have little aero, sticky tyres and relatively even performance. The races are short and sharp with no reason to conserve.

In Supercars, it’s evolved differently. The races are longer and more calculating; tyre degradation and pit stops are the primary triggers for overtaking. Races are an exercise in risk limitation.

Qualifying is a huge influence on results. Drive to a number, don’t take risks, there’s too much at stake.

But that’s what happens when professional race teams do their job properly. They are racing within the circumstances that have been delivered through 26 years evolution of a unique racing formula. They are focussed on being fast and efficient, not frantic and spectacular.

There’s a bit of Formula 1 about it all. And just like F1, there is an A and B division in Supercars.

Trouble is, in 2019 there’s only two cars consistently in Group A in Supercars and that’s just too few.

That lack of diversity up front creates tensions in pit lane that make it a miserable place to be.

Turning up as a team knowing you can’t hope to compete for the win is soul destroying.

Overlaying all that are the money issues that are affecting so many teams and prompting a whirlwind of talks about an even smaller grid in 2020.

DJRTP has the money, the talent, the power, the car and therefore the wins. The power balance has swung hard and quickly. It was only 2016 that there were 10 different winners in the first 12 races.

Credit to Supercars, which has clearly recognised something has to be done to redress the balance. There have been a series of initiatives intended to negate the advantage of the rich teams and stir up the mix. More are coming, including reduced aero for 2020.

It needs to work. Hoping for rain isn’t much of a strategy.

Auto Action’s big mid-season Supercars review begins on the next page.

Photographers Australia Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde International LAT Images

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We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1979: IT WAS a smiling Alan Jones that took the flag at Hockenheim ahead of teammate Clay Regazzoni, giving Williams its first one-two finish.

This placed Jones seventh in the points as Jody Scheckter continued to lead the world title chase ahead of Jacques Laffite and Gilles Villeneuve.

In local news, Bob Morris defeated the mighty Holden Dealer Team to win the Australian Touring Car Championship, clinching the title at the Adelaide International Raceway finale.

11999: THE CALDER Park round of V8 S Supercars was a dramatic one. Craig LLowndes had a wild ride, rolling numerous ttimes along the front straight fence and in injuring his knee. It put his title aspirations in danger, but also demonstrated how ssafe these cars were. Formula Ford driver JJustin Cotter also suffered injuries after vvaulting up a bank, in what was a dramatic meeting. m

1989: HOLDEN’S MOTOR sport leader Tom Walkinshaw declared the manufacturers’ new Group A car, based on the VN Commodore, as ‘no chance’ against the Ford Sierra Cosworth and Nissan’s new GT-R. This came as CAMS were assessing a change in the Group A regulations, a plan that reverted back to pre1988 weight and wheel widths. Other changes included including Bathurst and the Australian Grand Prix into the touring car championship, a decision that proved controversial.

22009: WERE TRIPLE Eight headed to Holden? At least the drivers were sorted, both Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup had signed deals until the end of 2012.

Hot off his debut Formula 1 win, Mark Webber was closing in on Brawn driver Jenson Button for the title after taking his sixth podium of the season. Another Aussie overseas, Will Power, won his first IndyCar race at Rexall Speedway in Edmonton.

No part of this magazine’s content may be reproduced, retransmitted or rebroadcast without the express written permission of the Publisher and Action Media Partners.

Printed by Fairfax Media Distributed by Gordon & Gotch

Cover images: Tim Pattinson Design; Ross Gibb; LAT

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19

AT LAST! LOWNDES SPEAKS HIS MIND Supercars star turned high-profile pundit CRAIG LOWNDES tells Mark Fogarty how his rookie season on TV is going and delivers his expert verdict on the championship so far Images: LAT & Ross Gibb

How has your transition from fulltime driver to TV pundit gone?

To be honest, it’s improving every round. I think at the beginning of the season at Adelaide I was probably a little bit rusty in the sense of understanding the process and it was a bit of a whirlwind for me to get my head around the TV world.

There were also a couple of things emotionally, I suppose. Skaife said that you’ll know if you’ve made the right decision to retire if when you watch the cars roll out of pit lane that you don’t have that little bug in your stomach saying you want to be in one. So that was the first hurdle and to be honest, I didn’t have that bug to be inside a race car at that time. So I think that the decision to step out as a full-time driver was the right time for me. But then, obviously, the TV world, as I said, was a bit of a whirlwind to understand the process and how it all operates. To be honest, the biggest thing for me was learning which camera to look at because there are three set up, So, yeah, it was a bit of a steep learning curve, but as the rounds have gone on, I feel like I’ve become more comfortable in that space.

Are you enjoying being on the other side of the action?

I am. The way that I describe it is that when you’re a full-time race driver, you become a bit of a politician because you obviously don’t want to answer the questions that get thrown at you from journos or even the commentary team. But now being on the other side, it means you can open up a little more and have an opinion on what’s going on. And, really, for me, while I’m still contracted to Red Bull Holden Racing Team, I said that I will call the incidents or accidents as I see them, regardless of whether they include Jamie or Shane or anyone else. I want to be open and honest and have my opinion on what goes on. So it’s been a bit of a difference for me to read the play, but also to get the information – running up and

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down pit lane, seeing what’s going on in the garages and understanding from a driver’s perspective what goes on inside the race car when you’re watching the footage as the races go on. I do my homework and make notes, so it has been a very different season so far for me.

As you mentioned, you’re a lot less restrained now, which shows in the level of insight you’re now able to provide.

As a full-time driver, you’re representing a race team and I suppose their philosophies add the key points that you need to get across regardless of the questions being thrown at you. Hence why I say you come out with that politician style of answering questions. Now you can be a bit more open-minded and opinionated on what goes on, and whether people like that or don’t like that, that’s my opinion. Nathan Prendergast (Supercars TV boss) and his team, as well as James Harrison from Fox Sports, have been really good with feeding me advice on what my role is – and my role for them is to have an opinion as a former full-time driver and try to relate that back to the fans. And as rounds have gone on, I think that’s something I’ve been able to elaborate better. I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of support around that and polish up more of that side of me in the TV sense.

What have you made of the season so far?

Well, I think the first thing is the Mustang has come out and proven to be a race-winner right from the start and that really hasn’t changed too much, even though the category’s made adjustments to the aero as well as the centre of gravity. I think Scotty McLaughlin has definitely lifted as a driver. He’s matured and he’s found ways of making him as a driver better than he was last year, and I think there’s no doubt he has the right ingredients around him in terms of the engineers and the team that he

Craig Lowndes has surprised this season, voicing considered opinion on the Fox Sports Supercars coverage.

needs. So that for me has been quite impressive to see. The surprise is that Red Bull HRT took so long to get another race victory (at Townsville).

We’ve made comments during the year that on occasion you’ve had a Todd Hazelwood or even a Mark Winterbottom out-perform them, which for a factory team is not good enough and Triple Eight have been working really hard to close that gap. My pre-season championship prediction was David Reynolds and I think he’s performed very well, sitting third in the championship. So there’s lots been going on in this first half of the season and I think there’ll be a lot of excitement in the second half of the season.

What’s the problem at Triple Eight? What do you make of their struggles?

I’m not in there every day any more, but I do still go in there and, for me, on the commentating side of it, I

think they’ve spent eight or nine years developing the twin spring and everything that makes that twin spring work – so the uprights, the geometry and everything else – and reverting to the linear spring has definitely made them struggle more this year. When I was there full-time, all the focus was on the twin spring. It was very rare that we ever ran a linear spring in those eight odd years, so after having that long a time perfecting it and then to go back to square one, I think that’s taken a while to get their heads around it. I know that they’re working very hard on upgrades and changes to the suspension to make the most out of the old-school linear spring. Having customer cars like Winterbottom’s and Hazelwood’s has helped in some way, but I know Mark Dutton (RBHRT team manager) has said that not having a third car within Triple Eight has also hurt them, particularly controlling the set-up of the cars before they hit the track.

They’re still searching for a solution;

Craig’s

LIST Lowndes rates his Top 10 performers 1 Scott McLaughlin

Scotty’s performed consistently extremely well, transferring so many poles into dominant race wins. There’s no doubt that he’s the outstanding driver of the series so far.

2 David Reynolds He’s been the best of the Holden family, consistently scoring points every round.

3 Fabian Coulthard Same car as Scotty, a little bit inconsistent, but still a strong second in the championship.

4 Chaz Mostert Chaz has done a fantastic job so far, but consistency has also been his weakness.

5 Anton de Pasquale He’s really stepped up to the mark to lift the Erebus team as a whole.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a year where the team has done so many changes at a racetrack. Normally, the cars come out 90 per cent right, and they just finesse them and go on to win pole positions and races. They’re still not in a happy place – they’re still looking for that set-up where they can roll the cars out and be competitive every weekend.

closed the gap. The one thing that they haven’t done yet is be consistent. One weekend Shane will be fast, next weekend Jamie will be fast. They are at the stage where they have the performance to match DJR Team Penske, but it’s just a matter of delivering it consistently at every round.

They’re still searching for that consistent baseline.

also shown good speed, but trying to get that qualifying set-up has been his Achilles heel. Hopefully, though, from what we saw at Townsville, they’ve turned a corner.

As a whole group, Tickford are performing better than they did last year.

Do you see it changing over the course of the second half of the season? Are Triple Eight going to start taking the fight right up to DJR Team Penske?

And what do you make of Tickford so far? Are they performing as they should?

I’d have to say Anton (de Pasquale). We’ve made comments throughout the year that it’s great to see Anton taking it to Dave Reynolds. Dave is obviously the star driver at Erebus, but it’s great to see Anton lifting the bar and showing that he’s not just there to make up the numbers. I actually said on TV that’s great for a team because you need the two drivers to be pushing the limits against each other and also the team to be faster and stronger. Anton is a great element in that outfit.

Yes, I think so. There’s no doubt they’ve progressed and moved forward and closed that performance gap since the start of the season. I know that the Mustang has a bit of a trim with the aero and the centre of gravity change, but on sheer performance, I definitely think Tripe Eight has

I’ve been very impressed with Chaz Mostert, but he’s also been inconsistent, up and down. He’s shown he has the performance and the car to match Scotty and DJR Team Penske when they get it right, but they’ve been too up and down. It’s great seeing Lee (Holdsworth) making headway.

He looks be in a much happier place than where he was. Lee’s

Who’s surprised you the most so far this year?

6 Jamie Whincup After much thought, Jamie because he’s shown good speed on occasion, but the team just haven’t got that set-up baseline yet.

7 Todd Hazelwood Todd has lifted so much this year and over-achieved immensely by making Top 10 Shootouts in Adelaide and Townsville – and for that one-car team, it’s been really impressive.

8 Shane van Gisbergen Same as Jamie. Trying to find that baseline to roll the car out every weekend with good speed. When he does, like the second race at Townsville, he’s absolutely amazing.

9 Lee Holdsworth Qualifying has been his downfall, but his race speed and racecraft have been exceptional.

10 Cam Waters Tough one. I was thinking Frosty, but Cam has shown great speed and his consistency has been better.

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21

CORONATION

CHICKEN MARK FOGARTY on why Super Mac is serving up a title-winning dish of dominance

AFTER A half-season domination rarely seen, Scott McLaughlin has his second straight title in the bag.

Seriously, short of a total collapse, McLaughlin cannot lose it from here.

For the first time in many years, the championship will be over well before we get to the final round.

I’m betting he’ll be crowned by the Gold Coast 600. If he wins the Bathurst 1000, it’s all over then.

Bathurst is the one race that’s unpredictable.

McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske must be hot favourites, but anything can happen at Mount Panorama, as we all know. And hope.

Scotty and the Shell V-Power Racing Mustang were always going to be the combination to beat. Don’t know why there was such an outcry. During the aero tests of the ‘Mutant Mustang’, it

was clear there was trouble ahead.

Supercars did too little, too late. The new technical regime has been trying to put the genie back in the bottle, which you can’t do.

So the runaway continues. Erebus Motorsport, Tickford Racing and Triple Eight, pretty much in that order, are fighting for the leftovers.

In isolation, David Reynolds, Chaz Mostert, Shane van Gisbergen – the only non-Mustang race winner with two victories – and Jamie Whincup have excelled. But against McLaughlin and a rejuvenated Fabian Coulthard, they’re almost bit players.

Whincup winless 18 races into the season. Who would have thunk it?

Aligned with the Mustangs’ domination has been Supercars’ reluctance to be transparent about parity adjustments.

We busted them about the DJRTP

Mustang’s heavyweight mufflers, which led to the centre of gravity tests.

Just like we called them out over the suppression of last year’s drop gear scandal.

Secretly introducing aero tweaks for the ZB Commodore at Darwin was the last straw for fans. They were outraged – and rightly so.

It seems Supercars may have finally learned that suppression of information doesn’t work because following Townsville – ironically, the best race of the season so far – it announced further CoG adjustments.

Supercars’ reluctance to keep the media informed – which really means telling the fans – has been the most unsavoury aspect of the championship so far this year.

One other thing. I’m not happy about McLaughlin’s prickly attitude this year.

He’s been defensive – and dismissive – with the media over perceived slights about his winning streak.

At a media conference in Perth, he watched a Western Bulldogs AFL game on his phone, barely acknowledging the assembled scribes. Very disrespectful.

Complaints were lodged and he didn’t do that again.

But, still, niggle between he and the media remains. He blames us for suggestions he’s dominating because he’s in a rocketship. We didn’t say that.

His rivals might be sledging him on that basis, but not us.

Mate, chillax. You’re the best driver in the best car run by the best team. Rejoice. Go back to being the personality plus Scotty that could make you the new Craig Lowndes.

And get ready for your early coronation as Supercars king again.

The Foges

RANKINGS

Sage scribe’s half-season top 10 – and why

1 Scott McLaughlin

5 Fabian Coulthard

9 Todd Hazelwood

2 Jamie Whincup

6 Shane van Gisbergen

10 Will Davison

3 David Reynolds

7 Mark Winterbottom

Just missed – Nick Percat

4 Chaz Mostert

8 Anton de Pasquale

Best driver, best car, best team Wrings performance from a recalcitrant car Underdog over-achiever

Ace in need of a champion chariot

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The best wingman out there

Fast but flummoxed Right guy, wrong alliance

Future superstar – the kid is quick!

Speed on the smell of an oily rag Still got it, defying Tickford fourth car curse

Hard-charger with knack for finding trouble

RIANA’S REPORT CA RD

Supercars TV pit lan e reporter RIANA CRE HAN nominates her stan douts and slackers in a ha rdmarking mid-year appraisal

WHO’S HOT SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN

IT SEEMS too predictable to put him at the top, but can it really be avoided? 13 wins, 11 pole positions – geez, we all questioned what went wrong when he failed to qualify on the front row in Townsville. But for me, it’s not just his results on track. He is giving us so much more this year off track. So much more of himself. He is relaxed. He hasn’t been totally ‘Pensked’. He is having a dip on Twitter, cracking jokes in interviews, getting controversial about the parity war and not afraid to speak his mind or stand his ground. I’m enjoying it and I know the fans are, too. Yes, his on-track stuff right now is pretty damn impressive in a team that is probably the best we have ever seen, but he is mostly still just Scotty, which is great for the sport.

EREBUS

TOWARDS THE end of last year, it was quite obvious Erebus was going to be a serious title threat in 2019. As I have said many times, I believe Alistair McVean is one of the best engineers in the pit lane, and he and Dave have both found their happy place. Dave can be Dave and Al can develop quietly in the background.

I certainly think Dave has benefited from Anton de Pasquale’s qualifying speed, but both guys have been let down on numerous occasions in the pit stops, which has been well documented. I think at times the team may have been distracted by the parity debate and sometimes these issues may have taken the focus off the task at hand.

There’s no point worrying about things outside of your control.

TICKFORD TURNAROUND

SOME MAY say it’s all about Mustangs and parity, but if you read beyond the headlines, you will understand there is much more to extracting gains in this game than just having fast Fords. So credit where it is due to Tickford Racing.

This time last year, Tickford was facing some pretty dark days.

They had one podium to their name and their best car sat ninth in the championship. A year later, Mostert and Waters have scored seven and five podiums (including a win for Chaz) and two and one poles respectively, and all four cars are inside the top 10 in the championship. Tickford is still to break through that next bracket and faces the possibility of losing one, if not two, of their greatest assets (Mostert and maybe his race engineer Adam De Borre), but the team has definitely stepped up again.

finis finish. And once again as we nea near the end of the Pirtek Pitstop Cha Challenge, BJR sits atop the lead board with the # 8 and leader #14 car crews. Percat has said c his car’s weakness has been qual qualifying trim, but time and time agai through incredible work in again the sstops, BJR seem to come out on top. Given it’s so close that finding a half a tenth of a second is akin to redesigning the car, ‘free time’ in a stop is critical. Well done, boys and girls.

WILL WE ever forget the moment last year when Brad Jones awkwardly tried to take the winners’ cheque from Roger Penske during the Pit Stop Challenge Grand Final? Granted, it was a close

in the interest of competition, but the way it has played out over the last few months has been really, really crappy. It’s been handled less then ideally by multiple parties within the industry and created a lot of negativity surrounding certain people and drivers within the sport.

It has cast doubt on people’s suc success, questioned people’s jobs and created an issue that has take away from the entertainment. taken We finally have excitement from a new car, manufacturers investing mon and new fans. I just wish we money didn have the dirty big elephant in didn’t r the room.

KELLY RACING

RICHIE STANAWAY RIC

TODD HAZELWOOD

ANYONE WHO holds sausage sizzles to help fund their racing is all right in my book. Todd is also a genuinely good person. He would have to be one of the politest guys in the lane and his qualifying performances this year have been quite impressive. On at least five occasions so far this year he has out-qualified a Triple 8 car and in Townsville he out-qualified both T8 cars. Given the huge disparity in operations, experience and budgets, it’s a bloody solid effort.

Snags for everyone on Todd!

WHO’S NOT

W WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED U

BJR PIT STOPS

eggs – and money, resources, hopes, dreams, and prayers – into the 2020 Chaz Mostert basket is most likely and they will just ride this fairly average effort home, maybe picking up some facesaving enduro results as they have in the past.

W WAU’S DRIVERS are 13th and 16th in the championship, with 16 only two top five results so far on this season. It’s certainly nothing th to be celebrating given the high expectations in the second season ex of the Anglo-American partnership.

WAU has a very strong engine W package and strategically does very well, but remains bereft of results so far this year. Changes have been made internally, but maybe it’s a big driver change that’s needed? Putting all their

THE NISSANS are a dying breed.

