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TEAM SYDNEY SAVED! JC TO THE RESCUE SINCE SI INCE 1971

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TEAM SYDNEY SAVED! Courtney instrumental in rescue effort

MARK FOGARTY details the latest in the saga to establish a Supercars squad in Australia’s main metropolis TEAM SYDNEY is all set to go ahead after surviving life-threatening disputes, with a second entry secured and star signing James Courtney committed.

After the deal appeared to be dead, renewed efforts led by Courtney have apparently revived the project in its full two-car form based in western Sydney.

Tekno Autosports has gained control of the Team Sydney franchise and will run under that branding from the start of the season.

Headed by Jonathon Webb, the recast squad will move from the Gold Coast to the Harbour City during the season as part of the Supercars and NSW governmentsupported initiative.

After weeks of confusion, informed sources have confirmed a recent revival of Team Sydney. This tallies with Supercars supremo Sean Seamer’s declaration that it was “on track�. “It’s all back on,� an insider confided. “It was always problematical with some serious issues, but they have been resolved.�

While there are still many unanswered questions, Auto Action has learned that the Tekno-owning Webb family has secured an extra Racing Entitlements Contract from Supercars and agreed to buy the spare ZB Commodore that Triple Eight used in the VCAT aero tests.

Team Sydney will run two cars for Courtney and a so far unidentified driver, who may be a youngster, bringing budget support.

We believe that Courtney committed to the project after ownership disputes and general uncertainty saw him looking for an enduro co-drive this year.

It’s further understood that the 2010 Supercars champion has been instrumental and deeply involved in getting Team Sydney back on the rails.

Supercars has endorsed the revised plan and advised stakeholders that Team Sydney is going ahead.

It is believed that Supercars signed off on the transfer of an REC to the Webbs as recently as late last week.

With Team Sydney running two cars, the Supercars field will stay at 24.

Informed sources have also confirmed that Tekno/Team Sydney has bought Triple Eight’s spare ZB, along with a full technical support package for both entries.

There was speculation last week that Courtney had flown in his high-powered manager, expat Aussie BTCC boss Alan Gow, to help pull Team Sydney into shape.

However, our information is that while Gow has been in Australia recently, he has not been directly involved.

He was out here on a family holiday, taking an inland road trip from Melbourne to Sydney.

While it is almost certain he has been in touch with Courtney and may have offered him advice, his visit to Sydney was to show his UK-based family the sights.

He didn’t get to Sydney until last Friday, and he and his family flew home on Wednesday.

Gow had managed Courtney since his junior car racing days in the late 1990s,

brokering his big-money deals in Supercars since 2006.

However, as Auto Action revealed a fortnight ago, they no longer have a formal contractual arrangement and Courtney is managing his own affairs with advice from Gow. Courtney, who is a close friend of Jonathon Webb, is much more involved in Team Sydney than just being its star driver.

He is part of the management group with a long-term view to running the squad after he finishes racing.

Team Sydney is expected to set up in an interim factory in western Sydney this year before moving to a dedicated site at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The squad will be the showcase tenant of a motor sport industry hub to be established as part of the NSW government-funded $33 million upgrade of the motorsport park, including permanent track lighting for this year’s return of Supercars’ Sydney SuperNight at the end of August.

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JAMIE’S BIG DECISION WHINCUP TO DECIDE HIS FUTURE SOON

As SVG extends, Jamie Whincup tells MARK FOGARTY that he is still deciding whether he’ll retire next year or continue racing TRIPLE EIGHT chief Roland Dane is halfhoping Jamie Whincup will quit full-time racing in Supercars next year to accelerate the handover of running the team.

Whincup has revealed that he plans to make a decision about his future before the season-opening Adelaide 500 late next month.

The possibility that he might not continue is offset by confirmation that Shane van Gisbergen secretly extended his contract with Red Bull Holden Racing Team until the end of next year.

Dane is looking to Whincup, a minority co-owner of Triple Eight Race Engineering, to eventually replace

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him as the team’s principal.

Whincup is in the final year of his existing agreement and admits he is debating whether to renew for at least next year or retire to concentrate on his roles outside the cockpit.

“My current deal finishes at the end of this year,” Whincup said after the launch of RBHRT’s slightly new-look livery. “I’m going to make a call on 2021, I reckon, in the next month or so.”

Dane is prepared for his record-breaking all-star driver’s decision and is not making any assumptions about what will happen.

“I don’t second-guess Jamie,” he told Auto Action. “I’ll wait until he tells me what he’d like to do in 2021. From our point

of view, if he wants to continue he can continue. The ball’s in his court and he’ll let us know.”

Dane revealed he has been grooming Whincup to take over as team principal after he ends his driving career.

In fact Dane, 63, suggested that sooner rather than later would suit his plans to get involved in other forms of racing in semi-retirement.

“To be honest, somewhere there’s also a point at which I want him to step up and hopefully become team principal at Triple Eight,” he said.

“Hopefully there’s some flexibility around that from his point of view and my point of view. So that’s the ultimate and I don’t

want him to wait forever. I’d quite like to be able to do more GT racing before I’m too old.”

Whincup, who will be 37 on February 6, revealed that he has been seriously weighing his future in recent weeks.

“That’s something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about over the break and I reckon I’ll make a final decision probably before Adelaide, probably in the next month,” he said.

If he sticks to that timetable he will make up his mind before February 20, when the Adelaide 500 begins.

Asked if his inclination would be to stay in Supercars full-time for another year at least, Whincup replied: “Yes and no. I’ll

FIGHTBACK! Triple Eight ready for more even competition

By MARK FOGARTY

make a call. As always, I’ll discuss it with Triple Eight and we’ll decide the best way forward.”

His choice is between renewing with Triple Eight or retiring, with moving to another Supercars team to end his career not a consideration.

Whincup was unclear on whether quitting Supercars would mean retiring completely from driving or whether he’d still be available as a co-driver for the endurance races with Triple Eight and GT guest drives.

Winner of a record seven Supercars championships and 117 races, he has been with Triple Eight since 2006, also winning the Bathurst 1000 four times and a Bathurst 12 Hour with the supersquad.

He has prepared for his life after driving by establishing a successful car wash/cafe on the Gold Coast, buying a shareholding in Triple Eight and joining the rule-making Supercars Commission.

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As Whincup ponders his racing future, Dane revealed that van Gisbergen has extended his contract to next year, coinciding with the final season of Triple Eight’s Holden factory team deal.

“We haven’t told anyone until I’m telling you now,” Dane said. “We extended his contract at the end of November to cover 2021 as well.”

He added that while he had considered possible replacements for Whincup, he hadn’t yet drawn up a shortlist of candidates.

“Not yet, but if it happens, then I will,” Dane said. “You always have a plan with the future in mind. He has to make his mind up. But to be honest, I haven’t given any more thought to it than I always would in case somebody was run over by a bus.

“And that’s why the emphasis is on Jamie making his mind up on the timescale because then that gives me plenty of time to react.”

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HOLDEN’S FACTORY team is confident of making the Supercars championship a close battle with Ford’s front-line squad after last year’s Mustang mauling.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team stars Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen, and their Triple Eight team boss Roland Dane, are all expecting a fairer fight with Scott McLaughlin’s Shell V-Power Racing Team.

Aero parity changes last year brought the RBHRT Commodores back into contention at the end of the season and more scrupulous VCAT measurements give the formerly dominant Holden team hope of a more even playing field.

The big unknown is the impact of the adoption of control dampers, potentially undermining Triple Eight’s long-established expertise with Sachs shocks.

At the launch of RBHRT’s mildly updated new livery, Whincup, van Gisbergen and Dane were all cautiously bullish.

Bidding for a record-extending eighth Supercars crown in possibly his last year, Whincup is ready for a full-on fightback against DJRTP and other possible challengers.

“While it’s nice to drive a car that looks the part, performance is what it’s all about,” he said. “We take confidence from the fact that we had very competitive cars towards the end of last season.

“We also know we couldn’t have worked any harder in the past couple of months, from Newcastle to now, to improve the car speed and the engineering we bring to the track.

“It will be what it will be. We’re not sure what everyone else has done, but we’ll get a bit of a taste for that (at the pre-season test) at Tailem Bend and then, of course, the real test will be qualifying at Adelaide.”

Van Gisbergen is wondering about the switch to SupaShock spec dampers as well as whether the team’s endof-2019 momentum will continue.

“I think there are still a lot of questions about whether we got better or the aero got better,” he said. “Obviously, the aero got better, but by how much? But certainly we were trying a lot of things in the car.

“Now one of our biggest advantages has gone. I think we really had a good shock package with the Sachs — now everyone has the same, so it’ll be really interesting to see what the cars are like, especially first-up at Adelaide.”

But SVG is looking forward to a renewed title tussle with McLaughlin after last year’s lopsided contest.

“I think 2018 was an awesome fight between us,” he said. “Last year, obviously, was not until the end of the year when we were a bit closer with the cars. But he’s an awesome driver and obviously he’s probably doing only one more year, so I’d love to take him on again on an equal footing and we can have a good battle again because we enjoy racing against each other.

“He pushes me, I push him when we’re on the limit and we’ve had some pretty cool races.”

Dane is expecting to take the fight right up to arch rival DJR Team Penske from next month’s season-starting Adelaide 500.

“Hopefully, we have a much more level playing field going into this year than was the case this time last year and out of that we can expect to have a good fight from Adelaide onwards,” he said. “That’s our expectation and we certainly think that’s a very realistic proposition.”

After a lean 2019 by his standards, Whincup is looking to contend for another title, but he is not making any bold predictions.

“I’d certainly love another one, but I’m not going to make any big statement at the start of the year about what I’m going to do,” he said. “I’m just going to do what I’ve done the past 15 years and work with my amazing team at Triple Eight, and see if we can take a fast race car to the track and I’m going to do the best job I can in showcasing what that car’s capable of.

“On paper, we look as strong as anybody else, but that’s on paper.

“If any other team throws something at us, I’m hoping we can put our heads down and grind back like we have before.

“I felt like we did a good job of that last year, but we just have to make sure we continue that and that the cars we bring to the track are as competitive as anybody else.”

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NEW VCAT GIVES PARITY HOPE

By MARK FOGARTY A SECOND round of exhaustive aero parity tests appears to have generated enough data to level the Supercars field this year.

For the first time since 2012, there will be only two makes in the series — Ford with the Mustang and Holden with the ZB Commodore.

Homologation teams DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight returned to the Oakey Army Aviation Centre in southeast Queensland last week for further straight-line testing to validate earlier results in the two-car run-off.

Supercars’ technical department, led by head of motor sport Adrian Burgess, is happy that the re-runs gathered crucial extra data to achieve aerodynamic downforce parity.

The VCAT process measured the cars at different ride heights and body rakes for the first time as part of the 200-0km/h coast-down drag and downforce measurements.

Also for the first time, all data and information from the tests and

figures for the revised aerodynamic package — small rear wing and front splitter undertray changes to reduce downforce by 10-12 per cent — will be given to all teams.

Jamie Whincup, who is a member of the rule-making Supercars Commission, is optimistic the new aero test regime will achieve true parity and help improve the racing.

“Supercars elected to do more testing and now they’ve gathered a heap of information to combine with the information they already have from running the cars in their 2019 spec last month,” Whincup said.

“They’re confident that we now have fantastic parity between both models.

“We want to reduce downforce, but we don’t want to force teams into whole new bodywork and huge costs in changing the cars’ whole aerodynamic package, and they’ve been able to massage it. So, one, make sure the parity’s right so we don’t have to talk about it any more.

Two, try to reduce the

downforce. Three, make sure that it’s done in a cost-effective manner. And from what I’ve seen, they’ve done a fantastic job and we’re going to tick all those three boxes.

“We needed to reduce the overall downforce number and that will mean less aero wash. Hopefully, we’ll be able to follow other cars closer and therefore have more opportunities to brake a bit later and pass the car in front easier.

“For what the fans can see on the outside, it’s se going to be very, very go small cosmetic changes sm to the cars. You won’t visually notice much of a vi cchange, but as far as the aaerodynamics go, yeah, changes to the rear wing c angle and the undertray of a the t front splitter, so there are a significant changes.”

Shane van Gisbergen applauded the lengths

to which Supercars went to end the parity debate.

“You just have to trust that the system’s better,” van Gisbergen said.

“From what I hear, it was very intense and the ride height and everything was under a lot of scrutiny. That stuff they didn’t tests in previous years — ride heights and rakes — and that stuff makes a big difference.

“You just have to trust the system is better because it hasn’t been in the past few years. Hopefully, the series has done a good job. I think it’s good that they realised that they stuffed up the first one and did it all again.”

According to Triple Eight boss Roland Dane, more rigorous testing was required after the Mustang started last season with a clear advantage. “Firstly, there was always a need to be more scientific than was possible during the season in terms of the downgrades that were supposedly done on the Fords earlier in the year and the upgrades on the Commodore

later in the year,” Dane said. “So we needed to put more technical support around those changes, anyway, but there was a desire to also reduce aero on the cars as much as we could without everyone having to make completely new parts for their cars.

So that was an objective out of this as well, so therefore it was necessary to redo the VCAT testing.”

He added that reducing downforce was overdue to restore closer racing.

“I don’t want to demean the fact that for many, many years we had parity that was close enough to give us great racing between the different brands,” he said. “From 2015, when the FG X and the VF2 came in, the downforce started to creep up.

“So we’ve had a bit of a reset on that and we’ve had the use of better tools, which should make it more accurate than in the past and more of a process that we can all hang our hats on and say that we’re happy with.”

SUPERCARS BP ULTIMATE SUPERTEST THE UPCOMING Supercars test day at The Bend Motorsport Park scheduled for February 18 will carry naming rights sponsorship from fuel company BP. As revealed by Auto Action in issue #1777, BP Ultimate will take over the naming rights fuel supplier of Supercars from Shell in a five-year deal beginning this season.

Supercars’ unique racing fuel is a blend of 85 per cent sugar cane-derived ethanol and 15 per cent premium unleaded.

E85 fuel has limited application for road cars and minimal availability at retail outlets.

United Petroleum, which was Supercars’ official fuel supplier before Shell, sells E85 at selected stations.

E85 is popular with owners of hyper-tuned turbo four-cylinder and rotary-powered cars.

It requires upgraded fuel lines to

counteract the corrosive nature of ethanol.

E85 was adopted by Supercars in 2009 for its “green” properties when the car and fuel industries were promoting flex-fuel alternatives.

Despite Australia’s abundance of sugar cane, the ethanol fuel by-product did not take off.

When Shell took over the supply of E85 racing fuel for Supercars as a branding deal, the plan was to reconvert to 98 premium unleaded petrol.

The change was ruled out because of the cost to teams of changing back to pump petrol, which is more spectacular because it produces visible flames from the exhaust.

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BP’s E85 blend will be produced for Supercars racing by a third-party supplier, as was Shell’s, because it doesn’t sell it on the forecourt.

A return to pump petrol could be on the agenda for the Gen3 evolution of the technical and eligibility rules, due in 2022.

As an acknowledgement of this new partnership, the test day, which is the first to be held at The Bend, will carry naming rights sponsorship from BP Ultimate.

The brand is no stranger to Supercars as it has been a minor sponsor of Tickford Racing and been a prominent partner of Rick Kelly’s Nissan Altima alongside Castrol in recent years.

BP does not sell E85, which continues as Supercars green fuel, forcing it to contract the blend to an outside source, just like Shell previously.

Heath McAlpine, Mark Fogarty

BECAUSE OF the bushfires affecting south-east Australia the distribution of Auto Action has been severely disrupted. It appears that Auto Action’s availability in Tasmania and parts of regional NSW and southern Queensland has been affected. While it is annoying for our loyal readers, we apologise but ask that you be patient and be aware that, although it is an inconvenience, it is a minor disruption when compared with the issues many people are facing.

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SCOTTY ON THE ROAD TO INDY

By MARK FOGARTY SUPERCARS CHAMPION Scott McLaughlin is waiting to hear back from Team Penske in the US about a possible trial run in IndyCar racing this year.

McLaughlin starred in his rookie evaluation test at Sebring in Florida early last week, setting competitive lap times in his first run in a top-level open-wheeler.

He made such a big impression that Team Penske president Tim Cindric revealed after the try-out that he wants to bring the Brisbane-based New Zealander back for next month’s open pre-season IndyCar test at the Circuit Of The Americas F1 track outside Austin, Texas.

Cindric is also looking into McLaughlin’s schedule to see if he can be slotted into any IndyCar races during the season, indicating he is being seriously considered to join Team Penske’s IndyCar supersquad as soon as next year.

The Indianapolis Grand Prix on the IMS road course on May 9 has been mentioned as a possibility to begin his IndyCar schooling in between his Supercars title defence this year.

His successful test at Sebring reinforces the belief that McLaughlin will join Team Penske in the US next year.

McLaughlin is coy about his longterm IndyCar prospects, but restated his willingness to move to the States to race whatever Roger Penske offers him.

“It’s really cool to read all that stuff (about more IndyCar outings), but honestly, I haven’t heard much from them at the moment, so I really don’t know what I’m doing in the next few weeks,” he told Auto Action.

The IndyCar Series pre-season open test will be run at COTA from February 11-12, giving him time to get back for the Supercars pre-season test at The Bend on February 18.

“Obviously, I’ve spoken about America and everyone’s said NASCAR,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve made my feelings clear that I’d drive anything that was available to me. I’m not saying NASCAR isn’t available to me, but I don’t care what they put me in. I’m just leaving it up to them and waiting for the opportunity.”

While not directly addressing a possible IndyCar future, the popular

26-year-old made it clear he is keen to grab whatever opportunity he may be offered in America.

“If they think it’s applicable for me to do it, I’ll race anything,” he said.

“Like I’ve said, I’ll race a wheelbarrow if Roger wants to put a Team Penske sticker on the side of it.

“I’d love to have a crack at anything and if they want me to go that way (IndyCar), I will and I’ll do what I need to do to get better for it.

“I could see myself in anything, honestly.

“I’m not against the (IndyCar) idea, obviously.

“I’m fully invested in whatever role they see me in. But I like the idea of me potentially forging a career in America, as I’ve always said.”

McLaughlin learned the Sebring circuit on a simulator in Charlotte after getting married in California last month.

He returned home last Thursday and was still bubbling about his 141 laps in an aero-screened

Dallara-Chevrolet and the fact that he impressed the likes of Indy 500 legend Rick Mears and current Team Penske IndyCar stars Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud.

“I was excited that I got the opportunity and was able to use it well,” he said. “I was about as prepared as I could have been going in and we had a really good day. I got a really good feel of everything.

“I didn’t surprise myself in the way I approached it. I told myself going in I was going to creep up on it, just slowly build up to it, feel the aero, feel the grip, feel the tyres and I was proud of myself because I think my last run, although it wasn’t the fastest I’d gone all day, I felt like I really got on top of the car and felt really comfortable.

“I guess performance wise, I didn’t know where I really was and just kept trying to learn and improve. I just tried to be as focused as I could.”

THE BEND TARGETS WEC ROUND

THE ASIAN Le Mans Series visited Australia for the first time a couple of weeks ago, racing at The Bend Motorsport Park, and circuit owner Sam Shahin feels that the World Endurance Championship could race at the venue “sooner rather than later”.

Shahin, who is also the mastermind behind the course, was pleased with the positive response throughout the weekend when 7059 people attended. It was a good step towards his aim to host World Championships including WEC. “Everything off that top shelf of motorsport has been my target from day one and I’ve never made secret of that,” Shahin told Auto Action.

“I have a wonderful relationship with all those category organisers and owners from all over the world including WEC. “WEC (personnel) have visited The Bend on several occasions and have expressed an interest to come to Australia and I have visited the WEC overseas.”

Shahin is optimistic that a WEC event will be held at The Bend in the not too distant future once everything aligns.

“There is a fine balance. Things have got to line up in terms of timing, opportunity, maturity of the circuit, maturity of spectators and a fan base to support that style and that class

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of motorsport,” he said.

“After the first event of prototype racing at The Bend I am fairly optimistic that it may be sooner rather than later.”

In the short term the South Australian is expecting the Asian Le Mans series to return to the venue for many years to come.

“This is genuine international motorsport and I have no doubt that it will gain more traction and more context with Australian motorsport fans,” Shahin told AA. “We are confident of putting on more Asian Le Mans rounds and I am extremely confident that Asian Le Mans will be back at The Bend for the next season and many seasons thereafter.

“We love dealing with professional motorsport bodies and Asian Le Mans is certainly that.

“It is a professional motorsport run by a first class professional organisation and I think they put on a first class show for those people who have watched it live or on television.”

The Carrera Cup Australia driver walked around the circuit during the event and was surprised and pleased to see that over two thirds of fans he spoke to had travelled from interstate to see the event in South Australia.

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FULLWOOD CONFIRMED AT WAU

REIGNING SUPER2 winner Bryce Fullwood has been confirmed at Walkinshaw Andretti United to partner fellow new signing Chaz Mostert at the team this year.

In the worst kept secret of the silly season, the 21-year-old Territorian will make the step up with the support of long-time sponsor Middy’s after a Super2 season where he dominated, taking six race wins and four pole positions, sealing the win with a round to spare.

“I’m really excited to be joining the Walkinshaw Andretti United family for 2020, and can’t wait to get my rookie year under way. It’s a dream come true to join the main series, and something I’ve been working towards for a long time,” Fullwood said.

“From the moment I walked through the doors at WAU I felt at home, and everyone here has been more than welcoming. There’s no doubt there will be a lot to learn this year, but I’ve definitely got the right people around me. You can tell it’s a family here.

“It’s fantastic to be able to continue my relationship with Middy’s, who have been an incredible supporter over my journey, and great to have the support of Mobil 1, who have such a loyal relationship with the team.

“Now that the news is out there, I can’t wait to jump in the car at The Bend and kick it all off.”

Director Ryan Walkinshaw welcomed the addition of Fullwood to the team.

“It’s really exciting to have Bryce join the team for the 2020 season,” he said. “He’s certainly someone we have watched closely over the recent years, and his outstanding season in 2019 shows the calibre of driver he is.

“It’s definitely going to be an exciting journey, Bryce is an outstanding driver, and person, and we are really excited by what we can achieve together going forward.

“We also welcome Middy’s Electrical to our family with open arms, and as always, thank Mobil 1 for their continued and unwavering support.” HM

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SUPERCARS IS planning a season launch in Sydney early next month. Like the AFL and NRL, Supercars will stage a gala pre-season spectacular on February 4 to kick off the year. It will be held either at an iconic location on Sydney Harbor or in the centre of the city, perhaps at Martin Place. All Supercars drivers and team principals will attend the launch, with a selection of leading Mustang and Commodore racers on display. The season launch is returning to Sydney after being staged at Melbourne’s Federation Square last year. MF

DATE SET FOR BATHURST INTERNATIONAL WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United has announced that Mobil 1 will continue as a co-naming rights sponsor for the team’s two cars in a multi-year deal.

The partnership dates back to 1994 when Peter Brock and Tomas Mezera drove for the squad while it was known as the Holden Racing Team. Since then the combination has won eight Bathurst 1000s and eight driver’s titles. Chaz Mostert has been confirmed as one of its drivers this year with Bryce Fullwood still expected to fill the second seat.

Image: LAT FORMER V8 Touring Car Series runner up Zak Best will make the step up to the Super2 Series this year with Matt White Motorsport. After competing in a Ford Falcon in the Super3/V8 Touring Car Series with White’s team for the past two years, Best will make the jump into a Nissan Altima this year. He will join Super2 race winner Thomas Randle as one of the two confirmed MW Motorsport drivers and is scheduled to drive the Nissan Altima chassis used

by Zane Goddard last year.

AFTER IT was announced at the end of last year without a confirmed date, the Australian Racing Group has now revealed the weekend its brand new Bathurst International event will take place.

The inaugural Bathurst International will take place on November 13-15, giving both local and international drivers the opportunity to contest the weekend’s racing. This positions the event two weekends after the Gold Coast Supercars weekend and a week before both the Supercars at Sandown and the WTCR round in Macau, giving those drivers the chance to compete.

“It is exciting to confirm the

date for the inaugural Bathurst International, and we are very pleased with the final outcome,” said Australian Racing Group CEO Matt Braid.

“There were a number of categories that we have racing that we needed to wait for, and this date represents the best chance for drivers and teams from around the world to race at the iconic Mount Panorama.

“The mid-November date gives everyone a long lead time to arrange their calendars and logistics. We know that all of the local competitors in TCR, Touring Car Masters and Trans Am are looking forward to it, and we know that many international guests will do whatever they can to try

and knock them off in their own backyard.”

