Auto Action #1781

EXCLUSIVE FORD ON V8 FUTURE SINCE 1971

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How Gen3 could attract Camaro, BMW and others

E R U T U F S R A SUPERC XT? E N T A H W , N E D L O H AFTER

HOLDENS RACING HERITAGE

The beginnings of a racing legacy

F1 SEASON PREVIEW

Issue #1781 Mar 5 to Mar 18 2020 $8.95 INC GST

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Alan Jones no holding back

PLUS AMERICAN DREAM

McLaughlin on where he’s headed

FORD COMMITTED Blue Oval fully engaged in Gen3 planning

Broadmeadows wants to continue in Supercars – as long as it has a serious rival. MARK FOGARTY talks to the key decision-makers about Ford’s local racing future with the Mustang FORD IS actively involved in planning for the next generation of Supercars and intends to continue beyond next year.

Both Ford Australia boss Kay Hart and Ford Performance racing chief Mark Rushbrook have confirmed that the Blue Oval is looking at a longterm future in Supercars.

The only proviso is that there must be a new strong rival to replace Holden, which is shutting down at the end of this year.

Next season will be the last for the Commodore before the new Gen3 regulations in 2022, opening the way for the Chevrolet Camaro to take on a revamped Mustang.

According to Hart, although Broadmeadows’ return to Supercars with the Mustang is working, the death of Holden raises serious concerns about a replacement rivalry.

Gen3 is being targeted to encourage more manufacturers by making it easier to run two-door coupes or even sports cars whose appearance is closely related to the road versions – unlike the mutated Supercars version of the Mustang, the shape of which had to be adapted to the existing chassis designed for four-door sedans.

Hart outlined that a strong rival, not necessarily from the red GM camp, was needed to keep Ford in Supercars.

“Yes, absolutely,� the Ford Australia president and CEO told Auto Action. “I think one of the reasons we love the series so much and enjoy it at the moment as well is just that fierce competition (with Holden). “We love it and that’s why we come to race days. We obviously come to the race to win and you can only do that if you have great competition. So we truly want competitors in the sport.�

Hart was still taking in the impact of arch-rival Holden’s impending demise. “That’s something that’s obviously so new at the moment in terms of what that means, but we definitely want a rival out there on the track,� she said. “The colour doesn’t matter. We just want a good, strong rival.�

Otherwise, Hart and Rushbrook – Ford Performance’s Detroit-based global director, motor sport – explained that they were engaged in and supportive of the Gen3 evolution.

She and Rushbrook represent Ford on the Supercars Manufacturers’ Council, which has regular teleconferences to discuss the future, including Gen3. “We have an on-going commitment to the series and we continue to work with it as part of a key piece of the Manufacturer’s Council, so working with Supercars on the next generation,�

Hart said. “We’re excited about the future of the sport from a Ford standpoint. “We are actively working on the next generation with Supercars, making sure we have the right package and the right future planned. We’re actively part of that process. “In general, I think it’s really good discussions at the moment and where we’re heading.�

Rushbrook, who attended the Adelaide 500, supported moves to make two-door coupes look more like the donor road cars. “Yes, absolutely,� he told AA. “As a manufacturer, in all series we want the cars to either be exactly the same or look very close to the same as the road cars. There are reasons why there’ll always be some dimensional differences in most series, but to have the identity as close to the road car with the race car is important to us.�

However, Rushbrook isn’t so keen on reducing manufacturer involvement in the design and homologation process. “All I can say is that as an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), the way that we approach racing, we always want to be deeply involved in the styling, in the technical details, using our engineering tools and making sure that we protect our brand identity and image,� he said.

Rushbrook reiterated that at this point, Ford was looking to continue in Supercars with the Mustang – possibly the new-look S650 model – under Gen3. “We’re in partnership as a total company doing this together (Ford Performance and Ford Australia) and, absolutely, we like what we see in the series as a company and we think it has great potential to continue as a strong series in the future,� he said.

Hart added that the shape of a Gen3 Mustang would be a major factor in Ford’s continued involvement. “I think that an important part of the next generation is to make sure we can still be very clear what the Mustang brand is and lives for,� she said. “We’re happy with the package that we’ve put out in terms of keeping that key DNA of Mustang, but it (the appearance) is definitely a key part of the next generation for us.�

Overall, Hart maintained that Ford Australia’s return to racing with the Mustang had been a success. “It’s been nothing but positive,� she declared. “It’s been great for us. “We’re really happy with the partnership we have with the teams and the way in which it’s working for us, on track and off.�

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THE FUTURE IS NOW Holden axing puts focus on Gen3

In the wake of the news that the Lion brand is doomed, MARK FOGARTY reveals what Supercars is doing to future-proof the category HOLDEN’S IMPENDING death has added new urgency to making Supercars more attractive to manufacturers with the Gen3 overhaul of the technical and eligibility rules from 2022.

However, Supercars is adamant it won’t be rushed into making changes in reaction to Holden shutting down by the end of this year.

While some elements of Gen3 may be brought forward to 2021, it is highly unlikely the chassis dimensions will be altered to allow the Chevrolet Camaro to replace the Commodore as soon as next season.

Some sort of hybrid technology is back on the table, although electric assistance won’t happen immediately.

As Supercars continues to digest the news that Holden is doomed, announced just four days before the season-starting Adelaide 500 got underway and just the day before the pre-season test at The Bend, it has been learned that manufacturers other than Ford and Holden/GM have

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participated in Gen3 discussions.

Ford Performance global motor sport boss Mark Rushbrook has revealed that unidentified car-makers have joined in on Supercars Manufacturer’s Council teleconferences.

Supercars CEO Sean Seamer and key executives have held regular talks with Ford and Holden/GM representatives, plus other manufacturers, in the past year, with Gen3 a major topic “Communication is always good,” Rushbrook told Auto Action. “So with having Sean and his team on the phone with Ford and Holden, or General Motors, and other interested manufacturers at times, it’s good to have that open communication so that we understand each other.”

He confirmed that other manufacturers have participated in the Manufacturer’s Council “at times”.

When quizzed on them, he said “I can’t tell you who they are”.

The Gen3 evolution of the rules are aimed at attracting new manufacturers by making it easier and cheaper to

adapt two-door coupe and sports car shapes to the control chassis, which will be updated with new dimensions.

Principally, the roll cage will be modified to facilitate low-line body shapes like those of the Camaro, new BMW M4 and even the Toyota Supra.

The regular members of the Manufacturer’s Council are Seamer, Rushbrook and Ford Australia boss Kay Hart, GM Performance chief Jim Campbell and Chevrolet racing boss Mark Kent, and a Holden representative.

The Gen3 working group met last Wednesday (February 26) in the wake of the Holden announcement, although it was a scheduled gathering.

The project leader is Supercars senior executive John Casey, joined by head of motor sport Adrian Burgess, homologation team bosses Roland Dane and Ryan Story, and Commission members Tim Edwards and Brad Jones, who is also on the board of directors.

The working group has recently

appointed a project development engineer, understood to be Walkinshaw Andretti United technical director Carl Faux.

Last week’s Gen3 meeting was not a response to the Holden announcement.

“It was already scheduled,” Seamer told AA at the Adelaide 500. “The importance of Gen3 to Supercars has not changed.

“The public prominence of it has because it’s been brought into light outside of the motor sport media due to the events of this week.”

AA exclusively detailed the Gen3 plan at the end of last year.

We’ve been given a further update briefing by Casey, who maintained that Holden’s looming demise hadn’t changed the project’s fundamentals or timeline.

“Measure twice, cut once,” he said.

“We won’t make any knee-jerk actions.

There are lot of things to consider in reaction to the Holden news. We’re working through that.

“We’re clear on the direction, but it’s

Supercars’ boss Sean Seamer says the importance of the new Gen3 regulations has not changed as a result of Holden’s announcement. Graphic: Tim Pattinson Design. Image: Ross Gibb.

still very early days for the project.”

While Gen3 was still aimed at 2022, Casey admitted some reforms could be brought forward to next year, but doubted a major change like lowering the roll cage could be instituted so quickly.

“One of the things we’ll be looking at over the next few weeks is can any elements of Gen3 be brought forward?”

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he said. “But, at this stage, we just don’t know.

“We can’t click our fingers and say this two-year project is now a one-year program.”

The basic guiding principals of Gen3 remain increased market relevance, and lower acquisition and operation costs.

The former involves ensuring two-door shapes retain their close relationship

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with the road models, avoiding the deformed look of the Mustang, and the latter targets more control components, including standardised front suspension uprights.

The revised control chassis will allow the fitment of “more panel shapes interchangeable with road cars”, made from easily fabricated composite materials.

Reduced aerodynamics with almost no downforce – or even wings and splitters just for show – is also being considered.

“We’re not yet deep into the design stage,” Casey reported.

He confirmed “a range of two-door models” was being considered – from the Mustang and Camaro to the similar Dodge Challenger and the Toyota Supra sports car.

The main criterion was that eligible models were aspirational yet attainable, ruling out a move to GT3.

“We’re not a GT category,” Casey said. “We’re about accessible halo cars.

That gives us good direction.

“We’re not going to compromise the show. The cars will need to be and look fast, with good racing.

“We need to look at all options to deliver the targets.”

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While five-litre V8s will initially be the mainstay engine format, Gen3 is open to reducing horsepower to cut costs and looking long-term at other configurations.

“We’re looking at all options, including crate engines,” Casey said.

He added that petrol-electric hybrids were being investigated, although “not for 2022”.

The Xtrac transaxle is designed to incorporate an electric motor generator.

Casey echoed Seamer in saying Supercars would be a “fast follower” of the BTCC and NASCAR in the adoption of hybrid technology, suggesting a mid2020s move to electric assistance.

He says Gen3 will be “hybrid-ready”, describing the ultimate iteration as “a mixed power source vehicle”.

“It wouldn’t be a trivial contributor,” Casey declared. “We’d need to do it in a substantial way. It needs to pass the pub test.”

Battery location and cooling are also issues to be overcome .

“The Gen3 chassis will allow for the location of a battery pack,” Casey said.

The Gen3 rules will be framed to last for at least five years, taking the series to another major technical update from 2027.

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JONES URGES GEN3 CAUTION

By BRUCE NEWTON VETERAN TEAM owner Brad Jones has urged Supercars to hasten slowly as its considers its post-Holden future.

Jones, who campaigns four Commodore ZBs in the championship, would prefer Supercars sticks to its original timeline of 2022 for the introduction of the Gen3 technical update.

Category boss Sean Seamer has forecast elements of the package could be brought forward to 2021 to aid the introduction of a replacement for Holden and the Commodore ZB. GM axed the Holden brand two weeks ago and confirmed it would cease its involvement in Supercars racing at the end of the 2020 season.

Jones argued sticking to a 2022 introduction would give teams and the championship time to prepare properly for a transition to another brand and bodyshell, widely expected to be the Chevrolet Camaro.

It would also allow 2021 to become a celebration of Holden’s 50-plus years involvement in the sport.

Jones’ views are not universally reflected across the seven teams that campaign 16 Holdens in the championship in 2020. See separate story.

“What we should do as a sport is … run another year with Commodore while we get Gen3 sorted out and have a proper farewell to a manufacturer that has been integral to building us to where we currently are,” Jones said.

The Walkinshaw Group converts the production version of the Camaro for sale to right-hand drive in Australia and its related race team, Walkinshaw Andretti United, has studied the process of creating a racing version based on the control Supercars chassis.

WAU argues the current rollcage changes the look too much compared to the road car – and points to the Supercars version of the Mustang as evidence.

Holden and parent General Motors had vetoed the Camaro for Supercars while the ZB was on the grid. What GM thinks of the Camaro joining the series is yet to be made clear.

Supercars is considering modification to the rollcage as part of its potential 2021 technical changes.

Jones, who is also a Supercars board member and commissioner but spoke to AA in his team ownership role, is concerned about the implications of that.

“To keep the shape right we would have to do a new chassis with a lower rollhoop, put all this running gear in it and then we would have to graft

a Camaro body on it.

“Then we would have to let the Mustang teams do the same and do another VCAT (aerodynamic parity test),” he said.

“Wouldn’t you just wait and do it all properly?

If common-sense prevails that will be the right course of action.”

Jones argues that Supercars can cope with running the out-of-production car Commodore in the same way the Ford Falcon FG/X continued to be campaigned after it was axed. Similarly, the Nissan Altima raced in the championship after the production version was dropped from sale in Australia.

WAU SAYS NO TO COMMODORE WHILE BRAD Jones is urging a cautious approach to the transition away from Holden, Ryan Walkinshaw is emphatic his team will do everything it can to not be racing Commodores in 2021.

And he says Walkinshaw Andretti United co-owners Michael Andretti and Zak Brown are in agreement with him on that.

“We don’t see the value .. in running the bodyshape of a car that is not currently on-sale in Australia, certainly not with a brand that won’t be in existence at the start

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of next season.

“What the new bodyshape that we will run next year is still open to debate. We are open to all options.

“We are exploring several options with other manufacturers and we anticipate having some sort of conclusion on what we will be running in the next couple of months at the latest.”

The Chevrolet Camaro is the racer WAU has been most heavily linked with.

Walkinshaw Group company HSV converts the production Camaro to right-hand drive for Australian sale. It is also in the box seat to partner with General Motors to form a new GM Specialty Vehicles business in Australia once Holden dies.

Gaining the racing homologation rights to the Camaro is a logical next step, although Holden and therefore GM’s – current Supercars partner in Australia is Triple Eight Race Engineering.

“I can’t talk about any potential bodyshapes we may or may not

be running in 2021,” said Walkinshaw.

WAU had previously investigated developing the Camaro for Supercars, but parked the project partly because the rollhoop in the standard Supercars chassis affected the coupe’s bodyshape too much.

Walkinshaw says changing the rollhoop would be a “quick, simple solution”.

“My personal view and Michael and Zak is let’s not over-complicate things.

Changing the rollhoop for 2021 would allow discussion with manufacturers we are currently in dialogue with and other manufacturers we have previously been in dialogue with.”

Meanwhile, T8 boss Roland Dane told Auto Action there was little he could say about his team’s future plans.

“All I can say to you from a Triple Eight perspective is, obviously, I am not sitting on my hands. We are trying to work out what’s the best route forward for us for the future now we know Holden won’t be actively involved beyond the end of this year.

“Until we understand exactly what our options are, it doesn’t serve any purpose to speculate.” BN

“I don’t think people are as passionate about Holdens and Ford as they once were,” he said.

“When Lowndes and Ingall and all those guys started changing brands then the fans became more aligned to drivers and teams, so that will be okay.

“In the meantime the business will go about sorting out the IP (intellectual property) on other vehicles, probably starting with Camaro would be my best guess.

“I hope we “We will still have GM products in the championship, it will just be an American musclecars, like we had in the 1960s.”

BN

“I’II GO CAMARO IF IT HAPPENS” SAYS CHARLIE

CURRENT TRIPLE Eight customer Charlie Schwerkolt says he will go Camaro in 2021 if the car is available to race.

But the owner of Team 18, which is running two Commodore ZBs in 2020 for Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye, said much remained to be resolved and referenced the potential power struggle between Roland Dane and Ryan Walkinshaw over the homologation rights to the car.

“There are too many players in place I think,” said Schwerkolt. “Roland has a relationship with GM through Holden and Ryan has it through the other way and Supercars are sitting in the middle.

“So whoever brings Camaro in – if that’s going to happen – we need to know as soon as possible so we can regroup and work out where we go.

“At the moment I am a customer of Triple Eight … and if they are going to change to Camaro then that is what we will do.” BN

TEAM SYDNEY DEAL IS ‘THE REAL THING’

By MARK FOGARTY

SOFT DRINK giant Coca-Cola has finally hit back at suggestions that it is not really backing Team Sydney.

Local bottler Coca-Cola Amatil contacted Auto Action to clarify the deal, which sees one of the ex-Tekno Autosport squad’s entries in full Coke livery.

Following unusual contact from team owner Jonathon Webb, we spoke with Carly Young, head of sponsorship and partnership at CCA. Young declared: “We have a commercial arrangement with Team Sydney”.

While she was unable to expand on the arrangement, she was adamant the Coca-Cola branding was an official CCA association.

“We have a commercial arrangement with Team Sydney directly for one car,” Young insisted.

Team Sydney ran two Commodores at the Adelaide 500, with now-departed James Courtney’s car racing in Boost Mobile colours and Chris Pither’s entry running in full Coke livery.

Maintaining it was a “direct sponsorship”, Young pointed out that Coca-Cola staged a “Share A Coke” promotion around the primary backing of Pither’s Commodore in Adelaide.

Known as an activation in marketing speak, it followed CCA’s unsuccessful attempt to do a Coca-Cola promotion at the Supercars season launch on Sydney Harbour last month.

Courtney’s car was displayed at the launch in full Coke red-and-white regalia, but until now, there has been no official endorsement from CCA, which is the licensed Coca-Cola bottler in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the South Pacific Coca-Cola Amatil is one of the world’s five major bottlers of Coke drinks. The Coca-Cola Company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA. CCA is also the local agent for many other well-known non-alcoholic beverages, including Monster Energy Drink, which sponsors Cam Waters’s Ford Mustang, and Jim Beam bourbon.

Coca-Cola is the official soft drink of Supercars and Jim Beam is the official hard liquor, giving CCA pourage rights at Supercars events.

Those deals have been running for several years, while Jim Beam was also Dick Johnson Racing’s primary sponsor in the mid-to-late 2000s.

“We’ve been involved with the V8s for a long time,” Young

said.

However, she struggled to distinguish those straight commercial agreements from the ostensible sponsorship of Team Sydney.

Young maintained that as Coca-Cola’s South Pacific area bottler, CCA didn’t need authorisation from Coke HQ in the States for regional sponsorships.

“Global doesn’t have to approve what we do locally,” she said.

Coca-Cola’s involvement with Team Sydney has been the subject of conjecture since Supercars’ season launch.

Team principal Jonathon Webb finally contacted AA following our report on our web site last Saturday (February 29) of Courtney’s announcement that he was quitting the team.

We reported that our understanding was that the Coca-Cola backing was linked with convenience store distributor United Convenience Buyers, a major Coke customer.

The boss of UCB is Darren Parke, who is Pither’s mentor/ manager.

Webb had little to say on his team’s apparent crisis, but he did inform us that CCA’s Young would contact us to explain Coca-Cola’s involvement.

“Everything’s moving ahead,” he said. “I’ll comment more once things are settled.”

It was the first direct contact we’d had from Webb since the Team Sydney saga began and, true to his word, Young called me soon after, confirming the Coke backing as best she could.

We had earlier reached out to CCA’s media department, corresponding with the nominated spokesman.

However, our enquiry about the extent of Coca-Cola’s involvement with Team Sydney was just two days before he left CCA. While he indicated he would follow up, unsurprisingly, we never heard back from him – nor from his nominated successor.

Young suggested our enquiry got lost in the transition and undertook to get CCA’s comms team to get back to us with a more detailed explanation of the deal with Team Sydney.

In the meantime, we are happy to accept that Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of Team Sydney is ‘The Real Thing’ – Coke’s classic slogan in the 1970s.

But without drivers a week from the next round at the Australian Grand Prix, it’s not looking good for the apparently still Gold Coast-based Team Sydney. ..

MID-YEAR TARGET FOR NEW TV DEAL Supercars also aiming for earlier calendar

By MARK FOGARTY SUPERCARS SUPREMO Sean Seamer has targeted the end of June to secure a new broadcast deal and also finalise the 2020 calendar.

Seamer is deep into negotiations for a multi-year rights agreement from next year.

Although guarded about the discussions, he revealed that wants the TV deal decided by June 30, when he is also aiming to have next season’s series schedule locked in.

“We want to get it done by the time we announce our calendar for next year, which we’ll aim to do middle of the year,” Seamer told Auto Action. “I think by June 30 is ideal.”

Supercars is in the final season of the existing broadcast rights deal with Fox Sports and Network 10, which began in 2015.

The six-year agreement was worth $241 million, which broadcast

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industry experts reckon is unlikely to be exceeded on an annualised basis because of the tough TV sports rights environment.

Fox Sports and Channel 10 are thought to be prime candidates for a renewed arrangement, although it could be over a shorter period.

More live races on 10 and regional affiliate WIN are likely to be part of the new deal as teams and sponsors have demanded increased real-time free-toair coverage.

According to Seamer, there is strong interest in the TV and digital broadcast rights to Supercars despite other leading sports having widely publicised difficulties in gaining bigger deals.

“Our view is that it’s an interesting time,” he said. “Our attempt is to do ours quietly and behind closed doors, and let everybody know where it lands when it’s done.

“We’re coming off a really strong year last year. If you look at our growth

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in ratings versus other sports, particularly on Fox Sports, we had the biggest ever day in subscription TV at Bathurst last year.

“We are a national sport, we run for almost 10 months of the year, we’re coming off a very strong ratings base and growth, so, yes, while they’re challenging times, we are an in-demand product.”

Seamer’s bold plan to finalise the 2020 calendar by mid-year follows his success in bringing forward the announcement of his year’s schedule to the end of last August.

He contends that the foundation has been laid for much earlier calendar releases with this year’s reorganised flow of events.

“With the calendar, what you’re seeing this year is the result of 18-24 months of really hard work,” Seamer said. “Business analytics, understanding the weather patterns. It was a huge task.

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“From the feedback that I’ve had from the teams, I believe they’re really happy with this year’s calendar. We just need to get through our paces a little bit more, but I think we’re at a point now where we’re tweaking things rather than having wholesale change.”

There are suggestions the Adelaide 500 could be moved from the start of the season to the end of the series, swapping with the Newcastle 500.

Next year is the last in Adelaide’s

existing agreement, which is set for a multi-year renewal despite the big drop in attendance at last month’s seasonopener.

Starting the series has been part of the deal in recent years.

It is more likely that the Adelaide 500 will be moved to late November or early December in 2022 with the new agreement, reprising the popular endof-season timing of the F1 Adelaide Grand Prix from 1985-95.

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BRAD JONES Racing has secured the services of Nick Percat until at least the end of the 2022 season after the 2011 Bathurst winner re-signed with the team. Percat joined BJR at the beginning of the 2017 Supercars Championship after three previous seasons with Walkinshaw Racing and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, where he scored a shock win in 2016 on the streets of Adelaide.

Last year Percat became a consistent top 10 finisher, finishing the season ninth in the Supercars Championship.

THE ADELAIDE 500 yielded its smallest crowd since becoming a four day event back in 2003, over 200,000 people came through the gates over the four days, but the stands were noticeably emptier than in previous years. Just over 206,000 people came to the event, down from 254,000 in 2019 and 273,500 in 2018. Sunday’s attendance figures took the biggest hit of the lot down from 91,500 last year to 66,000 in 2020.

THE BEND Motorsport Park will attempt a world record when it plays host to its first running of the 500km pre-Bathurst endurance race. The circuit will celebrate the famous Holden brand with plans to break the record for the largest number of Holdens in a convoy, following news that the brand will be terminated at the end of the year. The current record is 1200 vehicles and was set in the ‘Holden Dream Cruise’ after manufacturing at South Australia’s Elizabeth plant ceased.

MANY FINES and punishments were handed out in Adelaide. Rookie Jack Smith missed the annual driver’s photo for which he has been handed five hours of community service and a suspended fine of $2000. Matt Stone Racing drivers Garry Jacobson have also been fined for missing the national anthem before the 250km race on Sunday, both drivers receiving a $2000 fine with half suspended until the end of the year.

TEAM 18 co-driver James Golding claimed victory in the opening round of the KZ2 Australian Karting Championship. After competing in the S5000 test day on Friday at The Bend Motorsport Park Golding hopped into the KZ2 kart competing at the kart circuit in the South Australian venue. In the final Golding made an outstanding start to take the lead, the 24-year-old had a moment going through Turn 1 on the second lap, losing grip with light rain falling. He dropped to second before quickly retaking the lead and romping home to victory.

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TOO MUCH LOVE! THAT’S THE call from John Crennan, one of the most influential figures in the history of Supercars racing.

Crennan, a tough and uncompromising backroom player in Supercars, drove the rise of the Walkinshaw Racing empire to dominance in the 1990s and 2000s with the Holden Racing Team as its headline act.

He played a key role in bringing Nissan into the category with Kelly Racing in 2013 and most recently had a commercial role with DJR Team Penske.

Nowadays he says Supercars drivers are simply too nice to each other.

“When conducting HRT over many years, if one of our drivers were to give an opposition driver a ‘man hug’ or display some form (of) friendly unity there would be a lot of “what the hell” questions asked,” he wrote in an email seen by Auto Action.

During Crennan’s time at the helm of the Walkinshaw Supercars effort, HRT - along with its sister operation the HSV Dealer Team – won seven

Crenno says: ‘Drivers too nice to each other’

Bathurst 1000s and eight driver’s championships.

He locked rookie Craig Lowndes into HRT, oversaw the return of Peter Brock to the factory fold and the recruitment of Mark Skaife, the driver who undoubtedly personifies Crennan’s vision of a hard-nosed ultracompetitive racer.

“What ever happened to the “take no prisoners” approach with your opponents and at every opportunity ensure you are psychologically intimidating them to throw them off their game both on and off track,” Crennan asked.

In Crennan’s view the perception of friendliness between drivers has been exacerbated by social media.

“With considerable frequency what we now see in Supercars are so many drivers on social media platforms sending to their key competitors/ opponents ‘likes’ and comments that clearly indicate (from where I sit) a concerning level of happy go lucky friendly banter and mateship,” Crennan noted.

“I just don’t get it, General Motors training drilled into us how it would not be tolerated if we lost a single Holden sale to the opposition and we had better have answers why this could happen…. and how we should always build fear into our competitors.”

Crennan also lamented celebrations drivers and teams conduct after a top 10 finish “During my time of running HRT, the Holden bosses would make my Mondays very tough and uncomfortable if we delivered anything less than a podium result,” he wrote.

“I hold a strongly held belief that unless you finish the race on the podium with a first, second or third your result is nothing to boast about.

“By all means have the top performers celebrate their triumphs enthusiastically … but equally the losers need to heed the lessons of defeat and not beat their chest. I just don’t understand how drivers and teams’ social media posts display excitement and a sense of achievement if they get a top 10 result.” Bruce Newton

NICK RYAN DEPARTS KELLY A KEY commercial manager who played a fundamental role in the establishment of Kelly Racing has departed Supercars for a role in the AFL. Nick Ryan, who was general manager at Kelly Racing, has moved on to become the GM of commercial partnerships and sales at Essendon Football Club.

Ryan was a founder employee of Kelly Racing, which formed in 2009 when brothers Todd and Rick Kelly joined forces to set up their own privateer four-car Holden operation.

He was part of the team that brought Nissan into the category on a factory basis in 2013 and also helped oversee the transition to a two-car Ford Mustang team negotiated last year.

Ryan also played a key role in securing multiple major brands for the

team through the years including the likes of Pepsi-Max, Castrol, Norton and Jack Daniels.

“I think the breadth of commercial partners we have been able to bring to the team and maintain for such a long time is something I am really proud of,” Ryan told Auto Action.

Now a father of three young children, he explained he had left the team on the best of terms for family reasons.

“The travel and time away and the demands associated with Supercars became ever-more challenging,” he said. “It just reached a tipping where I had to make a decision.

“It was a hard one because I love the sport and I love the Kellys.

“I think they (Rick and Todd Kelly) are outstanding people. They are two of the most impressive people I have ever worked with in terms of loyalty,

friendship and business acumen.”

Todd Kelly told AA that Ryan’s departure was “pretty big news” for the team.

“He was the first guy we hired. When we started the team it was Nick and me in an office, I was ringing up and ordering engine blocks and gearboxes for the new race cars and he was there trying to get meetings to try and get the commercial side of it wrapped up.

“It’s come from us two in an office to what we are now. It’s sad to see him go.”

Former 2IC Lauren Batchelor has become commercial general manager at Kelly Racing with Brooke Taylor

stepping up to be number two.

But the downsizing to two cars for 2020 and long-term naming rights sponsorships locked in for both of them – Castrol and Ned Whiskey – has reduced the commercial load and team has opted not to add a person to its commercial department replace Ryan.

