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FORD AND CHEVY GEN3 SUPERCARS TESTING BEGINS

NEW ORDER

STOP PRESS PIASTRI SIGNED AS ALPINE F1 TEST DRIVER

WILL BROWN LEADS A SUPERCARS CHANGING OF THE GUARD

THE F1 BATTLE HEATS UP IN BRAZIL

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REYNOLDS TO RETURN David Reynolds is out of the doghouse and should be back on the grid for Bathurst.

He could even be back at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.

By Paul Gover, News Editor THE KELLY Grove racer has avoided any major sanction from NSW Health over the Covid-19 exemption that was questioned after he raced at the first of the Sydney Motorsport Park four-peat.

With his vaccination now well underway, team owner Stephen Grove has committed to having Reynolds back with Luke Youlden in the Penrite Mustang at Mount Panorama.

Provided his jabs meet the timing, Grove is also hopeful - but not confident - that Reynolds could even be back in the driving seat for SMP4.

Grove refuses to go into details, or play any sort of blame game, as he looks to move forward with Reynolds.

“Dave will be back at Bathurst because we believe he will be cleared by NSW Heath, which means he is eligible to race. And he’s the first guy we would want in the car for Bathurst,” Grove tells Auto Action.

“He has agreed to meet the Covid

requirements for NSW Health. We are expecting him to be vaccinated so he can race at Bathurst.”

The Reynolds situation has been simmering since his contentious involvement at SMP1, which saw him sit out the next two race weekends as Youlden was drafted-in as his emergency replacement.

Youlden got two shots at SMP, which means he will be race ready for the Repco Bathurst 1000, but he could also be racing again this weekend if there is any hiccup for Reynolds.

But Kelly Grove failed in its efforts to have its fourth driver at Bathurst, Porsche star Matt Campbell, slide into the Penrite racer.

His chance of driving at SMP4 was blocked by Supercars, partly because Kelly Grove had already used Youlden as a stand-in and partly because he will be in the team’s NEDs Mustang and not the Penrite car at Bathurst.

“We wanted to give Matt the oppor-

tunity to get used to the car, so the plan was to put him in the car. But it’s been deemed to be outside the regulations for co-drivers, so we’ll run him in the co-driver practice session on the weekend Andre’s car,” says Grove.

“He raced in the USA at Petit Le Mans over the weekend and won his class, so I expect him to settle into the car really quickly. He has unbelievably good racecraft, which will help us at Bathurst.”

Although Grove is reluctant to re-hash the Covid events with Reynolds, he admits he was caught by surprise.

“I first heard about it on the Saturday morning of the first Sydney race weekend. We came into the weekend knowing he had an exception.

“So we worked with Supercars, who were fantastic through the process, and NSW Health. We had to ensure all the protocols for a safe event.”

Once the weekend was done,

and NSW Health decided to investigate Reynolds’ exemption, things spiralled.

“When the question was raised, it took us by surprise. Because we went through the process to ensure all the paperwork was in order,” he says.

“It was unbelievably frustrating as the team owner. We were continually reacting to delayed information.

“The most frustrating part of the issue with Dave is that we had no control on whether he could or couldn’t race. We had to work within the guidelines.”

But he is clear on the way ahead.

“My understanding is that David is eligible to race so long as he complies with the requirements of NSW Health.”

And what about the situation, beyond Bathurst and into season 2022.

“Dave has one more year left on his contract with us and we haven’t had any discussion about anything other than him being in the car next year,” says Grove

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WILL WINS AS THE GOAT GOES Will Brown is aiming to fight for a Supercars crown within four years after scoring his breakthrough first win in the Repco Supercars Championship.

By Paul Gover, News Editor THE 23-YEAR-OLD rookie raced to an epic victory as Jamie Whincup and Shane Van Gisbergen fought each other, instead of Brown, in the final sprint race of the 2021 season at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Brown drove like a battle-hardened veteran to resist the pressure from the battling Bulls, but admits he was scared that one of his rivals would break free and fight him to the flag.

“I was shitting myself,” says Brown.

But he survived and prospered, then celebrated with donuts as Erebus Racing made the final breakthrough

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after three weekends of pacy racing.

It was another strong performance from the Erebus team that saw both Brown and his team mate and fellow rookie, Brodie Kostecki, in the lead battle group and each taking podium finishes.

“It was joy. Just joy. Bloody awesome,” Brown tells Auto Action of his reaction at the chequered flag.

“We’ve just missed out a few times, but

it was actually cool that it came down to the wire at the end.”

But he is still just a pup, despite championship wins in the Toyota 86 and TCR Australia Series, and knows it’s important to enjoy himself.

“If it’s not fun, I’m not racing. I started racing for fun and I still want to have fun.

“But I don’t come here to run second. I come here to win.

“I’ve been a champion in a lot of junior

categories and now I hope to be racing for a Supercars championship in three or four years.”

Brown thanked Erebus boss Barry Ryan and team owner Betty Klimenko, as well as Kostecki, as he began the celebrations.

“We have been trying to push the team the whole way forward. Brodie is driving fantastic. There is no point in fighting each other until we can get up the front, and then we can fight like these two did,” he laughs.

But there is no laughing from Whincup or van Gisbergen, as a near-certain win was squandered by a torrid battle that saw the pair swapping paint when Whincup refused to yield so his quicker team-mate could chase after Brown.

“I felt like I was in the box seat to win the race. We weren’t racing the 97. In my mind that was my race. I was going to do everything I could to win the race,” says Whincup.

“I haven’t got many left, so I wasn’t going to give anything up.”

But what about the radio order from team manager Mark Dutton to yield to van Gisbergen?

“Dutto did tell me to move over, but

FORD AND CHEVY GEN3 PROTOTYPES HIT THE TRACK The first head-to-head hit-out between the next-generation Supercars races should have happened this week.

By Paul Gover, News Editor

ROGUE

I elected not to. I know I’ve probably done the wrong thing there.”

Van Gisbergen tried to keep a lid on his emotions, but was clearly upset by Whincup’s blocking tactics.

“We know to keep room. But maybe that didn’t happen from the other side,” he says.

“Just gutted that one of us didn’t win the race. It should have been a 1-2 and that didn’t happen. That’s probably the sad part, that we didn’t win.”

He also reported a number of requests for Whincup to let him past.

“I kept asking, because I had a pretty clear speed advantage,” he says.

But Whincup was not admitting he had gone rogue by refusing to play the team game.

“Are you suggesting someone went rogue today?” he says.

“I don’t think I did. I thought I was a good chance to win the race. I ‘m a competitor. And I had a crack.

“I don’t regret anything. We went out and raced. I don’t think there is an apology needed either way.

“If you live your life not getting involved, then you should be selling ice cream on the corner.”

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The Gen3 versions of the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro were scheduled for their first sparring match at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday.

As this edition of Auto Action goes to press, full details of the Gen3 schedule are still a closely-guarded secret.

But Supercars confirmed the test plan after Mark Larkham busted the cone of silence during the broadcast of the final Supercars sprints of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Ford had already had an initial shakedown of the new Mustang (on November 10), before the joint run, as the rival camps prepare for the official unveiling of their 2023 contenders at the Repco Bathurst 1000 on Friday, December 3.

But there was some doubt that the Camaro would make the double-date as planned, because of a few last-minute technical details.

Even so, the new Chevy is definitely into the final stages of its build and will be ready within days for a shakedown at Queensland Raceway.

“It will run before Bathurst,” is the only comment from Supercars.

There could be an interesting twist in the Camaro roll-out, with Broc Feeney potentially to do the driving.

All of the Supercars main-game drivers from the official homologation teams, Triple Eight Race Engineering for the Camaro and Dick Johnson Racing for the Mustang, are in Sydney and cannot return to their home state under the current Queensland Covid-19 border

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restrictions.

DJR used Alex Davison, who will co-drive for his brother Will in their Shell V-Power Mustang at Bathurst, to get around the problem.

T8’s headliners Shane van Gisbergen, Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander are all in Sydney - either racing or working for the Foxtel broadcast team - so Feeney could be the only ‘family’ member left at home in Queensland.

T8 refuses to comment on any of its Gen3 work, saying it’s a Supercars program, even though it had an observer at Queensland Raceway for the initial laps of the Mustang.

Even the Supercars technical team, led by Adrian Burgess, was forced to monitor the test by remote control from Sydney.

“Warm-up went well and, once it was up and running, although not at full capacity, we worked through a number of technical issues using the live telemetry to focus on key factors we wanted to look at,” says Burgess.

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“There’s plenty of data we can take from . . . that we will now analyse and work through for next time, but we are very pleased with how things went and look forward to the next phase of testing once the cars are revealed at Bathurst.”

The plan for Bathurst is a static reveal on Friday, followed by exhibition laps through the rest of the weekend.

As yet there is no announcement on the likely drivers.

Following the Mustang test, Burgess was predictably upbeat about the Gen3 milestone.

“It’s definitely been an exciting day for everyone at Supercars, and the rest of the Gen3 steering group, who have worked tirelessly to get to this point,” he says.

“This is the start of a long journey and a lot more hard work. Fans are in for something special when we unveil Gen3 in a few weeks’ time.

It’s very exciting to know what’s in store, these cars will not disappoint.”

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YOULDEN STEPS UP Luke Youlden had no real idea what to expect when he got the call-up to become the youngest Main Game rookie in the history of Supercars.

By Paul Gover, News Editor MORE THAN 20 years after he first tested a Supercar with Larry Perkins at Calder Park, Luke Youlden arrived under the cloud of David Reynolds’ exclusion for the lack of a Covid clearance.

With short notice he faced a tough challenge alongside Andre Heimgartner at Kelly Grove Racing.

Yet Youlden is extremely fit and focussed, he knows his engineer Al McVean after Bathurst enduro campaigns, and for the first time the team even fitted the cockpit to him - moving the pedals forward to give him the legroom he never had as Reynolds’ co-driver.

And he is a Bathurst winner, as well as a regular in Carrera Cup through 2021, with junior titles including Formula Ford to prove his raw speed and talent.

“I didn’t expect to match what Dave was doing,” Youlden says of his approach to the first of two runs at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“I thought if I could come into the first weekend and be in the Top 20 that would be a good result, considering the class of the field. And Dave was hovering around the Top 10 the

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weekend before.”

At first he was battling to learn what the Penrite Mustang needed from him, as much as what he needed from the car.

He was also struggling to match the speed of Heimgartner, although he could see what was needed.

“I felt pretty comfortable on the first Saturday, even though the pace wasn’t there, because I could see the pace being there.”

But Youlden got a bit break when rain came to Sydney Motorsport Park, allowing him to surf his skill to close the gap.

“I think I did a good job. When it rained, the technique for a Supercar was negated a bit and I was driving to the grip.

“I felt confident. To qualify 11th and 12th was unbelievable. I was peaking about that.”

His insight, as a newbie but a veteran, gives a different view of the drivers in pitlane.

“I don’t know how it’s perceived, but the whole field is very good. I’m not sure that people understand how hard it is, even just to drive these cars.

They are an unusual beast.”

Youlden has a solid record in

Supercars, including a Bathurst 1000 win with David Reynolds in 2017, a third place with Steve Ellery and “a couple of fourths” at Bathurst, along with his other front-running starts with Reynolds.

And the Main Game?

“It’s been good in one respect, because I haven’t had time to think about it or worry about it. I just had to get in and do the job.

“I think I’m driving better than I ever have. I’ve been around for 21 years, but I’ve only done 50 Supercars race weekends. So you’re just adding to the experience all the time.

“In a Supercar, the speed doesn’t scare me. That’s not the thing that makes you slow or fast. It’s more the specific technique you need in these cars.

“I wouldn’t say a Supercar feels slow to me, but I’ve driven GT cars and the Brabham supercar.”

The second weekend at SMP was easier in some ways, but tougher in others as the Kelly Grove team went into testing mode with big swings at the setup. They were looking to learn and Youlden was, probably a little unfairly, dropping towards the bottom of the time sheets.

It played against his ambition for the three sprints on his second weekend.

“The thing is just to keep improving and move up the grid a little. If I can battle between 10th and 15th I’ll be extremely happy. If I can knock on the door of the Top 10, even better, but you have to be realistic.

“I’ve made gains with my driving style and with the car. What let me down initially in the dry was asking too much of the car in the mid-corner.

I have to tell myself to go slower to go faster.”

By the end of his second weekend, with Reynolds likely to resume his race seat for the twin 250-kilometre mini-enduros at SMP, Youlden could look back on a solid job and extra experience to take to Bathurst.

“It was satisfying to catch and pass Brodie Kostecki in one race. And I passed Jamie twice, so you’re mixing with the best there’s ever been. It’s pretty cool.

“And passing van Giz. I probably won’t get the chance to do that again.

Going head-to-head. It’s cool.

“It is a bit surreal, to have Mark Winterbottom behind you and JamieWhincup ahead of you in a sprint race.

Sharing the same bit of tarmac . . .”

FOUR WEEKS OF BIG SWINGS

By Paul Gover, News Editor THE SYDNEY Supercars quadruple-header has turned into a giant test session for Chaz Mostert and Walkinshaw Andretti United.

With almost no championship pressure to force a push for the front, and a title challenge planned for 2022, the charismatic clown of the pitlane has knuckled down to hard work and experimentation on the ‘Groundhog Day’ program at the back end of the season.

Mostert and his long-time engineer and friend Adam De Borre have scored some promising results at Sydney Motorsport Park, but they have also gone backwards at times in an effort to go forward with more speed and confidence.

“We’ve showed glimpses of Top 5 speed this year but the goal is to catch the front guys. Not to forget, we’ve still all got the Holy Grail coming up at Bathurst in December,” Mostert tells Auto Action.

The chance for genuine back-to-back testing at SMP, with the pressure of quick turnarounds and racing, has driven Mostert and De Borre through their extensive program.

“At the end of the day, there are not many opportunities to have four race weekends back-to-back, at the same track, with different tyres and high deg.

And unique as this place is, it’s good for us,” he says.

“For the first two weekends we tried pushing a new philosophy, which didn’t quite work out.

So, for the third weekend we reverted back. And we’re definitely a long way ahead of where we were.”

Although many people bag SMP, for its worn old surface and the style of corners, Mostert isn’t complaining.

“Where SMP is unique, in a way, is there are lot of parts of the track where the driver doesn’t have as much influence. There are other places and other tracks where you can manipulate the car with the tools you have, as a driver.

“This is really unique. You need to have a car that gets its balance from itself, instead of being forced into a balance by the driver.

“So there is a lot we can learn that will apply somewhere else. And remember that one-tenth

can cover five positions on the grid.”

Mostert admits that he has taken “some big swings” on set-up and tactics through the SMP weekends, helping WAU to gather information and data.

“These four weeks is to get a whole lot of data for a whole lot of things,” he says.

“We’ve got an off-season break where the guys have a lot of things to review. So then we can plan into next year to ensure we have the consistency we need.”

But Mostert was still just behind the pace-setters from Triple Eight and DJR, and knows the work will not be done when he heads to Bathurst.

“I don’t think there is one set-up that works everywhere in these things. They are a dinosaur. They are unique.

“They are under-tyred for their weight. And under-aero compared to their speed.

“They are unique and to make them work, and be in contention, needs taking big swings to try things. And that’s what we’ve been doing in Sydney,” Mostert says.

DAVISON: HUNGRY TO DO A BETTER JOB WILL DAVISON has expressed his desire to achieve better results in the final Supercars Championship rounds after being soundly outperformed by Dick Johnson Racing (DJR) teammate Anton de Pasquale.

Despite sitting third in the standings, Davison has only achieved two podium finishes over the three Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP) rounds so far.

The most recent round was his worst, finishing seventh, fifth and 12th in each encounter, respectively.

“I’m a bit lost, bit confused as to what’s going on these last few weeks,” Davison admitted.

“For three weeks now we’ve been a bit all over the place here, there and everywhere.”

Meanwhile, his teammate de Pasquale has starred since Supercars’ resumption.

The lower ranked DJR driver has achieved five victories and a further podium, leaving him second in the Sydney Cup standings behind Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Shane van Gisbergen but ahead of Davison who is fifth.

Speaking before the final Sydney SuperSprint race, Davison shared that he was determined to improve next weekend, especially since he shares equipment with Sydney’s standout driver.

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“We will keep digging, we’re going okay, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hungry to do a better job,” Davison said.

“Anton’s (de Pasquale) doing an amazing job and I’ve got all the tools which is motivating.

“We will no doubt get the head into the books this week and see what we can do for next weekend.”

Sprint races are out for the final SMP round and then the Bathurst 1000, bringing Davison optimism that he can hit his strips in different race formats.

“Next weekend is obviously a very different ballgame,” Davison said.

“Hard tyres, super soft, 250km and fuel.

“That’s the real build up to Bathurst, I am excited about next weekend already.”

Davison has tasted his fair share of success at Mount Panorama, winning the Great Race in both 2009 and 2016.

More recently, the veteran finished runner-up alongside Tickford Racing driver Cameron Waters in 2020.

Davison has yet to register a race win in 2021 but has 10 podiums to his name.

The final Sydney SuperNight will consist of two 250km races, taking place between November 19-21. Josh Nevett

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MATT STONE Racing has officially confirmed that brothers Jake and Kurt Kostecki will pair up for the Bathurst 1000 in December. After three wildcard rounds with Walkinshaw Andretti United, Kurt will make the switch over to MSR to join his younger brother for the 2021 Great Race.

The Queensland based squad gave the pair a chance to share the #34 Unit Clothing-backed Holden Commodore at Queensland Raceway during a test back in September prior to making the final decision. DM

WILL BROWN has a new look for the rest of the year, as Shaw and Partners - a financial services company - takes on title sponsorship for his Erebus Commodore. The switch to the new livery and race suit came for the second meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park after WD-40 had the premium place on Brown’s car for SMP #1. PG

BRAD TILLEY has confirmed that he will return to Touring Car Masters for the season finale at Mount Panorama, driving his familiar bright green Ford Falcon XY GTHO. The Bathurst 1000 event TCM round will be the first time since 2018 that Tilley has raced in the category. The 56-year-old will pit himself against his son Jamie, who is fourth in the 2021 standings aboard his Tilley Racing Ford Mustang. JN

TONY QUINN has purchased another racetrack, successfully taking over the Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand. This is the third track he has bought in New Zealand alongside Hampton Downs and Highlands Motorsport Park. The Triple Eight Race Engineering shareholder has also acquired Queensland Raceway, with Taupo the latest to join the growing list. Taupo Motorsport Park shareholders approved the sale for 9.8 million NZ dollars (9,406,900 AUD). DM

TWENTY-TWO-year-old kart racer Elly Morrow made an impressive debut in a roofed car at the Sydney SuperNight from October 30-31, driving a Brad Jones Racing Super 3 Holden Commodore VE. She competed in the third round of the NSW Sports Sedan Championship and finished seventh overall after three races where she placed eighth, fifth and eighth respectively. The plan is that after the SMP Super2/Super 3 round on November 19-21, she will race at Bathurst. GOB

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SUPERCARS TEAMS MANAGING REPAIRS ON THE ROAD SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP teams have successfully managed to complete repairs away from home so far, keeping their cars on the track at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP).

Machines from both Matt Stone Racing (MSR) and Tickford Racing required repairs before the third SMP round, after sustaining damage in wet and wild conditions the week before.

While Tickford has dealt with life on the road in 2020, Queensland-based MSR is managing an extended period on the road for the first time.

MSR owner Matt Stone confirmed they were able to turn around a damaged car fairly quickly in foreign conditions.

The team travelled to New South Wales with a large supply of spare parts, however a more severe collision will test the system that MSR has to send components back to its base in Yatala.

“We have everything here,” Stone told AA. “We always take enough to do a full race meeting, as much as we can get in the truck.

“What we can’t repair at the workshop we freight back to our base in Yatala, it gets repaired and misses a weekend and then freights back the weekend after.”

The experience of maintaining cars on the road in 2020 served Tickford well, streamlining its processes this time around.

“We had some parts sent up, but we came well prepared for these events,” Team Manager Matthew Roberts said.

“We had sufficient stock in the truck for the first three rounds anyway.

“Having three months of preparation we identified what our downfalls were on the road last year, we actually learned a lot being on the road for so long.

“We’ve got more than more than

enough stock, it’s just consumables coming back and forward from Melbourne.”

Stone believes the biggest challenge may come after the last of the four SMP rounds, when the interstate team has to prepare for the Bathurst 1000, the most gruelling race on the calendar.

“For the Sydney rounds, we can cycle through the spares,” Stone said.

“It’s certainly quite challenging with the state of the current border because we would usually go into Bathurst with fully serviced gearboxes and everything.

“Those things aren’t really practical to be serviced on the road.

“After the fourth Sydney we will freight our gearboxes back to Queensland to get fully serviced for Bathurst.

“There’s a few other components where we’ve got to try and work around the challenges to get them ready as well.” Josh Nevett

NINE SUPPORT CLASSES REMAIN FOR BATHURST 1000 EVENT

LAST WEEK it was announced that Carrera Cup Australia would run a double round at the Bathurst 1000, however Auto Action understands that all nine support categories remain on the bill.

AA has heard rumblings from multiple categories on a number of topics including weekday races and clash of sponsors, however when this magazine went to print all categories were still on the schedule.

It was first thought that the Carrera Cup Australia Series’ second round would replace a category that was dropping out.

However AA understands that this is not the case

despite some rumours.

Porsche Carrera Cup announced that it will run four races over two rounds, rather than the traditional three race per round format.

This clearly would use up more track times than the original and traditional format, however despite this the nine support categories still remain.

The new Porsche program will require a slight rescheduling of the six-day Bathurst 1000 schedule which will be revealed in coming days.

The largest ever Bathurst program contains the big one, the Bathurst 1000, the final round of this year’s Supercars Championship.

Super2 and 3, Porsche

Carrera Cup, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Series and Superutes also feature.

As well as this Australian Racing Group categories will be in attendance, Bathurst will play host to the concluding round of

the revised Tasman Series, TCR Australia, Trans Am, GT World Challenge Australia and the ever-popular Touring Car Masters Series.

The event takes place from November 30-December 5.

Dan McCarthy

MURPH WILDCARD NOW FOR 2022

TEAM 18 TARGET QUALIFYING GAINS AS IT did last year, Supercars Championship squad Team 18 is showing consistent race pace with Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom continually moving through the field, now the focus is to qualify up the pointy end consistently.

In 2020 qualifying was the weakness for the team, however both Pye and Winterbottom were undoubtably one of the fastest cars in race trim.

It appeared at the start of the season that Team 18 had got on top of this, however in recent rounds more often than not the pair have started outside of the top 10.

Team 18 Head of Engineering Richard Hollway is one of the most experienced engineers in the lane, previously working alongside Mark Skaife at the Holden Racing Team and Scott McLaughlin at Garry Rogers Motorsport. He explained that qualifying pace is one of the teams major focusses.

“That’s one of the things we’ve been focusing on,” Hollway told Auto Action. “It’s kind of a calibration or an offset from our race car to a kind of a more suitable quali car.

“Generally, in practice you’re focusing on a race car, race pace, how to convert that into a quali car is something that we’re working on and haven’t (as yet) unlocked a standard.

“I guess, in days gone by with other teams and other drivers that I’ve worked with, if you can sort of have a standard set of changes between your quali car and your race car, it’s a

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good step and a good thing to have and at this stage, we don’t really have that.”

Team 18 is a customer team to Triple Eight Race Engineering, however Hollway explained that they are unable to just put that setup in their machines.

“We’re still building,” Hollway said. “We’re still a very young team, definitely, pace has been up and down.

“Obviously we work closely with Triple Eight and sometimes that seems to really suit us, and other times we’re kind of off the pace with the same setup as them, so it’s something we’re learning about as we go along.”

The Victorian squad made a step forward in the field at SMP 2, Hollway expressed that nothing drastic was changed on the machine between events, just subtle things.

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“It’s in its evolution, not revolution,” he said. “That was a classic case of, we started with the Triple Eight setup and struggled, we actually sent Frosty’s car down to check over it to make sure we were doing everything right.

“I guess we tweaked a few things for the second round and definitely the pace was good, so we are building on that.

“But it’s effectively a slight interpretation of the Triple Eight setups, certainly not massively different that’s for sure.

“Doesn’t take much to be in and out of the window of these things, Triple Eight cars are quite complex and easy to fall out of the window (with).

“The T8 car is complex with lots of things going on and it’s something we’re still getting on top of.”

Hollway explained that the Team have not upgraded or updated any parts on the car during the COVID-19 enforced break, just improved it.

“We did a lot of work, but it was sort of like little one percenters little tidy ups, certainly no front geometry changes or anything like that, it was all just kind of little bits and pieces,” he said.

“Probably not so much car speed related, but more liability related.

“You’re working within the confines of a design and it’s just neatening tidying up updating those parts that failed and some of the stuff that we felt wasn’t working as it should be.”

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GREG MURPHY and Richie Stanaway will not race in the Bathurst 1000 this year after all options were exhausted in their bid to be granted an MIQ quarantine placement upon their return to New Zealand after the race.

Despite the news, Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton and Erebus Motorsport are committed to try and facilitate a Greg Murphy-led Wildcard entry in the 2022 Bathurst 1000.

“We did everything within our means to make this happen and I am so bitterly disappointed that it is not to be,” Adderton said.

“I also want to thank the many fans who have reached out both publicly and privately not just to express their support but also to see how they could help.

“It shows just how special this would have been, which is why we will do everything possible to make this happen in 2022 instead.”

“I want to thank everyone who has been involved behind the scenes for several months now in our attempt to be able to not just bring Greg and Richie over to Australia, but ensure they can then safely return home,” he said.

“We are a people-driven company and we ultimately could not ask Greg and Richie to come over here in good conscience knowing we had no clear timeline for their return to New Zealand.

Everyone involved, Adderton, Erebus Motorsport, Supercars and even the drivers have all tried to obtain a place for both drivers and secure their return to New Zealand following the race on December 5.

They have looked not only through the NZ MIQ Quarantine system but other exemptions that have not been successful.

Four-time Bathurst winner Murphy vented his sadness, expressing it wasn’t meant to be in 2021, but is optimistic for next year.

“Boost Mobile Racing has been remarkable throughout. Peter’s vision and the investment in this idea, the car and everything that goes into entering a car in Bathurst is significant, and I hope that we can repay the faith and the support of racing fans by looking ahead to 2022,” Murphy said.”

“I can’t explain how frustrating it has been not being able to put our plan into action.

“Richie and I were really looking forward to doing this and the effort that has gone into the prep of the car and behind the scenes has been enormous.

“We have played by the same rules as every other person trying to get a spot in MIQ and most have better reasons than we do for getting a spot and that is the way it is. It’s a lottery and our numbers haven’t come up.”

Erebus Motorsport was going to run the New Zealand Wildcard, and team CEO Barry Ryan is committed to the programme in 2022.

“I want to thank everyone that has stayed committed to this project right until the very end. It is not over though, we will call it postponed as we look forward to options in 2022,” he said.

“We should all be proud of our efforts to get this so close to happening and I look forward to seeing us pull it off in 2022. Dan McCarthy

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SCHEDULED FOR the Easter long weekend, April 15-17 next year, the Bathurst 6 Hour entries have already exceeded capacity.

The event has a grid density of 70 cars, however 84 entries have officially been lodged to this point, comfortably breaking the record number of entries for the event. As a result of the excess entries, Australian Racing Group (ARG) itself will have discretion as to which cars make the grid. JN

FORMER BATHURST 1000 winner Jason Bargwanna will make his debut in the National Trans Am Series at Sydney Motorsport Park from November 1921. The Garry Rogers Motorsport TCR Australia Series driver will turn his attention to the V8-powered muscle car when the category returns as a support series to the Supercars Championship. Bargwanna will race a Chicane Tools-backed Ford Mustang prepared by GRM. DM

BRAD SCHUMACHER will sport a new machine for the final GT World Challenge Australia round at Mount Panorama, debuting an updated Audi R8 GT3 LMS to bolster his title charge. The new car is eligible for GT Trophy in its current spec, but Schumacher will upgrade the new addition ahead of the 2022 season to the latest specification to enter the Am Championship. JN

QUEENSLAND RACEWAY has unveiled of a new logo featuring revitalised branding colours. The logo features thick block lettering with a colour scheme of bright blue and red, a slight shift from the previous dark blue and maroon. The logo ushers in a new identity for Queensland Raceway as Tony Quinn takes charge of the Ipswich circuit. JN GM AUSTRALIA and New Zealand will debut a brand-new Chevrolet Camaro Drag Car in the 2022 championship. Currently in its construction phase in the USA, the new design will be campaigned by the ACDelco Camaro Slammer Drag Racing team in Australia next year under the guidance of Team Principal Maurice Fabietti. The Camaro componentry is expected to arrive in ACDelco’s workshop in Australia in early 2022. JN

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CAM HAS HILLS TO CLIMB

By Paul Gover, News Editor CARRERA CUP pace-setter Cameron Hill has served his apprenticeship in Porsches and is about to graduate to Super2.

He is graduating with honours, after a solid string of Cup car victories, into the seat at Triple Eight Race Engineering that has already catapulted Broc Feeney into the Supercars main game.

Hill has done almost all the winning in Carrera Cup this year, his third season in the 911 hotrods, despite racing for his tiny Canberra-based family team.

“I think I’ve learned everything I can from Carrera Cup, not just my driving but also on the commercial side, so it’s time to move up,” Hill tells Auto Action.

“I’m looking at making my way

into the Supercars championship.

Super2 is something I have to do in order to make that happen.

“The opportunity came up to race at Triple Eight, with Broc stepping up, and it was too good to miss.

There is a nice speedy car there and I know it can be a springboard into Supercars.”

Hill is only 24 years old but has been running his own team, in partnership with his parents, since he began in motorsport.

He first scored serious wins in the Toyota 86 series, where he was eventually the championship runner-up despite finishing his breakout year with the highest number of victories.

Next year, while racing Super2, he is also fielding cars in Formula Ford and will take Tom Sargent into the

Porsche Sprint Challenge with the Cup Car he is through to The Bend this year.

But he still has to get through the final events of the ’21 season, first at Sydney Motorsport Park and then in Adelaide.

“I’ve had a good year. It’s my third year in Carrera Cup and I’ve had a lot of wins. I just need to finish it off,” he says.

But finishing in Porsches will be just the start as he moved into a Super2 Commodore, and it’s not just the car.

“It will be the first time I’m not racing with the family team. So that will be different. And everyone is excited for me.

“It will be good to just rock up to a track with my helmet and go racing,” Hill says.

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CHAPLAIN RETIRES

By Paul Gover, News Editor THE LONG-SERVING Chaplain of Supercars racing and the Bathurst 1000, Garry Coleman, is hanging up his white collar.

The unpaid pitlane pastor has been a fixture at major motorsport events for more than 30 years, spreading calm and concern everywhere he goes.

When things have gone badly, Garry has been there with a quiet word and some fatherly advice. Never preaching, but always spot-on with what is needed.

But even on a good day, it’s been good to have the faster pastor to provide a little perspective and relevance for a sport which can sometimes get far too tangled in itself.

Coleman even drove coaches to pay his way for his free-to-all ministry, joining forces with pitlane repair expert Tony Warrener for a long time as the driver of his Smash Repair Team bus.

His work began at Amaroo Park and his first official visit to Bathurst came in 1986, before he became the official Chaplain for Supercars in 2002.

“I can’t do the travelling any more. I can’t be away from home for five days at a time,” Coleman tells Auto Action, explaining his retirement.

But he will continue as Chaplain at his home track, the new dirt-track speedway at Eastern Creek.

“There are plenty of plastic people in professional motor racing. Garry Coleman is not one of them,” says long time administrator Kelvin O’Reilly, who is now the CEO of Karting Australia.

“It will feel strange not having him in the background somewhere keeping out for us. Garry also married Steven and Bree, so he will always be like family to us,” says Dick Johnson.

“Every word is always just right. Care and compassion are what drive this great man.”

“You’re a wonderful human being, thank you,” says Johnson’s team co-owner, Dr Ryan Story.

MAWSON EYES TASMAN GLORY AFTER WINNING the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship earlier this year, Joey Mawson now has his eyes on the revised Tasman Series.

The Tasman Series, last run in 1975, is a legendary open-wheel series that ran in the 60s and 70s during the Formula 1 winter break, previous champions include three-time F1 champion Sir Jackie Stewart, two-time champion Jim Clark, McLaren founder Bruce McLaren and legendary Kiwi Chris Amon.

Mawson expressed that having his name alongside those names would mean as much to him as winning the Australian Drivers’ Championship.

“When you look down at the history it would definitely be a massive honour to join those guys,” Mawson told Auto Action.

“I mean, those are absolute legends of motorsport and Formula 1, so I’ll be doing everything in my power to try and etch my name in history again.

“The Tasman Series will mean

just as much as Australian Drivers Championship, so I’ll be going all out to get the victory. It would be an absolute honour to put my name in history in the Tasman Series.”

The field is full of talent once again, Mawson expects that his major rival for the title will be former Supercars Championship driver and James Golding.

Golding finished the inaugural S5000 Championship in fourth position, however suffered two early season retirements, which cost him a shot at the title.

While Golding and the other Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers have tested at Winton in the last Mawson has been unable to do so, as Team BRM is based in Adelaide he as a New South Welschman is unable to travel into the state.

“No doubt GRM will come out strong,” Mawson expressed. “I mean, we’re also coming into the weekend a little bit on the backfoot because we haven’t been able to have a test day.

“No doubt it will be a tough fight. I expect Golding to be my main rival,

he was already a favourite and quick last season.

“No doubt he will fix some of his mistakes and I have to level up my game to try to stay in it!”

The seven race, two round season commences at Sydney Motorsport Park with three races this weekend and will conclude at the Bathurst 1000 with four events, concluding on the Sunday.

“Looking forward to the to the Tasman Series ahead and particularly driving at Bathurst, (it) is going to be an absolute unique opportunity,” he expressed.

“You see it at Bathurst in most categories, but I think particularly with S5000 it’s going to be pretty sketchy and scary over the top with how quick you would be able to go through there. I’m really looking forward to it!”

THE TASMAN SERIES DRIVERS IT MAY be a small field due to the current border issues in and around Australia, however it is a very strong

field with former Formula 1 drivers, rising international stars and local well-known identities.

Former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi highlights the list, the Spaniard made 13 Grand Prix starts for Manor in 2015 and now is establishing himself as a sportscar ace.

Japanese Formula 3 race winner Yoshiaki Katayama will also compete as the pair join reigning Australian Drivers’ Champion Joey Mawson at Team BRM (read next page for full story on internationals).

Garry Rogers Motorsport will field cars for returning frontrunners James Golding and Nathan Herne.

Former Australian Drivers’ Champion Tim Macrow will return racing for his own outfit, while 88 Racing will run Super2 Series race winner Jordan Boys and youngster Blake Purdie.

TCR Australia drivers Aaron Cameron and Ben Bargwanna are locked in for Sydney, but may return for Bathurst, AA understands that former Formula 4 champion Luis Leeds will also return.

Dan McCarthy

DUNLOP’S TEAM FLATOUT IN BATHURST BUILD UP

By Paul Gover, News Editor THERE ARE 5318 reasons why the final rounds of the Repco Supercars Championship are the busiest on record for Dunlop Motorsport.

That number is the tyre total for the four weekends of torrid sprint racing at Sydney Motorsports Park and the Bathurst 1000.

Bathurst has the biggest allocation of Dunlop race rubber, with 1352 tyres for the 25 cars - remembering the Kiwi wildcard for Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway has been binned.

The biggest individual total at SMP is 832 tyres, for the two-compound meeting when the regular field was joined by the Wildcard entries for Thomas Randle and Kurt Kostecki.