The event is headlined by the Bathurst TCR 500, a two-driver event that aims to become one of the leading TCR races internationally.

Also contesting the weekend will be a heritage touring car class incorporating Touring Car Masters, TA2, S5000 and LMP3, which is still in negotiations, but interest is reportedly high from both international and local teams.

Channel Seven will, just like the Motorsport Australia Championships, broadcast the Bathurst International live and to the world through its 7Plus digital offering.

The international focus on the

region at either end of the year is an exciting prospect for the Bathurst City Council, according to Cr Bobby Bourke.

“We are excited to partner with ARG to bring this exciting new event featuring a range of cars and drivers from all over the world to Mount Panorama,” said Cr Bourke.

“An event of this calibre will bring an international focus to the racing circuit not seen before.

“Mount Panorama has a reputation as one of the best racing circuits in the world. The international exposure of this event will elevate Mount Panorama’s prestige and showcase the racing circuit and Bathurst to a global audience.” HM

Image: LAT

McLAREN UP FOR 720S DEBUT POPULAR VICTORIAN Thomas Randle has revealed he was suffering testicular cancer. The Super2 driver last week had an operation to remove a tumor. He is now resting and hopes to be on the grid when the Super2 Series starts in Adelaide next month.

KURT KOSTECKI, 21, has rejoined his family team for the Super2 Series after Triple Eight Race Engineering said it would downscale to one car. His cousin Brodie will race for Eggleston Motorsport, while his brother Jake is part of the shared Matt Stone Racing car in the main game.

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AFTER ANNOUNCING its plans to debut a McLaren 720s GT3 at the Australian Grand Prix, 59 Racing will carry the hopes of the sports car manufacturer at Bathurst in a two-car line-up.

The Pro Class entry features 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour winner Alvaro Parente and McLaren factory driver and Challenge Bathurst winner Ben Barnicoat, while ex-DTM driver Tom Blomqvist complements the driver squad.

Parente has especially great memories of the circuit after taking McLaren’s last victory at the venue with Jonathan Webb and Shane van

Gisbergen in a Tekno Autosport-entered 650S GT3 four years ago.

“Bathurst is a great track with a lot of happy memories for me, so to be able to go back there with McLaren and 59Racing is very exciting,” said Parente.

“There are a lot of familiar faces in the team, so I am very confident heading into the race that we can do a good job.”

Barnicoat failed to start the 2017 event after a pre-race incident and Blomqvist will make his debut at the legendary circuit this year.

“I am very much looking forward to joining 59Racing at Bathurst and driving the McLaren 720S,” said Blomqvist.

“Having never raced at Bathurst before it looks like a very challenging circuit, but I have some great co-drivers that I’m sure will help me. I’m looking forward to racing with Alvaro, Ben, and the whole team.”

The second entry is in Silver Class with Australian GT contender Fraser Ross being joined by Dom Storey and Martin Kodric.

HM

SCANDIA AND MARC ATTACK THE 12 HOUR

A TWO-CAR Scandia-backed campaign will take on the Bathurst 12 Hour, headed

by Bathurst 1000 winner and Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat.

Percat will head the campaign in the lead MARC II entry to be shared by TCR Australia Michelin Cup winner Aaron Cameron and

experienced campaigner Jake Camilleri.

The second entry will feature former British Touring Car Championship privateer James Kaye teaming with 2018 V8 Touring Car Series victor and Super2 race winner Tyler Everingham and production car racer Hadrian Morrall.

MARC Cars managing director Ryan McLeod was ecstatic to have secured not only a strong list of drivers, but a marquee sponsor.

“It’s our sixth Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour event running the Australian-built MARC Cars, and this should be one of our most

competitive programs yet,” McLeod said.

“We have two brand new MARC II race cars and a driver line-up that has plenty of speed. Nick’s Bathurst-winning experience and attention to detail will help all our drivers and engineers to get the very best out of the cars and themselves.”

GODZILLA GUNNING FOR VICTORY IN WHAT could be one of the last events with Nissan for KCMG, the Hong Kong-based squad has confirmed a strong driver line-up for its two GT-R GT3 entries.

Australian Josh Burdon rejoins the team after completing last year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge and the Nurburgring 24-Hour race with KCMG. Burdon heads into his second Bathurst 12 Hour confident after last year’s strong showing, especially as he will be joined by former Bathurst 12 Hour winner Katsumasa Chiyo and Tsugio Matsuda.

“The Bathurst 12 Hour is a great way to start the year. It is one of the toughest races in the world and it is a privilege to drive around this amazing circuit,” Burdon said.

“I am happy to be sharing the car again with my Japanese teammates Chiyo and Tsugio.

“Last year as a team we were strong, so after a season of development we are aiming for the podium.”

The second car was within the lead pack at the final caution last year, but was taken out after Alexandre Imperatori weaved when the lights were turned off in the safety car. Again, the Swiss driver spearheads the attack with Edoardo Liberati and JP Oliviera joining him for the once-around-the-clock event. HM

DEFENDING CHAMPS BEEF UP BAMBER’S LINE-UP EARL BAMBER Motorsport will again field two entries at Bathurst but it is a much-changed line-up compared with the drivers who delivered the team a dream debut and the previous generation 991 GT3R a fairytale farewell.

Team owner Earl Bamber will take the wheel of the lead entry backed by Meguiar’s Australia alongside

his IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championshipwinning co-driver Laurens Vanthoor, while rounding out the driver squad is multiple Bathurst 1000 and 12 Hour winner Craig Lowndes.

“I’m really excited to be joining the Porsche family for the Bathurst 12 Hour, teaming up with factory drivers Earl and Laurens,” Lowndes said.

“Earl Bamber Motorsport is the reigning race-winning team so it’s exciting to help them defend their title.

“Earl and I have been teammates in the past and we get on extremely well, so with a Belgian in the mix it should also be a bit of fun, too.

“It’s my first-time racing in a Porsche and the new evolution 911 GT3 R looks like a weapon. I can’t wait.”

The second entry is backed by Ned Whiskey and will be driven by Competition Motorsports driver David Calvert-Jones, backed up by Romain Dumas and Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans.

SLADE AND HUB AUTO LINK UP

AFTER MAKING its Bathurst 12 Hour debut last year Asian Ferrari team Hub Auto Corsa will be the only team representing the Italian marque at The Mountain.

Tim Slade is the sole driver from last year’s line-up and he will be joined by Brazilian pair Daniel Serra and Marcos Gomes to try to exact revenge for the disappointing result from last year.

Slade was joined by then Brad Jones Racing teammate Nick Percat and Nick Foster, the latter qualifying in the Top 10 Shootout before Percat tangled with a backmarker early on in the race, forcing an extended time in the pits.

The two Brazilians are vastly experienced.

Serra has won the Brazilian Stock Car crown three years running and also won the GTE Pro Class at the Le Mans 24 Hour last year, crowning his success in the same class two years earlier.

Gomes recently competed at The Bend Motorsport Park as part of Hub Auto’s Asian Le Mans Series line-up and is a previous Brazilian Stock Car champion. HM

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LATEST NEWS

REIGNING AUSTRALIAN Formula Ford champion Angelo Mouzouris has signed a deal to drive for Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Super2 Series this year.

The Queensland-based team finished second in the series with Kurt Kostecki last year but has downscaled to incorporate just Mouzouris for the coming season.

The 18-year-old recently ran in a Brad Jones Racing driver evaluation day at Winton Raceway.

VALE ROB JANNEY THE WEST Australian motorsport community has lost one of its most passionate colleagues with the recent passing of Rob Janney.

Commentator, writer and long-term WA Sporting Car Club member, Janney died quietly in hospice after a brave battle with illness. He covered motor racing for Auto Action for many years, and Racing Car News before that. He was the voice of Wanneroo/Barbagallo Raceway, and a life member and past president of the WASCC. A memorial service was held on January 20 at Karrakatta Cemetery, followed by a gathering at McCrackan House, Wanneroo Raceway to reflect and rejoice in his memory.

Rob Janney was a true gentleman, his life will be remembered and celebrated. AA passes on its deepest condolences to family, friends and colleagues. GOB

JORDAN BOYS will remain with the Image Racing Super2 Series squad after a very successful final couple of rounds last year yielded two race wins.

In his third year in the second-tier Supercars category the 22-year-old will be joined in the team by the inaugural TCR Australia Series winner Will Brown.

Boys finished last season seventh in the points and with one pole position as he looks to build on that this year.

THE ENTIRETY of the 40-car Bathurst 12 Hour field will take part in the “Town to Track” parade this year.

The popular street parade, which debuted last year, will see the cars displayed on Russell St in Bathurst’s city centre next Thursday. Drivers will be available to chat with fans for several hours, with an autograph session and driver Q&A sessions to take place once the cars have arrived.

ZANE MORSE will make the step out of the Toyota 86 Racing Series and into the Dunlop Super2 Series this year. He will run as part of his Brema Group Racing privateer team out of their Wamboin base, a NSW country town bordering the ACT. The team originally planned to race in the third-tier series in but when the series moved away from Supercars Morse committed to Super2.

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Image: TCR Australia

TCR AUSTRALIA TAKING SHAPE A FEW more announcements have been made ahead of the second TCR Australia Series, which will begin with a non-championship Asia Pacific Cup round at the Australian Grand Prix in March.

Former Bathurst 1000 winner Jason Bright signalled his intentions when asked if he would return to the popular pocket rocket series this year.

“Yeah, for sure I’m still pulling everything together but I’m pretty keen to be out there,” he told Auto Action.

“I felt like as a year, last year we were all learning about the cars, learning how to set them up and the reliability of them and what to watch out for, so it would be a shame if I didn’t get out there.”

Last year Bright drove a Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR and it proved to be a reliable and fast package. The 46-year-old won two races and confirmed his plans to remain with the same package this year.

“At this stage, yeah, the cars are there ready to use so I don’t see any reason to change,” he said.

One change this year is the likely inclusion of TCR New Zealand teams, one of which was confirmed last week.

Kiwi team Track Tec has entered the Asia Pacific Cup round at Albert Park. The squad, which is based at Highlands Motorsport Park, will field at least one of its Audi RS 3 LMS TCR cars.

Dutchman Stan van Oord has been named as one of the drivers and although he is not well known in Australia the 22-year-old brings a lot of TCR experience, having won consecutive championships in the Netherlands.

“The track will be new to everyone, so I will spend a lot of hours at the simulator to get familiar with the track. My goal is a top 10 finish, but a top five would be great,” van Oord said.

Front-wheel-drive expert Jordan Cox has also been named in recent days as a Garry Rogers Motorsport driver after driving for GRM in the last four rounds of last season.

Driving the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR car Cox recorded two podium finishes and is hopeful of building on that next season.

“We learnt a lot in my first season racing at the national level,” said Cox. “There’s still a lot to learn at this level, but again,

the biggest advantage is that I have five rounds of experience under my belt.

“It means that I can hit the ground running.

“The pressure will be on, no doubt, but you can’t make it a bigger deal than it is.

“Championships are won one race at a time, so that’s where the focus is.”

Cox has announced that he will also be attending the official pre-season test, which has been given a date. The shakedown will take place on February 26 at Winton Motor Raceway and public entry will be free of charge.

A new class has been launched that will be run within the 2020 TCR Australia Series, which will cater for semi-professional drivers.

Supported by the category’s control and fuel supplier, the Panta Cup will see the driver who scored the most points across the race weekend be given prizes. At the end of the year the semi-pro driver with the highest accumulated points will be awarded a paid entry into an International TCR race of significance.

Dan McCarthy

SUPERCARS MOVE TO HAMPTON DOWNS THE SUPERCARS Championship will move its annual visit to New Zealand to Hampton Downs.

Changes made to the Auckland Unitary Plan have resulted in a further noise restriction placed on Pukekohe Park — the traditional New Zealand Supercars circuit — on Anzac Day. The track will remain the central hub for the event with all Supercars teams, staff and crews based in the Auckland region.

“Sincere apologies to our fans and partners for any inconvenience caused by the venue change, but we’re going to be just 15 minutes from Pukekohe at one of the world’s best facilities and most demanding tracks,” said Supercars CEO Sean Seamer.

“It’s going to be great for everyone involved.”

Supercars Australia worked with Hampton Downs and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development to find a solution to minimise the disruption

and inconvenience to fans, teams and supporters alike that had already arranged travel plans to the event.

It said Hampton Downs was a worthy replacement, being one of the world’s premier circuits.

“We are delighted to be the host circuit of the ITM Auckland Super400, bringing Kiwi race fans their motorsport highlight of the year,” said Josie Spillane, chief operating officer at Hampton Downs.

“To be hosting the first Supercars event at Hamptons this year is an achievement our team is immensely proud of and we can’t wait to see who is crowned the inaugural champion on the circuit in April.”

The April 24-26 date for the event remains unchanged and participation from the armed forces and Returned Services Association will still go ahead.

Heath McAlpine

MERCEDES AIMS TO KICKSTART GT4 REVIVAL AUSTRALIAN GT regular Mark Griffith has entered the Bathurst 12 Hour, but not in his usual Mercedes-AMG GT3 as he hopes to rejuvenate the GT4 category in Australia.

Griffith has bitten the bullet and bought the Mercedes-AMG GT3 that has been used by Mercedes-Benz Australia for display purposes, along with a significant spare parts package.

“Well, Mercedes have had it in the country for a year doing the driver academy and testing with people, but no one had actually purchased one,” said Griffith.

“My Mercedes-AMG GT3 was sold and I’d always said we’d have the first GT4 in Australia for Mercedes, and we do.

“Mercedes have an extensive range of spare parts for the GT4 here that it already imported late last year. It was on hand if the car got sold — you could dive in and do something already.

“We’ve bought a package with numerous sets of wheels, rear bumpers, splitters, brake pads and rotors that would be damaged and used for a year. We’ve taken up that offer. We

have some of our own spares as well.”

The GT4 was only recently acquired by Griffith’s team, which is working rapidly to prepare the car for the event.

“The mechanics got it and said, ‘Are you serious? This has to be ready for the 12 Hour.’ They pushed me out of the road and wheeled it in the shed, which it hasn’t left,” said Griffith.

“My only task was to de-sticker the thing ready to be rewrapped.”

Griffith already has interest from prospective customers, who will sample the Mercedes-AMG after the Bathurst 12 Hour before it completes ride days and the new GT4 component of

MARC CARS AUSTRALIA SOLD ON THE eve of the 2020 Bathurst 12 Hour it has been announced that MARC Cars Australia is to have new ownership.

Managing director and founder of MARC Cars Australia Ryan McLeod told Auto Action that after seven years of engineering, building and racing the locally engineered MARC Cars all over the world it was time for a new direction.

“While I’m a little sad, I have to admit it’s has been an exciting and exhilarating period.” McLeod said “I’m incredibly proud of what we have been able to achieve from the initial concept of building an affordable endurance spec race car, to competing in some of the world’s greatest endurance races.

“The MARC Cars concept has been well received in Australia and we have 17 cars racing locally, but I’m really proud of the fact that we have sold nine cars overseas and that they have raced reliably and competed competitively across the world with plenty of great race results.

“What started as a project to build a few cars has grown into a business that has built a total of 26 cars racing around the globe. In the beginning we were able to take years of racing experience and to design and build race cars that appealed to lots of different endurance racers.”

It has been a successful period for the Australian company as it embarks on a new season of racing locally and overseas in various endurance races.

“The highlight has been the building and developing the latest MARC II cars that we are now running across several teams at this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour as well as internationally,” McLeod said.

“I’m looking forward to the race and hopefully we can have some more success.”

MARC Cars have proven that a locally engineered and developed race car program can work and while the cars are limited to performance (overall lap time) at the Bathurst 12 Hour it’s been pretty obvious to plenty of outside observers that the MARC II program is

something that should be considered as a control platform starting point for many categories, maybe it’s the right place for Supercars to look as they develop the Gen3 program?

“I wish I had a dollar for every person who has suggested that our cars should be the basis of the new Supercars Gen3 car,” McLeod said.

the Australian GT Championship.

Griffith believes GT4 can work and hopes his initiative will bring more support to the category, which has had a tough introduction to Australia so far.

“I’m hoping that we may instigate the rebirth of GT4 in Australia,” Griffith told Auto Action.

“If they have a look and see me having a crack, why don’t we?

“They know we race fair and hopefully we can get some more (GT4-spec models) out here.”

There are rumours of an all-girl Ginetta team also joining GT4.

HM

“As part of our Racer Industries business we supply several of the control components for the current spec cars and I have a close working relationship with Supercars. They have looked at what we have been doing so it’s not lost on them.

“We have proven that building a competitive car that has all the latest technology and safety equipment is not all

that costly. These cars are fast, safe and super reliable and can do thousands of kilometres between services.

“We have built a great car program and have raced them successfully all over the world and it is acknowledged by plenty of top operators just how good the cars have been,” McLeod said. BW

BARRICHELLO FREE TO RACE AT GP AFTER DRAWING the headlines during the inaugural S5000 round at Sandown Raceway late last year, former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello signalled his intentions to take part in the series at the Australian Grand Prix.

The 13-time Grand Prix winner felt that the only hurdle would be if the open-wheel series had clashing dates with the Brazilian Stock Car Championship in which he races full-time.

However, the Brazilian series will not start until after the Grand Prix weekend and leaves the Brazilian free to return to the venue he has driven at 16 times previously.

When Auto Action spoke to S5000 category manager Chris Lambden he was optimistic of getting Barrichello back for the event.

“Obviously we’d love to have Rubens back, we are trying to put together a sponsor type package to see if we can do it,” Lambden said.

Barrichello is not the only international driver interested in returning.

Englishman James Winslow drove at The Bend Motorsport Park but was plagued with problems.

“We had a few problems with the car that I was in when I did the race here (The Bend) a few months ago in the Davison crashed car, we are pretty sure we found what the issue was,” Winslow told AA. “Something wasn’t right for that event, everyone agreed on that, so it is all good we will move forwards and try and put a good package together to give it a good assault this year.

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“I’m going to come back here in a couple of weeks, have a test and hopefully put something together for Melbourne and hopefully be racing in Australia full-time as well as my European Le Mans Series program.

“It’s 50-50 at the moment if it’ll be a full season or not. As long as the package is right and I know I’m in a strong car then for sure I’d like to.”

European LMP3 race winner Ricky Capo was one of only six drivers who contested both rounds last year and is weighing up a number of options for this year, including S5000.

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“It (S5000) definitely is a consideration, yeah, there are a lot of things we are looking at,” Capo told AA. “I think we can only commit to one, so whether it is here in Australia or overseas we just need to make sure again that we make the right decision,” Capo said.

“It always comes down to the budget. We need to think smart for our next step. I don’t want to rush into anything, I want to make sure it is the right decision.”

Dan McCarthy

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LATEST NEWS

AUSTRALIAN JACK Doohan has been confirmed as a driver for HWA Racelab in the 2020 FIA Formula 3 season, the official third-tier Formula 1 category. The 16-year-old will join Enzo Fittipaldi as the squad’s new signings, while Jake Hughes remains with the team for 2020. Last year Doohan completed a dual campaign, contesting both the Asian F3 Championship, in which he finished second, and the Euroformula Open Championship. DM

FIVE-TIME WORLD Rally Championship round winner Kris Meeke has confirmed that he is talks with his former employers Toyota Gazoo Racing for a testing role with the team this year. Despite the Northern Irishman previously stating that his WRC career “is finished” and that he is looking for a new challenge these conversations show otherwise. Meeke lost his seat at the end of last year as the Japanese team brought in a fresh batch of drivers.

ASTON MARTIN has announced that it will return to the IMSA SportsCar Championship this year, contesting the GTD class. Two Aston Martin Vantage GT3s will contest the highlight of the season, the 24 Hours of Daytona, while new partner team Heart of Racing will run a full season program.

ANOTHER OVERSEAS Australian, Jake Parsons, will make his return to Japan’s top racing category SuperGT this season. The 25-year-old will compete in the second-tier GT300 class with the Modulo Drago Corse team driving a Honda NSX GT3 alongside legendary owner and driver Ryo Michigami. Parsons previously competed in SuperGT three years ago for Team Taisan SARD Audi R8 LMS GT3 in SuperGT partnering Shinnosuke Yamada for most of the season, then ex-Formula 1 driver Christian Klein for the final round.

VERNON JOINS TA2

FORMER TCR Australia competitor and Toyota 86 Race Series winner Jimmy Vernon will return to the national scene after confirming his entry into TA2.

After completing a part-season of TCR Australia last year, the 22-year-old has linked up with longtime supporter Carey McMahon’s Flo-gineering to complete the transition into the burgeoning muscle car category.

Vernon is eager to get behind the wheel after watching the growth of the series from afar.

“I remember seeing the first two TA2 cars that came across to Australia out at Wakefield Park,” Vernon told Auto Action. “I went and had a look at them there.

“I had a bit of interest from there and I have watched the category grow the last couple of years.

Since then, it’s been something I would’ve loved to have had a go in and now everything has fallen into place that I can go full-time.”

Vernon has been most recently driven his

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X in the NSW Production Touring Championship, interspersed with historic touring car events racing McMahon’s ex-Benson and Hedges Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth.

“I’ve been working with Carey for a couple of years now and we’ve formed a good bond through driving his car,” said Vernon.

“It’s been great to work with his team throughout all that process and taking that team to a national level, and kicking it up another notch.”

Vernon had his first taste of TA2 machinery on Friday, but the team was handicapped by stormy weather conditions.

“We didn’t do that much running time, but we did go out and do a session to give myself and the car a shakedown,” Vernon said.

“We did about 10 laps in the wet before going into qualifying at Bathurst, so I guess you can say we’re still going in underprepared, but at the end of the day it should be a good weekend regardless.”

New branding, strategy fans appeal AHEAD OF the first of three events this year, Targa Australia has undertaken a comprehensive overhaul of its brand and business strategy.

Purchased by the Dutton Group a year ago, TARGA is the new brand name, part of the strategy to target competitor growth and further fan the appeal of its events, namely Targa Tasmania, Targa Great Barrier Reef and Targa High Country.

The change also includes a new logo, a fresh business path and marketing direction.

While TARGA is adopting a more contemporary look, it will continue to deliver its Tarmac Rally experience for competitors.

Rules will be streamlined with greater freedom and more choice, but will continue with the TARGA Competitions for competition

entrants and TARGA Tours for the ultimate driving getaway.

There will be a completely redesigned website with course outlines, entry lists and points tables.

Event logos are being refreshed and a more streamlined and clear social media presence activated across all the major platforms.

The new restructure comes in the wake of the announcement that Targa Tasmania — which is scheduled for April 27 to May 2 — will see some big changes in the event’s threedecade history.

Fresh stages and a sharp increase in competitive distance will see the 2020 edition become the longest

VALE CLAYTON “CLARRIE” LANG CHARISMATIC NORWEGIAN Mads Ostberg and co-driver Torstein Eriksen will be returning to the WRC 2 Pro class. The former World Rally event winner finished second in the series last year to young gun Kalle Rovenpera. Ostberg and Eriksen will tackle eight rounds, beginning with the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally before moving on to Sweden, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Germany, Britain and Japan.

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Vernon will have the experienced Nigel Bolling as his engineer this year, which will give him confidence heading into the Australian Racing Group-run category’s opening round in Adelaide as support to the Adelaide 500. “I’ve never been to Adelaide before, but I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

“I’ve watched it for years and years. It looks like a fun circuit, maybe a bit challenging, but I really love street circuits. I’ve raced on a few and this will be another one to tick off the bucket list.

“Our realistic goal, and the reason we’re getting involved in TA2, is to be contenders and fight for the title, whether that be this year or next.”

Further developments in the category include ARG agreeing to terms with the US-based Trans Am Race Company to hold the commercial, promotional and marketing rights to Trans Am 1 and 2 in Australia and New Zealand.

Also, it is believed Aaron Seton will focus his energies on TA2 this season. HM

in the event’s history, covering 39 stages and 626km, with two new stages and the reintroduction of several discontinued ones.

Last year the event ran 473km over 33 stages.

Launceston will be the event’s base from Sunday through to Wednesday morning, with the field staying at Strahan for two nights and Hobart hosting the cars and crews on the Friday and Saturday nights.

The traditional opening day George Town run will be replaced by the return for the first time since 2016 of the short Legana dash and new stages at Golden Valley and Poatina.

Day two will included the traditional

Sideling, Weldborough Pass, Elephant Pass and Rossarden loop around the North-East, before regular favourites Cethana and Hellyer Gorge and the return of the 35km Rinadeena stage (last used in 2014) en route to Queenstown on the following Wednesday.

