Auto Action #1767

HELL ON WHEELS REPCO TRIAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY .COM.AU

SINCE 1971

BROCSTKW’ISN GREATE

INSIDE STO OF COMMO RY DORE CONQUEST

KILLER CORVETTE

GAZZA UNCUT! Rogers speaks out on Supercars vs TCR

Issue #1767

8th Aug to 21st Aug, 2019

$7.95 NZ $8.50

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TTriple i l EEight i ht wants t to t race Holden’s H ld ’ new supercar

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TCR PROMOTER EYES SUPERCARS

Ownership bid not out of the question as rivalry hots up

BRUCE NEWTON discovers that emerging promoter could become the new home of V8 racing POWERFUL NEW promoter Australian Racing Group could consider a big-money bid for Supercars to combine touring car forces.

Established just 15 months ago, ARG has already acquired the rights to the global TCR touring car category in Australia and New Zealand, the new local S5000 open-wheelers and, most recently, Touring Car Masters.

The emerging TA2 V8 silhouette series is also under investigation for acquisition by ARG. ARG has confirmed to Auto Action that negotiations are well underway with current category TA2 management to bring the category under CAMS sanctioned control, this will allow the current package to compete alongside other ARG owned categories and deliver the fast growing - potent V8 powered cars to potentially higher profile events.

Supercars, Australia’s premier racing category, could also be of interest to ARG in the future, according to the ex-V8 executive who runs the upstart organisation.

Private equity firm Archer Capital has a majority stake in Supercars, but has stated for some time that it is for sale at the right price.

ARG co-founder and investor Brian Boyd, a multi-millionaire Sydney real estate developer with a long history of motor sport sponsorship, has previously had at least one bid to buy Archer’s share of Supercars rejected.

Boyd and his partners remain interested in buying Supercars, for which Archer is understood to want at least $80 million.

That is a sticking point because the business has been independently valued at no more than $50 million.

ARG managing director Matt Braid – former No.2 at Supercars – is coy about a renewed Boyd-backed bid, but also doesn’t rule it out.

“ARG continues to look at opportunities in Australian motor sport and beyond, so if Supercars or any other opportunity arose in the right format, then, of course, we’d have a look at it,” Braid told Auto Action.

“Our core aim is to look at opportunities for Australian motor sport categories or entities which can be developed or improved or positioned in Australia or elsewhere.

“We are always on the lookout for something and if something comes to our attention in any form of motor sport, we wouldn’t necessarily pull the trigger on it, but we will continue to assess what opportunities eventuate.

“That’s where we are fortunate. We are starting from a clean sheet of paper and we have that flexibility to look at opportunities and structure that either fit the business or we can construct the business around.”

ARG would have no trouble assessing the complexities, value and plusses and minuses of the Supercars business as Braid is a former V8 managing director and James Warburton, the CEO from 2013-17, is now a non-executive director of the new group.

As reported in the last issue of AA, tensions between Supercars and ARG have evolved into open conflict over TCR, which was vetoed from the 2020 Adelaide 500 program by the V8 category.

And while most public attention has focussed on the Supercars versus TCR battle for track dates and space, ARG has been emerging as a serious professional player on the

wider Australian motor sport landscape.

In alliance with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, it is going head-to-head with Supercars in bidding for a fifth event at Mount Panorama, tapping into its global TCR contacts to propose a 500 km endurance race and a supporting WTCR round.

Its acquisition of TCM rights from long-time boss Tony Hunter is understood to have caused angst at Supercars, which often uses the historic-look V8 racers as a support category at its events.

The actions of ARG prompt the obvious question: What are its objectives?

“ARG was formed on the basis of acquiring and developing professional motor sport categories to run on the Australian motor sport landscape or the regional motor sport landscape,” explained Braid.

“That was how we discussed it when we first sat down and nutted it out on a piece of paper. I think we have stayed true to that.”

While Boyd and fellow founder John McMellan are enthusiasts and motor sport is expensive, Braid confirmed ARG was intended to be financially sound.

“With the investors involved, it’s not about making a huge profit,” he said. “It’s about having a successful business that washes its face or makes a little bit of money, but the main thing is it produces good motor racing for fans locally and beyond.”

Boyd and McMellan, the former worldwide chief of the Wilson Group, are still influential in Supercars through PAYCE and Paynter Dixon sponsorships.

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LATEST NEWS

TRIPLE EIGHT WANTS HOLDEN’S FERRARI-FIGHTER

MARK FOGARTY reveals the possibility of Red Bull Holden Racing Team Corvettes if the new cut-price supercar is available as a GT3 racer TRIPLE EIGHT supremo Roland Dane would be keen to run the all-new midengined C8 Corvette in the Bathurst 12 Hour if a GT3 racing version is developed.

Holden will import right-hand drive C8s from the end of next year or early 2021, opening up the possibility of a factory backed assault on the Mount Panorama marathon.

GM Racing has confirmed that a GTE/ GTLM racer based on the new Corvette has been developed for the Le Mans 24 Hours and other sports car enduros, but there’s been no indication of a GT3 derivative in the works.

The C8 is the first mid-engined Corvette and the first to be available in RHD from the factory, giving Holden access to the cut-price Ferrari 488 fighter.

Dane, who revealed he has already ordered a C8 road car, admitted that he would like to field a team of Corvettes in GT racing, including the Bathurst 12 Hour, if a GT3 version were developed.

“It’d be fantastic,” he told Auto Action.

“I don’t know whether there will be (a GT3 version) or not at the moment, but Computer modified images: Tim Pattinson Design

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I’d love to see one whether we were operating it or not.

“But I think the car, on the surface of it, looks in many ways tailormade for conversion into a GT3 program without having to totally rebuild the car like, for instance, the Bentley has to be.

“Certainly, from the outside, it looks as though it would lend itself to GT3 and I’d love to see it in there.”

What a GT3 C8 Corvette could look like is shown in our exclusive renderings

by Tim Pattinson, who has successfully forecast the look of many future racers.

Dane admitted that the idea of racing the C8 Corvette in the Bathurst 12 Hour had “occurred to me quite a long time ago”.

With Holden committed to bringing in the new Corvette as its halo V8 highperformance car, delivering exotic supercar performance for as little as a third of the price, an extension of its factory backing of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team to include the Bathurst 12 Hour wouldn’t be out of the question.

The global marketing of the C8 means a GT3 version could happen, but not

before 2021 and more likely 2022.

Triple Eight’s recently extended HRT deal runs until the end of ’21.

GM is likely to start racing a C8.R GTE/GTLM version next year, but racing chief Jim Campbell is not commenting on the program’s timeline.

According to Dane, there have been no official discussions with Holden about a potential future Bathurst 12 Hour entry if a GT3 C8 were to happen.

“Maybe somebody somewhere knows, but I certainly don’t at the moment,” he said But he admitted Triple Eight would seriously consider racing the new Corvette in the 12 Hour – and perhaps its Asian GT3 program – if the option

were available.

“Oh, it would certainly be on the radar, you’d have to think, for us to be looking at it,” Dane confirmed.

Holden is non-committal about the possibility of racing the C8 Corvette in Australia.

“Supercars is Holden’s sole focus in motor sport and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” a spokesman told AA. Dane theorised that a GT3 racing version of the C8.R wouldn’t be such a great leap as converting the existing front-engined C7.R. The GTE and GT3 cars, these days

FUTURE BATHURST 12 HOUR ASSAULT?

Image: LAT

TRIPLE EIGHT TURNAROUND Dane calls for more testing to improve competition

By MARK FOGARTY

they’re not actually that far removed,” he said.

“It would certainly be good to see the Corvette in some form (in GT3) and we’d love to look at it. But your knowledge on that is as good as mine at the moment.”

Dane, who already owns an HSV Camaro SS, has ordered a C8 Corvette road car, hoping to get the first blue example in Australia.

“I’ve just put my hand up for the first blue one in the country,” he said. “I’m not sure I’ll get it, but I’ve certainly put my hand up for it.”

He also lamented that Holden wouldn’t be able to demonstrate the C8 at this October’s Bathurst 1000.

“It would’ve been nice to have a car out at

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the Bathurst 1000 this year, just to show to people,” Dane said. “Unfortunately, with the program that GM has on the finalisation of the production car, that’s not possible.

“But it would’ve been great to have had it there.”

What about a demonstration at next February’s Bathurst 12 Hour?

“You never know,” he teased.

Holden wouldn’t indicate if a C8 demonstration were planned for the 12 Hour or next year’s Bathurst 1000, which would be close to its local launch.

“It is far too early to say when or where the fantastic new right-hand drive Corvette will be demonstrated locally,” the spokesman said.

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STRUGGLING SUPERSQUAD Triple Eight has turned the corner and is set to fight DJR Team Penske to the finish of the championship as team boss Roland Dane calls for a relaxation of testing restrictions.

Dane is cautiously optimistic that RBHRT’s return to frontrunning form at Queensland Raceway was not a one-off.

Jamie Whincup scored his first win of the year in the Saturday race of the Ipswich SuperSprint and Shane van Gisbergen chased title dominator Scott McLaughlin home in the Sunday leg.

“It was definitely better for us than we’ve been since Tassie,” Dane said, referring to SVG’s Sunday win at Symmons Plains back in March.

Van Gisbergen scored his second victory in the Townsville 400 Sunday race in adverse conditions.

While encouraged by his team’s comeback at QR, where the team had tested earlier last month, Dane wasn’t prepared to declare a total turnaround.

“One swallow doesn’t make a summer, but certainly I think that we made some worthwhile steps at the test and then the race meeting which, hopefully, will be locked in,” he said. “Whether it’s enough to be able to carry on at that level remains to be seen.”

However, he is confident the recovery wasn’t track specific or linked with Triple Eight’s traditional resurgence at QR when it has struggled in the first half of some previous seasons.

“No, I’m not concerned that it’s track-specific,” Dane declared. “It could also be a reflection on the testing rules in that if you don’t come out of the box reasonably well set up, then it’s quite difficult to do anything about it because if you take too big risks at race meetings, like we did at Phillip Island, you can end up going backwards.

“So you have to be a little bit risk-averse and experiment during a test day when the temperatures are sensible, when it’s not too hot, then you have a chance to do something about it.”

Dane believes the effective limit of two test days a year – on top of the use-it-or-lose-it official preseason test – is too restrictive

and needs to be relaxed to allow a return of up to six days testing.

But he warns that allowing more testing must be accompanied by an increased new tyre allowance, as will be the case at race meetings next year.

“If you’re going to free up the testing rules, you need to think about it more than just saying adding on a day or two,” he said.

“It has to be around having tyres that are representative, etc, and maybe having a couple of tracks rather than just one.

“My biggest fear is that if you restrict testing too much, as we are at the moment, then you place more and more emphasis on simulation and also, you’ll take less and less risk with upand-coming drivers and be more and more reliant on simulation tools.”

Dane maintained that computer simulation was more expensive than track testing.

“What you want to spend on simulation is unlimited, so it can be as expensive as you want it to be,” he said. “It’s really about how much you have to spend for it to be effective or good enough to do the job against somebody else who’s spending more.

“Good simulation is expensive, whereas test days are accessible to everyone and, to be honest, they’re relatively cheap. Going out to test at Queensland Raceway or Winton does not cost us a lot of money, especially if you’re smart and you use parts that are towards the end of their mileage on the cars so you’re not just throwing money at it.

“Also, it’s good for drivers – even for established drivers, it’s good to have more seat time, but certainly for young ones, it invaluable.

“If we can work out an equitable tyre arrangement, then I’d start off with one or two more days at the most and then see what people think after a year or so.

“You have to find the right gaps in the calendar to use them. You don’t want to overload your staff.

Staff turnover in the category is too high, anyway, so you have to think carefully about how you use them.

“I’d ease into it; I wouldn’t rush into suddenly going back to six days.”

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REVEALED: SECRET WILD CARD PLANS

By MARK FOGARTY WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United and a resurrected Team Kiwi are secretly plotting wild card entries for the Bathurst 1000.

Auto Action has learned that WAU is looking at fielding an extra car at Bathurst for an American IndyCar star and a funded local young gun, while Team Kiwi is on the comeback trail.

Informed sources have confirmed that WAU has revived its Bathurst wild card interest as NZ former team owner David John tries to organise a one-off return.

In league with American partner Andretti Autosport, WAU is planning a wild card entry headed by Marco Andretti in league with Kiwi Porsche junior driver Jaxon Evans.

Evans has a close link with WAU sponsor Morris Finance, which could fund a third Walkinshaw Commodore at Bathurst.

But Evans, last year’s Australian Porsche Carrera Cup champion who is now racing in the German marque’s top-tier Supercup F1 support race series, has also been linked with the Team Kiwi plan.

Gold Coast-based New Zealander Craig Baird has been associated with the Team

Marco Andretti is a Bathurst wildcard chance. Image: LAT Kiwi comeback.

Baird, a former Supercars racer, is now the category’s DSO, combining that role with second-tier Porsche 911 racing and driver training.

He has previously raced for John in the now defunct NZ Super Tourers V8 championship.

While he admitted to AA that he had been approached by John, Baird denied he was part of the Team Kiwi revival plan.

THE 2020 Supercars calendar and event formats are likely to be unveiled in the third week of August.

As previously reported by Auto Action Supercars is expected to drop two events from the calendar and add the Sydney SuperNight, reducing the calendar from 15 to 14 events.

It is also expected to confirm – among other format changes - SuperSprint event Saturday races will grow from 120km to 200km, matching the length of Sunday races.

AA understands the venues that are in and out have been essentially finalised and only the details of a few specific contracts and dates are to be finalised.

The fundamental concept of the 2020 calendar was understood to try and conduct events three weeks apart as often as possible, in an attempt to avoid the back-to-back race meetings that heavily tax teams and their personnel.

“The calendar is very close, subject to some final discussion with the various stakeholders,” said a Supercars spokesman.

“We expect to be announcing it in the coming weeks.”

Phillip Island is one of the rounds commonly mooted to get the chop because of its expense to hire, small crowds and low television ratings.

One of fellow Victorian circuit Winton and Queensland Raceway are also set to get the chop.

Dates already confirmed include the Adelaide 500 Series opener on February 20-23, followed by the Australian Formula One GP at Albert Park on March 6-8.

Meanwhile, Supercars’ 2020 technical changes will not be rolled out at the same time as the calendar and format changes, as had at one stage been planned.

But work on a drive by wire throttle, LED panels, reduced aerodynamic downforce, increased engine durability and a control damper is continuing. BN

6 AutoAction

“I’m not involved in it,” he declared.

John’s Team Kiwi customer car entry gave Shane van Gisbergen his Supercars start, but collapsed in the late 2000s due to lack of funding.

AA understands that John is having trouble securing a car and preparation deal for Bathurst after preliminary arrangements fell through.

The Walkinshaw wild card bid is a surprise

because the team had previously ruled out an extra entry at Bathurst due to lack of funding.

It now seems it has secured the backing to run a multi-national driver crew at Mount Panorama due to an unexpected and creative deal landed on its doorstep.

Supercars is desperately encouraging wild cards to boost the field at Bathurst from the all-time low 24 regular championship entries since the category was recast in 1997.

SUPERCARS CALENDAR SOON

Image: LAT

GRM S5000 TEST DAY

By MARK FOGARTY

Image: LAT

ALTIMA AERO UPGRADE

BY BRUCE NEWTON WHILE NOT expecting miracles, Kelly Racing is hoping aerodynamic changes to its Nissan Altima will improve its tunability and competitiveness.

The Altimas will front at Tailem Bend for the next Supercars championship outing with a trimmed front undertray and taller bootlid gurney flap.

These are similar changes to those made to the Holden Commodore ZB in time for the Darwin Supercars outing.

Kelly Racing was offered the chance to make the same changes to its aerodynamic package at that time but chose to conduct more evaluation before proceeding.

The team tested the changes at

Queensland Raceway the day after the Supercars event, working in conjunction with the Supercars technical department.

Those changes were then approved by the Supercars Commission after Kelly Racing presented a submission based on CFD analysis, validated by the on-track testing.

Revised parts will be ready for the team’s in-season test at Winton on August 13, ahead of the August 2323 Tailem Bend SuperSprint.

Kelly Racing has struggled to sort out the aerodynamic settings of the Altima since significant changes were made over the summer.

Across four cars it has managed just one podium all season, Andre Heimgartner’s third at Phillip Island.

“We’re pretty happy with what

we’ve been able to do to the car,” team owner Todd Kelly told the official championship website.

“We’re not expecting to jump up 10 spots on the grid but it’ll certainly be a little bit better than what we’ve had and more importantly a little bit more tuneable.”

Supercars’ Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess said officials worked with the team as it looked to improve car balance from the off-season tweaks.

“Kelly Racing asked for more time before making an adjustment and obviously we want them to make a positive adjustment,” Burgess said.

“It hopefully offers more of a workable platform for the drivers and engineers, opening up the set-up window.” BN

GARRY ROGERS Motorsport will hold a try-to-buy S5000 test day at Phillip Island at the end of the month.

Potential S5000 entrants have been invited to bring their drivers to try the V8 open-wheeler if they are seriously interested.

GRM has taken over construction and sales of the Ligier chassis-based Ford five-litre V8 powered big banger single seaters, which are due to make their racing debut at Sandown next month.

Up to six S5000s will be laid on for the Island test day, with participants charged $10,000 to take part.

The steep fee is to discourage ‘tyre kickers’ and have-ago thrill-seekers.

Participants who agree to buy or lease a car from GRM will be credited $5000 towards the purchase/lease deal.

GRM is building 14 cars, the majority of which it will sell or lease. The cost of the F5000-style racer, which incorporates as much Australian content as possible, has been pegged at $350,000 each.

GRM patriarch Garry Rogers revealed the S5000 try-to-buy test day at Phillip Island in a no-holds-barred interview with Auto Action (see page 20).

“The cars will be there for genuine interested parties to come and try,” Rogers said. “There’ll be an opportunity to come and drive the car, have a look at it and see what our spare parts package is in either a buy or lease arrangement.

“But there’ll be a cost for that. You’ll have to pay to do that. So this won’t just be a joy ride for people who want to blaze around, do 10 laps and then go home.”

GRM is planning to run at least two cars in the CAMS S5000 championship, which begins at Sandown from September 20-22.

RICHIE TEST TO DECIDE FUTURE SIDELINED STAR Richie Stanaway will have a make-or-break test at Winton next week that will decide his Supercars future.

Garry Rogers Motorsport has confirmed that Stanaway, who has been out of action because of a nagging neck injury since the Perth SuperNight in early May, will drive one of the team’s Super2 Commodores to check his fitness.

Stanaway was replaced at Winton and Darwin by GRM’s 2018 Super2 champion Chris Pither, with dumped Kelly Racing – and former GRM – driver Michael Caruso taking over at Townsville and Queensland Raceway.

In a no-holds-barred interview (see pages 20-23), team owner Garry Rogers revealed that the test will determine the enigmatic Kiwi’s future with the struggling Boost Mobile racing squad.

“Richie wants to drive the car,” Roger said. “At least now he has accepted the fact that he couldn’t continue the way he was going before we pulled him out. He was saying ‘I’ll be right, I’ll be right’ and then, of course, we stuck him in the car, and he wasn’t right.

“But on what his medical people have told me now, I think he should be right. The plan is that we will take him to Winton and blaze him around for 100 laps or whatever

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Image: Ross Gibb

it is and see what happens to his neck.

“If it’s no good, then he’s gone for the rest of the year.”

Rogers, who admitted his team’s tail-end results so far this year were “embarrassing”, wasn’t convinced Stanaway’s lacklustre form was due to his neck problem.

“He never complained to me about it,” he said. “It only reared its head after a couple of meetings. I thought he did quite a good

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job at Symmons Plains, where we went OK.” Rogers, 74, and the longest serving team owner with 56 years in Australian motor sport, admitted that Stanaway wasn’t entirely to blame as GRM had lost its way.

“I think Robbo (Michael Caruso) has done a good job, but he’s better than where we’ve been qualifying. He can drive better than that. Now, clearly, our cars are not right.

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“The cars are not right. We are definitely missing something. So that’s why we’re going to give him (Stanaway) a run, see how he is, but if he’s still not right, we’ll have to do something because the enduros are nearly here.”

If Stanaway proves in the test that he’s fit to race again, Rogers confirmed he wanted to keep him on.

“Absolutely, of course,” he declared.

Mark Fogarty

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RANDLE AIMS FOR 2020 SUPERCARS SEAT CHANCE

Super2 star adds yet another option to turbulent silly season

By BRUCE NEWTON

DJR TEAM Penske has made a replica of the now famous ‘Mustang Wins Title’ poster which is available for sale to raise funds for children’s family cancer charity Camp Quality.

Scott McLaughlin’s race win on the Sunday at Queensland Raceway was enough for Ford to clinch the 2019 Supercars Manufacturers Championship. In the post-race excitement McLaughlin showed a celebratory ‘Mustang Wins Title’ poster on the podium and CAMS fined the Kiwi $10,000 for taking unauthorised promotional material to the podium.

BOOST MOBILE has announced that it will support the wildcard entry of Super2 drivers Jake and Brodie Kostecki at the Bathurst 1000. The deal came about after the Kostecki’s caught the attention of Boost Mobile CEO and founder, Peter Adderton. The communications giant’s support of the cousins will see three Boost backed Holden ZB Commodores on the grid for the Great Race.

Brodie has made the sacrifice this year to pull himself and his VF Commodore from the Super2 Series, as the team convert the Supercar into a new ZB Commodore ready for the 1000.

Image: LAT BRAD JONES Racing has not been penalised for the fire that engulfed Nick Percat’s Commodore and the Brad Jones Racing pit box at the end of the final race of the Townsville 400. The fires were extinguished by nearby crews, and fortunately no one was injured. An investigation was immediately undertaken but stewards have confirmed that no breach of the rules had taken place, and as a result no penalty will be applied.

THE RED Bull Holden Racing Team and both Tickford Racing crews have been fined $10,000 and penalised 50 teams’ points, after they were found guilty of incorrectly positioning their fuel towers at Queensland Raceway. Half of the $10,000 fines for Triple Eight, Tickford Racing 1 and Tickford Racing 2 have been suspended until December 31. On Sunday a total of $43,000 worth of fines were handed out to teams and drivers by officials.

FORMER VIRGIN Australia boss John Borghetti has joined the Supercars Board as an independent director. Supercars CEO Sean Seamer, Peter Wiggs and Supercars team owners Brad Jones and Rod Nash are also on the Board. Borghetti will be attending selected rounds of the championship going forward in his new Supercars role.

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TICKFORD TYRO Thomas Randle is not only a wildcard at Tailem Bend this month but has also thrown himself into the mix for a full-time Supercars championship drive next year.

“My goal is to be in the main game next year,” the emerging Super2 star confirmed to Auto Action.

“Whether that’s achievable or not is another thing, but that’s been our goal and my target to make it into the main game in 2020.”

The 23-year old Randle is in his second year in the Supercars feeder category driving for Tickford Racing, following the same ladder of success as Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters.

He recently broke through for his first Super2 race win at Ipswich, then finished second in the weekend’s second and final race, despite a numb leg and powerrobbing engine airbox fire in the Skye Sands Ford Falcon FG X. He runs fourth in the Super2 championship.

In theory at least Randle has a shot at a full-time Supercars drive with Tickford in 2020 given Chaz Mostert is expected to depart to Walkinshaw Andretti United and Lee Holdsworth is on one-year deal in the Bottle-O Mustang and not yet guaranteed to return. Cam Waters is also up for renewal but is expected to stay with the Campbellfield operation.

But even if there are two seats available at Tickford, Randle would have plenty of competition for them. Jack Le Brocq remains hot favourite to rejoin the team from Tekno, while plenty of other drivers including WAU’s Scott Pye and Kelly Racing’s Simona De Silvestro and Andre Heimgartner have been mentioned in connection with the team. “There is so much turbulence just within our team with the rumours about Chaz,” Randle said.

“But at the end of the day the team would know my intent, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing the program I am now.

“There’s only X amount of seats in our stable and at the end

Image: Insyde Media THE MUSTANG Thomas Randle will race at Tailem Bend is the rebodied Ford Falcon FG X owned

by Phil Munday.

The 23Red Racing boss had at one stage planned for Bathurst co-driver Alex Davison to debut the car in its new body, but instead Randle will renew acquaintances with a chassis that he memorably drove in his first Super2 outing in 2018.

“We had a power steering failure and I hit the wall,” recalled Randle. “We didn’t run that car

again for the year.

“It’s been fully repaired and converted into a Mustang. There will be no issues, I’m sure.”

Randle insists he’s not putting too much pressure on himself in his main game debut, instead treating it as a great Mustang learning exercise and warm-up for that expected endurance co-drive.

“A top 15 finish would be incredible,” Randle said.

“Breaking into the top 20 would be a great achievement.”

One thing Tailem Bend won’t

of the day it’s out of my control where the other drivers go.

“So it’s not something I can focus on or worry about at the moment.”

If Randle is prepared to look beyond Tickford there are a whole bunch of potential seats on offer including: - WAU alongside Mostert if neither James Courtney or Scott Pye is retained - Brad Jones Racing to replace Tim Slade if his deal is not renewed - Matt Stone Racing where Todd Hazelwood has been told to look for another drive - Kelly Racing which doesn’t have a confirmed 2020 driver at the moment - Garry Rogers Motorsport, which also has yet to firm up

enable him to do is get experience on the ‘super-soft’ Dunlop tyre, as the South Australian circuit’s 120km and 200km races will be conducted on the same soft tyre as used in Super2.

Randle has already driven the Bottle-O Mustang in an additional drivers’ session at Symmons Plains and in the wet Winton hitout. He will get more laps during a ride day in Sydney this week and at a Winton test on August 13 where all five Tickford Mustangs will run.

its 2020 plans - Tekno Autosports, which Randle’s fellow Super2 runner Jack Smith is being linked with - A second car at Charlie Schwerkolt Racing, although the usually affable team owner is remaining tight-lipped about that prospect A strong showing at Tailem Bend could boost Randle’s 2020 main game prospects, as could his expected co-driver role with Holdsworth in the Pirtek Enduro Cup. But the most powerful tool in his armoury would be a racing budget. His long-time major backer is motorsport veteran Rusty French, a co-owner of Tickford Racing.

“I love where I am, it is like a family for me,” Randle said of Tickford Racing.

TCR TITLE IGNITED

THE MARGIN between the two TCR Australia frontrunners has been cut significantly after the series crossed the halfway mark at Queensland Raceway.

Despite a start to the season that has provided mixed results, Dylan O’Keeffe fired a couple of shots by dominating Sunday’s running at ‘The Paperclip’ drawing level with rival Will Brown’s mark for race wins this season, four.

Brown on the other hand had a shocker after contact in Race 1 with Wall Racing’s John Martin dropped both to the back of the grid, but the title leader was unable to do better than eighth in the final race.

It was a change of fortunes for the two title contenders after O’Keeffe’s poor round at The Bend, but the Victorian took full advantage, which was further advanced when WTCR import and race 1 winner Jean-Karl Vernay pulled out of Saturday’s action.

“That was the focus for the weekend and it worked really well,” O’Keeffe said.

“Will [Brown] had to have a bad round at some point and we maximised this weekend for sure. We got a free kick yesterday with Tony [D’Alberto] and another this morning [Jean-Karl Vernay’s absence], so it made my job a little bit easier, but the car was

obviously quite good.”

O’Keeffe realises what he needs to do and considers his consistent qualifying form the main reason behind his enhanced title chances.

“Keep winning and focus on bringing the car home as well, we’ve had two DNFs and Will hasn’t had one yet,” emphasised the Ash Seward Motorsport driver. “I haven’t qualified outside of the top four, so if I can stay up there, it ultimately puts you in a good position for the races.

“That will be the aim at Winton.”

Even though the results didn’t go his way, Brown is complacent with how the title race is looking approaching the business end of the season “I can’t really complain, it’s hard to get a perfect season and that was the weekend our bad luck came around,” said Brown. “We’ve still got nearly a 60-point lead in the series, so we’re not beating our heads against the wall just yet.”

The hot conditions caught out a number of teams including the HMO Customer Racing team,

Brown and teammate Nathan Morcom, highlighting troubles with brakes.

“We didn’t have the best race car, but I thought we had a competitive car. We set the fastest lap in the last race, though the problem was that the brakes were fading.

“We didn’t have spare discs for the last race, probably for the last two we needed them. It was a tough weekend on brakes, the initial brake feel was good, but there were stages where you were thinking you weren’t going to have any brakes left, they were getting down to the stop, which was making it hard to pass.”

Brown also grappled with an increased BoP, which he feels won’t be as much of a factor at Winton, which he believes the i30N is well suited to.

“I think Winton will suit our cars, it’s not a horsepower track, so I think we can extend the championship lead and get it back to where it was.”

Brown heads to the rural Victorian circuit with a 57-point lead. Heath McAlpine

PARC FERME DEFENDED Edwards and Holdsworth debate the new system

By BRUCE NEWTON

PARC FERME fan and Tickford Racing team boss Tim Edwards has stoutly defended the concept despite public criticism - including some from one of his drivers.

Edwards, who is also a Supercars commissioner, has been a parc ferme believer since his Formula One days and pushed hard to have this year’s two trial runs conducted at Symmons Plains and Queensland Raceway.

In Tassie teams weren’t allowed to adjust the set-up of their cars after qualifying, while in Queensland tyres were also unchanged for the race start.

The proponents of parc ferme argued it had the potential to mix up the racing and also reduce the workload on team mechanics who were not allowed to perform anything more than very minor maintenance on the cars between qualifying and the race.