But the massive tyre tally also includes the 384 Dunlop slicks that are needed for the Super2 and Super3 cars that will race at the final SMP event and then at Mount Panorama.

Then there are the wet-weather tyres, as 300 were used over the second SMP meeting and Dunlop needed to re-stock to ensure it had 800 in the bank ahead of Bathurst.

“This is as big as it’s ever been in one period. By a long shot,” the operations manager for Dunlop Motorsport, Kevin Fitzsimons, tells Auto Action.

“Even last year we had the events spread out over three months.”

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Fitzsimons says the numbers are huge, from the ten 40-foot containers that were sent by rail from Melbourne to Sydney to the two extra containers that were originally destined for Brisbane and the cancelled Gold Coast race meeting before being diverted to Sydney.

Dunlop’s regular B-double truck left Melbourne with a full load, but it was nowhere near enough to cope with the demand in Sydney.

“The B-double had the wets and the A-trailer had the regular equipment and catering stuff. The rest came by train,” says Fitzsimons.

Apart from the tyres, the Dunlop crew in Sydney was 10 people, a number that grows to 14 for Mount Panorama.

“We need the extra hands in case it rains, because then it gets really busy,” says Fitzsimons.

Dunlop gets its Supercars tyres from the company’s factory at Nagoya in Japan, and this year’s Covid-hit season has demanded huge changes to logistics as events came and went from the championship calendar. When the final four sprint weekends were confirmed for Sydney Motorsport Park, Fitzsimons and his crew sprung into action.

“The tyres are built in event allocations. So the tyres for Sydney #1 was the original production run, for Sydney 2 we used the Perth tyres,

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Sydney 3 was Gold Coast and Sydney 4 is a combination of the Winton super-soft tyres with the New Zealand hards,” he says.

“Bathurst, though, is the stand-alone Bathurst build.”

Working through the Dunlop program, Fitzsimons says a typical Supercars weekend includes a huge number of tyre changes and - inevitably - queues behind the pit garages as teams send tyres and rims for mounting and stripping.

Then he switches to the wheels used by the teams, and the damage from kerb-hopping in Sydney.

“On one weekend the damage to the tyres and rims was from running wide at Turn 5, so it was the right-rear, then the next weekend it was the left-rear because the drivers were cutting the

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inside kerb at Turn 5 so they didn’t run wide,” he says.

“At SMP#3 we had 60 damaged rims.

We had one rim with a 30-millimetre run-out, not that the driver noticed. We don’t balance the wheels because the cars are not sitting at a constant speed, so they’re up and down through the harmonics.

“But there is a shortage of rims.

They’ve been on back-order for months.”

That means there was a booming business in Sydney in straightening the damages wheels.

“Tickford brought their wheelstraightener with them and they’ve been flat-out. I believe they are taking payment in slabs, so they will be fine for beer at their Christmas party,” says Fitzsimons.

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NICO HULKENBERG will not race in the IndyCar Series next season despite taking part in testing.

The ex-Formula 1 driver cited ‘personal reasons’ for his decision, which he communicated via social media. “It was exciting to test an IndyCar two weeks ago and I am grateful to Arrow McLaren SP for this opportunity,” Hulkenberg wrote on Twitter. “However, for personal reasons I decided not to go ahead with it. Keep you posted on my future plans.” JN

KAZUKI NAKAJIMA has called time on his Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC career. The 36-year-old is a founding member of the team and has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times. The former Formula 1 driver also has a WEC title among his achievements, managing the feat in 2018-19 alongside Sebastien Buemi and Fernando Alonso, subsequently earning a place in the FIA Hall of Fame.

Nakajima’s former Toyota teammate Anthony Davidson has also called it a day. JN

AT THE age of 59, Touring Car legend Gabriele Tarquini has announced he will retire from motor racing at the end of the current WTCR season. His career has spanned 45 years and saw him compete in 38 Formula 1 races from 1987 to 1995. One of the most successful Touring Car drivers in history, Tarquini has won the World Touring Car Championship, British Touring Car Championship, European Touring Car Championship and the inaugural World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) in 2017. DM

DRIVING FOR new Dutch Formula 3 team Van Amersfoort Racing, Jack Doohan was one of the top performers in F3 post-season testing.

The 2021 runner-up topped the timesheets on the opening of three testing days, backing it up with fifth fastest time on Day 2. Third place on Day 3 meant that Doohan was never outside the top five over the full program. JN

SRO MOTORSPORTS Group has released its 2030 sustainability strategy, including plans for electric and hydrogen GT racing to achieve a carbon neutral future. The international GT racing body, responsible for operating GT World Challenge categories in Europe, America, Asia and Australia, targets carbon neutral teams and events as part of the plan, as well as innovation in fuel and tyre usage. The inclusion of ‘GT Experimental events’ was notable in the announcement, with electric and hydrogen GT racing joining the calendar in 2022. JN

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TWO INTERNATIONALS CONFIRMED FOR THREE-CAR ALABAR/FORM700 S5000 SQUAD FORMER F1/F2 and current Le Mans sports car driver Roberto Merhi and Japanese F3/GT international Yoshiaki Katayama will join 2021 Australian Champion Joey Mawson in a strong Team BRM-run three-car Alabar/ Form700 squad for the S5000 Tasman series, which kicks off at SMP this weekend.

The recent relaxation of incoming quarantine requirements from overseas into NSW allowed plans to have overseas drivers play a part in the series, which had been scrapped, to be re-started, although it has been a close run thing to complete the arrangements for both Merhi and Katayama in completing the required Travel Exemptions and Temporary visa requirements in time.

Both flew in earlier this week, in time for both to complete S5000’s pre-series Night Test on Thursday evening, at SMP. Merhi is the 30 year-old Spaniard who drove in F1 for most of 2015 for the Manor Marussia team, which collapsed financially late in the season. A former Euro Series F3 champion, he concentrates on sports cars these days – he finished second at The Bend’s ALMS race in his last visit to Australia early last year.

“I’ve been watching S5000 from a distance, and did see one testing when I was here for the ALMS sports car race at The Bend last year, so can’t wait to get to Sydney for the first round. And Bathurst … we’ve seen the Bathurst 1000 many times on TV, and so to drive a powerful openwheeler like the Alabar/Form700 car around there will be pretty interesting, to say the least.

Yoshiaki ‘Yoshi’ Katayama, 28, is a Japanese F3 winner, most recently cleaning up at the opening round of this year’s Japanese Formula 3 Regional Championship, back in June at the Okayama International circuit. He then stepped back, into Japanese GT300 with a team struggling with an uncompetitive Audi R8 in a very competitive field – Yoshi will, in fact, be flying back to Japan between Tasman rounds to fulfil the

Yoshi Katayama has worked with BRM’s Marcus Koch previously in Japan

commitment at the final GT300 round, at Fuji.

“I’m very excited about my first drive in the S5000 car; my first visit to Australia; and my first race at both those tracks – especially Bathurst, which will be amazing. I’ve been wanting to drive an S5000 since I first saw them on YouTube!

“I’d like to thank Alabar and Form 700 for the opportunity to come to Australia, and Team BRM, and hope we can achieve a great result to show Japan that there is such a fun race formula in Australia! We will work together, as a team, to try to win the series …

Both Mehri and Katayama’s cars will run with additional support from PAYCE. For his part, former Formula Holden racer Alan Galloway, whose company, Alabar, makes up half of the Team Alabar/Form700 double-act, is anticipating great interest in the series: “On behalf of Alabar, and my friend Wasyl Rosati at Form700, we’re delighted to be able to continue our support of S5000. To have two internationals with great reputations in the series, Roberto and Yoshi, lining up on the grid as part of our team, with Joey (Mawson) is terrific – a further step in the growth and

ARG/Daniel Kalisz

international respect for S5000.

“S5000 at SMP will be great; S5000 at Bathurst will be eye-opening …”

Having been part of the development of S5000 from the start, category development manager Chris Lambden is delighted that S5000 is taking the next step: “Covid has been the major hurdle to any momentum we’ve had in building S5000, and even now has cost us 2-3 entries linked to Queensland or NZ, so how cool is it to be able to confirm that we’ve attracted a couple of true internationals – Roberto and Yoshi – from Spain and Japan, to come and line up alongside Joey Mawson in the Alabar/Form700 team.

“We had given up six weeks ago, but then the ‘opening up’ of NSW, particularly the relaxing of quarantine requirements, meant we could realistically start over. It has required special Travel Exemptions on top of normal ‘Sports-related’ visas, so it has been quite a paper trail.. As well, Team BRM’s well-known chief engineer, Marcus Koch, was a great help as the point of original contact with both the drivers – he seems to know everyone! …

“So, the first S5000 Tasman Series is going to have an international feel, and it’s another good step forward for S5000.” Dan McCarthy

Insyde Media

Roberto Merhi is no stranger to racing in Australia, he finished second in the Asian LeMans Series round at The Bend in ‘21

CARRERA CUP CHAMPIONSHIP FROM 2022 MOTORSPORT AUSTRALIA has announced that the national top-tier Porsche series Carrera Cup will have championship status again in 2022 and beyond.

The one-make Porsche category will be renamed as the Porsche Carrera Cup Championship.

Motorsport Australia Championship status is not handed out lightly, and currently only three national circuit categories have the title, Supercars, Australian GT and S5000.

Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca expressed that the decision to promote the series highlights its increased importance in Australian Motorsport.

“The Motorsport Australia Board has gladly approved this promotion and it is one that we are delighted to confirm, highlighting the strength of the Carrera Cup Australia in recent years,” said Arocca.

“The category continues to provide exciting racing on the national stage.

“It also provides an important pathway in the Porsche motorsport pyramid, not just for those wishing to compete here in Australia, but also for those who wish to compete overseas and showcase their

talents.

“Carrera Cup Australia has been such a strong pillar of motorsport in Australia in recent times and we look forward to the competitors and teams racing for a prestigious Championship title in 2022 and beyond.”

In 2022, the new generation Porsche will arrive ‘Down under’ after getting a run in various European categories and the global Porsche Supercup.

As well as the change to championship status, the Porsche category will carry increased Super Licence points going forward.

Porsche Cars Australia Head of Motorsport Troy Bundy expressed that next year’s Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship will be one to look out for.

“This announcement is great news for both our teams and drivers as well as those Michelin Junior Development drivers progressing onto Supercars like Matthew Payne,” Bundy said.

“Receiving Championship status also means our Mobil Pro drivers will receive the same recognition and Super licence points as the likes of Super 2, S5000 and GT World Challenge Australia Championships.” Dan McCarthy

ASTUTI KEEN FOR 6 HOUR RETURN ANTONIO ASTUTI is aiming to return to racing in the 2022 Bathurst 6 Hour, after a lengthy COVID-induced layoff.

The 20-year-old last competed in the same event back in April this year, forced to retire after mechanical issues in his US Customs HSV VE GTS. Looking ahead to his motorsport future, the upcoming Bathurst 6 Hour is a firm part of his plans.

“I’m pushing to hopefully return and return with some good results,” Astuti told Auto Action.

“I’m aiming to compete in the 6 Hour again with production cars, and of course would love a shot one day at the 12 Hour in a GT3.

“Unfortunately, the team I competed with last year won’t be running again in 2022 so I’m looking for a seat in a team that will be.

“It is looking to be another awesome event with all those entries!”

Scheduled for the Easter long weekend, April 15-17 next year, Bathurst 6 Hour entries for 2022 have already exceeded capacity.

The event has a grid density of 70 cars, however 84 entries have officially been lodged to this point, comfortably breaking the record number of entries

for the event.

Beyond the one-off endurance event, Astuti is unsure of his other plans for next season.

“It’s a bit hard to say at this point,” Astuti said.

“I’ve been putting in the hard yards trying to put something together for next year, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

“Of course, especially Victoria has been in a pretty horrible state.

“It’s a time where you sort of have to be supporting those that have supported you for so long. So, it’s hard to lean on people. But time will tell.”

Before the 2021 6 Hour, Astuti drove in the S5000 Australian Drivers Championship, finishing 11th overall having missed the final round.

Despite an absence of racing commitments in the last 7 months, the Victorian has kept himself busy.

“I’ve been fortunate to be able to still do some work here and there and study,” Astuti said.

“But to keep in shape, i’ve just been training and having a hack at iRacing.”

You can read more about Astuti’s career so far in his Young Guns feature.

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CONSISTENCY WAS THE KEY FOR REMY’S MOTO 2 TITLE IN A season long tussle with KTM Ajo teammate Raul Fernandez, it was Australia’s Remy Gardner who prevailed to win the Moto 2 World Championship.

Gardner was pushed all season long by rookie Fernandez, but he prevailed by finishing 10th in the final race of the championship.

The Aussie praised his Spanish

teammate and expressed that in the end it was consistency that won him the title.

“It’s definitely been an intense season,” Gardner said in the post-race champion press conference.

“Raul did an amazing job this year as a rookie, he really put it to me and really made me work for it.

“It’s been such an amazing season but intense for sure, especially the last quarter has been really intense.

“Raul has been really fast and I’ve made a few mistakes as he has as well, but consistency was key in the end, and the days that I just couldn’t win or that Raul won, it was about finishing and getting whatever points I could.

“Ultimately that’s really what got us across the line.”

Throughout the season Gardner took five race wins, however it was the total of 12 podiums which ultimately led to him taking the title.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet to be honest, you know? There’s been so many hard years,” he said.

“It’s (been) such an amazing season, so many podiums, so many great races, five wins, it’s just incredible.

“It’s just been an incredible season.

Incredible. So many podiums and Parc Ferme’s and so many great moments with the team.

“There were other times where I’d finished second and I’d be like that was a bad day but you have to enjoy every moment.”

Gardner admitted that several seasons ago, he thought he was at the end of his career, however the last two years it has gone his way.

“Decent success this year and even last year, I really changed my chip last year and everything started to go a bit better, even though I didn’t have the most podiums in the world,” he said.

“I just managed to get my mind under control and everything was falling into place, I was just trying to keep positive about everything.

“From 2015 to 2020, even 2019, they were really tough years for me.

“There were points in my career where I honestly believed that was it, there was no more, and this was the end of the road, especially after the injury. Fighting through that was incredibly difficult.”

Gardner will step to MotoGP together with Fernandez and will share the Tech 3 KTM garage.

Both riders will test MotoGP machinery later this week in the post-season Valencia test.

Dan McCarthy

PORSCHE FOR F1

By Paul Gover, News Editor PORSCHE, WHICH powered McLaren to the Formula 1 World Championship in the 1980s, is considering a comeback to grand prix racing in 2026.

The clearest indication of the German sports car company’s interest in F1 comes from newly-appointed Motorsport chief, Thomas Laudenbach.

He says the change to hybrid power-plants that is planned for 2026 is the tipping point for Porsche and a deadline for a decision is coming up fast.

“One thing is clear, if such a decision is made you can’t wait too long because if you want to race in 2025 you have to start at a certain time. That’s where we are,” Laudenbach says from Germany, during a series of interviews as the new Porsche leader.

“If somebody really thinks about entering this championship as a power unit manufacturer, you should always combine that with a major change in the rules so that everybody has to make the step and you’re not the only one.

“It is also no secret that if you look at PR values, and fanbase and advertising value, Formula 1 is extremely good compared to other series. There is no question about it.”

Porsche first became involved in grand prix racing as a factory team in the 1960s, when Dan Gurney was one of its drivers.

Since then it has only supplied engines - most notably with the TAG-branded V6 turbo that powered Alain Prost and Niki Lauda to world titles - despite talking many times about a deeper involvement.

Porsche is currently focussed again on sports car racing, with a Le Mans comeback set for 2023 in partnership with Team Penske for an overall assault in the new LMDh category, however the marque came close to returning to F1 when the current hybrid rules were introduced in 2021.

It has also renewed its commitment to Formula E, where Laudenbach says

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Porsche is looking forward to upcoming Gen3 regulations which will allow more engineering differences and innovation for car makers.

Discussing grand prix racing, Laudenbach confirms the recent speculation about a Porsche program.

“It’s not a secret. It’s not a secret we are talking to the FIA and it’s not a secret that we are . . . seriously considering it. But there is not decision made yet,” he says.

Laudenbach also believes the changes for 2026, intended to please existing power-plant suppliers but to also draw newcomers, are likely to include more common parts and more focus on the hybrid element of the powertrain package.

“From what I know, a lot of things are going to the right direction concerning Formula 1,” he says.

PRAGA TO RACE GROUP2A FRESH OFF the announcement that Praga will be distributing its highly successful R1 race car down under, Australia/New Zealand director Rick Campbell has revealed more details about the machine’s category eligibility and local demand.

Now that the ANZ branch of Praga’s global network has been confirmed, the manufacturer aims to have its car entered in Australian racing by early 2022.

Campbell has said that the R1 will initially fit into Motorsport Australia Group 2Aleader, category, FIA FORMULA 2 Championship comprising of ‘Sports Cars, open and Australian Oscar Piastri had his fourthclosed’.

Formula looking theBarceloMotorsport 1 “At testthis laststage weekwe’re at the Circuitatde Australia 2A category,” Campbell told AA. na-Catalunya.

“Hopefully, we’re hearing some noises that Piastri has previously tested Alpine Formula there may eventually be a new prototype 1 machinery at the Bahrain International categorylegendary that will include LMP-type Circuit, Silverstone and cars, cathedral obviously the Radicals, andPragas. of speed Monza, however the Spanish circuit “But that’s anew bit ofchallenge. a To Be Advised, more just was another noises we heard at this stage.once again got The Alpine Academy driver As it stands at the moment 2A category to steer a 2018 spec Renaultthe RS18, this still is where we’d sit.” remains the newest equipment that he can The Praga R1 has performed well in its initial drive. stints in expressed the UK, USA, Europe, Piastri onand social mediarecording it was over 30 wins and podiums as well asof winning good to get back behind the wheel a the 2020 Britcar Endurance Championship. vehicle, having not raced in Formula 2 since The design features a lightweight (643kg), composite monocoque powered by a 272kW four-cylinder engine.

Campbell believed that demand for the R1 would comeCAR from ended both competitive racing JOSHUA his US Formula outfits and amateur enthusiasts.

Regional campaign in second place after havefinal an expectation andCircuit a hopeofand a“We mixed round at the thea

th Luke West iith wit

drive and desire that this will not only become involved in competitions, but we also see a bigger market in terms of a track day warrior,” Campbell said.

“As long as people can get on track, we believe that the car will generate a significant amount of interest and take off from there.”

The Praga R1 is set to be offered for $400,000 on Australian shores and has generated strong interest beyond its initial two-car distribution.

“We would, based on our projections, expect that can sell initially somewhere in the late we September. vicinity of to 10 cars,” Campbell “Anothereight awesome day testing the predicted.

RS18, this “We are on the verge of signing an official time in Barcelona. It was nice to finally drive distribution a very better something agreement again, and through there’s nothing significant the the Australian than an F1player car tocurrently get backininto swing auto of market to represent us in different states as things,” he said. well.

The 20-year-old Victorian leads the Formula massive caveat around that is people’s 2“A Championship with two rounds remaining. access to the track because this is Alpine a track only He sits 36 points clear of fellow car, not likedriver a Porsche GT3Zhou RS orwith something Academy Guanyu just six that you can track and road.” races remaining.

As the two future, Campbell suggested Theforfinal rounds take place on that Praga may look to expand their product range if back-to-back weeks in December, firstly at the their on-track success continues. new Saudi Arabian Street Circuit and followed “Discussions have had,”in Abu by the traditional F2already seasonbeen decider Campbell said.

Dhabi. Dan McCarthy “This is obviously their flagship product, so I would surmise it’s a case of walk before you run.

“Once that’s happened, we’ll be looking to extend withAlder additional products be for Jason to win on his which serieswill debut. very much focused on the race car models they Kiwi Ryan Yardley finished second offer.”

Josh Nevett driving the #78 Kiwi Motorsport/Helmet

MORE F1 TESTING FOR PIASTRI

CAR RUNNER-UP IN US FORMULA REGIONAL Americas (COTA).

Driving for Crosslink Competition, Car finished 13th in Race 1 and eighth in the second encounter before improving to secure a podium position in the final race of the season.

Kryffin Simpson came out on top for the year, extending his victory margin to 96 points in the final round with two race victories.

Car had three wins of his own throughout the season, as well as six further podium finishes.

In wrapping up his season, Car rued the missed opportunity for a title.

“A few mistakes and unlucky events stopped us from taking the championship,” Car said on social media.

“But we were certainly very fast, getting pole position at 50% of the races.

“I want to say a huge thank you to Crosslink Competition for working super hard all year.”

Simpson made sure of his title early in proceedings, 11th place enough to secure the championship in Race 1.

Simpson fell back outside the race top 10 despite starting on pole, paving the way

House Ligier JS F3, while Ernie Francis Jr. completed the podium.

In Race 2, 17-year-old Cayman Island racer Simpson returned to winning ways, kickstarting his title celebrations.

Varun Choksey began his charge early moving from sixth to fourth on the first lap, before climbing to second and a podium finish.

American Nick Persing was another standout, coming home third for his best finish of the season after starting 12th on the grid.

Simpson led the field from start to finish in Race 3 to take his seventh victory of 2021 and complete his comprehensive season.

Car put his race craft on display by surging from 11th to finish third, while Dylan Tavella was second.

The 21-year-old Aussie has now been in the American open wheel system for four seasons, moving from United States Formula 4 to the Formula Regional Americas Championship in 2020.

Car finished sixth in his debut season, rendering his 2021 campaign a strong improvement. Josh Nevett

AA’s columnistCOLUMNIST considers PONDERS the importance AA’S LONG-TIME THE of events at Le Mans WISDOM OF TRIPLE EIGHT’S QUARRELLING. LAST 24 Hours Le weeks Mans won’t down as ThatWEEKEND’S all escalated very quickly.ofTwo ago, asgoOctober the one of the classics, yet it was a hugely significant clicked over to November, we were amid the most under-event nonetheless. whelming season of Supercars competition I can remember.

The 89th of was the 24 Heures du title Mans the else start Shane vanrunning Gisbergen cruising to the andmarked everybody ofwas a new era for the French classic – the Hypercar age.

There dutifully behaving themselves. The races were all so clinical was also a game-changing announcement regarding the cars and predictable. The sport was going through the motions of which will contest the GT classes from 2024. managing tyres, optimising outlaps and trying to convince fans These were developments with substantial ramifications for to get sport’s excited premier about undercuts and overcuts. motor divisions and races globally, with a rub-off Suddenly, with two rounds remaining, effect for Australia. Let me explain… van Gisbergen and Whincup, not content to out psyche and out Will Davison, The first Hypercar-flavoured Le Mans wasmuscle somewhat decided they would alsotrack like towith beatToyota up on each other! underwhelming on the scoring its fourth Magnificent.win Thank boys.against You’ve got mypretty full attention consecutive at Leyou, Sarthe, some flimsy now. opposition in thethings new continue top division.

What’s more, to brew. SVG still has one hand Toyota’s GR010 Hybrids finished leading home a will on the championship tinware, but it’s1-2, anyone’s guess who ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 Alpine entry and the only other two allwin the three remaining races, including the shindig at Mount new Hypercars, the Glickenhaus 007s.

Panorama. Red Bull Ampol Racing now finds itself sitting upon the American minnowtofor crack against the aGood pair ofonpowder kegs as heading thehaving year’s amost prestigious Japanese powerhouse. It will be fascinating to see how the tiny race. manufacturer fares when other big guns arrive. And let me tell The first of these situations with potential to blow-up in its face you, they’re coming in numbers. involves rivalry Dick Johnson Racing.specialist RBAR’s drivers Peugeotitsjoins thewith Hypercar fun in 2022, racing have picked a fight with Davison and backed him into aLe corner team ByKolles too. Then Ferrari in 2023. Meantime, Mans where he holds a box of matches close to the fuse. SVGin Hypercars will be joined on trackvery by marques competing and Whincup’s of IMSA. Davison has compelled the DJR driver America’s LMDhbullying class in LHDh, an awkward moniker to take action and fight back.hybrid, It hasn’thas happened but it will denoting Le Mans Daytona alreadyyet, attracted commitments Audi, BMW Porsche.

Others will happen. Triple from Eight Acura, better just hope #17and doesn’t suddenly make follow, lured by the prospect of competing in IMSA and at Le a nuisance of itself at a very inopportune moment. For instance, Mans. if it’s the last lap of the Bathurst 1000 and Davison must pull Excitingly Antipodeans, TeamtoPenske will operate off a banzaifor move on #97 or #88 win, what’s he got toalose pair Porsche prototypes in IMSA and two more in the World if it all goes wrong? Answer: a lot less than van Gisbergen and Endurance Championship. This means Penske’s IndyCar stars Whincup, the latter eager no doubt to sign-off with a fairytale fifth Will Power and Scott McLaughlin will be well-placed to fill out Bathurst victory. the line-ups at the blue ribbon 12- and 24-hour events.

What’s that old saying about picking battles?

I’m sure the The convergence of sportscar rulesyour globally – previously supremo Roland Dane knows it.

An evening of self-flagellation US and European scenes have done their own thing – means after van Gisbergen/Whincup clash result inand the I’ll riotsay act it we arethe entering a golden era. I’ve saidwill it before being read. again, sportscar racing is the next big thing in world motorsport.

This highly unexpected turn of events course, the second There’s likely to be a significant drainis,ofofmanufacturer money away from 1 in RBAR the years ahead.This Surely powder kegFormula upon which is perched. oneMercedes-Benz may not will beup lured to Le Mans and Daytona.

There’s onlysoon so much blow in their faces immediately, but with Whincup to be credibility to be gained from beating an energy drink company van Gisbergen’s team principal, the dynamics of their relationship inwill F1,bedespite thetoself-importance of Red Bull. intriguing observe.

F1 snobs should know there was a time, 50-odd Who gets to win on December 5 if the title isadmittedly decided this years ago, when sportscar racing and single-seaters shared the weekend at SMP4? And will they truly work together for the billing as motor sport’s top dogs. History might just be about to team’s benefit or pursue their own individual aspirations? Can’t repeat. wait to find out.

Endurance racing provides many things that are important Some random observations from SMP2 andheads SMP3towards to finish. to automotive manufacturers as the world Supercars’ first wetelectrification night race made for compelling viewing. hybridisation and – reliability and range among The Funds tricky conditions the considerable skills them. currently showcased invested elsewhere will soon be diverted drivers in racing. the premier class, something that can be easily toofsportscar Hopefully Australia will gain a WEC round. The Bend’s January forgotten at some modern venues.

2020 hosting of the Asian Le Mans Series surely an to I’m thinking first-time winner Will Brown is was on pole position indication of the venue’s ultimate intentions. become the domestic scene’s new people’s champion. For over Perhaps significanceace locally thethe Lehopes Mansof 50 years, of onemore Holden-equipped has was carried organisers’ announcement that GT3 cars will replace the motorsport masses as the focal-point of fan affection.GTE That machines in the event’s ultra-popular GT classes from 2024. baton was first carried by Norm Beechey, who handed it to Peter This follows the development that GT3 cars will be the only Brock, who theninpassed it to Lowndes.

If there is going to machines used IMSA’s GTCraig classes from next year.

As if GT3 be a fourth, Brown’s bubbly personality, all-round likeability and wasn’t already a juggernaut. speed has new him well positioned. Hopefully Supercars publicity Potential manufacturers will be able to develop cars that department into the days of manufacturers are eligible toswings race at Leaction, Mans as – and just about everywhere else. crafting theirisdrivers into ambassadors over. Corvette. As Chevrolet now odds-on to build a are GT3-spec I’veSpeaking noted before, Ford may re itstoMustang, of Lowndes, I still even reckonfollow it’s a suit travesty the tradi- with motor sport chief Mark Rushmore making positive noises in that tions of our sport that SMP4 is not hosting a two-driver 500km regard.

Now stop and consider the implications of an annual enduro this weekend. It would have provided a wonder plot twist Ford vs GM battle at Bathurst eachbig February in the Hour? to proceedings, while putting some names back on12 track and What effect might that have on the 1000? building momentum for Bathurst. Bring on the Mountain.

LukeWest Westisisaalong-time long-timeAuto AutoAction Actioncolumnist columnistand andauthor authorofofThe The Luke ImmortalsofofAustralian AustralianMotor MotorRacing: Racing:the theLocal LocalHeroes.

Heroes.

Immortals www.autoaction.com.au www.autoaction.com.au

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LATEST NEWS

STUUT’FEST PORSCHE FESTIVAL

WELCOMES 944 CHALLENGE

PORSCHE 944 Challenge has joined a growing list of categories that will be competing at Winton Motor Raceway for the inaugural STUTT’FEST Porsche event next January.

The one-make category made up solely of naturally aspirated Porsche 944’s will kick off its 2022 season at the venue, holding a series of sprint races.

The cost-effective Victorian born series will also hold its headline ‘Dennis O’Keefe Cup’ race, a staple that has been absent for the last two seasons due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

Porsche 944 Racing Association President Mark Taubitz was thrilled to see 944 Challenge in the schedule.

“The Porsche 944 Challenge series are very excited to be on the bill for the upcoming STUTT’FEST in January 2022,” Taubitz said.

“Credit goes out to the organisers for having the vision to plan what will

undoubtedly be a fantastic Porsche flavoured weekend!

“After being starved of racing during the middle of 2021 and most of 2020, the Porsche 944 Challenge competitors are all looking forward to getting back to Winton Raceway to strut our stuff.

“With our cars being so well suited to the Winton layout, I’m confident that the lap times and racing in our series will impress a lot of the Porsche faithful that will be there over the weekend.

“The STUTT’FEST weekend will be a perfect way to kick-start racing in 2022 before we commence with the Victorian State Racing Championships in February - and we expect a field of 20+ 944’s to hit the track.”

STUTT’FEST Event Manager Jodi Zylstra believed the 944 Challenge was the perfect category for the event.

“944 Challenge has a reputation for being incredibly competitive on track

but a great fun paddock to be in off it – and that’s the STUTT’FEST theme in a nutshell,” Zylstra said.

“We’re really happy to welcome them to the event and we know they will put on a great show.

“The Porsche 911 is the iconic Porsche, but for a lot of people the 944 is equal to, if not even more popular, and that explains why the 944 Challenge has been so successful as it enters its 22nd season.”

Other racing categories at STUTT’FEST ‘22 include classes for Porsche’s 911 GT3 Cup Cars, a broad category for GT, Sports Cars, 911 Turbos or other heavily modified cars plus a category for Group N, S and IROC-Challenge specification entries.

Non-competitive classes include groups for regularity sessions and an ‘open pitlane’ component of the event.

STUTT’FEST will take place between January 14-16, 2022.

Josh Nevett

BIG FIELDS SET FOR ISLAND MAGIC 2021 PIARC HAS confirmed 238 entries for its 2021 Island Magic event, which is now fast approaching.

To be held at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, the 31st edition of Island Magic will host nine categories from November 27-28.

Excel Challenge is currently the category with the largest field, 46 cars have been confirmed to this point with 58 entries possible.

Sports Sedans will headline the event, the historic 50K Plate for Sports Sedans hosting the final round of the 2021 Australia Sports Sedan Series with 38 cars in the field currently.

The 50k Plate dates back to 1972 when Bryan Thomson took victory in his V8 Torana, while other previous winners include Phil Brock, Garry Rogers and 11-time national

16 AutoAction

champion Tony Ricciardello.

For the 16th consecutive year Island Magic will hold two 1 Hour Victorian Tourist Trophy races, battled by 25 traditional Sports Cars and some later GT type cars.

Formula Vee’s also return with a large 27-car field, with more entries expected by the event date.

Joining the open-wheeler competition will be Formula Ford and Formula Ford 1600, each boasting 17 and 10 cars, respectively,

with more cars expected after last year’s cancellation.

The Formula Ford’s will compete for the Phillip Island Formula Ford Trophies.

The PIARC Victorian Historic Touring Car Trophy has 25 entries so far, including a mix of nostalgic BMWs, Chevrolet Camaro’s, Dodge Charger’s, Ford Cortina’s, Mazda’s, Ford Mustangs and Holden Torana’s.

Improved Production Cars has 32 cars entered to date, with a small group of Saloon Cars in addition.

Fans of German marque Porsche won’t be let down, with a 944 Challenge event also scheduled.

Josh Nevett

AMRS 2022 CALENDAR REVEALED THE AUSTRALIAN Motor Racing Series (AMRS) will run a six-round season in 2022 with events across four different states.

The 2022 season will commence with a day-night race meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park, highlighted by the second edition of the Super GT Four Hour endurance event.

The AMRS will then venture to South Australia for a round at The Bend Motorsport Park in April, before heading to Winton Motor Raceway on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June.

A round at Queensland Raceway will be held in August, followed by another visit to SMP on the NSW Labour Day long weekend at the beginning of October and concluding with the season finale at Winton in November.

Like other national series, the pandemic has taken its toll on the AMRS over the last two seasons, with border closures and lockdowns causing multiple race meetings to be cancelled.

Series Manager Matt Baragwanath said next year’s calendar is all about catering for the wishes of competitors.

“Our calendar has been put together after extensive consultation with all our stakeholders and most of our events are already fully-subscribed with categories,” Baragwanath said.

“The decision to have two rounds on long weekends was driven by our competitors, who like the prospect of having the Monday after the race meeting to recover or have a relaxing drive home.”

Categories appearing on the AMRS program next season will include Super GT, TA2 Muscle Car Series, Thunder Sports National Series, the new V8 Classic Racing Series, Australian Formula 3 Championship, Australian Formula Ford Championship, MARC Cars Australia Series.

Other categories such as the Victorian Excel Racing Series will complement the headliners at some events.

Each round of the AMRS will be live streamed by the Fuzzy Media broadcast team. Josh Nevett

S W E N BIG-TIME BECKONS A R T EX MULTIPLE FORMULA FORD MANUFACTURERS NOW LIKELY

FORMULA FORD is now likely to remain as a multiple manufacturer category after Motorsport Australia took note of competitor feedback.

Motorsport Australia Director of Motorsport and Commercial Operations Michael Smith opened up to Auto Action about the current By Paul Gover, News Editorpopular state of play in the incredibly Australian Formula Ford category.

ASmith SUPERCARS is original explainedreturn that the just around the corner for idea Formula Ford now appears to be Matt Campbell atlikely Kellyafter listening to substantially less Grove Racing but competitors views. his long-term future couldthe DNA to stay “We’re really wanting well be at the wheel a the same,” he said toof AA. Porsche chasing overall “I know one of our preliminary victory at Le Mans.The recommendations was to look at a talented single manufacturer path,” he said. young Aussie is “Whilst the (Formula Ford) working already on the list ofahopefuls group hasn’t formed view, one way who are being assessed at or another on that, I think we’re coming Porsche for its Le Mans comeback around to the view that, potentially a in 2023, according format to the would be multi-manufacturer German manufacturer’s newlya better path to go, because that’s appointed head of motorsport. consistent with what Formula Ford has “It’s too early to say, because always been in this country. we are just putting together “We had the stakeholder forum, we the line-up forand the then LMDh. thendriver had the survey, we What I can say, for sure, he is invited people to make submissions. one of the people we are looking at,” says Thomas Laudenbach, speaking from Germany.

“I personally think he has aONE great As a driver … serving OFfuture. the country’s longest Icategory like his driving style. administrators Margaret Hardy “I thinkaway he isfrom mature enough not passed cancer on Thursday to push the car into the wall too August 19. often, heinvolved has theinright amount Hardybut was motor racing of aggression.

