Auto Action #1790

PERCAT 2.0 NEW NICK SPEAKS OUT

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rules row crippled KB’S cult camaro

SOUND OF MUSIC HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH F1

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SPEEDY SOLICITOR JIM KEOGH

Issue #1790 16 July to 29 July 2020 $8.95 INC GST

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PERCAT CONFESSES:

‘I WAS AN ARSEHOLE’

BJR STAR OPENS UP ABOUT HIS BAD ATITUDE Fresh from his Sydney success, misunderstood ace Nick Percat tells MARK FOGARTY why he is no longer a Bathurst-winning brat REFORMED RACER Nick Percat has thrown off his ‘bad boy’ reputation, adopting a dog to help change his image.

Percat scored a popular upset victory in Supercars’ return to racing at Sydney Motorsport Park, confirming his rehabilitation with giant-killing Brad Jones Racing.

The former self-admitted “arsehole�, who became self-absorbed following his debut victory in the 2011 Bathurst 1000 for the Holden Racing Team with Garth Tander, has changed his ways since joining BJR in 2017.

Percat’s loveable Labrador Nelson has also helped soften his image and made him more appealing to fans.

With co-owner Brad Jones’s support, he has become less angry and bitter about being overlooked by HRT – then part of the Walkinshaw group – after excelling at Bathurst and in the 2012 Super2 series.

In an extended interview with Auto Action, Percat bares his soul about fighting his way back to the top.

Despite calming his simmering anger, he still unleashes on Walkinshaw’s rejection while revealing he was a chance to return to Clayton this year ahead of Chaz Mostert.

He also alludes to an approach from DJR Team Penske to join the front-running American-owned squad.

Percat’s bombshells, plus his candour about needing to change his attitude, illustrate his new maturity as he emerges as a contender in

the new Supercars paradigm of managing tyre wear in short, sharp races.

But he is honest enough to admit he still holds a grudge against Walkinshaw, which didn’t promote him quickly and then abandoned him after one belated season in 2014. “The Walkinshaw time and how that ended was pretty rough,� he said. “How long they took to put me into the main series I think was wrong.

It’s the first time I’ve said this to someone where it’s going into print, but that really frustrated me in those years. “And then when I finally did get my chance in the main series, I didn’t really get a proper shot (in a fourth WR entry). [To] then get sacked was extremely rude, to be honest.�

He also laments his time at backmarker Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, although he admits the deal – which netted him a controversial victory in the 2016 Adelaide 500 – was a “saviour�.

Percat revealed he’s had serious approaches from big teams, including an offer to return to Clayton. “I’d say in the past few years in a row my phone has rung and it has been a US number, so it’s not like there’s been no interest,� said intriguingly. “There were chats with WAU before Chaz went there to go back, but at the end of the day, I appreciate so much what Brad and the team have done for me. “I want BJR to win. I prefer to drive

Image: LAT

for Brad and get the results for him than rock up into a car that’s already an established winner.�

Percat also admitted that his reputation as a ‘Mini Garth’ under the influence of Tander was welldeserved. “Oh, yeah, that was exactly right, 100 per cent,� he declared. “I admit that. I just got moulded into a similar attitude without really realising. “Honestly, it’s taken three-and-half years to try to turn that around.�

While he is grateful to Tander for his driving mentorship, he credits BJR’s family atmosphere for changing his public image. “When I got to BJR, I was still angry and frustrated,� he said. “I had to make some big changes in my life.

It’s taken a good three years of work behind the scenes every week to change that view. “There are still people that dislike

me, which is fine, but I’m definitely a different person now. [Brad] respects the fact that I trusted him and also that I recognised I had an attitude problem and not only undertook to change, but actually acted on it. “That’s what Brad was impressed with, that I wasn’t stuck up my own arse. My image is changing slowly, but I think the race team has seen it way more than the public.�

Percat also credits his chocolate Labrador Nelson, famously snoozing in the background during his Eseries campaign, for changing perceptions. “There was this lingering ‘Nick’s an arsehole’ kind of thing, but then they saw live Twitch feeds where it’s just me doing my thing with Nelson in the background,� he said. “It changed how people see me.�

Percat bares his soul in an extraordinarily honest ‘Up Front With Foges’ interview on pages 28-31

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DARWIN AND TOWNSVILLE DOUBLE-HEADERS?

Supercars looks to add races as COVID causes calendar

By BRUCE NEWTON A DARWIN Supercars double-header could be confirmed by the time you read this and another double-header straight afterwards in Townsville, or at least in Queensland, is also under consideration.

As Auto Action closed for press it was expected Supercars would soon sign off on consecutive weekend’s of Supercars sprint racing action at the Hidden Valley track in the Northern Territory, with an August 1-2 outing added ahead of the existing August 8-9 date.

The single Townsville outing on the Reid Park hybrid street circuit is currently confirmed for August 29-30, but multiple AA sources say a second outing at the Queensland track is being discussed, although far from being locked in.

And as we closed for press, word reached us that it could also be a Queensland state double-header, with Townsville and then Queensland Raceway back to back.

“It looks like the Darwin doubleheader will probably happen,” an AA source said. “There is a lot of hard work going on to make that happen.

“The Townsville double-header discussion is very early days.”

It is understood one concern cited

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about adding a second Townsville or Queensland event is how that impacts on engine maintenance schedules.

The additional NT races and possible Townsville/Queensland Raceway addition come as the COVID-19 resurgence in Victoria forces repeated revisions of the Supercars championship calendar.

On July 2 the sprint event scheduled for Winton in country Victoria for July 18-19 was shifted to Sydney Motorsport Park, due to COVID-19 travel protocols in Queensland imposed in response to the infection spike in Melbourne suburbs.

Those rules meant Queensland-

based teams and drivers returning home would have had to quarantine for 14 days after competing in Victoria.

The drama ramped up further on July 7 when the NSW government announced it would be shutting the border with Victoria from July 8, forcing southern teams and drivers to evacuate to Sydney.

We’ve covered the impact of that forced shift on teams separately in these pages.

The upside for the championship of that forced move is the Victorian team personnel should be able to cross the border into the NT and Queensland without undergoing quarantines, Image: LAT

as they will have spent at least two weeks in NSW. For added reassurance, Victorian team members were also scheduled to undergo two COVID-19 tests in the two weeks leading into SMP. The shift from Winton to SMP this weekend has also brought forward the return of live spectating at events.

Darwin had originally been scheduled to reintroduce fans.

As AA closed for press it had been confirmed 1000 ticketed fans would be allowed in the SMP grandstand each day. Park and view spectating was being negotiated but not confirmed.

With COVID-19 clusters emerging in Sydney this week, Supercars is planning to pack up all teams and head north out of the area as soon as practicable after the SMP event.

The plan will be to isolate the teams in a hotel in Darwin and have them work out of the Hidden Valley pit facility.

Looking further out, the Supercars 2020 calendar – twice revised already – will assuredly go through further changes.

The September 19-20 event at the suburban Melbourne Sandown circuit is obviously in doubt because of the current lockdown there, with a variety of alternative venues including Winton

REYNOLDS FACES ENGINEERING CHANGE McVean among Supercars staffers in lockdown as teams head north

By BRUCE NEWTON

Image: LAT

chaos and The Bend mooted as replacements.

The South Australian circuit was dropped from the last version of the calendar, squeezed out by a team preference for Sandown.

Given the resurgence of the virus in Victoria, even transiting through Victoria and Melbourne to get on the ferry to Tasmania for the November 21-22 Symmons Plains race is a potential issue, if infections are not under control by then.

One thing that seems immutable through all this – or as much as it can be – is the determination to run the category’s blue ribbon event, the Bathurst 1000, on its scheduled October 8-11 date and with a live crowd.

That potentially means Victorian Supercars having to quarantine in NSW for two weeks ahead of Mount Panorama – although that’s based on the assumption they get to go home at all.

Instead, they may end up in out-ofstate hubs, which could be at Wakefield Park or Bathurst in NSW, Norwell in Queensland or The Bend.

The worst case scenario is COVID-19 escapes Victoria and triggers another nationwide lockdown, halting Supercars and all other motor racing.

For updates on the Supercars calendar and COVID-19’s impacts on all Australian motorsport, check in at autoaction.com.au regularly

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EREBUS Motorsport star driver David Reynolds will have a new engineering structure for the Supercars championship swing through Sydney Motorsport Park, Darwin and Townsville.

Team boss Barry Ryan and data engineer Tom Moore are expected to support Reynolds in the absence of regular race engineer Alistair McVean.

McVean is one of the highest profile members of the Supercars fraternity not to depart Victoria ahead of the COVID-19 lockdown and border closure with NSW. It is understood he elected to stay home for family reasons.

Almost every Victorian-based team has had to cover for the absence of one or more regular team members, for what is expected to be a six-week swing away from home.

For instance, Walkinshaw Andretti United has not taken the number one mechanics from both Chaz Mostert and Bryce Fullwood’s Holden Commodore ZBs, as well as the team electrician.

“Some people have got family commitments they couldn’t get out of,” said team co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw.

“We are not going to force people to leave their families behind for that amount of time when they have new-born kids on the way and things like that.”

While McVean is head of engineering at Erebus, he is best known for his race weekend role as Reynolds’ engineer.

The two have developed a tight-

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knit relationship, been pivotal in Erebus’ push to the front of the grid and won the Bathurst 1000 together in 2017.

Reynolds is fifth in the 2020 Supercars championship with two fourth places his best finishes in five races this year.

Ryan confirmed McVean’s absence to Auto Action but would not comment further.

However, in a press release entitled ‘Erebus can cope with new circumstances, says Ryan’ issued last weekend, he spoke extensively about the challenges ahead, albeit without mentioning McVean’s absence.

“This year has shown we need to be ready to adapt to new situations and as quickly as the drop of a hat, and I have full faith that we are more than capable at getting through this period.

“You look back at the last few months and you take a bit of solace in past experience, knowing you were able to get through those times.

“This is a new situation but at the same time we can bring our passion and comradery and bring our best at each moment.”

The Victorian teams had to exit Victoria ahead of the NSW border closure on Wednesday July 8 Most of the them are now camped up at Sydney Motorsport Park and staying at the Alpha Hotel near the track since last week.

Erebus was staying at team owner Betty Klimenko’s farm in the NSW southern highlands after parking its Holden Commodore ZBs at SMP. Kelly Racing was initially based at the Kelly family station 65km north

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of Mildura in NSW, but moved its two new Ford Mustangs to SMP earlier this week.

The former Nissan factory team has been hard-hit by the need to shift away from its home base as it is early in its Ford V8 engine development program.

“Everything we were working on has come to a grinding halt again unfortunately,” admitted team chief Todd Kelly. “The engines were out of the cars and we were trying to tidy up a couple of little issues we had with the manifold and also start on the lightening program.

“But because we only have four engines at the moment they are all back in the truck and we are stuck with what we have got for now.”

Financially though, the biggest bill is being incurred by Tickford Racing, which had to shift north four Mustangs and Broc Feeney’s Super2 Ford Falcon and the personnel to run them.

And while the Super2 crew and car head home after SMP, the 22-plus staff working on the main game cars will be on the road for weeks beyond that.

Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards estimated the bill would come to $60,000, even though Supercars is subsidising accommodation costs.

“I calculated the number people I’ve got (on the road) times the amount it costs me per day, times the number of days and I did the number in my head and it came out at $60,000,” Edwards told AA. “I woke up at 2am in the morning, got the calculator out and yep, it was still $60,000 just to feed that number of people for that duration.”

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SMP tyre rules encourages radical strategies says Whincup

By BRUCE NEWTON THE REVISED tyre rules for next weekend’s Supercars event at Sydney Motorsport Park could encourage some drivers and teams to sacrifice the rest of their weekend for a single race win.

That’s the view of seven-time Supercar champion Jamie Whincup, who says limiting each car to two sets of soft tyres and three sets of hards across qualifying and racing at SMP is “a massive curveball”.

Last time out at SMP on June 27-28, each car in the field had five sets of soft tyres available.

“You almost throw out a lot of what you learned last time,” said Whincup. “It’s a completely different game next week with the tyre change and that’s a really good thing.

“What worked last week won’t work next week.”

Whincup says a driver could take the punt and run both sets of the faster soft tyres in one race, a move that would guarantee a strong result and even a win, depending on how many others take the same punt.

The downside is spending the other two sprints on hard tyres and finishing down the field.

“You could basically use all your bikkies in one race and go absolutely for glory,” said the factory Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver. “Whoever does that will win a race.

“But in saying that there might be more than one person thinking about that, there might be four or five people considering it, there might be 10 who go ‘Hey we’re going for glory here’.

“But then you don’t want to go for glory and end up 10th because nine other cars did the same thing.”

Tyre management was critical last time out at SMP, with teams changing two, three or four soft tyres in each of the three sprint races, depending on their situation and strategy.

The tyres also had to be managed through up to five qualifying sessions, remembering Saturday’s three-part knock-out format.

Fundamentally the same format applies this time round, although Saturday’s race will be under lights.

“If you know the best way then let me know, because

Image: LAT

WILL ANYONE GO FOR GLORY? we are not sure ourselves on the best course to take,” Whincup said.

“It is going to come down to what other people do, which is going to be pretty gnarly.”

Whincup, a member of the Supercars Commission, welcomed another rule that dictates teams must declare their starting tyre choice 30 minutes prior to each race.

“It just eliminates the stupid cat and mouse game where cars are not leaving for the out lap and so on,” he said.

“Once you have elected what tyres you start on then who knows, there will be cars on hards and cars on softs, it will be all over the place.”

Whincup was beaten for the win in his 500th race at SMP last time out by Brad Jones Racing’s Nick Percat, who elected to change four Dunlops at his mandatory stop while Whincup changed only two.

However, Whincup managed to finish on the podium every race to stay second in the championship and keep leader Scott McLaughlin in sight.

He made it clear he and engineer David Cauchi will again be going for maximum points rather than glory.

“The biggest prize is the championship, so and you’ve got your championship contenders trying to finish as far up as possible,” Whincup said.

“All the top runners – and I believe the majority of the field – are still trying to get the best championship position they can. At the end of the day that’s all that matters.”

WHINCUP’S 60TH PREVIEW

JAMIE WHINCUP says he got an inkling of what it will be like to turn 60, when he was guest of honour at a function to celebrate his 500 Supercars race starts.

Held on the Gold Coast with a small group of socially distancing friends in the days after the 37-year old clocked up the milestone, Whincup says it reaffirmed his desire to keep on racing. “I feel like I’ve had a preview of my 60th birthday,” he told Auto Action.

“Hey, it’s a great thing and it’s worth celebrating but it did make me think ‘Oh gee I’m no spring chicken anymore, I’m lucky to have made it this far’.

“But I still want to go further … sure, let’s celebrate something, but it’s still not the end.”

After much summer speculation, Whincup confirmed in February he would race on full-time until at least the end of the 2021 season.

“I know I am repeating myself here, but I’m sure numbers like that mean a lot when you have finished up, to sit back and say ‘Hey I did 500 races at the highest level of Australian motorsport’,” Whincup said.

“I am sure that will be massively valuable to me once the battle has finished.

“But for the moment I am still in it and I want to keep adding to that number.”

From 501 race starts so far, Whincup has claimed seven Supercars championships and 119 race wins including four Bathurst 1000s. BN

CROMPO’S QUIET RETURN TO COMMISSION

By MARK FOGARTY BROADCAST LEGEND Neil Crompton has quietly returned to the Supercars Commission, taking over as chairman of the rule-making group.

Crompton resigned last year after several seasons as the independent commissioner.

He is back as interim chairman, replacing former CART Indycar team owner Steve Horne, who stepped down early this year.

NZ-based Horne had signalled as far back as 2018 that he wanted to relinquish the position, but agreed to stay on until a replacement could be found.

A long search resulted in Crompton, who was inducted into the Supercars Hall Of Fame in 2017, being invited back at the start of this year.

Along with Todd Kelly, he quit the Commission last season, both citing heavy workloads.

Crompton’s place as the independent

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commissioner was taken by former Kelly Racing team manager Scott Sinclair.

‘Crompo’ agreed to return as non-voting chairman of the six-member panel, to help guide the on-going discussions about the evolution of the technical and sporting regulations.

The commissioners are Supercars chiefs Sean Seamer and Shane Howard, team bosses Brad Jones and Tim Edwards, Jamie Whincup and Sinclair, with Ryan Story and Adrian Burgess as alternates.

Crompton has presided over 10 Commission meetings since February in what has been its busiest and most taxing period as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

The group has formulated the raft of race format changes and cost-saving measures to get Supercars racing through the pandemic-disrupted season.

Crompton’s return was without fanfare and never officially announced by Supercars.

He was appointed as interim chairman until a permanent head can be found.

In a long TV commentary career, he has become the voice of V8s as the mainstay of the Supercars calling team since 2003.

He also figured prominently in the Mike Raymond Channel Seven era in the 1980s before concentrating on his driving career.

Crompton, 59, was a leading ATCC/V8 Supercars driver from the late ’80s to 2002, driving for Peter Brock, Bob Forbes, Wayne Gardner, HRT, Glenn Seton and 00 Motorsport.

Although he never won an ATCC/ Supercars race, he scored victories in the 1997 North American Touring Car Championship in a Super Touring

Image: Insyde Media

Honda Accord run by Horne’s Tasman Motorsports.

He was denied the NATCC title by a disqualification squabble that resulted in Tasman’s withdrawal from the series.

Crompton won the ’94 Bathurst 12 Hour, partnering the late Gregg Hansford in a factory backed Mazda RX-7.

NEW V8 TV DEAL IS ‘CLOSE’

By MARK FOGARTY A NEW Supercars broadcast deal is close to being secured, with the Seven Network taking over as the free-to-air provider.

Fox Sports is set for a multi-year renewal from 2021, on-selling FTA rights to Seven.

The switch from Network 10 to Seven will result in more free coverage on its digital channels.

Annualised, the new broadcast rights deal will be less than the existing five-year $241 million agreement that finishes at the end of this season.

It is also crucial to the planned sale of Supercars, determining how much the category is worth and how much cashstrapped teams would receive.

Multiple informed sources have confirmed to Auto Action that an extended broadcast rights agreement with Fox Sports and Seven is imminent.

“The TV deal is close,” an informed source confirmed.

The only delay in the finalisation might be the latest uncertainty about this season caused by the coronavirus spike in Melbourne, which closed Victoria to the rest of the nation.

Otherwise, Supercars supremo Sean Seamer is on course to seal a renewed deal with Fox Sports that switches FTA coverage to Seven.

AA understands the broadcast rights agreement will be for more than two years, but fewer than the five years of the existing arrangement – done by then Supercars boss James Warburton, now head of the Seven Network.

Seven will show more events live than Ten does now across its FTA channels and 7Plus streaming platform.

As well as marquee events like the Bathurst 1000 and Adelaide 500, ‘The Screens Of Seven’ are likely to cover at least one race of each regular round as well as delayed highlights.

Seven is set to return as the ‘home of motor sport’ on FTA TV,

with Supercars joining its multi-platform coverage of ARG’s TCR and S5000.

It will also retain shared coverage of the Supercars-run Bathurst 12 Hour, which is still in doubt for next year because of international travel restrictions, but will return in ’22.

“We need a new TV deal where we’re on a free-to-air network that gives a shit, which is pretty close to happening,” an embittered team boss said.

Of the current talks, another commented: “It’s not a bad TV deal.”

It is now widely known that Supercars had a firm Fox Sports/ Seven deal on the table last November.

It was rejected because it was thought a better agreement could be done – and one that didn’t upset Foxtel owner News Corp by involving rival media group Seven West, which owns the top-rating FTA network.

According to informed sources, that decision means Supercars will receive “significantly less” annually for the new deal than the existing agreement, worth around $40 million per year.

Supercars owner Archer Capital is waiting on the new TV deal to activate its long-planned sale of the business, giving it tangible value.

However, even then, informed observers reckon a Supercars sell-off will still only reap $30 million-$35 million – way less than the $134 million Archer paid in 2012.

There is also the complication of Supercars teams’ 35 per cent shareholding and the associated ‘tag along’ rights.

There is also the danger that financially stressed team owners would take their split of the proceeds – at least $500,000 per REC – and depart, crippling the category.

The main contenders to buy Supercars are a consortium of wealthy team owners, and ARG in combination with a leading team owner or owners.

The future viability of Supercars also depends on Gen3, due for introduction in 2022, achieving significant cost savings.

However, according to an insider, in the event of a sale, “Teams will have to give up equity to get money to fund the Gen3 changeover”.

DATA CLAIMING PITCHED Push to have Supercars fastest qualifying laps shared across the grid

By BRUCE NEWTON A PROPOSAL that data for fastest qualifying laps be freely available to the rest of the Supercars grid has stalled.

Referred to by some as ‘data claiming’, the idea was debated for the main game by the rule-making Supercars Commission, after it was trialled by the Super2 development series earlier this year at the Adelaide street race.

Discussed by the commission during the three month COVID-19 championship pause, its proponents suggested it be introduced for the resumption of racing at Sydney Motorsport Park last month.

But the proposal did not get signed off, although it has yet to be formally rejected for good.

Sharing fastest qualifying lap data is seen as yet another way to close up the grid and improve the action.

“As you can imagine, some people are a bit more sensitive about their data getting out than others so it didn’t get enough support,” said Tickford Racing boss and

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Supercars commission member Tim Edwards.

When asked about data claiming, seven-times Supercars champion and Supercars Commission member Jamie Whincup made it clear he was no fan.

“The big thing I have loved about Supercars and why I am still doing it 20 years later is because it is not about sporting parity. Yep, they work hard on technical parity but it’s not sporting parity,” the Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver told Auto Action.

“So the car that qualifies on pole doesn’t get 10 kilos more, it doesn’t get restricted, it doesn’t get less laps in practice. There is no sporting parity trying to give the fastest car and team less opportunity to repeat that over the series.

“The thing I hate about data claiming is it sits exactly in the sporting parity sector.

He’s the quickest person so here’s all his hard work and I am just going to give that to the rest of the teams to become more competitive.

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Image: LAT

“If that’s not sporting parity I don’t know what is. You may as well give the rest of the field another 10 horsepower and make the guy on the front stay where he is.

“The DNA of the sport is we never go into sporting parity and I think we never

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should. That’s what makes Supercars so special.”

While qualifying data cannot be ‘claimed’ at the moment, it is available at a cost to customer teams such as those supplied

by Triple Eight Race Engineering, the parent organisation of RBHRT.

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QUEENSLANDER ZANE Goddard will hop back behind the wheel of the Matt Stone Racing Superlite car when the Supercars Championship returns to Sydney Motorsport Park. After impressing on debut in Adelaide, Goddard stepped aside for teammate Jake Kostecki in Sydney when Supercars returned to the action after the COVID-19 break. It is expected that Goddard will remain in the car for the round at Darwin, before Kostecki jumps back in for Townsville. DM

TICKFORD’S RACE ACROSS THE BORDER IT HAS been confirmed that the only support races at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend will be the combined Super2 and Super3 races. The Dunlop Super2 Series will hit the track for the first time since the Adelaide 500 round back in February, while the Super3 Series competitors will be making their first on track appearance of the year. It marks the first event where both fields have been combined. DM

Image: LAT

LONG-TIME SUPERCARS Championship race director Tim Schenken did not make it into New South Wales before the Victorian and NSW border shut. Unlike all Victorian Supercars teams, the race director and former F1 driver did not make the run for the border. When Auto Action went to print it was unknown whether Schenken and Supercars would seek an exemption for him to be at the Sydney event, remain at home or work remotely. DM

THE TOYOTA Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series will not be conducting its opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park as a support to the Supercars Championship.

After consultation with both the Supercars Championship and Toyota, the category has elected to postpone the event. The category will instead kick off in Townsville. DM

Image: Mark Horsburgh AFTER THE first round of the Pirtek Pitstop Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park, the points lead is split between Tickford Racing’s Lee Holdsworth, Erebus driver David Reynolds and Brad Jones Racing racer Jack Smith. DM

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TICKFORD RACING is ready for any situation that transpires, after successfully making the dash across the Victorian-New South Wales border last week.

Team manager Matt Roberts was forced to move quickly and ensure that the Victoria based squad packed its four Supercars entries, soleSuper2 Falcon, plus all its spares and equipment at short notice, in what is expected to be at least a six-week road trip.

This was due to the Victorian Government’s decision to enforce Stage 3 lockdown restrictions on the entire Melbourne metropolitan area.

“We haven’t left anything behind, I’ve prepared for the worst,” Roberts told Auto Action.

“I have packed extra steel bodywork, rear back panels, front rails, extra crash bars and all that heavy steel stuff which I normally wouldn’t take much of, (so) we are catered to go on the road for a while.”

Roberts believes that every forceable situation can be dealt with on the road and if not, he feels sure the Victorian workshop would be able to get something to the track in time.

“On the road there is not much that we couldn’t achieve apart from an engine rebuild on a dyno because they’re quite intricate,” he said.

“We would require Tickford to put the engine

together, dyno it at the factory and then road freight it. That would be about the only thing we couldn’t cater for.”

Roberts and team principal Tim Edwards anticipated and prepared for the incoming Victorian restrictions three days prior, and began to take steps for a quick escape from the state.

This meant that when the announcement was made that everything had to be over the border by 11:59pm that same day, it was simply a matter of packing the trucks. A task that usually takes a day was done in around six hours.

Since setting up station at Sydney Motorsport Park, the camaraderie within Tickford and the other Melbourne-based teams already at SMP has been heartening, considering the current situation.

“I’m fortunate that we’ve got one of the best crews in the country and all of my staff have come on the road,” Roberts said.

“We’re one of the fortunate teams in pit lane.

Some teams lack their full complement of staff, so they’re compromised already, and we haven’t even got racing yet.

“Other teams have offered help saying, ‘Whatever you need, just let me know, we can bring it down for you.’ The support within the teams’ network has been really good.”

Even companies outside of motorsport, including Woolworths, have made contact with Roberts offering to supply food and necessities for all 24 crew members while on the road.

Although the team crossed the border before its closure, it still must reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 with Roberts imposing strict restrictions upon the crew.

“I had a really good chat with our guys saying that we just need to mitigate the risk,” Roberts told AA. “We need to be smart; we are social isolating, we’re not going anywhere, not mingling with any of the Sydney public.

“All our meals have been brought to the hotel room, the room service will knock on the door and they’ll leave your meal at the door.”

This has extended to the Super2 team that will run Broc Feeney’s Falcon.

“Broc’s got a separate crew, he’s got his own engineer and two mechanics,” Roberts said.

“That crew is separate, they’re on the other side of the paddock, and they’ll remain separate, they are staying in a different hotel to what the VASC crew is.

“Supercars has done a good job making sure all the teams are adhering to all the protocols and keeping the separation.” Dan McCarthy

SUPER2 PRIZEMONEY POT WITHDRAWN

JUST OVER a week out from the second round of the 2020 Super2 Series, Supercars has announced that that its $500,000 scholarship prize pool for the second-tier series has been withdrawn.

Supercars stated that its decision is due to the financial stress created by the COVID-19 pandemic on the sport.

“Due to the everchanging COVID-19 situation and the effect it has had on the sport financially, Supercars Management informed teams that the category is not able to commit to the previously announced funding program for the Dunlop Super 2 Series Champion and Rookie Class Champion in 2020,” a Supercars spokesperson said.

In November last year Supercars announced that $400,000 would be awarded to the winner of the 2020 Super2 Series, a move to help assist the victor to secure a seat in the top-tier championship.

Image: Insyde Media

A further $100,000 was also set to be awarded to the top Rookie driver in 2020, such as the several Super3 graduates who made the step up this season.

One of those drivers is Tickford Racing’s Broc Feeney, who was surprised when he found out about the prize cut.

“It was a big shock when we saw that release come out about it,” he told Auto Action.

“Obviously with the COVID pandemic happening, we knew there was going to be some ramifications, but now $500,000 is

not an offer.”

Feeney explained that the decision is a blow for everyone on the grid, though the 17-year-old said that in times like these he is lucky to even be racing.

“It’s not very good for us guys that were trying to chase a bit of prize money to help out in the future. It’s a very money demanding sport and any prize money that you can get to help you in the future is going to be a massive gain,” he said.

“But the world’s changed so much, we can’t really complain

about it because we still get to go racing.”

The reigning Super3 Series winner hopes that the prize cut does not affect a Super2 graduate from getting a main game seat.

“If it does affect the winner of the series, then that is really unfortunate,” Feeney said to AA. “I hope that the teams don’t just see it as money being brought into the team. The winner of Super2 I think deserves a main game drive no matter how much money they have behind them.”

Supercars has said it is committed to running the funding program in the future and is planning to reintroduce it next season.

Although the major prizes have gone, a little bit of money is still on offer to the top three finishers in the remaining events.

Each round winner will be awarded $5,000, with $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place. Dan McCarthy

Image: Insyde Media

NEW DIGS FOR TEAM SYDNEY AHEAD OF Supercars’ return at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend, Team Sydney has unveiled its temporary headquarters at the track.

Preparations for the move from its previous Gold Coast base began prior to Christmas last year, in anticipation of a relocation after Adelaide.

Three weeks later, motorsport stopped after the aborted Australian Grand Prix due to the impending COVID-19 pandemic, which also delayed the construction process.

Team Sydney finally moved into its new workshop just over a week ago, with team owner Jonathan Webb explaining the process of moving the squad’s infrastructure.

“We had a reasonable amount of work to do on the internal building to get it up to scratch of where we wanted it to be,” Webb explained.

“As you can imagine, there was a lot of work to make it a well-presented facility for what we wanted as a race team and something comfortable for the boys to work out of.

“We still have the facility in Queensland, so I didn’t want to rush here and just throw everything around to not have it finished to the detail that we wanted.“ Post-Grand Prix, the team’s truck was left in Melbourne as Tasmania was the

next scheduled round, however as it turned out that racing was halted for four months.