BN

OSCAR PIASTRI SIGNS WITH WEBBER FORMER FORMULA 1 driver Mark Webber will mentor fellow Australian Oscar Piastri as he pursues a career in the world’s premier motor sport category.

Jam Sports Management, an agency cofounded by Webber, wife and manager Ann alongside respected sports and corporate CEO Jason Allen have signed the 18-yearold Piastri to a contract as he enters his first season FIA Formula 3 this year.

Webber will guide Piastri on and off the racetrack, whilst also representing the UKbased driver’s in teams and manufacturer discussions. Ann Webber and Allen will focus their energies on Piastri’s commercial opportunities.

“Oscar is an impressive young man. I’ve enjoyed watching him continue his education and do the normal things kids his age do while dovetailing it with his racing – the level of self-discipline and dedication he has shown is admirable,” Webber said.

“What Oscar managed to do last year in Formula Renault was also pretty special, how he took control of the championship and closed the title out.

“He’s got that white line fever when he puts his helmet on and turns into a different character, which is sensational.”

Piastri’s signing to the Renault Sport

Academy, which provides critical support for young drivers with the goal of becoming the French manufacturers’ next World Drivers’ Champion. It comes off the back of winning

the highly competitive Formula Renault Eurocup title last year.

Webber aided in his entrance into the program and believes the Australian is an

exciting prospect for motor sport down under.

“Oscar is in a great position with Renault, they are investing in him, they believe he’s a horse worth backing and keeping a tight eye on, and that’s exciting for him and Australian motorsport,” he said.

“He’s trying to get to an extremely tough category in Formula 1, and he knows what’s ahead of him, but Renault and ourselves know Oscar is an incredibly confident young lad, and we think he can do great things.”

Piastri is pleased to have Webber in his support camp as he continues to climb the motor sport ladder.

“I’m excited to start working with Mark and Ann; I think everyone in Australia knows who Mark Webber is and he’s a pretty big name to have on my side,” Piastri said.

“Mark’s been through Formula 1, LMP1, and other categories through the years, so he has the experience that I’m sure if I have any issues, he will be able to steer me in the right direction or to the right people in the paddock.

“It doesn’t change how I go racing; my goals are still the same; it’s just that I’ve got outstanding people in my corner now.”

His first round of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship season will be in Bahrain on March 20-22. HM

WALKINSHAW TECH BOSS PONDERS LONG TERM FUTURE WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United technical director Carl Faux is debating his future as he continues to mastermind the team’s revival.

Faux is leading a bolstered engineering effort aimed at giving star recruit Chaz Mostert racewinning equipment.

However, the British boffin is looking to return to the UK next year for family reasons or find a less time-consuming position in Australia.

While Faux is committed to WAU this season, Auto Action has learned he explored alternatives with the team’s permission.

He has been linked with a move to Supercars to work on the Gen3 technical rules to be introduced in 2022 and it is understood that option remains open.

He may end up in a timesharing arrangement with WAU and Supercars.

Faux joined WAU in 2018 after a successful career in the BTCC, designing the 2017 title-winning Subaru Levorg.

He has been compared with French touring car design guru Ludo Lacroix, who also made his name in the BTCC before following Triple Eight chief Roland Dane to Supercars.

Lacroix masterminded Triple

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Eight’s winning cars before defecting to DJR Team Penske in 2017, overseeing the design of the all-conquering Mustang.

Faux is regarded as a younger version just waiting for the resources and personnel to engineer WAU back to its winning Holden Racing Team glory days.

Mostert’s signing is a signal of intent, backed by an aggressive hiring program for new engineers.

Mostert has been joined at Clayton by his long-time race engineer Adam de Borre as part of the efforts to move WAU forward.

Co-owned by the Walkinshaw family – which also owns HSV – IndyCar legend Michael Andretti and McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown, WAU is committed to becoming a front-runner again.

AA understands that when Faux first expressed a desire to pull back, WAU tried to sign former Triple Eight race engineer Jerome ‘JJ’ Moore.

Craig Lowndes’ former race engineer, Moore rose to a senior technical position with Porsche’s world title-winning WEC sports car team.

It has since been confirmed that he has returned to Triple Eight as technical director.

Mark Fogarty

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AUSTRALIAN GP TRAVEL WORRIES INCREASING AND constantly changing travel restrictions, medical screenings, quarantines and other concerns due to the worldwide Coronavirus epidemic caused problems for Formula 1 personnel heading to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.

There are also concerns surrounding the two races – Bahrain and Vietnam – that are next on the schedule after Australia.

Outbreaks of the virus, now officially called Covid-19, in Italy affected Ferrari and AlphaTauri who are based in Italy, plus Alfa Romeo and Haas who have close links with Ferrari. To make matters worse, F1 tyre supplier Pirelli is also based in Italy.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto insisted that F1’s commercial owner Liberty Media and the FIA provide exact information about the virus situation.

“I think what we will need is simply to have assurance before leaving,” Binotto said. “I don’t think we can discover when (the teams arrive in Australia) what can be or what will be the situation. So if there are any medical screenings, we need to know about them.”

Team members, especially if they had arrived from Italy, attending the Formula 2 and Formula 3 test in Bahrain had to undergo medical checks at the airport before being allowed into the country. A similar setup is likely to be in place for F1 teams and spectators who go to the Bahrain Grand Prix scheduled for March 22, one week after the race in Melbourne.

There are other implications. What if F1 personnel

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are ordered into quarantine – either when entering a country for a race or on the return home?

The teams had to make considerable travel plan changes to get to Australia while avoiding hub cities associated with Covid-19 What happens if the four Italian teams have only some of their personnel at the track at Albert Park?

Or perhaps are not able to field their cars at all?

“If teams cannot run for whatever reason, I think it will be unfair to start the season because this is a big disadvantage to whoever it is.” AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost said at a media briefing attended

by Auto Action.

The Concorde Agreement states that if there are fewer than 16 cars in a race it does not count for the world championship. The current F1 field consists of 20 cars.

F1 CEO Chase Carey told F1 team bosses that he has been in contact with officials in Australia, Bahrain and Vietnam who all assured him that their races would go ahead.

The bottom line is that the F1 teams and Liberty are anxious for the first four races to happen as scheduled or at a later date. The organisers for those will pay race hosting fees that total US$200 million, and the teams’ cut is 62 per cent, which is divided unevenly between them.

Yet with the Covid-19 situation constantly changing, nobody can be certain what will happen in the coming months. DK

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IN 2020 Valvoline Australia has raised its participation in local motorsport, the well-known lubricants company revealing a unique three-car sponsorship deal with long-time partner Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM), a relationship that marks an unbroken 30-year partnership this year.

Valvoline will feature on three GRM cars across two emerging categories in TCR Australia and S5000. James Golding’s S5000 will be sponsored

by Valvoline as will Michael Caruso’s Alfa Romeo and Aaron Cameron’s Peugeot.

MULTIPLE AUSTRALIAN Formula 3 champion Tim Macrow will sport fresh new backing when he lines up for the 2020 S5000 Australian Championship. Adopting a new orange and black livery for this year, Macrow will feature support from Australian power and communications infrastructure company UCS Group, with additional support from gearbox manufacturers Holinger.

Having been responsible for much of the early development testing with the first S5000 prototype, Macrow also completed the two S5000 exhibition races late last year in preparation for this year’s championship.

JAMES MOFFAT has revealed a new livery that he will run in the 2020 TCR Australia Series, as previously revealed the former full-time Supercars driver will again drive a Renault Sport GRM Megane R.S. TCR car. The new livery is designed to be instantly recognisable at first glance with its unique Renault yellow colour, however touches of black still appear.

STAR-STUDDED S5000 AGP LINE-UP THE INAUGURAL Australian S5000 Championship round will take place as a support to the Australian Grand Prix on March 12-15 featuring a star-studded grid, which includes two Formula 1 race winners and a current Formula 1 reserve driver.

At the event drivers will compete for the Alan Jones Cup in honour of Australia’s second Formula 1 World Champion.

Jones himself is a big fan of the new V8 powered wings and slicks series.

“It (S5000) is something that’s been lacking from Australian motorsport for a while,” Jones said.

“S5000 will provide a terrific challenge for young Australian open-wheeler drivers, and provide the environment in which to show what they’ve got in terms of serious open-wheeler credentials. I reckon Australia’s next world champion will come from S5000.”

The new category welcomes back Rubens Barrichello, while Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and current WilliamsF1 test driver Jack Aitken join the field, which will also feature support from Melbourne-based automotive component supplier Speco VHT for the first-time.

Fisichella made his Formula 1 debut at Albert Park

in 1996 and continued racing in the championship until 2009, competing in 229 races.

Along the way the flamboyant Italian collected 19 podiums and three race victories, the winner of the 2005 Australian Grand Prix beat home fellow S5000 driver Rubens Barrichello.

Fisichella is very excited to not only return to Albert Park but to get back in the seat of an openwheeler.

“I am very excited about coming back to a city and a street circuit which mean so much to me,” said Fisichella.

“My Grand Prix win will stay in my heart forever as well as the warmth of the many Australian fans who come every year to Melbourne for a great motor sport spectacle.

“It is also a full comeback to an open wheeler for me, after ten solid years of GT racing and for this I can’t wait until I am going to be behind the wheel of a S5000.”

Aitken, like Fisichella, will contest the opening round driving for BRM, in 2019 the 24-year-old Englishman raced for Campos Racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, collecting three wins along the way on route to fifth in the standings.

Prior to that Aitken finished as runner-up to George Russell in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2017.

Former Ferrari driver Barrichello will make his return to the championship after debuting last year in the first event at Sandown. The 11-time Grand Prix winner is also joined by Supercars co-driver Alexandre Premat who won multiple races in GP2 as teammates to both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Australian James Davison a multiple-time Indy500 starter will also get behind the wheel of one of the V8 powered open-wheel car at Albert Park Outside of the international stars are some very capable Australian drivers entered to take part in the series full-time.

This list includes Supercars driver Zane Goddard, Super2 driver Thomas Randle and current Formula 4 Champion Luis Leeds, the trio all competed in the 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup Series.

They will be challenged by former Australian Formula 3 series winner and original S5000 development and test driver Tim Macrow and former Supercars full-timer James Golding who impressed last year by winning two of the exhibition races, the 24-year-old will return for GRM in 2020.

DM

POINTS PENALTY SYSTEM SUGGESTED

THE 2019 Motorsport Australia National Awards Gala Dinner was held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and hosted by Greg Rust.

The evening honoured both the champions behind the wheel and individuals behind the scenes. Scott McLaughlin, Bryce Fullwood, Will Brown, Harry Bates and Geoff Emery were amongst the drivers who were rewarded for winning their respective titles. Auto Action’s special contributor Bruce Newton was awarded a Media Service Award as was our publisher Bruce Williams.

THE 2019 TCR Australia Series runner-up Tony D’Alberto and Honda Australia revealed a slightly updated livery on his Honda Civic Type R TCR for this season. The livery contains more of the famed ‘Honda Red’ that represents Honda’s products, innovative technology and motorsport activities around the world. While his Wall Racing teammate John Martin will sport an eye catching blue and white liveried Civic Type R TCR car.

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ON THE opening day of the Supercars Championship in Adelaide Tickford Racing driver Lee Holdsworth and new Matt Stone Racing recruit Garry Jacobson collided and afterwards Holdsworth suggested a penalty system he would like to see implemented.

The clash between the pair happened late on in the sole Thursday practice session in the first round of the 2020 Supercars Championship. After the incident Auto Action spoke to Tickford driver Holdsworth about what occurred.

“I was on a green tyre had just started my lap and had the lights on, I saw Jacobson entering Turn 3 as I was coming through Turn 1,” Holdsworth recalled to Auto Action.

“He was on an out lap trundling around, I was fully committed through Turn 3, you have to use all the road there on exit.

“As I exited the corner, he was sitting there on the racing line obviously going at a lot slower speed than I was, I had no option but to go right and he went right as well. I tried to squeeze through a gap that wasn’t there and that was the end of it.”

Jacobson has been fined for the incident,

however Holdsworth suggested that the introduction of a licence points penalty system similar to the Super Licence structure in Formula 1 would be more effective.

“Sometimes the fines, the point penalties or the grid penalties don’t work the way they should,” he told AA. “What I’d like to see in the future is a point system for offences like that incident, where if it is a repeat offence you get your (licence) points taken off of you and eventually if you run out of points you are given a harsh penalty.”

The three-time Supercars race winner said that Jacobson put his hand up and apologised for the incident which is why he was not angrier about the incident.

“It was a mistake on his behalf, he has admitted that, he said sorry and apologised, so we just have to leave it at that and move on,” Holdsworth said.

“First and fore most you want to see that someone acknowledges when they are in the wrong which he did. When I retaliate is when someone does it intentionally and he certainly didn’t do that. But it is a pretty dangerous situation.” Dan McCarthy

DAMPERS THE EQUALISER TEAM 18 team principal Charlie Schwerkolt is happy with the expansion of his squad to two cars and believes that his team is a lot closer to the mark thanks to the control damper introduction.

Despite a couple of incidents for new Charlie Scwerkolt Racing recruit Scott Pye around the Adelaide Street Circuit during the weekend it was a successful round for the rejuvenated squad.

Former Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom collected a couple of solid point scores, with an eighth and an eleventh. Pye showed glimpses of the speed but the incidents meant his weekend never really got started.

Schwerkolt puts the pace improvement mostly down to the control damper.

“For us the big leveller is the control dampers, last year we didn’t invest a lot in damper technology or anything like that,” Schwerkolt admitted to Auto Action.

“As a customer of Triple Eight they were servicing it, we weren’t doing much with it at all.

“This all brings the field back together I believe, we have all got the same dampers, with a few different clicks and a few different springs and all that sort of stuff, but yes we have got good pace.”

Schwerkolt is thrilled with his decision to upscale to two cars, he believes it has been beneficial not only out on the track but during the pit stops and after the sessions.

“One of the biggest thing is pit stops, it’s the same crew all the time now, we have had a different crew for the last four years, sharing with other people so now we have got control of that,” he said.

“The other thing is that one car can be on one set of tyre pressures while the other is

on another and that’s the way to go.

“They can work it out, it is live data whereas last year we had to wait for Triple Eight to get their data down after the session, but this year it is all live and those are the two big things.

“Frosty‘s got a teammate and Scotty Pye has got a teammate, it is what I wanted so it is great. It is awesome to look at one side DeWalt and you look at the other side and there is Irwin it is all symmetrical it all looks good.” DM

NEW GRM RESPONSIBILITIES AFTER GAINING factory Renault support and forging a strong relationship with the manufacturer’s TCR constructor Vukovic Motorsport last year, Garry Rogers Motorsport is aiding in further development of the Renault Megane R.S. TCR, particularly on the engineering side.

A long-term goal to compete in the World Touring Car Cup, the burgeoning TCR category’s top echelon, both Vukovic is utilising GRM’s vast engineering experience to further enhance the Renault’s competitiveness and reliability.

“It’s probably from an engineering point of view, Milenko [Vukovic, owner of Vukovic Motorsport] has given Richard [Holloway] at our place quite a bit of responsibility on that side of

things,” GRM director Barry Rogers told Auto Action.

“The mechanical part of it is more Vukovic. It’s more shared, it’s Vukovic Motorsport’s project, we’ve formed a relationship where he has engaged us to do a bit more of the engineering side of the car, which is great.”

GRM have recently sent steering arms as it focuses on improving the Megane’s power steering system with both camps in continual contact with each other. The other major development is the new powerplant the Megane will run, which is based on the one used in the Trophy R road version.

James Moffat ran the new motor at the TCR test day, it is still early days as various maps are being sent daily from Vukovic’s Swiss base.

“We’ve always run a 1.8-litre engine in the cars, an older engine, but that is a current spec Megane unit straight out of the road car, which is great,” enthused Rogers. “We’ve been trying some different maps throughout the test, Vukovic has done some testing over there, but it’s 2 or 3 degrees over there at the moment.”

“We’re going slowly with it, we don’t want to have mechanical issues which we’re working our way through. They were live all the way from Switzerland on air all day just trying things throughout the day.”

The team were aiming to run all three of its Meganes at the Australian Grand Prix, with Moffat and new teammate Dylan O’Keeffe being joined by British Clio Cup champion Jack Young, but

those plans have fallen through.

“We’ll run the two, the young fellow Jack Young, they were trying to get him across here, but it wasn’t quite able to

get across the line, which is a bit of a shame,” Rogers lamented.

“Hopefully we’ll see him come across for the enduro.” HM

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WAU KEEPING ITS HEAD DOWN WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United team principal Ryan Walkinshaw was relieved that his team scored a podium in Adelaide for the first time since October last year but admitted he doesn’t want to get to excited just yet.

It has been a challenging couple of seasons for the Clayton based operation that scored just one podium in 2019 and have not claimed a win since early in 2018.

On the streets of Adelaide the former Holden Racing Team has had success in the recent past and once again showed pace, however Walkinshaw did not want to get ahead of himself.

“We don’t want to get to excited, it is Adelaide, it is a street circuit and we have traditionally been pretty good here,” Walkinshaw told Auto Action.

“But still it has been a while since we have been covered in champagne so we are going to take it.

“Yeah it wasn’t a win, but considering some of the hard times we had through last year, it was a sense of relief that the plans that we put in place and have been working on for a long period of time, getting Chaz and Adam de Borre in, has so far paid off.”

Until Mostert claimed his podium on the streets of Adelaide the WAU squad had not earnt a podium in a solo driver sprint race since May in 2018.

The 2020 season marks a new era for WAU with two new recruits signed into the squad with 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner

Chaz Mostert and reigning Super2 Series winner Bryce Fullwood.

Looking to the rounds ahead Walkinshaw, believes that with the new driving talent and engineering personnel, it is the best chance of moving the team forwards, something the squad will work hard to achieve.

“We have got two great new drivers with Chaz and Bryce, new engineer, new thinking in the engineering department as well to support the guys we already had there,” Walkinshaw told AA. “We have a lot of talent, given a bit more resource and some new ideas, we will be working our arses off to continue what we have started here and hopefully we will have a better season than last year.” Dan McCarthy

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CARUSO’S PUZZLE COMPLETE

THE TCR Australia grid is full of experienced drivers this season, with Michael Caruso the most recent convert to the international formula that has reunited him not only with Garry Rogers Motorsport, but a team member that has been an integral part of Caruso’s career.

Steven Todkill will return to engineer the GRM Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce that Caruso will pilot in TCR Australia within a two-car line-up for the Italian marque alongside Jordan Cox. Caruso explained to Auto Action that many boxes needed to be ticked ahead of his commitment to a TCR deal and gaining TodKill’s services was near the top.

“For me there were a few key elements that was going to make this happen for me in terms of me wanting to do it,” Caruso explained to Auto Action.

“GRM was one of them, coming back to GRM particularly after that stint during the middle of last year at Townsville, I really enjoyed my time with the team and also having the right people working on my car.

“Obviously, the team at GRM are very experienced and having Steve, my race engineer for virtually my whole Supercars career to have him back was a key to helping this become a successful program.”

After Todkill moved out of the motor sport arena when

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Caruso transferred into a Pirtek Enduro Cup seat at Tickford Racing once his relationship with Kelly Racing ended, there was not much persuasion needed to bring the engineer back.

“No, it was actually pretty easy,” Caruso said. “We’ve got a really good relationship away from the race track as well and all those bits help.

“I think even for Steve, the driver engineer relationship is so crucial, it’s a making the most of every situation whether it be car, team and everything. Those key elements were crucial and partly why I wanted to make this all happen.”

Caruso finished the TCR Australia test day in 11th, 0.573s off Tony D’Alberto’s fastest time of the day in his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR. Heath McAlpine

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VAN GISBERGEN NOT TO BLAME IT WAS a tough day at the office for Triple Eight Race Engineering in Sunday’s leg of the Adelaide 500 in which a front right lower control arm failure ended Shane van Gisbergen’s charge towards the podium before it started. Team manager Mark Dutton believes the Kiwi’s aggressive driving was not to blame for the failure.

Auto Action posed the question to Dutton whether van Gisbergen’s aggressive driving during his final stint contributed to the failure, but gave nothing away.

“Can’t say for sure, he wouldn’t have had to have pushed so hard, so definitely less load through the car with lap times not as quick,” Dutton said.

“Can’t say whether it would have been enough to have made the difference, but it definitely would have helped in the right direction, it probably would have went anyway.”

Van Gisbergen was having issues with the front anti-role bar during the 250km race and suspicions were raised that this may have contributed to the failure. The team was unable to identify the cause of the issue at the time but have now confirmed that the anti-role bar issue caused additional load to be put through the control arm led the failure.

The team has said that both the adjustor and the control arms will

be re-engineered before the next round of the series at Albert Park.

The race was running smoothly for van Gisbergen before Triple Eight under-filled van Gisbergen at his second stop leading to an unscheduled third stop with 10 laps to go.

An aggressive drive was need to first bridge a gap before the third pit stop, then towards to chase a podium place after he emerged back on the road in fifth. New tyres and the fuel required set-up a classic van Gisbergen charge to the finis, but it wasn’t to be after the lower control arm failure on lap 75.

Despite a heartbreaking day, Dutton was pleased with the speed the pair of Triple Eight Commodores had during the weekend and is determined to get on top of any mechanical issues.

“Massively happy, we rolled out quick, we have had two pole positions and should have had two race wins on car pace,” he said.

Van Gisbergen’s teammate Jamie Whincup dominated Race 1 but could not make his way through the field with aero wash a leading factor.

“Being caught behind cars doesn’t help around anywhere let alone here, the aero wash was quite bad, when he got behind Lee Holdsworth it set the race very early on, so that was unfortunate.”

Dan McCarthy

S5000 IGNITES TITLE SPONSOR VHT HAS signed as the naming rights sponsor for the first inaugural S5000 series which will be known as the VHT Australian S5000 Championship.

VHT (Very High Temperature) is a high performance flameproof coatings for automotive, hardware and household applications. The brand was established in the USA in 1964, VHT was first imported to Australia by 1975 Bathurst 1000 winner Brian Sampson, co-founder of the Speco Thomas and Motor Improvements business.

Brendan Jones the director of VHT Australia is very pleased about becoming the first naming rights sponsor of the series.

“VHT is thrilled to be the first ever naming

rights sponsor of the Australian S5000 Championship,” Jones said.

“S5000 is a category unlike anything Australian motorsport has seen since Formula 5000, so it is an honour for VHT to be associated with this great racing formula.”

The branding of VHT will appear on the upper nosecone area and rear wing endplates of every car in the championship which will kick off at the Australian Grand Prix from March 12-15.

The inaugural championship round will see former F1 drivers Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella race against Australia’s young prospects as they fight for the Alan Jones Cup.

BRODIE’S “AMAZING” POTENTIAL DUNLOP Super2 points leader Brodie Kostecki has been hailed as a driver with “amazing” potential by 2014 Bathurst winner Paul Morris.

Morris, who is also Kostecki’s manager, says the 22-year old has a rare combination of driving speed and engineering knowledge.

“I haven’t seen a driver come along like that in a long time that’s got that hands-on ability as well,” said Morris, who also manages emerging Supercars star Anton De Pasquale and Super2 rookie Broc Feeney.

Kostecki won two out of three races at the 2020 Super2 opener in Adelaide driving for Eggleston Motorsport.

He shared a Boost-backed Commodore with cousin Kurt Kostecki

in the Pirtek Enduro Cup last year and impressed with a eighth-place finish in the primary driver sprint race at the Sandown 500.

He will co-drive in 2020 Pirtek Enduro Cup with De Pasquale at Erebus Motorsport.

“I am working with Brodie pretty closely and I think his potential is amazing,” said Morris.

“The biggest thing he has got going for him is his engineering and ability to work on the cars.

“He can build his own shocks, everything to do with that car he knows how to do.

“I think that can be a really big edge for him. He is really old school in a young person’s body.” BN

KELLY: A LOT LEFT ON THE TABLE A PAIR of top 10 finishes capped off a surprising performance for Kelly Racing at its debut round as a Ford Mustang team in Adelaide.

A frantic build up, which forced team co-owner Todd Kelly to stay at the squad’s Braeside base was rewarded with strong results and new optimism for the project.

“There is still a lot left on the table with the cars,” Kelly told Auto Action. “There’s a lot of work to do to make the them nicer, because the whole program was rushed and we were just fighting to get everything finished to get to the first race.”

The engine department was one

particular area that worked overtime to complete the self-developed Kelly Racing Ford engine. The department received a well-earned rest last week, but will be back to further fine tune the engine, lowering the weight is the prime goal.

“Lightening engine blocks, cylinder heads and getting the car to minimum weight, none of those things were able to be achieved up until Adelaide,” explained Kelly. “So, it’s going to take a bit of time to get on top of all those things now that the cars are off and racing, but once we do all those things sorted out, there’s a fair bit left on the table speed-wise that we

haven’t been able to have a crack at.

“It’s really pretty exciting to be in the position we’re in already with the cars the way they are.”

Drivers Rick Kelly and Andre Heimgartner gave the package a tick of approval much quicker than what the team expected.

“That was a huge surprise,” Kelly said.

“With the way the car was, the feedback from the guys and that’s with a car that theoretically has less downforce than what it did last year, I think we’re in a lot better place now with the Mustang than where we were at last year with the Altima for

ALAN JONES CUP UP FOR GRABS IN S5000 DRIVERS CONTESTING the inaugural round of the VHT Australian S5000 Championship at Albert Park supporting the Australian Grand Prix will compete for the Alan Jones Cup. Australia’s last Formula 1 World Champion will present the trophy after the Sunday’s Feature Race, as the six remaining S5000 rounds will continue the theme by honouring original Formula 5000 drivers, who competed throughout the 1970s and early 1980s in the category.

The honouring of Jones aligns with the 40th anniversary of his only World Driver’s Championship in which he won with Williams in 1980. Previous to this, Jones had been a race winner for Shadow in the sport’s top-tier and had numerous starts in F5000, both locally and internationally.

His most famously drove Teddy Yip’s Theodore Racing Lola T332 to both the 1976 SCCA/USAC titles in America and the 1977 Rothmans Series in Australia.

Category manager Chris Lambden was pleased to create a historical link between the two eras of openwheel formulas.

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“AJ has been a great supporter of the S5000 concept from the start, and has been there to run ideas past all the way,” said Lambden.

“It’s terrific that he is the first of the legends linked to our events this year.”

In an interview featured in the upcoming edition of Auto Action (1781), Jones reflected on his crown and endorsed the S5000 concept, believing it gives Australian drivers the best preparation before heading to Europe.

“Yes, I’m a strong supporter – it’s something that’s been lacking from Australian motorsport for a while,” said Jones.

“S5000 will provide a terrific challenge for young Australian open-wheeler drivers, and provide the environment in which to show what they’ve got in terms of serious open-wheeler credentials.

“I reckon Australia’s next world champion will come from S5000.”

Drivers that will be honoured are to be named in due course.

Heath McAlpine

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sure.”

A lot of work remains to remove weight from the engines, not only in the engine shop, but through a re-homologation process with Supercars.

“The big thing is getting everything down to weight now and that is a big job because we have to go through a fairly big process with Supercars to have commission to strip these engines back down to lighten them and then have to go back and re-homologate the lightened version of the engine,” Kelly described.

“That’s quite a big task that we need to attack.” Heath McAlpine

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THROWBACK ALEX PERONI has confirmed that he will return with Campos Racing for the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship after his 2019 campaign ended prematurely due to a back injury sustained when he flipped into the catch fencing at Monza. In his debut season Peroni scored five points. The Tasmanian will be again be joined at the Spanish squad joined by Italian Alessio Deledda and new signing Sophia Floersch.

OPTIMUM MOTORSPORT has announced they will field a second McLaren 720S GT3 in GT World Challenge Europe for an all Australian trio.

Nick Foster and Martin Berry, who are already confirmed as teammates for Optimum Motorsport in the British GT Championship, will be joined in the European series by Yasser Shahin to attack the Pro-Am class. The five-round championship gets underway at Monza on April 19 and concludes at the Nurburgring in September.