And I think that’s for decades and was known for great.” her Campbelltoknows hisFord. career at dedication Formula Porsche is going a series Hardy joined the well, Light with Car Club as of top results with customer the office manager and beganteams working driving latest 911 GT3 Ford R, and with thethe Australian Formula is also looking ahead to Le Mans. championship 1978, doing paperwork “If the opportunity presents for the category throughout the ‘80s. itself, it’d beyear fantastic Earlyobviously in the following she became and that’s what I’m really striving the administrator of the category and for but anything can happen,” was– tasked with organising national Campbell tellsa Auto Action. series events, role she held until 2013.

“Obviously, I’d love to be She has dealt with many of in Australia’s amotor position to be able to be in and sport stars over the years that LMDh or and was championship, well-known as a in hardworking something like that, but we’ll have to passionate worker. wait and see how things play out.

In her time as category manager “That was always my goal; to Craig seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner be able to progress through Lowndes, reigning 1000 victor,the Will Porsche and try and getMostert to Davison, ladder David Reynolds, Chaz the pinnacle of sports car racing.” and Anton de Pasquale are just some

“We’ve taken the time to speak to every single one of those people or email every single one of those people.

“I guess as a consequence of that we’ve come around to the view that perhaps a multi-manufacturer concept is the way to go.”

Smith feels that if they can get the rules right, then a multi-manufacturer series will continue to work If Campbell gets the call-up for Le successfully.

Mans he would impressive “In order to do join that an (a multi-brand list of Australians who have category) you have to get theraced rules for outright victory, Porsche right, we know that, led it’s aatlot simplerby Vern Schuppan and when Mark you’re Webber. to craft a set of rules only Laudenbach says the criteria have one homologated manufacturer. for Le Mans drivers is about to change, as the new LMPh will have a Balance of Performance system that will put the emphasis on youth, speed and aggression. of the illustrious names that won in the He believes the days of taking category. older drivers because theydrivers are on Hardy assisted all of these safe and reliable will be gone, their route to Australia’s top-level. asShe a growing of knew majorher was likednumber by all who car-makers battle for victory. in the industry which is why the motor “Thecommunity driver will is besad even moreof her sport to hear important in the future.

You won’t passing. beDuring in theher position to put a driver time in the category, in who three or four-tenths she wasisnamed a Life Member of the off the pace.

How you choose Formula Ford Association. drivers willFord be different from what Formula Association we have known in the past.” representative Phil Marinon said Campbell says own program she remained veryhis connected to the has not been focussed on category.

Le“Margaret Mans prototypes because was a tireless Administrator Porsche has always said it isand notalso for Formula Ford Association critical to have driven them. the AFFM including category manager “Porsche has competition,” been very, very clear for the national he told on this from the beginning.

If we’re Auto Action. in“Her suchattention a position to beand able to goto to detail ability in LMDh, Porsche really stressed support the competitors has been very that we don’t necessarily strongly acknowledged on need social to media go after the experience in prototype and is undisputed. racing or anything likeprivate that,” person he says.

“Margaret was a very

“But ultimately, if we’re, wanting to achieve or carry on the philosophy of Formula Ford Racing we need to be able to do it in a multi-manufacturer environment.”

Smith believes the reason that Formula 4 did not work in Australia was because it did not appeal to the Australian motor sport scene, this is why it is essential that Formula Ford “You see lot ofas possible to its remains asaclose GT drivers at the roots. moment with otherwork here,” he “Formula 4 didn’t manufacturers, admitted. “It’s clear, people are very and gettingabout a fewFormula Ford Racing passionate LMP2 drives here or it as an “Our thinking is have there, just to get the experience and show to a manufacturer.

“Porsche really expressed to us that, we need to focus on our job and within customer racing or RSR of GT3 R programs, to just keep our focus on that, we don’t need to go looking for other things and try and prove ourselves in another car.

“In the past, the likes of Earl Bamber and Marc Lieb and Timo Bernhard, and these type of drivers have made the transition to prototype racing and obviously done extremely well. So Porsche know, in their own drivers, they are at a very high level and perform. With a little bit of testing development, know, and wasand always focused onyou the result they’re a part of that program, rather than looking for accolades.they would be able getdedicated up to speed “Margaret wastovery to so this is not really a focal all things Formula Ford and point has of mine and I’m notthe really searching recently assisted association in for opportunities in such a car. the production of a book on 50 years just trying toAustralia focus onand my of“I’m Formula Ford in job at hand at the moment and disappointingly will not get to see the doing my best job I can in GTs.” final result.”

But the LMDh regulations, which Many Australian racing legends past

evolution of Formula Ford Racing, as distinct from trying to introduce something that’s entirely new that we know with our Formula 4 experience hasn’t worked.”

Smith also admitted that the plan for a 2023 introduction along with the reintroduction of championship status is looking ambitious.

“If I’m being really honest, I think 2023 introduction might be a bit ambitious at this point,” Smith felt.

“But we haven’t formed a fixed view on that, the Formula Ford Association of course, will be key to all of this as well.

“What I will say is our current thinking is to run Formula Ford, the current cars as a national series next year, and then at a point in time, whether that’s 2023 or 2024, we will introduce a new car as a championship.

“We’d run existing cars in parallel with the new ones as sort of a mixed grid and that would happen for a period, broadly speaking, I’d be anticipating that it’d be three to five years, something like that.

“I guess ultimately, it depends on the take up of any new car. DM

VALE: MARGARET HARDY – FORMULA FORD’S GUIDING HAND align Le Mans and American sports car racing for the first time, promise a seismic change in sports car racing with Porsche - partnered with Team Penske - competing against Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Toyota, and perhaps even Ferrari.

“You look at the future and what’s going to be happening from around ‘23 to ‘24 onwards for a number of years ... it’s really exciting. I don’t think there’s ever been such excitement, but also direction andtook future laid out for to and present to social media asend longtheir time,” says Campbell. condolences.

“That’s makingFord, it really Outsidealso of Formula Margaret exciting and hopefully is race the also took on roles such this as the new, let’s say, golden modern secretary for Sandown Raceway.era ofHardy endurance racing and sports car was diagnosed with racing.

For me, I suppose Inflammatory Breast Cancerin in my 2019 prime at the moment and in and went into Stage 4 in May. a really good it’s really exciting toto Auto position, Action sends its condolences see what the future might her friends and family. DM hold.”

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LATEST NEWS

VALE: FRANK COAD

VALE: AL TURNER

By Paul Gover, News Editor AL TURNER, one of the key players in Australia’s muscle car era in the 1970s, has died at home in the USA. It was Turner, known as ‘Big Al’, who led development of the original Falcon GTHO, helped launch the career of Allan Moffat, and established the Ford skunkworks known as ‘Lot 6’ at Mahoney’s Road in Thomastown.

He landed in Australia in 1968 with a charter from Bunkie Knudsen, president of Ford Motor Company, to establish a new muscle car following similar to the impact the Mustang had in America.

Turner was given just one year by local Ford boss, Bill Bourke, to develop a car to dominate on race

18 AutoAction

tracks and inject more excitement into Blue Oval showrooms.

He set up the Special Vehicles Operations and, in his secret workshop, developed the world’s fastest four-door production car.

Turner also established the Ford GTHO Lot 6 Foundation to provide an education for young mechanics interested in pursuing a career in motor racing.

He intended to return to Australia in 2019 for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the GTHO, but was too ill to travel.

Turner, who is survived by his wife Susan, seven children, 15 grandchildren and one greatgrandchild, died on November 3 in Florida, aged 89.

FRANK COAD a winner of the inaugural Armstrong 500 in 1960, has passed away peacefully at the age of 91.

Coad passed away surrounded by friends and family at Bendigo Hospital on Sunday November 7.

Coad has a great national car racing career in Australia in the late 50s and early 60s and, most notably, won the country’s inaugural Phillip Island 500.

The race was for unmodified Production cars, built or assembled in Australia and titled the Armstrong 500.

Three years later, the race moved to Bathurst and became the Bathurst

500, and latterly the Bathurst 1000.

Coad and his co-driver John Roxburgh won the race driving a Vauxhall Cresta, and completed the arduous 500 mile encounter in a time of 8 hours 15 minutes.

Coad finished second the following year and also competed in the 1969 Bathurst 500, racing a Datsun 1600.

He also competed in several Australian Drivers’ Championship races in the late ‘50s.

The image shows Coad standing next to his Phillip Island 500-winning machine in the mid-nineties.

Auto Action sends its condolences to Coad’s friends and family.

Dan McCarthy

S W E N A R T EX

By Paul Gover, News Editor CASEY STONER has returned to MotoGP for the first time since the start of Covid to renew and revitalise his connection in the pitlane.

He visited fellow Aussie Jack Miller in the Ducati pit he once ruled, and where he was a test rider until 2018, before talking about retiring MotoGP superstar Valentino Rossi.

Stoner says his own wins and titles were made sweeter because he had to beat Rossi.

“My achievements in my career were validated all the more having raced against him in his era,” says Stoner.

“You know, me and Valentino have had some amazing battles – we had a fantastic rivalry. Some good points and bad points; some things went my way and other things really didn’t.

“But there was one thing that, you know, was fantastic about racing Valentino, and it’s that I got to learn from him, whether it was on track or off the track with his media. He was always very savvy, and very clever, very cunning. So I got to learn a heck of a lot.”

Rossi has raced well past quitting time for Stoner, who says that’s a big difference between them.

“If Valentino was still loving his racing, then, you know, there’s, there’s no reason not to race. I myself wouldn’t be able to do it.

“For me, racing was winning. I still accepted the fact that I couldn’t win sometimes, but at the same time, the reason I got up in the morning to race was to win.

“So I really would struggle to not be running competitively at the front, and I’ve missed Valentino at the front. I think the last, you know, two, three years, I would have loved to seen him battling it out with the guys. I think the racing could have been incredible with that.

Like it was in the season before.”

Stoner was surprisingly open about a range of topics as he talked in Portugal, including his return to the MotoGP world.

“It’s been a strange. It’s been three-and-a-half years. I believe it was Mugello 2018 the last time I was in the paddock.

So it’s been far too long.

“You know, this was my whole world – for a lot of years ... everyone we knew . . . everything.

And a lot of people in this Paddock are family and friends, So it’s been far too long.

“We’ve missed everyone, to be honest. So yeah, it’s been fantastic.

We tried to come over last year ... we had plans. And then of course, COVID hit, but it was fantastic MotoGP was able to run at all.”

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STONER

BACK TO MOTOGP

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Stoner’s thoughts on the 2021 championship, won by Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha, reflect the thinking of many fans.

“Watching it was fantastic. I’d personally like to see a little more consistency from some riders, but at the same time, I guess the current format gives some riders that generally maybe wouldn’t be at the front, some confidence over certain weekends to then go and achieve something that in the past wouldn’t be possible.”

“It’s been incredibly interesting. In terms of diversity of brands on the podium and riders and everything.

“It’s plucking the podium out of a hat – there’s no form guide. People that you’re expecting to be at the front all of a sudden are struggling, and then other people you really didn’t expect to be there will go off and disappear and win a race.

“It was difficult and almost a little confusing to watch it this year, just to see some of the results that were happening. It was very unexpected.”

Not surprisingly, Stoner has strong feelings on Ducati’s chances of winning another MotoGP title.

“For a long time now they’ve been close to having the complete package and getting the job done.

We need to see a little bit more consistency, maybe a bike that is going to suit all the tracks.

“We’ve always had that issue; all the manufacturers have good tracks and bad tracks. So they just need to create a little bit more consistency and a little bit, let’s say, easier package at certain times.

“I think if everything sort of swings their way, yes, they can win a championship. But you’ve also got Yamaha that’s producing a great package year after year. So they’re constantly putting out a package that is very, very difficult to beat.

“You’ve got Marquez that, when he’s fit and healthy, on the Honda, is very difficult to beat.

So, it makes it tough for them.

“It’s not just throw some bikes out on track with a rider on it – you need

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that whole package to work together.

And that can sometimes be difficult.”

But does he ever think he retired too early, or is he tempted to jump back on a MotoGP bike?

“I don’t really get the desire or want to race again. The only times I’d have it is probably around qualifying,” he says.

“I quite honestly didn’t ever enjoy race day that much.

Sometimes it was nice and easy and everything went well.

“Unfortunately, it was just part of my personality that I didn’t want to make mistakes. It’s not that I just wanted to go out there and ride, you

know, comfortably and naturally, it was ‘I don’t want to mess up’.

“I did enjoy practice and qualifying, especially on the weekends.

Certainly not testing. But practice and qualifying was always fun when everything would come together.

“When you got everything right, I got way more of a thrill out of that than I ever did winning a race.

Because in the races, you never went as hard as you could. There was always an element of holding back, whereas qualifying a lot of the time you got to let loose.

“And, you know, that was a lot of fun ...”

Casey, centre, with Ducati’s MotoGP duo, Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia

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19

LATEST NEWS

MCELREA SIGNS FOR ANDRETTI ADOPTED AUSSIE Hunter McElrea has signed to race in the Indy Lights Series in 2022 and will race for legendary outfit Andretti Autosport.

It is an incredible opportunity for McElrea, as Andretti won the second-tier category to IndyCar title this year with Kyle Kirkwood.

The 21-year-old had his first Indy Lights test several weeks ago with the team.

Next year he will jump behind the wheel of the famous Andretti Autosport #27, describing it as a dream come true.

“It is a dream come true for me to join a team like Andretti Autosport,” said McElrea. “After my first days in an Indy Lights car and working with the team, it’s clear to me why they are one of the world’s most successful race teams.

“I cannot thank my sponsors, backers, and investors enough for making this possible for me. And of course, everyone at Andretti Autosport for welcoming me.

“This is the biggest opportunity I have ever gotten in my racing career to date, and I plan on making the most of it!”

Andretti Autosport president J-F Thormann expressed that he has been impressed by McElrea over the last two years.

“It is with great pleasure that we welcome Hunter to our 2022 Indy Lights program,” said J-F Thormann, President, Andretti Autosport.

“Hunter has been very competitive in his Road to Indy career, and we have high hopes that he can continue that pattern next year for us in Indy Lights.”

Next year McElrea will be joined at the team

by American Sting Ray Robb who finished eighth in Indy Lights this year with Juncos Racing, after winning the Indy Pro 2000 Championship the year before.

McElrea finished as the runner-up in the USF2000 Championship last year and this year finished third in Indy Pro 2000.

Dan McCarthy

WILLIAMS WITH TRIDENT FOR F2 TEST AS REVEALED several weeks ago

by Auto Action, Calan Williams will run in the upcoming post-season FIA Formula 2 Championship test and it has now been confirmed this will be with Italian outfit Trident.

Williams has competed on the Formula 1 ladder the last two years, racing for Jenzer Motorsport in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi will be Williams’ maiden Formula 2 test.

“I can’t wait to have my first taste of Formula 2 with such a professional team in Trident Motorsport,” said Williams.

“They’ve had great results this year, with their highlight being winning the teams’ championship in Formula 3.”

The 21-year-old broke through earlier this year to score his maiden F3 podium at Circuit Paul Ricard in France and went on to finish 19th in the championship with Jenzer.

Williams has been training hard to prepare himself for the three day test.

“I’ve been preparing physically for the testing for the past few months,” Williams said.

“The step up to a car which is heavier, and corners and accelerates faster than anything I’ve ever experi-

20 AutoAction

enced before will push me even further, so I need to be ready.

“I’m sure the three-day program will also be intense, so I’ll have my endurance tested as well.

“Since the end of the FIA F3 season, I’ve been working hard with the team at their workshop in Italy.

“Their passion and professionalism is unbelievable, and it’s so exciting for me to be in that environment; within a group of people all working hard to carry each other forward.”

Trident Team Manager Giacomo Ricci has seen the potential in the Aussie.

“We know he has more to express as he has all the characteristics of a driver to achieve remarkable results,” Ricci said.

“During the weeks of preparation, we were able to create a great feeling with the driver, in addition to a great working pace that I am sure will lead to very good results.”

Dan McCarthy

PERONI CONTESTS WEC TEST ALEX PERONI, three-time podium finisher in the FIA Formula 3 Championship completed his first test of World Endurance Championship machinery.

The Australian took part in the annual post-season FIA WEC Rookie Test at the Bahrain International Circuit, driving a GTE Am Ferrari 488 prepared by Iron Lynx.

Peroni shared the machine with Benjamin Goethe, the son of former WEC driver Roald Goethe.

In the morning session Peroni was fastest of all the GTE Am guest drivers, second only to regular Andrew Watson.

Watson completed quali simulation runs in three different Aston Martins and ended the

session with the top three times.

In the afternoon Peroni completed a lot more laps, but did not better his morning time and by the end of proceedings sat in seventh position overall.

By the end of the day, Peroni completed 43 laps, 15 of which were set in the morning.

In the same car Goethe was 1.5s slower than Peroni and completed 27 laps.

Peroni found himself amongst established company in the rookie test, including former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica who ended up as the fastest guest driver, 0.597s faster than the Tasmanian.

Dan McCarthy

with Mark Fogarty

THE FOGES FILE AA’s proud pundit rejoices in the return of the Tasman Cup and defends F1 ENTHUSIASTS OF a certain age have longed for the return of the Tasman Cup championship.

In our youth, it was the pinnacle. A summer series in New Zealand and Australia that was virtually a southern Formula 1 title.

From 1964-69, the Tasman Cup saw F1 stars race here for a crown second only to the world championship, which back then was decided over as few as eight Grands Prix.

Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Bruce Look at the line-up for the Warwick Farm Tasman Series round in 1968 – front row Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Chris Amon; second row Piers Courage, Denny Hulme; third row Frank Gardner ...

McLaren, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, Chris Amon, Piers Courage and the podium placers arrived grid time to the Red Flag.

Jochen Rindt were just some of the crown. But fun in the sun was the main in Jan/Feb, just notAscojoined under the recent Hungarian Grand Prix. It had for their –press conference, everything: Luke Youlden, surely fierce the big names who spent January and appeal. the Tasman Cup banner although, drama, suspense, of oldest rookie in Supercars February Down Under.

I missed the semi-F1 glory years, but sponsored by thesitting samecomfortably tobacco in front racing and an unexpected winner. microphones – or not, in theThere was history at 41, surprised In the later years, their 2.5-litre I’d read about them. I became involved company.

Lewis Hamilton, alone on Motorsport Images casepiece of WillinDavison, who was everyone but himself the variants were test cars for the coming in the F5000 era, when Matich, I wrote a comment The the grid on intermediate tyreswith as the the’75 target of several attacksrest flooded 11thinto quickest three-litre F1 season.

Graham McRae and Peter Gethin were Australian after the series the pittime. lane to change

by Shane van Gisbergen –to theslicks ...“Four of tyre pressure The Tasman series showcased the the big stars. denouncing the uncomfortable transneverpounds seen that before! outside reflected that was the difference,” top locals – Frank Matich, Spencer The first story I ever wrote – published Tasman alliance, brilliant earninglights approbation With the– rest starting from the pit lane latesplit shower thatwas could in an unholy saysscramble, Stephen Grove, whose Martin, Kevin Bartlett and Leo in Auto Action nearly 50 years ago – in NZ. But I calleda the – and it set the stage Supercars quadrella, thingsand get his ’72 “It was illegal. That’s it,” sayswhenhave made the things cars– were and down like an Image: Andrewamong Hall Geoghegan, others – against was about McRae Tasman not popular I covered ’76far morefor a thriller and itup was. really interesting. supremo, express lift between the best in the world.

Cup-winning Leda GM1. Supercars’ technical standalone seriesinteresting. across The Ditch.

Hamilton’s fightback was the two FORMULA hastook been far from Just ask Chaz did): on Adrian Burgess. The new TasmanSvG things qualifying Even whenONE F5000 over I paidMostert tribute (we to McRae our web Cupspiced will evoke a up byconfirmation of hisruns. brilliance. more spicy “I had asite lot following of fun. Obviously, He’sIna the good man, ATB, history who while commenting his run to Out the front,“We think ourunderdone cars 1970-75, thethrough Tasman2021 Cupon had his recent death. storied ushering that a new Ocon in his the weekends with water, apart the guysearly that IF5000 passedTasman wouldn’t at McLaren of in open-wheel Race 23 win was made easier sometimes overheat the tyres immense international prestige. days,learned he washis thetrade generation stars.

Alpine held off Sebastien Vettel, from have been happy.

Butwinning I had a successive the Ayrton Senna era andit only fast DJR carmaximising was in the so Martin. maybe they’re ThisSpa. year’s end-of-season Oz-only man to beat, titles Once extendsbecause to seven“The or more hisdry, Aston You can really see thefor skillS5000, ball,” he from says.’71-73. sees technical things in blackthere”. it will moregalore heat and revived Tasman series events in NZ andnot Australia, Behind giving them, us battles – grip and commitment of some of the Did I mention thatmy Mostert Then he admits the wet.” endorsed

by Motorsports Australia and In 1975, first year as and-white. a be truly worthy of the Tasman Cuphe FernandoinAlonso fending off Hamilton world’s best particularly drove from dead-last on the There have rumours understeered wide into Davo at theWhen Youlden runs 12th on NZ, won’t bedrivers, the same, but it will thrill professional journalist, I reported the beenchampionship title. proved ex-world champion when there is a margin call on grid for the third Sydney sprint at Sandown recently that some teams have the first corner – but showsSpaniard no Sunday is hailed as diehards.

Tasman title shoot-out still hasnight whathe it takes. grip-against-go or when on Sunday night, after his WAU a ’tweak’ toWHY prevent hint of an apology.

Buthere. no-one The future prospect of the four rounds between Warwick Brown, found Johnnie There isa ahero. lesson Mixcan up trump the F1their IS INTOXICATING circuit goesanother from moist wasand excluded Supercars lockingAT front “I let himofback good and Mostert, whohave thinks he might in NZ and four to in damp AustraliaCommodore Walker Kiwi Graeme Lawrence outsiders a chance.

HISbrakes. peak as president the on,” is as order and then full wet. because the “If there be Max as it gets. havebe a clue lucky – and – in January/February, mimicking from qualifying (who won the crossover 1970 serieswere, in they Same could said to forhis Supercars.

FIA,would the late Mosley observed Grand prix is cars clear waterfor front barawas too wide, all Dino). the disqualified. It’s illegal,” says 1’s fascination You can probably guess When the talented run. out of order, the original, intoxicating 2.5-litre Ferrari field gets that Formula was far better than in way podium? how Davison reacted to that He has been We wearing enthusiasts oldany andsqueegee new. Big-bore V8 to theJohn Goss won the raceBurgess. after anything can happen. watcha underpinned by suspense. my garage, but driven on days theand But youWalker’s already knew that, from crash, So,with nothing to seeMosley’s there. view was one,that, although herarity played F1 racessupport bandage on one of his open wheelers bylike local fence-ripping out of duty, occasionally like the Turkish GP – aces whichracing was wet the television and socials . . . clinching Then back to theofwet-weather diplomat and refused to recently, but pulled it off international forinan historic Brown’s sixth place what rewardedlegs by epics. goals in soccer,the the anticipation of both–’20 and not ’21 –toit’s great to So, didwould you know there was at SMP2upset . . . results or great comment. onpredictability, Sunday morning he title what’s like? be the final Tasmanweekend title.

For all its the before prospect battles in F1 kept see the F1under stars battling on– and perhaps Saturday was forecast as On Sunday in Sydney, forof an upset goes eighth, third.

If you’re 40, you their may haveno noofficial Iconfirmation also reported helped keeps F1 and fansthen enthralled. fans interested. cars andof thehow conditions through the detailhasten of the WAU with aHe high the rains Firstly “I’ve binned thing. It’s concept important the Tasman – the team’s demise of thedamp-to-wet, Tasman Every so often, a race that is riveting. was right. F1SMP2, followers have came. for a variety mistake?Cup No numbers were in 1976, percentage for a damp qualifyingHungarygone.

Should haverare donethrillers it Cup was.of situations. championship when thechance was one of those decades enduredthrough dominations and When Iyou a lotitofwas rain,pre-eminent. supplied,F5000 or thesummer comparative stayed dry. for the session – where sooner,” laughs after When wasget a kid, series wassignificant split into rain, the but from bizarre start Mostert to uplifting finish. boring races prospect of aLudo Lacroix likeheroes the downpour thathere, flooded fromStuyvesant the correct (NZ) and Well, that is, right until the race gave Anton De Pasquale It is whythe F1 on holiday racing difference – Peter Rothmans F1podium. is worth watching. You once-every-so-often thriller.

Sydneyseriously Motorsport Park on width for(Aus) the front of a ZB was finished cars exactly what he was needed – just and never “Iknow. guess it was my unlucky almost – for a prestigious Internationals.

Still seven races and the One of were those redeeming races the second weekend of the Commodore to Mostert’s car. safely tucked-up in the pitlane. then with the downpour from charm.”

JUST ADD WATER AND STIR...

You have to love the effect that a little water can have on motorsport.

with Paul Gover

THE PG PERSPECTIVE

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LEWIS HAMILTON has preferred to keep his #44 rather than switch to the #1 reserved for the world champion. But Max Verstappen will gladly change from #33 to #1 if he wins the title.

“Absolutely,” he said. “How many times do you have the opportunity to drive with #1? And it’s good for merchandise as well, so it’s smart to do that.”

In 2014, the rules were amended so that Formula 1 drivers could choose and keep their car numbers.

Hence #3 for Daniel Ricciardo, #5 for Sebastian Vettel, #14 for Fernando Alonso, #55 for Carlos Sainz and so on.

For many years prior to that, the numbers were distributed in descending order based on the results of the previous year’s constructors’ championship.

Hamilton has stuck with #44 since the V6 hybrid era began in 2014.

Since 2014, only the reigning world champion has been able to use the #1 on their car.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg ran

with Dan Knutson

F1 INSIDER

with the #6 when he won the 2016 world championship.

But then Rosberg abruptly retired at the end of the season. So the last time #1 appeared on a Formula 1 grid was when 2013 world champion Sebastian Vettel ran it in 2014.

But Verstappen is not counting his numbers until a world championship has been hatched. He was wary the day before practice began for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

“As I said after the race in Mexico, I have had a bigger lead already in the championship and that disappeared within two race weekends,” he said, referring to the 32 point lead he had after the Austrian Grand Prix.

“So we have to again try to do the best we can here and again after this weekend we will try again to try and win the race. My approach every

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single weekend is the same, so we will not change that.”

Verstappen has a method dealing with the mental challenges and pressures of trying to win his first world championship: he just does not think about it.

“It’s very simple because if you don’t think about it, you don’t have any dreams or whatever,” he explained.

“I am just really focused. In four races, a lot of things can happen. We are looking good but things can change very quickly.”

No one can win more races than Verstappen this year, so does he feel like the moral winner?

“No, the only winner is the one who finishes on top – it doesn’t matter how many races you win.” he said.

“I have so far had a great season, a lot of wins, nice pole positions.

Exactly whatever happens in the end it’s not going to change my life – I’ve said it many times. I am just enjoying what I am doing.

Of course, I will try to win the championship. We are looking good, but also I said a lot of things can happen.”

Racing is, obviously, more enjoyable for Verstappen when he is winning.

“Otherwise it’s pretty depressing if you know that you can’t win after a while,” he said.

“Of course, you know when you get to Formula 1 you have to accept it. When I started at Toro Rosso at the time this is how F1 is.

Normally there are only one or two teams that can fight for a championship but of course, you hope that one day you get into a car where you can win.

“As soon as you get into that car it’s very enjoyable and you’re happy because how many times do you have this opportunity? You don’t know. Maybe from next year onwards you will never get that opportunity again.

I am just really enjoying the moment.”

Massive Bathurst 1000 preview issue; Supercars: SMP 4 – news and coverage; Qatar Grand Prix; Challenge Bathurst coverage WRC finale; Historic features, plus heaps more Auto_Action

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LATEST NEWS

PIASTRI CONFIRMED AS ALPINE F1 RESERVE

By Dan McCarthy

AUSTRALIAN OSCAR Piastri has signed as the Alpine Formula 1 team reserve driver for 2022, the FIA Formula 2 Championship leader moving one step closer to his dream of racing in Formula 1.

He was signed into the Alpine Academy at the end of 2019 when he won the Formula Renault Eurocup title, since then he has won the FIA Formula 3 Championship and now leads the second tier F2 series with two rounds to go.

After conducting his fourth Formula 1 test at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya last week, Piastri has signed as the official Alpine reserve driver for the 2022 season.

Alpine have stated that Piastri will have an extensive testing program, continuing his preparation and training for a future Formula 1 race seat.

Piastri expressed that he feels ready for the next stage of his career, a Formula 1 position.

“I’m super excited to be joining the Alpine F1 Team as Reserve Driver,” Piastri said.

“I’m looking forward to being much more involved with the team and contributing to its intended success next season.

“The Reserve Driver role is the next step towards my aim for a race seat in 2023, which is very exciting.

“I’ve proved myself in the junior formulas over the last couple of years and feel like I’m ready for Formula 1 now along with the trackside experience at race weekends, we will put together a substantial test program in order to keep developing myself to grow even more prepared for a race seat.”

Piastri’s name was thrown around for the final Alfa Romeo F1 seat next year which has gone to his Formula 2 Championship rival Guanyu Zhou.

Piastri is grateful to Alpine for offering him the job as Alpine F1’s official reserve driver.

“I’m very thankful to Alpine for their support,” he said.

“We’ve enjoyed two very successful seasons together in the Academy and I’m grateful for the faith they’ve put in me for this next step with an eye on a bigger future.

“My focus now is finishing the Formula 2 Championship in the best possible way with Prema and I’m looking forward to being back in the car and pushing hard on track.”

Piastri has turned heads the last 12 months, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has not just been impressed by his speed but his maturity.

“At Enstone Oscar has been a real asset to the team as

he has aided the simulator and testing programme and I am certain he will continue to do so in his new role,” Rossi said.

“The next step will be to consistently attend Grands Prix to fully integrate with the race team, learn what is expected of an F1 driver and be ready for when the opportunity comes.

“In addition, we look forward to having Oscar’s input and expertise in driving the team forwards next year.

“Oscar’s graduation highlights the success of our Alpine Academy and underlines its strength as one of the best young driver programmes in motorsport. We look forward to seeing our young talents continue to blossom through the years to come.”

Rossi believes that Piastri has incredible natural talent and has been proud to see him grow in the last two years.

“Oscar’s natural talent is clear to see, so we’re very proud and privileged to have him as part of our team as our Reserve Driver from next year,” Rossi said.

“Not only does Oscar have the on-track skills, as demonstrated over the last couple of years in the junior categories, but also the maturity and composure that makes him really stand out from the rest.”

Piastri currently leads Zhou in the FIA F2 Championship with two rounds remaining and intends to join Charles Leclerc and George Russell as drivers to have won F3 and F2 in consecutive years.

YOUNG AUSSIE SIGNS WITH PREMA FRONT-RUNNING OPEN-WHEEL outfit Prema Racing has announced that Australian James Wharton will race for the team in the Italian Formula 4 Championship next year.

In 2020, Wharton was selected

by Ferrari Driver Academy partner Motorsport Australia to take part in the FDA Scouting World Finals. He won the shootout and joined Ferrari’s young driver ranks.

The 15-year-old moved to Europe in late 2016, showing promise in the OKJ and OK classes. He then complemented his program with positive forays in the USA, including wins in the highly regarded SKUSA Supernationals in 2018 and 2019.

He has continued to compete at the highest level of karting to this point,

before he makes the move into car racing and his single-seater debut in 2022.

“Obviously I am beyond excited for the 2022 season,” he said.

“Traditionally Prema has a strong alliance with Ferrari so the decision for us was straightforward.

“I feel I am ready to attack next year and utilise everything I have been developing as part of the Ferrari Driver Academy.”

Wharton will contest the entirety of the Italian Formula 4 Championship next year as well as selected rounds in other championships which the team will announce in due course.

Meanwhile, he began his testing and preparation schedule for his rookie season in single-seaters.

Prema team principal Angelo Rosin has been very impressed by Wharton and believes he has incredible talent.

“We were really impressed by Wharton’s attitude,” Rosin said. “We have already had the chance to see him in action in testing and we are confident that he will be quick right from the start.

“There will be a lot of new things to learn for him, and we want to support him the very best way we can. We are looking forward to his debut in 2022.”

The Italian team has great success with Australian drivers having won the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Oscar Piastri, who now finds himself leading the Formula 2 Championship with two rounds to spare.

Dan McCarthy

LATEST NEWS

TRIPLE EIGHT EXPAND RELATIONSHIP WITH

MERCEDES-AMG

THE HOME of The Bulls in Brisbane is also about to become the race base for the Silver Arrows in Australia as Triple Eight Race Engineering is appointed the local agent for Mercedes-AMG. A new home for the German customer race cars has been built at the opposite end of the T8 building in Banyo to the workshop that runs the cars for the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.

It already houses the MercedesAMG GT3 that T8 has been racing in Australia with Malaysia’s Prince Jefri Ibrahim, and a line-up of T8 drivers led

by Shane van Gisbergen that grew last week to include long-time Benz affiliate Peter Hackett, following successful

efforts in the Bathurst 12-Hour race and in GT events across Asia.

The new move is intended to boost the support and uptake of MercedesAMG race cars in Australia and New Zealand, as T8 works in conjunction with HWA AG, the satellite spin-off from AMG that was created by HansWerner Aufrecht at Affalterbach in Germany for motorsport work.

T8 is planning to cut supply times and boost services, including engineering and repairs, for the German GT cars.

A long-standing HWA expert, Andrew Barrett, will continue as support engineer under the new deal.

T8 will continue to compete as a Customer Team for HWA, and/or a

Performance Team of Mercedes-AMG in major events including the 12-Hour, and will be authorised to provide test drives for GT3 and GT4 customers and motorsport experiences in conjunction with the AMG Driving Academy.

“We take very seriously the task of the expanded affiliation with the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing brand, with the provision of both factory parts and service for GT3 and GT4 cars in Australia and New Zealand,” says T8 supremo, Roland Dane.

“Having been part of both the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing and Performance Racing program over the last few years, everyone at Triple Eight is very excited and honoured.”

The new business relationship is welcomed by Mercedes-Benz Australia and also Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing in Germany.

“We have found the perfect partner for the implementation of this task,” says Stefan Wendl, head of MercedsAMG Customer Racing.

“The company is working in a highlyprofessional way and also has the engineering expertise to carry out repair and rebuild work, next to spare part supply and sales logistics, in accordance with our high-quality standards. The new motorsport hub pools all Customer Racing competences for the region at the same level as in Affalterbach.”

Paul Gover - News Editor

JACK MILLER ENTERS FINAL ROUND OF ASBK AUSSIE MOTOGP rider Jack Miller will compete in the final round of the 2021 Australian Superbike Championship at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, yes, you are reading that correctly.

Miller will compete on a Ducati Paniagle V4 R alongside fellow Australian Ducati Riders Mike Jones, Wayne Maxwell and second-generation racer Oli Bayliss in the two races.

The final round takes place from December 3-5 at the South Australian venue, and will be the first time Miller has competed on home soil since finishing on the podium in the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 2019.

This will be great for Aussie MotoGP fans who have been deprived of action due to the last two Australian Grands Prix being cancelled due to COVID-19.

Miller is incredibly thankful to the Ducati Corse MotoGP team for allowing him to take part.

“I am really excited to be able to

have this opportunity and race the final round of Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK),” Miller said.

“I would love to say a massive thank you to the guys at Ducati for allowing me this opportunity amidst our busy testing schedule.

“To go and race in front of the Australian fans is a massive privilege and honour.

“Thank you the team at ASBK and Motorcycling Australia for their support at such short notice. I am also thankful to Ben Henry from DesmoSport Ducati for his help in the organisation.

“As you can imagine it has not been easy to try and organise everthing from the other side of the world at such short notice, having Ben and Matty Macalpine there to help me organise most things, has been very easy.