Work began in earnest to prepare the workshop for the two-car Sydney team once COVID restrictions had lifted, and the team navigated its way through its first round at its SMP home.

Webb believes the new location of the team is a distinct advantage due to the amount of industry surrounding the SMP complex, with many local companies already reaching out to support the team in key specialty areas.

“Being a part of Sydney Motorsport Park in Western Sydney, the amount of industry around here means we don’t need to be a complete standalone race team,” he explained.

“We want to use the facilities around it and work with those groups around us, they’ve probably been starved of Supercars in the area. We’ve already had people knock on the door asking ‘How can we help?’

“From composites to machining, a million and one things that we want or need are all at our doorstep and wanting to be a part of it.”

One of these organisations is the Sieders Race Team, which has been a supporter of the SuperUtes and is a race winner in the Toyota 86 Race Series.

“Luke’s [Sieders] been great, knows Sydney, knows the area, he’s got his own facilities and race team, so we’ve got a great relationship at the moment,” Webb told Auto Action.

The new Team Sydney workshop is just a temporary facility until the Motorsport Australia Centre of Excellence is built at the venue, which is set to encompass the team and other initiatives including F1 in Schools, Ricciardo’s Racers, Dare To Be Different and various training facilities.

Webb emphasised there was no hurry to complete the Centre of Excellence and that its current workshop is well suited to the demands of a Supercars team.

“We are just trying to understand the repercussions of that going into such a huge project as the Centre of Excellence,” Webb said.

“It was always the intention more than anything else to make this facility comfortable. We didn’t want to rush Centre of Excellence, we want to take our time to build it, knowing it’s a 10plus year plan to be part of. We wanted to chip away and take our time.

“COVID has probably put that a little behind at the moment, but the facility we have here is more than adequate to hold us for the foreseeable future.”

Rhys Vandersyde

Image: LAT

NILSSON LEAVES WAU WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI United has announced the immediate departure of Mathew Nilsson.

The team released a statement advising that the Co-Team Principal had agreed to leave as part of a move to restructure the business to ensure its health and sustainability.

“Like every responsible sporting organisation, ensuring the viability of our team, now and into the future, has been the key focus of ours over the last few months, which is why we have reached the decision we have. Tough decisions must be made in the current climate,” said Ryan Walkinshaw.

“2020 has changed the global sporting landscape of the world, with every reputable organisation forecasting and restructuring for the backend of the year and beyond, and we are no different.

“We’ve agreed now so that Mathew has the best opportunity to find a new role, whether that be in Supercars or beyond.

“I personally want to thank Mathew for his contribution to our team for a very long period of time. I have really enjoyed working with him, and feel he will be an asset to any business in the future.”

The departure leaves Bruce Stewart as the sole Team Principal responsible for the operations of the business. Technical Director Carl Faux will step up to oversee the technical side of the race team.

“With current circumstances, the decision was necessary to ensure the health and viability of the team for the remainder of 2020 and well into the future,” said Zak Brown.

“Having a commercially minded team leader in Bruce is essential, now more than ever.

“We all wish Mathew all the best with his future, and appreciate his efforts with the team.” RV

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9

Round Preview

UNDER LIGHTS IN SYDNEY

A LOT of things have happened since Auto Action’s last issue, with the increase of COVID-19 cases in metropolitan Melbourne locking down the state.

The Melbourne teams’ run to New South Wales before its border with Victoria closed is well documented in this edition, and has a direct affect on the next round of the 2020 Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.

WINTON OUT, SMP IN

THE FIRST thing to change was confirmation that Winton’s round of the Supercars Championship was to be postponed. This was due to the increased restrictions placed on Queenslanders coming to Victoria, which affected Triple Eight Race Engineering, DJR Team Penske and Matt Stone Racing, along with competitors from the proposed support categories as well.

“Following discussions with all government health authorities on the new interstate restrictions, the practicable solution is to go back to Sydney Motorsport Park later this month,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said at the announcement.

“Sydney Motorsport Park was a logical choice as we have a proven track record of completing a safe event there, based on what we achieved last week.”

Seamer also revealed that the event will be the first to welcome back spectators, after earlier announcing that Darwin will also have fans trackside.

“Following NSW State Government guidance, we are thrilled that we will be able to accommodate fans each day of the July (SMP) event,” he added.

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Racing under lights just never gets old (top) ... Cam Waters was strong for Tickford again last time out (above) while Nick Percat surprised for BJR, winning the second of the three races three weeks’ ago. We talk to him about his success in Up Front with Foges in this edition, starting page 28. Images: LAT

Also, part of the confirmation was the bringing forward of the return of night racing at the Sydney venue, the same facility that debuted the SuperNight format successfully in 2018.

Using the Gardner track layout, temporary lighting will be used for all areas except the main straight and Turn 1, where a permanent system is already installed.

“We’ve got some fantastic contractors and we decided last night that we would do some double shifts and so they’ll be working 24/7,” ARDC CEO Glenn Matthews explained.

“I think what we’ll be able to deliver is at least the North circuit, so the main straight here around to Turn 1 with the permanent lights. We’ll do some backfilling for the rest of the Gardner circuit out the back.

“But I think it’s a great sampler for us for what we’ll be able to showcase with the finale in December, when we will have the entire track with the permanent lights.”

SPORTING REGULATION CHANGES THE SAME three 32-lap schedule with a compulsory pit stop for tyres which produced great racing on Supercars’ return at SMP is retained this weekend, with a few changes that will influence the strategy and racing.

One of these is tyre compound. A meeting held by the Supercars Commission postRound 3 decided that a mixed allocation of hard and soft compound tyres which be used across the weekend to mix up the racing.

Initially, teams will be given four sets of soft and three sets of hard compound tyres, but half of the soft allocation will be handed back after the second practice session.

SCHEDULE – SMP S SUPERNIGHT S

Sydney Motorsport Park’s inaugural Supernight event in 2018 was spectacular and saw plenty of fireworks on and off the track (above). Scott McLaughlin (right) won two from three last time to lead the championship. Can he do it again this weekend?

Parc Ferme conditions will not be enacted between sessions however, the usual post-race routine will continue.

After post-race Parc Ferme, teams will have the ability to complete work on the cars for two-hours, after which personnel will have to vacate the circuit by 10pm.

The lost hour in preparation will be made up the next morning, with circuit facilities opening at 6:40am, giving teams three and a half hours before the qualifying sessions start on Sunday.

The Top 15 Shootout remains in place, and the in-car flag warning system, which was trailed at the last year’s Bathurst 1000, will also be utilised.

Pit lane has also been subjected to a major change.

Queensland teams will now be placed at the start of pit lane, with Brad Jones Racing and Team Sydney moved to the middle, and then the Victorian teams Tickford Racing, Erebus Motorsport, Walkinshaw Andretti United and Kelly Racing clustered together in the final pit garages to enhance separation given the COVID-19 problems in the southern state.

THE SUPPORT CATEGORIES S2/S3

MANY DEVELOPMENTS have occurred in this area as well, with SMP hosting a newly combined Super2 and Super3 class as its sole support.

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SATURDAY SA

Winton’s support card included the Toyota 86 Race Series and Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, but both have confirmed they will not be making the trip to Sydney.

A strong Super2 and Super3 field of 25-entries will contest a pair of 18-lap races at SMP. Drivers to watch are likely to include current Super2 Series leader Brodie Kostecki, Thomas Randle, Broc Feeney, Jayden Ojeda, Jordan Boys, Jack Perkins, Zak Best and Will Brown.

And Super3 will welcome to its field Jaylyn Robotham, Declan Fraser and a man with considerable family roots in motor sport, James Masterton.

AND THE WINNER IS?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN won two out of three races three weeks ago, however it was Triple Eight duo of Shane van

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Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup who scored a one-two at the inaugural night event two years ago.

Brad Jones Racing broke the Triple Eight/DJR Team Penske monopoly at SMP this year with Nick Percat’s victory, while teammate Todd Hazelwood was also a factor across the weekend.

Tickford Racing was also sharp, Lee Holdsworth grabbing second in the final race while Cam Waters was strong across the weekend.

Walkinshaw Andretti United also displayed good form, with rookie Bryce Fullwood particularly impressive as star recruit Chaz Mostert struggled with tyres in the final race.

Picking a winner, it would be hard to go past McLaughlin, van Gisbergen and Whincup, but there are plenty of others waiting to dethrone the perennial favourites. Heath McAlpine

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10 10:15am-10:55am – Super2/Super3 – Practice 1 Pr 11:10am-11:30am – Supercars – 11 Rookie-only practice Ro 11:45am-12:15pm – Supercars – Practice 1 11 12:30pm-1:10pm – Super2/Super3 – Practice 2 12 1:30pm-2:00pm – Supercars – Practice 2 1:3 2:40pm-2:55pm 2 :4 – Super2/Super3 – Qualifying for Race 1 3:10pm-3:20pm – Supercars – Qualifying Part 3: 1 for f Race 10 3:25pm-3:35pm – Supercars – Qualifying Part 3:2 2 for f Race 10 3:45pm-4:25pm 3 4 – Supercars – Top 15 Shootout for Race 10 5:05pm-5:35pm – Super2/Super3 – Race 1 (18 laps) 6:25pm-7:25pm – Supercars – Race 10 (32 laps)

SUNDAY

10:45pm-10:55pm – Supercars – Qualifying for Race 11 11:05pm-11:15pm – Supercars – Qualifying for Race 12 11:35pm-11:50pm – Super2/Super3 – Qualifying for Race 2 12:25pm-1:25pm – Supercars – Race 11 (32 laps) 1:45pm-2:15pm – Super2/Super3 – Race 2 (18 laps) 2:50pm-3:50pm – Supercars – Race 12 (32 laps)

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LATEST NEWS

GT REBUILD BEFORE THE Australian Racing Group returns to racing in September, it has published an official guide about its racing categories for potential competitors. The document titled Race into the Future, details costs and benefits of competing in all ARG run categories including the pocket rocket TCR Australia Series, the S5000 Championship and Trans Am. DM

THE 50th TA2 chassis has arrived in Australia, marking a landmark for the category. Just under five years since the first chassis arrived on Australian shores, the 50th TA2 car, a Chevrolet Camaro, will contest the Australian Motor Racing Series-aligned TA2 Muscle Car Series in the hands of first-time circuit racer John Holinger. Although a member of the famous gearbox family, Holinger is a novice when it comes to circuit racing and is looking forward to the challenge. HM

THE CONTINUATION of the Australian Production Car Series will run with the Australian Motor Racing Series for its remaining four-rounds. The series was to have been part of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships program of events. However, due to the COVID-19 calendar reshuffle, category management believes scheduling at those rounds wasn’t compatible with the endurance formats that are a regular fixture of the production car season. HM

THE AUSTRALIAN Motor Racing Series (AMRS) and its sanctioning body, the Australian Auto Sport Alliance (AASA), has announced the addition of another round. For the first time, the series will visit Melbourne’s Sandown on August 28-30. The event will become the third round of the series, fitting in between the second at Winton and the meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park. The event will contain a mixture of state and national categories, including Porsche 944 Challenge, Circuit Excel Series and Formula Ford. HM

THE AUSTRALIAN GT category rebuild has begun, according to category administrator manager Kate Harrington as she and her team have the job of turning the class around after a tumultuous 2019.

Last year, entries struggled and there was plenty of competitor unrest, culminating in a meeting between category stakeholders at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Harrington is not a new face in the paddock, having started in her native New Zealand working at Highlands Motorsport Park, before heading across the ditch to join Australian GT. Harrington has subsequently risen through the ranksto now be a key part of the rebuild of the category.

Jim Manolios, AGT Category owner praised Kate’s role in the rebuild, “Despite the setback and the various state lockdowns, Kate and the team have worked tirelessly since March with the various stakeholders and promoters, and we established a very good calendar to return to racing.”

As well as delivering a strong calendar, gaining the trust of competitors has been the main objective for Harrington, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic, with the situation changing constantly regarding a return to racing.

“Our strategy behind getting competitors back is to have a good relationship with the customers and just get the trust back,” Harrington told Auto Action.

“I’ve found that you need to listen to your competitor base and take on board what they say, and what they’ve got to say,” Kate Harrington said.

A key change for this season has been the establishment of a competitor advisory group, which will provide more fluid communications between the key stakeholders in each of the category’s three classes.

“It’s just there to allow us as the category and the teams to discuss matters with the competitors,” Harrington said.

“I think it’s a good start to have a group like that so that then the customer knows that their input is being recognised. Last year wasn’t ideal for us, but we are looking at how we can rebuild the category and how we can attract more customers to our grid.”

Despite the current situation affecting the category’s key market, businessman, interest is still high according to Harrington.

“At this stage the grid looks promising, not just for Sydney Motorsport Park, but for the whole year, however with the challenges of COVID-19 still going this may change in time,” Harrington

explained.

“We are really happy with how our grid is looking for SMP, it’s really promising.”

The prospect of new GT models joining the grid was promising before COVID hit, as was the potential of overseas team involvement.

“We had spoken to a few overseas teams about running with us this year that were really interested,” said Harrington. “We have got one team that has its car is coming from Asia that is going to run with us.”

An adaption of the World Challenge Asia SRO regulations is one change Harrington hopes will encourage entrants back, due to its similar customer-base to Australian GT. “This year we have adopted some of the SRO regulations from Asia just in terms of pit stop and driver rankings, to attract more teams back to the category,” explained Harrington.

“We have had a few teams race over there and really enjoy it, so to attract those teams back is the goal, as well as a few international teams.

“There’s a lot of potential for Australian GT and I think 2021 will be a very strong year.” HM

JORDAN MICHELS OUT OF S5000 COVID-19 restrictions have forced Kiwi driver Jordan Michels out of his S5000 ride with the new squad 88Racing.

“It’s a real shame,” Michels said. “But it’s a difficult time for everyone at the moment and, while the border situation exists, it’s sort-of doable but the logistics and cost really do work against it.”

Although it is a setback to team owner Albert Callegher’s plan to run two-entries in the inaugural series, the businessman is now searching

for a replacement for Michels.

“Jordan has been doing a great job for us, so we’re hopeful of having an entry for him early in 2021, at something like the AGP [if S5000 races there], where the team is expected to run two cars,” Callegher said.

“In the meantime, we are focusing on seeking an Australian-based driver to contest this year’s series.”

As Auto Action went to press the team confirmed Cooper Webster as the first of its drivers. DM

HMO TCR EXPANDS TO THREE CARS REIGNING TCR Australia Series winning team HMO Customer Racing has been busy during the hiatus preparing a third Hyundai i30N TCR for this year.

Drivers Nathan Morcom and Will Brown successfully shook down the new chassis at Sydney Motorsport Park last week.

“The main thing we’ve been doing in this break was prepping a third car for the series,” Morcom told Auto Action.

The new i30N TCR is similar to the team entries that finished first and fourth in the title last year, though HMO are still searching for a driver to fill the void.

“No one has signed on the dotted line, so it is still open for someone that wants to get behind a fast TCR car,” Morcom said.

“All three cars are identical and everyone knows what they’re capable of.” HM

PORSCHE RESTART UNKNOWN

THE AUSTRALIAN GT Championship has announced that Omologato has become its ‘Official Timepiece Partner.’ The new sponsorship includes a pole position naming rights deal in which the driver who starts on pole position will be handed ‘Omologato Pole Position’ award. DM

12 AutoAction

THE HIATUS of Porsche racing will continue past the scheduled trackside return, as part of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships at Sydney Motorsport Park on September 4-6.

Porsche Cars Australia confirmed to teams last week that the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge will not take part at the SMP meeting.

This decision was made because of the border closures and lockdown that the Victorian Government implemented on the Melbourne metropolitan area for six-weeks. Auto Action understands only 11-entries were received for Carrera Cup’s round prior to being cancelled.

Negotiations are underway between Porsche Cars Australia, Motorsport Australia and Supercars to replace these rounds on the calendar, meaning that the season could yet expand beyond November this year.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia was supposed to have joined the Supercars at Winton, before the event was moved to SMP due to the

growing cases of COVID-19 in Victoria, and the state border restrictions.

At the opening round in Adelaide, Cooper Murray was dominant in taking a clean-sweep, while Cameron Hill won the only race to occur during the abandoned Australian Grand Prix weekend at Albert Park in March.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia is scheduled to resume on the streets of Townsville on August 29-30.

The Porsche Michelin Sprint Cup is yet to kick off. HM

th Luke West iith wit

AA’s returning rning columnist colu umnis says a 2020 AGP is a must

SHANNONS START DELAYED

THE OPENING round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships has been delayed until September, after stage three COVID-19 restrictions were placed on metropolitan Melbourne.

Scheduled to return on August 15-16, the second-tier Australian series has been delayed until September 4-6, currently placing it a week before Round 2 at Sandown, however this and the two remaining rounds may be subject to change.

The current restrictions put in place impact the bulk of teams which were set to compete at the venue, so too category management and even the governing body, with its offices located within the lockdown zone.

Also, the unknown timeline of the Victorian and New South Wales border closure has impacted on the decision.

“We were hoping that the August date would be possible, however with a large number of teams Victorian based and unable to travel freely between New South Wales and Victoria, we felt the only option was for the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships to take place on the first weekend in September,” Michael Smith, Director of Motor Sport and Commercial Operations for Motorsport Australia said.

“Opening our season at Sydney Motorsport Park is certainly an exciting prospect and we know that this new date will be upon us very soon. Ultimately, we all want to go racing as soon as we can.

“We know this year is one that is very fluid and we are greatly appreciative of the support of all our categories and

circuit managers for their flexibility and understanding.

“This new Sydney date may mean that we have to change dates for future rounds, however together with the team at the Australian Racing Group (ARG), we will provide updated information as soon as we are able to.”

Australian Racing Group categories TCR Australia and S5000 Australian Drivers Championship were scheduled to headline the meeting, however a key entrant in both categories, Garry Rogers Motorsport, is situated within the lockdown area.

“The current coronavirus crisis is unprecedented and we have to remain flexible in how we adapt to the ongoing impact on our return to race plan,” Matt Braid, CEO of ARG said.

“As we’ve seen the situation in Victoria develop over the past few days, and considering the many affected teams, moving the date back was the best outcome for all.

“We’re excited that we have a new date for Sydney and we’re working hard to get the clearest possible direction for our categories.”

TCR Australia and S5000 Australian Drivers Championship will be joined at SMP by the Touring Car Masters and Trans Am. In commentary news, Triple Eight Race Engineering commercial operations manager Jessica Dane is poised to join the ARG team comprising of Channel 7’s Mark Beretta, Greg Rust, Richard Craill, Matt Naulty, Jack Perkins and former Australian Rally Champion Molly Taylor. Heath McAlpine

ROGERS KEEN FOR SUMMER RACING THE RECENT delay to the racing season has renewed debate about a summer racing schedule, with GarryRogers Motorsport director Barry Rogers declaring his support for an October to April calendar.

Catalyst for the thought was announced that the opening round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships at Sydney Motorsport Park was pushed back to September 4-6, which has a flow-on effect to the Sandown round scheduled for a week later.

Rogers has called for the calendar to be permanently changed to this time, if not later.

“I think it’s a better calendar,” Rogers said.

“I make no secret of it, I’m a big fan of summertime racing. For the last eight to nine years Garry and I in our Supercars involvement told them that it should be happening and we couldn’t convince anyone to do it.

We’re certainly big fans of the calendar pushed out to later

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in the year and rolling into the next.

“In an ideal world, I’d love an October to April calendar.

I think that’s a perfect six months for the racing. Start in October and finish at the Bathurst 6 Hour, that’d be a perfect calendar if you could build one in that timeframe.”

Not only is his reasoning based on avoiding clashes with other sports, Rogers has also signalled overseas interest and the timing of the winter months in Europe, being advantageous to racing during summer.

“It does get a bit more appealing for the Kiwis once you get into those summer months here. Again, it depends on international restrictions and if the bubble opened up between New Zealand and Australia, there’s a big chance for Kiwis to come do our series.”

As it currently stands, the Australian Racing Group calendar finishes in January at Baskerville as part of a Tasmanian double-header. HM

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IT’S NOT too late to hold an Australian Grand Prix in 2020. In fact, it would be a travesty if our national GP was not held this year.

True, an AGP contested by Formula 1 cars as part of the World Championship is not possible. That ship has sailed. It steamed out of Port Phillip Bay and over the inky blue horizon when F1 weighed anchor in Melbourne back in March – Friday the 13th, no less – amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

What is still possible is a good old pre-1985-style AGP held for our country’s premier open-wheel category. And we just so happen to have one of those now – S5000.

Aussie motorsport’s ‘grand prize’ has been awarded every year since 1947. And on 84 occasions in total, dating back to the inaugural event on Phillip Island in 1928. Since then there has only been a seven-year stretch, 1940 to ’46, due to World War II, when an AGP wasn’t held. It would be a huge shame if the 73-year sequence was broken now due to ‘the plague’.

Quite apart from keeping the run going, the Albert Park event’s cancellation presents an opportunity to give our country’s new premier open-wheeler class a massive shot in the arm.

S5000 – the spiritual successor to thundering Formula 5000 – is the best thing to hit local motorsport in ages. It’s affordable, spectacular and deserving of some special attention so it can reach its potential.

How good would it be if, for one year only, S5000 filled the breach?

Big shoes to fill, for sure, but F5000 machines won every AGP in the ‘70s, racing at such venues as Oran Park, Wanneroo, Warwick Farm, Surfers Paradise and Sandown. That’s the same Sandown, of course, that is scheduled to host S5000 over September 12-13 for the second event of the five-round 2020 Australian Drivers Championship. The Melbourne circuit hosted no fewer than four AGPs in the ’70s, twice on the second weekend in September. Serendipity...

Imagine the boost S5000 – and all the classes racing at that September meeting, including TCR – would receive from a ‘rescheduled’ stop-gap AGP. It’s probably only fair that Victoria hosts any 2020 AGP, so S5000’s round on the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in October could be another worthy candidate, especially if the September Sandown is cancelled.

Appropriate, too, given the island hosted the first two AGPs 90-odd years ago and the 2020 Australian Motorcycle GP scheduled for that month has been canned.

If, for whatever reason, the Victorian tracks can’t host a makeshift AGP, there’s always S5000’s scheduled Bathurst round – the return of open-wheelers to the Mountain. Our country’s most famous track has AGP history, too.

But then, the significance of that mid-November Bathurst round will already provide a boost for the new class. It may make more sense to create multiple big S5000 events so the new-age Gold Star class’s first championship gets off to a flyer.

Now, before any Formula 1 elitists arc-up at the prospect of a non-F1 AGP, it must be remembered that Formula 1 does not own the Australian Grand Prix tag. It’s owned by local motorsport and has long been conferred by Motorsport Australia (formerly CAMS). In fact, there’s been more non-World Championship status AGPs, 49, than full-on F1 events held since 1985 in Adelaide and Melbourne, 35.

Plenty of countries, including New Zealand, hold national grands prix each year for non F1 single-seaters, so it’s logical for S5000 to continue past traditions in our country.

I’m not privy to contract terms between the Formula One Group, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and Motorsport Australia over the AGP name’s use. Yet it’s difficult to imagine anyone in the current ‘unprecedented’ climate objecting to a one-time use that benefits racing generally.

Tell me the downside of a one-off S5000-focused 2020 AGP at Sandown, Phillip Island or even Mount Panorama?

It could also be a pre-cursor Australian Drivers Championship rounds gaining state-level grand prix status, as Mark Fogarty suggested in these pages earlier this year. Foges proposed for a Gold Star round at, say, The Bend to be labelled the South Australian Grand Prix. The Symmons Plains race should be the Tasmanian Grand Prix. He’s right, it’s such a no-brainer of a good idea it simply has to happen.

If nothing else, an AGP contested by S5000 is likely to be a more entertaining affair than what Formula 1 has dished up at Albert Park in recent years.

It’s 20 years since Luke West wrote his first column for Auto Action #896 in July 2000. ‘Reverential Ramblings’ evolved into ‘Revved Up’ and ran until 2010. Now, after a 10-year break, he’s back to survey motorsport’s changing landscape.

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13

WHINCUP FOR MONZA?

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RECENTLY PURCHASED, this Chevrolet Monza sports sedan is a labour of love for new owner Carey McMahon.

What’s more, this little-known ‘80s beast has a direct heritage with seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup.

The Monza was originally built in 1986 by John Riordan for Whincup’s uncle Graeme, though in the last few years it has sat in Peter Champion’s Peter Brock museum, painted up as a replica of the famous Bob Jane Monza which the nine-time Bathurst champion drove in period.

“It’s an engineering piece of brilliance what they’ve done,” Carey McMahon proclaimed.

“We acquired it and thought we’d do a full restoration on the Monza,” McMahon explained.

“With any of these projects, when you pull them apart and you get down to it, you see all the detail of the condition that each component is in. It’s only then you realise what work’s involved.

“We’ve reconditioned everything, I mean we went back to a completely bare shell. If we couldn’t pull it off the car like it was, such as the aluminium panels around the whole chassis, we’ve polished it.

“Everything that we were able to take off we’ve renewed. The engine is almost completely new because each part was worn out except for the heads and manifold. Everything below the heads is new. That was a big project that.”

The Monza was built to the absolute weight limits of the category at the time, while retaining its structual integrity, but in the ensuing 35 years, a

number of the components have deteriorated.

“When we were assembling it, we were putting the main bearing caps in and torqueing them down waiting for the click, but when we thought that was going to happen, there was this really loud crack,” McMahon recalled.

“We took all the bearing caps off, pulled the crank out and it had split the block from the crankshaft area down to the camshaft area.”

Many of the suspension components were handmade by Ron Harrop, which had McMahon marveling at the ingenuity used during the build process.

“We’ve renewed all of the suspension, we’ve stripped it, either blasted or acid-dipped it, crack tested everything, during which we found a few

cracks and welded them up.

“We’ve re-nickel plated all of the suspension like it was back in the day, it looks like chrome really.

All of the steel work that holds all of the engine and transaxle on we’ve stripped all of that and then powder coated that back to a nice grey. Anything that was metal either got plated or anodised just to restore it.”

Test days are planned for the Monza and Graeme Whincup is eager to see his old machine run again, and his famous nephew on the other hand is keen to have a steer for the first time.

“He [Graeme] told me that Jamie wants to come out and have a run in it when we have a test day,” said McMahon.

“I look forward to that.” Heath McAlpine

TOM SMITH CONSIDERING MORE S5000 ROUNDS

ROOKIES JOIN SUPER3

ANOTHER YOUNG pair of drivers will start their Supercars journey this weekend, when they take to the Super3 grid at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Toyota 86 graduates Declan Fraser and Jaylyn Robotham will debut in the combined Super2/ Super3 support to the SuperNight meeting.

Fraser replaces leading Super2 rookie Jayden Ojeda at Anderson Motorsport, testing the Ford FG Falcon he will drive this season for the first-time last week and left impressed by the power almost immediately.

“It was awesome,” Fraser told Auto Action. “The biggest thing to get used to was the power down more than anything, and my throttle application.

“It was really good and I enjoyed it.”

Aligned with Paul Morris, Fraser is determined to win the series after Ojeda’s performance last year with the team, which nearly took him to the title.

“For me I want to win the series, we’re not there to make up the numbers,” Fraser emphasised.

“That’s why we went with Anderson Motorsport.

Jayden [Ojeda] did an awesome job and we know the car is strong.

“Hopefully we can win the title and even challenge some of those Super2 guys.”

The weekend also signals a new era for Anderson Motorsport, as it enters Super2 for

14 AutoAction

the first time with driver for that program, Tyler Everingham, is also playing a mentoring role for Fraser, renewing a friendship that started in karting.

“He has a bank of knowledge that has already helped me out,” Fraser said.

Arguably, Fraser’s main rival for the title will be Victorian Robotham, who joins the form team of the series, MW Motorsport, in a late deal.

“It’s awesome,” Robotham surmised. “Over the break we were not too sure if we were going to come back racing. Then, we found out Super3 was going to be joining Super2 and we did a bit of ringing around and signed the deal at the end of last week, so it has come up really quick.

“We know that Matt’s [White] cars are always quick in Super3 and Super2, and we felt like it was the best team to go with and he is Melbourne based as well, which helps.”

Unlike Fraser, Robotham has already tested in Supercars machinery courtesy of evaluation days, but is eager to jump in and gain some more experience.

“I want to learn to race a Supercar against other cars and gain heaps of experience and hopefully be competitive,” Robotham said. “It would be awesome to be up the front.” HM

VICTORIAN TOMMY Smith is the latest addition to the S5000 Australian Drivers Championship, although he has signed on for three rounds with more potentially on the cards.

Back in March, the 18 year old’s 2020 season looked quite different, as he was set to follow in the footsteps of Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo in contesting the Formula Renault Eurocup season.

Smith completed several pre-season tests with JD Motorsport but COVID-19 ended those plans for 2020.

Keen to keep himself race sharp for his 2021 European ambitions, Smith looked to the S5000 Championship. Initially, he signed up for three rounds but hopes to do more, depending on exams.

“The reason we haven’t signed up for the full season is because my year 12 exams are right the in the middle,” Smith told Auto Action.

“It’s unfortunate because I miss Bathurst and that’s probably the best track, I’ve been there but never raced there.

“You don’t know what could happen at the moment, they could push my exams back or even move that meeting date, so we’ll just have to wait and see. We just signed up to the ones we know we could do and we’ll go from there.”

After competing in the Asian F3 Championship last year, Smith had already considered racing in the S5000

Championship while he competed year 12 at school.

“It was an option to do S5000 anyway, even before the Renault series we were looking at it, but we thought we might as well try and race the Renault,” he explained.