THE ANNUAL Phillip Island Classic - Festival of Motorsport will host a variety of eclectic machines including more than 40 Heritage Touring Cars.

A competitive field is headlined by the addition of Kiwi Bathurst winners Greg Murphy and Jim Richards, both in BMWs from different eras.

Four-time winner of The Great Race Murphy will contest the event in an ex-CiBemme BMW M3 that finished the 1987 event seventh with Johnny Cecotto and Gianfranco Brancatelli behind the wheel.

Richards on the other hand will get reacquainted with the JPS BMW 635csi Group C he drove in the 1984 Bathurst 1000 alongside Tony Longhurst, that has just recently been restored.

Charlie O’Brien will return to the race track racing a BMW 635Csi he drove during the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship – the first for Group A – but this model has been restored back to when John English drove it at Bathurst in 1986.

Perennial category front-runner Terry Lawlor will swap his rapid Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth

for an ex-Bob Morris Ford XD Falcon driven in the 1980 Bathurst 1000 by privateer Bill O’Brien.

This is the same Falcon Allan Moffat also drove during that event after his entry expired during the opening laps of the race.

Another entry from the 1980 event will join the category in the form of Gary Chick’s ex-Craven Mild Racing Holden Commodore, which was used

by Morris during the ATCC, then Allan Grice took it over for the endurance events, finishing seventh with John Smith at Bathurst.

BUMPER 6 HOUR GRID EARL BAMBER Motorsport has announced that it will make the full-time switch from the Carrera Cup Asia Series into GT World Challenge Asia.

The squad will field a pair of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs for its first season while hiring the services of an Australian as one of its four drivers. Fresh off a Bathurst 12 Hour class win, Brenton Grove has signed up to race for the team alongside Setiawan Santoso. In the other car Piti Bhirombhakdi will drive alongside team co-owner Will Bamber.

AUSTRALIAN COMPANY RaceFuels Championship Fuel Supply will distribute and operate fuel to the GT World Challenge Asia Series this year. The growing category will begin its fourth series in 2020, again racing at tracks in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and China.

BART HORSTEN competed in the 2019 British Formula 4 Championship, finishing an impressive fifth, collecting nine podiums along the way. He has he is stepping up to the Formula 3 series this year and will race for Lanan Racing. Horsten recently completed a test for the team at Snetterton in his new car ahead of the season, which begins at Oulton Park from April 11-13.

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BATHURST 6 Hour event promoter Australian Racing Group has announced that 68 entries are currently committed to the production car race, to be held on April 10-12 across the Easter weekend.

The regular armada of BMW M3 and M4 machinery headlines the strong entry list, with reigning winner Beric Lynton entering a second M3 for the first-time, while previous winners Sherrin Motorsport will be joined by three further M4s.

Breaking up the BMW-dominant Class X, NSW Production Touring Car regular Tony Virag will enter a HSV GTS. Class A1 features a wide array of makes and models including BMW 135is, FPV GT-F, Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos, Subaru Impreza WRX STIs and Volkswagen Golf R. The A2 Class is the one to watch as the Ford Mustang makes its event debut. Four have been entered including for Australian Production Car Series frontrunner Coleby Cowham, Tony Quinn, Andrew Miedecke and Ryan McLeod. These take on two fast HSV Clubsport R8s, one for last year’s runner up Chris Lillis and the other for Aaron Tebb.

Marques featured throughout the classes include Renault, Hyundai, Mazda, Volkswagen, Kia, Subaru, Toyota and Suzuki.

John Bowe and Anton De

Pasquale are two star drivers to confirm their participation in the event, with more to come.

“We have been indicating that a massive grid was on the cards this year, so it’s great to confirm the enormous interest that the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour has attracted this year,” said ARG’s Ken Collier.

“Everyone at ARG has embraced this event since we became custodians of it last year and have worked hard to grow and develop it, and to see so many people embracing that is incredible.

“We want to bring a new level of action to the Easter event, both on and off the circuit. The feature categories are all fantastic and will have big grids. The improved Harris Park area with family zone, car displays, food vans and the Saturday evening live band will be welcomed by all teams and spectators who attend.

“We are breaking new ground by having 68 cars committed to a single race just under two weeks out from the entry deadline.

“There are more competitors we are talking to who have indicated plans to compete, which means the final four grid spots could fill up very quickly.”

Supporting the annual event is the TCR Australia Series, Australian GT Championship, Radical Australia Cup, Historic Touring Cars and Excel Cup. HM

The vast array of racing machinery includes a multitude of Ford Sierra RS500s, BMW M3s, Jaguar XJSs, Toyota Corollas, Ford Escorts and plenty of Group C Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, joining various historically significant motor cars competing across the weekend.

The Phillip Island Festival of Motorsport takes place on March 5-8, touring car star and former Formula 1 driver Larry Perkins is patron of the event. HM

SUPERUTES PUSHED BACK TO 2021 STORIES FLOATING around that the SuperUtes are finished and now defunct have been hosed down by teams still involved in the category.

While there won’t be a series this year, the program to convert the SuperUtes from turbo diesel power to V8s continues for a series in 2021.

Towards the end of 2019 Supercars handed back the category administration to Motorsport Australia and the category is now in the hands of the team owners. The category never really caught on with fans and barely made double figure entry numbers.

The team owners voted to get rid of the troublesome and unpopular diesel powerplants and go to a control LS3 engine. They would take up the offer of a five-round schedule with the Virgin Australia Supercar Championship starting in May. However they have decided to push back to 2021.

“We were offered five rounds with Supercars, pretty good ones at that.

But the time factor was against getting all the vehicles ready for a series this year,” said SRT principle Luke Sieders.

“We don’t want to rush the changeover and really only have one opportunity to get it right.”

The seven utes that Sieders Team Racing oversee, a mix of Mitsubishi Tritons and Toyota Hiluxes, have or currently are, undergoing the powerplant transition.

Rod Dawson from Peters Motorsport indicated that of the three he had under his care, the two Mazda BT50s were destined to go to the new engine.

The remaining Holden Colorado, which is owned by Supercars, would be returned to them as a turbo diesel.

“We put a basic LS engine in one Mazda which Ryal (Harris) thrashed around Queensland Raceway and it was two seconds faster than when it had the diesel turbo. With the LS3 and the other mods as well as a diff ratio change, they will be substantially faster,” Dawson said.

Charlie Schwerkolt from Team 18 is keen to continue his involvement with his Holden Colorado while Christopher Formosa is in the process of powerplant replacements in a pair of Ford Rangers.

“We have the engine already in the Ranger that Bayley Hall crashed at Bathurst and just to fit the ECU etc,” Formosa said. “We certainly want to continue with the category . . . we own the cars and don’t want to use them as paper weights.”

While Ross Stone has already indicated that he would not be returning to the category, Isuzu D-MAX owner Steve Wilson does want to also make the transition and continue in the category. Garry O’Brien

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with Oscar Piastri

LUCK DESERTS DOOHAN BAD LUCK cost Jack Doohan dearly, as his title rival Joey Alders won the Asian F3 Championship in the final round of the 2019/20 Asian F3 Championship in Buriram.

The 13th race of the season proved unlucky for Doohan who from pole made a blistering start, as did rival Alders, who jumped from fifth into second.

However Doohan had his head down and pulled out a lead of 2s in the opening two laps of the race and continued to pull out an increasingly large margin over his championship rival.

Doohan crossed the line to start the final lap with a 6.7s lead, but disaster struck as the Australian picked up a rear puncture. Alders thus sailed through to win while Doohan plummeted down the order, finishing eighth.

Because he set the fastest lap in the weekend’s opening encounter, Doohan started from pole position for Race 2, but he knew if Alders finished in the top three it would be the Dutchman who would take the title.

Again Doohan made a great start and pulled away from the chasing pack early and continued to stretch a heathy gap, while Alders was stuck in the pack down in sixth position.

Incredibly, as happened in the opening race, one of Doohan’s tyres let go forcing him into the pits and out of the race, his rival meanwhile recovered to finish the race in third and take the title.

In the final race of the series Doohan made a good start and shot into second by Turn 4, however reigning champion Ukyo Sasahara remained unchallenged and took his second straight victory. Doohan finished second but this was little consolation for the Pinnacle Motorsport driver.

Tommy Smith had his best weekend of the season, scoring in all three races and finishing a season high sixth in both Race 1 and Race 3 to finish 10th in the series. DM

G-DRIVE TAKES ALMS CROWN THE CONCLUDING round of the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series was held at the Buriram Circuit in Thailand. It was a tense affair throughout, with the Thunderhead Carlin Racing trio of Jack Manchester, Harry Tincknell and Ben Barnicoat coming out on top.

However, although they earned the pole position and race victory, the title eluded the team by a solitary point.

This honour went to the #26 G-Drive Racing by Algarve Aurus 01 driven by Roman Rusinov, James French and Leonard Hoogenboom, who finished just 17.7s behind the leaders, enough to take second position in the race and with it the Asian Le Mans Series crown.

Despite not scoring a pole position all season the #26 trio recorded two wins, a second and a third and this consistency was enough to see them take the title.

Rounding out the top three was the #96 K2 Uchino Racing Oreca 07 team of Haruki Kurosawa and Shaun Thong, who recorded their first podium of the season.

The #1 Eurasia Motorsport car made it to the finish for the first time this season, finishing a respectable fourth with Daniel Gaunt, Nick Cassidy and Nobuya Yamanaka behind the wheel.

A strong start from for Aussies Nick Foster, Aiden Read and Roberto Merhi in the #36 Eurasia Motorsport Ligier JS P217 saw them remain in podium and championship contention, until a late race puncture cost them any chance of the title and the race; they finished fifth.

Aussies John Corbett and Nathan Kumar along with Singaporean Danial Frost finished the race in sixth, with adopted Aussie James Winslow seventh in class.

In LMP3 David Fumanelli/Alessandro Bressan/Andreas Laskaratos claimed victory in #12 ACE1 Villorba Corse car but it was the #2 Nielsen Racing duo of Tony Wells and Colin Noble who won the championship. Australian Neale Muston joined the series for the final round and finished on the class podium in third.

Supercars driver Tim Slade joined fellow Australian Liam Talbot and Brazilian Marcos Gomes in the HubAuto Corsa Ferrari, assisting them to not only the GT class race victory but the class title. DM

SHIELDS TO CONTEST USF2000 SERIES LEGACY AUTOSPORT has announced Australian Cameron Shields as its first USF2000 driver for the 2020 season, Shields returning to the championship after an interrupted campaign in 2019.

The Toowoomba born Queenslander contested the series last year for Pabst Racing Services but had to end his campaign two-thirds of the way through the season due to budgetary issues.

In this short time Shields impressed, recording two podium finishes including a race win at the Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, and despite missing a portion of the campaign still finished 13th in the series.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back out in the car and hitting the track in St. Petersburg,” Shields said.

“A lot of work has gone in over the off-season to have a seat for the first round - now it is up to myself and the team to make the most of this opportunity and come away from the weekend with some successful results.

“Legacy Autosport has been able to offer an opportunity to me that no other team can match. All of the team members have decades of combined knowledge in open-wheel racing and I’m really looking forward to working with everyone to develop my skills in and out of the car.”

Legacy Autosport owner Mike Meyer is excited to have the former Australian Formula 3 Series winner driving for the team.

“I am thrilled to be able to officially welcome Cameron to Legacy Autosport,” said Meyer.

“We have been working very hard to put this program together, Cameron is a dedicated, professional and extremely talented race car driver. He definitely caught our attention last year and I can’t wait to see what we as a team can accomplish this year.”

The season kicks off in a couple of weeks on the streets of St. Petersburg from March 13-15. DM

FIRST UP, thanks for positive feedback to my debut Auto Action column last month, it was cool to receive your support!

With AA’s deadlines set in stone and a few significant days ahead, I’m jamming the column in between sitting school practice exams for my A-levels and the FIA Formula 3 Championship pre-season test, so I’m writing this while on my way to Bahrain.

The big news this week as you’ve probably read in this AA issue is that I’ve signed with Jam Sports Management, Aussie Formula 1 legend Mark Webber’s agency he set up with his wife, Ann and Jason Allen.

Everyone knows who Mark Webber is and what his incredible achievements in F1, LMP1, and other championships are.

Mark’s experience will be a great asset to have on my side as he mentors me, trying to help me reach my goal of racing in F1.

The Bahrain test will be my first outing with Prema Racing for 2020, and I am excited about working with the team and finally getting back behind the wheel as the off-season has been a long break – it’s been too long since I’ve driven a race car.

Bahrain is a new track for the F3 series, and with the first round scheduled for Sakhir as part of the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix later this month, it will be interesting to see how the test plays out.

All of the teams and drivers will need to learn the track to ‘acclimatise’ to the local conditions.

Looking at past F2 and F1 races in Bahrain it seems like it’s a track that’s tough on tyres, so everyone will have to get their heads around that.

With the record Prema Racing has across all the series it contests and the experience I’ve had with them to date, I’m confident we’ll be able to adapt

quickly and be on the pace – they’ve been amazing so far.

I visited Prema’s impressive headquarters in Grisignano di Zocco, Italy last month for my seat fitting and a media day.

There I met and got to know all of my new team-mates – not just my F3 team-mates Frederik Vesti and Logan Sargeant, but the F2, Formula Regional, and F4 guys as well.

Prema has been excellent like that, creating a real team atmosphere rather than separating the classes and drivers. I like that; it makes me want to work with the team and carry on its winning tradition.

I’m pretty happy to be carrying the #1 on my Prema F3 Dallara this year.

Some people believe it brings extra pressure, but it’s the same number that I ran with R-ace GP in Formula Renault last year, and I thought it brought some luck.

Prema let all its drivers stick with their numbers, so there weren’t any arguments.

Regardless of whatever decal I put on my car, the goal is still the same, finish first in the championship, and I’ll be fighting to do just that.

After Bahrain and a week back at school, I’ll be heading home to Melbourne for the F1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix, which is exciting.

Renault Australia and the Renault F1 Team have a jam-packed schedule for me, so I won’t be able to spend much time at Mum and Dad’s and with my mates, but being around the Grand Prix in an official capacity is going to be an excellent experience.

I’ve only ever been to Albert Park once as a spectator, but this year I’ll be fully integrated into the event, working with Renault off track and in the garage as well. It will be a massive opportunity, and I’m looking forward to grabbing it with both hands.

If you’re at Albert Park and see me, please say “Hi”.

Oscar’s number 1 ride, the Prema Powerteam Formula 3 car.

Oscar’s next column will appear in Auto Action’s issue on sale April 2nd.

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FORMER MCLAREN driver Stoffel Vandoorne has been announced as a Mercedes’ reserve drivers for 2020, having stepped up from his role as the team’s simulator driver in 2019, the role has become vacant after Esteban Ocon joined Renault as a full-time driver for this year. Vandoorne will combine his F1 duties with a full Formula E campaign for the Mercedes factory team. Ex-Sauber and Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez will also remain with Mercedes as a reserve driver.

IMAGES OF the newly completed banked corners have been released ahead of the return to the historic Zandvoort Circuit for the Dutch Grand Prix on May 3. The two banked corners at Turns 3 and 14 are angled at around 19 degrees, whereas the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a circuit which Formula 1 raced at for several years has nine-degree turns.

RECENTLY JACK Aitken signed as the Williams reserve driver for the 2020 season, the day after he announced his departure from Renault. The move to Williams sparked speculation as to whether he would be returning to Formula 2 in 2020, but in recent days Aitken has announced that he will return to drive for Campos Racing this season. In 2019 the 24-year-old secured three race victories, including a memorable win on home soil at Silverstone on his way to fifth in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

THE FOLKS att R Racing i P Point i t freely admit that this year’s RP20 is a copy of last year’s all conquering Mercedes W10.

What they don’t understand is why other teams don’t do the same thing – after all the W10 was a proven winner.

CEO Otmar Szafnauer insists that Racing Point did everything legally.

“We copied the Red Bull in the past too, but we copy it within the rules,” he explained at a media briefing attended

by Auto Action. “So we see what they are doing; we take pictures; we try to understand; we run it in the wind tunnel, and we do it ourselves. We are adding people and we are soon going to be at 500. The people that we are adding are all about design, development and manufacturing so we can develop our own. So although everyone says you copied a Mercedes, it is our own concept.

“Yes, we look to see what is fast. We thought: that’s fast, can we do the same? We will add another 100 people so we can continue our own development. It is a little bit different than what they do.”

By “they” he is referring to Haas, which has a very close relationship with Ferrari.

Szafnauer’s contention and complaint is that Haas allegedly gets IP from Ferrari, which is not legal according to F1 rules.

“You can’t have a couple of hundred people and design your own car and develop your own car (like Haas does).

It just doesn’t work that way,” he said.

Haas buys a lot of parts from Ferrari.

“Yes, but is not about buying,” Szafnauer said.

LEGAL COPYING

“We don’t have a massive manufacturing capability; we buy as well. But we buy from people that machine the parts. But it is about design and development. It is the

size of your model design and making capability for a wind tunnel. It is the size of your aerodynamic team. Our aerodynamic team total is bigger than their entire team.

SKYDIVING RICCIARDO READY TO RACE RACE PROMOTERS have confirmed that the new Hanoi Circuit in Vietnam has been completed ahead of the countries inaugural Grand Prix next month. The final step was tarmacking a 150m-long stretch of track along the start/finish line which completed the 23-turn course. With the permanent constructions in place, the focus is now on the temporary structures around the circuit, including the grandstands, each one of which is named after an iconic Vietnamese city or location.

SEVERAL SUBTLE changes have been made to the rules ahead of this year’s FIA Formula 3 Championship. From 2020 the series will reverse the top 10 finishers in Race 1 to set the grid for the Race 2 up from eight in previous years. As well as this the top 10 finishers in the second race will now all receive points instead of the top eight. Australians Oscar Piastri, Alex Peroni, Calan Williams, Jack Doohan and Kiwi Liam Lawson will all take part in F1’s third-tier series in 2020.

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AUSSIE DANIEL Ricciardo has a plan for his home grand prix.

“I’m going to skydive in Friday morning – straight into the garage,” he revealed. “I got my skydiving ticket over Christmas, and I’m planning to land perfectly inside the cockpit and get out on track.

That would be cool; the media would love that actually. That would tick a lot of boxes.”

He is joking of course, but he is serious about doing things differently in Melbourne this year.

Ricciardo was overburdened with media and PR commitments in the days leading up to last year’s race.

“It kind of builds up every year,” Ricciardo said when Auto Action asked him about the situation.

“Mark Webber used to say that Melbourne is a bit of a love-hate, because it’s great having a home race but it is so intense that you feel what you are there to do is taken away from your because you have so many commitments.”

Ricciardo will not refuse all requests this year, but

he will scale back.

“Since the second of January we (drivers) have been preparing our bodies and minds for race one,” he said. “And to go there and feel a per cent here and there is taken away with other commitments is frustrating. That was compounded by the race last year (when I crashed at the start). I don’t blame the race on that, but would I say I was fully clear minded and energetic come Sunday? No. So it is to try to do that better. So I will do less this year and just try to do enough that I am treated like every other driver that week and have something good to write about after the race.”

This is the second year of the Renault/Ricciardo partnership, and it’s going to pan out better than 2019. Ricciardo could not lean on the 2019 Renault like he could with the Red Bulls he raced in previous years. That hampered the car’s cornering potential and his overtaking attempts. But on just his second lap in the R.S.20 in pre-season testing in Barcelona this year he already could feel it had more grip

So where are they getting it from? It is different, trust me it is different.”

The rules permit teams to buy components such as suspensions, gearboxes and Image: LAT

and downforce than the R.S.19.

Renault also concentrated on curing the R.S.19’s weaknesses on bumpy circuits and riding over kerbs.

Ricciardo set the third fastest overall lap time in pre-season testing. He readily admitted that testing times don’t give the full picture of the pecking order, but added it’s better to be near the top of the list than the bottom.

AA asked him if he and the team are ready to race in Melbourne.

“Yes, we are definitely ready,” he replied. “As far as the reliability it was pretty strong for us. I think we are pretty good.”

So the indications are that things will go better for Ricciardo this year – even if he does not skydive into Albert Park.

Image: LAT

STICKING WITH YELLOW AND RED

engines from other teams, but there also needs to be a clear distinction of what can be bought and what a team must make.

“Part of the DNA of F1

is that as a team there are certain parts that you have to do yourself as a manufacturer,” insisted McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl. “So we

definitely do not want to go in the direction of opening that up. The rules are clear, it is just important that these rules are followed and properly policed.”

WILL DANIEL Ricciardo be behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the start of next year’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix? Or will Sebastian Vettel return for a seventh season with the Scuderia?

Vettel’s current contract with Ferrari expires at the end of the year. Team principal Mattia Binotto says he wants Vettel back in 2021. During the offseason the team extended Charles Leclerc’s contract through 2024 but made no announcement about Vettel.

That, and the fact that the laidback Vettel has seemed a bit ambivalent about Formula 1 in general, led to new rumours about Ricciardo moving to Ferrari in 2021. But the Perth native wants to focus on his future with Renault rather than think about a possible switch to Ferrari.

“I will answer calls for sure, but most importantly I want this to work,” Ricciardo said at a media briefing attending by Auto Action. “I don’t want it to feel like I’ve just come to Renault and just got away from Red Bull, and then I’m looking for the next best thing.”

Ricciardo had mixed results last year as the performance of the Renault was inconsistent.

“I really want to make this happen and make it work,” he said. “Obviously the step to that is getting more out of this year than we did last year and hopefully getting enough out of it – that the journey continues beyond my two-year contract. That’s the ideal scenario.

“To talk about other what-ifs and

future here and there, it’s still too early. You don’t want to rock the boat obviously as well, but we haven’t even started this year. I can’t think about it yet.”

Vettel was asked during pre-season testing how much is a new contract weighing his mind?

“Right now we’re very busy with other stuff,” he replied, “so therefore I would say zero.”

Does the fire that earned him four world championships still burn?

“I would say so,” Vettel said. “I’ve been around now for a while but I still love what I do. I got really excited when I got in the car (for pre-season testing) and very quickly got back into a rhythm and that feels great. The satisfaction you get from driving the car I would still say feels the same.

“I’m here to win and in that regard we had recent years, some were good, better than others, but none of them had been to our liking at the very end. I joined Ferrari to win the championship.

We haven’t done that so far, but the hunger, will and determination is still there inside the team.”

Binotto believes that he and Vettel can hash out a new deal over a dinner and a glass of wine – red of course.

So while anything can happen, it is most likely that Ricciardo will be in Renault yellow and Vettel will be in Ferrari red in Melbourne next year. And that’s just where both drivers want to be.

SPEED AND SANDBAGGING HAS FERRARI been sandbagging? Will the mysterious settlement reached between the FIA and Ferrari affect the speed of its 2020 car?

Clues to the answers to those questions will be revealed in F1 qualifying and the race in Melbourne.

Ferrari wasn’t really quick during pre-season testing in Spain, and this led rival teams including Mercedes to speculate that Ferrari was holding back.

Last year’s Ferrari had excellent straight-line speed but did not excel in corners. It is just the opposite this year. Team principal Mattia Binotto gave the 2020 car a rating of less than six out of 10. So how prepared is Ferrari going to Australia?

“As a team I believe we are ready,” he said. “Are we fast enough? No, we’re not, and I’m pretty certain of that!”

Does he rule out victory in Australia?

“Yes, I don’t think we’ll be in a position to win in Australia,” Binotto confirmed.

There might be another reason why the 2020 Ferrari is lacking pace.

Last season there were rumours and finger pointing that Ferrari’s power unit was allegedly illegal. But none of the rival teams ever filed a protest. The FIA did several intricate examinations of the Ferrari power unit during the year but never declared it illegal.

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Prior to last year’s U.S. Grand Prix in November the FIA issued a technical directive on fuel flow requirements for all power units.

Max Verstappen, who finished third in his Red Bull Honda in that event, was asked if he was surprised that Ferrari, which had been very competitive since August, was now off the pace.

“Not surprised,” he answered. “At all about it. After what came out. So that explains everything.”

What came out?

“The piece of paper,” Verstappen replied, referring to the technical directive.

Verstappen later told a Dutch TV station that Ferrari’s slump was “what happens when you stop cheating.”

Ferrari denied any wrongdoing.

Then, on February 28, 2020, the FIA put out a statement saying that “after thorough technical investigations, it has concluded its analysis of the operation of the…Ferrari…Power Unit and reached a settlement with the team. The specifics of the agreement will remain between the parties.”

So was Ferrari’s 2019 power unit legal? If it was not, why wasn’t the team punished? If it was legal, why didn’t the FIA state that?

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The statement added that the FIA and Ferrari “have agreed to a number of technical commitments that will improve the monitoring of all Formula 1 Power Units.”

Does this mean that Ferrari had found a loophole which the FIA has now closed?

How will this “settlement” affect Ferrari’s power unit? Did its performance in pre-season testing show the first signs of that?

Just how well Ferrari performs in Melbourne may answer some questions and probably raise some more.

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F1 INSIDER

with Dan Knutson

DAS SURPRISE IF THIS had not been the first time that pre-season Formula 1 testing was live on TV with wall-to-wall all-day coverage, then nobody outside the Mercedes team would have known about its innovative DAS (Dual-Axis Steering) system until the opening day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix.

As surprises go on the technical front in F1, the Mercedes certainly stunned a lot of folks. It definitely caught rival F1 teams off guard when its DAS system was revealed on the second day of preseason testing in Barcelona.

Onboard cameras showed that drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas could change the front toe settings of the car by pushing and pulling on the steering wheel!

By changing the angle of the front tyres relative to the track, the car could be more stable in the corners without sacrificing straight-line speed.

One of the best kept secrets in F1 was when Ken Tyrrell unveiled the Tyrrell P34 sixwheeler to an unsuspecting world in September 1975.

Nobody knew about it outside the team, not even Kiwi F1 journalist Eoin Young, who had close ties with the team, realised that the car was being built in the shed that he had walked by on Tyrrell’s lumberyard.

Years from now DAS might not be remembered as well

as the P34, or the wedgedshaped Lotus 72, designed

by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1970 season that rendered the cigar tube F1 cars with radiators in the front obsolete.

But DAS is still innovative and fascinating, and it has sent engineers from rival teams scrambling to see if they can design a similar system for their cars even though the FIA’s F1 race director, Aussie Michael Massi, confirmed that DAS will be outlawed next year.

Mercedes has been working on DAS for over a year, and it discreetly checked with the FIA and was told that the system was legal.

What happened is that while the system is legal in 2020, the FIA clearly was not happy with it, and so it amended the regulations to outlaw it in 2021.

“You have been very wise in noticing the change to the 2021 technical regulations,” Masi said during a press conference on the third day of testing in Barcelona.

“We will see what teams can come up with within those boundaries of what the regulations are written for in 2021.”

Article 10.5 of F1’s Technical Regulations states: “The re-alignment of the steered wheels, as defined by the position of the inboard attachment of the relevant

Image: LAT

the public or the media on such subjects.

“From an FIA component, it’s very simple,” Masi said.

“We don’t discuss team’s technological elements; we deal with them on a one-onone basis. We will continue working with the team, and all teams, on any aspects on anything they would like to bring forward.”

Even innovations that are legal and already on the cars can be banned on safety grounds.

“From an FIA perspective, safety is our number one element,” Masi said. “If there’s

suspensions members that remain a fixed distance from each other, must be uniquely defined by a monotonic function of the rotational position of a single steering wheel.”

But that won’t prevent teams from trying to find loopholes and creating similar but legal systems for 2021.

When F1 teams think that they have discovered some sort of special innovation, they first talk with the FIA to make sure it is legal before installing it on their cars. The FIA does not reveal or share information between teams,

any question regarding the safety of it, rest assured that is the highest priority from our side.”

While DAS is blatantly obvious, other inventions remain undiscovered beneath the cars’ bodywork.

“We’re talking about this innovation because I think it’s probably the first time in a long time that something is actually quite clear in someone’s face,” Masi said.

So who knows what other pioneering technology will be hidden on the 2020 F1 cars as they circulate around Albert Park.

