Auto Action #1791

TALKING TICKFORD FORD TEAM BOSS GRILLED

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SINCE S INCE 1971 1971

MR T - THE MAN BEHIND BRABHAM SUPERCARS UPDATE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Issue #1791 30 July to 13 August 2020 $8.95 INC

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FROM HELL TO HEAVEN JACK LE BROCQ ON HIS JOURNEY FROM THE BACK OF THE SUPERCARS GRID TO HIS FIRST VICTORY

Image: Supercars

By BRUCE NEWTON JACK LE Brocq has opened up to Auto Action about his disastrous 2019 and how important his first career Supercars win has been in rebuilding his self-belief.

The 28-year old took victory in the final race of the Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint in mid-July, breaking through in his 85th category start and just his third for Tickford Racing in the Supercheap Auto Racing Ford Mustang.

“I didn’t think this win would happen so early on, but it’s been unreal,” Le Brocq told AA from Tickford’s temporary Gold Cost base.

“For my confidence it has been the biggest thing.

It has given me a big boost. It has come at a great time and hopefully we can build on and it and learn from it.

“It’s definitely confidence-inspiring.”

It was a dramatic turnaround for Le Brocq, who suffered through a traumatic second-year at Tekno Autosport in 2019, handicapped by poor car-pace and off-track ructions with team owner Jonathon Webb.

“The confidence was hit for six there’s no hiding that,” said Le Brocq of 2019.

“I think anyone out there probably starts doubting themselves when they struggle to get off the back row.

“At times you lose faith in yourself. You wonder if it’s the equipment you’ve been given or if it is yourself just not doing a good job.”

In the entire 2019 season, Le Brocq finished no better than 13th and was 22nd in the Supercars driver’s championship.

But after an intentionally cautious start at the 2020 Adelaide 500 and return to racing at Sydney Motorsport Park in late June after the COVID-19 lockdown, Le Brocq, engineer Brad Wischusen and the slick Tickford pit crew combined brilliantly to fully exploit the Dunlop soft-soft tyre strategy in

race 12.

They beat home Kelly Racing’s Andre Heimgartner and BJR’s Todd Hazelwood in a thrilling finish after 32-laps of hard-fought racing.

For Le Brocq and Hazelwood, it was their first trips to the podium.

To win that race Le Brocq had to drive safe, fast and straight on worn-out softs for the last five laps of the race. That he achieved that difficult task is one key reason he’s taken so much from the result.

“It was the first time in many years I have been at the front pack and able to hold off cars like that,” said Le Brocq.

“For me, moving forward, it was pretty special and it’s cool to just prove to myself more than anything that I still can execute that.”

Le Brocq joined Tekno in the main game full-time in 2018 after finishing runner-up in Dunlop Super2 in 2016 with Tickford and third in 2017 with MW Motorsport.

The first year showed promise with a series of top 10s and top rookie in the championship in 19th overall.

But Le Brocq descended into hell in 2019. There were question marks over the competitiveness of Tekno’s Triple Eight-built Holden Commodore ZB, with Le Brocq himself pointing out early in the season the car did not run current-spec front uprights.

His position in the driver’s seat was also put into question and was only confirmed for the season after mediation with Webb in May. The relationship was at its rock bottom at the Phillip Island Supercars round in April 2019, where a stony-faced Le Brocq rebuffed all requests for interviews.

He acknowledges now how hard it was to complete his driving task.

“You are never going to be in a positive headspace,” he admitted.

“When you have got to be performing at the top level like that you need to be in the right headspace … to make sure you are performing at your best.

“For me, there a lot of complications and hurdles and stuff was being thrown at us along the way, which made it hard to knuckle down and get the most out of that situation.

“For me it was more disappointment than anything else, because over the years there have been a massive group that’s got us there from my parents to all the supporters who helped get us to that point.

“For all of them it was difficult because you want to be in there having a good time, going fast and getting good results.

“But we didn’t know whether that was the end of the road or we were going to continue on. You definitely struggle at times like that.”

Le Brocq’s 2019 agony was cut short when it became apparent mid-year Tickford Racing was keen to sign him as departing superstar Chaz Mostert’s replacement.

He admits it was the light at the end of the tunnel that made racing at the back of the grid bearable.

“That was the biggest pick-me-up just knowing that was a possibility.

“It didn’t make the year easier, but we knew we had something to look forward to. We knew what was around the corner.

“Tim Edwards (Tickford CEO) and Rod Nash (Tickford co-owner) and the rest of the guys at Tickford knew I could do the job if I was in the right equipment, so that was pretty cool.

“It’s a pretty amazing feeling to be given that opportunity, especially after the year we had.

“I suppose it was a big call for them, but I am so glad they had trust and faith in me to do it.”

The other positive for Le Brocq was he was actually on the grid in the main game, fulfilling an ambition nurtured in Karts, Vees and Formula Ford.

“We knew we were in for a hiding each time, but I was still out there cutting laps, I was still learning, even from the back of the grid,” he said.

After two years in a single-car team, Le Brocq is clearly revelling in the flood of data and information having three team-mates – Cameron Waters, Lee Holdsworth and even newer signing James Courtney - provides.

He revealed Waters – with whom he claimed fourth at the Bathurst 1000 in 2016 - even gave him some tips on how to drive a long stint on the soft in the Tickford Mustang.

“They just hung on long enough!

“The drivers have been awesome, you ask them a question and they are 100 per cent open with an answer.”

Le Brocq’s also quickly forming a relationship with Wischusen, who is Tickford’s head of engineering and stepped into the race engineer role with Le Brocq replacing Tim White because of COVID-19 personnel restriction.

“I’m loving every moment,” he said.

“Tickford’s thrown everything at it to help get me up to speed and understand how the team operates as quickly as possible.

“Brad and I are working very hard to understand how to drive this car. He has been awesome in getting me up to speed.

While Le Brocq acknowledges he still has a lot to learn about driving the Mustang he sees that as a good thing. He reckons there are potentially more wins in store the more he learns and the faster he gets.

“Hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll definitely keep pushing for them.

“Can’t stop at one.”

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SUPERCARS’ $1 MILLION ROAD SHOW

By MARK FOGARTY KEEPING VICTORIAN Supercars teams on the road until at least the end of next month will cost around a million dollars.

Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards has revealed that Supercars and the Melbournebased squads are sharing the bill for being away for a minimum of nine weeks.

They are paying for accommodation, meals and travel for around 70 people, which at even the most conservative estimate of $250 per person a day is a total of $1.1 million.

The five Melbourne-based teams – Tickford, Erebus Motorsport, Walkinshaw Andretti United, Team 18 and Kelly Racing – fled to NSW just before the border closed on July 8.

They also escaped to southeast Queensland after the second Sydney Motorsport Park round, to be able to travel to Darwin for next month’s double-header at Hidden Valley Raceway.

The coronavirus crackdowns follow a serious second wave in Melbourne and concerning outbreaks in Sydney.

The Northern Territory is closed to visitors who’ve been in declared COVID-19 hot spots in Melbourne and Sydney.

The Melbourne teams – plus Team Sydney – avoided this ban by having been in Queensland for two weeks before heading to Darwin, as does Albury based Brad Jones Racing because it is entering NT from regional NSW. All teams will be in Darwin for at least 10 days for the EasyBet Darwin Triple Crown on August 8-9 and then the Darwin SuperSprint on August 15-16.

They will return to Queensland for the Townville event on August 29-30, with the possibility of staying on for a second appearance at the Reid Park street circuit on September 5-6.

Teams are allowed 14 personnel – including drivers – per event for each two-car operation.

The cost of the whole exercise, according to Tickford’s Edwards, is considerable but necessary.

“There is a reasonable cost to it, but it’s what Supercars and the teams need to do to keep the show on the road,” he told Auto Action. “It’s no different to the AFL – except they’d be haemorrhaging 10 times what we’re spending to achieve what they’re doing.

“So there’s certainly a cost associated with it, but we have no choice.”

The AFL has admitted it is spending $3 million a week to base the 10 Victorian teams in southeast Queensland for the duration of the compacted season.

Edwards wouldn’t put a figure on the overall cost of keeping Victorian teams on the road for more than two months, but pointed out that the expenditure wasn’t on the same scale as the AFL. “We just don’t have that number of people

up there and certainly, in our case, the guys are doing their best to control the costs,” he said. “They’re having to be self-sufficient.”

Edwards confirmed the costs of being on the road were being shared between the away teams and Supercars.

“The series is assisting, but there’s obviously an element that falls to the teams as well,” he said. “But it is what it is. We have to do it. Nobody’s questioning that side of it.”

It is understood that Supercars paid the Victorian teams’ living costs from when they left Melbourne until the race weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.

It is unclear what the arrangement has been since their move to the Gold Coast, although it is likely they are being subsidised until they get to Darwin.

Tickford has been staying at Sea World between SMP 2 until leaving for Darwin, observing all coronavirus health protocols.

All team members on the Gold Coast have undergone regular COVID-19 tests and, despite the relative freedom of movement, have been under strict instructions not to go to busy places.

“They couldn’t be safer,” Edwards maintained.

Supercars and the Melbourne teams are committed to returning staff who’ve been away from home since the original exodus after Townsville.

Some teams are rotating personnel in the meantime.

AA has learned that WAU has swapped a handful of staff for Darwin, sending the replacements ahead to self-isolate before the event.

Edwards confirmed that all team members who’ve been away will be repatriated, come what may, after Townsville.

“We have to get our staff back home as soon as we possibly can,” he said. “That has to be our priority. We know what we’re doing for Darwin and I know there are some discussions going on about Townsville, but there’s a lot up in the air at the moment and a lot still to be resolved.

“Between now and the end of the second Darwin, a lot will be unearthed about what we’re doing post that. But there has to be a priority in there to get the staff home.”

For more from Tim Edwards on how teams are coping with the coronavirus crisis, see ‘Up Front With Foges’ on pages 22-25

PODIUM PRESSURE FOR RED BULL Can Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen finish in the top three in Darwin?

By BRUCE NEWTON THREE CONSECUTIVE races without a podium has the mighty Red Bull Holden Racing Team under the pump and looking to make amends next time out in Darwin.

You have to go back 2014 for the last time the factory-backed team had a worse run, when Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes failed to finish at least third in four consecutive races.

Of course, RBHRT has gone its last six straight races without a win but as recently as 2019 it managed a nine-race stretch without saluting the judge.

Darwin is a tough track for this team to make a bounceback at, as it hasn’t had a podium there since 2018 and a win since Shane Van Gisbergen scored in his 2016 championship year.

Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen managed a highly credible four podiums between them in the three sprints at the opening Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint in late June without winning, but the closest RBHRT got to the snowboard trophies handed out at SMP second time round was a fourth

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for SvG in the Saturday night race.

Some mediocre car-pace, poor strategy calls and an unspecified mechanical issue for Whincup in the final race made it a sub-par weekend for the factory Holden team.

“We are not happy about going winless,” said RBHRT team manager Mark Dutton.

“For the teams, for the sponsors, for the fans, it does increase the pressure that we put on ourselves.

“We are racers at the end of the day so we are here to win races.”

The mixed three hard/two soft compound sets of Dunlops to get through five qualifying sessions and three 32-lap races at SMP 2 – as Dutton dubbed the second consecutive Sydney race – definitely caused issues for the team.

With two championship contenders in its cars, the decision was made beforehand to try and generate maximum points across the weekend, rather than individual race glory.

Dutton also admitted there were times during the three SMP 2 races that the wrong calls were made.

Image: LAT

“We tried to tune the car up from SMP 1 and didn’t,” admitted Dutton. “In Saturday’s race I think we would have won it with Shane if we had the car speed.

“Then we made some strategy mistakes throughout the rest of the weekend.

“Then combine the fact that in each race there were people prepared to stack the race (go soft-soft) and that is not only going to push you out of getting a win, it can push

you out of the podium.”

While unwilling to drill into too much detail on strategy, Dutton did concede the team erred in keeping van Gisbergen out on his softs too long while leading the Saturday night race.

“That’s one when you are looking at that on the fly, you are considering would he be passed anyway? Do you hang out then have better tyres to protect for a safety car, or try and have less of a deficit between the hard and soft.

“In hindsight if we had stopped him earlier we could have dropped him out in front of McLaughlin and just tried to fight. That doesn’t necessarily mean you would have a better outcome, but you would have more of a fight.

“We should have done that.”

Dutton said the team would be potentially rethinking its strategies for the Hidden Valley double-header, where one event is expected to be hard/soft and the other all-soft.

“You’d be foolish to think you’ve done everything perfectly when the scoreboard says you haven’t, so we will look at what led us to the decisions we made at the track.”

BATHURST 1000 EMERGENCY PLANS

New COVID crisis could trap Victorian teams

By MARK FOGARTY

SUPERCARS IS working on emergency plans to protect the Bathurst 1000, which could be threatened by renewed or extended lockdowns in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

The serious second wave of coronavirus in Melbourne has raised concerns of a spike in Sydney, as well as potential outbreaks in the Brisbane/ Gold Coast corridor.

The Bathurst 1000 is hostage to how COVID-19 is contained in the next few months.

Supercars has already had one scare with the AFL looking at holding the Grand Final on October 10 or 11 – the same weekend as the Bathurst 1000 – but that has since gone away.

Supercars and the teams will do whatever it takes to make sure the showcase event happens, but it remains under threat until the pandemic is under control in Victoria and, to a lesser extent, NSW. The main danger is Victorian teams becoming trapped after their planned return to Melbourne following the Townsville round at the end of August.

If they are still not allowed out in time for the October 8-11 Bathurst 1000, Supercars will have to try to organise an exemption to get them back into NSW. That would almost certainly require the five Melbourne-based teams to go into quarantine for two weeks before

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setting up at Mount Panorama ahead of the start of practice.

An AFL-style hub would have to be established in Bathurst, funded by Supercars and the affected teams.

This contingency plan – one of several being prepared – assumes the renewed lockdown in metropolitan Melbourne is not extended beyond the current cut-off of August 12.

If it is lengthened into September or even October, there is the added complication that the teams and their personnel would not be able to leave their local areas.

Even if Melbourne is derestricted, there is also no guarantee that NSW will reopen the border to Victorians.

Another hazard is if coronavirus numbers soar in Sydney and regional NSW, closing off the whole state to Queensland.

For the moment, the three Queensland teams are allowed to reenter after visiting non-hot spot areas of NSW. If that changes, or if southeast Queensland is stricken, movement across – or even within – all three east coast states could be halted, stopping all teams from getting to Bathurst.

Supercars is committed to running the Bathurst 1000, with or, as looks increasingly likely, without a meaningful or any crowd.

Walkinshaw Andretti United co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw is concerned that

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Victorian teams will have trouble getting to Bathurst.

“I’m very worried about that,” Walkinshaw said.

Tickford Racing team principal and Supercars commissioner Tim Edwards is adamant that “Bathurst has to happen”.

If proposed, Edwards has no doubt the Victorian teams would agree a two-week quarantine.

“I’d suggest if that were tabled, the teams would do it in a heartbeat,” he said. “But nothing’s been discussed along those lines. It’s three months away.

“Three months gives us a decent window to get out of the shitter’s ditch that we’re in at the moment, but if something like that had to happen, then we’d make it happen.

“We won’t know until we know, but if the only we can go (to Bathurst) is to quarantine, etc, then I don’t think there’d be a single person in the pit lane who would argue against that.”

According to Edwards, whose quartet of Mustangs have been competitive despite the team being away from base since early this month, the priority is to get as many events done within existing restrictions.

“What we’re doing at the moment is racing as much as we can as often as we can while we can, because we don’t know what’s going to happen further down the track,” he said. “Imagine if we did have tighter restrictions later in the year. None of us knows. We honestly don’t know what’s going to happen over the next few months.

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“Who would’ve thought a month ago in Melbourne that we’d find ourselves back in this position? Mentally, a month ago we were all in a pretty good space because we felt we were on the way out and now we’re deeper in than we’ve ever been in Victoria.

“As a Victorian, I’m not real pleased about where we’re at at the moment at all.”

As well as Bathurst, Sandown in September and then Perth and Tasmania are in doubt because of the border closures.

Meanwhile, a threat that the AFL’s heavily compressed schedule might bring the Grand Final forward to the same weekend as the Bathurst 1000 appears to have been avoided.

Amid concerns about clashing with major Melbourne Spring Carnival horse racing events, there was speculation the GF would be brought forward to October 10 or 11.

However, Supercars is now confident the AFL decider – wherever it’s staged – will be held as rescheduled on October 24 or brought forward to October 17.

For the first time, the GF could be a night-time game to avoid clashing with the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley or the Caulfield Cup. The NRL Grand Final, normally held a week before the Bathurst 1000, isn’t a threat as it is scheduled for October 25.

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LATEST SUPERCAR NEWS

MASK UP & KEEP YOUR DISTANCE: V8 DOC’S GUIDE TO AVOIDING CORONAVIRUS Supercars chief medical officer outlines to MARK FOGARTY how racing is beating COVID-19 and what you must to do to reduce the risk WEAR A mask and keep your distance is the best advice Supercars medico Dr Carl Le has for race fans.

Dr Carl’s rules for protecting yourself from the coronavirus are basic and obvious, aligning with health authorities’ guidance and based on his own experience as an emergency ward clinician.

He has been Supercars’ medical delegate for 13 years, treating minor to major maladies and injuries while suffering his own medical issues.

Bottom line, as the head of emergency departments at two private hospitals in southeast Melbourne, Dr Carl is a trauma expert.

He advised Supercars on how to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in accordance with state and federal health guidelines.

He attended the resumption of racing at Sydney Motorsport Park at the end of June, but left SMP 2 to local medical experts and is doing the same for the Darwin double-header.

“I think Supercars is doing an amazing job,” he said. “There are no risks being taken.

“Everything that’s been done has been legal and ethical with the advice of the health departments. No one was being put at risk.”

According to Dr Carl, Supercars has observed the most robust health protocols, including regular coronavirus tests.

“I just looked at the AFL model where they’re swabbing everyone several times a week,” he said. “Supercars isn’t a contact sport, but from the get-go, it’s been about providing medical advice and how to achieve it.”

Dr Carl explained why COVID-19 wasn’t just ‘a bad flu’.

“There are two things about COVID-19 that are different to

seasonal influenza,” he said. “The main thing is that it’s very virulent, which means that it spreads much more easily. It lives in droplets and it needs other humans to transmit it, therefore the personal distancing and masks will make a difference in knocking it down.

“The second thing is that it is deadly. It’s much deadlier than influenza and it will kill more aggressively, particularly among the elderly. But it does kill young people as well. It is a deadly virus. It is much scarier than influenza.

“It kills people and economies.”

He cautions that the virulency of COVID-19 and subsequent viral mutations means life will never be the same again.

“Our way of life will be changed forever,” he warned. “Even if the vaccine they’re working on eliminates COVID-19, unfortunately, viruses mutate and there will be new strains.

That’s inevitable.

“But at least there’ll be the technology to quickly come up with a treatment because now we’re aware of how deadly and how widespread these viruses can become.”

Dr Carl also addressed why fans can’t attend Supercars events in big numbers.

“The reality is that apart from the time when you’re sitting in your car or sitting in a grandstand, you still need to go to the toilet, you still need to eat and drink, and you still need people to help with parking directions, security staff to man gates, ticketing and all of that.”

He added: “It’s about safety. You can’t have people queuing up for toilets or food and drinks. You can’t just have people wandering around when there’s still a risk of community transmissions.”

DR CARL’S TOP TIPS TO STAY SAFE • COVID-19 is deadly, whatever your age • Wear a mask in public or at work • Keep your distance – at least 2 metres • Stay at home wherever possible • Wash your hands regularly • Clean high-contact surfaces

DARWIN SUPERCARS TYRE RULES LIKELY TO VARY DIFFERENT TYRE rules are expected to apply to each of the Supercars championship back-to-back Darwin doubleheaders in August.

While both events will be three-race full-tank sprints, with one pit stop for at least two tyres mandatory each time out, the August 8-9 meeting is expected to go with the three sets of hard compound and two sets of soft compound rubber, as shown off at Sydney Motorsport Park last time out.

The second event on August 15-16 is expected to allocate five sets of soft Dunlops to each car as per the opening SMP event in late June, when the championship returned from its three month coronavirus-induced hiatus.

The tyre rules and other format details were agreed by the Supercars Commission on Monday and sent to Motorsport Australia for final approval.

Ahead of the commission meeting Supercars motorsport chief Adrian Burgess confirmed the tyre plan to Auto Action, although he was not willing to confirm which event would run which tyre format.

He did indicate there could be detail changes to Darwin formats compared to SMP. “I’ve got an idea what we think we will do, but the broader group will sit and have a chat and discuss the merits of what we have done in the past and if we need to tweak something, we’ve got the ability to do that.

“We want to keep improving the show, providing great entertainment for those watching and a good competition for those competing.”

Qualifying rules were a controversial topic exiting SMP 2 and AA understands there could be changes. The key issue last time out was not having all cars on the same compound when going for a time. It’s logical to suggest this would have been addressed in some form.

The commission also considered whether to continue with the previously-announced parc ferme for the Saturday race on the first weekend as previously announced.

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Image: LAT

The new rapid-fire format for Supercars, reduced staff numbers on-site and a work curfew introduced this year reduces its impact, Burgess said.

“Whether we need the parc ferme is up for debate.

There is only so much you can do when there is only 30 minutes between sessions.

“You are effectively limiting what they can do anyway. And they are further limited by the staff numbers they have got there.

“We probably don’t need to do it to be honest.”

It also appears certain the first event will run without support categories. Second time out there is a chance at least one other local category will be added to the bill.

“The jury is still out on that one,” Burgess said.

Both events will admit a maximum of 4500 spectators per day, although there will be no access to the garages and no corporates.

Looking further out Burgess said there was nothing that could yet be confirmed about the formats for Townsville, which may also host two events.

“Townsville is a long way away, first and foremost we have got to make sure we are protecting the staff and the teams because those guys have been on the road for a long time.

“We are not going to make any bold statements around Townsville.” BN

GEN3 SHAKE-UP

MARK FOGARTY uncovers the latest push for cheap, adaptable rules as teams oppose efforts to ease Toyota’s entry

VARIABLE WHEELBASES are back on the Gen3 agenda to ensure the widest possible appeal to potential new manufacturers in Supercars.

Amid widespread dissent among team owners, a move from a fixed wheelbase dimension to a flexible figure is being considered.

The head of the Gen3 working group, senior Supercars executive John Casey, confirmed that to allow different shapes and sizes of cars, an adjustable wheelbase is a possibility.

“Our intention with Gen3 is to allow OE dimensions,” said Casey, referring to ‘original equipment’ manufacturer specs.

The idea of a variable rather than fixed wheelbase is to allow smaller two-door coupes like the Toyota Supra to comply.

Gen3, due to be introduced in 2022, is aimed at a big reduction in the costs of building and running cars, and also facilitating two-door coupes to retain the look of the donor road car.

Supercars wants to avoid the compromise that corrupted the Ford Mustang shape to fit the existing chassis.

According to Casey, “work is progressing” on Gen3 following a pause during the initial coronavirus crisis.

“The group reformed,” he said.

Triple Eight technical director Jeromy Moore is

overseeing the chassis design study, while DJR Team Image: Penske’s chief boffin Ludo Lacroix is in LAT charge of operational and component savings.

Supercars’ engine consultant Craig Haystead is investigating cheaper control motor options.

According to Casey, who is working with Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess and team bosses Roland Dane and Ryan Story on the Gen3 project, all the recommendations are subject to “peer review”.

He also maintained that at the forefront of the cost-cutting effort was a mandate to retain as much of the existing running gear as possible.

“We’re trying to build in as much redundancy protection as possible with the chassis,” Casey said.

He emphasised that Supercars owns all the IP related to Gen3, again dismissing persistent claims that Dane is pushing a Triple Eight control chassis design as “complete crap”.

Dane has also denied he is angling to manufacture all Gen3 chassis, yet the perception remains among other teams that T8’s design work is self-interested.

Moves to make next-gen Supercars more appealing to manufacturers Despite Casey’s stance that Gen3 planning is proceeding smoothly, team owners with whom Auto Action has spoken report disagreement.

“There’s a bit of a war going on with Gen3,” a team boss said.

Among the concerns is that the changeover will cost up to $2 million for a two-car operation.

“The teams can’t afford a new car yet,” another team chief declared, with others questioning whether Supercars will help fund the switch, as it did with Car Of The Future in 2013.

The situation is complicated by the potential sale of Supercars by disinterested owner Archer Capital.

There is also talk of an interim Gen2.5, updating current cars to ease the transition.

Most teams accept that a control engine is inevitable, delivering potential savings of up to $150,000 a season.

One heavily invested team owner opposed a move to a flexible wheelbase, maintaining newcomers should accept altered dimensions to fit a standard platform.

He was particularly scathing of efforts to accommodate the short-wheelbase Supra, asserting “stretch it or don’t run it”.

Others are campaigning for a modular chassis with easily – and cheaply – repairable front and rear sections.

“A modular chassis can be built for $40,000 with much lower repair costs,” a disgruntled team boss told AA. Most teams are also sceptical that Gen3 can be introduced in 2022 given this year’s COVID-19 economic collapse, suggesting 2023 at the earliest – and then only with Supercars subsidies.

“It needs funding to get it over the line and there’s no easy solution to that,” a team boss observed.

Also outstanding are IP agreements with

GM for a Chevrolet Camaro-look Supercar and a renewal of Ford’s approval for the Mustang, which is due for a major facelift of the current road-going model next year.

Walkinshaw Andretti United co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw is clear on what he thinks Gen3 needs to deliver.

“My view on this hasn’t changed,” Walkinshaw said. “We need a much cheaper car that has a lot less aero and which requires a lot less data and analysis that’s quicker to turnaround between sessions and race weekends and fewer people to work on the cars.”

He expanded: “Cheaper to build, cheaper to run and, most importantly, have a shape that allows for multiple different manufacturers with multiple different body shapes to enter the category without having to go and spend $2 million or $3 million on a development program for carbon parts and aerodynamic testing in order to get parity.

“We need to have a car that for 500 grand, for example, a manufacturer can enter the category with any team up and down pit lane and not have to worry about all the difficulties that are currently in place if you want to be competitive.”

Walkinshaw asserted that Gen3 had to adjust to the worldwide reality that multi-million dollar manufacturer support of racing was over.

“The days of having manufacturers coming in and spending $3 million-$5 million to go racing in our category probably won’t return,” he said.

“If we get the cost to entry for a manufacturer down to a reasonable level – by which I mean sub-$1 million – I think that will open to door for a lot of emerging automotive brands in Australia to dip their toe in the water with a Supercars program, without spending a significant proportion of their potential marketing budget on one platform that may or may not work for them.”

BATHURST IS 10’S LAST LIVE RACE NETWORK 10 has confirmed it is out of Supercars at the end of the year, but in making its announcement it also revealed free-to-air V8 tin-top lovers won’t get any live action on the box after Bathurst.

“We look forward to finishing on a high with the 2020 Bathurst 1000 in October. We wish the drivers, crews and all those behind the scenes the very best for the 2021 season,” a statement issued by 10 last week stated.

Ten’s withdrawal will come as no shock to Auto Action readers, with a Fox/Channel 7 combo from 2021 was just about done and delivered.

But it is certainly disappointing for fans that the FTA component ends in early October, when there are still three races on the revised calendar to run afterwards, including the Sydney Supernight finale on December 12-13.

Having said all that, the Supercars calendar could still be subject to multiple changes because of COVID-19.

Network 10 has been the FTA telecaster since 2015.

Traditionally it has had the right to broadcast live the ‘marquee’ events consisting of Adelaide, Townsville, Sandown, Bathurst, Gold Coast and at that time Sydney, which has since been replaced by Newcastle.

Due to the COVID-19 situation and the amended

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calendar, which has left two of these ‘marquee’ events – Gold Coast and Newcastle – cancelled, Network 10 is instead set to broadcast Darwin, Townsville and Bathurst live.

As it currently stands, although doubtful it will go ahead, Sandown is also scheduled to feature a delayed highlights package, as will the post-Bathurst 1000 rounds at Wanneroo, Symmons Plains and Sydney Motorsport Park.

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Network 10’s statement read: “Network 10 will not renew its contract with the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, which expires at the end of this year. Network 10 has enjoyed a great relationship with the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship over the past six years and it’s been a privilege to bring our audiences worldclass racing.” HM

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ANALYSE THIS!

Whincup calls for less emphasis on the data and more focus on the steerers

By BRUCE NEWTON IT’S ABOUT the driver’s not the data!

That’s the view of Jamie Whincup, who wants Supercars to reduce its emphasis on crunching computed numbers and put more focus on the drivers who strap themselves into the 650 horsepower V8 monsters and go racing.

“They are the ones who are week in and week out putting it on the line and shedding blood to get to the finish line first. The more it can be about that the better,” the seven-time Supercars champion told Auto Action.

And the category’s greatest driver believes the issues and struggles being inflicted on Supercars by the coronavirus could lead to that very outcome.

“I am hoping once we get through the pain, the discomfort and devastation of 2020, hopefully we look back in three years’ time and say ‘Hey that reset made us better’,” he said.

“I hope 2020 makes the world stronger, which includes our sport.”

Whincup was speaking during an interview with AA to marking his 500 race starts in which

he assessed the past, present and future of Supercars, category.

Whincup debuted in the category in 2003 and has won all his championships and 199 race wins - including four Bathurst 1000s - since he joined Triple Eight Race Engineering in 2006.

These days he is not only a driver but partowner of T8 and Supercars commissioner.

“Back in the day I’d come in from practice and say ‘Hey, we need to head in this direction with the car’ and we’d make some changes and get a bit of a feel and that was how you tuned a race car,” he said.

“It was all a bit of seat of the pants and a bit of feel and the data would be somewhat in the background of the toolkit.

“But now we are heavily reliant on all that information and analysing that information to try and improve the performance.”

While Whincup acknowledges data and its analysis is an important learning tool for rookies

and new entrants to the category, he argues it has to be curtailed.

He says while the cars have become more even thanks to technical parity, the disparity in data has kept the big teams ahead. He believes more teams would enter the sport if data was not such a key requirement.

“We’re analysing so much more and in so much more detail,” he said.

“Do we need more teams in the category? 100 per cent. How do we make it easier? Make it less technical from the outset,” he said.