“I am very excited to be able to race in front of the Australian fans at least one time this year, it is going to be fantastic. I look forward to seeing everyone there!”

Motorcycling Australia CEO, Peter Doyle, said he was ecstatic to have Miller join the ASBK grid.

“Having Australian MotoGP sensation Jack Miller compete in the ASBK is further testament to the tough and highly competitive nature of our ASBK Championship which is one of the best national superbike championships in the world,” Mr Doyle said.

“Australian race fans have been starved of on track MotoGP action here for two years due to COVID, but to now have their Aussie hero in Jack Miller come home and race ASBK, we are sure fans will flock to the ASBK Grand Finale at The Bend in South Australia.”

The event will be open to spectators and with travel restrictions set to ease for South Australia over coming weeks.

The event takes place on the Bathurst 1000 weekend, so for people who can’t get to The Bend, the action can be viewed on SBS, Fox Sports Australia and via ASBK TV Live Stream.

Dan McCarthy

LATEST NEWS

MOTORSPORT INDUSTRY WORTH $8.6 BILLION TO AUSSIE ECONOMY A NEW study has revealed motorsport’s significant contribution to the Australian economy, with a total gross annual output of $8.6 billion.

With the national economy looking to rebuild after a difficult two years, Australian motorsport is primed to lead the charge for the sporting industry.

“As Australia embarks on its economic recovery, we know motorsport will continue to be an economic powerhouse, creator of jobs and boost for local economies, particularly in rural areas, where many motorsport events take place.” said Andrew Fraser, Motorsport Australia President.

“This report provides a detailed analysis of motorsport’s strong economic impact and the importance our sport has for so many people.”

“Motorsport Australia is ready to welcome a steady return of participants, volunteers and events in 2022, including bringing through the next generation through development programs like FIA Girls on Track and Ricciardo’s Racers.”

“Australia is such a diverse country and we are eager to see more people enjoying more motorsport more often.

Sport can bring people together and we’re working hard to embrace those who want to be involved and see the potential to grow these numbers even further by ensuring our sport is welcoming and accessible to all.”

“Of course, we also have a responsibility to grow the sport sustainably and safely and that’s why Motorsport Australia will have a strong focus on the environment in the

coming years. We need to make sure the sport is safe for those involved, but also safe for future generations by minimising our environmental footprint.

We will embrace new technologies and make sure we are ready to regulate and support the future of motorsport.”

Ernst and Young prepared the global study on four-wheeled motorsport together with the FIA and Motorsport Australia, Karting Australia and the Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA). Locally, it was found that the motorsport industry provides $3.1 billion in direct output, while providing $5.5 billion of indirect output based on pre-COVID figures.

The industry also supported 16,900 direct jobs and a further 29,900 indirect jobs in 2019, the year the study was based on.

The sport also enjoyed support from approximately 18,900 unpaid officials and volunteers, creating a total workforce of 65,700.

The Ernst & Young study looked at a range of factors, further emphasising the importance of the Australian motorsport industry on the country’s overall economy.

Between Motorsport Australia, ANDRA and Karting Australia, the sport has a strong foothold across the country with a reported 188,112 people participating in the sport in 2019.

“We welcome this important report which clearly demonstrates the contribution of motorsport to Australia’s economy at this critical juncture in our history.” said Nathan Peirano, ANDRA Chairman.

“While the findings are no surprise to

those who are responsible for steering our sport in its various iterations across the country, being able to hold up a report such as this from such a respected entity is exceptionally valuable and we welcome the assessments by Ernst and Young.”

“The local and regional events we have seen held with such success over the last 12 months as we have adapted and worked within COVID-19 restrictions will soon be accompanied by a sustained return to national-level competition and we can’t wait for what is shaping up as a bright future ahead which will continue to make important contributions to the economy.”

The financial contribution of each competitor and their input to the overall economy is estimated at approximately $20,000 per year on expenses related to their involvement in the sport (not including vehicle purchases) such as travel, maintenance, food and beverages, as well as race meetings.

At a state level, New South Wales and Victoria were the biggest contributors in 2019, with the two states responsible for more than 50 per cent of the sport’s national economic value with around 97,000 active participants.

In 2019, prior to the COVID shutdowns, 9650 events were held throughout the country via the three Governing bodies with events in both rural and metropolitan regions attracting thousands of competitors each week.

Given the high level of events, a variety of industries outside of the sport such as tourism, hospitality, retail and entertainment venues at

local, state and national levels all benefit from motorsport’s presence, providing a significant and positive impact on a large number of communities.

“The Karting industry as a whole has continued to grow and provide great economic benefit across the country and we’re pleased to be able have this confirmed through Ernst & Young study alongside Motorsport Australia and ANDRA.” said Glen Egan, Karting Australia Chair.

“Despite the challenges from COVID over the past couple of years, our licence numbers continue to bounce back strongly and the majority of the members of our karting industry are all reporting record trading years.”

“We are seeing some significant growth in the entry level of our sport and we look forward to continuing this into the future.”

Today’s findings compare favourably to the most recent survey undertaken in 2014. That survey revealed motorsport had a direct output of $2.7 billion dollars to the Australian economy, highlighting the rapid rise of the sport’s growth, with approximately $400 million more now being spent on an annual basis.

With COVID impacting 2020 and 2021, motorsport has a unique opportunity to play a key role in the economic recovery of Australia, with competitors ready and eager to start racing, travelling and spending in the coming 12 months.

There will be more on this subject in the next edition of Auto Action.

Rhys Vandersyde

LATEST NEWS

LAST MINUTE REPLACEMENT AT BJR BRAD JONES Racing has recruited David Wall as a last-minute replacement for the years Bathurst 1000.

The Sydneysider will co-drive alongside Jack Smith in the #4 SCT Logistics Holden Commodore after ongoing border restrictions meant that original co-driver signing Ash Walsh was forced to pull out of this years event.

38-year-old Wall has 151 Supercars race starts to his credit including a stint as co-driver at BJR back in 2010 and 2011.

“I’m really happy to be joining Brad Jones Racing, SCT Logistics, Jack and Paul Forgie,” said Wall.

“It’s a unique situation and timeframe and I’ll be joining the team for the co-driver test day today and the session at the Sydney SuperNight event this weekend.”

“I’ll need to get my head around racing a Supercar again but I’m really looking forward to the challenge at hand and competing at the biggest race of the year with Brad Jones Racing and SCT.” Walsh expressed his disappointed on missing out on this years the Great Race.

“It’s a shame that the Queensland border restrictions are forcing our hands on this but spending a month or so away just meant it’s unfortunately not possible for me to participate this year,” said Walsh.

“I wish Jack, David and the team well and all the very best for Bathurst. I’ll be cheering them on from Queensland.”

Wall will join Smith for the first time at Sydney MotorSport Park today for a test day alongside a number of Supercars teams.

Rhys Vandersyde

MIEDECKE FEMALE KART TEAM BENTLEY RACING TOGETHER LAUNCHES RACING TOGETHER has announced the launch of an all-girl karting team for Indigenous Australians.

The Racing Together project was created by Formula 1 steward and Chair of the Australian Institute of Motor Sport Safety Garry Connelly to help indigenous Australians get involved in motorsport.

The team is made up of four teenage girls of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background – the first of its kind.

The quartet will contest a 10-event program in South-East Queensland in 2022, alongside Racing Together’s existing car-racing team.

Racing Together’s initial program is a 10-person team (six boys and four girls) building, maintaining, preparing and racing a Hyundai Excel in the Series X3 Queensland competition.

The karting team will field a 4SS-class Ricciardo kart, supplied and supported

by Gold Coast-based international karting organisation Patrizicorse, created by former Supercars Championship driver Michael Patrizi.

Tokyo Olympics beach volleyball silver medallist Taliqua Clancy, one of Australia’s most successful Indigenous female sports personalities and a Racing Together Board member announced the project.

“To create an opportunity especially for young Indigenous girls is a very exciting development in the Racing

Together program,” Clancy said.

“We don’t believe anything like this has been done anywhere in the world and as an Indigenous sports person I’m delighted to give it my full support and will take a keen interest when the girls hit the track next season.”

Connelly announced the four kart team members would be Karlai Warner (driver), Ayesha Burke (mechanic), Amber Rahurahu (mechanic) and Tayla Warner (tyres, data and logistics).

“Despite being completely new to motor-racing at the beginning of the year, the girls have shown tremendous dedication and aptitude and have thoroughly earned this new opportunity,” he said.

“Karlai has just turned 15. The karting will prepare her for car-racing, and we intend for her to race a second Hyundai during next year.

“We’ll hold an open day next February to recruit some new team members – hopefully including another female driver for 2023 and continue the growth of Racing Together.”

The team has attracted attention all around the world not least by seventime Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver signed a copy of Auto Action’s Racing Together feature for the Indigenous Excel team several months ago. Dan McCarthy

By Paul Gover, News Editor ONE OF the fastest families in Australian motorsport has a new member after Andrew and George Miedecke parked a Bentley Continental GT in their garage.

The bold British blaster will be used mostly for fun running, with no plans for an all-out assault on the Bathurst 12-Hour, but has already completed a successful shakedown at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The factory-built GT3 racer had a previous life in Asian GT racing but will have an easier retirement with the Miedecke mob in Australia.

“We just quite fancy them. I wasn’t really a buyer, but then I hear about one in Asia. It’s a nice car,” Andrew Miedecke tells Auto Action.

The Bentley was a costly car from M-Sport in Britain but the Miedeckes cut a deal before delivering the car to Wall Racing in Sydney for a major overhaul.

“I bought it fairly well,” a cagey Miedecke says, without revealing the price.

The car is now resplendent in flawless British Racing Green paintwork and all the major components have been refreshed.

“It was getting a bit tired, but we had all the spares,” says Miedecke.

“We’ve brought it back to pristine in the bodywork, and we’re working through the mechanicals.”

Despite the proven pace of the car, which won a 12-Hour with the factory Bentley team, Miedecke says they have modest ambitions for it.

“We’ll have one big race a year at Bathurst. We intend to run it mostly just in NSW Prod Sports.”

But what about the 12-Hour, or the full GT championship that the fatherand-son races briefly tackled with an

Aston Martin in 2016.

“We’ve done it once and it costs a bucket. We had a good crack at it, qualified fourth, but no result.”

“We’ll go down three or four weekends a year, get the old Sierra out now and then. That’s plenty for us.

“George is 35 now and not trying to make a name as a racing driver. He’s more interested in the business. And I seem to be busy all the time.”

Miedecke’s home garage in Port Macquarie, where the pair operate a large and varied new-car business, already houses a pair of Ford Sierras from the Group A era, as well as a Mercedes C-Class - “in Martins Filters livery” - a March single-seater that was raced in the UK, and the Ford Mustang that was raced to fifth in this year’s Bathurst 6-Hour.

“It’s a pretty nice garage,” Miedecke chuckles.

Apart from the family fleet, George Miedecke will soon be strapping into the TCM Camaro that his father once campaigned - vigorously - in the national championship, but just for enjoyment at Mount Panorama.

And then there is the Bentley, chassis #17 and formerly operated

by Absolute Racing, which has just clinched the China Endurance Championship with a GT3 Audi.

“It’s good. And there is enough room for a 6-foot-6 driver,” says Miedecke.

“We only drove it in the wet for the first time, but it feels great. It gives you a bit of confidence.”

LATEST NEWS

FINAL F1 SEAT CONFIRMED

By Rhys Vandersyde ALFA ROMEO Racing has locked in Guanyu Zhou as the driver of the final remaining seat on the Formula 1 grid for 2022.

A multiple race winner in Formula 2, Zhou currently sits second in the championship standings behind Australian Oscar Pistri (who was recently signed as Alpine’s test and reserve driver) with two rounds remaining.

“I dreamt from a young age of climbing as high as I can in a sport that I am passionate about and now the dream has come true,” Zhou said.

“It is a privilege for me to start my Formula 1 racing career with an iconic team, a team that has introduced so much young talent into Formula 1 in the past.”

“Now the dream is reality. I feel well prepared for the immense challenge of Formula 1, the pinnacle of my sport, alongside a proven, world-class talent in Valtteri Bottas.”

“I wish to thank the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team for this opportunity. Next year the target will be to learn as much as possible and as quickly as possible.”

“To be the first ever Chinese driver in Formula 1 is a breakthrough for Chinese motorsport history. I know a lot of hopes will be resting on

me and, as ever, I will take this as motivation to become better and achieve more.”

Zhou will make headlines as the first-ever Formula 1 race driver from China when he lines up on the grid for the 2022 season opener in Bahrain.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Guanyu Zhou to Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN,” Alfa Romeo Racing Team Principal Frederic Vasseur said.

“He is a very talented driver, as his results in F2 have shown, and we are looking forward to helping his talent flourish even more in Formula One.” “We are proud of our line-up for 2022 and we are confident Zhou will form a very successful partnership with Valtteri.”

“We are also looking forward to welcoming all the new Chinese fans who will join the team: Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN is a historical brand and one that embodies the spirit of Formula 1 and we will do our utmost to make the experience of our sport a great one in China.”

Zhou joins Valtteri Bottas in an all-new driver line-up for the Alfa Romeo squad.

WEBSTER RETURNS FOR SYDNEY S5000 ROUND

By Josh Nevett TEENAGE VICTORIAN driver Cooper Webster will return to S5000 for the first round of the Tasman Series, racing for his new team Versa Motorsport at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP).

Webster finished seventh in the S5000 Australian Drivers Championship earlier this year, achieving a breakthrough maiden race win at Phillip Island in March.

After a lengthy period of planning and preparation, Webster has confirmed he will make a one-off appearance in Sydney with his new outfit, making the switch from previous team 88 Racing.

“I’m racing this weekend at Sydney, not with 88 Racing but with a new team that we’ve started up called Versa Motorsport,” Webster told AUTO ACTION. “It’s pretty exciting, it’s been a bit of a rush to get everything

organised.

“We weren’t going to run in the Tasman Series because there’s a lot that goes into organising the trailer, the parts, the tools, the car and where we were going to store it.

“It’s been a massive effort just to get to this first Tasman round so I’m really excited to run at Sydney and see how we go as the new outfit.”

Versa will be predominately run as a family operation, with the Sydney Tasman Series opener serving as Webster’s preparation for another full season in the open wheelers in 2022.

“Versa is under Toby Pope who is the Team Manager and will be run with my family and friends,” Webster said.

“We weren’t going to do Sydney, but we changed our minds because we ran there last year and we’ve got a few upgrades that we want to try and test on the car.

“We’re just trying to focus on getting everything organised and professional for next year.

“That was the main reasoning behind it, it’ll be run more like a shakedown for the car to prepare to do S5000 properly next year.”

While the three-race stint may be part of a longer-term plan, Webster hopes that he will put in strong performances this weekend.

“I do really hope I’m going to be more competitive,” Webster said.

“I feel more confident than I was last year.

“88 Racing gave me so many opportunities last year, running with them was awesome. I learned a lot from that year, a lot about the car that we can take into this new team.

“We had a little run a couple of days ago at Winton in the car and that went really well, the hopes are high.”

Four S5000 races are scheduled

to take place during the six-day Bathurst 1000 event between November 30 – December 5, completing the seven-race Tasman Series.

At this stage the team will not run at Mount Panorama in the second leg of the 2021 series, electing to focus their efforts on a single round.

“We probably won’t go to Bathurst, at the moment we’re not doing Bathurst,” Webster confirmed.

Webster will be at SMP tomorrow night for a pre-season test under lights, before competitive S5000 action kicks off on Friday.

“I’ll be there Thursday night. I’m really looking forward to the open pit line, which is going to be really cool,” Webster said.

Two S5000 races are scheduled for Saturday at 2:10pm AEDT and 5:25pm, respectively.

The final encounter will take place at 11:50am on Sunday.

LATEST NEWS

GIOVINAZZI JOINS DRAGON PENSKE IN FORMULA E

By Josh Nevett ANTONIO GIOVINAZZI will swap Formula 1 for Formula E in 2022, signing for Dragon Penske after losing his Alfa Romeo seat to Guanyu Zhou.

The Italian driver will leave Alfa Romeo at the end of the 2021 after three seasons with the F1 team, joining Dragon Penske which has been a mainstay of Formula E since its inception.

Giovinazzi joins Sergio Sette Camara, who will drive the #7 Penske EV-5 in the all-electric World Championship next year.

On tackling his new Formula E challenge, the 27-year-old was excited.

“It’s going to be thrilling, it’s going to be challenging, it’s going to be… electrifying,” Giovinazzi said.

Ahead of his exit, Giovinazzi shared his thanks to Alfa Romeo.

“I think there is nothing more beautiful than being able to say thank you,” Giovinazzi wrote on social media.

“Thanks for everything Alfa Romeo and to those team members who have supported me over all these wonderful years.

“The biggest thank you is for my fans, who have always been close to me.”

There were mixed emotions for Giovinazzi in leaving, however, as he rued the influence of money on F1 positions.

It is understood that the newly signed Zhou has

strong financial backing from his native China, which is a nation that also represents a growing audience and market for F1.

“F1 is emotion, talent, cars, risk, speed,” Giovinazzi said.

“But when money rules it can be ruthless.

“I believe in the surprise of an unexpected result, of big or small victories achieved thanks to one’s commitment.”

Since joining Alfa Romeo in 2017, Giovinazzi has appeared in 59 races (including two for Sauber), with a best result of fifth in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.

He sits 18th in the 2021 standings, with a single point to his name earned at Monaco.

Alfa Romeo Racing Team Principal Frederic Vasseur reflective in his farewell to Giovinazzi.

“Saying goodbye to a driver is never easy, especially so in the case of Antonio, who has been part of the team for so long,” Vasseur said.

“As we part ways, we will cherish the memories of the good times and learn lessons from the bad ones, knowing these moments all made us grow together as a team.

“We wish Antonio the best for his future after the 2021 season: before then, we still have three races to achieve some good results together and finish the year strongly.”

The remaining F1 rounds will be held in Qatar, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi, the season concluding on December 12.

S5000 TASMAN SERIES LANDS SHANNONS SPONSORSHIP

By Josh Nevett Shannons has been announced as the title partner for the upcoming S5000 Tasman Series.

The Shannons logo and branding will be present on the nosecone and rear wing endplates of every car competing in the series, which starts on Friday at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Three races will be held at SMP, before the series heads to Mount Panorama with four races as part of the six-day Bathurst 1000 event from November 30 – December 5.

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions international drivers have been given the green light to take part, diversifying a strong field which will compete for the $50,000 prize pool as well as and the iconic Tasman Cup trophy.

Before competition kicks off, a preseason test will be held at SMP on Thursday night.

Shannons National Manager Business Development Simon Jreige was thrilled to confirm Shannons’ involvement.

“Shannons is excited to be the major partner for the S5000 Tasman Series,” Jreige said.

“We are looking forward to supporting this thrilling category at two special events, particularly the Bathurst 1000 which will mark the long-awaited debut for S5000 at Bathurst and the return of V8 open wheelers to the Mountain for the first time since 1970.”

Australian Racing Group (ARG) General Manager of Commercial and Partnerships Nestora Strintzos believed Shannons was a fitting partner for the Tasman Series.

“The coming weeks will be a momentous period of competition for Australia’s premier open wheel formula, with the S5000 drivers and teams racing for the historic Tasman Cup trophy at two spectacular events and circuits,” Strintzos said.

“It is pleasing to align a series of such importance with Shannons, the leading and respected insurance provider for motoring enthusiasts, and a brand which continues to put its passion and investment into Australian motorsport.”

Shannons has a long history of motorsport involvement in Australia,

while currently holding naming rights of the Motorsport Australia Championships and a partnership with the Touring Car Masters Series.

Racing from Sydney and Mount Panorama will be broadcast live on a combination of the Seven Network, Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT EQUIPMENT

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST Expressions of interest are invited for equipment previously used by a National Motorsport category and now surplus to requirements.

The equipment was manufactured to the highest standard is ready to use and ideally suited to a National level category such as GT, Sports Cars, Touring Cars or Formula Cars.

• MoTec BOP (Balance of Performance) in-car Data Loggers security sealed units complete with car looms and dedicated laptop for data collection • Race Car scales: High quality fabricated scale pad (5m x 2m) with A&D Australasia ELP 3000 Weighbeam unit. Extremely low profile to suit GT / Sports Cars (only 100mm total pad height). Purpose built road case with all set up tools, laser level and levelling pads.

• Other Equipment: Assorted Hospitality area fittings, live timing screens etc. Radios with headsets.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: TIM - 0424 091 167

with Dan Knutson

MICHAEL ANDRETTI has cited ‘control issues’ as the reason that a deal to take over Sauber and subsequently enter Formula 1 failed. In Andretti’s first public statement since the deal fell through the 59-year-old made it clear that there was no financial reason behind the outcome. “It basically came down to control issues in the final hours of the negotiations. That’s what killed the deal,” Andretti said. JN FORMULA 1 Race Director Michael Masi is confident that changes to the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit will produce better racing in the Australian Grand Prix next year. The street circuit has undergone a redesign in the time between events, widening corners and removing chicanes in the pursuit of enhancing overtakes. “The changes have been aimed at improving that racing spectacle overall, and I’m quite confident with everything that’s been done,” Masi told the In the Fast Lane podcast. JN

VALTTERI BOTTAS has expressed his feelings of ‘failure’, having not won a Formula 1 title in his Mercedes career.

“Whatever I do for this sport it’s because of that. I want to be the champion,” Bottas told the Beyond the Grid podcast. “It kind of feels a failure that I haven’t been able to achieve that with Mercedes.” Bottas will join Alfa Romeo next season after five seasons at the Silver Arrows. JN

ASTON MARTIN Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has dismissed reports linking him with a switch to Alpine as “not based on fact”. Szafnauer released a statement on his Instagram account, rubbishing reports of him entering a senior role at Alpine as “pure media speculation”. Szafnauer took on his current role in 2018, when the team was known as Force India, maintaining the role through the Racing Point and now Aston Martin era’s. JN

IN A bid to promote local tourism, the 2022 Australian Grand Prix event will feature zones showcasing the very best of Victoria. Throughout the four-day event, the venue will be divided into five separate fan precincts with each showcasing a different Victorian region or tourist destination. The precincts are as follows, Melbourne, Phillip Island, Grampians, Yarra Valley, and the Great Ocean Road – each will celebrate Victoria through entertainment, culinary and cultural experiences, all of which will be inspired by its specific region. DM

24 AutoAction

THE REAR WING SAGA THERE WERE several different issues involved with the Mercedes rear wing saga in Brazil. One has been bubbling for a few races now: the awesome straightline speed of the Mercedes. Another was Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification when his Mercedes’ rear wing failed scrutineering after he won the pole in qualifying for the Sprint Qualifying race. Then there was Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff complaining that Mercedes is being treated unfairly.

“I just looked at the (Mercedes) rear wing and there’s clearly something going on,” Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said after qualifying.

He also lightly touched under the Mercedes rear wing, which is against the

rules when the cars are in parc fermé. That earned him a 50,000 euro ($78,000) fine.

“We have our suspicions that something is going on there,” he added. “At the beginning of the year we all had to change our rear wings with the pillar, so I think there’s still something going on. The main thing is that it’s opening up and giving them more top speed.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that Hamilton’s “straight-line speed is just mind boggling.”

“In Mexico, we saw the straight-line speed,” he said. “I think they were about 14 km/h quicker at the end of the straight than we were,” he said. “It’s down to the FIA to police. The rules are quite concise. I think

we very clearly know what it is.”

Hamilton’s car failed scrutineering because the Drag Restriction System flap on the rear wing opened up 0.02mm beyond the permitted 85mm. Wolff’s argument was that it was caused by damage during the session and, for example, in other cases if a front wing gets damaged during a session, the team is allowed to replace it and the driver gets no penalty.

Red Bull, for example, has changed parts on its rear wing when the car was in impound in each of the last three weekends.

But parts can be replaced for reliability worries. Others counter that the Mercedes wing failed the required inspection checks, a black and white matter. Wolff said this

EXHAUSTIVE EVALUATION GIVEN HOW the Formula 1 circus – and its equipment and cars – jet set around the world, it is a wonder that flight delays and cancelations don’t affect operations more often. Formula 1, the FIA, the teams, the engine manufacturers and suppliers such as Pirelli will conduct an exhaustive evaluation of the shipping processes after three cargo planes were delayed by fog in Mexico City.

In all, including the 10 hour flight, the last of the equipment arrived at Brazil’s Interlagos track at noon on Thursday. With the first practice session due to start 24 hours later, the teams did not have much time to build up their cars.

The regulations state that crewmembers must leave the circuit for at least eight hours every night – or day if it’s a night race – of a race weekend. Aussie Michael Masi, the FIA’s F1 race director, waived the curfew regulations so that the teams could work late into the night or all night if necessary. And the scrutineering deadline was delayed.

“We were heavily affected by the delay,” said McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl. “On our side the main freight was missing. So we didn’t

have the cars or the power units, and could only equipment by sea freight, and have five or six start in the afternoon rebuilding the cars. But identical sets in shipping containers going to with the arrival of them shortly after lunchtime different ports, and then those are trucked to we were in a position also with a big push from the various tracks – Austin, Mexico City and the entire team to finish around midnight. So Qatar for example.

Image: LAT the crew still had a decent rest. Not ideal, but But it is not feasible to do this with major and at the same time we are racers; we are used to expensive items like chassis, power units and IT building cars – after crashes for example – in equipment. an emergency, in quite a short amount of time.”

F1 dodged a bullet with the delay between Pirelli could not mount all the tyres because Mexico and Brazil, but next time things could be many teams were waiting for their wheel rims. much worse.

Along with McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Haas were the worst affected. Haas had the chassis but no engines and no tools. Aston Martin, meanwhile, had almost all of the essentials.

The reason for this disparity is that the teams get to choose what gets priority shipping, and they all have their own systems. There is not much time or room for error on back-to-back race weekends in countries far apart.

The teams send some of their

PROMOTERS WANT

SPRINT RACES ALL THE F1 race promoters would like to have the sprint qualifying race during their grand prix weekends next year. But only six of the record 23 races will get the format.

“We’ve in principle agreed with the teams that we will look toward six (sprint) events for next year,” said F1’s racing director Ross Brawn. “Our view is that we should take some progressive steps for next year but not radical steps.

That’s partly because we have the new car coming along, and everyone needs to settle down with the new car. We need to see the impact of the new car.”

The format consists of qualifying on Friday, and that sets the grid for a 100km sprint race on Saturday. And the results from that race set the grid for Sunday’s

305km grand prix.

Silverstone, Monza and Brazil’s Interlagos were the tracks chosen to have sprint races this year. Brawn said the six tracks for next year have yet to be selected.

“I think it’s clear that every promoter we have would like to have a sprint,” said Brawn, who did not rule out the format eventually being used at a majority of grands prix.

“There’s a number of factors we’ve got to take into consideration,” he said. “One is the spread throughout the year. How do we spread these events throughout the year?

“It’s probably not something we’d want to have at the first race, probably not something we want at the last race.

It would be nice to have a variety of circuits.”

Monaco would not be suitable for a sprint race because overtaking is so difficult on the twisty street circuit.

Points have been awarded this season for the top three drivers in the sprint, in a 3-2-1 system, but Brawn said that could be expanded next year to provide more of an incentive throughout the field. Perhaps about one-third of the number of points distributed on Sunday.

“Something around that order so it’s significant enough to be worth going for, it goes far enough down for people in lower positions to still want to fight for it but not of a number that has an overinfluence on the championship,” Brawn said.

was the exact same rear wing used in other races this year and it has always passed tech inspection.

Wolff says that the gloves are off now.

“In the next few races we are going to look at every single part and race tape and ask questions,” he said. “If such a thing as a gentleman’s agreement exists in Formula 1 – because there aren’t any gentlemen – then now it doesn’t anymore. So you have no leniency of fixing things on a car. If it’s broken, it’s broken and you can’t touch it.

This is how it’s going to go this year.”

Hamilton said he was concentrating on his job, and if others go low, he will go high. And he certainly went high by winning the race.

End of part 5

WILL JEDDAH BE READY? THE INAUGURAL Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia is scheduled for 5 December. Currently, however, the 6.175km 27-turn circuit and facilities in Jeddah still need a lot of work before they are complete and ready.

Will everything be finished in time?

The FIA’s Formula 1 race director, Australian Michael Masi, answered some questions on the subject after the Mexican Grand Prix.

“I was there a couple of weeks ago, there is a lot going on there, there is a huge amount of work happening concurrently,” he said. “The FIA and F1 are getting daily updates of where things are at and it’s progressing very, very quickly, so from when I was last there, yes there’s a lot to do, there’s nothing to deny there, I think everyone will acknowledge there’s a lot to do, but still confident of the race going ahead no problems.”

Is the FIA worried that the track will not be ready?

“I think there’s always an element of worry with everything. I’m quite confident, having been involved in Korea in 2010 which was the last one talked about, I think India was talked about, both of those went off with no problems at all, and I’m quite confident that Saudi will be exactly the same.”

What’s the essential stuff that needs to be done?

“I think obviously, not to sound too stupid, but a track, with all of the various safety installations, pit building, race control. Media centre, way down the list! Effectively if you take it back to its core element, everything track and safety related is the core element, so from FIA perspective they’re all the critical things. Having discussed it in detail with (designer Hermann) Tilke and the promoter I’ve got no concerns in that perspective.”

What if they don’t comply with the safety requirements?

“They will comply with every safety regulation. I’m very confident.”

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What happens if they don’t?

“I’m very, very hopeful and confident we won’t get anywhere near that point, having seen that level of progress and everything that has been used, put up, erected, between Tilke and experienced contractors that everyone that we normally use is there and force, and doing a fantastic job at the areas that are complete, and there are areas absolutely complete, the quality of work is first class.”

But if they don’t finish?

“They will finish. I have confidence. You may not but I do!”

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SUPERCARS CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Will Brown has just tasted Supercars success and Brodie Kostecki is not far off a win.

Anton De Pasquale has already done the job and Broc Feeney has been recruited to push the win tally up at The Bulls.

By Paul Gover and Dan McCarthy WILL BROWN proved the power of youth when he scored his first Repco Supercars Championship victory.

He completed a clean sweep for the 20-somethings when he claimed the final sprint race of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park, following Anton De Pasquale’s twin wins in the preceding battles.

Now it’s up to Brodie Kostecki, Brown’s team mate at Erebus Racing, to complete the changing of the guard at the top of Supercars.

And then comes Broc Feeney, who has been recruited to push up the win tally at The Bulls . . .

They are the leading wave of a new generation that’s flooding into Supercars with the potential to create the same sort of disruption as Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup did when they were just kids.

But are the youngsters arriving too young?

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Brown, who is just 23, delivered an emphatic NO at SMP. And what about the old-timers?

Jamie Whincup, who is retiring from full-time Supercars racing at the end of the year, has some firm ideas as he heads for senior management in 2022.

“The main reason why I’m moving over at the end of the year is to leave some space for the next gen,” says Whincup, whose place will be filled

by Feeney.

“There’s a lot of young kids in other categories at the moment who are showing real potential. They just need a start, they just need an opportunity.”

Whincup is hinting that some of the other greybeards should follow him off the grid, and it’s not hard to find them.

James Courtney is the oldest driver in Supercars and it’s been a long time since his last win and more than a decade since his championship year with Dick Johnson.

Even his most-recent podium, on the second weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, was more than a year after his previous success in Darwin with Tickford Racing.

Then there are Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard and even Tim Slade.

But there are still good reasons to hang onto the old-timers.

“Why do we have Will Davison?

Simple, because there is no-one who could do a better job,” says Ben

Croke, the Team Principal of Shell V-Power Racing.

It’s the same story for Charlie Schwerkolt, who owns and steers Team 18. He has just renewed Winterbottom and sees no reason to hurry him out the door.

“I have to give him better equipment, but he’s still got it,” says Schwerkolt.

Tim Edwards, Courtney’s boss at Tickford, is playing the long game with a foot in each camp.

Two of Supercars great drivers who are now considered veterans, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom. Both still have plenty to offer and are in demand according to their team owners.

Broc Feeny a fresh face with big shoes to fill at Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Images: Mark Horsburgh-Motorsport Images

“I have to give him better equipment, but he’s still got it,” says Schwerkolt.”

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“We’ve got both. What we have is a mix of youth and experience,” he says.

“And Courtney doesn’t behave like a 41-year-old. Mentally, he is in his late 20s. I’m sure that’s where he feels he’s at.”

But Barry Ryan, who has Brown and Kostecki at Erebus Racing, is a cheerleader for the youngster.

“There are too many drivers in the field who don’t deserve to be there,” Ryan says.

Many of the team bosses who have cars at the front of the grid are also pointing at the number of pay drivers in the field, although they are reluctant to name their names.

Supercars is no different from any other category when it comes to cashed-up kids, led by Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin in Formula One, because so many teams need a budget top-up from their drivers.

But is that so different from the old days, when successful businessmen with fat wallets - the history books list Ray Lintott and Kevin ‘Gunsmoke’ Waldock and cashed-up Kiwi David Thexton - were able to pay their way onto the grid.

The youngsters are quite capable of

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speaking for themselves, in and out of their cars.

“It’s fantastic for me to step up as young bloke, It’s great, like it’s a massive change-up at Erebus. For us to be up there with two rookies, and we’re having a lot of fun doing it, that’s what motorsport is about,” says Will Brown.

“It’s good to see, there’s a lot of us, we’ve been racing together for a while and been good mates and you always want new people to be on the podium and new faces,” says De Pasquale.

Whincup has more to say, and not

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just about drivers.

“In the management world, as well, there’s been a bit of change in the guard. We’re seeing a lot of young personnel taking on Team Principal roles and take on management positions within the teams as well, that’s also good to see.”

But he is focussed on the drivers as he takes a look back, and also casts forward to the other older races who will be following him into retirement from the Main Game.

“These next few years, there’s me and about four or five of the other boys, we all started together back in when in the early 2000s to mid 2000s. So we’re all coming to the end of the end of the road,” Whincup says.

“But it’s fantastic for the sport to have all the young kids going fast

and once a few young kids start tearing it apart, then it will sort of be like a Lowndsey scenario. “(That’s) When you put a 21-year-old kid in it. That’s when the Larrys and the Dick Johnsons and the Brockies of the world think ‘I’ll go do something else’. It’s good to see.

But Edwards is hanging onto Courtney, and it’s not just because he has Boost backing from Peter Adderton.

“James fits like a glove with the team, as a cultural fit, and with his relationship with Cam (Waters) and the engineers,” Edwards says.

“He’s very fit, he’s still very alert. I don’t see that as any impediment at all.

“He’s got a couple of decades of experience. That’s valuable. You cannot buy that kind of experience.

“He’s very fit, he’s still very alert. I don’t see that as any impediment at all.”

Brodie Kostecki a rookie that is not intimidated by the veterans (top). Tim Slade, (top right) a veteran with speed and plenty of experience that still counts when the going gets tough. Anton De Pasquale (above) was hot property and signed with DJR for ‘21, he now leads the pack of young drivers all aiming to be the stars of the sport. After gaining experience and winning in Super2, Supercar endurance co-drives and ‘Wildcard’ races in 2021, Thomas Randle (right) steps up to a full time drive with Tickford in 2022.

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“We’ve also got (Thomas) Randle and (Jake) Kostecki coming through.

And you look further forward to 2023, with Gen3, and that’s a black hole of unknown knowledge.

“So the more experience we’ve got to navigate that black hole, the better we’ll be.”

Experience is also one of the reasons why Charlie Schwerkolt is such a fan of Winterbottom.

“Mark is an exceptional person of great character. What he brings to the team is that sponsors absolutely love him, and the fans,” he says.

