Auto Action 50 Years #1805

92 PAGE SPECIAL COLLECTORS’ EDITION BRO N U EPRINT O S AUTO ACTIO F N #1

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SINCE 1971

50 YEARS

Issue #1805 25 Feb to 10 March 2021 $9.95 INC GST

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Retiring seven-time Supercars champion says he’s still racing, it’s just a different role

By BRUCE NEWTON RETIRING SUPERSTAR Jamie Whincup says his final full-time season racing Supercars will not be turned into a “funeral tour”.

The seven-times Supercars champion revealed to Auto Action he would have preferred not to have announced his retirement ahead of the 2021 season.

However, the need to keep staff at Triple Eight Race Engineering fully up-to-date with the management and ownership changes that are currently underway negated that.

Whincup will retire from Supercars racing to become the managing director and team principal of Triple Eight from 2022, replacing Roland Dane, who is stepping back from the business he established in 2003.

Under the new ownership structure businessman and amateur racer Tony Quin is now the biggest shareholder in Triple Eight with a 40 per cent stake.

Whincup ups his share of the business from 15 to 19 per cent, Jessica Dane goes from 27 to 30 per cent, Roland Dane retains 11 per cent and Paul Dumbrell and Tim Miles have sold out but retain an alternate position on the T8 board between them.

Part of the reason Whincup doesn’t want to have a farewell tour in the same way as his former team-mate and endurance co-driver Craig Lowndes, is he regards himself as staying fully committed to Supercars and T8, just in a different role.

“Right now it’s not a massive factor. I certainly don’t want a funeral tour where I am going to each event going ‘this is my last time’.

“It might be my last time driving full-time but I will be back at that circuit a year later still racing, but in a different form.

“In some ways I didn’t want to make the announcement at the start of the year. I wanted to leave it until the end of the year, just so I didn’t have to go through the funeral tour.

“But when you weigh it all up it’s really critical we tell the staff first and foremost what the plan is, so they have a clear direction on what’s happening moving forward.

“So we made a clear direction to make the announcement at the start of the year.

“So I will be avoiding any wave to crowd tribute thing as much as possible. They might make me do something, but if it’s my choice I certainly won’t be doing any of that because I am not dying, I am just changing my job slightly.”

Whincup revealed his retirement plan firmed

WHINCUP: ‘NO FUNERAL TOUR FOR ME’ in the third quarter of 2020 as the restructure of the business started to take shape.

“I had made RD aware that I am interested [in the management role] and we started talking seriously about six months ago about making that transition happen in 2021-22.

“But I have been talking about this transition for about 18 months.

“It was just a slow transition.”

Whincup said his motivation was high for his final season, although not primarily because of that.

“The motivation is right up there because of the changes we have made,” Whincup said.

“There is a new engineer [Wes McDougall] this year, new corporate partners onboard, so quite a fresh sort of beginning for me plus a small element for me that this is the last time full-time.

“I’d like to think I have been 100 per cent motivated and done whatever I can in every other championship to prepare well and do the best job possible.

“If I could just up it by 10 per cent this year, then what the hell was I doing last year?”

Whincup enters the season undoubtedly among the favourites to win the championship.

His primary rivals will be his team-mate Shane van Gisbergen, Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters and DJR duo Anton De Pasquale ad Will Davison.

Chaz Mostert and Walkinshaw Andretti United are also looking potential frontrunners, although expectations of better pace from his new Holden Commodore ZB have yet to be proven.

Missing from the battle will be triple champion Scott McLaughlin, who has

shifted to the USA to race IndyCars for Team Penske.

Whincup was the Kiwi’s primary championship challenger in 2020, although a crash and DNF in the Bathurst 1000 meant he slipped to fourth in the final standings.

“Half the field could be in contention,” Whincup said. “The Walkinshaw guys will step up. Tickford and Cam Waters were very quick toward the end of last year.

“There are threats from everywhere. I am not ruling anyone out because there is so much potential out there. You could certainly see a Mark Winterbottom, a Scotty Pye or a Davey Reynolds having a big go.

“I am sure here will be plenty of guys capable of upping their performance and being a threat to anyone on a given day.”

The championship kicks off with this weekend’s Mount Panorama 500 with two 250km sprint races.

“I don’t commit to any championship without thinking I am good enough to do the job and I certainly have all the tools to do the job,” said Whincup. “It’s going to be up to me and the engineers and the mechanics to make sure we do that.

“I certainly wouldn’t be signed up for this year if I didn’t think I could do the job.”

Whincup hasn’t won the championship since 2017, but says he knows what he needs to do to correct that situation.

“Just probably be more consistent,” he said. “We had some good results [in 2020] but didn’t quite complete it. More consistency is the key.”

Despite that need for more consistency, Whincup’s partnership with engineer David Cauchi has been ended for 2021. He joins

with new recruit McDougall, while Cauchi partners with van Gisbergen. The shifts were trigged by Grant MacPherson’s move to WAU. “It was the right for the team,” Whincup said of Cauchi’s move. “I’m excited with the new partnership with Wes, but it was the right thing for everyone involved that I took on the new guy on the block.

“Change can be as good as a holiday as well. Cauchi and I worked together for a long time.”

Co-driving chances

JAMIE WHINCUP will make the call on his potential Supercars co-driving future toward the end of 2021, when he has a better grasp of his new workload as T8 MD and team principal.

“That will be the only thing. If the workload there is too great and I feel I need to dedicate all my time to that rather than being a co-driver as well,” he said.

Whincup hasn’t won Bathurst since 2012, but he says chasing more wins won’t over-rule logic.

“I’d be happy with one Bathurst win but I somehow got four. It’s been tough the last few years but we’ll see what 2021 brings.”

A win with Craig Lowndes this year would “probably not” not influence his codriving decision, he said. Whincup said he would definitely nominate to continue as a Supercars commissioner, a role he started in late 2019: “I love the role and I certainly want to continue, but that’s up to the team members.”

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EREBUS RISING New dawn for most changed team

By MARK FOGARTY HARD-NOSED Erebus boss Barry Ryan is convinced the fan-favourite underdog team will bounce back from almost unprecedented offseason upheaval.

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Under-siege Ryan has shrugged off the turmoil, declaring: “All the changes have been a massive positive.”

Erebus lost drivers David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale, title sponsor Penrite and key

engineers in a huge shake-up, after under-performing in 2020.

Young guns Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki step in, supported by an internally promoted engineering team, plus new car sponsors.

Boost Mobile is backing Kostecki’s entry, while WD-40 is set to be unveiled as the main supporter of Brown’s car at this weekend’s Bathurst seasonopener.

Erebus Motorsport, owned by wealthy eccentric Betty Klimenko, is one of the most popular teams because it has been a giant-killer, winning Bathurst in 2017 and challenging the established order until last year.

Friction with straight-talking Ryan led to Reynolds escaping his 10-year contract after just one season, fleeing to Kelly Grove Racing, where he has since been joined by Penrite.

De Pasquale was poached by DJR to replace Scott McLaughlin, with the changes and mid-season turmoil triggering a walkout of experienced staff.

Despite the off-season departures, team chief Ryan is adamant the reorganised squad is in good shape to regain its mojo as the top independent squad.

RACE FOR WHINCUP SEAT STILL OPEN Long list of possibles include Supercars stars Mostert and Waters

By BRUCE NEWTON

“So far, the team has been working really well, happier, more gelled,” he said.

“It’s all been a massive positive We have a solid engineering base.

“We expect to hit the ground running. There are no unrealistically high expectations.

We’ll just go out and do what we do.”

Ryan was encouraged by Brown’s quickest time at the southern teams’ pre-season test at Winton last Friday (February 19), set in early cooler conditions, as well as Kostecki’s strong showing.

“That was genuine speed,” he asserted. “We were competitive all day.”

Ryan remained defiant about the exodus of drivers, staff and title sponsor.

“We’re not going to miss anyone,” he said. “We’re just moving on.”

Primary driver recruit Will Brown isn’t the least bit fazed by Erebus’s off-season churn.

“I’ve been there for the highs and lows,” he said, referring to his previous involvement as Reynolds’ Bathurst co-driver.

“Since I’ve been there, it’s the most positive I’ve seen the team.

“Everyone’s working awesome together, everyone’s excited, just

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keen to go racing. We’re having a lot of fun. I reckon it’s going to be a good year.

“We’re not worried about what’s happened before. We’re all looking ahead. It’s a fresh start.

We have goals.”

The inaugural TCR Australia champion in 2019 is keeping his first-season Supercars goals close to his chest – but they are clearly lofty.

“To be honest, I do have expectations, but I haven’t been saying them because people will think they’re unrealistic,” Brown said.

“We’ll just keep those expectations to ourselves and chip away during the year and do the best the job the team and I can do, and we’ll see where that puts us.”

As well as applauding Brown’s inherent speed, Ryan praised Kostecki’s mechanical understanding.

“He has a really good engineering base,” he said.

The feisty Erebus racing boss, who has the unswerving support of team owner Betty Klimenko, also admires the fact that Kostecki isn’t intimidated by reputations.

The Perth-born rookie upstaged Jamie Whincup in last year’s Bathurst 1000, forcing the seventime V8 champion into a mistake that saw him crash out.

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DEFYING PAST habit, Triple Eight Race Engineering has not yet selected a replacement for retiring Jamie Whincup.

Instead, the race for the seat in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro in 2022 still appears to be open with the potential candidates ranging from some of Whincup’s current rivals to rookies who have yet to enter the category.

Leading contenders mooted include current WAU star Chaz Mostert and Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters, who are both understood to have contract exit clauses that could be exercised this year depending on results.

Both are winners and both are under 30. Brad Jones Racing’s Nick Percat also has undoubted speed, though is a little older at 32.

If any of them were to move to T8 it would trigger a cascading round of seat swapping that some team owners are already mulling over.

For instance, Team 18 boss Charlie Schwerkolt is already moving to lock in Scott Pye on a new deal (see page 6).

Promising youngsters yet to fulfill their potential such as Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq, Todd Hazelwood, Brodie Kostecki and Bryce Fullwood get mentions as possibles for the drive, although sources familiar with the latter’s situation suggest he would be hard to extract from WAU. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 43-year old T8 enduro driver Garth Tander has been mooted if a short term solution is necessary.

The Porsche factory racer and 2017 T8 endurance co-driver Matt Campbell is said to be a favourite of outgoing team boss Roland Dane, who has long espoused an interest in bringing in an international driver to race in Supercars.

Campbell’s former Porsche team-mate and 2015 and 2017 Le Mans 24-hour winner, the New Zealander Earl Bamber, has also been mentioned in dispatches.

Of course, many of the drivers linked to the seat will have contracts that allegedly prohibit them from being eligible. But as Dame himself pointed out the day the news of Whincup’s retirement broke: “I’ve never been as popular as I have been the last couple of hours … with people telling me their contracts don’t really mean anything,” he said.

Supercars development series favourite Broc Feeney, who swapped from Tickford Racing to drive a T8 Commodore with Red Bull (and Boost mobile) sponsorship under the significant 888 number, is already guaranteed the drive according to pitlane scuttlebutt.

But that’s something T8 and the Feeney camp insist is not true.

“He is in the mix, but we are not going to favour him,” said Whincup, who will replace

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Dane as Triple Eight Race Engineering managing director and team principal in 2022.

Whincup is open to a young driver going into his car, which can’t hurt Feeney’s prospects. It also means his team-mate Angelo Mouzouris has a shot, the seven-time Supercars champ said.

“Both guys have got equal opportunity to prove themselves and grab the #88 seat for next year.

“You need someone with the right values and the right attitudes and they need to be the right fit for Triple Eight. If we need to we will upskill that person to get the most out of themselves.”

Whincup himself will play a role in the decision-making process, as will Roland Dane and daughter Jessica, who is also a significant T8 shareholder.

The company’s newest and largest shareholder, Tony Quinn, will also be consulted.

It has been suggested he is a prime barracker for Bamber, who co-drove van Gisbergen impressively in 2018.

But Whincup said Quinn hadn’t been pushing that line.

“It will be a collective decision,” confirmed Whincup. “We’ll try and be involved in the interviews as well. The group of us will make the decision.

“We are not going to discriminate based on where they were born, whether they are male or female. We are just going to get the best person for the job.”

Roland Dane has previously signed and re-signed new drivers up to years in advance, most famously locking Shane van Gisbergen in for a 2016 drive in 2014.

People noting that is not happening this time include van Gisbergen himself.

“It’s very un-Triple Eight not to have a succession plan,” he said. “I was signed up end of 2014 for 2016. It’s big shoes to fill, so it’s going to be interesting to see who steps up and who wants it the most, and where they go for the second driver. But, for sure, it’ll be a good choice.”

Van Gisbergen favours an experienced driver to become his team-mate in 2022, for the scheduled first year of the Gen3 formula.

“You obviously want to have a good teammate and especially with Gen3, new rules, you need someone who’s pretty technically sound,” van Gisbergen explained.

“There’s going to be a lot of development in the next year or two, so you need someone who’s on it and knows what they want from a car, so you can progress quickly because next year’s a big rule change.

“On the other hand, as a rookie, they’re completely new cars, so everyone’s learning at that stage as well. So to bring a rookie in would be easier, but then at a top team you want someone who knows what they want, so, yeah, there’s two sides of the coin to look at.”

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“HE’S THE REAL DEAL”

Team 18 moves to re-sign hard-charging Scott Pye

By BRUCE NEWTON TEAM 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt will move early in the Supercars season to renew Scott Pye’s contract.

The South Australian’s two-year deal expires at the end of 2021, but Schwerkolt isn’t waiting around to secure Pye, who scored three podiums for Team 18 in his first season driving the DeWalt Holden Commodore ZB. “He’s improving all the time and I am going to say that he’s the real deal. He’s got it, he can do it and I think he can do it for our team,” declared Schwerkolt.

Schwerkolt’s early move makes sense considering the turbulence that could be generated in the driver market with Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup stepping out of one of the championship’s best drives at the end of the season.

While some speculation has linked Pye with the T8 seat – he is a former protégé of team boss Roland Dane – other Supercar squads could also be on the hunt for out-of-contract talent depending on who replaces Whincup.

There’s no doubt Pye’s 2020 season was amongst his best. After a slow start he rocketed forward in the championship to finish ninth in the drivers’ points table, pipping team-mate Mark Winterbottom in the Irwin Commodore.

Along with his podiums, Pye’s season was highlighted by a series of charging drives up the order. The downside of that was some of those efforts were triggered by poor qualifying.

Getting up the grid is a priority for Pye and his engineer Phil Keed in 2021.

Schwerkolt has seen enough to know he wants Pye to stay, having already extended Winterbottom out to the end of 2022.

“His contract ends this year but I am very, very confident that we will be negotiating early to keep him onboard,” said Schwerkolt.

“He fits our team, I like him and he fits the Team 18 mould of where we want to be.

“I would be very confident he would be there in the future for us.”

Pye, 31, has made 223 race starts in his Supercars career for one win and 10 podiums.

His full-time debut came with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2013 and since then he has driven for Dick Johnson Racing, DJR Team Penske, Walkinshaw Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United.

He joined Team 18 in its fifth stand-alone season as it expanded from one to two entries.

Keed became his engineer when the Supercars championship resumed after the COVID pause. He then scored three third places across six races in Darwin, followed that with seven top 10s in a row and finished the season with sixth at Bathurst with Dean Fiore co-driving.

“Scotty’s race pace was incredible to watch throughout the year,” said Schwerkolt of 2020. “I dunno how cars he passed, it was staggering.

“But the one lap pace of qualifying, we just couldn’t quite get it there. It was getting better and there were glimpses.

“The smart group of engineers we have got are working on that for sure. But it has to be done without detracting from the race pace. We don’t want to impact that.

“They have been working on that over the offseason.”

Schwerkolt said his desire to retain Pye went beyond any possible Whincup-triggered turbulence in the driver market this year.

“My goal would be to keep him for sure.

“The sponsors love him, we like him, he’s doing a great job and obviously he can drive.”

Along with both drivers finishing in the top 10 in 2020, Team 18 also moved up the teams’ championship order to sixth, nestling it in the heart of pitlane.

Veteran Richard Hollway has been signed from Garry Rogers Motorsport as head of engineering to work with Keed, Winterbottom’s engineer Manuel Sanchez, data guru Mark Sylvester and liaise with technical supplier Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Schwerkolt is clear he expects the performance improvement to continue in 2021 as the team hunts for more podiums and a first win.

“We just need to keep building the team. Building

SKAIFE AND TANDER TO SHARE COMMENTARY THE TV commentary team has been finalised, notably Supercars general manager of television and content Nathan Prendergast confirming that Mark Skaife will not commentate at every round this year.

Prendergast said that the telecast’s new full-time addition, reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander, would step into the co-commentary role at selected events, a statement that contradicts a Supercars media release.

The release stated that Skaife would commentate alongside ‘the voice of Supercars’ Neil Crompton at all 14 rounds.

“Later on in the year at appropriate and scheduled events, Garth will get some seat time in the main commentary role,” Prendergast told selected media including Auto Action.

“We’ll do a schedule like they do in the cricket, where

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we’ll remove Mark Skaife for a bit of time and put Garth in to give him a bit of a run in the main commentary role.”

This suggests that Supercars may be investigating a commentary box shakeup. Prendergast himself admitting that Supercars needs to look ahead, though did stress that both Crompton and Skaife are not moving on any time soon.

“There’s no doubt that no one is in a hurry to push Crompo or Skaife out of their roles, but we certainly always need to look at what’s next, and what the future does look like,” he explained.

“His (Tander’s) key role is pit lane and supports commentary, and a bit of a growth and development role for him in 2021.”

To find out the full Supercars commentary line-up, flick to the Supercars preview from p76-79. Dan McCarthy

Image: LAT

and building,” he said. “We are one of the newest two car teams and we are building our staff to be better and better at pits stops and engineering.

“We are a long way from the others but we are punching pretty hard. We have to go better than last year, but also we have to keep ahead of the people behind us.

“There are a few dark horses behind us such as Walkinshaw Andretti United with Chaz Mostert and a rising young star in Bryce Fullwood. So if we are going to stay where we are in pitlane we have to work exceptionally hard. We just have to do better.

“I want to finish every race in the 10 and hopefully that gets us up there.

“I want to be challenging for podiums and that elusive win throughout the year. I think we can at some places for sure.”

Image: MTR Images

SVG AGREES TO NEW DEAL - STAR STAYING TILL 2024 MARK FOGARTY reveals Triple Eight’s first post-Whincup move

SUPERQUICK KIWI Shane van Gisbergen is set to sign a contract extension with Triple Eight as he prepares for a possible title showdown with future boss Jamie Whincup.

Van Gisbergen is understood to have agreed to a new deal that will keep him at the Brisbane-based supersquad until the end of 2024.

His current contract, extended early last year, is believed to run through 2022 – the first year of Gen3 and, more significantly, the first without Whincup as a full-time driver.

Whincup will take over from Roland Dane as Triple Eight team principal next year, becoming van Gisbergen’s new racing boss.

In the record seven-time Supercars champion’s farewell season, he is regarded by SVG as one of the drivers he’ll have to beat to claim his second Supercars crown.

Van Gisbergen, 31, will take over as Triple Eight’s undisputed team leader next season, unless Whincup’s replacement is another established V8 superstar.

The Gold Coast-based New Zealander, returning to Mount Panorama this weekend as the reigning Bathurst 1000 champion, is poised to consolidate his position as the team’s next spearhead with his contract extension.

It is expected his two-year contract extension through 2024 will be confirmed within days.

In the new-look Red Bull Ampol Racing Commodores, Van Gisbergen and Whincup are among this year’s leading title contenders.

SVG expects his decorated teammate to go out fighting in his final season.

“He’s still going to be as dangerous and as fast as ever, and he’ll be motivated to go out in a good way, for sure,” he said.

While he is not focused on beating Whincup, van Gisbergen admitted he is among those he’ll have to out-perform to add to his 2016 Supercars crown.

“He’s one of them,” he said. “I think it’ll just be the usual guys, the usual teams, battling it out and, as usual, it’s probably the one who makes the least mistakes. Hopefully, that’s us.”

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‘CAM’S MY MAN!’

AS WELL as Jamie Whincup, nominal Supercars title favourite Shane van Gisbergen is looking at ‘the usual suspects’ from DJR and Tickford Racing as his main rivals.

SVG expects DJR to remain Triple Eight’s main opposition, despite the absence of Penske and Scott McLaughlin – with reservations.

“I think so, for the first year at least,” he said. “I think they’ll still have the good parts, good engines and from what I know, same people, so I’m sure they’ll be quick for the first year.

“I think it’s the second year that’ll be the telling point when things run out a bit.”

Disarmingly honest, van Gisbergen questions Anton De Pasquale’s readiness to replace triple champion McLaughlin as a ready made winner, much less returning veteran Will Davison.

“Scott’s a pretty special talent,” he said. “The way he drives, the way he is as a person, he was amazing for them (DJR Team Penske). Are the other two like that? I’m not sure. We’ll see.”

On the brand-new ADP/Davo combo, SVG wonders about the DJR team hierarchy, taking a dig at reject Fabian Coulthard’s secondary role.

“Are the two cars going to be the same – like they haven’t been the last two years!” he quipped. “Who knows? It’s going to be interesting to see how they get treated and how quickly one of them becomes the No.1 or whether they work as a team.

“It’ll be very interesting to see if it’s

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a different dynamic there now.”

Van Gisbergen rates Tickford’s fast-rising star Cam Waters as a big threat, revealing the Mustang driver is one of his favourites to battle.

“He’s been getting stronger and stronger every year and I think he got a lot of confidence last year as we saw, particularly late in the season when he got his first solo win (Tailem Bend) and stuff (Bathurst 1000 pole),” he said. “He’s a pretty awesome young kid and he’s been racing a lot over the summer (in speedway), so he’ll be ready to go, for sure.

“He’s always one of the most fun to race against and one of the most fun to follow. You can see he’s always on the limit and pushing hard. It’s pretty cool to watch him drive.

“He’s always exploring the limits, which is cool.” MF

‘PROPER CARS’

FOLLOWING HIS outrageous New Zealand Grand Prix open-wheeler victory, Supercars stalwart Shane van Gisbergen is keen to try V8-powered S5000 racing.

He stormed to success in last month’s NZGP from the pit lane, devouring the class Toyota Racing Series field.

SVG, who admits he never had single-seater aspirations, would now like to try an S5000, which you’d think would suit his proven versatility and love of sheer speed.

Undoubtedly, S5000 organiser ARG would love to have Supercar star like

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him as a guest driver, but he laments that racing politics likely stand in the way.

“They look all right,” van Gisbergen said. “Could be cool to have a go, but I think there are probably too many political things at the moment to allow that to happen.

“But, yeah, they look like cool cars.

Not too much aero and big grunt. I think that’d be good to race. Proper.”

Reading between the lines, he’d probably struggle to get permission from Triple Eight boss Roland Dane to race an S5000, along with resistance from Supercars.

Van Gisbergen’s NZGP win raises the question of whether he’s had the opportunity through Red Bull to try an F1 car.

“I never had the F1 dream and I don’t think I’d fit in the things,” he reported. “I’d be too big and too heavy. Anyway, it’s never been talked about. I’ve never had the opportunity.”

SVG admitted his NZGP win made him wonder.

“It was a pleasant surprise to be that quick and go that good,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d be that good in those cars and there were some pretty good drivers there.

“Certainly, it gets you thinking and maybe I was good enough to go overseas to Europe, but I don’t have any regrets. I love what I do.

“It was certainly pretty cool to be so quick, but I don’t aspire to do that stuff. Maybe it would be good to have a go [in an F1 car] one day and see how I’d go, but I really don’t think it’s going to happen.” MF

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LATEST NEWS

IT HAS been announced by Supercars general manager of television and content Nathan Prendergast that the popular documentary series Inside Line will begin to air in winter of this year. He confirmed to Auto Action that the new series follows Walkinshaw Andretti United throughout the COVID-19 plagued Supercars Championship in 2020. Plans are being finalised for the next season of the show, with the documentary series expected to focus on another team. DM

SUPERCARS’ GENERAL manager of television and content Nathan Prendergast revealed to Auto Action some more details of the Network Seven deal. Three of the six free-to-air Supercars rounds were confirmed and will include both Bathurst rounds, the 500 and 1000, as well as the season-ending Gold Coast 600. AA understands that the Townsville round will also be on free-to-air. Seven will also have increased rights to live coverage of support categories including Super2 and Carrera Cup. DM

DJR WOULD CONISDER SCOTTY WILDCARD Hunt for stand-by Bathurst 1000 co-driver is underway

By BRUCE NEWTON WHILE DICK Johnson Racing continues the hunt for a quality driver to act as cover for Scott McLaughlin if he is unable to make it back from his US IndyCar campaign in time for the Bathurst 1000, the team has signalled its willingness to enter him as a wildcard in a late season sprint race.

As reported in Auto Action 1804, the Team Penske driver is keen for a wildcard shot whether or not he contests the Bathurst 1000, something that looks questionable based on current IndyCar and Supercars calendars and quarantine rules.

Now DJR team boss Ryan Story has signalled he would back a McLaughlin wildcard in the right circumstances, although he also remains hopeful the three-times Supercars championship will be right for the 1000.

“Now that we are seeing the vaccine roll out we are going to see what that means to the state of play across the globe,” said Story.

“We have seen lockdowns in Victoria as recently as last week, so COVID is still with us in a big way.

“But calendar permitting and all these COVID challenges permitting, we are still hopeful we can get Scott to Bathurst as a co-driver for us.”

Story said DJR continues to develop contingency plans around a McLaughlin Bathurst no-show.

Image: LAT

Essentially, DJR has to find a credentialled driver willing to miss out on one of the best drives in the race if McLaughlin makes it to the 1000.

“We’ve naturally gone through the existing driver market and reached out to some specific individuals who we think would be a good fit within the team, and tried to put together an arguable compelling opportunity that may or may not see them co-drive at Bathurst,” Story explained.

“It’s certainly not without its challenges, but ultimately we’d love to see Scotty in the car if we can make that happen.”

Story declined to say whether he had found any drivers willing to take the punt on a McLaughlin no-show.

Beyond the October classic, Story said the wildcard project was doable, although he made it clear it would only happen in the right circumstances and did not impact on the championship aspirations of new drivers Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison, or DJR’s teams’ championship ambitions.

“We could do a wildcard and we could stack things up commercially and work with Team Penske to put something on the table.

“It’s naturally something we’d look at.

“But it’s not something I would do that would potentially jeopardise an ultimate championship result or a bigger result for us … I wouldn’t want to do it as a distraction or novelty. I would want to do it for all the right reasons.

“There’s certainly not many things I enjoy more than seeing Scott McLaughlin driving a Shell V-Power Ford Mustang Supercar.”

McLaughlin is only contractually tied to DJR for the Bathurst 1000, suggesting he could theoretically drive a wildcard entry for another team.

“I can’t see that happening,” said Story. “I couldn’t imagine him driving for anyone else.”

•New DJR signing Anton De Pasquale has also backed the prospect of racing against McLaughlin as his team-mate. See page 10.

CO-DRIVER SEATS FILLING FAST

THE INTRODUCTION of experienced engineer Richard Hollway to Team18 during the offseason has started off promisingly according to Mark Winterbottom. “He’s a great personality, a great fit,” said Winterbottom. “We’re lucky to have him. We’ve tried for a few years to get him and to get him across has been fantastic.

He’s good, he’s got a lot of structure, he stands over the two engineers and keeps an eye on everything that’s going on.” HM

THE AUSTRALIAN Prototype Series (APS) has announced its four round 2021 calendar.

This year the APS schedule will be highlighted by a round as a Supercars support category at Winton Motor Raceway at the end of May. This is the second round and comes after a trip to Sydney Motorsport Park several weeks earlier. The calendar is concluded with a trip to Sandown and The Bend Motorsport Park, before a non-championship endurance event is set to be run at a venue to be determined. DM

8 AutoAction

A FLURRY of co-driver announcements has occurred during the last fortnight, leaving few seats remaining for the sole Supercars endurance event at Bathurst.

Tickford Racing announced that James Moffat will continue with the team this season, joining the previously announced Thomas Randle and returning Frenchman Alex Premat, who was impacted by travel restrictions last year.

“Finally, I’m mega delighted to come back to the Bathurst 1000,” Prémat said.

“I missed it so much last year and I am ready to put my hat in the ring this season.

“I’m very motivated to come back, especially after seeing how well the Tickford team did in 2020. I can’t wait to get back to Australia later this year and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Driver pairings are to be announced closer to the event, though Moffat and Randle completed laps at Winton as part of the Supercars pre-season test last week.

Erebus Motorsport has matched its youthful fulltime line-up of Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki with experience.

In a reunion of the Ryan and Perkins names, Jack Perkins pairs with Brown for the annual 1000. Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan was a long-term engineer in the Perkins Engineering stable during the 2000s.

David Russell teams with Kostecki in the second entry, with the two Erebus co-drivers bringing a combined 26 Bathurst 1000 starts.

“Both Jack and Dave are very experienced co-drivers who we can rely on to support and guide Will and Brodie respectively,” Ryan said.

“I’m personally very close with Jack after my six years at Perkins Engineering and it’ll be great to tackle Bathurst together in the same team.

“I was also part of Dave Russell’s first co-driver experience, and he’s always been a fast and solid co-driver.”

Team Sydney refugee Chris Pither will co-drive with Macauley Jones at Brad Jones Racing, where the Kiwi’s supporter from last year, Coca-Cola, now holds primary sponsorship.

“It’s great for myself and Coca-Cola to find a home at Brad Jones Racing,” said Pither. “I have enjoyed racing for the team in the past so it’s good to be back on familiar grounds.

“I was aiming to drive full time this season, but the right opportunity wasn’t available. Regardless, I’m grateful and excited to race the Bathurst 1000 with Macauley.

“I am also looking forward to attending rounds throughout the year representing Coca-Cola and working alongside Macauley and the BJR team, so that when October arrives, we’ll be ready to go.”

Auto Action understands the three remaining seats at BJR have also been filled, with Dale Wood set to partner Nick Percat on a two-year deal.

Team18 also finalised its line-up as new addition Michael Caruso joins Mark Winterbottom and James Golding moves across to partner Scott Pye. This leaves Dick Johnson Racing, Team Sydney, Matt Stone Racing and Andre Heimgartner’s Kelly Grove Racing entry as the only remaining seats available for the Bathurst enduro. HM

PERCAT GIVES THUMBS UP FOR NEW STEERING BJR star confident of championship climb in 2021

By BRUCE NEWTON BRAD JONES Racing team leader Nick Percat is confident of a more reliable run at Bathurst this weekend in the Supercars championship opener, following the successful test of a new steering rack for the R&J Batteries Holden Commodore ZB. Designed and manufactured inhouse over the summer, it replaces a Triple Eight Race Engineering design.

The Percat/Thomas Randle entry suffered at least two power steering failures during the Bathurst 1000. Power steering issues had been widespread among Holden teams throughout 2020, because of increased under-bonnet temperatures caused by the longer and re-angled front undertray introduced last season.

To help alleviate the under-bonnet temperatures, Supercars has mandated a servicing vent in the front wheel arch must now be kept open at all times.

But BJR went further by introducing its own steering rack, which Percat gave the thumbs up to after 120 laps of Winton in ultra-hot conditions, at the official test for southern teams last Friday.

Hinting at a Bathurst 1000 pairing in October, Dale Wood also turned some laps in Percat’s Holden.

“We had a new steering rack and stuff which we designed in-house which we needed to get mileage on,” Percat told Auto Action.

“There was a lot of that sort of stuff just to make sure we don’t have the same issues when we go back to Bathurst this year.

“Ours is a complete new system to try and make our power steering better under higher loads at places like Bathurst.

“There was a lot of work on that over Christmas for the guys and girls designing, it, building it and getting it ready. It’s good to go to the test day

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and make sure all that stuff actually did something. ” Percat finished the day eighth fastest of 15 cars on-track, 0.87 sec off the fast time set by Erebus Motorsport rookie Will Brown on decent rubber in the coolest running early in the day.

“We as a team didn’t partake in that (going for a quick time early on fresh tyres),” explained Percat “We set out best time in the morning on a fairly used tyre.

“Like everyone else we are trying to find a bit more time and a bit more speed and trying to think outside the box, trying new set-up philosophies and stuff like that to see if we found any.

“We found a lot of things that didn’t work,” he added. “It was more of a day finding out things

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that didn’t help us go faster unfortunately, but that’s all part of the learning.

“They are things you take off the table when you go to a race meeting, you don’t bother trying them. It’s still very productive even if it doesn’t make the car go faster.

“It was just nice to get out there and drive a Supercar again. It was a highlight just to get out there and enjoy what they are about.”

After scoring two wins and his first Supercars pole position on his way to finishing seventh in the driver’s championship, Percat is confident of improving on that in 2021.

Apart from Bathurst, Percat also lost a swag of potential points in 2020 with a reliability issue in Adelaide and in Darwin, after a

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run-in with Shane van Gisbergen.

“I think we have room to improve still,” he said. “We have pretty good expectations for the year.

“I’d like to think if we can have a little bit more reliability in a few spots and not get caught up with SvG … I think for us the top five in the driver’s championship is the goal.”

• Percat’s team-mate Macauley Jones not only debuted his Commodore in Coca-Cola colours at the test, but also commenced his partnership with new engineer Tom Wettenhall. Previously a BJR data engineer, Wettenhall steps up because Julian Stannard has moved to Queensland, although he continues to contribute to the team remotely.

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LATEST NEWS

ANTON BACKS MCLAUGHLIN WILDCARD

DePasquale would welcome shootout with his friend and rival

By BRUCE NEWTON TRIPLE EIGHT Race Engineering endurance driver Garth Tander will race against his Bathurst winning partner Shane van Gisbergen in this year’s inaugural GT World Challenge Australia. Tander will team up with Yasser Shahin to race a Melbourne Performance Centre-prepared Jamec Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo GT3. The duo has separately had success in the previous Australian GT Championship, but the opening round at Phillip Island will be the first time the combination will compete against one another. HM

JAMES MOFFAT will revert to the Renault Megane R.S. TCR used during the inaugural TCR Australia season. Moffat’s 2020-specification Megane R.S. TCR was severely damaged in an incident involving Garry Rogers Motorsport stablemate Jason Bargwanna’s Peugeot 308 TCR at Symmons Plains. A brakeless Bargwanna cannoned into the Renault at the penultimate turn and ruled both out of the Baskerville leg of race Tasmania. HM

QUEENSLANDER JACK Sipp will progress into Super2 this season, after signing with Eggleston Motorsport. Sipp completed a full season of Super3 back in 2016 and competed in just a single round in 2020, due to the cancellation of events. The 25-year-old has previously raced in state Formula Ford, the Queensland Gemini Series, Australian Rallycross and the Australian Production Car Series alongside his father Tim. HM

THE WINNER of Round 2 of the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship at Phillip Island will be the recipient of the Costanzo Cup. Following on from three-time Gold Star winner John McCormack being honoured at the title’s opening round at Symmons Plains, F5000 rival Alfredo Costanzo will be recognised at the upcoming Phillip island event. The 78-year-old will present the award following the S5000 Feature Race. HM THE TRADITIONAL Easter Bathurst 6 Hour event for production cars has already received 51 confirmed entries with a further 12 intending to compete, pending completion of the entry process. Due to the worldwide pandemic the fifth running of the 6 Hour was delayed until this year. Event organisers Australian Racing Group is confident of eclipsing the 64-car grid record, which took to the start in 2019. HM

10 AutoAction

BRING IT on!

That’s Anton De Pasquale’s reaction to the possibility of Scott McLaughlin racing as a wildcard in a Supercars championship event in a Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang.

The three-time Supercars champion revealed in Auto Action 1804 he would be keen to enter as a wildcard in a late-season Supercars sprint round after he returns down under from his first season of IndyCar racing.

It could be as an alternative or in addition to his contracted commitment with DJR to race in the Bathurst 1000, which is looking ropey at the moment because of COVID quarantine rules.

De Pasquale and McLaughlin have been friends and rivals since their karting days.

The Victorian raced for Erebus Motorsport for the last three seasons before essentially replacing McLaughlin at DJR this year.

The Kiwi departed the Stapylton squad along with majority owner Roger Penske at the end of the 2020 season, prompting the name change from DJR Team Penske.

De Pasquale says he would relish going headto-head with McLaughlin in the same machinery.

“He’s been the benchmark and we have all been chasing him,” De Pasquale told Auto Action. “So for him to up and leave, leaves a bit of hole here.

“For him to come back and race would be awesome.

“I’ve always wanted to be team-mates with him.

We’ve been friends for a long time but I’ve only

Image: MTR Images

ever raced him in Supercars and never really been able to go head-to-head with him on pace.

“So hopefully one day we’ll see.”

De Pasquale said he saw both upsides and downsides in Mclaughlin’s departure for the USA. “Him leaving the sport now I think is a good thing for our sport and for him,” he said. “We want him to go well in IndyCar because it reflects well on us as well as himself.

‘At the same time when the benchmark guy leaves the sport … I am always one who wants to race against the best to be the best.”

De Pasquale has completed a 60km shakedown and one full-day test of his new Shell V-Power Mustang at Queensland Raceway – where he was second fastest - ahead of the opening championship round at Bathurst this weekend (February 26-28).

Apart from settling into the car, De Pasquale has also started building his relationship with his guru engineer Ludo Lacroix.

Lacroix previously engineered McLaughlin but relinquished radio duties to data engineer Richard Harris in 2018, because of his heavy

accent. Harris has now moved on to engineer De Pasquale’s team-mate Will Davison in 2021.

De Pasquale says he has encountered no issues with having Lacroix on the radio.

“At the moment it’s Ludo on my radio and he was at the test and the shakedown and so far it’s been okay,” he said “Generally, I’m pretty good with any sort of accent. I lived overseas for a while, I have European grandparent and so on.

“I am pretty flexible with that stuff and so far we are having no dramas.”

De Pasquale admitted he had tapped McLaughlin for information about Lacroix and his renowned eccentricities ahead of their partnership commencing.

“So far so good, we had the shakedown and then the test and basically we have done a plan he (Lacroix) came up with and stuck to that.

“It’s just getting to understand each other in terms of racing, how we are going to work with, what works and what doesn’t, all that normal stuff.

“So far everything has been really positive.”

GODDARD: MSR HAS CLOSED THE GAP

QUEENSLAND RACEWAY test time-topper Zane Goddard is sure the surprise result reflects improvements at Matt Stone Racing as well as being in the right place at the right time.

And the rookie says it’s a confidence booster heading into the opening round of the 2021 Supercars championship at Mount Panorama next weekend (February 26-28), where he showed speed last year, but also suffered a late-race crash.

Goddard ripped off the fastest time of the test on just his 16th lap in the YellowCover Holden Commodore ZB, in the best conditions of the day at Queensland Raceway.

With the track steadily heating up and therefore slowing, the top gun Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing squads could not best him, although DJR’s Anton De Pasquale came within 0.0061s in the Shell V-Power Ford Mustang.

Emphasising MSR’s good form, Goddard’s rookie team-mate Jake Kostecki was third fastest for the day in the Unit Commodore.

Goddard acknowledged a rookie test just two days prior at QR and good tyre condition helped both he and Kostecki get going quickly when the nine Queensland-based cars – including temporarily transferred Team Sydney – tested at QR on February 12.

But the recast MSR squad, which has a new engineering structure in 2021 following the departure of senior engineer Wes McDougall to Triple Eight, also showed its quality, he said.

“Over the off-season there’s been a lot of work put in, the cars have been prepped extremely well, they are the best I have ever seen them,” the 21year told Auto Action.

Image: MTR Images

“The team has done a good job and to go out and see that the cars are quick is good for everyone there.

“I think we have definitely closed the gap a fair bit, so we can take a lot of positives away from it.”

Goddard and Kostecki had a second rookie test at QR last week, completing a solid preparation for the Mount Panorama 500.

After alternating throughout the 2020 season in the Unit Holden via the unique SuperLite arrangement, they united for the Bathurst 1000.

Kostecki crashed in qualifying and Goddard late in the race, when they were up to 14th. But promising speed was also displayed.

That pace combined with testing has Goddard confident for Bathurst and beyond. His best results from his 2020 program was a 16th in qualifying and 10th-place race-finish.

“Going into Bathurst that [positive test result] makes everyone that bit more excited because everyone wants that feeling again of being on top.

“Obviously, it’s hard to compare because it’s

not comparing apples with apples. It’s not like an official qualifying session where everyone gives everything they have got.

“The goal [this year] has got to be slowly try and creep up the grid. If we can aim to be mid-teens that has got to be a good target to start with.”

The test program was also important for Goddard and his rookie engineer Jack Bellotti in building their relationship. Bellotti was the data engineer on the SuperLite entry in 2020.

Tim Newton, who engineered the SuperLite entry in 2020, will look after Kostecki, while highly experienced engineer Nathan Leech has joined the team to provide guidance for the young crew.

“Mostly at the moment Nathan’s working with Jack because he is super-fresh to it and there is a lot to learn. But once Jack gets up to speed he’ll float more between the two engineers,” Goddard explained. BN Head to autoaction.com.au for our in-depth coverage from the official Supercars test at Queensland Raceway.

MOSTERT ON THE PACE MOSTERT AIMS FOR THE TOP IN 2021

WAU Commodore has improved, confirms engineer

By BRUCE NEWTON

CHAZ MOSTERT’S long-time engineer Adam De Borre has backed up his star driver’s expectations of front-running pace in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden Commodore ZB in the 2021 Supercars Championship.

Mostert recently told Auto Action (see issue 1804) his objective for 2021 was to knock Triple Eight and DJR Team Penske “off their perch”.

While De Borre isn’t using the same sort of emotive language, his confidence has By BRUCE NEWTON been buoyed by the first concerted test programTRIPLE he hasEight beenand ableDJR to conduct with KNOCK off WAUperch and Mostert since transferred their and go for thethey Supercars from Tickford Racing last year. championship.

He alsoChaz believes a summer of upheaval That’s Mostert’s goal this season for driver-engineer relationship will work in with 12 months experience at Walkinshaw his and Mostert’s favour.

Andretti United under his belt and a new Last year’s COVID ZB pause, extended period Holden Commodore Supercar to race. onMostert the road and down testinghis ban worked against shook new Appliances car development.

Online-backed racer at a Phillip Island ride Butlast so week, far in 2021 has 1000 had a cofull-day day whereWAU Bathurst rookieLee testHoldsworth at Winton with driver wassecond-year also confirmed driverseparate Bryce Fullwood, (see story). a 60km shakedown ofWith Mostert’s new chassis at Phillip Island gun engineer Grant McPherson also earlier this month, therole category joining the team in aand new as headtest of day for southern at performance fromSupercars Triple Eightteams this year, Winton last Friday.bullishly about his 2021 Mostert is talking De Borre, who has engineered Mostert prospects. allInbar onethe season since hisleft 2013 2020 Queenslander Tickford championship said incident-packed solid progress Racing for WAUdebut, after nine had been years that made. included winning the 2012 “Last year was a learning year and a development series and 2014 Bathurst building we crash can beat 1000, asyear well and as ahopefully horrendous stronger this year,” said.

Mount Panorama in he 2015 that left him badly injured.

“I think we can have a crack.

Ultimately we want to win it.”

Mostert finished fifth in 2020, equalling his best-ever championship result, highlights included a pole at Tailem Bend and a third in the Bathurst 1000 with Warren Luff. De Borre explained the season became one long test session.

“We were always trying something different last year just to isolate different areas of the car we felt we needed to improve, so that over summer we could use the time we hadWarren to make Mostert andthat co-driver Luffthe parts to 2020 get them thewith car third and assess finished on aon high place them,” De Borre said.Fifth place also at the Bathurst 1000.