With the experiment completed for 2019, responses have been mixed. On ‘The Loud Pedal’ podcast Tickford Racing’s Bottle-O Ford

Image: LAT Mustang driver Lee Holdsworth revealed he was not a fan.

“The parc ferme rule, what a load of crap,” he said. “Seriously, it’s so bad.

“What’s the point of it? It’s meant to mix up the field. Do you reckon it mixed up the field?

Absolutely not.”

Amusingly, when told Edwards was the primary driver force behind its reintroduction, he jokingly – we think – moderated his view.

“I am going to be in trouble again … It wasn’t that bad.”

Edwards sympathised with Holdsworth’s view given he had struggled for the right set-up at QR but continued to insist the concept was valid.

“There is always going to be opponents to it

and anybody who – in their eyes – was hard done by it at Queensland Raceway [will have that view],” said Edwards.

“It was a frustrating day for Lee because they took a swing at it for Sunday qualifying and he knew as he drove out of pitlane and completed his first timed lap that it was going to be a long day because it wasn’t right.

“So you live by the sword and die by the sword. That will invariably happen, and it will happen to the leaders sometimes as well.”

But Edwards insisted the vast majority of pitlane liked parc ferme because of the workload reduction it delivered.

“There are mixed views,” he conceded. “But if there were 1000 people in pitlane I’d suggest

SLADE’S CAR-SWAP STRATEGY

By BRUCE NEWTON

A CAR SWAP with team-mate Nick Percat is the latest strategy to try and resolve Tim Slade’s speed issues with the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore ZB that have dogged him for nearly 12 months.

The team-mates were due to conduct the experiment during two ride days at Sydney Motorsport Park and Winton this week.

“I know it is only a ride day on old tyres with passengers and you are not comfortable because it is not your car, but if we do find something then that’s a positive thing,” Slade told Auto Action.

“If we don’t find anything, then nothing lost.”

It was at Tailem Bend 12 months ago where Slade qualified in the top 10 for both races and finished fourth in the Sunday 200km race, that he felt he last had a consistently competitive car underneath him.

The issues have been prevalent even when he has moved to another chassis and

reverted to previous generation BJR frontend designs.

“It’s frustrating for me, the engineers and the mechanics on my side of the garage,” Slade said. “But we have to just keep on trying to work it out.

“It’s doing my head in.”

In the most recent Supercars championship outing at Queensland Raceway, a track where he has traditionally been a front-runner, Slade and the team even opted to take a parc ferme penalty and try and tune the car between Sunday qualifying and the race.

While Slade has battled for speed, Percat has taken the mantle of team performance leader from his fellow South Australian.

Percat has a qualifying average of 11.5 and a race finish average of 9.9 and runs ninth in the drivers’ championship. Slade’s averages are 12.8 and 12.3 and he is 15th in the title chase.

“Ever since Nick came to the team we had

900 of them would say it’s been fantastic, because one of my motivations for it was the health, well-being and sanity of the mechanics in the pitlane who are flat-out making changes to the cars between qualifying and the race.”

Now they’re saying ‘lunchtime, what’s that?

I’ve never experienced that before’.”

Edwards said he hoped parc ferme would continue on in 2020 for that reason alone.

“The teams are burning out people and they are leaving the sport. It’s something we all have to be conscious of.

“If we can change that balance so people want to stay then that’s a positive.”

The future of parc ferme will be reviewed soon the Supercars commission.

Mystery speed loss under investigation

similar feedback, we wanted the same things from the car and set-up changes we would get the same read on ,” explained Slade. “We could really work together to move forwards.

“Roughly, after Tailem Bend last year, we just started to get at some polar opposite reads with the car.

“The speed suffered as a result. The way my car was we would struggle for balance in practice, in qualifying sometimes jag a time out of it and look half okay, but then go backwards in the race.

“We started this year off okay but I would say there has only been a weekend-and-ahalf where we have had better speed than car eight (Percat).

“We can throw plenty at it and just not really get any kind of read and direction.”

Slade admits the search for speed has been wearing, but his confidence has been shored up by pacey performances against strong opposition in the HubAuto Ferrari 488 GT3 in both the Bathurst 12-hour and

California eight-hour, which he won with Nick Foster and Miguel Molina.

At Bathurst Slade averaged the fifth fastest lap time in the field and at Laguna Image: LAT Seca he was third fastest.

“I really believe that I am driving as good if not better than ever,” said Slade. “I know the GT car is something completely different, but when I jump in that things make sense and I can extract the most out of it.

“It is a good boost for me knowing you are still capable and nothing has changed.”

The struggle for competitiveness in Supercars has come at an inopportune time for Slade, who is out of contract this year.

Slade wouldn’t go into the details of his deal, but it is understood his chances of renewal do hinge to some extent on

Freightliner also coming back as title sponsor for another stint.

If the truck brand doesn’t continue, the chances of BJR looking to sign one of several drivers with substantial budgets for 2020 to replace Slade would increase.

“It would be awesome to be going better, or having really good results,” said Slade. “It is what it is and you have just got to go about it in the way you would in any other situation.

“I am not too stressed about it. I will do everything I can from my end, tick all the boxes and the rest will sort itself out.”

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LATEST NEWS

THE BRAND new third generation Toyota Racing Series car has been tested for the first time in Italy ahead of its debut in 2020. The new car is based on a regional F3 car with a two-litre turbo 8AR FTS engine producing 285bhp. It has also been announced that in 2020 the New Zealand based open wheel series will change control tyre supplier, going from Michelin to South Korean tyre manufacturer Hankook. The tyre will be made to the same specification used in Formula Renault Eurocup and the W Series.

FORMULA FORD drivers Zac Soutar and Tim Hamilton have both won their appeals in overturning their 30-second post-race penalties, each given a reprimand instead. The original penalties came as a result of a failed apparel check at the end of Race 3 in the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park in April. Soutar was found to have a hole in the corner of his shoe and Hamilton a hole on his glove. As a result of the overturn, Soutar finished the round in second and closes to within 11 points of championship leader Angelo Mouzouris. Hamilton won the round in the 1600 class and now leads the class by 15 points.

Image: Insyde Media

DUE TO our extensive feature to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial, the report on the Winton Festival of Speed will be found in the next issue of Auto Action (1768) on sale from the 22nd of August.

FRENCH TEAM R-Ace GP will partner with New Zealand squad mtec Motorsport in the 2020 Toyota Racing Series (TRS). The three year engineering partnership signed will see the team renamed as mtec Motorsport – Engineered By R-Ace GP, with the leading European team taking overall charge of the entire race engineering side of the operation. R-Ace GP runs Aussie Oscar Piastri in Formula Renault Eurocup in which he currently leads the series. The Kiwi team was formed in 2016 and made its debut in the 2017 Toyota Racing Series championship.

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TEAMS PUSHBACK! NO SUPER3 COTF UPGRADE WANTED FOR 2021 SUPER3 IS expected to change from the current Project Blueprint cars to the Car of the Future as early as 2021 and the potential move has team owners up in arms.

If the evolution occurs in 16 months it may see the end of privateers racing Supercars all together. The possible move has angered many team owners and drivers who will be unable to fork out the money for a newer generation car, if Supercars push the decision through.

Supercars has been in conversations with Super3 category managers Liam and Rob Curkpatrick and technical consultant Frank Lowndes about the change. It conducted a meeting with Super2 teams at Townsville to talk about that series but touched on the possible Super3 COTF move.

Terry Wyhoon runs cars in both Super2 and Super3 under the name of Image Racing and is unhappy that Supercars is pushing the idea.

“I totally disagree with it, we don’t need to be pushing COFT cars into Super3 because that is going to lose half of the competitors

that are in it,” Wyhoon told Auto Action.

“I feel it is being pushed by the Supercars commission and some main game team owners like Brad Jones, they have an invested interest in getting rid of their three year old cars and getting new ones.”

Jon McCorkindale is a privateer who runs and drives his own FG Falcon in the series.

The New South Welshman feels that the change is inevitable, but if introduced in 2021 he would no longer be able to afford to race in the series.

“I think eventually the cars have to come down, (but) I think 2021 is too soon,” McCorkindale told AA. “They (COTF cars) are $300,000, I could never afford them, but if I could I’d look at these cars and think ‘$300,000 I could buy a new Cup Car for that much’ they don’t want to drag these future cars down and give people options to do Carrera Cup or Cup Challenge.”

Michael Anderson, who runs the championship leading car driven by Jayden Ojeda is unsure about the idea itself.

“I can’t see COTF working in Super3, I think

2021 is too soon, I think it needs to go to 2023 until something like the Mustang or ZB drops down to Super2,” Anderson told AA. “Super2 and Super3 are going to be the exact same thing, there is going to be no difference, they’d be mad to bring COTF in.”

Although Matt White is the team owner of leading Super2 and Super3 Matt White Motorsport, he sees the issue for the privateers.

“I’m fine with it either way, it isn’t a massive impact to us. But you can’t expect everyone to upgrade overnight, it is not going to help anyone,” he said.

Liam Curkpatrick sent a text in response to a question from Auto Action on the matter.

“We are working with Supercars on the COTF move date. 2021 is not locked in and it will most likely be later than that now,” he said.

“We are happy for it to be delayed as we are not in a hurry to make the move and happy to work it in with Supercars to get the balance right across the main game, Super2 and Super3.” Dan McCarthy

SUPER SUB SETON A SURPRISED Aaron Seton was a late call up to the TCR Australia grid at Queensland Raceway after Saturday’s pole and Race 1 winner, WTCR Jean-Karl Vernay fell ill in the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS3 LMS TCR. Just half an hour before the second race of the weekend on Sunday, Seton’s father former ATCC champion Glenn answered the call and a mad dash was made to get the appropriate race gear before the race start.

“I got the opportunity through ARG and when JK was unwell, they rang up when we were at the track,” Seton told Auto Action.

“I didn’t have any of my gear, I had a photo of my licence. I was running around like a headless chicken trying to find some gear to use and thankfully I was able to get some stuff off a few of the competitors.”

It was an eye-opening experience for the thirdgeneration racer, who had never raced a front-wheeldrive, but the cars left a strong impression on Seton as he endeavours to pursue a seat in the class for the future.

“The experience was amazing, anytime you get to drive a different type of car it helps you in so many ways to be able to adapt,” he continued. “Especially being frontwheel-drive, it was very challenging so I got the hang of it by the end, but it took me a while to get it. I really enjoyed it and they’re good fun cars.”

Cold rear tyres were a new experience for Seton, who this year has raced in TA2 and Touring Car Masters with distinction coming off a round win at the latest round of TCM at Queensland Raceway. He was complimentary of the Audi after those initial laps and will be packing his race suit and helmet next time he attends the race track.

“Because of the back-to-back races we had warm tyres on the rear, so that was good,” Seton explained. “The first race was interesting getting used to for that first couple of laps, they certainly step in the rear pretty quick. Once they come up to temperatures, it’s quite a nice car to drive.

Heath McAlpine

Image: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

SUPERCARS’ JOHN CASEY RETURNS THE MR FIXIT of Supercars is back in the building.

After a brief stint at Foxtel as group director of marketing, John Casey has returned to Supercars as chief strategy officer.

Casey has filled a variety of roles for Supercars through the years, including the category’s marketing director and Bathurst 12-hour event director.

He was also engaged in Supercars as the marketing boss of telecommunications company

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Vodafone when it sponsored Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Casey’s return to Supercars helps boost the executive group at Supercars following the departure in recent years of former CEO James Warburton and managing director Matt Braid.

Cole Hitchcock’s second tenure as communications boss is also due to end in the next few weeks.

Casey’s role is understood to encompasses multiple responsibilities.

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They include overseeing new and existing manufacturer relationships, working with head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess and the commission on the next-generation Supercar, assisting CEO Sean Seamer with team engagement, liaising on events development with chief operating officer Shane Howard, and developing digital and social media growth strategies.

“I’m delighted to be back,” Casey told Auto Action. “There’s some good stuff for me to tackle.” BN

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Image: LAT

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LATEST NEWS

Image:s LAT SEBASTIEN OGIER has announced that 2020 will be his final season in the FIA World Rally Championship. The six-time world champion will leave the sport when his current Citroen contract comes to an end, to focus on the next chapter of his life. The Frenchman is already an ambassador for the electric off road series Extreme E set to start in 2021.

ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT has announced that it has resigned IndyCar star Alexander Rossi in a multiyear deal. The former Indy 500 winner finished runner in the series last year and is currently 16 points behind Josef Newgarden in the 2019 championship. Rossi joins Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Zach Veach who have all been retained by the American squad for 2020.

MALAYSIAN MOTO GP rider Hafizh Syahrin will compete in the final round of the WTCR season at the Sepang International Circuit on December 13-15. Syarin will be joined by Mitchell Cheah and Douglas Khoo, as the local trio will race at the former Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit.

Syahrin and Cheah will drive Volkswagen Golf GTI TCRs while Khoo is set to race a Cupra TCR car.

THE INDYCAR Series has announced that in 2022 the series will implement a hybrid system in all of its cars. Like in Formula 1, the system will work with the combustion engine. The hybrid system will consist of a multi-phase motor, inverter and electric storage device, that will create energy recovery from the car’s braking system. In all, the cars will now produce over 671kW (900bhp).

IndyCar hopes that the hybrid system will improve the current push-to-pass system.

A PAIR of Solbergs’ will take part in Wales Rally GB in October. Petter Solberg will make his final FIA World Rally Championship appearance as part of his farewell tour, in the same round his son Oliver Solberg will make his debut in the WRC. Both Norwegians will drive Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 cars in the WRC2 category, Petter joined in his Volkswagen by long time co-driver Phil Mills. Together the duo won the 2003 World Rally Championship in a Subaru Impreza.

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FISH OUT OF WATER JORDAN CARUSO is making waves by taking on Sports Sedan star Tony Ricciardello, and beating him.

The 20-year-old Victorian has jumped out of a Hyundai Excel into the John Gourlay Audi A4 Sports Sedan that has been previously been driven by the likes of Jack Perkins and Darren Hossack. Caruso has put in strong performances so far including taking the round win at The Bend Motorsport Park, despite just falling short at last weekend’s round at Queensland Raceway.

Combined with this, Caruso is also still contesting events in his Hyundai Excel making it a challenging leap between polar opposite machines.

“It’s massive,” Caruso told Auto Action of the leap. “It is like front wheel drive versus rear wheel drive, 100HP versus 750HP it’s all new to me so I’m just trying to continue and get confident in the car.

“Now is the first time where I am really trying to push it and I feel comfortable on the edge.

“Excels are a little bit different because they

are a lot cheaper car and you can be on the limit. I’m definitely conscious of this, it is obviously not my car so I am trying to stay a bit off the edge, I’m always thinking about the car basically.”

In a remarkably short time, Caruso has adapted to the Audi and is currently challenging the vastly experienced Ricciardello, still driving the iconic Alfa Romeo GTV Chev that has delivered him 10 National titles.

“I’m really not sure to be honest, I built up to it as I felt comfortable, each lap I was getting quicker and quicker and getting more comfortable,” Caruso said. “It became pretty natural pretty quick and I was doing well.”

The opportunity to slot into a championship winning car was not lost on the university student, who is keen to enjoy his motor sport and see where it takes him.

“I wouldn’t say it was much development.

We had the opportunity and obviously when you look at the car and the people running it, it is something you can’t pass up,” he

Image: Insyde Media acknowledged. “We are not sure what is going to go on from here but I will just keep enjoying driving this thing and see how it goes.”

Not only is Caruso driving the car, but he also helps with the car preparation alongside Gourlay, which has shown the junior driver the intricate nature and build quality of a top-class sports sedan.

“It has definitely opened my eyes to the more complex parts of the car because in the Excels you are limited. I’m still more just focusing on driving than anything else at this point, so I haven’t got into the setup,” Caruso emphasised.

“There is definitely nothing wrong with the car but there is always something to improve.

I’m living at Uni, which is five-minutes from John’s workshop, so Tuesday every week I am up there talking about what we can do to get prepared for the next round.”

Caruso currently sits second in the points ahead of Round 4 of the National Sports Sedan Series, as part of the Master Blaster event at Sydney Motorsport Park August 31-September 1. HM

FACTORY TEAMS TO DESCEND ON BATHURST AS THE official bearer of GT3 racing worldwide, the SRO announced its plans for 2020 at the Spa 24 Hour just under two weeks ago, manufacturers have started committing to the only worldwide GT title, the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

As the opening round of the IGTC, the Bathurst 12 Hour is set to step up a gear in competition yet again in 2020, with both Lamborghini and Honda planning on a full attack on the title, while Aston Martin team R-Motorsport is also set to mount a full-season attack confirming a return to Bathurst is likely.

Honda has fielded an entry in each round of the IGTC season to date, bar Bathurst, but for Lamborghini it will be a maiden attack as either the Italian manufacturer’s pseudo factory team Grasser Racing or its Asian counterpart FFF Racing Team ACM are prime candidates to join Trofeo Motorsport at the Mount.

Honda is a more interesting prospect as JAS Motorsport fields its sole entry in the series, but

there are strong rumours that an Australian team will have an involvement with the entry.

R-Motorsport haven’t been a full-season entry this season in IGTC, but team boss Florian Kalmeger has signalled the team’s interest in undertaking a

complete program in 2020 in what will be the newgeneration Aston Martin Vantage’s Mount Panorama debut.

Next year’s Bathurst 12 Hour will take place on January 31-February 2. HM

RACE-WINNING HERITAGE QUALITY VALUE & SUPPORT Tilton Engineering strives to produce the best racing parts and service for drivers and racing teams dedicated to their sport.

TCR TO KICK OFF AT THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX THE AUSTRALIAN Grand Prix Corporation has officially confirmed that TCR Australia will join the support card for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix.

The announcement locked in the opening round of the TCR Australia in 2020 would take place at Melbourne’s Albert Park, also confirming that the series would not feature on the Adelaide 500 program.

Launched in 2015, TCR is one of the fastest growing motorsport categories globally with over 30 different TCR championships around the world. The key ingredient to TCR’s success is the relevance of the race cars which represent what Australians are buying and driving, with brands including Alfa Romeo, Audi, Holden, Honda, Hyundai, Renault, Subaru and Volkswagen represented in Australian TCR races this year.

Almost 20 cars have competed in each TCR race this season to date.

For the first time ever, fans who attend the Australian Grand Prix will be able to enjoy and experience a TCR series round as part of the event’s on-track race program.

AGPC CEO, Andrew Westacott, is looking forward to enhancing the fan experience with the presence of a TCR Australia round.

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“There is always such a strong appetite from our fans for on-track activity, so having the exciting racing of a TCR Australia Series round at our event is the perfect fit,” said Westacott.

“AGPC is always looking to inspire the next generation of drivers and being able to showcase a new Australian motorsport category not just nationally, but globally, is such a fantastic opportunity for all involved.”

TCR Australia’s Managing Director, Matt Braid, was delighted to confirm the sport signed a deal for the first round of the 2020 TCR Australia Series to be staged at the Formula 1 ® Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020.

“The Australian Racing Group is extremely pleased to announce our involvement with the Formula 1 ® Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020,” said Braid.

“The Grand Prix is the largest and most significant international motorsport event held in Australia, and it will be fantastic to showcase the TCR category on the Albert Park circuit as part of the event.

“TCR teams, drivers and manufacturers are all excited by the opportunity to race over the Grand Prix weekend and we look forward to providing some action-packed racing for the fans at the track and the audiences watching event broadcast.”

Sydney set for a Master Blast THE ANNUAL Muscle Car Masters event has been renamed the Sydney Masterblast featuring the Australian Muscle Car Masters which in 2019 will take place on Father’s Day weekend, from August 31 to September 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The event will showcase many popular retro and classic racing categories including Touring Car Masters, Historic Touring Cars, Heritage Touring Cars, National Sports Sedans, Historic Sports Cars, NSW Production Touring Cars and, for the first time Superkarts and motorbikes.

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Racing will run all day on Saturday and continue under lights with Touring Car Masters, Heritage and Historic Touring Cars, the highlight in the dark.

General Admission tickets will allow spectators to take in the sights and sounds of the Sydney Motorsport Park paddock free of charge, as well as access to the undercover grandstand.

Kids aged under 18 are free.

Historic Touring cars will kick off the action on both Saturday and Sunday at 9am.

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INTERNATIONAL AUSSIE NEWS

IT WAS yet another weekend that showed great promise but failed to deliver for Alex Peroni.

Despite qualifying in 14th, points looked possible from the start of the first race as the Australian gained two places on the opening lap. Peroni sat on the fringe of the points with a few laps remaining but was demoted a couple of places on lap 16. He was then involved in a collision with David Beckmann which forced the German into retirement, for which Peroni was handed a 30s penalty and as a result the Campos Racing driver finished 26th. Starting the second race from where he finished Race 1 meant that points would be hard to come by, but Peroni kept his nose clean and drove smartly moving through the field gaining 10 positions to finish 16th.

JOEY MAWSON is in a good run of form in the Porsche Supercup series. The Australian qualified 13th in Germany but in a very wet race made his way up the field past Kiwi Jaxon Evans and into seventh position, to win the rookie class. Evans finished in 10th as the race was called early due to worsening weather. Stephen Grove finished third in Pro Am and 25th overall, with Marc Cini in 28th.

In Hungary Evans overtook Mawson early but in an attempt to take ninth the Australian Carrera Cup series winner lost ground, allowing Mawson to overtake him. Mawson finished in ninth, second of the rookies, while Evans missed out on points in 11th. Grove again picked up third in the Pro Am class and 23rd overall. Despite a late race spin at Turn 1 Cini came home in 28th.

JOSHUA CAR EXTENDS HIS POINTS LEAD IT WAS a weekend full of success for Joshua Car as the Australian secured a win and two second places at the US Formula 4 round at the Virginia International Raceway.

Car qualified third for the first race but was demoted to fifth following an infringement in qualifying.

Thanks to some effective slipstreaming, the Aussie clawed his way back into the lead and held onto it despite multiple

safety car interruptions to win by over two seconds.

“We have had a win at every track so far this season and our goal is to continue that here at VIR,” Car said. “Having experience on the track is helpful, (unlike) guys like Kiko Porto who didn’t race here last year.”

Car started Race 2 from fourth position however the championship leader was unable to get past eventual winner Arthur

PIASTRI AVOIDS DRAMA AT SPA TO DRAW LEVEL OSCAR PIASTRI had a very strong weekend in the Formula Renault Eurocup series event at Spa-Francorchamps, taking a victory and a fourth place finish to draw level with series leader Victor Martins in the points standings.

The Aussie started third in the first race on Friday, but was able to take the lead from Martins at Les Combes on the first lap. The Victorian then survived a safety car restart on lap eight to take the chequered flag.

“I wasn’t expecting Sebastian to get a slow start,” Piastri stated

after Race 1. “I was able to take advantage and have a chance to use the draft to take the lead. I was able to get past on the outside and I never looked back. I was beginning to gradually pull away when the safety car came out. Restarts are always tricky, but I was able to keep Victor at bay to go on to take my third win of the season.”

It was a more exciting second race for the R-ace driver as he started out of position eight. In the race Piastri battled with both Martins and Federico Malvestiti for

CONSISTENCY PROVING KEY FOR MCELREA A WEEKEND of mix results for Bart Horsten sees him remain in fourth place in the British F4 Championship, after the sixth round at the Snetterton Circuit. In the opening race of the weekend the Australian picked up a solid fifth place finish, which meant he started on the front row for the reverse grid race. Horsten attacked Josh Skelton for the lead early however he ran wide and fell to third. Horsten’s race got worse when he made dramatic contact with championship leader Zane Maloney, having to pit for a front wing change and eventually coming home in 10th. For the final race Horsten qualified in second where he remained for the duration of the race, fighting off Maloney, Skelton and Carter Williams. The previous round at the Oulton Park Circuit was a challenge for Horsten, who recorded third, seventh and eighth place finishes.

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Leist, who went on to win by just over 0.5s.

The final race of the weekend saw a third of the starting field fail to finish, but Car kept his head from second on the grid to stay in that position until the end.

Car’s championship rival Porto finished outside of the points which means the Australian now has a 40 point lead heading into the next round at Mid-Ohio, which takes place on August 8-10.

HUNTER MCELREA topped off a strong round at Mid-Ohio with victory in the second race of the weekend.

McElrea led the opening race but left a gap for eventual winner Christian Rasmussen to sneak through and take victory. The Kiwi made sure not to make the same mistake twice, as he led the Dane from start to finish in the second race to win by just over half a second.

With only four races left in the championship, the win brings McElrea to within nine points of series leader Braden Eves, who could only manage a seventh and an eighth place finish.

“It was a bit of redemption today,”

McElrea said after the race. “We really dominated this weekend, quickest in practice and double pole, but I had a bad first lap yesterday and Christian drove amazing. But today was our day. It wasn’t easy, it’s never easy, but that was as close to a perfect race as I’ve come.”

Despite sitting seventh in the standings and with a race win under his belt, Australian Cameron Shields was unable compete at Mid-Ohio due to budget constraints. Shields and team manager Brian Halahan are hopeful that the former Australian Formula 3 Champion will be back for the next round at Portland International Raceway on August 29-September 1.

the final place on the podium.

Having taken advantage of the two drivers ahead of him, Piastri managed to get himself between them and challenged for third place. Piastri put pressure on Malvestiti, the Italian cracked and

spun before being hit by Alexander Smolyar, who became airborne.

The race was promptly red flagged and results were taken from lap 12, meaning Piastri finished behind Malvestiti in fourth.

AA’s picky pundit remembers the excitement of the Repco Reliability Trial, which is in stark contrast to the Supercars nanny state HARD TO imagine now, but 40 years ago, a race around Australia was a big deal.

Nowadays, you can drive around the country in your SUV as easily as driving to the local shops.

But in 1979, circumnavigating the mainland continent by road was a great adventure. The road across the Nullarbor was still gravel and Outback tracks were horror stretches.

Which is why the Repco Reliability Trial was a genuine torture test. Cars were better and tougher, but the roads off the beaten track were perilous. Back then, the Birdsville Track was deathdefying.

Now, these days you could do it without raising a sweat in your Mazda 3.

Repco Trial organiser Stewart McLeod, rest his soul, found the toughest, potentially car-killing tracks available. His original route was even more merciless, but event director and rally legend Frank Kilfoyle ensured a modicum of sanity by deleting the real horror sections.

The event captured the public imagination because at the end of the free-wheeling ’70s, driving around – much less racing around – Australia was still a risky endeavour.

It was also, on the surface, a big-budget battle between Holden and Ford, which ruled more than 50 per cent of the car market back then. Three Holden Commodores, led by racing hero Peter Brock,

versus three Ford Cortinas, spearheaded by race and rally star Colin Bond.

What we didn’t know – or acknowledge – was that Ford’s effort was way late and underfunded compared with Holden’s all-out assault. I was as guilty as anyone in the media for bigging up the Ford vs Holden clash, penning a piece for long-gone The Bulletin news magazine to that effect.

But the blaze of publicity worked. The Repco got extensive and breathless coverage – especially from News Limited tabloid tsar Wayne Webster – all along the way.

Webster came up with one of the greatest story leads ever in his desperation to enliven the final stages of the Commodore conquest.

His story of that memorable yarn is part of our extensive Repco Reliability Trial 40th anniversary tribute, starting on page 24.

Unusually, I didn’t cover the Repco. I was at the start at the Melbourne Showgrounds, but before it finished back there, I was off to Europe on my first overseas adventure.

I went with my broadcasting mate Steve Blanda – he of a record number of radio news presenting awards – and we went to the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort and the Italian GP at Monza.

In between and either side, we wore out a brand-new Ford Fiesta, caning it from Germany to Switzerland –

Image: Ian Smith

where my parents were living – and on to the UK, Holland and Italy.

Seriously, we flogged that 1.1 litre for all it was worth. We even slept in it in Amsterdam.

Not ideal for two six-foot plus blokes…

The Repco finished on a Brock high, with Australia’s racing darling trumping the established dirt devils. Under two months later, Brock completed the greatest crushing at Bathurst, winning by six laps in his Torana A9X and setting the fastest lap on his final tour of the Mountain.

But it is his Around Australia conquest that he always regarded as his greatest victory. It proved his versatility and virtuosity behind the wheel.

For so many reasons, we will never see the likes of the Repco Reliability Trial again.

So we pay tribute to the adventurers who contested

what was Australia’s – and perhaps the world’s – last great road rally.

POSTERGATE

So Scott McLaughlin is fined $10,000 for brandishing a “Mustang Wins Title” poster on the podium at QR. Plus three grand for an illicit burnout.

Supercars people, make up your minds! You either want your stars to celebrate success and display their personalities or not.

The fines were levied by CAMS, but according to Supercars rules.

Sure, DJR Team Penske/ Ford knew they’d be fined for the poster and decided it was cheap for the exposure.

Which Supercars aided by highlighting it on its web site.

Supercars also milked Scotty’s tyre-smoking display on all its digital outlets.

The inconsistency was

appalling. Flaunting the poster on the podium was out of order.

It’s specifically banned to protect the rights of Supercars sponsors. But in the circumstances, a bit of leeway wouldn’t have hurt.

Equally, DJR Team Penske and Ford could have contained the poster display to the pit lane without sanction and widespread exposure.

Penalising McLaughlin for lighting it up was also disingenuous. The crowd loved it and Supercars promoted it, so what’s the harm?

Yes, ideally, tyre-shredding displays should be contained to donuts in a designated area. But if a bloke cuts loose to entertain the crowd, should it be a stiff fine?

Either ban burnouts all together or celebrate them.

One or the other, not some unsatisfactory halfway house.

