Auto Action #1792

RACE TO FINISH HOW SUPERCARS WILL GET IT DONE

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SINCE S INCE 1971 1971

E N O Z R E G N DA REAT TO 1000 COVID TH

BATHURST OR BUST SUPERCARS PINS HOPES ON GO-AHEAD TOOLED UP

RICHO’S LEGENDARY MUSTANG

I’LL BE BAAACK! WILL DAVO VOWS TO RETURN

Issue #1792 13 Aug to 26 Aug 2020 $8.95 INC GST

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‘I WENT NUMB WHEN I GOT THE CALL’ Image: LAT

Will Davison recounts the day he lost his drive and how he’s bounced back and aiming for a full-time Supercars return in 2021

By BRUCE NEWTON AN EMOTIONAL Will Davison has revealed the mental challenges he endured after losing his Supercars championship drive in May. And in an exclusive interview with Auto Action he has declared himself 100 per cent recovered and focussed on regaining a fulltime drive in the championship in 2021.

Ahead of that, it is expected he will soon be confirmed as Cameron Waters’ co-driver in the Monster Ford Mustang GT at the Bathurst 1000 in October.

Davison found himself on the outer after Phil Munday’s 23Red Racing was forced to withdraw from the championship amid the coronavirus pandemic, when naming rights sponsor Milwaukee Tools ended its deal early.

Davison has been a constant on the Supercars grid since joining DJR in 2006.

Since then he’s raced for HRT, FPR, Erebus and Tekno before joining 23Red. Along the way he’s won two Bathurst 1000s and collected 17 other race wins in 428 starts.

Davison recounted to AA the moment the news he feared was delivered to him in a phonecall from Munday. “I was out at lunch with my brother Alex and had his kids with us. “It was factual information; this (statement) is going out tonight. “I suppose in a way a part of me was prepared for it, but it was still a pretty weird feeling. I won’t lie, it was one of those moments I won’t forget, just the shock of it, the reality of it. It finally hit home when he said that. “I just felt like everything stopped for a moment and Alex asked me what was wrong

and I didn’t really say much. “I didn’t really say much for a few hours, I just kept to myself for a little while because I just didn’t know what to say. I just felt a bit numb for a little while.�

Davison said the loss of the 23Red drive hurt most because the Tickford Racingprepared and engineered Milwaukee Ford Mustang GT was demonstrating genuine pace that had prompted him to constantly escalate his expectations before the season was paused because of COVID-19. “I certainly had a firm goal to be a top five championship runner and make sure I was able to really get back on the top step podium. It was as simple as that. “Then when I drove the car for the first time at Tailem Bend (in the pre-season test) that top five went to a top three championship contender. “Now, looking back, I honestly felt like I was going to be a contender for this year’s championship.�

Davison admits the first few weeks after losing the drive were hard to endure. “I would be lying if I didn’t feel gutted the first few weeks, especially after having such good form and being so competitive and really looking set for such a great year. You could be forgiven for thinking you were a bit hard done by.�

But Davison paid tribute to life and training partner Riana Crehan, friends and family for helping him regain a positive attitude. “It’s been a test of character, but having Riana at home and having each other has just been huge. I feel like we have a good toolset

to deal with challenges and deal with the ups and downs,� he said. “There were days when we both were challenged and had to dig pretty deep to get up early and go training. But all in all we have a great group of people around us and special friends. We really relied on them and each other to keep things in perspective something that’s really important in years like this – and realise how lucky we are at the end of the day to live the life we do. “Sure, it’s a challenge this year, but at the end of the day we hang around the people we enjoy hanging around, we don’t get drawn into negativity, bitterness and victimisation. I don’t like that.�

Davison says he is now well and truly “out of the hole� and looking forward to securing a 2021 drive. “The 100 per cent focus is to return to Supercars full-time. I’d be silly not to chase that while I’m genuinely in the peak form of my career. “So while I am there I am throwing everything I can into getting a few more years in the sport and that is where all my energies are at the moment. “Hopefully sooner rather than later I can put something together. But it’s all up in the air at the moment and I don’t know which way the cards are going to fall. “I am really optimistic that I am going to be able to put something together. I have had some amazing support this year that has come out of nowhere.�

For our full exclusive interview with Will Davison, please turn to page 22.

Will Davison: TV star?

WILL DAVISON is hoping his new role as a Network 10 Supercars talking head will be the start of an ongoing on-camera role.

The Supercars veteran will debut by co-hosting from the studio the rescheduled Darwin SuperSprint that 10 is telecasting live on August 15-16.

He is expecting to be in Townsville to co-host 10’s next live telecast in the first of two events scheduled for the Reid Park circuit on August 29-30.

Davison then expects to share broadcasting duties with co-driving at the Bathurst 1000 on October 8-11, where he is set to be paired up in the Monster Ford Mustang GT with regular pilot Cameron Waters. “I’ll be on the grid at Bathurst and I expect to be juggling commitments there,â€? Davison told AA. “I have always said I love talking about motorsport and one day I’d like to do TV. The opportunity is there so I’ve jumped at it, particularly while I’ve got my head out of driving full-time. “I feel I have a fair bit to give ‌ I really enjoy breaking down and analysing the sport I love.â€?

Of course Channel 10 finishes up as a Supercars’ freeto-air telecaster after Bathurst and Channel 7 is expected to join FoxSports in a new deal from 2021.

That’s fine with Davison, who has made it clear he is pushing to be back in a full-time drive in 2021. “That’s still up in there, but working very, very hard on an outcome,� Davison said.

Apart from his venture into TV, Davison revealed his mandatory time off from the cockpit since losing the 23Red racing drive in May has given him an unexpected chance to prepare for life after his professional driving career. “I think that is really important, something that at times might give you a bit of anxiety not knowing what you might do when you finish racing,� said Davison. “This year has given me a bit of time to look at that and put a few things in place to make sure I am ready for that mentally. “It’s been a blessing in a way, but I still have massive energy and motivation to get back out there professionally. BN

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LATEST NEWS

BATHURST OR BUST

SUPERCARS PINNING HOPES ON 1000 G Critical to V8 racing’s survival, MARK FOGARTY outlines the obstacles that have to be overcome to ensure Australia’s Great Race

GETTING THE Bathurst 1000 to happen is make-or-break for Supercars as it tries to salvage the 2020 season amid the deepening coronavirus crisis.

Scheduled for October 8-11 at Mount Panorama, the 1000 is looming as the final round of a shortened championship – if it goes ahead.

But The Great Race is under the real threat of an unprecedented cancellation if COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria, NSW and Queensland remain in force – or, more worryingly, are expanded.

Supercars and Motorsport Australia remain confident the Bathurst 1000 will happen under strict conditions.

Supercars supremo Sean Seamer has confirmed there are “four or five” plans to make sure the event is viable under coronavirus constraints.

A Supercars insider confided: “Unless there’s a [COVID] catastrophe, the Bathurst 1000 will go ahead.”

However, there are concerns practical limitations could scupper the 1000, on which salvaging the disrupted season relies financially.

Without the Bathurst 1000, the series could conceivably collapse.

Extended and renewed border closures are a major concern, with teams, series staff and volunteer officials facing exclusion or prolonged quarantine if COVID-19 restrictions are still in place in early October.

As it stands, the Bathurst 1000 will go ahead without lucrative support races,

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meaningful spectator attendance and on-site camping.

Unlike the AFL Grand Final, which is set to be staged outside Melbourne for the first time ever in Brisbane or Perth, the Bathurst 1000 can’t easily be switched to another venue.

The Bend Motorsport Park in SA has been touted as an alternative for a 1000 km enduro, but it couldn’t be rebranded as the ‘Bathurst 1000’.

Supercars’ dilemma is how to let the Victorian teams return to Melbourne after the Townsville double-header and then get them back into NSW for Bathurst with the existing border ban.

Queensland teams would face the prospect of a two-week quarantine on return, in itself guaranteeing Bathurst would be the series finale.

There is little prospect the scheduled Perth and Launceston rounds can happen if WA and Tasmania maintain their hard border closures, which looks likely.

A night-time finale under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park is a possibility post-Bathurst if the teams remain in NSW, putting even more stress on Melbourne team personnel who would by then have been away since early July.

The existing constraints on interstate movement that could impact Bathurst are as follows: Melbourne is in Stage 4 lockdown; Victorians are barred from NSW and Queensland; Queensland is closed

to NSW residents; and visitors from Queensland to NSW must quarantine for two weeks on return.

Seamer admits the championship, which must be held in at least four states or territories for the title to be awarded, could finish with the Bathurst 1000.

“That’s certainly a consideration,” he said. “The thing that is at the forefront of our minds is the amount of time that our people – teams, TV, our partners and suppliers – are spending away from their families is taking its toll.

“So that is a consideration; we are looking at that as part of our planning.

We have four or five different scenario plans that we’ll execute under a range of circumstances, but that is absolutely something that is under consideration.

“Bathurst is our priority, but also we want to deliver the championship, We want to be able to award silverware at the end of the year as well. So our focus right now is on that northern leg of the trip, knowing that’s the lowest risk. And then from there, we start to consider moving south again.”

Seamer admitted that returning the Victorian teams to Melbourne after the Townsville double-header would be a risk.

“The two options are you leave the teams on the road or you go back to Victoria, in which case there’s going to be a quarantine period before Bathurst,” he said. “And then you risk what could unfold post-Bathurst. So we have

multiple scenario plans around what’s going to unfold after Townsville, but a large part of that will be dictated to us by what goes on with the spread of the virus and that’s no different to any other Australian or business.”

He added that a Bathurst conclusion was on the cards.

“It is an option and I know that that’s something that’s attractive to a lot of people. It is our finale in so many respects, but we won’t be making a call on that until closer to Townsville.”

Supercars is still hopeful spectators will be allowed, proposing a crowd density of one person per four square metres – which around the expanse of the 6.21 km circuit suggests up to 20,000 per day.

Concerns about enough volunteer track officials being available – despite many traditionally coming from Victoria – have been allayed by Motorsport Australia.

For the Bathurst 1000, MA says approximately 220 are required.

“We expect that we’ll be able to meet this requirement in 2020 and have a strategy in place to ensure we do – maximising the use of local officials, in line with our Return To Race document,” a spokesman said. “Interstate officialswise, it’s impossible to say what the border situation will be in October, so it’s difficult to say if interstate officials will be involved.”

According to chief executive Eugene Arocca, MA has a large pool of officials and track marshals to draw on in NSW and beyond.

FORWARD MARCH DARWIN AND TOWNSVILLE DOUBLE-HEADERS

Supercars supremo Sean Seamer explains how the series is coping with the ever-changing coronavirus challenges

Image: LAT

By MARK FOGARTY

Image: Ross Gibb

G GO-AHEAD “We have a large, dedicated official base located around Australia and we are working with all event organisers to ensure they have the required number of officials at each event,” Arocca said.

“Some travel is still permitted, such as South Australian officials being able to assist at the upcoming Darwin round, for example.

“In Supercars’ case, a handful of Victorian based staff also put their hand up to stay on the road for several weeks to ensure these events could continue and they have our utmost admiration.

“While a number of Victorian officials will not be able to attend events in other states at the moment, we know there are plenty of qualified people around the country on hand to assist when required.

“We can’t thank all of our officials enough for their support and efforts during this difficult time. Without them, these events would not go ahead, and that’s from the grassroots level through to the continuing Supercars events.

“Motorsport Australia is also making sure that they are not putting their health and safety at high risk, thanks to the protocols outlined in our wellpublicised Return To Race document.”

The Bathurst Regional Council, which owns and operates the Mount Panorama scenic road circuit and is a partner of the Supercars-run Bathurst 1000, is leaving comment on the likelihood of the race happening to Supercars.

“All we can say is that the event is still going ahead,” a spokesperson said.

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SUPERCARS WILL resume racing again in Darwin this weekend, delayed a week because of renewed COVID-19 fears in Queensland.

Although now allayed, those concerns mean the Northern Territory double-header will begin with the Darwin Triple Crown on August 15-16.

It was originally scheduled for last weekend, but a dramatic week of coronavirus developments jeopardised the trip to the Top End. NT declared three Brisbane areas hot spots and imposed a retrospective quarantine on visitors, snaring some Supercars drivers and personnel.

Ironically, the ban was cancelled last Friday, after teams had arrived in Darwin, lifting isolation restrictions.

The EasyBet Triple Crown will go ahead this weekend, with the CoreStaff Darwin SuperSprint happening some time the following week.

Darwin 2 is likely to be confirmed as a midweek event, possibly with twilight or night racing under temporary lights, to enable teams to travel to the next event at Townsville on August 29-30.

Townsville will also be a double-header, with a second event on September 5-6.

It may be the last round before the October 8-11 Bathurst 1000, unless Queensland Raceway is slotted in between.

Supercars is looking at all possibilities to make Bathurst happen, including keeping Victorian and NSW teams on the road until the 1000, which may become the championship finale.

The Darwin Triple Crown will be three 38-lap races – one on Saturday, two on Sunday – with a Top 15 Shootout on hard tyres on the first day.

Racing will be governed by a mix of three sets of hard-compound tyres and two sets of soft rubber.

The Darwin SuperSprint will be an all-soft tyres event.

Tyre allocations and qualifying formats for the NTI Townsville SuperSprint and second TSV SuperSprint – both three races over two days – are yet to be announced.

Fox Sports will cover all Darwin and Townsville track action live, while Channel 10 will provide free-to-air coverage of the first weekends at both.

Limited crowds will be allowed at both events.

Up to 4500 spectators per day will be allowed at Hidden Valley, with as many as 10,000 a day allowed at Reid Park.

Some corporate guests will also be allowed in Townsville because of the Reid Park street track’s separate VIP facilities above the pit lane.

Beyond Townsville’s double-header, the future is uncertain other than Supercars’

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determination to hold the Bathurst 1000 as planned from October 8-11.

The Sandown round on September 19-20 is off because of Victoria’s Stage 4 lockdown, possibly replaced by an event – or even a double-header – at QR. Scheduled post-Bathurst rounds at Wanneroo Raceway in Perth and Symmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania are in serious doubt because of those states’ hard border restrictions.

TV coverage from Darwin will be split between on-site and remote commentators.

Fox Sports’ coverage will be anchored by Jessica Yates, Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife in the Sydney studio, with Queenslanders Craig Lowndes and Mark Larkham at Hidden Valley Raceway.

It is understood 10’s Triple Crown team will be Scott McKinnon and Kate Peck in Sydney, with Michael Caruso and Will Davison also providing analysis remotely.

It is understood Davison will be on-site for 10 at the first Townsville event.

In a roundtable virtual media session last week, Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer outlined the challenges of keeping racing going amid revived COVID-19 restrictions: On Darwin delay We’re going racing. Our number one priority was getting everyone up there safely and doing it in such a way that it’s safe for Territorians.

On Darwin 2 format Still to be announced in terms of time of week, time of day, etc. There’s an election and an AFL game on the weekend of August 22-23.

So could it be mid-week and at night?

Absolutely. I think what we’ve shown, if nothing else, is a preparedness to try different things since we’ve started racing again. One of the things that’s come out of all this is a high degree of flexibility from the teams and the commission and a willingness to innovate.

So expect us to look at that over the next couple of rounds as well.

On teams staying on the road until Bathurst The clear sentiment from all the teams is that they’re on the road, they want to be racing.

Everyone wants to go racing because that’s what they do. To suggest that everybody’s as comfortable or as happy as what they would be if they were at their own homes with their families, no. But they’re digging in.

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On Queensland Raceway return We’re absolutely looking at that as an option. It’s obviously in a good location from an operational point of view for the teams, but we just have to keep an eye on the hot spots over the next couple of weeks. So don’t expect any further announcements around plans post-Townsville probably until we get closer to Townsville, to be honest with you. If nothing else, the events over the past couple of weeks have shown us that it’s extremely difficult to plan more than four weeks in advance at the moment.

QR double-header?

That’ll really depend on what happens with the hot spot around Ipswich, to be honest. It would be too early to speculate on that.

On personnel at each event It was 408 including local volunteers at Sydney Motorsport Park and it will be 250 plus local volunteers at Darwin.

On the logistical ‘nightmare’ of juggling the calendar It’s a challenge, it’s not a nightmare. Full credit to my team and the teams for digging in because they just want to go racing.

On Sandown happening I think you’d be overly optimistic to expect a race there in September. It’s highly unlikely that’ll be happening.

What about Perth and Tasmania?

They’re a watching brief at the moment. It all depends on where we’re coming from and then going to.

A four-state championship?

That is a potential scenario. It’d be a shame because we pride ourselves on being a national championship, but first and foremost, we need to be a championship.

Is Fox Sports on board?

Fox has been very, very flexible. They’ll work with us on whatever we can do.

On cost to teams and Supercars It’s certainly not as efficient as it would be if we had better spacing between the rounds and it is putting pressure on the teams, which have had to do things on the road they’d otherwise be able to do back at their workshops. But we’re making it work. It certainly doesn’t cost as much as not racing at all. Which is why we did everything we needed to do to contain costs and to manage the business accordingly so that when we could go racing again, we were able to facilitate it.

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LATEST SUPERCAR

NEWS

COURTNEY CHALLENGED

RECENT TICKFORD Racing recruit James Courtney has found Supercars’ new quick-fire formats difficult, as he continues to adjust to the Ford Mustang and his new team.

After re-joining the Supercars field at its return weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park in June, the former champion has been learning on the run at race meetings, with no testing allowed.

Add to this, Tickford Racing being away from its Campbellfield workshop for more than a month, and he describes the current situation as tough.

Learning the team and car during race weekends is a challenge, due to the non-stop nature of the meetings not allowing much opportunity to make set-up changes.

“I think the format is quite tough for me in that I’m trying to learn the car, different techniques and people, so that quick-fire stuff doesn’t really provide you with enough time to go through things,” Courtney told Auto Action.

“I think if I was still with Walkinshaw Andretti Racing and you knew everything and everyone, it would be fine.”

However despite that, Courtney is a fan of the new format and the openness that it has provided.

“I had a blast,” Courtney emphasised. “I was battling for a podium in one race and then fighting in the pack the next.

I think it’s probably the most mixed up podium that we’ve had in a long time, and it brought strategy and the team, more into play rather than just outright car speed.”

The same could be said for the mixed tyre strategy, which Courtney believes won’t be as pronounced at Hidden Valley.

“As for the soft or hard tyre, I think it’s good,” Courtney said.

“It spiced up the racing especially and it was magnified there with the tyre degradation at that place, it probably made everything more drastic.

“At Darwin I don’t think it will be as dramatic.”

HEATH McALPINE

Image: LAT

VIRGIN DEAL UP IN THE AIR

The future of the Virgin Australia sponsorship of the Supercars championship remains unknown VIRGIN WENT into liquidation in April owing $6.8 billion.

US private equity giant Bain Capital has since emerged from a bidding process as the new owner of the airline, pending creditor’s meeting approval in September.

Virgin CEO Paul Scurrah made a series of sweeping announcements about the revised structure of the airline last week, but there was no update on the fate of the $1.5 million Supercars sponsorship deal

which expires in 2021.

Speaking to motorsport media last week, Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said there had been no discussion about the sponsorship recently, with the focus instead on organising charter flights to ship the Supercars workforce from race-to-race.

Promisingly, he did say both parties want to keep “working together”.

“To be honest with you, my conversations with Virgin over the past two weeks have

been purely around charter flights,” said Seamer.

“We are focussed purely on getting the season done and they (Virgin) are focussed on working with us to get that done, and then we’ll move on to 2021 from there.

“But we both want to keep working together and Paul and I will pick up that conversation at the right

time for both of us.”

Under its new ownership, Scurrah has announced Virgin will cut 3000 jobs, discontinue budget airline Tigerair, suspend long-haul international flights, and simplify its fleet.

While the Virgin deal is on a long list of issues for Supercars to deal with, it is understood the category has leads on other potential naming rights sponsors if it has to move on. BN

Image: LAT

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BOOST CONSIDERS TWO CARS IN 2021 But no team ownership until Supercars financials are healthier

By BRUCE NEWTON OUTSPOKEN SPONSOR Peter Adderton is considering expanding back to a two-car investment in Supercars in 2021.

Adderton last backed a two-car team in 2019 when both Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden Commodores ran Boost Mobile signage.

That option is one of a number on the list for the Boost Mobile founder, who took over the satellite Ford Mustang GT at Tickford Racing with driver James Courtney, following 23Red Racing’s withdrawal during the pandemic lockdown.

“I’d like to see a two car team for us next year, obviously a young guy and someone like James (Courtney) to help him,” Adderton told Auto Action.

Seventeen-year Broc Feeney would be one likely fit for such a role, given it was Adderton’s decision to place him in the Mustang alongside Courtney at Bathurst rather than opt for Jack Perkins’ safe pair of hands.

But Adderton made it clear he is unlikely to expand to two cars and also become a team owner as he has mooted for some time, until the Supercars technical rules take shape for 2021.

“The problem is we don’t know what next year is yet,” said Adderton. “Forget about the rounds, just assume they are going to be the same once COVID sorts itself out.

“But what about the rules, what is the car going to look like? I am hearing so many different things.

“We are just waiting for some clarity from Supercars; what the hell are these cars

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going to look like next year.

“What are they going to do to try and level it up apart from playing the magic tyre game?”

The main way the shape of Supercars might evolve in 2021 is via reduced aero aids to cut downforce and aero wash for following drivers.

But with Gen3 delayed until 2022 there is limited expectation of significant change this summer. There have been complaints about aero turbulence making the cars harder than ever to pass despite two off-season VCAT tests, but Supercars motorsport boss Adrian Burgess has played down the possibility of big changes for 2021.

Adderton said he wasn’t interested in owning a Supercars team until the financials of the championship became healthier.

“I want to own a team one day but I am not going to own a team until I know we can make money, or at least break even,” he said.

“And right now owning a Supercars team, they are living off the residuals of (majority owner) Archer Capital, so I am not willing to take the profits and put them back into a business to lose money.

“They need to clean it up, they need to make it cheaper.”

A key part of driving down costs, says Adderton, is the introduction of a control front suspension upright, which in 2019 he offered to fund if Supercars would introduce it this year.

Supercars declined the offer and Adderton ended his sponsorship of GRM, which

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subsequently withdrew from Supercars racing.

While Adderton was pilloried for what was seen publicly as playing a pivotal role in the demise one of the most popular Supercars teams, he regards the upright campaign as a positive.

“I think it was a win and I tell you the reason why I think it was a win. We were trying to draw attention to parity.

“The uprights was the start of us saying we want a car that is even and equal with everybody else and let it come down to the driver and the small set-up changes that you make.

“I want it even for everyone. When you spend $2 million like Boost does, you want the ability to turn up and have a fight for (the) top 10.

“Right now they’re trying to trick it up with tyres, but I am hoping that the next generation car they are designing has all the attributes we are talking about.”

Despite his various reservations, Adderton did have praise for Tickford Racing, suggesting at this early stage he’d consider continuing on with the Ford team in 2021.

“The appreciation for a sponsor is a complete opposite from what we have had in the past. (Tickford Racing CEO) Tim Edwards and the guys from Tickford have been phenomenal.

“The ways they report back, the information they give us is great. They have COVID-proofed themselves by changing the way they do business from our perspective.”

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LICENSE THE HRT NAME! SUPERCARS SHOULD license the HRT badge so the traditional Holden versus Ford rivalry can live on in the category.

That’s the view of Boost Mobile boss Peter Adderton, who also believes the Chev Camaro should replace the Holden Commodore as soon as possible to race the Ford Mustang GT. The Holden Racing Team (HRT) name will be retired after the final Supercars championship race of this season, reflecting the fact the Holden brand has been axed by General Motors.

Adderton fears Supercars has missed out on an “no-brainer” marketing opportunity, by not licensing HRT. “It should be a Mustang and a Camaro ,” declared Adderton. “I didn’t understand why (Supercars CEO) Sean Seamer didn’t ring up Holden and say ‘we want to have the HRT brand, the Lion’s head, we want to license that off you’.

“Then all the (Camaro) teams could use the Lion’s head and HRT. And against it you would have the Ford Mustang.

“We would drop the term Holden and move to the term HRT Racing.

You can use the icon on your car and that’s HRT versus Ford.

“It would have been a no-brainer.

Holden would have done whatever they could to allow that.

“You could do another five years of that.” BN

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LATEST NEWS

Images: LAT MATT STONE Racing has again elected to share the driving duties of its #34 Holden ZB Commodore across the two rounds in Darwin.

The SuperLite entry is being shared all season between Super2 graduates Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki. As they did at Sydney Motorsport Park, Kostecki will race at the first Darwin round, while Goddard to drive the car in the second event. DM

SUPERCARS HAS struck a three-year deal with NTI Limited to become the new naming rights partner for the annual Townsville event.

Commencing later this month with the NTI Townsville SuperSprint on 29-30 August, the new deal will see the truck insurance and roadside assistance business further expand its involvement with the sport, which already includes backing the most recent Supercars’ round in Sydney via its Truck Assist brand. RV

SUPERCARS HAS released a message to fans about the sale of camp sites at the 2020 Bathurst 1000. It reads: “Due to COVID-19 and everchanging health and safety recommendations, the general public on-sale date for camping at the 2020 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 will be put on hold (originally scheduled to open Monday 27 July 2020). Supercars is working closely with NSW Health authorities to confirm details for camping at the 2020 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.” DM

FOR THE first time, the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown trophy will be awarded to the driver who accumulates the most points over the course of the first weekend at Hidden Valley. Previously, the Triple Crown had only been awarded if a driver had either won all three races or in Scott McLaughlin’s case last year, topped the shoot out and won the weekend’s two races. However, with a mix of both soft and hard tyre compounds, the formula for winning the Triple Crown this year has been adjusted. RV BALLARAT-BASED car preparer Ted Robinson has passed away following a diagnosis of myeloma.

Robinson is best known for spearheading Allan Moffat’s Bathurst attacks in the early-1990s and representing Ford in production car racing. Auto Action sends its condelences to Robinson’s family and friends. HM

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TIM SCHENKEN TO MISS DARWIN DOUBLEHEADER SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP race director Tim Schenken will remain in Melbourne and miss both Darwin SuperSprint events.

This means that for the next two Supercars Championship rounds in the Northern Territory, James Taylor will continue as the acting race director.

Schenken last worked as the race director for the Supercars Championship return event at Sydney Motorsport Park in June.

However, when border restrictions tightened between Victoria and New South Wales, Schenken was unable to make it back into New South Wales in time.

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca explained that as Schenken is based in Melbourne, trying to get an exemption for him would prove difficult due to the current COVID-19 situation in Victoria.

“We felt that getting Tim out of Victoria right now to Darwin would be problematic,” he said.

“I can tell you that Tim won’t be going to Darwin at this stage, but we’re hopeful of getting him into Queensland (for the Supercars events in Townsville).”

With a major spike in cases within Victoria and to an extent in New South Wales, many borders have re-closed while getting exemptions accepted has become tougher for Motorsport Australia.

“Victoria have caused some difficulty in our capacity to necessarily get exemptions right now,” Arocca said.

“We’re finding more border closures and we just have to understand that every day,

Image: LAT

sometimes every hour, brings a new challenge, and a new area of volatility, to this pretty fragile period of time.”

As a result of Schenken’s absence, Taylor stepped up into the senior role at the second SMP event and will continue to do so for the two Darwin rounds.

“James Taylor is going to continue in his role as race director,” said Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca

RACES UP NORTH, FINALLY OFF-TRACK drama has surrounded the Darwin doubleheader.

But this weekend racing finally kicks off, a week late, and there are set to be a variety of changes from the last round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Tyres were a major talking point as SMP, as it was the first time that a dual tyre compound format was executed in recent seasons, invoking wide acclaim from team owners and drivers alike.

As revealed by Auto Action last issue, the hard compound tyre will be mandated in Darwin through the three-tier qualifying session.

“From our learnings from SMP2, qualifying and the Shootout at the last event was a little bit confusing because people were on different tyres because race strategies were already being actioned,” Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess said.

“So this time we’ve thought it best to keep everybody all on one tyre compound, so that the natural pecking order is sort of resumed.

“And from that point on, the tyre strategy will kick off in earnest from the first race.”

Tyre allocation is split between three sets of hard and two sets of soft tyres across the weekend.

confirmed in a media call which included Auto Action.

“He [Taylor] has got Tim as a support whenever he needs him, he’s certainly one of the main two people that we’ve got that are responsible for Motorsport Australia in Darwin.”

The other Victorian Motorsport Australia official who will be attending the Darwin doubleheader is James Delzoppo.