“It sells merchandise, it sells sponsorship, and he can still drive.

He’s still in the Top 10 drivers. He is better than his equipment at the moment.”

But Schwerkolt admits he is looking to the future.

“When he has completed his driving, my goal is to keep him in some form. He will do enduros for me, he will be around in my life for many years to come.

“That could be as an ambassador for Team 18, or with the Waverley Forklifts group.”

But Roland Dane, who took a gamble on youth when he signed Whincup to race alongside Lowndes and has backed a number of youngsters during his time in Supercars - including Scott Pye says he can see a need for young blood.

“There is a bit of seat blocking going on,” says Dane.

And Barry Ryan believes the time is coming for more of a clean-out.

“We need to let the young blokes come through,” he says.

Erebus Racing have committed to two rookies in their team and have backed both Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki. The young pair have delivered and are in the mix to become the future stars of the sport. Bryce Fullwood (below) is a recent Super2 series winner and fights hard to stay in Supercars.

YOUNGSTERS

VETERANS

THE YOUNG GUNS VERSUS THE VETERANS AND HOW THEY STACK UP BY THE NUMBERS AGE

RACE STARTS

RACE WINS

BEST BATHURST

BEST CHAMP

CURRENT POS

JAMIE WHINCUP

38

551

124

1st (2006, 07, 08, 12)

1st (2007, 08, 09, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17)

2nd

WILL DAVISON

39

481

19

1st (2009, 2016)

2nd (2009)

3rd

MARK WINTERBOTTOM

40

556

38

1st (2013)

1st (2015)

9th

JAMES COURTNEY

41

491

15

2nd (2007)

1st (2010)

10th

FABIAN COULTHARD

39

468

13

3rd (2017)

3rd (2017)

24th

TIM SLADE

36

363

2

5th (2020)

5th (2012)

11th

AGE

SUPERCARS STARTS

FIRST RACE

BEST RACE RESULT

BEST BATHURST

BEST S2 SEASON

ANTON DE PASQUALE

26

117

2018

1st

9th (2020)

4th (2017)

WILL BROWN

23

38

2018

1st

15th (2020)

2nd (2020)

BRODIE KOSTECKI

24

34

2019

2nd

9th (2020)

5th (2018)

BRYCE FULLWOOD

23

64

2018

3rd

20th (2018)

1st (2019)

THOMAS RANDLE

25

17

2019

3rd

9th (2019)

1st (2020)

BROC FEENEY

19

1

2020

10th

10th

7th (2020)

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AUDI’S CHARGE TOWARDS DESERT DOMINATION

Story: Paul Gover

AUDI IS leaving nothing to chance, especially safety, as it prepares for its first start in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.

As its RS Q e-tron rally cars are assembled at Audi’s competition headquarters in Germany, the desert duellers are packed with technology already proven in the company’s Le Mans sports cars, DTM touring cars, rallycross and Formula E programs.

The three RS Q e-trons will be driven

by Dakar veterans Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz, as well as race and rally star Mattias Ekstrom.

Testing is already well underway, both

30 AutoAction

through the towering red-sand dunes and rocky desert tracks in Morocco and at dedicated test tracks in Europe.

“Today, electromobility at the four rings is no longer a dream of the future, but the present,” says Markus Duesmann, chairman of Audi.

“We want to continue demonstrating the brand’s slogan Vorsprung durch Tecknik in international top-level motorsport in the future and develop innovative technologies for our road cars.

“This is why we are taking the next step in electrified motorsport by facing the most extreme conditions. The many

technical freedoms offered by the Dakar Rally provide a perfect test laboratory for us in this respect.”

The RS Q e-tron uses an electric drivetrain with an efficient TFSI combustion engine plucked from its DTM racers, but working as part of an energy converter that charges the high-voltage battery during driving. The battery, which weighs around 370 kilos and has a capacity of 50 kiloWatt-hours, powers slightly-modified motor-generator units taken from Audi’s latest Formula E car on the front and rear axles.

A third motor-generator units is used

as part of the energy converter and recharges the high-voltage battery while driving and also recovers braking energy.

The Dakar dueller has only one forward gear and the front and rear axles are not mechanically connected, as is also common in electric vehicles. Audi software handles torque distribution between the axles.

Measuring 4.5 metres long, 2.3 metres wide, and standing 1.95 metres high, the 2000-kilo RS Q e-tron has a maximum system power output of 500 kiloWatts and hits 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds on loose gravel, with a

regulated top speed of 170km/h.

The all-new raid racers begin life with a basic tubular steel frame but there is massive protection for the crew and high-voltage battery package as Audi uses the best technology it can find for the first hybrid-electric desert racer to tackle the Dakar.

“The risks in off-road racing were at the centre of the considerations for a sophisticated safety concept. From the electric safety of the high-voltage system, to optimum passenger protection in the event of accidents, the design department mastered many challenges,” says Audi.

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Although Dakar rules mandate a steelframe chassis, Audi has gone to the aerospace industry to find a heat-resistant, alloy-quenched and tempered steel that contains chromium, molybendum and vanadium.

The story is similar through every element of the car, including protection of the crew from the high-voltage elements of the drivetrain.

“The structural design of the frame incorporated methods and findings that we have honed over decades in many disciplines,” says Axel Löffler, the car’s chief designer.

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These include the tubular frame designs from the DTM (2004 to 2011) as well as the sheet steel chassis in rallycross (2017 to 2018) and the CFRP monocoques in the LMP sports cars (1999 to 2016), in the DTM touring car (2012 to 2020) and singleseater racing in Formula E (2017 to 2021).

Depending on the components, the body is made of CFRP, Kevlar or composite construction, in some cases supplemented by an internal honeycomb structure.

To protect from scratches, a heated and laminated glass windshield from the Audi A4 road car is used, while the side windows are made of lighter polycarbonate.

The cockpit has comprehensive dust sealing and the crew ride in CFRP shells, similar in design to the DTM and LMP cars. All the seat shells are identical, but foam inlays and inflatable seat cushions are adapted to each driver and navigator.

The high-voltage system of the electric drive, with its energy converter, requires multiple protection. The centrally located high-voltage battery is protected by CFRP structures, some reinforced by Zylon.

The lower protection is very complex to protect against the effects of metre-high jumps, whirling stones and large ramp angles.

32 AutoAction

It starts with an aluminium plate to resist abrasion and partially absorb impact energy, topped by energyabsorbing foam which distributes loads to an upper sandwich structure above.

This third structure protects the high-voltage battery and the gasoline tank.

In total, the structure is 54 millimetres thick.

“With these designs, we see a direct transfer of our knowledge from the circuit to cross-country rallying,” says Löffler.

“Admittedly, the energies are higher off-road because of the long suspension travel, the duration of the load and the vehicle mass, but the g-forces measured are similar to those of Le Mans prototypes.”

But, wait there’s more.

An ISO monitor in the car, also used in the Le Mans diesel hybrids and Formula E, detects dangerous fault currents. In the event of maximum kinetic loads, such as a collision, the system switches off automatically. In that case, lights on the body and an acoustic signal serve as danger warnings to the outside world.

Optimum insulation of the system against water during river crossings and an electrically insulating extinguishing agent in the on-board fire extinguisher are also used.

The RS Q e-tron rally cars have undergone punishing testing (left and below). Stripped bare in Audi’s headquarters (above), the ‘fromscratch’ purpose-built nature of the cars is obvious. Right: Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist are one of Audi’s driver/navigator pairings.

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WINTON: THE MOUSE THAT ROARED AT 60

Jim Richards’ Ford Falcon GT351 Hardtop up front, before winning the 1980 ASSC

Born as a small, country club track, Winton has evolved, with brilliant management, to be a critically important national circuit powerhouse of innovation and longevity. Mark Bisset summarises its journey at 60 years young.

AUSTRALIAN MOTOR racing grew exponentially from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. A strong economy, expanding individual wealth, plentiful consumer credit, cheap cars and Baby-Boomer’s we-goddit-let’s-spend-it attitude resulted in plenty of folks wanting to compete.

Clubs and commercial operators responded accordingly, building a swag of permanent circuits in that period; Amaroo Park, Adelaide International, Calder, Catalina Park, Hume Weir, Lakeside, Mallala, Oran Park, Port Wakefield, Sandown, Surfers Paradise, Tarrawingee, Wanneroo, Warwick Farm and Winton spring to mind. It’s a staggering list ... Winton is amongst the stayers.

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Images: Motorsport Images/autopics.com.au/ Auto Action archives/Benalla Auto Club

Scott McLaughlin’s Mustang leads the 2017 Supercars Championship Round.

Winton’s ‘capital city’ (Benalla)’s racing heritage goes way back to Easter Monday 1936, when Barney Denton’s Riley Special won the Benalla 100 Mile Motor Race, staged as part of centenary celebrations held on a triangular 2.5-mile road course.

Local Benalla High School teacher, the talented, pursuasive and energetic Bruce Watt formed the Benalla Auto Club on October 17, 1957 together with 10 attendees at a meeting held in Walkers Sports Store. They, and others were buoyed by the levels of local racing interest shown at the Wangaratta Airstrip (1953-1957) and Tarrawingee (1957-1965), close by.

The BAC’s first meeting was a gymkhana in Terretts Paddock, on the Hume Highway on November 24,

1957, then, with racing in mind, the club affiliated with CAMS in late 1958.

The club ran some meetings in farmers’ – Rex Cleeland and Tom Dinan – paddocks at Barjarg, 45km to Benalla’s south from November 1958 to April 1961.

“Six of us travelled across from Shepparton to watch the January ’59 meeting and ended up competing,” Bryan Thomson recalled to Auto Action.

“Payment of £1 and production of a crash-helmet got you on the grid, I managed a win and a lap record in my first meeting! The track was a graded section within a dirt paddock, I did another meeting there too.”

The shortcomings of Barjarg were obvious. However, some members knew of the 102-acre Winton Recreation

Reserve which had become disused as the township declined.

The club quickly got behind the proposal to build a 2.03km circuit in the natural amphitheatre. The track was built in 12 months with enormous local support, and generosity of time, materials – and credit! – at a cost of £4,500.

“Ten of us provided bank guarantees of £1,000 each, to secure the funds to seal the circuit. I finally got a letter from the ANZ Bank in 1985 releasing me from the commitment!” Thommo recalled with a big chuckle.

A crowd of about 6,000 saw local boy Barry Stilo set the lap-record at the first, November 26, 1961, meeting.

Stilo raced Faux Pas, a Holdenpowered, Cooper-esque mid-engined single-seater special which still exists today, setting the pace at in 1 min 24.2 seconds. These days, the Club Circuit record is held by Mark Larkham’s Reynard 90D Holden at 52.99 sec – that’s progress!

Other contestants that day included Thomson in the Monza Holden, Peter Macrow in the ex-Garrie Cooper Cooper Austin, Jack Hunnam (Lotus 18 Ford), Stumpy Russell in Nedloh, Brian Sampson (Austin A30) and the recently deceased Frank Coad, Lotus 7.

“The place was a bitumen track meandering it’s way around a giant, dry paddock. It was very much club racing at its best,” said Thomson.

Winton’s first championship event was held in December 1962 when the 20-lap

Victorian Formula Junior Championship was won by John Ampt’s Ausper Ford from Wally Mitchell in the very first Brabham built, the MRD Ford, and Ian Cook’s Birchwood Racing School (located at Calder) Lotus 18.

Showing great progress, in March 1965 Winton attracted 10,000 spectators from Melbourne to Albury and beyond to see the Neptune Racing Team – Norm Beechey’s Mustang, Jim McKeown’s Lotus Cortina and Peter Manton’s Cooper S. Many competitors cut their teeth at Winton, not least Peter Brock who first raced the car which thrust him into the spotlight, his famous Austin A30 Holden, on November 26, 1967.

However much the BAC Chief Executive Mick Ronke (and others before him) wanted national championship events, the original circuit’s short 2.03km length – addressed by construction of the National Circuit extension to 3km in 1997 – mitigated against that, but Winton worked hard as a favourite test circuit and state series venue for cars and bikes.

Long-time BAC President/rally driver/ Benalla pharmacist Bruce Robertson recalls fondly the huge contribution Ronke made to the track throughout his working life, until his untimely death in 2013.

“He had a ‘build-something-every-year’ strategy – we were constantly improving the place. Mick and (Mallala’s) Clem Smith had a private war for decades as to who had the most garages!”

While deemed too short for Gold Star

Winton short circuit as it was before bitumen was laid. Note the kink between Turns 1 and 2.

Winton construction under way in 1961, that backdrop hasn’t changed too much! rounds, the club organised $10,000 in prize money and created the Rose City 10,000 for ANF1 cars, Formula 5000 in 1976. Alf Costanzo won it aboard his Lola T332 Chev.

Thinking big, the BAC – the mouse that always roared – had the Australian racing world descend on Benalla in October 1978 to see ‘76 F1 World Champion James Hunt swap his McLaren M26 Ford F1 car for an F5000 Elfin MR8 Chev. In a fast, measured performance all weekend, Hunt won the 30 lap 10,000 from Costanzo and Kevin Bartlett, Brabham BT43 Chev.

The challenge of racing 5-litre, 500bhp roller skates around the tight bucolic confines of Victoria’s north-east was mega! John Bowe first raced there in 1979.

“It was one of the first tracks on the Mainland I raced on – the Rose City 10,000 was a big-deal for a chap from Tassie. They towed the racers through Benalla to build interest on the Saturday,” recalled the then wide-eyed innocent JB to Auto Action!

“My Elfin MR8 was the chassis Hunt used the year before. Its steering was incredibly heavy. I had this torrid dice with Smithy (John Smith) in his nimble Formula Pacific Ralt RT1 ... my abiding memory is my arms just about falling off well before the end of the race.”

The 10,000 proved to CAMS that Winton’s organisation was up to snuff.

The circuit then held Gold Star rounds for over 20 years throughout the F5000, F Mondial, Formula Holden/Brabham and Formula 3 eras.

Many of our greats won there, including Costanzo in his Lola and Tiga FA81 Ford F Pacific and John Bowe in his Ralt RT4 Ford.

“I remember convincing myself I could take The Sweeper flat-chat in top before the next session. When I tried it, I nearly

FVee dice into the ‘Cows Tits’, early 1970s. Ian Edgar’s Elfin from Ric McKibbin’s Venom. Note the rough old curbs marked by halfsunken tyres.

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ended up in Wang, and spun enough times for my eyes to be spinning in their sockets!” Bowe recalled with a laugh.

Formula Holden victors included Indy winner Will Power, Jason Bargwanna, Paul Stokell, Mark Larkham and Simon Wills – all raced Reynards. In more recent times F3 Dallara winners included Tim Macrow and Joey Foster ... roll on S5000 missiles on Winton’s swoops and dives!

Winton held national sports car rounds from 1978. Ross Mathiesen’s Porsche 911 Carrera RSR won that year, along with the national title. He repeated the dose in ‘79. Equally spectacular was Allan Moffat’s victory in Alan Hamilton’s Porsche 930 Turbo in 1980. The sight and sound of Bap Romano’s 3.9-litre Ford DFL-powered, Queensland-built Kaditcha sports-prototype howling its V8 way at 9,000rpm around the track, and echoing through the surrounding hills, in back-to-back 1983-1984 wins was worth travelling a long way to see.

F2 Championship rounds followed from 1979 when Graham Engel triumphed in a Cheetah Mk6 Ford.

Small-bore single-seaters are superbly suited to the track – later topliners who raced there included Bowe, Smith, Brian Shead, Brian Sampson and Peter Macrow – both Winton perennials from the very first meeting until the end of their long careers – Lucio Cesario, Richard Davison, Ian Richards, Peter Larner and Mark McLaughlin.

Sports Sedans represented a challenge of an altogether different Winton variety! Jim Richards’ Murray Bunn-built Ford Falcon XC 351 Hardtop was an old-tech car by then but was typically Jim-quick. JR was third in the Australian Championship with it in 1980 – first at Winton – behind Tony Edmondson’s Alfa Alfetta GTV RepcoHolden. Edmondson was victorious at Winton the following year. Equally impressive was 1980 World F1 Champ Alan Jones’ drive of Porsche Cars Australia Porsche 935/80 – a tricky enough beast even on the wide-open spaces of Le Mans – to victory in 1982.

Kevin Bartlett remembers his ’85 win in Paul Halstead’s De Tomaso Pantera with affection.

“I really liked the track. I ran on the short circuit in the De Tomaso and Brabham BT43 Chev F5000. It was a bit like Amaroo and Oran Park short-circuit – busy, busy, busy!” KB recalled.

“The Pantera (built by Kaditcha’s Barry Lock) was effectively a ground-effect car, – even with a cooking 351 it was really quick at Winton, we won the day. I didn’t win with the BT43 but its compactness worked there, I’ve got happy memories of the place.”

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John Bowe’s Sierra RS500 holds off the M3 BMWs of Tony Longhurst and Alan Jones, 1992 ATCC round.

Dick Johnson in the distance.

Winton is also a popular bike racing track.

Ronke beavered away to secure Australian Touring Car Championship rounds. The BAC team’s hard work was finally rewarded in 1985. In a day of firsts, Jim Richards’ Group A BMW 635CSi triumphed – it was also the first all Group A race and first BMW ATCC triumph.

“Another reason I love the place is because I scored my first ATCC win there!” Bowe recalled. “I’d been knocking on the door a few times, but finally got the breakthrough win there at the wheel of one of Dick’s (Johnson) Sierra RS500s in 1988. I had a pretty good run there too; another two race wins in a DJR Falcon EF V8 Supercar in 1995, and another two aboard an EL three years later.”

JB is the winningest Winton ATCC/ Supercars racer, sharing five race victories with Glenn Seton – those weekends regularly drew crowds of 30,000 over the three days.

“The extension made to the track in 1997 didn’t add to Winton’s character but it’s still good. It doesn’t matter who ran the place over the years, the BAC

Bryan Thomson’s Torana Chev Sports Sedan on one of his thousands of Winton laps, in 1972.

Long time servant of the Benella Auto Club and Winton Raceway, Mick Ronke, at left, working in the old control tower wth a crew of club volunteers and officials.

people have been great with a can-do attitude, country atmosphere, fun. I’m still up there about twice a month – I was helping a bloke sort his TCM car a fortnight ago. Winton make it easy for you, they always have.”

“The ATCC, now Supercar Championship rounds, have been hard won commercial successes,” Bruce Robertson points out to Auto Action.

“We have always been a bottomthree venue from CAMS/Supercars perspective, so we have worked hard on our facilities and organisation to retain the race. In 1996 CAMS doublebooked ATCC circuit allocations – the nett effect of subsequent complex settlement negotiations gave us three years of event certainty, and the cash to lengthen the track. Our corporate centre can seat and feed 1,200 people ... not many tracks can do that.”

Memorable Winton ATCC/Supercars wins include Jason Bargwanna’s three on the trot aboard a Garry Rogers VT Commodore in 1999.

Marcos Ambrose gets an award for his trackside tyre-deflation trick to escape Winton’s notoriously capricious sodden infield in 2004 aboard his Stone Brothers Falcon BA; it was the same day that Cam McConville controversially won his first Supercars race in a yellow-flag moment, to Rick Kelly’s cost.

James Moffat’s, Nissan Altima victory in 2013 upon Nissan’s return to the sport, was a tear-jerking special for the Moffats and Nissan. Others were Tim Slades’ two wins aboard local-lad Brad Jones VF Commodore in 2016.

Then, in 2018, several days after Nissan announced their withdrawal from racing, Rick Kelly’s Altima won at Winton in his final Supercars victory.

Who can forget the Tony Longhurst/ Paul Morris ‘world championship fight’

Scott McLaughlin, DJR Team Penske Ford leads onto the old start-finish straight at Winton, 2019.

Brian Shead and #25 Peter Macrow, Cheetah Mk6 Toyotas lead the chasing F2 pack in 1979.

Barry Ward, Birrana #51 and Werner Rodkin, Brabham #50.

Winton’s campimng ground has become a mecca for regional – and metro – Victorian race fans.

James Hunt (below, and left)en route to Rose City 10,000 victory aboard the Elfin MR8 Chev in 1978 in a mghty impressive performance.

– caught wonderfully live on TV – after the two BMW super-tourer teammates locked wheels and clobbered the fence in 1994.

My suggestion that one of the reasons Winton has thrived while other circuits listed at the outset have failed, is that Benalla is a long way from our capital cities and rapacious property developers, made Bruce Robertson bristle.

“It’s true that we are a long way from Melbourne, but we still have plenty of people grizzling about noise, fumes,

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people and all the rest. To get the planning amendments we needed to keep Winton open has cost us $1m in the last 15 years. Unbelievable.

“You would think we are far enough from Benalla from a noise perspective.

We pump over $30m into the local economy, as far south as Euroa, and Wang to the north to have council support. But it’s not always the case – it goes in cycles of love-hate depending on the construct of the council at the time.

“Like any business, you have to

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keep on top of things and continually adapt – we have been pretty good at that. In many ways creating the AASA (Australian Auto-Sport Alliance) in 2003 is one of our greatest achievements. It gave circuits and competitors a choice between CAMS (Motorsport Australia) and AASA sanctioned events, which has been a great thing for competitors, and us. There have been a few tears along the way, but we co-exist quite happily these days – the purchase of Wakefield Park in 2007 gave us added clout with them too.

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“From a commercial perspective, it’s meant we have been able to stand on our own two feet rather than always follow the CAMS required line. That’s cost some other circuits. If you are independent, you make your own decisions. We are handily placed now, but these are difficult ... changing times ... so some upcoming BAC meetings are critical to review our vision and reset the sails for the next few years.”

Winton is, and always has been a magic place to race and spectate.

It’s a critical part of the Victorian race infrastructure as our ‘industrial circuit’ too. Sandown and Phillip Island usage is limited by noise constraints.

Winton is used by cars, bikes and Superkarts, for private practice, new car releases, six-hour races, two huge annual historic meetings, not to forget that it’s the Victorian Supercars teams’ designated test-track; it works hard.

“Believe it or not, the short-circuit can be used 24-7, it’s an historic anomaly in our planning permit,” Robertson said with a chuckle!

Winton’s country friendly-‘tude is juxtaposed by good old fashioned BAC commercial nous. Happy 60th Winton – there is no reason to doubt a centenary celebration is in the offing. Bruce Watt, Winton’s father, would be mighty proud of you and your disciples.

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ANTONIO

ASTUTI

CHASING DREAMS From Australian Formula 4 to S5000 and the Bathurst 6 Hour, Antonio Astuti has had a mixed bag of racing experiences. JOSH NEVETT chatted with Astuti about his highlights and hurdles so far.

MOST PEOPLE don’t get to choose where or when they experience the peaks of their lives, but Albert Park on Grand Prix weekend would be high on the list of preferences for an Australian in motorsport.

Antonio Astuti was fortunate enough to live that dream, with years of hard work culminating in his maiden win on the Australian Grand Prix weekend in 2019 in front of the Formula 1 fraternity.

The 20-year-old has now had over two years to reflect on that win and the overarching Australian Formula 4 Championship season that propelled him into the S5000 Australian Drivers Championship earlier this year.

It is fair to say that it remains vivid in his memory.

“That was surreal,” Astuti recalls to Auto Action.

“After I did a couple laps around and then the first session, I fell in love with the place.

“Everything clicked, the car felt good, beautiful weather and that first win didn’t really sink in until a few minutes after I’d hopped out of the car.

“Dad was working with another category which was on the other side of the paddock, and he sprinted over with some other team members to come give me a big hug.

“I’d always wanted to be able to race an open wheeler at the Australian Grand Prix, so it was cool to be able to compete.

38 AutoAction

To win, that was pretty special.

“It was a big morale booster and gave me a bit of mojo throughout the season.

“Every now and then if I get a chance, I’ll duck down and do my own little track sightings at Albert Park.”

You must trace Astuti’s journey back to his early childhood to understand why the F4 victory meant so much.

The son of a former driver and team owner, Astuti has been passionate and dedicated to motorsport his entire life.

“I have grown up around the track because my dad used to run a Formula 3 team during the time that I was growing up,” Astuti said.

“My journey itself started when I was seven years old, and dad bought me a go kart.

“Throughout karting we raced as a family team, I never raced with a team,

we just rocked up with a van and trailer and travelled around.

“We were competitive, but that’s how I bonded with dad and my brother – by racing with them most weekends every year.

“Towards the end of my karting career, I raced KZ2 at the Nationals. We had a good year, running up the front, almost had a podium, which was exciting and fun to look back on now.”

Out of karting Astuti stepped into the Australian Formula 4 Championship, experiencing the trials and tribulations of privateer car racing on his way to 10th in 2018.

It was a challenge that the driver values in hindsight.

“It was a last-minute gig,” Astuti said candidly.

“At the Grand Prix we spoke to the

category organisers and put something together for the first round, which was only a few weeks from that point.

“We took the car to our workshop and prepared it ourselves and entered the first season as a father and son team, with my brother helping and an engineer from the time when dad used to run his own team.

“It was a big learning curve and a big step up, my first round in a car was a Supercars round, fully televised with big crowds.

“I had only had a day or so to learn the car and rocking up that first round, we didn’t have an engineer, so I was busting the technical team, learning how to do my own data.

“From there the season was good in terms of developing as a driver, it wasn’t easy as I had to learn and develop myself.”

The lack of outside assistance paid dividends for Astuti heading into his second season, as he hit the ground running immediately with AGi Sport.

After a breakthrough victory in

Melbourne, the rising talent put a consistent season including two wins and nine podiums on the way to fourth place overall.

“That was an exciting season,” Astuti fondly remembers.

“I would have to say that first year, I did a lot of learning and developing as a driver, but it was difficult to nail a car setup because I was the one relaying information to set up the car.

“Whereas in the second year, I competed with AGi. “They had already been successful in F4 since its inaugural season, so they had the car dialled in, I could really focus more on me as a driver and improving everything behind the wheel, leaving the car set up and those sort of things to them.

“Off the bat we rocked up at the Grand Prix, I won a race and almost

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won the round.”

The successful follow-up F4 season saw Astuti enter S5000 this year, yet again as a father and son operation.

Despite staying within the open wheel pathway, Astuti admitted that it was difficult to adapt to the V8 powered S5000 monsters.

“It was like night and day – just two completely different beasts,” Astuti said.

“There are a lot of different driving style techniques to grasp hopping into the S5000, it was a lot more of a physically demanding car as well.

“Every page in the book of knowledge that I’d put together based on learning how to drive the F4 sort of got thrown out, I had to start again, but I really liked it.

“They’re really fast and challenging to drive and I think that’s what a top-level open wheeler should be.

It was another year of learning, as Astuti finished 11th among strong competition, with eighth place as a best race finish, but missed the final round.

Those results have left him with some unfinished business in the category.

“I feel like I do have some stones left unturned, I didn’t quite get the results that I was aiming for,” Astuti asserted.

“We competed as a family team on a low budget just like my first season in F4, which made it tricky.

“So yes, if I could have another crack, I do believe that I could certainly chase some better results.”

While racing with his father has brought about unique challenges, Astuti still sees the man as his foremost mentor and idol in the world of motorsport.

“Dad, he’s number one,” Astuti confirmed.

“He’s been the person behind me since the beginning, he’s there through thick and thin, and nothing that I’ve achieved would have been possible without him.”

In April, Astuti had the opportunity to add tin top racing to his resume,

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Opposite: After the 2020 AGP event was cancelled, Astuti race-debuted in S5000 this year, in a beautifully turned-out car – quite a contrast with his AGP event-winning Formula 4.

Top: Dream realised – the win at the F1 GP ... Middle: It all started in karts ... and (above) the S5000 is the biggest, fastest thing Antonio has raced to date. competing in the Bathurst 6 Hour for US Customs.

The team’s HSV VE GTS failed to finish, but the experience of lapping Mount Panorama was nonetheless thrilling for a driver looking to transition away from the open wheeler scene.

“That was one of those experiences that you never forget,” Astuti said.

“I thoroughly enjoyed that weekend as my first time steering anything at the mountain, I managed to get the opportunity with a fantastic team at the very last minute.

“Unfortunately, we had a fair number of little gremlins throughout, the car that chased us around all weekend, which meant that our lap count wasn’t great.”

The Bathurst 6 Hour took on a particular significance for Astuti, who dreams of competing in endurance GT

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racing overseas down the track.

It is that aspiration that will drive him ahead after a frustrating period away from motorsport during COVID. “My dreams have always been endurance racing,” Astuti concludes.

“My biggest dream would be to win Le Mans, so I’m trying to pursue a career in that direction.

“Whatever step I can make that can get me towards that dream, is what I’m going to try and do next year.

“I’d love to spend my weekends at places like Spa and the Nurburgring, driving the best GT equipment in the world. That’s that is the long-term goal.”

With resilience, talent and ambition on his side, there is no reason why Antonio Astuti can’t achieve those desires.

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39

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By Paul Gover, News Editor John Smailes is a relentless researcher with a commitment to story-telling that is obvious in his new book.

He has gone all-in to tell the tale of every significant ANZAC who has been involved in grand prix racing, from the 1950s until today, and it’s reflected in Formula One - The Australian and New Zealand Story.

Smailes was a regular in the Albert Park pitlane long before he turned to books, striding confidently with his unique John Cleese-style gait while thrusting a microphone under the nose of anyone considered worthy of a comment.

He was a motorsport follower and insider from the 1970s and also ran a high-powered and highly-successful public relations agency before taking the opportunity for a (slightly) quieter life that has given him the time to focus on writing from his harbour-view home office in Sydney.

His efforts as an author have won praise in each case and Mark Webber describes his newest work as “A great celebration of Australasian Formula One.” Jack Brabham is the obvious starting point, with Oscar Piastri as the bookend, but this book goes deeply into the lives and stories of engineers and mechanics and even an occasional journalist.

In every case, there are new facts and new views that take the book a long way from a boring set of statistics.

Even the most devoted motorsport fan will find something new, thanks to the commitment of Smailes - who was nicknamed ’The Sultan’ for

his high-energy and high-stress commitment to excellence.

In a year crowded with new motorsport books, many of them biographies that focus on a single subject from the Supercars paddock, this one is wide ranging and entertaining.

It’s not a single-focus effort like Smailes’ biography of Allan Moffat, or as dense and detailed as his most-recent book on the Indianapolis 500 and the ANZACs who raced there.

What makes this one good, and suitable for people with only a passing interest in F1, is the tabloid approach that Smailes has taken.

The chapters are bite-sized and tightly written, relying on first-person quotes to carry them along. And there are no time-consuming tables of results.

The book is well produced, with a hard cover and thick stock, as well as a slightlyunusual format that works well for the pictures, and is great value at $39.99 from Allen & Unwin.

Formula 1

Round 18 Mexican Grand Prix

HE IS QUICK Max Verstappen was untouchable in Mexico

Report: Dan Knutson Images: Motorsport Images IT WAS several laps into the 71 laps of the Mexican Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton radioed in: “He is quick!”

“He” was Max Verstappen who was leading the race in his Red Bull. Hamilton was second in his Mercedes, chasing hard but not making a dent in Verstappen’s advantage. Actually, Hamilton’s main challenge as the race wound down was keeping local hero Sergio Pérez, in the other Red Bull, in third place, at bay.

And that’s how it ended, with Verstappen winning in Mexico for the third time and extending his lead over Hamilton in the Drivers’ World Championship to 19 points. Pérez, much to the delight of the 140,000 fans, finished third to become the first ever Mexican driver to celebrate on the podium in his home grand prix.

On paper, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez should have been a Red Bull Honda track, so it was a surprise that Mercedes, for the first time this season, locked out the front row of the grid. Valtteri Bottas took the pole and his teammate Hamilton joined him on the front row. Verstappen and Pérez were on row two.

The outcome of the race was pretty much decided in the first 20 seconds and the first two turns. Verstappen swept around the outside to take the lead.

“I knew the start was very important today,” he said.

“We were three wide at one point, and I was on the more ideal race line so I could brake later and get into the lead. After that I could do my own thing, The pace was very good today so I could just keep building and creating a gap, the pit stops were seamless and the car was good throughout the race which was crucial.”

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Only in Mexico ... ‘Mari Archi’ visited all the teams ...

Hamilton believes that Bottas left the door open for Verstappen.

“I was alongside Valtteri which was good,” Hamilton said, “and then I was just covering my side of the track trying to make sure that no-one could come up the inside.

“So I was trying to keep whichever Red Bull I could see in my mirror behind, and I thought Valtteri would be doing the same. But obviously, he left the door open for Max, and Max was on the racing line so did a mega job braking into Turn 1.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo, who had qualified seventh in his McLaren, tagged Bottas into a spin.

“The first lap incident was about as painful as they get because your race is pretty much over from the start,” said Ricciardo who had to pit for a new front wing and eventually finished 12th. “I was in a tricky position because I knew that if I didn’t go for it, someone else would have, and I’d probably have been swamped by other cars. At the end of the day, I think it’s just a lap one incident. The start was good and those first few hundred metres were looking positive.

Verstappen threw the Red Bull around the outside of the Mercs at Turn 1 while (below) Ricciardo clattered into Bottas and spun the Merc around ...

Come fly with me .... Tsunoda runs over Schumacher while Sainz’s Ferrai leads the pack.

2021 MEXICAN GRAND PRIX 71 LAPS

Leclerc led a Ferrari 5-6 finish.

“I think we were potentially in P4, and in a splitsecond it changes. That’s the nature of the beast, but these ones are pretty painful because you have to endure the race and hope something happens ... but nothing really did.”

Bottas spent the rest of the race chasing Ricciardo.

“It was an unlucky day for me today,” said Bottas. “As I turned into Turn 1, I got hit from behind and it spun me around. Then I was stuck in traffic and couldn’t make progress. I was giving it everything but it was hard running in traffic because I was overheating the brakes and engine, so I couldn’t get past the McLaren in front.”

Bottas would pit late in the race for fresh tyres so that he could set the fastest lap and thus keep Verstappen from getting the extra point for doing just that.

More action in the first turns saw Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Mick Schumacher (Haas) tangle with the Alpine of Esteban Ocon and both fly up into the air and into retirement at Turn 2. Pérez ran across the grass at Turn 1, but rejoined in third.

That brought out the Safety Car for four laps.

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Verstappen outfoxed Hamilton on the restart and led for the rest of the way except for the pit stop cycle that put Pérez out front from lap 34 to 39.

Pérez got close to the second-placed Hamilton but then faded back a bit.

“This is a great result for my country,” Pérez said.

“I really wanted more but unfortunately we didn’t get that. It was so messy in Turn 1 so to avoid an incident there was critical and then I wanted second place, but we didn’t get the chance because it is just so difficult to overtake around here.

“I was really close to getting Lewis but the Mercedes are so quick on the straight lines, so I didn’t get an opportunity to go for it but I gave my best. I could feel the fans’ energy when I was going through the stadium sector and I was thinking about how many people were here for me, I could actually hear the crowd!”

It was a good day for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc fifth and Carlos Sainz sixth, beaten by a very fast Pierre Gasly/AlphaTauri. And that moved Ferrari ahead of McLaren and into third place in the Constructors’ Championship.

