Auto Action #1789

LIVING LEGEND ‘BIG REV KEV’ UNCUT SINCE 1971

.COM.AU

F1 RETURN Full preview

OVAL OFFICE AUSCAR glory years

Issue #1789 July 2 to July 15 2020 $8.95 INC GST

www.autoaction.com.au

THE COST TO RACE IMPROVED PRODUCTION

WANT TO BUY A PERFORMANCE CAMSHAFT FOR YOUR LS BASED ENGINE WITH CONFIDENCE?

*Not a valve train or engine expert? *Need assistance or guidance through the whole process? *What about the quality of the parts? *Will they all work in my engine?

Our team at VCM Performance certainly have the answers for you with many years of experienceand knowledge. VCM Performance have been developing camshaft packages to suite LS engines since 2003, our VCM Performance camshafts have been specifically developed for local vehicles and conditions, with had countless hours of dyno and real-world testing to prove them, so we know what works!

If your wanting more power for street performance, circuit racing, drag racing, burnout or drifting, we can help you with your needs.

tool f

Focused on VCM quality, our camshafts match OEM quality or better!

With genuine lifter, head gaskets, head bolts and a whole range of genuine GM products.

VCM world renowned partners include PSI (valve springs), ARP (fasteners), Manley (springs & pushrods), Melling (oil pumps), Improved Racing (sumps, baffles, oil coolers & more) and that’s to name a few of the high quality products we align ourselves with and support.

Most importantly is the end result to your motor vehicle upgrades. Our specialist software is world class, as HP Tuners Australasia we understand tuning and what works best for your application. We ensure our customers drive away with a smile that lasts the life of the car, not just until you try to start it on a cold morning a few weeks later!

If your vehicle project needs an extra edge and you want real advice, visit vcmstore.com.au or call 03 9763 7599 or visit us instore at 1634 Ferntree Gully Road, Knoxfield VIC 3180.

f

Amid rampant speculation of a Supercars sale, MARK FOGARTY reveals the reaction to the idea of bringing back the man who started it all LEADING TEAM bosses have reacted coolly to a call to bring back Supercars founder Tony Cochrane as rumours of an impending sale run riot.

Cochrane put himself back in the limelight with an inflammatory newspaper column criticising Supercars’ return from the coronavirus crisis.

His broadside coincided with former Holden Racing Team chief John Crennan calling for Cochrane’s return in a magazine column.

Crennan wants ‘Cocho’ to head an investigation into Supercars’ decline since the category’s heyday in the mid-to-late 2000s and come up with a revival plan.

Although they clashed regularly in the early to mid-2000s, Crenno and Cocho are now aligned in their concerns for the future of Supercars.

Cochrane aired his views in his Gold Coast Bulletin column last week, while Crennan’s critique appeared in his column in the Australian Automotive Dealer Association magazine.

Both were stinging in their criticism sm T HAVE THE VOICES THAST TALKING of Supercars’ management.

THE GOLD COA Cochrane was the driving WINNERS RS AND LOSE force behind the transformation IN GAME OF of the ATCC into V8 Supercars in COVID-19 boar board member Brad Jones was 1997 and ran the sport with an circu circumspect about a Cocho iron fist until he fell out with new com comeback. owner Archer Capital in 2013. “I haven’t read either of their He returned to his role com comments, so it’s really hard as a leading entertainment for me to comment. I need to entrepreneur and became read rea them before I have an chairman of the Gold Coast Suns opinion on it,� Jones said. op AFL team, which has emerged thiss “There were things about “T season as the hottest team in the Tony To that I thought were league. excellent when he was in the ex xce ONLY TONY COCHRANE CAN MAKE Cochrane, who has a small position. po SUPERCARS GREAT AGAIN shareholding in Supercars, has “But that was a fair while ago also been linked with moves to and an while Archer is involved, I A buy back the sport. don’t do think [a return] would be However, when Auto Action an option. Supercars is doing canvassed opinion from several reasonable business at the rea team bosses about a Cocho moment.

I’d rather not comment mo comeback, reaction – on and on it.� off the record – was mainly DJR D Team Penske boss Ryan lukewarm.

Story Sto favours Cochrane being Some, like Triple Eight brought back into the Supercars bro supremo Roland Dane, fold in some capacity. rejected his return in any form. “It’s “It an interesting proposition “Tony did a great job for the sport for many because I think Tony would have a lot to offer,� years,� Dane said. “That ship’s sailed now. We Story said. “I definitely think it would be good to need to have other people finding solutions for have Tony involved again.� us.�

Walkinshaw Andretti United co-owner Ryan He also dismissed bringing Cochrane back in Walkinshaw has mixed feelings. an advisory role, expressing confidence in the “It’s interesting,� he said. “I had a lot of respect current Sean Seamer-led management. for Tony, even though I didn’t work with him for “Not in my mind,� Dane said. “Maybe other very long. Tony obviously did some fantastic people do, but not for me. work for the category, but I think that Sean and “I think Sean & Co are pretty much doing his team has done a decent job in the off period. the best they can in very, very difficult “Personally, I’d love to see some engagement circumstances.� from Tony back in this category, but I think it Team owner, Supercars Commissioner and would have to be dovetailed in strategically

Image: LAT

TEAMS COOL ON COCHO CALL

GOLDCOASTBULLE

TIN.COM.AU

SATURDAY JUNE

20 2020

SUBSCRIPTIONS

1300 726 161

tin.com.au www.goldcoastbulle oastbulletin facebook.com/goldc tin twitter.com/gcbulle

Move to bring back V8 founder

g bodies have While some sportin from all over the been kicking goals dropped the ball park, others have

is slowly NORMALITY quickly as we as returning, not it should, but as would like or seem to be at least things And returning to normal. “second wave� please drop the it is garbage – I think we, as in say reasonable to really had the Australia, never that’s “first wave�. And what the followed we because asked of us, we Government the hatches, battened down social at worked hard our distancing, shut borders, and international class public have a world spread. If it WILLIAMS So, it’s no fluke Picture: JERAD virus and its global sports health system. with a relatively can stop the biggest we ended up op on of this the world, return to action. franchises in to see the AFL to clearly an over-the-t low-end transmissi franchises 10, is excited to so many did not live up in more strife Australian sportsbe exempt. contract that fan, Fin Reynolds, virus compared managed and to eyeballs for the Gold Coast Suns trying to get are not going its promised countries. fun than Genghis on with life Under a private before COVID It’s almost been Now let’s get state pay operator. high of circa over the wall with little those an Australian annum to the in a bat’s eye watching sporting ownership model, keep it afloat folks and get per was even a glint taking on to because guess $250 million administrators making all financial funds pandemic, it is borders open in Wuhan! it’s not nts and sports that AFL industry. in this when hit by this best, a major what – it’s a virus, completely. governme Of the “major� like they ns about at Next best placed types of declaratio are going and looked clearly in for, the balance of Their going to disappear – we behaved NRL. they the is twofold how is standout reset the what and almost reset. Whether proceeds is Our best hope have been were clueless, union. It has or we reboisterous chairman to proceed. Somehave been this season evenIt has been in dragged develop a vaccine PGA winner is rugby y handled others single-handedly to get anyone’s guess. avoid any so appallingl purpose a currenthelps mitigate cautious; demanding; others line been the over to them they have brash and to hiding trying medication that as he knew on every level playing it in hiding trying issues with games back on have been in public scrutiny. serious health virus. income and no decided to stop so I’m the hell to do, old sport, without media work out what And finally, my contracting this above as a for this was mission heaven anymore, The ARU soccer they reserve funds aside from appealing nts. It With all of the Supercars. Like to hide from code. I liked reliably informed.Their Board governme of our great critical for the should money from For have been trying hope that backdrop, one is slowly he are a basket case. good media. and watching it – up world e a partial re-set all makes for public scrutiny better. It Aussie activities lifestyle. I has undergon rebuild. collective push consider taking me – I like the get the games somehow it gets Sad really, returning to our great wrestling, he – it needs a total more The won’t. championship He then threw to just get back, hasn’t and it chunk of your speak of sport.

And after making than a action. Most and a would be great! staff under the on, restart the like watching front of you.

Australian passion of us, our errors and screw-ups circus back up and in many a couple of key forged new sports are now life ripped up I don’t even ones pastime. For clown in a three-ringfinally or at least the it’s going to be nearest bus and style of manage, they Castle So many issues,start. Why true love! But the was running, operators calling the in could what in deals to Ms – media CEO with top to reset and know where different, so much Got to like it some are down a really their disposal plan diligently gave former card. With no to be different, Brute Bernard. and running shots. Sadly, a would they turn year from our life is going a pile of the send-off in work through last no media COVID-19. he got them up in the floundering under get underway good offer late all because of meaningful restart, the end of tion COVIDin and truly back (as they don’t they doing to beyond poor administra their already and well October) they I’ve been working Fox? What are for the loyal to in rights deal the worst code at Australia until sport for nearly game.

19 has exposed gone about it analyst replace Holden professional is ent. this year and could not have three Goldman Sachs clients the there? What level, this ordinary managem is in a fashion. The Red fans out calendar that 40 years across never told grassroots/junior If it a more manic a have Kane Hannan terrible ICU. Clearly the AFL It has going on with continents. I rights face has been sport is in the that has as a and then revised sports tremendous position. at its the NRL, public week the CEO is announced a few weeks? witnessed anything so survives in Australiaand that is and finally this then changed agreements between outstanding leadership al game, LBW and sent changed within as well as the stopped and with a very was given out the “you’re out profession dwindling junior world being professional Foxtel and Nine,and Foxtel, headquarters to How is team lowering the dramatically a big if, with permanently this pandemic capable independent AFL with Seven reset. rapidly They need a supported with this sport sport in the way numbers and a strong in more on industry here� pavilion! and of an n on both killer a does were him been AFL/ commissio need costs? How able has. It’s diminishing crowds It had no leader and they “We see the revised reset, human count. this sport has survive without fans being balance sheet. ways than the today is only a positive ly TV and at games,interest. What the job, like yesterday. race meetings NRL deals as trouble immediate My storyline from to attend major Gentlemen, the fringe of I love the game, outperforming sport hit al million AFL in Because $600 the code on. with match borrowing ... and it goes focusing on profession wrote in his was once a massive trouble. banks because engines, it’s particularly Test I hope they has had a the NRL,� he serious it’s not start your – the pandemic on grassroots two Australianbalance sheet this week.

Australia is in faring any ! cricket, so much report earlier quickly. of that strong $1.1 billion in get a big start your leadership dramatic impact sport, I Soccer is not has put the GC Suns get their act together than Therefore, both to the fails, in Big game at the it on 7 COVID-19 sports and school but for now with more have completed mine.

Which leads – catch that, ly, there better. pass mark for us to under the assets. They this weekend acknowledge ip deals A-League right appears that al side that I my opinion. Regrettab Which takes Footy. Go Suns!

It new media relationsh g a al sports in this category.

Mate or Fox it’s the profession proverbial bus. finally found undergoin are too many to normal. g here. And Australian profession behind which, while Real life back am considerin I have fared well.

Fox Sports have of what was over the next Some are hiding the truth is, that have not minor haircut the sport in has a hold , when within that remit on the a way to get out leave Cricket for me this point COVID-19 focus years, my y four is t, at narrowed challenge although they were appallingl on its assessmen most time at great shape. The as soon as impact in Australia, the back is global and in time. With to get crowds segment adds again the impact sport. No possible, as this confronting every with this kick one gets a free

TONY COCHRANE

(Rugby) has been so appalling handled ... they have decided to stop playing it in heaven

A

V0 - GCBE01Z01M MOTORSPORT FEATURE

Australian Automotive Dealer Association

intellectual sports deftness is crucial for Supercars’ right now.

John Crennan

Motorsport Contributor

ustralia’s leading motorsport series has a lot to contend with as it prepares to restart its racing season. With only two races conducted over seven months, and the next not scheduled until June 27, the organisers face a considerable range of challenges as the show gets restarted.

Covid-19 has thrown up many serious issues for all sports, however Supercars have also been hit with a number of other heavy predicaments to wrestle with. This is not a perfect storm, it’s more like a cyclone they are facing.

So significant is the combination of both Covid-19 issues and other untimely dramas, I would suggest Supercars need to immediately establish a specialist ‘Crisis Cabinet’ (this term maybe overdramatic but not when you hear feedback from stakeholders in the Series who feel many major issues require urgent action) This Crisis Cabinet would address both transformational change and problem solving.

Is it unreasonable to suggest that the current structure and leadership of Supercars does not have the capacity or capability to handle all the urgent concerns? They will be fully stretched just managing business operations thrown up from the pandemic. The added brain power and specialist expertise and experience necessary to implement robust solutions to navigate the business threats noted below will have to come from either new ownership/ management and or a highly skilled team of external specialist advisers.

Regardless of whether it’s new ownership and/ or a’ Crisis Cabinet’ model that is urgently needed, the person central to any recovery and reset of Supercars must be former supremo, Tony Cochrane. His proven leadership and

in tough times it’s sponsorships that always get treated the most harshly when the bean counters introduce heavy cutbacks.

Contracts due for renewal with existing sponsors will be very hard going for both the Series and the teams. Hard to quantify, but maybe for every dollar previously invested in good times, it may now be more in the area of 70 cents postCovid.

The three different storm cells creating these cyclone conditions are: 1) those flowing from Covid -19 being sponsorships, government funding and team sustainability; 2) those that are self-inflicted: television contracts, Supercars For Sale sign and Team Sydney; 3) out of the blue events, being Holden Exit, Virgin Airlines Receivership and Adderton Mk II.

The primary components of the Supercars economy are television rights, sponsorships and government funding. It’s not unreasonable to assume each of these crucial revenue streams are under pressure – both for teams and Series.

Here is some commentary and opinion on of these disturbances to the momentum each of the Supercars business.

Sponsorships

This is a double-edged sword. Firstly, if for example, a sponsor at the start of the season had signed on for $500,000pa, what would their expectation be for a reduced figure given the revised calendar, fewer races, experimental unproven new racing formats, loss of customer coach’s box experiences and limited media attending the races until we come out of current Covid restrictions? A sponsor may feel it’s reasonable to renegotiate a 25% reduction now and a further 15% if certain KPIs were not achieved by year end.

Teams will be trying extremely hard to sell the benefits of the E Series, however that program, as well promoted and televised as it has been with enthusiastic social media driver posts, did not register on my passion meter. Not sure Sponsors would be prepared to accept E Series represented any sponsorship value as its appeal was artificially inflated by one-off sports starved audiences during lockdown.

Secondly, if recessionary conditions and a much tougher economy plays out over the coming years, corporate and retail marketing budgets will be hammered. Unfortunately

Government

The various state and territory governments are very generous financial contributors to Supercars. Given their tough road ahead with serious budget deficits already coming into play, one could assume all governments will be taking a very hard look at ‘Essential’ versus ‘Nonessential’ expenditure contracts.

It’s not hard to forecast government money going into the sport in a manner, to which Supercars have previously been accustomed, could be seriously scrutinised and squeezed.

As unbelievable as it sounds Supercars are currently pushing to move the calendar to a summer season. This could also create some disquiet with governments, particularly in northern regions which hopefully does not put at risk contracts currently on foot.

Holden

The news that broke on February 17th this year, a week prior to the first race in Adelaide, that Holden would exit Australia, stunned the entire nation. The flow-on effect of Holden’s exit from Supercars is profound. The impact of 16 of the 24 cars on the grid carrying a defunct brand and logo for the next two years is a marketing nightmare.

It was concerning to read a report of a team owner suggesting car brands are now irrelevant as the sport is only about providing great entertainment. This is bollocks and is treating Holden loyalists with contempt given the significant investments in the sport over the past 50 years by the massive Holden fan base.

28 | JUNE 2020 | automotivedeal er.com.au

and with the support of Sean Seamer and the Commission. If Tony came back in, I’d liked to see him engaged in a proper role with some formalised responsibilities and commitments, plus more skin in the game. “But I doubt that will happen for a variety of reasons.�

Walkinshaw had a dig at Crennan, who ran the family’s Australian operation until the late 2000s. “I read John Crennan’s article, but I’m not sure why anyone would listen to that sort of stuff,� he said. “Some of the views John has are pretty outdated, but a couple of the points that he made, while being obvious, were well thought out and could have some value. “But I don’t think there’s anything there that no one’s thought about before – and just pointing out issues isn’t very helpful.�

Meanwhile, Cochrane and Dane figure prominently in rampant speculation about buy out bids for Supercars.

They range from a consortium of team owners to rival promoter ARG taking over, with Dane figuring in speculation about most bids to buy out Archer Capital.

However, Dane is adamant he is not involved – or even aware of any bids. “Honestly, I can tell you I have absolutely no idea,� he declared. “I’m not involved in any bids; I don’t know anything about any bids. I’m not sure there are any. “I can’t tell you if there are or not because I don’t know. If there are any, I don’t know about them. It’s as simple as that.�

According to insiders, Archer is waiting for a new broadcast deal from 2021 before actively engaging in sale talks at a price of around $30 million.

Multiple sources confirm a multi-year renewal with Fox Sports, with a switch to Seven free-toair coverage, is “close�. Annualised, the new agreement will be for less than the existing deal, worth $241 million over five years.

Jones admitted a Supercars sale had been in active play before the coronavirus pandemic struck. “I would’ve said before COVID-19 it was a real thing,� he said. “It really depends on Archer and whether there’s someone interested. It’s just a matter of when and how much. “I think the sale is still a real thing, but timing is the tricky thing.�

AA understands there are many complications, including the teams’ stake in the business, to a sale. �No one’s going to come in and buy the category the same way Archer did,� another team principal said. “The teams can hold Archer or a new owner hostage. “We need to new TV deal where we’re on a free-to-air network that gives a shit, which is pretty close to happening.�

Amid all the sale speculation, Ryan Walkinshaw outlined what he thought a new owner needed to bring. “I hear plenty of rumours,� he said. “I just hope that whoever is engaged in these discussions for purchasing Supercars has the right values in place and the right focus on trying to grow the business, and ensure that the teams have a viable future. “My hope is that whoever ends up owning Supercars has the right intentions in place, and is there to invest in the category and promote its growth because it has some fantastic opportunities ahead of it.�

UP COMING RACE EVENT CALENDAR Brought to you by www.speedflow.com.au INDYCAR SERIES RD 2 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE JULY 4 FORMULA 1 RD 1 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX JULY 5 NASCAR CUP SERIES RD 16 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY JULY 5 NASCAR CUP SERIES RD 16 KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY JULY 12 FORMULA 1 RD 2 AUSTRIA JULY 12 NASCAR ALL-STAR OPEN JULY 15

$XVWUDOLDQ 0DGH 6LQFH $XVWUDOLDQ 0DGH $XVWUDOLDQ $ $X X OLDQ L 0DGH 0 H 6LQFH H 6LQFH L H

peedflow ZZZ VSHHGĂŞRZ FRP DX

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AutoAction

3

LATEST NEWS

SMP SUPERCARS THUMBS UP

Image: Supercars Mark Horsburgh

Drivers and owners endorse quick-fire format

By BRUCE NEWTON IT WAS weird without fans in the grandstand, but the good racing and the format innovations that helped trigger it drew a thumbs up from Supercars drivers and teams.

The championship resumed last weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park with a heap of modifications triggered by the coronavirus and the health regulations imposed around it.

The TV-only meeting was cut back from three to two days, personnel per two-car team was limited to 13 including drivers, data was limited, races were shortened to three ‘full tank’ 125km sprints, refuelling was axed and only six personnel and two rattle guns were allowed for the one mandatory pit stop per race.

That meant strategists faced the choice of shorter two tyre or longer four tyre stops. As it turned out, there were also three tyre stops as teams juggled five sets of tyres across qualifying and racing.

That need to ration tyres led to some unexpected results, highlighted by privateer Nick

4 AutoAction

Percat’s race two defeat of factory Holden Commodore driver Jamie Whincup for his and Brad Jones Racing’s first win since 2016, and Lee Holdsworth’s race three charge to second in his Tickford Racing Ford Mustang.

“This is why this whole mix up has been really good,” said Percat.

“We got less data, there’s tyre strategy across three races, that’s where someone like Brad and his team at BJR really excel. I’ve been hanging to get here.”

Despite being pipped at the post for a win in his milestone 500th race, Whincup was upbeat about the weekend.

“While we missed the crowd and supporters this weekend, which we look forward to having back at the track as soon as we can, I really enjoyed the no-messing-around format which took me back to how we used to go racing,” he said.

The format brought support from Whincup’s Triple Eight team boss Roland Dane, who had pushed for a more radical format that included no pit stops and some form of reverse grid.

“I thought it was great,” said Dane, who watched on TV because of personnel restrictions.

“It was less predictable. We saw some different things going on, some good racing. I thought it was extremely entertaining racing.”

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin was similarly positive.

“For me, it brought back memories of the DVS days this weekend.

“You had to pick and choose what tyres you ran in what races. If you could manage to save throughout each race, trying to keep a consistent pace, that’s certainly what we did.

“Whereas a lot of people put all their eggs in the race two basket and suffered in race three.”

His DJR Team Penske boss Ryan Story, who also watched from the couch, enjoyed the racing and how much less it cost.

“There is no one single thing we can do to save more money than going down to a two-day weekend and restricting personnel to 11 plus drivers. That’s the single biggest cost-saver,” he said.

WAU co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw

was enthusiastic about the unpredictability the new format generated.

“I think it’s a very good start and I thought it was exciting that we had lots of different people fighting for podiums,” he said.

Strategy will be mixed up further at Winton on July 17-18, because teams will have two sets of softs and three sets of hard tyres across qualifying and the three races.

However, the races will be shorter at 105km and the track surface isn’t as tough on rubber.

Holdsworth made the point that teams should be forced to use both compounds at Winton.

“At the moment, taking two different compounds is not compulsory,” said Holdsworth.

“And I would have thought that would be a good thing to create some more racing like we did this weekend.

“I don’t think the deg is bad enough (at Winton) to want to go to a hard tyre, so if we’re forced to do it, it’ll create better strategy and mix up the results again.”

With Mark Fogarty

HOME ALONE

By MARK FOGARTY

SMP SUCCESS PROCESSES PUT in-place to guard against COVID-19 worked without hitch at Supercars’ return to action in Sydney.

“It all went very smoothly, we were happy with the measures we put in place and it all rolled out very well,” Supercars event manager Phil Shaw told Auto Action post-event.

“We were quite comfortable the measures we put in place have been successful.”

Supercars also video recorded the processes it put in-place at SMP for future reference, and as a demonstration for the health authorities around the nation that it negotiates with to return to action.

SMP was restricted to only essential personnel, who were health tested each day and required to abide by a four square metre distancing rule wherever possible.

Team personnel also stayed in quarantine at a hotel next to the track for the duration of the event.

Successful Supercars team owner Brad Jones endorsed Shaw’s perspective.

“I think Supercars and the teams have done a really amazing job,” he said.

“Racing was good, everyone was safe – all those boxes were ticked, which I think is important to show governments that we’re more than capable of operating safely and responsibly in these difficult times.

“It looked really good on TV, both as a spectacle and to demonstrate how the health protocols were adhered to.” Bruce Newton

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

EREBUS MOTORSPORT boss Barry Ryan was the only principal of a top team to attend Supercars’ return at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Team owners weren’t allowed unless they were within the limit of 13 personnel – including drivers – per team.

Ryan is CEO of Penrite Racing – effectively team principal of the operation, which is owned by Betty Klimenko.

The other team principals at SMP were Todd Kelly and Matt Stone, who have multi-purpose roles in their squads.

All the heavy hitters stayed home and watched the racing on TV, just like all the fans.

Ryan pitched in as one of the crew.

“I basically played a number three mechanic’s role and helped the engineers where I could,” he said.

“Mainly cleaning the cars and putting fuel in the car between sessions, which is a reasonably time-consuming job, so it takes the pressure off the two main mechanics, but it’s not majorly critical.

“It was good fun, but it was flatout.”

Newly promoted Erebus Motorsport managing director Shannen Kiely attended, acting as team manager as well as her normal media relations duties.

“She wore a lot of hats, which was good,” Ryan remarked.

While many thought the atmosphere without crowds was

Auto_Action

Only one big team boss at track

flat, Ryan was too busy to be aware.

“To be honest, I didn’t even notice,” he said. “I noticed that the sponsors weren’t there at the back of the garage, but you don’t notice the lack of a crowd. It was just a bit quieter between sessions.

“It was busy enough that you got everything done, but if you had a major problem, you were going to be in trouble.

“I think it was great. If it were like that every weekend, I’d be in for it.”

Ryan noted that while SMP proved the teams could operate at the track with fewer staff, the return of corporate guests was required.

“Our sport is so commercial that you can’t forget that,” he said.

“Once we get back to a point where we can have our sponsors and our fans back, we need it. We have to have it. We can’t ignore it.

“It’s been more of an educational thing for all the teams to realise that we’ve had way too much bullshit for too long. Once we get fans and sponsors back, we should have more time to be able to do it better.

“I think it’s a good line in the sand to draw.”

Absent team bosses had mixed reactions to not being at the track.

“No problem,” Triple Eight chief Roland Dane shrugged. “Perfectly happy watching the guys get on with it.

“There’s one or two races I’d like to go to, but that doesn’t mean I will. I’m just happy to see everyone out racing again.”

BJR team co-owner Brad Jones

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

missed only his second event in 40 years – and he didn’t like it.

“It was uncomfortable, to be honest,” Jones said. “I didn’t like it. I liked the fact that I was able to drive home (from the BJR workshop) in five minutes, but other than that, it was a little frustrating not to be there.

“It was interesting, but I wouldn’t like to do it every weekend. But it’s strange times and we need to comply with whatever the rules are. I’m certainly excited about getting the opportunity to go back to the races, especially with the cars going so good, but I totally understand why I can’t at the moment. Hopefully, that will change soon.”

DJR Team Penske boss Ryan Story liked what he saw from home.

“For me, watching from the couch, I think it worked really well.

The format has levelled the playing field, but the cream still ultimately rises to the top.”

WAU co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw, who hosted a sponsor gathering in Melbourne to watch the racing on Sunday, is also a convert.

“I was slightly sceptical going into this race weekend and concerned that we were going to have some processional racing. But, actually, I thought the racing was extremely exciting.

“So I went into the race weekend a sceptic and I came out, having only watched it on TV, as a fan of the new structure. It was exciting that someone who wasn’t Shane van Gisbergen or Scott McLaughlin won a race.”

AutoAction

5

LATEST NEWS

Key Gen3 measurement will be fixed, could impact on smaller cars such as Toyota Supra

By BRUCE NEWTON A PROPOSAL to allow the 2022 Gen3 Supercar a variable wheelbase appears unlikely to go ahead.

A chassis with an adjustable wheelbases had been considered by the working group that has the task of developing the Gen3 technical rules as a way to adapt more vehicles to the platform without dramatically impacting on their production car stance and looks.

Primary beneficiaries of such a freedom would be vehicles such as the Toyota Supra, which has a much shorter wheelbase than the likes of the Ford Mustang and Holden Commodore and other larger potential new arrivals like the Chevrolet Camaro.

But according to Auto Action sources, the consensus of opinion within the working group is that an adjustable wheelbase would introduce too many technical variables.

The current Supercars Gen2 platform that supports facsimiles of the Holden Commodore ZB and the Ford Mustang has a 2822mm wheelbase.

That compares with the standard production wheelbase of 2829mm for the Holden and 2720mm for the Ford.

The Supra by contrast has a much shorter 2470mm wheelbase and the compact two-door two-seat coupe would have to be unnaturally elongated to fit on a longer racing wheelbase.

The decision to stick with a locked longer wheelbase has been made based on the belief the Mustang will continue on racing in a new generation from 2022 and it will most likely go up against the Chevrolet Camaro or other vehicles of that size.

Supercars has as yet been unable to negotiate homologation approval from General Motors for use of the Camaro. It is understood that process has been complicated by GM’s decision to axe Holden and the slower than expected emergence of its replacement, GM Specialty Vehicles.

All is not lost for teams pondering a post-Holden future though, as AA sources insist smaller vehicles such as the Supra could be massaged to fit onto an elongated wheelbase.

SHORT WHEELBASE SUPERCARS NO-GO Current Holden factory team Triple Eight Race Engineering has long been associated with a bid to get Toyota into Supercars racing. Its boss Roland Dane sits on the Gen3 working group with DJR Team Penske’s Ryan Story and Supercars’ John Casey and Adrian Burgess.

The potential complexity of trying to achieve parity between Supercars with different wheelbases is a key reason the variable wheelbase was ditched.

Supercars is committed to achieving technical parity across the cars that are homologated for the series, which means they have a level performance baseline when they roll out of the transporter at a meeting.

It’s then up to the teams to extract race-winning pace via set-up strategy and driver talent.

That policy was put under severe pressure by the Holden Commodore ZB and then the Ford Mustang, which set new aerodynamic and centre of gravity benchmarks for the category.

The 2019 season was marred by a series of parity adjustments to the Mustang, the Commodore and the now defunct Nissan Altima.

A fundamental issue with variable wheelbases

is vehicles would generate different strengths and weaknesses depending on the circuit.

For instance, a shorter wheelbase Supra would theoretically be faster on slower, tighter circuits such as Winton and the Gold Coast and Newcastle street circuits.

But the longer wheelbase cars would shine at bigger and faster tracks such as Mount Panorama.

In other Gen3 news, AA understands development of the new-generation car has effectively split into two steams. One is focussed on the development of an all-new car, while the other is taking a ‘grandfather’s axe’ approach to see how the current car can be evolved and made cheaper and easier to build and race.

One sources described the latter project as “Gen2.5”.

Another description was “Gen3 is the hamburger with the lot, Gen2 is the hamburger you can afford”.

As reported by AA previously, the goal for the next-gen Supercar is to cut costs from $400,000 to $300,000 per car and also hack into ongoing running costs.

The construction of the new-generation car is not expected to come from a single source such as T8, as has been mooted this year. Instead, teams will still be able to assemble the chassis and build it up using a basket of control and free parts.

While there has been hope that a slew of updates may make their way into the existing cars for 2021 as an evolutionary step toward 2022, it’s now understood the focus will be on ways to take costs out of cars without making fundamental changes that require significant up-front costs.

So that means major initiatives like a control front upright or a control engine are unlikely to be seen in 2021. However those proposals are very much alive and have every chance of emerging in some form in the future. Another key initiative is to lower the roll hoop of the Supercars chassis to avoid another ‘mutant’ Mustang.

Less sexy ideas like making the front and rear clips of the current chassis bolt-on are more likely to get up in 2021. This is seen as a relatively inexpensive way to make it cheaper and easier to turn crashed cars around and get them back on track more quickly.

MORE AERO ACTION?

Image: Supercars-Mark Horsburgh

6 AutoAction

THERE SEEMS little prospect of significant in-season aerodynamic modifications to the 2020 Ford Mustang and Holden Commodore Supercars, despite driver complaints that aerodynamic turbulence is “the worst it’s ever been”.

Instead, another round of VCAT aerodynamic testing may have to deal with the issue over summer.

The complaints about turbulence or ‘wash’ emerging last weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park were similar to those made at the championship opener in Adelaide in February.

Counterbalancing the turbulence complaints was the strong racing at SMP. Teams were forced to juggle five sets of soft tyres across qualifying and three

sprint races, which produced different strategies and contenders each time out.

The category conducted two VCATs last summer to reduce downforce by approximately 12 per cent.

It has signalled further and more significant cuts will come with the introduction of Gen3 as soon as 2022, but the current issue may force action sooner.

The obvious victim of the turbulence issue at SMP was Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen, who closed in on DJRTP’s Scott McLaughlin on Saturday, but could not pass for the lead.

“Firstly, you’ve got to be able to follow the cars,” van Gisbergen said.

“That will make the racing better

more than the tyres. The aero following cars is the worst it’s ever been, now, with the Gurney flaps.”

DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard was particularly critical of the aero wash issue.

“This year is the worst it’s been,” he said. “It’s so hard to follow. It’s pretty much follow the leader, which for me is not enjoyable. Adelaide was the same.

“Hopefully we can sort something out, because obviously the fans want to see racing manoeuvres being made.

Admittedly towards the end of the race when, with the tyre deg, there is some discrepancies between the cars, there is some passing.

“But I feel like we should be able to have that sort of passing at any time in the race to spice things up.” BN

Image: LAT

Attendance limited to 4500 fans each day

CROWDS RETURN FOR DARWIN

By BRUCE NEWTON THE DARWIN Supercars event on August 8-9 will be the first to allow spectators since COVID-19 struck.

A limit of 4500 fans will be allowed to attend each day of the event at Hidden Valley.

They will be the first live fans watching the V8s since the Adelaide 500 last February.

And the good news for all you race-starved southerners is interstaters will be allowed to attend.

But how you go about getting a ticket and what – if any - quarantine requirements might be for Victorians keen to attend was due to be revealed after Auto Action closed for press.

It has already been confirmed spectators will not be allowed in the paddock area and there will be no corporate attendees.

The Northern Territory closed its borders to outsiders in

March and will open them again on July 17. On June 26 chief minister Michael Gunner declared the virus had been eradicated.

The governments promotion arm, NT Major Events Company, promotes the event.

Supercars shut down for three months during the coronavirus pandemic. It returned to action last weekend with a TV-only outing at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Spectators are also banned from attending the next Supercars event at Winton in north-east Victoria on July 18-19.

Attendance at Supercars events beyond Darwin, such as Townsville on August 29-30 and – most importantly – the October 8-11 Bathurst 1000, have yet to be confirmed.

But Supercars is hopeful of having some fans in Townsville and continues to negotiate to allow camping at Mount Panorama.

There was consideration for various forms of spectator

attendance at Winton, including park and view and camping. But these all became no-goes once the coronavirus flared up again areas of greater Melbourne.

As a result, with no paying spectators through the gate, Supercars has taken over the promotion of the Winton event from the Benalla Auto Club.

In 2019, 24,000 attended the circuit.

“Victoria is the home of motorsports in Australia and it is fantastic that Supercars will be heading back to Winton in just a few weeks,” Victorian tourism minister Martin Pakula said.

“Tourism is an important part of the High Country and the national broadcast package in place will help to keep it front of mind for travellers, as they begin to make holiday plans for the rest of the year.”

The return of the virus in Melbourne means there seems little chance for spectators to attend the Sandown race in September.