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s w e n e n O Formula RED BULL motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has squashed rumours that Pierre Gasly will be replaced mid-season by confirming that the Frenchman will see out the season with Red Bull Racing. Current Super Formula driver Naoki Yamamoto is likely to make his Formula 1 practice session debut at some stage this season for either Red Bull Racing or Toro Rosso. The Japanese driver’s most likely outing would be at the Japanese Grand Prix in October.

AUSTRALIAN DANIEL Ricciardo is now fighting both on and off track battles, as the Renault driver faces an $18 million lawsuit from his former manager Glenn Beavis. The seven-time Formula 1 race was managed

by Beavis from 2012 until January this year, when the West Australian moved to CAA Sports. The United Kingdom High Court of Justice documents have shown that Beavis is claiming 20 per cent commission on Ricciardo’s Renault deal and other things including a Renault road car and the cost of a physiotherapist.

THE MERCEDES FORMULA 1 team has made changes to its board, including the nomination of its new non-executive chairman following the death of Niki Lauda in May, the same month that Dieter Zetsche stepped down from his role as chairman of the board of management. Markus Schafer and Frank Markus Weber joined the board as members of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix, with Weber appointed as a non-executive director. They join Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff, Rene Berger and Britta Seeger on the board.

OFF THE back of a terrible weekend for the Renault F1 Team in Germany, one of its trucks was involved in a serious road accident on the way to the Hungarian Grand Prix. It resulted in the driver being taken to hospital but fortunately he escaped serious injury. The team truck crashed on the M1 around 120km from Budapest, running through the central reservation before ending up in a ditch on the opposite side of the carriageway.

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SILLY SEASON SIZZLES FORMULA 1 may be heading into its annual mid season break, but there will be no let up in the annual “silly season” filled with speculation about drivers’ futures for next year and beyond. Here’s a look at how things stand from the paddock of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the beginning of August.

Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, Kevin Magnussen, Kimi Räikkönen and George Russell all have 2020 contracts with their respective teams Renault, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams.

While there is plenty of speculation swirling around

the rest of the drivers regarding 2020, next year’s silly season will be even wilder (sillier?) when the drivers listed above are all looking for new deals for 2021.

As reported by Auto Action earlier, Aussie Ricciardo has a get-out clause in his Renault contract should Ferrari or Mercedes offer him a drive for 2020.

McLaren announced in July that it would retain Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris for 2020, ending any speculation of a Fernando Alonso comeback.

Those drivers whose deals expire at the end of 2019 are: Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Pérez and Robert Kubica at Mercedes, Renault,

HAAS’ GREATEST HITS

THE HAAS team has been taking a lot of hits recently.

There is the matter of drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen breaking the number one rule teams have for their drivers: Don’t hit each other.

Then there is the matter of having to go backwards in order to make the car go forwards. The team reverted to ‘Melbourne specifications’ on one of its cars, and it is sometimes faster than the other car with the latest upgrades.

But inconsistencies abound that mystify the team.

On the hits front, the drivers collided in Spain, Britain and Germany. The worst one was Britain when both retired early in the race as a result.

Despite their angry remarks over the radios in the heat of the moment, the drivers insist that they get along well.

“When you’re driving at 300km/h,” Grosjean said, “obviously you’re not going to say ‘Oh, please, I think I was in my right, and he was in his wrong, and would you mind giving me the position back?’ You’re just going to say: ‘F**k off, just give me the position.’

“The relationship with Kevin is really good. We phone each other once a week or so. We sat down and said, ‘what can we do better,’ just to make sure that’s not happening again.”

Apart from those incidents on track, Magnussen insisted that he and Grosjean have a pretty good working relationship.

“Actually Romain is a cool guy,” he said, “and we actually have a good time when we go to work. So, it’s being blown out of proportion a little bit. I know you guys (the media)

Haas, Racing Point and Williams.

Alfa Romeo, meanwhile, has an option on Antonio Giovinazzi for next year.

In another category, Red Bull – and its racing chief Dr. Helmut Marko – has complete control over the futures of Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat. The same is true for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc.

Lance Stroll has a classification to himself. His father Lawrence Stroll is a shareholder in Racing Point, so Lance will drive for the team for the foreseeable future.

Pérez has been signing one-year deals with Force

love a bit of a conflict and stuff, but it isn’t as bad as it looks.”

Still, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said that he might have to create some rules of engagement for his drivers.

“When they are close to each other, I think we need to take it out of their control who is doing what,” he said.

On the car front, the original specification car qualified in ninth place with Grosjean in Hungary but retired with water pressure woes.

“At the same time, we have another car that, within 10 minutes, is a second slower without touching it,” Steiner said, referring to the other car that has had millions of dollars in development upgrades.

Speaking in a TV interview of the new car, Magnussen stated: “One lap it’s perfect, the next I’m driving a hotdog cart.”

Magnussen finished 14th in that car after aggressively fending off Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault.

RENAULT RESET REQUIRED

Images: LAT

India, now Racing Point, because of the team’s shaky finances. But with that all sorted with the new owners, Pérez now says he sees a long-term future with the team and wants to sign a long-term deal.

Hülkenberg hopes to remain with Renault where he has been since 2017. While Hülkenberg has been regularly outqualified by his new teammate Ricciardo, the limited performance of the car has hampered both drivers from showing their full potential.

Gasly has really picked up his game in recent races, but will it be enough to survive Red Bull’s ruthless rulings on its drivers’ futures? Perhaps so, because Red Bull hires from

within, and the only other current options to replace Gasly are Albon and Kvyat. Albon needs another year of seasoning at Toro Rosso.

Red Bull has given Kvyat three chances at Toro Rosso and one at Red Bull. Will it be willing to give Kvyat a second shot in the senior team?

The Haas team is getting exasperated with Magnussen and Grosjean colliding during the races, and one extreme solution would be to replace Grosjean with another driver.

Esteban Ocon or Hülkenberg perhaps.

F1 racing will resume in September with the Belgian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the silly season continues unabated.

WHILE IT is not floundering as much as the points and race results would indicate – especially when compared to those of rival McLaren – the factory Renault team with drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg really needs a reset so that it can come back for the second half of the Formula 1 season fighting fit and proving it can perform consistently at the level of its true potential.

Renault’s stated goal has been not only to be the fourth-placed team, but to also be drawing away from the teams behind and closing in on the top three.

Yet after 12 of 21 races, Renault is languishing in sixth place in the constructors’ championship with 39 points. McLaren, meanwhile, is in a solid fourth place with 82 points.

To add salt to the wound, Ricciardo qualified way back in 18th place after getting snarled in traffic in Hungary.

“Thanks!” the Aussie replied sarcastically but with a laugh when Auto Action pointed out he was starting his F1 summer break on the backfoot.

In the past four races the team earned a mere 11 points.

“Everyone (at Renault) needs a bit of a summer break,” Ricciardo said. “I don’t want to say that negatively, but it is nice to reset for everyone.

“Sometimes you need to step away for a bit to actually review things. You kind of go, go, go. Especially on backto-back weekends you don’t really put

yourself from a distance and say what can I do better, what can the team do better? Regardless (of what happened in Hungary) the summer break will be good.

“Also for me personally to assess the first six months with the new team. I had, I don’t want to say expectations, but scenarios in my head at the start of the year how things I would go. Now I can assess where it is, and try to understand also what I can do better within myself and within the team to keep everything going.”

It was a year ago in Hungary that Ricciardo was wrestling with the choice of staying at Red Bull or moving to Renault. He made his decision on the Wednesday after the race when flying to the U.S. for a holiday.

This year his former Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen won the pole in Hungary while Ricciardo qualified 18th and started 20th, after taking a penalty for getting a new power unit.

“I’d rather be where he is than where I am,” Ricciardo said. “But equally I still don’t regret anything 12 months down the track. I really believe we’d be in the top 10 (in qualifying) so it wouldn’t look as bad as it does now.”

And that sums up Renault’s season so far: A lack of consistent results but the car’s performance is not as bad as it appears.

It is time for Renault to reset.

THE MAX FACTOR THE HYPER-QUICK Max Verstappen has been phenomenal in Formula 1 ever since he arrived as a 17-year-old racing for Toro Rosso in 2014. And now the 21-year-old is hot property indeed. The Dutch driver has a contract with Red Bull for next year, and the team is confident that he will remain beyond that.

But Verstappen could very well figure in the longterm post Lewis Hamilton plans at Mercedes.

Rumours circulating in the Hungaroring paddock that Verstappen is bound for Mercedes were fueled by the fact that his father and racing tutor, former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, had talks with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. But that was nothing more than a casual meeting which, as friends, they do often.

Mercedes does have a seat to fill next year alongside Lewis Hamilton who is committed through 2020. The team did not pick up its option on Valtteri Bottas in June, but told him a decision would be

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made by the end of August.

Bottas had been confident that he would be back with the Silver Arrows for a fourth season, but the change of mood in the Bottas camp in Hungary indicated that it is no longer a sure thing. Esteban Ocon, on sabbatical this year after Renault dropped its option on him and signed Aussie Daniel Ricciardo instead, is firmly in the Mercedes frame along with Bottas.

“We’ve been discussing it for a long time within the team,” Wolff said. “I’ve been wrestling within myself on what is the right thing for the team and what is the right thing for the drivers. If we were to have only one of them it would be a no-brainer to have them in the car.

“Both deserve the seat. Esteban because he has been in tough situations, and he certainly has the motivation and the energy and the talent

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to be in a Mercedes. Valtteri has the experience and has proven again how fast he can go. He’s tremendously supportive in developing the team together with Lewis.”

A decision will be made during F1’s August break.

The real dilemma for Mercedes, however, is not about 2020 but the longer term. Hamilton, 34, has stated often that he will not spend many more years in F1 as he wants to pursue other interests.

The highly-talented Charles Leclerc and Verstappen, both 21, could help create dynasties at Ferrari and Red Bull for years to come. Mercedes could find itself without a superstar driver capable of challenging those two teams once Hamilton leaves.

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So it would make sense to sign Verstappen.

Verstappen, meanwhile, is in the driver seat. He can sit back and observe if Red Bull will continue its upward trend, and if and when, as inevitably happens to all F1 dynasties, Mercedes starts to show cracks in its dominance. He can factor in all that information and then make a decision that is best for him.

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F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

CHASE-22 CHASE CAREY, the mustachioed commercial boss of Liberty Media’s Formula One Group, made the rounds in the paddocks in Germany and Hungary trying to get the teams to agree to 22 races in 2020 rather than the long-promised 21 events.

To get the proposal passed would require a majority – not unanimous – vote by the teams, so six out of 10. That should not be too difficult.

Each team would make over one million euros ($1.6 million) which would be their share of the 20 million euros Liberty charges most European countries for the rights to host an F1 race.

But will the engine manufacturers be as accommodating? Current rules limit a driver to three power units for the 21 races. Will that be the same for 22 races? Or will it be increased to four? Will the manufacturers decide to persuade their teams to vote against 22 events?

One of the promises Liberty made when it took over the F1 commercial rights from CVC Capital Partners and Bernie Ecclestone in 2016 and started running things in 2017, was that the calendar of races for an upcoming year would be confirmed and released as early as possible during the previous year.

This would greatly aid the

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fans, the teams and all the other people working in F1 to plan and book logistics, travel and holidays early on.

Yet here we are already in August and the only date officially confirmed is Australia, which will host the 2020 season opener in Melbourne on March 15.

Monaco, meanwhile, is already selling tickets for its traditional end of Chase Carey trying to May (in this case May make 22 races fit into 24) slot.

2020. Images: LAT So why the possible increase from 21 to 22 races next year? than 21 races on its plate for Liberty had said for quite 2020. The next problem is to some time that Holland and where to fit them all in on the Vietnam would be added to the schedule.

2020 lineup, and that two races The Dutch organisers have out of a pool of five – Spain, their hearts set on a date Germany, Mexico, Italy and on early May. However the Britain – would be dropped.

Zandvoort circuit is going to But Britain has signed a require extensive updating new contract and Italy has including a rebuilt or all-new pit a handshake deal. Mexico’s garage complex. All that work future was looking grim, but should be completed by May, now I hear that Mexico’s Carlos but it is going to be tight.

Sim, the richest man in the Things are a lot more dicey world, is putting together a in Vietnam where lots of work, deal to save the race. Plus including draining a swamp, the Catalan government has needs to be done if the race decided it will fund the Spanish is going to be held in April as Grand Prix. Germany looks set proposed. Or, for that matter, to be dropped but there are staged at all in 2020. faint hopes on saving that race We also know that certain as well. other races will be in their usual Thus Liberty could have more timeframes, such as Canada

in early June, Belgium and Italy in late August and early September, and Abu Dhabi rounding out the season at the end of November.

Elsewhere, however, there are conflict of interests between various promoters as Liberty tries to fit possibly 10 European races, plus the mandatory August three-week break, in between May and early September.

For example: France, Austria and Britain all would like the first weekend in July. In Britain’s case it is to avoid the usual conflict with Wimbledon. France does not want to go any later into July because that’s when school is out, people go on holiday and book up all the rooms where race fans would normally stay.

Austria? Well, circuit owner and Red Bull magnate Diedrich Mateschitz likes that date, and as he pays more than the other two countries, he is likely to get it.

And so the teams and everybody else head into August with no clear idea about 2020, not only the dates of the races but even if some of them will make the final cut and stay on the schedule.

What Carey and Liberty are finding out as they are trying to expand and solidify the race dates for 2020 and beyond is that when you juggle one aspect of the schedule, it can create a different conflict or problem elsewhere that backfires on the original plan.

Let’s call it a Chase-22.

OPINION A SHANNONS NATIONALS SUPER SERIES?

By HEATH McALPINE Deputy Editor

LAST YEAR, I wrote a feature about the viability of the Shannons Nationals outlining my concerns about the series and its future.

Personally, I prefer a Shannons Nationals meeting to a Supercars weekend. The relaxed, friendly and lowkey nature of a nationals’ meeting is much more appealing to me, and I think the majority of motor sport fans would agree with me that there needs to be a strong second tier below Supercars.

When I had met with Shannons Nationals director Michael Smith last year, he exuded great confidence that TCR, S5000 and LMP3 were categories that would provide a strong base for a revitalised nationals program.

If I’m honest, at the time I didn’t share his optimism. At that stage, there was a single TCR car in the country, a half-built S5000 and no LMP3 chassis in sight.

To say that TCR has burst onto the 2019 Australian motor sport scene and surprised many would be an understatement.

I’ll put my hand up and say that I was one of the pessimists, I had my doubts. But those have been emphatically squashed by the rapid growth of the category.

It’s a credit to the Australian Racing Group (ARG) how it has launched TCR and hopefully the same happens when S5000 thunders onto the program next month.

About this time last year, fringe categories that have been mainstays of the Nationals bill, such as Production Cars and

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

Image: Insyde Media Prototypes, were planning either to go it alone or head to the AASA-run Australian Motor Racing Series. This has happened to an extent, with Production Cars holding its own standalone events, the Prototypes also a part of that program, though as shown by last weekend each still features on the Shannons Nationals schedule.

This leads me to the point of this editorial, is there a potential for a Shannons Nationals Super Series?

Top classes, competing on Australia’s top racing circuits, with big entries featuring mild manufacturer involvement, at cost effective price for fans at the gate.

This has already started to happen to some degree. There is a number of manufacturers,

whether through the back door or openly supporting teams in TCR, Production Car racing, Australian GT or of course Porsche, which over the years has gradually lifted its support of the GT3 Cup Challenge.

It seems that Touring Car Masters series is destined to appear on the Shannons Nationals bill in some capacity next year, after ARG added it to its portfolio recently, joining TCR Australia and S5000.

Add in the potential of maybe a Carrera Cup round or two and such a program would be very attractive.

Mix all of that with the usual and hopefully stronger Australian GT class, national Sports Sedans, Production Cars, Prototypes and an invited state-based category, and it could be a successful formula.

Fans would get their money’s worth, that’s for sure, particularly as you don’t have to take out a mortgage to purchase a ticket, unlike at some other events.

Accessibility at Shannons Nationals events is second to none, getting close to the drivers and their machines is easy (especially when it doesn’t cost extra), moving around the track is seamless and the racing is just as good, if not better. Add to this wall-to-wall racing, no breaks, no burnouts, no national anthem, just racing.

Just how it should be.

I hope the potential shown so far through the partnership between CAMS and ARG can be grown into something more.

It has already begun to bear fruit and now appears set to continue that way. .

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We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1979: JONES WINS again! Alan Jones took victory in Austria although his car was impounded as Swiss officials ordered it to be sent to London for engine irregularity tests. The Australian is now out of contention for the title due to a poor start to the season, but completed a hattrick of wins for Williams. As can be read in the upcoming pages, Peter Brock was leading a Holden Commodore 1-2-3 in the Repco Round Australia Trial at Mt Isa after a torturous start.

1989: THE .05 500. It was announced that the 1989 Sandown 500 event had secured backing from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, which also handled the funding for the Quit anti-smoking campaign. This message was decided against as .05 was judged to be better suited to a motor racing event. Also revealed was the colours that the Holden Racing Team were to contest that year’s Bathurst 1000 in, as shown off by Larry Perkins.

1999: 1 AFTER HIS accident at Calder C Park, Craig Lowndes’ and his championship c lead was shrinking at the hands h of teammate Mark Skaife. The reigning re champion missed the most recent re round at Symmons Plains where Greg G Murphy gave Wynn’s Racing its first victory vic in V8 Supercars.

2009: 20 CRAIG LOWNDES explained why he h was continuing with Triple Eight Race Engineering amid its change to Holden for E 2010.

Holden Racing Team driver Garth 2 Tander was on the front foot by stating T the t HRT were still the lion’s number one te team, even with the introduction of Triple E Eight.

Australian IndyCar combatant Ryan B Briscoe charged into the championship le by winning the Kentucky event. lead

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Printed by Fairfax Media Distributed by Gordon & Gotch HELL ON WHEELS REPCO TRIAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY .COM.AU

SINCE 1971

BROTECSTKWI’SN GREA

INSIDE STORY OF COMMODORE CONQUEST

KILLER CORVETTE

GAZZA UNCUT! Rogers speaks out on Supercars vs TCR

Issue #1767

8th Aug to 21st Aug, 2019

$7.95 NZ $8.50

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H ld ’ new supercar t race Holden’s t to i ht wants i l EEight TTriple

GRAND PRIX EXCITEMENT

WHY F1 HAS COME ALIVE

Cover images: AA Archives/Ray Berghouse-Chevron/LAT/Ross Gibb/Tim Pattinson Design

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Colourful veteran team owner Garry Rogers doesn’t hold back as he vents his frustration with Supercars and faces up to his V8 squad’s troubled time amid expansion into TCR and S5000

N

O ONE in Supercars has been around longer than Garry Rogers, whose eponymous team traces its origins back to 1963.

A little slower on his feet these days because of hip replacement problems, Rogers nevertheless hobbles about undaunted and ever present despite handing over the day to day running of Garry Rogers Motorsport to his son Barry.

A very successful businessman, Rogers Snr remains active well beyond retirement age.

He is wealthy enough to have covered GRM’s losses in recent years, but now even he is feeling the pinch as the cost of Supercars soars.

Coincident with GRM’s trough-like slump in the main game this season, he has expanded his outer southeast suburban Melbourne operation.

GRM also runs four cars in the new TCR category and took on the construction and development of the new S5000 V8 openwheelers, in addition to a Super2 squad that last

20 AutoAction

year won Rogers’ first V8 title.

Competing in multiple categories is nothing new for GRM, which in the 1990s and early 2000s was in Formula Ford, Super Touring and Bathurst 24 Hours, as well as V8s. Before that, it was sports sedans and touring cars.

This time it is to secure the future of his multiskilled staff and protect the legacy of nearly 60 years in racing, highlighted by successes at Mount Panorama. GRM won the 2000 Bathurst 1000 with Garth Tander and Jason Bargwanna, and the 2002/2003 Bathurst 24 Hour with the purpose-built Monaros driven by all-star casts of Holden heroes.

Arguably Supercars’ most colourful personality – his appearances in outrageous, often politically incorrect, costumes always endears him to the fans – 74-year-old Rogers is also a popular underdog because he isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

He pulls no punches on where he thinks Supercars has lost its way and why his own V8 squad has to lift its game, with his drivers on notice and Boost Mobile’s backing in jeopardy.

At an age when most people are well retired and taking it easy, this is going to be one of your busiest years ever. What keeps you going?

Oh, Mark, I really enjoy what I do. Look, all jobs have frustrations, but most days when I go to work, I really love what I do and I love the people I do it with. Occasionally, you meet a few ratbags along the way, but you have to weed them out and move on. In the last five or six years, work has been a big help to me. I’m not as energetic as I was, but the fact that (his son) Barry has come and worked with me has been a great help. I can work with family – I can work with all sorts of people – because I think, in most cases, if I have a disagreement with someone, you can sort it out and move on. A lot of family businesses don’t work because they don’t speak up. They’re scared they’ll upset their mum or their brother or their sister or their wife, but the fact of the matter is that, fortunately, Barry and I have an open relationship.

Bringing Barry in to look after the day-today operation has taken some of the load off you and given you the freedom to do other things.

It does. I have quite an interest in harness racing and that’s something I really love, but I haven’t done a lot of it in the past five years because I got to the stage where I had too many horses and too much going on, so I culled it. But now I want to do a little bit more of that again and I have the time to do that.

It’s interesting that you’re involved in horsepower at both end of the scales.

You’ve been involved in harness racing all your life, haven’t you?

I was a horse-breaker, that was my first job. My mother was absolutely gutted. My brother was off being a doctor and there I was fiddling around with horses. But I loved it.

So what’s your involvement in harness racing now? Are you training? You’re not driving, are you?

No, I don’t drive anymore, but I have a couple of tracks at home where we train some horses. Not a lot anymore.

Five years ago, I had 50 horses in work down there (on his property at Gippsland in southeast Victoria). It’s my home, but it’s never your home because people were there all day long. But now I’ve culled it back. I have a guy and his wife who worked for me 20 years ago, they’re back. We’re training half a dozen and breeding quite a few, and enjoying what we do.

GRM is busier than ever this year, running in TCR and taking on the S5000 project as well as Supercars and Super2. That’s a big load for the organisation, isn’t it?

Well, it is. But I have a really good bunch of people and we haven’t been doing very well in the Supercars, so I looked at what our programs would be over, say, the next 10 years. I love Supercars racing, I really enjoy it, but I just cannot afford to keep doing that the way we do it. I figured we have the staff, we have the premises, we have the equipment, what could we do?

That’s why I went down the TCR route and then, of course, when Brian Boyd (PAYCE/ ARG) asked me to get involved in the S5000 program, I thought “Well, it’s not a bad deal – I’ll be able to build those cars, either sell them or lease them, get my money back and have a bit of fun on the way through’.

We’ve had to put on a few extra people, but all in all, we’ve been able to pretty much manage it with the staff we have.

What do you think of TCR so far?

I didn’t think there’d be crowds early on, I didn’t think a lot of people would be coming to see it, but the fact of the matter is, I thought they’ve had reasonable attendances and, to be frank, the racing’s been very good. And I think that as long as they stick with that Balance of Performance rule, where people can’t just outspend one another, it will thrive. I know restricting budgets will perhaps lessen factory involvements in some ways, but I think that has to be a positive for people who want to participate.

You just don’t need people continually outspending one another. I think the variation of race winners will be good.

Is it as affordable as is made out?

Compared with Supercars, anything would be affordable…

How true is that!

H But is TCR a truly affordable B ccategory?

I can c only go on the experiences that th we’ve had so far. We have several cars. The cars are se reasonably cost-efficient to buy rea and an they seem cost-efficient to run. run We haven’t had to do any real rea heavy maintenance of any kind. kin I think on the sums we did, we figure we can run one car for $300,000 a year – and run it well. w That includes your tyres and odds and ends. So long as it stays stay the way it is, that will work.

But if people start fiddling with the rules, rules then maybe that might not work. work From what I’ve seen so far, this Lotti L guy (TCR global boss Marc Marcello Lotti) seems to have a good grasp on all that. I met him when he was out here at Phillip Island and I like the way he does st So we just have to wait and his stuff.

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see. But, yes, I think racingwise, it’s pretty cost efficient.

By running in TCR, haven’t you incurred the wrath of Supercars? Hasn’t there been resistance to Supercars teams and drivers getting involved?

People have said that, but no one’s said to me ‘You can’t do that’. The fact of the matter is, we’re a racing car business. We’ve always had various makes of cars and raced in various categories, and when I saw this opportunity, it made sense for us. I have 35 people working for me at GRM and I couldn’t keep them all just doing what we were doing (in Supercars) unless I found other sources of income to keep them employed. I haven’t copped any wrath from anyone and I really don’t think that we will, to be honest.

Really, nothing’s been said to you?

Nothing’s been said officially to me, but the jungle drums send the occasional message, people telling me they’re not happy. But no one’s come to me and said ‘You shouldn’t be doing that’. But that’s not to say they’re not thinking that because they probably are thinking that.

We’re now starting to see signs of friction between TCR and Supercars, aren’t we?

Yes, particularly after what happened with Adelaide (Supercars blocking TCR from support program). Clearly there is some friction there. But, look, I can’t control those things and, as I say, I want to keep my people employed, I want to go racing because I love it, but I just cannot afford to keep spending the money that I spend on Supercars.

Does that mean your future in Supercars is in doubt?

I don’t think so. At this stage we’ll just look at each opportunity. Probably a lot will depend on whether we sell or lease the S5000s. I have to get some income back from that stream. But I think we’ll just stick in motor racing and grab the opportunities that arise when they arise.

How is the interest in S5000?

What happened was that I got dragged into this because, as I said, Brian Boyd approached me because we’d got to know him through our relationship with (previous sponsor) Wilson. He’d been convinced to back S5000 by (FT5000 founder) Chris Lambden, but it got to the stage that Chris, while he had the vision to get all this happening, didn’t really have the wherewithal to be able to build the cars. We knew we could with the people we had. We have an outstanding fabrication department – and that was another reason, I don’t want to lose those guys – so I figured let’s do it.

And you’d be an old F5000 fan, wouldn’t you?

Absolutely.

Is it going to take off?

Well, back to your question about interest in S5000, first we had to work out how much it does actually cost to build one of these cars. So I got in touch with Ligier because they make the tubs and I went to Holinger, etc and got all the prices. I just made sure we didn’t miss anything. I went to Dumesny

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about the wheels and AP about the brakes.

I just made sure of the costs and I made a specific point, where we could, that everything was Australian. I wanted as much Australian content as we could. So once I figured out how much it would cost us to build a car, it was going to be $350,000 each. We’re building 14 and I’m happy to sell them or lease them. We’ll lease them to a Michael Borland (Spectrum) or a Michael Ritter (Sonic) and those sorts of people to run the cars or we would run cars.

But I don’t want to run 14 cars myself.

Does it look like you’ll sell or lease all of them?

Do I have the money in the bank? No. What happened was that people didn’t really know what the car was. It was a bit of a hotchpotch.

Now they have a firm price and specification, and it’s a beautiful piece of workmanship, it really is. We’ll probably have five or six of them ready soon, and then we will go to a circuit – probably Phillip Island and make it known the cars will be there for genuine interested parties to come and try. There’ll be an opportunity to come and drive the car, have a look at it and see what our spare parts package is, in either a buy or lease arrangement. But there’ll be a cost for that. You’ll have to pay to do that. So this won’t just be a joy ride for people who want to blaze around, do 10 laps and then go home.

How many cars is GRM planning to run?

I’d be happy to sell all the cars, but if we end up leasing all of them, then I’d make sure others would run them for us because I don’t want to run 14 cars.

But you’d be happy fielding, say, two cars yourself?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I’m sure we will.

Is it going to be a good spectacle?

I don’t think people realise how good this will be. These cars will all be equal. We will set the rules and the car can’t be changed. Once you buy or lease it, that’s what you get. Everything is standardised, so money won’t really come into play, other than buying it and being able to maintain it properly.

OK, the elephant in the room, your Supercars team…

Mark, it’s embarrassing, it really is.

So what’s gone wrong?

I don’t know. I really do not know. The category is very competitive, OK, but there are cars in front of us that shouldn’t be – and I have not got a bunch of dummies working for me. I have some very, very smart people, but to be honest, we are obviously just missing something and I don’t know what it is. I’m not an engineer, I’m a motor mechanic, but when you speak to engineers, you might be better off listening to a motor mechanic. I think it’s just too technical.

Do you think you might be missing driver leadership?

I think so. If you go back to when Garth (Tander) was here, we had reasonable results – and, certainly, the year before (2017), when Garth and Moff (James Moffat), we had bloody good results. So, yes, I think we probably are missing that leadership behind the wheel.

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GRM has diversified to keep its workforce busy, taking on a TCR program and the construction of the new S5000 racers.

In hindsight, then, did you make a mistake letting Garth go?

Well, I didn’t let Garth go. I mean, I let Garth go in terms of leaving the team because the driving contract was fulfilled, that was the agreement, and then he could have stayed.

He could have been driving one of these TCR cars, he could have been involved in the business. That was the plan. But I can understand when he thought in his mind he would be driving (Supercars) this year and the next thing I told him wouldn’t be, I can see how he got hurt by that.

So was it that you were put in a position that you had to let him go as part of gaining the Boost Mobile sponsorship?

It was wrapped up in the sponsorship, but I could have forfeited that. But, hey, like I said, there are 35 people that rely on my business decisions to keep feeding them. The fact is, I like Garth a lot and I respect his driving and I respect what he brought to the team initially and what he actually brought when he came back. But business is business.