“These his are best not massive performance matched championship result (in items and that2019) are going to make you half-a2017 second open into up your “We arequicker, puttingbut a lotthey of effort this year set-up window we have to try and bridgeand thatthat’s gap towhat the two frontbeen trying to do. running teams,” Mostert told Auto Action.

“I think felt our set-up wasyear a bitwe “I toward thewindow end of the narrow. too Wefar couldn’t utilise lot of have the way weren’t away and weadidn’t the I felt opportunity the car needed to set-up andbeing the way best to develop stuff on I wanted Chaz to drive car. We hadfor the road [because of thethe coronavirus] to compromise so heavily last year just so long. because we didn’t have to do allperiod these “It was good to have thetime Christmas things. and start ticking some boxes on some big ‘What we learned todaytrying (last Friday ticket items we are really to pushat Winton) with. is we have opened the window forward back Weterm triedgoal a few changes “Ourup. short is key to come out and got good this feedback.”. swinging year and see what we have The reward, De Borre explained, got forvital those front guys and try and knock wasn’t them offnecessarily their perch.a faster one-lap car but potentially will that be more “At the endone of that the day is theconsistent goal.” over a wider variety of conditions andthan If that sounds a bit more outspoken therefore a more‘one competitive the conservative race at arace time’package. public Mostert finished test daydrivers, secondit just utterances of most the Supercars reflects the fact that at 28 and with eight

Front-running pace and championship challenge on the agenda

seasons in the category, Mostert is getting fastest, one the few cars able to improve impatient for of greater success. in“I’ve late been running. in Supercars for so many years “I’ve gone Winton too manyoftimes now you get to over the mentality sayingto be too Borre “All ‘I’d justoptimistic,” like to moveDe one stepcautioned. ahead in the today showed compared to me wastowe could do a championship last year’. good lapyou’ve aroundbeen Winton with a 42-degree “When in the championship track temp. for over five years you obviously want to the championship car respondedwin andand we that’s kept doing go“But for the one good that lap times on oldme.” tyres, new tyres, thing has eluded heavy fueldescribed loads andthe light fuelresults loads. as That Mostert 2020 awas “bigencouraging.” tick” for his move and proof his De Borre saidambitions going to Bathurst championship are valid.and Sandown thevery firstpositive two rounds theof “It’s beenfor just to beof part tell the team achampionship new team andwould new challenges andhow new much progress goals,” he said. had been made.

“They are two different tracks thatto “We knew yearvery one was always going encompass largenew variety of corners and be tricky withatwo drivers in the team grip work levelsout wewhat see throughout our entire and we had package-wise. championship.

If youthe canCOVID podium at both in “And then to chuck pandemic thoseand tracks then have for there be on theyou road for asogood long,car I think whole year.” itthe was a very successful year for the team.

“We probably achieved more than we

expected and it really made us hungry for Borre said the continuity of his theDeyear ahead.” relationship with McPherson Mostert wasfrom an advantage Mostert knows the compared most rivals.atBoth Triple days when to they bothkey worked Tickford Eight drivers Ford are working with new predecessor, Performance Racing. engineers in 2021 and DJR has had even The Bathurst and championship-winning more upheaval, withvan twoGisbergen new drivers engineer with Shane doesn’t joining theWAU team. start with until May. “I know important continuity is and I “It’s greathow Shippy is coming to the team. hardhaving this category is. Whenuntil you Iknow don’t how see him much influence don’t have gets that perfect he actually here, soin-sync we are relationship still going it’s very easy to make mistake that full-steam ahead on theathings weon were day. working on in the off-season.

“Having thatoflevel experience “He is one thoseofguys who isand not too understanding how everything works set in his waysofand is always looking two … weahead, don’t have testing, steps so it enough will be great forenough us to get time,inenough tyres to be ready for the him and have some more brainpower whole championship prior to season and look a little bit outside thethe box. starting.

“He’s also one of the nicest guys in the “Having Team this continuity hopefully paddock. vibe andwill culture are one put uswe in are goodpretty steadbig where we can finish thing on here at WAU higher upgoing in the to championship in fifth.” and he’s fit in really well with that.”

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LOWNDES TO RACE PORSCHE

LATEST NEWS

MATTHEW PAYNE has claimed New Zealand’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Series. After winning five of the last six races, the Kiwi was ultraconsistent and never finished off the podium to be crowned a deserved champion. Prior to the season Payne had only competed in six car races but came home strong in the final two rounds. Payne joins an impressive list of former Toyota Series winners including F1 drivers in Lando Norris and Lance Stroll, as well as Super2 Series winner Thomas Randle. DM Image: RED Bull Content Pool

RED BULL has been announced as the title sponsor of the 2021 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The Red Bull Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix is scheduled to be the third from last event of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship, and is set to take place at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit from October 22-24. Red Bull has signed a contract with MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna Sports to be the title sponsor of several rounds until the end of 2024. DM

RX-8 CUP competitor Shannon McLaine has launched his new livery for the upcoming season. McLaine scored a maiden race win, second at a round and a fastest lap in 2020.

“We’ll be giving it everything we have this year.

There’s been a lot of work happening behind the scenes over the last couple of months,” said team manager Stephen McLaine. The new livery showcases an increase in sponsorship from McDonalds. The opening round of the RX-8 Cup takes place this weekend at Wakefield Park. HM

SUPERCARS CHAMPION and seven-time Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes will contest the opening two rounds of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia with Wall Racing.

Lowndes will continue his association with the Porsche brand, after joining Earl Bamber Motorsport for last year’s Bathurst 12 Hour where he finished ninth alongside Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor.

Although he was to make his Porsche Carrera Cup Australia debut at last year’s Australian Grand Prix, that event was cancelled after only one race in which Lowndes failed to finish due to a puncture driving a Grove Motorsport entry.

Joining series winning team Wall Racing for the opening two rounds at Sandown and The Bend Motorsport Park, Lowndes is keen to gain extra miles through the season as he approaches another Bathurst 1000 tilt.

“I’m really excited to be joining Wall Racing for the Sandown and Tailem Bend rounds,” said Lowndes.

“Teaming up with David, it will be great to get back behind the wheel of the Porsche after our first real taste was abandoned due to the impact of the pandemic at the Grand Prix last year.

“The 911 GT3 Cup car is obviously a completely different beast to a Supercar, but I aim to be competitive. I also really enjoyed

my Supercar when I competed in the series and in recent years in Carrera Cup Australia.

“They are a massive part of the Wall Racing Team and we look forward to doing our best to repay them throughout 2021. We also welcome back Shannons Insurance to the team after being involved with us over a number of years, including our championship year in 2017.

“For Craig, we look forward to seeing what we can do beyond Sandown and Tailem Bend.”

Wall and Lowndes will be joined by Pro-Am driver Drew Hall in a third entry. HM

WATERS: WE’VE GOT ALL THE INGREDIENTS LAST YEAR’S Supercars Championship and Bathurst 1000 bridesmaid Cameron Waters believes that all the elements are in place to win the title this year.

Waters ended 2021 with a flourish of results, taking his maiden solo Supercars Championship race victory at The Bend Motorsport Park, and fought for the win in the Bathurst 1000 after taking pole position.

The former Sandown 500 winner believes that the team grew stronger last year while travelling on the road and are more than capable of taking the title in 2021.

“For me, coming off a second place, I want to do better and try to win the thing, I think we’ve got all the ingredients to be able to do that,” Waters told Auto Action.

“The team’s definitely been getting stronger over the past few years, being on the road together I think helped us bond a bit more, not work harder, but work in a different way and get the most out of us.

“There were a few things which we were trying when we were on the road and the cars were obviously working quite well towards the end of

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driving the Porsche 911 GT3 R in the Bathurst 12-Hour last year and working with the entire Porsche family.”

Team owner David Wall is delighted to welcome Lowndes to the operation, so too the continued support of Paynter Dixon.

“We are very pleased to announce that Paynter Dixon will be on my car and that Craig is confirmed for the first two rounds,” said Wall.

“I have had an association with Paynter Dixon for a number of years from working on their job sites at an early age, to commercial partners on

front of you,” he said.

“For me it would have been nice to have Scotty here to try to beat him, obviously he was and has been the benchmark the last few years. But in saying that, they’ve still got good drivers at DJR (with Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison.)”

In the Supercars off-season Tickford Racing have built two new Supercars, with Jack le Brocq taking the new TR2025 chassis and Waters the new TR1824.

Image: LAT Waters drove his new chassis late last year in a shakedown at Winton, and returned to the the year. The great thing is we do understand why venue last week for the Victorian teams’ pre(we were fast) ! season test and feels really comfortable in the car.

“It’s not massively different to my old car just a “This year will be as tight as every other year, little bit nicer. Everything they (Tickford) find a little we’ve just got to focus on what we’re doing and bit that they could do slightly better in each build,” put our best foot forward, hopefully it’s enough to he explained. I’m really excited to put it on the track win it.” at a race meeting and put it through its paces.

With Team Penske departing Dick Johnson “I’m looking forward to the season, I think we can Racing (DJR) and Supercars at the end of 2020 continue the momentum (from last year) for sure, and taking with it reigning champion Scott and I hope we build on that a little bit more again.”

McLaughlin, Waters was asked if this opens the For the full Supercars season preview and indoor for his first title. depth chat with Waters flick to pages 76-77.

“The driver changes at DJR aside, you always want to try and go better, doesn’t matter who’s in Dan McCarthy

Four hours of endurance racing under lights Sydney Motorsport Park

Saturday, 6 March

Tickets from www.amrseries.com.au

2021 SUPER2 GRID LOCKED IN

Image: Lou Martin

IN THE Supercars Championship, when the reigning Super2 Series winner and a number other leading contenders progress to the top-tier, it leaves the door wide open for a new winner.

Last year’s series winner Thomas Randle will instead contest the Gold Star in S5000 in 2021, while series runner-up Will Brown joins Erebus Motorsport for his maiden full-time Supercars campaign, alongside a fellow Super2 graduate Brodie Kostecki.

Jordan Boys returns as the only previous Super2 race winner and the highest finishing driver in last year’s championship.

His new Image Racing teammate for 2021 is Jay Robotham, the 18-year-old Victorian replacing the promoted Brown and has

some good form coming into the year.

Robotham won all four Super3 races last year and makes the leap up to Super2 after signing with the Erebus Academy.

The big mover in the off-season was Broc Feeney, the 2019 Super3 Series winner finished seventh in Super2 last year and joins Triple Eight Race Engineering after completing his debut campaign with Tickford Racing.

Angelo Mouzouris remains at Triple Eight to partner Feeney.

Victorian Zak Best replaces Feeney at Tickford Racing, after making his debut with MW Motorsport last year.

Meanwhile, MW Motorsport expands to four-entries in 2021 after winning the last

two titles with Randle and Bryce Fullwood.

Last year’s leading rookie Jayden Ojeda remains at MWM as Josh Fife, Tyler Everingham and Declan Fraser now join the team.

Fife finished fifth for Brad Jones Racing in the 2019 Super3 title before making the step up with the Albury-based Supercars team into the second-tier last year, where he placed 11th.

Everingham returns to MW Motorsport after winning the 2019 Super3 Series with the team and re-joins Ojeda, after the pair contested last year’s Bathurst 1000 in Garry Rogers Motorsport’s wildcard entry.

The final MWM driver is Fraser, who finished runner up to Robotham in a

majority of the Super3 races last year.

Matt Stone Racing’s return to Super2 is spearheaded by TA2 Series winner Aaron Seton, in his second-tier debut.

Eggleston Motorsport will run three entries in 2021 as Jack Sipp returns to Supercars after racing Super3 in the past, while Super3 winner Bradley Neill was the first to be announced by the team.

Filling the third seat is Matt McLean, who debuted at Bathurst last year in the second Matt Chahda Motorsport Ford Falcon FGX, but will race the third Eggleston Holden VF Commodore in the up-coming season.

Matt Chadha and Zane Morse will race for their respective privately run outfits once again this year. Dan McCarthy

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2021 BATHURST INTERNATIONAL DATE CONFIRMED

A DATE has been set for the inaugural Bathurst International event at Mount Panorama, which is expected to attract international entries in coming years.

Originally planned for early last year after winning the tender to conduct a fifth event at Bathurst, the Australian Racing Group soon announced the international concept, with the aim of attracting competitors worldwide to The Mountain.

The worldwide pandemic forced the organisers

to postpone the event until 2021, with the date now set for November 26-28.

Headlined by a two-driver TCR endurance event, the Bathurst 500, which is expected to attract entries both locally and from New Zealand.

The date positions the Bathurst International a week before the Supercars finale on the Gold Coast and three weeks after Pukekohe, enabling drivers with conflicting commitments to compete.

Also, part of the program is the maiden appearance of the S5000 Australian Drivers’

Championship forming part of the category’s summer series.

In a warm-up for the Bathurst 12 Hour in early 2021, GT World Challenge Australia will contest a three-hour long-distance event to decide the Motorsport Australia GT Endurance title.

Following on from the resumption of the Tasmanian Ten Thousand at Baskerville, Trans Am National Series competitors will contest another special event with the Trans Am 100 occurring at the Bathurst International.

Although the planned inaugural in 2020 failed to take place due to the impacts of COVID through the resulting border closures, ARG CEO Matt Braid believes the Bathurst International will become an attractive event for both local and overseas competitors once travel is permitted.

“The Australian Racing Group and Bathurst Regional Council is thrilled to confirm the date for the inaugural Bathurst International,” said Braid.

“The late November date will make this event not only a jewel in the Australian motor sport calendar, but also around the world.

Despite the travel restrictions that exist today, this date will allow the opportunity for

international competitors to consider the Bathurst International as a way to end their season of racing.

“And the beauty is that we have categories that touch all walks of motorsport life. From TCR touring cars to GT cars and high-powered open wheelers. It is a sensational mix that we are sure will draw attention locally and internationally.”

Bathurst Regional Council mayor Cr Bobby Bourke believes the event will enhance the circuit’s global prestige.

“We are excited that a date has been set that will bring the Bathurst International to the iconic Mount Panorama,” said Cr Bourke.

“Mount Panorama has a reputation as one of the best racing circuits in the world. The worldwide exposure of the Bathurst International will elevate Mount Panorama’s prestige, and will showcase the racing circuit and Bathurst to a global audience.

“We are proud to partner with ARG to bring this event to Bathurst that will feature worldclass drivers compete in a great mix of racing categories.”

Heath McAlpine

AMRS SETS UP FOR BIG 2021 THE AUSTRALIAN Motor Racing Series will begin its third season in 2021 at Sydney Motorsport Park, after a fragmented campaign last year due to the impact of the global pandemic.

Last year’s AMRS completed rounds at Winton, Queensland Raceway, Sydney Motorsport Park and had its first trip to Sandown.

These rounds contained many state-based categories to supplement the lack of interstate competitors these normally attract, which is a relationship the AMRS is keen to continue this season.

“All of those rounds were locally-based categories,” explained AMRS series manager Matt Baragwanath. “There was a lot of support from them and the competitors were all very keen to go motor racing.

“From that perspective we were able to deliver some locally-based meetings but not like the national series we normally do.”

For the upcoming opening round of the AMRS at SMP, the NSW Hyundai Excels fill this position, joining the crowd pleasing TA2 Muscle Cars, Super GT, Formula Ford, Formula 3, Enduro Champs, Miniature Race Cars and Stock Cars.

The headline event will be the four-hour Super GT race into the night, utilising SMP’s upgraded lights, which will begin at 4:45pm on Saturday.

A strong entry list including the returning Andrew MacPherson who, along with Ben Porter, have contested the GT World Challenge Asia Series for the last couple of seasons, and they will again team up in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Nick Kelly leads the Audi attack pairing with Barton Mawer, while a large contingent of MARC Cars will head south led by owner of the manufacturer Geoff Taunton, who will be partnered by Brad

Jones Racing endurance driver Chris Pither.

Formula 3 drivers will have a new prize to aim for in 2021, thanks to category stalwart Tim Macrow, who is offering a test in his S5000 to the winner.

The Enduro Champs for Production Cars will contest a quartet of hour races at the venue, whilst Formula Ford will open its 51st season.

Spectators will be allowed to attend the opening round with tickets available online this week.

Support for the AMRS is expected to grow throughout the season, as border restrictions are expected to be reduced during the year.

Morgan Park in May hosts Round 2, followed by Winton in June, then teams travel to Queensland Raceway in August and the penultimate round is at Wakefield Park in October.

All these rounds are fully subscribed, with the final round at The Bend Motorsport Park on December 3-5 yet to have categories scheduled. Heath McAlpine

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14 AutoAction

th Luke West iith wit

Our columnist’s life changed when he faxed off a letter to Flat Chat.

PHILLIP ISLAND RESCHEDULED THE OPENING round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships which was scheduled to occur last weekend, will now take place in March.

Uncertainty surrounding the Victorian snap lockdown and the proximity of the exit date to the event’s commencement, forced Motorsport Australia to move the date to March 12-14.

Australian Racing Group categories will continue to headline the program led by TCR Australia, the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, National Trans Am Series and the first round of GT World Challenge Australia.

These classes will be joined by the Porsche Sprint Challenge.

However, the All Wheels Festival concept won’t be retained due to scheduling conflicts, though discussions between Motorsport Australia and Motorcycling Australia are set to continue to revisit the combined two wheels and four wheels concept.

Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships director Michael Smith was delighted to reveal the rescheduled date.

“We’re really pleased to confirm this new date for the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships and also to be able to secure a new date so quickly,” Smith said.

“I’d like to thank the team at Phillip Island for their flexibility and support, allowing us to put this event on in March.

“Motorsport Australia is in regular dialogue with the Victorian Government about this event and will certainly work to deliver a COVID safe event in line with all restrictions and requirements that may be in place at the time.

“We hope that we will be able to welcome fans to this event, however understandably there is still some uncertainty about what restrictions may be in place. So at this stage we are not offering tickets for sale. This is something we’ll monitor closely and provide regular updates for motorsport fans.

“I’d also like to acknowledge the team at Motorcycling Australia for its hard work in preparing for the 2+4 Australian All Wheels Race Fest. While we are unable to make the joint-event work for this specific date, we’ve formed a great partnership over recent months and fully expect

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this combined event to happen in the very near future.”

Locking in a date which not only fits into the calendar, but was secured quickly, continues the momentum from ARG’s first round in Tasmania according to ARG CEO Matt Braid.

“To secure a replacement date just weeks after the original intended date is an excellent result for the Australian Racing Group’s suite of categories,” Braid said.

“There was simply no way that we could have proceeded with our original event weekend, which was disappointing, but we are grateful to our competitors and sponsors of their understanding during these times.

“The fast result means that the great momentum that was created from our opening round at Symmons Plains remains and we can get back on track.”

Spectator information is unable to be confirmed as yet, however Network Seven will show all the action live on its 7mate and 7plus platforms.

Heath McAlpine

S5000 SUPPORTS SUPERCARS

THE S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship will support the Supercars Championship for the firsttime at Sandown.

The meeting is the replacement for the delayed Australian Grand Prix and forms a double header with the rescheduled Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships, at Phillip Island a week prior.

“Sandown is the spiritual home of the S5000 class and the Formula 5000s of yesteryear, so it’s a great result for the competitors to secure a round at that venue,” said ARG CEO Matt Braid.

“There is no doubt that the fans are the big winners of this announcement. S5000 is the perfect class to compliment the Supercars Championship and, if our opening event there in 2019 was anything to go by, then we’re all going to be treated to some great racing.

“It also means that S5000 will be competing on back-to-back race weekends at Phillip Island and Sandown, so the momentum for this great class is really starting to build.” HM

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TAKING PRIDE of place in my toolbox is the first ‘pay’ I received from Auto Action – a magnificent 23-piece Sidchrome Proto socket set. You canna hand a man a grander spanner, just as you canna hand a reader a finer prize for letter of the week. That was back in 1998, when I used the Flat Chat page to get all manner of views off my chest using the nom de plume of The Reverend Limiter.

I started writing under an alias so I didn’t get my butt kicked by my then boss, John Smailes, today the author of excellent motor racing history books such as Indy 500-focused Speed Kings, but then the owner and driving force behind automotive PR company The Project Group. My role at TPG saw me working on the periphery of the motor sport industry, most notably publicising Toyota’s Australian Rally Championship efforts with the ever affable and talented duo Neal Bates and Coral Taylor.

My letters were a means, long before social media, to vent about perceived injustices I saw at racetracks and my frustration at motor sport’s missed opportunities. And do so without causing problems at work.

Seeing my thoughts published in the bible of Aussie motor racing – a publication I’d read religiously for 17 years prior, having purchased my first issue aged 11 – was payment enough. But then to receive a prize was such a buzz.

While I’ve always been too useless mechanically to ever wield tools on any part of a car, I have proudly assembled all-manner of flatpack furniture and the odd backyard trampoline with my shiny socket set.

Yet the ultimate prize was for my letters, incredibly, to gain a following, which prompted, in mid-2000, then editor Allan Edwards to give me my own weekly column, Reverential Ramblings. Halleluiah!

Most people seemed to enjoy my irreverent musings. The main exception was Russell Ingall, who told at least one editor he’d punch my lights out if I ever came near him. But then, that was all part of his wonderful persona, The Enforcer. I did like to poke fun at Ingall, who I reckon was perfectly caricatured

by Stonie as the boxer who’d worn a few too many blows. Motor sport was full of great characters two decades ago – Dick, Brock, The Kid, Murph and many more.

Anyway, my rather out-there weekly column led to requests for features, then occasional race reports and news stories; all as a freelancer. When the mag moved from Melbourne to Sydney in late 2003 I started working inhouse as a part-time sub-editor.

Like so many others, my work for AA opened the door to some amazing racing, life and career opportunities. In 2011 I left the fold to become editor of Australian Muscle Car magazine, where I stayed for nine years, often pinching myself that a racing-obsessed letter writer could ultimately make a living documenting the sport’s history. My column was dormant during these years.

Now things have turned full circle. I’m back writing under the Revved-Up banner. What a privilege to continue to outline my thoughts – just as I did with my faxed letters for Flat Chat – at a time when the motorsporting sands are shifting faster than ever. And we ain’t seen nothing yet. The rate of change will accelerate in the next few years as new motoring and lifestyles trends take hold.

Much media may have gone online, but an old-fashioned print mag offers a tactile experience you can’t get digitally. To duck into a newsagency to nab a freshly delivered copy of this mag, or any mag really, then devour its contents is one of life’s simple pleasures. Those niceties are more important than ever these days.

A magazine does not notch up a 50th birthday without figuring prominently in thousands of people’s lives. For race fans, Auto Action has been a constant in a changing industry. It pre-dates the Bathurst 1000 and, unimaginably, has outlived Holden. Only Dick Johnson and Garry Rogers have been on the racing scene longer.

AA has outlasted racing mags like Chequered Flag, Racing Car News, Australian Motor Racing, and more recently major rival Motorsport News.

Not that the disappearance of competitors is to be celebrated, as high quality, independent reportage is needed now more than ever. I hope Facebook’s despicable actions of late have made more folk aware of this fact.

When the likes of Mark Fogarty and Bruce Newton ask the hard, probing questions, readers truly get the facts. Without this approach, fake news or agenda-laced reportage would proliferate.

I look forward to seeing how this mag and its role evolves. Who knows, maybe Flat Chat could make a new-age comeback?

AA has already had more facelifts than Phyllis Diller, conveyed more drama than Days Of Our Lives and imparted more wisdom than Yoda. Long live Auto Action.

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

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DOOHAN SIGNS WITH TRIDENT ITALIAN SQUAD Trident Motorsport has signed Australian Jack Doohan for the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The Australian has quickly moved up the open-wheel ranks despite having just three years single seater experience under his belt.

Indeed, the son of five-time 500cc Motorcycle World Champion Mick Doohan, is signed as part of the Red Bull Junior program.

Doohan competed in the third-tier Formula 3 Championship last year with HWA Racelab, but suffered a lot of bad luck.

He ended the season 26th in the standings with a season-high finish of 11th, which came in the final race of the season.

Joining Trident for 2021 is a big opportunity for Doohan, as the team finished second in the Teams’ Championship last year, recording three wins along the way.

The 17-year-old Queenslander drove for Trident in the post-season test and ended it at the top of the timesheets, and as reported by Auto Action at the

time Doohan immediately then signalled his intentions to join the team this season.

“I’m very pleased to join the prestigious and highly competitive Trident team for the 2021 season,” Doohan said.

“Post season testing went Image: LAT very well and I already feel a great atmosphere between the team and myself. I can’t wait to get back to work and start and Jerez in October 2020, he the preparations for the upcoming definitely impressed the team for how season!” quickly he adapted to the car and At Trident, Doohan will be looking scored extremely competitive results. to take race wins and podiums, as “The team is proud to work with him, the son of Motorcycling World will his teammates Clement Novalak Champion Mick Doohan. He quickly and second-generation racer David created excellent chemistry with Schumacher (son of Ralf and nephew the technical staff and all the team of Michael). members, showing great passion and Trident team manager Giacomo Ricci determination in achieving his goals. is delighted to sign Doohan to the When we talk about racing, his eyes team.

“We are extremely pleased to confirm literally glow!”

Doohan already has solid singleJack in the Trident team’s FIA Formula seater results under his belt.

3 Championship line-up,” Ricci said.

In 2018 he took three wins and “In post season testing at Barcelona

DAVISON’S CUP BEST

Image: LAT

AUSSIE JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES James Davison drove to his best NASCAR Cup Series result with a 23rd-place finish at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

The Melbourne-born racer started 39th

in his No. 15 Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing and worked his way through the 40-car field, in an accident-marred race on Daytona’s road course.

Davison, an IndyCar Series part-timer in recent years, is running 15 Cup races for Ware this season.

12 podiums in the British F4 Championship. In 2019 Doohan scored two podiums in Euroformula Open and finished second in the Asian F3 Championship with five wins.

In 2021 Doohan will again be joined on the F3 grid by Australian Calan Williams, while the other F3 Aussies from 2020, reigning champion Oscar Piastri steps up to Formula 2 while Alex Peroni moves to America to race in Indy Lights.

The F3 Championship begins at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from May 7-9.

Dan McCarthy Sunday’s’ race was won by Christopher Bell in a Toyota, his first Cup victory.

Davison, grandson of Australian openwheel legend Lex Davison, participated in the 2020 Cup season on a limited basis.Mike Brudenell

ELLERY’S RETURNS TO JOIN HIS SONS FORMER SUPERCARS driver Steve Ellery returned to racing at Queensland Raceway after a 13-year hiatus.

Ellery raced in Queensland Production Car events last Saturday in a BMW M3 his sons Dalton and Tristan campaigned last year. Ellery Snr was second to teammate Beric Lynton in Races 1 and 2, concluding the third encounter of the weekend in 10th.

Ellery plans to team up with his sons for the Bathurst 6 Hour on Easter Sunday.

He last competed in 2008, admitting he had lost the passion for motorsport.

“Dalton and Tristan got involved with QPC last year, and won many awards,” he said. “They proved they had what it takes to achieve their dream of racing at Bathurst in the 6 hour.

“With that I decided that I would like to achieve a dream of mine, to race with my boys at a track that is so special to me. Bathurst is my mountain; I cannot wait to return there and to share it with my boys – it will be the most amazing experience of my life.”

Ellery began racing in karts before

16 AutoAction

tackling Formula Fords at the helm of a Van Diemen in 1993. From there he campaigned in the Australian Super Touring Championship, first in a Ford Sierra (1994) and a BMW 318i (1995).

He raced an EL Falcon in the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1996-97 before a stint in a Holden Young Lions VS Commodore. He also had a brief run at Dick Johnson Racing, before six years in his own team followed by outings with Triple Eight, Paul Morris and Garry Rogers.

His best Bathurst 1000 result was third on three occasions with Tony Longhurst, Luke Youlden and Adam Macrow.

“Spending time last year with the QPC guys really did reinvigorate my want and love for the sport again. I met people that went racing because they love it, and it really made me start to look at the sport in a different way,” he added “I don’t know what the Mountain has for us this year and I don’t care, the only thing important to me is going racing with the people that mean the world to me, win lose or draw, it doesn’t matter.”

Garry O’Brien

with Oscar Piastri

CAMERON SHIELDS MOVES UP TO INDY PRO AUSTRALIAN CAMERON Shields has taken the next step on the path to IndyCar, moving to the Indy Pro 2000 Championship for the 2021 season.

After two seasons in US F2000, the Queenslander has signed for DEForce Racing to compete in the third-tier Indy Pro 2000 series.

Mid-way through last season Shields moved from Legacy Autosport to DEForce Racing, and he impressed straight away taking poles and podiums before the season’s end.

The team clearly saw potential in the 20-yearold, enabling him to make the category step up.

“I’m incredibly excited to join DEForce Racing,” Shields said.

“Our relationship became strong throughout the closing stages of the 2020 season, finishing with a pole position on the streets of the St Pete GP. “I am looking forward to building on that

momentum at Barber Motorsport Park in April and bring home some hardware.”

Since his move to the U.S., the former Australian Formula 3 Champion and Formula Ford runnerup has scored multiple top 10 finishes and four podiums, including a race victory in his first season.

That victory in 2019 was the biggest race of the year, the Carb Night Classic at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indiana, just days before the Indianapolis 500.

Cameron Shields is expected to be joined by New Zealander Hunter McElrea in the Indy Pro Championship this year, while another Aussie, former FIA Formula 3 Championship podium finisher Alex Peroni, will race in the second-tier Indy Lights Series.

Indy Pro 2000 begins at Barber Motorsport Park on April 17-18. DM

KELLY TO CONTINUE IN TRANS AM AFTER MAKING his Trans Am debut in his home state, Tasmania, Owen Kelly will continue his campaign on the mainland after confirming he will race at Phillip Island.

Kelly drove his Fujitsu-backed Ford Mustang to third in the Trans Am National Series at the opening round at Symmons Plains, which was then followed by a non-points affair at Baskerville Raceway a week later for the Tasmanian Ten Thousand, where the former Supercars co-driver finished runner up to Aaron Seton.

A former NASCAR competitor, Kelly will continue to have Marcos Ambrose as his crew chief, after doing so at both Tasmanian events.

For Kelly and Ambrose, the enjoyment factor was always central to their return to racing after an absence.

“We always said after Tassie, we’d assess the ‘Fun Metre’ and we all came away with a smile on our faces, and (so) Marcos is keen to come back for Phillip Island, so we’re

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locked in,” said Kelly.

“We’ve been fortunate enough that we’ve strung together a deal with our partners to do it, so it should be good fun.

“I reckon the Trans Ams will be really good at Phillip Island. It will be completely different to what we saw at Symmons Plains and Baskerville, which is great that we get a real mix of circuits.

“I think the circuit will suit them really well. Lots of opportunities for passing, plenty of power, so I can see it being a great race meeting.”

Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Nathan Herne leads the Trans Am National Series with 208-points, after taking two wins at Symmons Plains.

Seton is four-points in arrears while Kelly sits on 186-points approaching Phillip Island for the rescheduled opening Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships event on March 12-14. Heath McAlpine

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WE MIGHT be two months into 2021, but it’s my first column of the year for Auto Action, so I’ll start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Thankfully, after a long off-season, we’re only four weeks away from kicking off the Formula 2 season with HP Tuners, PREMA Racing, and the Alpine Academy in Bahrain.

I’m back in Europe now, and preparations are well underway to be ready for the first round and the official pre-season test, which is also taking place at Sakhir on 8-10 March.

With thousands of Aussies still stranded overseas due to Covid, getting a flight to Melbourne was a lottery, but I was lucky enough to land a seat and fly back in mid-December.

Christmas Day locked up in a hotel as part of the mandatory 14day quarantine was an experience I won’t forget, but it was a small price to pay to see my family and enjoy a little Australian summer.

I got in a bit of wakeboarding up on the Murray River, which was great, but it wasn’t all fun and games with my fitness program remaining a priority, running or gym work on the list every day.

My new trainer, Kim Keedle, Romain Grosjean’s trainer for the past few years, is also an Aussie and was home in Melbourne for Christmas, so we got to know each other as he put me through a fairly intense, week-long boot camp.

I also spent a couple of days doing laps of Todd Road in my great mate Christian Pancione’s shifter kart.

I reckon they’re harder to drive, with their speed and so much going on in such short laps, than some of the Formula cars and great practice.

The Alpine Academy scheduled a 10-day fitness camp in Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, so I headed there at the start of the month to meet up with my fellow academy drivers, Christian Lundgaard,

Caio Collet, and Victor Martins.

Travelling around Europe is still complicated, so much that it kept Alpine’s head fitness guy in the UK at the F1 race team, so Kim stepped in and ran the program for the week, which was great.

The Alpine Academy also launched online that week, and the presentation and the live stream was pretty cool. At the same time, the support and kind words from Academy director Mia Sharizman were encouraging.

Being part of the academy is important; working closely with the F1 team to understand the commitment required to perform at the sport’s highest level is a huge advantage, and an opportunity I’ve grabbed with both hands.

After the camp, I made a quick trip to PREMA headquarters in Italy for a seat fitting and doing some fine-tuning of the F2 sim, but as this issue of Auto Action goes to press, I’m back in Spain and ready to get back into a real race car.

It will be interesting to see how the F2 season plays out, with eight events spaced out over nine months, not nine in 11 weeks like last year’s Covid-affected season, and with a new weekend format: two 120km sprint races on Saturday and a 170km feature race Sunday, before the F1 Grand Prix.

There will be plenty of time to prepare between race weekends, so everyone should be on the ball.

There are also three races this year instead of two, but at the end of the day, the format and points will still reward the people that qualify well, provided they survive Race 1!

Before then, we’ve got the test and I’m confident with the work we’ve put in over the off-season it will be more representative than the post-season test late last year.

Whatever happens, I’ll be giving it my best shot every race and hoping the results fall our way.

Cheers, Oscar

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GOOD STRATEGY WILL BE KEY AT BATHURST THIS WEEKEND the Supercars Championship will run a sprint round at the legendary Mount Panorama Circuit for the first time since 1996, and Tickford Racing star Cameron Waters believes that overtaking will be a real challenge.

Twenty-five years ago, John Bowe won the round driving for Dick Johnson Racing and that year Craig Lowndes went on to take his first Supercars Championship.

A lot has changed in the category in two and a half decades, Cameron Waters feels that over a 250km single driver sprint race overtaking will be difficult and pit strategy will have a big influence on the race result.

“I think overtaking will be a challenge, it will be a track where it is a little hard to pass,” he told <i>Auto Action<i>.

“Strategy will come into it more; you’ll have people thinking about strategy a little bit differently and that’s where you’re going to be trying to maximise.

It’ll be interesting to see where everyone ends up there and what we do strategy wise.”

A Bathurst season opener has not occurred since 1966 the Supercars Championship back when the V8 Touring Car Championship was held over one

round.

Waters is keen to get back there and see what he can do after taking pole position at the venue last year, before finishing as runner-up in The Great Race.

“So excited to get there and obviously coming off how we finish there last year is pretty exciting, it’ll be good to go back there and see where everyone is at come the start of this year,” he explained.

Rain is expected to play a factor over the weekend, when <i>Auto Action<i> went to print thunderstorms were expected on Friday and on Saturday afternoon.

“Then obviously the weather will be quite a lot different (in February) as well, it’ll be interesting to see how that plays into it,” he said.

“It’s going to be different going to Bathurst not in October, it’s obviously a pretty awesome track and any chance to get to drive there is good.

“It’s very disappointing to not be going back to Adelaide, it’s such a cool track and for me it was pretty close to Mildura, I had a lot of friends and family.

“To see Adelaide at that time of year so busy, it was quite cool. It’s going to be dearly missed and hopefully they can bring it back in a few years. ”DM

PENRITE BACK SANDOWN SUPERCARS ROUND PENRITE OIL has extended its support of the Repco Supercars Championship in 2021 to include the naming rights to next month’s Sandown SuperSprint.

As part of the new deal Penrite will also become the categories official oil & lubricants partner as well as continuing take up significant signage at Griffins Bend during this year’s Bathurst 1000.

Penrite’s extended backing of the championship comes after the Australian company followed David Reynolds across to Kelly Racing during a busy off season.

“Again being naming rights of the iconic Sandown event is a great honour for our Australian family-owned company, the track

is truly iconic and is very family oriented which really fits well with our brand.” said Toby Dymond Penrite Oil CEO. “Unfortunately, over the last 12 months we have all faced huge disruptions to our work and personal lives, with Victoria where our head office is located copping more than our share.”

“We hopeful like all the fans are that we can to get back to racing and some normality this year and we can’t wait to see you all at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.”

Penrite’s extended support is the latest in a series of announcements from Supercars leading up to the opening round of this years championship.

Pirtek has also extended their involvement in the series, becoming the official control fuel and air hose supplier for the next two years, supplying all teams with the essential hoses.

As part of the deal the Pirtek Pit Stop Challenge returns for another year, while the brand will also continue as the naming rights partner for the Victory Lane for the 2021 season.

“Pirtek are known for the quality and durability of our products and our services in the industry,” said Mark Devitt, Pirtek COO. “We are delighted to see our hoses being used up and down the pitlane and are thrilled to be supplying vital equipment to each

Supercars team.”

“We know the teams will be relying on us for quality and performance for their fuel stops in this competitive sport.”

“The Pirtek Pit Stop Challenge is the perfect way to demonstrate PIRTEK product and celebrate the talent and precision of the Supercar pit crews.”

“We look forward to presenting the Golden Rattle Gun once again at Bathurst in October.”

The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship begins next week in Bathurst at the Repco Mount Panorama.

Rhys Vandersyde

COFFS HARBOUR TO HOST INTENATIONAL RALLY IN 2021 MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA has confirmed that Coffs Harbour will host the final round of both the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) and the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC).

The concluding event will occur from November 26-28 thanks to the support of the NSW Government, and will see competitors from Australia, New Zealand and Asia descend on the northern New South Wales town.

The Australian round of the World Rally Championship was run at Coffs Harbour in 2011 and from 2013 right up until 2018. However, the last two events have not gone ahead because of the severe bushfires and COVID-19 respectively.

However, after two years of disappointment, Motorsport Australia President Andrew Fraser is delighted to announce the return of international

rallying to Australia.

“The Coffs Coast has been a big part of the Australian rally scene in recent years and we know this 2021 event will be another fantastic event for the region,” Fraser said.

“There’s no doubt that Coffs people know how to put on a world class rally and we are really excited to hosting this event which will see a great mix of competitors from both Australia and overseas late in 2021.

“Of course we will work closely with the NSW Government to ensure the event follows all ‘COVID Safe’ protocols, including arrival of any international crews and spectators, who will be subject to the entry requirements at the time of the event.”

The New South Wales Government has thrown a

lot of support behind the event, with thousands of fans expected to flock to the region and enjoy all the action.

Deputy NSW Premier John Barilaro said staging a world class rally in Coffs Harbour is well overdue.

“The NSW Nationals are building a safer and stronger regional NSW by securing world-class events for country cities, showcasing our incredible regions to the world,” Mr Barilaro said.

“This is an example of what can happen when you have a council who is prepared to work with the government and stakeholders to bring worldclass events to regional NSW.” Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh believes hosting the Asia Pacific Rally Championships in Coffs Harbour is a massive win for the region as it will boost tourism and assist

local economy the Mid-North Coast.

“The NSW Nationals are creating a safer and stronger Coffs Harbour and supporting this event will bring a valuable boost to the local economy,” Mr Singh said.

“Our tourism and hospitality sector has been reeling since the bushfires and COVID struck and this event will go a long way in terms of restarting our economy.

“The rally will bring domestic and international visitors to the region, showcasing Coffs Harbour to the world, and encouraging returning visitors to secure tourism benefits now and into the future.”

Further details about the event will be revealed in the next several months including stage routes, the location of the service park and spectator information.”DM

our clubs and licence holders and all those involved in the sport,” Arocca said.

“As government-recognised sanctioning bodies, we know we are in a unique position where we can work closely with Sport Recreation Victoria to provide great benefits for the clubs and participants who love motorsport and simply can’t get enough of it.

“We thank the Victorian Government for their support of this project which will allow

us to identify opportunities for the sport and provide new opportunities for both new and existing participants to get involved in the sport.

“Across Australia, it is well known that motorsport needs more venues and improved facilities to allow more people to experience the thrill of motorsport. The support of the Victorian Government is a great show of faith in the future of all forms of motorsport.”

The full strategy will also include the development of a 10–20-year implementation plan.

This news follows on from Sport and Recreation Victoria’s recent funding commitment to Victorian clubs.

The Victorian Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence is notably confident that this will be great for racing participants in the future.

“We’re backing motorsport across Victoria for the benefit of participants now and in the future,” Spence said.

“The Government allocated $7.4 million to the Racing into a new era for Motor Sport initiative – this study is a crucial part of that investment.

“This is about setting a strategy to deliver the facilities that clubs and associations as well as racers, crew and fans need.”

DM

GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS VICTORIAN MOTORSPORT MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA, with the support of the Victorian Government, will take a look at all forms of motorsport in the state with a focus on both facilities and participation.

The Victorian Government has provided Motorsport Australia with $200,000 to support this initiative.

Motorsport Australia will develop new infrastructure and a participation strategy which aims at improving access to the sport from grass roots all the way to the top.

An audit of all facilities across Victoria will be undertaken to provide a detailed understanding of infrastructure needs for all disciplines of the sport.

As part of the project, Motorsport Australia will identify the current value of motorsport to the Victorian economy, as well as the infrastructure needs and opportunities to increase participation within the sport.

It has been revealed that the strategy

will focus on diversity, identifying the best practice models to encourage more women and girls to get involved in motorsport as competitors, officials, or volunteers.

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca feels this is an incredibly positive step for motorsport in Victoria.

“The development of this infrastructure and participation strategy for Victoria is something that will lead to significant improvements for

LATEST NEWS

MILLER’S INCREDIBLE EMOTIONS JACK MILLER’S new colours have been revealed with the factory Ducati squad taking to social media to unveil its 2021 MotoGP bike.

The Australian, alongside teammate Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia, both step up to the factory Ducati team for this upcoming season resplendent in an all-red livery featuring new title backing from Lenovo.

“The emotions I felt seeing my all-red Desmosedici and wearing my new suit for the first time were incredible!” said Miller.

“I still have to realise that I’ll be part of the official Ducati Team this year. It’s taken a long way to get this far, and finally being “in red” gives me a great sense of satisfaction, but also the right motivation to continue working with commitment and dedication towards my future goals.”

“I am looking forward to this new adventure and will try to get some important results this season.”

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation, the 2021 MotoGP season currently has 19 Grands Prix confirmed with the season set to get underway on March 5 in Qatar with official testing.

Ducati will be represented at the initial test with test rider Michele Pirro before

THE FACTORY Honda MotoGP bike has been revealed and provided the first appearance of injured star Marc Marquez since July last year.

The iconic Repsol Honda bike appears very similar to normal, but after a disastrous season Marquez and his new teammate Pol Espargaro are aiming for the front.

In the opening race of the 2020 season at Jerez, Marquez crashed out resulting in a season ending arm injury.

Marquez explained he is on the mend but will not recover in time to take part in the pre-season test at Qatar in less than a month.

“Step by step I feel much better and the recovery is going in a good way, this most important,” Marquez said.

“I cannot say (when I will return) because I don’t know, and the doctors don’t know when I will be ready.

“But the most important thing is that every week, I feel a bit better and I’m optimistic to be on the bike as soon as possible. But I don’t know I don’t know exactly which day it will be.