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Pos Driver

Team

Laps Margin

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing

71

2

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

71

+16.555s

3

Sergio Perez

Red Bull Racing

71

+17.752s

4

Pierre Gasly

AlphaTauri

71

+63.845s

5

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

71

+81.037s

6

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

70

+1 lap

7

Sebastian Vettel

Aston Martin

70

+1 lap

8

Kimi Raikkonen

Alfa Romeo Racing 70

+1 lap

9

Fernando Alonso

Alpine

70

+1 lap

McLaren

70

+1 lap

10 Lando Norris

11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing

70

12 Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren

70

+1 lap

13 Esteban Ocon

Alpine

70

+1 lap

14 Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

69

+2 laps

15 Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes

69

+2 laps

16 George Russell

Williams

69

+2 laps

17 Nicholas Latifi

Williams

69

+2 laps

18 Nikita Mazepin

Haas

68

+3 laps

DNF Mick Schumacher Haas

0

DNF Yuki Tsunoda

0

AlphaTauri

Points: Verstappen 312.5, Hamilton 293.5, Bottas 185, Perez 165, Norris 150, Leclerc 138, Sainz 130.5, Ricciardo 105, Gasly 86, Alonso 60, Ocon 46, Vettel 42, Stroll 26, Tsunoda 20, Russell 16, Raikkonen 10, Latifi 7, Giovinazzi 1 Constructors’: Mercedes 478.5, Red Bull Racing 477.5, Ferrari 268.5, McLaren 255, Alpine 106, AlphaTauri 106, Aston Martin 68, Williams 23, Alfa Romeo Racing 11, Haas 0

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Formula 1

Round 19 Brazilian Grand Prix

AGAINST ALL ODDS Lewis Hamilton overcame a total of 25 grid place penalties to win in Brazil and shaved the points lead Report: Dan Knutson Images: Motorsport Images LEWIS HAMILTON has a method to deal with adversity: don’t give up and fight even harder. He used that in Brazil to earn his 101st Formula 1 victory.

“I don’t remember another weekend like this,” the Mercedes driver said. “It’s quite overwhelming. This has been probably one of the best weekends, if not the best weekend, that I have experienced since – probably in my whole career.”

Hamilton’s victory prevented Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished second, from further extending his lead in the world championship.

Only 14 points separate the two drivers with just three races remaining in the season.

The Brazilian Grand Prix – renamed the Sao Paulo Grand Prix this year– was the third and final of the experimental Sprint Qualifying weekends this season.

Therefore, the conventional qualifying hour was staged on Friday instead of Saturday. Hamilton topped that, and that put him on pole for Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying – a 24-lap race that would determine the grid for Sunday’s 71-lap race.

On Saturday morning, however, the race stewards declared that the rear wing used by Hamilton on Friday had failed scrutineering. He was disqualified and sent to the back of the grid on Saturday. He charged up to finish fifth.

He did not start fifth on Sunday, however, because his car had a new internal combustion engine and that incurred a five-place grid penalty. That put him back to 10th.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas, the Saturday winner, was on pole, and Verstappen started second.

Verstappen grabbed the lead as Bottas dropped to third behind Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez.

Hamilton was on the move, and moved into third on lap five.

Bottas and Hamilton both briefly ran out in front during the two rounds of pitstops, but the fabulous duel between Verstappen and Hamilton really began on lap 43. They were usually separated by less than a second and sometimes side-by-side. Finally, on lap 51, Hamilton made the pass stick and pulled away.

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Valtteri Bottas was strong on Saturday and earned pole, but missed the start of the Grand Prix. He moved over for Lewis.

“It was tough,” Hamilton said. “Generally, in front of me, he could match my pace. I would say more so in the last sector it was very, very difficult to follow and be able to get as good an exit as he got through turn 12.

It wasn’t that easy to be in his DRS and even if I was in the DRS zone it was a bit too far away.

“But I kept trying, kept pushing. It’s fun. It’s what a world championship battle should look like.”

The vastly superior straight-line speed of the Mercedes made life difficult for Verstappen.

“When Lewis was behind me I could see there was a lot of pace,” Verstappen said. “It was already quite tough to match that. I think in general we did all the right calls in trying to just cover. We were just a bit too slow.

“Of course, this weekend, they were very quick on the straights, so I had to get my lap time through the corners but it was very hard on the tyres this weekend.

“I like to win but second today, with the

defense I did, is also satisfying. We’re also still ahead in the championship. You can clearly see that one weekend it looks really good for you and then the other weekend it doesn’t, and hopefully it will keep going like that through the season.”

Only twice in the last eight F1 races in Brazil has the pole sitter not won the grand prix. Unfortunately for Bottas, he fills both slots.

“The start today was quite tricky, it was a disappointing first lap but I tried my best,” he said. “After that, the pace was good and from the cockpit, I thought we could have a chance of the one-stop, but we decided to do a two-stop. The team put me in a good place to take advantage of the VSC, and it fell my way for once, so I was happy with that. Overall, I’m glad we could score more points than Red Bull today.

It was a positive result.”

Aussie Daniel Ricciardo had his own statistic in Brazil. For the first time since the 2020 season opener

Dan and out, power unit failure ended the #3 McLaren’s race

Turn 1 had plenty of broken front wing components spread across the surface.

Hamilton and Verstappen locked in battle...

And both ended off track in a big moment of the race.

2021 BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX 71 LAPS

Leclerc recovered from an average Sprint race on Saturday to be best of the rest on Sunday

in Austria he failed to finish a grand prix. He got as high as seventh in Brazil but had to retire when the Mercedes engine in his McLaren started to lose power, “It was going okay,” he said. “We went forwards at the start, which was definitely one objective after yesterday. I wasn’t happy with how the Sprint panned out for myself, so I was determined to make it better.

We had some good battles; Esteban Ocon made a good move on me early in the race and I was able to get him back with pretty much the same move, so that felt good.

“After that, we were in the fight with Pierre Gasly, and with Ferrari as well. We knew they had to two-stop.

I think they had a bit more pace but maybe through strategy we could’ve disrupted them. But then we had a loss of power and had to retire the car. Definitely a shame, but it was a much more promising day than yesterday. We’ll take the positives from that, and we’ve got another chance next week.”

F1 now travels to the Mid East for the inaugural F1 races in Qatar and Saudi Arabia followed by the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Pos Driver 1 Lewis Hamilton 2 Max Verstappen 3 Valtteri Bottas 4 Sergio Perez 5 Charles Leclerc 6 Carlos Sainz Jr 7 Pierre Gasly 8 Esteban Ocon 9 Fernando Alonso 10 Lando Norris 11 Sebastian Vettel 12 Kimi Raikkonen 13 George Russell 14 Antonio Giovinazzi 15 Yuki Tsunoda 16 Nicholas Latifi 17 Nikita Mazepin 18 Mick Schumacher DNF Daniel Ricciardo DNF Lance Stroll

Team 71 71 71 71 71 71 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 69 69 49 47

Laps Margin 71 laps +10.496s +13.576s +39.940s +49.517s +51.820s +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +1 Lap +2 Laps +2 Laps Retirement Retirement

Points: Verstappen 332.5, Hamilton 318.5, Bottas 203, Perez 178, Norris 151, Leclerc 148, Sainz 139.5, Ricciardo 105, Gasly 92, Alonso 62, Ocon 50, Vettel 42, Stroll 26, Tsunoda 20, Russell 16, Raikkonen 10, Latifi 7, Giovinazzi 1 Constructors: Mercedes 521.5, Red Bull Racing 510.5, Ferrari 287.5, McLaren 256, Alpine 112, AlphaTauri 112, Aston Martin 68, Williams 23, Alfa Romeo Racing 11, Haas 0

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INTERNATIONAL

CAMPBELL AND EVANS FINISH ON PODIUM IN WEC FINALE

Images: Motorsport Images

AUSSIE MATT Campbell and Kiwi Jaxon Evans ended the World Endurance Championship (WEC) season on a high, clinching a class podium in the 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Racing the #77 Dempsey - Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, the pair finished second in LM GTE AM alongside teammate Christian Ried.

As a result, the trio finished third in the season standings after a successful final outing for 2021.

Toyota Gazoo Racing trio Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose

Maria Lopez came out on top in the Hypercar championship fight, sealing their triumph with a second-place result in Bahrain.

The team only needed to finish in the top three to become champions, holding the Toyota sister crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima at bay despite them achieving the race win.

The #8 car finished 7.35s clear of the #7 car.

Below Toyota, Alpine Elf Matmut finished second in the Hypercar

World Endurance Championship with a total of 108 points.

The French squad of Nicholas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere finished third and four laps down on the race winners.

In LMP2, Team WRT completed a supreme debut season by taking out class honours.

The Belgian squad went into the event just five points clear of JOTA, but the combination of Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Robin Frijns removed any doubt in the

AUSSIES SHINE IN IMSA FINALE AUSSIE PAIR Matt Campbell and Scott Andrews both emerged with race victories in their respective classes in the final IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Road Atlanta.

Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Cooper MacNeil inherited the GT Le Mans (GTLM) win from fellow Porsche counterparts Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Fred Makowiecki, in order to maximise points for the full-season former team.

The #79 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Campbell and co. was sitting third until the #4 Corvette Racing car sustained race-ending damage with 15 minutes left.

That created the opportunity for an orchestrated 1-2 finish between the Porsche machines.

Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia clinched the 2021 GTLM championship for Corvette Racing by starting the race but were unable to finish in the season finale.

There was joy for Scott Andrews in LMP3, the Australian topping both the race and season standings alongside Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga.

In the inaugural season of the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class, the trio dominated and showed their class on the final day.

Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani were crowned Daytona Prototype international (DPi) champions after the season finale, finishing second on the day at Road Atlanta.

The job for the Brazilian pair was simple, finish ahead

of title rivals Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, and that they did in the Motul Petit Le Mans.

Nasr held his nerve on the final lap as Taylor made an ambitious pass through a gravel trap, reclaiming the lead at Turn 11 before defending grimly to finish 0.405s ahead of Taylor.

Taylor and Albuquerque’s #10 Acura ARX-05 came home third, resigning them to runners up in the championship.

Harry Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito were victorious in the final race of the season, sending Mazda out of DPi on a high in their #55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda RT24-P. In LMP2, #8 Tower Motorsport drivers John Farano, Gabriel Aubry and James French came out on top.

However, season honours went to #52 Mathiasen Motorsports drivers Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating, who clinched the title with a runner-up finish at Road Atlanta.

Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Ian James were triumphant in GT Daytona (GTD), driving their #23 Aston Martin entry to victory over the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, Zacharie Robichon and Lars Kern.

The latter trio had the last laugh however, emerging with the team’s first championship.

Josh Nevett

Aussie Scott Andrews took the class win in LMP3, driving the Ligier JS P320 for Riley Motorsports.

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standings with a third straight race victory in the #31 Oreca 07 Gibson.

The GT Manufacturers’ World Endurance Championship went to the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, after a controversial climax to the race.

The #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 engaged in a tight tussle towards the end of the encounter before the Ferrari made contact with its rival, resigning Kevin Estre, Neel Jani and Michael Christensen to second.

Pier Guidi held onto the win, crossing the finish line first alongside James Calado.

The #83 AF Corse Ferrari crew took the 2021 LMGTE Am title in style as Alessio Rovera, Nicklas Nielsen and Francois Perrodo won the final race and thus their second straight title.

Josh Nevett

EHRLACHER EYES OFF TITLE YANN EHRLACHER will enter the World Touring Car Cup finale with a 36-point buffer after extending his ascendency in the penultimate round at Adria International Raceway in Italy.

The Frenchman took his first race win since June in the second encounter, after coming home a disappointing 11th in Race 1.

Santiago Urrutia was the other victorious driver over the weekend, winning Race 1 to keep himself in title contention.

It was a second triumph of the season for Urrutia, after he started on reverse-grid pole position.

The Uruguayan took the chequered flag ahead of Tom Coronel and Guerrieri.

Behind the top three, Norbert Michelisz fought off Yvan Muller to claim fourth.

Frederic Vervisch made progress through to field to finish sixth from ninth on the grid, while teammate Gilles Magnus was seventh.

Nestor Girolami, Jean-Karl Vernay and Gabriele Tarquini completed the top 10, Ehrlacher just missing out.

Ehrlacher returned to the fore in Race 2, however, returning to the winners list from pole position.

The reigning champion headed Vervisch and Magnus who rounded out the podium.

Four-time World Touring Car champion Muller was fourth ahead of Italian legend Tarquini, who is set to retire from full-time duties after a career that has yielded two World Touring Car titles.

Guerrieri continued his solid form with a sixth-place finish, ranking him third in the overall standings with a single round remaining.

Norbert Michelisz, Thed Bjork, Luca Engstler and Rob Huff claimed the final top 10 positions to close out the weekend.

Josh Nevett Points: Ehrlacher 201, Vervisch 165, Guerrieri 164, Urrutia 157, Muller 151

NASCAR

LARSON REIGNS IN NASCAR EPIC KYLE LARSON emerged victorious in the NASCAR Cup Series finale, taking out the final race at Phoenix Raceway to secure the 2021 title.

The final four drivers in the ‘Chase’ for the Championship all put themselves in contention throughout the race, and all had a run at the front of the field.

However it was Larson who would triumph in the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in his first year with the famous team.

The final margin was 0.398s to runner-up Truex Jr., who is run by Australian Crew Chief James Small, while Denny Hamlin rounded out an all-contender podium.

Larson did not factor in the calculations early at Phoenix Raceway though, as Truex Jr. got off to a strong start with a Stage 1 victory.

Kevin Harvick trailed him, while championship contenders Chase Elliot, Hamlin and Larson rounded out the top five.

The latter would make his move in the second period, shifting up to the front ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Elliot, winning Stage 2 by 1.062s.

Hamlin finished third, while Truex Jr. and Blaney rounded out the top five.

Heading into Stage 3, the lead-lap cars all pitted with Larson the first off pit road.

When the race resumed on lap 198, Larson was followed by Elliott, Hamlin, Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch.

Larson’s chances of a breakthrough title appeared to be slipping away but, as Elliot made the overtake on lap 236, Hamlin also pushed past on lap 244.

The Joe Gibbs Toyotas of Truex Jr, and Hamlin started to show strong long run speed.

In further field reshuffling, Truex Jr. found himself in the lead with just 30 laps to go, while Larson was last of the Championship 4 drivers and over 4s off the lead.

Everything changed when the brakes on David Starr’s #13 Toyota exploded and left a rotor on the tarmac at Turn 3.

The ninth caution of the race was issued, and Larson’s pit crew turned the finale on its head, performing its second fastest stop of the year to get Larson off pit road and into the lead from the first pit stall, which he had earned by winning the pole during Saturday’s qualifying.

As a result of the interruption the race became a 24-lap sprint to the finish from lap 289, Larson restarting from the front with Hamlin.

Truex Jr., who lost two positions on pit road, lined up behind Larson, with reigning champion Elliott to his inside.

Larson made the most of his revival, surging into the lead.

From there, the leader had to defend grimly, holding off the hard charging Truex Jr. in his #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota during tense final moments.

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Behind the podium-getters on the final day, Blaney and Elliot completed the top five.

Not in a position to contend for the title, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Reacting to his triumph, Larson was filled with gratitude.

“I can’t ... I cannot believe it. I didn’t even think I’d be racing a Cup Car a year and a half ago,” he said.

“There were so many points in this race where I did not think we were going to win.

“Without my pit crew on that last stop, we would not be standing right here.”

Larson’s road to the crown was far from smooth. The 29-year-old was suspended from NASCAR in 2020 for using a racial slur while competing in an iRacing event.

The Californian subsequently lost his drive at Chip Ganassi Racing, forced to wait until this year to make his return with a new team.

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Larson won 10 encounters over the course of the season, over double his nearest competitor in Truex Jr. The ex-Speedway Spintcar and Midget star also showed his versatilty by taking wins on ovals and road course races and, in doing so, the 29-year-old became one of just 17 drivers to win eight or more times in a year at the top level, joining a host of NASCAR Hall of Famers to achieve similar results.

Josh Nevett

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BIKES

BOUNCE BACK BAGNAIA

Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images AFTER CRASHING out of the lead a fortnight earlier, factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia rebounded to take victory in the Algarve Motorcycle Grand Prix in Portugal.

The Italian led almost the entirety of the race, steadily increasing his lead lap after lap to take the win by 2.478s.

The win sealed the Constructors Championship for Ducati for the second successive season and was made extra special with his Australian teammate Jack Miller finishing on the podium.

It was the first time that the two factory Ducatis have finished on the podium together since Round 5 in May. Miller led the race into Turn 1, however his pole sitting teammate struck back at Turn 2 and from there

was never headed.

Later in the opening lap 2020 MotoGP champion Joan Mir snuck by Miller into second on his factory Suzuki.

Mir gapped Miller and attempted to stay with Bagnaia, he was unable to do so and instead cruised to take his sixth podium of the season with a second place.

Miller was locked in a titanic battle with LCR Honda rider Alex Marquez for much of the race.

The 2014 Moto3 rivals exchanged positions on several occasions, but it was the Aussie that was ahead when the race ending red flag was called two laps shy of the expected distance.

The red flag was thrown after KTM riders Iker Lecuona and hometown hero Miguel Oliveira collided.

Both riders escaped uninjured, however Oliveira who was struck

by Lecuona’s bike appeared visibly shaken.

Although Marquez had to settle for fourth, he converted his best qualifying position of eighth into his best race finish of the season.

Pramac Ducati rider Johann Zarco finished the race in fifth and therefore earned himself the honour of independent rider of the year (the highest placed rider not riding for a manufacturer team).

After winning his maiden MotoGP title a fortnight ago, Fabio Quartararo crashed out of the race at Turn 5 in the closing laps.

The factory Yamaha rider was in sixth place when he fell off his machine and recorded his first DNF of the season.

Factory Honda rider Pol Espargaro inherited seventh and then overtook Jorge Martin late in the race to finish in sixth.

Espargaro had great speed in the second half of the race, however found himself buried in the opening laps.

After suffering serious injuries at the Algarve Circuit seven months ago, Jorge Martin impressively finished the race in seventh position.

Like Espargaro, factory Suzuki rider Alex Rins ended the race strongly, however it was too little, too late, he finished the race in eighth ahead of Enea Bastianini and Brad Binder who rounded out the top 10.

DUCATI CLEAN SWEEP Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images DUCATI RIDER Francesco Bagnaia took victory in the final race of the MotoGP season, his fourth win in the final six rounds, leading home a historic Ducati 1-2-3.

It was the first time in MotoGP history the Italian manufacturer locked out all three positions on the premier class podium with Jorge Martin finishing second, and Aussie Jack Miller third.

It was an emotional day all round as the legendary nine-time champion Valentino Rossi finished the final race of his 26-year long career in 10th position, a truly historic ride for ‘The Doctor’.

Pole sitter Martin had been very unwell all night and was still not well when the race began, however made a blinding start.

Miller also made a great start with the Ducati whole shot device, moving into second ahead of 2020 champion Joan Mir, Bagnaia and Alex Rins.

It became obvious early on that it was a fight between the trio of Ducatis and the pair of Suzukis for the win.

It was Mir on the nimble Suzuki that made the first move overtaking Miller on lap 2.

The Aussie fought back a lap later but ran wide at Turn 2 and allowed Mir through once more.

Miller was struggling to find the groove and dropped back behind both Bagnaia and Rins on the same lap, and even briefly fell behind newly crowned champion Fabio Quartararo into sixth.

Rossi at this time was having a strong race in 9th position after a great start, but was unable to hold two Ducati riders behind, overtaken by Johann Zarco and Enea Bastianini.

As the race fast approached half distance Miller’s race came alive, he overtook Quartararo on lap 9 and set about the Ducatis and Suzukis ahead.

The Suzukis are known for their agility, while the Ducati strength is straight line speed, however both bikes were setting almost identical times lap after lap.

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Valentino Rossi finished his 26 year career with a fighting 10th place and was celebrated in style.

As Bagnaia began to attack Martin for the lead, behind Rins made an unforced error.

Not for the first time this year the Spaniard crashed out of the race when in a podium position on lap 11, this promoted Rossi back into the top 10.

Suzuki’s only hope rested on Mir, however he was falling into the clutches of Miller.

After several big looks, on lap 15 Bagnaia executed a move for the race lead, firing up the inside at the final turn.

Despite taking the lead Bagnaia was unable to

scamper away from the rookie.

By lap 19 Miller had caught his bitter rival Mir and quickly disposed of the Spaniard at Turn 2.

Miller was flying, and it did not take him long to catch Martin and for a lap the top three were separated by just 1.2s.

Bagnaia took a well-deserved victory on the day his mentor Rossi retired.

Martin did enough to secure second place, and in the process won the Rookie of the Year title after a fierce battle with Bastianini.

Despite missing four races due to injury,

Martin’s four podiums, four pole positions and maiden win, make him a deserved winner.

Miller came home less than 0.4s behind Martin and within a second of the race winner, rounding out the first-ever all Ducati podium lockout.

However this was overlooked by Rossi, who crossed the line to finish his 432nd and final race inside the top 10.

Further ahead, Mir came home in a disappointing fourth ahead of factory Yamaha man Quartararo.

Zarco finished the race in sixth ahead of leading KTM rider Brad Binder, Bastianini and Aprilia man Aleix Espargaro.

Rossi came home in 10th, just ahead of his first ever VR46 Academy rider Franco Morbidelli and veteran Andrea Dovizioso.

Alex Marquez was the only Honda to finish the race in 13th, after his teammate Takaaki Nakagami crashed out and both factory Honda riders were ruled out due to injury.

Miguel Oliveira and Iker Lecuona in his final MotoGP ride rounded out the points, while Maverick Vinales, Luca Marini and the Dakar bound Danilo Petrucci concluded the field.

Final standings: Quartararo 278, Bagnaia 252, Mir 208, Miller 181, Zarco 173, Binder 151, M Marquez 142, A Espargaro 120, Martin 111, Vinales 106

GARDNER MOTO 2 CHAMPION Report: Dan McCarthy Images: Motorsport Images TENTH PLACE in the shortened Valencian Grand Prix finale was enough for Australian Remy Gardner to win the Moto 2 World Championship.

In taking the title, he became the first Australian to win a motorcycle world championship since Casey Stoner won his second MotoGP crown in 2011.

By winning an intermediate class, Remy Gardner accomplished something not achieved by an Australian since Kel Carruthers took the 250 cc title in 1969.

Gardner knew he only needed to finish 13th or better to win the title, while nothing more than a win would do for his KTM Ajo teammate Raul Fernandez.

Under the immense pressure Gardner kept a cool calm head, stayed out of trouble and bought his Kalex home in 10th, with Fernandez winning the race, Gardner won the title by a slender four-point margin.

The New South Welshman started the race in eighth position, while Fernandez was a row ahead in fifth.

At the start of the race the Spaniard made a great start and sat second

by Turn 2, while Gardner remained in eighth when the red flag was thrown.

There was a multi-bike crash on the exit of Turn 2, fortunately all riders escaped uninjured, however oil had been spilt on the circuit and required a clean-up.

The race was shortened from 25 to 16 laps due to the lengthy delay, and would be a complete restart with all riders starting from their same grid slots.

Well not everyone… Pole sitter Simone Corsi suffered a mechanical issue on the warm up lap and cruelly was unable to start the race.

The restart for Fernandez was even stronger than his first attempt, he jumped up to second position behind his namesake Augusto Fernandez before he even got to Turn 1.

Gardner made a great start also, however on the opening lap opted on the side of caution and at the end of lap 1 he was safe and secure in ninth.

Out front his teammate, knowing only a win would do, was throwing everything at Augusto Fernandez.

The pair switched positions multiple times on lap 2 in what was a thrilling and fair fight, but this allowed Fabio Di Giannantonio into the fight.

The trio exchanged places on multiple occasions, while Gardner found himself pushed outside of the top 10 and into 11th.

Gardner was beginning to feel the pressure of the bikes behind, when former MotoGP rider, the retiring

Thomas Luthi fell into his traps.

Gardner made an aggressive and decisive move at Turn 4 on lap 11, now in front of him was 2s of clear air.

On lap 13, out front Raul Fernandez made the decisive race winning pass on Di Giannantonio, and held on to take his eighth victory of the season.

Gardner came under pressure from his good mate and former teammate Tetsuta Nagashima on the final lap but did not crack.

Gardner had done enough to take his maiden Motorcycle World Championship at the age of 23.

Gardner’s title was set up by an inspired race win in Portugal a week earlier.

The Aussie elected to run with a hard tyre and had to play the waiting game for much of the race.

In the end the choice paid dividends and Gardner executed arguably the ride of his life to take a fantastic win.

Final Standings: Gardner 311, R Fernandez 307, Bezzecchi 214, Lowes 190, A Fernandez 174

BEZZECCHI LOCKED IN AT VR46 ON HIS 23rd birthday Italian Marco Bezzecchi was confirmed as a 2022 VR46 team MotoGP rider.

The young Italian has been racing for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team in Moto2 the last two years and in 2022 will make the step up to the premier class.

The news was announced live on TV last night and post-session the Italian was understandably elated to finally be announced.

“What can I say? I’m very happy it’s a dream come true,” he expressed. “In the end, every guy that rides motorcycles dream one day to be MotoGP rider, so for me something incredible.

“Also to receive this news on my birthday makes this even more incredible, but can’t wait to try the bike.

“I’m very excited also to make my debut on an Italian bike. All very good, all very positive can’t be more happy.”

Bezzecchi finished third in the Moto2 standings behind runaway Ajo KTM riders, Aussie Remy Gardner

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and Raul Fernandez.

Last year Bezzecchi took two wins on his way to fourth in the title fight, however a more consistent year yielding another victory sees him sit third.

Bezzecchi will ride in the MotoGP post-season test at Circuit Ricardo Tormo which takes place on Thursday and Friday in which he will ride his 2021 spec Ducati which he will race throughout the ’22 season.

Next year Bezzecchi will share the VR46 garage with his former Moto2 teammate Luca Marini, who is the half-brother of Valentino Rossi.

“My teammate is going to be Luca like last year,” he said. “I have a very good relationship with him, will be strange because at the end, I think that MotoGP to learn to go fast on MotoGP (machinery) will be very, very difficult.

“But at the end with Luca it can work well, also last year I made an incredible step with him.”

Dan McCarthy

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Supercars RACE REPORT

Round 9 - Sydney Motorsport Park

The Stewards pinged SvG for jumping the wet, wet Safety Car restart, but were convinced that de Pasquale had briefly ‘lifted’ and rescinded the penalty. Something of a ‘first’ ...

SAME BUT DIFFERENT SYDNEY MOTORSPORT Park round two was looking like a similar event, but it turned out a little different. Will Brown claimed his first Supercars pole position, there were three different Championship race winners and rain fell at night...

Report: Dan McCarthy

Images: Motorsport Images/InSyde Media

BOTH TRIPLE Eight Race Engineering drivers took a win, seperated by a win for Shell V-Power Racing driver Anton De Pasquale.

Rain arrived by the bucket load on Sunday, pelting down all night long, resulting in a wet, wild and controversial race to conclude the weekend.

As it did in SMP 1, the round contained three 125km races, however this time drivers would have a mixture of soft and hard compound tyres.

Similar to Formula 1, drivers would be forced to run on both compounds of tyres in each race, with a compulsory stop for tyre change.

Luke Youlden stepped in to replace David Reynolds at Kelly Grove Racing,

who was not given COVID-19 vaccination dispensation to compete in the race.

In addition to the 24 regular drivers, wildcards Thomas Randle of Tickford Racing and Kurt Kostecki with Walkinshaw Andretti United joined the field.

PRACTICE – MUDDLED ORDER AT THE start of the weekend a number of mechanical gremlins reared up, Team Sydney driver Fabian Coulthard spent much of Practice 1 in the garage and when he did get out onto the track, it came to a premature halt.

Walkinshaw Andretti United youngster Bryce Fullwood was also garage-bound for the second half of the session.

At the end of the opening session, De Pasquale was on top of the timesheets, from Will Brown, Jack le Brocq, Brodie Kostecki and Tim Slade.

Both Team 18 cars were garage-bound with power steering issues early in P2.

Mostert had the biggest moment of the session, spearing off through the grass at high speed on the outside at Turn 1.

At the end of the session, De Pasquale was ahead of van Gisbergen, Kostecki, Nick Percat and Will Brown.

QUALIFYING, RACE 23 – MAIDEN POLE FOR BROWN ROOKIE WILL Brown took advantage of a mechanical failure for Anton de Pasquale to take his maiden pole position.

The three-part knockout qualifying format returned on Saturday and immediately mixed up the results.

Notably, De Pasquale, the man who claimed pole position for all three races the previous week suffered a mechanical issue, stuck in second gear.

While a majority of teams sacrificed a set of new soft tyres to progress through Q1, others attempted to sneak through with the hard tyres.

Erebus Motorsport was one team that attempted to make it through on the hards, drivers Brown and Brodie Kostecki sneaking through in 19th and 20th respectively. Both Team 18 drivers attempted the same trick but failed to make it through.

Will looks pretty happy with his first Supercars Pole Position. He was strong all weekend and should have won a race, but was let down by slow pitstop.

Triple Eight Race Engineering celebrated their 250th round with two race wins and another one-two finish.

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Youlden would start from 21st, ahead of Team 18 drivers Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom, Andre Heimgartner, Fabian Coulthard and de Pasquale.

In Q2, Jones just missed out on a Q3 spot, in 11th, from driver Garry Jacobson and Bryce Fullwood.

Mostert had a session to forget, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver qualifying in 14th, ahead of James Courtney, Jake Kostecki, Jack Smith and Zane Goddard.

First of the wildcard drivers was Kurt Kostecki, in 19th. Randle would start from 20th after receiving a three grid spot penalty for getting in the way of Kostecki on his flying lap.

As he did in Q2, Brown went out early in Q3, while the other nine cars waited until the end.

Brown set a stellar benchmark and watched from the pits as the other drivers failed to beat his time.

The Toowoomba-born driver edged out three Bathurst 1000 winners by less than a tenth of a second, holding onto pole position by 0.028s from seven-time champion Whincup, van Gisbergen and Davison.

Brown’s teammate, Brodie Kostecki, qualified in fifth, ahead of Percat, Tim Slade, Jack Le Brocq, Todd Hazelwood and Cameron Waters.

RACE 23 – SVG WINS AGAIN UNDER LIGHTS, the reds went out at the start of Race 25, and Brown made a great start to lead into Turn 1 ahead of Whincup.

Behind, van Gisbergen and Davison ran side by side with less success – the Kiwi ran wide, making contact with Davison’s Mustang, nudging him off.

Davison quickly got back on track and attempted to hold position around Turn 2, but with dirty tyres got a kick of oversteer and dropped further down the pack.

At the end of lap 1, Brown led Whincup, van Gisbergen, Kostecki, Waters and Davison.

Whincup remained on the tail of Brown in the opening laps and, at the earliest possible opportunity, pitted at the end of lap 5.

The following lap, Brown followed suit – however it appeared as though he would re-join just behind Whincup due to the strong undercut at SMP. But, for the second round in succession disaster struck in the pits and Brown was robbed of a podium finish due to a slow tyre change on the right-hand side – rather than eight seconds, the stop took 28 seconds.

The following lap, Brown’s teammate Brodie Kostecki was serviced without incident – however he was caught speeding on entry and forced to serve a drive-through penalty, in what was quickly turning into a disastrous evening for the Erebus outfit.

Van Gisbergen elected to stay out half a dozen laps after Whincup, and when he emerged from the lane, the Giz was able to quickly catch his teammate.

On lap 17 van Gisbergen locked up and ran wide at the penultimate turn,

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Main game rookie?... After all these years in Supercars, and with a Bathurst 1000 win, Luke Youlden made his main debut and was solid all weekend with two very businesslike drives in the wet.

but it enabled him to get a great exit and pull alongside his teammate on pit straight.

The pair rubbed door panels as they ran down pit straight, however the pass was made before they got to Turn 1, and van Gisbergen was in front.

Van Gisbergen took his 13th win of the season by 17s, while future Triple Eight team principal Whincup secured the team a historic 1-2 finish in its 250th round start.

Davison rounded out the podium.

Keeping his cool, he held on by just over 0.5s from Percat and his BJR teammate Todd Hazelwood.

Le Brocq kept a cool and calm head after a poor start, and ended up in sixth, the highest place driver on the alternate strategy (running soft tyres first).

Slade was seventh ahead of Waters, while Pye marched from 22nd on the grid to finish ninth, and Fullwood rounded out the top 10.

De Pasquale marched up the pack to finish in 11th; however, a five second penalty for abuse of track limits saw him demoted one place behind Brown.

Mostert was also dealt a penalty for track limits and came home in 14th.

QUALIFYING RACES 24 AND 25 – POLES SHARED BOTH DE Pasquale and van Gisbergen claimed a pole apiece on a very wet and treacherous SMP circuit on Sunday.

De Pasquale took pole in the first, while van Gisbergen started the night affair from the first spot on the grid.

After the heartbreak of qualifying on Saturday, de Pasquale rebounded to take pole position for Race 24 by 0.523s from championship leader van Gisbergen.

Mostert started from third, out qualifying his young teammate Fullwood by just 0.024s.

Waters spun into the gravel at Turn 1, however the red flag was premature,

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Shane and Anton both took a race win each over the weekend.

as the Monster Mustang driver was able to escape without needing assistance.

Nevertheless, the flag had been thrown and meant that he had his fastest time deleted and could not take any further part of the session and would start from 17th.

Davison improved late on, ending up in fifth, ahead of Courtney, Pye, Heimgartner, Whincup and Brown.

In qualifying for Race 27 it was webbed feet van Gisbergen who qualified on pole position.

Mostert was faster in the first two sectors but could not complete the lap – he ended up second, but not for long…

His Holden Commodore’s front bar was found to be too wide. The technical breach saw him disqualified from the session.

As a result, de Pasquale moved up onto the front row ahead of Percat, Heimgartner, Davison, Whincup, Waters and Fullwood.

Brown spun at Turn 1; he was able to get out the gravel and continue, but would start from 18th position.

Super-sub-Luke Youlden shone in wet conditions, and would start from 11th in both races.

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RACE 24 – ADP MASTERCLASS AN EXEMPLARY display from de Pasquale saw him take his third win in two weeks.

Polesitter de Pasquale and Davison went for the softs first while the Triple Eight duo and WAU pair ran the hards.

At the start of the race, both Van Gisbergen and Bryce Fullwood leapt ahead of the polesitter, who started on the wet side of the track.

De Pasquale claimed second from Fullwood at Turn 2 and, with the soft tyre advantage, nipped up the inside of SVG at Turn 8 the following lap.

De Pasquale quickly pulled away, as all of the hard tyre runners quickly fell back through the pack, except for van Gisbergen.

By the end of lap 4, Whincup, Mostert and Fullwood were all outside the top 10 – van Gisbergen however remained in second position.

On lap 9 he started to come under pressure from soft tyre runner Andre Heimgartner, but his tyres were starting to lose their edge, and as a result was unable to get by and was soon joined

by Courtney and Davison.

At the end of lap 13 SVG finally pitted however wasable to keep up a fast and consistent pace on the hards.

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Supercars RACE REPORT

RESULTS RACE 23 SMP 32 LAPS

Round 9 - Sydney Motorsport Park

From last to the podium, Chaz showed his wet track skills as he drove through the field following a technical breach that sent him from second to the rear of the grid.

Pos Driver 1 Shane van Gisbergen 2 Jamie Whincup 3 Will Davison 4 Nick Percat 5 Todd Hazelwood 6 Jack Le Brocq 7 Tim Slade 8 Cameron Waters 9 Scott Pye 10 Bryce Fullwood 11 Will Brown 12 Anton De Pasquale 13 Macauley Jones 14 Chaz Mostert 15 James Courtney 16 Jake Kostecki 17 Fabian Coulthard 18 Mark Winterbottom 19 Jack Smith 20 Garry Jacobson 21 Zane Goddard 22 Thomas Randle 23 Brodie Kostecki 24 Luke Youlden 25 Kurt Kostecki DNF Andre Heimgartner

Margin 32 laps +17.001s +24.714s +25.303s +26.214s +30.398s +32.915s +33.839s +38.927s +38.948s +47.501s +48.165s +50.482s +54.330s +55.684s +57.694s +62.159s +63.021s +63.982s +66.469s +67.837s +69.221s +69.588s +79.162s +85.667s +11 laps

s2 0 s1 s2 s4 s2 0 s2 s 13 s3 t 10 s 14 t2 0 0 0 s8 s5 t2 t8 t3 t2 t 18 t3 t6

RESULTS RACE 24 SMP 32 LAPS

With a nett third position almost in the bag, Whincup made an unforced error at Turn 3, running wide, and upon re-joining the track cut the inside of his tyre. He picked up a slow puncture and was forced to make an unscheduled stop, dropping him to last.