Not yet extinct, but definitely endangered. Efforts are being made to hang onto them, but for how long? Kelly Racing really has been hurt quite badly from an aero adjustment earlier this year, which has left them with a pretty narrow set-up window. They often have one car near the top 10, but it’s very sporadic and the feedback from the drivers is that it’s very difficult to extract speed and therefore results in them overdriving. There are loads of question marks: Budget? What happens to Simona? Does Rick continue?

Do they reduce to two cars? But with the best Altima 15th in the championship halfway through the ‘school year’, that’s a report card I would be hiding from the parents.

PARITY

I HAVE a lot of compassion and empathy for Richie. He has copped a lot of flak from fans, other drivers and people within the industry for his somewhat polarising attitude to the way he goes about things.

However, his skill in a race car shouldn’t be questioned. GRM clearly has lost a bit of direction without Garth Tander’s experience in the car and neither of the boys have delivered until James Golding grabbed a great seventh (backed up by Stanaway stand-in Michael Caruso in ninth) in the Sunday race at Townsville. The fact that Richie’s neck injury is threatening not only his drive for the rest of the year, but potentially his Supercars career, is mentally very damaging. I truly hope he can bounce back from this and has the support to return and show what he can really do.

PARITY, COG, aero and any other debate that involves too many numbers and initials are boring and terrible for the sport.

And to be honest, unless you’re an aerodynamicist or physicist, you really don’t get it. Yes, I understand it needs to be done

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WINNERS & LOSERS HEATH McALPINE details the highs and lows of the season so far

MUSTANG DEBUTS

THE ANTICIPATION surrounding the Ford Mustang was at fever pitch by the time the Supercars arrived on the streets of Adelaide.

The debut for the Mustang was special not only because it was the first new Ford Supercar for some time, but because of the way Ford celebrated the momentous occasion.

Ford acknowledged champions Dick Johnson and Marcos Ambrose by allowing them to parade the Supercars and NASCAR versions of the Mustang around the Adelaide Parklands circuit. Not only that, but Ford also threw back to Johnson’s history with the Mustang in the 1980s by also bringing the Green’s Tuff Fox-Body example that won the Grand Prix support race in 1985. The car’s only victory.

All that was left to do was for Scott McLaughlin to take victory, which he dually did completing a dominant performance after taking pole position. It was a sign of things to come. McLaughlin’s debut Mustang win kicked off a streak of seven victories split between the current championship leader and Chaz Mostert. That’s all before Holden took a single chequered flag.

Another streak of nine split between McLaughlin and teammate Fabian Coulthard was just broken by Shane van Gisbergen’s second victory of the year at Townsville.

Between DJR Team Penske, Ford Performance and Ford Australia, all should be commended for the deal that was done considering Ford’s history in Australian motor sport.

NEW FACES ON THE ROSTRUM

IN THE midst of the DJR Team Penske dominance up front, Phillip Island threw a welcome surprise away from the norm. Andre Heimgartner’s qualifying pace has been Kelly Racing’s constant highlight at each round, but at The Island he started fourth and had to fight teammate Rick Kelly for the final podium position.

The battle was willing, but the Kiwi won out to take his first solo podium and so far this season, Nissan’s only one of the year.

Sunday followed the same narrative, except with a new face. Potential is one thing, following through on it is another and Anton De Pasquale has so far impressed in his Supercars career without having the results on the board.

This, however changed at Phillip Island when he converted fourth to third in a race that provided late drama for the second-year driver. A sensor failure meant his Erebus Commodore was using more fuel than it should, leading to worried faces in pit lane. He held off Will Davison to take a popular maiden podium.

SUPERNIGHT GOES WEST

AFTER LAST year’s successful activation of the SuperNight concept at Sydney Motorsport Park, it moved across to a newly resurfaced Barbagallo Raceway, this time for two races

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replicating the regular SuperSprint format.

As most did last year, the teams continued to get around the concept and spectacle by adding neons and glow in the dark liveries, even the Mustangs featured lit up badges.

Being shown on primetime television also opened the category up to a new audience, while the build up to the race was reminiscent of an American football game with driver introductions and the like.

The SuperNight concept will be extended in next year’s schedule with fans flocking to these events, the racing is good and the entertainment factor is clear to see. It continues to be a major positive for Supercars amidst uncertainty of field size and the frequent parity adjustments.

WAU’s year has been less than successful -team planning big changes for 2020.

CAMPBELLFIELD’S RESURGENCE

TICKFORD RACING’S 2018 season was disastrous. As a team it failed to gel after a promising 2017 that had three cars placed in the top 10 in the end of year standings, a Sandown 500 win and a title contender in the form of Chaz Mostert.

Last year’s results bore just one win for Mostert and James Moffat on the Gold Coast, while new recruit Richie Stanaway had a stinker, with the Kiwi leaving at the end of the season with some choice words towards the former factory Ford team.

Another to struggle was Cam Waters, who after finishing eighth in 2017 dropped to 16th the following year. However, this year Waters and Tickford’s fortunes have both had an aligned upward trajectory alongside the introduction of the Mustang.

The introduction of experienced heads Lee Holdsworth and the 23Red team with Will Davison has also aided with the teams’ change of fortune, each are a common feature in the top 10 now.

Noise about Mostert’s future hasn’t affected his on-track performance as he is the only other driver outside of DJR Team Penske and the Red Bull Holden Racing Team to take a race win (or a couple in fact).

PARITY DEBATE

THE CONTINUED Mustang parity debate has been a lowlight of this year’s Supercars Championship. Even though it hasn’t affected the result, the continued wrangling has marred the title fight and caused considerable unrest within the Supercars paddock.

The first of these changes were to the Centre of Gravity with both the Mustang and Commodore placing 27kg and 6.8kg respectively to the rooves. Then this was followed by aero changes ahead of the Perth SuperNight, where the rear wing end plates were reduced in size, the gurney flap was reduced in height and the length of the undertray trimmed.

Further aerodynamic changes were made to the Commodore, without it being announced.

It was left to the team bosses at their first press conference to answer the questions and confirm the adjustment.

Again, another change to the CoG is

scheduled ahead of Queensland Raceway with the ballast being totally removed from the Commodore and 9kg from the Mustang, but composite roof beams will be replaced by steel examples.

Will the latest range of panels make a change? It remains to be seen, but Supercars made a critical mistake with the Mustang in its parity testing at the end of last year.

Its dominance is reminiscent of the VT Commodore when it went through its season of winning in 1999, but Ford caught up with AU. Can Holden catch up with the Mustang? It probably will, but not this year.

DOWNTURN OF HOLDEN

THE ZB Commodore made a significant impact on Supercars competition in 2018, clean-sweeping the Adelaide weekend and introducing composites. But this year it has been trounced by the Mustang.

Whether it’s the good work by Ford Performance in exploiting the rules to the fullest or that the Holden teams that have gone backwards, the lack of competitiveness of the Commodore is clear to see.

Erebus Motorsport has held the flag high for the brand at most events this year, whereas RBHRT has struggled to maintain frontrunning pace as the transition to a linearspring set-up had the team chasing its tail.

These teams appear to be back to the frontrunning pace each demonstrated on a consistent basis last season, however one squad that appears to be the biggest loser is Walkinshaw Andretti United. Remember, Scott Pye won in appalling conditions at Albert Park and consistently towelled up his teammate on numerous occasions in 2018.

But this year has been less than successful for Pye, he currently sits 16th in the championship with a best finish of sixth.

Courtney is doing marginally better, 13th, but the pair have failed so far to appear on the podium, the elder statesman narrowly missing out at Winton.

The question remains, can WAU turn its form slump around?

INJURED KIWI

AFTER SPLASHING onto the scene in 2017 through a Sandown 500 victory and a starring role at Bathurst, Richie Stanaway has experienced a rough introduction to full-time driving.

Caught up in Tickford’s loss of form, the internationally experienced Kiwi finished the 2018 season in 25th position – or second last of the regular runners – then he left citing the team’s lack of performance for his poor results.

A move to Garry Rogers Motorsport this year surprised many as he ousted long-time team driver Garth Tander. However, the move has proven to be less successful than hoped. After Barbagallo round he sat 21st in the points, then an incident during testing brought about a recurrence of a previous neck injury.

It flared up again during Race 13 at Winton and Stanaway was forced to withdraw from the following day’s racing. He has since continued to struggle with the injury and hasn’t been behind the wheel, leaving Pirtek Endurance co-driver Chris Pither and Michael Caruso to drive the car.

The date of his return is unknown, but despite the injury it has been a disappointing 18 months for the former GP2 race winner.

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SCOTT McLAUGHLIN FABIAN COULTHARD SHANE VAN GISBERGEN CHAZ MOSTERT

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ROUNDS TO COME

9 Ipswich SuperSprint Queensland Raceway

July 27-28

10 The Bend SuperSprint The Bend Motorsport Park

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14 Sandown 500 Sandown Raceway 15 Newcastle 500 Newcastle Street Circuit

November 9-10 November 23-24

HITS & MISSES

BRUCE NEWTON on the winners and losers so far

TOP 5 HITS FORD MUSTANG

HOLDEN AND RED BULL Staying for two more years is big news.

Greatest Supercar ever?

Attracted huge new interest in the series.

TOP 5 MISSES

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN

FORD MUSTANG

Driver in top form exploiting a great car backed up by a terrific team.

What the hell went on during its homologation?

GARRY ROGERS MOTORSPORT

Collapse in form coincides with bad decision to eject Garth Tander.

TEKNO/LE BROCQ BUST-UP

Ugly – hard to believe team won Bathurst in 2016.

OFF-HANDED HOLDEN/RED BULL RENEWAL Just plain weird.

STRESS OF STAYING ON THE GRID

Somehow, being competitive in Supercars must become more affordable.

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FABIAN COULTHARD

Great fightback in 2019 to secure his future.

EREBUS MOTORSPORT

Consistent front-runners, often ahead of the factory Holden team.

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F O S E N E C S E BEHIND TH

S ’ O D R A I C C I R M A E T T RENAUL

Renault gave Auto Action’s DAN KNUTSON an exclusive tour of its F1 factory to reveal the work being done to get back to the front YOU CAN’T get there from here.

When Renault bought its Formula 1 team back from Lotus at the end of 2015, it knew it was a case of “you can’t get there from here.”

Or, in other words, there was no way that Renault was going to challenge for wins and championships with the factory and number of personnel it had acquired from Lotus.

The Renault F1 Team, its official name, is now just over halfway through its six-year plan to rebuild into a world championship contender – plans that included hiring a proven F1 race winner: Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo.

To go back to the beginning: Renault entered F1 as a constructor of both chassis and engine in 1977 and continued until 1985. It then returned as a manufacturer team in 2000 when it bought the Enstone-based Benetton Formula team, which used to be Toleman.

It won the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso.

Starting in 2012, the team then began to morph into the Lotus F1 Team (no relation to the original Lotus) which owned and ran the operation through to 2015.

But Lotus lacked the funding to do

26 AutoAction

things right. Key people like technical director James Allison left, as did a number of other employees. The factory didn’t get the updates it needed.

When Renault once again assumed control of the depleted team in 2016, it knew it would require a lot of investment, finessing and time to rebuild it back into a winning outfit.

As with professional motor racing teams the world over, a simulator is an important part of car and driver development.

So Renault laid out its six-year plan.

All of this involves the chassis side of things. By contrast, Renault’s engine programme, for both itself and customer teams, has been running almost nonstop for over 40 years.

Today more than 700 people work at the team’s base in

EXCL USIV E

Typical of the very best teams, Renault F1’s race bays are immaculate (above). CNC machines are used to produce metal components from solid billets (below left) as a key part of the manufacturing process, but more traditional engineering is evident on things like the hydraulics (right). An Autoclave cures carbon fibre components such as the chassis (below right).

Enstone, Great Britain. Everything E e except the power unit is done or lo located at the Enstone works: the c chassis, wind tunnel, gearbox, race te team, transporters, etc.

O Over 400 people now work at the fa factory in Viry-Châtillon, just south of Pa Paris, where the power unit is created an and built.

IN HOUSE

MO MORE THAN 80 per cent of the Ren Renault car is designed and built in hou house. Over 170 people work in the des design office, where they are split into grou groups concentrating on different areas of th the car. No one single development woul would bring a second a lap of speed to the car, so they are seeking marginal gains of a tenth here and a tenth there.

The There are many more departments and a areas ranging from the “race bays” where the mechanics work on the cars betwe between races; the department creating the high-tech high-cost steering wheels; the manufacturing department where they make the metal components such as the radiators and intercoolers (11 per car) and the exhaust pipe systems; and the driving simulator.

Here is a more detailed look at some of the other departments.

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

ALSO KNOWN as 3D printing, additive manufacturing is the process of building parts by joining material layer by layer from a CAD file. It is now being used more and more by the F1 teams.

Usually when manufacturing a part the procedure is to start with a block

of material and remove material. In 3D printing you start with nothing, and the laser micro welds the molecules and builds them up layer by layer in metal or plastic. One machine can create multiple parts at the same time.

There is a sharp contrast between the additive manufacturing room and the machine manufacturing shop. The latter is noisy, smells of metal shavings and oil, and requires multiple people to operate the machines that create one part at

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Renault F1’s wind tunnel has a rolling road floor to simulate real-world racing conditions.

a time. The former is quiet, odor free, and needs just two people to operate five machines.

At present, few additive manufactured parts are used on the car itself, but where the process is really beneficial is building multiple experimental shapes of parts, some of which could never be created with normal machining, to be tested in the wind tunnel.

AERODYNAMICS

THE MAIN differentiator of car performance in F1 is aerodynamics.

Yes, the power unit plays a role, but consider that while Mercedes and Williams both use Mercedes engines, the latter is three seconds a lap slower.

The basic idea is controlling the airflow around and beneath the car to create maximum downforce, but with the least amount of drag. About 20 per cent downforce is generated by the front wing and 25 per cent at the rear wing, so lots of work goes into the floor which creates the rest of the downforce by sucking the car to the track using Bernoulli’s Principle.

Over 100 people work in the aero department, and it’s where most of the team’s budget is spent.

The wind tunnel, recently updated, can take models up to 60 per cent size of a real car, which is the maximum permitted by the regulations. It has a rolling road, of course, and is a technical masterpiece. Using something like a treadmill material would not work because the suction of the car’s floor would distort it. So, to create something exactly like an unyielding

28 AutoAction

track surface, it is computercontrolled so that it is always exactly the same distance to the car.

To create a new front wing, for example, the process goes like this.

The designers will come up with three concepts on the computer drawing board, two of which will be approved. Those two concepts will then be tested using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in Renault’s super computer.

Housed below ground to help keep it cool, the computer was one of the most 100 powerful computers in the world about 10 years ago.

The worlds of computers and F1 have moved on massively since in the past decade, so now the FIA regulates how much computer power and hours a team can use.

But they can also do a tradeoff split of time between using the wind tunnel and CFD. After the CFD checks, the most

promising front wing concept will be 3D printed, and then that model will be tested in the wind tunnel. Only the best of the best wind tunnel models will then be made into a full-size front wing, which will then be tried out by the drivers during the Friday practice sessions on a grand prix weekend.

All in all, 600 new components are tested in the wind tunnel every week!

gowns, and there is a day and a night shift.

RACE CONTROL OPS ROOM ONCE THE car is built it is time for it to race. Regulations limit teams to 60

COMPOSITE CLEAN ROOM

MANY COMPONENTS on today’s F1 cars – from the monocoque to suspension pieces – are made of carbon fibre. While carbon fibre is three times lighter and five times stiffer than aluminum, it is also an expensive material and labour intensive.

The parts are painstakingly built up in Renault’s composite laminating clean room. Newly renovated and now 2.5 times larger than it was, it is the team’s largest department in manufacturing.

The workers, 130 in all, wear caps and

The Composite Clean Room is like something from science fiction but needs to be, to ensure its carbon fibre components are not contaminated.

RENAULT IS TRANSFORMING EVERYTHING

Renault F1 operates two remote Race Control Opps Rooms during grand prix events, one at Enstone and the other in Viry at its engine facility in France.

people who actually work or around the car at the track on grand prix weekends. So, like other teams, Renault has a race control operations room – two actually – one in Enstone and one in Viry.

Dozens of technicians and engineers occupy these rooms during race weekends, sitting in front of computers and linked in real time to the car and the people at the track.

They have access to an amazing amount of information. Fifteen years ago the car would generate two megabytes of data in total. Now it generates eight megabytes per second, which is sent in real time around the world. The engineers get the data so fast that, for example, they can detect an engine failure before it is seen on TV. So on any race weekend there are groups of engineers in England, France and whatever country the race is in, all linked not only to all the data but also in communication with each other.

THE LONG HAUL

RENAULT REALISES that success won’t happen overnight, which is why the team is committed to the long haul and updating its factory.

Team principal Cyril Abiteboul points out that Renault has been involved in F1 for most of past 40 years.

“We are not new to the sport,” he says. “We have the pure ambition to win as a constructor, which means that we cannot be buying parts from Ferrari, Even the steering wheels have their own manufacturing and test department at Renault F1.

Mercedes or McLaren. We have our own. We are responsible for the whole package. And we are delivering.

“We are sticking to the plan, so P9, P6, P4 in the constructors’ championship the past three years shows that the plan is working as we expected. And there is an ambition that the momentum continues. Because we are professionals, we know that because we were P4 last year that we would automatically be P3 this year.

We know that it is going to take a bit more time and effort. But as long as the momentum can carry on, we are fine.”

It’s that commitment, and all the tools and people that Renault is putting into place that impressed Ricciardo and convinced him to sign with the team.

Images: Renault Sport

“WE ARE transforming everything,” Renault’s team principal Cyril Abiteboul says when Auto Action asks him about the changes that have been made since it retook control of the team from Lotus in 2015.

“A lot has happened. It would be difficult to recognise the team today from where it was back then. The team had been massively financially distressed. There had been a lack of investment in infrastructure, equipment, people with skills and know how. It is all about rebuilding.”

One of the people that Renault hired was Aussie F1 ace Daniel Ricciardo, who was not cheap. Does that put extra pressure on Renault to perform quickly?

“It puts pressure to perform,” Abiteboul says, “but it is because we know what it takes to perform that we have done these investments. We are not in F1 just to participate. We are here to win, and knew what we had to do in order to win. So we are ticking the boxes one by one.”

Renault took its time back in 2015 to define exactly what its long-range plan should be.

“It is a great satisfaction to be in the process of implementing that plan,” Abiteboul says. “And we are going through the milestones one by one, methodically in terms of investment, in terms of growth, infrastructure, and headcounts – going from 400 to 700 at Enstone. We have invested 15 million euros in equipment and buildings.”

What about the changes at Viry-Châtillon, Renault’s power unit facility in France?

“We grow tactically in Viry, so it is not a major growth,” Abiteboul explains.