“The fact that some teams have a mission control going on back at base with people employed to go through the data and then sending that stuff back to the racetrack, is not a good thing.

“I don’t think anyone can afford that in this day and age and we need to minimise that as much as possible.”

Supercars has moved to quash ‘mission

controls’ in its new set of data access rules introduced after the three-month break from racing forced by the pandemic.

It has restricted live data access during a race and not allowing access to the Supercars data logger until the end of each event. Brake temperature sensors and gyro sensors (g-sensors) have also been removed from the cars.

Whincup said the upshot of all this should be more reliance on the driver to do his job well.

“I honestly believe going forward the biggest factor in this sport has got to remain about the drivers. People are going to laugh when they read that: ‘Of course he’s going to say that, he’s a driver’,” said Whincup.

“But we’ve still got to have the utmost respect for the guys and girls who are strapping themselves to these 300km/h missiles.”

For much more from Jamie Whincup, turn to page 30.

SUPERCARS DOWNPLAYS AERO ISSUE

By BRUCE NEWTON

But complaints are being “investigated”, Burgess confirms

SUPERCARS MOTORSPORT boss Adrian Burgess has acknowledged the turbulence generated by the current aerodynamic setup, but has downplayed the prospects of a significant summer makeover.

Burgess told Auto Action he is he is aware of the issue but not focussed on it.

“We are investigating what we could do if we are asked to do something about it,” he confirmed. “We need to go to some more circuits and see what the situation is.”

He said there was currently no VCAT aero test planned for next summer.

Supercars reduced downforce of the Ford Mustang and Holden Commodore ZB by about 12 per cent across two VCAT sessions last summer, in an attempt to achieve

8 AutoAction

technical parity and aid following and passing.

But at both the Adelaide season-opener back in February and at the first Sydney Motorsport Park event when racing resumed in June, there were complaints from drivers that following closely behind another car was “the worst it’s ever been”.

But at SMP second time out cars were more jumbled up on the road due to the hard/soft tyre allocation. Markedly different grip levels led to plenty of passing, races for the lead each time out and less comments about turbulence and wash.

“There wasn’t a lot of noise last weekend around aero,” Burgess told AA. “Clearly we had some incredible close racing last week. We were watching cars three and four wide, four cars within a second going for the lead

of the race on the last lap.

“Is it hard to follow? Yes, it might be a little bit hard but equally if you’ve got the tyre format in the right sort of window, you can still have incredible racing.

“The amount of passing and lead changes we have had in the past two events have been incredible compared to anything we have had before.”

Nevertheless, Burgess wasn’t denying the aero issue existed.

“Is it a problem? Yes it’s a problem. Is it as big a problem as some people think? I don’t think it is. Is it something that people will learn to live with and adjust their car around? Yeah, it probably is.

“Is it easy for me to fix? No it’s not, because

at the moment we seem to have good parity. We don’t want to make any rash decisions.”

Factory Holden driver Shane van Gisbergen blamed the gurney flaps on the rear wings and bootlids – 13mm and 10mm respectively - as significant contributors to the turbulence issue.

But Burgess said simply removing them was not the answer.

“It will bring me bigger problems in terms of parity, so it’s not an easy issue to fix.”

Bodywork changes would be required to significantly reduce the aero of the current Gen2 Supercar, an expense the championship and its teams are understandably keen to avoid.

However, the commitment has been made to dramatically reduce the downforce of the Gen3 supercars being developed for 2022.

Ring issue resolved

WHILE BACKING its hard/soft tyre format in the face of some strong criticism, Supercars has made it clear the jury is still out on how significant its ongoing role in the championship will be.

Supercars allowed each car three sets of hards and two sets of soft Dunlops to get through up to five qualifying sessions and three 32-lap sprint races at Sydney Motorsport Park in the last championship outing, after allowing them five sets of softs the previous meeting.

Combined with the high degradation SMP surface, the accepted Supercars pecking order was at times turned turtle with a rookie winner in Tickford Racing’s Jack Le Brocq, several rookie podium finishers and some backmarkers cracking it for a top 10 finish.

There was also lead changes in each race and last lap multi-car battles for the podium in both Sunday races.

At the other end of the scale, usual front-runners the Red Bull Holden Racing Team couldn’t crack it for a podium with either Shane van Gisbergen or Jamie Whincup. In the final race, neither RBHRT or DJR Team Penske claimed a podium spot for the first time since 2017.

Seven-time champion Whincup told the Loud Pedal podcast the tyre rules produced a bit “more of a lottery”, a description Supercars motorsport boss Adrian Burgess didn’t agree with.

“I don’t really believe it is at the moment,” Burgess told Auto Action. “Everyone goes into qualifying with exactly the same amount of tyres as each other and the same opportunity as each other.

‘What we did see was the engineers pulling their hair out and having to work incredibly hard because there are so many more strategies for them to employ and things for them to think about.”

Supercars is expected to run the hard/soft tyre allocation in the opening event of the Darwin double-header before going all soft second time round.

But beyond that it is yet to be confirmed at any event, starting with Townsville later in August.

“It’s too early to say if we want to do this longterm,” said Burgess. “We have only done this at one circuit so I think we need to get some more data and samples from other circuits.

“So the jury is still out but when you have got four cars fighting for the lead on the last lap, it is incredible to watch.”

The hard/soft mix and limited allocation forced drivers and their engineers to prioritise one race over another. Many opted to ‘go for glory’ with a soft-soft run in one race chasing the win.

It even forced some drivers to conserve with the hard tyre in qualifying and cop the poorer grid position in order to save the softs for racing.

DJR team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin called for an additional set of tyres to be supplied for at least the qualifying shoot-out, so all drivers are on “the same playing field”.

But Burgess was ambivalent on that proposal.

“Is it right or wrong? It’s hard to say. If you are looking at the race I’d say no, but if you’re looking purely at qualifying then it’s bit weird and it doesn’t make sense because the quickest guy isn’t at the front.

“But the racer in me says you don’t get any points in qualifying. In qualifying you are already working toward the race, so you do the best thing for your race result.”

McLaughlin was the only driver who managed a race win going hard-soft, scoring under lights on Saturday night. He backed that up with a third and 14th on Sunday to be the top points-scorer and extend his title lead.

Nick Percat’s soft-soft win in race two combined with ninth and 11th finishes either side made him second highest points scorer for the weekend, emphasising how tough the strategy call is.

“The beauty of it is there are many ways to run your weekend,” said Burgess. Bruce Newton

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Hard and soft: what they said Barry Ryan – CEO Erebus Motorsport “I don’t think anybody’s a fan; it’s not real racing. We’re racers; if we’re the best, we want to be able to be able to win. You shouldn’t just be able to get a result because you played the ball or just do something different to everyone else. It’s not racing and it’s not exciting. The crew are down in the dumps about being away as it is, so all of this fake racing is just not good, so we’ve got to get back to real, hard core racing.”

Jack Le Brocq – Tickford Racing “Everyone starts the weekend with the same amount of tyres and the same quality of tyres and it’s how they spend them through the weekend. There will always be knockers, the purists out there, who want the racing how it used to be. But on the hand it’s pretty exciting for the sponsors. I don’t think we have seen so many cars up the front and so many mixed up results.”

Scott McLaughlin – DJR Team Penske “In race three everyone had better rubber and you are just a sitting duck trying not to get t-boned. Overall, solid weekend. We did what we needed to do, whether I enjoy the format is another thing, but it is what it is. It’s weird, whether I agree with it … As a racing driver you want to go out to win or compete at the highest level as much as you can, and our highest level today [in race three] was 14th. You bust your arse for that.”

Andre Heimgartner – Kelly Racing “At the end of the day everyone has the equal opportunity coming in to the race weekend to grab the race win. For sure it might be easier if you luck out with the strategy and so on, but it just puts more emphasis on keeping calm throughout the weekend … we did a better job that race (three) and that’s how it was.”

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THE JURY’S OUT

Future of mixed compound racing uncertain

INCREASED ENGINE oil consumption has been an unintended and unwanted byproduct of the shift to a control piston ring by Supercars in 2020.

The issue surfaced early in the year at Triple Eight Race Engineering and other teams, but Auto Action understands it was resolved during the three-month break in the season forced by the COVID-19 lockdown.

The new piston ring was introduced this year along with a control roller rocker ratio and an engine rebuild cap of three per-season, to improve longevity and reducing costs for teams.

“There is a new piston ring that everyone has to use for a cost saving exercise and when you change anything in a highly stressed and highly-tuned environment, there is always the chance it’s not going to work perfectly upon first installation,” explained Red Bull Holden Racing team manager Mark Dutton.

“You don’t just put a ring in and nothing else changes.

There are a lot of factors in building a race engine … inevitably there are bugs you have to iron out.

“In some engines there was increased oil consumption.

That’s how it presented itself.”

RBHRT, T8 customer teams and Brad Jones Racing all use Chev V8 racing engines developed and maintained by KRE, which is the business of legendary engine builder Ken McNamara.

Better known as ‘Kenny Mac’, Dutton confirmed his role in fixing the issue.

“Kenny has worked with Supercars really hard … not just on Triple Eight engines but others as well, to help them through these times for some of those issues,” said Dutton.

BN/HM

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Keep an eye on the Auto Action website for confirmation of the second Supercars event at Townsville’s Reid Park, which is expected to be announced around the time this issue hits the streets.

As reported by Mark Fogarty on page 4-5, the second outing is expected to take place on September 5-6, straight after the August 29-30 event already on the calendar. BN

THE SUPERNIGHT Supercars Championship finale at Sydney Motorsport Park will not feature live free-to-air coverage on Network 10, but will be packaged into a delayed highlights program instead, like the two recent rounds at the same venue. As it currently stands, although doubtful it will go ahead, Sandown is also scheduled to feature a delayed highlights package as will the rounds post-Bathurst 1000, at Wanneroo and Symmons Plains. The Bathurst 1000 will be the final event that the network will show live and free. HM

A PIT lane incident at Sydney Motorsport Park has seen Team 18 fined $1500 and docked 30 teams’ championship points. TV crews filmed Mark Winterbottom leaving his pit box with the air spike hose still attached to the ZB Commodore. The hose broke off from its coupling and flew around the pit bay for several seconds before it was caught. The stewards released a statement saying that the fine was issued for the breach. “Rule D11.7.3 mandates that a car must be completely free from all hoses and equipment before leaving its pit bay.” DM Image: LAT

NETWORK 10 has announced it will broadcast the first of two Supercars Championship events in Darwin this month.

The network will broadcast the Hidden Valley event from August 8-9 as a replacement for the cancelled Gold Coast round of the series, Saturday’s coverage will begin at midday AEST and Sunday’s telecast at 11.30am. DM

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SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SET FOR 1000 DEBUT AT THE age of just 17, reigning Super3 Series winner Broc Feeney will make his Bathurst 1000 debut later this year alongside former Supercars champion James Courtney.

In 2020 Feeney has made the step up into Super2 and is competing for Tickford Racing, the team that he will drive for in the great race.

The level-headed Queenslander described racing at the Bathurst 1000 in the Boost Mobile Ford Mustang as a dream come true, and is thankful for the opportunity presented to him.

“I still can’t really believe that at 17 I’m racing in the Bathurst 1000, it’s literally a dream come true,” Feeney said to Auto Action.

“It’s not just all the hard work that I’ve put in over the last few years, it’s my family, my whole team and everyone that supported me, it’s a big relief.”

Feeney has only been racing cars for two and a half years, (see Young Guns feature p36-37) but has quickly climbed up the ranks in that short space of time.

The 17-year-old is looking forward to pairing up with Courtney and is

keen to learn from one of the oldest and most experienced drivers in the championship.

“I’m co-driving in the Bathurst 1000!

Things are going pretty quick for me but I’m just really excited,” he said.

“To partner with James who has been racing for so long now, he’s got so much experience I’m going to learn so much on that weekend.

“Pairing up with James, there’s a good relationship there. I have known James for a while and I’m racing in the Tickford Super2 team this year, it’s going to be a really good fit.”

Feeney and Courtney are both Boost Mobile Australia ambassadors and backed by the renowned founder of the company, Peter Adderton.

When asked by AA how the deal came about and whether it was a push from Adderton or Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards, Feeney explained it was both.

“I found out through (manager) Paul Morris and my dad who keep in contact with Tim,” he said.

“The stars sort of aligned to that situation, Paul has known Peter for

IT’S NOT FAKE RACING POLESITTER FOR Race 12 at Sydney Motorsport Park, Andre Heimgartner is a fan of the two-tyre race format describing the event as one of the best weekends of racing for the Supercars in recent times.

“From a purest point of view, it may be not as pure but I think from an entertainment point of view it was far superior to what we’ve had for a long time,” Heimgartner told Auto Action.

“Anyone who was watching was raving about how good it was. That’s what we really need with everything going on at the moment, we don’t need boring racing so for how that went it was good and it mixed it up a lot.

“Everyone had the same opportunity going into the weekend, there’s more than three fast guys so in each race you were still racing Whincup or McLaughlin. It’s not fake racing at all, but it spices up and brings strategy into it, which changes from track-to-track.”

The Kiwi believes pole and second in that last race demonstrated the team has found the set-up window for its Ford Mustang, which is perfect timing as Hidden Valley is a

favourite of Kelly Racing.

“It’s been fairly good, we know what the car is capable of, it’s just about unlocking the speed and we know that we can do it now, especially after the last race,” he said.

“It’s basically about finding the window that the car needs to be in, it should be right when we go to Darwin and hopefully we take that next step.”

Although development has stalled due to Kelly Racing being unable to return to its Melbourne-based workshop, Heimgartner is confident now that the set-up is where it needs to be, he can challenge at the front on a regular basis.

“We really needed a few rounds to find where the window is on the car and I think we nailed it last weekend,” Heimgartner enthused.

“Hopefully that transfers into other rounds and we can consistently be up the front, which is what we’re definitely aiming for.

There’s not much development going on for the Victorian teams, it’s a bit harsh compared to the Queensland teams, apart from that it’s all going pretty well.” HM

a long time, and we’ve got a great relationship with Boost Australia and Tickford.

“I’m just so glad that they gave me this opportunity and I’m sure we’ll have the pace and try and hunt down a trophy.

“It’s going to be a massive learning curve for me but I’ll just make sure I drive my heart out, keep it clean, hand the car over to James in a good spot and let him go and chase them down.”

Feeney has previously driven an up to date Ford Mustang Supercar at Queensland Raceway last year.

“I tested with DJR Team Penske at the end of last year just after I won the Super3 championship, did a bit of engine testing for them, that was awesome,” he remarked.

Already this year Feeney has grown an affinity with Ford Mustangs, making his debut at The Mountain in a Marc Ford Mustang. The Queenslander won the Bathurst 12 Hour Invitational class alongside Bathurst 1000 winner Nick Percat and TCR Australia race winner Aaron Cameron. Dan McCarthy

Image: Insyde Media

BJR TAKING IT RACE BY RACE A RUN of podiums and top 10 results over the last two events does not mean Brad Jones Racing has cracked the code and will be contenders at every Supercars circuit.

Instead, team boss Brad Jones warns the Albury four-car squad could return to earth as soon as the Darwin double-header in August.

In the last two Supercars sprint events at Sydney Motorsport Park BJR lead driver Nick Percat has won twice, Todd Hazelwood earned his first podium, while Macauley Jones (eighth) and Jack Smith (10th) also recorded their best solo driver performances.

Jones told Auto Action that the team has worked very hard behind the scenes, but will not get ahead of itself.

“I don’t think anything happens by accident, but we have only gone to one circuit so I feel it is a little early to assume that it is going to happen everywhere we go,” Jones said.

“Obviously the engineers and the guys on the floor have been working pretty hard over the break to maximise everything we’ve

got, and it looks like it is working at the moment.

“It’ll be interesting to see where we are after we’ve run at a couple of different types of circuit. I wouldn’t say traditionally Darwin has been a great circuit for us, so that will be a test.”

Tyres were the major talking point during the second SMP event as Supercars elected to distribute two sets of soft tyres and three sets of hard tyres to complete three races and all qualifying sessions.

The limited amount of rubber means that crews had to ‘sacrifice’ at least one of the races and caused some people to label the racing as ‘fake’ and ‘gimmicky.’

Jones repelled these statements saying that it is extremely hard to win a Supercars Championship race, explaining that the most recent format relies a little more on strategy.

“I don’t think anyone can quite easily win a supercar race, anytime you win a supercar race it’s difficult,” Jones said.

“What we’ve stumbled across is passing, excitement, different

results, and what dictates that, strategy.

“It’s not as simple to win and it’s not possible to win every single race, but it is possible to have the fastest overall car for the weekend and still end up with the most amount of points, which is what we saw at both the events.”

Of the two tyre formats used, the single compound soft tyre regulations or the mixed tyre compound Jones says he has not got a preference.

“I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure. The last two events have been pretty exciting, you don’t know who’s going to win the race when it starts,” Jones told AA. “I was pretty vocally against the soft and hard format at the start, I felt that that five sets of softs worked really well at Sydney 1, but part of the race team’s arsenal is about getting a strategy right.

“I thought it worked out better than I expected, but that’s a high deg circuit, it’ll be interesting to see what happens on a low deg circuit.” Dan McCarthy

PENSKE-DJR DRIVERS NOT CONVINCED BY DUAL TYRE FORMAT BOTH OF the Team Penske Supercars Championship drivers were not won over by the mixed tyre regulations used at Sydney Motorsport Park, preferring the single compound format used three weeks prior for the Supercars Championship return.

For the second round each driver was forced to complete both races and all qualifying sessions with a just two sets of soft tyres and three sets of the hard compound.

Speaking after the completion of Sunday’s race, championship leader Scott McLaughlin and his teammate Fabian Coulthard both expressed their frustration at being forced to ‘sacrifice’ a race.

“In Race 3 everyone had better rubber and you are just a sitting duck trying not to get t-boned,” McLaughlin explained.

“Overall, solid weekend. We did what we needed to do, whether I enjoy the format

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is another thing, but it is what it is.

For McLaughlin, it was his lowest finish in two seasons and an unaccustomed position to be in.

“Running around in 14th is a bit strange, and to still be able to say that is competitive, for me I feel like racing is meant to be different.”

Coulthard elaborated further by suggesting that the dual compound format would be better suited to a circuit that was easier on tyres.

“For me I think certain tracks it works on. SMP is an aggressive track, there is lots of tyre deg anyway, so I think you could come here with one compound and have just as good of a race, rather than mixing up the compounds,” Coulthard said.

“Is it right or wrong I don’t know. We finished first and third for the round and obviously we had a reasonable weekend.”

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McLaughlin opened up, confirming that he preferred the single soft compound format used three weeks earlier.

“If we did what we did last round where we had the same compound, I like that better,” he said.

Despite not being a fan of the duel compound format, McLaughlin could see the positives that the format brings to the championship from a fan point of view due to the varied results.

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“For me it’s weird how it is all going,” he said. “It’s fantastic for the category, for sponsors and other people, it’s awesome, don’t get me wrong. It’s weird rolling around 14th and still winning the round.

“From a championship perspective, we didn’t go for glory like some others, we just focused on getting the most points we could. Obviously that that shows in the round points.” DM

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VICTORIAN COOPER Webster will be the youngest driver yet to compete in the 2020 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, when he takes to the grid at Sydney Motorsport Park on September 4-6. The 17-year-old joins Albert Callegher’s 88 Racing, after testing its S5000 last month at Phillip Island. Backed by Toby Pope, Webster’s resume features a strong national and international karting background before joining the Victorian Excel Series. Webster replaces Kiwi Jordan Michels, who was forced out of the seat due to the current travel restrictions. HM

THE VICTORIAN Historic Racing Register has announced the cancellation of the 2020 Sandown Historics. Scheduled to take place on November 6-8, pre-planning was being taken utilising the State and Federal Government COVID-19 restrictions as well as Motorsport Australia’s Return to Race strategy. However, the VHRR committee decided unanimously to cancel the meeting as the current situation in Victoria worsens, placing further doubt on whether the event could be run or not. HM

ORGANISERS OF The Bend Classic have announced that the Auto Sport Alliance (AASA) will sanction the second running of the event. The Bend Classic, which takes place at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, will be held from September 5-6 and utilise the shorter 3.41km West Circuit configuration. This event will again be run as a sprint, with entry fees to take part significantly reduced. Categories will include Group N (Historic Touring Cars), Group Q and R (1970-87 open-wheelers), Group S (Production Sports Cars), Formula Ford, Formula Vee and Sports Sedans, with historic Formula 1 cars also likely to return.

DM

TICKETS FOR the inaugural Bathurst International have gone on sale ahead of the event on November 12-15. A record 10 categories will contest the weekend headlined by S5000, TCR Australia and the Bathurst 6 Hour production car race, on the Saturday. It will also play host to Touring Car Masters, the Trans Am 100, Porsche Sprint Challenge, Radicals, Heritage Touring Cars and the Hyundai Excels, while the Holden Heritage Revival will showcase its more than 70-year history. HM

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TWO ROUND AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CONFIRMED THIS YEAR’S Australian Rally Championship will be fought across two rounds after Motorsport Australia released a further revision to the title’s schedule.

Rally Tasmania has been cancelled while the to be confirmed NSW ARC finale is replaced by the National Capital Rally, which moves from its late-September date to November 27-29.

This also confirms the National Capital Rally becomes a two-day event, rather than the single-day that was previously scheduled.

Remaining unchanged is the Adelaide Hills Rally, which kicks off the season on October 16-18. This round features a special stage as part of the Shannons Motorsport SUPER3 DEBUTANT Jaylyn Robotham swept the weekend, but left many impressed after he finished within the outright top 10 in each event.

“It was a bit of a surprise jumping in and qualifying in front of some of the Super2 guys,” said Robotham.

“To leave as winners was awesome and I wasn’t really expecting to go in and sort of be mixing it up with the Super2 guys.”

In the first combined meeting for Supercars’ development categories, Robotham didn’t set out to fight the Super2 drivers, but as the weekend progressed his confidence grew.

“In the first race I was holding back a little bit, it wasn’t too much though we were all going the same speed within the group,” Robotham recalled. “I was a little bit nervous going into the races because I qualified in with the Super2 guys. I sort of stuffed my start up and they got in front of me, but I managed to pass a couple and pushed on.

“I think it’s good (to race Super2 drivers) because if I do make the step up into Super2 maybe next year or the year after, I have already had experience racing against them.

“It’s not like I’m going in racing against completely different guys.”

Super3 rival Declan Fraser finished 11th in the second race and shared Robotham’s sentiments.

Australia Championships round at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Motorsport Australia Director of Motorsport and Commercial Operations Michael Smith reasoned that the changing climate of the pandemic and the various restrictions in place across the country, forced the calendar to be revised.

“We would have loved to have opened our season in September, however given the nature of various border closures and the rise in COVID-19 cases, it would have been highly unlikely the September event would have been possible,” Smith explained.

“We have decided that two events is a realistic target for the Championship this year and while we would have liked more, 2020

is certainly a year like no other that nobody could have predicted.

“There is still more to be announced about these events in their make-up, and all options are on the table, including multiple ‘rounds’ of the Championship to take place at each event.

“Unfortunately for Tasmania, the event had to be cancelled for this year, but it will be back in 2021, with the full support of the Tasmanian Government who has been very understanding of the challenges faced for this year.

“I’d like to also thank all of our event organisers and competitors for their support and flexibility – and of course also thank our sponsors, RSEA Safety and Hoosier for their ongoing support.” DM

ROBOTHAM SPRINGS SUPER3 SURPRISE

“I think it really was [a good experience],” Fraser said. “Jay and I are fairly new into Supercars so to be around those Super2 guys, to watch the different driving techniques, and to sponge as much information.”

Another variation was tyres, the Dunlops used in Super2 are grippy, yet fall away as the race concludes, while Super3 on Kumhos aren’t as grippy, but have a more consistent degradation rate meaning that at different stages of the race each class had an advantage.

“We had to go pretty defence at the start race, but we knew the tyre degradation was pretty high for the Dunlops,” said Fraser. “We just kept our heads down and tried to keep our nose clean for them to come back to us.”

Fraser believes a top five outright is possible for either Robotham or himself.

“I think at high degradation tracks we can really come home strong against the Super2s,” Fraser concluded.

Super2 regular Matt Chahda was

among the leading Super3 duo throughout the weekend and was a fan of the combined format, but believes the Super3 entries need to be regulated more thoroughly in line with the Super2 competitors.

“They aren’t regulated anywhere is near as what we are,” Chahda told Auto Action.

“We’re also held to these strict rules where we have to have transporters, we have to pit walling, we have to have nice team apparel, whereas Super3 guys just rock up with a trailer and a toolbox.” HM

th Luke West iith wit

AA’s returned columnist calls on Supercars to keep things simple

SHANNONS OPENER IN DOUBT THE OPENING Round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships is under a cloud as Victoria’s worsening COVID-19 conditions impact fields in all its major categories.

Severely impacted are TCR Australia and S5000, as major teams involved within these classes, particularly Garry Rogers Motorsport, are within the lockdown area.

“At this stage we’re monitoring the situation around the Victorian lockdown,” Australian Racing Group’s Matt Braid told Auto Action.

“If the lockdown stays at six weeks, realistically Sydney Motorsport Park will go ahead, but if lockdown is extended then we will have to look at another solution to delay the round.”

Unlike Supercars, ARG and Motorsport Australia entrants are semi-professional as many have businesses and jobs making a ‘hub’ set-up out of the question “We don’t have the capability, neither do our teams, because there is a mixture of professional and amateur teams that don’t have the scope or resources to get into a bubble so we do need the borders to be open,” said Braid.

“If the lockdown gets lifted then we’re in Sydney, if it doesn’t, we have to reconsider our plans. We do have a couple of contingencies in place ready to go in that regard, touch wood we don’t have to use them but if we do, we should be good to go.”

Moving the calendar back is one plan ARG and Motorsport Australia has, though extending the calendar past the back-to-back Tasmanian rounds is not being contemplated at this stage.

“We’ve got plenty of space on the calendar so ideally, we’ll put things back,” Braid explained. “Again, talking to all our respective categories day in and day out, all of them are pretty keen to go racing as soon as possible, we don’t want to delay it for the sake of it.

“It’s more a case of we’ll move it back for a shorter period as we can go racing as quickly as we can.

“We’re still planning and wanting to see the Tasmanian back-to-back is the last round of the 2020/2021 series, then we’ll look at 2021. We’ll look at it when we’re in it because I think there is still a lot to play out as far as the COVID crisis is concerned, to understand what the landscape might be in 2021.”

One thing is for sure, Braid is eager to get the season started before the Bathurst International in November “I’m hopeful we can go racing in October, currently in September or October, rather than waiting for the Bathurst International,” Braid said.

“The opening round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships, TCR and S5000, we must get that out of the way as soon as we can, so if it’s not September, it will be October.”

Braid first-hand witnessed the protocols undertaken

by Supercars and SMP representing ARG as part of its role as category manager of Super3, which is what will be expected if Shannons head there at the beginning of September.

Motorsport Australia’s Michael Smith is also keeping a watching brief on the situation believing the event can indeed occur.

“We’re keep a really close eye on things,” Smith told Auto Action. “We’re going to have to be quick and nimble when certain things happen. We still believe that event can happen, but having said that we’re keeping a really close eye on things and if it can’t we’ll come up with a solution.”

Daily conversations with the government could enable teams to receive exemptions if need be, however this will be dependent on the ever-changing restrictions state-by-state.

“We’re having all sorts of discussions with government also the categories and the circuits as well,” Smith said. “We have all sorts of contingency and plans in place, which all depend on the regulations of the day.

“We’re almost having daily discussions with government at the moment.” Heath McAlpine

59 RACING GOES INTERNATIONAL BATHURST 12 Hour class winning GT team 59 Racing debuted overseas last weekend, participating in the opening round of SRO GT World Challenge Europe at Imola, ahead of a fullcampaign in a McLaren 720s GT3.

It was a dream Bathurst 12 Hour debut earlier in the season when not only did the team take class honours in Silver, but also stood on the outright podium courtesy of McLaren factory trio Ben Barnicoat, Tom Blomqvist and Alvaro Parente.

Barnicoat continues with the team, joining him is one third of the Silver winning trio, Martin Kodric, and Lewis

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Williamson in contesting the SRO GT World Challenge Europe Series four-event scheduled, plus the prestigious 24 Hours of Spa. An expansion of the initial program is expected once personnel from Australia can travel to the selected events, which may include the team’s Australian GT driver Fraser Ross. HM

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WHEN IT comes to race formats, Supercars is a bit like Irish rockband U2.

Australia’s premier category may have climbed the highest mountains and scaled these city walls, but it still hasn’t found what it’s looking for.

Supercars’ never-ending quest for the best formats began in the late 1990s. Back when the ‘5.0-litre V8 Touring Cars’ were rebranded V8 Supercars, most rounds comprised a trio of action-packed 20-minute races.

They made for easy viewing as the sport grew its fanbase.

These short, sharp sprints also perfectly filled Channel TEN’s then relatively narrow 3pm-5pm Sunday-only timeslot. But as V8 Supercars banked bigger TV rights deals, the networks wanted longer broadcasts in which to fit more advertising slots to recoup their investment and make some coin. This necessitated longer races.

As government-funded street races came on stream, these longer races, across both Saturday and Sunday, began to be the norm. Having the headline act on stage for just 60 minutes (those 3 x 20-minute sprints) on Sunday was never going to cut it, given the expense in setting up temporary circuits.

Whether it was the AVESCO, V8 Supercars Australia or Supercars era, series chiefs were perennial fiddlers. They continually massaged the formats trying to get the formula right.

In the early noughties the calendar was dominated by races with one pit stop, which was fine, as these were still relatively simple to follow. But then an increasing number of two-pitstop races began to creep in, especially when the Car of the Future (AKA Next Gen) was introduced.

Hardcore fans loved the idea of longer affairs, but they became increasingly difficult to follow as the strategy involved was complex. And when ‘minimum compulsory fuel drop’ rules were introduced – a blight on the series if ever there was – few outside the race engineers could truly follow proceedings.

Pity the poor casual viewers, many of whom drifted away from the sport.

Now, following the series’ COVID shutdown, the format fiddling has reached epic proportions. They just can’t keep their hands off it. But at least Supercars made changes for the better.