“James Delzoppo is one of the Image: LAT

Parc Ferme also makes a return to Supercars in the Top End. Participants in the Top 15 Shootout will be required to adhere to Parc Ferme conditions, while the nine entries that fail to make the cut will have until the end of the session to make changes.

The entire field will be under Parc Ferme conditions between the end of the Top 15 Shootout and the formation lap of Saturday’s race, with only changing tyres permitted.

Also, fans will be back in Darwin, with 4500 set to descend on Hidden Valley for what is intended to be the first leg of back-to-back double-headers at Darwin. HM

assistants in the race control,” Arocca explained. “He’s not a senior official, but we were able to get them both out before the border closures in Victoria.

“We’ve got a whole raft of other officials that have travelled in from other states, other than Victoria.

I’ve got officials from Western Australia and South Australia that have all descended on Darwin, that have gotten through without issue.” Dan McCarthy

DARWIN TRIPLE CROWN SCHEDULE

Saturday August 8 10:10am-10:30am – Rookie-only practice 10:50am-11:20am – Practice 1 11:50am-12:20pm – Practice 2 1:05pm-1:15pm – Qualifying Part 1 for Race 13 1:20pm-1:30pm – Qualifying Part 2 for Race 13 1:40pm-2:20pm – Top 15 Shootout for Race 13 3:30pm-4:17pm – Race 13 (38 laps) Sunday August 9 11:40am-11:50am – Qualifying for Race 14 11:55am-12:05pm – Qualifying for Race 15 1:20pm-2:07pm – Race 14 (38 laps) 3:30pm-4:17pm – Race 15 (38 laps)

SOFT TYRE ADVANTAGE HIGHER IN DARWIN NEW CIRCUIT ENTERS CONSULTANCY STAGE

Dutton predicts plenty of cars will take the soft-soft option this weekend

By BRUCE NEWTON HIGHLY EXPERIENCED Red Bull Holden Racing Team team manager Mark Dutton has predicted the temptation to opt for the soft-soft ‘go for glory’ strategy will be very popular at this weekend’s Darwin Triple Crown.

That’s because of – rather than in spite of – the lower degradation surface at the Hidden Valley track compared to the last Supercars championship round at Sydney Motorsport Park, where teams also had three sets of hard compound Dunlops and two sets of softs to get through up to five qualifying sessions and three sprint races.

“It’s counter-intuitive,” Dutton told Auto Action. “Everyone thinks the less degradation means the racing will be more fair due to that.

“No, it’s the other way. It means if you put the softs on you’re faster for longer.

“SMP was a great track to test these different scenarios, but Darwin could be worse in that regard for the sport and the racing.”

The mixed compound tyre allocation generated controversy at SMP because it exacerbated the basic tyre management issue of having just five sets of tyres to survive the weekend.

It encouraged the ‘go for glory’ strategy with two of the three winners on the weekend racing softs in both stints, rather than going hard-soft. Teams that went that way effectively sacrificed a race result.

The SMP surface was touted as an advantage for the softs, but Dutton, also a multi-championship winning engineer with Jamie Whincup, is emphatic low deg Hiddden Valley will be more extreme.

Image: LAT

“At SMP - talking in simple numbers for the sake of the argument - your soft is going a second a lap quicker, but it’s degrading at two tenths per lap.

“Whereas your hard tyre is only degrading at one tenth per lap. With those high deg numbers the soft and the hard will soon equal each other on pace.

“So therefore if you are on the hard you are not paying as big a penalty as you are on the soft.

“If the degradation is less the (performance) gap will remain larger for longer on the soft compared to the hard, which means you are more ‘P Nowhere’ if you are trying to compete on a hard versus a soft.

“Don’t even waste the fuel.”

Dutton says a low degradation surface also means the soft should also lose performance at a slower rate than the hard tyre.

“It’s non-linear. If it’s twice the deg on a high deg track, it’s not twice the deg on a low deg track. It’s usually not the case.

“But even if it is the case … if your deg at Darwin is 0.2 (per lap) on the soft and 0.1 on the hard (per lap), you’re still going to have that second difference between the speed and it is going to take much, much longer for the speed difference to equalise.

“At Darwin with the less deg, a hardsoft car in a race really shouldn’t be able to compete against the soft-soft, so therefore everyone will have to stack a race and everyone has to throw two races to a certain extent.”

The one significant change in terms of tyre use from SMP to Darwin is that all cars are required to use the hard tyre in Saturday’s three-part qualifying session.

The second Darwin outing will use five sets of softs.

THE CONCEPT plan behind the proposed Rockhampton Motorsport Precinct at Bouldercombe has been unveiled, ahead of public consultation.

The proposed design of the precinct includes a 3.0km circuit which incorporates a rallycross component, 1.3km kart track, 1/8 mile dragstrip, a driver training facility, gymkhana course and mudsports figure-eight tracks.

Grandstands, pit buildings and other amenities are also on the plans.

Industry experts and local motor sport associations have both had input into the concept, explained Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor Margaret Strelow.

“These plans combine years of experience by professional experts with detailed local knowledge and insights from our local motorsport and racing groups,” Mayor Strelow said.

“This design incorporates tracks for a range of sports including a 3.1km circuit, incorporating rallycross, drifting and 1/8 mile drag strip, road safety driving area, 1.3km kart circuit, a Gymkhana area, dual Mudsports figure 8 tracks, and BMX tracks just to name a few, along with grandstands, clubhouses, storage and pit buildings.

“I want to thank all the clubs that have taken part in this early design process and given us their feedback to help shape this first draft of what could be possible.

“While there’s still a large body of work to be done to ensure this site is the right location, this is an excellent first step and shows the potential facility our region could have in the coming years.”

The council has invited residents to provide feedback in regards to the design, which will remain open for three weeks, Deputy Mayor Neil Fisher explained.

“It’s really important that we get the community feedback now so that we can take that through to the next stage and do a more detailed design, which will feed into a Masterplan to be revealed in September and October,” Deputy Mayor Fisher said.

“The consultation period is open from today until August 24 so I’d encourage everyone to hop on to Council’s engagement website Engage Rockhampton Region, view the plans and give us your feedback.

“While this consultation is going on, we will continue to carry out the technical assessments needed to deliver that Masterplan and I look forward to the community giving us more feedback at the next stage as well.” A commencement date for construction has not yet been disclosed. HM

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FOR THE second time within a month the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series has announced the postponement of its opening round. The one-make Toyota category had hoped to begin the 2020 season at Townsville as a support category to the Supercars Championship, but the New South Wales and Queensland border closure was the final blow to these plans. The series consulted both Toyota and Supercars, and the decision was made to withdraw from the event, with no planned start date yet announced. DM

NEW ZEALAND’S Toyota Racing Series is pushing forward with its plans for 2021, with the announcement of the dates. As is tradition, organisers of the open-wheel series are running over five consecutive weekends in January and February 2021, although the exact venues for the races are yet to be confirmed. Past winners include Lando Norris in 2016 and Lance Stroll in 2017, while this year Brazilian Igor Fraga took the title. RV

TOWNSVILLE SUPPORTS LOCKED IN THREE UNIQUE support categories have been confirmed for the Supercars Championship Townsville doubleheader, in northern Queensland.

Announced last week, Townville will run two Supercars Championship events on back to back weekends, firstly on August 29-30 and then on September 5-6.

The opening round, the NTI Townsville SuperSprint, will feature the North Queensland SuperSprint category and Townsville Tin Tops.

The Townsville Tin Tops class will be made up of a mixture of all sorts of racing sedans including Porsche Carrera Cup cars, Super3 machines, MARC Cars and Sports Sedans.

Motorsport identity and co-organiser Nathan Cayzer explained that the Townsville Tin Tops will run exhibition races on both days.

“It’s about getting motorsport back out on track, both for drivers and fans alike – and at all levels, not just the main game,” Cayzer said.

“We all know things are tough across the board at the moment, and I’m sure you all agree, like we did with Supercars, that any chance we can get to allow the motorsport community to get their engines running again, especially around one of Australia’s best street circuits at Townsville, is an opportunity not to be missed.

“So, we thought outside the box … I mean really, who isn’t going to love seeing Porsche, Super3, MARC Cars, Sports Sedans and V8 Touring cars hitting the track together.”

The North Queensland Supersprinters will give local drivers a once in a lifetime opportunity to race on their own street circuit, in front of a live television audience.

“Townsville and its outer community have a number of motorsport enthusiasts and for Supercars to be able to give a number of guys the chance to get racing again around their local street circuit is just awesome,” Cayzer said.

“I’m confident that the people at the track and watching on the TV are going to get the chance to see some pretty cool cars.”

The third category, the ever-popular pocket rocket Hyundai Excels Series, will run on the second weekend of the doubleheader.

Spectators are permitted to attend both weekends, however, all tickets will need to be pre-purchased through Ticketek as gate sales will not be on offer due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The limited tickets are on sale, all kids under 12 are free, a single day ticket will cost $35, while a full four-day (two event) ticket will set you back $110. DM

MA CHAMPIONSHIPS DELAYED TCR AUSTRALIA race winner John Martin will have a new title sponsor on his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type-R TCR, when the 2020 season begins. CarMechanica will be the new naming rights partner on the #24 car for the entirety of the 2020/21 TCR Australia Series, while Mobil 1 also remains on the doors of Martin’s machine. Midway through last month Martin got back behind the wheel of the Wall Racing car at Sydney Motorsport Park, for the first time since February. DM

MULTIPLE WORLD Series Sprintcar champion James McFadden’s defence of his Knoxville Nationals title is in doubt, as he attempts to make a last-ditch attempt to get to the US. The implementation of harsher travel restrictions beyond metropolitan Melbourne has included his Victorian hometown, Warrnambool. And the closure of the Australian borders leading to the limiting of international flights has also added to McFadden’s difficulties. HM

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THE OPENING round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships scheduled to be held on September 5-6 at Sydney Motorsport Park has been postponed, Motorsport Australia has confirmed.

As speculated by Auto Action last edition, the postponement was announced as Victoria’s restrictions increased to Stage 4 and with borders unlikely to reopen until at least October.

Many of the major teams which contribute to the wide array of Shannons Motorsport Australia Championship and Australian Racing Group categories are based within the lockdown zones, and the borders to exit the state remain closed.

Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships director Michael Smith expressed his dismay about the situation, but signalled a restart date of mid-October.

“We are understandably disappointed that we could not get the opening round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships underway in September, however we’ve been working closely with state governments and all our categories and circuit managers

to ensure we can be flexible and adaptable, given the changing COVID-19 circumstances,” Smith said.

“We’re very confident we can maximise the number of rounds held in line with the requests from our categories and the availability of circuits around the country.

“We think an October start date is realistic given the current climate and are working on a number of contingencies to maximise the opportunities for racing in the latter half of 2020.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their support and understanding, including our sponsors, categories, competitors, teams and circuit managers, who have all been terrific

to deal with and very understanding of the fluid situation we’ve been presented with.”

Set to be headlined by ARG categories TCR Australia and the Australian S5000 Championship, CEO Matt Braid said that despite the setback both organisations were working towards producing a strong calendar for the final portion of the year.

“It is disappointing to be in this position, however, it is the reality of the current environment,” said Braid.

“Despite the difficulties, our stakeholders remain positive. Our broadcast partner Network Seven is very supportive, and our competitors and sponsors are understanding of the situation and are all looking

forward to going racing.

“ARG is working closely with Motorsport Australia and remaining focused on establishing a strong calendar for 2020, including a blockbuster Bathurst International event at Mount Panorama in November.”

The move to a mid-October date also confirms the postponement of Sandown, which was expected after SMP’s event was moved to the week before.

The Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships are already scheduled to race at The Bend Motorsport Park, sharing the venue alongside the opening round of the Australian Rally Championship on the same weekend. HM

th Luke West iith wit

AA’s long-time columnist notes a shifting of the GT3 sands

BARGS JUNIOR JOINS TCR WHEN TCR Australia returns, there will be two Bargwannas on the grid as former Bathurst 1000 winner Jason will be joined by son Ben in a second Burson Auto Parts Peugeot 308 TCR. Having previously worked with team Garry Rogers Motorsport on race weekends, it’s a new challenge for Bargwanna junior, who brings experience from Formula Ford and front-wheel-drive through Hyundai Excels.

The original plan was for the father-son team to pair up for the TCR 500 as part of the Bathurst International, but the event will now be a sprint due to the COVID-19.

“It was a real shock for us,” Bargwanna told Auto Action.

“Burson Auto Parts is really excited about the whole thing and with the rounds being changed, we had to sit back and look at the budget. Coming to this point, we had a meeting and came up with the conclusion that this would work out very well having two cars out there for the short series it’s going to be this year.”

Bargwanna subbed for his father in the last session during the TCR Australia test day at Winton in February, and his experience left eager for another drive.

“I was actually doing the tyres for dad on that day and during the last session, Garry came up to me and

told me to kit up,” he explained. “I literally went from doing tyre pressures to putting my gear on as soon as possible!

“It was so eye-opening the first five laps, everything came at me so quick and it was so different.”

It will be a measured approach for Bargwanna when he debuts and he hopes his front-wheel-drive origins can give him an edge over his vastly experienced rivals.

“These guys are professionals, they can step into these things and pick it up really quick,” Bargwanna said.

“It should help, I learnt the basics of it and you can definitely carry it over to this sort of racing, just in controlling the car and understanding what it’s going to do.”

An advantage for Bargwanna is that half the circuits featured on the calendar are new to TCR Australia, including Bathurst.

“It will be for me, plus I have dad as well,” said Bargwanna.

“He’s done many laps around Bathurst and Symmons Plains, but I’m excited to go to Baskerville.

I’ve been watching some onboards and it looks pretty cool.” Heath McAlpine

O’KEEFFE TESTS NEWGEN RENAULT DYLAN O’KEEFFE is at Vukovic Motorsport in Zurich, Switzerland, ahead of a private test of the brandnew Renault Megane RS EVO TCR car, at the Salzburgring in Austria this weekend.

The 22-year-old will try the latest-specification Renault Megane RS EVO TCR, with the car incorporating upgrades to the engine, aerodynamics, suspension and transmission.

The new-spec Megane will be used to represent Renault’s TCR program around the world, including the World TCR Championship and the carsales TCR Australia Series.

Garry Rogers Motorsport will enter two cars in this year’s series for O’Keeffe and Renault Sportsupported driver James Moffat.

O’Keeffe has already undertaken a tour of Vukovic Motorsport’s workshop, which acts as the official homologation squad for Renault’s TCR global efforts.

www.autoaction.com.au

Renault Sport TCR driver Moffat was set to travel overseas for a similar testing experience this year, however, work and family commitments prevented travel and have seen O’Keeffe presented with this opportunity.

“This is a great reward for Dylan who has been working hard at GRM for almost two years,” said Barry Rogers.

“GRM sees a bright future in competing in a international category like TCR. Dylan was part of our Super2 program last year, but like GRM, he has recognising the international potential that the

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TCR program offers.

“This goes a fair way to show that TCR offers an opportunity to aspiring race car drivers to build a career that can be done both locally or internationally.

“In Australia, we’ve all been brought up with Supercars as pretty much the only way to be a professional race driver.

“That was true when brands like Ford and Holden were tipping in big dollars, but now that all of that is over, you need to look further afield than our own backyard. TCR is continuing to prove that there is a genuine career path in place.”

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BMW IS a bunch of teasers. It’s worse than that flirty, unattainable chick – or studmuffin, if that’s your thing – you once fancied.

As AA reported last issue, the M4 GT3, which will replace the company’s M6 GT3 racecar from 2022, undertook a private shakedown in late July at a company facility. Conforming to the new 2022 GT3 ruleset, the M4 GT3 is based off the yet-to-be-launched updated roadgoing model. Hence, the Munich manufacturer released a single shot of the M4 GT3’s rear-end that revealed little of its overall design.

On the surface, it’s simply a teaser shot to hype the roadie and signal to teams that BMW has opened its order book. In actual fact, this car is hugely significant for three racing categories – FIA GT3, DTM and Supercars. Of course, two of these hold a prominent place on the Aussie motorsport landscape.

First up, let’s discuss the new M4’s importance to GT3, the basis for the Australian GT Championship and my favourite local event, the Bathurst 12 Hour. I love the ‘B12’ for the diverse field of exotic sportscars that attack the senses in darkness and daylight. Different sounds. Different shapes. Seeing Ferraris, McLarens, Aston Martins, Lambos, Porsches and the trio of German prestige brands do battle, spiced by tasty Japanese treats, is superb. Okay, so the Bentley Continental is not quite a sportscar, but it is certainly an exoticar.

Likewise the M6.

The point being, GT3 has so far provided a point-of-difference between the February and October Mountain classics, one being for GT sportscars, the other for tourers. But now, a major GT3 player will race a model most associate with touring car racing.

Late last year the FIA World Motor Sport Council approved the 2022 GT3 regulations, which will see, as specialist sportscar news website Sportscar365 put it, “a more liberal use of technical waivers … to continue the diversity in the category. The German marque would have been unable to enter an M4-based car under the current GT3 regs because the road version is based on a four-door production platform.

However, BMW successfully pushed for the rules to be opened up to allow such cars.”

The current M4 is two-door, but there’s speculation the new model will be offered in both two-and four-door versions.

If Audi, which has already announced it will soon end production of its road-going R8 supercar, takes its bitter rival’s lead and moves to, say, a RS 5 Coupe for GT3 racing, a seismic shift in the GT3 class’s philosophy and purpose will take place. I wonder if such cars will turn on the exoticar-focused gentleman racers of the Australian GT Championship and import them?

Now consider that DTM boss Gerhard Berger has indicated that beefed-up GT3 cars are one option for that series moving forward. BMW is the last man standing in DTM for 2021, with Audi pulling out. If DTM takes the GT3-plus route, the convergence of two racing disciplines, GT sportscars and tourers, will be on in earnest. Not happy, Jan! Admittedly, there are lots of ‘ifs, buts and maybes’ in all this, but it’s worth monitoring. Especially for Supercars’ stakeholders. After all, the M4 was one model on Gen3’s hitlist. Can you see BMW permitting a Supercars version of an M4 when it races GT3 examples globally? And sells them via its customer racing business? Neither can I. Nor would it be ideal for M4 models – and similar-sized touring cars generally – to be racing in three of the annual Bathurst enduros – the 12hour, 1000 and 6-hour production car race. An M4 won the 2018 6-hour and finished second last year. Each race should have its own distinct flavour. We live in fascinating times. The sands are shifting especially fast these days.

TWO ISSUES ago, I posed the question: ‘Tell me the downside of a one-off S5000-focused 2020 Australian Grand Prix late in the year?’

I didn’t receive an answer to this question but my idea was well received overall. Many quite reasonably outlined why it couldn’t happen, even if COVID restrictions lifted – fueltank size providing for 30 minutes of racing being the most practical obstacle.

Nonetheless, I sought Motorsport Australia’s thoughts on the possibility of a S5000 Australian Drivers Championship round carrying the AGP title as a one-off, and received this response from a spokesperson.

“The title of the Australian Grand Prix is designated to the Australian Grand Prix Corporation for the promotion of the annual Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. There are no plans for another Australian Grand Prix to occur in 2020.”

At least I got people thinking!

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Images: LAT AFTER ANNOUNCING his retirement from the FIA World Rally Championship at the end of the 2020 season, Sebastien Ogier is set to go back on his words. The six-time champion is to sign a one-year extension with the factory Toyota Gazoo Racing Team, as the Frenchman wants to bid farewell to the championship with a ‘normal’ season unaffected by COVID-19. DM

AFTER THE announcement that the Acura and Team Penske partnership would conclude at the end of the year, as reported by Auto Action last issue, Team Penske president Tim Cindric has advised that its four drivers, reigning DPi series winners Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya, along with teammates Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor, to seek new opportunities outside its DPi program.

In recent days it has come to light that Acura may not leave the IMSA DPi class as first thought, with rumours swirling that the brand will join another team or two for 2021. DM

COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS in Connecticut and New York have forced the IMSA Sportscar Championship to cancel its rounds at Lime Rock Park and Watkins Glen. The Lime Rock round for GT cars only will now take place on the Charlotte Roval, a 100-minute race as support to NASCAR on October 9-10. The 6 Hours at The Glen has simply been replaced by the 6 Hours at Road Atlanta and is scheduled to take place on the same weekend from September 4-6. DM

THE 33rd and final spot in the Indianapolis 500 field has been filled. DragonSpeed will enter its #81 Chevrolet once again in 2020 in a late deal which came together as several parties raised the necessary funds to allow the team to compete in the legendary race. Once again, the car will be driven by Englishman Ben Hanley who impressed as a rookie last year, qualifying 27th. Sadly, he did not see the chequered flag due to a driveshaft failure. DM

A NUMBER of announcements have been made in the lead up to the opening round of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship at Holjes in Sweden set for August 22-23. Sebastian Eriksson Racing, in a one-off appearance last year, took the round win in Sweden and has announced it will return to defend the crown in a Honda Civic in 2020. Hungarian Krisztian Szabo will compete in select rounds driving a third Gronholm RX prepared Hyundai, starting at Sweden. Another WRX announcement is the cancellation of the Abu Dhabi round, which has been canned due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns. DM

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Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

PORSCHE CUP CARS RACE UNDER NORMAL circumstances, owners of current model Porsche Carrera Cup Australia entries are not permitted to enter any other series. But an exemption has been granted to enable competitors to race their cars during the current hiatus in the 2020 Carrera Cup series.

Entrants to have taken up this exemption include Duvashen and Indiran Padayachee, as did Garth Walden Racing, at the last New South Wales state round.

It is also expected many Queenslandbased teams will enter the Townsville Tin

Tops as support to the Supercars event.

A Porsche Cars Australia spokesperson provided the following statement: “Due to the interruptions on the national racing calendar caused by the varying level of COVID-19 restrictions in all states, Porsche Cars Australia has provided car owners of the Porsche 911 Cup Car Gen II a temporary exception to use the vehicle (in its current specification) on other local and state events, while the Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup is not being conducted. The temporary exemption period will continue

MAWSON WORKING ON 2021 SUPERCUP CAMPAIGN

until the Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup events resume and the teams will be notified prior.

“This helps support not only our drivers like Duvashen and Indiran Padayachee in these times give additional exposure to their respective sponsors, but also supports the Carrera Cup teams (like GWR Racing) who prepare those cars.”

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia had planned to restart at Winton in mid-July and hold another round at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend, but both those events were cancelled. HM

AUSTRALIAN JOEY Mawson is working towards being back on the Porsche Supercup grid, after a budget shortfall has seen him sitting on the sidelines in 2020.

A backup plan to race nationally in the Carrera Cup Australia Series came together, however a heavy practice crash around Adelaide’s opening round ruled him out of the weekend and dented his budget to contest the remainder of the season.

Image: LAT Since then Mawson has remained out of the seat but made his aspirations clear that he wants to return to Porsche Supercup in “We tried to pursue that but that offer came literally on the weekend 2021. of Adelaide, so we had already committed to Carrera Cup. “With the fact I did a year already in Supercup it makes sense to “It was a bit of a shame really with the timing because had I had that continue on for a second year, building on experience I gained in offer or knew that seat was available one or two weeks prior, I would 2019,” Mawson told Auto Action. have done it, but that is the way things go sometimes.”

“My ultimate goal is to be a GT driver, with my dream to drive for a It was only last year that the former GP3 driver turned to tin top manufacturer in GT and I think Porsche Supercup is the best platform racing and impressed by achieving a podium finish in front of the tifosi to do that.

“I’m just trying to progress, really work on getting a program sorted in Italy. for next year and be prepared for next year, especially now the year is “I’ll be honest it was very tough and I kind of initially underestimated more than half done.” it (Supercup) a lot. I really had to basically unlearn a lot of the habits I Mawson was offered to drive for Fach Auto Tech in 2020, the team had from single seaters,” Mawson told AA. that reigning Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Series winner Jordan Love “Halfway through the year it finally started to click for me, I started is driving for this season, but due to budget Mawson could not secure learning more how to drive the car and towards the end of the year the drive. results started to pick up.

“I did Carrera Cup as a plan B as I managed to get the budget.

“It was a bit of a dream come true really to get a podium in my Unfortunately I thought the Supercup seats were all full and then I got rookie season. I really didn’t expect that, it was a big deal for me and an offer from Fach Auto Tech who had a seat left,” he explained. definitely gave me a big confidence booster.” DM

with Oscar Piastri

SANDOWN AMRS ROUND POSTPONED

ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED for August 29-30, the return meeting for the Australian Motor Racing Series, set for Sandown, has been postponed.

Due to the Stage 4 restrictions placed on the Melbourne metropolitan area and the border restrictions currently placed on Victoria, AMRS manager Matt Baragwanath confirmed to Auto Action the meeting is rescheduled for November.

“We were holding off as long as we possibly could pre-Stage 4 so even with the restrictions in place, we probably could have delivered it,” Baragwanath explained. “But when Stage 4 came in, it made it impossible.”

It was a disappointing outcome for Baragwanath, as it was to be the debut of the AMRS at Sandown and the first round of the Australian Production Car Series in its new partnership. Plans were already in place to limit the number of people within the venue, if restrictions on crowds were to be eased.

“We were planning a number of things,” said Baragwanath. “We had eight categories committed to the original round, but we were watching how the restrictions unfolded to see what they may have been at the time.

“One option we had was to split the categories in half and run four on each day, limiting the people on site.

Another option was limiting the competitors to a driver and one crew member as well. We’d spoken to our

JAMES DAVISON TO CONTEST 2020 INDY 500

officials groups and told them we were only going to have the bare minimum.”

With the compressed nature of the calendar, the new Sandown date clashes with the traditionally well supported Island Magic meeting at Phillip Island, and is only a week away from the final AMRS round at The Bend Motorsport Park.

“It’s rescheduled to November 27-29 at the moment,” confirmed Baragwanath. “We do have The Bend a week later. Unfortunately how the calendar has fallen it’s back-to-back rounds, but the jury’s out. Things like border control, whether we can get out of Victoria, is going to be the problem.

“A lot of our clients, particularly TA2 and Production Car guys are keen to go to The Bend, so we have to make sure we have the support to cover it.

“I’m absolutely not against running two rounds backto-back if we have the support but if we had to choose, Sandown would be the key one.”

Baragwanath is now focused on the next round for AMRS scheduled for Sydney Motorsport Park on September 25-27, where a variety of local categories will be showcased at the meeting.

“It maybe dropped from a three to a two-day meeting,” explained Baragwanath. “We’ve people connected to Wakefield Park that if I needed to send to SMP I possibly could, and run it for us if we couldn’t get there.”

Heath McAlpine

AMERICAN BASED Australian James Davison will contest the 2020 Indianapolis 500 as well as compete in the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona Double this month.

The cousin of Supercars Championship drivers Will and Alex Davison, James has spent much of his career racing in America.

Image: LAT This year he is set to make his sixth appearance in the Indy 500. been loyal believers in me and have demonstrated that Several weeks ago Davison’s plans appeared to be in a way for which I will forever be grateful, and I am on the ropes, however an alliance between his sponsor Byrd and Rick Ware Racing, has enabling a deal to come excited to be able to now enjoy the support of Rick Ware Racing as well.” together.

It will be a busy month for the Aussie.

As a result Davison will be competing in the legendary After competing in both Cup Series races at Michigan race in the Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing #51 Honda, sponsored by Byrd and Jacob Construction. International Speedway last weekend, Davison will Davison scored his best Indy 500 finish last year, contest two top-tier NASCAR races at Daytona, one on finishing on the lead lap in 12th position, driving for Dale the road course and the other in the Coke Zero 400 on Coyne Racing. the Superspeedway, all for Rick Ware Racing.

“I am overjoyed to be returning to the Indy 500 with Davison will certainly rack up the miles.

Dale Coyne Racing, Rick Ware Racing, BYRD and After racing at Michigan, the Aussie will drive to Belardi,” Davison said.

Indianapolis to contest three days of practice. When “Last year we had a great run qualifying 15th and Qualifying concludes on August 15, he will fly to Daytona finishing 12th in the top half of the field, and we intend to for the NASCAR road course race, before returning to replicate and improve on that.

Indianapolis to compete in the 500. Then he’ll return to “The Byrd family, Brian Belardi, and Dale Coyne have Daytona to contest the Coke Zero 400. DM

BACK-TO-BACK weekends in Silverstone turned into what can only be described as character building with gremlins hurting our results, but we’re still in the hunt for the F3 title!

The first weekend was one of two halves; after a reasonable qualifying effort on Friday and a second place in Saturday’s feature race, I had my first DNF of the year after the DRS actuator locked up on my rear wing.