There will be another North West circuit on Thursday including Hellyer Gorge in reverse, plus Gunns Plains.

Then on Friday, the traditional run from Queenstown to Hobart will include Mount Arrowsmith. On Saturday the Southern loop will feature Oyster Cove, Gardners Bay and Cygnet.

The event organisers have moved its focus to closed road stages which they believe are a perfect test of driver and car and what Targa Tasmania has become famous for.

Garry O’Brien

THE TOURING Road Rally family of South Australia and Victoria is mourning the loss of one of its favourite competitors and supporters, “Clarrie” Lang, to the devastating bushfires on Kangaroo Island.

Clarrie and his father Dick Lang perished while fighting the fires on the Island. Clarrie was first involved in motorsports with best mate Steve Glenney in the early 2000s in the Tour T’ Adelaide, 3 Peaks and Targa Tasmania events.

In more recent years, as his medical career would allow, he was a regular competitor in Classic Adelaide events in his VH Commodore. He also became the major sponsor of the Tour T’ Adelaide and the 3 Peaks rallies while entering his HSV and EVO cars with teammates Glenney, Sam Sharman and Dean Lillie, Clarrie scoring second outright in last November’s DEXTRA 3 Peaks co-driving with Glenney.

Our condolences go to the Lang family and all his motorsport mates. Rowan Harman

HOOSIER TAKES ON ARC

HOOSIER RACING Tire will take over as the Australian Rally Championship’s control tyre for the coming season, Motorsport Australia says.

It’s the beginning of a three-year deal that ensures Australia’s premier rally drivers will use Hoosiers until the end of the 2022 season, a prospect that excited Hoosier’s Australian business development manager Mitch Dumesny.

“Our rally tyres have been developed over many years to provide all rally competitors with the confidence to get the best out of their cars and showcase their skills,” Dumesny said.

“Gravel rally is a unique part of motorsport and the tyres need to be tough, durable and fast.

“We know we have a product that certainly ticks all those boxes and will be an exciting addition to the ARC. “Our rally tyres have been winning all over the world, including right here in Australia.

“We can’t wait for the 2020 season to begin and to be a part of the action at the National Capital Rally in March.”

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca believes the new deal will be a great benefit to competitors.

“We’re delighted to welcome Hoosier as the control tyre for the Motorsport Australia Rally Championship,” Arocca said.

“Hoosier have a strong racing pedigree across a range of disciplines, including being involved in various rally events around Australia. We know that they will provide a product that meets the needs of all of our competitors across the championship.”

Hoosier replaces MRF as the control tyre of the ARC from with the opening round of the championship, the National Capital Rally in Canberra on March 21-22.

MORGAN PARK RETURNS TO NATIONALS THE SHANNONS Motorsport Australia Championships will welcome Morgan Park back on to the calendar after it was confirmed as the venue for the fifth round.

The Warwick-based circuit settles the calendar, with the round to occur on July 3-5 featuring leading categories including TCR Australia, Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge and the Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters.

Morgan Park previously hosted the Championships, then known as the Shannons Nationals, from 2009-11.

Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships director Michael Smith was excited to reveal the final element of the calendar.

“Morgan Park will be a terrific location for the fifth round of the rebranded Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships in 2020,” Smith said.

“Together with the Southern Downs Regional Council and Morgan Park, we know this event will be a great success and we are extremely grateful to everyone at the council for their support of this event.

“I’m also delighted that the Shannons Motorsport Australia

Championships can support the local community once more through the partnership with CWA, as we know there are many people who have been doing it really tough as a result of the recent droughts in the area.

“Given the nature of this event, we know it will have a real community feel and we look forward to embracing that.

“We can’t wait to compete at Morgan Park next year and showcase some of the best Australian circuit racing for those in the Warwick region.”

Southern Downs Regional Council’s portfolio holder for events, sport and recreation, Yve Stocks, was pleased to welcome the event and its economic benefits for the region.

“Having such a huge event like this certainly brings a lot of outside people into the region,” Cr Stocks said.

“Not only competitors, but also spectators, which is really good for our economy.

“The economic benefit is one of the best things that will come out of the event and as a motorsport competitor myself, I can safely say the racing will definitely be exciting for spectators.” HM

DRINK DRIVERS TO BE NAMED AND SHAMED MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA plans to publicly name and shame first-time drug offenders from March.

Previously MA exercised discretion on whether to name drivers or other team members who had breached its Alcohol or Illicit Drug Policy for the first time. Only second or third-time offenders were named.

But the MA board has removed this discretion and, once identified, first-time offenders’ names must be published for three months on MA’s website, www.motorsport.org.au The maximum blood alcohol content allowed is 0.010 per cent.

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca said the publication would serve as a further deterrent.

“Given the number of overwhelming tests performed each year, the number of infractions is low, but that doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels and not provide further deterrence to those who think they can get away with doing the wrong thing,” he said.

MA officials will continue to test for alcohol while ASADA and other accredited contractors will test for performance-enhancing drugs and illicit substances.

The policies apply to all competitors (including co-drivers and navigators), officials, team members

(including crew), Motorsport Australia contractors or third party contractors attending an event, as well as anyone who agrees to be bound by the policy (for example, any Motorsport Australia accreditation holders).

The Best Value in Auto Racing Safety

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LATEST NEWS

AUSTRALIAN RISING star Calan Williams has confirmed that he has extended his partnership with press brake company Lazer Safe for 2020.

The 19-year-old finished 13th in last year’s Euroformula Open Championship and is making the step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship this year. The West Australian signed for Jenzer Motorsport in late October and is expected to be one of four Australians to line up in the third-tier F1 series later this year.

POPULAR FINNISH driver Jari-Matti Latvala has announced that he will compete in the Swedish round of the FIA World Rally Championship in a privately-run Toyota Yaris. Latvala also confirmed that another former Toyota Gazoo Racing driver, Juho Hanninen, will co-drive for him during February’s snow event. Latvala will also contest his home round in Finland in August, although at this stage his co-driver has not been named.

AUSSIES EXPECTING STRONG ALMS FINISH NICK FOSTER and Aiden Read performed strongly in the second round of the Asian Le Mans Series, finishing second alongside former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi.

The Aussies drove well throughout the two-hour race but were caught out by the early full course yellows because of their driver rankings.

“With the early full course yellow and safety car it gave Algarve G-Drive car the opportunity to take a discounted pit stop,” Read told Auto Action.

“It didn’t give us that opportunity because of how we were ranked gold, silver and platinum.”

The Aussies in the #36 Eurasia car made the less than favorable strategy work to finish the race in second position.

Foster felt this was a great team effort.

“I have to say a massive props (well done) to the

Eurasia Team and their engineering group in the background.

“We had a rocket ship in the race, on double stinted tyres we were the fastest car on the track,” Foster told AA. “From that side I’m really happy, from driver performance myself, my teammates Roberto, and Aidan particularly did a really, really strong job.”

In fact during his two-hour stint in the car Read set the fastest lap of the race.

“I’m really happy. I got fastest lap which is a nice little achievement for me and that will go down as race lap record as well, so stoked with that,” Read said.

Former Australian Carrera Cup Series winner Foster feels that the team is making good positive progress and is confident

AHEAD OF this weekend’s edition of the Daytona 24 Hours the Acura Team Penske DPI cars have been hit with the largest Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments. Following data received in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 IMSA has placed a 6.7-horsepower deduction, which will come into effect from mid-range revs. The rival Cadillac cars have seen 10kg taken away, while the Mazdas remain unchanged.

FOR THE first time a McLaren 720s GT3 car will enter the newly renamed GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with the Optimum Motorsport team. The squad will contest the entire five-round series in the pro class driven by Rob Bell and Joe Osborne, and McLaren “young professional” Ollie Wilkinson. The series formerly known as the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup will visit Monza, Silverstone, Paul Ricard, SpaFrancorchamps and the Nurburgring.

NASCARS’ SECOND-TIER Xfinity Series will complete a race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course rather than the oval this year. The race will be held on July 4 and has become the fifth road course on the Xfinity Series schedule this year. The top-tier Cup Series will continue to run the oval layout for the famous Brickyard 400. They will practice on Saturday afternoon after the NXS race and qualify on the Sunday morning.

14 AutoAction

of a good result in Malaysia.

“We have taken two steps in the right direction,” Foster said at The Bend.

“We probably deserved a little bit more today, but we work hard and we take that next step at Sepang.

“After their strong showing in South Australia Read is also optimistic of a strong end to the 2019-20 season in which he feels a victory is certainly possible.

“We are still ticking away with good points in the championship but we have the speed across the three of us in the car to win some races,” Read said.

“We will be back in the game in Sepang and we will be looking to keep doing what we are doing and the strategy will come around.”

Dan McCarthy

SOLID ASIAN F3 START FOR AUSSIES

DUBAI DOWNPOOR THE DUBAI 24 Hour will certainly go down as one of the most memorable in history and was the first to be called off before the full race distance had been completed.

In the end it was Ben Barker, Hubert Haupt, Manuel Metzger and Jeroen Bleekemolen who won the anticlimactic affair driving the #4 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3.

After seven hours and 11 minutes the race was red flagged because of deteriorating track conditions and, sadly, the race would never restart. Despite the best efforts from marshals and race officials, continual heavy rain throughout the night meant that by dawn the track in parts had been completely flooded.

At 7am it was decided by the race officials, circuit and teams that for safety reasons they would not restart the race.

Although the race was called off, early results were still given, which

was a bonus for the two MARC II Mustangs. The Belgian-run #758 VDS Racing Adventures car with Raphael van der Straten, Hary Putz, Nick Geelen, Patrick Asnong and Australian Jake Camilleri scored themselves a GTX class podium in third. While the #717 Cor Euser Racing-run MARC II car missed out on silverware, finishing fourth in class.

A pair of Aussies drove in the #904 Porsche Daniel Stutterd and Supercars co-driver Richard Muscat paired up with Sam Fillmore and Andrew Fawcet, with the quartet finishing the race eighth in class and in 27th position outright.

Farther back the #116 Cupra TCR car featuring Australian Peter England along with Will Morrison, Colin Boyle and Julian Griffin finished 53rd outright and 12th in the TCR class.

Dan McCarthy

FOR THE first time the Asian F3 Championship is running over the European winter and the first three rounds have already been run and won.

The 2019-20 field contains a strong list of drivers including Formula 3 race winner Jake Hughes, GP3 Series runner-up Nikita Mazepin and Australians Jack Doohan and Tommy Smith.

The 2019-20 season began at the Sepang International Circuit in which Dutchman Joey Alders came out of the blocks firing by taking two races and a third in the opening round.

Doohan finished second in the opening encounter but could only achieve an eighth in Race 2.

He fought back impressively to win the final race. Smith also got his season off to a good start with two points-scoring finishes.

The second round took place at the Dubai Autodrome. In the opening race reigning champion Ukyo Sasahara and Doohan collided when fighting for the lead.

The Japanese driver retired from the race and Doohan was given a five-second penalty but still took the victory ahead of Alders.

The Dutchman responded to win

a wet second race while Doohan impressively rose from fifth to third on the final lap.

In Race 3 Alders lost time early after a run-in with Mazepin.

Keen to take full advantage Doohan tried to take the lead off Hughes, the pair made contact and the Australian spun. Alders recovered to finish third, while Doohan finished well down the order in 11th position. Smith finished eighth in Race 1 and just outside the points in the final two races.

The Yas Marina Circuit hosted the third round. In the opening race Sasahara cruised to victory ahead of Mazepin with Doohan third. After scrapping for second place Alders finished fifth.

In Race 2 Doohan retired from the race with a technical issue when running second.

Alders finished second but was given the win when Jamie Chadwick was penalised after the race for jumping the start.

The third race featured less action.

Doohan came home a comfortable second while Alders could only finish sixth, Smith finished off the round in eighth.

Dan McCarthy

AA’s prickly pundit applauds Supercars’ stern stand on the unsavoury side of social media SUPERCARS NOW has a social media policy. It applies to those fans who comment on its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds, which will be monitored for offensive, abusive or malignant remarks. Offenders will be banned after just three breaches.

This doesn’t apply to Supercars’ own website because comments haven’t been allowed there for the past few years. And that, I think, is a good thing.

Apart from totally open outside platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, I’ve never understood why organisations and individuals would willingly open themselves to ritual abuse.

Because that’s what happens when you allow anyone and everyone to comment on stuff you post on your website. I’m neither a fan of nor an expert on social media, but I know that allowing comments on your website content invites vitriol.

Amid reasoned and informed commentators, you have to suffer the snipes of too many ill-informed or just plain mean trolls.

Why would any decent organisation allow bitter, ignorant comments on their showcase site?

Beats me.

Constructive criticism or considered commentary are always welcome. But there is so little of it — and so much bile — that I fail to understand why organisations or individuals expose themselves to ill-founded abuse.

If it were me, I’d provide an email address to which those wishing to comment on content could write.

Those would then be weighed for merit and civility, much like the old “letters to the editor” system, and published accordingly. That would still allow criticism and complaints, which should always

be encouraged, but not nasty attacks.

Social media is a risk, but properly managed it can do much more good than harm.

We understand that on Facebook, we’re open to ill-informed criticism and insults. Last year I had a big go at the trolls who arc up when we promote a new issue by posting a shot of the cover.

Without fail, it attracts abuse based on the cover lines rather than the content. People fire off without having read the stories, which contain the substance a headline cannot convey.

Covers are, by their very nature, teasers of what’s inside. And, yes, they are designed to pique your interest and get you to buy the magazine. Duh! But our covers never oversell or exaggerate what’s inside.

As I said at the time, if you buy the mag, you’re entitled to your opinion, good or bad.

Surprisingly, my stance was widely supported, attracting a very small minority of negative or offensive reaction. That was encouraging, indicating a high level of respect among our core followers and regular readers.

Drivers and teams, as well as administrators and officials, regularly cop personal attacks on social media that are not only rude, disrespectful, demeaning and inaccurate, but defamatory and actionable.

Not before time Supercars has moved to stamp out offensive comments on its social media platforms with a formal policy that outlines very clearly what isn’t acceptable and how bans on offenders will be imposed.

The official Social Media Policy was outlined in a letter to followers posted on its social media outlets.

“To all Virgin Australia Supercars Championship fans, we would like to say thank you for your engagement using our social media platforms,” it says.

“We are family-friendly and have followers of all ages. While we always encourage your comments, interaction and feedback on social media, we will not tolerate offensive comments of any nature.

“We will monitor: Regular negative, offensive or inappropriate comments from an individual or group.

“We will delete comments that include: offensive language; racial vilification; gender vilification; content of a sexual nature; content of a violent, threatening or bullying nature; external campaigns; and derogatory and defamatory comments directed at teams, drivers, Supercars staff/ officials, affiliates and other social media users.

“A three-strike system has been implemented on our social media platforms. Users who have comments removed three times

by Supercars staff will be warned initially, then blocked permanently from engaging on our social media channels. We thank you for your adherence to our social media policy so we can continue offering an engaging experience for our fans.”

The formal declaration was welcomed by drivers and teams, who hope it will set an example to be followed by other outlets.

It follows Supercars’ warning to drivers and team personnel that excessive “sledging” or personal attacks will be subject to sanctions, prompted by last year’s outbreak of anti-Scott McLaughlin comments.

Now, some may argue that censoring social media

commentary is a violation of our freedom of speech speech.

It is not. It is a sensible safeguard against vile opinions, falsehoods or hurtful accusations.

There is an acceptable standard that most in our society understand and adhere to. Allowing what is clearly offensive to be propagated is irresponsible. Those who would drape themselves in the flag of freedom of speech are abusing a privilege and must not be enabled, much less encouraged, to promote their anarchy.

Debate is healthy, but not when it descends into slanging matches.

Constructive criticism is always welcome; bitterness is not. Friendly banter and humor are entertaining, unlike belittling or vicious rants.

Supercars is to be applauded for putting followers on notice. But it is up to the well-meaning majority of engaged fans to starve miscreants of the oxygen of exposure by ignoring malevolent disrupters at the first instance.

By not acknowledging them at all, they’re likely to lose interest before Supercars is forced to intervene.

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THE WILLIAMS Formula 1 team announced that Roy Nissany has joined the British squad as its official test driver for the 2020 season. The Israeli driver will once again participate in the FIA Formula 2 Championship next year as well as taking part in three free practice one sessions, where he will take over from either George Russell or Nicholas Latifi, as well as completing a rookie test day.

FERRARI SUPERSTAR Charles Leclerc’s younger brother Arthur has been signed up into the Ferrari Driver Academy. The 19-year-old Monegasque will hope to follow in his brother’s footsteps as he will drive for the Prema Powerteam in the Regional European Formula 3 Championship, the same Italian team with which Charles won the Formula 2 Championship. In 2019 Arthur was part of the Sauber junior team and took part in the German Formula 4 series, in which he finished third.

A NEW racing series will support Formula 1 this year. The all-female W Series will race as part of the support bill during the US and Mexican Grand Prix schedules. The two rounds will conclude the second season of the open-wheel series that this year will consist of eight rounds. The inaugural championship last year proved to be very successful.

It was won by Jamie Chadwick, who is now a Williams development driver.

FERNANDO ALONSO, ALONSO who did not race in Formula 1 last year, nor will he this year so that he can pursue other forms of motor sport – including the Indianapolis 500, the Dakar Rally, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the World Endurance Championship – is now considering making a return to F1.

His goal is to win the Triple Crown, which consists of the Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Indy 500.

Only Graham Hill has achieved this feat. Alonso has victories in the first two races but not at Indy.

Alonso, who recently finished 13th in his first attempt at the Dakar Rally, said that he would now focus on the Indy 500 and the month of May at the Speedway. Then later in the year he will decide on what he will do next year.

A full season of IndyCar and a return to F1 are possibilities.

“I have the idea of returning to F1,” he said during an interview with a Spanish radio station.

Alonso made his F1 debut with Minardi in 2001.

He won his two world championships in 2005 and 2006 with Renault. He then drove for McLaren, Renault again, Ferrari and McLaren again. But while he has 32 F1 race wins, he never was world champion again. In all, he competed in 312 grands prix, which puts him third on the list of F1 races contested behind Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Räikkönen.

“It is what I like to

ALONSO PONDERS F1 RETURN

Images: LAT

do the most, it is the premier category of motor racing, but it also has its disadvantages,” Alonso said. “F1 requires a complete dedication of your life. I have already had 18 years of that, and now

I have to assess whether I want to return to that for two or three more years or not.

“I must also assess the teams that are available or interested.

“I have to put everything

on the table and assess it.”

The problem for Alonso is that there might not be any winning teams that will offer him a contract. Ferrari and Red Bull are fully focused on Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton

VERSTAPPEN EXTENDS RED BULL DEAL THE START times for all but one of the Formula 1 races this year has been announced, with only the Japanese Grand Prix yet to be confirmed. Most Grand Prix times, including the Australian Grand Prix, will be the same as last year with the race scheduled to take place from 4.10pm once again. Two new races in Vietnam and the Netherlands will take place locally from 2.10pm and 3.10pm respectively.

THE AZERBAIJAN Grand Prix organisers have claimed that the Formula 1 race around the streets of Baku has contributed $A736 million to the local economy over the race’s four-year history. The numbers were calculated by global accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of Baku City Circuit. The race is known to pay one of the highest annual hosting fees of the season, however early last year a deal was struck to hold a Formula 1 race to 2023.

16 AutoAction

MAX VERSTAPPEN has signed a new contract to remain with Red Bull Racing through 2023. The Red Bull bosses worked fast to sign the Dutch driver as soon as possible and for as long as possible because he is very talented and, furthermore, Red Bull was anxious to keep him out of the clutches of Mercedes.

Sooner or later Mercedes is going to have to find a replacement for Lewis Hamilton. He just turned 35, so he still has some good years left to be competitive, but how many more? Hamilton has also said that he wants to do more in life than be involved in racing.

Mercedes would have loved to have Verstappen as Hamilton’s successor even if there might have been several tense seasons with them as teammates.

It is going to cost Red Bull, however, as Verstappen’s new deal reportedly has an annual salary of 40 million euros ($A65 million). Plus, no doubt, bonuses for race wins, championships etc.

Verstappen won his debut race with Red Bull – the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix – and at age 18 and 228 days became the youngest driver to win a

championship F1 race. He has now won eight races, including three last year.

“Red Bull believed in me and gave me the opportunity to start in F1, which I have always been very grateful for,” he said. “Over the years I have grown closer and closer with the team, and besides the passion from everyone and the on-track performance it is also really enjoyable to work with such a great group of people.”

Red Bull switched from Renault to Honda power units last year, and Verstappen’s three victories were the first for Honda since 2006. Honda is currently only committed to F1 through 2021, but having Verstappen, whom Honda rates highly, will be a good incentive for Honda to remain.

“Honda coming on board and the progress we have made over the last 12 months gives me even more motivation and the belief that we can win together,” Verstappen said.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said: “It is fantastic news for the team

to have extended our agreement with Max up to and including the 2023 season. With the challenge of the 2021 regulation changes on the horizon, continuity in as many areas as possible is key. Max has proven what an asset he is to the team. He truly believes in the partnership we have forged with our engine supplier Honda, and we are delighted to have extended our relationship with him.”

However, there is no doubt that there are performance clauses on both Verstappen’s and Red Bull’s sides of the contract that state if the driver or team does not attain certain stated goals then the contract can be voided.

SHOW US THE MONEY

is the king at Mercedes.

Would any of these three risk bringing Alonso into their teams?

He acknowledged that returning to Ferrari was unlikely. Does Alonso want to risk going to

another team that might not have a winning car?

Alonso will be 39 next year, which would make him the second oldest driver on the grid, assuming that Räikkönen, who would

then be 41, remains in F1 next year.

Meanwhile, talented drivers like George Russell, Alex Albon, Lando Norris, Verstappen and Leclerc will all be under the age of 25.

A GRAND prix in Saudi Arabia will almost certainly be added to the Formula 1 calendar in the next few years.

Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper claimed F1’s commercial owner Liberty Media has made a 50 million pounds ($A93 million) a year deal to make Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco a global sponsor, and that a street race in Jeddah could take place as early as next year.

Auto Action reported back in November (AA#1775) about Saudi Arabia’s interest in F1, and that it had offered $US100 million ($A145 million) a year to host a grand prix.

And now a new race track is being built 45km west of Riyadh that could host a Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2023.

The track will be part of a vast sports, amusement and entertainment complex that is also being built.

All of the new F1 tracks in recent years have been designed by Herman Tilke. But in this case former F1 driver and two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Alex Wurz is leading the Saudi track’s design team.

The track is not guaranteed an F1 race.

Instead, it is being built in the hopes of enticing Liberty to sign a contract for the event.

Liberty has often stated that it wants to expand F1 into new countries, but F1 CEO Chase Carey has also repeatedly said he will not reveal details of negotiations, and nor will he comment on speculation or rumors.

There would be protests about F1 going to

Saudi Arabia because of that country’s poor human rights record. But F1 already races in several countries with questionable human rights records, including Russia, China and Abu Dhabi. F1 would go to Saudi Arabia for the same reasons it already goes to those other countries: The countries pay a lot of money, and they are markets for various F1 sponsors.

The excuse the teams always use is that they trust the FIA and Liberty to make the correct decisions, and by doing that the teams avoid taking any responsibility.

Another justification is that F1 is a sport, and sports transcends politics.

Meanwhile, a Bahrain GP spokesman says that Bahrain would welcome a Saudi Arabia F1 race. In 2004, Bahrain became the first country in the Middle East to host F1.

Bahrain’s contract gives it the right to veto any other F1 races in the Middle East, and reportedly it had done just that when Qatar proposed holding a grand prix.

Last November, Liberty and the FIA announced a sustainability plan to have a net-zero carbon footprint by 2030.

This initiative will cover the F1 cars and ontrack activity and the rest of the operations as a sport.

How this would gel with the Aramco sponsorship remains to be seen.

In a story that ranked the most polluting firms on the planet, the Guardian newspaper claimed that Aramco (and its products) was No.1.

REVEALING TIMES FOR NEW CARS FANS WILL get a glimpse of some of the new Formula 1 cars – including the Renault that Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo will campaign this year – before pre-season testing begins at the end of February.

Ferrari, Renault, McLaren, AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso) and Mercedes have all announced dates when they will unveil their cars.

The latter two teams will have their launches on Valentine’s Day, February 14, which is 75 days after the last grand prix of last year in Abu Dhabi and 30 days before the new season kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park track on March 15.