I thought the first weekend back racing, at Sydney Motorsport Park in late June, was brilliant. The trio of 50-minute races featuring just one pitstop – and soft-tyres all-round – were very entertaining. Easy viewing was back and I was engaged throughout. It was a genuine sporting contest, too, with lots of passing. And no minimum compulsory full drops. Good riddance!

Then the category tried something different again, in mid-July, requiring teams to use both soft and hard tyres. The complexity had returned and I struggled to get into it.

True, two of three 50-minute races featured exciting finishes. Yet prior to this, the racing was difficult to follow. And the constant focus in commentary about hards and softs, soft and hards, drove me batty. I’m sorry, but motorsport is more than tyre strategy. Talk was of “dual usage soft-tyre runs” and “effective lap times versus competitors”. Oh, please… Spare me!

But what really bothered me about that second, most recent weekend at SMP was that finding different winners came at the expense of a genuine sporting contest. Saturday’s podium-getters finished Sunday’s finale in 14th, 15th and 19th, while that final race’s podium finished 16th, 17th and 13th on Saturday when on hard tyres. Not a good look.

When I jumped online to see if other fans felt the same way, I spotted a Facebook comment from a chap named Ted Birtles, who succinctly summed up my feelings with a Dick Johnson-esque line: “It’s like asking an Olympic champion sprinter to defend his title wearing thongs.”

For Supercars to find what it’s looking for, it needs to carefully balance meritocracy with entertainment. They can fiddle with formats all they like, but the racing must remain a sporting contest where the best win – not those with the best tyres – otherwise credibility will be lost.

And keep it simple to follow!

RANDOM TELECAST THOUGHTS THERE WAS another aspect of the post-COVID break Supercar events I found refreshing: the telecast focused on the on-track action rather than the garages. No disrespect to race engineers, but if I never see vision of crew staring at screens again, it will be a moment too soon. Less is more from pitlane for 50-minute races. Leave it at Larko.

Also, I’m hoping the new-for-2021 broadcast regime sees Mark Skaife focus on his pre- and post-race Fox Sports analyst role, rather than joining the irreplaceable Neil Crompton in the commentary box.

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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CAMPBELL OFF TO SOLID START AUSSIE PORSCHE star Matt Campbell got his 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup campaign off to a flying start with second place in the season opening 3 Hours of Imola.

Racing in the #12 GPX Racing prepared Porsche 911 GT3-R machine alongside Patrick Pilet and Mathieu Jaminet, the trio held off a late race attack to finish in the runner-up position.

The #12 drivers started the race from fourth position, qualifying 0.171s off pole position.

The three-hour race was littered with safety car periods throughout, which kept the original

46 car field bunched together.

With half an hour to go Jaminet found himself in second position but came under pressure late in the race from Felipe Fraga in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, however when Dries Vanthoor in the #32 Audi R8 GT3 machine caught up to the battle for second, he relieved Jaminet of some pressure.

Vanthoor forced Fraga to defend in the closing laps and allowed Jaminet to pull a slight margin and hold onto second.

Out front Kelvin van der Linde, Mirko Bortolotti

and Matthieu Vaxiviere took the race win by 3.428s in the #31 the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT machine.

Jaminet closed the gap in the closing laps but it was too little too late. The Frenchman secured second place ahead of Fraga and his teammates Timur Boguslavskiy and GT star Raffaele Marciello.

The second Belgian Audi Club Team WRT R8 of Vanthoor, Christopher Mies and Charles Weerts finished fourth, only 1.7s behind Jaminet in second. Markus Winkelhock, Dorian

Boccolacci and Christopher Haase rounded out the top five in another Audi.

Aussie team 59Racing had an eventful maiden race in the series. Fielding a McLaren 720S GT3, Martin Kodric, Lewis Williamson and Ben Barnicoat were forced to serve three drive-through penalties before contact with another car in the last hour forced them into retirement.

Round 2 of the series takes place in Germany on September 6, with the 6 Hours of the Nurburgring. Dan McCarthy

M4 GT3 COMPLETES SHAKEDOWN BMW’s NEXT entry into the highly competitive GT3 class has been revealed in Germany, with former World Touring Car driver and factory M driver Augusto Farfus behind the wheel.

Set to debut in 2021, the M4 GT3 undertook a shakedown at the BMW Group Plant in Dingolfing ahead of a scheduled track test at Miramas in France next week.

Conforming to the new 2022 GT3 ruleset, the M4 GT3 is based off the yet-to-be-released updated road-going model that will be revealed in September, and follows on from a teaser released in December last year.

The road-going and race versions of the marque’s new sports coupe have been developed in parallel with each other.

“It is always an emotional moment when a newly-developed BMW race car takes to the track for the first time,” said BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt.

“This time, however, I am particularly proud.

“Given the difficult conditions of the past few months, it is quite remarkable that we have managed to implement our development program as planned, and whilst complying with the BMW Group’s strict safety and hygiene regulations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, have managed to stick to the date originally envisaged

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for the rollout of the BMW M4 GT3.”

Design and development of the new M4 GT3 began early last year consisting of CFD computer simulations, while the powerplant is expected to produce more than 500bhp.

Work continued at the beginning of this year to produce a chassis ahead of a test in expectation of debuting in 2021 and customer sales to follow in 2022.

Farfus is expected to the lead the test and development program for the M4 GT3 and is excited by the potential demonstrated by the new model after the first shakedown.

“It was fantastic and a great honour for me to be able to drive the first few metres in the new BMW M4 GT3,” said Farfus.

“I have been involved in the development of several BMW race cars and am always particularly pleased to be a part of such an important project.

“Although our main job during the rollout is to perform functional tests, I had a good feeling in the car from the outset and am already looking forward to the tests scheduled for the coming months.”

BMW’s latest iteration replaces the multiple 24 Hours of Spa winning M6 GT3, which also scored two Allan Simonsen Trophies for Chaz Mostert at the Bathurst 12 Hour among many other successes worldwide.

BMW is currently fielding customer interest. HM

VALE – RON TAURANAC 1925-2020

PENSKE AND ACURA SPLIT IN THE American IMSA Sportscar Championship, Team Penske and Acura Motorsports announced a mutual agreement to end its successful partnership at the end of the 2020 season.

The two companies have had much success together since they united at the start of the 2018 IMSA series, highlighted by winning the outright DPi class last season.

It has been a challenging start to the 2020 season for the Acura Team Penske squad, with both cars are yet to finish on the podium and the team finds itself outside the top five in the championship.

However, the companies remain optimistic that they can add to the four race victories and nine pole positions from 22 races recorded to date.

The president of Honda performance development, the competition arm for Acura Motorsports Ted Klaus thanked Team Penske for its efforts throughout the period.

“On behalf of everyone at Acura and HPD, we’d like to thank Team Penske for their incredible efforts and impressive results racing the ARX-05,” said Klaus.

“The success we’ve achieved together during the first twoplus years of the program makes us even more determined to score more victories, defend our championships, and conclude

our partnership on the highest of notes.”

The partnership was highlighted by Dane Cameron and former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya scoring three wins and a further four podium finishes before securing the title in the #6 machine.

The split announcement made by Acura makes no mention of the 2021 season, which leaves the door open for the luxury car brand to form an alliance with another team within the IMSA Sportscar Series, though this seems unlikely.

The brand has a rich history of endurance racing in America that dates back to 1986, though Acura has returned and disappeared from the racing scene many times in the decades since.

Acura Motorsports also campaigns Acura NSX GT3 Evo machines in the IMSA GTD category, with defending class champion Meyer Shank Racing and the Gradient Racing organisations.

Last year Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman also won the GTD class for the brand.

It is also not yet known whether Team Penske will continue its involvement within the DPi class or the series beyond the conclusion of the season on November 14. DM

REVOLUTIONARY AUSTRALIAN race car designer and engineer Ron Tauranac passed way at age 95 on July 17.

Known for his long relationship with Sir Jack Brabham, which spawned the successful Motor Sport Developments constructor and factory Brabham race team in 1962, Tauranac also founded the dominant RALT company that was a force in Formula 3 racing internationally throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

As detailed by Geoff Harris in Auto Action’s tribute to Tauranac on pages 26-29, his innovation and designs provided the launching pad for many young drivers to reach the top of the sport, among them Larry Perkins, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell.

Tauranac passed away on the Gold Coast. A private funeral was held in Nambour with a memorial service planned for Sydney in the coming weeks. HM

VALE – NEIL CRANG 1949 - 2020 FORMER INTERNATIONAL sports car and openwheel driver Neil Crang has passed away after a battle with cancer Best known as a backer of Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley’s TIGA Race Cars company, Crang contested the World Endurance Championship for the manufacturer throughout the 1980s, highlighted by taking third in the Class C2 alongside Brits Ray Bellm and Gordon Spice in 1984.

Born in Melbourne, 1949, Crang’s passion for motor sport was fuelled by the great adventures of ‘Gelignite’ Jack Murray during the 1960s, before purchasing an Austin Healey 100/4 BN2 himself while studying Economics and Politics at Monash University.

The Healey was joined by a Renault R4 built for

rallycross, where Crang competed in events held at Calder Raceway during the weekends before marrying and moving to Geneva (Switzerland) working as a commodity trader for international firm Carghill.

The racing bug continued to bite, and Crang enrolled at the famous Jim Russell Racing Drivers School in England. He then entered Formula Ford, making lifelong friends along the way.

Through his relationship with Ian Taylor, the professional manner in which Crang raced gave him the opportunity to race at all of England’s legendary circuits; Brands Hatch, Donington, Oulton Park, Silverstone, Thruxton and Goodwood.

This led to Crang becoming involved with Schenken and Ganley’s race car manufacturer

business TIGA, which built a variety of chassis for different applications.

More than 400 chassis were sold by the manufacturer between 1975 until the business folded in 1989.

Crang was first a customer before becoming a stakeholder in the company. He raced TIGA products in British Formula Atlantic, before transitioning into prototype racing.

It was Crang who commissioned the team to build the Chevrolet-powered TIGA GC83 C2 for 1983, but a mixture of lack of development and bad luck hampered the team’s progress.

The next year, five wins in a row gave the team

third in the points, but Crang’s international program concluded at the end of the season. Racing domestically in England, Crang won the prestigious Oulton Park International Gold Cup in 1985 partnering Tim Lee-Davey.

He also contested the Le Mans 24 Hour five-times with a best finish of 15th outright.

During the close of the 1980s, Crang became a Life Member of the British Racing Drivers Club and returned to Australia, where he continued to compete in events including Targa Tasmania.

Auto Action sends its condolences to Crang’s wife Dianne, their four children and his many friends. HM

TENDER NOTICE Circuit Ci i E Excell R Racing i Association A i i IInc.

INVITES Sealed Bids from authorised dealers /agents/suppliers for separate supply tenders of category controlled components.

*Circuit Excel Controlled Suspension *Circuit Excel Control Tyre For information and copy of tender documents, please contact via Website or email www.circuitexcelracing.com.au tech@circuitexcelracing.com.au

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NEW ZEALANDER Ronan Murphy, son of fourtime Bathurst 1000 winner Greg competed in the second round of the USF4 Championship at the Virginia International Raceway. Murphy qualified in 20th place after being handed a five-place grid penalty before the opening affair. In the first race Murphy crossed the line in 12th position, however, he received 20s worth of time penalties and dropped to 24th. In the second race the Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport driver finished where he started in 15th position, but on the way set the second fastest lap time which gave him a front row position for Race 3. Murphy converted his solid starting position into his maiden podium finish in third place, finishing only 1.287s behind the race winner which elevates him to seventh in the standings. DM

AUSTRALIAN JAKE Parsons is competing in the Super GT Series in 2020 and stormed his way to a top 10 finish in the first round of the season at Fuji Speedway. This year, Parsons is contesting the GT300 class in a Modulo Drago Corse prepared Honda NSX GT3 Evo with Ryo Michigami. The Japanese driver is very experienced in the GT series and is a former outright winner of the GT500 class for Honda, back in 2000. At Fuji the pair struggled in qualifying with a balance issue but managed to rectify that for the race. The duo steadily made their way forwards with strong pace throughout the event, and at the end of the 300km race crossed the line on the lead lap in eighth position. The second race of the series takes place at the same venue on August 9. DM

LOVE TAKES SUPERCUP CLASS PODIUM THE THIRD round of the 2020 Porsche Supercup season at the Hungaroring was a dramatic affair, with the two Carrera Cup Australia Series winners in the thick of the action with Jordan Love breaking through to take his first-class podium.

At the head of the field, series leader Dylan Pereira extended his advantage by winning his second straight Supercup race.

The Luxembourg driver fought off a strong early race challenge from title rival Ayhancan Guven to take the race victory by 1.9s.

Guven finished in second ahead of a tight battle for third, Larry Ten Voorde holding off Marvin Klein by 0.3s at the line, as JB Simmenauer rounded out the top five.

Reigning Australian Carrera Cup Series

Image: LAT

winner Love made a blistering start from 14th on the grid, up three places on the opening lap of the race.

By lap 6 Love had made his way inside the top 10 and was able to pick up a couple more positions as competitors fell by the wayside late in the race.

This enabled him to score his first top 10 position in Supercup taking p8, and his first rookie class podium finish.

“I’m happy with that result,” the 21-yearold said. “I made up three places on the first lap, and that was a great foundation for my maiden top 10 finish and the third in the Rookie class.”

Kiwi Jaxon Evans started from sixth but held fifth until lap 6, when he was wrong footed

by a battle ahead, allowing Jaap Van Lagen to take the place.

Evans, with superior speed over his Dutch rival, was keen to make his way back into the top five once more.

On lap 12 approaching Turn 1 van Lagen and Evans interlocked wheels, throwing the latter’s car into the air. However, it was van Lagen who suffered damage and was forced into immediate retirement.

With two laps to go Evans was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident, and once in the lane Evans did not return to the track and was not classified as a finisher.

The next round of Porsche Supercup action takes place at the legendary Silverstone circuit in England on August 2. Dan McCarthy

CAR GRABS PODIUMS IN GERMANY, Australian Aidan Read is preparing for the ADAC GT Masters season with Rounds 1 and 2 taking place from July 31-August 2 at the Lausitzring. After finishing 20th in the series last year, Read has made the switch to the Schubert Motorsport team alongside capable 22-year-old Joel Eriksson. The Swede most famously finished runner-up to Lando Norris in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2017 and has driven for BMW in the DTM series the last two years. The pair will drive a BMW M6 GT3 and ahead of the season opener completed a two-day test of the car at Zandvoort. DM FORMER FORMULA 1 driver Brendon Hartley has departed from the Dragon Racing Formula E team, after just five races. The Kiwi made his debut in the all-electric championship at the start of the season with Jay Penske’s outfit, and now becomes the fifth driver to leave the team in just 18 races. Hartley earned just one point scoring finish, a ninth, in the second race of the season in Saudi Arabia. He has been replaced by Red Bull F1 reserve driver, Sergio Sette Camara. DM

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AFTER A challenging maiden round in the Formula Regional Americas Championship, Australian Josh Car bounced by taking a trio of runnerup positions at the Virginia International Raceway.

It wasn’t just the on-track action that was hot during the three races, the weather was as well, and competitors had to race in scorching conditions over 40 degrees.

Coming into the weekend Linus Lundqvist led the series after winning the first two races of the season at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Reigning USF4 champion Car, on the other hand, could only collect onepoint scoring result with a fifth.

Car’s weekend at Virginia did not start to well either.

Sitting second in qualifying, the Crosslink Motorsport driver caused a red flag late in the session and was stripped of his fastest time, so would start fifth.

Immediately the lights went out in Race 1, Car took fourth position and continued to work his way forwards, grabbing Nicky Hays for third on lap 3.

Car then inherited second several laps later when American Jordan Missng ran wide at Turn 12.

That was the way it remained.

Lundqvist took the win by 1.5s from Car, with Missig rounding out the podium.

The second race the following day saw Car start on the front row alongside championship leader Lundqvist.

At the start of Race 2 the Aussie made a great getaway and took the lead from the Global Racing Group driver.

By the start of the fifth lap the Swede had caught up to Car and quickly made the move to snatch the lead back.

Once in front he pulled away and took the victory by nearly 5s.

Image: LAT

Race 3 saw Lundqvist make the better start and lead into Turn 1, however, in this final encounter he could not shake off the determined Aussie for the entire 35-minute affair.

A safety car was called late, but the race returned to green with two laps to go.

Car applied the pressure, forcing the Swede to defend throughout the intense final couple of laps, but Lundqvist held on and took the win by just 0.256s.

“The team had the car dialed in

this weekend,” Car said after the race. “(Linus) Lundqvist is really quick. There were some laps I was quicker, and some laps he was quicker. So the gap stayed pretty stable. The team and I made so much progress this week, I know will have another go at the top step at Barber.”

The three second place results catapulted Car into third position in the series, before the FR Americas Championship heads to Barber Motorsports Park for Round 3 from July 31-August 2.

Dan McCarthy

PIASTRI’S DOUBLE DELIGHT ROUND 3 of FIA Formula 3 Championship in Hungary took place in mixed weather conditions, and again Aussie Oscar Piastri shone taking two podiums and extending his championship lead.

The weekend got off to a dramatic start when Qualifying was rescheduled due to torrential rain. When it was conducted, later that day, Australian Calan Williams bagged fifth position on the grid alongside Piastri.

A damp track greeted competitors for Saturday’s 22-lap race, and with drivers starting on slick tyres, chaos ensued with two separate incidents at Turn 1.

Pole sitter Alexander Smolyar was clipped into a spin by championship contender Logan Sargeant, who lost control of his machine on the wet side of the circuit, the collision allowing Frenchman Theo Pourchaire into the lead.

In the other accident, West Australian Williams was taken out of a career high position when he was nudged into a spin and then collected by Frederik Vesti and Olli Caldwell.

Piastri benefited greatly from the incidents to make up several positions, despite receiving a big hit in the left-rear by a spinning Williams.

Miraculously Piastri was able to continue unscathed as his fellow Aussie was forced into immediate retirement.

On lap 5 New Zealander Liam Lawson’s engine burst into flames, the oil pouring from the Hitch Grand Prix car forcing the race to be temporarily suspended as a track clean-up

Aussie Piastri consolidated his points lead with another strong Formula 3 weekend, with podium finishes and fastest lap. Images: LAT

took place place.

When it went green again Piastri had a look around the rear of leader Pourchaire trying to find a way through.

But as the laps wore on the Pourchaire was able to pull a huge margin over Piastri and took the win by 11.9s, becoming the first repeat winner of the season.

Sargeant crossed the line just behind Piastri but the American was handed a post-race penalty, dropping him to sixth and promoting Bent Viscaal into third.

The other two Australians had mixed fortunes. Alex Peroni bagged his first points since the opening race in seventh place, while Jack Doohan retired.

The inverted top 10 grid race began in very

w wet conditions and was a solid race for all the A Australians.

Piastri charged from ninth on the grid to ffinish the race in second. As the track dried tthe Prema Racing driver got stronger and sstronger and set the fastest lap on the way hhome to collect an additional two points.

“Two second places in a weekend is certainly good, and I got the fastest lap as well. I think that is three fastest laps on Sundays so far, so I seem to be making that a thing,” Piastri said.

The Victorian crossed the line in third behind Bent Viscaal and David Beckmann, however during the race Viscaal was handed a pair of 5s penalties, which saw the MP Motorsport driver drop outside the points.

This handed Beckmann the win and promoted Piastri into second, Dennis Hauger, Sargeant and Richard Verschoor rounded out the top five.

Tasmanian Peroni started fourth but made a poor start off the line, the Campos Racing driver however kept his head down and

salvaged a 10th-place finish.

Williams scythed his way through the pack to finish a very impressive 15th position.

Kiwi Lawson retired from the race with another mechanical issue, while Doohan suffered a late race puncture and received a post-race penalty, finishing the race in 26th.

The fourth round of the F3 Championship takes place at Silverstone from July 31-August 2. Dan McCarthy

FIA FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP PIONTS AFTER 3 ROUNDS 1 Oscar Piastri 77 2 Logan Sargeant 50 3 Theo Pourchaire 48 4 David Beckmann 47.5 5 Richard Verschoor 45 6 Frederik Vesti 37.5 7 Lirim Zendeli 26 8 Liam Lawson 25 9 Alex Peroni 24 10 Sebastian Fernandez 19

Peroni and Piastri battle to be top Aussie (above) while Williams was fast in qualifying (above) but had mixed luck. Lawson’s engine failure (above right) caused the race to be suspended.

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SUPERIOR ENGINE ENAMELS

LONGER LASTING FLAMEPROOF COATINGS

THE ULTIMATE IN CALIPER PAINTS

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HAZELWOOD’S WAVE OF EMOTIONS

IN JUST his third full round with Brad Jones Racing, Todd Hazelwood scored a breakthrough podium in what was a strong weekend for the Albury-based team.

Highlighted by teammate Nick Percat’s second race victory in as many rounds, it was an all-round performance by the fourcar team as not only Hazelwood, but Jack Smith and Macauley Jones scored personal best results as well.

The strategy the team elected was to give one driver a chance to go for glory in each race by fitting softs in both stints. Percat converted in Race 11 into the win, Smith by finishing 10th in the same event while Jones finished seventh during the Saturday night’s race.

A problem during qualifying on Sunday hampered Hazelwood’s session, leaving

him disappointed, but those feelings subsided when he crossed the line at the end of Race 12.

“I was riding a wave of emotions, super frustrated this morning because we knew that we had good tyres after sacrificing yesterday (Saturday),” Hazelwood recalled after the race.

“We had a fast car and Nick showed that, but I had a vibration issue in quali which cost us badly.

“I knew the car was fast, but we had a lot of work to do and a few fast guys in front of us, so to be in the top three today is pretty cool.”

Team owner Brad Jones hinted at Hazelwood’s strategy prior to Race 12 and the South Australian delivered, charging through from 12th to third by passing David

Reynolds on the final lap.

“I was looking for a gap and hoping it would stick, I just threw it in there and was hoping for the best,” Hazelwood explained.

“I got a little sniff coming out of Turn 5, I was putting the pressure on Dave to have a crack at Andre (Heimgartner) which compromised him at the exit of Turn 6 and I just got enough of a run into Turn 7.”

With confidence high within the BJR squad and a great working relationship with Percat, Hazelwood expects more gains to be made in three weeks’ time at Hidden Valley.

“We have been making some great ground behind the scenes, both Nick and I particularly are working really well together and we have been able to move the car forwards in a short space of time,” he said.

“We are looking forward to going to a different track and seeing if the changes we made to the car are consistently moving us forward, we are certainly hoping that is the case.”

Reflecting on the relocation of many teams before the event, Hazelwood explained the result was just reward to the team and was thankful to be on the grid with BJR. “All of us drivers wear our hearts on our sleeves, to be in this industry we make a lot of sacrifices and put in a lot of effort into what we do,” Hazelwood said. “When you get that breakthrough moment it is very sweet and very special.

“I’m just so fortunate I was given an opportunity this year to do what we are doing.” Dan McCarthy

GT3 FUTURE ON THE HORIZON FOR DTM DTM AS we know it could cease to exist at the conclusion of the 2020 season according to series boss Gerhard Berger, as he admits he is looking very seriously into a GT3 future for the class.

Berger, the former Austrian Formula 1 driver and head of ITR (the organisation that sanctions DTM) is facing a harsh reality that only one manufacturer will be supporting the series from 2021.

Berger says that a decision will be made soon with all options on the table, which includes a switch to GT3 regulations if ITR want to get manufacturers onboard.

“Many jobs are attached to the DTM. I believe that we have to say clearly what we’re going to do in the near future,” Berger said in an interview with ServusTV (an Austrian TV station).

“If we continue as ITR we have to do GT3 because it is the only technical regulation in which many manufacturers are involved. There are 13 brands (involved in GT3).

“It stands to reason that you go into GT3.”

The Austrian admits that if the manufacturers are unwilling to support the category then drastic measures need to be taken.

“To put it in a nutshell, the time has come to think about winding-up the DTM,” he said.

“If none of the German manufacturers are willing to support this platform and series anymore, things will get tight.”

From 2012-2018 the DTM series was extremely healthy with three German manufacturers, but has deteriorated

rapidly.

Mercedes left the category in 2018, though Aston Martin replaced the marque last year. The British manufacturers maiden season was uncompetitive leaving it to withdraw from the category after just one season Berger had been full of optimism about BMW and Audi continuing on, but has now opened up for the first time aboutthe latter’s announcement that it too will leave at the end of the year.

“As we all know, we have to cope with Audi’s withdrawal. Coronavirus also means we’re up against nothing but headwinds,” he said.

“No decision has been made yet at BMW, this is dragging on and on. In the meantime, we are actually overdue to clarify this issue.

“Audi was relatively quick to go along with the proposal.

They said that despite the withdrawal they would like to see somebody continuing to maintain the ITR and the DTM platform so that history doesn’t die.”

Since 2019 the DTM category has run to the same Class One regulations as the Japanese Super GT series, but Super GT boss Masaaki Bandoh is unfazed by Berger’s words and remains committed to running the ruleset. Dan McCarthy

COURTNEY – “CHANGE IS AS GOOD HOLIDAY” Supercars veteran James Courtney is refreshed and invigorated, despite overcoming many hurdles that failed to derail his main game career.

By HEATH McALPINE AFTER SPLITTING with Team Sydney following the opening Supercars round in Adelaide, an opportunity at Tickford Racing arose when Phil Munday was forced to pull his customer program with the squad prior to Supercars returning in June.

Backed by long-time supporter Peter Adderton of Boost, Courtney joined the team with no testing or prior experience to draw on. He has since been part of a Tickford form revival highlighted by Jack Le Brocq’s maiden Supercars victory, back-to-back podiums for Lee Holdsworth and a fourth place for the returning star.

Reflecting on the last two race weekends with Tickford, the 2010 Supercars champion is excited by the new relationship.

“A change is as good as a holiday,” Courtney told Auto Action. “I feel like I’m 10 years younger and I’m probably enjoying my racing more now than I’ve had in a long time.”

Courtney joins a new team at the most difficult time in the sport’s history as Tickford are among six teams to be temporarily based in Queensland due to the worsening COVID-19 conditions in Victoria.

Being the new driver to the operation, Courtney is significantly disadvantaged by the team set-up at Sea World rather than Campbellfield as race weekend is the sole opportunity to trial ideas or changes

from knowledge gained from his prior Supercars experience.

“There are some good things, which I see that we would have benefitted from with the previous teams I’ve been with than there are things that I bring that we did on the other side of the fence that could help these guys,” Courtney explained.

“Trying to do all this stuff on the run over race weekend’s that are short and condensed, also the guys are away for an indefinite amount of time without the workshop to go back to. “[I] Probably couldn’t have asked for a tougher way to go about it all. I’m pretty happy with the way that we have progressed, a podium would have been lovely, but to be up front dicing with the main guys it’s a credit to the team. It has delivered a package that obviously get a performance out of.”

Recently turned 40, Courtney believes he has the ability to challenge the category’s best given his 14-years of Supercars experience.

“Every in-put we put into the car is us putting in so you’re not that reliant on hand-eye, fast-twitch young person setup,” he said.

“As a driver, Kimi [Raikkonen] is the same age as me and he’s still pressing on, and doing a good job so I think experience is work a lot.

“I’m looking forward to racing into the near-future.”

format which is also in line with similar formats run overseas,” said Curkpatrick.

“This is a great way to end our season with these feature-length races.

“The competitors were really excited by the 100km race at Bathurst, and the feedback that we received was to include more, so it’s great that we’ve

been able to do that for Symmons Plains in what will be known as the ‘Australia Day 100.’

“And to further tie in Baskerville, as it is not a round of the series, a top 10 shoot-out and the awarding of the ‘TA 100 Cup’, will make for a great way to finish our inaugural season.” HM

MORE 100KM EVENTS FOR TRANS AM THE AUSTRALIAN Racing Group have added two more 100km feature events to the Trans Am calendar joining the previously announced race as part of the Bathurst International.

Joining the Trans Am Bathurst 100 is the season-ending Australia Day 100km feature race at Symmons Plains and the non-points scoring Baskerville 100, which encompasses the special ‘State of Origin’ format.

Apart from playing host to the ‘State of Origin’ the Baskerville 100 is split across three races, which combined add up to 100km and also includes a Top 10 Shootout.

Teams that contest each of these three events will enter the running to win the TA 100 Cup with points for each race counting towards a special prize as well

as extra series points being awarded across the three 100km contests.

Trans Am category manager Liam Curkpatrick explained the addition of these special events were through the result of competitor feedback.

“Trans Am cars can run longer races, so they are suitable for this 100km race

Image: LAT

with Dan Knutson

Image: LAT WILLIAMS RACE Engineering has confirmed that it will retain its two current drivers for the 2021 Formula 1 season. Both George Russell and Nicholas Latifi confirmed that they will remain with the British team next season in the lead up to the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. It was known that Russell had signed a contract with Williams until the end of 2021 but there was a possibility that the Englishman could have replaced Valtteri Bottas next year. Reports say that Bottas has now signed a contract with Mercedes for next year. DM

Image: LAT THE SCUDERIA Ferrari squad has announced a technical restructure as it attempts to salvage some strong results. The Italian brand has gone from fighting for race victories last year to struggling to score points this season. The team said it has instituted “a chain of command that is more focused and simplified and provides the heads of each department the necessary powers to achieve their objectives,” and has also created a new “Performance Development” department, headed up by Enrico Cardile. DM

RENAULT VS MCLAREN BATTLE THE RENAULT team claimed eighth place in each of the opening three races of the season.

Esteban Ocon finished eighth in race one, and his Aussie teammate Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line in eighth place in rounds two and three.

“Obviously eighth is not bad, but I do really feel that we’ve had a bit more speed than an eighth place car in all three of those races,” Ricciardo said. “At least in the last two races I feel that we are not far from one of those top five, top six finishes. I feel that we have a bit more speed than Ferrari at the moment.

At least it seems so, the race pace is not too bad. So it is coming. It is good to have got the points, but I know there are some bigger ones around the corner. It looked like we had a bit more pace than McLaren in Hungary.”