While qualifying third was reasonable, I was on the pole until the very last lap of the session, but I lost the rear tyres a bit on my HP Tuners PREMA Racing Dallara and over pushed at the end and got beaten for pole.

In Saturday’s race, I had a good battle first with my PREMA teammate Logan Sargeant and, when I got past him, then with Kiwi Liam Lawson for the lead.

My car was mega, and I did everything I could to get past Lawson, even having a scary moment getting airborne over the curbs at Stowe on lap 12, but when the Safety Car appeared and we finished the race under those conditions, that ended that.

I started ninth in Sunday’s reverse-grid race but didn’t start well and got nudged back to 11th. I even went through the gravel at one stage before my DRS got stuck open and made it impossible to finish. My DRS and I seem to have a bit of a relationship issue going on …

While I was disappointed at not finishing, compared to my rivals, it’s all reasonably equal in terms of luck between us, so I couldn’t be too upset.

With the F3 and F2 races finished before lunch, all of the Renault Sport Academy drivers were taken back to the Renault F1 team’s headquarters at Enstone, not far from Silverstone.

Watching from the race shop is a lot different to watching from the back of the garage, as we had a higher flow of information and more in-depth insight into the team’s strategies as the race unfolded, with senior team members on hand to explain why.

It was a very cool experience and one which made me even more hungry to reach my goal of racing in F1.

Back to Silverstone and I was hoping to bounce back this past weekend, but our bad luck continued with electrical gremlins cutting short my practice and qualifying, and stranding me out on the track.

In qualifying, I was only able to get two laps in on the first set of tyres, which was good enough to put me on the front row at that point, but not being able to get a run on the second set was costly and I was bundled back to 11th.

Sargeant won from pole and took his first win of the season to take the championship lead, while I managed to come home seventh after a few good battles – not a bad result considering our issues and with the engine shutting down again on its way to the grid!

Starting fourth on Sunday, I was hoping for a podium but had a slow start and dropped three spots on the first lap.

After a brief Safety Car, I had a good battle with Lawson and tried to go around the outside of him at Club but he kept the foot in, our cars touched, and I was taken off the track and lost a spot to Jake Hughes.

The remainder of the race I tried to find a way past Hughes while also keeping my PREMA teammate Fredrik Vesti behind, finally getting past the HWA car for sixth at the finish.

It wasn’t the greatest race, but we were again able to grab more points, and there’s just one point between Sargeant and me in the title race.

Most importantly, while luck hasn’t been on our side, on all but one occasion we’ve been able to limit the damage and come away with points – points that will be crucial at the end of the championship.

My PREMA Racing team also hasn’t given up and we’re confident they’ve solved the problems for Barcelona this weekend.

I’m enjoying the back-to-backto-back weekends of racing, it’s hectic but the regular seat time is a lot of fun.

Thanks to everyone back home in Australia for your support, I’m hoping to fly the Aussie flag for you all on the podium this weekend.

Cheers, Oscar

Oscar’s next column will appear in AA issue #1794.

AutoAction

13

LATEST NEWS FOR THE first time in history the Indy 500 will be run without fans in attendance, due to the ongoing COVID-19 battle in the United States which has also seen the Indycar calendar reduced in size.

It was announced earlier in the year that the Indy 500 would run with 25 per cent crowd capacity, within the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway facility.

Due to a spike in cases within the state of Indiana, the Penske Corporation (owners of the circuit) announced that its previous position on crowds would be overturned and that no spectators will now be able to attend the 104th running of the legendary race.

“It is with great regret that we announce the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 will take place on August 23 without fans,” the statement read.

“This tough decision was made following careful consideration and extensive consultation with state and city leadership.

“As dedicated as we were to running the race this year with 25 per cent attendance at our large outdoor facility, even with meaningful and careful precautions implemented by the city and state, the COVID-19 trends in Marion County and Indiana have worsened.”

In just over a month, Coronavirus cases have spiralled in the vicinity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Since our June 26 announcement, the number of cases in Marion County has tripled

INDYCAR CALENDAR REVISED, NO FANS FOR 500 Image: LAT

while the positivity rate has doubled,” the statement continued.

“We said from the beginning of the pandemic we would put the health and safety of our community first, and while hosting spectators in a limited capacity with our robust plan in place was appropriate in late June, it is not the right path forward based on the current environment.”

In the last two weeks several IndyCar rounds have had to be called off or postponed because of COVID-19 scenarios.

The race at Portland International Raceway was axed due to Oregon’s restrictions on

crowd gatherings.

The double header at the iconic Laguna Seca venue was also cancelled, due to a spike in Californian COVID cases and the expected introduction of mandatory quarantine.

“The cancellation of both event weekends was a mutual decision between the series and promoters, following close consultation and monitoring of the local situation. The series looks forward to returning to both venues in 2021,” an IndyCar statement read.

As a result of these cancelations MidOhio, Gateway and the Indianapolis Motor

Speedway’s road course were made into double header rounds.

But since that announcement the Mid-Ohio double header due to take place last weekend (August 7-9) was postponed until September or October, the date of which is yet to be determined.

This means that the next round of the series is the Indy 500 on August 23, which will be followed by three double headers at Gateway, Indianapolis and Mid-Ohio (the order of which is yet to be determined), before the series concludes on the streets of St. Petersburg on October 25. Dan McCarthy

NASCAR TEAM MOVEMENTS

TOYOTA TCR CONFIRMED THE MUCH-AWAITED Toyota TCR contender has finally been confirmed, but won’t be built by its Japanese operations.

Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina is believed to be behind the construction of the TCR racer, which will be based on the Corolla sedan.

It’s expected to debut ahead of the maiden TCR South America series next year, created an anticipated 35 pre-entries for the new contest covering six different manufacturers.

“We already have authorization from the parent company to manufacture a sedan,” Daniel Herrero, president of Toyota Argentina, told MundoSport.

“This will generate more work in the country.”

The Corolla sedan is not only being targeted for local racing but is also expected to be available internationally, once development is complete and it debuts in TCR South America next year.

Yokohama previously showcased a concept of a Toyota Corolla hatchback TCR at last year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, and a C-HR appearing in TCRspec was tested at Fuji earlier this year.

Toyota is set to be joined by Subaru with Top Run Motorsport expanding its program into South America. HM

14 AutoAction

Image: LAT

IT HAS been a frantic fortnight in the NASCAR Cup Series, with several driver and team announcements as well as several race procedural changes confirmed.

The driver market has already seen a number of movements and re-signings ahead of the 2021 Cup Series.

Most notably, this fortnight 2012 champion Brad Keselowski announced that he will be remaining with Team Penske for the 2021 season. Keselowski has driven for the squad full-time since 2010 and in that time has taken 32 of his 33 NCS victories.

Elsewhere, front running Toyota outfit Joe Gibbs Racing announced that 24-yearold Erik Jones will leave the team at the end of the current season. After signing a two-year deal with the team in 2018, Jones was offered a one-year extension for this season, however, the team has announced it would not be renewing further.

In his 133 starts to date with the team, Jones has scored just two race victories and has finished no higher than 15th in the series, while his teammates Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. have all been title contenders in each season.

Jones’ becomes the third front running

seat up for grabs next season, along with a replacement for seven-time Cup Series winner Jimmie Johnson needed at Hendrick Motorsports, as well as someone to fill the #42 Chip Ganassi Racing currently being occupied by Matt Kenseth.

Kenseth was brought in to replace Californian Kyle Larson, who was let go by the team after using a racial slur over the radio during a NASCAR e-Series race earlier this year.

Popular single-car Cup Series squad Leavine Family Racing has also announced that 2020 will be its final year in the top-tier NASCAR class.

The squad joined the top-tier NASCAR class in 2011 and has been a full-time entrant since 2016, utilising a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Team owner Bob Leavine confirmed that he has sold the team’s assets and its charter in the NASCAR Cup Series, but will see out the remainder of this season with rookie Christopher Bell in its #95 machine.

“This decision has not been made lightly.

Family has always been a part of the team’s name and this is how we view every member of our race team – as our family,”

Bob Leavine said in a statement.

“There is no good time to make this announcement, but doing it earlier allows our people to explore employment opportunities for next season, to provide for their families.

“There will be opportunities with the new owners, which was important to our decision.”

Two procedural changes have also been made for the remainder of the season.

Firstly the ‘choose rule.’This was trialled during All-Star Race restarts and will be implemented in all Cup Series races, aside from those on superspeedways and road courses.

The rule forces each driver to choose which line they would like to restart the race in, which of can affect the way races play out.

As well as this, the NASCAR Cup Series will utilise a new competition-based performance equation that will be calculated to determine the grid order, rather than the long-traditional random draw.

The equation is calculated based on the last race finishing position, fastest race lap and championship position. DM

Image: LAT

AS THE FIA Formula 3 Championship crept over the halfway point and with ongoing technical issues, Oscar Piastri has fallen behind American teammate Logan Sargeant in the title fight.

The back to back Silverstone rounds proved to be tough for the Australians, who found themselves caught up in several incidents.

After starting from pole in Race 1 of the British GP weekend, Sargeant was overtaken by brave New Zealander Liam Lawson around at the outside at Stowe on the opening lap.

Piastri pulled the same trick on Sargeant on lap 6 and quickly caught up to leader Lawson.

On lap 12 Piastri attempted a move around the outside of the Kiwi, the pair then ran side by side through Stowe, Vale and Club in a thrilling fight for the race lead, but Lawson was able to hold the Aussie off.

Then, two lengthy safety car periods made for an anti-climactic finish and allowed Lawson to take his second win of the season, while Piastri came home in second ahead of Sargeant. Tasmanian Alex Peroni in sixth position.

The inverted top 10 race proved to be a disaster for Piastri. The Victorian had an excursion through the gravel at Luffield on lap 2, but before he could make up lost ground his DRS jammed open, forcing him to retire from the race.

MIXED SUPERCUP FORTUNES

PIASTRI LOSES CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD Peroni crossed the line in fourth and was promoted to third numerous hours later, as the race winner Aleksandr Smolyar received a penalty for a restart infringement dropping him to sixth.

It was a difficult qualifying for three of the four Aussies when they returned to Silverstone a week later. Mechanical issues meant that Piastri failed to take part in the last half of the session, qualifying 11th as a result.

Peroni and Calan Williams found themselves outside the top 10, while Doohan scored his best qualifying result of the year in seventh.

However on lap 2 of the race Doohan damaged his front wing and was forced to

Image: LAT

TWO PORSCHE Supercup rounds at Silverstone could not have been more contrasting for former series leader Kiwi Jaxon Evans, while Aussie Jordan Love ran into trouble.

Round 4 at the British Grand Prix weekend ran smoothly for Evans, who appeared to get his season back on track with his second podium finish of the year.

The former Carrera Cup Australia Series winner was clearly faster than second placed man Max van Splunteren throughout the race.

The New Zealander hassled and hounded the Dutchman, forcing him to defend lap after lap.

Despite his best efforts Evans was unable to find a way past, finishing less than 0.4s behind van Splunteren in third. Out front Larry Ten Voorde breezed to a dominant 11.741s victory.

Behind Evans came Florian Latorre, Jaap van Lagen and championship leader Dylan Pereira, who finished outside of the top two for the first time all season.

Love, the sole Australian, started the race from 15th on the grid, the reigning Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Series winner moving forward and finished 12th.

It was not such a good return for the Anzacs a week later, Evans could only bag an eighthplace finish while Love retired after an opening lap multi-car crash.

After setting two purple sectors in qualifying, a mistake at Turn 15 left Evans in eighth position on the grid.

Again, the Kiwi showed superior pace but failed to move up the field by the time the chequered flag fell.

On lap 1 Love was tapped in the rear on the approach to Luffield, the Fach Auto Tech driver was unable to regain control and spun head on into Moritz Sager, forcing both into instant retirement. DM

www.speco.com.au

make an unscheduled pitstop.

Sargeant took the race win and with it the championship lead, home hero Jake Hughes and Lawson rounded out the podium, while Piastri recovered to finish in seventh.

The final race of the Silverstone double was an inverted top 10 thriller. Despite being shuffled back towards the rear of the top 10 at one stage, Piastri finished sixth.

This allowed him to close back to within one point of teammate Sargeant, who retired after colliding with fellow American Cameron Das. A 14th for Peroni was the best he could do during the weekend.

Doohan finished both races outside of the

top 20, while Williams failed to greet the chequered flag in either race. DM

FIA Formula 3 Championship Points After 5 rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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

106 105 82.5 77 70.5 69 47 42 40 36

MCELREA’S FIRST INDY PRO PODIUM IN THE United States it was a reasonable round for Hunter McElrea and Cameron Shields competing in the open-wheel IndyCar support categories.

After a disastrous opening round at Road America in the Indy Pro 2000 series, New Zealander McElrea fought back at Mid-Ohio to take his first podium in the category.

The 2019 US F2000 runner-up started off the mid-week races with his first top 10 result of the season in eighth position.

In Race 2 McElrea found himself at the back of a mammoth eight car fight for second and when the chequered flag fell he had made his way up to sixth.

In the third and final race McElrea recaptured the form that made him such a threat in last year’s US F2000 Championship.

Starting from seventh McElrea quickly

SUPERIOR ENGINE ENAMELS

marched his way to the front of the field. On lap 12 he made his way past Jacob Loomis and into second.

The Kiwi then began to chomp into Sting Ray Robb’s 2s lead.

McElrea caught the American but with only a couple of laps to go he was unable to snatch the lead.

In the US F2000 Championship, Australian Shields again showed consistent pace with the Toowoomba born driver finishing ninth in the first two races of the weekend.

He looked set to at least replicate that result in the final encounter, but failed to make the start after being hit from behind on the formation lap. DM

LONGER LASTING FLAMEPROOF COATINGS

THE ULTIMATE IN CALIPER PAINTS AutoAction

15

A R T X E S W E N

E V I S U L C EX

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca spoke to select media about the governing body’s restructure. Arocca also revealed the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the organisation and its transition to a digital world, as HEATH McALPINE reports HOW MANY redundancies will occur in this restructure?

“We set up a Recovery Taskforce that was really illuminating for some of the recommendations that were made and have been whole-heartedly accepted by the board. We’re not the only sporting body, company, business, organisation, entity that is doing it tough and needing to make changes to not only adjust to what the current situation is, but also to be better equipped for the future, with whatever that throws at us.

“Part of any redundancy proposal requires you to talk through the options, discuss with the affected staff member and talk through other options so some of the staff that we are talking to will put their hand up for a restructured role. I can tell you it is between 10 and 15 people, which in broad terms is 25 percent of our total staff.

“Why can’t I give you a precise number? Because some of those people will be re-employed, I believe.

I’m hopeful that they will, but we’ve certainly spoken to up to 15 people about the redundancy possibility.

“We employ about 12 people interstate through various state offices and it’s fair to say we won’t keep all 12 people. We’ve looked at some of

16 AutoAction

ACCELERATED RESTRUCTURE

the efficiencies and how we can run state operations more efficiently. The inevitable consequence of that is a number of those 12 are amongst the 10-15 we’re speaking to. Four months ago, we were about to stand down without pay up to 80 per cent of our staff and we were able to manoeuvre through that to the current time with Jobkeeper. That has given us time to reassess what we do, how we do and to that degree a lot of the staff whilst uncertain of what was ahead, were grateful we were able to keep

connected to them over the past four months.

“We’ve heard of other stories where people have just simply been let go. We’re working through compassionate period where we offer coaching and transition training, professional services.”

What will the result of this restructure be to Motorsport Australia’s interstate operations?

“We have six state offices, four of them are standalone or we pay rent

for. In the case of WA, we actually own an office. In two states, we have our staff working out of a state government sports department body, so New South Wales and Queensland we actually have a workstation inside a state sporting association centre.

“Our aim would be to close down the standalone offices where one or two staff are sitting in a space that has been used for meetings, but are no longer required and that alone was making a significant impact on our bottom line. We believe we can continue to service our states without needing to have a public face. I think the time of public engagement where people walk through the door – at least for the next 6-12 months – to engage with someone, is going to be less and less.

“Our state councils have said that Zoom has been a revelation, that more clubs, more delegates have been able to get to meetings because they don’t have to drive 300km to get to an office and they have embraced the technology. They have recognised trying to cram 40 people into a 20-person space isn’t ideal, anyway.

We’re talking about the physical offices as opposed to employees in those states, but what I can tell you is we’re not going to have 12-people,

six of those were doing basic admin tasks.

“We’re going to bring a lot of the those in-house to the National office.

We won’t have six-people working part-time preparing minutes or papers, so I think we’ve got a way forward that is more efficient, relies more on technology, we’re going to reduce the manual handling. One of the subtexts and the restructure is we’re actually going to invest in IT. We certainly believe in the next six months we’re going to see some exciting new technological opportunities for our members. The flipside of that is we’re going to reduce a lot of the manual handling processes that have been weighing us down, and remove a lot of the red tape that is meaning that some staff are tied to a desk reviewing documents, rather than getting out and about in the industry.”

Has this period allowed Motorsport Australia to implement plans sooner?

“We actually had our strategic plan in place and part of that plan was to rationalise and improve on our structure. Motorsport Australia – previously CAMS – is a product of many, many years of bolt-ons.

If someone thought it was a good idea at a certain point in time, we would just do it and what we have created is some 75 different bodies or entities within our structure with over 500 volunteers, who have a say in governance. That is an extraordinary number. You wouldn’t get that at the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and we had made the decision last year to start to review the over governance of the organisation by external parties, so we had it in our mind to do it in the next year or two. But what the crisis has done is allowed us to bring forward a lot of our planning.

“With the IT, we certainly planned on bringing in digital cards, less interaction with paperwork over the next two years, so we’re going to accelerate that. We’ve already introduced our online entry system which has been outstandingly

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti Motorspoprt Australia is undergoing a significant structure that will simplify many processes for competitors, taking a lot of it on line.

received. We have planned changes, but we have been prompted by what’s happened to move quicker, because of the cost of administering what can be seen as a historic and cumbersome structure was becoming significant. It showed up an opportunity to save money and be nimbler.”

Has Motorsport Australia implemented a strategy to aid competitors with mental health issues during the hiatus?

“We have focused very heavily on the mental health of our staff, for whom we are more directly responsible as employees, both under legislation, and morally and ethically.

We’ve done a lot of work to ensure our 50-odd employees and the wider range bubble of our volunteer people who assist in our governance, are being reached out to.

“I haven’t heard of that issue is a wider motor sport community. What we had was a lot members holding

off renewing their licences, which is an obviously reaction when you’re not able to race. What we’ve heard is a lot of people are keen to get going, but I have not heard of anyone being really impacted about not being able to go racing. If anyone was to be real impacted, it would be the professional drivers, who rely on motor sport for an income.

“My experience from talking to members is that there are bigger issues on their plate at the moment for many of them, and their health is paramount.

“If it did come across my desk we would certainly look to provide a service. We have a service for our staff, which is bespoke and allows them to call a professional outsourcing facility. We would make that available to officials if we felt it was needed, and if anyone else contacted me personally and felt they needed assistance, we’d certainly look at.

“We are also supported by a

wonderful structure of Chaplains.

No matter what your religious background is these wonderful people, particularly in motor sport, are on the ground regularly giving support and counselling.”

What happens with licencing in Victoria as racing hasn’t restarted and appears to be delayed further?

“Under the scheme that we introduced, everyone gets a threemonth opportunity to extend their licence so that if anyone came up for a renewal in July, they don’t have to renew it until September. We created a ‘pre-extension’ that essentially allows another three-months of non-racing for competitors.

“At this stage, we haven’t considered doing anything further and we haven’t been approached by anybody. At the moment the opportunity we’ve provided to hold off renewal by threemonths, giving them a 15-month licence, is working and obviously we’ll continue to review that.”

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LATEST NEWS

IN THE United States, Australian Joshua Car has continued his solid form in the Formula Regional Americas Championship. At Barber Motorsport Park the Australian was unable to recapture the scintillating speed he demonstrated a round prior, but he did secure three top 10 finishes. After qualifying third, Car finished the three races in fifth, sixth and 10th respectively to sit fourth in the standings.

F1 AIMING TO RETURN TO AUSTRALIA IN MARCH IN THE United Kingdom Bart Horsten made the step up from the Formula 4 Championship into F3 for this season and kicked things off with a podium in the opening round of season at Oulton Park. On the warm up lap before Race,1, the West Australian was stuck in first gear and had to charge from the back to salvage a 13th place finish. In the reverse grid race Horsten started third and finished third, then backed up to finish fifth place in the third race. The fourth and final affair was challenging for Horsten after a suspension failure sent him into the tyre barrier.

CHRISTIAN MANSELL has made an impressive debut in the British Formula 4 Championship, The Australian completed a round at Donington Park and was followed a week later by an event at Brands Hatch. Since he finished 12th in his debut race, Mansell has not finished outside the top seven and was highlighted by a reverse grid race victory at Brands Hatch. All this means that Mansell holds a comfortable first position in the rookie standings and an impressive fifth overall.

COMPETING IN the Spa-Francorchamps 4 Hours, the second round of the European Le Mans Series Australian James Allen secured a secondplace finish outright. Driving the Graff Oreca 07 alongside Frenchman Alexandre Cougnaud and Thomas Laurent the trio finished finished 58.1s behind the race winners Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson. As the rain began to worsen in the closing stages the Graff car remained in second holding off the Panis Racing machine by 2.9s.

IT WAS an eventful second round for Australian Jake Parsons and his Japanese teammate Ryo Michigami in Super GT 300 category. The pair in their Honda NSX GT3 Evo finished eighth in the opening round of the season at Fuji Speedway and improved on that to finish seventh when they returned last weekend.

WHILE THE final races in the vastly modified 2020 calendar have yet to be revealed, Formula 1 is already well into creating its 2021 race schedule. And that schedule – including the Australian Grand Prix in March – should be quite similar to the original 2020 calendar before COVID-19 changed things.

“We’ve actually got our calendar pretty well set,” Formula 1’s CEO Chase Carey said in a conference call. “We haven’t announced 2021 just because of the focus on 2020. We are close to finalising 2021, but have a couple of agreements to complete.”

“We are planning a 2021 season that looks pretty much like what we would have expected it to look like at the beginning of this year,” he added. “Obviously we qualify that with: We don’t have better visibility than anyone else with the

virus, and what it will look like going forward.

“We have to realise we’re about five months into the virus, and our (2021) season March is still seven months away. There’s a long time and conversations about vaccines and treatments, testing, and the likes to continue to evolve.”

Having to deal with 22 different countries creates its own set of challenges to stage races, but the plan is to start with Australia in March and end with Abu Dhabi in November.

“We may make it so there’s a little more space at the front end of the calendar and second half is a little busier,” Carey said. “So we’ve got a little more flexibility built into it. But I think that’s probably a tweak to it, not a real restructuring.”

“Clearly as this goes along we’ll know more,” Carey said, “and there’s always the possibility

we’ll make some adjustment as we go forward.”

Formula 1 is planning to learn from how other sports do when they allow fans to attend their events.

“We do have the benefit of a lot of things that will be in front of us as templates around the world,” Carey said.

Some fans might be able to attend the Grand Prix Della Toscana Ferrari 1000, which will be held at Italy’s Mugello circuit September 11 – 13.

“The first race we think there is a potential for a very small number of fans is probably Mugello,” Carey said. “At races in the later part of the schedule we hope to have fans – as many as possible. In some places the governments want to get a bit closer to the date to determine what the situation is.” Dan Knutson

NO FANS FOR LE MANS 24 HOUR FOR THE first time in history, the Le Mans 24 Hours will take place without fans due to a rise of COVID-19 cases within France in recent weeks.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the Prefecture of Sarthe consulted with various health organisations, but arrived at the conclusion that to run a safe event, it must be spectatorless.

“This 88th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be truly special. In this singular context, the biggest endurance race in the world will take place, but unfortunately without an audience,” said the president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Pierre Fillon.

The ACO and FIA prioritise the safety of competitors, partners and spectators, and felt that running the race on September 1920 would have jeopardised these principles.

The decision to stop spectators from attending the event was unanimously agreed on by all parties involved with the Le Mans 24 Hours.

At one stage the event was set to go ahead with a limited number of fans, but due to the current COVID-19 situation in

France it was no longer viable.

Solutions were investigated but, in the end, organisers felt running it with no fans was the only option for several reasons.

One due to the international nature of the event and another due to its weeklong ‘festival’ vibe.

“During the last few weeks, we have been thinking about many options to share our ordeal with our fans, even in small numbers, on site next September,” Fillon said.

“However, the reception conditions specific to our event, a real popular festival lasting several days, made us opt with the Prefecture, for the organisation of our 24 Hours, without an audience this year.

“There are still too many uncertainties

for our festival race, but we don’t want to compromise on safety. Even though the consequences of this decision are sad for our fans and for us, the decision was not difficult to make because we do not want to take any risks.”

Organisers promised that the ACO will provide fans globally with superb race coverage, as well as a digital platform to watch and discover things from behind the scenes of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“Rest assured, they will not be able to come to Le Mans this year, but our event will come to them. Our teams and our media partners will be active relays. We know we can count on the understanding of all,” Fillon concluded. Dan McCarthy

DAY TO FORGET FOR RICCIARDO THE 70TH Anniversary Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone was a day to forget for Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

After qualifying fifth for the race, the Renault driver was hopefully of a good result and in the fight with the two Racing Point’s just outside the podium positions early in the race.

However, Ricciardo’s race took a turn after his first pitstop. A spin and an unplanned third pitstop saw him tumbling

down the order to finish 14th, a lap off the pace of the leaders.

“Just one of those days which you just kinda want to forget, and put away.” explained Ricciardo after the race.

“It seemed like it started ok, we were hanging in there with the medium, but then after the stop, we put another medium on and that set of mediums didn’t work.”

“Soon enough we were back in the pits

for the hard and we lost a lot of track position with that so we were in a fight.

And then trying to defend Carlos (Sainz) I lost the rear of the car and that was our race really.”

“It progressively got away from us.”

“One that you just want to put your head down and go home.”

“But, look the best thing we can do now is understand what we can do better.”

By contrast, his teammate Esteban Ocon

had a respectable weekend finishing 8th after starting 14th on the grid and was in the same battle pack as Ricciardo before he spun.

The Australian currently sits ninth just ahead of Ocon in this year’s Formula 1 World Championship Championship standings.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya host the next Formula 1 round, this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix (August 14-16). RV

ADELAIDE STREET CIRCUIT COVID TEST CENTRE THE VICTORIA Park section of the Adelaide Street Circuit, more specifically the pitlane, has become a new drive through COVID-19 testing clinic in South Australia.

The ribbon of tarmac off Wakefield Road opened last week for Coronavirus testing in a bid to ease the pressure off Adelaide city hospitals.

Due to its location just a couple of kilometres outside of the Adelaide CBD, the famous piece of bitumen became an ideal location to set up a drive through testing facility.

On the first day of opening thousands of South Australians visited the new testing centre with all visitors told to expect at least a one-hour delay.

The Victoria Park testing facility clinic unlike several hospitals within the state does not require a GP referral, hence the large queues back out onto the main road.

The Victoria Park circuit is utilised less than a handful of times each year, for the Adelaide 500, a few rounds of the pedal powered Australian HPV Super Series events and occasional other one-off

sporting events.

Currently in South Australia testing numbers have drastically risen due to several positive COVID-19 cases within the past fortnight, all originating from international and interstate travellers.

The worry remains for locals that a second wave just like what has occurred in Victoria may transpire. DM

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LATEST NEWS

CHARGED UP NEW SUPPORT FOR PERCAT STRONG FORM from Brad Jones Racing has been rewarded with R&J Batteries taking naming rights sponsorship of Nick Percat’s Holden Commodore for the rest of the 2020 season.

Percat has been the form man of the Supercars Championship after adding

two

wins since Supercars restarted in June and currently sits fourth in the points.

“BJR have a tremendous track record in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. The chance to extend our relationship with Brad, Nick and the team is one we have jumped at,” said Stuart Hamilton, CEO of R&J Batteries.

“We are proud to be taking on naming rights for Nick’s #8 car.”

Since Percat joined BJR at the beginning of the 2017 Supercars season, he has not had a

regular naming rights backer, although Dunlop filled the role for the previous two rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Percat acknowledges the importance of gaining support in what is a difficult time.

“I’m stoked to have R&J Batteries on the car,” said Percat.

It’s always fun having a new livery each round but to get the backing and support locked away for the remainder of the year feels great, especially during this difficult time. I’ve had a great restart to the season and I’m looking to

continue these results.