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INSIDE THE KELLY CORRAL

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of Follow the build new Mustangs

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Comprehensive review of all the year’s major racing action

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His

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ARG ASSAULT Big plans for 2020

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PENSKE PENA LT

IES STAIN SCOT TY’S CROWN

PAST GLORIES Garry Rogers on his highligh ts

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30 years of Bat NASTY es brilliance

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AA’s picky pundit gets an unexpected surprise at The Bend, learning that the desolate track is a driver’s delight THE RISING right-hander opens into a plunging downhill run, followed by fast uphill esses.

Right, left, right – brake, power, lift, power.

This is the best part of The Bend Motorsport Park’s 4.95 km international circuit, which is the layout Supercars uses. Well, it is the highlight of the long lap for me in a road-going Mustang.

Make that three Mustangs. The base 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo model, five-litre V8 GT and epic supercharged R-Spec locally developed limited edition.

All were fun and fast around The Bend, with which I’d previously had a love/hate relationship.

Actually, I loved to hate it.

Fantastic facility – world-class, in fact – in a desolate location. I just didn’t get it.

Now I do. Still not sold on the arid aspect, but for a driver, it is challenging and rewarding.

Not the best for spectating or overtaking in Supercars, but behind the wheel, wow!

I got to experience the international circuit on my way to the Adelaide 500. Ford booked the track for a media and VIP customer track day with the latest Mustangs, highlighted by the R-Spec.

Hot-lapping the ‘Stangs opened my eyes to the driver appeal of The Bend, which dives and climbs through 18 turns, many of which are modelled on classic corners.

I had so much fun. Once I learned the layout, I pounded those Fords mercilessly. The day was run by Driving Solutions’ James Stewart, with accomplished

Bruce Williams 0418 349 555

Editorial Director

Bruce Williams

Editor-At-Large

Mark Fogarty

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Creative Director/ Production

Jason Crowe

Special Contributor

Bruce Newton

Staff Journalist

Dan McCarthy

National Editor

Garry O’Brien

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racers Tim Macrow, Tim Brook and Paul Weel riding shotgun.

Yes, that Paul Weel.

The ex-Supercars driver who’s back racing in Super Stadium Trucks and does race driving instruction for, well, I don’t know why.

Unlike keenos Macrow and Brook, who egged me on to push-push-push, Weel was initially circumspect. Didn’t say much, didn’t seem comfortable.

He was the instructor/passenger in the Mustang Turbo, which is quicker than its specs suggest.

Still not right for a Mustang to be powered by anything but a raucous V8, but the thing is light on its feet, tractable and unfeasibly fast.

Later in the session, I returned to thrash the four-cylinder version again, and Weel was much more relaxed and enthusiastic.

Macrow and Brook just wanted me to cane the GT and R-Spec respectively. Good lads.

The R-Spec is interesting. Locally developed and built by Ford Performance parts local agent Rob Herrod and Ford Australia engineers.

You gotta love Herrod. He is the ultimate Superfan. Long-time close mate of Dick Johnson, he

goes to every Supercars round.

And always keen as.

Herrod has a long association with Jack Roush in the States and has been kitting out Falcons and Mustangs with The Cat In The Hat’s bits for yonks.

The $100K Mustang R-Spec is a stormer. Supercharger and other engine mods, and suspension tweaks, make it super-fast and planted. Maybe a bit too driveable because it really didn’t feel like 700 horsepower.

Not the least bit nasty. ‘King fast, for sure, but around The Bend, not at all fear-for-your life fast.

In fact, I was most impressed by the standard GT. For $30K less, it may lack the ultimate edge, but it’s fast and fluid around a track.

Plenty of grunt and soul-stirring guttural growl.

Ford has an association with The Bend, supplying roll-caged Mustangs for track day hire. You really must do it if you’re in the area.

It was a great morning, pounding around in Mustangs. Yeah, my job sucks! But what was most impressive was the track.

When you get to drive it, you realise the thought that went into it for drivers. They love it. In a car with huge downforce, like an

LMP2 sports car, it must be epic.

Grip, grip, grip, go, go, go.

It’s just a shame it’s not a spectator-friendly track. Viewing’s great – well, for the international circuit; the full 7.7 km circuit disappears out of sight – but the racing can be processional.

I was less than convinced when I visited last year, but as a driver experience, I’m won over. One of the best places I’ve ever been to for a track day.

I applaud and appreciate the Shahin family for building The Bend. How they’ll ever recoup their $100-and-something-millions is beyond me. They won’t.

But bless them and their untold OTR-generated fortune. I’m sure that The Bend Motorsport Park, like many new circuits, will eventually grow into itself and become a ‘classic’ track.

Like the Hungaroring and the New Nurburgring, which were reviled originally and three decades later are revered.

Once the grass grows, The Bend will be a showcase.

That may take a while, but look past the scrubland and awkward location. Any chance you get to do laps there, grab it because it really is a lot of fun – especially in a Mustang.

We take a look back at what was making news 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago 1980: IT WAS announced that Marlboro was to continue its support of a revived Holden Dealer Team, under new ownership of star driver Peter Brock. After building one Commodore for Brock to contest the Australian Touring Car Championship, the team announced it was in the midst of building a second for John Harvey. John Wright defeated Brit Guy Edwards in the opening Gold Star event at Sandown.

1990: THE INDYCAR event planned for the Gold Coast was back on, after the Queensland Government renewed its support due to organisers’ requirement that the event wouldn’t be a burden to taxpayers. Dick Johnson raced to victory in the second round of the Australian Touring Car Championship at Symmons Plains, while Paul Stokell took wins in Formula Ford.

2 2000: WATCH OUT! Ford were on the aattack as boss Geoff Polites declared ““we must win in 2000” after a tough 1 1999. Then-motorsport boss Howard M Marsden confirmed Ford’s commitment tto V8 Supercars was for the long-term. It ccomes as the manufacturer gave varying ddegrees of support to 10 teams in the ssecond year for the AU Falcon.

2 2010: WHINCUP WAS on a rampage.

EEven a change of manufacturer failed tto halt his charge in the Middle East.

Teammate Craig Lowndes signalled his intent to race at Le Mans, eyeing a potential association with a manufacturer or overseas team. Mark Winterbottom wasn’t worried about being outnumbered at the front of the field compared to his Holden opponents. And after a dream 2009 season, the Holden Racing Team had a shocking start to the season.

Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, David Hassall, Bob Watson F1 Dan Knutson Speedway Geoff Rounds Photographers Australia Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyd, Richard Hathaway International LAT Images Advertising Manager Bruce Williams All Advertising inquiries bruce@overdrivemedia.com.au (0418) 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

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How Gen3 could attract Camaro, BMW and others

RE ARS FUTU SUPERCLDE N, WHAT NEXT? AFTER HO

HOLDENS RACING HERITAGE

The beginnings of a racing legacy

F1 SEASON PREVIEW Alan Jones no holding back

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PLUS AMERICAN DREAM

McLaughlin on where he’s headed

Cover Images: LAT/AUTOPICS/Tim Pattinson Design

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O T G N I M CO

A C I R E AM s ar rc pe Su al on iti ad tr e th r fo n w do ts Scott McLaughlin finally si s IndyCar hi by ed at in m do is on si us sc di e th t champion interview, bu tests and looming future in the States

Images: LAT/DJR Team Penske HAS THERE ever been a summer like it for a Supercars title-winner? Got married in the USA, honeymooned there, then IndyCar testing with a brief visit home in between, returning just in time to begin defending his crown. Phew!

That was Scott McLaughlin’s packed and life-changing schedule between celebrating his second straight Supercars championship at the gala awards dinner in Sydney in late November and last month’s start of the 2020 season.

After a year of rancour and controversy, McLaughlin had a summer to remember and savour. He returned happier, more settled, fitter and, arguably, faster.

His title success last year was diluted, if not tainted, by parity arguments and Bathurst controversies. He has put all that behind him and is visibly more relaxed and buoyant when we finally get around to the traditional V8 champion interview on the eve of the Adelaide 500.

Last year, amid all the uproar, McLaughlin was brittle, defensive and withdrawn. Now he’s back to the bubbly Scotty who rivalled Craig Lowndes as the fan favourite.

Well, enjoy it while it lasts. After three impressive IndyCar tests – including an astounding third quickest in the official pre-season hit out at Circuit Of The Americas outside Austin, Texas – this is almost certainly his last season in Supercars.

Team Penske has big plans for the 27-year-old Brisbane-based Kiwi.

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It took a while due to his IndyCar adventures, but McLaughlin was reinvigorated when he caught up with Foges.

If he performs credibly cre redi dibl bly y in the Indianapolis Grand Prix Pri in early earl May, Ma there’ll be be more IndyCar Ind Car Series appearances when his Supercars schedule allows later this year and then a full-time move in 2021.

Actually, you can lock it in. In the meantime, though, Scotty Mac is determined to end his Supercars career on a high. He started strongly with a solid second and a fortuitous win at Adelaide, giving him a handy early points lead in what he fully expects will be a much more closely fought championship.

Here we are again, the traditional champion’s interview.

Very late, though. It’s nice to see you, Foges.

Good to see you, too, Scott. The lateness can be excused by the fact that you’ve had one helluva summer.

Have you come down from the clouds yet?

Oh, look, I definitely think it’s made me content. Winning the championship, Bathurst especially, and getting married. Life right now is pretty good.

Experimenting with the IndyCar test and stuff like that, it’s been a whirlwind off-season, but it’s gone really well and I just feel really excited for the challenge of this year. New aero, new shocks, not necessarily going to be the fastest car out there, initially, but trying to get to that point – and that’s what I’m really excited for.

I know it’s very different, but all that IndyCar testing must mean that you’re coming into this season razor-sharp.

Yeah, although I didn’t get as much IndyCar testing as I wanted, obviously with half of COTA being too cold for meaningful running. But I definitely feel sharper, fitter, I’ve lost a lot of weight. I’m rejuvenated in some ways, I think, just turning the page from last year, which was a pretty hectic, political, crazy year. I just feel really excited for what’s ahead.

You seem more upbeat…

Yeah.

A lot brighter and sparkier. It was getting you down last year, wasn’t it?

Well, I think everyone is a lot more upbeat. I think everyone got a bit down last year. Not only me, but my opposition had the shits in some ways. I think we’ve gone the right way as a category with what we’re doing. I think the shocks are

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a great thing. It’s tough. For a team like ours and Triple Eight, we probably had an advantage in that area. It sucks for us, but at the end of the day, when you look in as a fan, it’s a great thing for the sport. The only dampener has been the Holden news, otherwise it’s been pretty good.

be an exciting one for me. Obviously, I’d spoken to Roger (Penske) and Tim (Cindric, Team Penske chief) about potential IndyCar testing, so I knew that was coming up – and my wedding. The wedding was such a good distraction.

So I definitely felt a lot more at ease once the season had finished.

That’s sad for the industry and the sport, but what does it mean to you?

Were you a Holden fan when you were a kid?

When did you finally get to savour the Bathurst win, which was what you really wanted?

I wasn’t necessarily Holden or Ford. I just supported drivers and, obviously, Murph was in a Holden at that point. But I grew up around Fords, purely because my dad (Wayne) had a Ford F100 and Ford hot rods. He loved the ’32 Model As and ’56 F100s. But I grew up basically supporting Murph in Holdens.

To answer your question, though, yes, the Holden thing is sad. The biggest thing I’m worried about is losing the rivalry. Holden versus Ford has been such a big part of our sport. It’s unique in world motor sport for its intensity. I hope they can replace the Commodore with a Chev Camaro, I really do. I think that would be the ultimate outcome, but at the end of the day, it’s quite nervewracking for the category, for sure.

Despite all the noise that surrounded it, how did your second Supercars title compare with the first.

Oh, it was definitely less of a big thing.

When I got the trophy, it wasn’t the huge relief I felt in 2018. We knew that we had it after Sandown, so it was a bit more of a party at Newcastle . But to be honest, at the end of last year, even at the Gala Dinner, I just wanted to get my trophy and leave. I was just over it – over the political-ness within other teams and drivers – and I just wanted to turn the page and start again. I didn’t need to say anything more last year. I just wanted to finish off with a pretty good speech at the Gala, get everything off my chest, because I knew this year was going to

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It was the week after. The best thing about that whole problem that happened was the Sunday and Monday, I remember it being the winner of the Bathurst 1000, no conjecture, no nothing. Like, I didn’t even know until the media brought it up on the Monday that it was a genuine issue (controversy over Fabian Coulthard backing up the field during a safety car period) or whatever was going on. So the Sunday and Monday were the best couple of days of my life. But the week after, obviously there was a bit of shit going on, but we still celebrated as a team. We watched the race back with the team and that was awesome, so much fun. So probably fully celebrated it the week after, yeah.

Oh, we just talked – Tim, Roger and myself, and my management team. I never thought I’d even be considered in some ways to drive one. You obviously think you can have a crack, but I’m a big guy (184 cm) and with my limited experience in open-wheelers, I never really thought about it. It was on the back burner because I thought my realistic chance in America was probably in NASCAR or something like that, which could still be. But once IndyCar started coming up, I was like “Yeah, I’d love to if you guys want to consider me, for sure” because when I grew up in New Zealand, it was Scott Dixon in IndyCar. There was no New Zealander in Formula 1. There was Webber, but he’s Australian, so for a Kiwi growing up, IndyCar was big. It just all sort of happened quickly, really quickly. Very cool.

Then you did enough at your rookie test at Sebring to be brought back for the open test and suddenly they’re also talking about putting you in a race. It all happened in such a rush.

It was everything I’d hoped it would be. Jump on the roof and the crowd chanting your name. it was everything I dreamt of, everything. And that’s why I kept jumping up on my car’s roof. I nearly missed the podium because I was jumping on the car roof so much.

Honestly, it was so good. Like I said, that Sunday and Monday, I remember it without any controversy and it was so good. And I’m so glad because it didn’t ruin my bucket list, you know? It was great.

Well, to do that kind of test, you have to race at some point. You’re not allowed to test and not race. So I had to get approval from IndyCar, who are all great people and run a great show over there.

At the Sebring test, I didn’t look at times all day. Obviously, I knew what times I was doing, but I didn’t know where I was compared with the other rookies. All those guys had been to Sebring before and been in an IndyCar before, but for me it was all brand new as I’d only driven the simulator. I felt just drove within myself. I think I could’ve found time if I’d had a bit of data here and there with Will (Power) and Simon (Pagenaud), but I just tried to do the best I could. A week or so later, discussions happened about the COTA test and the race at Indianapolis.

I’m really grateful for the opportunity.

So, the IndyCar program, which from the outside seemed like a surprise as it was assumed you’d go into NASCAR. How did it come up?

How exciting is it that in a couple of months you’ll be racing in IndyCar on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course?

And was winning Bathurst as good as you’d imagined?

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Oh, so exciting. I’m so excited to race at The Brickyard. Although I’m not on the oval, I’m doing Turn 1 and the main straight (in reverse). It’s really cool. I’ve always watched the Indy 500, always been a fan of IndyCar, so it’s quite surreal. At the moment, it still hasn’t really sunk in because I’ve been so focused on coming back here and starting the season. But to race at Indy is going to be really cool.

What you did has been described as extraordinary and remarkable, especially after just, what, one Formula Ford race in your career?

McLaughlin got to celebrate his cherished first Bathurst 1000 win for a night and a day until it was clouded by controversy.

Still, the win was everything he expected.

Two, actually.

Oh, sorry. That makes a huge difference… Seriously, to go from a Supercar to an IndyCar and be so competitive straight away, how did you do that?

I have to be realistic. A lot of the field were in new teams, so I was sort of starting on an even playing field with about half the field in some ways.

Realistically, when I get to Indy in May, they’ll have had a few months to prepare, get used to their teams and all that sort of stuff. Look, I just drove within myself. There’s time there on the table for me, which I know and feels good, and I wished I could’ve gone back the next day and had a real crack after sleeping on everything. But I just went out and had fun. I didn’t put any pressure on myself. My goal was to be in the top 18 and be the best rookie.

Then when I looked at the leader board and I was P3, I was like “Holy shit!” One thing that was really good and different to the Sebring test was having data and being able to study what Will, Josef (Newgarden) and Simon were doing.

They almost found the limit for me and I was able to go to that, if not more. It just made a huge difference and that’s where I’m very lucky to be with such a great team.

It wasn’t just on road courses that you performed well. You also tested at Texas Motor Speedway, which I think is one of the most daunting ovals.

Yeah, it’s crazy. That’s where they were all passing out back in the day (Champ Car 2000, when the race was cancelled due to ultra-high g forces). It’s changed a bit now. Turns 3 and 4 still have the big banking and 1 and 2 are a little bit less, so it’s a little more driveable.

But that was cool. That was a bit more opportunistic as we were already in Texas. I don’t know whether they had it scheduled or not. I got told on the Sunday (before the COTA test) that we were going to TMS later in the week to do a rookie oval test. You need approval to race on the ovals. It was nice to know what that speed (average 344 km/h, maximum 357 km/h) feels like because, jeez, it’s different.

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Can imagine what it’s like running in a pack of cars?

For an oval track mentor, you couldn’t do any better than Mears.

opportunity that I have with both hands and soak everything up like a sponge.

Turbulent air. Must be crazy. Even at COTA, it’s easy to do a lap be yourself.

I’m fully expecting that when I get into the race, it’s going to be so different. In and out laps, pit lane, it’s all different.

And then with the oval itself, with the turbulent air, I’ve watched on-boards and I had a bit of it at Texas, but I can only imagine trying to learn that. But I can see why they love it. People that drive road courses come to ovals and actually really enjoy it. You have to be so precise.

Trust your arse, that’s what (Indy racing legend) Rick Mears said to me the day before. He was like just trust your arse, if something’s wrong, pull in, don’t drive a shitbox. Bring it in and fix it. His advice really resonated with me.

He was there at my first test, and I got his phone number and kept in contact a little bit. I definitely took a screen shot when he called me the first time! He’s a great guy, a great mentor. He retired nearly 30 years ago, but he still has a job with Penske (as a driver coach).

Shows how good he is and how highly regarded he is. Treat that guy with a lot of respect.

OK, so what’s the plan? If you go all right in the Indy GP, more races?

Roger Penske has compared you with Mears in terms of your speed and attitude.

Which is very flattering. You know how I work. I just go out and drive the thing as fast as I can. I’m just trying to grab the Scotty sealed his second straight V8 title amid parity arguments and Bathurst questions, but no one disputed his driving mastery after a record 18 race wins and a recordequalling 16 pole positions.

May 9 is it at the moment – and it’s to get a feel of what it’s like. Do I like the racing, do I fit in? I guess it’s just an opportunity to get the feel of it. As far as next year and beyond, I’ve been told nothing.

They might have plans, I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m going to go to Indy and do the best job I can, and see what I’ve got. What follows after that, honestly, I’m not sure. Everyone looking in, they’re thinking I’m off to the States next year.

That’s what we all assume, yes.

Absolutely. Everyone’s assuming that and I understand that, but I’m not making that assumption. I know how they work. I’ve been given an opportunity and I’m grabbing it with both hands, and what will follow will follow. Our goals in Australia were Bathurst and the championship before we started speaking about America, and now we’ve done that and this is when the opportunity happened. I respect their process and I won’t say anything more about it.

Let’s not be in any doubt, though, that you’re keen to race over there.

Oh, I’ve said it a number of times – to you, to everyone. Me, right now, I’ve done what I needed to achieve in Australia. I have always wanted to go to America and experiment. Who knows, I might go over there and suck. But I just want to extend my CV and with the opportunity to do the Sebring test, the COTA test and the race, I’m doing that already. I have a great job here. Karly, my wife, loves Australia. Obviously, misses her family, would love maybe to go back to America, but at the same time, she’s quite happy being here as well. So I’m not having my arm twisted by Karly.

Through her, you’d have a family support network there.

Yeah. When we go to America and stay with her family, it’s like I’m going home,

McLaughlin starred in the IndyCar pre-season test at COTA, finishing third quickest behind established stars Will Power and Alex Rossi.

The surprise performance all but guaranteed his move to America next year with Team Penske.

like going back to mum and dad’s house – and it’s the same when she goes to New Zealand. It’s quite nice that we have a base on both sides of the world.

How long have you known that Karly was the one? I remember meeting her on her first visit out here (in early 2017).

Very early days. You were one of the first to meet her. When did I know? Straight away, soon as I met her. Best friends, so much in common. She knew nothing about motor sport – absolutely zero – and that was one of the things I loved about her. She was great. But now she’s right into it. She’s a competitive beast, man. She’s always onto me; if we have a bad session or doing race runs, she’s like “What’s going on?” She pushes me to new levels and it’s amazing to have that.

So she’s involved in a good way.

She knows when to leave it and in the public arena, she won’t come out and be all over the TV cameras or whatever.

But behind closed doors, she’ll give me a few pep talks and tune me up on certain things, which is great. She still remembers you as the first journalist she met. It wasn’t until she came to Phillip Island for her first race that she understood what I did. She said “Oh, you’re actually a big deal”.

You’re back here, your head’s in this game now. How tough is it going to be to defend your title again?

Very tough – and not just because of the aero change. I think if the aero

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happened and we were still running our (Öhlins) shocks, it’d be the same contenders. But looking at it from a fan’s perspective, this is going to be a great year, I believe. The cars are moving around. I think on the different compounds, the cars are going to feel different. AGP’s going to be a wild card (with both hard and soft compounds). I’m excited.

I’m motivated, not to win a third, but because I know at this point in time that we’re probably not the best – but we’re there. It’s not like 2018, when the (then new ZB) Commodore was ridiculous and we were probably two-three tenths off (with the FG X Falcon). We’re right there; it’s just a matter of sorting the (control) shocks, understanding the car and being really thorough with Richard (Harris, race engineer) and Ludo (Lacroix, DJRTP competition director). Already, I’m like don’t leave the data stand until I do a track map and all that sort of stuff because you do get complacent when things are going well. This year, I’m really motivated to get our car really good.

You want this, don’t you? It’s not like you’re mind’s elsewhere. There’ve been suggestions you’ll be distracted by the IndyCar stuff.

I laugh. I just laugh at that. I’m fully committed to Supercars this year.

Team Penske knows how to run this sort of stuff. It’s up to me to look after my body, and hence why I’ve lost a lot of weight (down from 84 kg last year) and improved my fitness to make sure I’m strong when I get off the plane (in the USA). The fact of the matter is,

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I’m so motivated to go for a third championship or just get our cars better.

Every time I go out onto the track, I just want to be as good as I can be. And if that’s fifth, as I’ve said a number of times, that’s good. My first objective is to beat Fabian because as a race driver, you need to beat your teammate, but if I can drive to the best execution and do the best job I can, and if that’s fifth, then I accept that. Then we just keep working to get that next step.

And another win at Bathurst without any debate.

Oh, yeah. I’m really excited. Obviously, change with Tim (Slade) coming in.

Location is a big thing for us, with him just being down the road from the shop.

It just makes things a little easier. Alex

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(Premat) was a great co-driver – very fast and I wish him all the best – but for me and the team, I think we just had to get guy who was local and could be readily available. I’m excited for what’s ahead.

With the aero cuts to the Mustang, can you feel a difference?

I definitely feel as reduction in downforce, which I think is what the category needed and I’m looking forward to seeing what the racing’s like over the course of the season. But the dampers are the biggest thing I notice – just the way it reacts over bumps and stuff. That’s what we’re going to have to get on top of. We understand the aero; it’s not too much different, just a loss of downforce. And I think everyone’s the same.

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2020 SEASON PREVIEW

OFF WITH A BANG

With testing complete in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix, Auto Action’s man on the spot DAN KNUTSON gives us his thoughts on the teams participating in this years F1 season Images: LAT

THIS YEAR marks the end of an era in Formula 1 and the lead up to a new epoch in the sport.

The hybrid turbo era began in 2014 and will continue next year, but there will be major changes in the technical, sporting and commercial rules designed to create more overtaking, closer competition and a better show starting in 2021.

The Mercedes team has dominated the hybrid turbo era, winning six straight drivers’ and constructors’ world championships.

Lead driver Lewis Hamilton has won five of his six world titles with Mercedes.

He is the firm favourite to win his seventh Ferrari is hoping to fight Mercedes more consistently this season.

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crown this year and thus tie the record set by Michael Schumacher.

Last year, Hamilton and his teammate Valtteri Bottas won 15 of the 21 races, while opponents Ferrari and Red Bull won a mere three races each. The latter two teams, therefore, are going to have to do a much better job this year to try and break the Mercedes domination.

There were supposed to be a record 22 races this year with the new event in Vietnam and the return of the Dutch Grand Prix. (The German race has been dropped.)

But the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in China has forced officials to postpone the race, scheduled for April 19, and it is

not yet certain when or if it can be slotted back in later during the season.

Here’s a look at all 10 teams participating in this year’s world championship.

THE BIG THREE

Just how the big three – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Honda – divide up the victories this year remains to be seen, but it is extremely unlikely that any of the other seven teams will sneak in a win.

Proof that champion Mercedes is taking nothing for granted and still exploring all avenues of performance came when onboard TV cameras during pre-season

testing revealed a technical innovation called DAS (Dual-Axis System) that allows the drivers to adjust the toe settings of the front wheels by pushing and pulling on the steering wheel!

Bottas says that the new W11 is faster than last year’s W10.

“I would say the main improvements are the stability we’ve had with the car,” he said. “Actually the rear end of the car feels really stable and makes it very drivable. We’re still discovering many things with set-ups to find something more than last year. I would say the balance through the entire speed range, from high to low speed corners, is more together than in last year’s car. That’s what we were aiming for and I don’t want to say much more about it. At the moment we have found no negatives compared to last year yet and that’s positive.”

The strong driver partnership of Hamilton and Bottas remains the same.

While he wants to win his seventh title, Hamilton also wants to fight for it.

“I race because I love racing other cars,” Hamilton stated. “I don’t like driving around on my own on the track.

I’m hopeful that in this last year of this era of car the gap has closed.

“You saw it at the end of last year, the gap was closing between Ferrari, and Red Bull, and I anticipate that will be the same this year. We’re going to have a closer battle and I’m down for that.

That’s what I think everyone wants to

The battle for fourth in the title race will be close again. Daniel Ricciardo (above) hopes to take Renault there, while the renamed AlphaTauri team has similar ambitions (below).

see, and from my point of view it makes it more rewarding when it goes that way.”

Ferrari looked strong in pre-season testing last year, but that speed disappeared in many of the races. The car’s weak point was in the slow corners.

That, of course, is something the team has tried to cure.

The 2020 car, called the SF1000 because this year Ferrari will compete in its 1000th world championship F1 race, is a refined version of last year’s SF90.

Ferrari’s engineers also designed the SF1000 to have a much broader chassis set-up window.

“The main reason to do that is that we’ve seen last year in some races we’ve been very strong, in some others we’ve been struggling quite a bit more,” Charles Leclerc noted.

“To be able to be adapt the car to different tracks, we need more flexibility in terms of set-up. For sure it will help us, but it’s not like we are going from one extreme to another on both of our driving styles. It will just help us on the tracks we’ve been struggling at last year.”

Leclerc won twice last year during his second season in F1 and his first with Ferrari. And, like last year, he will provide tough competition for his teammate and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull’s new partnership with Honda got off to a winning start last year as Max Verstappen gave the Japanese marque its first F1 win since 2006. In fact, Verstappen ended up winning three races in the latter half of the season. But Red Bull has to hit the ground running this season if it wants to take the fight to Mercedes. Pre-season testing seemed to indicate that the Red Bull RB16, designed by Adrian Newey and his talented crew, has a solid base.

“Max’s initial feedback from this RB16 was very positive,” team principal Christian Horner said. “We addressed some of the areas we wanted to focus on over the winter. There were some areas with the RB15 that we wanted to tidy up, usual stability issues, and I think that’s worked very well.”

Verstappen finished 2019 strongly, with a win, a second and third in the final three races. He is planning to carry that momentum into this season. While no match for Verstappen, Alex Albon did a credible job when he replaced Pierre Gasly in the last nine races of 2019. And thus Red Bull retained Albon for 2020.

THE FIGHT FOR FOURTH

“As you can see the midfield is very, very close together,” notes AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost. “It is a matter of hundredths of a second, and we must work very hard to be in the front part of this midfield. The season will become very tough because all these teams are very close together. But that is good for F1, because F1 is entertainment, and people want to see this.”