After showing outstanding speed in the

RENAULT LODGED a second protest against the legality of the Racing Points after the conclusion of the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Enstone based team has cited a breach of the sporting regulations over listed parts, strongly believing that Racing Point is using brake ducts not of its own design. Renault is confident that Mercedes is giving the Racing Point squad technical information. A result of the first protest is expected in coming days. DM

MERCEDES WON the first three races of the 2020 F1 season, and the team leads the constructors’ championship with 121 points – well clear of Red Bull which is in second place with 55 points. But Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff wants more.

“I think it’s important to pick up every point,” Wolff stated, “and I’ve always said it that every session needs to be optimised, and every race weekend needs to be optimised, so we can collect points.

In a way the achievement of the team sorting three victories results in three races is something that we can be proud of. We have solved the problems that we had in the first race in Austria, and we need to be happy with how it panned out so far.

“But the gaps are never big enough in order to get comfortable, and we need to continue to work. There are another three

Image: LAT IN THE lead up to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean was asked about his future in Formula 1.

But the Frenchman diverted the question, highlighting that it was not worth him signing any contract until Haas confirms its place on the 2021 grid. Haas’s commercial agreement with F1 finishes at the end of the season and means that they can leave the sport if they please. Both Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen could find themselves without a contract come the end of this season. DM

Image: LAT

18 AutoAction

it and feeling the rear of the car was fully planted. It was a bit of a trickier weekend than we expected. The circuit has exposed a bit more of our weaknesses.”

After finishing third and fifth in Austria, Norris made a poor start and crossed the finish line a distant 13th in Hungary.

“We are quicker than Haas,” Norris said. “I think we are relatively equal to Renault, and almost the same pace as Ferrari, so I think our result in Hungary is where we should’ve been, really.”

Norris will now have two races at home.

“Silverstone has a lot of high-speed corners, but also some long straights,” he said. “I hope it will play a little bit into our favor compared to Hungary. But we don’t know yet; we will have to analyse everything from Hungary and Austria, and see where we are and what we are capable of doing and try and improve and go from there.”

EVERY POINT MATTERS

Image: LAT

FOLLOWING HIS hand cycling accident near Siena in Italy back in June Alex Zanardi has been transferred from to hospital to a specialised recovery and functional rehabilitation centre. DM

two races on the flowing track in Austria, McLaren took a step backwards on the twisty track in Hungary.

“It is weird,” McLaren driver Carlos Sainz said of the circuit outside of Budapest.

“There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the car. It is just the lap time, and we were not switching on the tyres the way we wanted to. So it was a bit weird, let’s say, and we didn’t expect to struggle as much.”

Sainz and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris just could not get their cars balanced in Hungary.

“What brings us back to reality is the pace of Racing Point and Ferrari,” Sainz said.

“But we also seem to be struggling, so it is a combination of teams doing betterthan-expected and others doing worse.

Personally the feeling of the car was still not there – the last sector was a handful for me the whole weekend, never really nailing

Image: LAT

races that will be very important, and hopefully good ones for us. We haven’t even done 20 per cent of the championship yet. We have to continue to push.”

After three races in succession, F1 took a weekend off before three more races – two in Britain at Silverstone and then a race in Spain.

“I’d love to race again,” Wolff said. “We’ve been like a fish out of the water for fourth months, and it feels like we could go again. I’m really looking forward to going to Silverstone, for the two races on home turf – much easier to manage for all the English-based teams.

“Silverstone is a track that was a happy place for us in the past, but doesn’t mean that it will be in the future. I think we will re-see some great car performances, and somebody told me that we were going 10 seconds quicker in Budapest than in 2014, so I’m really looking forward to this awesome track in Silverstone, with its fast corners and to see how our car performs there.”

Image: LAT

FERRARI PACE BELOW ITS OWN EXPECTATIONS THE FERRARIS are slow. That has been apparent from pre-season testing and through the first three races of the 2020 F1 season.

In the most recent grand prix, in Hungary, Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished eighth and 11th.

“I think we saw in Barcelona pre-season testing that we’re not fast enough, but we’re not expecting such a difficult situation,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“So it’s certainly worse compared to expectations. After Hungary we have got a couple of weeks before Silverstone. It will be important for us to see all the aspects of the car, team organisations, whatever needs to be improved.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, special

rules have been introduced this year that limit the amount of development that the teams can do on their cars and engines. Those restrictions will make progress harder for Ferrari.

“Certainly not having any full freedom will make it more difficult,” Binotto admitted. “But we can only understand how much we can close the gap when we have fully understood the reason why we’re so slow. It’s too early at this stage to know.

We’re focusing on trying to understand the car and where we can progress soon.”

Ferrari is rushing to bring upgrades – those permitted by the rules – to the car.

“I think the updates we brought in Austria proved correlation, and at the moment at least we have addressed that.” Binotto said. “But the deficit in terms of performance is still there. We

are lacking speed on the straights, lacking speed on cornering. Overall, the car has to be improved in all the areas. It’s as simple as that.”

How long will it take for Ferrari to improve?

“It will take a long time,” Binotto said. “I think patience will be required. We need to improve all the areas, it’s not something that a simple trick will address it, or a simple solution or package. It will take time. How long? I don’t have the answer yet.”

The team has restructured its technical department but the other main areas are unchanged with Enrico Gualtieri in charge of the power unit, Laurent Mekies as sporting director and in charge of trackside activities, and Simone Resta will continue to lead the chassis engineering department.

RENAULT PROTESTS RP20 RENAULT HAS protested the Racing Point in the past two races – specifically, Renault claims that the Racing Point RP20 has illegal brake ducts, which are the same as those designed by Mercedes.

Racing Point has freely admitted that its 2020 car is a direct copy of the winning 2019 Mercedes. But the important point is that the team did it legally by reverse engineering the design from photographs of the Mercedes. And Racing Point proved that to FIA inspectors who visited the factory during the offseason.

What concerns Renault – and just about every other team – is the precedent being set. The Racing Point is the second or third fastest car out there, behind Mercedes and maybe Red Bull. Will teams continue to design their own cars or just make direct copies of the best car?

“We protested for what F1 do (and) we want in the future,” said Marcin Budkowski, the executive director of Renault Sport. “Do we want the model where we have 10 teams independently fighting each other?

For us it’s important to clarify what kind of level of exchange is permissible. Is it permissible to get parts or get geometries from another team and use them on your car or not? We don’t think that’s the right model for F1 in the future. It’s really beyond the protest. It’s what kind of model we want for the future of F1?”

Teams are permitted to buy a number of parts from other teams including the engine and gearbox. But there are ‘listed parts’ that each team must design and build itself. Teams were allowed to buy brake ducts in 2019, but those are now listed parts in 2020.

Image: LAT

Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer insists the RP20’s brake ducts are an in-house design.

“When the FIA came to us investigate how we designed and developed our brake ducts, they came to the factory, interviewed people, looked at all of our drawings, the design and development process, what we did in the tunnel and with CFD, and how we got to where we got, and they were satisfied,” he said.

F1 teams have always copied successful teams.

After Lotus came up with ground effects in the late

1970s, it didn’t take long for rival teams to create their own versions. But they were not direct clones like the RP20.

With the rules remaining the same for 2020 and 2021, Racing Point will have a quick car. With the major changes in the technical regulations for 2022, the team will have to create its own car from scratch.

But will teams be permitted to copy the design of the fastest 2022 car, when they build their 2023 versions, that’s the big question?

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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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WHO WILL DRIVE FOR ASTON MARTIN IN 2021?

AS SOON as the rumours started that Racing Point would sign Sebastian Vettel for 2021, it was reported that another team offered a contract to Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez.

The question is which team?

Using the process of elimination, it could not be Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Renault or Williams, because all those teams have contracts with drivers for 2021.

Mind you, Racing Point has contracts with Pérez and Lance Stroll for next year, and if the rumours are true, Pérez would be the one ousted to make room for Vettel.

Mercedes has yet to re-sign Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, but why would that team want to get rid of either driver as they are both proven race winners?

Pérez does not fit in with AlphaTauri’s philosophy, which is to develop young drivers from the Red Bull stable.

What about Haas? The American team cannot offer

anything to anyone right now because first, Gene Haas has to decide if he wants to stay in F1.

And only after he decides that, will he look into drivers.

The drivers’ line-up is the only thing that Haas decides alone, so even team principal Gunther Steiner won’t exactly know what’s going on right now.

That leaves Alfa Romeo.

Paddock sources suggest that Alfa Romeo team principal Frédéric Vasseur made the offer to Pérez.

Alfa’s Kimi Räikkönen will be 41 when the 2021 season begins, whereas Pérez will be 31.

Looking at its long-term future, Alfa Romeo wants to have a younger driver to replace Räikkönen. The team is considering Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg.

But Hülkenberg, who will be 33 next year, will want to be paid, as would Räikkönen.

Pérez, however, can bring 20 million euros from his Mexican

sponsor Telmex. He keeps six million euros for his salary, and that leaves the team with 14 million euros, which comes in handy!

As for Racing Point, which will change its name to Aston Martin next year, the team has firm contracts with its drivers “Checo” Pérez and Stroll for 2021.

Team principal and CEO Otmar Szafnauer made that point when he was asked about the rumors of Vettel joining the team next year. But Szafnauer did not completely rule out Vettel either.

“They are both contracted and we’re happy with the drivers we have,” Szafnauer said.

Pérez has been very loyal to the team – he has been there since 2014 when it was Force India – and he is widely credited with saving the financially-stricken team.

It was his legal action in 2018 that triggered the takeover by the new owners – the consortium led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll – who are

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 13 AUGUST

investing millions into the team. And Pérez regularly outperforms Stroll.

But Szafnauer got evasive when asked to confirm on the record that Pérez and Stroll will remain with team next year.

“It’s tough to predict the future,” he said. “What they need to do is do the best they can. They are contracted and watch this space; we’ll see where we go. But our intention is never to not honour our contracts.”

So when will the team make the decision about its drivers?

“There’s no timeline,” Szafnauer said. “It’s silly season already, so there is no time-bound decision-making process.”

Szafnauer did have praise for Vettel: “He definitely knows how to win, he’s very competitive. I know him as a friend, he’s a lovely guy. I’ve known him for a very long time. Straightforward, honest, and can be very fast.

So who will race for Aston Martin next year? Watch this space.

Darwin Supercars; British Grand Prix & 70th Anniversary Grand Prix; Short Circuit Baskerville; Alan Jones Austrian Grand Prix; Latest Supercar news & views; Latest F1 news; much more

THE FOGES FILE AA’s impatient pundit wants to see stickier tyres and more of Garth Tander on TV to spice up Supercars TYRES. ROUND and black. Sorry, with the best will in the world, can’t get interested. As fundamental as rubber is, not in the slightest bit fascinating.

I’m old enough to remember the days of tyre wars in F1 and even Australian touring cars. Dunlop vs Goodyear vs Firestone vs Bridgestone vs Yokohama vs Pirelli.

It was all on and great days of variation.

Now we get one-make control tyres. Don’t get me wrong. Dunlop’s long devotion to Supercars is admirable.

But the tyre restrictions are frustrating. Any of the world’s major tyre companies can make rubber that’s durable and super-grippy.

There’d be something wrong if they couldn’t.

Yet from F1 down, we are stuck with highdeg tyres. No great variation.

The mix ‘n’ match of hard and soft tyres at SMP 2 skewed the results. Those who squirreled their softs could win a race. Not real.

SMP 1 was more representative because at a high-deg circuit, everyone had to juggle their allocation of softs. Great, real racing resulted.

Fans have been up in arms over the tyredependent SMP 2 results.

And rightly so. The soft compound is the racier tyre and should be standard. An even grippier compound for qualifying is needed.

I’ve been saying that for years, but clearly no one is listening.

Given the minimal variation we now have, why not open Supercars to a tyre war?

Dunlop vs Hankook vs Pirelli vs Bridgestone, etc? Sure, variance is costly, but it mixes up the racing.

That’s not going to happen, so we’re stuck with two control compounds. A super-soft qualifier would really spice up the Top 10 Shootouts The SMP 2 experiment of three sets of hards and two softs was too confusing for fans. No

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with Mark Fogarty

Image: LAT

wonder teams were also non-plussed.

New winners are great, but merit is lacking when it’s a rubber lottery. The high-deg nature of the track made the all-soft SMP 1 results more valid.

It will be interesting to see what the hard/ soft mix does at Hidden Valley, another highdeg circuit.

I’m all for mixing things up, but handicapping has no place in Supercars.

Restricting tyre sets only promotes abhorrent results.

Otherwise. Supercars new Sprint format works well. Tyre-only pit stops are fast and exciting. Just confirms that refuelling has no place in sprint races and should be reserved for long distance events.

GET GARTH

SUPERCARS NEEDS to bring former champion and triple Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander into its main commentary team.

Tander is lucid and incisive, adding critical value to race calls.

He stood out on Channel 10’s ‘RPM’ last year – perhaps a little too much.

He is knowledgeable and authoritative, adding real-time experience that he is able to express in understandable terms.

Also, despite his affiliation with Red

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Bull Holden Racing Team as Shane van Gisbergen’s enduro co-driver, Tander speaks his mind.

Even more so this year, having been a victim of 10’s cost-cutting and stepping in to help call Super2 races.

He also excelled in calling the Eseries as a late replacement for dumped 10 sports presenter Matt White.

Tander partnered with experienced race caller Aaron Noonan to describe the Super2 action at Sydney Motorsport Park, highlighting his expertise.

They called the Super2 action remotely from Melbourne, yet Tander was informed and informative.

He would be an asset to Supercars’ main broadcasts, adding credibility, lucidity and honesty.

How would he fit in? Most easily, as an analyst alongside Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife during the races.

He is more suited to that role than Craig Lowndes, whose strength is pre- and postrace analysis.

Incorporating Tander in the main telecast would add a balanced, expert voice.

Hopefully, Seven will see the value in making the triple Bathurst 1000 winner a feature of the network’s return as the free-toair home of racing next year.

RON TAURANAC ELSEWHERE, SEASONED journo Geoff Harris has paid tribute to Ron Tauranac, the brains behind Brabham in F1.

Harris had a lot to do with Tauranac in his later years and his personal insight is valuable.

Ron was a legend, creating orthodox but serviceable race cars. Never cutting edge, his Brabham and RALT designs were durable winners.

He was a largely unsung hero, living in the shadow of Jack Brabham.

The fact remains that going back to the late 1950s Cooper era, Brabham benefitted from Tauranac’s pragmatic approach.

I met Tauranac a few times, but never had the chance to sit down with him for an extensive conversation. I regret that I didn’t make a greater effort because I’m sure he would have had great tales to tell.

British-born and Australian-raised, he lived a long and successful life, receiving an Order Of Australia medal and induction into the Australian Motor Sport Hall Of Fame.

I regret never having – or making – the opportunity to interview Ron Tauranac at length because his story was typical of the era. Hardship, endeavour and resourcefulness were his hallmarks.

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Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards explains why the extreme measures to keep Supercars racing are worth the cost and hardship to ensure the teams survive the coronavirus crisis OF THE five teams forced to flee Melbourne because of the city’s second wave of COVID-19, Tickford Racing had the most equipment and personnel to relocate. The former Ford factory squad is the only four-car operation, doubling its logistical nightmare.

Before arriving in Darwin for the double-header beginning this weekend, Tickford was at Eastern Creek for the best part of two weeks for the return match at Sydney Motorsport Park, followed by another dash to Queensland’s Gold Coast.

A couple of weeks at Sea World is not a bad incarceration, particularly with the freedom to enjoy relatively unrestricted movement, but like the other four Melbourne-based teams, the Tickford crew won’t return home until after Townsville at the end of August. Or early September if it’s also a doubleheader.

Ironically, despite the many difficulties of operating remotely, Tickford has achieved some standout results at both SMP appearances.

Lee Holdsworth again defied the dire predictions of this time last year to continue his hot run with a pair of strong seconds. Meanwhile, new recruit Jack Le Brocq – trying to fill the giant shoes of established star Chaz Mostert – scored his first main game win in the final race at Sydney SuperSprint 2.

OK, it was a tyre lottery and JLB’s success was underpinned by saving his two sets of softs for the race. But he beat the similar strategy of pole-winner Andre Heimgartner, aided by a slicker pit stop.

But a win is a win and after two years of torture at Tekno, Le Brocq has found an environment in which his talent can be nurtured. Cam Waters, Holdsworth and belated signing James Courtney, who showed signs of speed at SMP, are also performing well.

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All of which is a relief for long-suffering Tickford Racing chief executive officer Tim Edwards, who has presided over the Campbellfield squad’s agonising adventure since early 2005.

Following some success as team manager of F1 upstart Jordan in the late 1990s and very early 2000s, Edwards was hired by then British owner Prodrive to turn the dysfunctional Ford Performance Racing into a proper flag bearer for the Blue Oval.

Affable and enduring, he has reined over a rollercoaster ride highlighted by a championship with Mark Winterbottom in 2015 (perversely, without major Ford backing) and back-to-back Bathurst 1000 wins in 2013/14, both epic for disparate reasons.

However, it has to be said, FPR/Prodrive Racing Australia/Tickford Racing has otherwise been a serial under-achiever. Edwards bristles at that characterisation and he has survived extended lean periods that, in any code of football, would have resulted in his demise long ago.

He is now in charge of a strong squad whose Mustangs are in the mix with long-time arch-rival Triple Eight’s Commodores and snapping at the heels of DJR Team Penske’s pace-setting Fords.

Edwards is also influential in shaping the future of V8 racing as a member of the rule-making Supercars Commission, adding weight to his observations.

Much to his frustration, he is stuck in Melbourne, like me, by the renewed lockdown. As a consequence, the latest of our many encounters over the years was conducted over the phone.

As Edwards observed, “It must be one of the few ‘Up Front With Foges’ interviews not done face-to-face”. He’s right, but in these strange times, needs must.

How difficult has it been for the team to relocate twice and what are the challenges of being away for so long?

It’s tough – and there are two sides to that toughness. There’s the difficulty we face as a business, trying to manage the maintenance of the components on the cars – engines, transmissions, all those sorts of things, and finding paint shops to operate out of. So there’s the pressure that it puts on the business to find solutions for all those sorts of things. But then there’s the human side of it and that’s really the biggest challenge. The toughest part of the whole thing is that the guys are away from their families or partners. They haven’t joined the Navy or any defence force; they didn’t sign up to spend months away from home. So it’s been a big ask of them. But credit where credit is due – they’ve all just stepped up to the plate and they’re dealing with it. But it is tough on them, particularly those who have young kids or impending births. That’s the hardest thing, without a doubt.

And the way it’s shaping up, everyone is going to be away until at least the end of August. Won’t there then be the problem that once you’re back in Melbourne, you’re stuck here?

Well, we don’t know what we don’t know.

You’re correct, it is looking like they’re going to go to Darwin and then potentially on to Townsville after that. But we just don’t know. At the end of Darwin is notionally when our six-week lockdown in Melbourne ends, but who knows what’s going to happen in the next four weeks. You’d have to say it’s not looking good at the moment, but we’re making this up on the run. The teams are making it up on the run, Supercars is making it up on the run – no different to all of the other sporting codes. AFL is making it up on the run, literally doing their fixtures week-by-week.

So everybody’s just dealing with the cards that they’re dealt and it’s far from ideal. But, honestly, if anyone professes to know what we’re doing in September, then they’re full of shit.

How are you doing engine maintenance and panel repairs while you’re on the road?

I all sounds like an It e extraordinarily costly exercise.

Is it? e

Well, that’s not going to be possible for us, so we’re trying to source out how we deal with that. So there are so many things that go into the maintenance of these cars and there’s been daily shipments heading north. Over the next few weeks, there’ll be daily shipments heading south as well, so as a part comes off and needs servicing, where we can, we just have to ship it back to Melbourne and then service it and send it back. That’s the best we can do. But you’re never going to be able to tick off every component, so there’ll be a few shortcuts along the way, as you’d expect.

Presumably, a major engine problem or severe chassis damage will be a real headache?

It will if it’s severe chassis damage. We carry spare engines in the truck, so you can accommodate that. Everything else on the car apart from the chassis itself, we carry spares of. So you’d obviously consume your spares and frantically try to replace those spares or rebuild the damaged parts. What will be difficult for any team is if you have some unrepairable chassis damage – or even if it’s serious but still repairable, you have to put it back on a jig. So there’s that potential for any of the teams, including the Queensland teams, because as soon as you’re into a double-header at Darwin, there’s a big risk of damage in the first event. We’ve all seen some big accidents there over the years that have caused significant chassis damage and if that happens in the first weekend at Hidden Valley, you just won’t be competing the next weekend.

Tickford Racing is now based at Sea World on the Gold Coast before heading to Darwin. That sounds strange. Why and how did it work?

It’s called leaning on friends and asking favours. I’m good friends with Gary Reid, who runs the ShowTime team, and they have the contract to do the water show

Hoists are a luxury Tickford has to do without while on the road. The team can cope with routine maintenance and repairs, but major chassis damage could put any of the team’s four Mustangs out of action. at Sea World as well as the stunt show at Movie World. I approached him about where we could work up there, as soon as we got wind that that’s what we needed to do, and he contacted the boss of Sea World, who immediately said they weren’t using their convention centre and that we were welcome to use that free of charge. So we set up in the foyer area, with pergolas over each of the cars and mood lighting on the walls behind them.

And the engineers are all set up behind the bar! No, not really, but in all seriousness, Sea World provided us with a beautiful work area. We needed a roof over our head because, ultimately, if we needed any spray painting, for example, the part would be sent to a local paint shop. So it was just somewhere for us to clean the cars up, remove parts, replace them – just do general maintenance on the cars. Sea World graciously offered us that facility and to return the favour, all the guys stayed at the resort there. They literally have very short walks from their beds to where they work on the cars.

Nothing’s cheap in this N s sport, but absolutely, it’s e expensive.

There is a reasonable cost to it, but re it’s it’ what Supercars and the teams te need to do to keep th show on the road. It’s no the dif different to the AFL – except they’d the be haemorrhaging 10 times tim what we’re spending to achieve what they’re doing.

So there’s certainly a do cost cos associated with it, but we have no choice.

The AFL is spending $3 million mill a week on the Queensland hubs for the Que Victorian teams.

Vict We’re We’ not in such lavish accommodation as them! acco Seriously, though, we just Seri don’t have that number of people up there and certainly, in our case, the guys are doing their best to control the costs.

We’ve invested in small kitchen stuff and microwaves, and they’re cooking their own meals at the track in a makeshift kitchen. The team is really mucking in and I think it’s actually galvanised them, brought them all together. They’re working together not just to put competitive cars on the track, but to make sure they’re all fed properly. There’s no Michelin chef cooking them meals – they’re having to be self-sufficient – so you could say it’s going back to our roots of club racing. A lot of what we’re doing at the moment is bringing it back to the basics. There are no fancy garage walls and flooring, and all that sort of stuff. It’s just all about the on-track stuff.

Even so, it’s still costing a lot. Who’s paying for the teams to be away for so long?

Well, it’s a combination of the series and the teams. The series (Supercars) is assisting, but there’s obviously an element that falls to the teams as well. But it is what it is. We have to do it. Nobody’s questioning that side of it.

Well, with engines, we’re fortunate at the moment that we have a reasonably fresh bank of engines in our cars. We’d actually put fresh engines in two of the cars about two hours before the truck departed Melbourne, but absolutely, there will be a point where you can no longer just do maintenance. There are spares available.

I’ve seconded somebody back from Tickford Automotive who used to work in our engine shop to help out with building another engine that we have back here.

But there are even things that don’t come to mind straight away, like the maintenance of our wheel guns. Obviously, pit stops are hugely important now and after every one or two rounds, generally you’re crackchecking the internals of the guns.

Tickford set up a makeshift workshop in the foyer of Sea World’s convention centre at Southport on the Gold Coast between SMP 2 and Darwin 1. Team personnel also stayed at the resort’s hotel, part of the big cost of being away for so many weeks.

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D Does this willingness to change extend to Gen3, which you could ex ar argue is now more crucial than ever?

The sport, like so much of life, is not going to come out of all this the same, is it?

No. And I totally agree with what you’re saying. Life after this whole period is not going to be the same and nor is this sport. But I think a lot of the things that have been worked on and discussed and implemented are actually possibly going to make the sport stronger after this.

Such as what?

Oh, the formats, the number of people we have working in the garage – the list goes on. We’ve restricted the number of brakes you’re allowed to use. We’re doing two-day formats with more on-track time over those two days. We’ve wanted to do two-day meetings for a long time and this has given us the opportunity to do that.

So there are a lot of good things going on. There are a lot of bad things, for sure, but people are now a lot more receptive to change than they were 12 or even six months ago.

So what we’ve seen at the last two rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park is the start of Supercars’ new future?

Oh, possibly. The whole thing has to be viewed as a learning exercise. It’s not my decision if we’re to continue this way. We’re trialling some new things and there’s been a lot of positive feedback, and no doubt there’ll be some tweaks and changes and other things trialled at some point. Later in the year, no doubt there’ll be a Commission discussion about what was good, what was bad, what do we want to do next year? We’ll make a decision based on all the facts later in the year after we have a good sample shot.

As a commissioner, you’ve been involved in the process that has come up with these new ideas and cost-saving measures. So wouldn’t you have a pretty good idea of what’s going to stick and what’s not?

There’s been no discussion about 2021, so I don’t have an idea until we actually discuss it. All we’ve discussed so far is what are we doing for Sydney, what are we doing for Darwin, what are we doing for Townsville? They’re the things we’ve been discussing. With what’s going on in the world at the moment, 2021 seems a long way away. So, no, what 2021 is going to look like hasn’t been discussed. It will be in due course. And like I say, once we’ve trialled a few things and got some feedback – asked Mark Fogarty what he thinks of what we’ve done and take his opinion on board – then we’ll make a decision about what we do next year. But nothing’s set in stone for next year at all.

I’m sure you’ll be hanging out for my judgement…

Well, I would be interested to know what you think.

All right, I will gladly offer my opinion.

Moving on, traditionally, getting agreement on changes to the technical and sporting rules is rarely easy.

But in this case, the Commission seems to have been united in adapting to unusual circumstances.

Absolutely. But it hasn’t just been the Commission. All the teams have had input into what we’ve done – and we’ve made a point of engaging the non-represented teams. Representatives have attended some of the Commission meetings so they can all have their say. And it’s fair to say that everybody has been more receptive to change than they have in the past because we recognise that we do have to make changes. There are not many people in the pit lane who would’ve said what we had before was perfect and wasn’t costing us too much. It’s been burbling along in the background for some time that we need to do something a little bit different. We need to take some cost out of the sport to make it more sustainable, as with any business. You’re always challenging yourself like that, but trying to get everybody to agree, that’s not always easy. But there’s been a far greater degree of “Yep, let’s try it, take the data off the car”. If you’d mentioned that six months ago, you would’ve been shot down by half of pit lane. But everybody’s gone “Yep, no problem, let’s do it”. So it shows that there’s a far greater spirit of cooperation now than there was pre this shit fight that we’re in.

W Gen3’s still just burbling along Well, in the background. Regular meetings about ab that are taking place and where we up to, I’m sure Sean (Seamer) we’re s at some point will talk about it. It’s not for me to talk about that, but we’re quie moving forward with that in quietly the background. And quiet doesn’t nece necessarily mean slowly. We’re moving ahead ahea with it.

So you’re satisfied with the progress so far?

I am.

Even if Gen3 results in cheaper cars and running costs, there’ll be extra expenditure required for the changeover. As a team boss, does that concern you – and is 2022 still a practical date for the change or is there a move to delay it?

The timing is not for me to discuss. But in terms of the cost of the change, well, that’s something that you always face. But it is going to be potentially a slightly different cost to change compared with when we went to the current cars because there wasn’t much carryover at all. Whereas on the surface, you could pick things out that are going to carry over with Gen3.

The transaxle and dampers will carry over, which inherently means the rear suspension is probably going to carry over. So there are parts that you already say are going to carry over, so it’s not the same as when we went to Car Of The Future in 2013. But, for sure, the cost of change has to be part of the whole program and it’s front and centre with a lot of the things that are being discussed at the moment. So you can’t just go and

design whatever widget that you think’s going to be cheaper to build and run, and not think about “Well, how the hell are we going to pay for it?”

Going back to the current situation, despite all the dislocation, both appearances at Sydney Motorsport Park were very encouraging for the team, with Jack Le Brocq’s first win and a couple of seconds for Lee Holdsworth.

Well, certainly in Lee’s case, he’s pretty much kicked off this year, starting from Adelaide, pretty much where he was in the second half of last year. He regularly qualifies in the top 10 and he’s a regular top 10 competitor. So he’s really just carried on from where he was at the end of last year – and the same for Cam (Waters). Those two have really just carried on and then in the other two cars, we have two new drivers, so it’s a case of getting them up to speed with minimal testing as well as all the other challenges we have at the moment. We’re quite pleased with the progress we’ve made with two cars and the progress we’ve maintained with the other two cars.

What about Jack? Are we calling his win a breakthrough?

Well, it was his first win.

But in unusual circumstances. Will it give him more confidence?

Oh, 100 per cent. The sport of motor racing is built on confidence. Yes, you have to have a good car, but you also have to have a confident driver.

Confidence in their own ability might give them .05 of a second a lap. Well, we both know that .05 of a second in this category can actually mean five grid spots. It’s a confidence sport and

Team 18 reject Lee Holdsworth has got the better of his straight swap with former Ford hero Mark Winterbottom, consolidating his revival with Tickford since the second half of last year with another second place in the return to SMP. as with any sport, you get on a roll and confidence breeds confidence. But, look, aside from the win, Jack’s been getting more and more comfortable in the car. If you listen to him or to James (Courtney), the way we set up our cars and the way they need to drive them is a little different to the Triple Eight or Walkinshaw cars they’ve driven in the past. So it takes a little bit of adapting in driving style and when the top 20 cars are separated by one second, adapting your driving style makes a big difference. It might seem like a trivial thing, but if adapting your driving style is costing you two or three tenths, that’s two or three tenths you can’t afford to give up. I’m pleased with the progress Jack is making and I’m pleased with how James is learning our car – it’s making more and more sense to him as he goes.

After many attempts, you finally got Courtney [Edwards chuckles]. Was he worth the wait? Is he finally going to regain his front-running form with you guys?