Renault took a backwards step last year, dropping to fifth place in the constructors’ championship after finishing fourth in 2018.

After joining the team last year, Ricciardo found that the Renault chassis handled nowhere nearly as well as the Red Bulls he had raced since 2014. That is something Renault hopes it has remedied with its 2020 R.S.20 chassis.

Team principal Cyril Abiteboul is adamant that Renault learned valuable lessons from its inconsistent 2019 season that will pay off in 2020 and 2021.

But the R.S.20 will also be a work in progress because technical director Nick Chester, who oversaw the creation of the car, has left the

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team after 19 years. Former Benetton/ Ferrari/McLaren technical chief Pat Fry and ex-Williams head of aero Dirk de Beer will join Renault later in the year.

They will have no input on the design philosophy of the 2020 Renault, but they will be able to oversee the development of the car while also starting work on the 2021 car, which will be radically different because of the major changes in the technical regulations.

In recent years some teams have waited until the morning of the first day of preseason testing before unveiling their cars.

Last year, Williams was so delayed in building its 2019 car that it was not ready until the third day of testing.

Testing this year begins on February 19 at the Circuit BarcelonaCatalunya. There will be two three-day tests at the Spanish track for a total of six days compared with eight last year. The slight reduction in testing is to help reduce the stress on the crew members who will have to deal with a record 22 races this year.

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TEAM LAUNCH DATES: Ferrari – February 11 in Maranello, Italy.

Renault – February 12 in Paris.

McLaren – February 13 at its base in Woking, UK. AlphaTauri – February 14 at Red Bull’s Hanger 7 in Salzburg, Austria.

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w

F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

SILLY SEASON STATIC FOR NOW RED BULL’s new deal with Max Verstappen, which keeps him in the team through 2023, takes him out of any silly season speculation regarding who goes where in 2021.

The same goes for Charles Leclerc, whose new Ferrari contract now runs until the end of 2024.

The contracts of several drivers expire at the end of this season. The list includes Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, who was Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate from 2016 to 2018, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Kimi Räikkönen, Lando Norris, Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

With Leclerc and Verstappen out of the picture, the focus switches to Hamilton and Vettel, who have 10 world championships between them.

Once the latter two have decided what they want to do, then the other pieces of the who goes where driver puzzle will start to fall into place.

I predict that both drivers will stay where they are.

Vettel did have some casual chats with his former Red Bull team last year, but I can’t see him going back there even if, as I have heard, he is not all that happy at Ferrari.

Either way, Vettel would have to take on a very talented

Image: LAT

younger teammate. Vettel can take solace that Leclerc said recently that his senior teammate has a faster race pace. Vettel is only 32 – far too young to retire.

We also know now that Hamilton had had several meetings with Ferrari. But I expect him to stay at Mercedes.

Several other drivers are also tied to their teams for one reason or another beyond 2020.

Racing Point has Sergio Pérez signed through 2022, and Lance Stroll has good job security as his father is one of its owners. Esteban Ocon’s deal with Renault runs through 2021.

Meanwhile, Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon will remain in the Red Bull stable for as long as Red Bull wants them. As we have seen in the past, Red Bull can quickly lose patience with a driver. On the other hand, the

trio did a good job in 2019 and, besides, there are no prospects in the Red Bull young driver system that are currently ready to step up to F1.

Williams will hold on to Nicolas Latifi because his father is injecting sponsorship money into the team.

Williams would also like to hold on to George Russell, but such is his talent that he will be on the 2021 shopping lists of other teams.

I predict that Ricciardo will renew his deal with Renault.

The Perth native’s name has again been linked to Ferrari as a possible replacement for Vettel, but that is a longshot.

Renault is his best option at being in a competitive big team.

Look for McLaren to stick with Sainz and Norris. Things are a bit more unclear at Haas. Magnussen and Grosjean had an up and down season last year, but that was due to the erratic behavior of the car and not their skill level.

Alfa Romeo will remain committed to Giovinazzi.

Räikkönen turns 41 on October 17, and by then he will have decided if he wants to stay at Alfa for a third season.

So it looks like the driver market could remain fairly static this year. But there can always be a twist in the plot like, for example, when Ricciardo made his surprise announcement in early August 2018 that he would leave Red Bull for Renault in 2019. That triggered driver changes. And now Fernando Alonso has said he will determine later this year if he wants to return to F1 for two or three more seasons.

If that happens, or if Hamilton or Vettel decide to make some sort of moves for 2021, that would definitely shake things up.

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OPINION ALL EYES ON AUSTRALIA

BY Heath McAlpine DeputyEditor UNFORTUNATELY, ALL eyes have been on Australia for a reason we’d much rather it wouldn’t be with the devastating bushfires taking centre stage, but also bringing out the good in various groups including many from the motor sport world.

Scott McLaughlin, Toby Price, Molly Taylor and Thomas Randle to name just a few offered valuable items for auction, plus donated money to much needed organisations in time of need.

It highlights the generosity of not only some of leading sports stars, but that of the general public and we as a country should be thankful for the community we have here in Australia.

Just as the tennis world focuses on Australia for the next two weeks, motor sport has centred around Australia for the last few weeks as the Asian Le Mans Series hit our shores, while in quick succession the Bathurst 12 Hour and Adelaide 500 occur in a matter of weeks.

The Asian Le Mans Series travelled to Australia’s world class The Bend Motorsport Park and was deemed a success with a crowd that for an event that doesn’t revolve around V8s was solid and the racing of the prototype machinery proved close.

It also demonstrated that Australia and The Bend can host an event like this in a professional manner, plus it also highlighted the broadening appeal of

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Bruce Williams

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Mark Fogarty

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Creative Director/ Production

Jason Crowe

Special Contributor Bruce Newton Staff Journalist National Editor Online Editor

Dan McCarthy Garry O’Brien Rhys Vandersyde

Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, David Hassall, Bob Watson F1 Dan Knutson Speedway Geoff Rounds

Australian race fans, who are spoiled for choice when it comes to variety.

Various groups within the community complain about the number of categories currently competing in Australia, but most that have been introduced over the last few years are directly linked to international series, namely TCR and TA2.

There has been talk of a World Endurance Championship round being held on our shores for nearly 10 years now, but it has never happened. Is Australia now in the best position to host a world class event such as this, I think so.

The success of the Bathurst 12 Hour is proof that Australia can host a world class event, it is popular with fans, teams and manufacturers alike as proven by the activations and personally is my favourite event of the year.

As can be read further on in the magazine, although it didn’t appear so in 2011 when entries dipped into the mid-20s, James O’Brien was persistent and had confidence in the event. It has continued its upward trend hosting the best teams and drivers from all over the world, featuring as part of the globe’s sole GT series, the Intercontinental GT Series.

Is The Bend the right venue?

Probably. The facilities are top notch and the racing utilising 7.7km International layout was pleasantly surprising as the LMP2 and LMP3 machinery lapped up the diverse characteristics of the circuit.

I hope that the unfulfilled promise of WEC arriving ends rather soon.

In the meantime, we have the 12 Hour. It has to be the most competitive field to ever hit The Mountain (I feel I keep saying this every year),

if not pretty close. There are 10 manufacturers and more than 30 GT3 cars that will contest the 2020 event, which signifies a decade of GT3 cars being the headline act.

To pick a winner is impossible, but after completing the Under The Skin article on the Bentley I have a soft spot for the boats.

Just as quickly as the 12 Hour is completed, the Supercars season ramps up with the SuperTest at The Bend before the traditional season-opener in Adelaide.

After the latest round of VCAT tests it will be interesting to witness the results in the city of churches and whether the changes have affected anything.

Remember, it was all Red Bull Holden Racing Team at the conclusion of last year.

Then, next is the Grand Prix.

Phew!

We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1980: BROCK AND Jones. One

dominating in Australia, the other adding Formula 1 trophies to his vastly growing collection. The apparent uncertainty surrounding the Holden Dealer Team’s future was now confirmed as Peter Brock announced the purchase of the squad from John Sheppard. Jones on the other hand powered to victory in Argentina, kicking off the season in style.

1990: WITH JUST two weeks before the touring car championship kicked off at Amaroo Park there were still some key details to be ironed out ahead of the planned clash. Team’s had not found out the type of fuel CAMS had chosen to be used for the championship until the week before the magazine had gone to print leaving them in a scramble to test the suitability of it.

2000: PAUL MORRIS announced

he was the latest entrant into the rapidly growing V8 Supercars category, joining former super touring rival Brad Jones. In a two-car team, Morris felt his suspensionman Tim Neff was the key to the success of his new team after arriving back fresh from a stint in the states. This new campaign would add to his super touring commitments, confirming another season in his BMW.

2010: FORD BACK with DJR? After

Triple Race Engineering’s defection to Holden, DJR was set to return to the Ford fold to help mount a stronger challenge on Holden. Aussie Will Power was determined to continue his rise up the IndyCar grid and, who better to do that with than Roger Penske? A rejuvenated Power was confident he could take on the best IndyCar had to offer.

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

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IG B DECISION

ON FUTURE SOON WHINCUP CALL SCOTTY INDYCAR SWITCH

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Complete guide to Mountain marathon

LANDO NORRIS

McLAREN’S

BUDDING F1 ACE

Cover Images: Main Dirk Klynsmith/LAT. Porsche. Penske

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LANDO LEARNED A LOT

In an exclusive inter interview with Auto Action, Lando Norris talks to DAN KNUTSON about his F1 rookie se season at McLaren Photos: LAT

A LOT. That’s the answer Lando Norris gives when asked how much he improved as a driver and what he learned in the span from his Formula 1 debut in Australia last year through tto his 21st race in Abu Dhabi.

“I have improved a lot as a driver,” he says, “not all of it in direct lap tim time improvements; it could be feedback or progression on set-up changes. The driving and knowing what toys you c can use and everything like that, the mental side of things – a lot has changed.

“My knowledge knowledg of things and my ability to i say back in this race we this did this, th and that

improved the car, but when we did that it did not improve the car. So which set-up will be more similar at this track? With the experience you gain knowledge, and only because of experience you are able to compare to other things and relate back to other weekends and races. So, in simple words, I have learned a lot.”

Norris qualified his McLaren a solid eighth in Melbourne last year, but he drifted back to eventually finish 12th. He is positive that he will have a much stronger performance when he returns to the Albert Park circuit for this year’s race.

“Melbourne qualifying for me was very good in 2019, but the race was not,” he says. “And that is one of the biggest areas that I improved on last season: the race, the starts, how aggressive

Lando Norris had a standout debut season in Formula 1, which ran parallel with a return to form for McLaren, far left. Norris with his current rivals Alex Albon and George Russell, all of whom are graduates from Formula 2, above.

Heading out for his maiden Grand Prix start in Melbourne was a nervy experince for the young Brit, left.

you have to be, the tyre saving, communication with the team. All of those things.

“So one of the biggest things I improved on is the whole race situation. I did not do that very well in Australia last year. So when I go back this time I am sure that I will do a bit better in qualifying, but the race will be a better story and a different story.”

PRETTY INSANE

BORN ON November 13, 1999, Norris was six years old when he saw his first kart race, and he started racing karts at age seven.

Auto Action asks him to flash forward from his first kart race to sitting on the grid in Melbourne for the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. What was that feeling like?

“Erm, the only feeling I had was nerves,” he recalls. “When I was sitting in the car all I was feeling was nerves. If I look at it from the outside, and I compare the two – my first kart race and my first F1 race – it is pretty insane. Every driver will have a similar thing: starting from somewhere and ending up in F1. It is huge.

“The fact of being a kid and growing

up watching F1 races, and looking up to these drivers and seeing how amazing they all are. And not always thinking or believing that I will be somebody who can get into F1 because it would not happen for about 10 or 12 years from when I was racing karts. That is what makes it more special, thinking or wishing that one day I would be able to do it, and then when you are on the grid in an F1 car you are thinking: ‘I have done it!’ It was 12 years of driving and practising and doing laps and travelling. And not always believing you could do it, and then you are there in F1.”

Williams driver George Russell, who also made his F1 debut in Melbourne last year, says that the realisation of that momentous day only sank in a day later when he saw the videos and photos of him in the car in the race.

Was it the same thing for Norris?

“Yes,” he confirms. “There were so many things I had to think about and not to think about, and so on, and you are so in the moment and there is so much adrenaline and everything, so that only when you actually got back home, and back to reality of being at home and just sitting there, then you are like: ‘I just did an F1 race! Wow!’ So I agree with what George says.”

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“With the experience you gain knowledge, and only because of experience you are able to compare to other things” Norris already had a lot of seat time in F1 as he was a test driver for McLaren in 2017 and 2018, and he took part in seven Free Practice 1 sessions on grand prix weekends in 2018.

“That gave me more confidence,” he says, “but I did not do the first race and go: ‘Yeah, I am going to make it.’

Those FP1s gave me the first direct comparison against (McLaren driver) Fernando Alonso. But everything was always a bit different. Whereas last year was the first time I was in actual F1 competition, and against someone, and under pressure. So FP1 was a booster but it was not a game changer.”

THE ROOKIE CLASS

MAX VERSTAPPEN started in racing in F1 when he was still 17 years old. There was a lot of criticism and talk that he was too young. But he maintains that age is relative, and that some drivers are not ready to race in F1 until they are 25.

Norris was 19 in his rookie season.

That is older than Verstappen was, but still how did Norris cope with competing in the elite series at such a young age?

“I think one of the biggest things is the confidence I have in the team, and how the team was able to help me and give me confidence,” he relates.

“And how they were able to help me become a better driver.

“The amount of time we went through data and videos, plus the days in the simulator – all of this was just to try and make me drive one, two

or three tenths of a lap second faster.

“All that is a lot, so I think that preparation was one of the biggest things. I don’t know what makes me do it better than anybody else, but hard work, dedication, time, passion, emotion, all of these things put together and molded into one.

“And then me going into F1 and wanting to do well, wanting to beat everyone that I could beat, all that just drives you and makes you want to do better and better.”

Three young rookies made their F1 debuts last year – Norris, Russell, 21, and Alex Albon, 22. Usually just one or two young drivers graduate to F1 at any one time. Why did all three arrive at the same time?

“I don’t know,” Norris replies.

“The easiest word to describe it is coincidence. There were three good drivers – George, me and Alex. Alex almost did not get into F1. I am happy that he did, but he could be in Formula E right now. It is weird but we all ended up in Formula 2 at the same time, and we ended up one, two, three in the points in the 2018 F2 championship.”

Russell won the F2 title ahead of Norris and Albon.

“We all proved that we were all worthy of going into F1,” Norris says.

“And we have all proved that it was the right decision for our F1 teams to make. So it was a coincidence, but at the same time there were three guys who were determined to get into F1, and who have all put in the time and effort all the way since karting to try and be the best. Then we got to F2

and were always wanting to try and beat each other, and to push each other. And that helped us get into F1.”

GOOD MATES AND TEAMMATES

NORRIS AND Carlos Sainz did not know each other before they became teammates at McLaren last year.

Sainz recalls Norris being a bit shy at first. But they bonded quickly and became good mates. Norris has

an infectious sense of humor. They frequently can be seen joking with each other in the paddock. How much did Norris learn from Sainz?

“A lot,” he says. “It was his fifth year in F1. And all those years of experience is a lot. It is not just the driving. It is how he feeds back, and uses his experience, and how he looks back at his previous years and how that affects things now.

So off track and on track there are a lot of things that I learn that help me do better and improve. That is a good thing, and it has pushed me to become even better.

“There are some things that I am better in, which he has been able to learn from me. And there are more things that he is better at because of his experience that I have learned and been able to improve. That has been a big part of the reason why as a team we did really well in the 2019 season and how competitive we are.

We want to help each other and also push each other and the team to do a better job. So that helps us as drivers but also helps the team.”

Speaking of experienced drivers, was fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton a role model for Norris?

“He was a guy who in a way was Norris and teammate Carlos Sainz have enjoyed the great strides by McLaren in 2019 where it finished fifth in the Constructors’Championship.

Norris finished in the points more often than not to just miss out on a top 10 result at the end of the season, while Sainz was sixth.

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a role model,” Norris says, “and a guy who I looked up to. He was not my hero, but he was the driver I supported in F1 because he was British. He is a cool driver; he is very good. So there were things that I liked about him and liked in us having certain traits. But he was not the guy who I loved watching and supported since I was racing in karts. But he was a guy that I wanted to be like in certain areas, and a guy who I supported because of how good he was.”

save money (on taxes), but at the same time there are fewer people that I know there, so I would not enjoy it. Maybe one day when there is a bigger benefit of saving money I would move. But at the moment I much prefer being where I am. Being able to go and see my friends, and go

and do things that you are not able to do in Monaco because of the various restrictions there. I am happy where I am, but maybe in about five years moving to Monaco is something I will need to think of.”

Norris, now 20, has a bright future in F1. McLaren was so impressed with

his performance in his rookie season that it signed him for 2020 way back in July. He scored points in 11 of the 21 races last year and finished 11th in the drivers’ championship. He learned a lot in 2019, and starting with the Australian Grand Prix, he aims to put all that knowledge to good use.

NO MONACO MOVE

HAMILTON, DANIEL Ricciardo and Verstappen are among the many F1 drivers who live in Monaco. The weather and the fact that it is centrally located in Europe are two of the reasons they do, and of course there are the tax advantages.

Norris has elected to remain in the UK. He lives in Guilford, which is about a 20 to 30-minute drive from the McLaren factory in Woking.

“I don’t want to move to Monaco,” Norris says. “I enjoy being where I am now. A majority of my friends are in England. It is close to my parents; it is close to McLaren. I like where I live.

“If I move to Monaco, yes it would The bond between the two McLaren men is a strong one. Both have learnt from each other although Sainz, right, has been part of the Formula 1 paddock for five years. This comes after not having met before Norris was employed at Woking.

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PIECING THE STANGS TOGETHER

Kelly Racing is steaming ahead with the building of its pair of Mustangs, ustangs engine development is nearing the end and assembly of the two recently completed chassis has begun, reports HEATH McALPINE

IT CONTINUES to be a hectic time for Kelly Racing after the team returned to work from the Christmas/New Year break with plenty to do before the BP Ultimate Supertest at The Bend Motorsport Park scheduled just before the opening round of the Supercars Championship in Adelaide.

Since Auto Action last travelled to Kelly Racing’s Braeside headquarters, engine development has been nearly completed, with the team just waiting on its crankshafts while the critical part was expected to arrive as this issue went to press.

The key landmark, however, was the completion of the two Ford Mustang chassis to be fielded by Rick Kelly and Andre Heimgartner in this year’s Supercars Championship. Out of the paint booth, the two new chassis are on the workshop floor undergoing feverish preparation ahead of the final fitting of parts. The team’s spare chassis is also complete and expected in the paint booth in the next week.

Engine development has been at its peak during the Christmas period, so much so that the Kelly family had dinner in the workshop. The engine development has led to a huge amount of hours completed on the dyno, which has been led by co-team owner Todd Kelly.

“We’ve pretty much pushed on with five

24 AutoAction

or six days straight, which has taken us to the point where we have completed all testing we can do on the SBR engine,” Kelly told Auto Action.

“We’ve got our sump, exhaust system, cylinder head, inlet manifold, airbox ... so it’s really only the bottom end and the water pump that we haven’t been able to test. We’ve taken that engine off, we’re still not very far down the track with assembly of our own engine, we’ve got all the pistons, rods and everything, all the pistons have been cleaned and detailed, plus all the rings have been ground and they’ll go together pretty quickly.

“But we still haven’t got any crankshafts, so we’re hoping to have one or two crankshafts in Brisbane, which will require us sending someone up there to bring them back so we can spend the time on it, otherwise we won’t be able to work on it until early next week.”

Kelly is confident the team will have a full Kelly Racing-specification engine completed and ready for dyno testing as this magazine hits the newsstands in readiness for the Supercars homologation at the end of the month. “We’ll get the bottom ends together and as your readers view this article, we should have a full engine running on the dyno,” Kelly said

“We won’t have time to do final R&D as at the end of this month it has to be finalised and sent up to Supercars.

“It will be with them for a week as the technical staff pull it apart and check every part that’s in the engine to make sure it conforms to the rules, then it gets sent back to us in bits to be reassembled.

“It will then probably become one of our spare engines for Adelaide.”

There has been plenty of work by Kelly in the team’s machine shop producing sumps and water pumps, which require materials to be swapped every six hours.

While the engine and machine shops have been producing all the mechanical items, the fabrication and paint shops were working incredibly hard to complete the two Kelly Racing chassis ahead of the crew members returning last week.

Plenty of brackets to be made and fitted as the body panels begin to be fitted up to the two KR-built chassis. Progress is being made and the race cars are starting to take shape.

COUNTDOWN - DAYS REMAINING: 28

One of the Kelly Mustangs now has the X-Trac six speed transaxle fitted (below) complete with the in-house designed sequential shifter assembly.

The SBR-based test engine has been running hot, with long R&D test sessions on the Kelly Racing-developed components. It has been a frantic pace, including testing cylinder heads, sump, airbox and exhaust systems and other vital engine components.

When Auto Action last viewed the two chassis, the ex-Garry Jacobson Altima was having the final stages of its under-panels fitted to complete its transformation into a Mustang and the brand new Rick Kelly Mustang was in the paint shop, having its final coats applied ahead of assembly.

“The second Mustang, that chassis was pretty well complete at the end of the working year, but a couple of the fabricators worked through the break to put the Mustang panels on it, then it was ready for paint the first week we came back and was on the workshop floor by the Friday,” Kelly explained.

“Now we’ve got two Mustang chassis in the workshop, which the boys have been assembling since coming back a fortnight ago. It’s full steam ahead.”

It has led to a manic week of test fitting various parts including the pedals and pedal box, gear shifters, wiring looms and other items for the interior, but also the first pieces of bodywork are being installed to make sure it fits as well.

“A lot of workers came back last week and the assembly has really kicked into high gear,” Kelly said enthusiastically.

“Body panels are being test fitted on the Mustangs to make sure all those fit together the way it should. The guys have even got the transaxle gearbox fitted into one of the cars at the moment, just linking that up to the shifter and making sure everything’s in the right spot.

“Wiring up all the looms and putting that in place, fitting gearshifters, pedals, all that is happening at the moment.

“There are currently three guys working full-time on each Mustang, plus a few other workers that drift in and out when required to ensure that the two chassis will be ready for the engine install in a couple of weeks’ time.”

The next job for the assemblers will be to make sure not only the

Part Four

panels fit, but the small at brackets that ation allow installation are positioned correctly.

“The process now is to fit all the panels to make sure that everything fits and in the right spot, because there are still a lot of small brackets that hold objects like the front guards on,” Kelly said.

“So, the workers are making sure the brackets are put in the right position to fit the bodywork and once the engine is finalised then the crew can put it in, start getting the suspension sorted and really bring the package together.”

The drivers are keeping a close eye on their new steeds as well. Andre Heimgartner and Rick Kelly are both eagerly eyeing the two Mustangs ahead of Adelaide.

“Andre is visiting pretty regularly; he likes to keep updated with what’s happening,” Kelly said. “Rick’s been in pretty frequently as well during the last few weeks to just organise the commercial side of the operation as well.”

Reflecting on such a frantic period at Kelly Racing, a proud team owner is pleased to witness the project coming together.

“It’s been a big task that’s for sure!”

Kelly exclaimed.

“The number of parts that we’ve had to manufacture and design in-house just on the engine side of things has been massive, as well as building, testing and developing the engine on the dyno, which accumulates to a lot of hours to make sure everything is verified so we can roll out and have a reliable package to be up to speed with everyone else.”

A lot of work is now being done to the interior of the KR Mustangs, with wiring looms, pedal assemblies, gear shifters, and wiper motors being fitted.

Below, the two Kelly Mustangss sit side by side, both at similarr stages of the building process with work performed at a fast pace to ensure completion by the test day.

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31 JANUARY – 2 FEBRUARY 2020

L A T N E N I CONT

T E F F BU

The Bathurst 12 Hour had humble beginnings in 2007, but the change to GT3 regulations four years later changed the face of the race and it became a world-revered event that gets bigger each year. HEATH McALPINE analyses which cars to watch ahead of this year’s event Images: LAT/Australian GT

THE ENTRY list gets better and better each year for Australia’s international endurance event, the Bathurst 12 Hour.

As the opening round of the SRO’s Intercontinental GT Challenge — the globe’s sole GT series — the race has become increasingly important to the world’s leading GT teams, as demonstrated by the impressive international crews and drivers who take on The Mountain.

Reigning champion manufacturer Porsche will have an even stronger field to master this year — a record nine rival marques.