James Golding is finally showing some promise…

Yes, finally.

But he’s on a short leash now, isn’t he? He has to do more between now and the end of the year, right?

Yes, he does. Absolutely he does. But we do, too. It’s not just him.

And what about Richie Stanaway? He’s a bit of an enigma, isn’t he?

Yes, he is. Barry met with him before Queensland Raceway because I’ve been in contact with him and his medical team. Richie wants to drive the car. At least now he has accepted the fact that he couldn’t continue the way he was going before we pulled him out. He was saying ‘I’ll be right, I’ll be right’ and then, of course, we stuck him in the car, and he wasn’t right. But on what his medical people have told me now, I think he should be right. The plan

match with Peter Adderton or anyone else will not help.

is that we will probably take him to Winton in a car of some kind in the next two weeks and put him in that car and (let him) blaze him around for 100 laps or whatever it is and see what happens to his neck. If it’s no good, then he’s gone for the rest of the year.

Does his neck problem explain his poor performances early in the season?

He never complained to me about it. It only reared its head after a couple of meetings. I thought he did quite a good job at Symmons Plains, where we went OK. It certainly has impeded what we’ve been trying to do since then. I think Robbo (Michael Caruso) has done a good job, but he’s better than where we’ve been qualifying. He can drive better than that. Now, clearly, our cars are not right.

Richie saw this move as a chance to restore his reputation and everyone expected him to show his class. Has he just not had the car to display his ability or are you scratching your head about him?

No, no, the cars are not right. We are definitely missing something, as I said before. But I also think he hasn’t been able to drive enough to at least find those things out. So that’s why we’re going to give him a run, see how he is, but if he’s still not right, we’ll have to do something because the enduros are nearly here.

But if he’s heathy, you’re happy to keep him on?

Absolutely, of course.

Barry Rogers now runs GRM, working closely with his father Garry.

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And you’ve taken a tiger by the tail with the Boost Mobile sponsorship, haven’t you?

As we all know, Peter Adderton is very outspoken.

Well, Peter Adderton is Peter Adderton and Garry Rogers is Garry Rogers. I know people go on about social media, but I don’t involve myself in it. People in the team come to me and tell me ‘Did you know Peter Adderton’s bagged you again?’ and this and that. Look, I couldn’t care less, right? When I look in the mirror, I’m happy with what I see. I’m trying to do my best to keep my people employed and give them the best resources. Now, he’s entitled to an opinion, good on him. But does it affect me? No, it does not.

I can understand you don’t care what he says, but it does matter because he’s made it clear his sponsorship is contingent upon performance.

Yes, he has.

Essentially, he’s threatening to pull out if you guys don’t up your game.

Well, that will be his choice. It’s no different to a driver. All our drivers are on performancerelated contracts as well. The fact is, if you don’t do it and they’re paying the bills, you are going. If Peter Adderton said to us at the end of this year ‘OK, results haven’t been good, we’re not renewing for next year’, I’d understand. I wouldn’t like it because I think we have given them reasonably good mileage, but we have not given them results that I would consider to be good ones commercially. comme So to ssay the least, there’s a lot riding on this, isn’t there? all this word there is. Mark, I understand all My wo that, bbut for me to get involved in a slanging

You’ve always been something of a talent scout, giving young drivers their breaks.

Are you still committed to that policy of bringing on youngsters?

Yes and that was another reason we entered into the TCR program because I think you can find people who can afford to do that. But they just can’t afford to get into Supercars.

You’re one of Supercars’ real characters…

I’d love to still be dressing up. I haven’t dressed up for ages because I refuse to until we can get on the first two rows.

One of Supercars’ problems is that it is desperately short of personalities. Do you despair about that?

I do. There’s too much political correctness.

There’s nothing wrong with having a disagreement, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of pushing and shoving. You don’t have to be a physically violent person, but sometimes you have to make your point. I just think the whole thing is too goody-goody. You know, all the drivers going to the coffee shop and drinking their lattes together. You need a bit of anger and aggression.

You let your drivers express themselves.

I do. So long as it’s not personal. I will not have them slandering other people. But if Joe doesn’t like Billy because he got hit in the back of the car and shoved him off, Billy should be saying that. They’re just such bland personalities these days.

Unfortunately, it’s just one of the many problems behind the scenes, isn’t it?

Cost is the big problem. I have absolutely no doubt that all this pussy footing around the outside with the rules instead of doing something about reducing costs is a huge problem. Huge.

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Do you get any sense that Supercars management is addressing cost savings and cost controls for the Next Generation rules?

Well, I think there’s a lot of talk going on, but if they stopped talking and started acting, and maybe just made some tough decisions and said to the competitors ‘This is what’s happening’, we might get somewhere. It needs to change now, not next year or the year after.

Roland Dane’s view is that the cars and d engines are necessarily expensive because they’re such unique beasts.

But they could still be unique beasts with engines that cost a quarter of what they do. They could still have the same horsepower, at least the same reliability and the maintenance levels would be minimal. But all the people with vested interests don’t want to know. They all talk about the cost of the redundancy because of the cost of the engines we’d be getting rid of. I know that, I can see that, but the cost saving far outweighs that. You would get your money back in 12 months, two years at the most. If you had a two-car team, with the crate engine I proposed, we’d be making huge savings with similar performance. They’re trying to experiment with variations of the crate engines (changes to make the current motors more durable and require fewer rebuilds), but it’s taking too long.

And the rest of the car is too expensive as well, isn’t it?

It is. What about the transaxle? Why would you have ever changed that? People say there were faults with the Albins transaxle. Let me tell you right now, we hardly had a problem. Occasionally you’d have a cracked gear, but very rarely did we have a failure because we looked after them. The maintenance levels were miniscule. But someone got a bee in their bonnet about that and changed the transaxle (to British Xtrac this year). It should never have happened.

Isn’t the Xtrac supposed to be bullet-proof?

Well, I don’t think it’s all that bullet-proof. I think there have been a few issues. And it’s expensive. And also to maintain it, there was a special tool kit you had to buy. No one told us about the extras when they decided on the change. I think it was a very, very poorly judged decision to go down that route. And also, we had an Australian product that was doing the job. Albins is a great local company making stuff for people around the world.

What about the chassis? Are there savings to be had there?

Oh, that’s probably pretty much at the limit now. You can build them reasonably cheaply because your jigs are all there and the process is streamlined, so that’s not such a big deal anymore.

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Looking a couple of years ahead, do the rules have to change to encourage more two-door models without the nonsense we had with the Mustang?

Yes, I think that needs to happen. We went through all this with the Volvo (adapting its smaller size to the rules without corrupting its appearance). I know the Volvo wasn’t a two-door car, but the more makes you can get, the better. The fact of the matter is, no new manufacturers are coming in, so we need to do something. The way the automotive industry is going, the future of Supercars is what you might call sedan-based two-doors like the Mustang, Camaro and Dodge Challenger and then maybe the Toyota Supra.

I think there could be an opportunity to introduce things like the Supra so long as the aero was judged in a better fashion than it is currently being done. Also, you’d need to make sure the weight configuration and horsepower was right. We were able to get the Volvo V8 to comply. You have to make some sacrifices, but you can make it work. That was another reason why we went for the TCR program because it’s so affordable by comparison for both teams and drivers.

Most of these younger guys today can scape together $300,000-$400,000 and with that, they can get into TCR and be competitive. They can get some limelight rather than just trudge around down the back. I just think that Supercars should introduce more variety among the cars. There’s no reason why you couldn’t run smaller type cars in that category so long as you balance the performance.

The Volvo S60’s shape and size exposed flaws in the aerodynamic regime that we’re paying for now, aren’t we?

That’s exactly right. But with a better testing process, there’s no reason why you couldn’t introduce smaller cars. Let a Skoda or whatever come in with whatever V8 engine they want to have. The thing I still really love about Supercars is the V8 sound, so I think you have to keep that. But could put in whatever V8 you wanted.

Of course, a lot of people will say a manufacturer like a Skoda won’t want to race with a GM or Ford crate engine. But let me tell you, if you’re winning races, they’ll soon forget what the engine is. They’ll just see a Skoda blazing around and going good. But, of course, all these diehards won’t bite the bullet.

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So you’re convinced Supercars must stick with V8s?

My word, they do. V8s, absolutely.

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BROCK’S GREATEST VICTORY

On the 40th anniversary of the toughest road rally ever held in this country, MARK FOGARTY talks to those behind the conquest that Peter Brock rated as the highlight of his legendary career Images: Ray Berghouse-Chevron/Bandits & Co/AA Archives

HE SAID it himself. Amid all his success, H tthe late, great Peter Brock regarded th his against-the-odds victory in the 1979 hi Repco Reliability Trial as his crowning R glory. gl Just J a decade after beginning his rise to prominence with a third place on debut in pr the 1969 Bathurst 500, Brock conquered th tthe roughest, toughest and longest rally th ever staged in Australia – before or since. ev Against all predictions, he led home a Hold H Holden Commodore 1-2-3 cleansweep, confirming that his preternatural ability extended beyond touring car racing.

Australia’s most famous domestic driver beat the best local and d international rally drivers in a gruelling i torture test with a drive that defied to his h hot-headed reputation. The same sa smoothness and mechanical sympathy that characterised his sy racing came to the fore in the twora week, we 19,000 km clockwise lap of the na nation from August 5-19, 1979.

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“There’s no doubt in my mind it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in a car and I’ll never forget that event as long as I live,” Brock said in former Auto Action editor David Hassall’s 1983 book The Peter Brock Story.

Until his untimely death in September 2006, Brock maintained it was his greatest triumph, a record nine Bathurst wins (or 10 if you count the 2003 24 Hour event) notwithstanding. It underlined his versatility and adaptability.

Holden’s big budget assault on the Round Australia Reliability Trial was masterminded by rally guru George Shepheard, a former title-winning competitor who planned and engineered the three-car team.

Brock was partnered with champion rally navigator Noel Richards and top Victorian rally driver/mechanic Matt Philip. They were the least likely of an all-star line-up of rally legends in their 05 Commodore.

International aces Rauno Aaltonen and Shekar Mehta joined with top local

journalist/navigator Barry Lake, with the third entry crewed by veteran Australian rally star Barry Ferguson, ‘young gun’ driver Wayne Bell and established leftseater Dave Boddy.

While Brock was by then the Holden ‘golden child’, no one gave him much of a chance to win, including Shepheard.

“I didn’t think that he would win,” said Shepheard, now 77 and semi-retired in Brisbane. “But having done a lot of testing with him and got to know him and the way he thought about things, I thought he could win it, but I didn’t think he would.

“Being as rough as what it was, the person I would have put my money on would have been Fergie (Ferguson).”

Indeed, until team orders were invoked from Townsville, Brock and Ferguson/ Bell were battling hard, while Aaltonen/ Mehta languished because they were too conservative.

Brock acknowledged that he was regarded by the rally fraternity as an ingenue going into the event.

VIEW FROM THE LEFT SEAT Noel Richards on telling Brock where to go

The combination of Barry Ferguson , Wayne Bell and Dave Boddy was solid in second and pushed the 05 car hard to the end.

Brock excelled in all types of conditions, surprising many in the rally fraternity.

“I’m sure the rally drivers felt that I was not one of them, that I was just there as a PR exercise and was not to be taken seriously,” he said in Hassall’s book. “I was even joking with (London To Sydney maestro) Andrew Cowan before the event that we were just the amateurs, but we saw him again in Perth and he complimented us on how we were going, which was great because I was using guys like him and Barry as a gauge.

“I guess that people figured I’d done my apprenticeship by the time we got to Perth, but still felt the amateur all the way through.”

Shepheard confirmed that Brock was under-rated. “Everyone eelse lsee reck ls reckoned ckoned he’d be out by about the ffirst irirst st nnight, ight ig ht,, bu butt obviously they were very, very wrong. r w roong ng.

He was unbelievably dogmatic gmat gm atic ic about what he wanted. But he w wasn’t silly. asn’ as n’tt si sill lly. y.

“We’d argue things out. Butt he w was as good. People got a big surprise urprise when he held it together for the whole event and at the end of the event, nt, definitely it was the best car underneath. ath. Obviously, he had a talent for hopping ng and skipping and jumping.”

The key to the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team’s stunning 1-2-3 domination mination was planning and preparation, ation, which included 3000 km of testing ng with a pilot build Commodore – the famous amous silver trial horse. Shepheard alsoo entered

Brock in a couple of rallies to help fine-tune his off-road technique.

As a result of the extensive pre-Trial testing, the three VB Commodores built

by Shepheard in Sydney were, essentially, bullet-proof. The bodyshells were walked down the Dandenong production line and carefully welded.

The venerable 202 six-cylinder ‘red’ motor – not even the then latest version – was chosen for its light weight, grunty lowdown torque and availability of parts in the

Brock and navigator Noel Richards, together with Matt Philip, were a formidible team.

Outback.

Along with the all-star crews, the effort featured extensive ground and air support along the route.

According to Shepheard, winning the Repco Trial was a no-expense-spared operation.

“I believe it would be close to $750,000,” he revealed.

Forty years ago, that was a staggering amount. With the big backing of Marlboro

EXPERIENCED RALLY navigator Noel Richards guided Brock through the event, witnessing the circuit star’s off-road mastery – and the odd mistake – in close confines for two weeks.

“Brock was a skilled driver and was very good in those circumstances,” Richards recalled. “I hardly, if ever, steered the car. My job was to navigate and make sure we got where we were supposed to be going. And we’d done a lot of work on where the event would go and keeping everyone on track, and particularly keeping Peter geared to what needed to be done.”

Richards, 74, remembers that while Brock occasionally needed to be reined in, he was generally restrained and drove within his and the fortified VB Commodore’s limits.

“Look, I think every driver in those circumstances needs to be reined in, but Peter was smart enough to know that you win Bathurst towards the end, you don’t win it in the first part,” he said. “And we just applied the same sort of thinking and that came naturally to him, so he could do that.

“The whole idea in the Repco was to stay in the lead pack and it was only fortunate that we ended up being the lead car into Darwin.

If we hadn’t been the lead car, we would’ve wanted to be in the top three or four, for sure.”

Richards was impressed by Brock’s application as much as his ability.

“Peter was a talented driver under pretty well all circumstances,” he noted. “A bit of a lair, so he could get carried away if you didn’t control it – and that was very important.

“We worked really hard as a crew of three before the event and during the two weeks of the event, and I think that’s what paid off in the end. Was he a talented driver in that event? Yes, he was.”

He also debunks the myth that the Brock car was primarily a publicity stunt.

“I’d dispute that,” Richards declared. “While everyone might’ve said ‘Oh, here’s the 05 publicity crew’, we knew that wasn’t true. No one outside of George and a few other people had known the miles we put in to prepare ourselves.”

He also disputes that unyielding team orders were invoked to protect their lead down the east coast to the finish back in Melbourne.

“There was a bit of discussion that went on,” he said. “I can remember discussions going on, but I don’t ever remember George saying ‘You guys are in front, so stay in front”. That never happened.

“The three of us said ‘Where in the lead, now we need to protect it’. We knew for a fact that after we left Brisbane and got down through the old Southern Cross Rally country, guys like Wayne Bell and certainly Greg Carr would have the measure of us, so we had to make sure that the gap we had, we kept it.”

Richards is retired after long careers in teaching and as an oil company executive.

He last competed in the 1995 Mobil 1 Trial alongside Ross Dunkerton in one of the Shepheard-prepared VR Commodores. He hasn’t attended an event since.

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Townsville provided crews with a welcome respite from the gruelling event.

and Castrol, the budget was way more than any other team, including Colin Bond’s threecar factory Ford Cortina squad.

There is also much debate about team orders, with historical accusations of favouritism of Brock. The simple fact is that neither Shepheard nor Holden cared which Commodore won, but a form finish was ordered at Townsville on the run down the east coast to the finish back in Melbourne.

“We had a meeting with Holden in Melbourne two days before the event and I was asked to stipulate to the crews that they may be asked to form finish and if you can’t accept that, you better pull out now,” he recalled. “I agreed and so did everyone in the team on that night.

“I told them that when they were going to be given team orders, they’d be given one full day’s notice – and that’s what we did.

“What happened was that Ferguson was able to get into the lead a couple of times and people outside our team felt we were favouring Brock. But what they didn’t know was that I had said to them at a meeting in Townsville that whoever has a good run will win the rally. It was that simple.

“I didn’t mind if someone tried to win, but I didn’t want it to be silly because they were getting very, very game on their times.

“They were notified on the run from Mt Isa across to Townsville. There was a service stop at the Holden dealership there and we took them all aside in room and instructed that if anyone didn’t abide by the rule, we’d take the wheels off their car.”

Brock didn’t like Shepheard’s edict, which had the full backing of Holden management, but he agreed to it.

“OK, you win, I’ll look after the

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car,” Brock reportedly said.

Then Holden marketing boss – and later HSV/HRT chief – John Crennan clearly remembers the team orders direction.

“We brought Peter into line and asked him to back off,” Crennan said. “We had the chance of a 1-2-3 and we weren’t fussed about the order.

“But Peter said ‘I’m fussed about what order it’ll be’. The next day, all I can

remember is, after reminding Peter to take it easy, he got in the car and broadsided out of the dealership into the main street and gave it hell.

“Which was his way of saying ‘Screw you!’”

Brock disputed the big budget claims, although along with the extensive pre-event testing, the MHDT assault was backed by on-the-ground service support and planes that carried key personnel ahead of the

event.

“After the event, many people said the team did so well because we spent cubic dollars and had a massive service operation, but that wasn’t the case at all,” Brock claimed in The Peter Brock Story. ”George Shepheard is not one of your big-time spenders, that’s for sure, but his planning was brilliant and the crew he assembled — four or five mechanics and a lot of volunteer helpers

BROCKIE’S BACK-UP Matt Philip was co-driver and Mr Fix It LEADING VICTORIAN rally driver Matt Philip was partnered with Brock and Richards because he was also a skilled mechanic.

“I was there because I was a reasonably competent driver with no ego to be first, I was light in weight and I could fix the car,” Philip shrugged. “I think I drove most of the boring bits, which was the idea.

“We did a lot of testing together before the event and I think that meant when it came to the event, everybody had a good idea of what the others were capable of.

So there was never any question about who should drive when. In fact, Noel Richards made those decisions as far as I could tell.”

Philip, 70, remembers Brock as a standout driver who seamlessly adapted to long distance rally driving.

“He was such a good thinkingg person that he applied himself ttoo how it had to be done and did it very well,” he said. “I was certainly ainlly never frightened by what he did id and he was very good at looking kinng after the car.

“Again, because we’d donee the testing, we knew a lot about w what hat the car could cope with.”

Philip agrees with Brock’s own assessment that it was his greatest victory, given the calibre of competition he faced in an unfamiliar driving discipline.

“He was put up against the best international people for that sort of event and he beat them all,” he said. “Certainly, it’s my greatest victory and I can’t disagree with his assessment because he beat the best local and international rally drivers.

“I suspect that we were there

ffor or the thhe publicity and weren’t expected e to finish. start, Peter said ‘If h At the start we get to Port Hedland, I’m going fishing’. Well, we didn’t do any of that…”

Philip’s skills as a mechanic were hardly called upon – although, crucially, he replaced a tie rod deep in the Outback – because of Shepheard’s meticulous preparation and regular precautionary suspension rebuilds and a rear end replacement.

“Nothing unexpected broke on it – except that the headlights used to

fall out o because the little plastic clips would break,” he said. id “We got new wheels at virtually every service stop – we put four new wheels and tyres on it because you seemed to have punctures whether you liked it or not or whether they made any sense or not.

“George was so organised as far as preventative maintenance went.”

Melbourne-based Philip quit historic rallying several years ago and these days, although retired, still dabbles in vintage car restoration.

CLOSE CALLS TThe path to victory wasn’t incident-free

Servicing and support were the keys to Holden’s 1-2-3 success, with George Shepheard (above right, sitting between Shekar Mehta & Rauno Aaltonen) who led the program as car constructor, planner and strategist. who took a couple of weeks off work — would do anything he asked of them.

“Our budget wasn’t very big at all. We had four service panel vans and an aeroplane, but that wasn’t unusual during that event.

“The reason the cars won was because they were reliable. They rode and handled so well that they didn’t crash themselves to death and the crews had a fairly pleasant ride, which helped in the fatigue department.”

It clearly was an extremely well-funded effort that cemented the Commodore into the public consciousness as a strong, reliable car.

Unbeknown to outsiders, Ferguson’s challenge to Brock down the east coast was hampered by a temperamental clutch.

“What I said was that fate will decide who’s going to win – this is up at Townsville – and it sure did,” Shepheard said. “What people weren’t told was that Fergie’s clutch wasn’t working well, so that’s where he was losing some time here and there (to Brock).”

Shepheard also refuted suggestions that Holden had ruled that Brock should win.

“No one ever said anything to me,” he said.

“They just said they wanted to win.

“Holden wanted all three to finish. At Darwin, they couldn’t believe we were running 1-2-3.”

Crennan confirmed that Holden hadn’t favoured Brock – in fact, Aaltonen and Mehta were more popular with senior management.

“The internationals were pretty cool guys,” he said. “We knew Peter and knew exactly what to expect from him, but these guys

were diplomats and very sophisticated.

“They were great ambassadors and everyone liked them. So while Brock was the pin-up boy, everyone was pretty pleased to have these other two guys in our corner.

They spoke well, they presented well and they obviously drove well. ”And their international credentials helped us obtain an enormous amount of publicity.”

Crennan paid tribute to the late Grant ‘Spear’ Steers – a colourful crony of Brock and long-time Holden motor sport ‘fixer’ – for his key role in co-ordinating between the company and Shepheard.

“Grant Steers was a vital cog in it all, both in the planning and, of course, on the event itself,” he said. “He was my man on the whole project.

“He was a star in it all. In his typical fashion, he’d just crash through brick walls and wouldn’t stand any bullshit. As far as I’m concerned, he was certainly our secret weapon. George was the strategic genius.”

According to ‘Crenno’, no one at Holden expected a Commodore rout. “We were very surprised at how well we went,” he said. “If anybody had’ve suggested that the objective of the program was to come first, second and third, they would’ve been laughed out of the place. We certainly performed ahead of our expectation.

“I do remember we did go over budget quite considerably. But I don’t believe it was $3 million. Whatever it was, it was certainly a lot of money in the day.”

Shepheard, whose father instigated the classic REDeX Trials in the 1950s,

unsurprisingly regards the Repco triumph as the highlight of his rally and race career.

“It was because until then, all I’d really done was the Australian Rally Championship and then I got thrown into the deep end,” he said. “I always pulled my cars apart after a hard event and it’s amazing what you learn.

“That way we learned how to build strong cars. We only had four people to build them.”

Shepheard went on to achieve success in racing, building the XD Falcon in which Bob Morris finished second – and was on course to win – the crash-shortened 1981 Bathurst 1000. He moved to Queensland to run Dick Johnson’s XE in 1983/84 before heading Mitsubishi Ralliart’s Starion Group A program, including a win in the Guia touring car classic at the Macau Grand Prix.

He completed a Round Australia double in the 1995 Mobil 1 Trial, orchestrating Ed Ordynski’s and Ross Runnalls’ win in a VR Commodore.

Shepheard also ran the Volvo Dealer Team in Super Touring in the mid-’90s with Brock and Jim Richards.

He is still actively involved in the family run GSA Wholesale Suspension business at Slacks Creek in Brisbane.

Brock’s Reliability Trial winning 05 MHDT Commodore, which still belongs to Holden, is on display at the National Motor Racing Museum at Mount Panorama, while Barry Ferguson found his car and restored it.

The third Aaltonen/Mehta example is understood to have been written off years ago.

IT LOOKED LOO easy, but Peter Brock’s win wasn’t without incident and adventure.

Noel R Richards remembers two moments that cou could have ended – or at least severely impaired – the 05 crew’s front-running cchallenge. ch alleng “The fir first scare was on the road to William Creek ou out of Maree,” Richards said. “That was a road co covered in a lot of water during the night andd had a lot of detours around it. These cars could run at 180 km/h all the time and when you came over a crest at night and all of a sudden, the road disappears or the dip’s greater than you thought it was…

“So we stuck it up on its nose and it shot off into the bushes, Mallee scrub and stuff. We got out of that and thought ‘OK, we’ve learned a lesson there’.

“The second scare was right up near Port Hedland, where we were pretty close to the lead. We’d had a really tough night through those sections and we were on a section coming out towards the old highway, and just on a left-hand sweeper down through a bit of a creek bed, Peter got a bit close into the apex and broke a tie rod.

“Matt fixed it in pretty smart time, but we said to ourselves there ‘OK, stop being cocky, we’re in the lead, just take it easy. We’re not going to win it right this minute.’

Brock thought his soar through the air at warp speed was going to be the end of their effort.

“I was really cracking along up near the Birdsville track and I hit a big ditch extremely hard,” he said in David Hassall’s The Peter Brock Story. “I guess most of the competitors had a similar thing happen to them at some stage, but when it happened I thought I’d blown the Repco for sure.

“Matt and Noel were having a bit of a snooze when I hit this ditch at about 180 km/h and the whole car was airborne for about 100 metres, bouncing hard when it landed. I thought ‘This is the end of the whole thing’.

“It took about 10 seconds to get back under control, by which time I was in the salt bushes.

After I got back on the road, I stopped to make sure all the doors still opened and shut, put it in gear to make sure the gearbox still worked and listened for any grinding noises under the car.

“I drove along for a couple of kilometres wondering what was going to happen because I was sure the car had had it. Anyway, I started to boot it along a bit more and realised that it was perfect. Half an hour later, I’d forgotten the incident ever happened.

“It was quite staggering, really, because the car was going along on its nose at 180 and so close to doing an end-for-end that I’d hate to try and do it again!”

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Former Australian rally champion turned historian BOB WATSON recounts the drama of the last of the legendary around Australia trials.

Images: Ray Berghouse-Chevron/Autopics.com.au/AA Archive

WHEN THE 1979 Repco Reliability Trial, a 20,000 km two-week sprint around Australia, was announced in ’78, the rally community jumped at it. It would be nine long years since the Ampol Trial in 1970 and there were plenty of competitors ready for another around Australia adventure.

Even dire warnings from the event director Stewart McLeod that this would be the toughest ever didn’t faze them. Eventually, y, 202 crews put up their money, although hough some dropped out before the event nt start.

The Repco Trial was the last greatt race through the Aussie Outback, ending the era of true torture tests.

Four decades ago this month, circumnavigating the nation by a combination of main and back roadss was still a car-killer.

The Repco was the true successor to the pioneering REDeX Trials of the mid-1950s. The alternating Ampol and d Mobilgas Trials of the late ’50s/early ’60s 0s were only half laps of the country, as was ass the ’70 Ampol event.

The ’79 Repco Reliability Trial was the longest and most arduous of them all.

So it was going to be a very hard eventt to win. Both the clockwise route around the nation and the level of leading competition were extreme.

The field of entries was the strongest rally line-up ever in Australia, with the usual suspects, Ford and Holden, being challenged by official entries from Porsche, Audi, Citroen and Volvo.

For Holden, driving newly released Commodore VBs, were Peter Brock, Barry Ferguson and Rauno Aaltonen, backed up by accomplished co-drivers. Aaltonen’s driving partner was Safari Rally master Shekhar Mehta.

Ford also looked strong, with six-cylinder Cortinas built by Colin Bond, who headed a formidable driver squad supported by George Fury and Greg Carr, and their proven co-drivers.

Volvo Australia also had a three-car contingent led by Ross Dunkerton, with fellow West Australian Frank

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Johnson and managing director Harry Jensen completing the trio.

Nor could the overseas challenge be ignored. Andrew Cowan, the master of long distance rallies, was in a Citroen CX prepared by around Australia veteran Jim Reddiex, with Jeff Beaumont as navigator.

Safari and Ampol Trial winner Edgar sche 911 with Dean Herrman was in a Porsche Rain Ra insf sfor ord d, backed bac acke ked d up by by a Porsche Pors Po rsch chee Rainsford,

First true privateer home was the sixth-placed Toyota Celica entry of Victorian crew Wes Nalder/Ian Richards/Geoff Boyd. LondonSydney master Andrew Cowan ran a Citroen CX (far left) but his event ended near Mount Isa with a broken drive shaft. Toyota and Volvo celebrated their successes in newspaper and magazines. Ross Dunkerton took his Volvo to fourth (far right).

944 with Germans Jurgen Barth and Roland Kussmaul.

Audi entered two Audi 100 5Es for German rally aces Achim Warmbold and Gerd Behret.

Left-field entries came from Baja off-road race hero Steve Mizel in a Chev Blazer; US rally champ Hendrik Blok driving a Ford Falcon ute; Larry and Gary Perkins in a rather special VW Beetle; and American Ron Clyborne in a Ford F-Series pickup.

Add young ARC hot shoe Geoff Portman in a semi-factory assisted Datsun Stanza and a plethora of proficient privateers, and it was an all-star cast.

Peter Brock, the driver with the highest profile, was under enormous pressure.

Not recognised as a rally driver, he nevertheless was expected by his myriad fans to do well. As the favoured driver of the strong Holden team, could he adapt his brilliant track skills to a two-week grind on mostly bad roads? Did he have the

endurance and concentration for the task?

This would be Brockie’s greatest test.

Amid great fanfare, 180 cars started the clockwisearound-the-continent adventure from the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds and proceeded to assemble at the footy ground at Tooboorac, a small town near Heathcote in the heart of Victorian rally country. The first challenge was the prologue, a 30 km sprint through goldfields forests which ich ch would determine the starting order for tthe he rally proper.