Indeed, the only one of the seven teams not aiming to be in the fight for fourth is Williams. Its first goal is to get out of the cellar – last place in the constructors’ championship.

McLaren swiped fourth from Renault in last year’s constructor points. Aussie Daniel Ricciardo and his new teammate Esteban Ocon are aiming to get that fourth place back.

“There are improvements on the car,” Ricciardo said of the new Renault R.S.20, “and we’ve obviously changed it a lot visually, which is quite clear when you look at the front nose. The improvements are there, and ultimately that’s what we’re targeting. It’s too early to make any comparisons, but our

reliability was pretty strong, and I would say it’s promising.”

But then McLaren got off to its best start of pre-season testing in years with its new MCL35. Drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris are both back for a second season with the team.

While McLaren and Renault are targeting fourth, the real goal for each is to get back to fighting for championships.

“It is important to have ambitious targets but at the same time realistic,” said McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl, “because otherwise it goes against you what you want to achieve. I’m not too focused on results at the moment.

For me it is important to make all these marginal gains, and at the moment to have continuous improvement because then results will automatically come.”

NEW NAMES

Torro Rosso is now called AlphaTauri after Red Bull’s clothing brand. While the name has changed, and the cars are now painted white and blue, the team remains the same as does its driver lineup of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly.

“The core of the team, the technical core, stayed pretty much the same and we’re just the evolution in that respect from last year,” Kvyat said of the new car which carries the model number AT01.

“That’s why it is so interesting this year, to see what kind of evolution, what kind of progress, we make.”

For years the Force India team did not have the finances to create the new car that it really wanted to have in preseason testing and for the first races.

Nor did it have the money to properly develop the car throughout the season. It was just a few years ago when the team showed up at Barcelona pre-season testing with the previous year’s car that

had some updates.

That’s all changed now that the consortium led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll owns the team called Racing Point.

“What is really good about the season is to finally have a car that is going to be very close to what we have in Melbourne,” Sergio Pérez said of the RP20. “So we can focus and learn so much compared to other seasons where we were always late with our car. This car has potential. So hopefully we can start strong.”

While other teams refined 2019 cars, Racing Point started from scratch with a Mercedes concept design.

Lance Stroll begins his second season as teammate with Pérez, but this is the last the team will be called Racing Point as it becomes Aston Martin in 2021.

Meanwhile, the official name for the Swiss-based Sauber team is now Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, as the Polish oil company becomes a sponsor partner along with Robert Kubica, who is the squad’s new test and reserve driver.

At age 40, Kimi Räikkönen is the oldest driver in the field, and like last year his teammate is Antonio Giovinazzi.

“The C39 is a natural evolution of last year’s car, even though it doesn’t share a lot with its predecessor,” said technical director Jan Monchaux. “We have been further improving our car but, apart maybe rims and tyres and some internal components, there is barely a single visible part that is the same. It’s the usual process of constant improvement, but it’s a brand new beast. We expect to improve on what we achieved last season, to make a step forward and hopefully be able to fight for the position at the top of the midfield.”

The Haas engineers and designers have worked hard to eliminate the erratic handling characteristics of the 2019 VF-19.

“Last year was definitely a setback,” admitted team principal Guenther Steiner. “But you learn from such situations – we all have. Everybody at the team was forced to look at themselves and understand what they can do better.

The VF-20 has to deliver where our previous car didn’t.”

The driver line-up remains unchanged with Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

The only place for Williams to go is up.

This once dominant team finished last in the constructors’ championship in 2018 and 2019.

“We have paid significant attention to understanding the problem areas of the (2019) FW42,” design director Doug McKiernan said.

Although the car wasn’t very good, George Russell had an outstanding rookie season with Williams in 2019, and he is back for round two. His new teammate is rookie Nicolas Latifi, whose billionaire father is pumping much needed funds into the team.

ROUND ONE

So it’s the usual three teams fighting it out at the top; then six teams duking it out to be the best of the rest; and one team striving to join them.

How will it all pan out?

Round 1 in Melbourne on March 15 will provide the initial clues.

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Formula One F Fo

2020 Season Review

ING MORPH BOURNE INTO MEL

As the F1 teams prepared for Melbourne, our man on the ground DAN KNUTSON digs into the world of pre-season testing and the on going search for more speed

Images: LAT

SUCH IS the Formula 1 schedule now that a mere 21 days separate the first official day of pre-season testing and the opening day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix.

In that short period of time the new F1 cars morph from being on the track for the first time to being ready to race in Melbourne.

Pre-season testing at Spain’s Circuit

The team set-ups for testing are very similar to Grands Prix.

For example this is McLaren’s hospitality unit which it takes to the European-based events.

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de Barcelona-Catalunya always follows the same schedule. There is a four-hour session in the morning, a one-hour lunch break, and then four further hours of track running.

But this year the number of track days was cut from eight to six days. (Each was/ is bisected by a four-day break.) With the 25 per cent reduction in the number of days, there were only 48 hours for the

teams to run the cars before Melbourne.

Fortunately, the weather this year cooperated. It was relatively warm, with the temperatures getting up to about 17 to 19 degrees centigrade each day. It did not rain, nor did it snow like it did two years previously.

The Barcelona paddock, jammed with team transporters and hospitality units, looks similar to a Grand Prix weekend.

More than 500 members of the media come from around the world to cover the test days. The pressroom is full, and scrums of TV crews interview drivers behind the garages.

But things are different out on the track.

Teams are only permitted to run one car at a time during testing, so instead of 20 cars all out there at the same time on a race weekend, there are 10 cars. And because each team is running its own agenda, there can be anywhere from no cars to 10 running at the same time.

Yet the teams all have the same goals: firstly, make sure that the cars are working

as they were designed to, then make sure everything is reliable. Only then do the teams start searching for speed.

Teams also work on full race simulations, qualifying runs, and finding the best set-up for the Albert Park track.

The lights in the pit garages are on 24 hours a day as the teams rotate crews in shifts, so that work on the cars never stops.

THE DOORS

Barelona’s once-iconic rust-red pit garage doors are no more as the circuit has replaced them with updated light grey versions.

The good news is that the FIA and Formula 1 have stipulated that the doors must remain open from 9am to 6pm on test days. Unlike all the previous tests, the teams are not allowed to screen off their cars unless they are undergoing major

ideal, but it is about as good or better than it would be at any other track in Europe during the winter. An alternative is to go someplace like Bahrain where it is much warmer. But that also makes it considerably more expensive for the teams to fly their personnel, cars and spares to that venue.

Furthermore, the teams are constantly shuttling new car parts from their factories – by air or by van – to the track, and Barcelona is logistically much better for that than Bahrain.

MIXED VIEWS

Testing signals the start of a long season ahead.

Barcelona hosts the testing thanks to its weather and easy logistics.

The drivers have mixed views on testing.

“It is exciting seeing a car every year when it is brand-new,” Aussie Daniel Ricciardo said. “That does not wear off.

Testing wears off, but day one seeing a brand-new car with your name and your number, that’s always a nice feeling.

“I think testing is productive,” he adds, “but at the same time not so much because it is so cold, and when we come here in May (for the grand prix) it is

repairs. This makes F1 testing more fan friendly for both those at the track – you can buy a ticket to get into the circuit on all the testing days – or, a first this year, watching it all live on TV

AN ECLECTIC COMBINATION

There are several reasons why the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a worthy venue for pre-season testing.

It has an eclectic combination of corners plus two long straights, so the track is a good overall reference point for the teams to learn a lot about their car’s performance in different situations.

The weather in February is not always

There are mixed views on testing from the drivers but is a crucial part of the Formula 1 season and for the first-time featured live TV coverage.

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27

Formula One F Fo

2020 Season Review

Trying to create a form guide is a waste of time, according to Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (above). Data aquisition equipment measures the aerodynamic efficiency of a team’s new design suchh as su as the the Renault Renaul Re Ren naultt (below). ( el (b elow ow). ow )..

T teams made little effort to coordinate The t things, so all were scattered about at t tracks across Europe and even other parts of the world.

Finally some common sense and cost cutting prevailed, and the first testing restrictions – based on kilometres not days – were imposed in 2003. The teams later agreed to just 16 days, then 12 and t then eight, and that all undertook testing at the same circuit. Since 2016 pres season testing has been solely staged in Barcelona.

This year there were a mere six days ending on February 28.

In the meantime, the team members who w back at the factories were building were up the second car and a spare car plus all the latest upgrade parts for those cars.

Some teams shipped the second car to Barcelona to get some laps on it. A little

always a bit different. And then we go to Melbourne and that track is completely different. So testing is just testing. It is always inconclusive. But for mileage and reliability it is quite good for everyone to know where they stand.”

Lewis Hamilton hates testing. But after an off-season of training hard, he was ready to get to work in Barcelona. He completed a full race simulation during his second day in the new Mercedes.

“I really do feel the best I’ve ever felt,” he said. “I’ve never done the race run and got out and asked if we could keep going. We just ran out of tyres. That’s the first time in 13 years that I’ve asked to continue testing – because I don’t like testing!”

All the drivers realise that if they put the work in now it will pay benefits in the races later. They also have not driven an F1 car since the end of November, so it is nice to get back in the cockpit.

“I enjoy racing more than testing,” Sebastian Vettel answered when Auto Action asked for his views on testing, “but I enjoy driving as well, especially after a while not driving. I think I’d enjoy testing on a different track more, nothing against

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Barcelona, but we’ve been here so many times.

“I don’t mind. It’s a challenge for the drivers to explore the car, together with the engineers, I enjoy that part as well. It’s part of the drill. I’m definitely fine with six days.

I’ve got some years now so I don’t need eight days any more. There were more 10 years ago, so I don’t need to complain.”

Of course, the drivers’ days do not end with the chequered flag at 6 p.m. as they stay at the track late into the night having debriefs with the engineers.

“It makes for long days and short nights,” Vettel said.

A MERE SIX DAYS

Six days is a mere drop in the testing bucket of the past when teams tested wherever and whenever they wanted.

As Auto Action has reported before, McLaren did 23 consecutive days of private testing at Portugal’s Estoril track in 1995! It didn’t pay off as the McLaren MP4/10 was not a front runner that year.

Pre-season testing used to commence shortly after the final race of the year in Adelaide, and it would pretty much go nonstop until the first race of the following year.

Only one team entry can run in each session, so traffic is at a minimum on the circuit.

Mercedes Grand Prix made headlines during testing when its new DAS (Dual Axis Steering) system broke cover for the first time.

more than a week after the final day of testing, everything had to be packed in crates and be ready to be flown to Melbourne.

The teams are also permitted to run its cars at a track for two “filming” days each year. These are supposedly for PR and advertising filming purposes, but most teams also use one of those days to shakedown its cars before official preseason testing kicks off. The cars must be fitted with special hard compound Pirelli tyres, and can do no more than 100km. No performance testing can be done.

As the number of testing days have been reduced, the teams have become far more efficient in how they use the time at the track. Furthermore, the simulators, dynos, wind tunnels, CFD, seven poster rigs and other testing equipment are far more sophisticated than in the past. So a lot of

work that was done at the track can now be done at home.

Another reason why six days is sufficient is because this generation of cars has been around since 2014 and are therefore well sorted and reliable. Even on the first day testing this year drivers were completing more than a grand prix distance. Max Verstappen racked up 168 laps in the Red Bull – the equivalent of 2.5 race distances. Over the first three days Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completed 494 laps – 2,300 km or 7.5 races.

Compare that to the opening test of 2014 which took place at Spain’s Jerez circuit.

It was first time the teams had run the new hybrid power units, and they had all sorts of troubles!

The exception was Ferrari where Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time and completed 31 laps. Hamilton had the next best total with 18 laps in his Mercedes.

Bottas did seven laps in the Williams.

Sebastian Vettel managed three laps in the Red Bull, while Marcus Ericsson did one in the Caterham. McLaren did not even make it out of the garage!

Now, with the radical technical rule changes coming for 2021, will six days of testing be enough to get the new cars ready to race in Australia next year?

Several team technical directors are already lobbying for eight days.

WHAT’S THE TIME?

Which cars and drivers set the fastest lap times? Sergio Pérez insists that trying to determine the pecking order in testing is a waste of time.

“In these tests you don’t even look at the times,” he says, “or what is going on because 10kg of fuel is three-tenths of a second and you can be at 100kg or at five, so it is a waste of time to try figure it out.”

Each team is indeed running its own agenda, and one might be doing qualifying runs while another is doing a race simulation, while yet another is doing steady-speed aerodynamic data gathering.

But the teams also have a lot of resources and smart people who constantly monitor what the others are doing to try to deduce the performance levels of the opposition.

This is how the Mercedes boffins begin that process: “We start from things we do know. We know the lap time. We know the number of laps. We know (with good accuracy) the fuel that will be burnt in every lap. We know (from our simulations) how much faster a car will go with each lap of fuel that it burns. We also know (with adequate accuracy) how much slower a tyre will get with every racing lap that it is subjected to. We have estimates of the lap time difference between all the tyre compounds which gradually get more and more accurate as the test proceeds. With this in our hands, we can start to calculate things.”

The real insight comes when a team attempts a race distance because then the car’s fuel tank must be full or nearly full.

The strategists also watch the speed and acceleration traces that come from the GPS system to look for changes in power unit output.

But, as always, it will take several races for the pecking order of the teams to start to become apparent. And with no testing allowed during the season this year, the next time the teams will be in “test mode” will be after the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi.

And then there will be a break before the teams again head for pre-season 2021 testing next February and begin to again morph into Melbourne.

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2020 SEASON PREVIEW

PAST AND PRESENT

On the 40th anniversary of his F1 world championship, ALAN JONES gives O his inimitable take on his crowning year and also the coming season Interview byy MARK FOGARTY AH, GOOD ol’ AJ. In a world darkened by political correctness, Alan Jones is a shining light of forthright opinion.

That’s Alan Jones the 1980 Formula 1 world champion, not the Sydney radio shock jock. Although sometimes you could be forgiven for confusing them because both are curmudgeons who speak their minds, consequences be damned.

‘Our AJ’, though, earned his right to say exactly what he thinks without regard to modern sensibilities in mortal combat.

When Jones was a leading F1 driver in late 1970s and very early ’80s, racing was still deathly dangerous.

He survived extraordinary risks to become the best in the world in his Alan Jones on his way to the World title in his Williams-Ford FW07.

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field and at 73, he is still as feisty and irreverent as ever.

This year is the 40th anniversary of his F1 crown, joining triple titlist Jack Brabham as our only world champion.

It will be celebrated at the Australian Grand Prix with Jones leading the drivers’ parade before the start of the March 15 25th AGP in Melbourne and with S5000 racing for the Alan Jones Cup. While AJ doesn’t give a toss about much – and is not afraid to say so – he does cherish his 1980 title, which he won with the Williams FW07, taking five (six if you count the nullified Spanish GP, embroiled in the FISA/FOCA dispute) of the 14 races.

He looks back on his title year as if it were yesterday.

“They say that the older you get, time flies and the years get shorter,” he said.

“Well, let me tell you, it’s bloody true. It doesn’t seem that long ago.

“I think I was racing in a very good era.

I was fortunate enough to be racing in an era when sometimes the whole field was separated by just three-tenths of a second and there was a lot of good racing going on.

“In those days, you were allowed to pass and even bump wheels without being sent to prison for a year.

“I look back on it, not too often – I don’t want to be one of these guys who thinks the older I get, the quicker I was – but I

have very fond memories of it.”

Jones is proud of his title because he beat a class field that included his teammate Carlos Reutemann, Ferrari’s Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter, Brabham’s Nelson Piquet and Lotus’s Mario Andretti.

“There were a lot of top drivers and we all had approximately the same horsepower, and there were no pit stops or strategy,” he recalls. “The only strategy in the race was you. You were the bloke improvising the strategy as you went – that is, saving tyres, saving fuel, drafting, etc.

“I remember Frank telling me at Montreal (in 1979) when I had that dice with Villeneuve just to sit behind him until the fuel load went down and then have a crack. That was the extent of the fantastic strategy.”

Jones was a title contender in ’79 and again in ’81, after which he prematurely retired – for the first time.

But ’80 was his prime opportunity, if not his peak as a driver.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he said.

“Right place at the right time. You talk about Murphy’s law, well, Jones’s law shits all over that, I can tell you. In ’81, according to Patrick (Head, Williams designer) and everybody, I should have won the championship again, but I didn’t.

I felt I drove better in ’81 than I did in ’80.

Alan Jones pictured above with team owner Frank Williams and designer Patrick Head.

The trio established Williams as a force to be reckoned with, Grands Prix and World title winners. The Aussie was always nothing if not determined (left). Images: LAT.

“I mean, thank Christ there wasn’t social media around then. Otherwise, I would have had around nine million experts telling me all the reasons why I didn’t win the championship again.”

Classic AJ. Forthright, fearless.

And he doesn’t hold back when it comes to appraising the coming season.

“I think it’ll be the same old same old,” he grumped. “Pre-season testing will be totally irrelevant in terms of trying to work out who’s on top of the situation. As usual, we don’t know who’s on full tanks, who’s sandbagging.

“Year after year we seem to see certain teams surprise people, only to get to Albert Park and be totally the opposite. I don’t really give any credence to preseason testing.”

Jones thinks that, as usual, the true form will emerge in Melbourne, backing Mercedes to again set the pace.

However, he questions whether the smaller teams will be fully committed with a wholesale change coming in 2021 “This year is going to be a little different in as far as if you’re a team with a limited budget, as opposed to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, how much do you spend on this year’s car knowing full well that in nine months you’re going to have to design a completely different new car?”, Jones said. “It’s all very well for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. They have more people on holidays than those other guys have working for them.

“They can go off and develop things like

the th DAS (Mercedes AMG’s adjustable steering) and all that sort of carry on, st whereas the lesser teams can’t afford the wh time tim or the money to spend too much on this thi year’s car knowing that they going to be into a full-blown development program for next year’s rules.

“I don’t think we’re going to see any surprises as such. The surprise I’d love sur to see s is Daniel getting up there in the Renault.

Otherwise, I think it’s going to Re be the same old teams in the same old places.” pla Jones just doesn’t know what to make Jo of Ricciardo’s prospects, even though the R upbeat Aussie was fast in final testing at up Barcelona.

Ba “I just don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know kno what level of development Renault has poured into this car. One thing’s for sure, sur they won’t have to do much to go better bet than what they did last year.”

Jones was typically cynical when asked if Ricciardo was finding life at Renault difficult compared with his race-winning period with Red Bull.

“Yeah, putting all that money in the boot on the way to the bank would be bloody awful,” he quipped. “He’d probably have to have somebody to give him a hand to lift it all.

“At the end of the day, Daniel knows where he is and he knows the capabilities of that team, so does he sit back and be philosophical about it and look at what may appear for next year?

“Like a lot of other drivers, he’s thinking ‘Hey, my chances of winning a grand prix in this thing are pretty slim, but I’m getting 20 or 30 or 40 million dollars, so I’ll just

drive it to the best that I can, put up as a good a show as I can, and count my money’.

Cynical, even jaundiced. But unashamedly honest.

Jones is surprised that Lewis Hamilton is close to equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world titles.

“I didn’t even expect Schumacher to that many,” he admitted.” I thought (Juan Manuel) Fangio’s record would stand forever.

Schumacher’s effort was fantastic and I think Lewis will go further.

“I don’t decry Fangio because I’m a huge fan and I idolised the bloke, but it was certainly easier to win championships then than what it is today because you could kick your teammate out of his car and take it over or you were driving full-blown works Mercedes against MGs. “I’m exaggerating, but I think it was just a tad easier to win world championships back then. Having said that, Fangio won five and you can never take that away from the bloke.

But I think Schumacher’s championships were harder to win than what they are today because I think the cars were a little closer.

His effort was extraordinary.

“The idea is to gravitate to the best team you possibly can and take advantage of it – and Lewis has done that. The way he’s going, he could win eight or nine titles.”

Jones is looking forward to any celebration of his 1980 title.

“F1 are very kindly going to get me to lead the drivers’ parade before the AGP,” he said.

“Things like that I don’t take for granted, I really don’t. It’s like when Bernie allowed me to go out first of all at the very first world championship Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide (in 1985).

“He allowed me to go out and do a lap before they released all the other cars. At which point (veteran team owner) Ken Tyrrell said I was getting an unfair advantage.

Obviously, Ken didn’t keep too much of an eye on the shitheap I was driving because I could’ve actually started the race the night before and I wouldn’t have had an advantage.”

Oh, AJ, we love your candour. So ‘70s Aussie. Never stop telling it like it was – and is.

We salute you as an F1 legend who still doesn’t give a f**k. Onya!

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31

2020 SEASON PREVIEW

Aussie F1 star turned TV pundit MARK WEBBER wonders if Red Bull and Renault will rise to two very different challenges this season

SILVER ARROWS ON TARGET

Interview by MARK FOGARTY SINCE QUITTING Formula 1 at the end of 2013, Mark Webber has established himself as an astute and popular pundit on British television.

Webber is a regular member of UK broadcaster Channel 4’s commentary team, joining David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan with his laconic observations and insights.

C4’s free-to-air coverage of F1 is limited to highlights of all but the British Grand Prix, but the audience is much bigger than for subscription network Sky Sports’ more comprehensive live telecasts of the whole season.

The only time we get to see Webber in full flight on local screens is during Channel 10’s coverage of the Rolex Australian Grand Prix, the only F1 event it shows these days.

The 43-year-old Britain-based Australian, who won nine grands prix in his 12-season F1 career, will be back as usual for the 25th AGP at Albert Park, again joining 10 as an expert analyst.

With just a pair of two-day pre-season tests at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona, there’s not much of a form guide beyond the obvious conclusion

32 AutoAction

that Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes AMG is the combination to beat.

Despite niggling power unit problems in Spain, Webber agrees that the Silver Arrows look set to continue their unbeaten title reign in the flatulentsounding turbo V6 hybrid era.

“It’s always hard to judge reliability at this time of year, but the general performance guide suggests that Mercedes has again come out with a very good car,” he said. “They’ve hit the

ground running. It’s always nervous times when you build a new car. You’re not quite sure, jamming a lot of new concepts and ideas into a car. But the Mercedes looks like it’s come out of the box pretty well.

“It’s anyone’s guess where Ferrari and Red Bull are. But Red Bull is probably sitting in behind Merc now, but we don’t know if Ferrari is sandbagging or not.

They haven’t had the smoothest run, but it’s very easy to disguise. So they could

be just playing a game or they could be in strife.”

Webber applauds Mercedes AMG for its innovative Dual Axis Steering (DAS), which controversially allows the driver to adjust the toe angle of the front wheels by moving the steering control unit.

“Good stuff, brilliant,” he declared.

“Engineers have to think about some really incredible feats when you’re using tyres like the Pirellis, which are so unpredictable and challenging. I’d thank

Mark Webber is relaxed, confident and informative in his new F1 role behind a microphone rather than a steering wheel.

Top: Mark Webber and Channel 4 F1 coverage co-host David Coulthard in the thick of it on the grid.

Below left: Mark Webber rates Lewis Hamilton as even better than the legendary Michael Schumacher.

Below: Max Verstappen is best placed to take the title fight to Lewis Hamilton, says Mark webber. Images: LAT

Pirelli for this great idea.

“It’s brilliant for Merc and I assume it’s going to be there in Melbourne. You never know, but they have a nice little arrow in their bow. It’s a high-profile part in terms of doing something abnormal, but there are probably 80 other parts on that car which are equally as unique and special.

“It’s very much a disruptive interpretation of the rules, but let’s see how user-friendly it is in terms of operating it in the course of a race.

They’ve done their homework and I’m sure there are redundancies if it doesn’t behave itself.

“It would be weird for drivers, but I think they’ve made it workable.”

He backs Hamilton for a recordequalling seventh world title, making the surprising assertion that he is better than Michael Schumacher was at his height.

“It’s not guaranteed, but Lewis is extraordinarily motivated and focused, which is a huge problem for the opposition,” Webber ventured. Toto (Wolff, team boss) is keeping the harmony and there’s still a bit of Niki Lauda sprinkled through that team. So it’s a force.

“The duo is extremely dangerous.

They’re hungry, they want more, they’ve reset their minds. They have extraordinary man management, so they’re going to take some toppling. But I enjoy watching them do their thing. They deserve everything they get because they work so hard.

“You could argue that Lewis is more complete than Michael – and he wasn’t exactly a holiday to be with. I don’t know who you could put in there to challenge Lewis.”

Webber doubts that Valtteri Bottas can dethrone Hamilton.

“I don’t know if he can,” he shrugged.

“Valtteri’s no slouch and he’s doing what he can, but… It’s Rafa Nadal versus Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic. Some of these guys come along every now and again, and just own it for a while.

Marquez and Rossi in MotoGP, Lewis is one of those guys.

“He’s an absolute great – and that’s a real headache for Valtteri.”

Porsche’s 2015 world sports car cochampion and roving ambassador thinks Max Verstappen is the best prospect to take the title fight to Hamilton if Red Bull Racing and Honda lift their game.

“That’s what I’m excited about,” Webber said. “That’s our big hope. I think Red Bull operationally can match Mercedes.

Car speed, who knows? Driver-wise, I think Max can match Lewis at times.

“Whether he can do it for 21 races remains to be seen. I mean, Lewis is extraordinary. But operationally, I’m excited that Red Bull is not fazed by Mercedes on that front. For strategy and racecraft, they’re a match.

“The question mark is still Honda. Are they strong enough to go the campaign, especially with only three engines allowed for the season? It’s going to be a big call for them.”

Webber is confident that Daniel Ricciardo and Renault will challenge the top three teams, predicting a return to the podium for the ebullient West Australian.

“I think he’ll have his breakthrough podium, if not a few,” he proclaimed.

“Why do I say that? I’m just optimistic the car’s going to be better this year. Renault has to start nibbling at the back of the top three and if they do that, there are going to be some good crumbs on the table for the team.

“Not for Daniel, because he’s not a guy who needs crumbs. He’s world-class.

The team has to lift to give him the car at

certain events where he can grab a podium.”

He also expects former Mercedes protégé Esteban Ocon to push Ricciardo to a new level.

“Ocon’s going to have a spring in his step,” Webber opined. “First real manufacturer team drive, and French driver in a French team, so that’s exciting for him. I think that’s good for Daniel – he’ll lift, having a young buck come in. I think that’s going to raise Daniel’s level.

“Seeing off Nico (Hulkenberg) was reasonably straight forward, but in a positive way, Ocon will be a handful for Daniel.”

As always, Webber is looking forward to returning to Albert Park, where he made his F1 name with a fighting fifth place in his debut in 2002.

“It’s a special Australian sporting event,” he said. “It’s a real feather in everyone’s cap down in that part of the world to stage such a big, world-class event so well.

“It’s always one of the top few F1 events in the world.”

Esteban Ocon will push Daniel Ricciardo says Mark Webber, who predicts the Aussie could return to the podium this season if the new Reanult is good enough.

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2020 AGP PREVIEW

THE

THUNDER RETURNS

The inaugural S5000 Championship is set to explode with a superb line up of Australian driving talent plus some overseas superstars ready to challenge them. DAN McCARTHY looks into what will be a significant season in Australian motor sport history

THE HIGHLY anticipated V8 powered wings and slicks category turned heads last year and made many long-time Australian motorsport fans reminisce about the good old days of F5000.

Two exhibition rounds were held at Sandown Raceway and The Bend Motorsport Park and thrilled crowds in preparation for a full campaign this year.

The first big banger S5000 Championship will begin at Albert Park as a support category to Formula 1 at the Australian Grand Prix from March 12-15.

This is followed by five-rounds with the title fight continuing at Sydney Motorsport Park for the opening event of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships. Winton in country Victoria hosts ts Round 3, then The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia with finally two historical venues, Phillip Island and Sandown, concluding the championship.

The loud and spectacular open-wheel monsters will contest a nonchampionship post-season event at the Mount Panorama circuit in November as part of the Bathurst International meeting.

A variety of famous international names will grace the series in selected rounds, while many well-known Australian drivers will contest a full campaign.