BJR LIVING IN THE NOW

A FAST car, not just a good strategy call, was behind Nick Percat’s breakthrough win at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend, insists proud team owner Brad Jones.

Percat won the second SMP race in what was his 200th Supercars start, passing seven-time champion Jamie Whincup for the lead and denying the factory Holden Racing Team driver a win in his 500th start.

A key part of the SMP weekend was managing five sets of soft tyres across qualifying and three sprint races, and while Percat, his engineer Andrew Edwards and the BJR squad clearly made the right call, Jones says the car pace had to be up front to deliver the result.

“I feel like strategy was certainly an important part of how the weekend unfolded, but in saying that, I also felt like we had a pretty fast car, it’s not like we went to the casino and put everything on red,” Jones said to Auto Action.

“It was something that worked out really well for us, but I also think that you couldn’t have won that race without good car speed.”

Nick Percat’s win ended a barren run for the Albury based squad which has not taken victory since Tim Slade won at Winton Raceway in 2016.

Jones himself was not in attendance at SMP due to the limit on team personnel enforced during the weekend.

www.autoaction.com.au

“It was a really good weekend for BJR all round,” he explained.

“It’s been a while since we won our last race so it was fantastic, to be able to get back to work and get one under the belt, it’s a fantastic feeling.

“It was certainly odd not being there and only being able to talk to them on the phone.”

Percat, like BJR, also ended a winless drought, his last victory coming with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport at Adelaide in the monsoon conditions back in 2016.

The South Australian knew early in the race that a victory was achievable based on his pace compared with his rivals.

“It was nice to win the race without a cloud over it like the Adelaide 500 with the fuel situation, it was good fun,” Percat said.

“I think it was by lap 3 or 4 I realised Shane van Gisbergen had nothing on his car that was any good and that Scotty McLaughlin didn’t have a very good tyre on at the start of that race.

“I thought you know what, we need to have a crack here, all in, see how we go, had a bit of fun with Jamie Whincup there and then nursed it over (the line).”

One disappointment was that BJR new recruit Todd Hazelwood was unable to collect his first Supercars podium in the final race due to a broken anti-roll bar.

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

Image: Supercars-Mark Horsburgh “I felt we were definitely on for another podium, Todd had the same sort of tyre life as Lee (Holdsworth who finished second),” Jones told AA. “So, I can’t see why Todd couldn’t have produced that sort of result. That was a little bit frustrating at the end of the weekend and certainly hard for Todd and the guys on car #14.

But that sort of stuff happens.”

Despite the clear speed the quartet of BJR

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

ZB Commodores possessed at SMP over the weekend, Jones is not getting ahead of himself before the next round.

“You look at all the (BJR) drivers, they all at different parts of the weekend had plenty of speed about them,” Jones said.

“I think the guys are working really well together, but we just need to get to Winton and see where we are at, it’s really important when you unload your car that it’s pretty speedy.” DM

AutoAction

7

LATEST NEWS

EREBUS MOTORSPORT has announced the promotion of Shannen Kiely to the newly created the role of Managing Director. Approaching her fourth year with the Melbourne based squad, Kiely will step up from her current position as general manager of Communications to take on the additional managing director duties, assisting CEO Barry Ryan with the day to day running of the overall business. Prior to joining the Holden team, Kiely had stints as PR and Media Manager at Walkinshaw Racing and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. RV

THE 2019/20 New Zealand BNT V8s Championship has announced the cancellation of its final two rounds, handing Supercars driver Andre Heimgartner the title. The decision was taken due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions enforced in New Zealand, which meant the championship was declared under a ‘Force Majure.’ Kiwi Heimgartner dominated the first three rounds in his Hamilton Motorsports Holden Commodore, winning all eight races and earning his second NZ V8 Championship after also taking the 2017/18 title. DM

THE PIRTEK Pit Stop Challenge has returned for 2020 and will run across four events, with the annual grand final to be held at Mount Panorama in October. The first round took place at the Sydney SuperSprint, with the remaining rounds to take place at Winton Raceway, Hidden Valley in Darwin and at the Sandown 500. Following that event, the best four pit crews will compete for the top prize of $20,000 and the PIRTEK Pit Stop Challenge Golden Rattle Gun at Bathurst. DM

SYDNEY DOUBLES UP, BYE BYE BEND Re-revised Supercars calendar finishes in 2020, shifts Sandown back to usual slot, upsets off South Australia Image: LAT

By BRUCE NEWTON THE 2020 Supercars championship will finish under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park on December 12-13 according to the latest iteration of the category’s Coronavirus-adjusted calendar.

And it now seems almost certain the Bathurst 1000 will be the only co-driver endurance race of 2020 (see breakout).

As previously reported by Auto Action, Supercars had dumped the second Bathurst outing and a trip to New Zealand scheduled for early 2021, as well as The Bend in South Australia from its calendar.

The Bend will be replaced in its September 1920 slot by Melbourne’s historic Sandown circuit, which shifts forward from the December date previously claimed by SMP. Otherwise the calendar remains unchanged from the revised version published in May that responded to the three month pause prompted by the COVID-19 lockdown.

The championship resumed last weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, which means the Sydney track goes from having no Supercars events in 2019 to two in less than six months in 2020.

In its original pre-COVID calendar, Supercars had been originally scheduled to race under SMP’s new $16.4 million permanent lighting system on August 28-30.

The event in New Zealand and the second outing at Mount Panorama have fallen victim to a disinterest amongst teams, sponsors and primary broadcaster Fox Sports, in resolving the contractual challenges of staging 2020 championship races in 2021.

Among many other complications, Supercars is currently negotiating a new broadcast deal that is expected to see a new free to air broadcast partner alongside Fox Sports next year.

There’s also been an argument that dragging the championship out beyond the new year was

simply imposing too much wear and tear upon everyone involved.

“When the draft calendar was released four weeks ago, our primary objective was to ensure we returned to racing as soon as possible,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said in a press statement.

“This allowed us to put a stake in the ground and ensure we returned to the track quickly following the COVID-19 shutdown.

“The calendar announced in May was based on the best information we had at the time.

“With an eye on 2021, teams and broadcast partners have agreed it is in all parties’ best interests commercially and competitively to finish this year’s campaign in December and start the new season in the New Year.”

Officially, The Bend’s abandonment has been lumped in with the aborted 2021 events as a “consequence of the COVID-19 circumstances which are beyond the reasonable control of Supercars”.

But Auto Action sources say it boiled down to a straight choice for teams between racing at The Bend or Sandown before Bathurst. With finances playing a key role, the decision was made to race in metropolitan Melbourne rather than country South Australia.

The owners of The Bend, the Shahin family, are unimpressed by the decision. They’ve been promised a place on the 2021 and 2022 Supercars calendars but that didn’t stop circuit managing director Dr Sam Shahin releasing an open letter that called for Supercars to apologise to SA race fans for its omission.

“Supercars do what’s best for Supercars,” he wrote. “We have endeavoured for years to satisfy the great appetite for motorsport in SA. We’ve answered the calls with the best motorsport facility in the world but it seems the power of the Eastern States yet again wins the day, and SA misses out.

“I am greatly disappointed for the greater public of South Australia that have been sold out, sold short of the wonderful spectacle that was to unfold in September.”

Seamer played down Shahin’s complaints.

“Sam is obviously frustrated, he’s entitled to his own opinion,” Seamer said in a media teleconference after the calendar was released.

“But we’ve had a challenge as we all know working up this calendar and to lose Gold Coast, Newcastle, Auckland, and The Bend is less than ideal.

“There’s been no easy decisions and we always say this when we talk about a calendar.

“There’s never an easy decision, and what we’ve had to go through with COVID-19 and the circumstances that we’ve been put under has (exacerbated) some of those difficult decisions.”

Supercars has also confirmed New Zealand would be back on the calendar in 2021, along with the Gold Coast and Newcastle street races that were cancelled as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Seamer also said the 2021 calendar would have a winter break as originally intended in 2020.

The Dunlop Super2 Series, will also now alter its revised calendar. DS2 races are now scheduled to feature on the undercard at Winton, Sandown, Mount Panorama and the SMP season finale.

The rescheduled 2020 calendar is now as follows: • Truck Assist Winton 18-19 July • BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown 8-9 August • Townsville 29-30 August • Penrite Oil Sandown 19-20 September • Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 8-11 October • PIRTEK Perth 31 Oct – 1 Nov • Tyrepower Tasmania 21-22 November • Sydney Motorsport Park 12-13 December

SUPERCARS MADE EARLY 7 BID SUPERCARS HAS confirmed a new five-year TV deal with Sky Sport in New Zealand, which will see the Supercars Championship broadcast live and streamed on Sky Sport Now. Due to the ongoing international restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Supercars will not be making its annual trip across to New Zealand this year but despite this, Sky CEO Martin Stewart is pleased to ink the long-term deal with Supercars. DM

AS THE season restarted at Sydney Motorsport Park, Team Sydney moved into its new workshop at the venue. HM

8 AutoAction

AUTO ACTION has learned Supercars made an audacious bid during the COVID-19 pause to sign up Channel 7 as its free to air partner for the balance of the 2020 season alongside subscription channel Fox Sports.

But the plan was canned when Network 10 made it clear it intended to see out its contract, which extends to the end of 2020 to be the championship FTA broadcaster.

Recruiting 7 in 2020 would have been a handy sweetener segueing into a new multi-year broadcast deal alongside Fox Sports to commence in 2021.

Channel 7 remains one of two FTA networks in negotiations with Supercars for that gig with its rival said to be the Nine Network.

However, Seven is understood to be the favourite to ink the deal as the

Image: LAT

traditional FTA home of the Australia’s premier sedan racing category and the Bathurst 1000.

It is understood to be the ratings and therefore revenue opportunities the October classic represents that ensured 10 stuck with its Supercars contract.

Earlier this year 10 was reported by the Australian Financial Review to not be interested in renewing its Supercars deal. The departure of motorsport fan Matthew White as 10’s head of sport

was also seen as a sign the financially challenged network was not a potential host.

The AFR has also been reporting more recently that Fox Sports and its parent Foxtel were keen to re-sign Supercars to a new multiyear deal and eventually shift much of the calendar to summer.

Multiple sources within the Supercars industry has kyboshed that plan to Auto Action. It is said the summer series has support among some members of category management and teams, but the majority of team owners are opposed as is - crucially – Fox Sports.

The primary reason for that is viewing numbers and therefore advertising revenue dip over summer.

Figures obtained by Auto Action

show that TV advertising revenue is strongest between March and November and hits its peak in September and October, where blue ribbon Supercars events are already staged.

If 7 does sign up to Supercars current CEO Sean Seamer will have done the deal with his predecessor James Warburton, who now leads 7 and negotiated the six-year $241 million Fox/10 contract that started in 2015.

The new deal is not expected to reap the same financial gains because of the economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus.

Seven already has a deal with the Australian Racing Group to telecast TCR and other categories.

Warburton is both an ARG board member and shareholder in Supercars. Bruce Newton

Image: LAT

SUPERCARS STICKS WITH SPRINTS

But allows both soft and hard compound tyres to mix things up

By BRUCE NEWTON SUPERCARS WILL continue with fundamentally the same race format in its next event on July 18-19 at Winton as rolled out at Sydney Motorsport Park.

That means three sprint races that will each cover 35 laps of the 3.0km north-eastern Victoria circuit, with the requirement to have at least one pit stop to change a minimum of two tyres.

While the two-day meeting will again be TV-only because of COVID-19 at Winton, there are some variations from SMP. For a start there will be more racing as Dunlop Super2, Porsche Carrera Cup and Toyota 86 are also on the program. At SMP, only Supercars appeared.

There will again be a Saturday shootout in Supercars qualifying but only for the top 10 rather than top 15, and the rookie practice session that morning will be for both Supercar and Super2 rookies.

On Sunday there will be two qualifying sessions with just a 10-minute gap between both; those sessions will determine the grids for Races 11 and 12, which will run early Sunday afternoon.

And setting a precedent for upcoming events at Darwin, Sandown, Tasmania and the SMP return next December, teams will have three sets of hard tyres and two sets of soft Dunlops to make it through qualifying and the races.

That suggests those events will

also follow the three-race sprint format as at SMP and Winton, although Supercars is yet to confirm this.

The key rules are that hard and soft tyres can’t be mixed and matched on a car and tyres can’t be taken off and refitted at a pit stop. Mixed tyre racing was last a regular part of championship formats in 2015.

Meanwhile, Supercars has also confirmed the return of a parc ferme trial at the Darwin Triple Crown, scheduled for August 8-9.

It is currently locked in for only Saturday’s qualifying which will include a top 15 shootout. Only tyres changes will be permitted throughout.

But the nine slowest cars in the field eliminated ahead of the shootout will be able to make setup changes before the race, while the rest are to be left untouched once the session ends.

Parc ferme rules could also be used on Sunday at Darwin depending on the recommendation of Supercars motorsport boss Adrian Burgess.

It could also reappear later in 2020 depending on a review by the Supercars commission.

The parc ferme rules are designed to mix up the racing by making teams choose between a qualifying or race set-up ahead of setting a grid time. It’s also designed to reduce the workload on pit crews.

TRUCK ASSIST WINTON SUPERSPRINT SCHEDULE: SATURDAY 18 JULY 7:30am – 7:50am Toyota 86 Practice

2:50pm – 3:20pm Dunlop Super2 & Super3 Race 1

8:00am – 8:30am Porsche Practice

3:45pm – 4:45pm Supercars Race 10

8:45am – 9:05am Dunlop Super2 & Super3 Rookie Practice Only 9:10am – 9:50am Dunlop Super2 & Super3 Practice 10:05am – 10:35am Supercars Practice 1 10:45am – 11:00am Toyota 86 Qualifying 11:10am – 11:25am Porsche Qualifying 11:35am – 12:05pm Supercars Practice 2 12:15pm – 12:30pm Dunlop Super2 & Super3 Qualifying 12:40pm – 1:00pm Toyota 86 Race 1 1:10pm – 1:20pm Supercars ARMOR ALL Qualifying (Race 10) 1:30pm – 2:00pm Supercars ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout 2:15pm – 2:40pm Porsche Race 1

SUNDAY 19 JULY 8:30am – 8:45am Toyota 86 Race 2 9:05am – 9:20am Dunlop Super2 & Super3 Qualifying 9:30am – 9:40am Supercars ARMOR ALL Qualifying (Race 11) 9:50am – 10:00am Supercars ARMOR ALL Qualifying (Race 12) 10:15am – 10:45am Porsche Race 2 10:55am – 11:15am Toyota 86 Race 3

11:55am – 12:55pm Supercars Race 11 1:10pm – 1:40pm Porsche Race 3 1:50pm – 2:20pm Dunlop Super2 & Super3 Race 2 2:50pm – 3:50pm Supercars Race 12

Image: LAT

BATHURST LIKELY TO BE THE ONLY 2020 SUPERCARS ENDURO THE BATHURST 1000 is almost certain to be the only two driver enduro of the 2020 Supercars championship.

While the historic Sandown circuit was moved back into its traditional date ahead of the Mount Panorama classic in the latest version of the Supercars calendar, it will almost certainly be a sprint event.

“It’s highly unlikely that you’ll see an enduro at Sandown,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said during a recent media teleconference.

“We’re working round-by-round through the formats because each round is in a different state, each state has a different set of restrictions, which enables us to have varying levels of support categories, which does go some way to dictating the format in addition to managing our on-air times,” said Seamer.

“We have not got to the Sandown format yet, to be completely transparent. However, it’s highly unlikely that there’ll be an enduro there.”

Seamer then went further and conceded it was “looking increasingly unlikely” any circuit apart from Bathurst would host an enduro.

The original pre-coronavirus 2020 calendar featured a three-race Pirtek Enduro Cup, kicking off with a 500km race at The Bend, then Bathurst and finishing up at the Gold Coast 600.

But the Queensland event was cancelled for 2020 because of COVID-19 months ago and The Bend was expected to become a sprint event before it dropped off the calendar in the latest reshuffle. BN

The Best Value in Auto Racing Safety

RaceQuip brand has built a reputation for manufacturing and distributing high quality auto racing safety equipment at affordable prices and continues to build on that reputation.

SFI rated auto racing Snell SA rated helmets, fire retardant suits, shoes, nomex gloves and SFI & FIA seat belts & harness sets.

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AutoAction

9

LATEST NEWS

PORSCHE MOTORSPORT has announced the five remaining rounds of the 2020 Carrera Cup series, as well as the revised five round Sprint Challenge calendar. This year’s Carrera Cup title will feature a mix of Supercars and Shannons Motorsport Australia Championship events. Beginning at Winton Motor Raceway in a couple of weeks, the series will then visit Sydney Motorsport Park, Townsville and Sandown, before concluding at the Bathurst 1000. The Sprint Challenge season will kick off at Sydney Motorsport Park before heading south to Sandown, The Bend Motorsport Park, Phillip Island and ending the at the Bathurst International. DM

A GARRY Rogers Motorsport Fujitsu Commodore has been confirmed for the Holden Bathurst Revival, as part of the inaugural Bathurst International in November. The Holden Bathurst Revival will feature the Holden VE Commodore that Scott McLaughlin made his ‘solo’ Supercars debut in back in 2012. The machine was debuted by Michael Caruso in 2009, GRM 011 is currently undergoing restoration back to its Fujitsu colours from the 2010 season by its new owner Terry Hamilton, who plans to drive the car at Bathurst later this year. RV

A FURTHER four rounds across four states will complete the 2020 Australian Motor Racing Series calendar, after it was suspended earlier this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opening its year in March at Winton Motor Raceway, the season was postponed due to the restrictions put in place by Federal and State Governments which made it impractical to continue. The series will recommence at Winton before heading to Sydney Motorsport Park, Queensland Raceway and The Bend Motorsport Park.

THE MAIDEN TCR Australia SimRacing Series round has been run and won, with Ben Bargwanna and Dylan O’Keeffe sharing the race wins on the virtual Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit.

Round 1 of the series saw the 13-driver field take part in a 20-minute Qualifying session, an 11-lap main race and a final 11 lap reverse grid affair. After finishing fourth in the opening race Garry Rogers Motorsport driver O’Keeffe took the victory in the reverse-grid and as a result leads the series in his Renault Megane. DM

10 AutoAction

SLADE & GRICE EYE TCR GIGS FORMER SUPERCARS full-timer Tim Slade is aiming to be on the grid at TCR Australia’s opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park, after a successful test in an Ash Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR. Inclement weather hampered he and Toyota 86 competitor Ben Grice’s test at Winton, but both revealed they would like to be on the grid for the opening round of the TCR Australia grid at SMP in August.

“It would be nice to be there for the first round, Ash and I are working on some stuff to see what we can put together,” Slade said.

Grice added: “I’m working as hard as I can to put a deal together to run. Ash has got a good operation, his cars have run at front in the past and I’ve run at the front in other categories, I think it’d be really good fit.”

Jay Hanson has already been confirmed as an ASM entrant in TCR Australia, but it is believed the team has three Alfa Romeos at its disposal facilitating an opportunity for both to join the grid.

Having limited front-wheel-drive experience, Slade was complimentary of the Alfa Romeo’s build quality and performance.

“I have done a couple of races in a Hyundai

Excel and had my first proper front-wheel drive experience in that, and to be honest the general traits are very similar,” Slade explained to Auto Action.

“It’s just a much more refined race car in every department, it was nice, it’s a well-built little car and quite enjoyable to drive.”

Grice, son of two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Allan, is a frontrunner nationally in Excels and believes that the Italian hatchback is akin to a hybrid between a Supercar and an Excel.

“It felt like home to be honest, just (a) real cool car, plenty of grip and grunt,” Grice told AA. “They’re a bit of a different beast, to become acclimatised to, they’re very, very similar in the middle of a corner to a front wheel-drive production car, the way you balance it with both the throttle and the brake, but then the brake pressure is a bit more like a Supercar.

“You really have to smash the brake pedal

ROOKIES IMPRESS IN S5000 TESTING AT THE Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit a couple of weeks ago, an S5000 evaluation test day was held, with a number of young drivers asked to participate.

Drivers arrived with varying degrees of experience and from all forms of motor sport, from muscle car racing to junior open-wheel racing and even Hyundai Excels.

Drivers who participated were Nathan Herne, Cody Burcher, Cooper Webster and Reef McCarthy.

Although Herne is used to a lot of power in his Trans Am machine, he was surprised by the way in which the S5000’s V8 delivered its thrust.

“The torque is pretty similar exiting the turn in low speed corners to the Trans Am car, but the climb from 100km/h to 200km/h where the Trans Am torque curve levels out, the S5000 keeps going,” Herne told Auto Action.

“From 100 to 200 there is nothing like it, it accelerates as hard from 100-200 as it does from 0-100, and with downforce as well, it’s a really high-class car.”

Throughout the day Garry Rogers Motorsport S5000 driver James Golding was on hand to not only advise them in the garage but also to show them the ropes out on track.

“James Golding helped and I owe the test day to him, he really got me and Burcher going and it was good to have him there to coach us through,” Herne said.

Of the quartet, Burcher was the only driver to have previously driven an S5000 when he completed laps of Winton Raceway.

“To go to the complete opposite from Winton to Phillip Island, it was it was definitely a big eye opener,” Burcher told AA. “It is absolutely crazy how fast everything happens in those, 290 km/h down the main straight and then holding around 215 to 220km/h around Turn 1 is absolutely mind blowing.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, on his out lap Victorian Formula Vee Championship leader McCarthy crashed into the pit wall.

“The first session we were all meant to be following James Golding but he got out of the pits a bit earlier, me and another one of the drivers were trying to catch up,” McCarthy recalled to AA. “I was just about to lead onto the straight, and I flicked fourth gear and then gave it a bit of throttle and it just flicked around on me on the outside kerb.” DM

to get the car to stop, I reckon if you crossed a Supercar with an Excel, you wouldn’t be far off a TCR car.”

The test was only set to be run on one day, but due to inclement conditions, the ASM crew opted to return to the track for more running the next day.

Slade explained that when they arrived the following day conditions were still wet before drying for the afternoon, allowing both drivers to complete two dry sessions.

“We achieved what we could with what the weather gave us. Obviously we would’ve loved good dry weather for the first day, it was still good to get a taste, I think one more session would have been ideal,” Slade explained.

“There was more in us driving the thing than in the setup, Ash’s crew have got a year under their belt now, the car’s there or there abouts.”

Dan McCarthy

MASTERTON NAME RETURNS

A NAME that Ford fans fondly recall during the Group C era of the Australian Touring Car Championship is set to return to national competition this year, this time in a Holden.

James Masterton will return the famous name to the track after a near 30-year absence, when he contests the opening round of the Super3 Series at Winton as support to the Supercars Championship.

Masterton, son of AMSCAR winning 1980s privateer Steve, is set to drive an ex-Paul Morris Motorsport Holden Commodore wearing the colours of the family-run company Masterton Homes business.

Car and driver have completed successful tests at both Wakefield Park and most recently at Sydney Motorsport Park, where the multiple jet ski world champion has come to grips with his new machine.

“We’ve still got a bit of work to go before we set the world on fire, but we’ll see,” said James Masterton his test at SMP. Coined ‘Kulwicki’, the chassis Masterton will drive featured in the hands of Russell Ingall during the 2009 V8 Supercar season, while later on in its life was driven by Bryce Fullwood in V8 Touring Cars, before being bought last November by Masterton.

Limited testing miles due to a combination of factors have hampered the young Masterton, however he is hopeful of a good showing at Winton before committing to the rest of the season.

“We’ve committed to Winton, then we’ll skip Sandown to prepare for Bathurst and finish up on our home turf at SMP,” Masterton said. “I’m happy to do the three rounds.”

But why a Holden?

“We would have liked a Ford and dad said ‘Shame it’s not a Ford’, but we didn’t have the choice and I didn’t want to miss out on this car,” Masterton explained.

“The plan wasn’t to buy a car, but when it popped up, we had to do it.

“We bought the car within two hours of it being listed.”

An invite to test a Matt Stone Racingrun V8 Touring Car invigorated Masterton to seriously consider motorsport, after 19 years racing jet skis professionally.

“When I was growing up, obviously it was him racing the Group C and then into the Group A, so that was my childhood,” Masterton recalled.

“I went in my own direction in terms of jet ski racing where I won a couple of world titles.

“I’m so excited to get behind the wheel and race at Bathurst.” HM

SUPER2 & 3 JOIN FORCES

SUPERCARS HAS confirmed that its third-tier category will join the Super2 Series for the remainder of the 2020 season.

After losing the Super3 nametag at the end of 2019, the category reverted to the original V8 Touring Car Series.

However, very low numbers in both categories this year meant that the decision was taken to return to the Super3 name and run the two classes together in one race.

While Super2 is run by Supercars, Super3 is now owned and operated by the Australian Racing Group, which owns TCR Australia and several other notable national categories.

ARG CEO Matt Braid spoke to Auto Action about the decision behind the merger.

“We’ve never been against that scenario. Things change, things happen and with COVID-19 affecting the pathway categories with the older cars, Supercars reached out to us with an idea, ‘Why don’t we combine rather than having mid-teen fields’,” Braid said.

“Do we bolster it and put on a better show, which we thought made a lot of sense to everybody, certainly the competitors and commercially as well.

“That’s why I’m very pleased we were able to come to an agreement with Supercars on that one, it makes sense for both parties.”

Last year Super3 ran on the Supercars bill at four of its five events, only running at the same round as Super2 on one occasion. 2020 will see a different proposition for those teams competing in both categories, such as Image Racing which will be stretched on resources, according to team boss Terry Wyhoon.

“It doesn’t suit me one little bit because there’s only so much you can do with x amount of crew and we’re always set up to run Super3 and Super2 on different weekends,” Wyhoon explained to AA. “But I do get it. The 14 cars in Super2 and 14 in Super3 in this current climate is probably not healthy, and if they can make that 28 cars on the grid, I guess it’s a good thing.

“It is alright for people to say ‘Oh well get a crew’, (but) we used to use the same radios for the Super3 round and Super2 event, now you got four cars at once, so another set of crew radios, another toolbox,” he said.

Brad Jones Racing is the only squad that competes in all three Supercar tiers

and as a board member feels that the right decision was made based on the current situation.

“I think it’s really good for those two categories to amalgamate at the moment. I really feel that in these difficult times that it’s definitely the right way to go.

“It’ll bolster the field a little bit, it’ll give a little bit more depth into the categories,” Jones said to AA. Despite competing in the same race, results will be awarded separately to the winners in both the Super2 and Super3 categories.

The Super3 Series will continue to run cars from the pre-Car of the Future (COTF) era, while Dunlop Super2 will continue to feature only COTF machinery from 2013-2016. Dan McCarthy

REVISED CALENDAR A FURTHER revised Super2 and Super3 calendar has been announced, off the back of a number of changes to the Supercars schedule.

Super2 and Super3 will be competing together for the remaining four rounds of the year, with two events to be held in Victoria and two in New South Wales.

Super2 has previously completed its opening event, while the Super3 competitors are yet to turn a wheel this year.

Both categories will return to the racetrack at Winton Raceway on July 18-19.

Round 3 was set to be the debut appearance of the Super2 Series at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, however the Tailem Bend circuit has lost its place on the Supercars calendar.

Replacing the South Australian circuit is Sandown, which moves forward from its original midDecember date to September 19-20.

Mount Panorama remains unchanged as the fourth round of the campaign from October 8-11, before concluding at Sydney Motorsport Park.

At this stage Supercars has not announced the event or race formats for any of the remaining four Super2 Series rounds. DM

SVG OVERSEAS PLANS SHAKY

Spa 24-hour a slim chance for Supercars star, but Le Mans has been ruled out

By MARK FOGARTY SUPERCARS TITLE contender Shane van Gisbergen is close to giving up on competing overseas this year.

Van Gisbergen was set to make his debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours before it was postponed until September because of the coronavirus crisis.

He was also hoping to contest the Spa 24 Hours until it, too, was rescheduled to October.

He has regularly raced in GTs overseas in recent years when his Supercars schedule allowed.

While he hasn’t lost hope, SVG concedes that it’s unlikely international travel restrictions will ease until next year, when he will again pursue drives in major sports car and GT marathons.

“It’s a moving target still,” he said. “It’s sad – I was meant to be at Le Mans (on June13-14) and the new date is the Sandown weekend. I’ll get

there one day, I hope.

“It might be all over for this year to do some of those big races, but I’m sure it will come around again and we’ll just hang out for that.”

There is a slim chance van Gisbergen could make the Spa 24 Hours as it is due to be run on October 24-25 – a week before the rescheduled Perth SuperSprint.

However, that would depend on travel restrictions and, on return to Australia, any possible quarantine requirements that still may be in force in WA. Van Gisbergen also has health concerns about travelling to Europe, with the reality being that it would be safer to stay here until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control globally.

Meanwhile, while he supports the broad reforms proposed for Gen3, he is opposed to any move to GT3-style electronic gearshift paddles.

www.speco.com.au

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

“I think the target is good,” he said. “Less downforce, cheaper cars, but still keeping the rawness of Supercars while still keeping it open to other manufacturers and types of engines.

“I’m all for that, but I’m not all for the paddle shift and stuff like that. I understand the reason for paddle shift because it’s easier on the equipment and they want to save money.

“But for me, when you watch on-boards in GT3, it’s boring. While you can respect the lap times and the speed they’re getting, it’s just boring to watch.”

SVG “loves” heeling and toeing on down changes, which is still needed with Supercars’

SUPERIOR ENGINE ENAMELS

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

Image: LAT

mechanical sequential gearshift, and thinks fans prefer it as well.

His view conflicts with his Triple Eight team boss Roland Dane, who is a strong proponent of a switch to paddle shifts as part of the Gen3 technical reforms.

The existing X-Trac transaxle is ‘future-proofed’ for easy conversion to electronic gear selection either by paddles on the steering wheel or a ‘fly-by-wire’ version of the existing mechanicallinkage stick shift.

LONGER LASTING FLAMEPROOF COATINGS

THE ULTIMATE IN CALIPER PAINTS AutoAction

11

LATEST NEWS

THE ASIAN Le Mans Series will return to The Bend Motorsport Park for the 2021/2022 season after being left off the 2020/2021 calendar. An inaugural four-hour race comprising LMP2, LMP3 and GT cars took place at the world-class facility earlier this year, however when Asian Le Mans organisers released the 2020/2021 calendar The Bend was a surprise omission. But the race will return the following campaign after signing a two-year deal for the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons. DM

THE FACTORY Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team has announced that it has replaced Daniel Abt with two-time DTM champion Rene Rast. Last month Abt was found to have got professional esports Audi driver Lorenz Hoerzing to race in his place during the fifth round of the Formula E Stay at Home Challenge for professional drivers. As a result, Abt was let go by Audi who have signed Rast for remaining six races of the season. DM

INDYCAR’S FOURTH weekend of racing at Iowa Speedway will welcome back spectators for the first time this season. Having kicked off its season at Texas Motor Speedway, the next round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and following two races at Road America will remain spectator-less, before Iowa Speedway hosts two races on July 17-18. HM

THE 2020 24 Hours of Spa will become a 25hour race this year following a rescheduling of this years event which will now be held over the October 22–25 weekend that coincides with the end of Central European Summer Time (Daylight Savings). Instead of adjusting the start or finish time to account for clocks changing over during the race, organisers of the race have added an extra hour to duration to create a one-off twice around the clock 25-hour affair. RV

LAST MONTH the WSC Group’s technical department announced a change to the range of the Balance of Performance in TCR due to some models failing to achieve the minimum racing weight. The new range spans from -10kg to +70kg, replacing the previous range of 0kg to 60kg and as a consequence, the BoP ballast has been increased across all cars to 20kg. HM

12 AutoAction

LYNK AND CO AUSTRALIA BOUND? INTEREST HAS been high to introduce a TCR frontrunner that has not been raced on Australian shores yet in the form of Lynk and Co 03 TCR. Australian Racing Group CEO Matt Braid has fielded several enquiries surrounding the Chinese model, but as of yet has been unable to action due to the marque’s lack of customer racing program. However, it was revealed last month that this has now commenced with TCR Asia squad Teamwork Motorsport receiving its first customer 03 TCR. “The Lynk and Co had a lot of interest from Australian teams inquiring when customer orders were starting, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see one down here at some stage whether it be 2021 or beyond,” Braid told Auto Action.

“The performance of that car has been well documented and generated a lot of interest so I’d be surprised if someone doesn’t try and get a car out here at some point in time.”

The mid-sized sedan is based on Volvo architecture and has delivered Lynk and Co much success in the WTCR through

manufacturer titles, but controversy surrounded I due to the lack of a customer racing program, a stipulation within the TCR regulations.

It is expected that the number of marques that take to the grid in TCR Australia will not dip below the 10 that featured throughout 2019.

“I think we’ll be able to maintain most of that, people are looking at the Astras at the moment, there are a couple of VWs for sale as well,” Braid said. “I think last year as people started to gain interest in the series there probably wasn’t enough cars, but as more started to arrive throughout the season and for this year supply of cars is currently enough for most people to do their respective deals or look at purchasing cars.

“Certainly, some of the teams have ordered additional cars as well and had them on the water back in the last year.”

Braid is satisfied there are enough TCR cars in the country to provide a strong field and believes the addition of a new marque would be purely based on the competitor.

“If there were more manufacturers to

BATHURST 6 HOUR PLANS VETOED PROPOSED PLANS to change the format of this year’s Bathurst 6 Hour production car race have been vetoed by competitors after an email was sent out to competitors outlining plans to alter the schedule of the event.

Auto Action understood plans to change the 6 Hour event into four one-hour races spread across the Friday and Saturday schedule of the four-day Bathurst International weekend were in the early stages of being developed.

The proposed plan was put to a competitor vote, which closed last night with competitors vetoing the move.

Auto Action believes a format change was on the table after a group of competitors voiced their concerns surrounding the cost and the close proximity to the 2021 event, which will take place in its traditional spot over the Easter weekend. The much later date of this year’s event on November 13-15 leaves less than five months between the two races.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fifth running of the Bathurst 6 Hour was forced to partner with

come on board it would be purely organic rather than us pushing it for a target because there are certainly enough TCR cars to fulfil the demand to put on a really good field,” Braid concluded.