Young forestry officer Geoff Portman iinn his Stanza blitzed the field, leading thee rally off in the direction of Adelaide. The he toughest round Australia trial ever wass on its way.

A rain-soaked stretch of dirt road

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south of Bordertown put paid to the he efforts of many, with the slippery mud turning ning to porridge and then to glue as it dried. ed. For some, the Repco was over almostt as soon as it began, losing enough time to o have to skip controls. Many cars had to bee towed out by a farmer who made a tidy profit on the night.

Apart from the Bordertown drama, ma, the run to the first scheduled rest break inn Adelaide was straightforward, although gh cre crews ews were aware that the time schedules les we were ere tight and some struggled on the sandyy border track to Renmark, including Cowan wan in the Citroen. Portman continued to sprint in the Datsun, Aussie flag flying from m the roof, and was leading from Brock, Ferguson, Bond, Denis Sutton from WA in a Datsun 1600, Aaltonen and the Perkins ns VW. Brock was already showing that he could keep up with the rally “pros”.

As crews left Adelaide heading ng to the Flinders Ranges, the Perkins brothers rothers in the indecently quick Beetle rolled inn Parachilna Gorge, putting them out. Larry reported eported that they had left more debris around ound the countryside than the Skylab spacecraft cecraft had done when it disintegrated over WA that year!

On what turned out to be a horror or 4746 km leg to Perth, the skies opened and d tthe h roads around Marree and across to Coober Pedy became lakes. Brock came over a crest to find nothing but water to drive through, and the many detours to higher ground to avoid the flooded road were nerve wracking in the dark.

After Coober Pedy, the course went west to the Maralinga nuclear test area and then south to Nullarbor over a shocker of a road that claimed many victims. They included leader Portman, who blew five tyres, borrowing spares from other Datsun competitors. He dropped four places in the process, but was still going.

The experienced Barry Ferguson led the field into Nullarbor, followed by Bond, Fury, Johnson, Brock, Carr, Cowan, Mehta, Mizel, Dunkerton, Herrman and my slow-butsteady Peugeot 504 diesel, the only alternate fuel car in the event. The Fords were starting to show that they had the speed to match the Commodores.

Many cars had already faltered, the bad roads and relentless schedule forcing many to cut and run. Dunkerton was having shock absorber problems; Brock hit a kangaroo;; Carr broke a rear axle just beforee a control; and numerous cars were bogged or had punctures.

The course headed west across the Nullarbor Plain – not an aboriginal word, but derived from the latin Null (no) and Arbor (trees) – on welcome tarmac for a while. Then north to the transcontinental railway line over rocky horror stretches that caused

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Young Victorian rally hotshot Geoff more flat tyres. Only Portman was 37 cars attempted the the rally’s early leader (top) while t Rawlinna Rocks stage, Greg Carr (centre) such was the attrition had the Cortina rate. flying on the run The field arrived at home, but the Perth severely depleted Commodores had control by then. as far as contenders

went. Only 26 cars had done the whole course.

Bond led, followed by Ferguson, Brock, Carr, Fury, Johnson in the Volvo and then Cowan’s Citroen. Portman had dropped to eighth, but was still with the leaders. Our 504 diesel arrived just three minutes before the 10 hours of late running time expired, still with those who had not missed a control.

Service crews for most cars were still hundreds of kilometres back along the road when their charges reached Perth.

It was after Perth en route to Darwin – a mammoth 4800 km leg – that the Ford world fell apart.

The Cortina engine a mounts were cracking and at the mo Wanneroo circuit special stage, Wa Bond Bo o rolled his car after leaving the test. Later, Fury’s engine mounts broke and the Fords were m mo in more trouble than the early settlers. se Prince Leonard of Hutt River Province courteously welcomed P the crews to his controversially th sseceded outpost and ppresented each with a ppassport.

Meanwhile, the Commodores were serenely C out ou in front and looking very ve hard to beat. Brock and an Ferguson had left the Aaltonen/Mehta car behind, Aa and were already locked in a battle bat for the lead.

Brock, B the rally learner,

German Gerd Behret was in one of two official Audi entries (above left) got taken out by a Kangaroo.

against Ferguson, Australia’s best long distance rally driver. Holden team manager George Shepheard was flashing his crookedteeth grin.

North through Meekatharra, Newman and the deserted asbestos mining town of Wittenoom, the rough special stages continued relentlessly.

One was aptly named the 1000 Creek Beds, while the Nunyerry horror stage included a stretch called Chocolate Ruffle Pass, where crews had to get out of their cars to clear away boulders before they could proceed.

All of this before an impossible sandy river crossing through which most cars had to be towed.

At Darwin, only 17 cars had covered the entire course and the rally was all but over.

The Commodores were in an essentially unbeatable position, running 1-2-3 with ease.

Barring catastrophe, it was now an intraHolden team battle.

Cowan was hanging on despite numerous small problems and Dunkerton’s Volvo refused to die despite a litany of disasters.

The 1979 Repco Reliability Trial was the last great race through the Aussie Outback. It was the true successor to the REDeX Trials of the mid-1950s and the longest, most arduous of them all. Enormous crowds flocked to the finish at Melbourne’s Showgrounds.

Shekhar Mehta (above and far right) finished third, while Japnese-crewed semi-factory Subaru Leone came 44th. Colourful ARC star Ross Dunkerton (above) followed the Commodores home.

There was a welcome rest day in Darwin following days of mainly sleepless hours on the road, as well as allowing many of the short cutters to catch up. However, spirits were somewhat dampened by the news that two crew members in a Peugeot 504 – not ours – had died when the car rolled over on the Gibb River Road.

At Darwin, Brock led Ferguson by three-and-ahalf minutes, with Aaltonen/Mehta over an hour further back in third. Next were Cowan, Carr, Dunkerton and Portman. Bond was 32nd and

Fury 35th.

The field set off through Arnhem Land and along the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Borroloola and then Mount Isa. Cowan’s front-drive Citroen expired on this leg with a broken drive shaft, so the event had become a two-horse race, and people wondered how George Shepheard would handle the rivalry between fan favourite Brock and determined veteran Ferguson. Would it be “hold station” or would the fight continue to the finish back in Melbourne?

The journey down the east coast through Sydney to the competitive finish at Albury was something of an anti-climax. The severity of the rally had diminished and although Carr showed the speed of the Cortina by dominating the later familiar forest stages, the extreme challenge to survive which had characterised the Repco was over.

The three Marlboro Holden Dealer Team Commodores returned to the Melbourne showgrounds two weeks after the start, totally triumphant. A 1-2-3 result had been beyond

their wildest dreams and to have Peter Brock as the winner was the icing on the cake.

The Bathurst hero had proved he could drive fast in all the terrible conditions the Repco Trial had thrown at him and he come out on top in what he regarded as the greatest victory of his career.

For Brock, Shepheard and the entire Holden organisation, it was a monumental victory that established the Commodore’s credentials as a new kind of Aussie family car, up to the harshest conditions of this wide brown land.

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Author Bob Watson (far left) and co-driver Garry Harrowfield (far right) were a rare two-man crew. They are shown here Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxxwith Xxxxxx at the finish celebrating Xxxxxx Xxxxxxmechanics Xxxxxx Xxxxxx on-event AlbertXxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxxand Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Johnson EnzoXxxxxx Dozzi (middle Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxx leftXxxxxx and right).

Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxx Xxxxxx

BOB WATSON recalls his epic drive in a diesel-powered Pug that got him – slowly – to the finish Images: AA Archive/David G Segal/Bob Watson

WHEN THE grand plan by Renault Australia to run three entries in the Repco Reliability Trial came to nought, there was only one remaining possibility. The plan had always included a fourth car, a Peugeot 504 diesel, so having been rebuffed by Timo Makinen and Peugeot France management to run a fully competitive team, that was our fall back.

Renault Australia backed the effort to run the diesel car and some good work secured a sponsor, King Gee work clothing.

There was one slight problem – the King Gee motto was “Any tougher they‘d rust”, not really appropriate for an automotive application! We changed it to “As tough as they come”.

The 1977 Singapore Airlines London To Sydney marathon car

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driven by Bob Holden, which had crashed in the event not far outside Perth, was available, which was ideal because it had all the factory reinforcements and other endurance rally details. It had done around 12,000 fairly hard marathon kilometres, but was still in good condition, with a total of about 80,000 km on the clock.

Chief mechanic Enzo Dozzi set about converting the car to diesel power. We knew there was little that could be done to improve the engine performance, so we saved weight where possible while making sure the car was bullet proof. We decided to run a two-man crew instead of the generally used three, so Garry Harrowfield, a former Victorian rally champion and Peugeot dealer at Ballarat in Victoria, was to be the co-driver.

In rally mode, with full fuel and a crew of two, the car had a top speed of 140 km/h, achieved after quite a few kilometres. The only redeeming feature was that the car was quite economical. It was going to be a long and tiring rally!

We could see that servicing was going to be difficult because of the tight event schedules and the lack of speed of the car, so we obtained the services of Philip George, a rally man and a pilot who was looking to build up his flying hours. With him in a light plane were the two best Peugeot mechanics in Australia, Enzo Dozzi and Albert Johnson, a pile of spare parts, and PR man and journalist Michael Browning, who was covering the event for King Gee and Renault Australia.

A fold up motorcycle was included so

that the plane could land near the course, and then Michael could ride the motorcycle to intercept the rally car and take notes of work required at the next service. It was a good system and worked well because the car required very little servicing during the event, possibly because it could not go fast enough to hurt itself!

We started the event at number 11 and after the prologue were 30th fastest out of a field of 180 – not too bad for a mobile chicane. Once the competition started, we found we had to drive the car flat out, even on transport sections, to make the times.

All went well to Adelaide, but the next leg to Perth showed the true nature of the event.

Garry had some good friends at the Ballarat hospital and they made up nourishing packs of stuff like nuts and dried

‘79 Round Australia Trial was an arduous journey for AA’s Bob Watson in his diesel Peugeot 504. Not only was it slow, but being an alternative-fuel car before it was fashionable, finding ‘derv’ at the nominated stops was often difficult.

fruit to keep us going and well fed. We packed the plastic packs in the back floor area, but after a couple of special stages, they had burst open, spewing muesli all over the rear floor. Then we went through a deep creek and water got in, so the rear of the car was a sea of porridge which sloshed backwards and forwards as we progressed.

The mess was there for the rest of the event.

After Adelaide, heavy rain on the way north to Marree and across to Coober Pedy caused numerous detours to avoid flooded areas, all done in the dark. We thought there were times when we would never see the main road again.

We kept plugging along, our times totally irrelevant because we were late everywhere.

After Coober Pedy, we headed south to Nullarbor, crossing the plain from north to south along an incredibly rocky track. We had punctures, as did most other cars, and tore a rear brake line off, leaving us with only front brakes.

To keep up my energy, I was living on Berocca pills. I would crush three or four into a glass of water and drink it down. The only problem was that when I had a peek, the stream was bright red, so I had to hide when I went in case people thought I was bleeding internally!

We arrived at the Nullarbor roadhouse, one spare tyre left and no rear brakes. We had no service because the pilot did not have a night flying rating, so we were on our own. It was a crucial part of the event for us.

Should we play safe and cut and run to stay in the event, but be placed behind those who had done the whole course, or should we gamble on getting to Perth over the whole route to stay with the top group?

Big dilemma. Over a cup of coffee, time

spent that we could ill afford, Garry and I decided to have a go.

After a stage at Narrogin, we had a long transport section to Perth. I was knackered, but when I tried to wake Garry to have a drive, he was totally unconscious. Yelling, punching, slapping his face did nothing. He was gone.

We made it to Perth three minutes before our late running time of 10 hours expired.

We were still in, but we had used up almost all of our rest time by being so late. We had two or three hours sleep in Perth, then set off to Darwin. We had been in the car for 67 non-stop hours since Adelaide.

The organisers had accepted our entry as an “alternate fuel” car, but did little to help us find the fuel we needed. Often, smaller country towns did not have a diesel pump at the servo because the farmers have their own supplies, so we often struggled to locate diesel.

We arrived at Cue, in the mid-north of WA, an official refuel point for the rally and could not find a diesel pump. The servo owner couldn’t help and we were getting desperate as well as losing our brief rest time.

I went to the general store and explained we needed diesel. The owner mumbled something about “look out the back”, so I did. And there was a pump in a wooden crate and a 205-litre drum of diesel. We took 50 litres or so to top up the car and left the rest to whomever. Sorry organisers!

We had another problem at Burketown.

We had battled through deep bulldust, getting bogged regularly, and pulling the car out using wheel winches bolted to the rear wheels. We arrived at the outskirts of the town, tired and cranky, to be told we had to buy a $20 passport to enter the town.

Grrr.

Then a beery bearded ed head with fairly bad teeth eeth appeared through myy window and said “Get et them things off the rear ear wheels”. We intended ed to remove them when en we got to town, but hee was insistent, so I told old him to eff-off.

It turns out he was the local policeman. li man He said “If yez don’t take ‘em off, I’m puttin’ yez in jail”. He won.

We arrived in Burketown – which is not quite the end of the earth, but you can see it from there. We needed diesel, so while other competitors were having a leisurely lunch, we looked all around the place for fuel.

Nothing at the petrol pumps, but then I spied a tanker parked near the pub. On enquiring, I was told that the driver was in the pub, blind drunk.

Garry and I searched around and found a length of garden hose and a bucket. I clambered up on top of the tanker, which was indeed full of diesel and stuck the hose into the opening at the top and sucked hard.

Relishing the resultant mouthful of diesel, I filled the bucket, which Garry took and poured into the car. After several repeats the tank was full and we set off again to Mount Isa. No rest, no lunch and a taste of diesel in the mouth.

I was told by a senior headquarters official after the event that the Peugeot diesel was not expected to get very far, so they were not to worry too much about it! Thanks, guys…

We slogged on, only half-conscious. At Townsville, the service crew was waiting and did a quick job re-welding the roof, which was beginning to separate from the A pillars.

Th The was long n rally ral a ly history hissto tory ry ooff th thee ca ccarr wa beginning to take its toll, ll although lth mechanically, all we had done was replace one front suspension strut.

Toward the end of the Repco, the hard-driven diesel engine was starting to tire and at one point in Sydney, we had a thrilling tussle with an old lady in a Morris Minor taking off from a set of traffic lights, although she was not aware we were racing. We could not help but laugh.

The latter stages of the event were a blur, but the car kept going and we finally made it to Albury, where the competition ended. I am usually up for a party, but I was so tired I just went to bed.

We finished 11th of the 13 cars that completed the whole course. The utterly reliable diesel engine averaged something around 14 litres/100 km (20 miles per gallon), driven flat out all the way. The fact that we were the only alternate fuel car received no recognition at all from the organisers, not even a token trophy.

It was almost as though we were a bit of a nuisance to them, but we knew what we had achieved and the car could have gone another two weeks if required. Not sure about the crew though!

A Peugeot 504 in the East African Safari.

Peugeot won the event eight times.

What might have been...

AutoAction

33

OF THE FEAR-CRAZED BRUMBIES

PETER BROCK won the Repco Reliability Trial, heading up a crushing 1-2-3 sweep by the newly released Holden Commodores. The factory backed Holdens had little opposition after Colin Bond’s team of Ford Cortinas succumbed to various mechanical problems.

However, the result may have been vastly different but for the intervention of ‘Flying Finn’ Timo Makinen and his co-driver Jean Todt (who went on to become boss of Peugeot Sport and Ferrari F1, and is now president of the FIA).

In 1977, Peugeot scored a good result in the Singapore Airlines London to Sydney marathon. A standard-engined Peugeot 504 driven by Ross Dunkerton, Roger Bonhomme and I finished fifth outright and won its class against the more powerful and better supported Mercedes Benz (Andrew Cowan) and Citroen (Paddy Hopkirk) teams.

When the Repco Reliability Trial was announced, Peugeot was keen to follow up on the marathon success and to repeat the win by Ken Tubman in a Peugeot 203 in the first REDeX around Australia trial in 1953.

The Australian agents contacted Peugeot headquarters in Paris and secured approval to run a team of three cars in the Repco event. The cars were to be factory prepared 504 models built to East African Safari spec with 140 horsepower engines. This was a perfect formula to win an around Australia trial.

I was invited to manage the team, which was to consist of the lead car, Timo Makinen co-driven by Jean Todt, supported by a second entry for Dunkerton and me. It was decided to add a locally prepared Peugeot 504 diesel to the team, as that model had just been released in Australia.

I flew to Paris for a meeting with senior Peugeot executives to brief them on the event. With me was Enzo Dozzi, the chief mechanic from Renault Australia’s halcyon rally days of the early 1970s, who would be looking after the servicing of the cars during the Repco.

We attended a high-level meeting at Peugeot head office with Makinen and Todt present. I got out the maps and schedules for

34 AutoAction

rally explained tthe logistics of the the rally, event and answered questions. Makinen and Todt did not say much as their English did not appear to be good.

A further meeting was scheduled in two days, which allowed Enzo and I to fly to the Peugeot competition department, located in a disused supermarket in Sochaux in eastern France. We viewed the bodies for the team cars and had good discussions with the head of the competition department about car preparation, spare parts requirements and other details. It was a good meeting.

We flew back to Paris for the next meeting, noting that Makinen and Todt were not present. Then came the bombshell. We were told that because of the severe schedules and limited servicing opportunities, Mr Makinen and Mr Todt recommended that Peugeot not proceed with the entries.

I tried desperately to explain to the executives present that those factors were exactly what gave Peugeot a great chance in the event, due to the proven reliability of the 504 and its suitability for Australian conditions, but to no effect. Mr Makinen was the advisor to Peugeot on rally matters and what he said went!

I suspect that because Makinen was close to the end of his rally career, the thought of entering such a demanding event may have taken him out of his comfort zone, coupled with the fact that he had visited Australia several times for the Southern Cross Rally with zero success.

That night, Enzo and I were taken byy apologetic Peugeot executives titive vess to a lav lavish avis ish h dinner and show at the Lido do o in P Paris, aris, bu ar but ut it was not a happy occasion… n… …

The Peugeot people in Australia ust s ralia were horrified and numerous international ernational telephone calls went back and nd forth, but the outcome did not change. e.

What a wasted opportunity for Peugeot.

The cars would have been perfect erfect for the Repco, with the strength and speed to keep up with the Commodores ores and Cortinas. The results could well ell have been so very different.

Fortunately, Dunkerton scored d a lastminute drive with the Volvo team m and was the only other car to take the fight ht to the Commodores. I was left with a 504 diesel, which got there in the end. Bob Watson

Images: Ray Berghouse-Chevron

IT WAS 10 days or so into the Repco Trial when desperation and exhaustion created a perfect storm of exaggeration. With just 20 hours of sleep in the bank and eyelids seemingly lined with sandpaper (eyeball tampering?), I defied exhaustion to create a tabloid tale that summed up the craziness of covering the event.

There I was, on a plane in the wee small hours somewhere over the Australian Alps, flying to the next stop to meet up with the rally front runners, with time ticking, the morning deadline looming, eyes redder than a vampire and no story to tell. Nada!

With only a few days left of the 14 allocated for the entrants to cover the 19,000 km around Australia – the land God created then forgot about – and by now tired of filing MHDT 1-2-3 stories, we heard over the radio on the plane that one of the Holden service vans had hit a wild horse. In Australia, we call them brumbies.

In the plane, I called them lifesavers.

The encounter was bad for the van. On the equine side, it was worse and Winx of the wild went to a better pasture.

Once on the ground, and with that deadline clock still tick, tick, ticking away, the leading competitors said that they too had seen groups of the notoriously highly strung brumbies doing what nervous one-plus tonne animals do orr so lss d o wh when en 100 100 o s barking rally with bark ba rkin ing g ra rall llyy cars cars w itith h lights liligh ghts ts brighter bri righ ghte terr than than the th e sun

tude territory. invade their tranquil high altitude re a few near They went crazy. There were misses, some late braking and the sound of lots of horsey feet racing off to quieter environs.

For a tabloid journo now with a looming deadline and little else to report, it was as though $100 notess and busty ed falling from nymphomaniacs had started the sky.

“Herds of fear crazed brumbies last night turned the Repco Round Australia Reliability Trial into a wild and dangerous game of dodgem cars” was the story intro I dictated to the copytaker back in Sydney from an unlighted phone box in a town that obviously has a name, but wasn’t significant enough for me to remember.

But I got the story through with, by then, a luxurious 15 minutes to spare. It made the front page!

If I were to be perfectly honest, the story that followed the lead paragraph probably didn’t significantly expand upon the intro, rarely offering convincing evidence that these wild-eyed, foaming beasts had joined en masse to disrupt the rally.

But near enough is good enough and newspaper deadlines wait for no man. Or brumby.

Thatt hyperbolic, not hyp per e bo oliic, c n ot tto o say say hysterical, hyss hy intro Trial intr tro o is part part of o Repco Rep epco T r al legend ri legen nd and remains rema re main inss one one

Bare-top stop: Male members of media and Holden support crew cool off somewhere in the Outback. Journalists worked around the clock, filing reports at all hours.

Select press, including the signalling Bill Tuckey, board the Marlboro media plane that followed the rally. That’s author Webster in the light (freebie, of course) jacket.

of my most memorable efforts in a mercurial career.

I was chosen to cover the event for the News Limited group of newspapers, a stable which included my regular day job as the motoring writer for Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph. It also meant a number of deadlines, the most important being in the evening for the morning newspapers and early in the AM for the afternoon tabloids such as Sydney’s The Daily Mirror, which wasn’t exactly The New York Times (more like Rupert’s New York Post, of the infamous “Headless Body In Topless Bar” headline).

I was 20 and hardly a seasoned journo.

But I knew a good yarn from a dud one and could, when pressed, produce a word feast from a famine of facts. Hey, I’m talking good ole tabloid journalism here, not a Pulitzer Prize-winning essay.

I have covered a lot of events around the world since that time and never encountered anything approaching the soul-destroying total brutality of the Repco. Without a plane it would have been impossible and even with one it was, at times, a close-run thing.

Rally organiser Stewart McLeod’s determination to make the Repco trial such an insane slice of motoring masochism presented the teams with plenty of challenges, the target times set for both special and transport stages leaving little, if any, time for such mundane necessities as vehicle servicing or and rest for the crews. Most were forced to drive virtually non-stop and still just about everyone was losing time. Service crews were left behind.

If this was cruel and unnatural punishment for the competitors, it

was sheer purgatory for we media types, especially those of us used to air-conditioned press boxes stocked with drinks and cute little triangle sandwiches.

The front of the field could be in one place, the middle of the field in another and the battlers god-knows-where. It’s a big place, Australia.

Luckily, tobacco giant Philip Morris (remember those days?) was the free-spending sponsor of the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team and was a company that knew that cash could guarantee coverage. So ‘Uncle Phil’ laid

on a plane for selected media – a nice little twin-engine job that could land just about anywhere and, over the course of the event, did!

Although it was only 40 years ago, it was the technological dark ages. Only NASA and universities had computers and the mobility of a phone was governed by the length of its cord.

This meant a ritual search in every new town for the nearest phone box so we could call the office and dictate the story to a real live person who typed the words on paper. In the smaller, more out of the way places – and there were a lot

of those – it was often necessary to ask the local publican or shopkeeper to use their phone.

More than once I knocked on the door of a dwelling within walking distance of the rally stage and imposed upon country hospitality.

Time had no meaning. It was light then it was dark. In Mt Isa, after sleepless night number whatever, we ate bacon and eggs in a cafe and washed it down with a cheeky chardonnay, much to the horror of other breakfast patrons.

Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.

Except when I did.

AIR FARCE ONE Ace lensman RAY BERGHOUSE describes how he stayed ahead of the action WHEN THE Repco Reliability Trial was announced, I couldn’t resist the challenge of joining in. I’d photographed rallies for years, including the first London-Sydney Marathon, Ampol Trials and Southern Cross Rallies, so this was another one not to miss.

As part of the official media team that included Bill Tuckey, Tom Floyd, Wayne Webster, Candy Baker and Marlboro’s Wendy Richie (known as the ‘den mother’), we flew around the event in a Piper Navaho, landing in cities, country towns, on dirt airstrips and the occasional

country road, always trying to stay in front of the leading cars.

Leapfrogging ahead after each stop meant never spending more than a few hours at any one place.

Holden had organised their local dealers to leave two cars at every airport and as we had a full copy of the route maps and instructions, we could speed off into the scrub to intercept the competitors on the intersection of two dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, shoot the leading 20-30 cars, then head back to the aircraft for the next air leg.

Sleep for us was much like

it was for the competitors: hard to get and when you could sleep, it wasn’t for long!

The trial ran for two weeks, so there were many moments of high drama, humour, tragedy and even outright farce.

From the cold and drizzle of Victorian forests to the sweltering heat and red dust of northern Australia, it had it all. But was it fun?

Hell, yes!

At the finish in the Melbourne Show Grounds, we were all dirty, tired and in extreme need of a long hot shower, a good meal and 10

hours sleep.

Standing in the throng of well-wishers, Bill Tuckey asked us all if we’d do it again. There was an instant group answer – yes, but not until next week.

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35

Living legend Colin Bond tells MARK FOGARTY why Ford’s Round Australia Trial challenge failed so spectacularly Images: Ray Berghouse-Chevron/AA Archive/Autopics.com.au

IF ANY team was going to threaten the Holden juggernaut, it was the factory Ford squad of Cortinas hastily assembled by race and rally star Colin Bond.

On driving talent, crew experience and car speed, the Rothmans-backed six-cylinder Cortinas were more than a match for the Marlboro-sponsored Commodores.

What Bondy’s effort lacked mainly was preparation time and testing, a budget of less than a third of the three quarters of a million dollars spent on George Shepheard’s finely-honed assault.

Thrown together in just six weeks at the last minute, Ford’s belated counter to Holden’s all-out bid was doomed from the start.

Bond secured 11th hour backing from Ford Australia through the support of then Broadmeadows 2IC, Edsel Ford II, a big supporter of motor sport participation at a time when the company wasn’t really interested.

Bond was running factory backed Escorts in the Australian Rally Championship, but there was no budget to support the small four-cylinder screamers in the Round Australia Reliability Trial. Ditto the XD Falcon, the budget for which had been blown on its launch earlier in 1979.

The only Ford money available was to promote the mid-size Cortina – and even then, it was a shoestring effort compared with Holden’s splurge on using the Trial to establish the Commodore’s builttough-for-Australia credentials.

Asked if it wass a bigbudget effort, Bond exclaimed: “Christ hririst st no! It was bugger-all, gger-all, basically, because ause Ford just supplied the bits.

Most of my guys uys did it for nothing.

“We never had d that sort of budget. reckon et. I re et reck ckon on it would’ve been een lucky to be 200 grand. was and. It wa as ridiculous.”

Bond assembled embled crack crews for each of the three Cortinas. H He was partnered by top NSW rally driver Bob Riley and established navigator/driver John Dawson-Damer.

Reigning Australian rally champion Greg Carr was accompanied by his regular left-seat guru Fred Gocentas and handy driver Dave Morrow. The third entry was

Colin Bond led into Perth but rolled leaving the Special Stage at Wanneroo Park Raceway, now Barbagallo.

Nissan rally team conscripts George Fury and co-pilot M Monty Suffern, plu plus nty Suffern experienced driver/journalist Roger Bonhomme.

The first of the trio of Trial Cortinas was an ex-Ford test hack that had already done 100,000 km of durability testing at the You Yangs proving ground! It became Australian Rally Champion Greg Carr shared with regular navigator Fred Gocentas and fastest of all down the east coast, eventually finishing fifth.

Fury’s car.

With the help of Broadmeadows’ engineering department, Bond turned the Cortinas into what he described as “mini XDs”.

They featured complete XD leafsprung rear ends, XD front disc brakes and prototype alloy cylinder head versions of the venerable 3.1-litre straight six.

Experimental aluminium bonnets and boot lids were produced by Ford, along with lightweight fenders and doors.

The cars also had clever design features like front and rear bumper bars that doubled as ramps to aid getting out of sand or bogs.

The Cortinas were light, roomy and fast – but also compromised and untested.

The front dampers weren’t to the original design and their mountings had to be adapted, while the standard engine mounts were too soft.

But the biggest problem, Bond admits today, was that “we had no time to do it properly. We only had six weeks to build three cars.”

He added: “We had some minor problems, but the cars weren’t too bad. We just started too late and there was no testing done.

“Holden had about a year to get it all organised. We were just chasing our tails to make the start of the event.”

Bond was the early pacesetter, leading the field into Perth by 10 minutes. Then it all went wrong for him.

“I put the thing on its head leaving Wanneroo Park Raceway,” he said. “On

The Perkins’tale

Larry P Perkins ki was one off severall bi big name ddrivers i who h competed in the Repco Reliability Trial of 1979. DAN MCCARTHY spoke to Larry about his memories of the event

a back road, I came to a T junction – and we weren’t concentrating, just talking about things – and it just slid off the road and fell on its roof.

“We went and got a tractor from the guy across the road and he pulled us back out, and away we went. But the windscreen was broken and then it started to rain, so it made the next couple of stages a bit interesting until we got it changed.”

Bond’s rally ended in the Northern Territory when he hit a rock and killed his car’s engine.

Carr made a stunning charge on familiar roads down the east coast to finish a fighting fifth, while Fury limped home 25th.

Bond laments what might have been: “More preparation time would’ve made all the difference. I honestly think we had the better crews. It was a pretty good team.

“We should’ve been competitive everywhere, basically. But we had a lot of stupid things go wrong.

“If we had’ve run Falcons, it could have been very different. We wouldn’t have had to re-design so much of the car.”