On lap 23, de Pasquale pitted from the lead – however with worn old tyres would van Gisbergen be able to hunt him down? No. The gap, which shrunk to under 1.5s, steadily grew once the hard tyres had come up to temperature.

In the end de Pasquale took the win by 8.3s from van Gisbergen.

After Whincup’s puncture, Courtney inherited the place and claimed his first podium of the season. The 2010 champion did not buckle under the race long pressure from Davison, who finished just 0.3s behind.

Pye marched forward to finish the race in fifth ahead of Brown.

Heimgartner was locked into a fierce battle with Mostert in the closing laps (the pair made contact on numerous occasions), but in the end it was the former that prevailed despite getting a bad sportsmanship flag for blocking.

Whincup finished in 25th position.

RACE 25 – WHINCUP BREAKS VICTORY DROUGHT TORRENTIAL RAIN was pouring on the circuit to start the final race of the weekend, under lights, with all drivers understandably electing to start on wet tyres.

From the fourth row, Fullwood made an exceptional (jumped!) start and led into Turn 1, however his start was far too good and was penalised.

Whincup made a legal lightening start and, after starting fifth, found himself in the lead at the exit of Turn 2.

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The Safety Car was deployed on the opening lap when the Boost boys Courtney and Brodie Kostecki tangled – both crashed into the wall at Turn 3.

Under Safety Car, Whincup led the soon to be penalised Fullwood, de Pasquale and pole sitter van Gisbergen.

When the race returned to green, De Pasquale “made a poor start”, van Gisbergen pulled alongside and overtook the Mustang driver before the start line. However, the Kiwi was unable to pull the car up at Turn 1 and slewed off the circuit.

Soon after, van Gisbergen was handed a penalty for the illegal overtake, but he protested (from the cockpit), claiming that de Pasquale lifted off the throttle. Upon reflection the stewards found this to be the case and withdrew the penalty ...

Van Gisbergen had escaped one penalty, but could not get out of the next one. At the conclusion of his pitstop the ZB was dropped – however, unsure if the right rear wheel was on properly, van Gisbergen’s mechanic further tightened the wheel while the Kiwi was leaving the lane.

This warranted a drive-through penalty and dropped him to the back of the field.

In the worsening conditions, Jake Kostecki crashed out of the race, bringing out the Safety Car. It was now lap 21, a majority of the field had pitted, Whincup was the only front runner that hadn’t and under S/C conditions he did so and retained the lead.

Conditions further worsened, so the race was red flagged and eventually called, with Whincup taking his first win since April.

De Pasquale was second ahead of Mostert who sailed through from last on the grid. Fourth was Percat, from Slade, Brown, Davison and Waters.

PITSTOP

Pos Driver 1 Anton De Pasquale 2 Shane van Gisbergen 3 James Courtney 4 Will Davison 5 Scott Pye 6 Will Brown 7 Andre Heimgartner 8 Chaz Mostert 9 Nick Percat 10 Mark Winterbottom 11 Macauley Jones 12 Tim Slade 13 Cameron Waters 14 Fabian Coulthard 15 Thomas Randle 16 Bryce Fullwood 17 Luke Youlden 18 Jack Le Brocq 19 Kurt Kostecki 20 Brodie Kostecki 21 Jake Kostecki 22 Zane Goddard 23 Garry Jacobson 24 Jack Smith 25 Jamie Whincup 26 Todd Hazelwood

Margin 32 laps +8.304s +17.504s +17.824s +19.714s +23.601s +28.704s +30.044s +31.765s +32.112s +34.902s +35.620s +43.102s +43.574s +45.509s +51.194s +51.273s +52.973s +53.395s +59.438s +59.664s +61.027s +65.212s +67.286s +81.205s +1 lap

0 0 s3 s1 s2 s4 s1 t5 s6 s3 s1 s4 s4 s4 t1 t 12 t6 s2 s3 t1 s4 s2 0 t3 t 16 0

RESULTS RACE 25 SMP 32 LAPS

The four-race Sydney sweep kept veteran Richard ‘Krusty’ Hollway away from home in Melbourne for his birthday, but Team 18 took up the slack with a giant chocolate cake. His partner, Lisa Skaife, made a joke about the number of candles required to celebrate his 56th birthday.

Not a sign you’re likely to see at the pointy end of the Supercars pitlane, but just the thing to keep Erebus Racing focussed on the job.

Pos Driver 1 Jamie Whincup 2 Anton De Pasquale 3 Chaz Mostert 4 Nick Percat 5 Tim Slade 6 Will Brown 7 Will Davison 8 Cameron Waters 9 Todd Hazelwood 10 Andre Heimgartner 11 Luke Youlden 12 Garry Jacobson 13 Zane Goddard 14 Jack Le Brocq 15 Mark Winterbottom 16 Thomas Randle 17 Jack Smith 18 Scott Pye 19 Fabian Coulthard 20 Macauley Jones 21 Kurt Kostecki 22 Bryce Fullwood 23 Shane van Gisbergen DNF Jake Kostecki DNF James Courtney DNF Brodie Kostecki

Margin 23 laps +1.190s +2.437s +3.413s +4.520s +5.262s +6.265s +7.120s +7.747s +9.276s +10.066s +10.478s +11.310s +13.147s +13.969s +14.695s +15.752s +16.661s +17.531s +18.639s +20.128s +21.814s +24.447s +6 laps +23 laps +23 laps

s5 0 s 23 t1 s4 s 11 t2 t1 s9 t6 0 s7 s2 s2 s5 t2 s7 s7 s2 s3 s1 t 14 t 22

Points: van Gisbergen 2414, Whincup 2077, Davison 1965, Mostert 1895, Waters 1834, De Pasquale 1689, Percat 1558, Brown 1406, Winterbottom 1398, Courtney 1306, Slade 1272, B Kostecki 1262, Andre Heimgartner 1222, Pye 1205, Hazelwood 1192, Le Brocq 1168, Fullwood 1139, Reynolds 1072, Goddard 896, J Kostecki 874, Smith 770, Jacobson 742, Jones 734, Coulthard 698, Randle 364, K Kostecki 302, Luke Youlden 106

SUPERCAR SUPPORTS

FORMULA FORD SWEEP FOR SARGENT TOM SARGENT took a clean sweep of race wins in the NSW Formula Ford Championship round at Sydney Motorsport Park, continuing where he left off before the break.

Sargent was fastest in both practice sessions, qualifying and won all three races, harking back to the form which earned him the Victorian Formula Ford crown for 2021.

Colin Hill Engineering teammate Noah Sands was the other standout performer, recording a trio of second place results over the three-race event.

Sargent was thrilled after his faultless weekend.

“I am so ecstatic with how the weekend went – to be fastest in every session and win every race is awesome,” Sargent said.

“To have Noah (Sands) competing so closely with me is brilliant for the CHE Racing Team and to do it in front of the Supercars audience is unbelievable.”

“Noah and I both really enjoyed ourselves, but I think everyone in the team was tearing their hair out – there were a few moments where our cars got very close together!”

In qualifying, Sargent started ominously in his Mygale SJ13A with a 1min 34.513s lap to secure pole for the first race.

That speed fed into the opener on Sunday, as the up-and-coming driver led from lights to flag.

Behind Sargent, Sands battled with Cody Burcher until the latter driver came unstuck at Turn 1.

Cameron McLeod finished third behind Sands in his Spectrum.

There was an early Safety Car to

Tom Sargent was dominant at SMP for the NSW Formula Ford Championship, qualified on pole and won all three races.

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti kick off proceedings when the leading Historic class car of Will Lowering (Van Diemen) lost control and spun at Turn 4.

When racing resumed Josh Buchan (Listec) finished a fair distance back in fourth and Zach Bates crossed the line fifth but was subsequently dealt a 5s penalty.

Bates was driving behind Jude Bargwanna who was sitting sixth until his engine cut out and Bates contacted the rear of his Spectrum.

Jimmy Piszyck inherited fifth in his Spectrum as a result.

The pattern of Safety Car interruptions continued into Race 2, when Buchan spun at Turn 5 and was clipped by Bargwanna and then Piszyck on a wet SMP circuit.

When the field returned to racing, Sargent showed vulnerability for the first time of the weekend as Sands grabbed the lead.

The change in places was shortlived, however, as Sands faltered at Turn 8 on the final lap and Sargent surged through for a second win.

Adrian Sakis (Mygale) rounded out the podium in third, finishing ahead of McLeod, Conor Somers (Mygale) and Daniel Frougas (Mygale).

With conditions only worsening over the course of Sunday at Eastern Creek, it was no surprise that Race 3 saw further chaos.

A Safety Car was required on lap 2 following multiple incidents at Turn 2, impacting on Bates, Somers, Piszyck, and then Scott Tidyman (Mygale).

BARGWANNA HEADS HUGE PRODUCTION FIELD NSW PRODUCTION TOURING finished off its year as a support to the Armor All Sydney SuperNight at Sydney Motorsport Park with the overall win going to Ben Bargwanna (pictured) in the team’s Audi TTRS. The category had a mammoth entry through eight classes, entertaining and close competition, dicey weather and very little in the way of incidents. In the difficult wet and dry race conditions, Bargwanna staved off the challengers to take three race victories for a clean sweep.

Forty-eight lined up for the first race where Bargwanna outpointed fastest qualifier Anthony Soole (BMW M4) off the start. Soole soon took over the lead which he held until the rains came.

Bargwanna retook the front running and

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Image: InSyde Media held off Jimmy Vernon (Mitsubishi EVO X) and Dimitri Agathos (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) for the win.

Soole finished fourth ahead of Matt Holt (HSV Clubsport), Tony Virag (HSV GTS), Alex Bryden (Mercedes AMG A45) who was just in front of Matt Boylan (EVO X). Duane West (GTS) and Dieter Holzl (BMW 1M) started rear of grid and finished 19th and 24th respectively.

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At the start of Race 2, Vernon led Bargwanna before Agathos slipped past the Audi at Turn 2. Agathos slipped wide at Turn 5 which Bargwanna took advantage of, and shortly after passed Vernon for the lead which he maintained it for the duration.

Behind them Ben Kavich (EVO X) made a good start until he came unstuck at Turn 7 and finished 18th.

Bryden was also away well but spun at

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It only got worse from there for Bates, who hit the wall at Turn 3 and failed to finish the final encounter.

Sargent won from Sands with Burcher a close third.

Nick McLeod (Spectrum), Xavier Kokai (Spectrum) and Cameron McLeod followed the podium getters.

Of the Kent engine competitors Mitch Gatenby put together a flawless round, unbeaten across the three races in his Komtec.

Dan Holihan (Spectrum) was second in class in every race, while Scott Tidyman also graced the podium in each affair.

Of the Historic entrants, Tom Tweedie (Van Diemen) won ahead of Peter Lucas (Reynard) and Bruce Connolly (Elwyn). Josh Nevett Turn 5 and recovered to 10th.

In the meantime, Agathos settled into second ahead of Vernon while Daniel Oosthuizen (HSV Clubsport) worked his way to fourth ahead of Holt and Josh Muggleton (B1 Audi TTS). Then followed Cody Brewczynski (EVO 9), West and Bryden.

Bargwanna led all the way in the last. Agathos was second early, but as conditions dried, he fell back behind Soole, Vernon, Holt and Oosthuizen.

The latter had second from lap two for three laps but was later pinged with a 5.0s penalty that dropped him behind the Subaru.

West was seventh ahead of Dean Campbell (EVO X), Brewczynski, Kavich, Bryden, Muggleton, Michael Auld (A45) and Holzl.

In the classes Bargwanna also took out A1, Soole cleaned up in X, and A2 went to Holt, two-one over Oosthuizen.

Class B was won by Daniel D’Aquino (Commodore), and Dan Smith (VW Golf GTi) topped C. Edan Thornburrow (Toyota 86) had two D victories but DNF the other which went to Matt Shylan (Honda Integra) while Scott Freestone (Mazda 3 SP25) was unbeaten in Class E. Garry O’Brien

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Supercars RACE REPORT

Round 10 - Sydney Motorsport Park

Will Brown on his way to his first Supercars race win, he held off the far more experienced pair of Whincup and van Gisbergen to take the flag in race 28.

YOUNGSTERS TO THE FORE Round 10 of the Supercars Championship delivered, all three races at Sydney Motorsport Park were exciting affairs, Anton De Pasquale won two, while the fighting bulls allowed Will Brown to take his first win.

Report: Dan McCarthy

Images: Motorsport Images/InSyde Media

THE WEEKEND format was much the same as SMP 1, three 125km sprint races, all on the soft tyres and a minimum of two tyres to be changed in each.

A slight tyre shortage forced crews to reuse some tyres over the weekend and was a recipe for exciting racing.

In driver land, Kelly Grove Racing substitute Luke Youlden remained in the #26 machine for the second straight weekend, the field also shrunk back to 24 machines with no Wildcards.

Shell V-Power Racing driver De Pasquale found himself at the head of the field, topping both practice sessions.

Session 1 was almost unrepresentative as many teams did not put new tyres on, however in practice 2 several teams such as Triple Eight used two sets of greens.

Little information could be taken by looking at a single session, but in the combined times De Pasquale was on top, Shane van Gisbergen, Brodie Kostecki, Will Davison and Brown rounded out the top five.

PRACTICE – IT’S ADP AGAIN

QUALIFYING RACE 26 – FIFTH SMP POLE FOR ANTON

AS HE did in the first two weekends,

ON SATURDAY afternoon De Pasquale continued that form taking his fifth pole at Sydney Motorsport Park in three weeks.

The Shell V-Power Racing driver took pole by an impressive margin once again, this time by 0.343s from Triple Eight’s Whincup.

The two teams also shared the second row of the grid, with Davison starting third alongside Shane van Gisbergen.

Brown set his time early in Q3 and was enough to see him qualify in fifth ahead Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Chaz Mostert.

Brodie Kostecki qualified in seventh from Nick Percat, Cameron Waters and

It was all smiles for Anton with two pole positions and two more race wins over the weekends racing.

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Todd Hazelwood.

In Q2 several drivers completed two runs, while others expecting to make it into Q3 gambled on just the one set.

In the end Tickford Racing driver Jack le Brocq was the unlucky man, he missed out on a Q3 spot, just 0.032s behind Hazelwood who snuck through.

Bryce Fullwood would start from 12th ahead of Team 18 driver Scott Pye and Andre Heimgartner.

Then came James Courtney, Tim Slade, Mark Winterbottom, Matt Stone Racing driver Zane Goddard, Macauley Jones and Garry Jacobson.

In the opening session, several drivers

were forced to run a second set of tyres to progress.

Despite doing so Fabian Coulthard was knocked out, he will start from 21st ahead of Jake Kostecki, Luke Youlden and Jack Smith who got a kerb strike on his final run.

RACE 26 – ADP OUTCLASSES OPPOSITION DE PASQUALE converted pole position into victory, however it was not plain sailing for the Ford Mustang driver, who had to make his way past both Triple Eight Race Engineering cars early in the second stint.

The Victorian made a great start and comfortably led into Turn 1, seven-time champion Whincup made a rare poor start and came across the track to block his great mate Davison from overtaking, making significant contact on the run to Turn 1.

Whincup held onto second, the contact forced Davison to lift and allowed van Gisbergen around the outside and into third.

Further back Tickford’s Courtney was tapped into a fast spin at Turn 1 and was lucky to escape with no major damage.

It was clear early on that Whincup had very little pace and on lap 7 van Gisbergen breezed by into Turn 3.

In a bid to regain some track position and put up a fight, Whincup was the first of the leaders to pit attempting an undercut he took on two tyres.

De Pasquale’s crew pitted soon after and elected to put four tyres on, this meant that he was stationary for four additional seconds.

As a result De Pasquale re-joined behind Whincup and had to make his way by as quickly as possible.

Getting a great run out of the Turn 8 hairpin, he was able to get alongside and overtake Whincup up the inside into Turn 9.

At this very moment van Gisbergen entered the lane, he also took on two tyres and as De Pasquale and Whincup had cost each other time, the Kiwi was able to emerge ahead of the pair.

On cold tyres van Gisbergen was forced to defend the position from De Pasquale but could not keep him behind for long.

De Pasquale replicated the move on Whincup to re-take the lead, just seconds before the safety car was called.

Fullwood’s Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore came to a halt on the outside of Turn 3 and he needed to be towed off the circuit.

When the race resumed De Pasquale made a great restart and pulled away from the chasing pack and led comfortably to the finish.

De Pasquale took the took the win by 1.891s from van Gisbergen and also set the fastest lap of the race earning him an additional five points.

In the closing laps Whincup came under pressure from not one but two Erebus Motorsport Commodores, firstly Brodie Kostecki and then Brown.

Kostecki was unable to get by Whincup and was instructed to allow Brown past

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Jack Le Brock finished ahead of his Tickford teammates in two of the races, unfortunately he got a little close to one of them...

for him to have a go.

With just a few laps remaining Brown got a great run out of Turn 5, using one of his track limit warnings he then fired down the inside and take the place into Turn 6.

Brown went on to finish third, despite losing several seconds in his pitstop for the third straight event, while behind Whincup held off Kostecki to finish in fourth.

Behind Kostecki came Team 18 driver Scott Pye and Davison, Goddard gained 10 positions from his starting spot of 18th, the young Queenslander marched through the field with newer softer tyres to finish in eighth position.

Under safety car conditions Slade pitted for a second time and proved to be the right decision, finishing the race in ninth place ahead of Heimgartner.

It was a very frustrating day for Tickford Racing, Courtney was spun at Turn 1, and after the restart Waters ran wide at Turn 8 and on the exit of the turn tangled with his teammate le Brocq.

The contact speared Waters into the wall and for the incident le Brocq was handed a drive-through penalty.

QUALIFYING RACE 27 AND 28 FRONT ROW LOCKOUTS SHARED SHELL V-POWER Racing locked out the front row for Race 27, with De Pasquale leading Davison, while the Triple Eight drivers qualified 1-2 for the final race of the weekend.

For the first encounter De Pasquale took pole position from Davison who outqualified Whincup by just 0.027s.

Brown continued his great run of qualifying form, starting from the second row.

Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen qualified in fifth, however he was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding le Brocq on a flying lap.

Team 18 were quick in the opening session, Winterbottom qualifying in fifth and Pye seventh, the pair split by Mostert.

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Race 26 start, Anton De Pasquale gets a good launch while Whincup covers Davison hard

Erebus Motorsport driver Brodie Kostecki and Brad Jones racer Percat rounded out the top 10.

Notably all three Tickford cars qualified outside the top 10, le Brocq in 11th, Waters 12th, and James Courtney in 22nd.

In the second session for race 28 the roles were reversed with Triple Eight on the front row, Whincup taking pole by 0.21s.

It was incredibly tight for second, with a trio of drivers separated by 0.068s.

Van Gisbergen qualified on the front row ahead of De Pasquale and Brown who again will start from fourth.

Mostert, Waters and Kostecki all improved to start in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Percat will start from eighth, Pye ninth, while le Brocq snuck into the top 10 ahead of Team Sydney driver Garry Jacobson.

Davison aborted his second run and meant he would start from 15th position.

Race 27 – ADP RISES AS DAVISON FALLS ADP TOOK victory in Race 27, but all eyes were behind him as there was a

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fierce battle for the podium positions.

Compared with Race 1 it was quite a quiet and calm start to proceedings, De Pasquale holding his teammate at bay into Turn 2.

At the end of lap 1, van Gisbergen had only made up one place and sat in seventh.

Again, Whincup was slow early on, and came under intense pressure from Brown in the first five laps before his tyres started to come to life.

Davison was the first to blink on lap 10, pitting for two new soft tyres.

Further back in the pack van Gisbergen found himself stuck behind Winterbottom, unable to find a way by.

At the end of lap 14 leader de Pasquale pitted, however with the incredible undercut Davison found himself comfortably ahead.

Two laps later it was Whincup’s turn to pit as De Pasquale ranged onto the back of his teammate and made light work of him, holding a tighter inside line on the inside of the Turn 2 hairpin to take the place.

It was at this time that that van Gisbergen exited the lane outside of the top 10 but with an extreme tyre advantage there was no stopping him.

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Supercars RACE REPORT

RESULTS RACE 26 SMP 32 LAPS

Round 10 - Sydney Motorsport Park

Pos Driver Margin 1 Anton De Pasquale 32 laps 2 Shane van Gisbergen +1.891s 3 Will Brown +3.424s 4 Jamie Whincup +5.484s 5 Brodie Kostecki +6.175s 6 Scott Pye +11.605s 7 Will Davison +13.141s 8 Zane Goddard +13.906s 9 Tim Slade +14.062s 10 Andre Heimgartner +14.614s 11 Chaz Mostert +18.221s 12 Todd Hazelwood +20.846s 13 Mark Winterbottom +22.192s 14 Macauley Jones +22.645s 15 Garry Jacobson +22.881s 16 Fabian Coulthard +26.069s 17 Jake Kostecki +26.223s 18 Jack Smith +26.674s 19 Jack Le Brocq +28.850s 20 Luke Youlden +40.268s 21 James Courtney +1 Lap 22 Cameron Waters +3 Laps 23 Nick Percat +7 Laps NC Bryce Fullwood

0 s2 s2 t2 s2 s7 t4 s 10 s7 s4 t5 t2 s4 s5 s5 s5 s5 s6 t8 s3 t6 t 13 t 15 t 12

RESULTS RACE 27 SMP 32 LAPS

Chaz was crushed as SVG took third place from him at the line, it should have been a podium for the WAU team which had worked hard to get a result. All smiles on the race 28 podium (below), it was Will’s first win. The second and third placegetters had words post race.

At the other end of the scale, Davison’s tyres had already reached the cliff and he to plummet down the pack.

Up front De Pasquale cruised to his second race victory of the weekend, 6s ahead of Whincup.

Both Mostert and van Gisbergen dispersed of Davison, and set about their own battle on the final lap of the race.

Coming out of the final corner, Mostert on the older tyres had a slight slide, allowing van Gisbergen to pull alongside as the pair drag raced to the line.

Van Gisbergen pinching the final step on the podium at the line, by a margin of just 0.008s.

Davison limped across the line in fifth, in the end finishing only 2.4s ahead of Winterbottom, Percat and Brown.

RACE 28 – BROWN TAKES MAIDEN VICTORY IN THE final race of the weekend Brown scored his maiden Supercars Championship victory holding off a Triple Eight Race Engineering onslaught in the final couple of laps.

The Erebus Motorsport driver executed an incredibly smooth and well-judged race to hold both ZB Commodores at bay.

At the start, Whincup led van Gisbergen into Turn 1, however Brown made the best start and overtook De Pasquale on the run to Turn 1.

It was clear instantly that Brown had the speed to win as he harassed van Gisbergen in the early laps.

With rain on the horizon no team elected to pit to early in case the rain came in and forced them to make an extra stop.

De Pasquale and Mostert were two of the earliest to people to blink, and were

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Pos Driver 1 Anton De Pasquale 2 Jamie Whincup 3 Shane van Gisbergen 4 Chaz Mostert 5 Will Davison 6 Mark Winterbottom 7 Nick Percat 8 Will Brown 9 Brodie Kostecki 10 Bryce Fullwood 11 Zane Goddard 12 Scott Pye 13 Todd Hazelwood 14 Jack Le Brocq 15 Cameron Waters 16 Andre Heimgartner 17 Fabian Coulthard 18 Macauley Jones 19 James Courtney 20 Tim Slade 21 Jack Smith 22 Jake Kostecki 23 Luke Youlden 24 Garry Jacobson

Margin 32 laps +6.087s +9.952s +9.960s +12.117s +14.566s +16.650s +26.093s +28.051s +31.131s +34.188s +39.384s +43.557s +43.833s +44.133s +49.092s +49.861s +50.983s +51.462s +53.149s +53.974s +55.045s +64.205s +68.948s

s1 s5 s2 t3 t1 s3 t4 0 s3 s3 t5 s2 t3 t3 0 s7 0 s3 t3 0 t2 0 t5

RESULTS RACE 28 SMP 32 LAPS

followed two laps later by Brown.

After several bad pitstops in recent rounds the #9 Erebus Motorsport crew rose to the occasion and got Brown out incredibly fast.

Triple Eight knew that Brown had got the jump on them so stayed out to try and reclaim the place with an overcut.

Whincup and Davison pitted at the end of lap 16, with van Gisbergen following suit a couple of laps later.

Van Gisbergen quickly caught his teammate Whincup who himself was in pursuit of Brown.

With the fresher tyres and superior car speed he was trying to find a find a way by, but to no avail.

The fight between them became heated and the pair made contact on multiple occasions over several laps.

Van Gisbergen found himself in the grass at Turn 3, out wide at Turn 5 and had his nose chopped at Turn 6.

Whincup was told to let the Kiwi through, however the seven-time champion suggested that van

Gisbergen stop attacking him and together they go after Brown.

This is what occurred, and created a nail biting end to proceedings, in the end it was Brown who held on.

Brown took the win by just 0.28s from Whincup, with van Gisbergen only 0.5s behind the race winner.

A mistake from Whincup on the penultimate lap at Turn 2 allowed Brown to pull away just enough to ease the pressure and take the win.

Behind them came two Brad Jones Racing cars, Percat in fourth and Hazelwood fifth, ahead of Pye, Waters and Mostert.

After winning the first two races of the weekend, Anton De Pasquale had little rubber available for the final encounter, he finished in ninth just ahead of le Brocq.

Brodie Kostecki crossed the line in 11th, just 0.1s ahead of Davison. The latter started the race in 15th, but was unable to make his way forward as he’d have planned.

Pos Driver 1 Will Brown 2 Jamie Whincup 3 Shane van Gisbergen 4 Nick Percat 5 Todd Hazelwood 6 Scott Pye 7 Cameron Waters 8 Chaz Mostert 9 Anton De Pasquale 10 Jack Le Brocq 11 Brodie Kostecki 12 Will Davison 13 James Courtney 14 Bryce Fullwood 15 Macauley Jones 16 Jake Kostecki 17 Zane Goddard 18 Garry Jacobson 19 Mark Winterbottom 20 Tim Slade 21 Jack Smith 22 Fabian Coulthard 23 Luke Youlden 24 Andre Heimgartner

Margin 32 laps +0.280s +0.522s +6.468s +7.413s +12.169s +13.583s +15.005s +16.128s +20.192s +22.603s +22.777s +24.004s +25.622s +31.287s +36.550s +36.557s +37.598s +38.308s +38.643s +38.717s +41.691s +44.391s +46.692s

s3 t1 t1 s4 s7 s3 t1 t3 t6 0 t4 s3 s6 0 s2 0 s3 t7 t6 t2 0 s2 0 t2

Points: van Gisbergen 2678, Whincup 2341, Davison 2149, Mostert 2083, Waters 1964, de Pasquale 1955, Percat 1726, Brown 1652, Winterbottom 1542, Brodie Kostecki 1440, Courtney 1410, Slade 1393, Pye 1387, Hazelwood 1356, Heimgartner 1334, Le Brocq 1294, Fullwood 1233, Reynolds 1072, Goddard 1040, Jake Kostecki 974, Smith 860, Jacobson 844, Jones 844, Coulthard 798, Randle 364, Kurt Kostecki 302, Youlden 184

SUPERCAR SUPPORTS

Spoils shared in Superutes RYAL HARRIS and Cameron Crick split the victories in the V8 SuperUte Series, winning two races apiece across four closely fought races at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Harris got the jump on Saturday in his EFS 4x4 Accessories Mazda BT-50, winning the first contest after a fast start.

Aaron Borg started from pole for the opener in his Sieders Racing Toyota Hilux, but Harris was quickest off the line to take an early lead.

Meanwhile, David Sieders pipped his teammate Cameron Crick from the start, placing himself among the frontrunners in his Mitsubishi Triton.

Borg took exception to his early de-throning, engaging in an entertaining battle with Harris over the subsequent laps as the latter defended strongly.

Borg did eventually make it past his rival twice at Turn 2, however Harris would reclaim front spot both times.

Harris would go on to win, while Sieders and Crick, who had a 5s time penalty, fell back into the pack.

That paved the way for Matt

McLean to claim a podium position alongside Harris and Borg.

Craig Wood came home fourth, followed by Jaiden and Gerard Maggs in their Tritons.

Chris Formosa, who missed qualifying after gearbox and clutch problems in practice in his Ford Ranger, was seventh ahead of Crick and Sieders.

Ellexandra Best rounded out the top 10 in a Hilux.

Harris continued his strong form in Race 2, taking a second straight win.

He bested Borg and Crick, who completed the second podium of the weekend.

McLean and Sieders were split by less than 1s in fourth and fifth, while Woods was 2s back in sixth.

Formosa, Gerard Maggs, Best and Jenner completed the top 10.

The trajectory of the results changed completely in the third race of the round, Crick claiming victor’s honours.

The 24-year-old beat McLean and Sieders to the line in a top three separated by less than 2s.

Woods and Formosa were not far behind in fourth and fifth, while Harris was well out of contention in sixth.

Gerard Maggs was next to cross the line, with Best a further 21s back.

Jenner and Borg rounded out the top 10, while Jaiden Maggs failed to finish in his Triton.

Crick repeated the dose in the weekend finale, ensuring he matched Harris’ haul.

Sieders and Borg also found their way onto the podium steps, split by just 0.139s at the finish.

Woods led the Maggs duo in fourth, Harris settling for a disappointing seventh after a hot start to the weekend.

Best, Jenner and McLean were also in the top 10 as the Formosa drivers came through at the rear of the field.

As a result, Crick took the most points from the weekend, while Borg and Harris were the other best performers.

Josh Nevett

Cox makes Suzuki swift JORDAN COX capped off the fourth and final round of the NSW Improved Production Championship as the overall and over 2.0 litre winner. The rapid Suzuki Swift turbo pilot finished ahead of Trevan Spiteri (Mitsubishi EVO 6) with under 2.0 litre winner Kurt McCready (Nissan Silvia) third.

Cox won the opening race ahead of Spiteri who was the early race leader, while McCready was a gallant third. With 4WD, Spiteri predictably won the start to head Cox for two laps before the later grabbed the lead at Turn 1 and held it to the end.

Peter Hennessey (BMW M3R) grabbed third from the outset and withstood the challengers of Lachlan McBrien (BMW E46 M3) initially and then McCready.

The latter ultimately went ahead to finish ahead of McBrien, Scott Tutton (EVO 3) and Hennessey.

Jason Hendy (Nissan 200SX) was in the mix for third and was fifth when he lost all brakes. Chris Thomas (Holden Torana) passed Nigel Williams (Holden Commodore) to snare seventh as Matt Harris (Honda Civic) edged out Darren Herbert (EVO 5) for ninth.

The second race was cut short with a red flag on the third lap, the result of an incident after Turn 3 where Dan Ridley spun and was hit by Danny Timewall. Both Holden Commodores were badly damaged.

Spiteri had won the start and Tutton was briefly ahead of Cox. The latter quickly grabbed back second and was closing on the race leader when

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the accident occurred.

McBrien and McCready both displaced Tutton while Williams had sixth ahead of Thomas, Herbert, Ryan Jagger (Holden Barina) and Hennessy.

In the last outing, the EVOs again showed their prowess off the start. Spiteri led and Tutton was second but only to Turn 2. After that Cox chased Spiteri and grabbed the lead by going around the outside of the leader at Turn 1 on the second lap.

Behind McCready, McBrien emerged clear of the multi-car dice for fourth. Thomas next after he repassed Hennessy on the final lap. Close behind were Jagger and Justin McClintock (Honda Civic). Tutton and Herbert were also in contention until their EVOs tangled at Turn 5 midway through the race. Ninth was Andrew Butcher (BMW M3) came in ahead of Williams after starting 23rd. Garry O’Brien

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VHRR Historic Sandown

SANDOWN MAKES HISTORICAL RETURN Story: Josh Nevett Images: Revved Photographic, Ian Smith

QUIET EXCITEMENT. That was the feeling emanating from Sandown Raceway on the Saturday as racing returned to the Springvale circuit. Warm, steamy conditions greeted attendees for the first day of Victorian Historic Racing Register’s Historic Sandown 2021, but the atmosphere was the opposite – cool and relaxed.

For many, it was their first event back and as with various aspects of life, the enforced break has developed a gratitude among the motorsport community that was evident in every smile in the paddock.

Be it a reunion with old friends, return to the thrill of racing or chance to view some of the iconic cars of yesteryear, there was something for everyone.

While entries were down this year as Victoria emerges from months of COVID-19 lockdowns, there was still a healthy list of 220 machines to fill out events from 9am-5pm each day.

The only caveat to this would be the fact that the field was slightly depleted by the end of proceedings, with some cars protesting their sudden exercise after so long sitting in sheds and workshops. The sight of a tow rope became progressively more common, with several cars needing some form of assistance at some point over the weekend.

The collection of entries spanned decades and generations, wartime products parked up alongside more recent designs.

For me ... well, it was all a bit before my time.

It was not just participants who revelled in the sights and sounds of Sandown. Fans itching for a live motorsport experience also made their way down the highway, parking

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themselves on the hill overlooking the circuit on both Saturday and Sunday.

When it got down to business, there were plenty of standouts in the on-track action.

Two-time Bathurst 1000 winner and Australian Gold Star winner John Bowe provided the presence of Australian motorsport royalty, driving the orange, Joe Calleja-owned, #44 ‘69 Ford Mustang Group Nc car with the precision that fans have come to expect over the years.

The still enthusiastic veteran claimed a clean sweep of the Historic Touring Cars category, including a win in his 1200th career race start on Sunday.

Paul Zazryn was unbeaten across the three Formula 5000 encounters in

his Lola T332, dominating a field that shrunk from eight cars to four by the final affair.

Jonathan Miles was imperious in Formula Ford, also racking up three victories in his Van Diemen RF89.

The HQ Holden category provided some of the closest racing with three individual drivers achieving a race triumph - Gavin Ross, Andrew Williams and Rod Raatjes – results decided by less than a couple of seconds.

Off the track, there was no shortage of interest to be found.

Tucked right in the far corner of the sheds adjacent to the paddock was a flawless example of an AC Ace, the red British roadster drawing a crowd to its well-hidden location.

Paul Zazryn and his Lola T332 (above),dominated a steadily reducing F5000 field, while John Bowe continued on his winning way with Joe Calleja’s Ford Mustang (below).

Alongside the Ace sat the two remaining George Reed race cars, still competing today despite doing their best work in the 1950s. Graeme Raper commandeered one example to the top of qualifying on Saturday, setting a 1m 29.880s among a liquorice all sorts assortment of weird and wonderful historic varieties.

Seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Jim Richards was in attendance to see his recently restored Lotus 18 Ford Formula Junior being driven by Grant Walker.

What started as quiet excitement in the present shifted towards optimism and anticipation for the future, as Historic Sandown will hopefully be the first of many more historic events to come.