“We will see if it takes one race, two races, half the season to be the same Marc. I will not be at the Qatar test as I aim to return only when I am 100% and there is still some work to do.”

Marquez admitted last season was hard watching his brother Alex race alongside the Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) test rider Stefan Bradl.

The team finished a lowly ninth in the Teams’ Championship scoring two podiums. It was also the first time Honda had gone winless since 2004.

“Of course, I would have liked to return sooner, but it is very important to listen to the doctors and my body until I am fully fit,

Miller and Bagnaia get to make their official debuts as factory riders at Losail International Circuit on March 6-7.

“The start of a new season is always a special moment, and this year even more, as we have a completely new team.” said Luigi Dall’Igna, General Manager of Ducati Corse.

“We have two new riders with us, Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia. Both are extraordinarily talented, they’re young, but they have already a lot of experience on our bike.”

“Jack and Pecco have great potential, and I think that together we can fight not only to defend the Constructors’ Title won in 2020, but we can also aim for the Riders’ Title.”

“As per this year’s regulations, we cannot modify some of the bike’s components. Still, during winter, we have been able to work on many other aspects to improve our bike’s competitiveness and be ready to start the new season.”

“From 2021 we will also be able to count on even greater support from Lenovo, which has been our partner since 2018 and with whom we have worked very well together over the past few seasons.”

“I’m sure that together we will be able

to achieve even greater success this year while entertaining and bringing excitement to all the Ducatisti around the world.”

The first two rounds of the 2021 MotoGP season will be held at the Doha Circuit on 26-28 March and 2-4 April.

Rhys Vandersyde

MARQUEZ TO MISS PRE-SEASON TEST

Marquez said.

“The first time that I will ride the bike, I will not be 100%, because, one thing is, being 100% in the bone side, and then be 100% in the muscles and all these things and we will see.

“Normally the goal for a rider is to try to win the championship and try to find small details to fight for the championship, but 2021 is completely

different,” he explained.

“My main goal is to try to enjoy it again on the bike, this will be the main target for me. Then, step by step, start to be fast as I was.”

Marquez’s new teammate is long-time rival and friend Espargaro. The fellow Spaniard moves from the factory KTM squad with which he earnt five podiums last season and expects to be fighting up

front in 2021.

“To ride for the Repsol Honda Team is every rider’s dream and something to be truly proud of,” Espargaro said.

“The excitement is motivating me to train more and be the best I can be for the 2021 World Championship. I am here in the Repsol Honda Team in order to achieve success and fight at the top, this is the goal for 2021.” Dan McCarthy

MOTOGP NEW COLOURS AS WELL as the Repsol Honda and factory Ducati teams, several other squads have unveiled colour schemes and liveries in recent days.

The factory Yamaha outfit is keen to forget the frustrating 2020 season ahead of the 2021 with Maverick Vinales and new teammate Fabio Quartararo.

While the bikes are similar in appearance to last year, the two riders are distinguishable because Quartararo’s leathers contain red, whereas Vinales’ do not.

Quartararo rode for the Petronas Yamaha team for the past two years and now makes the step up to the factory team. The fast Frenchman led the championship for much of the season but faded rapidly towards its

ALFA ROMEO has revealed its 2021 car. Team drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi and reserve driver Robert Kubica unveiled the new C41 took to the stage the Grand Theatre in Poland’s capital city Warsaw.

Alfa Romeo scored just eight points last year.

“The launch of a new car is always an emotional moment, the culmination of months of effort from everyone back at the factory and the start of a new adventure,” said team principal Frédéric Vasseur.

“I think the philosophy upon which the team is based remains the same: we have to do a better job tomorrow than we are doing today.

“We finished last season in P8, so we have to target a better result in 2021.

To do so, we have to keep improving in each department, trackside and back at HQ. “Every team on the grid has very high expectations right now: all the teams expect to do a good job in the winter

conclusion.

The two satellite LCR Honda bikes have also been revealed. Both are

running very distinct liveries between its two riders Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami.

Blue features on Marquez’s Honda, whilst Nakagami remains minimalistic.

The Austrian factory KTM machines will be piloted by two MotoGP grand prix winners in 2021, Miguel Oliveira joins MotoGP winner Brad Binder.

Oliveira won two races for the satellite Tech3 KTM team, taking victory in the Styrian Grand Prix and his home race in Portugal to end the season.

On the same day as the factory bike was revealed, Tech3 unveiled its new eye-catching livery. In 2021 the French based team will run a bright fluorescent orange livery.

Two-time MotoGP Grand Prix winner Danilo Petrucci joins Iker Lecuona after losing his seat on the factory Ducati.

ALFA REVEALS NEW F1 CAR and to be in a good position for the first race, but soon it will be the time for everyone to show their cards.”

The C41 is an evolution of last year’s C39. Owing to the restrictions imposed by the regulations, the car carries over many of the components of its predecessor.

“The C41 is the result of a very unusual situation in Formula 1, in which the regulations have made us

unable to develop an entire new car for this year,” technical director Jan Monchaux said.

“For this reason, our 2021 car shares a lot of common parts with the C39, with the exception of those which the regulations forced us to change – such as the floor – and the nosecone, in which we invested our two development tokens.

“This means we will know the car

much better than usual when we get to testing, but it’s still going to be crucial to make the most of those three days to verify that reality matches our expectations and to get to know the new tyres.

“We are ready for the new season and we can’t wait to see our new car on track.”

The team will shake the C41 at Barcelona on Friday. Dan Knutson

with Dan Knutson

Image: LAT

TWO-TIME Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso was knocked off his bike while training in Switzerland. The Spaniard was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery for a fracture to his jaw and after an operation was released two days later. Despite the fright, Alonso will not miss the vital pre-season test set to take place in Bahrain next month. In 2021 Alonso makes his return to Formula 1 after a two-year absence. DM Image: LAT

THE OUTSPOKEN and often controversial Rich Energy founder and CEO William Storey announced on social media that he will be returning to Formula 1 as a sponsor in 2021.

Rich Energy is an energy drinks company that sponsored the Haas F1 team for a period before a messy and painful divorce. Storey claimed that Rich Energy will return as a sponsor in 2021 before becoming a naming rights sponsor in 2022. Several weeks ago a Rich Energy Alfa Romeo Racing page was created and then quickly deleted. DM

AUSSIE FORMULA 1 star Daniel Ricciardo has revealed an eye-catching helmet design that he will run when racing for McLaren this season.

The 2021 season marks the start of a new chapter for the West Australian, as he joins the McLaren F1 team after two years at Renault.

This year the top of Ricciardo’s helmet will be a light green colour with bold orange features at the top, while the sides contains a variety of blue shades. DM Image: LAT

FORMULA 1 is confident that it will be able to stage a record 23 races in 2021, including the Australian Grand Prix on 21 November. But it also warned that some flexibility to the schedule may be required because of the coronavirus. As expected, Portugal will host a grand prix on May 2, while a date that had been left open when the revised schedule was announced. DK

18 AutoAction

SETTLING IN NICELY DANIEL RICCIARDO has been settling in at his new job as a McLaren race driver.

“Regarding the integration of Daniel, our goal is clear: we want to make sure that once we hit the track in Bahrain at the first race, it doesn’t feel like Daniel is doing his first race together with us,” said McLaren’s team principal Andres Seidl.

“That is the goal. Based on that, we have worked out a clear plan, with a clear focus on the technical and operations side of which boxes we have to tick together with him, to make sure he is ready at the first race and first practice session. But we also have plans in place to integrate him on the commercial and communications and marketing side of the team. Looking at what we have achieved so far, I am very happy.”

Because of all of the COVID-19 restrictions, the team gave Ricciardo a lot of homework via telephone and computer. But more recently the Aussie has been making visits to the McLaren Technology Centre in the UK. “We have obviously had a lot of online sessions with him to make him familiar with the way we work with our car and our systems,” Seidl said.

“In the last weeks Daniel was also in here doing seat fits and simulator sessions and so on together with the engineers and mechanics in order to get ready. I feel we are

Image: LAT

well prepared. Now it is simply time to get back on track, get him into the car and to get his feedback from actually driving the car. I am very happy with the preparation so far and how it went, given the circumstances we are all in.”

Speaking of settling in, a video released

by McLaren of a ‘seat fitting’ for Ricciardo showed him and the crew making subtle adjustments to what was and is a very tight fit for the driver.

“I do have wide hips,” Ricciardo said. “I’m pretty thick boned. When I got in, it was the first mock-up of the seat, and with the

CLOSING THE GAP

MCLAREN’S ENGINEERS, under the direction of technical director James Key, are hard at work finding more aerodynamic downforce for the 2021 McLaren Mercedes MCL35M that Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris will race this year.

New rules reduced downforce, especially around the rear floor and diffuser area.

“The regulation changes were effective,” Key said during a Zoom call for selected F1 media including Auto Action. “They did knock downforce back quite a bit. We’ve been in the process of clawing it back. Our launch spec car is some of that; the race one spec car, which is still in definition at the moment, will be a further chunk of it.

“I can’t give you a percentage at the moment in terms of where we’re actually going to be by race one, but it will be a percentage rather than 110 per cent, let’s say.

“There’s still a lot of development potential around the rest of the car and to find in these changes as well. My guess is that as we get into the season, most will have recovered everything.”

Switching from the Renault to the Mercedes power unit required completely new cooling and electrical system.

This is the 54th season in F1 for the team founded by Kiwi Bruce McLaren. The livery of the MCL35M has undergone a subtle progression from the 2020 design,

dimensions they had and what they assumed would be okay for me, wasn’t quite okay.

“But fortunately, it was just the seat, it wasn’t the actual keel (of the monocoque) itself that was too narrow.

“So since then I’ve been able to get in a seat and I do fit. But I feel like I’m certainly the limit. The way they design their cars and chassis now, everyone is trying to be as tight and compact as possible. My hips are sometimes the limiting factor. I tell them ‘make sure I’m comfortable, if that loses you a tenth on aerodynamics, then I’ll just drive faster on the track!’”

Image: LAT

maintaining the iconic McLaren papaya orange and blue, the popular colours first carried by the team in the 1960s.

McLaren finished third behind Mercedes and Red Bull last year, but McLaren Racing’s CEO Zak Brown is being realistic about his team’s prospects this year.

“The field is unbelievably close,” Brown said, “but challenging for the championship would be unrealistic given the journey that we are on. All we can hope for, and are striving for, is to close the gap to Mercedes, who we anticipate to be the fastest team again in 2021. The rules haven’t changed significantly, so I don’t think that 2021 will look much

different from 2020 for the entire grid, other than expecting it to get yet even closer.

“We went into (last year’s season finale in) Abu Dhabi with the ability to finish third, fourth or fifth, and I think it’s that close and anticipate it being even closer this year. So, all we can really do is key off who is the fastest team and hope that we close the gap, but short of that it’s too competitive to give any sort of prediction.”

Looking ahead to 2022, when the technical rules change, Ricciardo believes that McLaren will be perfectly poised to not only close the gap but also be able to challenge for the championship.

THE BIG ENGINE FREEZE

THE BIG freeze is in, and that has prevented Red Bull and sister team AlphaTauri from possibly pulling out of Formula 1.

Would they really have quit? They certainly were threatening to do so, and it would have been a big blow to the sport and business of F1, if there were eight instead of 10 teams – a reduction of 20 per cent.

This all started in October last year when Honda stunned the racing world by announcing it would withdraw from F1 at the end of 2021.

This created a quandary for the two Red Bull teams, which would both need power units for 2022 and beyond.

Mercedes is already supplying four teams this year including itself, and Ferrari three. A distasteful option would be Renault/Alpine, which is flying solo this year and, by the regulations, would have to lease power units to the two teams.

But that would have been awkward given the bitter divorce between Renault and Red Bull at the end of 2018.

So Red Bull and Honda explored the option of Red Bull taking over Honda’s F1 project.

It would be an expensive option and only doable if Red Bull did not have to pay to operate the power units and also develop

Image: LAT

them. There would be no way Red Bull could keep pace financially and technically with Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault.

That’s why Red Bull and AlphaTauri successfully lobbied the FIA, Formula 1 and the other teams to agree to a development freeze on power units from 2022 through 2024. There will be completely new power unit regulations in 2025.

No freeze, Red Bull threatened, and we will take our toys – and our cars – and go home.

The Red Bull/Honda agreement covers the duration of the development freeze, enabling the use of Honda power unit technology

until the next generation engines are introduced in 2025.

In order to run the project, a new company named Red Bull Powertrains Limited was formed. This new division will be housed and operated from Red Bull Racing’s UK base on the Red Bull Technology Campus in Milton Keynes.

All this is just a temporary three-year fix for Red Bull and AlphaTauri, because they will have to find a completely new power unit for 2025. Those regulations have yet to be finalised, but the goal is to reduce cost and reach carbon neutrality.

Horner has not ruled out Red Bull

becoming an actual power unit manufacturer from 2025 onwards.

“You’ve both got a short-term scenario of the existing regulations,” he said, “and then of course whatever the new regulations are.

We need to be in a position to take that on as well. We will have a facility capable of designing and operating the next generation of engines.”

But however impressive the facilities at Red Bull Powertrains Limited, the company would still have to go up against full-bore automotive manufacturers.

Or one other option would be for Red Bull to link up with another manufacturer.

MAX IN THE CATBIRD SEAT THE FACT that Lewis Hamilton’s new contract with Mercedes is only for one year creates interesting scenarios in the driver market.

There could be two open seats at Mercedes next year because Valtteri Bottas has a contract only for 2021 as well. However, if Hamilton does retire, it is likely that Mercedes will want to retain Bottas so as to have some continuity.

Mercedes will want to sign up Max Verstappen after Hamilton retires.

That is the opinion of Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Verstappen’s current Red Bull contract runs through the end of 2023.

“I’m sure that should Lewis decide to stop, then Max will naturally be the driver at the top of the list,” Horner said.

“But they also have George Russell; they’ve also got other drivers available to them.”

Verstappen and Russell are only 23-years-old, so both could have many years as a Mercedes driver.

Hamilton is now 36, so he does not have too many more years in the cockpit.

This is the final year of Russell’s contract with Williams, so he is a

Image: LAT

free agent in 2022.

Mercedes has dominated F1 since the turbo hybrid era began in 2014.

But there will be radical changes to the chassis technical regulations in 2022, and new power unit rules in 2025. These could bring an end to the Mercedes domination.

But Red Bull could go up or down as well. Verstappen’s contract contains “performance clauses” which allow him to leave the team if the car is not competitive.

“Of course, as there has always been, there is an element of performance related to Max’s contract,” said Horner.

“I’m confident that we won’t need to refer to any contractual clauses. It will ultimately be down to us to deliver a competitive car, that’s what he wants and that’s what we want.”

The relationship between Verstappen and Red Bull is very strong. But his plans will be influenced by how successful Red Bull will be at running

what will be the former Honda power unit division from 2022 through 2024, and by what sort of power unit Red Bull will eventually use in 2025.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has a very good relationship with Max and his father Jos, so that could play a role as well in what Verstappen eventually does.

Verstappen, all in all, is in the catbird seat. He can just sit back, see what his options are, and then pick the best one.

AutoAction

19

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

Mark Fogarty Heath McAlpine

Production

Jason Crowe

Special Contributor

Bruce Newton

Staff Journalist

Dan McCarthy

National Editor

Garry O’Brien

Online Editor

with Dan Knutson

Bruce Williams

Editor-At-Large Deputy Editor

F1 INSIDER

Rhys Vandersyde

Contributing Writers Australia Garry O’Brien, Mark Fogarty, Bruce Newton, Mark Bisset, Geoffrey Harris, David Hassall, Bob Watson, Bruce Moxon, Gary Hill, Craig O’Brien, Mick Oliver, Martin Agatyn. Paris Charles Formula 1 US Correspondent

Dan Knutson Mike Brudenell

Photographers Australia Ross Gibb, Rebecca Hind, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, Randall Kilner, Rhys Vandersyde, Richard Hathaway, MTR Images, Bruce Moxon International LAT Images Advertising Manager Bruce Williams All Advertising inquiries Bruce@autoaction.com.au (0418) 349 555 Editorial contributions may be sent to Auto Action. No responsibility will be accepted for their safety. If you require the return of any sent item or items, please attach a separate, stamped and fully addressed envelope

Auto Action is published by Action Media Partners ABN number 62976094459 Suite 4/156 Drummond Street Oakleigh Victoria 3166 Phone: 03 9563 2107 The trademark Auto Action is the sole property of Action Media Partners The website www.autoaction.com.au and associated social media platforms are wholly owned by Action Media Partners.

All rights reserved No part of this magazine’s content may be reproduced, retransmitted or rebroadcast without the express written permission of the Publisher and Action Media Partners.

Printed by Australian Community Media Distributed by Ovato Retail Distribution Australia

Cover images: LAT/autopics. com.au/Insyde Media/Holden Motorsport/AA Archive

20 AutoAction

Image: LAT

ENJOYING THE JOB

OVER THE past 15 years working as Auto Action’s Formula One correspondent I have on occasions had lunch with Mark Webber or Daniel Ricciardo.

Well, actually, I have never gone out to lunch with either Aussie, but there were times when they had lunch with some of my media colleagues and I. F1 drivers have packed schedules on race weekends.

Starting on Thursday and all the way through Sunday night, they rarely have a free moment. Part of that time is spent talking to the media.

And to save time Webber and Ricciardo would sometimes eat lunch at the same time.

It was usually something delicious and nutritious looking, that had been prepared by their trainers or one of the chefs at the team’s hospitality unit.

I started working for Auto Action in 2006, but I had known about the magazine long before that. I’ve been mates and pressroom colleagues with current and former AA contributors like Foges, Mike Doodson, Joe Saward and Phil Branagan for years.

In a way, my links to

Australia, F1 and motor racing are as old as Auto Action itself.

As I’ve mentioned before, I was a schoolboy when I attended the 1970 South African Grand Prix and saw Jack Brabham win in his BT33.

Years later I met Jack and Geoff Brabham at a sponsor function. I told Jack that I had been there at Kyalami in 1970. I got both of their autographs.

Anyway, coming back to the present and looking ahead to the start of the next 50 years, well at least the first three years of that time.

Because that’s the length of Ricciardo’s new contract, and it’s going to be fun watching the interaction between the Perth native and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

It would be difficult to find two other people in the F1 paddock with a better sense of humour or a wider smile than those two.

There will be pranks, more so when the “bubbles” that keep various groups separated in the paddock start to finally be dismantled, as the coronavirus begins to fade away.

Both drivers, however, won’t

let that humour interfere with their real job, which is improving the car and racing fast.

“With Lando, I think we both have a similar approach to the game,” Ricciardo said.

“We both love what we do.

We enjoy our job and we’re not afraid to show that. We have the same approach but (we’re) also from a bit of a different generation – I’m 10 years on Lando – so yeah I think it creates quite a good combination.

“Off-track for sure we’ll always be seen to be having a good time, but I do believe the competition on-track will be good, will be fierce, and more importantly I think driving the team forward.

That’s something we want to

WHAT’S IN THE NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 11 MARCH

state among ourselves, do the best among the team, then go for it when the lights go out.”

The two drivers are just getting to know each other “The only contact I had with him was probably when you saw it (on TV) and that was in press conferences or interviews and so on, just in the paddock, on the grid, those kinds of things,” Norris said of his new teammate. “We very rarely spoke via text or on the phone or anything like that.

“Days when we’re in the factory together, we’re maybe doing some interviews together or something like that, those are the days you get to learn and get to know a bit more about the guy you’re working with. We never really spoke that much last year or over the last two years or even during this winter. We’ve both been doing our own thing, but the last few weeks or so, getting back to work and working together is probably the most I’ve spoken to him.”

In closing, I say congratulations to Auto Action for 50 great years and all the best for the next 50. And maybe one of these days Oscar Piastri will have lunch with me.

Bathurst Supercar Championship opener; AMRS SMP wrap; Shannons Nationals preview; Porsche 944 Cost of Racing; latest news & views

with Mark Fogarty

THE FOGES FILE As AA turns 50, our perennial pundit looks back at how it all started IF NOT for a flash of inspiration, the magazine you’re reading might well have been called Wheelie. Really.

That eccentrically evocative title was one of the many wild suggestions put forward by the promotions department of the original publisher of what became Auto Action.

The other proffered alternatives are lost in the mists of time, but the man who came up with the name that has been synonymous with motor sport reporting for 50 years, remembers that Wheelie stood out.

It was so gauche even back then that the tiny editorial staff took it upon themselves to invent an appropriate masthead.

Auto Action was the brainchild of the late Len Shaw, the managing editor of what was then Syme Magazines, a small division of Melbourne’s The Age newspaper group. But credit for the facesaving title goes to Tim Britten.

Now a veteran motoring journalist, Britten was then a staffer on Motor Manual (Australia’s long-gone original motoring magazine), which was the tightknit outfit’s flagship publication.

“We all sat around — Len, Tim and me – throwing around ideas for a name,” recalls inaugural AA editor Ian Smith.

“Australian Auto Action was the one Tim came up with and we said ‘Yeah, let’s go for that’.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

How AA kicked off as an upstart rival to the then monthly motorsport bible Racing Car News and an existing fortnightly, the semi-race and rally paper Australian Motoring News, is the story of the generation that laid the foundations for the sport as we know it today.

By 1971, the Ford versus Holden wars had popularised touring car racing. Open-

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wheeler racing was still important, but the new heroes were Peter Brock and Allan Moffat. Brock’s nimble six-cylinder Torana XU-1 versus Moffat’s brutish V8 Falcon GT-HO was the series production battle that captured the public’s imagination.

The first year of the ‘70s, the start of a decade of unprecedented freedom following the society-changing ’60s, also saw the arrival of the most iconic racebred Aussie muscle car of them all, the GT-HO Phase III. It was into this exciting age of awakening that Auto Action bravely ventured. The timing appeared particularly apt as commercialism and youth-oriented advertising had embraced car racing and rallying. The original pop-art masthead — with the 25 cents cover price sharing equal billing — and the name itself are naff by modern standards, but they reflected the times.

The title is now invested with five decades of heritage that blind you to its quaintness. The genesis of AA actually goes back to the early 1960s, when Shaw convinced motor sport entrepreneur Jim Abbott to publish Australian Autosportsman.

It evolved into a long-defunct motoring magazine and when Shaw became boss of Syme Magazines in the late ’60s, he revived the idea of a dedicated motor sport periodical.

“I still wanted to get an Australian motor sport magazine going,” Shaw told me in 2011. The impetus was the arrival of Sydney-produced AMN, which split its

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coverage between road cars and racing.

“We thought it was pretty crappy,” Shaw remembered. “It wasn’t, really, but it was more of a general motoring magazine than a motor sport publication. So the idea was that we thought we’d try to fire up a strictly motor sport publication.

“That was in 1970 and Auto Action gradually took shape.”

I was there when AA debuted on Thursday, February 24, 1971. Not there as a contributor – that would begin just over a year later — but at my local newsagent to buy it. As a motor sportfixated teenager, the arrival of a second newspaper on the alternate week was a major event.

It would further feed my voracious appetite for news and information and add fuel to my interest in becoming a motor sport journalist.

For a long time, editorially AA was a one-man band, which is why original editor Ian Smith only lasted four months.

“It was quite a job because, basically, I was doing the photography, the writing, the layouts, even Letrasetting headings, paste-ups and then driving the negatives of the completed pages up to the printer in Shepparton,” Smith recalled with a shudder.

“All the production was done by hand. It was very labour-intensive.”

Already an established motor sport photographer, Smith remained a contributor for many years while building up his Autopix photography business, which he sold in 2001.

In recognition of his contribution as a leading lensman, he received a Motorsport Australia Media Service Award in 2017 and was inducted into the Supercars Media Hall Of Fame in 2019.

Now a hearty 76, Smith remains active in his second career in real estate and still regularly captures the action at historic meetings. More of his recollections of the magazine’s start-up are in the special 50th anniversary section of this issue, starting on page 36.

A decade ago, founding publisher Shaw was impressed that his creation was still going strong.

“It’s a long time, 40 years,” he said.

“There aren’t a helluva lot of magazines here that have outlasted 40 years. But, by gee, if you look at the number that have been and gone...

“It’s very good to see Auto Action has made it this far.”

Shaw, who died in 2015, would undoubtedly have been proud that his vision of a fortnightly compendium of car racing coverage had made it to 50 years.

As one of the 17 who’ve sat in the editor’s chair, as well as being its longestserving scribbler, I’m also proud of Auto Action’s historic achievement.

Here’s to the next 50 years!

This is an updated, edited version of Foges’ column in AA #1429, the 40th anniversary edition. Originally titled “Birth Of A Legend”, it stands the test of time without revision or embellishment of the facts.

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CONTINUE TO RECEIVE YOUR AUTO ACTION FIX

22 AutoAction FEATURE

In response to Facebook’s decision to block news content sharing in Australia, Auto Action wanted to make sure you know how you can keep up to date with all the latest motor sport news from around the world.

Auto Action is committed to remaining the premium outlet for motor sport news and reviews, bringing you the latest from Australia and overseas.

From Formula 1, IndyCar, MotoGP, Supercars, TCR, S5000, plus various national-level series through to state and club level circuit racing, rallying, off-road and speedway. Auto Action will continue to go behind the scenes to deliver you an in-depth coverage.

To stay up to date with the latest in motor sport news and analysis, log onto Auto Action’s various communication platforms:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Auto_Action LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ autoactionmag/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autoactionmag/

Website: www.autoaction.com.au Also, readers can sign up to our email newsletter featuring the latest news from our website: https://autoaction.com. au/issues And of course, as Auto Action celebrates its 50th year of publishing the magazine continue to be available at newsagencies and convenience stores across the country or can be purchased online through issuu: https://issuu. com/me8674 Auto Action continues to offer magazine subscriptions direct to your letter box for both six and 12 months: Australia 12 month: $239 (25 issues) Australia six month: $120 (12 issues) New Zealand 12 month: $360 New Zealand six month: $180

Please contact admin@autoaction.com.au or (03) 9563 2107 for further inquiries.

Thanks for the continued support in this 50th year of publishing.

Fifty years, without doubt it is an exceptionally long time….

AS I put these words together in the last few minutes of our production deadline, I am under the pump to assemble my thoughts onto paper about the significance of what is actually happening this evening.

This is the 50th anniversary issue of a publication that has been b partt off my life lif since i I was a young boy and here I am writing a few very special and personal words to mark that milestone.

I am being reminded by my incredibly dedicated team that it is now way past our deadline for this massive 92-page special edition and that I am holding things up, and that doesn’t help my creative juices one bit.

I have to say that at this moment I am exhausted from the massive few weeks, days and nights that we have all put in to get this special issue to our fantastic printers and then into your hands … hopefully its Thursday as you read this issue and we haven’t mucked things up too much and missed the printing deadline!

So, with the pressure to come up with something, I have had a think about what it is that I should be saying in this special issue. And despite the pressure, I am not finding it too hard to gather my thoughts.

I know for a fact that I am not the first person who has been at the end of their tether as the looming deadline comes at them like an S Class on the front of the Spirit Of Progress.

Auto Action is a product of lots of people who have done and continue to do great things to cover our favourite sport and for many, what is their business and livelihood.

My first exposure to Auto Action was when I was given a very well read copy while I waited in the car of a family friend, who was negotiating to purchase some parts for his Bolwell MK7 (long story would love to own one myself one day).

I was around 11-years-old and like so many, I was a dedicated motor racing fan, starved of information about the sport.

And like so many, I would wake on those cold October mornings in Ballarat and wrap myself in a blanket to watch Bathurst. I loved everything about car racing.

But car racing didn’t get much coverage in the general media and I soaked up every word when it was. I had a scrapbook full of newspaper cuttings that featured Allan Moffat, Colin Bond, Peter Brock, Bob Watson and anything to do with Formula 1.

So, you can imagine to my astonishment that there was actually a newspaper that came out every two weeks that was just about car racing and every form that it took.

This real newspaper covered it all! It didn’t matter if it was Formula 5000, Touring Car racing, Sports Sedans, rallying, rallycross, hillclimbs, and of course Formula 1, it was all here in one place and it was full of great pictures of cars and the people that drove them and built them.

It was like being introduced to the sport for the first time and really getting an understanding for what it was all about.

It was full of great stories and the latest news and reviews and dozens of wonderful photos taken by so many talented photographers from all over the world.

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I was hooked and guarded each copy fr my younger brothers, who didn’t quite from u understand how valuable these yellowing pages were.

For the first year or so I would wait until my friend had finished reading his copy and he would pass it on to me.

But after a while of reading the hand-me-downs, I was impatient for his copy to be passed on so each fortnight I would sell some soft drink bottles and purchase my own copy. Going into a newsagent and actually purchasing my own copy changed my life for ever.

Like many readers back then and still to this day, I was always hanging out for the next edition.

I would read every word and study every image and then start again. I was trying to imagine what had happened to the racers in the time since the last issue had been printed. Like so many of you I collected every copy that I managed to get my hands on.

That was the cycle for about 10 years and every fortnight was a ritual, that is until 1985 when my life took a dramatic change in direction.

I saw an ad in AA for an advertising sales role.

Was this true, a job working on AA? Well I applied and much to my surprise I landed the job … if you call hanging out with motor sport people and at race tracks a job.

My first life with Auto Action lasted until 1992 when Chris Lambden and I decided Auto Action needed a rival and in partnership with David Hassall and Tony Glynn, we started Motorsport News.

What a pain in the arse that turned out to be as, in late 2000, I re-joined ACP Magazines which now owned Auto Action, which now had competition that I had helped start!

Anyway, for the next 15 years or so Auto Action was part of my life and I continued in various capacities to sell advertising. With the magazine in Sydney, I was a little disconnected and felt that things could be better with the magazines direction, but no one was going to listen to me.

Things took a sudden change in April of 2016 when Bauer Media, the then owners of the publication, decided to shut it down.

After a lot of battles to find funding and negotiating deals to buy the title, I was lucky to find a business partner in an old motor racing buddy, Mike Imrie.

We put a team together and nearly five years later we are still going strong. Mike has since moved on but I thank him for his fantastic support.

Now with the pressure on and as I think about all that has gone on over the past few weeks in the build up to this significant milestone, I am now even more acutely aware of all the fantastic people who have contributed to Auto Action making it to its 50th anniversary edition. And the hundreds more who have worked hard over the years to make Auto Action a publication that is now 50 years old, in an age where the printed word is supposed to be a thing of the past.

So, understanding the pressure that all the previous editors, journalist, photographers, designers and the other people who have

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ib d to producing d i this hi publication bli i for f the h past contributed 50 years, I acknowledge every one of you and all that you have done.

They were and are dedicated and hardworking and above committed to delivering the absolute best motor sport publication that they can, which has been the focus since Len Shaw first thought that it might be a good idea to produce a fortnightly motor sport newspaper.

That was in 1970 and the first issue went on sale exactly 50 years and one day ago, February 24th 1971.

Paul Harrington is considered one I of the most influential early editors (above, right), here with Tim Schenken. am proud to have worked for Len for my first stint on Auto Action and I can say he was a great man, hard but fair. We stayed friends until his passing, but I know he would be very proud that we dragged the old girl kicking and screaming to 50. Thanks for idea and for the inspiration to make it happen.

Auto Action has had 17 editors since Ian Smith took the reins for the very first issue, which he passed onto James Lang-Peach after a few months.

I have to be honest and say that I have worked with all of those editors in some capacity, all except James. Chris Lambden was my first editor and was a fellow Superkart racer, and I’m pleased to count Chris as one of my friends today, as I do Ian Smith.

In fact, I am pleased to say that I am mates with several past editors of Auto Action and many of them have supported me personally since Mike Imrie and I rescued AA from the rubbish pile back in July of 2016.

We have a substantial section of this issue that features many of the editors who have been part of the 50 years that is AA. It’s a look at an interesting journey and about how things have changed over the years and an important acknowledgment of all the hard work, lots of late nights and stress.

Of course, it is the teams of editorial staff, journalists, sub editors, designersand photographers who put the news and features stories together that have been acknowledged in this issue and in previous anniversary celebrations.

Three Auto Action covers that represent important moments in my relationship with AA. Issue 378, August 23 1985 - my first issue working on Auto Action (right). Issue 1788 was for many readers considered to be the end after 45 years.... Then along came issue 1789 and nearly five years later we are still going strong. Peter Janson was a mentor and still a dear friend (above).

However, one group of the AA team that has universally been left out of receiving an accolade has been the advertising sales team members.

There has been a significant group of people work in the ad sales department of Auto Action during the past 50 years.

That is how my employment started with Auto Action in 1985. I have worked with many salespeople, both on AA and other titles, and just like the editorial and production people they may well be behind the scenes, but all have had to deal with the weekly or fortnightly pressures of production deadlines and sales budgets that must be met.

While I can’t name them all, I acknowledge the great contribution that they have made, I want to thank them because without the advertising revenue that was generated, Auto Action would not be the successful publication it is today.

This, I have to say, is one of the proudest achievements of my life.

Nearly five years ago, with 45 years under the belt, Auto Action was pronounced dead and buried.

Well, we have proved them wrong.

But I could not have done it without the support of an important group of people, team Auto Action.

Heath McAlpine and Dan McCarthy are in the office every day and at the race tracks on weekends, as is Garry O’Brien, who has been a mainstay of the title for as long as I have.

Mark Fogarty and Bruce Newton have both been at the editor’s controls and without their guidance and hard work you would not be reading the quality words you are now. The rest of the team including Dan Knutson, Mark Bissett, Rhys Vandersyde and our designer Jason Crowe all put in the hard yards to help deliver the magazine every fornight.

So, in closing I say to you all that it is a remarkable thing to be finding myself filling the last page of the 50th anniversary issue with my own thoughts and feelings, to be honest I really can’t believe it.

It is truly an amazing situation to be the publisher and owner of Auto Action and to be the head of the team that has delivered the old girl to her 50th birthday.

It’s been a long and sometimes difficult journey, however it is one that I am so incredibly proud to have started, and one that I hope I will continue for some time to come as the destination is still a way off in the distance.

Thank you all, every single one of you, that has contributed in some way to delivering Auto Action, be it weekly or fortnightly, into the hands of our most valued asset, our readers..

Kind regards,

BRUCE WILLIAMS.

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wall of fame The good and the great of world motor sport pay tribute to Auto Action

“AA covered my career in the UK when I was scrambling up the slippery slope to F1, which was more than most Australian media did. I’ve never forgotten that – even when the mag’s smart-arse journos questioned my touring car credentials. Well done to still be here after so long and still covering F1 comprehensively.”

Alan Jones, 1980 F1 world champion

“Congratulations to Auto Action for your long-standing coverage and support of our great sport. AA has been Australia’s bible for motor sports information for half a century – an incredible achievement by the vast team of contributors over the journey. All the very best for the future. Here’s to another 50 years!”

Mark Skaife, Supercars legend

“During my turbulent time at the helm of HRT, Auto Action was required reading – and still is. Informative, insightful and irreproachable. Brave, bold and often brutal.

Congratulations to everyone associated with AA’s 50 years of fearless journalism.”

John Crennan, team principal Holden Racing Team 1990-2003

“Believe it or not, I’ve been reading AA since it’s very first edition and it’s kept me in touch with Australian racing ever since I moved to the UK 20 years ago. From letter box to inbox, its delivery has changed but the coverage is as informative and in-depth as ever.

Congratulations on achieving such an amazing milestone!”

Alan Gow, chief executive BTCC

“Happy 50th birthday, Auto Action! From the early days, the editors of AA have always supported the VHRR. Publisher Bruce Williams has maintained that valuable assistance. VHRR looks forward to another 50 years of association with Auto Action.”

Ron Simmonds, Victorian Historic Racing Register

“Congratulations to Aussie Auto Action magazine on reaching half a century of motor sport coverage, a good reminder that long form stories and great photography remain enjoyable, popular and important.

No doubt my old mate Foges is keeping the readers entertained, too.”

Martin Brundle, “The Voice Of F1”

“Since long before the advent of the internet age, Auto Action has helped convert countless thousands of casual motor sport fans into well versed aficionados.

Let me tell you, I am one of those people!

AA continues to be a must-read for not only those in the industry, but all dedicated followers. Many congratulations to all the team on reaching this incredible milestone.”

Ryan Story, managing director Dick Johnson Racing

“I remember waiting for my dad to get the latest Auto Action when I was a kid (albeit a week or two late in NZ) and then spending hours getting all my motor sport news. Congrats on the milestone, AA. A big piece of Australasian motor sport history.”

Greg Murphy, Supercars legend

“Turning 50 is an important milestone for any media brand, so a big congratulations to everyone at Auto Action. AA has been an authoritative and loved source of major news, features, analysis and comment for generations of motor sport fans. As a lifelong fan of the sport, I’ve enjoyed reading AA over the years and it’s great to see a new publisher taking it to new heights across print, online and social media. I look forward to enjoying a lot more great content and a close working relationship between AA and Seven as we return as the home of free motor sport TV coverage.”

James Warburton, CEO Seven West Media

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“To everyone who’s been part of Auto Action, congratulations on 50 years of delivering the news of the motor racing world. I’m thankful that over the years you have covered and helped my career, even the pursuit of F1. Looking forward to the next 50 years!”

Craig Lowndes, Supercars legend “Congratulations to Auto Action on your 50th Anniversary. You’ve been around a long time, but still not quite as long as me. It’s been an eventful journey for both of us! AA has always been a very informative magazine and has seen off its print rivals over the years. It’s an outstanding achievement to reach this milestone. Let’s hope you make another 50 years!”

Dick Johnson, Ford folk hero

“It might seem strange for someone on the other side of the world to be reading Auto Action, but it’s been a great source of information to me about the Australian motor sport scene for many years. Congratulations on your 50th anniversary.”

David Richards, chairman Prodrive “What an innings – 50 not out! I fondly recall hoarding the mag from when I was 11, proudly keeping every single issue from #1. In those days – no internet, no social media, no instant connectivity and no all-you-caneat motor sport on TV – AA was THE bible and, I have no doubt, was a huge reason so many of us fell in love with racing as youngsters. Congratulations and thank you to all involved for 50 informative, entertaining and passionate years and your massive contribution to the sport.”

Neil Crompton, “The Voice Of V8s” “Happy 50th, AA. An icon of Australian motor sport that I’ve enjoyed enough over the years to have tried to buy it! Long may AA continue to record what we all do on track, from the high-profile categories right through to the grass roots where we have all plied our trade at some point. Be it with a pen, a camera, a spanner or behind the wheel, never forget where you came from.”

Roland Dane, managing director Triple Eight Race Engineering “If you grew up following motor sport in Australia, Auto Action took most of your pocket money. If you grew up competing, the day your name first appeared in the pages of AA was the day you felt like you made it.

Congratulations for all you’ve achieved and happy 50th birthday.”

Jamie Whincup, seven-time Supercars champion “Good God – Auto Action is nearly as old as me! Best of birthdays to an institution in the Australian motor sport landscape. And thanks to the many AA journalists over the years who made my press conferences memorable moments. Too many to name, but special mention to good old Foges, who I think was present at the very first car race ever conducted, and long-time adversary Bruce Newton.

Well done to all. Here’s to the next 50 years!”

Tony Cochrane, Supercars founding father

“For half a century now, Auto Action has been a fervent advocate of motor sport in Australia. I congratulate the magazine for its comprehensive coverage of our sport since 1971.

While waiting for life to go back to normal, including for motor sport, I wish you all the best for many years to come. Happy 50th Anniversary!”

Jean Todt, president Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile “Please accept my sincere congratulations on the golden anniversary of Auto Action.

Like all things of such an enduring nature, change has been inevitable and inevitably hard to navigate at times, but 50 years is a great achievement. It is fitting that Bruce Williams, a lifelong enthusiast and competitor, should be at the helm to mark this auspicious occasion.

On behalf of the board of Motorsport Australia, congratulations and thank you for your commitment to our sport.”

Andrew Fraser, president Motorsport Australia “Big congrats to Auto Action on your 50th anniversary. I have lots of good memories. As a kid, I’d go straight to the car magazines in my local newsagent and grab AA. I remember the first time I was in the mag.

When I saw the article, I was superstoked. And there were a few covers to follow! I think my mum has kept them all. She collects everything and they’re all in safe keeping. Auto Action for me is the definition of Australian motor sport journalism.

Here’s to 50 more years!”

Daniel Ricciardo, Australian F1 star “Auto Action is such an important player in the Australian motor sport scene.

The magazine provides unique insights into the sport we all love. We congratulate all the current and past employees at Auto Action for reaching this historic milestone and look forward to the next 50 years.

Eugene Arocca Motorsport Australia CEO “Congratulations to Auto Action for keeping us well informed on all facets of motor sport for the past 50 years. I also would like to thank AA for the fair coverage of my career over all these years. “ Colin Bond, race and rally legend

“Just like shocks ‘n’ springs and a competition licence, Auto Action is a staple of Australian motor racing. I’ve been an avid reader since I started racing in 1986 and I still rely on AA to help keep me across the key issues in our sport. So sincere congrats on this milestone, and kudos for the passion and tenacity that has kept it going. Long may it continue.”

Mark Larkham, Supercars Broadcaster Of The Year 2019/20 As a reader who recalls that very first edition half a century ago, I wanted to congratulate you and all those who have been part of AA’s incredible journey. I still enjoy the paper version each week, and it is amazing to reflect on the contributors and editors that the magazine has had over those 50 years. Certainly, Auto Action should be ranked as one of Australia’s motor sport “Institutions”. And personal congratulations to you for your grit and determination in fostering the accurate and informative reporting of motor sport in this country.

Garry Connelly, deputy president, FIA Institute “Auto Action has been my go-to source for motor sport information and stories for most of my life! Growing up we would call past the newsagent on the way to school to buy a copy and then fight with Kim and dad about who was going to read it first. 50 years is a fantastic and deserved milestone.

Congratulations to Bruce Williams and everyone involved over the years.”

Brad Jones, owner BJR “Long-running and respected, Auto Action has consistently given fans entertaining and informative content. It’s a great achievement to reach 50 years, navigating some turbulent waters during recent times, like all traditional print media. I read AA regularly and look forward to doing so for many more years. Thank you for supporting motor sport in Australia.”

Ryan Walkinshaw, co-owner WAU “Like me, Auto Action has battled the highs and lows, been around forever and is still going strong! The mag knew how to maximise the massive personalities that were around in my era of racing and the editors weren’t afraid to think outside the box. We did some pretty outrageous stuff and stirred up controversies, which is what the fans want. Congratulations AA on your 50th anniversary. Well done and all the best for the future from The Enforcer.”

Russell Ingall, Supercars legend “Auto Action was there when I began racing in 1986. Back then it blew my mind that I could read the race report from my local Gemini race in a magazine with Peter Brock on the front cover! This is why AA is 50 years strong.

The in-depth coverage of all levels makes it a big part of Australian motor racing culture.”

Paul Morris, driver guru

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“Although I’m a relative newcomer to Aussie V8 racing, I know Auto Action is an institution down there.

I’m old school enough to still love holding a racing mag in my hands and AA is up there with the best of them! Aussie motor sport has been part of my life since my very first race, where I watched Alan Jones win the Long Beach GP in ’81 and his 1980 championship-winning Williams is in my collection. With Daniel Ricciardo now in our McLaren F1 team, that connection is only getting stronger. Huge congrats on 50 years.

Can’t wait to get back there for the Australian Grand Prix in November.”

Zak Brown, co-owner WAU/CEO McLaren F1 “Fifty years of ink and paper, 100s of reporters and photographers from around the globe and, of course, the dreaded editors. AA and its minions have showcased the sport and all its personalities, including irritable team owners! It’s been very fulfilling for all of us – albeit, you have been cantankerous at times. Well done on half a century!”