Despite the travails, the 77-year-old legend looks back on the ’79 Reliability Trial as “a great adventure”.

Bond was ‘Mr Versatility’ in his day, winning in rallying and circuit racing. He won Bathurst in ’69 and the ATCC in ’75, and ARC titles in 1971/72/74.

He was also successful in previous Round Australia events, winning the under-25 class of the 1964 Ampol Trial in a VW Beetle with George Shepheard and was third in the 1970 Ampol in an HDT Monaro 350 with Tony Roberts and Brian Hope.

THE TWELFTH running of the Round Australia Trial attracted many famous drivers both nationally and nd internationally.

Peter Brock and d George Fury were amongst gstt th gs thee local stars, with Le Mans 24 Hours winner Jurgen Barth and World Rally Championship driver ririve verr Shekhar Mehta a co couple coup uple le of international hopefuls. opefuls.

A young Larry Perkins and his brother Garry participated in the he event, Larry himself nott long been back in Australia after ustr us tral alia i aft fter er rracing acin ac ing g in Formula 1 in the mid-70s.

“I was back in Australia after my nine odd years in Europe trying to get into F1 and I was at a loose end with what I was doing and I thought this Repco Rally looked like a bloody good thing,” Perkins told Auto Action.

“I embarked on getting a VW of my own going, and my older brother Garry helped me out with that and then he travelled with me as the navigator,” he said.

The Perkins brothers’ love of rallying came from their father Eddie Perkins, who won the Round Australia Trial twice in a Volkswagen Beetle.

“He won the 1956 and the 1958, and he had a second and a fourth. There is no one with a better record in Rally Round Australia types than my Dad and I’m very proud of him to have done all that,” a reminscing Larry Perkins said.

Larry wanted to race a Volkswagen Beetle as his father had done previously, as he felt it would be the best car for the event’s rough and rugged terrain.

“I wanted the VW, I wanted a deadest low cost entry and the way the rally was advertised, it was the right vehicle for what was going to happen. Garry helped me with the preparation of the vehicle and

it was was a just just a simple simp m le low cost thing,” he recalled. lled d “We gave it a bit more power and made it a 2.0 litre VW. Made it very light, carried no spares parts, just made it practical and we surprised ourselves, we were actually competitive!

“The engine was very hotted up, with aluminium cylinder barrels. I kept it very high torque and low revs and I didn’t go over 4000rpm. We made all the obvious and normal things that you did to Volkswagens, make the front end and back end stronger. I kept it as a swing axle and it had good ground clearance.

“In all the tricky stuff it was fantastic. It had typical Volkswagen agileness, where the straights were never too long and you go left right a lot, I was very competitive,” Perkins said.

The rally got off to a good start for the Perkins brothers in their VW, and as they arrived in Adelaide the pair sat in seventh position.

The pair flew through the Broken Hill stage and climbed up a further spot to sixth, however this was short lived. Larry then rolled the car after hitting a bank on the road through the Angorichina Gorge near Blinman in the Flinders Ranges.

Although the car survived without major

damage the effects of the accident impacted their rally.

“Unfortunately I was hogging the seat and did all the driving, I clipped the inside of a bank about three foot high and I rolled it over. I didn’t hurt the car, but in the rollover the tail light got squashed,” Perkins recalled to Auto Action.

“The tail light was earthing out onto the body and that fuse, for bad preparations reasons, was the fuse that ran the ignition system as well, and in the middle of the night I couldn’t ascertain why the engine wouldn’t go.”

However a few days later Larry and Garry Perkins were seen running up in Darwin in their #33 VW, with Colin Bond’s number on the side.

“I think there was a bit of that, we had taken time off and went up further and rejoined there and we were farting around,” Larry admitted to Auto Action.

“I think Hans Tholstrup was involved as well, it was all light hearted and good fun.”

Perkins felt that the event was very tough on teams where only one person would drive the car, but loved the event as a whole.

“I thought it was a fantastic event, it was a good rally, but it was very hard as I was driving singly. My vehicle and everything was right, but the way I was driving and the approach was the wrong way, it needed to be two drivers. I never shared my driving, it was all good fun and it was very low cost,” he said.

“We were more than competitive, if only,” Perkins said looking back on the event.

“Ninety eight percent of the field would say if only I’d have done this we would’ve won. I was one of the ninety-eight percenters.”

AutoAction

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Formula One

Round Eleven Germany

MAXED OUT THRILLER A feisty and nearly faultless – he did have one spin – Max Verstappen combined with solid strategy calls by Red Bull-Honda resulted in victory, while Mercedes and Ferrari and their drivers made a myriad of mistakes in a thrilling German Grand Prix.

BY DAN KNUTSON IMAGES: LAT

ONCE KNOWN as Formula 1’s wild child, Max Verstappen kept his cool in the constantly changing weather and track conditions on a rainy afternoon in Germany. Verstappen is also known for his skill on a wet track, but this victory – his seventh in F1– was his first F1 win in the rain.

Verstappen, however, spent a lot of time on wet tracks on the way up to F1.

“I worked many hours together with my dad (Jos) who I think was also pretty decent in the wet,” the Dutch driver said.

“So he always gave me good tips. And not only driving in the wet. It’s also making decisions as well while driving and paying Max Verstappen kept it on the road to take victory in the German Grand Prix.

attention what’s atte at tent te ntio io on to t w h t’t s happening ha happ ha ppen en nin ing g around you. And, of course, experience: in life, in F1. If you do over 90 races you have experienced a lot already, and based on that you can also make better decisions.”

Despite their combined huge data banks of experience, the two leading

teams and their drivers contrived to do just about everything wrong.

Ferrari had been fast on Friday but then buried itself down the grid in qualifying on Saturday when both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc had mechanical

woes. That opened the road for Lewis Hamilton to put his Mercedes on the pole. Verstappen qualified second and Valtteri Bottas lined up third in his Mercedes.

But this would not end up being another Hamilton runaway victory as the rain, plus a slew of mistakes by Mercedes, Bottas, who crashed, and Hamilton saw both of the Silver Arrows drivers fail to score points for the first ttime in 11 races this season. Later, however, Alfa drivers Kimi Räikkönen and h Antonio Giovinazzi were penalized for A a technical infringement, and Hamilton was promoted to ninth place and the two points it pays.

It was one of those crazy rain races where good points were on offer, depending on pits stops – 74 in total – strategy calls,

It was a disaster for Mercedes with Hamilton delayed when he went off the road and collided with the tyre wall. Ninth place was the end result only after both Alfa Romeos were penalised.

teamwork, safety cars (there were four of those plus two virtual safety cars), driver skill and, yes, luck.

Daniil Kvyat proved that by going from 14th to third to give Toro Rosso its second ever podium finish ever. The other one was Vettel’s victory in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

“The first time when I chose to go on slicks it was the wrong moment,” said Kvyat whose daughter had been born the night before. “The second time it was perfect.”

Vettel his own eclectic race, climbing the ladder from last to second.

“A crazy race, a lot of decisions to make, a lot of communications between the car and the pit wall,” the German driver said. “Most of the time we were right, sometimes we were wrong.”

Lance Stroll made the final switch from Pirelli’s intermediate rain tyres to slicks a lap or more before anybody else. That move paid off for the Racing Point driver who zipped up from the back, ran as high as second and finished fourth.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hülkenberg and their Renault team had a miserable afternoon. This was just the opportunity they needed to pick up a mess of points; instead they ended up with zero.

Ricciardo lasted just 13 laps before retiring with a failure in the exhaust system when he was in 12th place.

“I could see a lot of smoke coming out from the back of the car and that was our day done,” Ricciardo said. “It’s certainly a shame.

I watched the rest of the race and it looked a lot of fun out there. I would have loved to have been racing as there were opportunities for big points. It’s disappointing but we’ll move on. It’s

a tough overall result for the team.”

Robert Kubica scored the first point for Williams, aided by others ahead failing to Hülkenberg made it up to second place before adapt to the changeable conditions including Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. It was another Grand Prix, another disappointment for Daniel Ricciardo with a mechanical failure. sliding off in Turn 16, the penultimate corner, and then crashing on the outskirts of the final bend.

It was little consolation to Renault that many Pos Driver Car Laps Gap others had dreadful afternoons as well. Leclerc, 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1h44m31.275s Hamilton, Räikkönen and Carlos Sainz all went 2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 7.333s off at the same place as Hülkenberg, but only 3 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Honda 8.305s Leclerc was unable to continue.

4 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 8.966s Mercedes celebrated 125 years of motor sport 5 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 9.583s at Hockenheim – team members dressed in 6 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso/Honda 10.052s 1930s period garb – as well as its 200th F1 7 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 16.838s race. It will, however, be remembered for all the 8 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 18.765s wrong reasons.

9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 19.667s “This one hurts us to the core: it was a 10 Robert Kubica Williams/Mercedes 24.987s disastrous result,” lamented team principal Toto 11 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 26.404s Wolff. “We had a decent start of the race with 12 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 42.214s good pace. Then obviously you add incidents, 13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 43.849s crashing out, tricky conditions, and the wrong 14 Pierre Gasly Red Bull/Honda Collision calls after running one-two in the opening laps.”

Valtteri Bottas Mercedes Spun off Hamilton, who made six pitstops and also spun Nico Hulkenberg Renault Spun off off in Turn 1, called it a snakes and ladders Charles Leclerc Ferrari Spun off race.

Lando Norris McLaren/Renault Power Unit “I was eight seconds in front at one stage and Daniel Ricciardo Renault Exhaust I had it all under control,” he said. “Things Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes Spun off are going to be thrown at you all the time in conditions like this, but I think one step was Points: Hamilton 225, Bottas 184, Verstappen 162, Vettel 141, Leclerc 120, Gasly 55, like one domino after another – like Snakes Sainz 48, Kvyat 27, Raikkonen 25, Norris 22, Ricciardo 22, Stroll 18, Magnussen 18, and Ladders almost. I kept hitting the snakes Hulkenberg 17, Albon 15, Perez 13, Grosjean 8, Giovinazzi 1, Kubica 1 today.”

Thirteen of the 20 starters made it to the finish Constructors’: Mercedes 409, Ferrari 261, Red Bull-Honda 217, McLaren-Renault line. By that time the rain had completely 70, Toro Rosso-Honda 42, Renault 39, Racing Point-Mercedes, Haas-Ferrari 26, Alfa stopped, and the now drying off fans – many Romeo-Ferrari 26, Williams-Mercedes 1. of them German and Dutch – celebrated along with their drivers on the podium after what had been a wild and crazy race maxed out by Verstappen.

RESULTS ROUND 11: GERMAN GRAND PRIX

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Formula One

Hungary

ROLLING THE DICE Just one week after getting just about everything wrong in Germany, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes rebounded in Hungary, rolling the dice on strategy and snatching the lead from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with just four laps remaining

BY DAN KNUTSON IMAGES: LAT

AFTER WINNING the chaotic German Grand Prix, Max Verstappen and Red Bull-Honda kept up their momentum by earning the pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

It was Verstappen’s first ever F1 pole, the first for a Dutch driver and the first for Honda since Jenson Button’s pole in the 2006 Australian Grand Prix.

Mercedes teammates Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton qualified second and third.

But this would be a race between Verstappen and Hamilton, especially when Bottas’ car was damaged after first lap contact with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

The paid the price for a less effective aero package, third and fourth.

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It would also be yet another pointless race for Aussie Daniel Ricciardo and Renault teammate Nico Hülkenberg, who once again finished out of the top 10 in 14th and 12th respectively.

During the race Mercedes decided to switch Hamilton from a one-stop strategy to pitting twice for Pirelli tyres. Verstappen would only pit once.

With 21 of the 70 laps remaining, Hamilton was 19 seconds behind leader Verstappen.

Hamilton hunted him down and grabbed first place on lap 67.

It would have made no sense for Verstappen to pit a lap after Hamilton because he would have still ended up behind

the Mercedes.

“Then you know the race is lost anyway.” Verstappen said. “So the only option was for me to continue and that’s what we did. We have to be realistic and he was just clearly faster today. Always I was struggling a little bit more for grip than him.

He could keep the pressure on. Of course when you are in second you can gamble to do a two-stop. For me it was always about trying to cover him or stay ahead.”

Verstappen did pit right at the end of the race for a set of the soft compound Pirellis which enabled him to get the extra point for the fastest race lap.

After the disasters in Germany, including feeling very ill, Hamilton was back on top form in Budapest.

“The last one was definitely a massive off-weekend for me,” he said. “Coming to this weekend, I felt I was back on it. Qualifying didn’t go the way I’d planned and I’d hoped.

Then today, once I got into second, I was like ‘OK, game on.’

And I could keep up with Max, no problems.

So I was like, ‘we’ve got an actual real race on here. How is it going to play out? I don’t know. We’re going to have to figure it out as we go along.’”

Despite his recent wins in Austria and Germany, and his pole and leading the

race in Hungary, Verstappen remains realistic about Red Bull’s potential.

“You can see how much margin they (Mercedes) have when they really need to push,” he said after finishing second. “Lewis today was on fire as well. Once he really has to go for it, you can see that that car is still the dominant car, it’s as simple as that.

“Of course they had their issues in Austria with overheating, so you can’t push.

Of course in Hockenheim it was tricky conditions as well, so you can’t really drive to the limit of the car.

“But here today he had to go for it flat out, because I was also pushing flat out, and then you can see what they are capable of as a team.”

As a team, Ferrari was only capable of a distant third and fourth with Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc.

“This is a track where (aerodynamic) inefficiency pays off,” Vettel said, “so whatever you have in terms of downforce is positive. That’s where we are lacking performance. In the race I think it shows even more because you are sliding, and then we are going through the tyres faster.”

Ricciardo qualified 18th after getting

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton made the race their own, the Mercedes driver coming out on top after a mid-race strategy change. McLaren were best of the rest after the big three teams again, while Torro Rosso couldn’t replicate their podium in Germany, Alexander Albon 10th.

bogged down in traffic. The Renault team used this as an opportunity to install a new power unit in his car because the penalty was effectively just two grid spots back to 20th.

The Perth native worked his way up to 15th place but then hit a roadblock in the form of the Haas driven by Kevin Magnussen, who is one of the most aggressive defenders in the business.

“Oh this **** is starting to take the **** under braking,” Ricciardo complained over the radio.

The FIA race director, Aussie Michael Masi, subsequently issued a warning to the Haas team about Magnussen weaving under braking.

“One movement is allowed to protect your line,” Masi clarified in a postrace debrief attended

by Auto Action. “There was a warning to the team about the consistency of it. Not the one-off but the repeat part of it. The warning went through and that was that.”

Except that Magnussen was going to have one last stab.

“The race was a bit up and down,” Ricciardo said after finishing behind Magnussen. “It was always going to be tough starting from the back, but we had moments of good pace and made the hard tyres last quite long.

“On the softs we had good speed, and I was coming through, and then got on the back of Magnussen. Every time I made a move to the inside, I felt he was moving under braking.

“I didn’t really feel like I could do anything without trying to avoid locking up and crashing into him every time I tried to make a lunge. He did it the worst he’d ever done it after the warning, so the race was a bit affected after that.”

The F1 teams have been going flat-out on the road since pre-season testing began in late February and through the subsequent 12 races.

All team members are now looking forward to the mandatory two-week shutdown. The next event is the Belgian Grand Prix on September 1.

RACE RESULTS: ROUND 12 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 -

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

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

laps 70 70 70 70 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 68 68 68 68 67 49

Gap 1h35m03.796s 17.796s 1m01.433s 1m05.250s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps 2 Laps 2 Laps 2 Laps 3 Laps Water leak

Points: Hamilton 250, Bottas 188, Verstappen 181, Vettel 156, Leclerc 132, Gasly 63, Sainz 58, Raikkonen 31, Kvyat 27, Norris 24, Ricciardo 22, Stroll 18, Magnussen 18, Hulkenberg 17, Albon 16, Perez 13, Grosjean 8, Giovinazzi 1, Kubica 1 Constructors’: Mercedes 438, Ferrari 288, Red Bull-Honda 244, McLaren-Renault 82, Toro Rosso-Honda 43, Renault 39, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 32, Racing Point-Mercedes 31, Haas-Ferrari 26, Williams-Mercedes 1.

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TANAK FLIES TO RALLY FINLAND IT WAS a masterclass drive from start to finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Ott Tanak who took victory at Rally Finland to pull out a handy margin in the World Rally Championship.

The Estonian fought back from a devastating result in Sardegna when he lost the lead due broken steering on the final stage, to take a commanding fourth victory of the season.

Citroen’s Esapekka Lappi put a bad run of form behind him to finish the rally in second 25.6s behind Tanak and ahead of fellow Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, who ended his dry spell by scoring his first podium of the season.

On the opening day of the rally the Toyotas of Tanak, Latvala and Kris Meeke and the Citroen of Lappi pulled out a large margin on the chasing pack. Latvala led the opening day, ahead of Northern Irishman Meeke, Lappi and

PORSCHE WINS DRAMATIC SPA 24

SPA

A MID-RACE stoppage interrupted this year’s 24 Hours of Spa when the race was stopped for six hours due to severe weather lashing the track, however it was Porsche that took victory through its new GPX Racing Gulf-liveried 991 GT3R driven by Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Richard Lietz.

The Rowe Racing GT3R completed a Porsche 1-2 with Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki chasing down the leader during the final hour before a full course caution was called 24-minutes from the end. The race was restarted 10-minutes later, but another was needed when fourth placed Rene Rast made contact with a backmarker.

In the end the two Porsches were separated by 3.347s.

Third place went to the pole-sitting Black Falcon Mercedes AMG-GT3 of Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurrman and Luca Stolz, finishing just ahead of the Sainteloc Audi R8 GT3 LMS driven by Markus Winklehock, Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Haase.

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Tanak, the four drivers separated by just 2.6s.

Another great battle developed for fourth between Craig Breen, Andreas Mikkelsen and Sebastien Ogier, the trio sitting around a quarter of a minute off the lead and separated by just 1.1s. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville got off to a slow start in eighth over 30s behind the leader.

It was a dramatic second leg of the rally which saw the Toyota stranglehold on the rally come apart.

On the Kakaristo stage Meeke struck a rock breaking his left rear suspension, and he could go no further. Latvala’s rally also took a hit when he clipped the same rock as his teammate, however the Finn escaped with just a puncture.

This let Tanak off the leash and he ended the day with a 16.4s lead over Lappi who

The conditions were mixed when the race begun, Engel and Estre battling throughout the opening segment of the race that was riddled with safety car interventions as the bulk of the 72-car field struggled in the changeable conditions.

As the race crossed the halfway mark, the weather started to get more severe and the safety car was

WRC overhauled Latvala for second. Further back the fight for fourth intensified, Mikkelsen finished the day 2.6s ahead of an under the weather Ogier. Breen dropped back late in the day to finish 6.2s behind Ogier, while Neuville made his way up to seventh.

The final day was far less dramatic, Tanak held on take the rally win from Lappi and Latvala.

“It’s been a big weekend. I believe the summer break came at the right time as I was really devastated after Italy. Now we got the perfect result and we need to continue in the same way. There are still five rallies to go, so there’s a big job to do,” Tanak said. required for an eventual duration of three hours, before race organisers decided to red flag it at which point the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 shared between Christian Engelhart, Mirko Bortolotti and Rolf Ineichen led by 7.4s.

The race was restarted at 11:30am local time with the Lamborghini in front, but it was yet to make its final compulsory five-minute pit stop, placing the SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Mikhail Aleshin, David Rigon and Miguel Molina in prime position to take the lead. A mistake from Aleshin, however, led to the Ferrari being retired handing the lead to the Rast, Robin Frijns and Nico Muller, before it also found the wall when under pressure from Estre.

This left Estre in a clear lead until Tandy in the Rowe Porsche came within 20s of the lead before the race concluded.

A number of Australians competed in the race with Matt Campbell leading the way in finishing seventh driving the third Rowe Racing Porsche alongside Bathurst 12 Hour winners Dennis Olsen and Dirk Werner.

Shae Davies was just one of many Aussies to encounter trouble, he finished seven laps down in 34th driving a Team WRT Audi R8 GT3 LMS, Josh Burdon was 39th in his KCMG Nissan GT-R GT3, Nick Foster crashed and retired in the HubAuto Racing Ferrari 488 GT3, while Yasser Shahin’s attack was cut short in his Am Class Audi, finishing 60-laps behind.

All images: LAT

for fo fourth The iincredibly edibl titight ht battle fo th went e t the way of Norwegian Mikkelsen, who held off Ogier by 2.7s. Breen in his first rally for Hyundai deliberately incurred a penalty to allow his championship fighting teammate Neuville to finish sixth.

Points: Tanak 180, Ogier 158, Neuville 155, Evans 78, Mikkelsen 71, Suninen 66, Meeke 60, Lappi 58, Latvala 56, Sordo 52

INDYCAR

DIXON TAKES DESPITE A determined chase by Chip Ganassi teammate Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon took victory in Round 13 of the 2019 IndyCar season at Mid-Ohio.

The margin of victory was just 0.0934s as the Swede pressured his more experienced teammate and during a thrilling final lap attempted several times to complete a pass, but Dixon kept the door closed. The battle for third was also close with Ryan Hunter-Reay holding off a concerted challenge from championship leader Josef Newgarden,

NASCAR BTTC RACE VICTORIES in the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton were shared between Tom Ingram, Colin Turkington and Rory Butcher.

Ingram dominated the first race of the weekend from pole position to take his second win of the season in his Toyota Corolla GT. Dan Cammish in his Honda Civic Type R claimed a lonely second position, while Sam Tordoff made it two Hondas in the top three as he completed the podium.

Northern Irishman Turkington took his fifth win of the season in Race 2 coming out on top of a five car scrap for the race victory. Cammish recorded yet another podium coming home in

IMSA

GLEN MASTER ELLIOTT CHASE ELLIOTT took his second straight victory at Watkins Glen, holding off a hard charging Martin Truex Jr. to win by just 0.45s at the finish line.

In taking the victory Elliott has become the first Chevrolet driver to claim multiple victories in 2019 and given him a handfull of sprint cup victories.

Elliott also won both stages on the way to take the victory, leading 80 of the 90 laps, only surrendering top spot when he entered the pit lane.

“We had such a bad fast Camaro and we stayed mistake-free, Martin was a little quicker those last two runs, but track position was king,” Elliott said.

Toyota driver Denny Hamlin finished a distant third 11.2s behind the race winner, Erik Jones came from 14th on the grid to finish fourth with Ryan Blaney rounding out the top five.

Matt DiBenedetto, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10.

THRILLER who ended the race in the sand trap.

Aussie Will Power started off the pole and took an early lead ahead of Alexander Rossi and Newgarden. Back in seventh and eighth were the two Ganassi drivers, the first in the queue on primary tyres, but they were keeping pace for the leaders.

By lap 18, Power held a 1.4s lead over Rossi, but the Ganassi cars were ranging on the primary tyres, successfully moving to second and third in quick succession, a worry for the Aussie.

Rosenqvist wasted little time in catching

second once again, while Turkington’s closest championship rival Andrew Jordan took the final spot on the podium.

A thrilling final race was won by Scotsman Butcher who came from 12th on the grid, the Honda driver benefitted from a fierce battle between former teammates Ash Sutton and Jason Plato to take the victory. Josh Cook finished second ahead of Chris Smiley.

“I’ve struggled this weekend with the car and the track,” said Butcher. “We flipped it on its head in terms of set-up for race three and it worked. I’m so happy for the team. I’ve kept my championship alive with that win.”

Kyle Busch had a challenging race in which the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota finished outside the top 10, just behind his older brother in 11th. Kyle Busch had to recover from a pit lane speeding penalty and two on track collisions with William Byron and Bubba Wallace.

Jimmie Johnson’s difficult season took another blow, after scoring decent points in the opening two stages, however the #48 Hendrick Motorsports driver finished down in 19th.

Johnson had managed, however, to draw level with Ryan Newman for the all-important 16th position in the standings as it is the last Playoff-eligible position, with just four races left before the cutoff. Newman had to make an unscheduled stop for a puncture and resulted him finishing down in 25th.

The race at Pocono Raceway a week earlier was won by Hamlin who beat Jones, Truex, Byron and Larson, while Watkins Glen winner Elliott failed to see the chequered flag.

AUSTRALIA INVADED the IMSA Sportcar Championship as both Matt Campbell and Ryan Briscoe took class victories at Road America.

Matt Campbell took a class victory in the GTD class for Pfaff Motorsports. Campbell was paired with Zacharie Robichon who scored his first IMSA victory at the last round with Dennis Olsen.

The pair qualified fourth, Robichon jumped early into second place where he remained throughout the entirety of his stint.

Campbell took over midway through the race and quickly caught the leading Lamborghini Huracan of Bryan Sellers, and under pressure Sellers faltered.

Campbell cruised to victory to give the #9 Porsche pair the class win.

“The middle stint was the most important part of the race,” said Campbell. “We knew we had really good

Power, moving through on the Penske driver with the aid of push-to-pass on lap 25 and pitted three laps later as he held a 2.6s margin. This left Power and Dixon to battle for another lap before both pitted with Penske fitting black tyres and Ganassi reds, which set up a wheel banging battle as Power struggled to hold on.

Lap 31 was where Dixon made his move and passed Power at Turn 4, but ahead Rosenqvist appeared to have this race sewn up. He was a mere 5.9s behind Newgarden – who was on a three-stop strategy – with the only worry being whether the Swede could stick to his two-stop race.

However, it wasn’t to be as Rosenqvist hit pit lane on lap 46, committing to a three-stop strategy and emerged behind Power, who was sitting second behind Dixon. Both on a two-stop strategy.

Rosenqvist increased the heat on Power with his fresher tyre set as Dixon sat 12.5s ahead of the duo before the leader’s pit stop on lap 59, followed by Power the next time around. Newgarden set some swift laps and jumped Power, as did Rosenqvist, completing the pit stop sequence for the leaders.

With 23 laps remaining, Dixon led

Rosenqvist by 9s, while bblack tyres, we would Hunter-Reay had zoomed have maintained our ha up the order thanks to some eight-or-10-second gap, ei quick in-laps and a superb but it definitely made it bu pit stop, to jump both exciting for me and I’m ex Newgarden and Power. sure everybody else. And su Dixon had to nurse his huge respect for Felix. He hu tyres as the conclusion drove clean, and ultimately, dro approached, but don’t know, it was going I do maintained a 2s advantage to bbe hard for any car to over his teammate due to come past, even though we com lapped traffic. were about three seconds wer Once Rosenqvist slower a lap than anyone slow disposed of the traffic, else.” else he closed rapidly and Behind, the race for Beh attempted a pass at Turn third went wrong for 2, but lost momentum Newgarden as he attempted Newg as Dixon defended pass Hunter-Reay. The to pa successfully to take his championship leader made cham sixth win at the venue contact with the rear of thirdconta Scott Dixon celebrates and the third closest finish onn a a narrow win. placed Hunter-Reay and spun street/road course. into a sand trap.

“I think it was, honestly, with about 15 Newgarden’s failure to finish has closed to go, I started moaning to the team. ‘I’m the championship race to 16-points to Rossi, like, man, I think we’re going to have to pit while Pagenaud sits a further 31-points again,’” said Dixon post-race. behind ahead of Dixon and Power.

“A lot of it, I think, was just bad choices Pocono hosts the next round of the IndyCar from my front. Ultimately, had we gone to the series on August 18.

speed. Zach did an awesome job bringing me the car in in P2.”

The GTLM class was won by Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, who were followed by Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand to give Ford a 1-2 finish.

It was a relatively simple drive for the winning pair once Briscoe took the lead off Oliver Gavin in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette on lap 19.

“It’s just a track that really suits the Ford GT. The long, fast corners and obviously now, it was more about the consistency than outright speed,” Briscoe said.

Despite lacking pace for most of the weekend, the Mazda Team Joest car of Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito took victory. Mid way through the race Tincknell took the lead off Juan Pablo Montoya, however in the hands of Dane Cameron the Acura Team Penske car came back into contention.

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RACE REPORT

Queensland Raceway Races 19 & 20

ONE ALL

Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Ross Gibb/Insyde Media

TOWNSVILLE’S RESULTS demonstrated that Scott McLaughlin and the DJR Team Penske juggernaut could be defeated. Although that occurred in a time shortened event that finished under safety car, a win is a win.

Entering the second half of the 2019 Supercars Championship season, Jamie Whincup was in unprecedented territory having not scored a single win in 2019, which only further

highlighted the seven-time champion’s dominance of the category since 2006.

Queensland Raceway was his opportunity to right this wrong.

However, after Friday’s two practice sessions it appeared no one was going to stop the McLaughlin steamroller, though 23Red Racing’s Will Davison made a good fist of it. He had led the final practice session of the day for the majority before a scorching lap from the championship leader proved unbeatable.

Supercars most wanted man, Chaz Mostert completed a Mustang trifecta ahead of a surprise. The lead Holden was neither a Red Bull Holden Racing Team or an Erebus Motorsport Commodore, but the lone Matt Stone Racing ZB driven by Todd Hazelwood, a driver potentially racing for his Supercars career.

The pace failed to translate in qualifying for Hazelwood, though the struggles were wide spread. The Walkinshaw Andretti United pair were having a torrid weekend and were never among the top 15, nor were Nissan – not even Andre Heimgartner could drag his Altima into his now customary top Todd Hazelwood had another top 10 shootout berth in Race 19.

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Will Davison had one of his best rounds of recent times, finishing on the podium in Saturday’s event, then backing it up with fifth in Race 20.

10 slot.