“We have always had an infrastructure in Viry. During our recent time being just an engine manufacturer, and in particular the difficult time with Red Bull, I created some changes for us to attract good people because the reputation of the team was not where we needed it to be.

“That has changed massively in the last six to 12 months. We are now in a situation to attract people that we were not capable of attracting before. So it is not the quantity of people, it is really the quality of a few people that can make a difference, because they have some specialties that are interesting for us in the development of the F1 power unit and also Formula E. In Viry we do the work on Formula 1 and Formula E engineering. So in that aspect it is also helping.

“We are also investing in Viry. The focus was the first investment in Enstone, and now we are doing a new investment in Viry in the building and the dyno. All of that will be coming along from now through the next two years.”

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UNDER THE SKIN

TThe h World Rally Championship's R5 category was introduced five R yyears ago and has heralded a nnew era of Australian rallying.

HEATH McALPINE takes a look H aat the latest contender to take tto the dirt here, the M-Sport ddeveloped Ford Fiesta R5

FOREST FLYER Images: Angryman Photography/M-Sport

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I

T IS an exciting time for the Australian Rally Championship, a combination of new cars and rapid drivers is growing the interest of a title that has had a bumpy recent history.

The introduction of R5 machinery has certainly raised the stakes in the outright ARC title.

Eli Evans took his fourth title in a Skoda Fabia R5 last year, leading to a commitment from multiple teams to join the R5 ranks this season.

Western Australian John O’Dowd has since taken over the Fabia used so successfully by Evans last year and prepared by RaceTorque.

Two more models have appeared since, a Hyundai i20 R5 for the Tasmanian-based brothers Scott and Marcus Walkem, and the M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 driven by Luke Anear, with experienced rally driver Steve Glenney playing mentor and co-driver.

Anear has only recently turned to the dirt, initially racing the world’s favourite rally car, the Subaru Impreza WRX STI before committing to an upgrade.

“It was agreed that I would be safer and learn faster if I had an R5 car – if the budget

allowed,” said Luke Anear of his choice.

“I was rallying a Group N Subaru and the plan was to continue in that, but then we saw the availability of the R5 cars. I had interacted with M-Sport previously and the customer service was exceptional, so I thought I’d make the investment and continue the support.”

The first roll out of R-series regulations was initiated in 2008 (R5 appeared in 2012) in what was a major shake-up for rallying within the World Rally Championship and Europe.

The R-series categories range from top tier WRC to the smallest R1B category.

R5 is the second tier from the top and is the set of regulations used in WRC2, whilst also being readily applied to domestic series including Britain, France, Africa and here in Australia.

A variety of different manufacturers support R5 including Citroen, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Proton and the aforementioned trio of manufacturers currently competing in the ARC. A cost cap of 190,000 euros applies to R5, as the FIA stringently controls the homologation of

each car and is much like circuit racing’s TCR category when it comes to the regulating of parts.

So far, the interest in R5 cars is growing since RaceTorque imported the first of its Fabias a couple of seasons ago and with competitors viewing the team’s results, the interest in fielding an R5 has grown considerably.

“The Skodas have proven to be a very reliable and a great car, which has given others the confidence to look at other R5 options,” Anear explained. “I think it’s logical that if you see a couple here it gives people the confidence to go do the same and has a flow on effect to build support across the sport.”

Anear’s experience of R5 is only two rallies old, but the difference between his new rig and the previous Subaru is night and day.

“It’s a whole new world,” exclaimed Anear.

“It’s completely different. The development that has gone into the Fiesta is incredible

compared to a road car that has been modified for rally; these are purpose-built race cars from the ground up.”

Anear and Glenney debuted the car at last month’s Rally Tasmania where it performed faultlessly, although Anear accidentally tested the Fiesta’s durability.

“Everything is just very strong, it’s a tough car,” Anear explained.

“In Tasmania, we lost it going into a seven left and went up a bank. I thought there must have been a wheel torn off it but the car was absolutely fine. Not even the wheel alignment was out.

“It’s an incredibly strong car and it’s built to be driven tough in the most extreme conditions in the world, these cars are being driven to the limit. The Australian conditions are fairly tame compared to some of the WRC events and the cars are made for it. The harder you drive it the better it performs. It’s a fantastic piece of machinery, it’s so enjoyable to drive and every time I get in it, I feel more aand an d mo more r cconfident.” onfifdent nt.t.

Luke Anear debuted his new R5 regulations Ford Fiesta on Rally Tasmania.

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UNDER THE SKIN

Built by M-Sport, the engine is a 1.6 litre turbo pumping out a more than sufficient 216kW of power and 475Nm of torque. It's built to be both reliable and easy to work on.

Experienced rally mechanic Peter Nunn looks after the preparation of the Fiesta at his Launceston workshop. He describes the car as efficient and told Auto Action it is a dream to work on.

“It’s just a really well-built car, well sorted, these cars came out in 2013 so it’s had more than five years development and it’s quite an easy car to work on, very simple,” Nunn complemented. “M-Sport make the cars user friendly because if there are problems you need to be able fix things in a 20-30-minute service.

“It comes with a maintenance schedule, everything’s documented procedures and how to do things. It’s made easy for us. There’s a part list, every single part that’s on the car has a number, so it makes it easy to send an email to M-Sport asking for a particular part.

“It’s simple and efficient to run.”

These qualities can be attributed to the powerplant the Fiesta runs. For this particular model it is a 1.6-litre 4-cylinder turbocharged engine with a pop off valve, while a 32mm restrictor is a common part for all R5 models.

Under the homologation process even the tune is included, while the internals such as the radiator and intercooler are fabricated at M-Sport’s Cockermouth factory alongside the team’s WRC program.

A small muffler has been installed, but it is still a loud car with the crew having to wear headsets even during transport stages.

Nunn admitted that due to the Fiesta being so new, he is still understanding how the car works as it is a big leap from the Group N models he has worked on previously. That’s not to say the car doesn’t come with substantial support.

Nunn was aided by an M-Sport engineer in Tasmania and has a lot of reading to do as the car comes with an extensive parts and maintenance booklet.

This should help if Nunn has to undertake an engine rebuild (hopefully not for a while), this being an advantage in choosing the Fiesta as the powerplant is not sealed allowing the choice of M-Sport rebuilding it or Nunn doing it himself.

“We’re allowed to rebuild this one if we want to,” said Nunn. “There’s an option for M-Sport to rebuild, but we can purchase the parts ourselves. With Skoda you can’t.

“The down side of these cars is because it’s homologated, you have to use that part, you can’t just make up arms for it or change anything. The car has to be complete and comes with a homologation book that is 260-pages. It has everything in there, documented, pictures and all.”

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Nunn is just starting to explore the electronics.

Being a previous user of MoTeC, the UK-based Life Racing ECU is totally different to what he has dealt with before. One of the innovations he has discovered is that there are five power distribution modules spread throughout the car (two placed in both the front and rear, one is in the centre) controlling different aspects of its operation.

That is totally different to the Sadev gearbox, which is a five-speed sequential unit that sends power through all four-wheels via a two-plate AP Racing clutch to the Sadev front and rear differentials, with the centre locked with a spool.

This varies from the R5 WRC model, which uses an active centre diff.

There is also a clutch disconnect system to enable easy manoeuvrability when navigating tight corners, as explained by Nunn.

“It has a clutch pack on the front of the rear diff, so when you pull the handbrake it disconnects the rear diff, so you can rotate the car in the tight corners,” Nunn said. “On the hydraulic handbrake it has two cylinders, one does the handbrake, the other does the rear diff where it unlocks it.”

A big advance over the old WRX STI is the suspension package. The front and rear McPherson struts are supported by threeway adjustable Reiger dampers protected in aluminium bodies, while M-Sport’s expertise is demonstrated through the fabricated rear antiroll bars. These cannot be adjusted in the car, but are easily accessible to set-up changes during service.

This is something the inexperienced Anear is continuing to grapple with.

A floor-mounted switch unit controls secondary functions in a cockpit that sees the driver “The weight distribution of the car, the way located back from the firewall towards the centre of the car. Wheels are Oz Racing 15x7. it rotates, it’s a problem I had when I first got in it because the Fiesta turns so well it was catching me out,” Anear explained.

“With my previous Subaru, I had to push really hard to get it to turn, whereas this thing you have to give it positive input in the form of the accelerator or brake. It transforms the weight from one side of the car to the other effortlessly and even in a mid-slide, when all the weight is one side of the car, you can transfer the weight back, it’s so responsive and compliant. The weight transfer of the vehicle is phenomenal and that effects a lot of the handling.

“Suspension travel is amazing. I can run over stuff that I would have previously had to drive around. That changes the line that you use and the speed that you carry through uneven surfaces.”

M-Sport also provides a set-up sheet,

M-SPORT FORD FIESTA R5 ENGINE

M-Sport developed 1.6 Turbo, direct injection power plant, FIA regulated 32mm restrictor POWER: 216kW @ 4000rpm TORQUE: 475 Nm @ 4000rpm

TRANSMISSION

Four-wheel-drive Sadev 5-speed sequential gearbox mated to Sadev front and rear differential units and a clutch disconnect fitted to the handbrake

SUSPENSION

Front and rear McPherson struts with redesigned 3-way adjustable Reiger dampers with aluminium bodies, geometry optimised for traction and stability, front and rear anti-roll bar options

STEERING

Hydraulic servo-assisted rack and pinion steering

BRAKES

AP forged 4-piston front and rear calipers.

Gravel: 300 x 32mm internally ventilated discs Tarmac: 355 x 32mm internally ventilated

DIMENSIONS Length 4065mm Width 1820mm Weight 1230kg

WHEELS

Gravel: 7 x 15” wheels Tarmac 8 x 18” wheels MRF tyres

BODYSHELL

M-Sport designed bespoke rollcage complying with 2019 regulations, widened bodywork and strengthened suspension turrets

ELECTRONICS

Life Racing F88 ECU with improved engine control code and single PDUX4 unit with smarter control strategies

FUEL TANK

ATL 80-litre bespoke competition fuel tank

Suspension is McPherson strut all-round with Reiger dampers with fabricated rear anti-roll bars. Brakes are AP racing 300mmx32mm.

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passing on its knowledge from the various conditions the Fiesta R5 has tested in, to advise its customers sway bar sizes and spring rates that suit the terrain. The Fiesta doesn’t run a front anti-roll bar and only runs a small rear, due to the ARC not running tarmac events.

The brakes are AP Racing, running 300x32mm internally ventilated discs specialised for gravel rallying and are interchangeable – along with the uprights – to each corner of the car. The calipers are four-piston AP Racing examples all round, while fitted inside are Endless brake pads.

Wrapping the AP Racing brake system are OZ Racing 15”x7” rims specifically designed for the Fiesta R5, while MRF are the control tyre of the ARC. A motor sport body containing a bespoke M-Sport roll cage provides plenty of protection, as do the two chamber fire bombs within the interior and a further two-three under the bonnet in the unfortunate case of a fire.

The hatch, door skins and bonnet are stock items, with some modification, while carbon fibre bumpers, guards, wings and side skirts feature aero enhancements such as a rear diffuser, front air dam and wide wheel arches, giving the car an aggressive look. As standard procedure for rally cars, the guards have been cut away to allow more travel for the wheels.

Underneath the car, there are two large sump guards, which Nunn estimates to be 8mm thick with the front weighing 30-40kg and the rear 20kg, which keeps the weight nice and low to the ground, good for centre of gravity.

Inside Sparco supplies the seat, harnesses and the steering wheel, which contains controls for the headlights, indicators, dash menu selector for the Life unit and launch control system. There is a switch unit in the centre of the interior containing other vital buttons such as activating the Fiesta’s heated windscreen.

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“The ergonomics of the car are outstanding and really allow the driver to complete the job at hand,” praised Anear.

“The seating position in the Fiesta is very much in the centre of the car and for a small car, the corner of the windscreen is a long way away from the driving position and the steering wheel is far away from the firewall.

“It’s left-hand-drive, so I have to work out how far the right-hand corner of the car is away and getting that depth perception is taking some time.”

Launch control is the only drive aid included in the Fiesta, as Nunn explained.

“You can change set up of launch. If there is more grip, for instance, you can increase the revs for the launch control, if you have less grip you can lower it down.”

“The Fiesta also features three different anti-lag modes.”

Anear and Glenney communicate via a Stilo Bluetooth Communication system, while in the back the Fiesta can carry two spare tyres, but under the R5 regulations must carry at least one.

Fitting in alongside the spare is a hydraulic jack and an electric rattle gun.

R5 is certainly beginning to gain traction in Australia. The cars are becoming more accessible.

That’s not to say there isn’t room for AP4, G2 and PRC (Group N) cars in the series, but R5 appears to be the way of the future.

Cost is a major issue with R5, but Nunn believes these regulations are no more expensive then building and developing a good Group N chassis.

“There are people out there that say it is expensive, but I’ve been around rallying since the early 1990s and I know what it costs to build a good Group N car.

“You had to spend a lot of money to build a good Group N car.

An R5 is a little bit dearer, but not much.”

As rumours persist that further R5 cars are about to infiltrate Australia, is this the revitalisation that the ARC has long been looking for?

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OF AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD Formula Ford is now approaching its 50th anniversary in Australia.

DAN MCCARTHY looks back at the history of our most important junior driver development category.

Images: Autopics.com.au/Insyde Media/AA Archive THE AUSTRALIAN Formula Ford Series has created dozens of stars since the inaugural event in 1969.

Mark Webber, Craig Lowndes, Larry Perkins, Russell Ingall, Jamie Whincup and Chaz Mostert are just a few of the many successful drivers who raced in the series.

The original Formula Ford series was established in England in 1967. Auto Action’s own Paul Harrington was involved with starting the British series and worked alongside Ford to create an Australian championship.

It took just two years, and on the 25th of November 1969 the first Australian Formula Ford race was held at Sandown International Raceway in Victoria, and was won by Richard Knight.

The following year in 1970 the first Formula Ford National Series was contested over six rounds across the states of Victoria and New South Wales. The series was won by Knight in a Bib Stillwell owned Elfin 600.

Mid-way through 1970 a young 20 year old by the name of Larry Perkins was driving his Formula Vee car at Calder Park.

“Graham Ritter, who was the manager of the Stillwell Racing outfit, asked me if I’d like to have a go at steering a Formula Ford,” Perkins told Auto Action.

“I obviously jumped at that because the Stillwell Formula Ford was the one they had with Richard Knight driving.

“Driving the Formula Ford after the Formula Vee I thought, ‘geez this has got some power,’ I do recall it vibrated a lot with the four cylinder engine, but it was great to drive,” he said.

“The second Elfin 600 Formula Ford arrived

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Richard Knight won the first-ever FFormula l FFordd race iin A Australia, t li att Sandown in 1969 (above). Elfins then kept on winning, with Larry Perkins in 1970 (right) and Geoff Brabham in 1974 (below). and the new car went to Richard and I drove his so called ‘old’ car. I don’t think there was much difference, to be honest, it was very nicely maintained,” he said.

The six-time Bathurst 1000 winner

recalled the atmosphere amongst all the teams and drivers was friendly despite the t strong competition.

“It was very friendly and I don’t recall any a amount of issues with any drivers, my m memories were that it was a very strong field of Formula Fords from Victoria st and a New South Wales and close racing, I thought it was a really good category,” t Perkins said.

Pe In I 1971 the series was renamed the Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series, in Fo which wh the winner of the series would win a ticket to England.

Perkins became the lead driver of the t Stillwell team in 1971 and went on to take the title at the end of that year, with his sights set on making it to Formula 1.

“At the time so many guys wanted to go to Europe and obviously I was one. There were guys that didn’t want to go to Europe too. I remember having conversations with Peter Brock and Colin Bond. I was staggered that they didn’t want to go to Europe and go racing,” he recalled.

Richard Knight was Formula Ford’s very first champion, winning the title in 1970.

“I didn’t have the slightest desire to stay in Australia and be king of the kids. I wanted to get to Europe where the real competition was and most of the guys in the Formula Ford around me, if they were on a career path, they wanted to do the same. The Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series was relatively well publicised even way back then and I thought this was just fantastic.”

Perkins travelled to England the following year and eventually made it to the pinnacle of motorsport, F1, making 11 Grand Prix starts in 1976 and 1977.

In the early years the series was organised and run by the Light Car Club of Australia which was led by Harrington. The LCCA provided administrative support to the Formula Ford series throughout the 70’s.

The championship continued to grow throughout that period with drivers from different teams and using many chassis’ able to win the title.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s Formula Ford started to produce some of the Supercars stars that are still around the paddock today, such as Tomas Mezera, Mark Larkham, Russell Ingall and Cameron McConville.

Mezera, the 1988 Bathurst 1000 winner, felt that the Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series taught you a lot as a driver and was the obvious place to start racing.

“I came to Australia at Christmas in 1979, obviously I wanted to race and that was the best category to start in,” Mezera told Auto Action.

“It taught you about the car mechanically, about the setup of the car because you do everything on your own, you do the wheel alignment and everything.

“That teaches you good race craft, you can’t crash into people because you interlock the wheels and you go arse overhead.

Andrew Miedecke raced Formula Ford too, in a Birrana.

“They used to have those one make series where people started, an AlfaSud series and Ford Laser series, (and) the kids kept crashing into each other all the time.

“Formula Ford was different. You were aggressive but you didn’t crash into each other too often, it was good,” he recalled.

Czechoslovakian born Mezera won the series in 1985 and felt that one of the strengths of the Formula Ford Series Down Under was the quality and quantity of the drivers in the series.

“It was always the most competitive series in those days when I was doing it, I always kept saying single seaters in Australia starts with Formula Ford and ends with Formula Ford. Because all the other categories they had were not as competitive,” Mezera said.

“It was such a light car, it wasn’t much different to Touring Cars on a power to weight ratio. Obviously it didn’t have as much grip as Formula 3s or other cars with the wings, but it is definitely the best category and I always say whoever can win in a Formula Ford can

win in anything, it is just the matter of getting a good break.”

Margaret Hardy joined the Light Car Club and began working with the series in 1978, doing paper work for the category throughout the 80’s. In 1991 she became the administrator and was tasked with organising national series events, a role she remained in until 2013.

Hardy felt that the 90’s was the most competitive era, when the series changed name from the Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series to the Australian Formula Ford Championship.

“It was strong in the 90’s because it became a national CAMS championship in 1993 and that attracted a lot of karters.

Traditionally in Europe the pathway had been karting and Formula Ford, Formula 3 and Formula 1 and that was the path we were trying to develop in Australia,” Hardy said to Auto Action.

“Although Formula 1 was a long shot, a lot of the Touring Car drivers at that time

had started racing in Formula Ford and had been telling all the kids this is the way to go, (so) we were lucky enough to grab a lot of that market. None of it would’ve happened without Ford Australia, they were involved until 2012,” she recalled.