“Currently sitting fourth in the championship is a great result and everyone at BJR has stepped it up and we’ve been working really hard lately so I’m looking forward to what we can all achieve.”

R&J Batteries have previously supported Super2 race winner Tyler Everingham.

BJR and Percat also welcome support from Kubota for this weekend. HM

SECOND DARWIN DATE REVEALED THE SUPERCARS Championship has announced that the concluding round of the Darwin double-header will take place on August 22-23.

Despite speculation that a mid-week event was on the cards, Supercars has confirmed that the Darwin SuperSprint will take place one week after the Triple Crown.

It was confirmed several weeks ago that the Hidden Valley venue in the Northern Territory was to hold two rounds of the Supercars Championship back-to-back for the first time.

Like the Triple Crown, Supercars has elected to simply push the event back one week.

All teams have arrived at the venue safely as Northern Territory major events company CEO Tim Watsford is eager to watch the racing this weekend “The drivers and teams are all here, and

all raring to go. These events will be unique in the history of Supercars in Darwin,” Watsford said.

“We will definitely see someone lift the Darwin Triple Crown on 16 August, due to a change in format, and we have an entire second weekend of racing to look forward to.

“It’s been quite a journey to get here due to the many challenges thrown up by COVID-19.

“Excitement is now building, and you can get into the spirit by turning out for

the Supercars Transporter Convoy this Thursday.”

Supercars CEO Sean Seamer is grateful to the Northern Territory for working with the category to lock in the new dates.

“We’d like to thank the Northern Territory Government for working closely with Supercars and broadcasters to secure these new dates for the Darwin SuperSprint.

“Supercars would also like to thank drivers, officials, team personnel and their families for their continued support of this year’s Championship during these times.”

Currently the Townsville Street Circuit in Northern Queensland is set to host backto-back rounds on August 29-30 and September 5-6.

If things stay that way, the Supercars Championship will run four race meetings on four straight weekends.

This also contains a tight five day turnaround where teams will need to travel from Darwin to Townsville.

Tickets for both Darwin events can only be purchased online and are strictly limited. DM

with Dan Knutson

Images: LAT

ALL FOUR Formula 1 2020 races in the Americas – Canada, U.S, Mexico and Brazil – have been cancelled due to COVID-19, and instead three more races in Europe have been added. There are now 13 confirmed races. The new additions are in Portugal, Italy and Germany. On October 11 the Nurburgring will host the Grosser Preis der Eifel. The Portuguese Grand Prix will be at Portimao on October 25 and then a shortened two-day weekend, the Gran Premio Dell’Emilia Romanga at Imola on November 1. Formula 1 expects to have 15 to 18 races, with the season-ending in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in December. DK

THE ROUND at Imola will run a shortened two-day weekend, as a result drivers will be challenged with limited practice ahead of Sunday’s race. Saturday’s action will contain a solitary 90-minute practice session before the usual three segment elimination qualifying. The race at Imola will be the first Grand Prix at the Italian venue since 2006. DM

THE LEGENDARY Gulf Oil name made a return to Formula 1 after signing a new partnership with McLaren ahead of the two Formula 1 races at Silverstone. The two companies have a history of working together in F1 and Can-Am racing in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s and Le Mans in the ‘90s. The new pairing saw Gulf become the lubricant supplier to McLaren Automotive’s road car range from 2021, with its branding appearing on the McLaren F1 car’s engine cover and wing mirrors. DM

RED BULL Racing has recalled Simon Rennie from the factory to a trackside role as Alex Albon’s race engineer. His role is to find a more consistent and comfortable car setup for the Thai driver. Rennie has worked in Formula 1 since 2004 and is no stranger to a race engineering role, having been Mark Webber’s engineer in 2013 and Daniel Ricciardo’s from 20142018. When Ricciardo left the team at the end of 2018 Rennie opted to move to a non-travelling role within the team. DM

FORMER FORMULA 1 driver Alex Zanardi’s condition is stable following the latest medical intervention. The Italian was involved in a handbike accident, resulting in a serious head injury. Zanardi had been moved to a specialist rehabilitation centre, however, his condition became unstable and he was rushed back to hospital near Milan. Following a delicate neurosurgical procedure his condition has now stabilised. DM

18 AutoAction

POINTED PROTESTS JUST ABOUT everybody, it seems, is upset when it comes to the results of the protest against Racing Point’s rear brake ducts.

Renault filed three separate protests against the Racing Point RP20, and the stewards eventually concluded “that the principal designer of the RP20 RBDs (rear brake ducts) was Mercedes, not Racing Point.”

Racing Point was fined 400,000 euros ($658,650) and docked 15 constructors’ points. However, the team will be allowed to continue to use the ducts.

“It would be very unreasonable to expect Racing Point to forget their knowledge and to design again from a clean sheet of paper from scratch, because designs never work that way,” said Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s head of single-seater technical matters. “They always start with existing knowledge, so somehow to expect them to do something completely different would be very unreasonable. It would also be very difficult for us to ascertain whether something is sufficiently different or not, so that would be quite an unreasonable expectation.”

The stewards’ ruling upset a lot of teams.

Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and Williams all announced their intention to appeal the decision because they think that Racing Point got off too lightly, and that its drivers should have lost points as well.

“It’s thrown up a lot more questions than

Image: LAT

answers,” McLaren team boss Zak Brown said.

And Racing Point announced that it would appeal because it believes it is innocent.

“They are wrong in that assessment,” Racing Point’s team principal Otmar Szafnauer said, referring to the stewards saying that his team copied the Mercedes brake ducts, said. “We have 886 unique drawings for these brake ducts, and the regulations say they have to be your design. We designed the whole thing ourselves. We have done absolutely nothing wrong.”

Brake ducts are “listed parts” in 2020 – which means that the teams must design and build them, and they cannot buy them from another team. But they were not on the list in 2019.

Rival teams are certainly bitter because they

feel that Racing Point pushed the boundaries by copying the design of the 2019 Mercedes.

But the FIA examined the entire new car back in March and gave Racing Point a letter saying that it was legal.

“I don’t think this is about brake ducts because when we do go to the court of appeal, that will be a small bit of it,” Szafnauer said. “The real conundrum is that people are looking at our car and saying ‘you copied the Mercedes’ or ‘you have copied more than we would have copied.’ Well unfortunately, copying is what F1 is completely based on.”

There are plenty of disgruntled people in the paddock at the moment. The lawyers, meanwhile, are happily anticipating the fat fees they will collect.

CONCORDE DISCORD ONE OF the goals Liberty Media has had since it took over the commercial side of Formula 1 in 2017 was to create a more equitable distribution of the prize fund between the teams.

And the opportunity to do that comes with the new Concorde Agreement that will replace the current one that expires at the end of the year.

The document, signed by all 10 teams, the FIA and the commercial rights holder Liberty aka Formula 1, lays out the rules on how the sport and business of F1 are operated. And that includes how F1’s commercial income is distributed to the teams. But Mercedes is unhappy with the deal on offer.

“We from Mercedes made it very clear that we are happy with a more equitable split of the prize fund,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said.

“We are I would say the biggest victim in terms of prize fund loss in all of that. Ferrari has maintained an advantageous position. For Red Bull it balances out with AlphaTauri.”

As F1’s most historic team Ferrari gets a five per cent cut off the top of the overall F1 commercial income. That came to a cool US$67 million – paid this year and based on last year’s profits. Not only did Ferrari negotiate with Liberty to keep that payment in the new Concorde Agreement, the Scuderia also kept its exclusive right to veto certain rule changes.

Part of the team payments are based on their positions in the contractors’ championship. But such are the bonuses given to Ferrari that it could finish seventh in the standings and still get paid more than Mercedes if it finished first!

Image: LAT Wolff believes Mercedes has and is contributing a great deal to F1 and is being dealt with unfairly.

“In those negotiations we weren’t treated in the way we should have been,” he said. “Therefore there are a bunch of open topics for us that are

Image: LAT

legal, commercial and sporting, and in our point of view I don’t feel ready to sign a Concorde Agreement.”

Asked how close Mercedes was to signing, Wolff replied: “That depends on the other side. If you are willing to sit at a table, address the critical topics, discuss them, come to a compromise outcome, then I think it can go pretty fast. But I haven’t seen that approach.”

The “other side” issued a curt statement saying that the signing deadline was August 12.

“Formula 1 has engaged with all teams in a collaborative and constructive way and listened to all their views,” the statement said. “This agreement is important for the future of the sport and all our fans. We are moving forward with this and will not be delayed any longer.”

While the other nine teams are ready to sign, or doing some fine-tuning negotiations, Mercedes had lot of wheeling and dealing to do in just a few days. ”

HIGH SPEED WEAKNESS Image: LAT

WHILE THE constructors’ points table might not reflect it, the fact is that the Renault R.S.20 is noticeably more competitive than last year’s model.

“We certainly have improved,” Perth native Daniel Ricciardo confirmed after finishing fourth in the British Grand Prix.

The biggest improvement has been with the traction out of corners. Ricciardo says that he can get on the power earlier, and that the car squats down in the rear and feels more planted compared to last year.

“That is in the low- and medium-speed corners,” he said. “I still feel there is a bit to gain in the highspeed. We see that more on one lap in qualifying.”

In some of Silverstone’s fast sweeping corners, for example, the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers were comfortably at full throttle while Ricciardo and his

teammate Esteban Ocon were more on the edge.

“How much more can we keep going and getting more lap time out of it?” Riccardo said of the car. “I am probably not the guy to ask. It has been good but I would put some emphasis on high-speed, and if we can get that, we really have a lot of potential.”

Like most teams, Renault brought upgrades for its cars for the two rounds of races in Britain.

“That definitely helps,” Ocon said. “We are still analysing them and seeing how much of a gain it is. It definitely feels better than how it was in Budapest. It is a step ahead. We need to extract a little bit more from it in qualifying. Since the beginning of the year the race pace has been good because we’re always pushing the cars in front. So we need to qualify a bit better now.”

Besides that high-speed corner woes, what are

the problems with the car in qualifying?

“If I had the answer I would tell you straight away!”

Ocon said. “It is a combination of many things. It could be tyre preparation or car set-up. It comes with a combination of all those small details. Once you go into the race it is more about pure car pace and how the car treats your tyres. Our car seems to treat the tyres very well in the race.

“I was very confident at the wheel (during the British GP). It was very nice to drive with a very nice flow. Even following the cars very closely I was managing to make some moves. So the car is very healthy in the race. It is a little bit trickier in qualifying. So that is the next step to get on top of.”

And it is an important step because Ricciardo and Ocon definitely have had extra work this season by not qualifying as high up as their rivals.

CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY

TWO THINGS have been consistent ever since Nico Rosberg won the world championship with Mercedes in 2016, and then surprised everybody by announcing his retirement: 1) Mercedes has signed Valtteri Bottas on a series of one-year contracts and 2) Bottas has consistently done a superb job as teammate to Lewis Hamilton.

So it comes as no surprise, especially in these strange and uncertain times, that Mercedes renewed the Bottas contract for 2021.

“For sure it’s nice to know what I will do next year,” Bottas said. “I wasn’t stressed about it, in any case, but it’s just that when it’s done it’s good because I can focus on the racing – that’s a good thing.”

Bottas repeatedly said that he wanted to sort his future quickly, to avoid dragging things on like last year, so would he say things went a lot smoother this year?

“Everything went pretty smoothly this time,” the Finn affirmed, “but obviously we’re having special circumstances this year. We had basically agreed, before we knew how this season was going to be, that we’d hopefully something done by June. But we hadn’t even started racing before June, so we said: ‘Let’s focus on the first few races and then eventually speak.’

“There was nothing that tricky; we actually agreed on things pretty easy, and there was no outside distraction either. So it was good. It definitively didn’t change my performance – in those first few races it was definitively not in my mind, so it was how it should be done.”

Image: LAT

Do the contracts change a lot from one year to the next?

“Not really, for me at least,” Bottas said. “For me it was pretty much copy-paste for many things.

Obviously, there were some things you might want to discuss but everything was very much straightforward. It was more work for the lawyers, to the people having to do the paperwork, as for me it was just putting my signature to it, so it was easy.”

All in all, it makes sense for Mercedes to

consistently keep Bottas in the team. He is the perfect teammate with Lewis Hamilton – they get along and work together well.

“I’m confident that we have the strongest driver pairing in F1 today and signing Valtteri is an important first step in retaining this strength for the future,” said team boss Toto Wolff.

“Valtteri is a hard-working, straightforward guy who has a good relationship with the entire team including his team-mate, which is not a given when both drivers are fighting for the championship.”

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F1 INSIDER

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

Image: LAT

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

with Dan Knutson

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

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20 AutoAction

Image: LAT

DON’T PANIC is a phrase on the cover of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” book.

It also describes how the Racing Point team and Formula 1 as a whole reacted to the news that Sergio Pérez had tested positive for COVID-19, in the days leading up to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The race weekend went ahead as planned, and Racing Point – minus Pérez who was in isolation – took part.

This was in stark contrast to the events leading up to the cancelation of the Australian Grand Prix, back in March. All it took was one McLaren team member testing positive (about a dozen more team members showed symptoms but did not have the virus) for McLaren to decide to withdraw from the event on Thursday night.

And that triggered the final moves for the entire weekend to be called off on Friday morning.

There was a lot of

confusion in Melbourne and Albert Park – both about how to handle the race weekend itself and overall about the coronavirus. Had people known then what they know now and been able to implement procedures – which of course is impossible because F1 and the entire world has been on a steep learning curve these past months – the Australian Grand Prix could have gone ahead as the first race of the 2020 season.

The strict rules and protocols agreed on since then and put into place by the FIA, Formula 1, the teams and the circuits, to keep COVID-19 at bay are working.

Well over 12,000 tests have been given to people entering the track. Not one person tested positive during the two races in Austria, and two people tested positive in Hungary. Pérez, in Britain, was only the third.

There was no panic. The people in his ‘bubble’ all tested negative. And the race weekend went on as scheduled.

The situation did, however, reveal a flaw in the Reserve Driver situation for Racing Point and Mercedes. They share two test/reserve drivers: Esteban Gutiérrez and Stoffel Vandoorne.

So when Racing Point suddenly needed a reserve driver to replace Pérez, why did the team decide on Nico Hülkenberg?

Vandoorne was committed to racing for Mercedes in Formula E that weekend, but Gutiérrez was free to race – except that the regulations say that he was not.

“I think Esteban would have been a really strong candidate for the seat, but unfortunately he didn’t qualify,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed.

“There is a new rule for this year that says if you haven’t raced in an F1 car in an official event for the last three years, then you have to have done a test for 300km.”

Gutiérrez, who has 59 F1 starts, last raced in F1 in 2016 with Haas. Hülkenberg, of course, raced for Renault in F1 last year as teammate to Aussie Daniel Ricciardo.

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Mercedes did not pay much attention when that new rule came into effect this year, because it believed an experienced F1 driver like Gutiérrez would still be qualified to jump in the car and race it. But the FIA thought otherwise. So Hülkenberg rather than Gutiérrez replaced Pérez.

“I hope it is never necessary that we need a Reserve Driver,” Wolff said, “but as it looks we need to come up with another solution.”

Finding another solution, at least as far as Gutiérrez is concerned, will be difficult.

With testing now so limited – there were only six days of pre-season testing this year – the team’s two race drivers want as much time in the car as possible. To give Gutiérrez 300km of testing – the same as a grand prix distance – would cost almost half a day.

Everyone in F1 has indeed planned well on how to go racing in these difficult times, but the Gutiérrez situation shows that some details still need to be worked out.

Darwin Supercars; Part 2 Jim Richards Living Legends; Alan Jones Dutch Grand Prix; Latest Supercars news; Spanish Grand Prix; Latest F1 news; Cost of Racing - Toyota 86 & much more

THE FOGES FILE AA’s penned-in pundit worries about the effect social discord is having on the chances of one of our icon sporting HERE BEGINNETH the lecture. If you are not social distancing, wearing a mask or staying home, you are risking everything.

Motor racing, much less life, will not return to anywhere near ‘normal’ until everyone abides by the rules – or just take sensible precautions.

Melbourne’s draconian Stage 4 lockdown is a salutary lesson for the whole nation. Get it wrong and we all go into isolation.

Resistance, in this case, is futile. To control the coronavirus, we have to take precautions. It’s not going to go away until our interactions change – perhaps forever.

This is not about freedom or rights. It’s about protecting each other.

Living in Melbourne has become a stricture. Until mid-September, we’re stuck mainly at home. For the few reasons we can go out, wearing a mask is obligatory.

Like social distancing, it’s not so hard.

Tough out the next month and we may go back to Stage 2, which allows some social interaction.

But it is going to be a long, long time before life – and therefore racing – returns to our casual pre-COVID-19 existence. If ever.

The constraints and limitations will continue for years. International air travel may never again be routine.

We’re all facing a very different, restricted way of life. Racing will be low on the list of priorities.

Current uncertainties are threatening the Bathurst 1000, which is as iconic as the Melbourne Cup or AFL Grand Final.

Neither is in jeopardy amid the COVID crisis, but Bathurst is. More of that later. The bigger issue is the wider challenge to our lifestyle, of which racing is a microcosm.

Supercars and F1, plus IndyCar and NASCAR, may survive under on-going restrictions. It will be a long time before big

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with Mark Fogarty

Image: LAT

crowds are allowed to return. If ever.

Which is why all us must follow the rules.

Until the incidence of COVID-19 declines to near-zero, we’re struck with not doing what we like.

I’m anti-authoritarian. Have been all my life. Freedom of speech and movement have been tenets of my existence.

But the basic health protocols to ward off the coronavirus make sense – and aren’t difficult to follow. Wear a mask, keep your distance, forget big gatherings.

Motor racing – in fact, any big sport – is low on the list of societal priorities. Getting the country and the world back to economic viability is the imperative.

The longer this pandemic lingers, the more economic victims there will be. Potentially, far more than will be claimed by the disease itself.

This is beyond living memory – and, arguably, the effect will be worse than the Spanish flu, two world wars and the Great Depression. The GFC doesn’t come close.

Motor sport has adapted admirably to COVID-19. F1 and Supercars, to name just two examples, have instituted health protocols and adjusted their calendars to contain coronavirus.

Non-pro racing around the world is

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haemorrhaging. Which is why if we don’t all act responsibly, we’ll kill the foundation of our passion. The longer this goes on, the less likely amateur racing will return.

Many rich people will shrug off this crisis.

But the coming economic catastrophe will wipe out the ordinary weekend racers. It will also claim some notable professional teams.

I resent the virtual martial law conditions under which Melbournians are living. It is contrary to open democracy.

But, for the moment, it is necessary. As long as there is an end in sight.

Like most small businesses, Auto Action is struggling under these conditions. We plough on within the rules, barred from race meetings and forced to interact by phone or video calls.

We make it work because there is no alternative, but it is unsatisfactory, especially for someone like me who thrives on face-toface contact.

But we manage because arresting COVID-19 is fundamental to our future.

I will rage against intrusive authority and social iniquities, but defeating the coronavirus transcends individual rights.

For all its faults, Supercars’ efforts to keep racing safely and effectively have been exemplary. I still wonder how it and the

teams will survive financially, but they are all doing their best to remain relevant and visible.

I’d argue Supercars and Motorsport Australia have done a better job of adapting to the volatile COVID world than the AFL or NRL, which are much more transportable.

As long as we get to run the Bathurst 1000 – our Grand Final – all will be well for next year and beyond. However, Bathurst is much more vulnerable to border restrictions because unlike the GFs, it cannot be moved.

An AFL Grand Final at the Gabba in Brisbane or Optus Stadium in Perth is possible – and palatable – under the circumstances. Its home is the MCG, but in these strange times, an interstate alternative is necessary.

Unfortunately, Bathurst is Bathurst. There is no alternative to Mount Panorama for our greatest race. It’s either there or nowhere.

Now we wait to see if a Bathurst 1000 can go ahead amid the uncertainties and restrictions that prevail.

All the signs are it will happen in a limited form, but there are many threats to overcome.

Let’s fervently hope so because a year without The Great Race may never be recoverable.

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IMAGES: LAT/Ross Gibb

Will Davison expected to challenge for the 2020 Supercars Championship, instead he lost his drive. In this exclusive interview he reflects on the past and explains his plan to return full-time in 2021.

WHEN 23RED Racing confirmed it was withdrawing from the Supercars championship in May, Will Davison found himself without a drive in Australia’s foremost motor racing category for the first time in 15 years.

The two-time Bathurst winner has been a constant on the grid since he joined Dick Johnson Racing in 2006.

The 37-year old’s career has had its highs and its lows, but 2020 looked like it was shaping to be one of his best, an expectation shared by team owner Phil Munday.

But COVID-19 struck and naming rights sponsor Milwaukee Tools had to withdraw from its deal, leaving Munday no choice but to exit as well. With the help of long-time sponsor Boost Mobile, James Courtney swooped in to take the seat in the fourth Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT. At the time Davison issued a brief statement on social media, but then withdrew from public commentary. Until now.

In this Auto Action exclusive Davison reveals to BRUCE NEWTON the high hopes he held for the 2020 championship, how he reacted to the news of the closure, how he’s rebounded from the setback with partner Riana Crehan’s help, and how confident he is of returning to the championship full time in 2021.

Will Davison had high expectations for the 2020 season. After driving the car at the test day, he was sure a top three in the championship was achievable.

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On his expectations for the 2020 Supercars championship before the season began.

“We had a solid year last year and for me, this being the second year effectively with the same engineer (Brendan Hogan) and a front-running organisation (Tickford Racing), was something I had been craving for many years. This was the first time in about six years where I had the same engineer for the second year running.

“So I absolutely had high expectations.

“I knew there was significant regulation change, which meant there was a little bit of apprehension from everyone’s point of view. But I knew I had the relationships in place and a great team which would put us in good stead to handle the changes that we were faced with an aerodynamic re-homologation, control shock absorbers and so on.

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“So I certainly had a firm goal to be a top five championship runner and make sure I was able to really get back on the top step podium. It was as simple as that.

“We went so close to winning a couple of races for Phil Munday and 23Red in 2019, it was an absolute must to win this year. I didn’t just want to fluke one, I wanted it to be a genuine race winner. If I achieve that, then I feel I have always been pretty good at putting a championship together if I am a front-runner, as in not making mistakes and being consistent. So for sure I thought we were a genuine tilt at being top five in the championship.

“Then when I drove the car for the first time at Tailem Bend (in the preseason test) that top five went to a top three championship contender.

“As it all went pear-shaped during the Grand Prix we’d had nine official sessions and hadn’t really been out

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of the top three in one of them over Adelaide and the GP. “Now, looking back, I honestly felt like I was going to be a contender for this year’s championship.

“We adapted to the changes very quickly. The car was quite different to last year but it just worked for whatever reason. The changes worked in my favour, the feeling I had in the car and the ease with which I was getting lap times out of the car reminded me of 2012 and my second year at Ford Performance Racing.

“It was my second year with the same engineer (Grant McPherson) and we won a lot of races and won the pole award. It was the closest I’d felt to that sort of form in a car since 2012 I’d say.”

On when he first became aware of questions marks over the future of 23Red Racing and his reaction.

“Phil’s always been incredibly up-

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front and honest with me, which I have always appreciated. Phil had even said to me in the off-season that 2021 was always up in the air for him and our sponsors. I respected that and he always told me it was a three-year program. At the end of the day it was for me ‘Okay got a great opportunity, let’s just worry about getting results’ and thinking the future would take care of itself if we were challenging for a championship or right up winning races.

“Phil’s obviously a very successful businessman and he’s been through a lot himself and with his businesses.

When COVID hit he was quite animated in his thoughts very early on as to what it was going to mean to the world and our category. He was always saying he was a little bit apprehensive about things going forward.

“But I never thought it would come to that (closure), I always thought we would find a way out of it.

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“A few weeks earlier (before COVID forced the championship to pause) Phil had mentioned things were a little bit shaky on the Milwaukee front, but certainly myself and Phil pushed really hard (to promote them).

“I did whatever I could through the Supercars Eseries platform. I went above and beyond with the activation Riana and I were doing at home. We were trying to ensure we got every bit of exposure we possibly could, by ringing news stations, making my own sponsor boards in the loungeroom, getting the simulator there. Just really trying to present ourselves as well as we could.

“I was getting a little bit nervous, but I never thought it would come to that. I was getting a little bit of mixed messaging; one moment it was all doom and gloom and it was not looking good and next moment I was getting calls from sponsors who were all of a sudden very interested in e-series and wanted to be a part of it.

“It was an emotional rollerocoaster, it was literally day-today. I was fearing the future, the next day it was all good and going to be fine.

“And with the announcements on the series no-one really knew what was going on, so I just kept my head down and focussed on doing what I could in the Eseries knowing it was tough for everyone. I had some concerns but I suppose deep down I didn’t quite think it would come to that. I thought we would work together and get through the next chapter.

“So it was still a shock when I got the news.”

On when the closure of 23Red ed was confirmed to him and his reaction to that.

“Phil had told me on a couple of occasions it wasn’t continuing, but a few days later we’d then spoken and all of a sudden life was breathed back in again. There had been a further meeting and it was all going on.

“As I said, this had happened on a few occasions so I was on a bit of a roller-coaster. But then I got the official confirmation from Phil. I was out at lunch with my brother Alex and had his kids with us.

“It was factual information; this (statement) is going out tonight.

“I suppose in a way a part of me was prepared for it, but it was still a pretty weird feeling. I won’t lie, it was one of those moments I won’t forget, just the shock of it, the reality of it. It finally hit home when he said that.

“I just felt like everything stopped for a moment and Alex asked me what was wrong and I didn’t really say much.

“I didn’t really say much for a few hours, I just kept to myself for a little while because I just didn’t know what to say. I just felt a bit numb from a little while.”

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Happier times ... Will with Engineer Brendan Hogan (above) and team owner Phil Munday (left).

even if it’s not the news you want to hear. I completely respected his decision and that’s why we have continued to speak weekly and we have remained really good friends.

“I have always tried to guide him and help him in the sport and make the h best decisions we could. b I think he is as gutted as me to be honest. He too knew the opportunity h tthis year.

“It’s been pretty heartbreaking for both of us because we had come so b ffar as a team.”

On his relationship with Phil Munday.

Munday “I still have a great relationship with Phil. We have spoken every single week since this unfolded. So at the end of the day I might have my views, but these are unprecedented times.

“I would have loved to have fought to keep it alive. I did literally try to do that on the final day. I hustled … with Tim Edwards (Tickford Racing CEO) to try to understand what was going on. I heard a rumour that Boost and James (Courtney) were maybe involved and I didn’t quite understand what was going on behind the scenes and what discussions had maybe taken place.

“I was going above and beyond in every way shape and form to try and ring people and get other sponsors to salvage it. I would have driven for free, it’s not about me.

“I just had such a great car package; the mechanics, the engineer.

Everything I had I had been working for five or six years to get back.

“Sure, I have won races and had cars that were fast here and there, but that harmony and crew togetherness this year I’ve had before over the years and then lost it. So I know that is really hard to find when you get those ingredients and that chemistry and the lap times

are coming effortlessly and you are making the right changes to the car and for whatever reason it is just suited to your inputs and your style.

“I just didn’t want to let that go and so I fought really hard in that last 48 hours, but certainly the ship had sailed.

“I was chatting to Phil frequently and yeah, I would have liked to have hung on even if I had to do anything for it.

But by the same token I know what Phil has sacrificed and the opportunity he has given me is enormous. He has always been open and upfront with me and confided in me.

“I could sense his pain as well.

He had enormous stress with his businesses, his restaurant and pub and brewery. He was just heavily committed. It’s just horrible times for everyone.

“He was looking a lot further into the future than a lot of other people and a lot of his visons seem to be coming true and right as to what has unfolded.

He was very strong in his views as to what should have happened. He was not budging in his decision, his hand was forced and I completely respected that.

“I respect everything Phil tells me

On why he chose to keep his O p public statements to an absolute m minimum in the months after 23Red’s closure was confirmed.

“It’s just been such a tough year for so many and I said what I wanted to say when it all happened. I wanted to be myself, be open and completely honest as to my feelings, but I didn’t to blame anyone and I didn’t want to come across as a victim in any way.

“I would be lying if I didn’t feel gutted the first few weeks, especially after having such good form and being so competitive and really looking set for such a great year. You could be forgiven for thinking you were a bit hard done by.

“But this year is also unprecedented, I don’t think you could compare it to anything else we have ever been through. I just felt like I said what I said and I didn’t feel like there was anything else I wanted to say.

“I didn’t want to come across as a ‘poor me’ story I suppose when there were so many other people suffering.