After his European plans fell through, Smith inked a deal with BRM, the team with which he completed two seasons in the Australian F4 Championship.

“I know Mark Rundle (BRM team manager) and everyone really well, so it’s sort of like going back home almost,” Smith said.

“I have a lot more experience coming back. I’ve been overseas and raced in Asia and New Zealand since (then).

“F4 was my first time ever in a car and I was still learning, so hopefully we get some better results together.”

Smith has previously driven an S5000 machine prepared by 88Racing at Winton and enjoyed the experience greatly.

“A lot of people told me it’s pretty lose and on the edge but it’s actually not as crazy as I thought, but I really enjoyed it,” he told AA. Dan McCarthy

with Oscar Piastri

JAXON EVANS TAKES

MAIDEN SUPERCUP WIN KIWI JAXON EVANS made a great start to his second season of Porsche Supercup competition by taking his maiden victory in Austria.

This season Evans is joined on the Supercup grid by fellow former Australia Carrera Cup Series winner Jordan Love.

For the first round at the Red Bull Ring, Lechner Racing driver Evans scored pole position and as the lights went out made a blistering start.

Behind the Kiwi, Leon Kohler and Dylan Pereira engaged in a fierce battle for second on the opening lap, Pereira eventually taking the place with a bold move around the outside at Turn 4.

As the battle took place behind, Evans was able to pull a small margin of just over a second and from there kept his teammate at arm’s length. At the end of the 17-lap race Evans crossed the line 0.728s ahead of Pereira and Kohler.

“A perfect start to the season. The first outing for my new team and the first victory, hopefully it can go on like this,” Evans said.

By taking the race win, Evans replicated his fellow Porsche Junior Shootout winner Matt Campbell, who also took his maiden Supercup victory at the Red Bull Ring in 2017 Reigning Australian series winner Love qualified 18th but marched up the field, the West Aussie completed

lap 1 in 14th and held 11th for much of the race, before crossing the line in 12th position.

The Porsches returned to the Red Bull Ring for the second round one week later, but Evans was unable to replicate the previous week’s success.

His teammate Pereira took the victory by 3.75s from Ayhancan Guven, Larry Ten Voorde, Kohler and Evans.

Qualifying was a washout on Saturday and as a result was postponed until Sunday morning, Evans qualifying eighth in a disappointing run.

Determined to make amends, the Kiwi made a superb start and found himself sixth at the end of the opening lap.

On lap 2 Evans made an aggressive move on Marvin Klein to take fifth position at Turn 6, the two making contact but remained on the track.

That was where Evans stayed, unable to close the gap to Kohler ahead, finishing a lonely fifth 7.1s behind the race winner Pereira.

“I lacked confidence in my car in qualifying, but my goal was to finish in the top five, so at least that worked,” he said.

Love started in 12th position for Round 2, briefly made his way up to 11th but was shuffled back to 13th where he remained until the end.

Round 3 of Porsche Supercup takes place this weekend in Hungary. Dan McCarthy

MIXED RESULTS IN THE STATES

AN INCIDENT for Kiwi Hunter McElrea has the former Australian Formula Ford Series winner on the backfoot after the first round of the Indy Pro 2000 Series at Road America on July 11-12.

A fuel miscalculation hampered McElrea’s qualifying, which meant a potential front-row start went begging, but a mistake by the Kiwi at the start of Race 1 left him spinning backwards at more than 200km/h.

The second race proved no better as he failed to

finish, leaving him last in the standings ahead of the second round at Mid-Ohio.

Toowoomba-native Cameron Shields recovered well in USF2000 to end the weekend strongly, despite a setback during qualifying in his races at Road America.

Shields charged in the opening race, advancing 10 positions to finish seventh, before backing that up to finish sixth in the second.

The result was sixth for the meeting and in the overall standings heading to Mid-Ohio on July 29-30. HM

AFTER FOUR long, long months, who isn’t rapt that the video games are finished, the sims are off, and it’s back to real racing?

It’s so good to be back in a real race car and the past two weeks with the opening rounds of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, both held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, have been eye-openers.

The first of the two weekends was my first in the F3 category, my first with the impressive Prema Racing outfit, and my first representing the Renault Sport Academy – and it all turned out to be pretty good.

To come away with a race win, bonus points for the fastest lap in Race 2, and the points lead is a dream start, while hearing the Australian anthem for the first time on the top step of the podium was an extremely proud moment for me personally.

This past weekend could have been better, particularly in qualifying. But to survive what was the worst conditions I’ve ever driven in during Race 1 with fourth, finish fifth in Sunday’s sprint race despite a persistent issue with the DRS, and still set another fastest lap of the race in my HP Tuners Prema Racing F3 Dallara, and maintain the championship lead, was okay.

Race 1 Saturday was shortened due to the downpour, which you would have seen on the live Fox Sports coverage getting worse as the race went on.

Initially I was classified fifth, but on a countback, I awarded fourth, which I had lost in all the drama.

With only 11 laps completed only half points were allocated.

I got a little lucky with that as the half points deal worked out better for me than the others, but you have to have a little luck on your side sometimes.

Sunday’s race I didn’t have a great start, and we were pretty ordinary early on and after the Safety Cars. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of the cause as my team-mates and I all struggled with a lack of grip at those critical stages.

My DRS also wasn’t working the whole race. We’ve had

an intermittent problem both weekends, and that’s been annoying as once you lose it, you’re having to defend in the passing zones and losing more time to the cars in front.

Even on my best lap where I set the fastest lap, the data showed the DRS opened and closed 17 times!

Everything started to feel a little more like usual again this weekend; the first week, it was hard to believe we were back racing, and everything seemed to happen so much faster. Perhaps that wasn’t unexpected after four months out of the car.

The adjusted race schedule due to the pandemic is nine rounds in 11 weeks, so it’s an intense time for everyone concerned.

It’s good to be leading the points, but it’s way too early to be looking at the championship as with everything that’s going on, all that can change pretty quickly.

We just have to keep our heads down, work hard, and try to minimise the mistakes and maximise the opportunities.

I’m writing this Auto Action column as I’m packing my bags to get ready to make the 7-hour drive from Spielberg, Austria, to Budapest, Hungary, for this weekend’s third round of the championship.

There are strict rules and protocols in place for our travel; we’ve had to fill in a considerable amount of official forms, including when we’re travelling, how we’re getting to Budapest, and what our travel route is.

In Hungary, we can only travel between our hotels and the racetrack with a 15,000 fine and one-month jail for anyone caught breaking the law.

I’ve had a good run at the Hungaroring the past two years in Formula Renault, winning a race there last year, so I’m confident of a good result. Fingers crossed.

Thanks to everyone back home for all the great support so far, it’s been terrific for not only me but all four Aussies contesting the F3 Championship. We’re trying to do you all proud.

Cheers, Oscar

Oscar’s next column will appear in Auto Action’s issue #1792.

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15

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FIA FORMULA 3 WRAP

ANZAC WEEKEND IN AUSTRIA Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT THE DEPTH within the 30 car FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2020 is clear to see, and incredibly one sixth of that grid is made up of ANZACS who controlled the opening round in Austria.

Auto Action colmunist Oscar Piastri fired out of the gates with victory in the opening race and in the following day’s reverse top 10 affair, it was Kiwi Liam Lawson who took the honours.

The opening race of the season saw Piastri start from third on the grid while fellow Australian Alex Peroni started from eight, and both made electric starts.

When the lights went out Piastri made a great launch and on the approach to Turn 1 found himself in second position. The poor starting polesitter Sebastian Fernandez attempted to sweep back around the outside of Piastri but made contact with the Aussie, spinning himself out of the race.

Piastri got a good run out of the first turn and up the hill towards Turn 3, and in the braking area the brave Australian out braked Lirim Zendeli to take the lead.

Behind, Peroni worked his way forwards and at the end of the opening lap was fourth.

Out front, Piastri set some scorching lap times early to gap the field, and he was not challenged for the entirety of the race.

Peroni made his way into third on lap 6, passing German Zendeli and set about getting past Logan Sargeant. The Tasmanian set the fastest lap as he closed the gap but was unable to find a way through.

Piastri went on to win on debut by 1.67s from his Prema teammate Sargeant, while just behind Peroni earned his maiden podium finish.

“Coming back on top is a dream start to the season, but to be honest I’m just glad that we’re all back racing and doing what we love most,” Piastri said.

After finishing the opening race in sixth position, Kiwi Liam Lawson started Race 2 from fifth and in the early laps made clinical and decisive moves to charge to the front of the field by lap 7.

Despite a late race safety car Lawson remained out front and took his maiden Formula 3 victory.

In the Sunday Piastri was hampered by a DRS issues but was still able to salvage an eighth-place finish, while Peroni sat comfortably in the points when a battery failure forced him to retire.

The other Aussies Jack Doohan and Calan Williams failed to score points in the opening round of the season.

PIASTRI REMAINS OUT FRONT Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT IN THE second round of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship, Oscar Piastri consolidated his championship lead by scoring two top five results.

The F3 championship returned to the Red Bull Ring in Austria for Round 2 but results were vastly different from a week earlier.

After qualifying on Friday under sunny skies, Saturday’s 24 lap race began with wet track conditions and gradually got worse as the event wore on.

On lap 14 the race was red flagged as the conditions became almost undrivable, and as less than 75 per cent of the race was completed half points were awarded.

At the end of the 14 laps Vesti was leading and was eventually declared the winner from Lirim Zendeli and David Beckmann.

16 AutoAction

Piastri started from fourth and made a great start taking third place at Turn 1, however the move compromised his run up the hill, and he fell to fifth.

Determined to recover the lost ground Piastri fought back, overtaking Pourchaire into Turn 6 and that was where he remained, finishing the race in fourth.

Fellow Aussie Peroni struggled for grip in the wet conditions, starting from seventh he slowly slipped just outside the points, finishing in 11th.

Kiwi Liam Lawson was in the thick of the action all race long and crossed the line in eighth, giving him third position on the grid for the inverted race.

At the end of Sunday’s affair, it was Frenchman Pourchaire that took the win after inheriting the lead when Jake Hughes and Lawson collided on lap 21, both forced to retire with broken steering.

Behind Pourchaire was Logan Sargeant and Beckmann, who rounded out the podium.

As was the case seven days earlier, Piastri was hampered by DRS issues but impressively brought the car home in the top five.

Piastri started the race in seventh and fell to as low as 10th at one stage, but the Victorian kept his cool and worked his way back up to fifth and received two additional points for setting the fastest lap of the race.

“Not too bad [for the weekend] overall,

but we still have room for improvement and hopefully in Hungary we can keep the championship lead,” Piastri said.

For the second race running Peroni found himself just outside the points in 11th when the chequered flag fell.

Jack Doohan finished 22nd in Race 1 and 19th in the second race, with Williams finishing outside the top 20 in both 24-lap events.

The third round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship takes place next weekend at the tight Hungaroring circuit.

Formula 3 Championship Standings after Round 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Oscar Piastri Frederik Vesti Logan Sargeant David Beckmann Richard Verschoor Lirim Zendeli Liam Lawson Alex Peroni Theo Pourchaire Clement Novalak

44 37.5 34 31.5 27 26 25 17 16 11

PERONI FEELS PREMA AREN’T UNTOUCHABLE AFTER PODIUM IN THE opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship season, Tasmanian Alex Peroni shot out of the blocks to take his maiden podium in the series.

Peroni returned to F3 in Austria after fracturing a vertebra when he flipped spectacularly into the catch fencing at Monza last year, ending his 2019 F3 campaign early.

After qualifying eighth for the first race of the 2020 season, Peroni shot up to fourth by the end of the opening lap. He then went one better on lap 6 overtaking Lirim Zendeli on the run to Turn 4 for third position.

Once in clear air Peroni set the fastest lap of the race and quickly caught the Prema Racing car driven by Logan Sargeant, but was unable to find a way through.

Nevertheless, it was the best result in the third tier series for the 20-year-old.

“Saturday was the highlight of an up and down first weekend for us, but to podium the first race of the season was a thrill,” an elated Peroni told Auto Action.

“It was a really good race for us, we had strong pace, and everyone was really happy to get on the podium.”

The Campos Racing squad finished last in the Constructors’ Standings in 2019 but both the Spanish team and

Peroni appear to have made considerable gains in the off season.

“There’s been some changes in the team this season and I learnt a lot last year, especially through the hard times,” he said. “But obviously we still have to improve to get the win we want.”

Last year the Prema Racing cars locked out the top three positions in the drivers’ standings, and have got off to a similar start again in 2020.

When asked by AA if the field is closer to the Italian Prema machines in 2020, Peroni was optimistic.

“Time will tell. For sure they are a super strong team, but they’re aren’t unbeatable,” he said. “If we are able to do everything right, we are in with a good chance.”

A battery failure in the second race of the first weekend cost the Tasmanian another good haul of points.

This was followed by two 11th place finishes a week later during the Styrian Grand Prix weekend.

After the opening four races, Peroni sits eighth in the championship 27 points off championship leader, fellow Australian Oscar Piastri.

Dan McCarthy

WILLIAMS CONFIDENT OF IMPROVEMENT PIASTRI’S TRIUMPH ‘INCREDIBLE’ SAYS MARK WEBBER

ONE OF the four Australians competing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship this year is Calan Williams.

Although the West Australian is yet to score a point after the opening two rounds, he is confident he knows where to find some time.

This season Williams has made the step up from the Euroformula Open Championship to compete for Swiss team Jenzer Motorsport in the third tier F1 series.

Williams has had a rollercoaster ride in the first couple of rounds and sits 26th in the championship, however, though ahead of his Italian teammates Matteo Nannini (nephew of F1 race winner Alessandro Nannini) and Federico Malvestiti.

In each race Williams has found himself moving forwards with strong race pace, and explained where he believes time can be found.

“It is a lot about understanding the tyre, I think that is a big part of this championship,” Williams told Auto Action.

“If we can understand how to make the most out of that in qualifying in short runs, and in the long runs in the race, how much do we push, how much do we save tyres, there’s certainly a lot of time to gain there.”

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With a field of 30 young driving talents from around the world, the racing is fierce, frantic, action packed and ultra-competitive.

“It’s the biggest field of cars I’ve raced in and it’s also the most competitive field,” he said. “To be in such a large field where everyone is so close together its certainly quite tough.

“My qualifying was certainly below what my actual pace was and I think that was evident in the races, with moving up and such. In the second race (of Round 1) I actually dropped to 27th at one point and managed to get back up to 17th.”

The Swiss situated driver was surprised by the difficulty of overtaking around the Austrian venue, despite the use of the Drag Reduction System (DRS).

“One thing I was surprised about is how difficult overtaking was at the circuit. I imagined looking at the circuit layout that it was going to be be one of the easiest circuits to overtake, but It’s very, very difficult to follow cars in the second half of the lap,” he told AA. “With the DRS zones the fact is, because everyone is within a group, everyone has DRS and so it’s not going to make a difference.” Dan McCarthy

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OSCAR PIASTRI’S dream Formula 3 debut in Austria yesterday has been labelled incredible by former Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber, ahead of the second race of the season.

Piastri dominated the season’s opening event to take victory ahead of teammate Logan Sargeant and fellow Aussie Alex Peroni.

“What an incredible Formula 3 debut for Oscar. It’s been challenging times for everybody over the past few months, so this is a special moment for him,” Webber said.

“Oscar was quick in practice, good in qualifying, and he had a brilliant first lap with decisive moves at the first corner.

“From there he controlled the race very clinically to the chequered flag.

“I’m very proud of him, and he and Prema have got the championship off to a very nice start.”

However, a collision at the first corner between Piastri and polesitter Sebastian Fernandez did threaten to end his race.

While the latter was unable to continue due to rear suspension damage, the Renault Sport Academy driver and Auto Action columnist emerged unscathed from the incident.

“Winning the first race is a great start to the year,” said Piastri. “It was very scary at Turn 1 at the start, and I thought that it was going to be race over 10 seconds into my debut. But thankfully I got through that and made a good move on Zendeli into Turn 3 [to take the lead].

“Then, I just controlled it from there. The tyre degradation was a bit more than we were expecting and halfway into the race I was struggling a bit with the rears.

[Prema Team-mate] Logan Sargeant was catching me and bringing the train with him, so I had to stay on my toes.” HM

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FERNANDO ALONSO will join with Arrow McLaren SP for a third attempt at the elusive Triple Crown.

The two-time Formula 1 Champion and double Le Mans 24 Hour winner, will line up for the 104th Indianapolis 500 which will now be run in August.

The Spaniard will drive the #66 Ruoff Mortgage Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. Alonso famously led for a total of 27 laps before his engine failed in his rookie appearance in the 2017 before failing to qualify for the race in 2019. RV

THE FACTORY Vauxhall British Touring Car outfit Power Maxed Racing has withdrawn from the 2020 season due to COVID-19 leaving two-time series champion Jason Plato and Mat Jackson on the sidelines. The team has stated its commitment to return to the grid for a full season in 2021 with Plato already confirmed and Jackson given the first option to continue. It will be the first time since 2003 that 97-time BTCC race winner Plato will not be on the grid. DM

DUE TO the ongoing high numbers of COVID-19 cases in the United States, MotoGP has announced the cancellation of the 2020 American round of the championship at Austin in Texas. The event was postponed until November but has been officially cancelled by the FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports.

Dorna have already begun working on possible dates for Grand Prix of the Americas in April 2021, with plans to welcome the fans back to the Circuit of the Americas. DM

JUST A month out from the start of the of the British Touring Car Championship factory BMW driver Andrew Jordan had to withdraw entry from the season due to the financial strains of the COVID-19. Jordan was one of the favourites title favourites in 2020 after narrowly missing out on the 2019 crown by just two points to teammate Colin Turkington. The departure of the 2013 champion now leaves a vacant seat alongside Turkington and Tom Oliphant. DM

DANIEL ABT will replace Ma Qinghua for the final six races of the Formula E Championship as the Chinese driver is unable to race in Germany for ‘various reasons’ including the COVID-19 pandemic. Abt will make his debut for the NIO 333 team after being fired by the factory squad Audi for getting a professional sim driver to substitute for him in a sim race. DM

POL ESPARGARO CONFIRMED AT REPSOL HONDA IT’S OFFICIAL, the worst kept secret has finally been confirmed. Pol Espargaro will race for the factory Repsol Honda Team in MotoGP alongside Marc Marquez from next year.

The former Moto2 champion has signed a two-year deal through until the end of the 2022 season with the Japanese brand.

This year Espargaro will be completing his final season with the factory KTM team and was grateful for the opportunity.

“As you may already know, next year KTM and I will separate our paths after what will be the four most intense and beautiful years of my life,” Espargaro said on Instagram.

“Knowing that on many occasions we have had weaker weapons than the others, we have fought and persevered together overcoming all the obstacles that a project as new as this has presented us. I have been surrounded by a technical and human team from out of this world, tireless fighters who have always given their all!”

The Spaniard is very much looking forward to jumping onto the Honda next year.

“In 2021 I am going to compete for the Repsol Honda Team and I am going to try to show what I am capable of achieving with the same effort and sacrifice, in a new stage of my life that promises to be even more intense.

“But I still have a whole season together (with KTM) in which, as always, I will try

to be on the level that this great factory deserves!”

Espargaro’s announcement pushes out Alex Marquez, who due to the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to ride the factory Honda bike himself during a race weekend.

It is not all doom and gloom for Alex Marquez, the reigning Moto2 champion has signed a two-year extension of his HRC contract, although not for the factory squad.

From 2021 through until the end of 2022 the younger of the Marquez brothers will compete for Lucio Cecchinello’s LCR Honda squad replacing Englishman Cal Crutchlow.

Over six years with LCR Crutchlow has

taken three MotoGP race wins and HRC released a statement thanking him for his services.

“HRC would like to extend its thanks to Cal Crutchlow for his diligent and tireless work since joining HRC in 2015,” it read.

“With three wins and 12 podiums, the British rider has been a valuable asset on and off track – a constant source of excellent feedback for the engineers and a key part of developing the Honda RC213V in recent years. HRC wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.”

It is unknown at this stage whether the bullish rider will remain on the grid in 2021 but has already stated that a move to the factory Aprilia team alongside Aleix Espargaro would be great.

Italian Franco Morbidelli has also signed a two-year contract through until the end of the 2022 season with the Petronas Yamaha SRT squad.

Last year Morbidelli was overshadowed by his rookie teammate Fabio Quartararo, however the 2017 Moto2 champion still recorded four top five finishes and finished 10th in the championship. The 25-year-old will be hoping to build on that this year.

Dan McCarthy

SYDNEY DRAGWAY UPGRADES UNDERWAY A NEW drag strip surface is just one of the many upgrades that will occur at Sydney Dragway in the coming months after the New South Wales Government provided $11m of funding towards updating the facility.

Separate to the planned adjoining Sydney Speedway project, which is still going through the development process, these new upgrades include a new drag strip surface and improved spectator facilities at the venue.

“The primary funding is being used for the drag strip itself, so that’s in the process of being renewed,” Sydney Dragway director Tony Beuk told Auto Action.

“The track and the braking area are being torn up at the moment to be replaced with a full concrete section to just past the quarter mile and a new asphalt braking area.”

Once these works are completed, spectator areas will be upgraded to provide fans with an improved experience.

“There are a number of other projects that

we’re assessing at the moment in terms of doing with the remaining funding,” Beuk said. “These will include upgrades to the competitor entry, audio around the facility and the video screen capability. We’re re-doing some of the amenities and that forms the first part of the funding.”

These projects are set to be completed by mid-next year, however hopes are that the works will be ready to go ahead of time.

“Obviously, the track is the first priority and we’re aiming to get that completed by the end of August,” Beuk said. “That’s our time frame depending on the weather and so forth that may impact or slow that progress.

“In terms of the entire upgrades, we’re hoping to have everything completed by June next year. We’re hoping to bring that forward, so we’re aiming to try and complete most things by April-May 2021.”

The NSW Government has provided significant funds to both Sydney Dragway

and Sydney Motorsport Park where $6.4m has been committed to Motorsport Australia’s Centre of Excellence and lighting has been installed.

Further Government funding will contribute to the new Sydney Speedway development, located next to the dragway complex.

“We welcome every cent that we can get from the Government in terms of funding and I think this has been one step in that direction,” Beuk emphasised.

“We’ve got a fair bit of work to do to continue to work with the Government, so that we can get some additional funding for continued upgrades. That doesn’t matter if it’s at Sydney Dragway or at Sydney Motorsport Park, it is in the same position of upgrading or proposing upgrades to its lighting.

“It’s good to see the Government has allocated some funding to motor sport.”

Heath McAlpine

NETWORK 10 TO SHOW DARWIN SUPERSPRINT LIVE NETWORK 10 is continuing its support of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship after the recent announcement that it will broadcast the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown next month.

The network said in a statement that it will broadcast the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship action live from midday on the Saturday through until the end of Supercars Championship action on the first day.

Sunday’s coverage is very similar, starting at 11:30am the coverage and will continue

through until the end of Supercars on track activities.

At the start of 2020, the free-to-air broadcast network announced that it would show live coverage of seven Supercars Championship rounds, the Adelaide 500, Melbourne 400 (Grand Prix), Townsville, Bathurst, Sandown, Newcastle and the Gold Coast, but this has been altered due to COVID-19.

The live coverage of the Darwin SuperSprint has been scheduled as a replacement for

the popular Gold Coast round, which was cancelled because of the ongoing pandemic.

The round in the top end therefore will become the second free-to-air Supercars event of 2020 after the Adelaide 500.

Live and free coverage of the Supercars Championship was set to be broadcast over the Australian Grand Prix weekend, but was cancelled before the Network went to air.

After broadcasting a highlights package of Supercars’ return event at Sydney Motorsport Park a couple of weeks ago, Network 10 will

do the same for this weekend’s round at the same venue.

Network 10 confirmed that it will broadcast free to air coverage of the Townsville 400 scheduled on August 29-30 and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from October 8-11.

It was also announced by the network that all MotoGP events will once again be shown live and free on 10 Bold, with the first round at Jerez in Spain Sunday from 9:30pm AEST. DM

Like many Melbourne based teams and drivers, the preparation for this weekend’s event has been chaotic with the recent lockdown of Melbourne and the closure of the Victorian border.

Percat hastily packed up his life in Melbourne and relocated to teammate Macauley Jones’s residence in Albury.

“Since the last race meeting I’ve moved to

Albury and I’m living with Macca which is fun.” Percat explained.

“It was a pretty rushed move up to NSW, but I managed to pack the most important things, like Nelson (Nick’s chocolate lab)!

The best bit of all this, Macca loves his fitness and karting so both of us in the same place is very handy!”

“We’ve been so fortunate with the BJR

workshop being based in NSW as this hasn’t disturbed our prep too much.

Hopefully we’ll have another great weekend of racing!”

This weekend’s two-day Supercars round also combined Super2 and Super3 field as the only support category. Action commences from 10:15am on Saturday.

Rhys Vandersyde

DUNLOP REMAINS ON PERCAT BJR COMMODORE NICK PERCAT is hoping to repeat his success by keeping the Dunlop livery that he successful drove to victory lane at Sydney Motorsport Park for this week’s event at the same venue.

Brad Jones Racing driver will once again line up with the yellow and black Dunlop Super Dealer on his Holden.

“I’m excited to be back racing again at SMP, especially with the continued support of Dunlop.” said Percat.

“Going back after a good result is always nice, but it doesn’t mean we will be straight on the pace. We need to continue to work hard and make sure we get the setup and strategy right.”

It won’t be rinse and repeat for the Alburybased squad however with the added elements of night racing and a mix of tyre compounds thrown into this weekend’s event.

“This weekend will be very difficult with hard and soft tyres being used.” Percat continued.

“The night racing will be so fun – I can’t wait to tackle SMP at night again. Driving the race cars at night makes it feel so fast under lights and also changes the car balance a lot, so we’ll need to get the setup right.”

with Dan Knutson

Image: LAT

AFTER TAKING pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix in 2019, two-time Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc found himself nearly a second off the mark when he returned this year. Incredibly the Ferraris were 0.92s slower this year than last, and video evidence has proven that 0.7s of that time was lost on the straights alone. More concerningly for the Italian brand the two other Ferrari powered teams, Haas F1 and Alfa Romeo, have lost 0.6s and 1.1s respectively and proves that the Ferrari power unit is far off where it needs to be.

Image: LAT

FORMER WILLIAMS driver Sergey Sirotkin has been retained as Renault’s reserve driver for the 2020 Formula 1 season. The Russian was the French manufacturer’s reserve driver in 2017 and after a season racing for Williams, he returned to the team last year. This means that if Daniel Ricciardo or Esteban Ocon are taken ill with COVID-19 or unfit to race, Sirotkin will take the seat.

Image: LAT

FORMULA 1 has announced two more rounds to its 2020 schedule. It has been confirmed that the Ferrari-owned Mugello circuit in Italy will host the ninth round. The race will mark the Italian brands 1000th race in Formula 1 and follows one week after the official Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Mugello which hosts the Italian round of the MotoGP championship annually, will become the fourth circuit in Italy to hold a F1 World Championship race. Two weeks later the F1 circus will visit the Sochi Autodrome in Russia from September 25-27.

Image: LAT

FOLLOWING THE completion of the Austrian Grand Prix, Formula 1 issued Alfa Romeo with a $5,000 fine for the wheel which departed Kimi Raikkonen’s machine late in the race. The Finn pitted under safety car conditions on lap 51, but the front-right wheel was cross threaded. Four laps later, when the race returned to green, under cornering load the cross threaded nut departed and was followed by the right-front wheel.

Image: LAT

STRONG RUMOURS floating around the Formula 1 paddock have suggested that Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius and Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff are in a feud. Reports say that the German brand was ready to pull out of F1 and as a result, a furious Wolff no longer sees eye to eye with Kallenius. Kallenius denied these rumours, saying that he and the Austrian are close and speak on a regular basis.

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VETTEL’S OPTIONS RUNNING OUT SEBASTIAN VETTEL’S options are running out – at least as far as getting a ride in F1 for 2021, as team after team has elected not to sign him.

It is looking increasingly likely that his only options will be to retire or take a sabbatical next season.

Vettel is only 33. Fernando Alonso will turn 40 when he makes his F1 return next year. Lewis Hamilton will be 36 next year and, if he gets a new contract, Kimi Räikkönen will be 41. So Vettel has time on his hands.

It all started back in May when Vettel got a phone call from Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, informing him that his services would not be required next year.

This was not due to a breakdown in contract negotiations because there were none.

“There was no (contract) sticking point,” Vettel revealed when the F1 circus arrived in Austria. “It was obviously a surprise to me when I got the call from Mattia, when he told me that there was no further intention for the team to continue. We never got into any discussions; there was never an offer on the table and therefore there was no sticking point.”

Binotto told Sky TV that Vettel “Has always been our first option. But what happened later on is certainly the pandemic changed the situation completely in the

Image: LAT

world, but also in F1.”

Renault could have been an option for Vettel to replace the McLaren-bound Daniel Ricciardo, but the team opted for Alonso.

Vettel was asked if he would consider returning to Red Bull, where he won his four titles.

“It’s a winning car and I’m here to compete,” he replied. “I’m here to win, so probably the answer would be yes.”

But Red Bull’s racing chief Dr. Helmut Marko has reiterated that the team is happy with its current lineup of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon.

“I would take a year off and look at it from an outside perspective,” Marko, speaking of Vettel, told Auto Motor und Sport. “But then maybe he likes the life with the family so much that he leaves completely. We

have no place for Vettel. We have (Alex) Albon and we are happy with him. Albon is half Thai and Red Bull is 51 per cent Thai.”

The door is closed at McLaren as the team is happy with its 2021 line-up of Aussie Ricciardo and Lando Norris.

Mercedes has yet to renew the contracts of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Although they have yet to begin negotiations, both drivers are confident they will remain with the team.