Garry and Barry Rogers, owners GRM/ARG “Congratulations on your 50th anniversary. It is a rare milestone that Team Penske also achieved not so long ago, so I understand its significance. Auto Action has always provided in-depth reporting and I know the passionate motor sports fans in Australia appreciate the comprehensive coverage of the sport that we all love.”

Roger Penske, founder and chairman Penske Corporation “Congratulations on Auto Action’s 50th Anniversary which is a great achievement and a milestone that needs to be recognised. Recalling the excitement when Auto Action was released in 1971 giving us up to date news from round the world, but specifically on the home front, was great. From Paul Harrington at the outset to Bruce Williams now as the Editorial Director and principal, the support for PIARC and the sport at large has been great from all your staff and contibutors.

From club events to the halcyon days of 1970s 500K Touring Car events, International Formula 5000s to today’s Supercars, GTs and now the Gold Star S5000 revival, Auto Action has been there supporting us and recording history. Along the way there has been Superspeedway, World Touring Cars, MotoGP and more, including from 1985 onwards the Australian F1 Grand Prix. There was of course the time in 2016 when Auto Action was teetering on extinction and thanks to your commitment and passion, with support from other enthusiasts, that this iconic publication has survived and prospered. Thanks for being there for 50 years.”

Geoff Bull, PIARC “Congratulations Auto Action on 50 years – what an achievement!

I remember as a little kid grabbing my dad’s copy of AA as soon as he brought each issue home, then reading it from cover to cover, which helped fuel my passion for racing. AA has played a vital role in the careers of so many up-and-coming drivers over the years and I’m extremely grateful to Bruce and his team for their support and coverage of my career to date. Let’s hope there’s plenty more good news to read in AA’s pages over the next couple of years!”

Oscar Piastri, 2020 FIA Formula 3 World Champion

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reader’s letters

“My favourite Aussie rock band, the Uncanny X-Men, topped the charts asking; “Where will we be in 50 years?” and, for Auto Action, we now know – it’s still going strong! Congratulations to all those who have contributed to an Australian motor racing institution over its incredible 50 years, including me in my one issue as standin editor. Sincere congratulations though must go to a great mate in Bruce Williams for his never-ending passion for AA and fight to keep such an important publication alive, relevant, and healthy in an ever-changing and increasingly difficult media landscape. Here’s to 50 more glorious years.

Gerald McDornan, former Holden Motorsport Media Manager Hello, I have been reading Auto Action for the better part of three years now, and while I cannot say I was around for the first editions we are celebrating in this issue. But I am sure that like those of today they are written to the highest standard to cover a wide range of activities and categories, both across the country and the internationally, as long as it involves wheels, a motor, and the will to win. Your magazines have always covered every piece of information I could ever wish for, and then some, and I look forward to searching my newsagents fortnightly for my fix in the future.

To the next 50 years!! Fletcher Kendall I want to send you a hearty congratulations with regards reaching the 50th Anniversary Edition of the perfect communicator of what is happening not only in Australia but in the world of motor sport!!! Whilst we have all this new digital stuff, at 69 years of age I firmly believe that the quality of production and the high level of information from your informative and thoroughly world class journalists, makes the reading of a hands-on product even more enjoyable and appealing to obviously so many like-minded people as myself!!! My wife Beth only this morning said to me “your Bible should be due this week”!!!! Haha!!!! Keep up the good work!! Regards Garry Clarke Hello mate, I’ve been buying the mag since issue one. I went down to Carlyle - the newsagent in Springvale and one of the guys working there had been at Spv High when I was there.

He told me about this new mag that covered motor sport fortnightly. Racing Car News was a monthly so there could be a month between an event and its write up.

AA cut that time down and it was just about racing. I had that number one (issue) for years but I don’t know where it went.

Everywhere I worked I’d walk down on that second Thursday to get AA. In Fitzroy I used to walk down to Gertrude St to the newsagent for an AA then come back to the Mag - Pie shop for a pie. I have been driving up to Glen Waverley lately, there’s a tiny paper shop at the station so I go up there for an AA. I’ve been doing that since we got irus the virus. Best wishes George J King Hi Guys, Well done reaching your 50th Birthday, you remind me of how old I am. I have been reading Auto Action religiously since its Inception. It has been a ritual for me to spend at least a half an hour or even more every working day for 50 years reading Auto Action during by lunch break.

Even when I owned a large business I would always stop what I was doing and eat lunch and read Auto Action. In my teens my love of motor racing saw me hitch hiking to Mallala for the Car and Bike racing usually on the Monday Public Holiday. In later days when I had a car, my mate and I would spend our holidays following the TransTasman series in QLD, NSW, Vic, SA with the mighty F5000 cars and Pacific Touring Cars series. Attended all the F1 races in Adelaide and all the Adelaide 500 races also. Have visited all V8 Supercar races including China and the USA and Bahrain.

Auto Action has been the influence on my love of motor racing and provided me with all my information and knowledge. The short time it was missing, lunch was very boring. PS: I am now 73 and still go to car racing and read Auto Action.

Regards Kim Atkinson I felt I had to congratulate you on the quality of Auto Action content over the last couple of years, it is good to see more technical articles on different old and new vehicles. The motor sport personnel interviews have been first class and overall, the magazine has come alive. Keep up the good work.

Yours in motorsport, Ron Colligan Since 1983 Auto Action has been my read.

Buying Auto Action and an ice-cold chocolate milk from the local service station each Thursday morning had become a ritual. Then in April 2016 when the publication ceased, I like many others felt betrayed by the publisher that we had supported for many years. A couple of months later there was light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Like a freight train, Bruce Williams and his new team appeared.

Bruce took ownership, invested time and money, engaged the top writers, made hard decisions and instigated change towards internet access whilst still retaining Auto Action’s print heritage. Bruce, you are the Godfather of Australia motor sport publishing and on behalf of all readers I say thank you for saving Auto Action.

Keep up the great work, kind regards Sterling Ashbee

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Moffat’s large legacy

IMAGES - Autopics.com.au/Phil Grant/Bruce Williams

A LEGEND WHO HAS BEEN AROUND LONGER THAN US MARK FOGARTY catches up with Allan Moffat, our very first star columnist IN THE fight against dementia, Allan Moffat is both a champion and a casualty. He is helping the campaign to find a cure as he battles his own mental decline.

While it is sad to see one of the all-time greats of Australian racing struggle with his acuity, his ability to continue enjoying life is heart-warming and uplifting.

Moffat hasn’t given up – and neither has the close cadre of friends who support him. He maintains an active social life that helps keep him aware of who he is as well as who he was.

He is happy, physically healthy and well cared for. He has good days and bad days as he finds it increasingly difficult to concentrate and communicate.

But there are still glimpses of the sardonic statesman who emerged

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Moffat was very interested in the early AAs we showed him, many of which featured his successes in the GT-HO Phase 3. And, yes, that’s Alan Jones in the background mural at Dutton Garage café.

Lithesome ’69-spec Trans-Am Mustang Boss 302 (below) is his most memorable racer. after he stopped driving when he turned 50 in 1989.

Moffat regularly attends Ford club gatherings and race meetings, revelling in the attention of fans and catching up with old teammates and rivals.

His status as Ford hero and racing legend has only increased in the past decade, revered by old- and newgeneration followers alike.

As long as he is in the company of

familiar ‘minders’, he is charming and accommodating, if not chatty.

Moffat’s achievements over 25 years on the track were instrumental in shaping what became Supercars.

He was the original – and still best – villain, his early 1970s rivalry with ‘Peter Perfect’ Brock popularising Ford versus Holden touring car racing.

His iconic Trans-Am Mustang, phalanx of Falcons, Capri and Escort sports sedans, and era-ending Sierra enshrined him as a Blue Oval blueblood. Even dalliances with a Chevy Monza, Mazda RX-7s and Holdens (A9X and Commodores) didn’t dilute his Ford folk heroism.

Moffat won the Bathurst 500/1000 and ATCC four times each, plus a sports sedan title. He was awarded an OBE and inducted into the Australian Sports, Motor Sports and Supercars Halls Of Fame.

But his influence was so much more than the sum of his success. Legends don’t come any larger.

Which only makes his mental decline

all the more distressing to relate.

But Allan himself last year agreed to make his predicament known and aligned himself with Sir Jackie Stewart’s foundation to find an effective medical treatment for dementia, from which his wife Helen suffers.

At 81, Moffat isn’t the man he once was. Hasn’t been for the past few years as dementia has taken hold. Many of us in the industry were aware of his failing mental health, but we respected his affliction.

I last interviewed him at length on camera in late 2017 and it was harrowing – for me. He got through it with some prompting and, with some sympathetic editing, he appeared to be in fine form.

I was pleased – and relieved – with the result. For all our differences in the ’70s and early ’80s – when he gave me a hard time as an impertinent journalist – I didn’t want him to look frail and incompetent.

It may have been the last truly cogent interview Moffat did. If so, I am proud.

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Dementia isn’t a one-size-fits-all affliction. Old age-related, it typically affects the short-term memory and cognitive abilities. But the effects on personality and behaviour vary wildly among individuals.

How their often-acute memory of the long past associates with the present is the problem. In simple terms, people, places and events become jumbled.

By my observation, Moffat is relatively lucky in that he seems to remember and accept those with whom he has dealt over a long time. When and why is more problematic.

But there is recognition – and, most importantly, trust. What has suffered most is verbal communication. While clearly enjoying the company of long-time close associates, he has become increasingly withdrawn from conversations.

Once the cantankerous, abrasive and driven ‘bad guy’ of Australian touring car racing, he became a beloved figure in his dotage. North American accent notwithstanding, he is an Aussie icon.

Canada-born but long a naturalised Australian, Allan George Moffat made his name and fame in his adopted country. At his racing peak, his pejorative nickname was ‘Marvin’ – as in Marvin The Magnificent, sarcastically.

There was also his alter ego ‘Arthur’ – the nice guy with whom the rare occurrence of a media dinner revealed a different person. Charming, entertaining, funny.

Arthur was so rarely seen that a leading journo of the time wondered who had kidnapped Allan and substituted his accommodating doppelganger.

Against this background, we got together with Moffat to celebrate his association with Auto Action’s 50th anniversary.

He was a star columnist of our first issue, featuring on the front page.

We met at the café in Dutton Garage in Richmond in inner east Melbourne, a regular haunt of Moffat, who lives not far away in a comfortable retirement village. Surrounded by classic cars and memorabilia, Moffat is in his element.

Visitors and diners recognise and fete him. He is accompanied by fellow legend Fred Gibson, his Ford factory teammate in the early ’70s, and constant companion Phil Grant.

Together, Larry Perkins, Grant and Gibbo have protected Moffat amid a bitter divorce battle. Along with first son Andrew – it’s complicated – they are all looking after his financial and social interests, keeping him active and involved.

Grant devotes himself to Moffat. A professional greenkeeper and devoted enthusiast, he runs Allan’s diary and guards his IP. Without his intervention some years ago, Allan would be destitute.

Joining Grant and Gibson for lunch is AA publisher Bruce Williams, a lifetime Moffat fan and associate. We all chat and regale, and show Moffat a copy of the first issue with his column on the front page.

He is happy and following our banter, but his responses are nods, smiles or grimaces. Even in familiar company, he is slightly confused.

Gibson intervenes as Moffat’s ‘interpreter’, explaining his Ford factory

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Former Ford teammate Fred Gibson (above) is one of Moffat’s most trusted and supportive friends. Foges has been interviewing Moffat since the mid-1970s. This chat (right) was the most difficult of all because the great man is no longer communicative, much less acerbic. teammate’s approach in 1971, when AM was again pursuing the ATCC with his Mustang.

“It was a pretty big effort,” Gibbo said.

“The Phase 3 GT-HO wasn’t the best car in the world to start with.”

Even so, Moffat won the Bathurst 500, driving solo.

According to Gibson, Moffat’s advantage back then was discipline and dedication.

“Allan’s big strength was mental,” he said. “He’s one of those guys that puts a lot of pressure on himself to do the job properly. His ability was more mental than physical.

“He would test endlessly to get the car right. He was very talented, but preparation and practice were the keys.

“Allan was a very mental driver. Skilful, but very focused. If he put his mind to something, he’d get it done.”

Amid the discussion, Moffat remembered his ill-fated Mustang ATCC campaign against Bob Jane’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

“I was trying to win the touring car championship, but it was very difficult,” he interjected.

Moffat’s introductory AA column alluded to replacing the Mustang with the ‘Super Falcon’. He never pursued it because, as Gibson recalled, the 5.8-litre GT- HO was an expensive folly.

“That car cost an absolute bomb,” he said. “In that era, it was a lot of money.

Allan gave up on it.”

He turned to Moffat and asked: “Remember the Super Falcon? It was a heap of shit, wasn’t it?”

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Moffat nodded his assent.

Throughout the lunch, Moffat was engaged and aware. But even among familiar company, he nodded or shook his head to propositions.

He struggles with banter.

Moffat was arguably Australia’s second full-time professional racing driver, following sports cars and open-wheel star Frank Matich.

It was his hard-nosed approach that separated him from his semi-pro early rivals like Norm Beechey and Jane.

Gibson still uses a highly pejorative term to describe Moffat the man in the ‘70s. His more moderate appraisal: “He was a ruthless racer, but he had to be because he was a professional.

It was his business. It wasn’t my main job. It was just a bit of fun for most of us, although we were serious on the track. But I was more reluctant to punt somebody than, say, Allan was.”

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During the course of discussion, Moffat sparks up at the mention of Scott McLaughlin and his titlewinning Mustang.

“That thing really goes,” he remarks.

It transpires that Moffat likes and rates McLaughlin after meeting him in the DJR garage, where he is always welcome.

Moffat is no longer at his best. But he remembers more than he has forgotten and acknowledges his long link with AA. Reminded by Bruce Williams how much he dominated early coverage, he quipped that they should discuss ‘residuals’.

We enjoyed catching up with Moffat to celebrate his long career and early involvement with the magazine.

He was there at the very start of AA and has been a significant figure ever since.

To reiterate, Allan Moffat is happy, physically healthy and in good care.

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1976 AUTO ACTION CARTOONS STARTED UP FRONT

I MOVED to Melbourne in 1975 with an old “Mini-Club” mate, Adrian McClelland.

We opened a small-run Tee-shirt printing business in Rathdowne Street, Carlton to service Car Clubs, Rock Bands and hopefully motor sport too. We lived above the print shop and called the business STONIE-MAC Cartoon prints.

Because the business worked on “short-runs” from five to 50 shirt prints, we happened to score a major client in Phillip Morris. Brands manager John Evans wanted a printer who would do short runs for their promo girls outfits, which also included Marlboro Holden Dealer Team tee shirts.

Victorian Mini Club members were involved in the timing at Calder Raceway meetings and some members introduced us to privateer Murray Carter, who we looked after with team shirts. Through “Muzza” we met some bloke called Phil Brock who had a famous brother. Then a jolly fellow Ken Nancarrow at the RaceGear shop in Toorak, and suddenly we were part of what they affectionately called the Melbourne Motor Sport MAFIA!

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We also attracted tt t d a ffollowing ll i off young media di cadets, namely an 18-year-old journalist Mark Fogarty, photographer Mike Jacobson, and budding journos Barry Naismith and David Segal.

In 1976 it was “Foges” who suggested I go and show some of my cartoons from Chequered Flag magazine to Paul Harrington, editor of Auto Action.

Any journalist, photographer or cartoonist for that matter is only as good as their Editor, providing he or she likes your work. Englishman Harrington originally came from the media centre at Brands Hatch to Melbourne to run the Light Car Club, but soon found his niche in the Editor’s chair at Australian Auto Action.

“If you’re any good and topical about the sport, I’ll run you!” he told me.

With no race meetings before the next issue of AA, I dashed off a cartoon about Allan Moffat’s new race truck-transporter from International Harvester.

Harrington printed it inside Auto Action on a page near Letters to the Editor, where most editorial cartoons go.

The day after AA#Issue 131 March 4 1976 hit the stands, the phone rang in

John ‘Stonie’ Stoneham was an institution in Auto Action for decades with his hilarious and irreverant take on the motor sport topics of the day. Here Stonie recounts how it all started.

Stonie recalls a call from Pauline Moffat (above left, chatting with Harry Firth) after his very first Auto Action cartoon, wanting a copy! Far left, Stonie first opened a t-shirt printing business in Melbourne with Mini Club mate Adrian McClelland in 1975, which shortly after kick-started his professional cartooning career. His second-ever cartoon for Auto Action (below) got Stonie into trouble with Ford.

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Stonie’s knack of capturing topical moments or the personalities of the era made him a key part of Auto Action for decades. Stonie also celebrated many of the magazine’s milestones along the way.

Like television, Stonie’s early days were in black and white (below) before evolving to full colour, such as the examples above. His very first cartoon (centre below) demonstrated his left-field take on the sport.

After debuting on the inside pages, Stonie’s cartoons quickly became a fixture on the front page (bottom).

the shop and Adrian said, “It’s Pauline Moffat!”

“Could we have a copy of your cartoon in Auto Action?” she asked.

After I changed my underwear, we arranged for a print and sent it to Moffat Racing on Malvern Road.

I was a little shocked when the next issue (#132) of Auto Action came out.

The bloody cartoon was on the front page! I rang Harrington and asked, “Why did you put it on the front page?”

“Keep that standard up and I will!”

Holy Shit…no pressure! We needed a few white wines at the Weather Cock after that!

After the following Sandown meeting the Fords were leading the series when Moffat blew an engine and the other two Fords retired. Murray Carter said afterwards that the engine blocks were splitting.

The cartoon for AA#134 showed a Ford V8 engine in a rubbish tin at Sandown, and Ford Australia Motor Co. wanted to sue me!

I needed more underpants and Loctite

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for or my bowels!

Murray Carter went into bat for me and persuaded Ford to drop the charges.

I learned years later from Peter Brock that I should be careful, the managing director of Holden reads my cartoons!

If I was going to continue with Auto Action at this level, I seriously needed to

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lift my game if I was going to stay in the motor sport industry.

Frank Garner opened a High Performance Driving School at Calder Raceway in 1976, and for $25 a lesson I could learn to drive a Formula Ford and there I might get some insider-trading about this sport without remaining a complete wanker.

My first lesson appearance didn’t go well!

Firstly, Frank remarked about my babyshit-brown driving suit. “Good colour for a suit son, you won’t notice it when you shit yourself!”

The school training procedure was four laps at 2000rpm in top and pit, then four at 4000rpm and pit, then four with everything you had been told to do.

On the first lap flat-chat I ran through a puddle at Repco corner and swapped ends at the apex. The rule was if you spin … return to the pits … you screwed up.

Frank walked up and banged his fist on my helmet, “Son, if you drive through puddles

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like that you’ll be in more shit than two eels trying to have a root in a bucket of water!”

After the lesson Frank asked, “Are you the bloke who does the cartoons in Auto Action?”

When I explained I had no aspirations of being a race-car driver and just wanted to know how it works, Frank was only too happy to mentor me with anything I needed to know as long as I would keep telling him really bad jokes every lesson I did.

(In 1978 I illustrated the safe driving book Drive to Survive for Frank.)

I never got used to the acceptance of the piddly cartoons in such a great magazine and in this huge sporting arena.

“I was a very small Tick-Bird on the Bum of a very large Rhinoceros!”

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tassiedevil 50 years of winning Veteran John Bowe recalls the ups and downs of a decorated career that parallels the existence of this magazine, both still going strong THE BEARD and the spectacles. In living memory, John Bowe’s face has never been hairless nor ungoggled.

Whiskers and eyeglasses are as much his signature as the robust racing for which he was famed.

Bowe has worn a beard since his late teens and specs even longer, never comfortable with contact lenses. His slightly nerdy look has always belied the ruthless racer he is.

He is among Australia’s most versatile drivers, winning in open-wheelers, sports cars and touring cars. He reached the top levels in each, with championships in every division.

A youthful 66, Tasmanianborn, Melbourne-based Bowe is still racing and winning, recently notching up his 100th success in Touring Car Masters.

His Australian Motor Sport Hall Of Famer status was secured by two Australian Drivers’ Championships (1984/85), the Australian Sports Car Championship (1986), two Bathurst 1000 victories (1989/94), three Bathurst urst 12 Hour wins (1995/2010/14), an Australian Touring Car Championship (’95) and three TCM titles (2011/14/15).

Bowe has always been one of the country’s most personable and fan-friendly drivers. His rapport with sponsors is also enduring.

He has endeared himself to the racing community by going public with his battle with depression, which followed his retirement from Supercars at the end of 2007, and his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Bowe has been racing almost as long as Auto Action

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T year will mark 50 years that you’ve been This iin racing, which coincides with Auto Action’s 550th anniversary. The changes you’ve seen in rracing and in your life over 50 years must be qquite extraordinary.

has been around, h around starting iin late ’71 as a 16-year-old single-seater prodigy in his s native Tassie. n On top of his 100 TCM wins milestone, it was w appropriate to get together a with him for a joint 50 years w celebration lunch. Joined c by his partner Lesley and b publisher Bruce Williams – p a long-standing friend and racing rival in TCM – we ra discussed some of the highlights of his five decades, and still counting, in the sport.

Just a day out of hospital, Bowe was as positive and upbeat as ever, enthusing about the future as he regaled us with his memories of a life lived large.

This interview only scratches the surface, but it encapsulates an era of unprecedented progress.

Rest assured, John Bowe will be a subject of our ‘Living Legends’ series in the near future, exploring his decorated career in much greater detail.

Y the world is almost unrecognisable. I was Yes, aat odds with myself whether to say that I’d been iin racing 50 years because, first of all, it’s a llong time and I didn’t necessarily want everyone sstirring me up about being old – I’m a bit sensitive about that. I grew up in racing, so I’ve been in racing all my life, which is more than 50 years. My dad Brian was a racer. He was friends with John McCormack, Marcos Ambrose’s dad Ross and people like that, so I grew up at racetracks. In 1971, the Tasman series was in its full flight. The only place you could read about motor sport was Racing Car News, which was always a month old or more by the time it came out. I had in my place in Tasmania, which my ex-wife Alice made me throw away, a whole collection of Auto Actions from about that same time. Which I’m very disappointed about – still – 20 years later.

For a competitor and fan back in ’71 it was a big thing for a fortnightly magazine devoted to racing to come out.

Absolutely. I think it was the making of the heroes of the time. I knew who the heroes of the ’60s were because I used to go to Longford

b w

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bowe wow and Symmons Plains as a kid, but I think Auto Action very much contributed to making the Moffats and the Brocks and the Bonds, and later the Johnsons, the public heroes they became.

So it played a very major role in motor sport’s growth.

Were you like me – down at the local newsagent first thing every second Thursday morning to get the latest issue?

Well, I lived in Tassie, so were a bit behind down there, but I got it as soon as it was available. I used to go down to a little shopping centre in Devonport called The Four Ways and there was a newsagent there. I would go in every fortnight and get it, and religiously sit down at the bench in dad’s workshop and read it front to back. At least now I take it home!

Do you remember when you first saw your name in AA? No, no. I didn’t look for it. I was in a small motor sport community in Tassie and I didn’t even think about it when my name was mentioned. I was very interested in open wheelers. My dad was an open wheeler person and I didn’t get any interest in touring cars until the ’80s, really, so my heroes were people like Kevin Bartlett, John McCormack and Max Stewart. A little later on I met Vern Schuppan, who was a great guy. They were my heroes, not the touring car stars.

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Early days ... John Bowe catches up with the latest news, in Auto Action (above). JB reminisces about the past 50 years with Foges (far left). And early open-wheeler days, aboard his Elfin F2 in Tassie (opposite page) and Elfin F5000 (below). Images: Autopics/AA Archive

Did you dare to dream back then about becoming a professional racing driver?

No, I didn’t really give it a thought. I got an opportunity much later because as a family we had a relationship with Garrie Cooper from Elfin. Dad had bought a new Elfin 600 in 1970, but he didn’t have it very long. He started a business and he sold the car to Ross Ambrose, and then we started to look around for a car for me to race. Later on in the ’70s, we had a relationship with Garrie Cooper because I had a series of Elfins that I raced in Tasmania. Garrie took me under his wing and I then I did a couple of races on the mainland, which is what us Tassie people call the rest of Australia. That was 1979. Dad used to say to me “Oh, I don’t know about this racing on the mainland stuff. I think you’re better off to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.” Not that he ever held me back then, but it was just the thought process of people in small towns in those days. And I had a job in the family business – a car dealership. But by that time I had support from the local Ansett manager, who used to give me free tickets to fly interstate, and the state manager for Avis used to organise cars for me, so I could do races on the mainland quite inexpensively. Over the years, if you made a list of the people who helped you out, for no reward, really, it’s a massive list. And you needed that assistance – and you still do. I wouldn’t call myself a deal-maker – I call myself

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a schmoozer. But a deal-maker is a respectable way to describe the wheeling and dealing you have to do as a driver.

You started your rise to the top with the Ansett Elfin F2 car in ’79. Do you remember how that came about?

That was my car. I’d had an Elfin 700 and Garrie said “If you sell that and buy a new chassis, I’ll build you a car and look after it and build an engine for it”. This was when the single-cam 1.6-litre F2 started. He wanted to build a VW Golf engine and my car had a Golf engine. He turned it on its side and other tricks like that. I had a great relationship with Garrie. It was very

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sad when he passed away (suffering a heart attack in 1982) – he was only young, he was in his 40s. I always had a lot of respect for him and his cars. That relationship started me off as a full-time driver. But he’d already given me a drive in an F5000. I’d driven twice in an F5000 before this F2 car turned up. It was going to be a 782 and then it was a 792 because Garrie was always optimistic about how fast he’d build the car, so it dragged out to the next year. It was a small operation despite how many cars he produced. There were probably only five or six people working at Elfin. So I’d driven the F5000 at Oran Park in a Gold Star race and then in the Australian Grand Prix at Wanneroo in ’79. So I’d gone from a 130 horsepower F3 car with a

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Formula Pacific days ... JB leads long-time rival Alf Costanzo (above) and celebrates win at Calder (below). At one stage JB was an AA columnist and wore the colours proudly (right). Bowe was immediately successful in touring cars, driving for Volvo (bottom).

Images: AA Archive

little Ford pushrod engine to a 500 horsepower F5000. I did OK, but you still have to do the miles. I went OK, but Larry Perkins had just finished the Rothmans series in the same car and he was, as you’d expect, faster than me. I got better as I went along, as everybody does.

tyres and I thought “Wow! This is a revelation.” It was simple times and I was a simple person. I wasn’t paid, but my racing wasn’t costing me anything. And I’m proud to say I’ve never paid for a drive in my life.

You couldn’t have imagined that you’d still be racing in 2021, much less still winning races.

So when did you become a truly professional racing driver?

No, you couldn’t. Not in my wildest dreams.

Honestly, I had no overt ambition, but I obviously had an inner ambition. I somehow had quite a strong desire to succeed, but I don’t know why. I chased relationships, I chased deals, but not money deals so much as relationship deals. The deal with Garrie was that I became part of the works Ansett Elfin team and in its time, it was fantastic.

I look back on it now and compared it with what a Supercars team is, it was a little backyard operation. He had a Ford truck that we called ‘The Fruit Truck’ because it looked like it should have been carrying fruit. It wasn’t at all sophisticated, but at the time it was cutting edge. Back then, F1 teams towed their cars around on trailers.

Were you paid to race for Elfin?

No, no, he didn’t pay me. But it didn’t cost me anything – not a cracker. Elfin organised my travel and accommodation – I remember they had a deal with Flag Motels. The first two or three races I did with the F5000, I had Vern’s old tyres, which were used in the Rothmans International series. Later on I got some new

When I drove for the Volvo Dealer Team in 1986. Having said that, I guess I was a professional driver when I was in Formula Pacific with the Lucky Nuts team. We had a little workshop here in Melbourne, Lucky Nuts was the sponsor, it was a dedicated operation. I wasn’t fullf ll time as such, but I looked after all the travel bookings and stuff, and I drew a very small wage out of it. So I guess you’d say that was semi-professional. But when I drove for Volvo, Mark Petch and John Sheppard approached me to drive alongside Robbie Francevic. It was about the third round of the championship and they offered me X. It wasn’t very much, but I thought “Gee, how long’s this been going on?” It was like a real job. Ever since then I’ve tried to get it up (pay), but it went up and then down again.

Do you know how many races you’ve won in your career?

No, I haven’t kept count. But there’s this driver data base that says it’s 249 wins from 1180 starts. Sounds about right. What I do know is that I haven’t won anywhere near as

many races as Ji Jimmy Ri Richards (700+). h d (700+) Still, remarkably, you’ve won in pretty much everything you’ve ever raced.

I’ve had my moments. There were some things in which I didn’t have as many moments as I would’ve liked, but yes, I have had plenty of success over the years. I managed to run at the front of the field in just about everything.

You took to touring cars pretty quickly and easily, didn’t you?

I could have won my second touring car race ever, but it broke down. I was leading Brock by quite a margin at Wanneroo in ’86. That was a big moment for me. I’d missed the first three rounds before I joined the Volvo Dealer Team full-time and I qualified on pole at my second event. At the time, I didn’t think that was

any anything remarkable – it was what I was pa paid to do. Brock beat me away at the start an and I followed him for a while until – and it wa was a bit of a ground-breaking moment – I got past him easily. I remember thinking go to myself “He’s making more mistakes than I am”. So I passed him and just left th him behind. And then the car broke down hi – something happened to the electrics or something – but it was a big confidence booster.

Out of it all, what do you regard as your greatest achievement – winning Bathurst, winning the ATCC, what?

Longevity. I love racing and being around racing people. I enjoy it much more than I ever did as a Supercars driver. In Supercars, your emotion goes up and down according to how your car’s performing. It affects your mental state. I love my racing now and I hope to be able to keep doing it for many years, whether that’s in TCM or historics. People often ask me when I’m going to retire and I say “Well, I’m not going to retire. When I can’t drive a fast car anymore, I’ll get a slow car.” We still compete hard in TCM, but out of the car, we’re all friends. I was known to be difficult to race against and I was difficult to race against. It meant so much. It meant paying your mortgage, educating your kids – it was a big deal to be successful at it.

So I fought hard – and sometimes too hard.

They don’t let you do that anymore. The rules are quite strict now. There wasn’t that protocol around then. You could get away with a lot more.

Famously, your car was always much wider than anyone else’s.

Absolutely. And it still can be and it still could be, but sometimes I choose not to make it so wide.

Was your time at DJR the happiest period of your big-time career?

You’re happy when you’re going well. Everyone is. Doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or a tennis

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How do you rate your final years in Supercars?

JB shared a Ford Sierra RS500 with team owner Dick Johnson to victory at Bathurst in 1989 (here & below).

They paired up again to win in 1994 (bottom). Images; AA Archive player or a racing driver. You’re happiest when you’re doing well. I was very fortunate, I arrived at DJR when they got a handle on the Sierra. The cars were fast, they had a good sponsor (Shell) and they had a good base for being a good team. You still need the same combination now, you just need more people.

It was a great time, no question, and we were friends. It was an era when you could be friends with your main rival. Dick was the boss.

I never, ever thought that I was ever better than him or that I should undermine him or anything. Never. I was always appreciative of the fact that when I got the cheque at the end of the month, it had Dick Johnson’s signature on the bottom of it. I never forgot that. We had a great relationship – and we still do. He rang me in the hospital the other day and we were making jokes about my condition. We’re still friends. When I left, we went through a little rocky patch, but truthfully, in my whole racing life with DJR, we never had an argument. And sometimes I may have been out of order – I wouldn’t like to admit it, but I might have been.

So what possessed you to leave in 1999 when DJR was still a top team?

There’s a pattern in all this. Stevie Johnson was coming along, obviously talented, really wanted to stay with the family team. I thought if I leave, Steve will get his chance. And then Les Laidlaw, who was my chief mechanic at one stage and became the DJR team manager, he went to work for this guy in Western Australia who started a team sponsored by Caterpillar.

Les and I were friends and he talked me into it. There was an increase in money involved as well, which is always tempting, but you shouldn’t do it just for money and as it turned out, it was not the right thing to do. I’ve said that to Dick a hundred times, so it’s no secret

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It pushed me to the edge, yes. I didn’t know it was going to do that, but it did. I don’t have trouble talking about things, as you well know, so I talked about it and I have lots of people that congratulated me for doing so. But I don’t feel I’m any hero for talking about my depression. It happened and to this day I take anti-depressants. I’m not ashamed of it. The medication keeps me reasonably sane.

But the message is that you recognised it and you got treatment.

The message is that you need to do something.

You can’t ignore anything, no matter what it is. Hence, the prostate posts I’ve been doing lately on social media. You can’t just ignore it, hoping it will go away. I know people that have reached out to me and said “My dad ignored it and he died when he was 67”. You have to do something. The medical industry is amazing, so you have to do something. That’s why they’re there. But don’t think I’m an evangelist.

It’s just common sense.

Do you have dark moments when you wonder why these things have happened to you?

Were there many times when could legitimately have beaten him but you didn’t because he was your boss?

Never tried, Foges. If you’re going to pass somebody, you need to apply some pressure to them. I never did. There were a few moments when (team manager) Neal Lowe would tell me on the radio to give him a bit of room or whatever, but never really gave me orders (to let Dick win) and I never really wanted them to. Later on, I guess gracefully Dick allowed me to win without me really knowing about it. I started to win more races as Dick got older, but let me assure, he was never easy to beat.

It tapered off a bit. The problem is, when you get a bit older – and I don’t mean 38 is old, I mean 50 or more – you don’t know whether it’s you, the car, the engineering ability or whatever that has the greatest effect.

Supercars became such a finite engineering business, and now more so than ever, that the driver was no longer the be all and end all of the equation anymore. It used to be that the driver basically engineered his own car, which is what you do in TCM and other categories that are not so high-level. At the end in Supercars, I didn’t know. I just thought I wasn’t going as well, I thought I probably should stop. It caused me a lot of mental trouble, to be honest.

Bravely, you came out and admitted that leaving Supercars caused you to suffer severe depression.

that I should’ve stayed. But if I had’ve stayed, would I have kept going this long? Maybe not.

I don’t know.

To add insult to injury, I seem to remember that you gave up a chance to join HRT in 1993.

I didn’t ever really want to tell Dick I was going to leave, so that was always a hindrance. I mean, we were friends. You have to understand how close we were. I had a lovely room with an en suite at his house. It was a different time.

Now’s much more ruthless. I should’ve stayed at DJR, but I didn’t.

It wouldn’t have hurt you if you’d gone to HRT, would it?

No, but I didn’t go to HRT because I didn’t want to tell Dick that I was going to leave.

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You could call it cowardice! And the same with Seto (Glenn Seton). He offered me a job, too. I have to clarify that I was very happy at DJR, very happy. I had a great relationship with them. The fate of the team, to some degree, went up and down with who worked there, which is like any business, but particularly so in race teams. I really left because, first of all, I was convinced of a dream. I’m a salesman and salesmen are very easy to sell things to. And I really wanted Stevie to take my place because I thought he deserved it – and he did deserve it. But I believe that Shell didn’t want Steve to just step straight in, so they employed Paul Radisich to replace me and then the next year Dick would step aside for Steve. So it didn’t quite work out they way I would have liked it to, but that’s life. I still have a great relationship with all the Johnson family and always will have.

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No, no, no. I feel lucky, really. When I did get down, I had people who helped me. They helped me keep racing, which saved me.

That and medical treatment – psychology, psychiatry and meds – all helped me. Being diagnosed with depression was as dark a moment as I’ve ever had, but I don’t have any dark moments now. I have days when I don’t feel tickety-boo, but I think everybody has that.

I feel lucky because I can do what I love – I can race and hang out with racing people. Even just going to a track with some of my mates for a track day gives me a lot of pleasure. I can have a lot of fun just hanging out with them.

I’m passionate about cars and driving. It’s my world. I grew up going to racetracks. I’ve been going to tracks ever since I was a baby, so it’s just part of my DNA. I also like the Fastrack V8 Driving Experience days where I take people for rides at places like Sandown, Sydney Motorsport Park and Mount Panorama. I love Bathurst, of course, but I don’t get as long there; I only get a couple of hours. But, say, at Sandown or SMP, I get seven or eight hours a day in a race car! I do 120, 140 laps – 150 sometimes – and it keeps you sharp. And it’s fun taking people for rides because they enjoy it so much. It’s fun sharing what you do because most people have no idea what a race car’s like. I took a 99-year-old guy around Eastern Creek in 2019 and he had a great time. I was worried it was going to be too much for him, but he was amazing.

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In the scheme of your career, how significant is 100 race wins in TCM? It was nice. There was quite a lot of acknowledgement of it. The great thing about social media is everybody knows what you’re doing if you keep them informed. It’s great to communicate with people and I got a lot of really nice comments on winning the 100th race. But was it really that big a deal? I would’ve hated to have retired on 99 wins in TCM, but to put it into perspective, Jackie Stewart did 99 F1 races in total. Does he wish he’d done 100? It doesn’t change what he achieved in F1. I don’t think too much about stuff like that, Foges, to be honest. It happened and it was nice. But that’s not what I do it for. I don’t do it for pats on the back. I race because I love it and I want to win every race because I’m a competitive individual when I’m behind the wheel.

And TCM is very competitive. It’s not like you’re beating a bunch of old tossers, is it?

Oh, no, no, no. There are some good young blokes in there. I reckon they should – and this is a tonguein-cheek remark – I think they should restrict TCM to over-40s! Young Adam Garwood is a real talent and I’ve said to his mum and his dad and to him that he should be racing in a category where he’s not racing against old guys like me. He drives the car (Camaro RS) really well. He drives it hard and he races really well. It’s a difficulty because the cars run out of stuff. They run out of brakes, they run out of tyres, they run out of things because they’re not new, modern cars. They have no aero, eight-inch wide wheels, 305 mm brake rotors – which is a pretty small brake – and an over-abundance of horsepower.

Over the course of 50 years, who have been your greatest rivals – and why?

Well, I’ve had so many rivals over so many categories.

Ones that come to mind are John Smith, Richard Davison and Alfie Costanzo in open-wheelers and then in touring cars, Jim Richards has always been there. Richo, Mark Skaife and Dick Johnson stand out. But Dick at his peak was my teammate and despite the old adage that you want to be beat your teammate more than anyone else, I didn’t try to beat him. And I’m sure I couldn’t have done so until way later on in Dick’s career. In his prime, Dick was one of the very best. And, I mean, when you’re a folk hero like he is and like Peter Brock was, you become a folk hero because you were so good at it, not because you’re a good bloke or you crack a few jokes.

What about Brock? Was he tough to race against?

Not really, no. I didn’t think he was that tough. He was from a different era when it was a bit more gentlemanly.

I used to deliberately antagonise him a little bit. He had this amazing ability to turn his head completely around and look at you out the back window. I don’t

JB celebrates his atonishing 100th TCM race victory (above), appropriately at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, earlier this year. Bowe says Peter Brock was good to race against but that he would deliberately antagonise him (below). He’s also a fan of young TCM racer Adam Garwood, he leading JB’s Torana (bottom). Images: ARG/AA Archive they weren’t pleasant. He was getting ready to go on th the podium and he thinks I’ve just given the race away. th BBut I got past Craig and that was that.

OOver the journey, how have you got on with Auto AAction?

know how he did it. It was like something out of The Exorcist! But a great driver, don’t get me wrong. He was a great driver, but very gentlemanly. I was in the generation that were a lot wilder and rougher because we could get away with it. Supercars drivers are a lot more gentlemanly now because of the strict rules – too strict, in my opinion – than in my period. We were bordering on the cowboy-type style. I was always a very impetuous racer, even back in the open-wheeler days.

Do you take credit for making Craig Lowndes a superstar?

No, no. You can’t take credit for something that was already there.

You know what I’m getting at, don’t you?

Yes, of course. There was a story about it. V8s at the time were allowed to run tyre pressure bleeders and we (DJR) used them with our Dunlops. The Bridgestone tyres didn’t need bleeders. We needed our tyres not to go over pressure, whereas the Bridgestones were less susceptible to over-pressure. There was a safety

car and my tyres had already bled out to the max, so when the race resumed, the tyres were way soft, the pressures were way low. So I take off and the car was very lethargic and Lowndes’s car wasn’t lethargic and he ended up passing me. He got onto me coming out of Turn 1. I covered him off so I had the inside line going into Turn 2 at the end of Mountain Straight, he rushed up the outside, turned the wheel and got around the corner in the lead – and good luck to him. Later on, as my tyre pressures came up, I was then able to put some pressure on him. Then we got some traffic and I got past him. So I say jokingly to him “I created your legend”, but it’s only a joke. Craig was always destined for stardom and he’s a fantastic driver who I don’t think should be retired. I thought he would have plenty more time left in him to race a Supercar full-time. I think the same about Garth Tander.

They’re two big names that really should still be on the grid.

II’ve had the odd run-in with you, Foges, but nothing llasting. You’ve ruffled my feathers a few times over tthe years. When you’re younger and you think your llife depends on it, you’re much more serious about yourself. So if someone writes something that you don’t like, you react – and sometimes over-react. think I may have bristled a bit when you called me a I thi veteran 20 years ago. But, generally, I’ve got on really well with the various editors and reporters.

You were even a columnist for a while in the early ’80s.

Well, ‘Seagull’ (then editor David Segal) used to write it for me. He talked to me, but he’d write it.

I think Craig would admit that it didn’t hurt his career to take you on and briefly put one over you.

Not at all. But he was obviously talented and he was in the right place at the right time, like I was when I joined DJR. He admits now that he didn’t think he was going to make it around you. He was just as surprised as you.

I held onto the brake pedal a bit longer because I didn’t want to have a crash and next thing he’s around me. I thought he was going to go into the fence. But he didn’t.

I’m sure you didn’t want this kid upstaging you in the Bathurst 1000.

No way. Truly, it was a much as I ever dug deep within myself to make sure I repassed him. It was the most I’ve ever reached into myself to keep with him and as the car came back to me, I piled on the pressure. I could see that he was getting ragged and making mistakes, and I got more confidence that I could overtake him. Dick was on the radio to me and I can’t recall his exact words, but

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Famously, you were on the cover dressed up in a devil suit, complete with horns.

That was when Steve Nally was the editor. He used to talk me into stuff. He was very ‘tabloid’.

He convinced me to dress up as a devil and afterwards I wondered why I agreed to it. I don’t say I regret it, but I’m not sure why I did it. Nally knew how to get me to do things and say things I normally wouldn’t. For some reason, I’ve always had a soft spot for him. But it was all good fun and for the most part, AA has been very good to me and I’m proud to be part of the 50th anniversary. Let’s hope we’re all still here for many years to come.

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AA EDITORS REM

Over its 50 year journey, Auto Action has been headed up by some of the most influential and talented motor sport writers and reporters this country has ever seen. AA also played a big part in developing those talents. Here, some of our former Editors recall fondly their memories at the helm of AA.

WHO WOULD have thought, at its inception out in ensuing years. in 1971, that the then brand-new, fortnightly But it all started with Auto Action and motorsport newspaper Auto Action would still it’s befitting that it is remembered as the be alive and well in 2021 – half a century later? brainchild of Len Shaw.

He was an astute judge of what would, The creation of Auto Action was less of and what wouldn’t work in magazine a committee decision than the foresight of publication, a strong character who one man, Len Shaw, who was at the time mixed a bluff persona with a genuine managing editor of the Melbourne Age compassion for those who respected newspaper’s magazine division. and treated him with honesty.