McLaughlin and Whincup shared the frontrow for Race 19, but when the lights went out, it was Davison from third who made the best jump leading to the top three entering the first turn side by side. A smart manoeuvre from the RBHRT driver saw him take the lead with a slide down the inside of McLaughlin at Turn 2.

The shallow entry into Turn 1 also didn’t help McLaughlin as he not only lost position to Jamie Whincup made the Race 19 defining pass at Turn 2.

Whincup, but an opportunistic Davison sent his Mustang down the inside as well, nudging McLaughlin slightly through Turn 2.

Qualifying had again been the domain of the Mustang. All six made the top 10, Lee Holdsworth started fourth and was all over McLaughlin heading into Turn 3. The pass was unsuccessful and it was the start of a drop down the field for the veteran.

His own teammate Mostert was the first to A slow pit stop in Race 19 harmed Scott McLaughlin’s pursuit of the lead, finishing fourth.

While his teammate was out in front in Race 20, Fabian Coulthard finished a difficult weekend in 18th.

demote him around the outside of Turn 6, then van Gisbergen followed down the inside at Turn 4 the next lap. Holdsworth was struggling, which may have been due to copping a punt at Turn 1 on the opening lap that sent him sideways Despite being jumped at the start, McLaughlin was back on the pace by Turn 4, placing pressure on Davison as behind the dust and dirt was flicked up in the midst of a frantic opening lap.

The battling behind enabled Whincup to build a 1.5s margin over the chasing Davison and McLaughlin. The championship leader was in unknown territory, trailing in the hot air of another Mustang, leading Ludo Lacroix to employ the undercut on lap 10.

The pit stop was a disaster. A problem with the front-left tyre change delayed Mclaughlin by 5s and although his rivals emerged behind, on older tyres it was only a matter of time before Scotty was caught and passed by the chasing pack.

Scott Pye was another to suffer wheel issues, but this was after a clash of wheels had burred the nut.

Back up the front, Whincup had extended his lead to 4s, but then toured pit lane to undergo the compulsory tyre change, which was completed in 4.1s.

If McLaughlin was having a dirty day, his

teammate was stuck back in the pack. A strong pre-event test gave Fabian Coulthard confidence of a race winning performance, but it was not the case. He had struggled on Friday and had no answer, leaving him frustrated with a mistake almost inevitable. A lock up at Turn 3 resulted in the second DJR Team Penske Mustang taking to the sand, dropping a number of positions.

After the leaders had pitted, it was Whincup from McLaughlin, Davison and Mostert, but the two Tickford-prepared Fords were hunting the DJR Team Penske leader down. A brave, but successful pass by Davison at Turn 3, coming from way back, dropped McLaughlin back to third, then it was fourth as Mostert relegated the Kiwi at Turn 4 on the next lap.

Whincup held a comfortable 3.9s lead which was all he needed to secure his first victory of the season, ahead of Davison – 23Red’s first podium – and Mostert. McLaughlin followed, but van Gisbergen was closing, while a gear position sensor failure had derailed the race for David Reynolds back in ninth.

Another to suffer was Tim Slade after a pressure sensor alerted him to an issue but too late, as the ZB Commodore died and he was punted from behind.

If it was a bad day for McLaughlin by finishing fourth, can anyone beat him to the title?

It’s a question teams were asking after Sunday, Nick Percat was a yo-yo in the Race 20, but recovered to finish in the 10.

This is as close as Whincup got to McLaughlin on Sunday after taking his first victory of the year the previous day.

when the steamroller moved back on course to notch up win number 14 for the season and further consolidate a significant title lead.

Pole didn’t assure victory, not even a podium, as was demonstrated the previous day, however Shane van Gisbergen chased valiantly, just falling short of the Race 20 victory.

McLaughlin didn’t make the same mistake as the day before at the start of Race 20 and fought off the early challenges from Mostert.

Brad Jones Racing was busy before Race 20, the transaxle in Macauley Jones’ ZB required changing and Slade was so unhappy that his crew broke the Parc Ferme regulations to execute changes, forcing him start from the back.

Side-by-side at rthe start went McLaughlin and Mostert, while behind it was on between Whincup, van Gisbergen and Davison. The Erebus Motorsport shot itself in the foot with a mistake on fuel in Race 20, forcing a late pit stop.

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RACE REPORT

Queensland Raceway Races 19 & 20

The Mustang continues to be the car to beat, although parity now seems a lot closer. Lee Holdsworth, Fabian Coulthard and Cam Waters each had mixed weekends, as did the WAU entries which were off the pace.

RBHRT teammates fought through the opening corners, but had to be careful as Davison lurked, eyeing a podium double.

McLaughlin was quick to assert his lead out front, setting a 1m 09.623s lap record on the sixth tour to open a 2s gap back to Mostert, in what was a much less frantic opening. None of the top seven positions had changed off the start, Reynolds breaking the monotony in eighth after climbing from 10th.

Fresh from announcing he was committing to Erebus Motorsport for 2020, Anton De Pasquale was experiencing a mixed weekend. After qualifying in the 10 for Race 19, he was involved in an incident late in the race, which dropped him out of the 10, then another coming together with Coulthard halted his progress. A lock up from the DJR Team Penske driver caused the collision, and harmed the duo’s race.

Suffering from the flu, Cam Waters continued his great form to finish sixth the previous day, and kicked off the pit stops on Sunday by taking on 43L, then Whincup was next two laps later in an attempted undercut. This was stifled by DJR Team Penske, McLaughlin coming in a lap later without the problem he had encountered during Race 19.

Mostert put the most fuel in, 56L, as van Gisbergen was to follow the Tickford Mustang, but didn’t and came in a lap later, filling with 48L. This set-up an attack from the Kiwi that provided a thrilling finish.

McLaughlin could have been forgiven for thinking that he had the race stitched up at half distance, with a 5.7s lead, especially at the team’s test track, its own backyard.

However, the team it shares the testing with at QR was chasing and chasing hard, van Gisbergen had the eyes on.

The same couldn’t be said for Whincup, who was jumped in the pits by Mostert, losing a podium place in the process.

Nick Percat had been the only BJR driver not to encounter troubles, but a poor start dropped him down to 21st, though a strong recovery drive led to a top 10 finish at the conclusion.

The Altimas had also found something overnight, well two of them did. Heimgartner and his team boss were well entrenched in the top 10, finishing in a strong seventh and eighth, respectively.

The superior pace van Gisbergen had demonstrated in the back half of his stints was on show, taking chunks out of McLaughlin’s lead, initially 0.1s, then 0.450s stating “I’m there now” on the radio as he moved within car lengths of the Mustang.

Erebus Motorsport keeps shooting itself in the foot, this time misjudging the fuel calculation for Reynolds which dropped him from inside the 10 to nowhere after an extra pit stop was needed.

The battle for first went past Reynolds as he exited pit lane.

McLaughlin made a mistake on the final lap at turn 4, but this was equalled by van Gisbergen at Turn 5 leaving the championship leader to take a tight victory.

Maybe the tide is turning, has the RBHRT finally awoken?

Kelly Racing had a dispiriting Saturday, but turned it around to take a pair of top 10s as again Andre Heimgartner impressed.

RACE RESULTS RACE 19 39 LAPS 1 Jamie Whincup 39 laps 2 Will Davison +2.180s 3 Chaz Mostert +6.053s 4 Scott McLaughlin +8.732s 5 Shane van Gisbergen +9.700s 6 Cameron Waters +20.829s 7 Lee Holdsworth +23.156s 8 Nick Percat +25.467s 9 David Reynolds +35.642s 10 Fabian Coulthard +36.502s 11 James Courtney +37.838s 12 Andre Heimgartner +40.155s 13 James Golding +40.746s 14 Anton De Pasquale +42.658s 15 Mark Winterbottom +44.189s 16 Rick Kelly +44.976s 17 Michael Caruso +45.976s 18 Simona De Silvestro +46.322s 19 Todd Hazelwood +53.030s 20 Garry Jacobson +61.002 21 Scott Pye 38 laps 22 Jack Le Brocq 38 laps NC Tim Slade 37 laps NC Macauley Jones 37 laps FASTEST LAP Chaz Mostert 1m 09.7133s

▲1 ▲1 ▲3 ▼3 0 ▲4 ▼3 ▲3 ▼1 ▼1 ▲7 ▲3 ▲7 ▼7 ▲1 ▲5 ▲5 ▼1 ▼7 ▼1 ▼7 ▲2 ▼ 10 ▼1

RACE RESULTS RACE 20 65 LAPS 1 Scott McLaughlin 65 laps 0 2 Shane van Gisbergen +0.701s ▲2 3 Chaz Mostert +10.647s ▼ 1 4 Jamie Whincup +17.225 ▼ 1 5 Will Davison +18.033 0 6 Cameron Waters +37.485s 0 7 Andre Heimgartner +45.319s ▲ 6 8 Rick Kelly +45.536s ▼ 1 9 Nick Percat +47.085s ▲ 7 10 Mark Winterbottom +47.520s ▲ 2 11 Anton De Pasquale +48.994s ▲ 6 12 James Courtney +50.994s ▲ 6 13 Todd Hazelwood +55.324s ▼ 4 14 Lee Holdsworth +55.516s ▼ 2 15 James Golding +56.706s 0 16 Scott Pye +70.626s 0 17 Tim Slade +70.993s ▼ 6 18 Fabian Coulthard +71.350s ▼ 7 19 Simona De Silvestro +71.820s 0 20 Michael Caruso +71.991s 0 21 David Reynolds 64 laps ▼ 11 22 Macauley Jones 64 laps ▲2 23 Jack Le Brocq 63 laps ▼1 NC Garry Jacobson 49 laps ▼3 FASTEST LAP Scott McLaughlin 1m 09.6229s POINTS: McLaughlin 2438, Coulthard 2005, van Gisbergen 1918, Mostert 1898, Whincup 1798, Reynolds 1760, Waters 1600, Davison 1523, Percat 1495, Holdsworth 1383, De Pasquale 1335, Courtney 1264, Heimgartner 1232, Winterbottom 1231, Slade 1203, Pye 1075, Kelly 1074, Hazelwood 1054, Golding 1001, De Silvestro 937, Le Brocq 742, Jones 717, Jacobson 668, Stanaway 482, Caruso 222, Smith 219, Pither 159, Blanchard 93

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Super 2 Round 4 Queensland Raceway Randle TThomas Th ho rririghted igh his wrongs of tthe of h previous rround ro ouunn to take his maiden mai ma i victory.

FULLWOOD EQUAL TO THE SUPER2 TASK Report: Garry O’Brien Photos: Ross Gibb/Insyde Media

BRYCE FULLWOOD and Thomas Randle finished on the same amount of points at Queensland Raceway’s round four of the Super2 Series, with the former taking first place and building an almost insurmountable points lead.

Randle (Tickford Racing Ford Falcon FG/X) made up for his restart errors at the previous Townsville round by winning the first race narrowly ahead of Fullwood (Matt White Motorsport Nissan Altima).

From the outside of the front row, Randle then led the second until a brief air box fire caused him to faulter just enough to allow Fullwood to slip past and win.

“I can’t be disappointed; I think the team did a fantastic job. We found form in Townsville and carried it through. We didn’t put a foot wrong this weekend and probably led 97 percent of the laps,” Randle said.

The victory came as something of a surprise to Fullwood.

“Absolutely! Tom had a roll on all weekend. We had a little bit more for him in the last race. I wasn’t really close enough to get the job done on him until he had that small issue,” Fullwood conceded. “I think we really got lucky.”

Qualifying second for race one behind Randle, and going fastest for the second race pole, Kurt Kostecki (Triple 8 Holden Commodore VF) was just behind the duo throughout the respective 19 and 20 lap races.

“We are finding our feet a bit more and really didn’t touch the car all weekend. To start off the front was good, but our races were lost off the starts. It was pretty much race over because the cars are so close,” he related.

His brother Jake Kostecki (Team Arcoweld Racing VF) was lonely fourth in race one, once he was able to pass Jack Perkins (Eggleston Motorsport VF).

The latter then fought off several challengers for his fifth with team mate Will Brown

Bryce Fullwood continued his charge towards the title by winning the second race and extending his series advantage. ultimately sixth after Zane Goddard (MWM Altima) was penalised 5s for a move on his eventual sixth place team mate Tyler Everingham on the opening lap.

The safety car was deployed on lap 3, brought about when Jordan Boys bunkered his Image Racing Commodore at Turn 3. It would be a tester for Randle to get the restart right . . . and he did.

“The radio channel was open. My engineer read the rules when the safety car came out and read them again before the lights went out.”

Just after the green running resumption, there was contact Will Brown had a fraught weekend.

between Brenton Grove (T8 VF) and Mason Barbera (Garry Rogers Motorsport VF) at turn 4. It didn’t result in a safety car, as Grove managed to limp to the pits with steering damage.

Eighth spot went to Jack Smith (Brad Jones Racing VF) ahead of the Dylan O’Keeffe (GRM VF). Ash Walsh (Matt Stone Racing VF) was next, surrendering several places when overshooting corners on a couple of occasions, after running as high as sixth.

Goddard lost six spots as a result of his penalty for 11th ahead of the Holdens driven

by Adam Marjoram (Image), Mason Barbera (GRM) and Justin Ruggier (Eggleston), and Matt Chahda in the only other Falcon.

Randle narrowly led Fullwood up to lap 18 of race two and while suffering some right foot cramping, ran wide at turn three with engine drama and lost the lead to Fullwood. The Nissan driver went on to win while Randle held off Kostecki for second.

Marjoram fended off O’Keeffe for fourth and his

SUPER2 POINTS AFTER ROUND 4 Fullwood 1138, Goddard 855, K Kostecki 764, Randle 757, J Kostecki 722, Walsh 669, Marjoram 659, O’Keeffe 629, Brown 609, Smith 599

best result of the season, with Kurt Kostecki next ahead of Barbera, Everingham, Boys, Grove and Ruggier.

It was another sad race for Goddard, crossing the line 13th after he had been spun at Turn 5 on lap 12. Perkins was deemed the instigator and was penalised 15s and the mangled Commodore was relegated behind Walsh, who looked to be battling a poorhandling Holden all weekend.

Brown’s day started badly when he didn’t get through qualifying because of a broken transaxle. Starting from the back he made it up to 12th by lap eight before running off at turn 1, causing enough panel damage to warrant a forced pitstop. That left him a lap down while Chahda was out early with a right rear end drama.

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Touring Car Masters Queensland Raceway Round 4

SETON ON TOP UP NORTH

Aaron Seton put on a master class at the ‘Paperclip’.

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Ross Gibb/Insyde Media/TCM/Dirk Klynsmith

IT WAS third-generation racer Aaron Seton who won Round 4 of Touring Car Masters at Queensland Raceway.

A near perfect round for the 21-year-old saw him claim his first pole position, first race victory and first round win in TCM in the Leo Tobin-owned Ford Mustang.

Chevrolet Camaro driver Ryal Harris also took his first race victory in the series and finished the round in second overall, winning the ProMasters class.

Five-time Touring Car Masters series winner John Bowe, driving his Holden Torana, finished third for the round, while Ben Dunn in his Chevrolet Monza took ProSport honours.

Series points leader Steven Johnson’s run of round victories came to an end at QR, the reigning champion having a tough weekend.

The top 12 qualifiers were inverted and sent to the rear of the grid in the Dometic Trophy race, which awards points for starting and finishing.

Cameron Mason gave his new Mustang a winning start.

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Cameron Mason, debuting the beautiful ‘Brut 33’ 1969 Ford Mustang Boss started from pole position alongside Cameron Tilley in the Valiant Pacer.

Alan Boughen in the Mercury Comet and Peter Burnitt made contact at the start, firing the Comet off the road at high speed and into the tyre wall on the inside of pit straight. It appeared as though a safety car had been deployed as yellow flags were waved around the circuit, and some cars slowed dramatically while others didn’t, however racing continued without its appearance.

This was good news for Mason who had made a good start and took off into the distance to take a dream debut win in the Alan Moffat inspired Mustang. Tilley finished second ahead two Toranas driven

by Ryan Hansford and Bowe.

Drama struck before the start of the first championship race, when front row starter Johnson in ‘Mustang Sally’ came to a stop due to a failed fuel pump which caused an electrical burnout on

Ryal Harris took his first victory, but couldn’t hold off Aaron Seton for the round win the out lap.

After weathering the storm of a fast Ryal Harris in the opening laps, Seton was able to pull out a strong lead and was never headed.

Bowe sat third after the second lap but did not have the pace of Seton or Harris, and was overtaken by Garwood on lap 7.

On the penultimate lap of the race Harris then suffered a front-left upright failure.

Seton crossed the line to take

the race win ahead of Adam Garwood (Chevrolet Camaro), who inherited second position and finished ahead of Bowe and Hansford. Jim Policina in his Holden Torana finished fifth, while Harris limped across the line in sixth position.

In Race 2 Seton made a good start, leaving all the action behind him. Harris made a great start from sixth and found himself in second coming out of Turn 3. At Turn 4 Hansford got into the back of Garwood, spinning the Camaro around for which he was awarded a 30s post-race penalty.

Seton took another dominant win ahead of Harris, while Bowe dropped back early in the race but recovered to finish third ahead of Pollicina and Adam Bressingnton.

Hansford crossed the line in fifth but with the penalty applied the Queenslander finished 15th, Garwood came home 11th.

Johnson recovered well coming from the back of the grid to finish in sixth.

In the final race Seton made a poor start from pole and was

TCM POINTS AFTER ROUND 4

Johnson 627, Bowe 583, Harris 570, Bressington 569, Pollicina 502, Williams 403, Hansford 377, Mason 374, Seton 348, Garwood 335 swamped by Harris and Pollicina, but Seton regained second around Turn 2. Pollicina then lost many more positions when he looped it exiting Turn 5.

Harris drove a mature race and did not succumb to the pressure applied by Seton and latterly Garwood, to take his first TCM race victory.

Garwood crossed the line only 0.36s behind Harris. Heading into the last turn Seton lost a further place to Bressington, who made it a Camaro 1-2-3. Seton’s fourth place finish was still enough to win his first round, Johnson came home fifth ahead of Bowe.

Despite the challenging weekend for Johnson, he still holds a comfortable championship lead over Bowe.

Queensland Raceway SUPPORTS

OJEDA PICKS UP THE PIECES Ojeda topped the points while Best had dramas.

Race Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Insyde Media

JAYDEN OJEDA took Queensland Raceway round honours in the Super3 Series, becoming the first driver to win multiple rounds this season.

History repeated itself as Zak Best once again retired from the final race after winning the opening two events, opening the door for Ojeda to take his second consecutive round win. Broc Feeney finished the round in second ahead of Brad Jones Racing driver Josh Fife.

Best led Race 1 from pole position, while Turn 3 became a hotspot in the opening race with Fife, Hamish Ribarits and Jon McCorkindale all locking up and taking a tour of the gravel trap.

Best however stayed out of trouble and greeted the flag first, beating Feeney by 4.9s, Nic Carroll finished third ahead of Ojeda and Fife. Ribarits

THE GLOVES CAME OFF Race Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Insyde Media

finished sixth ahead of Kumho Cup race winner Bradley Neill and McCorkindale.

The second race featured a race long battle between Ojeda, Feeney, Fife, Carroll and Ribarits, who all scrapped for second position.

The fight behind allowed Best to win by 5.4s, Ojeda finished second from Fife, Feeney and Carroll. Ribarits spun in the final corner of the race and as a result fell out the pack to ninth position.

Combined points from Races 1 and

Nic Carroll dives under MWM teammate Hamish Ribarits.

2 set the grid for the third and final race. Feeney started alongside Best on the front row, the pair banging doors around Turn 1. Best held on until Turn 4 when Feeney made a decisive move on the inside and Best’s front-left wheel made contact with the right-rear of Feeney’s car, breaking Best’s suspension and forcing him to retire.

A safety car was called for Jason Gomersall, who was stuck in the Turn 3 gravel, then shortly after the restart a patient Ojeda made his move, taking the lead off Feeney at Turn 3.

From there Ojeda cruised to the race win, from Feeney and Fife.

Despite winning the opening two Kumho Cup races, Neill had two separate incidents with teammate Smerdon and allowed Pollicina to take the class round win.

Despite not winning a round Feeney leads the championship from Ojeda and Ribarits, with Best fourth.

HARRIS SQUARES THE POINTS Race Report: Garry O’Brien Image: Insyde Media

IN WINNING the fifth round of the ECB SuperUtes Series at Queensland Raceway, Ryal Harris has a share of the points lead with former pace setter Tom Alexander.

Harris (Mazda BT50) fended off Ben Walsh (Toyota Hilux) and Cameron Crick (Mitsubishi Triton) to take out the opening race while Alexander (Isuzu D-MAX) was fourth. Harris then kept Craig Woods (Hilux) at bay to finish fourth in the reverse grid second race and then capped off with second in the third race to Toby Price (Mitsubishi Triton).

Price was in sizzling form after finishing sixth in the opening outing, he passed Chris Formosa (Ford Ranger) to grab the lead in race two. He then had to hold off a hard-charging Steven Richards (Holden Colorado) who started rear of grid, having not started the first due to a seized wastegate control unit. Crick was a close third and behind sixth-placed Formosa, Ben Falk (BT50) recovered well after spinning on the opening lap from contact with Walsh.

In the last, Price audaciously passed Harris and Crick simultaneously at turn 3 on lap two. From there Price was untouched as Harris secured second in his tussle with Woods, Crick and Alexander. Richards was next ahead Walsh, Craig Thompson (Hilux) and Formosa.

Price finished second for the round ahead of Crick, Woods and Falk. The Toyotas had a further ride height trim and a touch more power but failing to finish race two hurt Walsh, with rear suspension damage after contact with Alexander, who also didn’t get to the finish as a result of broken turbo.

THE AUSSIE Racing Cars put on a great show for the Queensland Raceway crowd throughout the weekend.

Reigning title holder Joel Heinrich won the round when both Justin Ruggier and Kel Treseder were penalised for separate incidents in the last race of the weekend.

Joshua Anderson finished second in the round points, Treseder was third, while Ruggier was buried down in sixth.

The first race of the weekend featured an epic fight for the lead between Ruggier, Treseder and series debutant Kyle Honour. Honour’s race came to a spectacular early end, locking up his brakes he narrowly avoided the #8 and #75, but the Queenslander nearly rolled as he hit the inside kerb before coming to a rest in the gravel trap.

Treseder and Ruggier exited the final corner side by side with Treseder taking the win by less than 0.02s, while Joshua Anderson finished third ahead of Heinrich.

In the opening laps of the second race it looked as though Heinrich and Anderson were able to keep on the tail of Treseder and Ruggier, but as the race wore on the pair dropped back.

Treseder held on to take another race victory ahead

Newcomer Kyle Honour was spectacular. of Ruggier, while Anderson overtook Heinrich for third on the final lap.

The third race was the reverse top 10 and was an exciting affair which muddled up the front running order, Ruggier beating Honour, Heinrich, Treseder and Anderson to the line.

It was all to play for in the final race between Ruggier and Treseder. If either driver won they would win the round.

Like in Race 1 the pair excited the final turn for the last time side by side, bashing into each other several times on the run to the line. Ruggier crossed the line first, Treseder finishing the race 0.1s later at 90 degrees.

Ruggier was subsequently handed a 30s post-race penalty for the incident.

Treseder was then handed a 10s penalty for an incident earlier in the race in which the pair came to blows, causing them to lose time and places.

The penalties allowed Heinrich to take the race and round victory, and break the round winning streak of Ruggier.

Justin Ruggier lost round honours when he was penalised.

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TCR Round 4 Xxxxxxxxxxx

THE CHASE IS ON AS TCR Australia headed up north for its halfway point, Will Brown held a commanding lead despite experiencing a mixed start to his season. The young Toowoomba native entered his local round with a 125-point lead heading to the ‘Paperclip’, but he left it with the margin significantly cut.

His main pursuer Dylan O’Keeffe had a dream round and drew level with his title protagonist for most race wins so far this season, taking advantage of a souring of luck for Brown. The Alfa Romeo was unstoppable on Sunday, after Audi import Jean-Karl Vernay dominated Saturday’s opening event, but was ruled out of action for the rest of the weekend.

Vernay scored pole position after a thrilling qualifying session where four drivers battled for the $1000 cheque. O’Keeffe and Brown challenged the French WTCR star as did John Martin.

The hot conditions started to take its toll on some of the machinery as Chris Pither in his Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault Megane RS had overheating problems, which required an engine change forcing the Kiwi to miss the opening race. Jason Bright also failed to set an early lap time due to an actuator issue, but set a time late.

Vernay’s final run gave him pole, a 1m 12.9418s topped Martin’s final attempt by a mere 0.06s as the top 12 was covered by a second.

There were 16-cars that gridded up as an already frantically working GRM crew had to re-fire James Moffat’s Megane, which it did successfully but he still had to start from pit lane. As did Aaron Cameron, who accidentally let the fire bomb off in his Volkswagen Golf GTI, though it did set-up a great comeback drive.

Race one was interesting. Vernay was out in front but under increasing pressure from former overseas rival Martin. It was telling when the Frenchman ran wide at Turn 4 and

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Report: Heath McAlpine Images: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz

WTCR racer Jean-Karl Vernay dominated race one on Saturday but was unable to start Sunday’s two events, handing Aaron Seton an unexpected opportunity to make his TCR debut.

Aaron Cameron started race one for pitlane after a fire extinguisher went off, thereafter crawled his way back to the podium in race 2.

had a shocking run at Turn 5, enabling Martin to have a good approach to Turn 6. But Vernay guarded the inside line forcing the Honda Civic Type R wide.

Brown sat behind waiting for an opportunity that came when Martin took a wide line, though the gap closed and a collision ensued.

Brown was in trouble straight away with a puncture, while Martin also came into the pits, both losing a lap.

Andre Heimgartner was another winner.

Having engineers from Lubner Motorsport had really helped the speed of the Holden Astras and fifth was just reward, though it had come at the cost of the drive for Chelsea Angelo, for this round only though.

A safety car was called but it was only brief as Vernay extended his 0.6s gap over D’Alberto, who was coming under increasing pressure from O’Keeffe, which aided the WTCR driver out in front.

Now a lap down, Brown was given a black flag for cutting the course while his car was wounded, forcing him into the pit lane for a penalty, aiding O’Keeffe’s attack on his title points lead.

Back out front, Vernay emphasised his dominance by setting the fastest lap time on lap 11, a 1m 14.4933s, while the fight for second was really heating up as Russell Ingall joined the party behind O’Keeffe.

The pressure proved too much for D’Alberto who made a crucial mistake at Turn 1, which dropped him off the podium and into fourth.

Heimgartner had maintained fifth but it was all to end as Kelly Racing reliability issues continued and he pulled off exiting Turn 2, nearly being collected by GRM’s new recruit Jordan Cox. The damage proved terminal and Heimgartner’s weekend was over.

Vernay proved unstoppable as he comfortable won race one ahead of O’Keeffe, Ingall, D’Alberto, Cox and the recovering Cameron.

Andre Heimgartner switched from Subaru to the Holden Astra for Kelly Racing but still had little joy. He lost an engine in race one and was out for the weekend. Chris Pither also had engine dramas in the Renault, missing the first race while points leader Will Brown clashed with John Martin in race one and punctured.

O’Keeffe took full advantage of the pole position because of Vernay’s absence in race two on Sunday and made a perfect start, but behind Moffat and Alex Rullo clashed, forcing both onto the grass throwing up a plume of dust into the air.

Ingall had made a good start from second, but D’Alberto was ready to attack and did so successfully to demote the Audi RS3 to third. Cameron made the best start of the frontrunners and had risen to fourth, flashing the lights and placing the 2005 V8 Supercars champion under the blowtorch in what was an intriguing battle between youth and experience.

Unlike at The Bend where Brown scythed through the field in Race 1, it was more of a struggle at Queensland Raceway.

He had started at the back, but once he hit 10th his progress stopped abruptly when he encountered Moffat. In what was a spirited duel for both which featured plenty of sideby-side action, the title leader was unable to move past.

Ingall and Cameron were putting pressure on D’Alberto but his tyre pressures were too high, leaving the frustrated Honda driver to again concede a podium position with both passing within a lap of each other as the race

headed towards its twilight period.

Pither’s weekend spiralled further down the tube as an electronics problem hampered his power output and dropped the Megane to the rear of the field. Problems weren’t just restricted to Pither, either, as many drivers were complaining about pad knock-off, particularly the Hyundais.

Despite a late challenge from Ingall, O’Keeffe held on to win by just under a second, with Cameron rounding out the podium.

There was drama before the final race when Rullo’s Astra broke a driveshaft, but super

TCR POINTS AFTER ROUND 4

Brown 410, O’Keeffe 353, D’Alberto 311, Morcom 292, Moffat 285

Russell Ingall was a front runner all weekend, underlining the pace of the Audi RS3.

work from Kelly Racing replaced it before the start, while Alexandra Whitley’s Golf GTI had overheating problems which were also sorted for the race.

D’Alberto made a cracker to make the battle for the lead three-wide, but the order stayed the same, though Ingall was in closer proximity to O’Keeffe.

Cameron did his teammate a favour by battling with D’Alberto for third, allowing the Audi to focus on his pursuit of O’Keeffe’s Alfa Romeo. This didn’t last long as Cameron ran wide and dropped to sixth.

Brown, now in eighth, was setting fastest lap times but couldn’t use his pace in the traffic as he renewed his battle with Moffat from the previous race.

This was all good news for O’Keeffe as he now held a 2s margin back to Ingall, with the elder statesman having no answer to the Alfa Romeo’s pace.