Vettel has not ruled out Racing Point, but that is yet another team that’s said it’s sticking with its drivers.

“I’ll take the time that I need to take a decision for myself,” Vettel said.

With his options running out, it looks like Vettel will have an entire year to think about his future. He has time on his side.

A MAMMOTH TEAM EFFORT

STAGING A grand prix during this pandemic requires a lot of work, cooperation and planning.

“It’s been a mammoth effort to get to this point,” the FIA’s race director, Australian Michael Masi, said after the Austrian Grand Prix.

“There’s been a huge amount of effort put in by the FIA to develop the various elements for the return to motorsport guidelines. We’re a global sport, we are a travelling sport, and we need to show the way that we are acting is acting responsibly; particularly bringing so many people from different countries to one location, that’s critical.”

No fans were allowed to attend the Austrian Grand Prix. The teams could only have 80 people in the paddock – some usually bring 130. There were no hospitality guests. The different teams were not allowed to intermingle, and even various members within a team had to remain in separate pods.

The limited number of media members were not permitted into the paddock with the exception of one photographer embedded with each of the 10 teams.

Everyone had to wear a mask. And everyone had to be tested for the virus.

“The event ran smoothly, with zero positive tests for COVID-19 in more than 4000 tests of F1 personnel as of Saturday,” Ross Brawn, Formula One’s managing director of motor sports, said.

“The strict and rigid procedures we

Image: LAT put in place were to ensure everyone’s safety, and we’re reasonably pleased with how it went.”

Daniel Ricciardo said he took his hat off to everyone who helped make it happen.

“Trying to figure out where the

boundaries are with everything, and how to maintain separation between teams, and when to wear masks, it is kind of uncharted territory,” the Aussie said.

“I’m happy that everything went pretty smooth all weekend. The testing was fine, all the COVID stuff, everything was on time in the schedule that was very tight. Not having previous experience, I think they did a very good job. It is going to be weird not having fans and all that here, but once we got down to it, it did feel like were back at it and competing.

And it felt as real as it could be right now. I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

Lewis Hamilton echoed Ricciardo’s sentiments.

“From what I’ve seen I think Formula 1 has done a very good job with its protocols, social distancing, Personal Protection Equipment services around, and with everyone wearing masks,” he said.

“It’s a really great showing and it’s what people need to be working towards. I’m wearing a cloth mask. I have not worn any of the paper ones, as they’re ending up in the ocean as people are replacing them on a day to day basis, which I refuse to do.”

All of these processes will be refined during the coming races. But there will be new challenges if and when the F1 circus starts to travel, especially outside of Europe.

FREE TO CHOOSE

ALL 20 drivers wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts prior to the start of the Austrian Grand Prix. They all went to the front of the grid before the start of the race, and before the playing of the Austrian anthem, and 14 of them “took a knee” to show their support for the cause.

But Max Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Räikkönen, Carlos Sainz, Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc chose to stand rather than kneel.

During a meeting of the Grand Prix Drivers Association on the day before, the drivers had agreed that they could decide for themselves to kneel or stand.

“I don’t know the reason for everyone’s different reasons or opinions,” said Lewis Hamilton.

“I am aware of some opinions from some of the drivers, but that’s more of a private thing and I wouldn’t like to share it. But I think ultimately nobody should be forced into a scenario where they have to kneel.”

Stories that Hamilton demanded or requested that all 20 drivers kneel were not true. All the drivers were keen to show they were not making a political stance. They lined up before the anthem was performed, and then returned to their cars and stood for the anthem.

“By separating it, it showed that none of us felt or wanted to interfere with the Austrian national anthem,” Daniel Ricciardo pointed out. “That is

Image: LAT

one thing we wanted to be clear on. So we had the moment before that, and I think it was handled well.

“Obviously some drivers kneeled and some did not. But it was our moment to do as we saw fit. I was happy to take a knee, the majority did, but nothing against those that did not. They explained to us the reasons. So I think it was okay in the end. We all kind of had our moment to show our support and respect one way or the other.”

The FIA statues call for gender equality and no discrimination.

“It’s important to respect the beliefs of each other,”

FIA president Jean Todt said.

“What we do in the sport is not political. Sometimes it could have the tendency to be used as a political weapon, so we have to be very careful of that.

Otherwise I always admire people who have the conviction and who believe in their conviction to do as much as they can.”

Hamilton is still deciding what to do next, but he has a goal.

“I want to be a part of the change so in the future our kids can lead a better life and that’s what it’s all about,” the six-time world champion said.

ALONSO NOT RUSTY

RENAULT HAD, of course, based its climb back to the front of the pack around its star driver Daniel Ricciardo.

But when after just two seasons with Renault he decided to move to McLaren, Renault considered a wide array of replacement drivers including Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel. But the driver who most impressed the Anglo-French squad was the motivated, hungry and still highly competitive Fernando Alonso. It was a bonus that Alonso drove for Renault from 2003 through 2006 and in 2008 and 2009, and that he won the world championship with the team in 2005 and 2006.

“I have principles and ambitions in line with the team’s project,” Alonso said of his return.

“Their progress this winter gives credibility to the objectives for the 2022 season. I will share all my racing experience with everyone from the engineers to the mechanics and my teammates. The team wants and has the means to get back on the podium, as do I.” Alonso has no fears about being rusty when he gets back into an F1 car. He points out that between IndyCars, WEC, IMSA and the Dakar Rally he had a steering wheel in his hands almost every weekend, unit the pandemic brought racing to a halt.

Age - Alonso will be 40 next year - is also not a concern. Alonso has been training hard.

“We did a couple of fitness tests 15 days ago,” he revealed, “and had the best results ever in my

Image: LAT

career. So I’m extremely motivated, happy and stronger than ever.”

Renault might give Alonso some outings in a 2018 F1 car, but there are no plans to have him drive the current car in some Friday morning practice sessions on grand prix weekends.

Ricciardo was asked if he would be willing to give up his car in FP1 to help Alonso get back into the F1 groove.

“He doesn’t need any help!” Ricciardo replied.

“It doesn’t look like he has slowed down at all with age.”

Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were McLaren teammates during the latter’s 2007 rookie season.

“Ultimately I think the more top drivers we have the better it is for the sport,” Hamilton said.

What advice would he give to Alonso future young teammate Esteban Ocon?

“Just keep his head down, keep going,” Hamilton said. “Don’t get distracted.”

Alonso is realistic about Renault’s immediate competitive potential. The team has not had a podium finish since it returned to F1 in 2016.

Mercedes, meanwhile, has dominated. But Alonso hopes that the major changes in the 2022 technical regulations will even things out.

“I know only one team will probably win in 2020 and 2021,” he said. “The 2022 rules will hopefully bring some fairness to the sport and bring some close action, with the teams more level. There is enough time to work on those projects and to build the momentum that we need.”

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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

Garry O’Brien

Online Editor

F1 INSIDER

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@autoaction.com.au (0418) 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

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20 AutoAction

Image: LAT

“IT’S STILL A MARATHON” WELL, THE 2020 F1 season certainly got off to a wild and weird start, didn’t it? Lots of action on the track, and a weird atmosphere off the track, with empty grandstands and the paddock not being the usual hive of activity.

The Austrian Grand Prix was the first of eight races in 10 weekends in Europe.

Nobody knows for sure what happens after that.

With COVID-19 resurging in China, and still on the rampage in countries like Mexico, Brazil and the USA – the state of Texas where the grand prix is staged being one of the hardest hit areas – where can additional F1 races be held?

“Looking at those countries right now, you cannot possibly imagine we would be going there,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff told BBC radio.

“Based on my conversations with (Formula 1 CEO) Chase Carey, he doesn’t want to close any doors, but it

doesn’t look like we will be going there. They are pretty diligent and they wouldn’t go there if it was a risk for our people.”

One plan is to have more races in Europe after round eight, which is the Italian Grand Prix on September 6. One thing we know for sure is that there will not be the originally scheduled 22 rounds.

So does Lewis Hamilton change his approach because there will be fewer races?

“I don’t think so,” he said.

“It’s still a marathon; it’s still a lot of races isn’t it?

However it’s squeezed and condensed into a shorter period of time, maybe that’s what you’re referring to.

“It definitely isn’t a normal experience for us. We’re all under a different set of pressures and circumstances, but I think it’s great we’re back at work. It’s great teams can be back at work, that people can be back in their jobs and the business can continue.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas sees things the same way.

“We’re going to have fewer races than planned,” Bottas said, “but just because they’ll be in a short period of time, I don’t think the approach is different.

“When you look at it from a drivers’ point of view, we’re still going to be attacking every single weekend, and we want to be at the top of our game. Obviously with the learning we’ll get from the new cars we’ll need to be more reactive as a team, and be more effective with the directions we take with the car, because we’ve only had a few test days with it. So we still have a lot to learn and we need to do it quick, otherwise we’ll go backwards.”

Some folks have suggested that if there are fewer races it will diminish the importance and prestige of winning the world championship for the driver who achieves that feat.

But that is simply not true.

The 2020 world champion

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 30 JULY

will be a creditable one.

This is the 70th season of the Formula 1 World Championship. Over the years there have been as few as seven races (1950 and 1955) and as many as 21 (2016 and 2019).

When Juan Manuel Fangio was winning his championships, there were between seven and nine race per season. In the days of Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme and Jackie Stewart, there were nine to 12 rounds. For Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna, the standard was 16 races.

All of them were great world champions no matter how many races there were in their title years.

If anything, I would venture to say that too many races in a season is worse than too few.

It’s not that too many diminish the feat of winning the drivers’ championship, but rather that too many races dilute the prestige and exclusivity of F1...

Interview with Jamie Whincup; Supercars Supernight from SMP; Hungarian Grand Prix; Young Gun - Broc Feeney; Alan Jones German Grand Prix; Latest Supercar news & views; Latest F1 news; much more

THE FOGES FILE

with Mark Fogarty

AA’s principled pundit calls out Supercars for not actively engaging with the specialist media in these tough times SUPERCARS IS shunning the motor racing media. It has formed an unholy alliance with a particular web site, leaving other specialist outlets on the information outer.

Boo hoo, you might say. Except that by not willingly telling all of us what’s going on is denying you, the invested fan, of vital news. We are among the conduits through which you find out what’s happening.

We are also a filter for the propaganda disseminated by Supercars. The invested and concerned media question its decisions – and reveal the inconvenient truths.

I could wax lyrical about how the media holds institutions to account – and has exposed gross abuses of power. Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, etc.

Without a probing media, western democracies – not to mention repressive regimes – would be even more corrupt than they are.

I am not suggesting Supercars is corrupt, but I am accusing it of filtering the truth to fans.

Let’s be up front. I have never been popular with motor racing administrators around the world. In F1, Supercars, BTCC or IndyCar, my inquisitions have never been appreciated.

Never more so than in Supercars these days. The likes of me and fellow AA inquisitor Bruce Newton are unappreciated.

Which is fine. Hard-nosed journos in any field don’t expect to be liked. In fact, we would be offended if we were.

But when there is obvious bias to more amenable outlets, which don’t rock the boat, I have to call it out.

From what I understand, Auto Action is unpopular with the Supercars hierarchy and

www.autoaction.com.au

some team owners. Because we ask hard questions. That is, appropriate questions – the ones you want answered.

A web site is allegedly getting ‘leaks’ because it is complicit.

Sorry, not sorry. Our job is to enquire as well as to celebrate. Which we do in equal measure.

Increasingly, though, our objectivity is rebuffed by the powers that be. They think we should be compliant, not combative.

As a specialist publication, we try to balance our coverage. We’d rather report positive news – and mostly do – but can’t ignore bad or questionable decisions.

Most big sports accept an enquiring media as the price of business. As uncomfortable as it is, they accept media scrutiny.

It exposes the great as well as the unseemly, keeping everything on track.

The official web site of the AFL, the nation’s biggest sporting code, breaks or expands on controversial stories.

Supercars does not subscribe to this transparency. Its web site is the domain of puff pieces.

What’s more, it actively discourages – and doesn’t co-operate with – deep enquiry.

Under newest CEO Sean Seamer, Supercars has actively withheld information. Seamer does not like probing media at all.

AutoActionMagazine

Auto_Action

I would suggest his resistance is because he doesn’t like to be questioned.

Bad luck. Suck it up. Be thankful you’re not Gillon McLachlan or Peter V’landys.

But now there is evidence Seamer is favouring more compliant, more commercially sensitive media. That is definitely not us – nor other independent outlets.

But I can assure you that a certain web site is getting favours for complicity.

Which is fine in the big scheme of things.

We – and others – still beat them on the very, very big stories. Just look at our news-breaking record…

You may not think this is important. Just a point-scoring exercise. Far from it.

Denying us objective information is withholding it from you, fans and followers.

The AFL and NRL – even Cricket Australia and soccer’s FFA – don’t shy away from controversy. In fact, they embrace it.

Meanwhile, Supercars is hiding – and subsequently not in the main discussion.

Supercars has a good story to tell – adapting to the COVID-19 chaos – but won’t engage in the daily debate.

Favouring one tame ‘independent’ outlet is shameful and counter-productive.

Supercars’ own web site is the preserve of self-serving coverage – and rightly so.

But by shunning independent media, Supercars is excluding informed fans.

Message: Talk to us, talk to them.

STAY AT HOME

LUCKILY, I live in Melbourne. Unluckily, I live in Melbourne.

I’ve also resided in Sydney, London and Indianapolis, but until now, hometown Melbourne has come out on top.

The second wave of coronavirus – and its mismanagement by the state government – has me wondering.

We’re back in lockdown while NSW isn’t and other states are coming out of isolation.

AFL teams have fled and so have the southern Supercars squads. Melbourne is now abandoned.

In Australia’s sporting capital, we are unlikely to see live action until very late this year. Supercars at Sandown in September is looking doubtful, while the AFL Grand Final may also move north – or west?

For Supercars’ Vic heartland, it is a very bad outlook.

I can only suggest to Melbourne metro fans that you stay home and stay safe. The sooner we isolate out of this, the better.

This crisis is, unfortunately, not going to end soon or easily.

Fingers crossed that Darwin and Townsville can happen, with Vic teams able to ‘hub’ in NSW. Otherwise – best case scenario – we’re contemplating an NSW-only championship at Sydney Motorsport Park, Mount Panorama and Goulbourn’s Wakefield Park. Not such a silly idea, actually …

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IMAGES: Autopics.com.au/AA Archive

In the conclusion of our latest tribute to a racing great, Kevin Bartlett tells MARK FOGARTY about his love/hate relationship with touring cars and his famous blue beast

THERE IS the ‘Famous Five’: Ian Geoghegan’s Ford Mustang GTA; Norm Beechey’s HT Holden Monaro; Bob Jane’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1; Allan Moffat’s TransAm Mustang; and Geoghegan’s XY ‘Super Falcon’. The most revered and celebrated cars in Australian touring car racing history.

But not far behind are later icons that define the Group C ‘big banger’ era. Peter Brock’s ’84 VK Commodore; Dick Johnson’s contemporary XE Falcon; and Kevin Bartlett’s 1979-82 Chevrolet Camaro.

The latter stands out because it challenged the Holden/Ford hegemony of the very late ’70s and very early ’80s. Fittingly, KB’s distinctive dark blue Camaro – highlighted by the yellow Channel 9 logo – is part of the same Bowden collection on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast as some of the ‘Famous Five’ and where he is still an active advisor.

Bartlett, now 80, was a single-seater star of the mid-to-late ‘60s and early ’70s. Winner of the Gold Star prize in 1968/69 and leading contender in Formula 5000 well into the ’70s.

Ironically, it was touring cars – much to his

The race that made Kevin Bartlett a household name. He partnered John Goss to win the 1974 Bathurst 1000 (above) and cemented his fame with stirring drives in the iconic Camaro (main image). Bartlett is one of only a handful of drivers to win the Australian Drivers’ Championship/Bathurst 1000 double.

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disdain – that made ‘Big Rev Kev’ nationally famous. He partnered John Goss to victory in the 1974 Bathurst 1000 in their famous McLeod Ford XA Falcon Hardtop, then hit the headlines again with the Nine Sports Camaro.

Amid – and despite – constant homologation wrangles, Bartlett wrestled the Camaro to pole positions at Bathurst in 1980/81 and was runner-up in the ’80 ATCC. His Nine Network backing came from a quirky relationship with the late Kerry Packer, the no-nonsense broadcasting and publishing magnate. Packer owned the most successful TV network, revolutionised cricket and helmed a magazine empire, which in the 1990s and 2000s owned this very title.

Those nine dots on the sides of the Camaro only increase its historical appeal and significance.

Characteristically contrarily, curmudgeonly KB – never one to mince his words – still underplays his tin top achievements. He also shrugs off the Bathurst incident 30 years ago that ended his career – and almost his life.

Despite his stellar open-wheel career, KB didn’t become a truly national name until he partnered fellow F5000 star John Goss to victory at Bathurst in 1974. He excelled in the rain-soaked race, anchoring their privateer win. It was a significant success for both. Bartlett is one of the few to win Australian Drivers’ Championship and Bathurst 1000, while in ’76 Goss completed his unique Australian Grand Prix/Bathurst double.

A great win in difficult conditions.

It must be a source of pride for you because you did a lot of the hard yakka in the wet, didn’t you?

Yeah, but that’s what I was along for, wasn’t it? The previous year, Gossy had got the thing on pole and was leading until he was involved in someone else’s crash. He and I worked together well in the car because we were both happy with the limits of the car that we’d set. We talked about it at length and I’d actually been able to hop in the car and run it at a couple of meetings. I ran it at Oran Park and Adelaide without any problems.

In fact, I still have a banner from that Adelaide event for ‘Driver Of The Meeting’, which meant that I was at home in the car. So I was quite happy with the way things were, and Gossy and I worked well together.

Winning the Bathurst 1000 has to be one of the highlights of your career, surely?

Ah, quite honestly, no. I was too committed as a formula car driver. Up to that time, I’d thought of nothing but F5000 and I continued on in F5000 inn ’74 and beyond. Look, I kept accepting distance drives in touring cars from then on, butt only as a secondary thing.

Gossy and I did Bathurst together again the next year, but success wasn’t on the cards. And then I teamed up with Peter Janson in ’76, followed by two years with Bob Forbes. But I was still ill a committed formula car driver. Silly as it sounds now, there wasn’t a great reat deal of money in touring cars in those days, d either. You didn’t get paid a bomb to be a co-driver. It also wasn’t setting me alight as far as racing them because those cars were really just modified road cars. They had brake issues, they had tyre issues, they had engine issues, they had gearbox issues – blah, blah, blah. They weren’t proper racing cars. There was no longterm future for me in touring cars at that time because I was driving for other people and no matter what I hopped into – apart from the couple of times with Forbesy, where I helped set the car up – most of the times I was driving cars that had been set up already and that’s what I drove. Where it turned around for me was once Mr P (Kerry Packer) had suggested that we do something together in racing, because I’d already worked on his road cars from the

Bartlett had early touring car success at Bathurst, scoring class wins in 1968/69 with Alfa Romeo GTV 1750s run by his h l patron andd S d Alf l open-wheel Sydney Alfa ddealer Alex Mildren.

mid-’70s on, I thought “OK, as long as there’s a dollar in it so I can make a living from it”. Don’t forget, I was still running a workshop, I was on the spanners, and that’s where my income was. But once Mr P committed to a racing program, that changed things. I decided I could actually exist on the money he was willing to put up. Initially, it was only a short deal – three years – but I still continued to work on his road cars after that.

In hindsight, do you rate that Bathurst victory as important as it’s now regarded?

Honestly, still no. It was significant to a lot

of people, but you have to appreciate i that h to me, iit was jjust a oneoff race. I did 24 Bathursts and I had 23 failures! [Not strictly true. He also scored class victories in Alfa Romeo GTV 1750s in 1968/69.]

But you only need one to become a Bathurst legend.

Yeah, but I look at the guys who’ve won it six and seven times (respectively, Larry Perkins and Craig Lowndes, and Jim Richards and Mark Skaife), and what I did was just partner somebody that won the race. Honestly, my prominent thought on Bathurst is it’s a great track, but it’s just a race. Look, there were a lot more races I would’ve wished to have won, to be quite honest with you. Australian Grand Prix, for instance.

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“Tin tops had their place, but my time in them is not high in

KB’s first love remains open wheelers, such as his famous F5000 Lola T332 F5000 pictured above at Sandown. He partnered F5000 rival and friend John Goss to their famous ’74 Bathurst privateer triumph (below).

I missed out three times on winning the AGP. Being second or third in an AGP was more important to me because of the toughness – the toughness – of driving a formula car successfully. It’s hard work to get your mind right around it, to get the car prepped right, to get the continuity in place, whereas the tin tops just weren’t so demanding.

I’m talking about the 1960s and ’70s, when the only way, really, to make a living from racing cars was in open-wheelers.

Of course, for the past 40 years, Bathurst and touring cars have been at the peak of professionalism.

So moving on to the Camaro era, I guess, then, that much to your annoyance, it becomes your most famous car and gives you national notoriety.

Yeah, that rankles a bit [chuckles]. It really does. There is no comparison in my mind with what I achieved in my single-seater career, having raced in many, many Tasman series, in America and in southeast Asia. I considered that hopping into touring cars at that point in my life – I was nearly 40 by then – was an admission that I really wasn’t up to racing open wheelers anymore. It didn’t sit well with me, to be quite honest with you. Tin tops had their place, but my time in them is not high in my affections, whereas my best memories are still from formula car racing. It thrilled me to my core. I suffered the touring cars, especially in the later years, as a necessary evil.

But the Camaro was special. It was an iconic car that the fans loved. That can’t be lost on you, can it?

Oh, it’s significant, yes. I’m reminded of it two days a week because I still do stuff at Bowden’s and the Camaro is only two cars away from the hoist where I’m working. It’s there all the time, so I can’t forget it. Just the other day, a mate of mine came in and he said “The old Camaro’s looking good” and I

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Typical Bartlett glare as he awaits the start in his charismatic Camaro. He had the ‘dagger eyes’ gaze down pat.

said “Yeah, but we have to fix the brakes on it – the bloody master cylinder’s leaking – blah, blah, blah”. He wanted to know when I’d be taking it out for a run and I told him never.

So it’s there and I’m reminded of it all the time, but I reiterate: open wheelers were my passion. They were the reason I raced and when I couldn’t do it anymore, the other stuff became a means of making a buck.

KB, you have such a hard heart.

No, no, no. I’m just not a softy.

Actually, I am – I’m a softy for open wheelers! [Laughs] How did you get connected with Kerry Packer and how did the idea of racing the Camaro come about?

Oh, it was very simple. I was friendly with one of his magazine executives, who I got to know because he was a bit of a racing fan and came to some of my F5000 races.

Anyway, this bloke rings me and says “My boss wants to go out and do a day at Oran Park with his mate (transport magnate and car enthusiast) Lindsay Fox in their performance cars”.

They wanted me to come along and give them some driving lessons, which I did.

They flew in on Kerry’s chopper and I ran them around and showed them a few tricks. Kerry was actually a good driver, but initially quite brutal with it. You just had to spell out how you needed to be smooth to go fast. We got on well and he asked me to look after his road cars. This was back in ’73/74, somewhere around then. So I got acquainted with him by looking after all his performance cars, which I did until his death (at the end of 2005). He had this Jaguar XJS that we put twin turbochargers on and it kept breaking everything until we finally refined it.

He put up with it quite well. He knew it was all experimental. Nobody had ever tried to get so much power out of that Jaguar V12.

We eventually turned the thing into a real weapon. Anyway, one day (in early 1979), I went in to pick up one of his cars from his office in Park Street (in the centre of Sydney’s CBD) and there was a message that he wanted to see me. I went up to his office and he said “Why don’t we bloody go racing for a couple of years?”, to which I replied “In what?”.

He told me it was my choice – but don’t make it a Holden or a Ford. I asked why and he said “Because we’ll do it with Channel 9 and they both advertise with us, so I don’t want to take sides”. It was that simple. He asked me how much I’d need and I told him. He said “Are you sure?” and I said “No, I’m not real sure”, and he said “OK, just come and see me if you need more”.

That’s how easy it was. And it was wordof-mouth – there was no contract.

my affections.”

KB’s Lola T400 leads Gossie’s Matich A51 in one of their many F5000 duels (above). He was sidelined at Bathurst in 1979, stuck in a wheelchair with a broken leg after his F5000 career-ending crash at Sandown. John McCormack and Bob Forbes shared the Nine Camaro in its Bathurst debut.

And is it true that he did it just to stick it up Seven, which had the TV rights to the Bathurst 1000?

No. That never came into it. We never talked about the opposition channel at all. I don’t think it would ever have entered his mind.

He wasn’t that sort of bloke. I don’t think he gave a stuff about Channel 7. He just thought there was some mileage in going racing with a Nine Network-sponsored car.

Was it a big budget?

No. As it turned out, I had to go back to him a couple of times for more money. It wasn’t a huge budget at all. I thought it was all right at the time, but we got screwed around by CAMS (now Motorsport Australia) on the configuration of the car and what we had to spend on it to make it work. It ate into the budget like it was going out of style. The brakes were an issue; the bloody bodywork was an issue. It was a friggin’ nightmare.

Very long story short, Bartlett battled to homologate the Camaro, with CAMS belatedly deciding to vary its interpretation of the FIA Group 1 rules, limiting the big Chev to rear drum brakes and more restricted bodywork modifications. It was eventually granted rear discs and updated bodywork amid widespread Group C concessions.

car from him and had it shipped back here.

It had actually come out in September ’78, but it was a ’79 model with rear discs, plastic bumpers and spoilers, and bonnet vents. We started to work on it on the premise that the draft of the revised Group C rules for 1980 allowed us to run rear disc brakes, which were an option on the road car and came on the car I bought, and other concessions consistent with the FIA Group 1 homologation. As it stood, we could run 10inch wide wheels on the rear and nine-a-half inches on the front, whereas the Commodore and XD Falcon were going to be limited to eight inches. I thought that would give us a tyre advantage. Then, after intensive lobbying from certain quarters, we suddenly couldn’t run the rear discs or the latest bodywork. We had to go back to the ’76 model. It became so altered that it drove me bloody berserk.

You can understand my frustration at this time because it was eating into the budget.

And just to add insult to injury, in August ’79, I saw a photo in Auto Action of an HDT test day at Calder with the new Commodore where they’ve cut the guards out to fit the 10-inch wide wheels. About a week later, a notice came out from CAMS that they were going to allow Group 2 guard flares in Group C. We had to spend a small fortune for ’80

to make lightweight Kevlar guard flares. The whole homologation drama drove me to distraction and ate into my budget calculation.

Not a good experience.

For all that, not a terrible record: two Bathurst poles and second in the 1980 ATCC, along with a huge fan following.

We weren’t out there for the touring car championship. The budget didn’t allow an ATCC assault. KP wasn’t interested in the touring car championship. He wanted to win the Bathurst 1000.

We did venture out to other races to prepare for Bathurst, but we’d wasted a lot of money on all the homologation hassles. I wasn’t going to go back to him and say I needed double what we’d asked for, which is what it would’ve taken to do full campaigns. I wasn’t going to do that. I just refused to go back and kneel and beg for a budget that would have been double my original estimate. It just wasn’t on as far as I was concerned. In 1980, we didn’t do every round. We were primarily preparing for Bathurst.

Why did you choose the Camaro?

Well, for a start, I knew the five-litre Chev V8 so well from F5000, so I thought a Chevrolet would be the logical choice. I also looked at the Monza, but its Group 1 spec wasn’t as good and there were no more developments coming. The Group 1 update on the Camaro for ’79 included rear disc brakes with a slightly different body shape. Which was the car I purchased from (Indycar legend and Albuquerque, New Mexico Chevy dealer) Bobby Unser, who I knew from my USAC attempt in 1970. So I bought a brand-new

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And yet you gave Peter Brock a run for his money for the touring car title.

Yeah, sure, but we didn’t win it.

And then famously – or infamously – the Camaro’s end came with that spectacular roll over at Bathurst in ’82. What happened there?

Well, leading up to that, CAMS – and again through lobbying, including us – was under pressure to relax the wheel width rules. We all agreed on that. If we could use wider wheels, we’d have access to much better tyres with a bigger footprint. I was suffering with tyres, Dick (Johnson) was suffering with tyre problems and so was even Brock. So wheels were made free as long as they fitted within the confines of the guard flares. The Group 2 flares with the 10-inch wide wheels was too narrow. Once CAMS agreed to that, we found we could fit 14-inch wide wheels at the back and 12 inches on the front, both 16 inches in diameter.

Cutting to the chase, KB had three sets of new wheels made up by Simmons (which had been taken over by OEM supplier Aunger) and sourced the appropriate Goodyear tyres. Some of the wheels were faulty, as he discovered after the crash.

It still rankles Bartlett that the potential of the Camaro went unfulfilled due to the intensive lobbying of CAMS by his main Holden (and later Ford) rivals.

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The left rear wheel split under load on the run up to Reid Park. There’d been no indication of a problem in practice or qualifying. But under sustained load in the race, once we’d

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Despite homologation restrictions, KB’s Camaro was a serious contender, especially at Bathurst. Leading Johnson in ‘82 (above); ahead of Brock and Moffat at Sandown (top); and beating Brock at Sandown in 1980 ATCC round (right).

got the tyres up to full temperature and therefore stickiness, it caused a breakage. As soon the grip level got up, my car was starting to work magic – it was really starting to come good and I was starting to go through there flat. And when it happened, it really just caught me out. All of a sudden, it just went sideways, no warning at all.

Bang, up on its roof. Wild ride?

Surprisingly, not. I don’t want to be blasé about it, but, in fact, as I’m going sliding along upside down, I’m switching everything off. It was just a presence of mind thing. My immediate thought was that a (fibreglass) spring at the back had broken. But when I got out of the car and had a look, I saw that the left rear tyre was flat. And then I saw a split in the bloody rim and I’ve gone “Oh, for crying out loud”. There’s nothing you can do about that. It was a sad end for the Camaro.