NZ ENTRIES COULD BOLSTER TCR AUSTRALIA

THE CURRENT climate has cast doubt on the New Zealand TCR Series season, but this could be to the advantage of TCR Australia as it is understood a few Kiwi teams could follow Track Tec Racing’s example by mounting an attack across the Tasman.

“We have kept in contact with the Kiwi guys,” said Australian Racing Group CEO Matt Braid.

“While the New Zealand Series is a bit up in the air at the moment as we wait for Motorsport New Zealand and what its plans are, certainly the Bathurst International is an obvious one. By that stage we hope there’s a bubble in place and what have you, then it could be a good opportunity to get the guys across, but before that I think it’ll be unlikely until there is a bit more certainty in travel restrictions.”

Auto Action understands there are a further 10 cars in New Zealand comprising Audi, Hyundai, Honda and Kia.

SIMPSON GOES MERCEDES fellow ARG-run event the Bathurst International and in turn changed the day of the race from Sunday to Saturday, initially displeasing competitors.

The result of the ARG poll is believed to have matched a similar one that appeared within a social media group for entrants, displaying resounding support to retain the 6 Hour format.

Auto Action spoke to competitors yesterday in regards to the format change, which if passed would have come at a reduced entry fee. One competitor told Auto Action that the reduction “wasn’t enough” compared to the expected loss of live television coverage and exposure that the fourrace plan would receive.

The unchanged format will compete alongside TCR Australia, S5000, Trans Am, Touring Car Masters, Porsche Michelin Sprint Cup, LMP3 Cup, Radical Australia, Historic Touring Cars and Excel Challenge.

It is expected that most of the 68-car entry list announced earlier this year have committed to the rescheduled event. Heath McAlpine

AN EMERGING threat for the Australian GT crown revealed his weapon ahead of the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park on August 15-16.

A national series winner in three categories, New South Welshman Ryan Simpson is no stranger to the Australian GT Championship, but he will join the series for is first solo assault in five years after announcing the purchase of an ex-Mark Griffith Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Simpson has played the supporting role to Fraser Ross in the 59Racing McLaren 720s, but is looking forward to tackling the championship on his own.

“It will definitely be good to go solo, it was good last year to partner with Fraser [Ross] in the McLaren, but to get the results I believe I need to race in my own team and that’s what we’ll do,” Simpson told Auto Action.

“It was a little bit tough in some of the races last year where we had to driver changes and it probably played with our results a bit. I think in the series its better to run solo and you’re responsible for your own outcome.”

The Mercedes will be prepared by noted GT frontrunners Eggleston Motorsport in what is expected to be a two-car team alongside Peter Hackett.

“That was the decision that we had to make a little while back, which team was going to run the car,” Simpson explained. “Eggleston were the best for us, they’ve got the runs on the board with Pete [Hackett], his car was always well maintained and always had the pace.

“Prior to that Eggleston has run other Mercedes, it’s not something new to them, they know how to get the most out of it. When we were choosing a team, we just wanted team with all the knowhow and understanding.”

Simpson has already sampled the car and team at Phillip Island test two weeks ago, which proved successful and has given him confidence ahead of the opening round.

“We did a test at Phillip Island, which went well,” said Simpson.

“It was just a matter of transitioning from a McLaren to a Mercedes because although the pace is the same in GT3, the balance of the cars is a lot different.

I tried to acquaint myself with how the car feels and with the team in terms of getting used to anew data engineer, mechanic, which I feel we established that by the end of the day.” HM

ARG EXPECT MINIMAL GRID DROP THE IMPACT of COVID-19 on the Australian Racing Group’s portfolio of events will be felt, but not as much as projected CEO Matt Braid told Auto Action.

“It certainly isn’t easy out there, which we’re all aware of but we think we’re going to hold onto most of our fields in those categories,” Braid said.

“I think we might lose 10 percent here and there.”

All categories bar S5000 are expected to maintain similar grid sizes than last season.

The open-wheeler category was poised to feature some overseas drivers, but due to travel restrictions this will be impossible to achieve leaving the expected field at Sydney Motorsport Park to be at least 10 entries.

“They’re all being finalised, but we’ve been really buoyed

by the support from all the competitors and all the entrants within every category,” Braid emphasised.

For Braid, the support from the teams within the ARG umbrella has been strong while communication has been regular between the promoter and its customers throughout the pandemic.

“I think that is something that has been a pleasant surprise,” Braid said of the commitment of teams. “The category managers within our business have been in constant contact all the way through the crisis with all the teams. They’ve been trying to keep up the communication and not many people have dropped off at all, which is great.

“I’m pleased we’re going to have a solid field for most of our categories.”

TERRIFIC TASSIE

AFTER ANNOUNCING its Tasmanian double-header scheduled for January, Australian Racing Group CEO Matt Braid said the southern extravaganza has been well received by teams.

“Everyone thinks it’s a great concept for an event, so the

excitements there,” Braid told Auto Action. “There’s a feeling from the majority of people that this could build into something that could be quite iconic and a very significant annual event for Tasmania. In that regard there’s a lot of excitement.

“Realistically at this stage the

main conversations have been about logistics and just trying to work through that, but certainly as a concept for the event and the flavour of the event, and bringing the racing back to Tassie, everyone’s on board with it.” HM

BATHURST FOR AUSTRALIAN GT A REVISED four-round Australian GT Championship has been announced by category management, headlined by a support event at the Bathurst 1000.

Australian GT management announced its season will kick off as part of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships program at Sydney Motorsport Park on August 14-16.

The traditional trip to Sandown will also be part of the same program a month on September 11-13 before heading to Bathurst as support to Australia’s biggest race.

The championship then concludes at Barbagallo as support to Supercars on October 30-November 1, though a fifth event is being considered to be added at a later date.

“We’re pleased to be able to confirm three additional dates to that which we released a week ago at Sydney Motorsport Park,” category rights holder Jim Manolios confirmed.

“Sandown, Bathurst and Perth will see a four-round season; however, we are looking at options to add a fifth event, with

a number of possible venues being canvassed, however we wanted to lock away what we had and consensus is, we have a strong program.”

Each round will feature two 60-minute races with endurance events omitted due to the condensed schedules.

“Ideally we’d like to work to a five-round program, but the onset of Covid-19 and the condensed calendar has made that a big challenge for everyone,” Manolios admitted.

“To achieve what our team have done so far and maintain our preferred venues and race lengths has been a great achievement, but we will continue the discussion with all the stakeholders with respect to adding another round, but for now, we have a great program to work with.”

The proposed calendar will depend on the State and Federal Government restrictions, though Manolios hopes there will be better clarity by September.

“Things are still in a state of flux at this stage, however we’re hoping that by September we’ll have a better indication of

what will happen in South Australia and Western Australia,” Manolios said. “That said, we won’t be alone if those border closures remain in place, but regardless, at no stage will we risk the health of our teams over the potential to be racing again - we’re all keen to get trackside, but only when it is safe to do so.” HM

Australian owned & operated since 1930 “Setting the standard for Quality & Value”

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AutoAction

13

NEWS EXTRA

E V I S U L C X E

THE OPTIMIST EVERY SUPERCARS team has been challenged and changed by COVID-19.

To gain an insight into just how hard and intense the experience has been, BRUCE NEWTON spoke to Charlie Schwerkolt owner of Team 18, which campaigns the Irwin Racing Holden Commodore ZB driven by Mark ‘Frosty’ Winterbottom and the DeWalt Holden steered by Scott Pye. Schwerkolt not only had to deal with the pandemic’s impact on his team, but his national forklift hire business, Waverley Forklifts.

Schwerkolt, the championshipwinning former part-owner of DJR has been an entrant in his own right since 2013. In recent years he has become ever-more committed to the sport, setting up his own race shop in 2016, hiring former champion Winterbottom in 2019 and expanding to two cars for 2020.

He spoke to AA ahead of last weekend’s return to action at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Due to personnel restrictions, Schwerkolt watched the race from the Gold Coast, missing his first Supercars event in a decade.

14 AutoAction

On his expectations for 2020 before the season started.

“I was really excited to have two cars on the grid for Adelaide. It was a dream come true for me. Frosty in his second year, he’s an incredible guy and just hitting his stride. I was hoping for a good, solid fifth to 10th in the championship for 2020 for Frosty.

“Then we get onto Scotty Pye, brand new; got to get the car sorted, got to get the team, engineer etcetera. He can drive and it would have been great to get him in the 10 as well and build the momentum.

“The model for Supercars is two cars and the amount of people I put on extra was not a big, big jump.

But man, to get the staff, to get the sponsors, to put it all together was a bigger job than I thought.

“The work everyone put in to get two cars fully funded with some amazing partners and the two best looking cars on the track – I am biased – was really incredible.”

On the Friday March 13 shutdown at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

“It was a bit of an eerie feeling at the grand prix. We had a couple of practice sessions on the Thursday

and there was a lot of chat about COVID-19 and where it was all going. I started to feel a bit funny about it.

“I have intimate knowledge about the Grand Prix because I supply all the forklifts and equipment to build the track. We’ve done this event for 26 years and talking to a lot of people at the grand prix it was ‘it’s not feeling good here, this could get shut down’ and I said ‘nah, there’s no way known they’re going to shut the grand prix down’.

“Anyway, driving into the track at 7am on Friday morning there was a lot of chat from the Premier [Victorian Premier Dan Andrews] and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation that this was going to fall over. We had sponsors outside the gate ready to come and take up our corporate facility at Turn 15 and they were saying they couldn’t get in, I said ‘I’m sure they’ll let you in soon’.

“Then we had a team owners’ meeting at around 9am to say this isn’t going ahead. We had Frosty and Scotty all in their suits ready to go for the session at 9:45am and we had to pull the pin.

“It felt funny, the grandstands were completely empty, nothing there and

Supercars team owner Charlie Schwerkolt on three tough months and why he’s looking forward to a brighter future. it was a very eerie feeling standing in pitlane.

“So now what? Is it all over or is it just Supercars? It was all over, all done and dusted. We got the phone call to say ‘all your equipment is going to start working again and go pack up the whole track’, which was just bizarre.”

On how quickly he realised how serious the coronavirus was going to be.

“We knew pretty quick from my business side because we were getting de-hires of forklifts left, right and centre. They were dropping like flies. You could see the revenue dropping daily and it was just ‘wow this is incredible’.”

“That gets your head spinning.

“I remember going to my Waverley Forklifts head office and addressing my staff, my leadership team, and saying ‘This is really, really serious now’ and putting a plan in place for my forklift business, but also the Supercar team on where it is going and what we were doing if there is no racing.

“We were speaking to Supercars and asking ‘Where is it all going to go?’

“We were keeping in constant

communication with our sponsors and working out a plan going forward but we didn’t know when we were going to race. Would it be in a couple of weeks? Then I think Tassie and New Zealand got cancelled.”

On the key actions taken in relation to the race team.

“Unfortunately, there was no money coming in the door, so I stood everyone down and put the business in hibernation fairly quickly. We had no work to give them and we didn’t know when we were going to race.

“Basically I instructed everyone to take some leave, take some holidays, I said ‘We’ll work through what we’re going to do and then we’ll come back after Easter’.

“This worked out to be a threeweek holiday for all staff, take your holiday pay for those that had it.

“As I knew more information about Supercars, when we’re going to race and when JobKeeper [employee wage support] was going to start [in May], we put everything in place so everyone could come back two-days a week straight after Easter.”

On the importance of the JobKeeper scheme.

“I think JobKeeper has been amazing. For the older demographic, I’d just started my company in the late-1980s, I got it going and

An eningeering reschuffle has meant technical chief Phil Keed (at left above) is back engineering a car, Scott Pye’s DeWalt entry, while Manual Sanchez (above right) engineers Mark Winterbottom’s Irwin entry. Steve Richards (above middle) has now left his senior commercial role in the team restructure.

thought ‘How good’s this’ until we had the recession we had to have [in the early 1990s]. The government didn’t help us back then, there was no assistance at all and a lot of businesses went broke. I had struggles back then at an 18.5 per cent interest rate. Today, what the government is doing is incredible to keep jobs in place.

“It’s got to end, we can’t be a welfare state, we’ve all got to find our feet and make it work somehow. We can’t be relying on the government

forever, it’s just got to get going, keep it happening and work it through. We’ll just have to see where we go with Supercars, with numbers and how it all looks. I’m certainly positive about everything at the moment.”

On his sponsor group.

“I was speaking everyday with Stanley Black & Decker Corporation, which owns the Irwin and DeWalt brands.

“The most disappointing thing

was we had a massive, massive activations with Irwin and DeWalt in Adelaide that we had also set up at the grand prix as well. We had hundreds and hundreds of people turn up in Adelaide and we had worked very hard to get a prominent position with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation in Melbourne. To shut it all down was heartbreaking.

“Our entire sponsor group has been very understanding and I am proud to say we haven’t lost any of them.”

Team 18 prepares for action in Adelaide, the first for the newly expanded Team 18 operation.

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AutoAction

15

On the pandemic posing a threat to the team’s existence “No not at all, no never. Never even crossed my mind. You work with what you’ve got, make every post a winner and just work through the situation as best as possible. It never came up at all.”

On a potential move back to one car.

“No, I was always looking to run two cars. As all the infrastructure had been put in place for them.”

On the withdrawal of 23Red Racing.

“I was a bit shocked. Phil’s a mate, he’s a great operator, great guy, he’ll be missed in the sport. He’s down to earth, hardworking and when I heard the news, I gave Phil a call, it was really sad and disappointing losing his naming rights sponsor. I’m not sure of the financial or the contract implications at all, but it’s sad for Phil.

“I’ve got two tools sponsors that are prominent and staying with Supercars, so I can sense some great opportunities for our guys now … there’s not a lot of competition now they’ve [Milwaukee] gone.

DeWalt, especially, are staying and will take up the slack in tool sales so it should work well.”

On the restructure and loss of jobs including four-times Bathurst winner Steven Richards’ departure from his senior commercial role.

“Steve Richards was a really good get to give up his driving and come across to be a commercial voice for me. I’ve worked hard to get all these sponsors, but with so many good sponsors they all need looking after, which is how you keep them.

“The money’s not there now at the moment and with the restructuring, as only 11 people can go to the races, there’s no sponsors going

Mark Winterbottom leads Scott Pye on the Thursday at the Australian Grand Prix. Schwerkolt is particularly proud to have expanded his entry to two cars this season, and looks forward to reaping the benefits of that as the shortened 2020 season unfolds.

to races, nothing, so we’ve had to cease some of these agreements.

“Hopefully as things go further, we can get these people back. I’m still speaking to Richo quite often. It’s a bit of a shame.

“In engineering there’s been a restructure as less people come along [to events].

“With less data .. you need the

most experienced people you can get. We’ve got a great guy in Matt Saunders, who was engineering Frosty last year and was engineering Scott Pye this year, who is now in a behind the scenes role.

“We’ve probably demoted [team tech chief] Phil Keed back to car engineer. We have Manuel [Sanchez] as Mark Winterbottom’s engineer and Phil running Scotty Pye. Mark [Sylvester] our data engineer has stayed on, Matt [Saunders] is in the background, same with Rory [Jackermis] until we work out our numbers, and how many people we can get back to the race.

“We have kept everyone close with the help of JobKeeper till we figure out where we are going.”

On how tough these last few months have been.

“I think I have been through some tougher times in motor racing. The split-up from DJR was tougher and starting my own team was tougher.

We just need to go racing and get some results for all the sponsors and partners that have stuck by us.

Schwerkolt, Winterbottom and Pye together at the Adelaide season opener. Despite the challenges of the team expansion and the implications of COVID-19, Charlie is optimistic for the season ahead.

16 AutoAction

“Business-wise it’s tough. It’s going to be a pretty tough 2020 because in terms of forklift rentals we are heavily involved in events and also cruise ships … so they will be among the last to get going again.

“So the challenge is to work as hard as we can and build the revenue once more.”

On the future of the team.

“Really positive. I now know what the calendar is, I know where all my sponsors are sitting, I’ve got the crew and all my people in the team, I’m really positive for a good outcome for Team 18.

“It’s a great team, there’s really good people, really good sponsors, great equipment and really good drivers, so the ingredients are all there, we’ve just got to make the most of it.

“But, it’s hard work as we all know, it’s really, really hard work, nothing comes easy. You can’t just sit back, you have to keep on pushing and pushing, and I think we’ll get good results.

“No-one is lazy, we’re a smaller, close knit team compared to some of the others and we’re all on the same page working forward. I’m really positive about things with the team at the moment.”

LATEST NEWS

ANZACS ABROAD MANY AUSSIES and Kiwis are competing across the globe, so as racing resumes internationally Auto Action recaps who is doing what.

In Europe this weekend, multiple Australians will be taking part in the support program to Formula 1 at the Austria double header.

Four Aussies will be completing in F1’s third-tier FIA Formula 3 Championship, including Auto Action columnist Oscar Piastri (who will return with a piece in the next issue.)

Piastri is one of the favourites for the title as part of the Prema Powerteam, an outfit that dominated the championship last year with its three drivers finishing 1-2-3.

Alex Peroni returns to the championship after a crash ended his 2019 season early, but he was one of the fastest driver during pre-season testing. Kiwi Red Bull junior driver THE FIA World Rally Championship is set to return to Australia next year, after it was included on the provisional 2021 calendar.

It was also confirmed by the FIA world motor sport (WMSC) council that Rally Australia would move away from Coffs Harbour to a new location for next year’s event.

Rally Australia had been held at Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales midnorth coast from 2011 through until 2018, the last of which was won by Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The 2019 event was set to conclude the WRC season but just days before the round was set to commence, organisers opted to cancel the rally due to the threatening and horrifying bushfires around the Coffs Harbour area.

It’s believed that rally teams and competitors are pushing for the Australian event to now be hosted closer to one of the major cities.

In total, nine countries were confirmed to host WRC rounds on the provisional 2021 calendar, however

Liam Lawson is another to return and will be aiming for race wins with the competitive Hitech Grand Prix team.

Jack Doohan, son of five-time 500cc Motorcycle World Champion Mick, will make his F3 debut for HWA Racelab, while Calan Williams will also compete in his rookie season for Swiss team Jenzer Motorsport.

The previous two Porsche Carrera Cup Australia series winners will also support the Grand Prix circus as part of the Porsche Supercup. Kiwi Jaxon Evans will return to the category after scoring two podiums at the SpaFrancorchamps circuit in Belgium and Mexico respectively last season.

He will be joined by last year’s Australian winner Jordan Love, debuting for FACH Auto Tech this season In open-wheelers, Jackson Walls and Tommy Smith join the Formula

Renault Eurocup series, while Bart Horsten progresses to British Formula 3 Championship after a race winning season in the lower Formula 4 category in 2019.

Across the Atlantic in the US, Kiwi Hunter McElrea steps up to Indy Pro2000 moving on from narrowly losing out on the USF2000 category at the final round last year.

Toowoomba driver Cam Shields completed a part-season in USF2000 last year, which included a win, but he returns to the category for the full-season.

Last weekend Josh Car made his debut in USF3 and another Murphy,

this time Ronan, son of Greg, is forging his way overseas in USF4.

Former IndyCar ace Ryan Briscoe continues with Ford in the GTLM class of the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championship. He is joined by factory Porsche driver Matt Campbell, who is in the GTD class.

Super GT will have an Aussie driver among its ranks, with Jake Parsons testing his Modulo Drago Corse Honda NSX GT3 Evo at Fuji last weekend.

Plans are still up in the air for many other drivers and Auto Action will keep up to date on news as it comes to hand. Dan McCarthy with the financial implications of the Coronavirus.

Each manufacturer-affiliated driver will be limited to one single preevent test for each Europen event.

Limitations on engines have also been tightened, should the current season end with fewer than eight events, only two engines may be used. DM

AUSTRALIA ON 2021 WRC CALENDAR

PROVISIONAL 2021 WRC CALENDAR

dates were not listed as further additions are expected to be made.

Rally New Zealand was set to make its WRC return in September 2020 having not featured on the top-tier world rally championship calendar since 2012, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was canned.

At this stage New Zealand, which is set to alternate years with Australia, is missing from the 2021 calendar.

Spain is a welcome return to the

WRC event schedule after being dropped for 2020, but will be revived as a full tarmac event rather than as a mixture of tarmac and gravel.

Finland, Portugal and Kenya are all scheduled to be run in 2021 after being cancelled this year due to the pandemic.

The FIA also outlined two cost-saving measures that will be implemented for the remainder of the current WRC season, to help teams cope

Monte Carlo* Tarmac Finland Gravel Portugal Gravel Sweden Snow WMSC confirmed in 2019 Kenya Gravel WMSC confirmed in 2019 Spain Tarmac WMSC confirmed in 2019 Italy Gravel WMSC confirmed in 2019 Japan Tarmac WMSC confirmed in 2019 Australia Gravel WMSC confirmed in 2019 * Subject to Event Promoter Agreement

CAR AND MURPHY LACK LUCK IN OHIO

IT WAS a challenging opening round at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course for two locals competing in the American open-wheel scene, Aussie Joshua Car and New Zealander Ronan Murphy.

Reigning USF4 Champion Car made the step up to the Formula Regional Americas Championship at the Ohio circuit, while Ronan Murphy, son of four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg, made his debut in USF4.

In the FRA Championship, Car got his season off to a challenging start when the Australian suffered a rare front wing failure in qualifying.

As a result he started the 30 minute race from 13th and finished a frustrating 14th. However, Car bounced back in Race 2, qualifying 0.5s off pole in fourth place and went on to finish the 30-minute race 9.3s off the leader in fifth.

After the race Car took to social media saying, “Fifth on our FR Americas debut, well done everyone, great recovery after a difficult start to the weekend.

“The competition is extremely high, I’m loving racing against all these very fast drivers from around the world, let’s keep working hard to get on top.”

In F4 amongst a staggering 33 car field, Murphy qualified in 26th position for the Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport team, the squad with which Car took the title last year.

Despite qualifying towards the rear, in the five lap opening race Murphy zipped through a large portion of the field and at the end of the race came home 13th.

The Kiwi was unable to replicate the Race 1 success when he retired on lap 4.

The pair will contest their second rounds at the Virginia International Raceway on 17–19 July. DM

CAMS CAMS SPEC CAMS SPEC SPEC MILD MILD MILD STEEL STEEL STEEL CHROMOLY CHROMOLY TUBE TUBE -- SHEET SHEET -- SOLID SOLID SOLID

828 Sydney Rd Brunswick 3056 (03) 93865331

TUBE BENDERS - DIES - NOTCHERS

PH: 02 9676 8001 SHIPPING DAILY AUSTRALIA WIDE W W W. R A C E T E C H S T E E L . C O M . A U

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AutoAction

17

LATEST NEWS MERCEDES WILL swap its traditional silver to a black-based livery for the 2020 Formula 1 season as part of a new campaign to fight racism.

The German manufacturer made the switch as a part of a public pledge to improve diversity as the squad gears up to get the F1 season underway in Austria this weekend.

Traditionally, dating back to the 1950s, Mercedes has raced in silver, but will now adopt a primarily black livery for the 2020 season.

“Racism and discrimination have no place in our society, our sport or our team: this is a core belief at Mercedes.” said Toto Wolff, team principal, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

“But having the right beliefs and the right mindset isn’t enough if we remain silent.

We wish to use our voice and our global platform to speak up for respect and equality, and the Silver Arrow will race in black for the entire 2020 season to show our commitment to greater diversity within our team and our sport.

“We will not shy away from our weaknesses in this area, nor from the progress we must still make; our livery is our public pledge to take positive action.

“We intend to find and attract the very best talents from the broadest possible range of backgrounds, and to create credible pathways for them to reach our sport, in order to build a stronger and more diverse team in the future.

“I would also like to use this opportunity to thank our parent company MercedesBenz and our family of team partners who have supported and encouraged this initiative.”

In addition to changing their colour scheme, Mercedes will also feature a call to ‘End Racism’ on the halo of both cars, as well as the united F1 initiative #WeRaceAsOne on the mirrors of the W11.

Another Mercedes powered team, Williams, has taken the covers off its revised livery ahead of the 2020 Formula 1 season.

It has been a tumultuous time for the

NEW LIVERIES FOR MERCEDES AND WILLIAMS

FOX SPORTS INCREASE COVERAGE OF F1 GRAND PRIX WEEKEND FOR THIS weekend’s Formula 1 grand prix return in Austria, Fox Sports has increased its support category coverage with several Australians to be broadcast live.

In recent years Fox Sports has broadcast both the FIA Formula 2 Championship and Formula 3 Championship races as well as the Porsche Supercup event.

However, with increased Aussie presence the network has upped its coverage, and for the first time the Formula 2 and Formula 3 qualifying sessions will also be broadcast live.

Formula 3 qualifying takes place in between

F1 practice 1 and 2 from 10.05pm AEST, with Race 1 at 6.20pm on Saturday and the reverse grid affair at 5.40pm on Sunday.

Aussies Oscar Piastri, Alex Peroni, Calan Williams and Jack Doohan will all be competing in the extremely competitive 30 car field.

While in Porsche Supercup two Australian Carrera Cup Series winners will be competing, Kiwi Jaxon Evans and Aussie Jordan Love.

Their race will also be shown live on Sunday night at 8.25pm AEST in the lead up to the Formula 1 race.

Dan McCarthy

stalwart Formula 1 squad, losing a new title partner ROKiT as well as putting the business up for sale in an effort to raise further equity.

The striking livery revealed in the lead up to pre-season testing at Barcelona will be replaced with a simpler design in the teams corporate white, blue and black colours.

Signage for existing partners Sofina, Acronis and Lavazza has been increased to fill the void left by Rokit’s departure. Williams F1 branding also features prominently around the car as the team chases additional support.

Williams F1 will be looking for improved results in 2020 after finishing last in the Constructors’ Championship the last two seasons.

The Formula 1 season will get back underway at Austria’s Red Bull Ring this weekend. Rhys Vandersyde .

POL ESPARGARO SET FOR HONDA RIDE IT HAS been an eventful fortnight in MotoGP, the four KTM riders have been confirmed, while Andrea Dovizioso is fighting to be fit for the first grand prix after a motocross crash.

Austrian factory team KTM, has announced its rider line up for 2021 along with its two satellite Tech3 competitors.

One notable absentee from the list was current rider Pol Espargaro, this news all but confirms the rumours that the Spaniard has signed to join the factory Honda team alongside his good friend Marc Marquez.

Ducati reject Danilo Petrucci was expected to join the factory KTM squad in his place alongside Brad Binder. However, a surprise decision will see the popular Italian line up as part of the Tech3 squad alongside Spaniard Iker Lecuona.

“Danilo is a man I respect a lot. He is a ‘normal’ guy, who always say hello to everyone, who has a lot of charisma and a great sense of humor. On top of that – and maybe even more important – he is also a team player and a MotoGP winner,” said Red Bull KTM Tech3 team principal Herve Poncharal.

“Iker Lecuona, the youngest rider on the MotoGP grid at the moment, is going to AUSSIE F1 ace Daniel Ricciardo can’t wait to race when the F1 season finally begins in Austria on July 3 - 5.

Formula 1 has been in limbo ever since the Australian Grand Prix, scheduled for March 15, was called off, and the subsequent nine races were cancelled or postponed.

“I think it was important to remain positive throughout that time as it was really uncharted territory for everybody,” Ricciardo said. “It was nice to be in one place for a long period of time, staying in one time zone, sleeping well and just having that time to recover and improve my physical condition. I’ve missed racing, of course, but not having it has just reiterated my love for driving Formula 1 cars.”

“I’m raring to go!” he added. “It’s been a long time since I’ve raced or even competed properly in anything. It’s getting close now, and I had a good taste for it with the test in Austria earlier this month. Even though it was a two-year old car, it felt really nice to shake off the cobwebs. It was cool to be in that racing environment again as I’m sure it was for all the engineers and mechanics. I was skipping with excitement in the garage even with the various social restrictions in place!”

So far only eight races have been confirmed on the revised 2020 schedule.

With the eventual total of races still unknown, it is going to be a case of making every point count.

“It’s about getting back to business,” Ricciardo said. “We’re all so excited to go racing again. We’ll get on with it and give it our all as we know the season is going to be shorter than usual and very fast-paced.

We want to get some points on the board,

be with us again in 2021. We are all very happy about that because it was a big move for him to jump on a MotoGP bike and, unfortunately, he hasn’t had a lot of chances yet to show what he can do.”

For 2021 former Moto2 and Moto3 title runner-up Miguel Oliveira will be promoted from Tech3 squad to the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team alongside South African Brad Binder.

The pair have previously been KTM

teammates when they raced for the now defunct Moto2 squad.

Three-time MotoGP bridesmaid Dovizioso competed in a motocross race last weekend and suffered a heavy crash.

The force of the impact broke the Italians his left collarbone and just hours later the Italian elected to have a plate fixed in a bid to speed up his recuperation.

“The surgery went well, and I want to thank all the medical team that did the

operation so quickly, I don’t feel much pain, and that makes me very optimistic,” Dovizioso said.

“I am confident that in these weeks I will be able to recover and that I will be in full shape in time for the first 2020 GP in Jerez.”

Ahead of the first race on July 19 the factory Aprilia Racing Team Gresini squad has announced that its test rider Bradley Smith will replace Andrea Iannone who is still serving his doping ban. DM

RICCIARDO CAN’T WAIT TO RACE begin the season on the right foot and lay a solid foundation for us to build some good momentum.”

The season opening doubleheader races in Austria will be the first chance the teams including Ricciardo’s Renault squad have a chance to see what the pecking order is.

“I think we’ve made good progress on the car during winter testing,” Ricciardo said of the 2020 Renault R.S.20. “We can’t be

totally sure how it will go, but that’s the same for all the teams. We have a slightly different car to the one we would have raced in Australia, but we’ll have the answers this week!

“We’ll focus on ourselves; we know the midfield will be quite tight, but the target is to give a better showing at this circuit than last year and then we’ll see where we end up. I’ll be giving it my all and I’m sure

everyone at the team will do the same.”

Ricciardo hopes that Renault will take risks this season.

“For us in the midfield, there’s a bit less to lose as far as risk and reward,” he told Sky TV. “I think we will take chances and hopefully come off with a few big results, whether it’s eight races, 12, 15 - who knows how many we will get.”

Dan Knutson

LATEST NEWS

UPDATED KTM X-BOW GT4 ARRIVES IN AUS THE LATEST iteration of the KTM X-Bow GT4 has made its on-track debut in Australia ahead of the resumption of the Australian GT season.

David Crampton, a stalwart of the GT4 class recently took delivery of the updated 2020 version of the car for his Vantage Racing team and cut his first laps of the year at Phillip Island.

“Reiter Engineering have made some big changes to the car, most notable being an increase in power, the addition of powersteering and the removal of the rear wing.” explained Crampton.

“Overall they have delivered a much better package that I find it easier to drive – the extra power alone meaning we won’t be left behind on power circuits like Bathurst

SANDOWN ABANDONED

IT HAS been announced that the fourth round of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships scheduled to take place next month has been abandoned due to the ongoing COVID-19 threat within the state.

The event was scheduled to be run at Sandown Raceway on July 24-26, but the Victorian ASSA committee made the tough decision to cancel the event.

The opening event was held in February at Sandown before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Australia. In April it was announced that Round 2 at Winton Raceway in country Victoria was cancelled and that the third round at Phillip Island was suspended. The Phillip Island event is still awaiting a rescheduled date.

The plan is to run the fifth round of VSCRC at Phillip Island in late September as originally scheduled, but like next month’s event comes down to the government restrictions. DM

and Phillip Island with their longer straights, whilst we still maintain that nimble advantage through the tighter parts of the circuit.”

Both Crampton and reigning Australian GT, GT4 champion Glen Wood took turns completing laps during the practice day at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

“The car was flawless, and we developed some great data.” Crampton continued.

“Most particularly, I wanted to do as many laps as possible to get myself back in the groove because it had been so long since I’d last driven a race car, whilst Glen was able to give me a good benchmark to work towards as we set a solid baseline for the season ahead.”

“It is different to my current car (the car

which Crampton took to second in the 2019 GT4 title race, behind the sister X-Bow of Wood and M-Motorsport team-boss Justin McMillan).”

“The biggest thing I noticed was how much difference the power-steering made.

Normally a long day in the car takes its toll, but I was as fresh at the end as I was at the start, so that’s an immediate advantage.”

While most of the changes to the 2020 version KTM X-Bow GT4 are mechanical, the clear difference externally is the change in the aero package with most obvious being the removal of the rear wing.

“Part of the trade-off with an increase in power was a reduction in aero, but on top of that, Reiter have developed a more aero efficient car, so the lack of rear wing means

less drag, but the lack of downforce in mid to high speed corners is not as significant as you might think.”

“They’ve also put us across to a five-stud wheel as opposed to a centre-lock wheel, so that could also be a setback during pit stops, although traditionally, the X-Bow has been very light on tyre wear.”

“All up it’s a very, very good package and I can’t wait to take the fight to our rivals this year and see what we can do, I’m excited about the prospect of going racing and having a new weapon to do battle with!”

The opening round of the 2020 Australian GT Championship is at Sydney Motorsport Park on August 14-16 as part of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships. Rhys Vandersyde .

WINTON’S TYRE UNKNOWN THE RACE format used for the return of the Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park was well received by fans and competitors alike, however, many drivers believe that a similar format will not work as well at Winton, the next stop for the series.

Racing at Sydney Motorsport Park was exciting and featured an element of surprise due to a limit of tyres, forcing drivers and crews to sacrifice one stint to gain a benefit in another.

One benefactor of these changes was Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat, who broke his four-year duck.

Percat’s crew sacrificed good rubber in the final race to win the second 32-lap encounter, but the South Aussie is unsure whether the format will work as well at Winton Raceway due to the tighter nature of the track and the fact the circuit is kinder on tyres.

“Obviously it can be a bit difficult to pass at Winton, but I think the racing should still be quite good, I think it will be a bit more difficult with the tyre deg,” Percat said.

Tickford Racing driver Lee Holdsworth took his first podium of the season in the final race of the weekend, however said Supercars must introduce a mix of tyre compounds to have the same results as displayed at SMP. “From my point of view, at the moment taking two different compounds is not compulsory and I

would have thought that it would be a good thing to create some more racing like we had this weekend,” Holdsworth explained.

“I don’t think that the deg is bad enough to want to go to a hard tyre so if we are forced to do it, it will create better strategy and mix up the results again.”