Not only that, this year’s 12 Hour is the firstt in which current specification models will take ke part, thanks to the homologation date being moved forward.

Last year’s race witnessed the final event for the first-gen Porsche 991 GT3 R and the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which both fought for the win. This year both manufacturers will debut new models at Mount Panorama, as will McLaren, which missed last year’s race, although it did complete the Australian GT Championship.

Honda will make its Australian GT3 debut at The Mountain with its NSX GT3, which was co-developed by JAS Motorsport, manufacturer of the Civic TCR that enjoyed moderate success in TCR Australia.

There will also be various Evolution models being debuted as well; Lamborghini, Mercedes and Audi will have these at The Mountain.

The Intercontinental GT Challenge is

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Bentley returns with a year of development in its new Continental GT3.

m manufacturer-driven, w with each marque ddelegating a team to rrepresent it at each oof the five events — tthe 24 Hours of Spa, Suzuka 10 Hours, In Indianapolis 8 Hours and season-ending Kya Kyalami 9 Hours.

Mercedes is the defen defending champion, but will face stiff competition from Porsche, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Honda and Lamborghini with question marks as to whether Aston Martin and McLaren will add to the eight already registered.

Teams also travel far to represent the manufacturers, including last year’s race winner Earl Bamber Motorsport. Again a two-car attack, the lead contains an enviable line-up of team owner Bamber, his IMSA Weathertech class-winning teammate Laurens Vanthoor and six-time Bathurst 1000 and two-time 12 Hour winner Craig Lowndes.

The second will be a contender in the A-PA Class headed by David Calvert-Jones, Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans and one of last year’s winning trio, Romain Dumas.

Porsche won last year, main picture, but will find it hard to go back to back this year, thanks to new such new rivals as the Aston Martin, below.

Honda makes its debut at The Mountain with the NSX GT3, to be fielded by renowned Honda team JAS Motorsport.

Porsche’s attack continues with renowned Asian team Absolute Racing, spearheaded by the hero from 2019 Matt Campbell in a two-car Pro Class line-up.

There are wall-to-wall Porsche factory personnel beginning with Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet in the lead 991 GT3 R, backed up by Dirk Werner, Thomas Preining and Matteo Cairoli.

Mercedes equals Porsche and Audi in featuring three Pro entries, the most of any manufacturer. This is led by the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and new recruit Maximilian Gotz, which last year encountered a multitude of problems to just finish shy of the podium.

Regulars Craft-Bamboo Black Falcon and GruppeM return, the latter after a disappointing 2019 where it was penalised multiple times, destroying any hope of victory. Rafaelle Marciello felt particularly aggrieved and returns alongside Maximilian Buhk and newcomer Felipe Fraga.

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31 JANUARY – 2 FEBRUARY 2020 Audi is out to make amends for last year’s result, left.

Garage 59 makes its debut at The Mountain, below.

Could it be KCMG’s last stand with Nissan?

Craft-Bamboo Black Falcon debuted its new association with the three-pointed star last year and two of those drivers return in the form of former Supercars driver Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, this time joined by Yelmur Buurman.

Tucked away among the A-PA entries are high quality drivers including Erebus Motorsport duo Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds each competing in separate entries.

Audi’s IGTC entry is backed yet again

by Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia, with an expanded three-car entry. It was an unfulfilling race for the team last year as both cars fell out of contention barely past the halfway mark, though with the driver line-up the team has at its disposal we can expect all three entries to be strong.

Former Australian GT champion Christopher Mies will again be joined by Red Bull Holden Racing Team co-driver Garth Tander and new signing Mirko Bortolotti.

Dries Vanthoor, brother of Laurens, will lead the second car, joining Christopher Haase and Frederich Vervisch, while rounding out the line-up is Kelvin van der Linde, Markus Winkelhock and Mattia Drudi making his Bathurst debut.

Just like Mercedes, Audi also has guns in the A-PA and A-Silver Classes as Lee Holdsworth, Dylan O’Keeffe and Dean Fiore will saddle up.

One of the more popular teams and cars at the event is the M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3s. This model featured in an Auto Action Under The Skin article last year and was another to be within reach of victory before a misplaced kill switch took away the chance.

Again, Jules Gounon, Maxime Soulet and Jordan Pepper return. Oliver Jarvis headlines the three newbies with former NISMO factory driver Alex Buncombe, and British GT champion Sebastian Morris debuts as a factory Bentley driver.

McLaren returns to the top class through Australian-based 59Racing as the 720s GT3 makes its Mount Panorama debut.

The winner of the 2016 event, Alvaro Parente, will team with Ben Barnicoat and Tom Blomqvist in the Pro Class entry.

Australian GT frontrunner Fraser Ross will co-drive alongside Dom Storey and Martin Kodric.

The sole Ferrari entry is the HubAuto Corsa 466 GT3 fronted by recently signed DJR Team Penske co-driver Tim Slade, who is joined by Brazilian pair Marcos Gomes and Daniel Serra. The team was successful at Laguna Seca last year with Slade, fellow Aussie Nick Foster and Miguel Molina, but the two co-drivers that join him for the 2020 edition come experienced, Serra in particular — he has won the Le Mans 24 Hour GTE Pro Class twice, including last year’s.

Zande and Mario Farnbacher.

Lamborghini’s entry will be led by the Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Huracan GT3 of Andrea Calderelli, Marco Mapelli and Dennis Lind. The team has performed with distinction for the Italian marque in Asia and enters Bathurst for the first time.

KCMG was pacy last year in the GT-Rs, but failed take away a result. Aussie Josh Burdon is back on board with Japanese teammates Katsumasa Chiyo and Tsugio Matsuda, while Aleandre Imperatori and Edoardo Libertatoi also return this time with JP Oliveira.

As Auto Action went to print the Walkenhorst BMW was the only leading team not announced, but new Walkinshaw Andretti United signing Chaz Mostert is a lock-in for the German squad’s two-car entry.

There are many appeals to this race, the first being the international presence, second being the driver quality, third being the accessibility and fourth the close racing that almost always occurs, culminating in a grandstand finish.

Not to forget, the event kicks off the Australian GT Championship season, being the first round of the Endurance Championship. Add in the support categories consisting of the mixed and varied Combined Sedans, the spectacular Aussie Race Cars, historic Group S and the demonstration of rare Group C sports car machinery.

It’s again hard to pick a winner, although with so many new models, drivers and teams, one thing that can be predicted is that it will be one hell Walkenhorst is the sole BMW representative this year and McLaren, through its Australian-based 59Racing entity, is making a concerted effort. of a contest.

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R-Motorsport represents Aston Martin again after coming so close last year, but with the new Vantage GT3 in its possession.

Former Formula Holden rivals Rick Kelly and Scott Dixon will be joined by last year’s provisional pole-sitter Jake Dennis in the Castrol-backed lead Vantage, while young duo Olli Caldwell and Luca Ghiotto have the experienced Marvin Kirchofer to refer to in the second entry.

British team Garage 59 will back R-Motorsport in A-PA led by former British Touring Car Championship privateer Chris Goodwin, Come Ledogar and Alex West.

Honda entered the IGTC last year, but missed Bathurst, but realising the importance of the event it has entered a factory-backed Honda NSX GT3, a model that featured on the podium back in the early 1990s. The drivers who piloted the entry last year will again form the attack this season. American Dane Cameron is joined by Renger van der

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BEHIND THE SCENES Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia has spearheaded Audi’s factory campaign at the Bathurst 12 Hour for years, at the same time servicing its own customers. This year the team takes five Audi R8 LMS GT3s to The Mountain, making it the biggest team on the grid and, as Troy Russell tells HEATH McALPINE, it is a massive undertaking

Images: Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia/GSG Images PLANNING FOR Australia’s biggest GT race is a long process that begins not long after the chequered flag falls on the previous year’s campaign, with the Bathurst 12 Hour becoming a must-do race on the GT calendar, even more so now when the Intercontinental GT Challenge is at stake.

You would be hard-pressed to find a team more professional than Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia outside the top tier of the sport. The team is a multiple Australian GT and Endurance Champion, but the 12 Hour is one prize that has so far eluded the Melbournebased squad.

The team headed by Troy Russell and Lee Burley is not only vastly experienced, but world renowned, as is proved by the squad fielding Audi’s official representation as part of the IGTC at Bathurst.

Planning for the crew’s biggest race of the year starts about six months out as Russell books the team’s reliable contractors, who swell the team from a full-time regular staff of 16 to a monumental 60 for the duration of the 12 Hour, and that doesn’t include the staff Audi brings along as well.

Audi Sport adds 10 extra staff members, who range from a doctor to engineers, management to PR, directly from Germany. But how does Audi sleep, feed and transport such a large team?

“I think in total we have between 70 and 80 people including drivers to get to the event, accommodate and feed so it’s a reasonable project,” Russell told Auto Action. “We stay at the same place with the same amount of rooms.

“I shouldn’t say it gets easier, but it’s

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With running five cars and the sheer volume of technology available in a modern race car (not to mention the amount of data acquisition used) means that setting up computers and comunications systems takes a huge amount of time (above). Below, factory Audi drivers Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Mies and Christopher Haase perform system checks.

definitely much better the third time, fourth time around than the first time, and we have been doing it a bit so we have rolling reservations with all the hotels that we stay at.

“We go with hotels rather than houses because its just easier when we have a massive amount of people.

“We run a coach out of Melbourne to get everyone up there and then the coach gets everyone from the hotel to the track and vice versa every day. It’s just an easier way. If you have houses you need multiple cars. You can’t really have a coach running around picking people up from all different locations,

especially with the 5am start. We’ll probably be at the track at 4am Sunday morning so you need to be efficient in the way you get people to and from the circuit so that you’re not wasting another hour of valuable sleeping time.”

As the number of staff is expanded so is the spare parts inventory but, as Russell explained, it isn’t a necessity for the team to order extra parts for the 12 Hour as what it generally carries for an Australian GT Championship weekend is enough. Audi Sport in Germany provides a detailed guide to what spares are needed for an event of this magnitude.

“We carry pretty well everything you can think of, we should have in the truck,” said Russell.

“So, we’re very guided by what Audi Germany suggests we carry from its global experience, then we just bolster that for the 12 Hour. When we first started with the Audi Customer Sport program, they were very good at telling us what we should carry, what items and, to be honest, I don’t think there has ever been a time where we have gone to the truck to get something and we haven’t had it.

“You just have to be geared up and make sure everything is in its right spot so if you need it in a hurry you can go get it. One of Lee’s [co-owner Lee Burley]

It’s all in the planning and being organised well in advance of the event, says Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia’s Troy Russell (above left). Communication is one of the key elements and all team members are carefully briefed before each season so all crew members know and understand their roles on race day. The total number of people in the team grows significantly for the 12 Hour and the team draws on many experienced people from other non-competing teams for this event. Audi Sport take this event very seriously. Right, tyre heating ovens pre-heat the tyres so the cars can run flat out at each tyre set change. projects at the 12 Hour is looking over that side as well so if we need something in a hurry, even to the point where there’s been a crash, generally from the television you can work out what you need and have all the parts out of the truck ready to go.

“We have complete suspension corners built up, ready to go on, suspension corner uprights, upper and lower control arm, hubs, wheel bearings, all that stuff put together ready to bolt on. We carry four of them ready to go in the race garage, they are good to go if needed.”

The packing regime is something akin to a life-sized game of Tetris with three B-doubles carrying all the team’s equipment, ranging from data stations, tyre tents, fuel rigs, wheels and tyres, golf buggies and tyre trolleys, ensuring each truck is full to the brim.

As this is happening, the Audis are being prepared for the event, with the team meeting the servicing regime supplied by the manufacturer.

Russell said the mechanics were in a

routine in terms of preparation for the event, thanks to the experience they had accumulated.

“All the cars are prepared, and again Audi are very good at their component lifeing schedules and so forth,” Russell said. “We prepare everything based on that, but things like gearboxes, clutches, wheel bearings, driveshafts, shocks and engines get serviced.

“Livery is obviously different every time, fuel pumps, even the driver comforts like the cool suits, radio and drink bottle systems are all to be considered, so a lot of prep goes into it.

“It’s reasonably straightforward because we’ve done a little bit and we know what is required. To be honest a lot of the 12 Hour prep is getting everything else ready. The cars are almost the easy part of the project because it’s reasonably straightforward with work required and the boys get in there and get it done.”

The preparation of the data acquisition computers and software takes the

longest thanks to the sheer magnitude of technology available to the team.

“The work that goes into items like data stations, there’s a lot of configuring computers, radio programming is time consuming and when you’re running five cars ...” Russell said.

“Everyone in the crew needs a radio, but then you need key personnel like myself and Lee to be able to talk to all the cars, all the crew, you need to be able to scan everything, but you need to be able to switch and talk to each individual crew member if need be.

“Just thinking about all that stuff and making it work is difficult.

“The engineers have been working on that since before Christmas; the data stations, live telemetry feeds and how that works. We’ve also got a strategist, Ken Douglas, there as well so he needs his own setup computer-wise and timing feeds into his system, which is then distributed out to each car station. So there’s a lot that goes into that side of it as well.”

Pit equipment is also treated to the same servicing regime, while adding in a test day means the operation is incredibly busy just a fortnight away from the event. “You’re working to maximise the pit equipment, making sure everything works, service it then pack it away,” Russell said.

After testing is completed, where the team learns about tyre and brake wear, fuel consumption and bedding brakes, it is time to haul up to Bathurst. Heading up the Monday evening before the race and stopping at Albury, set-up begins at lunchtime on Tuesday before the rest of the crew arrive and Wednesday is when the unpacking is complete.

The business part of the weekend starts on Thursday when scrutineering begins before practice on Friday. Once the weekend is done, it takes the team only three hours to pack up and be having a beer or maybe champagne before travelling back home on Monday.

Phew! What a build-up, what a weekend.

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THE

GT3 ERA

Before 2011 the Bathurst 12 Hour had been the exclusive domain of production cars. This year marks 10 editions since the introduction of GT3 and the event’s then promoter James O’Brien reflects with HEATH McALPINE about the risks surrounding the move and its sustained success

Images: Porsche/Audi/Nissan/McLaren/ Bentley/Mercedes

THE BATHURST 12 Hour traces its roots to the early 1990s when Vince Tesoriero had the idea of running a 12-hour race for production cars around the legendary Mount Panorama circuit. After the first event was run in 1991 with 24 entries, it rapidly grew to oversubscribed levels as manufacturers ranging from Mazda to Saab and Holden to Citroen supported entries.

By 1995, the event had moved to Eastern Creek (now Sydney Motorsport Park) and died after that year before being resurrected in 2007 by James O’Brien and Yeehah Events.

Although O’Brien and his team had wanted to include GT cars from the start – similar to the Bathurst 24 Hour events of 2002-03 – there was pushback from CAMS and production cars contested the outright honours.

But by 2011, O’Brien had introduced GT3 as the top category with a handful of entries taking on the 12 Hour, including the crack factory Audi team, Joest Racing. The German marque supported the event considerably and has entered every year since through its Australian-based Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia.

Since that first year, the event has grown considerably in both size and stature. It is now the opening round of the world’s only true

GT series, the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Manufacturers not only support entries in the event, but host a large number of customers in hospitality and use the 12 Hour to interact with a big number of fans each year.

A lot of hard work had to be completed by O’Brien with reservations locally that the event would take away from the other local events run, especially from category managers as well as CAMS. “We talked to the local Australian GT competitors back in the early days of the event – 2007 around that time – and locally there were a number of competitors, who were all very positive about the idea, but it didn’t extend to the management of AGT at

the time,” O’Brien explained to Auto Action.

“Erroneously, they thought it would detract from the series because competitors would be spending a fair chunk of their budget at the 12 Hour, so not only did we have the issue at CAMS, we also didn’t have an agreed position within the GT management locally.

“That’s why there was sort of a delay through to get it up and running in 2011.”

Although there were these setbacks, previous relations with the global motor sport promoter Stephane Ratel were kept as the Frenchman grew his GT empire to include GT3, then the GT World Championship and has now various series running across the world. O’Brien kept a watching brief on GT3

Nissan and McLaren are just two of the manufacturers that committed to the changing face of the Bathurst 12 Hour. Both marques enjoyed success in the new era.

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Porsche finally tasted success in 2019 after failing short previously, top. This is the scene event promoter James O’Brien envisioned from the start, but it wasn’t until 2011 that GT cars became the headline act, above left. Bentley is just one of the brands that strongly support the event. in particular, grew quickly in Australia during 2009, then deciding two years later that he needed to pull the trigger.

“I had been dealing with Stephane Ratel since back in my IMG/Indy days when he first visited around 2003, so I knew he was very keen for a round in Australia,” O’Brien recalled.

“Obviously, I watched his progress with GT1, GT2 and GT3, we were talking regularly. I suppose planning for the 2011 GT event really in a way started back in the first year the event was re-established in 2007, we just had to get the timing right for when we introduced the GT vehicles knowing that there would be some push back from the production car competitors.

“So, it was a balancing act of when the event was mature enough and had large enough fields to introduce GT knowing when we did that we weren’t going to get a lot of GT cars to start with and we were also going to lose a large amount of the production car field.”

As mentioned previously, Audi were the first marque to invest heavily in the 12 Hour, which demonstrated great confidence in the race and gave O’Brien and his team reassurance that they were on the right path.

“Audi were a key supporter because it saw the value of the event and jumped on board the first year that GT were eligible with Joest Racing running the two-car team that came out,” said O’Brien.

“That immediately raised the benchmark and showed what can be achieved. I think a lot of the other manufacturers saw that and thought

we need to get in on this, so yes very thankful to Audi for having forethought to get involved in the first year that GT was eligible.

“It’s been very successful for them.”

O’Brien could have been excused for being a tad nervous when naming rights partner Armor All confirmed its exit after the first two GT events resulted in disappointing entries, but this allowed Liqui Moly to take over the position. A relationship that has continued ever since.

“Armor All leaving, well of course that wasn’t ideal it was a blessing in some ways because I think they were rather short-sighted and didn’t believe GT would succeed,” O’Brien recounted.

“I think they made a mistake in that area.

“On the flip side, Bruce Morrison at Motoractive with the Liqui Moly brand saw the potential of the event, knew where we were going to take it, got on board with us and were a really proactive sponsor. They were a genuine stakeholder of the event and more than just a title sponsor. It was great to have Bruce involved and it’s great to see that his company and that brand are still involved today.”

The next year, 2013 was a breakout year for the 12 Hour as manufacturers ranging from the now annual Audi-attack to Peugeot’s class contending RCZ realised the potential of the event, with it continuing to grow upon each year.

“The 2013 event was a watershed one for us,” O’Brien enthused. “That’s when we knew we were pretty sure we had it right and we were off and running. It wasn’t just the

number of cars, it was the number of brands getting involved and the activation from the manufacturers, the crowd and sponsorship was increasing.

Although there was swift growth of the event, O’Brien was not surprised and had confidence in his product. Experiences, including that of the two Bathurst 24 Hours meant the same problems faced by that short-lived event were avoided.

“I wasn’t surprised, we’d had a pretty solid business plan, we could see where GT3 was in Europe and also locally,” he said.

“Obviously, I learnt a lot of lessons from the 24 Hour because I was actually the Director of Motorsport for IMG back in those days and Ross Palmer engaged IMG to run those events so I was the Event Director for both 24 Hours. Realistically, having run those events on Procar’s behalf we could see the potential and where also Ross had made a couple of errors in the planning.

“But, I think Ross showed a lot of foresight and perhaps wanted to run before he walked so to speak. It’s not a criticism, he had the concept, the idea and it just needed a bit more time to get to where he envisioned it to be.”

O’Brien thinks fondly upon his time at the helm of Australia’s premier GT event and watches it these days from a distance after selling the event to Supercars at the end of 2015.

“I’m very happy it’s been a success with Supercars, I’m also happy for Stephane, who has also put in a lot of time and effort into the whole category, and the whole global concept,” O’Brien said.

EVENT WINNERS: GT ERA 2011 Marc Basseng/Christopher Mies/ Darryl O’Young Joest Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 292 laps

2012 Darryl O’Young/Christer Jons/ Christopher Mies Phoenix Racing Audi R8 GT3 LMS 270 laps

2013 Thomas Jager/Alexander Roloff/ Bernd Schneider Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT 268 laps

2014 John Bowe/Peter Edwards/Craig Lowndes/Mika Salo Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 296 laps

2015 Katsumasa Chiyo/Wolgang Reip/ Florian Strauss NISMO Athlete Global Team Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 269 laps

2016 Alvaro Parente/Shane van Gisbergen/Jonathon Webb Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S GT3 297 laps

2017 Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup/Toni Vilander Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 290 laps

2018 Robin Frijns/Stuart Leonard/Dries Vanthoor Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8 LMS 271 laps

2019 Dirk Werner/Dennis Olsen/Matt Campbell Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R 312 laps

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THE

GLOBETROTTER Since leaving Australian shores Nick Foster has become a gun for hire in sports cars internationally and arrives at the Bathurst 12 Hour with victory in his sights, as DAN McCARTHY reports

THE BATHURST 12 Hour has become an annual homecoming for Nick Foster since he began focusing on an international GT career after winning Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2015. The 27-year-old will take on The Mountain again and is hoping to this time to be the first to greet the chequered flag.

Foster is best known locally for his Carrera Cup victory with the renowned Sonic Motor Racing Services and before that as a stand-out in open-wheel junior formulas and since then an international career in prototypes and sports cars.

This has included a drive with Gulf Racing in the World Endurance Championship contesting GTE-Am category alongside Brit Ben Barker and a number of gentlemen competitors.

Recently he has contested the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia and the Intercontinental GT Challenge with Malaysia-based HubAuto Racing in a Ferrari 488 GT3.

The trip to Bathurst for Foster is one he looks forward to each year as it is rare that he races back home and even more infrequent that he takes on The Mountain.

“It is always a pleasure to come home at a time when family and friends are on holidays and get to catch up with everyone, which happens too few and far between these days, so I’m stoked to be back here,” he said.

Also he is excited to compete regularly in a race that has become an important event on the GT calendar.

“From an international’s perspective, since they did the 24 Hour, the inception of the 12 Hour and even some of the six-hour races the track has slowly gained a very big sports car following,” he told Auto Action.

Foster, centre, enjoys the spoils of victory with Supercars driver Tim Slade and factory driver Miguel Molina at Laguna Seca.

34 AutoAction

“To see how everyone has jumped on the back of an Australian track, especially with SRO and Intercontinental GT, they have made it a stable event and one of their blue ribbon events.

“For an Australian to see that from a sports car perspective where we are not commonly known for our sports car racing is a fantastic privilege.”

Foster’s Bathurst 12 Hour did not go to plan last year after teammate Nick Percat collided with a backmarker on the approach to Forrest’s Elbow. Racing with friends Percat and Tim Slade, the Ferrari finished 33 laps down on the winner, despite qualifying in the top 10.

The disappointment at Bathurst was quickly forgotten when Foster and Slade, this time joined by factory driver Miguel Molina, won the California 8 Hours at

Laguna Seca.

“For the team and all of us as drivers it was a new event, but fortunately we had a good rocket ship,” he recalled.

“Timmy managed to qualify up the front and e, Miguel did a mega drove a fantastic race, d th first stint that set the race up and the car looked after its tyres. We all did a good job, came away with a rapid result.

“Unfortunately that was where the success in Intercontinental ended, but regardless we were fast everywhere we went. From a driver perspective to be quick in that championship every weekend Spa, Bathurst, Laguna and

Nick Foster has made a name for himself as a GT specialist overseas

Suzuka, it is a nice feeling.”

F th expanding di on th Further the reasons h he enjoys racing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Foster highlighted the increased competitiveness and professionalism of the series.

“We weren’t factory supported, we were a customer car, so to compete at that level as a customer and win races, and be competitive was fantastic. It kind of throws back to the old golden days when customer teams could win Le Mans and fight with factory teams,” he told AA. “I feel that is what makes intercontinental GT special at the moment. You can have the top end, but you also have customer teams and customer drivers or non-factory drivers roll in and do pretty much the same job on the same weekend, so that is pretty cool.”

Foster is trying to put a deal together for this season, but feels it is unlikely he will be on the grid for the full campaign.

“Bathurst is the first one,” Foster said.

“I think we will definitely be at Spa and potentially at Suzuka.

“I am trying to look to put a whole program together, at this stage I am unlikely to do the whole thing.”

Foster will join Anton De Pasquale and The Bend co-owners Yasser and Sam Shahin driving a -- GT3 for this year’s event.