“I just decided to keep to myself, try and remain positive and get my own head in gear as well. It wasn’t just about not coming across in the media, it was a pretty big change for me in terms of facing the reality of being on the sidelines.

“I wanted to put all my energies into positive meetings and relationships moving forward into next year.”

On how he felt when Supercars restarted without him.

“I did struggle to watch the first race.

I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.

“But having said that, it had been quite a while so I had completely come to terms with it. I was out of the hole of feeling down and out, I had moved forward, my mindset had moved forward and I had accepted it entirely and I have just been focussing on a solution.

“I would be lying if I said after 15 years not missing a single race in Supercars it wasn’t a bit weird watching it live.

“But I was reasonably well-prepared for it and I had a pretty positive outlook on it and I enjoyed – in a way – watching it and had a view on what was going on and being able to read the play and read the race without being bitter towards it.

“As a fan of the sport and Supercars it is important it’s back up and running.

“I know I deserve to be out there. All you can do is look at yourself in the mirror and concentrate on yourself and your own performances.

“One thing I have learned this year is to not lose energy on things out of your control and focussing only on things within your control. I certainly know that this year is just a strange year, so I am not going to be too hard on myself and others.

“I don’t want to sit out too long! I am comfortable to miss a little bit, I am confident within a couple of laps I could get back to where I was.”

On the strategies he’s employed to deal with this setback, especially considering the impact of COVID-19 on the way we live.

“It’s been a test of character, but having Riana at home and having each other

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Will’s number one supporter ... father Richard is almost always trackside supporting both his sons and plays a big role in guiding them in matters of career and life. The Davison dynasty is akin to motor racing royalty in Australia.

has just been huge. I feel like we have a good toolset to deal with challenges and deal with the ups and downs.

“There were days when we both were challenged and had to dig pretty deep to get up early and go training. But all in all we have a great group of people around us and special friends. We really relied on them and eachother to keep things in perspective - something that’s really important in years like this – and realise how lucky we are at the end of the day to live the life we do.

“Sure, it’s a challenge this year, but at the end of the day we hang around the people we enjoy hanging around, we don’t get drawn into negativity, bitterness and victimisation. I don’t like that.

“This is just bit of a speed hump. You are not going to have a great run all the time. Very early on I said I wanted to use this tough circumstance to make myself stronger and not let it defeat me or define me. I wanted to use it to come back bigger and better.

“So we threw ourselves hard into the training, especially when there was a lot of uncertainty. There were a couple of months there where the uncertainty was killing me more than the actual reality. The just not knowing.

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“I’m still facing a little bit of that now, but I feel like I am dealing with it quite well.

“We trained harder than we have ever done, threw in a few challenges, did some events, a few road trips; whatever we could do taking isolation into account.

“It’s been a forced time of reflection, a time to look back on my entire career and how the journey has been.

If anything I only feel recharged from it and makes me realise how much I love what I do.

“It’s made me realise what’s really important in life too. I’ve been able to get a greater perspective on things and I think I’ll only be better off for it in a racing car and in life in general.

“At the end of the day being truthful and being myself is how I am trying to handle it at the moment.

On his future as a racing driver.

“The 100 per cent focus is to return to Supercars full-time. I’d be silly not to chase that while I’m genuinely in the peak form of my career.

“Sure it’s been the cliché up-anddown roller-coaster but I think over the years I’ve achieved enough to prove that when things are right for me, I am

right up there among the top guys.

“I might have had a few quiet years.

I think I have known within myself why they happen but that’s irrelevant.

Until you are actually getting a result it doesn’t matter because often it’s a combination of so many different factors to be a front-runner. It’s never down to you or your team, it’s a combo of all those things.

“Getting that together again this year certainly made me realise how good I felt. I felt I had a really good understanding of what’s required and how relaxed I was feeling in the car. It just felt I was in a good place.

“So while I am there I am throwing everything I can into getting a few more years in the sport and that is where all my energies are at the moment.

“I know I am closer to the end of my career than the start and I certainly don’t want to drive for the sake of driving.

“I could have continued this year in the sport but in a situation where I don’t think I would have challenged at the front and for me I am not interested in just making up the numbers out there.

“So I am taking the time to sit back and focus on coming back in a great position. I want to be out there challenging for the championship and race wins.

“Until that’s a possibility or not, I am not really thinking about anything else.

“While I have this time I am looking at few other things in life to get a few things together for post-career. I think that is really important, something that at times might give you a bit of anxiety not knowing what you might do when you finish racing.

“This year has given me a bit of time to look at that and put a few things in place to make sure I am ready for that mentally.

“It’s been a blessing in a way, but I still have massive energy and motivation to get back out there professionally.

“I love driving, I will keep driving for 20 years after I finish professionally.

I will go and drive some other categories and cars from a hobby point of view because it’s my whole life, and I look forward to the day where I can pick and choose and just go and drive some beautiful cars and just do a bit of anything.

“I will always do that, but for now I just want to get back professionally and that’s that.

“Hopefully sooner rather than later I can put something together. But it’s all up in the air at the moment and I don’t know which way the cards are going to fall.

“I am really optimistic that I am going to be able to put something together. I have had some amazing support this year that has come out of nowhere.

“That is one good thing out of this whole scenario; some of the support I have had come out of the woodwork and some of the relationships I have personally built because I manage myself now. I’ve been forced to work really hard on relationships and partnerships and it’s really been quite a therapeutic exercise. It’s been almost overwhelming the amount of people who want to help and support me.”

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GENTLEMAN JIM

PART ONE

In the latest of our series talking to racing greats, Kiwi legend Jim Richards recalls the defining years of his career with MARK FOGARTY, highlighted by his iconic Sidchrome Mustang and his purple patch as Peter Brock’s Bathurst-winning co-driver

IMAGES: Autopics.com.au/Terry Marshall/AN1 Images/AA Archive

WHERE DO you start? Jim Richards has won so many races in so many categories. Touring cars, sports sedans, production cars, GT, Nations Cup, Carrera Cup, Targas, AUSCAR and NASCAR. If New Zealand-born Richards isn’t Australasia’s most versatile racer, who is? John Bowe, maybe. No one else is even close.

Just the highlights mark Richo Snr – his son Steven is also a stand-out – as a legend. Seven Bathurst 1000 victories, four ATCC titles, eight Targa Tasmanias. Supercars and Australian Motor Sport Hall Of Famer.

Like fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen, Richards could drive anything, anywhere, anytime – and win. Arguably, he was even more versatile than SVG. Of course, Richards’ most infamous moment was when he berated fans at Bathurst as “arseholes” following his and Mark Skaife’s controversial win in their Nissan GT-R in 1992.

In his later years, Richo was the man to beat in Touring Car Masters. Now 72, he is retired – not because he isn’t quick, but because he tired of the costly damage his Falcon Sprint and AMC

Javelin were suffering.

He is now content to watch racing on TV, comfortable with what he has achieved.

Richards wiles away his time in his workshop in outer eastern Melbourne, surrounded by an eclectic collection of road and race cars.

His last Targa Porsche 911 GT3 RS is in the back of the transporter trailer. Up on a hoist, pristinely restored, is his 1987 ATCC-winning black-and-gold JPS BMW. Looking good is his 1988 HR31 Nissan Skyline GTS-R. Richo’s road cars are headlined by a newgen Alpine A110, the delicacy and accuracy of which enthrals him.

I have known JR since he arrived in Australia with the Sidchrome Mustang at Sandown in July 1975. Never have I known a more relaxed and humble sports champion – and yet, supremely confident in his ability.

We were able to catch up at his workshop – observing all appropriate health protocols, of course – just before Melbourne’s Stage 4 lockdown was invoked. Richards is sharp as, retaining a highly accurate recall of his near 60 years in racing.

What got you into racing? What was the fascination?

The fascination was basically that in New Zealand you got your licence at 15. My dad was a mechanic and I was brought up around cars. I used to walk to the bus stop in Manurewa (south Auckland) and go past an old service station. And in the service station was a three-quarter midget speedway car, which fascinated me. I stuck my head in one day and also saw a go kart. I was about 12 and that was when we decided that I should do go karting. A few years later I started working at that service station – Speedway Auto Service – as an apprentice. In those days, you couldn’t buy a kart, so my dad had to make one using an old motorbike engine. It was fantastic. We used to go to all the meetings we could. Because I was reasonable at karts, the next step up when I got my licence (in 1962) was to go car racing. The first little competition car I got was a standard Ford Anglia 105E and I started in hillclimbs and sprints to get my competition licence. I modified the Anglia a bit, but hardly at all and went to Pukekohe for my first race. I drove in socks, jeans and a T-shirt. In my first race I finished second last, but I was battling with the guy in last place and it was fantastic fun. Unfortunately, after the chequered flag, I relaxed too much and went straight into the hay bales at the first corner. [Hearty laughter] So my first race was pretty eventful,

Richards made his name in giant-killing Escort BDA, but his earlier class-winning Hillman Imp (above) forged his famous connection with Sidchrome. Eddie Munsterlike Richo (far left) signs his career-making deal with Sidchrome in posed PR shot.

Richards was racing in NZ’s All-Comers category, populated by mutant machines such as Corvette V8-powered 1939 Chev Coupes, Ford V8-engined Anglias and wild Wolseleys.

What was the car in which you were first noticed?

The car in which I started to get a bit of a following, if you say that, was another Anglia

JR shot to Australian fame in the Sidchrome Mustang, mixing it with the best in Australian sports sedans from his winning debut – in the wet – at Sandown in July 1975. The Mustang was built in secret on a farm by Richards’ long-time collaborator Murray Bunn.

“After the chequred flag I relaxed too much and went straight into the hay bales at the first corner. So my first race was pretty eventful.”

I bought from a guy who was already racing it. Mine was mildly tuned and I used it on the road as well. But I could see that I needed a more modified car made just for racing and I ended buying an Anglia built for the 1000 cc championship. But it wasn’t competitive, so I put an 1100 crankshaft in it and went up into the next class. We were only on 520/13 road rubber – tiny tyres and retreads at that – and the way the car drove, it was always sideways. Everywhere I went I was sideways [crosses his arms and leans in an exaggerated opposite lock pose] but not out of control at all, though. I got noticed because people said “Jesus Christ, look at that young bloke going like a rocket”.

Anyway, my big break came and I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for a guy called Jim Carney. He came out from England and he was manager of Shell International, which meant he would oversee the building of oil refineries all around the world. He settled in Auckland after overseeing the Marsden Point Shell oil refinery.

Richards’ association with Carney is long and involved. Essentially, they became friends and competitors in the undertwo litre class in NZ touring car racing, culminating in Carney running Richards in a Mk 1 Ford Escort BDA in 1969.

dominated the two litre division in ’71-72.

That’s when I became well-known because I was getting lots of good results.

He said “You prepare it and take it to the track, and I’ll pay for any repairs”. I thought that was a fantastic deal. It was my big break because I was then in a car that I could snap at the heels of the likes of Red Dawson, Rod Coppins, Paul Fahey and John Riley in their big V8s. After one year, Jim Carney was so rapt with the way the car went in the up to two litre class that he decided he wanted to buy a Broadspeed Escort from the UK.

After the letdown of the Broadspeed Escort – because that car would’ve competed against and beat the Mustangs and Camaros – Carney decided he’d taken me as far as he could and opted out. So I got together with a friend of mine, Murray Bunn, who’d prepared all my cars and built the engines, and approached Sidchrome to sponsor us in a Mustang. Sidchrome had been involved with me in a little Hillman Imp I was also racing at the time and, as it happened, they were trying to increase their profile in NZ. So I said to Murray “Let’s try to get Sidchrome to sponsor a Mustang – we’ll build a Mustang”.

That deal fell though and, long story short, Carney bought Richards a big-flare Wilment Escort FVA, in which he won on debut at Bay Park in Tauranga in the northwest of NZ’s north island in late 1970 and

Richards kept the Australian sedan stars honest in their annual visits to NZ. Here he battles Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am Mustang circa 1974, after which Moffat switched to a Cologne Capri and then – shockingly – a Chevy Monza in the booming mid-1970s sports sedan division. Richards’ home-built Mustang soldiered on through ’77.

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So how did the Sidchrome Mustang come about?

Richards approached the local Sidchrome

brand manager, a race fan whose budget came out of Australia, to back the Mustang.

He did the sponsorship proposal for JR, which secured the iconic red-and-yellow backing from 1973.

He asked me how much money I wanted.

You don’t want to ask for too much because they’d say no, but you also don’t want to ask for too little because you wouldn’t be able to do the job. So we didn’t have a car, didn’t have any money. We had to buy a car, then modify it into a car that would beat the guys that were already racing and then race it for a year. So I said to him “Would $12,000 be too much?” He said “Well, let’s put it down and see what happens”. Lo and behold, they said yes – but they owned the car. They didn’t want it, but as an extra incentive, I offered them that. We bought a 1969 Boss 302 Mustang off the used car lot of Monaco Motors, owned by Colin Gilstrap and Neville Crichton. We took it to a little shed on a farm because we didn’t

Richards finally replaced the iconic Sidchrome Mustang with the Big M flavoured milk-sponsored Falcon Hardtop, which fully exploited the liberal sports sedan rules, including mounting the engine well into the cockpit (right). JR’s versatility was at its peak in NZ, when he contested multiple classes in racing – including series production like this Valiant Charger (above right) – rallying and speedway.

Richards began his love affair with Bathurst in 1974, finishing third on debut with fellow Kiwi star Rod Coppins in a Torana L34 (left). Despite budget limitations, the Falcon sports sedan was competitive in 1978-80, gaining multiple piecemeal sponsorships in addition to Big M (right).

want anyone to know what we were doing.

We kept it a secret, working there every night and on weekends for bloody ages. We stripped the car completely, rewelded the body, chopped the guards out, put flares on it, built a 351 Cleveland engine, the whole lot.

NZ’s saloon car title was then contested by roughly Group 5-spec cars, which were closer to Australian sports sedans. It was an era in which the top Australians visited each summer, with Richards proving a match for the likes of Frank Gardner, Allan Moffat and John McCormack.

We were allowed to flare the guards to around three inches wider and run any size wheel and tyre we could fit within the flares.

We competed with them and beat them on occasions. It was bloody good racing.

Then in 1975, the Sidchrome sponsorship came to an end. So (Auckland car dealer) Gerry Clayton decided to buy the car from them because he knew he’d get it for next to nothing because they didn’t want it and then he approached Sidchrome in Australia to sponsor it. They agreed and that’s why we

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ended up coming over to Australia to race.

Richards debuted the Sidchrome Mustang at Sandown in July, 1975, famously splashing to victory in both races. It was the start of a long and successful career in Australia.

Originally, we were just going to send the car over and fly across every now and again to race it. I rang (then Sandown promoter) Ian McKnight from NZ and told him we’d like to compete there and he was keen. I explained to him that our wheels were too wide, but that we didn’t have any others, and he said he’d organise a dispensation from CAMS for couple of meetings. The tyre tread width was the same as on the Aussie cars, but the rim was wider, so it was actually a better tyre/ wheel package. So that was all organised and I was about to hang up when he said “Hang on, how much money do you want?” Now, in NZ, you were looking at $250 prizemoney to win a championship race. I was taken aback because I didn’t expect to be paid to race over there. I said “I don’t really know – whatever you think’s a fair thing”. He said “We’ll pay you $1500 to get on the grid. As long as you start, we’ll be happy. But you won’t get any prizemoney.”

I didn’t care. Fifteen hundred bucks was big

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money back then. We ran the meeting and the rest is history. We won both races because it rained and that’s where I got the reputation as a rainmaster, which really wasn’t deserved.

Well, you say that, but you did excel in the wet throughout your career. Why were you so suited to slippery conditions?

I don’t know if I was suited to the wet. At the time, I’d only driven a few races on a wet track in NZ. The first slick tyres I raced on were on the Mustang and I had six tyres for the whole year. People asked me why I went so good in the wet and I said “Well, you just pretend its dry and slippery”. I’d just fire around the corners and when it lost traction, I’d just ease the throttle off. I was just comfortable. I guess that’s why I could win races in those conditions when others weren’t so at ease.

everywhere. Every one of the tracks paid start money. To go over to Wanneroo was $5500; go to Lakeside was $2500. I was fortunate that when I arrived, sports sedans were the big thing and there was plenty of money to be made. Much more than in touring cars at that point. And the competition was very strong – Moffat, Jane, Geoghegan, Gardner, McCormack, etc. Lots of big names and great cars.

Having also been successful in NZ production car racing, Richards made annual forays into Australian touring cars, finishing third in his Bathurst 1000 debut in sloppy conditions with fellow Kiwi star Rod Coppins in a Torana L34 in 1974. He ran his own Melford Motors-sponsored XB Falcon Hardtop, unsuccessfully, in 1977 before refocusing on sorts sedans in ’78 with the purpose-built Big M Falcon coupe.

Following that immediate success at Sandown, you end up moving over here to begin a long and illustrious career.

It was a golden era and for a homebuilt car, the Sidchrome Mustang certainly served you well.

Because of that, we then started to get invites to go to Queensland, Sydney, Perth,

Oh, for sure. We ran it for the first time in NZ in 1972 and we stopped racing it in 1978.

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29

A rare shot of JR in the all-conquering MHDT Torana A9X at Bathurst in 1979. Although dominated by Peter Brock’s blinding brilliance, the Melbourne-domiciled Kiwi played his part in the six-lap win, matching Brockie’s race pace in his stints. Richards accepted his supporting role without ego.

Richards and Brock dominated the Bathurst 1000 from 1978-81, winning three times. In 1980, Brock magnanimously let Richo take the flag in the Commodore’s debut at Mount Panorama. His success with HDT was in stark contrast to his unreliability plagued effort with the Melford Falcon XB GT in ’77.

Gerry wanted to build a bigger and better car, which became the Big M Falcon Hardtop sports sedan. I got some help from Ford and shipped a two-door bodyshell to NZ as the basis for Murray to build a dedicated sports sedan. Ford at Broadmeadows pressed aluminium panels for me – doors, bonnet, boot lid, but not the roof, it was a steel shell. Murray built that and we went to the States to get all the latest engine parts. We sat down in Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers office and bought a transmission, engine block and Gurney Weslake cylinder heads. It was a great car and quite successful, but not as successful as it perhaps should have been because I had no money to run it properly. Big M was putting in $1200 per race meeting, which at that stage was virtually nothing. It was also at the time when sports sedans were on the down and touring cars became firmly established as the premier category.

Melford pulled out at the end of ’77, ending JR’s touring car team. In the meantime, rival/ friend Bob Jane set him up in T-Mart franchise in Preston in inner northern Melbourne, a successful enterprise that set Richards up for life. While he was trying to make the Falcon sports sedan work, he was on the loose for the touring car endurance races when a fateful call came.

For the first race at Bathurst in ’78, I did six laps before the race. Brockie probably did 20 laps at the most because Sheppo (then new HDT boss John Sheppard) wanted to keep the car fresh for the race. He didn’t see any value in wearing it out in practice. And in the race, I basically drove to a lap time. It was a simple task. In ’79, they left me to my own devices because they knew I was reliable and quick enough. In ’80, we were due to change drivers for the last stint, which was a short one, but Peter let me stay in so I could take the chequered flag. I thought that was very generous of him and also a sign that he trusted me.

It’s also in ’78 that you hook up with Brock, which really kicks off your rise to national fame.

It’s interesting that you and he had no ego clash, even though you were every bit as quick as him.

I didn’t really know Peter. The first time I met him was in Perth in 1977. We were both over there for the Wanneroo 300, which was for touring cars on street radials. I hardly knew him at all then, but then there was a pilots’ strike and we both had to get back for races in the east the following weekend. As it happened, the Ford dealer that backed the car I ran over there had an XB Falcon sedan that they needed to get to Melbourne.

So Brockie, Bev, James Brock, who was that long [holds hands about half a metre apart] and I hopped in this thing and blazed across the country non-stop, except to fill up with petrol, to Melbourne. Brock was a crazy man in the car. So that’s how I got to know Peter.

That’s because I was there to do a job for him, not to make a name for myself. I was never a threat to him. I did what I was told. In ’79 and ’80, we both lapped virtually at the same pace, except when you had new tyres – which was normally Brockie, of course. There was never any drama between us. We got on great. But after Bathurst each year, I didn’t see him for another year because I wasn’t really doing much racing otherwise. So we’d come together once a year for four years and just click.

So how did the offer to partner him at Bathurst come about?

After ’77, I didn’t know what I was doing because the Melford money had finished, so I had nothing.

Interestingly, I’d had a call from (then HDT boss) Harry Firth in ’76 asking me what I was doing for the long-distance races. I’d never met Harry and I had to tell him I was committed to driving with Gossy. Harry mumbled something about that being a shame, we could’ve done something, click, he’s gone. Never heard from him

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A perfect combination, really. Both supremely talented, confident in your own abilities, and Peter obviously recognised how good you were.

Richo in retirement, wiling away his time with his collection of race and road cars. TCM Javelin and HR31 Skyline are just two of his treasures.

again. Anyway, in ’78, Brock’s accountant Greg Chambers rang me and asked what I was doing for Bathurst. I had nothing, but I didn’t tell him that; I said I hadn’t decided. He said “Would you like to drive with Peter Brock?” I had nothing going at all, so I said “Shit, yeah, I’d love to”. So he said they’d give me five grand and a percentage of the prizemoney. We won and I remember I went

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home with 20 grand. That was the beginning of a beautiful partnership. I drove with Peter for four years, winning three times (1978-80). That was when I discovered the money was in touring cars.

What was it like driving with Brock?

Terrific. I just hung around in the background.

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There was never any competition between us.

Which might be unusual, but I knew my place.

I’d never been paid to drive a car until then and I wasn’t about to blow it! Mainly, though, I just enjoyed driving with him and I drove as hard as I could within reason – and that was good enough. I didn’t need to do anything stupid Next issue: Richards recounts his years with BMW and Nissan, reveals the real reason behind his infamous “arseholes” outburst at Bathurst in 1992 and wraps up the rest of his extraordinarily long time at the top .

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JABOUILLE ENDS POINTLESS DROUGHT Austria was another circuit that favoured the turbocharged Renaults and Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s fortunes finally turned, though not without pressure from Alan Jones as DAN McCARTHY reports.

IMAGES: LAT

THE TENTH round of the 1980 FIA Formula 1 World Championship took place high in the hills of Austria at the rapid Osterreichring circuit.

The altitude, coupled with the highspeed nature of the circuit, created a dream scenario for the 1.5-litre turbo-charged Renault RE20s of Rene Arnoux and Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

The yellow and black rockets had been quick all season but this came at a detriment of reliability, which Jabouille had coped the brunt of.

He had failed to finish every Grand Prix bar one in the season so far, while teammate Arnoux had taken two victories and a further two points finishes, demonstrating the Renault’s competitiveness when it lasted.

At the previous round at the Hockenheimring, Alan Jones was cruelly robbed of his third consecutive race victory (four if you count the non-championship race in Spain), after the championship leader picked up a puncture just six laps from the finish.

In Austria, scene of his first-ever Grand Prix victory for Shadow in 1977, he was out to make amends.

Practice for Jabouille saw another engine failure, but he wasn’t the only one.

Early on Alain Prost’s McLaren hit one of the many oil patches around the circuit, sliding off into the mud and grass surrounding the circuit.

Moments later he was joined by Jochen Mass, excpet that his Arrows turned upside down.

The German veteran escaped any

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Alan Jones was happy to take second despite a late challenge (above). A relieved Jean-Pierre Jabouille stands atop the podium, surrounded by the two Williams drivers (below).

serious injury but tweaked his neck during the rollover. He returned to qualify the next day, but his injury prevented him taking any further part in the weekend.

The Formula 1 entry was expanded by one as British driver Nigel Mansell

made his debut in a third Lotus, but the combination proved a struggle to even qualify for the race, though the withdrawal of Mass helped.

On the other side of the ledger, Renault made good use of the conditions to dominate qualifying,

leaving the rest of the field to squabble for third.

Even so, the difference between the two Reanults was staggering.

Arnoux took his first pole for the season by 1.21s from Jabouille. A further 1.47s behind was Jones, who lined up alongside teammate Carlos Reutemann, while it was an all-Ligier third row as Jacques Laffite pipped Didier Pironi.

Key title contender Nelson Piquet lined up seventh, ahead of the soleAlfa Romeo of Bruno Giacomelli, the Italian team still mourning the loss of Patrick Depailler and yet to install a replacement.

Ferraris again started towards the rear, Gilles Villeneuve in 15th and reigning champion Jody Scheckter in 22nd, just ahead of the last-placed Mansell.

Cool and overcast conditions greeted the field with the threat of rain later in the race over the 54-lap duration.

The customary struggle of the turbo-charged Renaults off the line allowed Jones to split the front duo to snatch an early lead.

It was the opposite for Reutemann, who failed to make a good start and in turn delayed Laffite, dropping both down the field.

Hurtling out of Turn 3, Jones led a chasing pack comprising Pironi, Arnoux, Giacomelli, Jabouille, Reutemann and Piquet Recovering from their respective poor getaways, Jabouille and Arnoux set about making up for lost time.

Giacomelli was soon demoted to fifth

The Ligier of Jacques Laffite (above) was the best of the rest behind the lead Renault and the two Williams.

As usual, the two turbo-charged Renaults struggled off the line but after that it was Jabouille’s race to win (above).

Carlos Reutemann also made a poor start and was unable to challenge Jones or Jabouille for the win, settling for a third, below.

Nigel Mansell made his debut in a third Lotus (above), but retired when his Ford engine expired.

Nelson Piquet still retained second in the points chase despite finishing fifth (above). Here he battles Laffite (on the left) and the lapped Rupert Keegan.

and Pironi to fourth, as the Renaults began to swarm the Williams of Jones.

A mere three laps into the race and Arnoux was in front, using the turbo power of his Renault to take the lead on the back straight, a move that was replicated by Jabouille a lap later to demote Jones to third.

Behind, a great battle for fourth position was developing between Giacomelli, Reutemann and Piquet.

It was clear Piquet in his Brabham had the speed early in the race, firstly overtaking Reutemann in a perfectly executed move at Turn 1 on lap 7, following this up four laps later with equally clean pass on Giacomelli at the final turn.

On lap 13 Derek Daly suffered a frightening accident, but fortunately emerged unscathed.

A shattered brake disc sent the Tyrrell into the weeds, the Irish driver running under a nearby barbed wire fence which missed his head by mere centimetres.

By lap 15, both Renaults had broken clear of Jones to the tune of 3.8s, while Piquet, Giacomelli and Reutemann trailed further behind in their exclusive battle for fourth.

It wasn’t long before drama afflicted the race, though, with leader Arnoux forced to make an unscheduled pit stop after picking up a puncture, dropping him back to the outer reaches of the top 10.

Giacomelli followed in his Alfa Romeo, pitting for a fresh set of tyres, but the over exuberant driver left before the right-rear wheel was tightened, and it departed just beyond pit exit.

Combine this with Piquet encountering a clutch gremlin in his Brabham, which left Reutemann to be last man standing in third.

As a result, by lap 30 Jabouille led Jones, Reutemann, Piquet, Laffite, Elio de Angelis in his Lotus and the recovering Arnoux.

Both the Renaults then began to suffer with tyre blisters.

Jabouille, keen to not let victory escape from his grasp, elected to nurse the tyres to the finish. His teammate Arnoux, with nothing to lose, threw caution to the wind but a further two unscheduled stops dropped him out of points contention.

Whilst running in an impressive 13th place on lap 40, ahead of reigning champion Scheckter, debutant Mansell’s race ended when the Ford engine in his Lotus let go.

At one stage Jabouille had extended this lead to more than 10s, but as the tyres deteriorated during the final 15 laps, that gap vanished.

The final three laps were incredibly tense, Jones closing to within 1.8s as the Renault mechanics were prepared in case of a late race puncture.

But Jabouille withstood the pressure to take his second career victory and first points of his season.

Jones came up agonisingly short in second position, just 0.82s away from snatching the unlikeliest of race wins.

Reutemann rounded out the podium in third ahead of Laffite, Piquet finished an impressive fifth after racing with no clutch for over half the race.

De Angelis rounded out the points in sixth ahead of Alain Prost, Gilles Villeneuve, Arnoux and Hector Rebaque.

The Formula 1 circus then headed to Zandvoort in Holland for the next round of the title chase, the Dutch Grand Prix.