Manufacturer Van Dieman dominated the championship from 1987 to 1997 and it became very difficult for anyone in another chassis to fight up the sharp end of the field.

However this period also produced some of the best Supercars drivers of recent times.

Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards, Garth Tander and Jason Bright all won the series in a Van Dieman RF93, RF94 or RF95.

“If you look at the guys who came through Formula Ford who made it into Supercars, the race craft you learn in Formula Ford helps you as a racing driver,” Bright explained to Auto Action.

“A lot of the Supercar teams back in the day were keeping an eye on Formula Ford and if you won the Formula Ford Championship, you were a pretty good shoe-in to get a

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Geoff Walters’ Elwyn leads Mike Quinn’s Lola at Amaroo Park. Walters is now racing historic Formula Ford. chance in Supercars back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That shows it was pretty well regarded as a category.

“I feel like we’ve always had a good Formula Ford series here in Australia and the year I won there were 16 new cars that came in the country that year, it was quite competitive and that was awesome to be a part of,” Bright said.

The series continued to go from strength to strength into the new millennium.

In 2001 Will Davison, Will Power and Jamie Whincup fought for the title in three different chassis. Davison drove a Van Dieman, Power a Stealth Van Dieman and Whincup a Mygale.

Davison reflected on the incredibly intense Formula Ford Championship fight that year.

“They all had their strengths and weaknesses and Power really brought a big challenge to the championship. Some of the battles with Power in particular were pretty full on, the intensity was really high,” Davison explained to Auto Action.

“It was a great season, getting the championship at the end was a huge achievement,” he recalled.

“The race craft is everything. You have to be really strategic the way you set up your opponents, the slipstreaming is a huge part of the racing and wheel to wheel combat.

“It is a relevant breeding ground today. I think the ability to still be sliding around not playing with aerodynamics and using a manual gear shift and all of that only makes you a more complete driver,” he explained.

The mid 2000’s saw the platform of Formula Ford change a little, and the series was no longer used as the final step before Supercars as the highly successful second tier Super2 Series grew into that role.

However Formula Ford was still a step out of karting and was also used as a platform to go

Tomas Mezera leas the field through the esses at Sandown in his Reynard. He was champion in 1985.

Stephen Brook won the title in 1980 aboard his British-built Lola, which went on to win the crown again in 1981 for Phillip Revell. Showing the diversity of shapes in Formula Ford is John McGinn’s Australian-made Birrana.

FROM KENT TO DURATEC FROM THE very first Australian race in 1969, the national Formula Ford championship and the state level championships all ran the 1600cc Ford “Kent” engine.

This engine was the mainstay of the category until a change in 2006, when the national series moved to the more modern Duratec Ford Fiesta engine.

The “Kent” powered cars continued to race at state level but in a different class titled Formula Ford 1600, as the Duratec produced 18kW more than the earlier Kent engine.

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“When it was ultimately decided to go Duratec, they set up AFFM (Australian Formula Ford Management) and that was funded by Ford until the end of 2012. Then when Ford pulled out of the whole thing, we preserved at the Association and kept going,” explained John van Leeuwen.

Many drivers now make the step out of karting into the Formula Ford 1600 class, before moving up to a Duratec-powered Formula Ford to fight for state or national titles. DM

overseas, as John Martin proved in 2006.

“That was an amazing time for me. We won Vic State and won New South and next year we went into the national championship and won that in our rookie year, which was cool,” Martin told Auto Action.

“Towards the end of the year we went to England and did some British Formula Ford over there. We turned up and would’ve been happy to be in the top 10 and to walk away basically with a win on debut, that was crazy.”

In 2014 Formula Ford lost its championship status as CAMS turned its attention to the Formula 4 series.

John van Leeuwen was the chairman of the Formula Ford Association at this time and spoke to Auto Action about how it happened.

“When Formula 4 came along CAMS would no longer give Formula Ford national championship status. I got the call from Eugene Arocca and Mike Smith, and it was a joint telephone call,” Leeuwen recalled.

“They said they didn’t want Formula Ford to have national championship status and they were no longer going to give it because it was not relevant.

“They consigned us to just have a state series but we couldn’t have a national championship. We couldn’t use the word championship anymore, but we just called it the Australian Formula Ford Series and they couldn’t stop us from doing that,” he said.

Van Leeuwen feels this has been as much

A huge number of Australian racing stars rs learned their craft in Formula Ford. Above left it’s Steven Richards hards leading Craig Lowndes, above right Will Davison edges ahead of Will Power, at left a young Jason Bright ght accepts the trophy trophy, below it’s Mark Webber and John Martin Martin.

of a positive for the series as it has been a negative, as the series was forced away from the Supercars schedule.

“One of the fascinating things is that Formula Ford has become more successful after we took it off the big ticket meetings and what we found when we took to off the Supercars bill was that we could substantially reduce the operating costs to the teams and the individuals who wanted to run it,” he said.

Leanne Tander raced in the series in the late 90s and returned to Formula Ford racing in 2015, winning the series in 2016 by beating a young Will Brown and Jordan Boys to the title.

Tander feels that the series is still as competitive as it always has been, despite the loss of championship status.

“The first time I did it, it was in one of motorsport’s heydays, it was fields of over 30 most events, there were a couple you had to pre-qualify to race and the racing then was fierce,” Tander explained to Auto Action.

“It is also a fairly affordable form of motor racing for a national level series, with good quality competition and all of that.

“I think now just as a reflection on the economy the fields aren’t as big but it is still super competitive.

That is thing that has always attracted me to Formula Ford is that it has been a really competitive category all throughout its time, it has always got the stars of the future and those guys who are going to become something and that has been constant throughout its 50 years,” Tander insisted.

Perkins believes that the reason for the category’s success is the stability of the rules and regulations over the past 50 years.

“There was no sudden high rise political decisions coming, the stability was the best thing. Every now and then they changed from the Avon tyres to the Goodyear race tyres but that seemed to be seamless and seemed to be appropriate at the time, I don’t recall any controversy over any of that,” Perkins said.

Historic Formula Ford racing has become very popular in recent times and it is something that has the attention of Davison.

“I’m quite in on the historic Formula Ford scene now, my dad being mid 60’s is a front runner in the Historic Formula Ford Series,” Davison said.

In recent years the series has been dominated by Mygale chassis cars. The last driver that won the series driving anything other than a Mygale was Chaz Mostert, driving a Spectrum 012 in 2010.

In 2019 the series is still strong and in recent years has gone full circle in signing a deal with IndyCar to become part of its Road to Indy program. That partnership has seen the likes of Hunter McElrea and Cameron Shields head over to the United States to pursue a career in American open-wheel racing, and this shows that Formula Ford in Australia is still strong after 50 years of competition.

Everyone is welcome to attend a 50th anniversary dinner in the Sandown Raceway Heritage Room on October 26. More details can be found at https://formulaford.org.au/

Times and technology change but Formula Ford remains all about driver development. This is Sandown 2018, 50 years on.

PAST CHAMPIONS

YEAR 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

DRIVER RICHARD KNIGHT LARRY PERKINS BOB SKELTON JOHN LEFFLER TERRY PERKINS PAUL BERNASCONI RICHARD CARTER JOHN SMITH JOHN WRIGHT RUSSELL NORDEN STEPHEN BROOK PHILLIP REVELL JEFF SUMMERS BRUCE CONNOLLY RON BARNACLE TOMAS MEZERA WARWICK ROOKLYN PETER VERHEYEN DAVID ROBERTS MARK LARKHAM RUSSELL INGALL TROY DUNSTAN CAMERON MCCONVILLE CRAIG LOWNDES STEVEN RICHARDS JASON BRIGHT DAVID BESNARD GARTH TANDER ADAM MACROW GREG RITTER LUKE YOULDEN WILL DAVISON JAMIE WHINCUP NEIL MCFADYEN DAVID REYNOLDS DANIEL ELLIOTT JOHN MARTIN TIM BLANCHARD PAUL LASKAZESKI NICK PERCAT CHAZ MOSTERT CAMERON WATERS JACK LE BROCQ ANTON DE PASQUALE THOMAS RANDLE CAMERON HILL LEANNE TANDER MAX VIDAU HUNTER MCELREA

CAR ELFIN 600 FF ELFIN 600 FF BOWIN P4A BOWIN P4A & BOWIN P6F ELFIN 620 FF & TITAN MAWER 004 BIRRANA F73 BOWIN P4A BOWIN P4A MAWER 004 LOLA T440 LOLA T440 ELFIN 620B GALLOWAY & VAN DIEMEN ROYALE RP31 REYNARD FF83 & ELWYN 003 ELWYN 003 VAN DIEMEN RF86 VAN DIEMEN RF86 VAN DIEMEN RF89 VAN DIEMEN RF90 VAN DIEMEN RF91 VAN DIEMEN RF92 VAN DIEMEN RF93 VAN DIEMEN RF94 VAN DIEMEN RF95 VAN DIEMEN RF96 VAN DIEMEN RF95 SPECTRUM 06 MYGALE SJ98 MYGALE SJ2000 VAN DIEMEN RF01 VAN DIEMEN RF01 STEALTH VAN DIEMEN RF94 VAN DIEMEN RF04 VAN DIEMEN RF05 SPECTRUM 011 MYGALE SJ07A SPECTRUM 011B MYGALE SJ07A SPECTRUM 012 MYGALE SJ10A MYGALE SJ12A MYGALE SJ13A MYGALE SJ13A MYGALE SJ10A MYGALE SJ10A MYGALE SJ1019 MYGALE SJ010A

D I K K C A B E M O C E TH

ATH McALPINE E H r. e re ca g in n o e rg u Bryce Fullwood’s b in p cu a Supercars ride ic g h in re ye e e m is a d e n a lik s s e m ri e e S se Last year leads the Super2 o h w n a ri o it rr Te g in o st 21. chatted to the easy-g for 2020. All this at ju

A 21-YEAR-OLD veteran? Really?

Some consider Bryce Fullwood just that, because he is cnow contesting his fifth season of Super2.

The Darwin native has had plenty of ups and downs over the course of those seasons, but he is now headed in the right direction since linking back up with MW Motorsport.

“It’s almost like I’d never left, which is exactly how I wanted it,” Fullwood told Auto Action.

“I’m very lucky to be back with Matt White and it’s all going well.

I’m in the exact same chassis that I used in 2017 and working with the same engineer.

“I’ve pretty much slotted straight back in.”

After beginning to find his feet

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in the MW Motorsport Nissan Altima at the end of 2017, leading to two podiums and a mountain of momentum into 2018, a move to Matt Stone Racing appeared promising.

The team had just come off winning the Super2 crown and had also taken delivery of two ex-DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FGXs, one of which was to be driven by Fullwood.

However, the season was a disaster as the team failed to get the Falcon FGXs to work and then Supercars main game driver Todd Hazelwood took the helm of the reigning Super2 winning Holden Commodore chassis.

Despite it being a tough season, Fullwood took away a

Image: Insyde Media

different attitude and realised the importance of maintaining confidence.

“You’ve got to be able to back yourself, you don’t have to tell people how good you are and be cocky,” said Fullwood.

“One of the most important things in what I do is to set realistic goals.

Last year I didn’t expect to go out there and win because I didn’t have the package around me.

“I knew – and most drivers do – when you’ve completed a qualifying lap and you’ve squeezed every ounce out of the car, you absolutely know it. You absolutely know when you’ve done a good job or not.

“Luckily for me, if I’ve got the package around me and I do a lap that I’m happy with, nine times out of 10 there’s a result out of it. I got out of the car a few times last year and was happy, and the team came back and said ‘Well done mate, you’re P13’ and it’s like ‘far out’. In saying that, I knew I had done a good job and I felt you could have put anyone in that race car and they weren’t going to go faster.

“I never dropped my bottom lip, I just pressed on. If I qualified 14th and finished 10th I’d pat myself on the back because I was happy with that. I believed in myself, I believed in what I had done to get there and believed I was good enough to be there.”

Fullwood comes from a closeknit family. His mum Kelly was the first one to hug after he took victory at Townsville, while his grandma sells raffle tickets for meat platters at the

Fullwood has

plenty of strong local pub, raising a support behind staggering $20,000 him from towards Fullwood’s the Darwin campaign last year. community.

“Anybody that is doing what we’re doing, being involved in Supercars or racing in general, it’s a big, big team effort from my family. I’m on the podium but I’m a by-product of my whole family, a lot of good friends, sponsors and everyone that has helped me get there. My family have made sacrifices to get me up on that podium.”

His family also helped when the decision was made to go straight from karting to Super2 in 2015, which was brought about by done something like Toyota 86s, the Formula Ford and Formula 4 but that wasn’t around when I was split. A renowned Supercars team coming through.” manager encouraged the family to Although it is an unorthodox skip the normal pathway and pursue pathway, it hasn’t harmed his the Super2 route, a decision that has development as this year he has been vindicated in recent time. taken four wins from seven races and “The competition had split between has failed to finish on the podium Formula 4 and Formula Ford, but only the once.

Tickford Racing’s Tim Edwards These performances have not only advised to go straight into Super2, so been noticed among the Super2 that’s we did,” Fullwood recounted. ranks but also within the Supercars “I don’t think there’s anything I don’t paddock, where Fullwood will strap know now because I haven’t raced in for another Pirtek Enduro Cup Formula Ford, but in saying that the campaign this time with arguably the one benefit to racing something like fastest of the Nissans on the grid. that is all your learning is done off “I’m really excited to be joining camera. It’s inevitable that while Andre [Heimgartner] for the enduros you’re learning you crash, just like because he’s been going really well,” you can’t learn to water ski without enthused Fullwood. falling off. It works with a race car; “He’s been almost flying the flag you can’t learn without exceeding the for Nissan this season. I’m really limit. excited to learn from Andre and the “If I had my time again, I would have team at Kelly Racing, because the

squad have been a part of Supercars for a long time. I’m very interested to see how they do things as well as take something away to aid with my Super2 season.”

The last two Pirtek Enduro Cup campaigns have given Fullwood a taste of what he hopes will be his future, as he eyes the next step, something that he feels is a real possibility next year if his strong form in Super2 continues ahead of a big off-season shuffle.

“The goal is for me to get to Supercars, that’s what the whole mission has been for me. It is a good time, this is a very, very silly season,” Fullwood surmised.

“I don’t know how it will all play out. The only thing I have control over is my performance in Super2 and hopefully that might give me an opportunity.

“I’d definitely like to be on the Supercars grid in 2020.”

Bryce Fullwood currently leads the 2019 Super2 title after a disappointing campaign last year.

AutoAction

35

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Formula One

Round 10 British GP

TIPPING POINT IN A THRILLER James Bond star Daniel Craig was on the grid for the British Grand Prix but little did he or the other 141,000 fans there know that they were about to witness a race worthy of a 007 film script

BY DAN KNUTSON IMAGES: LAT

IMPROVISING ON the fly, using superior tyre strategy and aided by a safety car period, tipped the results in Lewis Hamilton’s favour and allowed him to defeatt Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

“I’ve done so many races,” Hamilton said after his 88th career victory and the sixth in his home grand prix. “You think you would get used to it or that the feeling would numb down, but it felt just as amazing (today) as the first win that I had.”

Two weeks after fighting recalcitrant Renaults and finishing out of the top 10 in Austria, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hülkenberg and the team turned things around in Britain.

Ricciardo finished seventh and close behind the sixth-placed McLaren of Carlos Sainz.

“It was certainly positive,” a relieved Aussie said when Auto Action asked him about his race pace. “We had strengths and

42 AutoAction

weaknesses over the McLarens. Honestly, looking back to two weeks ago, we’d take this result any day of the week. Even to be probably a little bit off of the McLaren, we’d still take it.

“To have similar qualifying and the race pace with them in such a short turnaround has given us a lot of comfort knowing that we are certainly not lost, and we do have a race car which can compete.”

Bottas started from the pole, took the lead and fended off an attacking Hamilton in the early stages of the 52-lap race. Prior to the start both drivers planned a two-stop strategy. Leader Bottas pitted first, at the end of lap 16, and switched from one set of

Pirelli’s medium compound to another.

Then, on lap 19, Antonio Giovinazzi spun his Alfa into a gravel trap and triggered a safety car. That effectively gave Hamilton a “free” stop as he was able to pit for a set of the hard compound slicks after 20 laps and retain the lead.

“The two stop we thought would be by far the fastest but actually one stop was possible as well,” Bottas said.

Having run two sets of the medium compound, Bottas had to stop again because the rules stipulate a driver must use at least two different compounds.

The hard compound Pirellis were a bit of the unknown, and the team still believed Hamilton would have to pit a second time.

Indeed, they twice called him in but he In ignored them. Thanks to being in front ig because of the safety car, Hamilton did b not n have to abuse his tyres chasing after Bottas.

The hard tyres lasted longer B than expected and Hamilton won. t What the British Grand Prix will be fondly remembered for, however, is not f tyre strategy but rather thrilling battles.

There was the fierce fight between the Mercedes teammates in the opening laps. Behind them, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) had a long, drawn-out duel for third place. This was the same duo who fought for the win and banged wheels in Austria. The stewards there ruled that their clash was a “racing incident” and did not penalise eventual winner Verstappen.

“After Austria I said if the stewards accept us to race that way, I’m more than happy to race like this,” Leclerc said in a Ferrari postrace briefing in Silverstone attended

by Auto Action. “And that’s what I did for this weekend. Nothing special; I just raced harder than normal because I feel like in the last two races, or maybe a bit before, Formula 1 wants hard racing.”

That was just one of several battles between the Ferrari and Red Bull drivers.

Later, after the safety car jumbled the order, Sebastian Vettel had his Ferrari in third and was fighting with Verstappen.

Charles Leclere was in superb form again, a well deserved third.

Pierre Gasly had his most competitive race yet for Red Bull, here leading the two Renaults (above) while Sebastian Vettel got it all wrong in an enthralling battle with Max Verstappen, costing the Red Bull driver a podium and himself a penalty.

RESULTS ROUND 10: BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Misjudging things, Vettel rammed into the back of Verstappen’s car. Both managed to continue, but Vettel would go a lap down after pitting for a new nose.

“It’s my mistake,” Vettel admitted. “I spoke with Max afterwards and apologised. He was a bit faster and closing quite quickly and passed very easily before Turn 15. But then he ran a bit wide and thought I could sneak back. I thought here was a gap which then turned out not to be there.”

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly also mixed things up with the Ferrari drivers.

“I was trying to give it everything, but it was a nice battle,” said Gasly who finished fourth after failing to fend off Leclerc. “And I had a good battle with Seb.” Ricciardo also had his scraps.

“It was good, clean racing,” he enthused.