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FEATURE AutoAction

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PASS MARC

35

Designed and manufactured in Australia, the MARC cars have been a constant fixture of the Bathurst 12 Hour for much of the past decade, but only recently the MARC II was introduced, which has raised the benchmark, as HEATH McALPINE discovers IT HAS been six years since the rumble was the most surprising and pleasing of a V8-powered Ford Focus was first aspect of Luff’s first experience. heard across The Mountain, but the “It’s an effortless car to drive,” Luff game has stepped up for MARC Cars told Auto Action. “It’s very neutral in its Australia since then. In 2018 the balance — it’s got very nice smooth MARC II debuted. Inspired by the power delivery so it’ll be a car that Mustang, the new model has proven a should be able to lap very quickly, but success since its debut both locally and quite easily without having to stress the internationally. car out.

Four of the examples will enter “That’s the platform that these cars are this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour in the built around, being able to complete Invitational Class, one of which will be endurance races and survive. driven by regular pilot Geoff Taunton, Bathurst local Brad Aussies taking on the world with the locally engineered and built MARC II. The team is led by Geoff Taunton, with Schumacher, Bayley Hall, 16, Brad Schumacher, youngster Bayley Hall and the super and Bathurst veteran Warren Luff. experienced Warren Luff making up the team to take on Although Luff might have the The Mountain. most starts at The Mountain, not one has been made in a MARC. The Bathurst podium finisher had just his first experience in the Australian-produced machine at Queensland Raceway only a week ago.

After his first taste, Luff was eager to take the MARC to The Mountain then and there.

“Really impressed,” Luff declared. “It’s a combination of driving a Supercar in relation to the power with the handling characteristics of a GT car. It’s a really forgiving nice car to drive and is going to be a fun car to drive at the 12 Hour.”

The ease of driving the MARC

“I was really pleasantly surprised.

It was easy to get up to speed with and a fun, easy car to drive so I can’t wait to see what it will do around The Mountain.”

For young Hall, driving at Mt Panorama is a dream come true, but he can draw on experience after running his MARC I Ford Focus at Challenge Bathurst, where he ran consistently in the 2mins 12secs lap times.

Having also run in Australian GT on

the streets of the Gold Coast, Hall was actually providing advice to Luff and ended the day marginally slower than his more seasoned co-driver.

“I was under half a second of Luffy, so it’s always good to be that close to someone of such experience,” Hall said.

Comparing it to his usual MARC I, Hall was blown away by the differences between the two models.

“You can feel the lower centre of gravity. The aerodynamics work unbelievably, so when you’re really giving it some through the fast corners you have to have your head on a tilt just to get it level with the track,” Hall said.

“Compared to my MARC I Focus, it is definitely a step up, it’s a big upgrade and it’s definitely going to be great to get a few laps around Bathurst in it.”

For Hall, the whole weekend will be a surreal experience, surrounded by his heroes both on and off-track.

“I’m going to be at a driver’s briefing with all my heroes surrounding me and I’ll be asking myself, ‘What the hell am I doing here’?” Hall said excitedly.

Look out for MARC II #95 on the track at Bathurst.

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E H C A T HEAR AND PAIN

In the past 10 years the Bathurst 12 Hour has established itself as a staple on the Australian racing calendar, proving itself to be much easier to lose than win.

DAN McCARTHY reflects on those race-defining moments

Images: Bathurst 12 Hour

SINCE THE Bathurst 12 Hour changed to GT3 regulations 10 years ago the event has captured the globe’s attention.

Teams from across the world descend on Mount Panorama each year to contest the challenging once-around-the-clock event.

In its short history as a GT3 race the event has already begun to form and create its own history, including more than one legendary finish, some frightening crashes and some memorable incidents.

One of the most famous incidents came late in the 2017 race. Shane van Gisbergen, in a Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3, was giving everything to stay with race leader Jamie Whincup in a Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3.

Van Gisbergen had already punted the #51 Porsche into the wall exiting The Chase, after the Kiwi misjudged the closing speed when lapping Andrew McPherson.

But before the team could convey to van Gisbergen that he had been given a drive-through penalty, the Supercars driver lost the rear of the car on the run out of the Dipper, spinning into the concrete wall.

With a cracked radiator the Supercars star had to pull over, throwing away a guaranteed second-place finish. This left his co-driver Maro Engel furious.

The German kicked a stack of tyres and slammed the door of the team’s truck before his famous TV spat.

“I have got to watch out what I am saying but all I’ve seen this weekend is a lot of mistakes from Shane,” Engel said.

Minutes later Chad Neylon interviewed a disappointed and frustrated van

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Chaz Mostert was running strong in 2018 before he was involved in an incident at Forrest’s Elbow (above). Jamie Whincup overtook his Supercars teammate Shane van Gisbergen late in the 2017 race (top).

Gisbergen. “Yeah I’ll go and apologise to him (Engel),” van Gisbergen replied.

“As I said, it is my mistake, I’ll be angry at myself for as long as I can until the next race and I’ll push on, but yeah I’ll go and say sorry to him.”

However, van Gisbergen was not the only driver to make a mistake in the car. Earlier in the race as the safety car pulled into the lane, Gisbergen’s co-driver Craig Baird illegally overlapped the race leader Craig Lowndes into the final turn before spinning him into the gravel trap.

The safety car was immediately called and marshals quickly got the Maranello Ferrari back in the race on the lead lap.

“The main objective for me was to stay out of trouble and keep it on the lead lap which I was lucky to do, getting out of the gravel trap,” Lowndes said after the race.

“So that for me was the most important — to stay on the lead lap.”

Baird received a 10-second stop-go penalty for the incident and went out of his ay to apologise a few hours later. way “II had a major screw up earlier in thee day and I just want to apologise to Lowndesy and the Maranello otorsport team because I was Motorsport der the interpretation I could under erlap when it went green and overlap I was totally wrong,” he said.

At the end of thee race the o cars two ere were

again line astern before van Gisbergen made his crucial mistake.

Both Baird and van Gisbergen made errors on track while Andy Soucek made a mistake in pit lane, not one but twice.

Instead of turning off the pit lane speed limiter when exiting pit lane he switched the engine off.

The first time the Spaniard made the mistake was when he first hopped in the car and exited the lane just after the two-hour stage of the race. After pushing the wrong button the #108 Bentley Continental GT ground to a halt upon exit, but at this early stage of the race it did not prove too costly.

After the completion of the final stop Soucek made the same costly mistake and instead of leaving the pits in second place, the Bentley rejoined more than a minute behind the leader in seventh position.

The Bentley’s incredible speed in a straight line made it difficult to overtake when up towards the front.

However, when buried in the pack the large Bentley struggled to keep pace with its more agile rivals over the top of The Mountain and as a result Soucek had recovered to only sixth position when the chequered flag fell.

In 2018, Chaz Mostert failed to greet the chequered flag after storming to pole

Aussie Porsche star Matt Campbell broke through to win his first Bathurst 12 Hour in 2019 (right & above).

2019 A CLASSIC BATHURST RACE Images: LAT Images

position in the Top 10 Shootout on Saturday.

The Supercars driver looked in the zone throughout the race.

But a desperate attempt to make up position proved Mostert’s downfall as he pressured the #991 through the descent towards Forrest’s Elbow, before making a move upon exit.

A lapped competitor was to the outside and the #17 Bentley was on the inside as Mostert tried to squeeze through, ending in disaster.

Mostert touched the Bentley, which fired into the Class B Porsche, then the Schnitzer Motorsport BMW was wiped out when the Bentley came back across the track and into his path.

“I was really struggling to try and get past the Porsche and the Bentley there, but our car was really mega quick all

In 2014 the #32 Nissan crashed out of the race very early on.

race,” Mostert said. “The only way I was going to get past them was to take advantage of some lapped traffic.

“I had a big crack around the outside of Forrest’s Elbow.

“Then coming off the Elbow it went from a space for me to no space and unfortunately I made contact with the Bentley and the B-class Porsche and hurt all three of our races.”

The 2014 event welcomed the return of Godzilla to The Mountain after a 22year absence, but its race was run after just over two hours.

Hiroshi Hamaguachi in the #33 Clearwater Racing Ferrari came to rest at McPhillamy Park after crashing into the wall, resulting in a broken radiator and suspension and the car was stranded helpless in mid-track.

Next on the scene was Katsumasa

Chiyo (who was to be a hero a year later), but he hit the fluid and the stricken Ferrari.

“The car spun and I could not control the rear section. I touched the stopped Ferrari,” Chiyo recalled.

Co-driver Alex Buncombe did not complete a racing lap but was sympathetic about the situation.

“It’s not a good way to end the day things were looking really good,” Buncombe said.

“Rick (Kelly) did a fantastic first couple of stints there and Chiyo was just settling into his rhythm and we got caught out big time, just goes to show how tough this place is.”

Plenty more surprises, heartbreaks and tales of woe will occur in 2020 but who will be able to tame The Mountain for the full 12 hours?

EXHAUSTING. THAT’S how most drivers felt after 12 Hours of hard toil around Mount Panorama, but it was Australian Matt Campbell who, as described by former Le Mans 24 Hour winner and team boss Earl Bamber, put in “one of the best drives I’ve ever seen”.

Campbell charged during his final stint, completing a stunning move at Forrest’s Elbow on race leader Jake Dennis to give the older-spec Porsche 991 GT3R a fairytale farewell victory and a debut GT3 victory for Earl Bamber Motorsport.

The Bathurst 12 Hour has grown into a world class event, and last year’s entry was the biggest demonstration of this, with factory efforts representing Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and BMW, while international teams of the ilk of KCMG, HubAuto, R-Motorsport, BMW Team Schnitzer and Walkenhorst Motorsport lifted the bar yet again.

The race had been dominated by Mercedes-AMG as factory teams GruppeM Racing and Team Craft Bamboo held the advantage for most of the day.

Mistakes proved costly for Bentley, a misstep within the cabin by Andy Soucek meant the pit speed limiter was pressed upon leaving the lane, before it happened again as the race entered its closing stages.

GruppeM Racing and star driver Raffaele Marciello also made an error when he weaved when the safety car lights were extinguished, leaving the Italian furious post-race with the ruling. It also came after a thrilling conclusion where Marciello held out the charging TeamVodafone Mercedes driven by Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen to finish third.

Campbell’s race came alive after the final safety car as EBM decided against pitting the Aussie, leaving him with a 20secs lead, which disappeared after his pit stop. Crucially, the team only changed tyres and gambled on fuel, which paid dividends at the end of the day. Campbell’s only aim was to chase down the R-Motorsport Aston Martin, but he first had to dispose of Chaz Mostert, then Soucek and Marciello in a thrilling exhibition of passes, before he caught Dennis. A ballsy, fully committed move at Forrest’s Elbow between wall and Aston Martin was then followed by a stiff defence down the straight, delivering the rising Australian sports car star a popular victory.

This race continues to throw up close finish after close finish. Will 2020 live up to its predecessors?

HM

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37

WRC Preview 2020

GRUDGE MATCH

Last year’s FIA World Rally Championship was another enthralling and thrilling season, which continued after the season had finished. DAN McCARTHY breaks down all the major changes that occurred during a frantic off-season ahead of another exciting title fight.

Images: LAT/Red Bull Content Pool/M-Sport/Toyota

THE 2020 FIA World Rally Championship is poised to be another fierce and closely fought affair after the driver merry-go-round of the off-season and the reintroduction of some of the sport’s most challenging events.

Last year the three usual suspects battled it out for the crown. Each represented a different manufacturer, but it was Toyota’s Estonian gun Ott Tanak who broke the French dominance of the past decade to win the title.

Thierry Neuville and Hyundai were yet again bridesmaids, and Sebastien Ogier demonstrated his title credentials by remaining in contention even though his Citroen was by far the least competitive package.

In what was one of the silliest off-season periods of recent history, Tanak announced his defection from Toyota to Hyundai, joining Neuville, Dani Sordo and multiple world champion Sebastien Loeb in a sign that the Korean manufacturer is serious about taking the world title.

The Estonian’s first impressions of his new team have made him confident that Champion Ott Tanak will trade his Toyota GAZOO Racing suit for a Hyundai this year, top. M-Sport’s charge will be led by Citroen refugee Esapekka Lappi.

38 AutoAction

consecutive crowns are possible.

“There’s no doubt this is a factory team, it’s obvious from the way the team is running it’s a very high level,” Tanak said.

“They know what they’re doing, the feedback and support immediately was really good and very much at the top level. I’m happy.

“When I drove the car, straight away it was OK. It was good. It was driving easily and there was a good feeling for the car.”

Replacing Tanak at Toyota is rival Ogier, who terminated his contract at Citroen a year early to join the Japanese marque led by four-time WRC champion Tommi Makinen. It is a clean slate for the team with rookie Kalle Rovenpera and former M-Sport team leader Elfyn Evans joining the squad.

A further two Yaris WRCs will be entered on a part-time basis for Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta and the dropped Jari-Matti Latvala.

Although it had planned to enter this season, Citroen announced its withdrawal once Ogier had confirmed he had joined Toyota. The French manufacturer in part blamed its star driver for its departure from the series, which left Esapekka Lappi searching for a drive.

It wasn’t long before the Finn found one: he was announced as M-Sport’s new leading driver in what is a remarkably youthful team consisting of fellow Finn Teemu Sunninen and Brit Gus Greensmith in what will be an expanded nine-round program.

“I’m very happy they (M-Sport) put their trust in us, giving myself and Janne an opportunity to show what we can do in 2020,” Lappi said.

The changes over the off-season left just two drivers retaining their seats from last year and quite a number of high-quality drivers were left on the sideline. Hyundai regular Andreas Mikkelsen, Kris Meeke and Craig Breen remain without drives, while the hopes of Mads Ostberg and Haydon Paddon featuring in part-time campaigns are highly unlikely.

It’s not just the driver market that has had a severe shake-up, the calendar features the return of some historic events at the cost of others.

Australia is one of the casualties as it was deemed the regional setting of Coffs Harbour failed to generate the spectator interest of a major city. New Zealand will again rejoin the WRC circus for the first time since 2012, however it is hoped that the rally will alternate across the Tasman as it did from 2008 to 2012, meaning Rally Australia may return.

Rally Catalunya and Rally Corsica will also be replaced after long histories on the calendar, but excitingly Rally Kenya will make a return. Although the long-haul safari format won’t be used it is a welcome returnee to the WRC. Japan also makes a return, which is fitting with Toyota being reigning world champion.

The event that will replace the cancelled Chilean event is still to be decided.

In testing, Toyota still appears to have the edge on its competitors, which it held during the

Citroen departed the WRC at the end of last season after star driver Sebastien Ogier defected to Toyota, replacing rival Tanak, top.

The Japanese marque’s line-up also includes rookie Kalle Rovenpera. closing rounds of last year. “The Yaris is really fast,” said the 19-year-old rookie Rovenpera.

“I have a lot to learn from the aero and central diff. Coming from the R5 car, there are many things we have to learn.

“I’m looking forward to doing more with the car. There’s much more adjustment I can make. The engineers from the team were great, they all worked really well and helped me as new driver to come to the team.”

The battle at Hyundai is an exciting prospect, but will that aid Ogier? Will Hyundai have the car to defeat the Yaris? These questions leave Ogier as a marginal favorite heading into the coming season, but it’s sure to be tight.

2020 WRC Calendar Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9 Round 10 Round 11 Round 12 Round 13 Round 14

Monte-Carlo Sweden Mexico Chile Argentina Portugal Italy Kenya Finland New Zealand Turkey Germany Great Britain Japan

January 23 - 26 February 13 - 16 March 12 - 15 April 16 -19 (cancelled) April 30 - May 3 May 21 - 24 June 4 - 7 July 16 - 19 August 6 - 9 September 3 - 6 September 24 - 27 October 15 - 18 October 29 - Nov 1 November 19 - 22

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39

MR VERSATILE

AAaron CCameron hhas enjoyed j d a rapid id rise i ffrom TToyota t 8866 racer tto TTCR CR AAustralia t li race winner. i N Now, as he sets his sights on a touring car career overseas, the 19-year-old reflects with DAN McCARTHY on his career so far and what’s to come Images: TCR Australia/Daniel Kalisz/Insyde Media

VERSATILE IS one way to describe Aaron Cameron’s career to this point. He has dabbled in a wide array of categories for someone in the infancy of his career. From SuperUtes to Toyota 86 to TCR, Cameron has tasted success in each, earning him a reputation as one of Australia’s brightest young talents.

Auto Action spoke to Cameron after he arrived home from testing with leading British Touring Car Championship squad Team Dynamics and a karting expedition in Macau where he again finished strongly.

Reminiscing about his beginnings, Cameron said his career snowballed once he was a proven frontrunner in karting.

“It all started in go karts, then went to do some casual driving and racing and then it kept on getting more serious,” Cameron explained to Auto Action.

His first step out of karting was into the Victorian Formula Ford Championship in 2016 before tackling the highly competitive Toyota 86 Race Series the next year.

“They all say Formula Ford is the first step to learn all the basics,” he said. “I thought it was great, I loved it. But after Formula Ford there were no goals to go to F4.

“The 86 Series didn’t pan out perfectly for me. I think it is a great platform, just had a few too many crashes in my first year, so it took a lot of our budget out pretty soon.”

Concurrently, Cameron ran in a variety of other categories including karts, HQs,

40 AutoAction

Aaron Cameron receives his third-place cheque from ARG CEO Matt Braid.

Excels, V8 Utes and Formula Ford to significantly increase his seat time and quickly grow his experience.

“We never really focus just on one category to expand what I drive, so the pressure is on me whenever I jump in the cars. There is no excuse that I haven’t done 10 days testing,” he said.

For 2018 the Victorian decided to focus on two categories, the most diverse of any in Australia. These were the KZ2 Australian Karting Championship and the inaugural SuperUte Series driving a Peters Motorsport Mazda BT-50.

Despite the challenge it proved to be a very successful year with Cameron winning the

KZ2 Australian Kart title.“It was something we had been working towards for a long time,” he said.

“We didn’t expect to win, considering we didn’t do the amount of testing that a lot of the other guys did.

“Luck finally went our way.

“We knew what we had to do at the last round to win it, so played it safe and finally got that national title.”

Although Cameron finished only fifth in the SuperUte Series, a category that has copped a lot of flak during the past two seasons, there are no regrets.

“The SuperUtes were pitched as an alternative pathway into Super2 and on to

Supercars: obviously it hasn’t turned out to be the greatest thing,” he said.

“It was great fun and we had great sponsors on board. If I didn’t go into SuperUtes I don’t know what else I would have raced and it certainly wouldn’t have been Super2 or Super3, I couldn’t afford any of that.

“Maybe I’d have been racing 86s or Formula Ford again but you don’t get as much exposure. I mean we were eight rounds in front of Supercars on the TV. “I had a couple of cool races. I won a race, fastest laps and a couple of roll-overs. Those aren’t the best way to get your name out there, but it did, so I can’t really complain too much.”

Last season began with victory in Class D at the Bathurst 6 Hour alongside Kyle Gurton and Cooper Murray in his own Toyota 86, which he continues to run in both Toyota 86 and production car events for customers.

“I’d raced the 6 Hour once before and this time decided to enter one of my own 86s with the help of family and friends to get the car from 86 spec to production car spec,” Cameron told AA. “It took a lot of work but got it done and to win the class was pretty cool considering there was some decent competition. We just did what we had to in the race pretty much, so it was good.”

At that stage Cameron was heading down Supercars pathway, but this soon changed.

Cameron was one of the first drivers to commit to the new SuperUtes category, above. Russell Ingall provided invaluable advice to his young teammate during the inaugural TCR Australia season, far right. A steer in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R capped a strong season, right.

An opportunity to link up with MARC Cars Australia creator Ryan McLeod began his journey towards winning the Michelin Cup for rookies after the inaugural season of TCR Australia.

“Ryan has been really good, really helpful from the first year in 2017 when I raced his MARC I, and we have sort of grown on that relationship further and further,” he said.

“I think I did my first race in an Audi TCR car that he was running at Barcelona, that was a bit of a shock to the system.

“I was given a call on the Monday, flew out on the Wednesday, and then I ended up starting the race.

“That was a really nuts one trying to keep everything in check and make sure you just do your job.

“At that stage TCR wasn’t in Australia and I didn’t even know about it, Supercars was where we were heading, TCR came up and we went that way instead. At the start of the year I didn’t think it was going to get off the

ground because I didn’t know of many cars in the country, and then it started to quickly come together.

“We kept speaking to a lot of teams. Ryan helped a lot with contacts and all that and eventually we got to put a deal together with MPC (Melbourne Performance Centre) for the first round, and then it just kept evolving from there.”

In the MPC team Cameron was joined by a number of well-established names both nationally and internationally, which the former karting champ found very much to his benefit.

“It ended up being a really good team to go with, all these different people, I could just take all the different pieces that I needed from each driver,” he said.

“Garth Tander, he was the first one that really showed me that you really do

have to give these things a crack.

“Jean-Karl Vernay really threw a spanner in the works with the way to drive these cars.

When you looked at his data it was nuts.

After QR I tried to adopt some of the things he was doing and it paid off, especially at Tailem Bend.

“Russell Ingall was good more from a racing perspective, how to race people in tin tops when you are trying to pass, not bump and run but keep up their arse and push them into a mistake.”

The gradual improvement showed when Cameron started the final race of the season

second seco ond in the outright behind outri i h points i b hi d runaway series i winner Will Brown, but a mechanical winn problem halfway through the race halted probl challenge and Tony D’Alberto scored his ch enough points to take the position. enoug was disappointing, but everyone had “It w mechanical issues throughout the year, their m we were just the unlucky ones to have it in the last race with about four or five laps to go,” he said.

“It just made it a little harder to swallow.

“There were expectations from my point of view to go well but, at the same time, look who you are up against. It was even cooler to get third in the series.”

Since returning from his BTCC test, Cameron’s appetite to take on the world of touring cars has been whetted and he is eager to pursue a career in Europe next year, which can be read in Auto Action #1777.

AutoAction

41

Targa Florio IIn another instalment of Auto Action’s Great Drives, BOB WATSON reminisces about one of the most spectacular motor sport events, the Targa Florio o Targa Flori

Images: LAT/Mercedes

I

T IS little known that the Targa Florio race in Sicily is the oldest sports car race in the world, predating the famous Le Mans 24 Hour race by 18 years.

First run in 1906, it was organised at the whim of Vincenzo Florio, a former racer who won the Targa Rignano (Padova Bovolenta) in 1903.

He generously financed a race in 1905 named Coppa Florio, but being a wealthy automobile enthusiast he decided to sponsor a race under his own name.

The Targa Florio was an open road sports car endurance race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island’s capital of Palermo.

First prize was a silver plate (targa) inscribed with the Florio family’s crest.

Felice Feli Fe lice Nazzaro, above, was the winner of the second Targa Florio The first races consisted of a whole hole 1907 driving a Fiat. tour of the island, but the track llength iin 19 His teammate Alessandro was eventually reduced to a more Cagno finished the inaugural manageable 72km (45 miles) and is event in sixth. known as the Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie. From 1955 to 1973 the race was a round of the World Sportscar Championship and covered 11 laps of the circuit, a race distance of 495 miles (797km).

Although the track has been downgraded in recent years because of safety issues it is still used for rallies and other events. The old pit buildings survive and retain a tangible feeling of history – the ghosts of those who were there in the glory days of the circuit still seem to be there.

One of the toughest competitions in Europe, the first Targa Florio covered three laps equalling 277 miles (446km) through multiple hairpin curves on treacherous mountain roads, at heights where severe changes in climate frequently occurred. Alessandro Cagno drove an Itala to victory in nine hours, averaging 30 miles an

42 AutoAction

Stirling Moss managed to leave the road twice, damaging but not crippling his Mercedes 300SLR, getting back on the road to share victory with Peter Collins, while below, Carroll Shelby’s Ferrari failed to finish.

hour (50 km/h). By the 1920s, the Targa Florio had become one of Europe’s most important sports car races, as neither the 24 Hours of Le Mans nor the Mille Miglia had yet been established.

The Targa Florio was always a classic race, but the 39th running of the event was particularly important, with the World Sports Car championship at stake. It took place on October 16, 1955 around the Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie and was the sixth and final round of the FIA World Sports Car Championship. The title fight lay between Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, with Ferrari leading by 19 points to 16 from the other two marques.

A total of 65 racing cars entered. Scuderia Ferrari arrived with a pair of Ferrari 750 Monzas for Carroll Shelby and Gino Munaron, and Umberto Maglioli and Sergio Sighinolfi, alongside an 860 Monza for Eugenio Castellotti and Robert Manzon. One of the closest championship rivals, Jaguar, did not enter, leaving it to just one locally entered Jaguar XK120 to take up the fight. Meanwhile, Officine Alfieri

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33

io lorio Targa Flo

Stirling Moss failed to have the luck of his earlier forays, retiring in 1961 with Porsche, right. It was Germany vs Germany when Porsche joined Mercedes-Benz in the Targa Florio, right below.