Yes. He’s very confident in his ability, and he’s very open and transparent about what he’s struggling with, but he’s enjoying his driving, he’s enjoying the people he’s working with. He feels like he has three teammates that are keen to see him improve as well, so there’s no rivalry where they’re not sharing or not helping him. Does that mean he’s going to go on and threaten for the championship? That would be a tall ask, but the reality is that I think he still has a lot to deliver for the sport and he still has podiums left in him, that’s for sure.

How big a strain has the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis put on the team’s finances?

Huge, as you’d expect. But we’re not lone rangers there. There are plenty of businesses totally unrelated to motor sport that are feeling that pain, so we’re definitely doing it tough like so many others. You just have to work your way through it. We feel we have a plan that will allow us to come out the other side of it.

Jack Le Brocq is finally getting the chance to achieve his potential at Tickford. Replacing Chaz Mostert in the Supercheap Auto Mustang has raised expectations, but he rose to the occasion at SMP 2 with a strategic success in the final race.

You just have to work hard at it and that’s what we’re doing.

So Tickford Racing can survive this?

Of course. I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t think we could. As I say, we have a plan and if we can achieve the things we’ve set out in our plan and the country doesn’t all of a sudden go into Stage 4 lockdown or something that derails where we think we’re heading, then we’ll be fine.

Tim, when you joined what was then FPR 15 years ago, coming out of F1 where you’d been part of some success, could you have imagined that it would be as difficult as it has been?

Well, you’ve probably quoted me on this before: It’s an incredibly competitive category. But I don’t look on what we’ve achieved as a failure. We’ve managed to be a regular top two or three team in the championship for more than a decade. We haven’t matched Tripled Eight throughout that time, but we’ve had a good battle with them along the way and prior to Penske coming along, we were the biggest competitor to Triple Eight. So I think we have achieved a huge amount and I certainly don’t look back on the past 15 years with any negativity at all. We’ve achieved a lot. We’ve won a championship (2015) and a couple of Bathursts (2013/14), things that a lot of people haven’t done. Could we have achieved more? Absolutely. We could’ve won championships every year, but I’m also a realist and there’s the fiscal side of it as well. While we’ve often been labelled the (Ford) factory team, we haven’t had monumental budgets like other teams through the period and I think it’s a naivety of a lot of people that they just think we have. Even when we were the full factory team (as Ford Performance Racing until 2014), we never had the support that I know some of those on the other side of the ledger have had. Hence for the last decade and a half, you’ve always seen prominent brands – Caterpillar, Castrol, etc – adorning the doors of our cars. We never had a large Falcon head on the door as our (main) sponsor because commercially that would’ve never stacked up. So we’ve had to work very hard with a lot of fantastic partners over the past 15 years.

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In the annals of motor racing history, nobody has achieved so much with so little fanfare as Ron Tauranac.

GEOFFREY HARRIS remembers the man who created worldconquering Brabham and Ralt cars.

Images: LAT/RON TAURANAC COLLECTION/AA ARCHIVES

RON TAURANAC has been in the spotlight as much or more in death than he was in 95 years of life.

It’s safe to presume he’d be relieved not to be around to hear all the glowing tributes flowing within open-wheeler motorsport circles for him since he died on July 17.

Tauranac was the archetypal quiet achiever, not one who sought or even understood kudos.

For all the successful racing cars he designed and engineered, Tauranac always reckoned his best was going to be the next one.

This was the man who created the most significant car in Australian motor racing history, the Brabham BT19 in which Jack Brabham won his third Formula 1 world title.

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The next year Brabham’s teammate, New Zealander Denny Hulme, took the title in an updated version of that Repco V8-engined car.

The Brabham team also won the F1 constructors’ championship both those years.

Yet Tauranac was just as happy building cars for all manner of customers in lesser open-wheeler categories, at one time being the sport’s most prolific constructor under the name Ralt, which derived from his and his brother’s initials (Ron and Austin Lewis Tauranac).

These were the men who, as drivers, had ‘sandwiched’ Jack Brabham on the results sheet of the 1954 NSW Hillclimb

Championship – Ron the victor in his self-built Ralt 1 with a Norton 500cc engine, ahead of Jack in a Cooper-Bristol, and Austin third in Ralt 2.

The next year Brabham headed off to Europe and soon made his name in F1, becoming world champion with the Cooper team in 1959 and ’60.

But Brabham hankered for independence by having his own team, and he knew that Tauranac – like him, a RAAF ex-serviceman, energetic, unemotional and fiercely independent – was the man he needed to make that dream reality.

Ron Tauranac the racer ahead of Stan Jones at Parramatta Park in the 1950s.

Jack Brabham and the Ron Tauranac-designed Repco Brabham became No.1 in Formula One (left).

Tauranac at work (above) on Denny Hulme’s car at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix, and chatting with Brabham (far left).

Brabham, in his latter years at Cooper, had surreptiously drawn on Tauranac’s technical wisdom back in Australia through a constant chain of letters. This was eons before mobile phones, email, Skype, Facetime and Zoom, etc.

Brabham convinced Tauranac to uproot from Sydney in the early ’60s for England, where he’d spent the first three years of his life, and they became a formidable combination. They

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complemented each other perfectly.

Although they had some different personality characteristics, they never argued.

Brabham knew Tauranac’s design and manufacturing capabilities, while Ron, who had fancied himself in the cockpit in his earlier days but came to realise he was too aggressive behind the wheel, recognised Jack as “the best technical driver” in F1.

They formed Motor Racing Developments (MRD) but, because of the French word merde’s unfortunate connotation (it means shit), the cars they built were called Brabham, each with the nomenclature BT, representing their two surnames, followed by the model number.

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Jack was the face, the ‘star’, of the operation and, in the early days of sponsorship, adept at schmoozing corporates in his own understated way, but Ron was very much the equally-important partner, content to be invisible other than to those in the team and its suppliers.

“I just wanted to design cars,” he said.

Apart from F1, the pair built challengers for America’s Indianapolis 500, where Brabham was credited with starting the revolution to nimble rear-engined cars from the big, bulky Offenhauser roadsters.

Tauranac’s speciality was the spaceframe (tubular) chassis. His designs were comparatively simple, reliable, easy to drive, safe – and successful. He was a late convert to the monocoque.

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“Jack said: ‘They’re waiting to interview me because we won the world championship.’ … All I knew was that we hadn’t finished the race.”

He was the complete opposite of the e flamboyant Colin Chapman, whose Lotus cars both in F1 and at Indy were e innovative, daring, but fragile – and too o often killers of those who drove them.

Brabham retired from F1 at the end of 1970 but Tauranac ran the team in ’71 before selling to Bernie Ecclestone, for what turned out to be, not surprisingly, ‘a song’. It had its successes, then its torturous times, and eventually disappeared.

Brabham had said Tauranac “was the only bloke with whom I’d have gone into partnership – he was conscientious to a fault and peerlessly straight”.

The pair had walked up a driveway in Melbourne in the early 1970s to inspect Larry Perkins’ Elfin Formula Ford. The triple world champion was looking for something for his eldest son, Geoff, to race. The conversation ended with Tauranac telling Perkins that if he was ever in England to “drop around for a tea”.. cup of tea

Ayrton Senna was another to drive a Ralt in his early days in Europe and went on to become Brazil’s second triple F1 world champion.

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Ne Nelson Piquet (above) raced Ron Tauranac’s Ralts on his way to Formula One, in which he became Brazil’s first triple world champion.

Fo Tauranac chats to Larry Perkins at Monaco (left), winner of the 1975 Ta European F3 Championship in a Ralt. Britain’s Nigel Mansell in a Eu Honda-powered Ho onda-powered Formula 2 Ralt at Silverstone in 1980 (below).

Perkins did just that. It became an enduring friendship f of kindred spirits, with the hugelyrespected r elder at one time many years later quietly q helping out ‘LP’ for some months to solve a nagging touring car headache.

‘LP’ had dabbled in F1 but his greatest success overseas o was winning the 1975 European F3 Championship C in the first of Tauranac’s Ralts in the t make’s international incarnation.

“Ron was very logical. Nothing was too hard for him. h No hill was too tough to climb,” Perkins said.

“He was inspirational. There was no smokescreen. s He didn’t size you up by your chequebook c but by your willingness to pitch in.

“He took on the world and won. He leaves an unbelievable u legacy. Huge.”

David Brabham, the youngest of Jack’s sons, has h weighed in on Tauranac’s contribution on the website of Britain’s MotorSport. w “Dad knew he needed someone like Ron to help him achieve what he wanted,” he said.

“They had a massive amount of respect for each other.

“Both had talents in different ways that crossed over really nicely.

“I don’t think Ron ever got the credit for what he did in the background.

Tauranac and Brabham all smiles after victory in the 1967 French GP (above). Tauranac with Tim Schenken, who succeeded Jack Brabham in the cockpit in 1971 and later became the long-time Supercars race director (left).

“Jack being Jack, the focus was on him … but Ron would never have liked the limelight that Jack had to have.

“I’ve never felt he’s had the recognition he deserves.

“It’s why I wanted our Brabham Automotive project (with the BT62 GT car) to carry the BT, so that it carries his legacy forward.”

Perhaps the tale that best sums up Tauranac is from the aftermath of the 1966 Italian Grand Prix, from which Brabham had retired with an oil leak

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as Ferraris finished first and second, ahead of Hulme’s Repco-Brabham.

Ron and Jack flew back to Britain in Brabham’s Cessna. “Coming into Fairoaks (airport in Surrey) we saw all these people and I wondered what they were doing there,” Tauranac was to recall.

“Jack said: ‘They’re waiting to interview me because we won the world championship.’ That was the first I’d heard about it. All I knew was that we hadn’t finished the race.”

Even if the ’66 title triumph was the pinnacle,

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the many championships that Ralts won in other formulas and the satisfaction of the customers were just as important to Tauranac.

Among those to have raced Ralts were Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen – all of whom went on to be F1 champions – as well as all three Brabham boys.

“Ralt was so much more successful than Brabham as a company,” Tauranac was to say of the business he eventually sold to rival March in 1988.

He continued as a consultant to it for some years and was always in demand for other projects. One golden association he and Brabham retained until their dying days was with Honda, which had begun with a Formula 2 linkup in the mid-60s at the height of their F1 careers.

After Tauranac’s retirement to Australia around the turn of the century, Greg ‘Pee Wee’ Siddle – a fellow Sydneysider, life-long ‘disciple’ of Tauranac, and manager of Piquet – made it his mission to see that the T in BT be awarded an Order of Australia. The B had been knighted in 1979.

Now that Tauranac is gone, six years after Brabham, perhaps it would be most appropriate that his memory be perpetuated in the sport to which he contributed so much that there be an award for the best Australian open-wheeler engineer each year in his honour.

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Early days with Tasman Motorsport ... where Jamie Whincup’s endurance co-drives brought him to the attention of Roland Dane and the Triple Eight squad (far right)

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JAMIE’S VISION! ‘GREATEST OF ALL TIME’ SPEAKS OUT ON V8 FUTURE Record seven-time champ Jamie Whincup has firm opinions on where Supercars should be going. In this exclusive interview he shares them with BRUCE NEWTON IMAGES: LAT/AA ARCHIVES

JAMIE WHINCUP has become only the eighth driver in Australian touring car and Supercars history to record 500 race starts.

To be literally accurate, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver made starts 499, 500 and 501 at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 27-28.

Not only that, he finished on the podium all three times.

Whincup’s history is well known.

He had a single unsuccessful year at Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2003, scored some promising results at Tasman Motorsport in 2005, and then really started flying when he joined Triple Eight Race Engineering in 2006.

Since then, Whincup has won seven Supercars driver’s championships and 119 races, including the Bathurst 1000 four times.

By results alone the 37-year old is the greatest driver in the history of Australian touring car racing and certainly the dominant figure of the Supercars era.

He is also now a co-team owner of T8 and a Supercars Commission member.

His story has been told many times in terms of On the evolution of the driver’s role.

“The simple concept of just trying to get your car around the track fast is still the same. You have still got similar inputs as far as a go pedal, a stop pedal and a steering wheel to do that.

“But we are busier in the cockpit now than we once were.

“Back in the day we used to set the roll bar and the brake bias for the lap and now it’s a constantly changed thing, all backed up by data on what’s the best brake bias and roll bar setting for that corner.

“We are just following F1 in some ways.

his greatest achievements and significant races, so to mark this milestone we decided to go in a different direction.

With so many races to his credit and so much experience accrued, Whincup reflects on the past, present and future of the category he is so intrinsically connected with.

Those guys are constantly changing settings on the steering wheel to get the most out of the car.

“The other aspect of the driver’s role is the evolution of data logging and the information that is analysed and focussed on. Back in the day I’d come in from practice and say ‘Hey, we need to head in this direction with the car’ and we’d make some changes and get a bit of a feel and that was how you tuned a race car. It was all a bit of seat of the pants and a bit of feel and the data would be somewhat in the background of the toolkit.

“But now we are heavily reliant on all that in information and analysing that information to try and improve the performance.

“That’s technology and that’s what is g going on everywhere in the world; trying to fi bigger and better tools to help us go find fa faster.

“Data is a good thing because it’s a c critical tool for rookies and young people c coming in to the category to be able to c compare themselves against someone w is already established. It is a really who g good learning tool.

“The fact that some teams have a m mission control going on back at base with

people employed to go through the data and then sending that stuff back to the racetrack, is not a good thing.

“I don’t think anyone can afford that in this day and age and we need to minimise that as much as possible.

“A lot of how this will evolve depends on the rules. If you are allowed to do something then you exploit it as hard as you possibly can, until you are not allowed to do that anymore.

“Everyone is going to keep looking for those one-percenters, but the rules are going to determine what that looks like in the future.

“I honestly believe going forward the biggest factor in this sport has got to remain about the drivers. People are going to laugh when they read that: ‘Of course he’s going to say that, he’s a driver’.

“But we’ve still got to have the utmost respect for the guys and girls who are strapping themselves to these 300km/h missiles.

“They are the ones who are week in and week out putting it on the line and shedding blood to get to the finish line first. The more it can be about that the better.”

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“From what I have seen driving the car and following other cars, more aerodynamics hasn’t helped the racing.”

Whincup won on debut for Triple Eight, in the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide no less, and his career has not looked back since.

On the evolution of the Supercars racing car.

“We’ve been able to keep the Supercars DNA. It’s a heavy car with a big, grunty engine in the front, big brakes and relatively small tyres. The drivers have to muscle the car around.

“That concept has pretty much stayed the same. Yeah, we’ve gone from H-pattern (gearbox) to sequential and transaxle, all the panels are composite and the glass has been replaced by perspex. But if you look at the car from the outside it still resembles a V8 Supercar.

“What would be great moving forward is a product that suits our needs more but still maintains that Supercars DNA where we can.

“Just recently the aerodynamics have increased quite a lot. For the last three or four aero tests we have added a little bit, a little bit and a little bit and all of a sudden four lots of a little bit have added up to a lot. I think we have all learned the lesson that that is not the way to go. The other way is better.

“From what I have seen driving the car and following other cars, more aerodynamics hasn’t helped the racing. For a driver it’s not as enjoyable to race as it was three or four years ago. That can be fixed so easily and so quickly, it’s not a big drama.

“The balance of importance of the car versus the driver is impossible to call. Obviously, the two go together.

Things keep evolving and changing.

“Back in the day there was only half a dozen cars that could win a race because they had more horsepower and the car was physically better than the rest of the field.

“Over time the category has done a great job making all the cars more similar, so less chance of getting it right or wrong. But the technical side has advanced so much that all of a sudden it has negated the gains from control components. The best teams are still going to be the best teams because they have advanced that side of it.”

On the evolution of Supercars teams.

“A 2010 Supercars team would not be able to compete with a 2020 Supercars team. The 2020 team simply has 10 years more experience.

“But it’s a flawed comparison, you

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really have to look at how that 2010 team fared against its opposition at the time.

“Performance-wise, the technical side of it I’ve previously mentioned has come on in leaps and bounds; we’re analysing so much more and in so much more detail.

“Do we need more teams in the category? 100 per cent. How do we make it easier? Make it less technical from the outset.

“There are also more distractions for the teams now than what there was. I remember joining T8 in 2006 and there was a whole organisation devoted to making two competitive Supercars and that was it. There were two Supercars in the shop and everything was put in to make those two cars as fast possible.

“Now we are running Super2 cars and GT cars and we made a drift car and a Sandman wagon, there is all sorts of stuff going on in the workshop.

“It’s all being done for all the right reasons and we had to go there, but in some ways it is all a distraction compared to what it was like back in the day. We are doing vastly more than what we used to.

On the impact of the pandemic on teams.

“Obviously, there is a lot of resetting and winding back going on the world at the moment and a lot of it is for the good. I have to be very respectful when I say that because there are a lot of people hurting at the moment because they are geared up to operate in a 2020 state and it’s been reset back to years ago in some areas. We have to get through the pain of the big change and reset, but once we do I think we will be in a better place.

“There was a lot of good that happened back in time and a lot of negatives associated with getting bigger and expanding and being more grand.

“I am hoping once we get through the pain, the discomfort and devastation of 2020, hopefully we look back in three years’ time and say ‘Hey that reset made us better’.

“I hope 2020 makes the world stronger, which includes our sport.”

Whincup debriefing with team boss Roland Dane (left), with whom he now shares an ownership slice of Triple Eight.

On the category’s parity philosophy and suggestions ‘data claiming’ could be introduced. (Data claiming would make the fastest qualifier’s fastest lap data available to rivals).

“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.

“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.

“If that’s not sporting parity I don’t know what is. You may as well give the rest of

tthe field another 10 horsepower and make tthe guy on the front stay where he is.

“The DNA of the sport is we never go in into sporting parity and I think we never should. That’s what makes Supercars so special.”

On Supercars racing formats and the championship structure.

“The thing about our sport is we have variety. We have a huge ability to change the race length, the temperature, the climates we go to. We go to hilly tracks, we go to flat tracks, we go short, long and all over the place.

“Then we can add in the element of a soft or hard tyre. We have a lot of flexibility.

“What I believe has worked over time is having variety. That’s variety race-onrace and variety year-on-year as well.

Once we start doing the same thing for a long period of time then it becomes really predictable, the strategy becomes predictable and the set-up to some extent becomes predictable. And we start to see predictable racing going on.

“Changing it up and throwing a few

Sharing with the sport’s most popular driver Craig Lowndes, Whincup won the Bathurst 1000 three years in a row, 2006 to 2008.

Proudly wearing the #1 of the champion (above) and deeply immersed in the data (right). Whincup sees the digital technology as an important tool for younger drivers coming into Supercars but is wary of taking it too far. curveballs is the best way to create unpredictability.

“If you know who is going to win then you’re not going to watch.

“So the best formula is keeping it moving, keeping it changing. You also have to adapt to your conditions. The market basically sets the type of racing; there will be a fad for short, sharp, quick entertainment like cricket’s 20/20, but then you watch, people will want to watch test cricket again and sit at the MCG for five days.

“I think we should just keep changing all the time and adapting to what the sports market actually wants.

“I feel the (pre-COVID) balance was pretty good with three dual driver events and the street race endurance events.

Maybe we lacked some sprint races. But if we had them all the time that wouldn’t work either.”

On race management and the conflicts he’s had, including an outspoken on-air blast in 2019 after a penalty in New Zealand for which he subsequently apologised.

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“I was never good with authority. I got in trouble quite a bit at school for not respecting the teachers.

“As I said after my comments in NZ, they weren’t productive and they didn’t help anyone. That was heat of the moment stuff, I had a camera in my face straight afterwards. I don’t regret it, but I’d rather spend my time helping the sport rather than criticising it.

“We always just need to make sure the sport operates at the same level as the teams as much as we can. If it’s not, we need to adjust it. You don’t want it higher or lower, you want it similar to the level of effort of its teams.”

On achieving 500 races and what it means to him.

“My fantastic partner and my engineer decided to do a little celebration for me and we got a group of people together at home – all socially distanced of course - to celebrate the 500.

“The only way I can explain it is I feel like I’ve had a preview of my 60th birthday. Hey, it’s a great thing and it’s worth celebrating but it did make me think ‘Oh gee I’m no

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anymore I’m lucky to have spring chicken anymore, made it this far’, but I still want to go further.

So sure, let’s celebrate something, but it’s still not the end.

So it’s one of those things. When you’re still doing it, it’s a fantastic number and a fantastic achievement, but at the same time I am no spring chicken anymore and I have to make sure I still have plenty left to give as well.

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’. 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.”

On the evolution and future of Supercars.

“The basic model is taking the car that mum and dad drive the kids to school in and then throwing people inside them and trying to get them to a line the fastest.

“That’s how it all started and that excites them.

“It’s entertaining to watch people strap themselves in and do 300 kays in these rockets.

“But I believe we have more challenges than we have ever had as far as this sport goes and unless we are serious about it, have a bit of a crack and make some changes … then you are going to dwindle away and get forgotten about.

“It’s like any business at the moment.

If you don’t change eventually you will become uncompetitive. Right now, productivity is the key. We have to work hard and not be scared of some change and take the sport to the next level.

“I don’t make those decisions. I am part of a team that can help, but no more or less than that. I can only help and give my input and its up to the important people in the category to make that happen.

“There is no silver bullet. For years I have been trying to find the silver bullet in my car to make me go faster but it doesn’t exist. It is the combination of many things.

“It is all the one percenters.”

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REDEMPTION FOR LAFFITE A hard-fought German Grand Prix was raced in the aftermath of Patrick Depailler’s tragic death in testing and reigning world champion Jody Scheckter’s retirement announcment.

Veteran Jacques Laffite outlasted his rivals, as DAN McCARTHY reports.

THE NINTH round of the World Formula 1 Championship at Germany’s Hockenheimring was full of attrition and drama, headlined by a slow puncture which robbed Alan Jones of a seemingly certain victory.

Sadly, the weekend was marred by the death of Patrick Depailler, the twotime Formula 1 race winner killed when testing his Alfa Romeo at the circuit a week prior.

Marshals at the scene reported that the car failed to turn for the 200km/h Ostkurve, slamming into the barrier, flipping and skidding along the top of the guard rail upside down.

The 35-year-old suffered severe head injuries and was taken to Heidelberg University Clinic by helicopter, but died before arrival.

Alan Jones said that the Ostkurve was taken very differently to how it had been just one-year prior.

“In contrast to last year, the Ostkurve is (now) being driven in fifth gear at full throttle,” Jones said. “If you skid off, you’ll need a lot of luck to come out in one piece.”

To reduce the speeds of the cars and to allow for safer racing, the International Auto Sport Federation (FISA) asked tyre manufacturers to create a grooved tyre, but this was immediately ruled out by Michelin and Goodyear citing development costs.

In this tragic lead up to the German GP, reigning Formula 1 champion Jody Scheckter also announced that he was retiring from the sport at the end of the season.

The South African had scored just two points all year and said that a lack of motivation was his reason for retirement.

“My reason for stopping is that racing

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After the Renaults succumbed to engine issues, Alan Jones (above) looked set for another win but a slow puncture put paid to that. After a stop he recovered to finish third and retains his lead in the World Championship. Images: LAT

used to be an all-consuming passion with me, more important than anything,” Scheckter said. “I think to be successful in racing you must give 110 per cent, and I don’t have that commitment anymore.”

At the other end of his career, Kiwi born adopted Aussie Mike Thackwell signed a deal to race a third Tyrrell in the Canadian and the United States Grands Prix. This was announced amid strong rumour that Thackwell was to join Nelson Piquet at Brabham for the 1981 season.

In a busy period, March also announced its plans to return to F1 after departing the sport at the end of 1977.

With all that done, in Germany the Renaults were a second a lap faster than the rest of the field during the wet practice sessions, though one concern

1980 German Grand Prix – Hockenheimring

Jacques Laffite (left) won, redemption for losing the race at Brands Hatch with his own tyre problems. Carlos Reutemann (above) was second while Nelson Piquet (below) charged back from a bad start to finish fourth.

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret DNQ DNQ

Driver Jacques Laffite Carlos Reutemann Alan Jones Nelson Piquet Bruno Giacomelli Gilles Villeneuve Mario Andretti Jochen Mass Riccardo Patrese Derek Daly Alain Prost Marc Surer Jody Scheckter Jan Lammers Jean-Pierre Jarier Elio de Angelis John Watson Jean-Pierre Jabouille Rene Arnoux Eddie Cheever Didier Pironi Emerson Fittipaldi Keke Rosberg Hector Rebaque Rupert Keegan Harald Ertl

Drivers’ Standings

for the French team was that three valve springs had broken.

Qualifying was a different story, the dry conditions enabling Jones to take an unlikely pole position by the barest of margins. The immense downforce produced by his Williams FW07 exceeded the power advantage of the Renaults, as the Australian pipped Jean-Pierre Jabouille by 0.04s The Renault of Rene Arnoux was only 0.11s behind, alongside Williams’ Carlos Reutemann on the second row. Jacques Laffite (Ligier) followed with Nelson Piquet, Didier Pironi (Ligier) and Fittipaldi driver Keke Rosberg completing the first third of the field.

Reigning constructors’ champions Ferrari again languished down the order, with Gilles Villeneuve 16th and Scheckter in 21st, a whopping 3.5s off pole.

Both cars and drivers were expected to be pushed to breaking point during the 45lap German Grand Prix on the ultra-fast Hockenheimring layout.

As the lights went out, Jones made a good start and led into the first turn untroubled. Both Renault machines made rare good starts and held position, while Pironi leapt from seventh to fourth.

Piquet was slow away and dropping to 23rd exiting the first turn, but the problem was quickly resolved and he began to climb back through the pack.

On the approach to the first Bremsschikane, Jabouille was able to squeeze around the outside of Jones to take the lead, as the slipstreaming duels began.

After lap 1, Jabouille led Jones, Arnoux, Pironi, Laffite, Rosberg and Reutemann as the race settled into a rhythm.

It was obvious from the word go that despite sitting behind his fast-starting teammate, Laffite was faster than Pironi, and on lap 3 he breezed by the younger French to take fourth position.

Shortly after falling to seventh behind Reutemann, Rosberg made his way into the pits and retired with a faulty wheel bearing.

Piquet was continuing his recovery through the field and by the end of lap 14 had returned to seventh position, several seconds behind the leading half dozen cars.

Pironi was the first major casualty of the race on the same lap, retiring with a transmission issue, a real blow to his title hopes.

It was at this time Jones began to drop away from the leader Jabouille, falling over 1s behind the Frenchman for the first time.

At the end of lap 22, Jabouille led Jones by 1.6s, there was then a 3s gap back to Arnoux and Laffite. Reutemann rounded out the top five, a further 4.7s adrift, with Piquet sixth.

Everything changed on lap 26 as almost simultaneously both Renaults suffered valve spring failures, Arnoux came to a stop on the circuit, while Jabouille limped back to the pits to retire.

This left Jones in control with a comfortable 7.1s lead over Laffite, Reutemann, Piquet, Elio De Angelis (Lotus) and John Watson (McLaren) who rounded out the top six.

Now with free space in front of him, Jones put the hammer down, extending his lead over Laffite by multiple seconds a lap. However, on lap 40, with victory almost within his grasp, the Aussie’s front-left tyre developed a slow puncture which forced him to pit and relinquish the lead to Laffite.

The #27 FW07 returned to the track in third with two fresh front tyres, and Jones smashed the lap record on his way to the chequered flag.

In a way the win was redemption for Laffite, as the same problem had ended his chances of winning at Brands Hatch last time out.

“I had a lot of luck today to win, because of the car in front of me but the race is like that and it is a good win for me,” Laffite said.

Carlos Reutemann closed the gap in the closing laps but came up 3.19s shy of the race victory.

Jones rounded out the podium in third with Piquet fourth.

The sole Alfa Romeo driver of Bruno Giacomelli started 18th, staying out of trouble as he made his way forward, the Italian earning an emotional fifth place for a team still mourning the loss of Depailler.

Gilles Villeneuve fought back from an early pit stop to take sixth position, pinching the final point from 1978 world champion Mario Andretti on the penultimate lap.

The 10th round of the championship is set to take place at another high-speed venue, the Osterreichring in Austria.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. = 7.

8. = 10.

Alan Jones Nelson Piquet Carlos Reutemann Jacques Laffite Didier Pironi Rene Arnoux Riccardo Patrese Derek Daly Elio De Angelis Emerson Fittipaldi

Constructor Ligier Williams Williams Brabham Alfa Romeo Ferrari Lotus Arrows Arrows Tyrrell McLaren ATS Ferrari Ensign Tyrrell Lotus McLaren Renault Renault Osella Ligier Fittipaldi Fittipaldi Brabham Williams ATS

41 34 26 25 23 23 7 6 6 5

Laps 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 43 39 27 26 23 18 18 8 4

Result 1h 23m 59.73s +3.19s +43.53s +44.48s +1m 16.49s +1m 28.72s +1m 33.01s +1m 47.75s +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap Wheel Bearing Engine Engine Engine Gearbox Transmission Brakes Wheel Bearing Gearbox

Grid 5 4 1 6 19 16 9 17 10 22 14 13 21 24 23 11 20 2 3 18 7 12 8 15

Constructors’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. =

Williams Ligier Brabham Renault Arrows Tyrrell Fittipaldi McLaren Ferrari Lotus

67 48 34 23 11 10 9 7 6 6

In the wake of Patrick Depallier’s death, Bruno Giacomelli (above) gave Alfa Romeo something to smile about with fifth.

Gilles Villeneuve took the uncompetitive Ferrari to sixth (above) in the wake of World Champion teammate Jody Scheklter’s retirement announcement.

Jean Pierre Jabouille (above) led comfortably until the Renault suffered a valve spring failure, ending his changes of victory.

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THE APPRENTICE

At just 17-years-old, Broc Feeney is set to join the big time as co-driver to former Supercars champion James Courtney at Bathurst.

DAN McCARTHY spoke to the Queenslander about his rapid rise up the motor sport ladder.

BROC FEENEY has dramatically risen through the ranks.

Just three years ago, Feeney began his career ascension in karts and now, this October, he will contest Australia’s biggest motor race alongside one of the sport’s biggest names.

Motor sport has surrounded Feeney from a young age, as his father Paul raced bikes very successfully and his mother Sue was part of the ultrasuccessful Winfield-sponsored Gibson Motorsport team of the early 1990s.