The appearance of the safety car ruined Ricciardo’s pit strategy, and it allowed Sainz to get ahead. But then Renault called Ricciardo in to get a set of the hard compound tyres.

“The restart after the safety car was strong,” the Perth native said. “I got a couple of cars in the first lap or two. Then was able to hunt down Carlos. At the end I was a little bit frustrated. I was there but never really enough to mount a proper attack. So he certainly got a bit lucky with the safety car, but then he also executed a good end of race. I needed a little mistake from him, and he didn’t give it to me.”

Verstappen who manhandled his car – the power steering had failed – to fifth place, summed up the Silverstone thriller well.

“I think we put on a pretty good show for the fans today and proved the sport is far from boring,” he said.

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 -

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

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

Laps 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52 51 51 51 51 18 9 6

Gap 1h21m08.452s 24.928s 30.117s 34.692s 39.458s 53.639s 54.401s 1m05.540s 1m06.720s 1m12.733s 1m14.281s 1m15.617s 1m21.086s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap Spun off Accident damage Accident damage

Points: Hamilton 223, Bottas 184, Verstappen 136, Vettel 123, Leclerc 120, Gasly 55, Sainz 38, Raikkonen 25, Norris 22, Ricciardo 22, Hulkenberg 17, Magnussen 14, Perez 13, Kvyat 12, Albon 7, Stroll 6, Grosjean 2, Giovinazzi 1.

Construtors’: Mercedes 407, Ferrari 243, Red Bull-Honda 191, McLaren-Renault 60, Renault 39, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 26, Racing Point-Mercedes 19, Toro Rosso-Honda 19, Haas-Ferrari 16.

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VERGNE BECOMES FIRST FORMULA E DOUBLE CHAMPION ALTHOUGH IT was a challenging weekend for Jean-Eric Vergne, he still did enough to become the first driver to win a second Formula E title and give DS Techeetah its first team’s title.

Sebastien Buemi finished a challenging season with the new Nissan e.dams squad with a in the first race of the weekend, Robin Frijns won the second.

Buemi got pole and led away but further back the chaos began, Jose Maria Lopez was tapped into a spin by Sam Bird which caused a chain reaction.

DS Techeetah driver Andre Lotterer swerved into his teammate Vergne puncturing his teammates rear tyre and

forcing him into the pits, before he rejoined 19th.

Jaguar Racing driver Alex Lynn was applying immense pressure to leader Buemi when all of a sudden the British driver slowed and came to a halt resulting in the need of a safety car.

On the restart Buemi led BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver Alexander Sims and Daniel Abt, an eventful restart resulted in Abt and Sims being demoted down the order. With eight minutes remaining Buemi led Mitch Evans and Antonio Felix da Costa. Vergne has made his way back into the points before a final lap crash with Felipe Massa

destroyed the Frenchman’s hopes of winning the title on Saturday. Buemi took his first win of the season ahead of Evans and da Costa.

Alexander Sims took pole for the second race of the weekend, behind Vergne made it through the first few laps without issue sitting directly behind main championship rival Lucas di Grassi who had to win the race.

Just after the halfway stage Frijns lunged up the inside of Sims at Turn 1 to take the lead. Di Grassi was continuing to make places and sat seventh on the last lap. Attempting to take sixth off Evans the pair made heavy contact with

each other and the wall eliminating them both from the race and handing Vergne the title.

“I think I’m in the best place and we’re going to keep working hard,” Vergne said.

“I think me coming to Formula E was the best thing that ever happened to me, I will definitely give it all next season, that’s for sure, I want more.”

Frijns held on to win the race from Sims and Buemi in third, this was enough to hand Buemi second in the championship.

Final Standings: Vergne 136, Buemi 119, di Grassi 108, Frijns 106, Evans 105, da Costa 99, Abt 95, Lotterer 86, Bird 85, Rowland 71

INDYCAR HARVICK ENDS VICTORY DROUGHT KEVIN HARVICK has scored his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The win came as a result of Harvick’s crew chief Rodney Childers call to change only the right-side tyres in the final stop under safety car.

When the race returned to green Denny Hamlin shot through from fourth to second position.

On the final lap Hamlin bumped the Ford Mustang of Harvick at Turn 1 but could not get through, into Turn 3 and 4 Harvick went to the bottom as Hamlin went up the banking. On the exit Harvick squeezed Hamlin into the wall slowing the Toyota Camry driver’s momentum. Harvick beat Hamlin to the line by a mere 0.21s.

44 AutoAction

NASCAR “I didn’t think we had the best chance to win today, but Rodney made a great call,” said Harvick. “We had a good car, we just never could get track position. We stayed out there and ran a lot of good laps.”

Erik Jones finished third ahead of Ryan Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Newman who rounded out the top seven.

Kyle Busch finished the race in eighth while Kurt Busch finished down in 18th.

A week earlier the brothers finished 1-2 in an exciting last lap duel at the Kentucky Speedway. The pair rubbing door panels and sliding out of the final turn, with Kurt pipping younger brother Kyle to the line.

NEWGARDEN WEATHERS IOWA STORM TEAM PENSKE driver Josef Newgarden dominated the Iowa 300 to take his fourth win of the season allowing him to extend his championship lead.

The race did not finish until 2.14am local time due to severe weather conditions which included lightning and heavy rain. However the weather did not dampen the teams spirits when the

eventually began 11.45pm after a four and a half hour delay.

Australian Will Power overtook Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud on the opening lap to take the lead around IndyCar’s shortest track.

A safety car was thrown on lap 13 when Felix Rosenqvist overtook the Carlin of Sage Karm who spun to the

DTM IT WAS a superb weekend for German Marco Wittmann who recorded a win in the opening race and a second place finish in Race 2 after starting from pit lane in the first ever Dutch round of DTM. Race 1 at the TT Circuit Assen circuit started behind the safety car due to a very wet circuit. When the lights turned green at the start of the fourth lap, Wittmann immediately pulled a gap on championship leader Rene Rast.

However Audi driver Nico Muller crept through the field after gambling on a late stop for fresh tyres, however on cold wet tyres Muller was unable to keep Wittmann at bay and the BMW driver went on to take the win, Muller finished second, with Rast third.

Wittmann started Race 2 from pit lane after he failed

to set a lap in qualifying due to mechanical problems.

A dry circuit greeted teams on Sunday and left them pondering whether to make one or two stops.

Mike Rockenfeller opted for one stop and it paid off for the Audi driver who scored his first win of the season, Wittmann and Muller chose the same strategy and rounded out the podium.

“Of course, qualifying was a disappointment after the good results on Saturday. From last on the grid, my hopes for a good result weren’t particularly high because overtaking is difficult here at Assen,” Wittmann said.

Rast was told to pit a second time, pitting from a podium position and was only able to recover to finish fifth.

IMSA Images: LAT

AUSTRALIAN RYAN Briscoe and Richard Westbrook took victory in the GTLM class at Lime Rock Park in their #67 Ford GT. GTLM and GTD took centre stage as the DPi and LMP2 cars missed the tight and narrow circuit in Connecticut.

In the final stint Westbrook made a move on the inside of Kiwi Earl Bamber to take the lead with just six and a half minutes of the race remaining, giving the pair their first victory of the season.

“We didn’t think we’d have the pace, so we went into the race with the goal of doing a three-stop strategy,” said Briscoe. “We knew the tire life on two stops was going to be really difficult for everyone, so we just committed to it.”

Vergne won the title while Buemi won the first race and was second overall.

The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team ended the five race winning streak of Porsche using a three stop strategy compared with its two stopping German rivals.

After taking the lead Westbrook pulled away to win by 7.003s, Bamber and co-driver Laurens Vanthoor extended their championship lead by finishing second.

The #66 Ford of Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller gave the Chip Ganassi Racing team a double podium in third.

In GTD the #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Zach Robichon and Dennis Olsen took the lead with five minutes to go, a puncture on the final lap slowed them down. But Olsen held on to beat Mario Farnbacher by 0.01s. At the next round of the IMSA Series at Road America on August 4 Matt Campbell will take the spot of Olsen in the #9 Porsche.

Newgarden leads Penske teammate Power in the lead battle.

infield damaging Rosenqvist’s wing and giving the Swede a front-right puncture.

Sage Karam span onto the infield when Felix Rosenqvist passed the Carlin as Felix Rosenqvist passed him to move into 16th. The Swedish rookie suffered a broken wing and a front-right puncture. Nine cars elected to pit but the leaders all stayed out on the circuit.

At the restart, Power held off his teammates, but Newgarden was able to nip past Frenchman Pagenaud and Newgarden. Power had pulled out a lead of over two seconds when he encountered Karam, the Aussie was unable to lap the American and this allowed Newgarden to catch Power and steal the lead from him shortly before the red flag thrown for spots of rain on lap 56.

The race resumed under safety car, in which the leaders pitted, when the race restarted on lap 66 Newgarden led Power. As the race reached onethird distance on lap 100 Power sat right behind the gearbox of Newgarden, Pagenaud was third

ahead Takuma Sato.

Sato was first of the leaders to stop for a second time on lap 121, the rest of the top 5 did not stop until lap 142. The undercut worked well as the Japanese driver sat second behind Newgarden only to be quickly overhauled by Power who retook second position on lap 148.

Pagenaud also attempted a move on the former Formula 1 driver but made a mistake dropping him to sixth.

On lap 187 Sato was spun by Karam and the yellow flag was thrown and everyone entered the lane. Newgarden led Power, Pigot and Pagenaud.

Power ran wide and lost time entering the pitlane trying to avoid the attenuator, Power was handed a stop and go penalty for an improper pit lane entry which dropped the former Indy 500 winner to 13th just as Ed Carpenter spun at Turn 2 resulting in a caution. Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta pitted under these conditions and found themselves flying up the leader board when green

flag fell with 24 laps to go.

With 13 laps remaining Dixon had made his way up to second but could not stop Newgarden who took victory ahead of the Kiwi by 2.8s.

“I’m much happier tonight, I can tell you that,” Newgarden said. “I was really a little bit frustrated yesterday just because I knew we had a pole-winning car. We didn’t put it together. It’s competitive.”

Power made a poor final restart and came home one lap down in 15th. Canadian James Hinchcliffe came home in third ahead of previous weekend

race winner Pagenaud.

On the streets of Toronto the reigning Indy 500 Champion finished ahead of Dixon, Rossi and Newgarden, with Power retiring from the race.

The IndyCar Series now heads to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington from July 26-28.

Standings: Josef Newgarden 487, Alexander Rossi 458, Simon Pagenaud 429, Scott Dixon 389, Will Power 322, Takuma Sato 311, Ryan Hunter-Reay 298, Graham Rahal 290, James Hinchcliffe 279, Sebastien Bourdais 255, Felix Rosenqvist 255

AutoAction

45

TCR Round 3 The Bend Motorsport Park July 13-14

Garth Tander scored Audi’s first win of the series in Race 2.

TRIPLE TREAT Report: Heath McAlpine Images: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

TWO OF Australia’s most exciting motor sport developments met at Tailem Bend, in what may prove to be a title defining event.

The latest round of the TCR Australia Series arrived at the new The Bend Motorsport Park, with HMO Customer Racing driver Will Brown holding a 52-point margin over the Ash Seward Motorsport-run Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Dylan O’Keeffe.

The previous five race victories had been split between the pair, but a crash in the final event at Phillip Island stifled O’Keeffe’s charge.

However, the Alfa Romeo driver could have been excused for feeling confident heading to The Bend as with it’s long straight the track appeared to suit the powerful Italian stallion.

Damp conditions affected early running and this played right into the hands of O’Keeffe, who qualifed a strong third.

Compare that to the man he was chasing for the series lead. It was a disastrous start when Brown’s Hyundai i30N TCR and James Moffat’s Garry Rogers Motorsport

46 AutoAction

Renault Megane RS TCR were severely damaged in a practice accident, compounding his struggles in the wet, leaving him 16th.

Moffat recovered well and rewarded his crew who had worked wonders with the rear of his Megane, to take a surprise pole thanks to an interesting strategy.

After observing a WTCR qualifying session held in mixed conditions on TV where teams ran a mix of wet fronts and slick rears, Moffat copied this and later attributed it to taking pole.

Lining up alongside the Renault was Tony D’Alberto, who was again eyeing a chance of snatching points back from the leading two contenders, while the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS3 LMS TCR driven by Garth Tander was having its best showing yet in fourth.

Just as the cars gridded up for the first race start on the Saturday, rain began to fall which certainly didn’t aid the ability to warm rear tyres – a problem that proved difficult in the dry, let alone the wet.

And so it proved as the battle

Will Brown extended his series lead at The Bend as Jordan Cox impressed in his debut drive for Wall Racing in its third Honda Civic Type R. Russell Ingall experienced TCR racing first hand, while there was frantic action in the pits between Races 2 and 3 for Aaron Cameron’s crew, after contact damaged the rear suspension.

James Moffat leads the field at the start of race 1 before being tapped off into the sandtrap. By contrast, John Martin finally broke through for his first TCR win in the third race. After being a front runner at Phillip Island, Dylan O’Keeffe has a troubled time at The Bend in his Alfa. As always, there was fraught action aplenty right through the field. Tony D’Alberto smoking it up ahead of Chelsea Angelo.

for the lead became more one of survival.

D’Alberto took the lead by successfully passing Moffat at Turn 4, but was an early victim as he spun at Turn 8.

D’Alberto’s teammate, debutant Jordan Cox, had started sixth but through his vast front-wheel-drive experience rocketed off the line and was quickly placing pressure on Moffat for the lead.

It ended in disaster for both at Turn 15 when the Honda driver tapped the rear of Moffat’s Renault, sending the latter into the sand trap. A 10-second penalty was handed out to Cox post-race, but it failed to stop him challenging for the lead in the meantime.

The incident necessitated the deployment of the safety car, which settled down the field and revealed Brown’s flying first lap, moving up 10 positions to sixth. Kelly Racing’s Alex Rullo was another to bolt from 10th to third.

Crucially for Brown, O’Keeffe ran wide after D’Alberto’s spin, dropping to seventh.

Brown’s charge wasn’t finished as on the restart he overtook John Martin, Rullo and Aaron Cameron at Turn 1.

This was amidst a contentious pre-safety car order as Rullo believed he was third ahead of Cameron, not the other way around. The stewards thought

the same post-race and docked the Volkswagen driver 28-seconds.

Cox’s superior cold tyre pace was on show and he took advantage of Tander’s lack of experience in front-wheeldrive machinery to slide down the inside at Turn 1 on lap 4, dropping the latter to fourth.

It was a four-way battle for the lead between Cox, Brown, Martin and Tander, as all eyes turned to the battle for second, which was effectively first due to Cox’s penalty. Martin – in his best showing so far this season – took Brown, then Cox as Tander in turn passed Brown, then mounted a challenge for the lead.

With Brown within the lead battle, O’Keeffe set the fastest lap of the race and was setting up for a charge but debris caught in the Alfa Romeo’s air intake, caused an overheating issue that put the car into limp mode. In his attempt to switch off the engine he accidentally deployed the fire bomb, forcing him into a second retirement in a row.

O’Keeffe wasn’t the only driver to pick up debris.

Martin was set for victory but his intake was slightly blocked too, dropping the car into limp mode and out of the lead to Tander’s advantage.

Martin’s Honda Civic Type R TCR dropped to fifth at the flag, but rose to third after panalties

at the expense of Cox and Cameron. Brown’s second was a surprise, but more than consolidated his title lead after a stellar recovery drive.

The grid lost one car for Race 2. Kelly Racing’s Andre Heimgartner didn’t take up his place after an engine failure was unable to be fixed at the track, while Molly Taylor in the second Subaru Impreza WRX STI was also experiencing engine maladies and didn’t see out Sunday’s action.

Brown beat Tander off the start, but it was Martin who made the best jump and challenged the duo into Turn 1. This was after the Hyundai driver cheekily moved across the nose of the Audi at the start, and flew to a 2.5s lead at the conclusion of the first lap.

Martin was able to pass Tander at turn 17, before a safety car was called due to the stricken Volkswagen Golf GTI of Alexandra Whitley.

On the restart, the two Renaults had moved up swiftly to be well in contention, particularly Chris Pither in second. The Kiwi was placing plenty of heat on Brown, but he was unable to do anything about it before another safety car was called.

This time, an incident between

the Alfa Romeo of Jimmy Vernon and Rullo’s Astra resulted in a major collision.

Vernon ran wide and dropped two wheels into the dirt, sending him into the path of Rullo which careered into the sand trap.

Brown led away at the restart and held Pither back, though he had to watch his rear view as Tander ranged up onto the back of the Renault and Moffat in turn did so on the Audi.

Another to watch was Ingall, he had clicked with the car and after all the chaos was running sixth.

The manic race was further exemplified by the exit of Pither at Turn 1, when he locked up the rear brakes and collided with the outside concrete wall hard. This elevated Tander and Moffat into the podium places.

Coming from the back of the field, both D’Alberto and O’Keeffe struggled to make much

progress and finished at the lower end of the top 10.

Compared to the previous races of TCR Australia, the third race at The Bend was a rather tame affair as the field was further depleted by the absence of Taylor, Vernon and Pither.

Brown bogged down off the line gifting Tander the lead and Martin second, but chaos between D’Alberto and O’Keeffe half spun the Honda, giving a 10-second penalty to Alfa driver.

The top three broke away quickly. Martin was heaping the pressure on Tander as Brown held station behind. The lead trio were then caught by Moffat and Cox, as Brown began to fall away with tyre graining, finishing fifth.

Tander running wide at Turn 14 was all the invitation Martin needed and he snatched a lead he didn’t relinquish, taking a 2.7s victory ahead of the Audi and Moffat. Despite a lurid slide at turn 14, Cox completed an impressive weekend to take home fourth.

Queensland Raceway hosts the fourth TCR Australia round, with Brown heading to his home state 125 points ahead of Moffat, while O’Keeffe sits a further four-points adrift.

Points: Brown 356, Moffat 231, O’Keeffe 227, D’Alberto 213, Morcom 208, etc

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SHANNONS NATIONALS Round 3 The Bend 12-14 July

CARUSO AN EXCEL-LENT GRADUATE Race Report: Garry O’Brien Image: Insyde Media

HURACAN BLASTS TO UNEXPECTED WIN Race Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Insyde Media IT WAS a dramatic and attrition filled Australian Endurance Championship race which ended in darkness at the Bend Motorsport Park.

Shane van Gisbergen and Liam Talbot recorded Trofeo Motorsport’s first race victory in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 car.

The race got off to an exciting start with a trio of Mercedes AMG GT3 cars going three wide into the first turn with Peter Hackett on the inside and Yasser Shahin on the outside, the pair squeezing Max Twigg in the middle with contact made. It was Shahin on the outside who came out of the first turn leading.