1980 Austrian Grand Prix - Osterreichring 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 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Alan Jones Carlos Reutemann Jacques Laffite Nelson Piquet Elio de Angelis Alain Prost Gilles Villeneuve Rene Arnoux Hector Rebaque Emerson Fittipaldi Marc Surer Jody Scheckter Riccardo Patrese Rupert Keegan Keke Rosberg Nigel Mansell John Watson Bruno Giacomelli Didier Pironi Jean-Pierre Jarier Eddie Cheever Derek Daly Mario Andretti Jan Lammers Jochen Mass

Drivers’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5. = 7.

8. = 10.

Alan Jones Nelson Piquet Carlos Reutemann Jacques Laffite Didier Pironi Rene Arnoux Jean-Pierre Jabouille Riccardo Patrese Elio De Angelis Derek Daly

Constructor Renault Williams Williams Ligier Brabham Lotus McLaren Ferrari Renault Brabham Fittipaldi ATS Ferrari Arrows Williams Fittipaldi Lotus McLaren Alfa Romeo Ligier Tyrrell Osella Tyrrell Lotus Ensign Arrows

47 36 30 28 23 23 9 7 7 6

Laps 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 52 52 40 34 28 25 25 23 12 6

Result 1h 26m 15.73s +0.82s +19.36s +42.02s +62.81s +74.97s +93.41s +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +2 Laps +2 Laps Engine Engine Wheel Handling Electrical Wheel Bearing Accident Engine

Grid 2 3 4 5 7 9 12 15 1 14 23 16 22 18 20 11 24 21 8 6 13 19 10 17

Constructors’ Standings 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. = 10.

Williams Ligier Brabham Renault Arrows Tyrrell Fittipaldi McLaren Lotus Ferrari

77 51 36 32 11 10 9 7 7 6

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HIDDEN TREASURE Nestled in a natural amphitheatre 20-minutes from the state’s capital, Baskerville Raceway is Australia’s oldest continuously running permanent circuit. But as AA’s Tasmanian corespondent MARTIN AGATYN explains, there have been many twists and turns in its 62-year history.

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NOW BEFORE you read any further, one thing straight needs to be set straight, the pronunciation.

Mainlanders just can’t seem to get it right. It’s not pronounced with a hard “a”, as in Bass-ker-ville. As the locals will tell you, it’s spoken with a soft “a” – in other words, Bars-ker-ville.

It might only be 2.01 km in length, but everyone who visits it, or has raced there, will tell you there’s a lot of action packed into a lap and it’s one of the most exciting short circuits in the country.

This might be down to its location in a natural amphitheatre, which also makes it one of the most spectator-friendly tracks in Australia, where you can see the entire circuit from the right spot on the hill.

Baskerville was established by the Hobart Sporting Car Club, with the first race meeting in February 1958 attracting a massive crowd.

While it’s had several different owners in the past six decades, the track licence and racing have been continuous to the present day.

Other tracks in the country might be older, but they have neither been permanent, nor continuous.

The circuit takes its name from the property of local land-owner Calvin Morrisby, which was called Baskerville, who generously assisted the club in getting the track established, with the Turn 8 entry to the back straight still known as Calvin’s Corner.

With Tasmanians’ love of motorsport, race meetings in the 1960s attracted

large fields and big spectator crowds. But while the Longford Grand Prix in the north of the state, near Launceston, gained national prominence, racing at Baskerville remained largely an undiscovered gem with mostly local fields.

The demise of Longford in 1968 led to the nearby Symmons Plains circuit taking over the mantle of Tassie’s premier circuit.

However, in the 1970s Baskerville started to gain a reputation all its own, helped by the Tas Ten Thousand sports sedan event, which attracted high profile drivers from all across Australia. It was also hugely popular with local crowds, featuring the likes of Peter Brock, Alan Jones and local star Tony Edmondson.

Baskerville also hosted invitational touring car events to capitalise on the nation’s premier tin top category being in the state for the Tasmanian round of the ATCC at Symmons Plains.

In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s Baskerville hosted events such as the Winfield 25’s Touring Car Challenge, which also proved immensely popular.

Hobart Sporting Car Club officials weren’t afraid to pioneer innovative formats, either, and used single car qualifying (a top 10 shootout) in 1977 for touring cars – a year before it was introduced at the Bathurst 1000.

Peter Brock had his last outing in a Holden Torana A9X at Baskerville in 1979, but returned later for sports sedan events driving Bob Jane’s Chev Monza.

When Calvin Morrisby died in the 1980s, the land on which the circuit was situated

was sold to a consortium of motorsportminded local identities, keen to see racing continue at the site.

The Hobart Sporting Car Club retained a 25 per cent interest in the new company for a nominal fee.

The company enjoyed success in the 1980s, with Baskerville hosting national championships, or rounds thereof in sports sedans, sports cars, Formula 5000 and Australian GT categories.

In the late’80s the consortium decided to sell the circuit and the Hobart Sporting Car Club took over ownership, which included a considerable mortgage of $275,000, or more than half a million dollars in today’s terms.

A concerted effort over a few years saw the debt reduced by about 45 per cent, and despite the circuit still hosting national rounds of the Australian Sports Sedans and Truck Grand Prix in the ‘90s, by the end of the decade the financial burden was proving too much for the club to handle.

In 2000, a new company was formed, made up of 35 individuals and Tasmanian motorsport clubs, as shareholders of a new entity, known as Motorsports Tasmania Pty Ltd. The company purchased the assets of the Hobart Sporting Car Club, paid off its debt and began operating the Baskerville circuit, with profits being used to maintain and improve the track.

Motorsports Tasmania Pty Ltd also purchased the Symmons Plains circuit in the early 2000s.

It’s 1958 and Baskerville is officially opened ... note the huge crowd in attendance (above). The Tasmanian track has attracted its fair share big names from the mainland, such as Peter Brock and Allan Moffat (below) in 1977. Local racing has always been a mixed bag, with racing and sports cars often combined (below).

In 2015, the decision was made to change Motorsports Tasmania to a not-forprofit organisation with a volunteer board of directors and founding shareholders retained as members.

Two years earlier, in 2013, the Baskerville Foundation was launched with the aim of raising $600,000 to pay for a much-need track resurfacing within five years.

The fundraiser was given a kick along in 2015 when Pepsi Max took over naming rights for the circuit, but arguably the major factor in the plan was the establishment of the Baskerville Historics Blast From the Past meeting, in September every year.

The event, now a sanctioned national meeting, proved to be an unprecedented success, attracting fields from all over Australia and a big local crowd, ensuring its continued success and swelling the

coffers of the Baskerville Foundation.

The Baskerville Historics is now firmly entrenched in the national scene and a track – along with Bathurst – which seems to be on the ‘bucket list’ for many historics racers The meeting has proved so successful that the five-year fundraising target was far exceeded in the target time. More than $1.08 08 million illi was realised, paying for the resurfacing in December 2016 and also allowing for many upgrades and improvements since.

The new surface was a factor in the long standing outright lap record, set

by John Bowe in 1982 in a Ralt RT4,

B Baskerville’s famous trolley bus control t tower from its early days (left) and the p program from the very first meeting (far l opposite page). Thanks to the Hobart left, S Sporting Car Club for supplying images.

being broken by multiple fifinally ll b i b k - iinitially iti ll b lti l Targa Tasmania winner Jason White, in a Duttons Motorsport ex-Penske Racing Sonoco 1972 Lola T192 F5000 in 2017 at the historics meeting – and then bettered

by South Australian Josh Kean, in a Benetton B186 F1 at the same meeting a year later.

With the financial burden of running the circuit relinquished by the Hobart Sporting Car Club, the organisation was free to turn its attention other projects, like refurbishing the spectator bridge over the main straight at a cost of $75,000 in 2016.

The bridge is an historically significant structure in the Tasmanian motorsport scene, as was the original spectator bridge at the Longford Grand Prix Circuit for the Australian Grand Prix in 1965.

While the historics meeting has been a huge success, it’s not the only recent innovation at Baskerville, with the Autocraft Baskerville 1000 also a runaway success.

One of this event’s key aims is to introduce new competitors to racing, by stipulating that cars entered in the Trucks have been a regular on the Baskerville card. This is a Truck Grand Prix event from the early ‘90s.

ev event can only cost a maximum of $1000. With the event usually ov over-subscribed, organisers were co contemplating holding it twice a year be before the coronavirus pandemic put the handbrake on.

W While the Baskerville Historics is now th circuit’s major annual event, the the circuit also hosts rounds of the Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championships, the Tasmanian Hillclimb Cup, Tasmanian Drift Series, and the Tasmanian Time Attack meeting.

It has also hosted rounds of the Aussie Racing Car Series and national events for Formula Vee, Improved Production, and HQ Holdens.

In another first for Baskerville, the track was also the site of the first ever HQ Holden race in 1988, before the category became a national class.

Baskerville will return to the national spotlight again in January next year, when it hosts a round of the TCR Australia Series, which is sure to attract another big crowd of motorsport-loving Tasmanians.

Motorcycle racing has also enjoyed a long association with Baskerville, with the circuit hosting the annual Baskerville Two-Hour Race, rounds of the Tasmanian Road Racing Championship and in the past having also hosted rounds of the Australian Superbike Championship.

The track is also used for many club level events ,as well as driver training and has a nationally accredited 4WD training ground adjacent to the circuit as well.

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A DECEPTIVE TEST

The hills around Baskerville hide a challenging track that TCR Australia competitors are set to discover in January. GARRY O’BRIEN takes a look at what they can expect at the newest addition to the series.

BASKERVILLE RACEWAY rarely makes the news pages in motor sport print, websites and socials.

That is all set to change, though, when the ARG Group hits the Tasmanian circuit for the first time in January next year.

Although it was first established in the late ‘50s, Baskerville only came to prominence in the late-1970s when some the nation’s best sports sedan and touring car drivers headed to this natural amphitheatre to contest season-ending invitational races.

Throughout its life Baskerville has been upgraded constantly, with many of its structures traced back to Longford Circuit.

The pit and paddock area was located in the centre of the track, where the land levelled out. And until the late ‘60s an old tram from the Longford Circuit was the original race control, replaced with a Hobart City trolley bus in the early ‘70s.

The current tower was constructed in 1973 with mostly volunteer labour and then in 1984 a briefing room was built onto the back of the tower. The tower then underwent a complete renovation to the value of $150,000 by a few volunteer builders in late 2014.

By 2018 over $1 million had been spent on improvements, with further projects planned including carports on solid bases where marques on grassed areas have had to be used to present.

The track itself delivers what the original designers promised – a course which maintains driver and spectator interest and provides never a dull moment.

“It is a great little circuit,” said John Bowe, who had his first race there as a 15 year old in an Elfin Formula Vee. “I felt sick, I was that nervous.”

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He obviously recovered from that nervous start because Bowe went on to become Tasmania’s most succesful racing driver, winning two Australian Drivers Championships, a Sports Car and a Touring Car Championship, as well as a couple of Bathurst 1000s and a myriad more races besides.

Off the start line, adjacent to the pits, the Baskerville circuit runs under the bridge before competitors manoeuvre for the sweeping uphill right hander. It levels out to another right hand 90 degree turn, before a short run downwards to two negative camber left hand corners.

“The track has been resurfaced since I last raced there so I am not sure what it is like now, but you had to get those corners half right or you would be off the road,” Bowe explained.

Then there’s a strong acceleration run through a slight kink, followed by a steep Pepsi’s commercial support of Baskerville has been decisive in helping the track survive, as has the climb with a blind left corner just after the hard work of volunteers and investors who have kept updating facilities like the tower itself (below). crest. Not that there is time, but there’s a great view of the whole layout and the surrounding rolling hills.

“It probably is,” he laughed, “but you have to turn into the corner before you see it.”

Once through the downhill left hander, the track leads to another corner, this one much faster.

“I’ve speared off there so far (that) I was out in the thistles,” Bowe admitted.

Then finally, it’s a 500 metre downhill run past the back of the pits, to the hardest braking point at the circuit. Negotiate that and the track sweeps back onto the front straight to complete the lap.

Pit lane is off to the left entering the sweeper and the exit is on the outside of Turn 1.

Images: Angryman Photography

TCM cars have appeared regularly at Baskerville (top) while one of Holden’s dominant Bathurst 24 Hour winning Monaros (above left) has also lapped the tiny Tassie track, courtesy of local Garry Rogers. Baskerville racing has always attracted big and enthusiastic fields (above).

“That last curved section is deceptive, (it’s) so easy to get into trouble and there have been lots of cars going off (there) coming onto the front straight,” Bowe concluded.

These days known as the Pepsi Max Baskerville Raceway, the track hosts race events for both two and four-wheels, a large number of them club level events.

Its close proximity to Hobart and surrounds means visiting participants and enthusiasts can have accommodation at whatever level they choose within a short distance of the raceway.

RT

STA

FAST FACTS Track opened: February 1958 Track length: 2.01 kilometres Track width: average 9-10 metres Track corners: 8 Track elevation: 40 metres Track camber: Negative & positive Direction: Anti-clockwise Track density: 32 – 37 depending on category Nearest major town: Brighton township (8km - 8min).

Minimum licence requirements: Category B – Restricted National Series or on event by event basis as per Motorsports Australia / Motorcycling Australia Nearest major centre: Hobart City (22.3 km - 15-20 min) – Glenorchy City (11km – 12min) - Brighton township (8km - 8min) Biggest event held: 10,000 at Baskerville Historics, Tasmania’s largest attended motorsport event outside of Supercars.

Lap Record: Josh Kean (Benetton B186) 48.82 Track Operators: Motorsports Tasmania.

Circuit Hours: 8am till 6pm General Manager: Donald Potter Email: manager@motorsportstas.com.au Address: 473 Baskerville Road, Old Beach, Tasmania 7017 Website: https://www.motorsportstas.com.au/ Phone: 0447 315 114 GM and MST Office

AutoAction

37

EVER BLUE

Bill B ill O’Brien O’B i was a veteran t off 18 18 Bathurst B th t starts t t before hanging up the helmet in 1996. In a career that began in speedway, the Canberra-based driver changed his focus to touring cars and associated himself with some of the sport’s legendary figures, as he recounts to HEATH McALPINE.

38 AutoAction

IMAGES: O’Brien family collection/AA Archive

Bill O’Brien’s iconic powder blue Everlast XD Falcon was an enduring regular in the Group C era. His Everlast business had expanded rapidly (right) allowing him to go Speedway racing (below right).

AFTER FOUNDING the successful Everlast array of automotive businesses at that age of 18 in Canberra, and then rapidly expanding it across the nation and employing 400 people at its peak, former privateer racer Bill O’Brien could be excused for living a quiet life now.

But that is not the case.

Even though his three sons have taken over the day-to-day running of O’Brien’s businesses, the 78-year-old still splits his time between running Exchange Bumper Bars in Sydney and his property near Batemans Bay. O’Brien’s story begins at the age of 15 when he moved to Canberra from the Sydney suburb of West Pennant Hills, where he was building batteries in the afternoon.

This led him to open his first shop, Everlast Battery Service, at the age of 18, the foundation of a business empire that still continues to this very day.

“I was 18-years-old when I opened my first business, that was in Canberra itself, and the name of the business was Everlast Battery Service,” O’Brien told Auto Action.

“I set my own shop up and started making my own batteries, that’s where it all took off. I went from making my own batteries to auto electrician to motor mechanic to air conditioning, you name it, we were in everything.

“It was Australiawide, we were in every state.”

O’Brien’s racing career actually started on the clay ovals of speedway, where he was part of the ACT team that competed at all the big meetings in Toowoomba and Melbourne, as well as its home venue at Tralee.

“I did that for a few years,” O’Brien said. “We used to have a team that used to go around and I was part of that team. We had quite a number of wins

for a period of time but it was a combination of half a dozen of us.”

After his experience on the dirt, O’Brien then focused on going circuit racing in 1978.

The Ford Falcon XB hardtop that he built into a race car was found through a connection of his brother, at Mack Trucks.

“The first car that we built was a street car,” O’Brien recalled. “My brother ran Mack trucks ucks in Sydney and one of the workers there had this car. Anyway, I didn’t tell him that I was going to pull it to pieces and make it into a race car, because this bloke loved the car like you wouldn’t believe!

“I bought it and started from there.”

After construction was complete, O’Brien bought in former Bathurst winner and Formula 5000 ace Kevin Bartlett to undertake the initial test program.

“I got Kevin to do some testing with us and then he did a meeting at Sandown with me,” O’Brien explained. “It wasn’t just a business association, there was also a friendship as well.

“We’ve been really good friends right up until now.”

At Sandown O’Brien didn’t drive, as he hadn’t completed his racing licence test, but by Bathurst he had and was granted an entry with Ray Winter. Around 80 cars competed for the 60 available spots on the grid, but O’Brien’s entry was bumped during the early part of the weekend.

He was undeterred, however, and firmly focused on racing at Bathurst, so decided to race regularly to ensure his entry for the 1979 event. O’Brien took his big red XB Falcon hardtop across the ciountry in a bid to rapidly improve his and the car’s development.

“I did rounds here, there and everywhere in that car,” O’Brien said.

“I did six, seven or eight a year. I’d go to Tasmania, I’d go to Queensland, I did Oran Park, I did a lot of meetings at that time. To race and be reasonably competitive you’ve got to go to more than one track, so that’s what I did.

“Within two years I was driving alongside the best in Australia.”

After qualifying 21st, O’Brien and Winter retired from the 1979 Bathurst 1000, but big things were happening for 1980, not that O’Brien knew that at the time.

Through his association with engine builder Peter Molloy, O’Brien paired up with the then-reigning Australian Touring Car Champion Bob Morris, in a new XDmodel Falcon, in what was a potential race favourite.

Keep in mind this was only O’Brien’s second start at Bathurst!

“That was my car,” O’Brien said. “I owned the Ford and Morris came into the frame because he was bringing sponsorship, but the money we got out of it was peanuts.”

The new XD was quick, but failed to be there at the end of the race, even after Allan Moffat had a drive when his similar yellow Falcon had dropped out early on.

O’Brien recalls that the former Canadian struggled to get to grips with Ford’s new hero car.

“I thought Moffat would have been quicker than me, but he wasn’t,” O’Brien said.

“He was probably in the car for 10 or 12 laps and Molloy, who was the pit manager at the time, tried to get him out. He didn’t come in when he was supposed to.”

Overheating problems were already impacting on the entry when O’Brien got behind the wheel later in the race.

“Morris did a double-stint and then Moffat did some, before I got in. But at that time the car was virtually red-hot, it was boiling. It did have a cooling problem and I only got one lap out of it as it blew up on top of The Mountain.”

Although there was a lack of support from Ford, O’Brien persevered with the XD throughout the Group C period, partnering with Gary Cooke in 1981 for a DNF in what was the first year in its iconic powder blue livery.

Then what followed the next year was a partnership that led to a friendship which endures to this day with 1975 Bathurst winner Brian Sampson.

AutoAction 39

Bill O’Brien joined touring car’s outright battle straight away, racing a Ford Falcon XB Hardtop he built up from a road car (above left). Despite its potential, a link up with Bob Morris (top) failed to bring success, however a long-term partnership with former Bathurst winner Brian Sampson (above right) certainly did.

“Sampson was so good on a car, that’s why we didn’t have trouble for two or three years,” O’Brien related.

After meeting at a few race events, Brian Sampson expressed his desire to drive alongside O’Brien. The partnership proved fruitful almost immediately, as Sampson set to work on improving the XD Falcon’s suspension set-up.

“He was very, very good with car sorting,” O’Brien lauded. “He was the best out of all the people that I was involved with. I got along really good with him.

“He asked me ‘how do you drive the car like that?’ He said ‘your times are really good, but it’s so much easier to drive in a 1000km race when it’s comfortable’. He did some suspension changes and it felt better straight away.”

O’Brien fondly remembers this era and has a photo hanging on his office wall, signed

by Sampson, with the message, “Thanks very much Bill for the best years I ever had a Bathurst”.

An association with Garry Willmington for 1983 led to a two-car Everlast attack on The Mountain and with his fellow privateer always struggling for funds, O’Brien sponsored him.

“Garry never ever had any money,” said

40 AutoAction

O’Brien. “I liked him as a person, he needed some sponsorship, so the cars got painted in the same colours.

“We did the car for him and we did a lot of other work for him as well. That turned out to be a very good association that one.”

O’Brien and Sampson finished the race in 19th, Willmington and Mike Griffin in 13th.

To round out the Group C era, O’Brien again paired with Cooke, but it resulted in another retirement.

The impact of Group A for O’Brien was the loss of his beloved Falcon. The Mustang didn’t appeal to him, after joining Lawrie Nelson in his example in 1985.

“He was a very jovial sort of bloke, nothing worries him,” O’Brien described Nelson.

“But I told him we had to get this thing sorted and we got it down eight seconds in the few days we were there.”

There was further anguish for O’Brien the next year, when a deal was done to go 50-50 with Murray Carter in a Nissan DR30 Skyline.

That turned sour, however, as O’Brien tipped a considerable amount of money into the car’s construction, and the resulting court case awarded a sum to the Canberra-based businessman.

The saving grace was Nissan Racing boss

Fred Gibson, who gave O’Brien plenty of help throughout the build process.

Even with all that drama, the pair finished 10th before O’Brien decided to go V8 and Holden.

“I wanted to go to the V8, so I went and saw Larry Perkins, I knew him pretty well,” said O’Brien.

“I asked him if he wanted to build a car for me and he said ‘yeah’.”

The new VL Commodore was the first customer-built chassis by Perkins Engineering, with none other than the man himself debuting the car alongside O’Brien in the Calder 300, which combined the use of the traditional circuit with the newly built Thunderdome oval.

“It was a great car, but I never had a chance to drive it! Larry would say that himself,” O’Brien explained.

“I only did the minimum laps so I could race the car and I’d never been on the Thunderdome, so I was over cautious. He had the car in first place before I got into it, then I was overtaken by John Bowe ,so we came in second.”

Bathurst preparation for the World Touring Car event was hampered by a practice accident for O’Brien at Skyline, but the

crew led by Grant O’Neill repaired the Commodore in time for qualifying and the race, where Sampson re-joined the team to finish in eighth place.

“I don’t know what it was, but I think he may have thought for a while there he was dropping off,” O’Brien explained about Sampson’s departure from the team.

“He dropped off for a couple of years then one day rang me and asked who was driving with me next year and said he was ready again, so I said you’d better come back.”

The change to the ‘Walkinshaw’ specifications was significant, as O’Brien detailed.

“The next year after that the car was built, it all changed to the ‘Walkinshaw’ configuration, (so) a lot of componentry had to be changed,” explained O’Brien.

“On that particular car I spent half a million dollars. I had originally built it for $150,000 ... it goes on and on and on.

“Just the cost to run at Bathurst was $50,000.”

The first year in that configuration failed to yield a result sharing with Ray Lintott and Sampson, to form a three-driver attack on the 1000, the Commodore failing after 66 laps.

Bill O’Brien’s VL Commodore (top right) was the very first customer car built by Perkins Engineering. It positioned him as one of the leading Holden privateers. The last hurrah, O’Brien’s last Bathurst in 1996 led to 17th (right). An association with Murray Carter was shortlived (below). O’Brien today (far right).

Another DNF followed in 1989, again partnered by Sampson, before the duo equalled their best Bathurst result in 1990, eighth, as Holden took outright honours with its Holden Racing Team.

Up until 1995, O’Brien then drove a VL Commodore with Brians Callaghan Sr and Jr, resulting in a best finish of 10th in that final year to give the model a solid send off.

One of O’Brien’s more memorable incidents involved a tangle with Dick Johnson.

“That was as much Dick’s fault as it was mine, because what had happened was I’d tried to give way to him three or four times before that,” O’Brien recalled.

“I went over as far as I could and hit the marbles on the side (of the track) and away it went. If he had the balls to go past where I wanted him to go past [it wouldn’t have happened].”

There was one more Bathurst attack left in 1996, O’Brien upgrading to an ex-HRT Dencar VR chassis to finish 17th with Callaghan Jr and Ron Barnacle.

Bill O’Brien oversaw one more Bathurst attack with son Peter, joining the same duo from the previous year, but the team recorded a DNF which closed an 18-year chapter at Mt Panorama.

“When I finished with the touring cars that was it,” said O’Brien. “I’ve never been in a car since.”

But has he had withdrawals?

“At times there was an inclination there, but I’m always a believer in if you’ve gone into and done alright, and if you think it’s time to retire, then retire,” O’Brien explained.

O’Brien had four sons but one has since passed way, and he is incredibly

d off his hi remaining i i three h sons, proud who have followed their father into the automotive trade.

“I sold the Everlast-side of my business to a chap that worked for me and it still goes really good in Canberra,” O’Brien explained.

“I kept the panel shop, which two of my boys have now and it’s the biggest panel shop in Canberra. We do motorhomes, trucks, buses and all that kind of thing.”

Add to this five grandchildren and O’Brien has a very busy life, which he doesn’t intend to change.

“I think it’s very important to keep busy while the body is good enough to keep going, I’m physically in good shape and mentally if you doing what I do all the time, it keeps your brain active,” said O’Brien.

“I’ve got plenty of work to do!”

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41

REACHING THE PEAK

Aaron Love has progressed another level in Porsche’s motorsport pyramid after narrowly missing out on the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge title last year. DAN McCARTHY discovers his aims remain firmly fixed on international success AARON LOVE’S STEP into the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Series has been a seamless process, after he quickly established himself as one of Australia’s leading young sportscar prospects.

For Love, the adrenaline of motor racing has pumped through his veins from a young age.

Father Ian was a Touring Car driver in the ‘90s and his older brother is reigning Carrera Cup Australia Series winner Jordan, who is currently racing internationally in Porsche Supercup.

Last year, Aaron Love completed his first season in tin-tops contesting the second-tier Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. He emerged as one of the leading contenders against the likes of series winner Harri Jones, Max Vidau, Ryan Suhle and Christian Pancione.

In a fiercely contested season, Love finished the year with six race victories and series runner-up to Jones.

“I think last year the Challenge Cup had its most competitive year with the most young drivers fighting up the front. There was five of us, whereas in previous years there were only two or

three,” Love recalled to Auto Action.

“The intensity ramped up so much more than I was used to, and the level of commitment was just on a whole other level.”

Love began learning his trade in karting, starting around the same time as older brother Jordan, and was hooked from the word go.

“Dad thought it would only be fair for me to have a little go and see how I went and if I liked it, and then it just kicked off from there,” he said.

“I was a little bit young to understand what I actually needed to be doing, so I wasn’t all that happy because Jordan knew what he was doing. But I soon got my head around it and had a fair bit of success.”

After the accomplishments of karting, Love made the step up to car racing, first locally in the WA Formula F1000 series, before progressing to national competition in the Australian Formula 4 Championship in 2017 at the age of just 15.

“Our plan was only to do the first couple of rounds just to see how I was

gonna go. I managed to get a few runs on the board against all the rookies and then we made the decision to see the season out go from there,” Love said.

Love finished the campaign in ninth, but already had his eyes firmly fixated on a career in Formula 1, deciding to compete in selected rounds of the South East Asian Formula 4 Championship.

“We’d been invited up there to race at Sepang, which I really enjoyed, but we realised that Formula 1 and going over to Europe was just not feasible with costs these days,” he told AA. “That’s when we decided to work towards making the transition to a tin top car, driving a Porsche.”

The 2018 season had been a breakout year for the West Australian, Love finishing third in the Australian F4 Championship p and was best of the nonAGI Sport drivers vers that year.

“Our main aim m was to try and get the championship, p, but we learnt early on that the AGI GI cars were a fair bit quicker,” Love e explained.

“I just tried to o be as consistent as possible and just ust see where that put

Love’s early ambition was Formula 1 and F4 was a pathway to that. Third in 2018 saw the West Australian change direction to pursue a potential career in sports cars.

42 AutoAction

Love finished an impressive runner up in last year’s Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge (above left) and has followed in the footsteps of older brother Jordan in transitioning to Carrera Cup this thi season (top). Although a unique category to Western Australia, F1000 provided Love with his start and opened the door to Australian Formula 4 (above centre). Love th then took on established young guns Max Vidau, Christian Pancione, Ryan Suhle and Harri Jones in last year’s GT3 Cup Challenge Series (above right). us towards the end of the championship, which ended up being third, I certainly wasn’t displeas displeased with that.”

Following in the th footsteps of his older brother, Love m made the step out of F4 and into GT3 C Cup Challenge Australia with the Sonic M Motor Racing Services, though he adm admitted that this was not a simple decision. decision “Ultimately Jordan Jo decided to go with Sonic, so when it came to me deciding it made it a little bit easier, but obviously you are still thin thinking whether you should go a different path,” pa Aaron told AA. “Going into a series s that you’ve never dealt with before, bef you also speak to Andy McElrea.