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin disagreed with Holdsworth entirely and was supportive of the current tyres

FORMULA FORD RELEASE TENTATIVE CALENDAR THE AUSTRALIAN Formula Ford Championship has outlined its plan to get the 2020 season underway at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Organisers have released a tentative four-round calendar with the first two rounds to be held in New South Wales alongside the NSW State Formula Ford Championship, firstly at Sydney Motorsport Park and followed by Wakefield Park.

The series then joins up with the Australian Motor Racing Series (AMRS) for the third round at Queensland Raceway.

While the final round could be hosted in Victoria as part of Island Magic, should the event not go-ahead, an alternative back up plan is South Australia’s AMRS round the following week at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Organisers reiterated that this schedule is subject to COVID-19

restrictions being relaxed, with states and territories borders needing the be open before any rounds can be held. RV

Revised 2020 Australian Formula Ford Championship Schedule

Round 1: August 1-2 at Sydney Motorsport Park (NSW state round)* Round 2: September 26-27 at Wakefield Park Raceway (NSW state round) Round 3: October 24-25 at Queensland Raceway (AMRS round)* Round 4: November 28-29 at Phillip Island (Island Magic event) / December 5-6 at The Bend Motorsport Park (AMRS round)* Rounds marked * would be 2020 Australian Formula Ford 1600 Championship rounds.

regulations.

“I think tyre deg is the biggest thing for everyone, obviously we won’t have that at Winton,” McLaughlin said.

“I’ve never been a huge fan of the soft and hard thing, but I think if they do what they did this weekend and just give us limited amount of tyres it’ll be alright.”

Percat highlighted when Russell Ingall made his way through the field for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport back

in 2014.

“Ingall had a crack, pitted really late and actually calved his way through the field, turning around a few people (on the way), but it is possible,” he recalled.

“I think you will still go six or seven tenths faster, it is just going to be a little bit harder to get through, because at Sydney Motorsport Park you can be a bit creative with the way you pass people so you have a bit more opportunity.” Dan McCarthy

LATEST NEWS

SUPERCARS RESPOND TO TIGHTER BORDER CONTROLS THE SUPERCARS SuperSprint round at Winton could be under threat as Queensland tightens its borders to and from Victoria.

Today the Queensland government announced that its borders would reopen to all states on July 10 except for Victoria which has seen a recent spike in cases.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk further detailed that the border would not only remain closed to all Victorians but be further tightened.

Starting on July 3 from 12pm, all Victorians and anyone who steps foot Victoria, will be either prevented from entering Queensland entirely or will have to quarantine within a hotel at their own expense for no less than two weeks.

The Supercars Championship said that it is aware of the situation and is looking at all its options going forwards.

“We are aware of this afternoon’s announcement from the Queensland Government,” a Supercars spokesperson said.

“At this early stage, we are assessing all options regarding the Truck Assist Winton SuperSprint and will advise in due course.

“We will continue to prioritise above all else the safety and wellbeing of our people, teams, drivers and officials.”

The new rules within Queensland casts shadow over the Winton Supercars round which is scheduled to take place from July 1819, although Queensland Supercars teams will have no problem entering Victoria, the return trip will not be so easy.

Once the costly 14-day quarantine process has been completed the Queensland teams will have just five days to turn the cars around

and arrive at Hidden Valley in Darwin for the fourth round of the championship.

The country Victorian event was scheduled to see several support categories join the bill, with Super2, Super3, the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup Series and Toyota Gazoo 86 Racing Series all scheduled to race on the program.

Queensland Premier Palaszczuk highlighted that she wants nobody to visit Victoria and no Victorians to visit Queensland.

“Our message to Queenslanders is please do not go there. Our message to Victorians is please do not come here. Until these outbreaks are under control,” she said. Dan McCarthy

BATHURST 1000 HIGHLIGHTS REVISED AUSSIE RACING CAR CALENDAR THE AUSSIE Racing Cars Series has announced its new-look 2020 calendar which is highlighted by a second round at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst.

After the long-awaited return to Bathurst in January, the popular pocket rocket series will return to The Mountain once again in October as part of the Bathurst 1000 program.

The famous Australian motorsport weekend is one of the remaining three rounds that will conclude the shortened four event 2020 season.

The Aussie Racing Cars will get its season back underway in August as part of the Wakefield Park Spring Festival, which is run by the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association of NSW. This is followed by two rounds as a support to the Supercars Championship, firstly as part of the Bathurst 1000 and then the season finale at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Aussie Racing Cars Category Manager Brad Ward is pleased with the revised 2020 schedule.

“I’m excited to confirm the revised 2020 calendar for Aussie Race Cars which will re-start on August 28-30 at Wakefield Park, followed by the Bathurst 1000 and Sydney Super Night Supercars events,” said Ward.

The schedule means that all four of the rounds will be held in New South Wales this season.

“A focus on NSW events helps to keep travel costs down for our teams and minimises the possibility of further disruptions to the series,” he said. ”I know a lot of our drivers and teams can’t wait to run Wakefield Park as we haven’t raced there since 2008 and I’d like to really thank the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association of NSW (HSRCA) for including ARC on the program.

“The HSRCA and ARC share a

strong focus on comradery, working together and family feel and so I am really looking forward to working the HSRCA team to deliver a fantastic event in regional NSW” “The Bathurst and Sydney events are the two highest profile events on the 2020 Supercars calendar and inclusion of these events on our calendar is testament to our fantastic relationship with Supercars and our strong 21 year history as an official support category of Supercars” A second Bathurst round means a return to the high-aero wing kits used at Round 1, while the other two events will run with the standard kit. DM

2020 Aussie Racing Cars calendar Round Date 1 Jan 31 - Feb 2 2 Aug 28 - 30 3 Oct 8 - 11 Bathurst

Venue Bathurst Wakefield Park

ARG RELEASE DOCUMENT TO ASSIST COMPETITORS BEFORE THE Australian Racing Group returns to racing in mid-August the company has published an official guide about its racing categories for its potential competitors.

The document titled Race into the Future, details costs and benefits of all ARG run categories including the pocket rocket TCR Australia Series, S5000 Championship, Trans Am, V8 Touring Cars and Touring Car Masters.

The document highlights ARG’s ongoing commitment to its racing categories, and the viability of competing in each during the current COVID-19 affected economy.

“The motorsport industry is generally aware that our categories offer excellent value and affordability,” said ARG CEO Matt Braid.

“But we wanted to really consolidate that message across each of our categories with the support of key facts and figures, which is why we have produced the Race into the Future document,” “There are plenty of opportunities to race affordably and on a highly visible, national platform with ARG. That includes customer racing models for teams and drivers, or privateer efforts owning and running your race car – a path many young drivers and their families have taken in our categories.”

This year the categories will be shown on free-to-air television, after ARG inked a deal with the Seven Network.

“We are excited to have dates and a premium line-up of circuits confirmed for our return to racing,” Braid said.

“Between the first live event telecasts of our categories on the Seven Network, the return of the Motorsport Australia Gold Star with S5000 and our inaugural Bathurst International and Tasmanian events, there is plenty to look forward to this season.”

If successful in several categories such as TCR and Trans Am, a career can be found overseas in the international equivalents.

While in S5000 drivers compete for the prestigious Australian Drivers’ Championship and Gold Star award.

Another positive is that ARG categories are the headline act at almost all events they feature in.

Racing on the legendary Mount Panorama circuit is also an integral part of the Australian Racing Group categories. Two of the circuit’s four annual race events – the Bathurst International and Bathurst 6 Hour - are owned and promoted by ARG in a joint venture with the Bathurst Regional Council.

ARG’s official return to racing will kick off at Sydney Motorsport Park on August 14-16.

Dan McCarthy

with Dan Knutson

MERCEDES SPEEDS UP THE F1 teams were not allowed to develop their cars during the mandated nine week shutdown.

The design of the Mercedes W11 was frozen at the end of December due to the lead time required for manufacturing and testing various components. So, the team had already developed the car for some three months before the shutdown started. Therefore, Mercedes already has found a bit of extra performance in the wind tunnel and in its simulations. So the car that was going to hit the track in Melbourne in March was already quicker than the initial package.

“There was the whole of January, the whole of February, March, with us making the car quicker in the wind tunnel and also in the design departments,” said Mercedes technical director James Allison.

“So, we’ve got quite a lot of ideas about how to make it quicker ... our challenge now is to make sure that that quarter of a year of development can get off the drawing boards and onto the car as swiftly as possible.

“We hope to have a chunk of that for the first race in Austria, and the season that follows will of course take as much of the development as fast as we can get it onto the car in turn.”

Despite the season starting so late, Mercedes still has the momentum because it has won

Image: LAT

the last six drivers’ and constructors’ world championship, and its 2020 car clocked the quickest lap times in pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Furthermore, Allison believes that Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton will quickly get back into the groove after not racing since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 1, 2019.

“I expect mentally it’s tougher for the drivers than for the team, this period of waiting,” Allison

said. “For the drivers, all the peaks of emotion are amplified, the highs are higher, the lows are lower. To get yourself ready to go at the start of a season, and then have it taken away from you the way that it was in Melbourne, that’s tough I think for the drivers to take.

“It will be a sign of their resilience and their competitiveness to see them bristle back to work full of the vim and vigor that is necessary to be right on it from the start,” he said.

FORMULA 1 REBUKES BERNIE ECCLESTONE

Image: LAT

18 AutoAction

DURING THE nearly 40 years that he ruled Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone was well known for speaking his mind. And his statements were often controversial, like saying he admired certain dictators like Vladimir Putin. Or his remarks, which he later apologised for in 2009, that Adolf Hitler “was able to get things done.”

Ecclestone has not had anything to do with running the business of F1 since January 2017, when new commercial owners Liberty Media took over. But that has not stopped him from making controversial statements.

And Ecclestone’s comments in an interview with CNN caused Formula 1 to issue the following statement: “At a time when unity is needed to tackle racism and inequality, we completely disagree with Bernie Ecclestone’s comments that have no place in Formula 1 or society.”

During the interview Ecclestone was asked about Lewis Hamilton’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and the desire to bring more diversification into motor sport.

Ecclestone said he admired what Hamilton is doing. But Ecclestone said he was not sure about Formula 1’s recent efforts to tackle the biggest issues facing the sport and global communities.

“I don’t think it’s going to do anything bad or good for Formula 1,” Ecclestone told CNN. “It’ll just make people think which is more important.

I think that’s the same for everybody. In lots of Image: cases,LAT black people are more racist than what

white people are.”

Hamilton said on social media that it is “So sad and disappointing to read these comments.

Bernie is out of the sport and a different generation but this is exactly what is wrong - ignorant and uneducated comments which show us how far we as a society need to go before real equality can happen.”

Following his CNN interview, Ecclestone told The Mail on Sunday: “I am not anti-black people. Quite the opposite. Over the years, I have met a lot of white people I didn’t like, but never a black person I didn’t like.

“I’ve been mugged a couple of times, once by three black guys. I ended up in hospital, but even after that I was never against anyone who was black. I don’t think of Lewis as black or anything else. He’s just Lewis to me.”

Ecclestone then took a swipe at Formula 1’s CEO Chase Carey.

“I’m glad he said I have no involvement in Formula 1, so I can’t be credited with all the things they’ve not done,” Ecclestone said. “They have jumped on this racism thing suddenly because of events in America.

“Maybe he (Carey) should concentrate on doing what the shareholders want. COVID was good for him. He could blame everything he hasn’t achieved on that.”

The 89-year-old Ecclestone, who continues to speak his mind, currently resides in Switzerland where he and his wife are expecting a baby.

MORE RACES CANCELLED THREE MORE F1 races have been cancelled as it has been confirmed that the Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix will not take place this year.

The trio join Melbourne, Monaco and France which have also been cancelled.

The 2020 season will begin with eight races in Europe, with the first being in Austria on July 5. But Formula 1 is still working on fitting in the rest of the events into the schedule, while dealing with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

Given the long time needed to build up the street circuits in Azerbaijan and Singapore, and the disruption that causes in the city, these two races were always in doubt. So too is the postponed Vietnamese Grand Prix street race. Furthermore, does Hanoi want to host a race late in the year and then have F1 return to the city just a few months later, for its scheduled April 2021 date?

“The last few months have been extremely challenging on all fronts,” said Colin Syn, deputy chairman of the Singapore event, “and we have now made this difficult decision which Formula 1 and our stakeholders accept we have had to take. Ultimately, the health and safety of our contractors and their workers, spectators, Formula 1 crew, staff and volunteer marshals is our number one priority, and we thank everyone for their patience and unwavering support thus far.”

The Baku City Circuit said in a statement: “The ongoing uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic means that the construction of our street circuit cannot be guaranteed to be carried out safely and on time. In

Image: LAT

addition, the various containment measures still being implemented by governments across the world - and the impact these are having on cross-border travel further reduce the chances of realistically staging a race weekend in Baku later this year. This has, therefore, left us with no choice but to cancel the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2020.”

Formula 1 remains confident that there will be between 15-18 races by the time the season concludes in Abu Dhabi in mid-December.

“As part of the discussions to finalise our calendar we have maintained close dialogues with our promoters and authorities, and continue to monitor the specific and varying COVID-19 developments in each country,”

DANIEL RICCIARDO’S CAREER EXTENDED? AUSSIE DANIEL Ricciardo, who turned 31 on July 1, says that these recent months of downtime in isolation will extend his racing years in Formula 1.

“Through all the sadness and frustration of this whole situation, there was definitely some positives,” he said on the Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s podcast In the Fast Lane.

“Not only are we giving our bodies a rest from pressurized cabins and flights three times a week, and we were on the same time zone, so there is that element. And on top of that, I could train uninterrupted, so it was like a winwin from that point of view. I think this will give me a few more years on my career. So there’s certainly some good to come with the bad.”

Living on his parent’s farm outside of Perth was a perfect training situation for Ricciardo. And he trained every day because nobody knew when the F1 season would finally begin.

“If they told us straight after Melbourne (was canceled) that we were not going to race until July, a lot of us would have said let’s just chill out for a bit,” he said. “So for me it was good not to have a definite date. I stayed ready the whole time. It was nice not

Formula 1 said in a statement. “At all times we will ensure the safety of the Formula 1 community and the communities we visit as the number one priority.

“At the same time, we have made significant progress with existing and new promoters on the revised calendar and have been particularly encouraged by the interest that has been shown by new venues in hosting a Formula 1 race during the 2020 season.

“We appreciate this is still a time of uncertainty and complexity around the world and will continue to ensure we proceed with the 2020 season in a cautious and flexible way. We have detailed and robust safety plans in place to ensure we begin our season in the safest possible way.”

Image: LAT

having the excuse of saying we are not going to race for four months, so let’s just chill out, and I don’t need to train today because I still have months to prepare.

“I enjoyed the fact that I could have got a phone call any day saying let’s go in two weeks. So I went back to Perth and stayed ready. So by the time things were getting announced I was already in such a routine that I did not want to break it.

So it has been good for me staying alert and on the ball. But the reality is it was difficult not knowing when we would go.

The easiest way to deal with that was just keep training and staying focused.”

This is the most ‘gym fit’ Ricciardo has been in his racing career. But there is no substitute for being in the cockpit.

“I won’t be the most race-fit that I’ve ever been because you get that after driving the car through the season,” he said. “I have not gone through the hour and a half of the G forces in a race.

Once I get to Austria in the race I think I’ll be completely fine. But you just can’t replicate that. We do our neck training and can help ourselves, but what your body gets used to being behind the wheel – day one in the car is always a shock when it has been a few months away.

AutoAction 19

Publisher Bruce Williams bruce@autoaction.com.au 0418 349 555 Editorial Director

with Dan Knutson

Bruce Williams

Editor-At-Large

Mark Fogarty

Deputy Editor

Heath McAlpine

Production

Jason Crowe

Special Contributor

Bruce Newton

Staff Journalist

Dan McCarthy

National Editor Online Editor

F1 INSIDER

Garry O’Brien Rhys Vandersyde

Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, David Hassall, Bob Watson, Bruce Moxon, Garry Hill, Craig O’Brien, Mick Oliver, Martin Agatyn.

Formula 1 Dan Knutson, Photographers Australia Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyd, Richard Hathaway, MTR Images, Bruce Moxon 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

Published by Action Media Partners ABN number 62976094459 Suite 4/156 Drummond Street Oakleigh Victoria 3166 Phone: 03 9563 2107 The trademark Auto Action is the sole property of Action Media Partners The website www.autoaction.com.au and associated social media platforms are wholly owned by Action Media Partners All rights reserved No part of this magazine’s content may be reproduced, retransmitted or rebroadcast without the express written permission of the Publisher and Action Media Partners.

Printed by Fairfax Media Distributed by Ovato Retail Distribution Australia

Images: LAT/Mark Horsburgh/ Autopics.com.au/IPRA NSW

20 AutoAction

DR ‘DAN DOLITTLE’ TALKS TO ANIMALS FOR ADVICE SPENDING MONTHS in isolation on a farm outside Perth meant that Daniel Ricciardo did not have a lot of people around to talk to face-to-face.

So who did he consult when making the difficult decision to leave Renault after two years, and sign up with McLaren for 2021 and 2022?

Well, the animals on his parents farm of course!

“Although we didn’t have a whole lot of data, not having done any races or seen any live performances, we did have a lot of alone time and a lot of time to think and digest,” he said on the Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s new podcast In the Fast Lane.

“I was out on the farm. I did have the benefit of my own headspace and a lot of time to think about everything.

I would talk to some cows and sheep and ask for their advice!

“Nonetheless it was not easy to come to conclusions and to figure out what’s best for the future, and time will

tell what the right or wrong decision was. It was all really sparked from (Sebastian) Vettel’s news,” he admitted.

Vettel’s “news” was that he would not be returning to Ferrari in 2021. And that set off the chain reaction of Carlos Sainz leaving McLaren for a two-year deal at Ferrari, with Ricciardo now set to replace Sainz at McLaren.

The Aussie says that making the switch from Renault to McLaren in 2021 was not an easy nor clear-cut decision.

“Obviously these things take time, so it didn’t happen over the course of a week or two weeks,” Ricciardo said during an interview on The F1 Show aired by Sky TV. “I think back (to) when I signed with Renault in 2018, I was having conversations with McLaren at the time, so I guess I kept somewhat of a relationship with the guys there.

“So it was quite easy to reignite the conversation earlier in the year. It was a lot of thought, and it wasn’t an easy process, especially

not having any racing and a whole lot to dictate the decision from at least this year. But just having the space and being out on the farm I certainly had no distractions, so I had a lot of time to make my mind up.

But (it was) not an easy one still, obviously.”

McLaren had a lot of momentum last year as it finished fourth in the constructors’ championship.

And the fact that McLaren will switch from Renault to Mercedes power units in 2021 was also very appealing to Ricciardo. On the other hand, lots of McLaren’s progress in 2019 was by the team improving the car by grabbing low hanging fruit in the performance department that won’t be there in 2020. It is going to be more difficult to improve the car this year.

Furthermore, the entire McLaren Group is going through financially tough times right now.

“The reality is it’s still not like a clear-cut decision,” Ricciardo said. “Yes, McLaren

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 16 JULY

certainly stood out last year – no mistake. They were the team on the grid who made the biggest progress, so there’s the appeal with that.

“But in saying that I didn’t expect us at Renault to fight for wins or podiums last year.

I know that we didn’t achieve what we wanted, but there was still room to grow and to do that. But I guess just seeing what McLaren had done, that was probably a little bit more to convince me.

“People did ask, why don’t you wait until the season started? But the reality is everything is done by then.

It was probably fast tracked because of Vettel, but also we will not know after one race where everyone stands. You always want four or five races to really figure it out.

“There are arguments for and against. Time will tell if the one I’ve made is the right one.”

The cows and sheep will be very interested as well to see if their advice helped that guy on their farm make the right decision.

Formula 1 returns in Austria - Living Legends Kevin Bartlett part 2 - Short Circuit Luddenham Raceway Alan Jones British Grand Prix - Latest Supercar news - Latest F1 news - the Foges File - much more

THE FOGES FILE

with Mark Fogarty

AA’s peripatetic pundit is impressed

by Supercars’ controlled return to racing LATE SATURDAY morning.

I’m westbound on Sydney’s M4 motorway, bound for Melbourne. I drive straight past Sydney Motorsport Park, where Supercars’ return is getting started.

It is odd – and ironic – that I don’t stop in. But I can’t. Media are banned from attending the Sydney SuperSprint because of the restriction on numbers, much less a live crowd.

So I sailed by, waiting till I got home that night to catch up on what happened. I’d been taking a break up on NSW’s mid-north coast until the coronavirus spike in hometown Melbourne.

Thought it was best to get back pronto in case jumpy, judgy NSW closed the border with Victoria.

While I was in Sydney, I experienced no animosity despite my car’s VIC registration. Did notice, bizarrely, that there was a panic run on toilet paper in leafy Lane Cove.

Traffic around Sydney was as busy as and there was plenty of social mingling going on, as there was in Coffs Harbour.

Back in Melbourne to watch the racing on Sunday, I was struck by how normal it looked on the teev.

There was an obvious lack of milling around the garages and on the grid, but the racing was completely normal.

Unlike AFL and NRL, which rely on crowds cheering for atmosphere, Supercars only needs the roar of the V8s to seem real at home. AFL and NRL have needed ‘canned’ crowd

www.autoaction.com.au

reaction to simulate atmosphere in empty stadiums.

Supercars – or any racing – doesn’t.

The ambient noise is the atmosphere, although from what those who were there have told me, at SMP the vibe was flat as.

Still, watching at home, it was short, sharp and entertaining. The racing on the Sunday was unpredictable and action-packed, no refuelling .

Nick Percat’s victory was encouraging, proving that a different course within the new restrictions can work.

It says that by levelling the field, outsiders can pull off upsets.

To me, the slimmer, trimmer Supercars is the way forward. Less tech, fewer crew, shorter races, no refuelling.

I thought Supercars’ return was way superior to the soulless AFL and NRL games.

We don’t need crowds – although we’d love to have them back – or confected fan noise to create a racing vibe for viewers at home.

I also thought the slimmed down TV commentator cast was an improvement. No disrespect to pit reporters Riana Crehan or Greg Murphy, but Larko in the pit lane is all

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

you really need.

Overall, as a viewer, the simplified approach made it better. It’s a clear message for the future, especially the urgent need for Gen3 to realise meaningful cost savings and controls.

Supercars has to be adaptable like never before. The spike in COVID-19 outbreaks in Melbourne threatens next month’s event at Winton in northeast Victoria.

I’m hearing there’s a contingency plan to switch to Queensland Raceway if Victoria reverts to punitive lockdown.

Hopefully, Supercars’ cautious approach will allow racing at Winton, Townsville, Darwin and beyond to go ahead.

Still, the early lesson from SMP is that less is more.

THE BIG BOOK OF DICK IF YOU’RE looking for a big, big racing read, Aaron Noonan’s tome on 40 years of Dick Johnson Racing/DJR Team Penske will keep you absorbed for hours and hours.

I’m still churning through it – and Noonz sent me a review copy weeks ago.

While I haven’t finished reading it, I can recommend it as the definitive

history of every DJR/DJRTP car since 1980 1980.

Fascinatingly, there’s the full story of the ‘illegal’ EB Falcon built for the new V8 formula in 1993.

Binned at great cost, it’s a great example of the ‘wild west’ days of Australian touring car racing.

With Will Dale, Noonz – he of commentating and V8 sleuthing – has compiled a major compendium of Australian motor racing history.

It’s so good it’s already effectively sold out at the bargain price of $160 – way cheap for a 400-page epic.

However, if you search suppliers on the web, it is still available.

Noonz has become a prolific producer of car/team history books, all researched scrupulously. There was his award-winning history of HRT and now he’s working on tomes on Holden’s history in motor sport and the whole Glenn Seton story.

I look forward to finishing Dick Johnson Racing/DJR Team Penske – 40 Years Of Racing. I know what happens, obvs, but I’ll be fascinated to see how it gets there.

Great to see that Noonz is keeping the Australian touring car racing history flame burning.

AutoAction

21

BIG REV KEV

PART ONE

In the second of our new series on racing heroes, open wheel-turned-tin top star Kevin Bartlett recounts his colourful career to MARK FOGARTY

IMAGES: Autopics.com.au/AA Archive

ROUGH, TOUGH and gruff. Those three words sum up Kevin Bartlett, a hard man in a hard era. To survive single-seater racing in the 1960s and 1970s, a driver had to be gifted, resilient, courageous and lucky.

Bartlett, now 80, had a storied career from the late 1950s to 1990. He starred in Australian National Formula 1 in the midto-late ‘60s and was one of the heroes of Formula 5000 in the ’70s.

Known as ‘KB’ or ‘Big Rev Kev’, he became an accidental touring car ace, winning the Bathurst 1000 with fellow open wheel celebrity John Goss. His national fame and popularity soared from 1979-82 when he ran the crowd-pleasing blue and

yellow Nine Network Chev Camaro.

With typically contrariness, Bartlett rates his success in open wheelers – particularly his Australian Drivers’ Championship Gold Star titles in 1968/69 and Macau Grand Prix victory in ’69 – ahead of his Bathurst win and heroics in the Camaro.

Raised in Sydney’s western suburbs, throughout his career he mixed a specialist road car service business with driving and running his own teams. He also famously fettled the late Kerry Packer’s fleet of high-performance cars and tutored the publishing magnate in track driving.

While Bartlett, now living at Maleny on the Sunshine Coast, is these days in

Though best remembered for his exploits in the Nine Network Camaro or John Goss Falcon Bathurst winner, Bartlett raced a variety of touring cars in the 1960s, including class-winning Alfas (above) for single-seater patron Alec Mildren.

retirement, he keeps his hand in by helping out a couple a days a week at the Bowden collection of classic race and road cars, the refurbishment of which he oversaw.

He is fit, healthy and active, having overcome a variety of health issues in addition to the many broken bones he suffered in two serious F5000 crashes.

After dabbling in club racing for a couple of decades, he remains involved as the Driving Standards Advisor of historic racing in Queensland and Victoria.

KB was always a laconic, non-nonsense character known for his grit and candour.

He is still feisty and forthright, recalling his career with exceptional clarity, dry humour and disarming honesty.

From his early years racing small sedans, Bartlett graduated to junior single-seaters in the early 1960s. His performances in self-prepared machines established him as a star of the future in open wheelers, which were then the peak of Australian racing.

Legend has it that you started racing in, of all things, a Morris Minor convertible.

In fact, that’s slightly incorrect. Close, but slightly incorrect in as much as I had fronted for a race at Schofields Aerodrome in the west of Sydney in an MG TC that I had. I ran practice and had a little issue with something in the steering box and I didn’t actually race the TC there. I was a young mechanic on a starting wage and after being advised on what I’d really have to do to go racing properly in the TC, it looked too expensive for me. I couldn’t afford to do what they suggested. So I gave that idea away and sold the MG, and then I just ran around in an old Holden for a while. My mum had this little Morris Minor convertible. It was a good car to go down to the beach with the top folded down. I’d regularly do that because she didn’t use it on a Sunday. Through the earlier effort with the MG, I’d struck a relationship with the Howard brothers, the fireworks people.

They were into motor racing and one day I was going to Newport Beach in the convertible and

they’d already told me they were going to be at a place called Foleys Hill in Mona Vale. To get to the top of the hill to join them, I had to enter the hillclimb meeting that was going on. They threw some numbers on the car and loaned me a helmet, and I drove the car up to the top of the hill. That was really the start of it. I was already enthusiastic about motor racing. I’d watched plenty of races at Parramatta Park and then Mount Druitt (in far western Sydney) and the bug bit. It was that simple.

As unlikely as a drop-top Morris Minor sounds, you finished second in class in the inaugural ATCC at Gnoo Blas in 1960.

I think there were only two cars in the class!

[There were actually six starters in the under 1000 cc class.] Strangely, if you look back, with a lot of people that did race back then – even Formula 1 blokes – started in Morris Minors or Austin A30s. It’s quite amazing how many big names in the 1960s did start in them.

They were plentiful and you could buy them second-hand pretty cheap. I had two Morris Minors – the first one was my mum’s, of course, but I had to get a second one after they changed the regulations. They wouldn’t allow the convertible in as a touring car, so I had to get a black two-door hardtop. I only raced that a few times.

But the one you raced at Gnoos Blas was your mother’s convertible?

Yes. In fact, it wasn’t a convertible by that time in as much as I had a fibreglass top on it. There

was a guy in Sydney making fibreglass tops for convertibles because people couldn’t afford to renew or replace the ragtop.

Was your mother happy about you racing her car?

Oh, yeah. Once she learned that was what the car was being used for, she was most impressed every time she used it.

She said “Oh, it’s going very well now”.

[Chuckles] I did a lot of work on it in our shed at Strathfield (in Sydney’s inner west) – hours upon hours of burning the midnight oil, as they used to say. I did a lot of modifications and upgrading, learning a lot along the way. I went to work for a Morris dealer in Schofields because I wanted access to cheap parts. A lot of work went into those Minors. We tried different camshafts, different carburation, different exhausts. Never dry sumped it, but did a lot of modifications to the oil system. I got acquainted with the guys at Hardie (later Hardie Ferodo and James Hardie, sponsor of the Bathurst 500/1000 from 1968-1987).

They were making a tyre called the Hardie Highway.

I had been using Michelins, which cost me, but the Hardies were free. And, quite honestly, they worked very well. They were as good as the Michelins. I started out with the smaller of the two A-Series engines and then it became a 1000 cc motor. The first car was a Series 2 convertible and the second car was an actual Morris Minor 1000. What happened from there was that I was invited

Kevin Bartlett’s first actual race was in his mother’s Morris Minor convertible! (left). A young KB talks with long-time patron Alec Mildren at Warwick Farm (above).

by Lynx Engineering to come in with them for the start of Australian Formula Junior. They’d bought the rights from (Brabham designer) Ron Tauranac to build what was originally the RALT motorcycle-engined single-seater.

For FJ, they wanted a well-proven engine, which was the BMC A-Series. They needed someone to supply an engine, so in return for that I worked for them, building cars. My first car with them was the first FJ Lynx. I put my Morris engine in it mated to a Renault Gordini gearbox. It ran quite well, but the

motor was unfortunately by then already on the limit of tuning. We dragged as much horsepower out of it as possible, but then the Cosworth-modified Ford 105E came along and it was just a much better engine.

In the beginning, we were up against the likes of the Lotus 18, against which we were pretty competitive, but as soon as the Lotus 20s came along with good Cosworth 105E engines, I just couldn’t compete. We hung in there for a couple of years, but Lynx eventually had to adopt a Hewland transmission and the 105E. But my configuration just wasn’t up to scratch and I got invited to drive an Elfin with a 1.5-litre Hillman Imp engine in what was then effectively F2.

Early days with Alec Mildren at Lakeside, in the era when open wheeler racing in Australia was the top of the tree. This is the Brabham BT11A Climax in 1966.

“I must have impressed him because he wanted to sign me up. I got paid and I got bonus money - it was all roses for me at that time.”

Every year the world’s best came to Australia to contest the Tasman Series. In typical pose, here KB heads the BRM P261 V8 of Piers Courage through turn one at Lakeside in 1967.

KB’s efforts earned him a place with Alec Mildren Racing in 1966, beginning a golden era in the team’s yellow racers.

He confirmed his potential by becoming the first driver to average more than 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) around Mount Panorama in a Brabham BT11A-Climax in 1967. His most famous car was the bespoke Mildren Mono ‘Yellow Submarine’, first powered by a 2.5-litre Alfa Romeo V8 and then the locally developed two-litre four-cylinder Waggot. In the ‘Sub, Bartlett won his second straight Gold Star title in 1969 as well as the prestigious Macau GP, one of his many appearances in the popular Asian GPs of the time. He mixed it with the internationals in the Tasman Cup, initially as No.2 to UK-based Frank Gardner, finishing third in the Mono in 1970 series against the five-litre V8 F5000s.

So you join Alec Mildren Racing. It’s your big break. Mildren was a famous Sydney car dealer, former Gold Star champion and a great patron of open-wheel racing back then.

He loved it. He was a guy when he was racing that you admired what he did and how he did it. He was a very determined character. I first bumped into Alec when I raced my Morrie at Phillip Island in 1958.

We were practising before the meeting and I got to meet him and his (legendary) mechanic Glenn Abbey. We got on well from that time. So they knew me and later on they had Ralph Sach driving for them, but he was getting on in age and Alec was looking for someone younger. I was still a kid, but not like today when kids are racing professionally at 16 or 17. In my day, you didn’t get into the top level until you were 24-25. Alec invited me to have at test in his car and I must have impressed him because he wanted to sign me up. I got paid and I got bonus money – it was all roses for me at that time, I’ll tell you.

KB’s most successful open wheeler was the Mildren Mono, nicknamed the Yellow Submarine. It was powered by a 2.5-litre Alfa Romeo V8 and then the locally developed twolitre four-cylinder Waggott.

24 AutoAction

It was a great era for you, highlighted by consecutive Gold Star titles and victory in the Macau GP. In the early years, were you Frank Gardner’s sort of protégé?

Oh, you wouldn’t call anybody a protégé of Frank’s because he had his own agenda. He didn’t come out to school me up. He was somebody I looked up to from the point of view that he was the guru on setting the car up so that it was comfortable and driveable. He would impart knowledge to you, he wouldn’t hold it back. If you asked him a question, he’d answer you honestly about set up, etc. It was great for me because I got on quite well with him and also because every time he’d visit, he’d come out with a new car. I’d inherit the car he used the previous year for the Tasman series and the incentive was, of course, to either emulate or try to beat the lap times that he’d set. It was a great incentive because we knew how we had to push to make these things go satisfactorily and that was always a plus as far as I was concerned.

Mildren used to understand what was going on because he’d done it himself and he was a great mentor. He appreciated honesty and you didn’t have to bullshit to him. Equally, if you were doing something wrong, he’d tell you straight – and then tell you why. That was great for me.

Mildren commissioned the ‘Yellow Submarine’ in which you had such great success.

Of course, prior to that, the BT23D Brabham with the Alfa engine was a very, very nice motor car. That was my step up from the BT11A with the Climax engine and we ran the BT23D at Lakeside in a Gold Star event with a wing on it on Frank’s recommendation. Frank had sent us some pictures and drawings from the UK to try it on the car. So we put a wing on the back and it was the first strutmounted rear wing on a race car in the country. People scoffed at it when they first saw it, but they soon stopped that when it just ran away in the race at Lakeside (in 1968). It was an ugly device, but it worked. That was significant because it set me on the way to really learning about setting up a car because it was something I was able to do by myself, rather than just inherit what Frank had done to the car. And then, of course, we went to the ‘Yellow Submarine’ and that was a big step forward. The history of that car was just fantastic.