In the first stint rain briefly fell on the circuit, Shahin lost time and the lead running through the grass at Turn 1.

Fraser Ross and Geoff Emery were the first drivers to pit on lap 19 and followed Shane van Gisbergen and Liam Talbot took victory after three hours at The Bend

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quickly by the rest of the field.

After all of the first stops were completed it was Ross who led Hackett, Twigg, Shahin and Talbot, before Twigg soon took second off Hackett.

With one hour and 40 minutes to go the driver changes began. Shahin was first in handing the car over to Jamie Whincup, Twigg and Hackett followed suit the next lap handing over to Tony D’Alberto and Dom Storey respectively. Shortly after the stop they were passed by Jamie Whincup on warmer tyres.

With just over an hour both the GT4 cars struck trouble, the #48 KTM X-Bow of Justin McMillan and Glen Wood came to a stop on the circuit with a broken driveshaft. Around the same time the other KTN of David Crampton and Trent Harrison entered the lane with a gearbox issue. The safety car was called to recover the #48 car, with van Gisbergen making his final stop while the rest of the field stayed out.

On the restart Whincup quickly took the lead off the McLaren, now being driven

by Ryan Simpson, and was followed through by Garth Tander who had taken the Audi over from Emery; Simpson slowed with damage to the car soon after.

Whincup was leading comfortably when his car started to bunny hop, and he limped back to the lane in need to fuel.

With all of the final stops completed van Gisbergen held a sizable lead, but Tander set about catching his Supercar co-driver.

Although Tander cut into the Kiwi’s lead it was not enough to stop an unexpected race victory for van Gisbergen and Talbot. Tander and Emery came home second, extending their points lead, while Storey held off D’Alberto in the final laps for third.

Both the GT4 KTMs got back out with the #50 car of Harrison and Crampton taking the class win.

IN ONLY his second race meeting aboard the 700 plus horsepower John Gourley-owned Audi/Chev V8, one-make Excel series regular Jordan Caruso won the second round of the DEA Performance Nationals Sports Sedans Series at The Bend.

Caruso came through for the overall victory over series leader Tony Ricciardello (Alfa/Chev) and Michael Robinson in his Holden Monaro/ Chev, by winning the third and last race, and setting a new lap record in the process.

Slick tyres and a sudden downpour as the first race started turned The Bend into an ice skating rink. Pole sitter Thomas Randle (SAAB/Chev) was a non-starter due to an oil pump driveshaft failure at the end of qualifying.

Ricciardello assumed the lead but speared off at the turn one, re-joined and was given a drive-through penalty – deemed to have improved his position although he was second behind Shane Woodman (BMW/ Chev) when he re-joined.

Woodman had a tentative lead over Myles Bond (Ford Escort/Nissan Turbo), current title holder Steven Tamasi (Calibra/Chev), Caruso and, joining the group later, Simon Copping in his ex-Supercar VZ Commodore.

Tamasi ultimately went through to win ahead of Copping with Woodman

Luis Leeds clinched the Formula 4 Championship on his return.

LEEDS SEALS THE DEAL Race Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Insyde Media AT THE double-header final two rounds of the PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Championship, Luis Leeds, racing for AGI Sports, wrapped up the title . . . and he did it with ease and a round to spare.

Leeds held off a fast-starting Jackson Walls to take the early initiative and win the opening race of round five. He eased up in the latter stages to beat home Team BRM’s Ryan Suhle and Antonio Astuti (AGI).

Fastest qualifier Lochie Hughes (BRM) finished fourth ahead of Emerson Harvey (BRM) who incurred a 5s postrace penalty for starting outside his grid box.

Walls had made a brilliant start from the second row and although he was unsuccessful in grabbing the early lead,

remained second until passed at turn 6 by Tom Smith. At the next corner both were off the circuit and resumed in sixth and seventh behind Smith.

In race two Hughes held off Suhle for the duration. Astuti was the first to try and wrestle third off Walls before Leeds took over as the challenger. For several laps the pair’s attempts fell short before both were able to get by and finish third and fourth close together. Behind Walls it was Smith with Harvey a distant seventh.

A great start from Walls in race three put him in the lead, leading from Hughes who took over later for the run to the flag.

Despite his best efforts, Leeds couldn’t find a way through to second, settling for third as Smith held off Astuti for fourth.

Suhle was in the leading mix until contact with Hughes dropped him down the order.

A post-race penalty for the latter gave Wall the victory.

Despite the penalty, Hughes won the round ahead of Leeds and Suhle.

Walls started race one of round six well but ran off at turn one, slid across track and took out Astutiti and Harvey. After th the cleanl up, Leeds led until passed by Hughes who took the win while Suhle overtook Smith for third.

Walls had to sit out the second race. Suhle grabbed the lead at the start, ahead of Smith and Astuti. It wasn’t long before Hughes and Leeds worked their way past Astuti and the latter pressed the leader, eventually

taking Suhle then h held t ki control. t l S hl th ld off Hughes and Astuti to take second as Smith and Harvey followed.

Leeds was a comfortable winner of the last, also taking the round as Hughes filled second. Contact between Suhle and Astuti spun the former, while the latter took third ahead of Smith and Harvey.

SARANDIS BEST OF THE IP LATE COMERS Race Report: Garry O’Brien Image: Insyde Media

Tony Ricciardello failed to hold off Jordan Caruso in an epic Sports Sedan battle.

third from Bond and Caruso.

Ricciardello fought back to sixth ahead of Shane Bradford (Chev Camaro), Colin Smith (Holden Monaro/Chev), Anthony Cox (SAAB/ Dodge) and Robinson.

Ricciardello won the second race, holding off Caruso. Tamasi started from pole position and was the early leader before Ricciardello surged past. Tamasi’s race ended shortly after when he stopped with an engine issue.

The battle for third involved Bond, Woodman and Bradford, with the latter ultimately winning out.

Woodman was close behind, but Bond retired with the Escort locked in third gear. Robinson was fifth ahead of Smith, Rick Newman (Ford Falcon BA), Copping and Cox. Ricciardello and Caruso traded lap record times in an earnest lead battle for race three until Ricciardello had a low oil pressure light come on and slowed. Caruso went onto

victory while second in the race went to Tamasi coming from the rear of the grid, with Robinson third.

Soldiering on at reduced pace Ricciardello limped home in fourth just ahead of Bond (another rear of grid starter) with Smith next from Newman, Cox and Copping.

Woodman stopped on the opening lap with broken input shaft before Bradford ran onto the infield due to a breakage on the back of the gearbox.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION was a late inclusion on the Shannons Nationals program at The Bend and Andy Sarandis took full advantage to bring home a trifecta of wins in his Mitsubishi EVO 8.

Just three tenths of a second separated the top three in qualifying, with Sarandis starting the first race from pole, having eclipsed the earlier times posted by Scott Cook (Nissan Silvia S13) and Maximilian de Meyric (Mazda RX3).

Sarandis scorched off the line for an all-the-way win. Cook was able to close after the 4WD’s start advantage waned and challenged for the lead until he pitted to address a loose bonnet pin.

That left de Meyric a distant second ahead of David Waldon, until the latter’s RX3 expired on lap 6 with a broken header. Stephen Wan (Honda Civic) picked up third ahead of Adam Trimmer (Toyota 86).

Cook made a second stop to further attend the pin, then came back in the next race to place second ahead of de Meyric. Col Ward (Datsun Sunny) finished a close fourth while Jason Palmer (Mazda RX7) crossed the line in front of Wan. The closest race was the last where Cook finished less than half a second behind. Waldon was able to procure a welder from the Audi Sport TCR outfit and Liam Hill did the labour on his header to get the RX3 back on the grid.

Waldon rewarded the diligence by placing third.

Coming in next was Ward ahead of Wan and Trimmer.

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s w e n Y A D E SPE SPEEDWAY’S BEST SALUTED

Image: Gary Reid

SAM WALSH has officially celebrated his narrow win in the Ultimate Sprintcar Championship, at the annual Sprintcar Association of NSW presentation dinner. Just two points separated Walsh and second-placed Robbie Farr, with Matt Dumesny in third followed by Jackson Delamont and Marcus Dumesny. The Rookie of the Year was Michael Stewart, James Duckworth was the recipient of the Rising Star award and Saller Racing took home the Team of the Year while Luke Stirton was deemed as the Most Improved Driver for the season.

Image: Nakita Pollock

NATHAN DICKER proved too good in the Troy Baker-owned car with victory in the Wingless Sprints Darwin title at Northline Speedway. The NSW driver made his way past opening night winner and top point scorer Troy Carey, who placed second and Josh Norman, to grab the win. Other winners in their respective Darwin Championships were Chace Karpenko (Sprintcars), Cori Jackson (Formula 500s), Justin Brumfield (Street Stocks), Spano Gutierrez (AMCA’s), Tony Brown (Go Karts) and Isaiah Strong (Juniors).

Image: Geoff Rounds

JOCK BAKER has taken out the second annual Kevin Baker Challenge for Limited Sportsman, held at Horsham’s Blue Ribbon Raceway. While not related, Baker proved too good racing home to win from popular youngster Chris Ansell, Mark McDonald, Matt McCallum and Daniel McCloud. Prior to racing all teams travelled together to the track in a convoy of cars Baker use to call a “tail-end Charlie” to make sure all the cars got to the track.

AUSTRALIAN EVENT management supremo Rod Britton has been appointed the new General Manager of Western Springs Speedway in New Zealand. He carries 15 years’ experience across the ditch, including engagements at Sydney Speedway and Sydney Dragway, plus an extensive period at the Perth Motorplex. “This is hallowed ground steeped in 90 years of Speedway history. The historic grounds like Western Springs have an aura that cannot be duplicated. The Springs is an iconic venue, well run and promoted and I rate it as one of the best speedways in the world for Midgets, if not the best. It has to be treasured,” Britton said.

ANTHONY BEARE added another trophy to his already bulging cabinet, winning his first Brett Johnson Memorial at Karratha’s Nickol Bay Speedway in WA’s Pilbara region. The Mount Gambier driver made the long trek across Australia and from pole was pressured throughout the event by WA Champion Jack Barnewall.

Beare held his nerve in the 25 lap race and pulled away in the dying stages to grab a strong win ahead of Barnewall, while former two-time winner of the event Matt Herbert grabbed third place.

SHAUN WALSH has scooped the pool at the annual Super Rod presentation night with a number of firsts. His dominant season saw him win the overall points aggregate, King of the Bullring, Super Rod Cup, Trevor Podger Memorial, Simpson Speedway Super Rod aggregate and overall aggregate, plus Laang Speedway Driver of the Year.

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TWO OF Mount Gambier’s finest have been recognised for their contributions to the sport at the annual Speedway Australia awards in Adelaide.

Steven Lines, who won his second World Series Sprintcars Championship, was recognised as the 2019 Sportsperson of the Year and legendary racer Bill Barrows was one of five new Speedway Australia Hall of Fame inductees.

Barrows, 71, who dedicates tireless hours to Borderline Speedway, last year won the Official/Volunteer award and has been a constant and reliable member of the South Australian club across five decades.

Barrows started competing in 1968 in hot rods, then changed to super modifieds in 1973, which were the forerunners of sprintcars. He continued to race until he retired in the 1990s.

Barrows was instrumental in many changes to the sport. He helped create what has become one of the most exciting series in the country – World Series Sprintcars – with the assistance of John Hughes.

Barrows was also president of various bodies, including the Sprintcar Control Council of Australia and the Borderline Speedway on several occasions.

He was also recognised in 2018 by Speedway Australia as the Volunteer of the Year. Current Borderline Speedway Vice President Andrew Broome told Auto Action that the recognition was overdue.

“I think for Bill, personally, it’s an award that’s way overdue. The things that he’s done for administration within the sport…without the foresight we wouldn’t have what we have in Mount (Gambier) or even nationally.

“It’s fantastic for him and (wife) Sue. To be honest, he probably still spends 50 hours a week still at the Speedway here. He’s done THE BIGGEST Sprintcar races in America are now in full swing and again Australia is well represented.

Multiple national champion Kerry Madsen heads a strong list for the upcoming 59th Knoxville Nationals and carries good form with a recent win at the famous venue.

His brother Ian, James McFadden and Rusty Hickman have also registered early for the $150,000 to win August 7 event in Iowa.

FOUR-TIME Australian Formula 500 champion Liam Williams has returned home to Australia after breaking through for his first win on American soil, with a hard-fought victory in the Super 600 for Micros Sprints at Dixon Speedway in California.

The talented Queenslander in the Jim Muir-owned Pace Chassis car led the first eight laps and dropped to second before getting the lead again on lap 20 of the 25lap feature to score an emphatic victory.

“Yeah, that was my first US win. It was an awesome finish,” Williams told Auto Action.

“It was cool to get the win with my fiancé Kristin (Brown) here and my crew from Australia. It was a real Aussie win, with Stephen Bell’s Jettco package onboard. It was also his first US win using his Australian motor and injection package. We’re all really rapt.”

Steve Lines and Bill Barrows were inducted into the Speedway Australia Hall of Fame.

so much for the Speedway world and we’re all really rapt.”

Broome also said Lines deserved all that comes his way during his stunning career.

“He goes about and does his stuff, in a way, a bit like Bill. He doesn’t look for any plaudits or seek the limelight. He still helps a lot of young guys and he hasn’t forgotten his grassroots. He hates not winning and he’s a real racer. He’s just a naturally talented and all round good guy.”

Joining Barrows was Lloyd Thorley (F500s), Bill Richards (F500s), Jim Airey (Speedway bikes) and current Archerfield Speedway promoter and Sprintcar Control Council of Australia President Kathy Kelly, who were also all inducted.

The Open Wheel Competitor of the Year winner was Bunbury Speedcar ace Dayne

Images: Art of Speedway, Geoff Rounds

Kingshott while Queensland’s Mat Pascoe made it successive wins in the Sedan Competitor of the Year.

Ensuring the sport of Speedway continues to move forward, the 2019 Innovation of the Year award went to Speedway Sedans Australia for their Electronic Scrutineering Records system.

Star Junior Sedans champion Ardie Jonic won his second Youth Competitor of the Year and Modified Competitor went to Matt Hardy, while other winners were Luke Geering (Karting) and Chris Corbett won the DMA V8 Dirt Modifieds 5 Star Series award.

Two Queensland venues reaped the rewards for their season’s efforts with Kingaroy Speedway winning the Track of the Year and Pioneer Park - The Most Improved Track of the Year, while Gympie Speedway’s Allan Jennings was judged the Official/ Volunteer of the Year.

Helping to raise the awareness of the sport, the 2019 Promotional Item of the Year was taken by Ash Media and Speedway Sedans Australia live, and regular Auto Action snapper Gavin Skene was recognised for his superb images winning the 2019 Photographer of the Year.

USA STAGE FOR AUSSIES

Image: Lee Greenawalt

TWO OTHER Queensland drivers Declan Brownsey and his partner Renee Leggo, are both back on Australian soil after solid competition in the United States.

Brownsey competed in the tough Modifieds divisions and not only battled other racers but severe weather.

He got eight races in with the A-Modifieds, mainly through Illinois and had a best finish of eighth.

“The best way to title the tour would be the ‘Rain Out’ Nationals.

“It was their worst season in over five years for rain outs,” Brownsey said.

VICTORIAN DRIVER Darren Mollenoyux has arrived home in Warrnambool after a three-week sojourn in the States having grabbed his best podium since 2015.

The battle with Mother Nature had him and loyal crew chief Simon Van Ginneken compete just three times during the nine Ohio Speedweek rounds, but with pleasing results.

Things took a turn for the better in Pennsylvania. He got in seven nights’ of racing and some pretty good results which included making the six A-Mains including a second during one of the feature races.

p ra w S L A NATION

n compiled by garry o’brie

ZAMMIT RETURNS WITH ROUND VICTORY BOUNDING BACK from missing most of the first round, Steve Zammit won round two of the Australian Super Truck Nationals at Winton Motor Raceway on July 6-7.

On the original short track, two race wins, bolstered by a fifth and a third, were enough to secure the Kenworth 401 driver the most points. Shannon Smith (Kenworth T900) and Barry Butwell (Mack Superliner) finished in equal second place, with Smith now leading the series.

The championship races generally went incident-free with dramas for some happening beforehand. Marcus Prillwitz (Mack Superliner) blew the clutch on Thursday. The return of Frank Amoroso and his re-built Kenworth W900 was impeded with a broken injector in the teams’ second race with Robbie O’Connell driving.

Zammit led throughout the first race, ahead of Smith and Butwell with Amoroso displacing Lachlan Fern (Isuzu) and Anthony Tringali (International Transtar) to finish fifth behind Prillwitz.

In race two, Butwell was able to put a move on Smith to take second behind Zammit. Later Amoroso overtook Prillwitz who just held out Robby Fern (Volvo) for fifth.

Prillwitz led race three until the final lap where a mishap relegated him to seventh. Amoroso took the win ahead of the Ferns, Robby and Lachlan with Butwell next ahead of Zammit. In the

last it was Butwell all way with Smith securing second ahead of Zammit.

Amoroso was next from Robbie Fern, Tringali and Mark Schultz in his debut weekend aboard the ex-Col De Gee Isuzu.

Brett Dalglish won the opening teams’ race in the Zammit Kenworth, ahead of Prillwitz (in Butwell’s Mack) and Lachlan Fern. Robby Fern won the second ahead of Prillwitz and Dalglish.

TIN TOPS

THE WEEKEND started well for Brent Edwards and his Super 6 Ford Falcon BA, although he was beaten off the line

by Paul Cornell (Subaru Impreza WRX) before Edwards regathered and went ahead. Cornell was second ahead of Joe Strickland (Holden Commodore) while behind Michael Rice (Commodore) there was little between Daniel Van Der Heyde and Tony Heasly in their Holdens.

It was a similar scenario in the second outing with Cornell best away and leading Edwards until the Subaru looped in the esses. Edwards took over for the remainder while Van Der Heyde was second and Cornell came back from seventh to edge out John Hickey (Commodore) for third.

Edwards would be unbeaten for the weekend, easily taking the last two races ahead of Cornell. Hickey was third in front of Cooper Cappellari (Commodore) who came through for third in the last, just 0.6s behind second.

Frank Amoroso battles for Kenworth supremacy with Shannon Smith, while Jordan Caruso was the big winner in Excels. Images: Phil Wisewould

SPEEDWAY/STOCK CARS

HYUNDAI EXCELS

IN FOUR races of the Trophy Series fourth round, it was the fastest qualifier Jordan Caruso finishing ahead of Cooper Webster and quite comfortably in each. The latter did get the initial jump a couple of times but couldn’t hold off Caruso for long.