In 1971 he saw an opening for a fortnightly tabloid-format newspaper to regularly deliver Len’s beginnings in motor sport national, up-to-date news to Australian motor jjournalism (and photography) started sport enthusiasts. when he worked as editor of the 1960s The concept, having been thrashed-out with motorsport magazine Autosportsman Age management and numerous motor sport which, along with the boating title people - including the fledgling photographer/ Watersportsman, was one of a number of budding journalist Ian Smith, who went on to magazines published by Jim Abbott – an Len Shaw. The man responsible for bringing Auto Action to the news stands. become the title’s first editor - was down to eccentric, entrepreneurial businessman Image Shaw Family only one real outstanding issue (well, not the who also owned and operated the only one), which was what to call it.

Lakeland Hillclimb in Lilydale.

The timing for this epochal moment wasn’t ideal: Len was about to embark After this period (during which he famously snapped a shot of Norm on a long-planned vacation and the name of the magazine, scheduled for a Beechey’s 48-215 Holden in mid-rollover at Melbourne’s Sandown circuit), final presentation to management immediately after his return from holidays, Shaw joined David Syme to become editor of the magazine Motor Manual, hadn’t been decided. which had been purchased from owner Keith Winser as the first mainstream Len must have had some faith in me because his final words before motoring magazine to be published in Australia. departing on leave went something along the lines of: “We haven’t got the Len eventually became manager of The Age’s magazine division – a foggiest idea what to call it, but you will come up with something appropriate position held for two decades and one that is mentioned in his memoirs as by the time I return. Oh, and by the way, we are also introducing a new having provided employment for around 80 people at its height. caravanning magazine and I don’t know what to call that either.”

Although Len Shaw’s tiffs with various departmental managers at The Age were The responsibility of meeting this somewhat tight deadline was put not just on numerous, he was supported by those who counted – in upper management. my shoulders, but also on The Age promotions department which, supposedly, They respected his proven abilities to run a group of profitable magazines. was well-armed with the creative talents to come up with a suitably catchy Len’s career wasn’t just in publishing: He also proved his talents in racing, title. My recollection is that their best naming suggestion was “Wheelies.” driving a variety of Jim Abbott’s racecars including a Daimler SP250 V8This led to me tossing around a few of my own ideas over the ensuing weeks engined “brute”, a Nota Clubman, an also V8-engined Sunbeam Tiger, a and to my final suggestion of “Auto Action”. To me it seemed to appropriately Formula Vee, and an Austin 7 open-wheeler. Later, he drove various rally cars describe the new magazine’s ethos and sounded nicely individual into the bargain. including a twin cam Ford Escort, a Holden Torana XU-1 and, in the 1985 Len came back from his holiday and immediately accepted Auto Action as Wynns Sydney-Darwin Safari, a Brock-engined Range Rover. the masthead for the new publication. Australia’s new fortnightly motorsport After Len Shaw retired at the age of 60, he continued editing a couple of his newspaper was under way. titles as a freelancer, finally succumbing to ill health in his early 80s.

The “Action” component of the title became something of a staple in the If he was still around today, Len Shaw would undoubtedly have viewed, with magazine department’s future titles: Publications such as Soccer Action, a wry, characteristic smirk, the successful and continued publication of his Offroad Action (which later became 4x4 Australia) and CB Action were rolled brainchild Auto Action into the 21st century. Tim Britten

IAN SMITH Editor issue 1, 1971

HARD TO believe that 50 years ago I began as the foundation editor of Auto Action, now Australia’s oldest motorsport newspaper.

It all began from frequent meetings with Len Shaw, trackside photographing while I was employed at K. G. Murray publishing in Sydney, working as an advertising representative for Wheels, Sports Car World and Hot Rodding Review.

IAN SMITH I began writing and FIRST COVER ISSUE 1 photographing feature stories for these publications and assisting the editors when in Melbourne.

These influential motoring scribes included Bill Tuckey, Rob Luck, Kevin Wolfe and Tom Floyd, plus I was contributing photographs

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and an reports to Racing Car News Ne and Auto News New Zealand.

Zea As A a result, Len Shaw offered myself a position off as assistant editor at Motor Manual, part of the Syme Ma Magazine department in the Ma Age building in Spencer Street Melbourne.

Motor Manual Me featured motor sport on a feat regular regu basis, but we ran out of space spa to cover it all and noted that Racing Car News monthly cou not keep up to date could reports which the enthusiast were anxious to read. We also produced successful one offs, Ford Muscle and V8 Action.

Len Le Shaw came up with the idea of a fortnightly motor mot sport newspaper as Tom Floyd had launched a similar idea called Auto News in Sydney, but Len si wanted wan to produce better advertising revenue. He called call a meeting in his office with myself and Tim Britten, Brit editor of Motor Manual, to thrash out a name nam for the newspaper which took some time with many suggestions but Tim’s name Australian wit Auto Action was the winner.

Au SSo began my job of setting up layouts, with guest column writers to find, which included Bob gu Watson for rallies, Paul England for hillclimbs and W Allan Moffat, touring cars.

Al Part of preparation for myself as editor included m many roles such as advertising promotion, so du during coverage of Warwick Farm I walked the ca car park distributing Auto Action news leaflets oon car windscreens, advising enthusiasts of this nnew exciting fortnight nightly newspaper!

MEMBER This on Tom Floyd’s home turf, where he first heard the news of competition! At Sandown we did the same car window distribution with the help of my very young photo apprentices, the House Brothers.

The first front cover photograph of Frank Gardner F5000 I took at Warwick Farm leaning over the causeway armco, a position not possible today and this on returning to Melbourne started the extensive production work by myself, a very much hands-on effort in those days. No photo shop, no Apple Macs. Writing the stories of each meeting was on a typewriter, myself usingg two fingers g onlyy and each paragraph was on separate small paper sheets. These were sent downstairs after subbing to the typesetters in the comp room, who would send back waxed column strips of the typed copy which I would have to cut and paste up in columns for the page layout I designed, to fit story copy and photographs and headings. Eachh bold heading had to be Letraset after selecting a type face and painstakingly rubbing the sheet of letters along a straight line, to spell out the story caption.

The completed page mock-up was again sent downstairs to the composites who would put the finished art under a vacuum glass and with arc lights blazing, exposed the negatives of each page on film.

I was then presented with the complete issue on rolled up negative sheets to take to the printers ASAP but they were in Shepparton!

This now involved, by myself, collecting from the Age garage an HQ Kingswood and driving to Shepparton, a distance of 119 miles or now192 km, which today takes 2 hours 7 minutes. I did have the office record of 1 hour 27 minutes, as I got to know the road well and the handling characteristics of the Kingswood.

On arriving at the printers I had to wait while the offset plates were made and fitted to the press, then wait again for the first edition to roll off the press, inspect it, and if all okay then jump in the car and return to the office to present Len Shaw with the first copy hot off the press!

Then start it all over again for the next issue, which I continued for the next four months. But basically I was burnt out at this stage and resigned to set up my photographic automotive studio business in Bentleigh and then in South Melbourne, which evolved into a large business for the next 29 years. I continued to contribute my photographic services to both Motor Manual and Auto Action with Paul Harrington, Jim Laing Peach, and John Mellor at the helms.

Today I am pleased to continuing my photographic work to Australian Auto Action and thank Bruce Williams for keeping the publication alive for now 50 years, may it continue to prosper.

James Laing-Peach was Auto Action’s second Editor, albeit

JAMES LANG-PEACH ISSUE 6 Editor 1971-1972 briefly, but is probably better brie known to motor sport fans as an kno accomplished driver of class cars acc in the th Series Production era. He raced race a variety of cars in the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, including Toyota Toyo Corollas, Datsun 1200s, Triumph Trium Dolomites, Ford Capris.

Laing-Peach became a wellLain know motoring journalist known T Daily Telegraph metro for The daily newspaper and worked in various specialty magazines including Wheels. He also worked in automotive PR for manufacturers like Nissan.

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Australia’s Leading Motor Sport Paper 30, 1972 No. 30 – Thursday, March

PAUL HARRINGTON: Editor 1972-1977

Paul Harrington passed away in March 2002 but in tribute we reprint here his thoughts from the 10th anniversaty issue of Auto Action (Issue 261, Feb 27, 1981) LIKE SO many journalists, I had a dream. I wanted to be my own person and do my own things as a freelancer.

And, amazingly, I found there was plenty of work around for people prepared to do it. Unfortunately, most big companies have accounting systems which pay very little heed to a person’s need to eat now and then, so times were tough.

That was when Auto Action came along.

PAUL HARRINGTON When I took over as the FIRST COVER ISSUE 30 publication’s third Editor it had been in existence just over a year.

It was a pretty exciting time in motor sport, so the job was strong on enjoyment.

Remember, there was Norm Beechey, “Pete” Geoghegan, Bob Jane, Allan Moffat, Jim McKeown, Peter Manton, Brian Foley, Jim Smith, Bryan Thomson and a whole host of other stars doing their thing.

In addition, Formula 5000 was entering its golden years and it promised a great deal – much of which it delivered.

Frankly, it was all very easy going, and Auto Action’s fortnightly publication was a breeze for one as interested as I. There was one hang-up.

In those days we used to do the typesetting and page negative making at the Age, with Waterwheel Press in Shepparton looking after the printing.

This entailed a fortnightly drive to Shepparton with the page negatives, a long wait at the press and then the return journey, often arriving home quite late.

I got to know that stretch of the Hume Highway to Seymour, and the Goulburn Valley highway from Seymour to Shepparton, like the back of my hand.

As might be expected, if there was a quick car available for the trip, it was made more enjoyable. I believe James Laing Peach still holds the record which is unlikely to be broken as far as the old road is concerned. The Hume Freeway from Wallan to Seymour has cut a huge chunk out of the journey time these days.

Laing Peach did it in 1 hour 28 minutes if my memory serves

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Pau Harrington tries Brian Sampson’s Cheetah for size. The Paul late Englishman was one of AA’s most influential early editors.

Ima Images: AA Archive

me right, that being in the days before 100 km/h speed limits c of course.

The timing was done from The Age garage to the Waterwheel Press car park, a distance of well over 200kms!

I can recall one occasion when I was learning the ropes with James, we sat on 180 km/h for almost 15 minutes on the Goulburn Valley Highway!

Try that now and you’ll likely wind up in goal – hell, it could spoil your y whole day.

Falcon GTs always provided the quickest runs, but when they took t the front spoiler off the XB GT, it could be something of a handful at around 200 km/h. h On one occasion Managing Editor Len Shaw came along for the ride r in order to buy some claret from one of the many wineries in the t Shepparton district. He was more than a little perturbed about the t Falcon GT’s urge to turn itself into an aeroplane!

In any sphere of endeavour, competition is the spice of life. In my m early days as Editor of Auto Action, Tom Floyd’s Australian Motoring News was our main opposition. He had the late Adrian M Van V Loon in the Editor’s chair, and there was a constant battle between us to come up first with the latest. b Poor old Tom one day heard the rumour that we were going weekly, so he jumped the gun in an effort to beat us to it. As we w had h suspected when discussing the possibility, it was too much of a hassle in Australian conditions.

Australian Motoring News died eventually because of it.

I was often asked about the opposition in those days, and in particular, how I thought we stacked up against Racing Car News.

In all honesty, RCN never bothered us as it was clearly an institution, with a faithful following of monthly readers who were quite happy to buy Auto Action as well in order to keep up with the very latest information.

No other publication ever really challenged Auto Action in the motor sport sphere, although a few have tried over the years.

During my six years on the paper I met a lot of very nice people, but there were also many others I prefer to forget. But that’s the newspaper business – one in which you have to take the rough with the smooth.

When the time came for me to move on to Motor Manual it would not be true to say I was sorry.

My interest in cars has always been far wider than just motor sport, and besides, making Auto Action happen every fortnight is definitely a job for young guys.

David Hassall moved things along well once he had settled down, and now David Segal promises to keep up the good work in the future.

To reach the end of a decade’s continuous publication of a newspaper like Auto Action is quite an achievement in Australia.

That it retains fresh appeal with every issue rolling off the presses, demonstrates that it thrives on change.

From what I know of its future, things can only get better still, so I look forward to adding my bit to the edition celebrating Auto Action’s 20th year. Regards Paul Harrington.

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Early days ... editors Mark Fogarty (centre) and David Segal (right) chatting with then The Sun newspaper reporter Barry Naismith (left), at Calder in the late ‘70s.

DAVID HASSALL Editor 1977-1981

AUTO ACTION has been an important part of my life for all of its 50 years.

I discovered the premiere issue in February 1970 as a 15-year-old paper boy and since then it has been a reference point in a professional career that similarly reaches its 50th anniversary this year.

When founding editor Ian Smith in that first issue foolishly called for contributions, I sent through a report on a club autokhana that was published in issue #3.

DAVID HASSALL You can imagine how thrilling FIRST COVER ISSUE 178 it was for a teenage motor sport fanatic to have even three paragraphs without a byline published alongside columns by heroes such as Allan Moffat, Leo Geoghegan and Bob Watson. I was hooked.

Soon I was writing for Racing Car News magazine, but by the end of 1973 I found myself as the

first assistant editor of AA – and the last for many years! – working under Paul Harrington, whose furious one-finger typing on the old manual typewriter (with cigarette in the other hand) was both inspiring and slightly frightening. Not that I was much better with my two-finger effort, which hasn’t changed after all these millions of words.

Working in the hallowed halls of The Age newspaper was also inspiring, but like most young writers I went freelance until legendary managing editor Len Shaw brought me back as advertising manager (though I balanced life on ‘the dark side’ by still doing race reports and writing a regular column that old Harringbone called Random Hassalls).

When Paul became editor of Motor Manual, Len dropped me into the big chair – an editorial staff of one. Although only 23, I’d often filled in when Harrington took holidays. There was no

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ttraining, raining, you just did what h to be done, which in those days included not only had lo lots of writing but also doing the layouts, sizing photos, es estimating copy lengths and judging the point size for hheadlines.

My first issue as editor was a corker, announcing John Sheppard’s takeover of the Holden Dealer Team and the Sh ret return of my friend Peter Brock (who went on to win just ab about everything while I was editor, including the amazing Re Repco Round Australia Trial). Not every front page would write itself so easily. wr But my most memorable front page was when Alan Jones B clin clinched the World Championship, which was the cause of gre great excitement and celebration in the office. I remember that day like it was yesterday, and can still picture myself ddesigning that cover.

There were many great stories during this exciting era for AA and the sport, including visits by Juan Fangio and James Hunt, Bob Jane campaigning for an F1 Grand Prix, and Bob Morris dumping Holden for Ford (big news 40 years ago). But the ones I recall most are those that ran for issue after issue, and notably involved Allan Moffat – the roller invol rocker affair of 1978 and the Mazda rock RX7 affair (which I broke exclusively November 1979 but demoted to in N secondary cover status by Holden sec quitting the sport). Although I’d had quit run-ins with Moff over the years, I run strongly supported the RX7 to the stro end of my reign as editor in February 1981 (on Friday the 13th!).

19 TThe RX7 campaign saw me bump heads with CAMS, and I bu must confess I drove a couple of m executives out of office. I still can’t ex believe how strident some of my be editorials were considering I was ed still in my mid-20s. st Those years were great for the s sport, with not only the growth o touring cars but also a vibrant of open-wheeler scene (F5000, F2 o and a F3), sports sedans (Grice’s Corvair, C Richo’s Falcon, Alfet Moffat’s Monza and Capri, Edmondson’s Alfetta, Ja Harrop’s EH, McCormack’s Jaguar and the BMW Turbo), sports cars, rallying (Ford versus Nissan factory teams) and speedway. And Jonesey, Warwick Brown, Vern Schuppan, Bruce Allison, Larry Perkins, etc were winning all over the world. We were never short of a good story.

The only downsides were how dangerous it was, so writing obituaries was all too common, and in hindsight the rise of ground effects changed the sport forever and not necessarily for the best.

But mostly it was a fabulous time and I’m proud to have broken lots of stories, increased AA’s sales substantially, introduced lots of interesting driver columns and put Stonie on the front page (in June 1979) under an iconic yellow tint. It seems just like yesterday, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

DAVID SEGAL SEGAL:

Editor 1981-1983

AUTO ACTION has loomed large in my life for as long as I can remember, and for many different reasons.

It was the long-gone magazine Racing Car News that first got me switched onto motor racing as an eight-or-nineyear-old, but it was Auto DAVID SEGAL Action that drew me to in FIRST COVER ISSUE 261 journalism and initially at least, motor sports journalism.

I began writing for Auto Action as a 15-year-old while still at school – my first article was on a Holden Gemini one-make race at Calder – and four years later, they made me Editor!

By then, I had finished school and had had a couple of years as a junior journalist under my belt. But even so, Editor at 19 years old … what were they thinking?

Not surprisingly, then, I hold the record as the youngster-ever Editor of Auto Action – and there has been a long line of them, so there’s been plenty of competition – but that is not the only dubious Auto Action-related record I hold.

I left the Editor’s chair as a 21-year-old in 1983 and returned in 2019, as fill-in Sub Editor to help out when needed, as a 61-year-old!

That’s a near 40-year gap … certainly that’s a record for anyone between stints at Auto Action, and it could well be some sort of publishing record too.

But Auto Action has played a bigger part in my life than just book-ending my career, its biggest influence for me has been in enabling access to the inner circle of the sport.

Auto Action’s credibility is and always has been unrivalled within the sport, even in the face of the news-driven motor sport websites that proliferate today.

No-one does in-depth features, analysis, and interviews with the sport’s key players like Auto Action, or to anywhere near the quality. Of course, that’s partly a function of its newspaper format, which enables it the space to take a look behind the scenes and present it visually in a way that the websites simply cannot match.

Auto Action’s other key function is to give coverage to the whole sport in all its facets, not just the professional end which everyone covers. And that stands it apart from every other motor racing publication or news site in this country.

For me, the important credibility that being the Editor of Auto Action brought in those early days opened doors in the sport that enabled me to create a professional business career in driver management, sponsorship and commercial activation, and all facets of its media.

That was career defining, so I have a lot to thank Auto Action for personally, as does the broader sport in this country for the high quality and extensive coverage it continues to deliver every fortnight.

So, congratulations to the team at Auto Action on its first 50 Years, long may it reign.

NICK DEATHRIDGE

Editor 1983-1984 FIRST COVER ISSUE 328

CHRIS LAMBDEN

EEditor 1984-1988

I COULDN’T believe I got tthe job. After seven great years in Europe, based in Hertfordshire in the UK, doing my thing, I’d headed to Australia in 1984 for family reasons.

Nothing organised – in ffact the first destination was Canberra (really? …). European life had been good and I’d worked with and alongside, and got to know some interesting people – karting great Terryy CHRIS LAMBDEN Fullerton, a very young Ayrton FIRST COVER ISSUE 350 Senna, ‘Mr Superkarting’ Martin Hines – and had a little success of my own on-track. Whatever happened next needed to be good to get close to all that ...

By amazing good fortune, after a couple of weeks, I noticed a small ad in the Melbourne Age for an editor for Auto Action.

Hopped into the old HQ and headed down for an interview with legendary Syme Mags boss Len Shaw. While I was up to speed on F1, in terms of Australian motorsport I only had a vague idea that there was some local hero called Brock … but on the basis of my having edited a successful UK karting magazine (‘Kart & Superkart’), I got the gig – and it heralded a rapid and very involved continuation of my motor sport life, now in Oz. I needed a crash course on touring cars ...

This was 1984. Brock and LP were about to win Bathurst again in the dayglo VK, John Bowe was one of the first racers I met, out at Calder, and the last of the Bob Jane-backed Formula Pacific ‘AGPs’ was about to be replaced with the first F1 Grand Prix, in Adelaide.

I’d brought my very latest top-shelf Superkart equipment with me from the UK and, quite soon after, sold it to a keen young guy from Sydney … Bruce Williams!

That was going to haunt me and motor sport publishing for ever as, a month or two later, the Advertising Manager gig at AA became available and the same young fella from Sydney applied for, and got, the job. And, with a few breaks along the way, he’s still there … except now he owns it!

Publishing back then was still in its very basic form – hard copy, typed or hand-written; photo-typesetting; compositors chopping up the ‘toilet-roll’ output and putting it down on page layouts, with ‘scanned’ photos; F1 images coming via air-mail (if you were lucky); pages turned into film, for subsequent print plate-making … I remember the excitement when Len Shaw walked into the office with the first fax machine! Then the first very basic modem, for electronic text submission from contributors.

Oh yes, those were the days. They just don’t know how lucky they are now – copy and images in seconds, live from the track, on-screen design and layout … then straight to press. It’s those tech steps forward (and cost savings) that allow Auto Action to remain as a viable and important element of the motor sport media.

The mid-80s, though, were the glamour years for AA. There was no opposition in terms of news publications, the internet was a long way away, and AA was the absolute source of motor sport news and coverage, outside of TV. Bit of a goldmine actually.

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I sat in the big chair for four years, had a great time, then moved into a managerial role before movingg on on, in 1993 1993, when the Fairfax Family Folly saw many people retrenched. That kinda backfired, as that’s when we launched ‘Motorsport News’ – which provided the first serious and successful competition and alternative to AA – for nearly 20 years – and jumping ship to join us was the aforementioned Mr Williams, who was a vital part of the team for the first year.

Since then, AA has gone through several ownerships, many editors,, ups and downs, and faced the challenge that the internet an and online publishing has thrown up to print publishing.

AA remains unique and a ‘must’ for the real motorsport enthusiast. The internet is click-based, mainly news-based, ent an and, in the main, scratches the surface. The printed word is abl able to go into real detail and is the last bastion of the really good goo motor sport writer … which is why its ongoing presence and re-growth, after an amazing 50 years, is so desirable.

Most recently, in 2016, the unfortunate Bauer Media simply M dec decided to shut it down. In a fit of madness, Bruce conspired ((with wiit recently departed Mike Imrie) to buy it and keep the tradition going. Interestingly, a number of past members of trad the oold team are back and AA is, up against online, still able to break big news stories as well as provide in depth coverage brea and features – aided by its own increased presence online with the AAA website and Facebook presence.

In aany publishing world, 50 years is an amazing achievement.

Long may it continue.

Australian motorsport was undergoing a lot of change in that Aus 1984 period. Tim Schenken started at CAMS about the same 1984-88 time I joined AA and, a year later, we had the first F1 Grand Prix in Adelaide (and Schenken’s still calling the shots!). Everyone was a bit nervous about how it would all play out in November 1985 but no-one need have worried – the Australian Grand Prix was a howling success and set the standard for others to follow.

Big banger touring cars ended with the introduction of Group A, also in ‘85. The TWR Jaguars dominated Bathurst that year, complete with, as it turned out, oversize fuel tanks … but that’s another story!

Australia moved into the Ford Sierra era, with Dick and JB pretty much dominating as the ‘80s concluded and the 1990 recession took hold – it was starting to get expensive to run the fragile turbo cars and the sport was headed toward what would become Supercars in the mid-90s.

Perhaps the most intriguing development during that 1984-88 era was the opening of Bob Jane’s Thunderdome – the slightly scaled-down version of Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. It was a massive investment – over $50m all-up – and it brought genuine American NASCAR-style racing to Australia.

Friday nights at ‘The Dome’ were great. The official opening offered me one of the best interview subjects ever – ‘The King’, the great Richard Petty. We sat in the front of a ute, with tape going, and he chatted away (or should that be ‘drawled’ on) for over 45 minutes. Brilliant. I wasn’t privy to the financials of the whole Calder/Thunderdome thing, but it was a great shame when it all folded. Bob Jane was a unique and at times controversial man – but his passion for and contribution to Australian motor sport is something that should never be forgotten.

F1 through that period was, for me, all about the arrival and ascent of Ayrton Senna. I’d worked with numero uno Fullerton, alongside Ayrton, at his very first kart race outside of Brazil, the 1978 World Championship at Le Mans (he finished fifth) and watched from close quarters as the two of them went head-tohead fiercely over the next couple of years. The kart fraternity knew that if he got to F1 he’d be good – turns out he was! And in one of those ‘small world’ moments, I was in the room at his last Australian press conference (1993) when that scene in the ‘Senna’ movie took place, where he named Fullerton as the best he’d ever raced against. At that point, I think I was the th only one in the room who knew who the th hell he was talking about! …

If you were summing up my time at AA, AA it was the time when Australian motor sport went truly international m – Group A, Formula 1, and NASCAR – w IndyCar soon to follow (1993). The with m motor sport world had started to come to Australia and liked it …

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BRUCE NEWTON: B

E Editor 1988-1990 & 1996-1997

I’VE BEEN known I’V to joke that I won second sec prize in the raffle and got to edit Auto Action twice.

First prize was only doing it once. Actually, come to think of it, first prize would probably have been never doing it at all.

I jest. Sort of.

I pretty much fell into the editorship the first time round in 1998. Chris Lambden had slogged through about five years of fortnightly deadlines and was pretty keen to move on. It seemed only minutes after I’d wandered downstairs from BRUCE NEWTON’S Australian Motorcycle News FIRST TIME AS EDITOR to express vague interest in applying that I had the gig.

COVER ISSUE 458 I quickly learned the laid back world of motorcycle racing was not much of an apprenticeship for dealing with the hardnuts of the Australian Touring Car Championship. I left that to Mike Jacobson and cast around for other parts of the Aussie car racing scene that were more welcoming and entertaining.

To be frank it wasn’t hard. The Group A version of the ATCC was on its last legs. Small fields, dominant wins for the Shell Sierras and very little evidence of V8s.

Inn reality, reality AUSCAR was far more my cup of bourbon and coke – Ford v Holden, close racing and lots of interesting, outlandish and aggressive racers. A Saturday night under lights at the Thunderdome with Brad Jones, Bruce Williams, Marshall Brewer, Terry Wyhoon, John Faulkner and many more going at it hammer and tongs was pretty cool.

After 18 months of doing an exceedingly average job I was happy to bail out of editing Auto Action, book my ticket to Europe and go motorcycle racing again for a few years.

I got dragged back into AA as News Editor in 1994 as it prepared to go weekly under the editorship of Ewen Page.

Despite all the hard work and feral hours of that period, I still look back on it fondly. Ewen was a great editor, motivating and inspiring a raggle-tag mob to do a job to a quality level I reckon some of us hadn’t realised we were capable of. The fundamental template Ewen set then still drives AA forward – entertaining, informative and passionate.

I took over from him as editor in 1996 and basically did the job second time round I should have done originally. A good job.

It helped enormously that the powers that be had by now abandoned Group A and swapped to V8 Falcons and Commodores. Success has many fathers, so good on you all. All boats rose on that tide, including AA. I loved some of the stuff we did in those days. Photographer Mark Horsburgh snuck into Lakeside to get a scoop spy pic of the latest DJR Falcon testing. We stuck it on the cover of the Christmas holiday issue and it sold in record numbers.

Of course doing stuff like that meant we copped plenty of, ahem, feedback. I used to be the only person in the office on

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Graham Smith, former GM engineer turned photographer,

turned journalist. He became editor in 1990 and, always a keen hot rodder, today is a publisher of Australian Hot Rodding Review.

Wednesdays, doing paperwork and so on, and when the phone rang there was every chance someone steamed up was on the other end.

Alan Jones delivered brilliant sprays and did so more than once.

We even got Glenn Seton annoyed enough once to be impolite. But by far the best at it was Brad Jones – high speed, high volume, impeccable use of a litany of swear words, perfectly placed within a totally cogent message.

After my year of redemption I left AA for the calmer atmosphere of general motoring and didn’t think about the magazine or racing much for a few years. But gradually I got drawn back in. In the 2000s I have had another three different periods writing for AA, including the current stint that started in 2018.

As always, it’s a tough job that rewards hard work and commitment.

So happy birthday AA, 50 years young. By God, you’ve aged me though.

GRAHAM SMITH: Editor 1990-1994

ALREADY A keen motor sport enthusiast and trackside photographer, joining Auto Action as a contributor in the mid-1970s was the stuff of dreams.

Auto Action was the leading motorsport publication at the time and the only place to go if you wanted to keep up with what was going on in the sport.

From news, race reports, interviews and in-depth GRAHAM SMITH features, it was all there to FIRST COVER ISSUE 490 keep you informed.

David Segal was the editor of Auto Action when I submitted my first photographs, all taken from outside the fence, and he gave me lots of support and encouragement to carry on, something that’s very important for anyone starting out.

While it was a dream come true to be part of the Auto Action team I couldn’t have known then that it was the beginning of a journey that take me around the world, reporting and shooting on Grands Prix, the World Sports Car Championship, and the European Touring Car Championship in the 1980s, before becoming Auto Action editor in 1990.

The next five years in which I occupied the editor’s chair at Auto Action were a time of upheaval and change in Australian motorsport.

CAMS’ adoption of European Group A touring car rules in the mid-1980s took our touring car racing to the brink.

While Holden stayed true to the category and built its own Group A contender, Ford preferred to support its European hot shot Sierra.

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Holden struggled against the turbocharged might of the Sierra and the mighty Nissan Skyline, which came to dominate touring car racing like nothing we’d seen before.

But even the best funded teams found the Group A cars were very expensive to run, so much so that the leading outfits in the category eventually came together to formulate a more affordable formula based on the local Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon.

The move was the cause of much debate and dispute, CAMS saw it as undermining its authority and resisted with all its might.

Ultimately the teams won, marking the beginning of the transition to the V8 Supercars we now know and love.

While the touring car teams were busy taking control of their destiny, Bob Jane also had ideas of what should become of touring car racing.

The former touring car champion and tyre king was convinced American NASCAR was the way to go and built his own banked oval track at Calder to prove it.

Ultimately it didn’t work and the Thunderdome is now a crumbling memorial to Jane’s dream, but when it was going it spawned Auscar, a local category for Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons, and HQ racing, an affordable class for budget racers.

Auto Action not only covered the big dollar racing, it also supported grass roots racing where weekend racers competed mostly for the fun of it.

With the cost of touring car racing, our top category, out of reach for all but the best funded teams, and team owners reluctant to trust their cars to young racers, Auto Action took great interest in promoting the stars of tomorrow, particularly in Formula Ford.

It was there that you could find the likes of Craig Lowndes, Russell Ingall, Mark Larkham and Cameron McConville racing wheel-to-wheel for the Formula Ford Championship.

Anyone who saw Lowndes at the wheel of his out-dated Formula Ford dusting a class field of wannabe hot shots at places like Sandown and Winton, knew they were watching a star of the future.

Mark Skaife was another to rise to the top, first as the driver of one of the factory Nissan Skylines in touring car racing, then in Formula Holden where he won a couple of titles, before moving on to the V8 racing.

My tenure in the chair at Auto Action also saw Melbourne ‘steal’ the Australian Grand Prix from Adelaide, something the South Australians have never forgotten or forgiven.

It was a privilege to be part of Auto Action for the period I was editor.

As with everything there were lows as well as highs, like late nights on deadline, waiting for contributors to file, to the early morning trips to the comps to oversee the production. But it was all worth it, it was fun.

EWAN PAGE Editor 1994-1996 FIRST COVER ISSUE 611

BRUCE NEWTON SECOND TIME AROUND COVER ISSUE 676

MARTIN PEDDENDY FIRST COVER ISSUE 726 Editor 1997-1998

STEVE NALLY:

Editor 1998-1999 I WAS pretty ‘green’ when I started writing for Auto Action. Prior to that I had flogged ads on Wheels and Street Machine and had begun contributing yarns to Street Machine. I gave up the ad game to go freelance in mid-’94 and when Consolidated Press bought Auto Action I was conscripted by former Street Machine editor STEVE NALLY Ewen Page who had been FIRST COVER #773 charged with turning the fortnightly AA into a weekly.

I freelanced initially then was a staff writer, news editor (1996), deputy editor (1997) and finally editor for 1998-1999. With 50 issues a year it was a flat-out ride with a learning curve steeper than Mountain Straight.

The main focus was news and it’s fair to say AA went hard (and just a tad tabloid) with strong covers and provocative headlines that grabbed attention – and sales. We talked up and, dare I say it, stoked controversies but always from a factual standpoint.

Our opposition was Motorsport News. It was fortnightly which gave AA an advantage; being a weekly we were right on time with news and race reports. If there was war on Australia’s racetracks back then, there was certainly a war between AA and MN for the hearts and dollars of readers and we played hard. It was high pressure, competitive and even fun!

The late ‘90s was an era of seismic changes in Australian motor sport. Touring cars were AA’s bread and butter and what sold magazines (more on that later), and the emergence of the Tony Cochrane-led AVESCO to manage what would become V8 Supercars introduced new levels of professionalism and marketing prowess.

Teams started to make real money and were able to control their destinies, but with more money at stake wins became even more important and that led to the technical ‘parity wars’ which fuelled the fire of many AA issues. There was always someone calling for performance adjustments and prepared to arc up in the news pages and on covers, of course. And remember when there were three tyre suppliers? That was a parity minefield and AA covered developments in detail.

I wanted to introduce more personality to covers and kicked off my editorship in 1998 with one of the most controversial covers ever. For issue #770 I cajoled ‘The Enforcer’ Russell Ingall into dressing up as a boxer. We covered him in oil and ‘sweat’ and got him to pull a psycho face as he leaned menacingly over ‘knocked out’ photographer Stuart Grant.

The ‘Ready To Rumble’ cover was polarising. CAMS accused me of bringing the sport into disrepute but readers and most of pit lane loved it. Later we gave the Tasmanian devil, John Bowe, horns and a trident and had him walking through fire for the ‘Mad As Hell!’ edition (#789). The cover pointed to a wide-ranging article that included, you guessed it, parity, JB’s favourite subject.

We didn’t sit and wait for cover stories to lob, we often created them. In those days just the whiff of a new Supercar being built was enough to work with, and new race car issues always sold well. I remember asking Larry Perkins if we could shoot his new car (a VT I think). “It’s just a caged chassis, cock, but come over if you want,” LP said. We put a bonnet and boot on it, put four wheels inside the guards and voila! Larry’s new car! And I don’t know how many times we sent photographers to tracks to get spy shots of new cars testing (‘It’s Seto’s AU!’ #825).

Perhaps the best exclusive, though, was images of Ford’s new AU Falcon in the Lockheed wind tunnel in Georgia, USA (‘World First!’ #818). When my Ford contact mentioned this was happening, I suggested it would make a great story if we had photos. A few weeks later I received an envelope of prints. We had to pixellate the ‘sensitive’ areas on the car but we were able to tell the development story of the AU, “The car Holden fears…”.

We didn’t pull punches on news and that got me into trouble regularly. HRT team manager Jeff Grech banned me from their pits once for something we published and his boss John Crennan got hot under the collar when I put Craig Lowndes on the cover – ‘Lowndes Unplugged’ – with gaffer tape over his mouth for a tell-all interview about his unsuccessful F3000 year. (#766) Then there was the TOCA bus incident. Super Touring initially looked like it could make headway in Australia but the Euro-tourers never really clicked here and crowds were poor. AA covered the category well, dedicating a journalist to follow the series, but

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Super Touring’s governing body TOCA always complained that it didn’t get covers (it had at least two in ’98). The reason? Sales dropped by around 15 per cent when it was featured and Super Tourers ranked very lowly in a reader poll; they were more interested in speedway…

But all hell broke loose in 1999 when we published an opinion piece by a guest contributor on the shaky future of Super Touring (#821). Even though some teams were nervous about their futures – off the record – under-pressure TOCA boss Kelvin O’Reilly responded with a long (published) letter to the Editor (#821, see my editor’s column) lambasting the story.

But it really kicked off when I later met with O’Reilly in the TOCA bus at a Super Touring event. Our ‘discussion’ got pretty heated and had to be refereed by Aussie BTCC supremo Alan Gow. Columnist Gordon Lomas was right though; by the end of that year Super Touring was virtually finished.

And so was I. The weekly grind and interstate travel had worn me out and I left Auto Action at the end of ’99 to go freelance again. But what I learnt during those compressed years (100 weekly issues is equivalent to eight years of monthlies) has stood me in good stead ever since.

What is really pleasing is that AA still going after 50 years, thanks to publisher Bruce Williams, a former ad guy like me who I first met at the Thunderdome when he was racing AUSCARs and I was covering them for Auto Action, which remains an Australian motor sport icon.

ALLAN EDWARDS Editor 2000-2002 FIRST COVER ISSUE 870

JOHN EVANS AUTO ACTION

I

MET the late Jon Evans – known by all as JE – when he came to my local car club to give a talk on motorsport journalism. He was a long-time Auto Action writer and fountain of knowledge on Australian Touring Cars.

He gave me the confidence to pursue a career in motorsport journalism. History shows I went on to work at AA for six and a half years, including over two as Editor.

We shared a love of Speedway and I spent many hours on the road with JE as we drove to events. JE always preferred to drive his trusty Commodore rather than fly.

He was a gentle giant who rarely upset anyone. He knew everything that was going on in pit lane and had an uncanny ability to inform readers without breaching the trust of his confidants.

Sadly, JE was taken from us far too early. While he is no longer with us, he will never be forgotten.

One of my favourite memories is sitting at a table at a rented house near Bathurst until all hours of the morning working on the post-race editions of the magazine.

JE would always be the last to head off to bed. He would diligently work on his famous Car x Car report until it was perfect.

The next morning he would be the first up with his bags packed ready for the long drive back to Melbourne, which he would do more than his far share of the driving.

JE was a workhorse, but he was doing what he loved. He taught me that if you turned your passion into your career, you’d never work another day in your life!

–Allan Edwards, Auto Action Editor 2000-2002

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ANDREW MACLEAN: Editor 20022003 & 2006-2008

THERE IT was in black and white at the end of a story about a West Australian young gun preparing for his first crack at a national-level Formula Ford race.

His name was Garth Tander, then a pimplefaced lanky teenager who raced through the ranks to become a household name as a V8 Supercar champion and Bathurst winner.

ANDREW MACLEAN But it was my name - my first FIRST COVER ISSUE 1000 byline on the hallowed pages of Auto Action - that I read over and over again.

Auto Action has played a significant role in my journey as a motoring reporter over the last 26-odd years. Like many before and after me, it was the perfect training ground for young and aspiring writers. As a weekly magazine (as it was back then), it was a massive grind to get it on the newsstands every Thursday, collating race reports, the latest news stories and the best photos from across the globe - mostly delivered at the absolute last minute with some stories sent via fax and photos that had to be scanned from negatives. It was rare to finish before midnight every Monday and Tuesday. But we did it, week-in and week-out, counteracting a hangover of yellow race track food from the weekend with a diet of caffeine, nicotine and dodgy takeaway dinners.

In spite of the stress, and the occasional blow-up between editors, writers, designers and sub-editors, we all loved it.

In my formative years covering junior classes like Formula Ford, Formula Holden, Rallying and any other support category I could earn a quid from as a freelancer, I was lucky to have well-oiled magazine men such as Bruce Newton, Marton Pettendy and Ken Wootton as mentors.

I was also lucky to graduate alongside drivers like Mark Webber, Craig Lowndes, Marcos Ambrose, Jason Bright, Tander, Greg Murphy and Todd and Rick Kelly - each of them as excited to see their names in Auto Action as they rose through the ranks. The role AA has played in their careers should not be underestimated either.

I became Editor of Auto Action (for the first time) at the height of the battle between V8 Supercars and Super Touring and the subsequent changing of the guard that arose from it, which meant we were never short on news stories or cover options. Veterans like Brock, Johnson, Bowe, Seton and Perkins were always good for a headline or two and V8 supremo Tony Cochrane and his Super Touring arch-rival, Kelvin O’Reilly, were never shy at throwing grenades across the fence.

Almost all of them were equally as brutal when they didn’t like what was printed in AA, and there was always as much excitement as there was anxiety seeing a new magazine each Thursday while waiting for an ear-bashing on the end of the phone line. It happened - often!

My first stint as Editor last just over 18 months and only ended when then owners ACP Magazines relocated the magazine from Melbourne to Sydney. I didn’t purposely chase the magazine north, but I returned for a second term (one of only two masochists to edit this fine title twice) in 2006 and my first day back in the big chair is one I will never forget.

It was Friday September 8, and we were just about to send the middle half of the magazine to the printers (we produced the features and preview section prior to the weekend and the critical news and race reports on Monday) when the phone starting going berserk - Peter Brock had crashed his Daytona Coupe in the Targa West road rally. It was absolute chaos for a few hours as the jungle drums reported on his condition. When confirmation of his tragic death eventually came through, we scrapped everything we’d already done, convinced the publishers to add another 32 pages and had to start from scratch - effectively producing an entire magazine in eight hours.

Brock’s illustrious career was easy to write about, and there were plenty of people willing to comment, reminisce and lay their heart out, but our biggest problem was - in our pre digital days - Auto Action’s complete archive of images were packed in boxes in a

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storage shed down the road in Botany. We scrambled a team to collect as many as they could into a couple of cars and we foraged through thousands of photos and negative strips for hours in order to illustrate the King of the Mountain’s storied life. We finished at 3am on a Saturday morning, three hours past our deadline, but we got it done. And came back on Sunday to begin producing the rest of the magazine.

Brock was an iconic part of Auto Action’s history, and as tragic and unbelievable as his death was that day, I am extremely proud of that particular issue and the determination my team delivered to honour Australia’s greatest motor racing hero.

Auto Action not only paved the foundations of my career in this incredibly colourful industry, it also opened the door for some crazy adventures that most could only ever dream of; I’ve driven Formula Fords, a Formula Holden, a few rally cars and even a couple of V8 Supercars, including Lowndes and Whincup’s 2007 Bathurstwinning Vodafone Falcon. I’ve ridden shotgun with numerous Supercar legends as well as Victor Bray in his ’57 Chevy Top Doorslammer, and had the bejeezus scared out of me as a pillion on the back of a Suzuki Superbike with Mark Willis. The craziest, though, was navigating a 1400hp jet boat for Jason Bargwanna in South Australia, which ended with us barrel-rolling seven times and crushing the boat into a tin can.

Congratulations to Auto Action on its 50th anniversary. It’s been one hell of ride.

MARGEIT: Editor 2008-2016

IT’S ALMOST inconceivable to think Auto Action is turning 50, first hitting the newsstands in February, 1971. In Australia, Bob Jane was crowned the Australian Touring Car Champion in his Chev Camaro edging out Allan Moffat in his Ford Mustang and Ian Geoghegan, also driving a Mustang. And a young Dick Johnson was classified 13th in the standings… in his Holden Torana.

In Formula 1, Tyrrell driver Jackie Stewart dominated the season, winning six grands prix on his way to the second of his three world championships while Australia’s Tim Schenken scored the only podium of his F1 career when he finished third in Austria in his Brabham Ford.

MARK FOGARTY FIRST COVER #1048

Editor 2003-2004

ROB RO OB TIM ROBSON FIRST COVER #1084

Editor 2004 - 2006

STEPHAN OTTLEY ITERIM EDITOR FFIRST COVER #1175

Editor 2006

ANDREW MCLEAN SECOND STINT AS EDITOR 2006 - 2008 COVER #1206

ROB MARGEIT FIRST COVER #1284

58 AutoA AutoAction Acttion

In the intervening 50 years, the names featured on the cover may have changed, but one thing has remained true – Auto Action has reported on the races and the racers with the same indefatigable tenacity and vigour.

The list of Auto Action editors is filled with some of the most respected and honoured names in Australian motor sport journalism, names instantly recognisable to a legion of motor sport fans around the country.

At the top of the list is Mark ‘Foges’ Fogarty. Foges has been part of the fabric of this great magazine almost since its inception. I’m not no sure if he contributed to the first issue back in February, 1971, I know for certain it wasn’t too long after. He’s not only been a k constant presence in these pages, but also a mentor and a friend. co I joined AA in March, 2005, just another hopeful looking to forge a career in journalism covering a subject I was – and remain to this th day – deeply passionate about. The hours were long, the work often of gruelling. But that was rewarded with a life spent absorbed in motor racing, living and breathing the sport we love. m The privilege of attending race meetings – whether the rarefied air ai of Formula 1, or the business behemoth that has become our own ow Supercars championship, to grassroots club level racing – being on ‘the inside’ was not ever something I took for granted.