Mc “Jordan’s Jorda first year in Carrera Cup was w good but at that stag the McElrea Racing stage cars were quicker, so you’d hav to have a think about it. have “U “Ultimately it came down ju going with Sonic to just

because the relationship was already there.”

Love recalled his fondness of the Porsche from the moment he first sat behind the wheel, but explained that it took a little while to get used to the handling characteristics.

“Having a fair bit of grunt behind me certainly felt good and being able to spin up the rear tyres was something really different,” he said.

“The car moving around was a massively different feel, it felt like I was in a boat the first few days, so that was certainly something different. It was definitely a big learning curve but at the end of the first day we were starting to get used to it, (and) made some head ground.”

Before the end of his successful campaign in the GT3 Cup Challenge, Love made his debut for Sonic at the Gold Coast in the top tier Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Series.

A category that has bred the likes of Fabian Coulthard, David Reynolds, Nick Percat and Matt Campbell, Love at the age of 17 became the youngest driver to ever compete in the series.

“We decided if we were gonna have a look at doing the series in 2020 we might as well do a round and get used to the next level of intensity and commitment, so we did,” he said.

“It was one of my favourite weekends’ of racing to date, just because the pressure wasn’t there trying to get a result. It was just taking everything in that I could to try and improve for this year.”

The progression into a full-time Carrera Cup drive was secured for this season and Love came out the blocks firing on the streets of Adelaide and Albert Park, which he mainly credits to the Gold Coast preparation round last year.

“I think it really helped, driving a car like that on a street circuit is challenging to say the least,” he said.

“Being able to go into Adelaide with some knowledge on how the car should react in the first stages of the weekend, I think really helped.”

After the first four races of the season Love is yet to finish outside the top five and sits third in the standings, behind Cooper Murray and former series winner David Wall.

Looking ahead, Love has aspirations of becoming a factory endurance driver, completing internationally in legendary long-distance races such as the Le Mans 24 Hours.

“I would really enjoy racing in the World Endurance Championship, trying to become a factory driver, whether it’s for Porsche, Ferrari or anybody like that,” he said.

“Competing at Le Mans has always been a massive goal for me. At this stage my goal is to progress into the European circuits and to try and form a career over there in endurance racing.”

AutoAction

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Formula One Round 4 British GP

BLOWOUT!

Lewis Hamilton slithered to victory in his home race after a tyre blowout on the last lap Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

DURING THE first 49 of the 52-lap British Grand Prix it seemed like Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas would serenely sweep to another one/two finish. But that all changed when the left front tyres delaminated on both cars.

Bottas’ tyre failed at the start of lap 50, so he had to complete an entire lap before pitting for fresh rubber. Hamilton’s tyre crumpled halfway around the last lap when he had a 30-second lead over the hardcharging Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.

Hamilton managed to keep things relatively under control, and he crossed the finish line 5.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

“As the minutes go by I feel worse and worse as I realise what just happened!”

Hamilton said after win number 87. “In the heat of the moment you have the adrenalin going, and I guess that fight for survival instinct comes out.

I was able to stay calm and really measured and try to bring the car home, but I’m just sitting here

Max Verstappen kept the pressure on the Mercedes duo all race but the Red Bull team called in the Dutchman for fresh tyres in the closing laps, a move that ultimately cost them victory. thinking of all the things that could have happened. If the tyre gave up in a highspeed corner or something it would have been a much different picture.”

Daniel Ricciardo started eighth and took fourth, which matches his best finish with the Renault team.

“It feels good for sure,” the Aussie said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m

happy, but as a competitor you always want more. I saw that Charles (Leclerc who finished third in the Ferrari) was 1.1 seconds in front ... I’m like so close! A few more laps and we might have had a podium finish.

“The race had spikes of chaos, and then there was moments a bit of monotony.”

Missing from the action was Nico Hülkenberg whom Racing Point called in to replace Sergio Pérez, who has tested positive for COVID-19. But Hülkenberg did not get to race because his car refused to start.

“The first indication of a problem was when we tried to fire up the car to go to the grid,” said team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

“There was basically a drivetrain seizure.”

There were two chaos spikes in the race,

the first early, and the second in the final laps.

On lap one Alex Albon (Red Bull) sent Kevin Magnussen (Haas) spinning into the wall. That brought out the safety car. The safety car then came out again on lap 13, when something broke on Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri and he crashed into the barriers.

Everybody except Romain Grosjean (Haas) pitted for the hard compound Pirelli slicks and everybody planned to not pit again.

Would the tyres last for such a long stint?

Blisters began appearing on the left fronts of Hamilton and Bottas with a dozen laps remaining.

Then Bottas had his tyre failure.

“I was starting to get more and more vibrations on the front left,” he said. “I didn’t see any debris or anything, so I reported the vibrations and started to manage the tyres, but then the tyre failed suddenly on the start/ finish straight.”

Hamilton, however, was convinced that his own puncture was caused by debris shards from the broken front wing on Kimi Räikkönen’s Alfa.

“That last lap was one of the most challenging laps I have ever had,” Hamilton said. “Up until that point, everything was going relatively smoothly; the tyres felt great and I was doing some management. When I heard Valtteri’s tyre had gone, I looked at mine and everything seemed fine, but I started to back off. Then, it just suddenly deflated down the straight. It was a heart-inyour-mouth feeling and then I was just trying to keep the speed up without damaging the car.”

Charles Leclerc surprised even himself with third in the difficult Ferrari (above) while Daniel Ricciardo (below right) just failed to snatch that spot on the final lap, finishing fourth for Renault.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX 52 LAPS

Tyre failures were the story of the British Grand Prix, a late race puncture costing Valtteri Bottas (above) second place while teammate Lewis Hamilton (top) was lucky to survive his own failure to retain victory.

Ricciardo also had a wild last lap when he grabbed fourth place from Lando Norris, his future McLaren teammate.

“It was nice to get that one on him, and just give them a taste of next year!” Ricciardo quipped. “I’m just kidding! Well, I am but I am not!”

Ricciardo also inherited a place when the left front tyre failed on the McLaren of Carlos Sainz.

After seeing what happened to Bottas, Red Bull called Verstappen in with a lap to go for new tyres.

Had he stayed out he would have won. But then again maybe not. The team found many cuts on his well-used rubber.

“It’s always so easy to say afterwards that we should have just continued – but who would have said that Lewis would have got a puncture?” Verstappen said after finishing second and getting a point for the fastest lap.

“How often does this happen? Normally, never.

So I don’t regret anything. I think we made the right decision.

“They are also the deserved winners. It’s not like I’m upset or disappointed. I’m actually very happy to be second. Normally it would have been third.”

The Ferrari was not all that fast, but Leclerc still wound up third. He had no tyre woes.

“I had nobody in front so I could manage my tyres pretty well,” he said. “So I was not so scared of it. But obviously when they told me on the radio that three people had a puncture, then I slowed down to not take any risk.”

Hamilton’s good job on that last lap earned him a record seventh win in his home grand prix.

“I have never experienced anything like that before,” he said. “We managed to get the car across the line. That last lap is definitely one to remember.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 -

Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Charles Leclerc Daniel Ricciardo Lando Norris Esteban Ocon Pierre Gasly Alexander Albon Lance Stroll Sebastian Vettel Valtteri Bottas George Russell Carlos Sainz Jr. Antonio Giovinazzi Nicholas Latifi Romain Grosjean Kimi Raikkonen Daniil Kvyat Kevin Magnussen Nico Hulkenberg

Mercedes Red Bull/Honda Ferrari Renault McLaren/Renault Renault AlphaTauri/Honda Red Bull/Honda Racing Point/Mercedes Ferrari Mercedes Williams/Mercedes McLaren/Renault Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Williams/Mercedes Haas/Ferrari Alfa Romeo/Ferrari AlphaTauri/Honda Haas/Ferrari Racing Point/Mercedes

1h28m01.283s 5.856s 18.474s 19.650s 22.277s 26.937s 31.188s 32.670s 37.311s 41.857s 42.167s 52.004s 53.370s 54.205s 54.549s 55.050s 1 Lap Accident Collision DNS

Drivers: Hamilton 88, Bottas 58, Verstappen 52, Norris 36, Leclerc 33, Albon 26, Perez 22, Stroll 20, Ricciardo 20, Sainz 15, Ocon 12, Gasly 12, Vettel 10, Giovinazzi 2, Kvyat 1. Magnussen 1 Constructors: Mercedes 146, Red Bull-Honda 78, McLaren-Renault 51, Ferrari 43, Racing Point-Mercedes 42, Renault 32, AlphaTauri-Honda 13, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 2, Haas-Ferrari 1.

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47

Formula One

70th Anniversary Grand Prix

MAX BEATS UP HOT MERCS! Tyres played a role in the outcome of the F1 race at Silverstone for the second consecutive weekend Race Report: DAN KNUTSON Images: LAT

RACE ONE at Silverstone – the British Grand Prix – was all about blowouts.

Whereas in round two at the same track – in the race celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first ever F1 world championship grand prix – Max Verstappen and Red Bull used superior tyre strategy to defeat the Mercedes drivers.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had struggled with blistering tyres in the hot conditions.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Verstappen said after career win number nine, “but after the first stint it seemed like we were really good on tyres. Of course then there was a question mark over how Mercedes were going to go on the hard tyre. But we had a lot of pace in the car. I didn’t really have a lot of tyre issues at all. We just kept pushing.

Everything worked out well: we had the right strategy; everything was running smooth.”

It was Red Bull’s first F1 win at Silverstone since Mark Webber’s victory in the 2012 British Grand Prix. It was after that race that Webber – incensed that the team had taken the new front wing off of his car and given it to teammate Sebastian Vettel in qualifying – said on the car radio: “Not bad for a number two driver!”

Fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo had a messy afternoon at Silverstone in 2020.

He qualified his Renault fifth. But he faded back to 14th in the race due to making three pitstops, and a spin.

“Today was just one of those days where things got progressively worse and worse,” he said. “It was going okay at the beginning, maintaining sixth place and hanging on pace-wise to the cars ahead.

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Max Verstappen kept the pressure on the leading Mercedes pair early (below) and then used superior strategy and better tyre life to beat them.

We pitted for another medium (compound tyre) and I was struggling to hold onto them. We had to pit for the hard. Then it got messy at Turn 3 and I lost the rear defending from Carlos (Sainz) and had the spin. The race was done then. We have to accept it, take it on the chin.”

The Mercedes duo who had dominated the first four races – between them they had led every single lap bar one – so Red Bull knew it would have to something different to try and defeat Mercedes in the race.

Taking a gamble and using the hard compound Pirelli slicks in Qualifying 2 meant that Verstappen could start the race on those tyres whereas the rest of the top 10 qualifiers -- including Bottas who started on pole with Hamilton alongside him – were on the medium tyres.

Bottas led the early laps with Hamilton second and Verstappen third. Both Mercedes cars soon started blistering their tyres, so the drivers had to pit for the hard compound and that gave Verstappen the lead.

“To our surprise and encouragement, when Mercedes pitted for new tyres we still had better pace on our used hard set,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.

“We then switched our strategy to go onto the medium once we got a pit stop clear of Mercedes, and re-emerged just behind Bottas, who Max re-passed within a couple of corners. Max then covered Bottas off by going onto his remaining hard tyre to the end of the race, by which point he was fully in control.”

Hamilton and Bottas, meanwhile were struggling to maintain control.

70TH ANNIVERSARY GRAND PRIX

Ferrari were fundamentally uncompetitive again, Charles Leclerc consistent to finish fifth (above) while teammate Sebastian Vettel continued to struggle at Silverstone for the second weekend in a row.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 -

Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Valtteri Bottas Charles Leclerc Alexander Albon Lance Stroll Nico Hulkenberg Esteban Ocon Lando Norris Daniil Kvyat Pierre Gasly Sebastian Vettel Carlos Sainz Jr. Daniel Ricciardo Kimi Raikkonen Romain Grosjean Antonio Giovinazzi George Russell Nicholas Latifi Kevin Magnussen

Red Bull/Honda Mercedes Mercedes Ferrari Red Bull/Honda Racing Point/Mercedes Racing Point/Mercedes Renault McLaren/Renault AlphaTauri/Honda AlphaTauri/Honda Ferrari McLaren/Renault Renault Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Haas/Ferrari Alfa Romeo/Ferrari Williams/Mercedes Williams/Mercedes Haas/Ferrari

1h19m41.993s 11.326s 19.231s 29.289s 39.146s 42.538s 55.951s 1m04.773s 1m05.544s 1m09.669s 1m10.642s 1m13.370s 1m14.070s 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 Lap Retirement

Drivers: Hamilton 107, Verstappen 77, Bottas 73, Leclerc 45, Norris 38, Albon, 36, Stroll, 28, Perez 22, Ricciardo 20, Ocon 16, Sainz, 15, Gasly 12, Vettel 10, Hulkenberg 6, Govinazzi 2, Kvyat 2, Magnussen 1 Constructors: Mercedes 180, Red Bull-Honda 113, Ferrari 55, McLaren-Renault 53, Racing Point-Mercedes 41, Renault 36, AlphaTauri-Honda 14, Alfa Romeo-Ferrari, Haas-Ferrari 1

Racing Point finally delivered on the potential of its controversial 2020 car, with ‘stand in’ Nico Hulkenberg (above left) outstanding in qualifying to be third, though he finished behind teammate Lance Stroll in the race. Lando Norris (below) was consistent but not ultimately fast enough, finishing ninth in the McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo (above) qualified well but had a torrid race.

“We didn’t expect to struggle with the blistering to the extent we experienced it,” Hamilton said. “The first stint was difficult; in the second stint I was managing the tyres like you cannot believe. I was doing

everything I could to nurse the tyres, but it made no difference to the blistering.”

After making a second pitstop late in the race, Hamilton sliced by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Bottas to claim second place. It

was his 155th podium finish, which ties the record set by Michael Schumacher.

Bottas was not pleased to go from pole to third on the podium.

“I tried to keep up with Max,” Bottas said, “but as soon as I started to push in the final stint the tyres just fell apart. We really struggled with the blistering today; as soon as you have blisters, you lose the grip and the performance, and it becomes very tough.”

So why did Mercedes not dominate like it had in the first four races?

“We knew that in certain conditions we weren’t as competitive as we would like to be and that caught us out today,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff explained. “It’s a

combination of hotter conditions, a highdownforce car, softer compounds and higher tyre pressures that meant that we didn’t have the fastest car today, and we were blistering our tyres far more than the others.”

With a hot weather forecast for the Spanish Grand Prix scheduled for the following weekend, Mercedes would only have a few days to try to figure out why its car struggles in hot conditions.

Meanwhile, the saga swirling around the legality of Racing Point’s rear brake ducts continued with the stewards giving the team a reprimand after F1’s 70th Anniversary GP because it had breached the sporting regulations.

Red Bull wars ... Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) battles with the man who replaced him at the Red Bull senior team, Alex Albon. Gasly qualified ahead but Albon beat him home, finishing fifth.

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MOTOGP WRAP

CZECH GP

BINDER PULLS A BLINDER Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT INCREDIBLY, ROOKIE Brad Binder in just his third MotoGP race, deservedly earned his maiden victory in the premier class.

With superior pace over the field, the South African cruised to most unlikely of Czech Grand Prix wins. In taking the victory, the 24-year-old also rewarded Austrian manufacturer KTM with its first MotoGP win.

Australian Jack Miller, like all 2020 Ducati riders, had a weekend to forget. The Pramac rider was able to salvage a ninth-place finish at the end of the tough Czech event.

Heading into the weekend reigning champion Marc Marquez had to undergo a second surgery on his broken right arm, which forced him to miss the weekend’s action (see below); he was replaced by 2011 Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl.

In practice 1 on Friday, Jack Miller’s teammate Francesco Bagnaia suffered a big crash at Turn 1 and fractured his right knee, the injury forcing Bagnaia to sit out the rest of the weekend.

From the word go, the 2020 Ducatis were off the pace and it was Avintia Racing rider Johann

Zarco who flew the flag for the brand on a yearold machine.

Fabio Quartararo came into the weekend as the favourite after taking two wins on the trot to start the season, however it was obvious early that although he had superior one lap speed, teammate Franco Morbidelli looked to be stronger over a race run.

A dramatic Q1 saw several notable names eliminated.

Miller could only qualify 14th, while Nakagami and Dovi were down in 17th and 18th respectively. This was the worst qualifying position for Dovizioso in his 12-year MotoGP career. More shocks and surprises came in Q2, when it was the old flying Frenchman Zarco who took pole position by a comfortable 0.3s margin.

Quartararo tried hard to beat the benchmark but fell on his final attempt, while Italian Morbidelli was only 0.008s behind in third.

Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales, Pol Espargaro and Binder rounded out the top seven.

The race in Brno did not disappoint and was action from the moment the lights went out.

From seventh, Binder made a reasonable start off the line and was able to work his way

up to third by the end of the second lap.

Harassing the championship leader in the early stages, Binder made his way past Quartararo on lap 9 and quickly reined in Morbidelli.

On lap 13 Binder breezed up the inside of the Italian and marched to a commanding maiden MotoGP victory, by 5.266s.

Morbidelli was still pleased to finish in second position, as it was his first visit to a MotoGP podium.

Despite a penalty, Zarco was able to claim a memorable third, to stand on the podium for the first time since 2018.

On lap 10 Zarco made contact with Pol Espargaro at Turn. The Spaniard missed the apex and ran wide, allowing Zarco up the inside. Espargaro then swept back onto the racing line and made side to side contact with the Frenchman.

The KTM rider was thrown from his bike and Zarco was dealt a long lap penalty for the contact.

Nursing a fractured shoulder, Suzuki rider Alex Rins scored an outstanding fourth place

MARQUEZ’S HOUSEHOLD INJURY BETWEEN THE rounds in Jerez and Brno, reigning champion Marc Marquez did further damage to his right arm ... by opening a window in his house!

The opening of the ‘very big’ window caused the Spaniard to break the plate that had been placed in his arm, after his vicious highside in the opening race of the MotoGP season.

As a result, Marquez was forced to have a second surgery to fix the plate, which will force the #93 factory Honda rider to miss several more races.

“Well as you know, last Monday (the 3rd) Marc had a second surgery on his fractured humerus, that was caused in the Grand Prix of Jerez,” said Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig.

“A domestic accident in his garage opening a very big window created a big pain that consequently broke the plate.”

After the first surgery, Marquez made a triumphant return in practice for the Andalusian Grand Prix but was not fit enough to

50 AutoAction

take part in the race itself.

Puig stressed that the damage within Marquez’s arm warranting the second surgery was not caused by riding the bike.

Explaining that had anyone known that the plate could break, the team would not have allowed Marquez to enter the second Jerez event.

“He felt a lot of pain in the arm and we could see that the plate was broken, probably due to the stress of all this time, but it’s clear that it happened after the Grand Prix,” Puig said.

“I think doctors, for sure, didn’t expect that the plate was broken. That is what they told and informed the rider and the team.

“If they hadn’t informed this, Marc wouldn’t have tried, and Honda would have never let him ride the bike.

“In any case, things happen and its happened. Fortunately, the

finish, narrowly missing out on a podium by 0.139s.

Valentino Rossi finished fifth ahead of Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira, who earnt his best career result in the class.

Championship leader Quartararo sunk like a rock and finished the race down in seventh position ahead of Nakagami.

Aussie Miller rode a mature race to finish ninth ahead of Aleix Espargaro.

Championship contenders Dovizioso and Vinales did not pounce on Quartararo’s tyre troubles, and they finished 11th and 14th respectively.

Standings after Round 3

Quartararo 59, Vinales 42, Morbidelli 31, Dovizioso 31, Binder 28, Zarco 28, Rossi 27, Nakagami 27, Miller 20, Rins 19

Image: LAT

positive point is that this happened in his house, not in Brno or in Austria, because that could have had massive consequences for him.

“From now on Marc will keep going with his process of rehabilitation healing of the bone and the time will tell when he’s ready (to return).” Dan McCarthy

REA RECLAIMS CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD Report: DAN MCCARTHY Images: LAT THE WORLD Superbike Championship returned with two exciting back to back rounds.

The first week in Jerez was controlled

by Ducati rider Scott Redding, while the weekend in Portugal was dominated by reigning champion Jonathan Rea. After a five-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Superbike championship returned with a bang.

The opening round at Phillip Island had seen victories shared between Toprak Razgatlioglu, Alex Lowes and Rea. Former MotoGP rider Scott Redding, racing for the factory Ducati team, scored three third place finishes in Australia but was keen to get on the front foot when racing resumed.

He did just that, the Englishman taking the first race win to beat home Kawasaki rider Rea and Razgatlioglu, as championship leader Lowes struggled for pace and finished down in ninth.

Northern Irishman Rea showed why he is a five-time champion in the Superpole race, gapping Redding quickly to take his second Superpole race win in successive rounds.

Redding came home in second ahead Michael van der Mark, while the Dutchman’s Yamaha teammate Razgatlioglu was forced to retire with a mechanical failure.

Race 2 took place under the sweltering sun and Redding was able to nurse his tyres to the finish, as the two Kawasakis of Rea and Lowes struggled from the first lap.

Redding took his second victory of the season from his Welsh teammate Chaz Davies, who made it a Ducati 1-2 as Razgatlioglu recovered to come home third.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi was fourth ahead of the green machines of Lowes and Rea. At the Algarve International Circuit, Rea was keen to make up for lost ground and certainly did that. Rea clean swept the round by taking the three race wins across the weekend and with that claimed the series lead.

Redding struggled around the technical Portuguese venue, finishing seventh in Race 1. He improved to finish fifth in the Superpole race and second in the final affair.

Razgatlioglu bagged two second place finishes but in the last race came home in a disappointing eighth position.

As a result the two r’s, Rea and Redding, find themselves with a heathy championship margin over the rest of the field.

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Rea 136, Redding 132, Razgatlioglu 103, Lowes 91, van der Mark 82, Davies 75, Bautista 55, Baz 54, Ruben Rinaldi 53,

Image: LAT

AUSSIE REMY Gardner had another Sy Sykes Syke challenging kess 47 round on his #87 Kalex machine, but was able to salvage several points from the weekend. The Moto2 competitor qualified towards the back of the pack in 22nd position for the Czech Grand Prix. Gardner put his head down and marched through the field to finish the 19-lap race in 13th position. After Round 4, Gardner sits 10th in the standings.

MOTOGP CALENDAR TO CONCLUDE IN EUROPE

BINDER’S BONKERS BREAKTHROUGH THE 24-YEAR-OLD Brad Binder announced himself to the world by taking his maiden MotoGP victory in just his third attempt.

In doing so, Binder became the only South African to win in the premier motorcycle class, the first rider to take victory in his rookie MotoGP season in since Marc Marquez in 2013, and gave Austrian manufacturer KTM its first win in the top class.

The stats go on and show that Binder’s win in the Czech Republic will be remembered for a long time to come, Binder himself describing it as the best day of his life.

“Today was the most incredible day of my life so far,” he said in the press conference after the race.

“It’s that day I’ve dreamt of as a child and gosh, for it to come true in my third Grand Prix is scary, I can’t believe it.”

At no point heading into the race did Binder think that victory could be on the cards and is grateful for the jet his KTM mechanics gave him.

“I was quite shocked that I was fifth in warm up,” Binder laughed.

“What a day. My team gave me such an amazing bike, my bike worked so good I can’t even explain, it was actually surprising me today.

“Hats off to my team, they’ve worked so well this

Standings

Image: LAT

weekend. We didn’t start very well but we got the bike to an amazing place, and we won our first Grand Prix together.”

Binder started in the KTM Red Bull Rookies Cup and has riden for the Austrian brand ever since, through all of the lesser categories along the way.

“Since the day I started in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, it’s been a consistent grind to get here. And you know, I came through all the classes with Red Bull KTM and here we are on top and we finally won in MotoGP,” an elated Binder said.

“I need to say a huge thank you to every single person in my box, KTM, the bosses, what an unbelievable day.”

Dan McCarthy

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MOTOGP ORGANISERS FIM and Dorna Sports has announced that the remainder of the MotoGP season will be completed in Europe.

The original plan was to end the season with a trip to South America and Asia in late November and early December, however due to the ongoing global fight against COVID-19 these rounds have been officially canned.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of the Argentina, Thailand and Malaysian Grands Prix this season, and they will be very much missed on the 2020 calendar.” said Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna Sports CEO. “The passion of the fans who often travel across continents to enjoy MotoGP with us in Termas de Rio Hondo, Buriram and Sepang is incredible, creating as they do such an incredible atmosphere and welcome for the sport.”

However, it was announced that an additional 15th round (14th for

Image: LAT

MotoGP) will be added to the 2020 calendar.

The event will take place a week after the Circuit Ricardo Tormo double header in Valencia, Spain from November 2022, and will therefore act as the 2020 season finale for all three tiers.

“The location of the 15th Grand Prix will be announced soon, and we will be back – stronger than ever,” Ezpeleta said.

Although not officially announced where the final round will be held, as Auto Action went to print it appeared likely that the series’ would conclude at the Algarve circuit at Portimao in Portugal for the first time.

The track, famed for its elevation changes, will also host its first Formula 1 race later this season. DM

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51

INTERNATIONAL

WRAP

TURKINGTON LEADS EARLY THE OPENING two weekends of the British Touring Car Championship witnessed four winners in six races at Donington Park and Brands Hatch.

Reigning champion Colin Turkington now holds the ascendency in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i Sport, leading the title by 16-points ahead of 2017 BTCC winner Ash Sutton n in the Aiden Moffat Racing Infiniti Q50.

The latest round at Brands Hatch featured three different winners with Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R driver and title rival Dan Cammish taking the opener, but a puncture dropped him out of the second race, allowing Turkington to take victory.

The weekend ended on a low for Cammish when his engine cut out

Images: LAT

in the final, dropping him out of the event. e It was double delight for West Surrey Racing, as Tom Oliphant took S his h maiden win in the third race.

Turkington scored second in the opener and fifth in the finale, to o extend his title lead as Sutton took e sixth, third and second. s Speedworks driver Tom Ingram was another to start the weekend well, a only for it to end in disappointment. o Ingram finished fourth and second in I the t two opening legs, but an incident with w the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai

i30 Fastback of Chris Smiley, ended his day.

The previous round at Donington Park had Cammish, Turkington and Sutton take race wins, with Smiley scoring a dream debut for Hyundai with second in the final race.

Behind Turkington and Sutton in the points standings, Oliphant sits third ahead of Ingram, Cammish and Rory Butcher, who charged from 25th to fourth in a sterling drive during Race 2 at Brand Hatch.

The next round of the BTCC is at Oulton Park on August 22-23. HM

WET AND WILD IN WHAT was a crazy afternoon of IMSA Sportscar racing at Road America, Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura Team Penske machine took victory.

With the rain tumbling down, former IndyCar star Castroneves overtook race leader Renger van der Zande in the difficult conditions with just five minutes left on the clock.

After a 21-minute race suspension due to the weather conditions and a 22-minute period behind the safety car, the race returned to green with just over seven minutes remaining.

Leader Oliver Jarvis pitted for wet tyres and left van der Zande in the lead.

Despite the spray and the lapped traffic, Castroneves caught and passed van der Zande when the Dutchman made a mistake on the exit of Turn 14.

“I couldn’t see a thing,” Castroneves said. “I noticed a little gap, and every time you have a little gap when there’s a few laps to go, you go for it.”

The race at Road America was the

52 AutoAction

Helio Castroneves snatched a last gasp victory for Penske (above) in dreadful conditions, which also aided Corvette to record a 1-2 in the GTLM class (left). Images: LAT

first since Acura and Team Penske announced that are to part ways at the end of the current season, and was the first victory for the team this season.

“Everybody knows the program is going to be forced to an end, we don’t think about that. We want to finish on a high note, that’s our goal,” Castroneves explained.

Van der Zande and his Australian teammate Ryan Briscoe came home

second in their #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and therefore retained the series lead. The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac was third with Pipo Deriani and Felipe Nasr behind the wheel.

Despite the rain, Corvette powered to its third successive GTLM class victory and second consecutive 1-2 finish.

Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia took the win from the sister Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, however, it not plain sailing for the American brand as both Porsche and BMW threw away the win.

Although Taylor took the lead at the start, it was the #912 Porsche that led much of the first two hours.

But as the race went on conditions worsened and with 55 minutes to go

Earl Bamber in the #912 aquaplaned off the road and became beached at the Turn 1 gravel trap.

The drama out front was not finished, however, when the race restarted John Edwards in the #24 BMW led from Garcia and #911 Porsche driver Nick Tandy.