Third however was up for grabs with John Thorn taking the spot after Nathan Blight failed to finish with a lap to go. Next was Daniel Webster edged out David Musgrave for fourth, before the latter reversed the situation in race two where Thorn was third

again. After a charging ninth in the second, Blight was third in race three and four where Musgrave was fourth in each.

In the Masters Series (over 40-yearsolds) there were four different winners with pole sitter Neil Haesler winning the first before Robert Dowel won the second. Peter Van Waart blew his gearbox in race one, had a issue with Haesler in race two and came back to win the third, and Brendan Avard won the last when rain had started to fall and several front runners fell victim to the slippery conditions.

Image: Angryman Photography

Image: Marg Hotz

BASKERVILLE BRINGS THEM CLOSE ONLY A handful of points separate the top four in the Tasmanian Hillclimb Cup Series, after the third round which Jamie Lonergan won at Baskerville on July 7.

It was the second round win in a row for Lonergan (Nissan Skyline), as he moved into second in the series despite missing the season opener.

First round winner Rod Bender (WV Golf R) finished a solid second outright to take a narrow series points lead. Getting better with every outing, Nathan Oliver (Mazda RX8) was rewarded with a third outright and a class win to maintain his series third place.

Lonergan was clearly the driver to beat from the first run and posted consistently quick times, getting progressively faster with each pass, with his winning time coming on the last run. Oliver surprised his rivals with a blistering drive in the fourth run (his

AT THE helm of his recently acquired Chev Silverado OzTruck, Brett Mitchell was unbeaten in four outings. He won race one ahead of Zac O’Hara (Chev Monte Carlo Stock Car), Richard Hay (Ford Falcon) and Matt Domburg (Commodore), while it was close between the Holdens piloted by Graeme Harrison and Paul Domburg.

Behind second place O’Hara in race two, it was Robert Marchese (Chev OzTruck) as Hay and Domburg again fought it out for fourth. Marchese was able to topple O’Hara in race three and Hay scored his third success over Domburg for fourth.

The last race of the day had reduced numbers and Steve Heinrich (Commodore) won from Jeff Blencowe and David Barrie (Holdens). GOB

fastest), quickest by almost three-tenths of a second with Bender a further tenth of a second slower in a tight run. Bender kept the pressure on Lonergan, but the closest he could get was on that run.

Reigning champion Rob McIntyre (Subaru Impreza WRX Sti), showed his pedigree with a solid fourth outright. Unlike last season, when the championship was decided over a multi-round series, this year’s will be a one-off. The five-round hillclimb cup series does not carry any championship points.

Scott Wyman (Honda Integra Type R) has been consistently in the top half a dozen and this time finished fifth outright and claimed class honours to advance to the series’ fourth outright. Michael Sullivan (Austin Healey Sprite), Ritchie Thimm (Mazda 3), Hamish Ferguson (Mazda RX-7), Phillip Blake (Fiat Abarth) and Chris Wiggins (Buggy 3800) also recorded class wins. Martin Agatyn

VANDERSEE WINS SECOND GOLDRUSH DRIVING A rare Skelta G-Force, Ray Vandersee won the second running of the Goldrush Hillsprint at the Mt Morgan Range circuit in Central Queensland.

The event was run on July 13-14 on the challenging 24-corner, 2.3km track, with more than 100 teams coming from various parts of Australia to compete.

The field was divided into eight categories, but it was Vandersee that topped the times at the end of the weekend. His 1m 25.287s run bettered last year’s record time by more than 5s, a time incidentally also set by Vandersee.

Second for the event was reigning Queensland Hillclimb champion Ross Mackay in his potent Ford Escort, finishing 1.213s in arrears of the Skelta. A close third was Gary Lange in a BMW M3, finishing with a time of 1m 27.661s.

Mackay did, however take out the 0-2000cc 2WD class, while Vandersee took the 2WD 2001cc-4000cc ahead of Lange and the Porsche of Chris Ching.

Trent Laves (Nissan 200sx Coupe) snatched the 2WD Road Registered class win by 0.801s from Michael Seymour (RCR SLR) in the closest battle of the weekend.

Other class winners included: Mark Crespan (2WD 4001cc and over), Clay Weston (2WD Road Registered 0-2001cc), Tim Hall (2WD Road Registered 4001cc and over), Phil Sutcliffe (4WD over 3500cc), Duncan Matt (4WD Road Registered up to 3500cc) and Peter McPhee (4WD up to 3500cc).

The event was a success with organisers hoping to host the Australian title at the event next year.

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

Image: JS Motorsport Photography

COX AND KING WIN AGAIN THE STACKPOOLE 500 on July 5-7 marked the belated start to the ARB Australian Off Road Racing Championship and it was won by Talbot Cox and Craig King in their Unlimited Toyota V8-powered Racer Engineering Carbon.

The lush farmlands of Stackpoole became the series start when it was moved from a drought-affected March to July, after the cancellation of the originally scheduled Mildura and Sea Lake events.

It is the second time in two years that the Queensland pair have won the event and this time they did so by just over 5mins.

Second were Michael Marson and Chris Colborne (Racer Engineering Carbon/Ford Windsor V8), with Aaron and Liz Haby (Element Off Road Prodigy/Toyota 2GR Twin Turbo) third, a further 4mins 45s away.

The event had 61 starters and consisted of six laps of the 80km course, of which Cox won five and Marson the other.

Also putting in some good laps were Clayton Chapman and Adam McGuire in their Razorback/Toyota 2JZ Turbo, until it broke a CV. Reigning champions Brent Martin and Andre De Simone (Class 1 Jimco Aussie Special/Nissan V6) started 10th after the prologue and got to 2mins 25s behind the leaders at the end of day one, before having issues on day two meant an overall 10th placing.

Behind the three Unlimiteds were Steven and Daryl Graham in their Class 10 Tatum/Honda ahead of Richard Crabb (Unlimited Racer Engineering/Holden V8) in a single-handed effort.

The Class One winners Dale Martin and Adrian Rowe (Tatum, Nissan V6) finished sixth outright ahead of Class 10’s Dean

Meginley and Dean Demarco (Tatum/Honda), the Unlimited entry of Andrew Murdock and Ben Rickerby (Element Off Road Prodigy/Chev LS2) and Phil Lovett and Michael Fraser (Class 6 Can-Am Maverick/VTwin Turbo).

Class 2 was won by Peter Hunt and Tom Vearing (Cougar/ Toyota) after the Hunter Rivmasta/Toyota of class leaders Dale Standen and Josh Lyell broke a stub axle. Steven Orr and Coby Hall (Hunter Rivmaster/Suzuki) were the last standing in Class 3, while even the leading Class 4 entry of Paul Youman/Graham Kluck (Razorback/Toyota Turbo) didn’t get through every heat.

Class 5 went to Bernie Clohesy/Stuart Amos (Mitsubishi Triton/Chev L98), Class 7 to Sandy Bowman with Ben Thompson and Kalman Lorinc sharing the Nissan GU’s direction and Class 8 was won by Stuart Chapman and Michael Orr (Triton). GOB

A BRISK FISKE IN A shortened Bruce Fiske Memorial Enduro Eric Schlifelner was declared the winner over David Davis, with Luke Densley and Warren Collins coming in third at Bagshot on July 7.

Concerns about safety, caused by heavy rain at the end of the first heat, brought about an early conclusion to the second round of the Victorian Off Road Championship. It was also round four of the Victorian Off Road Club Series.

Originally the event was to be over two 15-laps (or one-hour) heats of the 5.5km course.

Schlifelner (Superlite Saber/Hayabusa) was the fastest in the prologue ahead of class rivals Brant Knight (Saber/Suzuki) and Davis (EMS Saber/Suzuki).

The first (and only) one-hour heat had Schlifelner leading from the

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front, finishing 2mins 23s ahead.

Just 9s covered the second and third placegetters along with fourth placed Peter Stevenson and Brock Stevenson (Hunter Rivmaster/Toyota), Glenn Pike and Marcus Chilton (Can-Am) and Knight.

One lap down and third in SXS Turbo were Brett and Christy Jorgensen, ahead of Craig and Adam Button, who took out Performance 2WD in their CBR/Holden V8.

Then followed Sportsman class winners Lawrie and Steven Pempraze who were a further lap down in 10th outright. The winners in ProLite were Densley/Collins, while Gary Teuissen and Lachlan Mountjoy were the leading Production 2WD in their Holden Commodore V6. GOB

Image: Downunder Motorsport and Media

Image: Tim Allott

SKODA ON TOP IN KIRUP

WITH WINS on all six stages, John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver won the Kirup Rally, round four the West Australian Championship on July 6.

Held some 50km south east of Bunbury and taking in 132km of competition on wet and muddy roads, O’Dowd and Feaver teamed up in their Skoda Fabia R5 to finish 1min 42.2s ahead of Ben Searcy and Jimmy Marquet (Mitsubishi EVO 9) Despite the clean sweep, O’Dowd felt he was pushed all the way by Searcy, who was second on five of the stages and third on the other. O’Dowd also admitted that he had a few excursions, a few overshoots along the way. Searcy said that aside from being the first car on the stages, his rally went well apart from hitting the odd log and causing some damage to suspension components.

Thirty cars started and 21 finished with Subaru Impreza WRXs filling the next three positions, with Barry McGuinness and Stephen Wade just 1.6s ahead of Craig

Rando and Matt Scafidi, while Ben Perard and Daymon Nicoli were fifth.

Stephen Oxley and Michael Wood (WRX) scored a couple of stage thirds and one second but then succumbed to mechanical issues and retired.

Sixth place overall went to the best of the 2WDs in the husband and wife team of Alex and Lisa White in their Nissan Silvia S13. They had almost 7min on class rivals Anthony Chudleigh and Tim Wright (Ford Fiesta ST150) and Stephen Dixon and Paul Van Der May (Honda Integra) who seventh and eighth outright.

Despite rolling their Datsun 1600 9km from the finish, Stephen Vass and Ashley Burton still managed to finish and take out the Clubman Cup ahead of Bruce Lake and Peter Hall (Datsun 240Z) and Alex and Lisa Wright (Hyundai Excel).

In Clubman Masters it was Lance Stringer and Chris Parish (Silvia S13) ahead of Andy van Kann and Steph Esterbauer (Toyota Corollaads). GOB

AUSSIES WIN PEKING-PARIS FIVE OF the top 10 finishes in the 7th Peking To Paris Motor Challenge were Australian, and leading the way home into the Place Vendome were 87-year-old Gerry Crown and co-driver Matt Bryson in their Leyland P76.

They were the winners of the Classic Class, a feat that the pair had achieved twice before, including once in the P76 in 2013.

Crown and Bryson also picked up a Gold Medal for completing 100 per cent of the course, which ran across 11 countries, and all special stages under their own power and inside the late allocated times.

Bryson, son of Australian Rally legend John Bryson, shared the driving and prepared the car as well as building a Mitsubishi Lancer for a rival international crew which also finished

within the top 10.

John Bryson had also competed in the 1974 World Cup Rally in a P76 with the late Evan Green.

The event took 36 days and covered 13,695km, with the winning margin being just 2min 33s.

Despite their charge through Europe, David and Susan Danglard in their Tuthills Porsche 911 couldn’t chase down the P76. Ironically, when Crown/Bryson previously won in the P76, the second placed car was also a Tuthills 911, that of Peter Lovett and Tim Smith.

In third place exactly 2min behind was Chris and Tjerk Bury (Datsun 240Z) who ran a strong second for much of the event but were hauled in, bit by bit, by the faster Danglards.

Steve Maher

GOLD FOR TWO ONLY ONLY TWO drivers managed to go the whole distance at the Markwell Demolition Gold City 162 on June 29, where David Skinner won ahead of Nick Glass.

It was the second round of the CAMS Queensland Off Road Championship and round two of the North Queensland Off Road Racing Super Series.

Originally slated for the Retreat Station, 60km west of Mackay, it reconvened to the Milchester Motor Sports Complex at Charters Towers.

For most of the event, Skinner (Sportslite Sollittco/ Subaru) chased Christian Rich and Nathan Mortimer in their SXS Turbo Can-Am.

The latter pair had been the fastest in the 18km prologue and won the first 36km heat and the 54km second heat, but were a DNF on the 54km final leg.

Second place went to Nick Glass, who finished the event just under nine minutes behind the winner and was Pro Buggy class winner.

Sportslite competitor Leo Castellana was out after the second heat, while class rival Mark Bredden failed to complete heat one.

The only other Pro Buggy in the event was also an early casualty with Ron Griffith not participating after the prologue. GOB

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

www.wakefieldpark.com.au July 25 PR Tech July 26 VELOCE July 27 Track Day Club July 28 MRA Track Day August 1 Speed Off The Street/Test & Tune

Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au July 26 Test & Tune – Car & Open Wheelers August 1 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers August 2 Test & Tune – Festival Of Speed Only August 3-4 Winton Festival Of Speed August 8 BJR Ride Day

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

HISTORICS AT MID-WINTER WARWICK THE BIG mid-winter Historic Queensland on July 13-14 at Morgan Park was a must for fans of days past with many annual trophies to be decided.

There was also the 50 Years of Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series second round and the Queensland Tourist Trophy.

Cooper S) took the honours for the meeting and won the prestigious Mini Anniversary Race ahead of Chris Collett and Stephen Hoade.

That pair were also third and second respectively overall. Outside the Mini domination, the next best was Claude Ciccotelli (Holden EH) in fourth.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

HERITAGE TOURING CARS

THE PRE-72 category were a prominent part of the program and split into several groups.

In Group Nc Over 2 Litre, Craig Allan (Holden Torana XU-1) was best overall with three race wins.

Bill Attard (Mazda RX2) didn’t get to win in any of the four outings but was consistent for second overall. Third for the weekend went to Peter Baguley (XU-1). He scored one second place and figured well in the others, ahead of Grahame Wrobel (Ford Mustang) and Graeme Wakefield (Mustang) who won the opening encounter.

Of the U2L Nc runners, Cameron Hein (Ford Cortina GT) started with two thirds, scored a second and then snared a win to top the class.

Mark Lenstra (Ford Escort RS1600) picked up a couple of wins but failed to score in two races, while third was John Tupicoff in his BMW 2002.

Among the pre-64 Group Nb competitors Alex D’Onofrio (Morris

THE WEEKEND was a dominant one for Terry Lawlor in his ex-DJR Shell Ford Sierra RS500. He won every encounter, including the Handicapped features, the Lloyd Bax and Glenn Seton Trophies.

Lawlor won the opener, finishing just ahead of Tony Karanfilovski (ex-Seton Sierra) with Adrian Allisey (Holden Commodore) third. In the Bax Trophy Lawlor he beat home Stephen Axisa (Isuzu Gemini), Tony Grant (Toyota Celica) and Russell Keam (Ford Mustang).

The following Handicap, the Seton Trophy for Group A, was also taken

by Lawlor, this time ahead of Allisey and Mark Taylor (Commodore).

Group C was contesting the John French Trophy in the same race with Phil Verwoert (Commodore) beating Glenn Gerstel (Ford Falcon XE) and Frank Binding (Falcon XD).

As expected, Lawlor was the overall winner and headed up Group A ahead of Allisey and Taylor, while

Gerstel took Group C in front of Verwoert and Axisa.

HISTORIC PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS

THE THREE races produced three different winners. Jon Siddins (Group T Datsun 240Z) won the first ahead of Doug Barbour, Kevin Luke and David Cunneen, all racing Group Sc Porsche 911 Carreras. Michael Bryne was next in his Lotus Seven S4.

Barbour was successful in beating Siddins in the second where after missing race one with a fuel issue, Stan Adler (911) finished third ahead of Cunneen and Greg Horwill (911).

Adler won the last, ahead of Siddins, Barbour, Horwill and Cunneen.

The Group Sb class was won by Joe Calleja in his Chev Corvette and the earlier Sa cars was taken out be Colin Goldsmith (Austin Healey 3000).

FORMULA FORDS

OF THE four encounters, Geoff Walters (Group Fc Van Diemen RF89) was the winner. He took the first ahead of Nigel Hook (Ray) and Brady McHugh (RF88) before the latter improved to second in race two ahead of Sean Sorensen (FR89). Race three was where McHugh turned the tables on

Walters, taking the win as Scott Blake (Group Fb Reynard) was third.

Walters returned a winner in race four ahead of Hook and McHugh.

HISTORIC RACING CARS

AMONG THE oldest cars on the program, it was Noel Bryen (Group M Renmax Formula Junior), winning each encounter. In three of them he showed the way to Don Thallon (MRC – Ford 22 FJ) while Dick Willis (Group Lb Nota Major) and Geoff Varey (Group M Elfin Mono) scored two and one third respectively. Varey was second in the last ahead of Barry Bates (Group Lb Thompson Special).

OLD HOLDENS AT QR BESIDES MANY of the usual categories at the fourth round, the QR Drivers Championships at Queensland Raceway on July 6-7 featured a one-hour enduro for the stalwart Holden race cars – HQs and Geminis.

HQ HOLDENS/HOLDEN GEMINIS

INTERSTATERS WERE prominent and it was the New South Welshmen in Brett Osborn and John Baxter who took out the hour-long race.

They completed 35 laps and finished 29.2s ahead of the locals Jamie Furness and Nathan Locke, with another 4s to Otis Cordwell and Joe Andriske.

The top four places were taken by HQs with Darren Parker a lone-hand fourth. Next were the two Geminis in the field and split by less than 5s. Nick Rangeley had the first stint in the car he shared with Ashley Jarvis, before jumping in the second car driven by his daughter Sammy.

The winners led for all but seven laps while the second placed pair charged from 12th to be the front runners for five laps, also having a head gasket issue to contend with, while the third placed car had dramas with third gear.

There was an early Code 60 when Duane Cambridge crashed at turn six when his HQ lost

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its brakes.

Phil Ashlin and Brandon Madden were also prominent early, leading for two laps but succumbed to losing third gear.

Earlier in the first sprint race, there was a brilliant dice between the leading three where Baxter won out over Cambridge and Brandon Madden. Osborn had it easier in the second, ahead of Cambridge and Ben Simpson.

QLD SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

THE WEATHER played its part in determining the outcome of round four. Chris Purvis (West WX10) accumulated the most points with three wins out of the five on offer. In the first two races Purvis won ahead of Dave Prodgie (West WR1000), as the many toyed over wet and dry tyre choices.

Race three had most on wets and Rodgie won after leader Purvis had a late spin. Adam Beesley (Radical SR3) finished second ahead of Grant Green (SR3), with both netting thirds in the earlier races.Rodgie followed up with victory in race four. The only dry-shod runner Matthew Vanderburg (Minetti ZZ1) charged to second ahead of Purvis and Beesley.

Then on a dry race five track Purvis won

easily after Rodgie coasted to halt on the first lap, leaving Vanderburg second as Green edged out Beesley for third.