Maserati sent a total of six works cars across the Strait of Messina to keep theirr very slim championship hopes alive.

Daimler-Benz AG entered three of their Mercedes-Benz 300SLRs. They had decided to quit racing at the end of the 1955 season, but were making one last major attempt to wrest the World Sports Car Championship away from Ferrari.

Despite Mercedes missing some of the earlier rounds, Stirling Moss had won the Mille Miglia to keep the German marque in the championship hunt. The cars were to be driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling, Stirling Moss and Peter Collins, and John Fitch with former Jaguar driver Desmond Titterington.

The race was held over 13 laps of the 44.64 miles of the Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie, a distance of 581.604 miles (941km). Each team of drivers would negotiate approximately 10,000 curves during almost 10 hours of combined driving. The Daimler team manager Alfred Neubauer was planning on each driver being able to run four-lap stints The first car, an Alfa Romeo 1900 TI started off at 7am, with

44 AutoAction

subsequent cars departing every 30 seconds. The first of the main competitors, the Ferrari 750 Monza driven by Luigi Piotti and Franco Cornacchia, left at 7:20. Although his Mercedes was one of the last to be flagged off, Moss had amazingly passed every car by the end of lap one.

Castellotti’s Ferrari split the Mercedes of Moss and Fangio but at the end of the fourth lap Moss left the road and ended in a ditch and Castellotti was in first place. Luckily the Mercedes was still in working order, if slightly bruised. After help from some spectators Moss was back on the road but now in fourth place. Collins exchanged places with Moss and took up the chase. Fangio passed the leading Ferrari and handed his car to Kling.

Mercedes was now in first, third and fourth places. The Mercedes of Moss and Collins would certainly have its fair share of exciting moments with minor damage all around

Moss is about to leave pit lane and in the 1955 Targa Florio, above. The Mercedes-Benz race team: below, from left: John Cooper Fitch, Desmond Titterington, Peter Collins, Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling

the car’s body. The areas around the headlights were badly damaged, front corners on both sides were stripped away and the right-side panels looked as though they had had encounters with buildings, Still, the car was going very fast as the two Englishmen drove hard through the Sicilian countryside and villages.

Again, Moss pushed a bit too hard and careered off the side of the track. The car avoided heavy damage, and with the help of more local spectators, Moss rejoined the race, still leading.

Trouble struck again when Collins drove straight up a stone wall, his front wheels spinning in the air. Fortunately he was able to put his car in reverse and rejoined the battle. Collins worked his way up to first before returning the battered car to Moss Moss drove the only way that he knew how – flat out - and achieved a hard-won victory in a time of 9hrs 43.14 mins, averaging 59.832 mph (96.9km/h). As Peter Collins said “despite Stirling’s efforts and my own to write the machine off”. Second were Fangio and Kling, 4mins 41 seconds adrift. The podium was completed by the Ferrari 857 S of Castellotti and Manzon, a further 5mins 25secs behind.

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Another classic event comes to Australia A MOTORING event to commemorate the classic Targa Florio race has been introduced to Australia. After 100 years of events in Sicily, the Palermo Car Club agreed to add a sister event in Australia and the Targa Florio Australian Tribute was born.

The Lawson family, comprising Andrew and his wife Linda and brother Paul, have taken up the mantle to see this great event come alive in Australia. Their father John Lawson is very well known in the historic and classic car movement in Australia and is equally passionate about the famous event coming to Australia.

The Australian event is the first to be held outside Italy. Victoria, with its large Italian community and its strong history of racing and roads that provide the perfect backdrop for the regularity motorsport event, persuaded the club that it was time to let their historic event be experienced elsewhere in the world.

The Targa Florio Australian Tribute follows a European format developed for classic events such as the Mille Miglia and Historic

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Monte Carlo Rally that allows the enjoyment of cars with precision rather than speed.

Drivers are set the task of driving over a number of amphometer-like tubes at varying average speeds. Precision is crucial, as the timing between points is to one thousandth of a second. Because high speeds are not a deciding factor, cars can compete without the onerous burden of added safety features such as roll cages, helmets, driving suits and head restraints.

This year’s Targa Florio Australian tribute was won by the Italian crew of Angelo Pizzuto and Caterina Vagliani, who have won many such events in Europe. Highly skilled driving is required to win.

There are two categories open for drivers to compete. Both categories follow exactly the same course and take in the same stages. The event covers nearly 1200km over four days and 70 competition stages. The Categories are the Classica Trofeo for Classic cars produced between 1906 and 1976 and the Legends Trophy for Exotic cars produced from 1977 onward.

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For further information on the Blockley Tyres range and the many other brands stocked by Stuckey Tyres give them a call on 03 9386 5331

G-DRIVE WINS EPIC ALMS FIGHT AT THE BEND

By DAN McCARTHY Images: Peregrine Group/Insyde Media

FOR THE first time in history the Asian Le Mans Series arrived in Australia at The Bend Motorsport Park and it delivered a thrilling race. Victory went to G-Drive Racing

By Algarve’s Aurus 01 Gibson, driven by Roman Rusinov, James French and Leonard Hoogenboom.

“Everyone in the team did a fantastic job. The Aurus has been quick all weekend, (it was) just an amazing time out there, The Bend is unreal to drive this car at, everyone did a great job, so, just so happy,” French said.

“I think it was a really nice race, hard, but in the end we won, and in the end that is the goal.

“Thanks for G-Drive and Aurus and to my teammates, thanks for the great drive.”

The 4 Hours of The Bend was the second round of the 2019-20 ALMS with the winning team taking victory by 45s ahead of the #36 Eurasia Motorsport Racing Australia entry shared between Nick Foster, Aidan Read and former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi, while third was the pole-sitting #45 Thunderhead Carlin Racing Ligier driven by British trio Ben Barnicoat, Harry Tincknell and Jack Manchester.

Barnicoat scorched the field in qualifying and despite making a mistake early in the session, recovered to snatch pole ahead of former SuperGT champion Nick Cassidy in the #1 Eurasia Motorsport all-Kiwi entry with Daniel Gaunt and Shane van Gisbergen.

The #26 G-Drive Racing

By Algarve team started in third ahead of the lead #34 Inter Europol Endurance squad headed by James Winslow, Mathias Beche and Jakub Smiechowski, which completed minimal laps after a fuel pump failure and oil leak.

Rounding out the top five was the #36 Eurasia Motorsport Racing Australia entry.

As the lights turned green Gaunt made a better jump from the rolling start than the pole-sitter, sweeping around the outside of Manchester at Turn 1. During opening laps, Gaunt pulled out a considerable margin on the chasing pack, but the Kiwi made an unforced error on lap 3, allowing Manchester a look around the outside to no avail.

The top five teams in LMP2 were now running line astern and did so for several

James Jam mes French, Romain Rusinov and Leonard Hoogenboom salute the vicory, Leo abo above. The Thunderbird Carlin Racing crew failed to convert pole position into cre victory, left. vict

laps before French in the G-Drive Racing by Algarve Aurus made a successful move on Manchester to take second.

As the race settled down and the leaders began to negotiate lapped traffic, Manchester was the first to be caught out while lapping the GT-Class D’station Racing AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 into the Turn 23 hairpin.

Manchester locked up and ran on to the grass, but not before being collected by the Aston Martin, which forced the winner of Asto the GT-Class in Shanghai into the pits.

Despite the incident, the #45 continued Des with left rear damage.

A few minutes later the first full course yellow was waved to pick up debris from yel the incident, in which Gaunt and French made their first stops, but Read and ma Manchester remained on the circuit.

Ma As the first hour approached A Manchester pitted and handed over to Ma former Le Mans GTE Pro class fo winner Tincknell. Read in the #36 w suit, but the West Australian ffollowed fo o remained in the car. re As the first hour wrapped up Gaunt TThe G-Drive Racing By Algarve team flew into the history books as the first w winner of the 4 Hours at The Bend.

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led French, Read and Tincknell, but the lat latter was taken out of the battle after in incurring a drive-through penalty for the in incident involving the Aston Martin.

Just over a quarter of the way into the ra race another caution was called because oof the stationary #3 Nielsen Racing LMP3 Norma M30 Nissan and this had its effect on the outright battle as French and Tincknell pitted.

Gaunt completed another lap before handing over to van Gisbergen, but the race had gone back to green racing conditions, leaving the Red Bull Holden Racing Team ace well behind the G-Drive Racing By Algarve Aurus, the leading team to stop twice.

Moments later, the caution was out again after the #59 RLR MSport Oreca LMP2 Am Class entry caught fire in a big way. Flames engulfed the car as wreckage flew into the air still on fire. Driver John Farano leapt from the vehicle unhurt.

Although the race had previously entered caution periods, this was the first to require the safety car, which closed pit lane and in turn hurt the strategy of the #36 just as it needed to make its second stop.

This allowed the G-Drive Racing By Algarve into the lead with Hoogenboom overtaking Read into Turn 1 at the restart, while the Australian completed several laps before pitting to hand over to Merhi.

As the laps ticked by van Gisbergen homed in on the tail of Hoogenboom. The Kiwi

tried everything to make his way through but was unable to do so and as a result he was brought into the pits using an undercut strategy. This worked very well for van Gisbergen: when the G-Drive car did pit it came out 9s behind the Supercar driver, but in just 10 minutes the gap was cut to a mere 1.9s.

With 70 minutes remaining van Gisbergen entered the lane from the lead, handing the car over to Cassidy. A few minutes later former World Endurance Championship LMP2 class champion Rusinov clambered inside the #26 car and came out in the lead.

Cassidy closed the gap to Rusinov, putting pressure on the Russian, who made a mistake trying to lap an LMP3 car as Cassidy briefly took the lead before the Russian fought back at the following turn.

The two remained nose to tail until Cassidy made his final stop with 27 minutes to go.

A few minutes later the GT-Class #16 Astro Veloce Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 ran off the circuit and hit the wall heavily in the technical second sector and this resulted in a full course yellow.

This played into the hands of G-Drive, which made its final stop under the FCY conditions and came out with a commanding lead.

One last twist was to come in the LMP2 class, the #1 car of Cassidy, van Gisbergen and Gaunt suffered a gearbox issue with seven minutes to go, forcing them into retirement.

This allowed Rusinov to cruise to victory ahead of the #36 car of Foster, Read and Merhi, with pole-sitters Barnicoat, Tincknell

and Manchester in third position.

By staying out of trouble all day the Aussies Nathan Kumar and Mitchell Neilson, with John Corbett, finished fourth in the #33 Inter Europol car.

In the LMP2 Am class it was a ding-dong battle all day between the two Rick Ware Racing cars. In the end the #52 car of Cody Ware and Gustas Grinbergas took the win ahead of the sister car driven by Philippe Mulacek, Anthony Lazzaro and Guy Cosmo. Australian Garnet Patterson and his teammates Miro Konopka and Andreas Laskaratos rounded out the podium.

The LMP3 battle was closely fought between four different cars racing for four separate teams. It was a frantic final hour.

Eventually it was the #2 Nielsen Racing car of Tony Wells and Colin Noble that won the class. The #13 Inter Europol Competition with Nigel Moore and Martin Hippe behind the wheel just held on to second by 1.2s from David Fumanelli, Alessandro Bressan and Gabriele Lancieri. The top three were separated by just 21.4s after four hours.

Australian Ricky Capo was on course for a class podium but in the final hour, with David Droux at the wheel, the #9 Graff Racing Norma M30 Nissan suffered extensive damage and was unable to continue.

The #14 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P3 consisting of Australians Peter Paddon, Garth Walden and American co-driver Austin McCusker came home fourth in class, three laps down despite several off-track excursions.

The GT class was an all-Ferrari fight as

The mixture of LMP2, LMP3 and GT proved a spectacle heading into Turn 1, led by Kiwi Daniel Gaunt, above. Below, Nielsen Racing won in LMP3 with a Norma M30. Bottom, the all Kiwi team look the goods with a front row start and led the early race laps. A transmission failure ended their strong run.

the #7 Car Guy 488 of Takeshi Kimura, Kei Cozzolino and Come Ledogar edged the #27 HubAuto Corsa 488 driven by Australian Liam Talbot, Davide Rigon and Marcos Gomes.

Talbot dominated the opening hour of the race, however with the advent of the virtual safety cars the #7 Car Guy Ferrari 488 GT3 team emerged back into contention.

Despite serving a drive-through penalty for turning around the #16 Astro Veloce Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 with 90 minutes to go, the #7 Car Guy trio took the win clear of Talbot, Rigon and Gomes.

Third place went to the Spirit of Race Ferrari in the hands of Francesco Piovanetti, Oswaldo Negri Jr and Alessandro Pierguidi.

The G-Drive Racing By Algarve Aurus JS 217 Gibson team of Rusinov, French and Hoogenboom remain undefeated heading to the penultimate round at Sepang, Malaysia on February 15.

Results – 4 Hours of The Bend

1 Rusinov/French/Hoogenboom G-Drive Racing By Algarve Aurus 01 78 laps - 606km 2 Foster/Read/Merhi Eurasia Motorsport Ligier JS P217 LMP2 +44.886 3 Barnicoat/Tincknell/Manchester Thunderhead Carlin Racing Dallara P217 +2m 10.774s 4 Corbett/Kumar/Neilson Inter Europol Endurance Ligier JS P217 +3 laps 5 Kvamme/Ware/Grinbergas Rick Ware Racing Ligier JS P2 +3 laps 6 Mulacek/Cosmo/Lazzaro Rick Ware Racing Ligier JS P2 +3 laps 7 Konopka/Laskaratos/Patterson ARC Bratislava Ligier JS P2 +4 laps 8 Noble/Wells Nielsen Racing Norma M30

+5 laps

9 Hippe/Moore Inter Europol International Ligier JS P3 +5 laps 10 Bressan/Lancieri/Fumanelli ACE1 Villorba Corse Ligier JS P3 +5 laps GT Class Cozzolino/Kimura/Ledogar Car Guy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3

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By DAN McCARTHY Images: Red Bull Content Pool THE 2020 edition of the Dakar Rally visited Saudi Arabia for the first time, but in the new country the same wise heads prevailed — rally legend Carlos Sainz won the Car Class for a third time and Ricky Brabec took the Motorbike Class.

Defending Motorbike Class titleholder Australian Toby Price fought hard but fell short finishing in a very respectable third, but in the end he could not match the consistency of American Brabec, who won his first Dakar Rally title.

The Car Class was once again full of quality. ty. ty Spaniard Sainz was pushed all the way by his teammate, the 13-time Dakar champion Stephane Peterhansel, and Toyota’s defending rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Along with Al-Attiyah Toyota Gazoo Racing sent an impressive list of drivers that included Giniel de Villiers and Bernhard Ten Brinke. But it was Toyota’s other factory driver, two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, who stole the headlines by entering his first Dakar Rally.

None of the first 41 editions of Dakar had been held in the Middle East, but this year that changed. Competitors drove on all terrains and all around the country, from the shores of the Red Sea in Jeddah, in the west around the canyons and mountains, over the dunes of the Empty Quarter and towards the capital Riyadh.

A solid 237 out of the 342 vehicles that started in Jeddah went onto finish the rally, a rate of 69.3 per cent. In the final classification 96 motorbikes, 12 quads, 58 cars, 31 SSVs and 40 trucks completed the event.

In the Car Class it was the veterans who rose to the top — Sainz, Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel fought for the glory. In the end Sainz held on, but the top three were separated by less than 10 minutes at the end of the event.

It was a surprising start to the rally when Mini driver Vaidotas Zala won the opening stage.

Toyota’s Al-Attiyah led for much of the encounter but suffered three punctures late on. Peterhansel and Sainz finished second and third to make it a Mini 1-2-3 after the opening test.

The second stage was won by Toyota driver de Villiers, but Orlando Terranova’s second place in the stage shot him into the rally lead. Sainz finished the stage in fifth and this resulted in

Defending Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah finished the event in second place this time around.

SAINZ WINS TIGHT DAKAR TUSSLE him rising to second overall, while his teammate Peterhansel lost 13 minutes.

Sainz took a near eight-minute lead after a convincing stage win on the third stage, Al-Attiyah moved up to second and Frenchman Peterhansel fell down the order to be 19 minutes behind in fifth. Peterhansel fought back strongly with a stage win the following day, closing the gap to the leader by more than seven minutes.

The two Mini drivers swapped stage victories over several days, while the consistent Al-Attiyah stayed in the hunt.

After six of the 12 stages had been completed Sainz led Qatari Al-Attiyah by 7min 48secs and Peterhansel sat 16min 20secs from the lead. Local Saudi Arabian Yazeed Al Rajhi was best of the rest in fourth, while two-time Le Mans 24 Hour winner Alonso sat in 16th.

Sainz began the second half of the rally strongly with yet another stage victory, but Stages 8 and 9

would see his lead evaporate.

Stage 8 was won by Frenchman Mathieu Serradori ahead of Toyota’s Alonso. While the leading trio all finished outside the top eight, Sainz was the slowest of the three champions in 15th.

Worse was to come for the Spaniard, who was only fifth fastest after a navigational mistake and delaminated tyre in Stage 9 cost him 6min 31secs to Peterhansel. Al-Attiyah was just 15secs slower than the Frenchman and as a result closed the gap on rally leader Sainz to just 24secs with three stages remaining.

In Stage 10 it was both Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel’s turn to make navigational errors. Peterhansel lost nearly 12 minutes. Al-Attiyah threw away close to 18 minutes.

In his first attempt at the legendary rally Fernando Alonso finished 13th.

This left Sainz with a huge lead with just two stages remaining. Al-Attiyah went from fighting for the lead to defending second, leading Peterhansel by just 16secs.

It was an eventful stage in which Alonso also spectacularly performed a double barrel roll in the first kilometre of the stage. He continued but lost time removing the cracked windscreen.

On the penultimate test Peterhansel further closed the gap by 6secs which meant he was just 10secs behind going into the short final stage.

Al-Attiyah, however, had him covered, convincingly winning the final stage

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Australia’s defending Motorbike Class champ Toby Price finished third.

Carlos Sainz fought hard to win his third Dakar Rally.

and with it took second place in the rally.

Peterhansel finished the event in third for Mini but it was his teammate Sainz who did enough to win his third Dakar Rally for a third different manufacturer.

“I feel very happy. There’s a lot of effort behind this,” said Sainz.

“A lot of training, practice, physically, with the team. We started winning this Dakar on day one and we have gone flat out from the beginning.”

Local Al Rajhi did enough to finish in fourth position, Alonso performed strongly in the final stage with a fourth and in doing so completed his first Dakar Rally 13th overall.

In the Motorbike class Brabec became not only the first American to win Dakar but the first Honda rider in 31 years, on his 450 CRF. “We’re here. We won!” said Brabec at the finish line. “At the end, we put the pieces to the puzzle together. We couldn’t do it without every rider in the team.

“I’m really happy. It’s my fifth Dakar, my second time finishing. I woke up this morning just happy to ride the last day.

“We had to be smart and focused every day.

There’s no top guy on the team, we all work together, we’re a family. We all won.”

The Californian moved into the lead after the third stage an never looked back, unlike last year when mechanical failures cost the Californian with victory in his sight. Chilean Pablo Quintanilla rode his Husqvarna to second place.

Australian Toby Price came third on his KTM, 24 minutes back.

On Stage 7 Price came across the crashed motorbike driven by Paulo Goncalves. The Australian champ saw that the Portuguese rider was critically injured so he stopped and tried to bring his fellow competitor back to life for eight minutes before the medical helicopter arrived.

Sadly Goncalves died aged 40. Auto Action sends its condolences to his friends and family.

In the other classes Casey Currie gave America another reason to celebrate by winning the SSV race, Ignacio Casale took back the throne in Quads and Andrey Karginov extended his victorious streak of the Trucks.

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FORMULA E

SPARKS FLY AS GUENTHER TAKES CHARGE BMW i ANDRETTI Motorsport driver Maximilian Guenther claimed a hard-fought first victory in an action-packed, attritional third round of the 2019-20 all-electric Formula E Championship in Santiago, Chile.

On the last lap of the race 22-year-old Guenther fought back to retake the lead and the victory from Antonio Felix da Costa, who ran second in his DS Techcheetah.

Pole-sitting New Zealander Mitch Evans looked good early but his Jaguar lacked pace in the second half of the race and he was classified in third.

Evans hadn’t made the best of the start but managed to hold the lead into Turn 1.

Former F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein went the long way around Guenther into Turn 1, which gave him the inside into Turn 2 and he took second position.

Championship leader Alexander Sims qualified 15th and was very aggressive on the opening lap — too aggressive, in fact — and picked up damage. The Briton would come to a halt a few minutes later, bringing out a full course yellow with 37 minutes to go.

It was frantic in the midfield when racing went back to green, and into Turn 10 it all came to blows. Three cars into the Turn 10 hairpin at the same time doesn’t work and as a result Race 1 winner Sam Bird was turned around by fellow Brit Oliver Rowland. Bird dropped to 19th, while Rowland’s front wing broke,

causing him to pit, before he was then given a penalty for the clash.

Just after the VSC Evans used his first of two Attack Modes and was followed on the next lap by Jean-Eric Vergne and da Costa.

With 32 minutes to go Guenther activated Attack Mode and lost a place in the process to Edoardo Mortara. He quickly retook the place but the time he lost allowed Wehrlein to hold second.

Former Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa tried to get his Venturi teammate Mortara for fourth, but the Swiss driver forced Massa wide, causing the Brazilian to lose two places.

Evans chose to activate his second Attack Mode as the chasing pack closed in on him.

Guenther, Mortara and Vergne all deployed Attack Mode soon after.

With 25 minutes left on the clock, Evans maintained the lead with Guenther now in second and Wehrlein third with one Attack use remaining.

Still in Attack Mode Guenther caught Evans and tried a move at Turn 2. Unable to get through there the German moved into the lead around Turn 8.

With 19 minutes remaining Wehrlein used his final Attack Mode but surprisingly could not pull away from Vergne. Once Attack Mode ran out he allowed the DS Techcheetahs of Vergne and da Costa through.

Reigning champion Vergne was now third but his left tyre started to rub on his front wing, and smoke trailed from the car as the Maximilian Guenther opened his account for the 2019/20 Formula E season with victory on the streets of Santiago in Chile, above. Antonio Felix da Costa finished runner up to sit sixth in the title race. Images: LAT

Frenchman plunged down the field before retiring.

Da Costa quickly caught and passed Evans around Turn 8 as if the Kiwi were standing still to grab second with six minutes to go.

It took just two more minutes to catch Guenther and with three minutes to go into the tight Turn 10 hairpin da Costa made an aggressive and forceful move on the young German to take the lead.

Immediately after taking the lead he was told to dramatically slow down to cool his overheating batteries. Da Costa defended well but on the final lap around the fast Turn 8 Guenther swept back into the lead.

The German held on to win by 2secs from da Costa, Evans,

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Wehrlein and the Mercedes duo of Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne, who in finishing sixth took the championship lead.

“Today is a dream come true,” said Guenther.

“In that heat it was important to keep an eye on the temperature of the batteries.

“We did that really well.

“On the final lap, Antonio had to coast a little earlier than me on the straight. I thought to myself ‘now or never’ and went for the overtake. Fortunately, it came off.”

Vandoorne 38, Sims 35, Bird 28, Guenther 25, di Grassi 24, Rowland 22, da Costa 21, Evans 21, Lotterer 18, Mortara18, de Vries 18.

Dan McCarthy

NZ NEWS

LAWSON HITS THE HIGH NOTES REIGNING TOYOTA Racing Series champion Liam Lawson made the perfect start to his title defence by taking a dominant victory at Highland Motorsport Park, giving him the early lead in the championship.

It capped off a stunning weekend for M2 Motorsport as, leaving the opening round, its drivers filled the top three positions in the standings. Lawson took out two races and leads Igor Fraga by 15 points, while the third member of the team, Yuki Tsunoda, is a further point behind.

As Lawson enjoyed victory in Race 1, it was disappointment for Caio Collet and the MTEC Motorsport team after they were denied a maiden victory when the Brazilian fell foul of the stewards when he made a practice start on the warm-up lap.

Collet crossed the line first after Lawson pushed him all the way, but M2 Competition protested against the result citing a potential practice start irregularity on the warm-up lap and the stewards agreed. Collet was given a 5secs penalty, dropping him to seventh.