In the last three years Feeney has won the KA2 Australian Kart Championship, taken race wins in the Toyota 86 Series, and took out the Super3 Series.

During his Super3 season Feeney scored just a single victory but his consistency kept him in the title fight.

“It was such a good year. It was a very consistent season, I had started the year with a pole position and a win,” Feeney recalled to Auto Action.

“To be honest there were quite a few

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races where we probably did have the pace to win, but it was risk versus reward.

“To come away with the championship in my second year of car racing, in the third-tier Supercars series, was such a big relief not only for myself but my whole family.”

During the 15-race series, Fenney scored 12 top three finishes to take the crown ahead of a highly competitive field, including runner up Jayden Ojeda, Zak Best, Hamish Ribarits and Nic Carroll.

“The great thing about last year was that there were half a dozen drivers that could go to the track each weekend and challenge for a win, so it certainly made it exciting,” Feeney said.

“It was just down to minimal mistakes.

We were all rookies, so the person who made the least mistakes would end up at the front and that is what we focused on the whole year.

“With Jayden pushing me it was

certainly a bit nerve racking going in that last round, but we just did the same as we did at every other round, we had good pace, chipped away at it, and we got the win.”

Following in his father’s footsteps, Feeney began racing on two-wheels before a trip to Thailand quickly changed that.

Broc and his brother spent most of the holiday racing at the local kart hire centre and on returning home told his dad he wanted to switch to four wheels.

“My dad was a bit shocked because I’d won a few Australian championships in dirt bikes and then started to go to four wheels, he explained.

“It was a bit of a change, but I certainly haven’t regretted the decision I made.”

From the moment Feeney stepped into a kart he was on the pace and made his way through the categories, before clinching the Australia KA2 Kart Championship in 2017.

Feeney’s early dream was Formula 1 and Formula 4 provided the beginning to that pathway.

But after testing and researching budgets to advance overseas, his focus changed to Supercars, embarking on that pathway with the Toyota 86 Race Series.

This is where long-time family friend Paul Morris entered the frame.

Broc’s father contacted ‘The Dude’ to

Broc Feeney’s eyes are on the prize ... a career in Supercars. He’s shown good speed in his first season of Super2 racing with Tickford.

Broc Feeney started his motor sport career following in famous father Paul’s footsteps in motorcycling. However a switch to karting brought success with the KA2 title in 2017 which motivated a move to the Toyota 86 series in 2018 where he was a front runner. He’s now in his second season in the junior categories of Supercars. ask if he could give his son pointers at the Norwell facility.

“Paul took me out that day to Norwell and taught me how to drive a manual and he’s been there for me ever since,” Feeney told AA. “He’s been so critical in these first few years of my car career, he has been a massive help.”

In his maiden season, Feeney took two wins on the way to sixth in the Toyota 86 Race Series. He is incredibly proud of his small team and the achievements it had during that first season in tin-tops.

“We rocked up at for Round 1 at Phillip Island and to be honest from the get-go we were actually pretty competitive, running around the top 10,” he said.

“In Round 3 at Tailem Bend I got my first victory and became the youngest ever in the 86 series.

“Looking back on it, it was absolutely crazy what we were able to achieve. It was (just) my dad and my mechanic Johnny, we did it all of ourselves, we went racing and we won races. I think that proved a lot in that first year.”

When it was announced that V8 Touring Cars were to align with Supercars to become Super3 in 2019, Feeney was one of many young hopefuls who jumped at the chance to compete.

“Motor sports are not a cheap thing so at the end of 2018 we were trying to fast track things as much as we could,” he said.

“We wanted to step up into Super3.

We talked to a few teams and had a chat to Paul Morris and it was our best option to go with him. I live, like 500 metres from him, Norwell is in my backyard, so all the stars aligned.”

The jump to Super2 this year was

inevitable and when Supercars team Tickford Racing became an option, it was a no brainer.

“We wanted to be with a really good team that would give me an opportunity to show what I can in Super2, and then hopefully progress to the main series,” he explained.

“We got a call in late-November saying that there was an opening at Tickford.

We flew down to Melbourne a couple of days later and the deal was done.”

Many of Feeney’s Super3 contemporaries have joined him in the second-tier series, and after the completion of two rounds he sits sixth in the standings, highlighted by two frontrow starts at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“My biggest goal this year is just doing the absolute best I can in Super2. If I’m getting good results, I’m hoping that the offers will come,” Feeney said.

“We’re in the feeder category for the

main series, so I want to start proving that I can step up into the main game.”

Away from the racetrack, Feeney is currently completing a mechanical apprenticeship at Norwell, while also giving back to the sport by coaching karting up-and-comers, just like he was three years ago.

“Paul really lets me look after the younger kids coming up, because I’ve been through that pathway,” Feeney said.

“I find the coaching is really helping my racing, because you’re teaching kids what you got taught, then when you get in the car, you have to do it.”

When not contesting Super2 with Tickford Racing, Feeney can be found racing anything from a Hyundai Excel to an Aussie Racing Car or even a MARC II, in which he took victory in Class I at this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour alongside Nick Percat and Aaron Cameron.

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FFor a novice, motor sport can be daunting to get into.

However, there are categories across Australia that are suited to those whose only experience of driving in anger is getting road rage at the local supermarket. HEATH McALPINE investigates the ultimate entry level motor sport.

AUTO ACTION has received plenty of feedback about its ‘The Cost of Racing’ feature which regularly explores how much money is actually required to hit the track.

One common suggestion provided by our readers was the ‘Cheap Car Challenge’ run at the Pheasant Wood Circuit in Marulan (NSW).

This category was formed five years ago with the aim of making it more accessible to enter tin-top racing and so far, it has proven to be a great success.

On average, 24-26 cars regularly compete at the New South Wales venue with fields featuring a wide array of models include Honda Integras, Nissan Pulsars, BMW 130is, Peugeot 206s, Toyota Celicas and Mitsubishi Lancers, just to name a few.

To comply with the category parameters, models must be under two-litres, naturally aspirated, able to seat four occupants (in stock form, interiors are stripped) and built between the years 1986-2007, and there’s no price limit.

Pheasant Wood Circuit track manager Scott Hill believes simple is best when it comes to the regulations.

Modifications are almost non-existent in the class apart from the standard safety equipment, which includes a roll cage.

“The cars have minor modifications and entries must have a roll cage. It’s a team

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Pheasant Wood hosts its own low-cost motor racing category, (above and main) called the ‘Cheap Car Challenge’. It attracts a large and diverse field of entries.

event, so there’s a minimum four drivers and a maximum drive time of 15-minutes per stint,” Hill told Auto Action.

A vehicle that’s a statutory write off generally provides a good basis for a Cheap Car Challenge competitor, as long as it meets the category requirements.

Although standard in its mechanicals and body, safety is paramount and while a cage isn’t required to be Motorsport Australia certified, weld-in cages are preferred. However, bolt-in roll cage kits

are popular and roll cage manufacturer Bond Roll Bars can provide basic packages starting at $1750.

A racing harness must be fitted and a race seat is preferred, though a fire extinguisher is not required due to the five flag points that officiate around the 1.6km circuit.

Despite admitting it was hard to police, the engine must remain relatively standard with the only modifications to be made are purely for reliability purposes. Any

potential advantage from performance engine modifications are snuffed by the requirement to run a standard type rear muffler.

According to Hill, “It tends to choke anything you do with the engine up the front.”

Suspension mods are just as basic, with aftermarket type suspension much like Pedders and K-Mac allowed but coilovers are not.

Organisers are currently consulting competitors in regard to increasing brake size, but at the moment pads are the only items that can be changed.

Pheasant Wood management recommend Carbotech pads.

Tyres are restricted to road-going rubber, with R-spec variants allowed to a maximum width of 215. Rims are limited to 7.5-inch width and cannot be more than two-inches larger than the stock component.

The minimum licence requirement to compete in the ‘Cheap Car Challenge’ is a Pheasant Wood Event Licence, which can be obtained the day before the event after an Observed Licence Test (OLT), at a cost of $225. This is valid for 12 months and costs $120 to renew.

The entry for a four-driver team is $700 altogether, then to arrive at a budget you have to combine that with tyres, fuel, pads

For those who think Supercars is too expensive and too serious, there is the 24 Hours of LeMons which stages events right around the country (right).

and any other consumables used during a race weekend. Hill expects an individual competitor to spend no more than $700.

A standard race weekend can begin on the Saturday via a track test session at a cost of $156, where OLTs and the like take place, but this is not exclusive to Cheap Car Challenge entrants.

This option is not a necessity, leaving just a single day schedule kicking off with qualifying ahead of the first two-hour race, before a break for lunch, then a second two-hour event, which completes the program.

Pheasant Wood run eight events of this type every year, seven of which count towards a team’s final points tally.

The ruleset the races run under are there to reward consistency and not necessarily the fastest entry, as Hill explained.

“We conduct the event over a pair of twohour races run over two classes, based off a breakout time, so we have Group 1 with a time of 63s and Group 2’s time is 65s,” explained Hill.

“The idea behind the breakout time is that a team is given two warnings with no penalties, but once a team breaks out the third time, they lose those three laps. Say a team breaks out five times during the course of the day, they lose five laps.

“We have a minimum pit stop time of 90s and if you are 89.99s short, which a team was last time, it is a four-lap penalty.

“It is never the fastest car that wins these events, it’s always the team that is organised and consistent.”

Driving standards are also fairly high, collisions on-track are not tolerated, and

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a few entries have been black flagged because of it.

This takes another potential high cost when going circuit racing.

In an expansion of this formula, a seven-hour endurance took place last weekend, featuring compulsory fuel stops.

Further such events are planned for next year, competitors are consulted regularly on the class goings-on or any potential rule changes, all of which forms a good understanding of the category workings.

“It’s seriously good, clean racing and a good bunch of people compete,” said Hill.

If building a car isn’t of interest then RaceAway Track Time based in Goulburn (NSW) provide ‘Arrive and Drive’ packages which include driver coaching, entry to the event, equipment and anything else that is required for a weekend of racing.

“It’s $1950 per head,” RaceAway Track Time’s Phil Alexander said of his program.

“We consider it a two-day event, even though it is (really) a one-day event. On a Saturday there are normally two or three drivers who require coaching so we include that, they learn the pit stop procedure and the strategies we employ on Sunday, because there is no time (to do that) on race day.

“We address all the preliminary stuff on the Saturday, which consists of talking through the brake set-up and tyre set-up for the next day.”

The aim of the program is to progress the driver through the various aspects of racing, which then impacts the on-track performance.

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Alexander runs a fleet of Pulsars, which he cycles the brakes over during the course of the weekend, as the Nissans are harder on brakes. The pad package that Alexander runs cost approximately $550, the rears last quite a while, but the fronts wear through as do the discs, though these are relatively cheap.

RaceAway Track Time complete a scale of costing at the end of a weekend that features total loss, panel damage and mechanical damage, which further enhances the driver’s need to drive the car with sympathy.

Reflecting on the category’s recent history, Alexander explained that it has grown from a class that was quite ‘raggedy’ to a refined competition, as its popularity has risen thanks to the organisers listening to competitor suggestions.

“They listen to the input of the drivers and refine it by still retaining the same principles,” Alexander said.

The Euro models have a slight advantage with affordable and eligible aftermarket suspension components more freely available, but all these modifications do is increase the handling ability of the car, as the performance limitations set for the category dispel any real advantage.

While this sort of class is

accessible and somewhat serious, if light hearted racing is more your go, then the 24 Hours of LeMons might be just the thing.

Originating in America, this racing category is notorious for bringing out some amazing contraptions with four wheels and an engine.

Created for cars that are not particularly performance-orientated, LeMons came to Australian shores in 2015 with the first event run at Wakefield Park by Sean Herbert.

Since then, Herbert has held events in every state and soon the Northern Territory, all for cars that don’t follow the norm. For instance, a team of drivers recently built its entry into a plane!

“We expanded from that one event in 2015 to four the next year,” Herbert told Auto Action.

“This year we were going to have nine, which we will do next year, and then in 2022 we’ll do 12.”

A three-day event, LeMons kicks off with practice and scrutineering on the Friday, then there are two days of racing.

“We also do a 24-Hour non-stop event, where we start on Friday afternoon and we finish Saturday at 3pm.

“What we’re working towards is to do a day-day and day-night event in every state, so we’re slowly but surely getting there,” Herbert said.

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39

The 24 Hours of LeMons series is for cars that don’t look like racing cars ... non-racing adornment is encouraged, such as roof-mounted rockets, hotdogs and even one entry that got turned into an aeroplane!

“We’re going to start in Tasmania next year and looking at the Northern Territory, before having each format in each state.”

LeMons is not only hoping to expand Australia-wide but also into other disciplines of motor sport, including hillclimbs, off road, a variety bash event and even a street race!

“We want to run a Bathurst-type of event on closed public roads, so we’re talking to councils about that,” Herbert explained.

“We’re going to go back to the basics of Bathurst when it started, which was a working man’s event that was over the years swallowed by the corporations.

We’re going to start one up that is for the working man and will remain that way for cheaper cars.

“We’ve got a whole heap of plans to keep it grassroots. Cheap, simple, smart and safe.”

Entries vary from venue to venue. For example, The Bend costs $2710.91 comprising a team of four or more drivers, plus $75 for each crew member, which is across all circuits.

Winton, Morgan Park, Wakefield Park and Collie Motorplex have a standard entry fee of $2540, while another Victorian round at the combined Calder Park Thunderdome and road course carries a $2796.36 cost.

Morgan Park and Collie Motorplex hold both race formats.

The choice of circuits is important as these need to have high safety standards due to most drivers entered being

inexperienced, making safety a high priority.

“Our number one thing is to keep people safe and to do that you need the tracks to do it,” Herbert added. “And you need to rule with an iron fist because the drivers all think they’re Peter Brock, but they’re not.”

Eligibility is pretty simple for the LeMons events. If it resembles anything like a race car, forget it. Organisers are fairly brutal and will chuck teams out if the spirit of the event isn’t followed.

Herbert believes a race car can be built for $4000, which includes $1000 on the weapon of choice, $3500 to cage it, race seat, harness and fire extinguisher.

“If you want to build a ‘Frankenstein’ like the aeroplane car or anything weirder, you can spend what you like because they’ll never be race cars,” Herbert explained. “If it’s a ‘Frankenstein’ car and you decide to put a 445 Chevy in a Mini, fine, knock yourself out, but we know it’s going to break and it will be fun to watch.”

Just like the ‘Cheap Car Challenge’, a weld in cage is preferred, but bolt in can also be fitted, and modifications are strictly for reliability and safety, with no performance mods.

The main prize isn’t for the most laps, but the Spirit of LeMons, which is given to the team that help other teams and uphold the values of the race (don’t take it too seriously).

Penalties are given out for a variety of things such as contact, speeding, rudeness, just to name a few.

RaceAway’s Nissans are a popular pick among amateurs looking to get a taste of racing and learn a few basics, at an affordbale all-up cost. Roll cages are a must.

40 AutoAction

These incur visits to the pit lane to complete puzzles and the like.

Each driver requires an AASA licence, which is $90 for the year.

A further advancement from LeMons is the Motor Events, which kicked off at Lakeside last weekend.

Much in the same vein as the ‘Cheap Car Challenge’, but with a wider eligibility and a slew of classes, this is suited to competitors who want to take it a little more seriously.

Modifications are freed up slightly compared to LeMons, but expect to pay $10,000 to build a Motor Event car.

Who says motor sport is expensive?

These classes prove otherwise.

The simple formula these categories follow have led to the popularity of each and engaged a new audience to motor sport. Now I’m off to build me a car!

CO$T$ GUIDE TOTAL CAR BUILD $4500 (Pheasant Wood ‘Cheap Car Challenge’) $4000 (24 Hours of LeMons) $6000 (Motor Event)

MEETING COSTS $500 (Pheasant Wood ‘Cheap Car Challenge’, consumables only) $1000 (if travelling interstate) $1950 (RaceAway Track Time package) $500 (24 Hours of LeMons)

LICENCE REQUIREMENTS Cheap Car Challenge requires either Motorsport Australia ($524) or AASA ($225) National licence or Pheasant Wood Event licence ($225 including OLT) 24 Hours of LeMons requires AASA Club licence ($90)

ENTRY FEES $700 divided into four (Pheasant Wood ‘Cheap Car Challenge’) $2796.36 divided into five (24 Hours of LeMons Calder Park)

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Formula One Round 3 Hungarian GP

UNASSAILABLE

Another dominant display by Lewis Hamilton moved the Brit closer to becoming a record breaker.

Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER’S incredible record of 91 wins in Formula 1 seemed to be unassailable, but with Lewis Hamilton scoring victory number 86 in the Hungarian Grand Prix, the British driver is on course to set a new record.

This was also Hamilton’s eighth victory in Hungary, which equals Schumacher’s record in France of eight triumphs at the same venue.

After finishing fourth in the season opener, Hamilton has now won the next two races.

“I think round one was multiple different punches that I wasn’t perhaps ready for,” the Mercedes driver said, “but I refocused, which I try to do between every race, and the last two have been fantastic. This weekend I was on point throughout the weekend, so I need to keep this up.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas finished second and third respectively and would have done so even if they had both made mistakes.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo had a solid race and finished eighth.

“It was quite a busy race and, overall, I’m happy with how it went,” the Aussie said. “I gave everything I could and I felt we got the most from it today. Our start was good and everyone around us went for slicks quite early on. We showed good pace on the medium tyres and almost caught the top six at the end. Eighth was all we could achieve in the end, though.

“We’ve had eighth in every race so far. It’s not bad, but I do feel we have the speed for more from the first three races. We’re not far from top six finishes, it’s coming, and we

44 AutoAction

Hamilton (above) dominated the weekend to take the lead in the World Driver’s Championship.

Lance Stroll (below) scored his best-ever result, fourth for the controversial Racing Point.

know bigger points are around the corner.”

The nimble Red Bull usually goes well on the twisting Hungaroring, but this year the team was struggling to find pace.

Verstappen qualified a distant seventh.

Rain before the start of the 70-lap race left the track slick, and Verstappen made a rare error by sliding into the tyre barriers on his out lap to the grid.

“This podium is definitely dedicated to my mechanics,” he said after finishing second.

“I thought the race was over before it had even started. I braked, locked a wheel, came off the brakes and tried to brake again but went straight on into the wall on the out lap.

I couldn’t believe it but I managed to reverse out of the wall and get to the grid. As a team we never give up and the mechanics did an incredible job to fix the car so quickly. I don’t think anyone could actually believe they managed it but they all stayed very calm.”

Bottas went from second on the grid to sixth on lap one to third at the end of the race.

“That was a tough race,” said Bottas.

“Obviously starting second on the grid, you aim to win the race, but I had a bad start and lost a few positions. I reacted to a light on my dash that went off, instead of the start lights, which then meant the car went into anti-stall and I had to do the start again. I lost some ground there and that made the race very difficult for me, as I was fighting right to the very end.”

With the track quickly drying after the rain earlier in the day, most of the drivers pitted after lap two or three to switch from the Pirelli intermediate rain tyres to slicks.

Verstappen’s out lap crash in the slippery conditions saw the RedBull crew (above) scramble to repair the car to take the start. They only just made it and he rewarded them with an impressive second. Ferrari was off the pace again and this time Leclerc (below) was out-paced by teammate Vettel. Magnussen scored a well-earned championship point for Haas (below).

Hamilton also pitted on the penultimate lap of the race to get a set of the soft compound slicks.

That enabled him to set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap and thus earn an extra point.

“We had great pace today,” he said. “Brilliant pit stops, a fantastic strategy and then, as I was managing those medium tyres for a long, long time. At the end it was the perfect time to get on fresh tyres and take that extra point for fastest lap.

I can’t wait for Silverstone now, although I’ll miss the energy the fans bring, so I hope I can perform for them there as I know they’ll be watching from home.”

As in Austria, the Racing Points were right again in the middle of controversy in Hungary. Called the Pink Mercedes because they are a direct copy of the 2019 Mercedes, the Racing Points are fast – very fast. Lance Stroll and Sergio Pérez qualified third and fourth and finished fourth and seventh respectively. And, as in Austria, Renault filed a protest against the legality of the Racing Points.

“It was fun to fight Max Verstappen at the start of the race and run in P2 in the changeable

conditions,” Stroll said. “We actually ended up in quite a lonely race to P4, but the main thing is that we were able to score a good haul of points for the team.”

Pérez had wheelspin at the start, which dropped him down the order.

“It’s always tricky to recover at the Hungaroring, but we tried our best and I had some good battles. I had a few adventures out there too and I ran wide – in the dry – and was lucky not to touch the wall,” he said. “When I did get some clean air, I could show the pace of the car, but the time I lost on lap one was costly.”

The Hungarian Grand Prix closed out the season-opening triple header of two races in Austria and one in Hungary.

After a weekend off, there will be two races in Britain – on consecutive weekends at Hamilton’s home track of Silverstone – followed by the Spanish Grand Prix.

And those will be three races for Hamilton to close in on Schumacher’s once unassailable record.

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 70 LAPS Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 -

Driver Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Valtteri Bottas Lance Stroll Alexander Albon Sebastian Vettel Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Carlos Sainz Jr. Kevin Magnussen Charles Leclerc Daniil Kvyat Lando Norris Esteban Ocon Kimi Raikkonen Romain Grosjean Antonio Giovinazzi George Russell Nicholas Latifi Pierre Gasly

Car Mercedes Red Bull/Honda Mercedes Racing Point/Mercedes Red Bull/Honda Ferrari Racing Point/Mercedes Renault McLaren/Renault Haas/Ferrari Ferrari AlphaTauri/Honda McLaren/Renault Renault Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Williams/Mercedes Williams/Mercedes AlphaTauri/Honda

Gap 70 70 70 70 70 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 69 65 15

1h36m12.473s 8.702s 9.452s 57.579s 1m18.316s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 5 Laps Power Unit

Drivers: Hamilton, 63, Bottas 58, Verstappen 33, Norris 26, Albon 22, Perez 22, Leclerc 18, Stroll 18, Sainz 15, Vettel 9, Ricciardo 8, Gasly 6, Ocon 4, Giovinazzi 2, Kvyat 1, Magnussen 1 Constructors: Mercedes 121, Red Bull-Honda 55, McLaren-Renault 41, Racing Point-Mercedes 40, Ferrari 27, Renault 12, AlphaTauri-Honda 7, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 2, Haas-Ferrari 1

Ricciardo and Albon were bit players as usual, the latter enjoying a better run than of late to finish fifth.

The Australian was eighth, a lap down on winner Hamilton. Sainz’s McLaren (right) was ninth.

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MOTOGP WRAP

ROUNDS 1 AND 2

QUARTARARO EARNS MAIDEN GP WIN Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT THE 2020 MotoGP season kicked off at the Jerez circuit in Spain, with French youngster Fabio Quartararo taking his maiden MotoGP race victory as reigning champion Marc Marquez crashed out heavily.

Australian Jack Miller had a strong season opener, the Pramac Ducati rider finishing the race in fourth after holding a podium position for much of the race.

From the first practice session times were tight at the top of the tree and it was clear early on that Quartararo had the

one lap pace, while reigning champion Marquez had the long run speed. Miller appeared to be the fastest Ducati rider in both long and short runs and looked to be in with a shout of a podium.

Saturday Qualifying 2 was electric, and despite showing strong practice form Quartararo was pushed by Marquez, Maverick Vinales and Francesco Bagnaia.

In the end it was Quartararo who took pole by 0.139s, but he was required to break the lap record once again. Vinales qualified second ahead of Marquez and surprise top Ducati performer Bagnaia.

Miller was flying, fastest to the third sector but then suffered a big crash in the final fast right sequence, so qualified fifth and was lucky to escape injury.

The same could not be said for factory Suzuki rider Alex Rins. As Miller was picking himself up Rins flew off his bike at the same corner, fracturing and dislocating his right shoulder, ruling himself out of the weekend.

This was not the end of the injuries, as on Sunday morning in the warm up session Englishman Cal Crutchlow fractured his wrist and was also ruled out of the race.

The reason for the crashes was the extremely hot track conditions that were overheating the

tyres, which became a major issue in the race.

The race was won by the flying Frenchman Quartararo, however it was not plain sailing. The 21-year-old fell to fifth in the early laps of the race, but by lap 9 was back at the head of the field.

From that moment on Quartararo was untouchable and pulled out a sizeable lead over his future teammate Vinales and the chasing pack.

Quartararo remained unchallenged and took both his and the Petronas Yamaha squad’s first win in MotoGP. Despite leading for several laps Vinales was pleased to finish second, while quiet achiever Andrea Dovizioso pinched a very unlikely third position off Miller in the closing laps.

Miller made a great start and flew up into second, but he ran wide at Turn 1 and fell back to fourth. The Pramac rider quickly composed himself and for a large portion of the race sat second behind Quartararo.

However late in the race the Queenslander’s tyres cried enough and he slipped behind both Vinales and Dovizioso to finish fourth, 0.7s off a podium.

Reigning champion Marquez had a nightmare race, after taking the lead from Vinales on lap 3

he tried to quickly gap his fellow Spaniard but nearly crashed at Turn 4.

Remarkably Marquez kept his #93 Honda from tucking underneath him, although a resulting tour of the gravel trap saw him plummet to the back of the field.

In a heroic and legendary ride, Marquez stormed back up to third position but this was short lived. When hunting down Vinales with four laps remaining, Marquez was bucked off his Honda in a vicious highside. He landed heavily in the gravel before being hit by his bike which broke his right arm.

The second Petronas Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli was able to pinch fifth place from KTM rider Pol Espargaro at the final turn.

Bagnaia could finish no higher than seventh ahead of Miguel Oliveira, Danilo Petrucci and Takaaki Nakagami, who rounded out the top 10.

Valentino Rossi had a horror start to the season, failing to finish as his Yamaha gave up the ghost late in the race.

POINT STANDINGS ROUND 1

Quartararo 25, Viñales 20, Dovizioso 16, Miller 13, Morbidelli 11, Espargaro 10, Bagnaia 9, Oliveira 8, Petrucci 7, Nakagami 6, etc

CRUTCHLOW IN TALKS WITH TWO TEAMS BULLISH BRITON Cal Crutchlow is confident that he will be on the MotoGP grid in 2021, despite losing his LCR Honda ride.

When talking to BT Sport, the Englishman confirmed his intentions to remain in the MotoGP paddock after receiving an offer to compete for Honda in the World Superbike Championship.

“I don’t plan on not being in MotoGP next year, and I think the likelihood of me being here is very likely,” Crutchlow said. “It’s looking good.”

The three-time MotoGP Grand Prix winner confirmed that he is in talks with both Ducati and the factory Aprilia team.

“It’s just about the deal, I manage myself, and if I want to do something and I’m excited to do it, I’ll do it,” he explained.

“I know that I’m motivated and determined to race next year and do a good job, I don’t see any reason why I won’t be at the front like I have been in previous seasons up until now.”

46 AutoAction

Crutchlow lost his LCR seat for 2021 in a game of musical chairs. Factory KTM rider Pol Espargaro will take the seat of Alex Marquez on the factory Repsol Honda, resulting in the younger of the Marquez brothers replacing the 34-year-old at LCR. Discussing the opportunity to return to Ducati, Crutchlow expressed his excitement to race for either of the Italian squads.

Obviously, we know it’s (the Ducati) one of the best bikes on the grid, if not the best bike on the grid,” he said.

“I’ve got a great relationship with Davide (Tardozzi) and Paolo (Ciabatti), and Gigi (Dall’Igna), we know what they can do and what they’re capable of.

“Everybody who’s gone there over the years from Honda have done very, very well for themselves results wise and they know what I can do, they’ve seen it. I speak to Davide on a weekly basis, with or without racing.

“Yes, I would like to go back there but you know the other

opportunity that is available is the Aprilia thing and that excites me as well, to try and bring a bike that has not been at the front to the front, with my experience and speed.

“Man, I think that both would be great options for me in MotoGP, but you know it has to be the right deal and we’ll see how that how that looks in the near future.” DM

Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT FOR THE second week running Fabio Quartararo was a step above the rest at Jerez, in the inaugural Andalusian Grand Prix.

It was a sweet day for Yamaha as Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi rounded out the podium, the first podium lockout for the Japanese brand since the Australian Grand Prix in 2014.

Australian Jack Miller was running in a solid fourth position when his front end tucked underneath him, sending Miller rolling through the gravel.

On race day conditions were brutal with the air temperature nudging 40 degrees, so it became a real race of attrition.

Coming into the weekend all eyes were on Marc Marquez, the reigning champion announcing that he would return just days after surgery on his broken right arm.

Although the Repsol Honda team did not allow him to ride the bike until Saturday as a precaution. However, when it came to qualifying Marquez pulled into the pits before setting a time and withdrew from the remainder of the weekend.

Briton Cal Crutchlow and Alex Rins also returned to action after missing the race through injury a week prior.

Throughout practice and qualifying it was a two man show, with the Yamaha youngsters and future teammates Quartararo and Vinales a step above the rest of the field in both the short and long runs.

LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami notably topped the extremely hot practice 2 and 4 sessions, and looked like a real shot of a podium.

Marquez’s main title rival last year, Andrea

YAMAHA DOMINANCE Dovizioso, had a Saturday to forget and could qualify no higher than 14th, outqualified by the injured Crutchlow.

Qualifying was tight, Quartararo took pole by just 0.095s from Vinales. The Spaniard actually set a faster time than Quartararo, but this was stripped off him because he had exceeded track limits at Turn 7.

Miller would start the race from seventh position, again unable to match the one lap speed of his Pramac Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia, who would start the race from a career best third.

In the race itself Quartararo made a perfect start with the new Yamaha whole-shot device and led comfortably into Turn 1.

His only threat came at the end of lap 1

when Vinales lunged up the inside, but then the factory Yamaha rider ran wide and fell behind Rossi.

From that moment on, Quartararo built a gap over the field and cruised home in an utterly dominant display, to take victory by 4.495s.

Vinales recovered to finish the race in second position after falling to as low as sixth; in the closing laps he and Rossi had a sensational duel for second position.

It looked as if Rossi had all the answers, but a mistake from the Italian on the penultimate lap handed Vinales second position.

However, The Doctor was elated with third position, claiming his 199th MotoGP podium and first since April last year.