Five international stars will take on the opening round at Albert Park, one of whom is a man who drew headlines at Sandown last year, former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello.

The 68-time Grand Prix podium place getter is no stranger to Albert Park having raced at the circuit every year from 1996-2011. As he did last year, the Brazilian will race for BRM for the first round before returning to drive for the team at the Bathurst event later in the year.

Barrichello is not the only former Formula 1 Grand Prix winner entering the category at Albert Park. He will be joined by ex-Ferrari and Jordan driver Giancarlo Fisichella. In total the Italian entered in 229 Grand Prix, recording three race wins along the way, one of which was at Albert Park in 2005 for Renault. Over the years Fisichella was teammate to Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button.

Joining the two grand prix winners will be current Williams reserve driver and Campos Racing Formula 2 driver Jack Aitken. The 24-yearold British driver finished as runner-up to George Russell in the 2017 GP3 Series and in 2019 won races at Silverstone, Monza and on the streets of Baku in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

34 AutoAction

Tim TTi im Ma Macrow acr crow ow enters as one of the title favourites (above), while Luis Leeds will make his S5000 debut (left).

Australian overseas driver James Davison (cousin of Will and Alex) will get behind of the third of five BRM cars in the opening round.

James has plenty of open-wheel experience in the US, highlighted by four Indianapolis 500 starts, finishing as high as 12th in 2019.

The final international star is Alex Premat, who will drive for former Supercars squad Garry Rogers Motorsport. The Frenchman is known locally for his exploits in the Supercars Championship including driving full-time for GRM previously, however he is a very established openwheel ace.

In the mid naughties Premat was team mates to both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at ART Grand Prix, winning multiple races in the now defunct GP2 Series, finishing as high as third in 2006.

Premat is looking forward to racing back on the F1 program.

“I’m pretty excited to join the team GRM for the opening S5000 race

iin 2020,” said Premat.

“I think it is going to be pretty cool and pretty fun. I’m eespecially excited to be racing at the Melbourne Formula 1 event.

I did two years in the Supercars, and it was pretty good. It’s a ggreat event with a great atmosphere.

“Also, to be back with Garry, Barry and the GRM team is awesome. I need to learn the car, the big engine, big downforce, aw but it will be a good challenge.” bu TThe other drivers joining the S5000 field are local Australian and an New Zealanders, with a nice mixture of experienced and fast young yo drivers that will be completing the full season.

Four F youngsters who all have European open-wheel experience will be tackling the tough to tame V8 powered brutes.

One of these drivers is Super2 front runner and Brad Jones Racing co-driver Thomas Randle, who will return to the Series in 2020 driving a BRM prepared car. Randle competed at The Bend last year and won the opening heat race.

His full-time S5000 teammate is Matt Stone Racing driver Zane Goddard. The Supercars driver had not driven an open-wheeler since 2017 (aside from a couple of S5000 test days) when he competed against Randle in Formula Renault Eurocup and he reflected on the new open-wheel series.

“It has got a lot of international interest, it is quite an interesting car for a lot of people,” Goddard explained to Auto Action.

“That is what they (spectators) want to see, something that has got a lot of grunt not a crazy amount of aero, something that is a bit of a challenge for the drivers.”

Another Australian who competed in Formula Renault Eurocup in 2017 was Luis Leeds, the reigning Australian Formula 4 champion joins Garry Rogers Motorsport.

These three youngsters will be drivers to look out for this season, but they will have to try and match three of the most experienced S5000 drivers Tim Macrow, James Golding and Ricky Capo.

Macrow gained his experience as the S5000 test driver. The former Australian Drivers’ Champion had driven the car regularly, developing it until the inaugural round at Sandown last year. The 35-year-old suffered a bit of bad luck in the two exhibition rounds but was still able to win two races, and will be a big threat this season.

So too will former full-time Supercars driver James Golding, who

An angry pack of S5000 cars will line up at the Australian Grand Prix with Rubens Barrichello returning (below).

Images: S5000 Daniel Kalisz

also claimed a couple of race victories at Sandown Raceway. The 24-yearold took to S5000 like a duck to water, the GRM Supercars driver given the chance to turn a number of extra laps prior to pre-season testing.

“I can’t wait to get back into it. I really enjoyed it last year, the cars are awesome to drive and we had some really good results as well,” Golding told Auto Action.

“It is good to be able to lock myself into a full season and have something to keep me sharp for the Supercars stuff.

“Sandown was a highlight being the first one, and having Rubens there as well, to beat him is a pretty cool thing to have on your CV.” Sports car and GT ace Ricky Capo will also return after contesting the two rounds last year. Capo failed to have luck fall his way in 2019, but if he stays out of trouble he will no doubt be a contender for race wins.

Other capable new additions to the field include current Australian Formula 4 Championship graduate Antonio Astuti and Kiwi Jordan Michels, who will enter at least the first two rounds after competing in TCR Australia QLD Raceway last year.

The grid is rounded out by two familiar S5000 competitors in Barton Mawer and Braydan Willmington.

When Auto Action went to print one driver was yet to be confirmed, but it was expected that all 16 seats would be filled for the opening round.

A number of front running drivers who competed in the series last year are also looking at entering selected rounds in the 2020 campaign, so look out for those names to pop up throughout the season.

S5000 EVENT SCHEDULE THURSDAY 10:30AM – 10:50AM 3:10PM – 3:30PM FRIDAY 10:50AM – 11:15AM SATURDAY 10:10AM – 10:30AM SUNDAY 11:40AM – 12:00PM

PRACTICE QUALIFYING QUALI RACE 1 QUALI RACE 2 FEATURE RACE

S5000 ROUND 1 ENTRY LIST No. 16 23 27 31 33 34 38 39 49 88 89 92 93 99 111

Name Jack Aitken Tim Macrow Barton Mawer James Golding James Davison Alexandre Premat Giancarlo Fisichella Antonio Astuti Thomas Randle Jordan Michels Braydan Willmington Ricky Capo Zane Goddard Luis Leeds Rubens Barrichello

Nat UK AUS AUS AUS AUS FRA ITA AUS AUS NZ AUS AUS AUS AUS BRM

Team Team BRM Tim Macrow Racing Milldun Motorsport Garry Rogers Motorsport Team BRM Garry Rogers Motorsport Garry Rogers Motorsport/Borland Tim Macrow Racing Team BRM Australian Racing Enterprise Braydan Willmington Modena Engineering Team BRM Garry Rogers Motorsport Team BRM

Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x x x x Xxx x x x Xxx x x x Xxx xxx

2020 AGP PREVIEW

GRAND PRIX GLORY ROUND TWO of the Supercars Championship Ch i hi is i situated i d differently diff l compared to last season. The Ford Mustang isn’t as dominant, Scott McLaughlin isn’t undefeated and a variety of teams appear ready to crash the DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight party at the front.

Adelaide may have provided two of the same consistent winners of 2019, but notably Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United and to a certain extent Erebus Motorsport have all closed the gap to the big two, as the focus turns to winning the Larry Perkins Trophy.

Will Davison particularly was right on the pace challenging Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and reigning champion McLaughlin, placing him into title calculations.

His teammate Cam Waters was also close behind and finished on the podium in Adelaide’s second race to cement his spot as a contender.

What maybe the biggest surprise or not was Chaz Mostert’s frontrunning pace straight out of the box. Yes, Adelaide is one of WAU’s favourites as is the Grand Prix, where Scott Pye took the last win for the team during a memorable

36 AutoAction

win in storm conditions.

Mostert also M l hhas great fform hhere, he was the last non-Triple Eight/DJR Team Penske race winner at the event in 2019, winning the Larry Perkins Trophy. It may have been because then-teammate Waters collided with McLaughlin during the warm up lap, but a win is a win. His chances to break the two-team stranglehold appear very strong indeed.

The Grand Prix in 2019 was a meeting to forget for Shane van Gisbergen as Triple Eight’s struggled with a blown engine and various calamities, leaving him trailing Tickford won the Larry Perkins Trophy last year with Chaz Mostert Can it severely in the points. On the retain it this year? Image: LAT other side of the garage Whincup was unable to sustain the pace of this to continue at Albert Park.

Albert Park and also demonstrated McLaughlin in three of the four races, Fabian Coulthard struggled during the 2017 Bathurst winning team although he did finish second and the early stages of the opening may have turned a corner, after a third. round, but recovered to be within disappointing campaign last season.

McLaughlin was near-unstoppable close proximity to the leaders.

Reynolds had to deal with a variety during this early part of the season Coulthard has now found the new of mechanical problems that set the lats year. He clocked up five wins on Mustang as easy to come to grips team bac,k so expect he and young the trot to set up an unprecedented with as his teammate, though had teammate Anton De Pasquale to be charge towards back-to-back a relatively good run at the Grand right up the front. titles and a Bathurst win. The only Prix where he helped DJR Team Others to consider include the Kelly thing that stopped him was the Penske take its first 1-2 in Mustang Racing duo of Rick Kelly and Andre aforementioned incident involving machinery.

Heimgartner. Both surprised on debut Waters. Adelaide was much harder Erebus Motorsport’s David in the Mustangs utilising the team’s fought this time around, so expect Reynolds was competitive at self-developed Ford V8. Two top 10

finishes during the weekend definitely demonstrated the team’s potential, so expect improvement across the weekend.

Brad Jones Racing also tend to hit form in front of the Formula 1 teams.

Nick Percat finished on the podium two years ago and has become a consistent top 10 finisher just waiting to take that next step. New teammate Todd Hazelwood was also on for better results in Adelaide but was caught up in incidents, so expect both to be sneaky top five finishers.

It appears the changes Supercars has made has opened up the racing slightly, though it is hard to tell after a solitary round, with complaints of aero wash and a lack of close racing due to the effects of hot air likely to be a concern around Albert Park.

HM

SUPERCARS SCHEDULE

Thursday 11:25am-11:45am Prac 1 1:35pm-2:05pm Prac 2 4:10pm-4:40pm Qual 1 Friday 10:10am-10:40am Qual 2 1:50pm-2:40pm Race 1 Saturday 12:00pm-12:45pm Race 2 3:20pm-4:05pm Race 3 Sunday 1:00pm-1:45pm Race 4

PROFESSIONALS & GENTLEMEN A CONSTANT of the Australian Grand Prix support cast is Porsche Carrera Cup Australia. The Albert Park AGP event is Round 2 of the series.

It was a dominant display by McElrea Racing’s Cooper Murray, who completed a clean-sweep of Round 1 on the streets of Adelaide and his rivals will be keen to gain back some lost ground on the 2020 series leader.

Last year, the wins were split between the two title protagonists Dale Wood and eventual series winner Jordan Love, where current leader Murray had a tough time of it finishing 19th in the final race of the weekend.

In Adelaide, Murray’s nearest challenger was 2017 Carrera Cup winner David Wall after finishing second in all three races, behind the exciting junior.

Another rising star also emerged as a contender in the form of Love’s younger brother Aaron in only his second round, after finishing runner up in last year’s GT3 Cup Challenge to Harri Jones.

Although he took the title down to the wire in 2019, Wood had a less than impressive opening

Cooper Murray will be hoping to continue his unbeaten run of wins at Albert Park (above) but the experienced Dale Wood has always been a contender at the Australian Grand Prix. Images: Porsche.

round, managing just a solitary podium and currently sits fourth in the standings 62-points in arrears.

Others that had less impressive runs in Adelaide but will be in contention at the Australian Grand Prix include Nick McBride and Adelaide podium getter Cameron Hill.

Not to be discounted, rookie duo Max Vidau and Jones demonstrated glimpses at the opening round, and will be ones to watch in coming rounds.

Stephen Grove has owned the Pro-Am category in recent years, but it was Tim Miles who won pole for the class in Adelaide. He failed to finish the first race, giving Grove an advantage during the course of the event.

Another convert from GT3 Cup Challenge David Ryan sits 24-points behind as the battle is incredibly close with just three points covering second through to t fifth. Dean Cook, Max Twigg and the category’s most experienced driver, Marc Cini are in the thrusts of a close fight heading to the premier weekend on the t Australian motor sport calendar.

HM H

CARRERA CUP SCHEDULE Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

12:35pm-12:55pm First Practice 3:40pm-4:00pm Qualifying 5:20pm-6:05pm Race 1 2:55pm-3:20pm Race 2 1:00pm-1:25pm Race 3 12:15pm-12:40pm Race 4

HOT HATCHES ON STEROIDS DEBUTING ON Australian shores last year, the global touring car formula known as TCR burst spectacularly onto the local landscape and has captured the interest of many motorsport fans.

This season kicks off at the Australian Grand Prix in the nonseries Asia Pacific Cup aimed at attracting overseas teams and drivers down under. It’s not the first time TCR machinery has supported Formula 1, with the earliest races for the class taking place at Grand Prix events overseas.

A few international drivers have taken up the challenge to compete in Australia, including the team boss of Honda’s leading factory WTCR team Munnich Motorsport, Rene Munnich. An experienced gentleman racer, Munnich has competed in rallycross, the World Touring Car Championship and GT events successfully. Munnich Motorsport fielded Argentine pair Nestor Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri in last year’s World Touring Car Cup as one of two factory Honda teams.

The other official Honda

WTCR team, KCMG will also be represented in the form of its team founder and owner Paul Ip. Both Munnich and Ip will be teammates at Wall Racing, however Ip will contest a full TCR Australia campaign.

Dutchman Stan van Oord is an experienced TCR racer having competed in various series across Europe and enters the inaugural Asia Pacific Cup with Kiwi team Track Tec Racing, fielding a pair of Audi RS3 LMS TCRs. Joining the 22-year-old is young New Zealand Toyota 86 driver Jack Milligan, a former title winner in the development class.

Peugeot will also come back to Australia with aims of victory after a

disappointing campaign at last year’s final round where Aurelien Comte weekend was hampered by a wiring loom fault. This time Julien Briche heads down under on behalf of the French manufacturer and hoping for better luck than his countryman.

Australian contenders include the reigning series winner Will Brown and teammate Nathan Morcom for HMO Customer Racing representing Hyundai, as will privateer Michael King.

The Renault Sport GRM duo of James Moffat and Dylan O’Keeffe will spearhead the team’s fivecar attack across three different manufacturers. Fellow Garry Rogers

Garry Rogers Motorsport has five-entries in the Asia Pacific Cup, split between Peugeot (above), Renault (below) and Alfa Romeo. Images: TCR Australia

Motorsport stablemates Michael Caruso for Alfa Romeo, and Aaron Cameron and Jason Bargwanna for Peugeot, all make their respective debuts for those manufacturers.

Wall Racing’s Honda attack is bolstered by privateer entries from rookies Zac Souter and Michael Clemente.

The youngest competitor in the field, 16-year-old Jay Hanson, will be partnered by international sports car driver James Allen at Ash

Seward Motorsport.

A large field of more than 30-cars is set to include Subaru, Cupra and Volkswagen on the grid as well.

HM TCR AUSTRALIA SCHEDULE Thursday 11:25am-11:45am Prac 1 2:15pm-2:45pm Prac 2 4:50pm-5:10pm Qual Friday 9:40am-10:00am Race 1 Saturday 11:25am-11:45amRace 2 Sunday 10:40am-11:00am Race 3

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37

FAREWELL HOLDEN MOTORSPORT 1948-2020 - PART ONE

THE EARLY DAYS Since the 48/215 Holden has been a constant on the race tracks of Australia and is likely to remain so for many years to come, despite the recent announcement of the marque’s demise. Auto Action’s BOB WATSON, a former Holden engineer and Holden Dealers trials team driver recounts the brand’s early involvement and conquests.

WORDS: Bob Watson PHOTOS: AA Archive/Autopics.com.au/Australian Motor Sport/Bob Watson

IT IS difficult to define when Holden cars were first involved in motorsport.

As soon as the first Holden - the 48/215 was available to the public in 1948 the car was perceived as a potential race winner compared to its American and British saloon car rivals, because of its lightweight and tuneable sixcylinder engine.

Motor racing was quite fragmented in the period immediately after World War II. Most race meetings were run under the “run what you’ve brung” formula. After being starved of motor sport over the war years, competitors just wanted to race and anything would do.

The first report of a Holden in competition

by Australian Motor Sport - AA’s predecessor - was of a Mr WD Feltham, who competed in trials regularly in the early 1950s. The first reported Holden win was in the Light Car Club’s Experts Trial, which was won in 1951 and 1952 by Stan Jones and Maurice Monk. At that time hill climbs and trials were the major forms of motor sport, with track racing confined to homemade specials and sports cars.

The Holden 48/215 made its appearance on racetracks in 1954 when a Dick Shaw was pictured racing at Mt Druitt in NSW, but rules governing touring cars were virtually non-existent. Things came to a head when Reg Hunt, one of the earliest Holden dealers, set a new touring car record at Templestowe Hillclimb in Victoria driving an FJ Holden which

38 AutoAction

consisted of a body with only a driver’s seat, a rudimentary aluminium bonnet and front mudguards resembling those fitted to a World War II Jeep.

Obviously, something needed to be done to define “touring cars” more specifically.

In 1959 the late Graham Hoinvillee was asked by CAMS (now Motorsport Australia) to prepare regulations governing touring cars..

Hoinville drafted a set of regulations ns that became Appendix J of the National competition rules, and thus us touring cars had its own category.

Bob Holden’s black FE model was fitted with the Repco’s hi-power The requirement was for production on head to the small cubed “Grey” motor and had great success, seen here at Phillip Island in December 1958. closed touring cars of which 100 units had been produced, with limited modifications allowed.

Touring car racing in Australia did not come to Clarity at last! prove the durability of its products. After all, the fore until later in the 1950s. Hillclimbs and Even as far back as 1953 there was iinterest t t it was ‘A ‘Australia’s t li ’ O Own C Car!’!’ H Holden ld supported td ttrials i l were regarded d d as more iimportant, t t openby Holden management in motor sport. Aiming entries were driven by the cream of Australia’s wheeler racing cars and sports cars were the high, a project was launched to enter a 48/215 drivers, including Lex Davison, Stan Jones and only racing classes until Hoinville’s Appendix Holden in the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally. The Lou Molina.

J in 1959. However, once the category caught crew was first class – Lex Davison, Stan Jones The teams also included Charlie Dean, builder on races were fiercely fought between Norm and Tony Gaze - the car performed well but of the famous Maybach and a key figure in the Beechey, Pete Geoghegan, John French, Leo the event was not fully understood, with many development of the Repco Brabham engine, Leonard, Max Stahl and Bob Jane all driving average speed sections, and the crew finished and Jack Joyce, later to become manager early model Holdens, thrilling the crowds at 187th. of the Holden Proving Ground at Lang Lang.

Sandown, Warwick Farm and Lakeside.

In the first Round Australia Trial, the Redex The Redex was won by Ken Tubman driving a Bob Holden’s black FE model with the Repco Trial in 1953, Holden management was keen to Peugeot 203. hi-power head also had great success.

With the adoption of the then CAMS Appendix J rules touring car racing took off, driving a 48/215, Ian Geoghegan crests the rise at Bathurst in 1960 (main).

Two drivers who would go on to be Australian motorsport legends and the beginings of a rivalry that would last for many years. Racing in Appendix J, Norm Beechy (40) and Bob Jane (7) race side by side in early Holdens at Calder in 1962. Within two years Jaguars and Mustangs would rule over Holdens, that is until the Monaro arrived ...

Touring cars soon became the most popular form of motor sport, to the chagrin of the cloth capped purists who regarded them as rather crude and not ot jolly well pukka!

There were a few loyal Holden drivers, Norm Beechey among them, but the Holden was soon outclassed by imports such as Mustangs, Jaguarss and Camaros. It was not until the late 1960s that the th local cars, both Holden and Ford came to the fore again in long distance showroom spec endurance racing.

In the early 1960s the Ford Falcon was introduced to Australia. The car got off to a bad start, with lots of problems related to Australian road conditions. To overcome the Falcon’s poor image, Ford instigated a program of rallying to prove the product’s local suitability. At that time car trials, as the result of the publicity generated by the round Australia trials of the 1950s offered more media coverage than racing.

The Round Australia trials put makes like Peugeot and Volkswagen on the sales map in Australia, and they were the events that interested the buying public.

Ford put a strong trials team together headed by the

wily Harry Fi Firth, winning il H th andd immediately i di t l began b i i car trials and getting good press. Holden was quick to notice the Falcon’s growing market share and somewhat reluctantly established its own rally team.

Because parent company General Motors had a worldwide ban on direct motor sport competition, the rally team was run as a “skunk works” operation, with the cars ostensibly sponsored by Holden dealers but actually prepared in the Holden service garage at Fishermans Bend. This was the origin of the “Holden Dealer Team” concept.

The initial dealers involved were Preston Motors, Bill Patterson Motors and Bib Stillwell, who later switched his allegiance to Ford. The Ford vs Holden Dealer’s Trials team battles soon swept Volkwagen aside and dominated rallying until the late 1960s when interest do switched to the televised Bathurst enduro. sw During this period the ageing Holden grey motor was replaced by the technically superior red motor, w aand this offered opportunities for Holden in track racing. It may surprise many people that the old grey ra motor was only 138 cubic inches (2260cc), quite m small for a six cylinder. The new red motor came in sm 149 cu in (2442cc) and 179 cu in (2932cc) which 14 gave the EH model a much improved power to weight ga ratio. To underline the popularity of the new red motor, rat the EH model was the fastest selling Australian car ever, selling over 250,000 units in 18 months. ev

What was the Holden FX? It is a common mistake to call the original Holden, officially designated 48/215 (standing for 48, the year of introduction and 215, meaning standard sedan) the FX. The FX was in fact a hybrid car.

Late in its production life, before the FJ was introduced, the last cars were built with a revised front cross member to be introduced with the FJ. To distinguish these cars from the original 48/215, these cars were designated FX indicating that they had the FJ front cross member.

Belived to be one of the first images of a Holden to race shows Dick Shaw in the Mount Druitt 24 hour race in the early 1950s (left).

In the 1954 Redex Trial, ‘Duck’ Anderson, Tony Anthony and Vergel Zaccour survived the marathon to finish a very credable third outright in their FJ. Results like this proved the reputation of the early Holdens and laid the foundations for future fully factory supported rally and subsequent round Australia trial programs (far left).

Timed hillclimbs and trails were popular events for racers post World War 2. Soon to be a fan favourite, Norm Beechy, who was an early adopter of the Holden product, is seen here already displaying his soon to be famous “wheel in the air approach” as he hurls the 48/215 into a turn at the Templestowe Hill Climb in 1960.

A Action’s own Bob Watson, driving for the Holden Auto TTrials team, shows the toughness of the “factory ddeveloped” EH S4 in the Ampol Trial in 1954.

TThe front cover of Australian Motor Sports magazine sshows the all-star driver lineup of Lex Davison/Stan JJones/Tony Gaze in a car that Holden sent to Europe in 11953 to contest the Monte Carlo Rally (above right).

Bruce McPhee would go onto to be one of Holden’s great heroes, winning Bathurst in 1968 in the factory developed HK Monaro. McPhee was a Holden man from the start, seen here in an early model 48/215 at Warrick Farm battling with another long time Holden man (FE) Brian Muir (above).

The Preston Motors entry of Lex Davison, Peter Ward and Otto Stone (Holden 48/215) contested the 1953 Redex Round Australia Trial and finished fourth (right).

A special batch of EH 179s was built under the code name S4. The old manual gearbox was not capable of handling the increased torque of the 179, so the engine was only available with automatic transmission. However a special batch of manual gearboxes was made with stronger gears and a nodular iron differential as part of the S4 package. These cars were used by the Holden trials team and also farmed out to various drivers for track racing. The car still had drum brakes, but special sintered iron linings were made available for racing.

The following story was published in the

By the mid ‘60s with the arival of the Bob Jane Jaguar and early Mustangs, the writing was on the wall for the Holden based teams, although they still had competitive moments. Here Brian Muir in his EH S4 leads Bob Jane in the 3.8 MK 2 Jaguar, with a still Holden powered Norm Beechey in his EH S4 chasing hard at Warrick Farm in 1964. Image: Autopics.com.au

40 AutoAction

October 1963 edition of Racing Car News: “A couple of weeks prior to the closing date of entries for the 1963 Armstrong 500 race at Bathurst, news filtered through to Sydney of a special Holden. Called the EH S4, this Holden was reputed to sell for under 1200 pounds (the Class C limit at Bathurst) and was reported to be much faster than the normal range of cars that were available. The normal EH model was sold with the the big motor [179ci,) but only with automatic transmission, but the S4 had the big motor and manual gearbox . A team entry was expected from the Victorian Holden Dealers.”

Six S4s were entered in the 1963 Armstrong 500. The Frank Morgan/Ralph Sach S4 finished second outright, sandwiched between the Cortina GTs of Harry Firth/Bob Jane and Bruce McPhee/Graham Ryan, 2m 01s behind the winners. This was the precursor to Holden’s desire to win the Bathurst enduro race.

Nothing further happened (officially) until 1968 when the HK Holden range was introduced. And that’s where we will pick up the story in the next issue of Auto Action.

In an early effort to combat the great rally results that Ford had acheived with its early Falcons, an unofficial Holden Trails Team was formed. The team was officialy supported by dealers but run as a “skunk works” operation and all very off the record. Author of this story, Bob Watson and navigator Jim McAuliffe are seen here driving their HD in the BP Rally in 1966 (above). Bob Watson went on to become the 1970 Australian Rally Champion.

The old grey motor she ain’t what she used to be!

THE ORIGINAL Holden engine known as the “grey” motor (because it was painted grey!) carried from the start of Holden production through the FJ, FE, FC, FB and EK models to the EJ introduced in 1962. It was a scaled-down Chevrolet design of 138 cubic inches (2260cc) with input from Fred James, one of the original Australian design team who went to the US to work on the Holden.

The engine proved to be responsive to tuning, and Australian engineers including Phil Irving in Melbourne and

Merv Waggott in Sydney made modifications that improved power output considerably.

Irving, working at Repco, designed the Repco Hi-Power cylinder head that was used extensively by Holden racers.

Irving later became a key figure in the development of the

Repco-Brabham engine.

This engine powered such successful Australian specials as Paul England’s Ausca and Lou Molina’s Monza.

Waggott developed and produced an even more sophisticated engine. Based on the six-cylinder Holden grey

motor it was extensively modified with twin overhead camshafts, a special crankshaft and three twin choke Weber carburettors.

The engine produced over 200 horsepower and was used in open wheelers and sports car specials.

AutoAction

41

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA Three months of working day and night culminated in two Ford Mustangs Supercars debuting in Adelaide. HEATH McALPINE recounted with Todd Kelly the final result of his team’s hard work

THE TERM off-season was used loosely at Kelly Racing, as it completed the development and build of its two Ford Mustangs in time for the opening Supercars round.

Engine development, the complete build of one chassis, the conversion of another, various personnel changes and a downsized two car operation meant a very busy ‘silly season’ for the team.

Adelaide in late-February was the aim and the team got there.

Not only did it get there, but two Top 10 finishes and a berth in the Top 10 Shootout resulted, an exciting outcome for the team after all its hard work.

“Certainly it wasn’t really expected at our first round, we’re basically a brand-new team,” Kelly said of the results.

42 AutoAction

“Personnel-wise, it’s quite a lot different going back to two cars. People’s roles in the team, new cars, new engines, new everything so we’re pretty happy with where we ended up.

“Rick was shaping up to be a lot stronger than where he ended up on Sunday in particular, probably genuine top five or six with pace, but he had a few dramas in the pits, passing under a yellow and things that knocked him around.

“Just to see that we were able to race some of the good guys this early on was a great result.”

Scaling back to two entries has already proven to be a gamechanger in terms of devoting time to small details that may have otherwise not had the same amount of attention in a four-car operation.

“It was really surprisingly smooth, having two cars was a massive change,” Kelly explained. “No way would we have been able to do what we have just done for four cars.

“It’s the first time we’ve run two Supercars ever and that was a huge relief to focus on two. All the little things you don’t get to spend the time on each individual we can now afford the time to

do it properly.

“That was a huge difference to what we have experienced in the past.”