You went back to the Alfa engine for the Macau GP in ’69, right?

Yes. We also ran the Alfa in it in the Singapore GP and led the race for all but two laps from Graeme Lawrence in the Ferrari Dino. I had a good lead on him going into the third last lap and the bloody thing dropped a valve. So that destroyed an engine and we only had two of them. We then went to

Japan with the V8 in the back of it and the blessed oil line came off after about six laps of practice and even though I sat out the rest of practice, I still had second position on the grid because it was a phenomenal car around Fuji. We ran a development of the wing thing with high-mounted wings attached to the uprights on the front as well as the rear. We tested it at Oran Park before we went to Japan and it worked really well (more downforce directly on the wheels rather than through the chassis). It was just unbelievably good. Our ‘bi-plane’ wings were pretty agricultural, but they were strong. The struts didn’t collapse like on the F1 Lotus and Brabham at the time (subsequently leading to the towering wings being banned).

It all came good in the Macau GP, which I gather you regard as the highlight of your career?

Well, it was the only grand prix I ever won, so you have to cap yourself on that one. Look, I wasn’t going to be the world champion, so I did the best I could along the way. I had some failings, I had some issues with myself and machinery. I’ve led some grands prix, but by jeez, I’ve lost a lot. My career was what it was.

I had big aims initially, but the reality of life is that there’s more to it than just your aims. The old saying is that you follow you dreams, but they are just dreams. That’s all they are.

Classic shot of Bartlett in the ’Sub at Warwick Farm in 1970. He was among the men to beat in Australian open wheeler racing in the late ’60s and well into the ’70s.

Bartlett’s only serious attempt at forging an overseas career was in 1970, when he was entered in four USAC Indycar events, including the Indianapolis 500. He made it into the field in three of them – Sonoma, Colorado and Ontario Motor Speedway – but was bumped from the Indy 500.

His Indy attempt coincided with a family crisis back home which changed his mind about pursuing a fulltime switch to America.

Given how strong you were in open wheelers in Australia and you had matched yourself against the internationals in the Tasman series, was F1 ever a possibility?

Only on one occasion. Coming out of Japan I was on the same plane as Ron Tauranac – actually, sitting together – and we got talking about that. He said “Yeah, I’d like you to come and have test with us in the F1 car (Brabham)”. I was interested until he asked me if I could rake up $60,000 to pay for it. I said “Actually, no”.

That was as far as that went. [Laughs] I did try overseas, of course, with USAC Indycars (in 1970). It was a direction that beckoned through an invitation and I ran four events (including attempting to qualify for the Indy 500), but quite honestly, ovals weren’t my thing. I just didn’t like them. I was a rookie, I didn’t know shit about setting up a car for an oval, and I wasn’t helped a great deal by the fact that the attempt at Indy was with a guy who’d never entered a car there before. He wasn’t able to supply a car that was ever going to make it into the race. Then the second car I got into at Indy was a brand new car that had never

www.autoaction.com.au

been sorted and, of course, the crew set it up the way they knew to set something else up and that wasn’t the best way to go. But being a rookie at Indy, you had to learn the intricacies of the place. Into the bargain, it was the first time I had driven a turbocharged car running on methanol.

It was a huge learning curve. The fastest speed in a straight line that I’d ever done up until then was 170-180 miles per hour (274-290 km/h), but this thing at Indy was doing 240 mph (386 km/h) down the front straight. It takes a little while to acclimatise to that. I acclimatised pretty well to the actual speed, but I’d been driving cars with wings on them for a few years before I got there. I arrived there and it was still the pre-wing era, and the cars were just like a wedge. So they were inherently unstable and, quite honestly, it wasn’t a pleasant experience to be in a car that you had to learn all about huge throttle lag because the turbos were huge to get the horsepower. You had to drive using two pedals all the time – brakes to feed the turbo up and slow the car down at the same time, and then work out where the boost was going to come on. All the things the experienced blokes knew about were all strange to me. And the crews I had were just as inexperienced. I’m sure it would have been a much easier experience if someone like, say, AJ Foyt was giving me advice. I was trying to learn it all as a rookie. Drivers I knew from the USAC road course races I’d already done knew me and knew that I wasn’t going to cause a problem, and they tried to help me. But they were also competing and there was only so much they could do to help me. So to sum up the USAC experience, I did it, I could say I’d done it and I walked away from it.

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

Still, despite all the dramas, you almost qualified for the Indy 500, didn’t you?

Oh, yeah. Drivingwise, I could do a speed, but it wasn’t always a pleasant speed to be doing. In qualifying, I can distinctly remember thinking “Oh, I gotta take a deep breath here” and you shouldn’t have to do that. You can take a shallow breath and say to yourself “Right, I’ll do this”, but when you go “Oh shit, oh shit, is this too much?”, you’re not in a good place. You’re not in the comfort zone that you need to be in to make it work. It turned around for at Ontario Motor Speedway a few months later. I tried to qualify a car that had failed to qualify at Indy and it failed the speed test at Ontario.

That was an Eisert with a Chevy V8 with a blower on it. She wasn’t a good car. But then they landed me a drive, luckily, in Lloyd Ruby’s back-up car. Lloyd was a good guy, but initially I was only allowed to run the car around to familiarise myself with the proviso that I didn’t exceed a certain speed – 150-160 mph (241-258 km/h) average or something like that. They said they weren’t ready for me to have a go in this car until Ruby decides which car he wants to use.

It was good, but I was restricted to start with. No complaint about that – it’s the way it was, it’s what I had to live with. So when it came down to qualifying, I went out in my car and got up to speed. It was chalk and cheese between that team and that car compared with what I had at Indy.

I’m sure if I’d had that car at Indy that I wouldn’t have been bumped. In fact, the car that bumped me at Indy was that car! I qualified midfield at Ontario with very few laps on board and I was comfortable in the car. Lloyd and I both had engine failures in the race. But the team knew what they were doing and Lloyd had guided me on

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

set up and schooled me a bit. It was a much, much better experience. However, by then I’d already made my mind up not to pursue Indycar racing. Long story short, I’d decided stay in Australia with my young family. So that was the end of my overseas ambitions. Sure, I’d do the occasional race in southeast Asia, but they only involved being away for days rather than weeks. To try to make a career in USAC Indycars, you had to live there and I didn’t want to do that.

Not such a bad decision in the end, though, was it?

I have no regrets about that, no. Also, Indycars back then were very dangerous.

There were no second chances on those ovals in those cars in those days.

‘Big Rev Kev’ was at the forefront of F5000 in Australia in the early to mid-1970s. He ran his own team, starting with a McLaren M10B and then starred in a succession of Lolas.

Always competitive, his success rate was restricted by limited budgets and consequent reliability issues. Still, he was three times runner-up in the Gold Star championship (’71/72/74). His opponents locally and in the Tasman series (and post-’75 individual NZ and Australian summer series) were rich talents like the late Max Stewart (formerly his teammate at AMR), Frank Matich, Warwick Brown, Graeme Lawrence, Kenny Smith, John Goss, Johnnie Walker and Bruce Allison. But it was also in the fearsome F5000s that Bartlett had his two biggest crashes – at Pukekohe in ’74 and Sandown in ’79, the latter effectively ending his career in open wheelers.

AutoAction

25

Your decision coincided with Formula 5000 taking off in Australasia and you were made for F5000 racers, weren’t you?

It was a good category. There were times when I could’ve done better, but quite honestly, trying to be a mechanic and work on your old car like the old days was still embedded in me. I had some good runs.

When I could afford it, I had people like Peter Molloy to build an engine for me and she worked good. But then I used to think I could do that and it didn’t always work out. Lack of foresight took over with a lot of reliability problems – and those problems have been fixed these days. The problems I had just don’t occur anymore. The big teams like VDS would come out for the Tasman series and you’d look in the back of their rent-a-truck and there were four engines sitting in there, two gearboxes and all the spares under the sun. You’d go “Oh, wow!”

They had the foresight and the money to do it, whereas we were struggling around. At the best of times, I had spare engine, but it was a cobble-up and you’d hope you never had to use it. It just got harder and harder. But it was a great era.

I loved the cars and I had some great times in them, and I made some great mates. To this day, all the guys we raced with in F5000 up at the pointy end of the field, we’re all still mates. We all struggled budgetwise back in the day. In hindsight, though, I wouldn’t change a thing.

KB started the F5000 era in this MildrenChev (above) but the Alec Mildren lost interest, disbanded the team and went fishing. Bartlett was offered the car but declined, instead stepping into a McLaren and then a sucession of Lolas starting with the T300 (left) and then later the T330, both famously sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes.

But Bu that wasn’t your last big shunt in an F5000.

You crashed heavily at Sandown in F5 1979 19 in the Brabham BT43-Chev. More leg injuries? inj

You started in F5000 with the MildrenChevrolet, but then you went out on your own. Why? Alec wanted to go fishing. He disbanded the team. He offered me the Mildren at a pretty reasonable figure, but for reasons I can’t remember, I knocked it back.

Well, it wasn’t a great car, was it?

Not at the time, but it could have been made into a good car. I wasn’t in a position to do that and then Archie White from Shell came along with an offer to put something together for me. He got me into the ex-Neil Allen McLaren M10B (in 1971) and first time out at Lakeside, I won. I took to the McLaren immediately. It felt like a home. It was all Shell money that got me into F5000 in my own right.

Then came the Lolas, which basically wanted to kill you, didn’t they?

Well, the T300 wasn’t too bad. There’d been some big accidents in T300s and a lot of it was mechanical, yes. Warwick Brown’s crash at Surfers, for example, was caused by a tyre failure. The T300s would bite pretty easily if you overstepped the mark, but I never had a problem. They weren’t aero-dependent, so they telegraphed what they were going to do. As long as nothing mechanical broke, they’d telegraph what they were going to do pretty early. But there were a lot of guys who had rear uprights break in the early T300s. I never had a problem

26 AutoAction

with them and I drove two of them (his own Chesterfield car in Australasia and a Chuck Jones-owned car in 1972 L&M series in the USA).

sideways as you could with the T300.

The T332 was a much better car again in that it came back to where the T300 was chuckabilitywise – and it was also a much stronger, safer car. The T400 was by far the best of them all.

But a Lola did bite you in the end, didn’t it?

Yeah, that was a T330 and there was a good reason for that. The T330 was more aero sensitive than the T300, which is why it was a faster car. Its grip level was much further up the scale, so when something went wrong, you had a bigger accident. My crash was driver error. I put a wheel off on turn-in and that was it. I was still on low tyres pressures in qualifying and I was just trying too hard. I should’ve waited for the tyres to come up a little bit more. Because it had more downforce, you had to be more precise, whereas with the T300 you could actually get a bit flamboyant with it. In my crash in the T330, I just couldn’t catch it in time and it went off the road. So lesson learned. That was in January 1974 and at the end of the month, a rule change moved the rear wings further forward and also produced more drag. Once they did that, the cars became more predictable.

But you could never drive the T330 as

So the crash in the T330 gave you the infamous ‘Lola Limp’. What were your injuries exactly?

Broken knee, tibia, fibula, ankle. The whole catastrophe.

It wasn’t too bad, actually. I only crushed both bo my ankles and broke my wrist. My wrist w got broken because I put my hand up as I was going through the catch fencing to deflect the stuff that was hitting my helmet. d I instinctively put my arm up to fend off the th stakes that held up the catch fencing.

I didn’t break my leg again – it was only my di ankles. It’s academic, though, because I couldn’t walk, anyway. Unlike ’74, this time I had to sit out the Bathurst 1000 because of my injuries. The whole thing was bloody unfortunate because the car was owned by an American who sent it out here to be sold and a deposit had been taken on the car. I was asked to drive it and the people who prepared the car assured me everything on the car had been crack-tested. The had a certificate from Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation to say the wheels had been

crack-tested, but I rather doubt they had been because what happened was the right rear wheel el collapsed and jammed all the suspension up, and just made it turn right.

No warning, no slide, nothing. Bang! And that frightened me. Of all the crashes over the years, that one scared me. Afterwards, my wife Rana said to me “Is that the end of open wheelers for you?” and I replied ‘Well, that’s the end of F5000 for me”. But it didn’t stop me driving little formula cars and I still enjoy driving little formula cars. That brought a stop to my adventures in out-and-out racing cars.

And, let’s face it, from ’77-78, the F5000 scene wasn’t looking all that bright. They were bringing in Formula Pacific and I’d been driving them in Asia, and I wasn’t really keen on them.

So from then on, I just stuck to the touring cars.

The Brabham BT43 was an interesting car.

Was it a converted F1 chassis?

KB waits for action at the height of the F5000 heyday (above) and heads friend/arch-rival Max Stewart in their Lola T400s at Oran Park in ’75 (below).

Stewart died in his car in an accident during practice at Calder in March 1977 1977.

Nonetheless, Bartlett describes the T400 as the best of all the Lola F5000s.

No. It was a strange car. It was basically a BT40 F2 chassis. I’d raced a BT40 in Asia – I came second at Macau in it in 1975 – and the BT43’s chassis from the rear bulkhead forward was the same. But to get enough fuel tankage in for the Chev V8, they put the F1 BT42’s slant-sided tanks on it. That’s why it looked like it was based on an F1 Brabham. [Originally built in 1973, the BT43 was raced in Australia by KB with little success in 1978. He was invited back to drive it for its new owner-to-be at the Sandown Gold Star round in September 1979.] There were only two of them made. One was written off and the one I drove had been crashed about three times before I got to it. It was sent out to me by its American owner to find a buyer here, which I eventually did. The guy who agreed to buy it paid a deposit, but then ran away from the thing after the crash, never to be seen again. The remains of the car were eventually auctioned off to pay the unpaid freight bill to the UK. It would have been repairable, but to my knowledge, it never was.

KB FACT FILE Age: 80 Born: Coffs Harbour NSW Lives: Sunshine Coast QLD Status: Retired Activities: Historic racing DSA QLD & VIC Racing career: 1958-1990 Honours: Australian Motor Sport Hall Of Fame Championships: 1968/69 Australian Drivers’ Championship Major race wins: 1969 Macau Grand Prix, 1974 Bathurst 1000

Next issue: KB’s reluctant rise to touring car stardom and the full story behind his famous Nine Network Camaro, plus the race that killed his career – and also nearly cost him his life.

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AutoAction

27

IMAGES: AA Archive/Peter Weaver/AN1 Images

Former Auto Action editor and super speedway fan Steve Nally remembers the glory days of the Thunderdome and the important role AUSCAR played in the show.

THERE ARE few more tragic sights than abandoned racetracks. Eerily quiet, they die slowly, worn down by weather and reclaimed by nature. Europe and the US are littered with these faded relics where only echoes of their glory days remain.

In Australia the most forlorn monument to speed is the giant Calder Park Thunderdome which stands overgrown and mute alongside the Calder Freeway just outside Melbourne.

Despite its size, most people driving past wouldn’t give the first banked superspeedway to be built outside of the US a second glance, but when track owner Bob Jane’s magnificent obsession

28 AutoAction

opened in 1987, it was the motorsport equivalent of the MCG. From 1988 to 2001, thousands of fans in the vast grandstands watched horsepower gladiators go to war in this 20th-century colosseum, and while the imported NASCARs were the stars and the reason for the ‘Dome’s very existence, it was the local good ol’ boy bruisers, AUSCAR (Australian Stock Car Auto Racing), that often stole their thunder. In fact, the inaugural race on the track was the AUSCAR 200 in February 1988, a week before the first NASCAR event.

Bob Jane offered big prizemoney to

entice teams to race at the Thunderdome and in its heyday large grids of Commodores and Falcons were raced aggressively by touring car stars and an eager bunch of newcomers, many from traditional dirt speedway backgrounds.

The cars were fast, the racing was cutthroat, loud and spectacular, and perched high in the ‘bleachers’ fans could see the whole show unfold. It was entertaining, hardcore motorsport.

But in April 1994 the track was lit for the first time and that changed everything.

Racing under lights ramped up the atmosphere, accentuated the speed, and amplified the volume; it was magic.

There hasn’t been anything like it since.

In the early years I went as a fan but I later covered AUSCAR for Auto Action and that meant I could get close to the cars, drivers and dramas and really close to the track and its formidable 24-degree banking.

With a top speed of around 265km/h, only 30km/h shy of a NASCAR, a pack of AUSCARS diving three-wide into Turn one was an awe-inspiring sight and to stand behind the infield concrete wall and watch them blast past high above you as they rounded the banking was an incredibly visceral sensation.

The steeply banked turns at each

end of the track were usually where the dramas happened. With cars running so close together on the limit of adhesion, it only took a touch of panels to set off a wild smoky spin or multi-car pile-up, and that could happen going into turns, midturn, or as they ‘popped out’ onto the slightly banked straights.

Many drivers were also tapped into a hair-raising, high-speed slides through the grass between the ‘tri-oval’ track and pit lane, usually escaping unscathed, but direct hits to the unyielding concrete walls were car-crunching, brain-rattling experiences and drivers would be bruised for days.

The ‘Dome was so big (check out an aerial image of it) and the noise from the 30-odd cars so loud, it meant that a crash could happen at one end of the circuit and the only way you’d know was

www.autoaction.com.au

if someone pointed it out!

Of course this is what many fans came for – action – and there was always plenty of it.

Any on-track mayhem triggered a ‘caution’ or ‘yellow’ to remove wrecked cars or to clean up tyre-shredding shards, before racing could be restarted.

But there were often unexplained safety car periods which allowed the field to bunch up and I remember one official winking and saying it was because there was “a French man on the track, Jacques Debris”. Yes, there was show with the go.

Cautions meant pitstops, the other half of the spectacle. Pitstops, whether tactical or necessary, could decide a 200km race and the long, long pit lane was always an exciting place to be whether it was the whole field charging

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

in for tyres and fuel or a mangled car limping in for a miraculous fix.

The pit garages were next to the road circuit more than a kilometre from pit lane and that meant race cars had to be driven into and out of the circuit through a deep tunnel (which used to flood when it rained hard), followed by their tender vehicles. That pre-race parade to the tunnel made them even more accessible to fans; the fan ‘experience’ was very important to the success of the Thunderdome.

Less sophisticated than the Group A or V8 touring cars of the same era, AUSCARs were basically strippeddown road cars with a roll cage, more power and uprated suspension but they were devastatingly effective when set up properly. Development never stopped and when AUSCARs started

instagram.com/autoactionmag/

moonlighting on ‘flat tracks’, brakes, clutches and engines were further improved.

They could lap the 1.8-km Thunderdome in around 33 seconds, only about 4sec slower than the slickshod NASCARs which were purposebuilt cars with more than twice the horsepower. That’s an average speed of over 190km/h. Everyone raced on the same narrow, buffed Goodyear street radials and with almost no downforce AUSCARs needed real skill to drive on the limit.

The first AUSCAR winner was teenager Terri Sawyer. Qualifying on the front row she gave nothing away to older more experienced drivers and later became the first woman to win a NASCAR race in Australia. But the undisputed king of the Thunderdome was Brad Jones.

AutoAction

29

Terri Sawyer #05 won the very first AUSCAR race.

Here she leads perennial winner Brad Jones #8 in the early days of the category.

Crashes were a big part of the AUSCAR action at the Thunderdome and a major drawcard for the large crowds who attended.

Incidents like these were common, though the relatively low cost of the cars meant competitors were back at the next meeting.

With his brother Kim calling the shots in the pits, Brad Jones Racing had the funding, speed, strategic nous and luck to dominate five consecutive seasons from 1989-90 to ’93-’94 and then win the NASCAR title at their first attempt.

Only Jones won more than one AUSCAR title, with championships also going to Tony Kavich, Terry Wyhoon, Marshall Brewer, Matthew White, Darren McDonald, and Leigh Watkins.

Touring car aces including Jim Richards, John Bowe, Peter Brock, Dick Johnson, Kevin Bartlett, Allan Grice, Russell Ingall, Gregg Hansford and Charlie O’Brien also had a lash at AUSCAR, Richards being the most successful.

But bad luck (or Brad Jones) often thwarted the championship hopes of many good, fast drivers over the years like John Faulkner, Matthew White, Steve Harrington, Eddie Albininca, Kim Jane and Auto

Action publisher Bruce Williams; the Thunderdome could be a cruel place.

The interesting thing about AUSCAR is it brought together drivers from diverse racing backgrounds and there were certainly some very diverse personalities. Tensions were often high, especially if there’d been some carnage and post-race press conferences were sometimes pretty frosty.

There was little, if any, ‘media training’ back then and if a driver wanted to sound off, my tape recorder came out quick smart.

They could be angry or elated and sometimes they just wanted to get something off their chests. People are far more complex and interesting than cars, especially under duress, and plenty of salty quotes never made it into print.

At the same time, there was also a tremendous sense of camaraderie,

with drivers willing to lend parts or advice or help with repairs. After the race, BBQs would be fired up, beers opened, and near-miss stories swapped under the dim pit lights.

I always found this calm after the storm a poignant part of the night, because only the winning team really had a reason to celebrate, the rest were either just grateful to have survived intact or were despondent over opportunities lost.

There are many reasons why AUSCAR ended: politics, lack of sponsorship, falling crowds, the rise of V8 Supercar, etcetera, but for a decade or so it was one of the best racing categories this country had produced.

It gave a lot of young drivers a start, gave a lot of seasoned drivers a new thrill and fans still remember it fondly, just like I do.

Jim Richards #6 Ford Falcon was one of a number of big name road racers to take on the AUSCAR challenge, and did so very successfully (above). AUSCAR fields were always big, colourful, spectacular and the action non stop. Bathurst winner Allan Grice in the #18 Commodore gets set to take the green flag. (below).

LIKE MANY AUSCAR drivers, current Super2 and Super3 Image Racing team boss Terry Wyhoon had made the leap from speedway to tarmac at the Calder Park Thunderdome.

It was certainly a very successful switch for the Victorian which was highlighted by the taking the 1995/96 AUSCAR title.

After following U.S NASCAR racing on TV and racing speedway for several years, Wyhoon was familiar with oval racing well before Bob Jane’s Thunderdome had been completed.

But AUSCAR became a very attractive proposition for Wyhoon due to the low budget required to compete.

“In the early days of AUSCAR they cost absolutely nothing, there weren’t any dearer than the speedway car that I was running.

It was attractive that way, attractive prize money, and I wasn’t having mud thrown at me anymore,” Wyhoon joked.

“I’d sold my last speedway car, bought this old VK Commodore … back then in AUSCAR it was all stock other than the engine, so off we went.”

The thrill of racing an AUSCAR has remained with Wyhoon to this day and shared those fond memories with Auto

Action.

“It was bloody awesome, running wheel to wheel at 200km/h with 40 others … it was an adrenaline rush,” he said.

“To go racing with a really cheap package and compete with these names that you’ve seen on TV, Brock and Jim Richards, was great.”

Wyhoon in the well known #25 BP sponsored car climbed the AUSCAR ladder year on year and after finishing as the bridesmaid in the 1993/94 season, he went one better winning the title a couple of years later.

AUSCAR, like NASCAR in the United States, was not limited to oval racing. Over the years the category raced on the Calder Park road course, at Oran Park Raceway, and at Surfers Paradise to name a few.

Even with his Speedway background Wyhoon was never able to win at the Thunderdome tri-oval, however, despite his initial dislike of the road racing concept, Wyhoon had some great results away from the ovals.

Terry Wyhoon was a convert from the world of speedway and enjoyed great success in AUSCAR, though ironically it came in the road course races. Today he is well known for his Super2 and Super3 Supercar programs.

“We always had plenty of pace and some on the Dome but couldn’t convert it into a win for some reason. I could never work out why we couldn’t, we were always fast” he admitted to AA. “Jane threw in a road course race at Calder as part of that 95/96 championship, the Peter Brock Classic it was called. I thought ‘Really a road course I didn’t sign Regular front runners who came to AUSCAR from other categories, Terry Wyhoon, Grant Munday and Peter Fitzgerald do battle on unfamiliar territory ... the high banked Thunderdome oval.

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

up for this,’ but we won it!

“It didn’t do us any harm, but I preferred both the ovals, Adelaide but particularly Calder but yeah that was a good year for sure.”

Wyhoon elaborated on the difference between the half-mile Adelaide International Raceway and the one-mile Thunderdome.

“The biggest thing was no banking at Adelaide, but it was a good little short track, I used to call it the bullring,” Wyhoon recalled.

“If they did some drag racing just prior to a race, Turn 4 was like driving onto a wet patch every lap You’d get some grip for the next three corners and then back into the drag strip.”

The Victorian feels that AUSCAR racing may have been even more successful if it came a little later.

“I always say I think Bob was a little ahead of his time. The crowds were bloody awesome, but could you imagine if that would’ve happened when Marcos [Ambrose] was driving NASCAR in America? But geez I’m glad I was part of it, it was good fun.” Wyhoon concluded.

Dan McCarthy

AutoAction

31

The popularity of AUSCAR rapidly grew from its inception in the late-1980s until the mid1990s. Calder Park general manager Steve Bettes was in the thick of it and recounts his memories to HEATH McALPINE. IMAGES: AA Archive

THE BUZZ surrounding the construction of the Calder Park Thunderdome and the introduction of NASCAR was immense, but soon after racing got underway that hype was soon overtaken by interest in the locally-derived AUSCAR category.

Initially bought in to play a supporting role to NASCAR, AUSCAR proved popular with competitors and fans alike, with packed fields tackling the Thunderdome travelling in the opposite direction to the NASCARs. The introduction of AUSCAR came at a time when Australian race fans were disillusioned with the Group A touring car regulations which saw Holden’s Commodore uncompetitive and Ford’s hero car being the Sierra Cosworth RS500, a model not sold in Australia.

It would be another four years before the re-introduction of Holden vs Ford V8 action to the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Racing at the Thunderdome proved extremely popular, with crowds of 50,000 jamming the Calder Highway to get into the venue, to watch 40 VK Commodores and XF Falcons battling in motor sport’s equivalent of The Colosseum.

A combination of primetime television coverage from Channel 7 and night racing further enhanced the spectacle.

After working part-time as a commentator at Calder, Steve Bettes joined full-time working for circuit owner Bob Jane just as the Thunderdome was starting to gain an avid fanbase.

32 AutoAction

Lights changed everything for Thunderdome ... when night racing was introduced, the place went nuts (above). Crowds were enormous and the atmosphere unrepeated anywhere since.

Nathan Pretty #2 and Eddie Abelnica #4 (below) were regular hard chargers and race winners, later they went on from AUSCAR to success in other categories in the sport.

“I was there from the start of the Thunderdome basically, I came onboard in a part-time role prior to the first race, I actually did commentary,” Bettes explained to Auto Action.

“I was doing commentary around various tracks including the Adelaide Grand Prix, Bathurst and at Calder. I got to know Grant Tillett and Brendan Jones, and also knew Bob Jane very well from going to drag and circuit racing events, so I knew him before I went to work there. From the part-time role that I had for that first race, they came back to me offering a full-time position.”

Fans’ appetite for close home-grown racing was met at the Thunderdome and the atmosphere at Calder Park was reminiscent of NASCAR events in the American homeland.

“The first few events, particularly the opening race, that place was like any U.S NASCAR track,” Bettes recalled. “It was packed to the rafters and the queues to get into the place were way down the Calder Highway in both directions, it was mind blowing.

“It was such an atmosphere you can’t describe; it was an extremely exciting place.”

AUSCAR was developed with the idea of affordability and suitability to fans.

“The reason AUSCAR was developed is because it was always felt that NASCAR would take some time to develop in Australia, and we needed another product to have on the same card,” Bettes explained.

“NASCAR in the U.S, everybody goes to the track to watch one race on the day, and

part of the management structure prior to the Thunderdome opening felt that that wouldn’t survive because people in Australia want more.

We were used to seeing dirt track speedway and seeing five or six categories in one night, (and) there were four or five categories at Australian Touring Car Championship meetings.

“It was also to create an affordable car that people could go racing on the superspeedway and to deliver an economical vehicle for an Australian crowd, where we could have Holden racing against Ford.”

Bettes described the implementation of AUSCAR racing as “blowing people away” due to its success and how quick cars were, lapping just 2.5s slower than the NASCARs. All this despite using a Goodyear Eagle radial road tyre!

“They used to buff most of the tread off, which on an AUSCAR tyre I’d estimate to be 10mm high. They’d put them in these machines and cut down these brand new tyres, the amount of rubber left on the floor of the shed when they were all cut down was frightening,” Bettes said.

“The reason they cut them down was to lower the temperature in the tyre, otherwise each pillar of tread would move so severely that the tyre would overheat and blowout. So what they did was cut the tread down to 10mm and it kept the tyre cooler, they didn’t last as long, but they didn’t need to.”

As the AUSCARs progressed from VK/ VL Commodores and XF Falcons to VP Commodores and EA Falcons, so did the development, which soon turned to making the category work on road courses.

“We ran them on the asphalt half-mile at Adelaide International Raceway, Surfers Paradise where the AUSCARS were the first to support the IndyCars and that was incredible,” Bettes said.

“We also raced at Oran Park and Eastern Creek on the short circuit of which the bloody cars nearly took off over the cut!”

“They were great cars and did far more than anybody dreamed that they were capable of doing.”

AUSCAR was renowned for its close racing between notable names Brad Jones, John Faulkner, Darren McDonald, Marshall J Brewer, Terri Sawyer, Matthew White, Terry Wyhoon and Auto Action’s current publisher Bruce Williams. Bettes put this down to the simple yet strict AUSCAR regulations put in place that enhanced this intense warfare.

“Because the regulations were so tightly controlled, the racing was very close,” Bettes said. “They didn’t have any aerodynamics, the AUSCAR just had a lip-spoiler and the rear spoilers that both manufacturers sold on the sporty models.

“These cars slid and spun the tyres out of the corners, it was fabulous.”

After Charlotte Motor Speedway went under lights in the early-1990s, the same beckoned for Calder in 1993 on a night that was dubbed ‘Hot August Night’.

The build up to that event was fast-tracked after plans a drop in spectator attendance, but with the help of Musco Lights from America, it not only lifted the spectacle but the crowd as well.

“The night that happened, the place was choker block with people,” Bettes emphasised.

“The lights showed what was required and every race we ran under lights was fantastic.

“It grew like mad once we went under lights, speedway people saw the connection.”

At the same time, coverage from the Thunderdome was unrivalled as print, radio and television coverage which brought healthy corporate support with it.

“It was fantastic, Mike [Raymond] was so

Later a Supercar regular, John Faulkner #46 came to prominance in AUSCAR. Here he flicks through the back chicane on the Gold Coast street circuit ahead of Marshall Brewer #02 (above). AUSCAR was a regular at Surfers Paradise from the very first event in 1991.

Darren McDonald #44 (above), Garry Rogers #35 (above right), Darryl Spears #31 (below), Wayne Smith # 38 (below) and Leigh Watkins #47 (bottom) demonstrate the variety of cars, race tracks, sponsors, liveries and drivers that made AUSCAR such a success.

dedicated to making it work and put it on television for us,” Bettes recounted.

“And of course, with television came the sponsors. Bob ended up with major deals with Holden Motorsport, Goodyear, Simoco and Travelodge Hotels were part of what we did.

“It came with it because we went on television on major national free-to-air networks, to be live on Channel 7 was a major, major achievement for Bob and many thanks to Mike Raymond.”

By the late-1990s the golden period had ended, and Bettes himself pursued a new opportunity elsewhere, but before he left had aims to expand the AUSCAR competition onto new circuits.

“The secret of AUSCAR and NASCAR was to keep expanding the calendar, without any doubt, that was the way for it to develop and go further,” said Bettes.

“At its peak, within one year we ran at Thunderdome several times, we ran in Adelaide, Oran Park, Eastern Creek and the Gold Coast, which was something like six-events a year.

Some of us believed it would be a success if expanded across Australia, others wanted to keep it at Thunderdome, much like a television studio due to budgets.

“The other thing that affected it was Tony Cochrane, who came onto the scene and starting kicking goals in touring cars, so some of the focus was taken away from AUSCAR and NASCAR.” As V8 Supercars began hitting its stride in 1998, AUSCAR fields shrunk along with the spectators before the era ended during the summer of 1998-1999 with Leigh Watkins taking victory in a Ford EF Falcon.

AutoAction

33

Before he was a Supercar team owner and Super Touring champion, Brad Jones did his Thunderdome He claimed five AUSCAR titles on the trot and added a NASCAR winning on the Thunderdome.

Championship as well, as Jones fondly recalls to HEATH McALPINE. IMAGES: AA Archive/AN1 Images

DURING THE late-1980s, Brad Jones was making his way in the world as a factory Mitsubishi driver in touring cars, including making the Hardies Heroes shootout at Btahurst in a Starion back in 1986.

However, two years later that part of his career was over and he and brother Kim were searching for their next challenge.

“Bob Jane was a very close family friend and we knew what was going on down there [at Calder Park]. He’d spoken to our father for a little bit about maybe that was the future for both of us, but we knew nothing about stock car racing,” Jones recalled to Auto Action.

“We found an AUSCAR that was half built and I’d also started to form a bit of a relationship with Peter Brock at that point in time. We finished the car up in Albury and we dropped it off at Brock’s workshop in Bertie Street; Arch McMurray did the first engine for us and we went racing.

“We took the car down to Melbourne to finish it off and put the engine in it, because Archie was working full-time for Brock in those days. The car that we had had the wrong crossmember in it, so it was pretty handy being around Brock because even though he had gone to BMWs at that stage, he still had Holden stuff lying all over the joint. It worked out pretty well for us.”

The VL Commodore was barely finished before his first race, Jones describing his

34 AutoAction

first experience on the Thunderdome as “weird”, and it soon became apparent the boys from Albury had plenty to learn.

“I had a bunch of mates come down and help us,” said Jones. “I remember the first pit stop we’d not really watched any vision of pit stops from NASCAR or any of that stuff. When we came to our first pit stop, we put the jack under the centre of the car and jacked the front up to change the front two wheels, then jacked the rear up to change the rears.

“I can remember Brendon Jones, who worked at Calder, came down and told us that he was standing in the box wondering what those crazy bumpkins were doing, so he explained to us we had to jack it up from the side.