It was getting willing behind, Martin slid through on Cox with slight contact being made, while Moffat also had contact with a puncture resulting.

Molly Taylor’s troublesome run in the Subaru came to an end with an engine issue, which left fluid on track, though it wasn’t a factor for O’Keeffe or the other leaders.

In what was a clear display of superiority, O’Keeffe took the double and slashed Brown’s series lead to 57-points. Ingall capped off a strong weekend with another second, while D’Alberto finally scored that elusive podium.

Heading to Winton in just under four week’s time, the TCR Australia title battle has really closed up and is delicately balanced.

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p ra w S L A NATION

compiled by garry o’brien

NUMBER 11 IN SIGHT FOR RICCIARDELLO Report: Garry O’Brien Image: Insyde Media

A DOMINANT Round 3 victory in the DEA Performance National Sports Sedan Series at Queensland Raceway has firmed Tony Ricciardello’s aspirations for an 11th title.

The Chev V8-powered Alfa Romeo won the three races, and took the round ahead of Jordan Caruso in John Gourley’s Audi/Chev, with third going to Phil Crompton in his Ford Mustang Trans Am. It was a small field brought about by a conflicting NSW state championship round and Steve Tamasi, the defending title holder, didn’t have time to sort his Calibra/Chev after engine dramas at the previous round.

Ricciardello led away the first race where Shane Bradford (Chev Camaro Trans Am) launched into second, ahead of Crompton. Caruso, who had never raced the Willowbank circuit previously, was cautious in his getaway, dropping from second to fourth.

Ultimately Caruso worked through to second as a three-way tussle for third developed between Bradford, Crompton and Michael Robinson (Monaro/ Chev). Robinson challenged Crompton for fourth but lost out as they lapped Warren Wadley (TA2 Ford Mustang).

In the second outing, Caruso was second from the start as Bradford withstood the challenge of Crompton throughout. Shane Woodman (BMW/Chev) finished fifth while Col Smith recovered for sixth, after a brake lockup fired his Monaro/Chev off at turn 1 on the first lap. Robinson retired to the pits on lap 3 with a blown head gasket.

Ricciardello continued his stranglehold on the round, leading Race 3 from start to finish and winning ahead of Caruso. Third was up for grabs between Bradford and Crompton. Bradford held sway for several laps despite an engine oil pressure drama.

Unfortunately, the powerplant cried enough and not only did Crompton get past, but so did Woodman which meant Crompton finished third for the round.

NIGHT AND DAY, TO LYNTON AND LEAHEY Report: Garry O’Brien Image: Insyde Media

FOLLOWING ON winning the ‘Fight in the Night’, Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey also took out the second 300km leg of the MRF Tyres Australian Production Car Series third round at Queensland Raceway.

Driving their Class A1 BMW M3, they took outright honours ahead of Coleby Cowham and Lindsay Kearns (Class A2 Ford Mustang GT) and Chris Lillis and Nathan Callaghan (Class AM1 HSV Clubsport).

The winners had to compete without a rear window after it shattered before the opening race, and only really surrendered the front running with their pitstops.

In the slightly shortened night race (due to a time certain ending) Cowhan/Kerns were second 55.8s in arrears while third place and one lap down were Anthony Soole and Andrew Fisher (BMW M4).

Iain and Grant Sherrin were out early when their BMW M4 stopped on the main straight with a slipped timing chain which caused the ECU to shutdown, forcing the only safety car.

Callaghan and Lillis were fourth ahead of Dimitri Agathos/Matt Boylan (B1 Subaru Impreza WRX) and their class rivals Klae Eckhardt (BMW 135i). The next

54 AutoAction

CONSISTENT JONES FURTHER EXTENDS LEAD

Harris Jones and Christian Pancione battled for Porsche GT3 Challenge honours.

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Insyde Media

HARRI JONES has extended his championship lead by winning two of the three races in an exciting and closely fought round of Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge at Queensland Raceway.

At the start of the first race Max Vidau led into Turn 1 from fourth on the grid, with Jones following him through to take second position at Turn 3 when Ryan Suhle and Christian Pancione made heavy contact. The contact forced Suhle to retire with a broken steering rack, while Pancione was able to continue.

On lap 2 Class B driver Tony Martin spun into the Turn 6 gravel trap, forcing the safety car to be deployed.

When the race resumed on lap 6 a three way fight for the lead developed, then on lap 10 Jones and Vidau made contact coming out of Turn 3 which allowed Pancione to place his Porsche up the inside of Jones into Turn 4.

The Victorian took the position after nudging Jones wide. On the final turn of the race Jones returned serve, bumping his way back into second behind Vidau.

The second race of the weekend marked the category’s 200th race.

The 33 lap mini enduro was a thriller from the word go, when Vidau led into Turn 1 but ran wide allowing Jones to take the lead.

All the work was thrown away when on lap 9 Jones ran wide and allowed Vidau back through.

On lap 21 Vidau slowed suddenly on the approach to the final turn, Jones ran wide as he avoided the Sonic Motor Racing car, allowing Pancione to sneak the pair into the lead.

At the next turn Jones retaliated to take the lead back, while after a number of laps limping around Vidau came to a stop.

Jones held on after a late race safety car to win from Pancione, while Queenslander Suhle recovered from the back of the grid to take third off Love on the final lap.

The last race had only just begun when Graham Williams and Matt Belford made contact, sending the latter heavily into the pit wall which resulted in a lengthy safety car

period.

After the restart Love fought hard to keep Suhle at bay, with a hard charging Vidau approaching the pair.

Jones drove well and held onto the win by just over 0.1s from Pancione. Suhle and Vidau managed to overtake Love on the final lap, however Suhle was awarded a 15s post-race penalty.

All this meant that Jones won the round from the consistent Pancione and Love. Brett Boulton beat Sam Shahin to Pro Am honours and Andrew Goldie won in Class B.

CHAOS REIGNS SUPREME Report: Dan McCarthy Image: Insyde Media

MADNESS ENSUED in all three Australian Prototype Series races at Queensland Raceway, with Queenslander Jason Makris emerging supreme from John-Paul two were the Class C1 winners Kaden Olsen/Frank Drake and with Mark Laucke rounding out Mammarella (Hyundai i30N) ahead of Jake Camilleri/ the round podium.

Scott Nicolas (Mazda 3 MPS) who were denied the Pole position went to Daniel Gonzalez and it was class win with a late flat tyre. the Western Australian who led early. Makris sat Two safety cars and a late drive-through penalty did just behind in second position before he spun on little to stop Lynton/Leahey winning race two. Second lap 2. This allowed David Barram into second and went to the Sherrins who battled brake issues and he quickly caught and overtook Gonzalez in the had to overcome a 15s penalty that saw them finish Wolf Tornado. just in front of Cowham/Kearns.

Barram remained out front beating Gonzalez The battle for fourth was also tight. Two laps behind to the line by 1.5s, while remarkably despite the winners, Lillis and Callaghan edged out Agathos/ spinning on lap 2 Makris recovered to finish third.

Boylan by less than a second, with Brad Carr and Ash Race 2 was a very dramatic affair, starting on Jarvis (Class A2 BMW M3) just behind. On the same the opening lap when Drake shot up to second lap, Klae Eckhardt and David Ayres (BMW 135i) were from fourth. second in Class B1 while Class C1 honours went to It took a while for Gonzalez to get up to speed Camilleri/Nicolas, a lap up on Mammarella/Olsen. in the second race, but once he did he quickly The first safety car was for the Fisher/Soole M4 caught and breezed past Drake to take second on which ran out of brakes and hit the turn 3 tyres, and lap 7, Makris followed him through to take third. the second for the Darren Forrest/Paul Razum Holden Gonzalez continued his charge, catching up to Commodore rolled at turn 6 late in the race. race leader Barram on the penultimate lap. On

the final lap Gonzalez sent one but hit the back of Barram, sending them both into the gravel trap unable to continue. Makris inherited the win from Drake and Paul Trengove.

The final race was also exciting, Laucke shot up to second position at the start and set about putting race leader Makris under pressure. On lap 3 Makris cracked and spun, Laucke ran wide in avoidance and gave the lead to Drake.

On lap 5 Laucke took the lead, but this didn’t last long as Gonzalez came from last on the grid to take the lead after only six laps. Barram followed Gonzalez through and into second before he suffered damage and fired off the road at turn one.

This allowed Gonzalez to become the third winner in three races. Laucke crossed the line in second but was awarded a 5s penalty demoted him to fifth behind, Makris who recovered to second, Drake and Trengove.

BIG GRIDS AT MRA MEETING THE JULY 21 Motor Racing Australia Series round six meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park featured five racing groups, but big fields in all guaranteed interesting racing.

PULSARS

IN FRONT of 37 Nissans, all three races or round five went to Harry Inwood, but that does not tell an accurate story. Inwood led all the way in races one and two, but never by much. The minor places were taken by Josh Craig and Matthew Boylan in the opener and Michael Osmond and Boylan in the second.

In the final race, Osmond got away smartly and opened a small gap on Boylan, Inwood and Craig. By lap three Inwood was back in charge, from Craig and Boylan, while Osmond finished ninth after he and Boylan ran off on the exit of the last turn on the second last lap .

EXCELS

BORDERING ON torrid, the three fourth round races had different winners. The first was red-flagged after an opening-lap crash.

At the restart, Jackson Noakes led the first lap (of four) from Wil Longmore and Dean O’Neill. Longmore took the lead on lap two, then O’Neill went ahead on lap three, holding it to the end and winning from Longmore and Noakes.

Image: Bruce Moxon O’Neill led the first three laps of the second race, before being passed by several cars on the last lap and dropping to 10th.

Then second, Ben Crossland only led the remainder of the last lap but that’s all that mattered, winning from Longmore and Noakes.

The final was no less exciting, Crossland and Longmore travelling nearly half a lap side-by-side and passing and repassing over and again. Longmore finally made it stick on lap four, taking the win from Noakes and Jessica Martin while Crossland found the wall at the last corner in all the struggle.

SUPER TT

AHEAD OF a large entry, Mark Boudib (BMW

HUDSON TAKES LOCAL IP ROUND Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Insyde Media

A VERY competitive MCA Suspension Improved Production round three was won by 18-year-old Zak Hudson in his Mazda RX7.

Race one started with Troy Marinelli (Nissan 200SX) narrowly leading Simon O’Dell-Fontana (Mazda RX7) and Hudson, who grabbed the lead on lap two and won. Kyle Organ-Moore (Holden Commodore VS) made up places to finish fourth while Karl Begg (Mercedes AMG C63) was prominent in the early laps but faded to 14th.

It appeared the second race would go similarly.

Marinelli led at the outset before Hudson took the lead. But on lap 7, Marinelli reclaimed the lead and held it to the end. Third was O’Dell-Fontana

with Organ-Moore chasing throughout. Fifth was Steven Jukes (BMW M3) ahead of a closing Aaron Lawrence (Nissan Silvia), who challenged for position until a slip up at turn 3 kept him sixth.

Marinelli led from the outset of race three through to a safety car when Nick Jukes bunkered his BMW. On the last lap Hudson grabbed the lead although his Mazda was smoking badly and Marinelli pipped it at the line by a mere 0.2s.

Marinelli was penalised for the jumped start though with Hudson declared was the race winner ahead of Lawrence who passed O’Dell-Fontana late, Organ-Moore and Steven Jukes. Marinelli was classified sixth ahead of Ash Isarasena (RX7) and Justin Wade (BMW 135i).

E36) and Ashley Slavkovic (Nissan Sylvia) battled hard all day. Boudib took the first race from Slavkovic and John Ford (Nissan Skyline). The first two places were reversed in the second race with Mark Stinson (Sylvia) third.

In the last race, Slavkovic hit gear-selection problems while holding a big lead. Boudib blew past while Slavkovic was working out he had only fourth gear which was enough to get him home in second place. Third was Stinson.

SUPERKARTS

NORMALLY AN outright contender, John Pellicano was out for round five following a crash in practice aboard his 250cc Avoig.

Anton Stevens took four wins from four in

his 250cc PVP, and Ilya Harpas in his 250cc Anderson Maverick threatened from time to time but had a series of dramas. Running second an d first respectively in the club championship, Lee Vella and Aaron Cogger provided great entertainment, battling hard all day in their 125cc Avoigs.

MX5/RX8/GROUP N

THE MAZDA MX5s, with a lot more mechanical freedom, were always going to hard for the more standard RX8s to beat. And so, it proved, with Curran Brennan and Tim Herring taking all three firsts and seconds respectively. Paul Grant-Mitchell was best of the RX8s, taking three from three with David Stone easily the best of the small Group N field in his Ford Mustang. Bruce Moxon

CAM’S ONE-TWO IN EXCELS

Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Insyde Media

TWO RACE wins gave Cam Wilson overall victory in the Qld Series X3 Excel Racing Series third round ahead of Cameron Bartholomew and Tyrone Gautier.

Run as a support category to the Shannons Nationals, the opening race was won by Wilson over Bartholomew and Gautier, but not until after two safety cars for offs, and an infinite number of passes and repasses. Finishing just behind were Scott Green, David Wood, Mark Goldspink and Darren Whittington.

Race two netted the same result, but again there were several positional exchanges. Wilson again was the victor with Bartholomew and

Gautier,almost side-by-side immediately behind.

Fourth place Green had a small gap to Olsen, Goldspink, Brett Parrish from the back after a first race DNF, Brock Giblin and Holly Espray.

The final race had Wilson leading initially before he was passed by Bartholomew before the first lap ended. On the second tour, the latter had a wild moment between turns 1 and 2 which dropped him to fifth.

Wilson retook the lead while Bartholomew grafted his way back into contention, finally wrestling away the lead with a lap to go. Wilson endeavoured to retrieve it at the final corner but locked a brake, overshot slightly and allowed Gautier to slip by.

Close behind were Goldspink and Whittington with a gap to Green and Parrish.

-

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

www.wakefieldpark.com.au August 11 Speed Off The Street/Test & Tune August 16 National Museum August 17 A Chequered Past Vehicles From the National Museum Of Australia August 23 Speed Off The Street/Test & Tune

Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au August 9 Test & Tune – Cars & Open Wheelers August 10 Melbourne Motor Sport Club August 11 MSCA August 13 Supercar Test Day August 14 Performance Test Day

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55

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

Image: Ian Colley

RAPID VON RAPPARD AT MT COTTON

RUNNER UP at the previous two outings, Michael Von Rappard broke through to take out round four of the Queensland Hillclimb Series at Mt Cotton on July 20-21.

In brisk winter conditions, Von Rappard (Dallara F392/supercharged Hayabusa) completed five of the 11 available runs and posted the weekend’s best of 37.85s on his last attempt.

It was 1.1s quicker than first round winner and Formula Libre over 1.3-litre rival Warwick Hutchinson (OMS 28 RPV03 turbo), while third place went to

Jim Milliner in his Formula Libre up to 1.3-litre OMS 2000M. The remainder of the F/L U1.3L class filled the next three outright places with Paul van Wijk (OMS Hornet) ahead of Matt Read (Readster MTR1) and David Quelch (Honda DPQ Special).

Joint points leader coming into the round (with Phillip Dalton in his Modified Production Honda Integra) was 2018 title winner Greg Tebble, who took his Group

R Van Diemen FFF2000 to seventh overall.

He finished ahead of the leading tin top Ford Escort Sports Sedan piloted

by Ross McKay. Ninth went to the Michael Larymore (Production Sports Toyota MR2) with Brian Pettit 10th in his Clubman Sports Car Westfield.

Only one record was set with Mark Pryor recording a new benchmark for Circuit Excels before the Top Six Shootout where Millner made the final run, and eclipsed a very competitive field with his first sub-39s pass. GOB

TRACK CRACK SUCCESS THE NORTH Australian Motor Sport Club’s innovative and inaugural Have a Crack @ the Track event at Hidden Valley Raceway on July 20 was a resounding success.

The event attracted 54 participants to have a crack at the track in their own road cars and experience of unlimited speed in a safe and fun way, as well as an introduction to motorsport at an affordable cost.

It was particularly designed to attract new members and promote the sport with multiple national champion and seven-time Bathurst winner Jim Richards in attendance. He mingled with entrants, shared motorsport stories and providing

OASTLER HITS BACK HARD

Image: James Pearson

AFTER MISSING the previous round, Malcolm Oastler was back for round six of the Mantic Clutch NSW Hillclimb Championship and took his turbocharged Hayabusa-powered OMS 28 to a clear-cut win at Oakburn Park on July 20-21.

Hosted by Tamworth Sporting Car Club, the facility west of city is unlike the traditional lookout hillclimb, being more of a horizontal hillclimb with tight bends and a high speed straight, where entrants each had five runs.

Oastler’s best of 28.69s on his last run set a new course record and was a second better than Formula Libre over 2.0-litre class rivals Dean Tighe (Dallara/ Judd) and Darren Read (Haywood 09/ Hayabusa). Fourth spot went to Ron Hay (Synergy Dallara) ahead of Dave Morrow (Krygger Suzuki), who took out Formula Libre up to 1.3-litre.

The quickest of the tin tops was James Pearson in his Mazda RX7 in sixth place

56 AutoAction

advice to potential new motorsport enthusiasts.

“We are extremely pleased with the success of this event, we have received so much positive feedback, we will certainly be looking to run more of these dedicated come and try events in the future,” said NAMSC Vice President Jake Burgess.

“There were a lot of locals who drove the track in cars ranging from a 1960 Morris Minor, a Pathfinder, to the latest Mustang and a large range of Japanese and European vehicles.”

NAMSC hosts championship series for Improved Production, HQ Holden, and Commodore Cup, and also holds Motorkhanas and Lapsprints. GOB

and with a new Production Sports record, just 0.29s clear of seventh place Nick York (Time Attack Mitsubishi EVO).

Then came the Sports Sedan winner Alan Barnes (Toyota Celica V8) over class rival Wayne Penrose (VW Superbug).

Greg Jones was 10th overall in his Locast Clubman in which he set a new benchmark in under 1.6-litre 2A Sports and just edging out Neil dePau (Radical) by 0.16s.

New class records also went to John Gilbert (Improved Production O3L Holden Commodore VC) and Garry Chistopherson (Road Registered NLB U2.5L Westfield). The fastest lady and junior honours again went with Karen Wilson (Ford Focus RS) and Riley McQueen (Commodore).

James Pearson

Image: Supplied

Image: Supplied

SHIELDS ONE-LAP BENCHMARK BRAD SHIELS became the 2019 Aus Time Attack Champion, setting a record-breaking 57.5652s lap at Wakefield Park on July 20.

The event was aimed at enthusiasts preparing and racing their car without limitations, and attracted 54 entries.

Shiels and the Xtreme GT-R R32 Nissan were on the pace immediately, setting a 57.6s in his first session before improving by a tenth or so in his second run. In his final outing, he shaved off some more to seal the win.

He also took victory in the Open Class, and honours for the fastest AWD vehicle.

Second outright and first in the Pro Class was Benny Tran (BYP Honda Integra), four tenths away, while ahead of Trent Grubel (Pulse Racing Mitsubishi EVO 8).

The Club Sprint class, for lightly modified production-spec cars, was closely contested where Nik Spartan Kalis (EVO X) won with a 62.8953s, 0.1s faster than Jamal Asaad (EVO VI) with Josh Bunter (Subaru Impreza WRX) third.

The new Supercar Class went to Allan Bugh (PRB Clubman), pipping Kevin Westblade (Porsche 911 GT2 RS) in the final session, as Anthony Le (GT2 RS) completed the top three. GOB

WORKING DOG RALLY

RATED AN outside chance, Clayton Hoy and Alan Stean caused something of an upset by winning the Accent Benchtops Working Dog Rally out of Bonalbo on July 20.

Situated to the west of Casino in northern NSW and using many of the traditional Border Ranges fast and technical shire roads to the east, south and west, the event was round five of the NSW Championship and the third round of the Queensland Championship.

Up against the best on offer from both states, Hoy and Stean (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6) won the nine-stage event by 11s over current NSW champions Glenn Brinkman and Harvey Smith (EVO 9). Just under 1min further back in third place were Richard Shimmon and Jim Gleeson (EVO 7).

Hoy narrowly won the three stages of the first section,

Image: CH Images

establishing a 16s leading margin. Shimmon took out stage four before Hoy won the next two and squared the seventh stage with Brinkman. The latter won the eighth and ninth stages but by not enough to deny Hoy victory.

“We thought we could get third or fourth if we had a good run, but it worked out a lot better than we expected,” Hoy said.

Hoy and Stean along with Brinkman and Smith were registered in both state championships and therefore

topped the points in each. Shimmon and Gleeson completed the NSW top three ahead of Tristan Kent with the experienced Pete Hellwig (EVO 9) navigating for the first time.

Fifth outright and the first 2WD was the Citroen DS3 crewed by Tony Sullens and Kaylee Newell, placing ahead of the Victorians Glen Raymond and Kate Catford in a borrowed Subaru Legacy, who are still leading the NSW title chase.

Garry Yeomans and Kam Baker (EVO 5) picked up third overall in the QRC. They were seventh overall ahead of David Opie and Ben Richards (EVO 4), and current QRC leaders Brayden and Blake Wilson (EVO 9).

Equal 10th were Wayne Morton and Kirra Penny (Toyota Corolla S2000) and Cahal Carey and Ronnie Bustard (EVO 9).

Also running in the event was the East Coast Classic Rally Series, which had 49 crews competing where Clay Badenoch and Catriona Kelly (Toyota Celica RA40) won by 13s over Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith (Mazda RX2). GOB .

BIG WIN AT BULAHDELAH IN FRONT a 59-car entry Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith put in a dominant display to take out the Bulahdelah Classic Rally, round four of the Pipe King AMSAG Southern Cross Series on July 27.

They propelled the venerable Mazda RX2 to a 2min48s victory after winning five of the eight stages on the mid-north coast of NSW, some of which were conducted in the dark.

Second went to Jeff Davis and Dane Brooker (Datsun 1600) who was equal winner of stage four, with a further 44s to third placed Dean Ridge and Damian Grahame (Mitsubishi EVO 7).

Just a minute behind, the Subaru Impreza WRX team of Mark Wills and Cam Baker were fourth. Returning from a 15-year absence, Wills was seeded at 28 and finished ahead of Peter Neal and

Craig Whyburn (WRX) by 3s in the drive of the day.

Best of the two/rear wheel drive entries was the Toyota Altezza driven by Bryan Van Eck. Co-driver Lizzy Ferme needed to be rested after three stages due to illness, replaced by Hugh Taylor until she was well enough to resume her navigating duties for the night stages.

Filling out the top 10 were Ian Hill/ Phillip Bonser (Ford Escort), Michael Heuchan/Paul Bailey (WRX), Jack Wightman/Dave Anderson (Datsun 240Z) and Patrick Ryan/Katherine Flemming (Nissan Skyline).

Winning the first two rounds of the series, Jayke Skeffington had Steve Forsberg for this round in the WRX and were strong contenders having two stage wins and three seconds. But the two broken driveshafts on separate

Image: D&S Photography stages ruined their chances of victory at their home event.

Sitting sixth outright were Jody Mill and Ryan Price before hitting a stump on stage six which caused substantial damage to the rear end of the EVO.

With the bulk of the field contesting the full event, some crews took on the Short Course alternative, conducted over the first six daylight stages, which was won

by Gary Poyntz and Stephen O’Hanlon (Toyota Landcruiser). GOB

Image: Gordon Robb

Image: Off Road Racing Tas

HOWELLS/ERSKINE TAKE MOUNTAIN CLASSIC FOR THE second time in three years Josh Howells and Bryan Erskine won the Hedweld Milbrodale Mountain Classic, round three of the Hunter Rivmasta Racing Products NSW Off Road Championship held on July 20-21.

Aboard his Jimco/Nissan Turbo Pro Buggy, Howells also took the converted Man of the Mountain award for posting the fastest lap time on the final heat.

The 33-year-old event over 250km, attracted 64 entries. It was conducted through four heats made up of three different length courses.

Howells won three heats and finished a clear-cut 3mins22s ahead.

“It’s our local event and it’s a good track and atmosphere. Lot of laps and it goes from being a speedway to a rutted-out track, so it’s definitely tough on the car and it was pretty brutal,” Howells said.

Second went to Pro Buggy rivals Bryce Chapman and Mitch Warren (Jimco/Chev V8) ahead of the SXS Turbo class’ Peter Carr and Mark Bernard in a Can-Am Maverick.

In taking fourth outright, Glen Ackroyd and Andrew Cassidy (Polaris RZR Turbo) placed less than one minute ahead of Jay and Corey Neate

(Can-Am) for second and third in the SXS Turbo class.

A further 15s away were Matthew Huxley (Thronbuilt Wasp/Chev V8 Pro Buggy) with Derek Seam and David Chandler sharing the co-driver seat, ahead of Justin Chisholm (Yamaha XYZ Turbo) with Irene Keramidas who was the best placed of the female navigators.

Philip Lovett and Luke Stanley (Can-Am) won heat two, but a slow run over the next heat meant they would eventually finish 16th.

Tenth outright and the Super 1650 winners were Richard and Terese Wilton (Hijinx/Toyota).

The ProLite class winner was Ally Howells, with Sean Marsden navigating their Southern Cross/ Nissan, who also took out the Best Female Driver award.

Extreme 2WD went to Kevin, Lauren and Cathy Ottey (Rush Off Road Trophy Truck/Chev LS2), Extreme 4WD was won by Josh Nurrish and Ben Jones (Ford Ranger/Chev LS1), and Gavin Sheppard and John Blackett (Cobra/Inline 4) secured Sportsman. In Sportslite it was Anthony Abson (Alumi Craft/Chev EcoTech), while Lucky Mattiussi and Michael Bamford (International Scout/Chev) netted Production 4WD. GOB

BRANCH SWINGS INTO CONTENTION REIGNING CHAMPION Chris Branch blasted back into contention for back-to-back Tasmanian Off Road Racing Championships with a convincing win in the third round, the Car @ St Helens Screamer on July 20.

The event was held at Peron Dunes, near St Helens, with a disappointingly small field. From the first of three heats, Branch (Hornet/Hayabusa Prolite) was on the pace from the outset, winning the opening stanza by an impressive 3mins.

Mike Males (Can-Am SXS Turbo) was the next best, with championship leader Michael Stalker (Yamaha YXZ SXS) a further 32s behind, with the top three drivers being the only ones to finish on the lead lap - each completing 14 laps of the 4km circuit.

In the second heat, with 13 laps completed, Branch was again a clear winner while Miles found more speed to ease away from Stalker, taking second place by 1mins 23s.

Over the third lap Branch posted another effortless victory, winning by 2mins 7s from Stalker, with the pair again completing 13 laps. However, Males struck problems and was only able to complete seven laps, finishing sixth.

Males’ demise cost him an overall round second, eventually classified fourth. Stalker made the most of the situation to finish second and maintain a narrow one-point championship lead over Branch. Males salvaged enough points to remain third with two rounds to go.

Martin Agatyn

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57

IT WAS a catastrophic German Grand Prix for reigning Formula 1 manufacturer champions Mercedes Benz, on the weekend the German team attempted to celebrate both its 125th anniversary in motorsport as well as its 200th Formula 1 race.

Spectacular spins, a problematic penalty and costly crashes were just a few major flaws in the slightly shortened race. But arguably the most bizarre incident for the usually squeaky, clean error free Mercedes team was an incredibly long mid-race pit stop.

As well as the cars being presented in a special one-off livery, Mercedes crew members were dressed up in 50’s outfits to commemorate its debut in 1954.

Clearly the costumes must have confused the mechanics, who appeared to act as if 50’s crew members.

When Lewis Hamilton pitted with front wing damage the

PIT STOP PANDEMONIUM

mechanics seemed confused by tyre compounds, rattle guns and what a front wing actually was! When they eventually worked out what went where, nearly a minute had been lost.

During the German Grand Prix Red Bull Racing set a record for the fastest ever race pitstop, a gob-smacking 1.8s.

The Mercedes crew took a tad longer, over 50s, putting Lewis Hamilton nearly a lap down.

Fortunately for the pit crew, team principal Toto Wolff decided to take out his anger on his table rather than them.

Lewis Hamilton crashed and pitted unexpectedly, i no endd off pitlane itl confuson f ffor th d causing the M Mercedes team. Images: LAT

REPCO Reliabilty Trial Crossword

How much do you know about the Repco Reliability Trial of 1979?

Across

1. How many Round Australia trials were held in total?

2. How many thousands of kilometres did the Repco Reliability Trial cover?

5. In which city did the Repco Reliability Trial begin?

9. The highest placed non-Australian team was the #12 U.S. Rally Team car, in what position did it finish?

10. Regular Auto Action contributor Bob Watson finished the event in 11th but what brand of car was he driving?

13. What model of Holden won the event?

14. What model of car did Larry Perkins drive?

Down

1. In what position did the highest placed Ford finish?

3. Three crew shared the winning car. Peter Brock, Matt Philip and who? (full name) 4. In which city did the first Division finish?

6. Holden locked out the top three positions at the end of the rally, but what brand of car finished fourth?

7. How many teams completed the entire route?

8. How many weeks did the 1979 event run for?

11. How many Round Australia trials had there been before 1979?

12. Which car brand did Le Mans 24 Hours winner Jurgen Barth drive?

#1765Crossword Answers 1 down- Crocker 2 across- Subaru 3 down- Harry Bates 4 across- Fury 4 down- Firth 5 across- Thirteen 6 across- Four 7 down- Lancia 8 across- Toyota 9 down- Taylor 10 across- Watson 11 across- Glenney 12 across- Six 13 down- Bond 13 down- Bourne

58 AutoAction