ITALIAN CHALLENGE

FIAT WON first with Richard Shinkfield (X19 RSR) taking out race one with ease. The

combination wasn’t seen again and Rob Robson struck back for Alfa Romeo winning the next two in his GTV6. A third in the last where Alessandro Voslo (BMW E30 318i) was first, gave Robson overall honours ahead of Serge Oberhauser (GTV6) and Ken Percival (GT Junior), also in Alfas.

There was plenty of variety at Morgan Park for Historic Queensland. Images: Trapnell Creations

HISTORIC RACING & SPORTS

THE FEATURE event for the HRCC & Tourist Trophies saw a big win for Chris Farrell in his Group R Spirit Honda.

Robert Foster (Group Q March 73B) was a distant second while Steve Webb (Group Q Elfin 360 Repco Brabham) finished third.

Farrell took out the first two races, beating William Norman (Ralt RT4) and Foster in both, while the last saw Ian Ross (Osella PA5) home first ahead of Webb and Chris Hatfield in his Invited RCR T70 Spyder).

HISTORIC SPORTS SEDANS & INVITED

OVER THE four encounters Gary Ford in his Group U Ford Escort V8 was unbeaten but the challengers did come. Adam King (Invited Nissan Skyline) was less than a second behind in the first two encounters, before Aaron Hodges (Group U Ford Anglia) was second in race three and four.

Ryan McSwan (Holden Torana LX) picked up a couple of thirds and was next nearest as well as Graeme Hodges (Group U Anglia), Cody Satchwell (Mazda RX4) and Haydn Netherly (Datsun 1600) who were also prominent. GOB

SUPERKARTS

IT WAS the 250cc karts that showed the way and with Steve Murray (PVP) looking likely to take overall and class honours, until a couple of DNFs. Tim Weier (Anderson Maverick) also netted two victories and backed them up with three seconds to be the best of the weekend, as John La Spina (Stockman) won the other race.

The 125cc Gearboxes were topped by Darryl Bertram (Formula 1) and Scott Jamieson (Stockman) twice and Jonathan Bothamley (Formula 1 once. But it was Alex Hussey (Stockman) that took overall class honours with consistent finishes.

Peter Nuske (Peter Woodgate Racing) was unbeaten among the Non-Gearbox class. Ben Smith (Gladiator) had three 85cc wins but also a couple of DNFs, which gave the major points to Coby Govoni (Kosmic) who won the other two.

Geoff Walters continues to dominate Formula Ford, as he did in the 1980s.

opening race before Feeney grabbed the lead with two laps to go, and Green who edged out Whittington by just 0.0036s for second.

Feeney then led the next all the way ahead of Whittington, with a gap to Green.

In the third Whittington led at first but

Feeney assumed the lead on the second lap.

Whittington came back to win and Green split them for second. In the last it was Whittington all the way with Feeney winning the fight with Green for second.

In three encounters Mark Goldspink was

fourth, initially ahead of Frank Mamarella and Seiton Connor-Young, and then ahead of Oscar Comley, Michael Smith and Mammarella.

Goldspink headed Comley and Mammarella in race three before the latter prevailed from Corey Willis, Comley and Goldspink in the last.

Darren Whittington battled Broc Feeney in the Excels.

Images: MTR Images

TRACK ATTACK EXCEL CUP

AFTER FOUR races the two front runners finished equal on points, with the result going to Darren Whittington over Broc Feeney based on his faster qualifier. It was third-for-the-round, Scott Green who won the battle for the first race pole, with Whittington second ahead of Feeney.

Whittington led for a major part of the

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

SANDOWN PUTS ON THRILLER

THE FOURTH round of the Victorian Circuit Racing Series took place at Sandown International Raceway, it was a dramatic weekend with twists and turns at almost every corner. The racing was close and competitive racing in all categories, which produced plenty of exciting racing action.

FORMULA FORD

IT WAS a dramatic affair in Formula Ford as the national series joined the field of Victorian State Series competitors. It was Lachlan Mineeff who took the round win finishing ahead of two Benjamin’s, Benjamin Bargwanna and Benjamin D’Alia. In the first race of the weekend Cody Donald crossed the line first but was disqualified for fuel irregularity, this handed Mineeff the win. D’Alia was promoted to second but the ten lap race was called early due to a big crash involving Angelo Mouzouris and Zac Soutar. In Race 2 Soutar charged through the field to taking the win. In the final race the lead changed almost every lap, eventually it was Soutar that took his second win ahead of Hanson and Mouzouris. All three 1600 class races were won by John Connelly, however Brendan Jones kept him honest throughout the weekend.

FORMULA VEES

IT WAS also a national round for the Formula Vee Series and saw a strong field of 36 cars took to. Although Dylan Thomas only took one race victory, two second place finishes was enough to claim the round victory. In the third race of the weekend a 10 car train fought for the win with the lead with the lead changing hands on many occasions, at the end of the race Michael Kinsella received the chequered flag first beating Thomas by 0.13s and just 3s covering the top 10. As well as winning the final race Kinsella won the opening race but a fourth place finish in Race 2 was enough to allow the consistent Thomas to take the round honours. Jake Rowe finished ed the round in third position.

HYUNDAI EXCELS

BEN GRICE took round honours in the Excels but only just. Grice won Race 1 by nearly 7s, however Cameron Wilson struck back in the second race beating Grice by less than 0.04s. Grice and Wilson came into the final race tied on points, Grice led Jordan Caruso and Wilson onto the final lap. Into

Luke Grech Combo won three in Improved Production while Darryl Hansen won two in Historics. There was also a huge field of Vees at Sandown. Images: Rebecca Hind

Dandenong Road however Grice ran wide allowing both Caruso and Wilson through, into Turn 12 Wilson fired up the inside of Caruso who ran through the grass, Wilson got a poor exit and this allowed Grice to sneak back through and take the race and round win by under 0.1s. Liam Gretgrix took third in the race and third in the round also.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

AN INCREDIBLE 36 cars took to the circuit to qualify in Improved Production, despite not qualifying on the front row Luke GrechCumbo took out all three races and the round in his HSV Senator. In two completely different cars, Troy Lloyd in a VN Holden Commodore and Benjamin Schoots in a Mazda RX7 finished equal on points. Lloyd took second for the round as he finished higher in the final race of the weekend after he came out on top of a race long battle with the Mazda driver.

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HISTORIC TOURING CARS

THE #5 Ford Mustang of Darryl Hansen won the round taking two wins and a second place across the three races at Sandown, Daniel Van Stokrom finished second after recording a second and two third place finishes. After winning the opening race Andy Clempson finished the second race in eighth but recovered to finish the final race in second and with it take third place overall for the round.

SPORTS CARS

DESPITE TAKING pole position and crossing the line first in all three races Joseph Ensabella did not win the round. That honour went to James Bergmuller who took the third race victory when Ensebella was handed a post-race penalty of 5 seconds. The penalty demoted Ensabella to fourth and therefore Bergmuller’s win in the final race was enough to pinch the round from Ensabella. Jim Manolios finished the round in third.

PORSCHE 944S

CAMERON BELLER dominated the weekend of Porsche 944 racing at Sandown taking pole position and all three race victories. Lyndon Watson finished the round as runner up recording a third in the opening race and two second place results, Richard Howe rounding out the podium in third.

SALOON CARS AND BMW E30S

A GREAT fight for the round win in Saloon Cars went the way of Anthony Beare who took two race wins, despite his best efforts in the final race Travis Lindorff fell just short. While the only Ford Falcon driven of Daniel Johnson rounded out the podium in third. Alex Jory won the final race of the E30 series and with it took the round win after Race 1 and 2 winner Jeremy Payne retired from the final race and finished the round in fifth as a result. Brian Bourke and Jesse Bryan rounded out the round podium. Dan McCarthy

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TANDER TROPHY TOPS SECOND TWO DAYER THE JULY 13-14 meeting at Barbagallo was the second two-day outing for the year and the WA State Race Championships included the annual GT Tander Trophy and the first enduro race for Excels.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

THE GT Tander Cup was run over three races, but the day started badly for a pre-race fancy in Dion Panizza, who suffered a smashed windscreen from the wayward bonnet of his Holden Commodore on the way to the grid.

In race one John Callegari (Holden) led closely followed by Michael Sciorio (Subaru Impreza WRX) and Matt Cherry (Holden Monaro). It wasn’t long before Cherry went on to win from Sciorio and Nik Mitic (BMW).

The second and third races were reverse grid starts with Mitic getting the jump on the field at the start of the second, but it wasn’t long before Cherry overhauled him. Mitic held second until John Callegari made the pass closely followed by Sciorio. Callegari recorded his second DNF and Cherry won from Sciorio and Mitic. The third race was taken out by Cherry, even though Mitic led in the early laps. Callegari was third behind Mitic.

EXCEL CUP

THERE WERE three sprint races before the enduro, and the first was taken out by Nik Mitic from Wayne Milburn and Mason Harvey. Robert Landsmeer won the second ahead of Clint Harvey and Dean Hill, before Milburn scored the race three win from Hill and Mason Harvey.

The enduro rolling start was a first for the class in WA and quickly settled into a duel between Milburn, Mason Harvey and Hill. Harvey pressured Milburn until a touch between the two put Milburn into the turn 7 sand trap. The incident triggered a rush of pit stops which put Hill and Mitic in front of Harvey/Harvey and Ryan McNess/Thomas Benford.

On lap 37 the leaders and Landsmeer/Milburn entry ended up in the wall at pit entry, which brought out the red flag. The race was declared, and once penalties were applied for exceeding track limits, McNess/Benford were declared the winners from Hill/Mitic and Luke Crutchley/ Brandon Sharpe.

F1000

NICK PERCAT was a welcome addition and it didn’t take him long to make his presence felt. He led the first race from start to finish, though Adam Lisle kept in touch and took second. Both broke the existing lap record with Percat setting the faster time. Stuart Kostera took third. There was some of the closest racing down the field between Aaron Love, Madeline Stewart, Keith Fowell and Mitchell Johnson. The second and third races were much the same as Percat again led home Lisle.

FORMULA FORD

DRIVING PETER Major’s Stealth, Thomas Hamlett starred. He led the first race narrowly ahead of Braeden Bowra (Stealth) and Dan Gate (Stealth) who made the move early to take the lead. Bowra had an off and dropped down the field.

Simon Ridgewell (Van Diemen) took a narrow win from Hamlett, battling a loose engine cover, and Josh Matthews (Stealth). Gate lost third due to a 5s penalty. Hamlett took out the following races, finishing well ahead of Ridgewell and Matthews in the race two, before Bowra moved through to take second from Ridgewell in the last.

SALOON CARS

IN THE Pro ranks Brad Boley (Holden Commodore VT) came out the winner. In race one Brock Boley was first over the line but he was disqualified, leaving Brad Boley (VT) to win. Rick Gill (Ford Falcon AU) passed Matt Martin (VT) for second.

The second race win went to Brad Boley with Martin second after Gill received a 30s penalty, which elevated Brock Boley to third. Martin won the last over Brock Boley by less than a second. Gill came through to take third.

In Pro AM Nicholas Hanlon (Falcon EA) took the first win with Mark Watkins (EA) winning the battle for second over Carl Fanderlinden (EA). Hanlon won race two, with Watkins and Fanderlinden closer due a safety car period. Watkins and Fanderlinden made better starts in race three to down Hanlon in the third.

FORMULA CLASSICS

ANOTHER DOMINANT performance from Michael Henderson (Ralt RT4) in winning all the races, each time ahead of Simon Alderson (Van Diemen

FF2000), David Turner (RT4), Leone Magistro (RT4) and Craig Thompson (FF2000).

HQ HOLDENS

THE THREE races became a three-way affair between Mark Watkins, Michael Woodbridge and Michael Howlett. Woodbridge took the fight right up to Watkins but could not get by, while Howlett was third each time.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

THERE WAS early drama in the opening race when the Torana XU-1s of Robert Poglits and Stuart Young clashed at turn 1. Laurie Lapsley spun his Jaguar MkII to avoid contact and the race was red flagged.

At the restart Don Behets bunkered his Ford Galaxie at turn 1 before John Bondi (Holden Monaro) won from Simon Northey (Ford Mustang) and Greg Barr (Valiant Charger), who incurred a 5s penalty that elevated Ray Hepburn (Mustang).

In the reverse grid race two Gary Crosswell (Chev Bel Air) went off at turn 7 and clipped Lapsley’s Jag. Later there was an incident at turn 6 involving Cono Onofaro’s Morris Cooper S, Stuart Young’s Torana and Michael Gallagher’s Jag. Lapsley won from Chris Chang (Alfa Romeo) and Ken Waller (Volvo). Croswell had another lose in race three, at turn 7, forcing a safety car. After resumption the shortened race was won by Bondi from Barr and Behets.

SPORTS SEDANS/SPORTS CARS/STREET CARS

OVERALL IT was Ron Moller (Chev Camaro Sports Sedan) the winner. He started with victory over Grant Hill (Ford Falcon) and Richard Bloomfield (Porsche 997 GT3 Porsche). Behind, Neville Stewart (997 GT3) won a close dice with Malcolm Niall (MARC Cars Focus V8).

Hill won the reverse grid second race from Ryan Humfrey (Falcon) and Moller, who passed early race three leader Hill for the win as Stewart retained third.

Andrew Stevens (Nissan 180SX) topped Street Cars in race one ahead of Denver Parker (Nissan Skyline) and Paul Kluck (Skyline). Parker turned the tables on Stevens with Kluck third again.

Stevens rebounded in the last with Kluck second and Parker third. Mick Oliver

Century Batteries Ipswich Supersprint, Supercars Championship Races 19 & 20, Super 2 Series Rd4, Super 3 Series Rd3, Touring Car Masters Rd4, SuperUtes Rd5, Aussie Racing Cars Rd4, Queensland Raceway QLD, Jul 26-28 Daryl Tunbridge Trial, State Rally Series Rd4, Amhurst VIC, Jul 27 Southern Cross Rally Series Rd4, Bulahdelah NSW, Jul 27 Doug Chivas Memorial Track Day, Club One-Car Sprint, Collie Motorplex WA, Jul 27 Multi Club Autocross, 239 Boisdale - Newry Road VIC, Jul 27 Multi Club Khanacross, New England Traffic Education Centre Armidale NSW, Jul 27 Multi Club Supersprint, Barbagallo Raceway WA, Jul 27 Multi Club Day/Night Khanacross, Finke Desert Race Complex NT, Jul 27 Multi Club Khanacross, Tepon Raceway QLD, Jul 27-28 State (Vic) Off Road Club Shield Rd7, Moorex SA, Jul 27-28 QLD-NSW Sprint Challenge/Short Circuit Touring Car Series Rd3, Carnell Raceway QLD, Jul 27-28 Victorian 6 Hour Relay, Phillip Island VIC, Jul 27-28 Multi Club Khanacross, Bernaby Motor Sport Complex QLD, Jul 27-28 Club Motorkhana, Mallala Motorsport Park SA, Jul 28 Multi Car Supersprint, Mallala Motorsport Park SA, Jul 28 King of the Mountain Bitumen Hillclimb Titles, Mount Stuart Townsville QLD, Jul 28 Club Hillclimb, Jack’s Hill WA, Jul 28 Multi Club Motorkhana, Ansell Park Clarendon NSW, Jul 28 Club Motorkhana, Symmons Plains TAS, Jul 28 Winter Multi Club Supersprint, Sandown Raceway VIC, Jul 28 Club Khanacross, Limestone Pit Broken Hill NSW, Jul 28 Multi Club Khanacross, Awabawac Park NSW, Jul 28 Shannons Nationals Rd4, Production Cars Rd3, TCR Australia Rd3, Porsche GT3 Cup Rd4, Sports Sedan Series Rd3, Prototype Series Rd3, Hyundai Series X3 Rd3, Queensland Raceway QLD, Aug 02-04 Club Motorkhana, Ringwood Park NSW, Aug 03 Narooma Rally, State Clubman Rally Rd4, Eurobodalla Shire & surrounding state forests NSW, Aug 03 Festival of Speed Winton Motor Raceway VIC, Aug 03-04 State Motor Race Championship Rd5, Formula Vee National Series Rd4, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Aug 03-04 State Motor Racing Championship Rd3, Mallala Motorsport Park SA, Aug 03-04 NT Titles Off Road Rd4, Mt Ooraminna NT, Aug 03-04 Nth Qld Off Road Series Rd3, Charters Towers QLD, Aug 03-04 Club Motorkhana, Tonker Park Whitsundays QLD, Aug 03-04 Rejex Classic Rally, Darwin/Batchelor NT, Aug 03-04 Multi Club Khanacross, Proston Rally Track QLD Aug 03-04 Multi Club Motorkhana, Geelong Motor Sports Complex VIC, Aug 04 Youth Challenge Multi Club Khanacross, Rob Roy Hillclimb, Aug 04 Club Khanacross, Nomie’s Quarry Mannum SA, Aug 04 Multi Car Supersprint, Symmons Plain Raceway TAS, Aug 04 Club Autocross, Bunbury Autocross Circuit WA, Aug 04

This altercation between the Toranas of Poglits and Young caused a red flag. Images: Mick Oliver

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HI-FIVES AND RIDE ALONGS IT MAY have been a late call up to race the Trofeo Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3, but it was all hi-fives for Shane van Gisbergen – quite literally.

Fresh from a race victory in the streets of Townsville a week earlier, Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s leading title contender added another trophy to the cabinet at The Bend Motorsport Park, as he steered the Lambo to its first race win in this country through a superb strategy.

A safety car with an hour to go allowed the Trofeo Motorsport crew to fuel van Gisbergen to the end, holding off advances from RBHRT teammate Jamie Whincup and Pirtek Enduro Cup co-driver Garth Tander to take victory.

Not only was it the first win for the team and car, but van Gisbergen’s Am co-driver and long-time GT competitor Liam Talbot broke his duck in the category after coming close

previously, so a hi-five seems apt for the occasion.

Obviously, van Gisbergen thought so as well.

HI-FIVES may have been on show at Tailem Bend, but on the other side of the world there was another show of people power at Silverstone. Although, it wasn’t the way Kimi Raikkonen may have wanted.

After his Alfa Romeo suffered an engine failure during Friday practice for the British Grand Prix, marshals helped the Finn out by pushing his stricken car behind the concrete wall, which led to a funny moment as Raikkonen sat atop of the sidepod, steering the car to safety.

Unfortunately, one of the marshals had a stumble, but quickly recovered with a wry smile.

Raikkonen had a solid weekend from that point, finishing eighth. HM

van Gisbergen high fives his crew as he passes the pits at The Bend. Image: Insyde Media

58 AutoAction

Kimi confers with the Silverstone marshalls ahead of a somewhat slower ride home.

Images: LAT

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