“We stopped a lot and changed tyres a lot, flat spotted tyres and learnt a lot out of that first race.”

His mentor at that time, Peter Brock, was also dabbling on the Thunderdome.

His younger brother Phil was considered an experienced hand on the tri-oval, so Jones cunningly checked Brock’s car over before the event.

“I think Brock may have raced there in my first race,” Jones told Auto Action. “I was walking with he and his brother Phil, who’d raced there for a while. Phil said ‘You are going to come out, you’ve got no idea what you’re doing, you don’t know whether you’ve

got anything right or wrong’. I said ‘I know the tyre pressures are right’, and Brock asks ‘Oh yeah, how do you know that?’ I said ‘Well your car was parked out the front of the workshop and I checked your tyre pressures before the event’!

“So Brock nearly sprayed his tea, he thought it was hilarious, though Phil didn’t think it was quite so funny.”

Success though came quick for Jones as victories turned into championships, and the pressure to win his first title was immense. Although he only had to finish 16th, a spinn ts, caused massive flat spots, though he held on to win.

The rapid increase of competition failed to halt Jones’ reign at the top, but spectator attendances were starting to drop off A young Brad Jones celebrates his AUSCAR crown, the beginning of a highly successful career in the sport that includes Supercars team ownership.

until the advent of racing under lights, which Jones believes was the catalyst of its success.

“What happened was we were racing in the day and we were getting okay crowds, but then they decided to do a night race, which I think was always Bob’s intention, and it just off! he recalled. went off!”

“It was crazy the amount of people (who) turned up. AUSCAR I felt for a lot of the years were the main show, while NASCAR was faster and louder. I felt that the people could relate (better) to the Commodores and the Falcons.

“The night racing shouldn’t be something that’s underestimated, it turned the business around when we were

Jones’ team were the epitome of professionalism (above left) once they got to grips with the nuances of oval track racing, but Jones admits the team’s very first pitstop was anything but.

Jones made his mark in the Cooper Tools Commodore VL (above right) and later in the teams purpose built VN Commodore, here racing wheel to wheel wth Jim Richards in the Falcon.

starting to struggle with crowds in the daylight. Once we raced with the lights on, it just transformed the series.”

Through his success in AUSCAR, an endurance drive with the Holden Racing Team beckoned, as did the opportunity to scare some of Australia’s best known celebrities.

“I’d done some stuff with Simon O’Donnell through Mobil when he was playing cricket, but I took him around and later Merv Hughes for a ride as well,” said Jones. “That particular time I took Simon around I scared the pants off him. If you watch the video, you can see I look across at him a couple of times and he was a bit surprised how close we were going to the wall.”

Another experience Jones had was to drive an AUSCAR at the Coca-Cola 600 at

Charlotte in the USA. Thanks to winning the AUSCAR title and sponsor Cooper Tools, Jones joined Terri Sawyer in doing demo laps during one of NASCAR’s biggest events.

The Jones boys had a trick up their sleeve.

They fitted a diff from a one-tonne ute into the AUSCAR then tested it on (the Holden Proving Ground) Lang Lang’s banked oval, where it hit 180mph. The diff on Sawyer’s AUSCAR was set-up for Calder, so while the brief was to run side-by-side, that wasn’t in Jones’ plan.

Jones had one opportunity open for the Cooper Tools Commodore to put pedal to the metal, after the finish line.

“We were going around and Terri was going as good as she could,” Jones explained.

“I was idling around in second gear, but when I saw the chequered flag, I dropped

back a little bit and stood on it!

“I remember going down the back straight and this thing had a megaphone on it running at 6000rpm, though it sounded like it was doing 12,000rpm!

“There were 180,000 people at the venue that year and it was the first time that I was able to hear the crowd over the noise of the car.”

Although the promotion from the demo run gained good publicity, despite Jones’ best efforts, a drive in NASCAR in the USA wasn’t to be, though it wasn’t without trying.

“I’d reached out to a couple of teams to try and get a test in a NASCAR,” said Jones. “I ended up going to Ross Palmer’s team based in New Jersey, so I went up there and spent a bit of time trying to convince them to give me a test, but it’s never an easy thing to do.

“I had also spoken to a few team owners in Charlotte, but could just never really get that opportunity.

“All the Aussies that had ran over there raced on Superspeedways and I really thought a circuit no bigger than a mile and a half would be the right thing for me.

“Because I had never raced a NASCAR in Australia and I had no money at all, it was disappointing to be honest. I tried really hard.”

Jones of course returned to Australia, where he won the Rookie of The Year in local NASCAR in 1993-94, before taking the title the next season.

Next, an Audi Super Touring followed where Jones won two titles before tackling Supercars in 2001 where Brad Jones Racing competes to this day.

AutoAction

35

IMAGES: AA Archive/Bruce Williams Collection

There are moments that you reflect on and you realise that they are life changing, Bob Jane’s vision coming to fruition was one of those moments that changed the lives of many racers. Auto Action publisher and AUSCAR hard charger BRUCE WILLIAMS discusses what racing these cars meant to him and the others he raced against.

ON AN extremely hot summers’ day in 1988, like tens of thousands of other motorsport fans, I attended the first NASCAR race at Thunderdome.

It was a spectacular start to a form of racing that was new to Australia. The action was impressive with lots of Americans in the field and plenty of Aussies making it a great and colourful spectacle.

It was strange watching that first NASCAR race high in the grandstand on that February day. I had raced in the World Touring Car round at the venue just months earlier (October 1997) in a Group A Commodore. So I had a real understanding of what it was like to race on that superspeedway bowl.

The Thunderdome was a remarkable venue that I’d watched rise from the flat ground over a long time and in the leadup to that first NASCAR race, I had been impressed by a handful of NASCAR’s testing on the new tri oval.

This included watching up close the NASCAR legend, Richard Petty, who had been brought out specifically to test race tyres for Goodyear.

Like many, I had been interested in NASCAR racing and had followed it via the pages of Auto Action and sometimes on television.

I liked the concept of the racing on the high banked oval and watching that first race confirmed my interest. I enjoyed the racing but I didn’t really see myself being able to come up with the funds to go NASCAR racing.

A while down the track, Bob Jane teased a few of us HQ racers to come along and try our racing on the Superspeedway.

I was a little sceptical but as I had a good car and was ready to race any time I could, I ventured out to give the HQ a run.

The test turned into a race for a significant number of cars over the 1988/89 summer series, old HQ rivals including Brett Youlden also deciding to accept Bob’s invitation and after three rounds and some of the closest high speed racing and I was hooked on Superspeedway.

My HQ was sold after a successful 1990 HQ Nationals campaign and I looked for a way to get

36 AutoAction

AUSCAR gave a high profile, high energy start to several motoracing careers and was responsible for drivers like 1996/97 AUSCAR Champion Mathew White getting a professional start in Australian motor sport. Seen here at the Adelaide short track.

The bumper to bumper, wheel to wheel high speed action was what made AUSCAR an attractive category for racers from many categories. The racing produced genuine rivalries and lifelong mates.

into AUSCAR, which by then had grabbed my attention.

It was the classic Holden Versus Ford battle except this time it was on the high banks of the Thunderdome. There were some really big names racing and massive prize money on offer.

I got my first taste of AUSCAR in an EB Falcon that Greg Hansford had raced a few times; it was a remarkable if not long-lived race, as the car failed with melted wheel bearings. This was a common problem with the early AUSCARs.

After that experience I was hooked, so it was with zest that I looked for a car and managed to do a deal with Bad and Kim Jones to purchase their recently superseded VL AUSCAR. The VL needed an engine and transmission, so I went looking for an engine builder and ended up doing a deal with the Arch McMurray who had been building engines at HDT. A group of my mates and I got together, and we got the car ready to race as best we knew how at the time. It was a bit of a guess with set up and

we got a little bit of advice from Kim Jones.

We rocked up for our first AUSCAR race along with 50 other keen racers fighting for the 44 grid spots. I was elated to qualify mid field in amongst some great drivers that I had known from other forms of racing.

I was a long way from the front of the field and thought that this was going to be a tough race to survive.

As the flag dropped it was crazy, cars going everywhere and plenty of big smoking crashes.

I really just focused on trying to stay on the lead lap and out of trouble, and there was plenty of that going on around me.

It was a 200km race so well over 150 laps of the Thunderdome, so as a team we had our first taste of an AUSCAR pit stop. We managed to put fuel in the car and change a couple of outside tyres (the boys were overly careful and a little slow) but with about 50 laps to run, I just wanted to get to the finish.

With about 20 laps to go there was a massive pile up and another restart. I found myself in the leaders line, a little confused I asked if I was in the right line, and was told by my crew chief “You’re fifth, so get on with it.”

Wow, so here I was now in a battle with guys who had raced in AUSCAR for a couple of seasons. In the end I chased Gregg East for a number of laps before the flag came out and I crossed the line in fourth. It was a big surprise and what was pleasing was the support we got, little damage and a big payout cheque.

How good was this!

That season was a real challenge and going into the final round the rookie team found ourselves in third position in the 1990/1991 Championship. It was to be the first race for John Faulkner, who was running Steve Harrington’s VL for the final round.

He was fast as was expected, but a couple of laps into the race John spun and I collected him very hard. I was gutted, the car was f#$%&d and that moment cost us third in the Championship.

To add insult to it all, we just missed the battle

AUSCAR to a big step forward when the catergory became one of the major support for the Gold Coast Indycar Carnival. Williams leads Brad Jones on the fast road course (above). Jones and Williams had a constant battle through out their AUSCAR rivalry. for the Rookie of the Year award that Charlie O’Brien and I had been fighting over all season.

It had been a tough year, the racing was hard and unforgiving, but we took on the big challenge of learning the craft of superspeedway racing and started to understand what was needed to get the car set up to survive the long races and deliver speed without destroying the tyres.

The cars were extremely sensitive to set up changes and we learnt a lot about oval racing chassis setup. A minor change to cross weight or right-side weight would transform the car. If setting up the car to go fast was one thing, setting them up for long races was another, and we did lots of testing and slowly learnt what it was about.

Bendix Brakes had also joined the team for that last race and had agreed to back us for the next season. Bendix’s support would last many years and gave us the budget to build a new car for the next season.

For the start of the new season we built a band new AUSCRAFT VN AUSCAR and set about trying to win races. It was another big learning curve but I think we had moved up from just being out on the track racing around, to being a hard tough contender.

The first part of the season didn’t yield many good results, we had good car speed and could race the best, but we had a few reliability issues with the new car.

But the final round of the 1992/93 season yielded our first win on the Thunderdome, I had beaten Brad Jones, Faulkner, Marshall Brewer and Terry Wyhoon after a race long battle, and it felt amazing. I can still remember doing the world’s biggest burnout in pit lane, well before it became a trend.

The next few seasons saw us develop massive rivalries in AUSCAR racing for lots of reasons, always trying to beat them.

My big rival was Brad Jones, I just wanted to beat Brad because he was the best. John Faulkner was just a hard bastard and we didnt like each other much, Terry Wyhoon was a great racer, Grant Munday, Leigh Watkins, Jim Richards, Eddie Albinica, and Racing the high banks of the Thunderdome was like walking a tightrope. Any small mistake was paid for in full with a big crash.

Belive it or not the Bendix Ultimate AUSCAR of Bruce Williams survived this qualifying loose to start on the front row for the feature race.

Steve Harrington were all guys I had to try and beat in the early days. Marshall Brewer was a constant influence and hard, tough rival throughout my racing on the Dome.

We worked together for many years as instructors in his Fastrack Racing business.

We issued licenses to heaps of young hopefuls.

In later seasons many of the guys we trained would become some of the great young drivers who started to develop and put pressure on the older crew, such as Steven Richards, Nathan Pretty, Mathew White, Darren McDonald, Jason Whylie and Rodney Jane to name a few.

I have raced lots of types of cars over the years but AUSCAR was like nothing else, it was like mortal combat at 260 km/h.

The cars were seriously fast, powerful and a handful to drive on the limit on the very average buffed road tyres. During the long races the concentration was immense, then the night racing arrived and that was a whole new experience, just supercool and even faster on the track.

It was hard racing and with the prize money on offer it was really like racing for sheep stations, mistakes were costly and not pleasant if you made impact with the concrete. That was the price so many of us were prepared to pay to be part of the action.

I was lucky, I won some races on both the superspeedway and at The Indy GP and AUSCAR gave myself and several others the opportunity to race on a professional basis.

With a great TV package and media coverage that enabled us to gain some serious sponsorship and commercial support. Many of the drivers went on to race on in other categories with great success and are still involved in the industry.

The real racers put on racing at its best, the rivalries were real and long lasting, and the lifelong friendships I have made out of those rivalries and racers are genuine.

I’d liked to thank one man and that’s Bob Jane, for all he did to give us the opportunity to race these great cars on the Thunderdome and other tracks around the country.

FORD AND HOLDEN, Marshall J Brewer drove for both brands successfully in AUSCAR and was also involved behind the scenes with the Fastrack Racing drive school, which trained many of the rivals he tackled on the track.

Fastrack Racing was founded in 1990

by Brewer as a way to provide ride days around the Thunderdome. But some pupils were even installed in the driver’s seat to tackle the fearsome concrete trioval within a safe environment.

“Our aim was to help people learn how to pick up the right driving lines and all the little secrets you needed to know about driving on a Superspeedway, due to the fact it was a fairly serious form of motor racing, there were some horror crashes on the Thunderdome.” Brewer explained to Auto Action.

“Even if you had a CAMS licence, you’d still come through us, we would take you around in a race car as a passenger to start, showing you what to do and how to go about it.

“Then we’d let them have a drive, the trainer would still be sitting next to them and just evaluating what the driver was doing.”

Brewer highlighted the importance of concentration when racing around the 1.8km trioval.

“If your concentration lapsed for just a second, you’ve travelled over a couple hundred metres, and therefore it didn’t take much at all to cock things up. So our aim was just help people get beyond that point, know what to do and what to look for,” Brewer said.

It wasn’t until 2012 that Brewer eventually sold his Fastrack Racing business, which still runs V8 Hot Lap experiences to this day.

Brewer was one of the most successful and well known AUSCAR drivers, taking his first win on the Thunderdome in 1990 before winning the 1994-95 title, a result of a change in mindset.

“My attitude changed, and it was basically that we need to finish on the podium every race. We had a lot of success at that, that meant it kept us up in the prize money, kept us financially able,” he recalled.

“That particular year I had decided I’d had enough, I was sick of it, we weren’t really getting anywhere.

“We were racing against the likes of Brad Jones and John Faulkner that had huge budgets, I reckon they had a couple hundred thousand dollars a season back in the day.”

After winning the title, Brewer moved from The General to The Blue Oval and although he took race wins in a Falcon, he was never able to win a title for Ford.

In AUSCAR, Holden were victorious in 10 out of the 11 seasons, but Brewer did not feel that the Commodore had an edge.

“I don’t think they had an advantage, there were (just) more Holdens out there, so a lot more development was taking place with those cars,” Brewer explained to AA. “I think Ford had advantages, it probably had better power and once you knew how to make it handle, that was the difference.”

Like all drivers who competed in AUSCAR, the Victorian reflects back on the series with great fondness but believes if things were done differently, it could still be around today.

“AUSCAR should have been the number one sport for Australia, NASCAR should have been the second tier,” Brewer emphasised.

“Bob Jane should have been developing one or two international races a year and I argued with him 100 times over it. He couldn’t see it, if he had done that, I reckon it still would have been going today.”

“AUSCAR was a lot of fun, it certainly had its moments, we were very lucky to achieve what we did, it was a great form of racing.” Dan McCarthy

AutoAction

37

2020 Season restart

DAN KNUTSON explores what has changed during the four-month delay in getting the 2020 Formula 1 season underway FINALLY, AFTER a delay of almost four months, the 70th Formula 1 season will get underway with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5.

In all, 111 days will have gone by between Friday, March 13, when it was announced that the weekend’s Australian Grand Prix would be cancelled, and Friday, July 3, when the 20 drivers will head out for the first practice session at Austria’s Red Bull Ring.

During that time the F1 and the entire world have changed forever because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn, and the protests and demands to end racial discrimination with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

TRACK TIME

THE F1 drivers have not been able to drive for a long time. With the exception of six days of pre-season testing in Spain at the end of February, the last time they were in the cockpit was at the 2019 season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and the two-day test after that race, back in early December.

So most teams attempted to squeeze in some track time before the race in Austria.

Mercedes spent two days at Silverstone; Renault went to the Austria’s Red Bull Ring for two days; and Ferrari was at Italy’s Mugello track for a day.

The rules permit the teams to do unlimited running with two-year-old cars, so by using their 2018 models, these teams were able to do as many laps as they could fit in.

Perth native Daniel Ricciardo and his new teammate Esteban Ocon, for example, did a combined total of 3.7 race distances in Austria in the Renault R.S.18.

Other teams such as Red Bull, Alpha Tauri Austria 2019 ... the 2020 race shapes up as being very different, especially off the track.

020 and Racing Point chose to run their 2020 cars, and were therefore limited by the regulations to just 100km of running.

Unlike NASCAR which has been running one-day events with just the race and no practice or qualifying, when F1 resumes it will be with the traditional full three-day weekend with two 90-minute practice sessions on Friday, a 60-minute practice session and qualifying on Saturday, and the race on Sunday.

“We’re going to get plenty of practice, so the race weekend will go as normal,” Ricciardo said in an F1 podcast. “We’re going to get plenty of seat time before race day.

“But the lights (to start the race) are going to go out and for sure we’re all going to be showing everyone: ‘I trained harder in my quarantine,’ or: ‘I’m less rusty than you are.’

I’m sure some driver egos will get in the way.

“Or everyone will be really cautious: ‘This feels foreign!’ I think it’s going to be pretty exciting. We don’t really know how many races we’re going to get this year, so you’re probably going to get the mentality of let’s make this one count.”

WE RACE AS ONE

FORMULA 1 has announced a new #WeRaceAsOne initiative, in support of the #PurposeDriven Movement launched by the FIA, which will be the platform for the priorities aimed at tackling the biggest issues facing the sport and global communities.

This will not be a one-off effort but rather a programme that runs continuously.

“Our first race in Austria at the start of July is a big moment for our sport after nearly four months of no racing,” Chase Carey, the chairman and CEO of Formula 1, said. “While

it is an important moment for the Formula 1 community, it is also a time to recognise the issues that are bigger than any one sport or country.

“It will also be a platform for Formula 1 to come together and achieve results against the most important issues facing us as a sport and the world.

“That is why at our first race in Austria Formula 1 will stand united to say loud and clear that racism must end. We will show our full support in fighting inequality throughout the weekend and accelerate our own efforts to make Formula 1 more diverse and inclusive. As a global sport we must represent the diversity and social concerns of our fans, but we also need to listen more and understand what needs to be done and get on with delivering.”

Formula 1 will also state clear pledges to increase diversity and opportunity in the sport.

A rainbow theme on the cars and displayed around the circuits throughout the season, Formula 1 said in a statement, will be a sign of saying thank to people around the world for the incredible strength and fortitude they have shown against a global pandemic. The rainbow has been chosen as it has become a symbol used internationally in the recent crisis to bring communities together.

THE SILLY SEASON

F1 MAY have been shut down for almost four months, but the Silly Season was in full swing and will continue unabated.

Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel triggered a chain reaction in May when they announced that this will be the last year of their partnership. Shortly thereafter, McLaren’s

Carlos Sainz signed a two-year deal to partner Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, and Daniel Ricciardo decided to leave Renault after two seasons, and spend 2021 and 2022 at McLaren alongside Lando Norris.

Meanwhile, Racing Point’s CEO and team principal Otmar Szafnauer confirmed that the squad, which will change its name to Aston Martin next year, will retain Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll in 2021.

But there are still drivers who are out of contract at the end of this year including Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, although both are expected to remain at Mercedes.

Others that will be looking for new contracts during this shortened 2020 F1 season include Kimi Räikkönen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean.

Alex Albon, Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, meanwhile, serve at the whim of Red Bull and AlphaTauri.

The two wildcards in the 2020 Silly Season are Vettel and Fernando Alonso, one of whom may end up taking Ricciardo’s vacated Renault ride to team up with Ocon.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

GETTING AT least 15 races in during the revised 2020 season is important because the television contracts stipulate that as the minimum number. If there are fewer than 15, then Formula 1’s commercial owners Liberty Media have to start refunding money from the fees the TV companies have paid to air the races. TV contracts make up about one-third of the commercial income earned by Liberty and the teams.

Another major portion of that income is created by the fees tracks pay to host the races. But if the races are run behind closed

Lewis Hamilton remains ffavourite to win the 2020 crown, which would be his c record-equalling seventh (right). Daniel Riccardo and Carlos Sainz were a both in the news during tthe extended off-season (left).

Mark Webber predicts the Ferrari team won’t be title contenders. doors with no fans, then the tracks get no money from ticket sales. And therefore, the tracks can’t be expected to pay the US$22 million or more to Liberty.

Throw in the lost income from the cancelled races, including Australia, Azerbaijan (which pays US$65 million!), Singapore (which pays US$40 million) and Japan – there are also more cancelations pending – and that adds up to a serious chunk of lost income for the teams and Liberty.

More money will be lost from not being able to sell hospitality packages, and from sponsors demanding reduced rates because of the decreased number of races.

All in all, 2020 is going to be a financially tough season. And it will have a knock on effect because the teams only get paid in 2021 their share of the commercial income earned in 2020.

RACING INTO THE UNKOWN

THE INITIAL revamped 2020 F1 race schedule contained just eight races in Europe. It starts with two races in Austria on July 5 and 12, followed by Hungary on July 19, then two rounds in Britain on August 2 and 9. Next comes Spain on August 16.

Belgium and Italy round out things out with races on their original dates of August 30

and September 6.

But what was unknown as June wound down was what the rest off the schedule would be, due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreaks and restrictions in countries around the world.

Liberty Media is aiming to have a total of 15 to 18 races, finishing out the season with a round or maybe two in Bahrain followed by the finale in Abu Dhabi on December 13.

There is a possibility that more races will be staged in Europe on tracks such as Germany’s Hockenheimring, which was not originally on the calendar. Portugal’s Algarve circuit has been put on standby too and could possibly host a grand prix anytime between September 13 and November 1.

What we do know is that the first races will be held without spectators and with limited media access. But the hope is that fans will be

permitted to attend races later in the year.

“We won’t rush that,” Ross Brawn, Formula 1’s managing director of motor sports, said during an FIA Econference.

“I think some of the later European races are optimistic, but I think we would rather not plan on that. I think when we go to the flyaway races, we can start to hope that we will have fans, but even that’s not absolutely guaranteed. I think to have the race in a safe and secure environment is critical.

“We’re going around the world; we can’t have a problem in one country that stops us from going to other countries. We’ll progress slowly on that front. The fans for us are critical.

We do want to see them as they do add a lot of atmosphere. I think we’ll take that very gradually.

“We don’t want to jump in and then have to jump out again when we find a problem.”

NEW PROTOCOLS

AS THE 2020 season finally gets going, the teams are and will be practicing new health and safety protocols, both at their factories and at the racetrack to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

These are the procedures put in place by Mercedes: At the track, social distancing rules are enforced wherever possible; in addition, the team is required to wear masks. Some roles Team work will be critical as ever and social distancing especially difficult during pit stops.

aalso require face shields or other additional ppersonal protective equipment. Hygiene pprotocols include hand washing and sanitising ppractices, but also the regular cleaning of w workstations and equipment with disinfectant.

TThe measures practiced by the team at ((the test at) Silverstone will be similar to the tthose at races, including regular testing for C COVID-19 for all trackside personnel.

Teams will also keep their distance from each oother, creating ‘team bubbles’ to limit the risk oof exposure amongst the teams. Further, as only essential team personnel will be attending the races, the number of team members at the track will be lower than usual.

Owing to the fact that team partners and guests will not be granted access to the track either, teams will be travelling without their motorhomes and instead use the infrastructure at the track for the provision of meals.

WHO WILL WIN?

WAIT UNTIL Melbourne. That’s a common phrase heard during pre-season testing in Spain, when people talk about who is going to be fast and who is going to win.

Lap times in testing are not always indicative of the true pecking order of the drivers and teams. So you have to wait until the Australian Grand Prix weekend to start to get answers.

The last day of testing was on February 28, and now it is a case of “wait until Austria.”

Aussie Mark Webber reckons that the battle for the drivers’ world championship will be contested between Hamilton in the Mercedes and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull Honda.

The Ferrari team, he believes, will not be a contender.

Hamilton, of course, is gunning for his seventh title, which will tie the record set by Michael Schumacher. If Verstappen wins his first crown, he will become the youngest ever world champion, edging out current record holder Vettel who clinched the first of his four titles at age 23 years and 134 days.

Whatever happens, F1’s 70th season will be a memorable one due to many exceptional circumstances.

AutoAction

39

Improved Production features the broadest eligibility list in the country, yet the regulations have been stable for 40 years. The attractiveness of this class is that it caters for a wide variety of competitors, as HEATH McALPINE discovered.

IMAGES: Rebecca Hind/Supplied b by NSW IPRA - Riccardo Benvenuti & Wombat Industries Photography THERE IS broad appeal on offer when it comes to Improved Production, as the category provides an eclectic mix of makes and models mildly modified for racing application.

It rewards different strengths, can be entered on a tight budget where development is progressive, however one underlying fact remains which is that car choice is key to either an expensive or inexpensive build.

Split into two divisions – Under and Over 2-Litre – Improved Production is one of the only classes to be raced in each state, plus the Northern Territory. The Improved Production Nationals attracts more than 150 entries depending on the circuit.

The Victorian Improved Production Championship is one of the most populous, with in excess of 40 entries at every round, making it very competitive.

President Gary McKay is a competitor racing his pride and joy, a Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1, which was in fact his first road car.

He explained to Auto Action that the stability in the Improved Production regulations is particularly advantageous to grassroots competitors because car construction ccan take years rather than months.

“The strongest part of our category is the fact (that) rules haven’t changed in many, many years, so as much as you can buy a car of the lot and race it, some competitors take three or four years to build (one),” McKay said.

“Being a grassroots motor sport,

40 AutoAction

99 per cent of the competitors are normal people with normal wages, who don’t have bucketloads of money to spend, hence it takes quite some years to build these cars. So, the good news is that when they start building the car, they know that in two, three years’ time, it’s still eligible because the rule set hasn’t changed.

“For me, as far as cost is concerned, you can physically buy a second hand car, chuck a seat in, chuck a cage in and do all the (other) safety features, and basically run as stock standard if you want. Or you can go right through to literally spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you want to go down that avenue.”

McKay’s view is that an Improved Production car could be built for under $20,000, but don’t expect it to be a frontrunner at that price.

As much as it is about dollars, it is also about choosing the right base package, which is the tipping point between an inexpensive or costly build.

“Probably towards the back end, it won’t be slowest,” McKay said of a $20,000 build.

“I mean, you wouldn’t want to go and buy a slow car. I mean no disrespect but you wouldn’t want to

buy an Excel and expect to be a midrunner.

“If you want to spend $40,000 or something along those figures, you could buy yourself a VE Commodore because these days the its quite an old car.”

While Victoria features a strong Over 2-Litre field, up north in New South Wales, a strong field of smaller capacity machinery appears at Sydney Motorsport Park and Wakefield Park.

NSW Improved Production vice president Joseph Lenthall shared McKay’s view that cost and competitiveness is up to the base make and model that is selected.

“You can run at that entry level across most cars for a long period of time. Anything from a VK Commodore to a VF Commodore, a late model BMW to an E30 or any kind of S-chassis Nissan or Evo,” Lenthall said.

“You can do this with a wide variety of cars and the difference is with our category compared to others you can get on track reasonably inexpensively and if a good choice of car is made, it can be competitive at a frugal cost.

“If you choose, for instance, an Evo, you know is it going to be a fast car.”

Improved Production is a mix bag of eras and engine capacity classes, with the objective of making the racing as competitive and affordable as possible.

Improved Production racing is accessible through the used car market, with a top NSW Nissan S15 Silvia being advertised for $40,000.

Whereas, building a new car can be very expensive, especially if outsourced through components like labour, engineering, wiring and paint.

A new entrant to the NSW field has chosen an obscure but competitive model that is a perfect example of an affordable build.

The Honda Accord Euro built and driven by Justin McMahon is one of the newest entries on the grid, and features many factory parts including the engine, gearbox, while the brakes have been uprated and the roll cage self-built.

Luke Grech-Cumbo knows how to run up the pointy end. He is a multiple Victorian Improved Production champion driving his familiar green

HSV Senator. The beast was his first try at car construction built with the motto “Do it twice, make it nice” and so far, it has delivered him great success.

Built in his shed alongside another Improved Production entry in the form of Ian McLennan’s Holden Monaro, Grech-Cumbo believes with labour costs added, the Senator build would have set him back $100,000.

But with the experience under his belt, he believes that the repeatable cost to build a similar car could be half that.

“If you wanted to build a car like mine, knowing what I know now and without the Holinger gearbox, you could probably do it for $50,000,” GrechCumbo told Auto Action.

That would provide a good base, but to take the next step up in competitiveness, further investment would be required.

“If you want those extra tenths you need better suspension, a Holinger, lightweight flywheel, so to build a car that is capable of winning you need around $80,000,” he added.

The starting point of Grech-Cumbo’s racer was an already caged VX Commodore shell, bought for $4000, which was regulations compliant.

An LS1 engine, T56 gearbox, factory computer and wet sump was installed, with the driveline owing Grech-Cumbo $6000. However, oiil surge was problematic, forcing him to take the next step.

“This consisted of a 6.0-litre LS motor with an aftermarket cam and dry sump, which then needed a new tank, plumbing, coolers and filter adaptors, bumping the cost out to $10,000.”

As the stresses on engine components increased due to the Senator going ever faster, further advancements are currently being planned by Grech-Cumbo as he builds a new engine.

“For the first two years I ran a factory crank, but when we started turning it up, we put a stronger steel one,” Grech-Cumbo told Auto Action. “It runs forged rods and pistons with factory lifters and rockers. That’s something on the next engine we’re going to get a bit more serious (about) because all but one of my engine failures have been valve or valve train related.”

This raises the price of the engine to approximately $20,000, and for that the end product produces close to the same amount of horsepower as a Supercar. Yet, it still runs a factory ECU. The aim for the Senator is to make it the best all-round package, so Grech-Cumbo has budgeted in areas including the suspension, where the current system is worth $8,000.

“I’ve got Harrop uprights to try and get rid of bump steer in the front, but to get started you don’t need that,” he emphasised. “My original set of coil overs cost me $3500 and they were good. I ran them until mid-2018.

Classics like this Ford Escort do battle with more modern small cars, like the Mitsubishi Mirage following. The mix is perfectly illustrated by this Phillip Island field (below).

However, when I bolted the Harrop ones on, I didn’t change a thing and went 1.4s quicker.”

Grech-Cumbo also noted that shock packages such as the XYZ which be bought for $990 are also suitable and competitive, which is what McLennan runs in his Monaro.

With the Senator being so powerful but so heavy, big brakes are important with Grech-Cumbo utilising a similar Alcon system to that used by V8 Supercars in 2005 which feature six-pot calipers on the front and 4-pot on the rear, costing $6,000 a set. A recent change to Forza rotors has been beneficial to longevity with a set now lasting a season.

Driveline is another area where the Senator has been further developed.

A Holinger H6S is Grech-Cumbo’s gearbox of choice, costing around $12,000 on the second hand market, while another popular option is the RD6, which new costs $18,000.

A Tilton triple-plate clutch was installed at the cost of $2500, aiding performance and in servicing as any part can be replaced, unlike its factory counterpart.

An array of MoTeC hardware is at Grech-Cumbo’s disposal in the Senator at a cost of between $5000$6000

“I’m a big believer in data. I’m not Jamie Whincup but I definitely find using data is helpful,” Grech Cumbo said. “That’s optional though.

“I don’t use shock pots. I’ve got all the engine data, plus brake sensors, throttle tracers and longitudinal g-force. I use the engine data a lot for maintenance and looking after it. Temperatures are something that is really important, especially in Commodores, I mean I welded the diff up at Bathurst because it was so hot!”

A Velo race seat was purchased for $800 and a wheel for $300, but the latter can remain as it left the factory if competitors wish. A fire bomb was also installed for $800-$900, though a $40 extinguisher will suffice.

“I have a fire bomb in mine, I bought it with the idea of protecting the investment rather than me,” GrechCumbo explained. “It’s an expensive car to burn to the ground.”

The Senator doesn’t contain a radio, just GoPros which can relay information back to Grech-Cumbo and engineer Rick Kemp at Race Technique Engineering, who attends the track one day a year at a cost of between $500-$1000. Despite that, the two are in constant dialogue even when Kemp is absent.

Grech-Cumbo’s budget works out

to be $3000 a meeting including the $600 entry fee, $300 of United E85 Fuel, plus general wear and tear on the Senator. The Yokohamas AO50 last a year, though he also runs sprints outside of Improved Production duties. For interstate meetings, the budget extends to $5000 including accommodation and all the extras necessary to compete.

Regular meeting costs include changing the oil and filter after each using high-grade racing oil at $200.

In the 2-Litre class, current TCR Australia driver Jordan Cox plied his trade and caused a stir during the 2017 Bathurst support race, in a Honda Civic.

Since then the Honda has been sold and his latest project is a Suzuki Swift, which he started his career in. Cox’s build is typical of the more affordable end of the spectrum.

A roll cage was installed along with a seat and belts, both of which came free. The MOMO steering wheel came with the purchase of the Swift and a $40 fire extinguisher was installed.

The Swift also came with a set of Koni Sports shock absorbers, then Cox put a set of brake pads in it, welded the diff and built an exhaust, before the Suzuki hit the track.

Updates to the suspension cost $5000 - $7000 when things got serious, Cox designing his own suspension and calling on an engineer to help out.

“I ran it for a few years with stock suspension and the Koni shocks,” Cox explained.

“I got introduced to an engineer in Nowra, who made up what I drew in terms of pick up points, to lower the car to the 100mm ride height rules.

Then we changed the roll centre, fitted aero-grade tierods and bearings, I found a different upright off a another model Suzuki that had better stiffness and geometry.

“Although these didn’t make the car a whole lot quicker, it was nicer to drive, better on its tyres and easier to make set-up changes.