Miller was involved in an intriguing scrap with his teammate Bagnaia when the Queenslander threw his bike at the scenery at Turn 9, just before half race distance.

Bagnaia rode the race of his life. With six laps remaining he sat in a comfortable second position on his way to his maiden MotoGP podium, that was until plumes of smoke billowed from the Ducati engine, forcing the devastated Italian to retire.

Quartararo’s Petronas teammate Franco Morbidelli was also set for a top four finish when his Yamaha engine also cried no more due to the hot conditions.

Nakagami was the saving grace for Honda, finishing a career high fourth position from factory Suzuki rider Joan Mir. Dovizioso limited the damage, finishing in sixth ahead of Pol Espargaro, the sole Repsol

Honda of Alex Marquez, Johann Zarco and the incredibly brave Alex Rins, who rounded out the top 10.

Crutchlow also impressively made it to the end of the race, last of the finishers in 13th position.

POINT STANDINGS ROUND 2

Quartararo 50, Vinales 40, Dovizioso 26, Nakagami 19, Espargaro 19, Rossi 16, Miller 13, Marquez 12, Zarco 12, etc

GARDNER IN THE POINTS

IN MOTO2 Aussie Remy Gardner has continued his point scoring start to the season, the Kalex rider bagging a fifth in the opening round in Qatar and backed it up with a seventh in the first race at Jerez. In the second Jerez encounter, the 22-year-old qualified outside the top 10 and made his way up to the verge of the top 10, but by the end of the race had slipped back down into 14th position.

After the opening three rounds, the young Sydneysider sits eighth in the standings.

ROSSI CONFIRMS PETRONAS MOVE THE SEVEN-TIME MotoGP/500cc Motorcycle World Champion Valentino Rossi has confirmed that he will be moving to the Petronas Yamaha squad for the 2021 season.

In a press conference before the first round at Jerez in Spain, the Italian stated that ‘everything is fixed’, although he is yet to sign a contract.

“We are already agreeing with Yamaha and I spoke already with Petronas and everything is fixed. I don’t sign the contract because it’s still not ready,” Rossi said.

It has already been officially announced that current Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo will move up to the factory bike to replace Rossi, so with ‘The Doctor’ moving to the Petronas team it becomes a simple straight swap.

The only contract delay is deciding which crew members will follow Rossi from the factory team into the satellite squad, with Rossi confident that this will be sorted in the near future.

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“We have to build the team and I think that a lot of people will move from one team to the other because me and Fabio switch positions, but I think we will fix that as soon as possible.”

Coming into 2020, Rossi wanted to see his performances on the factory bike before deciding his future, however the global COVID-19 situation forced his hand early.

“For me this (Coronavirus) situation changed a little bit the plan, because I wanted to race in this 2020 season before I decided if I want to continue in 2021, if I can be still fast and competitive,” he explained.

“But in the end I had to take my decision without racing, but I speak a lot with Yamaha and I want to continue.”

Now into his 40s Rossi feels that he has to work harder than ever to remain competitive against the likes of Marc Marquez and young up and coming riders such as his replacement Quartararo.

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“For sure it will be a big effort because I have to work very hard when you are old, it is like this unfortunately, but I want to be part of the game next year!” an excited Rossi said. DM

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USA WRAP

PENSKE FIGHTS BACK Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT AFTER CHIP Ganassi Racing won the first four races of the IndyCar season, Team Penske responded by taking both victories at the Iowa Speedway double header.

The two wins came about in entirely different ways.

Simon Pagenaud charged from the back of the grid to take a remarkable win, while the following day Josef Newgarden dominated

proceedings from pole position.

After suffering a fuel pressure issue in qualifying, Pagenaud failed to set a lap time and started the opening encounter from 23rd position.

As soon as the lights went out the Frenchman marched his way up the order and into the top 15 within the first 10 laps.

Good strategy and timely caution periods enabled the Team Penske driver to make his way to the pointy end of the field.

After stopping for the final time on

lap 144, Pagenaud had to hold off Scott Dixon on fresher tyres and did so by under 0.5s, Pagenaud becoming the first driver to win from the back of the grid since Sebastien Bourdais in 2017.

“What a night. What a day for us.

First of all, amazing group effort from the whole Team Penske to recover from Road America,” Pagenaud said.

“Qualifying was disheartening, but these guys never give up, that’s what this team is all about.”

Behind series leader Dixon was the

pair of Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolets, rookie Oliver Askew continuing to show his strong oval racing form by rounding out the Iowa podium, his best career result to date. Pato O’Ward brought his car home in fourth ahead of reigning series winner Newgarden.

Aussie Will Power was running in position two early in the race behind his teammate Newgarden. However shortly after making a pit stop, Power’s left-front wheel departed his Chevrolet and fired the Toowoomba born driver

DILLON TAKES SUPRISING TEXAS WIN

Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT

THE NASCAR Cup Series races keep rolling through. Since the last Auto Action went to press, four races have been held, yielding four different race winners.

For the first time since 1986, the annual non-championship exhibition NASCAR All Star event was not held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, instead it was run at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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The lead up race as always is the NASCAR All Star Open race, an affair that this year was won by Matt DiBenedetto.

The main event saw all 20 drivers complete the full 140 lap distance, and in the end it was Chevrolet driver Chase Elliott who took his first win in the event.

Kyle Busch came home in second position in his Toyota, while current championship leader Kevin Harvick in his Ford Mustang made it three manufactures in the top three.

Penske’s Brad Keselowski and Joe Gibbs

Racing pilot Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five positions.

From Bristol it was onto Texas Motor Speedway and back to competing for championship points.

After Elliott’s win in the All Star Race, Austin Dillon continued Chevrolet’s good fortune by taking victory.

The win is just the third of Dillon’s Cup Series career and first since the Daytona 500 at the start of the 2018 season, 88 races prior.

In the closing laps Dillon drove maturely holding the field at bay on no less than three restarts to take an emotional victory.

Dillon only just secured the win beating his impressive rookie teammate Tyler Reddick by a mere 0.149s to make it a Richard Childress Racing 1-2.

“This has been coming,” Dillon said.

“We’ve had good cars all year! I’ve got my baby Ace back home and my wife and I love them so much. I’m just so happy.

Thank God. To tell you the truth, it means

BRISCOE REMAINS OUT FRONT AS IMSA RETURNS Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT

Penske dominated at Iowa, Simon Pagenaud (above) becoming the first driver to charge from last to first since 2017, while teammate Josef Newgarden (above left) led from pole to win the race, the first time it had ever been done at the Iowa oval.

into the wall and out of the race.

The following day Newgarden incredibly became the first-ever IndyCar driver to win a race at Iowa Speedway from pole position.

The American dominated the race, leading 214 of the 250 laps and ended his 363-day winless drought by holding his teammate Power at bay by 2.787s.

Behind Power was Graham Rahal, who claimed his second podium finish of the season.

Race 1 winner Pagenaud again charged from the back of the grid a whole lot [to be in the Playoffs] for the family, for all our of partners.”

Team Penske driver Joey Logano finished third, reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was fourth and the consistent Harvick fifth.

Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Aric Almirola rounded out the top 10.

At Kansas Speedway just four days later it was Hamlin who took his fifth win of the season, beating Harvick, Keselowski and teammate Martin Truex Jr. to line.

On Lap 255 of 267 Hamlin overtook Harvick and then withstood a late charge from Keselowski to take his third win at Kansas and the 42nd of his career, rebounding from three sub-par finishes.

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to finish fourth, as Dixon came from 18th to finish 5th.

Newgarden’s strongest threat in the race came from Pato O’Ward, the Mexican starting from 12th but by lap 67 had worked his way into second position.

The 2018 IndyLights series winner closed the gap to Newgarden and at one stage got to within 0.5s of the two-time series winner.

On lap 172 O’Ward made his final stop early in an attempt to undercut Newgarden, but the stop did not go to plan.

The car was dropped from the jack before the left rear tyre was tightened, O’Ward began to pull away before coming to a stop outside his box.

The McLaren Arrow crew rolled him back into place, tightened the wheel and sent him on his way, but the chance of his maiden win had evaporated, and he finished one lap down in 12th.

The next round of the IndyCar Series takes place on the tight and technical Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 9.

Danny Hamlin celebrates his fifth win of the season on a relentless NASCAR schedule.

“I don’t know if we had the best car — we definitely had a top-three car all day,” said Hamlin.

“We just went and got it there at the end. I saw the #4 (Harvick) getting loose, and usually when you’re loose, you’re not able to run up high, and that was a benefit for us to be able to get

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that momentum going.

“We’ve had a rough three weeks — we were leading at Indy when we blew a tyre, but it seems like we’re really hitting on all cylinders right now.”

Keselowski finished the race in second ahead of Truex and the sliding Harvick, who with a suboptimal performing car finished the race in fourth.

Jones claimed fifth from Aric Almirola who scored his eighth straight top 10 finish, Cole Custer, Bowman, Kurt Busch and William Byron.

Kyle Busch, still looking for his first victory of 2020, led 52 lap but with 40 laps remaining was forced in the pits with a right-front puncture. He was able to recover to 11th position.

In the championship Harvick remains out front from Keselowski and Blaney.

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AFTER A near six-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMSA SportsCar Championship fired back into life at Daytona with the #55 Mazda duo of Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell taking the win in the DPi class.

In the GTLM class, Corvette broke its two-year winless drought to take its 100th IMSA Series class victory thanks to its drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, while in GTD the Lexus drivers Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz took the win.

Two weeks later the circus visited the legendary Sebring International Raceway for another two hour and 40-minute affair.

In the top-tier DPi class Bomarito and Tincknell were unable to replicate the controlled performance from a fortnight prior, finishing down the order in fifth. Both the Mazdas lacked pace at Sebring and allowed their championship rivals to regain control at the head of the championship.

The Sebring race was dominated by the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac drivers of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr, the pair scoring an emotional win.

Nasr was unable to participate in the race at Daytona two weeks earlier as he tested positive for COVID-19, so the comeback win clearly meant a lot to the former Sauber Formula 1 driver.

“I really went through a lot the last days,” Nasr said. “I was frustrated, but it was something I couldn’t control. My first intention was to protect the team. It was hard to miss Daytona.

“I couldn’t think of a better race to come back to IMSA,” he said. “I love this series. I love this track.

Sebring is just amazing, and I think Sebring loves us back. … It’s such a gift. I can’t describe it.”

The Brazilian Cadillac duo crossed the line a whopping 36.432s ahead of the second-place finishers, Australian Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande, the pair who won the opening round of the season, the Daytona 24 Hours.

Briscoe challenged Nasr during the second half of the race and briefly took the lead in the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R machine when Nasr pitted in the final 45 minutes. However, when Briscoe pitted with 34 minutes remaining the Brazilian reclaimed the lead and sailed off into the distance.

For the third race in succession the #5 JDCMustang Sampling Racing pair of Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais rounded out the podium, finishing ahead of both the Mazda machines.

After first three rounds Briscoe and van der Zande find themselves equal on points with the #77 Mazda pair of Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez, with Barbosa and Bourdais nipping at their heels just two points in arears.

In GTLM, after waiting two years for victory 100, Corvette only had to wait just two weeks for #101.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner held off their teammates Garcia and Taylor by just 0.480s, while in GTD, Telitz and Hawksworth scored consecutive wins.

Round 4 of the 2020 IMSA Sportscar season takes place on August 2 at the iconic Road America circuit.

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RACE REPORT Sydney Motorsport Park - Races 10, 11 & 12

IT WAS NIGHT AND DAY

Report: Heath McAlpine Photos:Supercars/Insyde Media

THE LEAD up to the latest Supercars round at Sydney Motorsport Park was unprecedented and frantic.

A change of venue from Winton to SMP, then a dash to enter New South Wales by the Victorian teams followed. A makeshift hub was created at SMP accommodating a majority of the teams affected, though Kelly Racing and Erebus Motorsport decided to set-up shop at farms in rural NSW. Changes to the regulations added a hard tyre option, which delivered on its promise of spicing up the racing.

Scott McLaughlin still remained the man to beat, taking the weekend honours with a win, third and 14th in the final to extend his championship margin 107-points heading to the Darwin double-header.

Nick Percat replicated his victory in the previous round, while Jack Le Brocq won Race 12, a result that clearly achieved the aim of the mixed compound regulations.

PRACTICE – TITLE LEADERS GO EARLY Just like the previous round at the same venue three weeks prior, the Rookies and those outside the top 20 kicked off the weekend’s proceedings.

Brad Jones Racing pair Macauley Jones and Jack Smith finished 1-2 in the session courtesy of using soft tyres. Jones topped the times on 1m 30.079s, 1.069s clear of his teammate, while Chris Pither headed the hard tyre runners on a 1m 31.148s.

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Under lights the field streams away (top) with Scott McLaughlin briefly leading arch rival Shane van Gisbergen (above) before the reigning champion regained the advantage at the end of race 10.

Given the added tyre compound, practice was primarily used as a testing bed for the races.

For Garry Jacobson the session didn’t get off to an ideal start when the bonnet on his Matt Stone Racing Holden Commodore flew up on his warm up lap.

McLaughlin was the first to set a flyer on softs, clocking a 1m 28.976s to top the opening practice session, initially by 0.5s before Anton De Pasquale also fitted the faster compound to come within 0.2s of the Kiwi’s time.

It was double delight for DJR Team Penske as Fabian Coulthard finished the session third, ahead of impressive rookie Bryce Fullwood and leading Tickford driver Cam Waters.

The two Triple Eight bulls experimented with both compounds, Jamie Whincup placing sixth on softs and Shane van Gisbergen 24th on hards.

In second practice it was last-to-first for van Gisbergen in a late run, 1m 28.650s, to snatch the top spot from McLaughlin by 0.2s with Coulthard continuing his strong form in third, all on softs.

Whincup and Holdsworth rounded out the top five in an uninterrupted session as each driver clocked their fastest times on softs.

QUALIFYING RACE 10 – SAME TEAM, DIFFERENT DRIVER A DJR Team Penske driver took provision al pole, but it wasn’t McLaughlin.

Coulthard had unlocked speed with the soft tyres and was clearly going to be one of the drivers to beat over the course of the weekend, if his tyres held together.

Out in the first segment of qualifying were Rick Kelly, Alex Davison, Jack Smith and Zane Goddard.

Kelly had been inside the top 20 until a late flyer from Garry Jacobson pushed him out, though David Reynolds in turn can count himself lucky as he just made it into the next part of qualifying.

Jacobson didn’t make it into the next Top 15 Shootout, however, being joined by Scott Pye, James Courtney, Jack Le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner in not advancing.

All these eliminated teams used the hard tyre.

A new inclusion to the Top 15 Shootout was Macauley Jones, who had used his softs to make it, as did Team Sydney’s Chris Pither. Strong performances by Todd Hazelwood, Fullwood and Holdsworth highlighted the session.

TOP 15 SHOOTOUT – BACK-TO-BACK Just like the previous round, a lap in the 1m 27s by McLaughlin assured him of pole position with van Gisbergen falling 0.27s short.

Cam Waters was the biggest climber, setting a 1m 28.059s to advance from 15th to third, while Whincup followed the Tickford driver and set the fourth fastest

time.

Winterbottom, De Pasquale, Jones and Fullwood completed the top 10 just ahead of Percat.

Reynolds struggled to be marginally ahead of Chaz Mostert, the first of the hard tyre runners. Hazelwood and Pither also ran hard tyres in the session due to using softs to get into the Shootout.

The tyre games had certainly started.

RACE 10 – McLAUGHLIN DOES IT UNDER LIGHTS Race 10 was a replica of three weeks earlier, just this time under lights.

McLaughlin and van Gisbergen lined up beside each other on the front-row, but on differing strategies. DJR Team Penske had elected to start the championship leader on hards before transferring to softs later on, while Triple Eight had elected to do the opposite on van Gisbergen’s Commodore.

McLaughlin made a perfect getaway before an exciting opening sequence of corners, the DJR Team Penske Mustang tail out briefly exiting Turn 1 before he conceded to van Gisbergen at the next corner.

Both Waters and Holdsworth also passed the championship leader by the close of the lap, before next De Pasquale made his move a few laps later.

Whincup was the first entry of note to pit on lap 9 from seventh to emerge 18th.

A 1.4s margin was built early by van Gisbergen by lap 10 when McLaughlin ditched his hards for softs, displacing Whincup by one position.

The Tickford Racing duo were left out in front, Holdsworth was hounding Waters until he made a successful move at Turn 2

Scott McLaughlin was in a fiesty scrap for race 10 honours with Anton de Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth (above) but held on for the win, while veteran Holdworth got the better of his younger Holden rival.

on lap 12. The lead further extended by a second by the time Holdsworth pitted for new softs on lap 14, but when he emerged out of the pits the pressure was on straight away.

McLaughlin and De Pasquale ranged up on the rear of the Tickford Mustang through Turns 2 and 3, the DJR Team Penske example sneaking through on the inside at the latter, before the Erebus Commodore did likewise at Turn 5, albeit with a slight tap.

Holdsworth was simply powerless to defend on his cold softs.

It wasn’t until lap 20 that van Gisbergen entered the pits to replace his softs, but he had lost too much time in the laps prior to challenge McLaughlin, the combined of running hards plus a small delay exiting

his bay dropped him behind teammate Whincup to an effective sixth.

Race winner last time out at SMP Nick Percat concluded the round of pit stops by replacing the working side tyres, running a complete a race on the hard compound.

Holdsworth’s pace on the softs was stronger than De Pasquale’s but the veteran was unable to find away through, which was to the advantage of McLaughlin as he built a comfortable buffer between the two.

Even when Holdsworth did pass the Erebus youngster at Turn 4, the margin was too great as McLaughlin took a 1.3s win.

Behind the lead trio van Gisbergen headed his teammate to complete the top five, while Waters, Coulthard, Jones, Percat

and Winterbottom filled out the 10.

It was a personal best for Jones, though he had used his soft tyre allocation to get there.

QUALIFYING RACE 11 AND 12 – A TALE OF TWO MUSTANGS For Race 11 it was business as usual for McLaughlin, though he was unable to complete a clean-sweep courtesy of a speedy lap from Andre Heimgartner, who gave Kelly Racing its first pole as a Ford team.

Starting off on hard tyres, Waters set the pace in the opening session with a 1m 32.903s lap before McLaughlin changed to softs and set a blistering 1m 28.540s. In a final fling, van Gisbergen fell agonisingly close to toppling his title rival, by just

Nick Percat won again for BJR (above), Garry Jacobson’s weekend didn’t start well when his bonnet flex up (above right) though he scored a seventh in race two, while Cam Waters (below) recorded two top 10 finishes for Tickford.

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RACE REPORT Sydney Motorsport Park - Races 10, 11 & 12 Race 11 in the daylight and the usual suspects are at the front, with ultimate race winner Nick Percat fourth and rounding up Fabian Coulthard.

0.026s in fact.

Percat made sure he was in striking distance by placing third, Heimgartner highlighted Kelly Racing’s new found pace overnight to be fourth, while teammate Kelly followed in eighth.

Another to enjoy a career best was Jacobson in seventh, but at the other end of the spectrum Whincup (19th), Holdsworth (20th), De Pasquale (22nd) and Hazelwood (24th) had it all to do from the back. A vibration had forced the BJR driver out of the session without setting a lap time.

The best was yet to come for Heimgartner, however. The Kiwi set a benchmark of 1m 28.581s halfway through the Race 12 qualifying session, which wasn’t beaten.

The lap survived a late flurry from the rest of the field including a 1m 28.697 effort by Whincup, so it was all smiles at the end of the session as Heimgartner secured his maiden pole and the first for Kelly Racing since 2018.

Holdsworth and De Pasquale both suffered from a lack of softs, joined at the back by van Gisbergen.

RACE 11 – GO FOR BROKE Starting from rom third, it was set-up for Percat to replicate eplicate his win in the same race three weeks ks ago. And that he did.

A minor error from McLaughlin meant he had to backk up after rolling out of his grid box before start, with efore the both he and d van Gisbergen set to follow w the same strategy each used the previous night.

Race 11’ss start was also similarr to the previous night’s, van n Gisbergen snatching ter going the long way the lead after round Turn 2. Percat dropped behind Coulthard off the start but overtook DJR ske’s number two at Turn 5 Team Penske’s kling its numero uno a lap before tackling

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Nick Percat went back to back at Sydney Motorsport Park, proving that the pace of the BJR cars was no fluke (above) while Andre Heimgartner scored his and Kelly Racing’s first pole position with a Mustang.

later at Turn 2.

Both Kelly Mustangs had contrasting starts, Heimgartner ran wide at Turn 2 dropping back to seventh, while Kelly projected to fifth during the opening corner quarrel.

Although McLaughlin lost position on-track, his hard tyres were holding up well compared to van Gisbergen ahead, only losing 0.3s on the opening lap, but this soo soon

increase increased tyr as the tyres came up to pressure.

Even though Percat had overtaken McLaughlin on the second lap, he still set the fastest lap as he zeroed in on van Gisbergen.

McLaughlin dropped two further positions by letting through Coulthard and Kelly,

both on the softs, but behind things were willing between Jacobson and Smith as the two bustled through Turn 5 for a position in the top 10.

Percat was all over van Gisbergen for the lead, having multiple goes at Turn 5, though none were successful as the Kiwi held on before BJR pitted Percat for a change of softs on lap 12, a lap after he had received a warning flag for exceeding track limits.

As his teammate was battling up front, Whincup was back in 22nd against Jones, unable to progress further.

McLaughlin pitted a lap after Percat for softs to mount a challenge on the podium, as the BJR driver quickly emerged from his stop as the man to beat heading into the final 20 laps.

To conserve tyres for the final race, van Gisbergen fitted hards as he emerged from pit lane in seventh, leaving Percat 5.406s ahead of Coulthard. The lead extended to beyond 8s by the flag in another dream result for BJR and Percat.

Continuing his charge, Kelly was holding off the advances of McLaughlin and also catching Courtney in front. This set-up a thrilling dice for the podium on the final lap, Kelly being the biggest loser as he was fed wide by McLaughlin at Turn 7, then was pipped at the line by Mostert.

In a thrilling battle for third, McLaughlin snatched the position right on the line from

Jack Le Brocq broke through for his first ever Supercars championship race win in only his third weekend with new team Tickford, folding off Andre Heimgartner, David Reynolds and Todd Hazlewood.

Results Race 10 32 Laps Supercars Sydney Motorsport Park Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Maingame rookie Bryce Fullwood was quick again, demonstrating the new found pace of the Walkinshaw Andretti United cars (right).

Driver Scott McLaughlin Lee Holdsworth Anton De Pasquale Shane van Gisbergen Jamie Whincup Cameron Waters Fabian Coulthard Macauley Jones Nick Percat Mark Winterbottom Chaz Mostert Scott Pye Todd Hazelwood David Reynolds Bryce Fullwood Jack Le Brocq Andre Heimgartner Rick Kelly James Courtney Alex Davison Chris Pither Garry Jacobson Jack Smith Jake Kostecki

Laps/Margin 32 Laps +1.315s +4.726s +17.406s +18.278s +19.128s +24.504s +26.135s +26.293s +53.978s +55.464s +57.147s +57.479s +58.240s +58.465s +58.792s +64.567s +65.279s +72.925s +75.525 +79.406s +80.285s +80.480s +80.641s

0 ▲3 ▲5 ▼2 ▼2 ▼3 ▼1 ▲1 ▲2 ▼3 ▲2 ▲4 ▲2 ▼2 ▼5 ▲2 ▲3 ▲3 ▼2 ▲2 ▼7 ▼3 0 0

Results Race 11 32 Laps Supercars Sydney Motorsport Park

Courtney, in what was the veteran’s best finish.

Others to achieve a top result were Jacobson in seventh and 10th for Smith.

RACE 12 – LE BREAKTHROUGH The final race of the weekend was destined to be a jumble as the leaderss had exhausted their tyre stocks and it was a case of damage limitation.

That’s not to say there weren’t a group of hungry drivers eyeing the opportunity to take that elusive win, with Heimgartner and Le Brocq appearing the most likely to break through.

The field was split 50-50 on each compound as the lights went out for Race 12.

Heimgartner made a perfect jump, while Whincup alongside did too.

Reynolds got a flyer from the second row and passed Whincup at Turn 2, while Winterbottom also followed through at Turn 3, but the driver to watch was Le Brocq back in fifth.

Another to keep an eye on was Hazelwood, who had charged from 12th to sixth in two laps with new softs.

Whincup continued dropping back, but he was coping fine compared to McLaughlin, who did his best to hold

set. on with his tyre set Early charges from Goddard and Fullwood had both in the top 10 by the end of lap 4, a climb of nine positions each.

After disposing of Whincup, Le Brocq was making an important run before his pit stop, passing Winterbottom before changing tyres on lap 11. Winterbottom had pitted a lap earlier, but was delayed when the air spike failed to uncouple, leading to the team being fined post-race.

Heimgartner still continued to lead, but his fellow Sunday pole sitter in the DJR Team Penske Mustang was on worn tyres and struggling, so much so that Percat gave him a big shove at Turn 2 on lap 6, which pushed the rear bodywork onto the tyre.

A pit stop followed a lap later for McLaughlin, as he swapped his shagged softs for a set of hards, but he was unable to climb further than 14th.

Meanwhile, Le Brocq was on a

Fabian Coulthard (following here) was much closer to the pace of teammate Scott McLaughlin this weekend, his best a second in race 11.

charge after his pit stop as he tried to maximise the undercut on both Heimgartner and Reynolds.

To stem the advantage, Dilan Tilabani called Heimgartner in a lap later and when he emerged, he still held the lead but was under immediate pressure from Le Brocq.

The Kiwi held on until Turn 4, but the Tickford driver took advantage of his warm set of softs to make a successful pass for the effective lead.

The battle was on as Le Brocq held on from Heimgartner and Reynolds, who had to now focus on his mirrors as Hazelwood was closing on the lead trio.

BJR’s new recruit had the most favourable tyre bank, and scythed his way through on Winterbottom before mounting attack on the lead trio.

Two laps from the end Hazelwood had caught the back of Reynolds, setting up a grandstand finish for the podium, which fell in favour of the former at Turn 6.

This allowed Le Brocq to gap the battling trio as Heimgartner held on for second and Hazelwood made his maiden trip to the podium ahead of Reynolds.

Behind, a tough weekend for Team18 concluded on a high with fifth for Pye and sixth for Winterbottom.

Behind, Fullwood continued his impressive run to finish seventh and Goddard scored his personal best of 10th.

In championship terms, McLaughlin heads to the first of part of Darwin’s double-header with a 107-point advantage over Whincup. Third and a further 85-points behind is Mostert, as Percat sits level with Waters another 31 in arrears.

Pos Driver 1 Nick Percat 2 Fabian Coulthard 3 Scott McLaughlin 4 James Courtney 5 Chaz Mostert 6 Rick Kelly 7 Garry Jacobson 8 Shane van Gisbergen 9 Cameron Waters 10 Jack Smith 11 David Reynolds 12 Andre Heimgartner 13 Anton De Pasquale 14 Mark Winterbottom 15 Bryce Fullwood 16 Jack Le Brocq 17 Jamie Whincup 18 Chris Pither 19 Lee Holdsworth 20 Todd Hazelwood 21 Scott Pye 22 Macauley Jones 23 Alex Davison 24 Zane Goddard

Laps/Margin 32 laps +8.874s +19.636s +19.661s +20.463s +20.607s +21.073s +27.504s +27.673s +31.228s +55.769s +56.668s +57.377s +64.404s +66.782s +67.398s +67.641s +68.163s +68.654s +72.102s +77.089s +80.803s 31 laps 31 laps

▲2 ▲3 ▼2 ▲ 11 ▲1 ▲2 0 ▼6 0 ▲3 ▲3 ▼8 ▲9 ▼4 ▲8 ▼4 ▲2 0 ▲3 ▲4 ▼ 10 ▼1 ▼6 ▼8

Results Race 12 32 Laps Supercars Sydney Motorsport Park Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Driver Jack Le Brocq Andre Heimgartner Todd Hazelwood David Reynolds Scott Pye Mark Winterbottom Bryce Fullwood Jamie Whincup Chaz Mostert Zane Goddard Nick Percat Shane van Gisbergen Fabian Coulthard Scott McLaughlin Lee Holdsworth James Courtney Rick Kelly Cameron Waters Anton De Pasquale Alex Davison Jack Smith Chris Pither Macauley Jones Garry Jacobson

Laps/Margin 32 laps +0.621s +0.812s +1.489s +8.623s +12.807s +14.161s +14.884s +24.173s +28.600s +46.567s +53.440s +54.547s +58.598s +64.245s +68.203s +69.426s +71.225s +71.566s +72.324s +73.313s +76.947s +77.150s +82.179s

▲6 ▼1 ▲9 ▲1 ▲6 ▼ 13 ▲9 ▼6 ▼1 ▲7 ▼5 ▲ 10 0 ▼ 11 ▲6 ▲2 ▼7 ▼9 ▲5 ▼1 ▼6 ▼2 0 ▼ 10

Points: McLaughlin 802, Whincup 695, Mostert 610, Percat 569, Waters 569, Reynolds 562, van Gisbergen 539, Holdsworth 535, Winterbottom 514, Heimgartner 456, Coulthard 454, Hazelwood 431, Le Brocq 424, Kelly 398, De Pasquale 395, Fullwood 366, Courtney 354, Pye 338, Jones 314, Smith 282, Jacobson 255, W Davison 231, Pither 216, Goddard 204, A Davison 148, Kostecki 74

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RACE REPORT SMP Super2 round 2/Super3 round 1

RANDLE TOP OF THE TREE

Image: Supercars/Insyde Media

IT WAS a rollercoaster weekend for new Super2 Series leader Thomas Randle.

Although on the surface two poles, a second and a win appears to be a dominant weekend, it all threatened to be derailed by an errant yellow flag.

During Saturday evening’s opening race, Randle led comfortably before a mid-race safety car allowed Will Brown to close in and make an opportunistic play for the lead exiting the final corner.

Just as Randle jumped to restart, the flag marshal on the main straight was still displaying the yellow flag, which was quickly withdrawn, causing the MW Motorsport driver to hesitate. As Randle was hampered by this, Brown drew alongside on the main straight and completed a pass for the lead into Turn 1.

To add insult to injury, Randle was then slapped with a 15s penalty for a restart infraction, which dropped him to ninth.