Having only completed the Mustangs within hours of the test day, the team was effectively starting from scratch in terms of set-up. This proved to be the its biggest tribulation for the weekend, a rather minor one considering there were no mechanical or accident damage to either

KELLY RACING MUSTANG BUILD - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Part Seven

All the hard work paid off ... the Kellys surprised everyone with their competitiveness on their Ford Mustang debut in the Superloop 500 on the streets of Adelaide. car (Rick did rub the Turn 8 wall during practice on Friday).

“The challenges were really having to learn so much about this car and this engine, it’s an unknown to us,” Kelly said. “Our normal set-up window that we’d operate in last year, none of it is of any use to us. So just learning where the car is, what it’s problems are and the direction we need to head in with springs, geometry, ride heights, understanding all that was probably the biggest challenge.

“We came from a long way behind with a serious lack of knowledge on this car, that we had to overcome very quickly. That was the biggest hurdle, getting the car a little bit nicer, but also understanding it a lot better.”

Hidden in among the new chassis and engine developments, Supercars also brought in a new Pedders control shock absorber supplied by Supashock.

However, this was low on the priorities when getting the Mustangs on track.

“I think out of all of pit lane we were the team the least focused on the Supershock. We’d changed chassis, changed bodykits, changed engines, changed everything so we were learning

what we had as a whole from the start,” recounted Kelly.

“So, the shock in the whole scheme of things wasn’t a big deal to us so it didn’t really affect us and it was trouble free all weekend. It performed well and the guys didn’t have any complaints from the damper side of things.”

What was also pleasing for Kelly was the fan reaction. The entire build process has been told on through the last few issues of Auto Action and on Kelly Racing’s social media platforms, giving fans a unique insight into the project. This was reflected by the positive fan reaction in Adelaide.

“It was a big surprise what the result was!” Kelly remarked.

“The support from everybody was outstanding, I didn’t hear a bad word.

Just in what was involved in getting to this point, the coverage that Auto Action has done and from our Youtube channel, I have not had that many comments in my whole career from fans being pleased with the level of access and the story that was told to get there.

“It was really good, it’s great for the sport.

“It was great to show the fans what was involved and how big of a project that it was behind the scenes. It seems as though it’s gone a long way.”

So, after three months of flat out work, what is there to do?

“It’s funny when you go through something like that, you don’t know what to do with yourself once it’s over,” Kelly laughed.

“It’ll take a little bit to reset. Just your routines and your habits have all revolved around work for such a solid period.

For three or four months now, it’s been the same routine so it’ll take a little bit of adjusting but it’s certainly a good change not having to be at work 24/7 at the moment.”

Kelly was the key leader in the project, but most of the other departments within the team also worked overtime to complete the project and are now enjoying some ‘r and r’ before it picks up again at the Australian Grand Prix next week.

“The engine department was probably the hardest hit as well as the assembly guys towards the end or really over the whole period,” Kelly told Auto Action.

“We’ve given the engine shop the week off, then the car crew have had a day off and hopefully we can give most of them a long weekend to recover. We’re now at the point of normality in our work day, there is still a lot of work to do, but it’s manageable.”

So, what’s next? Kelly has already identified weight as the key area that can be improved, which involves quite a bit of work to go and continued consultation from Supercars.

“The big thing is getting everything down to weight now,” Kelly said. “That is a big job because we have to go through a fairly big process with Supercars to have permission to strip these engines back down to lighten them and then have to go back and re-homologate the lightened version of the engine.

“That’s quite a big task that we need to attack.”

This concludes Auto Action’s Project Pony series. We would like to thank Todd Kelly, Aiden Taylor and the entire team at Kelly Racing for its time during this hectic period. We wish Kelly Racing all the best for the rest of the Supercars Championship.

AutoAction

43

Angelo Mouzouris celebrated the national Formula Ford title in 2019 and has now jumped into the deep end of Super2.

FROM FF TITLE TO SUPER2 ROOKIE

Australian Formula Ford series winner Angelo Mouzouris has taken a big career leap and speaks to DAN McCARTHY about his career ambitions and last year’s title

44 AAutoAction t A tii

Images: Australian Formula Ford Association/Supercars/supplied IT HAS been a quick rise through the ranks of Australia motorsport for Angelo Mouzouris, from karting successes and podiums in state level Formula Ford before clinching the national title last year.

This year all eyes will be on the young Victorian as he makes a giant leap from junior open-wheel racing into Super2.

Mouzouris, 19, will complete in his maiden season of tin-tops with possibly the biggest and most professional team in Australian motorsport, Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Mouzouris grew up with aspirations to become a Supercars driver from a very young age and he told Auto Action that he has had a love of motor racing as far back as he can remember.

“It began the day I was born,” he said.

“I’ve always loved cars and played around with the RC cars and the little cars. I got my first kart when I was seven and did it for about two months.

“Dad’s work got pretty busy and it was put on hold for four or five years before we started again when I was 12.

“That is when it took off.”

A successful karting career yielded a Victorian Championship and podiums at national level, which resulted in a third at the Australian KA Junior Championship.

Mouzouris believes he could have had better results in karting but he was ready to advance to open-wheelers.

“I did alright in karts, could have done a bit better — I made a few too many mistakes,” he told AA. “Go karting teaches you the bare necessities for cars, the whole racecraft thing, to build up to a race car.”

After a conversation he had with an elder statesman of the sport, Mouzouris got in touch with renowned career developer Sonic Motor Racing Services, headed by Mick Ritter.

“I was given the opportunity to speak to Garry Rogers and he said to have a chat to Sonic,” he said.

“We did, they seemed pretty interested and so were we, so we decided to go with one of the best teams on the grid.

“The experience (the team has) and all the coaching there helped me become pretty quick fast.”

Mouzouris chose Formula Ford because it formed an essential part of the pathway

M Mouzouris i tests t t the th new ride id he h hopes h will take him to the Super2 rookie prize (above). Mentor Nick Percat (left) is helping the youngster where he can.

towards Supercars, as has been proved by a majority of the current crop.

“Formula Ford is a good proving ground for young drivers,” he said.

“It obviously teaches you a lot, trail braking, manual, it’s low grip and underpowered, it’s hard, it is a really hard car to drive fast, which is real good because you learn a lot.

“I chose Formula Ford because I want to get into Supercars and if you look at all the guys who were Australian Formula Ford Champions and they all race Supercars. If you are quick in that you can be quick in anything, apparently, so that is why I chose to do it.

“Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to race Supercars, so thought I’d try and if I’m good enough it will happen, if not I will go back to uni.”

His first two seasons in 2017 and 2018 were in preparation for a crack at the

Australian title but his campaign last year got off to a disappointing start.

“It is such a big learning step from a go kart to cars and that third year we always planned to have a crack at the championship,” he said.

“We got off to a pretty rough start. We had a lot of engine troubles in the first round and found out after the fact that I was only running on three cylinders, but still managed to collect a fair amount of points.

The next round I was just making too many mistakes and a bit of crashing and all that.

It was just an unlucky weekend overall.”

At the third round as a support series to Supercars things finally fell into place and ran smoothly for Mouzouris.

From that moment on in the series he was hard to touch.

“Moved on to Winton, which finally went our way,” he said. “It’s my home track, I had the confidence going in, managed to

clean sweep that weekend. It was great especially in front of Supercars.

“It is not like I made a big step in my driving — it was always there. There is always a moment in everyone’s career where a driver has a lightbulb moment.

Before that I was just as quick but something would go wrong.”

Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat has been a mentor to Mouzouris for a few years and through this connection he was given the opportunity to test one of its Supercars during a Rookie Evaluation test day at Winton, where he impressed.

“He (Percat) has been such a great help over the last couple of years. He mentioned that there was a BJR test and evaluation day and I got six laps, which was awesome.

“Everyone wanted me to do some more, so I ended up doing 40-50 laps in Percat’s car, so that was great.

“That first lap is a lap I’m never going to forget, to go from a Formula Ford 150bhp and 500kg to current-spec ZB Commodore was just unbelievable, upwards of 600hp, it was such a good experience.”

Percat also helped discussions start with Triple Eight Race Engineering team principal Roland Dane.

“Again Percat has been a help, he ended up speaking to Roland and RD wanted to have a chat with me at the Sandown Supercars event,” Mouzouris told AA. “We ended up speaking from there, which carried on into a conversation about racing for Super2. He was keen and I was keen so that is how it came about.”

Auto Action spoke to Mouzouris the day after his first test with the Triple Eight team and he was still buzzing.

“Again, never going to forget those laps because driving a Triple Eight car and it all fits and it’s comfy and it was just such a cool experience,” he said.

“Lowndes came to the test to give me a hand, which was great.

“He helped me a lot, and every test day one of the main game guys will come down. Hopefully I can get them in that sort of (mentor) role for me.”

As it is his rookie season, coupled with the fact he has no teammate to measure himself against, Mouzouris wants to (as he did in Formula Ford) learn as much as he can the first year.

“It is such a massive step from Formula Ford. I’ve got no previous experience in a sedan or tin-tops so this year will be all about learning for me and collecting reasonable points,” he said.

“I’ll be going for that rookie title, that is definitely a goal, without a doubt.”

During his debut round on the streets of Adelaide, Mouzouris steadily improved as the weekend progressed, finishing the final race in ninth position.

AutoAction

45

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RACE REPORT

Adelaide 500 Races 1 & 2

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...

THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: LAT/Dirk Klynsmith/Ross Gibb

AFTER THE opening round of the Supercars Championship in Adelaide, the score reads one win to Holden and one to Ford.

The parity problems that had beleaguered last year’s title race appear to be resolved, but a new one arose in the form of aero wash, diminishing the racing to an extent across the weekend.

The scorching hot conditions that normally welcome teams and drivers to a new season where not present in Adelaide in 2020. This meant the Supercars were running at optimum levels, a nice change for drivers who had to deal with 45-degree heat last year.

Although run at the test day, the Pedders branded Supashock damper was still an unknown to the majority of teams. And the prospect of running new tyres in every practice session promised to provide a form guide earlier on in the weekend.

If that was true, David Reynolds and Erebus Motorsport had reversed the form slump that inflicted the team last season. The introduction of the control shock aimed to shakeup the field, but the usual suspects were up the front, Reynolds headed

Scott McLaughlin tasted success on Sunday giving him the overall win and a 27-point advantage heading to the Grand Prix (above). Chaz Mostert was more than competitive on his Walkinshaw Commodore debut (below).

Jamie Whincup was a fan of the new sponsor’s headwear recieved for winning pole position.

48 AutoAction

The undercut strategy worked perfectly for McLaughlin as he rose to second from seventh.

Shane van Gisbergen, Will Davison and new Walkinshaw Andretti United recruit Chaz Mostert.

Reigning champion Scott McLaughlin sat sixth.

Holdens continued to head the practice timesheets. Van Gisbergen and Mostert split the two sessions held on Friday, the latter setting a practice record. Davison was fastest in the Supercars Supertest at The Bend Motorsport Park held earlier in the week and continued that form as a consistent challenger to McLaughlin’s tag as lead Mustang.

Not every team made it through the practice sessions unscathed. The inevitable graze of the Turn 8 wall occurred more often than not. Rick Kelly made sure he gave his new Mustang a taste of the concrete wall, though lived to fight another day.

Scott Pye on the other hand suffered a more substantial hit, when a front-end suspension failure pitched his Team 18 Holden Commodore into the Turn 7 wall.

Repaired for qualifying, Pye drove his ex-van Gisbergen chassis into 15th.

Having confirmed his future the previous evening, Jamie Whincup shot from ninth to the top in the A momentous occasion for Kelly Racing.

Not only did the team debut its two Mustangs, but scored a top 10 finish.

Cam Waters (top) and Will Davison (above) threatened to crash the Triple Eight/DJR Team Penske party at the front of the field but narrowly failed to end the dominance. It was all smiles for Jamie Whincup on Saturday having just confirmed his driving future with victory in the opening race of the season.

Shootout to take pole, Reynolds was second, but had a power steering pump fail with his Commodore bellowing smoke for nearly the entire lap.

Normally a master of the one-lap dash, McLaughlin finished seventh, Mostert fourth and no Fabian Coulthard. The DJR Team Penske teamster was struggling early on, missing the top 10 by 0.0556s.

Joining him on the sidelines included Lee Holdsworth, Team Sydney’s James Courtney and the new Mustang of Kelly.

An all-Holden front-row continued the marque’s late season form from 2019 and Whincup asserted himself by heading into Turn 1 in the lead. There were a few casualties on the opening lap, Nick Percat already knew his Brad Jones Racing Commodore had problems, a steering failure sending him down

the escape road at Turn 7. Matt Stone Racing’s Garry Jacobson also encountered trouble, hitting the Turn 8 wall and damaging his Commodore significantly enough to need repairs in the garage.

Although he was battling for 20th place, full-time debutant Jack Smith was tapped by returnee Chris Pither through Turn 12, while fellow rookie Zane Goddard lurked.

Back at the front, Whincup and Reynolds broke away from the chasing pack led by Davison to the tune of 1.5s. McLaughlin was unable to make progress and what proved to be another masterstroke by Ludo Lacroix, he pitted on lap 7. This took him out of traffic and into clean air.

The gap fluctuated between Reynolds and Davison as Whincup further advanced his lead to more than a second. Mostert still remained in touch behind the 23Red Mustang, McLaughlin won the start from polesitter Shane van Gisbergen, but it came to nil when...

but teammate and reigning Super2 series winner Bryce Fullwood ended his race after clipping the wall on the exit of Turn 11.

Courtney was another victim of Turn 8, hitting the wall after being affected by the aero wash coming off Andre Heimgartner’s Kelly Racing Mustang. The incident was not what the new Team Sydney organisation needed with a lack of spare parts, a consequence of the rapidly put together squad.

All this backend shuffling didn’t have an effect at the front as van Gisbergen began to pressure Mostert for fourth, while Cam Waters started to also make a play behind the Kiwi. It was Adam De Borre that was the first to blink, bringing Mostert in just as van Gisbergen was arrowing the rear of the WAU Commodore.

Two laps later, Reynolds, Davison the pit stops were made and the Triple Eight driver emerged from his pit ahead.

and Waters all pitted, but all rejoined alongside Mostert. There was no love lost from his former Tickford Racing teammates as first Davison then Waters tapped the recent Holden convert, but only Davison managed to make his way past.

Ahead of this raging battle, McLaughlin had leapfrogged all to take the lead, however he needed an extra 8s worth of fuel to reach the minimum fuel drop. He completed his final stop on lap 44, emerging in second behind Whincup, ahead of the aforementioned fight for third.

A frustrating time followed as van Gisbergen’s charge towards McLaughlin was quelled by a lapped Smith, who failed to obey the blue flags and was penalised. It did bring the Kiwi star back to Reynolds, Waters, Davison and Mostert, however when the rookie took his penalty van Gisbergen quickly Chaz Mostert ended a strong debut weekend on the podium.

AutoAction

49

RACE REPORT Adelaide 500 Races 1 & 2 RACE 1 RESULTS 78 LAPS

Team Sydney had a bumpy start to its Supercars journey, James Courtney finished a best of 15th in Race 2 (above).

David Reynolds had the pace, just not the reliability, as issues plagued the 2017 Bathurst winner during qualifying.

gapped the quartet.

The fight for second was a see-saw battle, but McLaughlin won out by 1.2s ahead of van Gisbergen, however Whincup proved he isn’t done yet by taking the season opening race comfortably in a dominant display.

At the back end of the top 10, it was a moment of achievement for Kelly as he finished ninth in the team’s first race fielding a Mustang, making all those late nights during the off-season worth it.

The next day was set for a repeat, however it was van Gisbergen who was all setup to complete a Triple Eight double after sealing his eighth pole position in the city of churches. But, he made a weaker started compared to McLaughlin in a race that was riddled by mistakes from the two top teams in Supercars.

Behind, although Erebus Motorsport had a made a strong start to the weekend an engine malady had stifled Reynolds in his qualifying run to place him 14th.

In his haste to make up position early, he made an inside run on Mark Winterbottom, however went too deep and collected his teammate in the process at Turn 9. The blind nature of the corner left De Pasquale a sitting duck and sure enough,

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Scott Pye was the unlucky driver to encounter the thirdyear driver in a collision that ended both their races.

The first crucial mistake was made by DJR Team Penske when it lost track position to van Gisbergen in the pits by putting extra fuel in McLaughlin’s Mustang. With the aero wash problems the Supercars were encountering, it was a critical error.

Mostert pitted early and much like McLaughlin the previous day was on course to finish on the podium, after there were early doubts the strategy would pay off. Waters was just off the podium, but also had a strange incident entering pit lane where he overshot the entry and had to do another lap.

The next round of stops proved decisive. After van Gisbergen had regained the lead and appeared unstoppable, the team failed to put the right amount of fuel in, around 200ml short. This was all DJR Team Penske needed and McLaughlin comfortably restored the order to take the weekend with his Sunday win ahead of Mostert and Waters.

But what of van Gisbergen?

After emerging in fourth from his unscheduled third stop, the Kiwi was on one of his usual charges and had Waters in his gun sights, then it all went wrong. A front-right lower

control arm broke between Turns 6 and 7 with three laps to go, Waters was oh-so lucky not to be taken out.

He did try to limp his Commodore back to the pits, but only reached the exit of Turn 8.

A generous Waters picked the Kiwi up on his way back to the pits once the race was completed.

A second and race win hands McLaughlin a 27-point championship lead ahead of Whincup, while Mostert’s strong weekend leaves him third 17-points in arrears.

The next round as support to the Australian Grand Prix was the same venue where Mostert was the only driver to topple DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight’s dominance.

Lts hope the 2020 season is a more open affair.

1 Jamie Whincup 78 laps 2 Scott McLaughlin +5.238s 3 Shane van Gisbergen +6.923s 4 David Reynolds +13.338s 5 Will Davison +15.263s 6 Cameron Waters +16.893s 7 Chaz Mostert +20.561s 8 Mark Winterbottom +27.334s 9 Rick Kelly +32.279s 10 Fabian Coulthard +32.978s 11 Andre Heimgartner +34.518s 12 Lee Holdsworth +35.051s 13 Todd Hazelwood +37.148s 14 Anton De Pasquale +50.803s 15 Scott Pye +62.780s 16 Jack Le Brocq +69.018s 17 Macauley Jones +69.602s 18 Zane Goddard 77 laps 19 Chris Pither 77 laps 20 Jack Smith 76 laps 21 Bryce Fullwood 73 laps 22 Nick Percat 65 laps NC James Courtney 16 laps NC Garry Jacobson 5 laps FASTEST LAP Chaz Mostert 1m 20.5402s

0 ▲5 ▲3 ▼2 ▼1 ▼1 ▼3 ▲1 ▲7 ▲1 ▲2 0 ▲ 10 ▼6 0 ▼2 0 ▲2 ▲5 ▲2 ▼3 ▼ 12 ▼2 ▼5

RACE 2 78 laps RESULTS 78 LAPS 1 Scott McLaughlin 78 laps 2 Chaz Mostert +10.307s 3 Cameron Waters +14.310s 4 Will Davison +21.046s 5 Jamie Whincup +24.187s 6 Lee Holdsworth +24.748s 7 Nick Percat +33.047s 8 David Reynolds +34.167s 9 Fabian Coulthard +35.066s 10 Andre Heimgartner +35.650s 11 Mark Winterbottom +46.567s 12 Jack Le Brocq +51.220s 13 Rick Kelly +53.308s 14 Todd Hazelwood +61.307s 15 James Courtney +65.141s 16 Zane Goddard 77 laps 17 Bryce Fullwood 77 laps 18 Jack Smith 76 laps 19 Macauley Jones 75 laps 20 Garry Jacobson 72 laps NC Shane van Gisbergen 74 laps NC Chris Pither 77 laps NC Scott Pye 0 laps NC Anton De Pasquale 0 laps FASTEST LAP Shane van Gisbergen 1m 20.7219s

▲1 ▲3 0 0 ▲2 ▲2 ▲6 ▲6 ▼3 ▲9 ▲1 ▼1 ▼4 ▲1 ▲7 ▲5 0 ▲6 ▼1 0 ▼ 20 ▲1 ▼7 ▼ 14

Points: McLaughlin 288, Whincup 261, Mostert 234, Waters 231, Davison 231, Reynolds 210, Holdsworth 171, Winterbottom 162, Coulthard 162, Kelly 150, Heimgartner 150, Percat 135, Van Gisbergen 129, Hazelwood 129, Le Brocq 126, Goddard 108, Jones 102, Fullwood 96, Smith 96, De Pasquale 63, Pye 60, Courtney 60, Pither 48, Jacobson 45

Andre Heimgartner was a top 10 finisher in Race 2.

Adelaide Round 1 SUPER2

Brodie Kosteki returned to Super2 in a winning way to topple Thomas Randle in Adelaide.

BRODIE WINS ADELAIDE NAILBITER Race Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Insyde Media THE OPENING round of the Super2 Series in Adelaide was won by Brodie Kostecki, who on his return to the second-tier Supercars series took two out of three race wins after a 10-month absence.

Qualifying demonstrated that this season will be competitive as the top eight drivers were separated by a mere 0.88s.

Thomas Randle in his Matt White Motorsport Nissan Altima pipped Kostecki by a minuscule 0.002s with Super2 rookie Zak Best and Will Brown filling out the next row.

Polesitter Randle led into Turn 1, while Brown with a great start shot past both Kostecki and Best into second, the latter in the meantime dropped down the order.

On lap 2, Brown was already having to defend from Kostecki, who briefly took the position at Turn 9 before Brown fought back, however this just delayed

the inevitable and Kostecki made it stick one lap later.

As the race progressed the lead margin shrank and by lap 16 Kostecki was glued to the rear bumper of Randle. On the next lap Randle succumbed to the pressure, locking up and running wide at Turn 9 allowing Kostecki into the lead.

Randle remained with Kostecki but could not stop him from taking the win, Brown finished third ahead of Brodie’s cousin Kurt Kostecki.

In Race 2, keen to make amends early, Randle made the better start and attempted a move around the outside at Turn 1 catapulting himself over the kerbs at Turn 2, but despite this remained in second.

At Turn 9 on the opening lap Brown had a look up the inside of Randle before backing out of the move. The top three then settled into a groove and pulled away from the rest of the pack.

Behind, a battle for fourth ensued with Jack Perkins trying to overtake Kurt. On lap 5 Kurt

ran wide at Turn 9 allowing Perkins to swing up the inside.

Around the left handed Turn 10 there was still some overlap with Kurt keeping his nose in the fight before launching a move back up the inside at Turn 11.

Kostecki hit Perkins, sending the #54 Commodore into the wall before it bounced back out into Kurt who was handed a drive through for the incident.

A lengthy safety car period was needed to clean up the mess and

Jayden Ojeda was the best of the newcomers , finishing fifth for the round.

when racing got back underway an exciting midfield battle developed.

Shortly after the restart fourth placed man Boys hit the wall at Turn 8, and soon after leader Brodie Kostecki also clobbered the same wall. Both suffered damage but luckily were able to continue at a reasonable speed.

Randle closed the gap to Brodie but it was not enough, the #38 car crossing the line in first ahead of Randle and Brown. Jayden Ojeda finished fourth ahead of Matt Chadha and Boys.

Again at the start of Race 3 Brodie Kostecki led into Turn 1, while a row behind Ojeda shot into third off the line however on lap 2 both the Image Racing cars of Brown and Boys found a way through on the reigning Super3 runner-up.

On lap 3 with a power steering issue Brodie locked up and ran down the Turn 4 escape road

dropping him to fifth.

The leaders were however unable to escape as the safety car was called for an incient between Perkins, Josh Fife and Best, wiping Perkins out of the race at Turn 9.

Brodie had to finish third to win the round and as soon as the safety car came in he mounted his charge, firstly overtaking Ojeda and then Boys.

Boys re-took fourth when Brodie tried an unsucessful move on Brown around the outside of Turn 9, however in a great exchange Brodie slid sideways around Turn 13 before making the move at the final turn.

Randle took the race win by 2.3s from Brown. In finishing third Brodie did enough to win the round by just two points, Boys was fourth ahead of Ojeda.

Series points: B Kostecki 286, Randle 284, Brown 264, Boys 222, Ojeda 210

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Carrera Cup Adelaide Round 1

MURRAY IN CONTROL Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Porsche THE OPENING round of the 2020 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Series couldn’t have gone any better for Cooper Murray who took pole position and the three race wins.

On the streets of Adelaide Murray claimed his second Carrera Cup pole position beating 2017 series winner David Wall by 0.2s, with rookie Aaron Love lining up third on the grid alongside Cameron Hill.

Off the line Murray made the better start and led into Turn 1, while Hill shot past Love who bogged slightly as the lights went out.

The top four were line astern for much of the race, it wasn’t until lap 11 that

Murray was able to pull clear when the quartet approached the stationary Greg Ward who was situated in the middle of Turn 1, Murray went behind him while the other three went in front allowing the #36 car to skip ahead.

Murray held the buffer until the finish, beating Wall by 1.8s. In the closing laps Hill came under pressure from Love but held onto third, with Dean Cook winning the Pro Am class.

Race 2 and again Murray led into the first turn from Wall, just behind Love briefly took third off Hill but as they exited the Senna Chicane it was Hill who was back ahead.

At the halfway stage the top four remained together, with Wall the closest he had been all race but a poor run through Turn 8 meant he had to block Hill behind into Turn 9.

Cooper Murray was unstoppable all weekend in Carrera Cup, above. Alongside Pro Am winner Stephen Grove, the youngster savours his round victory.

This allowed Murray to pull a gap that he would never relinquish to take the win by 0.8s from Wall, Hill, Love and Dale Wood.

Post-race however Hill was handed a 5s penalty for being out of his grid box at the start of the race and this demoted him to eighth position, while in Pro Am it was Max Twigg who took the honours.

Murray made another great start at the beginning of the third race leading into Turn 1, Wood also launched well and shot straight passed Love, before attempting a move on Wall. The two touched at Turn 1 but Wall held on, the battle for second continued throughout the opening lap

b before f ah heavy crash hb between t th the ttwo P Pro Am race winners Twigg and Cook at Turn 10 brought out the safety car.

Sadly the race never went back to green, giving Murray the race and round win ahead of Wall. Wood took third in the race but it was Love who stood on the final step at the end of the weekend.

In Pro Am Stephen Grove took the final race and round, David Ryan finished the weekend second with Marc Cini third.

Points: Murray 181, Wall 162, Love 132, Wood 119, Russell 104

SETON’S SOLID START Report: Garry O’Brien Images: National Trans Am Series THERE IS no better way to start the National Trans Am Series season than by winning all three races at round one on the streets of Adelaide . . . and that is exactly what Aaron Seton did.

In the Ford Mustang in which he won last year’s series, Seton won the Payce opening round overall ahead two category debutants in Nic Carroll (Chev Camaro) and Jimmy Vernon (Mustang).

An early safety car shortened the first race before pole sitter Seton went on to take victory over Brett Holdsworth (Camaro), as Mustang team mates Hugh McAlister and Matt MacKelden just kept Carroll in fifth.

Driving Michael Kulig’s Camaro, George Miedecke qualified on the front row and was lucky to make the start after coming across Craig Dontas (Camaro) spun out at Turn 5 and hit him head on. However his race didn’t last long with the brakes locking on, leaving Cameron Crick (Dodge Challenger) nowhere to go.

Crick received a drive-through penalty as initially he was wrongly deemed the perpetrator.

Also failing to finish was an unlucky Nathan Herne (Challenger) who was second behind Seton when he had a tail shaft failure on the last lap.

Steve McLaughlan finished sixth ahead of Michael Coulter and Anthony Tenkate – all in Mustangs. Vernon was prominent early but encountered the wall at Turn 7 before ultimately taking ninth ahead of Mark Crutcher (Challenger).

Race two was another strong result for Seton, winning comprehensively. Second and over 6s adrift was Holdsworth while Herne put in storming effort, coming from the back to third. Next was Carroll from Vernon and Crick, another who made significant progress. Behind were MacKelden and McAlister ahead of Dontas who

missed race one and Tim Shaw (Camaro).

Michael Coulter (Mustang) followed ahead of Christopher Formosa (Challenger) and Mark Crutcher (Challenger). Trouble continued to dog Miedecke who picked up several places until the loss of a couple of cylinders took its toll.