But, overall, I was disappointed that I hadn’t had a better run with that car. It had so much potential. The things we could’ve won, we didn’t. We won some minor touring car races, but not the one we wanted. Overall, it was very disappointing.

Bartlett never hit the Camaro heights again.

He was paired with Dick Johnson at Bathurst

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in ’83, but Dick’s XE-wrecking qualifying crash – and subsequent switch to a hastily prepared replacement – ended their chances.

He drifted through the remainder of the 1980s with uncompetitive teams, culminating in his final drive at Bathurst in ’90 that ended his career – and nearly ended his life.

The next several years were very lean, even with a tie-up with Mitsubishi and Ralliart with the Group A Starion.

I was coasting along, really. I tried with Mitsubishi for a couple of years and then that Maserati Biturbo (in 1987), which was an exercise in futility. That came out here (for the Australasian rounds of the WTCC) with a reputation and a couple of good drivers (Armin Hahne and Bruno Giacomelli). But Armin and I were the only ones that could make it work around Bathurst. Giacomelli admitted to me that he couldn’t handle the car at Mount Panorama, saying that it was all over the road.

It was a car that was set up for European circuits, not Bathurst, which required a lot more suspension travel. The car just kept on breaking half shafts and smashing itself into the ground all the time because it had no real suspension travel. Episodes like that just turn you off. And the Mitsubishi thing (in ‘85/86) was underfunded. The stuff I developed for

that car was never homologated. They could have done so much better if the marketing support had been there.

We move forward to Bathurst 1990, which ends up being your last big race. It was also the race that nearly killed you, wasn’t it?

Ironically, the Starion was very successful in Group E production racing.

Healthwise, yeah. It was a real problem, that one.

Yes, it was because the basic chassis was a damn good chassis. Even in Group A form, it was very good – it just lacked 100 horsepower. Pretty simple…

So what happened?

Severe heat stroke in Bob Forbes-owned Commodore at Bathurst in 1990 ended KB’s racing career, triggering a later heart attack that required lifesaving quadruple by-pass surgery.

Well, Russell Ingall and I shared the car.

For want of a better word, I was lead driver

Classic Stonie cartoon (lower left) highlighted Bartlett’s close relationship with Nine’s autocratic owner Kerry Packer. KB laments the laid-back approach to the Group A Starion by Mitsubishi (above).

because Russell was still very much a junior driver. He was pretty much unknown and I guess Forbesy thought “Well, I’ll partner him with the old bloke and he might be able to teach him a thing or two along the way”.

Rohan Onslow and Mark Gibbs were in the other car. After final practice in prep for or the race, the team changed all the coolant in both cars and whoever was on our car forgot to turn the heater tap off. When you change coolant, you open the heater tap and get rid of all the coolant, then you run it to warm it up and turn the heater on to purge the system.

But somebody forgot to turn the heater tap off again and it’s not a thing you look for when you hop into a race car, to see if the heater’s on. I started the race and about an hour and a half in I was feeling so hot. I’d sucked all the water from the drink bottle, which in those days was just a little bicycle flask attached to the roll cage to your right, with a tube that you put in your mouth when you needed to take a sip. I used all my water up because I was so hot and I started to feel crook. I kept telling the team that I’d have to call my stint short, but the radio wasn’t much chop and they didn’t appreciate my predicament. They wanted me to keep going

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because we weren’t in the pit stop window. So I pressed on, but in the last three laps of my stint, I was seeing double.

I hopped out and they looked at me and said “You better hydrate quickly”, so I did. I went back to the caravan and drank plenty of fluid.

I was pretty boiled up, Anyway, about three quarters of the way into Russell’s stint – and he’s a young bloke – he’s radioed in and said “It’s too hot, I can’t continue”. Of course, they kept him out there. When he was just about due to come in, they told me “Get ready, you’re going to have to get back in because Russell’s not feeling well. I’d drunk plenty of water, but I hadn’t really rehydrated fully. My system wasn’t really coping and I hopped into the car half-cut.

And in my haste getting into the bloody car, the water bottle wasn’t mounted properly.

Unbeknown to me or the team, the water bottle fell on the bloody floor and emptied

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iitself. I found the tube and tried to suck on it, bbut there was no water. So I pressed on, but I hhad to come in early because I was absolutely rrooted. Russell wasn’t ready, so they put O Onslow in, which they could do because we w were cross-entered. He’d already done a stint in the other car and hopped into our car. He aalso complained about the heat in the car, so R Russell had to get in again to finish the race (in 117th, 15 laps down). When I got out the car the ssecond time, I collapsed. They took me over to the infirmary and put me on a drip. I was crook for bloody days after that, suffering from severe dehydration. And then not long after that, I had a heart attack. They put it down to the fact that I’d really buggered up my system. I was lucky.

It could have been worse.

Still no small thing, requiring a quadruple by-pass.

I still have the scars from that one. But it’s been pretty good. Heartwise, I’m still doing well. I have regular checks and everything’s been terrific in that area. But maybe I was destined for a heart attack anyway, sooner or later. There’s a family history of it – my dad died of a heart attack and he hadn’t made 60. So I was probably heading for a heart attack sooner or later, but what happen at Bathurst precipitated it.

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So that was the end of your racing career, wasn’t it?

Yeah. It would have been a couple of years before I could’ve got my licence back, anyway. Still, I’d had a good run.

You must look back on your career with a lot of satisfaction.

For the most part. I’m the one with the hindsight; I’m the one that knows all the errors. People from the outside only look at the results, but I look back from a different perspective. I know there are a lot of things that I could have done better.

Hindsight is wonderful teacher, but overall, I’m glad I did what I did. I loved the racing and if I were in a position to do it the same way I used to, I’d love to do it again.

I have to admire someone like John Bowe.

He’s getting on (66), but he’s still enjoying it to a degree. I don’t know that he gets the satisfaction out of it that he did, but I’m impressed that he still drives (historic) open-wheelers and he drives them well.

But he’s very, very aware of what can happen in those old cars and he drives them accordingly.

Having said that, Bowie still has a go. He doesn’t hold back.

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Latest new Supercars winner Nick Percat explains how the road to redemption has led him to a much better place in his life and his racing, aided by a captivating canine companion WINNING THE Bathurst 1000 at your very first attempt would usually guarantee fame and fortune. Almost nine years later, Nick Percat is still waiting to reap the rewards of his victorious debut in the annual October classic.

Percat, then 23, co-drove Garth Tander to a celebrated win – the Holden Racing Team’s last at Mount Panorama – in 2011. He wasn’t flawless, but he was fast and survived a scrape with the wall at Reid Park to keep Tander in contention.

It should’ve set the Adelaide-born young gun up as a rising star of Supercars. But he was overlooked, even after being involved in the epic 2012 battle for the second-level Dunlop Series – now Super2 – title with Scott McLaughlin, Scott Pye and Chaz Mostert.

The problem was, despite his undeniable talent, within months of co-winning Bathurst – maybe even just weeks – Percat developed a reputation for being big-headed. Precocious would be the polite term, but in inner circles, he was dubbed ‘Mini Garth’.

He modelled his behaviour on teammate/friend/mentor Garth Tander, renowned as being difficult and demanding. But the Melbourne-based West Australian had a Supercars title and three Bathurst wins to back up his bolshiness.

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Percat, 31, has changed his ways and has flourished at Brad Jones Racing since 2017. He is a winner again after his popular success in Supercars’ return at Sydney Motorsport Park late last month.

It was only his third win in the main game, adding to his maiden Bathurst success and upset with minnow Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in the controversial and chaotic deciding Sunday race of the 2016 Adelaide 500.

His image and popularity received a big lift from the appearance of Nelson, a beguiling (and somnolent) chocolate Labrador, in the background during Percat’s Eseries campaign. Amazing how images of a man and his dog change perceptions of a driver previously better known for his outbursts against rivals.

Melbourne-based Percat escaped to Albury in NSW before Melbourne’s second coronavirus spike shut the border with Victoria. He and Nelson were holed up with Macauley Jones until BJR headed back to SMP for this weekend’s second successive Sydney SuperSprint, replacing COVID-19 stymied Winton.

Living in neighbouring inner Melbourne suburbs before the reimposed lockdown, we were due to catch up face-to-face (observing appropriate social distancing). But the dash to beat the border ban early last week meant we had to talk on the phone as Percat sunned himself in Macca Jones’s backyard.

How was the escape from Melbourne and what are you up to?

I am currently on Macauley Jones’s deck, looking at Albury town. It’s lovely.

So I made the great escape on Monday afternoon. Packed up the car, got the dog and the go-kart, and fled, really. Just tried to bring as much stuff that made it as normal as possible, not sitting in a motel going stir crazy. If I want to go for a ride or doing my normal training, it’s all there, along with my kart and Nelson my dog. It just makes it all a bit more normal.

How desperate was the dash to get to Albury in time?

Oh, I was pretty laid back about it. As long as I crossed the border by 11.59 pm, we were sweet. There was only me travelling, so it wasn’t too rushed.

But it still takes a lot of organisation and commitment to figure out what you need, how long you’re going for, where you’re going. That was probably the biggest thing. I just jumped on the road and didn’t have accommodation at the other end. Obviously, I could lean on a lot of people in the team, but coming in so late, I had to sort that out on the way.

I also had to sort out what to do with Nelson. Because it was such late notice, it didn’t seem fair to offload my dog onto someone and say “Hey, you might have him for two weeks, six weeks or three months”. I didn’t have the luxury of just leaving him with someone, so he’s come on the road with me. So getting out of Melbourne wasn’t frantic, but it was a bit stressful.

What’s the plan? Are you going to stay in Albury until you have to go to Sydney Motorsport Park?

Yeah, I’m going to base myself in Albury.

I’ve moved in with Macca and I’ll be here with the team, which is good. Obviously, I haven’t been in the same place as the race team since I’ve been with BJR, so it’s nice to be able to pop into the workshop whenever I want. It reminds me of when I was with LDM or Walkinshaw.

You could just go in at any point. So I’ll stay in Albury between events. There are plenty of good things to do here. I can do the sort of training I like and I can train with Macauley, too. Got everything here you need. Karts, bikes, simulator – we’ve got it all covered here. It’ll be good.

I enjoy being in Albury.

Percat held off Jamie Whincup in the second leg of the Sydney SuperSprint when racing resumed late last month. It was a long awaited and popular win that confirmed that with BJR, he has been able to shed his ‘superbrat’ reputation. it’s actually quite a big place and we have plenty of resources here. Anything we can get here, we can have delivered overnight or even same day. The only pain in the arse is when you have to fly, especially in winter because of all the fog in the mornings. Todd (Hazelwood) and I have had to relocate from Melbourne, but the rest of the team hasn’t had to move, so nothing’s really changed for them. It actually feels quite normal because we’re here relatively often and I’m staying with Macca at his place rather than in a hotel.

That’s why I brought a lot of my stuff with me so that it’s as normal as possible. I’d much prefer to be with BJR than the other Victorian teams, most of whose drivers are sitting in hotel rooms.

The return to racing saw a big win for you. What’s that done for the team and for your own prospects for the rest of the season?

Firstly, I think the big thing is the guys and girls at BJR. They work so hard, same as

every other Supercars team, and during this COVID time they’ve dug deep.

No one’s walked away and given up.

Brad and Kim (Jones, team co-owners) have done a lot to make sure that everyone’s retained their jobs. Everyone’s sacrificed at some point to make sure it all keeps going and the work they’ve done in that time has been seriously good. Our preparation leading into Sydney Motorsport Park was extremely good. But this actually stems from the work we started doing mid-last year and a few development items we had coming onto the cars late last year, and we saw the fruits of that with Sladey (Tim Slade) at Newcastle last year. He actually had a few of those new parts on the car and ended up on the podium, and then we’ve taken them into this year and we were strong at Adelaide and qualified well at the AGP. So we rolled into Sydney Motorsport Park looking strong and I honestly think it’s a credit to Brad the way he manages the team. The guys and girls have responded and dug deep, and for me,, I’m p pushing g as hard as ever

Is this front-running form real? BJR has a history of winning the odd race h here and there, but is this a signal h that th you and the team can contend more consistently, more often? m

Well, suddenly, in a way, it’s a big advantage for the team to be based there.

I guess so. I’ve always thought that what we have going is not a bad thing because when we travel to Sydney, we’re half a day ahead of the Melbourne teams and when you return from Sydney, you’re again half a day ahead of the Melbourne teams. People think Albury is a little town, but

I tthink so. Like I said, it’s something we’ve we been building on, especially on my side. If you look at the championship results, the first year ch with wit the team (2017) was average. We started developing the car in a certain sta direction in 2018 and we got going. We dir finished 10th, which is no mean feat. fini When Wh you have multiple Triple Eight car and two strong Penske cars and cars fou Tickford cars and then two Erebus four cars getting into the top 10 is hard. We cars, bac backed it up last year and improved aga (ninth in the championship). again

Percat still resents the fact that his debut win at Bathurst, followed by a strong season in Super2, didn’t lead to a fulltime HRT drive. However, he admits his arrogant attitude didn’t help his cause.

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to keep improving. I’m a big believer in self-improvement, so as much as I’m dependent on what the car’s doing, I’m always looking to get the best out of me.

I’ve found a good little space working with a few people away from the track, which is really helping me. My trainer Heath Meldrum does an awesome job and he gets what makes me click, and then the sports psychologist I’ve been seeing for a long time, Anthony Klarica, he’s worked with people like Jamie (Whincup), Garth (Tander), Will Davo, (David) Reynolds, the Hawthorn footy club, Olympians and all these different athletes. I’ve worked with him for a long, long time and we’ve found a good little rhythm. So to me it’s something that’s been building. People on the outside can’t see it, but it’s definitely been coming – creeping up on it and putting strategies in place – and finally we had a smooth weekend where everything rolled out well and the team did a mega job. My main job was to make sure I didn’t make mistakes and steer the ship, so it was good. g

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This year the goals have moved again.

At the start of the year, myself, Brad and my engineer Andrew Edwards increased our aims to make more podiums.

Obviously, easier said than done, but like I said, we saw very positive things in what all the engineers came up with in terms of a philosophy and what we ran in Sladey’s car at the finale end of last year saw him on the podium. We had a strong Adelaide and now a race win with that philosophy of set up, so it’s certainly trending the right way. We’re going back to SMP, but it’s not like I expect now to win. We have to work as hard as ever. The expectation for me hasn’t changed. I just want to be inside that top six in each race, which would be a successful weekend for us.

And when you are in that top six, that’s when your podiums do come because you’re consistently bashing on the door of being in there in that lead group.

I definitely think we’ve made a step forward, but how big that step is, we’re still to really find out. I would’ve loved to have gone to Winton because that’s been a struggle for us the last few years and we could’ve seen how much we have improved. I don’t expect to go back to SMP and win, but I want to be inside that top six so that of the opportunity arises, we can actually capitalise on it. That’s the big thing for us.

Percat splashed to an upset victory in the shambolic Sunday race of the 2016 Adelaide 500, scoring serial struggler LDM’s only success.

What about you, Nick? Since cowinning Bathurst in 2011, it’s been a struggle. Are you kind of a ‘Lost Boy’ in Supercars?

Oh, yeah. The Walkinshaw time and how that ended was pretty rough. How long they took to put me into the main series (2014) I think was wrong, especially when you look at how Scotty (McLaughlin) and Chaz (Mostert) got moved forward quite quickly (in 2013). It’s the first time I’ve said this to someone where it’s going into print, but that really frustrated me in those years. And then when I finally did get my chance in the main series, I didn’t really get a proper shot (in fourth WR entry). I started off a bit shaky in 2014 because I’d been driving a Porsche (in the Carrera Cup) for the previous 12 months, but to go on and score two podiums as a rookie and score more points than either James Courtney and Garth Tander in the back half of the season, and then get sacked was extremely rude, to be honest. So that was definitely a bump in the road. After that, I went to LDM with the help of Lucas (Dumbrell) and (then Holden Motorsport manager) Simon McNamara to make sure I stayed in a car for the whole season. A lot of people told me going to LDM was a silly idea, that I should’ve stayed with Walkinshaw and just do the enduros. But I think if I’d done that, I would have disappeared off the radar. I still had another couple of frustrating years, especially compared with Scotty and Chaz, who I’d battled with in Super2 (in the famous Class of 2012). They then had a few years of really good consistency with teams in the main series. Their teams (GRM and Tickford, respectively) backed them hard and they got really good results.

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‘Perdog’ has thrived at BJR since 2017, responding to Brad Jones’s faith and support to become calmer and more controlled. Below, he escaped this fiery pit stop incident at Townsville in 2019.

Walkinshaw backed me kind of, but never really went fully in on it even after I got some good results. It was a tough pill to swallow and I got very frustrated.

I’d gone from a big team with a good budget to LDM, which was probably running on a budget similar to my DVS program. It was frustrating because I’d always been in a situation where I’d won races – dominated Formula Ford (in 2009) against some pretty big names, walked into Super2 and had pretty quick success. In 2012, I was in the title fight with two blokes who are now superstars (McLaughlin and Mostert) – and I had the most pole positions and race wins of the three of us. [They tied on round wins with two each, with McLaughlin taking the

series prize from Scott Pye, Mostert and Percat. All but Percat were promoted to the main game in ’13.] I jumped into the Carrera Cup with no testing and scored poles and wins (finishing second in the series). I guess I feel like I got the short straw in how I was rated because it was pretty rude that across three different cars in four years, I was winning in them all and still not getting the same respect that Scotty and Chaz did.

You’d never give it up or regret it, but do you wonder if you maybe won Bathurst too early?

I do laugh about that sometimes. You know, I may have used up all my luck in

that one race! But I don’t think you can win that race too early. I think the level of Super2 in that period was extremely high, so I don’t think there can be any question marks. And it’s not as if I’ve been a slouch around the joint since then. I’ve had more podiums at Bathurst than anyone except Lowndesy in recent years (thirds in 2014 and ’16). I’ll never have any regrets about winning that race – how could you? Just the way it went since then hasn’t worked out. Getting into Supercars late compared with people I was racing against and then getting the arse from Walkinshaw when you’ve outperformed dudes who were on a million bucks (high-priced Courtney and Tander at HRT in ’17) was pretty average.

And the way that was handled was pretty average, so I actually owe a lot to Lucas Dumbrell, Simon McNamara and my manager at the time, James Henderson.

They saved the day there because I think that was the point where I could’ve just given up. But we dug deep and Lucas did what he said he was going to do with me.

My deal with Brad was first spoken about when he saw the announcement that I was going to LDM. He rang me and said “Let me know when you’re out of contract because we’ll be interested”. So here we are a few years later, enjoying life at BJR. I’ve never had a problem with you at all, but back in the day, there was the suggestion that after winning Bathurst, you had an attitude. People used to refer to you as ‘Mini Garth’…

Oh, yeah, that was exactly right, 100 per cent. I admit that. I trained with Garth every day, I saw him every day at the workshop, I drove with him. You pick up mannerisms and ways that you think you should go about things from someone you look up to. Garth was a pretty hotheaded sort of bloke…

A hard nut.

Yeah, exactly. That’s what makes him who he is. I just got moulded into a similar attitude without really realising. Also, Walkinshaw wasn’t an easy place to be at

It’s been a long road back from winning the Bathurst 1000 on debut in 2011 with veteran Garth Tander, who had a profound – and not entirely positive – influence on Percat. He was labelled ‘Mini Garth’ for his inflated attitude. His faithful companion Nelson (below) has helped soften Nick’s image. and it felt like that was the way you had to be. Even to this day I admit that I never actually felt comfortable walking into that workshop. I’d been contracted to them since 2007 and it was a pretty interesting environment. I moved from Adelaide to Melbourne by myself in 2007. I just packed up what I had – some clothes and a PlayStation – and joined a pretty full-on race team in a new city at a very young age (18). I couldn’t imagine you could put anyone into that environment at such a young age without them naturally being influenced by an established driver. It’s not surprising that you end up with an attitude or a particular view on how things work. Once I left there, I think it was JC who used to laugh at me and say I’d been a c**t like Garth. We still joke about it. I have no regrets about it or think anything bad about Garth. We’re really good friends and he taught me so much. The driving style I have now is because of what he showed me and the help he gave me.

But I admit I was difficult, which is why in 2017 I changed my approach and removed a few things from my life that probably were a bad influence. Honestly, it’s taken three-and-half years to try to turn that around.

But the point is, you’re not that person anymore, are you?

No. And at Sydney Motorsport Park, during and after the event, everyone in the pit lane was so positive. And I think Brad has seen me transforming for a few years now. When I got to BJR, I was still angry and frustrated that I did two years in a team that was in the back group of cars and racing where you shouldn’t be.

So I was still frustrated and it took until that crash at Bathurst in 2017 to realise I had to make some big changes in my life. But it’s hard to alter perceptions. It’s

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taken a good three years of work behind the scenes every week to change that view. It’s slowly changing. There are still people that dislike me, which is fine, but I’m definitely a different person now.

If you listened to my radio during the races, it’s a lot different to what it was three years ago. I think that’s why Brad has a lot of respect for me because I sat in his office and he was like “Mate, I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to turn down my deal, even though it’s a three-year deal, but I’m doing this and this and this to try to fix it” and that’s what happend. He respects the fact that I trusted him and also that I recognised I had an attitude problem and not only undertook to change, but actually acted on it. That’s what Brad was impressed with, that I wasn’t stuck up my own arse.

My image is changing slowly, but I think the race team has seen it way more than the public.

No one’s ever doubted your talent or speed, so with this change of attitude, when some big drives start coming up in the next few years, would you expect to be in the frame?

Yeah. I’d say in the past few years in a row my phone has rung and it has been a US number, so it’s not like there’s been no interest. You back your own ability and you don’t win big races and championships as a young driver if you’re no good. There were chats with WAU before Chaz went there to go back, but at the end of the day, I appreciate so much what Brad and the team have done for me, and then the work I’ve done to make sure I’m doing the best job for them. I want BJR to win. I prefer to drive for Brad and get the results for him than rock up into a car that’s already an established winner. Yeah, it could be a faster car, but I enjoy working with Brad.

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He has the same morals as me and he backs me as a driver. The Walkinshaw group backed me in initially, but then they didn’t try to save the day for me in 2015. They’d already done a deal with Charlie (Schwerkolt) before they told me.

So why would you go back to some of those people? That’s where the whole thing’s changed. I enjoy being around positive people – those who share the same outlook on life and enjoy what they do. That doesn’t mean we can’t do the job. It just takes a bit longer to get the pieces in place because we don’t have the structure of a Penske with unlimited budget and engineers and simulators and stuff overseas. We have to figure out the problems ourselves and make it happen. It makes it much more satisfying when we do succeed.

You mentioned Nelson, your sidekick, who you’ve taken on the road with you.

He goes everywhere with me. Having him with me during the Eseries was probably a blessing in disguise. As we discussed, there was this lingering g “Nick’s an arsehole” kind of thing, but then they saw live Twitch feeds where it’s just me doing my thing with Nelson in the background. It changed how people see me. I get branded as the guy who whinges a lot, but the live Twitches showed that it’s the other guys who whinge and I’m probably the one who’s a bit more relaxed. So it was actually a blessing in disguise having Nelson on board. He’s an important part of my little clique. There are strategic reasons why there are pictures of him in my race car. He’s really like the assist dog because he keeps me calm and happy, which is why he’s with me in this COVID time.

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Well, he shows a softer side to you.

Exactly. It’s been really cool because everyone loves him and he’s so welcome everywhere. It’s handy. And he loves the life. He travels the country, so he’s doing a bit more than most people, let alone dogs.

So, Nick, given the chance, can you be a superstar in Supercars?

I think given the chance, absolutely. I’ve done a lot of work and it’s taken years and years to try to start breaking down this reputation that I have. Once people start to realise more and more who I am now, and the more the media can show that and the general public see that, the more it will help me. And then the good work that Brad and everyone at BJR is doing, if that continues – and I don’t see why it can’t – there’s no reason why we can’t start to get a bit of a pep in our step and people take more notice so I become more of a name in the category.

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UNDER THE SKIN

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT3

BRITISH BULLDOG

This Aston Martin is vastly different to the one driven by the man who likes his Martini shaken but not stirred, as HEATH McALPINE discovers.

IMAGES: Insyde Media/R-Motorsport

ONE OF the stalwarts of GT3 racing is Aston Martin.

Since the formula began in 2006, there have been three representations from Britain’s favourite GT marque, each built and developed by Prodrive in Banbury, Oxfordshire (UK).

Each of these has also raced on Australian shores, kicking off with the original DBRS9 GT3, which competed for the first time down under during the 2007 Australian GT Championship, with Melbourne businessman John Kaias behind the wheel.

That original model featured a 6.0-litre naturally aspirated V12, front and double wishbone suspension, Koni dampers, and a Xtrac six-speed close-ratio gearbox that gave the driver a choice between a fully manual or sequential set-up.

In 2012, that model was superseded by the V12 Vantage GT3, which continued the success of the previous model. Changes included an updated sleeker body, repositioning the engine further back to optimise the weight distribution, the addition of paddleshifts, plus the improvement of ABS and traction control systems.

On local shores, Tony Quinn was two-time Australian GT Championship runner up in this model, while George and Andrew Miedecke took an Australian Endurance Championship win at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Overseas, Aston Martin isn’t as strongly

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represented as fellow GT3 manufacturers Audi, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, but Swiss team R-Motorsport is a key representative of the marque across the world.

Headed by Dr Florian Kalmeger and Andreas Baenziger, the team’s origins can be found within the walls of the British marque’s sole Swiss dealership, and the downturn of the Euro versus the Swiss Franc at the time required the pair to figure out a strategy to increase sales.

“The strategy is three pillars and has been until today,” said Dr Kalmeger.

“One of which was motor racing, another was focusing on the customer, the final was sell special cars. The racing was very focused on a GT4 team, which Andreas [Baenziger] and I ran at the Nurburgring. We then did the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2013, 2015 and 2017, so it’s been quite a journey around The Mountain.”

The rise of the team has been rapid, as has the relationship growth with Aston Martin.

R-Motorsport has since gone on to represent the British manufacturer in various GT events around the world, including Bathurst and Kyalami.

A major step up for R-Motorsport occurred last year when it entered the DTM with four Aston Martin Vantages in a joint collaboration with HWA. However, the program was ended at the start of this year after a tough maiden season competing alongside the established

Audi and BMW teams.

“We started to go into Pro categories and that escalated the program quite quickly, fortunately,” Dr Kalmeger reflected.

“Good drivers, good team, good people behind the scenes, and we had a big success last year at the Mountain where we put the car on pole and finished second in the race.

“It’s been a great journey.”

Last year’s Bathurst 12 Hour event was where R-Motorsport and in particular driver Jake Dennis rose to prominence, when he spectacularly took pole (although it was later taken away for a technical infringement), before finishing second after a late-race pass

by Matt Campbell snatched the victory.

The race signalled the swansong for the fan favourite V12 Vantage, which had one of the best exhaust notes in world motor sport.

Announced in 2017, the replacement for the V12 Vantage was announced with Aston Martin confirming that powerplant would not be retained and instead replaced by an AMGsourced, twin-turbocharged V8 engine.

Not only was the engine a major change, but the new exterior design of the road car transformed the Vantage’s aerodynamics and provided an aggressive appearance to the polite styling of the previous V12 model.

For the design of the race version, many

components are carried over from the manufacturer’s GTE beast, which battles for wins in races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is a similar trait that features across many GT3 brands, namely Ferrari with its 488 interchangeable between the two configurations.

So too is the Vantage.

Aston Martin Racing is believed to have completed the transformation from GT3 to GTE specification in just under three hours, enabling it to test both configurations in the same day!

However, a more realistic aim for this is for it to occur overnight.

Just as R-Motorsport gave the old V12 its swansong in the 2019, it was one of two teams that debuted the new Vantage GT3 at Bathurst earlier this year, though luck deserted the team there.

An all-star line-up headlined by IndyCar star Scott Dixon and two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Rick Kelly joined Dennis in the lead entry, while backing up were Luca Ghiotto, Marvin Kirchoffer and Ollie Caldwell.

The second Vantage GT3 never made the

Dr Florian Kalmegeer is a co-owner and heads up the R-Motorsport team (left). Although the road car is front-engined, the turbocharged V8 powerplant sits well back in the latest Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (right). race start after Kirchoffer suffered a spectacular barrel roll across the top of Mount Panorama during qualifying, while a damaged splitter during the early morning stint forced the lead entry to lose five laps on its way to 16th.

Leading the engineering for the team was Australian Nathan McCall.

Having previously worked with a variety of Supercars teams including Kelly Racing, McCall headed overseas and joined British prototype team JOTA Sport in its LMP2 campaign.

A move into GT racing occurred when JOTA Sport, Arden Motorsport and R-Motorsport collaborated together on a Blancpain Endurance Series program in 2018, using the previous V12 Vantage GT3 model.

McCall has continued his work as an engineer with the R-Motorsport squad into the new Vantage GT3 program. However, much of the knowledge he had gained with the old model

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became redundant once the new version arrived at the team’s Swiss base.

“The car is completely new from the ground up, there are no carry over parts at all,” McCall emphasised.

“It’s a rarity these days in motor sport, it’s a completely clean slate and a different philosophy as well. The car’s a lot more aero-based to try and pick up the cornering speed. The old car had a V12 and now Aston Martin have gone to the turbocharged V8.

“It’s a completely new package.”

Although the block for the 4.0-litre twinturbocharged V8 is AMG-sourced, the other main components have been developed at Prodrive to suit the new model's performance needs thanks to its improved aerodynamics.