“The engine is probably my

CO$T$ GUIDE NEW CAR BUILD $20,000-$100,000 plus USED CAR $15,000-$60,000 plus MEETING COSTS $2500 (state round including consumables, fees, transport), $6000 (large interstate meeting) TYRES Yokohama AO50 control tyre $1800$2000 a set (depending on size)

Luke Grech-Cumbo is one of Improved Production’s higher profile and most successful competitors. He has invested serious money in his VX model HSV Senator. Its -engine is a six-litre LS Chevrolet V8, the gearbox is a Holinger H6S, and lots of high-tech components are used throughout including Harrop uprights and Alcon brakes.

proudest part of the car,” Cox said.

“It’s the simpliest and cheapest part of the car. With a turbo you don’t have to spend a lot of money on the engine internals to make the power, it’s the bolt on parts that are expensive, probably worth $15,000.

“The engine is a standard 1.3-litre head with a set of cams. I got a 1.6-litre block from a later model Suzuki for the twin cam head, because it’s a bolt on fit. We run standard cast pistons, put a set of rings and bearings in it, I upgraded the rods at $500, so the start up cost of the engine was probably $2,500 to build up parts and labour, though I did it myself. So you’d add another $3,000 if an engine builder is used.”

The Swift has a WRC rally spec turbo with standard non-light bits retained, while the fabricated intake manifold, exhaust and internal wastegate is where the expense of the bolt ons emerges.

“The biggest cost with the Suzuki was everything had to be custom made, there’s nothing that can be

bought and bolted straight on,” Cox reflected.

Electronics is one of the areas that Cox has spent money as the software needed to control the engine has to be accurate and reliable. In the Swift’s case, a MoTeC M1 ECU is wired to a CDL3 display and E888 expander, costing $10,000 including labour and sensors.

Depending on the situation, tyres last two race meetings but if it was an important event, Cox will chuck two new front tyres on, while rears generally last a season.

“Yokohama AO50 is probably one of the most expensive semi-slicks out there, but you get bang for your buck, I think it’s the best until they’re worn,” he said.

Brakes were acquired from the Honda with Spoon 4-pot calipers on the front and Wilwood 2-pots on the rear. Hubs and adapters needed to be machined, plus a set of rotors which cost $150 and last a season and a half. An adjustable pedal box comes to $5,000.

Circo Pads at a cost of $350 last four meetings in the front and a whole season at the rear.

Mates help Cox out at race meetings, so while Go Pros are in the car for the ‘online social media crew’, a radio is not.

Cox budgets around $1,000-$1,500 for each state meeting.

He emphasised that putting money in the right areas will provide a better outcome at the end of the day.

“I’ve always been pretty budget conscious with the development and modifications I’ve done to the car. Any money has always been spent on areas of the car that provide performance,” Cox concluded.

The figures that both Grech-Cumbo and Cox outlined to Auto Action are to run well, competitively, within their respective budgets.

In Improved production what decides the budget is the vehcile, class and level the competitor chooses to participate in.

And that’s what makes Improved Production so accessible.

ENTRY FEES $395-$600 (state level round), $2000 (major interstate meetings)

ABOUT IMPROVED PRODUCTION REGULATIONS FOR Improved Production are open to an extent, but tightly controlled.

They also divides eligible cars into Pre-1986 and Post-1986, a differentiator which was established some years ago to increase the number of newer models in the class, which saw some concessions made to these.

An engine must use a block from the same manufacturer’s family, not be motor sport specific, be a maximum of 6-litres and feature the same rotors or pistons as the roadgoing example. However, engine internals and exhaust are free, while Turbos are restricted based on a model’s weight.

Clutch, flywheel and transmissions are free, for example Holinger’s array of H-pattern gearboxes are popular, however paddleshift and sequential are outlawed unless the model comes that way from the factory with a DSG or DCT transmission.

Pick up points cannot be changed in terms of suspension, lower control arms and tie rods must be identical to factory specification, which takes away the possibility of intricate Sports Sedan style systems.

Brakes are free, though restricted by wheel size, which is dictated by a chart within the Improved Production regulations based on the type of car, weight and engine.

ECUs are free too, though traction control is not allowed and ABS can only be run if done so through a factory unit.

Yokohama is the control tyre supplier for Improved Production across Australia with its AO50 semislick.

Aero is almost non-existent, though a category-specific adjustable rear-wing can be installed on the newer models, while flares can be fitted on the Pre-1986 models.

Rollcage and safety equipment is standardised as per the Motorsport Australia rules. HM

AutoAction

43

JONES RETAKES TOP SPOT

Alan Jones bounced back from the pandemonium that surrounded the Spanish Grand Prix, to win in France. DAN McCARTHY reports on one of the most exciting races of the 1980 Formula 1 World Championship.

Images: LAT THE FRENCH Grand Prix came several weeks after the controversial Spanish round, which had been overshadowed by the fight between FISA and FOCA. Points picked up in the Spanish Grand Prix were stripped from the drivers and teams who participated, although they had not been officially taken away by the time the French race took place; nonetheless the FOCA associated teams conceded that they would not be keeping their points.

At the Spanish Grand Prix many drivers had their licences removed for not paying fines. In the lead up to France all competitors reluctantly paid their debts and were re-issued with their licenses.

There was more good news in the paddock, too, as Marc Surer returned to the ATS team after he’d broken both legs in a qualifying accident in South Africa. His replacement, Jan Lammers, looked to be back on the sidelines until he was able to secure a seat with Ensign for the remainder of the season.

Alan Jones returned to the paddock as an MBE, after being named as a Member of the Order of the British Empire between races.

All eyes in France were on the two hometown hero Renaults of Rene Arnoux and Jean-Pierre Jabouille due to the 1.8km long Mistral Straight that seemed perfectly suited to the turbo-charged engines.

However, reliability had plagued the French manufacturer’s machines all season and at its home grand prix it continued to be its Achilles’ heel throughout practice.

44 AutoAction

Alan Jones celebrates beating the French Ligier and Renault teams at home (above & below).

Many were surprised by the pace that the Williams and Ligier squads showed in practice as they performed as strongly as the Renaults. This was due to the strong ground effects aerodynamic packages that assisted both through the circuit Paul Ricard’s high-speed corners.

In qualifying, Jacques Laffite was a step ahead of the rest, the Frenchman in the #26 Ligier taking pole by 0.61s with a 1m 38.88s time.

It was tight behind, 0.01s separated the next three. Arnoux qualified second with an identical time to Didier Pironi who started third, with Jones a further 0.01s back.

Jones’ teammate Reutemann qualified fifth ahead of Jabouille, Alain Prost, championship leader Nelson Piquet, and the two Alfa Romeos of Bruno Giacomelli and Patrick Depailler, with Surer starting 11th on return.

Reigning constructors’ champions Ferrari continued its miserable season, with Gilles Villeneuve qualifying a lowly 17th and Jody Scheckter 19th. In the lead up to the race, the Italian brand had announced that it was going to drop its V12 engine in favour of a turbo-charged unit for 1981.

The 1980 French Grand Prix was held in scorching summer weather over 54 action packed laps.

Laffite made a good start off the line and led into Turn 1, while behind him the top five remained the same through the Verrerie Esses.

Out of the fast chicane Pironi got a great run and overtook Arnoux up the inside into Turn 3.

Behind, Jabouille in the unreliable Renault

1980 French Grand Prix – Paul Ricard Circuit Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ

Driver Constructor Alan Jones Williams Didier Pironi Ligier Jacques Laffite Ligier Nelson Piquet Brabham Rene Arnoux Renault Carlos Reutemann Williams John Watson McLaren Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Riccardo Patrese Arrows Jochen Mass Arrows Derek Daly Tyrrell Jody Scheckter Ferrari Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell Eddie Cheever Osella Marc Surer ATS Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo Mario Andretti Lotus Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo Alain Prost McLaren Elio de Angelis Lotus Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault Ricardo Zunino Brabham Geoff Lees Shadow Jan Lammers Ensign David Kennedy Shadow

Drivers’ Standings

Didier Pironi starred again for Ligier, battling hard in the early laps beforee ultimately finishing second to Jones (top). Despite his Ferrari being completely uncompetitive, Gilles Villeneuve was sensational (above) untill running out of tyres. He finished eighth.

retired once again, his gearbox failing as he launched away from the line, becoming the Frenchman’s sixth DNF in seven races.

As the leaders took to the legendary Mistral Straight, Arnoux breezed back past Pironi, but around the fast Signes turn Pironi caught back up before lunging up the inside and retaking second at Beausset.

As a result of the squabbling, Laffite pulled out a comfortable margin from his teammate Pironi, Arnoux, Jones and Reutemann.

The relentless nature of the fight for second continued, with Pironi once again was relegated down to third position by Arnoux on the second tour.

Pironi continued to fall back in contrast to Jones, who flew past on lap 4. The second Williams of Reutemann was also falling back, losing position to Piquet and Prost to be in seventh.

Jones was showing strong race pace and on the following lap caught Arnoux, making a successful move, however Pironi managed to slip up the inside of Jones at the same time to reclaim second position.

At the end of lap 5 Laffite comfortably led from his countryman Pironi, Jones, Arnoux, Piquet and Reutemann, after Prost retired with transmission trouble.

Remarkably, after just a handful of laps, Villeneuve had made his way up to seventh position and even began to put Reutemann under pressure in what was the drive of the season thus far by the young Canadian.

The Ligier’s weakness all season had been straight-line speed and on lap 7 Jones rubbed salt into these wounds by easily overtaking Pironi down the Mistral Straight.

Despite not yet reaching lap 10, Arnoux began to experience boost pressure problems, and fell back into the clutches of Brazilian Piquet in fourth. Argentine Reutemann did not have things so easy and found himself unable to get past the ailing French machine.

After a dozen laps of breathless action, the

race finally started to settle into a rhythm.

The early charge from Villeneuve quickly faded and he was overtaken by the McLaren of John Watson on lap 19, before making an unscheduled pit stop for tyres.

Out front Laffite had built up a 15s lead, but his front tyres were rapidly running out of grip and his advantage began to dwindle.

It did not take Jones long to whittle down the margin and by lap 32 he had caught the Frenchman, dispatching him on the Mistral Straight three laps later.

As the laps continued to run down Laffite eventually had to let his teammate Pironi through, with just over 10 laps remaining.

Ahead, Jones had pulled out a lead and remained unchallenged, taking the win by 4.52s from Pironi.

Laffite dropped 30s back but limped across the line in third, Piquet held onto fourth ahead of Arnoux, who valiantly held Reutemann at bay all race long.

After failing to qualify in Monaco, Watson bounced back to be best of the rest ahead of Villeneuve.

With the victory on French soil, Jones reclaimed the championship lead at the halfway stage of the season with Piquet, Arnoux and Pironi all within five points.

“It feels good, it couldn’t have come at a better time psychologically. Now I lead the World Championship with or without Spain – though I still believe I have those Spanish points,” Jones said after the race.

The eighth round sees Formula 1 head to the classic Brands Hatch venue in England.

1.

2.

3. = 5. = 7.

8.

9.

10. =

Alan Jones Nelson Piquet Didier Pironi Rene Arnoux Carlos Reutemann Jacques Laffite Riccardo Patrese Elio De Angelis Emerson Fittipaldi Jochen Mass Keke Rosberg

28 25 23 23 16 16 7 6 5 4 4

Laps 54 54 54 54 54 54 53 53 53 53 52 52 50 50 43 26 25 18 8 8 6 3 0 0

Result 1h 32m 43.4s +4.52s +30.26 s +1m 14.88s +1m 16.15s +1m 16.74s +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +2 Laps +2 Laps Engine +4 Laps Engine Gearbox Handling Gearbox Spun Off Handling Transmission Clutch Transmission Clutch

Grid 4 3 1 8 2 5 13 17 18 15 20 19 24 16 21 11 10 12 23 9 7 14 6 22

Constructors’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. = 9. =

Williams Ligier Brabham Renault Arrows Fittipaldi McLaren Lotus Ferrari Tyrrell

44 39 25 23 11 9 6 6 5 5

Rene Arnoux battled boost issues in the Renault but still held off Carlos Reutemann’s Williams (above) for fifth, just behind Nelson Piquet (below) in the Brabham who slipped to second in the points.

AutoAction 45

QUIET ACHIEVER

Queenslander Harri Jones met immediate success in the highly competitive Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia series. The rapid 21-year-old discussed his career aspirations and the step up to Carrera Cup with DAN McCARTHY

Images: Porsche/AA staff SO FAR in his motorsport career Harri Jones has driven a wide array of vehicles from Porsches to Formula 3 cars, LMP3 machines to classic Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths, and even a McLaren Can-Am car just to name a few.

Quick in anything he gets behind the wheel of, it is Porsches where Jones has really made his mark. Linking up with noted junior development team McElrea Racing last year, Jones started the new partnership with victory in the second-tier Porsche class, amazingly the first for the team.

“Joining forces with McElrea was a dream come true, I had known Andy (McElrea) pretty much the entire time I have been racing,” Jones told Auto Action.

“I raced against (his son) Hunter when I first started out, so joining forces with someone I knew well and had confidence in the team, it was a good year.”

For Jones in his first year of tin-tops he wanted to deliver solid consistent performances, and this is what ultimately led him to defeat his rivals.

“Consistency is what we focused on, we knew we were fast everywhere

46 AutoAction

Harri Jones sees his future climbing the Porsche pyramid. After his successful season in the GT3 cup (above), he moved to Carrera Cup (top) in 2020. but ultimately we just had to finish races and stay on that podium,” he recalled.

“I think that mindset definitely gave me an advantage over my competitors. They were always fast but they sometimes made those little mistakes which ultimately cost them the title.”

In an 18-race season Jones never finished outside of the top five, including 15 podiums and three wins.

A step up into Porsche Carrera Cup Australia beckoned for 2020, however the pathway Jones had followed during the infancy of his career was out of the ordinary.

“I raced downhill mountain bikes for five years from when I was 12 until I was 17,” he told AA. “When I was 15 dad bought a little Formula Ford and I started out by doing test days.”

Making the step straight into Formula Ford, Jones feels, had both its pros and cons.

“There was definitely a disadvantage at the start, not having that feel of what a car is meant to feel like,” he explained.

“Looking back on it now, for me is more of an advantage, because when I did hop in I was learning from the best, I have learnt all the good

habits from Brett Francis who was my Formula Ford engineer.”

Jones jokingly admitted that during the first several laps he drove in a racing car he did not change out of first gear. However, increased experience grew confidence and by the end of the 2017 he was a regular attendant on the national series podium.

At this stage Jones held ambitions of an open-wheel career, choosing to compete in the MRF Challenge in Asia driving a Formula 2000 car on Formula 1 tracks including Bahrain International Circuit and Yas Marina Circuit.

“We went overseas and raced drivers from all around the world, that was a pretty big learning curve for me,” Jones said.

“In Australia there is a lot of competition but having kids from Europe push me to my limits was pretty full on.”

When Jones returned, he considered racing in Formula Ford for another season, but a Formula 3 test changed that. It was decided that Formula 3 was the best route forwards to broaden his horizons and gain experience driving a high

Harri Jones described the mighty McLaren M8E Can Am historic racer as the scariest car he had ever driven.

downforce machine.

“Coming back to Australia I had a lot of confidence in myself, I had a good team around me, and knew we could d take out the championship,” he said.

Competition between Jones and current USF2000 driver Cameron Shields was fierce in Formula 3, however it fell in favour of the former by taking 11 out of 18 victories, ahead of a tough decision at the end of the season.

“After the Formula 3 Championship we were looking overseas to see what options we had to further our open-wheel career.

But the costs involved in open wheelers is huge, to go to Europe Harri Jones celebrates another victory in the 2019 GT3 Cup (right), something he was used to after a strong Formula 3 season here in 2018 (below).

and America to race in F3, you are looking at budgets that I couldn’t even fathom,” he explained.

“There were some opportunities in Japan, but ultimately the Porsche pathway in Australia was by far the most appealing.”

Prior to competing in Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge (now known as Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia), Jones drove a Porsche Cayman

GT4 in the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour, his first ever drive of a tin top. After securing a drive with German outfit PROsport Performance on the Thursday night before the event, Jones and his three international teammates won the GT4 class.

“It was a pretty last-minute deal, awesome to get that opportunity but even more awesome to come away with the win,” he said.

The love affair with Porsche

continued when he won the GT3 Cup Challenge last year, though before winning the title Jones made his debut in the top-tier Carrera Cup category on the streets of the Gold Coast.

“It was a pretty big step up, at a Supercars weekend there is a lot more going on and the competition is just that level higher,” he told AA. “Racing guys from Supercars and who have been in the Carrera Cup paddock for years, they obviously know what wh they are doing.”

This year the 21-year-old steps up full-time and in s the th opening rounds Jones has h again displayed his consistency by finishing co outside of the top 10 only ou once. on “Adelaide at the start of “ the year I had the pace straight away. In qualifying I str made ma a simple mistake and that tha ultimately put us at the bottom of the top 10, but bot the racing was good,” Jones recalled. reca “The “T Grand Prix race was a long lo one. We raced really well and made our way up the ffield to finish seventh, which whic I was pretty happy with.” with A week prior to the Grand w Prix, Jones drove a monstrous McLaren M8E Can-Am beast from the early 70s, at the Phillip Island Historic meeting, a totally different machine to master.

“The McLaren at the start of this year was probably the scariest car I have ever driven!” he said.

“It pulled over 300kph down the main straight. Obviously, all the cars in the ‘70s era had limited safety and everything, I was scared for my life.”

Going forwards, Jones wants to follow the career progression of Carrera Cup Series winners Matt Campbell and Jaxon Evans up through the Porsche pyramid.

“Porsche has a really well laid out pathway for drivers so I’m hoping to keep climbing that pyramid and join Matty and Jaxon at the top.”

AutoAction

47

ACTION Mart 02 6933 6888 0

www.austtrans.com

Australian Distributor for JERICO performance Transmissions, Parts and Service

IFFerence D e h t l e e F

CAMS CAMS SPEC CAMS S SPEC PEC MILD MILD MILD STEEL STEEL STEEL CHROMOLY CHROMOLY TUBE SOLID SOLID TUBE -- SHEET SHEET -- SOLID

• High quality German made limited slip differentials • Proven in competition by winners in FIA GT, ALMS, WTCC, Targa, BTCC, F3, Nßrburgring 24 hour and Bathurst 12 hour • Competition gearboxes, Gear sets, Driveshafts, & Wheels Hubs also available

TUBE BENDERS - DIES - NOTCHERS

PH: 02 9676 8001 SHIPPING DAILY AUSTRALIA WIDE

Contact details: P: W: www.drexler-motorsport.com.au

W W W. R A C E T E C H S T E E L . C O M . A U

Australian owned & operated since 1930 “Setting the standard for Quality & Value�

Chris ‘Atko’ Atkinson - World Rally Driver

1300 724 943

brakesdirect.com.au

GORDON LEVEN

&$(3(5)250$1&(352'8&76 &20 $8

www.machineryhouse.com.au

0$,1 5' &$67/(0$,1( 9,&725,$ 7

Australia’s JRi agent

MOTORSPORT TYRES

International Products - Local Knowledge

LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN TYRE HEAT TREATING - TYRE BUFFING - TYRE GROOVING - TRACKSIDE SERVICE

FACTORY FACT TORY 40/22 TO 40/2 DUNN CRESCENT, DANDENONG SOUTH, VICTORIA, 3175 AUSTRALIA MOB: 0407 951 990 ROB@RACINGSHOCKSAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

www.austtrans.com

Email: motorsport@gordonleven.com Tel: 02 4735 8734 Address: Unit 6 / 133 Russell St Emu Plains NSW 2750 Website: www.gordonleven.com.au

THE ORIGINAL

OFTEN COPIED - NEVER EQUALLED www.speco.com.au

RESTORE. REPAIR. REBUILD.

02 6933 6888 0

Distributor for G Force e ‡ Transmissions ‡ Parts ‡ Service

LONGER LASTING FLAMEPROOF COATINGS AA1

01_AA_290420

“I only trust Brakes Direct!�

/HDGLQJ /6 &RQYHUVLRQ 6SHFLDOLVWV &DVWOH +HDGHUV DQG ([KDXVW FRPSRQHQWV '\QRJHQ $OWHUQDWRUV 7KH KLGGHQ DOWHUQDWRU LQ D JHQHUDWRU ERG\ +L 7RUTXH *HDU 5HGXFWLRQ 6WDUWHU PRWRUV %LOOHW +LJK 3HUIRUPDQFH $OWHUQDWRUV :LSHU 0RWRU .LWV (), &RQYHUVLRQ /RRPV DQG (&8 UHSURJUDPPLQJ &RQYHUVLRQ HQJLQH PRXQWV 7UDQVPLVVLRQ &URVVPHPEHUV &RQYHUVLRQ 6XPSV 5DFN SLQLRQ &RQYHUVLRQV

Contact Bruce Williams for bookings and information on 0418 349 555 or Bruce@Overdrivemedia.com.au

11 Brewer Street. Clontarf. QLD 4019 | 07 3284 3785

www.tiltatrailer.com

PRODUCTS/INDUSTRY

EFFICIENT DOUBLE LIFTING HOIST

Every mechanic or home auto restoration enthusiast knows all too well that using the correct tool always makes the job in hand much easier with a more successful outcome. That certainly apllies when it is time to remove or replace an engine in your car. Hoists can also be used to lift machines or other heavy items, making them a useful piece of equipment for the workshop or warehouse.

This HPC-1T pneumatic and hydraulic operated engine crane has an 8-tonne long stroke lifting ram, with a double acting pump, and has been tested to 2 tonne capacity enabling a maximum safe working load lift capacity of 1000kg. The jib extends to four different positions with the desired lifting capacity of 250kg, 500kg, 750kg or 1000kg, and is secured by a single locking pin.

The lifting height range is from 0 2300mm, so an engine can be lifted and removed clear out of the engine bay with little effort. The long and wide legs provide great floor stability and the six swivel castor wheels and rear T-bar handle enables excellent manoeuvrability around the workshop. Another nifty feature with this crane is that you can quickly fold up the long legs to save on storage space in the workshop.

For more information, please visit www.machineryhouse.com.au/A332 S289

VEHICLE POSITIONING JACKS LIFT & ROLL AWAY

www.williamsraceservices.com.au sales@williamsraceservices.com Ph:07 5502 3636

Whether you’re restoring your vehicle or making repairs, in most cases you’re going to need to reposition the car to gain better access to the area you’re working on.

Thanks to the VJ-680 Hafco Vehicle Positioning Jacks, you can move your vehicle in any direction with ease.

These heavy-duty 360° low friction hydraulic jacks allow you to move, roll and rotate the car easily without damaging the floor, and without any of the hassle or struggle that occurs with traditional floor jacks.

Unlike traditional floor jacks, the VJ-680 Jacks have 360 degree swivel castor wheels and wide twin wheel rollers that roll under the tyre and lift upwards, lifting the tire smoothly off the ground with just a few clicks of the pedal, so you can manoeuvre the vehicle in seconds.

Whatever project you’re working on, the VJ-680 Hafco Vehicle Positioning Jacks are an essential tool for your garage or workshop.

For more information, please visit www.machineryhouse.com.au/A332

Visit our new Southport showroom! www.austtrans.com

02 6933 6888 0

Australian Elite TREMEC Distributor for Transmissions, Parts and Service

828 Sydney Rd Brunswick 3056 (03) 93865331

RACE REPORT Sydney Motorsport Park - Races 7, 8 & 9

GREAT TO BE BACK! BUSINESS AS USUAL AT SMP

Report: Heath McAlpine Photos: SupercarsEdge Photography Mark Horsburgh

IF THERE was rustiness within the Supercars ranks, then it wasn’t apparent in the three clean but fiercely contested races we saw when racing returned at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 27-28.

Though Scott McLaughlin took two out of three wins in Sydney, we were treated to a trio of spectacular and unpredictable races thanks to the refreshing new sprint format.

Three 32-lap sprints, a major reduction in available data and a variety of strategies thanks to a constricted tyre bank all added to excitement.

Nick Percat was evidence of this byy taking his first win in four years on Sunday, while Lee Holdsworth was another to shine, and Bryce Fullwood od performed strongly in qualifying culminating in a top 10 start.

It race format received the tick of approval from drivers, competitors and the pundits, but will the same occur at Winton? Only time will tell, but the evidence of SMP suggests it’s something to look forward to.

PRACTICE – SUPERCARS ARE BACK! CK! It was the Rookies or those outside e of the Top 20 in the championship who o had the honour of hitting the track first, rst, with an initial 20-minute session.

It was headed by Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Bryce Fullwood, who posted a 1m 30.5517. He was the only one of the five drivers to dip into the 1m 30s bracket, while next was Macauley Jones 0.476s behind.

Practice 1 for all followed and 966s, McLaughlin’s first flyer was a 1m 30.966s,

50 AutoAction

Title protagonists Scott McLaughlin battled for the victories as usual (top), while Jamie Whincup (above left) was also strong and sits second in the points. Dave Reynolds (above right) had a topsy-turvey weekend but finished with a pair of top six results after setup issues in race 7.

th was followed by a 1m 30.484s then this nex the next.

Mustang newbie James Courtney Musta appeared appear fully acquainted with his new machine, machin joining McLaughlin in the 30.4s margin, margin while Tickford teammate Cam Waters made it a Mustang 1-2-3, with fourth A Anton De Pasquale ahead of Mark Winterbottom.

Winterb Brad Jones J Racing’s Todd Hazelwood put Holden Hol at the top in the second practice and was the first into the 1m 29s, as first David Reynolds, then De Pasquale followed before Shane van Gisbergen quickly lowered the mark to a 1m 28.918s.

McLau McLaughlin was just shy of clocking a simi similar time.

Ja Jamie Whincup set an unrepresentative time in opening un practice, but then set a time of pr 11m 28.831s in practice 2 to edge McLaughlin in a final rush of laps as M th the chequered flag fell.

P Percat demonstrated BJR’s pace by ssetting the second fastest time early before ending the session sixth.

Holdsworth was also in the runner up slot, however dropped to fourth by the conclusion with De Pasquale in fifth.

QUALIFYING – NEW FORMAT, SAME OUTCOME Supercars’ new format, where the top 20 progressed into the second part of qualifying and then the top 15 progress into a shootout, did shake up the field, but McLaughlin still took pole in the end.

James Courtney was one of the first victims in a run of laps that bumped him out of the top 20, along with Chris Pither, Jack Smith and Jake Kostecki. A computer problem delayed Courtney and forced him out of the second segment of qualifying.

Despite demonstrating relatively competitive pace in practice, it didn’t carry over into qualifying for David Reynolds, who missed the Top 15 Shootout, completing a lap only good enough for 14th initially before being bumped.

Joining Reynolds were Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq, Alex Davison and Garry Jacobson.

Nick Percat was one of the stars of the Supercars restart, winning his 200th start. Here he battles with Shane van Gisbergen, while below right he poses with the trophy for winning race 8.

Throughout McLaughlin led, finally sitting on top of the timesheets with a 1m 28.158s leading Whincup and teammate Fabian Coulthard.

Impressive performances included Hazelwood in fourth, seventh for Fullwood and Jones in 13th, all making the Top 15 Shootout.

TOP 15 SHOOTOUT – LAST, BUT NOT LEAST A drop into the 1m 27s guaranteed McLaughlin pole position to edge out Kiwi rival van Gisbergen by 0.210s. In fact, the reigning Supercars champion was just 0.2s off his qualifying record from 2018.

A loser in the Top 15 Shootout was Whincup, who dropped from provisional front-row back to fifth, while Waters went the other way to go third from 14th.

Hazelwood on used tyres dropped eight positions to finish the shootout 12th, while Rick Kelly was the only driver to have his time voided by breaching track limits at Turn 5.

RACE 7 – A THRILLER TO KICK IT OFF The scene was set, an all-Kiwi front-row, title protagonists of the past two years, van Gisbergen vs McLaughlin.

Despite predictions of chaos after the E-series events, the action at SMP was very competitive but clean with no major damage anywhere.

However, it was Whincup who made the best start to go from fifth to second as, although van Gisbergen got the better jump, it was McLaughlin that held on through Turn 1.

Meanwhile, Le Brocq’s weekend didn’t get any better when he was left on the grid with clutch failure, though once he got going he was as fast as anyone. But the start set the tone and he could only battle his way back to 17th.

At the front, McLaughlin had bolted to be 2.8s in front, but in doing so had hurt the front tyres, which he kept in the memory bank for later races.

Mostert waged a successful battle on Percat’s fourth as he soon advanced onto the tail of Whincup, before the RBHRT driver was the first of the leaders to pit.

It appeared the two factory Holdens struggled early on cold tyres, but he definitely came good later in the race.

This fact was displayed when van Gisbergen began eating into McLaughlin’s lead before the DJR Team Penske driver pitted on lap 15. The new leader didn’t cover his title rival, but instead ran three laps longer, before joining his two rivals by fitting four fresh tyres.

Emerging behind Holdsworth in fifth, van Gisbergen’s charge was just beginning as McLaughlin bridged a gap in front. On a newer set of tyres,

Chaz Mostert (above) was strong early in the weekend but faded, his rookie Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Bryce Fullwood finishing an impressive 10th in race 9.

Holdsworth was his next victim, then Waters and finally Whincup by lap 21.

Now there was a 3s margin to eat into.

With three laps to go the gap was non-existent and McLaughlin had to play defensive. A tight battle between the two ensued, but McLaughlin hung on to take the first post-COVID victory in a thrilling display.

Whincup was 9s in arrears to fill out the final podium slot ahead of Mostert, Percat, Waters, Holdsworth, De Pasquale, Winterbottom and Coulthard, who dropped three positions late.

As for Courtney, his first race in Mustang ended positively in 12th a net gain of nine positions.

QUALIFYING RACES 8 AND 9 – RECORD BREAKING Sunday’s qualifying for the afternoon’s two races was a 1-1 result, RBHRT and DJR Team Penske shared the poles.

Whincup scored pole for his 500th Supercars race, Race 8, pipping teammate van Gisbergen by 0.0120s.

Behind was an all-DJR Team Penske second row, while Percat was in an attacking position on row three and Reynolds had overcome his set up challenges after finishing the opening race in 21st.

Le Brocq and Heimgartner also improved to make the 10.

RACE REPORT Sydney Motorsport Park -Races 7, 8 & 9

But it was McLaughlin who stole the headlines for Race 9 by beating his qualifying record from 2018 by 0.030s, a time of 1m 27.9193s.

Though McLaughlin took the spoils, Whincup and van Gisbergen weren’t far away. Holdsworth improved dramatically between the two sessions to be fourth, he led Hazelwood while Fullwood was in 10th, outperforming teammate Mostert back in 15th.

RACE 8 – A MILESTONE WIN Yes, it was Whincup’s 500th, but Percat crashed the party and in his 200th delivered BJR and his first win together.

A partnership that promised much when the South Australian joined the team in 2017 finally delivered on that first win, in a hard charging drive.

Whincup made a near-perfect start off the front row that was only eclipsed by Percat.

Battling used tyres, van Gisbergen was struggling and fell down to seventh but Coulthard was in a much worse position, dropping into the mid-teens from fourth.

McLaughlin had passed van Gisbergen at Turn 1, but was unable to hold onto Whincup, as he dropped 1s behind, then he too dropped behind Percat, Waters and Reynolds, before the pit stops started.

RBHRT blinked first and bought van Gisbergen lap 10 in for four tyres and he began a charge similar to the previous day from 20th.

Percat was on form, taking Waters and McLaughlin, then making a sustained challenge on Whincup. The former Bathurst winner caught the seven-time Supercars champion before their pit stops, but was unable to make an impression.

Lap 12, McLaughlin came in to fit four tyres, Waters came in for three, then a lap later Percat tried the undercut on Whincup and fitted four tyres. RBHRT reacted the next lap and Whincup emerged with a useful lead, though only changed the working side tyres.

By lap 20, the margin wasn’t so comfortable and Percat was all over the rear of the RBHRT ZB and on lap 21 the BJR driver made his move at Turn 4, quickly establishing a margin that wasn’t challenged to the chequered flag.

The battle for third was fierce, McLaughlin taking the position despite the little contact from Waters, who was the biggest loser

Supercars made the first of two visits to Sydney Motorsport Park this year (above), watched by a large TV audience but not yet any trackside spectators. Todd Hazelwood (left) was fast when the tyre set was right, underlining the pace of the BJR Commodores.

out of the fight pack as he dropped to sixth behind Mostert and Reynolds.

A 3.1s win fell to Percat, while Whincup, McLaughlin, Mostert, Reynolds and Waters.

A fighting drive from van Gisbergen resulted in seventh, Winterbottom backed up his top 10 result in the opener ahead of a late-charging Courtney and Heimgartner completed the top spots.

Lee Holdsworth was the star of Race 9, taking advantage of two sets of new tyres to scyth through the field to second, while Bryce Fullwood (right) did likewise to finish in 10th.

52 AutoAction

RACE 9 – TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD In what was the easiest race win of the weekend, McLaughlin staved off the challenge of Whincup early to convert his second pole into a second race win at SMP. Whincup made the better start but was positioned on the outside and McLaughlin was able to defend as van Gisbergen made a play for second.

Racing was close in the mid-pack, maybe too close. Percat and Holdsworth collided on the exit of Turn 1 with both cars lifting in the air and somehow surviving undamaged.

Mostert had already qualified poorly and dropped four positions off the start, which set the tone for his race managing to only climb to 16th.

Holdsworth also dropped spots early, but he knew there was a new set of tyres to bolt on at the pit stop. Hazelwood was one to make his way past the Tickford Racing Mustang and charged his way to third after tapping van Gisbergen.

McLaughlin was told by his team to look after his tyres before pitting on lap 14 for four, as did van Gisbergen and Percat.

Waters had been there or thereabouts, but appeared to be battling a steering problem halting his charge towards the top 10.

Whincup was the only frontrunner not to change four tyres, changing the working side only.