Seton’s third race win was a far closer result, just over 0.5s in front of Herne while Crick was a lonely third. Starting alongside Seton on the front row, Holdsworth suffered

a driveline failure just after the start.

Vernon improved three places to take fourth in front of Carroll.

Dontas dropped a spot from fifth to sixth following a high-flyer at the first chicane on lap seven.

Next was Miedecke who had an untroubled run and picked up seven positions for seventh ahead of McAlister, MacKelden and Shaw.

Points: Seton 180, Carroll 152, Vernon 148, McAllister 148, MacKelden 146

Touring Car Masters Adelaide Round 1

BRESSINGTON BEST, HANSFORD STARS Report: Garry O’Brien Images: Touring Car Masters ADAM BRESSINGTON cracked an outright round win for the first time after 11 podiums without one.

Driving the Whiteline Racing ’69 Chev Camaro, Bressington won race one of the Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters at the Superloop Adelaide 500 and backed up with two seconds to top the placings.

“The car was awesome this weekend but the reality was nobody was going to get Ryan (Hansford), he had too much speed,” Bressington said.

Driving the Peters Motorsport Holden Torana A9X, Hansford was the pacesetter. He was the fastest in qualifying and won two races. A 14th place in the first was the only dampener on the weekend, taken off at the first corner as an innocent victim. “You always want to do well at the opening round and we are off to a positive start. Winning race two felt like a grand prix victory,” he enthused.

The racing began with the trophy race which only earned points for starting and finishing. It ended with a thrilling finish between three Toranas where Dean Lillee just held off John Bowe and Jim Pollicina.

Just behind in fourth was Cameron Mason (Ford Mustang) and Jason Gomersall (A9X), with a meagre 1.6s covering the top five. Adam Garwood (Camaro) was next ahead of Hansford, Paul Freestone (Camaro), Steve Johnson debuting his new Ford Falcon XD, and Bressington.

It was a dramatic start to the first sprint race where an incident at the front of the field going into the first corner brought about a safety car.

It was triggered by Bowe who, on the dirty side of the track, locked up his brakes and went into the side of Garwood. Both spun into the gravel trap and took off Hansford who had nowhere to go.

Adam Bressington had to fight hard to stop Ryan Hansford snatching the round win (top). Steve Johnson had a mixed weekend in his new ford Falcon XD, which is fast becoming a fan favourite (above). There was chaos at the start to the opening sprint race (below) when John Bowe made a mistake and hit an innocent Adam Garwood at Turn 1.

Bressington took over the lead as Ryal Harris (Camaro) held second before he pitted to repair damage, as he was also caught up in the incident.

Gomersall took over second for the duration while Cameron Tilley (Valiant Pacer) lost out Pollicina for third.

A robust drive and a superb passing move on the last lap gave Hansford a

stunning victory in race two. Hansford steadfastly moved through the field to chase down race leader Bressington and executed the lead-taking move by going around the outside of the Camaro driver at Turn 9.

There was an early safety car after contact between Paul Freestone and Ryal Harris. Drivers blamed

slippery surface after an oil down in the previous race. Exiting Turn 7, Freestone lost control of his Camaro, crossing the bow of the Lillie Torana and collecting Harris, who was trying to avoid contact up the inside. The incident caused heavy damage to both Camaros and put them out for the rest of the weekend.

After the compressed field restart, Hansford charged through to take the win over Bressington, while Tilley was third, passing Pollicina on the fourth of the nine-lap journey. The latter also fell prey to Garwood, Johnson and Bowe. Behind them were Markus Zukanovic (XD), Mason, Lillee, Andrew Fisher (Ford Falcon XY GT) and Jeremy Gray (Ford Capri Perana).

Gomersall was prominent early before finishing behind Peter Burnitt’s A9X after an excursion down the Turn 4 escape road.

In race three Hansford grabbed a great start from pole and withstood the early challenge from Bressington to lead all the way. Meanwhile Bressington surrendered second place to his team mate Garwood, who miscued at Turn 4 a couple of laps later with a Watts linkage failure and would finish fourth behind Bowe.

Next across the finish line was Steve Johnson in the XD. Markus Zukanovic charged through from the rear to grab sixth despite a contentious last lap incident at Turn 10, that caused Tilley to crash out in the Valiant. Lillee was seventh ahead of Fisher, Mason, Gomersall, Gray, Burnitt and Layton Barker (Falcon XW).

Pollicina finished a lap down following a visit to the pit lane with steering damage after clipping the Turn 1 tyre bundle, while Gerard McLeod retired his new Holden Commodore with continuing fuel pressure problems.

Points: Bressington 192, Hansford 164, Johnson 152, Pollicina 139, Garwood 137.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Image: LAT

AN UNSTOPPABLE REBELLION

Images: LAT

HAMLIN STEALS SECOND STRAIGHT DAYTONA WIN THE 2020 edition of the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 was filled with twists, turns, drama and frightening crashes, however rising through it all was Denny Hamlin who won his second straight Daytona 500.

The race started on Sunday but due to rain it was stopped early on and postponed until Monday afternoon as reported by Auto Action in the last issue.

When the race got back underway it was a closely fought and crash fraught affair with Hamlin pipping Ryan Blaney in the second closest Daytona 500 finish in history in which Hamlin sat third until the final metres.

Coming to the line Ryan Blaney attempted to bump draft behind Ryan Newman, however the contact speared Newman into the wall before the car bounced back into Corey LaJoie who sent Newman’s car flipping through the air before crossing the line on its roof.

Newman was taken to a local hospital following the accident and was in a serious

As Denny Hamlin celebrated his 500 victory, below, Ryan Newman was in hospital after this scary shunt (above).

condition, but after a couple of days was released, providing a statement saying.

“I was fortunate to avoid any internal organ damage or broken bones, I did sustain a head injury for which I’m currently being treated. The doctors have been pleased with my progression over the last few days.”

As the crash broke out Hamlin snuck through to take the race victory becoming just the fourth man to take back-to-back Dayton 500 wins.

Behind Hamlin and Blaney was Chris Buescher who finished third ahead of David Ragan in his final race with Kevin Harvick rounding out the top five. Newman was credited with a ninth-place result behind Clint Bowyer, Brendan Gaughan and LaJoie.

Earlier in the race Chase Elliott won Stage 1, and Hamlin triumphed in Stage 2, before, in typical NASCAR fashion things got serious.

On lap 184 a chain-reaction crash began beg when Joey Logano bumped Aric Almirola into Brad Keselowski, a total to of 19 of the 37 were involved and eliminated Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson.

Jim Logano and Almirola found Lo themselves in the thick of the action the again aga 15 laps later and forced overtime. ove The Th first set of extra laps had scarcely begun when a threesca car ca incident resulted in Michael McDowell and Clint Bowyer Mc spinning, this set up the final sp spectacular finish. sp A week later Logano bounced back ba from the Daytona retirement to take the win at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Matt Ve DiBenedetto came home second D ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. a Austin Dillon and Johnson. DM A

THE FIFTH round of the 2019/2020 World Endurance Championship was held at the Circuit of the Americas, the Lone Star Le Mans 6 Hour race was dominated by Rebellion Racing.

By taking the victory the Swiss team claimed its second WEC win of the season and in doing so remained in contention to win the top tier LMP1 class with three races to go. Gustavo Menezes, Norman Nato and Bruno Senna at the wheel of the non-hybrid powered Rebellion R13 Gibson car led from start to finish.

Coming home in second was the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing car driven by Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley 51.5s behind the winners.

The sister #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez finished two laps down.

With success handicap Toyota’s strategy was to regain the on track time lost during the pit stops, but a near-perfect performance from Rebellion dashed any hopes of the Japanese squad taking any advantage.

A season high total of nine entries participated in the LMP2 category with the #22 United Autosports ORECA 07 trio Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Paul Di Resta taking their second consecutive victory. In doing so they claimed the class series lead off the #37 squad who finished the race in second.

The crew of Will Stevens, Ho-Pin Tung and Gabriel Aubry in the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car ended the race only 24.152s behind the winners. The #38 ORECA belonging to Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez rounded out the podium.

It was also a second straight win for the #95 Aston Martin pairing of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, the reigning GTE Pro class series winners Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre finished second in their #92 Porsche. Rounding out the podium was James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari 488.

In the GTE AM class Australian Matt Campbell in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR finished fifth alongside Riccardo Pera and Christian Ried. DM

“Coming up at the nation’s action and spectator tracks” Wakefield Park

www.wakefieldpark.com.au March 7 Track Day Club March 9 Gulsons Porsche March 13 Wakefield Park Track Day Previously SOS/T&T March 16 Trackschool Track Days March 19 Wakefield Park Track Day Previously SOS/T&T

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Winton

www.wintonraceway.com.au March 7 MX-5 March 8 Track For Days March 9 Repco Ride to Reality – (Fun Day) March 13 Open Test & Tune March 14 Nugget Nationals

WORLD SERIES SPRINTCARS

MCFADDEN, FIVE TIMES A WSS WINNER JAMES McFADDEN sealed his fifth World Series Sprintcars crown after the final two rounds were held in Western Australia, February 21-22.

Holding a 26-point lead ahead of main rival Kerry Madsen, McFadden heading into the second week of the Western Swing held across two nights at the Perth Motorplex.

These two combatants were the two leading point scorers heading into the shootout, but it was Tasmanian teenage sensation Jock Goodyer, who completed a charge from the bronze shootout to take pole in the gold.

Goodyer shared the front-row with series leader McFadden, while Madsen started fourth.

It was McFadden that held the ascendency early before Glenn Sutherland had an incident at Turn 3, but jetlagged American Cory Eliason joined a three-way battle for the lead between the two title protagonists as Goodyer fell back dramatically to ninth by lap five.

The race for Goodyer ended on lap 11 after tangling with Brooke Tatnell.

As tyre conservation became a high priority, Eliason remained close to McFadden just as traffic came into play and on lap 22 the American snatched the lead. There was a late race twist as stewards tallied that the field had completed 70 combined laps under racing and caution so called an open red flag with fuel-only stop.

Teams calculated minimum fuel levels

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to get to the finish finish, but the tyre wear was clear as some entries had worn down to the canvas.

Eliason took a comfortable victory ahead of McFadden and Madsen, while others including Goodyer had tyres blow forcing them into retirement.

“We got kind of fortunate that the lapped car held James [McFadden] up and I was close enough to take advantage of it, but I’ve finally got the World Series win that’s been eluding me for three years now,” Eliason said.

“I found the middle in three and four first before everyone else did and then we had that fuel stop, which I wasn’t too impressed about but it worked out.

I was just thinking that my tyres were going flat and there’s no way.

“But at first I though it was 30 laps and then I realised it was 35, so I was just praying we’d have the tyres to make it.”

McFadden headed to the final round with an extended 42-point buffer, which was then extended to 64 once he had also taken Fast Time honours, plus

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third and fourth place finishes in his heats.

Madsen was on the back foot early with engine problems through his time trials, qualifying 16th. His team changed an engine before the heats, which produced a win and third to slot Madsen into 11th for the main event.

McFadden lost his front-row starting spot as the Gold Shootout was contested by Eliason and Brad Maiolo, but the latter lost position early to the series leader.

Madsen’s horror night continued when Taylor Milling climbed his rightrear wheel and crunched the wall, but there was concern the contact had damaged the title challenger’s car.

Upon the restart, all appeared fine, but Madsen then rolled to a stop at Turn 3 with a broken right-front stub axle, ending his maiden World Series title hopes.

With Madsen out of the picture, McFadden threw caution to the wind and began hunting Eliason, who

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James McFadden took his fifth crown with victory in Perth (top). Cory Eliason also took a win after flying in from the US (above left). Kerry Madsen’s luck evaporated during the second event.

Images: Richard Hathaway. made a swift getaway at the restart.

The American read the traffic well with McFadden not far behind, until on the final lap the series winner drove around the outside to seal victory by .097s.

Madsen and Tatnell finished behind McFadden in the final standings, while Goodyer completed a breakthrough season to win the Rookie of the Year standings. HM Points: McFadden 3906, Kerry Madsen 3682, Brooke Tatnell 3092, Jock Goodyer 3025, Lucas Wolfe 3022, Dave Murcott 2878, Brock Hallett 2837, Rusty Hickman 2810, Cory Eliason 2203, Jason Pryde 2184.

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p ra w S L A N NATIO compiled by garry o’brien

Terry Denovan took the spoils in the main event (above). Steve Chilbey headed stock cars (below).

DENOVAN’S SINGLE HANDED WAKEFIELD 300 TERRY TERRY TERR Y DE DENO DENOVAN NOVA VAN N ddrove rove hi his Holden Hold lden Commodore VH to a heady win in the first leg of the three-part Australian 1000 at Wakefield Park on February 23-24, the first to win one of these races driving solo.

With the cars classed according to lap times, the fastest would have to make two compulsory pit stops of five and two and a half minutes with the remainder only pitting once in the 300km event.

Second place and 56s adrift were Todd Herring and Andy Harris in a Mazda MX5 and over two laps ahead of Lloyd Godfrey and Josh Buchan sharing a Honda Integra.

Herring led from the start while Matt Longhurst, sharing with Benny Tran in the latter’s Honda Integra, settled into second until lap 15 when Buchan passed. The Tran/ Longhurst car had many delays and finally finished last.

At the same time, Jimmy Tran (Honda Civic shared with Drew Hall) tangled with the Chris Reeves/Bruce Colbey Mazda2, breaking a wheel and making a long stop.

Denovan, who was best of the Class B runners, had settled into fourth and Tran fought back into the top five. On lap 38 the Len Bates/Murray Coote Toyota Altezza and the James Hay/Paul Ansell VW Scirocco clashed, bringing out the only safety car. All

Images: Riccardo Benvenuti

the leaders pitted and rolled the dice making just a short stop and banking on another safety car later.

Matthew and Terry Johnson (MX5) stayed out and took the lead, not pitting until lap 68.

This left Herring in front again, from Denovan and Buchan/Godfrey, who were slowed, suffering from intermittent problems with the car’s computer. They were also racing with a five-minute penalty, having spilt some fuel in their stop.

On lap 109 Herring pitted, handed over to Harris who resumed a lap down as Denovan moved into the lead. Harris unlapped himself

pretty smartly but wasn’t able to run down the leader. Despite the penalty Godfrey/Buchan maintained third, their penalty making no difference as fourth placed Tran/Hall were a lap down.

The earlier sprint race, over 14 laps and around 33kms, was won by Benny Tran, clear of Herring with Denovan just ahead of Matt Johnson (MX5) and Jimmy Tran.

LEGEND CARS

FIVE RACES proved entertaining with Lachlan Ward taking out them all, including the final which was a reverse grid. Kyle Angel netted

secondd from from Josh Joshh H ourigan i f a few few second Hourigan after placings changes of placings.

In race two Ward had to come from the back and only took the lead on the last lap. Until then, Tim Hamilton and Angel had disputed the lead.

Angel finished second from Hamilton. Angel led race three early, before Ward asserted himself and won from Angel and Shane Tate.

In race four, Angel, Ward and Brendan Hourigan disputed the lead. The latter crossed the line second behind Ward and ahead of Angel, with Josh Hourigan a handful of seconds adrift.

In the final Shane Tate led early, while Ward scythed his way through the pack, leading by lap five. Angel led briefly before Ward passed on lap four. Angle didn’t make it easy, taking the lead back momentarily, before Ward got a winning break as Brendan Hourigan snared second ahead of Angel.

STOCK CARS

IT WAS perfect weekend for Steve Chilbey, winning the four races in his OzTruck Silverado.

Brett Mitchell (OzTruck Maloo) scored three seconds and a third. A couple of thirds and fourths went the way of Corey (Pontiac GTA) while James Burge (Silverado) overcame plethora of problems that included a driveshaft failure, an accident, and an alleged weaving black flag for a pair of seconds. Bruce Moxon

VEES CELEBRATE 55 FORMULA VEES first raced in Australia in 1965. To celebrate 55 years of this entry-level class, 65 cars entered at Wakefield Park in two racing classes (1200 and 1600cc) plus Regularity.

In 1600cc, Michael Kinsella (Jacer) took two wins from three starts.

Daniel Reynolds (Sabre) led the first lap but dropped to sixth on lap two, leaving Reynolds the winner. Behind Simon Pace (Checkmate), Kinsella

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and Craig Sparke (Jacer) were at it throughout. At the flag, it was Kinsella second from Sparke, Aaron Pace (Jacer) and Simon Pace.

Kinsella led race two throughout and Sparke shadowed him the whole way, not able to pass.

Third was Aaron Pace from Darren Williams (Sabre).

Daniel Reynolds retired after

Images: Riccardo Benvenuti

three of the ten laps. Race three set Reynolds a big task, starting rear of grid. Up front, Kinsella held Sparke at bay. Reynolds was in the top ten after two laps, and eventually finished fourth behind Aaron Pace third.

The 1200cc field included a number of historic cars. Stephen Butcher (Stinger) and Tim Brook (Jacer) held sway up front in the first race with Nigel Jones (Rennmax) next. In race two, Butcher pitted after one lap, fixed the problem and

continued in last place. This left Brook up front, from Jones and Matt Pearce (Rennmax) guest-driving in the historic car.

Race three ended early behind a safety car, as one car was off in the gravel at Turn 2. The race was hotly contested with Brook and Pearce taking turns up front. Brook was the leader when the yellows came out with Pearce second, from Jones and Butcher drove from rear to fourth.

Bruce Moxon

Brought to you by: E 1 M C

racefuels.com.au

Holly Espray led the way in Excels, competition in the HQs was fierce, below.

Images: MTR Images

TWIST BRINGS ESPRAY EXCEL WIN QUEENSLAND’S RACING season opened on February 22-23 at Queensland Raceway with round one of the QR Drivers Championships.

Four categories spearheaded by the Track Attack Australia Excels, featured several new faces for 2020 battling over five races which would have a substantial and dramatic twist in the end.

Matt Brunt won the first two races after taking a last minute pole off Holly Espray. Second in both was John Carter, just ahead of Scott Green in both.

Espray placed seventh as she had a clutch issue to overcome, finishing behind Josh Richards, Josh Brown and Daniel Natoli.

Espray improved to fourth in race two ahead of Richards, Jimmy Simpson and Gordon Smith. A wet race three produced two clamp downs as Cameron Bartholomew charged from the back of the field to victory. Second was Riley Beggs in front of Richards, Brunt and Espray. Carter was last after a pitting to replace a delaminated tyre.

Bartholomew took out the remaining races, clear of Brunt while Beggs picked up a race four third ahead of Espray, Faulkner and O’Sullivan. Espray was third in the last in front of Jai Brown, Jackson Faulkner and Dave Rodgie and Grant Green headed the sportscar battles.

O’Sullivan.

Brunt had the points on the board but was then excluded from the last along with over half the field for not having their engines sealed. Thus Espray became the round winner, her first in three years of competing in Excels.

QR SPORTS & SEDANS

OZTRUCK TUNDRA driver Lachlan Gardner came out on top at the opening round. It didn’t start that way for he had a race-long battle with Stephen Coe (ex-Supercar Holden Commodore VE) and fell just 0.68s short of the win after they exchanged the lead a couple of times.

Coe dropped out of race two when he pitted, leaving Gardner a comprehensive winner with Steve Hay (Holden Commodore) going one better than his third position in race one with second, clear of Simon Winters (Commodore) third.

In the third of four races Gardner was again well ahead of Hay with Brian Clayton (Ford Falcon EB) third as fourth placed Zayd Tones (BMW 318) won the battle among the BMWs, beating Tim Jordan in his LS-powered one.

The track was wet and slippery for the last where Gardner tussled with Hay, only getting the job done at the final corner on the last lap. Tones was third ahead of Ettore Vosolo (BMW E30), Clayton and Jordan.

HQ HOLDENS

THREE WINS and backed up with a second and third were sufficient for Joe Andriske to start the season off on the right foot, winning the first round ahead of Bruce French and Brad Schomberg.

The latter was the first up winner over French, Andriske, pole sitter Nathan Locke and Dion Cidoni. Andriske scored his first win in race two where Locke edged out Cidoni and Derek Riseley beat Schomberg for fourth.

Category stalwart Gary Bonwick was a first race retirement, but came back for sixth in the next and then fourth

in the third, behind Andriske, Cidoni and Schomberg. However Bonwick didn’t get through a lap of the fourth race which was taken out by French over Andriske while Cidoni and Schomberg were tight for fourth.

On the Sprint circuit for the last, Andriske scored his third victory, this time ahead of French with Schomberg a distant third as he just bested (by 0.0039s) Locke. Bonwick was fifth as Jake Madden edged out Cidoni for sixth by 0.26s.

QLD SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

RACE WINS over the five outings were split between two drivers. Grant Green (Radical SR3) pipped Dave Rodgie (Chiron LMP3) by a mere 0.6s with Jarrad Brilley (SR3) in third. Matt Vanderburg was fourth on his own but little separated Phil Kay (Dallara F3), Rob Cooke (Mallock) and Ross Rundle (Minetti).

Next up was a reverse grid in which Rodgie bested Green as Brilley was again their nearest rival. Rodgie was a retirement from the third encounter which Green scoring narrowly over Brilley with Vanderburg third.

Rodgie struck back in the fourth ahead of Green and Brilley before leading all the way in the last and winning ahead of Brilley and Green.

GOB

E 8 B

Classic Festival of Motorsport, Heritage Touring Cars Rd1, Phillip Island VIC, Mar 05-08 Production Car Nationals, Production Car Series Rd1, State Production Touring Championship Rd1, GT Trophy Series Rd2, Radical Australia Cup Rd1, Australian Prototype Series Rd1, Pulsar Racing Association Series Rd1, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 06-08 Multi Club Motorkhana, Hidden Valley NT, Mar 06 Club Khanacross, Adelaide International Raceway SA, Mar 07 State Hillclimb Championship Rd1, Esses Mt Panorama NSW, Mar 07 State Off Road Champs Rd1, State Off Road Club Shield Rd1, Rainbow VIC, Mar 07-08 State Hillclimb Championship Rd2, Mountain Straight Mt Panorama NSW, Mar 08 State Motorkhana Championship Rd2, Awabawac Park NSW, Mar 08 State Motorkhana Championship Rd1, Mallala Motorsport Park, Mar 08 Multi Club Khanacross, Alice Springs NT, Mar 08 Club Test & Tune, Hidden Valley NT, Mar 08 Club Khanacross, Tiger Kart Club WA, Mar 08 Twilight Tarmac Rally Series Rd5, Sydney Dragway NSW, Mar 12 Australian Grand Prix, Formula 1 Rd1, Supercars Championship races 3, 4, 5, 6, Porsche Carrera Cup Rd2, TCR Asia Pacific Cup, S5000 Series Rd1, Albert Park VIC, Mar 12-15 Shannons Rallysprint Rd5, Perth Motorplex WA, Mar 12 Lakeside Tribute, Lakeside Park QLD, Mar 13-15 Motor Racing Australia Rd2, Sydney Motorsport Park NSW, Mar 14 Multi Club Khanacross, Powranna TAS, Mar 14 Multi Club Rallysprint, Rally Oonah Road TAS, Mar 14 Multi Club Motorkhana, Mt Gambier Sale Yards SA, Mar 14 State Circuit Racing Championship Rd2, Collie Motorplex WA, Mar 14-15 Territory Off Road Titles Rd1, Mt Ooraminna NT, Mar 14-15 Club Khanacross, Mid Murray Motorplex SA, Mar 14-15 Club Khanacross, Bayswater WA, Mar 15 State Khanacross Series Rd2, Awabawac Park NSW, Mar 15 Multi Club Supersprint, Baskerville TAS, Mar 15 Multi Club Khanacross, Ringwood Park NSW, Mar 15 Come and Try Lap Dash, Oakburn Park NSW, Mar 15 Rally of the Ranges, State Rally Championship Rd1, Quorn SA, May 15-17 Multi Club Autocross, Perth Motorplex WA, Mar 18

AutoAction

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Image: Porsche

POST-RACE PANDEMONIUM

IT WAS carnage at the conclusion of the second Porsche Carrera Cup Australia race on the streets of Adelaide which was triggered by a distinct and obvious lack of a chequered flag.

Drivers were instructed to push on an extra lap as no flag was waved, however this ended in disaster, Aaron Love spun into the wall at Turn 6, the car bounced back out and plucked the rear wing off David Russell’s 991 Porsche.

Cars continued to fly around the blind turn and were surprised to see a stationary Porsche in the middle of the road, damage was done as cars up front slowed down the cars further back ploughed into the cars ahead much like you would see in an accident at a set of traffic lights not on a race track.

In total the calamity cost over teams over $50,000 worth of damage in what was a wholly avoidable incident and had people scratching their heads.

This was all as a result of the chequered flag not being shown as required at the end of 10 lap encounter.

The unscheduled 11th lap counted for nothing as results from the end of the tenth lap were taken and saw Love still score his first Carrera Cup top three race result.

Sadly this is not the first time this has happened in motorsport globally and I very much doubt it will be the last, but it is rare that such an amount of damage is caused by letting the race continue a further lap.

Dan McCarthy

What rate are you on mate? Make sure you drive carfully otherwise you wont get more than one star. Image: Supercars

UBERSTANG AFTER A juicy battle for third looked set to ignite at the end of Sunday’s 250km encounter Shane van Gisbergen was forced to retire with suspension damage and allowed Cameron Waters to escape and claim a podium finish.

Racing driver by day Uber driver by night, on the in lap Waters noticed that van Gisbergen needed an Uber ride back to his garage and the Ford Mustang pilot could only oblige to pick him up.

“I went past him, I saw him standing on the side of the road like a hitchhiker, I thought I’d put my Uber hat on and try and pick up a couple of hundred dollars, so I picked him up and took him back to the pits,” Waters recalled.

Incredibly since giving the Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver a

lift to the pits he hasn’t received a rating rating.

“I haven’t got a rating yet and he hasn’t even paid me so I had better put my invoice in,” he said.

Waters then continued to poke fun at not only the car brand that the Kiwi drivers for but also the energy drink that sponsors the #97 car.

“The Holden broke down and the Ford picked him up saved the day and the one energy drink had to pick up the shitter one,” Waters joked.

As Auto Action it is understood that van Gisbergen is still yet to pay his Uber driver for the ride to the pit lane. Dan McCarthy

Holden highlights Across

2. Who driving a VE Commodore won the 700th Supercars Championship race in Darwin in 2009? (surname only) 7. How many Supercars Championships has Jamie Whincup won for the Holden brand?

8. Who was the first driver to win an Australian Touring Car Championship in a Commodore? (full name) 9. How many ATCC/Supercars championships have been won by Holden?

10. Who was the team principal of the Holden Dealer Team from 1969-1977? (full name) 11. What car number was on the 1987 Bathurst winning VL Commodore?

13. Who won the Sandown 500 for the Holden Dealer Team in 1971? (full name) 14. How many Bathurst 1000 wins have Jim Richards and his son Steven taken for the Holden brand in total?

#1780 Supercars Crossword Answers 1780

7 across – Kelly Racing 8 down – Hampton Downs 9 across – two 10 down – fifty five 11 across – Hazelwood 12 across – SouthAustralia 13 across – twenty four 13 down – Tim Slade 14 across – fourteen

1 down – Scott Pye 2 down – Winterbottom 3 down – Goddard 4 down – Brown 5 across – Jack Smith 6 down – Fullwood

5. Who was the first driver to win a race driving a Holden in the Australian Touring Championship? (surname only) 6. A Holden powered to victory in both Bathurst 24 Hour races but in what model car were they won in?

11. Who won the Bathurst 1000 for the Holden Racing Team on his birthday in 2005? (full name) 12. How many Australian Rally Championships have been won in Holdens?

13. Who will join Scott McLaughlin in car #17 during the Pirek Enduro Cup? (full name)

Down

1. With what model of Commodore did Craig Lowndes win his first Australian Touring Car Championship in?

3. Who won the Bathurst 1000 in a Torana alongside Peter Brock in 1975? (surname only) 4. Who apart from Colin Bond won the Australian Rally Championship for the Holden Dealer Team? (full name)

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