“Aston Martin Racing did its own intake, its own turbo system, the exhaust system is bespoke for this car and then the internals

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UNDER THE SKIN

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT3

Aston's Vantage GT3 racer comes equipped with all the ephemera of endurance racing (above left), the rollcage is a Prodrive design (above) and FIA tested, and the cockpit all business (right). in the engine, AMR has changed the tune to what it wanted,” McCall explained. “It is based on what’s in the road car as part of the GT3 regulations, but Aston Martin has put its DNA into it."

Unique components include two Borg Warner turbos that feature integrated electric wastegates, a dry sump lubrication system, repositioning of the engine so the weight split is 50:50, while power is around the 400kW mark and torque 700Nm. “Different engine shops have different ideas of what each wants to do. It’s pretty similar to Supercars where you see lots of different engine manufacturers. That’s what makes it interesting too, everyone running the same kit in GT3 would make the racing very boring.”

Add to this GT3 is based around a Balance of Performance formula, so engines are subjected to air and boost restrictions, plus weight, to ensure the wide range of configurations that compete under the regulations compete evenly.

Power from the engine is directed through a six-speed Xtrac sequential transmission with semi-automatic paddleshift, while an Alcon multi-plate clutch and a mechanical limited slip diff with externally adjustable preload is a new addition. The settings for the diff are controlled by its homologation papers.

“It’s an Xtrac gearbox and actually has some similar DNA to the similar unit used in Le Mans racing,” McCall remarked.

“This gearbox had a very specific weight saving program for it, it has been designed specifically for GT endurance racing. Components in the car have been moved to be able to get the engine lower, so the input for the gearbox is lower to

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suit that configuration.

“The car itself shares a lot of similarities with the GTE version from a reliability point of view, and several items featured in the GT3 are specifically built for Le Mans 24 Hour racing, which suits us for Spa.” Ohlins provide the four-way adjustable dampers for each corner, which feature the normal bump and rebound settings on high speed sections and blow off for kerb riding.

This is partnered with a double wishbone front and rear suspension system with optimised geometry. The anti-roll bar is blade adjustable but is only a single bar, so settings are limited.

“We have a range of springs and the normal toe and camber adjustments that you can do,” added McCall.

Alcon has replaced Brembo as the manufacturer’s chosen brake partner, and brings with it an increase in stopping power. Six-piston calipers are fitted to the front and four-piston to the rear, joined by a Bosch ABS system developed specifically for circuit racing.

“We’ve spent some time with Bosch developing and trying to make the car balance very good, which improves the braking quite substantially,” McCall explained. “It’s a very, very complicated system, but it improves the performance a lot.”

A new development with the brakes is the quick interchangeability of the rotors and calipers, which is particularly useful when it comes to long endurance events.

“Typically for a 12 Hour race we will run one set of brakes all round, (but) for the Spa 24 we will change the fronts, both disc and pad,” McCall said.

“The system is a good step forward

from the old car, there’s a quick release bridge, the brake discs are on a quick release system, similar to the Supercars.

It is an area of freedom that we are given to develop and is similar to the Supercars where you can change the whole caliper in an endurance race.”

"In GT3, we work to a bible, the homologation book, there’s lots of items in there that restrict what we can and can’t do, which tends to make the racing close on-track, and so the teams are not spending money on the whizzes and gadgets."

The bodyshell is constructed out of lightweight aluminium based off the road-car and features a bolt-in Prodrivedesigned roll cage to the homologation specs of the Vantage GT3. The steel cage also meets the latest FIA safety standards and has passed through the rigorous tests placed on it by the governing body.

Inside, the ergonomics of the Vantage GT3 enable every control to be at the driver’s finger tips.

A bespoke steering wheel featuring multi-function switches and buttons is also at the driver’s disposal. A New Zealand-sourced Racetech seat and Sabelt six-point safety harness secure the driver within the interior, as do safety nets covering the window and seat.

A drink bottle, radio and ice box for cool suits are also installed in the cabin for long distance events.

The carbon fibre dash houses a Cosworth dash, incorporating shift lights and doubling as a logging unit, which is customisable.

A point-to-point 3G telemetry system is used based from the garage rather than being network based, which is an advantage when testing at a circuit with

no mobile phone coverage.

Traction control is used across the board in GT3, and the Aston Martin’s is quite sophisticated but is usable for customers representing a wide range of experience and skill.

“The traction control system has been tried and tested by gentleman drivers,” McCall told Auto Action. “Whenever we test a system like ABS and traction control, and make improvements, Aston Martin puts an emphasis on customers.

“Bronze and Silver drivers test the car to make sure it is compatible with everybody, not just the Platinum racing drivers.”

Chrontec pneumatic jacks are found on each corner of the Vantage GT3 and have a special feature to eradicate a driver mistakenly switching the engine on during a pit stop.

“The system has a quick start so when the air jack pressure is released, the engine can start. It’s a safety system because in the pit stops we do, the engine has to be stopped. So when the car is in the air we can’t start it, can’t crank it,” McCall explained.

“When the guys are finished working on the car and the spike is pulled, the car can then start.”

Computational fluid dynamics was used

by Prodrive to design the latest aero kit for the Vantage GT3, although many of the same design cues can be found on the GTE version and was also wind tunnel tested by the FIA to make sure it conforms to the GT3 regulations.

“It’s an interesting one with aero because the internal components are GTE-based, but these components are a little different to the GT3 aero packages that can be run,” McCall said.

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT3 ENGINE

Four-litre V8 Twin Turbo. Bespoke Borg Warner turbos with integrated electric wastegates, dry sump lubrication system, engine repositioned to optimise mass distribution Power: 400 kW (Variable by boost) Torque: 700 Nm

TRANSMISSION

Rear wheel drive with traction control, Xtrac six speed sequential transmission, Alcon motorsport multiplate clutch, mechanical limited-slip differential with externally adjustable preload, semi-automatic paddle shift gear change, direct acting electric gear shift actuator, carbon fibre propshaft

CHASSIS

Lightweight aluminium chassis based on the latest Vantage production car, steel roll cage to FIA safety standards, high speed pneumatic jack system

STEERING

Power assisted steering, quick release carbon fibre steering wheel

SUSPENSION

V12 TO TURBO POWER

R-MOTORSPORT’S JAKE Dennis emerged as a star at last year’s Bathurst 12 Hour in the old V12 Vantage GT3, where he set The Mountain alight on his way to pole.

A technical breach excluded him from those results and lost him the Allan Simonsen Trophy for pole, but he made it up on race day. Despite the thirsty V12 compromising the team’s strategy, Dennis and co-drivers Marvin Kirchhofer and Matthieu Vaxiviere were in the lead at the last safety car, though ultimately the Aston was unable to hold off a hard-charging Matt Campbell.

A season in DTM mixed with some GT events followed for Dennis, where he ran the new Vantage GT3 all season in Europe.

“It’s a completely different philosophy with this new car. The biggest overall change is the amount of downforce we’ve got,” Dennis told Auto Action. “The old car was very much slippery in a straight line and struggled a little bit in the corners, but this new car is a lot quicker in the corners and less slippery down the straights.

“It’s just the way the generation is at the moment, the new car “It’s a bit more of an efficient package, the wings are smaller, it’s limited to how big the diffuser can be, but this car has been made to the limit of the GT3 regulations.”

The smoothed nose and pumped guards also provide vents that cool the large brakes, while a swan-neck spoiler with large diffuser complete the highly aero efficient kit.

In terms of servicing and parts life, McCall told Auto Action that it was much improved compared to the old V12 and could easily do a 24-hour race, if not more!

R-Motorsport also need to make sure both of its entries adhere to the homologation book.

“The GT3 homologation book is 140 pages featuring images, drawings and all the information

is insane. It looks incredible.”

Although the reliability and fuel economy has improved, the new Vantage GT3 has been a harder beast to set up.

“Generally, it’s been quite difficult at the moment. We have been struggling to find the perfect window for it to really perform. We’ve had it once or twice last year where we had it in a really sweet window and it has performed great, but there’s been some other tracks where we have struggled,” he recalled.

With the Borg Warner twin-turbos bolted on, the heat is another drawback and afflicts most of the GT3 field, though this is counter-balanced by the far superior fuel economy, enabling better overall results.

“I think everyone loved the sound of the V12 last year, it sounded incredible. Though the sound (of the new car) isn’t as good, the reliability is incredible, (and) the fuel consumption is so much better for us,” Dennis enthused.

“To race the car is a lot easier, we have a lot better strategy due to the better fuel consumption.”

on the engine, crankshaft, valves, ports, it’s all very detailed,” McCall described. “In one way it’s good because it keeps the racing close and the teams honest, but it’s very tricky for the teams because the cars are set-up to that all the time.”

Is this the ultimate GT3 car on the market today? It’d be pretty close.

The rapidness of development in GT3 competition has been intriguing and Aston Martin’s journey has gradually delivered a model in the Vantage GT3 that is now pure race car rather than a road version made for the track.

It also confirms that GT3 machines are now much more than for gentlemen racers, 14 years after the formation of the category.

Optimised geometry double wishbone suspension front and rear, Ohlins 4-way adjustable dampers, adjustable anti-roll bars

FUEL SYSTEM

120-litre fuel cell to FIA safety standards, single point Krontec fuel coupling

COCKPIT

Optimised for driver access and visibility, FIA 8862 safety seat, six-point safety harness, carbon fibre dash, FIA 8865 fire extinguisher system, driver display and shift lights

TYRES

Michelin 30/68 – 18 front, forged aluminium 12.5” x 18” front Michelin 31/71 – 18 rear, forged aluminium 13.0” x 18” rear Captive wheel nut design

WEIGHT

Dry weight: 1320kg (regulated base weight) Length: 4385mm Width: 1865mm Wheelbase: 2600mm

JONES WINS AS LIGIERS FALTER

The Ligiers may have dominated the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, but it was Alan Jones that reigned supreme after the French machines encountered tyre trauma DAN McCARTHY details.

IT WAS redemption day for Alan Jones, after he was robbed of a British Grand Prix victory one year earlier by a mechanical failure.

Racing to the win in the British Grand Pirx at Brands Hatch in 1980 gave Jones a ‘hat trick’ of wins (including the non-championship Spanish Grand Prix) in the all-conquering Williams, as the slightly faster Ligiers fell by the wayside.

Since the French Grand Prix, Formula 1 had lost a team with the Shadow operation now consigned to history. For Jones that was a little bit of history, as it was the team he had taken his first Formula 1 victory with at the Osterreichring, Austria, in 1977.

The grid remained at 27-cars though, as RAM Racing entered two 1979 model Williams FW07s for Rupert Keegan and South African female racer Desire Wilson.

Another change was at the frontrunning Brabham team. Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet may have been fighting for the title, but Argentine teammate Ricardo Zunino had failed to score in the races so far, forcing the team to replace him with Mexican Hector Rebaque.

From the moment of the opening practice session on the tight and twisty Brands Hatch Grand Prix layout, the entries to beat were the Ligiers and Williams pairings.

It was the Ligiers that held the upper hand initially when Didier Pironi and Jacques Laffite locked out the front

36 AutoAction

Alan Jones celebrates the British Grand Prix victory denied to him 12 months earlier.

row, the pair split by a mere 0.39s.

Jones in third missed by 0.03s to break Ligier’s monopoly, while teammate Carlos Reutemann lined up alongside him.

Piquet started off the third row with Bruno Giacomelli (Alfa Romeo) alongside, then Alain Prost (McLaren), Patrick Depailler (Alfa Romeo), Mario Andretti (Lotus) and Derek Daly (Tyrell) followed to round out the top 10.

Just like at Monaco Renault struggled, leaving Jean-Pierre Jabouille in a lowly 13th and title contender Arnoux 16th after a qualifying accident.

Ferrari was in an even worse position, with Gilles Villeneuve 19th and reigning champion Jody Scheckter only just qualifying for the race in 23rd.

Despite being outclassed in qualifying, the Williams machines appeared fast throughout race runs during practice and were expected to be a threat during the 76-lap affair.

Under overcast skies, the race began with polesitter Pironi making a textbook start while behind Laffite was forced to defend heavily from the faststarting Jones, who had a big look up the inside on the approach to Paddock Hill Bend, before electing to back out the move.

Up the hill and into Druids, Laffite again had to block Jones, which was a regular sight throughout the opening lap as the Australian placed fierce pressure on the Frenchman.

1980 British Grand Prix – Brands Hatch

The Ligiers were quickest again and led the race for some time, until tyre problems cost them any chance of victory. The Williams’ duo were next best on pace, with Jones winning and Reutemann third after Nelson Piquet (below) got the better of the Argentine in his Brabham.

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NC Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ

Driver Constructor Alan Jones Williams Nelson Piquet Brabham Carlos Reutemann Williams Derek Daly Tyrrell Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell Alain Prost McLaren Hector Rebaque Brabham John Watson McLaren Riccardo Patrese Arrows Jody Scheckter Ferrari Rupert Keegan Williams Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi Jochen Mass Arrows Rene Arnoux Renault Didier Pironi Ligier Marc Surer ATS Mario Andretti Lotus Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Jacques Laffite Ligier Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo Eddie Cheever Osella Elio de Angelis Lotus Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault Jan Lammers Ensign Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi Desire Wilson Williams

Drivers’ Standings

Piquet was also forcing Reutemann to defend and coming out of Graham Hill Bend, he snatched fourth place.

The shenanigans behind only helped Pironi build a significant 2s advantage at the conclusion of the opening lap, while Laffite continued to handle the Jones pressure.

Again, into Druids on lap 2, Laffite made a defensive move to keep Jones at bay as Piquet ranged onto the back of the Williams.

This was the opportunity that Laffite needed and he was quick to create a gap as Jones transitioned from being the hunter to the hunted. The Brazilian continued to hound Jones lap after lap, but was never able to get close enough to make any kind of manoeuvre.

At the end of lap 14, Pironi led by 3s from Laffite, who himself had now built an 8s lead back to Jones and Piquet.

The following lap Prost pitted for fresh front tyres and a couple of laps later Giacomelli also entered the lane for new fronts.

Tyres were clearly an issue as just moments later race leader Pironi picked up a front-left puncture and was forced to limp back to pit lane. A very slow 50s pit stop did not help matters and dropped the Frenchman into last place.

This left Laffite in the lead with an 8.6s lead over Jones with Piquet beginning to drop off the rear of the Williams, while Reutemann was fourth.

On lap 29, puffs of smoke began to depart the left rear tyre of Laffite’s Ligier, but the Frenchman elected to stay out and push on, to his own detriment.

Two laps later, on the approach to Hawthorns, the tyre let go, Laffite spun off the circuit through the catch fencing and into the tyre wall.

BBC guest commentator and three-time F1 World Champion Jackie Stewart was shocked that Laffite did not pit.

“Jacques should have felt that, he should have known better, as a driver I have to

interpret it in that fashion, it had been happening for two or three laps,” Stewart said.

Laffite expressed his view after the race, saying that it was simply motor racing.

“Racing is like that,” he said. “Since the beginning of the year I’ve had a wonderful car and several fine chances of winning, but here again I have nothing.”

Laffite’s departure left Jones out front on lap 32 with 2.8s over Piquet, Reutemann was third from Daly, Andretti and Jean-Pierre Jarier (Tyrell).

After his tyre stop Giacomelli scythed through the field and sat eighth before spinning out of the race altogether on lap 42.

As the end of the race neared, 1978 World Champion Andretti was forced into retirement with a gearbox issue and thus remained scoreless for the 1980 season so far.

Pironi fought back gallantly, recovering to fifth before he suffered another puncture, which this time forced the dejected Ligier driver into retirement on lap 64.

Out front Jones had no such trouble and took the win by 11s.

“This is the most fantastic day I have ever experienced, I always wanted to win this race more than any other because Britain has become my adopted home,” he explained.

“My car ran perfectly but I was a bit worried about a black mark that appeared on the near side front tyre near the end. I think the tyre was getting quite hot and I had to nurse the car a bit.”

Piquet finished the race second, only 2.2s ahead of Reutemann. Daly and Jarier made it a double point scoring finish for Tyrrell, while Prost recovered from his early pitstop to take the final point.

The ninth round of the 1980 season saw the Formula 1 circus head to the old flat-out Hockenheimring in Germany.

1.

2.

3. = 5.

6.

7.

8. = 10.

Alan Jones Nelson Piquet Didier Pironi Rene Arnoux Carlos Reutemann Jacques Laffite Riccardo Patrese Derek Daly Elio De Angelis Emerson Fittipaldi

37 31 23 23 20 16 7 6 6 5

Laps 76 76 76 75 75 75 74 74 73 73 73 72 69 67 63 59 57 42 35 30 27 17 16 4

Result 1h 34m 49.23s + 11.01s + 13.29s + 1 Lap + 1 Lap + 1 Lap + 2 Laps Engine + 3 Laps + 3 Laps + 3 Laps + 4 Laps + 7 Laps Not Classified Tyre Engine Gearbox Spun Off Engine Tyre Engine Suspension Suspension Engine

Grid 3 5 4 10 11 7 17 12 21 23 18 22 24 16 1 15 9 6 19 2 8 20 14 13

Constructors’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Williams Ligier Brabham Renault Arrows Tyrrell Fittipaldi McLaren Lotus Ferrari

57 39 31 23 11 10 9 7 6 5

Brands Hatch’s elevation changes and tight layout are in stark contrast to the flat environs of Silverstone, home of modern British Grand Prix races.

Didier Pironi was the class of the field until not one but two rounds of tyre trouble ended his chances. He remains third in the championship chase.

Alain Prost was another to suffer tyre problems but after a stop, the Frenchman brought his McLaren home in sixth.

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37

‘THE LAWMAN’

Motor sport is often considered a hobby for drivers who hold day jobs such as lawyers and CEOs but Jim Keogh broke that stereotype. As he recalled to HEATH McALPINE he raced seriously and as a result, led to him working with some of the great names in Australian motor racing.

IMAGES: AA Archive/Jim Keogh Collection/autopics.com.au

A FOOTY injury provided the excuse for Jim Keogh to pursue a lifelong dream of going motor racing, which his mother had knocked on the head in his senior years of schooling!

Now approaching 50 years since Keogh started his legal practice, the Victorian still retains the photos and books that track all aspects of his racing career until he stepped away from the sport at the end of 1989.

It was at a very young age that Keogh’s fascination with motor racing began, due to the influence of an uncle.

“From the time I was young, an uncle of mine used to bring me Racing Car News (magazine) and I remember him giving me one from 1956, which covered the Albert Park Grand Prix,” Jim Keogh explained.

“I remember Stirling Moss may have been on pole, Alan Jones’ dad Stan alongside, a couple of good drivers from England and this caught my imagination, so I always kept an interest in cars.”

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Keogh’s ambitions of becoming a racing driver were placed on the backburner while he completed school and his studies to become a lawyer, at his mother’s insistence.

March 21 1972 is an important date in Keogh’s life, as it was the day he opened his legal practice in the outer Melbourne suburb of Berwick, after getting married just three weeks before.

And although he had tinkered with cars since he was 13, his footy career took precedence, where he played as high as A Grade Amateurs for Old Paradians, before moving to local team Berwick where he was injured.

Many circumstances led to Keogh racing.

One was neighbouring business owner John Stoopman’s annual Bathurst trips, another was his football injury, and the final piece of the puzzle was an Ad that kept attracting his attention in Auto Action.

“I played a lot of footy and by the time I was 26, I was getting towards the end of my career,” Keogh told Auto Action.

Early days ... here Keogh (right) talks with long-time sponsor Don Mayes.

“I pulled my first ever hammy and thought “Bugger this I’m going to go motor racing”!

“Freddy [Gibson] had been advertising this XB Hardtop (the former works ‘test car’) in Auto Action for $8000, I’ll never forget it. It didn’t sound like a lot of money at the time.

“I thought ‘That was cheap’ and I went up to see Freddy. He test drove it at Oran Park and I bought it. I took it back on a trailer and thought ‘What do we do now?’”

First, Keogh had to complete his CAMS Licence test at Calder, though he failed the first time, as the ex-factory XB GT Ford Falcon coupe was an evil handling beast.

“I rocked out there [to Calder] for the

first time with my car on the back of an F500, rolled it off and went for my Licence,” Keogh said.

“I didn’t have a clue what it was about, but anyway they were good blokes out there, one of them told me what to do.

“I went out again (on another day) and got my Licence.”

Initially, Tasmanian Ray Allford helped with preparation and co-drove during

the long distance races, however it wasn’t until Keogh became involved with Graham Ritter that the XB GT really got going.

“I got a call from Graham Ritter who had been a very successful touring car driver, starting off in the Humpy Holdens,” Keogh recalled.

“He was selling a diff or something so I went over and had a chat with him at his workshop in Camberwell. That was the introduction that really got me going because at that point the car was a nightmare to drive. I couldn’t handle the understeer, I kept banging up the front guard on the exit of Repco at Sandown!

“I had grown up driving monster oversteering Ford Customlines, and had no problem with that, but understeer had me stumped!

“Graham took one look at it and set about revising the whole front-end geometry. He made half-inch, solid steel caliper mounting brackets and suddenly we had good straight-line braking.

“The way Graham had set-up the front suspension, the car suddenly started to turn in!”

Keogh made his first trip to Bathurst in 1977, partnered by Ritter. That was the year of the drawn VFL Grand Final, watched by the crew in the pits at Bathurst on a ‘huge’ black and white 26-inch television!

Engine problems were common in Group C machinery and despite changing an engine in 40-minutes, the Keogh/Ritter entry failed to cover

enough distance to be classified as a finisher.

At this time, Ritter built a Ford Capri Cologne Sports Sedan featuring a twinturbo engine, which had the potential to produce 1000hp at 30 bar of boost!

“It was a pretty scary device,” Keogh said.

“Graham was a very forward thinking, fantastic engineer. The problem was there were no electronic computer controls for turbo engines at all, so you had this huge lag and all sorts of control issues.

“Another problem with it was that the tailshaft (only about a metre long) was so out of balance that up the back straight at Sandown I used to get blurred vision. Secondly, it didn’t stop particularly well and thirdly the Formula

5000 suspension (out of the former John Cannon March) set-up didn’t work too well in a sports sedan, well at least not in the Capri!”

A move away from Ritter with his touring car program in 1978 failed to improve results, with overheating problems halting Keogh and Kiwi driver Grant Walker’s event.

In fact, Keogh shared the workshop space with Jim Richards, who at the time had recently moved across from New Zealand to hedge his bets in Australia.

Walker worked on both the XB GTs of Richards and Keogh, though the latter’s association ended when the year concluded.

Keogh elected to go it alone for 1979

Keogh was often in the thick of it in his former factory Falcon hardtop, seen here in typical aggressive style at Calder wearing the scars of battle ahead of the L34 Torana of Peter Janson. and with added sponsorship from large Melbourne Ford dealer Melfords, courtesy of co-driver John Mann, the renewed attack provided the highlight of his career to that point.

“I took the car to a private workshop where I rebuilt it, every nut and bolt,” Keogh enthused. “I did everything myself except for the diff centre, which was put together by Lenny Ash, and that was the first Ford to finish (Bathurst) in 1979.

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39

“We were ninth in class and first Ford to finish, I’m pretty proud of that.”

That result turned out to be the best Keogh had in a Ford, as what followed was a disappointing run of results which forced him to miss the 1982 event altogether due to running out of “money and inspiration”.

These elements returned in 1983, thanks to one big change.

“I made the best decision I ever made,” Keogh recalled.

“The Fords were so labour intensive, parts intensive and it was difficult to get technical help because there were fewer of them racing. Allan [Moffat] had the control of the factory and Murray [Carter] did his own thing.

“I thought with a Holden, because there were so many of them running and there were so many ex-Holden Dealer Team mechanics around, you could get onto some top line mechanics.

“John Harvey had crashed one of Peter Brock’s Commodores at Amaroo, it was the car that won Bathurst in 1980. It had been straightened out and it was just sitting as a shell on the workshop floor, so I bought it.

“We built it as a kit car. Ian Tate did my engines and they were fantastic, they were so reliable. I thought how long’s this been going on, because the 351 had to be rebuilt pretty much after every bloody race.

“We got Super Plus gearboxes supplying our transmissions, Lenny Ash did the diffs as usual, Ron Harrop did the suspension and brake setup, we bought Bilsteins from Baker Brothers, who were nocturnal, you’d have to go there after 7pm at night.

Also, Warren Mills from PBR was a great advisor on the brake hydraulics.

“We built a damn good car right out of the box.”

So good in fact, that it was one of the top Commodores in touring cars. It was successful in Keogh’s hands through rounds of the Amaroo Park-based AMSCAR series, and a frontrunner in the 500 at Sandown before a diff broke with Kiwi Leo Leonard at the wheel.

“One of my first races in it was at Sandown 1983. Leo Leonard came over from New Zealand, we were running third with about 10 laps to go,” Keogh recalled. “Leo was in the car, but unbeknownst to me, a pothole had developed just down at the bottom corner, Leo didn’t seem able to avoid it, and the diff broke.

“It was the first time I’d run 13s at Sandown “This car was pretty fast and during the race Ron Harrop (who was codriving with Warren Cullen) said ‘Geez you’re going alright’ and he added, ‘A bit too good I think’. He was worried that he’d supplied all the good parts to us!

“That was a good car.”

40 AutoAction

At Bathurst, the build up was frantic after an incident during Friday practice for Keogh at Murray’s Corner, which forced the crew to work overnight.

The Commodore was repaired and had a spectacular run on race day to give Keogh his best Bathurst result.

“I made a blue in practice on the Friday and went off at the end of Conrod Straight,” Keogh explained.

“It had a pretty big impact as it went off the grass down onto the track; you could see it on the TV, the car really got bent badly underneath.

“Anyway, we fixed it with massive help from the TAFE Team, and put a fresh engine in it. We worked overnight Friday to get it on track by 4pm Saturday to qualify. The steering was locking over the top, we’d bent the rack obviously, so you had to lift off and floor it get the tail out to get it around through Reid Park.”

A lack of brakes caused by defective fluid supplied by a sponsor (to a number of teams) also hampered Keogh and Leonard throughout the race, though both were able to fight through to finish sixth, though it would have been fifth if not for a (then manual) lap score error.

An ambitious two-car attack on The Great Race followed with Wayne Clift bringing support from the NT Government, while a relationship developed during the AMSCAR Series between Keogh and Terry Shiel, leading to the pair joining forces in 1984.

“Terry was a super driver, he and I got to really respect each other during that AMSCAR Series,” Keogh surmised.

Problems arose for the lead car during the Bathurst race, leaving the duo to jump across into the Commodore shared by Clift and Bernie Stack, although the latter didn’t drive.

The second car finished 19th.

Then there was a new dawn with the advent of Group A and for Keogh there was only one car that stood out.

“I’d been eyeing off the BMWs. The ex-JPS 635 had already gone into another bloke’s hands and I bought it off him,” Keogh said.

“I painted it in the factory maroon Burgenrot colour, with chrome

Victorian regional racer John Mann (above) brought Melfords support to race with ‘The Lawman’ in his two-door Fords. signwriting, and teamed with Garry Rogers to finish in sixth at Bathurst against the V8s.

“To run that well against the V8s showed how good (and reliable) those 635s were. They handled well and we got a great result. Garry was pretty happy to the point where he bought the ex-Bob Jane 635 to race in the touring car championship the next year.”

However, this wasn’t the first interaction between Rogers and Keogh. The two had been rivals out at Calder during the 10-lap touring car sprint events held there.

“He was very witty,” Keogh described Rogers.

“Garry and I were walking through the pits at Bathurst one day and he said ‘Jim Keogh, sponsored by his clients, unbeknown to them’.

“He was a great driver, Garry, we had some very close races out at Calder.

One day he won the first race in his A9X and I was in the Falcon. We used to have three 10 lap screamers out there, it was a great format, but I was up his arse everywhere and he used to drive it sideways. He was a bit prone to spinning and in the second race I was determined to not let him bloody beat me, so I pressured him closely for a few laps until he spun at Gloweave.

“I won the race and went over to shake his hand to say bad luck, he responded ‘Nah, you were too good’.”

The duo finished an impressive sixth at The Mountain in 1985, an equal best there for Keogh.

In 1986, mechanical woes were encountered by the team at Bathurst, this time with Des Wall as co-driver,

and the duo failed to finish.

The team’s luck didn’t improve in the Nissan-Mobil series in New Zealand where Keogh qualified 8th and was running strongly at Pukekohe, before a tangle with Gerald Kay put paid to a top 10 result. Co-driver Struan Robertson missed out on a drive.

“I was running sixth in the race at Pukekohe when I was about to lap a fella named Gerald Kay, and he didn’t know I was there, so he pushed me up on this high kerb in the esses,” Keogh recollected. “It broke the front strut.”

For 1987, Keogh and Trevor Crowe ran third at Amaroo in the Manufacturer’s Championship race in the NZ BMW M3. But later, sponsorship failed to come through so Kiwis John Sax and Ian ‘Inky’ Tulloch raced the M3 without Keogh at Bathurst.

Jim’s last run at Bathurst, in 1988, was a disappointing final attempt, co-driving with with Peter McLeod in the Yellow Pages Walkinshaw Commodore, as the car failed early in the race.

That concluded Jim’s Bathurst run of

Keogh moved from a series of Fords to building his own ‘kit car’ Holden Commodore, seen here at Bathurst (left). He says that racing the GM product was significantly easier for a racer who also had a ‘day job’. For 1984 Keogh teammed up with Wayne Clift (below) in a two car assault at Sandown (side by side below) and Bathurst.

more than a decade.

Keogh did keep his toe in the water by competing in a small BMW 325is in Production Cars, but he sold that at the end of 1989 and devoted more time to his business as the economy going through a recession.

Remaining part of the industry in an off-track role, Keogh has worked professionally as a lawyer with many racing identities including Alan Gow, Peter Brock, Allan Moffat and currently has James Courtney as one of his clients.