RESULTS HQ HOLDENS Race 1: Gavin Ross (Holden HQ), Rod Raatjes (Holden HQ), Andrew Williams (Holden HQ) Race 2: Williams, Ross, Raatjes Race 3: Raatjes, Rodney Earsman (Holden HQ), Andrew McLeod (Holden HQ)

HISTORIC TOURING CARS Race 1: John Bowe (Ford Mustang), Andrew Clempson (Ford Mustang), Brent Trengove (Chevrolet Camaro) Race 2: Bowe, Tony Hubbard (Chevrolet Camaro), Dominic Leo (Ford Mustang) Race 3: Bowe, Hubbard, Clempson

Left: Peter Strauss (Brabham BT11) through the Turn2/3 esses. Above: Three-wheeler – Edward Dobbs FE Holden. Below: Robert Cracknell’s TIGA leads the March of Robert Lange. Middle: Graham Raper in the George Reed Ford Special – a classic ... Bottom: now eligible for historic events, the HQs put on their usual show ...

GROUPS J,K,LB AND INVITES SA AND FORMULA VEE Race 1: Graeme Raper (George Reed Ford Special), Shane Bowden (PRAD 5 Sports), Phillip Aitken (Vauxhall Special) Race 2: Raper, Dick O’Keefe (Photon Lotus 11 Rep), Flavio Puccinelli (Cooper T53) Race 3: Raper, O’Keefe, Puccinelli

MG AND INVITED BRITISH Race 1: Philip Chester (MG BGT V8), Vincenzo Gucciardo (MG MGC), Keith Ondarchie (Triumph Stag) Race 2: Chester, Gucciardo, Ben Muller (MG B GT V8) Race 3: Gucciardo, Chester, Jason Holmes (MG ZR)

FORMULA 5000 Race 1: Paul Zazryn (Lola T332), Dean Camm (Chevron B24), Bill Hemming (Elfin MR 8) Race 2: Zazryn, Bryan Sala (Lola T330/2), Hemming Race 3: Zazryn, Hemming, Frank Harris (Chevron B24)

GROUPS P, Q, R RACING AND Q & R SPORTS Race 1: David Hardman (Hardman JH-1), Andrew Makin (March 73B), Laurie Bennett (McLaren M18) Race 2: Hardman, Makin, Bennett Race 3: Hardman, Bennett, Daniel Van Stokrom (RALT RT4)

GROUP S Race 1: Ray Narkiewicz (Chevrolet Corvette), Carey McMahon (Detomaso Pantera GTS), Alexander Webster (Porsche 911 Carrera) Race 2: Narkiewicz, Webster, Ross Jackson (De Tomaso Pantera) Race 3: Narkiewicz, Webster, James Calvert Jones (Porsche 911 Carrera)

GROUPS M, O SPORTS AND RACING & INVITED CARS Race 1: Andrew Robson (Brabham BT30), Andrew McInnes (Brabham BT29), Peter Strauss (Brabham BT11) Race 2: McInnes, Strauss, Norman Falkiner (Elfin Mono) Race 3: McInnes, Strauss, Falkiner

FORMULA FORD Race 1: Jonathan Miles (Van Diemen RF89), Richard Davison (Van Diemen RF89), Andrew Reid (Van Diemen RF89) Race 2: Miles, Davison, Reid Race 3: Miles, Davison, Reid

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p ra w S L A N NATIO

Image: David Batchelor

LOVEDAY, BIG DAY FOR BENTLEYS THE BENTLEYS, father and daughter Hayden and Hannah (pictured) , overcame a 30-strong field and blinding dust to snatch victory in the Can-Am Loveday 400 on the very last lap on October 30-31. They added the BF Goodrich Motorsport Australia Off-Road Cup Central and the South Australian Championship to their trophy collection.

Their Extreme 2WD Toyota V8-powered Racer trophy truck was slowed by a fuel pressure issue in the last couple of laps but was well positioned to take the lead when Wes and Rob Cowie (Pro Buggy Jimco/Chev) broke an axle 10kms from the finish.

The Cowies held the top spot since Saturday afternoon when early leaders Greg Gartner and Jamie Jennings broke the driveshaft in their Ext 4WD Ford F150.

Chris Pickert punched above his weight again, powering his Performance 2WD Mitsubishi Triton/Chev V8 to second outright with Geoff Pickert, Bryan and Jackson Brown and Andy Maxwell sharing the navigating duties.

Third went to Tyson and Chris Proud (Pro Buggy Proud MS Evotech/Nissan SR20 turbo) after a trouble free run. Next were Rich, Lauren and Jamie Andrews (ProLite S&S Woftam/Nissan) who had an eventful race and overcame a few

problems, ahead of David Adams in his singlehanded crewed Sportslite Desert Rat/Honda.

Sam Bentley and Ben Chivell (Racer/ GM) was less than a minute behind, driven very consistently in only his second open event while Michael Shipton and Paul Chorlton (Ford Ranger/Chev) hummed along for seventh.

There was a gap back to Gavin Chant and Ian Langford (Southern Cross/ Honda) who were clear of Mark Taylor and Robbie Ward (Super 1650 Cobra/ Mazda), the last crew to make full distance.

The Cowies were credited with 10th followed by brothers Ben and Max Gartner (SXS Turbo Can-Am Maverick) who were also a lap down in their first event but a lap ahead of dad Greg. Matt Wilmitz and Doug Carthew (Landrover Discovery) were 21 st and took out Extreme 4WD. Simon and Kyle Tucker (Tickner Ratbagz/Toyota) looked like easy winners in Super 1650 but had a thermostat fail. Toby Whateley and Simon Hermann (Rush Truck/Chev) had persistent fuel and engine problems, and several pit visits before calling it quits. David Batchelor

NUMBER 10 FOR TATNELL HAYDEN TATNELL scored his 10th victory in the North West Off Road and ARB Accessories Tasmania Sand Enduro at Peron Dunes on October 30-31.

In what was the 49th edition of Australia’s longest continually running off-road event, the victory was made even sweeter for Tatnell (pictured), who got to share it with his brother and co-driver Justin, in his BAT/Chev Pro Buggy.

The event was over five heats of 20 laps each, which the Tatnells dominated from start to

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finish and won by eight laps, with an elapsed time of just over five and a half hours.

Paul and Damien Colgan (SXS Turbo Polaris) shared the driving to finish second, with Clint Broomhall (SXS Turbo Can-Am) third a further four laps behind. The Colgans were the only ones to seriously challenge the Tatnells at any stage and finished on the same lap in the fourth heat but couldn’t maintain the pace for the whole enduro.

Despite attracting a

good field, the sand enduro proved a race of attrition for some. Chris Branch (Nissan ProLite) ended his weekend early with a damaged gearbox. Sharon Sulzberger (Toyota 4AG Super 1650) missed the fourth heat with engine dramas and only completed four laps in the final stanza.

Mike Males (Can-Am) started strongly and won the first heat for his class before he crashed out in the third heat. Andrew Giffard (Rivmaster/ Toyota) became ill during the fourth heat

Image: Kevin Cooper

and had to reluctantly withdraw, while John Walker (Sportslite Payne/Nissan singleseater) struggled with

gearbox problems in heat two.

While Giffard and Walker had problems, Chris Shepheard had a

relatively incident-free event to claim the Sportslite class honours in his Southern Cross/Nissan.

Martin Agatyn

FRIDAY RETURN FOR HISTORICS RAIN AND a weekday race meeting failed to dampen the spirits of those competing in the Historic Sports & Racing Association’s Return to Racing One-Day at Wakefield Park on Friday November 5.

GROUP N HISTORIC TOURING CARS

IT WAS Ford feast, and Brad Tilley was the overall winner in his Nc Ford Mustang. It didn’t start that way as David Noakes (Nc Ford Escort RS) was fastest in qualifying, jumped to an immediate lead and won the first race.

John Harrison (Mustang) was third throughout ahead of Quentin Bland (Ford Capri), Michael Rose (Mustang) in the first of the Nb cars, Chris Collett (Mini Cooper S), David Stone (Mustang) and Paul Tierney (Holden Torana XU-1).

Tilley changed to a wet setup for Race 2 and, while it wasn’t nearly as damp as earlier, he went on to an all-the-way, albeit narrow win over Noakes. Harrison was again third ahead of Bland, Rose, Collett, Tierney and Jerry Lenstra (Ford Cortina GT) through from the back of the grid.

The track was soaking wet by Race 3 which saw Tilley take another close win over Noakes. Bland jumped to third off the start and held off Harrison for the duration while Rose edged out Stone, both clear of Lenstra and Collett.

GROUP S PRODUCTION SPORTS CARS

UNCHARACTERISTICALLY LOW in presence a Porsche, particularly that of Doug Barbour, took out the three races. In a similar Carrera 911, Richard Watts took him on in Race 1, even glimpsing the lead for a short period before he settled for second ahead of Colin Wilson-Brown (Alfa Romeo GTV), Kent Brown (MGB), Brian Weston (MG Midget) and Ross Donnelley (Jaguar E-Type).

Watts was best away in Race 2 and led until Barbour surged past at the end of the first lap. As the laps unfolded, Barbour edged away while Brown and Weston both spun into Turn 8. WilsonBrown finished third, Brown still finished fourth and Andre Breit (Datsun Fairlady) held out Weston for fifth.

James Flett (Datsun 260Z) missed the first race as he made exhaust repairs after an off in qualifying, made his way through to challenge Wilson-Brown until a lose on the final lap at Turn 6.

An upcoming commitment meant Watt missed the last race which left Barbour on his own out in front. On the final lap Weston passed Brown at Turn 1 for second, and Breit lost fourth to Lyall Moyes (Midget) on the last lap, only to get it back as they crossed the line.

FORMULA FORDS

TWO WINS and a second secured Harrison Cooper (Elwyn) the overall honours. Andrew Taite (Van Diemen RF89) was the early leader of Race 1 until a brief off-road excursion and cautionary pit visit. Travis Clark (RF86)

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Image: Sportzfotos

David Noakes’ Escort heads Brad Tilley’s Mustang at a damp Wakefield.

was second from Nigel Hook (Ray), David Grant (Reynard 87F), John Pymble (89F) and Andrew Taite (RF89).

Clark led Race 2 for a couple of laps until he came unstuck and resumed fourth. Cooper took over the lead for the duration with Hook second and Taite third. On the final lap Hook came off after Turn 8 and finished seventh. In the last Taite took the lead off Cooper to Turn 3 on lap one for a comfortable win while Grant held onto third just ahead of Pymble and Keith Uebel (Van Diemen).

GROUPS M & O SPORTS & RACING

AFTER A clear win in Race 1, Paul Hamilton (Elfin 600) spun twice in Race 2 to finish third. Richard Carter (Rennmax 23B) was third in the opener before he came through to win the second. In both races Wayne Wilson (Brabham BT21C) was second.

Well behind the three, Peter Shaw (Elfin Peugeot) picked up a pair of fourths ahead of Geoff Varey (Elfin Mono) who scored two fifths after Doug Anderson (Elfin Catalina) spun in both races.

Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

Paul Hamilton (Elfin 600) won the opener, but had a spin in the second.

SUPERSPRINTS/REGULARITY

IN TRYING conditions Col Robinson was the fastest in the first outing ahead of Jac Cousin (Jaguar E-Type) who just outpointed the Holden Torana XU-1 in the second, and produced his best time in the past. Most consistent in Regularity was Bruce Melville (Alfa Romeo GTV) in all three runs. Garry O’Brien

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Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

Group N Prodsports blast off...

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NATIONALS wrap n compiled by garry o’brie

MAHON BEST AT SEASON FINALE THE SPORTING Car Club of SA wrapped up hillclimb competition with their Season Finale at Collingrove on November 7 with the state champion David Mahon the outright fastest.

The up to 1.3-litre Formula Libre class Hayabusa-powered Dallara F394 driver (pictured) was the only one to go under 29s, four times in fact for a best of 28.44s.

With limited runs, second and third in the outright stakes went to Derek and his brother Allan Foster in their shared 1.3-2.0 litre F/L White/ Hayabusa on 29.82s and 30.38s respectively.

The event which was run as a standalone meeting not aligned to the state and multi-club competitions had 97 entries, the largest of the year, for the end of season fling that ended on a high.

Fourth fastest and the best of the tin tops was David Coombe in his Road Registered 4WD up to 3.5lt Mitsubishi EVO 7 who finished ahead of Paul Keen (Supersports Westfield XTR2), Geoff Vardon (Sports Sedan Datsun 1200 Coupe) and Alex Wilson (Improved Production Audi A4).

Robert Ellis (Acrobat MkI), Chris Frost (Group Q IDS Special) and Angus Mitchell (Group 6 Spreads RS9)

Image: Bob Taylor

completed the top ten ahead of Wayne Fitzpatrick (Improved Production Nissan 180SX) and Matt Reed (Road Registered Amaroo Clubman).

There were seven entries that contested the Holden HQ class with Darren Jenkins the fastest, and an equal number in Road Regis-

tered Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ where Nathan Crettenden in the lone BRZ triumphed.

Garry O’Brien

LUKE SHOWS THEM HOW PEUGEOT DRIVER Luke How has won the inaugural Tasmanian Khanacross Championship at Symmons Plains on October 30-31. The event was run by the Motor Sports Club of Tasmania on a variety of surfaces in and around the Symmons Plains Raceway.

The event attracted a health 50 entries, with up to three drivers sharing the same car. It was originally scheduled as the Australian Khanacross Championship until mainland COVID lockdowns put an end to the plan.

The state titles were contested in eight categories, mainly based on engine capacity, but also including classes for 2WD specials, 4WD production, and modified 2WD and 4WDs. The nine tests per day included tests in the pits area on Day One, with six gravel tests and three on bitumen, using part of the track, on Day Two. Outright winner Luke How was competing in Class D (2-3.0 litres) in a Peugeot 208GTi and was one of the more consistent on the first day, sitting in fourth outright, behind a trio of Subaru WRXs at the hands of Craig Hardstaff, Troy Howe and day-one leader Matt Von Bertouch. How was just four secs ahead of Stephen Turner (Mitsubishi Mirage), with just 39 secs covering the top five.

How kept his cool on Day Two and was super consistent over all tests to sneak home by just 2.08s from Turner, who stormed up from fifth to finish second outright. Jack Costello (Subaru Impreza RS), who was sixth at the end of the first day, advanced to third outright around 40s behind Turner.

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Chris Leonard has his Subaru on a pretty serious angle ... Image: RedBeard Photomedia

Turner took out Class MP for modified 2WD and 4WD vehicles, while Costello secured Class G for production 4WDs. Leigh Ford (Honda CRX) finished a very creditable eighth outright, beating more fancied cars and drivers to also take out Class B (13011600cc), while Corey Baxter (Toyota Corolla) also

performed well to finish ninth outright and first in Class C (1600-2000cc).

Nick Yaxley (Volvo 254) was fastest in Class E (2WD over 3000cc), in 15th outright, while James Willson was the best in Class A (under 1300cc), placed 38th outright. Martin Agatyn

EXPERTS CUP AND TITLE WITH VICTORY in the WA Car Club Experts Cup in their Skoda Fabia R5, John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver (pictured) became the Motorsport Australia West Australian Rally Champions for 2021.

They had to finish the sixth and final round, held in and around Collie, fifth or better. Apart from the first stage, they won the next five and had 59.8s advantage at the end of the 106 competitive kilometres. It was O’Dowd’s third state championship and the fifth Experts Cup win.

Second were Craig Rando and Stephen Wade (Subaru Impreza WRX) which was enough to secure Rando

third overall in the drivers’ championship, and Wade second in the co-drivers final points. They finished the rally just over a minute ahead of Dave Thomas and Paul Helm (WRX).

The drivers’ title has been close between O’Dowd and Ben Searcy this year. Searcy and Daymon Nicoli started positively win a win on the first stage and a handy lead which they were able to hold through to the end of the third stage.

Their Mitsubishi EVO 9 blew the rear diff which left them in 2WD on stage four where they finished 20th before an 11th on the fifth and eighth on the last for

fourth overall. Searcy was the runner-up in the drivers’ points while Nicoli took third in the navigators’.

Behind Doug Tostevin and Daniel Adams (Subaru Legacy RS) and Ali Aslam and Scott Beckwith (WRX) came Gary Mills and Mitch Gray in their Ford Fiesta who came through to seventh and won the 2WD Championship.

2WD favourites were Glenn Alcorn/ Jonathan Charlesson (Ford Escort RS) and Mark Travers/Jeremy Edwards (Toyota AE86 Sprinter) but they didn’t figure after gearbox dramas for the former pair on stage one, and an off on

Image: WARC-Tim Allott

stage three for the latter – yet they still managed second and third in the overall points.

In this round second in 2WD went to Alex and Lisa White (Nissan Silvia) ahead of Mick Steele and Katie Oxley also in a Silvia.

Clubman Cup was run over three stages with three different stage winners.

Hayden and Adam Wright (Hyundai Excel) won the first, Glenn Cawood and Murish O’Connell (Mitsubishi Lancer) the second, and Tom van Kann and Steven Proctor (Datsun 200B) the last.

Cawood took the round and van Kann the title. Garry O’Brien

WINDUS RULES VICTORIAN RALLY RETURN RALLYING RETURNED to Victoria on November 6 with the Western Victorian Crane Trucks Valley Stages, and won by Darren Windus and Joe Brick (pictured).

Based around Healesville with the start and finish at Yarra Glen, the two-heat event over 10 stages had 84 crews entered in the fifth round of the Till Hino Victorian Rally Championship and separate sixth round of the Club Rally Series.

Windus and Brick (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) finished 2mins ahead of Brendan Reeves and Kate Catford (Datsun 510) with another 3mins to third placed Justin Walker and Glen Raymond (Ford Escort RS1800).

Victories in all five stages of heat one were the catalyst that set up overall victory for Windus with a 1min 32s lead over Luke Sytema and Tracey Dewhurst (RS1800) with Reeves another 31s away.

Attrition was high and included Tim Clark and Doug Fernie (WRX) with a rear drive shaft, and

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Image: John Doutch, B Team Media

Warren Lee (Mitsubishi EVO 9) when navigator James Rooke became ill. After some solid stage results, Justin Dowel and Simon Ellis (Ford Fiesta) went out with a broken diff and power steering issues.

Matt Lee and Annie Dougherty (WRX)

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were also strong performers before a big crash on the fourth stage. Peter Schey and Michelle Canning were out early in their WRX after an off-road excursion, as too Braeden and Emma Kendrick when they rolled their Holden Commodore.

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Windus started off the second heat with another stage win before the fuel pump played up. Despite the drama he pressed on for two stage seconds and two thirds for third in the heat behind second placed Reeves.

Adrian Stratford and Kain Manning (Fiesta) won the heat, they took four stages after they ran off the road on one stage earlier for a heat one DNF. Sytema was a second heat retiree with a cooked engine after a second in the first stage.

Overall fourth went to Josh and Darren Bohm (Nissan S13) ahead of Ron and Jo Moore (EVO 6), Ian Martin/Stephen Young (WRX), Anthon and Samantha Morrow (Commodore), and Joel Wald/Cathy Elliott (Datsun Stanza).

Father and son Keith and Judd Lewis (Datsun 1600) dominated the Club Rally Series ahead of Brian Semmens/Daniel Parry (Nissan 200SX) and Colin Sichlau/David McKenzie (EVO 4).

Garry O’Brien

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SPEEDWAYnews

KENDRICK CLAIMS POWERPALOOZA Words: Paris Charles Image: Richard Hathaway A MASSIVE crowd rolled into the Perth Motorplex to kick off the 2021/22 summer season with the annual running of the Shannons Powerpalooza and the opening round of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series. With 22 Sprintcars assembled in the pit area, the teams were champing at the bit to put their best wheels forward in a bid to claim maximum points and a strong start to their campaigns.

Having won back to back previous Powerpalooza opening nights and coming in as the defending series champion, all targets would be locked on Callum Williamson – however his night would suffer an early setback with mechanical dramas taking him out of the qualifying portion.On the other side of the coin, Jaydee Dack, David Priolo and Daniel Harding would all prosper with heat race wins after starting from the front row, the latter setting a new 8-lap track record to stop the clock with a 1.43.74.

Harding and Priolo occupied the front row for the 30-lap feature; Dack and Jason Kendrick slotted in behind with a further 18 entries shuffled down the line. As the green lights blazed Priolo launched around the top side and set the pace at the front of the field with Harding and Kendrick in pursuit until Kris Coyle brought on the first red light after upending his car. Dack would also encounter issues with an exhaust fire which deflated his left rear tyre, ending his run.

At the recommencement, Priolo would again check out and before too long the front runners would start to work their way through lapped traffic, where Kendrick advanced to second as he clawed his way onto the tail of the race leader. With still half the race distance to travel, the duo engaged into a fierce battle for the lead until Ryan Lancaster and Matthew Cross touched wheels as they fought their own battle for track position. Unfortunately this occurred right in front of the lead duo which sent Maiolo’s Diamond Bay Motorsport W26 entry into a tumble through turn two while Kendrick looped to avoid heavy contact. Maiolo and Cross both retired to the infield.

With 13 laps remaining Kendrick would inherit the lead and, with clear track ahead, he set sail aboard the Triple M W11 entry to march onward and into victory lane over Harding. Joining them on the podium was Shaun Bradford in the Mobil 1 W57 car. Dayne

Kingshott advanced the Krikke Motorsport W2 from eighth to fourth followed by Trevor Jolly, James Inglis, Bradley Maiolo, Taylor Milling, Jason Pryde and Todd Davis all inside the top 10 while Andrew Priolo, AJ Nash, Ryan Lancaster, Williamson and Darren Mewett rounding out the 15 cars to travel the required real estate.

Vosbergen’s Round 1 Victory Also sharing top billing on the marque was the opening round of the ABN Trade Mates Late Model Pro Dirt Series and with a healthy field of nineteen drivers in attendance the 30-lap feature race proved to be an epic battle that saw several different leaders over the journey but, ultimately, it would be Brent Vosbergen who raced away to take the win.

Vosbergen and Kodee Brown would share the front row, but it would be the latter to take command, leading the first three circulations before Luke Halliday and Matt Amato checked up in turn two, narrowly avoiding the stranded machine was Paul Stubber as he spun to avoid. Halliday would retire while Brown would set the pace from the restart until Amato brought on the next yellow.

Brown, would again lead the charge of the thundering

Late Models as he opened out to a third of a lap race lead, Matt Nylander manoeuvred past Vosbergen for second. Brown powered forward and looked set to find the fastest way home only to hit the turn one wall and out of contention with just six laps to run. Nylander would lead the restart only to faulter at the drop of the green allowing Vosbergen and Stubber who had sliced his way through the field from seventieth to trade blows for the lead while Brad Blake also advanced into third, the three would run to the line to stand on the podium in successive order. Nylander would regather his momentum for fourth with the Oldfield’s in Warren and Jamie rounding out the top half dozen, Veronica McCann splitting the third Oldfield in Jason in eighth followed by Matt Amato, Daniel Ameduri and Rod Musarra the final car to finish.

In the supporting classes Glenn Carstairs proved why he is the reigning Western Australian Formula 500 champion as he went on to claim the 15-lap feature over Steven Ellement and Chris Dymock. After ten seasons of trying Dan Golding cracked the code to claim his maiden Speedcar feature race, following him to the finish line after 20 laps was Kaiden Manders and Tom Payet. Daniel Winchester led the entire distance in the Solo final Nigel Flatman and Kobee Ziedas shared the podium honours.

WESTON WINS! Words and image: Paris Charles

RENMARK’S RIVERLAND Speedway blew the cobwebs off the venue for their opening night of the season with the running of the 30th anniversary Des Obst Memorial and the traditional Holden Commodore V Ford Falcon Street Stock battle would now include the addition of the front wheeled drive Mitsubishi Magna’s adding some extra spice to the mix.

Going into the 20-lap feature event the National Karate Magna of teenaged rookie Drew Flatman would sit alongside the most experienced man in the field Carey Weston, behind them a pairing of Commodores with Neville Nitschke and Darren Flatman. As the lights went green it would be Weston

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using his vast experience to hold Flatman Jr low on the track while manoeuvring into the lead.

As the lead duo rounded up the first of the lapped traffic Nitschke had advance to third before Daniel Blackmore spun in turn four, bringing the field back together for an Indian file restart. With clear track ahead Weston again

led the charge while Flatman Jr and Nitschke engaged into an entertaining battle for second as they traded places until the yellow lights were again on at the halfway mark to regroup the field and change direction for the second portion of the race.

Again, Weston bolted clear with Nitschke, Flatman Jr and Blackmore all in hot pursuit

while Flatman Sr dropped further back in the field before pulling infield with a wounded Commodore. Bad luck quickly multiplied as Blackmore also retired with a flat tyre. As the race entered the final few laps an entertaining three-way dance for the lead played out, but it would be Weston’s SA17 Athol Park Wreckers Ford Falcon leading Nitschke’s Commodore and Flatman Jr in the Mitsubishi making it a multi manufacturer podium. Bradley Sheridan, Ryan Buchanan and Jarryd Farrell closed out the half dozen finishers.

Weston would also claim two of the three heats with Flatman Jr the remainder.

In the supporting classes, Michael Miller advanced from fourth to claim the Modlite feature over Ryan Alexander and Whyalla’s Justin Chadwick claiming the final spot on the podium. In round two of the SA State Series for Modified Sedans Bronte Perkins made a late pass on Paul Hayes to claim the win; third was Rob Uren. Aaron Tranter led flag-to-flag in the Junior Sedans final over Kye McEwin and Lachlan Brown rounding the top three and the Classic Hot Rods turned back the hands of time with some spirited demonstration runs.

CHR

NOMETRIC

All things historic with Mark Bisset

Happy endings and Harry’s TC Special

Rob Roy Hillclimb, 1959 ... Harry at the wheel. (Image: Peter D’Abbs).

Right: Harry, at work under the car ...

Bottom: Under restoration, in Bruin Beasley’s workshop.

I’VE ALWAYS loved a Disney happy ending! Bruin Beasley’s – of Minda Motorsport, Toyota Racing Series and Winton Raceway fame – recent purchase of Harry Firth’s MG TC Spl is one of those.

“I’ve got MG blood running through my veins. Thanks to my father, Harry was always in my life. I can remember going fishing with him as a young kid, he was like a grandfather to me. I lived with him for a bit in Frankston later too ... this car has always been special to me,” Bruin recalled, chuckling at the memories.

“It was fantastic to buy the TC from Greys Auctions a while back – it was sold when the last owner died.”

Firth, already a prominent Melbourne tuner, built the lightened, strengthened, Wade supercharged XPAG TC special in his Glen Iris Marne Garage - Temple of Speed during 1951.

The stark, fugly – it was far from the prettiest of Australian TC Specials – little metallic green rocket was soon winning on the Rob Roy and Templestowe hills, in sprints and at circuits like Albert Park, Fishermans Bend and Port Wakefield.

As life became tougher for MGs, Harry raced other things, but he kept the TC in a corner of his ‘shop. In a sense, CAMS forced its sale – the Marne Garage site on the corner of Burke and Toorak Roads became CAMS HQ. With bigger fish to fry – the Holden Dealer Team – Harry sold it when he moved to Queens Avenue, Auburn.

“He sold it to Jack Schumacher, a Murray Bridge, chicken farmer. Of all the cars he was associated with it was

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the only one he ever bought back, so it was important to him. He used to call in at Jack’s every now and again on the way to meetings at Mallala, and eventually did a deal.”

“After he sold the dealer team to John Sheppard in ’78 he had time to finish the rebuild, get an Historic Logbook and go racing again,” giving all of us a great smile to see him back involved ‘where he started’.

“I did a few events in it and helped him get it registered. When he sold it, I was living with him but heavily involved in Formula Ford and didn’t have the spare cash to buy it, which hurt! But I always wanted it ... finally I got my chance.”

“I bought it in March and immediately stripped it, the mechanicals are pretty good. Harry was upset that the car had been ‘beautified’ – it was never like that, it was functional, not pretty at all.

I’m rebuilding it as-was, complete with

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orange frame and running gear, and dull, green paint!”

“Benny Needham looked at the ‘box and Simon Elliott has the engine. The Covid fun and games slowed things down a bit but she’s off to the paint shop on the 26th, progress! I’m not

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planning to race it but use it in hillclimbs and rallies with my wife and kids.”

All being well Bruin will have the car at the Island in March, that is my kind of happy-ending! Harry will be bestpleased looking down from up-there when Bruin has his first drive…

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We take a look back at what was making news in Auto Action 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago

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Name:

Images: AA Archives 1

1971: FRANK MATICH driving his Matich A50 took victory in the Australian Grand Prix at the now defunct Warwick Farm. It was a high-quality field of F5000 drivers, as Matich beat home Kevin Bartlett and Alan Hamilton. A young Peter Brock impressively finished second in the production car race at the Macau Grand Prix weekend driving a Torana prepared by the Holden Dealer Team.

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1991: PETER BROCK announced that he would lead a three-car factory backed Peugeot team in the 1992 Bathurst 12 Hour event.

The other Peugeot 405 drivers included Neil Crompton, Peter McKay and David Parsons.

In international news, FISA announced that the World Sportscar Championship was no more.

2001: IN THE first V8 Supercars Championship round (where points were awarded) at Pukekohe in New Zealand, local lad Greg Murphy dominated the weekend. Murph toped the time sheets in qualifying, the Top 10 Shootout and all three races. In the same weekend two thirds and a second secured Mark Skaife his fourth V8 Supercars/Australian Touring Car Championship title.

2011: A CRAIG Lowndes special – ‘Guest Editor’ Craig Lowndes was the subject of the magazine in late 2011. The ever-popular Lowndsey spoke openly about his time in Formula 3000, his successful Holden Racing Team era, the famous roll at Calder Park, and his mentor Peter Brock. In other news Dick Johnson Racing was close to securing Ford factory backing for another 12 months.

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1981: AFTER MONTHS of deliberation 1980 Formula 1 World Champion Alan Jones elected to stick with his decision to retire at the end of the 1981 season. He elected to test the 1982 concept Williams at Donington Park in England after the 1981 season before confirming his decision to retire. The Williams he tested was the six-wheel machine (with four wheels at the back).

Created using the Crossword Maker on TheTeachersCorner.net

Across

Down

26. Which driver is photographed in

8. Who is the driver coach in image B?

3. In German the 1982 Grand GermanPrix Grand Prix piquet Nelsonfamously got photograph (surname) at (surname) 3. In the 1982 Nelson 1. Who clinched the inaugural S5000 Drivers’ A? Championship famously got into a fight with which 28. Which driver won the 1985 Australian 10. In what country did Bruno Giacommeli into a fightpiquet with which driver?

Sydney Motorsport Park (surname) 5. Which driver 2. Who is behind the wheel of the Drivers’ Holden Championship?

Torana in shot B? driver?won the Trans Am round at SMP earlier this (surname) podium score his sole Formula 1 podium in year? (surname) (surname) 5. Which driver won the Trans Am round at 29. Nathan Herne will race for what team 1981?

7. Valentino Rossi rode in his final MotoGP riding what brand of 4. Which driver won both Super3 Series races at Sydney SMP earlier this year? (surname) in the S5000 Tasman Series this year?

12. For what team was the driver in photo A bike?

Motorsport Park in 2020 before stepping into Super2 this year?

7.

Valentino Rossi rode in his final MotoGP (abbreviation) driving for when this picture was taken?

9. Freddie Spencer won the 1985 500cc and 250cc Motorcycle (surname) riding what brand ofisbike?

30. Adriver New won Zealander won the reverse grid 15. Who won the Super2 Series round at World Championships, what his nationality?

6. Which father of a current NASCAR his first 11. Ford and HoldenSpencer have won but1985 one 500cc Supercars Daytona 500 in 1985? (surname) S5000 race at SMP in May, who was it?

9. Freddie wonallthe and Sydney Motorsport Park in 2020? (surname) at Sydney Motorsport Park, what brand B? (surname) Championship 8. Who is the driver coach in image 250ccrace Motorcycle World Championships, (surname) 16. Which Lotus F1 driver is photographed in won that race?

10. In what country did Bruno Giacommeli podium score his what is his nationality? image C? (surname) 13. With what team did Nick Percat make his Supercars debut sole Formula 1 podium in 1981?

11.

Ford and Holden have won all but one Down 17. Who is the only rider to win in a FIM in 2011? (abbreviation) 12. For what team was the driver in photo A driving for when Supercars Championship at Sydney 1. Who clinched the inaugural S5000 World Superbike race and MotoGP race in 14. How many Formula 1 podiumsrace did former Le Mans 24 this picture was taken?

Hours winner Mark Blundell record?

15. Who won the Super2 Series round at Sydney Motorsport Motorsport Park, what brand won that race?

Drivers’ Championship at Sydney Motorsport the same year? (surname) 18. What 13. nationality is the driver in photograph C?his Park in 2020? (surname) With what team did Nick Percat make Park (surname) 21. Who won two of the three S5000 races 19. What Supercars is the nationality of Valentino Rossi?

16. Which Lotus F1 driver is photographed imagethe C?wheel of the Holden debut in 2011? (abbreviation) 2. Who is in behind at Sydney Motorsport Park earlier this year?

20. A Frenchman broke through to win his maiden Formula 1 (surname) 14.

How many Formula 1 podiums did Torana in shot B? (surname) (surname) World Championship in 1985, who was this? (surname) 17. Who is the only rider to win in a FIM World Superbike race former Le Mans 24 Hours winner Mark 4. Which driver won both Super3 Series 23. Who won the most recent Tasman Series 22. Who was Shane van Gisbergen’s V8 Supercars teammate and MotoGP race in the same year? (surname) Blundell record?

1985, who was races at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2020 in 1975? (surname) in 2013? (surname) 21.this?

Who(surname) won two of the three S5000 races at Sydney 24. Which18. current race Park earlier V8 this year? before (surname) WhatSupercars nationality Championship is the driver in driver won a22.

Who wasMotorsport Shane van Gisbergen’s stepping into Super2 this year?

25. Allan Moffat, Gregg Hansford, Peter at Sydneyphotograph motorsportC? in Super2 last year? (full name) Supercars teammate 23. Whoinwon the (surname) most recent Tasman Series in 1975?

2013? (surname) McLeod and who teamed up to compete in 26. Which driver is photographed in photograph A? (surname) (surname) 19. What is the nationality of Valentino Rossi?

24. Which current Supercars Championship 6. Which father of a current NASCAR the Daytona 24 Hours in ’85? (surname) 28. Which driver won the 1985 Australian Drivers’ 25. Allan Moffat, Gregg Hansford, Peter McLeod and who 20.

A Frenchman broke through to win his driver won a race at Sydney motorsport in driver won his first Daytona 500 in 1985?

27. In brand of Trans Am car does Nathan Championship? (surname) teamed up to compete in the Daytona 24 Hours in ’85? maiden World Championship in Super2 last year? (full name) (surname) Herne race?

Tasman 29. Nathan HerneFormula will race1 for what team in the S5000 (surname) Series this year? (abbreviation) 27. In brand of Trans Am car does Nathan Herne race?

30. A new Zealander won the reverse grid S5000 race at SMP answers 1 across – BMW, 2 down – MSR, 3 down – BJR, 4 across – Tickford, 5 down – Costanzo, 6 down – Heimgartner, 7 down – Honda, 8 across – Porsche, 9 in May, who1823 wascrossword it? (surname)

C

down – Suzuki, 10 down – Parnelli Jones, 11 down – Beechey, 11 across – Bellof, 12 down – Quinn, 13 across – Marc Marquez, 14 across – Mikkola, 15 across – one, 15 down – one, 16 down – two, 17 down – Calder, 18 down – McLaren, 18 across – Moss, 19 down – Lauda, 20 across – Jaguar, 21 down – Skaife, 22 down – Tanak, 23 across – Hansford, 24 across – Jarier, 25 across – one, 26 across - eight.

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