Rubbing shoulders with the heroes of our sport is also something I have never taken for granted.

I remember the thrill of meeting my own childhood heroes as a boy obsessed with motor sport. You do too, probably.

Imagine then, not only working alongside them, but getting to know them, learning about what drives them to be the best, and sometimes, in those rare moments of self-doubt that even race car drivers have, their human frailties. I treated those, often confidential moments of doubt with respect and with trust, still do.

I took over the editor’s chair in 2008, just three years after I started as ‘Staff Writer’. I didn’t feel even remotely ready for such a big responsibility. But, when long-time AA drag racing correspondent, John Doig, presented me with a good luck card inscribed with ‘leap, and the net will appear’, a lot of my self-doubt evaporated. It’s the small acts of kindness that get you through life’s difficulties sometimes. I still have that card, and it serves as a reminder when life gets a bit… complicated.

Little did I know in 2008, when I moved to the corner office, that t I would serve as the custodian of Auto Action for the next eight e years, making me, to this day, the longest serving editor in the t magazine’s 50-year history. It’s an honour – and a privilege (there’s that word again) – I have never taken lightly. ( Perhaps the biggest privilege was working alongside some of the great people this magazine has fostered and nurtured. As part of the giant ACP empire at the time, Auto Action was always the little fish in an ocean of publishing talent. But, that didn’t diminish its importance to the wider magazine stable.

Auto Action was then, and remains to this day, a breeding ground for journalistic talent. The rollcall of AA alumni is as long as it is storied. Many, many of today’s movers and shakers in the world of, not just journalism and not just motor sport, but the wider automotive diaspora, got their start at Auto Action.

Even over my eight-year custodianship, the men and women I hired, often as a raw young guns straight out of university, have gone on to edit some of the biggest and most highly-regarded automotive magazines in the country. Their success is Auto Action’s success.

And Auto Action was – and remains – successful. I remember receiving an invite to attend the 2010 Australian Magazine Awards.

AA had been nominated in two categories. But, with the award ceremony falling on a Friday, and with Fridays being sacrosanct in the world of AA deadlines, I politely declined to attend. I was needed on deck, the magazine waiting for no one. Besides, there was no way our humble little magazine would claim the honours in a field stacked with high-volume, glossy publications, whose sales figures dwarfed our own.

A strongly worded suggestion from my then Publisher, the wise and gentle Michael Koslowski, changed my mind.

‘You need to go, Rob. That’s all I’m saying.’ Dutifully, I dusted off my suit and on Friday morning was at a lavish breakfast put on by the event organisers, all the while checking in with the team back in the office to see how Friday deadline was going.

We won both categories and going to the podium to receive AA’s trophies remains singularly one of the proudest, yet most terrifying, experiences of my professional life. Speeches? Hadn’t even thought about one. Instead, I croaked out some words about all the hard-working people who made this recognition possible.

And I thanked Mark Webber for the lift in sales that year. You’ll remember, Webber was at the peak of his Formula One career in 2010, in title contention until the final race. And our coverage of his season helped move magazines.

That’s what Auto Action has always done best, and continues to do to this day. It dives deep into the world of motorsport, bringing you the stories you won’t see on TV. It cuts through the public relations spin to bring you the real story.

Yes, that has meant we’ve annoyed people, and I’ve fielded many phone calls from irate team bosses or wounded-pride drivers explicitly and colourfully expressing their displeasure at something that had appeared in that week’s issue. But, one thing I always took pride in was that AA reported the truth, even if sometimes that truth was unpalatable.

I had a sign on the wall in my AA office, and it read “News is something, someone somewhere doesn’t want you to know.

Everything else is just advertising”. It’s a truism we lived by at Auto Action.

Sadly, the rise-and-rise of the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle that delivered the latest stories directly to your pocket, took its toll on Auto Action, like it has on so many other austere news and media outlets.

I remember the call in early April 2016, my then Publisher Ewen Page summoning me to his office. And he didn’t mince his words: ‘We’re shutting you down, Rob. You’ve got two more issues to produce’.

And that was that. Auto Action, 1971-2016, RIP. Except it wasn’t. Soon after the public announcement, I fielded a call from a highly-regarded Supercars team owner. He wanted to buy the magazine and was interested to hear my thoughts.

When I asked him why he would want to expand into publishing, his reply was as honest as it was surprising.

“I don’t actually want to go into publishing, a magazine about car racing is the last thing I need in my business. But the sport needs a magazine like Auto Action.”

Ultimately, he didn’t buy the rights to Auto Action. But, he was right. Motor sport does need Auto Action, an independent voice cutting through the spin cycle and reporting, not just on the big stories, but also at every level of the sport.

If I have one regret about my time as the editor, it’s that I didn’t

push back hard enough against the then management when they directed me to cut back on our coverage of club level motorsport – ‘No one reads that shit anyway!’ – I demurred and dutifully reduced our commitment to the grassroots of the sport we love. It was a mistake.

It’s true that the people who reside at the very upper reaches of our sport make for good stories, stories people want to read.

But it’s the people who tow their Improved Production RX-7, or Formula Vee or whatever car they’ve built painstakingly and lovingly in the garage at home, to race tracks around the country to compete against each other in front of crowds whose numbers can be counted on hand, that are the lifeblood of the sport.

And that’s why I am proud of AA’s leadership, under the helm of Publisher Bruce Williams, that it once again acknowledges and recognises the importance of these ‘clubbies’ – these racers! – to the motor sport Pantheon in this country. Without them, we are nothing. And without Auto Action, their achievements go largely unrecognised. It is, after all, the journal of record for motor sport in this country. And has been for 50 years now. Long may it prosper.

on his path to Formula 1 grand prix winner. Tracking his rise and subsequent success continues to form part of the fabric of AA to this day.

AA has also been lucky enough too, to chart the success of Jamie Whincup, the seven-time Supercars champion who only recently confirmed this year will be his last of full-time racing as he transitions into the role of team owner and principal.

The issue of Auto Action, following his seventh Supercars title, where we declared boldly – ‘Whincup – Better than Brock’,

PHIL BRANAGAN: Editor 2016-2018

Some of the Big Stories

IT WAS long-time – and current – Auto Action contributor, Luke West, who took the phone call on that fateful Friday afternoon in September 2006. When he got off the phone, his face was in shock.

“Peter Brock’s just been killed,” he said.

It took a moment for Luke’s words to sink in. The phones started ringing then, and all hell broke loose.

Peter Brock’s death in a rally in Western Australia was far and away the biggest story of my time at Auto Action. It was one of the hardest stories to cover, not just for the impact Brock’s death had on the motor sport world, but on the nation.

Brock was – and remains – a household name in the way few other car racers have. His death stunned an entire nation.

We had no time to grieve, though. Within minutes of confirming the news, the AA team sprang into action. That week’s entire issue was scrapped, and in its place we created the Peter Brock tribute issue over the course of an afternoon and long into the night.

Working on that issue was as intoxicating as it was difficult.

Brock had touched so many lives over the course of his long and storied career. And we, those of us who worked at Auto Action, were no different. We worked as we grieved and over the next 48 hours created a tribute issue that I remain proud of to this day.

Of course, motor racing in Australia was bigger than Peter Brock, even if it didn’t always feel that way. Certainly, his larger-than-life figure loomed over the world of motor sport, but others have made an impact that has stood the test of time.

During my eight years in the editor’s chair, the rise and rise of Mark Webber was an ever-constant. We tracked his career from hard-working grafter to world champion contender. Sunday nights in front of the TV were spent cheering on ‘our boy Mark’, the intensity escalating when he found himself in a race-winning car in 2009. I can still remember the laps winding down in Germany, 2009, text messages flying back-and-forth between the AA team.

“If Webber wins this, we’ll have an easy day with the magazine tomorrow,” was the resounding theme. And it was, the thrill of putting to bed the first Auto Action to feature an Australian grand prix winner on the cover since 1981, a defining moment.

Much later, Webber signed that cover for me with the words, “Rob, thanks for all your support”. It proudly hangs in my home to this day.

I have another signed AA cover of another Australian Grand Prix winner hanging on my walls. In 2006, AA’s then editor Andrew MacLean threw me a plane ticket and the kernel of a story.

“There’s a young bloke from Perth racing in the Formula BMW World Finals in Valencia, Spain. Go and check him out.”

Dutifully, I found myself in the paddock at Valencia with a then 16-year-old Daniel Ricciardo as he took the first tentative steps

those involved not wanting the story told. The mantra on my old office wall never rang so true: ‘News is something, someone, somewhere doesn’t want you to know. Everything else is just advertising.’

When confirmation finally came weeks later, we were vindicated, every detail in Bruce’s original story pinpoint accurate. There was egg on faces, but it wasn’t on ours.

That story and the events that unfolded went a long way to dispelling the ‘Auto Fiction’ myth, and I’m proud to have played a small part in it. It certainly remains the biggest ‘breaking news’ story of my time in the editor’s chair, one that I look back on with pride and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Today, Auto Action continues to chase those stories someone doesn’t want you to know with the same tenacity and, more importantly veracity, as it always has. It’s a credit to the team led by Bruce Williams who continue to forge a legacy of bringing you the stories that matter from the sport we all love.

Happy 50th birthday, AA.

certainly polarised fans. Whether you believe it or not, there’s no question Whincup is, and will go down in history, as one of the greatest touring car racers this country has ever produced.

And that’s the thing about Auto Action. It’s always held a mirror up to the sport. Sure, not everything the magazine has covered has been agreeable to some sections of the motor sport community, but it has been accurate.

That accuracy is something Auto Action has always prided itself on. Yes, stories have emerged that seem incredulous at the time, earning the magazine the none-too-flattering (although quite clever) title of ‘Auto Fiction’. And yet, if you look back through the 1800 issues or so since 1971, you’ll find a common thread – accuracy and veracity.

Nothing illustrates this better than when we broke the story that a plan to bring Mercedes-Benz into the Supercars championship was a done deal. I remember first hearing rumours much earlier in the year. But, unlike a lot of rumours that can quickly be dismissed as fanciful, this one had legs, multiple sources confirming that Betty Klimenko and her Erebus team had managed the unthinkable and done a deal to bring Merc into the sport, albeit as a non-factory team.

I mulled over the story for weeks, possibly even months – the sands of time have diminished my memory – before eventually deciding it was a story worth covering. I enlisted the help of Bruce Newton, who along with his colleague ‘Foges’, remains one of the pre-eminent journalists covering motor sport in this country.

Bruce got the story, down to the last nuts and bolts, and we pushed green-for-go. Artwork was commissioned to turn an ordinary E-Class Benz into a current Supercar and it graced the cover of that issue boldly and proudly.

And from the moment it hit the newsstands, damage control was in full force. Involved parties made statements that the story was a fanciful fabrication, that ‘Auto Fiction’ was doing exactly what it was known to do. In short, we were being discredited at every opportunity.

Except, of course, we were right. And we had the story, despite

FIFTY YEARS of Auto Action.

Where do I start?

Maybe here; my view of motor racing magazines now is just the same as it was 50 years ago. I think it is a big plus for the sport and the media to have independent print magazines that report, faithfully and without fear, on what is happening on and off the track. That might make me sound old-fashioned, but so be it.

I have had three separate views of AA. The most recent was as its editor from mid-2016 to mid-2018, bringing the magazine back from the grave. Prior to that, I had PHIL BRANAGAN been a contributor, as long FIRST COVER ISSUE 1689 ago as the late-1980s and ’90s, and again from 2014-16. That was an interesting time; a lot was going on in the sport and writing about it was enjoyable, and I had just one deadline to worry about, not everyone’s!

But for most of the time my view of AA came from across the trenches, from the desks of Motorsport News, from 1994 onwards.

Working with former AA editors Chris Lambden and David Hassall, I was there first as a staffer and then, for a dozen years, its editor.

If you have ever thought that the spirit of competition in motor sport does not extend out of the pitlane and into the media room, think again. The pursuit of the news was as relentless as V8 Supercar makes arguing about aero parity, and few holds were barred. AA pinched our F1 correspondent – so we grabbed theirs.

AA would lob hand grenades at us. We would fire back at them. It was not enough to get the story; we had to make sure they didn’t!

And here’s the thing; it was never personal. That’s an easy thing to say, but hard to do. But it wasn’t. I respected and even liked nearly all of their contributors and editors, and still do, and I like to think it is mutual (and if it isn’t, guys, please be gracious and don’t burst my bubble). I rated them highly; we had to, because we believed the rivalry pushed both publications to do better, be better.

The characters in AA have been a big part of my life. Foges and I have known each other literally since we were teenagers.

Even as someone who cannot draw to save my life, I admired the work of Stonie as much than anyone I can think of; it never really occurred to me that I would get to work with him and, even better, count him as a friend. Garry O’Brien is nothing less than a relentless machine, whose enthusiasm for motor sport at all levels is approximately the size of Uluru.

And to this day, I am saddened to think that whenever I go to a track, Jon Evans will not be there to swap lies with. Did he occasionally elbow me sideways to keep me away from a story? Yes he did. But he was a great news hound, a fine writer and a gent, and I miss him terribly.

Along the way AA has been a training ground for some excellent writers and photographers, who have made the move to other publications, in print or pixel. Even from a distance it has been satisfying to see AA play a role in the business, its talent recognised and advanced through the echelons of the media.

So, to everyone who has played a part in a half-century of Auto Action, my heartiest congratulations. To those involved now, long may you continue playing a part in its journey New season starting, get busy!

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WHY PRINT MATTERS IN A DIGITAL AGE

The legend lives on Former editor and longest serving contributor MARK FOGARTY reflects on why our history is so important FIFTY YEARS is a very long time.

In magazine terms these days, it may as well be dog years.

All but the longest-established newspapers have not survived for more than half a century and relatively few magazines have reached, much less exceeded, the milestone.

Among motor racing publications in the English-speaking world, only Britain’s Autosport – 70 years – and Motor Sport - more than 90 years – exceed Auto Action’s longevity. There is no surviving printed equivalent in America.

For AA to still be published is a major achievement. What’s more, the title is not just surviving amid the online onslaught, but also embracing the digital domain.

There is a device-friendly version and our web site – autoaction.com. au – has become a go-to place for the biggest breaking news between issues.

But it is still the magazine that leads the way in comprehensive coverage, unrivalled on any platform for in-depth, expert reporting. We’re last man standing as far as Australasian motor racing print publications go, maintaining a proud tradition that began in 1971.

Back then, the world was a very different place. If you’re under 30 – or even under 40 – it would be hard to imagine how unconnected we were.

Not only no internet but no personal computers, mobile phones or big-screen HD TVs. Not even faxes or VCRs (ask

60 AutoAction

photos were actually printed on paper!

Landline telephones still had rotary dials.

How did we get anything done?

Pretty well, as it happened. Life was more relaxed, if not easier, and you just worked with the available technology.

Which was still way better than our parents, born pre-World War Two, had when they were young.

We were the baby boomers who enjoyed the greatest leap in lifestyle in history. Affordable suburban homes, cars, home appliances and home entertainment (small screen TVs, record and cassette tape players).

In ’71, there wasn’t even colour TV in Australia. That was still four years away. But we didn’t care. We were a new generation of teens set free by the social and sexual revolutions of the ’60s.

Into this exciting era came Auto Action. It was hip and happening.

Specialist publications like AA were highly anticipated lifelines of information for enthusiasts.

I know because I was there – almost from the very beginning.

I made my debut in the mag – and Foges is known and respected by the good as a ‘journalist’ – just over a year after it and the great of racing around the world.

They treat his interrogations seriously. Scott began. The first thing I ever wrote other than a school essay was published in AA in McLaughlin used to be nervous talking March, 1972. to him but came to enjoy his inquisitions Miserable thing that it was, it launched an (top). By his own admission, Foges’ first international sports broadcasting career. journalistic effort in AA (above) was a And, after some interruptions, I’m still “miserable thing”. He got better… here. I’ve been along for the ride for 49 your parents). Communication was crude. of AA’s 50 years. Not continuously, but Everything on paper, sent by snail mail – and regularly enough to, as someone once put it,

“be part of the furniture”.

Certainly, I’ve been in these pages almost without interruption since 2000.

I began here and I’m still here – and proud to be AA’s longest serving contributor. Even had a brief stint as editor in 2003/04, which was nearly 30 years later than my original trajectory towards the ‘Big Chair’.

Mind you, by my count, there have been 17 editors, so it’s not exactly an exclusive club. But it is a distinguished alumni, including some of the last half century’s most accomplished motor sport and motoring journalists.

The mag has been an incubator of car scribing talent, giving many now senior motoring journalists their start or at least a career push-along. And so many familiar writers past and present have appeared in the pages of AA over the decades.

My turn in the editor’s hot seat came in mid-2003. The opportunity arose because then-publisher ACP decided to move it to its headquarters in Sydney, joining the rest of the motoring group including Wheels, MOTOR and Street Machine.

It was supposed to create ‘synergies’ and give AA access to more resources. In fact, the shift from Melbourne was the beginning of its ultimate – but, thankfully, temporary – demise.

Anyway, I was happily working and living in the States, covering IRL, Champ Car and F1 for top-selling newspaper USA Today, as well as roaming International Editor of AA. The offer to return home to run the mag swayed me. I was tasked with overseeing the move to Sydney, the change to a new ‘square’ format and breaking in a mostly

50

years of publishing 1971- 2021

Ferrari star Rubens Barrichello couldn’t believe it when his old F1 nemesis Foges appeared at Sandown for S5000’s debut. After the shock, they got on fine.

Our man’s tough questioning is feared everywhere. new editorial team.

AA was still weekly then and the transition was punishing. The new ‘Harvey Norman catalogue’ format was unpopular. The support I was promised by management was illusory. The weekly grind was relentless.

My main innovation was dropping ‘Australian’ from the masthead. It seemed to me redundant.

Where else were we? That reform remains to this day.

After nine gruelling months as editor – yeah, OK, call me soft – I determined that we needed an experienced lead writer more than an editor.

So I appointed myself Editor-At-Large – make of that title what you will – and we all lived happily ever after.

Since then, this title has been at the forefront of breaking news and holding the authorities to account. Yes, most of our exposés and questions have been related to Supercars, but V8 racing has for half of our existence been the category about which you most wanted to know.

We have continued to cover racing and rallying at all levels; however, Supercars dominates. We know that because if we put anything else on the cover, sales take a hit.

My successors as editors, especially longest serving boss Rob Margeit, indulged me and allowed me to roam free. It was all going well until Bauer abruptly ceased publication in May, 2016.

That was perhaps inevitable as the shift to Sydney increased costs to an ultimately intolerable level. AA was the smallest fish in the biggest publishing pond.

The optimism I expressed in our 40th anniversary edition came to a shuddering halt when Bauer axed AA, stopping it dead without a serious on-sale plan.

Luckily, current proprietor Bruce Williams stepped in, securing the title in partnership with ex-racer Mike Imrie. They resumed publication in July, 2016, reverting to the traditional format and fortnightly publication.

For reasons no longer relevant I was not part of the revival, but after a dalliance with the online dark side, I was recalled in February, 2018. I have been actively involved ever since.

Williams now owns AA outright and has kept it going through the toughest period of its history.

Through his efforts, we’ve kept you informed and entertained during the greatest global crisis

in a century.

In fact, 2020 – for all its challenges – was a highlight of our history. We broke more big stories and delved deeper than ever before, both in print and online. Our web site, autoaction. com.au, experienced exponential growth that puts us on a par with the online-only outlets.

AA matters because of its long link with the history of racing as we know it and because it is fearless and all-encompassing. It is here you find out what’s happening in your favourite sport without fear or favour.

Often, that is to our cost, but we wear that willingly to inform you as best – and as accurately – as we can. We don’t always get it right, but history shows we’ve mostly got it right.

Producing a print publication every two weeks that is fresh and relevant when we hit the newsstands drives us all. We win awards for our efforts, but those accolades only reflect our commitment to provide you, our readers, with the insights and perspectives you can’t get anywhere else.

Many years ago, Nine News’ slogan was “Experience Makes The Difference”. That is what separates us from the rest. We have the most experienced and informed reporters in the business.

You simply cannot get our depth of coverage anywhere else.

Super-sleuth Bruce Newton, national racing guru Garry O’Brien and our F1 man Dan Knutson are among the very best, backed by rising stars Heath McAlpine and Dan McCarthy.

Whether you’ve been along for the ride for 50 years, as many of you have, or you are relatively new to Auto Action, we thank you for your patronage.

We will do our best to provide the most informed and impartial coverage of your favourite sport for many years to come.

AA has survived as a traditional print magazine against the odds.

We cannot guarantee we will continue in a physical form, but we are confident we will maintain our legacy in some sort of digital form for many years – perhaps even another half decade.

My own 50th anniversary with this August publication and as a journalist will be March next year. That will be an important personal milestone.

I hope I am still here to celebrate our 60th anniversary in 2031. In whatever form, our Diamond Jubilee will be a tribute to you, our loyal readers, and the passionate determination of Bruce Williams.

He is the proud and committed custodian of this enduring title. With the support of you and the industry, he will keep AA going before handing it on to the next generation.

True enthusiasts should be grateful that Williams, an accomplished racer himself, has kept an Australian racing institution alive.

He’s been involved in, and competed in, racing at the highest levels since the late 1970s.

Williams’ commitment to preserving Auto Action is not only to be admired, but supported.

Without him, you would not be reading this ode to AA. Foges gets to the movers and shakers, like here with Supercars supremo Sean Seamer and WAU boss Ryan Walkinshaw.

They don’t like his grillings but the big chiefs know they need to talk to him.

www.autoaction.com.au

AutoActionMagazine

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instagram.com/autoactionmag/

AUTO ACTION is the history of racing as we know it.

Supercars today is the result of touring car racing in the early 1970s, starring Peter Brock and Allan Moffat.

Along with Dick Johnson, they remain the biggest names in racing and were the stars in AA’s first 10 years.

Johnson and Moffat – a front-page columnist in the first issue – paid tribute to the magazine on its 40th anniversary in 2011.

“As a young whipper-snapper, I stood at the local newsagent every fortnight waiting for it to turn up,” Johnson recalled wistfully. “A lot of people said I wouldn’t last this long, either. We’ve both stood the test of time.”

Noted Moffat: “Auto Action has served the motor sport fans of Australia in an exemplary fashion for 40 years. I’m proud to have been a small part of the history that it has reported so diligently.”

Back then, even relative newcomers like Triple Eight boss Roland Dane acknowledged our enduring influence.

“AA has been on my personal radar for over 20 years,” Dane revealed.

“There’s no greater testament to AA’s position in our industry than that great feeling of seeing your car on the cover after a Bathurst win.”

Their testaments are just as relevant now as they were in 2011. They’re still here and so are we.

Still actively involved, Johnson and Dane don’t always like us for our revelations and forthright comments, but they respect our impartiality. MF

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twenty memorab

DAN KNUTSON looks back at some of the memorable F1 moments during the past 50 years of AA’s coverage There have been countless remarkable races and drivers and incidents since Auto Action started covering Formula 1.

And not all have been pleasant. Here are 20 of them.

He was trapped in the car and his head suffered severe burns while he also inhaled toxic gases that damaged his lungs. Fellow driver Arturo Merzario pulled him from the burning wreck. Auto Action covered Lauda’s incredible comeback in subsequent issues.

FERRARI’S LAST 1979 Italian Grand Prix 9 September 1979

1971 – 1980 STEWART WINS 27 1973 German Grand Prix 5 August 1973

Jackie Stewart’s victory in the 1973 German Grand Prix in a Tyrrell was his fifth of the season. He started from pole position and led all 14 laps around the daunting 22.835km Nürburgring. His teammate François Cevert finished 1.6 seconds back in the runner-up spot. Jacky Ickx claimed third in a McLaren.

It was the 27th and final win of Stewart’s F1 career. He held the record for the most championship F1 race wins until Alain Prost earned his 28th win in the 1987 Portuguese Grand Prix.

LAUDA NEARLY DIES 1976 German Grand Prix 1 August 1976

Jody Scheckter won the1979 Italian Grand Prix, round 13 of 15, and clinched the drivers’ world championship at Monza. He would be the last world champion Ferrari driver until Michael Schumacher won the title in 2000 – his first of five crowns with the Scuderia.

Renault teammates Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux qualified first and second, but both would retire with engine woes.

Gilles Villeneuve dutifully followed teammate Scheckter home and finished second. It was the 10th and final F1 career win for Scheckter, who retired after one more season. Ferrari also clinched the constructors’ championship at Monza in 1979.

JONES IS CHAMPION 1980 Canadian Grand Prix 28 September 1980

1981 – 1990 TRAGEDY STRIKES Gilles Villeneuve, the charismatic hardcharging Canadian, lost his life when he crashed during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. Two weeks earlier Villeneuve was furious when his Ferrari teammate Didier Pironi ignored team orders and stolen victory away from him in the San Marino Grand Prix.

During qualifying at Belgium’s Zolder circuit, Villeneuve caught Jochen Mass who was moving slowly in his March. Mass moved to his right to get out of the way and at the same moment Villeneuve did likewise. He died in the hospital that evening.

1986 British Grand Prix 13 July 1986

Just three years after Jackie Stewart’s win, Niki Lauda nearly lost his life at the 1976 German Grandd Prix. Like Stewart previously, Lauda had criticised the poor safety standards of the circuit, and Lauda had even asked the other drivers to boycott the 1976 event. Lauda’s Ferrari swerved off the track, slammed into an embankment and burst into flames.

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1986 Australian Grand Prix 26 October 1986

1982 Belgian Grand Prix 9 May 1982

MANSELL VS PIQUET

Earlier in the decadee – at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix – Alan Jones, driving a Shadow, became the first Aussie to win a championship F1 race since Jack Brabham’s victory in the 1970 South African Grand Prix.

Jump ahead to 1980 and Jones became the first Aussie world champion since Brabham in 1966. Jones, driving the Williams FW07B, won five times in 1980. His fourth win was in the Canadian Grand Prix, which is where and when he won the crown. Jones and pole sitter Nelson Piquet tangled just after the start, triggering a multi-car crash that forced the race to be stopped and restarted.

BLOWOUT

The feud between Williams teammates Nigel Mansell was a bitter one. When Piquet arrived at the team in 1986 he thought he had number one driver status, and he got upset when Mansell got equal treatment. Frank Williams was in hospital after his road car accident in March that left him paralyzed and therefore could not control the situation. The first race Williams attended that year was the 1986 British Grand Prix. Piquet qualified on pole and Mansell started second. The duo staged an absolutely glorious, fierce and flatout battle, and Mansell eventually won.

The season-ending Australian Grand Prix produced what would become one of the most dramatic championship showdowns in the 50 years Auto Action has covered Formula 1. Williams teammates Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell and McLaren’s Alain Prost were in a three-way fight for the world championship. On lap 63 the order was Piquet, Prost and Mansell, and Mansell only needed to finish third to clinch the title. On the next lap Mansell’s left rear tyre exploded on the Brabham Straight. Williams called Piquet in for a precautionary tyre change. Prost went on to win both the race and the championship.

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1991 1 991 – 2000 2 0 00

SENNA VS PROSTT

1989/90 Japanese Grandss Prix 22 October 1989 andd 21 October 1990

THE TAXI DRIVER TH 19 Belgian Grand Prix 1991 25 August 1991

The clashes between the feuding Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were legendary, y, and two of the most notorious incedents happened at the Japanese Grand Prix.

In 1988, when they were teammates at McLaren, they collided ed when Prost refused to yield as they approached Suzuka’s chicane. Prost abandoned his car and Senna stormed to victory, y, only to be disqualified for taking a shortcut. In 1990, with Prost now at Ferrari, a furious Senna played out a grudge he had held for 12 months and deliberately rammed Prost off the track at the first turn just after the start of the race.

Su was his talent that there is no doubt Such Michael Schumacher would have eventually Mic moved from sports cars to Formula 1. mo But that move was hastened when Jordan Bu driver Bertrand Gachot had an altercation driv with a London taxi driver, which resulted in wit Gachot being sent to jail for two months.

Ga Schumacher was racing for Mercedes in Sc the World Sports-Prototype Championship at tthe time, and Mercedes paid Jordan US$150,000 for him to replace Gachot.

US Schumacher qualified an outstanding Sc seventh but had clutch failure just after the sev start. One year later Schumacher, now with sta Benetton, returned to Spa where he scored Be the first of his 91 Formula 1 wins

GOODBYE & HELLO

1995/1996 Australian Grand Prix 12 November 1985/10 March 1996 Formula 1 said goodbye to Adelaide at the end of the 1995 season and hello to Melbourne at the start of the 1996 season. Adelaide had hosted the grand prix since 1985. Williams driver Damon Hill won both races, but 1996 will be remembered for the sensational F1 debut of his teammate Jacques Villeneuve, who qualified on pole and led the race until being slowed by an oil leak. The 1996 race is also remembered for a first lap shunt that saw Martin Brundle’s Jordan hurtling through the air over David Coulthard’s McLaren and Johnny Herbert’s Sauber, and then breaking in two when it hit the ground upside down. Brundle was unhurt.

A DARK WEEKEND 1994 San Marino Grand Prix 1 May 1994

It was a dark, tragic weekend at Imola. Roland Ratzenberger died when he crashed his Simtek after front wing failure during Saturday’s qualifying session. Then Ayrton Senna was killed when his Williams hit a wall early in the race. They were the first F1 drivers to die during an F1 race weekend since Riccardo Paletti in a start-line accident at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix. The Imola weekend was further tarnished

by Rubens Barrichello being injured in a huge shunt in his Jordan on Friday. And on Sunday several mechanics and spectators were injured by flying debris from a start-line pile up.

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GROOVY

THE FIASCO

The 1998 season opener in Melbourne was the first race where cars were fitted with grooved tyres. They certainly were not groovy looking but instead looked rather incongruous and ugly. The theory was that by reducing the contact patch of the tyres, it would reduce grip and cornering speeds – especially during a tyre war. Tyres had three grooves in 1998 and then four in the following years. Thankfully, slicks returned in 2009…and made their debut in the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.

Only six drivers started the 2005 United States Grand Prix, and all of them were on Bridgestone tyres.

The 14 drivers on Michelins did the final warm-up lap and then headed for the pits. The problem was that the Michelin tyres could not cope with the stress of the banked turns at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Many hours of bickering followed between the FIA, the teams, Michelin and Bernie ie Ecclestone. It was an insult to the 130,000 fans at the Speedway andd those watching the race around the world, that a compromise could not be reached.

And it showed the total arrogance these F1 entities had towards the paying customers.

1998/2009 Australian Grand Prix 8 March 1998/29 March 2009

2005 United States Grand Prix 19 June 2005

WEBBER WINS MONACO 2010/2012 Monaco Grand Prix 16 May 2010/27 May 2012

The first of Aussie Mark Webber’s nine Formula 1 victories came in the 2009 German Grand Prix. And two of those

2001 – 2010 STOMPING GROUNDS 2004 Belgian Grand Prix 27 August 2004

wins were in the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix in 2010 and 2012. Webber qualified his Red Bull on pole for both races through the twisting and narrow streets of the Principality and then controlled things from the front. The only other Australian to win the Monaco Grand Prix to that point had been Jack Brabham in 1959. Daniel Ricciardo joined the exclusive club in 2018. And Ricciardo would have won in 2016 if the Red Bull team had not botched his pit stop.

2011 2 011 0 1 – 2020 202 20 RICCIARDO DEFEATS VETTEL 2014 Canadian Grand Prix 8 June 2014

Having replaced fellow Aussie Mark Webber at Red Bull in 2014, Daniel Ricciardo proceeded to outperform Webber’s former teammate Sebastian Vettel. In Canada, Ricciardo earned his first F1 victory with some of his trademark lunging overtaking moves. He followed that up with wins in mov Hungary and Belgium. Vettel, who scored 13 Hung wins in 2013 on his way to his fourth world cham championship, went winless in 2014 and mov moved to Ferrari in 2015. Ricciardo placed third in the 2014 drivers’ world championship with 238 points while Vettel was fifth with 167 points. Ricciardo’s seventh F1 win to date was the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix.

F1 IN CRISIS July 20, 2015

After winning the world championship with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, Michael Schumacher switched to Ferrari in 1996.

It took years of hard work to build up the Ferrari “Super Team” and Schumacher won his first of five consecutive world drivers’ championships with the Scuderia, in 2000. He clinched his fifth title with Ferrari and his seventh overall at Spa by finishing second in the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix behind McLaren’s Mika Häkkinen. While Schumacher did not win at Spa, he racked up an amazing total of 13 victories in 2004.

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The Th more things change, the more they stay sta the same. Complaints that Formula 1 is too expensive; that there is a lack of overtaking; that the gulf between the big ov and an smaller teams is too wide; that one team’s domination is getting tedious; that te there th are more politics than sport; that Formula 1 is in crises, etc have been Fo

co constant themes during the 50 years that Auto Action has been covering all those Au aspects. In AA issue 1652, published in as July 2015, Auto Action ran a feature that Ju compared the 1986 and 1992 seasons co which were both “F1 in Crises” years. wh

THE SHOVE TH

20 Singapore Grand Prix 2016 18 September 2016 Du During the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, the hordes of TV crews and we photographers were so intent on descendingg ph on Formula 1’s commercial boss-to-be Chase Carey in the paddock, that Formula Ch 1’s longtime czar Bernie Ecclestone was shoved aside and even bowled over by a TV h cameraman. Somebody grabbed Ecclestone before he hit the ground.

It was a telling moment in the changing of the guard in the history of the sport’s business that Ecclestone had ruled since the late 1970s. Liberty Media’s Carey took the reins in January 2017 and Ecclestone was given the title of Chairman Emeritus, but he had lost all his power.

MAGNIFICENT 7 AUTO ACTION spent the entire 2020 Formula 1 season covering the magnificent achievements of Lewis Hamilton, who equaled Michael Schumacher’s record of seven drivers’ world championships. Along the way Hamilton set records including 95 wins to Michael Schumacher’s 91, and 165 podiums to Schumacher’s 155.

Plus he helped Mercedes win a record seventh consecutive world constructors’ championship. Also magnificent was how Formula 1 managed to put together a 17-race season during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the Australian Grand Prix was canceled on the Friday morning of the event, there were subsequent fears that there would be no F1 races at all in 2020.

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AA’s F1 SCRIBES VARIOUS JOURNALISTS have contributed Formula 1 content to Auto Action over the years. Back in the 1970s the magazine used stories contributed by news agencies. In the early ‘80s Gavin Green covered F1 for AA. Gavin is the son of Evan Green – a pre-eminent Australian TV motor racing commentator in the ’70s and early ’80s – a former editor of the UK’s CAR magazine and now a doyen international motoring journalist. Then, in the late ‘80s Mark Fogarty started contributing F1 news and features.

The ‘90s started off with Joe Saward being the magazine’s chief F1 scribe.

Mike Doodson replaced him in ‘95. In the mid-’90s, Byron Young also started contributing F1 content. Meanwhile, Fogarty was also still doing some F1 news and features until mid-’97.

Fogarty returned to AA in 2000, contributing what are now the Up Front With Foges interviews. And his F1 interviews continued until his return in mid-2003. Doodson was AA’s solo F1 correspondent until he retired at the end of ‘05. Dan Knutson then took over in ‘06.

interview that Mark Fogarty did with Brabham Did Brabham realise that he Brabham. had become a national hero in Australia after winning the crown in 1959? “No, not really, because we didn’t really know what was going on back here, anyway” he replied. “Today, communications are unbelievable, but in those days we didn’t even have fax machines. There was no easy way of communicating to Australia.

The races were televised, but only in England and Europe.” Mark Webber also contributed to the Brabham feature, saying: “I probably wouldn’t be here in

Formula One today Brabham ” Webber if it wasn’t for Jack Brabham.” said his father’s interest in motor racing was sparked by Brabham, and that trickled down. “When Jack went overseas, he did a lot of special things,” Webber said. “Jack is a legend.”

That particular issue of Auto Action also contained an interview with a 19-year-old Australian Formula 3 driver named Daniel Ricciardo. He revealed many of his likes and dislikes. Asked what his next career goal was, he replied: “To get another step closer to F1.”

OUR BLACK JACK THREE-TIME world champion Jack Brabham retired from driving in F1 at the end of 1970 – just months before the first ever issue of Auto Action went to press. But while Auto Action was not around to cover the exploits of Brabham when the Australian star was racing, the magazine certainly didn’t ignore him after he retired. In May 2009, Auto Action (AA#1341) devoted more than 14 pages to Brabham. Fifty years earlier he was on his way to winning his second world title.

Four of those pages contained an

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Feeling the pressure ... but this time not of a deadline but Garry O’Brien is about to do some hot laps with Steve Richards in the BMW M6 GT car.

37 OF THE 50 FOR ME AND STILL LOVING IT “CAN YOU get out to Amaroo this weekend and cover the supports?”

That was the question Auto Action’s then Editor Chris Lambden posed sometime after I applied to take on the job of NSW contributor. It was issue number 366 for the March 4-5, 1985 meeting.

While I had been to many race meetings in the past, this was only the second time in any sort of official capacity. The first time was some 12 years prior, when I carted tyres around for a couple of sports car drivers and did the general “dogs body” stuff at the Bathurst Easter meeting.

On that Amaroo program there was a Super Challenge where Chris Clearihan in his Kaditcha Sports Car took on the best of the Sports Sedans available. He started 10th on the grid and came through to win ahead of Mark Trenoweth in his new Jaguar, and Bob Tindal in his hatchback Torana.

The second heat also went to Clearihan ahead of Bryan Thompson, having just purchased the Bob Jane Chev Monza, and Peter Fitzgerald in his Porsche.

In the second round of the Laser Series, Steve Williams won the feature after Peter Dane took out the preliminary. Tomas Mezera won both Formula Ford races and Brad Jones in a Mitsubishi Starion did likewise in the Production Car races.

A lot of tyres have worn out since then, and a lot of words have been written.

In those days, the reports were typed on the Sunday night on a battered old typewriter with a very dodgy “k”. Then the next morning when I rocked into my regular job after a couple of hours shuteye, I would sneak off to the fax machine and get the story off to Melbourne, where AA was put together.

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As time went on, filing became easier with a Commodore 64 computer where files could be typed up, saved on a disk, and then uploaded via modem in ASCI (text only) form. Then personal computers came along, then email, and life became far easier.

That was really the toughest part of the job. AA opened a lot of doors for someone who was basically a fan. Words in print are gold no matter the discipline or the event, and competitors would be courteous for that reason, if no other. Many long-term friendships have come through my AA world.

Besides that, Auto Action has allowed me opportunities that would otherwise never have occurred.

After I started out covering club level motorsport, AA led me to support races at major touring car events in NSW, and then a couple of interstate jaunts which included many Australian Grand Prix events.

I have covered rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship in NSW and Queensland, the AMSCAR series both in Group A and Supercars, and numerous support categories throughout my 37-yearsto-date tenure.

I even managed the odd news story.

The one that particularly sticks in my mind was with the late Jason Richards, when he revealed candidly that he would not race at Bathurst.

We were in pit garage number one where he was driving one of Paul Stubber’s exMHDT Holden A9X and his Central Muscle Car Chev Camaro. He also was invited to drive a Le Mans Porsche which was at garage 50.

“Will you walk with me,” he asked, and

I humbly did, so he could explain how draining it would be on his body, given his condition. I said very little, just listened.

My introduction to off-road racing was with an invitation to Alice Springs in the late ‘80s to cover what was the first of seven Finke Desert Races. Since that consisted of an overnight camp at Finke for competitors, select media were flown to the outback indigenous settlement to catch up with the drivers, and then flown back to the Alice.

Twice some of us stayed and camped overnight under the stars.

The first time upon returning we were asked to go to the local radio station 8HA for an hour live-to-air show to update listeners on how things were going. We also took listeners’ calls – it was and still is a truly popular event among thee local community.

I guess in some ways this led me to my first on-track commentry call, which was in 1998, doing the Austin Healey Challenge at Bathurst with former production car star Don Holland. The following year I was on the mike for the HQ Holden Nationals.

I covered Historic Touring Cars and Nations Cup in Canberra in 2000 plus a bit of on-track comms for the HTC. When I say a bit, a truly little bit, as the first race on the Saturday was cancelled due the lateness of the day, and the second on Sunday morning was red flagged after just one lap.

I loved the Canberra meetings; it was just the wrong time of the year to have them. The long weekend in June at the first event was not too bad in the middle of the day, but it

was freezing at the next two.

I was born and raised in Bathurst, so obviously Mt Panorama events have been special, and I have been working in small and large capacities there since 1985 at every major event including the much-loved 24 Hours and 12 Hours.

There were others too, such as Hillclimb Championships, the return of Easter meetings and even a Rallysprint.

The Surfers Paradise extravaganzas in the early years were awesome and the likes of the A1 Grand Prix meetings at Eastern Creek were an interesting diversion.

The number one for event info, facilities,

A BIG PART OF AUTO ACTION’S COVERAGE OVER THE YEARS HAS BEEN THE DISICPLINES OF HILLCLIMB, OFF ROAD RACING AND RALLYING. WE HIGHLIGHT SOME STAND OUT PERFORMERS. catering and media access would be the World/Australian Rally Championship at Coffs Harbour – absolutely brilliant.

Aside from all that, a highlight has always been the social side with colleagues and contemporaries on the weekends away, especially those who I shared accommodation with and the evening repasts.

Many of those involved during over 100 Shannons Nationals meetings attended included ace commentators Richard Craill, Darren Smith, and the voice of the MCG, Tony Schibeci. The shooters AA employed were very much part of that too, with likes of Nathan Wong whom I travelled often with, Dirk Klynsmith and Rhys Vandersyde.

There are a lot of stories there, mostly outrageously funny and too numerous to mention.

At the track, there were peculiar events as well.

There was snow in Goulburn and floods at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

There was the unexplained package placed under a Surfers Paradise grandstand, and the Production Car race at QR where the whole field followed the safety car into the pits, when it needed to change the radio battery.

I still regard the late Jon Evans as the best race reporter we have ever had.

He was respectful of all and treated everyone as equal.

From my side, that being state, club and grassroots events, I need to offer a big thanks to the likes of scribes such as the late Rob Janney, Mick Oliver, David Batchelor, John Lemm, Martin Agatyn and Bruce Moxon among many others . . . and of course, the many photographers.

On this long journey together, there have been some tragedies along the way.

The deaths of Jason Richards, Mike Burgmann, Denny Hulme, Don Watson, and Mark Porter, each of whom I had met or been associated with in some way.

Mike I had known from his racing at Amaroo, and Don called me over to introduce his wife in the pits, prior to that fateful practice session at Bathurst.

The importance of the name Auto Action has never been lost on me.

It commands respect in places you would never expect.

My dad was on a road trip some years back and had a rest stop near Cowra on his way home. There were a couple of guys there working on their speedway car and inquisitive as he is, the old man asked in a friendly manner how things were going.

Basically he was politely brushed off but just as he wandered off he mentioned that his son worked for Auto Action, and their manner changed immediately.

They were all over him, explaining how their racing went and gave him all sorts of information about the car.

That’s the credibility of Auto Action and the respect it is held within the motor sport community.

Garry O’Brien

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HILLCLIMB

THE NATIONAL championship started in 1938 and has been sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (now Motorsport Australia)since 1954.

Prior to that, it was run under Australian Automobile Association sanctioning with two events having national status in 1949.