On the final lap in worsening conditions, both Edwards and Tandy ran off and allowed Corvette a 1-2 finish. Edwards and Jesse Krohn crossed the line third ahead of Tandy and Fred Makowiecki.

The GTD class was won by the Lexus pair Frankie Montecalvo and Townsend Bell, the duo’s first win of the season.

The next round takes place from August 21-23 at Virginia International Raceway. DM

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DA COSTA SEALS E TITLE TECHEETAH DRIVER Antonio Felix da Costa sealed the Formula E Championship by finishing runner up to teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, after a manic run of four events in five days.

All held at Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit in Germany, the two Techeetah drivers took three out of the four race victories, with only BMW i Andretti Motorsport Maximilian Gunther breaking the dominance in the third event.

Another two events follow in Germany as Auto Action goes to print, but da Costa now holds an unassailable 76-point margin to Vergne.

Behind da Costa in the opening event was Audi’s Andre Lotterer for his equal best finish of the season, while opening race victor Sam Bird in his Envision Virgin Racing stepped on the podium for the first time since then.

Another victory for da Costa was notched up in the second race, with Sebastien Buemi in his Nissan e.dams taking second ahead of Audi’s Lucas Di Grassi.

The third event was won by Gunther as da

Images: LAT

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Costa failed to make the podium for only the second time this season, though teammate Vergne finished third behind Dutchman Robin Frijns, his best finish of the season.

Vergne and da Costa ended a dominant run of events for the Techeetah team with a 1-2, heading home Buemi in the last.

Kiwi Mitch Evans is in the fight for third in the title after finishing seventh in the final Berlin ePrix, with four drivers split by as many points heading to the final two rounds. HM

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THE 2020 DTM season kicked off at SpaFrancorchamps in Belgium, with both races dominated by Audi drivers.

It was 2019 series runner-up Nico Muller who made the best start, taking victory in the first race, and now leads the series after the opening round.

Swiss driver Muller was made to work for the victory by reigning series winner Rene Rast, however the German was forced to pit for a second time and replace a punctured tyre.

This allowed Muller to cruise out front to a comfortable 19.5s win from Englishman Jamie Green and Loic Duval.

Rene Rast came home in fifth behind Mike Rockenfeller, while the leading BMW of Philipp Eng finished a disappointing sixth.

The second race went down to the wire between rivals Muller and Rast, this time it was the latter who came out on top.

Rast took the lead from Muller on the Kemmel

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Straight with 10 minutes to go, and despite the pressure from behind he held on to take his first race win of the season.

Muller came up just 0.483s shy of taking the Spa double, while pole sitter Robin Frijns completed another Audi podium lockout.

Green backed up his second-place finish in Race 1 with a fourth in the second encounter, beating Rockenfeller and the best BMW of Sheldon van der Linde. Former F1 driver Robert Kubica scored two 14th place finishes on debut.

The next round of the series takes place at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz circuit in Germany on August 15-16. DM

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COMISKEY/ MCKENZIE ZOOM TO VICTORY Image: Old Mate Photography

IN THEIR recently purchased Pro Buggy, Brett Comiskey and Daniel McKenzie took a late lead and won the Zooms Inglewood Cup off road event on July 18-19.

The event was run in memory of off road racing identity Paul “Zooma” Zacka who was from the Goondiwindi region, a former Australian champion, and one-time member of the Holden Racing Team.

It was staged by the South East Queensland Off Road Racing Association on Sweedman’s property between Inglewood and Texas in Queensland, on a course that had been

extended 5km to 14km.

Two-time World UTV Off Road Champion Comiskey headed the COVID-19 limited 27-car entry in the Aussie Jimco/Nissan V6 Twin Turbo and finished 1m 53s ahead of Jeff McNiven. The latter led virtually from the outset but with about one kilometre remaining on the final lap, had a drive belt failure. A quick repair enabled him to hold on and beat Zack Marsh to the finish line for second by 3mins 40s, while Christian Rich placed fourth. All were racing Can-Ams in the SXS Turbo class.

In fifth spot was Pat Philip (Jimco/Mitsubishi

V6) and he won the ProLite class. Next were Derek Rose and Toby Cooper who posted the fastest time in the Prologue but shortly after the start of Saturday’s three laps, their Southern Cross/Mitsubishi Turbo suffered a broken gear lever. A further delay occurred on Sunday morning with a puncture before they recovered for second in Pro Buggy.

Best of the tin tops was Myles Newbon in his Extreme 4WD Ford F150/Chev SBC in seventh place, ahead of UTV class competitors Paul Herviou and Richard Tassin while Chris Mingay (Raptor Trophy Truck) was 10th

and second in Extreme 2WD. Other class winners were Tony Dalton (Production 4WD Toyota), Luke McNicol (Extreme 4WD Toyota Landcruiser/Chev), John Wisse (SXS Sports Yamaha YXZ 1000R) and Bryan Peterson in Sportslite.

At the end of Saturday’s heats a special stage was put on, for which a local farmer had graded a dirt quarter mile drag strip.

Competitors were split into three classes with McKenzie the best of the buggies, McNicol in tin tops and Mitchell Cross topped the UTVs. GOB

MORANBAH ROUND TO CHAPMAN AFTER HE took over the front running before the end of day one, Clayton Chapman went on to win the Newman an Excavations 100, round three of the Mickey Thompsonn AORRA Queensland Off Road Racing Championship on July 25-26.

Held at the Mackay Offroad Racing Club at Moranbah, Chapman (Unlimited class Razorback/ Toyota 2JZ Turbo) won the 100km event by 38.8s over second placed Brayden Mifsud (Class 6 Polaris RZR Turbo), with Talbot Cox (Unlimited Racer Engineering Carbon/Toyota V8) in third, a further 17.7s adrift.

Following the Prologue which Chapman won, the event which had 51 teams entered started with a single lap of the 6km course and followed by three, two lap runs. Sunday consisted of two, two-lap runs.

Milsud set the early pace and established a near 4s lead after section one. Chapman won the next two ahead of Mlsud, who then struck a driveline issue on the final Saturday section and lost over 20s.

At the overnight break the gap between the two was 23.2s with Cox third ahead of Sybrand de Klerk (Class 6 Can-Am Maverick), Michael Marson (Racer Engineering Carbon/Ford Windsor V8), and Can-Am pilots Jeff McNiven, and Tom and Jake Swinglehurst.

Images: David Batchelor Chapman continued in the lead, winning section five and

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Image: Terry Hill

placing second in the last to take the day.

Just 1.6s 1 6s behind was Tom Swinglehurst, Swinglehurst who was fastest over the final section and finished fourth overall. Third for the day was Cox while Mifud was fourth in front of McNiven and Marson.

After a strong back end of day one where he was second on section four, de Klerk was a retirement on Sunday morning when he misjudged a jump and was forced to stop. Fifth spot overall went to McNiven ahead of Marson and Brett Comiskey

(Unlimited Aussie Jimco/Nissan V6 Twin Turbo).

Class winners included Brian Bradford (Solitco) in Class 2, Tony Patterson (Class 66 Polaris), Aaron Nicoll (Class 3 Rivmasta/Suzuki), Luke Peterson (Class 7 Nissan Patrol), Chris Land (Class 1) and Jason Keane (Class 10 Racer Engineering/ GM Ecotec). GOB

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Image: NQORA-Og Ogmore

SECOND SEVEN TO SOLLITT

AT THE second running of the Pato’s 7 Hour, Chris Sollitt went back-to-back with victories after he teamed up with Peter Nunns in North Queensland Off Road Racing Association’s event at Charters Towers on August 1.

Recent grants to the Milchester Motor Sports Complex allowed for the track to be widened even more since last year.

Racing conditions were also ideal with clear blue skies and a pleasant steady breeze to keep the dust away.

Competitors were split into teams of two and attempted to record as many laps as they could of the 18km course, over the seven hours. Teams were allowed one car on the track at a time, and each carried a Velcro coloured band which they swapped, relay style, allowing the second car to continue.

After the team put in the fastest time in the Prologue, Sollitt (Sollittco/Subaru) completed 16 laps, the most out of anyone, while Nunns, also Sollittco mounted, backed up with 12.

It was by no means an easy victory, with the second placed team of Robert Turner and Cooper Matthews (13 laps in their Pro Buggy Desert Dynamics) and Wes Turner and Gavin Markwell (15 laps in their Can-Am X3) also completing 28 laps, taking the contest right down to the wire.

The final place on the podium went with Jaycob McDonald and Craig Wild (Can-Am, 12 laps) and Simon Levers and Craig Kimber (Southern Cross, 13 laps) for a total of 25 laps. They completed one more that fourth-placed Samantha and Brad Hancock, teamed with Gordon Fletcher and Angela Walker, both crews in Can-Ams. GOB

Image: WAC-B&S Photography

GILL WINS AS FINAL RUN DELETED UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES brought about the conclusion of the Westlakes Automobile Club’ Gadgets Repairs Rallysprint on July 25 at Awabawac Park, Awab.

It was taken out by Taylor Gill and Ryley Brunner, by half a second at first, before the final run was discounted.

Crewing their Subaru Impreza WRX, they won ahead of Peter Granger in his Buggy Special and Brad and Amelia Clarke, also in a WRX. The 40 competitors had four opportunities to tackle the course where Gill and Brunner comfortably took the first run by 10.5s over Andrew Ong (WRX). Finishing 12s behind Gill were the Clarkes, while Granger was a further 3s away.

On the second run, the Clarkes were fastest and narrowed the gap to Gill by 10s, as the leaders were unable to make the top five. It was Chris Granger (Mozzie Special) who was the fastest on run three just beating Peter Granger, and both were clearly faster than Gill. After

three stages, Gill and Brunner held a 10.5s advantage over Peter Granger, with the Clarkes not far behind in third place.

Heavy rain changed conditions dramatically for run four.

Handling the wet best was Peter Granger, who ended up taking the fastest outright time ahead of Ben and Stewart Semple (WRX) in second and the Clarkes third. Gill was 10s slower than Granger, leaving just half a second the difference between the two drivers. But due to the conditions, the last run was deleted from the official results.

Gill and Brunner took the C4 4WD honours while Granger netted the C6 class win class for off road vehicles and buggies. Other class winners were Jack Hunter and Christopher Crane (2WD up to 1.7 litre, Mazda Familia), Riley and Adam Walters in C2 (2WD up to 2.1 litre, Subaru Liberty), Gary Strange win the C3 (2WD over 2.1 litre, Nissan S13). GOB

LAST DITCH WIN FOR MENZIE/ MCGOWAN IT WAS on the final stage that the outcome of the Burnett Sprint #2 Rally was decided, with Ian Menzie and Robert McGowan in their Mitsubishi EVO 9 taking the outright victory.

They finished 4s in front of Tristan Carrigan and Neill Woolley (EVO 6), with Glenn Brinkman and Steven Richardson (EVO 9) third a further 22s behind.

The event was also round two of the KCF Rallysport Short Course Challenge in which Richard Harris and Hugh Reardon-Smith (Mitsubishi Starion) were clear cut winners ahead of Gary Dutton and Giles Harris (Toyota Celica TA22). Third place went to Matthew Dolan and Alex Cherry (Holden Gemini) with that duo taking the series lead as previous front runners Krystle Power and Brad Hurford (Ford Falcon EF XR6) failed to finish.

Thirty-nine crews had several attempts at three stages and their best two efforts counted to the overall time. Over the first stage it was Brinkman who was off to the best start and 8s ahead of Menzies and McGowan, as both teams’ quickest two out or three runs.

Carrigan didn’t do the third run, relying on just two to be a further 6s away.

Brinkman extended his advantage by another 5s through the second stage.

Carrigan was second on the stage and closed the margin to Menzies ever so slightly. There was then just the one run available on the final stage, which would see Brinkman falter.

A blown turbo hose cost him and Richardson nearly 40s and allowed Menzies and Carrigan to go ahead after they posted equal times. Afterwards Menzies admitted that Brinkman was too fast to catch and that his goal had been to just hold off Carrington.

Ten seconds behind Brinkman/Richardson were Ronnie Bustard/Cahal Carey (EVO 7) in fourth ahead of Gerard McConkey/Ben Logan (Subaru Impreza WRX), Richard Galley/John Andreatidis (EVO 8), and Rod Reid/Ray Priest (Mitsubishi Lancer).

Subarus crewed by Erik Johnnson/Larisa Biggar, Todd Webster /Ryan Preston (WRX) and Kim Acworth/Ian Swinbourne (WRX) completed the top 10.

Eleventh placed Thomas Dermody and John Leahy edged out fellow Ford Escort crew Brian O’Neill and David Waters, to win the RWD Class by 8s.

Tim Collingwood and Greg McAndrew (Honda Civic Type R) had a comfortable victory in the FWD class over Emily Jackman/ Niall Cassidy (Hyundai Excel). GOB

Image: CH Images

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40 EXCELS HEAD SA’S RETURN TO RACING

SMALL TALLY AT VALLEY NUMBERS CONTINUED to fall away for the second round of the NAMSC Pointscore at Hidden Valley on July 19 with category races combined at the end of the day.

HQ Holdens had the largest entry where the father/son duo of Marion and Dylan Bujnowski pulled off one-two result in race one. They were chased to the flag by Stavros Mostris as Olivia Agostini beat her mum Angela and Rossi Johnson.

In the second Dylan Bujnowski took the win after Marion Bujnowski had dramas towards the end when he spun out at the final corner, lost his lead and finished sixth. Mostris was second and Johnson was able to split the Agostini girls.

With only the single Improved Production entry, Ross Salmon (Holden Commodore) was included in with the Commodore Cup runners. Subsequently he scored a pair of outright victories as the smaller engine capacity Commodores waned.

Gary Dempsey, who didn’t post a qualifying time, survived to head the group ahead of Shane Smith in race one. Fastest qualifier Geoff Cowie was out early with a timing module failure followed later by David Ling when his engine let go. That caused a red flag, and after the restart Smith speared off, yet was able to return for a distant second.

Cowie was back for race two but didn’t finish the warm up lap due to a dead coil.

Dempsey chased Salmon to Turn 1 where Smith slid off. On lap four Dempsey was blacked flagged for leaking oil from the rear seal and that left Smith to take second.

The categories were merged for race three which Salmon won. Cowie returned, utilising some parts from Dempsey’s car to finish second ahead of Smith. In the HQs, it was 15-year HQ veteran Marion Bujnowski from the back of the grid, just in front of Dylan Bujnowski with Mostris right behind them. GOB

THERE WAS a big turnout of competitors and plenty of action for round three of the South Australian Motor Racing Championship at Mallala on August 1-2.

CIRCUIT EXCELS

FORTY CARS battled for outright honours and the Ryan Pannowitch Memorial.

Asher Johnston won all his heats to dominate the pointscore for the weekend with Danny Errigo collecting a couple of

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FORMULA VEES

EVERY RACE was won by Adam Newton (Sabre 02) but he was kept very busy by Joel Oliver (Jacer V2K) who followed him home in each. Rob Surnam (Stinger) made a slow start but finished strongly on Sunday to grab third. Despite a DNF, Kym Burton (Stag) was a comfortable 1200 Vee winner ahead of Nathan Clifton and Jay Thompson in their Spectres.

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THE FIVE races went to Chris Brown (Toyota AE86) and he topped the points and also took home the silverware for the Michael Rooke Memorial. A consistent run in the Chrysler by Jason Maros bagged him second ahead of Scott Cook (Nissan Silvia), which had been the best of the rest until a DNF in race four.

RACING CARS

AFTER FOUR wins from four starts in Formula Fords, Matthew Roesler (Spectrum 011C) didn’t face the starter in the final race, handing overall victory to Sam Woodland (Van Diemen

PACKED PROGRAM AT SMP’S MRCS AT SYDNEY Motorsport Park on August 1-2, the third round of the NSW Motor Race Championships drew over 200 entrants and a change to the usual weekend format. Five categories qualified and completed their races on day one, with the remaining five doing the business on day two only.

MAZDA RX8 CUP

ONE POINT separated front runners Justin Barnes and Ryan Gorton at the end of the second round. Barnes headed fastest qualifier Gorton through the first two races, before Gorton turned the tables in the last.

Lachlan O’Hara was third in races one and three but was unable to hold out Steve Briffa in the second. Briffa was fifth in the opener behind Shannon McLaine, but was tagged in the last and had to fight back to seventh. In race two McLaine was a weekend retirement with clutch issues.

FORMULA VEES

Images: Tim Nicol

wins to grab second. James Benford was pretty happy to notch up his first Excel win which gave him a well-earned third outright.

The Ryan Pannowitch Memorial belonged to Johnston who led from pole and disappeared into the sunset. However the race ended behind the safety car after Hayden Jericho went off with a couple of laps remaining. The minor places went to Errigo and Benford.

THE RACES featured numerous leaders and positional changes. Winning margins were minimal in each with Aaron Pace edging out fellow Jacer drivers, pole sitter Craig Spark in the first and John McDonald in race two. The latter took the Trophy event, barely ahead of Michael Kinsella (Jacer). Others in the mix were Simon Pace (Checkmate) and Darren Williams (Sabre), while Stephen Butcher (Stinger) scored two 1200cc victories to Michael Gale’s (Mako) one.

HQ HOLDENS

EVEN A tangle in one race couldn’t prevent a tight one-two result for Luke Harrison and Glenn Deering in each of the three outings.

Jack Harrison was first across the line in race two but a 5s penalty placed him fifth to go with his two fourths.

Duane Cambridge fought back from a nudge in the first to take third, before losing coolant in the next and then crashing in race three. Third in the second went to Darren Parker ahead of David Proglio who picked up third in the last.

PRODUCTION TOURING

HSV CLUBSPORT drivers dominated the first two races with a win each to Dan Oostuizer and Matt Holt.

The pair finished ahead Michael el Kavich (Mitsubishi EVO X), Aaron Tebb (Clubsport), Michael Sheargold (Mercedes A45) and Reece McIntosh (VW Golf GTi) in both.

Jack Winter (EVO 9) DNF’d the first due to injector blockages, charged to sixth in the second before being penalised 35s for starting out of his box, and then storming through to win the last ahead of Tebb and Kavich.

Images: Riccardo Be nvenuti

Justin Barnes took out the Mazda RX8 Cup

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Images: David Batchelor

RF06) with Matthew Woodland (Mygale SJ09a) third.

Among the Historics Andrew Ford (Birrana 274) was the man to beat while Melissa Ford (Mallock U2) was gifted second when Jim Doig (Motorlab ASP) jumped the start in the final race, which left him third. Mike Erwin took four wins in the Norax Lotus to be the best of the Non Historics.

AUSTRALIAN SPORTS CARS

A NARROW win went to Philip Andrawos (West) ahead of Ian Eldridge (Stohr) while Brian Smith (West) was third. Yassar Shahin (Radical SR3) and John-Paul Drake (Wolf) were the pace

setters but after a clash in the final race on Saturday, Drake was handed a 30s penalty and neither fronted again.

and brought out the safety car.

Sam Shahin (Porsche) took three wins from three starts.

PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS

SALOON CARS/GROUP N/ HQ HOLDENS

OVERALL HONOURS went to Paul Mitolo (Ferrari 458 Challenge) who narrowly defeated Ian Wilson (TVR Tuscan) for the top step after a weekend of close racing. There was a big gap back to third placed Panayot Boyaci (Porsche 911 Cup).

Nick Paul (Porsche GT3 Cup) took the first win on Saturday but it all went horribly wrong in race one on Sunday, when something broke and he backed it into the wall at the Northern Hairpin

AT THE head of the combined classes Shaun Jamieson scored a whitewash as he beat fellow w Holden Commodore VT Saloon Cars driven by Peters Holmes from David Lines. Kym Burton (Ford Falcon XY GT) grabbed the Group N win with Josh Axford (Ford Escort T/C) not far behind, while Adam Smith (Falcon XW GT) finished third.

The Heinrichs looked ominous among the HQs time Bob Jowett finished third just in front of fellow Honda Civic pilot Justin McClintock, while Graham Bohm had three lonely drives for three fifths.

IMPROVED PRODUCTION O2L

TWO WINS and a second gave Joe Lenthall (Mazda RX7) top honours. He couldn’t match Jordan Cox (Suzuki Swift Turbo) in race one or the early part of race two. Cox retired when the crank sensor bolts failed and Lenthall had no challengers from there although a 5s penalty gave the second race to Scott Tutton (Mitsubishi EVO 3).

Bob Brewer and Nigel Williams (Holden Commodores) finished ahead of Tutton in the opener. They pitted in race two where third went to Peter Hennessy (BMW E36-M3R).

Fourth was David Worrell (Commodore) who was second in the last race when Hennessy had a driveline failure and Tutton also DNF’d.

FORMULA FORDS

PRODUCTION SPORTS

DISPENSATION TO compete with his current Carrera Cup Porsche allowed Duvashen Padayachee to easily take out both races. He was chased home by Geoff Morgan, Sergio Pires, Marcel Zalloua and Casper Tresidder in their earlier variants.

Indrian Padayachee recovered from a spin for sixth in his current spec car, Richard Gartner (Lamborghini Gallardo) pitted with rubber build-up on his tyres, and early leader Andrew Macpherson (Lamborghini Huracan) was delayed when he lost a wheel nut.

Tresidder put a late move on Pires to the runner-up spot in the safety car plagued second race, where Padayachee Snr was fourth in front of Scott Fleming (Roaring Forties GT40) and Gartner, while Paul Bassett (Porsche) was relegated to sixth, penalised for a move that seen Macpherson spin.

THREE COMPREHENSIVE race wins went to Tom Sargent (Mygale). In race one, second placed Josh Buchan (Listec) held off Zach Bates (Mygale) with Jude Bargwanna (Spirit) and Harrison Cooper (Spectrum) chasing.

Buchan was sidelined out of race two with a gear linkage breakage, leaving Bates to fend off Bargwanna as Cooper reclaimed

but they both had a DNF with father Bruce on Saturday and son Joel on Sunday. They tied for third as Darryl Crouch won from Darren Jenkins.

Scott Allen (HQ) and Mark Blyfield (Holden Torana XU-1) had a significant clash in the last which resulted in the latter’s exclusion from the meeting. David Batchelor fourth off Jordan Mazzaroli (Spirit) towards the end. In the last Buchan came through to edge out Bates with Bargwanna close behind.

Mazzaroli was next clear of Cooper who stalled at the start.

Among the Kent class Mitch Gatenby (Spirit) was clearly dominant as Simon Hodges (Spectrum) pipped Shane Nicols (Van Diemen) twice for second, before both were beaten by Dan Frougas (Spectrum).

SUPERSPORTS

ROUND TWO was won by Neale Muston (Radical SR8), taking two outings after a second behind Alex Kenny (Juno LMP3).

Kenny glimpsed the lead in race two before electrical glitches stopped his progress. For the minors Peter Paddon (SR3) beat Peter White (SR8) twice before the latter reversed that in the last. In race one Peter Clare (SR3) was fifth ahead of Stephen Champion, who then eclipsed Clare in the next two.

FORMULA RACE CARS

DESPITE SOME spirited competition from Rod Brincat (Dallara F304), Greg Muddle (Dallara F399) won the three races.

Consistency rewarded Adam Gotch (Mygale F4) with third overall, as Doug Barry (Reynard Formula Holden) was a race one DNF. Garry O’Brien

IMPROVED PRODUCTION U2L

ALTHOUGH JASON Hendy (Nissan Silvia) qualified fastest, he had no answers to the pace of Kurt Macready (Nissan Silvia) and placed second to the three-race winner. Every

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We take a look back at who or what was making news in g the pages of Auto Action 10, 20, 30 & 40 yyears ago

Testing your motor sport knowledge

1980: PLANS WERE underway for the Formula 1 Grand Prix circus to race on Australian shores in 1983. While announcing Alan Jones as an entry in the upcoming Australian Grand Prix, Jane confirmed his plans to host the stars of the World Championship at a cost of $4-5 million.

This budget included a circuit extension of Calder, upgrading of facilities and the cost of importing the Formula 1 field. Also, Paul Newman was confirmed as a Bathurst starter, which had been revealed by Auto Action six weeks prior.

1990: FORGET ABOUT the new VN Commodore Group A, forget Ford announcing its return to motor sport.

Current Auto Action Publisher Bruce Williams drove the race of his life to take out the HQ Nationals at Winton. A protest postrace of the winning HQ was thrown out and Williams was crowned “King of the HQs”.

Ford’s planned re-entry into motor sport wass not through touring cars but the Australian Production Car Championship, with Holden also considering an entry.

2000: IT’S IGNITING. The monster start accident at Oran Park between Paul Morris and Mark Larkham was featured heavily through this issue. Both drivers stepped out of the estimated 170km/h incident but were taken to hospital. Larkham spent the night there, while Morris broke three vertebrae in his lower back. Aero was still being disputed with Mark Skaife saying a reduction would optimise passing opportunities. This was backed up by his two title rivals Garth Tander and Glenn Seton.

2010: REST WAS the key for Jamie Whincup as he mounted a challenge for the 2010 title. With the big endurance events at Phillip Island and Bathurst coming up, Whincup based his championship attack on strong results at these events, in an all out attack. In the US, Marcos Ambrose fell agonisingly close to taking his first win in NASCAR Sprint Cup.

ACROSS

2. WTCR driver Nestor Girolami competed in a round of the TCR Australia Series in 2019, what brand of car did he drive?

5. Who beat Aaron Love to the GT3 Cup Challenge title last year? (surname) 7. Who became the first two-time V8 Ute Racing Series winner? (surname) 10. In what country did Australian Daniel Ricciardo take his maiden Formula 1 Grand Prix victory?

11. Which team won the inaugural Formula 1 constructors title in 1958?

13. Jamie Whincup shares the honour of most consecutive titles won with four, who is the other driver (full name) 15. Who stepped in as David Reynolds’ replacement engineer at the second SMP round last month? (full name) 16. What brand of car did Jack Le Brocq earn four race victories in the 2017 Super2 Series?

17. Who is the reigning British Touring Car champion? (surname only) 19. Which future Formula 1 World Champion made his debut in the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix? (surname) 22. What nationality is WRC rising star Kalle Rovanpera?

23. Peter Janson drove a Cadbury Schweppes

58 AutoAction

C d iin the th 1984 Bathurst B th t sponsoredd VH Commodore 1000, who was his co-driver? (full name) 24. Who replaced Jean-Pierre Jabouille at Renault in 1981? (full name) 26. In what country will the 2020 WTCR season begin in September?

27. Between 1998 and 2002 Ford won only one V8 Supercars race at Hidden Valley, who took that win? (full name) 29. Can you name the one sole Formula 1 squad that remained with V10 engines in 2006, while the other teams changed to V8s?

DOWN

1. For which Formula 1 team did current Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards work for?

2. Damon Hill look destined to win which grand prix driving for Arrows, until Jacques Villeneuve overtook

him on the final lap?

3. How many times did Jean-Pierre Jabouille finish the Le Mans 24 Hours in third position?

4. How many podiums did Aaron Love take in the 2018 Australian Formula 4 Championship?

6. With what team does Calan Williams compete in the FIA Formula 3 Championship?

8. Who won the first FIA Formula 1 World Championship race at Monaco in 1950? (surname) 9. For what team did Rubens Barrichello driver for in the S5000 Championship last year?

12. How many turns make up Hidden Valley Raceway?

14. In what country was Ron Tauranac born?

18. How many race victories has Michael Caruso taken at Hidden Valley Raceway?

20. Which driver won all three races in the opening round of the Trans Am Series on the streets of Adelaide? (full name) 21. Mark Skaife currently holds the record for race wins at Hidden Valley, how many did he win?

25. Dick Johnson Racing/DJR Team Penske has collected the most amount of drivers’ titles with how many?

28. With what team did South Australian Todd Hazelwood make his debut in the Supercars Championship? (abbreviation)

# 1791 Crossword Answers 1 down – Hitech Grand Prix 2 down – McPherson 3 down – Finnish 4 down – Courtney 5 across – Ligier 6 down – five 7 down – Pagenaud 8 down – Gerhard Berger 9 across – twelve 10 across – Hansford 11 down –Aaron Cameron 12 across – Jerez 13 down – BRM 14 across – nine 15 across – Alfa Romeo

16 across – Alain Prost 17 down – Nurburgring 18 down – Senna 19 across – Queensland Raceway 20 down – Audi 21 down – Agostini 22 down – eight 23 down – Minardi 24 across – Calder 25 down – Moreno 26 across – Bright 27 down – Hill 28 across – Oran Park 29 across – McConville 30 across – one

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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

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