“When I got my first job out of motor racing I was thought

‘Shit, I’m starting to get a dollar out of motor racing for the first time’ it was unbelievable,” he laughed.

At Bathurst in 1987, Keogh was there to advise Brock and Gow through a deal that helped saved the star driver’s race team.

“I remember the Bathurst where he did the deal to put Peter’s name on the Lada Samaras, I did a fair bit of advising in the pits,” Keogh recalled.

“Alan Gow is a fantastic negotiator, and the deal was great for Peter.

He’s still my close mate.

“I don’t think they sold the 250 cars Peter authorised to bear his name and colours; I wonder if there are any Brock Lada Samaras still in existence?”

Married with four daughters, Keogh is content with his decision to step away from the sport as a driver, though he still harbours ambitions to hit the track at some point in one of his old Falcon Hardtops.

“I don’t lose sleep about it, but I do still have dreams about racing the XB again,” Keogh reflected.

Married with four daughters, Keogh is content with his decision to step away though he still harbours ambitions to hit the track at some point in one of his old Falcon Hardtops.

“I don’t lose sleep about it, but I still have dreams about racing the XB,” Keogh reflected.

After years racing Fords and then Holdens in touring cars, Keogh made a successful switch to BMWs, racing an ex-factory team 635 CSi (left).

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41

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Son of champion Australian Super Truck driver Rodney Crick, Cameron Crick is making a name in his own right. As he revealed to DAN McCARTHY, racing is in his blood CRICK IS a name synonymous with Australian motor sport and Cameron Crick is the latest generation of the famous family to pursue a racing career.

Despite father Rodney racking up six Australian Super Truck titles, the young Sydneysider tried his hand at a number of other fast-paced sports before turning his attention to motor racing.

“I grew up around motor racing because dad was obviously very successful with truck racing and he competed at Bathurst, but as a young kid I actually raced BMX and played footy before I went into go karts at 14,” he told Auto Action.

Despite his family heritage, Crick knew a jump straight into Super2 or 3 machinery was beyond his family’s budget, so a plan was devised for his ascendency through the ranks.

“I’ve always loved it [motor sport], (I) grew up around it, dad was lucky to have some good support with Shell, but we haven’t had bucket loads of money to throw at it as a family,” he said.

“It’s been a lot of hard work to do the

42 AutoAction

racing I’ve done over the last four or five years, with the money we have.

My dad’s name has (also) helped pave the way for me in the industry that’s for sure!”

Crick’s first move out of karts was into the popular Toyota 86 Racing Series, which came about through working at an indoor karting centre.

“Distant relatives of mine owned an indoor go karting place and I was working there as a track manager.

They made a commercial decision and thought it would be my good chance to step into it (car racing) and we built our own team, Ultimate Karting, and it went from there,” he told AA. For 2017 Crick jumped into the Sieders Racing camp, and after securing a partnership with Colin Hill Engineering, a year later the results came flooding in.

The 2018 season was his breakout year in 86s after grabbing five C Cameron Crick’s initial move from karts tto car racing came with participation in tthe Toyota 86 series. He claimed third in tthe 2018 title chase (left).

podiums on his way to third in the series.

“I did a lot of work with the Sieders Racing team through 2017 developing the right driving habits and getting the car right,” he explained.

“We changed cars for 2018, jumping on board with Colin Hill Engineering in partnership with Sieders, and we had a lot of podiums. Didn’t grab that win like we’d wanted but we got third overall and it was a really good year.”

After three years in Toyotas, Crick felt it was best to move on and elected to compete in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. After making occasional appearances there, Crick was offered a drive one of the Sieders Racing’s Mitsubishi Tritons in the SuperUte Series, an opportunity he took with both hands.

“The driving technique in the ute was very much like the 86 in my opinion,” Crick surmised. “Rotate the car early, brake early and get on the throttle as soon as you can, because you’re on the straights for a fair while in those lower horse powered cars.

“Whereas the Porsche was all about the aero, front grip and braking all the way into the corner. I knew I had it in me, but if you aren’t testing all the time, it makes it hard.”

With a round to go Crick elected to pull the pin on the GT3 Cup season for budgetary reasons, but was pleased to get support from family friend Alan Webber, father of nine-time F1 race winner Mark.

“I love the Porsche, the cars, the category and having Alan Webber in our corner with the relationship with

It all began in karts (left) before Cameron Crick moved from 86s to the GT3 Cup Challenge (above) but he struggled for budget, despite the support of Mark Webber’s father Alan. A move to Super Utes (top) proved successful on and off the track, before a switch this season to the rapidly growing Trans Am category (far left).

Mark and Porsche, it seemed like a really good fit,” Crick recalled.

“But at the end of the day it was just probably too much of a stretch for the sponsorship budget I had, and it’s hard to do that sort of category without the right sort of money.”

In the SuperUtes Crick excelled, taking six wins and beating the likes of multiple-time V8 Ute Series winner Ryal Harris. However, he narrowly missed out on taking his maiden national title to Tom Alexander.

Despite the backlash that the SuperUte category received, Crick feels it was good exposure for him personally.

“Commercially with the support we had in the ute last year, it was a really good thing for me,” he said.

“Regardless of what the category is, to get a pole at Bathurst, wins at Bathurst, Townsville and Newcastle, at the best Supercars rounds, is good.”

This year Crick, like a number of young drivers, made the move into the blossoming Australian Racing Group run Trans Am Series.

The 22-year-old feels that the muscle car series is a good step, due to its affordability and the popularity of the category.

“A V8 muscle car is what I can see myself in with my Crick name, and Greg Crick [no relation] opened that door by asking me to drive it,” he explained.

“Trans Am is going to be at all the ARG rounds and I really think with how affordable they are, it is exactly what the Australian fans are after I reckon.”

In his debut round racing the Dodge Challenger on the streets of Adelaide, Crick performed very strongly against the experienced campaigners such as Nathan Herne and Aaron Seton.

“I found the early braking and early

throttle of the corner suited me. I qualified third over in Adelaide and I didn’t set a good lap,” he admitted.

An incident in Race 1 dropped Crick down to 17th, however great speed enabled him to recover to sixth in Race 2 and third in the final encounter.

Due to the financial strains of COVID-19, the 22-year-old is unsure if he will be able to contest all the remaining rounds this season, while he builds up a budget for 2021.

“Hopefully we can still press on this year, but I think it’s going to be more of a salvage year. Whether we do all the rest of the Trans Am rounds or just a couple, we’ll play it by ear.”

For Crick the dream has always been to race in the Supercars Championship but as a realist, he knows this may not be possible financially.

“My career goal has always been Supercars. I would love to stand on the top step at Bathurst or just race door to door in the Supercars Championship,” Crick told AA. “I have got to be realistic. I look at guys like Ryal Harris, he’s raced for a long time professionally and made money out of. If it’s something like that, it would be great, but I’m working really hard.”

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43

The much lamented Oran Park is gone.

But as GARRY O’BRIEN discovers, there’s another track gaining momentum in Sydney’s west.

LUDDENHAM RACEWAY ALTHOUGH IT’S situated less than 60 kilometres from the Sydney CBD, Luddenham Raceway is very unlikely to suffer the fate of some of the iconic circuits of the past in the Sydney region.

That’s because the complex is actually one of the newest in the country and it is located such that it is in no danger of being turned into suburbia – which is what happened to the likes of Mt Druitt, Warwick Farm, Amaroo Park and Oran Park.

The precinct that houses the Luddenham Park 1.4 kilometre car and motorcycle circuit, two go kart tracks and Paintball Park, was officially opening in late 2018, by the now retired radio broadcaster Alan Jones. It’s located in what will predominantly be a commercial area in close proximity to the under-construction Western Sydney International Airport.

The project started in 2013 and initially comprised a 280m children’s Rookie Circuit go-kart track, a 600m Pro Circuit next to it, and the Paintball facility – ideal if you want to combine some racing and combat action on the same day!

Construction finally began in April 2014, with stage one (the karting circuits) completed by the end of

that year, with the visitor centre and conference facilities then finalised before karts hit the track.

It is ideally situated in an area that won’t be subject to future resident complaints, as the city of Sydney continually expands.

Luddenham Raceway, which is located off Elizabeth Drive west of Liverpool at Luddenham Road, can hold Hillclimbs and Supersprints, and categories like Aussie Racing Cars would also fit comfortably, though the track currently isn’t licensed for open racing.

The track design was done in

consultation with Bruce Keys, the long-time CAMS (as it was then known) Manager of Track Safety.

It has been used extensively so far for motor bike activity, motor vehicle launches, and has seen several race teams use it for testing.

There is a covered pit area, car park and an amenity building. Security fobs are used to access all areas, with automatic sliding doors opening to a greeting area, meeting room, comfort facilities, and a cafeteria that caters for hot beverages, cold drinks, snacks and hot food, including pizzas made on-site.

Karting plays a big part in Luddenham Raceway’s daily activities, as do club and corporate events with modern facilities available for hire on site.

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The Luddenham Raceway complex has been built on a 40.5 hectare olive farm in an industrial zoned section of land, right near the border between Luddenham and Badgerys Creek.

It is in virtually in sight of the proposed second Sydney airport that will operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Therefore it is ideally located for fly-in, fly-out testing.

It is also situated quite close to the proposed M12 motorway that will extend out from the M4, with an exit offramp to Luddenham Road. There is an airport rail link on the drawing board, constructed on the northern perimeter of the complex next to the orchid that stretches the length of the circuit on that side.

The primary attraction from a racer’s perspective is the 1.42km circuit. It is 10m wide across its entire length, with eight cambered corners, it’s undulating, challenging and importantly, has plenty of runoff.

From the pit area, you are immediately into Turn 1, which is a 90 degree right hander. A short run from there is followed by another right hander, the first of two hairpins. There is then quick straight that leads to the

Luddenham Raceway is built on a 40.5 hectre olive farm in an area earmarked for commercial development rather than residential, preserving its long time viability. Its Open Track Days are popular with enthusiasts out to enjoy the capabilities of their cars in a safe environment.

tight left hand Turn 3, the second of the hairpins.

The track then rises to a sweeping right hander and travels along the orchard line to another sweeper, that begins a downhill run to a pair of left hand corners (nicknamed Laguna Seca because of its similarity to the famous ‘corkscrew’ section of the American circuit) and then it is into the final two right handers that ends in the uphill straight and the pit entry.

It is a safe, fast and technical clockwise circuit with several switchback corners and plenty of latebraking opportunities.

Hillclimb representatives have inspected the layout and reported that a 1.0km course from Turn 1 to the finish after the last corner, would be very suitable to stage events.

For Hillclimbs, the layout of the track and its infrastructure would allow the rapid turnover of vehicles on track, and the safety environs of the surrounds means there are none of the hazards normally experienced at hillclimb venues like trees, posts, gullies, etc.

Further expansion of Luddenham Raceway is on the cards with more ground works, a grandstand for spectators and there have even been preliminary talks about a hotel.

The developers eventually want to make further extensions to the track, to

both lengthen and widen it, and add a control tower and associated support buildings.

So far, there has been the addition of a small trackside seating area and a central area for officials to observe the on-track activity.

Luddenham Raceway makes for an ideal testing venue for teams and individuals due to its accessibility.

The option of Private Hire also makes it ideal for such things as car launches, corporate events, media launches, filming commercials, product testing, vehicle testing and photo shoots.

But it isn’t just restricted to that.

Open Track Day options are available during the week, on weekends, and public holidays. These are open to anyone with a suitable vehicle to have a drive for fun in an informal environment.

A MA/AASA licence is not a requirement for these, just a valid Australian driver’s licence but bookings are essential; under 18s have to have a parent present. Live Timing is included.

Private Track Days and Social/ Club Days are also available as are Corporate Events, which can use the impressive on-site facilities to host small to large gatherings, social events, team building events, and product launches.

For those travelling from outside the Sydney region, there are a number of accommodation options within easy reach of the track.

St Clair (11kms), Wallacia and St Marys (13kms), and Penrith (20kms) are all nearby.

And when the new airport is completed, it will be only an eight minute drive away and bound to offer further accommodation choices.

FAST FACTS Track length: 1.42 kilometres Track width: 10 metres Track corners: 7 Track elevation: Excess of 20 metres Track camber: -10 to +18 Direction: Clockwise Track density: 15 vehicles (cars or bikes) Minimum licence requirements: Australian Driver’s Licence Nearest major centre: Penrith (13 kilometres) Biggest event held: World’s Greatest Shave and Bushfire Relief Charity Days Track Operators: Luddenham Raceway Circuit Hours: Monday – Wednesday, 10am – 5pm, Thursday – Friday, 10am – 8pm, Saturday, 9am – 9pm, Sun 9am-7pm Manager: Sam Vuk Email: info@luddenhamraceway.com Address: 821-849 Luddenham Rd, Luddenham NSW 2745 Website: www.luddenhamraceway.com Phone: 02 9834 2366

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Forbes

Formula One

Round 1 AUSTRIAN GP

WORTH THE WAIT

Valtteri Bottas emerges on top in an action-packed opener to the 2020 season.

Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

THE 2020 Formula 1 season, which was supposed to begin with the Australian Grand Prix on March 15, finally kicked off with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5.

It was the first of two scheduled races on consecutive weekends at the Red Bull ring.

And while Valtteri Bottas qualified on the pole and led all 71 laps in his Mercedes, the race was anything but dull.

It ended with Charles Leclerc finishing second in his Ferrari, and Lando Norris earning his first ever F1 podium by taking third in his McLaren.

Both drivers benefitted from Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) getting a five second time penalty for pushing Alex Albon’s Red Bull off the track.

Seven of the 20 starters retired from the race – all from mechanical woes and team mistakes, rather than driver errors.

“I thought the first race would be wild,” said Aussie Daniel Ricciardo who was one of the retirements, “and that there will be a lot of chaos, but probably more from drivers and not mechanicals.”

Ricciardo’s Renault lasted just eight laps before it overheated.

“Seeing the safety cars and everything come up later in the race, I’m sure we could’ve been there to grab a nice little bag of points,” he said. “It was not to be today. The reason why I am not

48 AutoAction

completely devastated right now is because we’re back racing in a week, and get another chance at this track.”

“Obviously I want to be doing well and get to the finish with points,” he added, “but just to be back into racing mode felt good.

For all of us to be there on the grid, and for the lights to go out, it was in a way a relief that we made it here to this point and we are doing it again.”

The safety car came out on three occasions, and Bottas nailed each of the restarts perfectly to stay in front.

Bottas celebrates a perfect start to the much-delayed 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.

Both Mercedes drivers were repeatedly warned to stay off the kerbs. The jolting created a buildup just want things to be constant and trouble safety cars, crashes, penalties, but in of electrical interference on the car’s free. So there were many variables. I the end we stayed on track. I gave my systems, which then affected the gearbox managed to dodge many bullets today maximum, and I think we managed the and its sensors. and get the win.” race perfectly with the package we have “There were all these variables in the Given that the Ferraris were so off the for the moment.” race,” Bottas said after his seventh career pace in qualifying – Leclerc qualified Lando Norris benefitted from two F1 victory. “We had some issues with seventh and Sebastian Vettel 11th – it penalties handed out to Hamilton. The some sensors that were getting damaged was quite a surprise that Leclerc finished first was a three-place grid penalty for not by the vibration of the pretty harsh kerbs second. slowing for the yellow lights in qualifying. here, so I had to avoid kerbing. So that “I did not expect it either,” he said. “A That dropped Hamilton from second to costs quite a bit of lap time. huge surprise but a good one. It feels like fifth on the grid, and it moved Norris up to “And when you’re in the lead, one safety a victory today. We have been struggling third behind Bottas and Max Verstappen’s car after another, and by the last one I was from the beginning of the weekend. We’ve Red Bull. like ‘come on!’ because in the lead you had luck in this race with the various The second was the five second time

After grabbing an unexpected pole position, Valtteri Bottas led in Austria from start to finish, challenged only by his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Behind the Mercedes duo, the battle for second best team was frantically fought. Red Bull had the pace but not the luck, and McLaren shone with Lando Norris taking his first-ever F1 podium. The Racing Points were very fast too, though they faded as the race went on. Mechanical attrition was another notable aspect of this first Grand Prix of the year, accounting for many. penalty for the Albon hit. Norris clocked the race’s fastest lap on the last lap, and ended up beating Hamilton to third place by 0.198 of a second once Hamilton’s penalty was applied.

“There were a few points during the race where I thought I kind of fudged it up quite a bit,” Norris said. “I dropped to fifth with a few laps to go, and (teammate) Carlos (Sainz) was almost getting past me. But I didn’t give up, and I managed to get past (Sergio) Pérez, and I ended up on the podium!”

Hamilton’s fourth place was his 34th consecutive F1 points finish – a new record.

“I drove my heart out in the race,” he said. “I did everything I could, but it was just one of those weekends. There are lots of areas where I can improve. The scenario with Alex felt more like a racing incident to me. The time penalty meant that I lost the podium, but it is what it is. The car felt

great, although reliability was a real issue for us today.”

Verstappen, who won in Austria in 2018 and 2019, was the only driver in the top 10 qualifiers to start the race on the more durable medium compound Pirelli tyres rather than soft compound slicks. But he never got the chance to use alternative strategy, or the opportunity to challenge the ailing Mercedes cars late in the race as his power unit failed on lap 6.

“Quite early on I could see that Valtteri was quick,” Verstappen said, “so fighting for the win was always going to be a big challenge. I think it would have been an easy podium.”

The first grand prix of the 2020 season was an eventful and entertaining race. That made it even more unfortunate that no fans were permitted on the track grounds due to the pandemic.

Dan Ricciardo’s start to 2020 didn’t go to plan, retiring relatively early in the race with overheating. Ferrari were simply uncompetitive, Charles Leclerc’s second place a result of driving the wheels off the car.

AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 71 LAPS

Pos Driver Car Gap 1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1h30m55.739s 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 2.700s 3 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 5.491s 4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 5.689s 5 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 8.903s 6 Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes 15.092s 7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 16.682s 8 Esteban Ocon Renault 17.456s 9 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 21.146s 10 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 24.545s 11 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 31.650s 12 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda Suspension 13 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda Power Unit Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Wheel George Russell Williams/Mercedes Fuel pressure Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari Brakes Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari Brakes Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes Power Unit Daniel Ricciardo Renault Overheating Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda Power Unit Drivers: Bottas 25, Leclerc 18, Norris 16, Hamilton 12, Sainz 10, Perez 8, Gasly 6, Ocon 4, Giovinazzi 2, Vettel 1 Constructors: Mercedes 37, McLaren-Renault 26, Ferrari 19, Racing Point-Mercedes 8, AlphaTauri-Honda 6, Renault 4, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 2

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49

Formula One

Round 2 AUSTRIAN GP

EASY RIDER A clinical display from Lewis Hamilton delivered him victory in the Styrian Grand Prix

Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

LEWIS HAMILTON started from the pole and cruised to an easy victory in the Styrian Grand Prix. His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas qualified fourth and finished second. And Red Bull’s Max Verstappen started second and wound up third.

“The team did a fantastic job over the week to improve on some of the issues we had in the last race,” Hamilton said after scoring his 85th Formula 1 victory.

“The Red Bulls, well Max was quite quick today, so it just shows that they’re definitely not a pushover. They’ve done a fantastic job, so we’ve got to stay on our toes. We’ve got to go to places like Hungary, where the shorter Red Bull is usually very, very strong.”

Bottas, who won the first race of the season at the same track a week earlier, had to fight his way past Verstappen to claim second place.

“Starting fourth today was all about damage limitation,” Bottas said, “and we managed to maximise everything available to us. I had a good battle with Max. I had quite a bit more pace than him at the end as we extended the first stint to create a tyre offset.”

Trying an alternative pit strategy would have not helped Verstappen, “We were just too slow,” he said, “so we can do whatever we want: pitting early, late or the same, I don’t think it’s going to change the end result.”

While nobody was able to battle with Hamilton, there were battles elsewhere in

50 AutoAction

Lewis Hamilton led the field into turn one and then calmly drove away from the field. the pack. The most dramatic fight involved the Racing Point drivers Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo in his Renault. They crossed the finish line in that order, virtually side-by-side, to claim the sixth, seventh and eighth spots.

“It was very difficult to pass Daniel Ricciardo because he was strong on the entry and exit of Turn 1,” Stroll said. “But I was patient and I saw an opportunity to pass him on the final lap and made the move stick.”

Just ahead of that group was McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had overtaken all three of them in the final two laps to grab fifth place. Pérez also tangled with Red Bull’s Alex Albon who finished fourth.

Ricciardo, who qualified eighth, started on the medium compound Pirelli tyres while those ahead of him were on the soft slicks. Late in the race the Aussie was running sixth and fending off Stroll. The latter made a lunge and pushed both cars off the circuit at Turn 3.

“He didn’t really get past, he forced both of us off the track,” a frustrated Ricciardo said. “I will

always be critical of myself. I should’ve closed the door. But I don’t think he was ever making the move, so I think it was desperate.”

The stewards ruled it a “racing incident.”

“The first part of the race was okay,” Ricciardo said. “On the mediums we were quite strong. With the soft tyres after the pitstop we had a few other issues. And then the soft was not really working as well as we would’ve liked. I thought we were doing well to hold off Stroll, but with two laps to go it fell apart a little bit.”

The fight continued after the race when Renault filed a protest against Racing Point. Renault maintains that Racing Point has breached several articles of the sporting regulations that stipulate and control what car parts one team can buy from another team. Racing Point’s RP20 is a copy of the 2019 Mercedes W10.

The race stewards directed the FIA Technical Department representative to seal and impound the relevant parts of the Racing Points, and to provide a detailed report “with the findings and to include an assessment that

Ferrari had a weekend to forget, with no pace in qualifying and then both cars were out after Leclerc made an overly ambitious move on teammate Vettel at turn three on the opening lap.

Renault (above) had another difficult weekend, Ricciardo crashing in practice and then getting out qualified by his new teammate, Ocon. The Australian was passed for seventh on the last lap while the Frenchman retired with overheating. The Racing Points were very fast in practice but got it wrong in wet qualifying, recovering to sixth and seventh in the race (above right). Albon (right) was closer to Verstappen this time, finishing fourth for Red Bull. in myself. I have done a very bad job today. I let matches those findings against the alleged the team down. I put all the efforts of the team infringements outlined in the protest.” in the bin, so I’m very sorry.”

Mercedes must also provide samples of the Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s team principal, front and rear ducts used on its 2019 car. All lamented: “It is painful, very painful, to see this evidence will be examined at a later date. both our cars back in the garage after just a Ferrari brought a number of upgrades for its couple of laps. It’s the worst possible end to a cars for the second race but never got to try weekend that was already very disappointing.” them in the race itself, as an overly optimistic During the Styrian Grand Prix weekend it was Charles Leclerc tried to squeeze inside announced that two more races have been teammate Sebastian Vettel in heavy traffic at added to the 2020 schedule that originally Turn 3 on the opening lap. They collided and consisted of eight events: September 13 at both had to retire.

Italy’s Mugello circuit, and then the Russian “I was very surprised because I had the Grand Prix on its original listed date of inside,” Vettel said, “and I was not expecting Charles to try something. I don’t think there was September 27.

This was the first time in the 70-year history any space. So obviously a big pity, something that we should avoid. But not much that I could of the Formula 1 world championship that have done differently.” the same circuit hosted two F1 races on Leclerc apologised to Vettel and the team. consecutive weekends. From Austria it is now “Obviously excuses are not enough in times on to Hungary for the third race in as many like this,” Leclerc said. “I am just disappointed weekends.

Sainz started from third and was competitive early but finished a lap down, while teammate Norris went the other way.

ROUND 2 STYRIAN GRAND PRIX 71 LAPS Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 -

Driver Lewis Hamilton Valtteri Bottas Max Verstappen Alexander Albon Lando Norris Sergio Perez Lance Stroll Daniel Ricciardo Carlos Sainz Jr. Daniil Kvyat Kimi Raikkonen Kevin Magnussen Romain Grosjean Antonio Giovinazzi Pierre Gasly George Russell Nicholas Latifi Esteban Ocon Charles Leclerc Sebastian Vettel

Car Mercedes Mercedes Red Bull/Honda Red Bull/Honda McLaren/Renault Racing Point/Mercedes Racing Point/Mercedes Renault McLaren/Renault AlphaTauri/Honda Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Alfa Romeo/Ferrari AlphaTauri/Honda Williams/Mercedes Williams/Mercedes Renault Ferrari Ferrari

Gap 1h22m50.683s 13.719s 33.698s 44.400s 1m01.470s 1m02.387s 1m02.453s 1m02.591s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 2 Laps 2 Laps Overheating Incident Incident

Drivers: Bottas 43, Hamilton 37, Norris 26, Leclerc 18, Perez 16, Verstappen 15, Sainz 13, Albon 12, Gasly 6, Stroll 6, Ocon 4, Ricciardo 4, Giovinazzi 2, Kyvat 1, Vettel 1 Constructors: Mercedes 80, McLaren-Renault 39, Red Bull-Honda 27, Racing PointMercedes 22, Ferrari 19, Renault 8, AlphaTauri-Honda 7, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 2

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51

NASCAR / INDYCAR

WRAP

YOUTH AND EXPERIENCE SCORE WINS

Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT IT WAS a fortnight of contrasting victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, with 44-year-old Kevin Harvick winning at the Brickyard, and one week later a man half his age, rookie Cole Custer taking the race win at Kentucky.

In what had been already been a superb start to the season, 2014 NASCAR Cup Series winner Harvick earnt his fourth win of the year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The race went to overtime and Harvick came out on top to take his second consecutive win at the Indiana circuit.

For the third race in succession Denny Hamlin and Harvick duelled for victory, Hamlin came out on top and

was marching to the victory.

But with seven laps to go Hamlin’s tyre blew, sending him heavily into the Turn 1 wall and out of the race, forcing the race into overtime.

“We knew he [Hamlin] was going to be really close on tyres and [crew

FOUR FROM FOUR FOR CHIP GANASSI

52 AutoAction

chief] Rodney [Childers} told me on the radio, he said ‘Just make sure you keep the pressure on him, that was all the pressure I could give,” Harvick said.

When the race restarted with two-laps remaining, Harvick held off the pack to

Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT THREE INDYCAR races were held within two weeks, with five-time IndyCar Series winner Scott Dixon claiming another two race wins before his teammate Felix Rosenqvist broke through to take his maiden win.

After the season opening event on the Texas Motor Speedway oval, IndyCar returned with three road course races held within eight days, one at Indianapolis and the other two at Road America.

The event at Indianapolis was a momentous occasion for American motorsport, it was the first time in history that NASCAR and IndyCar shared the same venue on the same weekend.

Dixon started from seventh position and struggling for speed buried in the pack, but the Kiwi benefited from a well-timed caution when rookie Arrow McLaren SP driver Oliver Askew slid heavily into the wall backwards at the final corner.

Dixon had recently pitted for a second time but the leaders that hadn’t, including Australian Will Power and his teammate reigning IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden, were both heavily affected by the caution and dropped outside of the

Jimmie Johnson recovered from COVID-19 to return to racing at Kentucky Speedway but got caught up in this multi-car shunt (above), as rookie Cole Custer celebrated his first-ever Cup win (left). Kevin Harvick won his fourth of the season, at Indianapolis, to extend his Cup standings advantage.

win by 0.743s from Matt Kenseth, who bagged his best result since returning to NASCAR competition.

Aric Almirola finished third followed

by Brad Keselowski, Custer, reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, Tyler

Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Joey Logano.

One major story leading into the weekend was that seven-time NASCAR Cup Series winner Jimmie Johnson, a four-time Brickyard 400 winner, was diagnosed with COVID-19 and had to sit the race out, before returning a week later.

It was a thrilling race at the Kentucky Speedway with the leading quartet going four wide on the final lap of the race.

In the end it was Custer who broke through to take his first NASCAR Cup Series race victory and became the first rookie to win in the top tier in four years.

The final few laps were littered with caution periods and when the race went back to green one final time with two laps remaining, Custer was down in fifth.

Custer braved it around the outside to overtake Martin Truex Jr, Ryan Blaney and Harvick, some of the top NASCAR drivers currently in the sport.

The 22-year-old then held on to take the race victory by a tiny 0.27s from Truex.

“Our car was so good,” an elated Custer said.

“Obviously it wasn’t the easiest track to pass on, so we were kind of stuck

back there, but that was the best car I’ve ever driven in my life.”

Matt DiBenedetto finished the race third ahead of series leader Harvick and Kurt Busch. Blaney, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top 10.

top 10. Once out-front Dixon was unstoppable, taking an impressive 19.946s win in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, becoming the first nonTeam Penske driver to win on the road course.

“We’ve had so many runner-up spots here on the road course,” Dixon said. “We got lucky with the strategy, the team just nailed it. But as soon as we got the balance right, the PNC Bank #9 just checked out.”

Graham Rahal looked set for the win with his two stop-strategy until the safety car cost him dearly. Nevertheless, he came home second ahead of Penske’s Simon Pagenaud who started in 20th, with Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay rounding out the top five. Newgarden recovered to seventh while Power stalled in pit lane during his final stop and came home in 20th.

For the first race at Road America, Dixon once again qualified down the order in ninth, but a great use of the undercut strategy put him back in the game.

The pivotal moment came lap 38 when

under und safety car the whole field pitted one final time.

Power Pow came in ahead of his long-time lon rival but a slightly slow slo left-rear change by Team Tea Penske allowed Dixon Dix into the lead.

From then on Dixon F re remained unchallenged an and took his third win in succession from a disappointed d Power.

Alex Palou scored his first podium p in the series ahead o Ryan Hunter-Reay and of C Colton Herta. s The second race at Road America the following day was a thriller when, towards the end, Rosenqvist caught Arrow McLaren SP pole sitter Pato O’Ward, to snatch victory from the Mexican on the penultimate lap.