Since Auto Action came on the scene in 1971, the most successful driver has been Peter Gumley, with a stunning 14 titles. His weapon of choice was the Wortmeyer SCV Formula Libre which had a 2.3-litre supercharged Volkswagen engine matched to a five-speed Hewland gearbox.

His run started with victory at Bathurst in 1996. He lost out the following year but then strung together six in a row, starting at Collingrove (SA), and following through with titles at Gippsland Park, Bathurst again, Mt Cotton (Qld), Grafton (NSW), and Collingrove again.

The second most prolific winner has been Malcolm Oastler in his turbocharged Hayabusa-powered OMS 28, with five.

His run of success started at Ringwood Park (NSW) in 2014 for the three in a row.

But after Jack’s Hill (WA) and Bryant Park (Vic), he missed a year before victory at Bryant Park and Mt Panorama in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

OFF ROAD RACING

A RELATIVE new form of racing, Off Road Racing at championship level began in 1981 on a course that had to be over 15km long.

These were inevitably narrow, dusty, tree-lined, undulating and could involve sand dunes and creek crossings.

Craig Martin was the first to snare a title in a Rivmasta and captured two more before Mark Burrows won the first of seven in 1988. He used a Trekka chassis initially and also won in Cougar, Jimco and Stealth buggies. He had several different navigators including Maureen Rose, Ross Walker, Michael Shannon, Janelle Svenson, and Colin Hodge.

In 2015 Shannon Rentsch eclipsed that number when he won his eighth title, and then grabbed another with a ninth in 2018.

Every time, he had his father Ian in the navigator’s seat of what were Chev V8 engined Chenowth Millenniums for the first five titles, and then Nissan V6 twin turboed Jimco Aussie Specials after that.

Burrows, together with son Matt, narrowed the gap to one with victory number eight in 2019 in their Holden Alloytec-powered Pro Buggy.

RALLY

THREE YEARS before AA, the first Australian Rally Championship took place and was won by Harry Firth and Graham Hoinville in a Lotus Cortina.

The year of our birth it was Colin Bond and George Shepheard who won the ARC crown in the first of three for them in their Holden Torana LC XU-1s.

Unlike the aforementioned disciplines, the names with titles are better known to the motor sport public, like Ross Dunkerton who collected five, the first with former CAMS President John Large, three with Jeff Beaumont and one with Geoff Jones in 1983, all in Datsuns.

Like Dunkerton, Neal Bates won three on the trot 10 years later, with Coral Taylor alongside in his Toyota Celica, and added another in 2008 in a Toyota Corolla.

Cody Crocker also did a threepeat, twice with Greg Foletta and once with Dale Moscatt in Subaru Imprexa WRXs, before Simon and Sue Evans netted four with Toyotas, Subarus and Mitsubishis.

But none could match the performance of the late New Zealander Peter Raymond George “Possum” Bourne, who amassed seven and did them all in a row from 1996 through to 2002. Craig Vincent pointed the directions for the factory Subaru driver in all but two, with Mark Stacey navigating those. Bourne also won three Asia-Pacific Championships, the NZ Championship, and there is no telling how many more the popular Kiwi could have won. Sadly he was involved in a non-competition public road crash in his home country which claimed his life in 2003. Garry O’Brien

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THE FOURTH ESTATE Then reigning Australian Rally Champion, BOB WATSON was an early AA A columnist, debuting in the very first issue. Here he recounts the impact of AA’s arrival and how it gave him an influential voice in rally affairs.

THE APPEARANCE of Auto Action was an exciting and welcome event for the Australian car racing community. At last, we hhadd a newspaper dedicated to circuit racing and rallying.

Until then, fans and competitors had to be content with much delayed news and event reports in monthly magazines such as Max Stahl’s excellent Racing Car News. News about motor sport in the daily papers was as rare as receiving a decent tax return (and, sadly, still is, along with the rest of the mainstream media).

AA’s arrival meant we had event reports and news that were just days old – not weeks behind – every fortnight. Seems ‘steam-driven’ now, but half a century ago, it was a big breakthrough.

I knew AA’s first editor, motor racing photographer Ian Smith, quite well. He was a fellow rallyist and we had also worked on publicity projects for Renault, for whom I was driving at the time.

I suppose I was chosen as a columnist because I had come off a great season in 1970, winning the Australian and Victorian Rally Championships and the Alpine Rally, as well as successes in the thennew and booming rallycross – a made-for-TV race and rally hybrid at race circuits.

I had previously written rally reports for RCN, so writing was not new to me and I enjoyed it. Still do.

My column ran for quite a few years under Smith and his successor Paul Harrington. It was sometimes a pain to have to write something on Sunday night while returning from an interstate event, as the copy was due on Monday morning. Generally, I wrote about the events in which I was competing, but occasionally there would be an issue that was worth highlighting in the column.

One example was when Ian McKnight of the Light Car Club of Australia – then a major promoter of races and rallies in Victoria – started a campaign to ban knobbly rally tyres because of the damage they were causing to forest roads.

The idea was well meaning but misguided. Can you imagine driving a rally car on wet, slippery dirt roads with normal road tyres? There would be cars over the edge of cliffs everywhere.

I took up the case through my AA column and united the rally fraternity. We won the case at a meeting of CAMS’ Victoria State Council. Press power rules!

Over the years, I have appeared in the pages of this venerable title (although it’s still a youngster compared with me!) as a competitor and writer, returning on a more regular basis when Bruce Williams came to its rescue.

We all owe a big debt to Williams and his great team for keeping Auto Action alive and providing a feast of motor sport news every two weeks. It often staggers me just how much content there is in every issue. Long may it continue!

Bob Watson was a Holden engineer who contributed to the development of the Monaro GTS 327 for racing. He was a leading rally driver in the late 1960s into the ’70s, winning the 1970 ARC in a works Renault R8 Gordini with navigator Jim McAuliffe. Watson was also an accomplished racer, partnering Tony Roberts to victory in the 1968 Sandown Six Hour – Holden’s first major success in racing. An automotive industry engineering consultant, he remained active in rallying as a driver and administrator into the early 2000s. Hale and hearty at 81, Melbourne-based Watson is an author, raconteur and wine buff.

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1969 Ford Mustang Trans-Am Boss V8 Improved Production

GREATEST RA THE CE OF

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HOW HARD can it be? If we assume there were only 10 new F1 designs per year over 50 years, that’s 500 cars by my usually ropey maths. And that’s only one class.

We are looking at 15 or more categories in Australia and internationally, the task of choosing the most significant competition cars each year is mega. It’s hard. Fun, but difficult.

To choose our Top 50, or 50 Most Meritorious cars, we needed to make the subjective as objective as we could. We determined that the cars had to be technically significant, successful or iconic (some were all three) to make our list.

While Auto Action’s perspective is international, our bias is Australian, which helps explain a bit of the mix here of ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’ in the selections.

As to the methodology, well, we kinda had to make that up. I was stupid enough to do an interim, very draft list.

After release from the Alfred’s casualty department, Publisher/Editor in Chief Bruce Williams decided that this Seniors Card holder’s work needed to be reviewed by folks who didn’t count Eagle Rock as their favourite song.

Vigorous debate ensued across the global Auto Action empire. Lots of great stuff is missing, there were only 50 slots after all.

There was some wonderful debate about the merits of what is and isn’t present, and opinion remained divided even as we went to press.

A bit of housekeeping now.

The cars are presented here in year order, oldest to youngest, and the rule of thumb for inclusion is that these specific vehicles or marques had to have competed during Auto Action’s reporting period.

That is the reason, for example, that cars such as the Matich SR4 didn’t make the list.

Frank retired the car in mid 1970.

And the larger photographs you see here are the machines that we unanimously voted to be the most significant – which is not to diminish those in the side-panels.

Enjoy, take notes and join in the discussion.

fifty of t RS CA

Porsche won Le Mans in 1971 with the normally aspirated, spaceframe chassis 917 5-litre flat12. Its 2017 winner was a carbon-composite 919 Hybrid 2-litre, turbo-V4 with two separate energy recovery systems and 4WD. That comparison says it all about the technological change we have witnessed over a half-century. Imagine then, the challenge Mark Bisset had of defining the most significant competition cars of Auto Action’s first 50 years.

Moffat’s Kar-Kraft built primary weapon of war from 1969 to 1974.

Mustang-red, low, menacing, loud, fast, brash, in-ya-face and Raquel Welch sinfully sexy. What more needs be said about or asked of a racing car? Moff didn’t ever win the ATCC with it, but man there were plenty of thrills and spills with Geoghegan, Jane, Beechey and the rest.

Unquestionably, among enthusiasts of vast age differences, one of the most iconic and evocative racing cars ever to sit on Australian grids.

1971 Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 3 Series Production/Group C

In a beefy-butch kind of way, surely one of the most handsome four-door Grand Turismo’s ever built.

Together with the Torana XU1 and RT Chargers, they define muscle-cars for a generation of Aussies. Not as versatile as the XU1 but mighty track machines raced by Moffat, Gibson, Goss, French and many more. A couple of Bathursts to the Phase 1-3 HO’s credit and a Manufacturers Championship for FoMoCo in 1972. Finally delivered Al-Pal the first ATCC he so deserved in 1973.

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years of publishing 1971- 2021

1970 19 970 Ford Escort RS1600 RS1600

As pretty as the girl next door. The twin-cams and four-valve BDAs were mighty on road, track and in the forests. Escorts become one of the greatest all-rounders ever across various models. Bruce Hodgson, Bob Holden, Rod Stevens, Garry Rogers, Colin Bond, Greg Carr, John Bassett and countless clubbies made ‘em sing. The BDA Escorts continued on in later models for years to come, and kept on winning. Honourable mention for the 1972 and beyond Ferrari V6-engined Lancia Stratos, one of the sexiest, most desirable of all road/rally machines.

19971 Holden 1971 Holdeen Torana Toraana GTR XU1 XU1 Repco Repcco 620 V88 Sports Sedan

1970-1974 Lotus 72 Ford Cosworth F1

All Grand Prix cars since the 1962 Lotus 25 are related to it. The Lotus 49, 72 and 78/79 which followed are also innovative design icons. The 72 took its cues from the edgy-wedgy 1968 Lotus 56 gas-turbine 4WD Indycar. Notable, in the 72 design mix were torsion bars rather than coil springs, inboard front brakes and far-aft weight distribution for rear-end exit bite.

Few GP cars are winners over five seasons. The black-spot was Jochen Rindt’s 1970 Monza death when a front-brake

John Sheppard entertained us with his cars for four decades. This clever jigger was one of Bob Jane’s favourites – In the hands of Bob and John Harvey it was one of John’s fastest and prettiest creations.

Frank Gardner cranked out the light, aluminium Repco and dropped in a heavy Chevy to keep the old ‘gal competitive, but ruined its oh-so-pert, lithe little figure.

Special Sheppo shout-outs for Geoghegan’s second Mustang, the Jane and Geoghegan Monaros, and HDT Toranas, all by John’s fair hands.

1972 Holden Torana LC-LJ GTR XU-1 Series Production/Group C

1970 Chev Camaro Z/28 Improved Production

Maybe the earth didn’t move for you when Bob Jane’s Z28 was fitted with the ‘kiddy’ 350 in 1972 but it surely did with that bad-ass’ ally-427 big-block earlier on? When CAMS shafted the 427 motor, Frank Gardner bought it off Janey and took it back to the UK and belted the pommies with it. Didn’t that pugnacious little Brunswick punk drive the wheels orf’ that Camaro! Four times ATCC winner. Surely nobody has personaly put more into Oz racing than the Melbourne businessman/entrepreneur/racer during Auto Action’s first 50?

A reliable, fast machine at home on all surfaces and across disciplines. Bathurst winner in Brock’s hands in 1972. Australian Rally Championships for Bond in ‘71, ‘72, ‘74 and Peter Lang in ’73.

As well as the ‘73 Australian Manufacturers Championship. The XU1 was all about versatility from tar to dirt, including many rallycross wins.

1972 Porsche 917/10 Can-Am

The FIA decided 5-litre sports cars were a bit too quick. Porsche went McLaren Can-Am hunting instead, bolting into the familiar chassis a twinturbo charged flat-12. The George Follmer and Mark Donohue driven 917/10 and 917/30 weapons destroyed the greatest class of all in 1972-3, but created one of the most awe-inspiring road-racers of all time. Porsche proved turbos could work on road circuits, a point not lost on Renault.

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1973 19 973 Lola L l T330/332 T330/3322 Chev Ch F5000 F50000

Frank Gardner and Lola engineer Bob Marston were the parents of the most successful ever production racing cars.

Honourable Oz F5000 mentions for the Elfin MR5 Repco, MR8 Chev, MR9 Chev and Alan Hamilton’s Alf Costanzo driven Lola T430 Chev plus ground-effect McLaren M26 Chev – the fastest F5000 on the planet.

1974 VW ‘Volksrolet’ Chev V8 Sports Sedan

A clever crowd-pleaser. Bryan Thomson and Peter Fowler stripped the goodies off Warwick Brown’s McLaren M10B Chev F5000 and built a rocket. The suspension geometry was never quite right but BT won heaps of races. Many of us went to a meeting just coz’ the Volksy was on the bill.

1974 Holden Torana L34

They mostly had the edge over the Fords. Lotsa blokes made these motor – Brock, Bond, Bob Morris, John Harvey and Allan Grice are names which spring to mind. Plenty of weekend-warriors also did well with them. Wins at Mount Panorama in 1975 and 1976, an ATCC for Bondy in 1975 and Manchamps for the General from 1974-1976.

1974 19 974 Elfin Elfi MS7 MS7 Repco-Holden R H ld

Garrie Cooper’s MS7 sporty was an assembly of mainly his MR5/MR6 F5000 bits bolted to a new ally’ monocoque tub. Styled on the lines of the Can-Am Porsche 917/10 it was an incredibly quick, successful car in GC’s hands and the dudes who followed. Note also the Elfin NG and Crusader FVs, 620/620B FFs, 700 F2/3, MR8 F5000, 792, GE225 and 852 F2s and FA891 Formula Holden.

1974 Cheetah Mk5/6 Toyota F3/F2

One of the greatest quietest achievers in Oz motor racing was the recently departed Brian Shead. He built a swag of FJ, ANF 1.5, F3, F2, F Atlantic, F Holden and Clubman cars over the better part of four decades. Cheetah had longevity.

Special shout outs for Birrana and Bowin. Bob Britton is still with us – Rennmax endures, Britto has several new cars on the go. Honourable mentions to Ian Richard’s Richards 201s and Jim Hardman’s 1980-1981 Hardmans.

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1976 Tyrrell P34 Ford Cosworth F1

Yes folks, there was a time in F1 when innovation was possible, even among the ‘box-stock Ford Cosworth V8 and Hewland tranny’ garagiste. Didn’t Ken Tyrrell and Derek Gardner’s six-wheeler put the cat amongst the pigeons!

Initially considered a PR stunt, the car was quick in Patrick Depailler and Jody Scheckter’s hands – 1976 Swedish GP winner.

When Goodyear got a bit bored with it and ceased development of the little 10-inch tyres the car lost pace even with Ronnie Peterson at the wheel, and was shuffled out of the deck. Don’t forget too the later March and Williams 6-wheelers with four at the rear were tested, but soon after the idea of more than four wheels got banned.

1971 Matich A50 Repco F5000

Frank Matich and his boys in Brookvale and Cremorne led by Derek Kneller built six identical monocoques between mid-1971 and 1973. The A50, A51 and A53 were all winners – John Goss won the 1976 AGP at Sandown three years after it was built. The almost unknown Bowin P8 Repco-Holden was the most technically advanced F5000 ever built in this country but arguably Frank’s Matiches were the best. It’s a pity FM didn’t continue as a constructor/entrant but he’d had enough.

1975-6 9 Ferrarii 312T 2

Marvellously integrated, sublimely balanced 312T brought Ferrari in from the cold. Forghieri chassis put all 525bhp of the 3-litre era’s most powerful engine to the ground thereby creating the fastest car in 1975 and 1976 with Niki Lauda at the wheel. The BRM, Matra and Alfa Romeo V12s (Alfa flat-12 duly-noted too) provided variety during the Cosworth DFV’s reign, but the Fazz boxer-motor was king of the 3-litre engine heap.

1973 Ford Falcon GT 351 Coupe Group C

John Goss was the first to race one of these handsome coupes in Group C. I can remember him kicking the brilliant-yellow McLeod Ford, Mawer shod car delightfully sideways out of Shell corner lap after lap during a South Pacific Series round at Sandown in the summer of ’73. He paid the trail-blazing price in rooted bottom ends until lubrication issues were solved. Ditto the L34 Torana early on. Fred Gibson, Moffat, Murray Carter, Bond, Jim Richards and of course Gossy made Group C and Sports Sedan variants of these cars sing. Bathurst wins in 1973, 1974 and 1977 – not a bad effort.

1976 Porsche 935 Group 5 Sports-prototype

Any number of Porkers could be chosen for this list. Let’s go for the 911/930 Big Daddy – first raced in 1976, the 935 won everything from Le Mans down. Some came here. To see Alan Jones giving Alan Hamilton’s a serious touch-up was worth travelling for, mentions also for Pete Geoghegan, Rusty French and Allan Browne. Car shown is king of the breed – Moby Dick down.

1979 Williams FW07 Ford Cosworth

If Frank Williams and Patrick Head had FWO7 on circuit earlier perhaps Alan Jones would have won the ‘79 world championship in addition to 1980. Colin and he team came up with a working ground effects can but Frank and his boys perfected it. To see AJ mop-up Calder’s 1980 ‘Formula Libre’ AGP was magic, getting the family double with Stan Jones winning the 1959 AGP at Longford, Tasmania in a Maserati 250F. Quintessential ground-effect design, arguably the best ’79 copy’ of 1979 to 1981.

1976 Chev Corvair V8 Sports Sedan

Frank Gardner and Allan Grice were so successful in this car that the rules were re-written to effectively exclude it. Sydney racer Tom Nailard started the project and sold it to Gardner when he ran out of dosh. Gardner raided the Lola spare-parts bin with which he was so familiar. Together with John Anderson and others, they created a spaceframe F5000 in drag which was finished in a workshop alongside the Jane-Gardner Race School in 1975. Cripes it was fast. Too fast, it was a category killer, winning the Oz Sports Sedan Championships from 1977 to 1979, one for Frank and two for Gricey.

1979 19 979 Chev Monza V8 Sportss Sedan

Moffat’s came from DeKon in the ‘states. Janey had Pat Purcell build his with assistance from Tom Coad and Ron Harrop in Melbourne, from the best of local and imported bits. Talk about track presence. Impressive in Bob’s hands – two Oz Sports Sedan championships in 1980 and 1981 but positively awesome with Brock at the wheel. In fact all Monza Sports Sedans were cool and are now highly collectable, with several local now being restored.

1979 19 979 Holden H ld Commodore C d VB Round R d Australia A t li

Brock was a Monarch – crowned King of Moomba in’86, at the height of his fame he could have walked across the Yarra. His 1979 Repco Round-Australia Trial win added lustre to the legend.

George Shepheard’s 202 ‘XU1 spec’ engine, brilliant preparation and cost-is-no-object support package won the race. The Brock-Meister drove though all the competitive stages and most transports. More demanding than his previous dirt Rallycross experience! PB seen here having a thrash... some 20 years on.

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1979 197 79 Chev Camaro Camaro Z28 Z28 Group upp C

Wasn’t Bartlett’s car a big, brash, breath of fresh air?

The only thing between KB and consistent race wins were CAMS’ distribution of free kicks, which were never going to favour the American interloper over the Commodore and Falcon locals.Bartlett on-circuit meant it was time to leave the burger-stand for a good vantage point – the man never disappointed in open-wheeler, sporty or tourer.The ledger shows three ATCC wins and Mount Panorama poles in 1980-1981.

1980 Audi Quattro S1 Group B

Electronics solved inherent 4WD issues with Audi the first in the dawn of the ‘80s. This led to bonkers Group B rally machines. Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomquist, Michele Mouton and others ripped peaceful forests apart with 4WD 444bhp road-destroyers until the FIA grabbed the tiger by the tail and dialled things g back a bit.

1977-8 Lotus 78/79 Ford Cosworth Colin Chapman’s final paradigm shifter was the ground-effect 1977 Lotus 78 and the car which brought home the bacon the following year – the Lotus 79. Modern aerodynamic study started right there. Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson literally pissed ‘orf into the distance such was their advantage. Everybody else, that is every racecar constructor on the planet, had to follow.

1981 19 981 Ralt RT4 Fordd Formula Formulla Pacific Pacifiic

We adopted Formula Pacific too late, its best days in manufacturer diversity terms were over. Tauranac’s Ralt RT4 did to Formula Pacific what Lola did to F5000 with the T332.

Provided great racing. RT2/3/4/5 design is a contender for greatest customer racing car ever. Notable Oz drivers include Bruce Allison, Andrew Miedecke, John Smith, Larry Perkins, John Bowe, Alan Jones, Charlie O’Brien, Lucio Cesario, Graham Watson, Peter Hopwood and more.

1982 Porsche Porssche 956/962 9566/962 Group Grooup C SportsSpports prototype

Porsche bolstered Group C by building these great aluminium monocoque cars in big numbers. Won Le Mans from 1982 to 1987 and the WEC from 1983 to 1986. Every Tom, Dick and Irving raced them including Aussie Vern Schuppan (cowinner at Le Mans in 1983) Jones, Jack Brabham, and Larry Perkins with Peter Brock in a Bob Jane Le Mans entry.

1984 Holden H ldd Commodore C d Group G C

Holden PR man Tim ‘Plastic’ Pemberton christened these Brockmobiles ‘Last of The Big Bangers’. The Group Cs Commodores are among the most-revered of touring cars. Not least because of HDT’s 1-2 result at Mount Panorama in 1984.

With dayglo red paint, Momo wheels, big guards and spoilers, the later Group As looked effete in comparison. Brock won the Sandown and Surfers enduros – second place at the Calder AGP support ended the car’s factory life after only four races.

Group A it was from 1985.

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1977 Holden Torana A9X Group C

An L34 with pike, all of its drivetrain and braking shortcomings were addressed creating a great road and vastly threatening race car. Iconic images of it involve Brock at Bathurst of course – wins with Richards in 1978 and 1979, not to forget ATCCs for Brock in 1978 and Morris in 1979, the same year they won the ManChamp. Surely THE Torana, again, undeniably one of our icons. A sweet road car too, fitted as it was with a soft 308 given the ‘grumpy one’ with all the trick-schmick Repco-F5000 bits had already been homologated in the L34.

19985 Veskanda 1985 V k d C1 C1 Chev Ch Group G A/Group A/G G C/ IMSA GT Sportscar

Adelaide’s Bernie Van Elsen commissioned this outright sporty from K&A Engineering in 1985. An F5000 Lola T400 donated its guts including 5-litre Chev (replaced by a 5.8 for 1986) and Hewland DG300, uprights, brakes, electrics and bibs and bobs. Bowe debuted the car in 1985, won all five rounds of the 1986 Australian Sportscar Championship.

1987 19 987 BMW W M3 Group Grroup A

Another touring car with genuine lust-appeal to match its race-pace. A giant killer packing around 300bhp from its 2.5-litre DOHC, four-valve injected four. It won more titles than you can poke a stick at, including the 1987 World, and the Australian Touring Car Championship for Jim Richards in naughty fag-packet JPS black and gold.

1979 Renault RS10

The Regie first raced their revolutionary 1.5-litre turbo-charged V6 during the July 1977 British GP. You might argue that RS01 should be on the list because it was an engine technology paradigm shift still felt today. We’ve plumped for the 1979 RS10, its first winner. Those of a certain age will never forget the Dijon dice between the two Mad Dogs, Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari 312T4 and Rene Arnoux’ RS10, going at it hammer and tongs in the final laps of the 1979 French GP won by Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s RS10.

1987 Ford Sierra RS500 Group A This car defines an era of Group A racing. The Sierra RS500 fixed the shortcomings of the original car – notable changes included a thicker walled engine block, larger Garrett turbo and intercooler. Dick Johnson Racing developed arguably the best of these machines in the world. Locally the Sierra took two ATCC wins and two Bathurst wins.

1980-1981 Ford Falcon XD V8 Group C

That Big Pebble broke Dick on That Day but The Rock was the making of him. From hard trier one day to folk-hero the next – and victory in the Tru-Blue Big Henry at Mount Panorama in 1981. Johnson also won the ATCC that year with five wins in the eight rounds, that made The Rock happy.

1988 McLaren MP4/4 Honda

What a slaughter! The 650bhp RA168E 1.5-litre V6 twinturbo engined, Steve Nichols/Gordon Murray designed MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 1988 GPs. Ayrton Senna won eight races and the title, Alain Prost seven. Senna scored 13 poles.

McLaren were 134 points clear of second-placed Ferrari in the Constructors championship, and so the statistical superlatives go on. None of which show how great this Marlboro fag-packet looked!

1992 Williams FW14B Renault

Lotus pioneered active suspension in F1 but Williams perfected it. The pace of these cars was awesome, so too was the absolute faith of the drivers in the technology, particularly Nigel Mansell who took a then record nine wins to clinch the 1992 championship. Adrian Newey’s bag of tricks included a semi-automatic gearbox, active suspension, traction control and, for a while, anti-lock brakes. Engine aside, it was the most technologically advanced GP car of all.

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1990 Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 ‘Godzilla’ Group A 1993 Alfa Romeo Alfetta Chev V8 SS

The K&A built, Elliott owned, Edmondson driven Alfettas provided a lead the West Australian Ricciardello family followed.

Their Chev powered, spaceframe chassis car driven by Tony Ricciardello won the ASSC in 1998-9, 2001-2, and the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series in 2005, 2007, 2011, 2014-2016 and 2019.

They are in the Guinness Book of Records.The machine must also have some type of record for the most race miles of any Australian competition car. And still counting.

‘You’re a pack of arseholes’ was a good call I thought, as I grabbed another VB in my backyard. Who could forget Jim Richard’s Presidential speech at Bathurst ‘92, when a ‘fuggin rice-burner’ won the rain shortened race.The 4WD, DOHC, four-valve turbo-six was a masterpiece of specification, engineering and race development – in Australia by Gibson Motor Sport. The car was the apex of all the work Fred and his team put in from the Bluebird Group C days. Richards and Skaife won on the mountain by a lap in 1991 on top of the 1992 win. The rout was repeated in the 1991 ATCC where the combo finished 1-2 – Jim won four of the nine rounds and Mark three. In 1992, despite being nobbled by CAMS (other car’s revs/weights were also tickled) Skaife won from Richards.

1998 Subaru Impreza WRX WRC

The unbelievably exciting Colin McRae joined Prodrive in 1991, winning his first WRC event – NZ in 1993. Subaru used the Impreza from 1994. McCrae won two of the nine events and the WRC in 1995, the youngest driver to do so. The yellow-on-blue livery, 300bhp flat-fours were mighty weapons used to great effect by McRae and Carlos Sainz. In Australia Possum Bourne’s brilliance helped sell a lot of cars. He won Impreza WRX ARCs in 1996-1998, then again from 1999-2002.

2016 Mercedes F1 WO7 Hybrid

The winningest F1 car in history – 19 races split between Nico Rosberg nine, and Lewis Hamilton 10 wins. Rosberg won the championship with 385 points to Hamilton’s 380. The carbon-composite chassis was powered by a Mercedes PU106C Hybrid 1.6-litre turbo-V6 limited to 15,000rpm and electric motor the combined output of which was 950bhp – more than the Ferrari, Renault and Honda opposition. L-shaped turning vanes, a bowl-shaped rear wing and a hydraulic third suspension element to better control ride height and roll, were all among innovations which kept the team at the front.

2001 Holden Commodore VX Supercar Mark Skaife’s Golden Child won two Bathursts back-to-back in 20012002, two Clipsal 500s, ditto ATCCs in those years. HRT CEO Craig Kelly bequeathed the nickname as the chassis had never had a hit despite so many successful race-miles. Golden Child debuted in the 2001 Queensland 500 and later made the Project Blueprint 2003 journey from VX to VY. Last raced at the Gold Coast in 2004.

2019 Ford Mustang GT

The Falcon FG X’ replacement wasn’t hailed as the most attractive of cars, but then, there is no such thing as an ugly winning racing car.

And that the car most certainly was. The existing Falcon running gear was of course carried across but the engineering achievement was still great. Mustangs were run by Tickford, 23Red Racing and DJR Team Penske in 2019. Penske defending driver’s champion Scott McLaughlin took the 2020 title with 18 wins and 3872 points, including the big one at Bathurst, from Holden ZB mounted Shane Van Gisbergen’s five wins and 3310 points.

2002 Ferrari F2002 F1

Multiple world champion Michael Schumacher was synonymous with Ferrari winning six titles for the Scuderia from 2000 to 2005. The Ross Brawn/Rory Byrne led design team created the F2002 which took nine wins in the hands of Schuey and Rubens Barrichello. A clutch-less gearbox allowed faster shifts, allowing a smaller casing, allowing very tight packaging of the rear aerodynamics. In turn this allowed Bridgestone to develop tyres tailored to the car. An honourable technology mention for the 1989 Ferrari 640 3.5 V12.

2002 Holden Monaro 427C V8 Nations Cup

The 7-litre Chev was a somewhat controversial fitment to these Garry Rogers Motorsport built cars. With lots of Supercar hardware the yellow ‘Nuclear Banana’ won the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour driven

by Garth Tander, Steven Richards, Nathan Pretty and Cameron McConville. One of the cars won Bathurst again in 2003 (Jason Bright, Todd Kelly, Greg Murphy) while James Brock won the last race of the Nations Cup at Mallala Park in the third car built.

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Images: LAT/autopics.com.au/Stuart Grant-Unique Cars/Mick Oliver/AN1 Media/Dan Kalisz-ARG/AA

2006 Spectrum 06 Ford Formula Ford

Mike Borland’s Braeside, Borland Racing Cars/ Spectrum outfit has been around longer than the Cooper and Elliott/Edmondson owned Elfin Sports Cars eras. Long may he rule together with loads of global exports. Borland’s first national FF title was won by Adam Macrow aboard an 06. The photo shows John Martin in 2006 in an 011.

2011 Ford Mustang Boss TCM

2015 Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1

The ultimate expression of automotive technology in motor racing is found in the World Endurance Championship not F1.

The Porsche 919’s carbon-composite chassis is powered by a stressed turbo-charged 500bhp 2-litre V4. Another 400bhp is delivered to the front wheels by the recovery of thermal energy from the exhausts and conversion of kinetic energy into thermal energy under braking – stored in battery packs. The gearbox is a seven-speed electro-hydraulic actuated sequential. Whilst having the looks only a mother could love, the cars bristle with technology only those with a physics major can fully understand. Mark Webber won the World Endurance Drivers title together with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley in 2015. Le Mans eluded this team of drivers, and again in 2016, at which point Webber retired. The 919 won Le Mans from 2015 to 2017 and completed a trio of World Driver’s and Manufacturer’s Championships.

Long-time historic racer Drew Marget built this Mustang as a Group N car before conversion to the more liberal TCM rules, a category of which he was a founder. After about six seasons, Marget sold it to John Bowe who won three Touring Car Masters titles with it in 2012 and 2014-2015. Bowe sold the car to Steven Johnson who drove it to another three titles, from 2017-2019. A truly great performance from an old girl.

2012 Holden Commodore VE2 Supercar

Jamie Whincup’s ‘Kate’ was his 2011 and 2012 V8 Supercar Championship, and 2012 Bathurst winning car. While it’s credited with 28 V8 Supercar victories, the reason for Jamie’s purchase of it was his amazing 2012 Clipsal 500 win, a week after losing his Dad to cancer.

Kate was Triple Eight’s first race spec Commodore, debuting in 2010.

It was overhauled to VE2 specs before 2011 and raced on into 2012.

The supplementary winner is ... because it demanded inclusion, the McLaren M6B Repco V8 Oz crowds thrilled to two big 5-litre Repco V8 steamrollers of sporties at the dawn of the ‘70s. Frank Matich’s SR4 in 1969-1970 and Bob Jane’s McLaren M6B from 1970-1972. Bob had the occasional steer of this most curvaceous, popular of racers, while Harves raced it in championship events, winning the ASCC in 1971-1972. Sponsor Castrol wanted the emphasis on touring cars, so Bob put it aside and his family still owns it.

Close but no cigar - the fabulous racing cars from the past 50 years that could and maybe should have made the list, but didn’t: Norm’s Monaro, Pete’s second Mustang, Lancia Stratos, Kaditcha aka Romano Cosworth, Ferrari 312PB, Commodore Group A, McCormack’s Repco Charger, Chaparral 2K Cosworth DFX Indycar, Mazda 767B Le Mans, Elfin MR8 Chev F5000, McLaren M26 Chev F5000, Ambrose’ Falcon BA Supercar, HDT ‘Beast’ LJ Torana Repco, McLaren F1 GTR LM, Cheetah Mk9 VW, Webber’s Red Bull RB6 Renault, Birrana 274/374, Power’s Dallara DW12 Chev, Elfin MR9 Chev, Bowin P4/6/8, Audi R8 prototype and GT3, Murphy’ Lap of The Gods VY Commodore Supercar, Richards 201 VW, Brabham BT46B Alfa Romeo fan-car, Marve’s Ford Capri RS3100, Bentley Continental GT3 and on it goes, you will have your own.

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2014 Volvo S60 Supercar

Volvo returned to racing in Australia thanks to the 2013 Car of The Future regs. In a successful partnership with Garry Rogers Motorsport from 2014, Volvo won seven races and took 17 poles.

Scott McLaughlin won a non-championship race at Albert Park, and then SC rounds at Wanneroo and Sydney and finally two races at Phillip Island in 2014, and in 2016.

2019 Ligier JS F3-S5000 V8 S5000

The great hope for single-seater nutters, this modern as tomorrow package takes the best of blood-and-thunder 5-litre V8s packaged in a carbonfibre chassis built in Europe and the US. The engineering integration of engine/gearbox, suspension and testing was done by Borlands with Tim Macrow at the wheel.

When ‘signed off’ the package was handed over to Garry Rodgers Motorsport to build.

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SUPERCARS PREVIEW

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

THE 2021 Supercars Championship is eagerly anticipated by drivers, teams and fans alike. With the three-time champion Scott McLaughlin and Team Penske now gone, the 2021 season is more open than ever says DAN McCARTHY. IT HAS been one of the strangest Supercar silly seasons in recent years, with a number of driver changes announced late.

However, the field is now set and features several very big changes, most notably at the top of the tree with the Shell V-Powered Racing Mustangs.

Since 2015 the team has been known as DJR Team Penske, and has taken the last three championships with star Kiwi Scott McLaughlin.

At the end of 2020 the legendary American outfit Team Penske departed the championship and took with it reigning champion McLaughlin to compete in IndyCar. Ahead of the 2021 season the newly renamed Dick Johnson Racing elected not to renew the services of its other driver Fabian Coulthard, and therefore goes into the 2021 season with an all-new line-up.

After 12 years away, Will Davison returns to DJR where his full-time Supercars

career began, the partnership having enjoyed success previously winning two races in 2008.

Last year Davison was set to contest the championship with 23Red Racing, however after two rounds the squad departed the series - due to the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic - leaving Davison without a drive.

Davison lined up with Cam Waters at the Bathurst 1000 last year and showed that he is still more than capable of mixing it with the front runners, if given the right equipment.

At DJR he undoubtably will, and at the age of 38 this is Davison’s best shot at a Supercars Championship aboard the famous #17 Mustang.

On the otherside of the garage, the #12 machine has been filled by rising star Anton de Pasquale, who took his maiden win in the championship for Erebus Motorsport in Darwin last year.

Jaami JJamie mie ie Whincup Whiincup starts his final full time season in 2021 (above) while Fabian Coulthard Wh has gone from the top of the pit lane to the other end, joining Team Sydney (right). David Reynolds has switched camps, joining Kelly Grove Racing from Erebus, moving from Holden to Ford (below). Images: MTR Images

This is de Pasquale’s first shot at the crown, and if he settles into the team quickly and gets on top of the package, he will be a contender.

The 25-year-old showed at Erebus Motorsport what he was capable of, and now has the chance to shine.

De Pasquale’s former teammate at Erebus Motorsport, David Reynolds, was another big mover in the off-season, shifting to the newly named Kelly Grove Racing operation.

Reynolds fills the seat vacated by retired former champion Rick Kelly, in a return to the team for which he drove in 2011.

On the other side of that garage New Zealander Andre Heimgartner continues in the #7 Mustang.

In another off-season change, the Grove family joined forces with Kelly Racing to give the squad more commercial grunt moving forwards.

This allows Kelly Racing founder and team oowner Todd Kelly to solely focus on making the ccars faster. With a year of Mustang knowledge

under its belt and new experienced engineers joining the team, watch for the KGR machines to be fighting up the front on a more regular basis in 2021.

Erebus Motorsport has enlisted youth to replace the departing de Pasquale and Reynolds.

All change at the Champion team. New - old - team name, new drivers ... Will Davison (right, with Dick Johnson) rejoins DJR while Anton DePasquale (at left, with team principal Ryan Story) arrives from Erebus Motorsport.

The Victorian squad has opted for an all-rookie line-up, promoting its two endurance co-drivers Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki to full-time roles.

With two rookies it could be expected that Erebus will fall back in the pack, however both Brown and Kostecki are Super2 Series race winners and will be keen to prove that theory wrong.

Triple Eight Race Engineering fields an unchanged line-up with reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Shane van Gisbergen and seven-time champion Jamie Whincup.

It has already been announced that 2021 will be Whincup’s final season before he retires from full-time driving and takes over as the team principal from 2022.

As well as this, established businessman and GT racer Tony Quinn has also invested heavily in the team during the off season, allowing Roland Dane to step back at year’s end.

With two new drivers at DJR, Triple Eight will see the door is ajar to take the title of Supercars drivers’ and teams’ champions back from the Ford operation.

Both Triple Eight cars will come out of the box firing, fighting up the front as they always do.

It is a given that both drivers will contend for the title, however in 2021 they will have to do it without any support from Holden.

Tickford Racing remains much the same, albeit reduced to two cars and two customer programs.

Cameron Waters will again pilot the Monster Ford Mustang and Jack Le Brocq the Truck Assist car, while James Courtney will again be in the Boost Mobile customer machine Waters goes into the season as a dark horse for the title, after an impressive run of results to end 2020. The Mildura man broke through to take his first solo Supercars victory in the penultimate race and earned pole position at the Bathurst 1000.

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Waters finished as the bridesmaid at the Bathurst 1000 and in the championship last year, and will be keen to go one better in 2021.

Both Le Brocq and Courtney will be expected to take race wins in 2021 driving the Tickford Mustangs.

Le Brocq had a breakout year in 2020, while former champion Courtney showed he still had the pace to fight up the front.

A new team joins the grid in 2021, the Blanchard Racing Team, which will run a sole Mustang for returning South Australian Tim Slade. On weekends, this entry will also run out of the Tickford garage.

Tickford was unable to secure a fourth

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Racing Entitlements Contract (REC) for season 2021, leaving Lee Holdsworth without a drive.

Walkinshaw Andretti United field a familiar line-up with Chaz Mostert and Bryce Fullwood remaining for a second season. With driver continuity and the boost of ex-Triple Eight engineer Grant McPherson, WAU will expect to take race wins this year.

The quartet of Brad Jones racing drivers also remains unchanged, Nick Percat, Todd Hazelwood, Macauley Jones and Jack Smith.

Percat and Hazelwood had their strongest Supercar seasons to date last year and should be contenders for race wins again in 2021.

With no driver changes in the operation, BJR is hoping that continuity is king.

Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye remain at Team 18 after the squad’s breakout year in 2020. In the off season Team 18 bolstered its crew further by signing highly regarded engineer Richard Holloway, the squad aiming for its first win in 2021.

Discarded DJR driver Coulthard has landed a spot at Team Sydney for 2021 alongside Matt Stone Racing refugee Garry Jacobson.

And at Matt Stone Racing the two part-time Superlite entrants from 2020, Zane Goddard and Jake Kostecki, have been rewarded with full-time gigs for this season.

Team Tim ... Tim Slade rejoins the Supercar field, driving for the new Team CoolDrive operation headed by team principal Tim Blanchard. The entry will pit as part of the Tickford team.

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In the biggest surprise of the engineer silly season, Grant McPherson (here) has departed Tripe Eight Race Engineering for Walkinshaw Andretti United. New DJR driver Will Davison (below) debriefs with new car #17 engineer, Richard Harris. Images: MTR Images

SUPERCARS PREVIEW

ENGINEERING SHAKE-UP AN ENGINEER silly season was the biggest surprise of the offseason, with a number of engineers switching squads up and down the lane.

As well as his role as competition director at Dick Johnson Racing, the charismatic Frenchman Ludo Lacroix will become chief race engineer for Anton de Pasquale on the #12 machine.

In recent years Lacroix has been heavily involved with the #17 Mustang, which will now be engineered by Richard Harris.

One garage down at Triple Eight Race Engineering, reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Shane van Gisbergen will have a new engineer after Grant McPherson departed the team to join Walkinshaw Andretti United.

Van Gisbergen takes his teammate Jamie Whincup’s long-time engineer David Cauchi, while in Whincup’s final campaign he will have ex-Matt Stone Racing engineer Wes McDougall.

It was an exodus at Erebus Motorsport ,both drivers and lead engineers departed the team.

Both Reynolds and his Bathurst 1000 winning engineer Alistair McVean have instead met up at Kelly Grove Racing,

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while Mirko de Rosa has joined the new Blanchard Racing Team.

With McVean joining Kelly Racing, George Commins has moved to Erebus, effectively a straight swap. Commins jumps onto the #99 machine, while Tom Moore steps up as a full-time race engineer for Will Brown.

At Tickford Racing the successful partnership of Cameron Waters and race engineer Sam Potter remains intact.

Jack le Brocq’s engineer for much of last season, Brad Wischusen, moves to the James Courtney Mustang.

That’s because his engineer Brendan Hogan has departed to join the new Blanchard Racing Team as team manager.

Le Brocq will this year be joined by Sam Scaffidi, who engineered Lee Holdsworth throughout 2020.

Walkinshaw Andretti United will be boosted by the addition of McPherson, who’ll serve as the engineer to Bryce Fullwood, while long-time pairing Chaz Mostert and Adam de Borre continue their partnership.

Team 18 has signed up highly regarded engineer Richard Hollway, back into

Supercars after he left the category with Garry Rogers Motorsport’s departure.

Hollway will work with Mark Winterbottom while Phil Keed continues with Scott Pye. Matt Stone Racing has had to fill the void created by McDougall’s departure to Triple Eight, so Jack Belloti steps up from the role of #34 data engineer to Zane

Goddard’s race engineer on the #35 machine. In 2020 Tim Newton engineered the MSR Superlite entry and will remain on car #34.

Gun engineer Geoff Slater re-joins Jonathon Webb’s Supercars team (Team Sydney) after two years working for the factory BMW team in the IMSA Sportscar Championship.

Dan McCarthy

CAM WATERS GIVES HIS VIEWS TICKFORD RACING hot shot Cameron Waters ended last year’s Supercars Championship in a career high second position, after finishing as the runner-up in the Bathurst 1000.

After finishing the 2020 season with a flourish, taking his maiden solo race victory at The Bend Motorsport Park and earning pole position for the Bathurst 1000, Waters will undoubtedly be a title contender this year.

And with the absence of IndyCar bound Scott McLaughlin, Waters goes into the 2021 Supercars Championship as the driver who finished highest last year.

Waters opened up on who he feels will be his biggest title challengers this year.