Rounding out the podium were Fraga and Gregoire Saucy, while Australian Jackson Walls had a moment at the Bus Stop and finished 13th.

The second race featured an inverted top six. Tsunoda was second on the grid,

TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD

AFTER A big accident during his season in Australia, Peter Vodanovich has returned to his native New Zealand and entered the winner’s circle at Highlands Motorsport Park in the latest round of the New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship.

Vodanovich took pole and converted that into two victories out of three for the weekend to close to just 18 points behind Jaden Ransley.

Australian Jaylyn Robotham was unable to close on the lead duo all weekend, finishing with a fourth and two thirds as he remains in the title fight, just a further two points behind Vodanovich.

Pole-sitter Vodanovich was alongside Ransley with both making equally good jumps, Robotham in third bogged down and dropped multiple positions, but recovered back to fourth behind Connor Adam. That’s the way it stayed until the flag fell, although the leading two crossed

Liam Lawson was victorious at Highlands Motorsport Park as he aims for back-to-back Toyota Racing Series titles. Image: Toyota NZ

but was able to fend off Dane Oliver Rasmussen to take the second race.

Lawson was able to climb only one position to fifth, but Collet’s weekend went from bad to worse when he clipped the wall and damaged his suspension on lap 2.

Lawson started from pole and took his

second Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy easily after Collet pulled in at the end of the warm-up lap because of undiscovered damage from his incident earlier. Franco Colapinto finished 2secs behind as Fraga completed the podium.

Reflecting on his first competitive event of the year, Lawson said he had achieved

the simple aims he’d set for himself.

“It was actually a very challenging weekend,” he said. “This car is a lot more physical to drive than last year’s.

“The longer races at the end of the weekend are very tough. I wanted to maximise points today and I’m very happy to have achieved that.” HM

the line side by side.

Despite starting in third, Vodanovich made an excellent start, slingshotting through to second ahead of Adam and behind Ransley. It was an interesting race up front as Vodanovich placed serious

pressure on Ransley, which led to a missed gear for the latter that put him in the sand trap, handing Vodanovich the win.

“I had a good start off the line and managed to get past Connor quite early, which is what we needed to do to be able

to stay with Jaden, as he’s really fast around here as well,” Vodanovich said.

“We were maintaining the gap with Jaden, and I was trying to put some pressure on him. Eventually he made a mistake, which he doesn’t make often. I was quite surprised how fast he came back at me. A credit to him, he’s driving well.”

Behind, Robotham charged hard, but was involved in an incident that sent both he and Adam off-track, which led to the young Australian redressing the situation.

He came back and re-passed Adam to take third by the flag.

The third and final race of the weekend was won by Ransley, but not after a tough tussle with Vodanovich and Robotham.

Lap 8 of 12 was when the race-defining moment occurred as Ransley completed a pass on Vodanovich entering the front straight.

Robotham was unable to mount a challenge despite being within striking distance.

The next round of the series is on this weekend at Teretonga. HM

Peter Vodanovich had a near-perfect weekend.

Image: Toyota NZ

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

Wakefield Park

www.wakefieldpark.com.au January 26-27 Weekend At Bernie’s January 30 Wakefield Park Track Day – Previously SOS/T&T February 7 Wakefield Park Track Day – Previously SOS/T&T

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www.wintonraceway.com.au January 24 Open Test & Tune January 25 Repco Ride to Reality – (Fun Day) January 31 Open Test & Tune February 1-2 Vic Drift on Track and Skid Pad February 3 Egglestone Motorsport

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WORLD SERIES SPRINTCARS - ROUNDS 8, 9 and 10

WORLD SERIES HOME RUN

KYE WALTERS continues to firm as the red-hot favorite to defend his Australian title in March after a thrilling flag-toflag win in the annual Modified Production Sedans West Coast Classic at Avalon Raceway. The star Victorian driver led all 15 laps from pole position to negate all challenges thrown at him and win from Todd Atkins, who also drove superbly and lost narrowly on the finish line, with Nick Cockerill in third.

ADAM BOX grabbed his maiden win in the Paul Benton Memorial at Rushworth Speedway and along the way set the fastest one-lap time. Box would lead all 20 laps in the final to defeat a close-finishing Jay Nicolaisen and Paul Lamb and all three were separated by less than a second.

TEN-TIME World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz is back in the USA preparing for a new season after claiming five wins from five starts at Archerfield Speedway this season. He parked the familiar #USA15 in Victory Lane for the fifth time this summer and heaped praise on Australia’s emerging younger drivers before leaving.

“That’s what this game is all about. I feel like us coming over here pushes them, and they start pushing us and that’s what the world revolves around in dirt-track racing.

These young guys are catching up and they know what to do,” Schatz said.

THE 2020 Tasmanian Speedcar title has seen Brock Webster win comfortably at Carrick Speedway. At times he was challenged by Mitchell Freeman and also Luke Redpath, but Webster stayed cool and got home first from Bek Henri and Alistair Freeman. Across at Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier it was NSW gun Nathan Smee winning the South Australian Speedcar Championship.

By Geoff G ff Rounds R d Images: 44photography

JUST FOUR rounds remain in the 2019-20 QSS World Series Sprintcars season and the pieces are moving into place for another thrilling conclusion.

The mid-season report card is a big tick for James McFadden and Kerry Madsen in particular, as the preeminent travelling Speedway circus heads west.

These two racing professionals have been nothing short of brilliant in their quests to be crowned as overall champion, with McFadden holding a handy lead and sitting in the box seat to win his fifth WSS championship.

Madsen is chasing two firsts, his maiden en WSS title and his first victory of the tournament, and surely he is a serious chance for both.

The WSS highlight reel is still spinning with the stunning form and speed of both Tasmanian youngster Jock Goodyer, who has become something of a time trial specialist, and the jaw-dropping opening round win and podium regular Brock Hallett. Oh, and throw in a stunning drive from Texan sharp-shooter Aaron Reutzel, who pretty much became the new Mayor of Toowoomba after a convincing win, and a bloke named Donny Schatz also popped up, too.

Monte Motorsport and Krikke Motorsport are the teams setting the pace and have such momentum it’s hard to see them being toppled with races to come in their own Western Australian backyard.

Esperance, Bunbury and the beautiful Perth Motorplex at Kwinana Beach are the speedways that are left to decide

Young Victorian Rusty Hickman has shown plenty of speed and race craft in recent rounds of WSS. the outcome of the 32nd edition of WSS between February 14-22.

McFadden’s season has really gathered traction with all his WSS wins coming since the first day of 2020.

He has gathered wins at Warrnambool, which included Speedweek, then led every lap to win the first-ever WSS round at Maryborough Speedway in Queensland with Madsen in second and the pacy Goodyer in third.

“The last four or five laps were terrible for me, but it’s fun when you win them,” McFadden said.

He left the North Queensland city with a 72 point lead over Madsen with Hallett just ahead of Goodyer and American driver Lucas Wolfe.

Things got really hot as teams made their way to Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway and 10-time World of Outlaws champion

Donny waiting.

Schatz was waiting To get straight to the point here, the superstar American won.

He was clinical after a lowly qualifying lap left him in 15th of the 32-car field but pushed back hard. The North Dakota resident climbed back into quick contention via his heat races and started the preliminary night of the annual Australian Sprintcar Open from the second row alongside Madsen.

The front row was populated by a pair of emerging stars, with Lockie McHugh qualifying on pole alongside Goodyer. On lap nine Schatz assumed the lead around the outside of leader McHugh and it was all over. The American had now won five from five starts since Boxing Day. Madsen was second and McFadden finished a close fourth.

“Hopefully these young guys don’t learn too many tricks and experience prevails, but that will probably change one day,” Schatz said.

DESPITE A tight last-round win Corey McCullagh still trails Brett Milburn in the 2019-20 Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria aggregate. It was a lucky last-corner escape for McCullagh at Avalon Raceway after leading all 25 laps from pole position to take the A-Main victory from Grant Anderson by just 0.336 of a second with Bobby Daly third, then followed Jordyn Charge and Milburn.

MITCHELL BAKER became just the fourth Western Australian to win the SSA National Junior Sedan Title and the first member from the Geraldton club to claim victory in a National Speedway Title. Baker’s win at Collie Speedway in Western Australia saw him not hit the lead until lap 23 and winning from South Australian Drew Flatman, who snatched second place on the final lap with Narrogin’s Brody Day rounding out the podium.

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Kerry Madsen took a wild ride after taking the chequered flag at the end of his time trials laps at Lismore Speedway in NSW. It was a big comback and he went on to claim pole for the A main.

WORLD SERIES SPRINTCARS

when he encountered the tail-of-the-field traffic and McFadden finally pounced to secure the top spot and would win.

McFadden eventually crossed the line to win, just half a second ahead of Eliason with only four one-hundredths back to Madsen in third after he held a seven-second lead at one point.

“I was watching the big screen and Kerry sitting right on my right rear so I had to hit the rubber on the exits and it was enough to shoot up front.” McFadden said.

McFadden added to his already bulging bag of silverware with the Hard Charger award as well as the Sunshine Swing trophy for the highest points over the Queensland and NSW rounds.

So, with no World Series rounds for the next three weeks McFadden holds a handy 113-point lead over Madsen. Goodyer sits in third to expand his Rookie of the Year lead over Lucas Wolfe by 155 points who sits fifth from Brooke Tatnell nestled in between the two rookies on 2088 points in fourth.

Young Tasmanian Jock Goodyer #22 has raced hard all series, seen here racing with American Kalib Henry. Goodyer sits third outright on the WSS points table and leads the WSS Rookie of the Year points with just the racing in Western Australia left to come.

The second night of the 24th running of the Open was cancelled due to rain but points were still accrued from the single round of heats that were run before the rain hit.

McFadden still led Madsen by 69 points with Goodyer third and Hallett in fourth.

The 10th round of WSS made a long-awaited return to Lismore Speedway in Northern NSW and McFadden again proved why he’s now rated one of the best and classiest drivers in world Sprintcar racing.

The 30-year-old Warrnambool resident decided that starting from position eight would not stop his charge for victory. And it didn’t.

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McFadden and series combatant Kerry Madsen both produced miracle comebacks for this important round.

Madsen’s night saw him go out in strange circumstances with him crashing on turn one directly after receiving the chequered flag in time-trials.

He would qualify 12th and, like McFadden, would somehow work his way to the silver shootout to also be quickest in the Gold to claim pole position for the 35-lap A-main event.

On a racetrack that was tipped to be a single-lane, follow-the-leader affair, no one expected the main event to produce a

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flurry of lead changes and countless battles for the podium, in possibly the best A-Main this season in WSS. Madsen opened with an impressive lead as expected while Rusty Hickman maintained his front row start to sit solidly in second.

McFadden strolled into fourth before five laps had elapsed then dislodged Madsen after an epic fight and set out after leader Hickman.

The young Victorian held a convincing lead until lap 24

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The 10-time World of Outlaws Champion Donny Schatz was at his best and put on a great show to win at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway. It was one of his five wins on this tour of Australia.

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s w e n Y A W D E SPE

SUPER TEAM SET FOR CLASSIC WEEK

HERE AT Auto Action we are always looking for the next big scoop and we think we’ve got one right here. A mystery photo has been forwarded to us and we are very curious. Could this be the possible 2020 pairing for Triple Eight supremo Roland Dane and the upcoming enduros? Dane was recently sighted at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway hanging out with 1996 Australian Sprintcar champion and ex-Touring Cars driver Todd Wanless (left) and American Sprintcar superstar Donny Schatz.

Or is it true that T8 maybe considering a move into the 850hp Sprintcar division?

Image: Gary Reid

TOM PAYET has cemented himself as one of the all-time greats of Wingless Sprints racing in Western Australia, claiming his fifth WA Title in six years, at the Bunbury Speedway. From position five for the 30-lap decider Payet made his way to the lead by mid-race and stayed there to record a history-making win from Brendon Wedge and Chad Pittard.

JASON CRAWFORD had a tough battle with Lisa Chalcraft but did eventually emerge the winner of the 2019-20 Ironbark Classic at Rushworth Speedway for GP Midgets. Chalcraft led the majority of the race but Crawford found late-race speed to pass her with Alex Myers driving from the rear to finish third.

Image: Richard Hathaway

GARY REID is one of Australia’s best and longest serving Speedway photographers and we’re proud to say he’s had a long association with Auto Action. The veteran snapper, we believe, might have one of the best and coolest pics of 2020 already.

He got NSW Late Model driver Ben Nicastri a few laps from the finish of at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway who had popped a fan belt off, which caused the engine to overheat.

ONE OF Speedway racing’s most likeable racers has officially won the aggregate points standings for the 2019-20 Victorian Wingless Sprints Super Series by a handy margin. Warrnambool tyre fitter Mitch Broome tallied 1466 points to win the six-round championship from Travis Millar (1242), Kirby Hillyer 1228, Clint McLaren 1219 and Luke Weel 886.

PREMIER SPEEDWAY has secured a major coup, landing the 2021 Australian Late Model Championship at the Warrnambool venue. The two-night event is set for a late February timeslot — it will run across the 26th and 27th. Premier Speedway General manager David Mills was thrilled to host the championship. “We can’t wait to get into working with the late model national body and also Late Model Racing Victoria to assist in making the title worthy of its 20-year anniversary,” Mills said.

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CARSON MACEDO carries the best form of any driver into Australian Sprintcar racing’s biggest week after a recent hot run of interstate form.

The Californian’s recent second place finish was enough to wrap up the Ultimate Sydney Speedcar Speedweek behind Michael Stewart and ahead of Nathan Smee at Valvoline Raceway.

Macedo’s double-duty saw him strap on wings and win the final night of the Sprintcars in the corresponding race but it was a very consistent Marcus Dumesny who was the overall winner.

Now Macedo joins world motorsport superstar Kyle Larson in a very potent pairing put together by successful NSW car owner Sean Dyson.

This super-team was entered for the President’s Cup at Avalon Raceway beginning last night (Jan 22), the Kings Challenge at Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier and the 48th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway.

“We love the Classic week and we’re all looking forward to it,” Dyson told Auto Action.

“We won the Classic in just our second year with Tim Kaeding as a car owner. I’m not just a car owner any more. I’m the crew chief and I want to win one as a crew chief.

“People will say, ‘You’ve already won one,’ but to me I haven’t. If I can set the car up and win it like that and as a crew

Images: Richard Hathaway, Gary Reid

chief then I’ll be pretty happy.

“To me finishing second in the Classic two years ago with Carson was on par with that win with Tim Kaeding in 2014.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Star Larson will need no introduction to Macedo.

The young Californian spent the 2019 World of Outlaws Tour at the wheel of the Kyle Larson Racing No.2, finishing sixth in the points championship.

The last one-two finish in the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic was in 1979 when Garry Rush narrowly led home the late Graeme McCubbin in the HM

Headers team prepared by Speedway He legend and now passionate fisherman leg Jack Ja Maggs.

Dyson remains quietly optimistic D about his team’s chances and hopes ab his drivers might finish close to each other during the five straight nights of ot racing. ra “I do believe we should have two of the th best chances in the races,” Dyson said. sa “As far as the week goes you do need good speed and luck. n “At “ the Classic you need some luck, that’s for sure. That second night and heat race is where you really need some luck, you really do.

“Carson and Kyle are both gassers and those tracks down there suit them.

Hopefully we can have a good Classic and a good week.”

Larson and Macedo will be joined by fellow compatriots — Shane Stewart, Tim Kaeding, Gio Scelzi, Buddy Kofoid, Kalib Henry, Tim Shaffer, Cory Eliason and McKenna Haase at the 48th Classic with a total field of 109 cars.

KENDRICK WINS WA SPEEDWEEK

A SLENDER eight points has helped Jason Kendrick win a second straight USA v WA Speedweek Series.

The Perth racer didn’t win a round of the four-race series but at the final round in Albany he won qualifying and appeared set to be a big challenger in the feature before trouble struck in the pole shootout.

He missed the shootout, giving his team time to change an engine before the final, where Kendrick came out and ran fourth to eventual winner Shane Stewart.

The professional American driver powered to his first feature race victory at Attwell Park Speedway and his second consecutive round win with victory at Bunbury also.

Jumping straight to the lead at the

Image: Richard Hathaway

drop of the green flag, the World of Outlaws star was never troubled in clean air and had to survive two restarts during the 30-lap feature.

Stewart recorded the quickest lap of the final and afterwards said it felt good to be in victory lane for a

second time on Australian shores.

The opening round of the series netted Mitch Wormall his first major Sprintcar win from Kendrick, while in round two Daniel Harding proved too good from Stewart and Jamie Oldfield in third.

Image: Richard Hathaway

BLIGHT’S HIGHLIGHT IS A1 KYE BLIGHT celebrated his 27th birthday with a near perfect run to win the 2020 Australian Late Model Championship at the Perth Motorplex and led home a Western Australian trifecta.

Across the two nights the Katanning driver set the quickest time in qualifying, won all but one of his three qualifying heats, started from pole position and then led every lap of both the 20-lap preliminary feature and the 40-lap title decider.

Blight won easily by seven from Craig

Image: 44photography

Vosbergen and Warren Oldfield, who rounded out the podium once again, the same positions they both finished back in 2012-13.

Positions for all the minors changed several times and after running second for a majority of the race, American Joe Godsey finished fourth, with NSW visitor Ben Nicastri, in a borrowed and unfamiliar car, rounding out the top five.

The newly crowned champion was quick to thank American Late Model legend Tim McCready for his support and guidance in the US.

“It’s just surreal. It’s hard to take in, but it’s pretty cool,” Blight said.

“I can’t thank Tim and the guys in the US for the three years of experience I’ve gained over there.

“I think it’s helped tonight.

“We unload every week with the aim to be on the podium.

“Any time you get to race twice in a week is awesome, but being the biggest race of the Australian year, it really amps me up. The reason I race is to compete in these big shows.

“I love this time of year.”

WORLD CHAMP TAI TOO GOOD TRIPLE WORLD solo bike champion Tai Woffinden has hinted that he would like to swap two wheels for four and compete in a Sprintcar.

The 29-year-old who grew up in Perth enjoyed a successful homecoming, winning the annual Rob Woffinden Classic title with an unbeaten display at Pinjar Park Speedway in Western Australia.

He won overall honors at the meeting staged in honor of his late father Rob, who played a key role in building the circuit, before he took Tai back to the UK to launch his professional speedway career.

The Great Britain star won the final ahead of fellow UK racer Drew Kemp, Dan Winchester and B Final winner Frank Smart.

Just days earlier Woffinden headed the winning English team against Australia at Perth Motorplex.

It was the first time in 15 years Woffinden had ridden at the Motorplex and he said he had a blast.

“It was good to come back and cut some laps out here, “ Woffinden said.

“Maybe I can get in a Sprintcar again this summer, that would be nice.”

Woffinden’s resume also includes 11 Speedway Grand Prix wins, two WA championships and the under-18 and under-21 British championships.

Meanwhile, at Mildura’s Timmis Speedway Brady Kurtz won the Phil Crump International Solo Trophy. The event is held in honor of one of Australia’s true Speedway legends and famous Mildura resident. Second was Daniel Bewley then followed Max Fricke, Jaimon Lidsey, Jacob Hook and Jordan Stewart.

Image: Richard Hathaway

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The Decision Maker

DURING THE week Ian Cartlidge wears a business suit and has a city-view office from Collins St in Melbourne.

Come weekends he’s in charge of Australia’s biggest Speedway series.

The 50-year-old management consultant is in his second season as the World Series Sprintcars race director and he’s responsible for all race nights running smoothly and for calling the shots.

“I had a ball doing the first year, to be honest, it’s a real blast. A lot of people have got my back,” Cartlidge told Auto Action.

“I’ve got a lot of support. I’m not here just to roll in and tick a few boxes. It’s a tough job, but like I said it’s rewarding.

“The feedback has been pretty positive — no one has yet called me an idiot that I know about, so for me that’s a good thing. You aren’t going to get it right all the time. If I don’t then you live with it, learn and move on.”

Cartlidge is a long time and very experienced Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria race steward, rated by many as one of the best officials in Australian speedway. He believes it’s about two-way respect mixed with passion. “As a rule, the drivers and teams are passionate,” he said. “Some race for a living and you’ve got to remember that … you’ve got to treat them with respect. There’s been times I’ve felt calm upstairs but paddling pretty hard underwater.”

Cartlidge believes his busy day-to-day job is definitely a major factor that helps him make the tough calls.

“I work for a major New York Stock Exchange listed management consulting firm,” he said.

“I have an office in Collins St in Melbourne with a human capital/people resources organisation. I headhunt for senior executives and, yes, I wear a suit to work every day. These hands have never done a hard day’s work ever. It’s a job where you have to make an actual, calm and rational decision a lot.”

World Series Sprintcar is in into a third decade of competition and Cartlidge believes the popular tournament is still strong, as is Speedway itself.

“With the contracted drivers we have this year it’s deep,” he said. “There are more races, more and different venues and car counts have been mostly really good. I think World Series is in a reasonable place.

“I think there’s some challenges for the sport.

Costs, the dollar exchange rates, those sorts of things are making it a bit tough. Car counts are awesome — I think we’re very spoilt. We should all think how good we’ve got it in Australia with Sprintcar racing.”

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57

A BOAT or jet ski would have given you the best chance of winning the Dubai 24 Hour after a torrential downpour forced race organisers to declare it over with little more than a quarter of the event complete.

The rain was so torrential that the main straight and pit lane were soon under water forcing the race to stop at 10:17pm, with just seven hours and 17 minutes completed.

The rain was so severe that the 60km/h limit under the Code 60 period was near impossible to reach for most cars.

The standing water was a major issue thanks to the poor drainage of the circuit, but event promoter Crevantic was hoping to restart the As the Dubai 24 Hour began the track was dusty (right). Soon after the rain arrived and flooded the race, giving updates at 11:30pm, circuit, causing the race to be called off.

12am and 2am as plans remained for an 8am resumption.

Murray River (including the brownness statement was released explaining It wasn’t to be, however. of the water). The final call was made the conclusion of the race: At 4am a biblical amount of rain

by Crevantic at 7:38am with water “The weather conditions have heavily brought with it thunder and lightning, engulfing the circuit and teams wading impacted the entire city and the making the front straight more akin to the through knee-deep currents in the pits. A infrastructures of Dubai Autodrome,”

WET n WILD said Creventic’s statement said.

“Despite the best effort of Dubai Autodrome staff and officials to resolve the situation on track, the water level on track and in the pit lane continued to rise throughout the night.

“In mutual agreement, Creventic and Dubai Autodrome have decided not to resume the race on grounds of safety.”

As teams tried to bump-out with cones and various other paraphernalia floating around them, the Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Ben Barker, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Khalid Al Qubaisi, Hubert Haupt and Manuel Metzger was announced as the winner.

It came after a gamble during the last Code 60 where the team completed its refuelling just before the red flag.

HM

Bathurst 12 Hour CROSSWORD Across

2. Timo Glock, Russell Ingall, Mark Skaife and which other multiple Bathurst 1000 winner teamed up in 2018? (surname only) 6. An Australian was one of three drivers to win the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2019 but can you name him? (surname only) 8. Who is the only driver to win the Bathurst 12 Hour and 1000 in the same year? (full name) 10. Which brand has sponsored the event since 2013?

12. Which former Supercars driver spun the race-leading Ferrari on a safety car restart in 2017? (full name) 14. Which brand was the last brand to win consecutive Bathurst 12 hour races?

15. Who won the inaugural Alan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy in 2014? (surname only)

Down

1. How many times has Craig Lowndes won the Bathurst 12 Hour?

3. Who famously crashed the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes out of second place late in the 2017 race? (full name) 4. Which brand took pole for the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2019?

5. Name the driver who powered to victory in the closing minutes of the 2015 race? (surname only) 7. In 2014 Craig Lowndes, John Bowe, Peter Edwards and which former Formula 1 driver won the 12 hour? (full name) 9. With which marque of car did Jamie Whincup take his sole Bathurst 12 Hour victory?

58 AutoAction

11. In 2011 Marc Basseng and Darryl O’Young won the race with which former Australian GT regular? (surname only) 13. How many times has Porsche won the Bathurst 12 Hour?

Dakar Crossword Answers #1777 1 across – KTM 2 down – Toyota 3 across – three 4 down – Range Rover 5 across – one 6 down – Alonso 7 down – two 8 across – twelve 9 across – Carlos Sainz 10 down – Saudi Arabia 11 across – Porsche 12 down – six 13 down – Ickx 14 across – Truck 15 across - France

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