In-car footage later revealed the yellow flag had indeed remained out at the restart, the stewards then reinstating Randle’s second place.

Prior to that incident, Randle had dominated the proceedings by taking pole and leading the opening race comfortably. This was aided by fellow front-rower Broc Feeney bogging down at the start, though Brown was quick to take up the pursuit.

Former series leader Brodie Kostecki qualified next to Brown on the second row and with green tyres fitted on his working side, the Eggleston Motorsport Commodore was all over Brown before an alternator problem forced him into the pits.

The battle for third between Feeney and

lead rookie Jayden Ojeda was decided just prior to the safety car, when the MW Motorsport Nissan Altima slid wide through at Turn 7.

Zane Morse’s spectacular exit led to the appearance of the safety car for three laps before the race restarted, with Brown snatching the lead and Randle facing a 15s penalty.

This crucially dropped him behind title rival Kostecki, who had cured the problem that had afflicted his Commodore earlier in the race to be fighting at the outer reaches of the top 10.

Further positions were made by Kostecki when Josh Fife made a mistake at Turn 2, causing a domino effect that ended in Matt Chahda being spun by Zak Best.

Despite a last lap charge, Randle was unable to catch Brown by the flag as he took his second win in the category. Ojeda and Feeney followed, while Tyler Everingham on his return to the category after missing the opening round in Adelaide took fifth, driving the Anderson Motorsport Holden Commodore.

A new day dawned but it was still Randle who remained the man to beat.

Leaving his run until very late, the series

le leader topped the qualifying times with a 1m 31.533s, eclipsing Feeney, who in turn had demoted rookie Angelo Mo Mouzouris.

Ojeda made it three rookies within the top O fou four, slotting into third. Behind, Brown and Kostecki had work to do off the third row, Kos but tthis was made easier by what occurred the start. at th Randle replicated his perfect getaway from Ran the previous day, but Feeney stalled and there pr were a few close calls in avoidance, notably

by Morse.

Ojeda made the best start out of the lead runners and put the pressure on his more experienced teammate early.

Mouzouris led the chasing pack until Kostecki and Brown filed through on the opening lap, while veteran Jack Perkins had passed half the field to be among the chasing pack.

It was all to no avail as Randle took a comfortable 4.455s win from Ojeda, while Kostecki withstood pressure from Brown to hold on to third.

Mouzouris held out Perkins, Best, a recovering Feeney and Jordan Boys, who struggled all weekend for balance in his Image Racing Commodore.

Randle’s two wins give him a 38-point lead heading to what is scheduled to be the third round at Sandown.

“I have to thank the team for this – the Skye Sands Nissan was very quick this weekend,” said Randle.

“Apart from not winning yesterday, I really had a dream run, and it will be nice for the boys to go home with a result like this. They have basically been away from their homes for two weeks, so to give them this, after a fivemonth break, is fantastic.

“But to get both poles and help MW Motorsport now have the most poles in Super2 history, is really cool.” HM Points: Randle 572, Brown 534, Kostecki 499, Ojeda 477, Boys 396, Feeney 390, Mouzouris 367, Chahda 353, Best 336, Fife 248

ROBOTHAM’S DREAM S3 DEBUT THE OPENING round of Super3 signalled a new era for the category as it combined with its big brother Super2.

The driver to beat emerged pretty quickly during the weekend in the form of Jaylyn Robotham, who turned heads with his pace that put him amongst the Super2 competitors.

Robotham was joined in imprerssing by Toyota 86 graduate Declan Fraser, the two dominating the class for the duration of the weekend. Whilst Robotham’s previous experience had extended to Supercars evaluation tests, Fraser only tasted his Anderson Motorsport Ford FG Falcon for the first time a week before the event.

A clean-sweep of poles by Robotham was highlighted by his qualifying within the top 10 outright and clear of Fraser

54 AutoAction

by a couple of positions, which proved important when racing begun.

Fraser trailed home Robotham each time, just failing to crack the top 10 in the final race of the weekend after finishing 14th outright in Race 1.

The battle for third was a cleaner battle without errant Super2 entries interrupting. Brendan Strong led home Madeline Stewart and Jack Sipp in the opener, after Jon McCorkindale retired.

A frantic search for an engine pre-event was rewarded in the second as McCorkindale took third ahead of Stewart and Jim Pollicina. HM Points: Robotham 84, Fraser 70, Stewart 54, Strong 51, Pollicina 40.

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GAS-PORTED FEATURE BENIFITS:

Garry Rogers Motorsport has been busy during the hiatus from racing across all of its programs.

STARTING WITH its array of TCR machinery, engineer Richard Hollway has been working hard on the Renault Meganes carrying out the new Evo-specification upgrades for the two entries that James Moffat and Dylan O’Keeffe will pilot in this year’s series.

The upgraded engine that will be fitted to O’Keeffe’s Megane is currently on its way to Australia ahead of a test scheduled before the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park, that has now been pushed back to September.

“The new engine is in Zurich waiting to get boarded, we expect to see that by the middle of next week,” GRM director Barry Rogers told Auto Action.

Considering the current restrictions in place, it is lucky that Sandown is situated within the Melbourne metropolitan area, which allows the team to test without going through the police blockades that are currently located on the main arterials.

Rogers also believes that this won’t be a problem when the team go testing at Winton ahead of SMP. “We’ve got a test planned for Sandown in early August and (are) still hopeful to go to Winton before

the opening round of the season,” Rogers said.

“Under the workplace conditions and under those type of scenarios it’s able to be done.”

Currently the team is completing the maintenance and servicing on 11 S5000s, with Rogers confident that a strong field will enter for SMP, declaring that competitor interest has been high for the formula.

A part of GRM’s heritage is currently also being put together in preparation for the Bathurst International Holden Revival.

After receiving the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour winning 427 Monaro back from the National Motor Racing Museum at Bathurst, work began on stripping that car to aid in the construction of a replica that is currently in the fabrication stage.

“The 2002 Monaro was up at the Bathurst museum,” Rogers explained. “We got it back because we needed to dismantle it and put it on the chassis jig, to get all the measurements for the 2020 Monaro.

“We had to get all the measurements and pick up points accurately to complete the build on the new car, then the old Monaro will be put back together in the coming weeks.” HM

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55

p ra w S L NATIONA

56 AutoAction FEATURE

TWO DAY MEETINGS RETURN IN THE WEST THERE WERE aspects of the meeting at Wanneroo on July 11-12 to celebrate. It was the first two-day outing of the year, allowed spectator access, had the Tander Cup as the feature race, and the Excels featured in an enduro.

several laps, and then retrieved it. But in the end it was Lockett who emerged the winner over Esterbauer, Robert McAfee (Polar) and Welsh.

Steven Turpin (above) took out the Tander Cup feature event. Another Ricciardo hit the track in the form of father Joe in his Brabham BT6.

Images Mick Oliver.

SPORTS SEDANS/SPORTS CARS/STREET CARS

IMPROVED PRODUCTION

THE FEATURE race, the Tander Cup over 15 laps, was won by Steven Turpin (Holden Commodore VE) from Adrian Scharenguivel in his later model VF, after Wayne Chrystal (VE) retired mid-race. Third went to Mark Jolly (Ford Falcon AU) while fourth placed Neil Pollard (Honda Civic) was the best of the U2L entries and fourth outright.

Earlier Dom Coniiglio (Mitsubishi EVO VII) won the opener from Turpin and Scharenguivel and looked likely to take the second outing after grabbing the lead off Turpin. Coniglio pulled away but on lap five, the engine ventilated. Stopped on circuit, the safety car was out and Turpin took the win from Chrystal and Jolly.

EXCEL CUP

VICTORY IN the 40-lap enduro went to Jake Passaris and Tom Hamlett. Despite not hitting the lead until three quarter distance, the duo narrowly headed home the combination of Robert Landsmeer and Sam Dicker. The latter were hit with a 30s penalty afterwards for exceeding track limits and were classified fourth.

B Kelly and A Malkin were third across the line and held it despite a 5s penalty postrace penalty and were placed just in front of Cooper Smart and Brodie McAleer.

The event was off to an inauspicious start when the father/son Stephen and Brock McGregor car stopped on lap two, which brought out the safety car. Early on, the Landsmeer/Dicker and Jack Clohessy/Nik Mitic entries swapped the lead several times until the latter retired on lap 14. Passaris and Hamlett had the better stop and headed Landsmeer/Dicker. Meanwhile the Cameron Atkins/Chris Kneafsey led until their stop on lap 30.

In the lead-up, Brock McGregor’s return to racing was rewarded with a win over Dicker

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and Passaris. Landsmeer took the second at the line from Clohessy and Stephen McGregor.

Dicker won the third with Mitic and Brock McGregor.

FORMULA FORD

WINS IN the first two races set Josh Matthews (Stealth) up for overall honours. He led throughout the first as Mark Pickett (Van Diemen) and Craig Jorgensen (Van Diemen) squabbled over second where the latter fell off at the final corner. The DNF lifted Nathan Biddle (Stealth) to third ahead of Paul Moltoni (Van Diemen) and Ben Leslie (Stealth).

Matthews won race two ahead of Pickett and Moltoni before Pickett ultimately passed Matthews to win race three. Moltoni erred at Turn 7 in the last and lost places as Malkin picked up third ahead of Biddle and Jorgensen.

HISTORIC TOURING CARS

BOTH THE sprint races were taken out by Greg Freeman (Chev Camaro) ahead of Grant Johnson (Holden Torana XU-1) and Graeme Woolhouse (Ford Mustang).

Laurie Lapsley (Jaguar MkII) took out the handicap ahead of Lance Stannard (Morris Cooper S) and Garry Edwards (BMW 2002).

SALOON CARS

THREE VICTORIES from as many starts gave the outright and Pro round honours to Grant Johnson (Holden Commodore VT) while Pro Am went with Marc Watkins (Ford Falcon EA).

Johnson won race one from Glen Crankshaw (Falcon AU) while Brock Boley passed fellow VT pilots Brad Boley and Matt Martin en route to third.

Race two was red-flagged with several cars damaged after going off at Turn 4. As Johnson headed race two, Brock Boley surrendered second to Martin before Rick Gill (AU) passed both. In the last it was Boley second from Boley and Gill.

Watkins beat fellow EA runner Michael Holdcroft in races one and two to be top of the older cars before the latter scored victory in the third. In each Chris Kneafsey and Chase Hoy were third and fourth in their Commodores.

FORMULA VEES

A TIGHT tussle prefaced Rod Lisson (Sabre) taking both the 1600cc and outright win.

He just held off David Campbell (Jacer) in the first by a mere 0.01s, and scored more comfortably in the second and third races.

Ross Murray (Scorpion) was third in the first and followed up with a pair of seconds.

Campbell was looking for a pair of thirds until passed by Mark Horan (Stinger) in the last.

In the 1200s Franz Esterbauer (Ribuck) and Brett Scarey (CD-Vee) put on a similar tight contest to the 1600s in race one, as Andrew Lockett (Ajay) chased them. Scarey pressured Esterbauer again in the second until retiring, and that left Lockett to repel the challenge from April Welsh (Jacer) for second. In the last Esterbauer lost the lead to Welsh for

GRANT HILL (Ford Falcon BF) took three wins.

At first he had Ron Moller (Chev Camaro) throwing out the challenge until he threw it off the track, which allowed John Roderick (Lamborghini Gallardo) to take second ahead of Ryan Humfrey (Falcon/Chev).

Humfrey’s engine let go at the exit to turn three in race two, which saw a number of cars spin on the oil spill and a safety car. Behind Hill, Moller held second ahead of Roderick.

It was Moller who had dramas in race three, with an off-circuit excursion that triggered another safety car. After the resumption Roderick placed second ahead of Richard Bloomfield (Porsche 997 GT3) Andrew Stevens (Nissan 180SX) netted two Street Cars’ wins over Paul Kluck (Nissan Skyline R32). Chris Cheverall (BMW E36) was third in race one until overtaken by Andrew Souvertjis (Skyline R33), but held it in the last.

Stevens was a non-starter in race two where Kluck won from Souvertjis and Cheverall.

FORMULA RACING

AHEAD OF a good size field, Martin Bullock (Chevron B20) was a three-time winner. It was a close run affair in the first ahead of Simon Alderson (RF88 FF2000) and David Turner (Ralt RT4).

The three turned on another good tussle in race two where Turner passed Alderson on the last lap for second. Shane Gifford (March 722 F2) was a contender in the last, close behind as Turner again passed Alderson on the final lap for second.

F1000 & SR3

STOHR DRIVER Adam Lisle won three times over. In each he beat Stewart Burns (Phoenix) while Keith Folwell (Stohr) had two thirds and one DNF which came in race two and allowed Joseph Bergic (Stohr) a third.

Among the Radicals, it was two-one to Luke Iustini over Paul Hewitt. Mick Oliver

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FEATURE AutoAction

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57

LATE START IN QLD Image: WARC

Image: arp33.com

THE YUMP into Byfield Rally on July 11 was the first outing for Queensland competitors this year and it was won by Gerard McConkey and Ben Logan in their Subaru Impreza WRX GC8.

The victors were 2mins 58s ahead of Leland-Jay Williams and Ray Priest (Toyota Sprinter), with Phil Mason and Greg Fitzgerald (Toyota Celica) third just under 2mins further adrift.

While not a state championship round, it drew 22 entrants and was the opener for the Queensland Novice Rally Series and saw Krystle Power and Brad Hurford take out top honours in their Ford Falcon EF XR6.

McConkey and Logan won the first stage ahead of Gerard Byrne and Jake Keleher (WRX) with Ron Bustard and Cahal Carey

(Mitsubishi EVO) third. The stage one winners were second on stage two behind Tony and Chloe Tanzer (WRX) before they struck back with wins on the next two stages ahead of Byrne/Keleher and the Tanzers.

That had McConkey and Logan just over a minute ahead at the halfway point with the Tanzers second and Williams/Priest third through consistency.

Byrne and Keleher had trouble on stage two and were 10th after four stages. They hit back by taking out stages five and six, ahead of McConkey/Logan and Williams/Priest in each.

McConkey came back to take seven and eight before Williams/Priest won the last.

Fourth in the end went to Martin Penfold and Annette Thomson (Nissan Sylvia) ahead of Ian Gough and Ken Long (Celica), Peter Trezona

and Sam Woodger (Nissan Skyline), and Brett and Michelle Wasley (Mitsubishi Lancer).

Erik Johnsson and Larisa Biggar had electrical problems on the opening stage which couldn’t be rectified, while the Tanzers retired with a holed radiator, and the Richard Galley/John Andreatidis EVO pulled out when the navigator became ill.

Todd Webster and Ryan Preston went sedately in the debut run of their WRX until a rock took out a brake line, and the Bustard/ Carey campaign ended with a bent a steering arm.

The Novice Rally Series result went all the way with Power/Hurford (eighth outright) 25s ahead of Gary Dutton and Giles Harris (ninth in their Celica) and 11th-placed Wessel Pieters and Jan Kraaij (WRX). Garry O’Brien

Image: Bruce Moxon

STAGE CRASH BRINGS EARLY END

A SHORTENED Bulahdelah Rally on July 18, round one of the AMSAG Southern Cross Series, was won by Jamie and Brad Luff in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Scott McCloy and Ron McMahon (WRX) were 1m 44s ahead of them at the end of stage five, but crashed shortly after and were declared non-finishers. Despite stages six and seven being cancelled, they needed to complete the stage to maintain first position. Provisionally second and third were Simon and Luke Jamieson (Mitsubishi EVO 7) and Riley Walters and Jeff Williamson (WRX) on equal time.

Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith crashed their new EVO X midway through stage six, which required the attendance of a first intervention vehicle (FIV). It became apparent that stage conditions had deteriorated with several crews having

issues leaving the road at various points.

Therefore organisers cancelled stages six and seven. Winwood-Smith was transferred to John Hunter Hospital with a broken sternum and L2 vertebrae, while Quinn escaped with bruising.

Through the opening stage McCloy/ McMahon were just 3s slower than Quinn/ Winwood-Smith, before winning the next three and opening up a lead of 1min 53s over the Luffs – seeded 13th but never lower than third fastest on any stage.

On stage two Quinn and Winwood-Smith were second fastest but a drop in the oil pressure gauge on stage three saw them stop and check. It turned out to be a damaged sensor, but they lost six minutes and then had a slow stage four – just in case – which dropped them well down the order.

But then they followed up with fastest on stage five by 35s.

Other notable retirements included the Ed Mulligan and Ben Richards (Ford Escort) with a broken sway bar, and Jack Wightman and Steve Beaufoy (Datsun 240Z) with steering failure. Gear selections put out Andrew and Nicole Chapman (Toyota 86) while Chris Giddens and Gordon Trigg (EVO 9) retired with electrical failure.

Of the two-wheel drive cars, it was a Nissan trifecta.

David Darby and Rodney Phillips were first and fifth outright in a Nissan 180SX Turbo.

Next was the Patrick Ryan/Anthony Gallagher crewed R31 Skyline and third were Wade Ryan and Trent Brassil (180B SSS).

Mechanical woes put out Glenn Brinkman and Dale Moscatt in their Isuzu D-MAX. Bruce Moxon

LUCK GOES WITH THE CHAMPS REIGNING TITLE holders John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver were the winners of the Truck Wholesale WA Bakers Hill Sprint, the opening round of the Motorsport Australia WA Rally Championship on July 18.

In second place were Craig Rando and Stephen Wade in their Subaru Impreza WRX STI and third spot went to Ben Searcy with James Marquet aboard their Mitsubishi EVO 9.

In perfect conditions, competitors tackled two stages at the Bakers Hill Sprint, run twice in one direction and twice in reverse, for a total of 58.2 competitive kilometres.

The victory for O’Dowd and Feaver in their WRC2-spec Skoda Fabia R5 didn’t come without drama. After wins on the first two stages, they were third and second respectively on the next two.

Before the last two stages, the Skoda suffered a drive shaft breakage, the first failure the car has had in nearly 2000 kilometres of competition. They were lucky to be able to continue and despite the setback, won six stages and finished 53s ahead of Rando and Wade who won the other two stages.

Behind Searcy and Marquet, who scored four stage seconds and four thirds, fourth place went to Stephen Oxley and Steph Esterbauer (WRX) ahead of John Macara and Archa Oxley (EVO 7).

Sixth and first in 2WD went to Glenn Alcorn with new navigator Jon Charlesson navigating the Ford Escort.

They battled throughout with class rivals, husband and wife Razvan and Iona Vlad, in their far newer Ford Fiesta.

It came down to the final stage and they were split by 5s at the finish.

Third in 2WD went to Alex and Lachlan White (Nissan Silvia S13) who finished 10th outright behind Dave and Kelly Thomas (WRX) and Andrew Goldie and Scott Beckworth (EVO 7).

In the Clubman class, designed to be more accessible to those with less time, less budget or new to the sport, Abe Tuckett and Glenn Macneall (Hyundai Lantra) were triumphant over Rod Fowler and Keith Mayes (Peugeot 206 GTi) and rookies Glenn Cawood and Murish O’Connell in their Mitsubishi Lancer. 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: IT WAS rare for Holden Dealer Team leaders Peter Brock and John Harvey to pair up, but the duo did successfully at Amaroo Park’s CRC 300. However, the event highlighted the emergence of Dick Johnson as he snatched pole and led the opening 20 laps of the race. The Ford hero made sure HDT had to watch its back with Bathurst two months away. Shepparton team of Bryan Thomson and engineer Peter Fowler were preparing to build a radical Mercedes sports sedan with John Bowe was slated to drive.

ACROSS

5. Jacques Laffite won the 1980 German Grand Prix for what team?

9. Fabian Coulthard races a DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang, what is the number on the car?

10. Allan Moffat won the 1988 Sandown 500, who was his co-driver? (surname) 12. At what race circuit did Mick Doohan suffer his career ending accident early in 1999?

14. How many Grand Prix victories did Mark Webber claim in his Formula 1 career?

15. Giuseppe Farina won the first Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix at Silverstone 70 years ago, what team did he drive for?

16. Who is the only driver to win the Australian Grand Prix as both a Championship and non-Championship race? (full name) 19. At what venue did Whincup make his V8 Supercars Championship debut in 2002?

24. Where was the final non-championship Australian Grand Prix held in 1984?

26. Who scored the first V8 Supercars Championship pole position at Hidden Valley 1998? (surname) 28. At what venue did Jamie Whincup claim his first championship?

58 AutoAction

29 l t JJason Ri h d fifinished i h d secondd in i 29. Th The late Richard the 2009 Bathurst 1000, who was his co-driver? (surname) 30. How many races did Broc Feeney win on his way to the Super3 Series title?

DOWN

1. With what team does Kiwi Liam Lawson compete in the FIA Formula 3 Championship?

2. What is the surname of Shane van Gisbergen’s race engineer?

3. FIA World Rally Championship driver Esapekka Lappi is what nationality?

4. Broc Feeney will make his Bathurst 1000 debut alongside who? (surname) 6. How many Supercars Championship race wins did

1990: IN WHAT was a remarkable development, CAMS announced a three-man executive committee that were to take chargee of motor racing at its highest level. This gave influence to people involved in making commercial decisions for the first time. The three-man panel was made up of CAMS CEO O John Keeffe, touring car representative Allan Moffat and circuit promoter Mick Ronke.

On track, Tony Longhurst sealed his third AMSCAR title as Mark Skaife gave the old HR31 Skyline its final fling.

2000: THE RESULTS of an Auto Action survey conducted with the then current V8 Supercars drivers displayed the popularity of the Top 10 Shootout, that Bathurst shouldn’t be a part of the championship and permanent racetracks and street circuits couldn’t be split. Prospects of Aussies overseas appeared strong, as Mark Webber was within days of signing a test deal with Benetton and Jason Bright was leading the Indy lights Championship as he aimed to join the IndyCar circus.

2010: HOLDEN RACING Team head honcho Tom Walkinshaw was heading to Clayton to investigate why the factory squad was underperforming against the Triple Eight opposition. The main problem identified was within the engineering department and the two team Commodores’ high tyre degradation. Walkinshaw also warned HRT driver Will Davison he had to lift his game after a wretched run in the title fight so far, while Ford Performance Racing appeared favourite to acquire his services for 2011.

Jamie Whincup record in 2019?

7. Who is the reigning Indy500 race winner? (surname) 8. Who is the only driver to win the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide for different two teams? (full name) 11. Broc Feeney won the Invited class at the 2020 Bathurst 12 Hour with Nick Percat and who? (surname) 13. With what brand of car did Jackie Stewart win the Tasman Series in 1966?

17. In 2009 Mark Webber took his first Formula 1 Grand Prix win, at what circuit?

18. Nelson Piquet famously overtook who around the outside at the Hungaroring in 1986? (surname) 20. What brand of car did Garth Tander drive in the TCR Australia Series last year?

21. Who holds the record of 20 consecutive 500cc Motorcycle Grand Prix victories? (surname) 22. Craig Lowndes holds the record for ATCC/ Supercars Championship race wins in succession, how many did he take?

23. Fernando Alonso made his Formula 1 debut for what team in 2001?

25. Who won the final non-championship Australian Grand Prix in 1984? (surname) 27. Who is the only driver to win the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide and Albert Park? (surname)

# 1790 Crossword Answers 1 down – Belgian 2 down – Estonia 3 down – Briscoe 4 down – Janson 5 across – Edwards 6 down – five 7 across – BMW Sauber 8 down – Alexander 9 across – third 10 across – thirteen 11 across – Skaife 12 down – Bryce Fullwood 13 across – Zanardi 14 across – John Bowe 15 across – Fach Auto Tech 16 down – Didier

Pironi 17 down – Honda 18 down – three 19 across – Nelson Piquet 20 down – Francevic 21 across – HWA 22 across – Queensland 23 across – Carter 24 down – Renault 25 across – Indianapolis 26 down – SMP 27 across – Garth Tander 28 down – six 29 across – Damon Hill 30 across – ninety-one

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INTERVIEW AutoAction

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59

SIGNED BATHURST IMAGE COLLECTION. Limited edition all with the genuine driver signatures

Kevin Bartlett GT-HO Phase Three Falcon - Bathurst 1971 This colour, 22 x 28 cm print is personally signed by Kevin Bartlett. $40.00 + $10.00 Postage etc. ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S002: BATHURST 1971 - HARDIE FERODO 500

Colin li BBond/Fred d/F d Gib Gibson M Moffat ff FFordd Dealers D l FFordd XC C Cobra b – BBathurst h 1978 This colour, 23 x 34 cm print, is personally signed by Colin Bond. $40.00 + $10.00 Postage etc. ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S017: BATHURST 1978 - HARDIE FERODO 1000

Kevin Bartlett/Bob Forbes Chevrolet Camaro - BATHURST 1981 This colour, 23 x 34 cm print is personally signed by Kevin Bartlett. $40.00 + $10.00 Postage etc ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S005: BATHURST 1981 - JAMES HARDIE 1000

Bob Morris/Dieter Q Quester ester A9X Torana – Bath Bathurst rst 1979 This colour, 23 x 34 cm print is personally signed by Bob Morris. $40.00 + $10.00 Postage etc. ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S018: BATHURST 1979 - HARDIE FERODO 1000

Colin Bond/Leo Geoghegan Holden Dealer Team XU-1 Torana - Bathurst 1973

This colour, 23 x 34 cm print and is personally signed by Colin Bond and Leo Geoghegan. $60.00 + $10.00 Postage etc. ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S011: BATHURST 1973 - HARDIE FERODO 1000

Bob b Morris/Peter Brock Holden Dealer Team XU XU-1 1 Torana – Bathurst 1970 This colour, 23 x 34 cm print is personally signed by Bob Morris. $40.00 + $10.00 Postage etc. ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S048: BATHURST 1970 - HARDIE FERODO 500

As part of the Auto Action bookstore we have secured a number of original Phase Three Poster limited edition prints and photographs.

These are all limited editions and feature genuine-original signatures of some of the great drivers from Australia’s glorious touring car period while competing at Bathurst.

Bill Brown GT-HO Phase Three Falcon This black/white, 23 x 34 cm print of the crashed Falcon is personally signed by Bill Brown ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S020: BATHURST 1971 HARDIE FERODO 500. $50.00 + $10.00 Postage etc.

Geoghegan/Brown Factory E38 Charger

Colin Bond/Tony Roberts Holden Dealer Team GTS Monaro - Winners Bathurst 1969 This colour and black/white Limited Edition two photograph set is personally signed by Colin Bond – it is matted and shrink wrapped onto a backing board that measurers 33 x 45 cm. $75.00 + $12.50 Postage etc.

ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S008: BATHURST 1969 - HARDIE FERODO 500

This black/white, 23 x 34 cm print, is personally signed by Leo Geoghegan ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S036: BATHURST 1971 - HARDIE FERODO 500. $50.00 + $10.00 Postage etc.

Doug Chivas/Graham Moore Charger E38 Bathurst 1971

This black/white Limited Edition two photograph set is personally signed by Doug Chivas and Graham Moore, it is matted and shrink wrapped onto a backing board that measurers 33 x 46 cm. $75.00 + $12.50 Postage etc ORDER / PRODUCT NUMBER: S023: BATHURST 1971 - HARDIE FERODO 500

If you purchase up to four of the colour or black and white 23cm x 34 cm prints, postage is $10.00 all up.

If you purchase up two of the larger prints, postage is $15.50 all up.

To place an order via email send to: admin@autoaction.com.au or give us call at Auto Action HQ on 03 9563 2107

680kg hydraulic lift per jack 270mm max. tyre width 620mm max opening Sold in pairs

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00+7 (,* + 7 ,) /

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PBK-10H PBR-10H Hydraulic 10T Panel Hydraulic 10T Panel 1(: Beating Kit - 15 Piece 5(/($6( Beating Ram Kit - 11 Piece • Hydraulic pump with hose • 10 tonne long ram • 0.5 tonne spreader ram • Includes 11 various attachments • Complete in carry case

• • • • •

297

305 x 1mm capacity Bench or vice mountable Swivel top roller Gear driven rollers

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242

WDV-8 Industrial Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner

5281' $1' ( 648$5

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319

319

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BG-8 Industrial Bench Grinder

• 45 piece set - metric (M6 - M24) fine & coarse threads • Includes: 50mm die handle, Die adaptor, Standard tap wrench, "T" type tap wrench & Screw driver

• • • •

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250mm wheels Fine/coarse grit Safety stop switch 1.3hp, 240V

$

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MPB-2SH Hydraulic Pipe Bender

• 6 cast steel water pipe formers, (1/2", 3/4", 1", 1-1/4", 1-1/2", 2") • 2 stage hydraulic pump

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$

429

462

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WBS-3D Steel Work Bench • • • •

PTB-48CD Parts Bin Cabinet

+($9< (/ 7( 6 < 7 8 ' 1 58&7,2 &2167

2000 x 640 x 870mm 3 Lockable drawers Huge shelf compartment Bearing slide drawers

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649

PROMAX 500 Auto Darken Welding Helmet

33

L3456

22 piece set Internal & external 2 or 3 leg design 10 tonne ram

1( 7218/,& +<'5$ 5$0

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627

MGT-1T Mobile Girder Rail â&#x20AC;¢ 1000kg load capacity â&#x20AC;¢ 2500-3600mm adjustable height â&#x20AC;¢ 2300mm between frame â&#x20AC;¢ Swivel wheels with brake

900 x 1200 (LxW) Tab & slot u-weld system 4.8mm table top thickness Ã&#x2DC;16mm holes with a 50 x 50mm grid pattern

TESTED IAN & AL R TR

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473

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220

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SHST-1.2H Shrinker & Stretcher - MEARA Staff Member

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â&#x20AC;¢ 15.87, 19.05, 22.22, 25.4 & 31.75mm OD round tube formers â&#x20AC;¢ Digital angle display 0 - 180º â&#x20AC;¢ 2.0mm m/s wall thickness â&#x20AC;¢ 1.7kW / 2.3hp, 240V

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1.2mm mild steel 130mm throat depth Shrinking dies Stretching dies

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SRG-12 Manual Sheet Metal Curving Rolls

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NSW

(02) 9890 9111

QLD

(07) 3715 2200

VIC

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1/2 Windsor Rd, Northmead 625 Boundary Rd, Coopers Plains 4 Abbotts Rd, Dandenong

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