“The two Triple Eight cars (Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen), you can never count them out,” Waters told AA. “I think Chaz Mostert will be competitive this year with a year under his belt at Walkinshaw Andretti United.

“The Dick Johnson Racing cars, I am a little unsure how they will go, they

will still be competitive throughout the year. But I’m not sure if it will take them a little while to get up to speed or not, but they’ll definitely be competitive.

“It’ll be the same cars at the front (as in 2020), but I’m predicting that it is going to be tighter than ever amongst us (the drivers mentioned above) and a few others will be thrown in there as well.”

Like many of the front runners last Image: LAT season, Waters was not a fan of the along with the remote access of in-car mixed tyre format and is pleased to data, is a move in the right direction for see each round revert to a single tyre the sport. compound.

“I think one tyre rule is better for the “I think some of the stuff they have category, I wasn’t a fan of the mixed tyre banned is good, such as the banning races last year,” he said. of all the remote data channels and the “You’d end up going into races just complicated maths stuff that we had in the fighting them off, I didn’t really feel like dashes to help drivers stay on top of their that’s what the sport should be about, cars,” he explained. but we trialled it and it was what it was.

Waters further elaborated on what he “I’m excited just to be going back to told AA in the last issue, that it could pose more of a normal format.” a disadvantage to the rookies, and he Waters believes that the banning of inbelieves that it could spread the field out car aids such as advanced lock up lights rather than close everyone up.

“Some of the stuff they have taken away is only going to make it harder for the young guys, because we probably know how to drive the cars and what that feeling is,” he explained.

“The lights (on the dash) for us weren’t really doing a great deal, but the younger guys coming into the category, they would probably rely on that a little bit more.

“In some ways it is going to help and then in other ways I think it’s actually going to make the racing harder for the young guys, which might make a bigger divide across the field.” Dan McCarthy

THE SUPERCARS TV TEAM THE SUPERCARS Championship TV team has been finalised at last and will see a mix of familiar faces return alongside a batch of new presenters.

For a sixth straight year, the commentary team will be led by ‘The voice of Supercars’ Neil Crompton and five-time champion Mark Skaife.

A new addition for 2021 is reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander, the 2007 Supercars champion joining the TV team effectively replacing New Zealand resident Greg Murphy.

This will see Tander take the role of expert Super2 commentator and Supercars pit lane reporter, however Supercars’ general manager of television and content Nathan Prendergast confirmed that he will replace Skaife at selected round.

“Later on in the year at appropriate and scheduled events, Garth will get some seat time in the main commentary role,” Prendergast told selected media including Auto Action.

“We’ll do a schedule thing like the cricket where

we we’ll remove Mark Skaife for a bit of time and put Garth in, to give him a bit of a run in the main commentary role as well.

“His key role is pit lane and supports commentary, and it’s a bit of a growth and development role for him in 2021.”

The heavily pregnant Jess Yates will host the Supercars Championship on Fox Sports, however she is likely to miss the Symmons Plains and The Bend rounds when she is due to give birth.

Popular pit lane larrikin Mark Larkham has been brought back by fan demand after he was initially dropped from the TV team during the off season.

Larkham will return in a similar capacity, albeit with a bit more focus on digital content.

“Larko’ is starting to embrace other avenues of the broadcast, so we are getting Larko more heavily involved with our digital department and our digital outputs,” he said.

“Plus we’re also going to still give him all

the tools to be in the tech centre, the touchscreen, all the great stories he delivers.”

Craig Lowndes returns to his familiar position in the Fox Box as the expert analyst, but also delve into the archive to produce some in depth track previews.

Popular support category commentator Chad Neylon will continue his role in 2021 and in selected Supercars Image: Ross Gibb sessions Neylon will be parading pit lane.

Mark Beretta returns A couple of ladies join the team in pit lane this to the coverage as a pit lane reporter, as he did year, TV personality Charli Robinson and former from 2007-2014 when Supercars was on Seven Australian Rally champion Molly Taylor. previously.

At this stage Taylor is only scheduled to do For the opening round, the Bathurst 500, Seven both Bathurst events due to her Extreme E commitments overseas. will produce some of its own content, which Four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy will feature its personality Abbey Gelmi, former will be called upon to cover the Bathurst 1000 Australian cricketer Brad Hodge, and Gold Coast and New Zealand events.Sunrise Sports reporter 600 winner Jack Perkins. Dan McCarthy

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DAYTONA 500

DAYTONA DERBY

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: LAT

AS ALWAYS, the Daytona 500 threw up plenty of shocks and surprises, but rising above all the chaos unscathed was 36 year-old Michael McDowell, who won the 63rd edition of the legendary American race.

The 2021 Daytona 500 notably featured two substantial multicar pileups and was delayed for over five hours due to severe thunderstorms.

The race finished in foggy conditions in the early hours of Monday morning and went down to the wire, as always.

McDowell survived the chaos to take not only his first Daytona 500 win but also take his first ever Cup Series victory.

After 358 starts in all NASCAR competitions, McDowell goes to second on the all-time list of most career starts before taking a victory.

McDowell also became the eighth driver to score his maiden Cup Series victory in the legendary Daytona 500.

“I can’t believe it,” McDowell said.

“So many years of just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I’ve got to thank (team owner) Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I’m so thankful.

“What a great way to get a first victory — in the Daytona 500!”

As always, the race was decided in the final seconds.

With just half a lap remaining Joey Logano led from his experienced Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski,

82 AutoAction

however neither would cross the finish line. McDowell sat in third position, hot on the heels of the two Team Penske Mustangs.

With the help of reigning champion Chase Elliott, McDowell got a

substantial tow and good run on the leading pair. On the back straight he caught Keselowski and nudged him in the rear, pushing Keselowski towards Logano.

Logano made a late defensive move

on the approach to Turn 3 and was tapped by Keselowski, who already had a slight overlap, resulting in both Team Penske cars spinning out.

Keselowski spun into the outside wall before being heavily hit by Kyle Busch, the imapact seeing flames ignite before bothy were collected by several others including Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace and Cole Custer.

Logano spun to the inside through the grass and re-entered the circuit at Turn 3, taking out several other competitors.

“I had a big run down the back stretch, went to make the pass to win the Daytona 500 and it ended up really bad,” Keselowski recalled.

“I don’t feel I made a mistake but I can’t drive everyone else’s car. So frustrating, my Ford was not the fastest car but my team did a great job to keep us in position.

“We were in position, that’s exactly where I wanted to be, running second on the last lap of Daytona, had the run, made the move, and it didn’t work out.”

Logano also put the spectacular shunt down as a racing incident.

“Chaos struck,” he said. “I guess it ended up (with them having) a really big run coming at me, me and Brad collided, a real bummer none of the Penske cars won, but at least a Ford won.”

Through it all, McDowell kept his car facing in the right direction and was out in front when the yellow flag was flown.

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Michael McDowell (opposite page) made his own bit of history, winning his first-ever NASCAR race (after 358 starts) and the first for the front Row Motorsports team. His Daytona 500 victory came after he avoided the last lap carnage (above) which took out many pre-race favourites, including Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace (below).

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This meant that McDowell earnt his first race win and also delivered Front Row Motorsports its maiden Cup Series victory.

Elliott kept his nose clean and came home second ahead of Austin Dillon in the #3 machine made famous by the legendary Dale Earnhardt, who had died in this race 20 years earlier.

Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick finished fourth ahead of Denny Hamlin, who was trying to win an unprecedented third straight Daytona 500.

Hamlin dominated the race leading 98 of the 200 laps and also won both the first and second stages, but victory proved to be just out of his grasp.

Ryan Preece finished the race in sixth ahead of Ross Chastain, Jamie McMurray and Corey Lajoie.

Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10, marking the 28-year-old’s NASCAR Cup Series return after he was banned last year for an alleged racist slur.

Early on in the race a massive accident took

out 10 of the 40 drivers in a 16-car crash, the multi-car wreck resulting in a red flag as marshals had to rclean up the debris.

Ryan Newman, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and pole sitter Alex Bowman were several contenders wiped out, while William Byron, Kurt Busch, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray and Matt DiBenedetto all suffered substantial damage.

Just moments after the race was halted, thunderstorms swept across the circuit and remained around the venue for many hours.

Five hours and 40 minutes after the race was originally red flagged for the crash, the action on track got back underway and led to the early Monday morning finish.

In the lead up to the Daytona 500, Busch won the ironically sponsored Busch Clash, while Aric Almirola won the first duel and Dillon the second.

The second round of the NASCAR Cup Series on the Daytona road course will be covered in the next issue of Auto Action.

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Defending Champion Chase Elliot (#9) was second in the end while Danny Hamlin (#11), shooting for a record threestraight Daytona 500 victories dominated the race but ultimately finished fifth.

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p ra w S L A N NATIO BIG FIELDS, BONKERS RACING Report DAN MCCARTHY Images: REBECCA HIND

Historic Touring Cars

AFTER WINNING the opening two races Andrew Lane looked set to make it three from three, however a mechanical issue saw him slide down the order. This enabled Andrew Clempson to not only pinch the race win but the round, John Mann came home second overall ahead of Lane.

AFTER A 12-month absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships returned with over 300 cars entered for the opening round of the 2021 season at Sandown International Raceway.

Hyundai Excels

AS ALWAYS, the 40 plus Excels put on a hell of a show with three action packed and chaotic affairs. Ben Grice crossed the line first in all three races, however two post-race penalties meant that the secondgeneration racer won just one event. This was Saturday’s eight lap encounter in which he took victory by 1s from Nathan Blight and Adam Bywater. Sunday proved not so successful, Race 2 saw the first of Grice’s post-race penalties applied and allowed Blight to take the win from Bywater and Marcus Fraser. The third and final race was more like a demolition derby with several smashes most notably when Kobi Williams was flung up onto two wheels in the midst of a multi-car collision. Through the mayhem Grice climbed from 11th to greet the chequered flag first, before he was handed yet another post-race penalty.

Blight took the final race and round ahead of Fraser and Peter van Waart.

Formula Ford

TOM SARGENT got his Formula Ford title aspirations off to the best possible start by taking victory in all three races. Sargent was that little bit quicker than his rivals over the course of the weekend and was further aided when several of his closest opponents collided at Turn 1 in the third race. Mitchell Gatenby, Fletcher Harris and Winston Smith came to blows, but out of the trio it was only Smith who was unable to continue. Jordyn Sinni stayed out of the mayhem and finished the weekend second overall with Conor Somers in third. Harris salvaged seventh in Race 3 and fourth for the round, with Gatenby in fifth. Brendan Jones won the 1600cc class after winning the trio of races.

Sports Sedans

THE INCREDIBLY popular Sports Sedans

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MGs & Invited British Sports Cars Daniel Tamasi leads the Sports Sedans away, winning all three races (top), while Cameron Hill dominated the Sports Car field in his Carrera Cup Porsche (above). Tom Sargent won everything in Formula Ford (below), as well.

PHILIP CHESTER took the honours in the MG & Invited British Sports Cars category, after taking out all three races. Ben Muller challenged in the first two events but did not start the final race, this allowed James Roberton to finish the round in second from Anthony Vollebregt.

HQs

THE EVER-POPULAR Holden HQs returned with an impressive 19 car field at Sandown Raceway. Rod Raatjes won the round after a typical HQ battle ensued in Race 3, eventually pipping Andrew Magilton to the line by 0.09s. Perry Bekkers finished second for the round with Magilton in third.

Formula Vees

delivered some exciting races at the home of horsepower, Sandown. Daniel Tamasi won all three races but was pushed all weekend. Tamasi beat Dean Camm to the line by just 0.38s in the opener and again by 2s in the second encounter, which was red flagged early as multiple cars were stranded around the circuit. However, the Camm Corvette did not line-up for the final race. Michael Robinson remained within touching distance of Tamasi for much of the affair but fell away in the closing laps, finishing 4.4s back. Overall Tamasi won the round from Robinson and Allen Nash, with Camm sixth.

charge of Poole. Lloyd finished second in Race 3 and for the weekend, with Paul Cruise in his Nissan S13 rounding out the event podium. Race 1 winner Ashley Wright could not continue that good form and did not make the start of the final race.

IN THE 15 car Saloon Car field, half a dozen drivers had the pace to win the round. In the end that honour went to Travis Linforff in his VY Commodore after he took two wins. Adam Lowndes took the victory in Race 2 and second for the round ahead of Daniel Johnson.

Porsche 944s

Improved Production

Sports Cars

BMW E30s

IT WAS a near perfect weekend for Adam Poole in his Holden Monaro. After finishing second in the first affair, Poole would go on to win the final two races and round. In the final race Troy Lloyd in his VN Commodore made the jump and led the opening laps, however his was powerless to stop the

Saloon Cars

CANBERRA NATIVE Cameron Hill won both Sports Car races, the short race on Saturday and the 40-minute feature race on Sunday. Hill turned up in his Carrera Cup machine and was the man to beat all weekend, Benjamin Schoots finished second overall ahead of Marc Cini.

IT WAS A duel between Super3 driver Reef McCarthy and the #1 machine of Jake Rowe in Formula Vee. The biggest winning margin all weekend was 0.4s, however much to Rowe’s frustration he was on the wrong end of the result each time. A lonely Heath Collinson was third for the round.

JAMES WESTWAY was unstoppable in the opening round of the Porsche 944s.

Westaway took all three wins ahead of reigning champion Cameron Beller. Behind them John Kennedy rounded out the podium in all three races.

ALEX JORY dominated all three races BMW E30 races while the fight for second was hotly contested. Simon Leach just edged out Geoffery Bowles in the opening two races. However, the final race of the weekend was red flagged after Jessica Bell rolled multiple times at Turn 1.

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HEAFEY/WILLIAMS HOLD SWAY

IN THE absence of their two main rivals, Phil Heafey and Josh Williams took full advantage to win round four of Whiteline Suspension Twilight Tarmac Rallysprint at Sydney Dragway on February 11.

Jamal Assad and David Isaacs were missing after gearbox and Image: Bruce Moxon engine failures in their Mitsubishi EVOs at the last event, making Heafey and Williams (EVO 6) unbackable favourites possibly due to a differential issue, and fired off, unless there was a surprise. through a cyclone-wire fence and the car landed in That surprise might have happened, as Heafey a pile of woodchips which were destined to be used had a repeat of the momentary computer drama for landscaping. from the last event. The car’s ignition stopped for Some of the dust from the chips settled on top about 20s before restarting. But they were the of the engine and caught fire. The Marlins would fastest on the first three runs, from Josh and Matt be back, but there were repairs to do first. They Redhead (EVO 5) by 8.3s. completed runs four to six and were sixth, second For this event, the course was shortened as further and third for an eventually third.

Best of the 2WD was Robert and Sascha work proceeded on the Sydney Speedway and the organisers, North Shore Sporting Car Club, only had Kolimackovsky (Honda Integra) with fourth overall access to the car park area. The length was down ahead of the 4WDs of Stephen and Kirs Muller (VW to 1.5km, entry fees were discounted, and an extra Golf R) and Tim and Robert Blake (WRX). timed run allowed, with still the best three to count.

Seventh of the 41 entries were Michael and Sean Any challenge to Heafey might well have come Graham (EVO 8) in front of Brett and Tyler Stephens (Lotus Exige) who were second in 2WD. from Stephen and Alex Marlin (EVO 9), but they had a major understeer at the end of a fast section, Bruce Moxon

WILSON AND CAMERON THREEPEAT FOR THE third time straight, Troy Wilson and Toni Cameron took victory in the Shannons Targa Rallysprint, when they demolished the opposition at Perth Motorplex’s round four on February 11.

The pair took their Open 4WD Class Mitsubishi EVO X to a resounding 23.44s Image: CMR Photographics win over the four timed runs on the 3.39km clockwise Perth Motorplex layout.

Matt Marai (WRX), 2WD U2.0-Lt winners Foky Fok They finished ahead of round one victors and and Long Hin Lai (Honda Integra), Matt Palmer and class rivals Matt James-Wallace and Ben Tuck in Tuck (backing up as navigator in Palmer’s EVO 7), their Nissan Skyline GT-R R32, their second place and Burke Austin and Bram Biesiekierski (WRX) their third in row. who finished 10th.

Third another 11.17s away were Brett Morse and Rodney Ng in their Cup 2WD over 2.0-litre BMW The organisers were able to proceed, provided they M2 Competition. They were in a tight tussle for final followed the strict Covid restrictions put in place. podium place with eventual fourth Neil and Jensen The total number of people allowed at the venue was Herbert (Subaru Impreza WRX) whom they edged 150 which included a maximum of 65 entries, with out by 0.11s. one driver and one co-driver. No service crew or The two teams together with Jurgen and Helen spectators were allowed and only 20 officials.

Lunsmann in their 4WD O2.0Lt Tesla Model 3 Other class winners were Ben Pang/Brandon Performance+ each posted third fastest times over (Honda Civic) in 2WD U2.0-Lt, and Max and Barry the first three runs, with the Lunsmann another Whiting (WRX) in 4WD U3.5-Lt. Gravel went to 1.16s away in fifth place overall in the end.

Michael Rowston/David Moyle (WRX) and Open Less than 2s away in sixth were Cody Harris and 2WD O2.0-Lt was taken out by Bryce Moore/Mark Tim Hiles (EVO 8MR), clear of Nathon McLaren and Cirillo (BMW E30 M3). Garry O’Brien

NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

TODD HERRING became just the second to single handedly drive to victory, when he won the 14th running of the Wakefield 300 last Sunday.

Despite a troublesome back with a disc ailment, Herring opted not to hand over to co-driver Verne Johnson at either of the two mandatory pitstops and steered his Mazda MX5 to victory single-handedly by 55.5s after 300km and 137 laps of the Wakefield Park circuit.

“In the car the pain was less as you are really concentrating on racing,” he said. “Much easier than walking!”

Second place went to Division A rivals Benny Tran and Matt Longhurst (Honda Integra), while third place and one lap back was Jason Miller in his Division B Mitsubishi EVO 9.

Despite two safety car periods, the race time of 2hrs 42mins 50s was a new record. Of the 34 starters there were an even dozen that did not finish.

Herring led from the outset and until the first safety car on lap 24, just three laps after the opening of the CPS window. He was one of just a few who undertook their first of two (Div A) mandatory stops – the other four divisions, based on lap times, had just the one.

Tran led from there until lap 80, when he handed over to Longhurst. Herring regained the lead for 10 laps until his second stop.

Longhurst performed his second stop on lap 112 and remained the leader until a broken driveshaft slowed the car in the latter stages.

Fourth and second in Div B were Daniel Kapetanovic and Angus Thompson (BMW 328i) despite a drive-through penalty for a pitstop violation. They finished ahead of 2020 outright winner Terry Denovan (Div B Holden Commodore) who snared fifth at the end of the last lap.

Denovan denied Gerry and Leigh Burges (Div B EVO 5) of third in class by 0.08s. Next were Tim Herring (Div B MX5) and Lloyd Godfrey/ Josh Buchan (Div A Integra). Ninth across the line were Tony and Troy Heasly (Div D Commodore), despite an extra ‘system check’ stop to check for overheating.

Tenth went to Class C winners Charly Viola and Ben Hanrahan (Integra), even though they caused the second safety car when towed in after running out of fuel. The were one place ahead of their class opposition, the Peugeot 206 piloted by Angus Lithgow and Perry Anastakis.

Anastakis is the only driver to compete in every 300, and he has finished all but one.

Prominent in the early outright contest but then falling by the wayside were Greg Doyle (Nissan Skyline GTR) with a rear trailing arm breakage, and the Anthony Soole/Dylan Thomas (BMW M4), with two punctures and contact with lapped car that damaged a steering arm.

It was worse for Matt O’Brien/Arthur Tsovolos (Div B Commodore) with a throttle cable issues as the race started and subsequent fuel pump dramas.

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SINGLE-HAND HERRING WINS WAKEFIELD 300 Green, Longmore, Shannon Williams, and Brian Sciberras.

It was similarly so in the last – until the penalty was applied. Therefore it was Bruest from Hodges and Burcher, with Green fourth from Field and Longmore.

VELOCE ALFAS

MRF TYRES PULSARS

A SECOND and two wins gave Tim Colombrita his second round victory. Josh Haynes qualified fastest and won the opener but had no answer to Colombrita in the remaining races. Third in each race was Will Foot, who took the fight to Haynes in the latter two for a period.

Four races were to be contested but race three was abandoned on the second lap due to a timing failure. Luke Eberhart finished fourth in race one, as he held off Gavan Reynold, while Dan Smith won his scrap with Harry Inwood for sixth.

Eberhart was a close fourth in race two, ahead of Inwood, Gavan Reynolds, Shane Tate and Ben Sheedy, but could not hold off Reynolds in the last and lost out for fourth by 0.2s. Tate was next ahead of Smith with a gap to Tom Khouri and Ben Sheedy.

X3 SERIES EXCELS

THREE TIMES Cody Burcher was first across the line but only held onto two race wins as he copped a 5s penalty for creeping at the start in the last.

A transponder glitch meant Michael Hodge was hand timed and his initial pole was denied.

Paul Quinn was placed on pole but did not start. Sam Christison was on the front row on his own for race one, but Will Longmore off the second row was the initial leader before Christison went ahead for a resounding win over Burcher, Longmore, Preston Breust and Jeremy Hodges.

Burcher won the start of race two and led all the way. Christison was second until a slip up relegated him to the bottom of the top 10 and left Breust second ahead of Hodges, Harri Field and Longmore. Burcher had to fend off Breust all through race three as they left Hodges in their wake. Field was next just in front of Scott

POOR STARTS were the story of fastest qualifier Alfio Musumeci and his Alfa 2.0-litre factory turbo. It was his son Michael in his GT 3.2-lt V6 who nailed everyone perfectly for four race victories. In race one Simon Greirson was third but when his GTV6 spat a driveshaft in race two, it left Mark Baggetto (147 GTA Busso V6) with three thirds after an initial fourth.

Carmelo Baggetto (GTV V6) was fifth in race one and followed up with a pair of fourths before a DNF in the last. Best of the rest which were Group E Production Cars running the Twin Spark Cup and Andrew Wilson scored three triumphs over Peter Tillett, who did topple Wilson in race three.

LEGEND CARS

OVER FIVE races Lachlan Ward was unbeatable in four to take both rounds (one per day). He qualified fastest and won both Saturday outings ahead of Josh Hourigan. Shane Tate was third in both while Dylan Thomas was fourth in the first but a DNF in the second, when the oil filter seal failed and the engine dumped it load at Turn 10 Ward came through the field to win the Sunday opener, the reverse grid race, ahead of Hourigan and Brandon Hourigan pipped Tate for third on the final lap. It was a similar tale in the fourth before Josh Hourigan maintained the lead over Ward and Tate in the last, until the race was red flagged. Richard Mork and Brett Francis crashed out of Turn 10 where Francis’ car somersaulted through the air before it landed upright. GOB

FISH, PARSONS FATHER & SON DUO INDUCTED

Images: Wishart Media

LILLEE, WITH GLENNEY, BOWLS THEM OVER

AT HIS first attempt, and together with the experienced co-driver Steve Glenney, Dean Lillee comprehensively won the Targa High Country on February 5-7.

In their Early Modern 4 Mitsubishi EVO X, Lillee/Glenney won all three sections and were quickest of the 61 entries over 12 of the 16 stages.

They headed second placed Tony Quinn and Kate Catford (GT Outright Class Nissan Skyline GT-R) by 2mins 27s, as Liam and Larry Howarth (EM4 GT-R V-Spec) finished third another 27s away.

Based at the popular ski resort at Mt Buller, competition took in the districts of the Eildon, King Valley, and Mansfield, before finishing with a street stage in Mansfield.

Targa High Country started in heavy rain with Lillie/Glenney winning leg one over Geoff and Toni Hewitt (EM4 GT-R) and the Howarths. Then came Quinn/Catford ahead of Tom Monaghan and Alan Stephensen (GT Production Subaru Impreza WRS) and class rivals Barry Smith and Dale Moscatt (Audi TTRS), who were equal sixth.

In seventh were Luke Anear and Andy Sarandis as they came to grips with their GTO Mercedes GTR which did not take long, for they were second on the leg two.

Anear and Sarandis won three of the eight

stages but with the remainder taken out by Lillee/Glenney, the lead margin was extended from 28s to over a minute. The Howarths were third for the day ahead of Quinn/Catford and Monaghan/Stephensen, and the Hewitts.

A strong leg three from Quinn/Catford where they finished second, elevated them to second overall. Anear and Sarandis were delayed with a front tyre puncture which dropped them to sixth in the end, behind the Hewitts and Monaghan/Stephensen, who won GT Production.

Seventh overall were Smith/Moscatt in front of Mark Cates and Bernie Webb (GTO Porsche 911 GT3 RS), and Josh Hilton and Rod Vanderpoel (GTO Lotus Exige Sport 410). Tenth

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spot went to Adam Spence and Lee ChallonerMiles in their Early Modern 2 BMW M3 CSL. Placed inside the top 10 over the first two days were Classic GT leader Adam Kaplan and Aleshia Penney until a broken throttle on the stage 12. That relegated them to second behind Roger Lomman and Anne Bainbridge in their Datsun 240Z. Simon Trude and Dion Morrison headed a Lotus one-two-three in GT Sports Trophy, and Peter Gluskie and Samantha Winter (BMW 325i) took out Classic Handicap.

The Trophy winners were Brett Dillon and Geoff Corah (Alfa 105) in Thoroughbred and Neville Emond and Stephen Jones (Volvo 850R) in TSD. GOB

MICHELLE FISH was inducted into the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame, alongside father-son duo Graham and David ‘Skippy’ Parsons.

Fish passed away in January after a battle with cancer, but was aware of her induction and was thrilled with the honour.

She was the first woman to qualify on the front row for any state circuit racing championship, was named Tasmanian Circuit Racing Driver of the Year in 1990 and 1991, and had held the Formula Vee lap records at Baskerville and Symmons Plains.

In 1994 Fish won the Tasmanian Formula Vee Championship.

Graham Parsons started circuit racing in 1964 and over a short 13-year career took on, and occasionally beat, some of the best drivers in Australia.

In the early 1970s he raced a Holden Torana XU-1 and then a Torana SLR5000 L34, and regularly competed in rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship with a number of top 10 finishes at Symmons Plains, Sandown, Calder, and Winton.

Parsons eventually hung up his helmet in 1977 and handed his L34 to his up and coming son David.

David started his racing on two wheels and was a ninetime Tasmanian motorcycle trials champion and competed in several Australian championships.

Transitioning to four wheels in the late 1970s, Parsons set a course record at the Highclere Hillclimb which stood for many years.

After mixed success, he upgraded to a Holden Commodore in 1982 and finished 12th in the Australian Touring Car Championship and was named Rookie of the Year.

He went on to race with Peter Janson in a Commodore at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, finishing fourth on debut at Mount Panorama.

In 1984 Parsons Jr was recruited by Peter Brock to join the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team and finished second alongside John Harvey in the team’s famous 1-2 at bathurst that year.

Parsons became a hired gun, driving for Perkins Engineering, Glenn Seton Racing, Gibson Motorsport and Romano Racing up until 2000.

His biggest success came in 1987 when he won the Bathurst 1000, co-driving with Brock and Peter McLeod.

In all, David Parsons made 18 consecutive starts in the Great Race.

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87

s w e n Y A SPEED

JOCK GOODYER DOMINATES ECL SPRINTCAR SERIES – ROUND 7

Report: Paris Charles BRISBANE’S ARCHERFIELD Speedway blasted back into action for Round 7 of the East Coast Logistics Sprintcar Series.

From the 33 drivers to take to the track it was Jock Goodyer, the young Tasmanian who had travelled the furthest to be there, who found the shortest way to the finish line and clean swept the night winning all his events.

After Time Trialing third quickest overall behind Luke Oldfield and Aaron Kelly, Goodyer would go on to win both of his heat races followed by claiming the quickest time in the Gold Dash to place his DB Goodyer Developments/Komatsu T22 on pole position for the 30-lap main event.

Sharing the front row was second generation Queenslander Randy Morgan, who had blitzed earlier in the night aboard the family-owned Morgan Metal Corp Q54 to win both the Bronze and Silver Shootouts.

Cody Maroske and Luke Oldfield

Lachlan McHugh (above) was in form but no match for Jock Goodyer (right), the Tasmainan winning everything he started. Images: Ray Ritter/KNJ Photography

settled in on the second row for the main.

At the drop of the green Goodyer pounced to the lead the 19-car field away, while the trio of Morgan, Maroske and Oldfield battled in close quarters with Maroske getting the upper hand as he settled into second.

Holding down fourth was the in-form Lachlan McHugh, who was on a mission to push forward shooting to claim his fifth victory in the series to date. Aaron Kelly and Allan Woods occupied fifth and sixth.

Before too long McHugh would challenge Oldfield and the race would be halted under a red-light stoppage, as Oldfield’s Q17 Advance Mobility entry ended upside down while McHugh was sent to the rear for the restart, after being deemed the cause.

By the halfway mark of the event we would see another three yellow light caution stoppages.

One of these incidents occurred at the restart on lap 10. With the field bunched up at the start Dylan Menz got into the back of Dan Murray which set off a chain reaction through the field, ending with Brad Ayers getting into the back of NQ7 Hi Tec Oils Cool of Lachlan McHugh.

Ayers exited the race while McHugh’s night ended with a flat right rear tyre.

The second half of the race would see only one caution period triggered in unusual circumstances, when on lap-27 Brent Kratzmann spun the Q2 entry but managed to keep the car moving.

However, the caution lights were brought on and Kratzmann retired to the infield being deemed to have caused his

second stoppage of the race.

With only three laps remaining Goodyer, Maroske and Morgan continued their dominance at the pointy end of the field and this order would remain unchanged as they greeted the chequered flag.

Woods had battled his way forward over the journey to finish a close fourth place while Dylan Menz also impressed with a fast car in the later stages, to pass the well-presented green Raw Metal Corp Q7 J&J of Aaron Kelly to round out the top five.

Seventh home was Andrew Corbet followed by Adam Butler, the veteran Darren Jensen who had won the earlier last chance B-Main aboard his Q75, and Tim Farrell who had also transferred from the B rounded out the top 10.

Callum Walker, Ben Hilder and Dan Murray rounded out the 13 finishers to go the distance.

Heat race victories went to: Jock Goodyer (x2) Andrew Corbert, Lachlan McHugh, Dylan Menz and Andrew Baumber.

MICK NICOLA JR: THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS Report: Paris Charles VICTORIA’S MICK Nicola Jr claimed the 2021 South Australian Super Sedan Championship at the Sunline Speedway, Waikerie.

However, the race began even before he and team left their workshop to head to South Australia, as they just snuck in from Victoria before the sudden midnight border shutdown between the two states after COVID restrictions were enforced.

With 11 entries for the event, the numbers may have been down on recent years but the quality of the field was top shelf, with some of South Australia’s best ready for action against the locals.

The three heat races proved to be a heavy hitting affair with multiple crashes which curtailed the chances of top contenders in Steve Schwarz, Paul Blenkiron and Michael Brown, who had ventured from the regional city of Whyalla.

Kym Jury, Mick Nicola Snr and Ryan Alexander would claim wins, but it would be Nicola Jr who headed the pointscore to claim pole position.

His father gridded up alongside for a Nicola lockout on the front row for the feature.

As the championship feature event launched the Nicola cars ran first and second with Snr leading Jr for approximately the first third of the 30lap journey.

Alexander and Jury followed in

88 AutoAction

Mick Nicola Jr not only had to contend with on-track challenges during the South Australia Super Sedan Championship but also the Victorian border closure. Images: Ray Ritter/KNJ Photography

close pursuit. With nothing much on offer Alexander ventured the SA47 National Karate entry to the top side, but unfortunately for Alexander his attempt failed and Jury dived to the bottom and slipped comfortably into third.

Jury and Alexander each successfully passed Mick Nicola Snr as they set about trying to chase down Jr, the new leader.

Sadly for Alexander his entry started to sound off-song and two short circulations later he retired to the infield. This allowed second generation racer Kym Leyson the opportunity to advance the Competition Automotive Centre SA34 to fourth and

repay his hard-working team with its best result of the season.

Nicola Junior would go on to claim the victory, chalking up the South Australian Championship.

The Dahlsens V23 Sweet headed home journeyman Jury aboard the Liquid Waste S93 Dominator, with Mick Nicola Snr and Kym Leyson next.

The only two other competitors to go the distance were S58 Neville Nitschke and rookie driver Sarah Pope, who finished four laps down on the winner aboard the second of the Jury Liquid Waste entries.

Image: Paris Ch arles

2021 360 Sprintcar Championship Rescheduled Report: Paris Charles

RODRIGUEZ CLAIMS MAIDEN VICTORIAN GRAND PRIX MIDGET CHAMPIONSHIP Report: Paris Charles THE VICTORIAN Grand Prix Midget Club successfully started its season with a bang at Wangaratta City Raceway, as a field of 15 assembled for the running of the Rod Quarrell Victorian Grand Prix Midget title.

It saw Louis Rodriguez claim his first-ever Victorian title in GP Midgets, after a heartbreak failure stopped top qualifier Janelle Saville in her tracks at the startline of the feature race.

With six heat races held, the crowd was treated to sensational racing from Saville, Rodriguez, Gary Bowyer and Wangaratta local Chris Carr in particular, before a race long battle between Rodriguez and Gary Bowyer for the title.

The 20-lap title race had been all set with Saville on pole position with Rodriguez alongside.

Bowyer and Carr were on row two while Fowler, Alex Myers, Shawn Ward, Mark Blackeby, Brown, Jack Ward and Matt Kamolins had all secured their spots in the title race too.

David Bacon could not race due to engine injector issues.

As the green flag dropped Saville’s car did not take off, and

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rolled towards the start line and into the infield with a broken accelerator cable.

It was absolute devastation for Saville, who had been presented with a tremendous opportunity to secure a state title victory, now snatched from her grasp.

This also set the pattern for the race as Fowler, Kamolins, Myers

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and Ward would all fail to go the distance.

Rodriguez led all the way with Bowyer trying everything possible to claim the lead but, in the end, he would have to settle for the second placed trophy.

Myers and Brown rounded out the podium with Blackeby and Ward in the top half dozen finishers.

ONCE AGAIN the unpredictability of the COVID 19 pandemic has struck the Sprintcar racing community.

The running of the 17th Australian 360 Sprintcar Championship slated for the 2021 season at the Murray Machining & Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway, has been postponed due to the uncertainty of state border closures and the on-going emergency lockdowns.

After lengthy discussions between the South Australian host venue and the Sprintcar Control Council of Australia, both parties believe that the decision to move the event to 25/26 March 2022 is in the best interests of teams, officials and fans, all of whom maybe travelling from interstate destinations.

It has been confirmed that all nomination fees for Drivers already submitted for the event will be refunded.

Both the Murray Bridge Speedway and Sprintcar Control Council of Australia appreciates the support of its members and looks forward to hosting the event in March 2022.

“We are also in discussions to organise a round of the Allstars two weeks (March 12) prior to the Championship, to give competitors an opportunity to have a pre hitout prior to the Title,” said venue administrator Darren Shaddock in closing.

Image: Vern Parker

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89

Testing your motor sport knowledge

Images: LAT/AA Archives

TO CELEBRATE Auto Action’s 50history, year hi history t we hhave created t d thi this super-sized Crossword which looks back at motor sport over the last five decades:

ACROSS 2. Allan Moffat famously led home a Ford 1-2 finish at the Bathurst 1000 in 1977, but who was his co-driver that year? (surname) 3. Competing in a Targa Rally in 2006 Peter Brock was killed, what state did this occur?

5. Who won his first of two Australian Sports Sedans Championships in 1978 driving a Chevrolet Corvair? (surname) 6. In 2008 Jamie Whincup missed a round after damaging his car in qualifying, in what city did this occur?

8. A British driver won the Bathurst 1000 in 1990 alongside Allan Grice, who was this? (surname) 11. Jim Richards and Mark Skaife controversially won the Bathurst 1000 in 1992, but who was the Aussie in third? (surname) 12. Which current S5000 Championship earned his first Gold Star in 2007? (surname) 13. Casey Stoner won his second and final MotoGP title in 2011 with what manufacturer?

16. Which Australian F1 driver competed for Red Bull Racing back in 2014? (surname) 18. Who won the Indianapolis 500 in 2018? (surname) 19. Of the 17 F1 races held in 2002, how many did Michael Schumacher finish on the podium?

22. Alan Jones won the 1980 Formula 1 World Championship driving for what team?

23. In 2012 what new FIA World Championship was created? (abbreviation) 26. At what circuit did Michael Schumacher suffer his leg breaking accident in 1999?

28. In 1996 the Australian Grand Prix moved to Melbourne, who won the race

that year? (full name) 30. Mark Winterbottom won the Supercars Championship in 2015, but in what position did he finish the Bathurst 1000?

31. Will Brown won the inaugural TCR Australia Series in 2019, what brand of car did he drive?

32. Who won his second straight AUSCAR title in 1991 (winning the ‘90-91 season)? (full name) 34. What model Commodore was Greg Murphy’s ‘Lap of the Gods’ set in?

37. Who won the MotoGP World Championship in his debut season in 2013? (full name) 38. Geoff Brabham won the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hours driving for what manufacturer?

40. In 1983 driving the legendary Porsche 956, which Australian won the Le Mans 24 Hours? (surname) 41. McLaren dominated the 1988 F1 season winning all but one race that year, which driver won the Italian Grand Prix? (surname) 42. In 2020 Lewis Hamilton equalled the record of F1 titles set by Michael Schumacher. How many Formula 1 world championships do they both now have?

43. In what position did Mark Webber finish the 2010 F1 World Championship?

DOWN 1. Who won his sole World Rally Championship in 1995? (surname)

4. Which Italian motorcycle legend won his 15th and final Motorcycle World Championship in 1975?

5. In 1987 an Australian won the premier Motorcycle Championship for the first time, who was it? (surname) 7. In 1994 Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed at what F1 circuit?

9. Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi took his second and final title for what team in 1974?

10. In 1971 who won his first of three Australian Rally Championships in an LC Torana XU-1? (surname) 11. Who won the inaugural Supercars Development Series (now known as Super2) in 2000? (surname) 14. In 2004 who earned his first World Rally Championship? (surname) 15. Richard Petty won his seventh and final Daytona 500 in 1981, what numbered car did he famously drive in.

17. A famous six-wheeled F1 car made its debut in 1976 and won the Swedish Grand Prix that year, what team fielded the

legendary P34?

19. The 2005 US Grand Prix goes down as one of F1’s darkest moments, how many cars started that race?

20. In 1973 driving for Tyrrell, which Formula 1 driver took his third and final title before announcing his retirement at season’s end? (surname) 21. In 2016 who became the first (and so far only) driver to beat Lewis Hamilton to the championship in the turbo-hybrid F1 era? (full name) 23. Which three-time NASCAR Winston Cup series winner took his only Daytona 500 win in 1989? (surname) 24. In 2001 which NASCAR superstar was killed in the opening round of season?

25. Which Ferrari driver lost his life in a qualifying crash at Zolder in 1982? (surname) 27. Which Finnish driver won his first of four World Rally Championship titles in 1986 driving a Peugeot? (surname) 29. In 2009 a former Rugby player won the V8 Ute Series, who was this? (surname)

32. Who won his first Australian Drivers’ Championship in 1984? (surname) 33. In 1985 what brand of car won the Bathurst 1000?

35. In a wet and wild Bathurst 1000 in 2017, who paired up with David Reynolds to win the ‘Great Race?’ (surname) 36. In 1997 Geoff and David Brabham won the first edition of the Super Touring Bathurst 1000, what brand of car did they win in?

39. Who won the 1998 V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000 alongside Steven Richards? (surname) 40. In 1979 Bob Morris won the Australian Touring Car Championship, what TV network sponsored the car?

41. The Bathurst endurance race was a 500-mile affair for the final time in 1972, who won the race that year? (surname)

#1804 Crossword answers 1 across – Mezera 2 down – Alan Jones 3 across – Jim Richards 4 down – Costanzo 5 down – David Brabham 6 down – Needell 7 down – Plato 8 down – Gardner 9 across – Lowndes 10 across – Dane 11 down – Surtees 12 across – Brundle 13 across – Lorenzo 14 down – Brock 15 down – McRae 16 across – Rydell 17 across – Jordan 18 across – Bowe 18 down - Bond 19 across – Button

90 AutoAction

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231

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SAVE $44

SJ-24D Bead Roller • • • • •

125

429

449

SAVE $46

ONLINE OR INSTORE!

• • • • •

1(: ( 5(/($6

1 tonne load capacity 2540-3600mm adjust. height 2300mm width inside frame Swivel wheels with brake Includes mobile girder rail, 1T x 3M chain block & 1T girder clamp

Order Code: K090

935

IAN AL TR

1 TONNE CAPACITY

TESTED &

R

$

U

SAVE $187 off RRP

E

WO

AC R KIN G C AP

COMPETITIVE

Established 1930

429

SAVE $66

MGT-1TGC - Mobile Girder Rail Gantry Package Deal

• 450kg load capacity • User friendly manual crank engine mount plate • Six swivel caster wheels • Fold-up legs for storing

$

2'(/6 ,6(' 0 02725 $9$,/$%/( $/62

$

SAVE $29

Order Code: A337

1.2mm mild steel capacity 460mm throat depth Strengthened frame & stand Roller holders on post 7 x sets of rolls

Order Code: S641

TR

AACT0321

253

ED AT

UNIQUE PROMO CODE

Order Code: S6412

$

2 $5(' *(* +($' ,1 7 527$

5/16" Radius Roller Set 1/2" Radius Roller Set 1" Radius Roller Set 1-1/2" Radius Roller Set

1(: ( 5(/($6

Order Code: H895

ESR-450 Engine Stand

Staff Member

x x x x

)/$7 1' 6 ( 5$',8

SAVE $60.50 off RRP

ERIN

1 1 1 1

• High Impact nylon head secured to handle with wedge & screw • Ø60 x 100mm, 85mm radius end - (430 grams) • Ø60 x 180mm, 57mm radius end - (680 grams) • Ø60 x 250mm, 45mm radius end - (1080 grams)

Order Code: G1590

220

• • • •

NMS-3S Nylon Bossing Mallet Set

200mm fine & coarse wheels 50 x 915mm linishing attachment Mitre table with angle guide 1hp, 240V motor

$

Inside & 1 x Outside offset roller knife edge tipping roller Lower edge forming roller 3/8”, 1 x 1/2” & round tipping roller lower forming roller 180 degree lower roller 1(: ( Polyurethane lower roller 5(/($6

SAVE $44

X8-PLUS - Industrial Bench Grinder with Linisher & Mitre Table Package Deal

Order Code: G159

x x x x x x x

BR-4RO - Round Over Bead Roller Sets

Order Code: S6411

SAVE $33

• • • •

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

385

SAVE $77

BR-10FD - Forming Bead Roller Kit

7 0281 %(1&+

Order Code: P013

$

SAVE $33

SHST-1.2H Shrinker & Stretcher • • • •

Order Code: J051

297

$

TY

297

$

AU S

Order Code: B043

FREIGHT

RATES!

I

2300mm

Simple & Quick Online Freight Rate Check! *DELIVERED TO YOUR

DOOR!

Specifications & Prices are subject to change without notification. All prices include GST and valid until 31-03-21

www.machineryhouse.com.au

NSW (02) 9890 9111 QLD (07) 3715 2200

VIC (03) 9212 4422

1/2 Windsor Rd, Northmead 625 Boundary Rd, Coopers Plains 4 Abbotts Rd, Dandenong

WA (08) 9373 9999

11 Valentine Street Kewdale

01_AA_250221

*Remote areas may require depot collection in your town