The Swede then went on to take his first IndyCar win by 2.869s after coming up just short a number of times last season. By taking the victory Rosenqvist broke the threerace winning streak of his teammate Dixon.

“It feels so good,” Rosenqvist said. “It’s been a long time, we’ve been close so many times. Today we went all for it, super pace, the car was fantastic. It’s four out of four for

Ganassi, which is huge.”

After leading 43 of the 55 laps, O’Ward came up just short but still recorded his career best finish of second. Third was Alexander Rossi who claimed his first top 10 result of the season ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Herta.

Power was involved in the thick of the action all race long and came home 11th just ahead of series leader Dixon.

The next round is a double header at the Iowa Speedway this weekend.

STANDINGS AFTER RACE 4: 1 Dixon 173 2 Herta 119 3 Pagenaud 110 4 O’Ward 110 5 Newgarden 106 6 Ericsson 93 7 Power 92 8 Rosenqvist 88 9 Rahal 88 10 Ferrucci 87

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OFF ROAD ON AS PANDEMIC EASES IN QLD QUEENSLAND OFF Road Racing came out of COVID-19 restrictions on June 20-21, with round two of the Mickey Thompson AORRA Queensland Championship where Clayton Chapman took a comprehensive victory.

The Pats Diesel Services 100 was hosted by the Gympie Auto Sports Club and held at Weranga, just outside of Dalby, with 68 starters. Chapman was first in three of the four heats in his Razorback/Toyota 2JZ Turbo Unlimited buggy, after being easily the quickest on the Prologue.

Sybrand De Klerk took out heat one and finished second outright in his Class 6 CanAm Maverick X3/Rotax, ahead of class rival and fellow Can-Am steerer Jeff McNiven.

Class 6 driven machines filled the next five places in the hands of Tom Swinglehurst, Aaron Phillis, Rohan Williams, Jake Swinglehurst and David Lughnan.

Ninth outright went to Brett Comiskey (Can-Am) ahead of Jae Collins (Chenowth Millenium/Subaru WRX), the pair second and third in the Unlimited class.

Class 1 honours went with 15th placed Andrew Murphy over Troy Duff (Jimco 2000/Nissan) who was second fastest

Image: Alan McIntosh

in the Prologue before dramas on heat two ultimately saw him finish 29th overall. Meanwhile it was Russel Hartnett (Razorback/Honda) who took out Class 2, finishing 20th and Aaron Nicoll (Rivmasta/ Suzuki) was the best of Class 3.

Chris Western (Element Prodigy/Chev) took out Class 4, finishing 21st overall, while Class 5 was topped by Tyler Youman

in his Chev LS1-powered Toyota Hilux.

Class 66 went to Paul Hutchinson (nonturbo Can-Am) and Luke Petersen (Class 7), Christian Trusz (Class 8, Nissan Patrol V8) and Michael Marson (Class 10 Racer Engineering Carbon/Ford Windsor V8) were the others to take winning trophies.

Among those that were non-finishers was Damien Saunders who rolled his Class 4

Trophy Truck after the finish line and right in front of the crowd, and Taylor Teichmann with an off-course adventure through the trees in her Class 3 Southern Cross/Suzuki.

Not part of the overall event, the onelap night dash on a shortened course saw Clayton Chapman win ahead of Tom Swinglehurst and Jason Keane (Class 10 Racer Engineering/GM Ecotec). GOB

After leading the opening section Aaron andd Chelsea Haby (Element P Prodigy/Toyota) Ch l H b (El di /T ) suffered a broken rocker arm that saw them fail to line up for section two. Matt Curtis and Brad Traynor (GCR Rhino/Nissan) looked set for a top five finish but a minor glitch saw them towed back to the pits and they had to restart their final lap again, plummeting then to 14th. David Hall and Micheal Ulbrich (Murphy/Nissan) clocked some good lap times but a big front end failure put them out after only three laps.

Mark and Ryder Taylor (Cobra/ Mazda) turned some quick laps but more importantly didn’t have any problems and took top spot in Super 1650. Roydon Bailey/

Tyson Warner (Can T W (C Am A Maverick M i k X3) took a lucky win in SXS Turbo after the early demise of class pacesetters Toby Whateley/Simon Herrmann (Can Am) with belt problems.

Ethan Picksock and Lisi Phillips (Mitsubishi Challenger) may not have been fast but they went the distance to take the Performance 4WD win. Matthew Wilmitz and Danny Judge (Landrover Discovery) took out Extreme 4WD despite dropping a lap changing a broken engine mount, and Ben Erceg/David Mussell (Racer/GM Ecotec) were the team to beat in Sportslite.

David Batchelor

TURNBULLS TURN IN A TRIUMPH KEEPING THE pressure on throughout the Ronco Motors Loveday 280 delivered Garry and Tamara Turnbull a comfortable off road racing victory aboard their Jimco/Chev Pro Buggy on June 27-28.

The father and daughter combination were in the top three across the first two sections before winning the remaining three at the 4X4 Adventure Park.

Daryl Nissen and Andrew Harness (SORE/ Nissan) came home second in the much awaited South Australian season opener and won the ProLite class, while Hayden Bentley had siblings Hannah and Sam along for the

Images: David Batchelor

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ride and ran a trouble-free race to third in their Extreme 2WD Toyota-powered Racer Truck.

Chris and Colin Johnson were next home in their Mitsubishi-engined Custom ProLite buggy. Next past the chequers were Darren, Amelia and Izaak Vanderwoude (Holden Colorado V8) also collecting the Performance 2WD win. Track owner Tony Whateley (Rush Truck/Chev) had led a big chunk of the race but he and Jodie Veron ran out of luck when a brake calliper failed, dropping them to ninth.

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Image: Bruce Moxon

BROTHERS MAKE BAY A FAMILY AFFAIR THE BATES Brothers, Harry and Lewis, took the two top spots in the season-opening AMH Automotive Bay Stages Rally, round one of the NSW Championship held near Batemans Bay on July 4.

Driving a pair of Toyota Yaris AP4s, they dominated, Harry taking fastest time on every stage and, with John McCarthy calling the notes, coming out 1m20.9s ahead of Lewis and Anthony McLoughlin.

A huge field of 85 was flagged away to face a planned seven Image: Sportzfotos stages. Light rain had fallen overnight so the usual dust problem would take a while to occur.

East Coast Classic Third place was also disputed by a pair of family entries. Joining the 80’s reunion was the ex-works members; Darren Windus and Joe Brkic being Lancia 037 of Gerry Duyvestyn and Mike Beeley, challenged by Aaron Windus (Darren’s son) and which failed to finish.

Daniel Brkic. Both were driving Subaru WRXs. Aaron There was a lot of attrition – as is usual on the fast ended up off the road on stage four and out of the but unforgiving roads. Off-road retirements included rally. the winner of the event for the last two years, Richie Fourth went to Tom Clarke and Ryan Preston in their Dalton and Dale Moscatt (Ford Fiesta). Les Adams first event in the repaired Mitsubishi EVO 9 after a and Chris Aggenbach had a massive rollover on the big shunt at the same event last year. Fifth were Luke longest stage, the 44km Run to Mogo. The road was Annear and Andy Barandis (Ford Fiesta) from the first blocked by the incident, which meant derived times 2WD, the Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell crewed for about a third of the field, and caused the next Citroen DS3. stage to be cancelled.

Meanwhile 16-year-old Taylor Gill (with Peter Tom Dermody and Eoin Moynihan (Ford Escort) had Harris), still on his L-plates, drove his WRX to 12th a broken ignition wire delay him, dropping the popular place. He’ll be one to watch.

Irishman to ninth in the Classic field. Clay Badenoch and Catriona Kelly (Toyota Celica) took second behind Some fascinating cars were entered, most notably Keogh from Jamie Price and Maisie Place (Escort).

Mal Keogh’s Audi Quattro S1, a replica of the works As AP4 cars are not eligible for the NSW cars from the Group B days. It wasn’t just for show – the five-cylinder machine, which was driven to eighth Championship, Darren Windus heads the points from with Andrew Bennett navigating, was best of the Tom Clarke. Bruce Moxon Image: Sportzfotos

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

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MRA ONE-DAY WINNER

Image: Insyde Media

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

MOTOR RACING Australia’s formula of shuffling categories in and out of the Sydney Motorsport Park in its one-day July 5 meeting proved again that it is a winner, with three huge grids for Pulsars, Excels and Super TT while supported well by MX5s and Clubmans.

PULSARS

TWO HARD fought contests resulted in two different race winners in Matt Boylan and Josh Craig, and the race the pair put on in the second was the highlight of the meeting.

Qualifying honours went with Michael Osmond who led the race one opening lap before Harry Inwood passed him. Osmond regained the lead before Boylan emerged out of the pack midway through to take the lead and the win.

Osmond was second, barely ahead of Inwood and Craig, with a gap to Tim Colombrita, Josh Haynes, Ben Sheedy, Kerry Avramidis, Chris Manning and William Foot. Save of the day went to Avramidis who survived a big tank slapper through Turn 1 after slight contact with Haynes, which dropped Avramidis to 13th before a fightback.

Boylan looked set for a comfortable win in race two, edging away to a near 3s lead in the first two laps as Craig passed Osmond and shook off his rivals. Once established in second, Craig worked at reducing the lead gap within a couple of laps and then spending many laps trying to get by.

Crossing the line to start the last lap, Craig squeezed down the inside of Boylan into Turn 1 to set up a narrow victory. Third went to Inwood ahead of Sheedy and Osmond. Colombrita had been as high as third and finished sixth, the result of contact with Haynes that cost the latter a drivethrough penalty. Then came Manning from Ian Joyce, Dimitri Agathos and Gavan Reynolds.

EXCELS

OVER THREE races Broc Feeney proved to be too good for the huge field, although Michael Clemente made him work for the trio of victories.

Clemente headed Feeney twice in race one, off the start and after a safety car restart. But they

were short term gains as Feeney regathered at Turn 2 on both occasions.

Wil Longmore finished third in the opening race ahead of Ben Bargwanna, Brodie Kostecki and Paul Quinn. The safety car was out for three laps after Brian Sciberras was given a helping hand to crash at Turn 2.

Feeney led the second race throughout, again finishing ahead of Clemente and Longmore.

Bargwanna edged out Kostecki for fifth as Peter van Waart and Quinn shadowed them to the line.

Next was Nash Morris who picked up several sports after placing 11th in race one.

Clemente won the start in the last while Feeney had to fight off Longmore for second. A lap later Feeney was in front and controlled the race from there. Bargwanna finished third after he chased down and passed Longmore, while Kostecki was next in front of Morris.

SUPER TT

TWO WINS and a second gave Ash Slavkovic overall outright honours whilst many of his rivals succumbed to mechanical issues.

The first of those was Greg Boyle (Nissan Skyline R32) who made a demon start from the second row to lead into the first corner. But an electrical-related engine cut-out had him in strife early. That gave the leaded to Todd Herring until his Mazda MX5 was jammed in fourth gear.

Slavkovic (Nissan S13/Chev LS2) led from there and was well clear of Herring at the flag. Jimmy Tran (Honda Civic) was third ahead of Ric Shaw (Mazda RX7), Lloyd Godfrey (Honda Integra), David Krusza (BME 135i) and Nick Mantikos (Datsun 1600 Turbo).

Then followed Tony Virag and Geoff Kite in their HSV Clubsports, while gremlins affected top runners Benny Tran (Integra, tyre blowout), John Ford (Nissan/Chev V8, diff), Endree Saade (BMW M3, intercooler plug) and Mark Boudib (M3, clutch).

Slavkovic hosed the field in race two, winning by a mammoth 32.1s ahead of a tight contest between Benny Tran and Shaw. The latter was penalised 30s which gave third to Jimmy Tran

COMMENT

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

ahead of Herring, Godfrey, Mantikos and Barry Sternbeck (Clubsport).

Slavkovic had command of race three until a late fuel starvation issue saw him drop to third.

Benny Tran edged out Saade for the win before the latter was served a 30s penalty. Herring was elevated to third behind Slavkovic with Jimmy Tran next ahead of Godfrey, Sternbeck, Nathan Rourke (Falcon) and Mantikos.

MAZDA RX5 CUP

DESPITE ONLY having fourth gear, Todd Herring was able to take three wins from as many starts.

In each outing he elected to start rear of grid and after three slow starts, was able to work his way through for narrow victories over his brother Tim. Third each time was Matt Fraser, with turbocharged cars filling the top spots.

Ben Cathcart was the best of the normally aspirated competitors with fourth ahead of Andy Boydell, Stuart McFadyen and Ben Oldfield in race one.

Cathcert followed up with another fourth in race two, in front of Boydell, Steven Head and Oldfield, while McFadyen was next after a spin before Turn 8. In the last Oldfield was fourth from McFadyen, Boydell and Cathcart.

CLUBMANS

FOLLOWING TWO comprehensive victories, James Dick (PRB Widebody) had his work cut out to maintain the lead in the last, ahead of consistent second placegetter Josh Versluis (PRB Birkin S3).

Early in race one the latter was fourth before forging through to head off Ivan Srejber (S3), Peter Brown (BAP Clubman), Jos Kroon (S2) and David Thirlwall (Westfield). Shane Hutchinson’s Holden V8-powered Hutch lost its oil which caused Greg Jones (Locost) to spin and be collected by Glen Coutinho (MNR Voortex).

Srejber was an early retirement in race two where Kroon was third from Thirlwall. Kroon followed up with another third in the last, in front of Thirlwell and Graham Roberson (Locost).

Garry O’Brien

‘SCAB’ GRABS MEMORIAL TROPHY AS THE Northern Territory was the first to ease Convid-19 restrictions, it came as no surprise that a race meeting should follow shortly after.

Unfortunately this first Shannons pointscore round on June 21 caught some unprepared and numbers were down.

It was also the Ross Hanning Memorial, run annually in memory of a founding member of the Northern Australian Motor Sport Club, who was among the first to race HQ Holdens in the Territory.

The memorial trophy is awarded to the highest points of the day from all the racing categories, and appropriately this year it went to HQ pilot Marian ‘Scab’ Bujnowski.

The class lost two in qualifying with Dylan Bujnowski and Rossi Johnson having dramas. The session’s fastest, Marian Bujnowski, was a clear winner in the three races contested, leaving Stravos Mostris to scrap with and take the runner up spot ahead of mother and daughter Angela and Olivia Agostini.

Commodore Cup was affected by the sudden restart to racing as its rounds usually draw a couple of interstaters.

David Ling was the fastest qualifier but the first race was red flagged when Shane Smith bunkered at Turn 10.

Following the restart, Ling took victory as Geoff Cowie and Alan Langworthy vied for second, until the latter retired with a gearbox drama. Third was up for grabs, eventually going to Garry Dempsey when Shane Kapitula erred after they diced for five laps.

In the reverse grid second race, pole sitter Smith was beaten away be Kapitula who held on for the win from Ling while Dempsey’s challenge waned because of overheating. Kapitula affected another great start in race three to lead as Ling, Dempsey and Cowie ran three-wide into Turn 1. Ling emerged second and chased down the leader for his second win. Cowie shook off Dempsey to challenge Kapitula, who spun at Turn 5 and took Cowie with him. Dempsey finished second while Cowie recovered to head Kapitula and Smith to the flag.

In Improved Production it was Tim Playford (Mazda 808) who was unbeaten over the three races. Second place each time went to Craig Wright (Ford Escort) while Stephen Johstone (Holden Commodore VP) battled gearbox issues and was third three times. Rodney Jessup (Commodore VE) was expected to challenge Playford but that fizzled when his engine went in qualifying. GOB

ONE DAY TICKS ALL THE STATE BOXES MOTOR RACING Australia could very well have set a new precent in the future direction of state-based motorsport.

One day fixtures are not new but the idea of bringing categories in and getting them out the way quickly, is drawing applause from near and far.

At the most recent Sydney Motorsport Park, as they did at the previous meeting during these COVOD affected times that require social distancing, the Excel and Super TT categories qualified early in the day, and had their three races over and done with immediately after lunch. Then it was qualifying and races for MX5 Cup and Pulsars, while interspersed across the day were the Clubmans.

Having categories in for one day of a two-day meeting is something that State Circuit Racing Championships has done with Supersports,

Superkarts and Production Sports in the past. But with MRA’s Terry Denovan virtually making it a half-day outing for categories, takes it one step further.

Costs go down and waiting times are shortened significantly.

Where there have usually been around eight categories racing over a two-day format, two could run Saturday morning, another two in the afternoon, and the remaining four split over Sunday.

There will be detractors, no doubt. But the calendar is not getting any less congested, particularly in the aftermath of the current world crisis.

The installation of lights at Sydney Motorsport Park opens up thoughts of a twilight/night meeting run with a similar program, and not necessarily on a weekend. GOB

BACK AFTER A LONG WAIT IT HAD been just over four months since the opening round that the second of the NSW Motor Racing Championships took place at Wakefield Park on July 12-13.

Layton Crambrook (left) was a winner in HQs and Michael Sheargold took his maiden win in Production Touring. Aaron Lee (below) took the outright honours in Formula Vees. Images: Insyde Media

held him off for the duration as McIntosh further improved to head Sheargold, Thompson and Reeves to the line.

FORMULA VEES

FOLLOWING ON from second initially, Aaron Lee won the next two races to take the outright honours.

The Jacer pilot battled a wet track and virtually no visibility to finish behind Daniel Reynolds (Sabre) in Race ce 1.

1 Reynolds had returned to the category after a long hiatus for the win. Simon Pace (Checkmate) was third, clear of Aaron Pace (Jacer), Dylan Thomas (Stinger) and Darren Williams (Sabre).

Lee, Reynolds and Simon Pace vied for the Race 2 lead over several laps, until the latter was shuffled down the order. Taking his place in the top three was Aaron Pace, who ended up second when Reynolds was penalised 30s post-race.

Williams was elevated to third ahead of Craig Sparke (Jacer) and Thomas, while Simon Pace finished sixth.

Aaron Lee won the last outing, in a tight 0.048s win over Aaron Pace as Williams won the battle for third over Sparke and Simon Pace. Michael Kinsella (Jacer) who started 11th after a race 30s penalty came through to sixth.

HQ HOLDENS

TWELFTH AFTER the opening round, Layton Crambrook won the second round. The 2006 National HQ title holder had his work cut out but was victorious in each race.

He was likely to finish second in Race 1 to Luke Harrison, who grabbed the lead on the last lap, but fell off at Turn 8 and finished third behind Glenn Deering. Dave Proglio was next across the line ahead of Chris Molle.

Crambrook led all the way in the second, winning ahead of Deering while Proglio had jumped to third at the start and held the spot until passed by Harrison on the last lap. Molle was next ahead Brandon Madden, Jason Molle and Darren Parker.

Harrison pressured Crambrook from the outset

SPORTS SEDANS

of the last last, getting past in a bumping move across the top of the circuit on lap 9. But there were double yellows at that point as Scott Madden lost a wheel, his second for the day after he shed one at Turn 10 in the previous race.

Crambrook was handed victory ahead of Brandon Madden and Chris Molle. Harrison was penalised 30s and placed ninth.

PRODUCTION TOURING

ROUND 2 of the state championship threw up some surprises in the outright results. A wet first race was won by Michael Sheargold (Mercedes A45) beating home polesitter Reece McIntosh (Volkswagen Golf GTi), Ben Kavich (Mitsubishi EVO X) and Matt Holt. Fellow HSV Clubsport driver Daniel Oosthuizen progressed from eighth to fifth ahead of Chris Reeves (VW Scirocco) and Stephen Thompson (EVO X).

Kavich won the start of the second and third races, both held in dry conditions but failed to hold out Oosthuizen in either. McIntosh faulted at the start of Race 2 to drop well down the order before fighting back to eighth. Holt finished third ahead of Tom Muller (BMW 1M), Sheargold, Reeves and Thompson.

Muller jumped in front of Holt in Race 3 and

GRANT DOULMAN is in a strong position after ttwo rounds with an unbeaten account after six races. In the Chev-powered Falcon EL, Doulman beat Brad Shiels in Joe Said’s turbo twin rotor Fiat 124 across the three events, while third place was a battle of the survivors.

In Race 1, Doulman and Shiels along with third place Steve Lacey (Chev Camaro) had spins in the wet conditions, before each recovered to take the top three places ahead of Dan Smith (Nissan 300ZX/Chev) and Graham Smith (Holden Commodore).

Lacey was a casualty of Race 2 with an input shaft failure, so too Dan Smith with a broken front hub. Third went to Mark Duggen (Aston Martin/Chev) who snagged it off Mick Bullis (Chev Camaro) on the last lap. Duggan followed up with another third in the last, ahead of Phil Ryan (Nissan 280ZX) and Willem Fercher (Holden Monaro) both of whom failed in Race 2 due to fuel issues.

SUPERSPORTS

THE CATEGORY’S one-day format was on the worse day, weather wise. Nick Kelly (Radical SR8) coped with the slippery bitumen conditions better than his rivals for a pair of victories interspersed with a third in Race 2.

Fellow SR8 driver Peter White spun early in Race 1, dropping to the rear and despite another

off course excursion later came back to second ahead of Peter Clare and Ryan Godfrey in SR3s.

Alex Kenney (Juno) glimpsed the lead briefly after a safety car but also spun off and finished fifth.

Godfrey came through to take race two ahead of Kenny and Kelly. White was again having dramas staying on track but ultimately took fourth ahead of Clare. In the last, Kenny streaked away until he speared off at Turn 2 and handed victory to Kelly over White and Godfrey.

PRODUCTION SPORTS

THE TWO half hour races were taken out by Andrew Macpherson in his Porsche GT3-R. In the second his lead was never threatened but in Race 1 he had to doggedly hold off the challenge from Nick Kelly (Audi R8 LMS).

The Kelly challenge ended just a couple of laps from the end when he crashed heavily between Turns 1 and 2 and the race finished behind the safety car. Second went to Jason Miller clear of the team mates and fellow Porsche drivers Sergio Pires and Marcel Zalloua.

The trio contested second throughout Race 2 where after a couple of positional changes, Miller grabbed second as they started the last lap to head Zalloua and Pires to the flag.

SUPERKARTS

THE FOUR outings were all taken by Lucus Vitale (Anderson Maverick), who not only dominated outright but also the 250 class. Class rival Jeff Reed (Stockman) had dramas leaving the pregrid and spotted everyone a half lap start, and spun out at Turn 2 in the next race, ending his day.

Second in each race was Mark Robin, easily the best of the 125s in his Avoig Elise, while third was shared. It was Adam Stewart (Anderson Mirage) in the first, then Lee Vella (Anderson Maverick), Laurie Fooks (Raider) and Paul Campbell (Avoig Elise) respectively in the following races. GOB

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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: NEW COMMODORE for Bathurst.

An updated Holden fitted with the XT5 engine and VC bodywork was planned ahead of Australia’s biggest race. But it was not without criticism as competitors feared the new evolution would make the Falcons and Camaros uncompetitive. One driver was defecting, though, reigning Australian Touring Car Champion Bob Morris announcing his move to Ford for the endurance events joining privateer Bill O’Brien.

ACROSS

5. What is the surname of Nick Percat’s race engineer at Brad Jones Racing?

7. With what team did Sebastian Vettel make his Formula 1 debut?

9. What was James Moffat’s highest finishing position in the inaugural season of the TCR Australia Series?

10. Peter Brock holds the record for the most amount of sucessive pole positions in the ATCC/Supercars Championship, how many did he take in a row?

11. Which driver has earnt the most amount of ATCC/Supercars Championship race wins at SMP with 10? (surname) 13. Which former Formula 1 driver won the Champ Car race at the Gold Coast in 1998? (surname) 14. Who won the first ATCC race held at Eastern Creek in 1992? (full name) 15. With what team is Jordan Love contesting the 2020 Porsche Supercup?

19. Who finished second in the 1980 British Grand Prix? (full name) 21. Jack Doohan is competing in the 2020 Formula 3 Championship with what team? (abbreviation) 22. In what state of Australia was Casey Stoner born?

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23 b off podiums di i 23. Wh Who hhas scoredd th the mostt number in the ATCC/Supercars Championship without taking a win? (surname) 25. At what circuit did Mika Hakkinen take his final F1 victory?

27. Nick Percat won the Bathurst 1000 on debut in 2011, who did he drive alongside?

29. Who was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship race Albert Park in 1996? (full name) 30. Michael Schumacher holds the record for the most amount of Grand Prix wins, with how many?

DOWN

1. What nationality is World Rally Championship competitor Thierry Neuville?

1990: IT WAS all smiles for Nissan and Jim Richards as both celebrated championship victory at Oran Park. Driving the Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R for only the second time, Richards secured his third Australian Touring Car Championship and the Japanese manufacturer’s first. The recently announced Australian Endurance Championship was threatening to collapse after top teams weren’t going to support rounds at Oran Park and Lakeside.

2000: “WE NEED to even up the competition,” said V8 Supercars supremo Tony Cochrane concerning the dominance of the VT Commodore. The comments came after it was confirmed that TEGA authorised a test for the Fords fitted with the VT Commodore’s front undertray and rear wing. Endurance drivers were being announced with Simon Wills joining Stone Brothers and BTCC duo Jason Plato and Yvan Muller in at HRT. 2010: A RUNAWAY victory in Hungary had rivals fuming and left Red Bull refuting claims of the squad cheating.

“Our guys have broken their balls to design a car in the spirit of the regulations, and every time we are tested by the FIA, we pass.” The front wing in question led to an increase of the load limit ahead of the next event at Spa. In America, there were murmurs that NASCAR export Marcos Ambrose was coming back home.

2. In what country will the World Rally Championship recommence in September?

3. A non-championship IndyCar race was held on the Gold Coast in 2008, who won it? (surname) 4. In 1976 Kevin Bartlett finished fifth in the Bathurst 1000, who was his co-driver that year? (surname) 6. Cameron Crick finished third in the 2018 Toyota 86 Racing Series, how many podiums did he collect along the way?

8. Who edged out Cameron Crick to the 2019 SuperUtes title? (surname) 12. Who is the reigning Super2 Series winner? (full name) 16. In 1981 who joined Gilles Villeneuve in the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team? (full name) 17. For which manufacturer did Wayne Gardner win the 1987 500cc Motorcycle World Championship?

18. How many MotoGP titles has Jorge Lorenzo won?

20. At the age of 44 who was the oldest driver to win the ATCC/Supercars Championship? (Surname) 24. Didier Pironi won the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, with what manufacturer?

26. At which track will the 2020 TCR Australia Series begin? (abbreviation) 28. How many Australian Super Truck Championships did Rodney Crick win?

# 1789 Crossword Answers 1 down – three 2 down – David Cauchi 3 down – Mansell 4 down – Watkins 5 down – four 5 across – fifth 6 across – Brad Jones 7 down – twelfth 7 across – two 8 across – Nine 9 across – second 10 across – Baghetti 10 down – Bruce McLaren 11 across – Garth Tander 12 across – Alonso 13 across – Win Percy

14 down – Giacomelli 15 across – Yas Marina Circuit 16 down – Aaron Love 17 down – Maserati 18 down – AIR 19 down – Schlesser 20 down – Wales 21 down – ten 22 across – Terry Wyhoon 23 across – seven 24 across – Scottish 25 across – John Goss 26 across – Sauber 27 across – zero

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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 A9X TORANAS

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 $109.00 plus $10 postage, saving $26.00

This 176-page book features imagery of every A9X Torana that started in the 1977, 1978 and 1979 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst 1000’s.

Foreword by Bob Morris and an interview with Jim Richards who won Bathurst three years in a row with Peter Brock in the mighty A9X Torana.

With over 160 black and white and colour images from all around the track, a great book that feature the Bathurst Torana A9X race car.

PHILLIP ISLAND TO BATHURST - THE TRADITIONAL YEARS RESULTS - 160 page book features details on every car that started in the original/traditional Phillip Island and Bathurst 500/1000 races from 1960 to 1999.

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 - 1968 144-pages featuring imagery of every car that started in the 1968 Hardie Ferodo 500. Classes A, B, C, D and E. HARDIE FERODO 500 - 1969 160-page featuring imagery of every car that started in the 1969 Hardie Ferodo 500. Classes A, B, C, D and E. HARDIE FERODO 500 - 1970 160-pages featuring imagery of ever car that started in the 1970 Hardie Ferodo 500. Classes A, B, C, D, and E. HARDIE FERODO 500 - 1971 - 1972 176-pages featuring imagery of every car that started in the 1971 and 1972 Hardie Ferodo 500’s at Bathurst. All classes are comprehensively documented. These two Bathurst races are milestones for both Ford and Holden motor racing enthusiasts as the 1971 event was won by Allan Moffat driving the now legendary Falcon GT-HO Phase 3. The 1972 race saw Peter Brock, the underdog, win the first of his nine Bathurst victories.

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, 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 GT-HO FALCONS BATHURST GROUP A COMMODORES A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY 1985 TO 1992.

This 160 page book features imagery of This 192-page book features imagery of evevery GT-HO Falcon that started in the ery Group A Commodore that started in the 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972 Hardie Ferodo 500 races. – with a good mix of colour and and 1992 Bathurst 1000 races. Foreword by black and white. Foreword is by John Goss. Graham Moore with a great mix of black and white and colour images.

BATHURST GTS MONAROS BATHURST CHARGERS AND PACERS This 144-page book features imagery of This 160-page book features imagery every Monaro that started in the 1968, of every Charger and Pacer that start1969, 1970, 1973 and 1974 Bathurst ed in the 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and Hardie Ferodo races.

1973 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst races. The The book has co-Forewords by Bruce book’s Forwarded is by Leo Geoghegan McPhee and Colin Bond and has a good and has a good mix of colour and mix of colour and black and white images. 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

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