RACE 7 RESULTS 32 LAPS Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NC

F H H H H F F H H F H F H F F H H H F H H H H H

Driver Scott McLaughlin Shane van Gisbergen Jamie Whincup Chaz Mostert Nick Percat Cameron Waters Lee Holdsworth Anton De Pasquale Mark Winterbottom Fabian Coulthard Todd Hazelwood James Courtney Bryce Fullwood Rick Kelly Andre Heimgartner Garry Jacobson Scott Pye Macauley Jones Jack Le Brocq Chris Pither David Reynolds Jake Kostecki Jack Smith Alex Davison

Laps/Margin 32 Laps +0.188s +9.775 +11.076s +28.329s +30.799s +31.755s +31.784s +32.671s +35.239s +36.281s +43.981s +43.990s +48.283s +48.439s +50.844s +51.060s +51.410s +51.889s +62.035s +82.383s +84.171s 31 laps 12 laps

0 0 ▲2 0 ▲1 ▼3 0 ▲1 ▲4 0 ▲1 ▲9 ▼2 ▲1 ▲1 ▲4 ▼9 ▼4 ▼2 ▲2 ▼3 ▲2 0 ▼5

RACE 8 RESULTS 32 LAPS

It didn’t matter how many tyres Whincup fitted, Holdsworth was unstoppable and scythed his way through the field to third by lap 23 and was second two laps later. Even McLaughlin was on the veteran’s radar.

Hazelwood pitted and emerged in 11th, but was unable to pass van Gisbergen again. A rear anti-roll bar failure stymied his advance through the field, though a top 10 still beckoned.

De Pasquale was another, who had saved a tyre set and was now on the attack, but he also encountered Eseries rival van Gisbergen and seventh was the result.

There wasn’t enough time for Holdsworth to catch McLaughlin, who fell 1.3s short.

Whincup made it a clean-sweep of podiums ahead of Reynolds, Winterbottom, van Gisbergen, De Pasquale, Hazelwood, Percat and Fullwood.

Heading to Winton, 49-points separate McLaughlin and Whincup, while van Gisbergen recovered well to climb to sixth in the championship standings.

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

H H F H H F H H F F H H F F F H H H F H H H H H

Driver Nick Percat Jamie Whincup Scott McLaughlin Chaz Mostert David Reynolds Cameron Waters Shane van Gisbergen Mark Winterbottom James Courtney Andre Heimgartner Scott Pye Anton De Pasquale Lee Holdsworth Jack Le Brocq Fabian Coulthard Macauley Jones Alex Davison Todd Hazelwood Rick Kelly Bryce Fullwood Garry Jacobson Chris Pither Jack Smith Jake Kostecki

Laps/Margin 32 laps +3.181 +16.447s +19.779s +21.962s +23.046s +23.503s +24.372s +28.984s +33.570s +37.596s +38.526s +39.181s +39.362s +43.012s +49.858s +53.312s +54.059s +56.802s +57.582s +60.121s +65.837s +58.797s 31 laps

▲5 ▼1 0 ▲3 ▲5 ▼1 ▼5 ▲4 ▲6 ▼1 ▲6 ▼1 0 ▼6 ▼ 11 ▲3 ▲3 0 ▼3 ▼6 ▲1 ▼1 ▲1 ▼1

RACE 9 RESULTS 32 LAPS Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NC

F F H H H H H H H H F H F F F H F H H H H H H F

Driver Scott McLaughlin Lee Holdsworth Jamie Whincup David Reynolds Mark Winterbottom Shane van Gisbergen Anton De Pasquale Todd Hazelwood Nick Percat Bryce Fullwood Jack Le Brocq Scott Pye Cameron Waters James Courtney Andre Heimgartner Chaz Mostert Rick Kelly Jack Smith Garry Jacobson Macauley Jones Alex Davison Jake Kostecki Chris Pither Fabian Coulthard

Laps/Margin 32 Laps +1.520s +11.775 +24.428s +25.647s +26.517s +26.950s +27.129s +27.997s +28.749s +31.860s +35.647s +36.859s +37.461s +40.623s +43.754s +46.657s +47.015s +48.063s +49.380s +49.829 +50.596s +77.383s 31 laps

0 ▲2 ▼1 ▲5 ▲6 ▼3 ▲7 ▼3 ▼1 0 ▲1 ▲4 ▼7 ▲4 ▼2 ▼1 0 ▲5 ▲2 ▼1 ▼1 0 ▲1 ▼ 17

Points: McLaughlin 574, Whincup 525, Mostert 432, Waters 411, Reynolds 392, Holdsworth 371, Percat 365, van Gisbergen 353, Winterbottom 352, Heimgartner 282, Hazelwood 271, Kelly 260, Coulthard 254, Le Brocq 248, De Pasquale 233, W. Davison 231, Fullwood 222, Courtney 204, Jones 204, Pye 190, Smith 178, Jacobson 143, Pither 128, Goddard 108, Kostecki 74, A. Davison 64

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

AutoAction

53

NASCAR

HARVICK AND HAMLIN GO TOE TO TOE

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: LAT IT WAS an eventful fortnight of NASCAR Cup Series competition with a photo finish at the Talladega Superspeedway, followed by the first ever NASCAR double header weekend which took place at Pocono Raceway.

While Ryan Blaney edged ahead to win at the legendary Talladega Superspeedway, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin fought tooth and nail for the wins at Pocono, taking one victory apiece.

Manic is the best word to describe the race weekend at Talladega.

The 500 mile classic was delayed one day and looked like it would

be pushed back a further day as rain fell on the circuit. Fortunately however, after a 57 minute midrace stoppage, racing resumed.

In the end the race went to overtime and in a chaotic final lap saw multiple cars collected in an incident at Turn 3. Further collisions occurred coming to the line, with Blaney pipping the pack to take the Kevin Harvick took the chequered flag in the opening race at Pocono after a strategic masterstroke.

win.

As the final lap began Kevin Harvick led the bunched-up pack and elected to take the high line around Turn 3, which allowed Blaney to sweep up the inside and into the lead.

On the approach to the line Aric Almirola and Erik Jones had a run on Blaney. Just metres from the line, Blaney and Jones made contact firing the latter into the wall while Almirola was spun around. Through the chaos Ricky Stenhouse Jr thread the needle and finished just 0.007s behind

Denny Hamlin was victorious in the second Pocono race, turning the tables on Kevin Harvick, and sits fifth in the NASCAR title race.

Erik Jones was fired into the wall on the run to the line at Pocono but still finished fifth.

As a result, the Ford Mustang driver came out in the lead and was able to hold off a hard charging Denny Hamlin by just 0.76s to take his 51st career win.

Almirola scored his second straight third place finish, while Christopher Bell picked up his best result of fourth in his rookie season, ahead of the experienced Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. The following day a second Pocono race was held and in a roll reversal, this time it was Hamlin who got the upper hand over Harvick to take his fourth win of the season.

This time it was Harvick who led into the final round of pit stops when he stopped with 105 laps to go. Hamlin was told by his team

DAVISON DEBUTS AT POCONO Team Penske driver Blaney in a photo finish.

Despite crossing the line backwards Almirola finished third ahead of Hamlin and Jones. Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.

In the opening race at Pocono, 2014 Cup Series champion Harvick benefitted from a strategic masterstroke. At the final stop with 36 laps remaining the Stewart-Haas racing team elected to fit just two tyres.

AUSSIE JAMES Davison made his NASCAR Cup Series debut last weekend competing in both of the Pocono Raceway double header races.

The cousin of Supercars Championship drivers Will and Alex Davison was expected to make his debut the week prior at Talladega, but due to his lack of oval racing experience in a stockcar, NASCAR pushed his debut back a week.

In the 130-lap race on Saturday Davison finish five laps down in 34th position but gathered good information for the following day’s slightly longer race.

“That was fun,” he said on social media after the race. “It felt like we maximised what we were dealing with. The car was super tight jumping in for the first time in the race.

“Mind blowing how big the performance disparity is between the big teams and small teams.”

For the second affair Davison and the #77 Spire Motorsports crew tuned up the Chevrolet and the 33-year-old finished in 30th, four laps off the pace and beating a large number of series regulars. DM

to stay out on track and built an advantage over Harvick from 30s to more than 33s, as the StewartHaas driver battled his way through heavy traffic.

After Hamlin made his final stop, he emerged ahead of Harvick on fresher tyres and was able to cruise to victory.

“I was hoping for no caution,” Hamlin said. “I knew we had the car, and I was just kind of maintaining my gap right there — didn’t want to make any mistakes like I did at Bristol and give that win away.

“I just tried to work through the traffic the best I could, and obviously, Chris (Gabehart, race engineer) was paying attention to the strategy there and made the right call.”

Harvick finished the race in second ahead of Jones, Chase Elliott and Almirola, who rounded out the top five.

In the series standings’ Harvick holds a comfortable lead over the Team Penske drivers of Blaney and Brad Keselowski, with Elliott and Hamlin next best in the points chase.

AutoAction

55

p ra w S L NATIONA

56 AutoAction FEATURE

ARC STARS FOR PANDEMIC GLOOM LIFTED IN JUNE NSW RALLY OF THE BAY EVENT Images: Mick Oliver THE SECOND Wanneroo meeting of the year was a far cry from the opener, as it had to operate under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

That meant no spectators and limited crews, however despite that most categories were well patronised for the June 21 one-day meeting.

FORMULA FORDS

TWO WINS from three outings gave Craig Jorgensen the overall round, although he didn’t get it easy. Two separate incidents on the first lap of race one resulted in a red flag and a complete restart.

Jorgensen (Van Diemen) jumped to the lead ahead of Josh Matthews (Stealth) who led on lap two. The safety car was called mid-race and it ended under caution with Rob Appleyard (Van Diemen) third.

At the start of race two, Matthews jumped ahead of Jorgensen who later turned the tables and went on to win. Matthews was second across the line but a 5s penalty relegated him to fifth behind Mark Pickett (Van Diemen), Appleyard and Nathan Biddle (Stealth).

Jorgensen led throughout the last as Matthews forged through to second ahead of Pickett.

EXCEL CUP

IT WAS a winning trifecta for Robert Landsmeer. He weathered the pressure from pole sitter Jack Clohessy at his first ever event.

Clohessy shadowed Landsmeer for the first four laps until brake failure had him off at Turn 7. Cooper Smart picked up second ahead of Cameron Atkins.

Passaris led for three laps in race two until Landsmeer made his move and took over. Later Smart was able to relegate Passaris to third. Landsmeer took out the last race from Smart, with Ryan McNess third.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

IT WAS Grant Johnson who took the round in a Holden Torana XU-1 with his two wins coming in different ways.

Johnson led the first from beginning to end. Second was between Cono Onofaro (Mini Cooper S), who was taking it to the Chev Camaro driven by Clinton Rayner, as they swapped positions several times until the Mini’s engine gave out. Peter Pisconeri (Ford Mustang) placed third.

Several gave the non-championship handicap race two a miss where Laurie Lapsley ((Jaguar)) led, closely followed by Garry

Edwards (BMW 2002) until the latter was a retirement. Then Mike Rowe (Ford Falcon Rallye Sprint) came unstuck in Turn 1. Lapsley won from Dan Forster (Cooper S) and Raynor.

Johnson had the front running in race three from Raynor but ultimately fell into the clutches of the Camaro driver. Johnson went wide into the final corner sand and Raynor was first to the flag with Johnson salvaging second ahead of Peter Pisconeri. A 5s post-race penalty to Raynor saw the result reversed.

FORMULA VEES

ROUND VICTOR among the 1600s David Caisley (Jacer) became the third different race one leader, after Rod Lisson (Sabre) and David Campbell (Jacer). Once in front Caisley established a winning buffer while there was little between Campbell, Lisson and Danny Cerro (Sabre) at the finish.

Caisley also won the second outing, although he had several lead changes with Lisson. Campbell was third as the Allan Reid and Jeff Cadman Jacers ended up in the Turn 7 sand pit.

It was on again between Caisley and Lisson in the last until Ross Murray (Scorpion) joined them and ultimately took the win.

Meanwhile there was a great dice for fourth where Cerro beat Campbell.

In the 1200 class Brett Scarey (CD-Vee) won race one. Round winner Franz Esterbauer (Ribuck) overtook April Welsh (Jacer) on the penultimate lap for second. At the next outing Scarey looked set for a repeat until his car trailed smoke and eventually stopped. That left Esterbauer a narrow victor over Welsh and Andrew Lockett (Ajay).

Esterbauer led the last before Lockett went ahead. After briefly dropping to fourth, Esterbauer fought back to the front but Lockett edged ahead at the flag as Robert McAfee (Polar) beat Welsh for third.

SALOON CARS, EA/EB/VN/VP

IN THE opening two races Marc Watkins (Ford Falcon EA) wasn’t headed. It was a comfortable first-up victory as Brock Ralph (Holden Commodore VN) overcame Michael Holdcroft (EA) for second.

However in the next outing Watkins was kept honest by Chris Kneafsey (VP). The last race had a flipped grid and Michael Lorkin (VP) led for the first half before Kneafsey took over ahead of round winner Watkins, with Holdcroft third.

SALOON CARS, AU/VT/VY

OVERALL WINNER Grant Johnson missed out on a perfect score but two wins from three was good enough. After winning sc the battle with Rob Marcon (Ford Falcon AU) in race one, th JJohnson (Holden Commodore VT) miscued and dropped to fourth behind Marcon, Glenn Crankshaw and Rick Gill (AUs). fo Macon led race two until a mid-race safety car after which JJohnson assumed command and won as Gill filled third. Matt Martin led the third flipped grid race initially but engine woes M tthat plagued his day returned. Johnson was again victorious aahead of Gill and Brock Boley (VT) who were overall, second aand equal third respectively, the latter with Crankshaw. Marcon rretired during the last race.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

56 AutoAction

WITH MINIMAL entries and down to three when Ben Riley (Honda Integra) lost a wheel in qualifying, IP raced with the later model Saloon Cars. Barry Baltinas (BMW M3) won all three encounters ahead of Dom Coniglio (Mitsubishi EVO VII) and Tim Riley (Toyota Corolla). Mick Oliver

AUSTRALIAN RALLY Champion Harry Bates heads up the entry list in the AMH Automotive Group Rally of the Bay, the first round of the MTA NSW Rally Championship on July 4.

Joining him will be navigator John McCarthy, the duo running in their championship winning Toyota Yaris AP4. Also on the entry list are Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Lewis Bates and Anthony Mcloughlin, 2017 ARC champion Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith, JJ Hatton and Nathan Long, and Irishman Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt.

Other notables confirmed are Chris Higgs, Troy Dowel, Tom Clarke, Arron Windus, Andrew Penny, Gavin Crocker and young star Taylor Gill.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic however, no spectators will be permitted.

This first post-coronavirus event has attracted a record number of entries and will start at Corrigan’s Beach Reserve, Batehaven, and then move to the forests surrounding Batemans Bay. Seven special stages are scheduled with only two repeated, all making up the State Championship (NSWRC) and East Coast Classic Rally Series (ECRS) rounds, while the first five stages will also count towards the NSW Techworkz Clubman Rally Series (CRS), NSW Hyundai Rally Series (HRS) and the Techworkz Automotive ACT Regional Rally Series (ACT).

Final approval for the event was given to North Shore Sporting Car Club (NSSCC) based on the Motorsport Australia ‘Return to Race Strategy’, which has been approved by the NSW State Government.

“It’s a great relief to get the final approval through” said Event Director, Nigel Bland.

“With all the extra requirements, and therefore extra work, due to the pandemic, it’s fantastic to know that all that hard work will mean we can get back to rallying.”

Meanwhile, Balance Motorsport Australia and Rally NSW have announced a new deal where competitors in the Techworkz NSW Clubman Rally Series (CRS) will receive a promotional boost.

The Techworkz series, together with its sister series, the Hyundai Rally Series (HRS), will consist four events in the shortened Motorsport Australia NSW rally calendar.

After Rally of the Bay, rounds include the Narooma Forest Rally (August 1), the Caves Classic Rally (September 5), and the Monaro Stages on October 31.

The partnership will see action images of all competitors made available for free, while Rally NSW has also arranged for a short video to be produced following each event.

Competitors will be encouraged to utilise this content to promote their own teams in seeking potential sponsors or simply for their own enjoyment. GOB

‘What’s In The Workshop’ showcases what’s going on in race workshops around the country. If you have a new racing project you’d like to share, drop us a line at editor@ autoaction.com.au Please attach images, contact details and a short explanation of the project.

JUST AS many teams have taken the opportunity to complete a variety of projects during the hiatus from competition, Wall Racing is no different.

The renowned customer outfit led by David Wall runs multiple racing programs across TCR, GTs, Carrera Cup and even Sports Sedans, all of which have kept the small, tight knit team busy during the pandemic.

“The plan was to do whatever we could, just ride the wave to keep going and hopefully the wave wouldn’t be for too long,” David Wall told Auto Action.

“We’re lucky enough to have a fair few programs running here, we have TCR, we have Carrera Cup, we have GTs, as well as some existing customers who do some local events.”

Wall Racing has received two Honda Civic Type R TCRs from Asian team KCMG, in anticipation of Paul Ip competing in the TCR Australia series. But due to travel restrictions and business commitments, he now won’t be participating in the updated six-round TCR Australia calendar.

“Unfortunately Paul can’t come this year, he’s a Pro Am driver and he’s running businesses, plus other things in front of him,” explained Wall. “His cars are here but he can’t get here, so we’re definitely looking for a driver to fill that seat for the year.

“Whether or not we can do that for the whole year or a couple of one-off events, time will tell.”

Upgrade work was also completed to the Wall team’s fleet of Civic Type R TCRs, and the team is also continuing a development program of its own to try and take the TCR Australia crown.

WALL RACING Wall Racing has remained busy during the COVID-19 downtime, handling a diverse range of projects.

“We’ve tried things that we’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had time for during the year last season,” Wall said. “Just thoughts from the engineers and drivers of what they’d like to have more from the car. We’ve been trying to find that avenue and essentially it has taken us a bit of time, but we’ve been slowly chipping away with that in the background.”

Testing is anticipated to take place just prior to the opening round of TCR Australia season on August 15-16 at Sydney Motorsport Park, to try the developments and to get the driver’s eyes back in.

Wall Racing has also had to rebuild two chassis during the pandemic, plus a re-shell.

The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo owned by Adrian Deitz is currently being rebuilt after the Bathurst 12 Hour.

“The Lamborghini was completely stripped back to a chassis and rebuilt back up to the current Evo spec,” Wall explained. “Parts weren’t drama even though they came from Europe, we put in our order for the parts and we had them here within two weeks.

“First things first are to get it back running, make it all beautiful, then hit the ground running.”

Another project is a Porsche GT3 Cup S that is being restored to a museum piece, while a Carrera Cup chassis is being re-shelled after an incident in

Adelaide.

A sentimental piece of machinery in the Wall Racing workshop is the Chevrolet Corvette Trans Am that Wall’s late-father Des drove to an Australian Sports Sedan title, and David hopes to race sometime in the future.

“My dad’s car has been in the family for a long time and we had to do some work on it, some maintenance,” said Wall.

“I gave it a 10-lap shakedown at Wakefield Park.

The car was driving me for the first five laps, to be honest, and then I started to get my eye in.

“I’d like to do a one-off round in it. They have a memorial trophy for my dad at particular events each year and I’ve always said I’d really like to get that trophy.

“I gave it a crack in 2016 at Sandown and that was the first time I’d driven it, but I’d definitely like to another round somewhere. I’d really like to drive the car at a place like Phillip Island or The Bend or SMP, I’d think it’d be pretty cool.”

A bucket list item was also ticked when Wall was offered a chance to drive the 2019 Bathurst 12 Hour winner, now owned by client Paul Tresidder.

“I’ve always wanted to drive a current model GT3R or RSR or something along those lines,” Wall said. “Paul was good enough to offer me a drive and I couldn’t get my suit on quick enough!

“I was bolting wheels on and doing everything else with boys for the day, and then got to do a 1015 lap run at the end of the day to tick that box.

“Very, very nice car. The car is very fast and no wonder it was so fast around The Mountain!” HM

DON’T LET A PANDEMIC STOP YOU FROM GETTING YOUR HANDS ON YOUR FAVOURITE MAGAZINE!

SUBSCRIBE 12 M ONTHS TODAY! SUBSCRIPTION $60 = 6 ISSUES OVER 3 MONTHS

email us to start receiving your issues

$219 .99 25 ISSUES

editor@autoaction.com.au ALL CALL AA HQ 03 9563 2107 AutoAction

57

We take a look back at who or what was making news in the pages of Auto Action 10, 20, 30 & 40 years ago

Testing your motor sport knowledge

1980: A HOLLYWOOD star for Bathurst!

It was confirmed that actor Paul Newman along with regular co-driver Dick Barbour planned to make the trip to Bathurst in one of Ron Dickson’s Chevrolet Camaros.

Overseas, Alan Jones continued his charge toward the Formula 1 crown by winning the British Grand Prix, extending his lead to Nelson Piquet to six-points.

Giantkiller Peter Hopwood defeated the Porsche of Alan Moffat in tight sports car title fight at Amaroo Park.

1990: LONG-TIME NISSAN driver George Fury announced his departure from the Japanese marque he had driven for through its halcyon rallying days and conversion to touring car frontrunner.

Instead, he joined former teammate Glenn Seton in his Peter Jackson Ford Sierra team for the season of endurance. Toyota took victory via Carlos Sainz in Rally New Zealand, but Ross Dunkerton impressed on his way to a stage win and fourth overall.

2000: A ROW was erupting over which organisation owned V8 Supercars. CAMS commenced legal proceedings in the Victorian Supreme Court against AVESCO, over differing interpretations about the rights and responsibilities of the parties under their contractual arrangements.

Craig Lowndes was on the radar of Ford teams as he entered the last year of his Holden Racing Team contract.

2010: TENSIONS WERE simmering as Mark Webber took victory at the British GP. Favouritism had been displayed when a new front wing was removed from his Red Bull and fitted to teammate Sebastian Vettel’s car after the German’s had failed in practice. However, a dominating display

by Webber prompted him to say “Not bad for a number two driver” across the finish line. James Courtney was also having a frosty time, after colliding with teammate Steve Johnson in Townsville.

ACROSS

5. In what position did Michael Schumacher finish the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1991?

6. Who was the only driver to win multiple AUSCAR titles? (full name) 7. How many French F1 drivers finished on the podium of their home Grand Prix in 1980?

8. What TV network sponsored Kevin Bartlett when he raced his Camaro in the early ‘80s?

9. What was Kevin Bartlett’s highest finishing position in the Australian Touring Car Championship?

10. Who is the most recent driver to win his debut Formula 1 race? (surname only) 11. Who did Jamie Whincup co-drive alongside in 2003? (full name) 12. Several drivers have won on debut for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team, who is the most recent? (surname) 13. Tom Walkinshaw finished on the 1985 Bathurst 1000 podium, who was his co-driver? (full name) 15. At what track did Jamie Whincup claim his first win for Holden?

22. Two Super2 team owners won AUSCAR titles, Matthew White is one, who is the other? (full name) 23. How many times has Paul Dumbrell partnered

58 AutoAction

ith JJamie i Whi i the th Bathurst B th t 1000? with Whincup in 24. What nationality is three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner and former F1 driver Allan McNish?

25. In 1974 Kevin Bartlett won the Bathurst 1000, who was his co-driver? (full name) 26. Michael Schumacher took two wins in the World Sportscar Championship for what team before it also entered F1?

27. Of the nine rounds in the 1988 Australian Touring Car Championship, how many did Holden win?

DOWN

1. How many Formula 1 races did Thierry Boutsen win?

2. What is the name of Jamie Whincup’s race engineer? (full name)

3. Who was the first driver to win an F1 race with a semi-automatic gearbox in 1989?

4. Who won the final AUSCAR Series? (surname) 5. How many Bathurst 1000 wins has Jamie Whincup taken?

7. Kevin Bartlett contested several rounds of the USAC Championship (IndyCar) in 1970, what was highest finishing position?

10. Who won the first Tasman Series in 1964? (full name) 14. Which former F1 driver failed to qualify alongside Kevin Bartlett and Armin Hahne in the 1987 Bathurst 1000? (surname) 16. Who finished second to Harri Jones in the 2019 Porsche Sprint Challenge? (full name) 17. In what brand of car did Kevin Bartlett contest the 1987 Bathurst 1000?

18. The first race win globally for a Ford Sierra RS500 was taken by Dick Johnson at which circuit? (abbreviation) 19. McLaren were undefeated in the 1988 F1 season until Ayrton Senna collided with who in the Italian Grand Prix? (surname) 20. In what country was Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Championship driver Elfyn Evans born?

21. Of the 11 AUSCAR titles held, how many did Holden drivers win?

#1788 Crossword Answers 1 down – Jamie Whincup 2 down – Jordan Love 3 across – Tim Macrow 4 down – French 5 across – Steven Richards 6 down – Schnitzer Motorsport 7 across – Craig Baird 8 down – Rick Kelly 9 down – Maro Engel 10 down – Haas 11 across – Latvala 12 down – Audi 13 across – McLaughlin 14 across – ninetynine 15 down – Silverstone

16 down – Baskerville 17 across – Alistair McVean 18 down – twentyfour 19 down – Lex Davison 20 across – Boutsen 21 down – Raikkonen 22 across – Morgan Park 23 down – European 24 across – Cesario 25 down – Doohan 26 across – Jones 27 down – six 28 across – Will Power 29 across – Newgarden 30 across - Renault

www.autoaction.com.au w.autoaction.com.au

AutoAction AutoActionMagazine Magazine z

INTERVIEW AutoAction

Auto_Action

55

Relive the golden era of Australian motor sport with these fantastic ’Bathurst Photographic History’ books These A4 landscape books are full of rare action images taken by some of Australia’s best motorsport photographers, which you won’t see published anywhere else. Start your own library or give as a gift.

BATHURST GROUP A COMMODORES 1985 TO 1992.

MOFFAT AT THE MOUNTAIN A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY

With over 180 colour and black and white images this 192-page book capturers Allan Moffat’s stellar Bathurst 500/1000 career as both a driver and a team owner – from 1969 to 1996.

Or buy any 3 and pay only $99.00 plus $10 postage, saving $23.00

This 192-page book features imagery of every Group A Commodore that started in the 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992 Bathurst 1000 races. The book has a Foreword by Graham Moore and has a great mix of black and white and colour images.

BATHURST 500 1963 - 1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1967 192 page book features imagery of every car that started in the Bathurst 500 races from 1963 to 1967.

HARDIE FERODO 500 - 1970 A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY 160 page book features imagery of every car that started in the 1970 event.

PHILLIP ISLAND TO BATHURST - THE TRADITIONAL YEARS RESULTS 160 page book features detailed information on every car that started in the original/traditional Phillip Island and Bathurst 500/1000 races from 1960 to 1999.

BATHURST XU-1 TORANAS A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE GIANT KILLING XU-1s

This 176-page book features imagery of every XU-1 Torana that started in the 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst 500’s. Foreword by Colin Bond and a good mix of colour and black and white images.

BATHURST ROTARY MAZDAS A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY This 176 page book features imagery of every Rotary Mazda that started in the Bathurst Hardie Ferodo and James Hardie races from 1969 to 1985. The book is foreworded by Don Holland.

BATHURST HARDTOP FALCONS A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY This 192 page book features imagery of every Hardtop Falcon that started in the 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979 Bathurst Hardie Ferodo 1000 races.

The book is foreworded by Kevin Bartlett.

A mix of colour and black and white images.

BATHURST XD AND XE FALCONS This 160-page book features imagery of every XD and XE Falcon that started the 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 Bathurst 1000 races. Bob Morris and Garry Willmington have written the Forward to this colourful book with a great mix of colour and black and white images.

BATHURST A9X TORANAS BATHURST GT-HO FALCONS A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY This 176-page book features imagery of every This 160 page book features imagery of A9X Torana that started in the 1977, 1978 and every GT-HO Falcon that started in the 1979 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst 1000 races.

1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972 Hardie Ferodo With a Foreword by Bob Morris, it features an 500 races at Bathurst – with a good mix of colour and black and white. The foreword interview withJim Richards who won Bathurst three years in a row with Peter Brock in the is by John Goss. mighty A9X Torana.

BATHURST GTS MONAROS This 144-page book features imagery of every Monaro that started in the 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973 and 1974 Bathurst Hardie Ferodo races.

The book has co-Forewords by Bruce McPhee and Colin Bond and has a good mix of colour and black and white images.

BATHURST CHARGERS AND PACERS This 160-page book features imagery of every Charger and Pacer that started in the 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst races. The book’s Forwarded is by Leo Geoghegan and has a good mix of colour and black and white images.

To place an order via email send to: bruce@autoaction.com.au or give us call at Auto Action HQ on 03 9563 2107

AR-P10 Air Hose Reel โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

AF-30 Industrial Axial Flow Floor Fan

15M x ร 9.5mm Polyurethane hose Wall or ceiling mount 232psi/16Bar pressure Includes dusting gun

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

ย Order Code: H045

$

Ideal for fume extraction ร 300mm diameter 60 cubic M/min 520W 240V

$

SAVE $16

ITB-48 Industrial Tool Box

โ ข 45 piece set โ ข Metric fine & coarse set โ ข M6 ~ M24 alloy steel โ ข Includes die holder & 2 x tap wrenches

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

Order Code: T014

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

Flat: 100 x 5mm Square: 16 x 16mm Round: ร 18mm diameter Includes 5 clamp plates

$

SAVE $17

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

1220 x 615 x 720mm Dual gas struts on lid 1.5mm steel Powder coated finish

SB-200 Sandblasting Cabinet

289

$

HES-907F Engine Stand

โ ข 907kg capacity โ ข 5 swivel caster wheels โ ข Fold-up legs

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

2500kg lift capacity 1220mm fork length 85 - 195mm lift height Cast iron pump design

Order Code: J061

$

369

SAVE $20

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

289

680kg capacity 115 - 420mm lift height Foot operated hydraulic lift 3 stage safety lock 4 tie down points

Staff Member

โ ข Compact design, only 23kg โ ข 130x125mm capacity โ ข Variable speed 30-80mpm โ ข Swivel head to 60ยบ โ ข 1.3hp, 240V

Order Code: B004

UNIQUE PROMO CODE

AACT1720

$

669

SAVE $57

ONLINE OR INSTORE!

Order Code: T724

759

$

SAVE $66

โ ข 900 x 450 x 1800mm โ ข 150kg shelf capacity โ ข 75kg drawer capacity โ ข Made from reinforced sheet metal

Order Code: T762

$

SAVE $46

Industrial duty ball bearing slides Protective drawer liners ร 125mm x 50mm Industrial wheels 107.5Kg, 1067 x 458 x 1007mm Key lockable & powder coated finish

454kg lift capacity

220 - 760mm lift height

1800 x 570mm platform

Wheel locking vice

Foot operated

hydraulic lift

669

SAVE $19

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

SC-1800 Industrial Storage Cabinet

$

BS-5V IRC-7D Portable Swivel Head Band Saw Industrial Series Roller Cabinet - MEARA

SAVE $24

Order Code: A349

$

SAVE $31

339

$

MLR-454 Hydraulic Motorcycle Lifter

179

299

$

Order Code: J050

SAVE $19

Order Code: A347

Order Code: A350

500kg load capacity 810 x 500mm table 295-780mm table height 2 fixed & 2 swivel wheels with brakes

$

MLR-680 Hydraulic ATV & Motorcycle Lifter

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

189

226kg load capacity 710 x 440mm table 270-740mm height 2 fixed & 2 swivel wheels with brakes

Order Code: J048

SAVE $38

HC-1T Hydraulic Engine Crane

$

SAVE $43

LT-500 Hydraulic Lifter Trolley

SAVE $33

Order Code: A340

419

$

LT-226 Hydraulic Lifter Trolley

$

1000kg lifting capacity Double action pump 2300mm lift height 6 cast steel swivel wheels โ ข Fold up legs

259

PT-2500 Hydraulic Pallet Truck

319

339

1800 x 750 x 900mm 1000kg load capacity Heavy duty steel fabricated frame High density laminate top

Order Code: A420

SAVE $27

SAVE $30

Order Code: S289

SAVE $24

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

Order Code: S014A

$

$

309

$

IWB-40 Industrial Work Bench

โ ข Suits RSS-4WS Industrial Steel Shelving (S014) โ ข 364kg capacity per shelf โ ข Adjustable shelves โ ข Interlock design, no tools required

Order Code: S014

โ ข Heavy-duty steel cabinet โ ข 835 x 510 x 360-550mm blast area โ ข Includes light, tempered glass screen, gloves, gun & ceramic nozzle

Order Code: Q1871

SAVE $32

RSS-4WSA Industrial Steel Shelving Extension

1955 x 610 x 1830mm 364kg capacity per shelf Adjustable shelves Interlock design, no tools required

SAVE $45

179

300mm / 12โ IP67 coolant proof Large clear screen display Metric/Imperial conversions Four way measurement

SAVE $19

RSS-4WS Racking Steel Shelving

439

Order Code: B043

300mm/12" Hardened S/S mechanism Metric/Imperial Settings Four way measurement

Order Code: Q182

159

$

SAVE $19

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

$

Order Code: T738

179

UB-100 Workshop Bar Bender

149

โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

31-182- Digital Caliper

Order Code: M697

SAVE $16

Metric Alloy Steel Tap & Die Set

31-1871 Digital Caliper - Coolant Proof

โ ข 12mm IP67 camera with 1M cable โ ข LED lighting โ ข Includes cable, magnetic pick up & mirror tool

Order Code: F050

149

$

VS-1000 Portable Video Inspection Camera

www.machineryhouse.com.au

TM420SDi+ Pilot Air Compressor โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

356l/min.

Cast iron pump 50 litre tank 145psi pressure 3hp, 240V motor

PD-35 Industrial Pedestal Drill โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข โ ข

31.5mm drill capacity 3MT spindle 9 spindle speeds Swivel & tilt table 1hp, 240V motor

Order Code: C5041

Order Code: D162

1,289

$

$

1,789

SAVE $31

COMPETITIVE

FREIGHT

RATES!

749

SAVE $76

SAVE $70

Simple & Quick Online Freight Rate Check! *DELIVERED TO YOUR

DOOR!

Specifications & Prices are subject to change without notification. All prices include GST and valid until 31-07-20

www.machineryhouse.com.au

NSW (02) 9890 9111 QLD (07) 3715 2200

VIC (03) 9212 4422

1/2 Windsor Rd, Northmead 625 Boundary Rd, Coopers Plains 4 Abbotts Rd, Dandenong

WA (08) 9373 9999

11 Valentine Street Kewdale

07_AA_020720

*Remote areas may require depot collection in your town